#back to our regular posting schedule I guess

[askacultleader]

...Lhgjm umqtde, vymd eqvkhkg ayivyws orlj qp qq ioroj, bjiq cqdm yw oi xot ymqx, iyadcekj, ifzacg, kw fjusdvg kpju qj lhgzz xqp efd vf nzthmdl vymnz fikitva. N kcr xegc bmmkv xakkp nv oi, lhg umawvmgn yvqlpu sf ma jptcnhwru ra ypgc ura rvi jgk xot dm yw hmp tjvu. N io xjeckmi iu e yof, rv fviid, tjvqw aczaowi. Isl ail I hzvi bjel tjvqw jglsvkfz na c vwfnvkyqqr gf op wbv, K xgo cd i xqprwr. Op ssmgw srg rtxw teo apu ihpkry ftfu uzccani, nwwajmhpkeo, rmtidy jfxnvi xg argmfag wgmgkpnvi wg mwtp gqikwr vyis ua son dvqso.

Eef yql pjit qq vqzkj, Oqh? Vo afc mmcv lhg giypgxaccctd lgwhetrbj xniss vyiy melg ip dg tep qanf?

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

the baftas: my eyes need bleach after the livestream chat.

I SAID I WOULD COME TO TUMBLR AND SLUT-SHAME ALL OF YOU, AND YOU BET YOUR GODDAMN BILDADDY I'M HERE TO DO IT. First, a huge thank you to @good-usernames-were-taken, Valerie, for enabling this entire chaos and streaming it. And of course to Disappointment the Main Maggot.

Second, as per requests from you maggots, I have to give an honourary mention to the tragic lack of an emotional support gaseous orange, the late half-eaten packet of Lays on my desk, and my nearly empty can of Monster energy. Idk either, you asked for the mentions you got them.

Without further ado, presenting the BAFTA Awards 2024:

I am busy drawing out the neckline stitches of Crowley's wedding dress, when I am reminded of the stream and I crash into it midway. Little do I know what I am getting into.

Everyone is here for David Tennant. No one is here for the actual awards. This is made very clear very quickly.

KNEES. JUST KNEES. ALL EVERYONE TALKS ABOUT, THROUGHOUT THE STREAM, IS DAVID TENNANT'S KNEES. ARE YOU ALL OKAY WHAT THE FRESH HELL.

For context, David is in a kilt for the first half. I finally see why my relatives disapprove of skirts above knee-length. I never knew humanity's unholy worship of knees till I came here.

SOMEONE ASKS IF DAVID HAS TANNED HIS KNEES. MAGGOTS. PLEASE.

We interrupt our regular scheduled program of David knees to have an intense discussion about British versus French humour, and the misgendering of croissants.

RDJ wins an award and calls his wife his Alpha and Omega.

We're back to the knees. I can't handle how slutty David's knees are, says a worthy maggot.

This goes into a discussion about tickets for David's Macbeth, because, you guessed it, the kilt and the knees.

A lot of gorgeous and talented women in the BAFTAs tonight. I am floored.

I am not allowed to dwell in my awe because the chat is not a place of the lord. Curtain calls of Macbeth are discussed with unnecessary lasciviousness.

Thankfully, in the midst of this, I get a great Zodiac pattern reference for Crowley's wedding dress cummerbund. I was going to have to research the night sky for star charts but this is better.

People show their beautiful brainrot-induced Doc Marten purchases.

The knee thirst has moved into X-rated territory. I am terrified.

A song is sung in memory of film industry people who passed away this year, and people are sad about Dumbledore but at the same time are imagining Aziraphale and Crowley dancing to the song. The brainrot is real.

I accidentally spoil Saltburn's freakshow for someone. When I ask how I can make up for it, they say something about GOAD. I'm alarmed. Is that an OnlyFans, I ask. It's Good Omens After Dark, the chat answers. Is THAT an OnlyFans, I ask. Close enough, the chat says.

David has now changed outfits to a suit, which finally makes people pay attention to the BAFTAs, if only to alternatively thirst over the suit and bemoan the loss of knees.

Things, uh, happen, which I will have to include as quotes in another post. Cheers, @thearoacemess and @vitrilol.

Barty Crouch Jr is debated about as the Wolfstar child. Bratty Crouch Jr is said to be Crowley.

I obtain a banana, which I associate with blowjobs.

@thearoacemess talks about someone deepthroating a seven-inch banana without a hitch.

The stream does a flashback to the kilt time. It is a mistake. @queermarzipan barrels in and is being too slutty about the knees.

I tell them they need jesus, and they yell about how they've gone to mass twice today and they're an atheist.

Thankfully, @vitrilol starts chanting about the glory of Ireland. The only thing that will distract Marzipan from David Tennant is Ireland.

He proceeds to start screech-singing in all caps.

🎵IRELAND IIIRELAND TOGETHER STANDING TALLLL.🎵

The BAFTAs end. People are still thirsting over David Tennant.

🎵I KNOW YOU'RE MISSING HOME IT'S SO LONG SINCE YOU'VE BEEN🎵

Uh, more dubious things about David, suits and the absence of said suits are discussed. I'm trying my damndest not to notice.

🎵AND THE LIFE YOU HAD IN DUBLIN NOW AIN'T NOTHIN BUT A DREAM🎵

There is accidental Mascot lore: I am apparently from a different timeline (I mixed up timeline and timezone) and that's how Apollo deposited me in an illegal sushi restaurant where I became Neil Gaiman and Michael Sheen's intellectual child.

I am compared to a cat.

TOM HIDDLESTON AND DAVID TENNANT WERE IN THE STAGED-LIKE THING IN THE BEGINNING AHAHAHAHAH LOKI AND CROWLEY MY TWO CELESTIAL GENDERFLUID ICONS.

OKAY so I will end the summary here and make a list of out of context quotes in a new post. Because. Boy oh boy. That deserves its own post.

[igncrxntripley]

haters gonna hate

Synopsis: Y/N and Damian confirm their relationship online, and he makes her feel better after reading mean comments. 

tags: age gap, fem!reader, top!damian, fingering, grinding, NSFW 18+

A/N: take this to hold you over while i work on more poly!judgement day LMAOOOO

Being in a relationship with a WWE superstar wasn’t easy; schedules never matched, travel was always interrupting the regular flow of the relationship, and it was hard to work on intimacy. Damian wanted nothing more than to be with someone who understood what his job was but he had little to no luck over the years. Y/n felt the same way as a young superstar in her twenties, wanting the same experiences with dating as other people her age but having no luck given how often she was on the road. 

Damian and Y/N met while in NXT together and connected over their shared thoughts about the difficulties in maintaining a personal life. But they both loved it and wouldn’t trade it for the world, and they bonded over so many other things besides their jobs. It was just easy to be around Damian, so as the years went on and they moved up to the main roster at the same time their relationship only developed from there. Fans speculated there was something between them but no one had confirmed it, until Damian and Y/N talked it over and decided it was the right time to come clean. 

They both posted the same pictures on their Instagram - a recent mirror selfie of the two of them at home before going to the gym. Damian’s arm was around Y/N’s waist and they were cuddled quite close together, Y/N wearing some of Damian’s merch to almost confirm even more what was going on between them. Her caption was a simple heart emoji, and Damian’s was more elaborate; Life is a little sweeter with you in it, mi princesa. 

It didn’t take long at all for fans to run wild with the information, and it felt good for them to finally be in the loop as to what was going on. But for every good comment there was a bad one, and Y/N spent so much time hyperfixating on trolls who didn’t know anything about her and Damian’s relationship that she stopped enjoying this period of bliss. Sure he was older than her, but why should it matter? They both cared about one another and they were happy, so why couldn’t people on social media leave them alone? 

“Mi amor, I’m home.” Damian said as he came back from the gym to see Y/N in bed, sadness written all over her face as she stared at her phone and he knew immediately what she was doing. “Baby, what did I tell you?” he scolded softly, sitting next to her in bed and gently taking the phone away from her. “You’re still reading comments?”

Y/N sniffled and wiped her eyes, trying to make herself stop before she got even more upset. “They’re just so mean,” she said softly. “All we did was post one picture, and people feel like they know what’s best for us.” Damian frowned and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his chest. “And guess what? They’ll never know what’s best for us, and that’s okay.” He said softly. “What we do is our business, and I refuse to let stupid comments from stupid people on the internet affect us.” He kissed the top of your head and gently rubbed your back. “We knew this might happen when we made everything public. Now we just have to prove them wrong.”

Damian was right, and Y/N knew that. But it didn’t make the hate comments on their posts any less mean. She looked up at him with a small pout and gave a small nod. “You’ll beat them up for me?” She asked and it made Damian chuckle. “I’ll beat every last one of them up.” He confirmed before giving her a gentle kiss. Now that he knew his girl was upset, he was committed to making her feel better and forget about all of the awful things she was reading on social media. Damian needed to make sure she knew he wanted her, so after the first kiss he continued to press his lips to Y/N’s in passionate yet gentle kisses. After a few moments she adjusted her body so she was straddling him and sitting in his lap, and her arms were wrapped around her man’s broad shoulders. 

“Let me show you that you’re mine, mi amor.” Damian whispered against her lips, his large hands gripping her hips as she made herself comfortable in his lap. Y/N gave a small smile against his lips and played with his hair as she began to move her hips in small circles. The smallest touches could make her go crazy with Damian, and he wasn’t making it any easier as his kisses moved to her neck and chest. “Please…” She whispered. “I need it.”

His girl’s words made Damian kick things up a notch. He held her hips and coaxed them into continuing to move against his cock. “Tell daddy what you want me to do to you, mi princesa.” She shivered as he spoke in Spanish, something that only added to Y/N’s arousal. “I want you to ruin me,” she started. “I want you to show me who I belong to.” She couldn’t help but grin as she moaned and Damian flipped them over on the bed. He wasted no time once he was on top of her and pulled down her shorts and underwear. “You’re so perfect,” he mumbled against her lips while her own hands started to pull his sweats down. “I’m gonna make sure the neighbors know you’re mine.”

Y/N smiled up at him as her hand wrapped around his length to tease him. “I want everyone to know I’m yours.” She whined once his fingers started to tease her, almost trying to get her to beg for him. “Please, papi…” Her words were enough for Damian to push himself into her and he started to thrust, his large hands holding her cheeks as they watched each other. “You’re mine, amor. All mine.” Damian making love to her was enough for Y/N to forget about anything that had happened earlier in the day; he just knew how to make her feel beautiful and loved, even when they weren’t being sexual with one another. But moments like these? Where he worshiped her body and made her feel beautiful when others couldn’t? She knew he was the one. 

He held Y/N close as they finished together and kissed her again, interlocking their hands next to her head and not even daring to pull out just yet. “Mine.” Damian whispered. And that had never been more clear.

[eri-pl]

Silm reread 23: the War of Wrath

Scheduling this reread post for the @morgoth-into-the-void-week. :)

So first, we are informed that our narative frame's source is the exiled Noldor (and Sindar, if I understand correctly), and they did not join the army marching North. They only learned the events later, in Aman.

So the host of the Valar was separate, the Noldor and the rest did not fight in the War of Wrath? At all? Why?

Also, I feel like this invalidates some fics, but I may be wrong. Anyway this feels strange.

The warriors "took shapes", so there were many Maiar in the army, I consider this confirmed, because I don't see how it can be read otherwise. [Unless translation messed it up]

They fight in Anfauglith, according to other sourced it lasts 50 years or so. wow. Also, the two armies are huge.

A few Balrogs escaped.

The Edain (the few that remained), in contrast to the local Elves, did join the war. Huh again. why the Elves did not?

Also, most Men were at the wrong side and the Elves hold a grudge about it. Even though, if I understand the text correctly, they themselves did not fight.

Morgoth is scared. How surprising. Winged dragons make a debut, but it soesn't help much. Earendil + all kinds of birds kil Ancalagon.

Oh, and speaking of birds: Elwing is on the ships, I would assume, with the Teleri. I would be very not surprised if Elrond and Elros meet her and they all have a long talk, and this is how the kidnap fam is dismantled (not leaving them with Gil-Galad, but letting them go to their actual mother. Who later sails back and then Elrond joins Gil-Galad. But this is purely a HC based on who was where.)

Only a few Balrogs and dragons escape (so that we can have some monsters in SA, or even, as we know, TA). The power of the Valar reaches deep into earth and cleanses it, I guess. Still, I am pretty certain that the Valar weren't there personally, just their Maiar.

Morgoth runs away, does all kinds of cringe cowardly stuff, nobody listenes to him, I have some second-hand embarassment reading this. The translation says his feet were cut off, which iirc I heard is kind of "Balrog's wings" thing, also for sake of Eonwe not looking bad I prefer to imagine just a regular "throwing him to the ground". ("but his feet were hewn from under him, and he was hurled upon his face" — English-savvy people, what do you think?]

Anyway I feel sorry for him, yes my brain is like that.

He is chained and his crown is replaced by a copy and stolen by Sauron for sake of appearing in Amazon's series reforged into a collar. I want to know by whom it was reforged, but the book does not tell me. Either some Valar were there (they can effectively teleport, from what is said in other places), or the reforging happenned in Valinor after Morgoth was taken there (the text doesn't sound like it), or some Maia of Aule did the reforging. It would be interesting if it was Curumo. Surely touching the thing won't influence him in a way that will bear its ugly fruit much later…

Also the Silarils are freed and glow under the sky. Hmm. They were not taken to Valinor, so the reforging clearly seems to take place in ME. So, was Aule there or did some Maiar do it?

"the two Silmarils […] shone unsullied beneath the sky; and Eönwë took them, and guarded them." Argh, because the Polish translation has it sounding like "were given to Eonwe to guard" I wrote a whole paragraph that now makes no sense. :/

Also, yes, clearly no Valar are there, it's the only logical reading.

All the Elves are summoned to Aman, as we know not all are enthusiastic, and we get to our guys Maedhros and Maglor (apparently without the twins now).

They don't go to talk to Eonwë, they send a messanger. Which sadly makes that one fic non-canon.

I wrote a long, convoluted "yelling on Maglor and hyping about things I should be writing inseat of just hyping" tangent, so I'll indent it, so you can skip it more easily. [Instead of deleting it. :) ]

My. guys. OK, I can get Mae who is crealy overriden by trauma here. But Maglor. My guy. Makalaure Canafinwe Feanarion. My. Guy. I get that you feel guilty towards your brother and all that, and he is triggered and "who knows what terrible things the Valar would do to us if we go against them. They would hang us from the mountain and nobody will come to save us and—" but my guy. You really would help him more by leaving him and just surendering to Eonwe. Also, my guys, this was already said, but you both get the -1th prize in category of "logic and basic inductive reasoning (if He hears us once, He will hear us again, and if not, the problem is not a problem)". But I get it, trauma turns the thinking brain off. Anwyay, Maglor, my guy. you are the worst at "being right". Becasue you are right but you do the wrong thing anyway,. MY GUY. I want to kick you. I am serisouly worried. I know the fandom wishes you all the best and ten times more, and so do I, but. My guy. You do need to put in some work. Because "having others solve your problems" never worked for you. So, I'm sorry but you will be put in Awkward Situations until you finally go against your family. Yes, this is harder when said family is dead, but we'll find a way. I know some people need help first, but ok you will have [or whatever tense] spend quite a lot of time in Rivendell first with your lovely kidnap-son but then you have to start behaving like an adult who makes his own decisions. And stop being codependent. And yes, in order to do that I am going to put you in the weirdest, awkwardest situations and also kinda scary situations ald many kinds of situations. And no, you are not going to have a glorious beautiful moment of redemption, because you're too much of a poet, you would focus on "how to describe it in a song" too much and miss the point. Also, I like giving my guys awkward situations, because, honestly, we deserve them quite well. So. you will feel like an idiot and do something so awkward that you will blush while explaining it to your dead brother and you won't be able to look him in the eye. Because. My guy. Don't worry though, you aren't even having the worst of my creative side. But. My guy. Seriously. You are a complete idiot (affectionate) and I want to kick you (affectionate).

Back to the reread proper.

So, those two. They sneak into the camp, in disguise. The camp awakens…. how did all the camp suddenly awake? Also, they are ready to die, the book says it, so @dfwbwfbbwfbwf it is canon and not only for Maedhros.

Eonwe lets them go freely, because… he is that kind, I guess? And/or knows that it will work out.

Maedhros (says the book) realized that Eonwe was right ant soF lost the right to the Silmarils. Also he is pretty clearly not in control of his actions (but he did maneuver himself there tbh)

Maglor is also burned and can't stand it, and we get the fan-loved Silm change-from-other-versions of "he wanders the shores so that we can write fanfiction of him". I want to hug him. But, also: Maglor you [beloved] fool.

Lot of Elves sail West, the Silamrils are gone and will not be joined until the world breaks (poor babies). The Elves from Belerians (the Exiles? the sindar? Both) live on Tol Eressea, and the Valar forgive them and Manwe loves them. the Teleri forgive them and the Doom is lifted.

OK, but then why do they live on Tol Eressea only???

By choice (more home-like)? To not pollute Valinor proper with their marring-influenced presence? Because the Vanyar threw a collective tantrum (yes, I hc the Vanyar to have some faults)? Just temporarily?

All of those make sense to me.

A list of Elves and again we are reminded that Elrond and Elros are very cool and special. (They are.)

Morgoth is thrown out the Door of Night into the timeless void (so probably not just outer space). Oh, the Valar did it.

So he was taken to Valinor.

I wish there was a fic on how scary-awkward-weird it was for the sailors of the ship that took him. OK, tbh there was probably more Maiar than Teleri, if any Teleri. But. It would be interesting. Especially with the Teleri having almost no experience with Morgoth. He is more like a legend to them, I think. So, scary-weird but also "hey, we are important and we'll be famous" maybe. Or maybe Ulmo just dragged him there.

There are guards on the walls o the world (huh?) and Earendil is keeping watch, which is strange considering that we are also told (in a place I can't find now) that Morgoth will not physically return (with a strange caveat). So, anyway: Morgoth gone but his lies are here still.

Quenta Silmarillion ends, we get a small … not even teaser, but after-the-credits paragraph about "hey maybe something will get Seriously Better but we don't know, Manwë and Varda probably know and Mandos did not tell anyone".

[boxerharrys]

The New Girl Spencer x F Reader

sorry for any spelling mistakes or punctuations missing! and I'm not the best at writing but I was excited to get this out!

Part 1 ( trying to make this like a real fanfic a true story to it)

Description: you were a somewhat popular YouTuber on your own. you focused on vlogging and funny sketches through out college. you watched Smosh for years admiring their work. but as you join their crew after graduating you start to admire more than their work....

Sunday:

you spent the night finishing editing your vlog of the week and watching Smosh; they seemed to help you cruise through editing. until a newer Smosh video starting to play in the background you heard Ian mentioning how they were open for a new cast member; you stopped in your tracks of what you were doing 'I'm sorry what did he just say' you said in your head rewinding the video. "Since a lot of our members right now are soaring with new projects and opportunities we are open for a new cast member!' Ian said through your laptop. 'no way id get the gig' you thought to yourself, you've dreamed of working for Smosh for years. 'what would happen if I sent in a application... I mean doesn't hurt to try I guess' you said to yourself. you went to the description and clicked the link where applications were going through. Although you didn't have much going on you just finished college and didn't have a big resume but you did have your channel. you filled out all the paper work and sent a link to your channel, like you said not much going on so you don't even get excited. you then continue finishing your editing and schedule it to post for tomorrow at !2pm. you then got into bed with your laptop and continued your mini marathon of Smosh to ease you to sleep.

Friday:

It has almost been two weeks since you entered your application to Smosh obviously not even thinking about it since you doubted anything from the start. Until you were home working on some sketch ideas and you received an email from Smosh… ‘the fuck’ you said to yourself. ‘Probably telling me how they regret to inform me they picked someone else’. You didn’t even look at the email you knew there was no way anything was coming from it. Till you received yet another email this time from ‘selinagarcia@smosh.com' you froze; as you sat there frozen for a good you’d say 5 minutes but it was more like 45 seconds you finally went to open the email.

To: (your email) 

From: selinagarcia@smosh.com

Hello Riley my name is Selina from Smosh! You should’ve got an email from out regular Smosh email congratulating you on an interview with Ian, Anthony and I! Was just reaching out to see when the best time and day would work for you to meet with us! Let me know! Below in the address and times we are open to meeting!

Thanks!

Selina

You felt like you were going to throw up. You had to re-read the email at least 3 more times. ’There’s no way I got an interview’ you said to yourself. But then you said ‘shit I got an interview’ you went to email Selina back and told her a date and time you could meet, ‘how’s Tuesday at 8?’ You emailed back; giving you enough time to mentally prepare and physically prepare for whatever the hell kind of dream you’re in. You then started going through sketches you had and dealt with one you never actually ended up filming for your channel. You had a lot of inspiration from Smosh and their TNTL series so you had a lot of jokes for that situation if you were ever in a predicament that you needed jokes for something like TNTL. You then printed everything out that you needed for your interview since the first initial email said to have those ready when you come. You then received an email back from Selina confirming that day and time was great for everyone. You made the decision to take a bath; you needed to relax your nerves were through the roof. You started the water added some bubbles and went to your kitchen to pour yourself a glass of wine. After your 30 mins bath you went to your room an put Netflix on and went to bed. 

Finally it was Tuesday at 5 in the morning you were making yourself a cup of coffee considering you were so nervous you couldn’t sleep last night. Still chose to be up early enough to shower, pick a good enough outfit to compare to Courtneys awesome fits she usually wears, your make up, and hair. The Smosh office was 25 minutes away from where you live so it was finally time to leave; rushing out the door you did a full 180 remembering your paperwork you needed.

Once you got to the office there was a buzzer at the front door. 

You press the button.

“How can I help you?’ Selina says through the speaker

“Hi its Y/F/N I’m here for an interview” 

“Yay come on in” Selina says as she buzzes you in.

You took the your atmosphere in, not believing what you’re experiencing since Smosh was your childhood and you’ve watched them every year of your life. 

You were then met with a happy lady that you knew was Selina!

“Hi it sonic to meet you I’m Selina! We are so excited to talk with you today! 

She shows you to the conference room passing some of the cast and crew; where you’re met with Ian and Anthony. You’re a great actor so you good with keeping your composure.  

“Hey its nice to meet you” Anthony says smiling 

“Yes we are so excited to pick your brain today” says Ian 

“Well let get this show on the road then I’m excited to pick your brains as well” you say confidently to your inspirations.  

Spencer: 

As he was eating lunch with Courtney, Shayne, Angela and Chanse; he was distracted from the conversation as he saw a beautiful women walk by with Selina. 

“Guys I swear I just saw an angel…” he says getting everyones attention.

“Did you drink too much Kickstart today Spence” says Court laughing.

“Yeah what are you going on about” Chanse says with a questioning look.

“Did you guys hear about anything with hiring a new cast member or do we have some type of brand we are going to work with be cause I just saw Selina walking the most beautiful women to the conference room!” Spencer says to them. 

“No” everyone says in union.

Then I see then And give the most sly look ever 

“ You know the conference room is all glass we could talk a look” she says wiggling her eyebrows. 

“No I’m not getting fired from the dads” says Shayne.

“Im in!” Chanse yells

“Angela I can’t either let me know wtf is going on tho” Spencer says 

He watched Angela make an amused face to Chanse and they get up pretending to be some type of ninjas or spy tiptoeing around us and sining action movie music

“ They are idiots” Spencer says paling his face

They come running back 

“He's not lying she gorgeous; id go straight for her” says Chanse 

“yeah id go gay for her” Angela says 

“Oh my god guy what!” Courtney exclaims.

“What does it look like is going on” Spencer says.

“I don’t know  but they were going over some type of paperwork” Angela says while sitting back down.

“Looks like well have to ask Selina afterwards… we gotta get going its almost call time” Says Shayne. 

Back to Y/N 

So everything looks great Y/N” says Anthony! 

“Thank you” you say as you start to blush.

“So I think we would benefit from you a lot” says Ian 

“Oh wow guys um thank you… I will like to be honest with you now hahaha….. you guys have inspired me so much thought my life and this is crazy that this is even happening and I’m very thankful I really didn’t think anything would come from me applying” you explain. 

“Well I’m glad to know that but its happening and we would love to hire you! So do you have any pitches for us?” Anthony says 

“Actually yes its for TNTL I think you guys should do a nostalgia episode where its nostalgia jokes and skits coming back whether its the same stuff or stuff rebranded I think the fans would love it!” You say geeking out a little.

Ian and Anthony look at each other and smile… “ you know what I really love that idea, Selina can yo see when we can do that and make a call sheet for it” 

“Yes defiantly…. So Y/N think you can start next Wednesday? I can send you everything tonight you’ll have the rest of the week to look over and prepare and we can start with maybe just one call time that day if that sounds good to you?” Selina says smiling

“YES” you exclaim!

“Perfect ill show you out! Unfortunately we can’t introduce you to any of the other cast members because they are filming right now but you can meet some of the crew! I’ll show you around so you’re not too confused next week!” Selina says.

“ Thank you!” You say as standing up. “And thank you so much guys it was pleasure meeting you and I’m excited to start” you say as shaking Ian and Anthony’s hands.

You walk out with Selina and get your tour then head home to start preparing for the best thing that has ever happened to you.

Okay that is all for now let me know if I should continue!

[abstractnaturaldisaster]

Steddie Flower Shop / Tattoo Parlor AU

I am so floored by the response! It is absolutely so fun that y’all want to read my silly stories! This is a relatively short update but I am working on the rest! Hoping to post the full story by Valentine’s and I might also post an AO3 link at some point if anyone would like that I Part One I Part Two I Also on AO3!

***

Chrissy and Eddie had been taking bets about what type of business was opening up across the way. Eddie’s guesses had run the gamut from hipster coffee shop to hipster hairdresser to hipster high-end taxidermy while Chrissy had more or less stuck with her original guess of a speakeasy style bar. Eddie was starting to close up shop for the day when some guy in an honest-to-god sweater vest and jeans ran over.

“It’s too late to place any orders today. Sorry if you need to apologize to your wife and 2.5 kids and forgot until the last minute.” Eddie had to admit the guy was pretty infuriatingly handsome. If you were in to normie core, that is.

“What? I’m not- okay, uhm. I’m actually here because I just rented the place across the way and I wanted to ask about setting up a recurring weekly arrangement?” Steve asked.

“What?” Eddie yelled over Judas Priest.

“It’s a wonder you can ever hear anything over all this noise.” Steve gestured towards the speaker.

Chrissy had overheard the exchange from the backroom and cut Eddie off before he could start ranting about real music, “Yes, we are interested in setting up a recurring weekly bouquet arrangement for our new neighbors, Eddie.” 

Chrissy turned back around to lower the speaker's volume and pulled Eddie and Steve into the shop and onto stools by the workbench Eddie uses for arranging. Eddie glared at her but they’d just lost one of their regular accounts to some online service that was apparently way cheaper than what De Lucas’ could offer.

“Sure. What were you thinking, dude?” Eddie asked Steve.

���Just something nice for our front desk. Not too big and maybe nothing that people are commonly allergic to? But I’ve seen the arrangements you load up for delivery and I trust your eye. I’m not a live flower expert.”

“Of course, big boy.” Eddie noticed Steve flush a little bit at the pet name. Eddie reached behind Steve to grab one of the flyers Chrissy had made for company floral services. He purposely invaded Steve’s space a little more than necessary just to see if he could get the guy to flush a little deeper.

“Uhm, thanks, man. I’ll get out of your hair since it’s late. Sorry.”

“I’ve got time for you now if you want to talk through anything,” Eddie couldn’t resist biting his lip a little bit. Steve was apparently very easy to ruffle and Eddie sure did love antagonizing his hipster neighbor. “Tell me a little bit about your place?”

“Oh, yeah, it’s a tattoo studio? Just me and my friend’s helping run the, like, business part of it.” Steve responded

“You tattoo?”

“Yeah. Really fucking well actually,” Steve pushed back. It seemed like Eddie had hit a nerve.

“Shouldn’t you have like at least one tattoo?” Eddie’s brain to mouth filter had apparently stopped working. He shouldn’t be actively shitting on a potential customer.

“Who says I don’t?” Steve answered with a wink. It was Eddie’s turn to feel a little faint as his imagination took a little too much creative liberty thinking about where Steve’s tattoo might be.

Thankfully, Chrissy took the awkward silence as an opportunity to step in and work with Steve to confirm what level of floral arrangement he was looking for, how often he wanted a new arrangement, and if he wanted pick up or delivery.

“I can stop by and pick them up. Wouldn’t want you to go through the trouble of adding me to your schedule since I’m just across the way. Any chance I could pick one up tomorrow around lunch time? My first client is coming at two.” Steve asked.

“Noon’s great, Steve!” Chrissy reached out to shake Steve’s hand while Eddie was still working on slowing his heart rate back to a reasonable rhythm.

“Amazing, thanks so much guys!” Steve called as he headed out of De Lucas’ and back across the street.

“Woah, Eddie. Truly a masterclass in both flirting and getting new clients. I should have taken notes,” Chrissy said once Steve had made it halfway into the road.

“Hey, fuck you.” 

“He speaks!” Chrissy patted Eddie’s head and added, “You’ll have to get better at interacting with him since you’ll be seeing each other once a week now.”

Eddie dramatically sighed and laid his upper body across the workbench, getting little pieces of flower refuse stuck in his hair.

“I’m so screwed.”

You wish, babe,” Chrissy cackled as she grabbed her bag and headed out for the day.

***

Part 4 now available here!

Taglist: @maya-custodios-dionach @eboyawstenn @swimmingbirdrunningrock @sadcanadianwinter @thehumblefigtree @throwbackthrowaway @micheledawn1975

I think I caught everyone! I seriously am so genuinely amazed by the reception! 

[beauty-and-passion]

Eurovision 2023: more about the true winner because I said so

Hey, guess who is not over Eurovision 2023 yet.

It’s me, I am who.

I have never been so invested and still so obsessed over this year’s Eurovision. I mean, I am always hit by the post-depressive phase of Eurovision, but that lasts a couple days - during which I usually go through all the beautiful moments and listen to all the songs on repeat - then I’m back to my regular schedule of stupidly long analyses and fanfictions.

(By the way, sorry for all the Americans who follow me and have no idea of what I’m talking about or what happened in this year’s Eurovision. Just bear with me, I will come back to posting Sanders Sides stuff. Just not today)

This year... well, this year was truly something. And if the last year and the one before I was like “aww, what beautiful moments, I miss seeing these people having fun”, now it’s all mushed into one ball of feelings. I look at those artists having fun with the eyes of someone who saw how things went down. I look at them celebrating the true winner after the finale and I have this strange mix of nostalgia and heaviness.

I am not mad anymore for the result. Or better: I am and I will always be because 200 people stepped over the will of millions. But what this loss caused is just so fascinating and so unique, I want to keep exploring it - and maybe talking a little bit more about the true winner of Eurovision 2023 will help me process my feelings too.

Or I just will satisfy my need to ramble more about this incredible Finnish man, either way.

______________________

The sheer power of charisma

When you watch the entirety of Käärijä’s journey on this Youtube channel (and I suggest you do it, because it gives you a lot of food for thought), you notice a lot of interesting details.

From the moment he won the national competition and knew he had to go to Eurovision, Käärijä knew his only rival would’ve been Loreen. He said right from the start that it would’ve ended up with a confrontation between Sweden and Finland. He liked other songs and thought they could’ve been good opponents - but it’s pretty clear he knew the only one who could’ve opposed him was Sweden.

And he knew that Loreen was good. Even though I do not like her songs, even I have to admit she has good vocals. Sure, the vocals are the only thing I understand because she mumbles the rest of the song, but the vocals aren’t bad.

Käärijä knew she was the favorite to win. He praised her performance and called her “queen”, so he has been the first one to recognize her as a worthy opponent. He wasn’t so naive to think “I can easily beat her”.

However, he had some tricks up his sleeves. He knew his song was perfect for Eurovision, he basically designed it for that. He knew his performance would’ve got people’s attention. And he knew he had a lot of charisma.

You can say anything you want about him, but you cannot deny this man is charismatic. And this is a lot interesting, because charisma doesn’t have an exact definition and it’s not the same for everyone. And yet, we can all recognize and identify it as “charisma” when we see it.

The definition Wikipedia offers is that charisma is “a personal quality of presence or charm that compels its subjects”. And it’s undeniable that Käärijä has it. He has that genuine, simple honesty we see in childrens only and this activates our protective instincts, because we feel the need to protect him too. He is funny and makes us smile and everyone loves to smile and have fun. He is simple and humble and that makes him look more approachable and friendly than a superstar.

And his presence on stage is very, very good. He’s eye-catching and he knew it very well. He was the flashiest and the most interesting to look at - both because of his clothes and his appearance. Just compare him to the Cyprus guy: I don’t even remember the Cyprus guy’s face, but I doubt I will ever forget that iconic neon green bolero.

And I am sure he knew that very well. He knew the public would’ve loved him. He knew he would’ve gotten a lot of points because of the public. He knew he would’ve connected with them and not with the jury.

And so it was. The numbers are clear: he was and still is the public’s favorite. His result is the second highest in history right after Kalush Orchestra’s. The entire arena sang with him. During the voting portion, they kept calling his name. Everyone called him “winner”. As the Estonian singer Alika told him: “you had the public when they announced Loreen won”.

And by knowing that, I can understand why he was so bummed. He literally had everything: the perfect song, the charisma, public’s support. And I am pretty sure that, if the public gave more points to Loreen, he would’ve accepted his defeat easier.

But it wasn’t like that: he got more points than her in both the semifinal and the final. He has always been the public’s winner, right from the start. And even if he would've gotten the theoretical maximum of public votes from Europe (432), he still would've ended up behind Sweden.

Losing because 222 people gave your opponent an unbeatable lead isn’t something easy to digest. I mean, it’s been days and I haven’t digested it yet! And I am definitely not a singer, nor I did take part in the competition. However, I voted for him and, well, I am quite pissed that my money got wasted because of a stupid unfair system. The EBU should really refund everyone who tried to vote, considering there was no way to defeat the sheer power of the jury.

So, well, the competition ended with the public’s favorite losing the piece of glass. I will get over it, everyone will get over it. Käärijä himself will get over it - now he’s still rightfully sad about it, but as he said, life goes on.

And he will soon realize that losing the competition turned him into something more than a simple winner.

______________________

The birth of a legend

If Käärijä won, he would’ve been just the winner of Eurovision 2023. People would’ve loved him like they love Kalush Orchestra or Maneskin. Everyone would’ve been happy, a little bit of post-Eurovision depression as always and we would’ve forgotten it.

But losing had an even bigger impact, because Käärijä didn’t step down to second place, but over the first place. Being so spectacularly wronged in front of the world made him ascend to the status of legend and the public went crazy for him. Cha Cha Cha reached the top of Spotify's top 50 global, people from all European countries called him “the true winner” and I’ve seen more than one American, who knew nothing about Eurovision, watch his performance and protest for the result as well.

Even Tumblr was affected by this: the tag Eurovision trended for 3 days after its ending and, after it stopped trending, Käärijä kept doing it for days. And he’s still doing it, so good job people, let’s keep the party going on for a little longer: we all deserve it, after all. You know, as a little FUCK YOU to the jury.

What about Youtube? His grand final performance reached ca. 9 mln views in three days and if you check the comment section, is full of people calling him the true winner as well.

Heck, the Eurovision channel made a video specifically about his journey, like the usually do for winners only (in fact, they did one for Loreen. And Käärijä’s video got more views than Loreen’s in one single day).

And all over Europe people are still protesting and asking for the voting system to change. The Norway delegation asked it first and I fully support them, because they are constantly robbed by the jury. I liked Duncan Lawrence’s Arcade in 2019, but KEiiNO was a completely different level. (And if you loved KEiiNO too, please check their Youtube channel because they have made a lot of other songs and OH MY GOSH THEY ARE ALL GREAT)

Käärijä united Europe with his music and his energy and I understand why Finnish people are so proud of him: there are very few artists who are able to connect people so well. And he did it by using his mother tongue, not English! That’s an even bigger win imho, because it proves that if you have a great song, a strong performance and incredible charisma, people will appreciate you and go past the language barrier without any problem.

That’s why humankind loves music, after all: because it doesn’t need to be understood word by word, to reach people’s hearts.

______________________

The hero’s journey

There are many reasons why people fell in love with this funky green man and they all differ: someone loves his bubbly personality, others were touched by his genuinity, others just fell on the ground laughing and who doesn’t love someone that makes you laugh? And yes, there are some who are just horny for him and you are valid too, because he’s a good-looking man.

However, I think that the main reason why so many people got so invested, it’s because he had the perfect hero’s journey.

He already had a story perfect for a movie, even before starting Eurovision: when he was younger, he was diagnosed with colitis ulcerosa and the disease almost took his life (this post has an interview with all details). But because of that experience, he realized life is short and he should’ve pursued what he truly wanted - i.e. singing. I mean, this alone is perfect material for a movie already.

But now he got another story, and it’s even more like a movie: the story of the young man no one knew, who left his city in his small country, to reach the big European stage. A man with a funny spirit, who connected with everyone despite his broken English - and he wonderfully improved it along the way. Just look at how much more confident he became! Truly a masterful example of how we should just talk and make mistakes, in order to get better in another language.

So we followed the adventures of this funny man and of the friends he made along the way. We had fun and cried for the beauty of his friendship with Bojan (he literally called Käärijä “my new brother” and a small part of my heart that was broken got immediately healed). We got involved in his climbing to the top, we saw him face the behemoth that was opposing him and hoped for him to overcome it.

And he got the tragic conclusion of a hero’s journey: a hero who won and yet still lost.

People love this shit. We have always loved the story of the little one against the unbeatable enemy, the nobody who got the recognition he deserves, the kind heart defeated by the corrupt system. Those are all things that touch people and all aspects of the hero’s journey. And people naturally hope for a happy ending, so if we get a sad, bad or unfair one instead, we tend to feel even more empathetic towards the protagonist. And if your protagonist is as lovable as he is, the feeling is 100x stronger.

I really don’t know if the national juries expected this to happen, when they knew who the public’s favourite was and yet decided to award a different artist. But by doing that, they became the perfect enemy to close Käärijä’s journey and build a legend.

So, well, thanks for sucking so much. You built the legend you didn’t want to.

And yes, Käärijä’s enemy IS NOT Loreen. Loreen did her thing, she didn’t bribe the judges to give her votes. The problem is the jury’s power. So, for all the people who are still harrassing her: please stop hating this woman, she just did what other artists did too.

And since we’re talking about her, please stop saying shit like “She shouldn’t have participated!” too, because this is both very stupid (everyone is allowed to participate in Eurovision) and very disrespectful towards Käärijä himself. It’s a bit like saying that sure, he was good, but, like, you know, not enough good.

And this is totally wrong because this man has been able to defeat Loreen twice, both during the semifinal and the final (at least according to the votes that matter). So stop undermining his ability: he is a good artist. Actually, an artist so good only Loreen was able to compete against him.

And if you still think it’s right to hate Loreen for whatever reason, then I would like to bring this to your attention:

The king literally proposed to Loreen. And, considering how accurate was his foresight about the whole competition, I think it’s time we start to think about when it will happen and how many children they will have.

So if you are still harassing her: stop protesting for the piece of glass and ask her when will they get married, instead. We need to know.

Also, wouldn’t that be an even more perfect ending for Käärijä’s hero’s journey? Not only the great evil (aka the jury) will be defeated, but he will marry the only woman strong enough to oppose him. 100/10 I want a movie now.

And yes, I know Käärijä also proposed to Bojan and they are fathers of a baby sea lion. But what’s the problem? Doesn’t Käärijä have two hands? With one hand can hold Bojan, with the other Loreen, duh.

(Then he will probably need another hand for Selena from Austria, because I think she developed a little crush on him but hey, that’s the life of a hero I guess.)

______________________

Have you listened to his other songs yet?

I just want to confirm they are bops and you should listen to them immediately. Also, do not forget his concert on Saturday that will be available worldwide. Let’s show love to the king.

And yes, that means another post will come out. I mean, there are still so many things we need to know! I want to see the photos of that mural people are doing for him in Vantaa, I want to see the music collaboration between him and Bojan, I want to see them visiting little Edgar at the zoo. And I can’t wait to hear about his future European tour, because he has to do one. And maybe that will fully convey him how big his impact has been indeed.

As people told him in the after party, he conquered the world. Now he just needs to see it for himself.

[getmylifetogetherwme]

Goals for This Week (10/28 - 11/1/2024)

Hi, all,

I haven't done a weekly goal post in like three weeks. Sorry. Things have been weird for me. I thought I should bring them back!

I know it's Tuesday, so not exactly the beginning of the week, but bare with. Hopefully next week we'll be back to our regular schedule.

Academic Goals:

This week's goals are to: finish up my English essay, study for my physics exam, and study for my ochem exam. Also, I'd like to start looking into doctors to shadow for some good med school hours. On the same note: I want to start dedicating more time to my research lab.

Fitness Goals:

My fitness goals are pretty much the same as always. I've been doing pretty good with consistency. People have been pointing out my muscle gains which honestly, feels really good. I'm going to keep with my 4 day split with 30 minutes of cardio everyday. My cardio of choice is usually just walking around campus after my day, but I'm on like my 4th or 5th week of cycling class, and I love it so much. It's genuinely one of the highlights of my week.

I fell off the horse a bit, unfortunately. :/ I was doing everything that I technically needed done, but I wasn't really putting all that much effort into it, and I don't like when I do that. It feels like a chore, and I don't like when my education feels that way. I love what I'm studying, you know, but I guess I just got a little burned out.

I don't really talk about it, but I've changed a lot since around the time I started this blog. I've become a lot more productive, and less depressed, but sometimes I still feel like I could be doing more, and I guess that's how I've been feeling. But instead of doing more, I kinda just sulked. Yeah. Thought I would just be honest. I don't want y'all to get the impression that I'm this oh-so-perfect student who never has a bad day and who just studies studies studies. No. I have to mentally work myself up to that. Maybe I'll write more about that soon. I know I haven't really been doing a good job at updating you guys and stuff... like my winter arc. Sorry! I'll try.

Hope all is well!

Thanks for reading,

-C

[kimageddon]

3 Year Anniversary Q&A

3YR Anniversary Q&A

Hello everyone! Happy Star Wars Day! 

I hope you have had a wonderful day and I apologise for making you wait so long. I had intended to post a chapter before now, but schedules being as they are, I thought I would get this out quickly before I post the next chapter in the next day or so. 

3 years of APOD… my goodness, how time flies. I hope you are all enjoying it as much as I am and I do hope to get back to a regular schedule, though writing in general has been a little difficult of late. I will get there!

That being said, here are some of the answers for the Q&A, I hope you enjoy and I shall be back in the next few days for a chapter post! 

7luLuna asks:-  

What inspires you for Zaiya’s actions??

Zaiya is very pragmatic, level-headed and thinks about her actions before committing to them… most of the time. There are the occasional moments of leaping before thought when it comes to the ones she cares about. The inspiration comes I guess from me, though she of course is her own character and I have to take her traumas and experience into account when having her act or react. There have been parts I have had to rewrite, but for the most part, writing for her comes pretty easily to me. 

Antex-The Legendary Zoroark asks:-

For Siren/Zaiya: How will you, alongside Maul, take rightful justice against both Sidious and Kenobi? Especially with your current lack of resources? It’s obvious that you need a long-term plan to reach this long-term goal.

“Justice is not something realistic, though I would be satisfied with good old-fashioned revenge. As for our resources, don’t you worry about that. We have ways. Though the Temptress did have a number of useful things aboard, we can always use more. First we gather our strength, then we strike.” 

For Maul: After successfully pruning the galaxy of the dead weight that is the Jedi and Sidious, what next? Create a new Organization of loyal members to expand your legacy? Like a Crimson Dawn Kingdom/Empire? Or maybe even a family perhaps? 

“I have a family in my brothers, I have my organisation at the very beginning of its emergence, so two of those goals are already achieved. I will find a way to destroy Sidious… and I will take everything from him. I will rip his legacy asunder and make it mine. I will take back the destiny he and Kenobi denied me.”

For Feral: Utilizing your role as an assassin, what other techniques do you plan to implement to fulfill your role/mission objectives even more smoothly than how they are now? Basically what will you add to your skill repertoire that can help grant you an extra edge? Specifically when you as an assassin are exposed? Assassins thrive in shadows after all, but even they need to adapt as the situation calls for it.

“Heh, yeah, I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve. I mean the Force is good, but the Mandalorians aren’t wrong having all those weapons just in case. I am a skilled hunter, and have learned to adapt to the changing situation of the hunt. What is an assassin but an elite hunter? Not to mention… I think Lady Siren has something in mind for me improving my skills.”

Finally, last but not least, Savage: Until more of your memories return and you’re adjusted to your new body, what role shall you take? That of a tank? A juggernaut who causes destruction/carnage upon his enemies? If so, how will you temper/control that anger/rage/hate so that you’re in control of it and it isn’t in control of you? What can you see yourself as in the future that lies ahead for your family along with Maul and Zaiya?

“I, like my brothers, am now a Lord of Dawn. I do what needs to be done, whether that is as a ‘tank’ or a strategist. Maul and Siren are the most skilled at that, but I was a leader of the tribes on Dathomir. As for the rage… My memories are hazy of the time before my transformation. I remember my skills of course, but I do not think this rage is solely mine. I believe Mother Talzin imparted some of it into me. For the future, I plan to stay with my family. Being with them, in control of our destinies was always the goal. Now we just have to take it.”

high-functioning-fangirl473 asks:-

Have you thought about making love interests for Savage and Feral? The boys deserve happy endings after all.

You are correct. They do deserve all the lovely things. I haven’t got anything solid in mind, but there certainly is a possibility in the future of them finding a special someone. Whether male, female or otherwise presenting, I do not yet know, but I have not ruled it out.

What are Savage and Feral’s ages in your story? As well as the age gap between them and Maul? By this time we know Maul about about 33-34ish, and their age gap isn’t clear.

I have left it a little vague, and canon isn’t totally clear either, some say Savage is older, some say Maul, but in this case, at this point in time Maul is about 33, Zaiya is a few months younger. Savage is 29  and Feral is 26. I thought there would be more of a gap initially but I had to figure out a way to have Maul know Feral and Savage as children for the reunion later, and Maul was taken when he was about 7 in this telling. Canon that I have seen is unclear as to when he was taken, but… I mean his ‘kidnapping’ was told from Zaiya’s perspective… So whether it happened exactly like that, who knows?

Once again, thank you everyone for your questions, comments, your support and your kind words. I hope to have a chapter out this week and more for Sins soon as well. As always, I appreciate every one of you, please look after yourselves and I hope you enjoy the next chapter! 

Here’s a sneak peek!

“The bosses ain’t gonna like this,”  the particularly pathetic Klatoonian grumbled as Maul stared down at him. 

“Call. Them.” 

Behind him, Zaiya leaned casually against a wall. Feral was perched, wearing his newly acquired half mask, on a railing on the upper level of the cargo hold. Savage paced slowly up on the walkway. The group of pirates were cornered… what was left of them anyway. 

Maul held his lightsaber ready, he was running out of patience, though he would rather not have to fight his way through the entire ship. It would be far too time-consuming and inefficient. 

They’d located the Spice runners and managed to stow away on the ship. A freighter-class of Corellian make, named Daiyu Blue. Meanwhile, the droid kept the Nameless just out of range. The group had turned out to be a band of pirates but their cargo was infinitely worth the effort. 

A decent shipment of credits, certainly. But what drew Maul was the presence of the Dark Side. 

The nervous Klatoonian raised his hands, palms out in a placating gesture, he pressed the button on the comlink attached to his wrist and spoke into it. 

“Yeah boss, we have a bit of a situation down here, I need you to come have a look,” he said, eyeing Maul cautiously. Smart enough not to try and warn his superior about the Dathomirians’ presence. 

With a nod, the other three melted into the shadows as they awaited the arrival of whoever was in charge of this vessel. Sure enough, after a few minutes, the doors slid open and an Ithorian swaggered into the room. 

[What is this, Ish?] the ‘boss’ said, speaking through the translator secured around his swollen neck.  He was followed by a young human male dressed in plain garb next to the luxuriously clad alien. The two bulbous eyes of the Ithorian landed on Maul. [You don’t belong here.]

“You are travelling with more than just spice here,” he said bluntly. “What is in the other crates?” The human shifted uncomfortably and looked to his boss. 

[Get off my ship! You don’t--] the Ithorian was cut off by Feral’s curved vibroblade suddenly held barely an inch from his throat. 

“I wouldn’t be so inhospitable, if I were you,” he snarled. The human reached for his blaster, but Savage was too quick, and his lightsaber blade stopped him in his tracks. 

[Who are you?] the Ithorian demanded. 

“We are Crimson Dawn,” Maul replied confidently. “And you will answer the question.” 

Tags: (If your name is crossed out then check your settings or username -- Tumblr is not letting me tag you!) @alwayssnivellus @the-chains-are-the-easy-part @ashotofspotchka @justalittletomato @nahoney22 @eloquentmoon @stardustbee @lune-de-miel-au-paradis @nobody-expects-the-inquisitorius @rain-on-kamino @bacarasbabe @lifeless-being @lazarithebellydancingmime @robotswithscarves @herbalinz-of-yesteryear

Wanna be notified when I post my next work? Join/Leave my tag list

[ladykailitha]

WIP Wednesday Game

It’s WIP Wednesday, time for a little accountability, sharing your work, and getting a kick in the pants.

Here’s how it works:

In a reblog (or new post w/ rules attached), post up to five (5) filenames of your WIPs; not titles, file names.

Post a snippet from one of them. Snippet must be words you wrote in the last 7 days. We’re posting progress here. If you haven’t made any, go make some and come back to post!

After you’ve posted, people can send you an ask with one of your file names. You must then write 3 sentences in that file. If the filename is one you can't share from (for example, an event fic), write 3 sentences on it anyway, and then 3 more on another to share.

That’s it! You can invite others to join in, or just post. If you tag me in your post, I will send you an ask request!

If you’re reading this, you’re invited!

If you see someone posting a WIP Wednesday Game snippet, send them an ask! Make them write.

My only problem is that I tend to file name what the title is so I can find it easier, so...here’s what they were called before I titled them.

"File" Names

Steve is in a Metal Band

Werewolf Steve

Boy w/a Bat Book 2

Soulmate AU

Snippet

“I’ve also got someone coming in and deprogramming our personas,” Robin said, “so we don’t look like weirdos with no spacial awareness.”

Simon giggled. “Just how many of your friends thought you were cursed, Steve?” he teased their frontman.

“Oh hardy ha,” Steve grumbled.

“Most of them them,” was Robin’s cheerful reply.

Steve stuck his tongue out at her. “So just to reiterate, Eddie knows about me and Robin and will probably guess about you three, but it is up to you if want to tell him. We’re going back into the studio for our third album and Corroded Coffin is currently recording their ninth. And while we’re there, we’re going to learn how to be regular humans again. Then after they’re done and hopefully us, too,” he added as an aside, “and they set the dates, we will open for them for just their US portion of their tour.”

****

Sorry, I forgot to set this to schedule, but my husband decided to go to bed early and it threw off my groove.

Same as always my loves. It runs until 11pm EST.

Send as many asks as you want as often as you want.

Have fun go nuts!

Just tagging my regulars because I think a couple of them missed the post (except that lovely anon who I would love to tag)

@mira-jadeamethyst @zerokrox-blog @just-a-tiny-void @w11l0wtr33 @beelze-the-bubkiss

[kanerallels]

Ahhh the joys of a wildly inconsistent posting schedule. Hopefully I can make it a little more consistent soon! Anyway, have the last chapter of this particular arc-- I hope you guys liked it! Don't worry, we'll be back to regular Ghost/ Yellow Submarine crew shenanigans next time

First lines under the cut!

Tag list: @day-to-day-thots @auroramagpie @laughingphoenixleader @accidental-spice @heckin-music-dork @opalknight @seleneisrising @cassie-fanfics (DM me if you want to be added or removed!)

Before they’d joined up with Kanan’s group, Sabine had never met a clone before, particularly not a member of the GAR. She’d heard about them, growing up. How they’d been created from the DNA of a Mandalorian warrior, Jango Fett. How they’d been trained to fight for the Republic, and done so handily. How they had, in the end, destroyed the Jedi, who were later called traitors by those they served. And after that? The Empire had made them disappear, too.

Now that she was meeting some of them, Sabine had to admit, they weren’t exactly what she’d expected. It was getting easier to tell them apart— the armor and the haircuts helped, but there were other differences. Scars, tones of the voice, the look in the eyes.

But mainly, they were a lot less like the stoic soldiers she’d expected. I guess the Empire didn’t create the template for how soldiers act, Sabine mused as she watched a trooper with pink armor throw a handful of grapes at his friend, who yelped in mock protest and immediately retaliated. Their third companion, who had buzzed hair and a tired expression, shook his head in exasperation as he tried to get them to stop fighting. 

Turning to face the rest of the table, she said, “Is it weird that I didn’t expect this many food fights?”

Niner snorted. “I’d say no if I hadn’t been stuck in the middle of one for most of my life.” Fi, who was sitting next to him, promptly threw a piece of toast at him, which he ducked to avoid, and shot her a ‘see what I mean’ face.

[author-orchids]

There is one moment, one interaction that I credit to my becoming a writer of original works, and the funny thing is, I don't think that this girl who inspired me to start doing something that has become a huge part of who I am even remembers me

Before I had even started thinking of writing original stories, I wrote a fanfiction. The only people who'd ever seen it were me and my friend who I'll call E for respect of her privacy. It was a Wings Of Fire fic, one where there was a dragonet of destiny from each tribe, but also the SkyWing egg was a twin, and there was an extra MudWing due to an IceWing misunderstanding exactly what was meant by "an egg the color of dragon blood", and the extra MudWing was a hybrid.

And so E had read my writing, and I'd also talked her ear off about my fan tribe, they were spider-like dragons but the focus of this post actually isn't my old fanfiction. We were in eighth grade, and she told me that I should publish writing

"I can't publish this E, it's not my world and only a few of these are my characters (chuckle) I guess maybe I could put it on Wattpad but I'm not sure my writing is good enough"

"no, like an original story. Your writing is really good, if you made an original world and more ocs you could publish a really good book"

And I had brushed this interaction off. But over time, sometimes without my own knowing, an idea formed, characters, identities, relationships, a continent, an island, a world, gods, a universe, and eventually, I had the whispers of a story.

Now this story and it's accompanying world had been a presence in my subconscious for ~a year and a half before I actually started writing. It was around this time last year, a little earlier, I opened up a blank Google doc and started writing.

There were two names that I instantly knew belonged to my story: Orchid Merryweather, our main character, our Princess Orchid, and who I named my main blog after. And then The Princess And The Dragon, it's quite simple, the name of the book, but I quite like it, and that is what I'm writing about-- a princess and a dragon, among other things, of course

And soon after I heard about NaNoWriMo, short for national novel writing month, November is a month where some people will make it their goal to write/complete and entire book. Of course that was entirely unobtainable for myself, so I just pushed myself to reach a large goal that month, to get me started on my writing

And so it's been a year, just about, since I've started being serious with my writing. I have twenty something chapters, and I want to start sharing my writing. Starting this Saturday with the prologue, I will post one chapter every week on Saturday, and when I run out of chapters I'll figure out a new posting schedule then.

Until then, until Saturday when I finally start sharing my actual work-- no matter how scared I am of doing it-- I will leave you with the summary, which also serves as a draft of what may eventually be the back of the book summary if-when I ever actually publish the book:

~~~~~

Orchid is cursed. It's a story with a tune we've all heard before. The princess is cursed, locked away in a tower guarded by a fire-breathing dragon. Her curse can only be broken by her true love's first kiss. And our hero, a sword-carrying adventurer who must carry out three quests, before breaking the princess's curse and taking her back to her kingdom.

But Orchid likes her tower, and that fire-breathing dragon Fury by name, is more of a mother to her than her real mother ever bothered to be, and her stepfather doesn't quite seem to care either. And when on one early spring day Orchid finds herself in possession of a strange spell book, one that claims to have the knowledge needed for a spell that would make her a shapeshifter.

Shapeshifters turn into regular animals, a dog or a cat, not dragons. But this spell book promises her the ability to do just that. And suddenly, Orchid finds herself desperately wanting to be a dragon. Well, that's not quite right. Orchid wants to be like Fury. She want's to see the world, and she wants to see it just the way Fury has.

There are questions that Orchid has about her life. For one thing, why is her curse so specific? Orchid, being a fae princess, should have exceptional magic ability-- except for her curse that prevents her from accessing her magic unless her life is in danger, in which case her abilities would be open to her for a short time until she wasn't near death anymore. Additionally, she can never set foot in any city of her kingdom until her curse has been broken, if she did, every of the kingdom's inhabitants would turn to stone. And of course, the only way to break her curse is by way of her true love's first kiss. And Orchid has questions. Why is her curse so specific? Why do her kingdom and the kingdom of the witches hate each other so? What was the specific reason that she was cursed? What if her true love isn't a man, but a woman instead? Why do her parents never visit her? What happened to her real father? But for now, her questions wait, because she has a spell to be preformed, quests to do, a world to see, a role model to look up too, and herself to prove. She doesn't have time to ponder those things, yet. Yet.

~~~~~

And so uhh yeah that's it. I'll post chapters on Saturdays at 5pm. I'll link every chapter in my pinned post, and I'll tag all my posts of/about this story as The Princess And The Dragon so you'll be able to find it either way. Whoever you are, reading this, I hope you enjoy reading as much as I've enjoyed writing.

[eldritchmochi]

since shit continues to be wild, as evidenced by the oingo boingo voice WEIRD CANCER posts, heres.....

mochi, what the fuck is up with that?? (guts edition) 3.0

1.0 ; 2.0

i apparently have not seen enough specialists so i have an oncologist now. gotta catch 'em all and shit

tl;dr mystery mass did turn out to be technically cancerous. i do not remember the specific type off the top of my head yet but its a weird rare one, because of course it is. luckily its a kind that stays very localized, so it's not gonna pop up anywhere else in my body, and my surgeons did manage to remove all of it with good margins. i am now down the 3rd and 4th part of my duodenum and my gallbladder (which, fun fact, did have signs of chronic gallbladder disease, so i guess i didn't escape that family trend lmao). like all cancers, theres a chance it'll grow back, but if it does, it should be in roughly the same place and is unlikely to be fatal, just annoying

i've got a fuck off big scar building down the centerline of my abdomen, from sternum to groin. it is gnarly as fuck and i am excited to see how it heals. i already have some ideas on how to incorporate it into my tattoos. you can see pictures of it here if you're a morbid freak like me. be sure to look at my reblogs for updates, there will probably be several contained there down the line, for posterity :>

the first like 18hrs post surgery were uh. not fun since it took A WHILE to find some sort of non oral pain management that would actually work for me, so thats great, but sans ng tube, i'm getting by pretty okay with ibuprofen and tylenol with the occasional non-standard opioid. i've been home since tuesday, oct 10th; had a check in with a gp yesterday, oct 13th, and i'm healing well. staples will be removed on the 18th and theoretically i'll be able to keep them >:3c

i'm back to eating semi-normally. still on bowel rest, but it's not as strict as it was before and it's mostly because i am paranoid vs anything required by my doctors. i haven't been nauseous since i went under on oct 4th which is absolutely wild, and i've been experiencing hunger at normal, regular intervals including being able to eat breakfast shortly after i wake up, which i haven't been able to do without a high chance of barfing it back up immediately since i was a teenager

first oncology appt is on oct 23rd. sounds like itll be mostly setting up a plan and schedule for things like regular scans to watch for regrowth and possibly referrals for genetic testing

my pfml back pay came innnnn god only last week holy shit, and my wife got their big chunk of school loans for living expenses so we are mostly fine there. i am arranging with a local queer to come a couple times a week to help with regular chores and stuff at 40 bucks a pop. if anyone would like to sponsor one of those visits or some take out for us, i'm @/sumomomochi on both pp and vnm0

at this point the sort of stuff that would serve us best is GEEFTS. not like, physical things you pay money for necessarily, though if you're a custom dice maker and wanna send us clacky math rocks, i would not say no. things like comments on our fics (mochi's ao3 ; cherry's ao3) or fanart for em, should you be so inclined, would be incredible. cherry is very low key on the internet but i'm chronically online, so other stuff like asks about worldbuilding or fic process or fashion opinions or whatever would be fantastic for me. i am...... incredibly bored after sitting in the same spot for four months now, and i've got another 4-5 weeks of it (:

but! i have a good support system, personally, professionally, and medically, so i'll be alright in the end, just hmm. sure has been a fucking year jesus christ

[topsurgerystuff]

Okay I’ve never actually posted my own, brand new post on the internet before so I’m kinda nervous but bear with me. I guess I’ll start by putting all my little links and such. I’m sure most people already know about these but fuck it what do I know.

The GALAP is where I got the therapist who gave me the little letter that tells them I’m trans. It’s got a list of therapists who have agreed to give out free letters that iirc are sorted by state. It’s down as of right now but it says they hope to be back up by April 30th 2024. I live in Texas so there was only one for me but she was real cool, she did the evaluation but made it clear that it was only because she legally had to and that she would give me the letter regardless, it was 100% free and it was over telehealth so I didn’t have to go anywhere.

https://www.thegalap.org/need-a-letter/directory

Folx Health does all kinds of stuff. They do gender affirming care as well as just regular doctor shit and they have guys in every state and they take a lot of insurance but their membership is SO GODDAMN EXPENSIVE. If you’re Jeff FUcking Bezoso well here you go I guess.

https://www.folxhealth.com/

Legacy Health is the same as Folx but much more affordable and only in Texas. Sorry if you don’t live in Texas.

https://www.legacycommunityhealth.org/contact-us/

Trans in the South is a directory of all kinds of trans-affirming health and legal service providers. It also has a guide on how to fund your transition and its got a list of grants you can apply for too. Never noticed that before, might do that shit.

https://southernequality.org/resources/transinthesouth/

Trans Legal Aid of Texas has volunteer attorneys that will help you get and do the paperwork to change all your legal info but you gotta live in Texas sorry sorry.

https://translegalaidtx.com/

Also I don’t have a link for them but Dr. Daniel Freet and Dr. Rachel Goldstein did my top surgery at Memorial Hermann. They did a great job, they were so nice to me, they didn’t question my decision at all and the whole experience start to finish was pretty nice. The wait was forEVER but they are really fucking busy and they’re booked like crazy so. Understandable. Unfortunately, the full cost of my surgery is ~$17,000 and my insurance, who initially said they would cover it, decided they would actually wait until we get the bill before deciding to cover it and since the bill arrived they’ve been dead silent but [screaming in agony] its fine. My incision scars are nice and straight, I have very little dog earing going on and its flattened over time. I’m a little chunky so that’s impressive. It’s only been 5 months and I have full mobility, it only took me about 2 months to get there. My nips are a little ugly but they are intact and they are recognizable as nips. More on that in a later post though. Overall, 10/10, would recommend. End post.

[salty-professor]

Degree Mills

The Department of Education defines a degree mill as a school that has fake accreditation and where the students do not have to do any work. That is certainly true.

However, insiders, that is me, and a lot of other folks who do the work in higher ed agree that a degree mill is a place where the fix is in from the moment the student walks on campus. They find it sick to know that regardless of performance, as long as the student has a pulse and is in good standing with one or twenty student loan services (this is the real key, students=$$$), that student will graduate with a legitimate degree even though the student will not have learned a fucking thing.

It is gross. I hate it. Blech.

I have a confession to make…

I accidentally got a job at a degree mill. I didn't mean to. I was looking to pick up some summer teaching. Teaching full-time doesn't pay all the bills and sometimes, we get sick of teaching the same few classes over and over, so, while we don't want to leave our full-time teaching posts, we pick up adjunct jobs at other schools.

So, I saw this ad for an adjunct job at a BIG school. This is one of those schools that is so big that it will survive the coming edpocalypse without so much as a blink. When the small, liberal arts schools fail, and shut down these mammoth, too-big-to-fail schools will roll on until there is just one monster Hydra University. It is an online job so I didn't have to commute. It pays better than what I would make doing overload work at my current job. Most importantly for me, the school is a non-profit and accredited, so I wasn't going to be doing garbage…or so I thought. I did my training and was impressed. I mean, they use an online learning management system designed by sadists. Still, it wasn't the end of the world. I've used it before. It isn't my full-time job. I could suffer for a few hours per day of this bullshit. No problem. I signed the contract. I read the text. I whistled a merry tune.

Then, I saw the course shell.

I have zero ability to change anything. I can't alter the due dates to meet my schedule. I can't close the discussions after they are graded. I can't even change the late policy. OK. So, I guess this is all about quality control. They need to be sure folks are doing it "right" so OK. I can give good, thoughtful feedback and do some teaching on the back end. Individualized learning is awesome anyway. Then, I saw the rubrics. They are already filled out with approved written feedback and they only have three levels. The student either gets all the points, most of the points, or NONE of the points. Really? Really? Who would EVER give a student a zero unless there was a missing assignment? No one who isn't a total fuckhead, that's who. I am not, for the record, a total fuckhead.

Thus, even when my students totally miss the point, like swing and miss, I have to mark that middle row on the grading rubric. That means, as long as the student turns in something, even if it is crappy and has a grammar error in every sentence, the student will earn a C. The school is accredited because every week the faculty clicks the pre-made rubric and thus the students get regular, substantive feedback. Also, as long as they submit something, the students will pass. The retention and graduation rates put me through the roof. Student satisfaction must be sky high because when asked if they like the place and if they feel the teacher was engaged, students will say yes. After all, how could they not?

I can't change the system. It is a massive school with lots of lawyers and I assume, one or twenty lobbyists as well. For now, I am taking detailed notes. I have videos and screenshots. I am building a file that I will send to the DOE and the regional accrediting body. They will likely not give a shit, but I give a shit and it is all I can do. I am not going to walk away from the students I currently have. I can't quit on them. That isn't fair. They can still learn some good stuff. I will fight the good fight within the virtual confines of my classroom. I will give different feedback. I will push them to do better. I will make audio comments or video comments and I meet with them and I try, and try, and try, to get them to learn. To be better. I will explain that while they are going to pass, that isn't the point. Grades are pointless if they don't learn anything.

I know there will be students who care. I know there is some great information they can take from my class. I can do the work. The extra work. I can be the shining light in the degree-milled darkness. I will work hard because I care.

#educationisaright, but it must be earned.

I need to take a shower.

[tripstitan]

An Author's Rambling

I'm not really sure how to do this social media'ing thing. I don't use this site, or really have any desire to do so, so I feel like some hack making self-advertisements with the help of guides and AI and stuff, just throwing them into the wind where they'll be seen by no-one, because I don't have a follower base that would reblog them. It might seem self-defeatist to not want to really do the social media thing, but I'm asocial, a hermit, content to not interact with other humans for the most part, plenty neurodivergent. I guess this ramble is also me technically coming out in public pretty widely. Yeah, like Reggie, the narrator/main protag in my webnovel series, I'm an aro-ace with neurodivergencies up the wazoo, disabled in a few ways.

What am I hoping to accomplish? Just to get "An Age of Mysterious Memories" out there to people that need it, that need to be seen, to feel represented. But, like I said, posting here feels like throwing fliers into the wind, hoping that they'll land somewhere that someone picks it up and goes, "Huh, neat, maybe I'll check that out someday when I'm bored or depressed."

I'm actually surprised that a couple of my posts have been seen by at least one person that wasn't on my follower list, which, hey, shoutout to you new fam.

This social media stuff really burns me out and detracts from my writing, but between this, and some pretty-expensive google advertising, I don't know how else to offer up my story to the world.

I don't even care about "conversions" or conversion to click ratio or whatever. I have 0 patrons on Patreon, and that's fine. I've been skating by in life on the thin ice of every new day (Thank you Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson, heh.)

I guess maybe I should ask how I should even do this. Should I get more personal? Post more ramblings, with popular tags, and just hope that those bring traffic, and then hope that that traffic sees that I have a free webnovel up?

A lot of the guides suggest quantity, and a regular posting schedule for this social media stuff that's way too hard for me to keep up without burning out, because I have chapters going up every day or every other day, basically, nonstop. In the approximately two years since i started getting serious with my webnovel series, I've averaged at least a chapter every other day. Some days I write ten to twenty chapters, maybe a few days in a row, then I don't write anything for a month or two, because titling them, posting them, advertising them, burns me out. I could keep writing, forever and ever, even if that means writing chapters I can't post yet (I have so many chapters written for the next volume in my series that it's not even funny.) Or I could write side-projects, or fanfic I guess. I took my first foray into that a while back, and I kind of want to do a reread on my fanfic and plot out a conclusion to it, instead of leaving it hanging like it is. But fanfic isn't my baby, it's not what I want to get seen.

What I want seen is AAoMM, because it's... it's the representation, it's me putting myself out there, my internals, my neurodivergencies into a narrator, my Q status in the lgbtqia, having intrusive thoughts and not acting on them, and just so much more, that I know other people identify with, and honestly need. The representation matters, and I just want to provide that, because I know people who have been, or are hurting, or struggling, or are just in a funk, or depressed, or bored, or any number of things, that share so many of the traits that Reggie carries, that I carry. Several of my readers have said that it feels like the thoughts that are expressed are them in the situations Reggie is in. I don't think I've seen another adventure novel series where we get stream-of-consciousness moment-to-moment inner narration of a neurodivergent narrator that falls into the lgbtq community.

What a niche, right? Except... it's not. We're all having our own inner adventures. We all do have a stream of consciousness, whether we acknowledge it or not, and there are *Tons* of people out there who are neurodivergent in the lgbtqia community. Hell, at this point in Earth's history, I'd be surprised if anyone has survived unscathed without any neurodivergencies, trauma, or panic. We went through a global epidemic, a pandemic. That must have been rough on you peeps out there that actually leave your homes and do stuff with other humans. My sympathy to you guys. I'm a hermit, my life got a little bit easier, because things started allowing web-based doctor's visits, and delivery of groceries, and other stuff to help with social distancing. I'm rambling, but I just want to give AAoMM to everyone who needs it.

I want to nerd out about my webnovel series with people, and answer questions ranging from silly, to heart-wrenching. Why? Because I am in a good place, I've gotten somewhere in life that I feel content, despite all my comorbid things, all the depression and trauma and anxiety and social-phobia and adhd and spectrum'ness and the struggle with identity, especially my AA agendered ace identity, that I've slid around on, and worried I'd invalidated myself over the years, and everything else I've got, gone through, carry around, or deal with. Reggie's narration is that--, that beacon of, no matter how hard things get, what slams your mind with intrusive thoughts, that there's hope, that there's warm, soft times, contented times, happy times, ecstatic times, somewhere along the tunnel that is life's journey. Also that you can slide around on the scale of your agenderness or aromanticness, or your sexuality, and that that's okay, that you still are who you feel you are, or say you are, no matter what others think, that there can be romances and fluff and all kinds of things that are exceptions to rules, whether those rules are imposed by others, or yourself.

It feels like I'd look like I was shilling or pandering though if I interjected all the tags though, for every chapter, because not every chapter does it really come up that Reggie(and most of the inner circle) is at least technically agendered, or that there are several LGB relationships for side characters, or--. Well, it is always pretty evident that Reggie's brain is neurodivergent, we hear every thought that Reggie ever thinks, including the intrusive ones, almost every thought anyway.

But I also sort of want to put AAoMM in front of non-ally neurotypicals who are ablebodied and cishet, and be like:

"God forbid you ever had to walk a mile in our shoes 'Cause then you really might know what it's like to sing the blues" (Thanks Everlast, for those lyrics.)

Not in a malicious way or anything. I don't want them to suffer, I don't want anyone to suffer. Plus, I'm sure they're going through their own things, just like everyone else. I just want to try to remind people to be empathetic to each other, to think for that brief moment, before interacting with another human being, that -they are another human being-. That they deserve to be treated equally to how they're interacting with the world around them, more or less. Everyone deserves human rights, and the dignity of being acknowledged as existing with their own struggles.

I got pretty soapboxy here I guess, probably best if I shut up now and just hit post. (Could you guess that I'm an author by the verbosity of this goofy-arse post that was just supposed to be me semi-ironically whining about social media on social media?)