#but I've never seen it so I'm guessing it hasn't been posted here

[curioussubjects]

As a problem intellectualizer myself, I'm a big fan of the way Langdon's substance abuse was depicted and what that means for the landscape of his addiction. I've been talking to a friend about it, and here's what we've pieced out based on the scant info we get from the show:

Based on the way Langdon talks about the back injury with Robby (prefacing the whole thing with remember when) and Robby's reaction to the injury at the time (teasing), I'm guessing it can't be more than a year old. Far away enough for Robby to have forgotten about it without a reminder, but recent enough that Robby and Langdon have a more familiar relationship with an established rapport.

What's particularly interesting, though, is that Langdon isn't following standard protocol for treating opioid addiction (via prescribed drug), but he does seem to be withdrawing from the benzos he's taking to treat that addiction in the "proper" way. Also worth noting benzos aren't addictive drugs in the way opioids are and physical and psychological dependence on them while taking therapeutic doses (and not for recreation) isn't something you treat by going to rehab, as far as I can tell.

So, here's what I think might have happened:

Langdon took his painkillers as prescribed and developed an addiction, which, yeah, happens.

Because of shame, stigma, and fear that it would affect his career, he decides to treat his withdrawal symptoms alone. This is a terrible idea. It's unclear if Langdon did any opioid replacement or if he decided to go straight to treating withdrawal symptoms with benzos.

I don't know why he chose to treat his symptoms with lorazepam since withdrawing from short half-life benzos feels worse if you take them at significant doses for a long time. But I guess the man isn't in psych, so he fumbled that. He is, though, withdrawing properly from lorazepam in the sense that he's replacing them with Librium (medium half-life), and probably decreasing his dose until he can safely discontinue the medication. This is why he tells Robby he's done.

Thing is: I'm not sure he would find himself free of craving painkillers or even that he would be able to decrease his benzo dosage because the opioid addiction was never actually addressed.

But when Langdon says he's not high and that he hasn't been high at work, and Garcia says she's never seen him impaired...well, I actually believe them. He was probably not high at home either. That doesn't mean he's not addicted to the painkillers. Or that the dosage he's taking of benzos is enough to sedate him enough to cause impairment. At least, and this is the kicker, not yet.

I few weeks ago I remember reading a post noting that Langdon hadn't hit rock bottom, and I very much agree. In fact, he's really fucking lucky Santos caught on to his stealing because it's gonna force him to confront that he has a problem before everything got really out of control and he started trying to get his hands on opioids, or overdosed on benzos, or was impaired at work or home, etc etc.

The bonkers thing about intellectualizing your problems and being too smart for your own good is that you're successful a lot of the times, so you think you can always outsmart your struggles. Often on your own. Because that's what you do. Do you even know how to ask for help in the first place?

Then you one day find yourself in the eye of the storm and at least some of it is a storm of your own creation. Oops.

And never mind the cognitive dissonance of having it handled at the same time you're stealing drugs from the hospital you work at, and putting patients in danger by tampering with medication vials. I'm sure gluing vials shut will keep them sterile, or that variations in drug metabolism will mean that anyone administering lorazepam to a patient will know to go above the standard dose if the patient doesn't respond to it, or that it's ok to take pills from a patient who was never going to take them himself.

Langdon is not an addict, or a junkie because addicts and junkies can't practice medicine as well as he does. Or treat themselves for withdrawal. Or be sober at work. Except if he didn't have an addiction he wouldn't have had the need to treat his own opioid withdrawal symptoms with stolen benzos from his place of employment.

Plus now he owes Santos an edible arrangement at a minimum.

Something something intellectualizing isn't the same as processing or healing.

[trainsinanime]

The darkly ironic thing is that if you are worried about the recent news that someone scraped Ao3 for AI research, then you're probably vastly underestimating the scale of the problem. It's way worse than you think.

For the record, a couple of days ago, someone posted a "dataset for AI research" on reddit, which was simply all publicly accessible works on Ao3, downloaded and zipped. This is good, in a way, because that ZIP file is blatantly illegal, and the OTW managed to get it taken down (though it's since been reuploaded elsewhere).

However, the big AI companies, like OpenAI, xAI, Meta and so on, as well as many you've never heard of, all probably had no interest in this ZIP file to begin with. That was only ever of interest to small-scale researchers. These companies probably already have all that data, received by scraping it themselves.

A lot of internet traffic at the moment is just AI companies sucking up whatever they can get. Wikipedia reports that about a third of all visitors are probably AI bots (and they use enormous amounts of bandwidth). A number of sites hosting software source code estimate that more than 90% of all traffic to their sites may be AI bots. It's all a bit fuzzy since most AI crawlers don't identify themselves as such, and pretend to be normal users.

The OTW hasn't released any similar data as far as I am aware, but my guess would be that Ao3 is being continuously crawled by all sorts of AI companies at every moment of the day. If you have a fanfic on Ao3, and it isn't locked to logged-in users only, then it's already going to be part of several AI training data sets. Only unlike this reddit guy, we'll never know for sure, because these AI training data sets won't be released to the public. Only the resulting AI models, or the chat bots that use these models, and whether that's illegal is… I dunno. Nobody knows. The US Supreme Court will probably answer that in 5-10 years time. Fun.

The solution I've seen from a lot of people is to lock their fics. That will, at best, only work for new fics and updates, it's not going to remove anything that e.g. OpenAI already knows.

And, of course, it assumes that these bots can't be logged in. Are they? I have no way of knowing. But if I didn't have a soul and ran an AI company, I might consider ordering a few interns to make a couple dozen to hundreds of Ao3 accounts. It costs nothing but time due to the queue system, and gets me another couple of million words probably.

In other words: I cannot guarantee that locked works are safe. Maybe, maybe not.

Also, I don't think there's a sure way to know whether any given work is included in the dataset or not. I suppose if ChatGPT can give you an accurate summary when you ask, then it's very likely to be in, but that's by no means a guarantee either way.

What to do? Honestly, I don't know. We can hope for AI companies to go bankrupt and fail, and I'm sure a lot of them will over the next five years, but probably not all of them. The answer will likely have to be political and on an international stage, which is not an easy terrain to find solutions for, well, anything.

Ultimately it's a personal decision. For myself, I think the joy I get from writing and having others read what I've written outweighs the risks, so my stories remain unlocked (and my blog posts as well, this very text will make its way into various data sets before too long, count on it). I can totally understand if others make other choices, though. It's all a mess.

Sorry to start, middle and end this on a downer, but I think it's important to be realistic here. We can't demand useful solutions for this from our politicians if we don't understand the problems.

[leclercsluvs]

CL16 | Already Over | smau

part 3 | masterlist

an: this will include sort of cheating (not really sure what to classify it as), and for that i am going to be using pics of charles and alex, however do i see any alex hate you are blocked or something, thank you very much) fc: sabrina carpenter pairing: charles leclerc x fem!reader ib: vicious by @azulpitlane and the album 'emails i can't send' by sabrina carpenter

charles_leclerc

liked by scuderiaferrari, carlossainz55 and 1.503.666 others charles_leclerc nice weekend! i'm happy with my results, and glad to finally introduce you to my girl <3 tagged: scuderiaferrari, carlossainz55

danielricciardo mate what?

carlossainz55 i literally saw her like once

lecworld oop the tea is being spilled

pierregasly great job this weekend! (very unimpressed i find out about your relationship through insta, i'm hurt)

landonorris what's her name again?

alex_albon wow you almost cut me out

charles_leclerc sorry mate i needed to fit in carlos carlossainz55 i do look amazing in that photo

y/nswrld damn the drivers did not hold back

ricsbestglam ikrrr??? like whats going onnnn?? i need the teaaa lecs.aep riiiight?? it's a neeeed

f1wagsupdates

liked by lecslvr, sharl.aep and 693 others f1wagsupdates charles new girlfriend spotted at the race! she looks so pretty, yet we haven't been able to find out what her name is tagged: charles_leclerc

lecslvr oh my goddd she's gorgeous

leclercs.aep she looks a lot like someone i've seen around in paris. i think she goes to one of the art schools there, i think her name is alexandra or something like that

f1girl1644 we must DIG and find her! charles_lechair or maybe theres a reason charles hasn't told anyone her @ like maybe she likes that people can't stalk her account and point out every flaw

yourusername

liked by danielricciardo, yourbff and 2.562.827 others yourusername give me a second to forget i ever really meant it 🫨 fast times out now! music video out in a few days. hope you enjoy it (the dark hair is just a wig, i didn't dye my hair for a mv)

y/nsworld NEW MUSICC???

y/n.aep omg totally in love with this song!

scfty/n oh so they're like over over??

lecslvr i guess 😭 charles was literally seen kissing a girl and posting her on his ig

norris.aep oh is this going to be an album? about CHARLES??

lqvey/n omg i HOPEEE

danielricciardo so proud of you!

yourusername thank uuuu

carlossainz55 very nice song!

yourusername 🥰

yourusername

liked by danielricciardo, milomanheim and 3.413.034 others yourusername feather is out now!! thank you to everyone who's supported me, and a big thanks to milo for agreeing to be the guy in the elevator 💔 anyway here's a few sneak peaks for the music video, personally my fav, out october 31st!! tagged: milomanheim

y/nsb1tch ohhh who did you blockkk?

yourfriend so you finally listened?

yourusername well i suppose someone knocked some sense into me yourbff happy to be of help 🫡 yoursister girl you should have listened from the beginning. he was BAD NEWS yourfriend we've been telling her!! yoursister did i tell how he responded when she was in that accident? yourbff uhm no??! do spill!!! yoursister TO THE GROUPCHAT yourusername oh lord....

milomanheim thanks for giving me this opportunity. never been in a music video and i did enjoy being the guy in the elevator. even if i didn't get that happy ending

yourusername we'll work together again sometime, and you'll get your happy ending 🙃

luvmilo UHMM WHAT?? okay but like he's gonna eat that role up no matter what it is

leclercssupportsystem okay but why does that guy lowkey look a bit like charles??? i fear 'guy in the elevator' and 'not happy ending' is not good LMAO did she kill him in the mv or something?

yourusername 👀

danielricciardo proud to have been an inspiration 😌

yourusername inspiration and inspiration 🤷‍♀️ sure we were texting when the idea came, but you didn't contribute much :) carlossainz55 she owned you mate danielricciardo now that's just rude :(( yourusername sorry. thanks for the amazing inspiration daniel 🫶 landonorris did you get a sneak peak of it too? maxverstappen1 only a sneak peak? i got the whole song like a week ago 🤷‍♂️ pierregasly you guys got to hear it? kevinmagnussen you guys knew about it?

lcvssjeed some of the drivers being in the comments is making my heart super happy

y/nsvfx no because same! maybe we’ll see her back in the paddock again? 👀 yourusername: wouldn’t wanna miss lando get his first win 😉 vspxcharles OMG OMG OMG SHE REPLIED

scuderiaferrari

liked by charles_leclerc, carlossainz55 and 1.329.082 others scuderiaferrari a nice 1-2 this weekend! happy to see charles on top of that podium again! tagged: charles_leclerc, carlosssainz55

charles_leclerc felt good to be back on top!

carlossainz55 such a good weekend! can't wait for more

leclerswings hes such and angel! 😇

lecsgirl so we just decided to ignore that he supposedly cheated on y/n??

leclerc16 CHARLES P1!!! congratssss

char.aeps so once he drops y/n he starts performing great again? do we think she was the reason he couldn't perform?

angelic.y/n don't you dare try and put the blame on my baby angel! char.aeps she's not so innocent tho 💀 angelic.y/n what's that supposed to mean? was she the one running around being all flirty with two people at once? didn't think so

yourusername

liked by landonorris, yourbff and 2.562.827 others yourusername vicious out now! happy i was able to perform it at coachella! such an experience!

danielricciardo wow you never fail to amaze!

maxverstappen1 is this about a certain person we all collectively don't like?

yourusername perhaps 🤭 maxverstappen1 good to know landonorris may i ask, why you have not done something about it? maxverstappen1 what do you want me to do? pierregasly push him off the track. take revenge for 2012 maxverstappen1 do not remind me of that or i'll push YOU off the track.

carlossainz55 amazing!

y/ncore the drivers being so supportive even tho it's about charles treating y/n like shit is my roman empire

lestappenlvr love how she tries and makes it seem like charles was the bad guy 🙄

y/n.vsp maybe because he was the bad guy? lestappenlvr and how would you know?? y/n.vsp i dont, but hearing these songs, idk i dont think we should jump to any conclusions since we don't have the full story, but we all saw charles running around with that "alexandra" girl while he was definitely still with y/n lestappenlvr well if you dont know why are you speaking about it?? y/n.vsp y'know i could ask you the same thing.

leclercs.aep maybe she should have kept her legs closed lmao

yourusername

liked by yourfriend, yourbff and 2.562.827 others yourusername i wish we stayed just like we were up there </3

yourbff we should hang out soon!

yourusername uhm yes! yourfriend i better be invited! yourusername duh!! danielricciardo can i have an invite too? yourbff depends are you like *that guy*? danielricciardo uhh never 🫠 yourusername you can be there :))

y/nsangel aww how cute (who is she talking about?)

scfty/n probably charles? y/nsangel who? scfty/n charles_leclerc they used to date a little while ago, but it's suspected he cheated on her

scfty/n literally in love with her

y/nswrld who isnt?

scuderiaferrari

liked by charles_leclerc, leclercsbae and 729.362 others scuderiaferrari hoping for another 1-2 finish this weekend! tagged: charles_leclerc, carlossainz55

leclercsbae charles looks so gooooood!!

charles_leclerc definitely going to try!!

carlossainz55 better hope for a P2, i’m going for that top step 💪 charles_leclerc keep dreaming mate, i’m taking that P1 yourusername oh so you do know how to reply?? angelic.y/n oop the tea clfan girl what are you doing here? you're not with him anymore y/n.video they might not be, but her and carlos seems to be friends, so it makes sense shes still following ferrari chili55 i’ve never seen them interact? luvy/n he’s been really supportive of her music, commenting on her post and using her songs on his story

maxv3rs1appen_ i doubt it. with max and red bull being strong you should be lucky to get P3

norris.vfx nahhh lando is gonna get his win this weekend (let me be delulu i need it)

yourusername we're rooting for him 💪

yourusername

liked by charles_leclerc, yourbff and 3.927.175 others yourusername thank you to everyone who's been with me through this journey. i'm happy to finally be back on tour, emails i can't send has been out for a few days, i hope you like this album i've been working on. i will not be naming any names, but if a song is about you, you probably know 😉

yourbff SO HAPPY YOU'RE BACKKK (i better get tickets>:(!!)

yourusername i guess you'll have to buy them then 🤷‍♀️

video.y/n okay so i went to one of the first concerts of the tour AND SOME OF THE DRIVERS WERE THERE 🥹

angelic.y/n waittt you have to tell which ones!! video.y/n well carlos, daniel, lando, pierre, max, george, lewis, kevin, alex and logan all stood together (so i assume they went together???) leclercsluv no way!! i went to! i actually saw a certain charles in the crowd and i was pretty shocked

danielricciardo one of the best concerts i've been to

maxverstappen1 usually i don't go to concerts, but i'd go to y/n's again in a heartbeat danielricciardo ofc you would ;) landonorris now what is that supposed to mean daniel??? 🤨 danielricciardo 🤐 yourusername thank you all for being there 🥰 it meant a lot to me 🫶 danielricciardo especially max 👀 alex_albon daniel behave 😑

lecslover charles lurking in the likes???

charles_leclerc i truly am sorry for what i did. do you think you'd ever be able to forgive me?

youbff no. yourfriend no. yoursister no. danielricciardo no. yourusername maybe with time. not right now tho. go take care of your new girl. you'll know when i'm ready.

-

part 4

tags: @exotic-iris13 @callsignwidow

[literaryavenger]

New Year's Eve

Summary: A game of two truths and a lie reveals to the team a fact about the you that Bucky can’t seem to stop thinking about.

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Avenger!Female Reader

Warnings: Minimal use of Y/N. Language 'cause why not. A lot of fluff. My poor attempts at being funny. Mutual pining, idiots in love. Self-deprecating thoughts.

Word Count: 3.2K

A/N: Happy New Year's Eve! Thanks for all the messages when I was sick, I'm finally feeling better and I'm negative for Covid! I really wanted to post something for New Year's Eve and this came from a fever dream I had when I was sick, lol. I hope it's any good and someone enjoys it! A particular thank you to @ordelixx for helping me with this story!��I've only started posting here about a month and a half but I'm really enjoying it and feeling more and more comfortable in my writing. I hope I'm also getting better at it. Anyway, I have big plans for the New Year that I hope you'll enjoy! This year hasn't been great for me, but I'm planning on working harder than ever to make sure the next one is a year I can be proud of. I hope you guys have a nice last day of 2023 and an amazing start of 2024! Love you all.💘

Masterlist

“Ok, your turn, Kill Bill. Two truths and a lie, go.” Tony says, referring to the fact that you fight with swords, making you roll your eyes before you join in on the laughter.

“Ok, uhm...” you try not to look at anyone so you don’t give away the answer “I have a teddy bear that I sleep with, I have bungee jumped from the top of the tower and I’ve never had a New Year’s kiss.”

You look back up to the room and wait for their guesses.

It’s a Friday night and the people that remained in the Tower for the holidays decided to have a little game night.

Every year the same people stay around, having nowhere in particular to go, and spend Christmas together. 

Clint and Scott usually spend this time with their families, this year Thor decided to go to New Asgard with Bruce and Loki to visit Val and Korg, and Peter decided to spend it with aunt May and Happy.

You usually alternate between going to visit your family and staying in the tower each year, and this one was your turn to go to your first home.

You came back the day after Christmas, never being one to miss Tony’s New Year’s Eve party that’s gonna happen in two days now.

“Well, we know she has a teddy bear.” Wanda says.

“Do we know that?” Tony turns to you, narrowing his eyes. “Do you have one?”

“Yes, she does, we’ve seen it” Natasha answers for you while you glance at Bucky, praying he doesn’t put together that they’re talking about the teddy bear he gifted you for Valentine’s Day this year along with flowers. 

Natasha and Wanda were more happy than you when you told them, sustaining that he did it because he liked you until you pointed out that he gave flowers to them too, because he’s sweet and a gentleman and that’s just who he is.

They wouldn’t let up on the fact that neither of them got a teddy bear though, and you would have agreed with them but Bucky never really did anything else about it so you decided to let it go and not read too much into it.

You're brought back to the present by Tony.

“Ok, so she has one. Then it’s gotta be the New Year’s kiss, everyone has had one at least once in their life,” he was looking at your reaction very closely while talking, but you did your best to keep an easy smile and not give anything away.

“Even Captain Virgin over there had one last year.” he adds vaguely waving towards Steve’s general direction. 

You crack at the nickname and at the undignified sound Steve made while blushing and glancing at Nat that shared that kiss with him.

“Tony, there’s no way that she bungee jumped from the roof without us knowing, that’s gotta be the lie.” Sam interjects, also watching you closely for any signs of a reaction that you manage not to give.

“Alright, just take your guesses, people.” You say to the group.

“New Year’s Kiss.” Tony all but yelled, Natasha and Wanda agreeing with him.

“Bungee jump.” Sam says and Steve and Bucky agree, then they all seem to hold their breath as they wait for your answer.

It’s not a surprise that even these stupid little games cause a lot of competition amongst the team.

“Neither.”-you finally said and let out a laugh when they all groan in annoyance while taking their shots for guessing wrong.

“WAIT- you bungee jumped off the ROOF? When?!” Steve seems more concerned than anything.

“Well, you know a few months ago when we happened to all be on different missions at the same time?” They nod, not knowing where you're going with this “Clint and I came back first from ours, we were bored and there was no one around to stop us from doing anything stupid so…” you trail off, shrugging while laughing. 

Steve looks shocked, Sam is laughing his ass off while Tony immediately goes to look for the security footage.

They all cheered while watching you throw yourself off the roof, Clint's yells and laughter could be heard, and then Steve shakes his head while joining you in the laughter when you see Clint take his turn and scream like a little girl while you fall to the ground laughing on the video. 

Once you all composed yourselves, Tony pokes Wanda’s arm “I thought you said she had a teddy bear.” he's looking at her like she brought him on a treasure hunt and then betrayed him and left him for dead on a deserted island.

“She does! She got it from-” you interrupt her before she can finish the sentence, blushing a little and avoiding Bucky’s eyes.

“I do have a teddy bear, I just don’t sleep with it.” you say, shrugging.

“Oh, come on, that’s cheating!” Natasha whines.

“It’s really not, just because I do have one it doesn’t mean I didn’t tell a lie about it” you laugh at her pout.

“Wait a minute, so you’ve never had a New Year’s kiss?” Tony looks at you like you suddenly grew two heads.

“It’s not a big deal. Funny thing is, I have had boyfriends during New Year’s Eve, I just never happen to spend the day with them.” you say absentmindedly while thinking back at all the parties you’ve been to over the years to celebrate the new year.

“Really?” it's so quiet you almost missed it, your eyes snapping up to meet Bucky’s that were already looking at you.

“Is that so hard to believe?” The room seems to go quiet as everybody looks at you two, but you're too focused on each other to notice.

“I didn’t- I mean…” his cheeks started to turn a little pink as he seemed to have trouble finishing his sentence “It’s just you’re very pretty, who wouldn’t want to kiss you?”

You didn’t know what to say to that, you start blushing too while opening and closing your mouth a couple of times, looking like a damn fish.

You settle for a quiet ‘thank you’ with a smile that he shyly returns, neither of you noticing the glances passed by everyone else.

The whole team is convinced that there’s something between you and Bucky, but both of you always deny it and don’t seem to read too much into each other’s actions, always dismissing the glances and lingering touches as friendly affection even though you’re not really that close.

But really what else could it be?

The team lets the moment end and the game goes on, everyone keeps drinking and having fun until it gets really late and you all decide to call it a night.

Bucky goes to his bedroom and gets ready for sleep but he can’t seem to focus on anything else but you.

He really doesn’t understand how can anybody see your pretty self when you’ve just woken up, no makeup and your eyes full of sleep and not want to kiss you, let alone when you are all dolled up in a pretty golden dresses like you do every New Year’s. 

Every year it gets harder for him not to just grab you and kiss you, hell every day is pretty much torture to see you around the Compound and not get to be with you the way he wants to.

But he has to keep his hands to himself because there’s no way you could actually like him like that. 

He’s even tried to drop hints here and there like giving you the teddy bear for Valentine’s Day but, except for the cute shade of pink that your face turned, you still didn’t seem all that interested.

Still, that didn’t stop him from thinking what it would be like if you did like him and fantasize about being your first New Year’s kiss and maybe even your last first kiss.

At the same time you were in your own room getting ready for bed while your own thoughts kept going back to the moment you shared with Bucky in the living room. 

You didn’t know if you were more embarrassed because you actually told the team you’ve never had a kiss on New Year’s Eve or happy because Bucky called you pretty.

If it was anyone else you wouldn’t even think twice about it, but coming from him it just felt like you were being complimented for the first time ever. 

Everytime you thought about it you felt all warm and fuzzy inside, and at this point the moment was pretty much on loop in your mind.

The more you think about it the more you feel your face heat up, sleep not coming easily as you slip into Bucky filled dreams.

The next day everybody’s hanging out in the living room, most of them nursing a hangover from last night. You get ready for a last minute shopping trip to try and find a new dress for New Year’s Eve.

When you get to the living room you see Steve grinning at a disgruntled Tony, Wanda, Sam and Natasha who are obviously very hangover and nowhere near as amused as the blonde supersoldier. 

Bucky’s attention is on you as soon as you're in his field of vision and no one fails to notice it, except you of course, your own attention on Wanda and Natasha sprawled on the couch.

“Well, I was gonna ask you if you wanted to come shopping with me,” you start watching from one to the other, as amused as Steve at everyone’s inability to contain themselves when drinking. “but I don’t think that’s happening.” 

“Bite me, YLN.” Is all Nat says.

Wanda, on the other hand, is a little gentler. “I can come with you, if you want.” she says sweetly.

“That’s okay, Wands.” you smile at her “just rest and drink lots of water.”

You turn around, saying bye to everyone and making your way out. As soon as the doors of the elevator close, everyone turns to Bucky that's not even pretending not to be staring anymore.

Not that anyone could ignore the longing look on Bucky’s face as he watches you walk away.

“Buck,” Steve starts talking, glancing at everyone before setting his gaze back on his best friend. “we need to talk.”

“Okay…” he slowly drags out, unsure if he even wants Steve to keep going.

“Well, we’ve been noticing some things lately…” He’s unsure of how to say this. “Between you and Y/N.”

Bucky’s cheeks start to turn a slight shade of pink, but he’s still not sure where Steve’s going with this so he says nothing.

“So we thought” he gestures around at everybody. “that maybe we should-”

“We know you like her, and we want to help you get with her.” Tony interrupts Steve, quickly getting to the point.

At Steve’s glare, Tony merely raises his hands in surrender saying, “Listen, Capsicle, I’m way too hungover to take the panoramic route. Let’s just get this over with.”

“Yeah, Stark’s right.” Sam says, turning Bucky whose face is fully red now. “You have a weak ass game, man. Let us help you.”

They all look at the brunette supersoldier while waiting for his answer. He chews on his lip while looking at the expectant faces of his friends, before letting out a deep sigh.

“How would you even help me?” He says quietly, neither accepting nor denying their help just yet.

“Well, we know Y/N,” Wanda says.

“Yeah, we can tell you what turns her on.” Natasha smirked, before Wanda flicks her ear making her let out an ‘ow’ with a slight pout.

“What she means is,” she glares at Natasha “we can tell you what she likes, you know. Maybe help you get closer to her.”

Bucky shakes his head lightly “This is not a good idea. And it doesn’t even matter if she doesn’t like me.”

Wanda and Natasha seem to have a silent conversation, ending with Natasha raising her eyebrow at Wanda and Wanda just sighing with a soft ‘fine’.

“She does like you.” Wanda turns back to Bucky.

“She’s just convinced that you don’t like her like that.” Natasha says with a roll of her eyes.

Bucky still wasn’t completely convinced, but he agreed nonetheless. Maybe it was the glimmer of hope the girls gave him, but if there was even the slightest chance you could actually like him, he owed it to himself to try. 

So he let the team make a plan to get you guys together, hoping to god he wouldn’t come to regret it.

You come home a few hours later, super excited to have found the perfect dress for the party the next night.

Bucky thought you were just so cute, all smiles and giggles.

Wanda and Nat talked you into having the last girls night of the year, although it didn’t really take much convincing.

And so the plan begins.

You’re relaxing on your bed, Wanda lying next to you, your head on her lap, and Nat sprawled on the love seat near the window close to your bed.

You’re wearing bathrobes, sheet masks on your faces as you watch a cheesy romcom that you’re so embarrassingly into you don’t even notice the girls exchange a look and nod at each other.

Wanda clears her throat and then begins talking, as casually as she can. “So, how come you never told us you never had a New Year’s kiss?”

They had to approach the subject somehow, right?

“I don’t know,” you say absentmindedly and then shrug, your attention still on the Tv. “didn’t think it was important.” 

“Sure it isn’t.” Nat said, and her tone took your attention away from the movie for the first time since it started.

“What’s that supposed to mean, Tasha?” she simply shrugs, an innocent look in the face.

“It doesn’t mean anything” she says, her attention seemingly on the movie “I mean, if it doesn’t bother you, it doesn’t bother me.”

“Why would it bother me?” you frown, you don't understand what's so weird about this.

“Well, some people might find it a little…” Wanda trails off.

“Sad?” Natasha ends for her.

“It’s not like I’ve never kissed anyone.” you're starting to get a little defensive.

“We know that, sweetie.” Wanda coos, stroking your hair while you look up at her.

“We really didn’t mean anything by it.” Natasha ends, giving you an apologetic look.

“Yeah, whatever.” is all you say, and you turn your eyes back to the tv, your attention nowhere near it.

Natasha and Wanda can basically hear the gears turn in your head and give each other one last glance. 

Part one of the plan is complete.

The next day goes through like usual, the team spending basically the whole morning together.

It’s a tradition, having the last breakfast of the year together, watching the last movie, having the last lunch and so on. Doing all the lasts together.

It’s silly, but it’s a tradition you've all come to be very fond of. 

The afternoon comes and you and the girls spend it getting ready for the party, last night’s conversation almost forgotten.

Almost.

As you got to the party the music was deafening before you even stepped out of the elevator and, once you did, you were immediately immersed in a sea of perfume and cologne and, like every other Stark party extravaganza, you didn’t know about 98% of the people there. 

You quickly find the team, as outgoing as most of them are, you usually spend most of the night together because it’s the last night of the year, last party and, again, it's your tradition.

You talk, you joke, you laugh but the more you drink the more you keep thinking about your conversation with the girls last night.

Was it really that sad that you’ve never started a new year with a kiss?

Midnight came sooner than you would’ve liked and your teammates decide to ask you a sobering question.

“So, who are you kissing?” Tony asks very casually.

You turn around confused, the team’s eyes all on you. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh, nobody told you?” Sam says, looking around him “We’re all kissing someone tonight.”

“I- You- What?” you glance towards Bucky so quickly he almost thought he imagined it.

“Well, Romanoff is kissing Rogers, I’m obviously kissing Pepper and Wanda is kissing Wilson.” Tony said, before specifying while pointing at the last two “As friends, obviously.”

“So, you’re all kissing someone?” You look at everyone except the one person you actually want to look at.

Something inside of you just believes that he would nod too and a beautiful woman that you could never compare to would appear at his side.

“Well,” Steve starts. “not all of us…”

He trails off and, following his gaze, you land on the very pair of blue eyes you were trying to avoid.

Suddenly everyone else scatters and it was just you and Bucky. You don't know what to say, but you feel like you can't look away from him now.

What the hell is happening to you?

You’re talking before you can even stop yourself “You know, we could also kiss. As friends.” you add, realizing what you just said, your eyes wide with your own surprise.

He’s about to say something, but you don’t give him a chance to get a sound out before you’re backtracking so fast you might actually fall out the window.

“You don’t have to. Obviously. It’s not like I’d make you.” you chuckled awkwardly, but you can’t stop yourself from rambling “Unless you wanted to. But why would you want to? It’s not like you’re missing anything. I’m not anything special.”

You can hear the countdown starting, but it sounds distant to your ears as your heart pounds faster. “I mean, I’m sure you’re a good kisser. Why wouldn’t you be? Not that you’re like a lady’s man.”

Bucky glances around him, the team giving him encouraging looks as they near zero and you just keep going “But like you were, you know. Not that it’s a bad thi-”

You're thankfully interrupted abruptly by Bucky’s lips on yours just as everyone yells ‘Happy New Year’ and gold and black confetti starts falling down on you.

You can't even begin to comprehend what's happening but your body does, kissing him back almost immediately.

It feels like forever and also too soon when he pulls away, you can't even hearing the chaos around you anymore.

All that exists is you and Bucky and his eyes and his arms around your waist and yours around his neck and his lips that you wanted to kiss again and kiss forever and never stop.

“You have no idea how long I’ve been wanting to do that” he says after a few seconds. Or maybe days. Weeks? Hours? It doesn’t matter.

All that matters is the bright smile he gives you when you say “Me too.”

He kisses you again, but this time the spell is broken by the team’s whistles and cheers. 

When you pull away you’re both blushing a little, you glance around you and see all the smug faces of the idiots you love to death, Bucky’s attention never leaving you.

“And by the way,” Bucky says, gaining your attention once more. “you have more qualities than you think,” he then pointed at your chest “You have this.”

You looked down to where he was pointing before saying “I do have great tits, yes.”

When you looked back at him he was blushing even harder and looked like he was having a hard time maintaining eye contact, while you were more relaxed now that the kiss took away all the awkwardness, but trying hard not to laugh. 

“... I meant heart” he said after a few moments of silence.

“Either or.” you answered, shrugging and when you heard the snickers of the team around you, you couldn’t help but join them, followed by a still blushing Bucky.

Yep, this year is definitely gonna be an interesting one.

[factual-fantasy]

28 Asks, thank you! :} 🚑🧡

@glitchhayden418

I haven't gone into detail about my symptoms, how its effected my life and what tests I've had done because that's obviously all very personal.. but yeah, there's some ideas about what could be wrong. But I don't think anyone knows with 100% certainty what it is. If the leading theory turns out to be correct, I'm staring down a life long condition and will have to put in constant effort every day to be comfortable.

If its NOT that, well. I guess that route is not fabulous either. But I'm hoping its not the first option.

I say "sick" just to be vague, I don't think we know what's wrong yet or what to properly call it. I WISH I could just call 911 and could be whisked off to be cured of this horrible thing. But dozens of appointments have told me its not going to be that easy. 😔

I don't see why I would need a manager to help with my blog.. I can manage it just fine! :0 And I don't get as many asks as people might think I do..

Discord however... wellll.. 😅

@ramiel-hourglass

Huh? <:0 I'm not making another goober- at least I have no plans to right now.. I WANTED to make one for the 30k celebration but I couldn't really come up with anything that felt right.. plus rn I'm pretty content with the fam as we are! :)

Also thank you! I hope you have a wonderful day too! :)))

@multifandomgummybear

SCREAMMMSSSS THANK YOU SO MCUH!!!! :DDD 💞💞💞💞

@fandomcenteral (Big number post)

Thank you!! :DD And aww! Cute kitty!! :}}}

@wolfie-777

XD Man what has he been up to-

@1nksp1ll

AAA THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! 😭😭💞💞💞💞

@neo-metalscottic (Face paint post) (Ratchet call out post)

AAAA THANK YOU SO MUCH!! :DDD And FRRRR I'm shocked that no one else ever notices or points it out. You'd think at least Optimus would know/notice...

For Starscream's brothers, that will all depend on what they're like in other continuities. (Which is where I'll get most of my ideas for them from)

Do they typically look the same in other shows/comics? Are they usually called clones or his brothers? Do their alt mods look the same in most transformers adaptions? It'll all just depend,

Now for Pretaking, I'll have to rewatch that part of the show and remember all the consequences that all had. Maybe I'll bring some back? Maybe I'll revive none? Maybe I'll revive ALL of them? I wont be able to decide until I see all the details for myself 😅

Ratchet will give me a scan in the big scanner do-hickey and I'll server him Energon cubes on a plate 😌

@for-my-hyperfixations

Thank you so much!! :DD And of course you may!! :}}}}

@beryl-shade

I don't play Fortnite or know much about it, so I've never considered making an OC for it.. <:(

(Referencing this post)

Imma play devils advocate here and say that Ratchet DOES have a decent excuse.... if their stockpile of Energon is low, he of all bots can afford to cut back a little.. 😔

But this does NOT mean that he is less valuable than the other bots 👁️👁️👁️ Ratchet you better be taking notes

@digi-tor (Referencing this post)

XD Thank you! :)))

Paid requests is something I might look into.. but for now I'm just trying to get my Ko-fi and Patreon set up 😔

@v0idish-t3ars (Referencing this post)

I have tried to get good sleep this past week but its just really hard with this stuffy nose and sore throat 💀

(Referencing this post)

XD Do you know how hard it is to sleep with a sore throat and stuffy nose? As for Ratchet... 👁️

I've seen him.. 💀 Man what are they doin to FNAF now-a-days.. things are getting weird-

(Referencing this post) @briandraws

XDD I sure do! Well enough to see that Ratchet hasn't refueled 👁️

(Referencing this post)

XDD To be fair he's got a bit of an excuse, Energon is hard to come by.. 😔

(Referencing this post)

I haven't gotten much sleep these past few days, and I doubt I could scare Ratchet into actually refueling XDD💀💀

@badlyblurry (Referencing this post)

RATCHET EAT FOOD RN OR IM GONNA WRITE ANGST ABOUT IT🫵🫵🫵(YOU DON'T WANT THAT CURSE RATCHET)

(Referencing this post)

AUHDAFHJ LIKE ACTALLY THO 🤣🤣🤣

@aboutchicken298

RATCHETT LES GOOOOOOOO 🗣️🗣️😭💞💞💞

@caronaro-flipaclip

Thank you! I hope the same for you! :))

I've thought about watching rescue bots.. since people keep suggesting it to me and because its set in the same continuity as Prime.. but MAN do the tones just seem way off.

Prime feels like a very mature adaption of transformers. It talks about war and death and disease.. desperation, starvation.. showing dead bodies and brutal (robotic) gore and bodily horror. There's not any silly episodes about having to rescue a cat from a tree or real heavy focus on the casual lives of the 3 kids. Prime feels very serious and rooted in realty basically.

But then I look at rescue bots and,,, I just cant imagine it carrying the same vibe. 3(?) transformers completely out and the open and working with humans.? A very kiddie type art style..? Idk, I just don't think its gonna feel attached to the original tfp at all. (Please politely correct me if I'm wrong-)

(WAHAGG THABK YU SO MUCH!!! 😭😭💞💞💞) I'm answering this ask a bit late- but yes this is what I intend on doing :)

I'm trying to get a Patreon and Ko-fi set up. I plan to post exclusive WIPs and sketches, drawings days before I post them to tumblr, and anything else I can think of <XD I'm even seriously considering posting Octonauts artwork to my Patreon to weed out a lot of the kids who aren't willing to listen and trace/repost all my artwork.

I don't want to pay wall too much though,, I keep thinking about those people who have told me how much my art means to them. I would hate for them to not be able to see it anymore..

But at the same time, money is tight <:( I'll keep thinking about all that even after my Patreon and Ko-fi are up and running.

(Link in ask)

I've seen fanart for it here and there, but never listened to the soundtrack. :0 Thank you for the link! :))

AAA THANK YOU SO MUCH!! :DDDD

[aristaspark]

Idk if someone has asked you this yet but whatever. You’re probably the biggest Kenlynn shipper I’ve met, so I wanted to ask what your opinions on other ships are? Like Darilynn or Benji? What if one or both becomes canon in season 3?

Omg you've mentionned the two ships I can't stand 😂😂

I've kind of already explained my stance on Dinostar/Darilynn: I was open to the idea of them happening after season 1 aired, but season 2 made me really dislike them, but I think that was intentional on the writers' part. Darius confession was as horrifying to watch as a car crash for both Brooklynn and the audience, and to me it's obvious Brooklynn only ever loved Darius as a best friend. And I think even Darius at the end of the first season realized that his "feelings" for Brooklynn weren't what he thought they were. To me, he simply liked having someone with him so much that he confused that with love, but really he was simply lonely. Also think it would be fifty shades of messed up considering that he's Kenji's adopted brother and witnessed every step of their relationship unfold, like, to me they're brothers (even Kenji reaffirmed that fact) and it will never not be weird to date your brother's ex, especially when your relationship with her was as impactful and lasting as Kenji's relationship with Brooklynn. The only way I can be okay with them becoming canon is if the writers actually commit to it and don't get cold feet. Meaning Kenji better say f*ck you two, it was nice being friends while it lasted but don't ever speak to me again 🤷‍♀️, because there's no way either of their relationships would survive this, and how Kenji feels about Brooklynn doesn't change that. (Also worth mentionning that them managing to make a relationship work with all the guilt Darius carries and his link to Brooklynn's biggest trauma is extremely unrealistic on it's own).

Benji (I'm going to be brutally honest, sorry 😅): Oh boy, oh boy, don't get me started on what is, to me, the biggest mistery of shipping to have ever seen the light of day 😭. I truly don't get why so many people ship them and I never will. One of the storyboarders recently came out and more or less confirmed that the crew was as baffled as I was that the fandom shipped them and I felt so relieved because it was truly baffling to me to see so many people claim that they were set up. To me it was clear that the thought of Benji had never even crossed the writer's minds. I made a post a long time ago, it was at the time of season 4, or 5, on why I *hated* that ship and unfortunately still do, especially with how the fandom reacted to Kenlynn. But since it's been a long time, I can summarize it here, but I'll still post the link because it was much more detailed and my opinion hasn't changed. The fandom went as far as to harrass the creators of the show, invoking a moral issue with the age gap btw Kenji and Brooklynn while most of them shipped Kenji and Ben, which just proves to me that they literally didn't care and only looked for any reason to hate on a ship they disliked. Because while we were given the ages of the campers (not even their birthdays, meaning that we don't know the exact age gaps btw the characters, so for example Ben could be a month older than Brook for all we know), not knowing that info and looking at the first seasons of the show, everyone would guess that Ben is the youngest. He behaves like a kid, especially in the first season, and it's clear that that was what the writers had in mind when they wrote him. He had his mom give Dave and Roxy a list of things that made him unconfortable, he was scared of everything, he drew with colored crayons right as Kenji called it an activity made for children (the way he drew himself tells you everything you need to know about how he perceives himself, aka a little boy), he's the most emotionally immature, and I could go on. His entire story arc was about growing up. And the worst part is that, to me, his immaturity is the most apparent when he's with Kenji. The way he clings onto Kenji everytime he's scared like a kid would cling to one of his parents will never be romantic to me and I find it horrifying when people edit it in a romantic light. Even worse, Kenji is the ONLY camper to make fun of Ben for behaving like a kid, and he does it countless times, almost coming off as a bully at times. The bottom line is that Kenji viewed Ben as a kid, which made them (as a ship) truly disgusting to me, like, I could never get past it, even with the time jump, sorry if this is harsh 😭. Just imagining Kenji being attracted to Ben in season 1, which is the season where the fandom decided to make them a thing with the infamous gyrosphere pairs, will never not give me the creeps. About them being canon, there's no chance of that happening so I don't really have thoughts on that. There was nothing btw them back in jwcc (as the crew confirmed) and there's still nothing in jwct. They're friends, and I think that's a beautiful thing.

(the link of my initial post 😅)

I'm going to speak about the ships I do like because here I just sound like the biggest hater 😂

Yasammy: While I wasn't the biggest fan of how Sammy didn't respect Yasmina's bondaries, especially in season 1 (my personnality is very similar to Yasmina's and I know I would have despised Sammy for forcing me out of my comfort zone without trying to understand me 😭), their evolution was sweet and the way they care about each other is adorable so I ended up liking them and was happy when they became canon. I especially like them in jwct because I like how...real they are? If that makes sense?

Benrius: I'm not shipping them per say but I really like them, in both shows. I think their personnalities compliment each other and Darius always had that soft spot for Ben, which I think is adorable. Season 3 Benrius is really peak (Darius being the only one to sense that something is wrong with Ben, him going back to look for Ben when he left, their fight...). And of course, jwct season 1.

[project-sekai-facts]

hi! i remember seeing one of your posts about how to determine/certain definite rules for event predictions but i've not been able to find it anymore. could you link it? (or i'm not sure if the information from then is updated to whatever tomfoolery they're pulling with the rotations now but i just wanted a better frame of reference for making my own predictions)

in addition, i've seen you talk about "[character] needs a lim by [month]"—what does that entail/why would that be the case?

you're one of the blogs i feel who explain certain PU combinations and rotations and event speculations really well, seriously, thank you for your work! :DD

the old one i made is probably a bit outdated, so here's a newer list of "rules"

the current cap on reward 2*s is 8 and the current cap on reward 3*s is 7, making for an overall cap of 15 reward cards

all of the above records are held by saki, which means she should be 4* or not included on all leo/need events for the forseeable future. if she's on a mixed event she should be 4*

miku should always have the highest 4* count. occasionally a character will surpass her count, but she will always get another 4* (s) within a few events of that happening to make her the highest again

a character cannot get a hairstyle lim the month after their most recent one. two months is okay.

a character can not go more than 15 months without a hairstyle lim (eg: the latest tsukasa can get his next lim is summerfes)

the current lim cap is 8 but will likely be broken soon despite having only just been reached in january

the current cap on 4*s of a certain attribute is 5, with the exceptions of miku (6 pure) and kaito (6 cool). it's likely this will be broken soon

plus some bonus patterns that have been popping up recently: first off, 'pity events'. when characters have been going significantly more than a year between unit events recently (shiho/rui/kanade/honami), they've been given a mixed event close to the one year mark after their previous unit event. minori and nene are exceptions due to nene being anniversary and minori already having 3 mixed events.

the other thing is that alt vocals have been consistently releasing with (almost) every event recently, and most of the time will be alts for the banner character or their unit. this somewhat has helped with guessing events, since if a character hasn't had an alt in a while, chances are they or their unit will get a banner soon (mizuki hasn't had an alt since october and she didn't get one on the cat day event, so niigo should be getting an event soon. that or she just gets one with an upcoming event like how emu got one with dream view. it's 50/50)

a single rotation is made up of 20 events, 4 for each unit

a rotation is broken down into 4 sections, each section with 1 event for each unit

image of rotation 5 to make it clearer

if a character gets 2 events in one rotation, they will be skipped in the following rotation out of fairness. they member they 'stole' the event of will get two instead (eg: saki had two events in rotation 1, so ichika, who was skipped, had two events in rotation 2)

i answered the second question in there but the 15 month rule on lims has never been broken. kanade and rui have both hit that limit exactly, but no one has gone past it. it used to be that the limit was 12 and kanade's 15 months was an exception due to her being one of the first lims, but that all went to shit about a year ago.

that's everything i can think of rn. and thank you!

[petertoddgrayson]

These incels love to scorn Babs because her alternate version from another universe slept with an alternate version of Bruce but conveniently forget that Main Continuity Dick Grayson fucked her bestfriend. What a bunch of asshat misogynists.

I love DickBabs because they compliment each other well not because Dick is some prize to get. I am a staunch fan of their pairing, hence I created this sub, but I will not turn a blind eye to Dick's imperfections. AntiDickBabs stans will complain about Barbara's bitchy attitude but what did Dick do?

- Slept with Helena, Babs' bestfriend, and then called Babs the moment the deed was over. He is very much aware of the romantic tension between them and still proceeded to slap Babs with his sexcapade.

-Slept with Helena right after he broke up with Shawn. Poor Shawn had a relapse after seeing her boyfriend (who claimed to want a life with her) immediately went to town with another woman.

-Flirted with Vicki Vale then went on a monologue how Babs feels like home.

-Slept with Alia while claiming to be in love with Babs, then had a thing with Helena but had the audacity to be upset when Babs dates Luke.

-Made a very insensible remark about Babs' disability. "Don't make me regret putting an elevator here".

*And for the record, y'all can't say Babs slutshamed Dick because she never knew that Tarantula raped him. That feat belongs to Kory ALONE.*

-Attempted to pull a Paul move by trying to kiss Babs despite being aware that she is currently dating Luke.

-Had the audacity to propose to Babs after he slept with Kory in Outsiders run. Dick knew that chances of him dying in Infinite Crisis is high, so he proposed all the while turning a blind eye to how grave it's implications to Babs would be should he really perish from the whole ordeal. Babs would've been scarred for life.

**Ship stans like to paint Barbara as a bitchy whore when she's the only one in this whole mess who hasn't boned anyone's bestfriend, sibling, or some bestfriend's ex** *eyes Helena, Dick and Kory.*

Huntwing stans who pin DCAU Babs' affair with Bruce to degrade DickBabs in Main Continuity are one of the biggest imbeciles I've seen because Helena openly flirted and groped Bruce in the same franchise. Both are alternate universe events and shouldn't be used to detract the ships' merit in the Main Universe, but I guess, in their judgement it only applies with Helena.

I am not a hater of DickBabs, **I'm fucking fanatic of it**. My huge ass pile of DickBabs post in my profile will be the proof of that. I am just tired how unfairly Babs is being treated in the fandom with all these double standards **"It's a mischaracterization if it's Kory or Dick but with Babs it's not**". Stop with all the double standards. Babs is not lucky to have Dick; they're equally lucky to have each other and I dare say the same applies for other dickships. Dick is very far from perfect; so is Babs and everyone else. Stop putting characters in a fucking podium.

We have a DickBabs community on Reddit. You can use the link to join:

https://www.reddit.com/r/NightwingxOracle/s/OufZFNNzrM

Or simply search NightwingxOracle

[duhragonball]

Akira Toriyama (1955-2024)

I wouldn't say I'm feeling better today, but I'm feeling less bad than yesterday. So let's see if I can put some words together.

In case anyone still hasn't heard, Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama passed away on March 1, 2024. This news was made public on March 7 or 8. I woke up early on Friday morning and found out while I was checking Twitter. I had a long, busy day at work, and I kept getting on my phone to scroll through fan reactions and tributes.

I think that, more than anything, is what's gotten me so worked up about his death. My Twitter timeline and my tumblr dashboard were just chock full of touching message and images about how Akira Toriyama's work has changed their lives. I wanted to write my own tribute, but I'm not sure what else I can say that hasn't already been expressed by Archie Comics, professional wrestling trio The New Day, and the Republic of El Salvador.

There's this immense, global community of fans, and it's easy to lose sight of just how big it is. It's easy to get bogged down in the infighting and petty squabbles. I saw one tweet responding to the criticism of Dragon Ball not being like this "entry level" franchise compared to other, more high brow anime and manga. It's popular with so many people, that critics will assume it's designed to appeal to the lowest-common-denominator. But the opposite is true! Dragon Ball is accessible, which is how so many people from so many different places and walks of life can get into it. The guy telling the story was such a master storyteller that he could grab an audience's attention and make it look easy. So easy that the haters would start to think that it was a trick, and he must be overrated.

Let me talk about this panel for a minute.

Last night I started going through the original manga, looking for panels to screencap. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but I thought maybe a selection of panels that really stood out for me might be worth posting. I'll probably still do that one of these days, but I got to this one, where Gohan tells Chi-Chi about Goku's death, and it hit me like a ton of bricks.

This was a powerful scene in the anime, of course, but in the comic it's even more profound. It's just one panel, no dialogue, because the reader already knows what's happening here. We know Gohan is telling his mother that Goku died in the Cell Games, and that he refuses to be wished back, because he thinks his presence on Earth will attract new enemies. It was hard enough to hear when Goku said it to Gohan and the others, and now Gohan has to relay that message to Goku's wife. All she can do is lie prostate on the floor and weep.

And look at the composition. She's surrounded by all that negative space. Gohan's there for her, but she still feels so alone, surrounded by her husband's absence. Pots of flour for food he'll never eat. An empty chair he might have sat in. Their son, who will have to grow up without him.

I saw this, as though for the first time, and it was so gut-wrenching that I had to post it by itself. I felt like it summed up my feelings better than any words could. We're all Chi-Chi in this panel, reacting to Akira Toriyama's death. And we're all Gohan too, each of us consoling one another with our own thoughts and tributes.

So what did Akira Toriyama mean to us all? Lots of people have answered this in a lot of different ways. Obviously his art, storytelling and cultural impact speak for themselves. I've seen people compare him to other luminaries like Jack Kirby and Osamu Tezuka. I'll try to add my own two cents with this:

I wrote a post about "Dragon Ball Daima" back when it was first announced, and I led off with this image of a note from Akira Toriyama. I guess this was from some big fancy presentation about Daima at a convention. I forget which one. In particular, I was skeptical that the Daima rumors were even true, and if they were, the whole idea seemed half-baked to me. Turning Goku into a kid had been done before, and it wasn't exactly successful the first time.

But this note from Toriyama was very reassuring to me. More than the trailer clips and character designs, this was what got me interested in the show. That's because he took the time to not only hype up the show, but also to explain what's going on behind the premise. He took the time to tell everyone that he's working on this show, and what "Daima" means, and why all the characters get turned into kids. It's "due to a conspiracy", and the good guys will have to "fix things". In short, he established a plot, conflict, and resolution to the story. He didn't just slap this together to sell new merch. I'm sure that was part of the motivation to make Daima, but there's more to it than that.

I think that's the loss I feel with Toriyama's passing. It's not that there won't be new Dragon Ball stories in the future. I'm sure others will continue telling their own versions long after I'm gone. I'm not that worried about the fate of Daima. I'm sure they'll figure something out, whether it's delayed, rewritten, or canceled. But we'll never see another message from Toriyama to promote a new project, and that's what I'll miss. From here on, his credit will just be an acknowledgement of his past contributions.

There's this great credibility with Akira Toriyama's name. Fans will argue about how involved he was in a project as a way of establishing how good or bad it was. Dragon Ball GT has his name on the credits, and he provided some designs and artwork early on, and for some fans that proves the series has his endorsement. For others, the sole problem with the show is that he wasn't directly writing the script. There's similar debates over Dragon Ball Super, where he was involved, but only writing those mysterious "notes". So if a fan doesn't like something in DBS, who do they blame? Did Toriyama lose his touch, or did his co-creators fumble the ball? Dragon Ball Evolution basically ignored all of Toriyama's advice and bombed, while Battle of Gods, Resurrection F, Broly, and Super Hero all put Toriyama's writing credits up at the very beginning, and each film made plenty of money. I read his comments on the Daima confirmation, and immediately thought "Okay, this should be pretty good. Akira Toriyama knows what's up."

That's gone now. I mean, there's still a lot of talent out there, but we'll never again have the little gas mask-wearing robot telling us that this story will be good because he worked on making it good. I don't think I really appreciated how much I trusted that guy until now. I still can't believe he's really gone.

I'll probably have more to say about this in the coming days, but I'll stop here for now. Thanks for letting me ramble a bit on this.

[scrapplescribbles]

THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN. IT'S FINALLY HERE!! (intro to Fairfable)

apologies for the wait. i was procrastinating the hobby i use to procrastinate (and still listening to boss fight by doom scroll on repeat bc it is a banger song)

anyway

for those of you who aren't aware, i posted a poll recently to decide which of my wips to start posting content about because i'm indecisive on top of being inexperienced and not knowing how to do this

and Fairfable won!!

which i'm really excited about because i had a good feeling abt this one getting out on the internet

also it makes me happy and is very close to my heart in many ways

SO WHAT IS FAIRFABLE?

imagine a world much like your own but with gargoyle security guards and troll landlords and elves and mermaids and monsters and fae and whatever else you nerds can think of

and as it turns out their problems aren't that different from yours

i said this would be an animated show (2D bc i like cartoons.) it will at some point hopefully, but i fear i can not animate at this point in my life (as in i am supremely bad at it), and i'd like to get a bit better at drawing and work on having a more consistent style before i really get to animating

also im significantly better at traditional art than digital so that's unhelpful but thats mostly an experience thing

oh also i want it to be a musical yeah i didnt mention that before

it was inspired by indie shows i've seen on youtube (largely Hazbin Hotel (yes i know its not a great show but it wasn't all bad either. it was a start and it demonstrated what indie animation is capable of even at its not-best. i am choosing to learn from it and give something better to the world instead of just going "wow guys this shit sucks") bc indie animation in general is so cool and i will support a studio with a dream over a money-hungry giant any day of the week (cough cough fuck you disney cough cough)

so we have a ragtag band of queer mentally ill fantasy creatures becoming roommates cause what the hell

MEET THE CAST!!! (with yapping) (i apologize none of these are in actual color)

Nema (she/her)

the neurodivergent experience but she's a mermaid

the sweetest person you'll ever meet but can on occasion be absolutely savage

kinda shy and a bit odd but can do a good yap once u get to know her (chat shes me)

Nema's visions have been there for as long as she can remember. They've always set her apart. Made her special. She doesn't know where they come from. No one does. But she's always seen things beyond what is possible for anyone else she's ever met.

Oh, the things she would do for them to just go away and let her be normal.

But maybe, if they're pointing her in the right direction—which she has a better feeling about than usual—she can make some friends here.

I was only bullied a little bit as a kid (and I kind of deserved it cause I was lowkey a pick me), but the real problem was the feeling of seemingly arbitrary otherness. Nema is for the neurodivergent kids who never fit in and never really understood why being different was so terrible a crime.

We all know what a classic mermaid looks like. I like it when they're a bit more "mer" and slightly less "maid," though, so she's got more fins and gills and such. She's also got nice huge eyes for seeing in the dark and also accidentally staring at people when she zones out (real, girl, real.) She's a cutie patootie and I love her.

Lynx (she/her)

says who a cat can't be burnt the fuck out?

pushes things off tables when bored

can and will bite if provoked

Lynx is a cat lady with a temper and a bone to pick with capitalism. But she's got shit to do. She doesn't have time to worry about the fact that she hasn't felt refreshed since that one nap she took when she was, like, eleven. Time is moving too fast, and all she's got now is two jobs, a shit ton of of paperwork, and a giant tree full of a bunch of fellow brokies and a faerie—can fae be broke? Lynx doesn't think Shailyn even knows what money is. Whatever. She guesses her new roommates aren't so bad.

ADHD is always depicted in media as this silly quirky "oopsie poopsie I forgot to get toilet paper at the store because I got distracted by a shiny dinosaur balloon" thing (although I probably would do something like that.) As someone who (probably—I'm not diagnosed but I've done my research, and I show a lot of the symptoms) has real struggles related to ADHD, it's important to me to raise awareness for it and other forms of neurodivergence, especially for adults and women with ADHD.

Take one look at any cat and tell me it doesn't have ADHD. And so I give you Lynx.

Zing (pronouns? yeah those r cool lol)

kind of a little shit but gets away with it cause they're cute and they know it

can not spell

favorite pastimes include impulsively texting their ex at 3am and pissing off Lynx

Zing is a shapeshifter who lives to be the center of attention everywhere they go, and that works out pretty well—who wouldn't love them? They go wherever looks the most interesting and do whatever fuels their main character energy—and if that means going to live with with a bunch of randos in an old tree, hell yeah. Besides, the elf guy's hot.

Zing is one of those characters who sounds fun and crowd-pleasing and tropey. That is probably true. But there is a whole lot going on under the surface, and I'll let all that speak for itself.

Also genderfluid representation! Again, something I share with a character and further proof that writing is fancily projecting and each of these characters is a piece of my soul.

Zing likes to experiment with fashion and hairstyles a lot, which is tough to keep up with as far as creating different designs. They're a shapeshifter, though, so of course they take advantage of that. They have giant ears for no other reason than that they can have a bunch of earrings and look super badass. Also I'm really proud of the hands on this drawing. I'm one of those people who don't really use references (I know, I know, but I genuinely just forget to 😭) but somehow I'm not the worst at drawing hands sometimes (this is the one drawing I got to do good hands in. That's why Sal has his hands in his hoodie pocket.)

Small note: shapeshifters in media sometimes piss me off because their limitations are not clearly or consistently set. I, the nerd I am, have thought all of this through. Continuity!! If you'd like to hear more what the limitations of shapeshifting are, let me know and I'll post my nerd stuff.

Shailyn (she/her)

the mom friend

enjoys some good shenanigans but cries when one of her babies' feelings get hurt

does not know how to use a toaster

Shailyn is a Celtic faerie who knows very little about the human world. She barely has any contact with other creatures in her realm, but, so far, she's been content with her occasional tricks and lack of real social interaction outside the circles of the fae. However, that all changes when an intriguing bunch of weirdos move into the old tree on the edge of the forest, and suddenly she's making friends.

Since she's a Celtic faerie, I always include some swirlies and swoopy shapes. Her design has a long way to go (you can probably tell I'm still experimenting), and it's kinda hard to see the details since I don't know what I'm doing. Her branch antler thingies and wing-cloak thing are always there, though. Also since I wanna get her animated, she's gonna have to have a more consistent and minimally confusing design. She's getting there.

Sal (he/him)

never really grew out of his emo phase

done w this shit

somehow the only one everyone else completely trusts in the kitchen

You'd think Sal is the tall, dark, and brooding stereotype. And he kind of is. But that trope pisses me off, so we're doing it realistically and with warmer colors. The man has ✨issues✨ and a very unhealthy dose of generational trauma and we love him. But there's a little something called character growth and development which is really important in this series and basically the whole reason I started writing it.

For his design, obviously he's tall and pointy-eared. He wears a lot of dark colors because of his remaining aforementioned emo phase. There isn't really much else I can say other than the fact that it was way too difficult to make him not wonky. He's not supposed to be wonky. Elves aren't wonky. Whatever.

CONCLUSION

if you have any questions comments or concerns my asks are open and so are comments and i will be happy to yap as much as you'll let me

also bonus post-nema hand

[justanerddummie]

I've got a lot of things to say about s2 so I'll divide them in two posts, spoilers after the cut beware

First thing first, the intro, it's beautiful I love it, it gives us a lot of information about every character and what they're going through, about how each and everyone of them is changing and that's exactly why I think it will change before the end of the season, once everyone is focus. I don't think it will change every act, even though I'd love that but I'd surprised if it didn't change at all.

Now let's talk about the juicy stuff.

Jinx

What I really want to talk about is the figth with Vi and Cait. I really don't think Jinx went there with the intention of dying, I think she went there with the intention of killing both Vi and Powder for good, and also found herself face to face with the monster she created, Caitlyn. When Caitlyn shot her finger off was probably the first time we've seen, Jinx, not Powder, actually being terrified and what is Jinx if not a mask, a persona that Powder has learnt to wear to survive the undercity when she was alone the first time around. Right now Powder needs people more than ever, she needs Ishta and she needs Sevika because Jinx isn't working anymore she needs to find a new way to be able to survive and I think it's the perfect timing for her to become the face of the revolution, because she's ready to accept people in her life once more, because simply surviving by being the baddest bitch around isn't viable anymore, she needs an higher purpose to move her forward and finally bring her out of the metaphorical cage her past rappresents. I can really see Jinx take on the role of protector this season, to the undercity, to Ishta and maybe Vi? After watching her stand up to Cait, literally blocking her bullets with her own body, I think Jinx has realized that even though Vi has made a lot of awful decision, she is still there, she just needs a little push to remember who she is. Let's be real the nothing else to lose clip has basically told us that they were teaming up again, we're getting the sisters back together this is just something that re-enforces the theory.

Sevika and Ishta

Ok, this is rough because I'm just speculating and I have nothing to base this hunch on, but I unfortunately think that Ishta is going to die, and that Sevika is going to betray Jinx. The only thing that supports this insane theory is that Arcane is a story told in cycles the end for how awful it is will never change, it's always the characters making the same mistakes of the past and to whom do we see Jinx being compared to? Vander. And who did Sevika betray? yep Vander. I'm pretty sure I'm wrong but I can totally see Sevika become the next Vander or Silco, by the end of the season, and I guess a lot of people think it's going to be Jinx but as Jinx has said herself to Smeech, "every one that gets close to me dies". Ishta and the people of the undercity are going to be collateral damage and this will prompt Sevika to turn on Jinx.

Ekko

He's the only one who got the assignment. He's the only one who tries to break the cycle of violence, he tries to do it with Jinx even though he gets blown up by a granade as a thank you and he breaks it with Heimerdinger without pointing the finder and this time he manages to get an ally in fighting the arcane pollution. No notes here, Ekko is the bestest boy.

Mel

I think the intro is telling us that by the end of the season Mel is going to be in the position Ambessa was in the blood and tears music video. I might be wrong but I can see her understanding what the fuck is Ambessa up against and choose to take her family side here. She is ready to become both the fox and the wolf (poor Jayce, he's going to get through another divorce). Also hasn't Mel been revealed a mage by the catastrophic promotional campaign? I guess that would explain how she and Jayce are unscathed.

Viktor

Jesus Viktor is kind of hot, I would love to talk about him but he's barely even been shown and I know basically nothing about lol lore. I can't understand if he's a good guy, a bad guy or a secret third option, so far I can only say that if he's able to control the arcane pollution in order to heal people he could be of help to Ekko.

Jayce

He keeps changing his mind on everything as usual, but I personally could have not argued with what he said to Viktor during the divorce. He was right morality means nothing if you have a chance of saving your friend's life. Other than that, I loved the weird glitchy thing at the base of the hex gates and how Ekko basically told him he's to blame for the arcane pollution that is destroying his home. Really hope Jayce owns up to it and does something to actually fix his mistakes.

Ambessa

I loved how she controls the scene while basically being background. The way she regards Caitlyn when she shuts Salo up at the meeting. It's obvious she thinks she's finally found the perfect person for the job, Caitlyn has the power to make Jayce build weapon with hextech, her family name carries way more respect than Salo, and what's more she's a decorated officer, the one who managed to uncover Marcus corruption. I mean she'd be every fascist wet dream, it's pretty obvious that the big houses of Piltover will get behind her without saying a word. Salo on the other hand would have been a much thougher sale, even if safer. Let's be real Caitlyn isn't a coward or an idiot like Salo and for as much as Ambessa will be trying to manipulate her, Caitlyn will be breathing down her neck. It's obvious at least to me that if the leader of a foreign country is offering help she will want something in return and Caitlyn being the daughter of a councilor will at least have had a bit of training in politics and know at least the basics. I can see Cait bend her morality to the limit willingly, but not fall for the manipulation, not completely at least. I really hope she'll not be that stupid, but I guess we'll have to see.

Cait and Vi will get their own post, cause seriously there is just too much to talk about.

[slayerkitty]

Let's Talk About Trust, Baby

I've seen a lot of posts where people are really confused about Mew and where his head might be at with regard to his relationship with Top. Why he hasn't given Top the boyfriend title back, why they haven't had sex yet, etc. That led me down a rabbit hole of thinking about the relationships between the characters and the one thing all relationships need to function - TRUST. If you don't trust your significant other or your friends/family, etc, what kind of relationship can you even have? I tried to break this down in groups/pairs and some of it might not be as thought out, so there may be more on this as the show goes on but here we go.

The Fab Four

So there's a lot of context we're missing about the relationships between our core four dysfunctional besties (Note: So far, Cheum doesn't seem that dysfunctional, you're doing amazing sweetie!) such as how they met, how long have they been friends (what the hell Ray and Mew got up to that one night... *ahem* I digress). Now, we don't have any real answers to these questions (yet) so I'm taking some educated guesses based on my own college experiences and what I've generally picked up from other university BLs typical story telling.

I feel like the four of them met during orientation (except maybe Ray and Mew, I'm waffling on thoughts that they've known each other since high school). Most university BLs set it up that the mains meet during orientation, bond during whatever torture the seniors are putting the freshman through and kind of build their friend groups based on that.

I also feel like they may have gravitated toward each other or remained a group because they're all queer. BLs can go either way on whether or not homophobia exists in their narrative and I think that Only Friends is going the more realistic route (and it's Jojo) so I think that I can definitely see them bonding over being queer. They find an LGBTQ bar and it becomes their thing to do together. Most friendship groups form because people just sort of fall in together due to circumstance and they seem no different.

But do they trust each other? Signs point to yes. (I was shocked too, lol)

Mew and Cheum: We haven't had much focus on her, but he seems to value her opinion and listen to her advice. (We also know that April likes him from the time they've spent together and he likes April, so I would say he and Cheum probably have pretty good trust built up.)

Mew and Boston: He believed without a single doubt when Boston said that Top had never had a lover longer than 3 months and that Top would probably, as Ray put it "nail and bail" once Mew and Top have sex. Cheum also believed Boston. Do I think Boston was lying here? No. But neither do they and that's important. Does Boston trust Mew? I think he does. His issues with Mew are not about trust.

Mew and Ray: These two vibe a little different than the rest of the group. They seem closer; they seem like they've talked about "the deep stuff" (vs maybe superficial topics with their other friends). Their first one on one scene has them talking about Ray's alcoholism seriously (even though Mew doesn't push about it as much as I would have liked) and you can tell there's an intimacy there that the other group members don't share. Whether that stems from whatever it is that happened that night in the video (I am salivating about this, it's delicious, I need more info) or because they've been friends for longer, I don't know.

Let's move on to the pairs:

Cheum and April: Do they trust each other? I assume so? Cheum goes out drinking with the boys at least once a week and April seems okay with that (we haven't heard otherwise), so I'll say yes? (Jojo, I NEED MORE OF THEM. I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TO EVEN ANALYZE. GIVE US MORE.)

Sand and Ray: I'm gonna call this one as Sand does not trust Ray, but Ray trusts Sand. Sand knows that Ray is a walking red flag and he's trying to resist but Ray is making it really hard. *ahem* Ray bailing mid-make out is not helping Sand's trust issue. If you look at how Sand has cared for Ray since episode one, however, Ray most likely trusts Sand. I mean, Ray talked about his mom to Sand. I think that's a biiiig deal.

Mew and Top: Thanks to Boston, neither of them trusts the other. And this, right here, is why Mew has not moved the relationship forward. HE DOESN'T TRUST TOP. He's still worried that Top will "nail and bail". Remember Mew's checklist from episode two? He only checks off "gets along with my friends" (HAH!) and "respects me" but not "doesn't lie to me". We can infer this means it hasn't been marked off since he doesn't mention it to anyone in this episode. Given that a lot of us clocked Mew potentially spotting Boston's trunks on the floor in the shower, along with him questioning if Top was telling the truth about the fire, it's clear this is the one thing holding him back.

If Mew agrees to be Top's boyfriend, then the expectation of sex becomes a lot higher (it shouldn't but that's a different discussion to be had). It's also implied in the narrative (and from Jojo) that Mew is a very structured person and he doesn't like to lose control (re-watch the counter scene from episode one. You know you want to. I'll wait). The moment that Mew realizes that he is way too into what they're doing, he panics because he doesn't have control over the situation.

Up until episode three, Top did trust Mew. He trusted him enough to get vulnerable and then Boston blew it up by fabricating a narrative backed with evidence of...something between Ray and Mew (I'm seriously dying for this scene, I need it).

Another thing I am having thoughts about is that in this episode, Top referred to himself as Mew's boyfriend and so did Cheum and Mew didn't deny it like he did in episode two. When Top's *ahem* "buddy" approached them at the silent disco, it was very clear that Mew expected Top to introduce Mew as his boyfriend and was visibly (if momentarily) upset that he didn't.

Boston and Nick: Yes and no, but also no and no, respectively. So Boston trusts Nick with some things but not everything which leads to him lying, gaslighting and manipulating (he's a triple threat). In turn, Nick lies right back, because what else can he do? (a lot of things actually, oh Nick, you are starting to spiral hard.) This leads Nick to rigging the CCTV video to show on his phone and to wiretap Boston's car, which just shows you his trust in Boston is non-existent.

In conclusion: Trust is another theme the show seems to be exploring: earning it, keeping it, and what you do after trust is broken. I think it can tie back into the ongoing ephemerality discussion as well: trust isn't permanent. You have to earn it, maintain it, and once broken, it's gone (and seldom can be repaired).

Also, everyone needs therapy.

Tagging the Ephemerality Squad: @waitmyturtles, @chickenstrangers, @lurkingshan, @twig-tea, @ranchthoughts, @clara-maybe-ontheroad

Hope I didn't forget anyone!

[kiwinatorwaffles]

I found This is About a Stuffed Bird bc of you and its one of my favorite fics ever. Do you by chance have more suggestions?

hermitcraft/mcyt fic recs? :0 let's go!!

i get a lot of my fic recs from other friends since i don't really go out and search on my own all too much for this fandom. but there are lots of great works out here! i will be listing out some of my favorites :3 mostly hc but a couple general mcyt ones that i think are an excellent read no matter what. all of the fics i'm listing will be genfic without ships!

also i just realized a lot of my bookmarks are grian-centric which is funny i guess because i am admittedly quite picky about content of my other favorites and grian just tends to have the most content in the fanbase. hope that'll be alright

(i hope some of my friends and mutuals don't mind me tagging them for their works)

hermitcraft longfics:

the last days of the free angel of carrows by @theminecraftbee - loved stuffed bird? here's another great longfic by second! this one is about joe and cleo in an urban fantasy mystery setting. again, second writes our beloved hermits into an captivating au!

leaping and hopping on a moonshadow by @lunarblazes - a fantasy au by luna my beloved! pearl suddenly gains magical powers and goes on a quest to find her long-lost friend grian who might know what's happening to her. she meets a lot of familiar faces along the way!

Recall by @redwinterroses - hey, i was the artist for this one! :D mumbo goes missing, so grian and scar search for him. they find that grumbot has been up to some... things along the way. the fic isn't finished but i think the chapters red put out is worth a read if you don't mind leaving off on a cliffhanger because it really is super interesting

dramaturgy by wormcity - a universe where gem and pearl join in a season 7 that was never finished. mumbo became the mayor, but the turf war went so very wrong afterwards. admittedly i have not finished reading this yet because ummm short on time xD but it's super interesting with a lot of layers of drama(turgy hahaha)!

hermitcraft short fics/oneshots:

for trying. by @autistic-evil-xisuma - a stuffed bird universe oneshot of x and xisuma during their lab days. great if you want to be sad over the doomed brothers again :D

the wheels on the bus by sparxwrites - a hilarious post-s8 oneshot about grian being a little shit towards the watchers. one of the first fics i've read from this fandom and i still love it

a body is an object by ruffboi - grian is a mimic, and pearl's arrival in s8 shakes him up. she hasn't seen him in a while and is quite upset to learn that the grian she knew died a long time ago. a great read for familial connections and conflict of friendships!

Goatman and the Rift by TheDepressedCanary - doc's eldritch powers start acting up when the rift appears. what shenanigans will ensue?

other mcyt fics/crossovers:

late at night, when the stars don't look quite right by @lunarblazes - an excellent empires s1 and hermitcraft crossover longfic, where grian lands into the server and is discovered by pearl! very great worldbuilding and relationships, i especially love the dynamic between gri and pearl and pearl and gem :D

every new discovery is just a reminder by amaranthinecanicular - grian begins pulling alternate versions of the hermits from the life series into the server. he does save a lot of them, but at what cost? it does end on a cliffhanger but this is genuinely one of the most captivating oneshots i've ever read... argghhh

The Fair and the Brave and the Good by @slashmagpie - an afterlife smp longfic centered around the shelby, scott, and sausage. i have never watched afterlife smp before in my LIFE and this is still one of my favorite pieces of literature ever. the characters and worldbuilding is impeccable and perfect if you like something dark with themes of hope and renewal.

Two Can Keep a Secret (If One of Them is Red) by anonymous secretmcblog - a 3L oneshot! ren suspects grian has stockholm syndrome with his pact to stay with scar, but his expectations are wrong. a truly excellent read and one of them first fics i've read! i still go back to reread it from time to time

dog at the door by fluffy_papaya & iamsolarflare - a longfic where doc and ren take a trip on a van on their way to s8. ren, however, is not quite himself, and doc has to learn to befriend the red king.

devil town is colder in the summertime by @bananasofthorns - a oneshot from a 100hsmp/life series d&d au! team BEST ventures into a cursed evil fucked up forest. uh oh.

Interview with the Aftermath by @ranchersrevenge (wanderlasts) - the last life contestants are invited for an interview. the responses vary greatly.

stars, smoke, and stolen car keys by wormcity - a 100hsmp modern au oneshot where grian, scar, and joel go on a hike. it doesn't go quite as they expected.

the beehive state by amaranthinecanicular - a dsmp oneshot after wilbur moves to utah. tommy visits him, and the two reconnect. i have to say i stopped following dsmp a long time ago but this fic made me BAWL. i don't even think you need to know any of the characters that well to really enjoy just how amazing the writing itself is

Can't Go Back (This Time) by @duckmumbo (musicaltvbooks) - soup group goes end raiding and accientally finds themselves in afterlife smp. nothing goes wrong, surely! also admittedly i havent finished reading this either but roy i swear i will. this is a great read nevertheless and the soup group dynamic is impeccable!

TommyInnit's unbeatable method of avoiding sudden death by eneliii - on the train of dsmp fics, this is the superhero au longfic that inspired my own hc superhero au, vdhau. it's a lot of funny shenanigans with tommy and his friends. the fic does take a dark turn at the end, but that can be skipped entirely (as said by eneli herself) if you just want the wholesome aspects.

if you don't mind a little self promo, here are some of my fics!

it takes two to play (the game of mutual secrecy) - the aforementioned hermitcraft hero au. this installment is centered around xisuma and evil x as brothers resolving their issues through hero work and solving the mystery of welsknight's disappearance :D there are other works that are set in the same universe if you're interested for more!

how to form the ultimate besties dynamic: an unreliable tutorial by hypnotizd - a oneshot! hypno is a warlock who goes treasure hunting under the sea. he meets a guardian who later becomes his unlikely friend.

smoke and mirrors, the hunt perseveres - grian's arrival in empires s2 unwittingly brings the watchers' suspicions with him. cue jimmy freaking out and a lot of shenanigans.

ballad of etho’s lab - my newest installment! a oneshot about etho's storied life as the redstone god.

i'm also currently working on the sequel to the game of mutual secrecy and a new (well not exactly new since i made concept art for it) au called private detective gem tasey! these will likely be released sometime late january or february. have fun with these fic recs! i haven't been reading as much lately but i hope ill be able to find more if anyone else asks in the future. cheers!

edit: the fics are out! here they are!

hiding in plain sight (the meaning of trust) - sequel to the hermitcraft hero au! it follows an escaped lab rat trying to acquaint themselves with human society while avoiding suspicion and making friends with familiar faces from tgms ;D

private detective gem tasey: a rotten mystery in london - a hermitcraft detective au where gem gets hired for a case that spirals completely into drama and politics!

[yuuneeyart]

Well it's been a while hasn't it? After everything that's gone on and my twitter suspension back in December, I've just decided to take a step back and focus on my personal life. Spending less time online, focusing on my job, that kinda boring shit that adults do.

But I have (slowly) and (only when I can) been working on shit. Mostly my Undertale creepypasta, UNDERTALE: The Garden. I'm sure some people remember that… but not many probably do. So I thought that since it's The Figure’s (formally Flower Child’s) birthday, I thought I'd show some stuff off.

art by me

So what is UNDERTALE: The Garden? Well.. UNDERTALE: The Garden is a story about an Undertale fan game that had been lost to time. The story focuses on the narrator finding an old and unfinished version of a fan game titled UNDERTALE: The Garden that had started its development fairly shortly after the original game’s demo had come out back in 2013. Created by an anonymous tumblr user who went by Tokumei, the game was originally meant to expand on the small amount of lore of the demo, adding more areas to the ruins, giving a new interpretation and backstory to the world, and much more. However the game went radio silent after a few years of development hell and Tokumei had not been seen since then.

Now years later, the narrator finds a gamejolt page with a familiar game on it. Excited to play it, they decided to discuss their findings on a tumblr blog. As well as archive any assets, information about development, and songs they can get their hands on. The narrator eventually finds out the game has much more to it than it was originally leading on…

art by me

There's a lot of things I have planned for the story that I don't wanna get into here (don't wanna spoil things before they come to light) but I've been working on making the actual world of The Garden much different than the original game. I've been taking an NES Godzilla approach for worldbuilding where the game just looks so vastly different from its original state using real life caves as well as Christian and Muslim imagery and cultures for inspiration for everything.

art by anonymous, pixel art by me and anonymous

But now the main attraction of the au, The Figure. She's definitely changed since you first met her 2 years ago. Instead of going to exes and helping them, she's now someone who simply wishes to be left alone. Staying in her world trying to make it as perfect as she sees it.

And now some trivia i guess for the funsies

She is not sentient, everything in the garden that happens is just a weird fangame.  The whole idea of *The game is alive and REAL!!!* has become a cliche of the creepypasta community that I don’t wanna repeat

She has a canon voice now, which can be heard here

Her facial expression never changes

The monsters that get deformed are still alive. If they were to die, you would have seen a pile of dust

art by me

That's all I have for now though, hopefully this at least peaked interest for some. This isn't me making a grand return either, just thought I'd at least post something about a character I've cared about for the past 2 years since it was her 2 year anniversary. Anyways, imma go to bed, cheers.

[elegantmusicdragon]

Adventures in Bravo-Sitting

Pairing: Dieter Bravo x Babysitter!Reader (f!Reader probably? Can be gn!Reader for now)

Rating/Warning: Just some language! Words that rhyme with certain swears. Me being a menace. You know how it goes.

A/N: Okay so this is for @blueeyesatnight who just went a on a Dieter/Babysitter journey with me and inspired me to crank this fic out in two days. Haven't written a fucking thing except a fic I won't post and THIS. Blue, you're the best and Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas (if you celebrate) and thank you so much for the inspo! Our Dieter/Babysitter thread is my favorite thing and also if you wanna write some of these two or your own version PLEASE DO IT. I encourage it! Much love to you.

To anyone else who may read this: thanks for sticking around and checking this not beta'd dumpster fire. I have no clue what this is. It came out of my brain and onto the page in a frenzy. But it's fine. I'm fine. Everything's fine. Enjoy! And Happy Holidays!

You are terribly confused. 

"We know this is highly unconventional." 

Well, that's putting it mildly. 

"In all honesty, I've seen weirder." A nightmare child smearing his feces all over the baking appliances and a cake his mother had made takes the trophy as of now. Though this situation is a close second. 

The woman, Amanda, smiles at you - relief flooding her features. She readjusts herself on the ridiculously fancy chair she's sitting on. Behind her, a small cluster of people in suits and business skirts gather. And between Amanda and the group? A man. Well, not man. Celebrity. A celebrity who seems to be grumbling something close to the words “ducking shooshes”.  

You never thought you'd end up babysitting Dieter Bravo but, you guess, things could be weirder. 

"Can I just...ask...um...why does a grown man need a babysitter?"

Dieter rolls his eyes and cuts in, "I don't." 

Amanda talks over him, "I'm sure you've seen the...incidents...on the Cliff Beasts set." 

You nod. "Absolutely, who hasn't? A drug overdose, quickie marriage, annulment - all within the span of a year. And the giant bender in Vegas with the showgirl last month? It's been all over the news." 

Amanda nods, tension lining her face. Behind her, Dieter rolls his eyes again. 

"It wasn't that bad." 

Amanda finally graces Dieter with an irritated glance. Her voice raises slightly, “Not that bad, Dee?? You almost destroyed the MGM Grand’s lobby, casino, and the penthouse suite you were staying in! That showgirl almost lost an eye!” 

Dieter rolls his neck back to face the ceiling, “Yeah, but she didn’t. She was fun,” he chuckles. “Liked to party. We still got her number?”

You see a vein throb in Amanda’s forehead. You’re not quite sure if you should butt into their conversation. Amanda grips the planner she holds so tightly, her knuckles begin to turn white. 

“No, Dee. We don’t have her number. You know, since she ALMOST LOST AN EYE??” 

Dieter sighs. “Oh my god, she was fine. It was safe. I was totally able to handle that machete. That lobby guy was just scared.” 

You raise an eyebrow. 

Amanda fires back, “He was the manager!!! And you were swinging a machete at one of his showgirls!” 

“I wasn’t gonna hurt her, god it’s like you think I’m irresponsible or something.” 

Oh god what have you gotten yourself into???

You reach down and attempt to subtly get your belongings. You’ve decided you want no part in…whatever this is. To your utter disappointment, you’re apparently not subtle enough. Amanda’s eyes dart to where your hand is resting on the strap of your bag. Her eyes widen just a fraction in desperation. 

“I know we’re not giving the best impression here. But I promise, this is going to be a very rewarding experience. Dieter is special!” 

She had said that on the phone too, but it was your fault you had misinterpreted it. Dieter clearly is special just…not in the way you were expecting. He’s special in a super-fuckin-entitled-wealthy way. 

You swallow and your eyes dart to Dieter, who hasn’t looked at you once since this whole meet and greet started. 

“Listen, Amanda, I’m really flattered that you and your…” You peter off, realizing the entire group of people behind her are now listening to you basically say no to this insane job. Are they really surprised you’re not interested in this? 

You clear your throat and continue, “team…want me to do this. I just don’t quite think I’m what you’re looking for.” 

Amanda looks behind her at a gentleman in a neatly pressed suit. He leans forward and whispers something in her ear. She nods, and turns back to you. Dieter remains absorbed in the ceiling. 

“Alright,” Amanda starts, “how about I show you what your pay would look like and we’ll take it from there? Maybe we could do a trial run if the amount is to your liking?” 

Dieter snorts. “It’ll be to her liking, I’m loaded.” 

Amanda rolls her eyes. Despite that, she keeps her focus on you. “Well?” She asks. 

You sigh. You know you’re caught between a rock and hard place. Money? Or no money? Well, even if this job isn’t what you necessarily thought it would be, it couldn’t hurt to look at the amount. Why the hell not? 

You shrug. “Sure,” you reply back to Amanda. “I guess looking at the number can’t hurt.” 

She smiles and nods, turning to confer with the gentleman behind her again. They whisper to each other for a few minutes before Amanda turns back to you. 

“Okay! I just want to clarify that we’ll be starting with a trial run of a week. If just you, or both you and Dieter-” 

He snorts at his name. Amanda studiously ignores him and continues on. 

“Are interested in keeping this arrangement going, we’ll re-discuss and go from there. Is that amenable to you?”

You nod. “Sounds good to me.” 

Amanda smiles widely, looking truly relieved for the first time since you stepped into the room. 

“Great!” She replies. She reaches behind her to grab a small piece of paper from the suited gentleman (who is he???) and hands it over to you. You surreptitiously glance over at Dieter. For the first time, you find his eyes on you. You shiver slightly. His eyes sparkle with…something. 

You look back down at the folded piece of paper in your hands. You’re more nervous than you thought you’d be. You open it slightly and see the number written down.

WOW that’s a LOT of zeroes! Holy crap. 

You look at Amanda.

“Trial run it is.” 

P.S. Banners by @firefly-graphics

Tags:

@grampsgirl14

@apsiringghostmusicians

Anyone else want a tag? Lemme know!

[threadbearsweater]

From your last reblog, how do you stop hating getting older? Most of my fandom friends are early/mid 20s and it makes me feel so gross being in my 30s. Everyone always shames you for being so 'old' in the anime spaces and I always feel kinda guilty about it and I shouldn't.

How do you come to terms with aging and loving your age? I know I'm younger than you but it feels like I'm aging so quickly when everyone else stays so young lol

I guess what I'm asking is what made you love your 40s? Or even your 30s? What made you wake up and go 'actually, this is way better than people made it out to be'. I hope none of this sounds too invasive but I feel like I'm doing myself a disservice by not loving my age gracefully when I never thought I'd MAKE it to this age, y'know?

I am afraid that it's not really a profound revelation. As much as I'd like to sit here and document my journey to self-love and say that it's always been positive and joyful, it really hasn't been. I'd say that just in the last 5 or 6 years, I've finally had the ability to be honest with myself about a lot of things- namely the way I handle stress, relationship woes (both platonic and romantic) and just life in general. My 40's are loads better than my 30's even. I spent a lot of my 30's being angry- at myself, at my kids, at my ex-husband. At work, at life, at money. And I knew it at the time, but I guess I thought it was just the way life had to be. I told myself I'd just been dealt a shitty hand and it was the consequences of my actions so far that made my life what it had to be. I resigned myself to a life where I'd just constantly be at someone else's beck and call and figured that's what it would be forever and ever amen. (the rest is under a cut because I got REALLY long-winded)

When the pandemic hit, I left a job that had me so wrung out and miserable for almost 6 years. And I woke the fuck up. I never really thought the job was the problem, and I don't think it was the whole issue- but it definitely contributed to my constant need to put my own feelings aside and take care of everyone else before myself. Just last year, my husband and I talked about how angry I used to be. Bless his patient heart, he told me that "things got pretty rough for a while. I wasn't sure if we'd pull through" and it broke my heart to know that my anger affected him in such a profound way.

BUT to backtrack, after I quit that job, I started going to therapy. I got back on meds, I got a life-changing diagnosis that really helped me explain and understand my decades of self-destructive patterns. And for the first time, I started to put myself first. It was ridiculously difficult at first. I started to notice small changes in the way my kids interacted with me, the way I could talk to people, the way I connected with online friends. It didn't come without some lessons along the way, some learned with great difficulty. I don't pretend to be a perfect example of someone who knows herself and knows others so completely, and I do still fuck up- but I own it. I don't try to blame others anymore. And I work to forgive myself without expecting others to do the work for me.

I've been lucky so far to never be directly shamed for being older in fandom spaces. I've surrounded myself with some beautiful souls- most of them being somewhere in the late twenties-late thirties range- and I just come around and be me, flaws and all. I talk about the things I like, I open my mind to the things I might not understand at first, I avoid the things that upset me (this might be the hardest one, especially when it's all available at our fingertips at any given moment). I've seen those posts about how people of a certain age are seen as "creepy" or "weird" or whatever the colorful adjective of the day may be for fandom "elders". And I'm sure there are probably people reading this now who feel that way about anyone who's over the age of 25, but it's all good! I'm having a good time. I'm enjoying the things I enjoy because it's fun to do so, and everyone should feel free to have a good time wherever we may end up, you know?

My heart breaks for you when I hear you say things like "I never thought I'd make it this far". My 16 year old has expressed the same sentiment to me recently, and it just knocks the wind right out of me to consider how that must affect your day to day life. I guess if I were to offer any advice, I'd say Congratulations! You've made it, and you're still making it! Keep going, don't stop, do whatever it takes to keep getting up in the morning and putting one foot in front of the other. Give yourself grace. Growing up and growing older really is a gift, and I KNOWWWWW that sounds corny and cliche to say so, but it REALLY is! Fuck the haters, damn the man (save the Empire), and enjoy crying and screaming over fictional characters, because why the hell not? There's no age limit on joy.