#but also i may have literally just been repeating another post i've made so

[daydreamgoddess14]

The Reading Rooms

What a week 😩 ngl, it's been shit, but the wonderful works below and my own little tippy tapping has kept me going.

I made a Masterlist of previous weeks if that's helpful 😘

Always remember to heed the warnings posted by the individual authors. What I'm happy to read may not be what you're happy to read, so I take no responsibility if you find something you're not into.

And finally, Tumblr is a community. Reblog, gush like you've never gushed before - I promise you, the authors below will love it, and love you for it! We write because we love to, but we share our work because we love the community of it. If you read something you like, let the world know! 💕

The List

This week, I finished the Menu mini-series 😢 AND I also finished a Chris Beck one-shot - By Another Hand - literally no idea if anyone is still interested in reading about our space boyfriend, but throw me some love if you are. I totally wrote it for myself, but sharing's caring... as you'll see in the fic 😏 - it'll be out on Friday.

In other news, @ramp-it-up is celebrating 5k followers with an epic #PraiseMe5k. I know we're all eager to please 😏 so let's create some super hot works to celebrate!

Now onto the fics that kept me somewhat sane this week!

Bucky Barnes

I've literally only read Bucky this week. Sorry not sorry.

Declassified continues to blow my mind. @dreamwritesimagines is throwing out chapters so fast and when I tell you they are all INCREDIBLE?!?! Like, just amazing. I am so fixated by this story. I'm obsessed with Birdie. Bucky is just 🤌 perfection. It's amazing. This absolutely MUST be on your reading list. Chapter 5 AND Chapter 6 both out this week and you need to get the notifs as well because the headcannons and thought that Dee is putting into this is nothing short of amazing.

@buckyseternaldoll (Elle) deserves ALL of your love this week. Blow up her blog with kindness and sweet thoughts. She's not only blessed us with He Feels Everything (ummm... WILD! And also wonderful!), Mirror Me (fucking hot)... y'know what? Just... here's the Masterlist - thank me later 😘 Not a miss in there, every single one a banger.

Fault Lines by @cheekybarnes is SO good. I am STILL thinking about this line: “Then put on some boots and meet me at the barricades instead.” I adore supportive Bucky 🥰 AND while we're on with Ash, you also need to read Promise without Ceremony which was just the most divine thing ever. Heartbreaking, uplifting, romantic... perfection.

Busy by @aquaticmercy is another smash. So cute, so sweet. Daddy Bucky makes me want to bite things.

Late Night by @materia-girl88 was sooo yummy!! I too am feral for the tank top and the slicked back hair.

Hoooooly shit. Holy shit. You must, must read @ramp-it-up's FMK. You have to. The dialogue? The BIKE? The praise 😩 I need to devour DJ's entire Masterlist. You do too - go on, you know you want to!

Pain Pills and Confessions is SUCH as sweet little thing by @orellazalonia. Super cute! Also - Date Prank so really cute and funny!!

@marvelwitchergilmore strikes again! Compromised Positions is sooo good you guys! It's the fake marriage real love story I needed this week. Amazing!

Close Quarters by @samazing0831 is lovely. No expectations, no demands, just a quietly lovely and wonderful Bucky 🥹

The One that Got Away by @writing-for-marvel - part 2 also linked - absolutely heartbreaking. Seriously, bring tissues, you'll need them!

Thin Walls by @makehydrafictionagain was SO much fun!! And of course, now I have Bed Chem on repeat 🫡

Eyes Don't Lie by @buckysleftbicep - holy shit this was hot. Like, so hot. I need him biblically.

A soft, sweet morning with Bucky by @readreidsworld - so lovely!

Darling @navybrat817 blesses us once again with a soft, sweet daddy to be Bucky 🥰 Make It or Break It

Dancing with Bucky at a wedding? 🙏 @eternalnoble makes it so in Table 11

Drunkin Love and the whole gang is here?! Sign me up! I loved this so much @korraven!!

A Night from the Past by @barnesonly - bow down, this was EXCELLENT! So, so excellent! 🙌

Courting by @inkdrinkerworld is peak romantic Bucky. He's so smooth! Ugh, I just love him so much!

every time the sun comes up by @swordgrace is so gorgeous and beautiful. The sweetest, softest smut with Bucky.

@thunderbolt-ing has written I Can't Do It Alone - three parts linked within, all of them are so, so great. I could just devour Congressman Barnes. Like, I need to nibble on that man.

And making the cut because HOW could I leave this one out - Sunny, the amazing @sunday-bug has written daddy Bucky who's also feral for his gorgeous wife and this was so hot and so wonderful and can this be real life please? I LOVED Time To Get Busy 🤌

No misses on this list, lads. Feast your eyes and get your reblogging fingers ready!

[meepmrop]

Hi guys!! Just a little PSA I feel the need to say, especially given how many people I see self diagnose with autism or ADHD (this post may be continuously updated, so please see the original post if you're seeing a reblog of this)

Please do your research. I'm serious. The media has downplayed both of these disorders to simply autism being passionate about something and ADHD as having a low attention span or being insanely hyper

These are just common traits. You can have traits of a disorder without actually having it. I repeat, you can have traits of something without actually having it.

All forms of neurodivergency (yes, autism/adhd aren't the only ones. Get it through your damn head.) are disabilities. It needs to disable you from being a fully functional human being. I understand there's people with low support needs, but this is directed towards the people who claim to have medium/high support needs.

A special interest isn't just something you're super passionate about, it's a coping mechanism that can take over your life. I hate to admit that I have spent hundreds of dollars on useless things that have made me think of any of my special interests.

Hyperfixations are the same where they take over your entire thought process. For many, their hyperfixes come to mind even in situations it shouldn't. Some people have said that it happens during tests, essays, funerals even. I've had trouble sleeping often because of my own hyperfixations.

If you're 16 or older, I highly recommend that you take the RAADS-R test since it's widely accepted by many psychologists world wide. If you're under 16, I recommend you still take it and then take it again when you're 16 to see if you get the same score. I also highly recommend talking to people who are diagnosed and listing to them your symptoms. I have 3 friends who have been diagnosed tell me that I cover more than enough symptoms to qualify for a diagnosis.

Addition to this (because i got a bit of feedback): No online test will be completely reliable. I highly recommend keeping all of your symptoms somewhere to show a psychiatrist. The main reason I recommend the RAADS-R test is because you can download a PDF that shows not only your score but also your answer to all 80 questions. Psychiatrists are a lot more likely to believe you if you can give a list of your symptoms and how long they've been occurring. I keep a notebook for every time I show an autistic trait (since I struggle most with social situations as an autist, many of mine are moments where I can't tell apart the tone in what people say and I take things way too literally...)

Also, if you mask or used to mask, jotting down your experience with masking is important. Keeping a journal of how things affected you when masking, writing down how things affected you when you started to unmask. I started to mask (quite horribly...) when I was 13 and had a bunch of social norms shoved on me. Due to heavy burnout, I'm 17 now and don't mask anymore because I can't take it any longer. Since unmasking, I've noticed how much my autistic traits have hightened. It's like I've been bottling everything up for so long, and the river doesn't stop flowing.

Also, another thing to add on top of all of that, OCD isn't the same as being super neat either. Compulsive disorders like OCD are consuming. As someone with a compulsive disorder, in my experience, basically the thought does not leave your mind until you act out the thought. It's like having a huge pile of intrusive thoughts that only get bigger the longer you hold them back. It causes immense distress that will constantly bother you until something is done about it.

I also feel the need to point out some ableist language that has somehow become normalized.

1) using "narcissist" to describe someone who's egotistical and selfish. Also, the term "narc abuse" to describe a person with NPD traits who are abusive. Go talk to people with NPD. Go to blogs that educate on NPD. Seriously. You will find that NPD isn't just appearing selfish and egotistical. Sometimes it's the complete opposite.

My partner has NPD, and they actually get their validation often from being nice. (this post they reblogged can help clarify a bit more)

NPD (or any disorder for that matter), aren't inheritly abusive. I had to snap at one of my friends for calling her brother a narcissist when he's just a little asshole.

2) the terms "sociopath" and "psychopath". These terms have typically been used against people with ASPD/ASPD traits. My partner also has ASPD and reclaimed the term "sociopath".

3) "yandere". There are many mixed feelings about this term in the BPD community, ranging from people saying they have no issue with it, some considering it a slur (key word: consider. It's not an actual slur, but some people consider it one. I've had some asshole harass me for saying this, and I don't want any more drama about it.) because it romanticizes the trait in BPD and OLD (Obsessive Love Disorder) of having unhealthy relationships, some saying the term gives them comfort because it describes their symptoms as someone with BPD (which would be like reclaiming the term).

I personally fall under the group of people who consider it a slur, and I will be blocking people who use the term who aren't reclaiming it for their personal selves. I am heavily uncomfortable with the term and ask that anyone who uses the term on any character or person (unless it's someone with bpd headcannoning a character with bpd) a big fat serious DNI.

4) "psychotic", "delusional"/"delulu", and "schizo". I hate that I feel the need to say this, but schizophrenia and psychosis are serious mental disorders. Can we stop using fucking mental disorders as insults or as some quirky label. I experience psychosis, and it has ruined my life. As a hellenic polytheist, I often struggle to tell the difference between psychosis or one of my deities talking to me. As a DID system, I sometimes struggle to tell the difference between psychosis and an alter talking to me. As an enjoyer of EPIC: The Musical, psychosis makes it hard to tell if we have a new fictive, if it's psychosis, or a deity.

I'm going to add the stuff said in this reblog since I find it really important:

Stop with lobotomy jokes people. It's a tragic case of medical abuse, and was used many many times on vulnerable people (they'd lobotomize psychotic/schizophrenic people to make them more docile and easier to handle. It's horrific. If they didn't like what a woman was doing, they'd label her psychotic and do it to her too.) The jokes I see are all so tasteless and almost feel mocking to me about it. You didn't go through lobotomies, why are you making it so quirky and downplaying how horrible it is? Schizophrenic and psychotic people (among others but I'm focusing on the group I'm apart of) are still not being taken seriously and left in the dust even after disability activism is on the rise. I don't understand why people will be so understanding with some but then just completely turn off that empathy whenever someone has psychosis. Stop joking about lobotomies, they're not even funny and your sanism is showing.

Taking a bit of another system's post (link) for this lengthy ass post (but I still find it really important to add)

plus, it seems to be entirely ignoring the fact that you can have a symptom of a disorder without having the disorder / being disordered... lets use ADHD as an example here since its the first thing to come to mind LOL, someone can have a short attention span or be distracted easily without inherently having ADHD. it would depend on the presence of other symptoms as well as degree of life impairment. this logic also applies to any other disorder ever... so why dont we apply the same logic to DID / OSDD-1?

I completely agree with this, and it's a big reason why I support endogenic systems (like in the linked post, I'm using endogenic as an umbrella term). The brain is complex. It's as simple as that. So what if a system or alter formed from some other silly way? Who are you to dictate how somebody's brain works? Even before we found out our system was more than just traumagenic, we still got fakeclaimed over the dumbest shit ever and well... for a 13 year old body and newly discovered system, that fakeclaiming was actually really harmful and worsened our trauma. Because of that, we'll always support all systems under the endogenic umbrella or any system that's been deemed "different than others". We don't need to understand how your system works to know that fakeclaiming is harmful and wouldn't wish it on anybody else.

If anyone would like to pitch in, I highly encourage it. I would also appreciate it if anyone could give us some blogs to tag that help educate people on disorders that are downplayed or aren't talked about enough. Some YouTube channels that are informative will be appreciated, too!!

I'm gonna tag my partner's blog ( @zerasocial )if anyone wants to ask them about their experience with ASPD or NPD.

I'd prefer no discourse in any of the notes of this post. If you feel the need to correct me on anything, you're free to DM me and I'll fix anything if needed.

My favorite reblogs of this post so far:

kaleidoscope collective

skylar collective

This especially!! We have a headmate with bipolar and medication has helped her a lot!! Her siblings didn't know what to do to help with her manic episodes since her episodes led to other people getting hurt, but trying to restrain her only worsened her mental state. She's been on meds for I think a year now, and she's much more stable than she was without them. And that's another thing I think I need to note is that restraining isn't always the solution. Especially towards people who already have depressive symptoms, restraining them can potentially make those symptoms worse.

[coraniaid]

This is, I guess, kind of anticipating the surprise twist of next week's episode (and breaking a pretty big rule I set for myself when I first started blogging about Buffy) but ... okay, against my better judgment, I'm now going to engage in Discourse about vampires and souls.

@btvsfemslashenjoyer posted something interesting about the thematic parallels between vampirism and 'hyenificiation' a few days ago that I've been thinking about for a while since reading. That post makes a good argument for some deliberate parallels between Xander's situation in that episode and Angel's status in next week's. I do agree that the Pack are better understood as (conveniently curable) vampire analogues than they are as anything closer to what Catherine Madison was doing to her daughter. And, well, I argued myself that the episode was deliberating positioning Willow as a Buffy analogue (by comparing her attraction to Xander with Buffy's growing attraction to Angel), so it makes a lot of sense that Xander, in that episode, should also be read as a kind of Angel analogue.

I still think my preferred reading is that something (something we may as well call a 'hyena spirit', just to give it a name) possessed Xander and Kyle and the others, but I agree that that 'something' doesn't seem to have had a clear consciousness and sense of self in the way Catherine did while she was walking around in Amy's body. I think it had its own drives and instincts and hungers: for one thing, I don't think there's any other way to read the Pack's repeated habit of breaking out into mocking laughter as anything other than the 'hyena spirit' breaking through (and the episode's writers having no idea what hyena 'laughter' actually meant, of course). But -- just like a vampire -- I think those wants were in some sense expressed through the original memories and knowledge of its host. Hyenas don't know the rules of dodgeball, or how to speak English, or who Xander's old friends were, and so on. To paraphrase Buffy from next season's Lie To Me, I think this 'hyena spirit' is something that "sets up shop in [its hosts] house, and it walks, and it talks, and it remembers [their] life, but it's not [them]".

Hopefully I will come back and talk about this again after watching next week's episode.

To be honest, I've always been pretty firmly of the belief that the writers only decided on Angel being a vampire at all when Angel itself was written. But maybe that's wrong. Or maybe The Pack was written afterwards to offer some extra foreshadowing and then just inserted into the season earlier, or maybe it just coincidentally works as foreshadowing despite never being intended as such. We'll see in a few days, I guess.

For now though, I want to come back to the idea that, in the Buffyverse, [and with the exception of Slayers and a couple of other special individuals] "you can have super strength or a soul but you generally can’t have both". Are we sure that, at this point in the show's run, we're supposed to think vampires don't have souls?

I'm not at all convinced we are. The Master certainly thinks he has a soul: or why would he tell Luke during the ritual to appoint a Vessel for The Harvest that "My blood is your blood. My soul is your soul."? Earlier in The Harvest, Giles tells Buffy and the others that "the books tell the last demon to leave this reality fed off a human, mixed their blood. He was a human form possessed, infected by the demon's soul. He bit another, and another, and so they walk the Earth..."

Yes, vampires are lacking in something -- there has to be something that made human!Jesse himself that vampire!Jesse doesn't have -- and, over time, this 'something' will increasingly get conflated with the idea of a soul. But I don't think that's quite the set-up the show is going for at first. It's interesting in this context to go back and look at the Judge from Season 2's Surprise and Innocence -- per Whedon, the Judge literally exists to confirm that soulless!Angel really has lost whatever made him a good person, but the Judge himself doesn't talk about "souls" at all but "humanity": and this is something he tells us several vampires (Dalton, Drusilla, Spike) explicitly do have. The binary divide between 'soulless vampires' and 'ensouled vampires' is, I think, really a post Season 2 evolution of the show's world-building that isn't really supported by what we see on screen before then.

Just to be sure, I went back to look at the transcripts of those first six episodes again. Not once are vampires referred to as soulless. Here's every instance of the word 'soul' being used, other than the two I've already quoted:

In The Harvest (again), the Master boasts a few times that "every soul" Luke takes will help feed him

In Witch, Catherine's last spell promises that "the dark place will have [her] soul".

In The Pack (as @btvsfemslashenjoyer already mentioned), Giles talks about the Primal's beliefs in a way that conflates the concept of "humanity [...] consciousness [...] the soul".

But that's it. Not only does The Harvest seem to pretty strongly imply that vampires have (demonic) souls, none of the vampires in these six episodes [or, okay, the four episodes that actually have vampires in] are ever called soulless. The one episode that conflates "the soul" with humanity and consciousness is not, explicitly, about vampires at all.

In the replies to the hyenification post, @badwolfwho1 noted that vengeance demons are an exception to the show's usual "demons and vampires don't have souls" rule [D'Hoffryn refers to "the soul of a vengeance demon" in Season 7's Selfless]. But in fact, I think this is actually kind of a return to the show's original status quo. It's only after Angel is firmly established as "a vampire with a soul" that the show really starts to embrace the idea of vampires being explicitly soulless. Even in Season 2's The Dark Age, Angel talks about "having a demon inside me for a couple hundred years", and I think we can identify that 'demon' with the 'demon soul' that Giles's speech and the Master's ritual both imply exists.

My reading of how vampirism works -- at least in the beginning of the show; I'd concede this take doesn't work so well later on -- is that it's a sort of ... parasitism, almost? Witch establishes that this is a world where souls exist and can be moved from body to body (that's why her spell to send her target's soul to the dark place ends up transferring her own consciousness to her cheerleading trophy). Vampires like the Master also talk about having a soul, although this soul isn't necessarily a human one: demons (per Giles) have souls as well (in fact, we hear about a demon's soul before we're introduced to the idea of a human soul). When, for whatever reason, demons "lost their purchase on this reality", some enterprising demon, before leaving, found a way to "infect" human hosts with his soul. The original human died -- their soul was gone -- but something else replaced it. Something that was, effectively, the offspring of that first demon. Vampires refer to the vampires that bit them as their 'sire', don't they? (Although I don't think that word appears in the first six episodes of the show either...).

Unlike Catherine's spell, this didn't transfer the original demon's consciousness -- Giles says the demon still left out reality, after all -- so I think it makes sense to almost think of this as the original demon somehow laying a (metaphorical) egg in the body of its human victim. This egg hatched -- birthing a new demonic soul -- but, unlike when a human or demon is born ordinarily, in a vampire the new consciousness, the demon, inherits all of the memories and acquired skills of its host. These memories, along with the demon's 'biological' drive to feed and lack of emotional sympathy for its potential victims, then go on to shape the new creature. How much of the original human's personality survives varies from vampire to vampire.

Indeed, I think the implication is that the more able to justify their new urge to eat people to themselves the human would have been the more of their old personality the vampire will retain and the more powerful they'll be as a result, which is why the tortured-into-madness Drusilla and human serial killers like Andrew Borba or Zachary Kralik are particularly dangerous, and why vamp!Willow is so recognizable as a repressed part of our Willow, but "Mr Sanderson from the bank" or those young Watchers Kralik manages to sire just shuffle around wordlessly and follow orders like zombies -- but I admit that's mostly just fanon. Regardless, in no case is the vampire really the person they "used" to be, even though they do remember being that person and don't remember anything else. Not simply because they don't have a soul, but because that missing soul has been replaced by something else.

So, while as I said I'm tempted to agree that hyenification works a lot like vampirism, I'm not sure I do agree that this means Xander isn't possessed by some active controlling entity. Rather, I think that -- at least in the first half of season one of the show -- that that's how vampirism is supposed to work too. I don't think we're meant to think of vampires as just the original human personalities but lacking some sort of constraint that previously stopped them killing and torturing people: I think a vampire is a combination of the memories of a person with the hungers of something else. And I think that 'hyenification' is meant to be understood in a very similar way. The original hyenas don't switch bodies with Kyle and the others, but they instead infect them with something that slowly takes them over and changes them. Just like that demon Giles talked about in The Harvest first did to its original victim. With the exception being, of course, that a vampire's host is already dead (so vampirism proper cannot be cured and the original human soul isn't trapped inside their possessed body watching it act but unable to stop it), while Xander and the rest of the Pack are alive and forced to watch what they're made to do (not unlike, in fact, the manner in which the show will later imply Angelus, the demon soul inside Angel, is forced to exist by the curse).

[fairydares]

loook i get why the idea of riding the "anti/pro" fandom disk horse makes people gag a little in their mouth and try to opt out entirely, but here's why i went from feeling exactly the same way to taking a firm profiction stance. I've been meaning to make this post for a while.

~10 years ago, I posted a fic for the first time and it got its own harassment campaign. The fic wasn't even sexual, and wasn't going to be (it remains incomplete). It was accurately rated T on fanfiction.net. Anyone in the Fairy Tail fandom will understand this: I literally got harassed for writing a "Lucy leaves the guild" fic💀.

After many nice comments, someone left a pretty nasty one. Hurt, I messaged them back. They acted super attacked that I'd responded (lmao) and after we argued, threatened to "rip my shitty story apart in the comments section" if I responded again. I told them "go ahead lol."

They went ahead.

Now know that it was a relatively small harassment campaign, but at the time, it was devastating. Right around then, I wound up in the hospital. After I got out, I went to excitedly check my fic, and found several reviews saying things I wouldn't repeat to my worst enemy. I was suicide-baited more than once, told "thank fuck you finally abandoned this shitty story, dumb cunt," stuff like that.

There were several accounts involved, and I can't say for sure, but I suspect at least a couple different people were involved, though probably at least half of it was one person.

All the other comments were screeching about how I hadn't updated, mostly. "NO UPDAAATEE WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPENS TO MEEEE??!!!" was one that stood out after I'd been miserable in a hospital for an extended period of time.

Idk what people think is going on when FT fic authors write this trope, and frankly I don't give a fuck. Because while I was partly writing the story out of some young, cringe feminist rage, I also did genuinely have a real story I was compelled to tell. I was inspired by another, popular fic I loved which used the trope to talk about how trying to shoulder our burdens alone really just hurts both ourselves and everyone who cares about us.

My own story was ultimately going to have similar themes, with more focus on strength, what it means, and in what contexts earning and having it actually matters. In retrospect, no wonder I wound up in hot water, because at the time "Lucy vs. Strength vs. Misogyny" was the FT fandom's Designated Nonsensically Activist Debate™. But that's partly why i wanted to write about it; engaging with the fandom had gotten me thinking about it 🤷‍♂️

Not too long after that, FFNet oh-so-benevolently granted us the ability to delete comments from our own stories (they never took my reports seriously at all, afaik). I deleted all or most of the harassers' comments (may still be a one or two up, and i'm fairly sure there's a couple comments defending my fic from the harassment) without saving screenshots, which I really regret now. I was just so mortified and full of self-loathing about the whole thing that i wanted to forget it completely. Something that had brought me joy at a very lonely, vulnerable period of my life had turned so negative, and i couldn't even tell the people closest to me about it without being made fun of for writing anime fan fiction.

I didn't understand why this happened at the time, but--after a period of trying to forget/bid out of it all with a slight anti lean (a common approach I see people use, and one which I'm not proud of adopting)--I just had to figure out What the Fuck Even Happened There. And I'm telling you, after years of reflecting, wrestling with both sides, and educating myself, that this "status quo of harassment" culture which pervades fandom goes way deeper than you think and comes out of a way darker well than you probably realize. An astonishing amount of this is, quite literally, TERF shit and evangelical shit.

Trying to be in fandom and take a stance of, "Anti/Pro shit? Ew, I'm Not Touching that," is like swimming in a heavily polluted river and being like, "Poison? Cringe. Not me lol."

You might be lucky enough to be in a less-polluted part of the river (AKA a relatively non-toxic fandom, in which case good for you!)...but tbh this rhetoric and peer-signalling will still seep in.

I can't stress enough that pro-fiction, AKA "proship", is the normal, leftist-about-art-and-sex opinion. Pro-ship is against all the horrible things you're against; in fact, pro-ship isn't trivializing real trauma by equating it with fictional trauma, or trying to apply literal evangelical/radfem solutions--which are proven not to prevent or help. Profiction/proship is literally just saying, "Fiction is fiction, reality is reality, and the two don't have a 1:1 relationship. And historically, trying to censor just things we've decided are bad has done nothing but get LGBTQ+ and POCs censored. Therefore, depictions of illegal things shouldn't be censored." That's it. "Proshippers all ship problematic ships," is a brazen lie. Many of them share other fans' disgust for those ships, they just don't believe in censoring fic authors over it.

It is also taking a stand against harassment because--and I hope my own story has helped drive this home--as with all groups who adopt ingroup/outgroup thinking, antis are defined by their tactics, not actual stances on real, serious issues. What happened to me was absolutely a result of anti, "it's okay to 'bully out' anything I just don't like" mindset pervading fandom. In a way, this was the mindset's final form. They didn't even feel the need to cite a reason the trope was "bad" or "wrong"; it annoyed them, and they viewed their own feelings as a valid enough pathway for policing to go right ahead and do so.

In the interest of offering solutions instead of just bitching about problems, I might make a "how to know if you've bought into these types of views"-type post sometime. Also might come back to this and provide some sources/citation.

[thefandomenchantress]

Chapter 2 Episode 15 Spoilers below!

Since Ace being the culprit has brought about so much pain to ace lovers, including me, I figured I'd make a list of all the good things that him being the culprit brings to us. Even though Ace will (probably) be executed next episode, that doesn't mean that nothing good came out of this, right?

-Ace's backstory may be revealed much sooner than expected! Before we would've had to wait for chapter 3 or chapter 4 and so on, but since Ace will be gone soon, almost everything not revealed next episode will get told to us in a bonus episode! (I think every dead person gets one of those? Idk if that's officially confirmed). I doubt Teruko's gonna find, like, Ace's diary in chapter three detailing his life story, so if we're ever getting the Taylor Lore™, it'll be in a bonus episode! Plus, a bonus episode would come out a lot faster than the whole of chapter three, so more Ace content sooner no matter what happens in it! And there's always the chance he gets picked for an FTE, since dead people are on the list of options.

-Ace canonically has neat, fancy handwriting. Begone rumors of Ace having illegible, traditionally boy-ish handwriting, he actually writes like a 19th century scholar and I find this very funny. More evidence for my 'Ace likes reading and writing and wanted to become a romance author' crack theory, since he also reenforced his particularness about vocabulary in chapter 2 part 2. (Our only remaining question: Does Ace actually have terrible spelling ('responsibel'), or did he just think Eden would?)

-Ace is very good at being sneaky and often overhears things he shouldn't. I can't wait for this to be used as a plot device in numerous fics ("XANDER YOU'LL NEVER GUESS THE SHIT I JUST HEARD DAVID SAY ABOUT YOU WHEN HE THOUGHT HE WAS ALONE").

-Ace will have to be included in the dead (formerly a) trio posts forevermore. Get ready for Xander-Min-Arei-Ace shenanigans.

-Now that the cast has been forced to acknowledge that being dumb and angry aren't Ace's only traits and that he's just as human as the rest of them, Ace is much less likely to be seen as just those two things by the average viewer. Ace's popularity, or at least the amount of dislike towards him, seems to have shifted since the last episode, and I'm happy more people are able to enjoy what his character has to offer now. He's a cool little guy. I've literally NEVER seen the Ace Markey tag this busy before.

-We got so many cool Ace CGs guys. SO MANY. Including one where he's hanging upside down on the swing set and looks weirdly cute for someone in the middle of a murder plan.

-Also new sprites! The DRDTdev gave Ace a redesign knowing full-well that it would only get a singular chapter of use, and I massively respect that. We already got some new sprites in part 2 of chapter 2 so far, and I'm guessing next episode he'll probably have at least one more breakdown sprite before he dies.

-For someone who no one in the cast liked, he's definitely going to leave an impact. He's finally made at least some of the cast realize what happens when they ignore the issues right in front of them. Ace shouts about how everyone hates him and sees him as an insufferable idiot? Eh, probably nothing, we don't have to worry about that. Sure, multiple people told him he's gonna die next in here, and he almost got murdered, but that won't amount to anything. What's he gonna do, murder someone--WAIT SHIT Ace step away from the Arei I repeat step away from the Arei-- (plus Teruko parallels). I'll probably go more in-depth about this sort of thing in a different post.

-WE NEVER GOT TO SEE WHAT'S UNDER HIS GLOVES. Kyoko and Mukuro both had hand-related secrets that connected them to the plot later on, does that mean Ace will have some sort of relevance to the mastermind or overall lore later on? Like a Mai tattoo situation? (Or maybe it's another thing that may be alluded to or discussed in the bonus episode)(Or left to interpretation but I hope not because I have so many theories).

If you have any more suggestions for other good Ace-related things the culprit reveal brought us, let me know and I can add them to the list! We need as many good things as we can think of right now...

[dilly-dahlia]

Hi! This may be an odd request, but do you have an tips on writing? I've been wanting to start, but I'm not really sure how to. :)

hi!!!! omg i’m so honored you asked me wth 😭 does this mean i’ve made it as a writer /j

before i say anything though I feel the need to preface that i’ve been writing fictional stories since i was in first grade so i quite literally have a decade of experience under my belt. and you’re probably gonna hate me for saying this but literally write🧍🏻‍♀️ just do it. like i’m being so serious. this is something i wrote like six or seven years ago and i’ve improved so much simply because i kept doing it (i promise this isn’t all the advice)

but also!! since you said you’re not sure where to start try reading! read novels you think you’d like or fanfics to get a feel for how to write. reading the writing of others also unknowingly gives you knowledge of grammar and punctuation rules if that’s something you’re worried about. it can also help you find your own writing style, like if you read something and think “oh i like that” then you can implement it into your own writing!! me personally, I love the way Stephanie Garber and Taylor Jenkins Reid write and i feel like it’s evident that some of the stylistic choices i make are influences of theirs

also read traditionally published novels if you want to know a more “professional” way to write because that’s what got a company’s attention!

another thing that helped me personally a lot is writing just the basic. like not worrying about fluff or describing how people are feeling at all. just very blunt he said/she said. he did/she did. this is how they did it. stuff like that. i feel like what trips people up is that they think it has to be pretty writing and super descriptive right from the start and it really doesn’t, you can always go back and add feeling and fluff later!!

^one of the things that really helped me with this is writing it like a script like so:

Cassandra: Why did you volunteer me to do this? I haven’t even been properly introduced to Dahlia’s followers yet!

Gene: Because you’re the first one that came to her mind. Now go.

Cassandra: [dramatic sigh] Fiiiiine. I guess.

[Cassandra steps up to the microphone and taps on it.]

Cassandra: Hello? Is this thing on?

this is actually how i wrote a bunch of first drafts, especially since i can’t make mental images for myself, planning it out in a basic manner like this helped me a lot (I also sometimes use this method to get rid of writer’s block). i feel like this is helpful because it lets me think in terms of stages of writing instead of trying to do everything all at once. the order i do it in is

1. basic actions and words

2. how they said those words and how they did their actions

3. how can i convey how this character is feeling while doing/saying this? (for this i look at myself and think of how i would say/do what the character is)

4. if it’s internal, how does it feel? what is going through the characters head?

and i repeat those steps until it looks something like this:

“Why did you volunteer me to do this?” Cassandra groaned. “I haven’t even been properly introduced to Dahlia’s followers yet!”

“Because you’re the first one that came to her mind,” Gene bluntly stated. “Now go.”

He pushed Cassandra forward. She groaned again and reluctantly stepped up to the microphone placed in the center of the room.

“Fine.” She dragged the word out as she adjusted the microphone to her height, tapping on it and flinching at the feedback. “Hello? Is this thing on?”

and i don’t always like it, but that’s okay! i’ve come to accept that not everything is going to be perfect. i know that’s hard for a lot of people to realize (it still is for me sometimes) but it’s essential in something as objective as writing!

so if you have an idea just write it and see how it goes! you don’t have to post it anywhere, you can keep it to yourself and make notes of things you want to change. OR you can post it and ask for creative criticism (bye i forgot what it’s called but asking people to give you tips to improve). if you’re wanting to write for the aphmau fandom specifically i’ve found that people in this fandom are very respectful for the most part!

but truly the most important things are to read other people’s work and write your own. like all things, you truly do get better with practice. it’s like a muscle—the more you work it the stronger it gets!

also genuinely thank you so much for asking me this anon omg. you asking this in itself is a compliment because to me it means that you really enjoy my writing and that just makes me so happy. i wish you the best on your writing journey!!

[lore-of-mobius]

Only Male Hedgehogs Can Go Super Debunked

"The Chaos Emeralds are a super-substance that gives energy to all living things." "The 7 Emeralds are the servers. Chaos is power, enriched by the heart. The controller serves to unify the chaos." "The servers are the seven Chaos. Chaos is power, power is enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos."

So, all these quotes. They all point to one thing and that is anyone can use the power of the Chaos Emeralds. Now one might ask, what about the claim only male hedgehogs can go super? Well..... It's wrong.

Okay so the claim seems originates from GeneHF on Sonic Retro's discussion boards, the one titled Sonic Runners announced (Sonic Team/Mobile) which was started Dec 28, 2014. Credit to definitivedubs post on Sonic Retro under the title "Only male hedgehogs can turn Super" made Feb 21, 2023. As they are one was able to find where this claim originated. So GeneHF claims that "-Only male hedgehogs may have Super forms. Blaze is the exception because of her position as (now former(?)) guardian of the Sol Emeralds, and her power up is just called Burning Blaze to get around that. This is why Knuckles lost his super form." They also claim that this is from the Sonic Bible and that Iizuka said this stuff publicly, but provide no source. Note, I'm not addressing the Sonic Stadium stuff because that literally leads nowhere. Something else to note is even the rumors of only male hedgehogs alongside other rumors seem to have been floating around since before then.

That being said, a post was made by one Morio Kishimoto on Twitter which says the following. "何度もお手紙をありがとうございました！「オスのハリネズミだけがスーパーになれる」と言う話しを私ははじめて聞きました。スーパーになれる、なれない、はそのゲームプレイの必然性によると、私は思いますけど・・・。" Which using simple translation translates to.... "Thank you for your many letters! This is the first time I've heard that 'only male hedgehogs can become super.' I think that whether or not a hedgehog can become a super hedgehog depends on the inevitability of the gameplay." Kishimoto basic says that he's never heard of such a claim which could imply it doesn't exist at all. Alongside this whether not say a hedgehog can go super is depends on gameplay. Meaning that characters going super is simply dependent on the gameplay and not some nebulous rule. A side note if someone like GeneHF did see some kind of rule, they probably misunderstood it. As in characters like Amy can't simply be given a super form in a game if there isn't a reason to give her such a form gameplay wise. While Burning Blaze not being called Super Blaze makes sense because the Sol Emeralds are involved and not the Chaos Emeralds. Yes this bit is speculation but it may explain why GeneHF might have thought this.

Now while I did make an post where I believed the only male hedgehogs things was the reason why say Knuckles had super power in Superstars, referring to a Sonic Twitter Takeover. I believe I misunderstood it. I will repeat what I said in another post. "In Sonic Twitter & TikTok Takeover #7 - All Answers at 8:46 they could very well be referring to the unique powers the Chaos Emeralds display specifically on NorthStar Island, Eggman even commenting on how it would be useful to slow Sonic down." Also, in said post I brought up how in TailsTube #3 (feat. Knuckles), Knuckles said "it is not my place to use the Emerald's power. It is my job to protect it." This could imply Knuckles can go Super as he did joke about going super in Sonic Frontiers, but actively choose not to. So in said post I talk about how while the super forms don't happen canonically, and are only there for the gameplay like Hishimoto said btw. Characters like Amy, Tails, and Knuckles do have the potential to go Super.

So the claim only male hedgehogs can go super is simply not true, but it's also backed up by the games. This is because many characters in the games have been able to wield the power of the Chaos Emeralds and achieve their own super forms. These include Perfect Chaos, Ultimate Gemerl, Mecha Sonic, and Metal Sonic in both his base and Neo Metal Forms, and Dragon Form Trip. While not canon the movie universe has this also being the case as it parallels the games in this regard. Written by Eris

[moongothic]

I don't even know how to start this post, I've been just thinking about this concept of like... "Role Redundancy" in One Piece, regarding the OG Shichibukai. A lot of it does come from people just speculating about Crocodile's past and future role in the story, and how often I do kind of feel like certain suggestions/ideas feel somewhat too redundant, as the idea may have already been done with another one of the Warlords if not multiple. (An example of this could be the "former slave" theory, because we already have two former slaves amongst the OG Shichibukai; the fact that Crocodile would then be the THIRD one makes me less likely to believe the theory personally.)

And that just made me wonder even more about how, when you think about it, a lot of the Warlords do actually have stuff in common with one-another, but only to a limited degree. Like there is what almost feels like intentional redundancy amongst these characters and their roles, but it's done carefully so they're not too repetetive?

And to really visualize the connections... I had to make a chart

(Could've added a "Tried to kill Luffy" but literally the only characters who wouldn't fall into that bubble would be Jimbei and Kuma, so it felt a little unnecessary)

Now this is just what I could think of very quickly at the top of my head, you probably could figure out more "Role Redundancies" between these characters. But figuring out all the theoretical connections/similarities between the characters isn't as important as noting how, yeah, most of those similarities are only shared once or twice between characters. They get repeated, but not so much they become actually reduntant in the story (personal feelings/relationship with Luffy aside, that one is quite natural to repeat after all) Also interesting how Crocodile seems to have The Most Shit going on with him, to the point the only characters he doesn't really seem to have one-on-one similarities to are Moria and Hancock

I don't really have a point to this post, I just thought it was interesting to think about and try to visualize. And I do wonder if this could be used to like, try to predict where the story is going, somehow? But yeah, just something to chew on

[befuddledcinnamonroll]

Perfect Propose - final thoughts

Another absolutely stellar series from Japan. It's so interesting to think about my favorite QLs from each country, and why they all appeal in different ways. When it comes to Japan, there's something about the quiet nuance, the depth of feeling hidden beneath social nicety, the things that don't have to be completely spelled out to be understood, and in the end, the desire for connection and love to be given its rightful place above work and status.

I did a post last week that really highlights what I love about the themes in this show, and how relatable I find it to my own life experience. And considering it's been one of my more popular posts recently, I think I'm not the only one who feels seen by a critique of capitalistic culture and an expression of longing.

I don't want to repeat what I said there, so I just want to highlight a few additional things that I think made this series work really well.

I talked a lot about Hiro previously, because I've literally lived his experience (though not quite as extreme) but I do love that Kai also had his own journey here. He'd been abandoned his whole life, and his one major connection outside of Hiro was someone who couldn't outwardly express affection. Kai struggled to see what value he could bring to someone else, and feared doing damage just by his presence. He hoped for Hiro's acceptance, but was resigned to rejection. Hiro letting down his walls let Kai understand that he truly mattered, and that no matter how futile life may feel sometimes, him being there meant something to Hiro.

I like that we get a follow up with the coworkers, and see that they still have a great relationship with both Hiro and Kaneko. It's so easy to think that we are irreplaceable, or that we are abandoning people, but those who truly care about you will only be happy for your decision - and maybe it will help them seek happiness of their own (I like to think they have all quit by now).

I like that it ended with a little bit of heat, to show that Hiro wasn't just making this choice out of loyalty, but that he genuinely has desire for Kai. (Not at all saying shows have to have heat to show love, just that in this particular case, it worked to show it was an equal relationship in terms of want).

Cons - we never got to see the supervisor get punched in the face. Special episode? Just one minute will do!

[solgasart]

ACOTAR Theory

Ever since Sarah Maas posted about finishing the draft of book 6, the fandom has been on edge. Speculation about who the next book will be about has become even more heated. In general, everyone assumes that the book will be about Elain. But how and with whom her love story will develop remains a mystery. I also wanted to share my thoughts and reflect on the theories. ;))

Elain and Azriel. Honestly, I like this storyline. I liked how mutual understanding instantly arose between the characters and a spark of special warmth flashed. Elain literally dispelled Azriel's shadows. But many believe that this storyline is unlikely, because it will be too banal if 3 sisters connect their lives with 3 bat brothers. But I am not against it at all. ;))) Some people think that such a story lacks conflict to develop the plot. I see a lot of conflicts here. For example, Azriel will feel he has no right to break the sacred mating bond between Elain and Lucien. Given that Gwyn has also set her sights on Azriel, he may try to drown out his warm feelings for Elain with Gwyn. And probably the mating bond will happen or not. And here we have many broken hearts and one love triangle. On the other hand, Lucien will be jealous of Elain for Azriel, and we will get another love triangle. In addition, Azriel may decide that he is not made for family life at all. His service is too dangerous, and his nature is too dark, and he does not want to bring trouble to the gentle Elain. Elain, in turn, in response to Azriel's denial of love, may become a priestess and reject a mating bond with Lucien. It seems to me that she has such a natur that she can easily devote herself to service, like Azriel. What else tells me about the Elriel line is the conversation between Feyre and Rhys about the mating bond and how its existence does not necessarily mean the unity of souls and happiness. And we know that Maas very often returns to what he said earlier. In general, as you can see, with such a scenario, quite a lot of events can be unfolded in the book. In short, my wild imagination can run wild here.

Elain and Lucien. At first glance, I did not see any connection between these two. With all my sympathy for Lucien, I do not see him next to Elain. In this case, even the "from hate to love" does not work, because there is no hatred between them and no spark. Elain initially felt very uncomfortable with him. And Lucien isn't exactly happy to be around either. They're more like burdened by each other. There's a physical attraction because of Lucien's connecting thread, but Elain is indifferent, they haven't developed any emotional closeness. This could be called a conflict, but I don't see a beautiful development for it. Besides, it's all too direct. They are Mates - they must be together. So what now? Everyone will try to persuade Elain, force her to come to terms with the existence of this bond. Lucien will perform feats and try to turn Elain to his side, and Elain will suddenly fall in love with him? Somehow it's not very interesting or romantic. I think Lucien deserves a more worthy manifestation of love towards him.

Elain and Tamlin. Yes, yes, I've seen this suggestion in the fandom. To me, it seems completely discouraging and unlikely. It's hard to imagine that after such a painful love for Feyre, Tamlin would suddenly switch to her sister. And Elain, after everything that happened earlier, would suddenly fall in love with Feyre's almost-husband. And how can Feyre relate to such a union? In my opinion, it's impossible. Although with such a turn of events, there is room to turn around and show a big conflict. And here I again remember how Feyre herself thought that Elain would be more suitable for Tamlin and she would be completely satisfied with life in the Spring Court. I repeat again that Maas rarely has phrases that are just thrown out … But in any case, this couple seems completely unlikely to me. Anyone, but Tamlin.

Now I'm very curious which theory will be in the book and how things will develop. Who will be right in the end. And what kind of couple do you think is destined for Elain?

[theeternalcosmos]

please read this! ty<3 :

Intro

u can call me W or Cosmos or whatever else you'd like!!

I'm pan & genderfluid, so any pronouns are cool aside from he/him (yuck), bring on the they/thems! Bring on the she/hers! Bring on the it/its! Bring on ones I've not even heard of I wanna collect them like millennials collected pogs or whatever those things were called! I'll preface as well that I'm also a switch (vers irl, likely more sub on here lol), and in an open poly relationship w/ my partner.

What are you doing back here?!?!?

This is one of my repeated attempts at a blog for my horny side, though I expect to not be as active on this as the others I'd made before. I deleted the other two both pretty abruptly on a whim bc I wasn't feeling it anymore so if I disappear it's bc of that most likely. I also used to post pics, which I've not decided on whether I'll do again yet. I am moreso considering whether I'll post art here! Which if I do will be spicy, and bc of my style probably linkable with my other art if you do find it, just don't like doxx me or anything, otherwise idc if you know, it's just a form of creative expression like anything else. ;)

Likes:

Art/art history, loud music (I've been learning guitar :3), videogames (been playing a lot of No Man's Sky and DBD lately), ttrpgs (most familiar with 5e but wanna get into pathfinder/starfinder), tarot, reading, running a kink blog.

the over detailed and assumed kink/ick lists:

Kinks:

These kinds of lists are fluid and subject to change and definitely isn't everything, but in no particular order:

BDSM

Hypnosis

Edging

Petplay

Dom/sub or alternatively 2 switches beating the everloving hell out of one another.

Priest/nun kinks

Corruption

Pred/prey

Gender nonconformity!! (Less just a kink and generally also something I'm attracted to and admire deeply. show me your hairy, stocky tummy, 6ft '5 girl!! show me all your curves and soft features my masc! show me all your contradictions enby baddie!! Wear yourself with love.)

Breeding

Yaoi

Nsfw art/hentai/rule34

Degradation

Humiliation

Feet

Bondage

SOME transformation (don't talk abt turning me into like a shelf or article of clothing but I don't mind other kinds of changes to my features or personality, like [non misogynistic] bimbofication or dumbification or dronification. a lot of these resulted from my hypno kink and corruption kink as you'd imagine lol)

I'm uninitiated, but interested in omegaverse after strong recommendation from my partner and friends so if u have suggestions lmk.

If it's queer and freaky and not involving my icks, I'll likely dig it.

Icks

Raceplay (DNI)

Scat (DNI)

Piss (I've known many chill piss enjoyers it's okay to interact, just pls don't piss on me I'll cry.)

Sissy kink

AB/DL / ageplay (DNI)

Incxst (ik a lot of feuxcest enjoyers y'all are chilling just don't call me your biological relative and we're cool B). )

Findom (please for the love of the gods leave me alone I'm literally too broke to participate and it makes me uncomfortable. No one time fees, no paypiggies, ew. DNI)

Any/everything involving minors (if you have an issue with that you're probably a pedo and I will block you. So DNI)

Misogyny (if you have "a woman's place is serving men" kinda stuff, or bimbofication stuff captioned like "fixing women" I will literally throw up. Which is also a category of kink I'm not into!)

Ai porn

Welcome to my blog, thank you for reading this far!

DMs & asks are open, just pls be courteous and understand if I'm not active or immediately respond. If I do post more art I may open up commissions or something like that, if anyone would be interested? 👀 The tags to this will hopefully be helpful in seeing any future posts I make without 2 billion reblogs in the way.

[pomefioredove]

hello hello miss dove ! congratulations on your 500 followers :)

if it's convenient for you, could i please exclude lilia and trey (not to be rude to them i just don't like trey and lilia is an old man basically)

i'm not the best with describing myself but i'll try (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧

on the mbti personality test, i am an istp, so from that, i would guess that i'm pretty blunt? idk. i can't really handle situations well, so i practically just go into blunt blank slate mode where i'm just like "you do you ig"

when in the case i am handling the situation with mild proficiency or i like the subject, i can seem quite energized. i always move may hands around or am jumping (i think is how you would describe it? idk, sort of similar to when you're going like |┘^^|┘but up and down and also bouncing like wawawawa)

i am however, easily distracted and procrastinate often. it's not like i do it on purpose but things get boring and i want to do other things but i feel a moral obligations to do the boring things and then i get stuck in that cycle for half an hour (i'm not sure shy, i was told adhd but i'm not diagnosed) i still get straight A though (my mom says i was a stem kid (science technology engineering math))

i <333 sleep but sleep with another person in close proximity is a no no. personal space please and thank you

physical contact?? in theory yes, but actually no

sleep <3

lyney and furina?? i am literally a star trust i am furina and lyney combined that got isekaid to this world (trust)

interest (romance wise)? lyney <3

i am talking too much about myself im sorry

i enjoy video games (too much) like genshin, hsr, twst(trust) pjsk or visual novels, and I have a nice little kirara box from genshin that i made ^^ i like collecting things that i like (cute stuff), watching anime that interest me (cooking anime <3) and food, because food is good, but if i eat too much food i will feel ＞︿＜ and i don't like feeling nasty. baked goods taste good but not too sweet or else the nasty forms. i can also play instruments !! (violin, contrabass, piano, currently semi-learning viola and cello, i can hold a flute correctly)

sadly i get sick all of the time (my friends have said "you have no immune system" or "sickly victorian child" exact words) but that's a lie im too good to get sick (not real)

i almost had a black belt in taekwondo but i didn't like taekwondo so i left (also covid happened but that's not important)

should i also describe myself? i will, but please ignore this bit if you don't need it

im not tall, but not incredibly short (~160cm) i've been told that i have pretty eyes (hazel) but me personally i just think that they look like standard eyes, they do their job well enough (they are not good at their job my eyes cannot see and i need glasses (contacts are scary)) i have very dark black hair that fades into, you guessed it, dark dark brown hair. (my mom once described it as soft black but idk) its styled like gaming's hair from genshin but a little bit longer (i like to think i look very neutral but i look like a female)

my lifestyle i think is pretty normal. i go to school, go to weekly math or coding club, go home and do work, p r o c r a s t i n a t e, sleep repeat until weekend where i life is a void of forgetfulness and then FUWUASHSH!! monday again. in my free time i do enjoy occasionally baking and traveling (japan !!)

oh no its long i'm sorry i rambled on too much :( please don't take this request if you are too busy i don't want you to feel overwhelmed. if you do want to write for this, then i will be dutifully watchin your posts to see anything familiar (‘-‘*ゞ i'm sorry if everything in this request sounds weird, i am not good with my english. please take care of yourself and have a great happy awesome super delicous wonderhoy day !!

-person who loves your work

I match you with 𝐒𝐞𝐛𝐞𝐤 𝐙𝐢𝐠𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐭

The First Impression:

Sebek is... Sebek. He can be a little hard to get through to at times, even if his core intentions are good. And he doesn't exactly leave a good impression on a lot of people... not that he means to. Perhaps it's your bluntness, or your nonchalant attitude towards him, but for whatever reason, he doesn't immediately write you off.

Why He Fell:

You guys will kill me for this but Sebek is a little cutie. A little fanboy. He's also jumping up and down like wawawawa when he gets excited. He has a lot of growing to do, but if there's anything admirable about him, it's that once you're close to him, he will care about you forever. (Whether he'd like to admit that or not).

Though, truly, he admires you. You're obviously intelligent, you're honest (AKA blunt, but so is he), you have experience in martial arts... somehow, he finds himself watching his tone more around you, and shelving his boisterous, over-confident persona.

The Relationship:

No touching, no problem. Sebek is already getting used to this whole "dating" thing (not that he can't handle being eternally devoted to another person... look at the guy), and he might even breathe a sigh of relief when you say you don't have to sleep in the same bed.

Sebek is... protective, and that's an understatement. He loves people fiercely, and isn't shy about it. You can expect lots of attention and worry and care, especially as someone who gets sick a lot. He will insist on doing everything for you. He'll make an attempt to keep you on task when you need it, too, though he might not be as great at preventing you from overexerting yourself (as he is with himself!)

[fernlessbastard]

Just thought I'd send you some positivity and thoughts, after reading your stories. (They were just wonderful, by the way).

I love the way you depicted Wilbur. A man who has longed for physical touch, attention, and (honestly) Quackity, for thirteen years. God the way you depict him is absolutely splendid. I couldn't have done it better!

Making him desperately beg for Quackity's time because even though he's a prick who wants nothing more than to be on top, he also lacks that attention that only Quackity can give him.

Versus Quackity who is stand offish. Had only ever been hurt physically. It takes him awhile to let Wilbur touch him, to open his walls and allow them to break down enough for Wilbur to slip inside of that crack. It's so gorgeous.

I love them so much, and you are such an awesome writer I hope to read more by you. [:

-🎲 anon

;-; thank you so muchhhh you made my entire week with this

I was planning to post chapter 2 over the weekend but I didn't have enough time to edit and all that, so instead I'll try to post it this week between Wednesday and Sunday

It's actually so frustrating, cause it's literally basically ready. I edited it thoroughly already, and had it beta read, but then during that I had it pointed out that I overused/repeated like three or four words (it's over 7k words so unfortunately unintentional repetition is easy) so I had to decide where to keep them and where and with what to replace them. So now I could honestly post it already, but I just have to make sure the changes don't impact the flow, so I need to find the time for both myself and my partner (who's my beta reader) to separately read it quickly in one go

Like I wish so hard I wasn't such a perfectionist cause it's genuinely ready to get posted and the likelihood that something's still even slightly wrong is tiny, but noooo, I still gotta perfect it to my very last breath or something

Anyway I'm not trying to justify myself (I know you're all great and respectful, guys, dw), but I'm more so just kinda venting cause it's an irritating situation

I just want to post it for you already ok I'm excited to read your comments and asks and all of that - reading your thoughts (whatever they may be, even more negative) always a highlight of my whole month (just, having people engage with my art✨✨✨)

Oh also just as a last little note: if you think I've already portrayed Quackity as a hurt, traumatised man, then you're not ready for the rest of IUTMTM--(/lh/aff/pos) Let me tell you they both need therapy bad and the worst kind of miscommunication is misplaced trauma response responded to with another trauma response-- There will be pain

[snakes-kin]

Hi there! Today is day 10/11 (I missed a day so I'm trying to catch up)!

First post, tag on blog.

General #2: 10. Kintype(s): Common misconceptions

I've already talked a bit at length about the giant misconceptions surrounding 'alpha' wolves, and how I absolutely hate the trope in all its forms. So, for the sake of not repeating myself, I'll simply skip over that misconception.

Another very common misconception is one I see with crows; that being, that crows 'like' or prefer shiny objects. This is just… Untrue. Yes, crows are quite varied personality-wise just like humans are, and so of course there may be some specific crows that do prefer shiny objects… But there's just as much of a chance of crows absolutely hating shiny objects. It depends on the crow!

Saarn, as well as the nälkä religion as a whole… Have a massive amount of misconceptions, even on the official SCP website itself! Probably the most glaringly painful and incorrect if you do one minute of research yet is still somehow wide-spread misconception I can think of is that the nälkä are Yaldabaoth worshippers… Ignoring the fact that we literally want to kill Yaldabaoth, are we also just completely forgetting Ion here? Ion is closer to being the 'worshipped deity' of the nälkä religion than Yaldabaoth ever was.

General #1: 11. If you’re out, talk about the most accepting person you’ve come out to. If you’re not out, talk about what you would hope a coming out experience would be like.

Funny enough, I just 'came out' to one of my moms about being fictionkin today. I didn't use the exact same language/wording (for example, I didn't just say 'I am fictionkin of Klavigar Saarn' because I knew she likely wouldn't even know what fictionkin are or who Saarn is), I more or less used similar concepts that she already knew to explain myself. Since she is already a very spiritual person, she didn't even question it, and even encouraged me to talk about my source. She even listened to the possibility that I might've been Saarn multiple times over. I feel like it was pretty close to what I would want a coming out experience like that to be.

General #2: 11. Community: Online

I am… A bit conflicted by the current state of the online otherkin community.

On one hand, there are definitely some enjoyable beings I've met here! On the other, I do feel that, the Tumblr community especially, has become less carefree? As in, there is a certain tense atmosphere around worrying if what you say is 'wrong', especially from newer/younger members. I can unfortunately completely understand this feeling, speaking from personal experience I can tell how it is choking out the creativity from newer/younger folks.

I recently read 'The Dragonheart Collective's Testimony on the KFF Phenomenon', and as I mentioned in a small ramble post of mine, I feel like the combination of the rise of KFF and cringe culture certainly has not helped the atmosphere of the community. And thus why I also think why so many fictionkin prefer to share their experiences on 'kinfession' blogs, because it's safer and easier.

I wasn't actually around in the community during the period of either KFF or cringe culture, but I was heavily into cringe culture in self-shipping (AKA 'Sans fangirls') and fandom spaces, and I can certainly tell you that both self-shipping and fandom communities have decidedly gotten worse (TikTok also didn't help, but that came far later). This could, as always, be nostalgia putting rose-tinted glasses on for me, but I always remember fandoms before cringe culture being more out-going, more free, and definitely more cringe. All of this made them more fun.

But after cringe culture, I remember how fandoms seem to go… Quiet? In a way? Basically, people are afraid of interacting with each other now, everyone is keeping each other at arm's length.

All's this to say, the 'quieting' of fandom spaces is reminding me of the 'quiet' of current alterhuman spaces, and it makes me very sad.

[kamianya-ttv]

A Yom Kippur thread on teshuva, repentance, and apologies.

I wrote this awhile ago on twitter, and it’s still very relevant:

So. Teshuvah. Repentance. Literally "returning"

What does this mean? What does it look like? And why am I talking about this on main, not just to my fellow Jews?

There's been a lot of conversation about apologies and about taking accountability for hurting people/making mistakes. This has been especially prevalent in streaming spaces lately (when I wrote this last year), both with creators and game companies/developers.

This means I've been thinking a lot about all of this, as we go into the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, focused on exactly this.

So what does it mean to repent? Why is the word for it "return"? And why do I feel this template is so important?

So to start with, Teshuvah has three main steps:

1) Regret

2) Confession

3) Committing to not repeating the sin

Note: sin in Judaism is complicated, but is not really the same as sin in Christianity.

Short form on sin in Judaism is three terms:

Chet = mistake

Avaira = Transgression, crossing a line, going too far

Avon = Iniquity, more serious than a mistake or line cross, but still not a "you are damned to hell" type of thing

So lets look at the steps to Teshuvah, one by one.

1) Regret

To do Teshuva you need to regret the actions you did and harm you have done. This means understanding what you did, and actively genuinely accepting the fact that you did something wrong.

2) Confession

This means a few things. You need to be able to articulate what you did wrong. Part of this is the apology. I'll get to a good apology later, but a core piece is that you are apologizing with accountability, and that the person you hurt may not forgive you.

Importantly, you can not be apologizing in order to get forgiveness. And your teshuvah must continue whether or not the person forgives you.

3) Committing to not repeating the sin.

This is extremely important, and really the key part of teshuvah, of returning. It is not teshuvah to make the mistake, go through steps 1 and 2, and then repeat the same mistake. This means active work.

Step 3 requires true understanding of what you did (also key to steps 1 and 2) and figuring out how to keep from repeating it. Depending on what it was, it may mean self reflection, reading, talking with people, watching relevant videos, etc. But again, the key part is that work and doing your utmost to grow and move on and not repeat it.

Which can be hard! Teshuvah can be hard!

All of this requires being willing to listen and hear and change.

To me, this is all really important, & a big piece of how I try to live my life. It's also what I look for in others.

We're human, we make mistakes. How you deal with those mistakes is so key. When we're here, in this public space, especially if we have any level of platform. We have to be ready to accept it when we fuck up.

I truly believe the steps of teshuvah are the steps needed. I also believe that these are the pieces of a proper apology.

An apology in this light:

Here's what I did wrong, here's me taking accountability and accepting I hurt people, here's how I commit to fixing my mistake/not making that mistake again.

Again, it also must be an apology because you are acknowledging wrong, not because you are feeling pressed into it, not to get people off your back, not to appease. It must be made with the awareness you may not be forgiven, and committing to continue the work no matter what.

There's another key part to Yom Kippur that I think is little known but I think is important. Which is acknowledgement of communal mistakes. Over Yom Kippur we have a lot of confessions, and a lot takes the form of "WE have done A, WE have done B.” This is an important conversation and I plan to write a post on this later, but I also think that it's part of what should be on our minds. I think it aligns with understanding privilege and societal complicity.

So, that's all for now, But I have more Yom Kippur thoughts coming.

[eurydicees]

YOUR HAIKYUU SOULMATE AU IDEA IS SO GOOD???? It’s all I’ll think about now oh my god. KENHINA MY MOST BELOVEDS!! (That’s a lie 😭 BokuAka are my most beloveds of beloveds and then kenhina iwaoi kuroshou mikashou mikakuroshou and ushiten are all duking it out for second place)

But the idea that on one hand you’ve got kagehina are so platonic and start dreamsharing when kenhina have sort of been running to this thing between them, it’s so good. And kuroo who doesn’t believe in soulmates supporting Kenma—sort of saying hey, what you feel for HINATA and what he feels for you matters, you chose it, and this dream sharing thing isn’t like, a reason to backtrack——-it’s just so good. You’re brilliant, I will be thinking of this forever I fear

hehe thank you im so so glad you like it !!! im having SOOOOO much fun so far. i've made some little changes since i made that first post bc i am realizing that my original idea may have been galaxy brain conceptualizing but it was more than definitely goldfish brain plotting. which is to say, @ me: neat idea you've got there! no plot generated though. but i have IDEAS now, and you have accidentally invited me to share them all below the cut<3

so like im thinking about established kenhina break up/make up with platonic kagehina. and like kagehina r like well . we're soulmates ig. and so kenhina break up, until eventually everyone's like hey you guys, like, are not happy???? you know that it's an option to just, yk, not date???? and kagehina are like woah . anyways. back to the kenhina then <3

but yeah ok re: kuroo, i made some changes to his plotline because im insane about him. which is to say that i had a dream about this scene and then had to write it down and now it's out of my control and i'm attached to it.

so basically kuroo became the guy explaining all the worldbuilding lore via a conversation with kenma about the science of soulmates. so kuroo believes in them but in the sense that he dreams of kenma and kenma does not dream of him </3 and i am going to have FUN with that bullshit*

(*please note that there will be no unrequited kuroken. kuroo is just vibing. this is part of why he knows platonic soulmates are okay and allowed and encouraged. there WILL be kurodai. one day i WILL get my bingo on the list of kuroo ships.)

he's , like , really into the scientific explanations of everything, which is why he's so confident in going to kenma and being like hey bestie its ok to fall in love with hinata . soulmates are stupid . like its literally fine you can do whatever you want forever. kenma. kenma. kenma its ok.

anyways so we've got that going on in kenma world. then in hinata world i'm figuring out someone who is encouraging him w the platonic soulmate stuff. part of me wants oikawa because i love oikawa and then another part of me is like. lol. oikawa believes in soulmates b/c he has one so.

then the other part of me is like. well i can make this a saga. hinata goes to brazil and kenhina date. break up in brazil. hinata goes back to japan and is with kageyama. and then like. maybe its atsumu or bokuto who guides him to soulmate actualization or whatever? ooooh ok fun idea would be atsumu who is (VERY VERY SO MUCH platonic) soulmates w osamu, and who is , like, absolutely disgusted at the idea that soulmates "should" be romantic. and this is , like, a come to jesus moment for hinata, yk? just because he's never had anyone tell him that platonic soulmates were an option before .

hmmmmmmm

much to consider

anyways yeah so those are my new thoughts. i still want kuroo to be, like you said, encouraging kenma in the way that he's like, what you feel matters more than what you dream, the universe can tell you who your soulmate is but it can't tell you who you love. yk, like what hinata chooses when he's awake is so much more important than what he thinks of when he sleeps.

and i want smth similar for hinata but also not the same message repeated in the same way--hence maybe atsumu? bokuto could be interesting and would further my bokuto & hinata friendship agenda. we'll see !! i haven't NEARLY gotten that far yet.

overall, having fun !!! PLEASE continue to talk to me abt this!!!!