#but like. it really has come so far to where it started it's been a great way to teach myself a million and one new php things

[moonstruckme]

hello mae! I had a request I’d like to give you. I was wondering if you could write a poly!marauders x reader where reader has never slept beside anybody before bc intimacy isn’t something she’s used to therefore she’s not used to being that close to anybody. everytime she shifts she’s afraid to wake up the boys, or she just doesn’t know what to do.

I know you have “first night with marauders” so if this is too similar I totally get it. 🖤

Hello sweetheart, thank you for your request!

poly!marauders x fem!reader ♡ 990 words

You’re terrible at this. 

Each of the boys is sound asleep. Sirius has his leg hooked over yours and one of his arms tossed over James’ chest, Remus’ hand has to be halfway numb underneath your pillow, and James is snoring softly on the far side of the bed from you. They’re all so obviously comfortable, practiced in resting like this, whereas you started to get stiff a half hour ago and you’ve been unable to make yourself relax since. 

Every movement takes a year, you’re trying so hard not to wake them. You feel like the girl in a movie who’s trying to sneak out of the bed of a one-night stand, all taut muscles and bated breath, except you only want to roll over. Slow, microscopic movements have to be the key. 

Your back crackles softly when you shift your weight onto your other hip, and a sigh escapes you before you can stop it. 

A low, croaky hum comes from just in front of your face. Your brain is a tempest of expletives. 

“Hey.” You can nearly feel the gravel of Remus’ voice buzzing against your lips. “You’re up.” 

Muddled with sleep, you can’t tell if his tone is reprimanding or simply observational. “Sorry,” you whisper regardless. 

“Wha’ for?” Movement under the pillow beneath your head, and then a long-fingered hand is nestling beneath your cheek. His scars and calluses slide familiarly over your skin. “Can’t sleep?”

Nope, and now it’s two of you. Guilt grows vines around your ribcage. Remus sounds more awake by the second. 

“I’ll be okay.” You press a soft kiss to the corner of his lips, hoping to mollify him. “Go back to sleep.” 

Your boyfriend makes a half-aware disgruntled sound. “No, not without you.” 

As exhausted as you are, you have to bite down on a smile. When he’s uninhibited like this, Remus really is quite the flirt, all his dorky, sweet thoughts coming out before he can remember to stop them. He’s nearly as bad as James. 

You think he must see a hint of your smile in the dark, because Remus’ own lips tilt upwards. He leans closer to kiss the cool skin of your cheek, the only cold part of you thanks to a heavy duvet and the body heat of three lovely boyfriends. A kiss for a kiss. 

He leaves his lips there as he murmurs, “What’s wrong, dove?” 

Well, funny he should ask. What’s wrong now is the slight tickle of his stubble against your cheek, the hoarse quality to his voice in your ear. His breath warms your cold skin, and he slides a hand across the space between you to rest on your hip, layered in between the sheets and your pajama bottoms. 

But you know that’s not what he’s asking. 

“I can’t get very comfortable,” you confess, speaking so softly he wouldn’t be able to make it out if his ear weren’t two inches from your lips, “and I didn’t want to wake anyone up.” 

Remus hums, as though this is a prognosis he’d already reached and was merely waiting for you to confirm. You can hear Sirius’ voice as clearly as if he were awake: know it all. 

“They can sleep through anything,” he says. “One time the fire alarm went off, and James didn’t even stir. Don’t worry about them.” You must be emanating guilt, because he strokes his thumb over your hip pacifyingly. “And I don’t mind being woken up. I’m in and out of sleep all night anyway, it’s not hard for me to get back. You’re not used to sleeping with so many people, yeah?” 

Your face warms at his phrasing, though of course you know what he means. “Or with anyone,” you murmur. 

“Mm. I think I know what you need.” 

You don’t realize Remus’ plan until he’s already sat up. He reaches over you, rubbing James’ shoulder gently while you protest vehemently through whispers. 

James wakes with a yawn, taking Remus’ hand automatically and bringing it close to his face. “Wha’s’it?”

“Take her,” Remus requests drowsily. With his other hand, he nudges you forward. 

James starts to blink his eyes open, and you see no way out. You start climbing over Sirius as delicately as you can. “Sorry,” you whisper, to him, to them, to the room in general. 

Remus helps you out by tugging Sirius into your place. The other boy whines but settles quickly, rolling over to sling his leg over Remus’ instead. 

James welcomes you as heartily as his sleep-addled state will allow, adjusting the covers over you and smudging a few toothpaste-scented kisses onto your face. 

“Y’can’t sleep?” he asks. 

You shake your head. “Sorry.” 

He makes a soft dismissive sound. “C’mere, angel.” 

You refrain from telling him that you’re already here as his arms find their way around you, soft and firm in all the right places and deliciously warm. He starts to make slow, sweeping circles onto your back with his hand. 

“Jamie,” you murmur, grateful but embarrassed, “don’t stay up for me. Go to sleep.” 

“M’basically there,” he replies. “You first, yeah?” 

You can hear Remus’ breathing evening out behind you, syncing with Sirius’, and you’re suddenly sure that this is part of a routine he and the boys shared before you ever met them. That’s how he knew to hand you off to James, and how James knew exactly what to do. Something about that comforts you. And far be it for you to mess with tradition. 

You shuffle closer to James under the covers. He obliges you happily, adjusting his grip so he’s holding you more securely, with your leg resting against his and your forehead an inch from his nose. The shushing of his heavy palm on the material of your pajama top is the only sound in the world. 

You hear his breathing starting to deepen again, but James is right; you beat him there. 

[kazz-brekker]

hotd episode 2 thoughts

aegon screaming hysterically and smashing up viserys's model of old valyria…alicent unable to get through a sentence without sobbing…helaena staring blankly at the wall and clutching jaehaerys's blanket…i love acting but also that all kind of broke me.

genuinely i am enjoying tom glynn-carney as aegon SO much, he's quickly becoming one of my favorite actors on the show and gives his character so much nuance.

otto using his grandson's horrific death as a pr stunt…truly that man never stops working, he's always on the clock.

i also LOVED the big blowout fight scene between rhaenyra and daemon, it's about time someone dragged that man to hell and back. "the darkness you sheathe within yourself like a sword" and "i don't trust you" and "you're pathetic" go OFF rhaenyra!

criston please don't send someone else on a suicidal assassination mission because you were slacking your duty and banging alicent while the heir to the throne got decapitated. oh, who i am kidding, that man has never had a normal reaction to anything in his life.

i'm so glad we got an actual scene with baela (and the promise of more with her and moondancer in future weeks!) since she and rhaena have been horrendously underused so far.

aemond you have so many issues please go to therapy not a brothel. also i've blogged about this before but the idea that he really thinks he's an equal threat to daemon honestly is so silly.

alyn AND addam of hull spotted, we've got the complete set, and a little teaser of seasmoke as well!

the scene between corlys and rhaenys where corlys was like "if daemon would just submit to rhaenyra and enjoy being a bottom as i do on occasion" made me laugh so hard my sister asked me if i was okay.

i'm very intrigued by the scene between rhaenyra and mysaria (especially the mutual bonding over being exasperated by daemon) since they're technically on the same side but very much at odds in the book and i'm curious to know if this will continue in future episodes.

i really like that this season is emphasizing the perspectives of smallfolk like the hull brothers, hugh hammer, and the brothel mistress, it's something i felt was missing in season 1.

this really was an episode of targaryen men getting absolutely dragged by others for their poor political decisions. can't say i support otto's decisions most of the time but he was 100% correct about aegon.

also the moment where otto realized he had schemed for 20+ years to land a total idiot who just fired him on the throne…delicious, but rhys ifans played it so well i honestly still felt bad for him.

daeron mention! at this point i was honestly starting to think they had cut him from the show so that was a surprise.

as an identical twin i very much enjoyed the erryk and arryk drama but i must admit that i ALSO could not tell the twins apart when they were dueling. someone please revoke my twin card.

alicent walking into a room, seeing aegon crying, and just walking out was kind of funny ngl.

i really didn't expect criston and alicent's dynamic this season but i'm honestly enjoying it a lot. the mutual self-flagellation over their affair, alicent repeatedly slapping him and criston allowing it…really fun honestly.

caraxes is properly coming back next episode and it's true, i HAVE missed that noodle boy <3

also it looks like our first proper looks at harrenhal, moondancer, and a bracken vs. blackwood fight!

[octopus-punching-union]

Tokyo Debunker characters + MC who talks to cats

(specifically, praising the campus cats for being cute hard workers)

Jin: Obviously he's not giving you enough work if you have time to waste with the cats. (But secretly, he's cranky that you're too nervous to be like that with him. He doesn't get much genuine praise and has been telling himself that he doesn't need it... but hearing you so freely praising the cats makes him feel things that aren't entirely pleasant.)

Tohma: "They have jobs, you know." If you're so bored that you're distracting others from their work, he has plenty for you to do. (He actually finds it really amusing.)

Luca: "You're right, they really do work hard." He's not the type to fawn over animals, but he doesn't find it at all unusual when you do. He very earnestly thanks them for all their hard work.

Kaito: Sits down and joins you petting and praising the cats. It's a rare moment in which he's not feeling self-conscious or worrying about impressing you, until you accidentally bump hands and he starts freaking out.

Alan: He backs off as soon as he notices what's going on — he doesn't want to ruin the moment. Later, he makes sure to tell you that you're doing a good job (but without context, it feels like it's coming out of nowhere).

Leo: "It's just a cat. You know it doesn't understand what you're saying, right?" He starts to say something rude in a sugary-sweet tone. "Don't listen to him," you say, covering the cat's ears so that it won't hear. (The cat, disgruntled by all the movement, hops out of your lap and trots away.)

Sho: "You're so weird, senpai," he says, not even trying to hide his smirk, but you can tell he's not serious. He pretends to be reluctant to join you, but he really just wants to hear you ask for him again.

Haru: He stops briefly to say hi, but doesn't have much time to spare. He'll take care of some of your tasks, though, so that you can have a peaceful moment without worrying about anything. (If you want him to take a break with you, you'll have to sit on him or something.)

Towa: A sudden burst of rain scares the cat away. Towa appears moments later with flowers for you, and the weather has turned sunny and warm — perfect to dry out your damp clothes. He lies down in the grass next to you as you relax.

Ren: "Gross. You don't know where that's been." He grumbles about how people lose their minds over cats just because they're cute (he definitely doesn't want to hear you say that he's cute) and makes you wash your hands after the cat leaves.

Taiga: He either wants to eat it or wants to chase it out of his room with gunfire — you have to distract him while the cat makes a hasty escape. He pins you to the wall, musing about how he'll punish you... He runs a finger down your cheek just to feel you tremble. You're his favorite toy.

Romeo: He hasn't given the cats a second thought until this exact moment. They do their jobs competently and he can't exploit them, so what else is there to care about? He has never in his life praised someone for doing a good job, and he thinks you're excessively soft for doing so... but that's not the real reason it bothers him. You've always refused to call him Fico or stroke his ego, yet you're heaping praise on a cat? Ludicrous.

Ritsu: Initially not interested, as cats aren't subject to labor laws and standards. When you wonder out loud if Sinostra could get in trouble for animal abuse, he immediately goes off to investigate.

Subaru: He enjoys the moment with a smile. You're sweet and encouraging and way cuter than any cat, and he counts himself lucky that he gets to spend time with you.

Haku: He ruffles your hair and, mimicking your tone, says that you're cute and hardworking and doing a great job. "Don't make fun of me," you protest, pouting. "I'm not," he replies.

Zenji: Joins you, far more eloquently. After the cat leaves, it's your turn to be praised! He makes sure that you know exactly how important and admired you are.

Rui: Feels really silly for being so envious of a cat. (He's cute, too! He works hard and has great hair, and he wants to cuddle up to you while you praise him and run your fingers through his hair...) But, as long as he's cursed, he can't have what he wants. It's better to keep things lighthearted so that he can see you smile. (Maybe someday, when both of your curses are broken...)

Lyca: Growls. The cat is not intimidated; it escaped Sinostra unscathed, after all. Lyca's not sure what to make of it, but he settles next to you, wary. If it makes a move, he'll be ready.

Yuri: He's so busy and deals with so much weird stuff that it doesn't even register. If he needs you for something, he'll just grab you regardless of what you're doing. You protest as the cat tumbles out of your lap, but he's already three steps ahead.

Jiro: Observes carefully, as he would with any experiment. Are Darkwick's cats smarter than normal cats? You're making it sound like they are, but he doesn't have any other memories of cats as a comparison. Later, he watches some cat videos. For science.

[megabuild]

mumbo said in his recent video that he sees etho as someone who "doesnt show a lot of positive emotion towards people " and thats why he kept the mumbo statue that he thought etho built of him even after joel said he was the one who built it and said he made it ugly on purpose and was surprised mumbo didnt tear it down . said he nearly cried seeing it. what do u think about etho "not showing a lot of positive emotion" do you think thats true

i don't think it's necessarily true but i can see where mumbo's coming from (with the obvious disclaimer that this is all just my own personal feelings, and mumbo is the guy who actually knows him in person and has for some time).

mumbo and etho's relationship or lack thereof is generally pretty fascinating to me because while they both have been on the same server for a long time they've rarely, if ever, interacted or collaborated. unsurprising given that both tend to keep to their own respective groups. agonising for me as a big fan of them both but anyways. i think it's also important to remember that mumbo started mcyt pretty young and watched a lot of his now friends before knowing them (eg. in the same clip you mentioned above he talks about being a big fan of joel's!) so i don't think it's a stretch to say that despite knowing etho personally, i think he could still be in that stage of mythologising etho that a lot of creators who collab with him have went through in the past... tune into 3rd life, mcc 33, hell the elybeatmaker among us stream. i don't think i gotta explain how many people look up to him as this unknowable figure of old mcyt. factor in that he has his hand in a lot of early redstone developments and continues to achieve new things with it to this day and i think it's understandable why mumbo might idolise him to the point of dissociating etho the redstoner from etho the guy

this also isn't helped but the fact that while etho does show positive emotion, definitely, his positive emotions towards others often come across in a way that can be hard to recognise if you aren't looking for it.. etho is full of snark and callbacks and if you don't understand the context around those they might not make sense, but his way of showing care is also far from obvious. another recent example would be the tour of bdubs' base where he told people how to set their light levels. a lot of people on here freaked out over that but if you step back and look at it it's not really.. that obvious that it's a sign of care and positivity towards bdubs, because he's just stating facts. etho can be very literal and i think he likes to rely on stuff like that to show his affection, but that might not be obvious to everyone.

ultimately while i get what mumbo means i think a lot of it comes down to etho being very particular, and they just haven't spent enough time working together one on one to figure out those peculiarities yet. despite everyone on hermitcraft knowing each other and being friends to a degree it's undeniable that parts of the server are more split into groups than others, sort of like a fucked up venn diagram of common collaborators, and etho's in particular is pretty small. but i hope they do collab properly someday.. i really really hope they do

[rxzennia]

selfish atonement

– requested. 

✎𓂃 executing your duty perfectly, until it’s not so heavy anymore. less romance, a lot of lore. mandatory shoutout to @st4rrth0ughts and their bodyguard reader & oc. i really searched up oswaldo for this pls enjoy (i tried to cook but i might’ve burnt it y'all)

ever since oswaldo’s expedition on aeragan-epharshel, you’ve become certain of one thing – he is a brilliant businessman; the epitome of a profitable business. regardless of the mostly negative emotions you felt while you undertook missions under his orders, you could at least admit that he brought unparalleled results to the ipc. 

but, well, it does not take a good man to make a good businessman.

this marks the third amber era after your departure from the marketing development department… no, your departure from the ipc as a whole. you’ve changed your name, got yourself a new appearance, and distanced yourself from oswaldo’s name.

you’ve since become a sellsword who answers only to your current client

you’ve chosen to not have your loyalty freely auctioned off to the wealthy precisely because of your history with oswaldo

aka, you’re done with the type of problems that can be solved with money, and you don’t want to be someone that can be easily bought with money, either

not in the sense that money won’t make you more likely to take a job, but in the sense that money won’t bribe you away from any ongoing duties

that’s enough about you and your standards

in any case, your history with the ipc (that you’ve manipulated a little) has been very helpful in landing you jobs

and at this point, you’ve got a nice word of mouth going on for you that you don’t need to bring up that history anymore

who would’ve thought that you’d end up in the ipc again?

this time as a temporary guard for one of the ten stonehearts

you don’t know what possessed someone like diamond to ask for you, because you’re pretty sure he knows about your previous involvement with the ipc

and also, what the fuck does the ten stonehearts need a bodyguard for?

you’d pay a million credits to bet that diamond just wanted someone to be surveillance

but hey, a client is a client, so you agree to meet the one you’re supposedly “protecting”

you walk into the room, and immediately you want to walk out. diamond is doing this on purpose, he’s gotta be, he’s got to have done a background check on you and still decided to choose violence.

you come face to face with aventurine, and you thank all the aeons out there that you’ve made the decision to wear a mask whenever you’re out. you don’t know if diamond had briefed him on you or not, but judging by how warily civil he is, it doesn’t seem so. 

just so we’re clear, you were far too green to be directly involved when oswaldo launched his sigonia-iv project. while you did tag along on these trips and treaty signings, you have no personal involvement there except standing there like a statue and watching your superiors hammer out a treaty or something. unlike in aeragan-epharshel. where you were one of the combat pilots. oh, that’s another can of worms altogether.

at least he can’t see your expression right now as you shake hands

at least he doesn't hear your erratically beating heart

you introduce yourselves, and you bow out of habit

impression points +100 (your starting score is -10000)

that’s basically how you ended up involved with the ipc again

ugh, you just can’t leave them in the past, can you?

although, in your defense, they’re everywhere, and you can’t possibly turn down a job with such luxurious pay

so, now, instead of the marketing development department, you’re in the strategic investment department. diamond is also a good businessman, but… the ten stonehearts have such a weird dynamic. they’re all tangled together with office politics, yet share one authority figure that they ultimately obey – something you haven’t bothered to think about when you were last in the ipc. and something you won’t bother thinking about, because the mere thought of corporate makes you want to dig yourself into a hole.

in any case, your constant meddling in aventurine’s daily affairs begins today. he’s quite a guarded man, and you have no idea what diamond wants you to do by putting you next to him practically 24/7, but oh well, you’re getting paid.

you settle into a routine surprisingly quickly, and he doesn’t seem to mind your presence all that much

alarmed? yes. mildly annoyed that diamond put a walking tracker on him? also yes. 

dislike your presence? kinda (not really). 

at least he knows you won’t betray him for as long as your contract is in effect

even if you answer directly to diamond, you were tasked to watch over him

which means that you will execute your assigned duty to guard him and strictly only that duty

(truly, your reputation precedes you)

but what is worrying is how swiftly you can change sides the moment your contract expires

well, a problem for tomorrow. diamond’s got you leashed for a year.

he does run a background check on you himself

not that he doesn’t trust that diamond hadn’t vetted you, he just wants to know what sort of person he is now stuck with

guess who found out your name is probably fake but can’t find your real name

because he could only trace your name so far, and anything beyond that point is blank

the discoveries will shock you!! top 10 most scary facts you didn’t know 

all he got was a full report from your first job to this one

anything about your past before your current alias is completely untraceable

not that he intends to ask anyway; you haven’t given him any reason to dig further (yet)

he keeps an eye out for you though

even if he’s not suspicious of you at the moment, that could change in the blink of an eye

aventurine is surprised at how loyal you are to him. you’re under diamond’s orders, but you’re surprisingly putting in a lot to protect him. and to look after him.

to you, it’s just your job… and a selfish, twisted sort of repentance. it’s a thought you intend to take with you to the grave.

you’re not obligated to wake him up or bring him breakfast, but you do anyway

which, he realizes that you must’ve woken up like at least two hours before him

you coordinate his schedule with his assistant so that he doesn’t make pointless trips to five different locations just to end up at the same one twice

you, quite literally, hover over him

yes, even at huge conferences, you’re tailing him like his shadow

some kinda scary dog privilege going on

but of course, you give him space whenever he requires it and keep him within your sights instead

so far so good

but you know what spooks him still? 

that you get pissed when someone makes any nasty passing remark at him

no, you are not a feral street cat that scratches anyone who wrongs you (him)

what you do is you give them a scary confrontation

or you pick them out and lodge a complaint with their superiors afterwards, if they aren’t the top dog

one time he got his hands on a report that you’re writing

aeons, you blow it out of proportion without lying 

you like to call it a suitable amount of embellishing 

then you pull a lot of emotional appealing according to the opponents' company policy

which usually results in some sort of disciplinary action that is actually pretty satisfying to see

but also

damn, you’re merciless 

and also very adept at business talk

trust +100, doubt +25

(shady mercenary for hire with far too much experience type doubt)

you’re as good of a bodyguard as aventurine can get, especially for someone he didn’t hire himself… 

he quite likes you, actually! because how many people do you think asked him something like “why do you need a bodyguard” to his face? none! you’re as entertaining as they come. 

and so he finds joy in his boring executive work by pestering you

you know that, but you put up with him

in fact, this guy is so one of a kind that you don’t even feel pestered

you sometimes even drink with him

whenever he offers, of course, because you’re not too interested in drinking

you drink moderately on the job, but c’mon, when are you not on the job

okay, maybe when he’s just chilling in his office or in the hotel and not going anywhere

then there’s competitive drinking where he tries to coax you into talking about yourself by making you down shots

and guess who’s wasted every time? not you

“mr aventurine?” you ask, nudging the unconscious man next to you. “sir? earth to mr aventurine? hello?”

his empty glass of whiskey on the table, his face slightly flushed as he snoozes away on the table… yeah, it does not look comfy at all.

you sigh, he’s giving you more work again, and you carefully hoist him from the table. 

when he comes to again, he finds himself in his own room

his head hurts so much

he notices that he hasn’t changed from his usual attire – only his coat and accessories are taken off

okay, and the top button of his shirt is undone

did you bring him back? 

as always, you don’t even bother to change him

he sighs, you’re really not very good at reading signs

because he’s done this multiple times! and he’s whined about not being changed after!

more like you did notice but you choose not to do what he wants

that’s crossing a line in your books

and your books is something you stick to like you’re obsessed

at least you left him water and hangover medicine on the nightstand

why does he feel like you’re deliberately keeping him at arm’s length?

it’s been a while and you two have spent so much time together, yet you’re still a stranger to him

not even acquaintances 

like… like, you don’t initiate conversation when you’re watching him

both when he’s going somewhere (requires actual protecting) and chilling at home (does not require actual protecting)

and even after so many late night drinking sessions, he still hasn’t seen you without your mask

mainly because you’ve never been drunk enough for him to sneak a peek, but still

aventurine doesn’t know how to express affection. platonically, romantically, in general, pretty much. so he tries to do the one thing he does best, splurging. and he tries to splurge on you, because he’s intrigued and wants to make buy a friend, but…

but you don’t let him splurge on you! you don’t even let him give you gifts! he only knows how to win affection by spending money on others! 

sometimes he feels like you stick too strictly to your duties

just like his other subordinates… you take orders far too well

he’s tried to give you trinkets, designer clothes, even limited snacks

all of which were returned to him within 24 hours

though, with the snacks, you take it if he offers you a piece or two when he’s already opened it

and you let him treat you to coffee occasionally. very occasionally.

he eventually figures out that it’s a matter of principles

but what principles, exactly? you’re a sellsword, for aeon’s sake

he thought those are the people who have absolutely no principles???

anyway, won’t stop him from trying

“mr aventurine…” you pinch the bridge of your nose as you see the bags stacked on your desk. “i remember telling you that souvenirs are unnecessary.”

“what’s wrong with them?” aventurine laments dramatically. “i’ve picked out only the finest for you!”

you don’t deserve it, you think, but you don’t say that, of course

you don’t even know of his lifelong grudge towards oswaldo

you just know that you had a hand in the extinction event

not like hand hand, but you watched it happen… it doesn’t sit well with you

besides, you have the blood of almost an entire civilization on your hands

if you think too hard about it, the image of flames and carnage overlap with what is in front of you

then, you envision the records of sigonia that you’ve read through in the past

and everything blurs together, your actions, your inaction, and your unwavering loyalty that led you to not raise a single question at all

you squeeze your eyes shut tightly and purge the images from your mind

you are currently here, in the present

“i can’t take them.” you reply, finally, shaking your head. “it’s inappropriate for our standing. especially since there’s no reason for you to be gifting me so many things out of nowhere.”

“what, i can’t be nice to my bodyguard?” aventurine pouts as he sorts the bags in height order. “i’ve got a limited edition tie, an antique phonograph, a discontinued mug, some rare natural color ink for your fountain pen, a pure cashmere sweater–”

“that’s… that’s enough, sir.” you raise a hand to cut him off. “i don’t think i can accept any of them, really.”

aventurine makes a face, then pulls out a bag from the end of the queue. “fine, fine. what about this, at least? assorted cookies from an artisan bakery, using only the best ingredients sourced from all over the cosmos?”

you stare at that bag as you feel the expectant stare from your boss

maybe… maybe one out of these dozens of bags is fine

you’ve gotta think about his feelings too, after you’ve rejected so many gifts

you reluctantly, carefully take the bag and say a small “thank you”

you don’t want his fascination with you to develop any more than what he’s already showing…

but you also know that it’s not up to you

so what is up to you is drawing a line that you won’t allow him to cross

for his sake, and for your own… 

if he keeps pushing, you should keep pushing back

keyword should

but can you?

aeons, you truly are selfish

wouldn’t it have been better to keep everything professional from the very beginning?

it’s okay. you only have a little more than half a year to go before you’re no longer obligated to be here. you’ll run away before aventurine catches on, like how you ran away from your past.

it’s okay. it’s just been a few months, there’s still more than half a year’s worth of time. before you part ways, there are still chances to get to know you better. perhaps even time to become friends, in the most literal sense of the word.

and maybe by the end of it, “you” will reach a satisfactory conclusion.

[help-itrappedmyself]

Tim Drake Vacation 2

Masterpost

Keeping himself from running into danger is easier when the supers have everything under control. Now though… Tim, is resigning himself to the fact that civilian--him may have to do something soon. 

     He and the entire contents of the coffee shop he was in have been taken hostage by someone-who-is-totally-not-Lex-Luthor. They were taken to a warehouse to be held as bait as totally-not-Lex waited in a new robot suit for Superman to show up. And, sure, Tim can't see inside the robot or anything. The voice is disguised, the figure is completely concealed. But that’s totally Lex Luthor. He has experience in this, that he absolutely cannot tell anyone about.

     Lex, as a bad guy, really isn’t so bad during phases 1 and 2 of his evil plans. Lex tends to want Metropolis to like him, and he doesn't have anything against civilians, so he doesn’t go around shooting people, just making threats until everyone complies. However, once phase 3 starts, Lex does not care about the hostages. They have served their purpose, and if they die after the Super(s) arrive, it is the Super(s) fault for all the collateral damage. Honestly, the Super(s) should be better at saving the hostages if they truly are here to help people. So, when Superman breaks into the warehouse, which Tim can only assume is lined with lead so he can’t see inside, it is up to the civilians to not get hit by the rubble.

     As the fight started, Superman went straight for Lex. Kon came only a second later to start assisting the hostages. Tim was helping some people dodge the plethora of debris being caused by the main fight. He was helping a few injured people make it to the exits. He was helping where he could while trying not to be noticed by absolutely anyone. 

     Luthor, of course, brought out some kryptonite. And instead of using it against Superman, he wanted to make sure Kon couldn’t leave while Superman had him distracted. Luthor went after the only Super helping civilians, bringing out the kryptonite while Kon was flying past him. Kon went down hard and Luthor just put the kryptonite on his chest and left him there to get back to his fight with Superman. 

     Now Kon is pinned by kryptonite, and Lex is attempting to do the same to Superman. The other hostages managed to escape as soon as Lex became preoccupied with Superman again. And Tim has realized he is the only one left in the building who can get that kryptonite off of Kon. Superman can’t do it without being incapacitated himself, can’t use his powers to do it without risking hurting Kon. Lex simply will not, for reasons. And that just leaves Tim. 

     Tim, who makes eye contact with Kon as he is figuring out what to do. Kon has just realized that there is still a civilian in the building, and he gestures at Tim to go, trying not to draw too much attention. But Tim can’t. Tim can not risk Kon dying again. 

     Tim remembers each time he has lost someone. Tim remembers trying to clone Kon again just to get one of them back. That horrible realization that even if he manages to create a clone. It wouldn’t be Kon. Nothing could make the real Kon come back just like nothing could make anyone else come back. That switch between bargaining and depression. He remembered that depression. He doesn’t think he could live through it again. Especially given the state of his supposed ‘support system’. Not that they’d been much support last time. 

     Tim can’t leave, so he runs over instead, grabbing the kryptonite off of Kon's chest. He could throw it, but he is only human and even having it in the vicinity could be bad for Kon and Superman. He doesn’t know how the fight will move, or if Lex will be able to use it again. He has to take it with him. Personally make sure it gets far away from the fight. He gives Kon a quick smile as he starts running to the exit.

[entertext]

HGSN 28-1

Chapter (Japanese)

(Please hit the green thumbs up at the end of the Japanese chapter to show support)

Rough translation by me

P1

Rie: Sorry, Kayo-chan

Rie: Yes, I'm sorry to bother you, but

Rie: Please look after my mother-in-law and daughter

(sfx: tick tock tick tock)

P2

(sfx: message notif)

(txt: Tsujinaka)

Rie: I guess they'll be reaching the train station soon

P3

(sfx: ga-thunk ga-thunk)

(sfx: whoosh)

Rie: A hole, huh...

P4

Hikaru: I can't see those bands in the sky from before any more

Hikaru: What on earth were they?

Rie: It's probably...a sign of dispersion.

Yoshiki: "dispersion"?

Rie: The hole in Kubitachi isn't just one big hole, but it's probably split up into several holes

P5

Rie: The holes are connected to each other, and tons of impurities travel between them like a road

Rie: That was what we were able to see for just a moment, I think

Yoshiki: Huh? That was all impurities...?

Hikaru: Why all of a sudden?

Rie: All of a sudden? No, it was always there. It just couldn't be seen before.

Rie: The hole would have ended up like this sooner or later

P6

(Tanaka: At this rate, it'll cause a disaster any time now.

Tanaka: So I'd really like to get that thing closed somehow.)

Yoshiki: If a "disaster" occurs...what's actually going to happen?

Yoshiki: You said a ton of people will die...

Rie: If it's left alone, it's certain that "something" will occur. There's...not much time left.

Hikaru: So if the holes are closed, those bands will disappear too and there won't be as many impurities?

P7

(sfx: engine rumble)

(sfx: ga-thunk)

Rie: That's right...

Rie: By now, the entire town has become warped. If the holes are closed, I'm sure it will go back to normal

Yoshiki: Kurebayashi-san, you really seem to know a lot about all this... Thank you so much

Rie: ...I've actually secretly been looking into it myself! Ahaha!

(sfx: ga-thunk)

Hikaru: Hmmm, but why does the hole divide itself?

Rie: I'm not sure...but if it hadn't divided itself, things would have ended up like this much sooner...

P8

Rie: Ah! Of course! It was because it was divided that things lasted for so long.

Rie: By the looks of those bands

Rie: The impurities split into 3 streams coming out of the main source in Kubitachi.

Rie: There are probably 3 other holes outside of Kubitachi

Rie: The bands extended in the direction of Ashidori, Udekari, and somewhere in Kibougayama

P9

Rie: Thanks to that, the widening of the original hole in Kubitachi must have been slowed

Rie: since the impurities were dispersed to the other three holes

Yoshiki: Heads were offered to the hole in Kubitachi...

Yoshiki: and the rest of the body...

Hikaru: ..."had to be dismembered and buried as far apart as possible"

Hikaru: Right?

Yoshiki: Oh

P10

Yoshiki: Was that to make the hole disperse...?

Yoshiki: I don't know if they knew about the hole or not, but maybe what they were doing ended up being something that was necessary

Rie: The shape of this region...

Rie: You said it looks like a person right?

Yoshiki: Yes

Rie: It might be like a sacrificial doll*...

* a katashiro - a doll used as a substitute for a human in Shinto rituals. See wiki.

P11

Rie: Having the land itself bear their sins and their spiritual impurities in their place...

Rie: That might have been their intent.

Hikaru: So that's what splitting the village was for...huh....But why three?

Yoshiki: That's right, the abandoned regions of Udeiri and the southern region of Kibougayama don't have holes, right?

Rie: I wonder why? It's true that the impurities appear near places where people live

Rie: So even if there are holes, I don't think they'd come out...

Hikaru: Hmm...

Hikaru: So, in the end...

==

Next chapter: 2024/07/02

Twitter Extras:

1 (link):

History of Kubitachi

Start:

Life was difficult due to the impurities coming out of the hole, but unaware of this, people continued to settle there out of the desire for mercury

With mercury-based abortion pills as the origin, worship of "Unuki-sama" started.

With an incident where a farmer's head disappeared as the start, the head-sacrificing religion of "Nounuki-sama" was founded. The village was divided into 5, and many people were murdered.

In 1749, a "Spawn" appeared on the mountain. The Indou ancestor made a wish believing it to be "Nounuki-sama" resulting in the mass deaths.

Villagers: Who should we believe in now?...

Thinking "Nounuki-sama has become a tatarigami", the villagers believed that the god needed to be appeased, and the Indou family was assigned the duty of carrying out the ritual for generations.

Missionaries arrived, and many villagers converted, causing "Nounuki-sama" to gradually be forgotten, but in Kubitachi where the ritual continued to be practiced, that wasn't the case.

Fast forward to the present.

While in the middle of the ritual, Indou Hikaru falls down the mountain, and wishes on the "Spawn" at the moment of his death, thus starting the main story.

--

2 (link):

Bad End Routes that Yoshiki Avoided

---

If he didn't accept 'Hikaru'

Yoshiki: Uwah! A monster!

--

Hikaru: I should have just done this!

DEATH

---

If he continued to treat 'Hikaru' as Hikaru

Yoshiki: You're Hikaru, so there's no way you would do something like that.

--

Hikaru: Was something wrong with what I did?

Yoshiki: ...

Villagers, friends, ALL DEAD

---

If 'Hikaru' returned to the mountain

Hikaru: I'm going back

Yoshiki: ...

--

Continues to dwell on it in the village for the rest of his life

---

If he took advantage of 'Hikaru'

Yoshiki: You just have to listen to what I say.

Hikaru: ?

--

Hikaru: This is "love", right?

DEATH

---

3 (link): (art only)

==

[fortheloveofkonig]

Hello

Okay okay so i have a bit of a silly one. So i have autism and somtimes i will mimic somones accent without knowing it. Can you write a fic for Soap x Reader where he accidentally mimics soaps accent when talking.

N like he gets embarrassed and apologies sooooo much jffjfjjffjfjfjcjf and extra embarrassed because he likes the Scot 👀

Its 4am please excuse if theres any spelling errors

And i hope you have a good day!

Note: Ah, the dreaded draft which I never feel like is enough.

It's short but sweet, I may end up one day doing a part two just to add on to it. This was a cute idea as someone who also mimics accents.

I hope you enjoy it anon <3

(Oh, and the reader doesn't really apologise at all because personally, I feel weird making readers apologise for something he can't control <3)

Content: M! Reader (obv), Fluff, Reader is called Mockingbird (in a cute way)

Summary: Reader mimics Soap's accent, Soap has a hayday.

Mimicry (Soap x M! Reader)

You have been a part of the task force for a bit of time now. Enough time for the group to know that you had a tendency to mimic certain sounds that you heard but that was the length of your mimicry as far as they knew.

The group didn't seem to have issues with the sounds unless it came down to you being louder than you were supposed to be while in the field. It has become a part of their lives and they wouldn't have it any other way.

Soap was the person who started to call you by the nickname 'Mockingbird' and it eventually stuck with everyone as well. He meant it in a joking way, making sure that it didn't harm you in any way, and it kind of just stuck as you started to show a fondness for the nickname.

"Hey, birdie."

This one just made your eyes roll as you rack the weights that you were lifting and sit up on the weight bench.

"That one is a no," you respond, shaking your head which earns a laugh from the Scotsman.

"It was worth the try." He walks over and takes a seat next to you, handing you a fresh water bottle which you eagerly accept and down in a few gulps. He looks over at you as you hand him the bottle back and smiles before throwing it into the nearest garbage bin.

"Nice shot." You hum approvingly before standing up, "Lead the way, I know it's for our daily walk."

The two of you started daily walks about a month ago. Most of the time it was after a long day which left you exhausted and thus not very talkative, which was never a problem for Soap. He loved talking and that was multiplied when he had a good listener such as you.

"And that little dick walked up to him and was like, 'Try me'. Can you believe that? The fucker said that to Ghost! The fucking LT!"

He's been going on like this for an hour, you've barely gotten any words in but you didn't mind much especially since this just meant that you guys got to rest in a scenic spot while he rambled on. Every now and then you responded with one word answers but nothing too big.

He was shaking his head before starting again, "I'm telling ya, these new recruits have an insane amount of confidence and that's fucking 'em over."

You end up nodding, while looking up at the sky.

"Insane that someone would go against Ghost like that." A voice that sounds kinda like yours but with a tinge of a different accent slips out from your mouth. You didn't even realize it at first but when you looked over and saw Soap with a teasing smirk on his face, you immediately knew something slipped out.

You took a moment to regather yourself before narrowing your eyes at the Scotsman, "Shut your mouth."

"I haven't even said anything lad."

"Mhm."

"Just thought I heard a mockingbird around, haven't heard one in a while."

He was cut off by you slapping his shoulder and he just burst out laughing.

"You're an asshole." Your voice mumbles through Soap's laughter, and you start to speed ahead away from the Scottish sergeant.

"Lad, wait! Come back, it's important!"

You turn around with your arms crossed and look at the male and he points to the wooded area, he has a shit eating grin on his face.

"It's birdwatching season."

"Oh fuck off, John"

You threw your hands up in defeat and started walking away before Soap ran up to walk beside you.

He stays silent for a few minutes as they continue to walk back to base before he smiles at you and shrugs,

"Just messing with you, it's nice, really. Just gotta push your buttons a bit."

He bumps his shoulder a bit, causing a smile to spread to your face.

"If you tell anyone about this, you're dead."

"Aye aye."

[dailytomlinson]

Yeah so we're at the last gig of the Faith In The Future Tour but it feels more like the last gig really [of] the last three years, I didn't really have a big break between the Walls Tour — the first tour — and the second tour of Faith In The Future. It's pretty sad, to be honest but like any, you know, moment in time is definitely a lot of room for reflection and like, I think it was the first tour gig, but it was the first time that I did like a full set, which I wanna say is about three years ago now, I was in Scala. I wanna say that was about to, about maybe 700 people forward to tonight and, you know, we're playing a sold out show in Mexico in an arena, and the shows in this run have been absolutely incredible. It's just another one of those moments for me to be really proud of what we've created. You know, a lot of my fans know I'm a massive, massive football fan. To have the luxury of being able to play in some of these football stadiums and also, you know, being able to play football in these stadiums after the gig, that is a luxury I'll never, ever get used to, it's an amazing feeling. Even when I was having a really good day before I started touring, never in a million years would I've ever included the word 'stadium' on my own solo tour. I thought that was one of those things that was incredible that happened in One Direction, that will never happen for me again unless, you know, we got back together or whatever. So to have gone through that journey and to feel that level of triumph, which feels... which surpasses my expectations by quite a long way, it's just one of those times where I just feel like in reflection, you know, once me and the fans are aligned and we really wanna do something, we fucking do it, man! And I like that, I like that a lot. So yeah, really proud to say that I've played some stadiums on my own, crazy even saying that. [fans section] I think my relationship with the fans has been relatively consistent but I think as time has gone on, that fans have realized just how vital they are to this whole thing. You know, before I started touring, it was only me on Twitter really telling everyone how important they are to this whole thing but the great thing about tour is: it gives the fans an opportunity to really feel their worth in the room, you know. And that's what's really been really special for me, it's not as if I've played more shows, I've got more experience and I've had to rely on them less, quite the opposite. As the shows got bigger, and the pressures got more, I've known I've got them with me so it's been really lovely, it's been a really lovely tour and one thing I'll never take for granted, no matter where I am. The consistency of the energy in the room is absolutely electric so yeah, all in all I think we've done a pretty good job. [FEQW stream section] It's funny that any big moment in my career always feels like, you know, the ultimate moment really and that was another one of those, the stream. Massive venue, sold a lot of tickets and obviously streaming as well and I put a lot of pressure on myself in those situations, because I know how hard I've worked to get here so I wanna get to these big moments in my career, I wanna be able to enjoy them but I also wanna provide a great night for the fans so that was one of those nights for me. It felt like  a real achievement and yeah, just a really literal example of how far this whole thing has come. [downtime touring section] Don't get loads of downtime, there's a lot of travelling, there's been a bit more on this tour. My relationship with the band and just, I mean like everyone on the road really, it's vital. As I've said before, my experience of touring is that of, you know, part of the unit, part of the band obviously, that was my experience coming up. So to be able to share these moments, not just the incredible live moments but also, you know, great moments of like fun and downtime, like when we were on the ATVs the other day, [...]. Those things are really vital to making this whole thing feel almost homely, you know, almost like home away from home. You need to have your people on your side and to be able to have a laugh a break from the madness. [AFHF 2024 section] It's the fourth years, can't quite believe that, of Away From Home Festival. As always, always a great day in the [...], something I'm really excited about and you get a different sense of achievement on those days,you know, it's really— it's not just my show that I've created, but something bigger than that and then yeah, something that I've always wanted to do so always in the run up, I'm excited. There's definitely some nerves going into it 'cause it's a bit like hosting a party, you know, you really want it to be great, I'm crossing my fingers that everything will go right on the day, yeah, I'm really, really excited, it should be another special day in the calendar. [LT3 section + festivals] At some point I'm gonna thank about the next record but I'm a bit scared, truthfully. Like right now feel like I've been enjoying the success of Faith In The Future for quite a while and yes, there's been the pressure of the shows but I delivered that, I think a good record and the record that was successful, so now I'm going into that next cycle it's a little bit tense to go into it, and I know it'll change once I get off the road and really start thinking about the essence, the record, the concept of the record and stuff like that but right now, yeah, I'm just thinking about the festivals, I'm excited for those.

Louis’ full monologue for the last leg of the Faith In The Future Tour in Latin America + FEQW livestream and AFH 2024

[catwrites9]

I saw you wanted request. You can choose either Tara or Sam. T or S break up with Reader to protect them during the Ghostface attacks but then they realize it was a mistake and not helping so they try to get R back

It’s A Bad Idea, Right?

Tara Carpenter x Fem!Reader

Warning: Violence, cussing, not proof read, change of pov, a bit of angst but a happy ending, idk what else

W/N: IM BACK GUYS, I’m rn just finishing my old asks and then I’m going to work on new things and get back into writing I’m happy to be back.

Masterlist

—————————————————————————

It starts off like any other day, you go to your classes, see your friends but something’s off. Tara’s acting weird the whole time, even when you try to ask her how she is or what’s wrong she just says she’s fine…. It’s now night time in New York and a perfect Thursday night for the weekly horror night. You get dressed and start heading to the apartment. But the whole time you feel like your being watched. The dread fill your stomach like it always use to. Your mom then calls you, this can’t be good.

Tara’s pov

“I just can’t let her be in danger because of me” I said to the group. Ghostface is back and I can’t let just let my girlfriend get hurt because of it.

“Tara this has to be the stupidest idea you’ve ever came up with, she’s been nothing but the best girlfriend to you and I mean she was able to protect herself against the random frat guy I mean come on be a big girl and just tell her what’s happening and give her the choice to leave”Mindy said annoyingly while trying to find a movie

“I just think it’s the best option so that she stays as far away from me” This has to be the best choice right.

“For once I think I’ll have to agree with Mindy even though I was skeptical of your girlfriend at first it’s just going to put her more in risk by leaving her alone” Sam said

“Then what after, after you break her heart you’ll just beat ghost face and go back to her like nothing” I stayed silent at Mindy’s words.

There’s a knock at the door….

Your pov

I knocked and waited for a response as Chad opened it hugging you but as you entered the apartment the air was tense. Something is wrong.

“Hey guys, what movie are we watching?” You said trying to lighten the mood.

“Hey, can I talk to you really quickly?” Tara said, her body language was off.

“Yeah” You walked towards her room with her.

She shut the door”We need to break up”

“What”

“We have to break up, I'm sorry”We both start tearing up.

“What do you mean Tara, why”

“We have to break up it’s for our own good”

“What did I do Tara, what, why why are you doing this”

“IT JUST FOR OUR OWN GOOD”She yelled at you everything getting silent the chatter in the living room stoping.”DAMN IT LISTEN IT'S FOR OUR OWN GOOD”

“why..” I said almost as a whisper, she thought for a moment while crying.

“BECAUSE I DONT LOVE YOU” she yelled. The shock of the moment as even the cars outside went silent. You broke down into tears as you rush out the house everyone having a sympathetic look as Mindy, Sam, and Anika all had the saddest looks and Chad started heading towards Tara’s room.

Tara’s pov

I stayed in my room. why did I say that. I do love her, what’s wrong with me. Chad entered to comfort me but I wasn’t having any of it. I entered the living room just wanting to find my Keyes to leave the house.

“Your not leaving Tara” Sam said while holding up my keys.

“Wtf Tara” Anika said looking back at me from the kitchen table.

“What come on guys I did my plan she’ll be save now and she can’t be hurt by me anymore.”

“Tara that was the stupidest idea even you know you’ll never have her back ever again” Anika yelled getting up from the couch.

“Tara” “Not now Sam” “No you know what I’m done with this gentle parenting thing what the fuck where you thinking I mean she was the best thing for you and even you you break it off now she’s still has a chance of getting chased by ghost face because she was already seen with you Tara”

“No…. She’ll go back home probably to see her mom”

“How do you know that Tara” Sam made the best point how do I know that ghostface will just not follow her.

“It’s a bad idea,right? Right Tara I mean she’s now alone and vonerable to ghost face” I stayed silent as everyone left.

Your pov

You couldn’t understand what you did wrong. She didn’t love me?? You went into your bed and cried. The outfit you wore to her house still on you with the memories with what happend that night forever reambered with what was suppose to be a normal movie night. You cried for what felt like house until your phone rang with a no caller id. fuck… You ansered it know who was going to be on the other line.

“Would you like to play a game it’s called Sam or Tara” The voice you dreaded the most Ghostface. You imideatly got up and ran through your door, knowing you only lived just a block from Tara.

“What do you want from me”

“To Pick Sam or Tara”

“What if I don’t”

“Then they both die, a lose lose. Come on this should be easy for your ex or Sam, such a near and dear friend of yours that knows your secret.” Your heart dropped. How does ghost face know that? You heard cry’s of them both.

“What if I give up Myself”

“It doesn't work like that”

“Think of it you leave Sam and Tara and you get me and that will then lead some people into New York and they’ll fall into your trap”

“Tempting but no” you climbed up the stairs to their house running to their door which is open.

“You have 5 seconds”

5

4

3

2

1

“Times up”

Ghostface stabs Sam, while not realizing you hung up the phone they go for a stab to Tara as you tackled Ghostface. Being able to stun them and you got up and flipped the table on them. You grabbed a pocket knife from Sam and cut her hands and you go for Tara but being tacked back from Ghostface. Sam tries to uncut Tara’s hands and Ghostface punches you multiple times each blow making you more light headed. You grab a book from beside you as you smash it against their head making almost a gunshot like noise. You got up holding your head as your hearing slowly came back. You see the sisters yelling and pointing. At that moment you felt a knife through your shoulder as you looked to your left and saw the ghost face getting up. There’s two of them great.

The second Ghostface digs the knife into you, twisting it. The sharp pain subsides as the adrenaline takes over your body seeing the first ghost face going towards the sisters. You elbow the Ghostface behind you in the ribs as they hunch down in pain as you push all your strength into hitting their head on the wall next to you, knocking them out. You shoulder check the other one over the couch as the sisters help you push it over them. You run out the apartment together as you all run down the stairs into the cops.

Now in the hospital you and Sam are right next to each other, Sam being in worse condition than you, as Tara is sitting on the chair in front of you as the group is outside due to only family being able to come in.

“I’m sorry” it was all Tara said as you looked confused.”I do love you I mean fuck I love you with all my heart I’m so sorry for what I said I was just trying to protect you from this whole situation”

“Tara it’s ok I get it, I’ve done it before, I just wish you told me why so I could have explained everything I already know what was happening.”

“What do you mean” before you could get a word of my mom walks in Sydney Prescott though she isn’t your real mom she stepped in after both your parents were killed from ghost face.

“Mom, you shouldn’t be here Ghostface can get you” You said said while hugging her

“Your moms Sydney Prescott” Tara said while drawing your attention back to her.

“Yes Tara, this is why I wish you would have told me no matter what I would have been included, especially with my mom, and that’s the secret ghost face we were talking about. And yeah Sam already knew because of that whole interrogation she did to me when we first were dating.”

As time passed Sam went in to undergo surgery as it’s only you and Tara left as your mom went to stay with Sam.

“I’m so sorry I should have told you”

“It’s fine Tara really and I mean if your ok with it we can get back together, really I understand what you were thinking I’ve thought the same”

“Really”

“Yes, will you Tara carpenter be my girlfriend”

“Of course” you kissed as if nothing ever happened.

“Does this mean that we have to change our anniversary”

“I don’t know hopefully no I can’t remember dates well”

“Tara, shut up” you said while kissing her again.

—————————————————————————

A/N Hope fully you guys liked this give me any feed back and also I’m open to requests from people from my masterlist.

[angrybell]

He’s so appalled he’s done…. Absolutely nothing.

Jews get harassed and attacked at rallies. Biden does nothing.

Jews get harassed and attacked on campus. Biden does nothing.

Jews get harassed and attacked at their synagogue. Biden sends a tweet.

Why is the majority of my community supporting this man and this party? He’s never been a real friend. He hates Jews when they defend themselves. He likes us as victim, but not enough to do anything tangible.

Has Garland been ordered to prosecute s1985 cases, treating these pro “Palestinian” thugs like the KKK as they should be? No.

He wants to import more of them.

He wants to reward their terror by supporting an independent “Palestine”. The only people who will profit from this are the terrorists who want formal recognition because it affords them more protections for when they launch their next 10/7 style attack.

So why are we supporting this man? He’s not good for us.

Oh that’s right.. Trump. Did Trump permit pogroms? Did Trump undercut Israel trying to destroy a terrorist organization?

No. He did worse. He said mean things.

Don’t tell me that Biden did things better than Trump. Most of Biden’s successes are continuations to Trump’s policies. Most of the failures are Biden’s personal or party initiatives.

Do you not see the absolute insanity?

I get that many in the community are unable to override three or more generations of indoctrination that American Jewish protection can only come from the Democrats. It makes absolutely no sense historically when you consider that the Democrats were the ones who

Was the party of the KKK.

Strictly enforced the immigration quotas against the Jews before and during

Did not criticize Hitler for his treatment of the Jews and other minorities by the Nazis

Obama embraced and provided funds to nations, most notably Iran, who had committed or orchestrated acts of terror against Jews in Israel and around the world. He then tried to make it possible for them to construct nuclear weapons through a deal that perversely was sold as a deal to prevent Iran from making nuclear weapons.

Have continually elected openly antisemitic members to Congress for the past decade.

Biden has tried to prevent Israel from rescuing American and Israeli Jews held by Hamas by establishing a “red line” when it comes to Rafah.

Our allegiance to the Democrats is a poisonous inheritance of our ancestors. Back in Eastern Europe, the socialists were the only ones not likely to participate in the pogroms while the Russian and Austrian-Hungarian Empires existed. And because of that, Jews were attracted to that. Yes, there are some aspects of their program that agrees with Jewish culture, but many of those same areas can also be found with conservative movements as well.

What worked, badly, for the Jewish community at the start of the 29th century does not work for us anymore. Remaining wed to the Democrats is like an abused spouse saying “they really will change this time.”

They’re not. They’ve promised to get worse.

So, are we going to vote for our own destruction? Or are we going to use our power and votes to support someone, or just as importantly to support someone?

I get that if you’ve gotten this far you’ve at least thought of something along these lines but then you get to the other option: Trump. He’s been more vilified than any politician in American politics in the last half century. He’s got a lot of faults. So maybe you’re not ready to vote for him.

Fine. At least don’t vote for Biden. And, if you live in one of the districts, don’t vote for members of the “The Squad”. Don’t donate to the Democrats or groups that are simply going to give it to Biden.

Otherwise, you’re saying you’re fine with where this heading. Another 4 years of Democrat rule is not going to fix the problems we’re experiencing. It’s going to make them worse.

[marmota-b]

Glitch IS meant to be Force sensitive, here's why

Clone Trooper Glitch Who Is Definitely Force Sensitive.

As far as I can tell, everyone has fallen in love with that idea and everyone is now saying "Glitch is Force sensitive and you can't convince me otherwise."

Listen, what if I can actually convince you he is, with literary analysis?

I don't think I've ever seen this particular angle discussed (not that I have looked too hard, but no one ever brings it up when talking about Glitch). Everyone just loves the idea that he's Force sensitive because it's a lovely / exciting idea. And, okay, it's never stated outright in the source material, so there's some room for doubt. (And it was obviously intentionally left open-ended.)

BUT

I think the subtext, for those who know what it is, is so thick it might as well be an open admission of authorial intent. You see, Glitch's comic, Defenders of the Lost Temple, is drawing heavily on the Knights of the Old Republic comics in its lore. The Gauntlet they're sent to recover comes from that series. The moon where it resides is named after one of the characters from the series and likely is the moon he moved to at the end of his arc, and there's a statue of him there. There are all these deliberate, easily proven links to the series.

And there's also the less direct but still present parallel of questioning whether Jedi should be fighting in a war at all - Knights of the Old Republic (comics) takes place at the beginning of the Mandalorian Wars when some Jedi went to fight and others argued that wasn't their place, and some people get caught in the conflict without ever wanting to. That's a more dubious connection, and may not have been deliberate, but...

That is - the writer knew what he was doing here, in relation to previously published material.

The main protagonist of that series is Zayne Carrick.

Zayne is a sort of off-beat Jedi (well, almost-Jedi). He is just about Force sensitive enough to be admitted to the Jedi Order. He has "a special relationship with the Force." His special relationship with the Force mainly manifests in him being very clumsy and having the worst sort of luck. No one really thinks he'll make it as a Jedi. His own fellow padawan friends don't think he'll make it as a Jedi. But he's so good and caring and trying. And in the long run, he learns to work with his bad luck, and it turns out it's not so much a bad luck as the Force working... as a sort of swing, around him, with a balance of good and bad events. Things rarely work out as expected, but he learns to expect the unexpected. And once he does, and learns to ride the waves instead of trying to swim against the current, it actually works mainly in the heroes' favour.

Does that remind you of anyone?

Yep.

I'm pretty sure Glitch is a deliberate callback to Zayne Carrick and his special relationship with the Force.

I don't know if he started out that way from the start, or if the idea of "what if a clone was Force sensitive" came first and this theme just slotted into place later (honestly, the latter is probably likelier). But it's undeniably there; with all the other references to KOTOR, it's unlikely the author would have missed the main protagonist's character arc re: Force sensitivity.

Glitch has a special relationship with the Force exactly like Zayne's. He just has, unlike Zayne, also the bad luck of never having been tested for Force sensitivity. (This is all EU/Legends. Don't expect New Canon to stick to any of the above.)

[miracles-and-butterflies]

Another snippet of Heartstopper AU because I was asked to share some of the locked in the music room incident between Mirabel and Moana.

This is actually what happened in the music room, skipping over Mirabel panicking for the first couple minutes. Moana sits Mirabel down and confesses her feelings for her - long overdue, I know, but they are teens; give them a break.

First part here for anyone who missed it.

Specifically by @dandylion94.

“Please? Anyone?”

Moana tried not to watch Mirabel as she called out from beyond the locked door. She wouldn’t say she was surprised by the reaction - who would be thrilled to be trapped in a room? Never mind the fact she is meant to be on stage by now. She couldn’t help but feel bad for her crush.

“I don’t think anyone is coming,” she said.

Mirabel sighed, “Of course not. It is after hours. And everyone who is here is in the hall. I just thought… maybe someone would have been sent after me, perhaps.”

“You aren’t really shouting either.” Moana pointed out.

“I refuse to interrupt if they have already started. I knew I shouldn’t have taken my watch off.” Mirabel glanced back for a moment. “Are you sure your device has no power? You haven’t just turned it off or locked yourself out? It would be the sort of thing Camilo or one of his friends would do.”

“I’m sure my phone is dead, yeah.” Moana waved her hand a little in thought. “You don’t think we’re all stupid, do you?”

“I never said that,” Mirabel retorted. “But… I have never seen any one of you pick up a book and try studying for your exams. If it isn’t stupidity, it is carelessness.”

Mirabel finally shifted away from the door, admitting defeat. She settled back down beside the table where she had left her flute atop of the missing sheet music. Moana had been watching her pace and stare and plead with God in the far corner, not exactly sure what to say to her now that push had come to shove. Fortunately, it would not be her to break the silence.

“Why are you here?” Mirabel asked.

She raised an eyebrow slightly at the younger, “What do you mean?”

“You aren't part of the orchestra. You don’t need to be in school and you certainly had no permission to come back into the departments after hours.” Mirabel paused. “Hence my question: why are you here?”

“I bought a ticket to watch,” she replied.

“It still doesn’t give you access to come back here. You can’t be here, you don’t even take music!” Mirabel countered.

“Well, I do take drama—”

“Well, this is a music room.”

“—And I wanted to talk to you.”

“You couldn’t have picked a less opportune moment if you tried. I am meant to be on stage at this point and instead I’m locked in here because you wanted to talk.”

“I didn’t realise it was so close to the start of performance, but it took me a while to find—”

“What would you need to talk to me about anyways? You’re Camilo’s friend, not mine. I understand you are the only girl of a group and being surrounded by men all the time must be terrible, and I’m the closest one of Camilo’s family to your age, but that doesn’t automatically mean we are friends.”

“Well, I’ve been trying to tell you—”

“We barely even know each other. I only know what Camilo has yapped about - and bear in mind that is only explained through internet jokes I don’t get and his limited vocabulary. Would it hurt him to read a book?” Mirabel went on. Perhaps not noticing the other was talking. “I don’t even need your companionship. I could make friends, if I wanted. I’m the one who pulled away from my old friend group, not the other way around. I’m sure they appreciated having an intelligent person to leech off for good grades to keep their parents happy, so they were continuously allowed out to smoke and drink and touch. It is not my fault that I can act like a child and not think of such adult matters. I am diligently working to secure my future and that’s actually better than—”

“MIRABEL!”

She hadn’t meant to yell, but she wanted the girl’s attention and needed Mirabel to be quiet long enough to hear her out.

Mirabel’s mouth snapped shut and she looked up at her in some mix of confusion and sorrowful shock. But didn’t seem to take offence. (Moana reckons that she’s well aware she rambles). After a moment, she looked away, pretending to have spotted a spec of dirt on her flute and trying to clean it off with her sleeve.

Taking a deep breath, Moana swung her legs off the chair she had been sitting on and approached Mirabel.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell at you,” she said. “Will you sit for a moment? We can talk after, or just sit here in silence if you’d like, but I need you to listen to me for a minute. Okay?”

Mirabel’s eyes danced for a moment, clearly trying to read her face and workout where this was going. Moana gladly took the free opportunity to admire them close up. When did they get so close? Had she stepped closer than she meant to? Had Mirabel moved? To be honest… they were almost, almost close enough to kiss.

Finally, Mirabel stepped aside to the closest chair. “You can have as many minutes as you’d like,” she answered. “It has been made very clear to me that no one is coming for me anytime soon. Good to know how important I was as the lead flutist.”

Moana couldn’t help but laugh a little at the snark. It helped soothe some of her nerves and pull her away from thoughts about their closeness. And the hope they might get closer still.

“Right, well, um… do you remember the Monday before prom?” She started. Gesturing a little with her hands - at least she could pretend that Mirabel was tentatively watching them as oppose to staring down her soul, still trying to workout what this was all about. “Camilo, Marco and I were all dressed up in costumes for the drama apartment; Milo played the trumpet really badly and we read some Shakespearean nonsense to you; the same day Luisa was late to get you?”

“Yes, the eleventh. I remember.” Mirabel replied.

“Okay, that was me trying to ask you to go to prom with me. Like a date.” Moana paused, putting emphasis on the word and ensuring there could be no understanding this time. “I had realised the week before that I had a crush on you. And Milo said that would be the best idea to impress you. It was a bit over the top for me, but I was willing to do it for you. But it obviously didn't really work. And then at prom… you, well, you left for most of it for some reason I didn’t get?”

“Luisa took me to the museum. It was a block behind the venue for prom,” Mirabel supplied, smiling a bit. “But I never wanted to go to prom anyways.”

Well, that certainly explained why the prom proposal went so poorly.

“When you did get back, you did let me have a few dances with you.” That same blush crept back into her face. “It was nice.” Recollecting herself, she continued, “I like you, Mirabel. I really like you.”

Mirabel’s jaw hit the floor.

“I’m sorry if I’ve come off annoying for the last while but it’s because I liked you and wanted to spend time with you, get to know you. A bit curious if you maybe felt the same way about me - or could feel the same way. But I can promise that I never meant to offend you in any way, everything has been out of love. It’s just hard… you are so unique and different and I can never tell what you are thinking at any moment, I have tried and I will continue to try if… if you’d let me be your girlfriend. Would you?”

Mirabel didn’t even blink.

“Mirabel? ..You okay?” She asked.

The younger swallowed, “Can you repeat all of that? I think I misheard.”

[crescencestudio]

๋࣭⭑ Devlog #42 | 6.25.24 ๋࣭⭑

tis the season of Kayn

HAPPY SUMMER!!

Hope you're all doing well and keeping cool <3 I know for me it's started getting to.... the Hot Season. To celebrate the start of Hot Girl Summer (and the beta route going live), I of course had to draw the hottest girl, Kayn.

we must stay cool brothers

Now that we've paid respect to The Hot Girl, let's get into the devlog!

Writing has been fun this month. A lot of it has been dedicated to Etza edits and writing Kuna'a's route. We're getting to about the halfway mark with Etza edits, so we are definitely chugging along!

Sneaky peeky of a recent edit

For Kuna'a's route, I said I wanted to have his first draft complete or almost complete by the next devlog, and I'm VERY PLEASED AND PROUD to say their first draft is In Fact almost complete! This is, of course, the very, very first draft so I'll be going back in to flesh some scenes out here and there and rizz him up even more. But I'm happy with the fact that at least the very base draft is done ^^

This month, I did quite a bit of drawing actually! I finished rendering two of Kayn's CGs, meaning 8 out of their total 9 CGs are finished YYYEEEAAAHHHH!!!!!

it feels so good to see the ending cg titles ouuggHHHH

Because Fenir's beta will be going out soon, I wanted to make some headway on his CGs. This month, I ended up finishing 3 of his CGs and sketching two. I'd really like to get 5-6 of his CGs finished so that it's a similar amount to Kayn's beta, so here's to praying!

baby girl

I also finished Senja's (they/he) sprite and base expressions. His outfit was designed by very talented bestie @saffein-e so please thank them for doing god's work o7

Finally, this past month we worked mostly on Kayn's beta route and getting Fenir's beta route ready for Patreon access!

If you'd like to try out Kayn's beta, you can get access to it if you subscribe to my Patreon (tier Hydra). Beta access to Kayn's route will close as soon as Fenir's beta goes up which will be early July, so if you want to experience Kayn's beta, definitely make sure you subscribe before it ends!

Player feedback for Kayn's route so far has been really positive, which has been a relief, especially since Kayn's route is the first one I wrote so is arguably the roughest (I have a big soft spot for it and like it, but I'm obviously Biased). So I hope you're all looking forward to it!! <4

beta feedback: so real

I also have started the voice acting sessions for the characters, which is EXTREMELY EXCITING!! That's the last asset I need basically, so the fact we have finally entered a stage where we can start recording is crazy. Our current session is for Kayn's route, but in the coming months we'll be moving to the next routes similar to how beta-testing is going :')

Aside from Kayn's route, I've also been working on coding Fenir's beta route. Rereading his script and he's... a cutie, I'll admit. So I hope the Fenir fans are excited for his route to enter the beta phase!

LET'S.......... GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Last thing, but I also ran a poll on Alaris's release, basically asking whether you all would prefer a full or segmented release. The results were basically 50/50 LMFAO and that's the vibe I've been getting in general. So while I don't want to solidify anything yet, just let it be known that Alaris may end up having a segmented release, where the first four Central routes are released first, and the Fae routes a bit later. I'll see how I start feeling as the year goes on and where Alaris stands, but thank you all for the support and understanding for the poll <3

I was pretty busy this month, so I didn't have too much time to do market research :cries:

But............

I did see the new Haikyuu movie..................... And I am the biggest Haikyuu fan. Quite literally if you want to know everything about who I am as a person and creator, watch Haikyuu and you will understand who I am to my deepest depths.

obviously I had to draw baby

But aside from that, I want to give one last shoutout to our Hot Girl Summer cross-promo! If there are any games you haven't tried out in this little set, I highly recommend giving at least 1 or 2 of them a peek! All of the games are so charming and have some similarity to Alaris, whether it's a personality mechanic, hot Fae, or a fantasy/ adventure story :')

Links to each game can be found on the Alaris Game page under the magic and mystery otome section!

I'm pretty happy with the progress we made this month. While there's still a lot to do, it's satisfying to see Alaris come more and more to life with each month. See you all next month with hopefully more exciting progress!

[batsplat]

after 2015 until 2018 it seemed that things had calmed down a bit between valentino and marc, in the sense that they had started to be polite between them again and valentino no longer seemed to be on a war footing. then after argentina obviously the situation worsened again. in the podcast where valentino spoke in 2021 if I'm not mistaken, when he talks about marc,however, he only refers to the events of sepang and not to what happened in argentina which instead seemed to have been the final “divorce”. so my question is, during 2016 and 2017 did valentino just pretend to put up with marc? because in that podcast you can feel valentino's resentment is still a lot even after many years, so I imagine it must have been even greater in the two years immediately following sepang, even if it didn't seem if you see how he behaved

well. look. it was reflected in how valentino behaved... I think sometimes if you see isolated photos and gifsets, you can maybe be left with a bit of a mistaken impression of what that dynamic actually looked like for those two years. they got to a point post-catalunya where they were civil to each other, and maybe they'd exchange two lines in greeting, at podium celebrations, when somebody in a presser made a joke... and maybe marc at the very least was sincerely hoping they could get back to something like what they had before 2015. in reality, though, it was still very very far away. it wasn't open hostilities... at some point in 2016, valentino realised he simply couldn't go on like this. I talked about it a bit here:

you get this discrepancy in his 2016 output, actually. if you compare what he's saying that autumn for written press interviews vs what he's saying with marc right next to him... he'd clearly decided there was zero point in directly fanning the flames. at the sepang 2016 presser when marc and him are quizzed on what had happened the previous year, he just goes with marc's response and decides against reopening the controversy by adding anything from his side. but he still made it clear he hadn't changed his mind in interviews from the exact same time period! at times, he tolerates marc's tentative advances - at other times, he's almost accidentally sucked in, like he can't quite help himself from laughing at something marc has said. but there was never a period where he forgave marc for what he'd done... for various reasons he just decided he wasn't going to harp on about it too much. he did basically say as much post-argentina 2018:

but yeah, argentina 2018. it's an interesting one, isn't it? the stuff that valentino says there doesn't actually feel... quite in line with anything else he's said about marc. typically, when valentino criticises marc, it really is all about sepang 2015 - it's very focused, very specific, he's talking about being unable to forgive marc on a personal level for something marc had done to valentino... but it's not like he's really coming at marc for anything else... when other riders have gotten into spats with marc, he's stayed out of it - and generally he remains pretty neutral when he talks about everything else concerning marc. so, for example, there's a world where the moment alex rins is saying marc doesn't respect other riders in 2019, valentino immediately jumps at the opportunity to offer his hot take... but he doesn't do that. and yes, he had criticised marc's riding before, in particular in marc's moto2 days, but obviously those criticisms were considerably more restrained and sounded at times quite worried for marc's sake. (he also got close to that in silverstone 2016 when he remarked marc had 'something special' for their battles, but a) he's not wrong, except insofar as it's clearly mutual, and b) he explicitly said he didn't have a problem with that fight and considered it hard but fair). in 2017, when valentino was criticising other riders for being too aggressive... well, he wasn't doing so with marc, and he even conceded the point to marc in subsequent races after marc had obliquely criticised valentino at cota for his rhetoric not matching up to his own riding. when valentino's young riders have gotten into their own spats with marc, he's not waded in either, at most saying stuff about marc's fight with pecco that from his lips sounds almost like something akin to praise. radio silence after bez's run in with marc at the end of last year... argentina 2018 is the exception not the rule

and you know... at the end of the day, that was an emotional reaction. valentino might be wearing the habitual smile on his face during the media debrief and sound reasonably calm and composed, but he was furious. which, it's always worth remembering, isn't an entirely unreasonable reaction to that specific situation. yes, valentino doesn't have a clean track record either, but you're going to struggle to find such a... weaponised carelessness, a blatant disinterest in his fellow riders while shoving them aside, in the way marc was exhibiting that day - and indeed that whole weekend. looking back, of course argentina 2018 ended up being an isolated blot on marc's track record that he's not come close to repeating since (yes, he's made high profile errors that took out other riders, but it's different)... but we didn't know that at the time. also, I doubt valentino much appreciated being treated just like an obstacle in marc's path! the fact that valentino wasn't the only marc victim that weekend kind of has an interesting effect, because you have to doubt whether it would have helped if valentino felt like he was being targeted specifically by marc, but on the other hand... well, it's almost disrespectful, isn't it... being singled out is in a way still better than being brushed aside like any other rider

still, valentino's pushing it with his criticisms, he's out of line, and he clearly did lash out in the heat of the moment - which was of course largely a product of the resentment he'd been holding onto those past two years. calling marc's behaviour that day dangerous? sure, you'd find a lot of agreement for that. saying that marc was ruining the sport? that he was intentionally causing other riders to crash? ... well, hold on one moment. I reckon the simplest explanation is the best one here: valentino was angry and said stuff he wouldn't otherwise say, which we know because he's not done so before or since. of course, he was never going to retract what he said about marc that day - he wasn't ever going to apologise for it. not with their history, not when there was still just enough about those argentina comments that he meant... so he wasn't going to feel too much regret about the bits he wouldn't have said under any other circumstance. the problem post-2015 for valentino is that constantly signalling his fury to the world wasn't doing him much good... but pretending like everything was just fine clearly also took a bit of a toll. argentina 2018 wiped the slate clean - even though they gradually crept back towards basic civility after that. and valentino really didn't continue with that line of critique... since then he's basically completely reverted back to a sepang 2015-centric approach. maybe a few hints at it... in 2021, he said something along the lines of how he doesn't feel good when he's on-track with marc, but that's pretty generic while also crucially being personal - he's not saying marc is a problem for the series, he's saying it's them specifically that have an issue with each other

which doesn't mean he didn't believe what he said in argentina 2018 in the moment... when they reconvened in cota and had marc and valentino do separate media debriefs from the main presser, valentino said he stood by his comments - but also didn't actually repeat them or elaborate on them or anything. he's back to terse short responses to the press' questions, saying he wants to focus on the race ahead: kind of the go-to approach when it comes to marc post-sepang (with notable exceptions). he's walked his strongest comments back as much as he was probably ever going to - by simple virtue of the fact that he's left it at that. and you know, he's a complicated guy... 2016-17 was both pretending and it also wasn't. he didn't act like everything was forgotten, but he certainly was willing to let people believe that this relationship might end up being mended - which quite frankly was probably never going to happen. mostly, he was just sort of sick of the whole thing, struggling to enjoy himself in what had become such a charged, hostile environment for all the riders involved. at the same time, look - fundamentally, the interpersonal chemistry with marc was always fine. they click as people! they click as riders! marc makes valentino laugh! sometimes, that line between 'pretending' and 'letting yourself pretend' and 'actually not pretending at all' can be quite thin. when valentino talks in that time period about how much he enjoyed a battle with marc, of course he isn't lying - because he really does enjoy those fights! that's what racing is all about for him, and that's something him and marc still share! as long as marc isn't barging him aside and causing him to crash, that is. maybe it'd be easier if it were all a pretence, but it wasn't... sometimes, when you say you thought a race was hard and fair, you really do mean it and you really did have a lot of fun. sometimes, the struggle isn't actually acting nice for the cameras, it's trying to bite down the temptation to laugh alongside your sworn enemy

see also assen 2016... like, isn't this kinda wild? you've just had catalunya the race before, you've just had the mere semblance of a tentative start to a possible reconciliation - then they return to the place that was really the beginning of the end for them. they go on a few track familiarisation laps, including to check out the resurfaced final chicane (aka the scene of the crime). they race each other on said track familiarisation laps. then marc brings it up in the presser, giggling about the whole thing, and apparently valentino also finds it pretty funny - before he visibly swallows up his grin. later that weekend, marc pointedly decides to try out valentino's final chicane move himself during the warm up session. this is all obviously deranged, but it's a type of deranged where they are fundamentally on the same wavelength. it's the kind of ridiculous behaviour they're both incredibly fond of... you see it in how valentino shrugs off the towing at catalunya 2019, and thinks it speaks to marc's smarts and wiliness - unsurprising, really, because they're so similar in that regard, and valentino has never shaken his admiration for marc as a competitor

valentino can clamp down on his animosity towards a rival during his direct interactions with them... lord knows if you watch a few of the casey and valentino face-to-face interactions over the years, you really wouldn't match that up with the sheer vitriol of some of the stuff they were concurrently saying about each other in the press. that rivalry was never really personal (on valentino's end), it was never fraught in the same way (for valentino anyway) - still, it shows he's theoretically capable of separating this stuff out when he needs to... and he just about managed with marc for two years. if he had just been waiting for an excuse, surely you would have heard at least a hint of that when him and marc swapped paint in 2017. you never quite knew how he was going to answer the inevitable questions about marc's riding, but no direct criticism was forthcoming at any stage. the post-argentina 2018 rhetoric wasn't in any way premeditated from valentino's side, and personally I don't think he was just waiting for an excuse either. it was the result of a constant internal conflict between knowing that engaging in any more active beef with marc wouldn't do anyone any good, and the fact that he still hadn't forgiven marc... and then a race came along that simply pissed him off enough to push him over the edge

from 2016 onwards, valentino both very much wanted and very much did not want further conflict with marc, and neither of those impulses ever quite go away. usually, he's disciplined enough to avoid stoking the flames any further... potshots to the press outside of the paddock are essentially a free and harmless outlet in that regard, and even there you can tell he was trying to scale it back in the years where he was being forced to directly interact with marc. he was pretending and not pretending and sometimes pretending like he wasn't pretending and sometimes pretending like he was pretending. maybe it would have always just taken one major on-track confrontation for things to fall apart between them again... but you do kinda have to acknowledge the whole thing was really unfortunate. I've long thought that something like sepang 2015 was pretty inevitable as long as valentino managed to put himself in title contention once marc had joined the premier class, but I don't actually feel the same way about argentina 2018. an awful marriage of circumstance and coincidence and bad choices caused the relationship to fall apart again this badly. valentino might have had some more or less sincere misgivings about marc's riding, but at the end of the day he wasn't going to ever express them unless it got personal - because all of these people are incredibly self-centred and valentino wouldn't have felt like it was worth it. he lost his temper, he said some stuff he might partly but not fully believe, he's not inclined to bring it up again. that's that

[budd-ie]

Desperately need to break down two people and one cup of water because I have like 10 drafts about xianle trio that I Can't Post because they all feed off of conclusions from each of their answers, except we haven't established what those conclusions are yet. So this is where that starts.

I once had a wake up in a cold sweat realization (the first of many) that the three of them represent three different paths in their respective answers, and how these answers give us so much insight into who they really are and how they typically act. And I realize this is probably a very basic and prevalent thing (especially come book 3) but I haven't seen it broken down recently, so I'd like to. But mostly I need it as my context and support for my other future claims or else they might not make any sense haha. So I’ll be relating these answers directly to events in book 3. Let's get into it.

“Two walked the desert, about to die from thirst, and there was only one cup of water. The one who drinks lives, the one who doesn’t dies. If you were a god, who would you give that cup of water to— don’t speak yet, I’ll ask the other two and see how they answer.”

Mu Qing's answer:

“May I ask who those two people are, what their natures are like, and of their merits? A decision can only be made once all the details are known.”

Feng Xin's answer:

“I don’t know! Don’t ask me—tell them to decide amongst themselves!”

Xie Lian's answer:

“Give them another cup."

TLDR:

When faced with a choice such as this...

Xie Lian will try to save both parties at all costs, even if that cost is himself. His sense of justice is the strongest above all and believes that innocent people should never have to suffer.

Feng Xin will put someone else in charge of the choice and act on their behalf. He isn't as good at making decisions, and feels most comfortable standing behind someone else he trusts.

Mu Qing will choose whatever option brings the best/most desirable outcome that is within his control without sacrificing himself. He is a logical thinker above all else and is used to making moral sacrifices to find the optimal yet most realistic outcome of a situation.

(Book 3 and some book 6 spoilers ahead)

We know that Xie Lian's desire to expand the resource is beautiful but impossible, and we know that giving equal amounts of half the cup of water to both people will still leave them both as dead as not giving it at all. We also know that he learned his lesson the hard way and doesn't stop learning it even 800 years later. We know how Xianle fell and we know that it was doomed from the beginning; there was no saving it, but even if there was, he would have to choose between Xianle and Yong'an. Finally, we know that when he has nothing left to give, he will give himself up for the outcome he desires. We spend so much time with Xie Lian that I won't focus on trying to prove what's already been proven. Instead, I'll focus on the other two.

Mu Qing's answer is unpalatable to most people, because it sounds like he accepts being put in charge of answering the question "who deserves to live and who deserves to die?" It's easy to judge him for his willingness to make these kinds of sacrifices, but this is the exact nature of the question, and the exact situation they find themselves in so often. By both this answer and patterns within his actions, I think Mu Qing can best be described as an extremely logical thinker who will choose whatever option brings the best/most desirable outcome without sacrificing himself too far. That doesn't mean he'll never push his luck, but this is the algorithmic way we most often see him thinking.

By the terms of the riddle, the most logical option is that one person gets water and one person doesn’t, and the giver will decide who gets it to avoid conflict. And Mu Qing doesn’t choose randomly, either; he wants to choose based on their characters, their backgrounds, their merits, etc. So the other two may be treating everyone equally, but sometimes that’s just not within your control. Mu Qing is an incredibly logical person, so to optimize the good that can come from this action, he will make the choice. It’s not easy, and could end either way, but at least someone is guaranteed to live. In fact, this is the only outcome in which someone is guaranteed to live. I'll summarize some other examples of his thought process in the future, but I'll focus on the most relevant example for now.

In book 3, Mu Qing is the first one to suggest cursing Yong’an with human face disease in order to save Xianle. A "despicable" choice as they conclude, but Xie Lian, I will add, does thoroughly consider his suggestions before declining, and while the persuasion is ineffective, it isn't 100% ineffective. In the end though, Xie Lian is weighing the option of “people in the capital probably live and the people of Yong’an as well as the dead suffer for it” and he isn’t willing to make this bargain in the end. He doesn’t know if it could backfire and isn’t satisfied with the amount of bad that could come from it. Mu Qing, on the other hand, is adamant about this decision and gets frustrated that Xie Lian won’t make it. He's even excited about his answer, not because he wants people to die, but because he found themselves a viable way out. It feels so easy to him, because he’s weighing the net good of “we fucking live” and “we fucking die.” Turns out living is a lot more appealing than dying, especially for a character who canonically loves his life and is terrified of death. Isn’t this the same mindset as the rest of the common people?

I've established before that Xie Lian is not the common people. Growing up poor though, Mu Qing is like, common people extraordinaire. Unlike Xie Lian, he’s long since accepted that not everybody can be saved, not everybody can be placated, some people are good and nice and some people suck and are not. Mu Qing is used to making sacrifices for the greater good, ignoring morality to a digestible extent, because it’s something that common people have to do to get by. This situation reminds me of this quote from when the townsfolk are getting admonished for mutilating themselves to get rid of human face disease:

“Your Highness is invincible, so of course you'd call us foolish. But aren’t our conditions so desperate that we had no choice but to try foolish methods?!”

And maybe we fixate a lot on “not everybody can be saved” but I think what matters to Mu Qing is more that some people can be saved. Why are we dawdling doing good because it’s not enough good? Don’t we learn from this that just one person enough? Mu Qing understands that in order to have a chance at saving themselves a decision must be made, and he tries to make his point clear when he says the following:

“Before they reach their bad end, we will have already perished! You don’t have a third path and there is no second cup of water. Wake up, Your Highness! You’re running out of time.”

The amount of suffering the common people have endured until now allows the average person to surpass the moral debacle and choose life above all else. Why did Xie Lian try to steal during his first banishment? Because he was so desperate to save himself and his family that morality became the lesser merit. When faced with the threat of human face disease and the solution of killing just one person to save themselves, the people who stab Xie Lian live, and the one who refuses the decision dies a horrible death. Does Mu Qing make a little more sense now? He saw not only a way to survive, but the expected solution to the problem, and he jumped at it. We as the audience can fixate on the moral implications of his decisions because we aren’t the ones making the decisions, nor are we affected by either outcome.

Speaking of a person not making decisions, this is where Feng Xin becomes relevant. His answer is to make no decision at all, leave it up to them to decide who drinks and who doesn't. While he's absolved from the moral quandary, this path doesn't really solve anything. There might be a chance where they choose peacefully who should drink, but it's much more realistic to expect them to slaughter each other over the resource before either of them have the chance to drink it.

So when faced with a major decision like this, what is Feng Xin most likely to do?

Entrust it to someone else, like Xie Lian.

As much as I love him, our poor boy's arrows are a bit sharper than he is. What’s he doing while Xie Lian and Mu Qing talk about curses?

At first, Feng Xin had listened to their argument glumly, and because he couldn’t contribute any better ideas, he didn’t join in.

Not a whole lot. Actually, he stands silently until Mu Qing insults Xie Lian. After that, he shoves Mu Qing back and suddenly starts going off on him, saying things like

“With an apathetic person like him, you don’t usually see any sign that he actually cares about the Kingdom of Xianle. But now suddenly he’s anxious?”

and especially:

“You really think I can’t tell that you think His Highness is a fool? I can tolerate your sarcasm and those rolling eyes, I can tolerate you always standing where you shouldn’t in the Upper Court. You like to show off and it’s hardly the first time you’ve pulled this shit, so fine, go show off, you’re not good enough to wow the heavens anyway. His Highness doesn’t mind, so I don’t give a shit either. But since you’re gonna cross the line, I’m not gonna hold back. Listen up! I’m not surprised you’d leap at the chance to use despicable means, but His Highness is His Highness—no matter what he decides, you better respect it. Don’t you dare be so critical, and don’t forget who the fuck you are!”

This is only an excerpt of the rant because the first part isn't as relevant but this whole scene is so crazy. Crazy because it's so raw (that last line is so jaw dropping to me like actually. If someone said all that to me I’d go rogue) and also because it tells us so much about them.

First, "despicable" is actually a word Xie Lian used earlier when he said the following:

“Absolutely not! Don’t forget what we called them when they attacked the innocent civilians of the capital: despicable. If we do the same thing, won’t we become just as despicable? How would we be any different?”

Which means this isn't completely Feng Xin's own judgment. Right now, he's just using Xie Lian's opinion as an in to justify his own personal rage. Xie Lian isn't even calling Mu Qing despicable; he fully believes in Mu Qing, understands how he came to his conclusion, and doesn't blame him for having a temper (he already knows he's sensitive and prone to it, he defends him saying he’s “just anxious over the current situation”). While we do know it definitely reflects Feng Xin's moral opinion on attacking innocents (“If it really was them, then I’ll lose respect for them. Fight honestly on the battlefield if you have the ability; don’t use shady tricks to harm innocent civilians!”), it's less reflective of his intentions in this specific instance.

Second, this whole rant is fueled by nothing but pent up rage that was sparked by Mu Qing insulting Xie Lian, giving him a hard time, and going against his decision. Feng Xin judges him hard for his "despicable" choice, but Feng Xin doesn't even have any other opinions on how to solve the actual problem at hand. His opinion is whatever Xie Lian decides, for his highness is so smart and virtuous, clearly that must be the right one, especially when compared to that of a humble servant.

But what would Feng Xin do if Xie Lian decided Mu Qing was right? What if Xie Lian decided that they desperately needed to curse all Yong'an citizens to die so Xianle might be able to live? Would this still be a despicable decision to Feng Xin if Xie Lian decided it wasn't so bad? I have reason to believe that his sense of morality, though great, may be slightly lesser than his sense of loyalty (assuming the person he is loyal to is virtuous and acceptable to him, such is Xie Lian). This is supported by how in the revised book 6 scene, Feng Xin doesn’t leave because he’s questioning Xie Lian’s morality, he leaves because Xie Lian relieves him of his duty and he obeys the order. He’s surprised when this happens and seems hesitant, despite it all. While we don’t really have any specific instance testing this hypothetical, my hypothesis is that any moral complications he could have would come after acting on his highness's word, and if Xie Lian said this was the right choice, he would rationalize it (I also think there’s a graph with an intersection between his morality and loyalty after which morality will start surpassing loyalty when the situation is pushed far enough to warrant it). In any case, the consequences of their actions will not fall on Feng Xin's shoulders, so he doesn't think too hard about the implications of the actions, he just excels at following orders from the boss; that's why its so easy for him to make these judgments.

I also think this explains the way he acts during book 1 where he always looks like he has something to say and never chooses to, always looking just a little lost at what he’s supposed to be doing. He’s given a choice of talk to Xie Lian or not talk to him, but he genuinely doesn’t know what he’s supposed to do and can’t figure it out on his own, so he chooses the safe option of doing nothing. He’s always looked towards Xie Lian to make decisions, but he doesn’t have that anymore. We actually see him start getting more confident in decision making as the book goes on, like when he congratulated him for his 3000 lanterns (I like how he doesn’t question where they came from though!).

Anyways, I forgot how important book 3 was for characterization of these three because everything they do can be drawn back here. The number one reason I like this story is the way every single character is so individual and has very specific motivations and personalities that can and will clash in very specific ways with other characters, which is how a lot of the conflicts arise in the first place (instead of throwing people at a plot and hoping they can carry it). It makes it so interesting when you know why they act the way they do. Also, this isn't a complete character summary by any means, there’s obviously more to these fellas that I didn’t talk about. I can think of other instances that support these conclusions, but because this is already such a long post maybe I'll make a masterlist or something and link them when I finish them (thanks!)