#but this is nearing soap opera levels

[leaf-miner]

Nooo Sam why would you put it like that. Also, Alice WHY did you have to get him a job at your workplace, this is such a messy situation.

Things are long past weird already Sam.

Nooo the glitch! She's lying! Oh Alice.

Good job Alice! You're being super normal about this and not awkward whatsoever!

Please Alice. This is so awkward. Please just tell them you need some space or SOMETHING. (This is already a workplace drama Celia, let's be honest.)

HOW does she keep making it more awkward?

No, Alice please don't invite yourself along to their date. At least wait until you aren't stepping into the middle of a moment between them (although that's exactly why she did it then, isn't it). Stop doing this to yourself please.

LMAO it really is hilarious how badly she handled that considering how much she teases Sam about being awkward and he was so casual about it.

Alice Dyer I love you, but you are such a disaster. Getting your ex you're still in love with as a coworker is a terrible way to try to get back together. And (as of episode 17) we still don't know why they broke up in the first place. What a mess.

[radioactive-mouse]

i keep thinking about like. how the brutality levels vary between seasons and how secret life is the natural culmination of everything these people have been through and the watchers pushing everything to extremes. i’m going to try to articulate how crazy this makes me

3rd Life: god. 3rd life was a clear cut war. we haven’t seen a season since where nearly everyone has such an intense devotion to their chosen faction. the fact that there’s no precedent that they’re coming back next season, the fact that as far as they know, dying means staying dead, makes just how much they’re willing to go down with the ship that much more heartbreaking. grian ended the season exactly how it was played by damn near everyone else— i love you, i would do anything for you, i would rather die than keep going without you. the season of widows.

Last Life: and then they come back. and then ending things isn’t an option. and all of a sudden it’s not a war, it’s a death match, and damn is the competition is vicious. deaths are more often than not a vague, impersonal thing— not get away from my king, my husband, my charge— just the flash of a knife and a quick sorry, just playing the game! if 3rd life told you to hold the ones you love close, defend them to your last breath, last life urges you to burn that love out of your chest entirely.

Double Life: but everything slows down eventually. no more dying for the one you love— just learning to live with them. double life is about knowing that when you die, you will go together, hand and hand into the dark. a soap opera, the players joke. a small kindness, the universe replies. again, pearl wins the same way everyone else lost— no, not yet, please, just give us a little longer together, i’m not ready, i’m so sorry—

Limited Life: but the clock, unyielding, ticks ever onward. and god, everyone is starting to feel it. that sick, nauseating feeling of dread creeping up on them: what if it never ends? what if this is it, this is all that’s left for us— tearing each other apart over and over and over again, and for what? for a show? to feed those hungry things lurking in the dark? we’ll give them a show. bombs rain from the sky, the world shaking under the weight of it. there isn’t a thing left by the end that’s not rubble. we’re all doomed! the players cry, laughing with nothing but nihilistic, unrestrained joy. none of it matters! we come back again, and again, and again, have a little fun with it! light the fuse, collateral be damned. when death means so little, what’s the point in pretending they don’t take a little joy in it? we settle this like grian and scar before us, scott jokes, armor and weapons tossed to the side. are you insane? martyn thinks, remembering the hollow look that would wash over grian’s face when he thought no one was watching. it ruined him. it will not ruin me. this is a death match for a reason.

Secret Life: and here it is. the natural conclusion. this season is candy colored, the map dotted with cute pink houses and silly builds, the players all running around doing these ridiculous tasks. it’s so easy to forget how bloody this season was. unclosing wounds, bruises that don’t fade, the sting of fire or falling from a simple misstep. the hurt never goes away, but it gets easier to ignore— distract yourself with something silly to pass the time: spyglasses and frogs and the ugliest house you’ve ever seen and matching leather jackets and the doghouse and the relationSHIP and a weird tunnel full of doors and secret soulmates and god it’s almost, almost, enough to forget how much it all aches, how much the grief weighs on you, how many times someone you love has died, sometimes to your own blade. almost none of the grudges you hold are real by now, not really. not when you’re going to live and die with these people for as long as the hungry, many-eyed things delight in your suffering. you love each other, in the strangest way— sure you’ve all killed and betrayed each other in a thousand different ways, but at the end of the day, they’re all you have. clinging to each other in the face of the vast, unknowable horrors that drive you to slash each other to pieces. it’s still a game, after all. they’ve gotta figure out how to be good sports about it eventually.

[official-wales]

Any advice for first language English speakers trying to learn Welsh?

sacrifice yourself to y ddraig goch and ascend into her kingdom of fire

Diolch yn fawr iawn! I'm a second language South Walian myself, so my Welsh is gonna be different to a first language North Walian, for example. But, we roll with it.

Start small

I don't know if you're in Wales, or elsewhere, but just introducing little Welsh phrases is a good place to start, like greetings. Don't worry about making mistakes, or being misunderstood. Everyone will know what you mean, and most people will be pleased you're using Welsh!

Hello - Shwmae/Helo

Good bye - Hwyl fawr

How are you? - Sut dych chi? (very formal), Sut wyt ti? (less formal)

Thank you (very much) - Diolch (yn fawr)

Please - O's gwelwch yn dda

Good morning - Bore da

Good afternoon - Prynhawn da

Good night - Nos da

Welcome - Croeso

If you ARE in Wales, look out for people wearing little orange speech mark badges in public places, like shops. These mean they are fluent, or learning Welsh, and will be happy to talk with you in the language.

2. Understanding pronunciation

Sometimes English speakers get tripped up by Welsh spelling, especially when mutations are involved. You've probably heard the old "it's just a keyboard smash language!", when honestly Welsh makes more sense than English (every letter is pronounced the same every time, unlike English, where it's a lottery).

Here's some major-ish differences to the English alphabet:

a - "ah" (apple)

ch - like a gutteral cat hiss? Or like you're trying to get phlegm out of the back of your throat.

dd - "th" (these)

e - "eh" (elephant)

f - "v" (velcro)

ff - "f" (fantastic)

i - "ee" (queen)

ll - like you're blowing air out the side of your tongue, while the tip is just behind your teeth. May take some practice, but it's a VERY common sound

r - roll that letter, baby. like an Italian

rh - like a breathy r. Use your teeth

u - "ih" (hit)

w - "ooh" (spoon)

y - "uh" (under) or sometimes "ih" (inside)

(there is no j, k, q or v in the Welsh alphabet. But that doesn't stop some anglicised words like "jam")

3. Mutations

Mutations are ways Welsh words change, depending on what comes before or after them. There are loads of mutations, but you can be understood without using them/forgetting them, so don't worry too much. They're quite easy to learn too.

For example:

Diflas - Boring

Mae Owen yn ddiflas - Owen is boring

The 'd' changes to a 'dd'. Because mutations. Don't ask me why.

Here's a guide to mutations that can explain it better than I can.

4. Find some sick Welsh media

Maybe you're into podcasts, or soap operas, or rock music, or food blogs, or children's books, or Eisteddfod poetry, or-

HERE'S SOME HANDPICKED STUFF FROM YOURS TRULY:

Hansh on Twitter, YouTube and iPlayer - comedy and more platform. Quite random.

Adwaith - Welsh-language, all-female, indie rock band from Carmarthenshire. Won the Welsh Music Prize in 2022.

Duolingo Welsh course - Recently, Duolingo announced they were going to stop updating the course, which led to some BIG OUTCRIES in Welsh news. Worth looking in to.

Learn Welsh - resources, schemes, audiobooks and more to help people learn Welsh in a way that suits them. 16-25 year olds can learn for free. You can book face to face lessons, online self-learning, learn with other learners, search courses near you and loads of other stuff. Good to explore.

Ap Treiglo and Ap Geiriadur - free apps to help with mutations and vocabulary. Ap Geiriadur is designed by Bangor University.

Siarad - Voluntary scheme to help people increase their confidence using Welsh. You're matched with a fluent Welsh speaker, and can go through three levels of proficiency. You arrange to meet up, or learn online - whatever suits you!

S4C - The Welsh language broadcasting service. Has everything: news, Gogglebocs Cymru, drama, documentaries, you name it.

Doctor Cymraeg - really successful tiktok and instagram account. Teaches about bitesized Welsh language facts, vocabulary and funny things. Also always films them when out on a walk, with the expression of a high school teacher who's just watched his pupils try and fail to make the leaning tower of pisa out of gluesticks. Classic.

5. TYMBLR

There are LOADS of people learning Welsh on here for the first time, and interacting with them is one of the best ways to get into the language online. #dysgu cymraeg is a good tag.

Sorry for the long post, but ta da! I am by no means an expert, but with your help anon, we can get everyone speaking Welsh by nightfall. The plan is in motion. Godspeed.

[wishjacked]

my webcomic's volume 1 kickstarter ENDS in THREE DAYS!!!!!!!! so I am telling you guys about my comic as frankly as I can HAHAHA!!

Cargo is about smugglers. They live in a version of Florida where, post zombie-apocalypse, the government went INSANE and made everything illegal... like they made "wearing excessive amounts of the color red" a fineable offense I'm not kidding around, EVERYTHING is illegal. More things:

Enter SJ Khan, a woman with a brain that can only invent rube goldberg machine style solutions to her problems. She enlists an old friend to help her start a smuggling company and the two of them round up a crew that's just seeping with soap-opera levels of drama.

This comic is based on a comic I drew a little over 1 decade ago. It's about living with strangers, about what you choose to look at or are allowed to look at, and most importantly it's about watching weird guys doing unpredictable things. It is funny. I am learning how to draw Florida for it, here, look:

I call it an "evil sitcom". Someone once described it as using "hey i'm not 100% sure you can have a main character do that" comedy... and that feels right to me too.

It's an ensemble cast, but the story centers around a team of smugglers. I love this cast so much, they're all so strange and it's so fun to write all their various quirks crashing into each other. Here's a (only slightly outdated) height chart of the entire extended cast.

You know the weird relationships you get with coworkers, where you're forced to be near them and cooperate with them on some level for most of your waking hours regardless of how you feel about them? That's what we're dealing with here. I had a review describe it as "not found family, but found acquaintances" which. Yeah. Exactly. 😂😂

Some characters and relationships you can expect to see in Cargo:

An absolute mess of a man who micromanages his entire crew but especially the FIFTEEN YEAR OLD (!!!!!!) INDENTURED SERVANT (!!!!!!????????!!!!!!!!!!) (HELP HELP HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) (AHHHHHHHH WHY DID I LEAD WITH THIS ONE!!!!!!!)

This old guy who works for them has MASSIVE MASSIVE beef with the boss lady because 10 years ago she framed him for a crime he didn't commit which caused him to be in prison for years and years. But for some reason they still care about each other.

You know that tweet that's like "a job will have you..." wait I can just find the tweet and show you guys. This one

Well anyways. Cargo has that one. It's between a guy who is a medical celebrity because he got the zombie parasite and then got cured and a very nice very violent old lady. They are the ship goofballs they are also probably the two most actively dangerous people here LMAO

This kid who loves his cat and is doing his best to avoid give a single drop of his precious energy to engaging with the rest of these clowns.

One of the characters did something that made my readers say this.

I could go on but this post is so long already. So instead, links.

You can read it online on Comic Fury or Tapas!

And here's my Kickstarter link again!

Here's art I drew of the crew ~8 years ago. A sincere thank you for looking at this post, godspeed and goodnight!

[googleitlol]

Sorry if my thoughts are all jumbled here. Or if it doesn't make sense. I'm also kinda being vague here cause these are kinda in the beginning stages of forming to proper theories.

But first of all, thanks for answering my question and indulging me.

Also sure I'll share a little bit of my theories here. Once again, you don't have to confirm or deny these. Hell, you don't have to answer this if you don't wanna.

I had a feeling since the title and the dove symbolism kinda went together, there would be at least some surface level nods to it, but now that there's confirmation that there's more reason behind the dove transformation I can kinda go into my little "theory" (more or less speculation). Not really connected to the stories ending too much that I know of buuuuut, I've just been thinking what enlightenment would be for Dove herself since everyone is going through their respective character arcs to achieve enlightenment in the end. I'm also keeping in mind the love symbolism from this creature, even though it's not really symbolism from religion and more so a universal thing across multiple cultures, as a possible significance.

But also, these little teasers with the endings and the one shots here got me (oop here comes more theory and speculation) thinking about what the hell happened. Cause the heavenly court and Buddha don't seem to be the "badguys" in this story. So i kinda figured a 3rd party got Dove separated from the group somehow since everyone else (allegedly) got to stick together. So something really bad definitely happened here, and either Dove is going through some corruption arc or someone else is pulling at some strings here. But nooooow, I'm inclined to believe the latter, if not this 3rd party, causing the corruption arc. These are just things I kinda think about in 2 possible endings. I hope this all makes sense.

I could be waaaaaayyy off though so yeah

Oh, you know I'm gonna answer these! Also, I'm glad you caught onto some of this!

Love is definitely a big part of Dove's character arc, tho it's more of a catalyst for what she has to realize. Dove at the start of the journey isn't really… her own person. Or at least, she wants to change herself to be more like the person who saved her. It's like she thinks there's some moral obligation she has to follow in Guan Yin's steps, and as her relationship with Sun Wukong develops, she starts to question that.

Your other thoughts on what happens near the end… muahahaha…

I've mentioned it in passing so I won't try hiding it, there's another party involved in PoM. They don't get too involved until after the Red Boy arc, which is lowkey why I decided to start posting to AO3 after I finished with those chapters. Everything from the start of PoM to Wukong realizing his feelings can be considered… the first act of my little soap opera. This third party doesn't become more prominent until Act 2.

Technically, the third party has been causing problems since the prologue. They're just chilling cuz one of them doesn't know about the journey yet while his accomplice… she knows about the journey, she just gives less of a fuck. But when they decide to take action, stuff gets fun (stressful and full of agony). I'm excited to get to them, who they are, their backstory and powers, EVERYTHING! UUUGGHHHWVBOJNVUSBDCS I WANNA TALK ABT THEM SO BAD–!

ahem, anyway–

As for your theory about a 'corruption arc'… depending on how I end PoM, Dove may or may not cross a line she wouldn't have crossed at the start of the pilgrimage. The fun part is, the ending I consider the 'good ending', the one where she doesn't get separated from her friends and loved ones… is where she crosses that line. If Dove kept trying to be like Guan Yin, she would never think of going down that road. So in that good ending where she stops trying to be someone she's not, and the ones who helped her get to that realization are put in jeopardy… she has no hesitation.

[chamberlains-ghoul]

“Leon and Luis fell in love in Valdelobos” this and “Serennedy fell in love after one day 🥹” that

With their issues, it would take soap opera level drama, seven near death experiences, and divine intervention to get them together and I wouldn’t have it any other way

[archduchessofnowhere]

I’m seeing your rewatching posts of Die Kaiserin and after you fully rewatch I would honestly love to hear a rant comparison of how inaccurate the show is compared to real life. Like I’m seriously invested

Hi! Honestly if I make a "side by side" comparison of all the inaccuracies this answer would be 20k words long jgkglj. I feel that sometimes I come off as too obnoxious pointing out every little inaccuracy so I tried to do that a little less in this rewatch, and instead focused on which I believe are the biggest issues.

Personally, I think the problem with Die Kaiserin's inaccuracies is that they betray a completely lack of understanding of the history and the people they are adapting. It's not just that they changed dates or that they aged up characters or that the women wear corsets on their bare skin (all things that bother me too); is that the characters are so different to their historical counterparts that they are practically unrecognizable. Just to list a few of the crimes of this series' characterizations:

Elisabeth is no longer an introverted and sensitive teen girl who suddenly becomes empress and can't adapt to her new role, she's an outspoken, defiant young woman (her age in never mentioned but Devrim Lingnau just can't pass as a fifteen years old) who is more compassionate and clever and better than every single other woman in this series. She is just so Different and Not Like The Other Girls!

Franz Josef is a weak willed ruler who is easily manipulated by his mother and is apparently uncapable of assert his authority. Nevermind that the real FJ ruled as an absolute monarch since he was 18, and never allowed anyone near him to have too much influence.

Archduke Maximilian, FJ's liberal, romantic brother is turned into a womanizer bad boy who wants to steal his brother's throne and wife. Since he has no political leanings to speak of in this series, it's not really clear why he even wants to be emperor, funsies?

Archduchess Sophie was always going to get the short end of the stick, as the idea that she was a mother-in-law from hell is very prevalent in fiction and nonfiction. But this show takes it to a new level: she isn't an strict mother-in-law, she's cartoonishly evil. She orders executions and arrests (withouth his son's consent!), she threatens to lockdown Elisabeth forever if she doesn't agree to divorce FJ! She disdains her sons and calls them weak! (nevermind that the real Sophie adored all her children)

And I could go on with the rest of the supporting characters, but my point is: I don't know who these people are, they resemble their historical counterparts in name only.

And I guess I could forgive that if the series was at least an entretaining court drama, but honestly I just think that on top of being inaccurate, it is very dull as well. There's a whole episode set at a wedding party, and if well done I like this sort of "real time" episodes, but in this case I was terribly bored because nothing of note happened (oh no Elisabeth saw FJ's former mistress among the guests! She will now walk around asking people if they know who the woman is for the next thirty minutes). In fact the pacing is so bad that season 1 may take place in the span of three months for all we know.

Also practically all the conflicts this season are fictional too: Elisabeth not getting pregnant (false, she became pregnant two months after her wedding at most), Max planning a coup on his brother (false, Max loved his brother and would never do something against him), FJ wanting to build a rail but the evil conservative ministers being against it because they want to go to war (false, there wasn't opposition to industrialization - Austria's neutrality in the Crimean war had nothing to do with that), and so on.

Ultimately I think that if you know nothing (but like, absolutely nothing) of the real history you may enjoy this show as a soap opera (because the fictional love triangle gets a lot of screentime), because Die Kaiserin is really not the serious period drama it seems to believe it is.

[shippingmyworld]

Pigging backing on the Danny x Sam ask, but I wanna you're thoughts about Manny and Frida too and how their romantic relationship didn't work out

The Manny x Frida ship sinks a lot less dramatically than the Danny x Sam ship in my headcanon lmao

I chalk up their relationship 'failing' to Manny being autistic and Frida being adhd-coded. Also because they were 13-14 when they kissed and I believe that when you're that young you don't quite know what you want out of life or relationships yet, especially if it's your first one.

In full honestly, I don't believe that Manny held a single ounce of attraction to Frida in a romantic way. Frida was the one that initiated the kiss during the series finale, and Manny barely even reacted to that. I think his autistic mind just went 'Oh, I guess I'm dating Frida now.' and when people/his family asked him if Frida was his girlfriend, he confirmed it. In his mind, you only kissed someone if you were dating or married.

While I do think that Frida did develop a crush on Manny, I don't believe that she was serious about the kiss as a way for them to start dating. She's excitable, and gets swept up in the moment very easily, and is the jester type of character. She's the hypeman of every situation she's remotely near, even if not directly involved (my main example is the Cactus Kid episode, where she slides into the scene and makes the 'Oh, must be awkward to be you.' comment to Cactus Kid when Grandpapi reveals he's only using CK to make Manny jealous and doesn't think CK is cut out to be a real villain). I think that she kissed Manny because her thought process was something along the lines of: "Hey, this superhero just rounded up literally every villain in the area and is being celebrated by everyone. Someone should kiss him, that's what will make this moment super hype."

So yeah, they tell people that they're boyfriend a girlfriend when asked, but nothing about their relationship actually changed. They don't hold hands, they don't go on romantic dates, and they haven't kissed since that final fight. They still hang out all the time during their first year of high school, but slowly start drifting to different groups as they don't have many classes together.

The year passes normally and it's summer break. Rodolfo approaches Manny (who's just hanging out at home) all nervous like, asking a bunch of questions like he's beating around the bush. Manny thinks it's weird and asks his Dad what's up, and Rodolfo asks if everything is good with Manny and Frida since she hasn't been around recently. Manny says everything is fine, and Rodolfo keeps pushing the issue (he's projecting failed marriage with Maria onto his son). He eventually asks when the last time Manny kissed Frida was, and Manny realizes they haven't kissed since the first kiss right before high school.

So, being the direct person he is, Manny just calls Frida (in front of his father of all things) and tells her point blank.

Manny: "Hey, we haven't kissed since a year ago." Frida: "Huh, you're right." Manny: "So I guess we're not dating anymore?" Frida: "Yeah, I guess so. We're still friends though, right?" Manny: "Of course!"

And the call ends there with Manny going on with his day as usual while his Father stands there horror-struck and still processing the most chill breakup in history.

Meanwhile there's a whole soap opera level of drama going on in the background, as all the supervillains in school want to date Frida and have been waiting for her to break up with Manny, and Zoe has been trying to get Manny to fall in love with her. But that's a whole nother fic prompt lol.

Also it's cool, my posts are literally filled with typos lmao

[bloody-wonder]

Top five mangas?? 👀👀

thanks i'm gonna include manhwa too tho bc i read it more often :)

semantic error made me unlock hitherto undreamt of levels of fun that can best be compared to the profound enjoyment a hetero woman experiences when watching a really good self-indulgent romcom. i previously thought i'm only into exceptionally fucked up bl but this manhwa taught me i'm not above very basic romance if it's well-written, hilarious and sexy and frames weirdness as something that can be appealing and awaken desires

killing stalking was the first bl manhwa i ever read and what an introduction to the genre it was! it's very good but very dead dove do not it so i wouldn't rec it to just anyone. for me, it was very fun binging the whole thing overnight bc why sleep when you can instead plunge deep into the darkest corners of human psyche while scrolling cartoons

twittering birds never fly has the audacity to maintain that slowburn since *checks wikipedia* 2011?? what the fuck?! if semantic error is a romcom twittering birds is a soap opera with no end in sight - and it has me in a chokehold. yashiro is one of the most characters of all time, i hope he admits his feelings for doumeki sometime before i turn 50 but it's still fun to watch him get into increasingly dramatic situations in order to avoid doing just that lol

painter of the night is just self-indulgent. i don't think the plot is any good at all and i don't particularly like the main character but i'm sufficiently compensated for these flaws by the historical setting and yoon seungho. the joseon period costumes are just so fun to look at - at one point i went down a rabbit hole researching those fascinating gat hats. more bl should be set in the past tbh but it probably takes more time and research for the creators. and yoon seungho is just your classic bad boy you want to fix and do in fact fix. the drrrrama of it tho!

the cornered mouse dreams of cheese / the carp on the chopping block jumps twice is probably the least well-known on this list? this short two volume manga was recced to me by a friend and i really liked it bc it features a protag struggling with his sexuality in a way that to me read very aro. it's also about the quarter-life crisis so. all the themes very near and dear to my heart lol

[littletentofblue]

RIGHT

Yeah, ok, hi.

I'm gradually recovering from what has legit been the worst year of my life lmao. Straight up soap-opera levels of drama (that is literally what my therapist said). And then THIS year, just when things were starting to look up, I landed myself in hospital and nearly died LOL. I could astound you with the details but I'll save it. If I wrote it all into a fic you'd all probs tell me to tone it down anyway.

But yeah, I didn't die. Go me! And things are actually better now, we hope.

And somehow through all the bullshit, I've managed to cling to the belief that TSAOH will eventually get finished and uploaded, because faith will always see us through the darkest of times.

That's a filthy lie. I completely gave up and abandoned her for like ten months.

But the bitch refused to die, and now, she might soon actually be fit to be seen by human eyes (after some heavy editing of course)

So while I'm sure the vast majority of that fic's original readers will have moved on to pastures greener, anyone who's still around and still cares might have something to look forward to in the near future.

[brightideathepunny]

One time my fiancee and I were brushing our teeth, and I still had a bit of toothpaste left in one tube and a good bit more toothpaste in another tube. I reached over for the near-empty tube, thinking it was the more full one, but when I realized it wasn't I said off-handedly "that's not the one I wanted".

My fiancee then proceeded to improvise an entire dramatic scene, on the spot, without breaking character, with the toothpaste tubes as characters, and the near empty one was betrayed by my change of heart:

(Note: read the following with as much emotion as you can, like, soap-opera levels of over-the-top, but still somehow heartfelt)

.....not the one you wanted....

Not....the one....you wanted?

NOT. The ONE. You WANTED?!

That toothpaste tube gave you the best months of its life...

(I'm starting to crack up, but I'm brushing my teeth at this point so I'm trying to hold in my laughter)

...and YOU just choose the NEWER more FULL and THICK toothpaste, and break the poor thing's heart! Have you no shame? Have you no compassion? He gave you all he could, and you just used him, used him up until there was barely anything left, only to choose another toothpaste, RIGHT IN FRONT OF IT!

(I couldn't tell if I was crying from his surprisingly compelling narrative or trying to keep from busting a gut laughing)

...when you popped his cap, and held him in your hand, gave that sweet squeeze, grazed him with your toothbrush just a little bit, and laid him gently on the counter, his heart leapt, and you'd smile as you brushed your teeth. It lived to see you smile! And now....now he sees you popping someone else's cap, squeezing them, smiling at them, the way you used to smile at him!

(I'm bent over laughing, wondering how much material my fiancee still has left)

Just remember, while you're smiling and brushing your teeth, just remember...he was there for you, and you chose somebody else instead of him.

(I finished brushing my teeth and spit out)

AND SCENE!

[inkwell-intermission]

got any boxcars headcanons?

yessss :] I'll actually paste a thing I wrote a bit ago getting a little flowery about how I feel abt him, warning for mention/description of cannibalism and violence? but that's expected with Boxcars I think.

"I think boxcars is many things. enjoyer of soap operas and dime store romance novels, recreational cooking enthusiast, haver of competitive wrestling energy, amateur and heartfelt poet, rampant bisexual cliche enjoying romantic, violence doer with a near lack of erotic sadism and moreso schadenfreude and satisfaction, emotionally stable and happy as a person, and enjoyer of cannibalism through an almost spiritually fulfilling lens of consumption texture fascination and a boarish horrorterrors approval"

and

"it's actually so fucking romantic to work with a man who rarely smiles but seems to take great relish when torturing someone to turn to you and finally show a crescent of teeth as he threatens to loose you on him knowing the hedonistic joy you take in the taste of still trembling red meat" (droog and boxcars)

I think Boxcars has to practice his goon face in the mirror to look serious and scary, because he has such a good time with most things he does. He loves a good fight, he loves his work and his force of personality is magnetic, and it's more expected that he remain stoic and stone-faced but he's full of joy and genuine happiness, hes on warriormale shit, he's a huge ass guy who loves finding other big dudes to beat the shit out of.

He's the biggest ally in the intermission even if he doesn't know all the words he's got the spirit (he knows a lot of the words anyway). He'd stop fighting someone if they started having an asthma attack or panic episode and help them calm down and breathe before resuming the fight and ask ur pronouns before breaking your arm or something <3

Intense romantic and very bisexual, has a wide chivalric streak that Broad for example finds very charming- who wouldn't swoon a little over a huge guy delicately kissing your hand? (Dame doesn't. lol) He's probably the most stable of the Midnight Crew, he's got a strong moral principle (not saying it's always "good", but y'know) and he sticks to it pretty firmly, and defies orders he sees as violating them. As a big guy it's pretty hard to make Boxcars do something he doesn't want to do.

I'll also go over his horrorterror briefly: It's known as The Devouring Tusks, The Insatiable Boar, and The Patron of Empowerment. It's just how it sounds- A massive, consuming boar. I chose a boar partially due to their propensity for... eating people lol. It found Boxcars to be a kindred spirit who had previously discovered a fondness for carapacian, initially out of necessity in Exile- He needs a lot of food to keep himself up compared to his friends, and preferred to give them the game he could hunt down and take what was left or anyone who tried to kill him for the game on the way back as his own meal- very considerate of course, he loves his friends very much :]! And the boar sees him and sees that he understands, and they become patron and disciple. The Boar gives Boxcars the ability to draw the physical strength and life force out of his opponents through either physical contact and injury with focus, or automatically when consuming their body. By grabbing a person and digging his claws in he can kind of inhale the strength out through his jaws- this is the only way he's a match for Ace Dick once he's the STRONGEST MAN IN THE WORLD, in technicality- that title makes him almost automatically stronger than everyone else he encounters, until Boxcars extracts a slice of his strength, leveling the playing field and gaining an upper hand.

There's always more to say of course, but that's a big chunk to chew on right there!

In proximity I'll actually remark on Heedful Blandisher briefly. In my interpretation of mobswitch, Heedful is more of the outward face of the Meddlesome Company in terms of seeking sponsors and support. Scout is too notorious for his criticisms of businesses and appetite for dirt, and Deadeye is considered a bit stiff and awkward, and is usually the go-to for when illegal things need doing, specifically violence. If someone needs getting rid of, that's Deadeye, whether it's intimate and silent or a sniping, which he's skilled at. Blandisher is a good talker, he's charismatic and big and comfortable, and often finds himself comforting victims of various crimes they're investigating. He's a good hugger, very observant, and a bit of an armchair therapist. He also runs an advice show over radio in the late evenings, for various things but especially romance. Die listens a lot and calls in very regularly to give far too much information about himself and other cops whinging about how everyone bullies him and develops a big ol crush on Heedful haha

Ok now I'm done

[heartsbreaking-migrated]

okay weewoo show season finale thoughts spoilers obviously please use your eyes because im not spoiler tagging this because i dont want it to breach containment if you haven't seen the finale simply do not click the read more

i missed ravi and may more than life itself it wasn't a great tv finale but it wasn't anywhere near got s8 (i know its not the end of the show but this is my point of comparison okay)

first of all the daddy kink debate going on in the tags is so funny to me as if this show ISNT MADE BY THE SAME PEOPLE THAT MADE FUCKING GLEE! GET A GRIP! there was NEVER going to be a time when this show is dead serious tm. there is always going to be a level of camp garbage to it, but y'all aren't ready for that discussion. actually this point doesn't just apply to the daddy kink thing, but the whole show. this isn't prestige tv. we're not watching succession here, we're watching a prime time soap opera set at a fire house.

acab. i love athena as a person but i'm honestly not a fan of her character arc in this show.

loved being right all along about amir. i knew in my heart that man could not hurt a fly.

idc how unrealistic maddie and chimney being approved as emergency foster placements that quick probably is they're everything to me and i really want more of the hen/karen & maddie/chimney joint family next season! more of that and less cop athena plots pls. (i know i'm harping on it but i really can't stand cop shows and as much as i love angela bassett i want less of athena)

i actually think eddie letting chris go with his grand parents was mature as hell. like i'm sorry dude, you fucked around and found out. i feel bad for him for not having processed his grief but i think allowing knockoff shanon (i forgot her name okay) into his house and into his life at all was a dick move on ALL fronts. i'm glad he and chris have a support system sure wished he used it more instead of putting all his grief on a fucking stranger (i also really hated this plot it was dumb and stupid and really ryan murphy core)

anywho favorite moments of the episode were may showing up, maddie calling herself 'maddie han' and jee walking in holding mara's hand.

i'm not going to rant about how much i hate 90% of the people in the fandom who aren't in the rpc. you can unlock that rant by adding me on disco cause jesus christ the people in the tags deserve jail time.

hottest take i just came up with, i think this show should be moved to a streaming exclusive and make the episodes longer. i honestly think the biggest handicap of this show is the amount of time they have. the seasons are SHORT which is the trend now for prestige tv but like i said this ain't it. an hour of 9/1/1 without commercials would really give the show room to breath cause truly when you watch it with commercials you realize how little run time it actually has. there was one point mid episode where there was ONE SCENE and then it cut to commercial again. like thats nasty.

[callous-and-misunderstood]

My Descendant's Gift Exchange for @fairestloser !

Apologies for the delay, so sorry! Here is a lovely lil hurt/heal fic of Mal and Evie! I hope you enjoy!

AO3

SHOW ME YOURS

The last thing Evie expected to greet her when she opened the kitchen door of her castle in the middle of a thunderstorm was the reason for Evie’s banishment collapsed limply in Jay’s arms.

Evie stayed in the doorway, frozen.

She was overwhelmed with warring emotions—the fear that this was some further punishment for her mother’s mistake from ten years ago, the annoyance that Jay had brought the girl to her of all people, the worry for the obviously injured girl on her doorstep, the vindictive desire to turn the girl away as payback for the years of isolation and scavenging, the overwhelming need to pull the girl into her arms and press a kiss to her lips.

A twisting sensation churned in her stomach as she stared at Mal’s face. Usually the girl was a chaotic frenzy of expressions; snark and scowls and smirks. But now the girl was pale and still, purple strands of hair plastered to her forehead, not a single flicker of the vibrancy that Evie expected from her sworn enemy.

“Evie,” a small voice said, and she tore herself aware from Mal, surprised to see Carlos standing like a shadow behind Jay. His face was pinched with stress, the same look he had when he found Evie on the verge of blacking out from not eating again. “We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t serious.”

Evie sighed, knowing her best friend was right. She finally moved out of the doorway to let the three of them into the castle, shutting the door on the pouring rain with a sense of doom.

Jay deposited Mal on to Evie’s worktable, familiar with the space since Evie had healed him up more than a few times. But Mal being there, being anywhere near Evie…this was anything but familiar.

Evie hasn’t interacted with Mal beyond passing glares and rolled eyes when she sneaks through the marketplace. It’s an open secret that Evie doesn’t stay in her mother’s castle, the way Maleficent had ordered the Evil Queen and her daughter to do. Evie’s mother stays in the crumbling building, watching mainland soap operas with a fanaticism and teaching Evie how to be the perfect princess. But Evie wants more from life than fake dramas and harsh criticism, so she sneaks out.

She realizes quickly that the Isle is just as dangerous as her mother had warned her, full of leering men and quick fingered children. But Evie is not soft, not the way her mother wants her to be. She may be a princess, but she’s a princess of the Isle.

By her third visit to the town, everyone knows better than to approach the blue-haired girl unless they want to lose a few fingers. She’s proved herself as cutthroat as the rest of them, and so they allow her into the fold of Isle daily life.

She haggles with Anastasia over the worth of a loaf of bread, barters with Yzma for beauty creams for her mother, talks Smee into giving her a roll of fabric that was supposed to be new sails for Hook’s ship but will now be several new dresses. She sets up a seasonal stall, offering dried herbal cures in the form of teas and ointments. She swaps gossip with stall workers, runs errands for the right price, slips the small children who rely on pickpocketing for survival a few bits of food when she can. The gangs and brawl-prone adults know to knock on her castle’s kitchen door after dark when their wounds are serious, know that she doesn’t care who she’s fixing up as long as they pay and keep quiet about her breaking banishment.

She’s part of the community now, though no self-respecting villain would ever say that out loud. But there is a certain level of mandatory reliance on other people that comes with being isolated on an island prison, so they do what they can to help each other survive. 

Of course, Evie would have to be an idiot to think she could slip under Maleficent’s radar. She’s been waiting for the Mistress of Evil to appear on one of her visits into town and curse her all over again. It keeps her on edge, always glancing over her shoulder for the horned woman to appear.

Instead, Jay approaches her one afternoon as she’s wrapping up her goods before slipping back to Castle-Across-the-Way, where her mother will expect dinner on the table as soon as her latest episode concludes.

“Hello, Princess,” the Arabian boy leans across the table where Evie had been set up, a languid smile pulled across his face.

Evie raises an eyebrow and waits for the boy to get to the point, trying to stay cool as her heart goes a million miles an hour. She knows the son of Jafar runs with Mal, daughter of Maleficent. She’d been sure to avoid any areas of town that Mal’s gang had a “claim” on, including Jafar’s Junk Store, even though she was sure the ex-vizier had some of the parts she desperately needed to fix her sewing machine.

Jay still hasn’t said anything, still watching Evie like a hunter stalking prey.

“Did you need something?” Evie finally asks him, placing her lips in the perfect smile: sharp but inviting.

“Hmm, I guess I’m wondering what you offered up to keep the fact that you’ve ignored your life-long banishment from Mal and her mother.”

Evie managed to hide her surprise. So Maleficent didn’t know Evie had integrated herself into the town. And Jay was not subtle—if Evie wanted her presence to stay hidden, she’d need to give him something. What the boy wanted; Evie could guess.

“And what do you think I offered?”

While she had garnered quite a reputation with her flirting, that’s as far as she went. A wink, a lingering touch, maybe a soft peck on the cheek. But Jay…he could ask for more and she might give it to him. As far as first kisses went, it could be worse, she supposed. At least he was dazzlingly handsome and, if the rumors were to be believed, a wildly skilled kisser.

“Not sure, and I don’t really care. But I know what the price for my continued silence is.”

His eyes were dark and cold, his body looming over her and casting a deep shadow. He oozed power, every bit as imposing as Evie had heard he was.

But Evie was imposing in her own way. She held her ground, allowing his shadow to surround her like a glamour, her features sharpening and glimmering. Her eyes met his with a glare like fire, daring him to give her a reason to hurt him.

“If me or my gang knocks on your back door, you know, any of the Dragon’s Bloods, you heal us for free. No bartering or haggling or denying us service until you’re paid. We’re free, and so are you. Deal?”

Evie once again had to hide a gasp of surprise. That is not at all what she had expected from Jay. It seemed there was more to the thief than what the town said, something selfless and loyal.

It was a small price to pay, she knew. While she usually had her patients pay in the materials she needed to heal them or in food, a few visits here and there from Mal’s gang wouldn’t put too much of a dent in her supplies.

“Deal,” she agreed and shook Jay’s outstretched hand firmly. She turned back to packing her things and when she turned again, the Arabian boy was gone.

Evie didn’t expect to see Jay any time soon. She was sure of it, in fact, confident she’d just made the best deal of her life.

And then the next night, Jay was at her kitchen door just as the last dregs of daylight slipped under the horizon.

He had a gash on his forehead. Not deep, but there was still a steady trickle of blood flowing into his left eye.

“Hey, Princess. Ready to fix me up?” he said with a Cheshire grin.

She fixed him up with a compress of yarrow and goldenrod root, sending him off before the night had even really started. Evie was sure he had gotten injured on purpose to see if she would hold up her end of the deal. And since she had, she didn’t expect to see any of Mal’s gang for a bit.

It turns out the reason why Mal’s gang controlled so much territory and were so feared by the other Isle residents was because none of them had any self-preservation. Nearly every night Evie opened her door to one of the Dragon’s Blood members in some form of distress.

She got to know them all quite well, through their hisses of pain and snarky comments to ward off fear. And even though she patched them all up for free, they took to leaving things behind and insisting they were hers when she tried to return the items. If Jay left the sewing machine parts she needed on the chair he’d stitched up in, Evie wasn’t going to say anything. So Evie amassed rusting trinkets and sleeves of crackers and scraps of cloth from Mal’s gang, while Mal looked the other way when she and Evie crossed paths, a silent offering of thanks for fixing up her gang so many times; all of them leaving Maleficent none the wiser to Evie’s insubordination.

______________________________________________________________

Which led to now, with Mal laid out on Evie’s kitchen table.

“What happened?” Evie was already checking all of Mal’s exposed flesh for wounds, anxious to get the other girl out of her home as soon as possible. It was one thing to feign ignorance at Evie’s presence in town, but being in the lair of a sworn enemy would not as easily escape Maleficent’s notice. Not to mention the way Evie’s heart had been going haywire since Mal had entered her home.

“We’re not entirely sure,” Carlos admitted, twisting his hands as he stood by the fireplace. Evie recognized the nervous gesture—it was usually directed towards Jay’s numerous injuries.

“She’s been fighting with Miriam,” Jay swallowed, looking uneasy.

That made Evie’s heart pause in its careening for a minute.

Miriam was cruel, the oldest of Madam Mim’s granddaughters and the most powerful. She’d almost killed Dizzy last month over a bad haircut, only stopping when Lady Tremaine threatened to involve Maleficent. She’d laughed as she’d left Dizzy’s broken body in the street, Evie rushing to the younger girl’s side and doing everything she could. Dizzy had made it, though she had to relearn how to walk and refused to do hair since, even though it had been her life’s passion.

The only thing that kept Miriam from burning down the whole Isle was the barrier’s ability to prevent malicious magic. But Miriam always found ways around that to make her mischief magic work.

“Is she wounded?” Evie couldn’t see an obvious injury, but it could easily be something internal.

“She clutched at her stomach before she passed out,” Carlos offered.

Evie pulled up the purple-haired girl’s shirt, frowning at how the wet fabric clung to her skin—it didn’t seem to be just rain that caused the moisture. Carlos was right—her stomach was bruised green, neon pink tendrils spreading from a gouge weeping blood just above her navel. There was a piece of metal lodged in the wound, obviously the cause of Mal’s distress.

“Is it iron?” Carlos peered anxiously at Mal from the other side of the table, moving to help Evie slice off Mal’s top so she could work. Fairy weren’t affected by much, but iron…iron was the only thing that could kill them.

“No, thankfully, which is why she’s not dead. But I think…it’s bewitched to be like iron.”

Jay let out a stream of colorful curses as Carlos paled even more under his freckles. Evie sighed deeply. This was not going to be easy.

She needed to get the piece of metal out to stop the iron-like-poison from spreading further, then un-work the magic that had already spread into Mal, and then deal with the bruising—which of course, was not normal bruising since Mal was half-fairy, meaning none of the materials she usually used would work as well as she wanted them to.

And, to top it off, it’s Mal.

Mal, who uses her mother’s name and her own power to rule as fairly as she can on an island of the evilest people in the world. Mal, who protects the children who live in her territory and makes sure no one goes hungry. Mal, who steals from her own mother to ensure Jafar lets Jay sleep under his roof during the brutal winters. Mal, who broke into Hell Hall and carried Carlos out when Cruella had locked him in his bear-trapped closet of a bedroom for two weeks. Mal, whose nose crinkles when she’s amused and fights with her teeth bared. Mal, whose eyes flash green when she uses her magic like an emerald in the sunlight.

Mal, who Evie did want to send an invitation to all those years ago, only to have it torn up by her mother. Because a princess doesn’t get to choose who she loves, and she certainly can’t love a wild thing like Mal.

Mal, who was so upset to not be invited to Evie’s party that she had her locked away, out of sight. Until Evie took back her freedom and found out that those green eyes were even more enchanting than she remembered.

Mal, who was currently whimpering in pain on Evie’s kitchen table.

“Okay. Jay, I need you to go to the Gothel’s. Take the green bag in the corner and tell them I need Red Clover and Borage. They’ll trade for what’s in the bag. Carlos, I need you to heat a pot of water,” Evie bustled over to the sink and washed her hands, letting herself settle into the familiarity of her role. She was in charge right now, and she was going to save Mal.

Evie lifted Mal’s head to rest on a pile of fabric and set about cleaning her stomach. Then she sanitized a small knife in the kitchen fire, Carlos watching her from his perch on a stool, waiting for her next command.

“Bring that bowl—” she points to the shelf by Carlos’ elbow. “—and come hold her down. Getting the metal out isn’t going to be pretty.”

Carlos does as she says, nodding once he has Mal’s arms in a firm grip. He’s held down patients for her before, usually Jay, but seeing Mal trapped in Carlos’s slender hands is unnerving. Mal is supposed to be the strong one of their gang, the one who never falters, the one who spits in the face of death. The one who protects her people.

But now it’s Evie’s turn to protect.

Evie climbs onto the table, trying not to think about how she’s straddling Mal, and begins to work the knife into the wound, digging out the metal shard.

Mal’s eyes flutter as she thrashes at the painful intrusion, high pitched whines escaping her throat. The piece of metal begins to glow with a bright pink light, matching the tendrils that are spiraling further across Mal’s torso. The knife is wrenched from Evie’s grip with a scalding heat.

Evie curses, realizing the metal is enchanted to prevent against removal as well. Of course. Miriam was nothing if not thorough.

But Evie has magic, too, something no one but her mother and Carlos know. Not even Jay knows, though he must suspect after how many times Evie’s brought him back from the brink of death.

Using magic on Mal is risky, since Mal will surely know that magic was used to heal her once she comes to. But Evie isn’t worried about the consequences of that right now.

Right now, she wants Mal to be okay.

So she focuses, pulling on the deep veins of magic that run under the Isle. The mainland had tried to suppress the villains’ magical abilities, but that was like trying to stop a plant from photosynthesizing or water from evaporating. So the barrier prevented ‘Big Magic’ (transformations, bargains, curses, etc.) and anything done with malicious intent, which was much harder to filter for since it didn’t account for the actual use of the magic, just the original aim.

In this instance, making a piece of metal into actual iron was ‘Big Magic’, but Miriam had likely enchanted the piece of metal to be like iron without any “intent” to use it to hurt anyone, so the magic had been allowed. And now it was hurting Mal, which meant Evie could undo Miriam’s work as her magic would be preventing harm and thus non-malicious.

Evie laid her hands on top of Mal’s wound, eyes closed in concentration. Magic was an alive thing; she could feel the pulse of the enchantment in the metal, something ragged and throbbing. To undo it, she would have to alter the energy.

So she thought of things that were soothing and gentle—the rain hitting the windows, Carlos’ habit of humming when he was focused on something, the thrum of the marketplace, the way Jay’s footsteps were always steady, sunlight breaking through the grey clouds after a storm, the sound of Mal’s laughter.  

Evie focuses on her memories of Mal, of the way she tosses her hair over her shoulder when she’s upset, the way she chews on her bottom lip when she’s deep in thought, the way she can come up with a ruthless quip in the middle of a battle, the way Evie wishes every crooked grin that graces Mal’s face was directed at her.

And then Miriam’s magic is gone, replaced with Evie’s softer glow of dark blue light.

Evie lets out the breath she was holding, and picks back up her knife, moving instinctually. The piece of metal comes out easily. The metal piece is nothing, a scrap of tin from a can of food or maybe a wire that had been stripped. Nothing special, except for the fact that Mal had almost died from it.

The pink strands of Miriam’s magic vanish as soon as the metal leaves Mal’s body, the magic softening into Mal’s body like a kiss.

Evie’s relieved, she’s not sure if she could summon another bout of magic that strong so soon after undoing Miriam’s spell on the metal. Another side effect of the barrier is that the toll to use magic on the Isle is much greater—she would be surprised if Miriam wasn’t bedridden after creating such a potent enchantment.

She slides off of the table, wobbling as her feet touch the ground. Evie expects to crumple onto the ground, ready to catch herself. But then Jay is there to catch her instead, and Carlos hands her a glass of water as Jay sets her in a chair.

“You have magic,” Jay says softly.

Evie can’t tell if he’s in awe or afraid of her. So she says nothing, just sips her water and observes. Carlos, Evie notices, is tensed, ready to attack Jay if he reacts badly to Evie’s magic. That’s sweet, she thinks absently, a bit light-headed from using magic, and looks back at Jay.

Usually the Arabian boy is quick to get to the core of what he’s thinking through. But right now, his eyes are bouncing back and forth between Evie and Mal in a dance Evie can’t follow.

“Did you get the herbs from the Gothel’s?” Evie asks, slowly standing and moving towards the pot of boiling water over the fire. She still has a job to finish.

“Uh, yeah, right here.”

Evie takes the bag from Jay and slides the leaves into a sachet, adding a few other herbs before placing it in a mug with some hot water. After a few minutes, she pulls out the herbs and moves towards Mal. It’s not as strong as she would like, she would prefer to let it steep for longer, but Mal’s soft groans deter any further wait.

She gestures to Jay and the taller boy obliges, scooping Mal into a sitting position. Evie blows gently on the tea, spending a little bit more magic to cool the water to a more drinkable temperature. Then she tips the mug to Mal’s lips and lets the tea slide into the purple-haired girl’s throat.

Mal swallows, her eyes slowly blinking open. She looks around blurrily, Jay’s grasp not letting her move too much.

Her gaze settles on Evie.

Evie stills, unsure what to do—should she apologize? Play this off as something less casual than it is? Lie?

Mal decides for her, weakly lifting a hand to rest on Evie’s cheek. Evie feels a warmth spread across her body, something electric and warm dancing through her—it’s Mal’s magic, Evie realizes with a start.

“It’s only fair,” Mal murmurs. “You showed me yours.”

Evie’s mouth forms a perfect ‘o’ as she processes that statement. Her heart is pounding in her ears, her hands flexing around nothing, her gaze trapped in the magnetic pull of Mal’s green eyes. She has no idea what to do. All her years of flirting and dancing around relationships, practicing for when she finally gets to interact with her true love, and now she has nothing to say.

Carlos steps in, reading Evie like a book, as he always does.

“You need to rest, Mal. E, can she stay here tonight?”

Evie blushes even deeper, biting her bottom lip as she fights the urge to scream Yes! Please! Stay here, with me!

“What about our mothers?” Evie whispers instead, pulling her gaze away from Mal to stare into the fire.

Carlos arches a brow mischievously, shooting a sly grin at Jay.

“Doesn’t EQ usually take a sleeping draught before bed?”

Evie nods in confirmation; that’s how she’s been able to run her business without her mother knowing. That, and her mother refuses to set foot in the kitchen unless it’s to yell at Evie for dinner being late.

“And well…Mal was supposed to spend the night at the hideout with us, so Maleficent won’t be looking for her. We’ll just come get her first thing in the morning,” Carlos decides, his eyes twinkling. “I know you keep a cot down here, E. That should be fine for a night.”

“Since, you know, you have to make sure Mal doesn’t die in her sleep,” Jay adds, obviously in on whatever Carlos is doing.

Evie can’t find a real reason to protest. She has a cot stored away in the kitchen closet, a double cot even. With blankets and pillows and everything she needs to keep Mal safe for the night.

Mal nods vaguely, still wincing at the ache in her center. Evie would rather get every wrinkle known to man than leave the purple-haired girl’s side.

“Yeah, okay, I’ll be able to give her more tea every hour then,” Evie agrees finally.

______________________________________________________________

She doesn’t realize she’s been set up by Carlos and Jay until she and Mal are tucked next to each other on the cot besides the dying glow of the fire. But she can’t find it in her to be annoyed, not when Mal is sleeping on the pillow next to her. In the morning, she’ll deal with the fallout; she’ll figure out how Mal really feels about her, how Carlos and Jay picked apart the labyrinth of her heart so easily, how to extract revenge on Miriam for hurting the girl she loves.

But those are things for tomorrow. Tonight, Evie gets to sleep next to Mal.

Mal, whose purple hair is spread across the pillow like an explosion of paint, her mouth open as she puffs out small snores, one hand tucked under her chin and the other splayed between her and Evie’s bodies. Evie doesn’t think she’s seen anything more

[romanceyourdemons]

a confucian confusion (1994), a rare comedy by edward yang, is an incredibly interesting film. yang’s usual style is taciturn to the point of inscrutability, but this film throws its questions at the audience with almost cartoonish clarity. characters demand of one another where they can find sincerity and who is free of hypocrisy; they find and identify fundamental fraud on both sides of the dichotomy the film sets up between emotion and bureaucracy; they pontificate about the meaninglessness of it all many times, and they act in ways that only reinforce it. at the same time, though, the film has a second layer (just as unmistakeable if somewhat more abstract) expanding these questions from the level of the universally personal to the level of the specific question of taiwan’s complicated chinese identity. the dichotomy between emotion and bureaucracy is transposed onto the dichotomy between china and the west, with emotion being equated to confucian values and traditional chinese culture and bureaucracy equated to western coldness—and both presented as corrupted beyond retrieval by self-serving capitalist interests within the prosperous confines of taipei. as argued by one of the more eloquent characters, soap operas are functionally no different from old propaganda in their hollow, manipulative idealism. the film is more direct in its political messaging than i’ve seen any other of yang’s or indeed any taiwanese new wave films to be: that same character monologues near the end of the film about the many different forms of normalized, constricting hypocrisy, concluding with “the boxer rebellion, the cultural revolution, tiananmen, a unified china… all are normal,” while all the relationships in the film including his own turn hollow and fall apart in a way that is explicitly compared to the relationship between china and taiwan. and yet the film concludes by condemning cynicism as much as idealism, and the final scene shows a hope of reconciliation for the aforementioned character, the former embodiment of bureaucracy, and his newly ex-girlfriend, the former embodiment of emotion. a confucian confusion (1994) is not shy about being a film that exists to work through ideas, but the ideas that it works through are interesting and interestingly articulated, and the characters through whom it works are fascinatingly conceived and well-acted, so i would definitely recommend the film

[dairy-farmer]

what's your favorite hc for tim?

there's this one headcanon that i can't figure out how to incorporate into a fic and it has to do with tim's family!!! it's also surprisingly not porn related but i mentioned it in this tweet.

i am obsessed with tim's family dynamics because we so rarely see them!! and i'm also sort of tired of this popularized idea that tim was some horribly mistreated and abused child when it couldn't be further from the truth. but it's so deeply ingrained in fanon i've sort of accepted that i'm just going to be seeing it for forever.

basically, i love the idea of tim having normal family but soap opera levels of familial drama!!!! in one issue of robin when bernard meets tim's step mom he instantly gets the hots for tim and calls him the luckiest guy in the world for having a step mom like dana. he goes on to say how TIM is closer in age to her than his dad. with dana being maybe mid twenties and jack being mid 50s.

so if we assume jack is 55 when tim is 16 he most likely had tim at 39. a little middle aged but not bad. but i also imagine janet as having been in her 20s as well when she had tim.

why?

well jack clearly has a taste for younger women. specifically younger women who work for him (dana having been his hired physical therapist when he met her). and jack seems like the type of man who would not have waited until near 40 to get married etc.

so i like the idea that janet is his second marriage and tim is a child born from that marriage.

multiple families in the span of one lifetime is such great fuel for drama!!!! the one thing i absolutely adore in fics!!!!!!

tim having older half brothers that are in their 30s when he's 16!!! they're like legitimate adults with careers and jobs they got using jack's money from when they were still rich!!!

jack's will stated that he left everything to dana and tim!!! his half brothers showing up to contest it!!!

just every single cheesy soap opera plot point and that being tim's legitimate actual civilian life because if you actually read the robin comics so much of tim's life is trying to force him into a hollywood teen movie plot line but he refuses to engage.

it's hilarious!!