#deleted three separate posts so far where i try to make a joke but it just keeps coming out wrong

[drop--pop--candy]

girl you know it's bad when i can't even write a good joke about it

[maxwell-grant]

Having asked your thoughts on designing Frankenstein's daemon, might I now ask your thoughts on bringing Count Dracula from the written word into illustration? (I'm definitely in favour of the 'Hairy Old Mountain Man of Horror pretending he's people' look from the original novel; one of the small tests too many Draculas fail to pass is an absolutely tragic lack of the Evil Beard and/or Wicked Moustache explicitly described by Mr Stoker).

Unlike with Frankenstein, where I think the design needs to be painstakingly thought out in order to achieve the best balance of the creature's traits for horror and tragedy alike, I think with Dracula you can actually just take an approach of "whatever works". Because as I mentioned before, I think much of the appeal and longevity of Dracula is how the character's both a layered villain as well as a shapeshifting narrative force that can be tailored to whatever you want to do with. Granted, there are bad or dissappointing Dracula designs, of course there are, but in regards to the leeway you get for reinterpretation, you get a lot more of it with Dracula than with other literary icons.

Like with Frankenstein, I'm gonna bring up how I'd tackle a less grim, more comedy-centric Dracula first, one that's less a force of horror and more of a charismatic villain, and I think to that end I definitely agree that people are sleeping a lot on the hairy old man barely-passing-off-as-humanoid of the original story. Despite very much loving these performers, I'm actually not a fan of takes that mold Dracula too closely to people who've portrayed him, like Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee, partially because I think it's a waste of an opportunity to create your own Dracula design. Since I can't draw (yet), I'll do what I usually do and make a board of images to try and convey some of my thoughts on one way I'd design Dracula.

(Pictured: Kiwi's design for Dracula, Hotel Transylvania concept art, Nandor, Castlevania Dracula, Charles Dance in Dracula Untold, Vladislav, a Transylvanian rug)

I used the images in my other Dracula post and I’ll post it here again because I absolutely adore @kiwibyrd's designs for Dracula and it's main heroes, in particular I love the way it strikes a good balance at making sure Dracula looks distinctly separate from the humans, but not too much that he couldn't conceivably operate in society as just a harmless old man. I also adore the mustache and bushy eyebrows and pointy ears and I think these three are wonderful features to keep on any Dracula design. I'm also very partial to the Hotel Transylvania concept art, even if it makes me incredibly depressed to look at all the great designs they had for Dracula that they threw in the trash because they somehow decided making him look like Adam Sandler was the idea to go with.

I deeply adore What We Do In The Shadows, both the movie and the show, and Jemaine Clement's Vladislav is one of my favorite (maybe even my actual favorite) on-screen Draculas. But I also enjoy Nandor just as much, and I think it's really great that as a character he's completely different from Vlad while also being ostensibly a take on Dracula, and in particular I bring up his Jersey look because "Dracula in common clothing" is a criminally underrated concept for a joke.

As a character, I'm very partial to comedy takes on Dracula that play him up as a decadent aristocratic supervillain, the kind that can get away with talking in third person. I also have this idea for a version of Dracula who dresses ostentatiously in finely-broidered Romanian or Transylvanian patterns, maybe even wearing a rug as a cape, claiming that he's carrying the legacy of his people on his back. And of course he's lying, he's not Vlad Tepes and he's not even Romanian, he is just a parasite pretending to have a history to be proud of, but good luck getting him to admit that. And finally, I'd like this version to be played by Charles Dance, and I consider it a tremendous crime against humanity that he has yet to play Dracula proper even despite being in a film with the character's name on the title.

So that's kinda how I would design a take on Dracula for something more comedic or more based around him as this guest character and personality on-set. Now, if we're talking a more serious version, I think the possibilities increase, and I won't be getting into all of them because I may prefer to keep them to myself, but I'll elaborate a few ideas.

For example, the edition of Dracula I personally own comes with these really scratchy, really creepy B&W illustrations related to the story, that I can't find scanned online so I'm uploading them here so you can look at. They don't necessarily depict the scenes but rather some of the story's moments, like Van Helsing staking Lucy, Renfield in a straightjacket, Dracula as a coachman, and they are more focused on conveying the horror of the concepts at play.

Dracula never looks the same way in any of the illustrations, in fact you kinda have to piece him out of them by trying to find teeth or capes or eyes or bat-features to see where he's hiding this time. In the first, it's the half-man half-bat, in the 2nd, he's the shrieking bat silhouette next to Renfield, and in the latter, he's the gaping jaws and eerily humanoid eyes in the wolf. The effect to me almost feels like if you were to look at a bunch of tv static and then see a humanoid shape form for a split second before everything went back to normal, something like you'd get from Slender Man or other modern creepypastas, and I’ve argued before that Dracula’s form of horror is a very modern one. 

In terms of illustrations of Dracula that keep up the original traits while still pulling off horror, I definitely have to hand it to the one at the left of the image above, drawn by regourso on Deviantart (account deleted at present). Going back to Castlevania’s many takes on Dracula, two in particular that stick out to me would be Castlevania: Judgment’s armored dress Dracula, who’s got this great twisted heart/rose motif going on in his outfit, and Dracula’s final form in SOTN where he just sits in his throne and his cape twists into all these monsters, particularly how it’s depicted by witnesstheabsurd’s depiction. 

I’m not particularly a fan of how Dracula’s “final form” in these games is usually just some big demon, and part of what I like about his final form in SOTN instead is that, while it’s not a particularly challenging final boss, I do find it interesting the idea of us never actually getting to see what Dracula’s true final form looks like, only an ever-shifting pitch-black torrent of teeth and claws and bloody veins pouring out because that’s ultimately what Dracula is and brings to the world.

On the flip-side of the rotten old monster, we have the charming seductor Dracula, and while I’m really not a fan of how various adaptations have convinced people that “the point” of Dracula is that he’s a seductive force and an allegory for Victorian xenophobia and I’m reeeally even less of a fan of adaptations that make Dracula some misunderstood tragic hero (and I think I’ve made rather violently clear my feelings on interpretations that play up a romance between him and Mina), that the seductive force part exists is impossible to deny, so conversely, while on one hand we can have Dracula as the gargantuan whirlwind of predatory violence, we can also go for Dracula as the tantalizing lover.

I’ve seen a lot of opinions proclaiming Frank Langella as the best Dracula because he was the best at actually being seductive while still playing Dracula, although I haven’t yet seen his performances. If I had to point at one picture I look at and do buy for a second the idea of Dracula as a romantic character, it would be that particular still of Raul Julia in the left of the above image. And it’s strange for me to think of Raul Julia as attractive because I mainly associate him with his brilliant comedy performance of M.Bison (I know it’s far from the highlight of his career but, look, I grew up with Street Fighter, I can’t help it) but those eyes are definitely looking pretty convincing to me, if nothing else. 

And I’ve included this still of Sebastian Stan in the right because, during a conversation between me, @krinsbez and @jcogginsa about who could be a good fit for Dracula, jcog suggested Sebastian Stan, partially because he’s Romanian, and I’ve learned recently that Stan was actually interested in playing the character in Blumhouse’s upcoming remake. And you’d think I’d hate this idea  considering how much I don’t care for tragic anti-hero Draculas, but who says that’s what he’d have to play? 

Do you have any idea how much actors, who are traditionally known for heroic or supporting roles, usually LOVE it when you give them a chance to cut loose as the main villain?

I’d want Sebastian Stan to put all of his charm, all of his talent, all of his good looks and etc, into playing the absolute most vicious, bloodthirsty and irredeemable Dracula put on screen. Someone who is exceedingly, eerily good at being a lovable protagonist, who’s all smiles and charming eyes and politeness mannerisms and maybe even a funny accent, and then it isn't as funny when he's flying through your window intent on kidnapping babies to feed to his brides, except he may take a moment or two to do so because he's feeling pretty hungry himself right now.

Now, admittedly this is kind of a lot to juggle in regards to a single character, which is why my answer for questions like these inevitably has to be “depends on what I’m going for”. That being said, if I was going to try and cast someone who I think could both look the part of Dracula, as well as respectively, play “cartoon aristocrat” Dracula, “mercurial embodiment of evil” Dracula, as well as realistically be an attractive, even seductive performer who can charm viewers even as the character descends into horrible villainy, and juggle these performances even?

I think I’d have to go with Mads Mikkelsen. Not specifically because of Hannibal (I actually haven’t watched it yet), although it’s definitely a factor, the thing that actually made me pick him specifically is, other than his looks, his voice, his reputation for playing sinister characters, the fact that he loves the role and wants to play it, or how many people are deeply in love with this man, or that people already joke that he looks like a vampire, was watching him in Another Round, and specifically that glorious final scene where he’s just dancing to his heart’s content and just, moving with such spring in his step and such joyful vitality even though he’s past his mid-fifties, and that was the moment where, in regards to how much you all love this man, I went

And now I am going to add “casting Mads Mikkelsen as a dancing Dracula” to The List of Reasons Why I Became a Filmmaker.

[chocolate1721]

Hello chocolatiers here is a new idea, and this is one of my altime favorites so far.

Ok so, Marinette and Jason are siblings who got separated. Jason is adopted by Bruce and Marinette is adopted by Tom and Sabine. Jason becomes Robin and dies. Marinette is informed of his death but isn’t able/allowed to attend the funeral. She never meets Bruce. Marinette is bullied by Chloe and then Lila and the class. She becomes ladybug and chat is useless.

Even though things in class are tough. Marinette makes a fabulous class trip. She has them set to go to New York (with tours of Stark Industries, and New York Times along with Broadway production tickets), then they are to go to Starling City (where they get to tour Queen industry, and their parks), next they go to Central City (they have some basic tours of some museums and stuff), finally they will end in Gotham (tour Wayne Enterprise and the gardens).

Marinette had a good time in New York, Lila lies all day every day, but she ignored it. They had a fligh to Starling City and Marinette had to use the restroom or something before they left, but when she got back to the gate the plane was gone, and so was her class. She had no clothes (those were on the plane) and she didn’t have a lot of money. She was having a hard time breathing when all of a sudden Tony f*cking Stark struts his way over to her and helps her breath again (couldn’t decide if she has a panic or anxiety attack).

Tony and Peter were coming back from Wakanda. Peter knoticed Marinette and points her out to Tony, making some joke of if she is a lost Stark or something. Tony looks at Marinette and immediately knows she is having an attack, he knows how that feels, so he immediately goes over to her and helps her through it. He finds out that Marinette got left behind by her class and this pisses Tony off. He then tells her he can/will help her out. All three of them then head to the Avenger’s Tower.

[[More]]

She meets the Avengers, and she is totally normal. No stuttering, spasming, tripping, or anything but treating them like they are normal. This intrigues the Avengers. They invite her to watch some of them train while Tony looks into getting her back to her class. While she watches them train she ends up handing Steve his shield (like it was a piece of paper), and Thor his hammer (like it was nothing), this shocks everyone.

Steve: Hey Thor, does this mean this kid is now the new ruler of Asgard?

Thor: . . . . . I must introduce her to the Allfather. Come child of earth.

Tony: *runs into the room, body slamming the door on his way in* DONT GO WITH HIM!!!!!!! IM ADOPTING HER!

Pepper: *appears from nowhere* no you’re not

Peter and Marinette become close friends. The hulk also meets Marinette. The team is worried, but Hulk just kinda picks her up and says “Baby” and tries to burp her. . . . . . . . Tony gets plenty of pictures of this. Marinette is a grumpy sunshine child, and she threatens Tony and Peter if they post any of those pictures.

Tony tells Marinette that he has a friend in town that lives in Starling City and he has agreed to take her with him when he returns home. Marinette will be getting picked up in a few hours, so Tony, Peter, Steve, Thor, and Pepper take Marinette out to get some clothes. This ends in chaos, mayhem, emotional trauma, and the Avengers learn how truly terrifying teenager girls are. Pepper is now wanting to adopt Marinette.

Later that evening Oliver Queen and Roy Harper show up at Avenger tower to pick Marinette up. Roy thinks she will be like all the other girls he knows, shallow and a gold digger or a super hero. He isn’t prepared for the absolute angel that is Marinette. He is love struck, and he becomes the gentleman that Oliver has tried to teach him to be. The only thing Oliver is thinking is “did Bruce get another one?”

Marinette and Roy hit it off very well (roynette is endgame people) they talk for hours. They exchange numbers. Oliver finds out that no, she isn’t adopted by Bruce <not yet anyway>. But she was born in Gotham, she had an older brother who died when she was younger. Oliver found out she is MDC and immediately wanted to commission a suit. She agreed and they were talking suit styles and colors until they arrived in front of her hotel in Starling City. They told her not to hesitate if she needed anything.

Her class didn’t even knotice she was missing. She got her room key and went to sleep. The next morning she was the first one up and downstairs. The breakfast pasteries were gross so she went to the kitchen and taught the staff how to make a good crossaint. She was putting a fresh batch out in the buffet area when her classmates arrived. Lila pauses when she saw her. How had Marinette gotten here? She made sure to destroy her plane ticket. Anyway Lila lies the entire trip as well. She convinces Max to hack into Marinette’s phone and change her alarms. On the day they head to Central City, Marinette’s alarm goes off 30 minutes after the bus leaves.

Marinette sighs and calls Roy. Roy is pissed that her teacher left her behind AGAIN. So he calls up Barry Alan (I watch the Flash tv show so those are the characters I will be using). Roy tells him about how the teacher is incompetent and left a student behind. Roy arrives to pick Marinette up, only to see two guys hitting on her. Roy stops that sh*t real quick. Then they head to Central City. They swing by Star Labs and Marinette meets Barry and his friends. They fall in love with Marinette. She is sweet and kind and adorable. Barry sees her as an innocent sister who must be protected. They take her to her class. He convinced the chief to let the class come visit the precinct. Lila is taking credit for everything, while Marinette gives out pasteries that she made at Star Labs. The officers love Marinette, especially Joe. He sees his daughter in Marinette. Some of the officers offered to teach the class some self defense, in case they were in trouble, and they refused to say how scared they were when Marinette took them down. It was way too easy for her to take them down. The tall kid with frosted tips didn’t do half as well as she did. Roy and Barry only seen that level of skill on hero’s or black belts. Lila started gushing about how she trained with some famous martial artist but had to stop due to her arthritis. The class got held hostage by Captain Cold. Marinette distracts him long enough for the hostages to escape, and the police and hero’s to arrive. She talked about everything from how he could make more money by hiring himself out as a ice machine to people in third world countries to his lack of fashion. By the time the hero’s arrived she was redesigning his entire wardrobe. He was just confused. The officers that arrived on the scene recognized Marinette and were horrified that her class left her in the hands of a criminal. Marinette just brushed it off as no big deal, she was used to it. This had them in near tears. The Flash helped her get back to the hotel. Barry was freaking pissed, so he took a couple pictures with Marinette, took her to get ice cream, and then took her back to her hotel; all before the class arrived.

When the class did arrive at the hotel they started accusing Marinette of working with Cold, but then they saw the Flash. Alya immediately started interviewing him. Only for him to snatch her phone out of her hand and delete the video. She wasnt happy about that, but Barry didn’t care. He stalked over to Bustier and started tearing her apart for abandoning a student. He then went to the police chief and let him know what happened.

Joe finds out what happened and knows that the class’s next stop is Gotham. He calls an old friend, Gordon, and tells him what’s going on and to keep an eye out for Marinette. Gordon agreed but doesn’t think that any teacher can be that stupid.

.

.

.

He is proven wrong when he goes to greet the class only to find that Bustier left Marinette behind. Gordon is dumbfounded, then furious when she said that Marinette can handle herself. Gordon then calls for a manhunt for this child. 15 minutes later he gets a call from Bruce that he has Marinette in his custody. He has permission from her parents to take care of her while she is in Gotham. Gordon starts compiling evidence of criminal neglect to send to the French Board of Education.

Roy was woken up to a call from Marinette. She got left behind again. He calls his friend Jason and tells him about what’s going on and if it’s ok if he stays with him until Marinette goes back to France. Jason,doesn’t know this is his sister, says yes. Roy and Marinette become an official couple on the way to Gotham. Bruce is trying to get everything ready for a non hero to come to their house, even if only for a few hours.

What no one expected was, when Alfred led them into the house. For Marinette and Jason to lock eyes, and for Mari to body check Jason. They also didn’t expect for Marinette and Jason to start crying, or for them to be siblings. Marinette slapped Jason a few times for making her think he died.

Roy pales when he realizes that Jason is her brother. Jason is furious at Roy for dating his sister. Marinette tried to keep her brother from killing her boyfriend, which is a struggle. She tells Bruce what happened with her class and he excused himself to go call her parents and inform them of what has happened. They give him permission to take care of their daughter while she is in Gotham. He also sets up future visits for Marinette to come to Gotham.

While Bruce is away, Damian arrives, sees a new dark haired minor, and immediately concludes his father has adopted another. He then proceeds to attack her, but Marinette takes a sword from a nearby knight and parries him. She barley keeps him at bay, when he realizes that she has some very basic knowledge of swordsmanship. He stops attacking her and starts teaching her. Thus an impenetrable sibling bond has formed. She cookes with Alfred. Dick teaches her how to trapieze. She gives Tim her illegal coffee recipe. Her and Jason talk for hours.

She also finds the Batcave. Only because she went to the library and tried getting a book, that happened to be the hidden enterance. She chews Bruce out for not dealing with the Joker in time to save her brother. She was just letting out her frustrations and everyone knew it. She met Louis and Clark, who she pulled to the side and told him to find a better disguise because it is obvious he is superman. She pats his shoulder and walks away. Louis slips Bruce $10.

Bruce invites the class to the Wayne Gala and provides clothes for them to wear. Marinette refuses the offer and makes her own dress. She also makes gifts for the Batfam.

Marinette is finally able to see Lila’s lies fall apart, at the Gala, and she refuses to forgive the class. What they did is not something that she can get over that easily. All of the abuse, the lack of loyalty, the manipulation, and demand for her time, energy, and supplies to give them what they want. She. Is. Done. She burned those bridges.

When the class is heading back to Paris their notifications go off. They are getting tagged in pictures of Marinette with the Avengers, Oliver Queen and Roy Harper, of the Central City Police force, with the Flash, with the Wayne’s, and Louis and Clark. They were shocked. How could Marinette get the opportunity to meet all of these people when she was with them the entire time. That’s when they realized, she wasn’t with them. The only time they remember seeing her is when they were on tours or she suddenly appeared in the places they were heading to. She was never with them when they left.

[beardofkamenev]

When Adults Attack! (Teenagers)

(Sorry to everyone for dragging this up again, but some people are chronically incapable of letting drama die down.)

The last time I posted about this was 18 February. It’s now late-March. Despite repeatedly claiming to be “over it”, a self-proclaimed “respected history blogger” has been screaming into the void for over a month now. She seems to be under the unfortunate impression that she’s completely innocent of wrongdoing, all the criticism is unprovoked, she has been targeted by “white bigots”, and that she’s somehow the real victim here. So now I have to explain why that’s bullshit. Unlike her and her two friends, I don’t make extreme but vague accusations with zero evidence. I don’t make empty threats about “exposing” people.

The short story? She involved her own self in a situation that had nothing to do with her, downplayed her friends’ racism towards others, incited her followers to harass a teenager, repeatedly lied to her followers about the multiple POC who criticised her friends being “white”, and has continued to inflame the issue while trying to downplay her role in doing so. The long story? Well, I’ll let the receipts do the talking.

That’s Olivia’s first post at the start of February, days before I or anyone else had even said anything. “My anonymous Jewish friend said!” should have been a red flag to anyone capable of reading anything longer than 280 characters. I’ve already explained why Haley (lucreciadeleon/turtlemoons plus her 92849374 alt accounts) is full of shit and so have plenty of others (here, here, and here, to name a few).

Olivia claims that, as a Romani woman, she’s not obliged to engage with content that offends her. Fine. So why is a black teenager obliged to engage with Haley’s deranged anons? Why are her hate anons are so worthy of a response that not responding is an act of ANTISEMITISM that warrants Olivia telling everyone what an antisemite this teenager is for not responding? FYI, NO ONE is obligated to respond to anon hate, especially from people they’ve already blocked. And considering Haley admitted not once, not twice, but three times to breaking Tumblr’s TOS to circumvent a mutual block and send those anons (including how she did it), people are especially not obligated to engage with her.

I made my first posts exposing Taylor (lucreziaborgia/elizabethblount) and Haley’s lies and backtracking on 6 and 7 February. This was before I acknowledged Olivia’s role in inflaming the situation. In fact, I didn’t even know about her tweets until 8 February. Yet, here she is on 6 FEBRUARY already bitching about my posts to her Twitter followers. She has some nerve acting like I victimised her, just because I posted the screenshots of her bitching about me. And bragging about ‘gaslighting’? The word that multiple people have separately described what her two friends subjected them to? Classy.

I can’t “stalk” her public Twitter any more than she can “stalk” my public blog. What an exceptionally stupid claim to make, considering her tweets kept getting recommended to my mutuals whether they liked it or not. Have some integrity and own the shit you say, rather than backtracking, deleting your posts, and pretending that you didn’t say the things we saw you say. If you want to talk shit about others in public, be ready to answer for it in public.

I also wonder how this started over Henry VII. I specifically wonder how this discussion between myself and May (richmond-rex) triggered Taylor’s totally unprovoked racist comments about how we and Nathen Amin “simp for a dead white man”, and we should “simp for someone who actually advocated for the rights of others” instead. The implication being that Tudor history is only for white people like Taylor, and that only her fave is worthy of discussion (“AnNe BoLeYn WaS oThErEd BeCaUsE sHe WaS tAn.” Good grief).

When multiple POC called bootleg Regina George out for it, not only did she say she couldn’t possibly be racist because Haley approved of her racism, but also tried to argue that Nathen Amin deserved it because it was inappropriate for a British man to joke about Brexit. She then claimed we called her “anti-Welsh” (another fucking lie) to make it seem like a bunch of cRaZy blacks and browns were attacking poor, innocent white her (with Olivia coming to the rescue, of course). And as if that wasn’t enough, Haley then sent these bad faith hate anons calling Nathen Amin’s tweet ANTISEMITIC, for no other reason than to retroactively justify Taylor’s racist comments (though I didn’t see Haley getting offended when she was hate-scrolling through his blog before Taylor was called out).

That was the “antisemitic shit” Haley “privately messaged about” that Olivia thinks deserves a response. In case it's not clear: defending racism makes you complicit in racism. Being Jewish is NOT a get-out-of-racism-free card, and Haley trying to use it as one is absolutely dishonest, especially when NO ONE even knew she was Jewish until she finally admitted in February she was the anonymous ‘Jewish friend’ who sent those batshit anons. Other Jewish people also called Haley out on it, yet Haley and Olivia have conveniently ignored that little fact since it contradicts their narrative.

You think it’s over? Nope. Taylor then slunk into May’s dm’s with a half-arsed apology, where she admitted that the only reason she made those racist comments about Nathen Amin was because we “attacked Gareth Russell first” (“BeCaUsE AnNe FaNs CiTe HiS wOrk”) and she “just wanted to educate us about not lionising Henry VII” (even though anyone with eyeballs can read our discussion see she’s full of shit). At the same time, she and Haley were messaging other history bloggers, telling them that everyone who called them out were antisemites (including an openly Jewish mutual of ours) in an attempt to alienate them from the community. And this was just in JANUARY.

“I can’t be racist! My Jewish friend agrees with my racism!” That steaming load of backtracking horseshit is unfortunately the kind of nonsense Olivia has chosen to defend. FOR WEEKS Taylor ignored May’s messages, explaining why she — a black woman — found Taylor’s comments offensive. Did Taylor listen? Nope. In fact, she only replied in February: after she already started posting about how ignoring Haley’s hate anons was “antisemitism”. How convenient. Taylor might be a fucking idiot but we’re not. She only replied to May because she was afraid we’d use her own words against her. Clearly she never learnt a damn thing because here she is on 6 February backtracking on her apology. “Actually, I did NOTHING wrong! Also, you’re all antisemites for saying I did because my Jewish friend agrees with me!” And what made Taylor feel as though she had permission to start deflecting her vile behaviour onto others in order to get the heat off her? Olivia’s post about ‘their Jewish friend’ Haley: the one that followed Olivia’s “private discussion” with “her two friends”. Taylor is a racist hypocrite who hides behind the few minority friends she has to justify her racism, and attacks every other minority who disagrees with her. It’s no coincidence that the majority of the history bloggers who have a problem with Taylor and Haley’s nasty behaviour happen to be POC.

Despite Olivia admitting that she knew nothing about that situation other than what those two told her, she still took it upon herself to misconstrue and downplay to all her followers the extent of her friends’ racism, lies, and general nastiness (here she is on 9 MARCH). For her, our problems with racism are little more than “stupid drama”, “Henry VII drama”, “Gareth Russell drama”, “overreacting to a joke”, and “petty disagreements over dead people” because her friends are the perpetrators. Yet she demands everyone sympathise with her never-ending dramas and projects her behaviour onto others, despite the fact that she’s shown absolutely no understanding for why so many people have problems with her friends and has consistently defended the perpetrators. She’s entitled to be upset at whatever she wants to be upset at, but she is not entitled to tell her followers that we can’t be upset about racism directed at us, especially when that situation NEVER EVEN INVOLVED HER.

I agree. It’s disturbing that three grown women in their mid to late 20s have a vendetta against an 18 year old. Olivia acknowledged that her posts were reckless and that she would have acted differently if she just sat down and thought for one fucking second. But rather than correct the record on the same platform she made those accusations, she doubled down and took off to Twitter, saying that her anger entitled her to act that way. All with zero acknowledgement of the fact that the teenager SHE falsely accused and repeatedly mocked for her age was still being harassed by HER followers as a direct result of HER posts.

She might love the ‘clout’ that comes with a large following, but she evidently doesn’t care about the responsibility that comes with it. In Taylor and Haley’s case, it’s little more than a means to intimidate others into silence. Olivia might be a “respected history blogger” or a “good historian”, but that definitely doesn’t make her a good person. Far from it, if her behaviour is anything to go by.

This was on 9 February, 3 days after my first post. Bitching about me was all fun and games until the receipts came out, huh?

There’s nothing “insane” about keeping receipts, especially when Taylor and Haley are notorious for lying out of their arses and fake-apologising to people in the dm’s, only to continue mocking them on Twitter afterwards. You know what is insane though? Searching ‘romani’ on our blogs in a pathetic attempt to dig up dirt that doesn’t even exist (yeah, stat trackers exist). Do you know what else is insane? Haley spamming people with passive aggressive anons and sending anon hate to people who’ve already blocked her. She also “stalked” our WOTR group chat, though she’ll never admit to it, despite accidentally posting the dated receipts proving it. Oops!

It’s no secret that Taylor and Haley are cowards (as all bullies are), so it was no surprise when they eventually involved Olivia in their month-old vendetta against a teenager. They wanted to school a black girl on racism and Congolese genocide apologism, so they needed to get a “respectable history blogger” on their side. And Olivia happily obliged, kicking up such a fuss on their behalf that the teenager just offered to end it (despite the fact that Olivia vagued her first). Yet still Olivia continued, publicly mocking her age and calling her an “antisemite” long after the discussion was over (here she is on 24 February still carrying on). Either a teenager is old enough to be publicly shamed for being an “antisemite” and “antiromani bigot”, or she’s too young to be taken seriously. But at 25, Olivia is certainly old enough to know better than to participate in this kind of vile, petty, wannabe Mean Girl behaviour.

Olivia is not black. Taylor is not black. Haley is not black. So for the record, if you are not black, it is not your place to tell BLACK PEOPLE whether they can take issue with apologism for BLACK GENOCIDE. Multiple black history bloggers have already explained why they had a problem with Gareth Russell’s comments about the Congolese genocide (including the teen in question), yet that was less important to Olivia than not being able to call him a sexist weirdo because he’s gay. Olivia cannot speak on all minority issues — especially black and brown issues — and it is arrogant of her to assume that she can, especially since her understanding of the Gareth Russell issue came purely from “what she discussed with her two friends” by her own admission.

What a take. Here’s the “anti-Romani” post that I supposedly made. Precisely ZERO of my posts were about Olivia and not once did I even name her directly. So her claims that I mounted some kind of “vicious attack” against her is, uh, bullshit. Criticising her and her friends for their nasty, dishonest, and irresponsible behaviour isn’t “anti-Romani” just because she’s Romani. It’s no more “anti-Romani” than her erratic attempts to “expose” me are anti-Asian just because I’m Asian. It’s not any more “anti-Romani” just because the UK government has passed anti-Romani laws, any more than her telling deranged lies about me for over a month is an anti-Asian hate crime simply because there’s been an increase in anti-Asian hate crimes. I’m not British. I’m not from the UK. I have no control over whatever dumb, racist crap her government does. So she can fuck off and continue fucking off if she wants to make me personally responsible for that. The backlash she received had nothing to do with her identity and everything to do with how she purposely incited harassment against a teenager, defended her friends’ racism, and spread demonstrable lies to her followers. The “viciousness” of the backlash she received is directly proportionate to the viciousness of her own baseless attacks against others. She can claim to be more mature than an 18 year old all she wants, but do you know what the actual mature thing to do would have been? To not promote her friends’ lies and nonsense, especially when the other people they tried to involve had the sense to stay out of it.

Olivia, Taylor and Haley are fully-grown adults, but take no responsibility for their actions. Yet, they expect teenagers to have total control over not only their own emotions, but also the emotions and actions of others. Olivia thinks that a teen should be personally responsible for the behaviour of fully-grown adults, yet she’s close friends with Taylor — a racist, xenophobic bully who screenshots Tumblr people’s posts to mock them on Twitter (here and here from December), called Poles who’ve lost relatives in the Holocaust “genocidal loving freaks”, accused an openly Ashkenazi Jewish blogger of “internalised antisemitism” just for criticising her (a white gentile), said that people who like Mary I “resent their own siblings”, co-opted our struggles under Spanish imperialism just so she could bully ‘Spaniards’ (despite her being American and therefore equally responsible for genocide, by her flawed logic), and said that the black teen who called out her racism “really deserved to be bullied” and “needed to be policed”. Olivia is also close friends with Haley, who has a history of attacking people over posts that have nothing to do with her, publicly admitted to circumventing blocks in order to send hate anons, and likened me — a Filipino immigrant — to DONALD TRUMP and a neo-Nazi conspiracy theorist just because I posted the receipts exposing her lies, harassment of others, and projection.

Most of the people who have spoken out against these three didn’t even know each other until last month. Some of ‘us’ have actually blocked each other. Yet all of us agree that their behaviour towards others has been absolutely unacceptable. How is it that so many unrelated people from different corners of the ‘fandom’ have exactly the same problems with exactly the same people? If Olivia want us to take personal responsibility for “our friends’” behaviour, then she should first take responsibility for hers.

This is on 26 February, over a week after I last posted. As anyone with eyeballs can see, I called her British once. Not “repeatedly”. ONCE. So she can fuck off again with that bullshit. And why did I point that out? Because Olivia, a British citizen, made pejorative comments about “white Eastern Europeans!!!” just because she thinks some Polish people committed the heinous crime of... screenshotting her tweets. They didn’t even do it, and even if they did, how is that even relevant? Everyone knows that one specific Polish person lives rent free in Taylor’s head, so clearly Olivia just took Taylor’s word for it that it must have been The Poles who were “stalking” her. Maybe don’t take paranoid liars at face value next time?

Shameless, ignorant, tone deaf nonsense. Olivia constantly demands that people treat her and her identity with the utmost respect, yet here she was on 9 February already disrespecting the identities of others just so she can score some petty ‘oppression points’ against them. Why even bring their nationalities up? And why call them “white Eastern Europeans” instead of Polish since she knows they’re Polish? Is it because acknowledging that they are Polish would mean acknowledging that she doesn’t actually have a monopoly on a claim to discrimination or Holocaust trauma? Could it be that dismissing them as just some “white Eastern Europeans” was just another way for her to add credence to her own “pathetic lies” about the situation? There’s a word for that behaviour, and it starts with pro- and ends with -jection.

Let me reiterate: it is IGNORANT of her to use their identity against them, especially when hate-crimes against Polish immigrants have increased in her home country, and especially when the specific people she insulted lost close relatives (including Jewish relatives) in the Holocaust. It’s not “repeatedly mocking her identity” to point out her hypocrisy. Her being Romani is not an excuse for casual xenophobia. She might be able to hide her identity in the UK (though she shouldn’t have to), but Polish immigrants do not have the privilege of passing as first-language white British. I cannot pass as non-Asian. The black girl she and her friends tried to bully off Tumblr cannot pass as non-black. Olivia weaponising people’s identity against them just because she thinks they saw her public tweets is ignorant, petty, and completely uncalled for. She should be absolutely ashamed for using that pathetic argument, but based on her most recent farrago of nonsense, she probably won’t be.

Here’s her on 7 MARCH. And of course Taylor was the first to like it lol. Olivia may have deluded herself into believing she was just an innocent bystander, but unfortunately, enough people saw her admitting to inserting herself into the situation at the behest of her two friends. With every post before and since, her accusations have gotten wilder and wilder, falser and falser, and more and more irrelevant because she knows full well that none of her followers will bother fact-checking her. That’s the beauty of vagueing people. It’s how Taylor and Haley have been able to get away with pulling the wool over peoples’ eyes for so long. Too bad repetition, projection, and self-righteous outrage doesn’t equate to the truth because those are all those three have.

“SOMEONE NEEDS TO EXPOSE THE WHOLE DAMN LOT OF THEM! BUT IT WON’T BE ME!” 

No one has said anything since 18 February, yet here’s Olivia publicly inciting her followers again. She’s “done talking about it”, yet she’s the only one continuing the drama. She is being ‘persecuted’, yet she mobilises her followers to go after others. She needs to be defended against critics, yet she also can’t resist bragging about big her Tumblr following is, how “piddly” our notes are compared to hers, how she got over 30 followers to report my posts (they’re still up lol), and how many people she can get to dig through our blogs to find anything to “expose” us. Olivia, I’m sorry that you require constant validation from strangers on the internet, but not everyone has the same priorities as you. Some of us just come here to have fun, but having shitstarters in the community is decidedly un-fun.

All my posts were directed at Taylor and Haley, but since Olivia insists on making this revolve around her, let me clarify: she is a hypocrite and a professional victim. Words have meaning, and those words are the most accurate words to describe her behaviour. It has fuck all to do with her identity. She and Haley are professional victims because they act as if their minority statuses exempt them from basic rules of online courtesy and entitle them to run their mouths about others with no consequence. And Olivia is a hypocrite because she demands the respect and understanding that she has repeatedly refused to show to others. She made ignorant, xenophobic comments against Polish people because she falsely assumed they screenshot her public posts bitching about others. She pretends that the many POC who have spoken out against her are just some “white” hive-mind because admitting that we’re not white will discredit the victimhood narrative she’s been peddling to her followers. And she arrogantly presumes to be ‘our’ voice in the community, all while mobilising her following to intimidate and silence the minorities who take issue with her and her friends’ vile behaviour.

It’s extremely telling that in every one of her unlettered rants, Olivia made the conscious choice to conflate us with “white gentiles”, “white antisemites”, and “white Eastern Europeans”. Why? Because in order to “name and shame” us, she’d have to admit to her followers that the majority of the people criticising her aren’t actually “white”, but are in fact black, brown, and Jewish. Having repeatedly demanded that her followers defend her, her reputation and credibility now depends upon people continuing to see her as the oppressed victim of “bigoted whites”. Unfortunately for her and her friends, the truth will always come out. That’s what receipts are for, no matter what they claim.

The history community didn’t side with “a white gentile woman”. We sided with a black teenager who Olivia and her friends repeatedly mocked for her age, publicly and privately spread false accusations against, and incited their followers to harass with their never-ending posts. We sided against white racists like Taylor, and her white-passing enablers like Olivia and Haley. Since being called out for racism by a black girl discredited them, they had to discredit her. And unlike the others Taylor and Haley tried to involve, Olivia was their willing accomplice. If she has now been “alienated by half the history fandom”, it is because of her own behaviour and rightly so.

The ideal course of action would be for Olivia to finally take some responsibility for her actions, publicly apologise for her role in inflaming this drama, and move on like the rest of us have tried to do. But unfortunately, she may be too far gone in her own pathological need for online validation to ever admit wrongdoing without some serious introspection. So perhaps, Olivia, if anything else, you should just take your own advice and, once and for all, SHUT THE FUCK UP.

[ckret2]

So I've been deeply pulled into the Radiosnake pairing bc of your fantastic writing! Problem is, now I have fic ideas but no knowledge of the Hazbin background. Can you tellI me where I can get more Hazbin info? I've only watched the pilot and read your stuff. I heard there were comics??

That is an excellent question anon, because right now it is really hard to get Hazbin background easily.

Okay, so, the canon info on Hazbin Hotel can be sort of sorted into four tiers, from most to least canon.

Tier 1: The Definitely Canon

There is, of course, the pilot. And then there is an Angel Dust prequel comic, only seven pages of which have been released so far. We’ve been told it’s gonna be finished and we’ve had glimpses of in-progress prequel comics for a couple other characters—most prominently Alastor’s and Charlie’s—but so far that unfinished Angel Dust comic is the only one that’s been officially released.

Finding the in-progress comic pages is... a challenge. Nobody, as far as I can tell, has been specifically collecting all of the pages we’ve seen so far. I was able to scrounge up:

Couple more Angel pages

some Alastor pages

another Alastor page

a random Alastor panel

another random Alastor panel—I’ve seen the full page of this before, Alastor goes “Hello ladies!” and they go “HELLO ALASTOR~<3″ but I can’t find the full page now

There’s a smattering more canon panels on the artist faustisse’s twitter, but I haven’t dug them all out, and some of the posts I’m gonna link in a lil bit have a glimpse of another panel.

If you haven’t already heard of Helluva Boss, I recommend looking into it as well. It’s a second series being created by the same folks, different cast of characters but set in the same version of Hell, so any canon details we learn in Helluva also apply to Hazbin.

Helluva’s pilot is here. Plus a cute music video here.

Earlier this month, during a BLM charity stream hosted by show artist Ashley Nichols—she runs regular streams under the title “HuniCast”—they released a few sneak peaks of future Helluva scenes, all compiled here.

And that’s it for canon. Two pilots, a music video, a smattering of future scenes, part of one comic, a few WIP pages/panels from other comics.

Tier 2: Pseudo-Canon

Everything else we currently know about Hazbin (and Helluva) are things that the creators have told us. Consequently, they’re all pseudo-canon—and likely subject to change in the future as the shows and comics are further developed and released. Some details that were released/described in the past have been contradicted at other times, or else radically changed by the time the pilot came out.

(For example, when Alastor was first created years and years ago as an OC with no plans for Hazbin, he was a demon deer who could shapeshift into a human shape—now he’s a demonized human with a few deer traits. And Charlie and Cherri Bomb used to look very different.)

So until and unless they make it into canon, all these pseudo-canon details are subject to change and should be taken with a grain of salt—but, they also comprise most of what we know about the characters’ backstory and the as-yet-unaired characters.

Pseudo-canon info on Hazbin is scattered mainly between two sources: the creators’ twitter accounts, and livestreams where they take questions and talk about the making of the show. If you and livestreams do not get along (my ADHD and livestreams do not get along), or if you don’t want to wade years and years back into twitter accounts to dig up every scrap of info on the characters the creators have ever mentioned, collating all the pseudo-canon info is gonna be hard. (It’s gonna be hard even if you do want to sit through the streams and dig through all their tweets.) Lots of fans, me included, depend on the absolutely heroic work of various fans who are willing and able to watch hours-long streams and collate a list of canon factoids released during the streams. I’ve reblogged as many of these posts as I’ve been able to find:

Alastor’s sound design (on twitter)

Alastor's Sound Design (post I made with screenshots of weird—but very interesting—subtitles slipped into the aforementioned video)

Sir Pentious and Cherri Bomb’s sound design

Niffty and Husk’s sound design

Charlie, Katie, and Tom’s sound design

Intro song’s sound design

Happy Hotel’s sound design

details from Faustisse (including a pic of a couple costume designs. Most of these posts come from zatyrlucy, who’s been doing a fantastic job of going stream-by-stream to get lists of details from the regular streams by Ashley Nichols and by comic artist Faustisse.)

more details from Faustisse (including a pic of the Von Eldritch family dining room)

Faustisse 3 (better look at that table)

Dollymoon’s Hazbin Hotel Facts - PART ONE (Shoutout again to dollymoon for compiling these, we’ve never spoken but I am eternally grateful for this service. Dollymoon’s posts are THE single most reliable compilation of Hazbin Hotel’s nebulous pseudo-canon facts that I have found to date, including both links to the sources and timestamps where applicable. Dollymoon’s URL has changed since making this post so the “read more” link doesn’t work but the “source” or “reblogged from” links direct correctly to the new blog. Incidentally, the risk of other blog creators deleting their blogs/posts or changing their URLs is why in info posts like these, I always link to my own reblogs rather than their original posts—their original posts might vanish without warning, but I know I ain’t gonna delete my posts, so these links will still work in the future.)

Hazbin Hotel Facts - PART TWO

Hazbin Hotel Facts - PART THREE

Faustisse 4

HuniCast - Australian Wildlife Relief charity stream

I think this was a faustisse stream (the original source deleted these posts, so the comic pages that were originally behind that read more cut are now gone.)

Faustisse stream 6?

And those are all the masterposts of factoids I’ve managed to collect. If anyone has more masterposts, chuck ‘em at me.

Even this isn’t all the knowledge that’s been released about the show. The posts that dig the farthest back are Dollymoon’s, and even they don’t comprehensively cover all of Hazbin’s production. A couple of these characters, Vivziepop created as a teenager, so there’s some truly ancient concept art floating around out there that will have details that probably aren’t canon anymore... but might still be until something happens to actively contradict them.

Tier 3: The Wiki

The wiki is kind of an absolute mess. It’s a chaotic blend of things actually seen in the pilots/comic, things mentioned at some point in some stream somewhere, and wild fan speculation based on what they headcanon as plausible based on the above, all mixed together with very little indication for which is canon, pseudo-canon, fanon, or speculation. Most of the statements on the wiki don’t have citations.

(And, on top of that, half the main characters’ info gets split up into separate tabs instead of just having a normal-ass wiki page, AND their image galleries are on COMPLETELY SEPARATE pages that are linked to in one of the tabs, and the most important characters all have TWO SEPARATE GALLERIES. Which doesn’t have anything to do with the quality of the facts hidden underneath those tabs, but nevertheless drives me up the wall.)

Some things on the wiki were added according to info released so long ago it’s probably changed by now. Some are possibilities that got reported as facts. Other things on the wiki have unambiguously changed, or else are just flat-out incorrect. (For instance, at this moment Alastor’s page still lists him as an overlord, even though it's been confirmed that Alastor is not an overlord despite his power level because he isn’t interested in and didn’t pursue that position, per this stream. For a little bit, somebody’s fanart of their headcanon human Alastor got added to the wiki as concept art.)

tl;dr: the wiki should never be trusted as a primary source. The wiki’s better than it used to be. Even so, at this time, it’s only trustworthy to fill in the gaps of what you already know is true from other, better sources.

The thing it’s good at is it more or less compiles all the known info all in one place. Trying to figure out who the hell this Vox guy is is really hard if you’re reading for mentions of him in compilations of a dozen different streams, much less if you’re trying to comb through those dozen streams yourself, plus a dozen more, plus three different artists’ twitters. In comparison, it’s really easy to, say, just go look at Vox’s wiki page, where all the trivia is compiled. (And Vox’s page is actually one of the better cited on the wiki. Look at all those numbers!)

So, if you need to find out who this character is you’ve never heard of before, if you want to see a full list of the thus far named characters, if you don’t remember whether Alastor likes coffee or tea, if you want to know what Angel’s twin sister looks like, if you need a reminder of Sir Pentious’s death year... check the wiki. It’s an okay starting point.

But, if you see a “fact” on the wiki that you yourself don’t remember from straight out of the pilot, and it doesn’t have a citation that links to a tweet or a stream... regard it suspiciously. And do not trust it unquestioningly as fact until and unless you have seen the source.

Tier 4: Noncanon Creator Shitposting

I’ve mentioned Ashley’s HuniCast streams a couple times. The biggest draw of them is that she usually gets several of the voice actors in the streams, where they’ll happily say nonsense in their character voices. For the most part, they’re not sharing any actual canon info they’ve been given on their characters, just goofing around pretending to be their characters. Nevertheless, a lot of the things that happen in streams get accepted as broad fandom headcanons, like Alastor being into dad jokes. (My favorite, for obvious reasons, is this one.)

It’s easy to find the source audio for all this wonderful nonsense by searching youtube for “HuniCast highlights,” and then rummaging around for animatics people make out of the audio. The only one noncanon video of this sort I can think of that didn’t originally come from HuniCast is a lone one from Alastor’s singing voice (who’s a different voice actor than his speaking voice).

So, obviously, none of these are canon. But they do come from some of the people actually involved in the creation of the show, and they are in the characters’ canon voices, so a whole lot of people treat them as semi-canon anyway. (Even the wiki lists “dad jokes” among Alastor’s likes, which to my knowledge hasn’t come up anywhere except for HuniCast streams.) Since they’re so broadly-known, they’re worth knowing about as important sources of fanon, even if you don’t want to adopt them into your own headcanons. They’re basically the same level of canon as blooper reels.

[coinofstone]

SCENE 59

Three fucking seasons in a row it’s been “I’m going to watch the special features at the end and if there’s anything worth mentioning I’ll make a separate post. 

Three fucking seasons in a row there really hasn’t been anything separate-post-worthy in those special features. 

Today that’s changed. 

DID YOU ALL KNOW ABOUT THIS?! DID NOBODY TELL ME ON PURPOSE TO WITNESS MY RIDICULOUSLY OUTSIZED REACTION BECAUSE JOB WELL DONE

I am sitting at a computer with the air conditioner off to write this post. THAT IS A BIG DEAL. 

First of all, I managed to find the clips on youtube. For those that don’t know, here’s the deleted scene: https://youtu.be/8r5eui13EtY

Here’s the scene that was included in the episode: https://youtu.be/YleIpvDDexs

You only need the first minute or so in that second video. They condensed the crap out of the scene, cutting some dialog, playing it more of a tense-joking-adrenaline-mid-battle scene than the intimate, introspective moment it had been. Because there’s no captions in either video I’ve transcribed the relevant dialogue here. Keep in mind this is by-ear quick transcription and not guaranteed to be entirely accurate.

Deleted scene:

Arthur: All the things I’ve faced, I’ve never been worried about dying. 

Merlin: Don’t think you should now.

Arthur: Sometimes you do puzzle me. 

Merlin: You never fathomed me out?

Arthur: No. 

Merlin: Well... I always thought if things would’ve been different we’d have been good friends. 

Arthur: Yeah. 

Merlin: If you weren’t such an arrogant, pompous, dollop-head.

Arthur: ::laughs::

Merlin: That’s what you have to remember... things never turn out how you expect. You’ll see. We’ll defeat the Dorocha, we will. Together. 

Arthur: I appreciate that. 

Arthur: (holding sigil) This belonged to my mother. It bears her sigil. Here. (hands sigil to Merlin)

Merlin: Arthur, I can’t -

Arthur: Just-  Take it. 

MERLIN DOES’T KNOW HOW TO SAY THANK YOU!?!?! Moving on.

The version of this dialog that aired in the episode:

Arthur: All the things I’ve faced, I’ve never worried about dying.

Merlin: I don’t think you should now.

Arthur: Sometimes you puzzle me.

Merlin: You never fathomed me out?

Arthur: No.

Merlin: I always thought if things had’ve been different we’d have been good friends.

Arthur: Yeah.

Merlin: That’s if you hadn’t been such an arrogant, pompous, dollop-head.

Arthur: ::laughs::

Merlin: We’ll defeat the Dorocha. We will, Arthur. Together. 

Arthur: I appreciate that. Y’know, you’re a brave man, Merlin. ...between battles. 

Merlin: (laughs) You don’t know how many times I’ve saved your life!

Arthur: (laughs) If I ever become King, I’m gonna have you made court jester.

(they both laugh)

It’s important to look at the timing here - the deleted scene ran nearly 2 minutes long. The scene that aired ran just over one minute long. They REPLACED (not removed) three lines of dialog but the scene shortened by about 50 seconds overall - nearly half the run time. Speeding up the conversation the way they did takes it from genuine heartfelt moment to nervous battlefield banter - it virtually erases the weightiness of it. And obviously, removing the engagement sigil is a really significant change.  

Another thing is the atmosphere. In both scenes, it’s just the two of them alone. but the deleted scene is undeniably more intimate.The crackling of the fire is louder than the music, which is playing so softly it’s barely there. The music doesn’t kick in at all until 40 seconds in, before that it’s just the sound of the fire, which is a deliberate effect. The castle version has music that’s a lot more noticeable, it’s that variation of the Merlin theme (I’m terrible with music meta in general but I genuinely do not know the titles of the music so I apologize for that) which also feels like a very deliberate choice - it’s distracting from the moment. Just like the screeching Dorocha. It seems like they were actively trying to lighten that moment between the boys, which I can only figure had to be orders from on high.

Looking back at the episode it seems like the deleted scene was meant to be wedged between Merlin gathering firewood while Lancelot tells him to go back to Camelot before he gets hurt, and the Morgana scene. Or maybe after the Morgana scene but before the scene where they find the frozen bodies in the road. Either way, this was clearly timed for the overnight stop en route to the big castle ruins. There’s a certain amount of tension, due to the mission, but they aren’t in immanent danger. The conversation between Merlin and Arthur is more introspective than anything else. There’s long pauses, thoughtful glances. Whereas the aired scene, in my opinion, looks like it was shoehorned into that moment just before Merlin jumps in front of the Dorocha to save Arthur. If you watch it carefully, you can see that the little prelude scene between Merlin and Arthur, which was spliced with the knights coming to rescue to them, would just as seamlessly flow into the ending WITHOUT that specific conversation as written above. Now, I say ‘shoehorned’ and I absolutely do not know the filming schedule and nothing was specifically said about it in the commentary track, but what WAS said is that they ARE on set in that scene, not on location. That means they could’ve added that as a pick up at any point during filming. The cave in the deleted scene was almost certainly a set as well, but that scene wasn’t mentioned at all in the commentary, I went back to check and during the portion where I think the scene was meant to be aired, they were just talking about Game of Thrones. But this is still important, because in choosing to put the conversation in that moment, the result is, as I said above, a far ‘lighter’ moment, because they are in very real and very immanent danger, they cannot be all thoughtful and introspective, they’ve got to be full of adrenaline and nerves and gallows humor. I liked that little moment in the episode, but now that I know what was cut I feel cheated   😂  

I’ve seen some people say that they had to cut out the thing with the sigil because by medieval rules, possessing that sigil would make Merlin a member of the royal family. I’m sure it would, but I really doubt that’s why it was axed, especially since as we all know, this show is a total stickler for historical accuracy. The only reasonable explanation is that someone decided it was toooooooo gay, too in-your-face-obvious that there’s a romantic relationship there. I mean, Arthur proposed to Gwen with his mother’s ring, he gives Merlin his mother’s sigil after confessing he’s worried he might die on their mission? COME ON. (I know that’s not the only reasonable explanation please just let me rant in peace this is new information for me)

And while I’m here I’d like to share this with you all... because it is ahhhmazing. 

The deleted scenes didn't have captions which was VERY disappointing, but this was so funny I had to edit it out and throw some captions in there. I've also uploaded it to YouTube as well. And here, have a gif

[mcwriting]

starstruck (2)

Heyyyyyy so I stuck to my word lol.

I’m basically unable to function after seeing far from home this evening but also it was so good. I teared up when tom did and my mom made fun of me but its okay because his acting was awesome! Highly recommend y’all see it (even tho ik you probably will if you haven’t already lol)

Ps this is my first time linking one post to another so please lmk if it doesn’t work, but if it’s not, you’ll always be able to access this through my starstruck tag!

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10

Fandom: Tommo Holland

Ship: Tom Holland x Reader eventually

Setting: LA

Word Count: 1386 (lol it’s shorter this time srry)

Warnings: i actually don’t think there’s any here, but lmk if there should be

Rating: K+ still

Background: part 2 of my DCOM inspired fic

B/f/n: your best friend’s name

                             __________________________________

Previously on starstruck...

The faint remains of his cologne wafted to your nose and you couldn’t help but breathe it in. You relaxed further into his grip and stayed comfortable until you heard a buzz on the table next to you.

You decided to ignore it until it happened two more times. Finally, you decided to wiggle out of Tom’s grip and succeeded without waking him. You picked up the cell and noticed it was 10 a.m. and all three texts were from b/f/n

Hey I’m coming over

I’ll bring ice cream since you said you weren’t doing too hot yesterday 

I’m on my way

“No. No, no, nonoNO,” you exclaimed, getting louder and louder, causing Tom to sleepily ask,

“Could you keep it down, darling?” 

“No, I can’t ‘keep it down,’ Thomas, because b/f/n is ON HER WAY HERE!”

“What!?” 

He sat up fully awake.

“We have to get you out of here without her seeing, and she’s probably gonna be here in like 5 minutes.”

Tom rushed to get up and find his keys that were in the pocket of his discarded jacket while you hurried to brush your hair and take a makeup wipe to your face.

You clambered down the stairs and hurried Tom through the kitchen and into the laundry room when you heard the doorbell ring, and when you didn’t answer in apt time, it began ringing like crazy.

Panic stuck your chest and you looked at Tom.

“Open the garage and leave in 5 minutes, then text me so I can close it.” You commanded, beginning to walk towards the entryway.

“Wait, wait,” he grabbed your arm, “I don’t have your number!”

You scrawled it down on a sticky note and ran, hoping he would get out safely and quickly. You opened the door to find b/f/n holding two pints of ice cream, raspberry sorbet for you and coffee ice cream for herself.

“My gosh what took you so long? I about started searching for the spare key with all these goods melting.”

You were about to reply when the door between the garage and utility room shut loudly. 

“Uh, who was that?” she asked, knowing your parents were at work.

“Oh, uh, a friend from dance. We’re working on a piece together and we decided to talk about it last night since I hurt my head,” you lied.

B/f/n furrowed her brows for a second before letting it go and coming inside to set up your typical movie day in the living room. Meanwhile, you headed back to the kitchen to grab spoons and check your phone, where a new number had sent a message. 

I’m out so you’re good to close the door. Thanks again for the great night ;)

You smiled and sent back 

That makes it sound soooo much worse than what really happened haha. You made it out without suspicion too :)

You decided to put his number in as a contact, disguising him as “Clara Twinkletoes” after a joke made late into the previous night, then headed to the living room.

                             __________________________________

After finishing one movie and your separate ice creams, you both decided to take a break and were looking at your phones.

“Hey, I know you hate talking about Tom Holland,” you gave a side-eyed glance to the bringing up of his name, “but guess what? He liked my picture last night! I just remembered to tell you!” 

B/f/n held up her phone to show you the notification, then went back to staring at it excitedly. 

“That’s actually really cool. I’m happy for you,” you expressed, leaving out the fact that you had asked Tom to like it when you were talking about the post at 1 a.m.

A few minutes later, b/f/n breathed out a soft “woah.”

You looked at her in confusion.

“Y/n, look at this girl Tom was photographed with yesterday, she looks like your twin!”

Dread filled your stomach as you stared at the picture of you and Tom in his black Audi A8, that stupid ballet skirt wrapping your head.

“Yeah, maybe if I took ride alongs with celebrities and wore nineteen fifties headscarves,” you quipped, “you only think that girl looks like me because you want it to be me, b/f/n.”

“Hmm, I guess…” she trailed, taking back her phone to continue scrolling through Instagram.

Not long after, you got a text from Clara twinkletoes.

Have you seen the picture??? I’m getting tagged and you are too

Like… everyone thinks that girl is you

Psh as if. We can talk about it later, I’m busy with my gal pal

Fine. Also, I was wondering if you wanted to go with me to the beach tomorrow? I wanna talk about all this in person

Hmm. Maybe. Probably not ;) 

“Hey, b/f/n?” You asked tentatively.

“Yeah?”

“Is it cool if you don’t spend the night tonight? I need to go to dance early tomorrow since I took the day off and I’ve also got this head injury so…” 

it wasn’t a complete lie. You did have a head injury and your plan was to go to dance at some point, but you decided to leave out the part where you might actually go hang out with hot shot Holland.

“Oh, uh yeah, sure. My sister is coming into town this week so it’s probably for the best, you know how my mom is about cleaning the house and stuff,” she said, obviously trying to hide her disappointment.

Around 4 pm, she got up to leave. You had watched two more movies and eaten plenty more snacks throughout the afternoon. 

“I guess I’ll see you later, y/n. Hope you’re feeling better tomorrow,” she smiled. 

You returned the gesture and gave her a hug, then watched from the doorstep as she mounted her bike and rode off to her house only a few neighborhoods away, you feeling queasy about lying so much.

                            __________________________________

You headed upstairs after a light dinner and some TV. It was only about 8 o’clock, but the combination of a head injury, late night, and slight emotional distress (from lying to b/f/n) made you feel exhausted, not to mention you would be waking early the next day. 

You changed into sweats and flopped into bed, checking your social media for a little bit to wind down. 

Your snapchat was just pictures from friends, only a couple of them joking to you about the whole Tom Holland situation (but of course none of them knew the truth)

Twitter and Instagram, however, were a different story. After the premiere, you had chosen to turn off notifications and were especially happy to know it was the right choice. 

On Twitter, fan accounts and other people were replying to a joking tweet you had made days before the premiere in reply to b/f/n where you said “Why be friends with that tom holland guy when you could hang out with your superior best friend hmmmm?? He’s lame compared to me lolol” 

People were going nuts about it, divided over whether you were just messing around or if you really didn’t like him. Most of them chose the former, though you knew you had meant the latter. Other people were tweeting about you separately and debating about that picture from the day before.

You almost deleted your Twitter in a rash decision but realized how suspicious that could look and instead closed it and moved to instagram.

It too was overflowing with tags and comments and follows and likes. Your stomach churned as you realized how big this was becoming. Finally you made the choice to meet Tom tomorrow, even if it risked being caught again. You sent him a single text to let it be known:

Alright twinkletoes. Let’s go to the beach.

You figured you could reply to whatever he sent in the morning and put your phone on do not disturb before plugging it in and checking the alarm.

You snuggled into the sheets and buried your head into a pillow. A sweet and musky scent drifted into your nose and you took a deep breath. 

Tom’s cologne

You sat up, sniffing around the sheets, pillows, and covers, realizing he had left his scent everywhere. 

“I need to wash these sheets tomorrow” you breathed to yourself in an annoyed tone. 

With that you laid back down, glad that b/f/n wasn’t there to ask whose scent was all over your bed. Though you tried to convince yourself that you wanted the smell gone, had anyone been watching, they couldn’t deny the way you sunk into the bed and the faint smile that made its way to your lips as you drifted into slumber.

                            __________________________________

A/N: there’s chapter 2!! Hope you guys enjoy. I don’t think I’ll post 3 until this weekend but who even knows haha. Love y’all and am so happy to have your support!

Tag List: @marvel-lously

[almaasi]

reaction post typed while watching JIBcon videos (part 2 of ?)

Cockles panel

in which Jared is abusive to Misha :C :C :C (and Jensen is maaaaybe angry about Destiel not being canon??? whoa)

previous post HERE

-

03:51

how long’s it been, 3 days? 4? idk but HI LET’S WATCH MORE

i was 11 minutes in, after 2 hours. oh boy

-

just rewatching the bit where the fan asks if they can sip the apple juice and i just realised jensen said “no!!” at the same time misha nodded and said “yep”

-

aaaaand jensen watches misha drink before he licks his lips and drinks too *u*

-

03:56pm

misha: “supernatural the series will be ending, it’s been announced, but we will be doing a puppet show in jensen’s backyard... for another ten seasons”

i would pay money

misha’s joking but i would pay money

-

and jensen’s mouthing “oh my gaaahd” at misha bc he did not expect 500 people to cheer that

jensen: “THAT’S BRILLIANT”

yes

yes it is

-

“no seriously i think we’re gonna do that”

i would legit love that pls do

-

the apple juice is getting to him already

-

04:00

fan: “what one thing you won’t miss after it’s done? and don’t say each other, that’s not true”

shoutout to that fan right there looking out for all of us

-

04:0

misha: “i’m not gonna miss jared and jensen hurting me”

jensen goes all quiet, misha touches his leg

AND THEN MISHA APOLOGISES FOR FONDLING HIM

this is so fucking complex but also probably so simple

on the one hand that touch was automatic, assuring jensen, but also misha’s aware of how that exact kind of touch is not especially consensual in the context of what he’s talking about

they kind of seem to have two separate relationships, the personal/private/convention-performance one... and the on-set one. off set, misha’s in charge and jensen is his princess, but then on-set, misha is a sexually abused puppy

and honestly i don’t know how i feel about this, so i try and figure out how misha feels about it. like... it’s pretty obvious he doesn’t enjoy being hurt, but rarely actually gets upset about it (i.e.: the airplane), and still maintains an apparently consensual, respectful and emotionally intimate relationship with jensen and jared outside of set??? it’s confusing to me and what i’m seeing here isn’t really helping me understand yet

-

04:12

oop the video finished, time to move to the next one

i’m still torn on this issue

like it’s...... funny, i guess? jared army crawling onto set to hurt misha? BUT ALSO IT’S NOT, and it shouldn’t be, it’s only funny because they apparently find it funny

or at least jensen does, but jensen loves misha the most, so like.......... 

god i still don’t know

every year i’m still baffled by this

i just want jared to stop hurting misha

those poor inner thighs

-

part 2!!

JIB10 - Jensen and Jared and Misha panel part2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd8O2-_Akk0&ab_channel=thiniassk

04:16

misha’s now talking about mark (sheppard?) and how mark wants other cast people to make “an environment where people are happy to go to work” the way the spn cast does

back to the thigh pinching though. so misha can quote that with total conviction... so i guess despite the pain he does enjoy it?? maybe he’s just a masochist and likes being hurt, idk...... and yet he says he won’t miss it once it’s over

who knows if i will ever understand this

-

04:1?

extended eye contact with misha as jensen says “i would’ve loved to have slept in”

UH HUH

-

04:?5

OH GOD IT’S HAPPENING IT’S HAPPENING THEY’RE LYING ON TOP OF EACH OTHER

in which jensen is being misha and misha is being jared

“yeah you sexy bitch you like this”

????????????????????????????????????????

-

and then misha pulls jensen up by the hand~

that did not last nearly long enough

-

ARE YOU KIDDING ME THEY DIDN’T EVEN GET TO RECOVER OR FINISH THE SENTENCE BEFORE EVERYONE ELSE COMES ON STAGE

UGH

EVERY FUCKING TIME

WHEN DO WE NOT GET COCKBLOCKED

-

OH it’s not even everyone else it’s just jared

does he have internal alarms that go off when jensen and misha are being publicly intimate and he has to show up with a cowbell and a taser

-

04:30

jensen is definitely tipsy now

-

04:41

jared: “i was like ‘shut up bitch’ and you were like ‘yeah, hit me’

jensen facepalms and misha mouths “no i didn’t”

?????

jared is such a wildcard in this dynamic

on the one hand they’re advertising themselves as the model set relationship, and there’s obviously love between them, but on the other hand they’re all being abused by jared 

i 

i’m so perplexed

-

04:35

https://youtu.be/dd8O2-_Akk0

misha to jensen: “do you... you wanna tell your... your dream?”

jensen shakes head “nope”

jared: “whoa!! this just got really romantic” (backs up)

(thank you jared for trying to keep out of this, i guess)

-

04:44

i just took a lil break and i’m back now

i thought a bit about what i’ve watched so far today and compared it to the first part of the panel that i watched last time, and i’m trying to figure out if the energy is different because i’m in a different mood or whether it actually changed around the same point i paused last time, around the 11 minute mark. the first part of this was flirty and silly and fun, and then that vibe kind of plummeted... i guess it was because they started talking immediately about the abuse on set

but yeah, no, just typing that made me realise i’m right, the energy did change. misha mellowed out and jensen followed suit. despite getting tipsy and being more open to shaking his ass, he and misha remained subdued

like.. jensen clearly finds the abuse hilarious but i don’t think misha does. he loves jared and jensen both but i think there is legit pain there. people can be both abusive and loving, you know? jared’s awful but also nice, and i guess i enjoy his obvious outward support for jensen and misha’s romantic relationship, but i’ve always found it harder to appreciate him, compared to the effortless love i have for misha.

misha always, ALWAYS demonstrates that it’s absolutely possible to be dominant without hurting or demeaning people, and jared is just... not like that.

and yeah this upsets me enough that i’m now blurry-eyed with tears while typing this

it’s been kind of hard to enjoy this part of the video and i needed a moment away to figure out why

my favourite jibcon will always be the one where jensen leaned in to kiss misha. he was upset and misha went to comfort him, and supported him the whole time. i was thinking the other day how that energy was fresh. like they’d only just begun a sexual/romantic relationship in real life, or were about to and were eager for it. and this time it’s clearly been years and they’re more comfortable with their attraction.

but like.

yeah i’m disappointed that jared is on stage now. i can’t help it, i always am. his presence just seems especially upsetting after everything misha’s told us

i’m in no way saying they’re not friends, because they are, and i can’t doubt that they’ll be friends for the rest of their lives, happily and comfortably, but at the same time i will never be able to deny that jared is abusive. he violates consent in every possible way and just because it’s funny doesn’t mean it’s okay. these three spin the stories to make us laugh, but truly, under all of it, i find it upsetting.

someone’s always gonna say “but misha’s fine, he can take it”

but abused people can be fine, because they tend to be the strongest people, yet that doesn’t make the abuse okay. he’s not agreeing to it, he’s showing up for work each day because he has an obligation to and a family to feed. and he does love working there, and the people he works with, DESPITE the abuse.

i just. i don’t want people watching this to ever think that it’s okay for friends to hurt you. it’s possible to be bullied by friends. in fact that seems most likely in my own past. you may still be their friend, and your love for them may be warranted, and understandable, because they are lovable, but that doesn’t make their actions okay

-

anyway

-

05:05pm

misha: “are you wearing a t-shirt that says destiel is real?”

jensen’s hand ZOOMs to him i.e. “stop talking”

also he tied the pocket scarf around his neck and it looks good

-

I LOVE THAT EVERYONE CHEERS

omg remember when people would boo

THIS IS BETTER

-

is jensen like........ pumping for more cheers or being sarcastic? can’t tell, it’s kind of both

-

and then jensen just goes “DESTIEL IS REAL”

his tone is like.........forceful joking? but also he just SAID it ???

jensen: “is it? is it??”

crowd: “yes no yesss noo”

-

https://youtu.be/dd8O2-_Akk0?t=12m59s

jensen: “where? where is it real?”

misha: (pulls jensen down) “don’t get in a fight with people, honey”

HONEY. HE DID JUST SAY HONEY RIGHT?? HE SAID HONEY.

me: wrote a fic called He Called Me Honey

OMG.

misha is the best and will always be the best and his support is the best and i love him more than words can say

-

05:13

k but

i think people’s claims that the destiel thing annoys jensen do have truth to them. his middle finger is on the mic, he’s PISSED.

but ........

honestly i don’t think it’s for the obvious reason. right now, *tilts head*.... looking at this, i think he’s actually more annoyed that destiel is not canonically canon. from what he sees, people are seeing something that’s “not there”, because despite him acting, he can’t hide his attraction to misha. and it’s still the old stuff from season 4 and 5 that put down the basis for all this, when he didn’t realise his pupils were dilating in the first few weeks with misha. and the storyline pushed them together.

theory: jensen’s annoyed about the destiel thing because it’s not as canon as he wants it to be.

maybe.

just........ the way he reacts to destiel stuff out of panels seems way more supportive. he’s just currently feeling attacked by the disparity of opinion in the room, everyone yelling about their take on it, whereas his question was legitimate: “where are you guys seeing the romance?” because (despite his best efforts?) dean still hasn’t kissed cas on screen.

deleted scenes = deleted destiel. i’m still 80% convinced when cas came back from the empty, there was a shot where dean kissed him. and it wasn’t used. (i have no proof. this is a theory. just with the setup to the scene, and the way jensen flirts with misha on set, i refuse to believe there wasn’t a kiss shot at some point. even if jensen was messing around for giggles. he knows what’s up, deep down.)

anyway, my point is, i don’t think jensen understands the romantic subtext. i think he understands physical touching, spoken words, kisses. and he hasn’t seen that in the show. i think he absolutely acts dean as being best friends with cas, but the subtextual romance comes from the writers, editors, and people picking up on jensen’s unconscious attraction.

but jensen has not seen what he would interpret as Romance in the show. and i think he’s miffed that other people see it, because in his interpretation that means it’s actor bleed. i think he just doesn’t get it. not saying he hasn’t studied subtext and stuff, as a director, but i think for him personally, romance is romance when it’s seen (hence him touching cas a lot more when he directs). and any bold choices he’s made as dean interacting with cas have been hidden away by the producers.

again, this is all theory, my take on it. the other theory is that he doesn’t support destiel and doesn’t like talking about it at all. but THAT IS NOT TRUE and if anything, *THIS* and *THIS* prove that

-

05:50pm

k well those links just took me 20 minutes to find, and i still can’t find the version with the actual fanart. it was sunshine yellow, dean and cas were naked in towels, drinking coffee, and dean has a boner under his towel, and jensen drew a speech bubble saying “who the fuck are you?”

 but yeah i think i gotta stop for today. I WILL BE BACK. maybe tomorrow, maybe in a few days. still got 4 minutes of this panel and then jensen & misha’s solo panels to watch. and i wanna get all my reaction posts up before the ‘good omens’ series drops at the end of may!! because maybe i’mma post reactions to those on tumblr too c:

hope you’re all having a decent day <3

Elmie x

[darkdreamer253]

JayTim Week - Day 2: Time Travel

Title: Time to Save You

Rating: Teen & Up

Fandom: Batman, DC

Characters: Jason Todd, Tim Drake

Warnings/Tags: Fluff and Angst, Light Angst, Time Slips, Major Character Death(Implied), Child Neglect(Implied), Foster Care, Underage Smoking, Mild Language, Runaway, No Capes AU

Summary:  Jason Todd and Tim Drake met in an unprecedented way. They found each other in a time slip, three years apart. When Tim learns that Jason is going to die, he tries to find a way to save him.

Notes: This was a much bigger project than I anticipated, and got done really late. There was a preview before, but once I finished it, I deleted and reposted the original post with this version. That’s also why it’s out of order. If you saw the preview, I suggest reading the new version. It’s much better and wasn’t rushed.

External Link: Archive of Our Own

Timothy Drake met Jason Todd in a very unprecedented way. Jason lived next door to him, and the windows on the first floor of their houses had small awnings that almost touched.

Tim would sit out there to think, Jason would sit out there to smoke. The two met on those small awnings, separated by a gap barely five feet wide. The two would never really talk when it first started, both just doing what they did before going back inside.

It was a week before Jason got the first word in. Tim tried to catch himself whenever he stared at Jason, the guy was pleasing to the eye after all. However, one time he hadn't stopped himself as Jason commented with an exhale of smoke.

“Are you gonna just stare at me all day or are you gonna say something?”

It had startled Tim, he'd never expected Jason to notice or talk about it, but his face flushed now as he was caught.

“Sorry, I just… you're pretty handsome,” it was all Tim could think to say, but it wasn't much of an excuse.

Jason now met Tim's eyes, a sly smug plastered across his face,” Oh, am I? Pretty bold of you to say.”

Tim hadn't thought about it that way until Jason's comment, his cheeks flushing more from the embarrassment. “I-I… I didn't mean it that way, I just--”

His stammering words were cut off by a low chuckle from Jason. “Relax, kid, I was only messing with you.”

“Actually, I think we're the same age,” Tim corrects Jason, who took another drag off his cigarette.

“No shit,” Jason looked genuinely surprised about this information,” You're older than you look, kid. Want a light?”

“No, I don't smoke,” Tim waved off the carton Jason offered as he answered,” I've been coming out here for more than a week without ever lighting a cigarette, why would you think I want one now? Plus, I'm not old enough, which you should know.”

“Don't care about the age, just thought maybe you're a once in a while kinda guy,” Jason's shoulders shrugged as he explained his thinking.

“Well, I'm not that kind of guy,” Tim deadpanned at the other teen.

“Then what kinda guy are you?” Jason waggled his eyebrows at him as he asked.

Tim connected the dots as he realized this was Jason's ‘subtle’ way of trying to get to know him. It made Tim's face flush again at the thought of a cute guy wanting to get to know him. Names were exchanged for the first time shortly after and their conversations continued for many days, the two becoming very close up on those awnings.

It had been a couple of weeks when they started talking that Tim began to notice something strange. First, he tried to visit the house one day. He didn't want it to seem weird that he wanted to see Jason on more than just an awning, and had come up with a good excuse. He had one of Jason's favorite books, one he hadn't gotten around to reading, and was going to say he wanted to read it with him where it wouldn't be damaged.

After the third knock when nobody answered, a woman next door working on her garden piped up,” No one lives there, hasn't for quite some time.”

“What?”

“Yeah, ever since the accident the house has been vacant. The family that lived there wasn't the best off and left shortly after it happened. Whole thing was tragic really.”

Tim thanked the woman and headed back to his own house next door, not sure what to think. Eventually, he decided the woman must have gotten the houses mixed up, because he knew Jason lived there. He must have simply not been home. He met Jason up on the awning later that day and decided to ask him.

“Actually, I live here with my foster family,” Jason spoke between drags of his cigarette,” My dad is in jail and my mom is an addict who can't take care of me, so social services decided I would be better off in the system. Which is bullshit, the whole thing is. None of the kids here want this shit. They want a family, not temporary living.”

“Well, then maybe they weren't home earlier? No one answered the door.”

“They just don't like visitors unless it's a government official coming to give them a check,” Jason explained,” They're not bad people, they take care of us, they just only do it to get the money.”

“Oh.” Tim couldn't come up with a better response. He wasn't sure what to say after hearing that, but he was a bit upset that he would never really be able to see Jason anywhere but on top of the awnings.

Jason must have picked up on it, because he spoke again in a reassuring tone,” Hey, don't worry about it. In three years, I'll be able to get out of this shit hole and live on my own.”

That didn't really raise Tim's spirits, but he tried not to let it get to him too much. He decided not to bother asking about whatever accident that woman was talking about, she was clearly wrong. Instead, he decided to tell Jason about the book he planned on reading and the subject changed quickly, Jason clearly excited about sharing the story with Tim.

It was another month before Tim noticed the second weird thing. It was another day out on the awning and Tim had started another book Jason suggested that Tim hadn't read, having already finished the first. Jason usually started off the conversation by asking about how far Tim had gotten, but not today.

“Man, can you believe the shit that happened across the street last night?”

“Why, what was last night?”

“You mean to tell me you didn't hear that? Shit, the cops were so loud I thought they'd wake up the whole fucking neighborhood.”

“I didn't hear anything about it,” Tim was a bit concerned now,” What happened?”

“Apparently it was a drug bust,” Jason told him,” Woke up just about everyone. Your mom was out there, I talked to her--”

“Wait,” Tim couldn't help but interrupt Jason,” My dad and I moved out here because the family funds started to decline after my mother's death. It couldn't be my mom you talked to. Maybe one of the neighbors?”

“She said she lived there,” Jason looked worried now,” Fuck, I hope you didn't get robbed or some shit. I thought she lived there so I didn't stop her when she went into your fucking house. God, I'm so fucking stupid.”

“It's alright, we didn't get robbed,” Tim tried not to seem worried as well,” She must have left after realizing this wasn't her house, because nothing is missing. Still a bit weird that I slept through a drug bust.”

“Maybe your a strong sleeper?” Jason suggested as though that were a real answer.

The whole thing didn't sit well with Tim, why did one of their neighbors think she lived there? And how did he sleep through something so loud? It ate at him and so he decided to look it up, but what he found was surprising. The only thing he found about a drug bust across the street happened three years ago.

He thought maybe it was a practical joke on Jason's part, though Jason didn't seem like the type to use something so serious as a joke. He didn't want to think the worst of Jason like that, but he also couldn't come up with any other reason why Jason would bring it up.

So he decided not to confront Jason about it. After all, there was no harm done. Instead, he just continued like nothing happened, growing closer and closer to Jason with time. He started to realize that this was more than just friendship for him as he started going out there more, excited to see Jason everyday.

He felt stupid that they never bridged the gap between the awnings. It was Jason who suggested they didn't, 'more romantic that way’ were the exact words he used. Tim knew he was joking, but to him it really was romantic going out there and talking to Jason everyday.

He just wished that it could be more. That he could jump over there and hug him, or hold his hand, or just be close to him. But it was always Jason who suggested they live in their separate worlds, close but never close enough.

It had been almost a year of this when Tim finally got the last piece of weird information that put the whole puzzle together. He noticed a well-dressed woman in front of Jason's house, putting Flowers on the side of the road. It made him think back to the accident the neighbor had mentioned, though he hadn't really thought about it since that day. He decided to ask her about it, standing near the edge of the curb to talk to her.

“Hi, sorry, I noticed you were putting flowers here, I wanted to ask about what happened.”

“Oh, of course,” she seemed to compose herself, wiping her cheek and straightening her button-up,” I was the case worker for the foster family that used to live here. A few months before you moved in, one of them was hit by a car. The couple who cared for the boy were distraught, and felt they weren't fit to care for the children anymore. They asked for them to be moved elsewhere. They left the house after all the kids were gone, I don't think they could afford it anymore.”

Tim’s brows furrowed, unsure of how to process the new information. “Was there another foster family living here before the one that's here now?”

“No, you must be mistaken. This house has been empty since the accident. No one lives there now.”

“But I know one the kids who lives there,” Tim was insistent now, trying to make heads or tails of what this woman was telling him,” I talk to him everyday, you must know him if you work in foster care. His name is Jason Todd.”

The woman looks awestruck for a moment before anger takes over her features. “Is this some sort of joke?”

“What do you mean?”

“Jason Todd was killed in a car accident,” she explained, hot tears now running down her cheeks,” I came here to leave flowers because he died one year ago today. I don't think it's funny that you're joking around about this.”

Tim didn't know how to respond to the information. Jason Todd has been dead for a year. Even as it ran through his head so many times, he still couldn't believe it. The woman stormed off as he tried to process everything he just learned about Jason. He wondered how he even met Jason in the first place. Was he a ghost or was something else going on? It was only when he thought about the drug bust Jason mentioned that he started to realize what might be going on. It made him doubt and think about skipping a day with Jason, but he decided it would be better to ask him about all this.

He wasn't sure how to bring it up once he was out there, letting Jason talk for awhile before he confronted him,” Do you remember that drug bust you mentioned last year?”

“Jesus, that was a while ago,” Jason snuffed out his cigarette as if to give Tim his full attention,” Yeah, I remember. Why are you bringing that up now?”

“It happened four years ago according to the news articles,” it seems Tim had lost Jason as a look of sheer confusion was all he saw,” This might seem like a weird question, but what year is it?”

“2013. Look, Tim, what is this about? Are you trying to mess with me? 'Cause this shit isn't funny.”

“It's not 2013 though, it's 2016,” Tim still couldn't believe what he heard, but it proved exactly what he thought,” The house you live in has been empty for about a year, ever since one of the foster kids living there died.”

“The fuck?” Jason was on his feet now, pure rage the only thing on his features. “That's not fucking funny, Timmy. I think I'd know if one of my siblings died or if my family moved out of my fucking house. This is some fucked up shit and you need to stop.”

Jason usually used the more childish name to tease Tim, knowing that it got under his skin to have a name that sounded like a ten year old. It wasn't meant to be teasing this time, Tim had never seen Jason so mad, even after a bad day with his foster family.

“I never said it was one of your siblings,” Tim stared intently into Jason's eyes,” It wasn't one of them who died. It was you, Jason. You're the one who died, last year in 2015.”

Jason went wide-eyed and then ground his teeth. “This isn't fucking funny anymore. I'm not fucking playing this sick game. I'm gonna come over there and your gonna have three seconds to explain yourself before I hurt you.”

Tim was expecting the anger, he just wasn't expecting it to be this bad. Jason approached the gap, ready to jump it without a second thought. The second he moved across the gap, he was gone. No angry, much bigger than him teen looming above him. The space where he'd been was just empty. Tim wondered if that was part of the deal. If they could meet and talk across time, but never actually be close enough to touch despite the small gap. Tim took the opportunity to move to the other awning.

The window opened, left unlocked from whoever was in the room last and he absently wondered if it was Jason. It opened into an empty hall, before he numbly moved through the rest of the house. Everything was the same, all the rooms empty. Seeing it first hand was something completely different than hearing it from other people. The house was abandoned after the death of the person he'd gotten to know so well. He found himself crying in there, thinking of Jason who he only just now realized that he was probably in love with.

He went back to his own awning after composing himself, looking back to see Jason leaning up against the side of his house. He was holding his legs to his chest like a scared child, something Tim had never seen him do. Jason had always been too tough for that sort of thing.

“You fucking disappeared,” Jason was quiet and didn't move when he spoke,” I thought it was a fucking joke and then you were just fucking gone. I wasn't even angry anymore, I just wanted to know where you went. I knocked on the door, but you weren't inside, just that lady from before. She said she lived alone, that there was no Tim Drake who lived there. What the hell is going on, Tim?”

“Have you ever heard of time slips?” Jason's look told him that it was a stupid question and he continued,” I think these awnings, for some reason, are in a time slip. That we're meeting across two different times, three years apart.”

“That doesn't make any fucking sense,” Jason moved a bit now, letting his legs slide away, allowing Tim to see his face,” I mean, why the fuck would this shit happen to us? I just learned I'm going to fucking die in two years and I can't even fucking do a goddamn thing about it. I can't even fucking touch you.”

“Maybe you can,” Tim suggested and Jason looked at him like he was crazy,” I mean, we haven't actually tried, maybe we can still touch.”

Tim reached out his hand across the gap, stretching it about half of the way. He asked Jason,” Can you still see it?”

“Yeah, I can,” Jason answered, staring at the outstretched limb like it might vanish if he looked away.

It took Jason awhile before he reached out his own hand, meeting Tim's in the middle. The hands looked as though they were touching, but Tim could feel nothing against his skin. There was no feeling of another person there, just the empty air.

“Well, it was worth a shot,” Tim pulled his hand back to his side,” But who knows? Maybe we'll find a way eventually. Maybe this is happening to us because I'm supposed to figure out a way to bridge that gap and save you.”

“Maybe.”

Jason sounded like he didn't believe that and he didn't talk the rest of the time they were out there. Tim went in when it started getting a little too cold to handle, but Jason didn't budge. Tim went in through his window and looked out as he closed it, only to see Jason wasn't there despite the fact that he definitely hadn't moved. It was going to take some time to get used to this new revelation, but Tim didn't want to give this up.

Over the next months, Jason tested the boundaries of their time slip extensively, seeming intent on meeting Tim on the other side of the gap. Tim didn't complain, he liked that Jason seemed up for anything to see if he could get to Tim.

Jason had found out that as long as he was still touching his own awning, he could stretch himself across the gap to Tim's own and Tim could still see him. When he tried to use a board to get across, however, he disappeared the second both feet touched the new surface. Jason had tried taking a small piece of shingle with him before jumping over to Tim. That drew the conclusion that once something was removed, it was no longer actually part of the awning.

Jason had thrown a couple of books across the gap to Tim, ones he had in his room. Yet when Tim tried to throw something to him, only Tim could see it sitting on the awning. Tim figured it was because the object didn't technically exist in Jason's time, so he couldn't actually touch it, while anything from Jason's time would still exist in his.

Jason kept trying, no matter how many times he failed to reach Tim's awning with Tim still being there. It was actually admirable how hard Jason tried, though Tim was working on his own project.

He'd been looking up time slips and how they worked, in order to figure out a way to save Jason's life. He could never find anything conclusive, mostly stories and theories without solid evidence. Whatever was happening between him and Jason was something unique.

It had been another a year since they found out about the time slip that Tim noticed Jason had stopped trying to bridge the gap. He never tried anything new, not really doing anything else they tested either. He also talked less and mostly just sat there while Tim did the talking.

“What is up with you lately?” Tim confronted Jason after almost a month of the cold shoulder. “Did I do something wrong? You're not trying to cut yourself off because you know that it's almost time, are you?”

Jason didn't say a word, just took another deep inhale of his cigarette. Tim had noticed he'd been smoking more too. He wondered where he even got the cigarettes since he wasn't old enough to buy them, but didn't think on that too much.

“You're never this quiet for this long,” Tim pressed the subject,” Come on, Jason, just tell me what's wrong.”

“Everything is wrong, okay?” Jason practically shouted, the first words he'd said to Tim in some time. “There's a clock ticking down over my head and I don't want to drag you down with me. I mean, aren't you tired of it? Of knowing that I'm gonna disappear one day without ever really meeting you? Without giving you a real goodbye?”

“A real goodbye?” Tim wasn't sure about Jason's meaning, but he'd clearly struck on the core of the subject as the teen across from him flinched at the question.

“Shit, I didn't mean to say it like that,” Jason didn't meet Tim's eyes now as he continued,” I mean, I don't even know if that's what you want, I was pushing what I want onto you.”

“What do you want, Jason?”

The question had Jason visibly shaking. It was clear that there was something he wanted to say, but he was too scared to say it. Tim didn't push him, knowing that he would say it when he was ready.

“Fuck, I mean, I didn't want to tell you like this,” Jason ran a hand through his hair,” Not sure I wanted to tell you at all after finding out we can't even touch. After all, I can't really give you anything and I'm gonna die before I even get the chance to.”

Tim hated it when Jason got on the subject of his death. Jason could rant on for hours about how fucked up it was and it always hurt Tim to see him like that. He hadn't found a way to save him yet, but he wasn't going to stop looking. But right now, he just looked at Jason, ushering him to continue without pressuring him by forcing it out of him.

“I've been thinking about you a lot lately,” Jason finally said, as if that answered all of Tim's questions,” And I think I'm fucking head over goddamn heels for you, but I can't do shit about it.”

Tim was silent, sure that his hear that stopped beating and his throat had closed off. He was sure he was going to die from those words, sure that he must have imagined it because why would Jason Todd like him? He was just a scrawny little nerd with nothing going for him and Jason could probably have anyone he wanted.

“Jesus fuck, are you still with me kid?” Tim was roused from his trance by Jason's voice. “I knew you probably wouldn't swing that way, but I didn't think you'd just stop talking to me either.”

Tim hadn't thought of a response, hadn't even thought he'd truly heard what Jason said. He needed to say something, but he had no idea what. Thoughts ran through his head, but none of them left his lips. He just sat there as Jason probably thought that Tim hated him for his confession.

“Well, guess I'll just stop bothering you then,” Jason looked disappointed as he turned and opened his window.

“I love you,” Tim forced the words from his throat when Jason had one leg through the open window, about to disappear from Tim's life until the next time he came out onto that awning.

Jason pulled back out, closing the window behind him. He sat back down and stared at Tim silently, as if the explanation were just written on Tim's face.

“I mean, at least I feel like I do,” Tim provided, tense thinking about what Jason might say to this,” I think I've known for a little while. I've definitely had a crush on you for a long time, but I realized I'm pretty sure it's love shortly after we found out we're in a time slip.”

“Well fuck, guess we really fucked up then.”

“Yeah, I guess we did,” Tim laughed a bit,” Falling in love with someone you can't touch. We must be the stupidest people on the planet.”

Jason laughed with him and the tension Tim felt from his confession eased away.

“So what now? Where do we go from here? I'm gonna die in a few months and we've never even held hands, let alone kissed.”

“I don't know.” Tim wasn't sure he could answer that question. He wanted nothing more than to jump over there and hold Jason, but he knew that was impossible.

Jason slid to the end of the awning, holding his hand out towards Tim. Tim followed suit, getting his hand close enough to touch Jason, but not feeling anything. He wondered if he stretched a bit more that his hand would go straight through Jason's, like it was an illusion.

Jason's hand dropped before he could try, not that he wanted to. He preferred to believe that Jason was really there, not somewhere Tim could never reach him. He wished it were that simple.

“I'm working on the whole 'going to die’ thing,” Tim told him, letting his own hand fall,” I've been thinking about it a lot actually, but I'm still working out how to fix this.”

“I don't know if you can,” Jason dropped back, now lying down on the awning,” We might just have this time and that's it. Life is fucking cruel like that.”

Maybe Jason was right, but Tim wasn't ready to give up. He continued looking, even as Jason had just about given up on stopping this. Tim knew he still had time, he'd practically been counting the days since the social worker had told him the day Jason had died. He knew that somehow, he would find a way to do this. His research took up a lot of time, but he still came out onto the awning as often as he could.

Jason had taken to setting up pseudo dates. He'd make snacks that could stand the test of time, like peanut butter granola bars and soda. He'd throw some over to Tim and they'd eat the snack together. It wasn't the most romantic thing, but Jason had said this was the closest they'd ever get to a real date and he was going to take what he could get. Tim actually enjoyed what time they had together. It wasn't typical dating, but he enjoyed it. Then came a day when Jason didn't plan one of their 'dates’.

“The lady next door moved out,” Jason told Tim,” There's a for sale sign out front. Is it getting close to that time?”

Tim didn't want to answer. He didn't want to tell Jason he could count the number of days left with his fingers. He didn't want to admit it because he didn't want it to be real. He hadn't even found a way to save Jason yet.

“It's still a little while,” Tim lied, trying his best to give a reassuring smile.

“Fucking sucks that I have to think about this shit,” Jason ran a hand through his hair,” Most seventeen year olds don't have to think about when their going to die.”

“Well, we're not normal seventeen year olds,” Tim shrugged,” I told you it would work out, and I meant it. Just don't think about it too much.”

That seemed to cheer Jason up a bit, but the smile on his face just made Tim's heart sink a little. Six days was all they had left. How was he supposed to save Jason in that time?

Tim hardly went out for five out of the last six days. He'd wanted to do as much research as he could before it was too late. Searches yielded nothing and when the last day came, Tim didn't even bother. There was no way he was going to find the answer anymore, so he just decided to spend the last of his time with Jason.

He'd gone out on the awning earlier than usual that day, hoping to catch Jason as soon as he came out. He'd brought a book to read while he waited, but that was put to the side when he saw someone pacing in front of Jason's house. When Tim looked harder, it almost looked like it was Jason, but that wasn't possible. The only place he could see Jason was on the awning. There wasn't any way it could be Jason.

Before he could think on it too much, the person moved toward the house. Maybe someone finally coming to see if the house could be sold? Tim wasn't sure, but he was so distracted by this that he didn't notice Jason had come out until the window snapped shut.

Jason was carrying a duffel bag with him as he sat down at the edge of his awning,” I'm gonna run away.”

Tim felt his throat tie itself in a knot. Maybe that's why he'd been out there when he died, because he was running away. Tim needed to try and convince Jason not to go, but he couldn't get the words out.

“I mean, maybe this is how I can be saved,” Jason said,” If I'm not here I can't die, right? I've been thinking about running away for awhile now, but what you said the other day convinced me. Maybe that's how you change my fate or whatever.”

Tim wanted to protest, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get any words past the lump in his throat. This wasn't what would save him, this would be what caused his death.

“Listen, I have a friend's place I can stay until I can come back and find you,” Jason continued his plan,” I just wanted to say goodbye before I left.”

Tim couldn't find the will to force the words out, to shout at him to stop. Jason turned away from him to jump down off the awning. Then his feet touched the ground below him. His feet were planted firmly on the ground and Tim could still see him. Then a revelation hit him. The person in front of the house had really been Jason, Tim had somehow actually made it to Jason's time. Something about this day had allowed him to jump across time.

He was shocked as he watched Jason walk toward the street, the slightly busy street with speeders who didn't pay attention. He moved when Jason was halfway to the street. He jumped down as quickly as he could, running after Jason. He knew that this was it, this was how he saved him. Jason had just gotten into the street when Tim wrapped an arm around him and pulled him back to the curb.

Jason hit the ground hard, the sound of screeching tires and a car horn now filling the street. He saw an SUV that had just skidded to a halt in the street, the tires marks starting right where he'd been standing just a second ago. He looked to see the person that had dragged him out of the street, but when he saw no one was there, he thought of Tim. Maybe he'd finally figured out a way to save him.

The driver got out of the SUV and came over to Jason,” Oh, God, are you alright? I wasn't paying attention. I almost hit you. What about the other kid that was with you? What happened to him?”

Jason was trying to think of an answer when doors started opening and he heard the sound of his foster father's voice. Jason just grabbed his bag and ran after hearing him, ignoring it as his foster father shouted after him. He made it to his friends house without any other incidents. He'd already told Roy he wanted to crash here, so he got a warm welcome when he entered the apartment.

Roy was a couple years older, so he'd managed to get his own place, albeit it was a cheap apartment that he could afford on minimum wage. Jason's foster parents didn't know about it either, which was a plus. And Jason didn't care, he just needed somewhere, and right now someone to talk to. He told Roy the whole story of Tim Drake and how he'd saved his life. Roy seemed to believe him, so he managed to talk his friend into doing some recon for him.

Apparently, rumors spread through the neighborhood that the person who saved Jason had died since he was never found. That became the 'block tragedy’, and since no one could name the savior, Jason was the one more talked about in the stories. The rumors had reached Jason's case worker eventually, but the only information she got was that Jason was involved in a car crash and someone had died. So when his foster parents said they wanted to give the other kids back to the system for failing a child, she assumed that it was Jason who died.

His foster parents had simply thought that having a child run away meant they failed as parents. They never even reported him as a runaway, which helped the story get as bad as it did. The Drakes moved in a few months after the accident, just like Tim had told him. Jason wanted to just go over there now, but he knew that Tim had to meet him the way he did if this was going to work. So he had to wait three years with Roy.

It was a hard three years when all he wanted was to go back and see Tim. He tried to distract himself from running back there too early. He managed to get a job at a bookstore to help with rent and helped out around the house. He bought the groceries and did the cooking. He helped take care of Lian, Roy's daughter. Anything he could do that would keep his mind off of Tim.

When he finally made it through the three years, it almost felt like a dream. That if he went back, the illusion would be broken and he'd have to face reality. It was Roy who convinced him that maybe life could be like the movies and motivated him to go.

He stood just two houses down from Tim's house, watching it closely. This was the day and Jason knew he couldn't get too close and risk interfering. He had to wait for this thing to run its course before he could see Tim.

After awhile, he saw Tim. He was bolting toward the street at top speed. Jason felt his heart leap to his throat when he saw the look of desperation on Tim's face. Watch as he got to the street. Held his breath as he pulled someone back that Jason couldn't see.

Tim landed in the grass, the air knocked out of his lungs. The silence of the street contrasted what had just happened. He expected the sound of tires or a car horn. There was nothing. He got himself together when he noticed Jason wasn't there.

He looked around, searching for his friend. Tim caught notice of someone watching a couple houses away. Jason waved from his spot, happy to see that Tim was alright. Tim was confused by him, someone who looked like Jason but just a bit older.

Jason approached the now younger than him teen, offering a hand to help him up and a few words,” Looks like you finally figured out how to save me.”

Recognition lit up Tim's face immediately. He shot upright and wrapped his arms around Jason, holding onto him as if for dear life.

“I can't believe you're alive,” tears started to do Tim's eyes,” I really thought I wouldn't be able to save you.”

“Well, you managed to do it, kid,” Jason chuckled,” I'm here, in the flesh.”

Tim then pulled back from the hug, clearly just now noticing something important,” I can touch you now. I just hugged you.”

“Finally found a way over to you, no more three year gap between us,” Jason said, but had to correct himself,” Well, not a time gap anyway. Age gaps are a different story.”

“I'm so glad you're here,” Tim buried his face in Jason's chest.

“I'm glad I'm here too,” Jason put his arms around Tim as well now,” It was hard, waiting three years so I could catch up to you. Maybe next time you get us stuck in a time slip, don't make it so long.”

They both laughed now, holding each other in the middle of the sidewalk. After a moment, Tim lifted himself up on his toes slightly. Jason bent his head down to meet him halfway. And the two of them shared their first kiss.

[ccarats]

hi can I request a reaction for hip hop team where they’re S/O gets a lot of fanboys because she’s a really famous idol

sure love! i tried to add a little more depth in apology to you haha. hope you like it, and sorry for the wait!

seungcheol: seungcheol wouldn’t be too bothered by it, i feel. maybe at first, he would have a bit of a hard time coping because he would just have to adjust to having a partner in the same boat as him- someone with a huge collection of fanboys who gave their hearts to you and admired you so strongly. but as time went on, i feel like he would accept it because it was a part of the gig- you couldn’t be an idol without fans, and he knew that very well. he’d rather have you possess an insane amount of fanboys and be successful instead of have you all to himself and have you/your group flop. i think he’d also be pretty easily accepting of it also because you were with him- he was an idol, too, and had a large following of fangirls, and you quickly accepted that it was something the two of you would have to deal with if you were to be in a successful and happy relationship together.

 i also think the two of you would try your best to make light of it, so that any time the two of you felt insecure or paranoid about it, you could remind the other that it wasn’t so serious in the end. he’d crack jokes about your fanboys being your prince charmings and knights in shining armour, and you’d do the same in return at him. any insecurities were left behind and instead replaced with laughter, and i’d think the both of you would be very glad about that. “wow, you seemed pretty invested in that fanboy who gave you that huge teddy bear. are you guys going to go run off and elope?”, “it was sweet of him, but i already have a big teddy bear- so no.”, “you do?”, “yeah, you!” cue you jumping on him and showering him in kisses, with a lot of laughter from him.

wonwoo: i don’t think wonwoo would be particularly bothered about it, either- in fact, i don’t think he would feel too strongly about it. i think wonwoo is rather introverted generally, so i think in an ideal world, he’d love to keep both yours and his professional and personal lives separate- but it wasn’t an ideal world. wonwoo knew what he was signing up for when the two of you got together- a well loved idol with an insurmountable amount of fanboys, and he was a well loved idol with plenty of fangirls. it was equal in both directions, and wonwoo was okay with that from the start. the only thing i could think of would be that he may want to have stay at home dates instead of go out on the town- he’d love to go out with you to a nice dinner or walk around a city, but as much as the two of you love your fans- i think he’d want to keep his time with you personal, intimate and meaningful, which means avoiding the chance of being followed around on your far and few date nights by any possible ‘sasaengs’.

i don’t think that he would feel insecure about it, too, which is good. i know that some people wouldn’t be able to handle dating somebody so in the public’s eye and adored by so many people- i’ve seen it happen plenty of times in social media stars, so i don’t think this would be much of an exception. if you had your own screaming fanboy, i think he would laugh about it, but otherwise i feel like he would separate your life as an idol and you, which i think proved to be pretty helpful in cementing your relationship and assuring one another that your fans wouldn’t negatively affect the relationship you guys have. “you’ve been inducted into the screaming fanboy club.”, “stop, wonu!! i was so shocked... i didn’t know what to do.”, “you were so embarrassed. throughout it. it was cute. i think everybody else thought it was cute too.”

mingyu: i think mingyu might get a little jealous or pouty over it in jest, but nothing to take seriously. i feel like he just loves you a lot, so he wants to spend as much time as he can with you, which unfortunately doesn’t always work out because of your occupations. i think that in the beginning he felt like he had to share you with such a large amount of fans- something that not everybody in a relationship has to do- and perhaps had a bit of a hard time coping with it. but i think that if the two of you talked and had a meaningful conversation about it- explaining his feelings to you and why he felt that way, you explaining that it was the same on your end as well sometimes, i think the two of you would leave that conversation feeling more secure in your relationship.

i think the two of you would just kind of establish some kind of ‘rules’ too, and i use the term loosely- there’s really no sense of control or concreteness here, it’s more something to ensure that the two of you are able to talk to each other amongst your busy schedules, at the least. and this is more in general for your life as idols, rather than just in the case of fanboys or fangirls, oops. i think that the two of you would come up with some kind of safeword when either of you feel like you’re not seeing the other as much as you would like, or feel like you’re too distant because of work, and if it’s said the two of you try your best to meet up- if it’s impossible, there’s always a several hour long phone call between the two of you. it’s honestly kind of soft, and i think mingyu is more worried about the two of you becoming distant because of your careers more than he is about your fanboys.

vernon: i think that vernon is like wonwoo in that he kind of wants your relationship to be private- i feel like though he enjoys sharing much of his life with his fans, he’d want to keep at least some parts of your relationship personal to the two of you, but at the same time he wouldn’t mind publicizing some things ( date nights outside after they were over, posting silly pictures of one another, etc. ). i think that once he realized that your careers wouldn’t exactly give him the private relationship he wanted at first, he would try to make the most of it instead of resenting it. he wouldn’t mind if his and your fans knew about the relationship- he’d hope that everybody would be accepting and happy for him, and the same for you and your fans. he doesn’t have a problem with you having a lot of fanboys, and in fact he might partake in giving them some good content- in both aesthetically pleasing pictures of you and goofy pictures that he could’ve sworn he deleted. in my ideal world, i’d like to think that there’s a somewhat friendly relationship with vernon and your fans- though he never directly addresses them, he’s always sure to give them that tasty meme content, or a video of you singing, practicing, etc., much to your protest sometimes.

i think that vernon would be the most well equipped to having an idol girlfriend with such a large amount of fanboys in comparison to the rest of the hip hop unit- though i don’t think any of them would do inherently bad at things, i think he would easily become the most accepting, and in fact make some fun with it like i mentioned above. instead of feeling insecure in your relationship because of your fanboys, whether they be handsome, kind, etc., he would rather make some fun out of it and have a nice running joke of it on social media, in my perfect world having his own tag for you on his instagram with jokes like ‘fans, come get your idol- i don’t want them anymore after they stole my food’ with pictures of the crime in action. “i know that you love exposing me, but did you have to post the pictures of me eating your cereal at three in the morning?”, “you should have thought about that before you did it, you criminal!”, “fine, but i’m going to get you back twice as hard.”

[g0ldpainted]

hi there! i'm so sorry to bother you but i'm kind of going through an episode right now and i love your imagines so much that i thought you could help me out. i had an emotionally and mentally abusive ex and recently them and their friend contacted me and are harassing me but i blocked them but i still can't help but feel shit. i was wondering if you could write a prompto x reader imagine where his s/o is dealing with the same thing and he comforts her and leads to smut too? xo.

Heey A-le-lone-wolf! THANK YOU SO MUCH!! And I’m so sorry you have to go through this. If you ever need an ear to listen to you can always shoot me a message. And I also hope that things will get better for you! And you’re not bothering me at all!!! :oLast but not least, thank you for your kind words and for sending that request. 

It took quite long to finish because I didn’t want to make mistakes. The actual NSFW scene will be uploaded in a different post - but I promise you’ll get your smut! I’ll have to re-touch that part again but it should be up tomorrow. But I wanted you to know that I’m not ignoring your request and didn’t want to keep you waiting much longer! ^^

Anyway, I hope you like it

(P.S: I’m not ignoring any requests, I’m working on all of them).

Part: 1 out of 2

Words: 3000+

Genre: Eeeh, fluff but kind of angst too?

TW: Mentions & depictions of harassment, abuse, bullying and smut begins at the end - the actual scene is in a separate post.

“They’re doing it again!” Prompto’s S/O shouted, messages of her abusive ex and the army of “friends” they had spamming the notifications on her phone. 

Over the past few days, they had been sending numerous messages over all kinds of social media harassing her, sending mean messages or even photos and video snippets. Prompto knew. He was there when it all began, when his S/O’s ex first tried to sneak his way back into her life. His first reaction was to take her phone - of course, after asking - and blocking them and deleting all messages for her. That didn’t stop them, though. Only hours later they created new accounts. More hurtful words were sent. Unfortunately, Prompto wasn’t there to stop them. She read through all of the messages, tried to come up with smart remarks but simply couldn’t. 

Pick up the phone, I’ve got a bone to pick with you.You dare to be with that stupid blonde guy again?!Why waste your time. Just come back already.No one will ever love you as much as I did.We both know you need me. You’d be nothing without me. You should be grateful I’m willing to take you back after such a ridiculous attempt at breaking up.I’m the best thing that ever happened to you. Okay you know what, fuck you and your sorry ass.All my friends hate your worthless ass as well.I’m sure your boy is cheating on you. Think I’ve seen him with some blonde, busty mechanic.You should be thankful I’m trying to help you.This is all your fault! Such an ugly mess, probably crying like a baby. Get yourself together.

Those were just some of the texts she received. With each message, she heard their ex’ voice, saw their face scrunching up before they yelled at her. She could practically hear their voice in her head, haunting her all over again. They broke up over a year ago, yet they still tried to get her back. Before their final break up, she came back - multiple times. They always managed to guilt trip and manipulate her into believing she had to go back. Right after they put her down, slowly tore her self-esteem off, they comforted her, whispered sweet nothings into her ear. 

It was a never-ending cycle of abuse. But eventually, she found the strength within herself to break it off. For good. Back then, they harassed her for a few months, made sure she knew about all their new relationships and how much better they were. They were obsessed with her, still trying to control her even from afar. She moved, bought a new phone and deleted all memories associated with them - including her old social media accounts. 

And it helped. For some time at least.

(There’s a read more thing here)

Up until recently, they hadn’t spoken to her. But then it all resumed to where it ended: More attempts at making her feel worthless, unworthy of anything, followed. Once they had found her account and continued to bully her through social media messages, even let a friend jump in and spread the same hurtful words, it also didn’t take long before they found her new phone number. 

Then they started calling her, hiding their ID to ensure she’d pick up, throwing shade and spilling hate. And now they were texting her, over and over again, using various different numbers to ensure she couldn’t just block them all. 

“Shut up!” she screamed at her phone, her eyes tearing up as more messages popped up.

One had a picture attached to it which so happened to be an old nude they took per request. Back when she was still with her now-ex, it was something they demanded but she didn’t want to take. The way they continuously demanded it, not even asking kindly, had her in shock and terrified. They even threatened her about it. Out of fear, she took it.. And now they were using it as a weapon against her. 

Wow, Jabba the Hutt much? Look at all those rolls of fat on your body. Ugly as hell. You might wanna consider surgery.

Want me to send that to your family? Show off your disgraceful body? Or maybe the football team wants something to laugh about?

This was the third day in a row they commented on her weight, calling her fat although she hadn’t gained weight in years. And if they weren’t calling her fat, they found other flaws about her body they just had to point out. It was all about making her feel insecure - and it worked. It always did.For the past three days, she hadn’t eaten. She was quite hungry but whenever she wanted to eat, she remembered how they commented on her eating behaviors back when they were dating. Both combined made her lose her appetite.

Another plate of food? Haven’t you eaten enough? 

It all made her stomach twist. On the worst days, they smacked her food out of her hands, letting it fall to the ground - later playing it off as caring for her, not wanting her to get sick. She soon found herself eating less and less, forcing herself to believe she wasn’t hungry.

And now, again, they were screwing with her mind and her perception of herself.

Feeling various different emotions within herself ranking from sheer anger over complete disappointment and disbelief to sadness, she threw her phone against a wall. The screen cracked, parts of the glass spread all over the floor. Thankfully, it broke enough to actually turn off. The screen was black, no more notification sounds, no more vibrating and no more screen lighting up. It was eerily quiet as tears leaked from her eyes. She wanted to stay strong, wanted to fight them off but she couldn’t. They were in control over her. Even after all this time, they still had that connection, that bond she was desperately trying to cut. The bond that made her submit to them. A bond that created through trauma, tears, anger, threats and sweet, caring moments that turned out to be lies or complete manipulation. One second they raised their hand, telling her that they’d hit her if she wouldn’t do as they said, a second later they held her close, kissed her neck as they whispered how much they loved them and wanted them. It was a relationship that was far from healthy. A relationship that messed up her life, gave her trust issues, anxiety, depression and caused other health related trouble. 

As she sat on her bed, crying, putting her head in her hands, she thought about her new boyfriend: Prompto Argentum. 

They had been dating for quite some months but took it incredibly slow - he was a total sweetheart about it. He cared more than anyone ever did, even stayed up all night when she was panicking, making sure that she’d be okay and cooked her food or cleaned her apartment when she had no motivation to do so. She shared her situation and story rather early into the relationship - simply because she felt she was acting weird around him and wanted him to understand. He was always was an understanding sweetheart about it. Not once did he make stupid jokes or remarks - when she spoke, shared her story, he listened. And he always made sure she felt appreciated afterward. It took forever for her to let him in but eventually, she did. The way he carefully and so shyly asked for numerous dates surprised her - and made him seem incredibly cute, she couldn’t reject him - even though, she was still traumatized in some ways. And now he was joining her on her path of healing.

To her, it was a miracle that she managed to be with him, that she overcame her fears so quickly. But Prompto simply blew her away in the most positive way; always finding the right words to say and being an absolute sunshine. He was perfect ..and she didn’t feel good enough for him. Not once did she believe she was worth his time, worth his effort. And having her ex tell her that he might be cheating just made it worse. They had betrayed her when they were dating and didn’t even care about hiding it, too, just let her catch them cheating.. in their shared bedroom. And then they played it off as her not satisfying him. She knew the pain associated with being cheated on, the feeling of never being good enough, and she didn’t want to feel it again. 

Minutes turned into hours in which she couldn’t calm herself. While her tears dried, the pain didn’t leave, the hurt was still visibly written on her face and her heart felt torn. And then her entrance door was suddenly opened and someone stepped inside. Her heart now palpitated from fear. 

“Did they find out where I live..?” she thought, the trembling of her body increasing. 

The footsteps came closer, becoming louder with every step. Shivers ran down her spine. It seemed like the stranger was walking through her apartment, looking for her. They picked up objects, a bottle even fell to the ground along with some keys, the abrupt noise further shaking her up. It was when they opened doors, switching on various lights, that she completely lost her cool. Her bedroom was the only room in which light was already on - the intruder must’ve known where she was ..but they waited, probably on purpose.

Her breathing picked up the second she spotted a shadow, the footsteps coming to a stop at the same time. For a moment, her eyes wandered between her door and her broken phone. She regretted having thrown her phone - the only object that would’ve made it possible to call the police.The handle lowered rather slowly, her breathing hitched and finally, the door started opening. She clutched onto her bedsheets, her widen eyes bathed in anxiety, focusing on the door.

And then he finally stood in front of her: Prompto. 

With a huge, bright smile he entered the room, locking eyes with her right away. But the second he saw how shaken she was, his smile faded. He let go of the handle and slowly approached her trembling frame.

“Are you.. Okay? I tried to call you but.. You didn’t pick up,” he explained, watching her in shock. 

She couldn’t speak, instead broke into a well of tears again. Prompto’s gaze softened, he quickly sat down beside her, making sure to keep a little distance in case she didn’t want his near right now. He knew something was off, he knew she was far from doing good - and he knew that she needed him.

“What happened?” he asked, his hand gently reaching out for one of hers.

Still, she couldn’t speak. She was well aware of how he didn’t want to pressure her, never wanted to make her feel trapped like her ex did and always asked for permission but right now, all she wanted was for him to hold her - comfort her. To let him know about her needs, she tugged on his arm, pulling him closer.Although they hadn’t been dating for all too long, he could practically read her mind - he knew what she needed, was just a little hesitant about it. But as she tugged on his arm, he took it as a sign that she wanted to be closer and he gladly followed her demand. His arms wrapped around her frail body, pulling her into his chest. She buried her face in his shirt, soaking it with her tears and placed one of her hands on his shoulder for support. He held her close, placed soft kisses on her hair while he rubbed her back. His embrace was where she felt safest. He was her safe haven.

Every now and then, his eyes wandered around the room, searching for hints of what could’ve happened while he wasn’t around, searching for what upset them so badly. Eventually, his eyes got caught on her broken, shattered phone and it slowly made sense to him. There was only one thing that could’ve upset her so bad that she would’ve thrown her phone; her ex. 

“Did they reach out to you again..?” he asked, making sure his voice was as soft as it could possibly be. 

“Y-yes..” she stuttered, sobbing but slowly calming down while listening to her lover’s soothing heartbeat.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” he suggested, running a hand through her hair.

“It’s.. The s-same as always..” she shrugged, biting her lip right after, ”Called me names.. Put me down.. Even said you were cheating.“

Their relationship had always been about honesty and truth - no lies or secrets were kept - therefore, of course, she told him.

”Oh god.. I’d never cheat on you..“ he whispered, kissing her forehead.

”Yeah, p-please don’t..“ she mumbled, remembering how much it affected her self-esteem the last time it happened.

”I won’t. Never. I promise,“ he murmured looking down at her the second her head moved upwards. 

Her lips formed a small smile at his response, desperately trying to believe him - but that was still quite hard. She was still recovering from all the mental abuse she endured over years. And he knew she was still struggling, trying her best at believing him - he was fine with it, more patient than most people would’ve been. Prompto knew she wasn’t trying to harm him anyhow but instead trying to overcome her trust issues - it meant a lot to him. He treasured her, dearly, genuinely. 

”So he send messages again?“ he asked carefully, making sure to caress her cheek to provide comfort as he spoke. 

”Y-yeah.. And calls.. Voice messages.. Photos..“ she replied, the volume of her voice decreasing steadily. 

”The full program..“ Prompto summed up, sighing, squeezing her gently, ”I’m sorry they’re being such a pain.“  

”It’s my fault.. I shouldn’t have been with them in the first place..“ she blamed herself, wiping some last tears away. 

”No, don’t blame yourself. All you did.. Was fall in love. This is not your fault, not even in the slightest,“ he assured them.

”I.. Don’t know..“ she whispered, her eyes slowly drifting away from Prompto, ”I shouldn’t have .. Loved them.“

”Look at me..“ he spoke, gently lifting her chin so their eyes would meet, ”I’m sorry for what they’ve done to you.. I’m sorry you’ve been hurt so severely.. And I wish I could turn back time and stop them from causing any kind of pain. You don’t deserve to feel this way; you’re so perfect.. So beautiful.. So kind. I don’t understand how anyone could be willing to hurt such a mesmerizing woman like you are. All you’ve ever shown me was honesty and kindness.. And, of course, love. I’m so grateful to have you. I’m so glad I found someone that.. That is just as crazy as I am. Someone that I can share laughs with and my.. My secrets, too. You.. You mean the world to me. And I don’t ever want to lose you. Over these past months, you showed me what love is. Even after you’ve experienced something so horrible you manage to be a wonderful person. You even.. Help me improve myself. I will never get why cruel people like.. Your ex.. Exist or why they love to be the way they are. But I know that it has nothing to do with you. Their behavior is terrible and you don’t deserve that. They treated you badly - terribly. All you did was love them. All they did was destroy you. It’s not your fault they chose to be this way. You’re a beautiful person.“ 

His S/O teared up lightly and a small smile formed again. Prompto’s words hit home. 

”Wh-what I’m trying to say is,.. I.. I love you,“ he stuttered, blushing as he finally said those magic three words he meant to say ages ago.

The only reason to why he waited was that he didn’t want to put pressure on her. But now felt like the right time, the right moment to spill his feelings. The second she heard those words, a few tears fell from her eyes. Sure, she had heard them before - from her ex - but it never felt as genuine. Butterflies roamed through her stomach, while her warmed heart raced. Those words were something she usually didn’t believe but.. For some reason, she knew Prompto was being honest. The tears in his own eyes probably gave it away. And he was anxiously waiting for an answer. 

”I.. I love you too,“ she admitted, the heat rising to her cheeks as well while she started cupping his face with her hands and carefully pulled it down towards hers.

Both of them closed their eyes, Prompto chuckled from relieve only moments before their lips touched. It didn’t take long before they were in perfect sync, sharing subtle, sweet kisses over and over again. She managed to change her position, putting one of her legs on either side of his so they’d be on the same level and he wouldn’t have to glance down. Prompto’s hands found their place on her waist while they continuously exchanged rather chaste kisses.At some point, they were both out of breath and she pulled away, in awe of his amazing kissing skills. Both their cheeks were still on fire, glowing bright red and now their lips were quite swollen, too. So far they hadn’t gone further than making out and even then, their kisses were always more on the innocent side and full of giggles. But it felt different this time. 

”I’m sorry I’m such a.. I’m so much trouble,“ she apologized, staring right into his eyes while she spoke. 

”You’re not a lot of trouble, sweetheart. And even if, you’re worth all the trouble in the world. But really, there’s nothing you need to apologize for,“ he explained, brushing some of her hair behind her ear.

”Awh, stop,“ she giggled, burying her face in the crook of his neck so he wouldn’t see her blush. 

”You’re the best thing that could’ve ever happened to me,“ he whispered into her ear, placing a mellow kiss on her earlobe right after. 

The mere touch sent shivers down her spine and in return, she kissed the side of his neck. His breathing hitched and for a split second, he tightened his hold of her waist. She hit his sweet spot, his weak spot. Just to confirm her own thoughts, she kissed it again, gently nibbling on it, too. And that made him moan lightly - but he tried to hold back by sucking his bottom lip into his mouth. Meanwhile his hands “accidentally” slid up her body, pressing her further into him. 

“I’m so glad to have you..” she whispered against his skin, “Thank you for everything.“  

His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as she placed more kisses along his neck. It was her way of thanking him, emphasizing her words. But instead of just appreciating it for what it was, it drove him nuts. He couldn’t resist sliding one of his hands down to her thigh. Before he did anything, he waited for her reaction, made sure she wasn’t feeling anxious about it. But by the way she kept placing lazy, soft kisses on his neck, she wasn’t harboring any negative feelings from his touch. That’s why he gently squeezed it, tilting his head to the side at the same time - giving her better access. She didn’t mind his touch, liked it even. But she was unsure about where this was leading. That’s why she stopped kissing his neck and instead wrapped both of her arms around his neck and cuddled her face against his neck.

But Prompto was already set ablaze. However, this was not about him. The only thing he wanted was to make her realize what a goddess she really was - because he knew about her insecurities and how her ex kept nagging about her perfect body. Prompto absolutely loved it, saw no flaws in it - he wanted her to feel the same way about herself or at least wanted her to know that he thought she was the most dazzling woman he had ever met.

Part 2 (NSFW)

[artificialqueens]

forever halloween (2/3) (Alaska/Adore) - comeapart

a/n: today i found out that adore/alaska is called adoredelaska and also that people are really nice about my fic. i also realised i wrote enough to make it a three part series. kind of cute and kind of angsty + 2.5k-ish 

Adore and Alaska had been together for a month and three days. That was exactly how long it took until people started to ask.

The first questions came when someone saw one half of Brian squared liking Alaska’s post on her private facebook, the one that she had under her actual name, where she was Justin and not just Alaska. There were rumours, but it was easy enough to ignore them. As far as people could figure out, it was just a fake account, or maybe a joke between the two of them. Alaska was pretty against actually coming out after the mess of Shalaska jokes and comparisons that were constantly sent to her, but if it made Adore happy, she could find it in herself not to care that much.

The next wave of questions came after Adore and Katya decided to spend the entire day tweeting about how much they liked Alaska. She had been in Europe, touring with her album, and she was on stage in the middle of forgetting the words to Slaytina before fans started screaming for Adore and then Katya. After the song, Alaska actually asked what was going on, to which she was given a screaming crowd talking about twitter and assuming that both of the queens were going to appear for a secret appearance. Alaska laughed it off, rolling her eyes and moving on with the performance, tweeting after the show to both of them and sending the patented snake-hearts. People started to like her more after that night.

The final questions came when pictures appeared of Alaska at Adore’s show, backstage, kissing her in a way that definitely couldn’t be taken as anything other than romantic. The staff had probably taken a photo, but the picture was undeniable. Alaska wasn’t in drag, but she was wearing her fluffy jacket, and her hands were on Adore’s hips. After the show, they both saw the pictures, and decided to get burritos before going back to the mostly empty apartment Adore had bought in Seattle.  

“So, what do you want to do about this?” Alaska asked after a silence that was a little too long, both of them sitting on the hardwood in the living room. After asking Adore to be her girlfriend who just so happened to be her boyfriend too, things had run pretty smoothly. They were inseparable, even if they appeared otherwise.

“I want to get married,” Adore drawled, looking up at Alaska before laughing hard, nearly launching her food into the air as she moved. Alaska laughed too, smiling and biting her lip. “We could just tell people. Is that cool?”

“Yeah. That’s cool. How do you want to tell people?”

“We could stream. Like, we can instagram it now. And then make a tweet tomorrow. Hey, you think we’ll be able to do BOTS together this year?” Adore nodded, pushing the fake curls out of her face before finishing off the burrito and grabbing her phone.

“Might as well. I don’t - You’re the technology guru in this relationship,” Alaska laughed, shuffling over and leaning into Adore as she set up the stream, going live. “Hieee.”

“Have you ever done Instagram livestreams before? They’re easier than Periscope. The comments don’t move as fast,” Adore said, completely ignoring the fact people were asking questions as she looked at Alaska, smiling up at her. “I do it sometimes when I demo songs. It’s a cool insight.”

“Yeah? I’m gonna have to watch sometime. Courtney texts me sometimes, telling me she can’t get you to talk to her so she goes and watches your streams,” Alaska smiled back, looking at the screen and reading over the comments. People were asking about relationships, Sharon, All Stars, and music. Since she had managed to stop reading comments on twitter and learnt to tune out the hate, actively reading everything seemed like it was overbearing.

“Courtney’s cute. We should go see her sometime, I think she’s in Seattle soon. I need to call her, I miss her. She totally calls me out when I ignore the group-chat.”

“Sounds like Courtney,” Alaska laughed, pressing her head against Adore’s shoulder as she took another bite of the burrito.

Adore turned her attention back to the instagram stream, reading out questions quietly to herself and not answering anything. After a few minutes, she moved the phone camera to a better angle, and cleared her throat. Alaska looked up at her, pursing her lips as she put the empty foil down into the pile of trash they’d managed to build after being in Seattle for a grand total of two days.

“So, as many of you have probably seen, some asshole at the venue took pictures of me backstage. First of all, fuck you. That isn’t cool. I come to play shows to be respected as an artist, and not to have cameras shoved into my private life. Second of all, surprise. Me and Alaska are official Team Adore Delaska- Is that our name? Fuck, I don’t know, if anyone has anything better then you’re welcome to rephrase that. But yes. We’re together. Oh, and thirdly, if you’re working for one of those websites that posts news, now would be a good time to take a screenshot and use it in the report,” Adore smiled, leaning in and pecking Alaska’s lips before pulling away.

“Am I actually going to have to learn the lyrics to our songs now?” Alaska asked, laughing as she looked back at the phone, reading the comments of mostly-nice fans congratulating them. There wasn’t really much to congratulate. They’d been together for a month now.

Adore talked for a few more minutes about mostly nothing, answering fans before ending the stream and locking her phone. They made out on the floor for nearly half an hour just because they could, both vowing to turn their phones on silent for the next day to let people get over the initial shock. Once Adore was out of drag, they showered separately, and fell asleep curled up into each other.

*

The next morning was weird, to say the least. Alaska’s mom had sent her several texts about safe sex, which was hilarious considering she knew about her past in trading her body for drugs and eventually getting herself clean, and had probably seen the videos of her and Sharon on stage before. Everyone had at this point. It wasn’t something that she was proud of, but it was her past, and therefore it was part of her.

The weirdest part about the texts from her mom was that since the first night, which neither of them could remember, there had been no sex. There had been some heated makeout sessions, with a little light groping, but no actual sex. And that had actually been okay, because everything still felt good. It didn’t feel like she was being used, or like maybe Adore only wanted her for her body, and Alaska liked that.

Bianca had texted her some warnings, telling her that coming out over Instagram was stupid and that she knew it was probably Adore’s idea. Courtney and Willam had spammed the group-chat with hearts, and Detox had sent her a text saying how proud she was. Roxxxy had tweeted her something sweet, and the rest of the queens that she worked closely with had at very least texted her. Alyssa had sent her a video message over WhatsApp, in which the entire Haus Of Edwards had congratulated them. Everything was weird.

Katya had left three missed calls, so Alaska called her back. Katya immediately congratulated her, adding on a request for a sex tape and a place to crash in Seattle for the weekend, to which Alaska agreed and let her go. She probably had to pack, so she didn’t think too much of it when Katya didn’t try and keep the call for too long.

Adore had disappeared, leaving a note on the side about going to see a dealer and meet up with her family. Alaska didn’t think too much of it, reading through her social media before retweeting Ru’s congratulatory tweet about their relationship, attached with a photo Alaska had never seen before of them. It was from All Stars, an image of them hugging before the talent show, with Adore’s face buried into Alaska’s neck. It was sweet.

Once Alaska was dressed, she grabbed the spare key, letting herself out and getting a cab to the local Target. She needed to get a car, really, but it seemed like too much work to find insurance for a second car to keep in Seattle when she lived in Hollywood. She bought a TV at Target, along with a DVD player and a cord to connect it to her laptop. The internet was already installed, thanks to the guy who Adore rented it from, so she settled on buying useless stuff to fit into the empty home.

She ended up walking back, carrying what must’ve been three rugs in one arm and several bags of stuff. It was a surprise that she hadn’t been robbed, and that she had managed to get fairy-lights in the shape of skulls for the apartment in the sale. It was going to be christmas soon, and as much as she loved Seattle, she wanted to be in LA with Adore. She managed to set the TV up, moving it into the bedroom and throwing more blankets onto the bed before checking her phone again.

Adore had a habit of deleting tweets. Courtney, as the good friend she was, had Adore on text notifications, and had sent Alaska a screenshot of what was happening. At first, Alaska wanted to die. And then she actually read the texts. What mattered was that Adore was okay, if not probably in a hospital. She had never called a cab quicker, cursing herself for not bothering to check earlier.

*

When the nurse finally let her into the room, Adore’s face lit up. The tweets had made it seem like Adore was about to die, with the wording ‘in an ambulance’ definitely not helping. Instead, she had managed to fall off of a wall she had climbed up onto, and landed on her wrist. It was being cast as Alaska sat besides her, audibly sighing in relief.

“And when were you going to tell me about this?” Alaska asked carefully, pushing the short brown curls out of her face as she looked down at the cast. “You know you can talk to me when shit happens, right?”

“Yeah, but this wasn’t important. It’s just a bone. They break all the time.”

“You tweeted that you felt like death and that you were in an ambulance, Adorm.”

“But I deleted them.”

“Girl, twitter is forever. People were tweeting me screenshots and shit, asking me if you were okay. I didn’t even know. I thought you were just out with family,” Alaska laughed, reaching out to touch Adore’s arm. “Just let me know if stuff happens, okay? I’m not… We’re together. You can talk to me.”

“I’m sorry, Lasky.”

“It’s okay. I can’t stay mad at you.”

*

Their first fight was just before Christmas Queens. Alaska wanted Adore to come with her, but Adore didn’t do Christmas. It was too capitalist, and it didn’t hold any value other than being an excuse for people to spend money. Alaska didn’t yell once, keeping her calm as she tried to convince her - if not for the holiday, for the excuse of seeing Europe and touring America with her. Adore called her fake, and told her not to call after the TV got smashed.

Alaska understood. So she waited. She waited the entire European leg of the tour for any kind of response, only being stopped in Birmingham by Katya after a whole tour of slightly-off performances. They weren’t obvious, but it was the emotion in her eyes, the drain on her ability to go out with everyone after shows. The fact that she didn’t want to do any extra than what she had planned, not even include herself in the fan-opportunity to perform with a queen in a lipsync.

The worst part was that Alaska wasn’t mad. She wasn’t upset, and she did understand why Adore didn’t want to travel. She had been callous, and it wasn’t fair to Adore to have asked her to come on the tour with her. Especially when there were so many queens joining them. And when Katya asked what was going on, Alaska explained. And Katya was always there to give perfect advice.

“Maybe you do need to talk to her. Just call her and figure out what’s going on. I don’t know, but I’d be upset if I’d accidentally yelled at my boyfriend and told him not to call. It just sounds like she’s stressed out, girl,” Katya had explained, “Now will you please come join me in sober drinking games?”

“What the hell is sober drinking games?”

“It’s drinking games, but I drink juice while everyone else gets drunk, and then I auction off photos of you all to unsuspecting and innocent twitter followers. Not all of us got 10,000 via PayPal, mawma.”

That was enough to set Alaska off into a fit of laughter, agreeing to join and playing never-have-I-ever with people who knew too much about her. At one point, Detox said something along the lines of ‘never have I ever fucked Adore Delano,’ and Alaska knew it was just because people wanted her to be drunker.

In their defence, it worked. Alaska was a lot drunker than everyone else, words slurring as she had to take another shot. It wasn’t until she appeared in Katya’s hotel room, with no memory of getting there, before she realised exactly how drunk she was. Everything was moving, and Katya was on Periscope while Alaska stared at the ceiling, still in full drag.

She knew she wasn’t supposed to be drunk. People knew that she was sober, clean, and better than the person she was on season 5. But she still got up, walking over to Katya and falling into her, managing to save her heel in some stroke of luck before kicking it off. Katya was saying something, clearly annoyed with the fact Alaska was trying to sit on her, but she didn’t care.

“Who are you skyping?” Alaska drawled, dragging out the words as she readjusted herself on her lap. “Hieeeeee.”

“I’m not skyping anyone. We’re talking about Brenda. You need to go to bed, Lasky.”

“No, but I want to talk about Brenda. I think she’s a woman of high fashion, she’s a lady of the night, she’s fierce. I want to be friends with Brenda, and kiss her. Katya, you’re so pretty. Why do all of my friends want to fuck you? Why do I?”

“I- uh, okay, Periscope over,” Katya stuttered, ending it and putting her phone down before looking up at Alaska. “You’re too drunk. You need to go lie down, on your side, and I’m gonna go get you some water and explain to you exactly why you need to not want to fuck me, okay?”

[raging-violets]

Can you tell us more about the jacksons?

Riley:

Get ready for a doozy anon, becausewhen you give me the chance to talk about my babies, my first loves, my firstOCs, then you’re opening a massive can of worms. So, this took a while for meto get back to because I wrote so much and I was trying to figure out how muchyou wanted me to tell. I had one response where it was just their background,another where it was their personalities/character profiles, and another whereit was both and realized it was too long. So I’ll just give you a basicbackground of them all, what fandoms they’re in, and the sorts of things wewrite with them in. Ready? Here we go!

The Jacksons are a group of OCs that Rhuand I have had for over ten years. Almost 20 at this point. We started writingthem separately when we were in, about, 5th grade with me writing acharacter named Riley (this wasn’t her name at the time) with a little brotherPatrick and eventually an older brother and their parents while Rhu was writinga character named Rhuben (this wasn’t her name at the time) and a littlebrother Patrick. We shared our stories together, realized we both wrote about alittle brother Patrick as well as similar plots in similar ways (though that’snot difficult for fifth graders to do, honestly, lol) and from then on mergedthe families together for it to be two sets of twins Riley and Rhuben andPatrick and Noah. Then we added the older brother Julius (he went through aboutthree different names, and don’t get me started on our animeinfluenced-japanese phase) and then baby brother Sydney (who started out at two-years-old,then bumped up to five).

Now for a quick background. Tate ‘Reed��Jackson (Australian) and Ruriko ‘Renee’ Himada (Japanese-American) met whilethey were both attended NYI for college. They fell in love, got married, andhad Julius. They had trouble having Julius and decided for their next child totry IVF, which resulted in Riley and Rhuben (they have ‘boys names’ since thedoctor thought they would be boys), and then later which resulted in Patrickand Noah. Five years passed after that with them trying for another baby beforeSydney was born, ultimately rounding out their family.

Now, this next part depends on the fandomwe’re writing them in.

Their parents tragically die in ahouse fire, leaving their children in foster care as their grandparents weredeemed too old to take care of all six siblings, their uncle Talon was unableto be reached, and their uncle Christian (in Canada) had recently lost a wife.So they were shuttled into foster care where it was determined that their grandparentswould try to get the kids, and successfully got Julius first, while the otherfive was taken in by a man named Robert Jackson. (Yes, we were very unimaginativewith his last name, lol). Robert is a functioning alcoholic on his best days,and an abusive one at his worst, though has had many moments of actuallyshowing care to the Jacksons.

Their parents’ death affects theJacksons in multiple ways. They all suffer from PTSD, but Julius suffers frommemory loss, Riley suffers from Bipolar disorder, Rhuben is anorexic, Patrickhas Intermittent Explosive Disorder, Noah has selective mutism, and Sydney,getting off a bit lighter than his siblings as he was so young, misses out onparents he never got to know and deals with the pain Robert inflicts on them.

Quick character personalities: Reed isa very laid back, friendly, and clumsy rocket scientist who very rarely showsanger at anything at all but when he does, you need to watch out. Renee is a moreserious but playful teacher who also acts as his assistant. Julius is theoldest of the children, is considered the ‘golden child’ is athletic, friendly,and cares very deeply for his brothers and sisters. Riley is the “jerk with aheart of gold” as she is witty, sarcastic, fun loving, compassionate, andsensitive though has a wicked temper. Rhuben is a peace-keeper, sarcastic,sweet, a dreamer, and can be very cold to people she doesn’t like. Patrick isloud, likes to make people laugh, charismatic, friendly, and flirtatious. A “loveableasshole”. Noah is quiet, shy yet friendly, an old soul, when he speaks everyonelistens, cautious, and sensible, when he gets to know someone is just as loudand friendly as Patrick. Sydney is a genius, part of MENSA, adorable,sarcastic, and a bit arrogant, especially as he gets older.

They’re a family that are very close,consistently hanging out with each other when they’re not with friends. TheJacksons appear in Big Time Rush, Just My Luck, Suite Life, Chicago Fire/PD,Mighty Ducks (stories now deleted), 3 Ninjas, Dawsons’s Creek (never posted online), and… I think that’s it sofar.

-

Rhuben:

For those who already know about the Jacksons but still want to know more:

I could go on and on and on and ON about my babies. I recognize that we don’t discuss them as much on this site compared to FFN, DeviantArt, etc, etc, but they’re the very first OCs created (we’ve been allowing them to grow and change over 10 years), and are tops. (Though admittedly, other fandoms without them have been harboring my attention lately). So, lets’ get to it.

-We all know the Jacksons have specific little friendships within each other (most notably Patrick and Riley, Noah and Rhuben, Sydney and everybody), but we don’t talk a lot about Noah and Riley. When it comes to Riley, Noah can get away with A LOT. That’s not to say that she’s lenient with him (nowhere near as much as Sydney), but because he’s that quiet, he can annoy her in ways no one else can. Sneaking into the kitchen for cookies when she’s banned the others from entering? Piece of cake. Creeping up behind her to prod her in the side, or just start talking to startle her? Child’s play. While she likes that he is the personification of peace and quiet, he uses it to his advantage to get a rise out of her. And a tug on her pigtail to get her attention is the worst offender - especially when she doesn’t realize that he’s there. Also to note, whenever Rhuben choreographs couple stuff, she often has Noah and Riley go through the steps together first. While Patrick/Rhuben are more powerful dancers, Noah/Riley are more fluid.

-(Older) Sydney in relationships, is all about spending time with his girlfriend and making memories. For him, that’s intimacy. He likes kissing, yes, and has been known to *gasp* make-out, but taking the time to slow down, talk, taking walks around the neighborhood/park/beach, or even something like doing homework is what he looks forward to and cherishes the most. He’s also been known to enjoy cuddling.

-Julius and Brittany enjoy their lives in Australia, and their growing family, but have had ups and downs in their relationship. One big argument: whether or not they’ll buy a place in America and how often they’d go back and forth if they were to do so. Especially around jobs, schooling, and their families. Also the underlying tensions stem from, in ways, Brittany doesn’t feel like she can compete with his love for his siblings, and the constant need to protect them. Despite being high school sweethearts, and being there for him through, everything in his life, she has held onto that one insecurity.

-It’s become a running joke to “keep your hands off of” the Jacksons food. But they take it seriously. More so with Riley. Everyone knows she won’t actually stab someone with a fork just to protect her food. And there will be times where, jokingly, she and her brothers and sisters will whine about having to share, or stare someone down and growl when reaching for her food, but getting enough to eat is important to her. Making sure all of her siblings, especially her brothers, especially-especially Sydney, had enough food to eat with Robert’s punishments often being restrictions of food, it often meant she went with smaller portions. It was willingly of course, but now that she can have all the food she wants to herself, she wants. it. all. Unless she’s being generous and will actually share. But NEVER take any of the Jacksons’ popcorn or ice cream without asking first.

-Riley and Rhuben are just as similar as they are different, and one of their differences is their idea on what they want out of life. Not to say they prefer one over the other, or think one is more important than the other, but Riley puts more focus on whether or not she’s liked, while Rhuben puts more focus on whether or not she’s loved. This affects their relationships with people (of course with boys) in different ways as you can’t have one without the other, right?

-Patrick is more outspoken of course, but doesn’t always like being the more outspoken one of him and Noah. In fact, in some instances, he gets reallllly annoyed that/when Noah doesn’t talk more. Because, then, as a default, he has to do things himself. He doesn’t always like being automatically looked at as “if not this, then that” - if he’s not smart like Noah, he’s stupid, if he’s not organized, he’s messy. If he’s not sensitive, he’s strong. Physically, sure, but not always emotionally. Often times he feels he has no choice but to step up in situations and take the lead on things, when he would rather sit back and let others decide - this most times means he pushes a lot of decisions onto Riley, or anyone else, which makes him feel guilty.

[newstfionline]

Parenting the Instagram generation

Michael B. Farrell, Jessica Mendoza, CS Monitor, August 13, 2017

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF.--Jake Lee, a tanned California teenager in baggy shorts and a T-shirt, is lounging on the floor of his parents’ midcentury home. They live in a suburban Silicon Valley enclave of tech workers, cyber-savvy kids, and the occasional Google self-driving car that whirs past along pristine, eucalyptus-lined streets. He flicks through his iPhone, his fingers moving with the speed and dexterity of a jazz pianist, as he answers the sporadic text message.

“I’m on social media every waking moment of my life,” he says, with no particular pride. “I could be, like, Snapchatting and Instagram messaging the same person at the same time.”

Equidistant between the headquarters of Apple and Facebook, two of the world’s biggest tech companies, the Lee household is something of a petri dish for the way technology has altered American family life. Since it debuted the device a decade ago, Apple has sold more than 1.2 billion iPhones.

Facebook reached the mark of 2 billion users per month in June. Together, both companies have shaped an entire generation of young people tethered to their devices.

The three Lee teens--Jake, age 18; Sydney, 16; and Maddi, 13--all have iPhones. They consume a steady diet of social media. Selfies, hashtags, emojis, YouTube celebrities, and memes fill their days and nights. They’re admitted jocks--water polo and soccer players--so they have only so much time to stare at screens. But it’s still a big part of their lives.

Maddi sticks mostly to Instagram, the photo-sharing app. “Facebook is for old people,” she says. Sydney has 574 Instagram followers but says she’s not as obsessed as many of her friends. She prefers Snapchat, the popular image messaging app, because “that’s just where all my friends are.” In addition to Instagram, Jake had a brief flirtation with the dating app Tinder. This ended when his mom made him delete it.

Like most kids, they’ve had missteps. Jake sheepishly admits to getting in trouble for saying things he shouldn’t have--usually to girls or while joking with friends. There was the time Sydney posted a photo of herself on Instagram in a sports bra. It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time; after all, she’s a swimmer and lifeguard. But drama ensued. One of Jake’s friends noticed and sent him the photo, saying, “Oh, dude, look at what your sister sent me!” It became a thing. “She was humiliated and cried,” says Vickie Lee, the Lee teens’ mom, who perpetually lectures her kids on the potential hazards of social media.

Earlier this year, she hosted a parents’ class on technology and safety at Maddi’s Los Altos, Calif., charter school. She’s keenly aware that a wrong move--a misguided text, an inappropriate photo, a harmful or angry chat--can have devastating consequences. These days, she says, “technology is part of your sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll talk you have with your kids.”

Her big concern is that there’s no delete button once something goes out on social media. An embarrassing picture can haunt a teen for what might seem like a lifetime. “There are times in your life when you want to redefine yourself,” she says. “And with social media, you can’t redefine yourself. Your past just follows you around.”

Vickie and her husband, Jody, are trying to do what most parents in the United States--and perhaps the world--are trying to do: raise their kids responsibly in the era of Snapchat and Instagram. Can it be done--can kids today be persuaded to actually talk rather than text? Can they be encouraged to let go of the virtual world--occasionally--and engage in the real one? Can they stop posting selfies long enough--please!--to think of someone else?

The answer is yes. But there are bound to be some anxious moments for parents along the way, and teens have a few things to say about what grown-ups don’t get.

Today, getting a smartphone is a rite of passage for American tweens and teens. It’s arguably more important to them than having a driver’s license or voting (50 percent of eligible Americans between ages 18 and 29 voted in November 2016, while 98 percent of people in the US between 18 and 24 own smartphones).

Signing up for Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, is another milestone. It’s often the beginning of kids’ digital self-expression, and the way they stay connected with friends. Downloading Snapchat, the wildly popular app that lets users exchange messages and images that self-destruct within seconds, is the digital equivalent of the first date--that moment of freedom when kids begin a life without parents listening in.

Those two apps are now the most popular among teens. Seventy-six percent of Americans ages 13 to 17 use Instagram and 75 percent use Snapchat, according to a recent poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. But the ubiquity of social media doesn’t mean kids begin their digital journey knowing how to navigate the complexities of constant connectivity. There’s no guidebook. There are often few limits. Social media doesn’t come with training wheels--for kids or parents.

As a result, sometimes kids get it right and sometimes wrong. Really wrong.

The news is full of troubling stories about teens and technology. In July, reports surfaced about a mysterious online game called the Blue Whale Challenge in which several apparent participants killed themselves, some broadcasting their suicides online. Across the country, police have busted up groups of middle-schoolers swapping nude photos of underage female classmates. Intense cases of cyberbullying have led to victims taking their own lives. And the web is often especially cruel to young girls, subjecting them to sexism, misogyny, and harassment.

In her book “American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers,” Vanity Fair writer Nancy Jo Sales describes the dark side of the digital world. “The culture of social media churns away, seeming to pay very little attention, so far, to the protestations of feminists or anyone who objects to its troubling aspects. And girls suffer. On a daily, sometimes hourly basis on their phones, they encounter things which are offensive and potentially damaging to their well-being and sense of self-esteem.”

All of that’s deeply disturbing. But even though the troubling parts of digital life garner the most media attention, causing panic among parents, it’s not what’s happening on most kids’ devices. Teens will more likely see smiling or goofy selfies, an endless string of heart emojis, or some funny or banal comment. Even though it’s through a filter of technology, which can seem more like an appendage than an appliance, the connections kids seek are deeply human and normal, say experts. Researchers, for instance, talk about the psychological boost kids get when they receive “likes” on their posts and photos.

“There’s a culture of wanting to say nice things online,” says Mia Freund Walker, a family therapist in Redwood City, Calif., and the former executive director of My Digital TAT2, a group formed in 2012 that works with teens on developing responsible digital habits.

For most teens, technology has become so omnipresent that there’s no separating digital life from real life. It’s all intertwined. In many ways, Rose Beardmore’s Instagram is typical of a lot of other kids’. It’s full of smiling friends, flowers, clouds, purple night skies, and the beach. The comments on her 29 posts are punctuated with hearts, smiley faces, and compliments.

“THIS IS SO CUTE,” wrote one of her friends. Most are of this variety: “THIS PHOTO IS GREAT .” For Rose, a 14-year-old from Lunenburg, Mass., Instagram is the idealized version of herself. She limits it to “all my photos that look good.”

Like many other teenage girls, she maintains another account just for her closest friends, known as a “fake Instagram” or “finsta.” That’s where “I update people. I post pictures that aren’t that pretty,” she says. It includes sillier or more candid shots. “The real [Instagram account] is a lot more manicured. It’s not the mirror image of the person who owns it; it’s the prettier twin.”

It’s not uncommon for girls to begin cultivating or shaping their identities this way. On social media, they can decide what kind of image they portray to different communities. “You can curate this perfected image of yourself,” says Havi Wolfson Hall, a clinical social worker and therapist in Palo Alto, Calif. “We always want to present our best selves.” Technology just accelerates that basic human desire, she says, making it happen at a rapid speed and on an astonishing scale.

Inside her office at Parents Place, part of Jewish Family and Children’s Services, a poster asks kids: “How are you feeling today?” The choices come in yellow emoji faces--happy, sad, embarrassed, silly. Ms. Hall operates in an upscale part of the city--around the corner from private preschools, a Pilates studio and spa, and a Whole Foods. Many of the families she treats work in the tech sector across Silicon Valley.

Of course, some of them are building the very devices that get kids and adults hooked on screens to begin with. Yet they are worried about the lasting effects of technology on their children, too. The late Apple chief executive officer Steve Jobs once told a New York Times reporter that his kids hadn’t used an iPad. “We limit how much technology our kids use at home.” But all too often, Hall says, parents who complain that their kids are addicted to social media have trouble controlling their own technology use. “Nine out of 10 times, the kids are learning from their parents,” she says.

The tech industry has become incredibly adept at figuring out how to keep kids using their products. Companies such as Facebook and Snapchat are well aware that young people are naturally wired to share, seeking validation from friends in the form of “likes” and comments.

According to Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that aims to help guide kids and parents through today’s media landscape, the average teen spends nine hours a day consuming media for enjoyment, most of which is on a screen. And tweens (ages 8 to 12) use media almost seven hours a day.

The power inherent in the industry was on full display recently at VidCon, a glitzy five-day conference in Anaheim, Calif., that brought together many of the world’s biggest tech companies and the most recognizable figures on social media. “Influencers,” as they’re known in industry-speak, may only be internet famous but they are a powerful lure to keep kids staring at their screens. VidCon was full of tweens and teens eager to see their favorite internet celebrities.

Amel and Abby, both age 15, from Pasadena and Glendale, Calif., respectively, wanted to see YouTube personalities Joey Graceffa (a longtime video blogger and reality TV star with 7.9 million YouTube subscribers) and Liza Koshy (an actress with 10.3 million subscribers). The video-sharing site has become a powerful cultural force among teens. Ninety-six percent of teenagers use the platform, according to the AP-NORC poll, and 78 percent said they visited YouTube at least once a day.

“I either follow celebrities or YouTube celebrities or friends,” says Abby, pulling out her phone to display her Instagram profile. “I don’t usually follow strangers; I feel like there’s no point and it’s kind of weird.”

Amel follows “idols, celebrities, my friends. I also follow people who inspire body empowerment, who send a message of just ‘love your body, no matter what.’ “ They’re both regularly on YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat.

“Sure, I’ll get mad if someone unfollows me,” says Amel. “Like, what? Why did you unfollow me?” But, she says, she doesn’t start “crying on the floor” if it happens.

The culture of online celebrity has also spawned a growing number of otherwise average--and nonfamous--families who have essentially taken to filming much of their daily lives and posting it to YouTube. These so-called vloggers are vying for celebrity status on the web, and the advertising dollars that can come from amassing millions of subscribers. The 12 top-earning YouTube stars of 2016 collected a total of more than $70 million.

Presley Alexander, age 12, and her dad, Brian, launched their YouTube channel ActOutGames in 2012. Today, they have more than 20,000 subscribers. To date, they’ve posted a video every day for four straight years. On vacation once at the Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve in Colorado, Mr. Alexander drove 45 minutes to get a cellphone signal.

Posting your family’s life on the web for the world to see--and comment on--may seem extreme to many people, but Brian says it doesn’t mean he’s a lenient parent. “I’m that dad who’ll read her Skype sometimes,” he says. “I’ll listen to her conversations, and if she’s saying something weird I’ll be like, ‘Hey, what are you talking about?’

“We are super involved and pay attention to what’s happening,” he notes. “Just because we’re on there doesn’t mean that we’ve ceded this ground.”

Indeed, experts say there are many different ways to be a good digital parent. The key, says Amanda Lenhart, a senior research scientist for AP-NORC who co-wrote the report on kids and social media, is to remember that it’s not “about the technology. It has to be about the values and baseline levels of respect.”

Some parents take a stricter approach in reining in their kids. Aaron Turner of Idaho Falls, Idaho, lets his two teenage daughters, Abby and Katy, use Instagram, but he keeps a close eye on their accounts.

Mr. Turner is a mobile phone security expert. In other words, he knows how to hack smartphones. He uses his knowhow to eavesdrop on whatever his daughters are doing on their phones. If they download an app that’s not allowed--he’s outlawed Snapchat--he’ll know about it.

“My clear message to my daughters that I’m watching their feeds and looking at their private content has served as a protection to them,” says Turner. “When boys start a conversation that may be heading the wrong direction, they just tell them, ‘My dad looks at this,’ and that nips stuff in the bud.”

There was the time, though, that Abby got curious about Snapchat. “I just downloaded it because my friends were using it,” she says. “Everyone has Snapchat.”

It didn’t stay on her phone long. Her dad quickly noticed and deleted it.

Still, Turner is a big believer in the power of social media. He travels a lot for his computer security work and it helps him stay connected with his family. And even he admits you can’t control what kids will do or say--or see--on social media.

“In this new world, there’s no such thing as control. There’s coaching, and there’s monitoring,” he says. “If you’ve raised good kids this is not an issue. Technology does not change your standards and values.”

Other parents place a premium on talking to their kids about social media rather than curtailing their use of devices and apps. The Lees of Silicon Valley, for instance, don’t have rules about having iPhones at the dinner table. Their approach is to make the kinds of conversations they have on their devices part of their normal family conversations at home, in the car going to swim practice, or while they’re on vacation. They prioritize openness about social media over erecting a virtual fence.

But there may be limits to how much their kids will share with them. Jake will be starting college this fall at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. He’s already told his mom they won’t be friends on Snapchat. Now that he’s about to become a college freshman, it’s not the place for talking to moms, he told her.

Jake’s declaration of independence points up another truism about social media use: At some point, kids have to decide for themselves where to draw the digital line.

Some are already pulling back from total immersion. In her most recent research, Ms. Lenhart found that at least 58 percent of teens who use social media were curtailing their time online, in part because of parental strictures but also because they simply wanted a break.

Those findings reflect what the founders of My Digital TAT2 have seen, too. “They’ll have tech-free zones,” says Gloria Mosko­witz-Sweet, a licensed social worker and one of the cofounders of the group. “We are seeing kids come up with their own rules and regulations.”

Still, when you talk to teens, almost all dispute their parents’ assumptions that social media has become their entire world in the first place. They chafe at the assertion that teens prefer digital connections to personal ones. For instance, Rose, the 14-year-old from Massachusetts, says she’s constantly chatting with her friends about hanging out #IRL (in real life). “We’ll keep saying, ‘I can’t wait to see you. To hug you.’ We like face-to-face communication more,” she says. “[Parents] tend to think that the importance of [social media] in our lives is inherently a bad thing. It’s called social media for a reason.”

After Ms. Sales’s book on girls and social media came out in 2016, alarming parents nationwide, Ms. Moskowitz-Sweet co-wrote a piece in the San Francisco Chronicle that aimed to counter that fear. “Our kids are living out loud in a digital culture,” she wrote. “Social media naturally heightens the challenges associated with adolescence. Teens are telling us they want parents to trust their use of social media and give them freedom to explore, take risks, and make mistakes.”

Dangers do exist online, of course. But experts say the key is not to overreact and place too many restrictions on technology. It’s far better to understand social media and how children are actually using it. As John Palfrey and Urs Gasser put it in their book, “Born Digital: How Children Grow Up in a Digital Age”:

“[As] a culture of fear emerges around the online environment, we must put these real threats into perspective; our children and future generations have tremendous opportunities in store for them, and not in spite of the digital age, but because of it.”