#don't approach people you don't want to have a convo with?!

[cyberjam]

E!42 MILES DATING A SHY!SOFT READER . . . ☆

warnings - black fem!reader in mind but you can imagine it however you'd like, miles having a soft spot for you, pink coquette vibes from reader, profanity, slightly suggestive.

word count - 2.2k | lowercase intended.

main masterlist | proof read?: kinda😭

song rec for fic?: yo love - from "queen and slim: the soundtrack - vince staples, 6lack, mereba <3

ᘏ⑅ᘏ

. . HOW YOU FIRST MET . .

ఇ . . . you two were assigned as partners for a science project that would play a big part in your final grade. you knew of each other but never fully interacted until now.

ఇ . . . miles knew you as quiet, only speaking when spoken to. you were an approachable person with a warm smile. you carried yourself well, and treated others kindly, even if they were undeserving. he was entranced by you to say the least. with how things were currently going in new york, he was surprised that the city hadn't dimmed your light. miles wanted to know more about you and this project gave him the perfect opportunity to do so.

ఇ . . . you knew of miles as well. he had the reputation of being an unapproachable person. easily intimidating others without trying, and keeping his circle of people small. you took a small interest in him as well. you'd catch yourself glancing at him every now and then, trying to break down his character. he didn't seem as mean as everyone claimed but now was finally your chance to see for yourself.

ఇ . . . that project was only the beginning of your and miles' relationship.

ᘏ⑅ᘏ

. . CRUSHING STAGE . .

ఇ . . . miles protectiveness increases the more your relationship grows. he'll cut into situations and defend you before you can fully form a thought. he never hesitates to step in-front of you as a human-shield and tell someone off with a simple phrase.

"ay, watch yo mouth." | "huh? repeat yo'self." | "i know you not talkin'-"

ఇ . . . he starts eating lunch with you. his friends get on him for being a simp but he brushes it off every-time. he enjoys the convos you two have during lunch and would rather sit next to you than a rowdy group of boys who use the lunch food as science experiments.

ఇ . . . he seeks you out. during school, after school, on his nightly patrols, etc. without even fully knowing it himself, miles is always looking for you no matter where he is. he just naturally gravitates towards you. you bring something to miles life that he hasn't had in a long time. peace.

ఇ . . . let's you mess with his hair. when he's over your place he'll let you put your cute baby pink hair clips in his braids and even tie in some hair bo-bo's at the end of them. but only if you take them out as soon as you're done and don't take any pictures. (you still take pictures)

ఇ . . . let's you draw on him. you can't remember when it exactly started but it's became a routine for you to doodle and write on his hands in every class you two share. he'll return the favor, if you ask nicely. he copies whatever drawing you did on his hand to yours so you'd be matching. (he dreams of getting matching tattoos with you.) <3

ఇ . . . scares classmates away. whether it be a glare from across the room or an arm slung around your shoulders, miles is always scaring your classmates away. even if they show the smallest romantic interest in you.

ఇ . . . maintains eye contact. he's always looking for your eyes and trying to remain in contact with them when you talk. he just loves staring into your pretty doe eyes while you ramble about something you like.

ఇ . . . nicknames. miles doesn't want to scare you off by being too forward, so he'll limit his nicknames. the ones he does call you while crushing on you are ma and princesa.

ఇ . . . passes notes in class. he's a bit of a "model student" in class (not talking back, not interrupting or disrespecting classmates, turning in his work early on time. he just wants to be left alone lmao) but he's more than willing to pass notes with you throughout the entire period. you'll catch him up on the newest gossip and he'd update you on the stuff him and his homeboys get into.

ఇ . . . he'll help you study. if you don't know spanish or you're just a struggling student, he'll teach you everything you're having a hard time with at a comfortable pace. he'll quiz you every once in awhile just to make sure you fully understand and don't feel behind in anything. if you've shown a significant amount of improvement he'll treat you by taking you out for your choice of dessert. (it's really just an excuse to take you out on a date without using the word date)

ఇ . . . there's an unspoken rule that you are his. classmates know, your friends know, his homeboys know, hell, even the teachers know. you're the only person miles gives the time of day. you're the only one who gets to walk around with his arm on your shoulders, have his undivided attention, as well as be the reason for his smile. you are his and he is yours.

ᘏ⑅ᘏ

. . DATING STAGE . .

ఇ . . . late night facetime calls. you two are truly never apart. when you're not together physically you're on facetime with each other. he loves when you call him and showcase the cute things you bought for yourself using his card. he also just loves the comfort those calls bring him. seeing you engulfed in a warm blanket fast asleep while he's doing his own thing just makes him feel content. you're able to be there for each other without physically being there and that's enough for him to wait patiently until he's able to hold you again.

ఇ . . . clingy as hell. although, he'll never voice out his wants for your touch he will initiate it. miles will be the one to commence 80% of affection. partly because you're shy and mainly because he can't keep his hands off of you. miles is always touching you in some way. whether it be an arm around your shoulder, a hand resting on your thigh, or a hand rubbing your ass while you're cuddling. he can't resist kissing you either. his lips always finding any available part of your skin to kiss when he feels like it.

ఇ . . . compliments. every chance he gets he'll remind you how good you look. always hyping you up and telling you how beautiful you are. whenever you get overwhelmed by the flow of affectionate words that smoothly flow out of his mouth, you'll cover your face with your hands and turn away from him. it only gives him more fuel in the long run because he loves to see his girl get all shy and cute for him. sometimes he doesn't even use his words. a simple look up and down while licking his lips will leave you weak in the knees.

"that's all mine right there."

ఇ . . . genuinely hates arguing with you. he hates when you're upset with him. there are plenty of times where miles has provoked you to the point you've gotten upset with him and that's usually when he knows he's gone too far. you're his girl, his everything. he can't have you sulking because of him. although, miles does have a bit of a short-temper, he remains calm throughout these situations. he lets you both voice your sides and he won't let the situation go until you come to an agreement. he tends to avoid arguments at all costs. usually murmuring a "you got it, ma." before it turns into something more. after settling long disagreements, he'll engulf you in a hug and give you a gentle kiss on your forehead.

"love you. don't want my girl goin to bed mad at me."

ఇ . . . nicknames! his nicknames will consist of mi vida, mi reina, ma, mami, baby, etc. any term of endearment you can think of he's most-likely called you. usually consisting of 'my/mine'. he's very possessive. your contact name in his phone is 'mi corazon 💘' and you're the only one with an emoji next to your name.

ఇ . . . spoils you. you want it? you got it. although, miles isn't incredibly wealthy, he does have money. he uses it to take care of you and his mom, providing help for the both of you. he helps rio with actual necessities, while with you he provides you with gifts. ranging from shoes, eyelashes, lace fronts, plushies, clothes, or electronics. the most expensive gift he's gotten for you is an ipad and apple pencil. it was for your birthday and he knew he had to get it for you after hearing you fangirl about it nonstop.

ఇ . . . lets you do his hair. he usually only lets rio do his hair, he's a major mama's boy. so, when you were granted the privilege to do his hair you felt honored. he also just loves when you take his braids out and give him scalp massages. he's fallen asleep on occasion because of how gentle and soothing your hands are. he's also tender-headed as hell so, please be careful or you'll get a earful of him complaining.

"damn, ma. why you gotta pull so tight?"

ఇ . . . buys matching sets. he buys you both matching shoes, clothes, and jewelry. he likes the simplicity of being able to match with you and show everyone you're his without voicing it. you two are the couple that matches on christmas. matching christmas tree pants, and santa hats...rio thinks it's adorable. for your 5 month anniversary you were gifted a gold necklace with his name written in cursive and once he helped you put it on he revealed the necklace that was under his shirt that had your name in gold written in cursive. only time you two take it off is when you're in the shower/pool. he'll take it off during prowler business as well, he doesn't want to disclose any of his personal business at work, it's very dangerous for the both of you.

ఇ . . . cant sleep without you. once miles gets a taste of what life is like keeping you close and holding you to sleep, it's hard for him to go without it. he loves cuddling with you and if there were any instance where you two wouldn't be together he would toss and turn all night and look at the ceiling until his body physically shut down itself. it's not the healthiest way to go by so when he starts to show up to school with deeper eye bags than usual, you decide to give him a plushie of his own. he'll buy the plushie little clothes and change them every now and then. he names it after you, and he even bought the exact perfume you wear and sprays it on the stuffed animal before going to bed and cuddling it. he's embarrassed to admit it, so he'll never tell you how much he pampers it. (you don't need him to tho, you've caught him kissing the top of the stuffed animals head before cradling it in his arms and murmuring 'goodnight, mi vida.')

ఇ . . . will go to the barbie movie with you. he'll thrown on a pink hoodie, black jeans, and pair it with some jordan's while you're decked out from head to toe in pink. he's gonna cry at one point during the movie and you have to pretend you didn't see. when you ask him if he liked it he'll shrug his shoulders while sniffling. he def gave his mom a big hug when he got back home. :')

"yeah, yeah...it was alright, i guess."

ఇ . . . talks about you to his mom. mile's didn't speak much of you when he had a crush on you, but he really didn't have to. his mom knew there was something or more so someone occupying his mind whenever he'd come back from school with a slight dazed expression and the tiniest smile.

ఇ . . . graffiti's your initials together. whenever he's bored and has a little extra time on his hands he'll graffiti his and yours initials together. sometimes replacing your last initial with an 'M' for Morales..

ఇ . . . treats your stuffed animals like they're your children. he scolds you if he catches one of them on the floor, he'll name them future child names he has in mind because he def wants to get married and start a family w/ you, he gives them hugs and buys cute little tutu's for them. lowkey will throw a fit if he finds out you gave some of them away.

ఇ . . . buys/sends things that reminds him of you. he'll buy you your fave bag of chips if he sees it in the store, he'll pick up a keychain with your name on it and attach it to his bookbag, he'll send you memes or recommend a tv show because the character reminded him of you. you're really on his mind 25/8.

ఇ . . . bakes with you. he loves baking with you. you two will bake the hell out of some chocolate chip cookies or some brownies. nothing that takes too long or a lot of preparation though, he'll get antsy and kinda touchy which leads to burnt products and a ruined cake pan.

ఇ . . . shows you off/brags about you. his friends and close family members know all about you and your achievements. if you play sports he'll cheer you on and brag about your wins, if you're an artist he'll post your artwork, if you have a small clothing brand he'll wear it and tell people to buy from your store if they ask, if you knit/crochet he'll ask you to make him a bucket hat or a mini version of you and him, if you dance he'll stay up all night on the phone while you show him your new choreography. it doesn't matter what you do, miles will continue to support you and brag about any and every achievement you accomplish. big or small.

ఇ . . . miles morales loves his sweet soft significant other.

currently re-writing my miles morales fic that was 6k words because tumblr decided to randomly delete it 🥲 i'll try to get it out soon! <3

also sorry for inactivity, i've been busy w/ school and work but i'll try to shoot out fics faster when i get the time :) !!

[animehideout]

How about jjk men reaction if y/n has a tongue piercing? ;D

JJK Men Reaction To Y/N With A Tongue Piercing

A/n: Thank you @luna-lunique for this wonderful request, I hope you enjoy it ❤️.

Characters: Geto Suguru - Gojo Satoru - Choso Kamo - Ryomen Sukuna.

Warning: SMUT MDNI for Sukuna's part ( ofc it has to be spicy with this man )

Geto Suguru: Interested And Flirty

Geto Suguru is your crush, so you got your tongue pierced to match his vibe, since he's got both his ears pierced.

Your piercing wasn't healed yet, so you'd find a difficulty to move your tongue which resulted in you stuttering.

He'd ask if you were okay.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine Suguru, it's just I got my tongue pierced and it kinda hurts a bit"

His eyes would lit up with genuine surprise and interest.

A smile played on his lips, curiousity evident in his gaze.

"A tongue piercing? You've been hiding your rebellious side from me Y/N?"

You'd blush a lot from the way hos eyes were glued to your mouth whenever you spoke, trying yo catch a glimpse of your piercing.

"Didn't know you were into piercings tho! But it's a nice touch, added a bit of mystery in you".

Since he's experienced with piercings, he'd give you some advice on how to care of it in order to heal it fast.

Your tongue piercing was his breaking point, he'd give you multiple hints that he has a crush on you.

"You know people with tongue piercings are my type"

"Maybe I should join the club Y/n. A matching tongue piercing could be quite special don't you think?"

A few days later, Geto would surprise you with a tongue piercing as well, cuz he desperately wanted to match with you.

Gojo Satoru: Teasing

It was when both of you were teasing each other as always.

You'd stick your tongue out to mock him, and that's when he caught a glimpse of the jewelry that decorated your tongue.

A subtle surprised flickered across his face, eyes widened in intruige.

"Holy shit! Stick your tongue out again–Is that a piercing?"

But of course you had to tease him and hide it from him.

So you covered your mouth a ran away from him.

You think he'd give up? Hell no! he'll run after you, catch you and force you to show him your tongue.

Would pin you down, and tried to open your mouth.

"Show meeeeeee" he'd whine.

You'd bite his finger.

You got tired and gave up, so you poked your tongue revealing a cute jewelry.

"Oh someone got an extra sparkle in their mouth, is this your way of ensuring our convos are electrifying?" he'd joke.

Would observe it in admiration, fascinated by your bold choice.

Would definitely try to touch it.

"You're full of surprises Y/N! I love that"

Would appreciate your uniqueness, spontaneity and free spirit to try new things.

Teases you a lot about it but deep down he loves it so much and thinks it's hot.

"Imagine if I put a magnet is your mouth a pull"

"Ugh, I told you this for the 1673829th time Satoru, it's not magnetized".

Spoils you with different jewelries.

"Thought this one might match the sparkle in your eyes"

He'd say with a wide smile, gifting you the new expensive accessory.

"Wonder how it feels to kiss someone with a tongue piercing, wanna help me figure out Y/N?"

Choso Kamo: Concerned AF.

"Like my new piercing Choso?"

His eyes would widen in surprise and concern.

He couldn't help but voice his worries.

Approaches you with a worried glisten in his eyes, carefully opens your mouth to get a closer look at your piercing.

If it was possible he'd shove his head inside for a better look.

"Wait when did you get this Y/N?"

Bombards you with questions.

"Is it painful? Does it hurt when you talk? Omg alright I'll shut up you don't have to answer if it pains you when you speak"

Would he stop asking questions? No.

He has to make sure you're okay.

He's a caring person and his questions reflected his genuine concern for you well-being and safety.

"Does it bleed? How long does it take to heal?".

"Are you supposed to eat certain things or avoid stuff?"

You'd have to comfort him, and tell him that it doesn't hurt as it looks and that you have a high pain tolerance so you can handle it.

If you choose to joke around with him and tell him that it caused you to faint or it started to bleed, man would panic, might faint as well.

Treats you with tenderness and care.

Blows on your food if it's hot, so it won't burn your tongue and cause any infections.

Googles: How to heal a tongue piercing in 1 day.

"It looks great on you my love, but I hate seeing you in pain".

Ryomen Sukuna: Turned On.

It was when both of you were making out.

The accessory on your tongue poked his lips and tongue.

Would pull back in surprise.

"Woah woah! what was that show me!"

You'd stick your tongue out, a smirk played on his lips, a flicker of desire ignited his eyes, mirroring his filthy thoughts.

It was your plan all along, you led him on for a makeout session so he could feel your new piercing.

Instantly turned on, his pants tightening.

"Well, well, look what we have here! Someone is upping their game, spicing things up"

He'd laugh in satisfaction, excited just by the thought of what your pierced mouth could do.

"You're playing dangerous games Y/N"

Would waste a second? No! He'd want your tongue around his D.

"Come on, on your knees now Y/N! I want to know how it feels"

It made him 10x attracted to you, having your tongue pierced revealed your badass and rebellious side that he couldn't help but fall deeper for.

As you did your work down there, he'd focus in the way your tongue piercing lingered around his D.

You'd drive him crazy, and turn him into a hot mess. Only his groans are heard.

[vanesycho]

Hi!!! I loved your Vernon x reader fic and it made me think of this! If you’re not comfortable with it I completely understand!

Maybe a [Vernon, Dino, or SCoups] x reader 5+1 fic where his members are convinced reader is pregnant. One of the members overhears reader and [Vernon, Dino, or Scoups] having a sorta intimate convo and the words “don’t worry, we’ll get through this together” with [Vernon, Dino, or SCoups] hugging her and rubbing her stomach with his thumbs? And it kinda evolves from there and the members stop reader from doing things that pregnant people can’t? But turns out reader isn’t pregnant it’s something else? Maybe with reader having to leave for a few months?

• gf!reader x idol!chan | m.list

genre | fluff, slightly crack

word count | 1,7k

a/n | I hope it turned out as you thought and you like it🤍

enjoy reading！

You had a long term relationship with Chan and that was definitely enough for the others to tease him even more. Sometimes he would text you during the live and they definitely didn't hold back from teasing him. Although the fans didn't really understand this situation.

One day when there was a practice and you came to watch and support him, the members had been waiting for him to start dancing properly for a while "Where is this brat?" Seungcheol spoke in a corner, Soonyoung couldn't stand it anymore and left the practice room to look for you both. As he was walking around the company, a voice stopped him, coming from the cafeteria. "Hey look at me. It's okay, okay? We'll get through this together, I don't want you to worry about this anymore and upset yourself." He stuck his head out of the corner and watched the two of you for a while, he had no idea what he was talking about but when Chan's hand went to your belly, his eyes widened in surprise.

Is she pregnant? Thoughts ran through his head, yes it seemed like a ridiculous theory but what else could this conversation and actions mean? He cleared his throat and got attention, Chan took his hand off your stomach and turned around "Everyone is waiting for you in the practice room, we were worried when you didn't come for a long time." Chan cursed as if he was just remembering practice and stood up "Fuck- I'm so sorry hyung, it completely slipped my mind." Soonyoung looked at him understandingly, "It's okay, don't rush, I'll tell the others." His calm and understanding tone made him frown. The member who was the most on edge in the dance and didn't want the slightest mistake is calm now? He looked at you for a while and kissed your forehead, Soonyoung pulled away from you and of course couldn't keep his mouth shut when he got to the practice room.

"Guys! Guys! You won't believe what I learned!!" The members looked at his meaningless excitement, Mingyu who was lying on the ground muttered "What's wrong?" Soonyoung dramatically grabbed Wonwoo's shoulders who was standing next to him and shook him "Y/n...She is..PREGNANT!" The trio of Seungkwan, Dokyeom and Seungcheol let out a loud 'What?' "I swear. I heard them, they were talking and Chan's hand was caressing her belly, she's definitely pregnant."

Seungcheol approached him "Are you sure? You know this is a serious situation, right?" Soonyoung nodded in agreement "I said I heard it, why would I be lying-" The only thing that stopped his sentence was the two entering the practice room.

When the room was completely silent, Chan let go of your hand and walked over to the members, you were about to sit on the floor in a corner to watch them but Dokyeom stopped you "Hey hey don't sit on the floor, wait I'll get you a chair." You looked at the other members in surprise as you watched Dokyeom quickly leave the room, "Is he okay?" Mingyu came to you "Are you okay? You don't have any pain or discomfort right?" This sentence confused you even more "I- no, why would you ask such a-"

"The chair is here!" You sat down as Dokyeom placed the chair behind you and even though you didn't understand, you turned to him and smiled and thanked him. Then, soon enough, the members were finally able to start practicing.

After a few hours of going on, they decided to take a break. Chan called out to you as he sat down on the floor tiredly. "Baby, can you please give me my shirt that's next to you?" You looked to your side and stood up to reach for the shirt that was on the floor. "Yah! Why are you making her do it? Don't you have your own hands?" Soonyoung's sudden outburst made him raise his eyebrows in surprise. He let out a tired breath and approached you, leaned down and picked up his shirt. "Really.. What's wrong with these?" You heard him muttering to himself, held his hand and that action made him turn to you. He gave you a tired smile before kissing your forehead. "I'm sorry baby, I just.. I'm tired and I don't want to keep you waiting here, I know how tired and upset you are and I want to be alone with you as soon as possible and make sure you're okay."

His thoughtfulness made you put a big smile on your face. You reached out and gave him a hug. "Thank you, I know you're always here for me." The words you said in his ear made him wrap his arms around you in the same way, "And I will continue to be." the members watching you all the while were looking at you with small smiles on their faces.

Everything seemed to get weirder and weirder in the following days.

A few people were gathered at home waiting for the food, and you had placed a chair in front of the counter to get the plate from the cupboard. Joshua, who entered the kitchen, saw you on the chair and quickly came to you. "Hey, what are you doing? Get off there Y/n, this is dangerous." You lowered your head to him and frowned slightly. "Calm down, I'm just trying to get the plate, there's nothing dangerous about it, it's something I always do." You took the plate and Joshua grabbed your arm to help you get off the chair. He approached Chan, who was helping you with the food, and whispered so you wouldn't hear him. "Be more careful, keep an eye on her, try to help her a little." Chan stopped what he was doing and looked at him frowned, but Joshua was already leaving the kitchen, he took a deep breath and muttered "Weird."

On a game night, you were in the living room, divided into teams. "Come on Wonwoo, beat him." Chan ignored the support that didn't come to him, it was a regular thing now. But at the end of the game, he was surprised by the unexpected win, he looked at you excitedly and stood up, picked you up and spun you around, your smiles filled the room while a few members stopped you from hugging. You both looked at them, not understanding what was going on.

"Chan, are you crazy? You can't just turn her around so suddenly, what if something happened?"

"Don't make any sudden movements Y/n, just sit still."

"Be more careful."

You just looked at each other in response to the sentences that came one after another, but just kept quiet about the strange events that had been happening lately.

Until one day you felt nauseous during dinner. You put your hand to your mouth and realized you were going to throw up, Chan looked at you with concern and helped you to the sink. The other members came right after you without waiting and formed an army in front of the toilet. Chan grabbed your hair and continued to stroke your back with concern, "It's okay baby, you'll be fine, I'm with you." He kissed your head along with the support he said. Finally, you relaxed and leaned your back against his chest, he let you stay in that position until you felt better and tried to comfort you by placing his hand on your belly.

"Y/n?" The sound of your name made him turn his head. "Hyung? Why are you all gathered here?" Seungkwan took a few steps inside and spoke. "We were just wondering." Seungcheol crouched down next to you and put his hand on your shoulder. "Are you feeling better?" You nodded with difficulty. The members left you alone for a while and in that time you tried to recover by washing your face.

When you arrived at the hall, all eyes were on you. You all sat in silence for a while. "So... Is it a boy or a girl?" Jun's question made you choke on the water you were drinking, while you tried to come to with a few coughs, Jeonghan spoke up "How can you ask so suddenly? Besides, it's not something that's obvious, look, her belly hasn't even grown yet." You watched with your mouth open, as the argument between them continued, Chan couldn't help but silence them. "What are you talking about?" His voice almost shouted, finally ending the argument, "I wasn't going to question this strange change you guys have been having lately, but aren't you exaggerating? It would be good if you all explained what happened now." When Seungcheol noticed that no one was talking, he took action. "We're on edge because of Y/n's pregnancy, this could be a difficult process-" you didn't let him continue his sentence. "Pregnant? What are you talking about? I'm not pregnant!" Your words made heads turn to Soonyoung, "What? But I heard you talking. You were talking about this when I was going to call Chan to the practice room." You looked at each other for a while, let out a deep breath when you both realized what the problem was, Chan spoke up to clarify the question marks "Nothing like that hyung, I don't know what you heard but Y/n isn't pregnant or anything..." he looked at you as if asking for your permission, you nodded in agreement "She's going through a hard time at work and she's constantly stressed, she has difficulty sleeping, doesn't eat properly and that's why I try to be there for her. This stress and anxiety also affects her health so sometimes she throws up. I was late for practice because of this, I had to help her relax for a while."

They were silent for a while as the questions were clarified, but it didn't take long for that silence to be broken when Jeonghan threw the pillow next to him at Soonyoung "You idiot! We also misunderstood because of you, why are you spreading fake news?" You watched the chaos around you as the other members put all the blame on him "Should we stop them?" he looked at you "No, let them continue. It's honestly kind of fun to watch."

[blood-starved-beast]

There's so much to unpack from this convo bruh.

How Moros's the most unsure - makes sense, cause he's the one with a net negative relationship experience. No bitches. But also you can see the hesitancy to approaching these feelings. This is a new unfamiliar experience for him.

Also I see that deflection there Nem. You're not avoiding talking about your feelings this time! I think Nem's still burned out from the fallout with Artemis, but also. Nem doesn't want to disrupt Mel and her task. 🥺

Also Nem implying that Mel plays dumb about these things. I don't think she plays dumb per se. I think Melinoe's deal is that she's so busy atm, she simply doesn't have for all that romance rn. So she just ignores it/puts it off. And we see that a bit in how she engages with that here. She's very emotional unavailable in this convo - "If you wish to know me better, wonderful." Girl how many hearts have you broken before this and walked it off??

And we know she did. That one convo with Dora that implies Mel has past casual sexual relationships, and we see that casualness here. I do believe Mel has a casual hookup culture going on (Aphrodite calls her a heartbreaker upon first meeting and compares her to herself) and combined with her whole autism blasting + insecurities, doesn't realize the extent of the effect she has on people. Or the breakups for that matter. Hooks up with people for stress relief, then thinking anything more serious isn't needed or isn't something she can get, ends it. Or simply it's as Mel says - she's someone who doesn't like to be bound, so she prefers more relaxed relationships perhaps? Or maybe even more than just two 👀. Again, the Aphrodite parallels.

I think Nem is aware of all that hence why she approaches Moros especially with how 1) Nem herself is jealous and has past relationship issues 2) it's part of Nem's domain and 3) Moros has no idea bout all that with Melinoe. Either way both Nem and Moros are not happy with the outcome of this convo so I suspect future drama.

And also.

The way the stars aligned in my file that out of all Eris convos to get at the same time. I get this one

And Eris sounded so despondent beforehand. A very sad hooray - that's what she said. It's like she overheard what her older siblings are talking about and got both upset but also!! She needs to get in on the action too! Get Trouble for herself!! Insane.

Then I walk over to Hecate and:

Hecate's out here teasing her about this. Melinoe literally cannot catch a break in my file 😭

[coffeegnomee]

I feel like Ls!pangi doesn’t get talked about a lot like tr!pangi and I see analysis of other Lifestealers(mostly zam) and pangi just feels like a side piece for character development and want to see some love to ls!pangi

So Pangi on lifesteal doesn't get involved in the lore for like 90% of the time he is online. He used to a hell of a lot more back in s4, but around s5 he really started to hit his stride with his silly, more laid back video style. And in s6 he well full-out on making silly videos because he wanted to publish a video every single week from the start of the season to the end of the year. And in order to make people feel comfortable coming to his recordings, he became a pacifist and did not enter into the lore unless he found it absolutely necessary.

So that's the backstory on why people don't really write about ls!pangi. There just isn't that much to write about. And he isn't active, spending a lot of time on the realm (which is great).

He joked to Flame on the last session (saturday) that on lifesteal he is the weakest player, but on the realm he is the strongest. And that makes him approach the realm so completely differently.

That being said, his pacifism has strangely endeared himself to Flame, who generally hates pacifists but also loves Pangi's silly videos and wants to make sure Pangi can record. He went out of his way to help with the warden situation when mapicc dropped a bunch of wardens on Pangi's Christmas set, he helped stop the fire on the Christmas tree when Mane burnt it down and reprimanded Mane for being too much of a menace, and he is borrowing Pangi hearts (from his own secret backup in-case-i-get-banned-off-the-server-and-need-hearts stash) so all the chunguses involved in his Hunger Games will have 10 hearts.

Charmander duo is amazing and pangi's origin story with the lore is one of my favorite times of ls!pangi

In the early days of the season Flame decided to blow up spawn and Pangi decided to take it upon himself to talk to Flame, give him pseudo-therapy which turned into a really good mutual-understanding session that genuinely transformed Flame's mindset towards blowing up spawn more. He had Flame build a house and was incredibly supportive as Flame reluctantly approached building, and gently encouraged him to think about how much care people put into builds and how much pride you can have in your own accomplishments in building.

Flame was dead set in not playing along. Dead set in not getting any attachments to this house. Determined to say none of it mattered.

Pangi says he will blow up the house, to see what Flame really thinks. Flame gets really sad and asks him not to, and eventually Pangi relents giving the obvious analogy that clearly Flame care about this house and would rather not see it blown up, just as they would rather not see spawn be blown up.

The next day Flame threatens and does blow up spawn because nobody shows up for the fight, but when zam goes to investigate the damages, it is no where near as bad as the first time.

A couple days later, Pangi has been trying to coordinate the server into doing the 10v1 that Flame wants, but when he logs on, Mane starts being a menace to him. Mane stops being a menace to have a convo with Flame and Pangi about the fight, and everything is set. Pangi gets Flame to promise to make sure spawn doesn't get blown up again before the fight.

Pangi leaves but soon enough wemmbu shows up as well and starts threatening to blow up mapicc's castle. Pangi tries to get Flame to see that this is his responsibility, as a teammate of wemmbu, to prevent the destruction as per their agreement. Flame is lackluster and basically taking absolutely zero responsibility for wemmbu and mane, only saying he will not blow up spawn. Wemmbu is his ally, not teammate, he insists. This isn't good enough for Pangi, but Pangi leaves saying anything more and the deal is off.

Five minutes later Flame calls him back to his house, the one they built together. Wemmbu has blown it up. He mocked Flame for having a house then destroyed it in front of him despite Flame's pleas to stop. Flame is absolutely despondent about not being able to stop wemmbu in the slightest and doesn't know what to do. Pangi can see this is a huge struggle for Flame, but still insists Flame is the only one who can do anything; he can't and the server can't. They part for the evening.

Well, low and behold, mapicc was not happy in the slightest that wemmbu blew up his castle (for the second or third time at this point) and he tnt minecarted the circle of fighters that Pangi got together: 6 kills in one cart. It was legendary. Best cart in lifesteal history.

With the failure of this fight, Pangi gave up trying to be involved in the lore. He did what he could. Flame also more or less let go of the spawn battle, waiting a few weeks for a session and arriving with 1000 dogs and just killing whoever was around.

This was an Amazing series of Pangi lore, honestly one of my favorite couple of streams of the season. Watching Pangi genuinely approach the lore without great seriousness, actually using all of his brain to come up with ways to convince Flame and Mane and Wemmbu to stop, dealing with being helpless but pushing though despite it all because he believed Flame had a good heart. It was amazing pangi lore.

It was also in August. (8/25 to 8/29)

So.

Not too recent.

[rabbidbunwy]

Having a downhearted convo with Ghost ﮩـﮩﮩ٨ـ🫀ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ

Warnings contents: depression-mention of self harm-depression comfort-smoking

i'm no english native so sorry for some mistakes but i'm improving my english bit by bit

please reblog 🔁 and like❤️

P.s: idk i just tought that maybe,MAYBE,Ghost can be the one to comfort you when your down in the dumbps ∘ ∘ ∘ ( °ヮ° ) ?

And i love pondering in the night looking at the night sky,don't you? or just the ceiling's room

and sorry for not being active much stuff happened such as stress and depression,still fighting but i hope you have a good day

@muzansslxt @candy69gurl @kiwicopia @satorkive @ponderingmoonlight

Ghost approached you, sitting down on the grass next to you, his eyes fixated on the deep bloody lines you had carved into your wrist. he didn’t ask about them. he never did.

"can I?" he asked quietly, holding out his hand he waiting for you to give him the cigarette.

when you did so, he held it between his lips, taking a long drag he tilted his head back as he blew the smoke upwards, the smoke floating up into the dark sky before disappearing entirely. He handed the cigarette back to you, his eyes still fixated on your bloody wrists

"wanna sit here a while?" you didn’t say anything but you didn’t move either. taking that as a yes, Ghost leaned back, his own back resting against the grass as he folded his arms across his chest, staring up at the night sky

You two stood there for a while baskin in the silence accompanied by the soft trilling of the crickets that were hiding in the grass,when the silence was suddenly broke by your question "Don't you wanna die?" your voice bore a tone of melancholy and sadness

Ghost didn’t look at you, his eyes still fixated on the night sky, his voice was gentle as he spoke ‘sometimes’ he admitted,taking another dragged from your cigarette he blew the smoke upwards, watching it disappear before he continued "we all wanna die sometimes. but we have to stick around"

There was a long pause before he continued"life isn’t meant to be easy. it was never promised to be fair either. you just gotta keep going" he said softly, taking another long drag "we all go through things kid. we all have our own demons"

Then you asked "what are your demons Simon?" you asked as you hugged your legs

Ghost chuckled, but it was soft, kind even. taking another long drag from the cigarette before he spoke

"bad parents, bad past, bad choices, the ghost of my own damn name. I’ve got my fair share of demons kid" he admitted freely, tilting his head to look at you "but we all do. it’s how we learn, how we grow. if we can’t grow, learn and heal, why bother living? sure life ain’t easy, it’s far from fair but it ain’t all bad either" he said softly, a small genuine smile on his lips as he looked back at the night sky

You silent hugged from behind tucking your head on his broad shoulders

Ghost paused, he could see the way you wrapped your arms around his broad shoulders, tucking your head on his shoulder.

he looked at you, his eyes staring at the top of your head for a moment before he spoke "hey Y/N. you wanna know a secret?" you nodded, your chin still resting on his broad shoulder. his lips formed a small smile as he tilted his head back, looking at the night sky

"we all crave touch. we all crave someone to be there for us when we are at rock bottom. not many people understand that"

he admitted "you crave it just as much as I do" adding "you want someone to want you." he continued with a soft, understanding voice, knowing all too well why you were hugging him so closely, why you craved his touch so desperately

"you dont…want me?" you asked pulling away . Ghost’s eyes flashed with something you couldn’t identify when you spoke in such a vulnerable, quiet voice, when you so close to him. he grabbed your arm, gently pulling you back, his chest against your shoulder

"course I want you Y/N. you don’t think I wanna hold you, make the pain go away, make you feel safe?"

he admitted softly.

"trust me Y/N. I want to hold you, make you feel safe. hell, I wanna hold you every damn night just as much as you want me to"

At that you snuggled on his chest "then hold me,cuddle,hell just…don't leave me alone"

Ghost chuckled once again, the sound soft and deep as he looked down at you, his body relaxing as you leaned against his chest. he wrapped his arms around you, his hand gently rubbing your back

"as if I could ever leave you kid. I ain’t going nowhere"

[bcacstuff]

Why have you decided to stay so quiet? Is it because you said there was no woman in the taxi when there was, or because you thought he was with Vikey when he wasn’t? We all make mistakes, and overall, you’ve done well. But staying quiet and letting others think they were right in their “fancy world” isn’t the best approach. Now, your blog is mostly just re-sharing Sam’s posts. Ultimately, it’s up to you what to do with your own blog.

Anons keep on nagging about this, I don't know what the big deal here is or why we have to go on about it at all.

No, I didn't see the woman when I posted the video. But I also didn't say there was no woman. All I said in a comment was that I saw him arriving alone, and that is still what I see.

I also posted the convo on Twitter, which confirms there was a woman in the car. It doesn't say the woman got out, it doesn't say it is a gf or anything. The Twitter account removed the video and post and is even now private. We don't have to have any doubts as to why that happened. (I just have to watch my inbox all week and I know enough).

There was no woman named Vikey, nor Vickey at play here, I told you about that. People with all the theories that start with 'but'... go ahead if you want to think otherwise, not me encouraging you and not me endorsing this.

I don't think I made any mistakes in this, the people naming women and having all kind of theories about who or what or in what compassion... are making the mistakes here imo. My simple conclusion was and still is, a woman is in the car, we don't know if she got out of the car, the video is cut at that point.

There was one Anon who mentioned something, most people probably didn't notice, which I think could have some merit. Anon observing how the passenger tried to get out of the car on the other side, but then another car passes. It is possible that the cab driver said something, then S, who first made a gesture as if he wanted to close the door, looked inside and we can see something what looks like the passenger moving towards the side where S got out of the car. But there it all stops, the video is cut. Only the people standing in front of the bar will know if the woman got out of the car or not.

It's far to unclear to identify the women, other than dark hair we see nothing and it is very vague. So it's pointless to have an opinion about it. My opinion is as good as anybody's and actual I didn't even bother to draw conclusions or have an opinion about it.

If you're not happy with a blog that doesn't make up any stories, just to entertain you, I'm sorry. My blog is about facts we see, not about things we don't see. If there is nothing happening, nothing can be reported. Simple as that.

People are free to discuss things, we can speculate now and then as long as it is in a respectful way, I don't have to agree with them, nobody has to agree with me. It's all just a tv show and some actors at the end of the day.

Well, that's all I have to say about this, which to me is such a non-issue. I'm rolling my eyes at every Anon about it asking myself why on earth is this such a big deal. Needless to say this will absolutely be my last word on it.

[ghouljams]

hi ghoul i have a question of the sex-ed variety sorry for rambling: why do you think performing oral sex is so villainized / demonized in conversation? we live in the most modern of times where casual approaches to sex seem so commonplace and ppl are more willing to talk abt things they enjoy etc. Receiving oral sex seems all the rage in popculture mentions etc but there still seems to be so much stigma/judgement about everyday convos re: performing it? i’m so confused when imo one cant exist w/o the other? ive heard ppl say its a lack of selfrespect thing for those afab or for those amab its not manly to do. which seems like an oversimplification but as an abstinent, religious-trauma virgin idk if i have the range to see all sides of the convo lmao

So this is going to be mostly personal opinion since I can't speak to this on a scientific or sociological level.

I think there's a massive disconnect culturally between pleasure for yourself and pleasure for others that stems from what you could call "radical individualism." There's this mentality of "I want to get mine, I don't care if you get yours" that a lot of people have and it can bleed into sexual conversations as well. So that's one part of it: the idea that getting something for yourself is good, but why would you go out of your way to help others?

Then another part, which I've talked about before, is the disgust around male bodies. This is a lot to do with the way terf politics and exclusionary "feminism" has seeped into common culture. There is a recent and evolving idea that vagina=good and penis=bad, that I think a lot of afab people are beginning to fall into because it feels retaliatory. All your life you're told that you're lesser for having a vagina and suddenly you're allowed to say that the opposite is true! It feels liberating, but it's a trap.

I see this in queer circles as well. Bisexual women will talk about being "unfortunately" into men, or they'll be accused of faking their attraction to women because of their attraction to me. People will talk loudly about how gross men are and how they hate men and how they think being attracted to men is a moral failing. So we begin to associate amab bodies with disgust. Penis=bad, right? So then attraction to penis=bad too, right?

Then we get into pop culture. Women in media are still very much centered as being forced or coerced into alternative forms of sex. We hear jokes about anal on birthdays, about having to convince your girlfriend to give you a blowjob, about various non-missionary positions being reserved for special occasions, and all of them center the amab person as undesireable. They focus on afab people not enjoying things that their amab partner does. And the implication often is that because the afab person doesn't get any sexual gratification out of this they must not want to do it. After all, men don't get any sexual gratification out of giving oral, so why should women?

(that's a lie of course, plenty of people --I would say most people-- enjoy giving their partner oral, but you understand the hyperbole here.)

So. Why can we enjoy receiving oral, but we can't enjoy giving it? Because we have been told we aren't supposed to. Sex is framed as a grand sacrifice that afab people make for their amab partner. Oral is something that media says no one enjoys giving. People talk about enjoying oral in terms of oral fixations and kink and "oh you only like that because of your deviance" seems to be the message that gets thrown out when someone mentions it. Biting has become more socially acceptable than sucking dick. The idea that people want to hurt their partner, is more socially acceptable than bringing them pleasure.

Just sit with that for a second because I have to.

You're absolutely right, there can't be one without the other, you can't receive oral without your partner giving it. I struggle with this A LOT and Mr. Ghoul is a saint for working with me on it, but I feel guilty asking for oral, like I'm forcing my partner to do something they don't enjoy. Despite being told by my partner that he likes eating me out, despite the fact that I like blowing him, it's hard for me as an afab person to accept that my partner enjoys pleasuring me. I've never been told that's an option.

While I think there's a lot that we as a society need to unpack in terms of sexuality and sexual expression, I think this movement of "I don't pleasure my partner, my partner pleasures me" is going to lead to a lot of unhappy relationships. A very small but loud group of men says they don't care about making their partner come, the general population does, but as it often happens shitty people focus on shitty people.

I don't want this to devolve into Ghoul talking about terf-cult politics and the way they love alt-right men's movements, so I'll leave it there, but those are my thoughts on it.

[svt-ayumi]

ꔫ  ࣪ ˖ ♡ ꒰ˆ.⸝⸝. ྀིˆ꒱Ⳋ RELATIONSHIP. 🪷

VOCAL UNIT

JEONGHAN ─── he was one of the frist to approach her OFC. I can see Jeonghan gather everyone to him. As soon as he landed his eyes on her, he knew that they were going to be bsf. He kinda just nonchalant smiled at her and started a convo out of nowhere. From that moment, she followed him everywhere, it became a sort of guide to her in a place of strangers. If she wasn't with Mingyu, she was for sure with Jeonghan. Now, they are still so close, maybe even her closest friendship not only among the group.

JOSHUA ─── at the start things were hard. They were the two new face of the company so they could both feel the pressure on their shoulder. Ayumi used to admire him from afar, not only because of his insaaane beauty, but because she was craving to speak to him. She wanted to know how he was feeling about that and know if they were going throught the same thing but she tought he didn't spoke Korean. When she got to know that he spoke korean as well, after more than a month, she felt so stupid. She assumed that he only spoke english since he was from LA but after that she ran to talk to him. Sometimes, they still tease her for that.

WOOZI ─── ofc things with Woozi were hard. He completely avoided her for the whole time, even when they discovered that they were going to debut on the same group. His frist impression of her was that she was a girl and weird, so a person to completely avoid. Ayumi didn't do a good job too because the frist thing she said to him was <how can you be so pale?> without even introduce herself. BUT SHE MEANT THAT IN A GOOD WAY, it seems that Jihoon didn't took it as a compliment. They later discovered they have a lot of in common and she love to disturb him in his studio.

DOKYEOM ─── they were so stupid for ignoring each other for so long, not because they didn't liked each other but in that green room there were so many people that they didn't discovered each other before. Eventually, following Jeonghan and Mingyu they discovered each other creating a good friendship between them. Don't know why but they fought A LOT back then that they even didn't spoke to each other for days, then forced by Jeonghan to apologize to each other and act like nothing happened again.

SEUNGKWAN ─── MOOOVE, they are the most silly but cute thing a the same time. Clicked almost istantly and boom, they never ever separated again. They got attached to the hip like twins. They are twins. Togheter they make the fun of everyone, tease everyone, judge everyone but you will never see them against each other. There are serious moment too ofc, where they will just listen to each other about the most deep thing, just only listening and understand eachother. She's always at his and Jeonghan house, in fact she should've move out with them before changing idea.

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

Things about Ed and Stede that I think would actually annoy each other during their happy life together

Stede baby. For a guy who preaches talking it through, Stede is terminally averse to admitting to any feelings he has. This is something he's left still needing to learn at the end of the show, and I think it likely would've been a focus of s3. He tends to just roll over and accept blame for everything, and eventually Ed's going to get annoyed that he has to treat it like a hostage negotiation to get a single feeling verbalized. This is going to be especially annoying for Ed given that Ed tends to take what Stede says with his mouth at face value even when Stede's body language says otherwise (see: going to China convo), so he's going to have a few days where it's like "why did you lie to me??" and he's going to be hurt even though Stede didn't really MEAN to lie

Ed is so used to being extremely successful that his metric for success is "did it easily without even really trying." When one (1) shingle he nailed on falls off the roof he's going to have a meltdown about it and Stede's going to help the best he can but Stede is so accustomed to failing and thinking around failure that he's approaching the issue from a very different philosophy

Stede sees petty crime as enrichment in his life. Ed's going to have to help him learn that if he habitually dines and dashes and steals from local places they will eventually be banned, and as they're now living stationary lives, that's a problem. Stede also doesn't yet see a problem with punching down crime-wise (see: pilot ep fishing boat).

Ed can be a bit of a people-pleaser and he's also now got heaps of abandonment issues where Stede's concerned. Recipe for disaster. Stede's going to sign them up for a community garden or something, and Ed's gonna grit his teeth and bear it until he can't take it anymore and what could've been a two-minute conversation three months ago that was just "hey, I don't really like nature or gardening, I think I'll sit this one out" turns into a crying breakdown in Stede's arms that's like "please don't make me go back into the diiiiiiiiiiiiiiirt"

Stede has a running bit where he hits Ed with This Look whenever they're shopping and he wants to buy some more books and Ed complains about carrying even more books all the way back home. And he goes like "well. this wouldn't be a problem. if it wasn't for how most of my books are in the ocean currently" and Ed hates this bit

Ed has a running bit where whenever Stede leaves his line of sight for more than a minute he's like "aww babe. i thought you abandoned me again" and Stede hates this bit

[kissesandarsenic]

Hi Loretta

More wanted to send you and @saltyytotheextreme a message saying thank you. October/ kinktober was one of the most hottest entertaining things I have experienced in a long time. Loved both of your posts. Caught myself last week just refreshing your pages waiting for the next one. Thank you both so so much

Know it is last minute so don't know if you will write one (which is fine) but could you send me a treat 😁 ... I imagine approaching you and salt at a bar (if they don't feel comfortable being included that is fine) I say I notice you both from your blog. And try to start having a convo with you about it. But I come off awkward and nervous (obviously look at you. Literally the hottest people here that I cannot keep my composure. Just shaking being in both your presence) but you see that you can take advantage of me. And corrupt me as you please. You cut me off mid sentence and lean in and ask, "mommy's needs to show you something" you both take my hand and we walk out the door.

(limits: scat, blood, any bodily fluids really)

Thank you so much, honey. @saltyytotheextreme and I are very glad you enjoyed the posts. Very flattering to hear you were refreshing our pages too. So cute.

Still accepting Trick or Treats I get today, though if there's a huge influx I might not get to them until a later date. Also leaning into burnt out territory so might slack off a little oops. Here's yours.

We're both very much fans of shy things like you. Stuttering and cute, unable to maintain eye contact. You'll be utterly perfect to corrupt into a fun little plaything for us. So we take you by the hand and lead you back to our shared hotel room.

You're stripped to nothing and made to kneel beneath us. I'd personally love to finger fuck that cute little mouth of yours and knowing Salt, she'd probably enjoy slapping you around until your eyes sting and tears streak your face. You'd look so adorable ❤️

The possibilities are endless once you're suitably fucked out for us. Maybe we'll both have straps and spitroast you, forcing you to fuck back onto a fake cock at one end and gag at the other. Maybe we'll have you eating both our cunts out. If you're lucky you might even get to fuck one of us too.

You'll learn how to please us. How to beg like a good boy, how to be vocal. And you'll love every second of being utterly used. Just a babbling mess by the end of things, not a thought left in that pretty head.

Through discipline, brainwashing, pain or other forms of corruption we'll definitely drag you down to our level. And then further down to your rightful place.

Beneath us.

Trick or Treat Ask Game! Send in a fantasy with a "Trick" or "Treat" attached and I'll elaborate on it!

[burning-academia-if]

What if someone is very actively flirting with RO, making heart eyes at them, complimenting, smiling sweetly, etc. The MC looks at them from afar. They don't like it, they are jealous and upset, but they can't say anything because they are too shy and not sure if RO likes such attention from this person or not. So, MC just sends sad glances in their direction.

What will the ROs do? (if it's a crush stage)

Rook: He knows what jealousy looks like since he's used to wearing it like a second skin. He tries not to think about it, but at the same time, he knows with his history it might just make things worse for you. Once the conversation ends, he slips back to your side, striking up a random convo to distract you

Beck: Honestly Beck has always been pretty forward when he's not interested in someone, even if he's always nice about it. Whether you're there are not, he'd probably gently reject them, but he might do it a little more swiftly since he 100% notices your stares.

Rhea: She might be oblivious at first. Both to your staring and any flirting. A lot of people compliment her at events because they want something from her. But when the person becomes more forward, her eyes slip away towards you. She catches your eye, the small frown on your face, and politely excuses herself to go to you. She doesn't condone jealousy but she is glad for a reason to escape

Zoe: I can't imagine anyone getting a chance to flirt with Zoe because they would pointedly leave the situation if they noticed, or it would go right over your head. It'd be one of those situations where the flirter was trying So Hard to get their attention, and then they see you and are immediately like "Oh! MC I was waiting for you!" And leave the person in the dust without a second thought not realizing what they've done

Lars: He's casual about it, not driving off the advances but not leaning into it either. He ignores the look you give him until the conversation is over. When he approaches you, he leans in close "could you be any more obvious?" He slips away from you before you can comment.

???: Is firm about not being interested. They don't entertain it in the slightest, and as teasing as they are with you, they don't care for anyone flirting with them unless it's coming from you. As they walk towards you after, they give a small smile, "You don't have to look like that, there's only one person I'm interested in being with."

[mermaidsirennikita]

What do you think are the next big romance trends?

Oh, dude. This is getting harder and harder for me to predict.

I think historicals will definitely be moving more to indie than they already are, and I really, really hope this means they get a bit edgier. Because a lot of the ones I've read are very soft and that doesn't do it for me.

I suspect trad will continue to push small town contemporaries they pick up from indie with little effort and we're just supposed to go ":D" over it.

I think monster romance and romantasy will continue to glide, especially as people keep trying to escape the horrors.

Diverse books (books by and about poc and queer people) are going to pivot more to indie as tradpub moves on a conservative bent.

I'll tell you this: I read a lot of 2024 releases I loved this year. Outside of the more diverse books I read, I generally found myself more interested and impressed by books 10+ years old, and that's not just in terms of historicals. I've been reading some older contemporaries, and those honestly got me going more than a lot of contemporaries lately.

I think it's really because of the "the lower the stakes, the better" approach tradpub has been taking. Which is extremely frustrating. I think we'll see more division between romance readers who read the genre with like, an actual intellectual stake in it, and.... those that don't. I mean, tbh, the convos I see on Bookstagram compared to a lot of the convos I see on other platforms are kind of shockingly different.

And I'm trying not to sound superior, but when I see people who claim to read nothing but romance dismissing it as smut and claiming they basically don't want to think when they read... I don't know what to tell you. I hate romance being dismissed as the "non-thinky" genre even by people who claim to love it. How can you love something and think it has zero intellectual value? And WANT it to have zero intellectual value ("I don't want books that make me think"). Come on now.

[kirkwallguy]

That scene is so juvenile, too. They brought an unannounced guest and aren't even willing to help with dinner. Taash is not a teenager, they're sheltered, but goddamn they are an ass to their mom on arrival. I understand being anxious and nervous about the whole thing but if this game really wants to foster a decent approach to this kind of convo, Taash needs to be willing to approach this thing like the adult they sre. You pitch in, you keep the other party appraised. Taash was just incredibly rude to their baffled mom and then expects the outcome to be good and the game doesn't even let Rook take them aside about it! You can ditch harmless early game convos between geeky companions but you can't tell Taash to cut this shit off.

the worst part is, it COULD have worked if it was written with intent. like, in a different game with a different audience and a different writer, we'd have a complicated single mother who comes from an often demonised culture with a different understanding of gender, who is tough on her child because she feels she has to to keep them safe. meanwhile, her child is rebelling against this culture because they attribute it to their feelings of being stifled by societal gendered expectations, despite these feelings probably equally coming from the incredibly gendered society they grew up in. even without the qun vs rivain thing, entitled only child + terse single mother is a classic dynamic - taash stomps around when asked to make dinner, theyre 20ish and don't understand it's rude to bring guests over uninvited, meanwhile their mother refuses to treat them like an adult and acts as though they're incapable to keep them close to her. this is FUN and if weekes actually did anything with it it could have been a unique way of using fantasy to explore a trans narrative that goes slightly further than what you'd find in a late season episode of glee.

imo the two issues are this: firstly, weekes seems completely uninterested in meaningfully exploring culture or race - the blame for this can't be placed solely on them but like... a lot of the issues with ignoring how real life OR fantasy race and culture may exist in worldbuilding seems to kind of gravitate in their general direction lol. it's present in solas it's egregious with taash and even cole is massive wasted opportunity in looking at societal power dynamics with the mage-templar conflict. EVEN with lgbt stuff, the way they're writing taash as a nonbinary person feels very... void of thinking deeply about gender and how it can change in different societal contexts, and it's clear that they're more comfortable writing about the trans part of their character than tackling the qunari/rivain plot.

secondly, the audience is a roadblock in writing a good trans narrative, but somehow they ran face first into it and died badly. even though there are parts of the game that are very obviously catered to trans people (i find the dialogue options rook has to be WAY more nuanced and well written than what they do with taash), taash is a major character who is going to be experienced by a majority cis audience - there was no way they were going to be doing "i saw the sending crystal glow". but like. at the same time i think the way they've portrayed them as immature and stomping around saying "you don't get to define me!!!!!!" does not leave a good impression lol. like i hate to judge trans art through the way it'll be received by cis people buuuut when it feels like it was made with a cis audience in mind it's something to consider. and something that makes me embarrassed whenever taash is mad at their mum for not falling over herself to tell them they can exhale now. some of the scenes, like the infamous pushup scene honestly just felt like bait to get transphobes talking about the game - and who is that for? what trans person wants someone to make a fuss when misgendering them and what clueless cis person is going to see that scene and come away with normal ideas about what happens when you misgender someone?

sorry i think i went totally off topic here but like. yeah. it's bad. i love rude characters usually and i kind of like it when they get mean since nobody else will but none of the choices made here were good

[coffeegnomee]

ok yo if anyone wants good kab lore, that convo with zam on her stream "lifesteal SMP is Hell..." around 1:27:00 and then her musings after. Like.

I think I'm finally hearing the difference between kab's straight acting dramatic lines that don't mean anything except to say the specific mentality of the character at this specific moment in time.

versus the more natural and vulnerable and real emotions that drive this server forward.

She throws in an "i'm acting" line to chat, but then qualifies it that when something really upsets her she's "a) silent or b) not streaming".

And she pretends she wasn't but homegirl is silent a lot this stream. And then verbally processing what went on, trying to understand herself and her place on the server.

She doesn't really have a character, like the character is just kab s1 of her lifesteal journey. She’s yt kab coming in as a hotshot. She's overt about playing a character "acting" but the character is just herself, so it gets really confusing when she's like "i'm acting"

We haven't hit eclipse, we haven't become solar union, farmer, wormhole, pirate, joker, druidZam. Characters that take one one aspect or another of Zam.

Like s3 was princezam. Team awesome was 'princezam doesn't try to be the hero'. Then he left them, and all the previous seasons coalesced together into how he approached the server, who he trusted, who he reached out to. And Kab is in that early stage.

"Most people don't act like this in real life, most people wouldn’t do any of the things that zam is doing, or bacon is doing, or anyone"

She hits a real moment of struggle where her past skills aren't as useful, perhaps not good enough at all, and she hits some real despair there. It's great.

And then to round out that emotional pain, Bacon comes in after and encourages her, then Zam returns and encourages her. Not leaving her lost and confused but helping her understand the server more. It's a great stream in full.

She’s feeling the effects of mcrp, and starting to realize how much it affects this server. These aren't mcyt's running around, they're mcrp lifestealers and that means something completely new.

rp hides real intentions but it also allows you to do whatever you want for dramatic effect. And bc it’s roleplay and not acting, it means you become that role and live as if it’s real. It’s not scripting and voicelines and getting the proper emotion across, a character taken up and cast off in a moment. It’s becoming the role. Which means acting not in line with what you would do as a real person in your real life.

But like wow. That stream got to me. There's real empathy there for the difficulty that is her life in particular on lifesteal, being someone who goes on a server to be on a team in order to betray the team for content. To be told that your thoughts about someone were wrong from their own mouth, and rather assertively at that, and then told from the same person, very practically, that you are too weak to not rely on someone else and effectively that you should never betray bc that would be very dangerous for yourself.

But what do you do when you betray in order to feel safe and secure that you are in control and can get out first before they hurt you?

What do you do when you need the security of a perfect plan in order to feel safe and not scared, on a server that is unscripted and will devour your perfect plan in an instant?

Like that is a Lot. That’s deep. That’s world view changing. That’s character development.

This is nothing like consequences. It's off-the-cuff reactive lore. Not planned. Just felt. It's huge.

[paceywittters]

What do you make of Tim's behavior in the last few episodes? I feel like he's a totally different person and it's making me sad to see him disrespecting Lucy so much.

just up front: it feels v clear to me that we do not share an opinion on this storyline from the tone of this ask, and so i am going to discuss this but would just like to preface that this is only my opinion and i respect that you/anyone else engaging with this post may have a different one. i am allowed to feel the way i feel, as are you. i am not trying to change or discredit anyone's opinions just because they're different than mine.

that being said - i will be honest with you, i don't really see where he's disrespected lucy. before you (and whoever else is reading this) jump me, let me explain myself.

tim went through something very difficult and traumatic with the resurgence of his wartime trauma and he made the decision not to involve lucy as he navigated said trauma. while it may not have been the best choice for their relationship, tim made the choice he felt was right in the moment. though we may not agree with it as viewers and lucy may not agree with it as tim's partner, he had the right to do that, and he explained to the best of his ability in the moment that he was keeping her out of the situation to ensure she didn't get hurt/her career wasn't impacted.

to me, that didn't feel disrespectful - it felt like tim relying on his tried and true methods of keeping the people he loves safe from him/the potential danger surrounding him. he was working with the tools he had available, even if they may not be the "right" tools for the job.

like, was it fucked that he ignored her for 36 hours? absolutely! that was disrespectful in some ways - but i think if you zoom out a little, it's not right, but it's understandable.

in the end of 5x07, lucy stops tim in the hallway at the station and asks him to talk to her - and i have seen a bunch of people who are really angry about the way tim handled that convo, so i wonder if that's what you mean by disrespect. generally, a few thoughts about that scene:

lucy approached tim hot - which, let me be clear: she had every right to. she was in her feels all day, she had something she wanted to say to him, and she was already a bit revved up coming to him. but she came into that conversation already looking for something specific, where tim was just...guard down, a little goofily happy to see her, probably a little nervous to talk to her at all.

tim wasn't given the opportunity to say much of anything. lucy asked if they could have "an adult conversation" (patronizing, but i don't blame her for it - he deserved that) and when tim explained he "couldn't give her what she wanted", lucy snapped. i understand the snap - i would've done the same - but tim had no space to continue talking there. that wasn't a conversation. lucy got her opportunity to unload on him a bit, which i think she needed. think about the breakup - lucy didn't get the chance to argue a side there, and tim didn't get the chance to argue a side here. they're equal on that kind of convo now, which i find fascinating.

so, is tim being honest with her and saying he can't give her what she needs right now disrespectful? i don't really think so. i think lucy is looking for something that tim can't give her right now - himself. tim has to sort through all his shit before he can be the best version of himself for lucy - in his tim brain, he doesn't think he can support her fully without working on himself first...and honestly? i think that's noble. lucy is far too close to the picture to see that tim has some really big issues he needs to work on outside of the scope of their relationship. i don't blame her for that, but it's just...true.

she can't be the person to help tim find himself at this point in his life. that's not fair to her or their relationship - so i think he's made the right choice here, as much as it hurts both of them.

i would also be remiss if i didn't mention that i think there's a huge part of this situation that lucy still needs to realize is on her. she has problems of her own, too! girl knows she's not perfect - but she has yet to address her own problems, and i think that's such an issue. tim is taking initiative to resolve his problems, even if it's not in a way that she agrees with. lucy isn't. just like their relationship already had issues, lucy has her own set. this wasn't the defining problem - this was just the straw that broke the camel's back in a lot of ways.

i hope this answers your question tbh bc i feel like i just rambled a bunch - but i'm always up to chat about this kind of stuff, so feel free to come back to me with more if i haven't annoyed you too much 😂