#dont ask me where this came from

[squiishiichaos]

So, as I'm getting back into writing for fandoms after a long time away, I've been thrown headfirst into the AFTG fandom, and--as anticipated--I had to write content for my unlikeable favorite. So, here, have a treat of Perfect Court Popstar AU while I procrastinate everything else I'm supposed to be doing today.

(TW for implied sexual content/sex work)

Riko spat the taste of flesh into the sink alongside a mouthful of saliva and disgust. He brushed at his teeth with his finger, rinsing and gurgling to get the last of the taste from his tongue. It was a moot point. The night was just beginning, and there was no way the many influential people here learned to keep their hands to themselves overnight. But this was the price he paid to be relevant–one he would keep paying to earn the big hookups he needed to craft his Perfect group without any say from anyone–not his uncle, not his company, no one.

He touched the fold of bills fresh in his pocket just as the door opened and a fresh body stepped over the threshold. Kevin knew better than to spare him pity at an event like this. It was status quo for the best of the best to be tossed around the richest hands, offered up like tribute by agencies desperate for donors and wealthy sponsors. Someone would eventually spot Kevin's pretty green eyes and see how fast they could make his long legs bend. Riko had always been better at offering up sweet kisses and alternatives where it mattered, but Kevin needed his mouth full to stop whatever diva words awaited the first person to dare call one of the latest up and coming stars good.

At least his attitude was refreshing. Riko wanted the world to know they were the best. The King and Queen and whatever army they allied. And once he had a full militia beneath his guard, these petty nuisances would no longer be their problem to put up with.

"You good?" Kevin asked, jerking his thumb back at the open doorway behind him. "The Master is looking for you."

Riko couldn't stop his groan. "Again?" Kevin shrugged his indifference and knocked a knuckle against the door. Riko said, "I'll be out when I am out."

Kevin nodded his agreeance, then pulled a card from his pocket. Riko took it and glanced at the name plastered on it. "Moreau?"

"Rapper," Kevin explained, "French."

Riko spared him a withering glance. "We perform in Japanese and English."

"He will learn," Kevin told him with conviction. "His flow is finite and his emotion is strong. He'll match our voices well."

"Can he move?"

"He will," Kevin said, then turned and backed from the room, leaving Riko to prepare himself for more press and more coverage.

The life of a celebrity truly was a bitch.

[yellows-secret-blog]

High School Musical 2 AU where John is like "Im a outer god (basketball player), I can't be human (theater kid)" and Arthur's just "You never know if you never try"

(I don't dance starts playing)

[bl-inkstone]

traveler, wait! it's dangerous to go alone, so have some zhongli thoughts for company!

i think life with zhongli as your significant other would be best described as the love behind every little action and gesture the two of you make. even with all the years you've spent at each other's side (either married or just simply together), the romance never dies. but it shifts and goes through changes, like stone giving way to the gentle embrace of time.

one such example is when the love shared between you calms into something that can blend in with the walls of your home. it matches the color of your curtains, the painted flowers on cups left on your tea table, the clothbound books and scrolls tucked away into the red cedar scroll shelf you had diligently sought after and haggled for when your lover had mentioned it once in passing. it's in the crinkle of your eyes in the morning when you sit at your table together and eat. it's in the shape of his smile when he returns from his work in the funeral parlor to you and the home you've made together.

when you grind ink for him while he works beside you, or comb and tie his hair for him in the morning when sleep still clings to the edges of his eyes. when he combs and washes your hair for you in soothing baths, or leans down to massage the stress of the day away from your tense shoulders when you come back home to him.

acts of service that don't really feel like acts of service — not to zhongli or you. gestures of devotion seem like a more apt term, now, when love is so ingrained in your lives that the word can no longer be used to describe it. you've turned the word from noun to adjective, from adjective to action. love is such a small word for such a boundless concept, but you manage to fit it in every word, every action, and every day leaves zhongli helpless and wondering in the dead of night of what to do with all the love he holds in his hands, specially made just for you.

it's a song and dance he can never quite stray from. even when his heart calms in the daytime and he can look at you with all the assuredness of a lover that loves and knows he is loved in return, all five thousand years of wisdom leaves him when night comes and you're asleep in his arms. he has loved plenty in his long lifetime. friends, family, even past lovers that he can only maybe recall when he can recognize a quirk or quality present in you. but it's in your presence that zhongli remembers that even an archon can become just a man weak to the war between heart and mind. what good is five thousand years of wisdom when it can't tell him what to do with all the love he has for you? how can he show it without scaring you away? you know who he is and you've said time and time before that it doesn't scare you, that you love him no matter what form or identity he takes but what if —

you shift in your sleep and all thoughts cease as he swiftly readjusts his hold as to not disturb you any further. in the dark of your room, zhongli counts each breath and beat of your heart and wills his own to match the tempo of yours. in the morning, he'll reprimand himself for entertaining such foolish thoughts while you hum and converse in front of your shared vanity. he'll share these thoughts with you as he always has, and you'll put down your comb and grace his face with crystalfly kisses as you always have in return. your routine shifts to make room for assurance during the times when he needs it, and the same goes for him when you speak your own fears and doubts as well.

it's part of the comfort of your life together, as strange as it may sound, that you live with all the joys and lows your love brings. sometimes, he wishes he can give you more and do away with all his mortal doubts completely, but a moment of contemplation reveals that it is exactly these doubts that make the softer aspects your lives shine all the more brighter. is this why you allow yourself to feel all your emotions, rather than push back and try to reason them away? is this why you've always placed so much importance in letting him know that should he ever need it, your shoulder is his to lean on? zhongli understands the rationale behind it and has given similar advice to mortals he's met before, of course, but it seems that even he is not immune to the irrationality of the heart. there is much wisdom to still be learned, he concedes. five thousand years is no match for an emotion that has existed since the dawn of teyvat, after all.

time doesn't completely erase all the insecurities of a man who has loved and lost so many in his long lifetime, but zhongli finds that he doesn't entirely mind. come trials and tribulations, he'll stand firm and weather it so long as he can keep holding your hand through it all.

[oplishin]

codyseth hear me out cake and the first person cody puts is roman

[phoenix--flying]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Luke Castellan & Lee Fletcher Characters: Luke Castellan, Lee Fletcher Additional Tags: Underage Drinking, Luke Castellan is a Good Brother, Good Luke Castellan, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Lee Fletcher is not okay, set between the lightning thief and the sea of monsters, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, lee is js a boy in this world, (hes so very much not okay), Platonic Relationships, They are brothers to me, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Self-Indulgent, So very very self-indulgent, i just needed to spread my lee and luke brothers agenda Series: Part 7 of we rise when the gods fall Summary:

“What are you right now?”

“A demigod.”

“Well, you’re completely useless.”

OR

luke often takes it upon himself to take care of lee when he has a shitty night

[minhosimthings]

"Oh really?" With a head tilt, lip bite, cocky smirk, whilst trapping me against the wall MF I AM GONEEEE

[talkingbarofsoap]

You go down just like Buddy Holly,

Mary Tyler

Mary Tyler Moore

[hunnicute]

based on that one tiktok

[psychiatricwarfare]

guy who kills himself after hearing the prophecy that his son will murder him so that there's no conceivable way the prophecy gets fulfilled since he's already fucking dead

[ashirisu]

been watching the x-men cartoon

[choccy-milky]

clora with @lamieboo's dahlia💛🩵 i had to draw them together as soon as i saw dahlia was yellow and blue, bc their colour schemes are kinda the same, just inverted (and u all know how i love my opposites LMAO)

[therealsquiddo]

just wanna say that you are a huge inspiration for me in both art and content creation<3 also what are your boundaries in fanart? Ive seen a lot of different things, ranging from "squiddo doesnt want fanart" to "they accept everything" :P

First of all... Thankyou :D

Secondly, I love fanart! I feature fanart in almost all of my videos at the end. You guys are incredibly talented and I love your fanworks so much that I want to show them off to everybody. That being said here are my boundaries...

I'm okay with people shipping me, it just sort of makes me laugh. But please don't go out of your way to send me any ship works featuring me, I just don't think that I should be seeing it. When it comes to NSFW I don't want people to draw that but I know that absolutely nothing I say will be able to stop it, so please don't feel the need to say "Look what this person drew!!" I know it's inevitably going to exist.. I don't want to acknowledge it... Annnddd lastly gore I've never seen it but I'm probably okay with it? I dunno. I won't put it in a video though.

Yeah that's it, everything else should be fine :)

[dykedvonte]

You ever just see a Mouthwashing take that makes you want to bang your head into a wall? I literally just saw someone claim Curly couldn't have been emotionally abused by Jimmy before the crash because he was in a higher position of power than Jimmy.

-Shrimp Anon

The mouthwashing fandom has shown me that people genuinely do believe that certain types of abuse are not as detrimental as other types especially when they deem those immune/resistant, ergo, believing one is objectively worse no matter how it affects the person nor the intersections of power, history and dynamics at play.

Get ready cause this is a yap session:

Cause like it's heavily implied that Curly and Jimmy's friendship was toxic and abusive, pointedly in the direction of how Jimmy uses Curly's belief/comfort in him. Curly wasn't forced to enable Jimmy but he was emotional and mentally on edge around him in almost every scene in some way. Mental and emotional abuse are not contingent on what positions you have at work. Yeah, he's Jimmy's boss but he was Jimmy's friend first and it's like getting into Psych discussion to talk about how social power tends to overshadow any perceived organizational power in the human mind. People are concerned about their jobs ofc but they tend to hang onto and put more value/investment into their personal relationships, hence why there tends to be laws and restrictions around mixing the two.

I always see the sentiments that "Curly is a grown ass man", "Curly is bigger than Jimmy", "Curly is Jimmy's boss", "He just needed a backbone" as criticisms of Curly and while I do agree that on the surface level all of these to be true and viable ways Curly could've taken more control of the situation, I often look at the parallels of Anya and Curly as victims of Jimmy pre/post crash.

The way Jimmy talks to Anya post crash is how he talked to Curly in the pre-crash segments. It's hard to pin-point mainly because we know he hates and wants nothing to do with Anya compared to his contrary but similarly handled obsessions with Curly. It's a weird sort of "honey-moon" effect of abuse Jimmy does in terms of emotional and mental victimization. He is always horrid to Anya, always talking down or questioning her abilities and thoughts in a situation, this of course includes the harassment and assault. However, he has a moment of attempted gentleness/conditioning when he question her about the mouthwash when she's contemplating drinking it at the table. The key difference is he has no personal investment in Jimmy outside wanting nothing to do with him, meaning there is no sort of romanticized version of him that he can condition her off of. He knows this, hence, why he always reverts to trying to make her to scared to oppose him.

This sort of give and take of "kindness" doesn't work on her because she knows he is just doing it to take more from her than whatever he could possibly give but it reflects even the "softer" scenes between him and Curly where he always rewords or rephrases Curly's sentiments and concerns to sound more shallow. He is feigning a deeper understanding by reworking Curly's emotions into something bad and needing to be hidden. Everything is laced with envy and resentment, an outburst just around the corner, I mean he even slams the table in the birthday party scene, a tactic in emotional manipulation to set the victim on edge and cloud their ability to respond. Even if Curly knows Jimmy won't get physical in that moment, the physical actions is intended to make him back down in the confrontation in case it does. This is something that is just not person specific. It ingrains itself into how you interact with the world and life and it shows in major and minor ways with Curly.

Post-crash, the abusive nature is more in tandem to the physical victimization Anya went through and the stripping of voice and autonomy we see take place. Like the parasite in HFIM, Jimmy speaks for Curly most of the time and puts words in his mouth, similarly to how he takes Anya's plans as his own. He very commonly, with the both of them mind you, supplements the worst aspects of himself into them; pettiness, selfishness, lack of understanding... And tries to cover himself with their best qualities; kindness, planning, initiative, etc...

These parallel are just to say that positional power has little to do with if a person can be abused and how it can even be flipped to further the abuse. There is no doubt that Curly could've picked up on Jimmy's envy of his position hence another reason he never confronted him as a Captain but as a friend as doing so would immediately put Jimmy in a space to be confrontational/combative.

I think the disdain some people have when they talk about the heavily implied if not implicitly stated emotional/mental abuse Curly experienced being Jimmy's friend is when treating it as an excuse to why he didn't do more. I can understand that completely because it is not an excuse to why he didn't do more but is a very real reason people in his position in these scenarios can experience whether in the context of a work or social environment. However, I also think the way people talk about it really does demonstrate a bigger problem when talking about abuse when somehow who is/was abused is either part of the issue or enabled it.

Harkening back to the sentiments about Curly's inaction regarding Jimmy, I think the exact phrases I used/have seen show how there is an inherent belief that it is easier to overpower the effects of emotional/mental abuse that go in tandem with the perception of Curly as someone who should be able to. There is not an age you suddenly stop being susceptible to abuse nor a set point or low where you realize how it has affected you. You don't suddenly know to stand up or put a face on to face your abuser nor admit that you inadvertently enabled them to subjugate someone else to the same treatment. Maybe it's my psych brain but their is this growing belief that direct action is somehow easy or always the best method with the game shows you instances where it is not always the case. In real life that rings true too. He should have done more, but it's not impossible to see why he struggled to find a way or didn't even if it makes us mad.

It's not easy to suddenly gain a "back-bone". You don't immediately want to resort to aggression, especially if it mirrors the type you were a victim to. You don't want to believe you allowed yourself to be treated this bad, let it get that bad or allowed something bad to happen to someone else. It is easy to be in denial, to retreat to your thoughts or make excuses to avoid the painful truth. It's frustrating but in a way we know is relatable. It why we both hate and love Curly for it. We know we'd be better, we think we'd be better, we like to think we wouldn't falter in the same ways but it's always easier to say that from the outside looking in. It's easy to see what he was doing wrong because we are seeing it, not him, but the game really does make you picture what you would do if this was your raw reality and it's why this debate about Curly seems so never ending/contradictory. We can all say what we'd do but bottom line is that's much different when you're in the moment with all the emotions and human feelings attached.

I personally think Mouthwashing tackles the themes of rape culture, enabling, toxic masculinity, types of abuse and patriarchy in ways that are meant to deconstruct the typical straightforward views we mostly have of these concepts and how little subtilities of them are just as, if not more, detrimental than the overt/obvious parts. The game deals with the idea of little details and bigger picture in a way to show that sometimes the bigger picture is not the issue but the little details that make it up. It's why I have a personal dislike of depictions of Jimmy as the typical horrible person who would of course do something like this because the game is about noticing the little warning signs, the foreshadowing and foresight.

It's why I dislike the typical discussion of "bro code" and "boys will be boys" for the game because the game makes a point to avoid the standard depictions of such. It is about the type of men who still enable despite not condoning, agreeing or even perpetuating harmful beliefs because they can't see the little details or the ways it seeps into their everyday. The severity is not obvious to them as it was not obvious to Curly, Swansea or even Daisuke the way it was to a woman like Anya. There are little details about Jimmy that should ring alarms but if you are too naive like Daisuke, too distant like Swansea or too conditioned like Curly, they are just off markers.

There is 100% more constructive/concise ways to say "Curly was a victim of Jimmy's abuse on an emotional and mental aspect that clouded his judgements and perceptions in the scenario" while also critiquing on the side of "Curly still had a responsibility to protect Anya as a crew mate and Captain that he failed to do due to biases and stigma's he failed to surpass" without the weird condemnation people give him about should've knowing better than to let himself be manipulated by a person he considered a close, if not family/best-friend and had his own reasons to trust initially. Also stop being weird about victims of abuse in general with this fandom, like sorry not everyone has a like social epiphany the moment someone's nasty to them. People are treating it like you immediately know when you are in a toxic relationship immediately or comprehend when a person is actively dangerous and either it's your fault for not knowing how to leave/cut them off or you deserve it. Like the hypocrisy of people believing how certain fans treat the story reflect their irl views but not their own is crazy.

End statement is: I honestly don't even know man, I've been writing this too long and just like no man on that ship was perfect or really helped Anya when it mattered and I feel like pitting them against each other in discussion on who did the least or most or how it was justified sucks cause in the end Anya always did the most and best thing for herself.

[luck-of-the-drawings]

"I think this is the most inhuman; and human, that I've ever felt.." MUCH CAN HAPPEN IN A YEAR. IN FIVE YEARS. A DECADE. imagine how much can happen in a century. just ONE (1). How will you grow? what phases do you find? even in 5 years, you will find patterns.

[hows-my-handwriting]

more hobie jumpscare

(whumptober day 3 but its the aftermath) i just like his squishy hair.

im gonna seriously try to commit to whumptober cuz wow the amount of angst i can cram into this motherfucker is incredible

the issue is actually drawing it cuz i suck at drawing

bonus beans. @capitalblue threw beans at me.

[fairytailfairiess]

The outfits 😍