#dont expect that acronym to take off

[princesssmars]

concrete jungle with the devil.

some victoria neuman x reader headcanons.

part.ii of this

you’re beautiful, you’re talented, and you’re the secret girlfriend of a hot and potentially crazy congresswoman. what more could you ask for?

contains : fxf relationship. fluff. angst. manipulation, pretty toxic relationship because its the boys and its victoria, mentions of smut. readers hair and face not described.

wc : 2.415

a/n : started this when season two was airing. look at what an idiot i was.

you had forgotten how much walking was done in certain cities in the states, especially in the big apple. to be fair, you’d forgotten quite a few things.

you remembered things you had forgotten gradually after that night when you realized you were not only a supe, but a supe that had been unknowingly manipulating yourself with your apparent superpowers into forgetting parts of your life. would be a cool plot for a book if it wasn’t your entire life but, whatever.

after managing to think of the revelation without nearly having a panic attack and ‘crazy high blood pressure’ as victoria so eloquently put it, you’d fallen into a kind of…ease?

in her ‘loving worry’ the woman had put you under her watchful eye, moving you into her home to prevent you from doing anything ‘drastic’ and helping you acclimate to your new state of living. she paid for your expensive hotel for another week before not subtly (and not asking) recommending you stay in her townhome.

and she’ll make sure you’re as comfortable as you can be the entire time. find the guest bed uncomfortable? her first offer is for you to just sleep with her, but she’ll settle for making sure you have a new mattress and comforter set. feeling sad over your rapid change in diet? a personal chef is hired to make you authentic parisian dishes to your hearts content.

it’s completely jarring how she has such a hold on your heart. you know a part of you can’t move on because of your powers, but every time you try to remind yourself of how weird your situation is you’re roped right back in when she comes home from work and tells you how she was thinking of you all day, giving you physical affection when you seem open to it by pressing a sweet kiss to the side of your head.

as childish as it is, a small part of you wishes you had an actual label for your relationship. ‘woman who wooed me then flew me across the globe to accomplish my dream and then revealed she wants to take advantage of my unexplored power’ was more than a mouthful. even ‘partner’ would be preferable.

it’s amplified by the fact that you aren’t really in a relationship.

you’ve slept together, something you embarrassingly think about often at night when your hand trails beneath the soft satin pajama set she had gifted you. at the end of the day you do have needs, and having your sexual world rocked only to have to (reasonably) avoid the perpetrator as best as you can is all too confusing to process.

not to mention that she still treats you sweetly and romantically when in private, fingers brushing over your arms and pet names whenever she sees you in a room of her house, but outside and in public her career calls for…propriety? and a relationship with another woman in your career would hurt her numbers apparently. at least that's what her publicist said. she didn't seem very bright yo you, but victoria was throwing hundreds at her to support her campaign.

and oh yeah, she decides to tell you randomly on a thrusday night in while making dinner with her daughter that she actually is talking with another politician about running for president and vice president. zoe had to help you when you nearly choked on your pasta.

you hadn't delved too deep into politics when over in paris, only googling the basics about small party leaders who'd show up to bars and would likely engage in small talk over a few drinks. the first time you even learned about vic's profession you already heard alarm bells in your head, but president? seriously?

she tried to reassure you about it, listing off all the benefits it would bring to her family - which now apparently includes you. a better government position meant a better quality of living, moving into the secure grounds of number one observatory circle with access to the government's protection, connections, and loads of money. you and zoe both perked up at that. you looked at the girl curiously and she shrugged her shoulders, admitting later that she would like to be able to travel to more places farther than the met.

unsurprisingly, you grow closer to zoe. you aren’t given many opportunities to make a lot of friends, and the only adult conversations you get are your friends back in pairs over the phone and victoria along with her campaign help. at first you helped her a little with her homework, even if the curriculum for her private school was leagues above what you learned in your little low-budget middle school. eventually, you start to just talk about shared interests, and you're pleasantly surprised to find out the girl is musically gifted. its sweet to see that vic set up a corner of her office for the girl to practice her talents, and whenever she offers you listen to her play a piece on her cello.

you never bring it up, but one time victoria stopped at the house for a long lunch once and overheard the two of you talking about a piece you both loved before zoe practiced it on her instrument. she stood out of sight in the doorway for a minute and just observed. as soon as you noticed her presence she was gone.

when things start looking up in the polls vic starts to show a little leniency with letting you have an actual life. of course she uses some backdoor connections to get you a boost in your career, and you find a great deal of peace in being able to perform to your hearts content. it only helps that the atmosphere of entertainment in new york is alive and bursting, you meet so many fellow musicians and singers.

slowly but surely you start to fall for the city. sure it can be dirty and smell weird and have heaps of garbage everywhere, but just like with paris you’re able to find the hidden jems that lurk just below the surface.

and after some pestering whenever the two of you manage to be in a room alone together for more than a few minutes, victoria finally starts to explain to you…well, you.

you’d always gotten a bad feeling by vought, never liked the way they profited off of the supers and marketed them to certain countries and people. finding out that they made you the ‘way you are’ . apparently, both you and vic’s parents thought letting a company shoot some super drug into their children would a smart idea, that you’d both go on to do something great.

“well, i guess you are kind of great, in a sense. smart enough to become a politician, raise a good kid. are they proud of you?”

she only gave you a dry chuckle as she took a sip of her dark wine.

“yeah, yeah they’re really proud.”

as much as you start to try, you cant get in to her head. you’ve been thrust into the middle of her life and routine and there’s still so many things about her you don’t know. hell, you don’t even know what her power really is still. you can tell she wants to let you in some, either for her own feelings or because she wants to help you explore your supercharged feelings for her to understand more about your abilities.

but just like when you talked about vought, as soon as she’s about to open up you see that look, one of a fear you’d never quite seen before flash in her eyes before she quickly dismisses you.

so you decide to tale a.. drastic measure to get some things out of her.

you had been exploring your power a bit in your new daily life, just little things that didn’t make too much of a difference or affect anyone too greatly. a simple request for the customer ahead of you to apologize to a barista they’d needlessly ridiculed, innocently asking a rushing passerby to give you directions to a cafe you had just been dying to try. it took a few weeks to get the hang of it, the fact that it apparently worked best when you were singing and the toll it could take on your body, but the dizziness fades eventually.

it’s a rare night where the two of you are in the house alone together and you decide to celebrate your recent well-perceived performance by opening up a bottle of bubbly and sitting on the couch, dressed in some maybe too revealing pajamas and waiting for her to inevitably join you once she finishes settling in from a long day at the campaign office.

she joins you and clink s her glass to yours, rolling her eyes into your drink when you immediately ask her a question about all of her plans.

“its gonna take more than some expensive champagne and you looking like that for me to crack, but nice try sweetheart.”

“oh yeah?” your finger teases the rim of your glass, eyes trained on her movements.

“yeah. let’s stick to the basic questions for now.”

you hum a short tune to yourself and take another sip of your drink. “okay. you should tell me what you had for lunch today.”

“patricia picked me up a ceasar salad today. it had too many croutons, a really absurd amount. sat confused for a few seconds.”

her eyes scrunch up slightly and flick to yours. you take her silence as a sign to keep going.

“i never really get to talk to your assistant. she told me once her name was morticia.”

she laughs and sets her glass on the coffee table, “think she might’ve been intimidated by you. she can be a real tightass but she’s a hardworker, believes in my campaign and message and all that shit.”

“dont try to skirt past that, tell me why she’s intimidated by me.”

her eye twitches, clearly annoyed by what you’re doing and not used to someone having this kind of control over her. but each time you do it you notice the way her hand clenches on the cushion of the sofa, how her tongue darts out to quickly lick over her bare lips.

“she wants me, checks me out sometimes when we’r ein the office. but the reason i hired her is that she’s incredibly observant, and she’s probably picked up that the two of us have a weird thing going on.”

your eyes slightly scrunch together. “what do you mean by ‘weird thing’ ?”

clearly your aggravation at how she decided to describe...admittedly whatever this weird thing between the two of you was, its enough for your concentration to slip and allow her to get out of the concentrated hold you had on her mind. in only a few seconds she’s pinning your body down to the couch, your wrists held down by her hands and your drink falling to the floor with a loud shatter.

‘ugh! vic, what the hell-” you struggle to get out of her grip, thrashing your arms and trying to kick up your legs that are trapped under her thighs. you apparently greatly underestimated how strong she is.

“that’s it baby, get angry, let it all out.” she has a fascinated smile on her face that does nothing to quell your frustration, only giving you the desire to get right back to messing with her anyway how.

“tell me why you’re doing this to me!”

“i like watching you under me, plus i like having control over you. definitely don’t want you turning the tables on me again.”

you notice that when you command her to explain her voice takes on this fast tone, like she’s rushing to answer you as soon as you finish speaking.

“you think i’ve dont you what you’ve done to me?”

“isn’t it fucking obvious? you just forced me to tell you something i wasn’t supposed to mention. i have to keep sharing things with you, you make me want to share things with you. you’re controlling me and you don’t even know it.”

“why don’t you want me to control you?”

“because i’ve been controlled before. its horrifying. you could be horrifying. because it’s not part of the plan. none of this is. god, you were supposed to be gone by now but i just can’t…i don’t-”

both of you’re eyes are wide when her speech starts to slip, fighting against the control to keep telling you what she’s hiding. her head jerks and you feel a rush of hot liquid rush down your face, your hand miraculously free to let you feel the blood pouring out of your nose. you look back at her and she’s scrambled to the other end of the couch, eyes trained ahead of her as she gets herself out of the daze.

abruptly she stands up, swiping off any leftover unease and starting her trek towards the stairs as you wipe off the now slow moving trail of fluid trailing from your nose.

as soon as she reaches the first step you call out to her, blood dripping into your mouth as your voice takes on a bittersweet and melodic sound.

“how do you feel about me, victoria?”

her manicured hand clenches around the wood bannister so hard you fear it’ll snap.

“you’re powerful. you’re useful and you’re terrifying.”

tears prick at your lashline as you swipe at more of the red covering your mouth. her head turns to meet your blurry gaze.

“i think i’m in love with you.”

you zone out to the sound of her footsteps rushing up the stairs and the light-headness from exertion.

you had forgotten what one one of the worst things about being in a city was. how despite being surrounded by thousands of people and hundreds of lives, inevitably came those times where you were alone as a person could be.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

WIBTA for letting my job think my disability is only/mostly physical?

🩺🩻💼

i am currently on ssi/ssdi for mental illnesses i have (namely severe depression, though i have other diagnosed/medically recognized issues that contribute), and i have many other physical issues that have not been diagnosed (im hypermobile and suspect i may have POTS). my job knows im on disability, but i havent told them what im on it for.

i started working there as a seasonal worker in december and decided to stay on because they assured me that they could accommodate me in terms of disability. i work three 4hr shifts a week on the same days every week.

recently i have been rapidly approaching burnout. when i get burnt out, im unable to take care of myself and the space i live in. i also have a history of ending up in psych hospitals because of overworking myself. i emailed my manager and told them that because of my disability i will need to cut back to two shifts a week. i mentioned this was something my social worker and i agreed on. they have yet to give me a response.

im honestly expecting the worst because of how shitty jobs are about recognizing mental health as a valid reason to be disabled, however they also know of my physical issues as well. ive told them about my rapid heart rate and bad joints, and theyve been accommodating enough.

my physical issues suck, but are not nearly as disabling as my mental issues. i dont want to minimize or piggyback off of other physically disabled peoples problems when im not nearly as affected by them.

WIBTA if i conveniently left out the fact that my disability was related to mental health and played up the physical issues to hopefully get my week cut down?

What are these acronyms?

[thedeadthree]

☆ persona for all ur lovely mcs!! 🎸💫

ISABELA !!!!!!!! hi hi dearie ! ty ty so much u are a sweetheart AHH.

🎸★ INFAMOUS MC ASKS.

🎸 ★ PERSONA: how does their day-to-day personality compare to their on-stage persona?

ANSWERED HERE ! ♡

she i would say loves to subvert the reserved off stage and lively on stage ! she is the life of any party off stage and plays into the melancholia of her music on stage! as her band takes heavy influence from darkwave/cyberpunk-ish/new wave/noise esque genres her more moody-esque energy when performing is what she plays into on stage! she is the best at parties <3 very known to have the best taste in music and be the dj at parties and road trips, for entertainment will stop the party tunes and will play the most depressing tunes you have ever heard at said parties as well.. for the funsies <3

i think for mona its important to her very much she is as she is both on and off the stage ! shes as thoughtful as she is to her fans on stage and with the people in her life, shes as motivated to create art and make life as beautiful for herself, her fans and her loved ones ! she is as pure of an artist as you can be and she wants that to be seen both for her stage life and in her private life. she loves art in all its forms and as her music is a love letter to art (MoMa is named after and is the acronym for the metropolitan museum of art !!!!!!) and she lives to embody that in her music and her life <3 (things dearest to her are reserved for her loved ones of course and she expects that to be respected!)

he is quite similar to mona in that he is as much of a curator of portraying the love to create and the love of being an artist both in his stage persona and his off stage persona but i will say he likens to his personal life as being precious to him and prefers that be reserved for his loved ones ! he is very much an ambivert in that on stage and out and about he loves to be present with his fans, his friends and his loved ones; but at home or in the studio prefers a small group (maybe one other person or two like rowan or jazz or vic when theyre in a relationship!) of his loved ones or to be with his thoughts ! we love a beloved with range !

they are veeeeeery much so an introvert off stage in comparison to her muuuuch significantly so on-stage persona. on stage aura is the portrayal the wish to be perceived as an artist, they put on a show a masterclass of performace and musical art for their fans ! off stage aura the performer takes a backseat, shes introspective and prefers her thoughts and her art. parties are nooot their thing <3

and teehee bonus track version !

oh indeed ! he gets an au!!!!!! (hes in the g and vic poly! and hes a close friend and a side chara in all of the ocs verses !) and you would never guess what the name of his band is (it is not ken-doll) ! he is just as who he portrays himself both on the stage and off! (and by that he is as much of a beloved buffoon on stage as he is off the stage sjanakjn) loves to share his life with his loved ones and his fans (much to the chagrin of his managers his acting one bernadette/bernie and his music one in the au the dearest orion jaskna. who would prefer if he kept at least one or two things to himself kjaska you dont need to share everything my love!) and if his fans or his loved ones asked him to fight a bear in an arm wrestling match because they had a bad day he would do it because thats the sort of soul he is ! he made a name for himself and his loved ones and his fans were there for him, so his way of returning that love is to offer that in full in return to them !

[udunie]

no pressure but I'd love to hear about these oppressive omegaverse dystopia ideas if you wanted to share!

+

well dont leave us in suspense. whats the new oppressive a/b/o universe now

I was thinking of an A/B/O universe where there's a prolonged conflict (either with another country or aliens or something), plus there are demographic challenges (that the 'developed world' will eventually face everywhere) which is not a good combo, cause war feeds on human flesh.

There would be a large Population Optimization Program (POP), under this the following legislation would be put forward:

Abortion ban

Contraceptive ban

Α PAPA (alpha paternal payments - large tax credits based on offspring number in or out of mating bonds - or heck, maybe also some cash bonuses?)

Ω MAMA (Omega Mandatory Mating - a huge step back for omega rights, all omegas who are not mated by age 21 would be paired up with alphas, plus any widowed omegas would also be mated again if they are still fertile)

Ω DOLL program (Omega Debt Optimization and Loan Leniency) that makes it possible for families with a lot of debt to get all of it forgiven in exchange for giving up an unmated omega child to the state who would then go to State R&R centers (meaning Recreation and Reproduction here) where omegas who are dependents of the state 'work'

(can you tell how much I love all those acronyms and shit the US uses, lol)

Omegas are accepted in R&R centers from age 14 and up, here they are intensely bred and worked as prostitutes - referred to as Private Entertainment Technicians in polite society - aka PETs (mainly aiming services at the military and law enforcement).

The breeding program starts with health screening and an artificially induced heat that guarantees pregnancy within a day or two. Omegas are pregnant for 8 months (thanks to medical advancements, this doesn't pose much of a risk, and a lot of times they are carrying multiples that usually can't be carried to term anyway) During pregnancy they are working as PETs, they can be rented for 200/hour, tho military/law enforcement get a 50% discount, and they make up almost all customers. They are working at most 10 hours a day.

After the 8 months is up, labor is induced. After birth, there's one month of breastfeeding and recovery, then the babies are separated and placed into nurseries. The next month is continued recovery and fertility treatments that significantly raise the chance of conceiving multiples, to the point where the program averages 1.8 children per birth.

Then the 10 month cycle starts again.

Since they are giving birth roughly every 10 months, omegas are expected to give birth about 40 times during their fertile period, having between 60 to 100 babies.

Omegas in the program would be earning income after every child and also incur expenses (they would be charged for everything; medical expenses, accommodation, nutrition, overhead costs etc), which would leave them with around 20k earned at the end of a 10 month cycle, 90% of which would go towards the debts they are working off. 10% of their earnings would be saved for when they leave the program.

(of course, young omegas would be making a lot more, but their earnings would drop off - even into the negative - as they age and have less customers, so the above is the average)

That would leave omegas aging out of the program (usually mid fifties) with 80k total for the rest of their lives.

Babies born in the program (known as POP babies) would be kept in in-house nurseries where omegas not currently entertaining would be taking care of them until they are potty trained. Then they would go into state foster care. They would receive general education until age 12 when they would be tested for their dynamics. Omegas (and any betas not fit enough for the military) would be adopted out to families. Alphas and betas would be moved to military boarding schools. Here they would get general training until age 16. At that age, betas would be enlisted for a mandatory 25 years, Alphas would take competency tests, the lower 50% would be enlisted, the top would receive specialized training. After another two years there's another test with the lower 50% enlisted - in higher positions - and the rest would go on to higher education/the academy. Only these - the best 25% of Alphas - would be allowed to decide if they want to enlist or not (they usually do, but some of them go into politics).

And there you have it, a whole dystopia!

[omegasmileyface]

for some reason i fucking hate it when people i dont expect talk about my hyperfixations, especially if its casual. not like it makes me angry but like,,,,, when im watching a youtuber i like and they mention like "oh shit is that astro boy? i havent thought about that in a while. anyway" i have to click off immediately im SO uncomfortable. i think its related to the way i cant hear related things out loud or it makes me like. scared-embarrassed . whenever i need danny phantom screenshots i mute the video because if the CARTOON SOUNDS are PUT INTO THE AIR the FICTIONAL CHARACTERS (who aree real but only in this situation) will GET MAD AT ME for ACKNOWLEDGING THEIR REALITY and i get really warm nd my heart beats fast and i have to turn off the sound or redirect the conversation or else just take it. its scary idk. thats why i use acronyms so i dont have to invoke the full names of things . idk. this has been the case since i was like 9 and got into percy jackson. i guess its a little different when its the youtuber thing but still Penny Parker will make a goin' ghost joke when i dont expect it and ill look like im on my first date with someone who will shoot me if i do something wrong. but i have to ACT CASUAL. or else the universe will judge me for being Affected By Mentions Of Media. and then like snipe me or something. you know? is this normal

[fluffyheretic]

d0nt rebl0g this im mad and need to vent abt petty stupid shit

99% of this post is good and i agree with the message wholeheartedly but i am so sick like sick to DEEEAAAATH of seeing "gays, lesbians, and trans people" when there is literally nooooooo reason whatsoever to exclude bisexuals. i know people are gonna say im petty for this and be like "thats not the point of the post get over yourself" and maybe theyre right but idc! im gonna be petty rn fuck it. theres no reason to get mad over being excluded here? well there was no reason to exclude us in the first place either. im allowed to be put off by that.

bc heres the thing: if it was just this post id be like "oh thats kind of lame" but its NOT just this post, this isnt ABOUT this post, its a good post in every other respect, im just using it as an example here bc i see this happen literally all the damn time. this post is just the last straw on the camels back rn. people list out the acronym and do a hop skip and a jump right over a whole community and act like nobody will fucking notice or give a shit. and for what? why? whats the point??

"you cant expect them to list every identity" just say LGBT people then. lgbt+, lgbtq, whatever the hell you prefer but either list us out or dont. SGA people and trans people, sure, whatever works. i cant stand the q slur but id almost rather you say that just to at least act like youre trying to be inclusive.

like again i knoooow im gonna look petty for this. like yeah in the grand scheme its a small thing. the thing is im not even saying op is intentionally biphobic. i bet ey just didnt even think of it as ey were writing the post. that doesnt mean it doesnt hurt. that doesnt mean im not sick of seeing it happen over and over again. it feels like it doesnt matter what bisexuals complain about. big things, small things. it all gets brushed aside as us being too dramatic. small casual biphobia is still shitty. so fuck it. ill be overly dramatic and petty about the small things too. might as well for all the difference it makes. fuck it.

idk. its a good post with a good message. and also fuck that post and fuck this post that youre reading right now too. im so sick of this. dont take this too seriously or start shit over this bc i just needed to rant and get shit off my chest. but also do take it seriously. nobody takes us seriously. or dont. or do. idk idc bye.

[kaen-ace-of-diamonds]

Walking Space Heater

Word Count: 2700+ (oneshot) 

[AO3]

Genre: Fluff/Hurt/Comfort

Characters: Cinder Fall, Neopolitan, Emerald Sustrai, Mercury Black

Pairing: Cinder Fall/Neopolitan

Summary: Written (late) for Day 4 of @spice-cream-week 2021, “There Was Only One Bed.”

With the heat of both her Semblance and the Maiden powers, Cinder's body is much warmer than the average person's. So long as she's still by her side, Neo intends to take full advantage of that.

~0~

This is definitely a step down from the Haven dorms. Neo’s thumbs moved lightning-fast over the keyboard of her Scroll. Don’t they have ANY concept of personal space here? 

She could say something about Roman’s excessive use of emojis. But looking at his messages, she could hear his laughter clearly in her head, and she had no problem with that.

wtm? you got stuck with a shitty roommate? I’ll come and get her for you idgaf

That elicited the breathy noises that were the closest Neo got to laughter. Truthfully, she probably wouldn’t have minded sharing a room much in and of itself. It might even have been fun to mess with Emerald and Mercury in their own space. 

But no, she’d ended up with the only one that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

Cinder Fall was calm, collected, and incredibly competent. Neo didn’t necessarily dislike her. She thought that they got along fairly well, in fact. But that didn’t mean that she trusted her.

Roman was content to stay in the dark about what exactly her ultimate design was beyond Beacon’s destruction, having already accepted the fact that they would be overwhelmed by it. It still gnawed at Neo, though. Thus far her only clues had been the couple private calls that Cinder had taken, and the way Haven’s headmaster cringed like a kicked puppy whenever he caught sight of her. 

Sure, the man was jumpy enough in general, but Cinder — or, more accurately, whatever force had moved Cinder to the Academies — made him cower. Even Neo’s most devilish smile couldn’t do that.

She’s...not bad. She definitely likes me more than she likes you.

Now, did that really require five laughing emojis after I can live with that lol?

And

Neo’s thumb hovered over the screen. For the first time in several minutes, she glanced up from where she was curled up tightly on the covers of her bed. 

Cinder was perfectly at ease on her own bed, leaning back against a stack of pillows with her Scroll open in front of her face. Still rifling through the records of all the Academy students, no doubt. Casting her great and bloody show, for which every little thing had to be perfect. It wasn’t enough that she was sending Emerald and Mercury out to run recon and collect as many relevant details about their players as possible. No, she had to study up herself for hours on end.

Neo was willing to play her own part, but it all seemed very boring to her. Certainly her interim leader could use a break. She returned her attention for one moment more to her Scroll:

I think she would be fun to play with.

Ignoring the several question marks sent in reply, Neo pocketed her Scroll and slipped off her bed. Moving soundlessly was one of the first skills she had ever had to master, and she still considered it her most important. 

Cinder was still too engrossed in her research to notice as she crept across the carpet and climbed onto the other bed. Or maybe she just didn’t care enough to acknowledge her. She certainly didn’t look surprised when Neo’s head poked through the hole between her arms and her Scroll.

“Oh,” she said, smirking, in a tone that she might use with a stray cat that had come up to her in the street. “Hello there. Looking for some entertainment?”

Neo gave her her best strawberry-ice-cream smile, and scooted closer. From the meager rations of physical contact she meted out to Emerald, she wasn’t sure how much Cinder liked being touched, so she proceeded with care, little by little. It seemed to be acceptable: she stayed very still, but allowed Neo to settle down on her chest, resting her head against her shoulder.

“Or are you just lonely?”

Neo hummed thoughtfully, letting herself relax: not all the way, but just enough. This was nicer than she had expected, she had to admit. Cinder was dressed like she had been in the first round of the Vytal Festival: sleeveless jacket, long pants, and sarashi. Neo’s cheek rested mostly on bare skin, and though of course she had seen Cinder’s Semblance before (as well as the flames that didn’t quite seem to fit with it), it was much warmer than she had thought it would feel. Softer, too, with the scents of wood smoke and spicy perfume clinging to it.

“Well?”

Neo rolled lazily over onto her back, looking up at Cinder’s Scroll to see what she had been so busy scrutinizing. Hm. Several pictures of that Mistrali girl from the cereal commercials, accompanied by a passage about her Semblance which had been highlighted in a few places. There was one more tab open with an acronym on it, but that was it. 

Nothing that could tell Neo anything about their situation that she hadn’t already guessed at. And what was more, absolutely nothing that could be more interesting to her temporary partner than her.

Clearly, Cinder could use a lesson on how to properly spend an evening. Dastardly planning, which seemed to be her only form of recreation, just wasn’t going to cut it. 

So Neo helpfully reached up, laid her hands over Cinder’s, and pushed the Scroll shut for her. She put her pointer finger to the outside of her nose; her new teammates might not be picking up Valerian Sign Language particularly well, but she hoped the long, exaggerated twist away from her face coupled with a dramatic sigh got the message across equally well: Cinder, I am bored to tears.

Cinder tilted her head, puzzled but smiling. She slipped her Scroll into her pocket and wrapped an arm around Neo’s waist. 

“Well, in that case, I’d be happy to give you some attention.”

Neo made as pleased a sound as she could muster up, and snuggled up to Cinder, as close as she could get. It might have been dark and cool outside, but she felt as if she were napping on a sunbeam. Rolling over to lay her head on Cinder’s chest, she could imagine that there was a powerfully burning fire inside it in place of a beating heart, whose heat was palpable, just beneath the skin. 

She tried to look more sweetly smug than actually impressed, but gods, she had never felt anything like this. 

Cinder held her tightly in both arms now, fingertips scratching lightly between her shoulder blades, and Neo nearly purred. Years of pulling back bowstrings had turned those arms wiry and oh so strong. All at once, she completely understood why Emerald was always trying to earn one of these rare hugs.

And speaking of which...

Neo wasn’t sure how long she spent in the lap of luxury, only that she felt like she might actually fall asleep in it, as toasty warm as it was. Cinder had switched from rubbing her back to stroking and playing with her hair, which, in her experience with other people, was a welcome first. But she was jolted back to full awareness when their dorm room door slammed angrily open.

Blinking, Neo lifted her head. She caught the lingering scents of jungle juice and sweat incoming, before she saw Emerald stalking inside, barely hanging onto her last scrap of patience. Mercury stumbled in after her, wearing a huge grin and mirrored shades that Neo was fairly certain did not belong to him.

Cinder smirked. “I was wondering when you two would be back. How did it go?”

Emerald forced a halfway convincing smile for her leader. “It was...interesting. Though not quite as informative as I was h—”

The smile froze on her face when she turned to look directly at Cinder, and saw Neo lounging in her lap like a spoiled cat. 

Neo smirked, and signed, Party fun? With the reputation Vytal Festival house parties had, hopefully Emerald had gotten some attention as well.

“Oh, it was great!” Mercury shrugged off his jacket and pitched it into his and Emerald’s room, littering their carpet with brownie crumbs. “We saw a lot of everybody, didn’t we, Emmy?”

While Emerald tried to take a cue from Cinder and set him on fire with her eyes, Cinder herself just closed her Scroll with a soft laugh. 

“Well, you can tell us all about it in the morning. We should all get some rest now.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“You got it, boss...”

Neo watched them slink into their room, where muffled bickering started up as soon as the door closed, but did not move until she felt a gentle pat on her thigh. 

“You too, dear. Go on.”

Though she made a show of huffing about it, Neo got up off Cinder’s bed and went back across the room. 

Her own bed felt cold and uninviting now. Catching up on the several missed texts from Roman (including but not limited to what do you mean by that lmao, hey Neo dont leave me out of the loop :), Neo tf are you doing to her O_o, NEO) did make her smile, but as she drifted off to sleep, she couldn’t help but wish that she didn’t have to return to being alone just yet.

~0~

This was not at all the solution to that problem that she had envisioned, but Neo knew very well how to deal with whatever life threw at her.

She had never been to Atlas, and while she had to roll her eyes at its decadence, she couldn’t say she hated the place. Cinder, on the other hand, never answered outright when Neo tried to ask if she had ever been here before, but every bitter hiss from her about Atlas elites that had not been asked for gave her a general idea. It had taken them a while to find a vacant apartment to squat in, especially considering that there was an entire chunk of the city that Cinder refused to even go near. 

But now here they were, and it was empty around them and quiet outside. The blackout curtains shielded them from the city lights. In pitch darkness the two of them were curled up together in the place’s one bed.

Cinder had initially balked at the idea of sharing it, insisting that Neo take an extra blanket and find somewhere else to curl up. So barky with her orders these days, and so on edge, too. Neo was beginning to wonder how she had ever thought of this woman as calm and collected.

In any case, she didn’t see what her once-again partner’s problem was. She had invited Neo into her bed with her before, hadn’t she? Maybe not to sleep, but still. And she was far from squeamish; she wouldn’t make a fuss about the scarring and empty eye socket on full display. As such, she ignored the demand, and simply undressed, got under the covers, and gestured for Cinder to join her. 

After some indignant spluttering, Cinder threw up her hands and stormed into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. She didn’t come out until Neo had turned the lights off and laid there long enough that she might reasonably have fallen asleep. Even then, she slipped in quietly, gingerly, and stuck close to the edge of the bed. 

Now, that just would not do. Atlas was much too cold for that kind of nonsense. 

Neo rolled over under the blankets, feeling just as bold as last time, but exercising even more care, Cinder being so volatile lately. She went out of her way to be heard, so it wouldn’t startle Cinder to be touched. She knew her bedmate was awake: though she lay very still, her breathing was nowhere near relaxed enough for her to be asleep. 

Cinder didn’t jump when she felt Neo wrap her arms around her waist, but she did go still as a statue.

“Neo,” she growled, low in her throat, “what are you doing? I’m not in the mood for—”

Neo nuzzled her bare shoulder in a way she hoped was reassuring, as she pressed up against her back. Fortunately for her, Cinder’s new arm was tightly bandaged up for the night, so she didn’t have to risk touching the awful thing. Only human skin, just as fiery warm as before. Even the wood smoke smell remained. 

As had happened so often since the Fall of Beacon, Neo caught herself writing a text to Roman in her head, wryly telling him that he was right, she shouldn’t have thought so hard about where Cinder’s flames came from, because she would never in a million years have hit on the right answer.

She gave her head a shake, and resisted the urge to glance back at the bowler hat perched neatly on a bedpost. If she started thinking too hard about that, she would never get to sleep either. There would be time, when the sun came up, to consider some more whether the woman in her arms was the key to her revenge, or its target all along. 

Right now, the darkness was peaceful and the blankets thick and soft around them, and the heat of their bodies grew more soporific every moment. Comfort was a rarity in both of their lives. They ought to savor it whenever it came their way. 

Cinder let out a long, exasperated huff, clearly not sharing the opinion. 

“Couldn’t you just hug a pillow?” she grumbled. But there was no bite in her voice. 

Neo smiled against her skin, entwining her legs with Cinder’s. Now, she would have said, were her hands not occupied, where would be the fun in that?

“...Fine. Just don’t think you’re going to make this a regular thing.”

Oh, she absolutely was, so long as they were staying in the coldest part of the world and she was in the company of a walking space heater. 

As such, Neo ignored the question and snuggled closer. She was trying her best to communicate “calm down and go to sleep” through body language alone, so to feel Cinder slowly but surely relaxing in her arms, eventually going limp, was deeply gratifying. Almost fascinating.

From nights spent in the Beacon dorm room and Mistrali inns, Neo already knew that Cinder talked in her sleep. Most of what she said was sluggish and toneless as well as nonsensical, but sometimes it was a series of fierce snaps or pained moans. It came as no surprise to Neo that when, just as she was starting to doze off herself, she was woken back up by her partner’s twitching and yelping. 

“No...don’t take...I’m...!”

Neo sighed drowsily, and tightened her embrace, humming as soothingly as she could. Her inability to speak never really bothered her, but there were times like this when it didn’t exactly help her, either. At least she could keep Cinder from thrashing around and hurting one of them: if that arm decided to act up while its host was in distress, she had zero faith in the bandages to hold those claws back.

It’s okay, she thought, hoping that somehow it would get across, just relax, you’re all right...

Nightmares never lasted forever. Neo had woken with her stomach still in free fall from enough dreams of plummeting wildly through a Grimm-infested sky to know that. Still, she hoped that her attempts at calming had helped this one pass quickly. Cinder’s mumbling devolved into moans, then to frantic whimpers, then finally to something close to the restful breathing that Neo had almost fallen asleep to before.

Neo took a deep breath of her own. She was too tired to smile, but leaned in to press a kiss to the back of Cinder’s neck, the ends of her short hair tickling her nose. To her surprise, she felt a burn scar here, too: thin and faded, but winding around her neck like garrote wire. Somehow she didn't think that Ruby had done this. But she certainly wasn't going to ask who had. They weren't going to discuss any part of this in the morning.

So she kissed her neck once more, soft and just a bit more sincere, before closing her eyes again.

Good night.

[agentangeles]

Let’s talk about TYAC.

Usually, this blog updates infrequently, and it’s whatever project I’ve got in-progress. The prompt challenge is on temporary hiatus right now, but each individual prompt has been its own contained fic.

I want to take this time to... I dunno, explain this fic? I owe this to nobody, but I still feel that it’s important, because throughout the past year and change, TYAC has been something of a constant for me. 

TL;DR for under the read more: no, TYAC isn’t taking over priority for Hallmark Cliches, nor will it be taking priority any time soon.

If you follow my main blog, @implodingcacti​, then you might be familiar with this acronym. I’ve tagged posts on my main blog with #still dont have a tyac tag for a while now- yes, I know the tag is goofy, but I never bothered to change it, and it became a running gag. There’s a bit of assorted chatter from last year when progress was really kicking off, and then life hit me during NaNoWriMo and I put it on hiatus.

This fic is, quite literally, the culmination of me deciding that Klavier deserves better than how he’s treated. Capcom has shoved him into the role of a petty cameo, and that’s a damn shame.  This fic is me giving him the care and consideration that he honestly deserves. Klavier has so much potential in-canon, and yet he’s let down by a lack of bonds. We know he has a brother, we know that Daryan is his friend, and that’s... it. We know nothing about extended family, or what his time was like at Themis, or the other 3 Gavinners and their individual dynamics. Hell, we don’t even know what happened to Vongole, Kristoph’s dog. Where is she, Capcom? Where did you put our baby?

I’m not gonna pretend that this isn’t an ambitious project. I’m not going to pretend that this fic is going to shatter people’s worlds, too- don’t get me wrong, I’d love to, but I don’t want to disappoint myself. Honestly, I’m not expecting much of anything beyond making him feel as fleshed out as he deserved. I latched onto him after Serenade, getting to see all of those miniature glimpses into his band and recognizing similarities between my own performing experiences, and damn it if I’m not soft on the man. That case really was what sold me on loving him, after all.

That being said- TYAC is still completely unfinished. At the time of writing, my in-doc wordcount is sitting a bit over 100k (103,047 to be exact, in case anyone is curious). This includes scene notes for things I haven’t written, script for in-game cases (because fuck it, I decided I wanted to have the cases in the damn fic), and the fic itself. TYAC is not finished, nor is it close to being done. 

If ever I am running a fic that isn’t TYAC, that fic is taking priority. Eventually, I’d love to have TYAC be finished, and I’d love to share it with people. I’m also very aware of my own abilities, and even if I dedicated all of my time to working on it, I’d get quickly burnt out.

I’ve had a lot of estimates about where the fic’ll end up wordcount-wise. Each one has been wrong. I’m setting a rough estimate around 200k, and hoping maybe I land under that. I have no idea if I will. 

Another thing I wanted to mention is that I’ve talked about the fic being in sections. Section 1 is its own chapter, and is the shortest so far out of everything. I’m gonna go over the sections upcoming, their names in the doc, and kind of give y’all a rough estimate of what to expect.

Section 2: SEVEN YEAR OVERVIEW; NOW WITH TOURING DRAMA

Takes place where 1 left off, here’s our Gramarye trial and the 7 year gap. Did you like the other Gavinners? There’s a lot of them here. It’s the “developing the Gavinners” section. 

Section 3: IN PRESENT TIMES. DISBANDING.

Spans the in-between space of Turnabout Trump and Turnabout Corner to right before the events of DD. We have 3 cases here- Corner, Serenade, and Succession. If you haven’t played AJ, you can essentially read a good chunk of it. The characterization leaks out a bit as well. I know I’m developing Klavier, but there’s someone else who I think would be fun to include...

Section 4: RECONNECTIONS. GOODBYES. A SOLO CAREER THAT KEEPS PAUSING. REPEAT AS NEEDED.

Two games in one- we’re spanning DD through SOJ with this one! One case in detail, though- it’s Turnabout Academy, but this time with less bleh. There’s mentions of other cases, and a bit of overlap, so it isn’t like you’re completely missing out, but there’s a bit more going on with Klavier. Lots of emotional shit. Boy’s gotta react to shit, after all. Capcom, you cannot hide your grieving and comforting from me. Miss me with that shit.

Section 5: TWO YEAR OVERVIEW, NOW WITH TOURING DRAMA, ROUND TWO; ELECTRIC BOOGALOO. (30% more pining edition)

Post-SOJ, baby! Two years of a free and open playground where I am free from the confines of canon and will handle the boy how I see fit. There’s emotional healing in this chapter. Funky friendships. My official promise to the “Do They Know Yet” blog being once-again upheld. I’m tying up loose ends in as many neat bows as I can.

That’s as much as I can touch on without it being spoilers. At any point, please feel free to ask questions about this fic. I am constantly vibrating about this project.  Thanks for sticking with me through it all. Hopefully I’ll have new stuff out on it soon!

-Angeles (they/he)

[thereal-linh-cinder]

Cinder’s Notes on Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets

We’re back with CoS!

Again, massive spoilers for the entire HP series (obviously)

Woo the hell plans where theyre going to stand when dinner guests arrive? you seem so unbelievably inhuman, which, i suppose the Dursleys are, but still...

DUDLEY’S COMPLIMENT FOR MRS. MASON

Because Harry is an unreliable narrator, is it possible that the Dursleys treat him slightly better than is described? Unlikely, but something to consider

Harry is so humble?

He’s also hilarious “[Voldemort] hasnt got a brother, has he?”

bars on the window are a bit extreme

the twins ooze chaotic energy

are the owls that wizards use magical? they always seem to understand humans VERY well...or is it just magic that gives magic folk a better connection w animals? Or is that just how owls are? Or do I just not understand how carrier birds work? 

rather convinient that only the bottom stair creaks and not like. the 13th from the top or something

“Draco made Dudley sound sweet” i mean. childish bullying at school  vs physical abuse for years but ok go off jkr

the twins are 14 and driving a car. in Britain. where you have to be 18. chaos

Mrs. Weasley reminds me way too much of my own mother

Percy wears sweater vests confirmed (are we surprised)

Please take a moment to imagine Percy’s reaction to Hermione becoming Minister

Lockhart + Rita Skeeter (idk what this means but its in my notes)

“got the impression that Snape could read minds” 👀

Lockhart is just gonna go through the whole rainbow huh

Lockhart really compared Harry almost DYING to him winning that stupid smile award. Bruh.

Lockhart has 7 books

I feel bad for Nick :(

There’s so much about the Vanishing Cabinets in this book!

that moment with the salamander and the firework is a gem

Do Ron and Hermione at least hear hissing in the walls?

so Lockhart is basically running the Hogwarts theatre department huh

why was Ron’s first thought toenails

Scarhead? Thats the BEST insult you can come up with, Malfoy? 

Yeah, let the 12y/o deal with the rogue bludger on his own, y’hear? (can you tell I’m a lot older now)

Honestly, Madame Pomfrey? Kinda a savage

If Voldemort was 70 when he died in ‘98, and he went to school with Lucius, how old is Lucius? 

Technically, if all purebloods are related, Harry IS a descendant of Salazar Slytherin. Not the heir obvs, but you know

honestly when you think about it, Fawkes’s death is hilarious. Like Harry’s just chillin and sees a cool bird and then it spontaneously combusts 

Did Crabbe and Goyle ever get their shoes back? 

Ron has REALLY good intuition

Why do they still have Riddle’s trophy on display? Like yeah not many people know that he’s Voldemort but that just feels like the equivalent of like...keeping up a trophy for the kid that turned out to be a sch**l sh**ter

Ok but the younger Weasleys have this knack for bullying Voldy. Twins pelted him with snowballs, Ginny flushed his diary down a toilet, Ron barfed slugs all over his special award....

well Harry if its a DIARY where you conventionally write personal stuff about your day or your crush, why are we surprised that it doesnt even have stuff like “dentist” and “aunt mary’s birthday” or “half past 3″ written in it

RON’S INTUITION BRUH “[the diary] coud be dangerous” “maybe [Tom Riddle] murdered Myrtle] yall know that theory abt him being a seer? yeah

I adore these characters so much bc theyre so real?? Lke we truly watch them grow up. Something about the way 11y/o Ginny covers her face and runs away vs how she acts in the later books just. I adore it. 

So this is where I broke my own heart and froze for a solid 15 minutes. I was beginning to write “I hope the twins sang ‘His Eyes Are As Green As A Fresh Pickled Toad’ at their wedding” before I realized that only one twin got to attend Harry & Ginny’s wedding. I trailed off at the S in twins and you can see how shaky my hand got in the writing (i wrote all of this out in a journal)

Riddle’s personality is so well preserved. (and then I remembered that he made his first horcrux that year and THATS why bc this is 16/17 y/o voldy’s soul)

In Riddle’s memory, he stops by the potions room after speaking to Dumbledore on the staircase. Slughorn is teaching that year. Harry says he is stuck outside that room for “what felt like an hour.” Is this where Tom asks about horcruxes? Technically at this point, Myrtle has already been murdered and its been a while but I’m p sure he asks about horcruxes after class one day. But idk. It really seems plausible, and It’s possible that he altered the memory to show Harry...

this is my least favorite book so i just wrote “this is the most boring book. I’m skimming.”

ah forcing 12 y/o to choose a career path

Quidditch mathces are EARLY (im used to sports matches in the evenings but i guess soccer matches are early and such so it makes sense) (my american is showing)

Is sitting at any table allowed? I never understood that and it used to bug me in the movies. Is it only required to sit at your House table during important feasts? Is that how a lot of inter-house relationships come to be? 

Fudge’s wardrobe was ROBBED in the movie. They really made him look like an established businessman when when we first meet the man, he’s wearing a pinstriped suit, scarlet tie, POINTED PURPLE SHOES and honestly woud it have been so hard to at least give him the lime green bowler hat? Such a staple of his personality

i feel like we tend to forget that hagrid has been to Azkaban

Ron saw Draco being racist and had to be physically held back by his friends. Mans was ready to THROW HANDS. 10/10 absolute icon

The prejudice against werewolves is very prominent.They clearly dont know a lot about them/arent taught (constantly expecting to find them roaming the forbidden forest EVERY NIGHT)

literally WHAT would they do without Hermione

still shocked that Hermione Jean Granger would willingly rip a page out of a book, especially a library book. But maybe thats just the fact that I’m the daughter of a librarian.

is the basilisk page from Fantastic Beasts? They really called it “a page from an old book” its literally in ur first year curriculum but ok boys

Why did Ron toss Lockhart’s wand out the window? He couldve used it instead of his spellotaped one. Granted, it wouldnt have been very good later on if he had, but. You know?

if this Tom is just an imprint of Voldy’s soul at 16/17, how does he even know who Harry is

he already has voldy’s laugh

OH Ginny told him about Harry that makes sense

Voldemort is SO dramatic. Imagine your buddy Tom one day says “hello dearest closest friends, I’ve decided I hate my name so I tried to make an acronym. Please only refer to me as Voldemort from now on. Also I could spell Lord with my name, so I am claiming my new status as a Lord.”

Also he’s holding Harry’s wand. Why is he sending this ginormous, super sow snake after this tiny scrawny 12y/o? Just kill him yourself. Even when Harry gets poisoned Tom’s like “take ur time bro imma watch u die i have nothing better to do” and only when neither of those first tow extra af options DO NOT WORK does he think “oh well guess i gotta use this WAND now ugh” like was he just not corporeal enough to actually use the wand yet or???? Buddy. If you really wanted Harry dead I feel like you could do better.

the fang SPLINTERED in Harry’s arm????????????????? uhm

Harry gets covered in ink a lot in the series

Dumbledore is such a simp for Voldemort honestly

I forget that Harry & Ron get trophies for special services too bro

did Arthur create the Muggle Protection Act???

...why DOES Lucius have Voldy’s old school things? 

Harry and Ron got a total of 400 points for this. But only 10 FOR TAKING OUT A TROLL AT AGE 11 

Lucius is LITERALLY on the PTA hes a school governor 

[the-voice-of-night-vale]

ur phrasing of "people are spreading that enby is infantizing" comes off as 1) saying its not to everybody 2) implying that it inherently as a word isnt infantizing 3) AND implying that anybody who thinks it is is a hatemongering exclusionist. its not in bad faith for me to come to reasonable conclusions of what you're saying based on how ur saying it. ur argument about "nb is aave" is also bad, sometimes things share acronyms. it happens. its not "appropriating aave" to use nb. i promise you

black people are smart enough to know context! ur the one of accusing others of having nitpicking language when ur the one starting arguments based on language other nb people use for themselves or dont want to use for themselves. the point about folx is that its also NOT AAVE and you as a white person really need to stop hiding behind black people and our culture to support your bad faith angry arguments. and my comment about "would you say womxn" was saying thats a word you shouldnt use, that 

was the whole point. you cant brush away any criticism of your own posts with "you just hate nonbinary people and our words" and "dont come at me with discourse" when youre the one who made the post in the first place. ur so obsessed with using the "correct" language that you constantly change the rules of that you leave other people in your own community completely under the bus. you cant look at your brothers and sisters and scream at them that theyre wrong when u barely know what ur saying

and quite frankly, saying things like  "i will meet you with so much love" and then in the same breath saying "quite frankly this discourse sounds like a fucking crusade against nonbinary people" to other people in ur community they disagree with you? is not a good look 

WOW this is a whole lot and frankly a lot of it is such frigid ass takes i don’t even really know if i should respond but here we go:

1. people are spreading that enby is inherently infantalizing, i’ve said many times it’s not inherently, whether words are infantalizing is personal. my problem is when people try and tone police nonbinary people as a whole, telling us what words we can and can’t use for ourselves. words like enby, joyfriend, orbisian, etc. are words we made for ourselves and almost every time a new word is coined for nonbinary people and our experiences with gender and orientation, people both within and without our community try to control our language in ways I find disgusting.

rereading my op with this perspective, yeah, it does read that i don’t believe enby can be infantalizing. i’m gonna edit it for further clarity. the post was made in anger and i used shorthand. that’s not an excuse, and i’m sorry for the confusion.

 if you have concerns or are confused you bring it up in a reasonable and mature way, rather than coming into my inbox sealioning me. i’m autistic and i have adhd, it makes communication hard. i’m not asking you to be nice to me or anything, but i think it’s reasonable to request that criticism of my posts be sent in a toneful way if you expect a positive response. if you decide to come in aggressively, then i’m going to respond in kind idk what to tell u. this is an internet blogging platform where everyone is at each others teeth at all times. i made a post in anger i don’t think it’s necessarily surprising that i have my haunches raised lmao

2. i have the same opinion of people concern trolling about enby as i do about people concern trolling the use of queer: if you hop onto posts that have nothing to do with you (inpersonal you) and the discourse and obnoxiously remind us that such and such word shouldn’t be applied broadly without consent, you’re an asshole, because everyone on this fucking website understands that, and folks really like to derail posts to police our language. so while i don’t believe that anyone who finds enby infantalizing to be fearmongering/exclusionist/exorsexist whatever, i do believe that people who try to police others’ use of identity (when it’s not being harmful, obvs) are assholes at best.

3. as a white person it’s my responsibility to hold other white people responsible when many black nonbinary and trans people have spoken up about the use of “nb” and fighting against cultural appropriation. i’m not “hiding behind black people” i’m literally parroting things said by black people because thats what allies do: you listen. I know black folks aren’t a monolith but to be quite honest i think using harmless alternatives like nonby and nby to be easy enough even if the whole black community isn’t in agreement. at the end of the day it’s a drop in the fucking bucket to change one or two words we use to not be assholes. and I know plenty of black folks also don’t give a shit whether you use nb or not. the mileage varies but i always err on the side of caution, especially when it literally costs me nothing.

(X, X (this post was made by a white person but the blog i got it from was run by a black person, plus the sources at the bottom are nice), X. There was a lot of discourse about this a couple months back but because Tumblr search is broken I’m having trouble finding more sources)

4. for the third fucking time, folx isn’t just meant to be gender-neutral. i linked a post that said it was sourced from political groups, esp political groups of color; that sounds like aave to me (altho i’m white and not the authority). and even if it’s not just meant for black folks, it still means more than just ~a fun and quirky gender neutral form of folks~. but seeing as you don’t want to read that post, i guess this point is moot.

5. the thing about womxn and mxn kind of falls apart when you realize that most ppl putting x in words aren’t doing it to be gender neutral, and even if they were, who gives a fuck? words are made up!

6. i’m not saying “don’t come at me with discourse” I MADE A POST AND YOU CAME IN MY INBOX GROINGORINGORINGOIRNGRIONGIOR the tag “please do not discourse with me i am but a humble farmer” is my discourse tag, in case that’s what you’re referring to. which, if you read my about, you’d know. but hey.

7. i’m leaving no one under the bus i’m mad about how much our language is policed about the only ppl i’m leaving under the bus are people who want to police language .

8. to whom, exactly, am i saying they’re wrong? people who police our language? i’ll gladly tell assholes they’re wrong all day long and i won’t lose a hint of sleep over it. (also, calling ppl in the nonbinary community “my brothers and sisters”....... hm)

9. i don’t give a fuck if u disagree with me. hell, i don’t care if you come in my inbox calling me slurs. if u wanna argue w me about a post i’m gonna argue back; you don’t have to agree w my post, you don’t have to interact with me bc of it either. i have quite a couple asks and messages a month asking me about the discourse posts i make. they all come with compassion and a genuine desire to learn or correct me. i don’t wave away criticism, i wave away bad faith arguments and folks with bad attitudes who clearly don’t give a fuck what i have to say. my comment about the crusade against nonbinary people is related to the constant belittling and criticism our whole community faces; exorsexism is rampant, and if you can’t see that then idk what to tell you.

i respond to the messages i receive on this place in kind with how they’re delivered.

if i misread your tone, i’m sorry. if i got needlessly defensive, i’m sorry. if there’s a piece of my post that’s easily misinterpreted, let me know. i’m open to criticism, so long as it’s 1. presented as criticism (rather than something vague) (this isn’t @ you anon this is about something else) bc i’m fuckin autistic and can’t understand shit and 2. done in good faith with respect to my intelligence and reason

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

WIBTA if i stole my aunt's cats? (TW for animal neglect)

ok, so basically for a few years now it's been kind of an open secret in my family that my aunt's household Strongly Prefers their dog over their two cats. i didn't think much of it since i don't really see them too often (which is on purpose), but that changed when my mom and i house sat for them for a week. During the week i noticed many things that have indicated to me that this house isn't healthy for these cats:

1. the house is fucking disgusting. my aunt had 4 kids who are all out of college, so she has a Large mcmansion to clean by herself (they're conservative christians so my uncle doesn't contribute). so i get that its a struggle, but most of this house is straight up unsanitary. like i dont think those floors have seen anything near a cleaning supply in years. also, the amount of Stuff lying around made it really difficult to get around the house a lot of the time.

2. their dog has significant behavioral issues. it's a small dog (the crusty white breed but brown) but if you're not giving it attention, either you or whatever you're paying attention to is getting attacked. the problem arises when the thing you're giving attention to is one of the cats. despite the dog's size, it's bigger and stronger than both cats. and while the cats are faster, i feel like it's only a matter of time until one of them gets injured. also, i'm aware that the dog's issues are most definetly also a result of mistreatment. afaik, it's had no training other than knowing not to piss in the house, and is basically treated as a perfect creature that can do no wrong. it literally doesn't know how to go for walks because my aunt and uncle just go out into the yard until it does it's business and then take it back inside.

3. these cats have jack shit. they have a litterbox and food bowls on this crusty ass folding table (so the dog doesn't steal their food) and that's it. no toys, no cat furniture, nothing. everything that's bought is bought for the dog. this basically means that the cats get no enrichment, which is just generally bad. one of them is allowed outside, but that's not a better alternative obviously.

also, i'd ask my aunt if i could just take the cats given that she doesn't even like them, but my realtives are the kind of people who get extremely offended by any implication of failure, so that would just start drama and would encourage them to go after the cats after i take them anyway.

my cousins could take them, but they've all been out of college for a while now and are already well off, so if any of them were going to take them, they would have by now. imo, they've lost their chance.

if i do end up doing this, it's not going to be for a while because i have to settle personal matters. not to mention how i'm going to sort through things like taking stolen cats to the vet.

didnt expect this to get this long lmao. sorry 💀

What are these acronyms?

[stirlingiteforev3r]

Practicing Tips #1

Sometimes practicing seems to be more of a chore rather than something I really love to do. Especially now that I’m out of high school. I love playing but I have just been so burnt out, I’ve only picked up my violin twice since graduating. I just feel like I’ve hit a brick wall and I’m not improving anymore. We used to have to keep a practice log in my band class and the minimum we would have to practice was 120 minutes a week. Only two hours, no big deal! Well I would come in around 1,000 minutes, which is just over 16 hours (960 minutes) a week. Here are some little things I picked up when learning how to practice effectively and efficiently:

1. Be Realistic

You can’t expect to learn and entire song that’s way beyond your capabilities overnight. That’s where I struggled, when learning to play the violin I never had a teacher so I skipped the basics and went straight to just playing songs. Then I got frustrated because I couldn’t play them. Start slow and work on your technique and basics then work your way up.

2. Put Your Phone Away

It’s really hard to concentrate when your phone is going off constantly. So turn it off and put your phone away. I find it a lot easier to focus that way.

3. Dont Skip Your Scales

I know they suck and everyone and their cousin hates them. They’re essential to learning proper positions on not just the violin but any instrument.

4. Have A Goal

Don’t just play through your music and expect to get anywhere. When you set a goal you’re more likely to want to pursue it. I used a system foced upon me by my band teacher at the beginning of the school year. She gave us a self evaluation sheet and on it there was a section called a “smart goal” which was an acronym for:

S- Specific

M- Measurable

A- Attainable

R- Relative

T- Time Specific

I loathed smart goals at first, but with it I accomplished a lot of stuff that year.

5. Location

Whether you prefer to practice in a quiet room, or somewhere with more mental stimulation, try be consistent with your choice. It helps you enter the right mindset when you begin to practise.

6. Take A Break

If you end up getting burnt out, TAKE A BREAK! Sometimes you just have to be able to notice when you need a break. Taking a break doesn’t mean quitting. When you get frustrated put your instrument down, go get some water and a snack, and then come back. Don’t quit just because you are frustrated, we’re human and sometimes it’s important to put our mental and physical health first.

[simkjrs]

assorted fic/msa asks

Anonymous said: msa izuku while an Official Of The Law tries to stop him from doing his usual cryptic stunts: hey where can i go to file a complaint? its not formal. fuck you.

this is just the right level of irritation, sarcasm, and wit to come straight from msa izuku’s mouth. i love that

Anonymous said: someone asks msa izuku what he wants to be when he grows up. he stares at the floor angrily. "a concept. if even that," he says. no one knows how to respond. the silence stretches.

god this is PRISTINE. the silence stretches. im laughing you’ve captured the quintessential msa izuku experience!!!

Anonymous said: msa izuku's saving grace yet achille's attention-pulling heel is his ability to circumvent the powers people use to attack him, linear narratives, and any expectations placed on him

nfljsdfjsd yeah. his greatest strength and greatest weakness... it’s so funny to write. i love it

Anonymous said:  kirishima: deku we actually dont want to screw you over msa izuku: that sounds fake but ok

YEP! thats pretty much it

Anonymous said: Thinking about the wording of MSA!Izuku's deal with Kirishima, Kirishima might actually be able to take advantage of Izuku abusing the wording of the deal. So Kirishima could use the fact that he literaly cannot keep Izuku anywhere and that Izuku could ditch at any time in order to have an actual conversation with him. After all, Izuku always has a way out.

you fucking got me there. completely nailed it

Anonymous said: does msa iz/uku have to deal with shitty dreams too? like trauma from spirit shenanigans comes back to bite him in the ass in his sleep?

yeah there sure is a lot of trauma going around. like, look at this comment i got from crossy, i feel like this is one of the funniest things anyone has ever said about msa

Anonymous said: Okay... blink if the adult supervision in MSA is Aizawa....

you all know me so well!! fucking called me out!!!

Anonymous said: eyy u know that art u made of ritsu on ur art blog, "ritsu's range of normal human emotions?" the part where it said disattached from the social dogma? i imagines that as ur msa!izuku and skdnfsj o h m y g o d

im laughing!!! youre completely right. i need to redraw the panel now

Anonymous said: where is izuku's guardian spirit, you ask? theory: izuku is his own guardian spirit. he finds out and "well i must be doing a pretty shitty job. i hate myself. bye"

Anonymous said: ..... izuku is a gaurdian spirit but his ""quirk"" is being alive...... thats why getting his quirk shut off by eraserhead compeltely shut his body off

YOU ARE... almost completely correct

Anonymous said: since msa mido is like half a quirk himself does that mean he's his own guardian spirit? because if that was true and you told him that he would be so so tired. "my life's a sick joke already but thanks for that addition" or something. this poor child.

that’s pretty much the mindset he wakes up with every day!

Anonymous said: Ok so idk if im the only one who does this but whenever i read fanfic/any kind of writing i kinda come up with like a general color palette that fits with the whole story or like colors from a certain time of day or somethin as a general base for any fanart i might make for the thing but for Byggualom i imagine pinkish, orangey golden sunset colors with hints of plant greens and reds and for msa i imagine a lot of things happening in almost completely grayscale with gold highlights and-(1)

(2)- surreal moments where a bright/contrasting color is present(like the scene where the fox spirit appeared with the red eyes against the silver fur

that’s really cool! i love the sunset colors for byggualom, and the black and white is certainly a fitting ominous atmosphere for msa :^) 

Anonymous said: of fucking course fucking msa/villain izuku was there, MSA/villain fucking Izuku is always there. it’s like one of those universal laws of reality. whenever life takes a turn for the utterly insane, and or disturbingly lethal, msa/villain izuku is somehow right in the middle of it. looking innocent. like a fluffy bunny rabbit. with an innocent look in its eyes and an entire city reduced to rubble in the background, on fire. (I did both b/c I love both the dysfunctional dorks(and both made sense

i think this is more applicable to villain izuku. msa izuku will also be there in the middle of whatever chaos is happening, but he will not look innocent, he will look pissed and tired. you think YOU’RE tired of this bullshit? hah! you should hear about what he’s been doing all day. and no he’s not going to tell you, he’s just going to gripe about it endlessly while also furiously trying to fix everything that went wrong. 

other than that... this is rlly good. i love that. thanks for sending it in

Anonymous said: since i found out u listen to sea wolf the song "spirit horse" has just been violently playing in the background when i think of msa like thanks (not even sarcastically i love seawolf)

hell yeah, love that.... the song’s a bit too horse-y for me to put it on my msa playlist but you know what? its good

Anonymous said: Hey! Just wanted to let you know I ADORE your writing. Your OPM AU (that's what I always call it, I can never remember the acronym) is amazing and I've reread it twice. I decided to give your MSA story a try the other day and I LOVED that one as well. I was initially hoping for a OPM AU update but now I'm psyched as hell for MSA. Thank you so much for your amazing work. Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoy both stories :) Have a great day

thank you! i’m happy you enjoy both fics so much <3 

Anonymous said: hi you’re an amazing artist/writer and I hope you have a great day :)

thank you!! i have been having some pretty great days, which is nice, i hope you are doing well too!

Anonymous said: ive reread msa for the like 5th time today and just wanted to tell you what an awesome job you did and i absolutely adore it and hope you have an amazing week!!!

i cant believe you’ve read it so many times!!! i’m glad you like it so much, and i hope you have a great week as well!

Anonymous said: Hey, *finger guns*, I really love your writing!

well guess what... i love you,

Anonymous said: All your stories are so good! I cryyyyy x

thanks! im crying also

Anonymous said: I'm so fucken hyped for literally all you bnha fan-fiction/head-cannons like seriously how do you even come up with ALL of it?!?!?!

mostly i just... actively put characters into situations that i think would be hilarious, or dream up bits of dialogue that spur me to craft an entire backstory just so i can lead up to the one moment. helps to have friends who encourage you to become increasingly unhinged from canon though.

Anonymous said: have *clap* a *clap* nice *clap* day

you too! 

Anonymous said: Okay you prolly get this loads but I freaking love everything you write! Everything is written so well and I die every time you update bc it's so good! I will happily wait five years to read any new chapter if it's written this well okay I'm rambling I love you have a nice day!

this is so nice.... thank you.... 

Anonymous said: HOLY SHIT, ANOTHER NONBINARY FIC WRITER!!! YO WHATS UP!!! WE'RE A P RARE BREED... HELL YEAH THOUGH!!! UR FICS R SUPER COOL UR SUCH A BIG INSPIRATION TO ME!! I HOPE U HAVE A FANTASTIC DAY + YOU NEVER GET WRITERS BLOCK + YOUR HANDS NEVER CRAMP UP!!!

hello there!!! it’s fantastic to see you!!!! hell yeah [i try to dab but accidentally knock over the stack of papers on my desk instead]

Anonymous said: Hey, I just wanted to say that I think you're doing a really super job with trying to write and do school at the same time. I know (personally) that it's really hard to do even WITHOUT extra stuff piling on top, but you handle the blog with a lot of humor and clumsy grace and I just wanted to let you know that you brighten up my day a lot. Thanks! I hope you do really well!!!!!!

hey! thank you, i put a lot of effort into running this blog, as can be evidenced by the week-long stretches of time between short bursts of activity

seriously though... thanks... i appreciate this ask a lot. hope you’re doing well!

Anonymous said: I just wanna say thank you! MSA Izuku gives me life XDDD

hell yeah! im glad to hear that

Anonymous said: dunno bout you or anyone else, but i see your izukus as homoromantic demisexual(s), just wanted to share

nice... 

im cool w/ whatever as long as it adheres to my one guideline which is that izuku is a mlm

[sadisim]

Lee’s Writing Tips #1

Hi! To those of you who don’t know my blog or simply don’t know me, i’m Lee, your friendly writer next door with a constant creeping terror of not getting her writings perfect every time.

Today i bring you some of the writing tips i’ve picked up writing from my experience.

English is not my native language, but i have been introduced to it when i was 3 by a relative who gradually taught me English alongside my native language, therefore i do make mistakes and sometimes i happen to fall in the traps of multiple language errors so please be patient with me. I started my writing journey when i was 10, being attracted by short flash fiction English texts in class which lead to me writing a lotta stuff, and here i am 18 and still not entirely proud of my writing skill.Also feel free to suggest me more things and let me know what you think!

BUT HEY we all learn so today i’ll give you some of my tips into:

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT 101

I will add some of my favorite links at the end of this post so you can check them out but my best advice, and the first one, is to simply pile up on resources on your own. Don’t just expect information to come at you. You have this huge platform called Google which will introduce you to the magical world of research.

*They=official pronoun accepted when we’re talking about no specific gender of a being,as in he/her or anything in between

Before beginning these steps I will assume you have already picked the most basic things about your character such as : gender, race etc.

First things first: Let’s pretend your character has been just created into a very empty world, like you’re playing some kind of creator game and you shape your own beings after yourself. Make sure that you first pick a purpose for your character. What should they be like? Are they a bright, cheerful person with a bubbly personality and joyous laughter who always know how to make people smile? Or are they rather a social introvert, with a mysterious aura engulfed within a severe persona? It is all up to you what you choose. Just think up of a few basic personality types and pick one for your character. Let us pretend this drawing is your current character:

So they are a very basic shape, no colors, no personality, nothing that will identify them. Well it’s all up to you after you have picked your personality to fiill it in. This will consist of 100% of their base. Let us pretend mine will be a Friendly character. I will fill them in with pink:

-Secondly, after you picked out the full coverage of your char you will have to create a mindmap or whatever lets you keep track of things, of their main traits. This means you will have to do some research on what traits belong to which personality. I will leave that up to you.I have picked out a few for my character: Peaceful, Friendly, Calm, Helpful, Joyous, Childish. Keep in mind that these will mean probably the next 70% of their personality, although you do not have to restrict yourself to one type only. Not all personalities are the same and one person can be both extremely shy but also outgoing among friends. They can be super friendly but also very grumpy under certain circumstances and so on. You have to be creative, and this is the keyword here. Do not stick with one persona only.Make sure you give your character BOTH good AND bad traits. They have to balance themselves. Think of as many as possible. For example my character will be clumsy, shy, supportive and understanding. 

I gave a bit more colour to my human, according to what i thought would match their shaping personality.

-After figuring out all of these things i suggest making a list of all the personality tests and things that can help you study more about your character. MBTI test, Zodiacs in multiple cultures, enneagram types, mental illnesses,disorders, the temper, their harry potter house if you want too, generally whatever test will determine their personality. Once you do as many of these in their boots, gather the results and google them all: research is extremely important again, this will help you define what your character’s personality truly is, and you will be able to nitpick from these results whatever you like/dislike and shape your character. These  will help you find results on who they are and then yo're able to read more stereotypes/characterisations of that personality.

I’m gonna pick some random results as an example for you: My character is a gemini and a rising scorpio with an INTP mbti, phlegmatic temper, enneagram type 3.

-After reaching this point it should be really easy to have a main idea of the personality. What i would do after is start shaping them with different hobbies, passions, activities that tell you what they like or dislike doing. Develop minor things like the way they talk,act,react, write, how they walk or what facial expressions they give in : all of these sound easy to do but if you do your research properly you'll be able to develop a very well shaped character. A lot of the things listed tell a bunch about a person. If you dont believe me just do your research. You will know what i’m talking about after that. 

-Go in depth: get a character sheet and gather as many questions as you can. Answer them all, find all the small and big things about them: why they don’t like coffee, what planet they are from, when do they go to bed, what do they have in their pockets, do they love their mom? These will add all the fine details you need to outline minor things about your character. 

-Background: backstory, relationships,family, interaction with other beings and their surroundings: CRUCIAL elements which define who your character is. Remember when a baby is born it will grow up and be educated according to the place it grows in. All of the items listed above influence their behaviour, temper, reactions, personality etc. A very well defined background will tell other people who your character is, without having to know them well.

-Their name. To you a name may not mean too much, but i am DESPERATE about names. Names to me are everything about a character. Keywords, acronyms, puns and wordplay will always be present in my characters’ lives, and why not pick it up yourself as well? Search for names, save them in a list, take time to pick a name for your characters as if they were your children.

-MOST IMPORTANTLY: DO YOUR RESEARCH. I cannot stress this enough. People simply do not research. They think that cresting a character is fun and then abandon them after a week and complain they are boring. That’s because you don’t put effort into them. Look at yourself first: how old are you? How many years did it take you to get where you are now? If you look back one year ago will you realize you’ve changed? If so then think about how your character has shaped with time. If you give them a certain age to start off with, who were they until that point in time?were they different from who they are now? Do not simply create a character just to slap them into a world and leave them die. No human being stagnates in the same state for their whole life,without changing at least one thing about themselves. So do not expect your character to transform radically every day. It takes time, just like it would take you to do it.

-Research their race/nationality. If it hasn’t hit you until now, every country in this world has different people and mostly they have “stereotypical” things about these nations. We’re not talking about stupid things like germans drink beer and americans don’t like sport, no. Those are simply stupid things made up by people. I’m talking about their cultural traits. It really gets on my nerves when people slap on a nationality on a character without doing the littlest bit of research beforehand. Look up into the culture of that nationality: what are they like? what is their religion/belief? How do they interact with others? Minor things like these are often seen unimportant but trust me they matter.

-Make your character interesting and relatable. If the reader does not engage or emphasize with the character in any way it will simply make them not find that character interesting enough to be cared about. What makes them special?What makes them relevant? What do they have in common with other people or characters?What are their morals,beliefs? What makes them good/bad?

-My BEST BEST BEST tip is to STUDY!!STUDY!!STUDY!! If you don’t do your research before creating a character then it’s pointless. You cannot simply KNOW stuff without STUDYING it at least somehow. Be it as simple as how being a vegan would influence your character’s lifestyle to how their actions could turn the entire world upside down. It doesn’t matter. If you’re unsure on a matter, and even if you know it decently well, make sure you do your research properly before assigning them a trait,a lifestyle, a belief or anything else.

-Don\t play God. Don’t make your character unkillable, without weaknesses or weak points or flaws or simply overpowered. Doesn’t matter if they’re superhuman or not. If your character lacks flaws then it’s simply a pointless superhero prototype. There’s no reason to have your character be the god in their universe and make everything really boring. Think very well about what makes them weak, what are their low points?

-Keep references close, save up all the stuff you can, bookmark websites and resources, make your own masterposts. Get an inspo blog and look up everything you need when you lack the motivation to shape your character. If you leave them like that,without drawing inspiration from the real world you won’t get far with them. You will lose motivation and won’t be able to develop them anymore.

Some REALLY helpful websites, but again,personal preference and it’s up to you to gather more ;)

Psychology

What should your character do?

Character types that should be more often used

How to build your character

Building your character’s personality

Flaws

About realistic characters

Avoid stereotypes

Thesaurus | Dictionary 

[the-crystal-muse]

Cause why not, I’m gonna liveblog my thoughts on the episode as I watch it! Should be fun, especially given the episode’s subject material.

Everything will be tagged and placed under a readmore.

So, Twilight’s going to be helping foals at a hospital? Huh. Sounds like a fun thing to do.

“I’ll bring snacks, a book to read to them, and gifts!” “Food and presents always cheer me up.” If anybody ever wondered why Spike acted so full of himself in earlier seasons, there you go. Twily spoiled the poor thing rotten.

“...We have three hours to buy presents, pick up books from the schoolhouse, and pick up treats.” I think we should leave the presents to Twi. Knowing her she’ll buy them more books. A lot more books. She could probably restock the school’s library. Heaven knows the old one isn’t getting any use.

...Yes, I too mourn Golden Oaks. To this day I weep over it’s tragic death.

“Yeah, knock on wood.” Gotta love that joke there. Simple but pretty funny.

Oh hey! Cadance! Nice to see you. I’m sure it’ll be nice to see you leave in the next two minutes too. #WheresMyCadanceEpisode

Shining's my headcanon voice for Flurry. It’s so spot on.

Ah, Voice of Reason Spike is back at it again. We haven’t seen since What About Discord.

Aw! She already knows how to walk! She’s pretty cut-

TWILIGHT. THAT’S A LOT OF TOYS. STOP YOU’RE GOING TO SPOIL HER WORSE THAN SPIKE

“Best Aunt Ever” is going to be That Line for this episode, isn’t it?

Also, Flurry pretending to be a bear is adorable. Not as cute as Twilight’s bear circus though.

So, Flurry, you can uh...levitate things. That’s cool. Not like it took Sweetie four seasons to learn levitation...

So her Whammy calms her down? Well I know what’ll be lost/destroyed by the end of this episode.

“You know my friend Spearhead?” “Honestly, all of your friends’ names are very similar.” Ha! I’m glad we got another pony names joke. Those are always fun.

“We could really use a night out.” “You mean day?” “That’s what I said, isn’t that what I said?” Confused Cadance was adorable and sad in her own way. Just the way she glanced around like she had no idea where she was made me want to hug her. Stay safe, love horse.

Also, is Shining Armor growing a beard? He always had stubble when stressed. By season’s end I predict he’ll have a full goatee.

!!! They’re playing bear! That’s so sweet!

ALSO FLURRY CAN FLY LIKE A PRO TOO WHAT IS THIS CHILD PRODIGY

AND FORCE FIELDS. TWILIGHT COULDN’T EVEN CAST A BASIC SPELL UNTIL SHE WAS 8 TO 12.

I’M GONNA ASSUME IT’S “NEWBORN FOAL MAGIC” LIKE WITH THE CAKES BEFORE THIS STARTS TO HURT MY HEAD

“Sorry bug” Did...Did you just call your niece ‘bug’? Is that her nickname now? Cause that’s twelve kinds of adorable right there. This episode’s becoming really sweet.

I’m also only five minutes in. Wow.

Flurry is acting like a dog and this is wonderful to see. So is her difficulty with winking.

Is...Is this going to be an episode about responsibility vs fun? Didn’t we get that already with Baby Cakes? Plus, wouldn’t an episode like that be more along the lines of Pinkie or Rainbow anyway?

Wait, why are we cutting back to Cadance and Shining Armor...? That’s not right. They should be gone for the rest of the season. #YesImStillSalty

“Is this art or a mistake?” I ask myself that question every time I browse FIMfiction with the mature content filter off.

...Seriously, smut writers come up with some weird stuff sometimes and honestly they scare me.

Also, CADANCE ICONS GALORE

This Spearhead pony is dressed like Trenderhoof 2.0 like talks like he plays football.

Cadance looks so concerned throughout this scene. I feel for her.

Ouch, how does one even clean a ten-twenty-whatever foot tall crystal wall?

TWILIGHT NOW YOU’RE SPOILING THE PONYVILLE FOALS.

The Princess of Friendship is playing racecarts in a store. Is Best Princess still a thing? Cause I found it.

“I don’t think foals would be interested in the ‘Unabridged History in Amulets in Pony Latin’. Are you kidding, I’d totally read that.

...Also, Pony Latin? Alright, I won’t judge. I read Homestuck, this is normal for me. But you couldn’t come up with a horse pun for that?

“Alien Alicorns vs Space Pirates”. Alien alicorns sounds hilarious and I wanna see it.

So Flurry has the ability to hold chalk in her magic well enough for crude drawing? ...Huh. Magical savant here.

Then again, Pumpkin Cake was about to phase through solid objects. Can’t judge here.

So Twilight calls herself the Best Aunt Ever, or “BAE”? Alrighty then. This girl really loves acronyms.

TWILIGHT DONT LET HER STAY WITH THE CAKES THIS IS A HORRIBLE IDEA

...Actually, has anybody wrote fics or anything about Flurry and the Cakes being friends as they grow up? Cause that is a wonderful idea.

“Brb” Text-speak is canon to Equestria, that...is totally inconsequential.

“Hold on, sweetie, we’ll play in a second.” That’s not Sweetie, that’s Flurry!

THE CAKES ARE ON THE WARPATH, THIS IS NOT HOW I EXPECTED THIS TO GO

Pinkie having an apology stamp implies ponies regularly come in asking for an apology cake. I get the feeling that gets a lot of use in this town.

Huh, she’s doing fairly well so far. I’m expecting this to go badly.

FLURRY DONT TELEPORT THIS HURTS ME

As the seasons go on, the Ponyville hospital is suffering more and more abuse.

Woah, she got mad at the baby. I’m...honestly amazed by that. But I’m glad she tempered her anger with an apology and kind words, although I wouldn’t pin the blame on Twilight for ignoring Flurry. Her real crime was taking on too many responsibilities at once, and not knowing which one to give importance.

Also, glad to know the citizens of Ponyville see Twilight as ordinary enough to call her out for her mistakes. No princess preference here.

Well, Cadance just got more scenes in this episode than she has in a long time. Wonder if we’ll see her again soon?

And Spike got another fun scene to himself at the end. Nice.

All in all, this was a fun episode to me! I’m definitely going to have to watch it again (for the icons definitely-), and I loved seeing Straight Man Spike take center stage, and BAE Twilight was too adorable with Flurry. I liked it. Now hopefully I’ll actually wake up in time for next week’s episode...

[cbspams]

The Boyz - No Air (A Song of Ice and Fire)

These are gonna be super fucking long, just fair warning.

Hello again and welcome to another round of Delphine nitpicking a performance into the oblivion!

Honorable mention to my roommate who desperately despises kpop with all their heart but watched this performance (and the other TBZ performance) with me to help me get some insight on how attuned to GOT the performance was since I've never watched the show or read the books. For reference, they have read the books, watched the tv show and in their free time they listen to extensive opinion pieces and analytical essays on GOT. So I'd personally put their knowledge pretty high, but once again this is like a second hand account so sorry if I get things wrong.

ALRIGHT LETS GET IT!!

First, I wanna talk a bit about the pre-performance clips. I really liked the underwater photography studio idea as a way to feel and show desperation. I personally would need to do something else as I'm not afraid of water but I think that the literal concept of not having air is interesting and a good direction. I'm also really proud of Sunwoo for working so hard despite his fear, and I'm really touched by Younghoon specifically going back into the tank to help. Side note but pufferfish New hehehehe.

I genuinely wish they had used more of the film and photography from the session for the actual performance. I feel like a short pre-performance film would've really elevated the storyline, especially since they're trying to reference GOT which is (as according to the books and the show UP TO where the books ended, yknow, pre-season 8) really, really plot and lore based. Not to dive too deep into the theme yet but I feel as though a lot of TBZ's performances in Kingdom (which are really just this one and then O Sole Mio (Red Wedding) in round 2) aren't really expressing the full extent of their themes.

What I mean by this is that anyone who has read A Song of Ice and Fire (ASIF, pls dont @ me if this is the wrong acronym bc idk??) probably knows that TBZ performance wasn't really based in any events of the book or any themes of it. No Air is a desperate love song and there's plenty of desperation in ASIF but it really feels like TBZ did a mix of inspired by ice and fire (the literal elements) and set in ASIF (physical location markers). According to my roommate, the set pieces are recognizably places in ASIF but the performance didn't really track the themes present in the novel. I'll get to the Red Wedding later as well, but in both performances although TBZ were clearly trying to track some level of GOT's, it feels underdeveloped and therefore to me feels clunky, which is a bit disappointing because TBZ are masters of concepts and executing new ideas. Not sure if this makes sense but I guess if I had to summarize, it would be that they're taking inspiration from the name and title of things rather than the actual source material so it doesn't feel as effect in some ways. STILL, if I consider it operating on the level of just ice and fire rather than by GOT, they did a beautiful job!

Consider this: No Air is originally a bit more of an upbeat rhythm and melody but the way they toned it to be almost kind of in minor key to fit the desperation theme? Whoever's doing arrangement is putting out stuff that's really amazing. On top of that, the drum beats in the baseline add to that same feeling and then to have the turn around where the melody gets softer before the chorus, is a beautiful touch of contrast that really draws together the tender side of a desperate love. And the first chorus feels almost defeated, longing and yearning. I feel like the flow of the music really fit a tragic romance storyline, which I just love about TBZ.

Even with their less than stellar (imo) execution of theme, they're still putting out completely new and incredible ideas. Starting even with the 100 sec performances in which they did the hands thing and now with the POV camera direction, TBZ are taking full advantage of the stage and it's set up, which I cheer at every time I see it. Even the other groups are were picking up their ideas! See Stealer (The Scene) by SF9 in which Zuho "fights" the camera.

ALSO a quick note on the beginning camera work!! They show the frozen zombies (an allusion to the white walkers I assume) and they're completely stiff but then the camera moves towards Juyeon and the woman's arms take off one of his wrist cuffs before turning and you see that the zombies have moved!! And then there's a quick shot that as she's turned around to take off the other cuff, the zombies start to move again. That's a really smart way of setting up the kind of stakes in the moment, that if she doesn't get Juyeon free quickly then she'll be attacked and overtaken and Juyeon will stay trapped. The blocking in this moment is immaculate as far as story telling goes!! I love when the camera contributes to the theme and storyline, very much a show don't tell kind of thing. Love that for them.

The stretch screen is also a really interesting idea! I'm not sure how it correlates to ASIF or their theme necessarily, I think it's more of a performance aspect but literally Juyeon What The Fuck. He's genuinely so talented and it stems from his dedication and hard work. They kind of mention in the pre-performance clips that he's really harsh on himself and cries after performances when they don't do well, but legit I thought he did so, so well here. His expressions were really forlorn at first and once again, those dance moves!! Bro!!

On the topic of expressions, because one of their main themes is desperation, I watched really closely to how they were expressing that with their faces and bodies. I'm judging body language differently, since kpop dances tend to really favor the more hip hop, sharp isolation style and I can't view it like, oh they should've done contemporary dance.

Kevin's opening line gave me goosebumps. The kind of build up in the strings to his cool but forceful voice, mmph. I think Haknyeon's anger is also a really nice touch because desperation may be based in sadness but it's real expression usually comes out in anger. In that last do or die moment, are you cowering and hiding in an attempt to survive or do you fight back? The human body has a natural instinct to thrash around and reach for anything you can when you drown, and it feels like a fight because it is one. So although TBZ is aiming for a sad and tragic love story, because their main theme is what it is, I like that they included different sides from fury to despair. Sunwoo's little head toss back was really good too, both technically and thematically.

Honestly I don't know who choreo'd this but I really liked it. They definitely choreo'd it with the camera in mind, which I mean, everyone did but their was really smooth and easy to flow with. People were walking off camera nonchalantly, as opposed to sprinting off. It's something that ATEEZ had trouble with in the 100 sec performance (in the pre-performance clip) so you can see TBZ experience in performing the live take on the Kingdom stage (which I've mentioned before is a really unconventional type of stage). Plus because the arrangement slows in different places, they have little moments of tragic love as well (like pre-chorus when the camera unblindfolds Hyunjae or post-chorus when Haknyeon, Kevin, Sangyeon, and Jacob hold the lover's hands tenderly), which just emphasizes their desperation! I feel like I'm repeating myself a lot but tbh that just goes to show how in tuned TBZ are with their emotional theme. Another thing is the zombies, which continues the theme from before that they're fighting somehow to stay with their lover or that their time is in danger. Sunwoo dangling over the hoard, like okay. Okay! I see you! Oof, props to you choreographer, props to you.

YOUNGHOON!!! What an actor man, he's got such a diverse range of facial expressions. He really pulls off the kind of empty, forlorn look, ugh. Please get this man a role in a drama, 11/10 would watch. Honestly Juyeon too, please guys I'm too wear for those intense, piercing looks.

That last moment is interesting. It's almost like they're flinging their lover away from the fire, rejecting them so they'll be safe? The explosion in the back honestly doesn't make a lot of sense except as some kind of climactic moment but I don't think they needed it. It doesn't really fit the story they were telling, nor does it set up for their next performance so like. Why lol.

I'm new TBZ and I've been kind of eating up content from them, but especially because I got to know them through RTK, I had really high expectations for them now. I think they're still doing wonderfully, especially between the new creative freedoms Kingdom offers. But I also think they're suffering what I've previously described as the kind of burden to come up with something that fits in the set.

A quick recap: Because RTK had less budget and was smaller, the props and sets were a lot more simple and specific. Each group had to create stories using limited props which forced them to be more technically advanced with their formations, dance moves, arrangements etc. Because Kingdom has more budget and can now create elaborate sets and costumes etc, I think the groups are somehow less diverse and creative here than in RTK. Their technical skill still shines through but it feels like a lot of it gets covered with the sets and stuff.

So like in RTK, TBZ made ample usage of their own bodies to tell stories whereas now it feels like they're not doing that and it makes me sad in some ways because I think that's the appeal of a competition show. That you're allowed to make more story telling with your own body, instead of following pure performance choreography like in normal performances. Something that comes to mind for example is like The Eve from EXO. The song is supposedly about standing up to corruption but the dance is uh. Sexy and honestly not very aligned with the song. So like that's kind of a choreography and performance for the sake of performance. But on RTK, groups were able to have more themed storytelling and TBZ were a master of it, from thieves in Danger to revolutionaries in Reveal. So I'm just a little sad to see that kind of vanish with the budgeting that comes with Kingdom.

Despite all that, I still think TBZ have put on a great performance and it's still really interesting and fun to watch. I hope that their future performances allow them a little more creativity and storytelling with their bodies and techniques, with the set pieces helping enhance that rather than hinder it.