#feels weird tagging it like this but i think its accurate

[rivertakis]

And this marks Alex's bedroom finished! whoo! I actually had quite a bit of fun making this background and colouring it in and such. Its a bit messy, but i like it anyway?? i feel like it has some charm to it.

Anyway, thats one piece fully done now! :D

[todayisafridaynight]

NO LISTEN. LISTEN. I CONCEALED THE TITLE ON PURPOSE BECAUSE... IDK what it is but I have a tendency to like things that would be hard to watch for one reason or another for MOST of the runtime but then by the end it's like Oh So This Was GOOD Actually? Oh So My Brain Is Rewired?

And then it just becomes IMPOSSIBLE to recommend because I have no idea if The Majority Of It would actually be worth the conclusion to anyone but me😭😭😭SP is along those lines, sort of, but I've at least seen success with that... but this is also the case for my favorite Tsutsumi movie of all time, actually... alas...

Nevertheless. The show is called After the Rain! I think it was originally a manga and it has a live-action adaptation too [criminal not to actually cast Tsutsumi in either In My Opinion but FINE I GUESS]. It's about a former track star in high school, Akira Tachibana, who works part-time at a restaurant and has the MOST EMBARRASSING crush on her manager, Masami Kondo, the character I showed you before, who is Tsutsumi But As A Middle-Aged Divorcee With A Son. They befriend each other and help each other come to grips with the future and the past, respectively.

I was afraid of the obvious because a lot of media that tries to do this ends up making it fucking weird... like, this sort of dynamic means a lot to me for personal reasons and I've been burned too many times by characters I'd come to love and trust... but naw... my man Kondo is Normal About It that's all that matters to me... I had to breathe SUCH a sigh of relief...

I really don't like that the camera is sometimes not normal about Akira, though, it undermines the actual themes of the show a bit. IDK, I'm hypersensitive, I expect it's nothing super egregious compared to a lot of other media, but it's just disappointing because SOMETIMES there's artistic merit in terms of representing what Akira's feeling and other times it's just totally unnecessary and introduces a tonal clash... SPEAKING OF THERE IS A GUY WHO IS NOT NORMAL ABOUT AKIRA AND THE ENTIRE PLOT THREAD IS BASICALLY JUST DROPPED BECAUSE HE'S HARDLY EVEN IN THE SHOW AFTER THAT... I WANTED CONSEQUENCES...

But if nothing else, that's not even exactly why I said it's a hard watch, the actual reason is the NUCLEAR levels of secondhand embarrassment for like two thirds of the show. Like GIRL he is NOT INTO YOU AND HE SHOULDN'T BE... GET A GRIP OH MY GODDDDDDDD................. but like, I was That Girl when I was her age, right, so the fact it had me imploding thinking back on everything is a testament to its accuracy overall. Probably.

And NGL that type of dynamic is basically how I conceptualize RGGJo and Arakawa when they first met... Jo and Akira may be cringe-ass teens but I got a soft spot for it I do... it can be FUNNY... it can be WHOLESOME...

All of that being said, the last third or so might as well be a different show, and it kind of blows the rest out of the water for me. Maybe because it focuses on Kondo and Akira separately? But it's free of literally anything I could possibly complain about. I ain't mad about the first two thirds, it does set up a lot of what made the last third so enjoyable... buuut...

ANYWAY that's ENOUGH OF THAT I am CUTTING MYSELF OFF THERE I've gone on for WAY TOO LONG ABOUT SHIT NOBODY ASKED ABOUT☠️Not like you can say anything to All That I just don't have anybody to talk to about it☠️and despite the fact I'm still not REALLY Recommending It and don't think it sounds appealing from my description, I feel like I probably shouldn't talk about the endgame stuff I'm obsessed with so☠️☠️☠️Anyway. If NOTHING Else. Funny as hell to have Tsutsumi as the basis for The Perfect Middle-Aged Man... SOOO true...

YAYA the DQXI demo goes like, up to just after you get the? Twins? in your party. And you can keep playing the game without progressing the story + continue your save in the full game so technically speaking I COULD grind until I'm overpowered... but I shan't... I'm not positive when I'm getting it since I still wanna play the series in order... For Ichiban... [<- see this is RGG-related now]

It is SO sick to actually get to play though, that's awesome! Toriyama's worked on some bangers what can I say... My first DQ was one of the DS remakes, probably DQV, but the only DQ game I've ever actually finished was the Rocket Slime spinoff. Very Fun By The Way genuinely one of my favorite DS titles... but THAT'S NEITHER HERE NOR THERE... regardless... Arachtagon is not in the demo but I can believe he's a bitch to fight given one of the top results is this ☠️

So I'm glad you're past it and are having fun with the game :] I loved your comic SOOO SO SO much so having that bit of background on makes it all the more enjoyable! I had my own comic about RGGJo losing his mind "babysitting" Ichi and watching him grind for hours on end which was also lowkey about my experience with DQI... lol... lmao even...

I'M SORRYYYYYY THOUGH I TOLD YOU SP WAS SLOW TO START FOR A REASON 😭😭😭😭It took me a while to notice but title sequences are always something like Episode III Part I so they're almost all multi-ep arcs... threw me for a loop... Okay that's enough from me Jesus fucking Christ I am SORRY for going on this long but just I have to say:

inoue's chara is so funny like He's Super Human um doc… i think he's just autistic lowkey….. he still a baller regardless tho

REAL AND TRUE AND REAL AND TRUE AND REAL AND

and i've already added it to the To-Watch list :) NO BUT REAL I UNDERSTAND HOW YOU FEEL- in trying to sell something but having to be like Here Me Out I Swear on it BUT I BELIEVE YOU THAT ITS GOOD. i know i can trust your word on something and i def appreciate the preemptive notes given before watching. im sure i'll enjoy it in the end: it looks cute and im glad it sounds like it's doing something better with a Touchy trope ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶ biggest RIP to no tsutsumi in the live action but... cant be helped.....

NO BUT IT'S SO FUNNY CAUSE FOR MY COMIC I WANTED TO SEE WHAT OTHER PEOPLE'S 'HARDEST BOSSES' WERE AND I FELT SO SEEN IN SEEING ARACHTAGON AS AN OPTION..... funnily enough tho when i redid the fight it wasnt nearly as nightmarish as it was when i first did it but Again i think i was just better prepared... (also during my first attempt i had Literally the most fuck ass luck where my team kept getting stunned and dying but rab kept bringing them back to life and i Just Couldnt Die or even move so... Horrible First Experience Ruined A Game For Seven Months For Me ( ￣▽￣ ;;;;)). the first instance of DQ i remember seeing was DQIX and being liek 'hey they looks familiar :)' and ive just been watchin it since 🤭 ROCKET SLIME IS SO CUTE THOUGH if you had to finish ANY of the games im glad it was that one... i wish i got to play the series in order since I Like Doing That but im annoying about wanting to play things on The Official Console...

AH BUT IVE ALWAYS LIKED THE IDEA OF JO WATCHING ICHI PLAY A GAME i mentioned i had an abandoned comic about it but its still such a silly and cute idea.. id very much like to do something with it someday if not see others have fun with it cause i think they should have them silly family moments too..

NO IT'S OK I JUST FOUND IT FUNNY AN ARC WAS LIKE. 3-4 EPS WHEN AT MOST THEY'RE LIKE TWO i'm just about rapping up the ohashi arc and its SOOOOO good... i also love how the drama has a pretty diverse soundtrack that i notice a lot of other jdramas lack so thats DEF been a bonus plus all of the choreography (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ) and real. inoue Is Just Neurodivergent that got solidified within me after seeing him mess around with that riddle book ☠️

[talkorsomething]

I made a vague semblance of brushing my teeth today! second time this year ...

[lokh]

what do you think toshiro's version of laios would've been like if he was still with the group during the shapeshifter shenanigans

there have been a few speculations in the tag and among the fans and they are all very good SO i am going to take this opportunity to insert a bit of my shipping bias as i like in my interpretation LMAO agdsfgdfgv

i noted that in actuality shuro seems to have a very good grasp on laios' character??? this is most obvious in the manga later on but even seeing how he criticises laios in their fight... iirc nothing he says is actually untrue or wildly exaggerated, and while he does express frustration over something he feels like laios Should have control over (noticing his cues), he is also aware that laios isnt being malicious and that hes Just Like That. what i mean to say is that while i think his version of laios may seem more pushy and in-your-face, i dont think it will be overwhelmingly so. if its post-fight, i think the idea of laios (and marcille) being willing to do anything to get falin back made a big impression on him, as well as the idea that they need to eat and rest in order to succeed in their goals, so those aspects would be prominent in his version. he seems pretty observant, so i think for the most part the physical traits would line up, but i think there would be specific things that stand out to him that would appear strangely striking on his version of laios (like. idk something about his eye colour or the subtle contrast of his armour and chainmail. he seems to have a weird sense of aesthetics if extras are anything to go by lmao). if hed actually been paying attention all those times laios had gone on about what the hell ever, then it might be even MORE hard to tell apart his version since he would also have a good grasp on what laios should know. so either his version of laios is pretty difficult to pick out, OR despite the character being accurate his appearance is too. stylised lmao (exaggerated features or something) OR!! they just get him to pull out his monster gourmet guide thing and are able to tell from there. iirc everyone was surprised at its appearance so its possible toshiro had also never seen it before

IN MY IMAGINARY SHIPPING SCENARIO............ lets say that his laios isnt able to be picked out immediately and that the monster guide thing also doesnt immediately occur to anyone. what the real laios Specifically notices is how close this other laios keeps getting to shuro. and hes like. ??? why is he getting so close to him, theres no way i get that close to him??? but no one else seems to be picking up on it as weird, so hes having a small crisis like do i REALLY get that close to him???? and now that hes on the outside he notices shuro subtly leaning away and he feels both a wave of shame and..... protectiveness??? (JEALOUSY??????) and he immediately steps in and grabs him like Hey!!! cant you see hes uncomfortable???? weve been through this already!!! and like. ok i cant believe im doing this again but i need to separate this into different endings

a) the whump route: i dont think shuro ever envisioned Actually Telling laios about his frustrations outside of being basically cornered into it. has he ever spoken up against what was expected of him?? has he ever been confrontational???? i think part of what held him back from expressing his frustrations, along with the cultural norms, could be fear of what the reaction would be. if he had done the same in any other aspect of his life (his family, his inheritance), i think he would expect disappointment, disapproval, more proof that he doesnt add up to expectation. to be honest i dont think he Truly believes that laios is the type of person to react like this. but it was strong enough to prevent him from acting and i think would be projected onto his image of laios. maybe fake!laios says something dismissive like Well if it really bothered him hed say something right? what, he cant even stand up for himself? cmon, shuro, prove that you cant handle it just like everything else. and thats pretty much the fastest giveaway that it isnt really laios. of course this would be a HUGE tonal departure from what the actual episode/chapter was, so:

b) the dumbass route: both laioses break into fisticuffs, and, yes.... barking. and so they speedrun the entire encounter as the shapeshifters true form appears and, after laios points out that thinking too hard about others versions of you can tear apart groups and peace of mind, they pointedly do not speak of it again. they think about it though. a LOT

c) the normal route: both laioses argue normal like and the group ends up being able to tell them apart because the fake laios goes on a little too long about how theyre all here for falin and everyones like ok its not like he DOESNT love his sister but.......... the rest of the scenario probably goes like canon, though then i would want to see what everyone Else thought of shuro

[five-thousand-loaves-of-bread]

2 and 4!

If you were to write a book (or make other media!) involving disability, what kind of book would you write?

Is there any popular disability theory that you disagree with?

2. book (etc) on disability

ooooo!!!!! feel like much would be like tumblr posts tagged as loaf screm. but more polished! with personal anecdotes but not autobiography - life too weird n not ready tell it all n be scrutinized. would have more societal analysis (like loaf screm tumblr posts) than only memoir about self, but would have live experience weave in narrative so much that not just world analysis.

want talk about much of same thing as tumblr: existing as nonverbal full time AAC n wheelchair user, I/DD, n regression. what it like not be able mouth speak, what it like not be able communicate via language irl majority of time. what it like losing your abilities n feel like stuck in limbo of not belong anywhere bc you not born this way but also you not stay way you born. the exclusion by so many people even people of own community. the disavow n throw under bus n punch down of disability community. how there more than one disability community. how privilege play into disability. so many things.

it something really! really want do!!! fantasized many many times!!! it unrealistic in moment but! maybe some day!!!! shove down people throat force world hear me >:)

.

3. disability theory disagree with

this mix of theory itself n how people talk about n use it… but social model.

many people say social model say you only disabled bc society n… that not exactly right. because social model define word bit differently n separate effects of society on you n call that disability, from effects of own body on you n call that impairment. so can’t summarize it as “only disabled by society” when by disability you use common definition of experience in world AND in own body.

but in mean time. my experience of society & my experience of own body mind, not separable. nor want separate them n only call one part disability. because if look at etomology look at prefix look at construction look at dis+ability, my body mind dis my ability too.

n disagree with people who only know of medical n social model n so call social model perfect thing in world n try apply it for everything everyone n call medical model useless n oppressive for all n shouldn’t be used for all.

biopsychosocial model my beloved. but also there so many more disability models beyond these 3! n people experience so wide, no one model going be accurate for everyone in all situations!

n also giving social model a L for phrase itself so terribly.

another thing is disability studies n thus disability theory, suffer from much same problem as talk about on tumblr of social media community. it an echo chamber it elitist. it make you think you write another complicated incomprehensible theory article that keep repeat yourself in most un-plain language ever is you be hyper aware of societal power n solving it.

scholarship n theory have its uses n learn lots from it n use many ideas learn from it in own advocacy here (even if it just 1% n force to throwing away 99% that didn’t understand), but need stop treating like it will single-handedly save world n it itself so woke it so free of problems, that it n authors isolated from societal power dynamics. n other jargon used. especially if those theory stay at theory n not get read n used in practice down on ground by people who do direct work. which, honestly, sound like some of you (academics) aren’t exactly try make this happen you trying keep it locked gatekept bc you keep write incomprehensible things

ask game

[cosmicbrowniebox]

Episode Six? Id be more afraid if he doxxed me and manga fans tried steal chapters

previous -> Next -> Navi board -> playlist

Bonus!

"Oh, you’ve gotta be fucking kidding me, they have the right hairstyle for Bokuto but they don't have a rooster-looking hairstyle for Kuroo!" she shouted into the mic, unaware of how loud she was being. Her viewers were probably used to it by now, knowing that any time she rage-quit a game she wasn't good at, it was a headphone user warning. She scanned the chat, catching up on missed donations and gifted subs.

"You guys make it sound like I'm weird for wanting to get these as accurate as possible. It's like getting a mold right for pottery," she grumbled, eyes back on her screen where she was customizing a Sim to look like Kuroo. A photo of him was pulled up so the chat could see her reference.

"Do you think he would be mad if I gave him a hairstyle like how I did Keiji and Tsukki?" she mused, clicking over to the Sim she had made of Tsukishima. "This one looks weirdly the most accurate," she said, tilting her head at the screen to figure out why it looked so spot-on compared to the others.

"And before you little shits say something weird, it's not like however way you guys think," she added, leaning close to the mic. She knew her chat sometimes got a little strange when she mentioned any of her male friends, even before the breakup. She took a sip of her water and sat back.

"One of these days, I'm gonna just go on a hiatus, and some of you losers will actually have to touch grass for once because I know some of you don't," she huffed with a small laugh, setting her bottle down. Her chat would probably know she was joking since she often made sarcastic remarks during her water breaks.

She perked up at the sight of Yukie, who she had stayed in contact with. Yukie had been like a big sister to her during school because of the volleyball training camps.

"YUKIEE!" she called out, her voice filled with childlike glee, like a kid finally seeing their big sibling after they'd been away at college for a few months.

"I love Yukie, guys! Have I said that enough? She's like my big sister. I could tell you guys so much about my queen Yukie," she told her chat, pulling the mic close and acting as if she was about to tell them a scary ghost story.

fun facts

this was planned in like 20 minutes and I feel like this is one of the more thought out chapters

gulps only like six or so chapters left

I actually love how this is probably one of the only fanfics I've written to make it past chapter three

I lobe how this went from sticky note appreciation to kenma saying hed dox someone if they made yn sad

I think I just heard a crack in my finger

It wasn't a crack actually I was just hearing the music

I think for goddess I'm gonna pre make each chapter and do a once a week schedule so its not so time consuming I think

Tags: @metta-crybaby @wyrcan @kunimix @phoenix-eclipses @bae-ashlynn @lotti-lyric @stayyyyyyyyyyyy21 @kettlepop @h3xi2g0n3 @staygoldsquatchling02 @kitnootkat

[the-100-days-of-junkan]

Day 92 

Queen of the Convenience Store by an Orphan Account

It’s the one where Junko and Mikan get blazed on weed.

Okay I summarize it like that for the bit but this is another personal fave, and alongside that it’s also pretty interesting in a similar way to Yesterday’s Fic! As this is, as far as I can tell, the first fic on AO3 to use the Non-Abusive Enoshima Junko/Tsumiki Mikan Tag! Or at the very least its the first one listed and doesn’t seem to have any other fics beating it out for that. Might be strange to commemorate the first use of a tag, though I can say for sure I’m super happy to have something like that. Makes the initial wave of binge reading very easy when I get an intense hunger for reading Junkan fics!

Oh right! I forgot to mention it (I think) in previous days, but with the exception of Day 99 every post for the remainder of the event will be fully finished art rather than colored sketches. I thought it best to just go all out by this point . . . which granted is weird to say given the amount of effort I’ve put in by this point but IGNORE THAT!~ 

For today's art instead of making a direct adaptation of a scene like yesterday, I opted to make a cover for it. Which was a bit harder than expected! Cover Art is actually something I kinda struggle with, representing an entire story whether short or long through just a single image requires so much meticulously fedangling in the brainspace, and that’s not even considering the actual contents of a story. So, how does one make a cover representing a short story where Junko and Mikan get stoned and eat snacks? Get a lil weird with it. The original idea was actually going to be a normal piece of them running down the street to the titular convenience store. That seemed too basic, so then I kinda just metaphorically smashed the idea with a meat mallet until it was more malleable. 

I took the Sidewalk, made it float, put the field and tree where they were cuddling in the back, and dropped our two baked girlies into it alongside a bunch of snacks. It was pretty fun once I figured out what I was doing! 

As for the story itself, it’s cute! It should be noted that this seems to be one part of a larger series by the original author, though the stories beyond and before this point are focused purely on Mukuro x Kyoko x Makoto, so if you liked this fic and that’s your thing you’ll have plenty more!~ 

The story does feature a lot outside of the main couple, from the aforementioned throuple, to even the appearance of some Komahinanami! It isn’t till a little over halfway through that focus is completely on Junko and Mikan.

That said when it does focus on them I find myself quite enjoying it! The story shows its age of course (2017! I think that was actually the year I got into Danganronpa? Before it hit me with the girl beam like, a year or two later), but I don’t see a need to be hypercritical of it given that I still wouldn’t consider myself all that fantastic of a writer when i manage to force myself onto the keyboard.

I love how sweet Junko is to Mikan over the course of the story especially once they’re baked. And during the earlier parts I just, love Mikan fuckin passing out when she realize Junko actually asked her out. Like that’s one of my favorite tropes sadlfhsdljfs.

Okay but for the actual main event of the two getting BLASTED on weed. I love it tbh.

I’ve had a very long history with weed, I’ve basically been doing it since I was legally able to. The reasons varied, to focus on work, to improve my art, to have some fun, make myself feel a bit more confident, relieve stress. It varied by the day. However I did recently quit the stuff as my relationship had gotten unhealthy with it over the course of this year, will I go back? Someday, but for now i’m vibin. Point is, having a lot of experience with Weed means that I have a bigger appreciation for this fic than I probably would have otherwise. In terms of how accurate this is to what Weed can do to you, it should be noted that Weed can have different effects on people. For me, it can make me mellow or hyper active depending on my stimuli, some people become panicky and paranoid, and some people just aren’t affected by weed at all no matter the dosage. This is just me going off my own personal experience.

Those girlies were toasted as shit and it’s adorable. For Mikan, calming her down some makes a lot of sense, and while speaking from experience her coordination increasing a bit seems a bit questionable I can’t write it off entirely. I’ve used weed to reduce stress or put back my darker thoughts in the past, so it checks out! And Junko using weed to make her brain stop running at max constantly might seem a bit weird and unrealistic, however, you do enough weed you can just kinda shut down your ability to think and feel under the right conditions. Speaking from direct experience. Obviously an extreme end of the spectrum I just described there, but it means this checked out! 

Beyond that, the way these two talk from here feels very on brand with how I would often speak with friends in call when I would get high. And it’s just so fuckin cute! They’re just sayin shit y’know? I don’t wanna just describe every little thing that happens like a recap, so it’s kinda hard to describe? Like none of what they’re saying really matters, but at the exact same time it actually really matters. It’s the forward momentum of it y’know??

Them describing what kind of chocolate they are is very silly and super god damn adorable while they’re just cuddling in the grass and laughing with each other. But they’re also like trying to verbalize themselves in a light and fun way that lets the other understand them, AND it leads to that really cute line at the end where Junko talks about liking Orange Cream! Also the part where Junko tries to call Mukuro just to see if she’d show up was really funny, I just love the mental image of it all alsdjfhlsdjfhsd. 

It’s just a really fun little read going through one very cute night with these two, love it!

As always, Reblogs, Comments, and Little Notes in the Tags are appreciated!~ They always make my day!~

[booksandpaperss]

idk who exactly on this tag needs to hear this but it’s definitely a lot of you:

it is perfectly okay for a fanfic writer to have Mike and Will having physical and sexual thoughts about each other. They are teenagers and it completely normal for allosexual and even acespec teenagers to have sexual thoughts about the person or people they like. Yes adult fanfic writers can do this too it’s literally not weird as long as it’s written respectfully and accurately, and I’m actually so fucking tired of all this discourse that is so clearly rooted in people feeling uncomfortable with two boys being sexually attracted to each other, or even queer teenagers in general having sexual thoughts about each other.

I do think it’s weird to write explicit sex scenes between minors and especially in this case when these characters are represented by real people with real bodies who were minors while filming the vast majority of the show, but honestly anything suggestive between two 14/15 year olds and up that’s not explicit and/or sexualized is normal. And before any of you come at me saying I’m sexualizing minors, you can fuck right off bc I am 17 and I am sick and tired of teenagers and especially queer teenagers being shamed for sexual thoughts that are perfectly normal.

I understand if you personally are not comfortable reading and writing anything suggestive, that is fine bc I have a solution for you! Wanna guess what it is??

Just. Don’t. Read it.

If it’s content u don’t like, simply don’t interact!!! No one is forcing you to read or write anything that you don’t want to, so simply don’t. It’s that easy 😱

I will say though, that if reading an even vaguely suggestive thought in a byler fic makes you extremely uncomfortable, maybe you should take a moment to ask yourself why that is. Bc love between teenagers is not all fluffy and pure and innocent, and its honestly way weirder to have that ideal than to write teens having sexual thoughts, so maybe do some self reflection. If you’re ace and suggestive content in general makes u feel weird then that’s different, but if that’s not the case then if you’re allo and u still feel this way… idk just take a moment to check and see if you’re internalizing anything before complaining about it and spreading legitimately harmful discourse.

So, to recap:

-it’s normal for teenagers to have suggestive thoughts about each other and it’s normal to write it

-writing teenagers having sexual thoughts and making out with each other is not sexualizing, fellow queer ppl who think this literally why do u hate ur community so much 😑

-anything short of an explicit smut scene between minors is fine as long as it’s done accurately and respectfully

-it is still weird to write explicit smut in the byler fandom specifically (and any other ship between teens in ST) just bc you’d be describing the bodies of real people that were minors until very recently with actors who have stated that they’re not comfortable being sexualized like that, but first and foremost…

-…if something makes you uncomfortable or you don’t like it, simply don’t interact

-stop shaming queer teenagers for being physically attracted to each other, and stop idealizing teenage queer love as something completely pure and innocent, if you’re going to do that, please keep it to yourself

If after reading this post you 1). want to block me bc you think this whole post was sexualization or 2). plan to use this argument as an excuse to actually sexualize minors and write hardcore explicit smut between them, block me. Weird reformed purity culture is not welcome on my blog and neither are people who enjoy sexualizing minors. Fuck you ❤️

[thatdeadaquarius]

About language brainrot. Imagine writer creator reader who finally learns how to write in Teyvat's weird symbols and they want to publish their book. They decided to do it anonymously to avoid the "aaaaaah our creator wrote the holy scripture" sort of situation. Except it didn't work. The reader's style is too different from the rest of the world, so even if they tried to simulate the flowery speech it wasn't effective.

Another thing. Reader who decided to read some local books to practice their reading. They asked for something simple and similar to their speech. But the only books merely similar to it are 2000 and more years old. It's funny how the older text is the more you can understand it. On this note. If reader write something i feel like it would be hard to understand for Teyvat's people.

Imagine a reader who is autistic or has any other NDs imparing their communication skills. They practically trained themselves to say sertain phrases in sertain situation. But it doesn't work in Teyvat. And everything just stacks at each other. Difference in speech, being a God (so people react weirdly to you), bad communication skills, not understanding nonverbal cues and so on. There's gonna be a lot of misunderstanding. I imagine how followers would walk on the eggshells not to upset and angry their God and reader who does the same not to say something people will get wrong. Again.

Reader who regained all their memories of creating Teyvat, they're super powerful and stuff. But they still struggle with the modern language. Because all the memories are like millions years old.

✨️NEXYLAZA UR SO FUCKING SMART AND CREATIVE✨️ UR BRAIN>>>>>> EVERYTHING

GIF Akashi (black hair) is all the people who read the Sagau/Isekai Genshin tag and Bokuto (silver) is STILL ME RANTING ABOUT LANGUAGE IN TEYVAT LMAO

They cant escape me, sorry people who just wanted to read SAGAU normal things, im filling up the tag💀

I HAD OTHER ASKS BEFORE THIS ONE AND AS I GOT THRU EM I WAS "OMMGGGG WE'RE GETTIN CLOSER TO NEXY'SSSS ASSSKKKK EEEEEEE"

YOU ARE A GODDAMN GENIUS

DHALALWKDHDHS

ME ABOUT THIS ASK:

(^ lol biblically accurate deadaquarius)

I DONT EVEN KNOW WHERE TO BEGINNNN

BRAINROTTING OVER UR ENTIRE ASK!!

♡

Also, its getting kinda old now, so here is the blunt language v. Teyvat's flowery language post for reference! :)

Hhhhhhhhhhh

IF U WRITE STUFF

AND UR IN WORDY TEYVAT LAND

AINT NO WAY,👏

U COULD EVEN, 👏👏

GET CLOSE👏👏👏

TO THESE BITCHES SPEECH👏👏👏👏

◇

Like,, imagine right now if i told you to write me 4 pages of an essay in entirely early 18th century vernacular.

(For reference: when the story Pride & Prejudice takes place)

... like??

Bitch aint no way u can do that and actually show that to a historian or an actual living person from that time period

and them actually say "wow! An excellently worded 18th century essay!"

💀.

◇

So tying into that whole, "the only simple texts are like literal cunnieform clay tablets or sm shit"

Your writing to them just sounds like if a scribe just copied off what one of those tablets said just onto paper HAHA

And like, if u try and dress it up, it just ends up sounding like its from a slightly later time period

Like if ur casual writing sounds like 1 million years ago, u being flowery sounds like 8-7 thousand years ago u cant win LMAO

◇

Omg ur trying to go to that-

wait whats it called,,fuck i dont know Sumeru good enough yet

The.. HOUSE OF DAENA GOT IT

Yeah so ur thinking "Oh what better way to learn a dialect?/vernacular than reading books by them!"

And u basically snatch Alhaitham at the soonest possible chance to take you there

(Bc when i went in, it was just random lore books everywhere so)

Needless to say you have no clue how this place is organized, so u convince him to direct you to books u can easily read first

Like as close to your speech as possible!! U tell him :)

.

..

...lol

It literally takes like 3 hours to get something readable LMAO

Bc when the poor feeble scribe initially brought you smth he thought was pretty old and close to ur speech, like just first thought,

... It sounded like it was from the middle of the 18th century to you lol

So, with a "hmm" and a squint at the dusty book you'd already given up on

Alhaitham slowly went around the library making a stack of books, dropped them off in front of you... not a single sentence.

...then he made a stack of scrolls...

..nope..

...a stack of stone tablets...

.....getting closer?? it was really weird seeing Shakespearean language carved into stone....

...and then, with a conversation to a second library secretary deeper in the library, past a caged area of shelves to protect them...

...he escorts you behind the restricted section towards the back filled with glass display cases.

(Several of which contain the most ancient looking sets of artifacts you've ever seen)

...Finally, u arrive at a long glass case of several clay tablets.

Half of which sound like they're from the 1910s-20s, and the other, even older half, sounding straight out of the 2000s..

..

....

......

...Good god.

(Good..you??)

These crazy speaking bastard-previously-video-game-characters were right.

...

You are suddenly, viscerally hit with the image of Zhongli's idle, "Osmanthus wine tastes the same as I remember, but where are those who share the memory?" 💀

◇

Alhaitham side eyes you,, (he looks,, very interested, yet also kinda concerned??? HIM, CONCERNED????!!!)

"Ahem, the texts before thy Greatest Lord art the eldest- well, perhaps, more appropriately, the eldest and most intact, pieces of written language known to our humankind."

...

....aYOO MAN 😭😭

...Ur just staring at these half cracked, baked clay tablet thingys, full of slang from like 2003-

Alhaitham coughs.

"Uh, thanks. ...Sorry about all the.. trouble with this..."

BRO HOW OLD DOES HE THINK U ARE NOW-

"This task assigned to mine own person was of no trouble to my mind or spirit, Greatest Lord, fret not about it any longer."

And with a sort of shell-shocked atmosphere surrounding both of you, Alhaitham walks off to check out some other restricted books, hovering nearby yet also trying to give u space LOL

Top 10 cursed images: Seeing "Chillax, bro, dude, and weeb" carved into ancient clay tablets that look like they would be part of the Egyptian exhibit back in ur world 💀

◇

You eventually just kind of end up writing a couple pages after studying the writings, going younger and younger (nothing has ever made u feel more powerful...yet also more old..)

You stretch, just as Alhaitham finally has made his own little stack of creaky old books

He seems very curious to read what u wrote, peaking a glance over the top of his book every so often (lol nerd, cute nerd... but NERDDD)

You just offer the academic lunatic what he wants 🙄

"Haha, wanna take a look? Some drafts are... closer than others..."

The scribe immediately puts his book down, not even saving his page,

"I would be honored, Greatest Lord."

Is he excited?? 💀 omfg

U very slowly hand ur most recent practice pages over, he curls his hand under his chin "hmm" ing

...Alhaitham shakes his head

"My..deepest apologizes My Creator, but this still seems, at the earliest, from when papyrus was invented, and not yet even into scrolls..."

OK BUT ALHAITHAM WOULD GENUINELY GIVE NO FUCKS ABT CRITIQING YOU, HE MAY BE MORE POLITE ABT IT BUT EVEN IF U DID MAKE THE WORLD HES GOING FOR IT

KAVEH HAS A HEART ATTACK BC HIS ROOMMATE GOT ONTO GOD LMAO

U let ur head plop on ur pile of papers, srry babe youll never be as fancy as Mr. Darcy 😕

And as ur resting there, contemplating just walking out and finding smth to eat instead- same

Alhaitham picks up another draft.

Except it's your first attempt.

As in, you didn't even try, first attempt.

You just made some bullet point notes or some Bs, in ur regular. modern. language.

Alhaitham knocks his chair over standing up so fast-

(HE GETS SHUSHED BY THE RESTRICTED LIBRARIAN LOL, also another person unafraid to scold God lol)

...he says its a perfect example of the oldest records they've found of writing on the continent, most of which they haven't even translated yet

He asks u to teach him how to read this/speak like this lol

♧

(^^^not my best work but hope yall got smth outta it💀)

I WAS LITERALLY GONNA MAKE A WHOLE POST ON THE NEURODIVERGENT EXPERIENCE OF BEING A GOD IN TEYVAT

ESPECIALLY OF THE LANGUAGE BARRIER VARIETY!!!

THERES JUST

ACK

aCK HDHAKD

SO MUCH

TO SAY

!!!

AHHHHH

OK BUT LIKE

IF WE ACTUALLY TOOK THIS TO THE EXTREME IM IMPLYING IT WOULD BE

LIKE TEYVAT SPEAKS SEVERAL DECADES BEHIND U- MAYBE EVEN ACTUALLY

CLOSE TO PRIDE AND PREJUDICE TIMES SPEECH

THEY WOULD LITERALLY BARELY COMPHREHEND YOU

IMAGINE TRYING TO TALK TO MR. DARCY 😭

THATS LITERALLY ALL OF TEYVAT

JUST

???¿¿?????!!! <- THEM ALL THE TIME

ESP IF UR NEURODIVERGENT

I THINK IT WOULD BE EVEN MORE PROOF FOR THEM TO THINK UR GOD

BC UR BEHAVIOR WOULD BE "OFF" TO THEIR NEUROTYPICAL ASSES,

YOUR FACIAL EXPRESSIONS,

LIKE UR MASKING MAYBE BUT

U CANT KEEP THAT SHIT UP ALL THE TIME-

ESP IN CRAZY ISEKAI CIRCUMSTANCES

AND LIKE-

(ok ill tone it down before i also get shushed)

U used to be a player!!

Which would maybe mean u got rlly comfy playing Genshin all the time!

...like i know im kinda stimming when im gaming (and my natural stim is rocking so yeah no way they wouldnt notice that 💀)

So, since u may be still yknow unconsciously wanting to be comfy (esp around ur mains/team/favs)

U probably have stimmed a little around them, which, not that neurotypicals dont stim, but like

They would notice after awhile

And esp people like Alhaitham, Zhongli, Ningguang, Xiao, Ei, Aether/Lumine, Kaeya, Diluc, Kazuha, Heizou, Shenhe, Kokomi, Sara, Albedo, Dainsleif- !! GASP- !! <- my bbygirl omg i forgot abt u before now im so sorry </3

(once again i have not checked a character list, forgive my sins my readers)

^^^ Are like pretty focused on you/observant, so they'd eventually pick up on it first probably

..

...

....which allsssooo means they're like, collecting all ur neurodivergent thingys lol to compile as EVIDENCE AGAINST YOU AS TO WHY THEY KNOW UR THE CREATOR LMAO

◇

Honestly the biggest factor against u is definitely social interaction,, srry love :/

(if it helps, its bc i know itd be my downfall too thats why thats there ^ 😔)

Mostly bc i have this idea/theory? obervation? that when I especially met Adepti for the first time

Esp ones that werent as close to human society for as long as some others (like think Xiao vs. Ganyu)

And for literally every other non-human people we've met so far in Genshin-

They kinda- they kinda, radiate neurodivergent energy??

Like, they're not adherring to social norms, and not in like a bad way,

But its still rlly obvious (i mean also its probably exaggerated for us as an audience) that theyre not human pretty quickly

coughzhonglicough

COUGHVENTICOUGH-

oh geez wow excuse me, cold weather must be gettin to me- ahem hem-

Anyway, like what Nexy said in the ask,

...

...Yall are all just tiptoing around each other 😭😭

Bc these ppl arent from Earth countries,

All their behavior is weird to you 😭

U dont know how to mask with them yet 😭😭

THE UNBELIEVABLE AMOUNT OF MISCOMMUNICATION THAT HAPPENS ALREADY WHEN UR NEUROSPICY VS. NEUROBLAND PPL

IS LIKE, ALMOST WORSE??

Bc they cant even understand ur phrasing bc its so simple 😭😭😭

◇

Tldr: "Being Neurodivergent means ur a god, confirmed." - says all of Teyvat's denizens

◇

NEXYLAZA.

MY BELOVED.

I AM IN LOVE WITH UR BRAIN.

IF I COULD GIVE IT A HUG I WOULD🫂✨️👏👏👏👏

BC I WAS ALREADY LIKE IN THE BACK OF MY MIND LIKE-

*rubs my little rat gremlin hands together*

"hmHmHMMMM BuT wHaT iF mAYbE yOU reMeMbeREd cReATinG TeyVAT, hmHMHMMMMM"

AND FOR VERBALIZING IT WITHIN BLUNT LANGUAGE AU- !!!!!!!

(one of my favs, if u cant tell)

I would (platonically) kiss you right now dude.

Instead I give this:

♡ ily

And also, I AM GOING TO MAKE A WHOLE POST ABOUT THIS-

MAYBE EVEN A FANFIC, OR ONE SHOT AHDHAKFHSKLAAL-

UNTIL NEXT TIME MY BELOVED PARTNER IN CRIME <333

PSPSPSPSsppspspspssss Last Time! CLOSES TOMORROW @1pm CST: VOTE on my 100+ followers celebration POLL :)

Tell me what u wanna see me write about! PSPSPSPSpspspspssss

(U can vote even if ur new! :] )

THANK YOU FOR SUBMITTING THIS ASK

THIS IS A TREASURE OF MINE NOW

GONNA HIDE IT IN MY LITTLE CAVE OF SCREENSHOTTED SAGAU POSTS <333 hehehehehehehehehehe

THIS IS LIKE PT2 TO MY ORIGINAL LANGUAGE POST AHHHHH

NEXY BIG BRAIN ILYSM <3

Cheers,

🌒🌧🌊Aquarius♒️🌌🌘

♡the beloveds♡

@karmawonders / @0rah-s / @randomnatics / @glxssynarvi / @nexylaza lol ur own ask im a menace sorry

[olderthannetfic]

Hi hi! I have a question and I apologise if it's impertinent but I really didn't have anyone else to ask. I'm new to ao3 and I'm still figuring out how it works. The problem is this- when I look up a character x reader, I'll see the tag included in many works that have oneshots but since it's a side character, more often than not the oneshot for the character hasn't been written and the tag has been there for months. Is it okay to do that or is it tagging something incorrectly? They say they'll write one eventually but they never do, y'know? To me it kind of feels like they're just trying to reach a wider audience but because of this I can't even filter tags and I have to manually search through the book to check if the character is included, especially when the chapters are titled only by numbers :')

Is it okay to tag things in advance like that?

--

Oh boy...

Wattpad refugees do tend to use AO3 "wrong", sometimes in ways that break the rules and sometimes just in ways I find annoying and against typical AO3 culture.

I'm assuming you are coming from Wattpad based on you calling a work or a fic a "book", which is a very, very Wattpad thing to do.

I'm assuming they are coming from Wattpad given the bad behavior you're describing and the fact that they're a x reader writer.

--

So, here's the thing, if you start writing a fic and there's any amount of the actual fic, even if it's pretty short and bad or in a weird format or whatever, it's still a valid fanwork. Most of the time, AO3 leaves it to the author to decide how to tag (aside from a very few things like death threats in the tags or failing to use the required archive warnings).

AO3 won't stop someone from tagging a future pairing that hasn't appeared yet.

--

But "books" of "oneshots" are such an obnoxious Wattpad thing. This is a completely stupid use of AO3 from the "Please send me prompts" part that is usually in there to the way that unrelated fics are smashed together.

It's not against the rules, but it's a crappy use of AO3 befitting of n00bs.

Sadly, old hands at AO3 also make shitty works that are unrelated stories mashed together. They're often a whole set of kinktober fics or something where the trope tags and the ship tags are accurate, but you can't tell which ones go with which ones without searching the whole fic.

We regularly complain about that on here.

--

A much better way to use AO3 is to make a series titled "My x Reader Oneshots" or "All of my kinktober fics" where each separate story is its own work with its own tags.

My assumption is that this person is using the inaccurate tag both to get more eyeballs on their existing work and because they probably take prompts for that ship or something. (I'm basing this on the kinds of things people say on their oneshot books on Wattpad. Maybe they don't actually take prompts since you haven't mentioned it.)

Some people just don't care that they're annoying others and messing up the tags, but I think some actually don't realize how AO3 filtering works and have no idea this behavior is a nuisance.

On a lot of sites, both Wattpad and algorithm-driven social media, unless a post/work is very popular, it disappears out of sight. Even an inaccurate tag doesn't do that much.

On AO3, one is getting a full list of everything with the tag, going back however far. It's a library catalogue for which you should use accurate data. But this writer is probably thinking of tags more as advertising and a way to get their name out there so readers can follow them pre-emptively. They mean to write the ship in the future, so it's not really inaccurate... (And, tbh, if it were a single work and the ship just hadn't appeared yet, I would agree with them even though those are frustrating too.)

--

So no, they should not do this.

But it's not actually against the rules.

I would mute the annoying people who do this.

[todayisafridaynight]

HAVE BEEN ROTATING Y7 ARAKAWA IN RGGO ARAKAWA'S DRIP IN MY MIND FOR AEONS YOU SEE THE VISION....................

Listen. I think. I think it would work. I think we could've still won. The physics probably would've been a pain, but if I think about it as an echo of the red iin his costuming in the play at the start, and link it back to how the plot of the play comes to represent part of his life, it would [unintelligible]

But no for real, the sliver you can see of the snakeskin on Jo and the fact it's the lightest thing you can see on his whole outfit feels purposeful. It's still incredibly funny to me that whole thing was treated as a twist at all. But.

And the progression on account of the timeskip is sick too from a symbolic perspective. It's things like the 2019 tie having the exact same pattern as in 2000, but it's also now the only real color in his entire ensemble, the purple from his shirt relegated to the tie and the pink completely gone. Hanging on to the past (although I guess this is more RGGJo's thing), forcing his "self" into a smaller and smaller space, that kind of thing. If we go with Sololiquy for a moment, maybe there's also something there about things being livelier when Ichi was around, for better or worse.

All the leather is ostensibly much more luxurious, befitting of his rise in status, but it's also burying him further in these additional layers of security. The gloves DO pull it together, and they also leave him basically completely covered-up from head to toe, which I can't help find fascinating.

So, you know, he looks sick with the gloves on, but there's also a different Flavor when recognizing he had them on the first battle when he was hiding so much from Ichi, but in the second battle, where he hopes to come clean, he's bare-handed ("Ichi-vision" notwithstanding).

And I think it's also worth recognizing that the gloves would've offered some protection when he went to grab the blade, but he grabs it anyway in his bare hand. With the amount of force you apply when you swing a blade and it actually connects, that'd hurt him just as bad, but it shows he's past the point of caring about what happens to him even before he says so. (I still think we should've probably seen his hand cut and bleeding when out of Ichi-vision, but y'know.)

Much to think about...

NO I SEE YOUR VISION I SEE WHERE YOU'RE GOING they could've done that.... true the physics would've been a pain but I think we can trade some of the effort that went into The Bread and put it towards the scarf and coat.....

The evolution of Jo's outfit in conjunction with the surrounding environment and circumstances really is mad interesting, and as someone who really enjoys 'storytelling' (idk if that's the exact word rn but i aint ever been good with words in the first place) through character design/wardrobe. Any note I coulda said you've already said for me, yet I still wish I had some more words to express how much I love the changes in his outfit and how it reflects himself and the story at that particular point 😷

[beanghostprincess]

What are you most controversial/unpopular OP opinions??? Sorry if it was answered before

You want me to get canceled so bad-- If I speak-- But idk, I guess I'll say the controversial opinions I can say publicly without a bunch of people coming at me!

Zo$an is a bit... Overrated? And by overrated I mean extremely/annoyingly overrated. I like the ship and its canon dynamic but I think at least 80% of the fandom portrays them in a very mischaracterized way. Not to say that... The ship is literally everywhere and the shippers always look for every little thing to prove they're canon, even if the "proof" has literally nothing to do with them. It's not that I don't enjoy the ship (although I must admit I prefer other dynamics a lot more) I just can't stand shippers that go to extremes. It's funny because I think Zo$an's dynamic is way more interesting and romantic in canon than it will ever be in the fandom. It's a bit sad, ngl. I liked them a lot at first but it got so tiring and now I am pretty exhausted from seeing it everywhere. The people force it to be more than it is when the canon is already pretty fucking great.

Adding to the Zo$san thing. I think that relationship would only work if Luffy is there somehow but it wouldn't last a day without him in the relationship. Unless there's like, a ton of character development most of these people don't make them go through.

One Piece Film Z is my worst enemy. It's such a boring movie. The only good thing is the soundtrack and maybe the suits but God watching that was torture.

Boa hate is uhhhh weird. I mean, I get why the joke about her being in love with Luffy might be annoying, but I think most of you need to learn to understand that Oda's sense of humor is sometimes a bit too exaggerated (and not funny) and it has basically nothing to do with the actual canon dynamics between characters. Boa likes Luffy because he's one of the first men who has ever treated her right, so of course she confuses that feeling with love. And of course, yeah, it isn't canon. Whatever. Just read between the lines, maybe? And also, stop using words like "pedo" to describe her because using that term so lightly about 1) a fictional character and 2) somebody who's clearly not a pedo is fucked up. Lmao. Do you even know what that word means???

Once again complaining about Pudding hate and saying that it's stupid. I won't overanalyze because I always do it with her, but the only reason people hate her is for misogynistic reasons and because they're babying Sanji. Evil male characters are okay and hot and very traumatized but the second it's a woman she's the most evilest person ever! Because God forbid they make mistakes! Suddenly their character development isn't valid because they hurt their babygirl!

Now that we're talking about my dearest Pudding. Not tagging anybody of course, but I saw this post with so many interactions of people agreeing about Sanji considering violence as a sign of love which??? Doesn't make sense at all?? OP said it was because he couldn't tell the difference between love/abuse because of his family, but that's just... Not accurate. That could only happen if they had manipulated him into thinking abuse is a type of love, but he had healthy love growing up. Even when he was with the Vinsmokes (Sora and Reiju, I love you). And yet OP said Sanji considered Pudding's behavior flirting (wrong) and that's why he let her attack him (nope) and that it was proof of Zo$an. And okay, it's not a hugely popular theory, but a lot of people agreed with it and it bothered me a lot because it's both out of character and also using Pudding (complex female character) once again to try and prove the canon of a ship (that doesn't have anything to do with WCI either???). It just bothers me. People can perceive the story however they want but... Y'know.

OPLA isn't that good. Or good at all? I only like it because I like the cast and it's funny seeing my blorbos irl. But the script is simple and dull and just stupid most of the time. The characters are either simplified, mischaracterized, or forgotten. And tbh most of the shots are very awful and could be a lot better. The directing is also nonexistent. It's 6/10 and 3 of those points are because both the Zolu and the cast.

Apparently this is a very common theory about Nami's origins, but, uh, I don't think we need to know? What else do you need to know about her? People say she's a lost princess or something like that as if we didn't have a lost princess already (Sanji ily). Repeating the same plot would be boring and underwhelming, but also? It'd be extremely useless for the plot and it'd go against everything about Nami's story and the way Luffy reacts to it.

Luffy isn't canon aroace. In fact, the reasoning people use for him being "coded" is the same Oda uses for Zoro too and Zoro is almost never portrayed as the "idiot who doesn't know what sex is" the way Luffy often is. If you're calling Luffy canon aroace for what Oda said about him being focused on adventures, the same goes for Zoro being focused on his dream. They could be coded arospec but there's nothing confirmed and the constant discourse about it is stupid. Attacking others because of their ships just because you don't agree with them and saying it's wrong using our identity to do it is very fucked up. Especially since most of the time people complaining aren't even aroace. The only reason people do it (attacking others saying they can't ship Luffy and that it's "weird" and "wrong") is that they infantilize Luffy/Don't want him getting in between their ships (<- aroace person writing this) (also, it's very ableist since people agree on Luffy also being neurodivergent coded and treating him like a kid bc of that but this isn't about that now).

Somehow this is very common. Some fucking how. I can't believe I have to say this. I'm tired of people blaming Usopp for what happened in Water 7. Or in general hating Usopp. Actually, he's one of the best-written characters in the whole show and he's so underappreciated it's so frustrating.

Sanji's perv jokes are annoying af and we all know that, but people who hate the character and consider him a red flag for that are missing the point completely. The point being "Oda exaggerates jokes to an annoying extent and most of the time they don't even reflect the character". I understand they can make you uncomfortable (same here tbh) but reducing Sanji to only those jokes is a waste of his character. You need to take jokes less seriously.

If I see one of these "red flag OP boys" TikToks adding Law/Ace/Zoro/Sanji next to fucking Doffy I will riot. Also, stop adding Crocodile there. He's a mafioso, there's NO way he won't be a sweetheart to his lover.

Baron Omatsuri's artstyle and animation is amazing and it fits the plot and aesthetic of the movie perfectly and people saying it's ugly will forever bother me.

"Usopp is suddenly hot after timeskip!" He has always been hot what the fuck are you talking about.

People reduce Nami to her "mean"/"sarcastic" personality a lot when she's quite literally one of the most kind-hearted characters of all. That being said, morally speaking she's probably one of the worst. I could explain how that works but I don't want to do it now, the point is-- Let the girl be sweet instead of making her mean all the time. And also, let her be mean and selfish without making it her entire personality. There's something called "balance".

Film Red was kind of bad. Like, the songs are amazing (thanks, Ado) but the ending is awful and the plot is very meh. I'm only here for Uta and Shanks but the rest of the characters are just useless. I do appreciate Sanji's hair in the movie, though.

[0ne-eyed-ghost]

DAY UHM. 13 I THINK. TRIO. I took AGES to finish these [And in between playing with my friends, it's been chaos diving into caves.] Feel free to use these yourself in-game! Tag me in any posts you make with my skins, I'd love to see what they're used for :] OBVIOUSLY DONT INCLUDE THEM IN ANY RACIST OR ANYTHING SIMILAR PLEASE. BE SENSIBLE

Weirdly enough I play as my Heart design and yet I'm the only fully competent player enough to be trusted to build us things, make the farms, ect. Without dying or killing the others like 10 times. It feels so not right in character HELP ME My friend who plays as Mind LOVESSS to beat us all with its fishing rod. Its past time? Fishing. Other past time? Apparently stalking and throwing us down pits! [... This has happened like 5 times save m-] MY FRIEND WHO'S SUPPOSED TO USE SOUL CAN'T YET!! BUT !!! He will eventually... :fire: His past time though is just. either following me around and getting things done , or obsessing over the chicken we've named Darrell. [Yes, After the official Darrell.] Proud chicken owner I suppose. We walked him like. over 1k blocks to the build location I decided on it took like 3 in game days JUST for Darrell to arrive safely. I was scared :sob: Anyway! Most recent thing we've done is just. well. I suppose MY most recent thing was ancient city raiding, I'm stupidly good at it :fire: BEDROCK SUCKS THOUGH IM STRUGGLING TO GET A FREAKING ENCHANTING TABLE :sob:

[lucky-clover-gazette]

prince's gambit highlights & annotations

chapter 20

indented text is from the book. some quotes have commentary, some do not. some comments are serious, and some are definitely not. most of them will only make sense to people who have read the series. and, like, there are spoilers. so please read the books first if you're interested!

also: part of the reason i'm doing such a close reading is to study cs pacat's style, especially in terms of how she does romance and erotica. there are "craft notes" that might seem weird, like i'm being redundant or restating something rather than analyzing, but those are more things that i want to remember/take away from the writing!

i'm going to tag these longer posts with "sam reads capri" in case anyone wants to read them all at once.

this is a google doc i wrote with overall content warnings for the captive prince series. it's not perfect, but i do think it's important to include.

When laced into his clothing, Laurent’s dangerous grace lent him an almost androgynous quality. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that it was rare to associate Laurent with a physical body at all: you were always dealing with a mind.

goals

Damen knew his body now. He knew the surprise that gentle attention could draw from him. He knew his lazy, dangerous assurance, his hesitancies . . . his sweet, tender hesitancies. He knew the way that he made love, a combination of explicit knowledge and almost shy reticences.

Stirring drowsily, Laurent shifted a fraction closer and made a soft, unthinking sound of pleasure that Damen was going to remember for the rest of his life. And then Laurent was blinking sleepily, and Damen was watching Laurent grow aware of his surroundings and come awake in his arms. He wasn’t sure how it would be, but when Laurent saw who was beside him, he smiled, the expression a little shy but completely genuine. Damen, who hadn’t been expecting it, felt the single painful beat of his heart. He’d never thought Laurent could look like that at anyone.

cat. energy.

They were gazing at one another.

always

Damen found himself saying, ‘You talk the same in bed,’ and the words came out sounding like he felt: helplessly charmed.

<3

‘I like the way it feels,’ said Laurent. ‘I liked the way it felt. You’re a generous, giving lover, and I feel—’ Laurent broke off, and gave a shaky laugh at his own words. ‘I feel like the Vaskian tribe, in the body of one person. I suppose it is often like this?’ ‘No,’ said Damen. ‘No, it’s—’ It’s never like this. The idea that Laurent might find this with someone else hurt him.

damen going from passive polyamory to determined monogamy after one night with laurent, who doesn’t even know how to fuck like a normal person… that’s love babyyyy

also they’re so good, i don’t have much to say with these passages other than i love them and i love their love and i think they’re both being honest despite the lies between them. i really honestly have to think that, because anything else is heartbreaking. this is real and the text supports it so shut up

‘The Prince is occupied with other matters. You are to leave before he returns.’ He felt unsteady. He understood that what he had missed in sleeping was not his deadline but the last moments with Laurent, the last kiss, the final parting. Laurent wasn’t here because he had chosen not to be here.

In the curve of its metal was every humiliation of his time in this country, every frustration at Veretian confinement, every indignity of an Akielon serving a Veretian master. Except that it was Kastor who had put the collar on him, and Laurent who was freeing him. It was made from Akielon gold.

THERE YOU GO.

‘I can’t,’ said Damen. ‘I can’t have this for just one night.’

He had come to this fort a slave. He would ride out of it Damianos of Akielos. It was like shedding a skin, discovering what lay beneath. The first cuff sprang apart under Guerin’s rhythmic strikes and he faced his new self. He was not the headstrong prince he had been in Akielos. The man he had been in Akielos would never have served a Veretian master, or fought alongside Veretians for their cause. He would never have known Laurent for what he was; never have given Laurent his loyalty or held Laurent’s trust for a moment in his hands. Guerin moved to strike the gold from his left wrist, and he pulled it back. ‘No,’ he heard himself say. ‘Leave that one on.’

i love when things are on the page so i don’t have to analyze/summarize them myself. he’s been changed and he knows he can’t go back to the person he was, nor does he want to

His horse was being led forward. Not only a riding horse but a pack horse, a sword, clothing, supplies. Is there something you want? Laurent had asked him once. He wondered what ornate Veretian parting gift might lurk in those packs and knew instinctively that there was none. He had maintained from the beginning that he had wanted only his freedom. And that was exactly what he had been given.

a kingdom or this i hate it here

‘He’s gone for a ride,’ said Jord. ‘It was his habit in the palace, too, when he needed to clear his head. Not the type for goodbyes.’

horse girl avoidance. ouch.

‘I didn’t do it for Aimeric,’ said Damen.

he just didn't like seeing laurent being scary after they kissed (and cares about laurent and wanted to help him calm down and collect himself)

Against the pomp of the Regent’s emissary Laurent was a single rider casually dressed. But then, he had never needed anything other than his hair to identify him.

yeah damen you'd say that

‘This one pleaded for you. He tried to stand for the wrong side. He suffered the fate of any man who sides with the pretender prince against the King.’ The soldier pulled the bag away from the severed head. It was a fortnight’s hard ride, in hot weather. The skin had lost all the freshness that youth had once lent it. The blue eyes, always his best feature, were gone. But his tumbled brown hair was dressed with star-like pearls, and from the shape of his face, you could see that he had been beautiful. Damen remembered him stabbing a fork into his thigh, remembered him insulting Laurent, blue eyes bright with invective. Remembered him standing alone and uncertain in a hallway dressed in bedclothes, a young boy poised on the edge of adolescence, fearing it, dreading it. Don’t tell him I came, he’d said. They had always, from the beginning, had a strange affinity. This one pleaded for you. Spending, perhaps, the last of his fading currency with the Regent. Not realising how little currency he had left. Whether his beauty would survive adolescence no one would ever know, for Nicaise would not see fifteen now.

this is beautifully written.

In the glaring light of the courtyard, Damen saw Laurent react, and make himself not react.

but he reacted. which from laurent is a pretty big deal.

‘My uncle has killed his catamite,’ said Laurent. ‘As a message to us. And what is the message?’ His voice carried. ‘That his favour cannot be trusted? That even the boys in his bed see how false is his claim to the throne? Or that his hold on power is so flimsy that he fears the words of a bought child whore? ‘Let him come to Charcy, with his hithertos and his wherefores, and there he will find me, and with all the might of my kingdom I will scourge him from the field. ‘And if you want a personal message,’ said Laurent, ‘You can tell my uncle boykiller that he can cut the head off every child from here to the capital. It won’t make him into a king, it will simply mean he has no one left to fuck.’

good speech. especially the last line. you can see how his emotions are bleeding through, but they just give him more power.

‘It’s noon,’ said Jord. The words sounded harsh, like they hurt his throat. ‘He needs me,’ said Damen. ‘I don’t care if you tell the world.’

note from post-chapter 21 sam: the fact that laurent meticulously arranged an upcoming situation in which damen is exposed, partially if not entirely to spite him, because he doesn't realize that damen loves him and cares about him even as damianos, because damen and damianos are the same person... asdfighsdauf

‘You’ve outstayed your welcome,’ said Laurent. ‘Don’t do this. If you ride to meet your uncle unprepared you will lose everything you’ve fought for.’ ‘But I won’t be unprepared. Pretty little Aimeric is going to give up everything he knows, and when I’ve wrung every last word out of him maybe I’ll send what’s left to my uncle.’ Damen opened his mouth to speak but Laurent cut him off in a whiplash order to Damen’s escort: ‘I told you to get him out of here.’ And he put his heels in his horse, and drove it past Damen’s, up the steps to the dais, where he dismounted in one fluid motion, and headed in the direction of Aimeric’s rooms. Damen found himself facing Jord. He didn’t need to look up to see the position of the sun. ‘I’m going to stop him,’ said Damen.

this entire sequence of events is such a masterful culmination of previous scenes and ongoing themes from the rest of the book

Laurent stood still two steps from him, all the lines of his body rigid.

god this sucks for him so bad, especially after the way he treated aimeric before. like it sucks more for aimeric and nicaise, who are dead, but laurent has to live with this, having discovered them both at almost the same time. and all that, after a night of incredible vulnerability with damen and then accepting that he’s going to lose him.

That he had neat handwriting shouldn’t have been a surprise. He had always striven to perform his duties well. On the march he had worn himself into the ground trying to keep up with stronger men. A fourth son, thought Damen, waiting for someone to notice him. When he wasn’t trying to please, he was baiting authority, as though negative attention could substitute for the approval that he sought—that he had been given, once, by Laurent’s uncle. I’m sorry, Jord. They were the last words anyone would have from him.

the immense tenderness of the previous chapters is so abruptly and horrifically offset by nicaise and aimeric. it’s very well-done. it reminds us, and damen and laurent, that much exists outside of their love and their lies to each other.

… but maybe they can get through it, together? (it’ll be a while but it’s where we’re heading. eventually.)

[antimony-medusa]

Hi! To preface: I don't think there's any one right or wrong answer to my question necessarily, but I value your opinion as a level-headed adult in this fandom who can probably provide sensible input on the issue I'm having, so I thought I'd ask.

If a CC asks for their character not to be drawn (specifically referring to fanart, which they likely saw on Twitter) in a sexualised way, what does that mean for written fanwork content? Is it "wrong" (putting this in quotation marks since that's a loaded word, to say the least) to write nsfw content about said character and post it on Ao3, considering the differences in visibility/CC knowledge of those platforms, as well as the general consensus/expectation that CCs don't generally read fanfic anyway? Where is the line between "you should respect the CC's wishes" (avoiding the word "boundaries" since that's also very loaded in mcyt spaces) and "you can do whatever you want forever; fanworks are created by and for fans, not for the creators" drawn? Does "just don't put it where they can see unless they go looking" (i.e. correctly tagged on Ao3, not on a CC-frequented site like Twitter) apply? Would it be better not to do it at all, or only create and share said content in private spaces like Discord? Or is this all a "there is no single 'morally correct' answer, make your own personal judgement" thing?

(Sorry for the long-winded question but this is genuinely something I'm struggling with right now, lol. As I said I value and respect your opinion and views about these kinds of things in fandom, so if you have anything to say on the matter I'd appreciate your input!)

Alright so, obligatory warning for discourse on this one right at the top, and possibly also long post. These tend to be me rambling.

This is a situation that I think it's fair that a lot of people disagree. Your personal comfort level with making NSFW content in general is not where my comfort level is, we can come to totally different equilibriums. And then you add in creators expressing that they don't like seeing NSFW content of their characters, and people end up in a whole lot of different places, whether that's a complete no on shipping or NSFW, or people feeling fine to consume it but not create it, or only if it's archive locked, or only specific ships or smps, or whatever. I think it's fine that we don't all agree on this, creation is a fickle beast and we are in a weird place as a fandom of being not rpf but kinda cousins, and we can get *really* close to the creators with twitch and twitter, so people's comfort level in meshing all the parasociality and roleplay and real life of it all can end up in a lot of different places.

I just think that the most important thing for the fandom being a healthy place to spend time on the internet is that we don't go aroud sending hate/abuse to those we disagree with. a) i don't agree with internet mobs or suicide baiting or anon hate in general, b) the number of times I have seen internet games of telephone happen when it comes to this subject is unreal. To use an example from literally today, I saw someone saying that Pac of qsmp pacmike was uncomfortable with shipping art and fic and we all should stop shipping immediately, and once I tracked it back to its source, it turns out that what had happened was the creator said that he wasn't a fan that all the art was of him in the jumpsuit that used to be his skin, he has a new skin now, which turned into sexy jumpsuit art was the problem, which turned into pac hates all sexy fan art, which turned into "pac is being bombarded with nsfw art and shipping and he hates it". Now he might actually also not like NSFW art, but that's not actually what he was adressing, but it was certainly what was being circulated! So like, people warning me off of certain subjects— how do I know that they're actually accurate or if twitter just went twitter on a passing mention of something someone said on a twitch stream?

So I think it's way way way healthier for us as a fandom to sometimes disagree on the subject of "what we're drawing/writing about" and when that happens we implement Don't Like; Don't Read, and we just ignore that, or block if necessary. Don't Want To See it? Simply Don't See It. It's a bad idea to start hate campaigns for sinners, and half the time it's based on bad information anyways.

But in cases that you do know that the creator doesn't want to see that, you found an accurate clip? So this is a case where I think that there's no single moral answer to this that everyone is gonna agree on. We're all coming at it from too many different cultural backgrounds and different streamers in mind and comfort levels with NSFW in general. I don't think there is a firm answer that is gonna make you morally safe. But my personal feelings is that in cases where we know the creators doesn't want to see that, I think the important part there is that the creator never sees that, not that we stamp it off the internet entirely.

I do think, personally, ymmv, that you are not necessarily doing anything morally wrong with drawing or writing NSFW of someone's character, even if they think it's weird. There's a long history of creators saying "you can't do [this] with my characters," and it happens to be you can't [make them gay] enough to make me uncomfortable in general principle with saying creator of the character gets to call the shots in all settings forever. This happened with Anne Rice and with the supernatural fandom and like— it's the internet, we get to make the characters be gay together. This is the making sex jokes about fictional characters website, and Ao3 is the making porn about fictional characters website. I think it's fine if it exists on the internet, the question comes down to one of what we're forcing the creator to see, or what we're putting where they'll stumble upon it. Like, examples from real life— if you have a friend who's vegan, it's polite to not spend time rhapsodizing about how good meat is around them, and if you know that meat makes them sick, it's polite to do a meatless meal around them. That's a human person you want to be okay around you. But that's their boundary for their life, not yours, so even when you're being polite you have no obligation to go vegan when they're not around. And they have a politeness obligation to not walk into a steakhouse and freak out because there's meat there. They have a boundary for their life, and I'm going to respect it, but my life is a different story, and they need to take reasonable steps to protect their boundaries and not just expect everyone else to conform to them.

Or walking by someone on the street and waiting till they're out of earshot and then going "jesus christ that guy was hot" to your friends— that's fine. That's normal human behaviour. What becomes rude is when you make it hot guy's problem and yell at him. Being attracted to someone in your own space is not a problem. I'm aroace, I am not going to be in a relationship with anyone. I'm not going to ban having crushes on me, as long as you don't make it my business. Talking about an attractive person in your own space is not a problem. Being sexual in your own space— and again we are talking about fictional characters, the way I see it, these are lies we're telling about folks that are not real, who live in little minecraft worlds— that's fine. The problem is if we start catcalling people about it.

When you walk into fandom spaces you are walking into a space where we all like taking fictional guys and telling stories about them and a good portion of those stories are going to include kissing. That is not necessarily baseline normal for like, all of humanity, but people talk about tv shows they watch as one of the classic work small talk techniques. Fandom takes the "I hope ted gets together with jessica" "no he needs to work on himself first" discussion and writes stories, is all, to share with each other. Privately. On our special private website where there's a button you can click to hide your work from search engines and another one to hide it from logged-out users. If you log into the website and search things up, no tags blocked, what you find is on you for saying "I will see literally anything that exists on this subject in a space meant for literally anything". You will find gore. You will find kissing. You literally just opted in to seeing it. That's on you.

So like, there's my little defense of nsfw work existing in general, I think it existing is not a problem. I do think that we should keep it FAR AWAY from streamers. They get to set the rules for their spaces, and if someone doesn't want to see sexualized fan art, I do think we should make sure that in a reasonable way, they never have to see sexualized fan art/fic.

So like me personally, I'm going to hit that Ao3 button to hide my work from search engines, and anything NSFW (or shippy, depending on the person) is not going to go into the main tags on tumblr or twitter or anywhere I'm aware that the creators ever check that tag, and I'd probably archive lock it if the creator had publically mentioned being uncomfortable with it, and if I was regularly posting NSFW I'd block the creators on social media with any account I discuss NSFW with. I want to make sure that I am talking to my friends about the cubitos, not catcalling someone.

And I would probably err on the side of caution when it comes to social media sites that creators are on? Okay so the fandom has a habit of saying that NSFW and Shipping is BAD and can't exist, on the one hand, but on the other hand it says that anything that isn't Bad Wrong Shipping/Explicit NSFW is fine, which leads to like— extremely sexy thirst trap art being drawn and then the creators are tagged. People putting family dynamic fics that really pushes that envelope in the main tag. Gahhhhhh????? No? Don't do that?

I think it would be healthier in the fandom if we did a lot more going "this is for the fandom, not the creator" and we don't tag creators on twitter, and we took our little kissing fics, or gore, or kidfic, or neurodiverse headcanons, or anything else it might be not for the creator to see, and we kept it in fandom spaces and away from creators. But Ao3 is that fandom space that you have to opt into, it's literally archive of our Own, for fans, in that space as long as you tag it you're good.

So the TL;DR of this all is that my opinion is that if you tag it correctly on Ao3 you're fine. Maybe archive lock it. Keep it off twitter. Don't make it the streamer's problem, and you're good.

[ladyantiheroine]

Double Date at the Horror Show

Summary: There's a new horror movie in theaters, so Julie and Lisa decide to take their dead boyfriends out to the cinema. Read on AO3.

Pairing: Lisa Swallows x The Creature, R x Julie Grigio

Warnings: None. Wholesome!

Word Count: 2.6k words

Tags: double date, friendships, platonic relationships, date night, zombies, short & sweet, fluff.

Author's Note: I love sweet submissive zombie boys and the badass girls they love, so here they are together.

“Weird,” Julie said as she stared down at her phone. “Lisa said they’d be here five minutes ago.” 

She kept eyeing the glowing marquee sign above her and R. It was a Friday night and there was only one title blazing across it between the rows of blinking light bulbs: BLEED ON ME. By the ticket booth was the accompanying poster: A rotted, fleshy hand gripping a human heart and blood trickling between its fingers.

The movie was starting in ten minutes. If they were going to get popcorn and drink first, then the second half of their party had to get here quickly.

An autumn breeze chilled across Julie’s skin and she pulled her coat closer. R noticed her shiver, and lumbered closer to her. He wrapped his arms around her from behind and set his chin on top of her head. Julie grinned.

“You’re sweet,” she said. “But I’m not sure how much body heat you’ve got to warm up.”

R made a disappointed groan but didn’t let her go. Julie rubbed at R’s arm.

“Don’t feel bad,” she said. “It’s not your fault. Plus, Swallows’s man can’t warm her up much either.”

That’s because Lisa was dating a dead guy too. When Julie caught wind that there was another girl her age in town who was dating a zombie, she knew she had to get to know her. Must have been something about this town that brought girls and corpses together. It was like the Paris of inter-living love.

Despite their differences, Julie and Lisa got along surprisingly well. While they had different senses of style (Julie preferred a more athletic, preppy look while Lisa preferred her black lace and skull earrings), the two connected pretty quickly. Of course, it helped that the two of them had similar taste in men.

“So your boyfriend has never eaten people?” Julie had said to Lisa while the two were walking through Bachelors' Cemetery.

“Nope,” Lisa said. “Then again, he wasn’t alive as long as yours. I guess electricity-induced zombies don’t need brains. Just a little trip to the tanning salon.”

The two of them immediately decided to arrange a double date with their undead boy toys. Luckily, there was a brand new zombie horror movie out in theaters. Julie and R had made it a tradition to watch every zombie movie they could find together so they could nitpick the least accurate parts (R called the fast movements of the zombies in World War Z “unrealistic expectations”). So, Julie invited Lisa and Creature along.

“Weird how she just calls him Creature,” Julie said. “I know his tombstone was a bit busted, but you think after how long they’ve been together that they’d decide on a name for him.”

R released a long, mangled groan. Julie chuckled.

“Then again, your name is just an initial, so I guess the dead make due.”

Just then, a cherry red car pulled into the parking lot and grabbed the last spot close to the front. Lisa, decked in her black frills and pink lipstick, stepped out the driver’s seat and rounded the other side to let Creature out. The boy was pale with decrepit flesh and messy dark hair, not dissimilar to R’s. But while R stuck to his signature red hoodie and jeans, Creature was decked in a black waistcoat and dress pants.

Well, she did say he was from the 1800s, Julie thought.

Lisa saw them standing by the front and waved to them with a big smile. Julie waved back while Lisa grabbed Creature’s hand and pulled him across the parking lot.

“Hey, Julie!” Lisa cried.

“Lisa, just in time!”

The two girls embraced each other and then Lisa turned to her boyfriend.

“This is Creature,” she said. “He’s the guy I found at Bachelors' Cemetery. At the grave I showed you.”

Creature gave a shaky but dapper bow and offered his hand. Julie put her hand in his and he kissed with shivery cold lips. He let out a long growl that Julie deciphered as zombie-speak for “nice to meet you.”

Julie gestured to her boyfriend.

“This is R,” she said. “The guy I met at the airport.”

“R,” Lisa said, shaking his hand. “R as in Robert? Ricky?”

R managed a shy smile and shrugged.

“He can’t remember the rest of his name,” Julie clarified. “So he’s just R.”

“Well, at least you have a letter,” Lisa said. “I was scrubbing Creature’s grave for weeks before we met and I couldn’t get any name.”

“Well, what did Shakespeare say? ‘A rose by any other name would smell as sweet?’”

Suddenly, Creature started coughing. He turned to the side and hacked out a black glob of gunk onto the concrete sidewalk. The stench caught the air and the girls pinched their noses.

“Maybe smell as sweet is the wrong phrasing,” Lisa said. “I doubt Shakespeare knew any zombies when he wrote R and J.”

R, unfazed, looked down at the hot goo-ball on the ground. He turned to Creature with an impressed smile, and the two of them high-fived while making congratulatory dead noises. Both seemed pleased with themselves.

“Ugh, boys are boys even when they’re dead,” Julie said.

Lisa used her free hand to dust off her skirt.

“So, is the movie starting soon?”

Oh yeah, the movie. Julie looked at the time on her phone and her heart leapt. The movie was starting in five minutes and they didn’t even have refreshments yet. Although after smelling Creature’s deposit, she was close to losing her appetite. 

“If we move fast, we can make it during the trailers,” she said. “I’ve got all our tickets, but we need popcorn and soda.”

“Then let’s hurry!” Lisa said.

She grabbed Julie’s wrist and the two girls hurried towards the front entrance. But just as Lisa grabbed the door handle, both girls noticed that R and Creature were lagging behind them. The boys were slowly staggering in their direction.

“Boys, come on!” Lisa snapped. “What part of ‘hurry’ do you not understand?”

Both boys groaned in unison as they half-ran to meet them. The two couples hurried through the door into the lobby. The place smelled fresh of butter, the walls lined with posters for upcoming releases and a red carpet beneath their feet. There was even a cardboard cut-out of one of the zombies for Bleed On Me, which both R and Creature were eyeing.

“Lisa and I will get refreshments, you boys head to theater thirteen,” Julie instructed. 

Since the boys moved slower, they’d need a head start. Plus, not every cashier responded well to a half-decayed face trying to moan out “extra butter please.” Julie and R learned that the hard way on their first theater date when the girl at the register fainted.

Julie handed the boys their tickets and they started hobbling down the hall towards the door labeled “13.” The good part about being late was that the line at the concessions had come and gone, so Lisa and Julie could jump straight to the register.

“Two large popcorn buckets, two diet Cokes, one Pepsi, and one Sprite,” Julie said.

Lisa slapped a candy packet on the counter.

“And one pack of Twizzlers, please,” she said.

The cashier rang them up and the girls filled their arms with the snacks. They found the boys standing by the doors, which they held open so the girls could carry everything inside. Down the dark hall and into the theater where the trailer for a superhero movie was already playing. The girls were worried about getting the boys up the steps, but thankfully, there were four empty seats waiting in the front row.

“Perfect,” Julie said.

Julie and Lisa sat in the middle with each of their boys at their sides. Just as popcorn and drink were distributed, the whole screen turned red and black blood trickled down with the film’s title in gothic font. The opening scene began in a barn house in the middle of nowhere at night.

“No empty city with rusty buildings?” Julie whispered. “That’s original.”

“I always wondered if country folk would notice the end of the world last,” Lisa whispered back. “I mean, you live so remote, you don’t notice hell breaking loose around you.”

Someone in the row behind them shushed them. The scene continued, as the heroine slowly approached the barn doors, strange sounds emanating from inside.

“It’s giving me Texas Chainsaw Massacre vibes,” Julie whispered.

“Maybe they’re vegetarian zombies,” Lisa whispered back. “They only eat animals. Like the vampires in Twilight.”

Creature groaned something, and the row behind them squashed them again. Louder this time, and the usher was looking at them. Lisa covered her mouth and Creature’s, and every turned back to the movie.

They managed to be quiet for the rest of the movies. Julie and R silently cataloged all the zombie tropes to analyze afterwards. Meanwhile, Lisa pulled a Twizzler out of the bag and held it between her and Creature’s mouth. The two nibbled down until their lips touched in a kiss, like they were watching Lady and the Tramp and not an R-rated gorefest. 

The film’s plot crescendoed to its climax, as the final girl survivor was confronted with the shambling corpse of her former love interest. She lifted a spiked baseball bat, and with a scream she swung it at the dead guy’s head. The audience in the theater yelped, and with a wet splattering sound, the zombie’s head plopped right off with a geyser of blood.

Everyone in the theater was trembling in terror, but Julie and Lisa just gave each other a look, before looking at their boyfriends. R and Creature were looking at their girlfriends suspiciously, knowing very well that could be them if they hadn’t met more merciful girls.

Finally, the credits began climbing up the screen and the lights came up. Their popcorn buckets were empty except for a few kernels and their soda cups were empty. Lisa plucked the last strand of Twizzler and broke it in four pieces for everyone.

“That was crazy,” she said as the four of them sauntered out of the theater. “They don’t make campy stuff like that as much anymore.”

“I know, right?” Julie said. 

“And with practical effects instead of CGI? I could get used to this.”

R and Creature moaned in agreement with the girls. Julie threaded her hand with R’s.

“Be nice to us,” she told the boys. “Or it’ll be your heads getting the bat next.”

After the movie was over, despite copious amounts of popcorn, soda and Twizzlers, the gang were still hungry and didn’t want to go home. Thankfully, Julie knew a diner close to the movie theater that was open late at night.

“Late Night Cravings is great,” Julie told them as the four loaded into Lisa’s car. “R and I went there just last week. They have the best milkshakes.”

Just five minutes down the road, the car pulled up to a retro diner with “Late Night Cravings” blazing across the top in red, swirling neon. The four of them loaded out of the car and made their way inside, where a waitress brought them to a large booth table with red vinyl seats. They ordered a round of cheeseburgers and fries, and the waitress brought them a steaming tray of them.

“So,” Julie said, dipping a french fry in a cup of ketchup. “Zombie movie rating, what are we giving Bleed On Me ?”

“I give it a B+,” Lisa said. “I like the camp and practical effects, but the cinematography was so washed out. All yellow and brown and beige. Even the blood was more brown than red. I want some color back in my movies.”

“That’s ironic,” Julie quipped. “Considering how many black-and-white movies you watch.”

Lisa grinned and rolled her eyes.

“What about you?” she asked.

“A-,” Julie said. “Solid, but the whole ‘girl kills her boyfriend after he dies’ is a bit of a misrepresentation, don’t you think?”

She grabbed R’s hand on the table and Creature leaned his head against Lisa’s shoulder. She giggled and petted his hair.

“I’ll second that,” she said. She looked at R, then back at Creature. “And what about the experts? Good zombie rep or nah?”

The boy were quiet for a moment, pondering their responses. Then, R leaned forward, and for the first time, he spoke.

“Too…much…blood…” he said. He motioned a blade cutting his neck, referencing the final kill. “Dead…don’t…bleed…”

Lisa eyes widened and Julie giggled.

“He can talk?!” she cried.

“Yeah,” Julie said. “Didn’t I tell you?”

She squeezed R’s hand right.

“Dead Don’t Bleed would make a great movie title,” she said. “Maybe that can be the sequel.”

Lisa excitedly turned to Creature.

“Maybe we can get you to talk,” Lisa said. “Try some speech therapy practices, maybe we can retrain your vocal chords to work!”

Creature smile and opened his mouth to speak, but all he could make out was a long, mangled gargle.

“Takes…practice…” R said.

Creature reached across the table and scooped up R’s burger by its bottom bun. Then, his face twisted like a cat about to spit out a hairball. With a loud gag, he spat two worms onto the meat patty before returning it to R’s plate. R stared at it for a moment, then placed the top bun back on top and took a big bite. He chewed, nodded his head and gave Creature a grin and a thumb’s up.

“Thank goodness we’re the only ones here,” Julie said. She glanced toward the waitstaff. “Health inspector might chew us out.”

“He puts worms in all his food,” Lisa said. “I guess zombies who don’t eat brains eat bugs.”

After burgers, the waitress bought them milkshakes in tall glasses with red-striped straws. Creature reached into the back of his throat, pulled out two worms, and dropped one in his and R’s glasses.

“I’ll remember to go digging in the backyard next time R and I have dinner at my place,” Julie said.

“Look for wet patches of mud, they love it there,” Lisa said.

The four of them slurped their milkshakes down the bottom. Once their glasses were empty, R and Creature fished out their worms, clinked them together like glasses, then dropped them into their mouths. The waitress eyed them suspiciously but said nothing.

“When we all turn twenty-one, we should all order bottles of Mezcal,” Julie said.

“Oh, they’d love that,” Lisa said. “With the little worm at the bottom?”

The waitress brought them their checks. It was nearing midnight, and while dead boys like R and Creature didn’t need sleep, Lisa and Julie were getting sluggish.

“This was so fun,” Lisa said. “Next time there’s a zombie movie, we have to do this again.”

“Maybe we’ll rent and watch at my house,” Julie said. “So no one tries to shush us.”

R made some agreeable noises and Creature rubbed his chin atop Lisa’s head.

“That sounds great,” Lisa said. “And maybe afterwards we can all go to the cemetery. Maybe have a picnic!”

“Only if the boys don’t pack the basket,” Julie says. “I prefer my worms with tequila, thank you.”

The two couples made their way to their respective cars. Lisa poked her head out the passenger side window and waved to them as the engine revved up.

“Bye, Julie! Bye, R!” she called. “Nice to meet you!”

With that, the car’s tires screeched as it took off down the road, hobbling from one side to the next. Julie watched them go, then looked back at R.

“Was Creature…driving the car?” she asked.

R shrugged.

“Does he have a license?”

R shrugged again. Julie chuckled and settled down into the driver’s seat.

“Well, good thing she has that tanning bed,” she said. “She might need it in case they don’t get home alive.”