#gotta play 'which tag do i hate the most' to make space for those main tags

[triglycercule]

I love reading your tags section

thank you qin-qin16 its where i do one of the things i do moderately well: YAP ‼️‼️‼️😁😁😁😁😁🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏✨✨✨✨

[thefanficmonster]

Bouquet

Corpse Husband x Reader (Female)

Warnings: None

Genre: FLUFF, RPF (Real Person Fic)

Summary: Having come clean about being single for a very long time now and considering herself completely out of the dating scene, Y/N’s confession is taken and responded to with a ton of kindness, especially from a special someone...

Requested by Anon. Hi hun! Thank you so much for your lovely request, it was such a joy to write! I’m so sorry for the long wait you had to go through but the fic is finally here and I hope you enjoy reading it! Love, Vy ❤

I roll out of bed with little to no desire to start my day. We haven’t got a scheduled stream for today and the clouds glooming in the sky seem to be promising rain so really what do I have to get up for except that it’s a rule society installed?

Just kidding, I’m basically stalling and that’s all.

So what happened was the streamer gang and I were playing Among Us last night and our conversation during the pause between rounds somehow swerved into relationship territory. I stayed quiet the majority of if not all the time because I had no valid input to offer. 

If you know me you know I’m not one of the performers on the dating scene. I have never really confirmed it with my fans - well, until last night, that is - but I bet they have picked up on that fact considering I’ve been on YouTube for around a decade and have never had a partner. That being said, I’d have to also mention that I have in fact dated but someone but it was before my YouTube era started. Me choosing this career path, which back then was just a hobby, had nothing to do with the relationship ending but it still motivated me to not to actively look for a relationship while I’m still focused on my career. It’s too much work, too much stress and requires a lot of balance I most certainly either don’t have or I don’t have the energy to put in balancing my romantic and professional lives. Luckily, no one’s ever pressured me into finding a significant other, not yet at least, so no societal pressure for me!

But I gotta admit I felt real awkward admitting all this last night.

“Hey Y/N what do you think? You’ve been awfully quiet?“ Rae asks, causing me to jolt in my seat from where I’ve been reading my chat for the past five minutes, my mic muted.

I quickly unmute to reply, blushing ever so slightly, “Um, sorry I was reading my chat. What do I think about what?”

“The gesture of giving flowers to your significant other, is it romantic or a waste of money and plant murder?“ Rae explains, still managing to catch me off-guard with her question.

I ponder what my response should be for a little bit before deciding to level it to a neutral level where I almost sound indifferent, “It is in fact plant murder basically and artificial flowers would definitely be a better gift - plus they’ll last longer.”

“Mhmm yeah that’s true.“ Poki agrees with me, “But there’s still the question of whether it’s a romantic gesture or not. I personally don’t think it’s overrated or cheesy, I actually quite like it. What about you, Y/N?“

And now she’s got me in a real trap that I can’t wiggle out of without speaking my truth. I don’t know where this sudden anxiety around the subject came from but it now resides within me rent free and makes me feel self-conscious and embarrassed of the confession I’m inevitably make.

“Um, I wouldn’t know for certain, I’ve never received flowers myself...“ I say sheepishly, cringing at the sound of my own voice, “It’s not like I’ve dated plenty of people and the one guy I did date wasn’t really romantic or anything, I mean - we were teenagers, after all. But when I think about it in theory I think I’d like the gesture: it’s thoughtful, plus you get a temporary but beautiful piece of décor out of it.“

I’m gonna hope I didn’t sound too pitiful or desperate. Of course I’m not gonna check afterward on the stream cause I’d rather live in the illusion of having sounded humorous rather than be given the confirmation that I didn’t.

“Wait, wait, wait, did you date your last boyfriend like a decade ago?“ Corpse is now the one talking and that makes me feel even more anxious. This is not the impression one would want to give to their crush, is it? Oh well, no turning back now.

“Correct.“ I reply with a laugh that I hope didn’t sound as nervous as it was.

“And you’ve never, like in your whole life, received flowers from someone?“ He sounds astonished which sort of makes me want to shrink up in my shell like a turtle. Too bad I don’t have a shell though. I’m genuinely thinking of the option to rip the router out of the outlet right now to save me the troubles but I’m not that immature. I’m surprised I’m even reacting this way - this topic doesn’t usually bother me at all but now for some reason I’m red as a tomato and shrinking in my chair. 

I know what the obvious answer is but I’d rather die than admit to it.

“Yeah, yeah, I know it sounds bad but I really don’t care.“ I make an attempt at changing the subject, swerving it back to the main topic rather than my lack of a love life, “I do, in fact, find the gesture sweet - it adds vibrancy to the relationship just like the flowers would add vibrancy and color to the space they’re put in.“

“Oh my gosh, that’s such a cool analogy!“ Rae gushes, “You’re totally right, it might be an old trick, but it’s aged like fine wine.“

Phew, God bless you Rae.

“Exactly, exactly.“ Corpse agrees as well but I don’t think he’s fully heard what Rae said since he sounds to have fallen in deep thought.

At least I got away with it with only making a SLIGHT nervous wreck of myself.

Yikes, was that horrible, though I don’t people will remember it for long. Sure, my fans have sent me thousands of lovely messages and pictures of bouquets and will maybe continue sending them for another day or two - which I highly appreciate, don’t get me wrong. I’m severely touched by this gesture of theirs and it almost makes me glad I finally ‘came clean’ about my romance-less life - however, it’ll fade overtime. I mean, who the heck cares if I’m single or not?

As I pour the milk over my cheerios which I’ve been snacking on dry for the past half hour as I rifled through the many notifications clogging up my lock screen, I hear the doorbell ring. I’m understandably puzzled by this, seeing as how I never get visitors so that doorbell rings only when I’ve ordered something, be it takeout or a random item off Amazon. However, I can’t remember ordering anything, at least not anything that should be arriving at the moment or even anytime soon - that glow-in-the dark curtain isn’t supposed to arrive until next week.  I make my way to the door, unbothered by the fact I’m still in my pajamas, and take a look through the peephole.

It’s a delivery guy...and he happens to be holding a huge-ass bouquet.

“What the...“ I mutter to myself as I unlock and swing open the door in the blink of an eye, “Hi?“

“Hi there, are you Y/N L/N?“ The delivery guy, who I’ve seen many times before and who I’m on pretty friendly terms with, asks me jokingly, sending a wink my way.

“I sure am.“ I reply, my gaze fixated on the breathtaking flowers he’s holding, “But those can’t be for me, that’s for sure.“

He fishes looks at his clipboard one more time, nodding before he looks back at me, “I double and triple checked, Y/N, they’re for you. Here, have a look if you don’t believe me.” He turns the clipboard  for me to see and he is actually telling the truth. I mean, I doubt he’d have any reason to lie to me but mix-ups happen all the time.

“Um, ok thanks. Sorry for the halt, it’s just...I’d hate to be the recipient of the flowers meant for another girl.” I apologize as I take the bouquet for him, still in awe of the fact I’m the one it was made and meant for and sent to.

I say a quick ‘bye’ to the delivery guy before practically running inside to inspect this bouquet for a card from the sender. I have my guesses: it has to be someone who was present during the stream last night and someone who knows my address. Hopefully it’s someone from my friend group and not a fan who watched the stream and just happens to know my address. I’d still appreciate the gesture, but I’d also install security cameras if that was the case.

Something about the color scheme of the flowers - pink and black - gives me Rae vibes since she constantly teases me about my aesthetics contradicting each other. But then again, Poki does it too so it could be her as well....

Oh...OH GOD IT’S NEITHER OF THEM

                                                               ~ ~ ~

I’ve been sitting here, keeping myself a safe distance from my phone so I’m not the first one to send her a text. So I don’t ask if she got what I sent her. So I don’t ask what she thought of it, how the bouquet looks in her living room, how it smells, how it makes her feel. I have so many questions so that phone is best off at a major distance from me. I’m the one who’s better off with such a huge distance between me and the device, to be perfectly honest.

Was it a bad idea? Should I have slept on it - or just thought about it longer cause sleep and I don’t get along? Should I have at least waited a day or two? Should I-

My phone vibrates with a notification and I practically fly to it from across the room, grabbing it and unlocking it asap. My heart sinks and takes off like a rocket simultaneously when I see I’ve been tagged in Y/N’s Instagram story. I nervously tap the notification that sends me to the picture of the bouquet I sent her with some text written over it.

“Thank you, Romeo ;)“

Somehow that one sentence answers all those aforementioned questions.

Is this what people refer to as butterflies in one’s stomach? Cause it feels significantly more like a crush...oh wait.

@maat-the-prescriptive  @simonsbluee  @save-the-sky  @itsminniekat  @hacker-ghost  @bi-andready-tocry  @imtiredaffff  @jazzkaurtheglorious  @hereforbeebo  @fandomgirl17  @chrysanthykios  @maehemscorpyus  @loraleiix  @letsloveimagines  @annshit  @i-cant-choose-a-username-help  @enigmaticmaze  @divine-artemis  @waterlilypat  @idontknowwhatthisisfam  @evi-ka  @classyandfabulous00  @redperson58  @lilysdaydreams @solowheein  @mythicalamphitrite  @axen-gers  @luckygirl144  @nj01  @buddyemily   @the-albino-lioness  @stardream14  @gdhdkfnn  @nomadicgypsyy  @preciousskye  @fluffysuicideunicornsworld  @o-kaelin  @manacharlotte  @awkward-youtube-trash  @lolalee24  @bonky-beerns  @meme-lord-and-savior-sebastian  @strawbrinkofdeath  @teenloves  @tams0527  @browneyespinkhair  @starstruckllamapuppy  @daisychains012  @y0ulooked  @tinytacosuitcaseflap @supernatural-is-my-only-life  @jula-pauline  @melodykitty  @just-that-bi-girl  @crazybutconfidentaf  @lowellshade @alphakees  @bellero  @weallneednamjesus  @starryhanji  @boiled-onionrings  @husherstan  @fockingwhore  @melaningoddessthings  @prettypastelpetals  @haleypearce  @godwhyamiawkward  @y-napotat  @daisychainyoonmin  @little-miss-rebel3  @free-wheelin-bi-sexual  @redmoon261 @darkacademic2  @wiseflamingoqueen  @into-the-end  @namikhai-i  @nastiablr  @thelittleplantlover  @mirktuan  @dont-hyuck @jjk-bunny  @vintagegothlover  @easygoingtheatre  @itsrandombooklover  @miiaivi  @emmybaybee  @befourgolden  @jjk-is-my-shit  @eternalteaaars  @spacebadgerx  @princesslunalight  @acequinn14  @samm48  @misselsbells06 @simp-lykawa  @fo-love  @marishimomura-blog  @therealglenncoco  @cinnamonbun332  @killtherandomness  @sanshinexxxsan  @fee-btheweeb  @press-lay  @cathleenpotgieter16  @jazzydoesstuff  @moonlxghtbay  @forestrain2000  @hyunjinhugs  @blood-of-fandoms  @lovellylies  @ukiyolixx  @simpforhpcharacters  @chrisdylan17  @parkerjisung  @pedernille  @theodonyous  @wineandionysus  @malfoystilinskii05  @morbid-x  @coryisagee  @jessewa26  @scoobydooluver97 @mindintheskies365  @raeanneinwonderland  @indecisive-empanada  @gluttonypalace  @loriane2503  @btsiguess-kpop  @khaoticbunny  @lucidlycactus  @smiithys  @rottenroyalebooks  @kpopgirlbtssvt  @fangirl-tc27  @fr0z3n-1  @notmesimpingfortechno  @shotarosleftpinky  @kunoi-chan  @idk-whats-wrong-with-me  @yikeroonie  @goldenstarofthunderclan  @poetry-and-tea  @ama-do-writing-stuff  @wishbonewolf  @emeraldxhope  @t0xick1tty  @kusuinko  @speakyourselfloveyourself  @sophia902103  @lo-manburg  @classsykittykat  @dmgama  @depressedpuppythatneedscoffee  @btsiguess-kpop  @akaashi-baby  @gun-jong-simp  @geschichtenfee  @yerapotato-wp  @browneyedgirl365  @thysagclub  @sparklycloudnight  @helloatomicshadow  @queentorresstuff @vtte @val-gal  @lucy-bunny17  @aaliyahh0  @katluckybear  @boyleanti  @straybids  @franchesca-791  @cosmicstorm19  @averyisbackinthetrashcan  @aomi-nabi  @xlanawriter  @allensimpsforcorpse  @sunnyrae-cessh  @ladykxxx08  @meowiemari  @renupf  @booklover76

[callioope]

Continuing my reactions to Avatar: The Last Airbender

This post is about Book 3. See my overall impressions and thoughts on Book 1 here. See my thoughts on Book 2 here.

ETA: crap i forgot the keep reading line initially SORRY if anyone saw this before i edited. anyways. please see the tags as a disclaimer before reading. gosh it’s late i need to go to bed.

General

Starting S3 now and dang Katara & Toph have gotten so powerful!!!!!

I literally recorded ZERO reactions from Chapter One through Chapter Twelve. And my first reaction is basically my excitement that Zuko is finally with the Aang crew! But let me try to skim through an episode list to recall my reactions.

You may have already seen my post expressing shock that MARK HAMILL voiced the Fire Lord. Still not over that revelation.

So, ultimately, I binged this show in less than a week. I think I started on Monday? And finished Saturday afternoon. That alone should speak to how much I enjoyed it! 

Aang

Okay, a bit weird to have barely any thoughts under Aang when he’s literally the protagonist, but I think (since I wrote other sections before this) that I touch on some of my thoughts on him under other characters. 

I will say, his journey really intensifies in this season. First, when he awakens after being unconscious for several days and has no idea what’s going on, and is still healing and more helpless than he’s probably ever felt in his life. I did really like his arc in this season, but what a stark contrast to the Aang of Book 1. He has to grow up so fast. I gotta say, a lot of Aang’s journey reminded me just a little of Ender in Ender’s Game. 

I do say this later, but his final decision about how to handle Ozai was amazing. I loved every second of his journey to get there, and I was rooting for him to find a path that felt true to him — and not what everyone else kept telling him he had to do. 

There was one small thing that bothered me, which was that his eventual regaining of the Avatar state did not really seem to come about through intentional action of his own. After he goes down at the end of Book 2, sorta feels like they never even talk about him going into the Avatar state again and he doesn’t until the final moment. That moment doesn’t seem a conscious choice on his part; the scar on his back collides with a rock jutting out and seems to jolt him into the Avatar state. I would have liked to see a little more agency on his part in regards to the Avatar state. 

Sokka

My boy! My boy Sokka! Truly the mother of the group. IDK why they pretended in the beginning that Katara was the mom because it’s definitely Sokka. His maps! His scheduling! He is ridiculous and I love him for it. 

I adored that he got his own training master episode! He got to learn some sword stuff and even got to make a fancy space sword! Everyone else got super powerful with their bending and I’m glad Sokka got his own arc of self-improvement. He has come a LONG way from episode 1. He couldn’t really hold his own at all that early, and now look at him! Planning battle strategies! Taking down the Fire Lord’s air fleet! He’s come so far and I’m so proud!

Oh, you know, I just realized that I didn’t really talk about ships with Sokka in Book 2 but he did continue to have the most active romance arc. It was nice to see Suki return in Book 2, and I am glad we found out what happened to her. I liked Sokka and Suki, I have nothing against it. I was very surprised that so little happened with Toph and Sokka. There did seem to be moments where it seemed like Toph might actually harbor a crush on Sokka, but nothing came of it and she certainly didn’t say anything about it. That felt a little odd to me. Why hint at something but then make nothing of it? 

Katara

Sigh. This is early in the post, but probably one of the last parts of it that I’m actually writing. I’ve definitely been putting it off. Unfortunately most of what I have to say about Katara is about shipping, and I’m really not happy about that, but then it’s what comes to mind over anything else. Which is sort of ironic considering some of her lines in the theater episode...

So in the theatre episode, Aang confronts Katara about how nothing has happened in their relationship after they kissed. She responds by saying she is “confused.” I had some issues with the script here, to be honest. It seems to imply that she’s confused about her feelings for Aang. But she also says that she’s been more focused on the war, and that totally makes sense. I really would support this moment if that’s where they left it: “I don’t have time to think about romance, my mind is preoccupied with the war.” 

But no, they say she is “confused.”

This is pretty baffling to me, and honestly seems to come out of nowhere. Book 1 it was very obvious that both Katara and Aang have feelings for each other, and Book 2 might have backed off a little from that but then we get moments where Katara is so keyed in to Aang’s struggles with the Avatar state and also the only one who can bring him out of it. Now, all of a sudden, she is saying she is confused? Where is this coming from? 

I could definitely see people argue that it’s because she has feelings for Zuko. If I shipped them (I don’t, but I also Get It), I could point to numerous moments in the series as ‘clues/support’ for this ship. Zuko and Katara have a moment at the end of Book 2 where they talk about the loss of their mothers. (“We’re both sad about what happened to our mothers!” not really a foundation for a relationship, but Katara is the most betrayed and distrustful of Zuko when it comes to the idea of letting him join their crew and it is because of this moment. She obviously begins to feel some kind of connection — I’d argue platonic but ship and let ship.) 

And yeah, Zuko and Katara have their bonding adventure, but again I don’t think this has to be read as romantic. Clearly the idea here is that Zuko “understands” a part of Katara that Aang doesn’t — except that in the end, Aang is the one who is right about her. She cannot give in to revenge. It’s not her, and Aang knows that. I mean, they’re both right — Katara had go to on the journey to learn that about herself, and it was important that Zuko was the one who helped her. But still. 

Finally Zuko and Katara go together to face Azula. Again seems like plot is pushing them together for Tension. They definitely work together here and Katara heals him and all that but she’d have healed anyone. (Like yeah if you ship it of course you’re gonna be excited over those moments.)

But.

Like. The thing is. When the dust settles? Zuko and Mai return to each other like moths to a flame. I could believe that Katara might have had feelings for Zuko, but I don’t think he ever returned them. I think it was always Mai for him. 

I don’t really want to fan the flames of ship wars — I’m trying to walk a fine line of “I totally understand why people ship this, but I don’t,” and hopefully I’m succeeding, but I’m sorry if I’m not. 

My main gripe is how the show handled this dynamic. It seemed like they half-heartedly thought about creating a love triangle, but then they didn’t follow through. I don’t particularly like love triangles, so I’m not actually mad that there wasn’t one. But what bothers me is that the Aang and Katara moments are so heavy handed in the beginning, that a sudden subtle take on how Katara feels in Book 3 feels strange. It feels like if she was having feelings for Zuko, it should have been more blatant. The depictions are inconsistent — if the writers were even ever intending for Katara to have feelings for Zuko in the first place.

Like, I really can’t tell if those moments implying Zuko and Katara were intentionally trying to start a love triangle OR if it was just sort of a mistake OR if it was maybe creators trying to address and then negate Zuko and Katara as a ship? I mean it’s weird because the play episode really emphasizes Zuko and Katara but then that play is really supposed to be all levels of inaccurate and get under the characters’ skins. 

So, I don’t know. Obviously we all bring different interpretations to a piece of media and I am by no means saying anything here is a “correct opinion” (because I hate that attitude when it comes to story interpretations). Sorry if you don’t agree, hope I didn’t make anyone mad. Ship what you like! You do you, man. 

On that note, please see further disclaimers about shipping and canon at the end of the “Zuko and Mai” section below.

Toph

Loved how Toph was the first to warm up to Zuko. It made a lot of sense. I mean obviously they were looking for a fire bender to teach Aang and it was like “Hello, powerful fire bender on a silver platter!” but also, Toph is someone who joined the crew later on. The group had to adjust to her, and she probably knows what it feels like to be an outsider. Now, granted, she was never alienated from the group in the same way that Zuko (rightfully) was. But she can also understand Zuko’s position as someone who comes from a wealthy family, the sort of pressure that comes from that. None of this was really addressed explicitly, and it might not have really fit then and there, but it was what I was thinking as she was standing up for Zuko.

Um, and also, on that note? Huge bummer Toph did not get her special bonding adventure with Zuko. Toph, I’m with you on that one! Why did Sokka get two episodes for his? 

Zuko

No “& Iroh” on this post because — Iroh spent much of this season in jail, and then the next half just ??? who knows where. 

So, I believe I stated in the last post how shocked I was at Zuko’s betrayal. Knowing he eventually joins Aang’s crew, it seemed like his time in the prison with Katara would ultimately lead to that, and then NOPE! He has this nice heart to heart about his mother, and then… it really shocked me.

But.

As I watched this season, it became clear that this has to be Zuko’s journey. He has to go back to the Fire Nation. He has to win the approval of his father. He has to get everything he wants in order to realize that it really isn’t what he wants. This is integral to his ultimate revelation and redemption and he couldn’t have stayed truly good without verifying and knowing how empty the win of his father’s approval is.

Realizing this, I loved it and appreciated the moments we get. Zuko’s visits to Iroh. Even when Zuko is being cruel, you can see how hurt and lost he is. And Iroh gives him the cold shoulder he deserves, even though of course this is breaking Iroh’s heart, too. 

Now, I absolutely must discuss the Fire Kids Beach Party episode! Because as ridiculous as parts of it are, it provides such an important and necessary insight to all four characters (Zuko, Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee). You see the privilege that they’re all used to, it’s good that no one knows who they all are. (although maybe a little surprising because Zuko’s scar certainly reveals who he is but anyways.) 

and it’s funny how you almost end up rooting for them before you’re like “no no no. they are bad people doing some bad things.” I mean, almost rooting for them. And sure, the campfire scene is a bit Breakfast Club-y but I do think it’s important. And I just loved the moment Zuko admits he’s angry at himself, how his burst of fire as he says it almost covers it up, it’s so hard for him to say. Fabulous character development going on here, fabulous. 

[Uh, side note, so apparently Zuko is descended from Avatar Roku! This is ridiculous but can we get Zuko calling Aang great-grandfather, mainly to get on his nerves?! O:-) this would amuse me greatly]

And GOSH the catharsis when Zuko finally realizes his father’s approval is not what he wants and not worth it! It’s so well earned. It’s so satisfying. I was so excited and just like, so anticipating Zuko going to meet up with the crew. Zuko practicing his speech in the woods to the frog? Amazing. Endearing. I love him so much. 

And despite that and because of it, I also loved how difficult it was for him to earn their trust. It had to be difficult. It would not be believable if it wasn’t. Every character regarded him exactly as you would expect them to, exactly as he deserved. And Zuko tried so hard to be sincere and contrite, and it was hard for him, but he was doing pretty well all things considered! And still, they distrusted him. Yes. This was good and right. And I loved it. 

AND ANOTHER THING I LOVED was that once that initial barrier was surpassed, Aang actually warmed up to Zuko pretty quickly. This is not surprising; he’d reached out to Zuko in the past. First when Zuko (masked) rescues him, and Aang says they could have been friends. Later, at the end of Book 1 when Zuko again kidnaps him, there’s just a moment… I think when Aang spares him. It’s like, my impression is that Aang can sense that their destinies are connected, and he’s not really sure how but he knows that Zuko is important. Also, I mean, Aang just doesn’t kill people and revenge is not his way. 

Each character getting their own side story with Zuko was also integral to his arc — perhaps moreso, theirs, though. Because it was necessary for them to overcome their distrust and forge the bonds necessary for the Avatar’s crew to function. Bummed he didn’t get one with Toph. Toph was robbed.

And side note, but I really would have like an Aang and Sokka bonding episode? Like, Book 1 is all Aang and Katara and Sokka, but some 1:1 time would have been nice. There was almost a chance when Aang flew Sokka to his father and the water tribe (and at the time I was like, “Oh? Aang and Sokka bonding?!”) But then it was really only a few minutes. But yeah, that said, it does make sense to focus on carving out 1:1 time for Zuko and each member of the crew to ease him into the group.

Sokka: You happy now?

Zuko: I’m never happy.

This made me sad. And also made me go “classic Zuko.”

Every time Zuko was like, “What would uncle say?” And then say the most ridiculous thing? Fantastic. Amazing. Fuel for the fire that was my love for this show.

Zuko and Mai

Mainly the Beach Party episode was important in helping me warm up to Mai. Once Zuko is back in the Fire Nation and they’re together, I was of the mindset that Mai would have to do something pretty big in order for me to enjoy seeing their relationship become canon. This episode is not that episode, but it is an important insight into Mai’s character that explains some of her actions. The fact that she’s basically internalized apathy because she’s been forced to repress her emotions. It wasn’t enough for me but we get more later, this is an important stepping stone. 

It’s also important in establishing just what Zuko and Mai’s dynamic is. It’s a bit shaky in this and they end up breaking up but then they just get back together like immediately (moths to a flame…) In hindsight, I just think they’re behaving like normal teens who care about each other but are still navigating what it means to be in a relationship. At this moment in time, their relationship is not good, but by the end of the show I can believe as they mature that it could be a good relationship.

So the actual moment that I was like, “Okay, officially supporting Mai and Zuko now” was when she helps them escape Boiling Rock. I don’t think we’re ever told the full contents of Zuko’s letter to her, but considering what she says to Zuko earlier in this episode, it doesn’t seem likely he explains himself very well. At least not for Mai to understand. And he still isn’t able to explain himself well to her as they talk face to face. Then he locks in a cell and flees! He leaves her again. 

You wouldn’t blame Mai for hating Zuko. You wouldn’t blame her for actively working against him. But is this what happens? No. Not at all. She helps them get away. She betrays Azula for Zuko. Azula!!! Azula who is very powerful and very scary! This is a clear and distinct line in the sand, and … it almost comes out of nowhere, but what it demonstrates is how she really feels about him. She’s decided to trust him and put her faith in him when she really would have been justified in not doing so. 

I’m also going to say that despite some rather odd implications of Zuko and Katara in parts of the series (namely with other characters who really don’t know them), I never feel like Zuko is interested in Katara. I would buy interpretations that Katara might have considered Zuko, the way some parts of her story are portrayed, but I don’t get anything on Zuko’s side and that is all the more reinforced by how he acts around Mai, especially in the end of the series when they’re reunited. 

(Now, that said — because I don’t abide ship wars, ship and let ship, and power to multi-shippers — I can totally 100% see the appeal of shipping Zuko and Katara, and I would contend there is even some canonical implication of it. And I can’t blame people for not totally loving Zuko and Mai. Now, I do think the canonical implications are sort of muddied and confusing, but though I have actually not written it yet, you’ll have read my thoughts there in the Katara section already. OH, and OF COURSE, MORE IMPORTANTLY — ships being canon should not matter! Ship what you love! Who cares if it’s canon! Finding canon justification for ships should not be necessary for shipping! It can be a fun exercise but should never ever be a reason for approving or disapproving of a ship, it’s just a cherry on top!)

Azula

We get some pretty interesting insights into her character this season. I’ve already mentioned the Beach Party episode, and there was some good stuff in there for her. I particularly appreciated the moment that she admitted she knew her mother thought she was a monster, that she even admitted to being a monster, and then admitted that it still hurt anyways. Honestly that’s probably her best moment.

I also thought her breakdown at the end was well done. Mai and Ty Lee’s betrayal just broke her. She probably knows her attitude puts people off, but those two were the only ones she ever really got on with. And it turns out, she really didn’t get on with them, they’d only ever been intimidated and manipulated into being her friends. She has no one, she pushes everyone away. Literally — and it is ultimately her downfall. 

It’s an interesting contrast to her brother. We literally get an episode “Zuko Alone,” and then it turns out the theme of “Azula Alone” is such an integral part of her arc, as well. The last person she has is her father, and he leaves her, too. Sure, he tells her it’s because she’s to stay behind as the new Fire Lord, but honestly Ozai was never truly close to anyone, either. But yeah. Iroh spends a lot of time and effort trying to help Zuko redeem himself. He never tries with Azula? I think, maybe it would have been nice to see him try with her, and be just utterly rebuffed. Now, Zuko also rebuffed him a lot, too. So Azula’s rejection of Iroh would really have to be something. This is the kind of stuff I’d look for in fic. Speaking of fic: I mean, I’d really love Zuko to find his mom, mom to come back, and then maybe some kind of attempt at reparations between mom and Azula. It doesn’t have to work, I just want to see the effort, you know?

Final Thoughts: Ending & Denouement

I loved Aang finding a different way to defeat the Fire Lord. I loved how every past Avatar he talked to was like “no dude just kill him.” And I loved that that was not enough for Aang. He’s pushing himself and ultimately the spirit of the Avatar to think harder, to try harder, to seek a different way. And that mercy was so integral to Aang’s character, and important to his arc that he struggled so much with it. And he’s just a kid! Oh, Aang. And I loved that he was able to find the answer he needed, the fact that it was taking away Ozai’s fire bending. Yes. Perfection.

I was a little disappointed by how little we got post-Ozai’s defeat. I was hoping the epilogue might have shown a little more in the years and decades following. It would have been nice to see glimpses of everyone prospering as they got older. 

Also, as I was watching Zuko’s coronation, I was sorta like, “uhh wait that’s a little too easy.” Now we don’t know when that happens so it’s possible some bit of time has lapsed and I’ll take that. But I thought there would have still been some trouble with some of the Fire Nation troops. Some of them would have remained loyal to Ozai. Many of those general had probably committed war crimes and would have needed to be rounded up and put on trial and put in prison. There’d be so much work to do!

That said, I do understand that we want to see our heroes with a happy ending, ultimately. I guess just a simple like “X years later” before the ending scenes would have sufficed for me to be satisfied that enough time had passed for those things to have been dealt with. IDK, I can probably suspend disbelief enough to headcanon that myself. I’m just saying. Some acknowledgement of resolution and reconstruction as a *process over time*, albeit unnecessary, would have been nice to have!

On that note, we don’t actually find out what happens to Azula. Presumably she is also in prison with her father. 

More importantly, we were Robbed of a Zuko and Ursa reunion scene!

[yoitscro]

First thought: Homestuck^2 should've just been called Beyond Canon, and more people should call it that. 

The 2 was put on for chuckles; HS trending the day it was announced with it being a sequel spoke enough about how such a thing shant be underestimated, and why Homestuck is ABSOLUTELY more than just our small twitter crowd (and the scrap of us still on tumblr). I say that because remembering the Beyond Canon part slightly reassures me about the fact that this is a fanwork that will do some weird shit, and things I don't agree with, but isn't something that I have to subscribe to enjoying all the way with how I engage with Homestuck.

Homestuck 2 is not the canon continuation. Homestuck 2: Beyond Canon, is an OFFICIAL continuation.

Not having it on such an important stool and as the only content we all are only allowed to digest should come from both people who obsessively dislike it, and people who defensively support it. If a character says they kick babies then I can say, hey that's weird, maybe not great writing, but I can pretend they don't in my content, and i dont have to send threats or call people cishet white men for it! and, it's an absolutely great thing that we were all encouraged to create our own ideas without anyone who's influenced us to do so squinting their eyes when we actually go through with it. Glad I don't have to put this story up to the expectations of being a sequel to a 11 year, worldwide IP that's shooketh the internet landscape since it's merely optional, Death of the Author persists, and ideas aren't just dominated and revolved around the perspective of a 1% in this entire fanbase.

That said.

As an OFFICIAL continuation versus a canon one, HS2 is ok. It certainly has that fanfiction vibe, and a story it wants to tell. I can't really tell what that story is since we have like, 10 sub plots rn though. There's not a real a clear indicator on where the focus of main conflict is that connects all these stories together.

I thought that the prose in replacement of Vriska's battle was jarring, but not teeerribly surprising for the format HS2 is going for. It's more so using drawings to compliment text versus Homestuck's usual of panels being side by side with visual importance, or even itself being the one compliment. It sorta feels weird tho that it brought old fans back in with art just for them to get sneered at when they get a bit upset that there won't be main staples of art known to progress the story forward. 

Also people who mock people for “having to read homestuck” knowing there’s language barriers and struggling focus from those who’ve been use to something that was never so dense, are ridiculous.

Personally this could be solved by knowing how old flashes worked, having way more artists on the team, maybe even an art director if not already, and noting that we're not asking for the next Cascade. Rome wasn't built in a day, but Rose Ride sure was, and Homestuck’s animation is absolutely not the same as a 12-24 framed 12 minute cartoon. That, or just snuff the illustrative art as a whole since it's very clear on where the focus is.

I’m sure you’re not here trying to see my opinions on how the outer workings are though, versus plot.

Uuuuh, let's see. Yiffy's still a name I don't care to use until I eventually get tired of any of my art that do not show up in tags. This is fine and not as offensive as people are saying it is. Minors who want to cosplay this character don't have to call themselves this character. Not wanting to be one letter away from accidentally entering a very NSFW space of twitter is fine. Also the lot of people call Tavros, Tavvy.

I hope Kanaya's anger at being cucked is actually seen versus being implied through fan guesses and another character having to say she was.

Roxy needs to be more of an involved character. Where are they during all this?

Jane should have a mention of her relations to HIC being a main/bad influence on her current parallels to Alternian dictatorship.

The PRE-RETCON GROUP should have a fun one-shot update for fans who like them, since they oughta be around if they fell through the ghost hole. Most of them. The sprites that aren't Jasprosesprite should also show up too, since they're around.

Aaaaaand I think we should be extra careful going into the future when it comes to the alien rebellion. It's weird that a lot of the writers are white and toy around with concepts that can be a not so great parallel to racism. Currently not great timing rn! If the characters are going to remain aracial, but with them still doing not much to reference other non-white earth cultures or getting new hair cuts that have different textures (looking at you, Rose), we shant make the species with actual biological benefits a racism commentary. the xeno joke at least had a play on words. If any writer has happened upon this then a, please don't get mad at me again haha, and b, consider having more black writers or directional assistance on your squad. You know who they are.

In the future. I casually want the ghost from the Dream Bubbles to be shown since it's a big elephant in the room to not have a single one of them in the bg despite a load of them appearing from the ghost whole. Don't gotta give them speaking lines, especially the dancestors. I personally don't know if I want that right now.

I also hope in the future that we don't get HS content that is only going to revolve around HS2, if it's optional enough to engage with without being the only option. That's why PQ could ended a bit better for me, and why I hope it's not the main thing that's keeping Hiveswap on the backburner. I don't think it's farfetched to consider that multiple HS content could come from more than just one team; to relieve work load, but to also strengthen the idea that Homestuck can be a various amount of perspectives when it comes to the ideas fans have. The most dedicated fans leading the direction of the story is not just a handful of them. If anything, at least acknowledge the massive ass fan projects going on once in awhile to showcase the different avenues.

"Hey Cro, you sure have bitched about this alot. Do you have anything good to say? Why don't you stop reading if you hate it so much!"

Not every comment needs to be golden, love. Again, some of these decisions I eck at, but ultimately they're just words on a computer that I'm not holding anyone at gun point to do, and I'm curious to see how the story handles itself going forward, since again, it's just a fanwork. Sometimes I wish to not only see where the plot goes, but to see a writer's craft in action.

Good Things:

The Art. Again, please have more artists. It'd help so much, especially since the main one is also double timing for VE. That said, HS2 sticks out to me because of the way the color composition is used. Aside from hair and other tiny things, I haven't seen black used a lot, which makes colors pop. It's really nice to look at. I hope we get more sharper styles of character in the future, since it builds on nostalgia and makes the trolls feel much less like they're from Repiton, but I can deal with it for the most part. I also like that one panel where the omega kids and vriska are talking in the dark room, and based on where they're standing, the text aligns. Tasty as hell.

Meat and Candy still do hold neat logic in the direction the stories go. Candy, while it could be more tasteless in some areas, is chaotic and too much of a good thing. Meat is having something a little more straightforward, though I'm not sure quite yet where it's going. I always found Candy to be the part of the epilogue that actually entertained me the most, from how much of a surreal Robot Chicken skit at 3am it felt. Sometimes the jokes slapped real nice and made me wonder, going in, how is this monkeys paw gonna play out and, hopefully, make people laugh or smirk like they got a good roast at themself?

The slightly episodic feel of each update is what I wanted from the Epilogues, so it's interesting to see that play out when it comes to switching different perspectives.

The bonus updates get points for featuring characters that a lot of us have been wanting to see for ages.

Hopefully this isn't unpopular, but I think the tension of Yiffy's introduction was nicely composed and written (ignoring some of the things I wish for Jane). It leaves you with enough want to see what'll happen next time. You could also say that despite her growling and making a lot of noise, it's not actually bad writing: I see it as the audience being forced to see her in the same perspective that Jane see's her; a dog. Upon no context we're seeing the same thing while knowing things are obviously off, and once we see this character in a new environment where their personality shines, it'll have a bigger impact her own character being humanized. So I like that.

Okay, I think that's all I got. I improv wrote most of this; hopefully I won't be taken out of context since I don’t think that HS2′s writing should ultimately be a judgement of the writers as people, nor treated as if they should hold the same unhealthy work environment that Andrew forced himself to do when writing the og comic. And I'm still like, donating to the patreon and everything, lol.

[runs away]

edit: i was going to put the cw as another positive thing for the comic...but...yeaaaah.

[blackfemmecharacterdependency]

BFCD Reviews by Nesha: Summertime on Netflix

This is what I’m gonna do... I’ll be doing more structured reviews later and most likely liveblogging suggested stuff and tagging with “Nesha Watches (Insert Title) for all liveblog posts. For this first review, I won’t be as structured, because I didn’t really plan on reviewing, so this is basically all of my comments to friends @chenoahchantel and @daintyurbanprincess that were made whilst I was watching this show suggested to me by @rbaifzau 

It didn’t take me long to be annoyed with the white boy in this show. It doesn’t take much anyways, but one episode in and I’m over him already. This dude saw her at a party, she got pushed into the pool accidentally, he gave her a dry shirt, and two minutes later tried to kiss her… TF..  

Girl, this bout to be IGNANT...

Chile... She was like, "What are you doing?" And he looked surprised. Like whet. And in episode 2 after having seen her thrice and spoken to her once, he telling his best friend, "I'm pretty sure I like her a lot." I HATE stuff like this. Why did I tell old girl I'd watch this and discuss it with her? 😭

But she like him, so like??? 😭

And her daddy, who we haven't seen yet is presumably a rolling stone. Only one negro in this town and the nigga gotta be probably running around on his wife? 🙄 I'm like, OH, so the one Black man in the show gotta be a rolling stone? And even though his wife is also highly irresponsible as a parent, she's sort of made out to be the victim of his dreams. They never portray Black mothers doing things on their own as victims. That woman was messing up left and right and it's all on her husband not being there, when that's only part of the problem.

Also, if she IS the only present parent and made the decision to do that, she should be doing it instead of leaning on Summer all of the time. 

And she got a close friend that have an obvious crush on her but she seems oblivious. I hate dis

This dude reminds me of Max Theriot. He always looked musty to me. 🤣🤣🤣 He look like him breaf stank. Him and Jack Griffo were working on something where they play soldiers and I absolutely said, "He still look like he stank" when I saw him on Instagram…

This is basically the same mold of dude and it looks moldy and should be tossed out. None for me, thanks.

But, there are moments in this show that's really cracking me up. 🤣🤣🤣 It's like, I feel like I should enjoy it for the messiness of it, but the main characters can be infuriating.

She called him an asshole and he said, "You don't even know me." No duh dipshit. She ain't know you when you tried to kiss her neither. NOR when you was talmbout you like her. 

This girl kissing her friend!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. She's gonna hurt this boy! My Gwad. He finna be discombobulated. 😭😭😭 He all happy today and she don't even see him like that. Lordt.

He walked up and she look uncomfortable AF. Her younger sister is like, "You're being weird." 🤣🤣🤣 Even SHE hip to something. He on the beach talmbout "It's hot today, don't you think?" And took his shirt off. 😭😭😭😭😭😭

I like Summer's friends and feel bad for them because she really didn't treat them kindly. She used Edo whenever she was upset by Ale and then she just completely ditched Sofie on her birthday and didn't even text her or anything. Just had her waiting on her and didn't even apologize. Like, I love that she gets a chance to be human, but being an asshole to the people who you're supposed to be friends with is such an upsetting trope to me.

And the connection between her and Ale is so weird. He comes across as super predatory in the beginning and I don't understand why she liked him in the first place, but also whenever he does something by mistake, she is so angry at him, even though she's been just as inconsiderate when it comes to her friends.

NOW... HE HARASSING HER AT HER JOB. 

WOTTICE DIS HUNNY??? 

Talmbout if she got a boyfriend he'll "take care of him" 😖 After she told him to leave and he said he'd wait for her outside, she asked her coworker, "What do you do to let a guy know you like him back?"

NOW, she went outside and he's there, but her friend showed up to surprise her after work. 🤣 Whoever made this HATES me

He stole a book out her locker and left a card with his phone number. How is this the start of a romance???

OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. FRIEND IS TALKING ABOUT THE KISS...He said it was perfect........

Chile... And she don't even wanna tell their other best friend. Bruh. He said, "What we have doesn't need to be discussed." Summy PLEASE tell this young man...HE TRIED TO KISS HER AGAIN AND SHE SAID, "We just talked about last night's mistake" 😭😭😭

And she done hurt my friend this way, but she worried about Maxface because his mama can't reach him on the phone??? Girl.. go.. girl...

The gag is that she got mad at Ale because she saw him talking to his ex and she had to cover for him at work, but you've now ACTUALLY put your best friend in a bad space. And he ran into her mom and little sister and looked so uncomfortable but kept it short and sweet. These are people he loves. Idk. I feel bad for him and also like she kind of a hypocrite.

That was what REALLY bothered me. I don't expect her to be perfect, by all means. Black girls should be allowed their imperfections and their mistakes, but the fact that she knows what it's like to have the people you love be so absent and that she would treat her friends this way because of one guy who she's only known for a couple of months was disappointing for her character. She could have been written imperfectly without this glaring problem that I don't believe a real person in her position would actually have. 

I think in real life, the girl who raises her sister and basically has to lift her mother up all the time would overextend herself to her friends, but instead, she just leaves them in her dust as soon as she gets some dick. 😭

He is now hanging out with her little sister. 😭😭😭She goes to school with them but she looks tiny. I'm cringing at everything.

BRUH. Like... I can't tell if they're trying to or not, but I wouldn't be surprised because he's cool with the sister too, but they've been friends a while, so I didn't think much of it until Summer hurt him.I thought she liked him earlier, so idk if he is noticing her or I just EXPECT it. 

OAN, this man realized his son had a motorcycle accident on purpose and got mad instead of concerned

At one point, they say he's been riding bikes for 20 years, and whenever his father is mad that he had his accident on purpose (which I'll come back to) he says that he's never made a mistake like that, not even was he was 4, so Ale is AT LEAST 24 and she JUST turned 18. Which is WILD to me, even though at 18 I dated someone who was 23 (he was possessive and abusive, so I have a real suspicion of age gaps). 

But, aside from that - she gets mad at him any time she sees him with his ex when It is perfectly fine to speak with your ex and whenever she did see them together, it was always innocent and she didn't give him a chance to explain.

But then, when he does something questionable, like whenever he tried to kiss her the first day they met, or whenever he came to her job to ask her out and she told him to leave but he said he was going to wait outside (toxic AF and presumptuous) she is fine with those things.

Now, back to Ale's accident. I really felt so bad for him whenever we discover he did this on purpose, because his father is mad, when they should be concerned. His mother says, "You could have died" and he agrees...

How did they not notice that meant that this young man was so disappointed with his life as a biker that he was literally suicidal? They just grazed past it and whenever he vanished on them, there wasn't a huge call to find him,even though he'd just admitted to purposefully filling a possibly fatal mistake.

I'm prepared for nothing but disappointment. ALL these people outta there. Ale's best friend is in love with his ex. 😭 IT'S SUMMER'S 18TH BIRTHDAY. MYNIGGA She really stood her other best friend up to go get some dick on a little ass boat

The little sister shot her shot! 😭😭😭 He told her she's like his little sister and she burnt off mad denna muffugga

This child drunk, walking down the street in the middle of the night without her glasses...

OMG AS I WAS TYPING THAT SHE GOT HIT BY A DAMN CAR

I was really upset by these things coming to light, and also whenever Blue gets hit by a car, because all of the reviews that I've seen on this site have been that it's a cute love story with likable characters, but nobody mentions the problematic content, the dark portions of the story that can be triggering - like suicide and alcohol incidents and literally seeing a young Black girl be hit and run by a car??? 

I wasn't prepared for that shit in a "cute love story." I think that this story is less cute and more dark than people have made it out to be, and that's one of my problems with it. It isn't marketed as a dramatic coming of age story. It's marketed as a romantic comedy, when it is more serious than that and has a lot of issues that should be considered.

The lesbian best friend is in love with her too??????????????????? I. Hate. This.

My favorite person in this whole thing is the lesbian in the background, Irene. And also Dario.

I was entertained a lot of the times. Just heavily confused because I couldn't figure out what the tone was supposed to be. 😁

In conclusion - it's maybe a dark comedy, not a cute comedy, IS a coming of age about a young Black girl who is kind of an asshole, but Black girls should be free to be assholes too. White dudes do it all the time and are valued characters. The dude is weird AF for chasing around this 17 year old girl and he's in his 20s. Idk if that's normal in Italy. It's nasty to me. Their beginning is young people foolishness and there's not much that we see their relationship built upon, but that happens, yanno. You young, tired and silly and some pushy dude makes his move whenever he see you. Slap some discount sex in a dinghy on it and you have this show. I don't recommend it, but a lot of folk loved it, so I guess it did what it meant to do.

[moth-fuzz]

20 Questions for 2020

I got tagged by @bumblequinn and tumblr hasn’t been my #main #platform for a while so I miss these things and I never pass up the opportunity to read about people and share about myself x3

1. Do you make your bed?

no lol

in all honesty, sometimes. it makes me feel better when I do. But I like to just jump out of bed and get working when I can

2. Favorite number?

love 6... love 16 as well. 6 is a nice number. divisible by 2 AND 3. Honorary odd number. 16 is a nice 2^2^2 or 4^2 or 2^4.. nice round number.

3. What’s your job?

I’m not working currently but I’m due to start working at a software consulting company a month from now... I don’t wanna be rude but I’m looking for other opportunities in the meantime x3

4. If you could, would you go back to school?

definitely not for computer science. They don’t teach you anything a programming job expects of you. IF I went back to school it would be for philosophy. Philosophy’s the only thing that makes me feel like I’m doing something real (ironic when you consider philosophy’s public image). I took a few philosophy classes, 2 entry level and 1 upper level. They were the most impactful and the most far reaching classes who had a real and legitimate connection with me as a person I ever took. I’d pay just to have those experiences again. Everyone deserves those kinds of experiences.

5. Can you parallel park?

Kinda? I mean I did it when I took my first driving test, but I haven’t tried in a few years and I don’t have a license so I don’t really have the opportunity to tell.

6. A job you had which would surprise people?

I’m sure they’d be surprised that in my 4.5 years of college I never pursued work til my last semester hahaha

7. Do you think aliens are real?

I’m sure by all statistical likelihood they’d have to be... but the universe is a huge place. And human’s lives are short, compared to our modes of travel. We haven’t seen any simply because we can’t, in our lifetimes, drive out far enough to see them. And they probably haven’t visited us because... I mean we’re a tiny dot in the middle of a trillion stars. It’s like finding a single grain of sand on the beach. It’s just hard. I gotta give em a break for that...

8. Can you drive a manual car?

no...

9. Tattoos?

okay this one’s a toughie for me! I want, at some point in my life, to be covered in tatoos. I think it’s just a beautiful look. But also! I can’t think of anything meaningful enough to me to put on my skin. Let alone a dozen or a hundred of meaningful images to put all over my body. So I’m stuck on that...

10. Favorite color?

I love purple. I love honest, muted, natural colors. My favorite pallet is purples and grays. Maybe black too. I love cloudy skies, smoky rooms, and furniture faded with use. I like pastels that just seem to add to the scene, to paint the scene with a subtle hue, soft colors that diffuse outward and bring a certain quality to the entire area instead of bold colors that just draw the eye to the single colored object... je ne sais quoi.

11. What’s your guilty pleasure?

I love comfort food. I feel like a child whenever I eat anything that isn’t like ... complex. Granted I love complex foods too (indian cuisine particularly is my favorite) but there’s a special place in my heart (and my stomach!) for like. Candy and mcdonald’s and sodas and stuff.

12. Things people do that drive you crazy?

blatant contrarianism. People who just pick the worst hills to die on, all the time, forever. Their entire public image is hatefulness. It’s so so tiring I don’t know how they do it. Are you happy? Do you enjoy this?

Another thing I can‘t stand is people who think they’ve got everything figured out. Not so much people who claim to know things, but people who claim to have some mental framework that covers ... everything. And often they’re wrong!! But, of course, according to their own mental framework, they’re right and everyone else just hasn’t figured it out yet. Insufferable.

13. First thing you remember you wanted to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be a theoretical physicist pretty much up until I got to middle school and discovered programming. I like math and science, I still do. Computer science at its highest level is basically just applied math with a bit of imagination. Theoretical physics is... kinda the same thing too. Except instead of computers you have stars and atoms. Just subject material. Same mental space. Same abstraction of nature that becomes a sort of nature in itself.

14. Favorite childhood sport?

Okay I loved the variation of soccer I used to play in elementary school where the athletic kids would play actual soccer and me and the other unathletic kids would just slowly walk around the field and give a kick here and a kick there...

15. Do you talk to yourself?

Yes! All the time. Mostly when other people aren’t around. It helps me realize and catalogue my thoughts because otherwise my brain moves too fast to keep up :3

16. What movie do you adore?

I think my favorite movie ever was kimi no na wa or Your Name. It had AMAZING pacing, AMAZING visuals, AMAZING characters and the plot was just so incredibly written and everything was so well tied together and everything came at just the right time and the conclusion was so so so fucking satisfying I dsajkfghdf UGH

and the SOUNDTRACK!!! FUCK!!!!

17. Do you like doing puzzles?

Big ADHD feel. I love puzzles. I love puzzle based games. I love the elation of figuring something out. I love puzzles so much, in fact, that I kinda think of everything I do as a puzzle in some way... Programming is definitely a puzzle. Finding all the pieces that fit together - except, you get to design the pieces!! But now >:3 the burden is on you to make it elegant and adaptable. Anyone can hack something together but the REAL puzzle is designing a system that both solves a problem and does it in a way that’s efficient and Also elegant and easy to use. Puzzles within puzzles.... ohhhhhhhfh I love thissssss

18. Tea or coffee?

100% coffee. I drink tea but I’m not a ‘tea person’. I love coffee so much. Black coffee. Lattes. Starbucks sweet coffee concoctions. Espresso. Coffee from all around the world. God Do I Love Coffee.

My favorite coffees tend to be from asia, currently I’m really liking sumatra mandheling. I love coffees that taste like dirt. Rich, earthy, complex. Real dark and real bold. Usually those are from asia. I’m okay with african coffees but they tend to be really deep and fruity, sometimes even chocolatey, which, is real hit or miss for me. If you’re from america usually you’ll have south american coffees which tend to be light, woody, nutty sometimes. They’re usually too light for my taste but sometimes they really really hit. Gross generalizations aside, I love trying out every coffee and there’s more exceptions that blow my mind than anything else. I don’t think I’ve ever had a coffee I actually didn’t like, just many I like better. In any case I just love coffee!!!

19. Phobias?

Ocean. Don’t like big bodies of water that I can’t see down. Also there’s weird stuff in there. I don’t know how people just hang out at the beach with crabs and urchins and crawdads and jellyfish and sharks and riptides I’m just scared out of my mind!!! This is their land!! Not mine!!

20. Favorite kind of music?

Alternative rock of all sorts. Shoegaze, grunge, post-rock, math rock, electronic rock, emo... I also love hardcore and post-hardcore as well. A lot of metal does it for me but also a lot doesn’t so it comes and goes. I love music with a strong groove and complex textures. Me big ADHD so I like to tap along in weird and complex ways so it really helps if the meter is weird and complex already x3

Big runner up is hip hop and pre-2000s edm. Big groove, heavy on the swing, lots of samples, really rich. Future funk also falls under this category even though it’s modern.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Inevitable Part Where It Asks You To Tag 5 People

Feel free to pass up on this but here we go!

@mothman @bobbybobertson @exowave1 @reydiantskyes @sylvium-z and p much everyone else who follows me! I’d love to hear more from everyone else :3

[clarascuro]

Clara Reads City of Bones Part 2: Lord Help Me, I’m Back On My Bullshit *Spoilers*

I haven’t written about this in a week. I was using the fact that my copy had a shirtless dude on it as an excuse not to read it or be seen with it, but my lovely lovely friend lent me her copy, so now I can take it with me everywhere! Thanks, Ailinn!

The Characters

Now last time, I don’t think I really expressed this with enough force, but I hate the characters in this book with every once of strength in my body. They suck, they suck so much, and I’m stuck with them for the next 500 PAGES. So let’s take a look at our motley crew and dive into why I want to beat them senseless and leave them for dead:

Clary Fray: Clary Fray is not a name. I need to get that out of the way. If you walk up to me and introduce yourself as Clary Fray, I will laugh in your face, because that is so very obviously a fake name that you make up on the spot. Clary Fray is the kind of name you’d get if you fed a baby name book into a predictive keyboard and told it to come up with one of it’s own. It sounds like a makeup line for women with very low self-esteem. I wish the actual character was as entertaining as her name is, but to be entertaining, you have to actually have a personality. Clary draws, which is only slightly higher than reading on the list of Passive Activities to Trick Your Readers Into Thinking This Blank-Slate is an Actual Character With Agency. Did I mention she has no agency? She doesn’t find anything for herself, she has to be led there by love interests mysterious strangers, and when she encounters things out of the ordinary, things like demons, faeries, angels I’m assuming, she just accepts it, because if she doesn’t accept it, then she won’t fall in love with the bad boy, and the Cassandra Clare can’t write definetely--not-Harry Potter porn. Clary is dull, infuriating, and lucky for me, the point of view character for the whole book. Blech.

Simon: Simon is Clary’s best friend who’s in love with her. He doesn’t get any character traits (and given the other personalities we see, I’m using that term lightly) outside of that, because he doesn’t have any bearing on the plot besides that. He’s also one of the few poc in the book

Alec: He’s here, I guess. He’s one of the magic guys. That’s about it so far. I think he plays piano.

Isabelle: I genuinely have no idea what this character is supposed to be. I assumed that she was going to be Clary’s rival in love, and that they would hate each other. They way she’s written suggests that she’s supposed to fill that role. She’s catty and hot, which in YA-Land mean she’s an enemy, but Clary gets along with her too well for her to be even a minor antagonist. Maybe it’s because, again, Clary is not a character. She’s a waifu body pillow. You can’t conflict with anyone of you don’t have any thoughts or feelings or desires, but still, I can’t think why she’s written this way if she’s not going to fight with the lead. I get this uncomfortable, gross feeling reading her. She doesn’t ever do anything super mean to the lead, but the book spends so much time painting her to be this sexy, dangerous seductress who’s out to destroy you, even though she hasn’t really done anything. There’s a scene where Clary dreams that Isabelle is naked and being all sexy and evil, but outside of just Being Hot, Isabelle hasn’t done anything to earn that reputation in Clary’s mind. I don’t know why Cassandra Clare’s doing this. Is it because of misogyny? I think it might be misogyny.

Jace: Oh, Jace. Sweet Jace. I would pay to have you run over by an eighteen-wheeler. Jace is a bad boy, but actually he’s just a dick. He’s an angel (I think) and he’s a bastard garbage man who deserves to be beaten with a rough switch. He is smug, he is rude, he makes fun of Clary all the time, and he’s totally gonna kiss her in the next few chapters, because life is unfair. Jace is not human, and he looks down on humans, for being human. How dare they. If I had the choice to either spend half an hour with Jace Bonecity, or chew off my own leg, guess who’s getting a prosthetic leg, babey!!! He’s not even the entertaining kind of bastard. Cardan from The Cruel Prince is complete bastard, and he’s entertaining as fuck, mostly because that book is better written, but also because Cardan is a disaster gremlin who doesn’t care about the consequences and is also madly in love with his mortal enemy, which is vastly entertaining to watch as it plays out. Jace is just mean. He sucks and I hate him.

Other Characters: Basically just Clary’s mom, who’s keeping a secret from her and also dies or something (I cared not one ounce) and her Uncle Luke. The only reason he’s noteworthy is because he says he doesn’t want Clary to call him “uncle” because it “...reminds him of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” ajklajkhakjfh????? what the fuck does that even...like people aren’t rolling up to family reunions like “oh shit sorry Uncle Robert, i’m just gonna call you bob now, cause this very common familial address reminds me of an mid-nineteenth century anti-slavery novel that most people these days haven’t even read” like??? what the fuck? Have I mentioned Luke is white? I’m guessing that since Clary’s mom is very obviously like magic or something Luke is her magical servant or bodyguard or whatever, and it’s a reference to the Uncle Tom stereotype that the book helped popularize, but it was like...a throwaway line. Like a joke or something. Not like...foreshadowing a major plot development. Did this book have any editors?

The Plot

I may have mentioned this before, but the plot straight up sucks. In the space of three or four chapters, Clary:

discovers magic is real

watches someone die

runs away from her mom

runs back home when her mom is attacked

gets attacked by a monster

gets taken to a magical school or whatever

This might not seem like a lot, but it all happens so fast that I was getting whiplash reading it. Things just happen, and Clary never sits down to process them or anything, so the reader never gets time to process them before the next batshit thing happens. These are all dramatic plot points, but the characters are so dull and the writing is so bad that you don’t care that they’re happening. Clary finds out that magic is real and she’s just like “:/ gotta go get coffee now” I’m genuinely angry that the writing is this poor. I should care that magic is real, I should care that her mom dies, but I just don’t. I don’t care if Clary lives or dies, because I don’t care about Clary. SO MUCH has happened in the span of like, fifty pages, but it feels like nothing’s happened, because the writing never changes and Clary’s reactions never change. How can I get invested in the story if the main character’s not even invested?

The Dialogue

You know those out-of-context B99 quotes that people like to make into memes about their favorite characters? That’s basically 90% of the dialogue in this book. Every other line is this punchy, hip, little quip to make you go “wow. these characters sure are fun and hip, just like me, the Average American Teen” but actually they are very bad. I don’t feel like I’m reading an exchange between two characters, I feel like I’m reading an Instagram writing prompt. Cassandra Clare also likes to punctuate her trendy dialogue with a lot of descriptive tags. People in this book are always rolling their eyes and biting their lips. It doesn’t add anything to the scenes, it just pulls you out of the story and reminds you that you’re reading a book by a middle-aged Jewish woman. Please note: I in no way discriminate against Cassandra Clare for being a middle-aged Jewish woman. I myself will be a middle-aged Jewish woman some day, if the Shadowhunters fandom doesn’t kill me first. My only point is that she’s out of touch and her writing sucks.

Rating So Far

4/10-It fulfills it’s basic role of being a book, but there’s not much entertainment value outside of that. At this point I’m keeping myself entertained by imagining Jace has a booger hanging out his nose during every scene and everyone else is just too polite to point it out.

[picsofshiro]

You said you have a person on trial. How do you test someone to make sure they are trustworthy enough to run your blogs?

I run a 2 week-1 month trial from the moment they start posting on the blog to see a few things. but before that, here’s what I do. This is based off of how I also handle other social media pages as someone who handles 5+ facebook pages as a chat/post moderator, 5+twitter accounts, and 2+instagram accounts. According to fans/followers who follow our professional work, it helps them feel safe to interact with us as staff doing our job (radio/reporting) and interact with fellow listeners/viewers consuming media, processing it, and discussing it. The same can be applied to other public spaces like these fan blogs. 

1. What’s the person like?

I check out their blogs/have seen them interact before with other people in other online spaces in and out of fandom. This means how they interact with other fans, with interacting with staff/voice actors in public spaces. I love Voltron as a show, I just personally focus my love where it counts. Lots of people complain when interviews come out, hate what happened in canon. Can you be critical of things said? Sure. But the thing is, it feels weird to take anything said at face value when Voltron as it stands is not a completed project so things can change and how we see them as the missing pieces come together. I take everything with a grain of salt and see where things go and I hope the people I work with are the same way and are cordial when interacting with others on their thoughts on characters, ships, the show itself and when interacting with the kind people working on Voltron.

More for what I look for and how I run stuff is under the cut and the standard I try to set for myself and for others who wish to work with me cause this is more volunteering to help out, it’s not technically our content to own, its fan run, and nobody is paid. But if you’re gonna do it, you gotta give it the love it deserves.  

2. Enforce set rules.

I got common sense stuff like don’t let bigotry slide when it’d directed at us as mods and people interacting on the posts that are hosted here. Block ant!’s on site since they are a source of a lot of why our fandom is accused of being garbage vs any other group within the fandom that’s chill, especially those who still currently openly hate/dehumanize other fans minding their business. Block them if they interact with the blog via reblogs/likes if you catch them cause that stuff spreads to other blogs who assume our fandom experience is for them — it’s not. For the most part, blocking is good if I’m/the mod running a blog is just tired and doesn’t wanna deal with inane bs or things we’ve already answered if a user or anon didn’t do their research to look through my history of asks and whether or not I’ve addressed their question/didn’t read our response because they’re not looking for our actual answer, they’re looking for something else. I don’t deal with people spreading misinformation like pushing br0ganes which is currently confirmed never a thing by staff repeatedly, pushing whether or not a ship is canon (I have even politely said that I appreciate sheith’s bond over at pics of sheith but never said it was canon as a ship), and I definitely don’t like individuals that shit on characters/ships or how others express their excitement over content or their interpretations or fanon fun. And I don’t appreciate when people get upset with staff for saying something wrong when the show is not completed and they can only say certain things in a certain way if they choose to answer questions at all then attack other fans and justifying it because they’re upset. Nobody gets to throw a tantrum and hurt others. Take responsibility for shitty behavior

3. Choose your battles - carefully decide what discourse to address.

I understand that a lot of people don’t have the time or mental energy to do what I do when I happen to bring down people who claim to have some higher morality/authority to speak from. Sometimes it’s outright bs and I block immediately, not giving my attention, move forward, nobody has to know about it unless I want them to. Maybe I joke about it. But that’s it. I’ve actually just skipped out and blocked some IP’s on this blog cause it was a “nah” kind of day. But I make sure to get a screencap, maybe even post it to my main blog because my main blog is linked in the description of these blogs so people can dispute why they were blocked from interacting with the blog. Then we can examine how I misunderstood a message if that’s the problem, cause that happens. It’s the internet so people’s tone of voice is lost, people might have brain issues that cause them to type up the wrong stuff or they insist they said what they said and I have to see if I’m not the only one “misunderstanding" it cause we’re all trying to communicate here, in the common English language which his a clusterfuck anyhow. It happens where I just can’t read shit but I have and try to rectify my mistakes.

And when I do address it, I do so point by point, concisely. That’s what I get for having a mother who is a paralegal and helped write legal arguments, deconstructs her child’s stupid arguments when he got in a dumb ass fight with her. I learned from it and now I can frame my arguments properly to follow logical structures based on truth, understanding how the English language works to examine what they said and what it sounds like, and show the true meaning of what was said which is often something pretty screwed up. They usually (as far as I know between one anon and the next) never come back to bother me again. Mods have to be able to have the stamina to handle it, and run it by me to make sure the argument is sound because we try to keep ourselves and everyone else safe.

4. be open to opportunities

If they continue to argue with me on my main blog which is where I’m fine dealing with discourse unless it turns into violent threats/harassment, I’ve already blocked them across the board at all the picsof blog urls I have in my account. But let’s say this person has come to understand why they are wrong…then I can find their name, unblock them hopefully, and everything moves forward and I keep tabs to show that they’ve changed their behavior. Hopefully because tumblr tells me if i block an anon, that i can’t ever undo it but I’ve also heard it’s still possible so who knows really on this broken website?

How I run this tight ship and expect others to run it (no pun intended).

1. Screencap for an hour or two - organize by character/ship -> season -> episode folders and number the images so that it’s in order frame by frame, then play around with the same image and crop accordingly just for fun. This gives random choices and variety for the next part.

2. draft and tag - for characters I use canon voltron legendary defender names

#keith #voltron legendary defender #voltron #vld

vs keith kogane which his defender of the universe. I’m a stickler for canon which is why i also tag

#shiro (how he’s often referred to) #takashi shirogane (in written canon and uttered by his own character in the dnd episode) #voltron legendary defender #voltron #vld

for a ship blog, i follow a similar formula but people get upset if they are looking for 1 character but don’t care for the ship so i try to be courteous and leave out characters and focus on the ship - hence the following:

#sheith #voltron legendary defender #voltron #vld

then as a mod, i have fun and put my thoughts into the screencap at the end of all that when I feel like it, for example #keith looks cute here / #shiro just [redact] me / #wow they hold each other so tenderly

Do this until i get between 90-200 posts in my drafts, then hit queue at random to scramble up the order in which they queue. Will the blog visitors see a screencap from episode 1? or episode 10? nobody knows. But it gets boring if i just queued everything in order which is why I do this. Predictability is boring.

3. Set queue post to 3 posts a day and leave, this is a fucking hobby and isn’t your life - focus on what needs to be done, this is just low maintenance fun. (Look at me rhyming!) Follow the stuff above with how you handle discourse and of course the mod who should obviously love the blog of their focus can have fun with any individuals asking about headcanons/ideas about ships. I wouldn’t give someone who doesn’t ship Allurance because it will show in their work that they don’t care when they’d rather have Shance and vice versa. Or a Pidge fan running a Hunk blog when they’d rather do Pidge. For these other blogs outside of the 3 I’m managing right now, i might have teams of people simply because we can all keep tabs on each other and be held accountable for our actions if we make mistakes. 

[shadowphoenixrider]

SPR rambles about Jurassic World: Evolution

So.

I really quite like Jurassic World: Evolution. I think the £45 price tag is a bit sharp (and the ‘deluxe edition’ can take a long walk off a short plank), but it’s a good game if you’re looking for a dino park management simulator. Which I was! I used to play Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis, and longed for a next-gen update, and this, for the most part, is.

It’s good at getting you to juggle multiple things, then it starts throwing things at you while yelling ‘think fast!’, either laughing when you drop everything, or nodding approvingly when you manage to catch them. You’ve got to manage money, your dinos satisfaction, your visitors satisfaction, adverse weather conditions, power, and the reputation of the three divisions of Ingen; Science, Entertainment, and Security.

There’s a slight...dissonance with these three, or rather, with Security. Science and Entertainment are pretty straight forward (Science focuses more on the dinosaurs, Entertainment more on visitors), but Security...I dunno what that dude is smoking, but he seems obsessed with making the dinosaurs fight or generally create mayhem. And it’s like...I thought your role would discourage me from that...? I feel that they didn’t have many ideas for what missions he could give you, so stole from Entertainment a little.

That’s another thing; in Operation Genesis, you had three different types of visitors; those who wanna see the dinos fight, those who just liked the dinos chilling out and being happy, and those who wanted to see period specific dinos together. That’s not in Evolution, aside from a slightly unnerving obsession with dino fights, encouragement to tailor a dino’s habitat to keep it happy, and a slight push to apply ‘skins’ to your dinosaurs that suit their habitat, which is a bit of a shame. I say ‘habitats’; what I mean is the ratio of grass to trees. This isn’t Zoo Tycoon, where you’ve got to customise how much desert dirt is on the ground. Although, knowing how persnickerty that game got, maybe that’s a good thing.

Another thing that was in Operation Genesis that I miss from this game is the ability to issue commands to your rangers whilst you’re selecting a dinosaur. In OP, if you needed to cure a dinosaur of a specific disease, or tranq and move it, all you had to do was select the dino and then the appropriate command. In Evolution, however, you’ve got to click away, select the ranger or your helicopter, depending on what you need, select a specific team, and then ‘add task’, and then you’ve got to click the dino. That’s at least two unnecessary clicks, and the game feels fiddly because of this. It doesn’t help that the rangers only have AI on missions, and you have to manually tell them to refill feeders and you have to click on the damn thing to find out whether it is running out or not - can you see a pattern emerging?

You can’t click from one building to another, you’ve got to click off one building and then the one you want. If you want to look at another species of dinosaur that isn’t the one you’re currently selected, you gotta click off them and then the other. This can lead to a butt-ton of frustration when a situation crops up, like some arsehole has sabotaged your power stations and you’re scrambling to issue an emergency alert to get visitors into bunkers before a dino decides it wants to kick its fence over. (That said, despite the game insisting the dinosaurs are itching to get out, I’ve only seen one dino try to smash its way out, and that was in a programmed sequence where it had to get out to fulfil an objective. If you give a dino 100% comfort, they’re quite happy to stay locked up, even velociraptors, though granted I haven’t gotten far enough to start housing T rexes.) This is worse when you’re quietly perusing a menu as the game has no pause function, not even in menus (except the Esc menu).

The game has you progress through several ‘scenarios’, building parks on different islands with different conditions, like already being in debt, or storms striking the island every now and again, or lack of space, and what is nice is that all the parks you build exist permanently on the islands, and you can go between them as you wish. In fact, you’re encouraged to, as you unlock things on later islands that you can bring back to earlier islands to improve them and up your parks’ rating, unlocking more goodies and upgrades.

The only problem with this is that sandbox mode is locked behind this ‘campaign’ mode, and only completing all the previous islands lets you access this. I don’t mind this, but there’s no differing paths to construct your parks. They all feel very samey after a while. You can reskin your rangers and helicopters (and dinos), but you can’t reskin buildings, or customise them in any meaningful way. You need more, you build more. That’s it.

And unlike it’s predecessor Operation Genesis, Evolution ain’t getting saved by mods, because of its Denuvo DRM locking it out, and if you try to mod it regardless you can kiss your EULA goodbye (I stumbled onto it by accident whilst pouring through the menus, and spotted the clause, that’s how I know). I’m 99% sure this is Universal being a spoilsport, but it could be the game devs Frontier as well (they made Planet Coaster - does that have mods? Let me know.).

This sounds like I’m shitting on the game and I hate it - I don’t. I very much enjoy it. The game looks gorgeous, you’ve got the vocal talents of Jeff Goldblum in there being wry and sarcastic (sadly, no Chris Pratt whether Owen Brady shows up, booo), and dinosaurs are great; beautifully animated and very easy to fall in love with. Also you can make an I. Rex later on, so that’s a bonus!

There is Day One DLC for it under the handle of a ‘Deluxe Edition’ for a insulting £10. I say ‘insulting’ because it contains only extra dinosaurs. They’re not any of the main dinosaurs, thankfully, although I think some people might feel a little peeved that the Styracosaurus is in this DLC (a more spikey triceratops, basically), and perhaps the Suchomimus? Anyway, the Styracosaurus, Suchomimus, Archaeornithomimus, Crichtonsaurus, Majungasaurus dinosaurs are contained within the DLC. Whether it is worth your money depends entirely on whether you like these dinos, but for me, who’s already coughed up £45 for the main game, an extra tenner for some more dinos I’m not attached to is just a little bit rude. £5 is more acceptable.

My opinion? I would recommend waiting for a sale or price drop. Nothing severe, just something to take it below the AAA price of £45; I feel it’s just a bit too much for what they’re offering. I don’t regret purchasing it for that much, but for someone who’s bit more conscious of their spending, I’d suggest waiting. It’s good, but not that good.

[proserpine-in-phases]

@nachttour tagged me in a writing question thing!

1) is there a story you’re holding off on writing for some reason?

uh yeah there’s like, several. some of them are better developed than other but a lot of the reason I’ve been holding off on writing them just comes down to feeling inadequate due to my own limited experience with relationships and feelings of complete inadequacy. it’s hard to write an epic romancu when I’m aromantic as fuck and have a hard time conceptualizing what those feelings might be like to experience, for example, or like, I want the story to be funny but I feel like I’m not actually a very funny person?

also I always feel like I need to do more research. I get stuck on the research phase about 85% of the time haha

2) what work of yours, if any, are you the most embarrassed about existing?

man I am embarrassed by MYSELF existing, so  idk probably all of it when you get right down to it

3) what order do you write in? front of book to back? chronological? favorite scenes first? something else?

it seems to vary a bit. sometimes I just power through start to finish, but sometimes I need to write the ending first to remind myself of what I’m shooting for. sometimes I just gotta write some random scenes in the middle before I forget what they are and have to figure out where they’ll go later.

considering the longest thing I’ve managed to finish comes in at about 12 k  I don’t know if I have enough data to really come up with a firm answer for this one though. from what I can tell, it really does seem like I start at the beginning and go for a bit, write the end, and try to connect the two with occasional random middle bits getting written out of order and a general feeling of “I’ll fix it in post” carrying me through

4) favorite character you’ve written

probably Samantha Traynor. she’s such a fucking nerd and I love her. it was surprisingly easy to write for her once I got started. at least I THINK I did a good job writing her, I have no actual idea haha

5) character you were most surprised to end up writing

I’ve written TWO mass effect fics featuring Samara as a main character and I have no idea how this happened or why because she’s about in the middle when it comes to my most to least favorite mass effect characters list

6) something you would go back and change in your writing that it’s too late/complicated to change now

there’s a couple of fics I wrote for fic exchanges that I kinda wish I could take back and turn into something else because I love the concept but feel guilty about idk, using as a springboard because the original is a gift, or something. it feels ehhhhhhhhh disingenuous to continue them when the gift is supposed to be a singular and self contained unit

for example, oh man I would love to take that vrisrezi space pirates au someplace, but I don’t know if I should because the fic itself is a gift, complete, and so forth. 

plus I hate the way I run out of steam about 4 chapters into everything. I would like to not run out of motivation please

7) when asked, are you embarrassed or enthusiastic to tell people that you write?

considering my output is so low I barely consider myself a writer at all tbh.

but yes, embarrassed. I hope to god the three people I know irl who follow me just like. never see those posts haha

8) favorite genre to write

space adventure! and lately? mysteries even though I have no FUCKING idea why or even how to write them, which is why I have at least three projects stalled out on me haha

9) what, if anything, do you do for inspiration?

I read a lot, mostly. sometimes I stare at a wall. or play minesweeper. 

also when I’m doing something fairly mindless sometimes my mind wanders and I hit something. 

oh and music. music is great

10) write in silence or with background noise? with people or alone?

I usually need music, mood music preferable, instrumental so the lyrics don’t distract me. generally I prefer to not be around people when I write, though a public setting is also fun to write in. I’m too distractable to actually get any done though, so I usually end up just looking like a tool with their notebook out if I try to write in a coffee shop or whatever tho, haha

11) what aspect of your writing do you think has most improved since you started writing?

I think writing fanfic has really helped me figure out what it means to write in character. also I think I’m starting to get better at balancing dialogue versus narration? at least a little bit

12) your weaknesses as an author

the inability to actually finish shit. 

unwillingness to approach emotions that make me feel uncomfortable. 

the fact that I often approach writing a character with the thought of what I would do in a situation rather than what the character would do (which is why writing fanfiction is helping me with that haha)

coming up with plots that lend themselves well to longer stuff

13) your strengths as an author

pretty good at dialogue

when it comes to my own shit, pretty good at coming up with interesting fantasy worlds (I think they’re interesting at least)

I’ve got a pretty firm grasp overall just the nuts and bolts of writing: I mean I tutored English in college for fuck’s sake I know how to write a grammatically correct run on sentence when I want to 

14) do you make playlists for your current wips?

not really

15) why did you start writing?

I wanted to know what happened next

16) are there any characters who haunt you?

not really? I mean, there are specific character TYPES that’ll get me every time, though, like the happy go lucky person who has to learn what pain is but still come out the other side a LOT worse for wear but not completely broken (think Tasslehoff Burrfoot, or perhaps less obscure Vash the Stampede) but I wouldn’t say they haunt me, per say

17) if you could give your fledgling author self any advice, what would it be?

don’t be afraid to be self indulgent. you’ll enjoy it more and who the fuck cares, anyway? people who’ll make fun of you for doing what you love are ass holes

18) were there any works you read that affected you so much that it influenced your writing style? what were they?

If I’m honest I can’t really say what influences my writing style, if I even have one. Mostly all I can do is list off my favorite authors because I’m pretty sure they all have something to do with it. 

so let’s just do that I guess.  when I was a teenager I tended to find a single author and just read through all their works before moving on, and these are the big ones that stand out:

Connie Willis, Anne McCaffrey, Steven Brust and Ursula K. Le Guin. Connie Willis for the humor she includes in almost all her writing, Anne McCaffrey because I STILL spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about Pern. She had a real skill for coming up with both great characters and great settings, even if what she did with them, and also her inability to keep continuity were less good. Steven Brust introduced me to the idea of relating to morally reprehensible characters at an alarmingly young age. Ursula K. Le Guin, I just love her. No idea if it’s actually done anything GOOD to my writing but she gives me something to aspire to.

I read just. a ridiculous amount of fantasy and science fiction as a kid, the genres as a whole without a doubt influence the type of shit I end up writing. also in seventh grade I mainlined dragonlance, just the whole damn thing

later in college I got really into Margaret Atwood. her focus on female characters and narrative just is really great.  

then I went through a depressive phase in my late 20s and just exclusively read Julia Quinn, Joanna Lindsey, Sabrina Jeffreys and Eloisa James, and that was IT. so I’m pretty sure my foray into the romance genre is what makes me honestly prefer povs limited to two or three characters  hey, reading romance novels also lead me to the realization that I’m aromantic so \o/ I guess

19) when it comes to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timeline, ect.?

I outline and then give up lol

20) do you write in long sit-down sessions or in little spurts?

little spurts until something grabs me and makes me marathon. usually that’s a deadline, but sometimes it’s also inspiration 

21) what do you think when you read over your older work?

mostly just holy shit I can’t believe I wrote this! sometimes that’s bad, sometimes it’s good. I can’t really tell if I’m good at divorcing myself from my writing enough to give me perspective on it, to tell the truth, because for a good lot of it, I still think it’s pretty good so ???

22) are there any subjects that make you uncomfortable to write?

it’s hard for me to let a character be embarrassed by the dumb shit they do. I don’t want them to do dumb shit because of it, which makes it hard for the character to have shit to grow and learn from.

23) any obscure life experiences that you feel have helped your writing?

I’m pretty sure my own issues with having and experiencing some emotions makes its way into the stuff I choose to write about, especially when it comes to the original stuff (I have. at LEAST three different plot outlines that involve characters literally losing the ability to experience emotions and having to find a way to heal or gain it back haha)  

also the fic I wrote about the box ghost is literally just about what it’s like to work in a factory haha

24) have you ever become an expert on something you previously knew nothing about, in order to better a scene or a story?

listen. 

yes.

I fucking. LOVE. research. 

honestly this is the stage where I most often get lost in the weeds, distracted by my own need to know more

25) copy/paste a few sentences or a short paragraph that you’re particularly proud of

“He was not the knight Casey taught him to be, but he was close enough for government work“ remains the single best pun I’ve ever written

tagging: @anthropwashere @inktail @manicpixiesdreamdragon if you guys are up for it!

[alainawriteswwe]

Pride and Prejudice and Wrestling- Part 9

Characters: Seth Rollins x Reader, The gang from Raw

Summary: When a superstar Hollywood actress (The Reader), interacts with WWE Superstar Seth Rollins at Monday Night Raw, sparks fly. Can Rollins overcome his pride and convince the reader to take a chance on him when she’s still recovering from a nasty scandal caused by her cheating fiancé?

Warnings: Lots of flirting, angsty longing and some bad words

Tags: @caramara3; @panda-girl1999; @easyobsession — Chapter 9 The Unwanted Proposal

“What do you mean there’s only one bed?”

Seth sighed. “It’s on my profile for reservations. I like one bed.”

I rubbed my temples. I was tired and a headache was building.

“Fine. Let’s go.”

“It’s a king size bed.”

“And you’re over six feet of long arms and legs. That king bed might as well be a double.”

I wheeled my suitcase over to the bank of elevators and paused. This hotel was the same chain as in Miami. The elevator looked the same.

I had a vivid flash of memory. Seth and I in that elevator in Miami. All heated kisses and caresses. Bodies pressed together. Damn but I would have let him take me completely in that elevator in Miami if we hadn’t been interrupted.

Seth came up behind me. “The scene of the crime, man. Afraid to get in here with me huh?”

“Absolutely not,” I said in a rather haughty voice. I held my head high and wheeled my luggage into the elevator when it arrived.

Seth came in with his luggage too as did a older woman.

“Was it this wall or the one opposite where I nipped at those sexy shoulders of yours?” Seth whispered into my ear.

I ignored him. Luckily our room was on a lower floor, so we got out quickly.

I was aggravated and tired and now Seth had the nerve to tease me because he hated me so much.

He unlocked the room door and I took in the scene. It was a nice, standard hotel room with one rather large bed in the middle.

I sighed. I was hoping for a couch as well. That way I could sleep there while Seth took the bed. No luck there though. I was having a real run of bad luck lately.

“Which side of the bed do you want?” I asked, so I knew where to drop my stuff.

Seth looked mischievous. “The middle, as you should remember.”

I had tried to block out our night in Miami. Only I couldn’t. I remembered Seth’s scent. The feeling of rightness and possession I had as he joined us together. The weight of his body on mine and how glorious it felt. The feeling of my fingertips gliding over those hard abs. I remembered lots of stuff from Miami. Shake yourself out of it girl!

“Nice try Seth. Left or right?”

“Left.”

I bit my bottom lip. “I’m sorry about the bed situation Seth. It’s not fun for me either.”

Seth was annoyed by the turn in conversation. I could hear it in his voice.

“What? You afraid I’m going to ravish you in the middle of the night? You think you’re that irresistible?”

“Hardly. You’ve made it quite clear you would rather cuddle up with a rattlesnake instead of me. So I’m not worried you are going to make a pass at me in bed. And if it’s privacy you want we can figure something out.”

I took a step towards the bed and looked at the headboard. “We could put up The Walls of Jericho.”

“What?” The Kingslayer looked confused. His strong brow rumpled. It was adorable.

“It’s from a movie. One of my favorites. ‘It Happened One Night’ with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. They are a unmarried couple who are pretending to be together and they have to share a bedroom at a roadside motel. So they put a string down the middle of the bed and put blankets over it to divide the space. They called it The Walls of Jericho.”

“Humph.” He unzipped the smaller of his suitcases and took out some casual clothes.

“The only Walls of Jericho that I’m familiar with are much more painful than that.”

I dropped that line of conversation there. Instead I got on the floor and unzipped my suitcase while Seth took out a mini flashlight and began checking behind the bed board and under the mattress.

“What are you doing?”

“Bedbug check.”

“What?”

“Gotta be careful.”

“But this is a nice hotel.” I suddenly shivered from being creeped out.

“Yeah, well, bedbugs like nice hotels too. I always check. I learned this from Roman. You can never be too careful.”

He clicked off his flashlight. “Looks good.”

Seth then started putting his prepped meals in the mini fridge.

It was all really domestic. Seth brushed his teeth and I went to the bathroom to change into my pajamas and take off my make up. When I came out I was shocked to find Seth standing before me fully naked as he texted from his phone.

My mouth fell open. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. He couldn’t even bother to cover up and be decent in front of me.

But then I was a couldn’t believe I was having the pleasure of seeing him naked andI couldn’t even touch him. His thighs with their corded muscles seemed so strong. I was itching to touch him. Feel the smooth skin, the hardness of the muscle beneath. I took in a breath and turned away. My God, was I blushing.

“Seth, why are you naked?”

He shrugged like it was no big deal. “I always sleep naked. Why would I put on pajamas just because you’re here?” I still couldn’t look at him. “Common decency. Courtesy. Maybe even self dignity.”

He paused. “Turn around and look at me,” he commanded.

I did as I was told. Damn it why did I always feel compelled to follow his commands.

I turned and looked at him, focusing on his face and nothing below the chin. My libido was not to be trusted.

Seth looked at me. “I’m not changing my routine for you while we are on the road. Remember that.”

“I don’t have to remember when you keep reminding me that you hate me.”

He turned away from me then, focusing now on turning back the sheets of the bed. We both got in and lay facing away from each other, as close to the edge as possible, so there was no accidental touching. Seth’s table light was still on so there was some soft golden light. Finally, after a few awkward moments, Seth broke it.

“You did well today.”

“Thank you. Although I didn’t really do anything. I wasn’t even on camera.”

“You learned the ways of the company. People were excited to see and meet you. They see you as one of us now.”

“I don’t know about that.”

Seth ignored my statement. “No. You’re one of us. Most important, you treated the veterans with respect. I’m proud of you. As my girlfriend, you did me proud.”

“Fake girlfriend,” I clarified and punched my pillow as I tried to get comfortable.

“Of course. Fake girlfriend. Look, fake or not I’m still proud.”

“Well my hand is going to fall off from shaking everyone’s hand today, so I’m glad that made you proud.”

“I know it makes no sense, but we have our traditions in wrestling. They are important. You have to show deference.”

“I’m glad we don’t have all these rules in acting.” That was a lie though. We had some nutty traditions in acting. That whole ‘The Scottish Play’ business.

Seth let out a huff. “When I came up to the main roster I thought I was the end all be all. No one could tell me anything. I was the first NXT champ and I was part of The Shield. The leader you might say. We were insanely over for a debuting faction. In my head, I was untouchable. So I decided to stop shaking hands. I was almost future endeavored for it.”

I turned over and Seth did the same so that we were still on our respective sides of the bed but looking at each other as we hugged our pillows like they were people. “What happened?”

“One of the veterans complained to Management. I was hauled in to see Vince. I got a real dressing down. Including the threat of being fired.”

“Which veteran turned you in?”

“Big Show.”

“Not a man you want to piss off.”

“Not at all. I learned very quickly. I had to be humble and show the veterans deference.”

I groaned. “Puhleese. Seth Rollins humble. Get out.”

I smiled. Damn but it was easy to look at him laying there next to me. His hair all loose and wild on the soft pillow.His body half covered by the sheet, waiting for me to pull it back and explore his body.

“Well, respectful then.”

“You still think you’re The Man.”

Especially with the ladies, I said silently, in my head.

“Because I am. That’s who Seth Rollins is. The Man.”

“What makes him The Man?”

His voice was serious and deep. “He sees what he wants and he goes after it. He stops at nothing until its his.”

He looked at me with such intent I felt my nipples harden with arousal under the thin cotton of my nightshirt. I shifted my arm to cover my breasts.

I rolled my eyes, trying to turn off the intensity of the moment. “Including turning on his own brothers as a means to an end.”

“Including taking advantage of every opportunity afforded him.”

“Uh huh. Go to sleep, Seth Rollins, The Man.”

To that I got the hyena laugh.

“If I have to hear your cackling voice another second Seth, I will have nightmares.”

“Sweet dreams babe. Sweet dreams of my laugh. Ha haaaah.”

“Ugh.”

I turned over again, giving Seth my back before I made a fool of myself and tried to give him my body, which seemed to still foolishly yearn for him.

Seth turned out the light.

It took awhile to fall asleep. I could hear Seth breathing evenly. Of course the bastard fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow.

But that was unfair. He wrestled tonight and drove three hours. Although I could have driven if he didn’t have his insane rules. He could have rested while I took on that burden for him.

Annoying as Seth was with his rules, it was nice being with him. It was odd knowing that Seth was just an arm length away but I couldn’t touch him. He didn’t want me to touch him because he hated me. How had everything gone so wrong?

When I finally fell asleep, I dreamed. A weird dream in which I was sandwiched between Seth and Finn who were both shirtless (hallelujah) and I was keeping them from a fight. They weren’t fighting over me but over a belt. I tried not to be disappointed about it.

Finally, in the dream, I convinced Seth to take a step back from the situation and he was soon distracted as we were making out on a couch. Where we were I had no idea. I wanted to say backstage at a arena but that also seemed wrong.

Anyway, next thing I know, in my dream I was snuggled up in Seth’s arms in bed after the show. Finn and his perfect abs had disappeared. I was alone with Seth all cuddled up and it was heavenly.

Then I woke up. The situation was not heavenly. Somehow, in the middle of the night I seemed to have journeyed over from my side of the bed and into Seth’s arms. Panic rose up inside me.

I was literally draped on top of him and his deliciously sexy, naked body. My head all snugly against his chest. I could feel it rise and fall in unison with his breaths. My hand was splayed over one of his pecs. My leg against the junction of his sex, my foot grazing the side of one of those sexy thighs. Seth’s arm was across my waist holding me in place.

Oh no. There was no way I could move from this position and not wake him. And when I did, Seth would be furious.

My pulse quickened. I was afraid to move even an inch. What was I going to do? I tried to shift my position a little and Seth stirred. My heart pounding loudly in my chest. He was still asleep. Thank goodness. I tried to move again. Lightly picking up the arm that was slung over me.

Seth stirred again, murmuring something about deadlifts. As he stirred, miraculously his arm fell away to the side, freeing me.

Hallelujah!

Gently, I extricated myself from my perilous position to escape back to my side of the bed.

I couldn’t fall back asleep so I just laid there, thankful for my escape. I survived the night and sharing a bed with a naked Seth Rollins.

In a little while Seth woke up. I learned something very important about the Kingslayer that morning. He is an absolute diva when it comes to bathroom time. I’ve never seen a man take so long in there. Most women would never take so long to get ready.

I teased him mercilessly about it, telling him that an entire sorority house could get ready quicker than him. And yet all he’d done was throw on basketball shorts, a t shirt, rumpled Tap Out hoodie and the backwards cap.

“Do you ever wear clothes that don’t make you look like a gym rat?”

“When I’m trying to impress a girl, yeah.”

I laughed. “You’re definitely not trying to impress me.”

He didn’t look at me. “Not for this charade of ours no.”

I tried not to show the hurt on my face. The punch to the gut his statement made.

He bent down to tie his sneakers. “But I can wear the hell out of a sharp black suit. I could even give one of your movie-star boyfriends a run for their money on a red carpet.”

I shook my head. “Hardly.”

A lie. He would be sexy in that suit. Powerful. Damn I would like to see that and then undress him slowly, piece by piece.

At breakfast Seth and I discussed the schedule for the day before going to the arena.

“Come to CrossFit with me.” He said it very innocently while he stole the last of my scrambled eggs.

I ignored his theft and finished my coffee. “No. I’m not joining your cult, CrossFit Jesus.”

“It’s fun,” he said in a sing song voice.

“No it’s not. It looks like hell. Besides you just want to show off how good you are at it and lord it over me since I’m a newbie. No thank you.”

Seth denied that as his reasoning and we left it at that. In the end I went to the gym with Sasha and heard the gossip about Bayley and Cesaro who couldn’t seem to keep away from each other. After our core exercises and core gossip, we headed to the arena together to spend an afternoon of prepping and filling time until the house show began.

The next few days fit the same pattern. Then the next thing I knew it was Monday afternoon and I was just hours away from debuting on Monday Night Raw. I still had no idea about how management wanted me to play my role until about thirty minutes before showtime.

I sat down with Janet again. As the head of women’s talent she told me how things would go and that there would be a surprise. I was told to be myself in this role tonight but very bubbly, and a goody too shoes who could also deliver a zinger or insult with a sweet smile. Seemed fun so I was fully on board. I left Janet and got dressed for the show.

I didn’t see much of Seth as he was busy working on new spots for tonight’s match. They had practiced a number of things at the house shows earlier this week but there were still little technical things now that there were cameras involved.

Seth and Dean’s feud with the Miz had ended and they were working on getting the tag belts from Cesaro and Sheamus.

I was in the first segment of the night. I was going to be on Miz TV again. The Miz with his Miztourage and Maryse were already in the ring. It was only said that a surprise guest was coming on the show.

I stood in the gorilla and took in a few nervous breaths. Then I felt a pair of arms slide around my waist and settle on my hips. Seth. I leaned back into his warmth, hoping I could somehow absorb his strength. He dropped a kiss on my bare shoulder. “It’s going to be okay, Princess,” he whispered in my ear.

The moniker made me want to cry. “You haven’t called me Princess since I joined you on the road. Just babe.”

“I know. Princess is for special occasions. This is a special occasion.”

“I’m nervous. What if they hate this idea? What if they hate me?” Seth couldn’t see it but I bit my lip. Probably ruining the lipstick the makeup artists carefully applied.

“Then you will have to go back to Hollywood and some blockbuster movie role where you’re painted blue to play an alien again.”

I gave a small chuckle at that.

“And you would be well rid of me Seth. Maybe you can throw a party to celebrate my leaving.”

Seth’s hands slid away at my words. Had I offended him?

He turned me around to face him but I couldn’t look up at him. So he tipped my chin up with his fingers, making me look him in the eye. He always did that when he knew I was avoiding him.

“Don’t say things like that Princess. It’s not true.”

I looked up at him. There was no mockery lined on his face. “Then you are an incredible actor.”

Seth couldn’t reply. I was called to make my entrance. There was one last glance at my makeup which was approved and then I was out the curtain and onto the ramp. The new General Manager of Raw had arrived.

The crowd was surprised I was the special guest but they cheered. Good. First hurdle down. The Miz gave a hell of a promo all about how I was a great individual who had come to personally apologize to him for helping Seth and Dean at my last visit. He did a whole bit about how we were both A-Listers and should show each other respect.

And that is where I had to set The Miz straight that I had not come to apologize, even to the great actor of those ‘little’ Marine movies he was so famous for. Maryse said nothing but looked highly offended.

The Miz went on about how he needed respect. I told him he should respect me especially considering my announcement.

And then I really let him have it. Telling him that he should respect me, especially since I am the new General Manager of Raw. The look on his face was priceless as was Bo and Curtis. The crowd was in shock but not in a bad way. Thank goodness.

And then the surprise entrance music hit. The rousing theme for Kurt which got the crowd chanting ��you suck” in the loving fashion that only the WE universe can achieve. Kurt came out and said he was taking a sabbatical for a few months and confirmed I was the new GM. Oh it’s true. It’s damn true.

As I left the ring with Kurt, I stopped on the ramp and turned around to tell The Miz that with my first act as GM I was setting a match with him and Braun Strowman. A match that would start right now. Strowman’s music hit and he came out. He was all single minded focus on beating the Miz into a pulp. I gave a small smug smile (Seth would be proud) and then left.

When I came back through the curtain, Seth was there. He picked me up and whirled me around. “There’s my Princess General Manager. You were great. And you are so over. The WWE Universe loves you.”

I couldn’t conceal my joy at this. Being in Seth’s arms earlier and now this. His support made my heart feel full. But this was all for show wasn’t it? For the gossiping technicians and fellow Superstars so that it was obvious this relationship was the real thing.

I had several more segments with the Superstars who were all curious about how I became GM when I had no wrestling background. But right when I was about explain it, something always happened and the answer wasn’t given. It was a fun trick.

The last segment of the night occurred with Enzo and Big Cass. Enzo, all gaudy gold chains and clashing animal print clothing was going to ask for a shot at the tag team titles. I was supposed to announce the match for next week and it would end the show.

Only suddenly Cass left and Enzo kept talking about how glad he was that I was here. How he had been waiting for this moment. I looked around at the crew. I was confused. This was not in the script. The technicians looked confused but the cameras kept rolling. One of the assistants mouthed that we were still on air.

Seth came up out of nowhere snd stood beside me. Shirtless, white towel around his neck and hair slicked back. He looked ready to pounce on Enzo.

Enzo just kept speaking to me. “I’m glad you’re here alright because it fulfills a part of my contract.”

I wrinkled a brow. “What? What are you talking about?” My heart started bearing faster. What the hell was going on? Had Triple H played both Seth and me? I was about to find out.

Enzo pulled out a folded contract. He turned it around to show me.

“I’ve been waiting for this a long time. My contract says I get to date/marry the next female General Manager of Raw. And that my golden statuette goddess is you. You’re gonna ride the Enzo train (terrible collection of words which conjured all sorts of terrible images) and my best friend Cass and I are going to get our title shot.”He kept pointing at the contract.

I looked at it. The contract was real. Not some phony dummy contract with one line like what they use for contract signings on air.

“Oh hell no.” I couldn’t control the anger in my voice. “I’m not going to be in some fake relationship with you.”

Enzo soured quickly. “What you sayin’? That all this Italian Stallion goodness in front of yous is not good enough for a actress.”

The tension ratcheted up. Seth took a step forward. His face was warning Enzo wordless to stop or there would be consequences.

“Well, I’m not being unkind Enzo, but us together is ludicrous.”

Now I was mad. What the eff was this?“It’s ludicrous because Seth and I am dating.”

Enzo stamped his feet in that ridiculous shuffle of his. “Well break it off. As GM of Raw you have to honor the contract and date and or marry me.”

And that’s how Raw ended as the producers came down and there was chaos and discussion.

Seth was livid. His wide mouth a grim line. Shoulder set for confrontation. Even his stance was deliberate.

Oh God, please don’t let there be a fight.

Seth had no filter. “Enzo what the fuck is this?”

“My shot. I’m takin what’s mine. This was supposed to be my program and they just give it to you and her.”

I tried to diffuse the situation even though I was standing in back of Seth.

“Look Enzo this won’t work. Seth and I are dating. No one would believe I would just drop him and start dating you. It makes no sense when Seth is the man in my life right now.”

Seth took yet another step closer as did Enzo. My heart lurched. They were only a few steps apart now. Hearing of the argument, a number of Superstars and crew now turned up to watch.

“Nobody in this entire arena believes that your little fights and lovey dovey public displays of affection are real. We’re even betting on it.”

Enzo turned towards Alexa who looked ahead like it was no big deal. “So if you can fake it with him you can fake it with me. We can even make it real outside the ring. Ya know what I’m sayin’.”

Enzo looked me up and down. It made my skin crawl. “Oh my God. You sent the black roses didn’t you?”

“Damn right I did. I needed everyone to see that you were going to be my girl and black roses are the most expensive. I tried to get them to like make a leopard print rose but like science wise it’s not possible.”

Oh my goodness. This was crazy. This was chaos.

Enzo continued. “Look, you could use a new man who could give it to you good. We’ve all seen Seth’s photos online. Not very flattering. Not like the giant salamiI got waiting for you.”

I moved forward and took hold of Seth’s arm. I knew what was coming.

“Seth please don’t this,” I pleaded. “It’s not worth it. I’d never be with Enzo. Not professionally or personally.” At that Enzo went crazy, jumping up and down and pointing at me. “You’re insulting me. Like you’re a catch cause you’re a big movie-star. I’ve heard the rumors. You’re a freezer in bed.”

There was a audible gasp from our assembled audience. I could feel Seth tug out of my hold and lunged forward. His arm suddenly pulled back to gain the momentum for the punch he was going to land on Enzo, only Seth’s arm went back too far.

With a crack, I felt Seth’s fist hit my face. In shock, I stumbled, tripping over my own feet and falling backward. It all happened so quickly.

I felt my head connect with something sharp as I went down. Then the next thing I knew, everything went black. —

[shavothehusky]

Yo i was tagged by the wonderful @robotsandramblings, it sounds fun so let’s do this!

1. favourite character from each of your MAIN fandoms/franchises?

BOI, it’s gonna be a lot! Let’s see.

Transformers - shockwave and whirl Voltron - i honestly love all team voltron, but lance has a special place in my heart Dragon age - anders Mass effect - legion Overwatch - zenyatta Saint seiya - gemini saga Gravity falls - bill cipher Pokemon - sableye

2. now look at that list and tell me if there are any similarities between them. do you seem to have a “type”? are you drawn toward a particular physical aspect or personality trait?

One eyed robots...? XD (shockwave, whirl, legion) Or robots in general... (zenyatta) Or characters that are considered Problematic™ by tumblr dot hellsite dot com, because they’re either villains or done some questionable stuff and thus became 3 dimensional characters and that is what attracted me to them (bill, anders, saga). Sableye is creepily cute and lance doesn’t fit in this type of mine at all lmao

3. which [VLD] lion would you like to pilot… and which lion do you think you’re actually best suited for? (it’s ok if they’re the same; but maybe your fave is Blue, and you realize you’re more impulsive and tempermental and thus Red would probably choose you.)

Hmmm, good question! I think i’d both love and be most fitted to pilot the green lion, i like to analyze stuff and look for scientific solutions to the problem... I can also see myself in a situation similiar to keith when it comes to piloting the black lion, a lot of people tell me that i’d be a good leader and i somehow always end up being in charge of groups of people, be it for school projects or in games, but boi do i hate having this kind of responsibility...

4. you can only have Season 4 for either TFP or TFA. you gotta pick one. which one, and how do you want it to play out?

BUT I NEED BOTH!! Aaahhh, hmmm, wow... i think i’d go with tfa, because while tfp’s ending was kinda rushed, it was finished and it felt satisfying. Tfa’s last episode absolutely didn’t feel like the end of the series to me. End of the season, yes. But there were still so many subplots that were left unfinished and this is why i think it has a potential for the continuation, like it was supposed to if it hasn’t been cancelled. Tfp would be great too, but as i said, i am kinda satisfied with its ending, and not with tfa’s.

5. if you were in the Transformers universe, who would be your best friend and why?

But i want to befriend them all! Again, a tough choice xD I guess i’d get along well with mtmte/tfp ratchet, because i kinda like to deal with grumpy but caring deep inside folks with cynical humor. Also, medical jargon!

6. if you were in the Voltron universe, who would be your best friend and why?

Oh boi! I think i’d get along really well with hunk, lance and coran, they seem like people who would make an effort to befriend me first, and this is how i get friends irl, i’m rarely the one to make the first step xD I could also see myself bonding with allura over the space mice, because i fucking love cute animals and we could plan their routines together XD

7. who needs to be added to Bayverse, and who should never have been introduced (or needs a complete redesign/overhaul)?

SHOCKWAVE. I was so happy when he was confirmed for dotm, he even had a cool design, then he was introduced as this big bad and i was so hyped... only to be very disappointed, because in the end he appeared in the movie for only few minutes and was killed off in the dumbest way possible... like, honestly, he deserved so much better. Same with the dinobots!! They advertised aoe like it was focused solely on the dinobots, when in reality they appeared only in the last few minutes of the movie and don’t get me started how much i HATE that they made them an equivalent of some dumb animals (also the way optimus treated grimlock dsnfksdnjfsdnkfsd we both know he would never do that). Who should never have been introduced? The humans lmao xD Okay, some of them were cool and i actually like them (cade, lennox, izzie), but i hate that the bayformers focus more on the humans than the robots, because let’s be honest, everyone go see those movies for the robots and i feel so robbed when they appear only like half an hour into the movie.

8. pick a random kitchen appliance or household object to make a Transformer. give it a name.

My portable wifi router. His name is routerix and he’s a minicon probably related to soundwave somehow.

9. got a favourite Galra? who is it? (any galra, from Zarkon’s empire, or the Blade of Marmora, or someone more ‘neutral’ like Vrepit Sal.)

I love my main boi lotor tbh, starting from his design and voice, which are amazing... and his personality and his motives and his whole story line... i know we haven’t seen much of him yet, but i’m just so hyped to see where is his plot going! Is he going to become the space zuko? Or is he pulling the biggest scam on team voltron and our minds are going to be blown? I don’t know and i fucking can’t wait to see what is he up to :D

10. FREE SPACE for you to either express an unpopular opinion, ask a question that’s been plaguing you, or talk about an OC. go!

My unpopular opinion about voltron: i’d be totally cool if the show ended without having any ship confirmed or even without any more romantic subplots besides zarkon/honerva. Would it be cool if they had another romance story? Sure, provided they tell it skillfully. Would it be cool if they actually dared to make a gay ship ekhm klance canon? It would be SO FUCKING COOL and i’m all yes for that. But if they decide that no, this is not where we want to go, voltron isn’t a story about love and we have other, better stories to tell in that show? I’m so okay with that and i’m gonna support the crew all the way.

That is all, thank you friend for cool asks and for tagging me, i had fun writing this :D