#hey fun fact we never claimed to have did! we don't!

[theangstking]

yo what the fuck is this shit.

does anyone realize how. Not fucking okay this is?

I'm not even triggered rn I'm just mad and confused lmfao

oh yeah btw. what's happening here is, someone dug up our trigger list SOMEHOW. and is just genuinely sending us things from it. like...they literally copy pasted things from it.

does this count as anon hate???? fuckin, baby's first proper anon hate after How Many Years ig??? LMFAO???

this is mostly just confusing and funny more than anything?? I'm pissed off too sure but like. What??? The hell did they think they were going to accomplish???? there is not a name or face to this.

ohhhhh WEH WEH cry whine throw a fit some random fucking person on the internet that we don't even know the name of decided we're worth HARASSING. LMFAO???

[andy-wm]

I’ve just been listening to a podcast about the fabric of reality, and came on here for a bit of downtime. And lo and behold, you’re talking about reality and time passing, and that’s exactly it.

No matter what we think, no matter what we say, or theorise or claim, we don’t alter the truth, and that stands for everything that doesn’t pertain to us.l and our own lives.

I can think the earth is flat till the cows come home (I don’t, obviously) but that doesn’t alter reality. 

Same goes for Jimin and JKs relationship. I’ve seen people claim wild theories, bending and stretching to reach conclusions far outweighing a k drama or blockbuster movie, whereas I personally, think mundanely and simply, that they are together. 

Whose right? We don’t know. 

That’s the truth. We don’t know. 

We may never know, we may find out one day?. 

I’m saying this with a smile on my face because that’s the beauty of life right, as long as we are not harming others, or coming into others spaces and shouting. As long as we aren’t being disrespectful to others, and to Jikooks bond. 

I will say this though, an actual truth people seem to forget or quickly dismiss across the fandom as a whole, is that those men chose to enlist together and whatever we may think of their relationship that is what happened and we should do well to remember that. 

Hey Anon, that's what i call serendipity.

And I love this ask, thank you!

I absolutely agree, what we know - or think we know - has no impact on what truly is.

Even when we believe we know all there is to know, new discoveries and new understanding mean - hopefully - we're constantly learning and reassessing.

When it comes to Jikook, Occam's razor is my go-to: the simplest explanation is, in fact, usually the best. We don't need convoluted plots and schemes and conspiracy theories. There's enough information staring us in the face.

Sometimes we need to untangle that information - I'm not saying we should accept everything on face value - and we do have to look out for new information so we can adjust our understanding.

But that is the case with everything on earth. There is no static knowledge.

These things add layers of richness and complexity but they don't change the basic premise of our underatanding.

That understanding, for me, is that these two humans love each other.

As you say, there ARE things we definitely know, like their companion enlistment.

Like the fact that Jimin chose to have JK with him - next to him - when he talked about his depression on Beyond The Star.

We know Jimin flew 28 hours so he could spend 3 days with JK in NY and Connecticut.

We know that JK was ready to crack Yoongi on the head with a frypan when he though Jimin might have been hurt (by a 5g shuttlecock).

We know that JK never harms Jimin - in all the games and jokes they play, he never targets Jimin (spraying his butt with a watergun is not targeting him, before anyone gets huffy. That did Jimin no harm at all.)

We know that Jimin worried over how hard JK was working.

We know JK begged Jimin shamelessly in front of millions of people, to do a weverse live together.

We know JK watched and hyped all Jimin's footage when he was promoting FACE.

We know they jumped into the comments of one another's livestreams several times last year.

We know all these things, but imagine what we don't know.

There's so much we have no idea about.

Hours and hours of footage that never reaches our screens. Months of time they spend together or alone or with family or friends. That's as it should be - their their private lives are just that - private.

Yes, I have a lot of fun picking apart the little glimpses we get into their lives because i enjoy their dynamic so much and because I'm naturally curious (okay, yes, I'm nosy 🤣).

I look deeper not because I'm hunting for lies or flaws, but because these two delight me. Sure I speculate, but i don't purport to know what they are to each other or where their boundaries lie. And I'm happy not to know. Some things are none of my business.

Like you, Anon, I accept that i may never know the true nature of their relationship, and I'm quite okay with that.

In the end what does it matter?

Whatever they are to each other, they're happy, and honestly what more is there to life than love and happiness?

💜💛

[roosterforme]

Batting Practice Part 18 | Rooster x Reader

Summary: Tee ball season is almost over, and the Tiny Eagles are still undefeated. You are starting to feel bolder in your personal life, like you are ready to claim everything you are entitled to. And Bradley is subtly letting you know he's along for more than just the ride.

Warnings: Smut, fluff, angst and swearing

Length: 3800 words

Pairing: Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw x Female single!mom Reader

Check my masterlist for more Top Gun fun! Batting Practice masterlist.

"Only two more weeks of tee ball left," Molly murmured as she sipped her coffee next to you on the bleachers. 

You paused to think about that. It was only two months ago that you met Bradley, and a lot had changed since you caught yourself stuttering in his presence that first day. After he brought you flowers and lunch to work on Wednesday, he'd met you at your house that night. One thing led to another, and now you knew Bradley loved being called Lieutenant Bradshaw in bed. 

"Two more weeks," you agreed. You'd be sad when tee ball ended, but Bradley had been telling you for the past week since the Phillies game that he'd work on some skills with Everett during the summer. 

"Go Ev!" Molly shouted when he hit the ball really hard and scored a run against the Tiny Robins. It was Crazy Socks day, and Everett had talked you into ordering him a pair from the Phillies website. You had a second pair stashed away for Bradley's birthday, which you found out from Bob was a week after Everett's.

You clapped along with your sister as you watched Everett run the bases in his red and white striped socks, but your mind was wandering elsewhere. 

"You know what you said about Danny last time we talked about him?" you asked, and Molly scoffed. 

"You mean how I called him an incompetent man-child? Or how I told you he doesn't deserve to lick the bottoms of your shoes?"

"Neither," you replied, smiling as both Bradley and Bob waved in your direction at the same time. You waved your fingers at Bradley and smiled. "I'm actually talking about child support. And the fact that he never pays it."

"Ohhhh, you wanna have that conversation now?" Molly asked, giving you a bland look. "Ev is almost seven years old."

"Yeah," you replied softly. 

You could see the fire in Molly's eyes, but she took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "You've paid for everything. Take him to court. Seriously. Please, take him to court. I would love nothing more than to help you pay for it. Who's your lawyer? I'll send them a check today."

"I don't need your money," you told her firmly for the hundredth time. But now you were finally feeling like you wanted to do something about this. Why had you been okay with letting Danny get away with so much shit before? Everett deserved the whole world, and you were going to try to give it to him. "I'm going to give him one more chance to either be more involved with Ev or start paying for support."

Molly set her empty cup down and said, "Look at me." You met her eyes, and she looked much more serious than she usually did, which gave you a chill. "What are you going to do when Danny won't do either of those things?"

You pressed your lips together to keep the tingling sensation of tears out of your eyes and nose. "I'm going to stop being a doormat."

Molly kissed your cheek and pulled you against her side just as the game was ending. 

------------------------------

"Still undefeated!" Everett cheered as Bradley carried him on his shoulders up to the parking lot after the game against the Tiny Robins ended in a victory for the Tiny Eagles.

"Hey, Coach Bob," Bradley called, and Bob turned around, still holding Molly's hand. "You better start writing your speech for when you win Coach of the Year. The team is undefeated with two games left!"

"You'll have to give a speech, too," Bob said as he adjusted his glasses. "The award goes to both coaches, not just one."

"Undefeated! Undefeated!" Everett chanted. You were walking next to Bradley shaking your head and smiling. 

Bradley looked at you as he said, "Ev is the best on the team, Kitten. He's really good." Everett continued to chant as Bradley added, "I'm going to plan out the whole summer with visits to the batting cages, pitching in the park, and learning more about all of the different positions. He'll be ready for baseball next spring. No more tee ball." Bradley couldn't remember being this excited about baseball since he was a kid trying out for his first team. 

"He's really that good at it?" you asked. "Thank goodness I signed him up for tee ball."

"Yeah," Bradley agreed, "for more than one reason."

You opened the back door to your car, and Bradley deposited Everett into his booster seat at the same time that Molly climbed in through the other door and tried to buckle herself into the seat. Bradley chuckled while Everett practically screeched with laughter, and then you wrapped your arms around his waist.

"I'm going to buy tickets for the Pittsburgh Pirates game on Everett's birthday," you told him. "Molly and Bob are coming, too."

Bob perked up when he heard his name. "No, Molly and I are going to buy all the tickets. For his birthday present."

"I thought I'd get them for everyone," Bradley said with a frown. "My treat, again."

"I already bought them!" Molly shouted from inside the car as Everett tickled her until she was wheezing. 

"She's so annoying," you said, resting your head against Bradley's chest. "She wants me to save my money for my lawyer."

Bradley jerked his head back and coaxed you to look up at him. "A lawyer for what?"

"Don't worry about it," you whispered before you returned to snuggling against him. 

But he wanted to know what was wrong. "Are you okay? Is Ev? Is this about Danny? What can I do?"

"We're okay, Bradley."

"Kitten. You can talk to me about it."

"I know," you replied, squeezing him tighter. "We're okay for now."

"Well, that's settled then," Molly said as she climbed out of the car with her clothes all dishevelled. "Everett defeated me in the tickle fight, so I owe him a movie. I'll pick him up tomorrow after lunch."

You looked up at Bradley with a smirk on your face. "Any chance you're free for a little bit tomorrow after lunch?"

----------------------------------

Later that night, you called Danny after sending him texts throughout the day telling him you needed to talk to him.

You were happy you had waited until Everett was in bed to make the call, because as soon as Danny answered with a bark of, "Yes?" you felt anxious. 

"Danny," you replied, gripping the edge of the counter so you wouldn't lose your resolve. "Hi."

"What do you need? I'm trying to work."

You squeezed the counter harder and took a deep breath. "Let me know when you have time to spend a day with Everett. I think you need to make that more of a priority."

You were met with silence. 

"Danny?"

"I'm here. You know I don't have time for this."

You pressed your lips together and held back your tears. "He is your son, Danny. You need to make time for him."

More silence spread out before you. Honestly, you wanted to start screaming into the phone, but you knew you shouldn't. Nobody could upset you with just a small handful of words the way your ex husband could.

When you got no response, you took a deep breath and said, "If you're not going to give him some of your time, then you need to start making up for it by paying us child support."

"Child support?" he asked with a laugh. "You know I don't have a steady income like you do." 

You took a deep breath. "I understand that, but providing for Everett shouldn't solely land on my shoulders here, Danny."

"Listen," he replied smoothly. "I have a huge gallery event coming up next month. I'll probably have some more spending money then."

He was trying to manipulate you the way he always had. You'd spent years listening to him try to validate his excuses, and somehow he always got you to agree with him. You didn't need to fall into these traps any longer. Not when you had Molly in your corner. Not when you knew Bradley cared about Everett's happiness.

"Taking care of your son doesn't fall under the same category as extraspending money." You said it before you gave yourself a chance to process your words, and somehow you felt a little stronger. "So then I guess he can come spend a day with you instead?"

"Fine," Danny snapped immediately. "But I'll probably be working, so he's going to have to play on his iPad or something."

His iPad that you paid for. "Sure," you agreed, knowing this was probably too good to be true. "He's going to love to see you no matter what. So how does next Sunday sound?"

And then you ended the call feeling better than you ever had after a conversation with Danny. You poured yourself a glass of wine and carried it up to your bathroom. You filled your tub while you removed your makeup, and then you sank down into a delicious bubble bath. 

You texted Molly about your conversation, and she wrote back saying SLAY YOU QUEEEEEN BITCH. DO NOT FUCK WITH MY SISTER. 

You were still laughing when Bradley texted to ask what you were up to. He had gone out to that aviator hangout bar with his friends, so of course it made you feel even giddier that he was texting you while he was there. 

When you told him you were in the bath he wrote back while you sipped your wine.

Bradley Bradshaw: Pics or it didn't happen

You snorted into your wine glass and took some strategically posed selfies. Finally you took a good one where the swell of your breasts was pronounced above the bubbles, and your knee was peeking above the water next to your glass. You sent it to him, and you did not have to wait long for a response. 

Bradley Bradshaw: Kitten, please baby, you're teasing me. I can only take so much.

You laughed and sent him a second photo where he could see your nipples.

Bradley Bradshaw: You are so fucking hot. And now my dick is hard. In the middle of a game of pool. 

You sent teasing texts back and forth while you finished your wine, and he reminded you that he'd be there tomorrow afternoon. And then he sent you a list of all the dirty little things he wanted to do to you. You dreamed about his mouth and his mustache all night long.

And the next day, as soon as Molly picked Everett up to take him to see the movie, you ran up the stairs, two at a time and dashed into your room. You dug around in the bottom drawer of your dresser and pulled out everything you needed. Bradley would be here in just a few minutes, and you'd been wet and worked up for him since last night.

You shimmied into the tight black bodysuit and fastened the choker around your neck before securing the ear headband in place as well. Then you found some sheer black socks that went up over your knees and added them to your Kitten outfit. When you looked in the mirror, you squealed with delight. You turned and checked yourself from different angles. Not bad. Not bad at all. 

You were thinking about how Bradley barely even got a chance to touch you the last time you wore this kitten costume that day at tee ball. You were thinking about how you bought this outfit just for him in the first place. When you heard the Bronco pull into your driveway, you were practically squeezing your legs together to keep from moaning. 

When you made it to the bottom step, you heard Bradley's key in the door, and somehow that made you even hotter. You were afraid you were going to jump on him, so you kept your hand wrapped around the bannister as he opened your front door. 

"Hi, Coach," you said, your voice laced with need as you waved your fingers at him. 

"Oh, god." His groan was so deep and loud, you clenched around nothing as he blindly slammed and locked the door. He let his keys, wallet and hat fall right to the floor as you whimpered. 

"Coach." Your voice quivered as he approached you slowly. "Bradley."

You almost matched up to his height as you were still standing on the bottom step. He was close to you now, licking his lips and breathing faster. He let his knuckles trail slowly up and down over your bodysuit between your breasts, and soon you were panting for him. 

His grin was smug as he asked you, "Did you wear this for me?"

You nodded your head as he stroked your hard nipples through the thin fabric. "Just for you, Lieutenant Bradshaw."

And then his head tipped back as he groaned, and you felt so powerful. You guided his hand down your belly and between your legs, and he met your eyes again. "You're already wet."

"I've been wet since we were texting last night," you admitted. And then you were draped over his shoulder with his big hand on your butt while he hauled you back upstairs. 

-----------------------------

Bradley had been thinking about you in your Kitten costume for weeks, but he hadn't been expecting you to be wearing it today. It was even filthier looking this time, as you paired it with black socks that hugged your thighs instead of your jeans. You skipped the whiskers, but you were wearing your choker. Your collar.

As he took you up to your bed, you were whimpering his name as he stroked his fingers along your ass and your thighs. You were soaking wet. He could feel it when he dug his hand between your legs to tease you as he reached your bedroom.

When he set you down, you crawled across the bed, showing off your ass for him before you settled with your back against the pillows. Bradley was tearing his shoes off followed by his clothing as he watched you run your hands over your bodysuit, squeezing your tits. 

"Do you have any idea what you look like right now?" he asked, crawling across the bed to get to you.

"A Kitten?" you asked softly, fingers skimming over your taut nipples. 

"My Kitten," he growled. "You look like you're mine. My own personal Kitten with a wet pussy and filthy red lips." He kissed you hard, pushing your head back against the pillow while he ran his fingers along the strip of fabric that was barely covering your slit. 

When you moaned into his mouth, he released your lips in favor of running his nose and tongue along that sinful red choker on your neck.

"Lieutenant Bradshaw, sir," you whined, and his cock ached with need. "Please."

He was sucking on all of your exposed skin, tasting every inch. You were grinding up against his hand as he palmed your core through your bodysuit. "I'll take care of you," he promised, kissing your choker and your necklace chain at the same time. "You keep your claws tucked away like a good girl, and I'll take such good care of you."

Then he released the snaps between your legs that were keeping you concealed, and the bodysuit was open. You rubbed yourself against his knuckles, and his fingers slid right through your slick slit. You shook your head against the pillow, and your headband with the ears went a little crooked. 

"I am so turned on," you gasped. "I don't think I have ever been this turned on before."

You were whining for him and rubbing your stocking covered leg along his cock. But your eyes were still alert, and he wanted them glazed and fucked out. 

"I'm gonna eat your pussy," he told you, nibbling your nipples through the fabric as you gasped in agreement. "But I'm not going to stop until I'm ready to. Does that sound okay?"

"Yes sir, Coach Bradley, sir!"

"Kitten, look at me," he said, still stroking your clit softly with his knuckle. "That means I decide when you're done."

"Yes!"

And then he put his mouth on your pussy, and it was exquisite. Just like last time. But maybe even better, because he was going to make you lose your mind for him. He wrapped his arms around your thighs and spread you open wide, kissing your hole as he buried his nose in your wetness.

He started off slow, teasing and licking, and then your fingers were in his hair. Your little gasps and words of encouragement made him smile, but as soon as he took your clit between his lips, you got loud. Really loud. Bradley was delighted that you could be as loud as you wanted to, because he was addicted to the feel of your smooth pearl, your perfect clit under his tongue.

"Bradley!"

You were thrusting up against his face, and he dipped his tongue inside you as your wetness coated his chin. He loved this. He loved eating pussy. He knew he was good at it. But you were too perfect. Everything he liked. Everything he wanted. He needed you. He released your left leg and shoved two rough fingers inside you as he eased himself up your body to kiss those pretty red lips. 

"You taste so fucking good. Like a damn kitten in heat," he told you as you ran your tongue along his chin. You kitten licked his face and whimpered while he finger fucked you harder. Your hands wound tight up in his hair were a little painful, but it just made him go harder. 

Your eyes were already starting to drift closed and he kissed you, smiling against your mouth. "Remember. You're done when I say you're done."

His words made you keen, and he could feel you starting to squeeze his fingers as he put his mouth back on your clit and sucked gently. That first orgasm came screaming out of you as your hips bucked and shook against the mattress. But Bradley was already working on the next one as you gasped his name over and over again.

With his tongue moving in languid strokes as you started to calm down, Bradley managed to coax you close to the edge again. This time you released his hair in favor of wrapping your hands in your pillowcase. 

"What the fuck," you gasped, gaping at him and meeting his eyes as you rode his tongue to another orgasm. Your forehead was scrunched up in disbelief as you gasped, sounding scandalized that he did it twice.

But he wasn't done yet. He ground his cock down into your bedding, bucking for some relief against the delicious show that all of his senses were being treated to. Because now you looked truly exhausted, and your fingers were unable to get purchase in his hair. He kissed and nibbled on your inner thigh as he ran his calloused fingertips over your sensitive, overworked clit until you were whining softly. 

"It's okay, Kitten. I love you," Bradley promised, and you nodded wordlessly. And sure enough, after several more minutes, you hiccuped a few times as you came again for him. Your pussy softly pulsing around his middle finger as you gasped had him palming his cock. 

He was about to cum. Quickly, he positioned himself so he was on his knees with your left thigh between his legs. He never removed his middle finger from inside you while he stroked himself a half a dozen times. And then he was spurting his cum all over your pussy and your belly and your bodysuit. 

You didn't even seem to know what was going on as you shook your head against the pillow and wiped at your tears. 

"You okay?" he asked softly, and he smiled. Because your eyes were glazed, your face looked fucked out, and your body was limp, connected to his by his one finger inside you. "God, you're fucking glorious."

A soft laugh escaped your lips while Bradley stroked your cheek with his thumb, and you nuzzled against him like a kitten.

---------------------------

You had your arms draped lazily around Bradley's neck as he showered with you. For a split second, he had been nervous that he might have ruined your bodysuit when he came, but you assured him you could always buy another one. Honestly, you thought the splashes of his white cum on your skin and the dark fabric looked sinfully good. 

"You gonna wear that outfit again for me?" he asked, running his fingers along the little paw print charm he got you where it rested next to your collarbone. 

"Do you really need me to?" you challenged. "You just took a bunch of photos of me half wearing it with your cum all over me. Shouldn't that be enough?"

He kissed you, gently pulling your bottom lip between his before he said, "No way. Those are for when I'm deployed. I'm gonna want the real thing again and again."

You felt a jolt of reality. "Do you know when you're getting deployed again? Do I need to start preparing myself to miss you?"

"No," he murmured, kissing along your neck as the spray from the shower calmed you. "When I find out, you'll be the first to know, Kitten. And I must admit," he added, pausing on a deep inhale that left you with bated breath, "I do love the idea of being missed. By you. And Ev."

You didn't know what to say as you snuggled up against him for a few minutes before you eventually turned off the water. You'd been in a relationship with him for a week. One week. And you already daydreamed about when he'd move in with you. You were already thinking about where all of his stuff would fit in your house. But it was too soon. And you didn't know if he'd want to permanently be here at all. 

But you did say, "Everett and I already miss you when we're not with you," and he smiled. 

"Speaking of Ev," he said, drying off his legs. "It's getting late. Do you want me to be here when they get back?"

You only had to consider that for a beat. "Yeah."

Bradley met your eyes as he pulled his underwear on. "Can I help him with his homework? Or do something else to make things easier for you?"

In that moment, you wanted to tell him everything that had happened on the phone with Danny. You wanted to tell him that you and Molly had talked about a lawyer. But all you said was, "I love you."

------------------------- 

Kitten dressing as the kitten again. Kitten making demands of Danny. Kitten getting what she deserves from Coach! Love to see it. Thanks to @beyondthesefourwalls and @mak-32!

PART 19

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[centrally-unplanned]

Stumbled on this 1992 interview with Michael Crichton about his 90's Japan Scare novel Rising Sun, which is very fun. For one, Crichton is a Perotist!

Question: “Rising Sun” makes a strong argument that Japanese business is unfairly aggressive and Americans are foolish to have tolerated this unfairness for so long. Is that a decent synopsis? Answer: Not exactly. Let me just restate it. In the immortal words of my hero, Ross Perot: “It’s not a two-way street. It never has been a two-way street. It’s not their fault.” It’s our fault.

His 90's "Declinist America Needs Protectionism" vibe really comes through in the whole interview, you forget these days due to Trump how much of a Type of Guy that was and how intellectual-coded it could be in that era of dominant "unreflective" neoliberalism.

Anyway, we certainly did talk about race in the 90's!

Q: Do you consider the Japanese racist? A: [...] We’re talking about a historically inward-looking nation, an island nation, largely monoracial. That’s a good structure in which to have the rise of feelings of superiority about your own people as opposed to other people in the world. Of course, these broad statements can’t be applied to the individual Japanese person. One of the things that Americans, as a multiracial society, feel is a tremendous sensitivity to racial comments of all kinds. In the book, one of the things I tried to say to Americans was: Hey, while you’re tiptoeing around the race issue, your competitors are a monoracial country, very much aligned, and tend to hold in common beliefs that would astound you.

Narrator: America did not, in fact, "tiptoe" around the race issue.

But to be clear it isn't like this is super wrong or anything - 90's Japan absolutely was a "racist country" if such a thing is possible, most countries are, and its geographic isolation and relative lack of modern immigrants at that time certainly did contribute to that. What I instead find amusing is the idea that this is a threat to the US; the implication is that, because Japan is a racist country, when they rule the world economically they will in some way impose that racist worldview upon us. Which, I don't really think that is how free trade works? Might have watched too much Gunbuster on this one buddy.

We of course have the classics of Japan Scare:

Q: Has the continued decline in the Japanese stock market, their falling real-estate value and shrinking foreign investment caused you to rethink your views of Japanese-American business dealings? A: No, not at all. I’ve not seen figures on what the growth of the Japanese GNP will be this year. You hear stories about economic distress in Japan, but you see that the growth rate is going down to 4% from 5%. If this country had a 4% growth rate, we’d all feel like we were pumped full of testosterone.

-😬😬😬-

Narrator: it did not stop going down at 4%.

What i love most is how you see the same exact arguments about American "economic weakness" you see today, but with the dates/countries swapped around:

Q: What allowed us to contribute so willingly to our own weakening? Greed? Altruism? Shortsightedness? Arrogance? A: (following a large sigh) You have to look back at broad time periods. It’s possible now to argue that Americans have had no increase in real earnings power since 1962. Some economists would dispute that, and set the date at 1973. Either way, the country is in a steady, consistent and ongoing decline. Why? That’s an extended conversation. 

Obviously since then US living standards have gone up quite a lot! You definitely *cannot* argue that they did not go up since 1962, that is in fact an insane claim. You can't argue they haven't gone up since the 90's either. Even in Japan they have, they definitely have in Europe, economies grow in general. And of course the classic "American companies are all gambling now":

No one invests in a company anymore, in the way it was done in the ‘50s, say, because they believe the company is good. They buy because they think the price of the stock will rise or fall. What this means is that American managers are obliged to manage in the short term. There’s no incentive for an investor to hang on with a company for the long term. In Japan, savings--up to a certain point--are tax free. Why is that not also true in America? You want savings? Then don’t tax it as ordinary income.

I will leave posting a list of the most high-value companies over the past 30 years as an exercise for the reader; you don't need it, you already know them. But I certainly see versions of this dancing around today, and you definitely saw it in 2008 all over the place.

No real skin off Crichton's back, to be clear - prediction is hard, he isn't an economist, most will be wrong. Just funny how the ideological churn keeps spinning.

[agentoffangirling]

Season 1 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is not bad. It really isn't. To both a longtime fan and a complete newcomer to the MCU, it would not be seen as a bad show if they just did more than surface research on it

If you look at the ratings on Rotten Tomatoes for the show overall, it has a 95%. 89% for s1. On IMDB, 7.5/10, with their lowest episode being only 7.1/10. Critics like it, audiences like it

So why is it that it is viewed so negatively by a large majority of Marvel fans? And to that I say: they never stuck around till the end of the season

See, when AoS was coming out, there was massive hype around it. Marketing would have you think that it was some type of Avengers crossover, with people like Tony Stark and Natasha Romanoff showing up every other episode (but hey, this is Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Not Agents of T.H.O.R.)

This is what led to the massive turnout of 11 million viewers for that first episode, but when it turned out to be a show about S.H.I.E.L.D. featuring new people, like it always was supposed to be, people very quickly tuned out

(Even tho, hey, it's a SPY show and you only watched 1 EPISODE. Give it some time)

But most didn't give it time. They wanted to see Hawkeye and Fury and Maria go on adventures that would stand the test of time, fighting Loki and essentially just being mini Avengers, and when that didn't happen, they left. They wrote early reviews claiming that the show didn't meet expectations and wasn't worth the time. You get a very sharp dip from episode 1 bc marketing claimed this was an Avengers show, and people felt that it fell short

Those reviews are what Marvel fanboys use now, without ever watching the show themselves or pointing out that they're literally 11 years old. They bring the idea that the show is boring and lazy, putting aside the fact that basically everything else from it is called innovating and jaw-dropping. They praise the use of THEIR ideas in other Marvel shows, but call it plain in their home territory. They don't bother

So hey, if you're planning on watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., please ignore literally everything those fanboys say. They haven't watched the show, those early reviews couldn't stand watching past episode 2, just ignore them. Trust the fandom when we say that not only is season 1 perfectly fine, it's truly amazing fun, and so many of the plotlines they executed in that season are incredible

Because if we all stopped at season 1, there wouldn't be any shows

[gyuv1nist]

angel

han yujin x reader

whilst school trips were fun, your school decided to ruin it by designating pairs which you HAD to stay with to ensure maximum safety. fun right? it might’ve been if you had at least spoken to your pair once before. which you didn’t….

you were paired up with the school’s notorious heartthrob, han yujin. he wasn’t a player neither did he cater to all the attention he got. he just wanted to have fun with his friends and attempt to survive education. “so, coach rides huh?” he asks, as you stand outside the school waiting for the coach to pull up. the poor boy was terrified of you but refuses to let it ruin the trip especially considering his love for everland. 

you wouldn’t call yourself popular in any way, but you certainly had a friend group which was deemed exclusive by everyone else. the unspoken rule was to never approach your group unless you approach them first, which was utter bullshit which none of you guys have said. but being the shy boy he was- he followed that rule. 

“you aren’t great at starting conversations huh?” you smile, eyes lifting from your phone, looking at the boy standing in front of you. curse that unspoken rule, he’s actually kinda cute? “to be honest, i hate coaches. they have that smell which make me feel like throwing up everything in my system, so excuse me if i don’t talk much once we get on.” 

for whatever reason, his eyes cast to your hands, where he must’ve seen your cute little ring which had angel wings and a gem in the middle which he assumed was your birth stone. “nice ring.”

was he really this awkward at making conversation with people?

“thanks!” your smile widens and you get up, noticing the coach finally arriving. even if it was where the cool kids sat, you absolutely refuse to sit at the back- it was too noisy and made you feel like shit.

by the time he snaps back into reality, he notices you've already gone ahead to enter the coach and he awkwardly jogs ahead of everyone attempting to catch up with you. whilst making small talk, you realise he’s been waiting to go to everland for so long so being the nice person you are, you whip out your phone and made a list of all the rides he wants to go on, which he absolutely adored.  

there was a simple rule which you guys had to follow: stay with your pair until the end or else you’ll have to stick with the teachers for the rest of the trip. you walk through the park, taking in the vibrant colours of the carnival games, the sweet smell of cotton candy, and the bright lights of the ferris wheel. the air is filled with the scent of freshly popped popcorn and the sizzle of hot dogs on the grill. you can feel the cool breeze on your skin, which makes the warm day comfortable and perfect for outdoor activities. 

as you and yujin wait in line for the rollercoaster, your nerves start to get the better of you and on the other hand yujin, who claims he’s usually fearless, seems to be feeling the same way. “i don't know if i can do this," he says, his voice shaking.

“it’s fine! it looks fun.” was it really smart to try to reassure someone when your voice was dripping with anxiety? you both climb into your seats, hearts racing. the coaster slowly climbs up the first hill, and you could swear that the handlebars were going to break from the iron grip you had on them.

you feel the force of the break and the harness loosen and you grab anything that’s in your reach to climb out the seat, still laughing and gasping for breath.

“hey come on! there’s way more we need to get through!” you giggle, grabbing his hand and dragging him to other rides. you weren’t usually so open so quickly, but there was something about yujin which made you feel comfortable, even if half the time he was in his own little world. plus, everything seems more exciting when you have adrenaline surging through your body.

and he was truly in his own little world, he couldn’t shake the fact that he loves how the your hand feels in his and can't help but steal glances at you every once in a while. he finds you adorable, seeing how excited you were lost in your own paradise.

whilst looking up proudly at the ride that was next, you notice he’s relatively quiet. uh oh, you didn’t take it too far with the hand holding did you? i mean, he definitely would’ve let go by now right? you tug on his hand and wave one of yours in his face.

“sorry, what were you saying?" 

“i said let's go on this ride!" you point, pulling yujin towards the entrance. after being dragged like a puppy on a leash several times (with no complaints of course) you both sit on a bench, convinced that you have whiplash from all the rides you just sped through. “hey i think i’m gonna sit the next one out.” you exhale, wanting to sink into the ground. “or, if you want we can go for something calmer.” you suggest, looking around for possible attractions that wouldn’t make you feel like your bones were in a blender.  

“anything you want angel.” pause. 

oh shit, does adrenaline give you rizz as well? 

“wait, oh my god that was not meant to come out no- wait i’m so sorry-.” whilst attempting to keep your own feelings and reactions in check, you look up at him and smile, cheeks tinted pink.

 “it’s completely fine love, i like that nickname.” you grin, hoping that the blush that was rapidly spreading across your cheeks wasn’t too obvious. he reaches both his hands out and you take them willingly, letting him lead you to the next ride. you had no clue as to why you were suddenly so flustered by him, this was the first time you actually had spoken to him properly. 

after walking for a while, he decides to go on a water ride. it seems calm and a lot of families are lining up for it, so it couldn’t be that extreme.

as you glide along the water ride with yujin, you feel the cool mist spraying onto your face and the gentle breeze blowing through your hair.  you can hear the sounds of the water rushing by and the screams of joy from other riders in the distance. the colours of the park seem to blur together as you watch everything move by in a peaceful, dreamlike manner. 

until you look down for a second and notice that your ring was missing. “where the fuck is my ring?” you almost stood up on the ride from the shock, you pat down your pockets and even check inside your shirt. there was no way it fell off, it was tight enough and you most definitely did not take it off on purpose. you look at the boy next to you and realise he’s a bit too stiff and nervous to be innocent.

“yujin, be completely honest with me right now. ” 

“wait, i’m trying to find your ring, i’m sorry to say it’s not in the water.” you raise an eyebrow and cross your arms, eyes straight on his hand which was almost red from how hard he was squeezing it.  

“did you take my ring?” 

and he has the audacity to act surprised, almost insulted at your ‘accusation.’ “angel! how dare you say that about me, i have been nothing but nice to you today.” 

unfortunately, you guys were too busy arguing to realise that the boat had been on a steep incline for a good few seconds. and before you knew it, you were clinging onto yujin’s side, screaming like there was no tomorrow and to make it even worse, a wall of water shoots up into the air and the rules of gravity states that whatever comes up… must come down. 

the wave of water crashes down on you and yujin, drenching you both from head to toe. the force of the splash almost knocks you off your seat, and you could swear it felt like you were drowning for a moment.

“yujin, you better get to the point of this before i push you into this water.”

“okay okay okay, i’ll give you your ring back if you let me take you on a date. it’s okay if you don’t want to i’ll still gi-”

“a date and a new outfit once we get off this ride.” 

-------------------

a/n : woooo yujin done! i feel like this also needs a part 2 tho... but i have been receiving sm love recently and it makes me so happy since i genuinely enjoy writing <333

[spaceorphan18]

Okay. The Kevin and Jenna thing.

Let's talk about it. Mostly, I'm going to repeat a lot of what I said : HERE. After listening to the clip, my thoughts are exactly what they were originally...

I'm going to guess, after the box scene stuff kinda was the straw that broke the camel's back, the producers finally went, hey guys -- we have a lot of unhappy Klaine fans, you need to address this. (And/or - probably and - they did get a lot of email about it.) So, they addressed the Klaine thing.

(As an aside - the transcript, for me, was exactly how I thought they'd sound, and listening to it confirmed it? Just putting that in the fwiw category.)

but anyway, like I said in my original thoughts on the whole thing -- I think I was correct in saying that Kevin and Jenna have been latching on to things they were a part of and they remember and kind of glossing over the rest of it. Layer into that -- they have a strong affection for Naya (and to Cory) who are both no longer with us, and even though we may think that Santana is terrible or Finn makes dumb decisions, that actor/character bleed does happen for them.

And I've always found that fair.

I've said it before, but, I think it's like when Darren decided to rewatch Never Been Kissed -- and he literally ended up fastfowarding through things that weren't related to the Kurt/Blaine story line. And he expressed fondness for Dot, etc, etc, but his memories were about his story line, and that's what he focused on.

And I think that's what Kevin and Jenna are doing, too.

Now, I will ding them with the fact that they are supposed to be being a little more professional about it (Darren was just doing it for fun) but from what I could tell based on my own experiences -- they only have 'x' amount of time in the studio, and just are not organized and proficient in the same way as -- say The Office Ladies or Pod Meets World are. So things are going to get glossed over -- and those things are things they have no emotional attachment to.

I don't think they realized they were doing it -- which is why they are finding it so funny now. I don't think there was any conspiracy behind it. And I don't think it was deliberate. I do think they're going to be ever so slightly asshole-ish about it going forward because they are more aware of it now. But I think everything they said on the podcast kind of goes back to what I said in my original post way back when.

That's my two cents.

(Also, another minor aside nitpick - they claimed that Ryan himself edited the box scene out of the episode which I find unlikely. I think the editor edited out because of time and... that's it. Kind of like they did with Santa Baby. I just think Kevin and Jenna were being salty about being called out on about a beloved deleted scene and wanted to dig in their heels a little there. But again, they weren't there on the fandom side, and they don't know.)

Alright I'll shut up now.

[dalekofchaos]

The downfall of Emilie Autumn, was just sad

I honestly gotta say that Emilie Autumn was my life. From 2010-2020. She was my world. She was my goddess. I was at my lowest point when I found her music and she uplifted me throughout my terrible depression. I even got into her Asylum Facebook group, I got my Plague Rat #W25Z got a lot of interactions with Emilie in the group and got this lovely email from Emilie.

Then in 2020 I found out she was a racist, was using BLM to make money off of it and was silencing black and POC voices on her instagram and then the Asylum facebook group just stopped altogether. No one got to comment and no one could use their voices.

Never meet your heroes 😔 but the good that came out of all the drama is I got some really good friends out of the plague rats I did meet.

I stopped caring for Emilie Autumn after the incidents, if you don't know what I mean, read this masterpost and this post of her old controversies.

But this comment on reddit sums up why her career never went anywhere.

"Whatsup with Emilie these days?

So i was a fan in high school but she literally stopped producing and performing after fight like a girl i assume? I know she played in a horror movie but what does she do now for a living and im suprised she didn't became a bigger artist during the years"

"Uuh. Where to start...The movies flopped ("The Devil's Carnival"), partly because of development hell that delayed production of the second movie for years and the hype died down, partly because the concept was great but the movies were... not that good. She was best buds with the director for a few years around the time they were released; like many of her friends over the years, he seems to have disappeared from her life since then (more on that later). But she did start a relationship with her co-star Marc Senter; they're still together and seemingly happy.

The projected Asylum Musical (that she was originally planning to premiere in 2014, lol - she's been talking about it for over a decade...) has yet to come to fruition. She moved to NYC in large part for this purpose (to be closer to Broadway). She hired a voice coach and started taking ballet lessons to prep for playing her own role. She went through a period of making wild casting announcement of the Famous Friends she'd met through "Devil's Carnival" - like Adam Pascal as Dr Stockhill (unclear whether this was just for fun / a favor for his co-star at the movie premiere, or if he was actually interested in the role), or Ted "Jesus Christ Superstar" Neeley as Sir Edwards (hilarious). But now it's 2023, she appears/claims to still be composing and writing the score and even altering some character names (we'll get to that), all the supportive Famous Friends seem to have vanished, and we seem nowhere closer to an actual Asylum Musical on this plane of existence.

But hey, it's the entertainment industry - many people try to get a shot at making their dream musical a reality, and fail. C'est la vie - maybe she just got unlucky, right? Well... maybe so, but other elements suggest that it's something other than just shit luck. First of all, EA does not appear to understand how Broadway works, or that it applies to her too. None of her projected timelines ever made sense. She "doesn't want" (couldn't get) outside investors, so she's planning on financing it all herself (BUT HOW??? oh, nevermind, we'll get to that too). SHe also seems insistent on debuting on Broadway, and nowhere else - no off-Broadway or local theaters for this gal! Nevermind the fact that she's got zero professional experience writing, directing or producing a musical, and that no Broadway professional in their right mind would ever give a slot to a niche musical by a basically-unknown indie artist.

In general, she seems reluctant to work with other people or meet their expectations... which is a problem for such a project. For instance, the closest we got to an "actual" production announcement was that a theater school was going to workshop Emilie Autumn's "Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls" next semester. IIRC, she promoted this and said she was excited. And then... nothing. No news for weeks. When people went back to the school's website, the announcement had been completely removed. And that was that. What on Earth happened, that the school didn't even want to publicly acknowledge this change of plans? Methinks they realized that they had been misled (ie the musical was not finished), or there was a MASSIVE conflict with Emilie that led to the workshop falling through.

Then, there's the gradual vanishing of everyone who had originally let her (in earnest or as a joke, we'll never know) attach their sometimes Very Famous names to her Very Obscure and Unfinished Project. And that includes... Veronica Varlow! Yeah, you read that right. Even though they now live in the same city, they haven't talked in years and don't follow each other on IG. It must have been something big, because some time ago, EA made a very unsubtle announcement about changing the name "Veronica" (the Asylum character who became Emily's tragic lesbian lover in the 87459th reworking of the story) to "Charlotte" because "I have been told that Veronica sounds anachronistic in Victorian England" (sure hun, if you say so). I still wonder whether it was EA writing her ex-BFF out of her life in a ridiculously dramatic way, or whether it was VeVa who asked EA to keep her name out of her mouth... and her script.

So yeah. She's not friends anymore with any of the people you remember from being a fan in high school. She's living in NYC, and pretending there's a musical in the works. She's also been making visual art for a couple years. Personally, I really like her mixed-media art with medical supplies - I think it's some of her most interesting work in years, better than the last two albums. But then, recently, she, uh... tried something else. I'll just let you search this sub for "AI" because I still can't wrap my head around What the Fuck She Was Thinking and it's exhausting to even recount.

tl;dr - She never became a bigger artist because she's been stuck on the same stale, unrealistic project for 10+ years, because she stopped touring and releasing new music, and because she's seemingly alienated all of her friends and industry connexions... as well as most of her ever-shrinking fanbase. A real shame all around."

[theminecraftbee]

17 & 29?

17. What’s something you’ve learned about while doing research for a fic?

i think the funniest one is the time i posted stuffed bird and like, okay, i did a bunch of research into how to hotwire a car. fun fact: you can't hotwire modern cars physically the way you see in movies but there ARE tools to do it via the diagnostics ports in the car. as i showed in the fic. anyway. and my friend who works at a car dealership then messages me afterwards to go "yeah we don't keep our keys in a safe" and i go "WHAT" because look, i didn't think i had to research that,

29. Share a bit from a fic you’ll never post OR from a scene that was cut from an already posted fic.

oh lets role the wheel of google docs... oh hey want to look at some sailor moon i considered writing as a pinch hit for an exchange before someone else claimed it so i didn't? (under the cut because it's a bit long.)

When the pregnancy test comes back positive, Usagi doesn’t tell anyone but Mamoru. They stand together in the apartment they’re renting together on his doctor’s wages and her job as a kitchen manager and that he’s never home in and that she struggles to keep clean and stare at the little line that says she’s pregnant.

“This is a good thing,” Mamoru says.

“Yeah,” Usagi says. “Yeah, it’s a good thing. A miracle,” she says. “Are you—are you sure?”

“It’s your choice,” Mamoru says.

“We knew it would be in my twenties,” Usagi says. She had turned twenty three weeks ago. She missed her period officially about two days ago. She took the test today. She’s on birth control, she’d told herself. She’s on birth control. She’s not good about remembering to take it, which means it doesn’t work, but they’d used a condom, too. It’s nothing to worry about. Forgetting to take the pill regularly had just fucked up her hormone levels.

The pregnancy test showed positive in their little messy bathroom today.

“It’s your choice,” Mamoru says, gently. “You don’t know it’s her. Not yet. It’s not anyone yet.”

Usagi’s hands shake. “No, you don’t understand. I know,” she says. “Sometimes, Mamoru, you just—you just know things. Or, maybe you don’t. I do. I don’t talk about it, but sometimes, I look at the sky, and I—”

“Okay,” Mamoru says.

“Okay,” Usagi says.

“We should still wait to tell anyone,” Mamoru says.

“You worry too much since you started working in the trauma ward,” Usagi says. “I know it’s her. I’ll—”

“Not until we have a date,” Mamoru says. “Not until then. If it’s not, it would be cruel, if…”

“Okay. You’re right” Usagi says.

“A miracle,” says Mamoru.

“We always knew she would be,” agrees Usagi, and she looks out the window. It is sunny. The weather is normal. Cars drive past outside, even at the late hour, and it feels like every other day they’ve had waiting for the end of the world. It’s just everything is much, much closer now. A little line on white paper tells her so. So she doesn’t tell anyone but Mamoru. Not yet. It would be cruel if it wasn’t. You understand.

[marshm3llow-fluff]

Im back! Took a small break!

Took a bit of a break because my mum made us go to Barcelona which is great- don't get me wrong I know not everyone gets to go fly to places like Barcelona(or anywhere at all for the holidays) but I think I've gained at least 5lb in a week.

I feel like I'm exaggerating but school starts next week so I'm stressed, my mum makes us go to restaurants every day and is always overordering, we have a lot of food stocked up in our room and I have drunk so much fucking boba I will dive into a volcano istg 😭

Also!! I have gotten a HUGE wake-up call today! I went to random alternative shops because- hey! I'm in a big city and Scotland has like zero good places to get non-basic clothing >:| And I went to small places I found on Google as well as a huge Urban Outfitters!

OK, first location: Urban Outfitters

I enter and I already know to expect high prices so I first go to the sale isle, but obviously, everything was either too small or had open shoulders(my skin is fugly so until I lose weight or get a lightweight cardigan- those are a NO😭💔). So I went around and OMFG I felt SO INSECURE, there were so many skinny girls with attitudes🙃 and 'omg! Shocker!' A huge alt-fashion brand has no large sizes surprise surprise|:/ it was a disaster, especially adding the fact that my mum splurged most of our money on food- still encouraging me to go to a place she knew wasn't cheap and then getting upset when I questioned her abt it when she said I can't buy anything :) she knows there is shit I want to buy from there and I think she legitimately just wants to see me get sad sometimes.

Second location: Place I Forgot the Name Of

Entered immediately- you could tell everything was a bit overpriced but it was whatever because I warned my mother beforehand so she couldn't complain :) I found a hoodie! It was striped and it did have a bit of an ugly zipper but It's fine personally, it fits but it's basically saran wrapped around my body and my stomach is so fucking visible(I died inside when I looked in the mirror)but I had heatstroke confidence when I bought it so.....

Third location: Madame Chocolat (I think)

All of the outfits were really pretty, more of a cutesy-Sanrio-lolita kind of place but I liked it nonetheless, my only issue was that I looked ugly in whatever there was and my mum being the bitch that she is kept on going: 'Oh but will you really wear that?'. She claims she says that because I never wear half the things I buy but the reason don't wear half the things I buy is because she makes fun of me and giggles when she looks at me :(

Also due to the weather I sweat like a pig.

[ninjadeathblade]

Moulin Rouge Discotrain AU (part thirty one)

Summary: (Post-game canon) The Conductor and DJ Grooves agree to finally work on a movie together. They come up with 'Moulin Rouge', a musical drama filled with romance. Over time the two directors grow closer and discover that maybe they don't hate each other as much.

Beginning | Previous | Next

Word count: 1,179

Warnings: Snatcher says half an actual swear *gasp* (don't blame him though, in context there is reason for it)

Author's notes: Games night is here. Fun fact: don't trust Snatcher to play Monopoly. He does cheat, despite his claims. Anyway, enjoy!

Grooves let out a sigh, staring at the finally clear guest room and the hallway outside of it, which was now cluttered with boxes.

“You didn't have to help,” Grooves commented to Conductor as the owl walked past into the guest room.

“I did.” Conductor shrugged, beginning to make the bed.

“No, no, don't-”

“No. I will. You should sit down and rest. You've been cleaning this place since way too pecking early this morning,” Conductor interrupted, walking back over to Grooves and putting a hand on the penguin's chest. “Take a break.”

“Run away with us for the summer, let's go upstate…?” Grooves joked and Conductor shook his head gently at the Hamilton reference.

“You'll never let me live down my musical past, will you?” Conductor chuckled, pressing a quick kiss to Grooves' cheek before he went back over to the bed.

“Never.”

“At least sit down while you do then.” Conductor threw a pillow in his direction.

Grooves caught it, walking back through to the living room.

“That, I can do,” he called back to the owl, lying down on the sofa.

It felt like only a few minutes when there was a knock on the door.

“Grooves, I'm sure your nap was nice but you should probably wake up,” Conductor teased as the penguin opened his eyes, staring around the bleary room.

Conductor passed him his glasses before heading over to the door. “You said you sleep without them.”

“How long have I been out?” Grooves questioned, getting up and following his partner once he'd put his glasses on.

“Only a couple hours,” Conductor answered. “But you needed it.”

He opened the door, staring up at their guests. “Hey.”

“Hi!” Empress and Snatcher walked through the door.

The two of them almost matched; Snatcher in a dark purple hoodie and Empress in a dark purple version of her previous coat.

However, Snatcher looked incredibly different to before.

His right eye was a light blue, matching coloured scars striking across the right side of his body like bolts of lightning. A couple streaks of the same blue tainted his dark curls.

“What happened to yer?” Conductor asked the ghost bluntly.

Grooves subtly jabbed the owl in the side, hoping he would take a hint.

“Just a little accident. Nothing serious,” Snatcher bluffed, laughing nervously.

“No, that's very clearly not-”Grooves elbowed Conductor in the ribs. The owl frowned at him but stayed quiet.

“Let's just play some games,” Empress stated, carrying boxes of games through to the living room, Snatcher close on her heels.

“What was that for?” Conductor hissed.

“He clearly doesn't want to talk about whatever it is,” Grooves whispered, concerned gaze following the ghost's retreating figure.

“Sweet apartment,” Empress stated.

Grooves looked back at Conductor, gaze imploring him not to ask further questions.

“Fine. But you owe me one,” Conductor grumbled, walking into the living room.

Something made a crashing noise. “Oops.”

“You better pay for that!”

“Okay, okay! I will!”

“You cheated! You shouldn't have had enough money to afford that!” Empress accused, glaring at Snatcher. The ghost shrugged as he looked at the Monopoly board.

“I have no idea what you're talking about,” Snatcher said, voice lilting slightly.

Grooves put a flipper around Conductor as the owl curled up against his side.

“I feel like we should've chosen a less competitive game,” Conductor laughed quietly. “I did say about Scrabble.”

“Diamond, I hate to tell you, but Scrabble is also a competitive game,” Grooves replied.

“Not if yer smart. Then it becomes a game where you always win and no one else beats you.”

Grooves chuckled, pressing a quick kiss to the owl's head. “We'll have to play some time soon. I'm sure I can give you a run for your money.”

“Empress is a sore loser!” Snatcher announced, picking up the cat's money and throwing it in the air.

"No, I'm not! You're just a lying cheater!” Empress growled, pushing the ghost onto the floor. “I want to play something else!”

“Sore loser!” Snatcher repeated, earning a swipe at his face.

“Cheat!”

“Loser!”

Empress and Snatcher began playfully taking shots at each other.

“I’ll go check what other games we've got,” Conductor sighed, standing up.

The owl pressed a quick kiss to Grooves' cheek. “Be back soon, love.”

Grooves smiled at him before returning his attention to their friends.

Empress and Snatcher wore matching smirks, even with the cat holding the ghost in a headlock.

“Go on then Grooves. Spill the details,” Empress prompted.

“You two are older than me, how are you so childish?” Grooves questioned.

“You've got to have some fun after dying!” and “You're childish!” mixed together.

Empress let go of Snatcher, ruffling his hair before leaning back against the sofa.

“So…?”

“So what?”

“So, what's it like now you two are dating?!” Snatcher all but shouted.

Grooves mulled over the question.

“Not that different to before actually. We're more affectionate and have nicknames for each other but that's about it. Not that much has changed,” he mumbled, face heating at the way his feathers ruffled as he spoke.

“That's it?!”

“It's none of yer business,” Conductor stated, walking back into the room with a stack of boxes. “Now pick another game.”

“Oooh, oooh, oooh! We should play truth or dare!” Snatcher suggested, looping an arm behind Empress' shoulders. “C'mon Empress! Tell them how fun it is!”

“He's right, we should play truth or dare,” Empress agreed.

"Empress, truth or dare?” Conductor suddenly asked, putting the boxes down and leaning into Grooves.

“You know what? Truth.”

“How did you get your scar?”

“Dare.”

“Tell us how you got your scar,” he pressed.

The cat scowled.

“I did it myself. I had to look like I could command respect,” Empress admitted, paws fidgeting in the lap.

Snatcher wrapped an arm around her shoulders, glaring at the owl.

“Truth or dare, peck neck?” He spat.

“Dare.”

“Stop being such a di-!”

“Hey, no, there isn't any need for that,” Empress said quietly, shrugging Snatcher away.

Snatcher let out a huff of air. “Fine. Tell us what was the first musical you did.”

“Newsies,” Conductor answered.

“Shut up you liar. The first musical you did was Cinderella,” Empress scoffed, tail winding round Snatcher's back. “Grooves, truth or dare?”

The penguin's face screwed up slightly as he tried to decide. “Umm. Truth…?”

“You didn't sound too sure. But fine. You've seen The Conductor in musicals. Which was your favourite performance of his?” Empress questioned.

Grooves felt flustered as his three friends looked expectantly at him.

“It's hard to choose just one,” he mumbled, hoping to take attention off of him.

“My turn, I pick dare,” Snatcher exclaimed, drumming his hands on his lap and continuing to look at Grooves.

Grooves shrugged, uncertain of what to say.

Conductor stepped in for him. “Don't hug Empress for the rest of the evening.”

The ghost looked appalled, mouth hanging open.

He slowly obliged, shuffling away from Empress.

“I'm sick of this game,” Snatcher pouted, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Let's play something else.”

[susansontag]

It's really not that hard to understand that their whole thing with hp and jk is the fact that the game is a turning point in letting jk get away with her views and funding of anti trans laws in the uk. She has her hands IN what gets passed there and the lgbt community sought to use her game as a lesson that you can't get away with being a racist antisemitic transphobe anymore. Unfortunately no one wants to listen to the community, because no one wants to stop and think "Hey how is this impacting my friends or youth today? What would it mean to them if we did this for them?"

And if you stopped to think you'd realize that if this had been a successful boycott, it would've been a very good opening for the lgbt community to direct our attention to important matters like the anti trans and anti abortion laws being passed in the u.s and the anti trans laws being passed in the uk.

People think they aren't fighting for other things or that they're hypocrites for only caring about hp when in reality you are treating the lgbt community like a hive mind. HP is big therefore people think it's the only thing the community cares about but it's not. You don't care about them from how dismissive you immediately are so you don't see that there are trans people fleeing states or countries because there has never been a safe place for them to exist.

All these laws have brought out the worst in people towards the lgbt community and boycotting a simple badly made video game is the easiest thing they could've asked us to do instead of telling us literally anything else that is a worry atm. It could've been a lesson to transphobes and antisemitic people that you can't be a visibly shit person anymore and get away with it but unfortunately no one cares enough to use some critical thinking skills and realize that one of the biggest ip's in the world being used as an example would've been the fastest but also the biggest way to push back on the sudden vocal hatred going on towards poc, jewish communities, and lgbt people.

I don't expect you to answer this in fact I'm sure you'll make fun of this ask but have a little empathy in your life instead of calling lgbt people (who again aren't the only ones condemning jk) hypocrites for not boycotting everything in their lives when you know it's not realistic and they know it's not realistic to ask you of this. It's why they chose hp. Because it was the easiest ask of the century and even that was too much to ask of everyone.

indeed, the lgbt community are not a hive mind (I have never claimed this), hence my disagreeing with you. boycotting the harry potter game would not get a message out about anything and isn't effective activism anyway. you just don't know what you're talking about so it is genuinely hard to get through to you and people who speak like you do... I know that's harsh, but you blatantly conflate uk debates about trans healthcare and women's spaces with us debates surrounding it, despite their being two different countries with different political balances of power having in some cases significantly different discussions. do you even know the details of these 'anti trans laws' you discuss? have you even skimmed any of the reports regarding trans healthcare, for example the cass review submitted to the nhs in the uk? do you even know the content of these debates?

trans people likely are fleeing certain countries, but they certainly have no reason to flee the united kingdom. this is an incredibly safe country for trans people; so safe, in fact, that any trans refugees should probably consider fleeing to here. there absolutely are safe places for trans people to exist and it's exceptionally irresponsible and alarmist to go around claiming otherwise

you seem very convinced that boycotting a video game will actually alter structural racism in some way, and well. I'm not even going to engage with that one, sorry. I do not need more empathy. people like you need to 'educate yourself' on issues you claim to be authorities on, because the careful consideration, the mindful debate, the baseline knowledge? it all seems incredibly lacking in people writing these strongly worded posts on social media websites

[bourbon-ontherocks]

hi 👀 306 was last week but I still wanted to address a couple of things… mainly roxane’s last scene, ouch, she deserved a better exit than parroting the writers’ memo on [gros canard]’s failings 😩 c’est faible. feels like they should’ve axed the scene (it was clear enough they���d break up, anyway) and simply confirmed she left with the voicemail about her sister dropping off the keys. (btw--did we know she had a sister before you mentioned that detail in fic, or was it another of your predictions??)

big fan of the attic scene though, and daphné & [gros canard]’s synchronized "gilles 🙄😵" lol. plot-wise, however, I’d like to know who would put multiple acid tablets in a bottle they’re not drinking, because 1) big waste of money for a student population, 2) it’s probably not the most efficient way to take lsd (les résidus au fond de la bouteille !!!), 3) que fait le bde ? shouldn’t they at least pretend to care about safety when there’s a party in the dorms?

and I’ll admit it was kinda fun to see [gros canard] using his ~"just broke up" privileges to dunk on morgane’s relationship history. the guy woke up and chose violence 😭😂😭 ça va qu’elle le prend bien…

bref. that’s all for me on this one!! brb ✌️

Oh hi anon, it's so good to see you back!! 😘

I tend to disagree with you re Roxane's break-up scene, because let's remember that we are obsessed. We can list all of Adam's misdemeanors in the blink of an eye. The casual viewer can't. So this last fact in itself justifies Roxane's monologue reminding us what a terrible boyfriend he's been. And also, even though it all wasn't fresh news for me, I must say I appreciated hearing them all together and I appreciated even more Adam having all of this said to his face. And Roxane's conclusion "Et tu penses que ça fait de toi un type bien" poooooooow elle tire à balles réelles et ça fait du bien !!!! So yea basically I loved that scene because he deserved it. Period. 😂

And yes, Roxane mentioned her sister in 206!!! ("et pour l'anniversaire de ma soeur, tu as pu te libérer ?" while Adam is cursing Morgane for not capping the ketchup bottle) Now did I mention her sister in PQENCEL, well I'm afraid that's another occurrence of Local HPI anon knows my own fic better than I do lol!

(oh wait no, I mentioned her in the 303 fic, didn't I?)

The attic scene was funny-ish, granted, but it's entirely thanks to Gilles' inability to correctly answer multiple-choice questions! Ok full disclaimer, I'm kinda meh about this episode, I don't understand why so many people, cast members included, claim that it's the season's best, but also I must say that for me, the episode is completely doomed because of some infuriating stuff that happens in the finale 😭

Agreed that there's some very generous dealers on this campus, last time I checked open bars didn't include full bottles of LSD, but hey what do I know, my student years are far behind (also BDEs have never been worried about safety, come on 😅)(but this makes me think of the Palmashow's HPI spinoff "BDE" lol I bet it would have made this ep more interesting)

(speaking of the Palmashow parody, Morgane finding the victim's daughter behind the screen that *happened to be here* reminded me so much of fake Morgane finding the killer behind the curtain lol)

"the guy woke up and chose violence 😭😂😭 ça va qu’elle le prend bien…" -> true, perhaps it was a bit harsh to tell her that, but honestly the return of the flirty bickering felt so refreshing!!!! 😍 And I'd dare to think that maybe that's also the reason she takes it well while she has all the reasons to be hurt by him reminding her that she always gets dumped, because he's FINALLY risking a joke at her after all those weeks of silent treatment and closed face and angry looks, my boy is making amends and holding a timid Olive branch and she couldn't be more relieved....

... which makes the three months window proposal absolutely frustrating!!! I *hated* this part (I mean, before I watched the finale and understood what hating an episode's ending really meant lol *crying laughter*), because even though Adam needs some time to heal (understandable), and is a total control freak who shows up early on dates and probably needs to know his schedule six months in advance, this is like peak non-romance. Where's the passion? The spontaneity? I'd have accepted this scene if we'd seen him showing up at Morgane's door barely a week later and telling her that he, in fact, cannot wait, but this... UGH!

My theory is that he wanted to wait long enough to be sure about his feelings for Morgane (which would explain why he's so enthusiastic to date her in the next ep, unless he's that dtf haha), make sure it wasn't a phase or a fantasy due to being stuck in a relationship, and that's probably the only theory I can accept because it's vaguely romantic at least, and also I need to believe that his feelings are real, which is something that tends to be hinted at in 307-308 imo, so there's that consistency at least...

Speaking of consistency!!! I know I'm just hurting myself at this point but I wanted to make a quick check on the timeline... Surprisingly the show actually manages to speak the truth, Timothée did spend 4 months with the team (he arrived in the summer, two months later around September/October - remember that the months were mixed up in 303-304 - he starts dating Morgane for two months, and here we are!). So WHY would they instantly ruin that effort with the most random line this show's ever delivered:

"Et bah moi, je me suis séparée de Ludo il y a neuf mois..."

GIRRRRRRRRL, you spent two months on a couch after your breakup. Then, admitting that 205 to 208 happened in like a week which is in itself a ridiculous assumption, you left the PJ for six months. And here we are, four months later, as dutifully reminded by Timothée. And I didn't even extrapolate here, I just took point blank the elements that the show gave me.

2 + 6 + 4 = TWELVE FUCKING MONTHS BARE MINIMUM. Was it that hard to follow up? Jesus Christ.

And since I'm on the inconsistency chapter, the way TIBER is written on Morgane and Adam's wrists suggests that it's Morgane who was holding the pen because of the letters' orientation, but in this case she wrote on her left wrist. While she's left-handed. Too bad, huh?

Other honorable mentions include:

Adam playing a Columbo bit on the university's dean re the silver scalpel

"C'est doux en fait. On dirait du mouton" -> this one goes straight in the top ten show's best lines 🤣🤣🤣

The LSD trip scene being WAY too sexual, this is pornography 😆

I know it's fleeting and not properly framed, but did you see the only interesting part of that re-doing the house montage in the end? THIS:

No I will not accept any other theory, this is the handprint. I will justify it further with this shot from 304:

While the handprint is not visible, probably due to the light and filming angle, it's the same spot as above, which ties in with where Morgane landed in the dance scene, and also it's interesting to note that she put a little candle in front of it 🕯️🥹

[dream-critical]

"He's the owner of a server, he failed to implement a working system for communication." GOD FINALLY someone gets it oh my god. The way Eret talks about the lore discord working behind the scenes is NOT normal or particularly helpful! She said back in last November that the discord has a lore channel that goes inactive most of the time because people plan lore exclusively in DMs and don't share it, that canon is decided largely by SBI, Discduo, Bench Trio, and anyone who tops 100k viewers on a stream even if smaller ccs have established lore they've done for longer that contradicts how things work. Like yes getting 40 people to do the things without issues is like wrangling cats but FUCK man a 40 person RP where people just add other people's characters into backstory without their knowledge let alone consent is NOT cool and Dream was! The server owner! And the guy with the biggest audience! And what he did was NOT management at ALL since that never rlly seemed to resolve???

Eret post source link becos I am citing my claims: https://theeretblr.tumblr.com/post/666861191443939329/hey-apologies-if-this-is-rude-or-invasive-but

EXACTLY anon! 

like yes, the finale happened but we can still criticize dreams' ability to fuck up stuff. I hate the fact that smaller ccs will try to build up good lore but no one takes it seriously bc they don’t have a big enough audience. Other ccs will straight up ignore them, contradict them, ruin their storylines, etc for fun or bc they simply don’t care enough to ask. 

Like Ponk, Hannah, Eret, etc. Or like the egg stuff! The Eggpire arc was genuinely so cool but bigger ccs just didn’t participate in it much.   You could argue that at the start, stuff wasn’t scripted so it would’ve been hard to adapt to that for dream, especially with the number of people on the smp. But like guess what! He’s the one that added that many people, it’s his fault. If he couldn’t handle it he should’ve not added more people to the smp every time he felt like it was dying or when he got himself into another controversy to distract the stans.

As the admin, as the owner of the server, as the owner of the discord server as well, he is responsible for that stuff. He could’ve asked for help and asked if others had more experience with stuff like this. He could have discussed this with the members of the smp to see what kind of system would work the best. Hell, he could’ve fucking, dmed people like Grian or MumboJumbo and asked them how they plan lore in the smps they are in. 

But he didn’t. He brought himself into that situation, he could’ve easily asked for help, and it was an easy thing to fix. Whether it’s an ego thing, an anxiety thing, or if he just could not be bothered to put in the effort, idk. What I do know is that pushing the blame on the smaller ccs that have been ignored by others is just weird.

Dream isn’t an uwu perfect cinnamon roll and he is a grown-ass man that should own up to his own mistakes sometimes. He does not need to be babied and he deserves the criticism he gets. 

TLDR bc I just ended up ranting a bit (sorry anon!) I completely agree with you. Also thank you for putting that link at the end! It was very nice of you to do so! While I did know the post itself it was nice to not have to scroll through tumblr to find it :D

[frary-us]

Despite its initial promising start, Belgravia: The Next Chapter has become something of a muddle, crammed with what feels like a half dozen subplots that don't get the depth they deserve and a narrative that's all too content to use Frederick's abundant (and annoying) Daddy Issues to as the crutch that propels its larger story forward. Thanks to a bloated midsection that seemed content to retread many of the same narrative beats 

— we get it Frederick blames James for all his problems and doesn't trust his wife —the series' final episodes had to rush things in a way that, while fun to watch play out, did a real disservice to the more significant stories of these characters. (Beyond the fact that he is gay, a vicar, and determinedly loves the brother who loathes him, it's safe to say we know almost nothing about James Trenchard.) 

After the dramatic events of last week's episode, which felt like it had roughly four hours of plot crammed into one, the Next Chapter finale has surprisingly fallout. Sure, most of the show's outstanding plot points are wrapped up (shockingly) neatly, but two-thirds of the big, highly anticipated moments take place offscreen. We hear about them afterward, and, as a result, this finale feels more like a book report than anything else. (Which isn't what anyone would call compelling television.) 

There's a tremendous amount of telling instead of showing, as though the show itself assumes its audience already knows everything generally turned out alright in the end, and the finale needs to run down a quick list of how each of those events happened. Almost everyone gets a happy — or at least a satisfactory — ending, but none feels terribly earned. And it's because we don't see any of the emotional work or growth the show claims has been going on behind the scenes. 

......Anyway, Frederick cures his daddy issues by meeting his actual father. Enright's secret letter-writing campaign was to the primarily villainous Bellasis all along. When Enright learns Bellasis is dying, he goes straight to James, and the pair of them convince Frederick that he should meet the father he never knew to get the chance to say goodbye. Frederick does, and Bellasis (in keeping with the episode's apparent theme) says things about being sorry and loving him from a distance, none of which are borne out by behavior he has exhibited in this series or the original Belgravia. But hey, he's dying, so I guess we're meant to be forgiving. (However, he doesn't miss the chance to tell James he's pretty sure he's illegitimate, so at least that tracks.)  

On the plus side, the visit to Bellasis prompts Frederick to finally reevaluate his relationship with his brother, who is still Literally the Best Person in the World. The Next Chapter still skims briskly past their reconciliation; given how fervently Frederick has spent most of this series hating James for made-up reasons or things behind his control, it would have been nice to see something more than the younger Trenchard gracefully being the bigger person for the fifth time. But I guess we can't have everything. 

.....Lots of things happened between the penultimate episode and the finale, including James' recovery from being nearly beaten to death. I guess his blackmailer took all those threats from Fletcher to heart because the good vicar no longer seems afraid of having his sexuality outed to his parishioners. He also let Emily down easy, telling her he is "married to the church" but insisting if he wasn't, boy, he'd sure consider marrying her! (James dodged a bullet here, no matter how unintentionally hilarious his non-breakup breakup speech is.) 

Frederick inherited money from Bellasis but gave it to his brother to distribute to the poor. (Again, the idea that Belgravia decided this character growth is something the audience didn't need to see boggles the mind!) Ellerby got over Clara with a blessed quickness and married his hometown girlfriend, Nell. The pair built a sweet memorial for their lost child, naturally painted by his Bohemian friends.......

[nalyra-dreaming]

Hi again. Just to clarify, I have no problem at all with you talking about the later books or answering questions honestly when asked. As I said, spoilers are no longer in effect because the books have been out for 40 years and I think anyone who comes on your blog is well aware that you talk about the entirety of the VC.

My issue is with the way Loumand shippers are constantly mocked and ridiculed for feeling the way they do about these characters when that's the way the story purposefully frames it.

Lestat is the villain of IWTV, both in the book and the show. In fact, I would argue that the show gives him a much more nuanced portrayal than the first book does. That's because IWTV is Louis's story and regardless of what he claims, that's how he portrays their relationship Lestat was the big bad vampire who seduced him to the dark side, and he was just the helpless victim/accomplice.

Obviously, we both know it's much more nuanced than that and the show does give many clues that Louis is full of shit and glossing over many details, either on purpose or because he simply forgot.

But It's not stupid or unreasonable for non-book readers to dislike Lestat and prefer Armand because again, that is how the story frames it. Show fans are simply making what is a very logical conclusion based on the information the show has provided so far.

These little snide comments about oh Loumand truther will cry and hahaha they are stupid and don't understand the real story and we are so superior because we've read the books feel very gatekeepy and unnecessary. I'm not implying you say that btw, just that you seem to agree with the anons who do.

But that's just my opinion and you can feel free to disagree.

Hey,

thank you for clarifying.

I... want to point out what I actually say:

I did point out earlier, that for show-only fans it is only logical they'd hate Lestat. And I agreed that "subverting the expectation" is likely the whole point.

At no point did I make fun of anons who come to me in all seriousness and asks.

I have had anons who ranted at me, and yelled at me, and yes, I did throw the blender gif into those answers at times.

I try to be very respectful of asks. Sometimes I may fail, I'm only human.

But I never negated the fact that with season 1 a few assumptions may be logical. You say I seem to agree though... with what.

"oh Loumand truther will cry and hahaha they are stupid and don't understand the real story and we are so superior because we've read the books"

With this? Have any of my replies really given off that vibe? Because then I would ask you to go through my asks, and find all those where I explain again and again stuff to those asking.

And if you do that please also take careful note to what I actually agree in asks, or what I address.

...

Look. I think this has hit a nerve?

And I'm sorry if it has. But the backlash on SAM this season also makes some coming from the books a bit nervous re next season, as @cbrownjc addressed earlier as well. Because... when that change comes? That whiplash change? When Armand is not who they think he is? And does the stuff he does in the books?... I REALLY DON'T WANT THEM TO HATE ON ASSAD!!!!

AND THE LAST MONTHS HAVE BEEN NOTHING BUT A SHITSHOW IN REGARDS TO HATE AFTER EPISODE 5 - CAN YOU HONESTLY TELL ME THAT ANOTHER EPISODE 5, WHERE ARMAND CUTS OFF CLAUDIA'S HEAD, WILL HAVE ANY OTHER OUTCOME.

Because I think if they go there it will be mayhem. And that is only one of the things Armand does.

...

sorry for yelling.

I joke about the mayhem, and about preparing ourselves, but it's actually no joke.

And so I will reply, with what I know, respectfully and hopefully kind, to asks - but I won't hide the truth that their take might be wrong.

If I am asked.