#i would also accept Kale

[gatheringbones]

Do you have any thoughts or advice for starting to unlearn fear/shame around writing? Iirc I've seen you talk about it here before but it was a while ago and i cant track it down. Would also be interested in reading recs related to this if you have any. I hope you're having a good day :)

treat the writing injury like it’s really happening and write your way out of it.

start and end your writing session with direct dialogue with your injury— ask questions. What comes up emotionally and physically when you write? What expectations arise and what pressures do they exert? Why does it feel like “stop writing until your ideas are good enough to exist” is the only acceptable response to these pressures? what stakes does your self-hater have in getting you to stop writing? what stakes does your inner homophobe have in getting you to stop writing, or failing that, to only write that which pleases and reassures it?

writers to consider: dorothy allison, Melissa febos, mattilda bernstein sycamore, kale tempest

[babsvibes]

To see your fortune, keep reading. Thank you @drawthething for the perfect spooky cute graphic, and happy halloween!

The Jack-O’-Lentil Burger

Lemme see, gimme your hand, come on come on. Oh. Oh wooow, yeah I’m getting some big energy here. Huge. It’s saying… you want an ice cream sundae with lots of chocolate sauce and nuts on the side. Or wait, maybe I’m just hungry. Or wait! Maybe not. This could be a sign that you should look for the sweeter things in life. Do it on purpose! Say “I’m gonna be sweet to me” … no go on say it. “I’m gonna be sweet!” There you go, there they are. Hey maybe you can find a bunch of trick-or-treaters and swipe a candy or two, haha! Just kidding… To enjoy the sweeter things in life, reblog fanart you enjoy with something nice in the tags!

If Looks Could Kale Burger

And that’s when I tell Ginger “hey, who’s the one driving this mustard on wheels” and she goes- huh? Ohhh, right right, the fortune thing, right. You should, uh, avoid dark tunnels and also take an umbrella. For the dark tunnel. Wait no don’t go in the dark tunnel. Wait, let me see your hand again. To always have an umbrella if you need one or don’t, find one of your favorite posts and reblog it again!

Beets of Burden Burger

Oh! Ah, nuts. You, uh, might not like this one. You’re going to lose something soon. It's not the end of the world, but it’s not fun either. Like, oh, one time I lost Gene’s favorite nickel. That was a rough two weeks. He couldn’t even be bribed with special crackers! Sorry, hon. To find your lost item or Gene’s favorite nickel, spend three minutes with a project you’re working on!

Texas Chainsaw Mass-Curd Burger

Look at you, so pretty, such a lovely face. And your hands! Oh, I’d kill for these hands. Not that I would, no I wouldn’t… maaaybee :) Okay, let’s see. Oooo I love it, you’re going to get good news soon! Maybe from me because I won’t steal your hands? Probably not, but there is good news coming. Alriiight, good one! To keep Linda from stealing your hands, leave a comment on one of your favorite fanfics!

Rest in Peas Burger

Uhhn yuhh yuhh gagaga oo… I got it! You know that thing? You know, the thing? Yeah, I think a solution is coming your way. But you might not like it. What’s important is that you look on the sunny side, and there is a sunny side! That’s what I tell my Bobby all the time. He uh… he’s getting there with the whole cheery thing. Sorta. To enjoy a "Keep Your Sunny Side Up and Your Cloudy Side Down, Stay Positive, Bobby, Things Are Gonna Be Okay Burger,” spend three minutes with a project you’re working on!

Every Breath You Tikka Masala Burger

Come on, what do we got? Hmmm, oh yeah it’s coming to me. I’m seeing… three bats and a purple tophat. The bats can’t wear the tophat. It doesn’t fit their head. Oh god, they’re trying anyway. Don’t do that, little bats! You’ll get smooshed! N- oh, no, okay yeah they’re fine. And they’re so cute, awww dressed up in their hats, adorable. I think that’s a good thing? To… accept whatever that was, share a draft that you’re proud of!

Sympathy for the Deviled Egg Burger

You might need to give me a minute, my brain bucket feels busted. Tina’s got a spooky secret admirer, and we’ve been trying to figure out who it is all day. Being a fortune teller isn’t an easy job, but neither is being a mom! Haha! Noo I love it, I love it. Maybe your fortune should be thanking someone who has helped you grow? Hmm, I AM getting a strong sense of loyalty. Maybe check in on someone, and make sure to let them know how you’re doing too. To spread the love, send a kind ask to a blog you admire!

Onion-Tended Consequences Burgers

Oh my god! Is this blood on your hands?! Or is it… tch, it’s just a bit of ketchup, so silly! Are you a prankster or a murderer? You were just eating fries? Yeah okay, sure sure sweetie… um, your fortune is that sometimes people jump to conclusions. Sometimes even you. Take a second and remember most people are just being a little silly, not intentionally mean. And most people are definitely not going to tell their husbands they met a murderer today. To get away with any other alleged crimes, post a headcanon or find one you enjoy and share it!

Human Polenta-Pede Burger

Mmmmhhhmm mmm umuinimumunim. Oh no. Sweetie, I’m so sorry, but you’re going to get food stuck in your teeth. And it’s going to be green! And the waiter’s going to see! Oh this is horrible, maybe we can take your teeth out? No, no we can’t do that… To laugh it off with the waiter, spend three minutes with a project you’re working on!

I’ve Created a Muenster Burger

Now this is a juicy one! Did you do something a liiittle naughty? Something involving the letter M? Or J? Or B? Oh yeah, I can tell, but that’s okay! Everyone has a bit of a wild story they’re hiding. Like this one time, I turned my back on Louise when she was a baby for two seconds! Two! And the next thing I know, she had crawled on top of the fridge with a packet of Froo Froo Fruities snacks and refused to come down. Can you believe that? Ohhh, but she was fine. She doesn’t even remember the bump she took coming down, so it all turned out okay. You’ll turn out okay too, I promise. To lessen the swelling, recommend a fanwork to someone!

[generallycharmingcriminalminds]

Angel In The Snow

Summary: Modern AU where Nicky died, and months later, on Christmas Eve Agatha and Rio see each other at Nicky's grave.

Warnings: Hurt/slight comfort, referenced child's death, like one curse word, exes who still love each other.

Word Count: 1,319 words

Christmas Eve morning, what had once been one of Agatha’s favorite days, now spent standing in front of the cemetery, in the snow, trying to get the nerve to enter. Eight months, and it still ripped her heart out just thinking of the funeral. The one she loved the most standing beside her silently as they watched the coffin lower into the ground, the rest of her heart inside. Agatha tightened her grip on the bouquet of purple azaleas in her hand as she forced her feet forward, making her way towards the grave she came to see. A shuddering breath escaped her as she crouched in front of a headstone, reaching a gloved hand out to brush the snow away, revealing the name. Nicholas Harkness-Vidal. Nicky, her pride and joy, her little boy, forever six years old.

The illness had come quick, there still wasn’t a name for it, or treatments, so Agatha had been forced to watch her little boy deteriorate by the day, his own body betraying him. She never understood exactly what the geneticist had told her and Rio…Rio, the woman Agatha loved, still loves, even after their divorce. Neither woman ever reached acceptance in their stages of grief, both staying in anger, at the situation, and at Rio. It had been something to do with Rio’s egg that caused Nicky’s illness, at least that was how the doctor’s had explained it to Rio and Agatha in the hallway of Boston Children’s Hospital.

Agatha and Rio divorced not even two months after the funeral, unable to look at each other without screaming, if Rio was even home. Being a badass FBI agent meant she was rarely home even when Nicky was alive and well. But once he got sick, and eventually passed she claimed it was just too hard, leading to one of the worst fights they ever had in their almost ten year long marriage, the fight that led to their divorce.

“Being here is hard for you? Seriously, Rio? You were never here!” Agatha had screamed at her wife.

“I tried, I am trying. But at least you got to be here for him, make sure he knew he was never alone. You got to help him with his homework after school, drive him to sports, be here for dinner, his bedtime routine. You knew his favorite food, favorite color, stuffed animal, everything, unlike me. You got to be his mother, in every way that counts. Thanks to my job, and the crazy schedule I work, the most maternal thing I did for him was use my egg for his conception, and that’s what killed him,” Rio had replied softly, tears in her eyes, no fight left in her anymore as she avoided Agatha’s furious, hate filled expression.

“I wish we had never used your egg! We should have used mine, it would’ve saved us money, and probably wouldn’t have killed him! I want a divorce, Rio, you look too much like him, and I hate you for it.”

“Aggie…” Rio started, but a cold look from Agatha shut her up.

“It should’ve been you, not him.” With that Agatha had turned on her heel, storming out of the room.

Agatha shook her head, as if that would make the memory of her cruel words go away. She didn’t really hate Rio for her resemblance to Nicky, or blame her for Nicky’s death. But Nicky had Rio’s dimples, and her smile, and her unnatural ways of sitting in chairs that simultaneously drove Agatha insane and made her smile. It had all been too much seeing the woman she loved, and also seeing her little boy in Rio. So once the divorce had been finalized Agatha packed up her life, sold the house, and moved from Salem Massachusetts to Westview New Jersey, a small town where no one knew her as Agatha Harkness, the stay at home mother who tragically lost her only child. Instead they knew her as one of the best cops in the whole department.

She’d even made friends in Westview, Jennifer Kale, a cosmetic company founder. Lilia Calderu, a fortune teller who Agatha knew was just scamming people, but somehow it was legal. And Alice Wu-Gulliver, a fellow cop whose mother had once been a well-known rockstar, apparently. But Agatha wasn’t sitting in front of her son’s headstone on Christmas Eve to think about them.

Agatha carefully set the bouquet of azaleas on the ground in front of Nicky’s headstone, a shaky breath leaving her as she wiped her eyes, realizing she had started crying. “Hi, baby, mami and I both miss you, with all of our hearts. I’m sorry you had to hear us fight so much when you got sick, and I’m sure you saw it get worse, because there is not a doubt in my mind you’re keeping an eye on both of us, just like Santa if you think about it. I wish it had been me instead of you…parents aren’t meant to bury their children.” Agatha heard the snow crunching under someone’s relatively quiet steps, but she didn’t turn, assuming the person would just pass by, they didn’t.

“You and I both know he’d hate hearing you talk like that, Agatha. You’re right, parents aren’t meant to bury their children, but six year olds aren’t meant to bury their parents either,” a voice behind her said quietly, and it just made the tears slip down Agatha’s cheeks more. She didn’t turn her head as Rio crouched next to her, placing a bouquet of green azaleas, her gloved hand finding Agatha’s without thinking. “I saw you sold the house,” she said, attempting to make small talk, some sort of connection.

“Yeah, I couldn’t stay there, every time I turned a corner I expected him to come running up to me, wanting cuddles. The ghosts of the happy family the three of us once were was too much to overcome…”

“Just like our divorce.” There was no anger, or resentment, just sadness and understanding in Rio’s tone. “You know, Salem hasn’t had a white Christmas since the year Nicky was born,” Rio noted, looking up, some of the flakes catching on her eyelashes, and melting on her face.

Agatha nodded in agreement, moving to rest her head against Rio’s. “Our little boy’s watching over us,” she said hoarsely, and she believed it.

When they both left the cemetery a little while later Agatha finally met Rio’s eyes for the first time. Both had dark circles under their eyes, neither slept well anymore. “Do you…maybe…wanna get a cup of coffee, just for old time’s sake? No expectations, just two people who’ve known each other for years?” Rio inquired.

“Unfortunately I can’t. I have to get back to Westview because a friend of mine is having a Christmas party tonight, I’m sorry,” Agatha answered, her tone surprisingly sheepish as she glanced away from her ex-wife.

“Oh, well, it was worth a shot. Merry Christmas, Aggie.” Rio hadn’t even noticed she used that old nickname, but Agatha did as Rio turned, starting to walk away.

Before Agatha could think things through, or even at all she called after Rio. “Wait, what are your plans for Christmas?”

“No clue, probably unpacking my apartment that I’ve been living in for six months and haven’t done anything with,” Rio admitted, now the sheepish one.

Agatha scoffed, shaking her head. “Come on, Nicky would be disappointed in me if I let his mami spend Christmas alone. You’re coming to New Jersey, and staying in my guest room.” Her tone made it clear Agatha wasn’t going to accept any arguments from Rio.

What neither of them could see was Nicky watching from above, smiling ever so slightly. He didn’t know if his mama and mami would find their way back to each other, but for the first time since before he died, he had hope.

[rogersandclarke]

our stefon story

hey, seth! can i talk to you for a second? sure thing lorne, what’s up? great. so basically i’m a little worried about the st patrick’s day sketch. oh why is that, lorne?

by the way the writing style is like to recall clarice lispector, william s. burroughs, james joyce, and SHAKESPEARE. because it’s a play. and mindy kaling, because she wrote matt and ben.

oh why is that lorne? glad you asked. seth–your character–who is YOU–is not supposed to kiss stefon. you are supposed to kindly accept it but you are not supposed to kiss back. kiss back? i don’t think i kissed back. Yes you did. really? i didn’t think i was. like, i just was acting like seth meyers normally would. i’m supposed to be myself, right? look, that’s fine, but you can’t be too gay on tv. i already agreed to let you have the wedding next year, but we have to do it in the edit. seth meyers can’t show reciprocal affection on television, we have to gay-bait the audience!

wait, i just don’t understand. i was just sitting there. i didn’t kiss him. ummm yeah we’ll see about that. roll the tape!!!

(the tape plays and it shows seth and stefon making out for five minutes while the director yells cut and john mulaney taps them on the shoulder and asks them to stop. “this isn’t in my script,” he says with his broad nasal sound from st ignatius high school).

seth runs out of the building. “oh fuck!” he thinks. “i didn’t do that, did i?” he screams to the sky. I LOVE MY FIANCÉ! I KNOW SHE WILL GIVE BIRTH VERY FASR IN THE LOBBY, HOSPITAL, AND MY BATHRUB!

STEFON exits the theatre, and approaches seth

STEFON: Hey baby. are you okay?

SETH: No. Why are you calling me baby

STEFON: I always call you baby when we’re not on set. See?

STEFON shows SETH a voice memo on his phone.

STEFON (V.O.): Hi baby, I just wanted to send you a voice memo cause i’m walk to the club right now but i really think you should come through, because you would love the dancing lion drag show tonight. It’s at Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round. and the password is Row row row you boat. I love you baby I love dating you I want to get serious in this abandoned meat factory.

SETH: Oh god, the fucking meat factory.

STEFON: Are you remembering?

SETH: YES. IT HURTS.

STEFON: you always forget me, and i always have to remind you who we are.

SETH: …

SETH (Cont.): Do I love you?

STEFON: I don’t know.

STEFON puts his hands to his face. SETH grabs them and holds them.

SETH: I think I do.

30 Rockefeller Plaza gleams above them. Tourists gaze on

TOURIST: I love my new Iphone 3

STEFON and SETH stop kissing.

TOURIST: Hey Are you guys Sethon? Can I have an autograph?

SETH and STRFON nod. They grab the pen and sign a hundred dollar bill while holding the pen at the same time. they write MRS SETHON MEYERS <3

TOURIST NOW KNOWN AS GAY TOURIST: I love you guys, your romance is so special to the community. it made my dog less homophobic to me. she loves “your mother and i are separating.”

SETH: Thanks. I’m still learning. I actually haven’t left my woman yet, and I don’t intend to, But it’s okay.

SETH looks at STEFON.

STEFON: I guess so.

SETH: I don’t know what to do.

STEFON: I can’t blame you. I also have another boyfriend.

SETH: Did our lovemaking trip mean nothing to you?

They share a meaningful look.

STEFON: Let’s dance it out.

SETH: Toure right. let’s go to WEEE LITTLE BAAABY

[sexycornenthusiast]

Do you have any other Regina headcannons?

This was originally meant to be its own post but I would feel bad giving a non-answer to an ask twice in a row, so I present!

Regina George headcanons part 2

Because you guys liked the first one so much

Very selective about who she'll accept physical affection from.

Gets really into health food. She's got her little meticulously packed lunchbox with the little compartments which she fills with the most bizarre combination of vegetables you've ever seen.

(she tries to convince her friends that kale is good actually and they tolerate it bc "at least she's eating")

Hates being taken care of because it makes her feel helpless.

My number one red flag is that I think Regina would like kids. They amuse her. Their typical brand of blunt honesty speaks to her.

That being said she absolutely does NOT know how to interact with children. Catch her talking to a one year old like they're just a small adult because she's a freak.

Her bad relationship with her mother isn't entirely her fault

Regardless of whether I'm shipping them with other people I think she and Cady are close in every universe. Cady is the one person who has quite literally walked a mile in her shoes and she grows to really value that kind of deep understanding after a lifetime of performance.

The more nervous she is about something, the more dressed up she gets for it.

SEVERE perfectionist. Holds herself to an impossibly high standard.

(also tries to hold everyone else to this standard pre-bus. results vary)

Does not comprehend how anyone could love her without wanting to get something out of it. Interpersonal relationships are a series of transactions to her.

If someone told her they loved her, her immediate response would be "Why?".

[feyburner]

hello mr feyburner sir i really want to get into baking but i am scared to mess up and recipes terrify me. i only know one simple sponge cake recipe that my mom taught me anyway point is what were the things you wished you knew before you started baking? i know it’s a lot of trial and error but would you let us know what to start with and how to not get completely overwhelmed by the fact that i am not immediately good at it…

(Also if u have a sponge cake recipe of yours i would love it!!!)

1.

The first step to being less scared is accepting that you are going to mess up. In fact, the more you bake, the more you will mess up; you can’t fuck what you’re not doing. There is no avoiding it. Sometimes your fuckup will be fixable. Sometimes it won’t be fixable but you can still eat the end result. Sometimes it won’t be fixable and also the end result is garbage, and now you’ve wasted 3 hours and a bunch of ingredients, and it is the most frustrating thing in the world. That is just how it goes. I’ve been baking since I was a kid, baking very regularly (like, averaging 1-2x per week) for 5-6 years now, and I fuck up all the time. I fully expect to keep fucking up on a regular basis until the day I die.

What years of practice have given me is not the ability to never fuck up—it’s the ability to understand why I fucked up, what I did wrong, and how to hopefully not do it again.

One of the most common things out of my mouth is: “This is good, but I know what I’ll do differently next time.”

Next time I’ll shape the dough tighter. Next time I’ll let it rise longer. Next time I’ll check for doneness earlier. And so on.

2.

Taste is subjective. Everyone’s kitchen is different and everyone likes different things. Some people want thick, chewy chocolate chip cookies and some people want thin, crispy ones. Some people like a very tight crumb on their sourdough bread and others want air holes so big you can’t butter it. There’s no such thing as a perfect recipe because the point of food is the person eating it.

This is why it’s so rewarding to learn basic techniques and basic baking chemistry as you go. Once you get more comfortable in the kitchen, you can start going off-book. “This looks great but I think I’m gonna want a chewier texture. I’ll use half bread flour and mix the dough a bit longer to really activate the gluten.”

3.

Don’t just pick a random recipe. Especially in the age of 1 million recipe blogs. I always, always read at least 4-5 recipes for the thing I’m trying to make. I read the reviews. I compare and contrast them. If you’re looking at 5 recipes for chocolate chip cookies and only 1 says to add kale, there’s a good chance that’s not the one you want to start with. You can experiment with it later—maybe kale is the secret to the best cookies ever!—but typically you’ll want to start with the standard and deviate from there.

I often take notes on the 4-5 recipes, noting not just differences in ingredient ratios but in technique as well. A good recipe blog will explain to you WHY you’re doing something a certain way. If it doesn’t explain, look it up! Reddit r/baking and r/AskBaking are super helpful. Often someone’s random comment is the reason I learn something incredibly useful that can be applied to tons of recipes.

(I love King Arthur Baking and America’s Test Kitchen for learning technique—the ATK cookbooks are some of my most-referenced. Sally’s Baking Recipes never lets me down for good old American basics. Serious Eats is also very informative, though their recipes are often overly complicated or finicky.)

Often, I won’t simply pick one recipe—I’ll use a little of Recipe A, a little of Recipe B. I did this for a brownie recipe that ended up going viral on Reddit/Youtube which was pretty funny. I don’t necessarily recommend combining recipes when you’re first starting out, but keep it in mind as you go.

No recipe is set in stone. You can always adjust it to your tastes, to what works for you in your kitchen. Make it a little less sweet, a little sweeter, a little denser, a little lighter. Whatever you want. That’s what technique, and understanding how ingredients interact with each other, is about—like artists who learn realistic anatomy but paint in abstract.

4.

It can be hard to compare multiple very similar recipes. This recipe says to use 3 cups of flour and 1/2 cup butter and this recipe says 2 cups flour and 1 cup butter—but Recipe A makes 12 cookies and Recipe B makes 24 cookies. (Or, Recipe A uses volume measurements and Recipe B uses weight.) What does that mean? How do you draw a meaningful comparison?

Math!

Baker’s percentages are your best friend. They’re super easy. Just pick one ingredient to be your baseline—typically flour. That’s 100%. Then calculate the ratio of each ingredient to your flour ratio to easily compare different ingredient amounts.

For example, from my croissant recipe:

500g bread flour

10g kosher salt

150g milk + 100g water, room temp (70°; microwaved 10-15 seconds)

50g white sugar

10g honey

10g active dry yeast

30g (2 Tbsp) butter, softened

+

309g (remainder of 3 sticks after -30g; 62%) butter for lamination, softened, sliced 1” thick

BAKER’S PERCENTAGES:

100% bread flour

2% kosher salt

50% hydration (milk + water)

10% white sugar

2% honey

2% yeast

6% butter

45-62% butter for lamination

How to calculate:

500g flour is my baseline 100%.

What percentage of 500 is 50 (50g sugar)?

50/500 = 0.1 = 10%.

It doesn’t work as well for volume measurements. But many recipes include weight and volume—and you can always convert volume to weight using tools like King Arthur’s Ingredient Weight Chart.

5.

Finally, start with the basics and build. Don’t attempt making a Napoleon or macarons right out of the gate. Start with simple, beginner’s recipes, look up techniques as you go, watch lots of videos, always try to understand the why. Baking is chemistry but it’s also art. It’s whatever you want it to be. Mostly it’s about the house smelling like cinnamon rolls.

*

In summary, you’re going to fuck up and that’s okay. Baking is beautiful, and there’s nothing like the satisfaction of pulling something incredible out of the oven. You will learn and improve as you go, like anything else. You will eat lots of ugly cakes and pastries. But taste is what matters anyway.

Good luck in your baking adventures. Feel free to ask questions anytime. I love sharing what little knowledge I have.

I don’t have a sponge cake recipe but I do have these cake recipes. Let me know how your sponge cake turns out. You got this! 🍰

[yumeka36]

Since I always do all the NPC questlines in Elden Ring, I decided to do the opposite for my recent journey 6 playthrough - I wanted to kill as many NPCs as possible, as soon as possible. I also wanted to avoid accepting Melina's accord for as long as possible.

Here are some of the notable things I discovered while doing this (probably someone has discovered these already but they were new to me!)

The first thing I did was go to Mistwood Ruins and kill Blaidd (I didn't know that he won't actually die, but will continue to be hostile towards you). Much to my disappointment, Kale's dialogue after this remained the same and he talked about Blaidd as normal

I continued along killing Godrick, Rennala, and Radahn all before accepting Melina's accord. I made frequent checks on Church of Elleh but Ranni never appeared. Blaidd was also absent from the Radahn festival, something I hadn't seen before

As expected, even after I got to Ranni's Rise, she wasn't there. Iji also wasn't at his spot

I killed Irina immediately and Hyetta never appeared in my game or at any of her spots. Edgar's dialogue was the same

Killing Miriel made me feel the worst! He has a ton of health and he makes an awful sound when he dies

Roderika and Rya have barriers around them which prevent you from killing them. Millicent as well but only when you initially meet her at the Church of the Plague

When I finally made it right outside Leyndell, it was sealed with the message that I don't have enough Great Runes even though I definitely had enough. I later found out that the seal will only break from this point after I talk to Enia in Roundtable Hold. And the only way to get there is to accept Melina's accord. So I finally did that

When I finally got to Roundtable Hold, Fia was surprisingly absent. This was probably because I killed D very early on. Diallos also never appeared at Roundtable Hold and I'm not sure why. However I did find and kill him at his next spot in Liurnia. Fia was also at her next spot in Deeproot Depths (her dialogue is the same)

Since I killed so many NPCs early on, Volcano Manor was totally empty - no Bernahl, no Diallos, no Patches

After the Radahn festival, Jerren never came back to Redmane. I'm guessing this is because I had killed Sellen at Witchbane Ruins early on

I didn't visit Latenna until way late in the game, after I got to Consecrated Snowfields. When I finally did go to her spot, she wasn't there

Even after accepting Melina's accord, Ranni never appeared at any point in the playthrough. I kept checking Church of Elleh and her rise but it remained the same no matter how much progress I continued to make (Iji also never showed up and Blaidd never moved from Mistwood Ruins). Because of this, I was unable to open the chest with Fingerslayer Blade or access the area beyond Astel

That's about it for all the interesting things I discovered from the "no friends" playthrough! However there are a couple of other things I want to confirm that I didn't get a chance to...

- I killed Coryhn as soon as I found him in Altus but I should have waited until he joined Gold Mask as I'm curious if anything different happens if you attack Gold Mask in front of him

-I'm curious if I had accepted Melina's accord right away, if attacking Blaidd in Mistwood would have made any difference in Ranni's quest. Would Blaidd have different dialogue when I talk to his phantom at Ranni's Rise?

[duhragonball]

In all honesty, while I do miss Super Saiyan "first times" being emotional beats, a lot of fans forget Goten did it by accident and Trunks did it because he felt like it. Like what, was Goten that angry at Chi Chi during their sparing match? Was Trunks' jealousy of Goten going super saiyan equal to Vegeta's self-loathing during the time skip before the Androids Saga? At least with Caulifla there's an in-universe explanation that honestly makes sense for her character. She's not the type to explode with rage and Cabba's not the type to antagonize her. Rather, she's adept enough at fighting to recognize that all she has to do is emulate the feeling of the transformation to attain it and skilled enough to do it by force. She basically skips the awakening part to get right to the "do it at will" stage which is perfect buildup for her as a rival of sorts for Goku.

I think what really bothered the Caulifla haters (besides their misogyny) was that she said the quiet part out loud.

The dirty little secret about the Super Saiyan form was that it was never this ancient and mystic power of destiny, but a quirk of Saiyan biology that almost anyone could replicate if they knew what steps to follow. The reason Vegeta, Trunks, and Gohan all pulled it off in such a short span of time was that they had a living Super Saiyan as a reference, and they had the motivation to work at it.

By the time Cabba showed up, it was considered a big twist that he couldn't turn Super Saiyan. That's how cliche the form had become. So when Cabba learns it very quickly, it's mostly because we need him to get "caught up" in a hurry. And Caulifla and Kale were even stronger than he was before he learned the form, so it only makes sense that they would get the hang of it quickly as well.

But their transformations weren't treated like this big dramatic moment that turns the tide of the story. That's because Super Saiyan was no longer a major milestone, but also because we'd already seen it done several times by several other characters. The gimmick with Caulifla and Kale was that they were prodigies, diamonds in the rough who were suddenly tapping into their hidden potential. Could they improve enough, quickly enough, to become a threat in the tournament?

The thing fans have to accept is that Super Saiyan isn't the be-all and end-all of this franchise. That's why we have Super Saiyan 2, 3, 4, God, and Blue, along with Ultra Intinct, Beast, and all of the other advanced forms that have cropped up along the way. And the bad guys have always been able to keep pace, so calling each new level "unearned" is pointless.

We could say that Caulifla deconstructed the whole concept, except Vegeta already did it when he first transformed in 1991.

One page. One page is all it takes to undermine whatever legend or superstition is still attached to the Super Saiyan form. This is the third character we've seen use the form, but Krillin still hung onto the idea that a Super Saiyan had to at least be a good guy. But Vegeta informs him that he simply trained and trained until he hit a wall and his frustration pushed his body over the threshold. But Vegeta still clings to the idea of a "Saiyan Messiah", even though he just demonstrated that there's nothing special about this. You don't need to be a mythical hero, or a man of destiny, or even a nice person. You just need talent and effort, and maybe some luck.

The U6 Saiyans just did a speedrun of Vegeta's process, and that may irritate fans, except that the U6 Saiyans were far, far more powerful than Vegeta was in the Androids Saga. Cabba and Vegeta fought evenly in their base forms, and that was the same "Saiyan Beyond God" level seen in Resurrection F. They were already capable of the transformation; they just needed someone to tell them it was a thing.

[m00n-elixir]

finally got around to designing my hi-fi rush s/i :3 i need to draw them in the hi-fi rush style but I cant rnn mimimi im tired

so uh this is Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Mae (they/them)!! they're an android created by Macaron WAY back before Kale took over Vandelay, but once he was fired and forced to hide due to Zanzo replacing him, Bonnie was taken under the wing of Mimosa, who basically raised them to be Mimosa's secondhand, referred to as the marketing popstar "Rosé".

due to their insecurities with being a robot (and with robots basically being seen as nothing more than assistants and machines that serve humans), they forced themself to hide their robot traits and adapted a more "human" persona, which is basically just the same as Mimosa's.

Macaron originally designed them after his now-deceased wife with the same name, but the Bonnie Jr. now is most DEFINITELY not the same as the previous Bonnie.

oh yeah they kiss chai too

some additional trivia under the cut referring to their design, story, and other traits (might add more in the future):

After Macaron was fired from Vandelay, Bonnie taught themselves how to repair and fix themselves since Macaron always did it for them (even if he programmed them to need minimal repairs). This includes the older models (since they don't physically age due to being a robot), but they're probably ~25 (or at least in their 20s)

Their nickname, Bon-Bon, is a reference to the French word for "candy" and is a direct tie to Macaron, who is also named after a French candy. Their other name (or stage name) is Rosé, a reference to the French alcoholic drink, which is a direct tie to Mimosa, who is also named after an alcoholic drink. Additionally, French bonbons are typically filled with liqueur or other sweet alcoholic fillings.

As briefly mentioned on their ref, many of the pinks on their body, not including their clothes, can glow, but this is only when in a dark environment or when feeling intense emotions (like anger, happiness, or embarrassment).

Since they are heavily inspired by Chappell Roan and her style, Bonnie is also heavily inspired by the song "Good Luck, Babe!" by Roan (not exactly in the same way, but both their arc and the song focus on hiding the way you are, pretending to be something different, and being stuck in the cycle of denial about who you are (in the song, it's about comphet, but with Bonnie's story, it's more about them being a robot).

The use of pinks and blacks helps bring a contrast to their different personalities: pinks are used to symbolize innocence, acceptance, and tenderness, while blacks are used to symbolize discipline, intimidation, and strength. The use of black in the design symbolizes their attempts to hide the old Bonnie, who was a lot more naive and accepting, as well as showing how poorly they've been doing since Macaron was fired.

If I had to pick a voice claim for them for both talking and singing, I would say that they sound like Marceline the Vampire Queen from Adventure Time (voiced by Olivia Olson).

[zalrb]

You have posts about building up relationships, but they're all about tv shows. Are there ways to build up couples from strangers to stelena level love without the benefit of multiple episodes without the relationship feeling contrived - like rose and jack. If they weren't teenagers I'd be harder to accept their id die for you status even though we've only known each three days.

Oh, I have posts about movies too, they're just less popular.

Cecilia and Robbie in Atonement. When I read this ask, my mind automatically went to them but I felt like I should do a list since I have so many ships and sometimes I forget a few, not because I don’t ship them, but just because I have so many but I don’t know there’s something about Cecila and Robbie … it’s not just that I find their story beautifully tragic because there are a lot of beautifully tragic ships on this list, it’s McAvoy and Knightley together and as actors unto themselves, the way they hold the emotion of their characters and their relationship in their bodies

and the cinematography, the certain directorial choices that reinforce the romance

and romance and period of the film

like the fact that Cecilia was in the fountain

and so just to get close to her, just to feel something that’s touched her, Robbie puts his hand atop the water

and they gave us this scene!

It’s a beautiful film and they’re a beautiful ship.

or

OK well first of all, it’s beautifully shot with the soft blue lighting and it’s extremely sensual with the waves crashing in the background mingling with Chiron’s sighs, the close ups of the hands grabbing at the sand and then smoothing the palm over the sand,

and then there’s the context of this being the single most vulnerable, single most intimate moment, connection Chiron’s had with another person

[I think what’s so great and so heartbreaking about this confession is the second line where it goes from “you’re the only man” to “you’re the only one” so it’s actually not just romantic, he hasn’t had that kind of connection or intimacy with anyone else in any other capacity, it’s just and always has been Kevin.]

and then there’s the fact that this is an intimate, gentle love scene between two Black boys/men. I just love this movie so much.

There is such a weight to this movie and to the dynamics portrayed in this movie and there’s almost this cosmic connection between Chiron [Black] and Kevin

that I think the actors portray really well

because it’s a movie with very little dialogue so they convey so much without speaking and obviously a lot of that is the acting but a lot of it is also having the chemistry to pull it off.

or

(I mean, granted, they have three movies but still) and with Willabeth I kind of talk about how they're a great ship in pieces/different posts

by the way, when mindy kaling says “you can’t write chemistry”

this is what she means because it’s written in the script that will catches elizabeth and presses her against the wall

but it didn’t state that it would be like this

this, though,

they brought that shit to life

like there’s this perception of passion as being carnal rather than sensual or like strong emotion that brings about an intensity or a kind of ‘i burn for you’ type deal but when I think of passion, I think of shit like this

and Elizabeth and Will’s intense need to protect each other and stay with each other

I don't even care for this couple but I broke down how cinematic language can reinforce a connection between two characters and help the romance along

Their dance scene — which is beautifully shot — is a good example of a scene that uses certain cinematic language to enhance tension in a scene without relying on those things to create it,  like this [...]

and there are more.

[chai-fi-rush]

Hi-Fi Rush and Capitalism

I've seen multiple posts about how Hi-Fi Rush is capitalistic/neo-liberal propaganda and like. I'm not gonna say they're wrong but I'm also going to say it's a little more nuanced than that. Or at least there's multiple angles to look at this thing and I want to do that so I will.

Also I just want to quickly say that I think that even if something endorses certain aspects of capitalism while critiquing others doesn't mean that what it does critique is meaningless, or that everything that critiques capitalism should end with a radical change in it's story's system. Sometimes things that are sort of milquetoast can be fun or make some good points, albeit not rly something to strive to.

The first thing to address which is undeniably on the side of those posts I've seen is that HFR basically assumes that capitalism is the default. It tacitly accepts that the system must function through capital, and not just at the end where instead of getting rid of the company they just replace the CEO. This comes up the most in Zanzo's level when CNMN and Macaron say that budgeting and development are a balance. There's no implication that the idea of well-managed projects shouldn't have to rely on money to be able to function, just that Zanzo himself is bad with money due to unrealistic goals and Kale's light hand as long as he gets what he wants. Honestly, this is where a lot of real life people get tripped up on. They genuinely have a really hard time conceptualizing how a world without capital would function and often think of it as some lawless world. So, even when they disagree with capitalism they often try to think about how to change it without the removal of currency.

That being said, it's more accurate to describe Hi-Fi Rush's early stages not as a critique of capitalism, but as a critique of the conditions of capitalism (I know to us red-blooded commies those things are basically the same but hear me out). The only point where money is really important to the plot is in Zanzo's level and the overarching point of Kale using SPECTRA as a market manipulation tool. There are also undercurrents of class when it comes to Chai and Kale as foils, but that point is also linked with ableism (which is linked with classism under capitalism, but the game is very purposefully vague about Chai's backstory so I don't necessarily feel comfortable making too much speculation about it). The game vlog's heavily discuss the labor and physical exploitation of their employees, such as how all of the old Vandelay units such as CARR1E are being overloaded for the sake of productivity and you know. The fact that there are three or four Mondays. But the game rarely mentions the wages of the employees. I'm not going to say it never does even though I don't remember a time, but needless to say the actual working conditions of Vandelay's labor force is a much bigger focus. It does sort of come into play when Kale talks about how he's planning on firing almost everyone once SPECTRA gets up and running (something we are supposed to consider is Bad because without those jobs those people won't have money).

Breaking all this down abstractly, HFR is a story about corrupted intentions. The game's narrative exists in two different camps, the experience of what Vandelay is right now, and how everyone talk about what Vandelay was when Roxanne was in charge. Obviously, the first one is going to be more powerful. Characters like Peppermint, Macaron and Korsica can talk all day about how cool Roxanne was, but we basically have to take them at their word. There's no reason for us to consider them untrustworthy, but lets just say that as an audience member it's hard to fully reconcile the idea without actually seeing any of it in action besides Roxanne being kind of chill in the final cutscene and some vlogs about how the company used to work (particularly from O5KAR).

But what we can glean from this narrative is that Vandelay under Roxanne was not productivity driven. You get this idea from both the Zanzo and Roquefort levels, and a couple of those aforementioned vlogs. One that comes to mind is about how production used to take the time to actually fix defected products, but under Kale they all just get immediately scrapped because it's faster to just make a new one. Roxanne was someone who wanted to make things whereas Kale just wants to sell them. I mean, Roquefort is literally crushed underneath the quarter profits. HFR has a lot of metaphors, and they never really claimed that any of them were subtle.

Something that hangs over the entire story but rarely comes up (even within meta discussions about it) is that Project Armstrong was something born out of Roxanne's love for her disabled daughter. It's not just that she came up with the implant tech and then had Kale make the project as a scheme, Peppermint specifically says in Track 12 that it was Roxanne's idea. This was something that was made to genuinely help people, and Kale warped it into something that would get him more customers because it's not profitable to just "help people."

That's the story that HFR is trying to tell. It's about a project that was good, became bad through its management, and then had people who believed in the original intention of said project (I should note that Korsica's inclusion as someone who hadn't worked pre-Kale was also probably intentional so it wasn't solely a return to the old guard). The game isn't trying to say that any company can be fixed with the right leadership, that this one had its reigns taken away for the sake of profitability. A corruption of intentions. If you're willing to accept capital as the implicit base of society, it's incredibly inoffensive, but if you can conceptualize outside of that system it becomes a hand-wavey response to the problem. We all know that "just put good people in charge of capitalism" isn't actually a solution the the problem.

It's also worth mentioning that HFR bears a lot of meta-narrative about the video game industry specifically. The director said that some of the emails were literally taken from ones that he had received. It draws attention to its relationship in several ways, ESPECIALLY with the addition of Vandelay Gameworks. It's all stuff that can be applied to companies in general, but there's still that undercurrent of game devs upset about crunch time or being forced to throw out something that they worked hard on at the last minute because it "Just doesn't work." The kind of people who love what they're working on but work underneath conditions that make it feel like hell.

Anyways, hope that made sense. Hope I didn't sound too apologetic because I also take beef with endings that handwave capitalism away as an individual issue. Honestly, I think that HFR has far more interesting things to say about disability, but that's something that has to be its own post.

[rav-rabies]

Hi Fi Rush Headcanons/ideas: pt 1 Heroes

got a few ideas bouncing around mostly just backstory stuff I wanted to write down to clean up my head and thought I'd share.

Pt 2

Possible trigger warnings: discussions of family fights, age gap relationships

Chai

Sun sign: Cancer, Moon: Sagittarius, Ascending: Sagittarius

Is smarter than he lets on

Grew up in a small town and got himself into trouble because there wasn't much else to do.

Never knew his father. He left home to pursue his dream of being a Rockstar and disappeared.

Chai created an idealized version of his father. Wants

Majored in Business as his mother wished but negotiated to study Music Theory as a minor. Got mostly A's and a few B's.

Quit school after being discouraged by an asshole professor and because he wanted to live his own life on his terms.

Couldn't find work after dropping out because ableism and struggled on disability payments.

Peppermint

Sun: Sagittarius, Moon: Capricorn,  Ascending: Virgo

Was an invitro baby and was conceived around the same time as Kale.

Roxanne and her husband had been separated for three years when there was an accident at the treatment center Peppermint's zygote was stored in. Roxanne was relived one of her zygotes survived and she and her estranged husband agreed to bring the child to term.

Her father died when she was barely a year old so she never got to know him.

Has a small tattoo of two intertwined violets on her back to represent Sapphic love.

More interested in environmental science and politics then robotics but was supported by Roxanne as both fields a line with her worldview.

Is planning on returning to school soon after her mother gets everything back on track at Vandelay.

Macaron

Sun: Libra, Moon: Taurus, Ascending: Pisces

Spent his vacation reconnecting with his old friends outside of Vandelay.

He was that kid who took things apart. His parents were great though and supported his interest. Just they made sure to redirect his curiosity towards lest destructive

First learned about Roxanne when he was finishing collage and wanted to become a part of something bigger. He was drawn to her ideas and drive.

Korsica

Sun: Virgo, Moon: Scorpio, Ascending: Aries

Had not been working at Vandelay long before Chai came along.

Had a tentative "friendship" with Zanzo due to both being bottom of the social hierarchy.

Has zero interest in Chai and Peppermint as romantic partners. Though that can change for peppermint. Her age is the only hurtle really. (NOTE: I do love this ship and have no problems with age gaps in shipping or sometimes irl. But, as someone in their thirties, I feel comfortable saying that we're not as inclined to date younger unless we're kind of immature like Zanzo or said 20 something is really chill.)

CNMN

CNMN doesn't need headcanons from me he's perfect as is.

Roxanne Vandelay (Heads up she gets Rose Quartzed a little)

Sun: Capricorn, Moon: Sagittarius, Ascending: Aquarius

She values altruism above all. She believes the purpose of creation in both science and the arts is to better the world.

Also values hard work and sacrifice, not to insane levels but again to the point she lacks some sympathy for those

Has a hard time accepting others as driven as her. She isn't actively mean but she's not very understanding of those with different values.

She and her husband both wanted to create a better world and fell in love while working for it. After Kale was born Her husband became devoted to his son. She believed both still/would support her vision and spent as much time with her family as she could and hoped love would be enough.

It wasn't. Overtime her son grew to resent his distant but caring mother and her husband grew sad and frustrated.

Arguments started and the rift got too big for anyone to ignore. She left.

After her husbands death Roxanne found herself a CEO of a rapidly growing company and a single mother to an unruly teen who just made a strange new friend.

[waytooinvested]

Forgotten, Not Forgiven - Chapter 32

This and previous chapters are also on AO3

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

The next day Lena got up and made breakfast, just as she did every morning. French toast drowning in maple syrup for Kara to celebrate getting her cast removed, a blueberry-oatmeal smoothie for herself, because she couldn’t face a full meal when she knew what the rest of the day would hold.

Things between them felt… not strained exactly, but as if they had rolled back time to the first days of their living together, when they had both been trying too hard and were yet to quite find the shared choreography of their cohabitation. It made Lena inexpressibly sad to feel the distance between them again after being so close, but she knew deep down that things were as they needed to be. If Kara had come over to slip her arms around Lena’s waist while she stood at the stove as had become her habit, she wasn’t sure she would be able to make herself follow through with her plan.

They talked about small things while they ate, and Kara made a gently teasing comment about the handful of kale Lena had added to her smoothie. Yesterday that would have been accompanied by an insistence on her accepting at least a couple of bites of French toast (“for balance”), but today she merely nodded when Lena declined her offer to share, and finished her own breakfast without pushing the point.

After that they played a few of games of scrabble, one of checkers, and then it was time for Kara to go to the DEO so Alex could remove her cast. Until last night Lena had taken it as read that she would tag along to this appointment, and maybe even take them both out somewhere to celebrate afterwards; but when the car arrived she excused her self with an ‘urgent work meeting’ and sent Kara off alone. She had intended to keep their farewell light – a brief ‘see you in a few hours’ embrace and a wave as the car pulled out, but in the end she couldn’t quite manage it. Lena pulled Kara into a tight hug, holding on long past the point of casual, for all she knew it risked seeming too much like goodbye. But she wanted goodbye. Just in case everything went wrong with Lex, and this was the last time she got to hold Kara.

She needed it.

She would have lived forever in that embrace if she could have, but eventually she had to let go, standing back to allow the car to pull slowly away from the sidewalk and out of her reach.

‘I love you Kara.’

She whispered the words into the space where Kara had been as she watched the SUV merging into the stream of traffic. Just so that she had said them out loud, at least once. Even if Kara couldn’t hear her. She held onto the moment until the car was out of sight, and then put it resolutely aside, her mind turning to focus solely on her mission.

As she had told Kara she went to L-Corp next, but not to attend her fabricated board meeting. After a brief stop by her office and a few quick words with Jess, Lena headed straight for the roof.

It probably wasn’t actually necessary to come up here – her signal would travel just as well if she sent it from the basement, and Lex always seemed to find a way to get to her when she used it no matter how impossible it seemed at the time.

Still, there was no point in taking chances.

Lena took a deep breath, and reached for the thing she had slipped casually into her pocket after her talk with Jess. Her fingers curled around the smooth contours of it, pulling out the innocuous object and staring at it for a long moment, weighing its insubstantial presence in her palm.

The white knight piece from her chessboard.

A particularly keen observer might have noticed that this one didn’t quite match its companion. It was close, certainly, but the shape of the nose was very slightly different, and it was perhaps a little more worn, its surface marked with light scratches and one ear tip the tiniest bit flattened, as if it had spent more time being bumped around in pockets and bags and small, clutching fists than it had residing peacefully on a board.

After a few seconds of silent contemplation Lena took hold of the apparently-immovable base and gave it a sharp, decisive twist, clockwise, then counter clockwise. A seam appeared in the previously-solid-seeming piece, and Lena kept twisting back and forth, following a rapid, complicated pattern so ingrained that she felt the echo of all the times she had done this before in her fingers, a muscle memory that she would never forget no matter how long she lived.

She was five years old, hiding under her bed with tears on her cheeks as she followed the pattern she had practised with her big brother, waiting for him to come and comfort her after her new mom had thrown away the teddy bear that had been her last remaining link to her old life.

She was nine, and she had taken on more than she should have with a new invention. It was overheating and going to blow, but her small hands weren’t strong enough to remove the cap to disable it in their unweildy oversized heat proof gloves, so she was twisting the base of the knight desperately to call Lex so she wouldn’t have to admit to her parents what she had done, or risk blowing up the garage.

She was eleven and had sprained her ankle on a skiing vacation. She had fallen too far behind the others for them to hear her calling and her phone had no signal, but she stayed calm and took out the chess piece. Sooner than should have been possible there he was, Lena’s white knight, skiing down the mountain towards her.

She was fully grown and long since disillusioned with Lex. She had just told Kara that no one had ever stood up for her the way she did, and after she had gone Lena had picked up the little horse figurine for the first time in years. She thought about how after Lex had let her down so badly she had never expected to have another white knight in her life, but that Kara Danvers might just be the hero she wished her brother could have been.

She finished the sequence with a final turn, and waited.

It was possible that this whole thing was a waste of time, and that after all these years of silence Lex wasn’t even listening anymore. The white knight was little more than a child’s plaything after all, and both of them had changed beyond recognition since the last time they had had cause to use it. Why would he even remember it, let alone still keep his half close enough to catch the signal?

It was absurd to think he would, and yet somehow, Lena wasn’t worried about it.

She remembered with searing clarity the day Lex had given her the chess piece. It had been after she had finally told him her version of what had happened to her real mother that day at the lake: in bits and pieces, and filtered through tears and her four year old understanding, but it had been enough to get the point across. Exactly one week later Lex had pressed the chess piece into her hands and promised her with a kind of serious, grown up sincerity that had awed her at the time, that if she was ever in really bad trouble like that again, she could use it. He had crooked his big knuckle-y pinkie around her little chubby one and sworn to her that no matter what (no matter what) as long as she kept it, she would never be alone like that again.

It had been the only promise they’d ever made to each other that had really, truly mattered, and it was the only one neither of them were ever supposed to break: Lena would only use it if she truly needed her brother, and if Lex got her signal, he would come. It didn’t matter if they were fighting, if they were in different cities, or even on different continents. The white knight was an amnesty: a promise of ceasefire in whatever argument they happened to be locked in at the time, whether that was over who had eaten the last brownie or the morality of mass murder and attempted world domination.

A wave of guilt to be misusing it this way rose in Lena, even now, after everything Lex had done. She understood Lex’s code of honour more fully than most of his closest associates ever would, and was well aware that what she was doing now was a betrayal in a way that merely attempting to murder him never had been. By carrying out her plan Lena was taking a torch to whatever twisted scraps of a sibling relationship she might still have had with her brother; but for Kara, she would make this final betrayal. She just hoped she was right to believe that the part of Lex that had been her first champion was still in there somewhere.

Nothing happened for almost a full minute, and then the piece twisted in her hand of its own volition – a quarter turn one way, then a half turn the other. Just the same as always.

‘I’m coming.’

She let out a shaky breath and looked around, expecting a portal to open up in front of her and Lex to step out onto the roof, but it didn’t. After several minutes Lena decided that he must not have access to his portal, or else had reason not to use it right now, and would instead arrive by more conventional (and therefore slower) means. She began scanning the sky, even though it was much too soon for a helicopter to appear unless Lex had been hovering just out of sight all this time, anticipating Lena’s call. And given that it had been more than a decade since the last one, that seemed unlikely.

At last she sank down into a comfortable lotus pose, and settled in to wait.

And wait.

Morning rolled ponderously into afternoon, and the adrenaline-fuelled thumping of Lena’s heart slowed as boredom set in. She really should have brought her laptop with her, but she had been so focused on the next part she hadn’t really considered how she would spend the time before Lex got to her.

Her legs were going to sleep, and the cold of the roof was beginning to soak into Lena’s bones. Her stomach rumbled faintly.

Somewhere around mid afternoon she gave up on maintaining her composed appearance and began to pace, both to get her circulation moving and also just for something to do other than stare up at the sky. She wondered whether Lex had been toying with her in his response. Perhaps he knew her signal had been in bad faith, and was responding in kind without any intention of actually showing up. She considered giving up and going back down to her office to come up with an alternative method of tracking her brother down, but she didn’t. Not even when the sun started its slow decent towards the horizon and dusk swept in to garland the roof top with shadows...

There was a movement in her peripheral vision, and Lena whipped round to face it.

The door to the stairwell had opened, and someone was coming out to join her. But it wasn’t Lex, it was-

‘Kara?’

‘Hey Lena!’

Lena glanced up quickly to scan the skies again for any signs of Lex’s approach, then turned back to face Kara, trying to keep the mounting panic from her expression. Kara was limping slightly as she closed the distance between them, but she was free of the cast at last and walking unaided for the first time in weeks.

‘What are you doing here?’

‘I was worried when you didn’t come home after work, so I came here to find you. I figured you must be working late, and I thought I’d bring you dinner since you always seem to forget to eat when you’re caught up in a project – though I still have no idea how someone could just forget to eat. I don’t think I ever have.’

Kara grinned at her teasingly, holding up a bag of take out from Lena’s favourite sushi place in evidence of her mission. Lena’s stomach let out a traitorous growl at the thought of the spicy tuna hosomaki she knew it would contain, but this was not the time to be thinking about food.

‘Kara-’

‘I know, I know, you’re working. But you can take a break for a few minutes can’t you? So we can eat together? Though if I’d known you were out here in I’d have brought something hot instead of raw fish, and your jacket. I thought you’d be in your nice warm office rather than chilling your toes off on the roof.’

Lena should be hustling Kara back inside with all haste, but the comment distracted her.

‘How did you find me? How did you even get up here in the first place?’

‘Jess. She told me where you were and lent me the spare key.’

Damn it Jess. And after she had sent her such a nice muffin basket too.

Though of course it wasn’t really Jess’ fault. Lena was the one who had told her to give Kara open access to wherever she was, as long as she wasn’t in her lab (for safety reasons) or actively in a meeting at the time. Lena was the one who hadn’t thought to change that directive on this most crucial of days. And Lena was the one who was putting Kara in danger right now by letting her continue to be here when Lex might turn up at any second.

‘I’m very grateful for the sushi, but you can’t be up here Kara, I’m sorry.’

‘Why not?’

‘It’s not safe. Please, go back downstairs.’

But Kara just frowned at her, making no move to leave.

‘Is the roof fragile? Because you shouldn’t be up here either in that case.’

‘No, it’s not that. I’m just… I’m meeting someone.’

‘Someone not safe? Alone, on the roof, in the dark? I don’t like the sound of that. What’s going on?’

‘I’m dealing with the thing we talked about last night. It’s going to be fine, but you have to go now.’

She tried to sound level and calm, as if the meeting was absolutely nothing to worry about. But something in her voice must have given her away, because Kara’s expression turned mulish.

‘Lena. I am not leaving you here alone if you’re in some kind of danger. Whatever it is, just come downstairs with me and we can work it out together.’

‘I’ll only be in danger if you’re here when he arrives!’

She shouldn’t have said that, but every minute that Kara was still here increased the chances of Lex showing up before she was safely away, and she could not let that happen.

‘When who arrives?’

Lena sighed. Kara was wearing her stubborn reporter look, and it was clear she wasn’t going to go if she didn’t give her at least part of the truth.

‘My brother’s coming, okay? I don’t think he’ll hurt me, but I need him to believe I’m on his side if I’m going to fix this. And if you’re with me – if he threatens you, I won’t be able to do that.’

‘Oh Lena. I was so hoping you weren’t going to let me down this time.’

Lena’s blood chilled in her veins and her hope for her carefully woven plan unravelled as she turned in the direction of the new voice.

Lex Luthor was a few yards away, standing squarely between them and the way back down into the building.

It was too late.

Lex was here, and he had heard everything.

[negativnine]

stupid Kale headcannon thing

stuff

idk

i feel like the reason he is the way he is, is because of unreceived attention and bullying, like “THEY NEVER CARED ABOUT ME, WHY SHOULD ABOUT CARE ABOUT THEM” but he is just talking about like ages from 5 to 10

most definitely  theater kid, and the dramatic kind like there is now way he is not into theatrics probably the reason he got bullied as a kid seen Hamilton at least once

speaking of theatric kale, he also probably writes poems and it’s the edgy cringy kind of poems as well he only has fun while writing them after finishing them he reads them through he’s just like “yeah no” and because of that he has a super secret and complex safe just for whatever notebook he has those poems written in

also when chai and the gang finds it and opens the safe, ‘cus of course they will since it looks suspicious as fuck, it’s just gonna be like Chai: HE WRITES POEMS?! Peppermint: HE STILL WRITES POEMS?!

i know that the accepted relationship between him and Mimosa is Mimosa looking up to him, but personally i find the idea of them friends more appealing like they’re the cliché mean girls high school duo that judges and gossips about everybody

that being said Mimosa was probably his only friend, which is sad, but it’s kale so not really

probably has anger issues, not the violent outburst kind, but more like Dylan yelling at his old baking recipes or kitchen wear (i have such a clear image of him just yelling “CEASE AND DESIST” to an oven)

since it is canon that he is a dog person,(which just makes me so giddy for no reason) i like to think he is just the most aggressive dog person a dog person can be like at some point somebody in the boss team was like “it would probably be nice to have meetings outside every once in a while” but that had to be scrapped because he would just disappear every 10 minutes ‘cus he somehow found a dog just chillin’ and decided that it needed to be pet like i feel like he could have been bribed with dogs in someway and the whole final boss fight could have been avoided

as much he is a poor little meow meow, he is also kind of a malewife material my mind cannot be changed about this

he probably has been living by basically himself since like the age of 15 he definitely knows his way around the kitchen at least

also back to the dog person bit at first i was like “so who the hell made the conscious decision to make Rouqefort into a mecha warewolf?” but it was definitely Kale and Rouqefort probably approved and i don’t know which one is worse  

this man has been living in my head rent free for god knows how long

if anything else comes to my mind i’ll probably add also feel free to add yours if y’all have any

[ringlorn]

"Hey, I'm back with the stuff!"

Nezha all but glides in through the back door, arms laden with grocery bags while his Wheels do the work of leading him into the kitchen. Why his roommate wanted so much soymilk he'll never know, but he trusts Macaque's cooking skills.

Even if he makes lotus root dishes far too often.

There was a sale on kale this week—Nezha doesn't know whether Macaque would use that, but he buys one bunch anyways, figuring the macaque can always whip up extra snacks to take to his boyfriend, or Liu'er, or whoever he runs into around the city. Most of the time he doesn't know what the guy gets up to at all since his shadows make him virtually invisible—but that's on him for not really caring. The rest of the time they spend passing each other in the halls, through the windows, or actually sharing sauce over the meal table (and isn't that weird enough, him eating with a monkey that isn't Sun), living more or less...like roommates do, he guesses.

He's not sure why Macaque doesn't just move in with Monkey King at this point—they obviously like each other and even the third guy's been accepted by both—but it's the same question he could ask himself: why not move in with Sun? Too many monkeys, is his first reaction, but honestly the threat of Zhang San coming back someday and seeing the two of them in one house is what really keeps him in check.

(If he wanted to win over Sun, he would've done it first and a thousand years earlier rather than settle for second place now.)

Once in front of the fridge, Nezha opens it up and starts to put stuff around what's already inside, finally used to the proper placement of things. (Honestly, the looks he'd gotten from putting vegetables next to raw meat once upon a time?)

"Do you want me to take out any of this stuff?" he keeps talking as he works. ostensibly to no one. But having a roommate with six ears means you can whisper and he'll hear you just fine, so he might as well been shouting right now.

It's Nezha himself who needs to strain his ears for a response, only to hear nothing. He checks the clock on the wall—it's getting on evening, so the guy should be home to cook? Unless he ran off to hang with Monkey King again and pranked Nezha into coming back to an empty house or something.

Pah, joke's on him. He's rich enough to order takeout for the rest of his life.

Closing the fridge, the lotus prince saunters to the family room, still talking to empty air. "Also, do you know any good cooks? I mean, guys who do it for a living. A friend of mine's thinking to hire...I don't know where to get that kind of chef, snipe 'em from a restaurant or something?"

That's probably the easiest way to do it, but otherwise he was looking at online research instead. Magnolia could do that herself. It was also a pretty stupid question so he's expecting a snarky comeback, but the fact that no one replies is pretty telling.

Macaque's not home.

Just in case, Nezha decides to float upstairs, planning to listen in on the guy from outside his room. If the monkey's not sleeping, sick, or well, dealing with stuff like last time, he's likely MIA.

He doesn't expect to see Macaque's bedroom door standing ajar by the time he reaches the landing though. Exasperated, Nezha dismisses his Wheels and stalks over noisily on foot. "C'mon, you've never been this obvious with bait—"

The door creaks open. The inside is bare.

This...what, did he actually move out?

Looking around the empty space makes the ends of Nezha's hairs stand on end. It takes a moment before he unfreezes enough to scramble through his pockets for his phone. Fingers scrolls through his contacts—nothing, no name—then social media, where people are posting about the eclipse that dropped by while he was obliviously browsing the aisles of the supermarket.

Gone, just like that.

He's not sure what he feels at the moment. Honestly, the ones who should be missing him are—again, more scrolling back and forth—still here, so that's gotta suck. The other guy's gone too, though Nezha doesn't recall him as much as he does Monkey King with him, and—his brows wrinkle, thinking back to the fridge.

It's full of food, and right now he's the only one living in this house.

...tomorrow. He'd deal with it tomorrow. Keep what he could eat, donate the rest or something—it'd be a joke if he tried to cook like Macaque, but wasting his ingredients is even worse.

Do I tell someone? No, they'd probably find out for themselves—and maybe even sooner than he did, since they were actually close. He and Macaque were—well, they couldn't be friends as far as Heaven was concerned, but they weren't enemies.

They were comfortable, Nezha decides, in their special brand of impersonalized co-living that had the guy bossing him around with a spatula in one hand and a pan full of spicy sizzling vegetables in the other to scrub the toilets already, it's only fair, Nezha, before setting a full bowl of food in front of him for lunch half an hour later.

Wordlessly, Nezha walks to the bedroom windows and throws one open. A late summer breeze trickles through the opening, hot and heavy, making it hard to breathe. He inhales it anyways—and then climbs onto the windowsill before stepping out entirely. Of course his Wheels catch him before he falls, and Nezha turns mid-air to hover outside his building, staring at the windows darkening with the onset of incoming rain clouds.

The houses here are never left empty for long—the Stars always fill them with new, confused faces every few days. He'll probably get a new roommate next time, but he'd have to figure out the groceries before that, and there's no telling how the other monkeys are going to cope with this all, or if they'll even drop by to check.

He frowns at that thought. Would it be better or worse for him to be there when they do?

If he keeps the window open, they can let themselves in—or just use the balcony, another favorite. There's been no issue of thieves in this area of city so he can keep things unlocked—the locals know better to try against all the superpowered weirdos they get every month moving in. And even if nobody comes—

Well, maybe he's the one who needs time to readjust to living by himself again.

Nezha looks at his phone and decides to book a hotel for the night.

[valkyrievanessa]

ok, so let's talk about Yuri Kuma Arashi, the manga version, i watched the first ep of the anime years ago, didn't understand a shit and stopped, i read the manga and i have plans to watch the anime itself... so, the manga broke my heart in a way i could not believe it was possible, wtf is this manga?! like, it have some weird things, but the story is fucking perfect (and tragic). This will have spoilers, big spoilers, if you don't like spoilers and enjoy Yuri, go read the manga, is short, can be read in a day and is perfect.

so, our protagonists, the main couple, Kureha and Ginko, they are the cutest couple ever, born to be a couple, their love is so cute and perfect, i want to huge both, specially Ginko, this girl needs therapy, a lot, she is just a baby bear that needs a hug.

like, Ginko have this whole psicological trauma because she killed someone by accident when she was a kid, and it was the mother of the girl she fucking loved, and the great love of her mother's life.

and the whole bear thing at least in the manga, is not real, it is something that exist only in Ginko and Kale (Ginko's mother) minds, it was something that Kale had, because she felt different from anyone else, she believed when she was a child, after she became 17, she would become a bear, never happened of course, so she started to believe that everyone is a bear, including her, but they are pretending to be human, Ginko being raised by someone like that also got it from her mom, so the whole bear thing? only in the mind (sometimes people will use the bear costumes). The only person Ginko see as a human is the girl she loves, Kureha, it was the same thing for kale, the only person she saw as a human was Kureha's mother, Reia

Like, maybe Kale started all this thing with bears because she was a lesbian and felt different from everyone, or not, it was my theory (that kinda falls apart, but it is something) and after she met Reia, things changed to her, it was the only person Kale acknowledges as a human, it was the love of her fucking life, she wanted to marry with Reia, she would do everything for her... and Reia married a guy that she liked, she didn't love the guy, she met him, had a summer love with him and decided to marry the guy just because. She acknowledge that it was a mistake after the marriage, because she noticed that she was in fact, in love with Kale (it was kinda too late, that single act destroyed Kale's life).

She kinda thought that the girl was straight, but ignored the possibility that Reia could be Bi and did something stupid, because Reia would had accepted the proposal. How Reia died was an accident, kinda. When Ginko and Kureha was children, Kureha got lost in the forest that had a lot of bears, Ginko decided to go help the girl, stole Reia's gun and went to find Kureha, when Reia find boths she makes so much noise that Ginko without knowing shoots and kills Reia, causing a giant trauma on Kureha, on herself, on Kale and on her aunt that was also in love with Reia, so... yeah, this manga talks a lot about trauma, like a lot. (Kale actually started to say that she killed Reia and devoured her like a bear).

This manga talks a lot about grief, the whole Kale's arc is about that, Lulu's arc too (her past made me want to die of sadness, like, wtf?!!), Yurika's arc too, she loved Reia, but after she died she started to fuck her brother's wife (Kale), i mean, both already had something before, but their relationship got a lot messier after. And Lulu? one of my favourite characters, she is in love with Ginko since she was a child, but their relationship started because she could not handle the grief and guilty of her little brothers death, it was an accident, but she felt guilty, because she was the responsible for him, so she kinda made Ginko her world after that. (she misses him so much that she have a teddy bear named after him and she takes care of it like it was him)

Lulu is so precious that i want to protect her from everything. Sumika is another favorite of mine, she does a lot, but as someone that helps Kureha to save Ginko, she helps everyone, all because she loves Kureha, she say to kureha that she loves her, but want to be a friend and... ouch, like, ouch. Just Imagine, you love this person, you love them so much that you would do everything for them to be happy... but this happyness will not be with you, and you know that since the beggining, that's Sumika in the manga, she helps Kureha a lot, part of the motive everything went well was because of her, and in the end she wanted to really have magic powers like people was saying about her, because that way she could make Kureha love her, it was really sad.

And the protagonist, Kureha, did everything she could to not only discover how her mother died, but did everything she could to save the girl she loved (Ginko was so depressed that i started to fear for her life), Kureha is an amazing character too, like, i probably love all the characters from this manga.

well, that's it, talked about everything i wanted about this manga, i reccomend, cannot say the same about the anime, not because the anime is bad, it is because it's 2 different stories, with 2 different objectives, i will watch the anime, maybe tomorrow.