#i also have been talking about for probably a year

[theteablogger]

You may have already noted this, but Andy's claims on twitter about being able to understand what his sparrow is saying (and thus sparrow language in general) seem to be ramping up in unbelievability- apparently yesterday the bird was able to communicate that it didn't want its conversation with other sparrows recorded and shared. Andy makes mention of several of his followers who have apparently been having FaceTime calls with the bird. There's at least 5-6 of Andy's followers who consistently comment on the bird updates and show no credulity, expressing how much they want to be able to communicate with the bird like Andy does. It's probably not the biggest deal, but the whole thing has just been giving me an odd vibe. Feels like Andy once again making friends/followers by demonstrating abilities and knowledge no one else has.

Yes, his allegedly deep connection with sparrows has been getting weird for quite a while. He says he can understand some of their language, enough to relay things that the flock outside his house is talking about and things that Nuggie communicates to him. On top of that, Andy has written about things like Nuggie watching movies and musicals and following every emotional beat, to the point of showing the characters his malformed feet to offer encouragement when they're lacking confidence. Andy is anthropomorphizing the hell out of that little bird. Meanwhile, his followers praise him for knowing sparrows better than ornithologists do.

I've lived with a parrot before, for many years, and I bonded very closely with him. I agree that birds are much smarter and more emotionally complex than most people realize. But they're not humans. Their thoughts and feelings are not exactly like ours and we have no way to know exactly what's going on in their heads. Projecting onto them can lead to misunderstandings of their behavior and needs. Andy seems to be taking good care of Nuggie, from what I can tell--bearing in mind that we only have his word for it--but that doesn't mean he's right about everything.

Here's the thread you mentioned:

Here's Andy in November, writing about Nuggie's "phone flock":

Here's a thread from October, featuring Andy's musings on sparrow language. Friendly reminder that he is neither an ornithologist nor a linguist.

Note that at the end, he specifies that he's not Dr. Doolittle and doesn't speak or 100% understand sparrows' language...but he's still claiming a level of understanding that no one else has.

And here's Andy in August, wishing that he could communicate effectively with Nuggie and then having an actual conversation with him:

Those are some awfully complex ideas for a member of a non-human species to understand and respond to appropriately.

I'm not trying to suggest that Andy is forming another cult based around his bird, but like you said, Anon, it's notable that he is once again positioning himself as someone who has a special ability that no one else has. He's also repeating an old pattern in making himself the sole conduit to communicate with someone who holds a great deal of emotional significance for people. Back in the day, it was any of 160+ "others", and later, the DAYDverse/Harry Potter characters; now, it's a rescued sparrow with a disability, whom a lot of people apparently find inspiring.

[moonstruckme]

Hi Mae!!

Could I request like a really cute Remus x reader where she’s never been kissed or anything before? Like they’re all out of Hogwarts or in their last year and she’s the only one to have never had a relationship, and she’s kinda insecure and anxious about it all?

No worries if not or if you’ve already done something like this!

Thank you! - x

Thank you for requesting <3

cw: alcohol, reader is a bit tipsy

Remus Lupin x fem!reader ♡ 1.3k words

You don’t often feel self-conscious about your lack of romance. When you’re walking home from a bar on a cold night, it’s true that sometimes you wish you had a hand to hold, or a jacket that wasn’t your own, or somebody to slip an arm around your waist and make sure you keep your footing, but generally you’d rather wait than settle. When your friends start moaning and groaning about being lovelorn, though…

“It’s just been so long,” Sirius laments. He’s three sheets to the wind and hanging heavily from James’ side, who’s nodding commiseratingly as they wind a zig-zagging course down the sidewalk. “I mean, two months, James. Two months.” 

“It’s been nearly two weeks for me,” James says glumly. “I don’t know how much more I can take.” 

“Lily will be back from her holiday in three days,” Remus reminds him. He can hold his alcohol better than any of you, and thusly he’s been tasked with carrying the things everyone worried they’d lose. The keys to your apartment are somewhere in his pocket, along with James’ wallet--confiscated after James left it lying on the bar for the second time--and a collection of Sirius’ rings which keeps growing each time Sirius becomes distressed about them somehow falling off. 

“Yeah.” Sirius looks up at James, glaring. “You’re only two weeks in, and you’ve got a lifetime of kisses ahead of you. I’ve got to take them where I can get them, ‘nd I haven’t had even one in two months!” 

“If you think two months is bad,” you say, “try going your whole life.” 

You mean for it to come out light and quippy, but there’s a vulnerability lining your words that you don’t mean to reveal. You wince, thinking everyone’s heard it. 

“Well,” Sirius says after a brief silence, “yes, that does sound worse. Thank you, dollface. You’ve made me feel a bit better.” 

You smile ruefully. “Happy to help.” 

James starts waxing poetic about the shape of Lily’s top lip, and Remus slows his stride, falling into step beside you. You glance over, and he’s giving you a soft look. 

You go sheepish. “Sorry.” 

“What? Why are you sorry?” 

“That was embarrassing.” James and Sirius are talking loudly enough that you don’t have to lower your voice much to avoid being overheard. “I don’t mean to complain.” 

“It wasn’t embarrassing,” Remus murmurs, voice a fond color. He bumps your shoulder gently. “Anyway, I don’t think either of them are likely to remember.” 

You give him a sideways smile. “Maybe, but there’s still you.” 

“I can forget, too, if it suits you.” 

“It does suit me, thanks.” 

“Right. I’ll get right on that, then. Consider it forgotten.” 

You smile down at the sidewalk. There’s something about Remus which always relaxes you. Maybe it’s that he’s so easy to talk to, or that he doesn’t make you feel like you have to talk. You just feel safe with him. You walk a ways in comfortable silence, close but not quite touching, listening to Sirius and James giggle like schoolchildren ahead of you. 

“Do you really feel that way?” Remus asks after a while. “Like it’s bad that you haven’t kissed anyone?” 

You wet your lips. Your saliva tastes like booze. “Sometimes,” you admit. “Like, it’s not as bad for me as it seems for Sirius. But I guess it also probably helps that I don’t know what I’m missing.” 

“Yeah,” he hums, seeming pensive. “That makes sense.” 

“I do wish I’d gotten it over with earlier, though.” 

You’re not sure where it comes from. You do wish that, sometimes, but it’s not the sort of thing you say aloud. Even with a friend as good as Remus, it’s humiliating to declare a want so intimate. 

He looks surprised. “You do?” 

“Yeah,” you say, voice a shade of itself. 

“Why didn’t you?” 

“It wasn’t…it wasn’t really a choice. I was never trying to wait, or anything.” You shrug, cheeks warm. “There was just never an opportunity.” 

Remus makes a sound somewhere between a hum and a laugh. “Oh, I don’t believe that.” 

You look up. “Why not?” 

With your attention off the sidewalk, you stumble slightly, the toe of your shoe catching on the uneven pavement. Remus slips an arm around your waist to help. 

“Careful,” he says, suddenly incomprehensibly close to you. “Watch your footing.” 

“Sorry.” You look back down. “Why not?” you ask again, softly. 

“I just don’t think it’s possible no one ever tried to kiss you.” Remus’ voice is quiet but genuine. Unabashed. “More likely people have tried and you haven’t noticed. Or you just haven’t been ready. That’s alright too, you know.” 

“I’m ready,” you say certainly. “I’ve been ready. It just…hasn’t happened yet.” 

He hums. “That’s alright. So long as you’re alright with it.” 

You’re quiet the rest of the way home. You live in the same building as the boys, only the floor below. James’ bedroom is right above yours. He’s not usually too terrible an upstairs neighbor, though you’re looking forward to hearing him stumbling around before bed tonight. 

Remus walks you to your door while James and Sirius wait in the stairwell, cackling and crawling their way up on their hands and knees. He unlocks your door and reaches inside to turn on the hall light. 

“Alright?” he asks as you step inside. 

You nod. 

“Okay. Drink water, and make sure to lock the door behind you.” He gives you a smile, eyes dark in the dim light of your building. “Goodnight.” 

“Goodnight,” you say back. But he hardly makes it a few steps away before you’re leaning out of the door, suddenly desperate. “Remus?” 

“Yeah?” He turns. And he’s so lovely, all softness and gentle features. You know he’s the right person to trust with this. 

You swallow. “I’ve been ready for a long time. And I don’t…I don’t know if I’m alright with it anymore.” 

Remus frowns, stepping closer. “It’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with it.” 

“I just feel so behind.” Your tone is nearly pleading. “I’m tired of not knowing what I’m missing. I’m curious. I want to know what it’s like.” 

“Y/n.” Remus says your name like a remonstrance gentled. Like he feels sorry for you. “What are you asking me?” 

You worry your hands are shaking, but you steady yourself against the doorframe, making your voice solid. “I’d rather it be with someone I’m comfortable with. Someone I trust.” 

Remus moves closer to you. He’s nearly as close as before, when he’d held you up on the sidewalk. You wonder if this is how close people get before it happens. 

“You’re drunk,” he murmurs, not unkindly. 

You shake your head. “Not that drunk. Not so much I don’t know what I want.” 

He sighs. Says your name again as though to himself, with fondness and something else you can’t place. 

“It’s okay if you don’t want to,” you say in a whisper. “I’d just feel a lot better if it was you.” 

“Oh, love.” He takes your face gently in his hands. The pads of his thumbs soothe over your cheeks. “That’s not it.” 

Your breath catches as Remus starts to lean towards you, your eyes fluttering closed. You stay perfectly still as his lips come to rest in the center of your forehead. 

It’s a tender kiss, not lingering but not overly brief. In the end, it’s so sweet you can’t even bring yourself to feel slighted. 

“Go to bed,” says Remus, pulling back with a sorry smile. “If you still want to talk about it in the morning, we will, yeah? It’s not that I don’t want to.” 

“Okay. I’ll…” Your whole face tingles as though you really have been kissed. You’re half tempted to touch your lips to see if they feel different. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow. I’m sorry, Remus.” 

“Don’t be sorry,” he begs, backing down the hallway, “please. Goodnight, y/n.” 

Your voice comes out a tad breathless. “Goodnight.”

[uhhlifeig]

Smitten - Feb. 17th - word count: 827 - @wolfstarmicrofic

Remus woke up, his head throbbing.

“Oh, hello, Mr. Lupin,” a woman said, hovering over him. “How are you feeling?”

“Where am I?” Remus asked, trying to sit up in his bed. The lady pushed him back down. 

She must be a nurse, he realized, since she was in a nurse’s uniform.

“You’re in St. Mungo’s. Do you remember?”

Remus frowned. “Remember what?”

“What’s the last thing you remember, Mr. Lupin?” she asked, pulling a notebook out of her pocket. 

Remus racked his brains. “Uh, not much,” he shrugged.

“And what does it feel like?”

He frowned, thinking of a way to phrase the sentence. “It feels like I’m supposed to remember something, but I don’t. Like there’s just… empty space and colors.”

“Interesting,” the nurse hummed. “Well, you must've been hit with something, since you still have practical memory, yes?”

“Yeah,” Remus sighed. “Yeah. I can do stuff, I just don’t remember how I learnt it.”

“And do you recognize faces?” she asked.

“Dunno,” Remus replied dully. “Are there any faces?”

“Oh, sorry. One second, Mr. Lupin.” The nurse left the room, letting the door click shut behind her.

A moment later, she returned, a gorgeous man in tow. 

“Er, hello,” he mumbled, feeling his face heat up under the steel-colored scrutiny of the mystery man. 

The man turned to the nurse. “Are you absolutely quite sure he’s alright, Beatrice? Has the confusion worn off?”

“Yes, Black,” the nurse said. “He’s just missing memories, that’s all.”

‘Black’ opened his mouth to speak, but the nurse cut him off. “No, Sirius,” she sighed. “It’s not permanent. It’ll be back soon.”

Sirius. What an interesting name, Remus thought. He’d heard that somewhere before…

“Good,” Sirius nodded, checking his watch. He cursed. “I have to go, the Curse-Breaking people need me. Sorry, I’ll be back.”

Remus frowned. He wanted to talk to the pretty man. He had such nice hair. Remus wanted to run his hands through the man’s hair. Would it feel nice?

Remus shook the thoughts out of his head. That man was probably off the market, considering the silver band on his finger.

~~~~~

There was a messy-haired man next to his bed, chattering on about his wife and son. 

He showed Remus the pictures from his son’s fifth birthday, and he also reminded Remus of a place called ‘Hogwarts’.

Remus didn’t remember too much, but he did recall a big, moving tree, and three animal-shaped figures trailing after him. When he told the messy-haired man (James, his name was), he grinned.

“You remember that? That’s great, Moony!” he exclaimed. “Do you remember the names? Of the animals, I mean.”

“It was…” Remus trailed off, thinking. “Prongs, Wormtail, and Padfoot, right? And I was Moony?”

“Yeah!” James cheered. “I was Prongs, of course, since, well,” he leaned in conspiratorially. “I’m a deer.”

“Yeah, and… there was a kid called Peter, right? Which was he?”

James chuckled. “Oh, Pete’s Wormtail. He’s a rat.”

Remus tilted his head ponderingly. “So who was Padfoot?”

“Oh, easy. That was Sirius,” James said, smiling.

Remus gaped. “Wait. Sirius? Sirius as in the man who came earlier? That Sirius?”

“Well, he didn’t tell me he’d stop by, but yeah,” James shrugged. “Why?” 

“Merlin, that man is so beautiful,” Remus sighed. “He just has the prettiest eyes, and his hair, and-”

“I’m going to have to stop you right there,” James frowned.

Remus’s eyes widened, head dropping to look at his sheets. “Oh, shit, right. He’s married, or engaged, or something. Sorry, I just-”

But James interrupted again. “No, no, shut it, Moony. I heard way too much of this from Sirius’s side during fourth year, and let me tell you-” he gave a full-body shudder. “I never want to go through you two pining again.”

Remus raised his head hopefully. “We were together?”

“Uh, yeah? Merlin, Remus, did you not see the wedding band on your finger?” James scoffed. “Smartest Marauder my ass.”

Remus elected to ignore the last comment and instead looked at his right hand, where a gold band was wrapped around his ring finger.

“Oh, shit, he’s my husband?” Remus asked, voice rising in pitch with every word.

“Duh.”

~~~~~

Remus sighed contentedly as Sirius curled into his side on their couch. 

“So,” Sirius began. “Prongs told me what happened.”

Remus felt a cold trickle of embarrassment down his back. “What?” he asked cautiously.

“When you were in Mungo’s that time, remember?” Sirius looked innocently up at Remus. “When you forgot that we were married?”

Remus groaned. “Shut it. He did not-”

“Oh, but he did,” Sirius said. “He called it cute how you were acting all smitten about your husband. And then he said that if one of us ever lost our memories again, he wouldn’t be there.”

“Oh, yeah. What did you even say to that poor man in fourth year?”

Sirius grinned. “Well, I’m pretty sure I started off with how good you looked, and then-”

“Dear Merlin.”

[bombshellsandbluebells]

(didn't even get to the part where Ford comes in, but I loved the idea of a sentient Mystery Shack that grows to love Stan - mostly because Stan ends up treating the place more like a home than Ford ever did and goes through all those years alone with him and wrote a drabble)

At some point, Stan realizes he should clean the house. The epiphany comes around the same time he realizes he should also take care of himself—eat, probably, since he can't recall when he last did that. Shower now that he has access to one—even though the thought of using Ford's shower because the man himself can't makes his skin crawl so much he wants to peel it off.

He'll start with the house, then. It feels less like stealing a space that shouldn't be his if he convinces himself it's for Ford's sake—tidying the books and washing out the mugs growing their own ecosystems as some kind of apology. 

As soon as he starts cleaning, though, the mess seems endless. He wonders again at the state his brother had been in—at the barbed wire and panic, at the blood stains in the bathroom—and he wonders if the fear had come from Ford knowing what was beyond the portal, if he'd known the nightmare Stan was dooming him to, if he was even still—

He loses a few hours cleaning the kitchen, scrubbing everything from the floors to the inside of the fridge, but that's a few hours not spent tearing his hair out over the portal, and it feels nice to succeed at something for once. Even the house seems to breathe a little easier in the space he clears—though he can't really explain what he means by that. 

It's just a building, obviously, but it seems…happier. Like it's proud of the changes he made. Whatever, grief is weird, he knows that—their Ma had hit denial so badly after their Bubbe passed it took a full two months for her to even admit she'd died. If he feels better because he tells himself Ford's house is happy he cleaned it up, who cares.

 At least it will help him get out of bed tomorrow. 

-------

About two months in, Stan realizes there are probably bills of some sort he's ignoring. He's never owned a place of his own, but he remembers the whole song and dance with his parents, pouring over electricity and water bills at the kitchen table and debating which ones would be easier to argue—arguing with each other about who had dropped the ball on making enough sales that month.

Considering his new business is based out of the house, he can't risk losing power, which leaves him hunting around Ford's stuff for old utility bills—with no luck. His brother is probably the least organized person he knows, and it looks like that hasn't changed much. Somehow the man can keep up a meticulous system for his bookcase that doesn't make sense to anyone else but can't keep important documents in a folder somewhere. Hell, Stan would take a messy drawer.

He practically tears the house apart but can't find anything, getting increasingly pissed with every upturned cabinet—pissed at Ford for not taking better care of his house, pissed that he's not even here to deal with this, pissed that Stan's now actively seeking out bills to pay like some kind of lunatic. By the time he finally finds a number for Gravity Falls' one electricity company in the yellow pages, he's mad enough to curse out the employee on the other end when he informs him they have no record of an account for Stanford Pines.

"Then how the hell do I have power?!" he yells before realizing it's probably in his best interest to not reveal the fact that Ford has somehow slipped through the cracks and ended up with free power this whole time.

When the guy tries to talk Stan into setting up a new account, he quickly hangs up. 

So it's a mistake, probably—one actually working out in Stan's favor. Or Ford set up a generator somewhere he's yet to find. Either way, he just has to hope whatever's keeping the lights on doesn't decide to crap out on him soon; he could use the extra money he'd waste on bills right now. The Hut isn't that successful.

"Please," he says weakly, not quite sure who or what he's talking to. The concept of electricity itself, maybe. "Just—don't go out."

Maybe it's just his imagination, but the light above him seems to burn a little brighter in response.

Whatever. Grief works in weird ways.

–

It becomes harder to shake it off as just grief. 

Sometimes when the endless slog of the portal is getting to him, the lights burn brighter. Despite never paying a gas bill of any kind, the house stays warm around him. He never seems to lose anything, either—no matter how many times he misplaces something, it turns up right when he needs it. Sometimes it's not even something he's looking for: painkillers on the kitchen table after he smashes his fingers, Around the World in Eighty Days sitting innocently on his bed just when he starts thinking he needs to take his mind off of things for a bit. Once, he mentions missing the ocean out loud and turns the corner to see a painting of just that where he knows it wasn't before.

Terrifyingly, the first thing he thinks of are ghosts. Maybe Ford hadn't even made it to whatever lay on the other side of that portal. Maybe he'd just stuck around where Stan couldn't see him anymore.

He dares to ask one night, sitting in the kitchen where he'd first felt the feeling of not being alone, almost too scared to get an answer. The room ripples around him in reply. The light above him flickers. Stan watches it, trying to swallow down the sudden dryness in his mouth.

"Blink once for yes, twice for no," he says.

No, the house flickers.

He drops his head into his arms and just breathes. Squeezes his eyes shut so they stop feeling so wet. "Okay," he says. "Not the weirdest thing I've seen, I guess."

The way the light flares feels almost like a laugh.

Sentient Mystery Shack, who is really biased towards Stan, so when Ford tells Stan he has to give it back after the summer it’s on sight.

Ford keeps tripping over nothing, nothing is where it's supposed to be and somehow he keeps running into closets when he tries to go outside.

But the worst part, the WORST part is that Ford's lightbulb just won't. Work. No matter what he does it keeps flickering and exploding.

Ford is spiraling. 

There is no reason why it shoudln’t work. All his trial runs work perfectly. He’s already checked the Shacks wiring three times and relearned this dimensions science from the ground up. 

Nothing works.

The Rift? Bill? The impending apocalypse? Eating? Sleep? Who cares about that. 

WHY. WONT. THE. LIGHTBULB. WORK???

It doesn’t help that Stan keeps laughing at him.

“Then you do it!” Ford eventually snaps at Stan.

Stan shrugs and with a little song under his breath screws his own lightbulb in. It works perfectly.

Stanford screams.

[loveesiren]

ㄒ卂ㄥҜ ㄒㄖ 爪乇

Kwon Jiyong x deceased!reader

a/n: i found this in my drafts, I've been trying my hand at horror and fantasy because horror is what inspires me most. I'm also Pagan and big into witchcraft and magick. I also love the movie Talk To Me. Lol so all around, I'm just trying something new. Idk if I'll do part two or not. But let me know what you think? If it's not your cup of tea, just keep scrolling lol

warnings: angst, drinking, fatherhood, widowed partner, supernatural, rough draft, probably poorly edited because I'm drunk so excuse the mistakes

wc: 2.2k+

“Daddy?”

Jiyong’s head snapped up, his red-rimmed eyes meeting the small, fragile figure in the doorway. Parker stood there, clutching his worn blanket in one hand and a mess of printer paper and a framed photo in the other. The soft glow of the hallway light cast a halo around Parker’s messy hair, making him look even smaller, even more innocent in that moment.

“Hey, buddy,” Jiyong croaked, his voice hoarse from crying. He quickly wiped at his face with his sleeves, but the evidence was still there—the tear tracks glistening on his cheeks, his long hair disheveled and hanging in his face. “What’s up? Did you have a bad dream?”

But Parker didn’t move. He stayed planted in the doorway, thumb in his mouth, his big eyes studying his father’s broken expression. At just four years old, he was sharper than most gave him credit for. He saw the sadness that lingered like a heavy fog around his father, especially today.

“Do you miss Mommy?” Parker asked softly, his voice barely above a whisper.

Jiyong’s heart clenched painfully in his chest. His head dipped, but a small, bittersweet smile tugged at his lips at the sound of his son’s voice—so innocent, so full of love.

“Yeah, buddy,” he murmured. “I do. I miss her a lot.”

There was a brief pause before Parker shuffled forward, his little feet making soft sounds against the wooden floor. “Want me to tell you a story ‘bout her?”

Jiyong’s throat tightened. Normally, it was Parker who begged for stories about Mommy before bed, eager to hear his father’s colorful tales of her as a strong princess who could conquer any monster. But today was different. Today was their anniversary—the second one without her—and Jiyong felt like he was drowning in the weight of her absence.

But Parker, sweet Parker, had noticed. And he had taken it upon himself to try and mend his daddy’s heart, one story at a time.

“Yeah,” Jiyong whispered, his voice trembling. “I’d love that. Come here, buddy.”

Parker climbed onto the bed with his tiny legs, settling himself on the side where she used to sleep. He handed Jiyong the photo, his little hands careful with the frame. It was the picture Jiyong had taken when she was pregnant—her long hair cascading over her shoulders, that lavender dress flowing around her as she stood in a field of wildflowers, cradling her swollen belly with a radiant smile. She had looked like a dream.

A single tear slipped down Jiyong’s cheek as he stared at the photo, his thumb tracing the outline of her face.

“I wrote a story about Mommy,” Parker announced proudly, pulling out a handful of crumpled papers covered in colorful scribbles and stick figures.

Jiyong smiled through his tears, setting the photo gently on the nightstand. “Lay down, Daddy,” Parker instructed, patting his chest with tiny hands. “So I can read it to you.”

Obliging, Jiyong leaned back against the pillows, his heart swelling with a mixture of love and sorrow.

“Okay, I’m ready,” he whispered.

“First, this is us!” Parker exclaimed, holding up a drawing with three stick figures. One was tall with long hair labeled “Mommy,” another a bit shorter with bright orange scribbles for hair—“Daddy”—and in between them stood the smallest figure with “Parker” scrawled above it in shaky letters.

Jiyong chuckled softly. “Wow, Mommy’s so tall!”

“She has to be tall so she can fight all the monsters,” Parker explained matter-of-factly, already flipping to the next picture.

He nestled closer to Jiyong’s side, the warmth of his small body a comforting presence against the cold emptiness in Jiyong’s chest.

“This is Mommy saving us from a big, scary T-rex!” Parker declared, showing a picture of a giant, lopsided dinosaur towering over their stick figure family.

Jiyong widened his eyes in mock horror. “A T-rex?! How did she save us?!”

Parker jumped up, stretching his arms as wide as they could go. “She had a big sword! Like this big!”

Jiyong laughed, the sound raw but genuine. “Wow, that’s a huge sword!”

Parker nodded vigorously, plopping back down beside him. “And this one is Mommy fighting a hundred spiders!”

Jiyong shivered dramatically, clutching Parker close. “Oh no! That’s so scary! Did she win?”

“Yeah!” Parker grinned. “Mommy stomped on them all! She’s super brave!”

“She really is,” Jiyong whispered, pressing a soft kiss to the top of Parker’s head.

Parker continued flipping through his drawings, each one more imaginative than the last—Mommy building the tallest tower, Mommy making the biggest sandwich in the world. Jiyong listened to every word, his heart both aching and swelling with pride.

Finally, Parker held up the last drawing. “And this one… this one’s special.”

Jiyong sat up slightly, peering at the paper. In the bottom corner were two stick figures—one with orange hair and one smaller, labeled “Daddy” and “Parker.” Beside them was a stick figure cat, “Princess Zoa,” lounging lazily. But in the top corner of the page, drawn on a fluffy cloud next to a bright yellow sun, was another figure—“Mommy,” looking down at them with a smile.

“That’s Mommy in Heaven,” Parker said quietly. “She watches over us from there.”

Jiyong couldn’t hold it back anymore. A sob escaped his lips, and he pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes, trying to muffle the sound.

Parker’s little hands tugged gently at his father’s wrists, his brow furrowed with concern. “What’s wrong, Daddy? Didn’t you like my story?”

Jiyong forced himself to breathe, lowering his hands to meet his son’s worried gaze. He cupped Parker’s face gently, his thumbs brushing away the little boy’s confused tears.

“I loved it,” Jiyong whispered, his voice thick with emotion. “I loved it so much, buddy.”

Parker studied his father’s face for a moment longer before asking softly, “Do you still miss Mommy?”

Jiyong pulled Parker into his chest, holding him as tightly as he could without hurting him. His lips pressed against the crown of Parker’s head as he whispered, “I’ll always miss her, baby. But having you here makes it a little easier.”

Parker’s small arms wrapped around his father’s neck, and for a moment, the crushing weight of grief eased just enough for Jiyong to breathe again.

“I love you, Daddy,” Parker murmured into his chest.

“I love you too, buddy,” Jiyong whispered back, closing his eyes and holding onto his son like he was his lifeline—because, in so many ways, he was.

Jiyong gently tucked Parker into your side of the bed, pulling the covers up to his tiny shoulders with a tenderness that made his heart ache. He turned on Parker’s favorite cartoon—the one with the silly talking animals that always made him giggle. The soft glow of the screen bathed the room in a warm, flickering light, but Jiyong barely noticed. He sat on the edge of the bed, brushing Parker’s hair back from his forehead, feeling the weight of the world pressing against his chest.

It only took about twenty minutes before Parker’s breathing slowed, his small frame rising and falling in a steady rhythm as soft snores filled the room. Jiyong lingered for a moment longer, his eyes tracing the curve of his son’s cheek, the gentle pout of his lips. There was so much of you in him—your eyes, your smile, even the little wrinkle between his brows when he was deep in thought. It was beautiful and unbearable all at once. Parker was the last piece of you he had left, and he clung to that with everything he had.

Carefully, he slipped out of bed, his movements slow and deliberate to avoid waking Parker. The house felt too quiet as he descended the stairs, each creak of the wood beneath his feet echoing in the emptiness. He made his way to the kitchen, his hands trembling slightly as he reached for the bottle of whiskey. The amber liquid sloshed into the glass, and he took a long, burning sip before setting it down on the table.

For a moment, he just stood there, staring at the glass, at the reflection of his hollow eyes in its surface. Then the weight of it all hit him like a freight train. His knees buckled, and he leaned over the table, his shoulders shaking with silent sobs. The grief was a living, breathing thing, wrapping around his chest, squeezing until he could hardly breathe.

With a trembling hand, he reached into his pocket and pulled out your ring—the beautiful diamond he’d spent weeks perfecting with the jewelers, wanting it to be just right for you. He remembered the way it sparkled on your finger, how you’d admire it with that radiant smile of yours, teasing him for being such a perfectionist. Now, it was cold and lifeless in his palm, a cruel reminder of everything he’d lost.

“God, I miss you...” he whispered, his voice breaking as he twirled the ring between his fingers. The silence that followed felt deafening, a void he couldn’t escape.

He downed the rest of his whiskey in one gulp, the burn doing little to numb the pain. He poured himself another, and another, each glass blurring the edges of his sorrow but never quite dulling it. Six years ago today, he’d watched you walk down the aisle in that breathtaking dress, your eyes shining with love and promise. It had been the best day of his life. Now, it felt like a lifetime ago, a memory fading at the edges.

His sobs grew louder, echoing through the empty house as he buried his face in his hands. The realization that you were gone—truly gone—hit him over and over, a relentless tide of grief that never subsided. Two years. Two fucking years since he’d lost you, and the pain still felt as fresh as the day you left.

He was a man of science, grounded in logic and facts. But you? You had always believed in magic, in the unseen, in possibilities that defied explanation. He used to laugh at your silly spells, your whispered incantations in the attic. But now? Now he’d give anything to believe. To have even a sliver of hope that he could see you again.

The memory hit him like a ton of bricks—that one relic you’d been so protective of, the little black box you’d spent hours with in the attic, speaking softly to it as if it could hear you. He’d teased you about it back then, but now, desperation clawed at his heart. Maybe you weren’t talking to yourself after all.

With a newfound urgency, he finished his drink and stumbled up to the attic. The space was cluttered with boxes, dusty and forgotten, each one a time capsule of your life together. His heart pounded in his chest as he sifted through them, tossing aside old memories in his frantic search. Finally, he found it—the little black box, tucked away in a dark corner, hidden as if protecting its secrets.

His hands shook as he picked it up, the weight of it heavier than he remembered. He didn’t have the courage to open it yet. Instead, he clutched it to his chest and raced back downstairs, pausing briefly to check on Parker. His son was still sound asleep, blissfully unaware of his father’s unraveling.

Back in the kitchen, Jiyong poured himself another whiskey, trying to steady his nerves. He placed the box on the table, staring at it like it held the key to everything he’d lost.

“God, Y/N,” he whispered into the stillness. “You better not have been fucking with me.” His voice was hoarse, thick with desperation. He’d try anything at this point.

Taking a deep breath, he carefully removed the lid. Inside sat an intricate hand, carved with strange markings that seemed to pulse under the dim light. He’d never asked how you’d come by it—back then, it had just been another one of your oddities. But now, he prayed with everything in him that it was more than that.

With trembling fingers, he lifted the object out of the box, setting it on the table before him. He read over the simple rules you’d left behind, his heart pounding louder with each word. Pushing the box aside, he grabbed his lighter and lit the candle, the flame flickering like a heartbeat in the dark.

He downed his drink in one swift motion, the fear bubbling in his stomach almost unbearable. He’d never believed in this kind of thing, but grief had a way of making even the most rational man desperate.

With a shaking hand, he reached out and wrapped his fingers around the cold, carved hand. He closed his eyes, his voice barely a whisper. “Talk to me.”

When he opened his eyes, he saw it—a faint shadow sitting across from him. His heart lurched in his chest, fear and hope warring within him. But he couldn’t stop now.

Drawing in a shaky breath, he spoke the words you’d written in your neat, familiar handwriting. “Let me in.”

In an instant, the air shifted, the room growing colder. And then… you were there. Your body, your presence, materialized from the shadows, your soft hand slipping into his. His jaw dropped, his breath hitching in his throat as he took in your familiar features, your eyes shimmering with the same love he’d missed so desperately.

A tear slid down his cheek as he took in the sight of you.

And then, in that sweet honey soaked voice he loved so much, you spoke.

“Hi, Ji.”

© loveesiren 2025 - do not copy, translate, transfer, or repost my work without my permission. if you find my work on sites other than through links i've provided, please notify me.

Tags: @kaylieiskrazy04 @fr3akyyg1rll @heuningpie @sapph1r3x @moondooll @tranquilty @noharaaa @mariaxman @dear-satan @infinetlyforgotten @staryscorner @blu-brrys @come-as-you-are-111 @nicklet94 @vamplivivi @3mma-lovely @hanadulsetaad @sayugarper @forevervibezzzz1 @shieraseastarrs @mooonologyy @skzdreamz @stillpervert @seunghyunwifey @juliskopf @mirahyun @mattsturniolosbabymama @kai-277 @rotten-toenails @i-might-be-vanny @zzhengyu @petersasteria

[olderthannetfic]

so how do people feel about everyone publicly stating their age etc and all the "minors DNI" and "i'm 17 so no NSFW!!" stuff in everyone's bios? i do get it i really do, but as someone who was once a minor in adult fandom spaces and is honesty probably better off for it, it just leaves a weird taste my mouth. i know i wasn't the only minor in those same general spaces and we were all able to participate as long as we didn't cause any drama. writing explicit fic at 15 and reading explicit fic clearly written by a 15-year old was like a rite of passage. we all joked about clicking yes on those "im 18+ and legally allowed to read/see this" pop-ups and how weird it was you no longer had to lie when you turned 18. i learned so much as a teen interacting with all these actual adults, about fandom and fic and writing but also about real-life relationships, life in general, a lot of queer and kink-related topics that I would not have been able to openly discuss otherwise, and i'm just really glad I did. yeah, nowadays at 30+ i would feel a bit weird talking to a 16-year-old about a lot of this, im not gonna say i wouldn't, but i also honestly don't think i would /mind/, and most of all i just /don't want to know people's ages when I first interact with them online/. i don't want to be responsible for other people's online experiences. if you're old enough to come to /my/ online spaces and read or interact with the shit i write, well then you're old enough to make that decision for yourself. if you're old enough to write a comment or an ask then i assume you're old enough to talk about the things you're talking about. i don't need to be informed about your age. and if you don't want to see my shit, then take steps to avoid seeing it yourself and stop coming to my spaces or block me or whatever. "will anyone who doesn't want to see this see this" shouldn't be my fucking problem, definitely not beyond using basic tags/warning.

--

That's certainly my take on it, yes.

[apoloadonisandnarcissus]

Folks do not understand Orlok and Ellen in “Nosferatu” (2024), in the slightest, because they don’t understand Robert Eggers storytelling; he gives us the characters POV, their beliefs, not the actual truth of the story (“exposition”); characters talk about what they believe to be the truth. And this is why all your “interpretations” are incorrect and there’s no “sexual abuse” nor r*pe going on here, and never was.

It was Ellen who resurrected and cursed Orlok at the prologue (confirmed 4 times in the film); he’s not merely her sexual awakening, he’s also the awakening of her power (death);

Orlok was no more than a shadow at her window during her teenage years; Ellen would masturbate (the ultimate sin in Victorian era) and Orlok would appear at her window (it’s sexual energy that summons him);

This is a spiritual connection, not a physical one; the prologue established if Orlok touches Ellen she almost dies (she was masturbating at the prologue and then he grabs her neck);

Ellen never gave Orlok invitation into her family manor, that’s why she opens the window to him at the Harding household unaware she’s dooming everyone inside (precisely because he was no more than a shadow at her window, a haunting, a presence);

It’s Ellen who summons/conjures/invites Orlok for their communications to happen, she channels her sexual energy through her “hysteric fits” for them to communicate (telepathically; inside of her mind); it’s not him doing things to her body, it’s all on herself;

Ellen lacks the language to fully understand her power; and Victorian society doesn’t give her the knowledge to do it. That’s why she’s both confused and oblivious about the whole thing (confirmed by Robert Eggers in interviews). And that’s why it’s a character outside of Victorian society, with Occult learning, Professor Von Franz, who provides her with answers she needs to understand herself;

Ellen was not a literal “child” when she resurrected Orlok; she was 15 years old (confirmed in interviews), and she accuses him of corrupting her innocence because, in that scene, she believes Orlok is a demon possessing her body (because of what Von Franz told her, but he talked about a “daemon” haunting); for his part Orlok thinks Ellen knows she’s been summoning him to her this entire time (“thought you I wouldn’t return? Thought you I would not? Your passion is bound to me.”);

Professor Von Franz, in true occult scholar fashion, doesn’t tell Ellen the whole truth about her power (death) because he knows she’s not ready to hear it (he only tells her in their final scene together); Orlok reveals it (enchantress; necromancer) because he wants her to acknowledge her power (death) and see it will never be accepted by Victorian society; which is why he gives her three nights. Until then she will suffer him, the monster of her own creation, to bring her power (death) to those she loves (the living; Victorian society);

Ellen is the reincarnation of Orlok’s wife or lover. Orlok did took her “as his lover then”; but this “then” is 300 years into the past (late 16th century), not the 19th century. “Remember how once we were? A moment. Remember?” And she probably does have unconscious memories of this; the lilacs, the sex dreams of Orlok (he can only create nightmares); “you could never please me as he could”. And this is why he haunts her and is dragging her to her grave (strigoi myth);

The importance of “Ellen’s possession scene” to her character is that she realizes she can communicate with the spiritual realm as a whole (not only with Orlok); Orlok it’s not a demon possessing her body, it’s all on herself; and she’s the one who has been conjuring him this entire time (“I’m unclean!”). And this is why Orlok is not in that scene at all, there’s no visual indication of this, and he only shows up at the window later, when Thomas is asleep.

At last, Professor Von Franz finally reveals to Ellen her true power/nature, because she’s ready, and it’s what Orlok told her twice already: “In heathen times you might have been a great priestess of Isis”. Isis, Queen of the Underworld. “You are not for the living. You are not for human kind.” Ellen’s power is death (necromancer, mediumship, spiritual world).

Expanded explanation here, for those interested.

[onbearfeet]

Also, speaking as someone from that culture ... they're not going to listen to YOU. You're queer, you're POC, you're young, you have at least one tattoo--you're a Them, not an Us, in the eyes of anybody in the cult. Even if you're perfectly polite, there's a good chance they'll think you're a literal demon trying to deceive them. If they listened to people from way outside the cult, they wouldn't still be in the damn cult!

You have, realistically, only two options:

Make it worse

Do literally anything else, literally anywhere else

And yeah, I get it, people like this have hurt you and you want to hurt them back. Unfortunately, we don't have the wiggle room for petty revenge right now. If you make things worse, people die. The church lady you call a bitch on the internet is going to be throwing her money, her vote, and whatever influence she has into christofascism because you called her a bitch. That will be her choice, and her fault, but YOU will be the one who made it impossible for anyone else to reach her, and that will be YOUR fault.

I worked on my mom for YEARS to get her to drop the Republican brainwashing and accept trans kids for who they are, all so that her grandchild will be safe to come out as whatever they are, whenever they're ready. She was never going to listen to anyone else; I'm basically her best friend, the only person she trusts to tell her hard truths. I have used that power strategically. And she has a ton of social power! There are probably a dozen people she talks to at church every week who have changed their minds in the past because she did it first, specifically because she has such a reputation for being honest and devoted to God. "If she's doing it, it can't be a sin" is a sentence I've heard uttered about her. You WANT this woman on your team, flipping the local megacurch to your side!

And if someone had called her a piece of shit on Facebook a year ago, I would have been back to square one.

Some of these people can't be reached. Some can, but only by those they already love and trust. If you don't have that particular opportunity, there are lots of other things you can do to fight fascism. Just don't make it harder for the rest of us.

Might I give some advice:

Not everyone has (or needs to have) the energy to thoughtfully respond to republicans on the Internet. You do not have to do that.

But some people do, and can. And I think we gotta let them.

An example:

I have a former teacher, I'll call her Grace, who is an incredibly kind woman in her 70s. Devout catholic, had voted for various parties over the years, but has been pretty strictly democrat over the past 15-20 because that aligns with her values of kindness and service.

She shared a post about the pope's recent letter and expressed that she agreed with his concerns about how trump is treating immigrants. A friend of hers commented a long paragraph basically saying "dear Grace I care for you but I don't understand how you can be a Christian and a democrat. Blah blah abortion blah blah gender blah blah drugs."

Grace replied "I'm very busy right now but I am going to respond to you soon with my thoughts". When she did it was an incredibly generous, rational monologue that connected with this person's humanity, their shared religious values, and made a beautiful case for why she supports who she does. I didn't agree with a good half of what she said as I am not a Christian, but the result was an expression of values that I think put her on the side of justice and compassion.

The person replied and thanked her and said she had a lot to think about. It was probably the best case scenario for a Facebook politics conversation

You know what came very close to ruining it? A bunch of (mostly younger) people piling on with "fuck you you racist maga pos" and "no one has to explain anything to you, go to hell" etc etc. Even after Grace wrote that she intended to reply herself.

I watched this republican respond to all the easy, quick insults by saying "this is why I don't think any democrats can be Christian, this is how you all speak to me." If Grace hadn't put so much work into writing her response in a way that was tailored to fit this person, I would not be surprised if that person left Facebook doubly certain that Christian nationalism is the way to go.

I'm not saying we can't cuss out jackasses. I'm not saying everyone needs to respond to bad faith arguments like Grace did or use their time like she did.

But this was on Grace's Facebook page, and interrupted the work she already volunteered to do. Just so these individuals could feel like they "did something" and got a shot off at an enemy.

I think that's selfish and childish and unproductive. They could have said anything they wanted in their own space, but they made grace's job harder for no fuckin reason. And then "loved" her reply and said "that was beautiful Grace, thank you for sharing your thoughts"

Like... Buddies. Pals. If someone volunteers to scrub the toilet fucking let them.

[drdemonprince]

do you think it's worth it being nonbinary if you dont have like, body/physical dysphoria? Ive been identifying as nonbinary since i was 14 and when i was in high school it was great, i had my little liberal bubble queer friend group, and the rest of the school didnt pay much attention to me. My mom accepted me in the "i dont get it but whatever i dont want you to stop talking to me so i guess ill go along with it" sense, which while not perfect, its fine. But last september i started studying engineering and. Its really not going well. Like 85% of my classmates are straight guys and they range from thinking nonbinary people are cringe (and therefore they make fun of me when i walk by) to being extremely transphobic (im very scared of some of them.) And ive been trying to make friends with the girls in my class, and some of them are nice, but i can tell they also dont like that im nonbinary. One of them literally told me "i get that being a woman is hard, i dont like having periods or the ways guys look at me either, but you dont gain anything by denying yourself". So. I kind of think about that nearly every night now. Doubting whether im really nonbinary. And it really doesnt help knowing that basically every girl here either thinks that or just straight up thinks im gross and weird, ive literaly heard one of them go 'what is THAT doing in the womens' when i walked past her from the bathroom. I dont like going to class much.

Im thinking of detransisioning, i guess. I never started taking hormones (good luck getting those in eastern europe lol), so I could easily start looking like a cis girl again. These will be my coworkers and bosses, i cant live like this until i retire. i want to have fun uni experiences too. And ive been thinking so much lately about why im even doing this. Its just a few words that people call me by. Theres nonbinary people who use binary pronouns and pass as cis, i could be one of them and just not tell anyone that im actually nb. but on the other hand, it feels like im giving up on the trans community if i do this. Giving up on activism. Im sure im not the only one in this situation, if i detransition ill be letting them down completely. I dont want the next generation to be as fucked as this one. Also i came out very publicly to my entire class (i wanted to find other queer people to be friends with, i hoped that would do the trick maybe. I was so naive and stupid) and it will be so fucking humiliating to go back on that and im scared ill do all that and theyll keep treating me the same anyways because im already "tainted" by transness. So i would let so many people down for nothing.

The one other trans friend from my high school friend group solved this issue by paying more than ten fucking thousand euros per year to study in the netherlands btw. The exchange rate to our currency makes it somehow even worse than it sounds. Hes probably going to be able to start taking hormones before he gets his bachelors. I wish my mom was that rich :|

First of all, I want to say that I am so sorry anon that you are facing so much fucking exclusion and harassment. That kind of treatment pushes a lot of trans people into detransitioning, and it is brutal, and that this experience can happen to nonbinary people who are not on hormones but have otherwise transitioned is something that does not get acknowledged enough.

I can't tell you what you should do in your situation, because no outcome is great. But I think you might find some elements of this article from Kier Adrian Grey on ceasing their use of they/them pronouns (among the cis public!) interesting. They're an "ex anarchist" and a bit of an anti social justice dogma kinda person so I don't agree with them on many things, but I did like this point that they made:

"Hear me out: maybe the best way to understand they/them pronouns, within the context of a pluralistic democracy, is as a subcultural norm, a way for LGBT people to show respect for one another within our community. That sense of belonging I felt when I first found queer spaces was profound, and if using gender-neutral pronouns gives someone that gift, I am all for it. "But I do wonder if we are setting people up for hardship when we tell them that they should hope for, expect, or insist on they/them pronouns being used by everyone they encounter, and that they will be emotionally injured every time this fails to happen. In my thirteen years, misgendering was rarely malicious, and yet it still fed into a wounded identity and a suspicious worldview."

I don't think that what Kier has written about their experience applies to even most nonbinary people, and if taken too prescriptively by the wrong people it could be an awful dysphoria cope that leads a person to some pretty dark places. But! For someone whose feelings about it all are like Kier's, and whose life experiences have given them similar perspective, I think there is something to it. It's true that thinking a great deal about how one is gendered by others is crazy making and sometimes isolating, and if that's the sole way in which one's transness interfaces with the world, it's not always to the person's net benefit.

Here's the full piece:

I will say that based on all you had to say, anon, it would be a lot better for you if you could get around a lot of queer and trans people! What you're struggling with is not being seen and appreciated for who you are, and all the cis people undermining you are driving you crazy and making you doubt yourself. I'd MUCH prefer if you could find more local queer community or relocate if necessary to feel more appreciated as you are.

BUT if you find yourself resonating with this author's points and it feels like only being out to other trans and queer people would be good for you, that is okay to do. That isn't "detransitioning," it's being choosy about whom you trust. And many of us navigate those decisions. I'm not out as trans to everyone I meet! Most people just think I'm a cis guy. The big difference between you and me is that I have medically transitioned (and if you want to, I recommend ordering some hormones on India Mart!!!). You have some choices here about how much information you give to other people, how much you trust people who are incredibly ignorant, how much you will expose yourself to harm by making requests for treatment that might not happen, and how to build the community you need to survive this awful transphobic reality.

[shanklin]

Relativity Falls but at the end of the summer Stan learns the very important lesson of not being “selfish” and returns to New Jersey alone.

Through the years the excuses as to why Stan can’t come visit pile up. He broke his leg, caught the flu, has a summer job, broke a vase in the shop and is under house arrest etc etc.

Ford eventually gets fed up with all the excuses and stops calling home. Stan obviously doesn’t want to see him anymore now that he got other friends with his freak of a brother out of the picture.

3 years pass and the police are standing in front of the Shack. 

Filbrick Pines is dead and Stan is nowhere to be found.

[or alternatively the police brought Stan to live with them now that Filbrick died, but Stan is almost unrecognizable from the boy who left three years ago. He's polite and keeps to himself, but there's a rage just beneath the surface that makes others question if there is more to Filbricks death than meets the eye.]

[akookminsupporter]

JIKOOK KARMA STRIKES AGAIN… AND SO DOES THE CHAOS

Jimin and Jungkook talking—or better yet, teasing us—really took me back to that last Wlive they did with Joon and Tae, when they were teasing us about AYS. It’s that same chaotic energy, where they drop just enough hints to get us all curious but refuse to spill the details. And now, once again, I’m sure the average Jikooker is sitting somewhere, wondering what kind of stories they were referring to and why they’re suddenly ‘worried’ that we might go somewhere.

Like… go where exactly? What is it that we’re supposed to be running away from? Or towards? Are they concerned we’ll collectively lose our minds and ascend to another dimension? Do they think we’ll all log off en masse? (Unlikely. Jikookers have survived worse. We don’t log off.) Or are they, for some reason, imagining us physically running somewhere? The way they worded it was so dramatic, and considering how… well, dramatic they can be, I wouldn’t put it past them to exaggerate on purpose just to wind us up.

Now, I don’t know about you guys, but the first time I read that whole conversation it sent me in a completely different direction. Hobi said that he’d heard some of these stories before and they made him laugh so hard his stomach hurt and I swear, my first thought was that they were talking about something so funny that we’d all end up running to the bathroom because we’d be laughing so hard, we’d pee ourselves. That was genuinely my first assumption ajajajajajjaaj. I don’t know if that’s me oversharing, but I promise you, that was my immediate thought process when I saw their conversation. Like, they weren’t just hinting at something mildly amusing—they were acting like these stories were comedic gold.

And honestly? Knowing Jimin and Jungkook, I can totally see it. These two have always had a way of getting themselves into ridiculous situations, whether it’s by accident or on purpose. They’re the type of people who will be completely serious one second and then somehow descend into absolute chaos the next. The number of times they’ve been caught making each other laugh uncontrollably, to the point where they’re falling over, hitting each other is endless. So, I can only imagine what kind of things they’ve been through that they personally find hilarious.

But what really gets me is the way they spoke about it. Like, the absolute drama of it all. The way they said it was so unnecessarily intense. It’s such a Jimin and Jungkook thing to do—acting as if they’ve lived through some wild, untold saga when in reality, it’s probably just them being absolute menaces and laughing at the dumbest things. And yet, here we are, hanging onto their every word, waiting to hear what exactly happened. I just know that whatever these stories are, they’re going to be peak Jikook behaviour. I. CANT. WAIT.

Now, Switching topics for a moment—because I need to talk about this—if there’s one thing that has been proven time and time again, it’s that ‘Jikook karma’ is very real. I mean, we’ve seen it play out so many times over the years, and it just keeps happening.

Like, take what happened recently. A few days ago, I saw some Jikookers talking about how the vecinas were up to their usual nonsense, this time about a restaurant. Apparently, the restaurant itself had to step in and clarify some things, which, of course, immediately made the vecinas furious. And what did they do in response? They started sending hate to the restaurant owner and blaming BHM for everything under the sun—again. Like clockwork.

But that wasn’t even the only thing going on. For some reason, the vecinas and Solos also decided to revive their weird obsession with trying to prove that Jimin and Jungkook don’t spend time together. They went back to claiming that the two of them don’t share a dorm—or whatever it’s called in the military—and that they don’t even see each other, which is just… fascinating, considering the fact that Jungkook himself already said otherwise. So, in other words, they were basically calling Jungkook a liar.

And what happened next? Classic Jikook karma. Because not only did Jimin confirm that he and Jungkook do share a dorm (or sleep in the same place, however, you want to phrase it), but both of them also casually mentioned that they’ve been through so much together—so many incredible and probably hilarious moments—that they can’t wait to tell us about them… even though they’re not sure if they can tell us. Like, they want to share, but maybe they shouldn’t. I mean, if that’s not the ultimate ‘Jikook karma’ moment, I don’t know what is.

Now, back to the fun part of all this—because I need to focus on that instead of the nonsense—Jungkook absolutely killed me when he said, "June 11th!" basically implying that the day they’re discharged from the military, they’ll spill everything. The way he just threw that date out there so confidently was hilarious, like, that’s when you’ll know everything! I love him, but yeah… I don’t see that happening.

I don’t know if being a Jikooker has made me pessimistic because deep down, I feel like we’re not actually going to hear these stories they were bragging about today. Like, I want to believe it. I want to trust that they’ll actually spill, but something tells me they won’t. They’ll either decide last minute that it’s too embarrassing, or they’ll just keep hyping it up without ever giving us the details. And honestly? That’s fine. We should be used to it by now. If anything, it’ll just be another inside joke for the fandom. After all, it took almost four years for us to finally hear about the ‘rainy day fight’. Four years. So if we have to wait another few years to hear these new stories, well… I guess we just have to be patient. Again.

[animealways]

the himbo part was a joke in regards to how steve, according to the timeline of the movies never considering to tell tony or atleast give him a warning in regards to bucky situation relating to his family despite having known the truth for 2 years. probably just some plot hole so they could up the drama and emotional stakes but still just feels stupid regardsless

i'm not arguing tony was right about the accords. i know steve was right about that. I'm specificly talking about the fight scene cause that entire mess could have been avoided if steve had a honest heart to heart with tony. wich again in universe he had 2 years for cause that's roughly the time pass between winter soldier and civil war. you can't tell me if steve just talked to tony in a controled envoirment with maybe pepper of rhodey as emotional support tony couldn't have eventually calmed down enough to realise that bucky is a victim

and i doubt nat knew atleast for certain cause she claimed winter soldier is a ghost story to most after all, maybe furry but the only reason steve knew for certain bucky killed howard and maria is because of zola (was his name? idk) showed him a picture howard dead and said 'accidents happen'.

i know bucky is a victim but regardless of how he still killed and at the time, was very much as risk of getting triggerd back into the winter soldier. using that shield, a gift from one of his victims to protect him could easily be seen as disrespect towards howard

as for howard sucking as a dad. steve still knew him personally, worked closely with him during the war even the peggy carter shows that yes howard is an ass but cares just like tony and i'm sure steve knew that about howard. good people can be bad parents and i'm sure steve could put that together.

also steve literally had no choice to be a nomad. he would have gotten arrested if he didn't. That isn't proof to suggest he did it just because he was sick of the goverments crap. but steve actively stopped and dropped the shield when tony mentioned howard.

i'm not saying steve was wrong about the accords i'm saying steve was wrong in that specific fight scene cause all the context of him having worked closely with howard, knowing him on a personal level, being close friends with tony and having 2 years to tell tony about the whole bloody mess makes steve look horibble.

Team Iron man fans saying that Steve was wrong for not telling Tony that Bucky killed his parents but honestly, seeing how Tony handled finding out about it, I wouldn't have told him either. Tony was already willing to throw bucky into prison or an institution IMAGINE what he would've done if he found out bucky killed his parents while they still had him in custody. Steve was doing what he always has done, protect Bucky.

People openly supporting the revenge killing of a man who had NO control over his life for the past 70 years and wasn't even conscious for the majority of it because of something he did WHILE BRAINWASHED is insane to me.

(also please don't attack me I'm just stating my opinion TwT)

[chronicdelusionistsart]

Bernard Dowd and the Art of Recontextualization

I'm what you might call a "fake Batman fan" - that is, I've only watched most of the Batman animated series', all of the live action movies, most of the animated ones, played some of the video games... so, you know, probably thousands of hours of my life in Batman related media. But not the comics! Fake fan!

Frankly, I find the comics medium the way DC and Marvel do it to be really hard to follow. There's the fact that you can't really follow an individual solo character without them getting caught up in massive crossover events that ruin their arc and pacing, there's the soap-opera-iness that encourages cheap and revolving conflicts inherent to the longform monthly release schedule, the writer roulette, and there's also just that going back to try and thread a particular continuity or character is an exercise in frustration. Oh and the retcons. Everyone hates those. They've (basically) never been good. Don't remember this part it will never come up aga

But, you know, despite this - or maybe because of this - comics is a breeding ground for ideas. Because of the quick turnaround and the demand for novel conflicts, comics just churn out idea after idea. Good ideas, bad ideas, doesn't matter. Get it to print. Retcon it later if we write ourselves into a corner. Comics are often soooooo first draft coded. This is why I personally prefer adaptations - they often reimagine ideas and retcon them into new narratives where they can serve a more coherent plot. But what happens when a character is picked up for a second draft ... without actually contradicting the earlier material? While enriching the earlier material, even?

(SPOILERS for Tim Drake: Robin and uh... 20 year old comics under the cut!)

So, uh, quick disclaimer - because I have very little overall knowledge of DC's Comics continuity, there may be more interesting examples of times that what I'm going to point out was done. But I love Bernard and from a writer's POV I'm impressed with the way they did it so we're talking about Bernard lmao

The Beginning (Robin 1993) - Reading comics from the 2000s hurts in a way I can't describe

Okay so I heard Tim Drake is dating a guy now? (Penny Sonic voice) Whoa he's bisexual I didn't know that! I'm sure people on the internet are being very normal about this. Cool let's find out more about his new bf. I like starting from the beginning... so like yeah hold on while I crack open the Robin comic and take down what this guy's deal is.

😬

So basically the TL;DR of Bernard in his original appearances is that he seems to be an attempt to introduce some normal stakes teen drama into Tim's life. He has all the Funny Guy Friend Classics - he's got an inflated sense of his proficiency at pulling girls, he's inexplicably drawn towards the protagonist (who is cooler than him), he wants to date the most popular girl in school, and he wants to get down with older women!

This might just be me but while I was going through this I thought like, he almost reads a little uncanny, like he's been filtered through a Disney Teen Special. In practice he mostly serves to introduce Tim to the Real Plot, Darla Aquista, and be one of his ties to civilian life, which is, like, fine. He's ultimately just a background character and he's so unimportant that he only has one appearance after their school gets shot up(!!!), which is, again, to be more of an accessory to the Darla plot.

After this display of "wow this guy's kind of lowkey insane for offering to his resurrected bestie supervillainess to be her manager actually", he's dropped forever. Comics! We're not gonna unpack that.

The Sequel (Batman: Urban Legends) - We're Gonna Unpack That

Until almost two decades later when he calls Tim up for a date. And while I'm trying to skim over a lot to get to the point here and I don't really know the FULL context, it is notable that Tim is in the middle of an identity crisis / the cusp of adulthood when this happens (I think he just lost a spleen or something. That sucks dude). It's pretty implicit that part of the reason he's going to see Bernard is because he's someone familiar in a time when he's facing a lot of new and scary stuff.

And at first blush, he really does seem like the same dude. The familiar arm over the shoulder, the banter, it's all very casual and similar to the ribbing from high school -

- and I guess nothing has happened to Bernard in the interim haha he's just the funny friend guy right?

I really like the way they did this. I'm just unambiguously going to praise how good this is if you just came off the 2000s stuff. Comics have kind of breakneck pacing by nature but they really manage to condense down and then pull off a neat sleight of hand over the course of like four pages here. They re-establish Bernard as a silly guy and then wham you with the fact that yeah actually we ARE gonna unpack that. Fuck you Tim Drake life is ever changing and nothing stays the same

So the TL;DR on the rest of the Urban Legends storyline is that stuff like, HAPPENED to this guy while our focus was elsewhere. He learned martial arts, presumably so that he wouldn't be so helpless in the next school shooting level event, he got into a pain cult, he's just Not Doing Well. We find out, reading between the lines, that calling Tim on a date was probably one of his last attempts to reach out to someone when the cult stuff was getting really bad.

I've heard people complain that Bernard is uninteresting or not a character or entirely focused on his relationship with Tim, and I think that criticism is really weird considering that his entire re-debut focuses on the point that he's been having his own life and making his own (often wild) decisions - ones that really changed the course of his life - while Tim was gone. And it's also notable that this story is about how the fact that he's his own person and has changed and has made the nerve-wracking decision to take action and call Tim inspires Tim himself to take a leap and fling himself into the uncertain waters of young adulthood.

Me when I have my bi awakening and call to get out of a rut simultaneously because Cute Insane Guy Inspired Me. iconic

So that's how Bernard has changed. But that's not recontextualization, that's just the writers taking a guy and making him do another, cooler thing. Well hold the fuck on because we're not goddamn done.

What did he mean by th-

The Recontextualizerrrrr (Tim Drake: Robin) - Bernard is the funniest person in Gotham City. I'll not be taking constructive criticism on this

Tim Drake: Robin is the followup to the Urban Legends story and Tim is the main character fr. Obviously. but Bernard is also a major character. Later, he even gets to be a POV character. But they don't do that for several issues, instead treating us to his shenanigans from Tim's point of view as he solves a bizarre serial murder case and like, they're cute! And neither of them are normal in the slightest. I love that for them.

Again, TL;DR, there are a lot of interactions where Bernard talks to Tim both in and out of costume, but we don't get to see his POV until they go out to a restaurant and meet Bernard's parents there by accident and Tim has to run off to do Robin stuff. And like... a lot of stuff happens in this one bois. Whammy after whammy

We're suddenly introduced explicitly to a lot that was only implied or just completely unavailable before. Bernard's parents are ragingly homophobic. Probably were never great even before that. He suffers from depression. All that is a lot to. wait. hold on a second

he knows?????

HE KNOWS????

Okay so if you stop at this point and reread the entire run so far you find out that Bernard is in fact the biggest troll in the entire universe. This is the moment that cemented him as my favourite, by the way. Like I had a feeling that he knew and I was just laughing my ass off when my suspicions were confirmed.

But this is really interesting on top of that because Bernard has been revealed to be, at this point, a guy who you should look deeper than the surface to understand. Someone who masks his true self and whose true motivations you can only uncover if you're really looking past the facade. Even with Tim, he sort of offers Tim and Robin half the story each, taking advantage of Robin's "distance" to give out information he wants Tim to think about but that he's reluctant to talk about frankly while at the same time almost daring Tim to open up about his identity.

Absolutely most normal way to tell your bf about your cult trauma. You'll always be famous to me Bernard Dowd

This is a really neat trick by the writers. It makes Bernard a multifaceted character who got to quietly develop while we were mostly focused on Tim, and there's some clever clever foreshadowing they set up in this run to achieve this. If it were just this, I would call it good writing.

But it actually goes one level deeper than that and becomes something really really special. because as we all know, Bernard was not conceived to be this way, he was a one-off guy who was kind of annoying and he was essentially retconned to be, like. Gay? Have depth? Be funny? All of those things?

The Seamless Retcon (Robin 1993 Again) - We took your guy and we gave him gay subtext and it worked astoundingly well

This is not a new observation btw, I've seen a ton of posts to this effect. But oh my god. Some of these panels really hit different with the new Bernard lore. Like holy fuck just read this back to back

There are tons of moments like this. There's SO MUCH that the revelation that Bernard is queer adds to his initially extremely underwhelming tenure in the Robin comics. A reread almost begs the question of what Bernard must have been thinking at any given moment! BRO YOU SAID YOU WANTED TO FUCK HIS STEPMOM. That's completely believable as a next-level closeting move and goes from kind of annoying to turbofunny.

Like yeah of course he's acting like a douche. His father is a status-chasing asshole and he's five racks deep in the closet. Of course he gravitates towards Tim - his gaydar is pinging and he thinks Tim is cute. And it's also pinging that Tim is like. You know

None of this would hit as hard if the writers had not set up Bernard as someone who masks so much. They worked it in that character trait to mean that you could always glean information deeper than the surface from his top level interactions.

Because of this, Bernard is really fucking interesting and he's a good character and he's one that gets better on reread. Like I said, that's a set of observations that are not new to me. But something that really gets to me is how seamless and intentional it is. It really feels like the writer sat down and took their time devising a guy that is believable as that other guy, but only if you read back with certain context.

The conclusion - Comics. Man.

So is this just about how Bernard is really fucking interesting and he's a good character and he's one that gets better on reread and that he can exist independent of Tim and all the haters are wrong. Yeah of course. 💖

But also like, I have thoroughly proven to myself that I was kinda wrong to just reject the published comics medium out of hand. I see now that there's room for the writer's roulette to hit the jackpot and that something I mistook as an outright flaw, the winding and unfocused and often improvised nature of it, can be ridden like a wave if you're skilled enough to do it. Meghan Fitzmarten is a goddamned genius.

I guess I have to read comics now. Fuck

[elliesglock]

okay so i had to change my timeline after further research and discussion into pazzi. this one's going to be a little bit more detailed than my other wise pretty vague original one. some things will stay the same because they're pretty obvious but i wanted to cover the little grey area that's 2020-2022 more in depth.

2016

there is proof paige met azzi before their official meeting at team usa. paige and azzi had an aau tournament that overlapped during summer in 2016. azzi is 14 and paige is 15. azzi is playing 2 grades above her age group in her aau league against paige's aau team but she's not playing paige. there's a part in the full game video where it cuts to the sideline and we see big grinning cheesy paige watching the game. from what we know about paige and how she is with azzi, i think she had her eye on azzi. i mean in the part of the video paige is in azzi makes a play and it cuts to paige grinning and looking away all shy. the way her expression is makes her look like she's just seen her crush. and i think she literally did. she's picking at her face and having some nervous ticks in that portion of the video. so i said in my original timeline paige had a secret admirer thing going on. and i 100% stand by that. paige brings up in the slam interview that she knew azzi for 3 years (in 2019) so that timeline lines up with her first seeing azzi. now azzi doesn't remember obviously because she didn't have an eye for paige like p did for her. also she was playing a game. but i find it so interesting that paige remembers it enough to associate their first meeting being a different time than azzi's. it literally gives love at first sight. paige obviously doesn't talk to azzi i don't think until they meet officially in 2017 in the usa trials. do i think paige found her instagram and started stalking it? 100%. i just don't think she followed or liked any of azzi's photos until 2017 when azzi most likely gave her, her instagram. so essentially paige has been plotting on azzi for a total of 9 years since they were literally fetuses. no surprise there from p honestly we're not broaching new territory. imo pazzi have always been soulmates and meant to find each other. so it's no surprise to me paige saw her for the first time and was drawn to her. i don't think either of them had a choice 😭.

2017

they officially meet. this is the time azzi remembers lol. i think paige initiated everything due to what they both have said. and if we think about how she already had a crush on azzi prior, it's not crazy to say she wanted to initiate conversation because azzi was literally her crush or at least someone she admired. i think p saw her again and was like oh yes that pretty girl that was at my aau tournament i've been watching her for a bit let's go make friends with her. plotting p yet again. this is just the first peg in her multi-step generational bag scheme 😭. azzi being azzi is a little shy and standoffish around such a big personality that is paige. i think paige really did try talking to her which is why i don't believe p when she said that they "didn't talk very much off the court". i think they did and there was some flirting probably from paige. anyways either i don't think they really started talking until the plane ride home. they get sat together and ofc p sees her opportunity and thinks yapping azzi's ear off is the way she'll get her. they get home to minnesota and i think this is where they start messing or crossing lines. i'm among the many believers in pazzi nation that p and a were never strictly platonic friends or that they started getting together in college. no they have been getting with each other for a VERY long time. now do i think a relationship was started as soon as they got home in 2017? not dating no. very much fwb. they were young so it's not surprise that they weren't dating, especially considering azzi would have to go back home eventually and they would be separated. also i think it was wayyyyy too complicated for them to label what they had. again they were really young. 15 and 16. nobody knows what they're doing at that age.

2018

i argued before that they started dating here. but i don't think so. the way i see it they were still a situationship pretty much all throughout high school. i felt before like how p was a little possessive and showy of azzi gave dating but i genuinely just think she was talking to azzi and she claimed her as her girl and wanted everybody to know that. does that mean they were in a relationship? no. i don't think they labeled it dating. so situationship is the best descriptor for them. paige and azzi spent a lot of time in 2018. they had usa events, aau tournaments, and many games where they either played against each other or their teams were in the same tournament. there was a lot of flying back and forth from the dmv to minnesota for azzi. i still believe they were seeing each other in between these tournaments and messing around. at this time it was still very dl and they kept it that way. i can see them kinda sneaking around during or after tournaments seeing each other and getting together. all in all, they spent a ton of time together in 2018 and tons of traveling. not necessarily were they flying to specifically see each other but i think they're so involved with basketball they knew they would see each other eventually. and they were def talking in between visits as well. so atp i think it's a talking stage/ situationship. all very casual. kinda like oh i see the girl im talking to every so often and we do stuff. but i dont think they were trying to pursue anything else with anybody. they were still very much only exclusively with one another. i still think they loved each other very platonically here though, love is a big word for each other at such a young age especially with how confusing they're relationship might've been. i think yes definitely they were attracted to one another but not love romantically if that makes sense. but i do think they really liked each other and loved to see each other and talk. they were still best friends at the end of the day and they still are yk. they're just girlfriends now too 😭

2019

this is a big shift. instead of relying on tournaments to see each other azzi and paige start flying to specifically see one another. i think the feelings start to rev up here and even though they are still fwb here imo, they become attached to each other. and they want to see each other a lot. i can see the beginning little blossoms of love here. i still think they view each other as bsfs and they are attracted to one another and do things with each other. but the feelings factor starts to come in. they fly multiple times to come support each other at different events. paige wins at the state championship her junior year and azzi flies down to support her. azzi's team goes to the geico nationals and paige flies down to see her. 2019 is very much a big shift in regards with how they feel about one another all in all. i think it becomes for them a little more complicated than fwb and they really start to like each other in more than just wanting a relationship as friends. in the summer they spend A BUNCH of time together at the cabins, at azzi's house, and also is when they made their joint tik tok account. definitely a lot of messing around with no label this summer. especially with all the time they spent together. i definitely do think they were exclusive at this time as well. just with how they literally had no opportunity to see any other people with the amount of time they were together 😭. and i think they liked it that way. i don't think they really had any interest in pursuing anything else because they had what they wanted really in each other. (that's very soulmate coded and they really tried to ignore it 😒 these idiots). i don't think they mentioned feelings for each other however. kinda just kept it secret and continued taking what they got being together physically iykwim. azzi tears her acl and paige is heartbroken for her. she prays over her knee and carries her to the table and everything. paige has always loved her so much i could literally die right here. the only time away from each other pretty much is when paige goes to usa basketball 3x3 tournament in qatar. and yes they were definitely acting like they were in a talking stage. it's just what teenagers do a lot of the time they're going to for a talking stage rather than a relationship. especially at this time you know.

2020

holy dependency. paige is so obsessed and misses "her" girl (def how paige viewed azzi) so bad she comes and stays with her family during quarantine after her school year ends due to covid. i know this is a little delusional but i think p was really sad and just wanted to go stay with azzi and feel better cause that's the only way she knew how :(. and that was her comfort person and comfort family. i think that's really special to have at 17. azzi also flew down early in the year and watched paige's state tournament games before they were cut short. this is also when we get the "team paige" shirts and her being in the crowd and everything. one thing about pazzi they gonna go watch each other play. it's one of the things they first fell in love with with one another. it's a huge part of their lives so obviously they're gonna go support each other in those times. i think spending all that time together again nurtured a lot of feelings between them and a lot of unspoken love. i truly have always believed this is when they became as in love with each other as they are today. i think they've always had feelings for each other but being with essentially your person for that period of time would cause anyone to fall head over heels. and they certainly did. however, they probably admitted to their feelings but were scared to take it to the next level because of college coming up and the distance and how hard it is to make those work when you're young. so i don't think they took it to the next step. i think they decided to remain friends and possibly wanted to stay intimate with each other but not label it yet again. paige goes to college in the fall and azzi comes and visits her a few times. even on her birthday to tell her she's committing to uconn after paige has been WORKING on those videos to get her to come. to me i think that's very intimate and sweet and it really shows how much they feel for one another. here i think they probably do things when azzi comes to campus and have a dependency on each other but try to stay firm on their no labels kinda deal.

2021

oh 2021 how i hate you. soooo fucking confusing. that's all i can say. they're together pretty consistently in the beginning of the year and azzi even goes to paige's final four game in march. i still think they're staying strong in whatever situationship they cooked up and still have those feelings and that love for each other. they hang out in the summer a lot and mess around 100% and then eventually they go to uconn together to spend even more time together. they literally can't catch a breath that's not around each other i love it so bad. when i think of 2021-2022 pazzi i think dependency. i think around this time having to basically live with one another, go to the same school, and also play on the same team together it creates a big problem for their just fwb situation. i don't know if there were conversations that geared towards maybe labeling what they had but it's a possibility. i think they still try to stay really cemented in their boundaries and i think they're scared of fucking up a relationship and messing up their ability to be teammates. and i don't think they could resist getting with one another in this time and that also made the pushing to be more labeled worse. a lot of feelings and emotions and most likely arguments and i think 2021-2022 is a hard time for pazzi. they're 18 and 19 btw. like that shits difficult to navigate at a young age not even mentioning all the eyes and pressure that were on them at this time.

2022

we're still in that weird idiotic time where they just won't admit they should be together. i know the whole team was so tired of them. i do think they were having riffs and arguments and problems based on what azzi was posting on tik tok and also how aaliyah was hyping her up 😭 there are some tricky comments and reposts around this time however. but i do think they clean up their act a bit and they really are sick of constantly being confused so they decided to casually date and test the waters. one of azzi's friends comments "chill people girlfriends are on this app" on azzi's post i believe and azzi likes it. also paige reposts a video that says "when you have a girlfriend that cries seeing old people sitting alone." now i like how they immediately jump to calling each other girlfriends because they knew they were already doing that before 😭 p seems like def the type to be like yeah my girl i love my girl this is my girl while they're literally just fwb. everybody at this time that matters already knows the trials and tribulations those bitches have been through so i think it's a sigh of relief for everyone to be able to know that pazzi were not doing their weird situationship anymore. hence azzi's friend commenting that.

2023-2024

the casual dating and testing the waters works out for them and they realize how much they like being with one another and how they really were never gonna be able to stop it. it's probably an inside joke between them now to make fun of themselves for thinking with their soulmate ass bond they were going to make it just being a situationship. i think they are officially locked in by mid to late 2023 but at that point they had been pretty much in a exclusive relationship for a year just testing everything. now we are eating good and they're getting married and everything's fine. kids on the way and everything.

so that's my updated timeline! thank for reading 💕 please send any of your thoughts i'd love to read them!

for the anon that asked for the shady tik toks:

aaliyah tik tok where azzi sings "one good girl is worth a thousand bitches." and comments "what i said 🗣️" under it that aaliyah likes

azzi tik tok where she says she's outside and captions it #howboutdat. aaliyah comments "slayed 😏😏". they are so messy yall. i think azzi was pissed cause paige did the same audio a week prior and they might've had an argument or sum. and she did her signature like eat that post 😭.

paige post where she used a city girl song that says "i'm a mf city girl ain't shi free bout me." i don't know if this one's messy but p is so sassy like shit

[soyales]

i have no defence for this, my opinions came rushing out, please ignore thanks byeee

ok so i get that madoka magica is like peak anime, an eternal work of art and trancendent divine tragic yuri, but like i wanna yap about the amazingness of orpheus and eurydice’s tragedy.

so orpheus and eurydice’s story comes from thousands of years of cobbled together bits and pieces from oral tradition right? its not really a medium that lends itself to continuity and meaningful foreshadowing, symbolism and the like. its honestly probably that ancient poets just thought, “i think this is how it went? whatever story some old guy told me twenty years ago probably did this right?” and just went full send on whatever the hell they felt like talking about, superimposing their own interpretations and perspectives onto this fable. ALSO THE GREEK MYTH HAS ITS OLDEST SOURCE FROM ANCIENT ROME, THATS *CENTURIES* AFTER ITS SETTING. theres no way any modern depiction in any way can stay “accurate” or “faithful” to its original form, our “original” is already a re-telling thats basically fanfic at that point. it has three (3) total story beats, eurydice dies, orpheus goes to the underworld, orpheus fails. its not so much about the story, i think, more of the message it sends about the finality of death and futility of humanity in the face of death, which I would argue is like the crux of most tragedies. it always ends in death, and the tragedy of their love centres around death, and their inability to escape it. i think it is more of a relatable tragedy to us non-magical girls turned immortal divinity, even though absolutely none of this shit is literally realistic to anyone outside a fictional world, its an analogy, of the suffering caused from the death/abandonment of loved ones. they don’t really need further depth into their characters nor relationship, i think it exists nicely as an ideal or concept, to be doven into by anyone.

i can’t say much about madohomu because its been a while since i had last seen it, but from what i remember it gets kinda insane with the lore and yeah i remember it being an amazing experience with brilliant writing, but i don’t want to say definitively that its a better story. it is, but like i dont want to admit it ok?? its a single story of a single writer’s mind, while my classical greek otp is a mishmash of thousands of years of artists of all kinds.

even with the messiness of mythos and the simplicity at its core, orpheus and eurydice have many different versions of their tale over time, a real life history that madohomu just dont have, and i think it sort of makes up for the less stable premise. it has just a richer history that i think is really interesting, weaving in the history of each storyteller in each rendition.

take hadestown the featured pic, it plays real fast and loose with the commonly accepted lore of the myth — the song he sings is different, the setting changes from the golden age of heroes in the hellenistic area to some sort of western railroad wild west-ish place, eurydice isnt a nymph, the satyrs arn’t there, etc. — but it still runs through the same simple story beats. it is different to ovid’s metamorphoses’ depiction of them, where they seem to focus more on the “no matter what you can’t escape death”, whereas hadestown seems to say more that “no matter what you can’t escape capitalism” (i know im grossly generalising it, shush.) all this to say its a different take, made by different people, and my own take in my mind is also different to all of yours as much as yours are different to all others, even if it is only in the most minute way. theres no right answer with these old ass myths, while there can be a slight directive with something more modern and crafted as pmmm.

theres just something super tragic about the fact that no matter how many renditions and versions orpheus and eurydice’s story goes through, all of them end up with the two being separated. their most remembered story beat is that orpheus fails her, and they don’t manage to live happily ever after, which is a special sort of tragic at least to me. also im defending orpheus now. i swear he’s not an absolute loser failure ok??? hes somewhat functional, but less so without eurydice. he’s literally walking out of the underworld, escaping death. at his point in time, NO ONE HAS DONE THAT BEFORE (no one still has, but i digress). the sheer stress of that compounded with the fact that he’s dealing with gods — who in ancient greece are famously known to not want to benefit mortals like he — would make anyone in his position weak. its a little mistake, that unfortunately has grave consequences attached. how easy is it to hear a sound behind you and instinctively look and check? with the knowledge that your love of your life may or may not be behind you no less. he was just about leaving the underworld, the sight of the sky ahead of him, what if he thought they had already succeeded? a small misconception, a tiny movement of the head, just a small turn of his eyes and everything crumbles before him? its his fault, and he knows it best. but also i can’t judge him for that, he does way better than i think most people would do in that situation. most people wouldn’t have even stepped foot beyond the acheron and he went fully in and out without killing himself (entirely).

alright thanks if you read all of that, i can’t even read that and its only been 5 seconds since I typed the last sentence. 14 seconds now <333

anyways madohomu supremacy lets goooo tragic yuri wins <33333

Tragic Ships Tournament: FINAL ROUND

Propaganda under the cut!

Orphydice:

"y'all probably know the story of orpheus and eurydice. but they are SO tragedy. they are TEXTBOOK tragedy. they redefined the genre. on their literal wedding day as she's walking down the aisle eurydice gets bit by a snake and dies. orpheus loves her so much he goes down to the underworld to try and save her. hades allows him to take her back to the land of the living, as long as she walks behind him, and he cannot look back, otherwise her soul will be taken. he's mostly fine , but begins to doubt and at the very end of the tunnel, he looks back. they lock eyes for a moment before she disappears back into hell. orpheus is then so distraught that he wanders the earth singing mournful melodies and gets stoned to death by some nymphs who think his sad songs are bumming them out. DUUUUDE their story consumed my every waking thought as a child."

Madohomu:

"madoka magica aired 12 episodes in 2011, with a sequel movie titled “rebellion” released in 2014. it’s been over 10 years since then, and these two have become the face of yuri. if someone makes a meme about loving yuri and makes a collage of example ships, madohomu are 100% gonna be present. video essays, fanart, fics, music videos and all kinds of fan projects featuring them are still wildly popular on all social media platforms.

but let’s talk about them (without going into too many spoilers, so this will be about the thematics in their relationship). they are light and darkness. the ying and the yang. forever intertwined. one would not exist without the other, yet they cannot exist together. for madoka has too much love for every living thing and too little for herself. and homura has too much love for madoka it blinds her to everything and everyone else, and she struggles with deep self-hatred. madoka has forsaken her own existence for the world, and homura has forsaken the world she created for her. the show has a lot of religious imagery, and madoka is akin to a god; there’s a shot of homura, who grew up catholic, kneeling at the feet of a gigantic statue of madoka, praying, but her hands stain her clothes. because if madoka is god, then homura is lucifer - specifically, iblis, the muslim version of lucifer, who loved god so much he betrayed him, for he’d rather defy him than bow to his creation, humans. and homura would rather defy the sanctity of madoka’s wish, rather than obey its laws, for she will take madoka’s happiness in her hands, if she refuses to. in the movie, dolls representing homura’s inner machinations yell, “gott ist tot”, for homura’s god, madoka, dies in the movie, when homura remembers that madoka was human first, and godhood was something she reached to save everyone, against her best interest and happiness. their relationship is one of love, kindness, obsession, devotion, hope, faith, worship - they are the thesis and the antithesis, the beginning and the end, the alpha and omega, an unstoppable force and an immovable object. forever locked in a struggle, never fully embracing, for madoka will always sacrifice herself for the world, and homura will always doom the world and herself for madoka."

[once-and-future-loser]

OK. Last crazy post of the day, I promise. Just a short something that came to mind thirty minutes ago. Enjoy!

*I have no idea if they stayed at the same hotel, if there was a hotel, or if there was an after party, but the "F" in RFP is the most important letter so...*

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“Playing chess with Lewis, No?”

Charles startles at the hotel bar where he’d been slowly nursing an overpriced “Livery Libation,” some terrible signature cocktail for the F1 75 afterparty, mostly gin and blue curacao.

It was just a few drivers and team staff hanging around at the hotel and Charles was about ready to turn in for the night when Carlos had sidled up next to him at the bar.

Charles just hums, trying not to look directly at Carlos.  Always a perilous act.

“Is he any good?”  Carlos follows up when Charles doesn’t have any more details to offer.

Lewis had started it actually, didn’t know that chess was their thing, and Charles had just gone along, maybe too eagerly.

“Yes, better than you, Carlos.”

He was also much better than Charles.

 “Ah, so you do still know my name!  You have lost my contact though it seems.”

It wasn’t like that, he just hadn’t reached out, he was… busy.  Nothing complicated.

“Shut up, Carlos.  You are full of shit.”

Charles notices he’s drained his drink and flags down the bartender for another he didn’t realize he needed.  Carlos just smiles.

“Ok.  So, how is Alex?” Charles bites out, not really wanting to know.  Like at all.

“He is good!  He is a good teammate already.”  Charles winces, but Carlos goes on.  “He is very nice and we are on equal footing I think.  We are prioritizing the team this year.  I think he will follow team orders and everything!”  Carlos turns around and leans his back against the wall.  Charles explodes.

“It is you who was not following team orders!  I was doing everything for the team, and trying so hard for the constructors and you…”  Charles trails off seeing Carlos chuckling, a smirk and gleam in his eye.  Cat and mouse again.  Charles walked right into it.

“There’s no hard feelings Charles, you look happy, optimistic.  I hope you win it all this year.” 

Charles mirrors Carlos looking out at the half empty bar, brushing their shoulders together, not even thinking about it, the familiar warm feeling in his chest coming back after months of absence.

“So, why did you not call?”  Carlos asks, sipping his drink, a clear bubbling something, probably just soda water.  He hadn’t been sexualized and ridiculed in front of thousands of people so he probably didn’t need to drink.

“I am the reason you are in the back now, why you are not a ferrari driver, I did not think you would want to hear from me anymore.”  Charles quietly admits, giving voice to something he had been refusing to think about for some time.

Carlos is suddenly facing him, eyes steeled, deadly serious.

“No.  It is not like this.  It has never been like this.  Not with you, especially you.”

Charles watches dumbstruck as Carlos carefully fishes something out of his pocket.  He opens Charles’ suit coat and slides his hand in the inside pocket.

“I think we have a lot to talk about, Charles.”  Carlos says, leveling Charles with a somber but hopeful glare, and walks out of the bar.

Charles reaches into the pocket where Carlos had slid his hand and feels the unmistakable smooth plastic under a small envelope that must be a hotel room key card.

Charles is thinking about how stupid this is, they have nothing to discuss, as he walks to the elevator.  They are not even teammates now, it shouldn't matter. He looks at the room number on the card, brushing his fingers over the room number, 16106.

“I will not go up there” he thinks as he presses the button for the 16th floor.