#i always feel like I'm in the way of someone because about 800 people want to get to the same shelf that I'm standing in front of

[tardis--dreams]

Mission accomplished! Found some vegetarian food AND finally bought my t-money card!! Not leaving the house for the rest of the day now

[is-this-yuri]

Please help me survive and escape homelessness.

GFM

KF

CA

I want to be safe by the winter of 2025.

I'm having a difficult time fundraising for my van. Repeated car troubles and various other unexpected issues have eaten into my savings multiple times, and while in a slump I wasn't making as many posts about my situation and I got significantly less donations over the last ~6 weeks on both my gofundme and my kofi/cashapp. While I've 'regained' a lot of what I lost, I've been spending about as much as is coming in. Aside from one instance, my emergency expenses were eaten by my fundraiser savings, which was then gained back about as quickly as I was spending it on my daily expenses. I still haven't reached the goal for the recent $1000 I had to spend on my car.

So far I've lost $2,200 of the $3,100 that's shown on the GFM. I'll be updating the fundraiser to reflect the loss.

I'm autistic and struggle just to meet my basic needs, and despite that I've been denied disability income multiple times. Failing to hold a job (and developing PTSD symptoms from my time being employed), and let down and abandoned by anyone who could support me, I'm left with few resources and few options. I try to make posts when I'm in a good mood, or keep people updated when I'm in a bad mood. I make videos on YouTube, hoping eventually I can show people what their money has gotten for me.

On a good month, I only spend about $600, leaving me some space to save the donations I was previously getting. With winter and the holidays coming, I'm not sure I'll be getting as much money as the warmer months, and I'll be spending more on keeping myself warm and fed over the winter. It will be more like $800/mo now. The only real solution is getting more money than I'm spending, as I'm already spending as little as I safely can.

I'll only take financial advice from someone who has lowered their expenses below mine, with the same disabilities and circumstances as me. What I need is more money, and I don't always have the energy to pay back with art and things like that. I don't even always have the energy to post my pleas for help. I don't have a sponsor to help me make these posts.

I'm in a low energy mode because what can I do with no money? In a state where I have to spend as little as possible, see such slow results, see most of it taken by things outside my control, and somehow keep up hope that this will work?

When I feel safe and have adequate shelter in a van, I'll be able to REST. And then start working harder and making more money one way or another. Whether you think I should suck it up and get a job or you want to see me become a content creator, I need money for any kind of opportunity and I'm just not getting enough.

So, thank you to everyone who's suppported me so far. Thank you to the repeat supports. I'm sorry I had to spend your money on other things. Thank you to the person who covered most of a huge expense I was stressing about a couple months ago. Thank you to the person who sent me $200 to get a hotel and told me to take care of my mental health before saving anything. Thank you to the blogs that have featured my fundraiser in your posts. Thank you to everyone who keeps boosting and cheering me on even though you can't support financially.

I don't know what else I can do to get more people like that to see me. There are so many options on the internet, but it's still a daunting task and as much as I can't really afford to rest, I have to sometimes. Often, in fact.

Please keep boosting this post until my goal is really met. Until I can spend more than $600 a month and actually earn your money rather than beg for it.

[triptuckers]

capture the flag - leo valdez

Request: nope Pairing:  leo valdez x apollo!reader Summary:  during capture the flag, no one gets stuck in leo's traps and he wants to find out why Warnings:  none Word count:  800 A/N: this has been sitting in my drafts for a while and now that I'm back in my pjo era time to finish it! enjoy :)

capture the flag is always fun. it's a nice way for people to train together while it feels like a game. even though sometimes people get too competitive.

it gives leo the chance to litter the forest with traps, and to test new inventions. of course, he could test them in the bunker or on his friends. but this is the real deal. no one knows where the traps are, how many there are. it's the perfect conditions to test them.

he's made a new batch of them but for some reason none of the traps work.

whenever he goes to check on them, they're all disabled. no one's activated them, or he would have found a fellow camper near one.

and leo is absolutely sure he activated them. they didn't blow up so there's nothing wrong with them.

and yet they're disabled.

rather than trying to capture the flag, he decides to hide in the bushes near one of his traps to see what - or who - is disabling them.

he listens to the sounds of the woods around him and pulls stuff out of his tool bel two mindlessly build little machines.

after a while, he spots movement out of the corner of his eye.

whoever it is moves quietly and gracefully. so definitely not an ares kid, leo concludes.

the person slowly walks over to leo's trap, careful where they put their feet down on the forrest floor.

leo watches as they walk around the trap, examining it. he shifts to get a better look at who it is.

he frowns slightly. he would have expected someone from the hermes cabin. maybe piper because he's spent a lot of time trying to explain his machines to her.

but he didn't expect it to be a daughter of apollo.

to be fair, leo thought the apollo cabin didn't know anything about traps or machines in general. their skills were mostly archery, medicine and music. not traps built by a hephaestus kid.

leo's eyes follow your hand movements as you carefully prod around the trap. surely you wouldn't be able to- and you disabled it.

smiling to yourself, you straighten your back and us your foot to slide the now useless trap aside.

when you turn around, you hear leaves rustle behind you.

instinctively, you knock an arrow on your bow and turn on your heel.

you are met by leo, who is frantically waving his hands in front of his face.

'don't shoot, don't shoot! I come in peace!' he yells.

you lower your bow. 'leo! gods, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you!'

'that's alright.' says leo, lowering his hands. 'I was the one hiding behind you.'

you frown. 'why were you hiding anyway? usually you like to be in the middle of the action.' you say.

'can't help the fact people start fighting over me wherever I go.' says leo, making you chuckle.

'yeah, right, valdez. as if anyone could come near you with the amount of traps you're setting.' you say.

'speaking of which.' says leo, walking over to his trap and picking it up to examine it. 'how did you know where the kill switch was on this?'

you shrug. 'that's a tactical secret I can't reveal.' you say. 'for future capture the flag purposes.'

'or you just got lucky.'

'23 times?'

'yeah, that seems unlikely.'

you smile. 'there's a window in the roof of bunker nine.' you say. 'it's actually a two way mirror. it doesn't let any light through. gives me a perfect view of your workspace, though.'

'so the tactical secret is spying.' says leo.

'can't win if you don't play a little dirty every now and then. plus it's cool to see all the stuff you create.'

you shoulder your bow. 'good luck activating all of the traps again.' you say. 'I need to get back to my cabin.'

you start to walk toward the noise your fellow campers are making, to see if your team is winning and how you can help.

'hey!'

you turn around to see leo is still standing in the clearing with the trap in his hands.

'if you want to, I could show you how to make these? then you will be able to do more than just disable them.' he says.

you smile at him, you've always liked leo.

but you are surprised, you know leo is kind of protective of bunker 9 and usually only Hephaestus kids go inside. it must be a huge deal for someone from another cabin to be invited into the bunker.

and Leo wants you here.

'sure.' you say. 'I'd like that. but first we have to steal your flag.'

'oh no, you won't.' says leo.

with one last smile, you disappear into the woods, leaving leo to reactivate his trap before coming after you.

A/N: If you want to request something, make sure to read my house rulesHere’s the list of characters I write for. Everything that I have written can be found on my masterlist. Please don’t repost my work, as I spend much time and effort on it!! Thank you for reading! Much love, Marit/Max

[emeritusemeritus]

George and y/n asking Fred to be the godfather of their (first) daughter

I wanted to carry this on from my Poppy HC so here we go! 🖤

Warnings: mentions of war, previous battle, Fred lives. Pregnancy/ baby.

Word count: 800

When you first started going out with George Weasley, you'd been worried that Fred would take it badly. They'd been a duo their entire life, naturally strung together through every part of their upbringing and their lives. You were in your third year of Hogwarts when you noticed George for the first time, really noticed him. He was an incredible quidditch player, funny and sweet all in one so when he noticed you looking and started looking back at you in a similar way, you were done for.

Your worries about Fred's reaction had been completely unfounded. Sure he was a prominent fixture in your life, your husbands closest friend, sibling and business partner but George had always held a very clear boundary with Fred right from the start that he was not to interfere with your relationship, or you.

Fortunately for George, You and Fred got along like a house on fire, finding that many of the good qualities of George were also held by twin.

Sure there were squabbles along the way, a few crossed words occasionally but you found pretty early on that Fred really had become something like a brother to you. Never more so than when the war was over, all of you dirty and exhausted from the battle. You'd been separated from the twins as they defended the passages and the battlements whilst you joined the rest of the order holding back the courtyard.

The second you'd walked into the Great Hall, tired and covered in mud, blood and sweat, desperate to find George, you'd spotted someone else first. Fred saw you by the doors and instantly ran to you, pulling you into his arms and holding you protectively against him until George clicked on, realising you were there, too lost in his worried thoughts.

You and George married not long after the war, no longer wanting to wait after the war had shown you how precious life was. Fred had naturally been the best man and you'd had a wonderful family wedding, surrounded by the people you loved and who loved you.

Finding out you were pregnant just two months after your wedding was slightly shocking, not having expected it to happen so quickly but you and George were elated, as were all the Weasley's.

When Poppy Weasley was born, her first visitor was her Uncle Fred, followed closely by her Granny and Grampy. Fred's beaming, proud smile was infectious and though it might have been your hormones, it brought a tear to your eye to see the three people you loved the most all huddled together, happy.

Fred visited most days, even just to chat and watch Poppy sleep for a bit or hold her whilst you showered. He'd say that it was because she had so many aunties and uncles, that he needed to bond with her to ensure he would be her favourite. You loved having him there and so held back from telling him that he would undoubtedly be the favourite on account of him looking nearly identical to her daddy.

"We have something to ask you," George says one night as you all sit around the lounge, Poppy cradled into the crook of Fred's arm, her favourite place for a snooze. He was always more than happy to oblige and took great pride in the fact he could lull her to sleep.

"We're identical mate, if you want my dna for the next one that's a bit pointless," Fred says with a grin, a devilish twinkle in his eye. "But I suppose if it's my baby you want next then it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make." He finishes his point with a wink in your direction.

You scrunch up your face in disgust at the thought and Fred laughs at the sight, receiving the reaction he'd hoped for.

"Watch it," George says with a firm look on his face, feeling that his twin was beginning to cross a line. You slip your hand onto George's knee and he grabs your hand, linking your fingers.

"We wanted to know," you begin, looking briefly at George who nods with a smile, encouraging you to carry on. "If you'd be Poppy's godfather."

"Me?" Fred says completely bewildered.

"Of course you," you reply with a smile, not imagining anybody else got the job.

Fred goes quiet for a moment and it's clear that he's feeling rather emotional at the question, his eyes secretly tearing up as he looks down as his niece, seeing her chest rising slowly up snd down, softly breathing bundled up in blankets.

"One question," Fred says a minute later, having recovered from his emotional moment.

"Anything mate," George replies, a little concerned that Fred hadn't accepted yet.

When you see the telltale smirk appear in the corner of his mouth, you know trouble will follow but you listen anyway, anticipating Fred's next joke.

"If you both die do I get to keep her?"

[rinzsu]

✩ ‧ ₊˚ IN MEMORIES I HOLD YOU DEAR — GOJO SATORU

four letters you addressed to him slight angst, wc 800+, reader and satoru have feelings for each other but aren’t in a committed relationship, takes place right after the shibuja arc

november 9th, 2018

satoru.

hair white like the first snow, the color of whipped cream, the pots of the plants on my window sills, and the foam atop the oceans waves.

you’ll forever feel like summer to me, like the first of july, when i drowned in your blue eyes and never came back up.

i wish i could kiss you now like i never had before, catch you when you’re falling, and hold you close instead of pushing you away in hopes of forgetting how my heart beats for you and you alone.

it’s ironic, really, how you come back now after all those days and sleepless nights of trying to convince myself that things are better this way, even though you’re so far gone.

i try so hard to forget about you, about us, only for you to barge right back in and for everything to begin anew.

you once said that you hate it when things come to an end, and i still recall how you always used to leave a single chug of sake in your cup instead of finishing it all together.

and how you used to add an “i still have to finish my cup” as an excuse to stay out longer when nanami wanted to leave the bar.

november 16th, 2018

i miss you. it’s been roughly three weeks since you’ve been sealed away, but to me, it feels like three eternities.

winter is creeping up on us, the air is much colder and the sky always grey.

i’m still taking those hot showers in the evening. you used to say that the water feels like warm hugs after an exhausting day, but nowadays i crave your comforting embrace above all.

the academy's halls feel so much emptier with you gone. i used to mock your silly laugh but now i miss it more with every second i spend in this god forsaken place.

it's quiet, and for the first time in what feels like forever, i wish it was more noisy, because that would mean that you are here.

yuji tries keeping his voice low when he talks about you, but it doesn't matter if it's the students, shoko or my treacherous mind that's uttering your name like a useless mantra.

there's so much i couldn't, wouldn't, shouldn't utter out loud, so i'm writing this.

isn't it funny? how i tried to rid you out of my life and now there's a piece of you in every word that i fill these pages with, a fragment of you hidden in each of these lines.

november 24th, 2018

i've been watching our series for the third time now and somehow i feel guilty watching it without you, even though i used to do it all the time when you were still here.

knowing what's about to come soothes my mind even for a little bit. so does going to the drive through and eating chicken nuggets in the parking lot while singing along to all of our songs. i swear by now i can hit higher notes than you ever will.

everyone has their own way of escaping this reality. it helps, makes it hurt less, but just like salve to an open wound, the tranquilizing of this pain will only be temporary until all our sorrows will bleed together again.

is this love?

i see you when it's dark, the illusion of you under one of those flickering street lights. once i turn to look for you, i'm left with your blurring face and the burden of your absence weighing down upon me.

i don't know where life is leading me right now, but there's something that's always pulling me back to you.

december 5th, 2018

you're no longer here.

i've met someone, but he doesn't laugh like you do, doesn't talk to me like you do. it's been less than two weeks but i can already tell that his skin isn't as soft as yours either.

he holds my hand but he doesn't hold it as tight as you do, doesn't intertwine our fingers the way you always did.

when he leaves, he won't make it as difficult for me to say goodbye as you did. and for the first time, i've noticed how different people's presences feel.

how different people breathe, when he rests next to me in shokos office after a mission and i can't feel his rhythm the way i did yours.

was this between us special?

i once heard that after a split up, people tend to romanticize everything bad and to forget why they detached in the first place.

even so, we never dated in the first place and neither did we break up, you just left.

and even though i know that, it's hard for me to believe that i'll ever find someone like you again.

©️ rinsque— do not plagiarise nor repost any of my works on any other platform.

note. hope you enjoyed this <3 i had repost this for the nth time because it didn’t show in the tags i used

[ttarpii]

satisfied - sakusa k. - Prologue

May 5, 2014 ~ 800 words

m.list

For as long as she could remember, yn had the privilege of Sakusa Kiyoomi's presence in her life. In the beginning, he was just a subtle light that would creep in through the blinds of her heart, but day by day, his light would eventually envelop her being in a soft, yet persistent warmth, and their souls would intertwine into a beautiful knot of friendship.

Everyone has their special person, their other half that complements them in every way. Someone who can tell how you feel without a second glance, someone who can soften your heart when times are tough, and bring out the best of you, all while simultaneously healing the wounds that you didn't even know you had. Sakusa had always been her special person, and she liked to hold onto the greedy feeling that perhaps, she was his.

For the majority of it's existence, their relationship was that of best friends, and neither questioned or addressed it, because, what was the point? When they were kids, anyone could tell that the pair were inseparable. But as people grow up, the concept of two people of the opposite gender being "just friends" becomes more and more unfeasible. In highschool, their classmates didn't ignore the gentle privilege that only yn recieved from the moody spiker.

"Yn, aren't you gonna confront that new girl? Its embarrassing how hard she's tryna get with Sakusa.."

"Why would I care if she wants to date him? They'd make a cute couple honestly 🤔"

"so you're telling me there's seriously nothing going on between you guys?? You're joking right..? I've known Sakusa for 2 years and the only times I've seen him smile are when he's with you, AND TRUST ME, MY INSTINCTS ARE TELLING ME ITS LOVE. 😏"

"I mean.. I've never really thought about it that way before, but I'm sure it's just because we've known eachother so long 😭"

"you're stronger than I could ever be yn, you have this total hottie at your beck and call and you don't like him a little bit?? 😔"

Conversations about their relationship were frequent, and they only grew day by day. At first, Yn was annoyed. Sakusa was her best friend, and it felt like people were insulting their decade long friendship. But as the conversations only dragged on, she started to tolerate them, and then, she started to listen. It was undoubtedly true that Sakusa treated her differently from everybody else, and it was also true that he was indeed very handsome. She never noticed it growing up, but his curly locks framed his face in the perfect way, and his eyes had a special charm to them that fit his chiseled features. Not to mention, the moles adourning his face only added to his beauty. It wasn't long until she realized her feelings. That what she thought was platonic was actually much more complex.

Her friends and peers would only feed her delusions, and eventually, she started to act differently around him, hoping he'd maybe take the hint, confess his undying love for her, and then make a dashing proposal asking her to be his girlfriend. The changes were subtle, she would start wearing makeup around him, be just a tad bit more touchy, and of course bring up romance every so often.

But even if the changes were subtle, of course her best friend would immediately notice them. And of course, he would react, right? But, he didn't? And maybe that was the first sign that something was off. He never gave her any hints back of the possibility of liking her. And eventually, she could tell her efforts were in vain, because the comfort they typically had was gone. An outsider wouldnt have noticed anything, but she knew. There was an uncertainess in his smile, and his voice and touch wavered. She had been wondering when he would recognize her efforts, until she realized. She finally figured out the quintessential fact that shattered her world. The eyes he gave her were special, but they were always set for something else. Sure, he was different with her, but with volleyball, he shown the brightest, and she knew her presence could never give him what volleyball gave him.

He knew of her feelings, but he would never like her back.

It was a simple, yet obvious conclusion. She had been making a fool of herself, how could she call herself his bestfriend if she couldnt even notice how he felt about her? They were strictly platonic, nothing else. In a fit of embarrassment, the extra attention she gave him vanished quickly, and were replaced with larger walls intended to protect him from her evergrowing feelings. And as they grew up, these childish feelings of hers only grew, but as they increased she would only get better at hiding them. Because, it didn't matter if he would never like her back, as long as she had him in her life, she would be satisfied.

.

.

IM ACTUALLY SO SORRY HOW LONG THIS TOOK TO COME OUT. OH MY GOSH IM ON MY KNEES BEGGING FOR FORGIVENESS 😭😭😭

Future updates will not take as long I pinky promise 😞😓🤙

anyways sorry if this chapter was a little boring!! I js wanted to set up some background before getting into the main dish.. 😈😈😈

yn is actually so strong bc I would've folded so hard and so quickly for sakusa

I love it when I can write the title of the story in the actual writing, and I can tell it's going to happen a lot in this one

.

.

taglist(5/30) @soobinsbreadscrumbs @scxrcherr @tsukkinginamo @madiexuberant @eleanorheartschishiya

[dear--mars]

Bloodthirsty

── Synopsis: "The sun gave earth the most light but the earth is slowly destroying itself." Childe wasn't made for love and he knew this. So why does he keep trying? And why do you keep letting him try? Opening your arms for him to fall into even after everything, showing him such warmth that he thought he could only get from the sun.

── Character: Childe/Tartagliaa/Ajax

── CW: Toixc relationships, fighting, taking it too far.

── Notes: This is my 2nd and LAST birthday post. Enjoy the angst. [angst/slight comfort]

── Word count: 800+ words

Ever since he fell into the abyss, the euphoric feeling and the adrenaline that fighting gave him was one of a kind. As friendly as he seemed to outside people, he couldn’t care less about anyone other than his immediate family. 

He didn’t feel the need to connect with others, they would only get in the way. They don’t get him the way fighting does. Fighting doesn’t need to be logical, it didn’t have feelings he pretended to care about. In the world he was living in, he only needed himself and his own two fists. 

Being one of the Fatui harbingers didn’t help him either. If anything it made him worse. Childe became a slave to the adrenaline and the Tsaritsa took advantage of it, using him as a killing machine. 

But Childe never batted an eye, he knew that the Fatui was using him but it didn’t matter to him. He couldn’t be happier to be fighting and with his position as a harbinger, he gets paid an absurd amount of money for doing something he loves doing. Not to mention he’s able to support his family as an extra bonus.

He’s a family man but at his core, he's no better than a bloodthirsty dog. Someone like him is destined for violence, driven by anger, as he treats the world as if it’s only for conflict.

So what happens when he meets someone with the same kind of bite?

Your relationship with Childe was doomed to fail the moment it started. Both of you were too competitive, wanting to win everything, and treating everything like a competition. 

It was harmless at first. After a defeat, one of you would give a joking glare or side-eye before laughing it off and you’d be in each other’s arms at the end of the day, still madly in love. 

But as his work days get longer and your love fades, your competitions turns into more than just a lover’s quarrel or friendly banter. The two of you can't remember the last time you laughed together. Only screaming, yelling, and genuine arguing. But one day, he crossed a line he could never go back on.

“Well, at least, I didn’t try to kill myself over a minor inconvenience!” He yelled and the room stilled and Childe knew whatever happened after this day, your relationship would never go back to what it was before. 

You stayed silent, only able to hear the sound of your own voice. You bit your lip as anger took over you and you too, crossed the line. “At least I didn't run away from home because I was bored and fall into the abyss as a child and almost die!”

“You’re going there?!”

“Yeah, I am. What are you gonna do!?”

“Big talk coming from someone who almost got sexually assaulted and needed me to save them!”

“You bitch…. I don’t want to hear anything from the Tsaritsa’s lapdog!”

“I enjoy being in the Fatui!”

“I’m sure you do but your family doesn’t. I know you can see it. The way your parents and older siblings look at you, they're afraid of you. Because you're a monster. How are you going to feel when Tonia, Teucer, and Anthon find out who you really are?”

“Don’t spout any bullshit about family to me, when you killed yours with your own hands.”

“That wasn’t me! I was possessed!”

“It doesn’t matter, it was still your body, your hands that killed them. So who’s the real monster?”

“Still you! Can you even call yourself human with that foul legacy transformation of yours? You are the antithesis of what it means to be a human.”

“You know what? I’m with this!”

“Yeah, run away like you always do.”

“No, [Name] I'm serious I'm done with this.”

“So you’re breaking up with me?”

“For a fact, I am!”

“Then just leave!” was the last thing uttered before Childe slammed his hands on the table before storming out of the house. You sighed before running your hand through your hair. You knew he’d be back in a couple of days. This was a routine for you two but now you were doubting if you guys could go back and pretend that nothing happened.

It had been over 5 days and Childe still didn’t come home and you started to think that it was truly the end of your relationship. But you heard the door open, your head shot toward the sound of the door slamming shut. You saw Childe walk in, he looked a bit disheveled, there were clear eye bags and his hair was even more of a mess than it usually was.

We had eye contact and you bit back your usual questions, asking where he was and such. You saw Childe’s shoulder sag a bit before he walked up to you. Your eyes widened when he flopped onto the couch, his head in your lap. It was clear he wasn’t able to get much sleep. 

You let out a sigh before running your fingers through his hair, comforting him. You felt Childe melt at your touch, letting out a small groan as he nuzzled into your lap even further. 

That argument was never brought up ever again…

- Navigation -   - Prismarine -

[sabo-has-my-heart]

Hi :D

I need to say that I love your writing very much. You're literally so amazing at describing characters and their emotions , their actions and the background as well!

Tho, If you feel comfortable enough - Can you make headcanon or drabble (choice is up to you) about Platonic!Roger Pirates and Whitebeard Pirates having a young crewmate that is very mature but is really self-sacrificial? By that I mean , they are not a fighter but don't want to be burden so they do anything they can to not be useless in their opinion?

So I did headcanons because I'm not good with drabbles. It's either 800-900 words minimum or nothing. I don't do drabbles. That being said, I hope you enjoy this, just remember this is just how I see them.

Word Count: 900

Roger Pirates

Roger totally pouts about you being very mature

You’re a kid, you should be enjoying life!

Orders the crew to give you as few chores as possible.

That’s not to say you don’t do plenty, just that Roger doesn’t assign it to you.

Constantly telling you to go have fun and enjoy the sunshine.

Part of you wants to, you want to make him happy, you kind of want to go have fun.

But what if you become a burden by doing so?

What if you cause trouble like Buggy and Shanks?

Nope! Not gonna happen!

And you go right back to helping out. 

Rayleigh has had to forcibly stop you before.

Actually picked you up, set you in a chair, and ordered you to enjoy a small dessert.

In his defense, you’d been working yourself pretty hard at the time.

The entire crew knows not to wake you in the morning unless necessary. 

It’s not that they don’t want your help, but they’re worried about you.

Rayleigh suggests a therapist. 

You got so caught up in taking care of things that you missed the appointments.

The crew honestly tries their best to get you to stop and relax.

They’ve seen you overwork yourself, it wasn’t pretty and they all felt terrible for not stopping you sooner.

You still find plenty to do though.

Them not telling you to help actually makes you feel worse. 

You’re being a burden by trying not to be a burden!

Rayleigh realizes this and you, Roger and Rayleigh reach an agreement.

You’re to do the chores you’re given and no more unless asked.

Buggy and Shanks aren’t allowed to ask you for help. 

You’re allowed to get the usual early wake up call, but you have to spend a mandatory 2 hours being a kid and having fun.

Your fun usually involves helping Crocus organize the infirmary or just talking with Shanks (and keeping him out of trouble).

Neither Roger nor Rayleigh are happy about it, but they accept that it makes you happy so they don’t say anything.

You tell them that you just don’t want to be a burden… They laughed.

They told you that you were a kid, the only thing kids should worry about is being kids, not about being burdens. 

Still, if doing a certain amount each day gets you to have fun later, they’ll take what they can get.

Whitebeard Pirates

Oh dear.

If you think Roger was bad, try dealing with his son.

Ace loves goofing off and causing trouble.

Haruta also likes causing trouble. 

The two try to get you in on their trouble very, very often.

Not that they do, but they’re really trying to get you to enjoy life. 

Unfortunately, watching them cause trouble and make messes only makes you want to do more.

Their jobs as commanders are important and they’re great fighters, but damn do they cause trouble for people. 

Marco, Izou, and Thatch help though. 

They keep you busy but also keep you from overworking yourself.

Thatch will give you easy tasks in the kitchen, Marco will give you simple tasks in the infirmary. 

It’s always stuff that’s ‘important but I just don’t have the time’. 

Izou helps in a rather odd way. He insists on spa days with you, says your company is relaxing, that he needs someone he can talk to but not like Ace or Thatch.

So you take spa days with him.

He actually really does like your company and it does help him relax, but it’s 90% for your sake.

Even Whitebeard has you help him. 

He’s 20 ft tall, Luffy literally fits in his giant hand! He needs someone to help him with small things. 

You’re young and small, so you do a lot of things he’s ‘too big’ for. Could he technically order things in his size? Yes, but that would be a lot of money when he has someone small who can do it for him.

At least, that’s what he tells people. 

You’re often busy this way but actually do very little work.

Which was their intention.

You’re a kid, they don’t want you being too grown up but they know if they try and stop you, you’ll find other ways.

So they keep you busy while making things easy. 

Organizing things, sorting produce, spa days, writing out various orders from the captain, reading off lists made by the commanders, all stuff that requires very little actual work but is still important to each of the commanders.

Ace and Haruta try to make their tasks fun as well.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it just annoys you.

Are they mocking you by doing this?

Whitebeard does have one very strict rule for you though.

No working after dinner, the time between dinner and bed is to be spent winding down and getting ready for bed.

Someone once caught you trying to clean the kitchen counters after dinner to make life easier for Thatch. 

Whitebeard ‘grounded’ you for a week. You weren’t allowed to help anyone with anything, you felt awful.

Ace and Haruta were assigned to you to make sure of that.

You never disobeyed the rule again.

It’s not that you don’t want to have fun, but you just really don’t want to be a burden to anyone. 

You spend some of the time after dinner just doing what you want to do.

[jmdbjk]

Fan service

Just going through my 5GBs/800 images and vids in (just) my Jikook folder and noticed a lot... A LOT of fan service type images and stuff. Staggering. The amount of thoughtfulness and preparation Jungkook and Jimin have done for us through the years, sacrificing themselves all in the name of fan service...

Like this obviously staged and scripted reaction from Jungkook, sitting there waiting for Jimin to show up in comments:

Actually, go look at almost any of JK's lives and see him performing flawlessly. The timing is impeccable, how he spots Jimin's comments is 🔥 level reflexes.

This ultimate fan service live when Jungkook set up an hour and a half of fan servicing about Jimin:

Of course the fan service has been going on for YEARS...

This fleeting moment that someone snapped for fan service:

Was it Tae or Hobi that snapped the pic? We'll never know, they didn't bother to take a pic of themselves during this gorgeous sunset with either of these guys because... it was only for fan service.

And this random Instragram person who was in on the fan service agenda, and JK with the eagle eyes finding it amongst the 100s of 1000s of questions/comments:

I wonder if maybe he telepathed some questions out to the universe so these people from all over the place would know what to ask/say, like secret code shit?

And H.E.R. doing her part in fan service, its great to have willing participants for your fan service agenda:

I bet she's done this before too.

And of course this ultimate, elaborate and expensive fan service weekend getaway... anything for the fans:

The best part about it is, Jungkook didn't tell Jimin he was filming all this for fan service. Made him stay in a hotel room with no privacy in the bathroom in a hotel that caters to couples... the lengths... the sacrifices... bless them.

And here they are again, the never ending fan service, so tiring:

I bet they staged the entire Jack in the Box listening party just for jikook fan service. I wouldn't be surprised. Rented out the top floor of the HYBE building, catered it, all for fan service.

The general public is in on the fan service too. A random person taking sneaky fan service pics, great timing and teamwork:

And this random person too in on the sneaky fan service agenda, everyone playing their part in the charade:

This was one of many photos from this particular dinner (fake) date with non-celeb friends.

The general public really are the stars of fan service:

Another (fake) restaurant date but this time with other celeb friends.

But the eyes on the back of JK's head seeing his cue for FS? 💀:

How can he see through his hair though? That's my question. Sheer talent! 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥 🔥

And JK's eyes on his face automatically performing fan service, must be muscle memory or something:

And his hands too, more muscle memory from all that fan service practice:

I can visualize it now... "Jimin, hold still, I need to practice feeling you up, stop squirming, I'm gonna have to use those handcuffs you brought home if you don't stop trying to get away..." um... wait... that went a little too far...

Anyway...

And this pre-planned-the-night-before fan service, they are such professionals always thinking of fan service, practicing, perfecting...I wonder how many times they had to do THIS to get it just right? :

I could say a lot here about "practice makes perfect" but I will refrain...

Hobi going off-script here taking Jimin by surprise... maybe it was something Jimin and Jungkook were practicing for fan service and Hobi almost spilled the beans?

And this ingeniously pre-programed mechanical ear reaction fan service...so clever:

This happy-as-shit-to-be-going-overseas fan service, JK and his fake bouncy happiness, Oscar-worthy. I wonder if they practiced in the car on the way to the airport:

The general public doing that fan service shit again... wonder how much they get paid for this? I want in on it:

Jungkook telling Jimin, "we have to go around a bunch of times to make sure that random person gets it right."

It's never ending, 24/7 fan service with these two. It must be very time consuming to come up with new fan service moments. I wonder what they will show us next?

[please read the tags for heavens sakes]

[animentality]

I love Baldur's Gate and the Dark Urge and all -

And the idea of the Dark Urge redeeming themselves after a lifetime of horror by literally choosing to die and go to purgatory forever is really amazing. In fact, it's why I'm so dedicated to the Dark Urge as a character.

The idea of a villain losing their memory, becoming a hero, and then realizing that they need to die not just once, but twice to truly DESERVE their redemption is honestly brilliant.

But.

But.

Withers revives you way too fucking fast.

You literally die...and then Withers instantly brings you back.

In fact, it takes him fucking longer to revive your COMPANIONS than you, and your companions dying and being revived at camp aren't even part of the story, it's just you fucking something up and not wanting to waste a revive scroll.

Withers bringing you back instantly comes across as like, oh, so dying for your morals, being a true hero in the end, a martyr, defeating the villain, which is you...it's totally negated.

You died for about twenty seconds.

I've known people who died for longer on the operating table.

Where is my lover crying and clutching my body?

Where are my friends, all looking devastated, because they're all gotten to know me and root for me and truly care about me after I've done ALL THIS for them???

So that they could be safe from me?

Where is the emotion?

He brings you back and then your companions have a single line that's essentially just, "good job buddy."

Karlach says something like, I'm proud of you and Wyll says I'll drink in your name or whatever.

And Astarion has a really obnoxious line about how this means you aren't going to attack him anymore...and it's like... okay.

Cool.

So you guys are totally unphased by the fact that you just watched me die...but I suppose death doesn't mean shit in this game, since you have Withers to constantly bring you back.

Cool.

So then what? Nothing matters?

It's just frustrating because I know it's the cut content curse. They had more planned for Orin and the Dark Urge and Bhaal...but it just feels so underwhelming.

I think BG3's primary flaw comes in the fact that they wanted to build this richly crafted narrative, while also accounting for player choice. And they did a magnificent job of adding SO MANY extra scenes and alternate interactions, to the point where I'm still finding new shit, after like 800 hours of playing...

But the tradeoff is that the character stories...fall really flat, because they want so desperately for a Tav to be the main character, and no one else.

The Dark Urge especially suffers from this, because they made them a murder hobo in one ending, and basically just a Tav in the other ending.

As soon as you are brought back by Withers, you might as well just be a Tav. It has no bearing on anything anymore.

And that's such a shame.

I just wish it had some weight. The Dark Urge has spent their entire life ending lives... it should be beautiful, that they would end their own life to atone...their last victim, would be themselves, as they always knew...but for different reasons-

oh wait, withers is here.

cool, i'm back, guys, let's go to arby's and celebrate.

i just think the game should legitimately make you think you died, at least until a long rest or two.

force the squad to go on without you, make someone else your fourth member.

THEN withers can come to you, maybe in some kind of new Jerrgal-form, so you know he's Jergal for sure, and then reveal he was secretly a retired god.

And honestly, that makes Withers a far more interesting character too. To give him this huge hero moment, and have him say, no, this will not stand. I know he HAS that moment, but it's so rushed.

Let the player breathe on it. Let them FREAK OUT. Can you imagine how much stir it would've created, if Dark Urge players LEGIT thought they were dead permanently?

That would've given their sacrifice real weight.

But Larian was scared, probably, of players being upset that their characters are dead, even though that kind of sacrifice is literally the most heroic thing you could do in the game, besides become a damn mindflayer.

So some sacrifice! You sacrificed ten seconds of your life, and your companions barely care.

Alright. Fine.

I'll just be over here writing your story for you!

[saintmeghanmarkle]

The real purpose of Meghan's PR is getting us to forget the past year by u/thyfairykingdom

The real purpose of Meghan's PR is getting us to forget the past year I realized this morning — it's been a year since the Jubilee (i.e., candle, getting booed by the crowd) and almost a year since the Queen's death (i.e., getting glared at by Catherine), two events that actually wounded her a lot more than she'd ever admit. As much as she acts like she doesn't care, public disapproval is her kryptonite, and I feel like her public/media appearances have changed in nature since getting booed. I was shocked by this realization because, despite being a long-time Sinner (I've had a weird feeling about her from the get-go and I've been here since there were 800), we are constantly so saturated with her appearances and ridiculous PR articles. Sure, we laugh at the PR every time. It's obvious, it's fake, it's staged and try-hard. We see through it and take it apart. We see her and her desperation to become someone. However, I feel like the real purpose of those PR articles is to bury their deeper failures and scandals. Or at least to push them to the back of our minds. And I'm afraid that I feel like it's working! Possibly part of it is that our community has grown exponentially since then, but it actually shocks me how much she can get us to not talk about. Like, we might know it happened, but we aren't always talking about her and Harry getting booed. I am sure that was a moment of real pain for her and that she still thinks about it! She wants people to forget it because it was genuinely humiliating for her. Or the "chase" through Manhattan which — as a native NYer who was in Manhattan at that time on that day — was completely nuts, happened just a few months ago, and has been buried all the same in the flurry of PR. My point is, their team is keeping us busy debunking the newest articles. They don't expect anyone to bite, but they're trying to rehab her image by distracting us. Better to bore us, make us scoff, than for us to remember the booing. They'll spam as many stupid articles and weird appearances as they need to. If even a long-time sinner like me forgets/becomes apathetic, then they'll achieve their aims. In a way I admire it. So, at a minimum — let's not forget her behavior at the Jubilee or at the time of the Queen's death/funeral. She sashayed down the isle with Harry. She got booed. She faked crying at the Queen's casket. She arranged a pap picture of KC receiving QE's body. Like I can understand why things get lost; she's utterly exhausting and all her behavior is so absurd that leaving it out of the narrative makes us forget. But let's not forget. post link: https://ift.tt/gKUEPQF author: thyfairykingdom submitted: August 21, 2023 at 01:13PM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit

[new--tomorrows]

Out of curiosity, what got you into photography and what would be your advice to someone wanting to get into it or who is just starting out?

My old man helped me get into photography with regards to building the habit, providing the starting materials (god bless the Nikkormat FT-2) and teaching the basics, but candidly what's made photography a major part of my life is using it as a mechanism to fight back against some pretty gnarly seasonal depression. Having a roll of pictures showing that the last year wasn't wasted, that I saw things and did things, and using that and journalling as a strategy to quantify and qualify the life I'm living and remind myself that in my own way I'm very lucky and living well in terms of my values has rendered those two activities the main bulwarks against the winters. In terms of advice on how to take pictures--a much more fun topic--I've got to disclaim that I'm still not convinced I'm actually a technically good photographer. The secret seems to be just being willing to carry the camera places that other people won't. When I'm driving, that camera is riding shotgun in the passenger seat like I'm running a stagecoach, and while I get a little flak from coworkers for backpacking with the dead weight on my hip it tends to pay off over time. But itemizing the advice:

do not try and take pictures that other people are taking: generally, avoid viewpoints and crowds. Those pictures already exist, and barring remarkable lighting they're really not much more than an exercise in knowing how to operate the camera.

don't be afraid to carry absurd lenses. I love high mag lenses; I've got stuff that gives me 800-1000mm and an untested lens that could give me 1600mm. You can, conceptually, use up to about 800-1000mm by hand, but it helps to lean up against something, learn to slow your heart rate and breathing, and try and speedrun that monestary life in order to acquire these skills in a useful degree.

use lenses that don't make sense. Forcing yourself to use different lenses for a place you've done before makes you see different opportunities for pictures, which in turn changes how you perceive your world, which is the whole point of paying attention to anything anywhere at anytime.

remember that anything, from a certain angle or in a certain light, can be ghastly and/or beautiful, and play with that.

don't over process your pictures. I pretty much only clean up crap if it's on the lens, because there's a lot of dust out there and I lose my lens caps painfully often.

with few exceptions, keep your controls manual. do not let the machine think for you. (this is true for more things in life than photography). I cheat only with regards to the autofocus when birding, because I do not have superhuman reflexes, but otherwise you always want to be thinking about what variables you want.

don't be bothered by bad pictures. The transition from film to digital was a gamechanger for me, because it let me take a lot more risks when I'm not paying money for every picture I take. For a while there, my photo quality dropped, because I could machine gun it and just spray and pray, but it comes back over time and now I feel like my skillset is pretty respectable. For difficult shots with difficult lenses, don't be surprised by a 5% success rate. In point of fact, that's pretty good.

I'm still wrestling with this one: start with the low magnification and close range from there. I instinctively want to go to the high end of my zoom the second I see that bird or that bear or whathave you, but that adds time to acquiring the target and it can move out of position on you in that time. This one drives me nuts.

lastly, old analog lenses are your friends. I've got a Soviet copy of a German lens with an adaptor ring that mounts onto a Japanese digital camera and it gives pictures that feel like heaven. Barely use the thing accordingly, it's more or less cheating emotionally on the viewer, but pawn shops and such have really interesting options. Explore these.

[madilovrs]

She

Nancy Wheeler x fem!Reader

summary: you want nancy but you don’t know if nancy would want you

inspired by She by dodie

800 words

warnings: angst

tumblr stop screwing up my spacing challenge

You were smart and in all of the hardest classes at Hawkins High School. The only class you struggled with in your junior year was physics. Your struggle confused everyone who knew you because you had always been a science and math person. You had always thrived with the logic of science and math and the way there was always a right or wrong answer. It wasn't the concept of physics or the contents of the class that caused the worst grade of your junior year. It was the people in it.

Actually, one person in it.

At the beginning of the year, you had all gotten the opportunity to choose the person you wanted to share a two-person desk with.

"The seating chart would not be changed all year. No exceptions," Ms. Davis had droned. So you were adamant to pick someone god. On the first day of class, you discovered that you had physics with Nancy Wheeler. The two of you had known each other your whole life but were never close. Nancy was kind and you'd always admired her beauty and generosity. In recent years, she had also grown into a bit of a badass, not to mention she was extremely intelligent.

These were just some of the reasons you had asked her to sit together. However, she hadn't just helped you with physics. You and Nancy had become best friends. You two had sleepovers almost every week and you two knew everything about each other, you knew how she smelled and her favorite chapstick flavor. However, your feelings for her were different than hers for you. She had an effect on you that you had never had with a girl before.

You knew her feelings weren't reciprocated. The majority of the conversations the two of you had at sleepovers were about her boyfriend, Jonathon. You knew you would be better for Nancy though. It's not that Jonathon was a bad boyfriend by any means, but you were a better match, you could provide Nancy with everything she had ever wanted. But you knew that you couldn't think like that. You weren't allowed to like her.

Nancy Wheeler was a girl who liked boys.

----------

"Y/N, you gotta stop looking at her like that," Robin whispered while luffing your arm, noting your wistful gaze toward Nancy and Jonathon browsing Family Video's selection. You and Robin had been friends for a while, both being considered Hawkins High outcasts. The two of you worked together alongside Steve Harrington at Scoops Ahoy earlier in the summer, but due to the incidents at Starcourt, you were forced to relocate. The three of you, with a newfound bond, applied together at Family Video. 

At the time, it seemed like a good idea. Before you realized Jonathon's affinity for movies he dragged Nancy into.

"I know..." you said slowly, looking away. You are not allowed to look at her like that. That was a job for boyfriends.

"I mean you never know, Y/N/N, maybe she likes girls as well," Steve offered, "you'll never know until you tell her."

You shook your head immediately, "No. No, I couldn't. She means everything to me, I can't lose her." Robin and Steve exchanged a look. "I mean it's not that bad. She's pretty when she's happy.." You smile weakly while gazing at Nancy, knowing you cant risk ruining the bright smile on her face. She glanced over at you and offered a small wave, not waiting for a response before turning back to the wall of movies. You sucked in a sharp breath and looked at your feet again, biting your lip to stop the tears from falling. 

"Maybe she just... doesn't know you're an option?" Robin egged, willing you not to feel this way after witnessing the encounter, "let her know."

"Robin, it's okay," you turned to her, smiling to reassure her. "I'm okay. I’m her best friend, and her best friend wouldn't sacrifice her happiness for a selfish reason."

Robin nodded. She knew you were right, but that's not what you wanted. More than anything, you wanted to be with Nancy.

----------

Nancy was a writer, she was comfortable with the grey area of literature, but was also very versed in the logic of science and math, the right and wrong. You were only fond of the logic, you didn't understand that grey area that was up for interpretation. There was no 'maybe' or 'possibly' to you. Only 'yes' and 'no', 'right' and 'wrong'.

Your mind was made. Nancy had never talked about liking girls with you, she rarely talked about anything other than her relationships and schoolwork and journalism. In your mind, this was her expression of telling you that she only liked guys. You were each other's best friend, out of all people, you would be the first to know about her sexuality.

But maybe the real reason Nancy didn't tell you was that she was scared of losing you.

[sabraeal]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love ❤️

This is always the toughest because I have written over 100 fics (much more, if you count the ones in collections) and I truly do love pretty much all of them. I think I will keep this to Obiyuki fics I really found technically difficult, and creatively satisfying!

All Pain Will Turn To Medicine Joanna likes to refer to this as "as close a crossover between Jen's obiyuki fic and original writing as she can come and still call it fanfic" which is absolutely correct, since this fic require making an ENTIRE CAST of OCs to support the premise of "Obi and Shirayuki grow up as childhood friends in the canon universe." I worked on mainly original writing before I started posting fic, so I delight in making characters and then convincing people to care about them, sometimes even against their will.

And That's the Reason We Need Lips So Much Written for the VERY FIRST Obiyukiweek back in 2016, I had been talking about doing something just like this since I pretty much started posting Seven Suitors. Sorata has a love of taking tropes an twisting them, and I thought the "true love's kiss/kiss of life" would be a hilarious one to tackle because...CPR usually ends with vomiting and cracked ribs. I had to do some really in-depth research into the mechanism of hemlock poisoning, since there is no actual known cure, and make up a very convincing one for Shirayuki to discover-- half the reason U started writing fic for this fandom was because I had professional biology knowledge, I wasn't gonna handwave it!

Creatures of a Brief Season Like All Pain, this was for the first AU bingo we ever ran, and I was using a bunch of ideas we had all come up with almost six months earlier on the obiyuki server we had at the time. I'd been so taken with the idea of doing a retelling with daemons, especially with Shirayuki having a daemon that settled late, and Obi having a the witch's tether for his daemon...the biggest hurdle was hoping that I'd done the whole concept justice. It was a LOT of pressure, but it remains one of my favorite fics.

Family, Duty, Honor A Song of Ice and Fire is possibly one of my favorite fantasy series of all time (the show....exists), so when this showed up on my bingo board a few years ago I was ECSTATIC. I had many, MANY ideas for a long-form series that would involve SECRET PARENTAGE and POLITICAL INTRIGUE, and probably DRAGONS, but since it was just for bingo, I wanted it to focus on Obi & Shirayuki...and thus we started at the Fake Marriage, Real Baby plot 🤣 ASoIaF is very densely packed with lore and I wanted to keep this fic the same way...but also make it readable to those who do not shove themselves face first into 800 page fantasy novels. It was a balancing act that I feel like I ultimately got; there's lots of little hints left for fans of the series, but it's enjoyable to people who aren't!

A Color By Any Other Name I had been talking about writing a fic like this for YEARS before I got to sit down and write it; I was initially hesitant because sometimes relatively benign disabilities like colorblindness are used more as like...entertainment in fic, either just as jokes or something to be fixed by the end of the narrative. And my philosophy is always that if I am going to include and experience in a fic-- whether it be something playing a tabletop game, or experiencing grief-- it should feel relatable to a person who has experienced it. So if I wanted to write someone discovering their colorblindness (based more than a little off a close friend's experience in college), I didn't want the colorblindness to be the punchline. In the end I had more than a couple people mention they had read it out to colorblind boyfriends/husbands who had also thought it was funny, so I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

[unforth]

@sharkfish are you sure you want to know? You're going to hate it.

Okay so last year, @/selpuku, who is an artist for several fandoms I'm in, posted this

on Twitter. They specified in a second comment that they meant primarily Moshang, which is a ship between Shang Qinghua, who is a book author who dies, wakes up in his own book as a baby, and then grows up to adulthood in the book, so who is at least 50 years old probably older, and Mobei Jun, who is a character in the book and a very powerful demon who Shang Qinghua spies for and, well, there's too much to explain succinctly but there's probably a 30 year age difference but Shang Qinghua doesn't realize at all that Mobei Jun is (in canon this is) interested and it takes a while for them to figure it out. The power dynamics are complicated; Shang Qinghua is older and basically created the entire book verse, but in-verse he's fairly weak and Mobei Jun could pretty easily crush him like a bug if he wanted to (but instead, as the pic says, Mobei Jun wants to rail him so bad).

Anyway, so far, so fandomy and normal for fandom.

But then.

Someone Quote-Retweeted it to scream about how "reverse grooming" was not a ship dynamic and it was disgusting and all the usual anti crowd jumped on board. I've got OP for the reverse grooming post and basically all the other involved people blocked so I can't find many receipts now (and finding anything older than a day on Twitter is nearly impossible anyway) but in the replies to the "reverse grooming" post a whole bunch of people went off agreeing and sharing all the examples from danmei especially that they felt reflected this supposed dynamic where a younger person somehow "grooms" an older one into a relationship. They especially went off on Hualian, which is the relationship between Hua Cheng (an 810 year old super powerful ghost) and Xie Lian (an 817 year old super powerful god). Because they met when Xie Lian was 17 and Hua Cheng was 10, they are a ripe target for the dumbest takes ever. Antis split between what's going on here, it's usually either "its pedophilia because Hua Cheng was only a kid when they met" (never mind that they get together literally 800 years later) or "Hua Cheng is an obsessive stalker and his behavior is abusive" (never mind that between about the time when they're 23/16 respectively and 817/810 respectively they literally don't see each other for 800 years). Their actual dynamic is more like fan/celebrity, where Hua Cheng is embarrassed everytime his fannish behavior (note: no not Finnish behavior, autocorrect, lmao) is revealed, and Xie Lian is always super chill about it, and they fall in love, and happy otp feels abound.

So yeah people antis decided that Hualian was the quintessential example of this so-called "reverse grooming" dynamic since Xie Lian was obviously not an abuser but they're positive in their vibes read that the relationship is toxic so therefore one of then MUST be the abuser which means Hua Cheng must be the abuser. and there's also initially an age difference and since antis only have like three insults to hurl at ships they don't like and "pedophilia" obviously didn't apply (since Hua Cheng is younger) and incest didn't apply (since there's zero way they could be related) and grooming didn't apply (since Xie Lian didn't have a hand in raising Hua Cheng, though there are absolutely antis who think the opposite, that Xie Lian is the abuser of the two and is a groomer etc) anyway the point is if none of those is the problem it's time to invent a new term for what happened and that's "reverse grooming" where the younger one "grooms" the older one into a relationship the older one wouldn't have wanted otherwise.

Even quite aside from how utterly unsupportable this is in canon, it's still absolutely batshit. Of course it's possible for younger partners to abuse older partners and even manipulate them into relationships but even considering that, "reverse grooming" is still a batshit way to refer to such a dynamic.

Anyway this exploded on danmei Twitter, and beyond that even, for about a week.

Now you know. You're welcome. And sorry.

[kitausuret]

One thing I've noticed about myself when I'm thinking of goofy headcanons or scenarios about Harry Osborn when he's a dad - and has an ideal living situation, let's clarify - is that I lean into a lot of my experiences with my own dad.

Now, granted, my father and Harry don't have a lot in common beyond "was kinda super skinny in his teens and 20s", "had a bad mustache era", and "not a conventionally attractive guy". But I love my dad very dearly and I count myself very very fortunate for that. When I try to think of situations where I want to portray someone as being a good father, I think about the man who helped raise me.

And like... it wasn't anything big. It was all the little things. It was giving him a hug when he got home from work. It was him introducing me to his favorite music, which became my favorite music. It was him trying his best to be understanding even when I was going through some really really rough times mentally, even if he didn't get it. It was him helping me move, him making an effort to be really cool to my girlfriend, him sending me memes and dad jokes every day just to make me smile.

But my dad was never the tough guy. That was always my mom. He wasn't exactly a protector, he was a pacifist and he wants to be liked by people and while he'll stand up for me when it comes down to it, he's never a physical fighter. But I know he loves me and our family and would still do anything for us. That's the kind of dad I see Harry being, too.

There's a lot in canon about Harry unfortunately being an absent father for long stretches of time but I do think that when he's written well, his kids are really his life. They're his biggest priority. He will put them before anything else. It means a lot to me when a writer puts the effort into showing Harry as a good father; as someone who is trying so desperately to break the cycle of abuse. He's not perfect, and sometimes he screws up (sometimes really horribly). But he loves Normie and Stanley, he loves them and I like when I get to see that.

I really can't overstate how important Harry's fatherhood is to me. I always feel a little bit robbed that after Harry came back during the Parker Industries era, we never really got to see the way he juggles his whole life, especially where the kiddos are concerned. Certainly we didn't see much at all in the 2018 run before his unceremonious death at the end of Kindred. But in my heart he ultimately left a legacy as a good father, and if I had my druthers, I would want to keep it that way.

Because sometimes, he reminds me of my dad - and my dad is one of the best men I know.

(ASM #263, DeFalco & Frenz; ASM #646, Waid & Azaceta/Southworth; ASM #800, Slott & Camuncoli)