#i don’t think this qualifies for the art tag

[8-possums-in-a-trench-coat]

hey so uh silly cat musical actually

[runningatypufullspeed]

BRIGHT ASS COLORS GIRL WATCH OUT

Been like almost 6 months since I’ve been roosting here on this lovely website and I STILL have no clue how to use it

[motokeith]

can we stop treating our participation in the voltron fandom as something horrific and shameful or is every single voltron post going to be prefaced with self-deprecation and disgust

[summer-of-bad-batch]

SUMMER OF BAD BATCH 2024 HAS COME TO AN END…TUNE IN NEXT YEAR FOR SUMMER OF BAD BATCH 2025!!

2024 Participants, Completionists & Overachievers!

SUMMER OF BAD BATCH 2024: POST CREDITS (Ao3 Collection)

EVENT BADGES

PARTICIPANT FORM

☀️GENERAL INFORMATION BELOW THE CUT☀️

Bad Batch Would You Rather Game Suggestions

FREE EVENT BANNERS AND DIVIDERS

Summer of Bad Batch 2024 Prompt List

***Fill prompts all summer! No deadlines! See below cut for more details 😎***

200 Followers Celebration Bonus Prompt:

Bonus Alternate Prompt: "Can you braid my hair?"

300 Followers Celebration Bonus Prompt:

Bonus Alternate Prompt: Light in the Darkness

Week 1

Main Prompt: Water Gun Fight

Alt. Prompt: “It’s not what you think.”

Week 2

Main Prompt: Injured

Alt. Prompt: Comfort Zone

Week 3

Main Prompt: “It’s just a scratch.”

Alt. Prompt: “Forget I asked.”

Week 4

Main Prompt: Cadets

Alt. Prompt: "You really think you're going without me? Not going to happen."

Week 5

Main Prompt: “You’re a bad liar.”

Alt. Prompt: “Need a hand?”

Week 6

Main Prompt: Battle Scars

Alt. Prompt: “Get out of my room!”

Week 7

Main Prompt: “Don’t avoid the question.”

Alt. Prompt: Getting a Haircut

Week 8

Main Prompt: Swimming Lessons

Alt. Prompt: Lula

Week of 9

Main Prompt: “Hold still.”

Alt. Prompt: Stargazing

Week 10

Main Prompt: Hugs

Alt. Prompt: “Just when were you planning on telling us that?”

Week 11

Main Prompt: “I didn’t think I would get this far.”

Alt. Prompt: “Yeah, kid, we’re fine.”

Week 12

Main Prompt: Nightmares

Alt. Prompt: Radio Silence

Week 13

Main Prompt: “Stop touching me!” // “I’m not touching you!”

Alt. Prompt: Crashing Hard

🥳🥳That’s the end of the Summer of Bad Batch 2024 prompt list…feel free to use all prompts and tags forever and ever🥳🥳

You can find the Ao3 collection HERE!

And I know that sometimes, it can be a pain to figure out how to add to collections (please tell me I'm not the ONLY one who has struggled with this 😭), so here's a step by step!

STEP ONE: Post a New Work OR Edit an existing work.

STEP TWO: Under the Associations category, you’ll see “Post to Collections / Challenges”

STEP THREE: Type summerofbadbatch2024 (no spaces)

STEP FOUR: This is where it gets tricky...the collection may or may not auto populate. If it doesn't, that's okay. Just leave summerofbadbatch2024 in there as is, and save the post (you can even save it as a draft and see if it worked!) It should add it to the collection even if it didn't auto populate 🤓

Q: What is Summer of Bad Batch??

A: Summer of Bad Batch is a laidback, summer prompt challenge from June 1st-August 31st. Every Sunday (12am CST), a prompt and alternative prompt will be released to inspire creativity in the Star Wars: The Bad Batch fandom! By filling prompts by August 31st, you can qualify as a:

Participant (completed 1-12 prompts)

Completionist (completed 13+ prompts)

Overachiever (completed 13 main prompts + the 13 alternative prompts)

At the end of the challenge, there will be a form for participants to fill out to let me know what category of completion they fall into. A post will be made for each category giving a shoutout and (if you’d like) a link to your Master List of completed prompt fills.

Q: What can I do to fill a prompt?

A: Anything you want! Fanfic, fan art, drabbles, doodles, cartoons, poetry...the possibilities are endless! The only real criteria is that it has to be based on Star Wars: The Bad Batch.

Q: Will you reblog prompt fills?

A: Yes! However, since I am keeping this blog PG, I will only reblog prompt fills that fit within that criteria. Basically, if it could be in the literal show itself, it could be reblogged here ☺️

(That said, I won’t reblog any clone x clone content simply because it is one of my main squicks 😅)

Also, make sure you tag your prompt fills! That's the only way I'll be able to find them in the wide world of Tumblr! So, tag your prompt fills with #summerofbadbatch2024 so I (and anyone else who is looking for Summer of Bad Batch goodness!) can find your posts!

(And everything is welcome on the Ao3 Summer of Bad Batch 2024 Collection — so make sure to add to it if you’re on Ao3!)

Q: When will prompts be released?

A: Every Sunday (with the exception of Week 1, which will have a special release date of Saturday, June 1st) at 12am CST.

Q: What if I don’t understand a prompt?

A: Send me a message or an ask! I’d be happy to help!

Q: What if I don’t like the weekly prompt?

A: Every week will have an alternate prompt available! And alternate prompts can be swapped out for any main prompt, regardless of which week!

Q: Where can I post my prompt fills?

A: Anywhere you'd like! Personally, I'm only on Ao3 and Tumblr...but I know that this fandom is literally all over the internet, so wherever you feel comfortable posting, do it!!

Q: What if I don't finish filling the prompt within the week?

A: One of my favorite parts of this prompt challenge is that there are no deadlines! If you want to be a Completionist or an Overachiever, you just have to have the prompts complete by August 31st!

Finished week 2 during week 5? Great!

Finished weeks 1-13 during week 13?? 😅 That works!

Q: Do I have to post/publish my prompt fills to be considered a participant/completionist/overachiever?

A: Nope! I know not to everyone feels comfortable sharing their work, and that’s totally fine!

You don’t have to post/publish a single thing to qualify. At the end of the challenge, I’ll link a form for anyone who participated to fill out. This is all based on the honor system…so if you say you completed “such and such”…I’ll take your word for it 😊 If you want, you can still be given a shout out for whatever level of participation you said you completed. Just let me know!

Q: Can I combine prompts?

A: Yes! Mash up those prompts and make a custom, super prompt if your heart so desires!

Q: But can I combine prompts with other challenges?

A: Absolutely! If the other challenge allows it, feel free to combine Summer of Bad Batch as you see fit ✨

Q: Can I apply prompts to works I've already completed/posted?

A: Prompts should not be applied to already completed works.

But if you have a WIP that's been gathering dust that would fit the occasion, that would be fine!

Have a story that you're adding chapters to? You can apply prompts to new chapters! That's fine too!

Q: Will there be a complete prompt list available?

A: Not until after the event, since prompts will be posted weekly 😘

Q: Can I use the prompts even after the event has ended?

A: Absolutely!

You didn’t find your question here?? Send me an ask, I’d be happy to help!

[cupcakeslushie]

I sincerely see little issue on you coping like that, as long as its not, you know, graphic

Would i be uncomfortable? Very. Im still not quite over my own experience

But I'd be lying if i said i hadnt thought of putting some characters i relate to in such things and having they deal with it and feel like i did (as much as they can in the circumstances)

Yeah as long as this stuff isnt fetishized im on full support of it

Okay I feel like I’m stuck in a loop where the target is still being just slightly missed. I appreciate your intentions with this ask, and I can see where you were going. But “as long as it’s not graphic” and “as long as it’s not fetishized” are still putting qualifiers on art.

Art has no bounds. As long as triggers are tagged properly, and put behind a “read more” for the visually graphic images, any art can be created. When we start requiring stipulations for artists to meet before making art, we start the process of sanitizing it. If you read the warnings and still click on the post, then your discomfort is on you. If you aren’t mature enough to know your own limits in what you can handle, the artist shouldn’t have to issue a statement decrying their art, and listing all their traumas for some kind of purity tribunal to then decide it’s okay, and only when it’s being used as a coping mechanism.

It’s kinda funny, after all this, I likely wasn’t even going to actually DRAW anything sexually graphic, and at most, simply hint at it. But it doesn’t matter. If I wanted to, I should be able to, as long as it’s given all the warnings required. If I don’t like certain triggers, I avoid them. I’m not delusional enough to think that in all the whole, wide expanse of the internet, people will pander to my specific icks, likes and dislikes. I curate my own internet experience.

I can only hope, as I go about my day, that I am given the same courtesy of being warned ahead of time in the summary and tags, that I’m giving. But if another artist does want to draw that, I’m not going to request to see their trauma resume, just so I can approve of what they made. If I clicked, after reading the warnings and knowing damn well I would be triggered, I’m not going to be mad at the artist. That’s on me.

[holllandtrash]

better late than never | lando norris, pierre gasly

pairing: lando norris x reader, pierre gasly x reader part 3 to better left unsaid (the better series)

the first race weekend after the break is filled with drama, tension and words that you all wished could be taken back, and you're not even referring to what happened on the track

word count: 5.1k tags: angst lmao also more social media stuff

“What if you just quit your job?” Pierre asked. You told yourself he was only joking, but when you glanced away from the computer screen to look at your propped up phone and his charming eyes on facetime, you knew he wasn’t joking.

“I’m not throwing away six years of post secondary education and thousands of dollars of tuition because you’re batting your pretty little eyes at me,” you looked back at the computer screen that held the blueprints for an upcoming gallery exhibit. As an assistant curator at an art gallery, you had a lot on your plate and you had a dozen things to catch up on before your next trip out of the city.

“You think my eyes are pretty?”

Of course that was the only part he heard. 

“Pierre I can't-” you cut yourself off when someone in the background called Pierre’s name. It took a second but you recognized the female voice as one of the student engineers at Alpine. You waited until Pierre and her finished their quick conversation and he turned back to you.

Pierre smirked at how your expression dropped. Even when you forced yourself to focus on your computer screen, those forehead lines could be spotted through the bad quality facetime call.

“Ma chérie, don’t tell me you’re jealous because I’m talking to another girl,” Pierre laughed. You had half a mind to hang up on him.

If you were being honest, the female voice did speed up your heart rate a bit until you figured out who it was. Pierre was somewhere in a hotel, you weren’t sure where because his face took up most of the screen, but you knew he wasn’t alone. 

And you didn’t have a right to be jealous either. You and Pierre still weren’t an item, despite what the rumour mill was saying. 

You just talked everyday and he sent you flowers to your place of work and he bought your next plane ticket for you to watch the race and you were constantly thinking about how nice it would be to wake up beside him. 

For fuck sakes, you liked him. 

A lot.

In a matter of weeks you had fallen for him. And he hadn’t even kissed you yet. There were a few times when it came close, but the moment was never right. You weren’t going to rush into anything either, especially not with Lando being an ever lingering thought in the back of your mind that you couldn’t seem to get rid of.

“I’m not the jealous type,” you told him. Lies. You liked when his eyes were on you and only you. You liked how he had treated you during the break. You couldn’t get enough of it.

Pierre didn’t seem to believe you, but he changed the topic regardless, “Did you watch qualifying today?”

“P7 baby,” you grinned, hitting send on the last email before calling it a night. “Alpine’s kicking ass in the midfield.”

“So you’ll be watching the race tomorrow?” 

“Of course, I wouldn’t miss it.”

“Good,” Pierre liked knowing you’d be rooting for him. “I wish you were here now, though.”

With yours and Pierre’s relationship, or whatever you wanted to call it, starting at the beginning of the summer break, you had yet to accompany him during a race weekend. 

That would change next weekend. You were set to attend the Monza Grand Prix. 

And for the first time, you wouldn’t be hanging out in the McLaren garage. Pierre had to pull some strings to ensure you’d be allowed access, but once he made it clear that you didn’t have any affiliation to the papaya team, he sent you the paddock pass and flight information.

Pierre really wanted you with him that weekend. He had won in Monza before, he considered it one of his lucky tracks. Plus Italy was like a second home to him, he wanted everything to be perfect and your presence was a crucial part of that.

You weren’t sure if you were ready for the fans to share their opinions online. Lando had a huge following, and because of that, most of his fans knew who you were. You could only imagine what people would be saying when you were spotted in the Alpine garage for a change.

It shouldn’t have bothered you, but you weren’t as strong as you wanted to be.

“Chérie,” Pierre’s voice had the ability to calm your nerves, even if it was just temporary. “If you’re having second thoughts about Monza, please let me know.”

It was insane how well he knew you. In a few short weeks, Pierre was able to recognize even the slightest change in your mannerisms when something was bothering you. He was observant and it showed.

“No,” you assured him, or maybe you were assuring yourself. “No, I want to be there with you.”

He believed you, why wouldn’t he? These last few weeks with him were otherworldly to say the least. You wanted to keep this going for as long as possible. Pierre left you feeling hopeful and optimistic and after the fallout with Lando, you needed that. 

Pierre couldn’t replace Lando, not like you wanted him to, but you knew you had room in your heart for that French driver.

And you were going to see things through.

———————

pre-race press conference

The pizza had just been delivered. You poured yourself a rum and coke. You had on booty shorts and one of Pierre’s Alpine jumpers and you were ready to watch the race. 

What you weren’t ready for, was a knock at your door.

“Who the fuck…” It was a Sunday, you weren’t expecting anyone. You put your drink down and headed over to the front door. You rented the bottom half of a house, it wasn’t ideal but the private entryway was nice. 

You pulled the door open and was quite literally taken aback to see Max standing there. A case of beer in his hands as he sported a Quadrant sweater.

“Hi,” you said, hearing Will Buxton's voice coming from your speakers. It was only a few minutes until lights out. 

“Want some company?” Max asked. 

You missed him, there was no doubt about that. He had been so intertwined with Lando’s life these last few weeks that you genuinely thought he forgot about you after your phone call. You didn’t even see him in Monaco until you stopped by Lando’s place. 

You weren’t going to question why he was in London. He, like you, was always flying back and forth. At least he had the decency to reach out this time. 

“Always,” you stepped aside, making room for him to come in. 

Max didn’t comment on your apparel. He also didn’t comment on the state of your place which was always in slight ruins. You had been travelling so much and when you were in the city, most of your time was spent at work and you just could not be arsed to hang your jackets up when you got home, or put your shoes away properly. 

It was a little awkward when Max sat down. Not because he wasn’t comfortable in your home, he had been there dozens upon dozens of times before. But because you hadn’t spoken in weeks.

And now here he was with a case of beer acting as an olive branch. You were both hoping it would work, honestly. You didn’t want to have to rely on Lando to be the glue in your friendship. He didn’t own Max. 

“How’s Pierre?” Max asked, eyes glued to the screen.

You laughed, reaching for a slice of pizza and sliding the box across the coffee table for him to grab one. “We’re not dating, Max.”

“Kind of seems like it,” Max chuckled as well. You shot him a look, one that basically said shut up and he held his hand up in defence. “I’m just saying, Y/N, he seems to make you happy. It’s not a bad thing. You deserve to be happy.”

“Thanks,” you smiled as he opened up one of the cans he brought but the second it started foaming over the sides, he jumped up in a panic. You covered your mouth with your hand to keep from laughing at his mess and he just stared at you with wide eyes.

“For Christ sakes women, get a towel!” He tried to drink what he could but excess liquid was streaming down his chin.

You held your hand out towards the screen, “The race is about to start! I’m not cleaning up your mess!” 

“I’m using the pillow as a towel then,” Max scoffed, wiping his hand on his jeans and grabbing one of the round pillows from the other couch. He did what he could to clean up the spill with the pillow, but your attention was on the screen. You could help him later.

The second the five lights went out, the drivers were off. You held your breath as the twenty cars fought to be the first to make it to that first corner, but all in all it was a pretty clean start. Pierre gained a place. Lando lost one. They were currently P6 and P5.

Why were you even watching the McLaren?  

Don’t kid yourself, you still cared.

You cleared your throat, “How’s Lando?”

Max seemed surprised that you asked. So much so that he paused to make sure he actually heard you correctly, “Yeah he’s good.”

“Is he?” The question slipped out. It wasn’t that you didn’t believe Max was telling the truth but you just knew there was more to it. Lando was never just good. And especially after your last conversation…part of you knew he was struggling as much as you were, even if he wouldn’t admit it.

‘See you around then, maybe.’ He said. He could have just said goodbye. He could have just stayed quiet. 

Max sighed. It wasn’t a good sigh, but he kept his eyes on the race. Probably for the better. If you saw the hurt he was feeling for his friend, it would have broken you.

“What do you want me to say, Y/N?” Max asked. The air in the room suddenly felt heavy. You weren’t hot a minute ago but your mouth was dry now and your hands were clamming up. “He’s been better, that’s for damn sure. I know he regrets what he said to you and I also know he hates seeing you with Gasly. He nearly breaks his phone every time a photo of you two pops up.”

“So why hasn’t he reached out?” You weren’t under the impression Lando regretted anything. He might have missed you, but he seemed to stick by his words, as did you. 

Max turned it around on you, “Why haven’t you reached out?” 

“It’s not on me to fix anything.” your voice trembled. Focus on the race. Pierre was doing good. He defended one of the Aston Martin’s seamlessly. He was catching up to Lando. “Plus I-”

Nope, you didn’t need to say it. You shook your head, shoving the last bit of crust into your mouth. 

“You still love him?” 

And then you were choking on said crust. Max swore under his breath and grabbed your drink for you, encouraging you to take a sip and clear your airways. Water would have been better but maybe chugging the rum and coke would make this conversation a little easier.

You dabbed the corner of your eye, “No Max I don’t,” you inhaled a heavy breath, “I mean, it’s hard to say, okay? Part of me will always love Lando, but I need it to be a different type of love. I need to be content with knowing that him and I will never happen, that we were never supposed to happen. I want to be able to look at him and be his friend but not have it hurt and I just- I don’t know how I’ll ever get to that point.”

Max nodded. You could tell he was trying to understand but you were feeling way too many emotions at once and spilling that beer on his Quadrant hoodie was probably the most traumatic thing he’s had to deal with in the last month.

“So do you want him to reach out or not?” Max asked after a few minutes.

You slumped further into the corner of the couch, “I really don’t know.”

The two of you could have dived deeper into this topic. There was no one better to bounce your thoughts off of than Max. He knew you, he knew Lando. He wouldn’t purposely steer you in the wrong direction and secretly, he was rooting for the two of you to make up. 

But the race suddenly got interesting. 

You both saw it. Your eyes were glued to the tv throughout your conversation and while the multitasking had worked, now the only thing that mattered were the drivers.

It was only lap 10 of 72, but Lando braked early going into turn 13. Too early, like he knew Pierre’s Alpine was within DRS range behind him and wanted to purposely fuck with him before the start/finish straight. 

Pierre usually had better reflexes. But Lando shouldn’t have braked when he did. 

The front wing jammed into the back of the McLaren, sending both cars off the track. Lando’s tyres locked up and he spun out but Pierre went directly into the barrier. The cars behind them managed to avoid it, but there was no salvaging the damage on either car. Pierre would have to retire and the hit from the Alpine caused a sudden hydraulics issue in the McLaren.

They were lucky, honestly, it could have been a lot worse. 

But you didn’t give a shit about the cars. You were watching the drama unfold on screen as a red flag was announced to pull both cars off the track. 

Pierre climbed out of the car first. A marshall tried to usher him towards one of the exit holes in the gate, but he turned his attention to Lando who was also being escorted by a marshall. 

Pierre pointed his finger at Lando. The cameras couldn’t pick up what they were saying but you knew it wasn’t friendly. Not by the way the marshall had now positioned himself in between the two drivers.

“He did it on purpose,” Max voiced what everyone and their dog was thinking. 

“He wouldn’t,” you wanted to believe that Lando just made a mistake. “No, he wouldn’t sacrifice a race like this. Not to be petty.”

Max could argue that in a second. He had seen first hand how livid and unbearable Lando had become recently. He wouldn’t put it past his friend to pull a dirty move like this. 

The camera followed the drivers getting into the separate golf carts as they were driven back to the pit lane. From body language alone you could tell how frustrated Pierre was. This wasn’t his own error that caused him to retire, it was all on Lando. There was no doubt about it.

Somewhere along the lines you had reached across the couch to grab Max’s arm. The anticipation killed both of you as you watched in silence. You didn’t know if one of the drivers would approach the other in the pit lane but you were praying they would stay in their own garages.

“I told you,” Max whispered. “Lando hates that you’re with Pierre.”

“Lando’s an idiot for screwing up his own race because of some childish jealousy,” you said through clenched teeth. 

The screen was only showing Pierre now as he pulled his helmet off to speak to his engineers in the garage. His usually charismatic and inviting features were cold and hardened as he vented for anyone to hear. You wished the camera was able to pick up on what he was saying but it was for the better that it couldn’t. 

He wasn’t injured, thank god. That was always a fear you had when you watched collisions. But now there was a new fear. 

The media was going to have a field day over this. And because you weren’t necessarily private about hanging out with Pierre after having such a public friendship with Lando, you knew that one way or another, you’d be dragged into this.

“I have to call him,” you said, more to yourself than to Max, but he nodded in encouragement. “Before this blows up, I have to talk to him.”

"Him, who?" Max asked, wanting clarification. There were two drivers involved in that accident. Two drivers that had taken up two very different spots in your heart.

You grabbed your phone from the coffee table and your mind turned on autopilot, calling the one driver that you knew you had to speak to first.

“Don’t say anything,” Amelia, Lando’s PR assistant, instructed. “Not to the media, not online, no public statements until we sort this out, do you understand?” 

Lando nodded and Amelia waited until she got verbal confirmation that he wouldn’t turn this into a bigger mess before leaving the drivers room.

“Yes, don’t worry,” he huffed out. “Lips are sealed.”

“God you make my life difficult,” Amelia pulled out her phone and walked back into the motorhome, shutting his door with more force than necessary. 

Lando changed out of his fireproofs, knowing he wouldn’t need them to watch the rest of the race. He slid on a McLaren polo t and a pair of black joggers. He combed his fingers through his hair and grabbed his phone off the table. He didn’t usually look at his phone much during race days, but he was dying to know what people were saying, what sort of assumptions were being thrown around. 

He had just opened twitter when your name showed up on his phone screen. The image being one of the two of you a few years back. He remembered setting it as your contact photo even though you hated how your side profile looked. 

Lando wasn’t sure if this was a mistake or not. He had retired early from races before and if you weren’t watching in the paddock, you wouldn’t call him until the race completed, giving him the time he always needed to cool off or collect himself. 

But you were calling him now.

Lando slid his finger across the screen and brought the phone up to his ear. He didn’t even get a word in, not like he would act as this was a normal conversation anyway. You were calling because Pierre was involved. Hell you probably already called him first and talking to Lando was just additional damage control.

“What the fuck, Lando?” 

He missed your voice. He didn’t miss you scolding him.

“Y/N I-”

“Tell me it wasn’t on purpose,” you demanded. He could hear it in your voice, the shakiness of your breath, the false confidence. You were mad at him, but up until recently, you were never one to paint him as the bad guy so this was completely new territory for you. 

Lando sat down on the edge of the couch, foot tapping against the floor, “I didn’t intend to ruin both our races.”

That wasn’t the answer you were looking for and all you could do was sigh in defeat.

But that single breath into the receiver made Lando regret every single wrong action he had ever done. It didn’t matter that you weren��t in the same room, that one goddamn breath ringing in his ear had a way of hitting Lando the way no words ever could. 

It reminded him of when you two were twelve and you spent a week at his place with his family and he yelled at you when you tried on one of his karting helmets. You didn’t mean anything by it, you just wanted to see if it fit. Lando yanked it off your head and lost it on you, telling you to never touch it again. 

Your eyes welled up immediately. You didn’t even apologise, you couldn’t. You just inhaled and exhaled the heaviest breath your twelve year old lungs could handle and Lando knew he crossed a line more than you had. You shouldn’t have touched his helmet but he shouldn’t have raised his voice. He spent the rest of the day making sure you didn’t hold it against him. He didn’t want to hurt your feelings, he never wanted to hurt your feelings.

And in these last few weeks, that’s all he’s done. 

Pulling that one reckless move on the track didn’t just risk hurting Pierre. Lando knew how much Pierre meant to you, for some fucking reason, and he knew that you’d be watching. He knew that move would hurt you. 

“You braked early on purpose,” it wasn’t a question. Your assumptions were correct. You just needed to hear it.

“I wanted to get him off my tail,” Lando tried to defend his choices but he didn’t sound the least bit convincing. But that’s what he did when he felt as though he was backed into a corner, even if he was in the wrong, he always tried to talk himself out of whatever mess he made. “Gasly’s reaction times are off the charts, Y/N I just thought I’d mess him up a little. I didn’t think he'd crash into me.”

“God you are so full of yourself,” you spat out. “Lando, we haven't talked in weeks. I’ve been happy hanging out with Pierre, I’ve left you alone like you wanted and you go and pull this shit?”

Lando instantly became defensive, he had to. “Oh I’m full of myself? Why are you assuming this had anything to do with you?”

“I- because-” you stammered. “Lando, come on. You and Pierre have never had issues on track before.”

“He’s been getting on my nerves lately.”

“Since when do you bring your outside problems into the car with you?” You asked. 

“He’s been getting on my nerves all weekend, Y/N,” Lando clarified. Why did he feel the need to explain himself? 

Maybe because this was the longest you had spoken in weeks and even if you were arguing, he’d rather keep you on the phone and listen to you snap at him than hang up and not know when he’d hear from you next.

You paused, “What do you mean?”

“He’s been dragging my name through the mud since the press conference, did you not watch it?”

You had been at work during the press conferences, plus they weren’t always entertaining so no, you had missed it. 

“Subtle jabs here and there,” Lando went on further. “He thinks because you’re his now-”

“I’m not his,” you were quick to interject. You weren’t some piece of property that the guys would fight over. You were a goddamn human being and you didn’t ask for this mess. “I also was never yours.”

That shut Lando up. It was a harsh slap to the face. The painful reality he had to accept but didn’t want to because you should have been his. 

He should have worked harder to keep you in his life.

He should have realised how important you were to him before letting you slip through his fingers. 

It shouldn’t have taken him seeing you with Pierre to know that he needed you.

“I know,” Lando couldn’t argue with you. You were never his. “I didn’t mean it like-” God this was harder than it should have been. “It’s just- you care about Pierre now, is all.”

You hesitated. Lando wouldn’t have been surprised if you hung up. This conversation didn’t seem to be going anywhere. 

And then your voice dropped to a whisper, like you were even debating letting the next words out of your mouth, knowing they would only add fuel to this fire. 

“That doesn’t mean I stopped caring about you.”

Lando froze. Quite literally. His legs went numb, thank god he was sitting down. He counted each individual breath you took and he was asking himself why you weren’t there with him, to say this in person. He could only imagine what you were like right now.

He had no idea that you were curled up on the couch, fingers trembling as you held the phone to your ear. He had no clue that Max was staring at you, mouth agape as you said the words that could have single handedly fixed what went wrong. Lando didn’t know that you called him first and that Pierre would just have to wait to hear your voice. 

You continued, “Lando we both said some hurtful things, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about you. You’re-” you chuckled and Lando instantly felt a weight lift from his shoulders. When was the last time he heard your laugh? “It’s not easy to throw away fifteen plus years of friendship, you idiot.”

“I guess that’s true,” he agreed, a smile forming on his own lips. Things weren’t permanently broken between you. There was damage, but it wasn’t a shattered mirror. You could put the pieces back together and not have the remnants of the incident ruin your relationship moving forward. 

“I think space is needed, though” you then said. Lando’s heart sank a little further into his chest. “I don’t want to be reliant on you anymore, Lando. For so long, you were all I cared about and I can’t keep living like that.”

You needed the time to get over him. 

Lando understood what you were trying to say. You didn’t want to love him anymore. You wanted a clean slate of friendship, something that wouldn’t keep you up at night, haunting your thoughts with all the what-if’s. 

He could wait. 

He had no choice, essentially. 

You weren’t ready to let him go and he was going to do whatever he could to get you back in his life. These last few weeks were hard enough with you. He didn’t want to go the next few years without you at his side. 

“Y/N I-” Lando paused, taking his lower lip between his teeth. He’d been holding onto that night in the club for so long, he had to let it go. “I’m sorry.”

If he could see you right now, he’d probably laugh at the way your forehead wrinkled as your eyebrows pinched together. 

“For the braking?”

“For everything I said,” he ran his fingers through his hair. It would be so much easier if you two were in the same room. “For making you feel as though I was paying for your friendship. For cancelling your flights. For being a shitty person, you didn’t deserve any of it. Especially knowing how you feel- how you felt, I mean. I made everything worse and I'm sorry.”

This time when you let out a breath into the receiver, it sounded more hopeful, if that was even possible. It sounded like the type of breath you’d take before rolling your eyes at him. 

“You couldn’t have apologised the morning after?” You asked. Your tone was finally starting to lighten up. “It took you causing an accident during a race to realise you fucked things up between us?”

“I’m an idiot.”

“I know.”

You were both silent. Lando didn’t want to hang up first. He wanted to keep you on the phone for the rest of the day. 

But he knew he couldn’t. His team was waiting for him in the garage. There was still a race going on. He had to sit and watch and think about his mistakes. He should probably apologise to Pierre. 

“Are we okay?” Lando asked. 

“We will be.”

You didn’t hesitate, but it wasn’t the answer Lando was hoping for. He had to be patient.

“I’ll talk to you soon,” he said.

You knew he meant it.

When you hung up, Max was waiting on the opposite end of the couch for an explanation. He only caught bits and pieces of what Lando said and he couldn’t piece together anything.

“He apologised,” you said. 

The smile that spread across Max’s face was photo-worthy. He’d been waiting to hear that. He’d been telling Lando to say sorry since you ran out of the club with Pierre.

“Thank god!” Max fist bumped the air. “Does that mean we can finally all hang out again? I love Lando, I just can’t deal with him alone. He-”

“Woah, okay, slow down,” you felt bad, but you couldn’t let Max get ahead of himself. “I still need time. I can’t just hang out with him and pretend I never loved him, I need to be in a place where I’m content with just being his friend.”

Max’s face dropped, “How long is that going to take.”

You shrugged. You didn’t have an answer. All you knew was that things were going to be okay. You didn’t lose Lando like you thought you had. He was still there and he would continue to be there, waiting for you to return to his life when you were ready. When you could look at him and not see the face of the man you loved. 

You then thought about what Lando said about Pierre’s comments during the press conference. 

“Hey, what did Pierre say to the media?” You asked. “Did you watch the press conference?”

Max’s face said it all. He inhaled a sharp breath through clenched teeth and you regretted asking the question. 

“It wasn’t what he said, it was how he said it,” Max clarified. “He talked about the competition between himself and Lando, but the underlying tone…you could tell it wasn’t just about the points or the driver standings. Pierre was referring to you. As if you were the prize.”

That wasn’t the least bit flattering, but you made a mental note to search up the clip after the race. 

At that same moment, Pierre’s face showed up in a split screen on the tv. You couldn’t put into words how mad he was that his race was over as he sat in the garage, watching the other drivers continue on without him. You knew he had a few choice words for Lando and honestly, you couldn’t blame him.

You had to talk to Pierre, about the incident, about what Lando said, about where you two stood. But after your conversation with Lando, you decided that Pierre could wait. 

You were leaving for Monza on Friday anyways, which was a good thing. You were going to need those extra days to prepare for what was to come.

part 4 here read all parts here

[tornoleander]

Wow, you're the beta reader for bbnb? I didn't know that. (So you can confirm that Hat is infact not dead because I haven't seen any activity from them in a while and my brain always jumps to worst case scenarios)

Anyway, definitely didn't forget to respond for like a week, but here are some of my theories/scenarios:

-I still think Cole's the one who'll remember bits and pieces because A. He's a ghost B. Hat used he/him when talking about who will remember and C. It would be incredibly emotionaly impactful

-HOWEVER, I think Pixal could also remember some stuff. None of the emotional stuff but she did technically die when Nadakhan erased her. Besides, it could be fun to see her try to let Jay or Nya know she remembers while still stuck to Zane.

-also Zane's falcon died but he was never mentioned in this fic so 😔

-Jay DEFINITELY has c-ptsd. Like, 100%, I'm sure the nurse/psychologist whose name I forgor would agree with me

-I'm pretty sure Wu just died by some falling island or something like that. Or he could've died by the storm, that would be cool.

-I know he said that swearing is a sign of weak verbal skills but I feel like Jay would start swearing more for comfort. Like, Nadakhan hated it but never truly did anything horrible to him because of it :)

most of the scenarios in my head play out with the ninja being captured again

-for example, Jay using his internal electricity to shock someone when they all have vengestone

-or them getting tazed and Jay sending the current back like he did in the electric chair

-or they're all traped and saying shit like "there's no other option" or something and Jay replying with "suicide's still an option" like that's a normal thing to say which obviously worries the others

And then there's the non captured scenarios

-something something Jay falling into autopilot after being told/asked to clean to ship and ends up also cleaning the hull "Why are you cleaning the bottom? We're in the air and you're not even tied to anything???" ".... trauma response?"

-or just straight up Jay having a panic attack out of seemingly sowhere (Cole said he wished he could eat cake again)

Anyway, those are the things I could think of right now, there's more but it's 3:39am and I'm tired :3

Hope it's not too long lol

Yep! As of ch 15. Me and hat have been chatting for a while and I bug them for feedback on Art accuracy so I help them with some writing corrections too!

I have been working on beta reading earlier chapters as well currently half way through 4. It is certainly an experience but now I yell my feelings into comment instead of just the void

*reaches through horrific horror to correct spelling mistake.

Yup Hat is alive! They were just fixated on something else for a while but they are back.

Ok now for scenarios

-Cole remembering bits……. I will refrain from giving my thoughts.

-Pixal and Zane’s falcon died pretty early so I do think they may remember up till then but It probably wouldn’t help understand much.

-I don’t think Wu died? But it’s not impossible.

-CPTSD?

I will ask hat about this one but seeing as bbnb events qualify as at least 4/6 of these causes of it AND ptsd is a tag I’m going to give it a yeah. Cause non complex ptsd is typically less prolonged.

-the swearing I do think he might do more but not necessarily for comfort

-For your head scenarios I am not sure all the ways hat is planned show how the events of the fic messed him up. But I know they’re a big fan of consequences for events…

From what I’m guessing he is going to be trying his best to hide everything and it’ll be somewhat canon compliant? But to be fair He is pretty consistently the most mentally unstable ninja. Take This with a big grain of salt I’m saving the analysis for my skybound video, but his behavior does generally line up well with SA surivers. the first time that Jays a prisoner post Skybound is when he says “You don’t argue with a man who’s navel is that close”

Which

Drives me insane by the way

Side tangent, I’ve been doing a lot of Skybound digging for my eventual video essay. And my current best theory on why this is a line has to do with SA of men being played for laughs.

Like older audiences are supposed to hear that and find it fucking funny. It’s unfortunately not uncommon in kids programming. My quest to best explain why S6 is so uncomfortable has been… enlightening. Terrified of approaching a controversial topic so I have been learning a-lot about approach and how to not be awful. But my fixation is being channeled led into the eventual Skybound video.

Hope I answered what you wanted to know and It wasn’t purely my Adhd rambling

[infinitejedilove]

2024 Jinnobi Challenge

Hello everyone! It’s March which means it’s time for me to be really early about mentioning the Jinnobi Challenge happening in August! This is the 8th annual Jinnobi Challenge and it feels very strange to write this and know this all started back in 2017 when I was lamenting the lack of Qui/Obi challenges. Well now there are several that happen every year and they are always worth checking out!  (previous master lists of the Jinnobi Challenge submissions : 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023).

So here’s all the info and FAQ for those who are thinking of participating in this Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon challenge (I will repost this info periodically as it gets closer to August).

When is it?: The challenge will run from August 1 – August 31. Any Jinnobi work you submit must be complete and it must be submitted sometime during August 1 – August 31. You have from now until August to work on submissions. PLEASE DO NOT POST YOUR SUBMISSION BEFORE THE CHALLENGE STARTS. Due to time differences in various countries, I do allow people to post on September 1st. 

Who can enter: The challenge is open to writers, artists and everyone in between. Art, poetry, photo manips, videos, gifsets, fanfiction, it’s all welcome. There’s no theme except it has to be Obi-Wan Kenobi/Qui-Gon Jinn. It can be set during the prequels, the originals, the Kenobi show, or an AU. It’s up to you. You can submit multiple entries too if you’d like. For fic writers there’s no limit on the length of your fic(s).

How to enter: When August 1st, comes around you’re welcome to post your complete work on whatever social network or fanfiction site you are comfortable using. Please tag your work (if the site allows you to tag) with the tag Jinnobi Challenge 2024 or The Jinnobi Challenge 2024 whether it’s a fic, art, or a post.  Message me with a link to your work (or links, if you submit more than one work), once you’ve published it so I know to put it on the master list!

I can also be reached on A03, but I tend to check tumblr much more regularly so if you want a fast response, I recommend contacting me via that.

Rules:

1. No underage relationships. (underage = below 18 years of age)

2. No Abuse or Noncon between the main pairing (Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon)

3. If you post anything triggering, please tag it with the appropriate warnings

4. Your fic must have a rating on it (the challenge is open to all ratings)

5. If you’re posting a long WIP, the first chapter must be posted on or after August 1, and the last chapter has to be posted before August 31, so I don’t recommend it unless you know you can get it done in that time.

FAQ:

What if I don’t have anything ready, but I do have a Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan work I happened to post in August?: As long as the quiobi work was complete and was posted between the 1st – 31st of August 2024, you can tag it ���Jinnobi Challenge 2024’ and enter it in the challenge.

What if it’s not slash?: This challenge celebrates the Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan ship. Pre-slash is fine, just please no ‘Qui-Gon as a parental figure to Obi-Wan’ fics as that is not what this challenge is about.

What if it’s a fic in a series?: if it’s a standalone complete story in a series than yes, it qualifies.

What if I already entered it in a different quiobi fic challenge?: The fic must be a new fic posted in August 2024 (no reposting old works unless it’s an extreme rewrite to basically be nothing like the original) and it must be complete. It’s ok with me if it is tagged in another challenge as long as it meets the guidelines for this challenge but you’ll want to check if it’s ok with the other challenge you posted it in.

What if it’s Obi/Qui/others? Or there’s Obi/other, Qui/other, but still Qui/Obi?: The main pairing should still be Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon, even if it’s poly, or if there are other partners or past/present relationships.

Does it have to follow a prompt?: No. As long as it’s Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan and complete it can be about anything. If you want a prompt to work with here are a few you can choose to use for inspiration:

People assuming the characters are a married couple/accidental marriage

2. Someone gets sick

3. Sharing a home/quarters for the first time.

4. Quiobi in a different genre than sci-fi (i.e. fantasy, western, supernatural, historical romance, etc)

5. First kiss

Can be as angsty, fluffy, or as AU as you want as long as it follows the rules of the challenge.

Is there a prize this year?: Yes! I want to continue having a prize each year. And this year is a repeat of the 2021 Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan poster! (yes I do actually have more than one copy of this 90’s poster magazine) The link about that prize information is right here, as nothing has really changed since 2021, except that I now hold the challenge in August, not October, so ignore the dates in the original post. 

By the first or second week of September, I’ll put up a master post with links to all the amazing stuff everyone has created!!!

[nectar-cellar]

Bold the Facts

Amir Hussain

thank you for tagging me @zosa95 @holocene-sims 💞💗 im so normal about him... u can learn more about my favorite self-loathing bisexual loser below

[ PERSONAL]

$ Financial: wealthy / moderate / poor / in poverty

✚ Medical: fit / moderate / sickly / disabled / disadvantaged / non applicable

✪ Class or Caste: upper / middle / working / unsure / other

✔ Education: qualified / unqualified / studying / other

✖ Criminal Record: yes, for major crimes / yes, for minor crimes / no / has committed crimes, but not caught yet / yes, but charges were dismissed

[ FAMILY]

◒ Children: had a child or children / has no children / wants children

◑ Relationship with Family: close with sibling(s) / not close with sibling(s) / has no siblings / sibling(s) is deceased

◔ Affiliation: orphaned / adopted / disowned / raised by birth parent / not applicable

[ TRAITS + TENDENCIES]

♦ extroverted / introverted / in between

♦ disorganized / organized / in between [His space is a mess just like his thoughts.] 

♦ close minded / open-minded / in between

♦ calm / anxious / in between [Outwardly he seems stoic but internally he’s anxious, he’s overthinking, his thoughts are ruminating, dwelling on the past, etc.] 

♦ disagreeable / agreeable / in between [It takes a while for him to warm up to people.]

♦ cautious / reckless / in between [He's too much of an anxious mess to allow himself to be reckless.]

♦ patient / impatient / in between

♦ outspoken / reserved / in between [He can appear to others as aloof and cold and not chatty.] 

♦ leader / follower / in between [I don’t think of him as a leader necessarily but he’s definitely not someone who tends to follow others easily. He’s more of a lone wolf if anything.]

♦ empathetic / vicious bastard / in between [A soft heart hidden behind those tall walls!!!]

♦ optimistic / pessimistic / in between [Under all those layers of pessimism, hope persists.]

♦ traditional / modern / in between [He is strongly against conservative/traditionalist ways of thinking.] 

♦ hard-working / lazy / in between

♦ cultured / uncultured / in between / unknown [Not an artist himself but he loves consuming art, reading about it, learning, having discussions about What It All Means. He treats himself to Spotify Premium as a little luxury, he can't live without his music. He has an active Letterboxd account and he is constantly pirating media or watching movies/tv shows on illegal streaming sites... truly a cultured modern man.]

♦ loyal / disloyal / unknown [He believes that he owes loyalty to those he loves. In his eyes, breaking that loyalty would be a highly shameful and dishonourable thing to do.] 

♦ faithful / unfaithful / unknown [He is faithful to the point where he gets obsessive and possessive. He is somewhat aware that he has toxic tendencies. He never had role models for what healthy relationships and boundaries should look like. He had to learn about those things through media and is still trying to figure it out for himself. He is deeply lonely and wants desperately to be loved. What he actually needs is a therapist but anyways...]

[ BELIEFS]

★ Faith: monotheist / polytheist / atheist / agnostic / Spiritual [He grew up religious but is no longer a believer.]

☆ Belief in Ghosts or Spirits: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care

✮ Belief in an Afterlife: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care

✯ Belief in Reincarnation: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care

❃ Belief in Aliens: yes / no / don’t know / don’t care

✧ Religious: orthodox / liberal / in between / not religious

❀ Philosophical: yes / no

[ SEXUALITY & ROMANTIC INCLINATION ]

❤ Sexuality: heterosexual / homosexual / bisexual / asexual / pansexual

❥ Sex: sex repulsed / sex neutral / sex favorable / naive and clueless

♥ Romance: romance repulsed / romance neutral / romance favorable / naive and clueless / romance suspicious

❣ Sexually: adventurous / experienced / naive / inexperienced / curious [He thinks of sex as a physical way to show and receive love and let’s just say he has a lot of love to give to his one and only.]  

⚧ Potential Sexual Partners: male / female / agender / other / none / all

⚧ Potential Romantic Partners: male / female / agender / other / none / all

[ ABILITIES ]

☠ Combat Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none [I think he could handle himself in a fight even though he's a pacifist. He's big and tall. His workout routine consists of weightlifting and boxing. I could see him being interested in taking self-defense courses.] 

≡ Literacy Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

✍ Artistic Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none [Would not consider himself an artist in any way, but maybe one day he would attempt to paint something or make a little bowl out of clay. Would love every minute of doing it badly.]

✂ Technical Skills: excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

[ HABITS ]

☕ Drinking Alcohol: never / special occasions / sometimes / frequently / Alcoholic [Can handle his liquor. Almost always drinks when he's with the boys.]

☁ Smoking: tried it / trying to quit / quit / never / rarely / sometimes / frequently / chain-smoker

✿ Recreational Drugs: never / special occasions / sometimes / frequently / addict [Nothing like meth or cocaine but I can see him being open to weed, shrooms, ecstasy in the right company and place.]

✌ Medicinal Drugs: never / no longer needs medication / some medication needed / frequently / to excess [Not something I have thought too much about but he probably takes antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication. Or took them in the past. Or likely will at some point in the future.]

☻ Unhealthy Food: never / special occasions / sometimes / frequently / binge eater

$ Splurge Spending: never / sometimes / frequently / shopaholic

♣ Gambling: never / rarely / sometimes / frequently / compulsive gambler

[sincerely-sofie]

Ahoy again Sofie… your work is amazing and your ability to interact with your captive audience is near magical at moments but I do have two questions for you if you maybe so kind as to answer my queries, from someone who has charted the ways of a creator for many to see and be amazed by.

The first is how does one start creating a series upon the sea known as the internet. No matter if the ship you’re creating is one of an already formed series(like PKMD for example) or a completely original hand crafted story.

And the second is, how does one go about finding an audience if you haven’t a soul how knows of you yet?

Thank you so much for your kind words! You're very sweet!

Oh man. Do I ever have no answers. I’ll try my best, but I’m really not qualified for this ;w;

For your first question: The first thing you've gotta do is let go of your ego and have fun. Forget your pride and revel in your favorite tropes and storytelling strategies. Cringe culture is dead— you don't have to resurrect it to bully yourself about having a highbrow, marketable story. I always thought that the advice to “Have fun and your audience will too” was a bit inaccurate, but then I decided to go ham with all the self-indulgent elements I included in TPiaG and I'm at over 400 followers in under 6 months (which is absolutely unprecedented I must say). That's the most important guiding principle, I think. Because then you'll have fun no matter what comes of your project!

As for question two: I have no idea. Apparently fanworks are the way to go? I will say that technically I had 1k-ish subscribers on YouTube and 100-ish followers on a previous Instagram account (~80% of which were friends and family in the Instagram account’s case), so I wasn't starting from absolutely nothing, but I didn't mention my Tumblr anywhere after I made it because it was supposed to be private. I made my main blog as a personal art archive, learned I couldn't keep it utterly hidden, and figured I'd just have a couple bots like a post here and there after I tagged my posts to make it easier for me to search them. That was very much NOT what happened, as you can guess. According to my sister who works as a professional illustrator, fanart is a great way to get more eyes on your art so that more people can be exposed to personal work (if that's your goal!)

But yeah. I seriously don’t know how so many lovely people decided to click on my blog and like what they saw. It’s a bit shocking bc I’ve never had such an involved community before and it’s so overwhelmingly encouraging :,>

[scribblers-shadowlands-arc]

Pinned

Quick introduction to help break the ice. I’m Morrigan 29 yo Butch Trans Woman. On hrt since Feb 2023. Love storytelling both written and visual (Art, Books, Manga, Video Games, etc). I also write and draw myself.

Lifting heavy things for fun and so I won’t fall apart. I will princess carry you if you ask nicely. 

Other Blogs:

ArtisticlySpicyScribbler (previously ScribblersShadowlandsArc I did url switcheroo) - remade it to be a repository for my more risky photos. No need to follow this blog, I repost everything on main anyway.

ArtsyScribbler is my art and writing archive for convenience of keeping them tidy.

Now you know me a little bit, so let’s get to the meat of things. This blog is adult themed. It exists as an outlet for exploration of my gender identity and sexuality and some other similar things.

There will be occasional memes and sfwish reblogs and posts.

Biting, pawing, scratching and other ways to show attention or affection when reblog\comment on my photos are appreciated 

| Minor pls Do Not Interact. I understand you are interested in this stuff, but I could get in trouble because of you, and I rather not.  |

I’m a bisexual t4t both, sapphic, enby. I lean significantly to femme presenting people. But I love me some hot mascs too.

Switch and verse. 

Polyam? I figuring this one out since I started transition. But I think I am. For now at least in a way that I will be okay not to be a single partner for my loved one. But not sure that I'll be able manage more then one romantic connection.

For subs who wanna message me. I’m not that experienced domme in a sense of kink, so I may fumble a bit, but hey we are here to have some fun, so I hope it won't be a big deal for you. 

For dommes, I have like 0 experience of being sub. But um Hiii? 

Titles that work for me so far: ma’am, miss, mommy. List may grow. No masculine titles pls

Oh, by the way. I have a demi-human sona, soooo I guess I qualify as furry, not kitten or a puppy (although I may respond for that) but more of a dragon lineage. I still figure out this part of me, so this section is under construction. 

DM’s and asks are open. If we are not mutuals it’s better to ask first before writing something spicy in my DM’s. Mutuals don’t be shy to write to me, I am not scary.

List of kinks - that will definitely grow [ + as domme, - as sub, & for both ]:

Petplay&, intox&?,  bondage&, praise&, cnc&, scent&, pain&, breeding - (not sure for +), nursing&, breath play&

If something is unlisted I either am not sure about it yet and was too lazy to add or it’s no go and I was too lazy to add it. So probably ask before go full throttle on unlisted stuff with me.

Sweet anons: 🍄

Tags: scribbler’s asks, scribbler’s rumbles, scribbler’s pics, scribblers writing

[thesillyexpresser]

After reading a fic with (the best most thought provoking depiction of) AI Turo, it reminded me of a certain poem from Evangelion, so I drew this ✨💜

No text version, a way to philosophical rambling based off of mentioned fic and Evangelion that’s about an essay long, and a doodle under the cut v

Features Spoilers for Pokemon SV and references to Evangelion anyways let’s start the ramble

SOOOoooo this fic (📒 Turn Back the Clock by MahinaPea11) has what I believe hands down one of the bestest thought provoking depictions of AI Turo (FYI: it is a yn romance fic in the 2nd pov and it is tagged as smut BUT the work is relatively 98% SFW and the smut tag was for a smut chapter that never really came as of now) (and that two percent NSFW is the yn getting attacked with a description of every bone they broke in the first chapter and a weird bath scene in chapter 4 so if you like robots questioning their existence and having crises but not smoochy smooching and awkward moments [aka me] you can skip some of that) (I’m not the biggest fan of yn romance as of the second pov category and get really uncomfortable around smut and 18+ crap but I actually really really enjoyed it and if you like man-made objects having epiphanies about their own human identity, I highly suggest this) (and before you ask what I was doing reading a yn romance fic, I was feeling really sick n’ crappy so much so that I gave up my pride and actually read it).

Anyways, enough with explaining myself. The main reason (of course there’s more reasons but here’s the most thought provoking one) I really like this fic (specifically in the 6th chapter) is because it deals with something that I found interesting about the Prof AI as a character, how they feel about being the original Professor and not. In a sense they are the og. They have all the memories of the og. They look like the og. The sound like the og. They are meant to represent wholly the og. But at the same time, they’ve explained they’re different. They don’t see eye to eye on the beliefs and dreams of the original. Yet, it’s not like they have to drastically physically change themself to assert that. I don’t think that’s something they’d want to do anyways. They’re just them. A being of wires that has the memories and experiences of a real person but never actually lived through them. They an exact copy of another person but different all the same. They are a vessel for a soul that isn’t really theirs. They’ve lived through a life though not really having one anyways. Do they have a life?

The reason why I chose lines from Rei’s I am Me poem from episode 14 as text for the art is because I think her situation is similar. She is (theorized to be) a copy of Yui. Although she isn’t seemingly aware of this, I think she is partially aware that she’s man made. She questions if this factor means she’s qualified to be called a life form of if she simply is an object. To be called her own person separate from what she was made to do.

Not to negate Rei as a character, but I like to think that somehow the AI profs have dealt with this contemplation, too, and I think it’s made worse with how they actually know for certain that they were made just as a mechanical copy as their creator. They themself are a paradox of Area Zero, and I believe they simply accept this. They accept the fact that they’re a tin can representative of a dead person rotting away in the ground. They accept the fact that they are different from each other and that they am their own being. I’m pretty sure that from their realization of the og professor’s flaws and them leaving at the end of the story, that they were still dealing with the “people” they are. In the fic, AI Turo even has the balls to consider himself to be considered a living being (and good for him).

Holy crap I went too philosophical and deep and whatever here’s a doodle I made.

[commiegoth]

Interview with nonbinary trans author Kate Bornstein, promoting her book Gender Outlaw (Mondo 2000 #13, 1995)

Full text under cut

I‘m walking down 16th Street minding my own business. This good looking woman is coming toward me. She's got on baggy unbuttoned overalls and an orange tank top. Her arms look good, her shoulders look good, and what I can see of her stomach looks good. Two guys are standing on the sidewalk. As she passes them, one says to the other, “I'd like to take that one home.” The other guy agrees. The woman keeps walking. Now it's my turn to pass 'em. “I'd like to take that one home and knock A her around a little bit,” the first guy says. I keep walking. The other guy answers. “That's a her?”

But enough about me. This is supposed to be about Kate Bornstein who wants you to read her new book Gender Outlaw. Bornstein used to be a man; now she’s not. Bornstein used to be a heterosexual; now she isn't. Bornstein used to have a dick; now she doesn’t.

She’s a “used-to-be-a-man, three husbands, father, first mate on an ocean-going yacht, minister, high-powered IBM sales type, Pierre Cardin three-piece suitor, bar-mitzvah’d, circumcised yuppie from the East Coast… a used-to-be politically correct, wanna-be butch, dyke phone sex hostess, smooth talking, telemarketing, love slave, art slut, pagan Tarot reader, maybe soon a grandmother, crystal palming, incense burning, not man, not always a woman, fast becoming a Marxist.”

All that’s not what makes her an outlaw. What makes her an outlaw is she sees a time when folks will look at the binary gender system and throw back their heads and laugh— ha ha ha. Males and females and that’s it? Ha ha ha. Get the fuck outta here.

Bornstein’s looking forward to us all living in what author Marjorie Garber (Vested Interests, Routledge) calls the Third Space. “This whole concept of three is so beautiful,” Kate says, “because it includes the first two. I don’t say there’s a third space that exists between men and women. I say there’s a third space outside of the Binary which leaves the Binary as this construct off to the side, very fragile and apt to fall apart.”

If I were a man, everything about me that brings me grief in the world—the way | walk, the way I talk, the way I think, the way | stand, the way I sit, the way I dress, the way | cut my hair, how much I weigh, how much weight I lift—would not only be acceptable, it would be revered. If we lived in the Third Space, it wouldn't even matter.

Bornstein had to learn a lot of rules in order to fit in. Like when a man walks down the street he looks people in the eye; when a woman walks down the street she looks at the ground. And women talk different. They have higher, breathier voices and their speech is more modulated. In mixed conversations, it’s the woman's job to laugh at the bad jokes and fill in the awkward silences. They smile constantly while they’re talking and use tag questions to qualify sentences, like “you know what I mean?”

“All of these customs are forms of self-deprecation,” says Bornstein, “like learning how to keep my knees together and not putting my arm across the back of my seat in the subway train. A lot of that was not so much to be a woman as to pass as a woman, so that I wouldn't call attention to myself.”

If we lived in the Third Space, she wouldn't have had to worry. In fact, if we lived in the Third Space, she might not even have had penile conversion surgery.

“I don’t do well with might-have-beens,” she says. “I resent that I was manipulated into that surgery by every signpost in the culture. I was not aware of other possibilities at the time. I was a total subscriber to the Binary and to the genitals by which it stands.

“I knew I wasn’t BOY, I knew I wasn’t MAN. Neither of those categories fit for me. It didn’t feel right, I have no idea why. I tried for thirty some odd years and it didn’t work. The only other option I saw in the culture was GIRL, or WOMAN. Nowhere did I see that it was okay to be a “real woman”—which I believed in—with a penis! So the next step was get rid of the penis. This insistence on the Binary and the genital imperative that signals the Binary coerced me into that. If I knew everything that I know now, would I do it again? Yes. Absolutely yes, because sex is so much more fun now.”

Back to this idea of the Third Space, how do we get there?

“Cyberspace would be a doorway into the Third Space,” according to Bornstein. “Cyberspace frees us up from the restrictions placed on identity by our bodies. It allows us to explore more kinds of relationships.

“I can go online as anything. I go online as various kinds of women. I've gone online as a guy a couple of times; I’m playing a stable boy in a vampire scenario now. I’ve gone online as different monsters. I’ve gone online as Mr. Spock in a ‘Star Trek’ scenario.

“Cross-gender identity surfing online is so telling: Men slum and women step into the trappings of power as men. You talk to a man after he’s been a woman online and he'll usually laugh and describe some kind of sex he had, usually lesbian sex. But you talk to a woman who's been surfing as a man, there’s this spark there. There’s this wonder. There's this—'They really do have this power!’ As soon as men cop to the idea that women are learning this, they’re gonna be more frightened.”

Bingo.

In Gender Outlaw, Bornstein asks: “If wealth and power are important, and if in this world wealth and power belong to men, then why did I cease being a man and give up that wealth and power?"

Some male-to-female transsexuals argue—often in response to being excluded from women-born-women only clubs—that they didn’t have a real male experience because they were never real males. Bornstein’s not buying it. “I had a bona fide male experience—of course I did. I’ve been bar-mitzvah’d. I hated it. Being male and hating it sets up a fugue experience. It’s definitely a form of madness. | think one way of dealing with the madness is to say it never really happened. That’s a legitimate way of dealing with it, but the fact of the matter is, I spent over thirty years of my life as a man or boy. I did not like it. I hated it. I drank a lot. I did a lot of drugs. I played a lot of arcade games.”

Once you've altered your gender, it’s gotta seem like anything’s possible. The whole world must open up. Does that mean that transgender stuff is the final frontier? Bornstein doesn’t think so.

She believes that once people get a grip on the idea of the Third Space, and transgender stuff becomes passé, we're probably gonna have to look at other binary divisions. “What are the differences between animals and humans? What are the differences between plants and animals? What about artificial intelligence, androids like Data from “Star Trek?” They're gonna be around. | think the gender binary is the one most firmly entrenched in our culture simply because it’s the one that capitalism trades on the most, other than class. We haven't confronted class. A minor communist uprising in Eastern Europe is not dealing with class. Certainly, the United States has never dealt with class. I think the fact that my book actually got published by a respectable publisher is an indicator that the culture is ready to chew on gender, whereas I don’t think the American culture is as ready to chew on class.

“I'd say gender is the last apparent frontier. It’s the frontier that’s just become illuminated. It’s titillating. In public relations terms it’s sexy. In sex terms it’s sexy. It’s a movement, a real live movement—ready or not, here we come!”

Meanwhile, back on 16th Street.

I take a few more steps, then my brain turns over and I say to myself, “Fuck this shit.”

I stop, turn around, walk back, and stand in front of the first guy. “You say something to me?”

He’s shocked. He starts stuttering and shaking his head.

“Uh…uh…no…I was just…I mean…he was just…I mean…he wanted to know—"

I interrupt him.

“Something about knocking somebody around?”

He starts stuttering again.

“Uh…no…uh, I was just… I mean, he just… I mean, I was just saying—"

I interrupt him again.

“You know what it sounded like you said? It sounded like you said you wanted to suck my dick.”

“Uh…uh… your dick?” He looks at my crotch to see if I have one.

(I do, but it’s back at my apartment.)

“Yeah,” I say, “that’s what it sounded like you said. I think you want to suck my dick, don't you?”

He looks at my crotch again, then he looks back at my face. He grins, still stuttering.

Uh...well...I, I, I... I wouldn't mind.”

“That's what I thought,” I say, and walk away.

For an almost complete collection of Bornsteiniana, start with Gender Outlaw (Routledge), go directly to The Last Sex, Arthur and Mary-Louise Kroker (St. Martins Press), and keep an eye out for performances of Hidden: A Gender and Virtually Yours. The unsatisfied can obsessively watch for guest appearances on Geraldo.

[nooneunderstandsthem]

MISUNDERSTOOD CHARACTERS TOURNAMENT!!

Have you ever had a silly little guy, but when you look at the way the fandom treats them your first thought is “Leave them alone!! No one understands them like me!!”? Have you ever hated the way a fandom characterizes your favorite character? Have you ever hated when people bash or rag on your favorite character, bc they “just don’t understand”? Well then this is the tournament for you!!

Here, we will vote on which character is the most overhated, mischaracterized, and even, if you’re feeling salty, most OVERRATED!! This is your opportunity to let loose your anger towards your fandom for how they treat your silly lil guy!!

Propaganda is allowed and very encouraged, but keep in mind not to attack anyone and be mindful of taking things too far!!

Character Submission Rules:

•Character must be fictional!! (Roleplay characters such as DSMP + related SMPs, any Aphmau/Krew roleplay vids, etc will depend on my own personal decision. Feel free to submit but in the end the decision on whether or not they will qualify will pretty much be entirely my decision, and mostly will be based on whether I think you’re talking about the creator or their character, and how distinct that difference is.)

•When submitting a character, make sure you attach 1-3 images to be used in polls, this is your chance for some more propaganda!! These images can be official art, fanart, or even screenshots from the source media!

•No NSFW propaganda or character art!!

•You can submit up to three characters, but you can only submit each character once! To avoid being overwhelmed I’d like everyone to only submit one form please!

Depending on the number of submissions, I’ll probably start sorting submissions and forming brackets around June 8th!!

SUBMIT CHARACTERS HERE:

i don’t rlly know what im doing here so tagging some other tournament blogs that inspired this:

@vs-coughing-baby @died-but-not-dead-tournament @foundfamily-tournament @skittlesquadsquabble @miserablelittleguythrowdown @bestmusicalworldcup

(also i tried to check if there’s another tournament like this bc yk i don’t wanna be a silly copycat and i couldn’t find anything but if there already is one pls let me know!!)

[admirableadmiranda]

Hi, I'm new to this fandom and saw about your stand against Jiang Cheng and I'm genuinely curious, could I ask you why do you hate the character so much? I'm genuinely curious.

Hello! Welcome to the MDZS fandom! It’s a really interesting place to be.

I do think you are perhaps misunderstanding my fight, and it’s understandable, there’s a lot of history behind it. But I don’t actually hate Jiang Cheng the book character at all.

He’s a fantastic antagonist, one who has enough happen to him that he’s understandable without justifying his actions. His anger and bitterness make him incredibly active, which can help move the plot along well, and the fact that he is also Wei Wuxian’s personal antagonist makes him very fun and relevant as you need the antagonists that can make a character hurt personally for stories of this type.

As his general character archetype, I think he’s done really well. I quite enjoy him in the context he is supposed to be seen as, the younger person who grew up with the hero who instead of attempting to better himself, tore down those around him in an attempt to put everyone on the same level.

My problem (and my fight) is that the character of Jiang Cheng in Modaozushi is not the Jiang Cheng that is in the fanfics and the art and the meta and discussions.

The Jiang Cheng that you see in fanfics and metas that isn’t under the Not JC Friendly on Ao3 or #canon jiang cheng tag on tumblr is one that is no longer an antagonist or in character, but someone else entirely. Someone who no longer slots into the world of MDZS as if he were actually the person they posit him to be, the events that he is responsible for would have never happened. Quite simply they take the character I enjoy, erase all of his actual traits and then show up to scream at me for writing him wrong, or lying about the book, or not knowing how to read.

Or they are gleefully celebrating classism and homophobia with him. I can’t tell you how many posts I’ve seen that are basically “he’s right to be homophobic because Wangxian are annoying and he should hate them for that”. In a danmei fandom. About the lead couple. I already have dealt with more than enough homophobia in my daily life, why do I have to deal with it in a fandom for a novel in which the leads are a happily married queer couple?

I have been in this fandom for a year and a half. I tag my posts appropriately. When I was requested to not put character hate in the main tag (and novel quotes qualified as character hate), I did as they asked and invented my own tag. Sure it’s a little snarky, but it’s also an easy one to block and allows others like myself who enjoy the character as he is in the book to find my stuff. On ao3, I’ve written a few fics that use him in it as he is in the book and tagged it not for JC fans as they requested.

Do you know what I got?

I have anon hate for using my tag, the very tag I created in response to their request. On my fics that use him, I have people showing up to cry that he’s out of character and I can’t write. When I did all that I could do to try and enjoy a character as he is in canon and as they continually say is what they want. “You don’t have to like him, just tag your stuff so we don’t have to see it.”

I do stand against his stans. I have blocked many of them and gotten in arguments with many others. You are new to this fandom so you wouldn’t have seen this, but a year ago one of them wrote a fanfic about Lan Wangji murdering Wei Wuxian because they were mad about the very existence of the not for jc fans tag, and tagged it with romance and fluff tags so that fans of wangxian would click on it and read a horrible, deliberately hurtful fic and gleefully celebrated it on Twitter.

Why should I not stand against them? They have bullied so many people out of this fandom for not writing Jiang Cheng in the way they want. That is not okay. This is a massive fandom in places where it is very easy to filter and tag, and they try to bully and chase us out of the whole fandom because we don’t like their made up version of a character, or the fact that they are homophobic and shitty to the leads and to me and my friends and my followers.

Welcome to Modaozushi fandom, new reader. It’s a very volatile place with a long history. This is my section of it. And that is why I tag with canon jiang cheng and do not take any shit from people who have umbrage with that.

Thanks for the ask, I hope you have a really great day and at least consider my words even if you don’t agree with them. I suspect if you do, we will never have a problem with each other.

[web-novel-polls]

Smartest WN Character Submissions

Last Checked: October 31st, 2024 - Please check the original post for updates

Submissions End: TBD

Rules:

One character per response. Submit as many responses as you want, but please don’t submit the same character more than once unless you forgot something important (can also be fixed via asks).

Must be from a web novel or similar media (Ex: manhwa/manhua) with a web novel adaptation/source. 

“Smartest” can be based on anything from studies to martial arts to strategy to emotional intelligence. If you think they’re smart in any way, they’ll qualify & compete

Tournament Tag: #smartest WN character tournament

Major Spoilers for TYK/WOH, SVSSS, MDZS

Submissions

No Propaganda

Cui Buqu from Peerless: Wushuang

He Xuan from Heaven Official’s Blessing / TGCF

Jing Beiyuan from Lord Seventh / Qi Ye

Jin Guangyao from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation / MDZS

You Huo from Global Examination / QQGK

Fei Du from Mo Du / Silent Reading

Submission: idk what to say without spoiling the whole novel

Carrd Link

Gu Mang from Yu Wu / Remnants of Filth

Submission: He is intelligent and clever enough to rise from a slave to a general and then become a high-profile spy in the enemy's camp. His intelligence is only compromised by his idealism and its resulting naivete. Even so, he's a genius. 

Ji Yushi from Mist [Unlimited]

Submission: He is somehow able to figure out and understand all the super complicated things that go on in the novel. Incredibly intelligent (and not just because of his hyperthymesia).  

Klein Moretti from Lord of Mysteries

Submission:

i'm not done with the novel yet but he's literally so smart!!

the way he can process information and make connections so quickly, the way he's always great at adapting his way of thinking and doesn't hesitate to change his conclusions when new information comes to light,,, (and the way he can use that to make others believe he knows everything when he's literally hearing about stuff for the first time and doesn't know shit? incredible)

i'm just so impressed by him all the time, i love him sm

Lloyd Frontera / Kim Suho from The Greatest Estate Developer / TGED

Submission: Excels in both long-term and immediate planning, if the standard for excelling is 'how to get the absolute most benefit out of the situation'. WILL use methods no regular person could ever think of.

Nie Huaisang from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (MDZS)

Submission 1: He delicately wove a ten year revenge plot, manipulating people and evidence behind the scenes so deftly that even after having pulled his plan off, only a few people ever even learned of his involvement. 

Submission 2: Bro was several steps ahead years ahead all to get justice for his brother. bro was a lazy student in childhood, faced incredible loss, and decided fuck this im gonna plot my way to vengence. he did this all while not fighting people's assumption he was dumb from his school days, let them think the worst of me, it will only benefit me.

Qiyan Agula from Clear and Muddy Loss of Love / JWQS

Submission: She's an excellent schemer and manipulator, and is even able to easily adapt her carefully calculated plans when faced with major setbacks. Also able to rank first in very difficult scholarly exams among numerous other candidates. Incredibly clever and cunning.

Wiki Link

Shang Qinghua from The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System / SVSSS

Submission: 

Hear me out: he created the world he transmigrated to and managed to not get caught for spying on his sect. He worked for MBJ and CQ (at the same time) becoming the most trusted advisor of one and a peak lord in the other. While he didn't remember EVERYTHING from his novel, it was a literal life time before. He's a mental swiss army knife, jack of all trades. He's not the best at anything, SJ and SY are definitely smarter, LBH is for sure super clever, but SQH is able to keep up with them. (And not get murdered! Way to go Airplane!) 

Shen Qingqiu (Shen Yuan) from The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System

Submission:

He literally learned how to be a peak lord of the scholarly peak within months, even though his loveable unreliable narrator self makes it unclear how much knowledge he got from the original goods (cultivation and muscle memory are in tact to some degree, at least)

Textual evidence: “ As Shen Qingqiu had, since his arrival, been furiously reviewing various manuals, he had also recently seen a description of it.”(ch1) where he recalls a specific technique and uses it in the moment. “Shen Qingqiu had no say in any of it. As such, he had diligently trained for numerous days, single-mindedly seeking to make his abilities second nature…” (ch 1) yeah so this goes into the having to relearn everything category.

He’s also a walking monster/PIDW encyclopedia. I think his most impressive memory feat [spoiler] is navigating the Holy Mausoleum’s traps better than Tianlang-Jun. note that at this point it’s been years since he read the original book, the Mausoleum is very large, and yet he’s familiar with all the main rooms he encounters, and it’s been years since he read PIDW (the source book). He uses this knowledge to escape/outsmart Tianlang-jun.

Any intelligence he has is made up for by his loss of IQ points around the protagonist, though. And his general obliviousness to those around him.

Shen Zechuan from Qiang Jin Jiu / QJJ

Submission: He is the schemer of all time. Schemes within schemes within schemes. Incredibly clever and an excellent manipulator. He is everything. 

Song Qingshi from Mistakenly Saving the Villain

Submission: The scholar tyrant himself! He knows everything there is to know about medicines and poisons. A very well-read pebble. 

Wei Wuxian from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation / MDZS

Submission: He is a genius and a visionary. He's invented numerous things that make it easier for the cultivation world to do their jobs. He also figured out how to control resentful energy.

Mod Propaganda: He grandmastered that Demonic Cultivation, man

Wen Kexing from Faraway Wanderers / TYK

Submission: 

Saw that someone submitted him without propaganda so here I am with propaganda! Wen Kexing is pretty much responsible for all of the plot stuff happening in Tian Ya Ke. At the same time, he does absolutely Nothing for the duration of the novel for his massive-scale revenge scheme to work out. And that's because he set it up so brilliantly that he didn't need to lift a finger for his enemies to deliver themselves up on a silver platter.  It was genuinely a domino fall: he only created the inciting incident, and then the pieces slowly but surely fell into place. Except the pieces were people, and if any SINGLE one of them decided they didn't want the Lapis Armor - the treasure Wen Kexing baited them with - then Wen Kexing's scheme would just fizzle out on its own. BUT. None of them could give up the pursuit of power. None of them could be satisfied with what they already had. And Wen Kexing perfectly understood those people's psychology and built his scheme based on that.  He really created this poetic justice situation where his enemies walked themselves to their deaths on their own, and only because they wouldn't stop doing the things that he wanted to take revenge for in the first place. Moreover, he set it up in such a way that he didn't need to commit attrocities while in 'the human world', and instead let his enemies expose themselves by 'not conducting themselves like human beings'. Wen Kexing only started killing when his enemies entered his world, the Ghost Valley. So it was not just poetic, it was also theater-level dramatic! Moreover, his scheme worked so perfectly that when Wen Kexing left partway through the final battle, one of his enemies actually finished up everyone else FOR HIM. And while Wen Kexing baited everyone with Lapis Armor, he also ensured that his father's promise to 'not let it fall into wrong hands' is kept - by destroying the key to it prior to kicking off his scheme. So ultimately, even if Wen Kexing died, his revenge would still be completed, AND the last man standing would receive a big fat Nothing for all the murder and plotting they did. And this is just about his revenge plot. He also sussed out a literal spymaster's true identity within like 11 chapters! Not to mention the whole, 'tricked a bunch of crazy murderers into thinking he was even more insane than them', which he did at age 9 (NINE!). Oh, he also staged a perfect coup within three years or less, somewhere between ages 18-21. And ruled over the Ghost Valley for 8 years when no other Valley Master before him lasted longer than 3.  Tl;dr: A LITERAL EVIL MASTERMIND! AND WE LOVE HIM FOR THAT! 

Rejected

Ballister Blackheart from Nimona

Reason: Not from a web novel