#i found this book through tumblr and started reading it because i was curious

[spaghetti-academia]

i don’t know about the first two, but the context of the third one is that it takes place in the omegaverse and the alpha male main character is a stalker/serial killer. he’s trying to get the omega female main character’s scent/slick from her towel

They're always eating everything

[ms-demeanor]

i’m curious what your opinion is on the finer points of the case mentioned in the JSTOR post you reblogged earlier. the two sources in the post say that JSTOR didn’t press charges against him and had already settled with him by the time he killed himself. from what i read on wikipedia, the concern seems to be that JSTOR complied with a subpoena, which i don’t believe they have a choice to ignore? if anything it seems like the us government had reason to want him dead for wikileaks and public court records reasons, so they took a terms of use violation and blew it up into a dozen federal crimes.

is there more context i should be aware of? i have no particular affection or malice for JSTOR but the sources i found don’t exactly implicate the database or its employees in murder.

That's from page 175 of this document. This line: "The activity noted is outright theft and may merit a call with university counsel, and even the local police, to ensure not only that the activity has stopped but that - e.g. the visiting scholar who left - isn't leaving with a hard drive containing our database" is where I think the culpability starts.

If someone is downloading 1000s of articles (what seems like reasonable threshold for us to take action), what's wrong with us - or the university in collaboration with us - alerting the cyber-crimes division of law enforcement and initiating an investigation, having cop search dorm room and try to retrieve any hard drive that contains our content, etc. Our content is extraordinarily valuable and hard to replicate by the sweat of one's brow, but can be duplicated by savvy hackers and who knows what they want to do with the content?

Page 379: "Does the university contact law enforcement? Would they be willing to do so in this instance?

From page 1296:

I think the important thing to note here is that JSTOR had worked with MIT and had plans in place to prevent future similar downloads, but remained focused on identifying the person responsible for the downloads and ensuring that their data was deleted.

"I might just be irked because I am up dealing with this person on a Sunday night, but I am starting to feel like they need to get a hold of this situation right away or we need to offer to send them some help (read FBI).

And there it is. Page 3093 of the document.

JSTOR can hem and haw about it all they want, but you can't un-call the cops.

MIT was working with JSTOR on preventing future incidents of pirating, but JSTOR repeatedly said that they weren't going to let it go, that it was unacceptable to drop the issue, that they were going to continue to pursue the pirate.

You can scroll through the document and see the JSTOR tech department and abuse team talking about Swartz as a script kiddie, and a hacker. You can see someone talking about how this was real theft - making the comparison to stealing books even while admitting that piracy doesn't close others out of access.

You can see the thread starts with a joke about punching someone in the face for hacking their system, and includes the tech team ominously considering whether they should threaten the MIT librarians with the FBI.

There's something really important to note here which I don't think that people who aren't PRETTY DEEP into hackery shit aren't aware of: US law enforcement is absolutely rabidly feral about prosecuting hackers. People may be more aware of this now because of Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden (and perhaps a bit on tumblr because of maia arson crimew), but people who work in tech and who are in infosec - like the people joking about calling the FBI in these emails - would be aware of the bonkers disproportionate punishments faced by hackers. And knowing that, they kept pushing and pushing and pushing for identification of the hacker. They kept digging with MIT, they kept saying that simply preventing future incidents wasn't enough.

Early in the exchange someone from JSTOR asked "what's wrong with us - or the university in collaboration with us - alerting the cyber-crimes division of law enforcement and initiating an investigation, having cop search dorm room and try to retrieve any hard drive that contains our content, etc." and the answer is what happened to Aaron Swartz.

It is absolute bullshit for JSTOR to say "we arrived at a solution privately and didn't want to press charges" after law enforcement has gotten involved with a hacking case, especially one where they're talking about "real theft" and are attempting to quantify and emphasize the amount that was "stolen" from them.

The *public* may believe that private individuals or institutions are the ones who "press charges" but that's simply not the case. It's prosecutors who decide whether or not to go ahead with charges; they do it based on what cases they think they can win and what their office's perspective is on the crime. When you hear about people choosing to press charges it simply means that they decided to tell the prosecutor they wanted the case to go forward. It's up to the prosecutor whether or not that happens.

And the tech team at JSTOR had to know that law enforcement wasn't just going to wag a finger at an academic hacker.

There's a parallel here that happens sometimes when people have their identities stolen by their parents. If you mom takes out a credit card in your name, that's identity theft. That's fraud. That's illegal. If you reach the age of 25 and realize that your credit is ruined because your mom has been defaulting on cards in your name, you've got two choices to fix that: one is to accept the debt and pay it off and build up credit, and the other is to report the identity theft - which will end up with your mom in prison for a decade or so. Ruin your own personal finances, or your mom goes to jail for ruining your finances. So if you find out that your mom stole your identity you can't just call the cops to pressure her into transferring the debt to her name or something. That's not an option. The cops are not a threat to wave over people, they are not a way to get people to fall in line or act right. They aren't someone you can send to a college student's dorm room to retrieve a hard drive and have the matter drop.

When you call the cops on someone you are sending the full force of the law after them, and the full force of the law falls really heavily on hackers, and how heavy that blow can be is something that the JSTOR team must have been aware of when they were making snide comments about calling the FBI because they were frustrated with the noncommittal responses they were getting from librarians.

Ultimately it was the carceral state that killed Aaron Swartz, but they would not have been involved if JSTOR didn't think that what he did constituted theft.

Taking an *EVEN LARGER* step back from that, the idea that information can be owned and locked behind a paywall is what killed Aaron Swartz, someone who fought for information to be free.

Like. JSTOR is a licensing company. At the end of the day, cute social media posts and all, they're the same as the RIAA and ASCAB. They exist to extract a fee from people attempting to access information.

Aaron Swartz and all that he stood for are an existential threat to their core function.

Are JSTOR's hands as dirty as the federal prosecutors? Absolutely not. But they operate on a model that puts them in opposition to open information activists and it ended up with a hammer falling on Aaron Swartz that they dropped.

[satxnsupreme666]

Between ice cream and love: Agatha Harkness/Agnes x Fem!reader

Masterlist

Requested by: @celasteria

Summary: You’re the new neighbor in town, and Agnes becomes jealous of you and Wanda’s friendship

Words: 4k+

Warnings: None, just Agnes being jealous

Author’s notes: Hi, this was a requested story, I do not know if I should tag the people who requested at the time, I want to be respectful, so I am not sure if I should tag them, I will try and do it since it was their request and their idea and if any of the people who requested back at the time now feel uncomfortable being tagged, please let me know and I will delete the tag.

I put f/f for favorite ice cream flavor

This was one of the first stories I wrote three years ago, I had posted them on Tumblr on my old account, but due to my mental health, I had to take a break from Tumblr and the toxicity and hate that had suddenly increased, I deleted all of my stories and my old account, now I have decided to upload them again here on Tumblr and also on Ao3.

Again, as this was one of the first stories I wrote for Agatha Harkness is a little bit short, I will be uploading the rest of the stories from time to time, I have to edit them and make sure they are legible enough and with not a lot of grammatical errors.

I hope you like it!

Taglist: @eliscannotdance

If you enjoy, could you comment, like or reblog? it would help a lot really ♥️

Agnes was looking through her window, she was curious, not many things in Westview could catch her attention, and even though she was aware of the situation that she was in, living in Wanda´s illusion could be very boring, every day was the same, so she craved some good gossips, but the only gossips she usually got, was at the reunions with Dottie and the other girls at the club.

She didn’t mind getting to know the other girl´s secrets, they weren´t that bad, but still they were boring, the girls would usually chit-chat about how their husbands wouldn’t pay the attention they deserved and from time to time they would share new recipes that they had discovered while reading a new book, but at the end of the day everything was the same.

Wanda didn’t show anything abnormal anymore, after her twins arrived nothing had changed, and any other magic anomalies happened, so now she found herself peeking through her curtains to see why there was a moving van parked right alongside the other house in front of hers.

Now she was curious, who had arrived at town? Or more like why Wanda had let someone else entered Westview?

Her thoughts were drifted away when she saw someone walking outside the front porch of the house, she squinted her eyes a little to try to see who was the person, the sun was hitting right on her face, so she put her hand over her forehead to cover her eyes from the sunrays.

Now that she saw who it was, she became more curious, Wanda was the one who left the insides of the house and was talking to someone who was inside by the door, she couldn’t see who was there because Wanda was covering the other person, she couldn’t see, she got frustrated she really wanted to see the mysterious person standing inside the house, she grimaced when she saw Wanda leaving the front porch and the other person closed the door.

Wanda passed the street and saw Agatha standing there, she waved her hand at her and smiled, Wanda was going to keep walking but stopped and put on a thoughtful expression, then she started to walk towards the entrance of Agnes ‘house, she smirked, now maybe Wanda would tell her who was the new neighbor in town.

Agnes walked towards the door and before she could get to it she heard a knock, opening her door, she smiled at Wanda and greeted her

“Wanda, how lovely to see you dear, come in, now, do you need something dear? Want another one of those magazines?”

Agnes let her walk in the room and closed the door behind them, Wanda laughed and shook her head

“No, no, thanks Agnes, actually I´m here because I want you to have dinner with us, you see one of my long-lost friends just arrived to town and I- we, we want to make her feel welcome"

Agnes glanced at Wanda and smirked, so it was a girl, it seemed as if Wanda had known you before trapping an entire town, now she was invested, why was this girl so important?

She smiled before speaking again

“Oh, dear I will be there, I want to know this girl who´s so important to you, so, what do I have to bring? Do you want me to bring a bottle of wine? Champagne? You tell me dear”

She said and walked towards her kitchen with her usual cheerful tone

“Oh no, Agnes, you do not need to bring anything to dinner, I think it would better if I leave and star preparing dinner, thanks Agnes, we will be waiting for you, see you later”

Wanda said to her smiling and turned around and walked outside.

Agatha couldn’t help her excitement, now this was different.

She had a lot of time, so she decided she would prepare herself later, for now she would just read some of her ancient magic books, she had read all of them but still, she loved doing it again.

When the time came, Agnes looked at herself in the mirror, and with a flick of her hand her clothes changed, now she was wearing a black sweater with a white collared shirt attached under it, and she also had black pants, she looked in the mirror one more time and smiled at herself, she went to give señor Scratchy a quick look to see if he was alright, she took the bunny out of his tiny house and placed it in her back garden, he would roam freely in the grass.

Closing her door, Agnes started to walk to Wanda´s house, this night would be interesting, she went to know on the door and waited for someone to open, she thought Vision or Wanda would open the door for her but she was wrong. Someone opened the door for her and Agnes announced herself.

“Hello again Wanda, let´s get the party started”

However, when the door was opened completely, her eyes widened, there you stood, with a vintage patterned dress, she couldn’t help but stare at you, you were beautiful.

“Hi, sadly I´m not the person you were waiting for, but she´s in the kitchen, come in, I will call her”

You smiled at the woman in front of you, her dark brown long hair made a perfect match with her blue eyes, and of course you noticed her cleft chin, how couldn’t you? She was really beautiful, you felt drawn to her from that moment.

You left her come in, and you went to the kitchen to announce to her that someone was calling for her.

Agnes couldn’t stop staring at you, she was lost for words, she was not waiting that the new neighbor would be so damn beautiful, she instantly felt drawn to you, she wanted to know you more, she couldn’t put her finger, but she knew for sure that she was going to ask you on a date, this turned out to be better than what she would ever had expected.

Agnes saw you coming back with Wanda besides you, but she frowned she saw Wanda’s hand on your waist.

“Agnes! I’m glad you came, Y/N was just helping me to finish dinner, I told her that she shouldn’t, that she’s out guest but she insisted, she can be little stubborn”

Wanda added the last sentence while covering the side of her mouth with her free hand trying to act as if she was telling Agnes a secret.

You laughed at her comments and smacked her shoulder slightly, Agnes loved the sound that left your mouth, she wanted to make you laugh too. She didn’t know where all of that feelings were coming from, but she didn’t mind, she wanted to make you laugh and talk to you too, you looked so carefree.

“I may be a little stubborn but so are you”

Wanda smiled at you and rolled her eyes

“Agnes, this is my friend, she just moved into town earlier, Y/N this is Agnes she’s our neighbor, she lives in front of the house which is right in front of yours”

Agnes had a smug little smiled and her confidence went back to her, she stretched her hand out towards you and you took her hand, she gave it a slightly shake

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Y/N aren’t you a pretty thing”

You blushed at her comment and you bit your lower lip, you always did it without thinking whenever you felt nervous, how could you not feel nervous when a woman like Agnes had just complimented you, also she hadn’t dropped your hand so you were blushing furiously.

Agatha noticed it and smiled to herself, now at least she knew she could make you nervous, that was a good sign.

Wada interrupted both of you of your stares at each other and said something about going back to the kitchen to turn off the oven.

You were left alone with Agnes in the middle of the dining room.

“Hey, want to go sit on the couch? We could watch something on the tv, now that the boys are playing outside, they were playing video games and wouldn’t let the tv alone for one minute"

Agnes nodded and both of you started to walk to the living room, she rested her hand on your shoulder and she left it there, you liked the feeling of her hands in your body, so you didn’t complain.

Agnes took this opportunity to be physically closer to you, you sat happily in one of the couches, and she sat down next to you, you felt really nervous, she was so close to you, her tight touching yours and you felt your face getting heated again.

Giggles sounded close to you, and you knew that Billy and Tommy had entered back at the house, they went straight to where both of you were sitting, and threw themselves beside Agnes

“Hey Aunt Agnes, have you meet Y/N yet? She’s super cool, she helped us pass one of the hardest levels of our game” You smiled at what Billy had said, and Agnes turned her face to look at you she was so close that you were able to see the little green tint that Agnes had in her eyes.

Agnes looked at you, she believed you were the prettiest girl she had ever seen, and she had lived quite a long life, now that she thought about, you were younger than her, you looked like Wanda’s age, maybe two or three years younger, there was a little bit age gap there, but she shrugged the thought off, it didn’t matter.

“Hey Y/N did you know that aunt Agatha has a Bunny called señor Scratchy? He’s really cute, you should see him one day, he lets us pet him, he’s so fluffy and cute” Tommy commented while he had his eyes glued to the tv

“That’s right, maybe you would like to visit him one day” Agnes said and she patted your knee, you bit your lip again and nodded

“yea, I love animals so, yes I would like to meet him”

Wanda called the four of you to the dining room, and you saw Vision putting the table.

Everyone started to sit down in the chairs, and Agnes decided to drag one chair out indicating you to sit down before her, you found her action quite charming and you thank her, Agnes had a grin on her face whenever she made you blushed, she was loving it.

Dinner passed peacefully, with some glances and some winks that Agnes had been throwing at you.

Whenever Agnes got the chance, she would brush your hand or your arm, she even asked you politely to handed her the salt and when you gave it to her the tiny container, she took your hand and with her fingers, she brushed the back of your hand, god she was so charming.

When dinner ended, the boys, Wanda and Vision said their goodbyes and Agnes offered herself to accompany you to your home.

You were feeling butterflies in your stomach, was she really offering to get you home? Your day couldn’t get any better, both of you left Wanda´s house and she linked her arm with yours, Agnes liked watching you, you were a little shy under her gaze and she was loving it, she couldn’t wait to see every part of your personality.

Walking through the street alongside Agnes felt everything to be lovely, the streetlights decorating the sides of the avenue had just a dim light, and it help the lovely mood that you were in, Agnes would have loved that the way to your house could have been a little longer.

Agnes sighed when you arrived at your front porch and both of you turned to face each other, so you smiled at her.

“Honey would you like to come to my house tomorrow? I have a new recipe that I would like to try, maybe we could have some tee too” Agatha said quirking her eyebrows

You were about to say yes but remembered something and your face fell, Agnes watched your expression and got confused.

“I´m sorry Agnes, I really would love to go to your house and pass time with you, but Wanda is coming to my house tomorrow with her children, she told me she wants to spend time with me” You looked at her apologetically

Agnes felt herself tense, she knew you were Wanda´s friend and even still she didn’t know the entire story, she sensed that Wanda cared for you, like a lot, she clenched her jaw, but quickly her expression changed to a grin

“Oh, sweetheart it´s ok, do not worry darling, we could arrange another day” Agnes said and she grabbed your hand

“So, can I get a hug? It was lovely to meet you, I enjoyed your company at dinner, and I hope you and I get more time to talk” Agnes opened her eyes in a motion to hug you, you smiled at her you leant into her arms, she put you closer to her, resting her arms in your waist while you put your hands around her neck, you let your head in her chest.

You could smell the perfume all over her, it was a sweet scent and you felt safe in her arms.

Agnes didn’t want to stop hugging you but she had to let you rest, she removed you a little to look again at your face

“That was a very good hug, hope you give me more darling” Agnes said winking at you

You blushed for like the tenth time that night.

“I will, maybe we could meet the day after tomorrow, I´m not sure how much time Wanda and the kids will be in my home” You said feeling a little shy

“I would love to, so is a date darling” She said and you bit your lip again, you couldn’t hide your grin at the mention of the date, Agnes laughed a little and stared at your eyes

“Darling I have to leave but, I´m very excited for our date ” You nodded and Agnes squeezed your hand a little and ran her thumb over your fingers, then she left your hand after what felt like hours holding it, she turned herself to walk towards the exit of your garden and to the sidewalk, then she turned herself to look at you, you were there still standing at the entry of your house, you smiled at her and Agnes waved her hand at you again, you did the same and decided to finally enter to your house.

Agnes watched you a little amused and felt her heart warmed, she was looking at you, she turned around to go back to her house, she felt mesmerized by you, you were something, you had something in you that made her feel drawn to you, she was arriving at the entrance of her house when she noticed a hasty movement in one of Wanda´s windows, she frowned a little, had Wanda been spying on both of you? That was weird, she shrugged it off, and entered her house

The next day in the morning Agnes saw you through her window watering your plants and the bushes there, she couldn’t help but smile, you looked so peaceful and focused on the task you were doing.

Tilting her head slightly to the side, she kept staring at you but she frowned when Agnes saw Wanda walking towards you, wasn´t she supposed to go with her kids? Why was she going towards you again? Wanda had already seen you yesterday, she shook her head and clenched her jaw, Wanda wanted to have all of your attention, that was not fair, she squinted her eyes and kept looking.

Wanda walked towards you and you hadn´t notice that she was behind you, then she put her hands over your eyes, and greeted you. Then when you turned around you were smiling and Wanda hugged you closer to her.

Agnes couldn’t help herself, she felt jealous, she wanted to hold you and touch you too, and it looked like Wanda was having all of your attention, she needed to do something quickly, so with a flick of her hand she made señor Scratchy appear in your garden, after that Agnes took the opportunity to go after you. She left her house in a hurry and started to almost run towards you and Wanda

“Oh my, thank you´re here, senor Scratchy got lost, I can´t find him anywhere, sometimes he used to disappear but I would find him in my back garden, and now he´s not there”

She said this looking right at you not at Wanda, and Wanda was amused by this, she smirked but said nothing.

“Oh Agnes, do not worry, we will help you look for him, he couldn’t have gone too far from here let´s- You were going to say that it would be better if the three of you looked separately but you felt something tugging on you jeans, you looked down to see what it was and saw a light brown fluffy bunny with white stains, you felt you heart melt at the sight of the cute bunny and bend down to grab him in your arms

“Agnes is this señor Scratchy?” You asked while petting his tiny head, his fur was so soft

“Oh, darling you found señor Scratchy, I had no idea he was here, how could he have ended up here, in your garden?” Said Agnes with a worried look on her face, then she saw this an opportunity to hug you being careful not to squeeze señor Scratchy who was between your arms, and she kissed your forehead, then she grabbed you gently by your shoulders

“Thank you dear, I don´t know what I would do if you hadn’t found him, what can I do to show my gratitude?” Do you like ice cream I can take you to the nice ice cream parlor that

“Oh Agnes you´re so sweet, I would love to, you know what? Later Wanda and the kids will come maybe we could all go to the ice cream parlor” You said to her excited, you wanted to spend more time with her and this could be the perfect time to spend time with Agnes and your friend Wanda.

Agnes wanted it to be like a date, just the two of you, but you looked so excited that she couldn’t say no, at least, she was going to spend time with you.

Wanda was smirking she had seen the grimace that she had done when you mentioned her and the kids, she hid her smile with her hand before speaking. “Yes, Agnes that would be lovely, you can come along with us, we can have a nice evening together with the boys"

She smirked and saw Agnes trying to smile, oh no, Agnes just wanted to have you all for herself

“I will tell the boys, so we can get ready to go, see you later” Wanda said amused and went back to her house, leaving Agnes and you alone

“Oh Agnes, I´m glad you accepted” You smiled at her and the look of excitement warmed her heart, suddenly she was not feeling annoyed, you still had senior Scratchy in your arms so you handed him to Agnes

“Here´s señor Scratchy, all good, how did he arrive here? Wouldn’t I have seen him coming here?” You asked when Agnes took the bunny into her arms brushing her hands with you.

“He´s a tricky bunny, he can get lost if I´m not watching darling, next time I will be more careful” Said Agnes, and then again you two got lost in each other´s eyes.

The mood didn’t last longer because Tommy and Billy appeared behind you, Agnes sighed she could have more time with you without someone interrupting.

“We heard that senor Scratchy got lost and that Y/N found him, can we pet him?” Asked Tommy and Agatha smiled, she passed the bunny to Tommy who carefully took the bunny in his arms.

“Well dear, I´ll have to take senor Scratchy back to his home, boys would you help me take him back to it? See you later dear, I can’t wait to see you again” You blushed at her last comment and she smiled “You look cute when you blush darling” She said before turning around with the boys going back to her house.

Later when you were ready to leave you heard a knock on you door, you thought it would be Wanda and the kids, but when you opened the door you saw Agatha standing in front of you, you could smell her sweet perfume, without thinking you hugged her, she smiled too and hugged you back.

“So, are you ready to leave?” You were about to answer her when again the boys interrupted you, they were laughing and greeted you, behind them you saw Wanda walking towards you.

“Heyyy, can we leave now? I really want some ice cream as well as the boys” She was smirking and the boys cheered up, they were excited you could see it.

“Well we should leave then” You said and the two boys put themselves at your sides, they were asking you what was your favorite ice cream flavor, they wouldn’t stop asking questions and you were entertained by them that you didn’t notice that Agnes had a disappointed expression, she just wanted to spend some time alone with you.

When the four of you arrived at the center of the town, you were excited, Westview had some pretty sight to be a little town.

Wanda showed you some of the little coffee shops there, she told you about the library, when she put her arm around your back, Agnes didn’t like what she was watching, she sighed annoyed and was about to use her magic to stop Wanda touching you, but the you separated from her and went to link your arm with hers.

“Agnes this town is beautiful don´t you think?” Her annoyance went away when she felt you soft touch

“It is darling but there are pretty things more beautiful than just a town” Agnes said looking directly at your eyes

You were snapped out from the moment when you hear Billy´s voice “C´mon, let´s get the Ice cream” This time Wanda didn’t hide her amusement “Ok guys let´s go” Said Wanda to them

You smiled and started to walk to the ice cream shop, your arm still linked with Agnes´.

You entered de shop and the boys quickly went to look at the different things the shop offered, ice cream, frozen yogurt, the popsicles and the fruit juice bars.

Agnes pulled out a chair for you, you blushed and smiled at her while sitting “Oh Agnes you didn’t have to do that” You couldn’t help the smile growing wider

“I know darling but I wanted to, so now tell me, what do you want? I heard that f/v is your favorite ice cream flavor” Agnes winked at you

“Hey Y/N my mom bought this for you” Said Billy handing you a two medium scoops ice cream of your favorite flavor

Agnes couldn’t help herself, this time she rolled her eyes, you thanked Billy and smiled at Wanda

An idea popped into your head “Agnes, do you want to share the ice cream? Billy gave me two spoons” You said to her showing the spoons.

She nodded and sat next to you, her thigh brushing against yours, you handed one of the spoons to her

You started to share the scream with her, she playfully took some ice cream with her spoon and brought it to your mouth, you opened it playfully and accepted her offering.

The taste of the ice cream was so good, they served a really good one, without thinking you moaned and Agnes was delighted when she heard that sound leaving your mouth.

You had some ice cream at the corner of your mouth, Agnes brought her hand to your face and with her fingers she cleaned the rest of the ice cream, her finger was near your mouth, and she gasped when you licked the tip of her finger.

She couldn’t wait anymore; she leant into you and captured your lips on hers, you kissed her back, your hands on the collar of her shirt, and you pulled her closer to you.

Agnes broke the kiss and lifted your chin “You do not know how much I have wanted to do that”

Wanda had seen all of the interaction and decided to go outside the ice cream shop, she didn’t want her kids to bother you more.

“It was about time that you kissed me, you could have waited until our official date tomorrow” You caressed the side of her face

“Well, I´m sorry, I wanted to spend more time with you, but Wanda had all your attention”

You smirked at her comment, and unconsciously searched out for her hand, with her thumb she traced circles on the back of your hand.

“I would have never thought you were jealous of her, she´s my friend Agnes” You stared at her beautiful baby blue eyes, she grabbed your waist to pull you closer to her.

“Well you can´t blame me, you are very beautiful, but now I will make sure that everyone knows that you´re taken” She said and kissed your lips one more time

“So, are we officially a couple?” You asked her, blushing again.

“Only if you want to honey” She brought your hand to her lips and kissed the back of it

“Of course, I want to Agnes” You said to her

“Wonderful honey, also I will take you out on more dates” Agnes said and you nodded, you were exited.

“So, what about we stay here and enjoy the rest of our night?” Agnes asked you and you nodded excitedly, you hugged her and she smiled, finally, she could spend time with you with no one interrupting.

[timextoxhajima]

Sonder: Part V [Final]

Parts: I II III IV V

member: enhypen heeseung! x oc! woo ki yeom [3rd person pov]

genre: coming of age, slice of life, angst, romance

w/c: 4k

taglist: @missychief1404 (i had this chapter written out months ago, but you're the reason why i decided to post it! thank you for reading <3)

warnings: topics on religion, distressed relationships, mental health (I want to leave an a/n here that I grew up with my maternal family being Buddhists so what I've written is based off what I researched online and the way her family practised Buddhism. I'm personally a free-tinker and this narrative is not in any way meant to offend nor support any particular religion.)

synopsis: after being kicked out of her home, Woo Ki Yeom is forced to live life on her own. struggling to find herself in the midst of her chaotic life, she meets lee heeseung, who, like her, can't give any more fucks to life than she does.

"n. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own."

Author's Note:

Before you embark on the closing chapter of Sonder, I would first like to offer you a virtual hug! <3 Sonder is a love letter to all lost relationships (be it familial, friends, romantic). In the last few months of 2023, I lost a couple of friends whom I trusted. I'm still in the midst of healing and recovering from it.

Sonder started out as an angry rant when I felt anger from the falling out, but I couldn't bring myself to continue because at some point, I felt like this wasn't the right way to cope. I was still angry and hadn't come to terms with it. But the longer it took, the more I realised I just wanted to heal, and that things truly just happened. No amount of anger was going to undo what was done. They had apologised for the things they did, but I reacted by cutting them out, and I'm not sorry for it.

The chapter has ended, but the book doesn't.

I hope you have found comfort in Sonder, be it through the eyes of Ki Yeom who represents my anger and process of healing, or Heeseung, who is lost in life and has no direction. Perhaps through the eyes of Ji Yeon, who simply did what she thought was right but yet it wasn't, or Ki Yeom's father who had neglected to care for something when it was in need. Last but not least, Ahn Yoo Hyeon, who is my innate desire to be my own person, but cannot, due to the things that naturally bind her to her purpose in life.

I'm not sure when I will write again, or if I ever will, but if I were to leave one last story for my readers who have been with me for the last couple of years since my Capital Letters and Hostis days, I thought it was appropriate to write Sonder.

My ask is always open and I still do check Tumblr every day. I'll try my best to respond if any. I hope that my words, stories, and characters stick with my readers for years to come.

Writing for everybody has been an absolute pleasure.

With Love,

Dana

"So this is the million-dollar book!"

"She'll kill you if she knows you touched it."

"Have you?"

"I didn't touch it but she showed me once."

Gasp.

"Yeah, go through my things while you're packing," Ki Yeom pushes her way into her apartment, a folded box in hand.

"Jun Yeol touched it first."

"I was curious," He closes the book and places it on the table. "It doesn't kill to be a little curious where all your ideas are stored, is it? I can't believe you've shown it to Heeseung but not us!"

"In my defense, I'm rarely curious about her shit," Heeseung raises his hands in surrender and shrugs.

"Then how did you get her to show it to you?" Soo Min squints at him.

"I caught him snooping around my stuff so I caved and let him see it," Ki Yeom finally gets the folded box into shape and pulls out the tape.

Her colleagues' jaws drop as they scream 'unfair', rolling their eyes as they pick up the book to flip through it again.

Ki Yeom can hear their whispering as she packs her newly bought pot-and-pan and kitchenware, and it cracks a little smile on her lips, knowing that she would miss their voices and their bickering in the years she will be away.

In truth, she doesn't know if she would even be coming back.

They must think she's selfish for taking up the offer that their boss had offered her elsewhere and overseas, but even if they did think that, it's not her problem, is it?

She gets the box taped up and she stands up straight, turning around to see that they've gone back to helping her pack the rest of her things. But Heeseung was still, backfacing her, head looking down and his arms barely moving from where she could see him.

So, she walks over and tiptoes, trying her best to look over his shoulders without letting him know she was right behind him.

"Hard to believe this was six months ago."

Ki Yeom relaxes, rolling her eyes as she walks around him.

In his hands was the letter her father wrote her, with the wrong unit number written on the envelope.

"What can I say, time waits for no man," Ripping the letter out of his hands, she crumples it into a ball, playing basketball with it into the trash bag they had by the door.

As the ball of paper lands in the plastic, Ahn Yoo Hyeon appears by the door, purse hanging from her forearm and sunglasses pushed onto the crown of her head.

"I was wondering if they had taken the day off to come help you."

"Honestly, a waste of time!" Jun Yeol dramatically replies. "She has nothing."

"It's good to travel light where you're going anyway," Ahn Yoo Hyeon takes a deep breath and looks around the apartment. "Let me know if you need anything before you fly. I'll see you on Sunday at eight."

Then she turns around on her heels and leaves.

The funniest thing about the last six months is that Ki Yeom wondered how different it would have been if her 'arcs' had been spaced out or in the wrong sequence. How strange was it to have all the events lined up almost one after another?

Sometimes, just for fun, she would imagine if she hadn't met Heeseung, and her father hadn't written the wrong address. She wouldn't have met him because neither of them cared enough to talk to each other.

Imagine if Ji Yeon hadn't showed up. Ki Yeom knew for sure that nothing would've changed. Ji Yeon would still be texting her every now and then, begging her to hang out when she didn't want to.

Imagine if her father hadn't showed up either - Ki Yeom sometimes wonders if he's going to come back again, find out she's moved away, and think about where she's gone.

Then again, that's not her problem either, is it?

"You left a tissue in your machine last week, you know?" Mr Hsien nags at her the moment Ki Yeom appears in his line of sight.

"Sorry!" Placing her laundry bag down, Heeseung helps to push a token into her machine first. "I'll make sure to check this time round."

"You better. Else I'll charge you two times next week!"

Ki Yeom glances at Heeseung. A knowing smile.

"You're not gonna tell him?"

"What for?" She loads her clothes in, fingers digging into the pockets as she does. "He'll be more than happy I'm no longer using his washing machines. Besides, you'll be here to tell him."

"I'm not gonna have a conversation with him telling him where you've gone and why you're gone."

"Well, too bad."

After the washing machine starts its usual humming and vibrating, Ki Yeom sits next to him on the row of seats, listening to the TikTok and Instagram Reels play on his phone while she looks through the digital documents that the art organisation had emailed her.

Ki Yeom hadn't thought that four years of isolation and loneliness could be undone in just six months. Maybe 'undone' is the wrong word.

Though she must admit, she didn't know what she was waiting for. In hindsight, she wonders what it was like to aimlessly tear through each day. It wasn't even that long ago, so she does remember that feeling of emptiness. She wonders if that's the exact same feeling that Heeseung has been dealing with, and probably will have to for longer.

She considers herself lucky. That for her, this four-year chapter is coming to an end.

But it's bittersweet. There's nothing attractive about being in constant fear and worry of having someone unwanted showing up at your doorstep or leaving you messages, but it reminds you that someone out there is still looking for you. This knowledge that someone still gives a shit about you... that's the thing that's addictive and hard to let go of.

Sometimes, she wonders if this is a good thing. Even though she has closed the chapter with her parents and Ji Yeon, it meant that she no longer had a reason to be interlinked with them and vice versa. Her parents are just her parents now. Ji Yeon is now an ex-best friend.

She looks up from her phone and ever so slightly, turns to Heeseung, whose soul is quite literally in his phone screen.

There wasn't enough time.

To explore. This friendship.

Or whatever you called it.

Ki Yeom had never crushed on anybody. She wonders what it must feel like. She always does. She had watched Ji Yeon entertain the boys that ogled over her at school, but she never had one herself.

She recalls the first time she met Heeseung. She was uncouth. Rude, cold and nonchalant. Which boy would like that kind of girl?

She snickers to herself.

"What?" Heeseung asks without looking up from his phone. "The video wasn't even that funny."

"Nothing," Ki Yeom shakes her head. "Though, can I ask you something? Feel free to ignore me or change the subject if you can't answer."

Heeseung hums in response. He scrolls.

"What is it like to have a crush on someone? What's it like to... be in university?"

Such simple questions.

But Heeseung feels stumped. He knew Ki Yeom didn't have the luxury to attend university, but he never thought she would think and ask about it.

He stops and turns down the volume first, then locks his phone and puts it down in his lap.

"The second question's easier to answer. Depending on the crowd you hang out with, university is either a four-year-long party before you go into the working world or... where you go through your existential crises before you go into the working world."

"So either way, it's kind of a shitshow, just whether it's on the fun side or the depressing side?"

"Bingo," Heeseung snaps his fingers and points at her. "The first question, however... I think it's different for most of people. A crush could mean many things. Like an eye-candy, or just a periodic infatuation just 'cause the person's cool or pretty. Or it could be some love-at-first-sight shit that's genuine."

"Do you believe in that? Love at first sight?"

"No," Heeseung shakes his head and puckers his lips in thought. "I mean when you're younger, yeah. I had a crush when I was a kid. Liked her for a couple of years, even though she rejected me right at the start. But my perseverance got me a short run with her."

"'Short run'? How short?" Ki Yeom smiles.

"Like... three months."

"Wow," She laughs and scratches the back of her neck. "Three years for three months?"

"That's exactly what a friend of mine said."

"But you said that was when you were younger. What about recent times? Has it changed for you? I never... had the chance to like someone. When I was in high school with Ji Yeon, I was so caught up in finding myself... with my art and dealing with... being poor. Then not being able to go to college pretty much sealed the deal. My last chance to be a student and a kid and meet people and fall in love and have break-ups was in high school and I didn't know."

Heeseung squints at her. "I don't think that going through all that in high school is advised. I mean, yes, that's when everybody goes through all that, but like... usually it's stupid and messy."

"At least they have the privilege of going through something stupid and messy and not have to worry about... other things. I thought that's what being a teenager is about. Being obnoxiously ignorant about everything else... only thinking about the guy or girl you liked and whether they would ask you out on a date."

He tilts his head at her, eyes looking away as he thinks.

"I think you were destined to... lead a life that the regular person doesn't get to experience. I know how terrible and shit it sounds because it just sounds like I'm trying to comfort you, but I do think you're special. In a resilient and talented type of way. That you were pulled off the average, regular path, and forced onto a better, more rewarding one. Albeit tough."

"Risky game."

"I don't think that if you had spent just a single minute thinking about a guy or a girl... it would've been worth it. It's like asking a God to worry about what color I should dye my hair."

A pause. Ki Yeom nods, a gentle smile on her lips.

"Thank you. For putting it that way."

Another pause. Heeseung was thinking. Then he parts his lips, a breath coming out before a word does.

"For me, I take awhile to like a person. It doesn't come easy nowadays, especially that I'm busy trying to find life fun. But I think right now... I wouldn't know it. I think I would've liked someone without knowing, and then something would happen that made me realise I liked this person."

"So like, 'never knew it until you lost it' kind of concept?"

"Something like that."

Ki Yeom hums in response.

"What about you? I mean, hypothetically, what do you think you're like? If you had a crush?"

"Hm," She rests her elbow on her crossed leg, chin resting on her folded fingers. "I probably have a curse of some sort. All that talk about me being on a more special path would give me tunnel vision, to the point that even if I did like someone and I knew, I don't think I'd stop my life to entertain it."

And just like that.

For some reason, it felt like they had a whole other conversation without even having it. There's a strange, bubbly feeling in Ki Yeom's stomach when she realises how quiet it's gone, on top of the machines' whirring.

She turns to look at him, whose eyes are a little bit sad, like they had heard something he knew was coming, but didn't want to hear. They were flitting between hers, as if waiting for her to say something else.

He blinks, then turns to look at his hands, thumb running over the mild callouses that have formed from playing the piano. Then Heeseung turns back to her, head tilted and eyes unable to focus.

"In an alternate universe... maybe we'll meet in school. And... you'll be the nonchalant, quiet, I-don't-give-a-shit-about-anything girl, and I might find it in myself to be curious about you... In a life that you didn't have to worry about your friends or the way you reacted, about your family or money. In a life where you could be 'obnoxiously ignorant'."

"In a life where I'd be your only problem. A crush that you wouldn't know how to fix or solve. Or maybe leave you with a heartbreak that would change your perspective of life and become a better person."

"I'll admit that I was worried. That I'd be the heartbroken one after you leave, knowing that you bought a one-way ticket and have no plans to return. But I'm no longer worried, because... I think I'd rather be heartbroken while you're still here."

By now he's looking at her, eyes slightly widened and glistening.

Ki Yeom's insides have been stretched, crushed and wringed, like towels on a spring cleaning day.

This gut-wrenching feeling felt all so familiar, and yet, so different.

Heeseung blinks and takes a deep breath, stretching as he leans back.

"I watched you fight your way out of your own life. Your own problems came knocking on your door and you somehow pushed through all those chapters and mishaps and everything. I was not going to be the person who confessed and made you feel like you had to stay."

Then he turns and looks at her, eyes still full of wander despite everything he's seen her go through.

"But now that I know how you feel and what you think, I'm thankful that... You care about yourself. I'm glad that you are the I-don't-give-a-shit-about-anything girl."

"You know sometimes I hate being that girl, don't you?"

"I know you do, but you are, and there's nothing wrong with it."

Ki Yeom frowns, trying to accept it; trying to accept herself; trying to accept that some chapters were never meant to be written. Some arcs were never meant to happen.

Perhaps this acceptance was an arc of itself.

In another life.

On the day Ahn Yoo Hyeon met Woo Ki Yeom, she was having a particularly horrid day. Coming from her, that was unusual. She would never know if it was fate or some kind of sign, but it was the first time in ten years that it rained on her brother's death anniversary.

Just earlier that morning, she had to brave the rain to get to the florist to pick up the flowers she had ordered. But not only was she almost completely drenched by the time she had gotten there, the florist had lost the order form and forgotten to make the bouquet.

Half her day had already been ruined, and she wasn't even at the cemetery.

But her brother's best friend, showed up like an angel, to the florist as she was making the bouquet in a frantic manner. It's normal to see people freeze and get uncomfortable when they meet Oh Jihoon, for he was absolutely covered in tattoos. This included his face, his ears, the inside of his lips and into corners of the body you couldn't see.

"She giving you a hard time?" Yoo Hyeon remembers him teasing her to the florist.

"My apologies! I lost the order form, but the moment she stepped in- I remembered that she had ordered it-"

"Take your time! We're not in a rush."

Yoo Hyeon turns to him, brows furrowed. She lifts her sunglasses and glares at her with those angry orbs that her brother had as well.

"What?" He sits on a nearby stool, holding his phone between his thumb and index finger and gestures out the shop. "Take a look at the weather, would you? You're gonna make her wrap the bouquet up nicely then let it soak and drown in the rain?"

She huffs, wanting to retort but having nothing to say.

"How's the parlour going? Last you told me, you hired a couple of youngsters?"

She glares at him once more, then puts her glasses back on when she decides that he's right.

"The girl's a tomboy gangster and the boy's a gay unicorn. Funnily enough, they seem close."

Jihoon laughs boisterously. Yoo Hyeon can hear her brother's laughter in his.

"You sayin' that he's gay because you know for a fact?"

"He's got bright pink hair dyed down to his roots, and he talks like a girl."

"Hey, now," Jihoon raises both palms and chuckles.

"I think I know when I see a gay man. Plus, I say that with zero offence. What's wrong with calling someone gay if it's just an observation?"

"Ah- There's the education talking," He pauses, finger playing with the piercings on his ears. "You sound like your brother."

"Shocker."

"You know, back in the day-"

By the time Yoo Hyeon had finished rolling her eyes at Jihoon's throwback, the florist had finished wrapping up the bouquet and apologised for the hundredth time. Initially rejecting the payment, Yoo Hyeon knew better than to refuse the service, handing her a hundred dollar bill and telling her to keep the change.

Jihoon had given her a soft 'ooh' in a bid to praise her coolness, and honestly? Yoo Hyeon could barely hide the smile.

The cemetery was about a thirty minutes drive out of the city.

"I always wondered what he'd be doing. Like what would he be working as? Would he be married and have kids?"

"No clue. But, honestly? Maybe zookeeper," He places both hands on the steering wheel as he turns down the winding path, rain drenching the windshield despite the wipers clearing it every second. "Suits him. Not having to wear office attires or deal with people. Married with kids? Not sure. Depends on whether he knocked someone up by accident."

Yoo Hyeon smiles to herself, eyes watching as the trees blur past and the city's skyline blending into the mountains behind.

"Anyway, your interview. You just had one recently, didn't you? For a touring art organisation?" She turns to him.

"Yeah. I'm still waiting on the results but I think I'm gonna get it."

"And when you do, you would have to move?"

"Seasonally, yeah. I guess I'd be spending months overseas, at a time."

"So, you wouldn't be here? On some years?"

Jihoon goes quiet. "Maybe. But you know I'll try my best to come back."

She hums in response. "It'd be different without you here."

"I know, but you know... One of the last things he told me was to never look back. He always told me that the damage had been done, so what for writhe in your own shit and cry about it? Don't think he'd be all that pleased if he knew we were fussing about him. In fact, sometimes when we visit him... he might not even be there."

Now, Yoo Hyeon can't stifle the laugh that comes out.

Later that day, Jihoon had wanted to drop her off at home, knowing that she was drenched that morning and knowing that it wasn't an easy day for her. But something in her told her to go back to the parlour. For whatever reason it was, she would never know.

But grief works in strange ways.

Yoo Hyeon knew that, to some, it was a stretch to think that her brother was the one who led her to Ki Yeom, who was starving and had obviously cried her eyes out when she found her down the street from the parlor, hiding herself from the rain.

But she will always think it was, because it was comforting to think that perhaps, her brother was watching over her, and even the people who might need her help.

She doesn't know why she hired Ki Yeom so quickly. She doesn't know why she felt the need to help her find accommodation. She doesn't know why she felt like she saw something in Ki Yeom, that would lead her to this very moment.

At the airport. Seeing her off. Into Jihoon's care where she will most likely blossom into a whole other person artistically.

"Jihoon's abit weird when you first meet him, but don't mind it. He's covered in tattoos and that's the only thing that's scary about him. Otherwise, he's a loser," She pulls off her glasses and folds the arms inwards.

Ki Yeom smiles and nods, hugging her jacket in her arms.

"Thank you, Ms Ahn. For taking care of me, ever since we met. I really wouldn't be here without you. I mean it. And it's true. Nothing can refute it."

The older takes a deep breath and raises a brow, "You have my brother to thank for that. He's dead, but I'd like to think he was there the day I found you on that street. Jihoon will tell you more when you get there."

Something in Ki Yeom turns sad and sour as she processed Yoo Hyeon's words. She purses her lips, offering a small smile.

"If you ever come back, I expect you to return."

"Of course."

Yoo Hyeon nods with intention, and slides her sunglasses back on.

Ki Yeom turns around, in her peripheral vision, noticing Soo Min and Jun Yeol getting into another bicker as Heeseung approaches her.

He sucks in a deep breath and shoves his hands into his pockets, shoulders shrugged up to his ears.

"New arc, new season."

She smiles, turning to look at the gate into the departure hall.

"It was nice... being a character in one of your seasons."

A knowing exchange of looks. Ki Yeom doesn't know what to say. Heeseung doesn't either. What else is there left to say?

"Will you hate me if I end up treating you like Ji Yeon?"

Heeseung parts his lips and frowns, then a smile creeps up on his lips. "Maybe. But you know what? I don't think I'd blame you. I'm just... a character in a season."

Ki Yeom takes a deep breath, and reaches out to wrap her arms around him, pressing her head into his collar and shutting her eyes.

"You'll be the character that everybody shipped me with, but never got together, and would write fanfics or canons about us if we happened."

She can hear him chuckle in his chest as he returns the hug. He intentionally lowers his head and nearer to her ear, "Accurate canon."

For the first time in Ki Yeom's life, she felt truly free.

Free from all the things that kept her here, free from all her worries and concerns. She was now going to live the life of one of those girls online, talking about how they moved abroad to work and explore a new culture and lead a new life. Ironically, she worried if she was going become one of those girls.

But even if she did, it's not her problem.

Is it?

[hanasnx]

Okay I was curious about something and it would be a great help if you had the answers for it (if not you can just ignore it, don't worry)

So I was scrolling through Tumblr and I found a post with the ethnicity percentages of each member of the Batfam. I already knew due to the canon comics that Cass was East Asian, Duke is black, Damian is Romani and that Tim is at least half Arabic. But Jason's one actually surprised me because I haven't read it anywhere else (I guess it is a headcanon)

In some fics I have read he calls reader Arabic pet mames because they claim that his father/mother could have been Arabic too. But other people portray him as at quart or half Latino 🤔

Idk I wanted to know if it was canon or a fandom opinion, Google didn't have the answer and you are probably the Tumblr user who knows more about the Batfam that I know. Ohh and btw if it is not canon what are your personal thoughts about it?

That's all, sorry for bothering, don't really have to answer if you don't want to. Hope you have a good day🫶🏼

Riley 🍒

of course i cant ignore this, it’s far too interesting! i was thrilled to receive a message like this bcos most of my life has centered around batman and co so let’s get into it.

i’ll start with this: it’s entirely up to interpretation! there aren’t wrong answers here.

i’ve only ever found eurocentric ties for jason todd on google (i actually looked this up pretty recently bcos i was devising my personal niche fancasts for jason todd and dick grayson) so i think he should be anything in anyone’s mind. projection is entirely encouraged. arabic or latino or whatever, anyone can headcanon him different than white and i’m sure one day we’ll have some definitive representation of a marginalized group within him from a comic book writer/artist that felt seen. an example i adore is terry mcginnis from batman beyond (1999) was never confirmed to be any ethnicity, for the most part he was considered wonder bread white until a guy by the name of sean gordon murphy had interpreted him to be wasian when first watching the show and then confirmed it later on by writing it into his series batman: beyond the white knight.

i have actually seen the posts you’re talking about regarding jason todd being arabic and speaking the language and i adored it. <33 i had no idea what the source was so it led me to believe the author just came up with it and that’s what fanfic is all about! writing your interests, indulging yourself, and projecting.

so yes, jason todd may not have a confirmed ethnicity, and he may look wonder bread white sometimes, which is all the more reason to project. he’s a blank slate, so give him some flavor.

[about-faces]

Hi, I want to read some DC comics about how Harvey transformed from former DA to the criminal mastermind who ruled half of Gotham's Underworld (against the Penguin). I've already read/seen: Two-Face: A Celebration of 75 Years Batman: The Long Halloween Batman: Dark Victory (1999) Batman '89 Batman: The Animated Series Batman: The Audio Adventures

Any other reading recommendations? Thanks a lot for your help. :)

So you're looking for origin stories, or at least ones that shed more light on Two-Face's origin? Well first off, I'm glad you read the 75th Anniversary collection, because that has three of my very favorites: the original Harvey Kent trilogy from 1942-43, the Grace Dent story from Secret Origins Special (1989), and "Eye of the Beholder" from Batman Annual #14 (1990).

Besides those, and the ones you've listed, here are a few others to check out. Some are great, some are mixed bags, and some are downright lousy.

First and foremost, I STRONGLY recommend the 1989 Batman newspaper comic strip, which I loved so much that I posted the whole two-year saga on its own tumblr account. You can start from the very beginning right here, but keep in mind that Harvey's storyline--which runs all the way to the very last strip--doesn't really start until the second arc.

Next, Batman: Dual to the Death by Geary Gravel is a YA novelization of the BTAS origin, seamlessly combined with the two-part Batgirl origin episodes. It improves on both the animated versions in small but crucial ways, and it's highly recommended for BTAS fans. Unfortunately, it's pretty hard to find.

On a similar note, Peter David's movie novelization of Batman Forever can be found more easily, either in used book form or on the Internet Archive, and it's absolutely worth reading. I love the movie of Batman Forever, but it's objectively a terrible take on Harvey. The novelization adds SO MUCH, including an original prequel scene with D.A. Harvey Dent, and his ending is far more satisfying.

Cartoon Network's CGI animated series Beware the Batman (2013) also features a series-long origin arc for Harvey Dent, but it's one of the worst takes I've ever seen on the character. He's a petty, selfish, ambitious little prick, an absolute scumbag, completely devoid of depth or tragedy. Thankfully, few have seen this arc, since the majority of Harvey's episodes were never aired after the series was cancelled, but they're all available to watch for those morbidly curious to see just how badly someone can screw up Harvey as a character.

"The Big Burn" from Batman and Robin, vol 2 #24-28 (2014), also collected in B&R volume 5. After the huge DC reboot, this was Harvey new origin, which tried some very different things with him. A VERY mixed bag, but one that ended in a hugely exciting way that makes the whole thing worth reading. Follow it up with its sequel, "Ugly Heart," from Detective Comics #1020-1024, collected in Detective Comics Vol 5: Joker War.

Finally, watch the entirety of the recently-released/cancelled CW series Gotham Knights, with Misha Collins performing a surprisingly rich, interesting, and flawed Harvey Dent origin arc. The show got a lot of shit, some of it undeserved, but Collins' Harvey was an intriguing surprise, and I fear nothing we see from Harvey in any Reevesverse media will bring half as much care and interest to Harvey as GK did, for better or worse. All 13 episodes can be watched for free on CW Seed, region permitting.

EDIT: Oh right also the Telltale Batman video game! I haven't actually played that yet because I know enough about what happens and the illusion of meaningful choice indicative of Telltale games that I just don't feel like putting myself through that. People seem to like it a lot, though! I just... don't put me in a position of choosing to save either Harvey or Selina if you're just going to cheat and have him go evil anyway.

[rabbiteclair]

I'm super interested in the paranormal/cryptid post- where did you find the stuff about Japanese and US paranormal encounters? Finding a pattern in encounters like these is something I've always been curious about.

(repeating all the disclaimers from this post, which means that among other things, this isn't gonna give you many historical accounts, and it's very focused on the kind of people who wanna throw their accounts out onto the internet.)

The Japanese Side

The big one I might as well get out of the way up front: Kowabana. The site's got some stories, others exist in podcast form, but the books themselves are up to 12 volumes of translated stuff from 2chan's occult board, the vast majority of which is in the format of first-person accounts of supernatural encounters. If you know any Japanese internet horror stuff, this is where 3/4 of it came from--Hasshaku-sama, kunekune, Kisaragi Station, etc.

(If you aren't solely focused on the 'first-person account' thing, Tara Devlin's parallel Toshiden and Bankai series cover most of the rest.)

Other people have translated this stuff over the years, with wildly varying levels of quality. Saya in Underworld and Okaruto are some of the ones I've found useful in the past.

If you can read Japanese, there are quite a few sites that collect and curate this stuff, and then other sites that aggregate those sites. As an added bonus, a given story might exist in multiple different forms between these sites, and then half of the sites don't exist anymore because this stuff goes back twenty years. I've spent a decent amount of time browsing these, but couldn't give you a good list of solid ones. There is in fact a pretty decent starting list on Tara Devlin's old Tumblr.

There are some Japanese Youtube channels that document a lot of this stuff too, but tbh the only times I've watched them is when I'm about nine google searches deep looking for something, so I don't have a good list.

The American Side

I started making a list here, but it honestly wasn't much of a list. A lot of the English ones that I've encountered have come from some combination of 'wandering on the internet,' 'being on /x/ back when it was new,' and 'the story was included in some other piece of media.' (Like, Oh No Ross And Carrie is probably the single place where I've heard the most accounts of UFO stuff, but I'd be a weird person if I cited that as a good source for them.) Unlike the Japanese side of things, I've never had much reason to approach them in a systematic manner.

Considering that my big source for this on the Japanese side is 2chan's occult board, you'd think that 4chan's /x/ would go here, right? But nah. I mean, there are first person accounts on there, but they're nowhere near as prevalent. There are several places trying to archive /x/ stuff though, so it's out there for anyone who wants to dig through it like a trash gopher.

But, if you want your 'hundreds, if not thousands, of first-person supernatural accounts in one place' counterpart to Kowabana, the best resource on the English-speaking side that I know of is Monsters Among Us. Yeah, it's audio, but that's life. It also has really thorough show notes, which serves as a pretty good starting point for finding other resources. I'm pretty sure there's a whole ecosystem of this stuff on Youtube.

(Really though, if anybody knows of any big text repositories of English, first-person accounts of this stuff, curated to weed out the complete trash, I'd be interested in that myself.)

[whydidtheyhavetogo]

Rengoku x GN Reader

First time posting on Tumblr, I have not written a fanfic in a hot minute, so I hope this suffices! Thank you for reading, now enjoy healing while Rengoku gets taken care of!

Warnings: Mentions of cuts, bruises, and general pain. A bit of Angst and fluff

Rengoku is recovering from his wounds and his friend is stern in making sure that he lays still and rests in bed. Rengoku can’t help but feel a warmth in him as they takes care of him. In the end the two show their feelings to one another.

Kyojuro flinched at the sting of cuts along his arms and face, he wasn’t sure how he got here. The last thing he remembered was the Upper Three Demon almost annihilating him and his newly made friends. He was lucky that Tanjiro had thrown the demon off with his sword, otherwise his fist would have gone through his stomach. He remembers the fear the demon’s eyes filled with as Tanjiro screamed at him, chasing him off. He wasn’t sure how the young Demon Slayer did it, but he did nonetheless, and he couldn’t thank him enough. 

Now he had another problem, the person that he had grown to love and appreciate now standing at his side practically fuming from his “stupidity” as they so adoringly put it. They pat his cuts with medicine as they mutter profuse words under their breath. He groans as they gently touch the cut on his eyelid. They stop in their movements, “Kyo…” They mutter, a sad look overtaking their features, their eyes glossing over. Kyojuro hated seeing them so sad, it damn near broke his heart. He smiled softly and cupped their hand that hovered over his eye, “It is alright Y/n, you did not hurt me!” 

Doubt swirled in his friend’s eyes, he didn’t need to be too perceptive with that, they were already an open book to him, even when others couldn’t see it, he did. He remembers when they had come to the Master, bleeding and broken. He remembered every cut and bruise and in that moment when he first gazed upon them, he felt a new flame spark within. One that when sparked, burned brightly.

He remembered watching Shinobu and the Kakushi taking the battered individual to the Butterfly Mansion after the Master deemed it necessary, their wounds deep and extensive. He would sneak over to the Butterfly Mansion, and watch whenever he could. He was curious about the newcomer, and would keep company with the stranger who slept long in bed and to Aoi while she patched them up. Days passed into weeks, and the other Hashira started to notice his interest, of course none of them saying a word. Tengen was the only one who had actually brought it up to him.

Tengen would come by every so often, catching Rengoku sitting by the stranger. He would smirk and make teasing comments like, “Ah, looks like someone’s caught your eye, huh?” or "You know it's bad to stare at strangers..."

Finally one afternoon, Tengen dropped by and leaned against the door, “Damn, you’re still here? I thought this was a joke at first…”

To which he finally replied, “I am still here because I want them to feel safe when they awaken.”

“I mean, I get why, but… why?” Tengen asked, clearly confused about his intentions with someone they didn't know.

“Miss Amane had found them bloodied on their doorstep, they had passed out before they could tell her what had happened. Maybe… If they feel safe when they awaken, then we can find out what happened to them. It is our duty to protect the innocent. If there is a way I can protect them, I will make sure of it.”

Tengen nodded slowly, “You know, you’re an admirable man, Kyojuro…” He gave Kyojuro a hearty pat on the back before leaving him to watch over the injured stranger. 

He recalled the day that they had awoken from their deep sleep. The way their eyes fluttered open and looked around curiously. The sun beaming down on them. They looked so warm. He smiled as their eyes landed on him, widening just slightly. He could hear their breath catch in their throat for a moment.

“Do not be afraid! You are safe within the walls of the Butterfly Mansion!” He spoke softly as to not startle them too much, “My name is Rengoku Kyojuro, the Flame Hashira and member of the Demon Slayer Core!” 

There was a silence that wafted over them, the stranger continuing to stare at him, not that he minded. Or course they would watch him closely, who wouldn't be weary of some random man watching over you after being beaten within an inch of your life!

“Y/n…L/n Y/n….” They croaked smacking their dry lips.

“Kyo?” He heard their voice call out sweetly, bringing him back to reality, where now he sat in the bed while Y/n watched over them. Kyojuro’s gaze drifted up to meet theirs. He smiled, their look of concern melting his heart, “Ah, I’m so sorry Y/n! Were you saying something?”

They sighed, their brows furrowing, “I worry about you sometimes…” 

Kyojuro smiled brightly, “I appreciate your concern for me little flame, you’re as sweet as ever!” 

He watched as their cheeks flushed, what a beautiful sight it was to see, “Well, duh! Now, as I was saying, I want you staying here-”

“Y/n…” He groaned.

“In bed-”

“But-”

Y/n rested their finger on his lips, shushing him.

“No, none of that! You need your rest, or you’ll never get better!” Y/n sternly spoke, frowning gently at Rengoku. He didn’t bother arguing further, he had learned better than to do that with them. Instead, he sighed, giving in to them. They smiled, satisfied, “Thank you…” They took their finger away and turned to the table next to him, grabbing what he would assume is medicine or bandages. 

His mind traveled back to after they had woken up, he remembers staying by their side as much as possible, talking with them about anything and everything. He helped with what knowledge he had to take care of them alongside the vast knowledge Aoi had. She never made him leave, and in fact she encouraged him being there when he was able to, saying that whenever he would leave their eyes would become dull and distant, and the moment he would walk through the doors they would light up like a firework, practically jumping out of bed to rush to his side. 

“Rengoku!” He gasped looking up at Y/n, “Ah! Are you okay?!”

They shook their head, “I’m more concerned if you’re okay! You keep spacing out…”

He gave them another gentle smile, “Dear Y/n, you need not worry for me-”

“Yes I do, Kyo! You’re my best friend… If… If Kamado and the others weren’t there… If… If you had died…” He watched as they sobbed quietly, neither of them saying a word. He knew quite well that he could have died that day, he could have never seen his family again, he might have never had the chance to tell Y/n how he feels. He raised his hand, grasping Y/n’s soft one’s with his calloused fingers, “I don’t mean to worry you…” He muttered. 

“Kyo, I’m always worried about you. Every time you leave for a mission, anytime that I know you’ll be in danger, I worry for you…” They murmur, wiping their tears. 

After they had gotten better, they had asked Aoi to teach them the way of healing. Aoi had told Rengoku that when asked why, they said he inspired them to want to take care of others, the way Rengoku and Aoi did. Since then, they learned pretty quickly. Now here they were, tending to Rengoku, and while it wasn’t the first time, he could tell they were scared that it could be the last. 

“Y/n…” He whispered, “I cannot bear to see you so distraught…” His eyes traveled to the empty beds that the three boys had laid in the night before, things were starting to change, he felt it on the train, he felt it with the Upper Moon Demon. It was time for something different.

“Y/n, I have decided on something,” He looked back up at Y/n, “I am going to continue to help the demon slayer core, while I have enjoyed my work, helping others, I have decided I will retire!” He heard them gasp, shock overtaking them, “Don’t worry! This is purely for my safety and for your sanity as well. In turn I have a perfect candidate in mind for the next flame Hashira! I will teach and train the next generation, that way I can still help others!"

“You…. don’t have to do this Kyo… This has always been your dream!”

“But I have a new dream now!” He watched as they looked at him confused. He pulled them closer, wrapping an arm around them as they jolted forward, falling onto him. They yelped out, “Rengoku! Your wounds!” He caressed their cheek, not caring of the pain. With them he felt no pain, there was no such thing. Only bliss.

“You’re my new dream, Y/n… I have grown to care immensely for you. I want a life with you, safe and sound. I want you to be happy, I want you to feel good for the rest of our lives... I want to live on with you..." He gazed down at them softly, “If you’ll have me…”

Moments pass by, time seems to slow. Their face becomes more and more red, a painting in his eyes. He could watch that happen over and over again, forever. Finally they whisper a faint, “Yes…” 

For the first time in a very long time, he felt the missing pieces within himself melding together, pieces he neglected since his mother's passing, healing between the cracks. He felt the flame within him burn brightly, and he couldn’t help but let out a relieved chuckle, “May I kiss you?” He breathed out.  With a small nod, he did as he intended and gave them a warm kiss, as a promise to them and himself, that he won't let anything stand in the way of the two of them ever again.

[morrigan-sims]

🦉Positivity owl reporting for duty! This was sent by a friend who wants you to smile as much as your posts make them smile. Please list five things that make you unique, four things you are super passionate about and why, OR three of your favorite memories. Feel free to send the owl to those who you feel deserve to smile🦉

Augh, thank you anon! This is super sweet to log onto after a night of no sleep and in the middle of working on one of two huge assignments due this week.

I'm going to do 4 things I'm passionate about, I think.

[Putting this under the cut because it got really really long.]

D&D I love the collaborative storytelling of it all. That my little guy and your little guy and a few other people's little guys are all working together to write a story, and it's just happening. I am eternally grateful that I started playing d&d my freshman year of college, and even though it's only been in my life for just over 2 years, I literally cannot imagine where I would be now without it. This game is not just my special interest but also my lifeline, and it means the world to me. I could yammer on about any of my campaigns for hours on end, and I have a near-encyclopedic knowledge of rules and spells. (The latter of which is very funny given that I've never played a full caster.) I also love homebrewing things, and I've undergone some pretty intense homebrew projects for the DM of my Sunday game (including stat blocks and maps for three sailing ships, plus rules for ship combat). I also have vague ideas for campaigns of my own that I would love to DM someday.

My OCs Be they for d&d or for any of my other writing projects (RTQ/ATQH I miss you...), I could talk for hours about my original characters. I have so much to say about all of them, and I know more than I would ever need to know, and more than anyone would ever care to ask. Character creation is one of my favorite things to do, and it comes to me more easily than writing a complete story, so I have countless characters who exist in a vacuum with no world or story to support them. But I still love them anyways. I will gladly ramble about my characters anytime, so feel free to send me an ask if you're ever curious about anyone I post.

Reading Reading has been my number one source of comfort and escapism for as long as I can remember. I taught myself to read when I was 3, without my parents even being aware of it until I started reading roadsigns at random. I have over 270 books in my bedroom, and that number is ever-growing, since books are one of my most frequent impulse purchases. (In fact I have another 6-10 books waiting for me when I get back to my dad's house this weekend...) I'm always looking for more recommendations or people to yell about books with, so if you're an avid reader, don't be afraid to send me a message!!

My Friends I spent a lot of time lonely as a kid, and I didn't really start making friends until I came to tumblr and discord. All of my closest friends I've met through one or both of those platforms. I absolutely adore all of them, and I'm so lucky to have found these amazing people. I will do my best to always shower them with the love they deserve. I'm generally a very chatty and outgoing person (sometimes to an extreme degree that ends up scaring off potential friends), and when I say that I'm okay with people messaging me out of the blue, I 100% mean it.

Animals I mean, I'm a zoology student, so I don't think this one is surprising in the slightest. I have essentially zero empathy for humans, but I've always felt more for animals. Not only are all 4 of my cats (2 at my dad's, 2 at my mom's) the loves of my life who I would kill and die for, I also want to work with animals for the rest of my life. Particularly my interest is in animal behavior, and I want to do enrichment work in a zoo setting. I am a nearly endless repository of animal facts, and my biology of mammals class that I'm taking this semester is only adding to that.

(BONUS) Video Games I've been a big fan of video games since middle school, but it wasn't until about my freshman year of college that I started really cementing my taste in games. I had been playing a lot of life sims, but none of them managed to hold my interest for very long. The first turn-based/RPG game I really played with Wildermyth. Eventually I starting playing Divinity: Original Sin 2, after having owned it for almost a year, and I was in love. From there I moved on to Slay the Spire, Baldur's Gate 3, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, to name a few. (Other games I've enjoyed in the recent past include Roots of Yggdrasil, Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, and Rogue Waters.) I have a very deep love of turn-based combat, story-based RPGs, and rogue-likes or rogue-lites, so anything that has some or all of those elements is going to be an immediate love from me. (Turn-based combat is almost a must for me, though. Despite greatly enjoying the story of Dragon Age: Origins, the god-awful combat has prevented me from making any progress beyond Morrigan's recruitment.)

[loppiopio]

i've been sitting on this post for a few days now and it's literally just, me making assumptions about kudos i've noticed on fics lately (particularly aci since i've been checking that fic every week for book club these past few months) and this'll make me seem more insane than i already come off but by this point. how much lower can i go?

just going from top to down as of today.

[ShibaLee] i know you from your art on here!! tumblr user shibaleeart i'm happy to see more people in potentially enjoying the stories this fandom has to offer :>

[reiscm] shizuchansmilk?? what are youuu doing here? i didn't know you read shizaya fic tbh and i was surprised to see you here suddenly, relatively recently too. does that mean you just started the fic then?? after at least a year of being in the fandom right? maybe this wasn't from your first time reading it (same) but at the very least it shows you visited it not too long ago… i may be delusional in thinking i could be a contributing factor there because, why now? it's not like i'm the only aci advocate out there but i've probably been the most vocal about it around this time soo… well whatever it is, hope you had fun with it! i'm so curious what drrr comedian shizuchansmilk thinks about hit fanfiction a cheap imitation 👁️

i'm also recognising some of the other names around here like [anonymooose] and [durarasaiki] even though i haven't the faintest idea who they might be. i've just been seeing them lately across different shizaya fics which probably means these are the people doing their shizaya fic dive around this time. i have nothing more to add there i just, think it's cool noticing the same names across fics like yeah, we all feasting on the shizaya tag rn.

[ya_boi_twink] it took me a second to recall where i'd recognised your name from and then it hit me. i knoooow you! tumblr user yaboitwink in my notifs… i appreciate you, and i'm glad you liked the things i made for it c:

[bun_o_ween] oh i know you're here because of mr crapo. i hope you guys had fun with it! i wanna take the chance to also admit that like. the moment i found out you were that sebastian writer i experienced the wildest sense of deja vu. because. i had seen your name on ao3 before. but when i checked your fics there was no way i'd read a fic from you?? so then i realised i must have recognised you... through other kudos on other fics??? dude. i must sound crazy, i have no way of proving this because i actually don't remember what fics these were i just vaguely remember it was either bsd or tgcf? that i was looking at fics for, trying to find something to sate my hunger at the time. and i just remember, noticing your name across like a few of these fics in a row and thinking "heh someone else has been going down the same rabbit hole" AND NOW I SEE YOU AND CRAPO OF SHIZAYA FANDOM HITTING IT OFF it was surreal. like. my awareness of you had zero to do with black butler, i could not have predicted that you would have been the random ao3 user i'd seen apparently enjoying some of the same fics i was not too long ago. wow.

there are like two separate flamingo related names around here [niceflamingo] and [flamingoo] which doesn't mean anything but for some reason they are standing out enough for me to want to mention them. i feel like i've seen ao3 user flamingoo in the kudos of some other fic before but idk.

[Luzki] omg hey!! twitter artist vi_138_ woah hiii funny seeing you here :0 especially like. not so long ago? since i'd imagined you would've been aware of the fandom for a while since you seem more invested in the alts than shizuo and izaya in particular? well it was cool seeing that you'd read this one, i hope ya had fun!

[frogsarefriends] right under that is artist hallucxnating >:O i know they've read the fic already but it was cool to actually recognise their kudo down here, especially since it's like. not recognisable just from the name alone, but you've shared links to this ao3 as your writing so now i know it's you. my impression is that you came into the fandom through slavhew since, i'd connected the dots at some point that you two were friends which. made a lot of sense since i noticed you both started being active around here at the same time lol. but hey!! welcome to the club :D

[7FlyingPancakes7] this is one of the ones i'd noticed earlier on during book club, i distinctly remember checking a chapter while walking home one night (because i do that i guess) then BAM what the hell?? i just see tumblr user mari-lair's ao3 appear down there, totally out of nowhere for me. for context this was a writer from the tpn fandom i recognise from like 4 years ago? idk it's been a while, i didn't talk to them much but they were active in the fandom at the time so i'm familiar with their name. i haven't been keeping up with them but last i'd seen they seemed to be into tbhk with no indication as far as i was aware that they'd shown any interest in shizaya. nothing wrong with that it was just unexpected, so i was just like woah!! how did you get here? i am so curious how they may have come across this fic, was it some rec from a friend? how familiar are they with shizaya? how invested were they in the story and characters? enough to go down more of shizaya's greatest hits? anyways, that was just a fun little small world moment for me.

[psych0tastic] hey isn't this…. axietoh? like, the artist who used to draw shizaya like 5 years ago? what are they doing here so high up the list? 🤔 i have no clue lol i still follow them because i really like their art style but i hadn't noticed their interest in shizaya resurfacing... i suppose they just haven't been too active on these socials in general. anyways their name stood out to me and i was like, wait….. well it's a shocker seeing their name so high up here, were they reading this fic for the first time there or were they revisiting it and happened to have not kudo'd it until then? well anyways, it's nice to see they've revisted the fic within the last two years at least :0 that's cool to me.

[MiyukiWynter] dude i was feeling crazy just now trying to figure out where i'd recognised this name from because i'd swwooooorn i'd seen it from somewhere like as someone on twitter?? i think i was mixing them up in my mind with unrelated (as far as i'm aware) twitter user miiyankhr but turns out they're someone who's fics i've seen in the tags before. i haven't read them myself but apparently they just posted a new one two days ago so that's crazy.

[Dodomka] heyyy it's dodo from twitter, hellooo 👋 they've been the biggest supporter for my deep in the sauce fic tweets and for that i appreciate them very much :3 didn't expect to see them here tbh i wasn't aware of when they'd first read the fic but as i was expanding the list a few times to write up this post i noticed their name here and just thought that was neat. shout-out to them!

[mochi010] there's a user named mochi that has shown up in my twitter notifs somewhat regularly and they have nothing on their account so i have zero clue what they might be like outside from that they've been liking my shizuo and izaya retweets. their handle isn't even mochi so i have very little reason to believe this could be them but idk, maybe? no conclusion has been made here. well i already spent time writing and cleaning up the paragraph, guess i'm leaving it in.

shout-out to [ouiouipussay] and [ramenflavorpacketsnorter420] just for having some names that stand out lol. i don't recognise you from anywhere but, i guess now i will if i ever come across those names again.

[Stupidusernamepolicy] i struggled to find you amidst all these names for the writing of this post 💀 had to ctrl+f that shit. but i remember seeing your name here while i was going through the list some days before and being like "oh hey!! it's slavhew :)" but okay there's actually a tangent i've been wanting to go on from here.

outside of aci i've actually been noticing you and hallucxnating double duo'ing under some fics together, like after the story era which i'd reread after hallu reminded me of its existence in a reply, and also sacramental which i had reread because of your reply, lol. i find this quite funny, just like. this visual representation of you two reading and recommending fics with each other. then you talk about it on twitter and more people like me are visiting this fic too. chain reaction of sharing stories :)

ALSO [anonymooose] and [durarasaiki] spotted down here in some of these kudos too!! that's craazy. wow. i tell you guys i'm recognising these names i'm not just crazy 😭

[NotElectricT] this took me a second to dig up again since it's quite buried down that list at this point but the plan i'd had in mind for this post was to end on this one since i saw them kudo it right in front of me (through the vc stream) and i didn't think this post would get as long as it did but... well i already wrote it 😬 but yeah, this is my good friend note! check out this art they made for, still one of their favourite chapters, sharks fly. it's sandwiched in between some squid game au they made for a gift exchange for me..... it's a long story i don't wanna talk about it (embarrassing......)

but what i do wanna talk about!! is how note (referred to as "patient zero" regarding aci book club by the only other patient lol) just decided to read this fic completely of their own volition?? i didn't tell them to do that and for sure didn't expect them of all people to try reading it, ever (they're not really a fic reader) but they just did that, two years ago. and that was like, insane to me at the time because it's seriously so out of their depth guys they don't do enemies to lovers.... they still don't lol. but i was insane about this fic back then with no one to really be insane about it to so i just yelled about it to these friends out of context and i guess???? that was convincing enough to get this one to start the longest fic they'd ever read 💀

i had much fun having someone experience the fic i'd been insane over..... like i'm smiling about it rn thinking about the time i did a live reading of the chainsaw man (as i like to call him) chapter which was so fun i kinda forgot i had a hamilton musical i was supposed to watch that evening... that was awkward. and other chats we exchanged regarding the fic (they were reading chapters whenever they felt like it which i enjoyed because i like pacing these things out) but for some reason (i think things just happened around the time that disrupted the momentum) they never made it past chapter 26 😔 which was tragic to me but oh well....

well i'm am even more insane about this fic now because of this convoluted chain of events that gradually built and cascaded me towards whatever the fuck i'm doing now!! god. i've never made so much, anything, like ever. until now. because both note and rosa (who has not kudo'd this fic as far as i'm aware lol) made the decision beyond my expectations to commit to, a book club. which i organised. and i've been having a lot of fun! so much fun, there's all this wild "marketing" stuff i've been churning out in record fucking time by my standards. i've never felt so creatively fulfilled dude, never finished a thing in my life until these past few months. so that's awesome, and it's in large part because of note having committed to this fic again. so that's some of the story behind that one kudo haha.

and now we're at chapter 49, we're supposed to be talking about it tomorrow, which is today by now since it's 1 am but uhhhhhhh writing is so hard. i was supposed to just be cleaning up this draft i'd written like 5 days ago? i am now very hungry. there's actually more i'd drafted up from here just from more names i recognised as i kept expanding the kudo list that day buuuut i'm fuckeeeen cutting this off right here. i need to stop. the end.

[femmefatalevibe]

Hi! I’ve just found your blog and I absolutely love it. I am entering my 20s and have never had positive female friendships in the past (always delegated to the DUFF, never had friends who were particularly interested in my personal life and would only turn to me for advice or if they knew I could give them something). I am deeply introverted. My only friend is my boyfriend and I don’t want to fall into the trap of depending on him for all my friendship. I have a bit of a tough time making friends at my university because it’s a very prestigious classist institution, and many of the girls I’d initially made friends with alienated me once they found out the neighbourhood I live in and where I’m from. Do you think you have any tips on how I can make sustainable, and meaningful female friendships; ways in which I could foster sisterhoods? Thank you in advance❤️

Hi love! Thank you so much. Finding meaningful, reciprocal friendship is not for the faint of heart, so validating your experience here.

It's great that you recognize the need for platonic relationships/connections aside from your partner (too many people fall into this trap!). Remember that if anyone judges you for something as superficial as where you live, those people don't deserve to be your friends anyways.

If I were in your shoes, here are the ways I would go about finding friends:

Find social activities involving your interests: Join or attend a club meeting about a skill, field, or cause you care about (think a painting class, social justice club, women in business/tech, etc.) to surround yourself with like-minded people. Having a common interest increases your chances of clicking with these people.

Strike up a conversation in class: Nothing bonds people together like the monotony of a lecture, meeting, or going through a deck. Consider making a comment about the class or offer a genuine compliment to get the conversation started.

Immerse yourself in online spaces: While it's great to have friends to socialize with IRL, social connection is social connection at the end of the – whether it's virtual or in-person. Join some relevant Facebook groups, Discords, Reddit communities, etc., and follow like-minded individuals on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr, to get started. You never know who you will connect with once you put yourself out there!

Here are more socializing tips for making friends, too:

TIPS FOR SOCIALIZING & MAKING FRIENDS: 

Get Curious To Connect: Follow-up questions are your best friend if you get nervous and anticipate a wave of social anxiety. These questions have a dual benefit: You’re allowing others to indulge in subjects or experiences that resonate with them and helping to guide the conversation. Listen to ways that you can branch off into related topics, mutual interests, and shared emotions or experiences. Ask relevant questions to keep the conversation flowing and demonstrates your interest and desire to connect with the other person. There’s no quality more charming than making others feel special and understood. This interpersonal skill allows you to connect with others without feeling like you need to fill up air time or be more vulnerable than you’re comfortable. It can be especially helpful to remember this advice when conversing with a stranger, authority figure, or someone else you want to impress without looking inferior (teacher, boss, industry leader, partner’s parents, etc.).  

Read & Develop Interests/Opinions:  Expanding your knowledge base provides an entry point to more people, engaging conversations, and opportunities. It’s easier to speak to people when you have some understanding of relevant topics others are discussing around the table or are of interest to the person in front of you. Take time to read about and study topics you’re interested in. Stay on top of cultural topics (movies, music, books, TV shows, etc.) and news within your chosen industry (or one you’re hoping to break into), different destinations you’ve been to or want to go to, favorite products, etc. Develop some robust opinions (don’t share those on hot-button topics like politics and religion) on these subjects and current events. Having the ability to listen to others' perspectives on a topic with an understanding of the subject matter and dive further into the topic with a distinct POV makes for an engaging conversation (and a potential new connection). 

Learn The Art of The Follow-Up: If you hit it off with someone, exchange contact information (social media, phone number, email – depending on the context of the situation and level of initial connection). Send them a relevant message at some point over the next few days to stay connected. Try something related to the conversation – like an article on a topic you discussed, or a recommendation for a coffee shop in the area. Or, get more personal if you’re comfortable, and ask how a meeting went, if they ended up liking a certain show, movie, or book, or whether they want to grab lunch at that place they mentioned they love. Remain thoughtful and interested without looking desperate. People want to what know others are thinking about them as long you’re not obsessive.

One More Friendly Reminder:

Different Friends Can Serve Different Purposes: Have your class friends, going to lunch or weekday meals friends, going out friends, and then your genuinely close friends (if you find 1-2 of these types of friends, that's plenty and very lucky!). Don't be afraid to spend most of your time alone. As long as you have some social interactions and put effort into this area of your life, remember that we all have solo seasons or days. Think of this time as an opportunity to reflect, work towards your goals, and spend time with yourself to discover what you really enjoy and want in life.

Hope this helps xx

[idsfantasy]

hi, i've watched your channel on youtube a bit and accidentally found your tumblr scrolling through tags, neat lol. Anyway, I'm invested in the series but I don't think I'm invested enough to read the books, (this is leading into a question, I swear.) I just tend to take the word of people who have read them because idk if I'll ever read them for myself. I assume you've read them though, so I'm curious about something I keep seeing people refer to the mimic as "mimic 1 program" and mentioning there's more than one mimic. Is that true? With this series you never know which details might be shifted to fit a narrative, misinterpreted, or just misinformation. Is there multiple mimics, or just the one I've heard of most people think is the same mimic as the one in the games? The mimic who copied David and got completely beaten by the dad after his son died, etc. I know that part of the lore, that he started copying those violent behaviors, they tried to reprogram him to dismantle bots, etc. I'm just confused if there's another mimic we just haven't seen before, if the tigre rock storyteller thing is the same mimic or a mimic 2? 'Cause I feel like I've seen people mention mimic 1 and mimic 2 before. If there's any chance you can clear up confusion on this, thanks. I feel like I know the majority of the lore surrounding mimic from what I've heard, but this part of it confuses me.

So, technically there is one (1) actual Mimic robot still around as far as we know. There were Mimic lines made back in the day, but they were deactivated after the og started acting up. Either way there's only really one relevant Mimic robot.

The Mimic1 program is used all over the place for arcade games, AR games, VR games, as well as for running the Pizzaplex's story/character AI for a bit. The program is used in a lot of places, but it's still called the Mimic1 program.

[evelhak]

📚

Since some people have evidently found my books through Tumblr despite of me not being very active on the Finnish side of it, I thought: why shouldn't I post about my books? It doesn't matter they are not available in English (yet, anyway) because I would be curious enough to read about stuff my mutuals do even if I couldn't read the actual material.

So, I plan to make a post about every book I write, do cover art for, or am otherwise involved with. Best case scenario is someone finds something new to read, worst case scenario is someone is bored.

This time, I'll introduce you to my debut novel:

☁️ Unitytöt ☁️

(dream girls)

Published: 2021 by Nysalor

Genre: New Adult, Fantasy, Slice of Life, LGBT+

Certainly not the first book that I wrote but this is my first published novel and my first cover project. ✨ I wrote this book in 2017 when I was about to graduate university, trying to juggle a full-time job as a mail carrier, nearly daily ballet training and writing both my original work and fanfiction which I also started doing the same year. The schedule turned out to be too much for my autistic brain and physical conditions. Regardless, I'm so happy I wrote this book!

It's a story about a technically bodiless creature, Venna, and a human, Aiju. Venna's species lives in people's heads or musical instruments because they need music to live. Venna is an outcast, and has been living in a wind chime to avoid people and their overwhelming array of feelings, which Venna's kind experiences directly in the human brain they are living in. Circumstances force Venna to move into the head of a young woman, Aiju, who is starting her studies at a temple (=a magic university). Unlike Venna's previous humans, Aiju can hear and feel Venna and is curious for, rather than scared of a new friend in her head. Aiju is also able to control and create elaborate dreamworlds where she and Venna can meet in their own separate forms. The two begin to live their life together, studying, enjoying music, maybe even falling in love when an older student is intrigued by Aiju's peculiar behaviour. It's a story about sharing a body and partially a mind, about merging, sense of self, neurodiversity and particularly sensitivity, and also abuse and healing. It's a slow love story, a fantastical exploration of the subconscious, a fantasy focused on characters and dreams that also touches on the larger context of the universe and existence.

I wrote this book because I had read many body sharing stories and was dissatisfied with the lack of portrayal of the ordinary every day experiences that would come with it, as well as I was with the ease with which body shifting creatures always seem to adapt to their new circumstances. I wanted to see more of the reality. I wrote this book because I had briefly introduced and later edited out a music eating demon in another fantasy story of mine, who possessed a girl and made her dance in a tavern until she fainted. I was curious what a story about a similar but gentle creature would be like. I wrote this book because themes of merging and separating your sense of self were relevant to me and I wanted to explore them through a fantastical world but also reality based concepts.

I was so much more nervous about the cover project than I was about actually publishing the story. I had zero experience apart from my personal cover doodles, no graphic design studies, and had only recently started learning Photoshop. Thankfully I'm still pretty happy with the cover, although there are technical details I would do differently. The most glaringly obvious one is the ginormous bar code. It was hard to tell how big it would actually look and my publisher had warned me not to make it too small, so I overdid it. My publisher is small so there are no resources to make test copies of the books, and it's due to the smallness of my publisher that I even had the opportunity to design the cover myself despite having no experience, just some visual skills.

I still like the cover art itself, the only problem which I did suspect back then too, is that in an attempt to make the cover dreamlike, it turned out a bit like children's literature. I was the only one who was worried about it, but in some libraries people have clearly thought this is aimed at 12-year-olds. I'm sure some of them would enjoy this, but it's a bit off. A lot of people have told me not to underestimate children, but it's not that I'm doing that, I'm simply aware that this book is not written in a way nor does it contain themes or life events that are relevant to very young people. It's a very psychological story and its issues are the most relevant to people in their late teens and early twenties. It's not that there's anything in this book that a 12-year-old couldn't handle, it's just going to be boring for most of them because it would be a lot to ask from a child's attention span to be interested in stuff they can't relate to for 400 pages. Even if many 12-year-olds still like to read about characters older than them, characters they can look up to, this book is written with people in mind who can relate to 20-year-olds. Of course there are exceptions. I probably would have loved this book as a 12-year-old. But I'm sure 90% of my peers would not have cared enough to finish it.

The cover seems to have done some of its job well too, because I know some people (adults) bought this book because they thought the cover was pretty, so that's good at least. Most of the feedback I've received has been really positive, the book seems to have found some of the readers it was clearly meant for. Some relevant criticism has also come my way and I believe I've learned some things since writing this book. The only really negative review I came across so far contained so many factual errors that it seemed the reviewer had been too busy to actually process the book. From that perspective it seems like the cover has also worked well enough to draw mostly the intended people towards the book.

The most memorable experience in its publication process was probably how it was chosen for an interview at the biggest national book fair by high school presentation/communication students who hold interviews on one of the stages there every year. It was such a good interview because the two students interviewing me clearly loved the book, related to it, and were excited to talk about it with me, and asked really thoughtful questions. I couldn't imagine a better first interview as an author. It was also the day the book officially came out. It was also my first time at that book fair (I don't often visit the capital) and I was the first author from my publisher to land an interview there, so I was really very nervous at first. I was unfortunately a COVID debut author so this was the only place I was able to present my book physically that year, which obviously affected its already marginal distribution. But it was such a lovely event for me that it is the more memorable for it.

I wish this book would find more readers who love dreamy, character driven and fairytale-esque fantasy. It's not without plot, mystery, or danger, but it's definitely not the best pick for someone who needs an epic, fast paced and world-shaking chain of events from their reading experience. This is for the other sensitive dreamers out there who just love to drown in characters, experiences and subtle magic, and would rather stop to contemplate it than to rush forward at all times.

[goosewriting]

Yeahhh I’m SO GLAD you’re back!! I open tumblr every now and then to see if you've posted anything new,hope you’re doing well!🥺💖

I just got home from my graduation trip and in a while I'm going to keep preparing to apply to my grad school, I know all too well what it's like to have no motivation to study, it's always hard to get started on something serious, even when I'm drawing my own stuff, I always turn on my computer in the morning and then I don't start drawing until the evening lol

Just curious if you've found anything interesting lately? Movies and TV shows or novels or whatever, I recently read the novel I've read a million times again and started reading battle scars 🫡

And am looking forward to your new works! hope to see you write more about Cal, your writing of Cal is my favorite, you're a genius at writing Cal!🥹🤲❤️

Have a nice day and hope you do well at the finals<333

(This is my first time using ask box and I don’t know if I’m using this right,still confused about how to use tumblr 💦)

hi! thank you so much for the message and your kind words <3 they mean a lot to me! and i'm flattered to hear you like my writing that much :') 💕

i had my first final today, it was an oral exam, i thought i was going to fail because i slept very badly due to the heat and i barely studied for it, but i passed :'D so one less, two more to go. and then two essays. but that's a problem for future goose lol

i hope you had a fun trip Lin! applications are always stressful but i hope you get into your dream school<3

oof battle scars,, have fun with that one lol it's a good one! i should revisit my notes i took when i read it for future writing references lol currently i'm reading the republic commando series by karen traviss, i'm on book 3 rn. it's been such a fun read, i can't wait to speed through it after this week is over haha while it isn't canon anymore, i think the way the clones are depicted is very interesting, especially in the first book, the things the clones were taught about jedis and all that; it was a refreshing insight imo.

as for movies/tv, i'm really looking forward to arcane s2, as well as deadpool and wolverine. it feels like i've been waiting a decade for this movie! xD i miss the good ol' marvel days. i should rewatch some of the older ones now that i think about it~

ah i have some new ideas for cal that i just now remembered, so i'm gonna go jot those down before i forget lol

thank you sm again for your message, and my ask box is still open for all of you, dear goslings :D feel free to send something in!

have a fantastic week everyone, stay hydrated, have a snack. you deserve it. i'm glad you're here 🐤❤️🪿

[prahacat]

Hi, I really hope you don't mind me asking a few of the questions from the fan fiction writers ask because I'm curious. Of course it's totally fine if you don't want to answer.

✨What's a fic you've posted you wish you could breathe life into again and have people talking about it? (or simply a fic you wish got more credit)

💝what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

🍭why did you start writing?

And my own... Do you write in your first or second language and how does this affect your writing process?

Hey! I LOVE talking about writing and (fan) fiction so thank you so much for giving me an excuse to do so! <3

✨ A fic I wish got more credit: "The Red Night" (it's on both tumblr and ao3) Yes yes, I know. It's poetry, it's very short, it's kinda weird(?) but also kinda generic. Basically the kind of stuff where, as a writer, you're lucky if people click on it at all (and I'm beyond happy some people did and even liked it enough to leave kudos/likes or reblog <3). But I spent several days on those ~500 words, I love how it turned out, it's like my favorite child, it's so ME ... and sometimes I can't help but wish it would get the same love as my other fics.

💝 A fic that got a different response than I was expecting: All of them, in some way, but especially "Three Days of Thawing". It was the first fanfic I uploaded to ao3 after years of writing original fic only: a little oneshot I wrote as a part of a bigger project and ended up posting just for the hell of it. I honestly didn't expect to get a response at all. A fic where nothing happens, it's just 15k of two old jaded men bickering and drinking tea? Little plot, hardly any romance? they don't even kiss. Who'd want to read that?

🍭 Why I started writing: Writing in general: Because of my love for words. My family had a lot of books, so I grew up with stories. As a kid, reading was like eating to me. Sometimes, when I was starved for words and there was no book around, I'd read the tv manual, a cookbook, the labels on my cereal box. Whenever I was bored, I'd dig through my parents' bookshelves until I found something that sounded interesting. Naturally, since it wasn't geared toward children, a lot of it went right over my head. For example, I remember reading this passage from Bronte's Jane Eyre:

‘As we are!’ repeated Mr. Rochester—‘so,’ he added, enclosing me in his arms. Gathering me to his breast, pressing his lips on my lips: ‘so, Jane!’

… and it had me so confused. I didn't get it. "Pressing his lips on my lips? Okay, so like kissing? Why doesn't the author simply write kissing then? That's such a strange, roundabout way of phrasing it!" Yes, I was very young. But moments like that made me think about the different ways to use language for the first time. I feel like writing stories is all about expressing simple truths in a bit of a strange, roundabout way.

Writing fan fiction: I started writing fanfic (again) because I was stuck with my original story. So I wrote a short story about my current obsession, Star Wars. And then another one. And another. I love the disaster lineage, and I love writing for the PT because so many of my favorite themes can be accommodated in the stories. A lot of it is about family, about the more quiet, intimate struggles that happen inside of us, but there's also something so inherently "Greek tragedy" about the characters that makes their destruction feel intense and almost inevitable.

First and second language and how it affects my writing process: I write in both my first and second language. English is my second language. I don't think my writing process differs much in either language. My English is okay, I guess ... I keep looking up comma rules and prepositions when editing.

There are a few instances, especially when writing emotional, introspective scenes, where the idea of what I want to say evokes a strong, very specific feeling, but it remains abstract, almost like music or a blur of colors. Or like a train of vague thoughts, but they keep moving and flashing and I can't grasp them. And in such cases, I sometimes resort to my native language to "search" for imagery or tangible concepts that can be expressed with language. It's not like I have difficulty expressing my ideas in English, it's more that the process of pulling them from some unconscious, wordless depths into the realm of consciousness and language comes easier to me in my native tongue. I guess it's more of a creativity technique?

For example, I remember using this technique on this little paragraph from "Three Days of Thawing" (the fic where Dooku is stuck in his Redemption Arc, oscillating between self-loathing and the need for acceptance/forgiveness):

Maybe Dooku wasn’t happy, how could he ever again, but he had learned to put some distance between himself and the hated shadow inside him, the way most people no longer think about the bacteria living in their mouths or the mass of dead skin cells on their bodies, all a gross but inevitable part of the self. Him: the man he hated, and the man who hates, and the man who tries to forgive them both, and the dizzying distance in between. Sometimes, when he sits by the lake and stares at his reflection trapped inside the ice, he can delude himself into believing he might become whole again.

I felt the part about the split self very strongly, but it wasn't until I thought about it in my native language that the words to express this feeling came to me.

There are quite a few scientific studies about how emotions are accessed and processed differently in your native language and in your second language. I know I'm definitely a bit more detached from my emotions when I'm speaking/thinking in English. In contrast, my "English brain" is more rational and analytic, which is great for "killing your darlings" and avoiding sappy, melodramatic dialogue (something I love to write, but it often doesn't feel right for my fav characters like Dooku or Obi-Wan).

Gah, I could really talk about this topic for hours! It's so fascinating to me, and I'd be very interested in hearing the experiences of other bilingual writers!

Thank you again for the questions, this was a lot of fun!

[forest-of-stories]

Throwback Thursday, Fandom Edition: "You're from way, way out of state."

One of my favorite podcasts, The Worst Bestsellers, recently released an episode on books 20-21 of Animorphs, aka the "David arc." (They carefully stated at the beginning why they don't consider those books to fall under the category of "worst"). At one point, their guest remarked that she'd once had a crush on Ax, the young Andalite refugee who struggled to understand human society, and had self-insert fantasies in which she dated him.

To which I can only reply, "SAME."

Like many of my peers, I had Very Intense Feelings about Animorphs when I was growing up in the late 90s. I've shared posts about it from time to time, and I've seen seen plenty of other people – on Tumblr and elsewhere – reflect on how well the series explored the emotional toll of having to save the world in secret while still attending middle school. Often, these discussions include sentiments like "I was expecting cute adventures about shapeshifting kids and instead I got body horror and war crimes!"

I never actually finished reading the series; my interest started to fade shortly after the very books discussed in that episode, and I found out how the story unfolded – including many of the horrors that those Tumblr posts described – more or less entirely through cultural osmosis. But for about a year before I stopped following them, each book was an automatic purchase, the foundation of a constant obsession, and the reason why I later used HTML brackets to indicate telepathic conversation in my unrelated fanfiction. Ax was my favorite character, partly because I also sometimes felt like I'd come from another planet and struggled to understand humans. (My crush on a fictional alien did not exactly help me feel less alone.)

The Alien, the eighth book in the series and the first one that Ax narrates entirely, might have been the one that I reread the most, and that Older Sister and I quoted to each other just as frequently. Consequently, she bought a poster of that book's cover art from the original artist, David Mattingly, and gave it to me for my 36th birthday in 2021. I took this awkward selfie shortly after I brought it home.

The poster, now framed, sits in the living room of the apartment that I share with two other Millennial nerds. If you're like me, and regretfully gave away your copies, at least some of the original books may be available digitally from your local library; you can check their Overdrive/Libby collections if you're curious. If I wrote down any of my own self-insert stories about my fictional alien boyfriend, I no longer have access to them, but I am still delighted every time I read a blog post, or hear a comment on a podcast, that suggests that I wasn't alone in my feelings after all.