#i have opinions on these three that have barely even scratched the surface

[junk-thrillz]

I can imagine that someone who doesn't go for rarepairs when shipping would probably (rightfully) regard Viomax as an extremely random ship. The thing is, the ship (platonic, romantic, secret third thing, it doesn't really matter) is less random/weird the more you think about it. There isn't much canon content to go off of, sure, but their characters are perfectly set up to have a really interesting dynamic with each other. You wanna ACTUALLY get weird with it? Let's talk about adding in Lisa-

[hunieday]

Momo - 16PRODUCERS Rabbit Chat

Please note that I am not a professional translator and I'm only doing this to share the side materials to those who cannot access them, if you notice any mistakes please let me know nicely. Enjoy!

Yuki: Thanks for your hard work

Yuki: Anyone here?

Okazaki Rinto: You’re early, Yuki-kun!? I’m here!

Yuki: Okarin, you’re online. Yuki here

Okazaki Rinto: Yeah, I know. There’s still time before the interview though...

Yuki: That’s true, but today’s an important interview day and I finished composing, so I thought I’d camp here early.

Okazaki Rinto: How wonderful. Momo-kun will be thrilled when he reads this!

Yuki: Yeah, who’s the star of the show today after all? Are you at the recording booth with him?

Okazaki Rinto: Actually, the recording ran longer than scheduled so Momo-kun should be back to the dressing room right around the interview time!

Yuki: Is that so. So it’s just the two of us for now.

Yuki: So what should we talk about until he’s back. Shall we have a competition to list what we find the cutest about Momo?

Okazaki Rinto: There’s no way I’m winning that. Let’s talk about what we like about you instead!

Yuki: Are you doing a bit

Okazaki Rinto: Momo-kun himself actually suggested it. He said "There’s a chance I’m gonna be late, you two can just talk about how super handsome Yuki is!"

Yuki: We thought the same thing.

Okazaki Rinto: I’ll start with my opinion! You used to say you weren’t good with people, but now you’re so approachable it’s amazing!

Yuki: Thanks. Do I have to say something too?

Yuki: I can write music

Okazaki Rinto: Next! I also think you’re an incredible actor. I feel so proud seeing you soar even beyond the idol world!

Yuki: Thank you. More new rivals keep popping up, so I can’t slack off anymore.

Yuki: Now’s my turn

Yuki: Now I’m out

Okazaki Rinto: That’s it!?

Yuki: That’s it

Momo: You barely scratched the surface!?!?!?

Yuki: Here comes Momo

Momo: Here comes Momo-chan!! Sorry for making you two wait 🥺🥺 I couldn’t stop smiling reading all the rabbichat notifications 🥰

Momo: But really, just three or four points don’t even compare in the sea of Yuki’s charm!?!?!?!? Like, his beauty mark is beyond handsome, the way he looks at me with such intensity makes me fall in love all over again. He’s so beautiful from the tip of his fingers to every strand of his hair?!?!?!?

Momo: And the way he calls me his “precious partner” is just too handsome…!!!

Yuki: You type really fast, Momo.

Momo: Lightning fast!!!!!

Yuki: I appreciate you saying all that, but today is all about you, Momo.

Momo: That’s trueee~

Momo: You’re gonna share,,,, what feelings you poured into producing my project right,,,,,,,,

Momo: aaaaaaaaaghhh can my heart even handle this ‼ Yuki, Okarin, please take it easy on me ‼

Yuki: I’ll be gentle.

Okazaki Rinto: Let’s get started! As requested, we’re aiming for a casual, relaxed vibe for this interview, as if you’re not even working. So we decided to do it over rabbichat!

Okazaki Rinto: First off, Momo-kun! Please tell us how you felt when you found out Yuki-kun’s gonna produce your song!

Momo: Hmm...he usually composes for Re:vale as a whole, but he did it just for me this time. To think that he created not just the song but also the lyrics, costumes, and the whole concept...I feel so lucky it’s almost too much to believe.

Momo: The person I’ve admired for so long brings me so much happiness now. I want to take that a hundred, a thousand times and deliver it back to all my fans.

Momo: Wait a sec is this real? I’m not dreaming, right?

Okazaki Rinto: Don’t pinch your cheeks so hard, Momo-kun!

Yuki: It’s real, Momo.

Momo: It is...

Momo: This is so special to me that it always felt like a dream! I mean, just singing with Yuki already makes me so happy, but I didn’t know there was even a possibility to ascend to another level of happiness.

Yuki: I’m just as grateful for the opportunity to focus on a project entirely for you, Momo.

Momo: Yukiiiiii~

Momo: Wait a sec, how come my darling is the most handsome guy in the world !?!? 😭😭😭

Yuki: I know. So what did you think when you heard the song?

Momo: It was so cool... I thought it’d be more cutesy

Momo: But it was completely different! And it has this super stylish dance number, I could picture us dancing together the moment I listened to the airy melody.

Momo: Even though we sing in a high pitch, the deep bass was so powerful, I love it soooooooo much…

Yuki: I’m happy

Yuki: I wanted to capture all your different sides

Okazaki Rinto: Interesting…! I’d love to hear more about your creative process!

Yuki: You could say it’s about Momo’s “switches”, in a way. A switch for when he’s singing, when he’s performing.

Yuki: A switch for when he’s pressing close to my side, thinking about lyrics to write. Working earnestly and wholeheartedly.

Yuki: They’re all different switches within Momo. It all shifts. The gap between them all is intriguing.

Momo: My “switches” huh... So that’s how you see me. 

Momo: You’re right though, I do change depending on the person or situation without even realizing. The gap between the melody and the high pitch reflect that.

Momo: And the electronic sounds are supposed to represent little switches, right? That’s just like you, it’s fascinating!!!!

Yuki: Thank you. It was challenging since I wasn’t allowed to compose the entire thing myself, but it was worth it.

Momo: And the lyrics moved me deeply. I could feel your message of wanting to face the future together, and to keep singing for an eternity and beyond.

Yuki: That’s right. This song is for you, who pulled me forward and shone your light upon me that day.

Momo: That’s because

Momo: Yuki’s music gave me the push I needed back then

Momo: So that’s why I

Yuki: Momo. You always say you’re thankful to me but

Yuki: "Beneath the countless stars, I can reach anywhere as long as I’m with you." Being with you lets me sing anywhere, Momo.

Yuki: Just like that day we sang together on the sandy beach of a deserted island, the place where you and I sing, the place where Re:vale is, will always be the best stage ever. (1)

Okazaki Rinto: Momo-kun’s crying.

Yuki: Don’t shed tears when I can’t be with you to wipe them.

Momo: Wh

Momo: Whoa stop stop stop stop hold up wasn’t that way too smooth?!?! That line was so hot my tears stopped on their own!?

Yuki: Hello, it’s me, the handsome Yuki.

Momo: Kyaaaa!! Please look my wayyy!! 🤩✨

Yuki: Yep. I’m looking straight at my phone.

Momo: lolololol thanks! I totally feel your eyes on me 🤩✨

Okazaki Rinto: Alright, I’m sorry but let’s get back on track. I’d love to hear about the concept behind your outfits and promo shoots!

Momo: I’m so excited to hear about it! I was hyped the moment I walked into the room for the photoshoot! It looked exactly like a gaming room 🎮

Yuki: The song doesn’t fit an outdoor setting. I felt like even indoors would still be too bright, so I went for a moody, neon-lit setup the moment I found out something like that existed.

Yuki: It was perfect for Momo since he loves gaming, but the gentle neon light reflecting in the dark felt especially very Momo-like to me

Momo: I’m so happy!!!! I really do love those kinds of lights toooo~~ I see how it is, hehe~~~~

Okazaki Rinto: Yuki-kun, your idea of what “feels Momo-like” is always very diverse.

Yuki: Is it? I think it’s normal

Momo: And don’t forget the outfits, I loved them so much >u< Yuki doesn’t usually wear clothes in that style so I snapped a ton of photos of him!

Yuki: I thought we might as well embrace the Momo vibe for this shoot too. We even took tons of pictures together.

Momo: Yup! We were dressed like Player 1 and Player 2! 🪄

Yuki: It's been fun trying a style I don’t normally wear

Momo: You looked amazing!! 😍 💚 Why don’t you start wearing clothes like that more often?!

Yuki: Then how about we try some different combinations next time? (2) 

Momo: Huh?! W-w-ww-w-ww-we don’t have to go that far!!!!!!!!!???

Yuki: Why not? Matching outfits always have a wide variety

Momo: Huh!!!!!!!!!! Okarin !!!!!!!! What do I do !!!!!!!! Work is one thing, but a private setting is totally different?!?!?!?!?!

Okazaki Rinto: I find it funny that you’re typing what you’re muttering in real life, LOL.

Yuki: How nice. I wanna be there too

Momo: You have work after this right? so Momo-chan will wait for you to finish!!

Yuki: Yeah. Thank you

Okazaki Rinto: The request was to make this a more relaxed conversation, but you might be a bit too relaxed right now, or maybe you’re just acting like you always are….

Yuki: Is that a problem? It’s fine, right, Momo?

Momo: Right, Yuki! 🫶

Okazaki Rinto: That’s right! It’s totally fine! And finally, please share a message for the fans!

Yuki: This new direction may surprise some fans, but from where I stand, Momo is strong, gentle, and full of warmth. Just like a sunrise that blends the dark and light, he’s a mix of many wonderful qualities.

Yuki: That’s why the song plays tricks with a variety of rhythms, melodies and singing tones. They reflect Momo’s ever-changing expressions. I hope you enjoy “Get in the Groove.”

Momo: I always spend every day thinking about how happy I am ever since Yuki and I became Re:vale. Sometimes so much so that I wish time could stop.

Momo: But you know, listening to “Get in the Groove” made me feel even happier! I know this project was born all thanks to our fans’ unwavering support. Thank you so much!!! I feel like the happiest person alive right now!

Momo: And that’s why I want everyone who supports us to feel as happy as I do, always and forever! I hope that you never get your feelings hurt! And if sadness ever comes your way, I hope our songs will be able to heal you!

Momo: Re:vale will always be a warm light, shining on everyone like the sun that rises each morning. Now and forever, with Yuki by my side!

Momo: That’s all I got!

Okazaki Rinto: Thank you both! This was Re:vale in full force!

Momo: Yup! I feel Yuki’s love overflowing more than usual 🥹❤

Yuki: Really? I’m not really good with words

Momo: Well no, you’ve gotten dangerously much better at that recently!!??!!!

Okazaki Rinto: It’s hard to believe you once had to practice saying stuff like this.

Yuki: Yeah, that sure did happen.

Yuki: Momo, promise me you’ll keep smiling by my side now and forever

Momo: Yeah. I promise!!

For those who are confused, the sandy beach of a deserted island refers to a specific plot point in part 5 of the main story.

I. am frankly not entirely sure how to interpret this. Because judging by Momo’s reaction I believe Yuki was Most Definitely Not insinuating an actual change of color combinations but. A Different Kind of “combinations”. 

[fanatic-freakshow]

What? My opinion about This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans? Glad you asked.

I don't usually review dramas --- I’m more of a “Liked it,” “Hated it,” “Loooved it!,” or "It was torture" kind of person. But when a drama like this comes along, with sky-high potential and a crash landing? Well, I have no choice but to rant.

(Let's keep the offence to a minimum, folks. We don't all have to agree. My opinion on this drama has zero effect on your life.)

And.... Holy Mother of the Lords! There was zero --- I tell you, ZERO (okay, I'm a generous person: 1.4%) of development. The only one I could say showed a little tiny bit of development was Chef Oab. Everyone else? Flat as a crêpe. Relationship-wise, I’m still scratching my head. Why do they like each other? Why does Chef Oab like Plawan? Why does Plawan like him? WHYY?

Oh but Cookie, love needs no reason. You just feel it.

To that, I say puh-lease. Spare me. Not a single date, not one meaningful conversation? But hell with that. The first pairing didn’t do it for me (apart from the steamy scenes. I'm all about that Sailub and Pon chemistry).

Now, let’s get to the real tragedy.

JJ and Methas. Same story. Why did JJ end up with a person like Methas? To the point where they’re declaring undying love? And don’t get me wrong - I adored these two. But why make such a big fuss of these relationships when they were just... Attraction. I mean, marriage proposals? After what, three weeks with a rocky start? And can we talk about that ring? So ugly (very fun scene though)! They had so much potential, I was rooting for them so hard, and then --- BAM! --- they rushed everything. I get it, 8 episodes isn’t much. It wouldn't even be enough if these two were the main couple.

Methas was screaming for more development. He’s the perfect mix of cliché and complexity, but we barely scratched the surface. We needed more of his backstory, more of his struggles, more of JJ giving him those clichéd, love-struck googly eyes whenever Methas did something unexpectedly sweet, more, more, more... This relationship deserved better, and so did we!

The feeling I got was that they summarized the actual series.

To end on a positive note, their acting? Much better! Their chemistry? Off the charts! Here’s an idea: make a new version with Benz and Garfield as the main couple. Show and develop their side of the story. Give them the screen time they deserve. I’d watch that in a heartbeat!

[cpcwiki]

⚠ WIKI AD INCOMING ⚠

Hi, everyone! @mechanical-clown here on a new blog! That's right, it's the Real Official CPC Wiki Social Media Account here!! B) Unfortunately I do not have good news to deliver

It's been a hot minute since my last ad and I do want you all to know I'm still sorry for doing this. Unfortunately, again, how bad I feel making another ad is outweighed by how much the wiki needs more help. I've been feeling especially desperate lately because of the fact that CPC is ending soon, and there are many tasks that will be made harder if it's put on daily pass. So, in my cry for effort to get help, here's an explanation of what I believe is our biggest issue and a rundown of things that currently need to be done! Again I am sorry. This could take a while

If you were fortunate enough to not have seen this post last time, the Cursed Princess (Club) Wiki needs help if it wants to be complete any time soon. Kind of a lot of it. As we all know, cpcblr's very active and prolific in content and the wiki's typically... not. To seriously get into this, the only three active editors in the past month or two have been me, @the-neighbors-kid (aka cursed-princess-club), and Ama (not sure if she wants to be tagged but we all know her!). Shoutout to you two because you are actually the best thank you I love you /pl <3

Anyways, there are already a lot of things we need to do to fix up the wiki. Thankfully, accessing any episode for any information you'd like is easy! And it will continue to be that easy after CPC ends, because Webtoon doesn't feel the need to limit how many episodes a person can view, right? Right? ...Yeah, so, uh, daily pass exists.

As of the time I'm writing this, there are ~10 episodes left in CPC (forgot the exact number lol). Assuming there are no hiatuses, that's only 10 more weeks, or 2 and a half months - and that's pretty soon! While there is a chance that CPC might not have daily pass after it ends, it's a small one. And, to me, that sounds like a huge problem!! If CPC is put on daily pass, accessing episodes will become much more difficult. Looking for a certain character's appearances, adding images, even just finding a single reference - it'll take a day to unlock the needed episode, and that episode will be gone in 2 weeks. The best solution to this problem would probably be to just use physical copies of CPC to find things, but those aren't available to everyone.

And adding images with daily pass episodes? As a reminder, screenshotting while viewing an episode on daily pass is taken as a sign of piracy. Screenshotting, the way we get images for the wiki. I've tried poring through Webtoon's terms of use to find some answer about whether publicly posting such screenshotted images would be illegal, but there's no mention of daily pass, and the text is so dense it's hard for me to tell. (I want to say I'll take a second look at it sometime, but that's probably just going to go into my list of permanently-unfinished priorities. I doubt the physical copies would be a good alternative to screenshots, either.) Regardless, I don't want to take any chances with the law, or see however Webtoon would punish us on the chance they find our frightening screenshots. Thus, another top priority of mine is to add more images and complete more galleries before CPC ends.

Oh, yeah, and that's barely even scratching the surface! Here's more stuff we need to do, presented in an appealing (classic Mocha iykyk) bulleted list:

A major thing is filling in episode pages. Episodes 40-around 110 are basically blank - no synopsis, character list, summary, or extra information. This is the task that would likely be least burdened by the addition of daily pass, but in my opinion, it's still of the absolute highest priority.

Galleries, which display images of characters, locations, or episodes. While not generally that important, I do think it'd be a good idea to fill out mostly empty ones now - you know, since taking screenshots of CPC may become illegal in the future! Most characters have a good amount of images on their pages, thankfully (the pastel sisters have so many they were the first to get separate gallery pages); some, including Jack and Leland, have very few. Episode pages and locations often have way less, though those aren’t as important

Relationship sections for a number of characters. These involve write about characters’ relationships, though in a way that mainly describes their interactions throughout the episodes without expressing any specific opinions. Some major sections that need to be written/updated include Jamie and Leopold; Jolie and Nell; Leland and really everyone on his page but especially Jack; Jack and Lilyth; Suzanna and Lance/Lorena; the Plaid Princes with each other; and more! Many more!

History sections for a number of characters. In a similar vein to relationship sections, these just detail a character’s appearances in the story, as well as their past or other mentions of them. Examples of (mostly - Isolde's isn't fully updated yet) completed history sections include Whitney’s, Isolde’s, and Monika’s! Examples of incomplete sections include virtually everyone else’s.

You might be wondering why I, a wiki admin (in case I haven't said it enough) am not doing any of these things! That’s because I'm neglectful and pretty bad at my job. I will not sugarcoat that part anymore. As much as I love the wiki (it's where I met my best friend after all, and while I'm writing this they just went offline so he can get fucked /j) I don't have motivation to work on it very often. Really, I don't have motivation to work on much nowadays! Ama's been doing the virtually thankless job of keeping the wiki up for the past couple months, and I've been mostly absent. The wiki is only remotely as active as cpcblr because of her. I feel terrible about it, but I'd rather be writing this 9-paragraph cry for help than editing, so, uh... yeah this is a public apology to Ama. I am so sorry. I know this isn't very professional but I'm incapable of being professional about the wiki tbh

TL;DR: As CPC is ending soon, the impending threat of daily pass could take away the ability to look at episodes whenever you want, which would make wiki editing much harder. We seriously need editors to join us in finishing the wiki. Please at least consider helping us!! Any way you can is appreciated - even if you can only make very few edits, I'll be immensely grateful for your support :)

If you have any questions about anything wiki-related, contact me!! My Discord's at musicitself, and you can also always DM me on here! And here's an invite to our wiki Discord server, too!! Of course, you don't have to become a wiki editor to join, but (as was the point of this entire post) I would really really REALLY love if you did. Thank you so much for reading this long, and have a great day!

[karasbroken]

I've been back on the Unfamiliar Idioms bandwagon, I even started this post three weeks ago, and just didn't get it done. Luckily I'd left myself more of the next chapter of Bite the Dust than I'd thought, so once I opened the file, I wasn't starting from scratch. Isn't that the best feeling?

I've been thinking about getting John and Aeryn down onto a planet again. I think I want to set up a situation where he realizes how differently she thinks, that she barely cares about things like exploration and has little sense of things like aesthetic beauty.

There's just vast swaths of human experience that she can't relate to. She's utilitarian, and defensively active and productive, with an extremely limited idea of what there is to do in life other than train, serve, and occasionally blow off steam in prescribed ways. Having hobbies, just traveling for the fun of seeing new things, enjoying a sunset are all alien. And I think that's going to be more off-putting to both of them than whatever weird issues they're having figuring out how to hook up....

But anyway, here's a bunch of nonsense about John trying to talk Aeryn into detouring to visit a planet just for fun. They're in his module, using the Earth engines to burn off his rocket fuel, when he spots an interesting inhabited world she doesn't want to bother with.

Aeryn heard him sigh, and go silent again, and she thought he'd given up. But a micron later his hands intruded, sliding up her sides and along the backs of her arms, to squeeze just below the elbow on each side. "What are you doing?" Aeryn double-checked that she hadn't missed some errant indicator or other problem he was trying to correct. Then she realized that he was using his gentle grip to subtly tug the hamman-side control, altering their trajectory toward the planet. "Stop that," she snapped, stiffening her arms to prevent the manipulation. He slipped his hands up to her shoulders instead, turning his grip on the perpetually tight muscles there.

"We're already here. And we don't have to meet Moya for arns," he coaxed.

John had a tralk's knack with his hands, curse him. "There's no reason to change our plans, and Moya won't wait if we get in trouble." That was a lie, though, and her resolve to both refuse to land and avoid further entanglement with this human was melting faster than the knot his fingers had discovered.

“Come on, this is your last chance to show me that a big bad Peacekeeper pilot can handle atmospheric flight in my barbaric module with its chemical-fuel engine and lack of omni-directional thrusters. It’s going to be field-force manipulation and plasma propulsers from here on out.” His breath warmed the back of her neck, as he murmured faux seductively into her ear. “You ever landed a craft that couldn’t brake or hover?”

Taunting her was a cheap trick, and pretending to seduce her was worse. But frell it, it might be working. There really wasn't any reason to rush across the system, Moya had no timeline or destination. And suddenly, taking a trip down to the surface sounded exciting. She’d landed gliders and other craft without engines in both simulation and battle, but only for stealth purposes, or to practice emergency procedures for engine loss, and always in ships far more sophisticated and automated than the module.

Flying a rudimentary craft with forward propulsion alone into a deep well would be a unique challenge. No, hardly a challenge, if Crichton could do it, but a new experience at least. Doing a gravity landing in an unfamiliar craft was a risk, of course, but if necessary, John could take over most of the controls from the gunner's seat, and talk her through the rest. Plus they had the backup of the newly hetch-capable Leviathan drives, if something went wrong.

“You know how the others get when we have a delay," she said, feeling the tug of temptation, "especially for anything having to do with your module.” It was undeserved, in Aeryn’s opinion, but the rest of the crew had yet to grasp that John was quite talented for a tech and there might yet be some value in the wormholes he was intent on chasing with the thing.

"That sounds like a yes," he murmured into her ear with a smugness that would have instantly changed her mind if she wasn't distracted by the warmth of his palms she could feel even through the decom suit and the way his thumbs were sinking into the band of muscles on either side of her spine.

She tried to shrug away his hands, the module wobbling slightly under her unsteady steering, but he continued his assault. "I'm considering it. But only if we at least pick up some of their famous food cubes." They'd gone truly hungry only once since she arrived on Moya, but that had been enough to make Aeryn reflexively resupply at any opportunity.

“Deal!" he said, immediately letting go of her and sitting back again. "Who knows what else they might have. We could really use a few decks of cards. And I could look for vitamins, too, or at least see what they have for medical supplies. A bottle of azs-prihn that doesn't put me right to sleep would be nice. Do you have any money on you, or something we could trade?”

Aeryn didn't let herself miss his touch, focusing on how irritating he was being instead. The human was almost as bad as the Hynerian when it came to shopping, but she'd invited that, she supposed. “I have currency with me, but I didn't bring anything to barter with unless you want to trade this junk heap to their local archaeological foundation.”

"You said they were primitive, it might be the most advanced technology they've ever seen!"

"Not that backward. Rigel mentioned a space port where traders can land. They don't have any orbiting stations, though, and minimal satellites. Not even an orbital defense system."

"Well that's probably good for us, since the module doesn't have weapons. Satellites, though… Alien satellites! Can we find one? I'd love to see that." His enthusiasm for the most mundane of details was aggravating.

Aeryn craned her head around to peek at what she could through the small module window, but even at max ocular range she didn't spot anything. "Which of these controls activates sensors?"

"Sensors? The module has some basic sensors that track gravity, outside heat, radiation." He leaned an arm over her shoulder, pointing out the dials and small displays as he named them. "But nothing like what you probably mean. I can't find objects in space unless I'm about to run into them." He pulled his arm back, but rested his hand on her shoulder, still crowded close as if he could see more by being ten denches closer to the canopy.

Flying through space with minimal ability to identify objects in close planetary orbit? Humans were foolhardy, but they were brave.

That hand squeezed again suddenly. "Wait, why did you bring your money if you weren't planning to visit a commerce station?" he asked.

“I never leave anything valuable behind on Moya.” It was just common sense. Between Rigel's habit of appropriating whatever he could get his slimy paws on, and the fact that they'd already been stranded off-ship more than once without any resources, Aeryn had made a habit of filling her pockets and pouches with essentials before any outing.

"I'm going to make you an honorary boy scout," he said, whatever that meant. "That's great. We can stretch our legs, take a look around, find out why the oceans are purple, then hit the space port and bring home something nice for dinner."

"We don't even know if we can breathe down there, or if it's safe," Aeryn reminded him before John got too excited.

"But if it is… Moya's still resting, right? Just taking a cruise through this sector? We can use the hetch drive on the way back, and catch up. As long as we don't stay more than a few hours, no one will even notice we were gone."

"D'Argo was already upset about us going out in the module, especially after what happened the last time we left Moya."

“That wasn't our fault," he protested. "Besides, after almost dying in the cold of space, we deserve a little time on a nice warm planet. And if D'Argo doesn't like it, he can bite me!”

Aeryn assumed that meant something offensive but it was an amusing enough image that she couldn't help turning around enough to look at John's mouth.

“What!” he asked after a microt, still annoyed.

“For a species with such unimpressive dentition, you have a surprising number of sayings involving biting.”

“What?”

“Bite the bullet, bite the dust, bed bughs bite, bite me,” Aeryn enumerated.

“Oh that! Yeah, I guess we do. There's lots more, too. His barq is worse than his bite, bite your tongue, bite your head off, biting off more than you can chew…”

“I get the idea Crichton,” she tried to cut him off.

“Bite me in the eema, won't bite, have a bite, bite the hand that feeds you…”

Aeryn sighed and opened a channel to Pilot. If the module couldn't locate orbiting debris, it certainly didn’t have the necessary scanning arrays needed to determine if the planet had breathable air, let alone the gravity, atmospheric density, and geographic survey they’d need if they were actually going to set down on the ground. Preferably avoiding populated areas. Perhaps Leviathan-tech sensors should be Crichton’s next addition to his junk bucket. “Pilot, can you send me whatever information Moya can provide about the fourth planet in our current system?”

[lifeofroos]

Okay, since I saw a post about americanisation circulating again-

Another problem with everything becoming America is that we, as European countries, forget our own problems with racism in favour of those of the USA.

As an example, I will take my own university class in Interculturality and my classes as a whole. Because, without fail, these classes will have a segment on the systemic racism African-Americans face. In detail. Meanwhile, there will be a small bit on our own terrible history with Indonesia and maybe zwarte piet (something which gets discussed by the media for three months every year and at this point the whole country has an opinion on it).

But there are no mentions of Suriname. Barely anything about Indonesia that scratches the surface. Nothing about the current racism Maroccan immigrants face, or even the trouble with the mixing cultures. No mention of immigrants from China or Poland, nothing about the Molukkers. Not even any discussion on the caribeans, where we have some islands that are still part of the kingdom- by choice! That’s something interesting to discuss! Not even any mention about how we went to the USA and were not any better then the french or british there!

Instead of looking at our own problems, we get a detailed, in-depth look at problems that are more those of someone else’s country. Partly, this will be because our government is still being very uncomfortable about these issues (shame on them), partly it’s the univeristy’s fault for allowing American problems to become our problems instead of letting students look at the intercultural mixing ánd wrongdoings in their own country.

I am not saying we should completely scrap the problems of the USA from our curriculum- the USA is too all-consuming for that at the moment. But at the same time, BECAUSE it is so all-consuming, there should be focus on our own, domestic problems and victories when they want to give a class concerning interculturality.

[strongwomenunited]

Or you know the reason Shadow and Bone is getting the full court press from Netflix is because it's an adaptation of an *incredibly* well-known book series and isn't based on an early-90s indie comic the vast majority of people have never even heard of.

That might be so, but if you aren't well versed in the information that has come out from Warrior Nun, then you can't really talk about popularity. Especially when the Warrior Nun fandom spans the world. There is a reason that the SaveWarriorNun hashtag hit 10million tweets in three months. A feat that took the Lucifer fandom a year to achieve. So... Popularity is not the issue here.

From everything that has come out since Netflix cancelled Warrior Nun, Netflix had no intention of renewing it, and thus put ZERO promotion into it. Zero. I'd like to see how well shows like Shadow and Bone or Wednesday would have done had their cast not been paraded around like kings and queens.

Whether the original content is popular or not really means nothing. Especially when most shows veer off the original content. That is literally Warrior Nun. The only thing that is from the comic, is the halo. That's it. From what I've heard so far, people are already getting pissed about how the show is telling the story of Shadow and Bone. I mean Henry Cavill literally quit The Witcher show because it's not following the books.

So.... in my opinion, your argument isn't valid. It's just not. Not when Tiktok, Twitter, Tumblr, even Instagram is full of Warrior Nun content and Shadow and Bone is barely scratching the surface.

You do you. I'm not going to knock either show. I'm just talking facts. I love both shows, but that's just how it is.

[ivankahasbeentreatedsounfairly]

By David E. Sanger

President-elect Donald J. Trump’s final flurry of cabinet picks and other appointments rounded out what his aides described as a unified, loyal, MAGA-driven administration. But scratch the surface and there are at least three distinct factions and a range of ideologies, barely suppressed to get through the rigors of the confirmation process.

There is a revenge team, led by prospective nominees with instructions to rip apart the Justice Department, the intelligence agencies and the Defense Department, hunting down the so-called deep state and anyone who participated in the prosecutions of Mr. Trump.

There is a calm-the-markets team, which Mr. Trump hopes will be led by Scott Bessent, the Wall Street billionaire who Mr. Trump chose for Treasury secretary. Mr. Bessent can recite the MAGA lines about deregulation and lower taxes but would likely try to make sure Mr. Trump’s most extreme solutions, like inflation-inducing tariffs on foreign goods, do not end the post-election stock market surge.

And then there is a government shrinkage team, led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, whose goals are wildly ambitious, to put it mildly. They want to carve what Mr. Musk says will be “at least” $2 trillion from the annual federal budget, a figure that exceeds the annual cost of salaries for every federal employee. (For the record, the total federal budget in the 2024 fiscal year was $6.75 trillion.)

How these missions will mesh and where they will collide is one of the biggest unknowns of the incoming administration.

Diversity of ideology and opinion is usually seen as a strength, not a defect, of presidential cabinets. But if there is a surprise about Mr. Trump’s choices in recent days, it is the range of experiences and worldviews that in some cases lie just beneath a veneer of recently declared Make America Great Again loyalty — and loyalty to Mr. Trump himself. It is hard to imagine a few of his picks sitting comfortably at a Trump rally.

“There is more ideological diversity here than I expected,” Michael Beschloss, a presidential historian, noted on Saturday. “And if you look at this group in the context of history, there is some potential here for arguments and debates. If those debates are allowed to unfold in a civilized and open manner, history shows that such conflict has sometimes led to policies that worked.”

Even as the Republican Party has adopted the MAGA philosophy, it may have been unreasonable to expect that members of a Trump administration would all be cut from the same cloth.

“Consistency of ideology or anything else is the last thing we should expect in Trump’s nominees,” Chris Whipple, the author of “The Gatekeepers,” a book about White House chiefs of staff, said on Saturday. “That’s because there is no process in place to make these choices — it’s all according to the whim of the boss.”

Mr. Bessent made a late conversion to MAGA ideology. He seems to embrace Mr. Trump’s enthusiasm for tariffs, though in recent weeks he has noted that imposing them gradually — a nuance Mr. Trump has not discussed — is critical to avoiding economic shocks.

His identity as a gay, married father certainly clashes with the beliefs held by some of Mr. Trump’s evangelical and far-right-wing supporters. He told Yale’s alumni magazine in 2015 that “in a certain geographic region at a certain economic level, being gay is not an issue.” He added: “If you had told me in 1984, when we graduated, and people were dying of AIDS, that 30 years later I’d be legally married and we would have two children via surrogacy, I wouldn’t have believed you.”

But more jarring to some of the MAGA faithful may be the fact that Mr. Bessent raised money for the presidential run of a Democrat, Al Gore, in 2000. Or that a dozen years ago he was chief investment officer for Soros Fund Management, the $30 billion instrument of George Soros, the subject of scores of right-wing conspiracy theories. When listing Mr. Bessent’s many qualifications for the job, Mr. Trump left off the fact that he is considered among Mr. Soros’s most successful protégés.

The newly named pick for labor secretary, Representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer, also seems likely to straddle two camps. Ms. Chavez-DeRemer, an Oregon Republican who lost her seat in the House this month, often spoke of her father’s membership in the Teamsters and won the support of about 20 labor unions during her unsuccessful re-election bid.

As the G.O.P. moved quickly to solidify around Mr. Trump and promised to kill off government regulation, Ms. Chavez-DeRemer moved the other way. She was one of three Republicans who sponsored a 2023 bill that would have shielded workers seeking to organize union representation from retribution or firing, while giving new powers to the federal government to punish employers who violate workers’ rights.

It was not the only area where she saw more room for government intervention. “One of the things that transcends party is public safety,” Ms. Chavez-DeRemer said in an interview with The New York Times during her re-election bid. “People want to wake up in the morning, know that it’s safe to go to take their kids to school and drive on safe roads,” she added. “Those transcend party. Those are the kind of things I focus on.”

The news on Friday that she was named to head the Labor Department was hailed by the Teamsters and their president, Sean O’Brien. The A.F.L.-C.I.O. expressed wariness of Mr. Trump’s “anti-worker agenda” in a statement posted on social media, but conceded that “Lori Chavez-DeRemer has built a pro-labor record in Congress.”

One who does fit neatly into the mold of a Trump aide is Brooke Rollins, whom Mr. Trump named on Saturday as his choice for agriculture secretary. She served as domestic policy adviser in the first Trump administration, then became head of the America First Policy Institute, a sort of Trump government in waiting staffed with other former members of his administration.

Ms. Rollins’s organization has called for getting rid of civil-service protection for many federal employees, speeding gas and oil drilling on federal lands, and doing away with red-flag laws meant to keep guns from people who are deemed by a judge to be a danger to themselves or to others.

Then there is the national security team. Michael Waltz, the designee for national security adviser, was a strong advocate of sending more aid to Ukraine and doing whatever was necessary to push back the Russian invasion, until he voted against the $95 billion in additional aid to Ukraine in the spring.

His new deputy, Alex Wong, worked for Mitt Romney in 2012, part of a wing of the Republican Party that has never reconciled itself to Mr. Trump. But Mr. Wong worked at senior levels of the State Department on North Korea, helping to set up Mr. Trump’s two meetings with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader. That diplomatic high-wire act was rooted in Mr. Trump’s belief that a combination of personal diplomacy and economic lures would drive Mr. Kim to give up his arsenal of nuclear weapons.

The effort failed: The talks collapsed, and the North Korean leader today has a larger arsenal than he did before the meetings. Mr. Kim has insisted that he is done talking to Washington. In the intervening years, Mr. Wong has served as the chairman of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a congressionally appointed, bipartisan group studying the national security implications of America’s economic engagement with Beijing.

Such topics never had an airing during the campaign. Discussion of the complex economic, technological and military relationships with China was distilled by Mr. Trump to a declaration that tariffs would solve all problems. But his national security advisers clearly have a more nuanced view.

That leaves Mr. Musk, the world’s richest man and newest denizen of Mar-a-Lago, and Mr. Ramaswamy. They are supposed to head the “Department of Government Efficiency,” writing in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday that “the entrenched and ever-growing bureaucracy represents an existential threat to our republic.”

The department, or “DOGE” as Mr. Musk calls it in a nod to the cryptocurrency dogecoin, is not actually a department at all, but a group of volunteers. But the two men insist their future department will have a direct pipeline to the White House Office of Management and Budget that will look to cut regulations, cut head counts and cut budgets.

They promised to focus first on “$500 billion plus in annual federal expenditures that are unauthorized by Congress or being used in ways that Congress never intended,” including grants to international organizations or the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

(For perspective, the $535 million in federal funds to the public broadcasting group, which Mr. Trump’s supporters believe pays for liberally biased programming, would be a 0.026 percent down payment on Mr. Musk’s promised $2 trillion in cuts. Even eliminating the entire defense budget of the United States would not get him halfway to the goal.)

It remains to be seen how they will work with the Office of Management and Budget’s proposed head, Russell Vought. He was a major figure in Project 2025, which laid out a plan to rework the American government to enhance presidential power by tearing down and rebuilding executive branch institutions.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/24/us/politics/trump-cabinet-america-first.html

[agent-cupcake]

Okay but hear me out: Claude only this time with more narrative points relating to the fact that his issues are stated a few times but then it’s not resolved or touched on again and overall relatively unimportant to the story 

There’s already all the pieces available, right? People who are taught (or forced) at a young age to be emotionally private, especially ones who are also forced into situations where they have to be very self reliant and smart, usually don’t unlearn that mentality very easily. Especially someone like Claude who was basically cast out from having connections with people and lived on the outside looking in. Add on to that his inclination for observing and understanding people and natural suspicion and it honestly seems a bit strange how well adjusted he is without ever having these issues actually addressed. However, don’t get me wrong! There are a lot of parts that I feel were done very well to convey this sense that he is either unwilling or incapable of facilitating this sort of bond with people, and his superficial charm, constant misdirection, and almost calculated display of emotions in White Clouds did a lot to sell the type of character Claude is meant to be. I loved seeing his perspective on Byleth shift so dramatically in the first part, and the sensation that Byleth was one of the first people he was truly able to connect with in such a way was pretty believable. 

BUT post time skip I didn’t get any feeling like that at all. Claude felt like a side kick to his own story, returning with all of the genuine affection he displayed before the final battle as if his feelings hadn’t changed at all and he had somehow became a well adjusted person. There’s no need for any sort of narrative resolution because he’s fine. Perfect, really. The most perfect. But... In the five year skip nearly all of Claude’s driving motives are put on hold (and even threatened to be lost for good), his bestie Byleth is gone, and he gets tossed into a situation where he has to keep hold of a bunch of conflicting nobles during a war begun by someone he was decently close with using ideals he somewhat understands... Which is like having a front row seat to the worst parts of humanity. 

What reason would he have for not returning to the safety of complete emotional isolation and distancing himself again from other people in order to keep a good tactical understanding of the politics surrounding him and the Alliance in check? I understand, game wise, why it wouldn’t work out for Claude to change super dramatically in the five years, but it is kinda frustrating to me that he’s so static. There are some hints of this in support convos, but nothing that affects the game otherwise. I think it would have been interesting that post timeskip Claude was more conflicted with his outsider identity vs his identity with the Golden Deer. Like... maybe it wouldn’t be an issue of him not trusting Byleth and his friends, but it’s not something he takes into consideration, or he goes about it with a ‘it’s better if I handle it myself’ mentality because for most of his life, he has been pretty much independent. Maybe a scene where he takes a risk without telling anyone first in a relatively high stakes scenario and it goes poorly, forcing Claude to confront the fact that he is, in fact, no longer an outsider and actually has a place of belonging and emotional responsibility. Considering how absurdly anime some of his cut scenes are, a theme more centered around the power of friendship seems pretty on brand.

Going back to my with my issues of Claude being so well adjusted, while I understand the desire to have a good and pure hearted golden boy, it’s a lot less satisfying when Claude’s overt goodness is never questioned by the story. A whole big thing about war is that a lot of times there are no right answers, and even though he’s a good person, the best choice can sometimes be the one that will weigh the heaviest. How would Claude would handle that? For the most part, bad things just happen to him, but what if there was an opportunity for him to achieve a win or to further his goals, but it came at a great risk? Say that, under these circumstances, Claude did something that was not entirely morally sound. He’s still a good person, his goal is literally to fight racism, but he made a choice where he thought the ends justified the means. OR, what if he didn’t choose to take the risk and in opting out of making such a hard choice, it leads to even greater tragedy? Characters talk about how smart he is all the time, so I imagine this type of easily answered question with such high moral stakes would be the perfect way to reveal deeper pieces of his character. The game is so easy on Claude, he’s allowed to have the high moral ground because the story never challenges him. 

TL;DR I love Claude von Riegan with my entire heart and I want nothing more than to see his character explored further because I think he deserves it. Also, it’s like one thirty and I haven’t slept more than like eight hours so this is probably incoherent. 

[sylvielauffeydottir]

Hello, it is I, your friendly neighborhood historian. I am ready to lose followers for this post, but I have two masters degrees in history and one of my focuses has been middle eastern area studies. Furthermore, I’ve been tired of watching the world be reduced to pithy little infographics, and I believe there is no point to my education if I don’t put it to good use. Finally, I am ethnically Asheknazi Jewish. This does not color my opinion in this post — I am in support of either a one or two state solution for Israel and Palestine, depending on the factors determined by the Palestinian Authority, and the Israeli Government does not speak for me. I hate Netanyahu. A lot. With that said, my family was slaughtered at Auschwitz-Birkenau. I have stood in front of that memorial wall at the Holocaust memorial in DC for my great uncle Simon and my great uncle Louis and cried as I lit a candle. Louis was a rabbi, and he preached mitzvot and tolerance. He died anyway. 

There’s a great many things I want to say about what is happening in the Middle East right now, but let’s start with some facts. 

In early May, there were talks of a coalition government that might have put together (among other parties, the Knesset is absolutely gigantic and usually has about 11-13 political parties at once) the Yesh Atid, a center-left party, and the United Arab List, a Palestinian party. For the first time, Palestinians would have been members of the Israeli government in their own right. And what happened, all of the sudden? A war broke out. A war that, amazingly, seemed to shield Benjamin Netanyahu from criminal prosecution, despite the fact that he has been under investigation for corruption for some time now and the only thing that is stopping a real investigation is the fact that he is Prime Minister.

Funny how that happened. 

There’s a second thing people ought to know, and it is about Hamas. I’ve found it really disturbing to see people defending Hamas on a world stage because, whether or not people want to believe it, Hamas is a terrorist organization. I’m sorry, but it is. Those are the facts. I’m not being a right wing extremist or even a Republican or whatever else or want to lob at me here. I’m a liberal historian with some facts. They are a terrorist organization, and they don’t care if their people die. 

Here’s what you need to know: 

There are two governments for the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza. In April 2021, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas postponed planned elections. He said it was because of a dispute amid Israeli-annexed East Jerusalum. He is 85 years old, and his Fatah Party is losing power to Hamas. Everyone knows that. Palestinians know that. 

Here’s the thing about Hamas: they might be terrorists, but aren’t idiots. They understand that they have a frustrated population filled with people who have been brutalized by their neighbors. And they also understand that Israel has something called the iron dome defense system, which means that if you throw a rocket at it, it probably won’t kill anyone (though there have been people in Israel who died, including Holocaust survivors). Israel will, however, retaliate, and when they do, they will kill Palestinian civilians. On a world stage, this looks horrible. The death toll, because Palestinians don’t have the same defense system, is always skewed. Should the Israeli government do that? No. It’s morally repugnant. It’s wrong. It’s unfair. It’s hurting people without the capability to defend themselves. But is Hamas counting on them to for the propaganda? Yeah. Absolutely. They’re literally willing to kill their other people for it.

You know why this works for Hamas? They know that Israel will respond anyway, despite the moral concerns. And if you’re curious why, you can read some books on the matter (Six Days of War by Michael Oren; The Yom Kippur War by Abraham Rabinovich; Rise and Kill First by Ronen Bergmen; Antisemitism by Deborah Lipstadt; and Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn by Daniel Gordis). The TL;DR, if you aren’t interested in homework, is that Israel believes they have no choice but to defend themselves against what they consider ‘hostile powers.’ And it’s almost entirely to do with the Holocaust. It’s a little David v Goliath. It is, dare I say, complicated.

I’m barely scratching the surface here. 

(We won’t get into this in this post, though if you want to DM me for details, it might be worth knowing that Iran funds Hamas and basically supplies them with all of their weapons, and part of the reason the United States has been so reluctant to engage with this conflict is that Iran is currently in Vienna trying to restore its nuclear deal with western powers. The USA cannot afford to piss off Iran right now, and therefore cannot afford to aggravative Hamas and also needs to rely on Israel to destroy Irani nuclear facilities if the deal goes south. So, you know, there is that).

There are some people who will tell you that criticism of the Israel government is antisemitic. They are almost entirely members of the right wing, evangelical community, and they don’t speak for the Jewish community. The majority of Jewish people and Jewish Americans in particular are criticizing the Israeli government right now. The majority of Jewish people in the diaspora and in Israel support Palestinian rights and are speaking out about it. And actually, when they talk about it, they are putting themselves in great danger to do so. Because it really isn’t safe to be visibly Jewish right now. People may not want to listen to Jews when they speak about antisemitism or may want to believe that antisemitism ‘isn’t real’ because ‘the Holocaust is over’ but that is absolutely untrue. In 2019, antisemitic hate crimes in the United States reached a high we have never seen before. I remember that, because I was living in London, and I was super scared for my family at the time. Since then, that number has increased by nearly 400% in the last ten days. If you don’t believe me, have some articles about it (one, two, three, four, and five, to name a few). 

I live in New York City, where a man was beaten in Time Square while attending a Free Palestine rally and wearing a kippah. I’m sorry, but being visibly Jewish near a pro-Palestine rally? That was enough to have a bunch of people just start beating on him? I made a previous post detailing how there are Jews being attacked all over the world, and there is a very good timeline of recent hate crimes against Jews that you can find right here. These are Jews, by the way, who have nothing to do with Israel or Palestine. They are Americans or Europeans or Canadians who are living their lives. In some cases, they are at pro-Palestine rallies and they are trying to help, but they just look visibly Jewish.  God Forbid we are the wrong ethnicity for your rally, even if we agree.

This is really serious. There are people calling for the death of all Jews. There are people calling for another Holocaust. 

There are 14 million Jews in the world. 14 million. Of 7.6 billion. And you think it isn’t a problem the way people treat us?

Anyway (aside from, you know, compassion), why does this matter? This matters because stuff like this deters Jews who want to be part of the pro-Palestine movement because they are literally scared for their safety. I said this before, and I will say it again: Zionism was, historically speaking, a very unpopular opinion. It was only widespread antisemitic violence (you know, the Holocaust) that made Jews believe there was a necessity for a Jewish state. Honestly, it wasn’t until the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting that I supported it the abstract idea too.

I grew up in New York City, I am a liberal Jew, and I believe in the rights of marginalized and oppressed people to self-determine worldwide. Growing up, I also fit the profile of what many scholars describe as the self hating Jew, because I believed that, in order to justify myself in American liberal society, I had to hate Israel, and I had to be anti-Zionist by default, even if I didn’t always understand what ‘Zionism’ meant in abstract. Well, I am 27 years old now with two masters degrees in history, and here is what Zionism means to me: I hate the Israeli government. They do not speak for me. But I am not anti-Zionist. I believe in the necessity for a Jewish state — a state where all Jews are welcome, regardless of their background, regardless of their nationality. 

There needs to be a place where Jews, an ethnic minority who are unwelcome in nearly every state in the world, have a place where they are free from persecution — a place where they feel protected. And I don’t think there is anything wrong with that place being the place where Jews are ethnically indigenous to. Because believe it or not, whether it is inconvenient, Jews are indigenous to the land of Israel. I’ve addressed this in this post.

With that said, that doesn’t mean you can kick the Palestinian people out. They are also indigenous to that land, which is addressed in the same post, if you don’t trust me. 

What is incredible to me is that Zionism is defined, by the Oxford English Dixtionary, as “A movement [that called originally for] the reestablishment of a Jewish nationhood in Palestine, and [since 1948] the development of the State of Israel.” Whether we agree with this or not, there were early disagreements about the location of a ‘Jewish state,’ and some, like Maurice de Hirsch, believed it ought to be located in South America, for example. Others believed it should be located in Africa. The point is that the original plans for the Jewish state were about safety. The plan changed because Jews wanted to return to their homeland, the largest project of decolonization and indigenous reclamation ever to be undertaken by an indigenous group. Whether you want to hear that or not, it is true. Read a book or two. Then you might know what I mean.

When people say this is a complicated issue, they aren’t being facetious. They aren’t trying to obfuscate the point. They often aren’t even trying to defend the Israeli government, because I certainly am not — I think they are abhorrent. But there is no future in the Middle East if the Israelis and Palestinians don’t form a state that has an equal right of return and recognizes both of their indigenousness, and that will never happen if people can’t stop throwing vitriolic rhetoric around.  Is the Israeli Government bad? Yes. Are Israeli citizens bad? Largely, no. They want to defend their families, and they want to defend their people. This is basically the same as the fact that Palestinian people aren’t bad, though Hamas often is. And for the love of god, stop defending terrorist organizations. Just stop. They kill their own people for their own power and for their own benefit. 

And yes, one more time, the Israeli government is so, so, so wrong. But god, think about your words, and think about how you are enabling Nazis. The rhetoric the left is using is hurting Jews. I am afraid to leave my house. I’m afraid to identify as Jewish on tumblr. I’m afraid for my family, afraid for my friends. People I know are afraid for me. 

It’s 2021. I am not my great uncle. I cried for him, but I shouldn’t have to die like him. 

Words have consequences. Language has consequences. And genuinely, I do not think everyone is a bad person, so think about what you are putting into the world, because you’d be surprised how often you are doing a Nazi a favor or two. 

Is that really what you want? To do a Nazi a favor or two? I don’t think that you do. I hope you don’t, at least.

That’s all. You know, five thousand words later. But uh, think a little. Please. 

[strawwritesfic]

Oh My Dear Master List

Summary: For [F Name] [L Name], Manhattan was nothing but a hellhole. She got out and wasn’t ever coming back. When a set of cut-rate superheroes tears the city apart, however, her grandmother sucks her back into that familiar life of loneliness and angry customers. Even worse, one of those superheroes has decided to use [Name] in another crazy plan to “help” his best friend. Unfortunately for everyone involved, Tony’s plan just might work-if only for a few months.

Challenge:  “#1 AVENGERS ULTIMATE CHALLENGE!!!!“ by DancingBubbles on Lunaescence Archives.

Ratings/Warnings/Tags: T (foul language; sexual references; manipulative friends who won’t take no for an answer; dead parents; difficult relationships with family members; some language that might border on verbal abuse from a family member; angst; contrived coincidences; a generally unresearched depiction of paraplegia; set post-Avengers (2012) and pre-Age of Ultron; Tony & Bruce friendship)

Pairings: Bruce Banner/Female!Reader; Tony Stark/Pepper Potts; Past!Bruce Banner/Betty Ross

Notes: This is my very first (and thus far admittedly only) completed novel-length fan fiction. As a result, it is, in my humble opinion, not great. It’s not quite to Old Shame levels, because I’ve definitely written worse...*casually shoves Digimon 02 OC fan fic written in high school into a dark room* I’m pleased to have completed something, however, so I continue to tote it around with me from site to site. The style is simply very bare bones compared to my current writing style. Also, while I did do research for some things, there’s a lot left that, if I were to write this story from scratch today, I would spend more time researching (or things I would research, period, that I didn’t at the time).

This has been edited for basic grammar and spelling and paragraph formatting and a handful of quick fixes to the more egregious plot holes in the past year. I’m sure there are still mistakes. As always, you are welcome to make me aware of any that you find.

I was actually asked to answer this challenge. The only two requirements (well, for the most part) were that it be a certain amount of chapters (20, if I recall correctly), and that the reader be a civilian. I’m happy to report that I won…but there was only one other entry that didn’t even meet the requirements, so it’s not really something to brag about.

Posting Status: Complete

Chapter 1: Meet Cute

Chapter 2: The World for a Coconut

Chapter 3: What Else Is New?

Chapter 4: With Friends Like These

Chapter 5: Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Wrong Life

Chapter 6: Blind Date

Chapter 7: Dead on Arrival

Chapter 8: Second Time’s the Charm

Chapter 9: From a Different Point of View

Chapter 10: Just Who’s in Charge Here?

Chapter 11: An Ass By Any Other Name

Chapter 12: Two Steps Forward, Three Steps Back

Chapter 13: Can’t Keep Your Demons in a Bottle

Chapter 14: Regrets? I’ve Had a Few

Chapter 15: Ghosts of the Past

Chapter 16: Baby Steps

Chapter 17: Just Beneath the Surface

Chapter 18: Skeletons Live in More Than Closets

Chapter 19: It’s Never Pretty

Chapter 20: Breakdown

Chapter 21: “Luck” Is Not the Right Word

Chapter 22: True Beauty Is on the Inside

Chapter 23: Let’s Just Get This Over With

Chapter 24: NDA

Chapter 25: Beautiful Things

Epilogue

[ashe-delta]

These thoughts are very disconnected (and why this isn't some big official post), it's mostly just things I've been lobbing up into the air, thinking about the genre, and this potential project of mine.

The pieces I mentioned by name are arguably not even great at what they try to accomplish*, but the fact that they tried, and told a story about this one, gendered topic, while others ran from it, is honestly rather impressive in it's own right. You'd be surprised how authors can get 100 chapters out of a gender bender, but when you look in the genre, and the actual stories transgender people will tell about their transition, you realize it's barely even scratching the surface of the potential stories you can have.

IDK. Everyone, even cisgender people, have questions about gender, and while the genre doesn't set realistic expectations (and it's not supposed to), it does attempt to comedically answer some of them in a safe environment. When I was a dumb egg, the genre helped me parse some questions of my own, not by answering them, but by rallying them back at me, making me think deeper about what I actually wanted. Downplaying it as some pervy whatever genre does a disservice for what it actually is.

*Onimai is okay, although the anime went a bit heavy on the fan service. I hate how much I enjoyed Tensei Pandemic. Boku Girl is annoying heteronormative. These are all personal opinions and frankly don't matter. It's also been well over a year since I read all three of these.

Honestly, I thought writing a piece of gender bending in anime and manga would be too narrow of a field of media, but really looking into it, you don't really get entire stories dedicated to simply gender in the west. There are obvious outliers, but for the most part gender bending stories in the west are one off episodes, "what if" scenarios, what have you. Anime and manga are really the only medium where it's the whole point of the story.

[gothedrals]

Would you give recs? (Same anon) I know like all their popular songs and like the whole of the night at the opera album. One song I can't do is don't stop me now (sport associated trauma) but I'd love to know where to start at least

okay SO

this might be an unpopular opinion but if you don’t know where to start there’s no shame in starting with the greatest hits! that’s how I started :) I know you said you already know the popular songs but I recommend the platinum collection if you haven’t listened to at least like 2/3 of it already. it’s a compilation of all three of their greatest hits albums, so it has the really popular songs plus other singles that are slightly lesser-known but still important. it’s a good way to get a sense of queen’s range if their discography seems overwhelming. and if you really like one song off the platinum collection, that might point you toward which album you want to listen to next.

if you want to dig right into albums instead:

- queen ii is a masterpiece that I can’t believe is only their second album. some of their most layered, extravagant work. it’s my favorite after a night at the opera

- a day at the races is like a night at the opera’s younger sister. so many of my favorite queen songs are on it, so if you liked anato I’d give adatr a go

- I much prefer 70s queen but the game is my favorite 80s queen album. it’s the first album they broke their “no synths” rule for, so you if you want to branch out from the 70s stuff I’d start here

if you just want individual song recs here are some of my favorites you may not have heard already:

- dreamer’s ball

- it’s late

- the millionaire waltz

- long away

- hammer to fall

- scandal

- the march of the black queen

- dragon attack

- rain must fall

- brighton rock

- ride the wild wind

this feels like so much even tho it’s barely scratching the surface. but fr their discography is so fun to explore and I hope you find something you like!!

[thoughts-on-bangtan]

Memories of 2020 - A first look into all the content (OT7 as well as vmin and namjin)

As promised here’s my second post in which I just want us to have a look at some of the amazing content Memories of 2020 has in store for us. If you don’t want spoilers while you wait for your DVD (though I don’t know how anyone can hide from all the pictures and videos being posted everywhere) this post isn’t for you. If you want to have a look, than it’s very much for you. Truly there is so, so much here and everything I mention just scratches at the surface of it all. There’s more than eleven hours to go through after all!

From anon: Good luck for all the incoming questions regarding j*k*ok and their moment in memories - I think you know which one! I for one am enjoying all of the content and the love that each member has for the other, including vmin ofc. My favorite moment so far is definitely vmin kissing namjoon though - excited to hear about y'all's favorite moments :)

As I mentioned in my previous post, no worries anon, we barely got any and I already gave my opinion. As for our favorite moments, some of them are listed here along with other fun things, though I’ll admit, that forehead kiss was just so, so adorable. I mean, what other way is there to celebrate Namjoon’s birthday if not by kissing his forehead and squishing his cheeks?

One of the first things for the year were their practices for ON and Black Swan with the LAB dancers. We got a wider shot of Jimin helping Tae stretch, which we also previously got in their IG story last year, as well as Tae cutely asking Jimin to teach him how to do the cartwheel.

Furthermore we also saw Jimin practice his Black Swan solo dance which, what a surprise (not really), Tae was present for and (by the look of it) was filming him to show him later how it looks. I wonder if this was around the time when Tae wrote on weverse that Black Swan=Jimin. 

Then when filming the ON MV we got to see vmin dancing, the full version of what we originally saw in the teaser and contrary to what anons tried to suggest, as in that Tae wanted to remove Jimin’s hand, it was actually him moving Jimin’s hand so he could twirl him around and continue the dance further. Afterward Tae also repeats the dance with the little girl that starred in the MV alongside him so I wonder if this is when Tae introduced Jimin to her.

A lot more below the cut:

Then we saw some more of vmin being adorable at that one MOTS7 interview in NYC whereafter Jimin led Tae down the stairs while JK was behind them asking Tae if he was crying. The context here being that Tae was “sulking” because he didn’t get a chance to say the answers he’d prepared in English so, once downstairs, Jimin along with JK and Hobi (who was filming him much the way he did at the Grammys when a similar situation happened) encouraged him to at least show them his answers while Tae pretend cried and sulked some more.

Speaking of MOTS7, we also got some more behind the scenes of the jacket photoshoots which included vmin as dark angels and Jimin charming Tae while he was speaking, namjin making jokes about darks/ducks, and Tae and Seokjin looking stunning but we have an entire Bangtan Episode for that so I’ll save including a visual for this so I can include more pictures of other things instead. I hope you don’t mind.

We also had Jimin visiting Hobi and Yoongi on the sets of Interlude: Shadow and Outro: Ego which, judging by Jimin’s outfit, might’ve been filmed at the same time? Which, to be honest, makes a lot of sense. But the reactions were so different, as in Hobi was so happy and bubbly when Jimin came while Jimin “complained” that Yoongi barely even paid attention to the fact that he came. Their different dynamics are just so cute and interesting.

We also got so, so much content from the Daechwita MV filming, including a video of JK petting a chicken to the point that the chicken fell asleep. JK and animals, a very precious concept. Honestly I love this MV (the visuals are unreal) and the song so I’m glad we got to see more of the behind the scenes.

We also got plenty of Dynamite dance practice shenanigans like this:

Since we’re on the topic of dance practice, one thing that truly impressed me was Jimin’s core strength which we got a presentation of via him doing a headstand, as well as some gymnastics type looking something with JKs help. The control and strength he needed in order to lift himself up like that? Insane. Especially since he also lowered himself back down again in a controlled manner as well which makes it even more impressive. These men are so athletic, wow.

One of the moments I loved the most because it’s so meaningful and genuine is this one where they were filming their AMA performance and it was also the day of Tae’s grandma’s 70th birthday so, like the good boy he is, he decided to call/FaceTime her and Jimin joined him. From what I’ve seen Jimin used language showing that he’s familiar with her and it’s cute how natural this moment looks, like of course Jimin is there with Tae wishing his grandma a happy birthday. To be fair Seokjin also comes by and calls out a happy birthday but walks away just as quickly leaving just the two of them behind. Adorable.

Some more fun, random and cute stuff includes, but very much isn’t limited to, all of this:

Side note - Hobi singing You are my soulmate while vmin were practicing their Chingu performance? It really is his favorite song.

Honestly all the Seokjin and JK, as well as Hobi and JK content is so adorable and fun and there is so, so, so much more of it to be found and enjoyed than what I managed to include here. I’m glad we got to see so much more of their interactions across Memories of 2020 especially since they are the kinds of bonds that don’t get nearly enough attention most of the time which is a shame.

There were quite a few things included from their Esquire photoshoots but this moment with Namjoon, Tae and Hobi is just...wow. Love it. It’s one of my favorite moments and now also one of my favorite pictures of those three together. The fact that Tae was wearing a crop top for his solo pictures yet we didn’t get to see it (properly)? Wow.

From anon: Why is there so little Namjin in the memories of 2020 😞 I’ve seen so much from all the other pairings. It’s made me sad.

I don’t know who lied to you, dear anon, or who hid all the good stuff from you but rest assured we got plenty of wonderful namjin content, and this likely isn’t even all of it. 

Does Seokjin’s sweater say RM in hangul? Yes, it very much does. And is that Namjoon trying to stop Seokjin from walking away? Yes indeed. Much to think about.

And that’s about all I’m able to include without tumblr telling me I’m just doing too much. Like I said this is just basically a glimpse at all the content so everyone who ordered the Memories of 2020 DVD, there is plenty more for you to look forward to. Once I’ll be able to watch the full thing, I’m sure I’ll make more posts and if there’s something you’d like me to talk about or a moment you particularly enjoyed, let me know.

[kakerutori]

I feel like I see this discourse often and it never fails to amaze me how heated some non-Byler shippers get. I second all that’s said above, by the way. Great thoughts.

I think that what makes this problem so big in the Stranger Things fandom is exactly what op said: Stranger Things is big. Sure, it’s got humble origins, but it’s part of an internationally popular streaming service. A lot of people who had the service were obviously interested, watched, and enjoyed. Yes, it’s not a direct product of Netflix, but Netflix took in the show pitch, and now it’s a red-letter sealed Netflix exclusive.

Still, at the heart of the series, it’s a product of the Duffer brothers. And it shows. In the writing, the characters depth, the sprinkled in homages to the 80s, the set and clothing designs, the attention to detail, everything. It’s a passion project that hits all the right notes and can capture anyone, young and old. It’s a thriller, yeah, but also a mystery, romance, drama, comedy, action, commentary piece - and I don’t think I even named all the interwoven genres, those are just the ones off the top of my head! And above all, once again, it has a wide and well-done (at least in my opinion) set of characters to love. Each one brings something interesting to the table while progressing the story appropriately, and that kind of writing sticks with people - lots of people with lots of different opinions.

I think of the many beauties of Stranger Things like organizing a bookshelf. How would you label it best? 80s? Horror? Thriller? Teen? Young adult? Fantasy? Drama? It covers so many bases extensively and it has something to create a strong hook for everyone if not just a good story. So that’s where the core of this lies: this audience is as wide as the galaxies.

Thus, discourse. Some good, some bad, some informed, some unsure, some passionate, some casual, this fandom is nuts. I don’t have proper statistics on this, but I feel like the Stranger Things fandom probably has a very varied demographic as opposed to some things that attract a specific demographic. When I think of most TV shows, I think of maybe three words, just like Netflix does for their quick descriptors for their content. They got their teen swoon-worthy romances. Their exciting and mystifying thrillers. Their kid-friendly educational programs, and I think that a lot of that content lives up to those descriptors pretty faithfully. But Stranger Things as a “sci-fi” “teen” TV show? That barely even scratches the surface of what this show is.

Basically, yeah, in the midst of this gigantically layered fandom, you’re gonna get some absolutely awful takes. I’m being wary of saying “awful people” because I don’t want to be rude, but it truly does get homophobic in this space sometimes, and it sucks that it happens. It sucks that some people don’t understand what it’s like to feel different. What it’s like to be an outcast. And I’m not saying that people are necessarily in the wrong if they don’t feel outcasted or different in anything, but it’s the unfortunate inability to empathize that makes leveling with others in this fandom difficult sometimes.

Also, some people just aren’t nerds. Like so many other big franchises, some people will buy a shirt with a funny reference and be done while others literally cannot stop thinking about the thing and want everything to do with it. How do I know this? It’s my experience with my mom. She likes Stranger Things and she’s willingly and happily watched it probably about 6-7 times with me, now, but she doesn’t think about it all the time whereas I do. She didn’t write a 50+ page analysis Google doc while rewatching whereas I did. And I think that the difference in fixations causes very different perspectives of the same thing. And while me saying that I’m a nerd can be a little tangential, I think that it plays a very interesting role in the Stranger Things fandom because our main cast consists of plenty of declarative, canonical, and affable “nerds.” Hell, it’s what the writers call the general fandom! It’s never “_____, dear Stranger Things fans,” it’s -

This show was made for the love of nerds. But yes, you don’t have to be an actual nerd to love it. Again with all the genres and characters and great, great things this show has to offer, you don’t have to be a nerd to love it, and I don’t expect it to be constrained to that grouping. But it holds a very sweet spot for the nerds, and maybe that’s just my bias as a nerd myself, but I like to think of this show as a big puzzle, a riddle, a Rubik’s cube to my inner nerd who loves to look at things over and over and extract all the wonderful information I can. It’s for my enjoyment and makes the show all the more fun to watch.

So all that is to say, about seven paragraphs later without even addressing the main point, some people are not going to looking at Byler and get it. Because doing so is not a part of the big picture, not on the clear romance label, not a thing to be embraced unless you also empathize with being for the love of nerds.

And that’s okay. It’s okay.

So just… goddamn. I recently got a string of comments from the same person who argued in multiple comment threads under a TikTok analysis video of mine who just plainly and clearly didn’t like Byler and made it everyone’s problem. It’s okay to not like or understand Byler, but to make it someone else’s problem is just convoluted and exhausting. I’m not here to fight, I’m here to have fun. I adore this show and how it was made, and this ship is my highlight. I’m not here to prove that it’s good, I’m here to love it and praise it because I think that it’s good.

When someone starts blaming or defending or hating, I’m lost, because what do you love? The tangibility of the show? Or the tangibility of the discourse? And this comes up so much with Byler because we’re delusional. We’re stupid. We’re obviously not correct on who’s endgame and Will is going to find another man and grow up as will all of us grow up and say, “wow, we were wrong this whole time! What a waste!” I don’t love Byler because I love gay ships. I don’t love Byler because I hate Mileven. I don’t love Byler because I think that they’re endgame. I don’t love Byler because it’s funny to argue with those who don’t like Byler. I don’t love Byler because I’m stupid and need to be corrected.

I love Byler because they feel real and deep and genuine to me, and everything else flows from that.

It saddens me knowing that this is not how some people view Byler shippers. We’re all just losing this war and we’re not canon and we’re literally queer and on and on and on. I’m not aiming my weapon. This doesn’t have to be war. I’m celebrating something I love and extending my hand out to all who care to join me. My invitation is public as I reside in public social media spaces, but I don’t need to reach everyone. I just want to share what I enjoy.

byler hate is such an interesting thing to me genuinely. in fandom, it’s rare for a gay ship to be so hated. but then again, this show’s audience is very, very big. you get a little of everything… then you got reddit.

like i get not liking a certain ship for whatever reason, that’s valid. but going to lengths to-

- say it makes no sense

- erase canon events and information/editing screencaps

- ignoring obvious microexpressions that you know you would notice if it were straight

- treating shippers like they’re predators (not like this is anything new for queer people lol)

- calling people delusional for being analytical of a fictional narrative… as if analyzing media hasn’t been part of the education system since forever.

- say it’s only there to be ‘woke’ or fanservice when the only confirmed fanservice ship was mileven

- make excuses that it’s because they hate noah but they were hating on it anyways prior

- calling will a faggot so casually. it’s insane that this mostly comes from queer people too. sounds like pure projection to me idk

but yeah other than that this all sounds like a pretty normal reaction to a potiential gay relationship in a tv show what do yall think🤔

[amyscascadingtabs]

give you my wild, give you a child

"stupid numbers, think they’re so great. i'd love to see numbers give you a baby."

inspired by that one line in 8x08 renewal, because he really did give her a baby.

read on ao3

It's been three days and Amy can't stop crying.

 Sometimes she thinks it's stopped, that she'll finally have a stable moment to talk to her husband or eat a meal in peace or facetime some of the twenty or so relatives on her list, but it feels like it’s never more than minutes before her emotions swim to surface again and something new brings out the vibrating sobs that have seemed to characterize this day. As it turns out, even newly pregnant Amy has got nothing on three days postpartum Amy.

 That she cries about the big, life-changing things doesn’t surprise her. When she wakes up after a night of minimal sleep and sees Mac in the bedside crib next to her, she cries because she’s so grateful; that everything went well, that their baby is finally here and that he's perfect beyond words. Then she cries because she thinks about what could have happened if it hadn't gone well, because she gave birth in a makeshift birthing suite in a police precinct, and so many things could have gone wrong it’s a miracle nothing did. When she gets out of the shower, she cries seeing herself in the bathroom mirror, because she's proud of her body in a way she's never experienced before. Then she cries because she also barely recognizes the person staring back at her, still looking six months pregnant except with hospital underwear and nursing pads in her bra. When she has breakfast after feeding Mac and tries to read the newspaper, she cries because so many terrible things are happening in the world all the time, and she doesn’t know how she’s going to protect this child from a world that sometimes seems to be getting more and more cruel by the day. Then she cries out of guilt for feeling that way, because she’s supposed to be enjoying this baby bubble, and what kind of mother even is she for daring to think about anything but her baby right now?

  As the day goes on, however, her reasons for crying begin to feel increasingly ridiculous. She cries because she’s so relieved to be drinking regular coffee again, then because it doesn’t taste the same as decaf and she’s gotten so used to it that the caffeine tastes weird now. She cries because the coffee goes cold anyway when Mac begins to whimper and suck on his fingers in the way he seems to do whenever he’s hungry and she has to drop everything to feed him another time. She cries when Jake turns on the television and a commercial for diapers comes on, because she can’t believe they get to buy them now. Then she cries when Mac has finished eating because the red flannel she borrowed slash stole from Jake won’t button properly, and she realizes one of the buttons has gone in the wrong hole and she has to redo the whole thing. When Jake offers to help her with it, that makes her cry too, because the way he’s not laughing at her right now but patiently trying to solve her problems is making her feel so loved she doesn't know how to thank him.

  The thing that makes her cry most of all, though, is watching Jake and Mac together. She always knew that sight would drive her crazy, and it’s part of the reason she wanted to have kids with him so much in the first place, but not even in her most indulgent fantasies about their future could she have pictured this. As grateful as she is over the fact that she gets to be a mom, getting to see Jake be a dad is a close second. He loves their son so much, and Mac so clearly loves him too, and Amy has to remind herself of the nine months she's spent carrying this child by herself in order not to feel jealous when Mac stops fussing the moment Jake picks him up. He looks so tiny when Jake holds him, the back of his head fitting perfectly in Jake's palm, and the care with which he’s handling him keeps making her emotional. He's always talking to him, sometimes whispers she can't hear and sometimes praise for her which she can, and that makes her cry too. He even chats to him when he changes his diapers, which Amy hides behind the door frame just so she can hear, failing to stifle a giggle when he asks in a fake interrogation voice what Mac has to say to his defense for making such a mess. He wakes up with her in the middle of the night when she has to breastfeed to get her endless glasses of water and granola bars when it makes her feel starving, and then he lets Mac burp him in the face and spit up on the back of his shirt before he falls back asleep curled up on his chest. He leans his chin on the top of Mac’s head to smell that perfect baby scent, running his finger over those cute neck rolls, and the smile on his face when he looks back at Amy makes her completely lose it, because this is what she dreamed of all along.

  This is what she imagined when they visited her brother Christian’s new baby shortly before they got married and Jake spent the better part of an hour making funny faces to the child in his arms. This is what she panicked over when he said he wasn't sure if he wanted kids, because she had always thought. This is what she thought of those nights after another timed round of unenthusiastic sex, trying to keep the hope alight until that single line would once more tell them not this time. She had felt it in his teary smile when she showed him that first positive test, in how hard he'd squeezed her hand at their first ultrasound when their baby’s heartbeat had filled the room, in the absolute joy on his face the first time he’d managed to put his hand on her stomach just in time to feel their son kick, and now it's right in front of her and almost too much for her heart to take.

 She's so tired, and she's sore and overwhelmed and worried about a billion different things, but she's never felt so grateful.

 That's what makes her cry floods at three a.m. when Mac seems to have finished eating and she comes back from the bathroom to find Jake still sitting up with him in bed, holding him with a hypnotised look on his face. He doesn’t even seem tired, even though he must be, is just looking at his son like he’s holding the entire world in his arms and doesn’t ever want to let go. She always knew seeing him with a baby would be incredible, those surprisingly toned biceps curling around a fragile little human and those heart eyes focused on one thing only, but maybe she hadn’t expected not being able to watch it without breaking into tears.

 “Jeez, Ames,” he says when he looks up, the expression on his face changing to one of concern. “Are you okay? Honestly?”

“Yeah,” she sniffles and dries her eyes again as she sits down on the bed. The skin on her cheeks is stinging at this point. “I just can’t believe this is my life.”

“Why not?” Mac’s pacifier glides out of his mouth, and Jake puts it back with two fingers before he can notice anything. “We’re right here, babe. We’re very much real.”

“Sometimes I thought it was never going to happen.” She hiccups. “All the times we’ve been apart. The months we fought to have him. How freaking long and exhausting being pregnant was. And now I have him, and you, and I’m just so grateful I don’t know what to do with myself.”

“That’s why you’re crying?”

“I think I don’t even know why I’m crying anymore. I’m so sleep-deprived.”

“Yeah.” Jake smirks. “But I get it. I’m really, really grateful too.”

 Mac makes a short gurgling sound that Amy takes to mean he agrees. She reaches out so his hand can wrap around her ring finger, feeling him squeezing it tight in the cutest grip. The grey striped pajamas has little mittens on it to keep him from scratching herself, but Mac gets upset whenever they pull them down, so Amy figures they'll just have to keep filing his nails instead. Their son is already both opinionated and stubborn, and she loves it about him, because she loves everything about who he is. He's perfect, and he's hers, and she still can't quite believe it even though he's right there in Jake's arms. It's all her dreams coming true, and it's making all the hard things feel so worth it.

 “Jake?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for giving me a baby,” she whispers. She’s too tired, barely even knows what she's saying anymore, but looking at the two of them, all she can think about is how incredibly lucky and thankful she feels.

Jake blinks in disbelief, grinning at her. “Wait, I gotta make sure I heard this right. Did you just thank me for giving you a baby?”

“Uh-huh?”

“And you're serious about this?”

“Well… yeah.”

“So you mean after nine months,” he says, still wide-eyed, “of you telling me, minimum a couple times a week but pretty much daily toward the end, that I could never understand what you're going through, and then you shouting some lovely descriptions at me whilst you were literally pushing him out, and also earlier this evening when you cried because I can't breastfeed him for you – you’re thanking me?”

“Some of it was a team effort,” she insists. “You helped.”

“Oh yeah, my nards sure are loving the credit.”

“Don't be gross.”

“Sorry.” He smiles, a little bashfully, stroking his fingers back and forth over Mac’s forehead instead of looking at her. “But Ames, c’mon. It was a pretty limited effort compared to what you did.”

“Maybe they’re not the same thing.” She leans her head on his shoulder. Mac is still holding on to her finger, but his grip is getting looser now. “But you were part of it too, babe.”

“Really?” He’s blushing. “What did I do that was so special?”

“Let's see. You didn’t laugh at me when I kept crying at everything the first weeks. Rosa made fun of me on a daily basis, but you just hugged me and told me everything was going to be okay. You let me sleep in when I had days off, even though I pretended I wanted you to wake me up. You fixed food for me without telling me what it was, and put it in front of me before I could feel sick thinking about it.” She shakes her head at the memory of those, few but complicated, weeks, and how hard they’d had to work around it. “You kept telling me I looked great even when my body kept changing and it all felt weird, and helped me pick out maternity wear when I didn’t want to do it on my own. I don’t know that I would have taken barely any bump pictures if you hadn't made me. You listened to all my research about the best strollers and pacifiers and cribs, and you did those courses and read all those books with me, and you came to almost every scan and held my hand so tight every time. You came home with onesies and hats because you thought they were too cute not to buy, and you gave me massages whenever I wanted them, and you even slept on the couch a couple nights at the end when I got angry at you for snoring. You barely even complained about it.”

“I complained a little,” Jake mumbles. “When you couldn’t hear me.”

“Fine. And lastly, you rode a horse through the city to get to me while I was in labor, and you didn’t even act like seeing him be born was gross.”

“I mean, it was a little bit gross.” Jake lifts Mac so he can kiss his forehead when he whimpers. “No offense, bud. I mean you looked perfect, I didn’t think you looked like a slimy alien even for a second, didn’t cross my mind, et cetera.”

“Whatever.” She rolls her eyes. “Point is, babe, you were there. You're here now. I know I did the actual work, but you were the one who made sure I could. I don’t know how I would have made it through without you. So… thank you.”

 He doesn't give her any witty comebacks for that, only a shy smile.

“I love you,” Amy all but whispers through the tears that fight their way through her determination to keep them in. “Both of you. So much.”

“Love you, Ames.”

She kisses him, putting her hands on each side of his thighs so she can reach over Mac. Kissing is a lot more complicated than usual when both his hands are busy and none of them wants to risk crushing their son, but it's still nice, feeling his soft lips on hers and squeezing his lower lip between both of hers for just a moment before pulling apart.

“It's hard to kiss you while you're holding a baby,” she says, and Jake grimaces. “That might be the only bad thing about it.”

“My bad. I’m just going to put him down so we can make out all night.”

“Don't you dare. He currently doesn't have a boob in his mouth and he's still not crying, you're not doing anything to risk that now.” Amy pulls the comforter up to her chin. “Wake me up when he needs to eat again and not a second earlier.”

Jake chuckles at her as she turns out the light and snuggles up close to him, but he makes no move to put Mac down or even protest, and she didn't think it was possible to love him even more. Her heart has definitely grown with becoming a mom, much like everyone told her about, but most seem to have forgotten to prepare her for how much it would also grow when it came to her partner.

 “I still think I’m the one who should say thank you,” Jake whispers just as she closes her eyes, and Amy can't help but smile. “If we're talking about who gave who a baby.”

“Jake, just accept the praise.”

“Oh, yeah.” She doesn't need to see his face to know that he's grinning. “I’ve locked it in a little box in my brain and I’m gonna keep it as gloat material forever, bringing it up when you least expect it.”

“That's great, babe.”

“Mm-hmm. We both know the truth, though.” Jake's left hand strokes over the top of her head, and Amy has to look up to see that Mac is still resting safely on his right arm and doesn't seem to have noticed a thing. Another tear fight its way down her cheek at the thought of how safe he must feel with him. This time, she doesn’t even bother to wipe it away.

 ~