#i just. am really into picking gifts.

[inklingofadream]

So first of all: really liked the Rosie chapter! Unexpected POV, but so sweet. And I was sure until the actual letter that Danny had just learned how to make glitter bombs and wanted to dramatically share his newfound knowledge, I'm gullible like that. Second: did you have anything specific in mind when you alluded to cult member gifts that Jon hated or felt bad about liking? :D

Mostly the vague way that, generally, there is a point where a celebrity stops answering their own fan mail. Like, if 10 people write you, maybe 1 sends a gift, and that gift is probably something in the general cultural mode appropriate for gifts to someone you admire or have a crush on. A heart-shaped box of chocolate is weird, from a stranger, but it's probably harmless. If, assuming no hate mail because hahaha absolutely not they Love Him So Much, 10,000 people write you, even if the number of gifts only increases half as much.... there's going to be something weird. Statistically, it's safe to assume at least one of those people is concerning. Maybe they're a stalker. Maybe they haven't thought through their gift of, like, a home security system idk, well enough to realize that kinda seems like a threat. Maybe a live mouse, or homemade rattlesnake sausage, or taxidermy (why are all the examples I can make up animal related?) is to them the best gift one could ever hope to receive.

Jon doesn't get things that are especially frightening or threatening, because he's... kind of at rock bottom. By the time someone is high enough up to acquire an actual spooky artifact, they either have the judgement or the supervision to not send it. Weaponry is less threatening, since who would get close enough for it to be a credible threat, and so appears super rarely and generally in the same vein as the letter openers. But boy, would he get the weird.

You want Jon to notice you so, so much. You have the perspective to realize that candy, flowers, and even books aren't going to stand out. The quantity of these is part of why people stop going through their own fan mail, but the only people Jon would be willing to do it for him are the ones already doing it WITH him, and having your friends go through your vast quantities of mail while you do something else would suck. Cat toys/treats are only going to manage to stick in his mind with any permanency if they're REALLY impressive, and I... don't know what that would look like, after the jungle gym in his room. But maybe you have a really out there book. This is a good strategy to be noticed, but mixed reaction- some of the things he feels guilty about liking are probably books, but also someone sent him a book about Victorian coffee table art book of photos of Victorian hair wreaths, no text. A lot of people send jewelry, accessories, and maybe sometimes clothing. Mostly, that gets sorted into stuff to consign to the vanity of fancy accoutrements (marked by Sasha, in case someone from there visits. Thwarting Jonah is its own reward, even if Jon does still end up wearing gold and jewels), given to his friends or as bribes, or actually incorporated into his own wardrobe. Someone probably manages to connect some dots re: the band shirts, and then Jon feels guilty for liking one that Gerry didn't personally give him.

Some things never actually happen- Michael is So Excited at the new experience of Having Mail, and reads through all the rules and guidelines, thus alerting Jonah to the need for a message that says he only picks up mail every other week, you CANNOT send live animals of ANY sort without going through Jonah (who now has to be the bad guy about people floating the idea of cats neither he nor Jon want in the Institute :3c).

Sometimes more off-the-wall stuff is great, and sometimes they're all moderately horrified. I feel like Jon would have extremely narrow interest in weird non-spooky antiques. Almost always a fail, but maybe he discovers he's thrilled to receive... exactly one astrolabe, idk. I have a hard time seeing him excited to receive a bear skin rug, though, and the size on its own is enough to generate consternation.

The secret, best choice is expanding your definition of "candy" thoughtfully. A lot of stuff is going to go to his friends or be used as bribes, but having something weird that isn't available where you are is the best. Candy/cookies/dessert-aligned items are the safe choice, because the line between excitement and disgust is thinner with snacks or savory items, in my experience. Vastly expanded Japanese KitKat flavors, any given regional packaged cookie... that's the end of the list, the stuff I like in this category is mostly available in the UK, that's all I got.

And the Jon-guilt increases with the price of the item. $2 cookies from the checkout line are great, there is no reason to feel guilty, even factoring international shipping. Spending $500 on anything is going to make him feel horribly guilty, regardless of whether he likes it.

And the last category, the stuff that makes appearances on his shelves/person before meeting with tragic accident, is monogrammed items. Books with dedications to him go on the shelf because he has plenty of space for books and you can't see that without opening them. Most things with his name or a declaration of love or whatever that's unable to be removed from the item... almost always die. For some reason the image in my head is those collectible shot glasses you get as souvenirs? But on the reverse from the image of the city is Jon's name, a glittery heart, and an eye. It does actually meet with an accident, but after that he doesn't put anything that becomes dangerous when it breaks where the cats can break it.

[yukipri]

feelin kinda sad so eating an obscene amount of pasta

[tangledinink]

clenches fist. finally sucked it up and ordered a new ipad...

[cultivating-wildflowers]

bought yarn yesterday because my local shop had a sale. do not currently have a project for said yarn. need to finish three other projects first.

[kathrynmjaneway]

.

[drifloonz]

i think how i write steven as a ""retired cryptid"" is extremely funny bc he still lives in pallet town. just in a walled-off part. he would never willingly reintegrate with society fully but just. imagine if he did at least partially. imagine if some delivery guy came to pallet town and was like asking the residents where a "mr. steven" would live and theyre all like

"The guy on the edge of the town???? The cryptid??? Our local boogeyman???" "yea that one"

[killjoy-prince]

Ray's After Ending is so funny because for a good chunk of it, most of the RFA members are knocked out by V's sleeping gas (Saeran is immune, Saeyoung isn't present bc he was kidnapped by his agency under his father's orders and MC wakes up in like an hour) but the game has a call feature where you can call the characters and it would be a waste if you couldn't use it bc the characters were unavailable so instead they have other people pick up the call (Jumin's driver picks up Jumin's phone, Jumin's father picks up Zen's phone, Yoosung's friends and mom pick up Yoosung's phone and Jaehee's coworkers pick up Jaehee's phone) and we do get to learn about the characters from outsider's point of view but it's so funny to me that these people are visiting their loved ones and suddenly the phone rings and they decide to just. answer it. and start talking to this stranger they've never met

[dazais-guardian-angel]

Happy birthday once again, Odasaku ❤️❤️❤️🥃 I'm so happy you were born. I'm so happy you were here, even if only for an unbearably short while. The impact you've had on my life can never be overstated; I'm forever grateful I was able to read your story, in Dark Era, and that I can continue to do so, in Bungou Stray Dogs. After all, it is your story... you will always live on in Dazai, and in the lives of everyone you save, saved just by being alive when you were. In many ways, you've saved me, too. I hope we can see you again in the series, one day... somehow, in some way, even if only briefly.

To the stray dogs~ 💖🥂

[yakny]

nearly broke down when I remembered I had these wips and couldn't find them amongst my many other wips. thought i lost them when my hard drive wiped itself cleaned :'D

[singull]

ahhh the woes of when some rando walks into the shop at work wanting to sell me something to sell i the gift shop out of the blue.

like bruh…this shoulda been an email.

i’m not sure which is worse tho…the ones that come in completely unprepared (like…motherfuckers can’t even find pictures of their product in their photos app because they don’t bother to organize that shit into a specific folder), or the ones that just show up with a big box of their shit and a pushy attitude.

either way, they both suck and i usually ghost them once they finally leave.

[ghostickle]

Love having to help hold everyone else’s lives together but the second I’m struggling and need help then I’m too needy and being a problem

[pantestudines]

having a "former gifted kid" type mental spiral

[cultivating-wildflowers]

if anyone witnesses me buying any books in the next six months, please hunt me for sport

[transgender-catboy]

I love my friends

[fabaceous]

Mari confessional but it's her admitting to rigging the cards so Misty/Crystal always get the worst ones

SHE SO WOULD DO THAT

[dollar-store-sparklez]

man i dont wanna be that guy, but the skyblock wars thing on the legundo community server is so just. incredibly frustrating to play rn

like, disregarding my own wifi issues entirely, bc theyre a seperate ongoing problem, lapis is mostly composed of younger players and people with actual jobs and stuff, and then redstone has. every moderator except 1, and two of the best pvpers who literally like never log off.

im not gonna accuse mods of using mod perms to cheat, because i gen dont think they are, but speraking as someone who has experience on several servers being mod/build staff, it is functionally impossible to be without bias as a mob in a competitive setting, especially when its, yknow, every single mod except one versus a team mostly composed of 12 year olds. hell, one of our players is literally 8.

and. i mean it sucks. its not enjoyable to play anymore when the other team is making fun of us for things out of our control and the mods arent really doing anything about it bc its their teammates doing it. and then theres stuff like the cobble challenge, where their entire island was basically already stone brick from the start. im not saying its cause the mods knew that was gonna be the challenge, but i am saying im not ruling it out. and then we know the mods fly around occasionally, and yeah they tell us that its for actual mod purposes, and i believe them, but i also believe that if they were to notice some new builds or farms or whatever while they were they theyd 100% mention it to their team.

and again, even disregarding that, even if im just off my rocker and everything ive noticed as unfair and upsetting is just in my own brain, theres the fact that the other team is gonna listen and respect the members of the mod staff more bc they have a real, tangible power over them, where as random children just arent gonna listen to syl even if they were the one voted in to be the leader. they gonna listen to a mod, but not another player. thats a real, tangible advantage they have.

i dont wanna say the mods cant also play the game and have fun, because they can! its totally possible to do smth like this and still let them play! but they need to be split up evenly between the teams or is gonna cause the issues we're currently having. no one on lapis is having fun or wants to play anymore really. poor syl has cried on call. i dont really care how many times people say its just a game. youre saying that because your team is winning, your team is tacked, your team has all the good pvpers and moderators. if lapis was in the lead youd be upset and i know it, because wth this new base quest that just finished you went and whined to ecr because hyper used an existing base on your island to win the quest. he asked ecr and got an explicit yes, and dino and justin ran to ecr about it and now we each got half a point, basically voiding the quest.

im glad yall are havin fun because no one else is. lmao