#i know that last one is half tweet but it still counts

[reginaldqueribundus]

Im enjoying the longevity of tumblrs recontextualization style of humor. a seemingly innocuous post followed by like "posts that a gnome would make" or like "are you a phone"

[shubblelive]

— INVITATION

summary : after a long day of work, wilbur is desperate to curl up and spend time with his favourite girl. only problem is you’re not speaking to him.

genre : angst -> fluff, happy ending

warnings : light swearing, mentions of food/eating, wilbur being mean

pairing : cc!wilbur soot x fem!reader

pronouns : she/her, reader is called a girl

featuring : cc!wilbur soot

requested : Could you do a wilbur fic where the reader is an overall bubbly, energetic person and wilbur just suddenly lashes out at her one day, and she apologizes and goes home, and wilbur tries to call her and apologize and everything in the end it’s just fluff and apologies<33 tyy

word count : 2.1k

note : hi anon!! i hope you enjoy this fic, it’s a bit longer than i expected but i’m very very happy with it <3 also you referred to reader using she/her so i used those pronouns in the fic i hope that’s alright <333

you were wearing his favourite jumper. it was yours - he’d swear on it - but you were adamant that it belonged to him. it had, originally, as most of your jumpers were, been his. but he’d given it to you months ago, and you were still promising that you were going to return it one day. he hoped you didn’t.

you’d been stealing his clothes for as long as you two had been together, for the last four years he had bought every single shirt, jumper, jacket, with the knowledge that you would steal it. it made sense, in your earliest days, when the two of you were long distance. you’d arrive at his flat for a week with a half-packed suitcase, and you’d leave with nearly a drawer full of his sweaters. but even now that you lived ten minutes away, you still had a habit of nabbing his sweaters. he didn’t mind in the slightest, and most of the time he would offer up suggestions for articles of clothing you could take. you guys had been together for nearly five years, it felt weird for him to be territorial on his clothes, especially because you’d return them whenever he asked, the scent of your perfume mingling on the fabric. he absolutely loved seeing you so happy, and if you stealing a shirt or two did that then he was more than willing to comply.

or at least, he was usually. now, he was running late for a stream and he couldn’t find his grey jumper. he’d been tearing his bedroom apart piece by piece in an attempt to find it so he didn’t have to walk through the rain in just a t-shirt. he sighed and sat down on his bed, remembering that he gave it to you when he went over to your apartment earlier in the week. it had been five days since he’d seen you in person, and it was driving him crazy. he had planned to spend the night at your place after his stream though, and that was pulling him through. it was fine, he took a few deep breaths and went to go and find a jacket to wear, already pulling up twitter to post the stream would be ten or so minutes late. he remembered to tweet out about his late stream, but he hadn’t remembered to text you to tell you that he would be late coming over. you’d organised for seven, which gave him nearly three hours of streaming time, and he assured you that he wouldn’t be going for that long. he ended up jumping on a call with some other people while he played, though, and that completely distracted him. leaving the office at eight, he had his phone on speaker as he tried to order an uber and call you at the same time. he was exhausted, and of course he wanted to see you and spend time with his favourite girl, but he didn’t know if he’d be able to reach your house without falling asleep, and being more social sounded like torture.

his jacket was rough against his arms, and he remembered suddenly about the jumper. your call timed out and he finished ordering the uber for his own flat, moving to text you and tell you he didn’t feel up to hanging out.

he opened your message history, and was hit with a message from you from half-past six, over an hour and a half ago. hi wil, you’d opened with, and he softened, knowing his annoyance didn’t really mean anything. my neighbours are being really loud, so do you mind if we meet at your place? can’t wait to see you. there was another two, each sent half an hour apart, a second one apologising for messaging while he was streaming, and a third saying, hi i let myself in i hope that’s okay. are you almost home? your most recent message was nearing forty-five minutes ago, and he cursed under his breath, cancelling the uber knowing it would be faster for him to walk than wait.

he reached his apartment out of breath and cold, and he couldn’t wait to collapse into bed. he still got to see you, and hopefully your smile would be enough to rid himself of any residual annoyance he held towards you.

he dropped his guitar case on the floor in the living room, calling out your name. “lovely? you still here?”

he heard a crash from the kitchen and took his coat off, slinging it over the arm of the couch. “hang on!”

he had a headache, and he massaged his temple as he made his way into the kitchen. you brightened the second he arrived, all but running into his arms. “hi, darling,” he needed alone time. he loved you, of course he loved. you were one of the most important people in his entire life, he absolutely adored you. but right now, he craved being by himself. you were here though, so he wasn’t going to make that your problem.

“hi, wil! sorry about the mess!” you smiled up at him. “i thought i’d make food? are you hungry?”

he shook his head. “no, you’re alright. want any help?” this time it was you who shook your head, and he kissed your temple before going to sit down on the couch, closing his eyes. you’d eat, and then you guys would be able to go to bed, and when he woke up in the morning you would be there, and he’d get to take you out for breakfast and spend the entire day with you. he just needed rest.

there was something you needed, and it was on the top shelf. you didn’t want to bother wilbur, he’d just got home, you could do it yourself. wilbur was much taller than you, so to get to his top shelf you would have to climb up on the counter. you’d be alright, you didn’t need to stand up or anything, just kneeling on the bench would be fine. you got up there with ease, but wilbur came through the doorway right as you started reaching. “what are you doing?” he’d been too loud, he knew that instantly, you jumped, and he had to rush forward and stop you from falling off the counter. “what on earth are you on the counter for?”

“i was trying to reach the bowl,” you said quietly. he stroked your cheek with his thumb.

“why didn’t you come get me?”

he helped you down. “i’m sorry, wil. didn’t want to bother you,” you admitted. he felt a flash of annoyance, and then kicked himself for it. you were never a bother, not even when he was exhausted.

“you should have asked for help.” he said simply. “do you need anything else?”

you smiled up at him, but he couldn’t bring himself to return it. “do you wanna watch a movie? i’ve been hearing good things about this one new one, here let me-”

“stop,” he breathed out. “i’m exhausted, and i just want to be alone, and you’re here, in my kitchen crashing around and almost hurting yourself! i can’t do this right now?”

your smile ebbed, and you took a step back. “why didn’t you say anything?”

“because i didn’t want to upset you,” he sighed out, running a hand through his hair. “i just can’t do this tonight,”

“you invited me-”

“you invited yourself!” he wasn’t yelling, no, he had enough patience to not be yelling at you, but his voice was raised. “i didn’t invite you over to my house into my kitchen, to wear my sweaters.”

you’d been together for half a decade. neither of you needed an invitation, you both knew that. wilbur had given you a key because he wanted you to let yourself in whenever you needed. he’d spent entire days in your flat without you there while you were away. this had never been an issue before, and he made sure you knew that.

you stood still for a moment before reaching down and pulling off the jumper of his he’d been looking for, leaving you in a black long sleeved shirt underneath. you tossed it to him. “because you never thought to call me and let me know you’d be late. by over an hour.” you were quiet, quieter than you usually were. your voice was loud, and bright and he revelled in it, soaking up every little comment you made, every “i love you,” every giggle, he adored it.

“because not everything i do has to do with you,” he was verging on cruel, and he knew it. “i had a long day at work, and i just want to be alone, but you’re here. so i have to cater to you.”

you didn’t reply, just brushing past him, with a soft “sorry” as your arm brushed his. you grabbed your stuff and left in silence, deciding on walking home.

he rested his forehead against the closest surface - the fridge - and swore under his breath. he was still holding your jumper, and he brought it up to his face, burying his nose in it. it smelled like lavender.

he fished his phone out to call you as he retook his place on the couch, cheek still pressing into the jumper. it was soft. he loved it. he loved you. he was such an asshole.

he called. you ignored him. he called again, three times. four times over the half an hour until he knew you were home and he knew you were ignoring him. his headache had increased, and all he wanted was for you to be resting in his lap, drinking you in while you watched your movie. he opened his phone again, not to call you this time, but instead to order an uber for your place. god, they were probably making so much money off him tonight but if he had to walk the entire way to your house, he’d collapse of exhaustion. he was there within fifteen minutes, thankfully this driver not getting him lost, and he payed with one hand as he bounded up the stairs with the other. he brought out his keys on autopilot and then remembered what he’d said, putting them down to knock on your door instead.

“darling!” this time he was yelling. he didn’t care though, he needed you to hear him. it took three more times knocking and five more yelled pet names before you opened the door. your eyes were red, and you had changed into softer clothes, these ones all belonging to you. “i’m so sorry,” the words spilled from his mouth before he could stop them. “i’m sorry i got angry, i’ve been so tired recently and that’s not your fault nor your problem, but i took it out on you and you don’t deserve that, lovely.”

“i didn’t want to bother you,” you said softly, voice barely above a whisper. he took a step closer to you hesitantly, and when you didn’t step back he wrapped his arms around you.

“you’re never a bother,” he said, voice pouring with affection to make up for his thoughts betraying him earlier. “i love you more than anything. i’m sorry i didn’t show you that tonight,”

“i’m sorry for going in without you telling me,” you said.

he shook his head vehemently. “i gave you a key, lovely. i gave you a key because any space with you is better than one without.” he took your face in his hands and made you look at him as he spoke, trying to get you to absorb every word he was saying. “i want to spend the rest of my life with you, and i can’t do that if you can’t get into my house.”

you looked like you were about to start crying again, and he kissed you gently. “i’m sorry,”

“don’t be sorry,” he assured you. “just let me in? i want to watch a movie with you.” your smile came back, if only slightly, and he knew he was making progress. you brightened up every room you were in, and even if you were a little loud, and too bubbly, and you stole his sweaters, he wouldn’t want you to be any different. he kissed you again, slowly and gently and when he pulled back your eyes were sparkling. “lovely?” you hummed to show you were listening. “when we get a place together, promise you won’t climb on the counters?”

“i don’t know if i can commit to that,” you said, laughing softly. “but i’ll see what i can do.”

[starstruckmoony]

style.

masterlist

pairing - sirius black x fem!reader

summary - you and sirius start dating after accidentally running into each other at a concert but confirm nothing, just to watch everyone lose their shit online.

trope/tags - band/celeb!au, instagram/social media!au, modern!au, fluff, terrible humour

word count - 1k

warnings - language

part 1 / part 2 / part 3

yourusername

❤ liked by starmanblack, cissy_blck, r.a.black and 804,337 others

yourusername mirror's dirty but i felt pretty

7,164 comments

starmanblack damn smash

yourusername thirsty mf

starmanblack you're not wrong

cissy_blck i promise i'm cooler than your boyfriend

luciusssy i love you too bae

cissy_blck 🥰

bartyyy can you sign my house?

yourusername i'll see what i can do

lily_evans UMMMMMM MOTHER?

mmmckinnon mommy.

prongsyboy mama?

starmanblack PRONGS

user128836 i don't know the colour of anything

user702655 YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND????

user358991 sirius said smash and i agree

user073823 the only man we trust

user662627 i'm gonna clown so hard but why did half of sirius family like this post?

user491175 i almost sent a thirst tweet

starmanblack

❤ liked by yourusername, ev.rosier, marymacdonald and 799,853 others

starmanblack boyfriend vibes 😩

6,897 comments

yourusername very real

starmanblack i'm flattered

yourusername you better be

yourusername you still smell like horse tho

starmanblack go away

prongsyboy did you tell him i said hi?

starmanblack i got you his autograph

mmmckinnon you didn't even tag the photographer smh

starmanblack why are you offended in the name of the photographer?

mmmckinnon i'm just defending my wifey

casmeadowes i wasn't there???

user075764 DATE ME

user246766 you single?

user113388 he's dating y/n l/n

user300722 i volunteer to take your bf photos 🤚

user943534 CONFIRM THE RUMOURS I'M BEGGING

user855465 y/n has a boyfriend and you just put boyfriend in the caption so i'll live in delusion from now on

user464646 i wanna be a horse

prongsyboy added to their story

yourusername

❤ liked by starmanblack, pandorasbox, rjlupin and 844,008 others

yourusername london, i'm speechless. i had the most amazing time with all of you last night and i can't wait to perform for you again 💞 hearing you guys sing your hearts out with me was truly magical, thank you sooo much and i love love love every single one of you 💕 also! a special thanks that friend group from the first row who gave me a bunch of plushies, my heart is extra happy 😚

tagged ev.rosier

8,677 comments

starmanblack i was there, i can confirm

yourusername I COULDN'T SEE YOU IN THE CROWD AT FIRST AND I GOT SO SAD

starmanblack lol i love you sm

starmanblack my guitar fits your aesthetic nicely

yourusername i know right?!? me and her were meant to be

marymacdonald when i say best concert of my life i mean it

yourusername i don't deserve you

bartyyy first row seats hmghnhm 😩

yourusername perks of dating the photographer

ev.rosier you're welcome bartemius

user201010 i cried ugly tears

user927161 i formally apologise to the people who were near me 💀

user472738 ARE Y'ALL SEEING THIS??? THEY'RE DEFO DATING

user928312 YOU PLAYED MY FAVOURITE SONG AND I WASN'T THERE 😭😭😭

user446286 one of those plushies was from meeeee

user018381 lost my voice but it feels so right

starmanblack

❤ liked by yourusername, marymacdonald, lily_evans and 810,777 others

starmanblack ok.

7,995 comments

yourusername he loves you

starmanblack he bit my converse

yourusername it was an act of love

starmanblack AND HE STOLE ONE OF MY DOCS

yourusername IT. WAS. AN. ACT. OF. LOVE.

yourusername bet you deserved that

starmanblack you were just saying he loves me?

yourusername was i though?

vance_emm what in the gaslighting hell is going on above me?

r.a.black wdym? i'm loving it

user242539 i've yet to see a normal picture of this little guy

user301453 THE BICKERING LMAOOO

user463646 HELP HE'S VIOLATING YOU

user857433 he's in his reputation era

user302770 THIS DOG PLS

yourusername added to their story

celeb_gossip

♡ 37,022 likes

celeb_gossip a scandal is on its way! 👀 there's been word on the street that sirius black and y/n l/n have had a little something going on since the beginning of the year, and we are almost certain that this isn't just another case of senseless rumours. 🙈 other than constantly interacting with one another on social media, the two have been pictured entering l/n's apartment after what seemed like a romantic night out. 😌 several sources can prove that the couple has been caught in ways that scream everything BUT platonic, and we deem them quite credible. 😉 but in the light of all of this, the two singers haven't said anything. what do you think? 🤔 are they secretly together? 🤭 or are they secretly laughing at all of us? 😶 leave your opinion in the comments! 😘

12,558 comments

user438185 oH

user019570 EVERYBODY STAY CALM

user837999 i hope they sue you lol

user262626 they're defo laughing at us

user823715 THE POWER THESE TWO WOULD HOLD AS A COUPLE

user192072 LMAO THEY'D BREAK THE INTERNET IF THEY CONFIRMED IT

user137753 get a life wtf

user020191 pretty sure they're together

user647275 this is out of line

user244411 nah cause paps should be illegal

user302906 I NEED THEM TO SAY SOMETHING I'M LITERALLY FREAKING OUT

user522727 dunno but i want whatever they have going on

yourusername

❤ liked by bellatrixieb, cissy_blck, r.a.black and 855,006 others

yourusername tea pages are saying that i'm dating this weirdo 🤪

tagged starmanblack

10,675 comments

starmanblack people just love being funny

yourusername making me shed tears

starmanblack you could have found a better picture at least 🙄

yourusername fym? this is top tier stuff

starmanblack you're not getting your shades back

yourusername funny 🤣 i'll steal them back today 😐

vance_emm yeah and i'm a hamster

marymacdonald you kind of look like one though 🥺

mmmckinnon LMAOOOOO

starmanblack not you talking

mmmckinnon lmaoing ≠ talking

user283800 guess this confirms it ☹

user916373 WHY DO REG AND SIRIUS' COUSINS KEEP LIKING ALL YOUR POSTS THIS MAKES ME CONFUSEDDDD

user758234 does this mean you're free to date me?

user424116 YOU'RE TROLLING US

user021725 double meaning? (pls say sike i'm desperate)

user024477 calling sirius up rn

user555641 GUYS THERE'S STILL HOPE MAYBE THEY'RE JOKING AROUND

user828295 okay but does it actually matter 💀

starmanblack

❤ liked by lily_evans, pandorasbox, casmeadowes and 873,253 others

starmanblack feeding the paps

11,994 comments

yourusername bet they're still starving

starmanblack we should make out and post it

yourusername twitter will go CRAZYYY

yourusername we look dead tho

starmanblack i reckon it's the cheap wine

yourusername you calling me poor?

starmanblack 😇

prongsyboy i still don't get how or why you had my glasses

starmanblack aesthetic purposes

xeno_lovegood that's cute 🤩

starmanblack facts ong fr fr

cissy_blck reggie's sil

bellatrixieb i'm so jealous

user472721 I WANT

user882923 I CAN'T DECIDE WHO THE LUCKY ONE IS

user382541 NAUR STOP MESSING WITH US

user773724 WHATTGEDHQUXJQDJJQSJJW

user482972 OH MY GOD?????????

user362613 narcissa's comments making me all hopeful

user924474 I'M SO STRESSED

starmanblack added to their story

[solarwynd]

Hi!

Thank goodness I was "able to catch you" while your asks are still open. I'm new army (does being into bts for a year and half now count as "new"?) and I've noticed how armys or other members' solos seem to always have a problem with jimin specifically? Yesterday pjms were talking about how jimin was dragged last year for appearing on the big screen at yoongi's show only for it to turn out that Yoongi was the one who wanted it

Now I've noticed that it's always Jimin who gets such reactions. When he goes to support one of his members, they say he's an attention seeker trying to steal the other's shine. I saw the Hobipalooza reactions live, when it was reported that Jimin was on his way to see Hobi, people were so mad. They were sure he'd try to take over Hobi's stage and make the show all about him. Also when he was seen with Jk on the streets of New York, they called him a leech. And when Taehyung had a show (I can't remember what it was but it was when Taehyung had the silver hair) they said the same thing

I haven't been in the fandom that long I think but Jimin has never once struck me as the kind of person to be envious of others and deliberately take their spotlight or turn attention towards himself. Instead he is the one who supports his members the most and doesn't ever differentiate between them.

What breaks my heart the most is that you don't see such reactions when it's any other member visiting the others and supporting them. I've never seen others being accused of trying to steal a member's spotlight when they go to visit them while they are busy with a show. You might see a member being called a leech but it's only done in regards to a ship. "Oh he's just doing this to feed the delulu" but never the way Jimin is accused of doing.

All the members solos don't always have a problem with each other's faves. But when it comes to Jimin it's like they've all established that he's the enemy. Jjks and kths never hate on each other's faves the way they hate on Jimin. Rapline stans claim to have a disdain for Maknae Line for being privileged since debut and being overrated while their faves are overlooked, but if you see their hate tweets, it's all directed at Jimin while the other two seem practically non-existent to them. They were just vile and awful during FACE era accusing Jimin of payola and getting fraud achievements, they'd be at it for WEEKS, but when Jungkook actually got all that it was silence. The few who did speak out about did it with such a nonchalant vibe like they were obligated because they don't wanna be called out as hypocrites by pjms. And they only spoke of it once while for Jimin it looked like they didn't sleep just to keep the trend going.

It's just so bizarre and very sad. How there are so many people who are unable to see how Jimin is being treated, baffles me. Because even during my first week getting into BTS I'd find comments that would make me side eye. Jimin would be praised and armys would have a "okay can we move on" vibe about it and even comment "ooh you should see Hobi. Now that's dancing/JK has the most beautiful voice/Taehyung has the best stage presence" and the classic "ALL members are good on stage, ALL of vocal line have unique voices, ALL of BTS suppor each other not only one" but when any other member is praised they enthusiastically agree and even talk about more stuff said member is good at or their "iconic" moments, there's no comparison, no "but" no "all of them" comments. How does anyone else not see this?

Why is Jimin treated like a rival of BTS instead of one of its members? What did he do?

He didn’t do anything. People fear Jimin’s gravitational pull because it throws things off balance.

Rational people know Jimin has never been and isn’t an attention seeker. He’ll highlight and praise people ahead of himself (often at his own expense) because he’s humble. But irrational people find him the complete opposite and it’s not to any fault of his own, it’s just because people are naturally drawn to him. He’s an attention hogger. That’s what these people are really getting at. He doesn’t have to do much to have all eyes on him and that’s to the detriment of the other members whose stans feel like they’re superior to Jimin but don’t command that same interest as he does. (There’s even an older video of th calling him out on needing to tone it down) That’s why people think Jimin purposefully tries to upstage the other members, but it just turns out that way because he’s the best performer out the bunch. 🤷🏾‍♀️

Best example would be that same yg concert you mentioned. Jk went the day before Jimin and there wasn’t that much noise, (outside of armys). Then in comparison, when Jimin came the next day, the hype and anticipation was astronomical. Hit tweets everywhere. Everybody was talking about his LC stage and that Tony Montana pop up. And that’s where the insecurity started to seep through from different corners. Nobody had any reservations about Jk performing the day prior yet with Jimin all of a sudden it became an issue. Yg stans kept reiterating how jimin was at his sold out tour. Armys acting like jimin was a stranger that yg graciously allowed to perform, and of course jjk’s who were pissed because jimin’s day made more noise than jk’s did. (Also that the infamous “I heard you guys are having more fun today than yesterday line) I never took it as a direct jab at jk, obviously. He was referencing what yg said earlier I believe, but he still wasn’t wrong. You watch the vid of his LC performance and you listen to those fan chants? You can tell that they were it’s just the truth.

Another non bts example is something that recently happened at a Dune premiere with Zendaya and Timothee where she got that really cool robot archive pull. There was a Timothee stan that got mad because Zendaya was the talk of the night and nobody was really paying attention to him. Calling her an attention seeker as well and claiming that she did it to get people to focus on her. But you see how crazy that sounds? Zendaya is known for her outstanding looks just like Jimin is known for his performances and stage presence. They don’t have to put any extra effort into getting seen. Everybody was already gonna be focused on them anyway because of who they are. Neither one of them can help that they’re impactful, but people take it as a negative because they believe that they’re taking up too much attention and they feel like the person they stan is getting left behind.

It’s just like in the initial years of when BTS was really blowing up and you’d see kpop stans every under hit tweet or YouTube comment. Trying to promote their own favs get some recognition. Or when they’d get mad when whenever somebody mentioned kpop all they’d know was BTS. Exactly why you have all these ex armys running around so resentful towards them because they were obsessed with the underdog story. BTS didn’t fit that mold anymore. They went to find a group that was unknown and realized they’ll remain that way because BTS and kpop still go hand in hand. Some people are adverse to super popular things. They always have to tear it/them down. Nitpick and find something to devalue it or claim they don’t deserve their spot because someone else does. That’s why people hang onto jimin’s vocals for dear life and over exaggerate their response to any mishap he may have. They need something to knock him down a peg and keep him at ground level. It’s basically a way to placate themselves by framing it like it “he might be popular but he’s still imperfect as a performer.”

Armys also don’t do the unanimous ”they’re all good” for BTS out of respect for them as a group, because (as we’ve seen) they have no issue speaking in hyperbole for other members. They just have to neutralize the praise jimin gets because it’s a way to take away from the spotlight put on him so he doesn’t shine as much. Another tactic kpop stans used to use, but armys conveniently act like they haven’t also acquired. They’ll use the guise of the OT7 umbrella to make it look like jimin getting his dues doesn’t bothers them, but realistically they know each bts member does not have equal talent. Some have their strong suits and in other areas they lack. With Jimin, people can talk about that encore all day and barring the unwarranted hate boner towards him, they still can’t truthfully say Jimin can’t sing at all because he can. His vocal color is unique and pretty. (people can have their preferences for others, not a problem.) and it caries a certain Je ne sais quoi that makes him that much more alluring.

Jimin’s just a powerhouse all on his own. Hybe knows it, armys know it and kpop stans know it. That’s why they all restrict, undermine or berate him at every turn (respectively). As long as Jimin is Jimin, he’s gonna be a threat and the anomaly, similar to how BTS was but on an individual level.

[sepublic]

You can tell the writers didn’t really have a plan/explanation for why Chen didn’t have Wind or Water despite apparently needing all of the elements for his spell. I know YEARS later they eventually came up with an explanation via Wojira, but if we’re being real from a Doylist perspective, they just could not be bothered to explain it. Despite Water being established in the very same season as Tournament of Elements, and Morro planned later that year, even showing up in the last second of S4!

Between this and the show being vague on how Morro got to the Cursed Realm -Tommy had to explain in a tweet that dying after doing bad things also qualifies you for it- and I honestly kinda wish/headcanoned that Clouse sent him there. Think about it…

Morro goes off to prove he’s the Green Ninja, leaving Wu. Chen hears that the Master of Wind is a lone child and realizes how easy it’ll be to claim the first element he needs. He and Clouse corner Morro, steal his power, and then banish him to the Cursed Realm to hide the evidence.

When Kai destroys the Staff of Elements, the power of Wind is released and crosses dimensional boundaries to return to Morro; Shortly afterwards, Clouse is banished to the Cursed Realm, allowing Morro to swap places with him. He watches everything that goes on from afar, gathering intel, hence his brief appearance at the end of S4.

As for Water… The writers teased that Chen knew what happened to Ray and Maya. And then never really followed up on it despite Tommy having a pretty sensible explanation in mind.

Let’s put it this way; Kai is the first child of Ray and Maya and he gets Ray’s power. He doesn’t know how to use it. Next comes Nya. Maya chooses to hold onto her power for now so that someone experienced and well trained can protect the family with it; Once Kai is old enough to use his powers, she’ll pass hers onto Nya.

Alas, Krux targets the two. He strikes a deal with Chen, who planted the idea in his and Acronix’s mind to take power for themselves; In exchange for sending his minions to help Krux capture Ray and Maya, Krux will allow Chen to take Maya’s element of Water for himself. Likewise, Chen gives Krux the Vermillion eggs he found in exchange for this boon. Everything goes as planned, Chen takes Maya’s element and then Krux holds both parents hostage and forces them to make armor for his new Vermillion army.

This is how Chen knows what happened to Ray and Maya, and explains his claim about them betraying the alliance by working for Krux (even if under duress). When Kai destroys the Staff of Elements, Water is released and doesn’t return to Maya, instead entering Nya because it was always meant to go to her.

This explains why Wu never trained Nya as a ninja until S5; She straight up didn’t HAVE an elemental power until the latter half of S4. And amidst all of the other chaos, Nya has to grapple with some mysterious element having bonded with her for some reason; In the end, she doesn’t have time to figure out or master her new element, so she sticks to being Samurai X for the rest of S4. Once Chen is dealt with, only then does she have the space to start exploring this new power and the implications of her mother’s power having been held by Chen, who claimed to know Maya and Ray’s whereabouts. S4 already set up a couple of story elements that would be expanded upon in S5, what’s another one?

…This doesn’t count for Time of course, but that was only added two years later. So it’s a bit more understandable of a retcon, whereas the writers knew about Water and Wind when writing S4 and still didn’t bother to explain it. Idk maybe Time isn’t actually an element but a ‘power’ (hence it being split into four powers across two masters), and Acronix and Krux’s beef stemmed partially from wanting Time to be recognized as an element on equal standing with the rest of the alliance, especially after contributing so much to the war effort. Being left out because they weren’t viewed as ‘real’ Elemental Masters created an inferiority complex that Chen took advantage of. Maybe the Hands of Time connected with Skylor’s mother over Amber also being dismissed as not a real element, and like them she listened to Chen, which led to her having Skylor with him.

[totaldrama-showdowns]

Unused Submissions for the Favorite Rivalry Showdown!

justin and trent

please im so tired of seeing fluffy ship art of them THEY DO NOT LIKE EACH OTHER

justin literally got him eliminated i cant imagine they had a good relationship after action

"one time justin threw a tambourine at me and that kinda hurt >:|"

THE GUITAR SNATCH AND GLARE IN CELEBRITY MANHUNT

you know they had the nastiest most jawdropping arguments in the recording room during drama brothers recording sessions

uhh yeah they hate each other they should get to fight to the death as a treat

Alejandro and duncan

they're perfect

Scax

is this a rivalry? idk

Dave vs Leonard

IT'S ME! I DON'T BELIEVE IN YOU! NOW PICK UP THE PIG!

Lindsay vs Courtney

it was brief but it was enjoyable

Izzy and Justin

They're sooo funny, especially cause they're exes

Julia vs Priya

I don’t actually think this is the best one I’m just putting it here because we need more reboot characters in this bracket

Whatever Lindsay and Beth had with Heather after Island

you go girls

Geoff and Trent

hockey bros vs birds

why do they get beat up by birds so frequently

Dawn and Scott

Ok sure they lasted for two scenes but THEY COULD'VE BEEN SUCH GOOD RIVALS MAN

Julia vs Every Other TD '23 Blonde

Nominating this because I think it's funny

Julia and Caleb

I don’t actually gaf about them but i like when julia hit him with a frying pan or something

the roti writers and gen 2 female characters

they did them so dirty :(

bowie vs straight people

he's seen enough

chris vs blaineley

divorced enemies sweep

lightning vs cameron

it was ooc but it kinda slayed

Chris and Sierra

The New York episode. Please Chris should've been a hater the whole season and Sierra wouldn't notice it would be funny. See my vision

Ezekiel Vs Death

I just know Death keeps snapping those bony fingers any time Ezekiel escapes death

Emma and Julia

white on white violence

Terry and Chref

We saw that tweet

Mal and Julia

Mal plays the game really well and Julia's getting insecure. But I have faith Julia will triumph

Marmaduke and Garfield

I love tti

Me vs Blaineley

We are currently fighting over who gets 2 date Kelly (I'm winning)

larry v chef

chef’s gotta defend his man what can I say

Everyone (- Priya) Vs Caleb

He literally has no friends.

priya's personality versus the writers

season 2. need I say more?

Heather Vs Blaineley

I cannot tell you how funny it is that Blaineley turned up to the TD jumbo jet and chose violence against a girl half her age

Ezekiel and Chris

demolish that monster zeke

Sky vs Dave

He tried to kill her I think this counts as a rivalry at least a little bit

Damien vs Millie

Yeah! The finish line!

Duncney

toxic yaoi

Noah anf Harold

autism on autism violence and we love that

do alejandro and noah count,,, if not im voting leshawna and heather

brainrot says so

jasmine and shawn

just being a hater here, they were much more tolerable (but still crappy) when she hated him over them being a couple

dramarama ella and dramarama max

why couldnt this be their dynamic in the canon show

Damien & Julia

WE WERE ROBBED OF THEM!!!!

MK vs the bear

They literally fought in a duel together

Geoff/Bridgette and blaineley

Ma'am that's a child. Leave him by

Mal Vs Duncan

They suck I hope they get in so they're elimination fodder so someone else can go forward easily.

alejandro puppet and heather

1984

Wayne and me

I hate you little white boy! Get a job

[thefirsthogokage]

So, the AMPTP basically said that the studios take too much risk to pay people anything for streaming shows. Here's John Rogers and David Slack responding to that.

(link to top of thread)

[Image ID: A tweet thread from John Rogers on July 23rd, 2023 that reads in its entirety:

Last time I had a failure - which was collateral damage in an argument between the studio and the network - I had to personally fire 200 people, they all were off payroll by that afternoon, and I was also out of a job. The executives all continued to get paid. So fuck off.

Actually, that’s not true. The failure after that one happened as collateral damage in one of the mergers, so it had nothing to do with the quality of the show. And I had to wait, forbidden to work, not earning a dime, as they shopped it for six months.

Also several of my writers were cheated of their expected salaries, some losing up to 75%, for reasons too complicated to explain here. Those executives, both studio and streamer, all kept their jobs. So double fuck off.

Actually no, my last failure was a show where after delivery the network made us wait *seven months … for a PASS*. Seven months where I was in first position, and again, was forbidden from working.

Do that was one pilot fee, cut in half with a partner, for a year and a half’s work counting development. Those executives, both studio and network, kept their jobs.

So *triple* fuck off.

Luckily I had my tiny sliver of back end from TRANSFORMERS - no, wait, no, because according to the Hollywood accounting while that movie grossed something like a billion dollars all in, it unfortunately wound up $36 million in the hole.

So QUADRUPLE fuck off.

If you’re dumb enough to take that AMPTP statement at face value, responsible adults should remove all the scissors from your home. You are the reason hair dryers have the “Do not use while sleeping” warning.

/End ID]

I believe that merger one was Leverage or The Librarians. Both were doing REALLY well before they got cancelled due to network shit, I know that much. So the network/studio one could be either of those as well. Probably Leverage?

(Link to top of thread)

[Image ID: A tweet thread from David Slack posted July 21st, 2023 that reads in its entirety:

The studios claim they shouldn’t have to share revenue for the success of the shows we make succeed because they assume all the risk.

Well.

To paraphrase a famous actor: There’s more than one type of risk, motherfucker.

While the studios and their new hedge fund besties may assume some modest financial risk, any losses just go on a balance sheet next to the C-suite’s golden parachutes.

The workers in this industry, on the other hand, risk a hell of a lot more than that.

Most working actors live with the constant uncertainty of never knowing where their next paycheck will come from or how long it will be between jobs. That’s risk.

If they work a second job, they often risk losing it every time they take time off for auditions or jobs.

Actors also generally have little control over the final product, so *every* role is a risk for them. Sure, it could be the hit that changes everything. But it could also be a flop that hurts their career for years. They become “the guy from that thing” and can’t get more work.

Under our old contract, writers put in untold hours of free work developing and rewriting pitches and scripts for features and TV. Much of this work is on spec. That’s a huge risk writers take on — yet the studios are happy to benefit from the upside without taking on any risk.

Writers, actors, crew, and directors also risk our personal relationships, spending long hours at work, frequently across the country or around the world. Our partners soldier on without us. Our kids miss us and we can only hope they’ll understand.

That’s a huge risk.

Stunt performers literally risk their lives for the shows we make. Productions and crews take every possible precaution to ensure their safety, but accidents still can and do happen.

You gonna try and tell us that’s not risk?

All of us risk our health and safety working insane hours to keep up with the schedules our bosses create. When was the last time David Zaslav or Bob Iger worked a Fraturday? Do they even know what one is?

In production, where 14, 15, and 16 hour days are common, people have died from falling asleep at the wheel driving to and from set.

And the studios have the fucking gall to say they’re taking all the risk?

We risk our finances, our families, our friendships, our futures, and sometimes our lives to make a product for you that you have no idea how to make yourselves.

All you risk is money.

And by the fucking way, we *know* you can afford to give us success-based pay — because you’ve been doing it for 83 YEARS.

Remember 1960? When both the WGA and SAG went on strike and won…

residuals for TV?

Residuals for TV *are* success-based pay. Great movies and TV shows re-ran more often, so the people who created and starred in them got more money as a reward for that success. It’s a great system that incentivized workers to bust their asses to make great shows.

And you know what happened to the entertainment industry in the 8 decades studios have been making these success-based payments?

IT THRIVED.

Studios made billions in revenue selling our product all around the world.

But now, the studios say they can’t afford it. They say it’s not “fair” for actors to ask for success-based pay because they don’t take on any risk.

That’s stupid.

It’s offensive.

And it’s a lie.

It’s shameful that the AMPTP and their studio bosses are trying to deny the workers who make their product a bonus for success that is time-tested and has 83 years of precedent.

And that they’re lying about it?

That’s just… uncivilized. #WGAStrong #SAGAFTRAStrong

/End ID]

The absolute fuckery of this statement that came from the AMPTP is that the studios thought this would gain them sympathy. They were wrong. They genuinely thought this was a good statement from them because they DO think they take all the risk because they can't see people who don't have their wealth as real people. They can't.

Wealth is a disease.

No one should make the kind of money these people make. It makes them so out of touch they think of themselves as gods among ants. They step on those ants? They don't notice. They don't care. They just keep moving forward to gain as much money as possible, even though they have no way to spend it.

Fuck the studios, a new system needs to be built around them so that they'll die.

[ishtea]

random untagged sleep deprived rant incoming lol, so only the real Ish heads will see this nonsense

idk if this is a hot take or not i think it’ll be pretty cold with zoomers and pretty hot with the generation that’s been busy raising ipad babies for the last few years but

i don’t think kids should have internet access, pretty much like ever. your ass is waiting till your 18 years of age to be released into the pastures of tumblr dot come and god forbid reddit or X the Everything App.

if you wouldn’t turn your kid loose in a busy city center at night you shouldn’t turn your kid loose on the radicalization pipeline niche fetish acquirement system which adults also do like business on sometimes

your kid to teen can survive on like Youtube, Ask Jeeves, and Kik Messenger, they’ll be fine, that’s all i had till i was like 17 and i only got groomed once… ok yeah take Kik Messenger off that list

no but like really, i guess this is more about Social Media™️ than “The Internet”, like:

your kid doesn’t need to be on Twitch watching XQC clap and go WAOOOW in his funny voice at war crime footage

it should be a crime that you can log into Twitter and be at risk of seeing a 14 year old’s opinion, that shit should be illegal

Adults shouldn’t even use Reddit what do you want me to say here

and i have to check my followers every time on this app just to make sure some fucking idiot mistake child hasn’t wandered into my place of business (put your age in your bio or be aborted btw)

idk what’s another social app? pinterest? i think that sites just for like moms idk your kid’s prolly fine on pinterest tbh but they should still stay off there

oh fuckin Facebook, look at what it did to statistically at least half your older relatives, enough said.

i’d say even Youtube’s a bit questionable but it’s probably not as bad as like Elon Musk’s Porn Bot Paradise or the website that popularized Transgirl Incest (love u tumblr mwah <3)

like these are all places kids just shouldn’t exist period ngl, let em watch Youtube, let em google shit, don’t turn em loose in random places where like real adult people gather and live their lives

i should say i’m not like one of those reddit kid haters, i don’t take a selfie next to a cafe sign that says “CHILD FREE” and pretend that counts as having a personality, i’m just not gonna pretend to be an idiot and be like “kid’s need their spaces on these apps too” cause like no they don’t lol, kids need spaces in like real life where they can learn to function like real people.

Social Media apps are a vice for adults like cigarettes and porn lmao. at best you’re doing business on them, socializing perhaps, but we all know you’re being horny on main and gas lighting people under the comments of a screenshot of a fake tweet

[milkgemini]

In My Life

Pairing: Josh Kiszka x f!reader

Word Count: 2.4k

Warnings: smut! 18+ minors DNI language, fingering (f receiving), unprotected sex.

a/n: there was a tweet posted about josh fucking you, then singing you to sleep so i ran with it. for my two josh babies, love you guys :’) (i love to take requests so if you want to see anything, message me!)

listen

It was the morning after Christmas. You and Josh had fallen asleep last night to the small 4 foot  tree in the corner, partially illuminating the room. You are the first one to wake, hearing the subtle snores of him next to you, half his face covered by the pillow. 

You reach over to his nightstand to grab your phone. 9:47 am. Perfect. Still enough time to lay in bed and scroll through your phone before you should wake up Josh to start your day. 

The first thing you do is open up the Twitter app. Greta Van Fleet had posted a video yesterday wishing their fans a happy holiday. You had watched the video continuously without opening it, not to wake him with the volume from your phone. 

As you read the replies to the tweets, you start to giggle at what his fans are saying. One tweet in particular causes you to laugh so hard the bed softly shakes, waking Josh in the process. You turn to him to see he has one eye open, a confused look on his face. He lifts his head, eyes squinting, to see what is going on. 

“I’m sorry babe, go back to sleep.” you shush him. 

“Now how am I going to fall back asleep without knowing what is so funny.” He scooches closer to you in bed. His arm splayed across your waist as you sit up, back against the head of his bed. He lays his head on your chest peeking down at your phone. 

“I’m just reading the replies to the band’s tweet last night. You have some humorous fans, you know that?” you say with a smirk. 

“Oh do I?” he reaches his hand to your phone, beginning to scroll with his thumb, the other four fingers wrapping around your phone over top your fingers. 

“Wait, look at this one!” You stop his scrolling to click on one specific tweet. “They’re calling you ‘smooshy’ now, Josh. You’re their ‘smooshy’ babe.” Your laughter begins to pick back up. 

“Well thank you…” he squints closer to see the name of the person who posted the tweet, “Emmy. Love you too.” He huffs a laugh to himself. 

You click the button on the side of your phone to lock it, and place it back on the table beside his bed. Shifting yourself, you’re laying on your side now facing Josh, hands resting against your head on the pillow. 

The two of you take in the presence of each other for a little while. With the sun shining through the white wispy curtains from the window, his features become even more prominent in this moment. You remove the hand resting under your head to bring it to his face, tracing the outline of it with your fingertips. He closes his eyes and lets himself just feel. Giving you soft hums in approval to the light touch. 

After a while, he grabs your hand and places the softest kiss to your fingertips. The feeling of his plump lips from sleep sending a shiver down your spine. 

He was so beautiful, especially in the morning. Eyes lulled from sleep, lips perfectly swollen, and his voice had a slight rasp to it. 

You pull him closer to you, noses just touching, as you wrap your leg around his hip as if to hold him there so he can never escape. His hands are big compared to yours. He reaches up to brush the hair laying on your cheek and tuck it behind your ear. Once his obstruction is cleared, he caresses your jaw and brings you in to join his lips with yours. 

The kiss is lazy, which turns into sloppiness. No one is in a rush. You have hours before it’s time to leave the house. With your lips pressed together, nose slotted against his, you breathe in deeply, inhaling his natural scent. Taking in the scent of him, he opens his mouth to invite you inside with your tongue. The second you feel his tongue slide against yours, you feel the ache that’s forming in your core. 

Josh picks up on your sudden shift of mood, smirking into the kiss. Underneath the white fluffy comforter, you both are bare from the activities that occurred the night prior. You could never have too much Josh. 

His fingers leave the side of your face, and begin to trace down the outline of your side to your hips. Following in his path, goosebumps form on your skin. You buck your hips towards Josh, trying your best to get as close as you possibly can to him, skin against skin. 

With your center hovering just over his belly button, you feel his length begin to harden under you. Open mouth kisses still taking place, you moan into him at the feeling of his cock growing harder. You reach between each of your bodies to take his length into your palm and stroke him gently. He bucks his hips up into your touch craving more. 

“In a rush are we, Josh?” you break the passionate kiss to tease him. 

He grabs your face to bring you back to him, smirking into the kiss. 

“Just can’t get enough of you, love” his voice is raspy and spoken directly upon your lips. So close you can feel the movement against your own. “Need to feel you. Can I-“ 

Without letting him finish, you grab his wrist, pushing his hand down to where you too want to feel him right now, gaining another grin from him. 

He doesn’t waste any time making you wait or teasing you. His middle finger dips down between your lower lips, feeling how wet you are for him. 

“Ugh fuck…” his raspy groan breathes into your mouth. He retracts his lips from yours to watch your reaction as he slips his middle finger inside you. 

Your jaw falls open as his finger is now fully submerged into you. You give him a slight nod, instructing him to move. He pushes his finger in and out of you with ease from how wet you are for him right now. 

“Please give me more, Josh. Want to feel you stretch me out with your fingers.” you whisper onto his lips, both of your hands grasping his face keeping it in place, noses touching. 

As he pulls out his middle finger, he pushes back in now with his ring finger following. His pace quickens, shoving the two fingers in and out of you fast. The sounds of your wetness caused by his fingers and your short whimpers bounce off the walls of his room. 

He pushes his fingers into the hilt. His knuckles brushing against the lips of your pussy. Once full inside, he starts to curl his fingers into you, causing the volume of your moans to increase. 

“That’s it, baby. Just feel it. Do my fingers feel good inside of you right now?” His voice remains a whisper to you. 

“Fuck Josh, keep going I’m gonna cum, please.” 

Once he hears your voice, dripping with lust, begging him to make you cum, he picks up the pace. He harshly fucks his fingers into you, his thumb every once and a while brushing against your clit. 

With all three of his fingers working you just right, he feels your walls twitch inside and abruptly pulls them out from you. 

“Josh.. no baby. Please, I was so close.” 

He grabs your hips and swiftly adjusts you to straddle his lap. With you sitting just above his cock, he doesn’t even answer to your needs but instead grabs your face, forcing your lips to crash onto his once again. He goes right into the kiss open mouthed, wanting to feel your tongue slotted against his. 

Finally, he breaks the kiss to reply, “I’m sorry babe.” He reaches behind you grabbing his length, flicking the tip of his cock through your folds, which causes your eyes to subtly roll back. “Just want to feel you cum around my dick. Is that okay?” He goes back to kiss you again, a smile on his face knowing you’re going to submit to his request. 

Positioning your wet core above his length, he removes his hand letting you take control. Your tongue still swiping against his in his mouth, you start to slide yourself against his cock. This time it’s him that’s beginning to lose control beneath you. As you grind your wet core against him, your slick rubbing up and down his cock, he grasps onto the meat of your hips hard, pressing his fingertips into your skin. You silently pray to yourself that he leaves marks for you to relish in the mirror later. 

“I can’t take it anymore.” He reaches down to grab the base of his cock, teasing your entrance. Butterflies begin to rattle in your stomach just feeling him against you finally. 

“Sit.” He commands you, taking a hand to your shoulder and pushing you down. You take him in fully, sitting all the down, your thighs against the skin of his hips. A moan roars out of you as you feel him stretch you out in one swift motion. His cock lays still inside of you as you lean down to continue a kiss upon his lips. Slowly, you begin to move your hips, allowing him to slowly slip in and out of you. 

You can feel him squirm underneath you. You’re playing his game right back to him. If he wanted to deny you of your orgasm, he can take the slow motions you are giving him right now. 

He taps the outside of your thigh twice. “Please baby.. just a little faster” he begs underneath you.

“Oh yeah, Josh? Show me how you want it.” 

He huffs a laugh to himself, accepting the challenge. He roughly grabs your hips almost to the point of it being painful, but the pleasure he is giving you from his cock is too distracting for you to care. He bucks his hips up onto your ass, shoving his cock quickly in and out of you. 

“Fuck Josh, yes keep going please!”

He grunts from all the work he’s putting in to fuck up into your pussy. His brows scrunched together focusing on pleasuring you to the fullest. As the pace of your whimpers begin to increase, and the sight of your tits bouncing in his face, his cock twitches inside of you followed by a needy whine from him. 

His right hand leaves your hip, and you watch him move it to attach to your clit. He presses slow circles onto your sensitive bud, feeling you become even more wet for him inside. Your walls begin to clench around his cock, the pleasure of both his length and his fingers becoming too much. 

“Fuck I’m gon-“

“Cum. Now.” He harshly rasps to you. 

His commanding voice helps you get there immediately. Your eyes shutting tight, and your fingernails digging into the skin of his biceps. With not a care in the world, you let your moans take over you, almost too loud. 

“Fuck.” You breathe out to him as you begin to come down back to him; he reaches for you to kiss through the tail end of your orgasm. 

“Can you turn around for me, babe?” He asks. “Won’t take long now, seeing your ass in the air for me”

His request pulls a whimper from you. You crawl out of his lap, knees on the bed, face in the pillow, and your ass up for him. He shuffles behind you, slotting himself between your ankles. His knees push yours aside, causing you to arch your back even more for him. 

He fists his length at the base, and slides his clock between your folds, gathering your arousal before slamming himself all the way into you without giving any warning.

An almost scream like moan leaves your throat, abruptly cut off as he grabs a fistful of your hair. 

He pulls you back closer to him. “Just want you to take it, okay? Can you do that for me? Be a good girl, yeah?” 

Unable to respond, your response is a mere whimper. In this new position, his cock is able to brush against your cervix easier, causing a tight feeling to form in your stomach once again. 

He reaches around to play with your clit, now faster than before. Between his harsh thrusts from behind and his fingers toying with your clit, you feel yourself nearing the edge once again. 

A swift smack to your ass causes you to jolt forward, relishing in the pleasure mixed with pain. 

“I feel you. Cum for me, love.” 

Not missing one thrust in between his words, all it takes is a few more circles around your clit to push you into oblivion once more. The involuntary clench of your walls around his cock sends him into climax as well at the same time, unleashing his warmth fully inside of you. He hunches his body over, his mouth against your ear, panting beside you. 

As you both catch your breath and come back down to earth, he reaches next to the bed to find a white undershirt lying on the floor. Softly and slowly, he slides himself out of you for the last time, wiping you clean before his cum can leak down your thigh. 

With your back no longer arched, you lay flat on the bed, head tilted onto the pillow, hands resting beneath. He tosses the shirt to the other side of the room and falls into bed next to you. 

You turn your face to him and smile. He plants a quick kiss to your lips and smiles back at you, scanning your face and smiling back to himself. 

“Pure beauty.” He whispers against your lips.

“Mmm” you snuggle yourself further into the pillow. 

His fingertips ghost the skin of your back, tracing patterns up and down your spine. Your eyes flutter shut with a smile on your face. 

Josh lays next to you, his head propped up on the palm of his hand, gazing over your features as you start to drift off. 

“Sing to me, Josh.” You mumble to him, eyes still closed. 

He giggles to himself, never stopping the tickles to your back. 

“Though I know I’ll never lose affection 

For people and things that went before 

I know I’ll often stop and think about them”

Josh notices your breathing slow down, and your face fully relaxed into the pillow. He reaches over to press a kiss to your temple, softly finishing the song in your ear. 

“In my life, I love you more.” 

my lovely taglist: @gretasimp​ @writingcold​

[saint-starflicker]

Happy Early Halloween, Chat!

By chat I mean @leiflitter (I know you're in output mode! You go, Leif's output mode; just courtesy-tagging 😁) @nbymop @rwoh @spacecasehobbit—and @wolfiso who might still be seeking out ghost stories.

I mentioned wanting to start a book club on the Fable app, and while I'm still discovering some stumbling blocks (app is sensitive to dropped connections so I often have to re-type and post twice after refreshing; the Book Quotes feature doesn't go beyond maybe 350 keystrokes; I never loved star ratings but the emoji rating is too limited and ambiguous too; only 10 tags allowed across so many different rubrics; filling out the Book Review form feels like being a research subject of a target demographic focus group, the Book Club thread-post format I think is less conducive to broader discussions about the books such as racism and disability representation and/or queer readings across a variety of works in the gothic novel "canon"...and then encouraging one another with writing, which was half my motivation for starting up a reading club in the first place, but there's not much wiggle room for customization...)

uh

maybe Fable's list function is better. Yeah. I'm gonna go with sharing my lists.

...I hope it doesn't force link-clickers to make an account before you get to see these lists, because what's the point of the list settings being Public if it's not going to be public Public?

And I don't put this up to imply that anyone reading must read all of them. This is more like, the book club could've been a wine cellar—so I appreciate recommendations because what I do have is still aggressively Anglo.

[screenshot of tweet by @MumblinDeafRo that says: "I said this before, but I try not to think of it as a TBR pile but more like a wine cellar. You try & time the right combination of mood, energy & interest, so that you pick a book when you have the best chance of getting along with it. That's what the writer prefers too." ]

Amontillado under Keep Reading cut.

Early Gothic — The Castle of Otranto (more inspired by medieval chivalric romances and I think the author even tried to pass it off as one; but in all my research everyone says this was the first gothic novel), The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne (I think was still low-key riding Otranto's coattails in addition to taking inspiration from it, not that that's a bad thing), The Castle of Wolfenbach (now we're getting somewhere), The Mysteries of Udolpho (oh Anne Radcliffe we're really in it now, and by it I mean a literary genre that was new in like 1790 CE), Glenarvon (the earliest instance of a "Byronic" character I could find that wasn't literally Lord George Gordon Byron's self-insert), The Monk (of all the gothic novels that stirred up controversy, this one was the most stirred up controversiest), Northanger Abbey (oh Jane Austen we're really in it now), Fantasmagoriana: Geschichten der Toten (translated from German to French by Jean-Baptiste Benoît Eyriès, not really on this list to read but rather to say oh George Gordon Byron we're really in it now), The Vampyre (the second instance of a "Byronic" character that I've heard about) and Frankenstein.

I elected to leave out a lot that was on Jane Austen's characters' reading lists in Northanger Abbey (Necromancer of the Black Forest, Carl Grosse's Horrid Mysteries, The Italian, The Mysterious Warning, Clermont, The Midnight Bell, and Orphan of the Rhine) because Northanger Abbey was already there, and to include some nonfiction such as Richard Hurd's "Letters on Chivalry and Romance" that was Hurd's observations on that genre's development, as well as Idée sur les Romans by Worst Human Being of the Century award-winner Marquis Donatien Alphonse François de Sade.

Midcentury and Victorian/Edwardian era Gothic — I didn't actually know whether to put The Last Man by Mary Shelley in the Early Gothic list or if 1826 can count as "midcentury". As it stands, this list begins with A Priest in 1839 by Jules Verne (written in the mid/late 1840s but not published until...1992? and unfinished), Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo, assorted novels by the Brontë sisters, The Marble Faun by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Carmilla, Dracula, Clemence Housman's Werewolf, Frances Hodgson Burnett's sort of cozy gothic kid lit, The Phantom of the Opera and The Picture of Dorian Gray.

I really wanted to add Moby Dick and Karl Heinrich Ulrichs's Manor to this list but I think "nautical gothic" could practically be its own thing.

[flowerpotmage]

Tight Grip, Broken Dam (15)

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You don’t question it anymore, when Miguel appears in your bed at night. He’s not there for sex, no, you’ve never even kissed—though you would be lying if you said you weren’t open to the idea of kissing him. He’s there for comfort. For rest. If only it could stay so simple.

Pair: Miguel O'Hara & GN!Reader

Notes: for chapter: poorly written in-universe journalism, friendly sparring, miguel in his feelings

Word Count: 2.9k

Read this chapter on Ao3 here. If you like my work, please consider leaving kudos there as well! You do not need an account to do so.

Our City Spider, a new column by Karen Page

Speculations that our friendly neighborhood Spider had been taken off the playing field permanently, either due to disabling injuries or death, have been put to bed. It’s official: Spider is back.

The vigilante hero was seen early Wednesday evening near Crosby Street, with photos and videos of the web-slinger posted soon after to social media and trending locally shortly after. It had been just over two weeks since the hero’s last sighting, at the now infamous Club Scorpion slaughters where they had been seen with a large torso injury before disappearing.

“They saved me about a year or so back,” Twitter user hawkeyestan69 said in a quote-Tweet of another user’s photos of Spider. “I’m glad they’re still kicking.”

Although Spider has maintained a nearly five-star reputation amongst the people of the city, they remain notoriously elusive to the press and have yet to endear themselves to our police force.

“I’m grateful for their work in saving lives,” one member of the force has said on the condition of anonymity. “Especially at Club Scorpion. That could have been so much worse, and we all know it. But they’re still a civilian, and I worry about what that means.”

“The Spider has done work for the people of this city,” Captain Stacy, the captain on duty the night of the Club Scorpion slaughters, said in a recent press statement. “But they are still a vigilante. We cannot become reliant on them to protect this city—their absence, whatever the cause, reinforces that fact.”

Despite the difference in opinions across officials and the public, this reporter is glad to see our Spider back, alive and well.

Gwen flips over your head, arms tucked into her chest and body straight as a pencil. You duck and watch her, crouched low to the floor.

“Doing great, kids!” Peter calls from the side.

“Feel free to join whenever,” you say, launching yourself to the side in a roll and sprint when Gwen fires off two quick webs at you.

“I’m good over here with Mayday.”

You jump, doing your own flip off a wall and firing back your own webs at Gwen who dodges just as easily.

Open space sparring practice is weird for the both of you, but presents a unique challenge to you and the rest of the Spider-People (and sentient non-people) used to terrain filled with nooks, crannies, and surfaces to climb and jump off and hide behind.

“You're avoiding hand to hand,” a new voice says.

Miguel-209.

“Yeah, they’re really half-assing it,” Peter comments, half-sarcastically.

“Oh, you can do better?” Gwen says, standing and placing a hand on her hip, all banter.

Miguel-209 stands with crossed arms by Peter. He raises an eyebrow, looking from Gwen to you and offering a small smile when he sees you already looking at him. One that you return.

“I think I can, yes,” he says.

“Have some confidence man,” Peter says, tapping Miguel-209’s arm with the back of his hand.

You smile wider at the little glance Miguel shoots at Peter—not quite a glare—and nod at him to join you on the mat when he looks your way again.

“Alright,” he says, and walks towards you.

Gwen raises her eyebrows at the two of you and walks off to stand next to Peter, effectively trading places with Miguel-209.

“Are you much of a hand to hand person?” He asks.

You shrug. “I wouldn't necessarily say that.”

He nods. “But you know the basics.”

“Enough to get by.”

“Let's work on that then.”

You shift into a ready stance, and he scans you over and mirrors you.

“Go ahead.”

You hesitate, fists raised, and then shoot a web at him. He dodges by leaning far to the side, looking at you and then shifts back.

“That’s not hand to hand.”

You shoot another, and this time when he leans out of the way he grabs the long strand of web still attached to your wrist, pulling you closer. You stumble, ducking under the swing of his hand and finally shaking the web free from the spinneret in your wrist, balancing on your hands to swing a leg out at his ankles. Miguel-209 jumps back, landing with his finger pad talons extended—you watch as he retracts them.

“Pretty good recovery,” he says, smiling warmly. You catch a flash of his teeth, of a fang, before he closes his lips again and lunges for you.

It goes on like this for a few minutes. Miguel-209 attacks, you dodge and try to counter, he dodges, and it starts again. Attack, dodge, attack, dodge. You finally gain the upper hand when you use your webs again, landing one on his ankle and pulling hard. He topples, foot yanked out from under him and landing on his back with a soft oof from his lungs.

“You went easy on me,” you chuckle, catching your breath as you stand over him.

His eyes twinkle as he looks up at you from the mat. “So did you.”

You offer a hand, helping him back to his feet. “Again?”

He nods, the two of you retaking your starting positions. “Let’s kick it up a notch.”

This time you start, bolting towards him before the anticipation can build too much or he can prepare himself too well. Instead of going to block you, he swipes—big arms going to grapple you. You drop, sliding under his grasp and past his legs, swinging on the floor to kick at the back of his knee.

It buckles under the impact and Miguel-209 nearly drops to the floor, catching himself on his hands before his knee touches the mat. He spins, turning to face you and lunging again—

You barely blink before you’re on your back and Miguel’s got your thigh pinned to the ground under his foot, his palms pressing each forearm to the floor. His fingers aren’t wrapped around your limbs, and when you look you see it’s because the sharp points in his fingertips are out and piercing the gym-mat under you.

You look back up at him, and blink. “Damn.”

He laughs, and you catch a glance of his teeth again.

“Best of three?” you ask.

“Let’s call it a draw,” he says, pulling his hands back with a small tug, lifting his foot off your leg. He offers an outstretched palm to help you up, and you take it. “You did pretty good, I’d hate to embarrass you more in front of your friends.”

You laugh, dropping his hand now that you’re standing. “Sounds like projection to me.”

You switch with Gwen, who’s eager to give it another try after a short rest.

“He’s good,” Peter says when you lean against the wall next to him.

You hum in agreement, watching Gwen and Miguel-209 spar. His style is different from your own Miguel’s, and your mind wanders to the thought of sparring with him. He’s stronger than you by leagues, that’s a given, but you’re faster. If you put your all into evasion, would he be able to catch you? Maybe. He’s clever, afterall. What would that be like? Would he pin you, like 209 did just then? He’s comfortable with you, he’d probably get closer, crowd you in. Would he be less afraid to manhandle you? You hope so—

You blink, jolted out of your quickly devolving daydream, at the slam of Gwen hitting the mat, face hot.

“Good job,” Miguel-209 says, pulling her off the floor with an offered hand.

“Thanks,” Gwen grins, cheeks flushed and breathless from the exertion of the quick fight. She turns to you and Peter. “Anyone else hungry?”

“I could eat,” you nod.

Miguel-209 nods with you, and then the four of you—plus May—go to the cafeteria. You each take turns holding the baby so everyone can eat in peace, without her reaching hands in the way. While Miguel-209 answers Gwen’s stream of questions, Peter watches you bounce May on your lap, eyes scanning over your half eaten meal, and the little to-go box sitting next to your plate.

“Bringing food to the boss again?”

You look at Peter over his daughter’s head, his face one of carefully crafted and open neutrality. You don’t reply—but your face must say enough, because Peter looks at Miguel-209 next to you, then pointedly back at you.

You shake your head, not in response to his question but in response to… whatever that look was, and look back at Gwen.

“I was wondering if I could crash at yours again,” she says. “Things are stirring up in Hobie’s dimension, and I stick out like a sore thumb over there.”

“Of course,” you smile. “You’re welcome any time.”

“You can always stay with me and MJ,” Peter adds.

You make plans for Gwen to come by yours later that night, before everyone finishes eating and goes their separate ways.

You bring your to-go container to Miguel’s lab.

“Hey,” you call into the shadows.

No response. Not entirely unusual, so you forge ahead.

“I brought you some food, in case you haven’t eaten,” you say, and then you see him.

He’s on his platform, the one with all the golden holo-screens and files and reports. His back is to you, tension in his shoulders and spine slightly hunched—microscopically, but you notice all the same. You’ve seen something similar enough times to guess at what’s happening.

A quick thwip of web from the spinneret in your wrist and you’re on the platform with him, setting the little takeout container to the side.

“Hey,” you say again, softer, quieter.

Miguel takes a breath.

You close the gap, walking slow enough for him to turn or stop you, and rest your hand on his back. He turns his head to look at you now, frustration and hurt in his eyes. You don’t lift your hand when he turns his body to face you, instead letting it slide from his shoulder blade around to rest on his upper arm.

“You okay?” you ask.

His eyes drop from yours, brow furrowing slightly more, his chest rising with a deep and steadying inhale.

“Yeah,” he says.

It’s automatic, the way your hand squeezes his arm in reassurance, the way something in the back of your mind flips at the size of it under your hand, the way you step forward to wrap your arms around his middle. He hesitates, stiffening slightly, and you start to pull back, but then his arms are around you—engulfing you—and you’re pulled back in.

He’s still tense. Still… off, somehow.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” you ask, cheek against the muscle of his chest. You can hear his heart like this, the cartilage of your ear against his suit. The red glows slightly, and you close your eyes against it.

It thumps steadily, kicks up and chugs along when Miguel shakes his head, face against the top of your head.

“Okay,” you say. “I’m here, though.”

Your heart stops when he kisses the top of your head, pulling away and unwrapping his arms from around you.

“You brought me food?” he asks, struggling to meet your eyes.

You clear your throat, turning and picking up the takeout box to hand it over to him. “I had a feeling you’d forget lunchtime, so…”

He accepts it, gloved fingers grazing yours. “Thank you.”

You swallow, tamping down the zing that races up your arm. “Want some company?”

He actually smiles a little, now. It’s tight, but it’s something. “Sure.”

You settle into your usual spot, leaning back against an infrequently used area of the console and watch him close out a task on his holo-screens. With his back to you he turns his attention back to the food you’ve brought him. You watch as he turns and mirrors you in resting his weight on the console—though its height is too tall for you to casually perch, it’s perfect for him to half-sit, half-lean on. You watch as he pulls his glove off with his teeth, your breath catching.

He looks at you at the small sound of your inhale, the glove still in his teeth and paused mid-pull.

You stare.

His eyes flick across your face, and then he continues, slowly pulling his hand fully out from the tight blue and red fabric. Once his hand is free he takes the glove from his teeth and sets it aside.

You swallow. “I always assumed you could just…” You gesture vaguely, the movement of your hand indicating sweeping something back from your face. “The mask thing. But that’s the second time I’ve seen you take your glove off like that.”

The corner of his lips twitch, looking down as he opens the takeout food container. “The shape of a hand is more complicated for the nano-fiber technology,” he explains. I need it to be tougher there than on my face, on account of…” he pauses, rubbing his fingertips together, before spreading his fingers and allowing the sharp points hiding in his fingertips to emerge.

You nod, looking at his bare hand. “I see.”

He retracts the sharp points—you briefly wonder at the correct terminology. Are they talons? Claws? Something else?—and begins eating.

“You know,” you begin, watching his hand. “I don’t think we’ve ever sparred.”

Miguel raises an eyebrow at you. “No, we haven’t.”

You meet his gaze. “Do you spar with anybody?”

“I get my practice out there,” he says, and you know he’s referring to his city.

“Mm. I see.”

He eats in silence for a moment, and you consider asking if he would ever spar with you, images your mind had conjured earlier returning to present themselves. You squash them own, and instead say:

“Gwen’s going to stay with me again for a little bit.”

Miguel looks down, and nods.

Miguel hates his apartment.

He lives in what amounts to a penthouse at the top of the Spider Society Headquarters building, and it’s just as sterile as every floor below. Sleek white walls and counters, gray furniture. He gave up on trying to keep a plant months ago, after seeing how healthy yours were in comparison to his sad attempts. The couch is bare with the exception of two stiff throw pillows—a slate blue-gray.

He passes the living room, the kitchen, and goes straight to the bedroom.

“Lyla, start the shower.”

“You got it, boss.”

The dull white noise hum sound of the shower starting reaches his ears as he strips, shrugging off the torso of his suit, pulling his arms free of the tight fabric like a snake shedding its skin.

The bed in the center of the room—overly large for just one person, even a man of his stature—looks all wrong. The bed sheets are too smooth, the blanket crisp and set as if ready to be photographed for an online shop listing.

He huffs a breath out of his nose, turning his attention back to shedding his suit.

He leaves it in a puddle on the floor, straightening up with a roll of his shoulders. The still air on his bare skin feels… odd. Almost unpleasant, even.

He leaves nearly all the lights off, and Lyla lets them be as well, as he leaves the room and makes his way to the bathroom—one light is on in here, dim and warm, soft on his sensitive eyes.

His shower is better than yours. The water pressure, the size, the quality of the water itself. But even so the enjoyment—and the sudden memory of the last time he was in here thinking about you, getting off to a wet dream—is muddied by an undercurrent of something he can’t name. He rushes through his shower as the water runs rivulets and rivers over his skin, helping lather and then clear off the soap he uses to clean every inch of his skin.

It comes back when he’s out of the shower, meeting his reflection’s eyes. He tries to rub it away as he moisturizes, as he returns to his room and dresses. It trots at his heels behind him through the hall and to the kitchen, rises up higher still at the sight of his pathetically bare fridge. He hasn't been spending enough time here to get groceries, so it's no surprise. He’s been putting more focus into your fridge, back home—

“Shock,” he whispers, squeezing his eyes shut and covering his face with his palm. His fork clatters to his half-empty dish.

Even though he can't see it, eyes covered as they are, he feels the empty space around him. Too empty. The air is closing in—

He takes a shuddering, deep breath. This is fine. He can manage to exist in his own home for one night.

When was the last time he actually did, though?

He’s barely there as he puts the remainder of his food in the fridge (he couldn't bring himself to eat the rest, the unease in his stomach is too vivid, too large) and places the dish in the sink. He’s miles—no, universes away as his body walks down the hallway to his room and slides under his bedsheets. The walls are too empty, he thinks while laying on his side.

He shuts his eyes and sighs as he rolls onto his back—then huffs a frustrated breath and rolls over onto his stomach, burying his face in his pillow. The smell of it is wrong, but the pressure on his chest is better.

He can do this. He can sleep in his own room.

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[nonaonann]

Gothamites must have THE BIGGEST headache trying to keep track of all the birds and bats. I mean, all the different mantles they uptake during their vigilante tenure, think the robins and the batgirls,, plus all the different names and costumes they take up before settling into whatever DC continuity decides on.

Bonus: You think when one of them goes through an extreme costume change, some gothamites just think a new one has hit the streets?

ALSO, imagine trying to talk about a specific batgirl but it's just:

(For context, in current canon, both Steph and Cass are Batgirl. They're operating at the same time with the same name.)

"Oh, the ginger? She was badass. I dont think she's a Batgirl anymore though."

"No, I'm talking about the other one."

"The other one? Bro, there's more than one."

"The newest one on the scene."

"The purple one?"

"No, bro. She's been on the vigilante scene longer than the other one."

"Bro, no she hasn't. The ginger was the first one."

"I'm not talking about the ginger!"

"..."

"..."

"The one covered head to toe in black?"

"YES!"

"But she was Batgirl before the purple one."

"But the purple one's been on the streets longer."

"But she's the newest batgril?"

"She was a robin before that. The girl one."

"BRO, I KNOW THERE HAS NOT BEEN A PURPLE ROBIN."

"Dumbass, of course not! She wore the same colors as the others."

"Wait. So she wasn't that other purple vigilante?"

"Dude, Spoiler and the purple Batgirl are two different people."

"No way, dude. They have the same cloak thingy. Plus, no way Spoiler would let some girl walk around in her color, she was kinda territorial 'bout it. They have to be the same person!"

"Bro, based on that argument, the Robins might as well all be the same person."

"Ah, that's true... Backtrack, you said the girl Robin. There's been two."

"No there hasn't, dude."

"Yes there has. The second ginger one was a girl."

"There is no ginger Robin, bro, let alone two. Only black haired and one blondie."

"Dude, I swear I'm not lying about that."

.

It must be even worse with the Robins. No one can agree how many there's been, what hair colors they had, if they wore pants or not, if they've died, their age, their gender, what new name they picked up (if they dont think ex. Robin 1 and Nightwing are two dofferent people). It's all chaos.

Just, imagine this:

(Their referring to the Robin toy in the BatBurger kids meal btw)

"What Robin's this thing modeled after?"

"...Definitely not the new kid. That thing's [the toy] pale as the frickin' moon."

"So...one of the black haired ones?"

"Dude, they practically all have black hair."

"Bro...we talked about this last week. There were two gingers and a blonde."

"Yeah, but then Bobby said there was no way there were six robins."

"But then Tiff said there was definitely a blonde one cuz she met the girl a few times."

"Oh, and she did say there was at least one ginger, but he went emo, black box dye or somethin'."

"Oh wait, this one [the toy] doesn't have pants."

"That's still like half of them, dude!"

"Well I'm sorry, Bro! Take it up with the Bat! Tell him to get some fucking variety."

BONUS:

(Situation: someone being held hostage is being saved/handed over to paramedics or something OR report asking the question gothamites are dying to ask)

"Are you ever going to give an official statement on how many vigilantes are operating in Gotham?"

*inaccurate stare translation: Even I don't know how many there are. They keep appearing no matter how many times we do a headcount.*

"Silent treatment, terrific. What if I said a number, this number including you in the count, and then you said higher or lower?"

*small nod*

"Ten?"

*points a finger up, holds back an amused smile in response to the person's godsmacked face, then grapples away*

.

[The next day | someone's reading the article/blog post/tweet]

"There's more than ten of us??"

[jxnisnotfunny]

(long post ahead. sorry if anything i say is wrong. please, respectfully, correct me where necessary)

btw i'm not reblogging anything regarding yesterday's fiasco on twitter of motaz and bisan being called out as antiblack.

the bisan part of it was made up with zero evidence by the person on twitter who wanted to stop """supporting""" palestine as soon as possible. literally, they straight up pulled it out of their ass and hit send tweet.

as for the motaz part however, there was a video of what he said, but it's still being questioned whether the video was actually antiblack or not (sudanese people- being a group of black people- have the right to say what is and isn't antiblack. hope that helps). however, motaz nonetheless apologized in this tweet and clarified the situation, to which an ACTUAL sudanese person (who btw is currently still being harassed for claiming what motaz said was antiblack) has forgiven him in a quote tweet.

this strike was supposed to be better than last time... flooding the timelines with information and uplifting palestinian voices (and the voices of others undergoing genocides in their countries, like sudan), not starting unnecessary drama. i'm saying this as a half black person: if you guys continue to make a big stink about this now, you have effectively failed the strike within its final hours and never cared about the strike in the first place. if you stopped supporting palestine because of this, you're a fickle piece of shit who only cares about yourself and the people in your own space and never cared about palestine or its people in the first place. for some reason, you've seemingly forgotten, there ARE black palestinians. what happened yesterday, whether you consider it antiblack or not, does not reflect the views of all palestinians, and they still need your help right now.

also, i think this goes without being said now, but motaz and bisan were NEVER meant to be these ultimate pillars of the palestinian voice. while it is important that they are journalists, and some of only a few surviving ones left unfortunately, it's important to not forget the roughly 2 MILLION OTHER PALESTINIANS fighting for their lives physically, emotionally and mentally in their homeland right now, especially with ramadan approaching evermore and the threat of a mass bombing campaign looming over their heads and ours.

this is what zionists want (if i heard correctly, they've already started weaponizing the motaz video against us). this is what "israel" wants. this is what the governments aiding "israel" want. this is what the big corporations being boycotted want. this is what the people who never gave a shit about palestine want. they want our silence, so that they can continue their genocidal settler colonialist campaign and show all oppressed people everywhere that we've learned absolutely nothing. do NOT give them that satisfaction. do NOT let them rest. they need to keep writhing in their own suffering of knowing that humanity actually cares about oppressed people.

the strike continues all throughout today. make this last day count, and every day after that.

[wrongcaitlyn]

can we angels have a nico di angelo stats update as of today's latest chapter?? like insta followers, twt followers, monthly listeners that typa stuff 😁😁😁

YES of course!! i hadn't mentioned it in a while bc from nico's pov, it's never been something he's worried too much about, and quite honestly i hadn't thought about it in a bit either so i had to do a little research (aka, looking up celebs that i think have a relatively similar sized fanbase/what i most recently said - according to the last chapter of talk your talk, he had 5 million insta followers, and 5 million monthly listeners when he went back to school post-haunted)

since the end of talk your talk, he's released new romantics and been on a world tour

for twitter, it seems to be less than the number of insta followers, usually about 1/6 - 1/3-ish of a celeb's insta follower count

he's released a whole ass album since that 5 million monthly listeners, and new romantics charted pretty high

monthly listeners count how many individual users listen to the account, not the total number of streams (hence why the weeknd is higher than taylor in terms of that, because he has more really popular singles rather than having fans returning to albums and whatnot, which would be more of a nico thing

and streams in general were less in 2019 (not a huge difference, but a difference nonetheless)

for reference of that, noah kahan has 36m monthly listeners and is 96th in the world; sabrina carpenter has 39m monthly listeners and is 82nd in the world (and just released a single that's expected to chart top 10 next week)

so i think a rough estimate would be abt this:

insta - 6.2 million

twitter - 1.6 million

spotify monthly listeners - 35 milllion, 95th in the world

bonus thoughts:

most streamed song - getaway car, 800m streams (used nonsense by sabrina carpenter as a reference)

latest release - new romantics, 130m streams

apollo's insta - 11.1 million (i mentioned he had 9 million right when haunted was released)

leo's twitter - 290k (he swears that one day he's going to surpass nico and he's slowly getting there,,, very slowly bc he has to actually tweet things instead of just releasing albums and letting the followers come LMAO)

so yeah these are my estimates for now!! feel free to let me know if you think differently, because tbf, i don't really track any of these things and have limited celeb popularity knowledge, the only thing i really track are billboard charts bc they're fun😭 hoping for espresso to get in top ten this week!!

aside from that... rest assured that these follower counts will soon be SURGING upwards. fun things happening soon :) thank you for the ask!

edit: SABRINA DID MAKE IT TO THE TOP TEN WOOO SHE GOT #7 ON THE BILLBOARD HOT 100 LETS GOO I WAS LIKE HALF OF THOSE STREAMS 100%

also too sweet got #1 sooo deserving

and stick season still going strongg!!

[basil-the-scorned]

Spend the Night

AN: Damn, I really picked the worst time to finish this... but a fic is a fic, and I never wrote for Punk before, so why not?!

This isn't explicit, but it's implied...barely.

Also, if you don't want to read it on here, here's a link to it.

Boredom is a dangerous feeling. It tests the patience of everyone, and leads the mind to do anything to relieve it. It's also a dangerous motive when placed in the hands of someone that has become numb to the sense of time and are willing to do anything to make it pass.

Currently, it was in Punk's hands as he was splayed out of the hotel bed, waiting on Dax to come back from getting the DVD he forgot to pick up at CVS.  Honestly, he was still getting used to the hotel room in general, so much empty space to be in alone that he called up his friends for a movie night. That was promised 20 minutes ago and counting, when being laid out in a starfish position seemed to be a great idea. Now his limbs felt stiffer than ever.

 "When did getting a DVD take this long???" Punk complained, bringing his arms down to a stretch with a pained groan.  

"You know Dax doesn't know how to make one stop." As he arched his back in his stretch, he heard Cash finally push himself backwards and land right next to Punk on the bed. "Probably getting some more drinks or something."

"Not like we needed more. We have a whole bar over there...somewhere." Punk barely waves to the other side of the room, like he didn't check as soon as he walked in and found nothing but regular water, a brand of sparkling water that was more salt than flavor and soda that was more syrup than a drink. "Whatever. Let's hope he at least sends some kind of update." Another long stretch and then Punk flops back down onto the mattress, not used to the softness that greeted his back instead of cardboard or pain. 

He also wasn't used to the silence that followed his last words which  was...comforting. Not tense or awkward, just a comfortable silence between them. It was a far cry from what he was used to, when quiet usually being the result of building tension from the people around him. Punk felt Cash move closer to him, his arm pressing against his own and that small tension he had began to fade. 

 He wished he could say the same to the boredom that was slowly trying to trickle back in. So before his mind really starts to glaze over,  he blindly grabs his phone in his pocket.

 It was nothing on there to see, just something mindless to do in the meantime. He doesn't even know half of what he was scrolling through on his phone, a lot of it blurring in his mind. Weird trending tweet, blue check-mark tweet, some rapper's dick he really didn't want to see.  Again, mindless shit, so mindless that he might as well just go back to staring at the ceiling. But it gave his hands something to do, so he just kept scrolling. 

He felt something near his arms and tensed up out of reflex, but a light squeeze made the tension leave out.  His eyes went back on the screen as he felt something again, only it stayed and started to make their way up his arm, towards his chest. Something he was familiar with enough to just keep his half attention on the phone, his teeth finding their way into his bottom lip to keep the smile at bay. The bed began to dip as more weight was added onto him, his waist being straddled and he flexed the hand that wasn't on his phone to keep from reaching out.  It was becoming a losing battle though, especially when he felt his shirt being raised up and up until it became bunched up near his chest.

He still kept his eyes on his phone, trying to type out the tweet he half-assed and wanted to send out.  But letters were getting harder to type out when fingers were making their way all across his tattoos all on his chest, and Punk couldn't help the slight shiver that took over as nails made their way along.  He finally glanced up from his phone to see Cash looking right at him with mischief written all over his face, his hands never stopped with the tracing.

When the phone finally pinged with something , it was on the other side of the bed. He ignored the second time it tried to get his attention, his hands now underneath Cash's shirt getting him just as worked up. 

The final time it gave out it's notification, Punk's mouth was too busy to even respond.

Little did they care to know was that on the other side of the phone was Dax, who has been through store hell for the last hour. Leave it to the three of them wanting to be old-school and get a DVD of a movie he barely heard of but Punk saw at CVS and it was the last one around here, and he'll make it up to him if he got it for him, please? So he got into his truck with a flushed face, and drove over to the nearest CVS that almost looked like it was about to shut down for safety reasons more than open.

Turns out the CVS here barely has DVDs anymore, and the other one that would have it was 20 more minutes from here. So he went to the Walmart that was across the street instead because surely they have that there, and he was one son of a gun who was gonna be a little hard-headed with this.  And he was right, but he had to do some digging in a 5$ bin for so long that he got some looks his way he's already gotten used to years ago. 

Now he had the disk in the white see through bag in his hands, and this was the third text that have not been responded to since then. Punk usually responds quickly, in fact he's the quickest person Dax knows to respond to his texts, so not answering is something new that he's not sure he likes all that well. 

It's Punk though.  Besides, he finally made it back to the hotel door, so no point in worrying now.  He pushed the card down far enough until he heard a loud 'click' noise and with his other hand that wasn't wrapped around the Walmart bag, he pressed on the door handle and burst into the room.

The words Dax had on his tongue though left two steps into the door, as his eyes catch his tag partner on his back, his skin more a lot more flushed than he remembered. From the way Punk's hand was wrapped around him, he can make a few guesses as to how it got that red.

He tossed the DVD next to the TV stand, and then took a few more steps towards the bed. A painted arm, too busy to call him over, just grabbed him by the pants and dragged him forward.

Hours later, the TV finally was turned on to the movie. The TV however, was playing to a silent audience, who was wrapped up in the sheets and had let sleep take over. 

[totaldramafan-lauri]

Thoughts on Queen Bee

It was good. I enjoyed myself. Definitely one of the weaker episodes, but it wasn’t TRYING to be anything groundbreaking, so it’s fine. I was able to adjust my expectations in just the right way after Viv tweeted about it. She reminded us that this was gonna be a style-over-substance episode, and that’s what we got! A LOTTA style, and not much substance.....(unless you count the ones Blitzo was running on all episode)

The only thing groundbreaking is Kesha, who it turns out, is a pretty good VA? And having a song actually written by her, and performed by a DARN GOOD sound-alike. The lyrics of “Cotton Candy” aren’t amazing, but it SOUNDS great, and that’s what matters for party songs. XD I’ve had it stuck in my head all day.

It’s cool to have another complete song outta Helluva. We need more of those in season 2. “House Of Asmodeus” spoiled me XD

As for Bee herself, I didn’t really like her design all that much at first, cuz she didn’t look anything like I’d imagine Beelzebub to look in Helluva (compared to Ozzie who I thought was a good interpretation of how people usually envision Asmodeus). She’s not ugly or anything, and I love her color palette, but it felt like Viv was more focused on the Die Young callback than making her look like the Sin when designing her. But apparently, there ARE some things that she’s kept in mind and played around with (such as “Lord of the Flies” becoming “Queen Bee” - even though she should technically be a princess since the other Sins are princes, it rolls off the tongue better here), and she has a more monstrous form that we get to see. I’m pretty sure I’ll like her more as I get used to her. She just wasn’t what I expected.

There’s not really a lot to talk about story-wise. Like I said, style over substance. “Visual spectacle” to cap the season off. I like that it’s a happier second half to Ozzie’s. Both have parties run by a Sin, both have big songs, but the mood is completely different, like they’re symbolizing the different parts of Helluva’s first season - the dramatic, character-driven part, and the fun, humorous part. It’s a shame that the legal issues held this episode back so long that it can’t be considered Ozzie’s second half anymore, cuz I really do like the idea of the two episodes being foils to each other.

But uh, anyway! The only real meat in this story is just a few sweet moments between Loona and Blitzo. And also Loona being SUCH a mood. Me at parties. Always. XD It was also cool to see Tex again, since I like him, and Bee gets points for actually seeming pretty chill, especially compared to Ozzie. But that’s really it. The comedy wasn’t even really that amazing. The Dennis scene was the only time I really laughed, but I’ll take what I can get.

The delays also screwed the episode over slightly. I DO still feel bad for Blitzo, but if the episode had been released in order, I would’ve been a lot more scared for his mental state. It does lose a LITTLE impact when we know he’s gonna recover (or at least, mostly recover).

A teeny bit of woldbuilding here too- It was also cool to see a bit of the Gluttony ring - yeah, just one location, but it gets me curious to see more of it someday. We also get references to Satan and Belphagor, which means that.....there’s only one left. Only one Sin we haven’t heard from. The one who’s, fittingly, from the one ring we haven’t been to yet - Envy. I wanna see the Envy ring now. What’re they gonna do with that place? It can’t even be green! Greed is green! How does a place run by envy look? I guess the ring will be.....aquatic-themed? Maybe? I’m worried that we probably won’t be meeting the man himself due to involvement in Hazbin, but I wanna see the ring at least. Surprise me, Helluva! You already did that last episode with Sloth looking actually neat and appealing, pfffff- But yeah, that’s a long-term hope. Let’s actually get to Mammon first. One thing at a time.

S-sorry for the tangent, but yeah, this episode really doesn’t have a lot to talk about. I’m done now. XD It was fun to watch, but not one of the best I’ve seen from the show!