#i know there could be some tone or connotation with the person's question that i am missing that makes it 'creepy'

[ingravinoveritas]

Hello! I hope you are doing fine! I am *definitely* going to add to you overflowing askbox, so I apologise in advance.... (I didn't know where to post this, and I seriously don't know how to feel about this post)

Hi there! I...wow. Okay, I clearly turned off my Anons just in time, or at the worst possible time (I'm not sure which). But this was a hell of a thing to see first thing this morning, and after seeing the notes on that post, I think this person was right to send this question via a throwaway account, because they knew they would get flamed for it.

First of all, whether or not this person should have even asked Neil this question is entirely up for debate. GO season 2 is done, it's in the can and about to be released, so it's not as if there is anything Neil can do about Peter and Ty being in it. I can also understand Neil likening this person's concern about the casting to people saying prior to GO season 1 that it was a huge mistake to cast Michael and David. I could see him equating the two, in his mind, and feeling like this is déjà vu all over again and thusly responding from that vantage.

However...I'm really at a loss as to his opening sentence, in which he describes the person's question as "creepy." I've read and reread the person's question multiple times, and for my part, I did not think there was anything creepy about this question. The person seemed to take great care in asking it--especially with English not being their first language--and did not make any threats toward anyone, nor say anything inappropriate (again, as far as I could tell). This leads me to think that Neil very deliberately used that word, setting the stage for and tacitly encouraging what he alluded to but did not say aloud--that this person is silly and stupid for asking a seemingly harmless question and deserves to be treated accordingly.

There was one part of the person's question that Neil homed in on (and that seems to be a common refrain in the notes and on Twitter), which was that this person cannot separate the characters from the actors, nor tell fiction from reality. Yet I also did not get this feeling from their question, and was taken aback by Neil seemingly twisting around what the person was actually trying to say. The specific focus on this part of the question also seemed to serve the purpose of steering discussion away from the heart of the person's question, which was about nepotism. And it's here, at this particular point, that Neil's response does not really seem to stand up to scrutiny.

First of all, the comment about "a season that hasn't even been commissioned in parts that haven't been written" is disingenuous at best, as not even a week ago, it was Neil himself who said that Georgia was offered a part in season 2. So this is not really a hypothetical concern, as Georgia actually was offered a part. I also thought it was interesting that Neil conveniently did not mention the bonus episode of Sandman, in which both Georgia and Anna had voice roles in scenes with their respective partners. So again, not a hypothetical, but something that actually previously happened. And in both these cases, it does not seem that an audition was required, but rather that the roles were offered to Georgia and AL because they happened to be there/it simplified things since Sandman was recorded during Covid times.

Another thing that has been overlooked was David himself at the Basingstoke Comic Con this past weekend being asked about his favorite scene in GO 2. After mentioning that his son is in the scene, David also says his father-in-law (Peter) is in the show. The interviewer then asks, "And your wife and your neighbor?" to which David's response is "They are not in it, but it’s a sore point, so don’t dwell on it." I thought that was an interesting choice of words, because if everything involving offering Georgia a part did go exactly the way Neil described, why would it be a sore point? If Georgia researched the role and had absolutely no compunction about turning it down, why would she be annoyed or upset? It seems like something small, I know, but it just makes me question some of the things we're being told.

In terms of Peter and Ty's roles, I do understand that Peter is a fixture on the acting landscape in the UK, so I fully get Neil offering him a part, but I find his answer regarding Ty to be extremely dubious, at best. Neil and David have been friends since 2017--so, six years now--and is he truly expecting us to believe that he has no idea what David's son looks like? Even if they haven't had occasion to meet in person, does it really make sense that David would have never shown him a picture? Especially given how he beams with pride when talking about Ty and his accomplishments. Also, I realize the days of traditional audition tapes are long gone, but does it seem at all plausible that Neil wouldn't have seen Ty's name on the clip he watched, or that if he'd seen the name "Ty Tennant," it wouldn't have rung a bell?

But rather than address any of this, Neil--for reasons I can only begin to guess--decided to respond to this person as condescendingly and dismissively as possible. The bit about "shattered the fragile illusion and revealed to people that the David Tennant and Michael Sheen who play Crowley and Aziraphale are actors" was beyond insulting (as if we don't know that Michael and David are actors?), but what really grates my cheese is the fact that it opened the door to people in the notes accusing people who have had concerns about these issues of being "in an echo chamber." I would argue that the people who are somehow not aware of these concerns are the ones actually living in an echo chamber, because there has been a LOT of talk about this ever since Neil shared that cropped photo two months ago. (Also, I am aware that a combined 146 votes is by no mean a representative sample of an entire fandom, but if the results of the two polls I recently posted are any indication, a lot of people seem ambivalent (in the case of Ty and Peter) or outright against (in the case of Georgia and AL) these casting choices.)

Overall, I would say that I am deeply disappointed in this type of response from someone I've always thought was a brilliant writer and a really cool guy. I fully acknowledge that Neil can say whatever he wants, of course, but it's really strange to me that someone who has been so tight-lipped and "wait and see" about everything GO 2 up until now is suddenly delving into details. For months, Neil gave no answers regarding a trailer or character names or even a crumb of plot, so I'm just downright confused as to why these particular questions merited an answer. Neil could've even simply said, "Your concern is noted and appreciated, but everything is fine", or not answered this question at all (which I think probably would've been the better route), but instead, he went the way he did, and here we are.

So those are pretty much my thoughts on this whole thing. I am still looking forward to GO season 2, but this has definitely colored my perceptions to a degree. I guess we'll see what happens...

[heavenboundhotel]

✨"NANCY"✨

Disclaimer: This character in particular covers a lot of heavy subject matter including eating disorders, severe mental illness, abuse, suicide, misogyny, and systemic racism. While other characters do and will have similar themes she's the one I'm most concerned about - everything about this rewrite is done in good faith and with understanding of some of the connotations of things Viv ignores in her writing, but if anyone finds this portrayal offensive genuinely please let me know and I will take it into account going forward.

Name: Aikawa Nami

Species/Origin: Sinner, Bug Demon

Gender/Pronouns: Female, She/Her

Sexuality: Unsure/Questioning

Year of Birth: 1933

Year of Death: 1957

Appearance:

Personality:

Nami is, at first glance, cheerful and friendly. She tends to try to tone herself down but does sometimes have difficulty controlling her energy and emotions - easily excited and easily overstimulated. She can be scatterbrained but does her best to appear put-together, a chronic people-pleaser with a fear of being seen as "too much". She has a deep discomfort and fear of uncleanliness, contamination OCD leading to extreme sanitation and avoidance behaviors and overwhelming anxiety. She soothes herself through things like collecting dolls, drawing, and singing to herself - compensating for a childhood she never got to experience. Because of ideals she was raised with, she holds a lot of internalized misogyny and a fixation on men due to the pressure to find a husband and be a proper housewife - easily opening herself up to mistreatment due to what she views as her "place" or role as a woman.

Backstory:

Nami Aikawa was born in 1933 in Los Angeles, California, to Japanese-American immigrants. From an early age, her boundless energy and vivid imagination set her apart, often frustrating her parents and teachers. Unbeknownst to her, these were early signs of ADHD—a condition poorly understood and heavily stigmatized in her community. Her struggles with focus and impulsivity frequently led to punishment at school and at home, reinforcing a growing belief that something was inherently wrong with her.

As World War II escalated, prejudice against Japanese-Americans intensified. At the age of nine, Nami and her family were forcibly relocated to a Japanese internment camp. The conditions were harsh: overcrowding, poor sanitation, and a constant atmosphere of fear and persecution. It was during this time that Nami developed severe contamination OCD, fixating on cleanliness as a way to assert control in an environment that felt overwhelmingly dirty and unsafe. Even after the war ended and her family was released, these compulsions lingered, shaping much of her daily life.

In the years that followed, Nami faced relentless societal pressure to conform to rigid gender roles, further compounded by her experience as a woman of color. To better assimilate into white American society, she began going by “Nancy,” distancing herself from her Japanese heritage in a desperate bid for acceptance. Embracing the ideals of 1950s domesticity, she became obsessed with the notion of being the perfect housewife, despite not yet being married. Nami meticulously maintained her appearance, convinced that beauty, thinness, and subservience were the only ways she could compensate for her perceived shortcomings. Her contamination OCD fueled a growing struggle with anorexia, as she began associating food with uncleanliness.

By her early twenties, Nami was deeply lonely and desperate for validation. She gravitated toward abusive men, mistaking their cruelty for love and believing it was her duty as a woman to endure it. One such relationship ultimately led to her demise. When her boyfriend fell ill, her contamination OCD spiraled out of control. Terrified of contracting his sickness, she began poisoning his food with cleaning products, convinced it would "cleanse" him. Overwhelmed by guilt and consumed by fear that she had also been infected, Nami ingested the same cleaning products in a desperate attempt to "purify" herself.

Nami’s arrival in Hell was marked by confusion and despair. Aimlessly wandering through Hell, she desperately tried to maintain her compulsive habits of order and cleanliness in a world that thrived on chaos.

It was during one of Alistair’s rare strolls outside his domain that he discovered her. Recognizing an opportunity, Alistair offered her a soul contract—promising her a semblance of purpose and security in exchange for managing parts of his operations.

Eager for stability and prone to interpreting male attention as romantic interest, Nami immediately misconstrued Alistair’s offer as an act of love. She agreed to the contract under the firm belief that he was infatuated with her, despite his repeated and dry assurances to the contrary. To this day, she playfully “rejects” his supposed advances, much to his bemusement, while remaining fiercely loyal to him. She often refers to him as her “dashing benefactor,” which he is somewhat charmed by. He holds affection towards her of his own, though purely platonic and somewhat condescending.

[entomolog-t]

What’s one big cultural difference between giants and tinies in your character’s world. 

Ahh this is such a good question!

I think Finding Strength has some really fun examples of this.

The borrowers (might give them their own fancy pants original name so TBD) have some pretty interesting differences from humans. One of my favorite is their view on skin. They get cold far easier than people, and showing excess skin is far more intimate and not casually done as a result. They have a practice of tattooing important life events, connections, blessings achievements etc... on their skin, and the location of which is important as well, with the closer to the core of the body being far more "important to ones being" and considered very intimate details about them (marriage, trauma, blessings, goals, mourning) whereas things on the extremities could be things such as representing slaying a mouse, a tattoo gifted from a family member to show their love etc...

Overtime this has resulted in untattooed skin being viewed in a variety of ways. It can be seen as innocent/youthful/naïve or inexperienced... or even be seen as naked in a way, like the person is uncovered. On the flipside, more negative connotations could be that the person is lazy/unloved/underachieved/lonely or even that they're hiding something. The negative connotations are less common and usually paired with some other indicators (specifically someone who is old and has no tattoos and no one really knows them?? sketchy.)

This makes it extremely bizarre and borderline inappropriate interacting with most humans-- the combination of how much more skin they're okay showing, the sheer amount of skin, and the fact that for many of them its untattooed is just unfathomably scandalous for the small folk.

BONUS

There is a lot of slang that Tamius will use in Finding Strength! I love giving him all these different little sayings and insults.

They have their own writing system. Its still spoken English its a 34 letter alphabet with one tone/accent indicator.

There are borrower specific cooking practices and recipes I am super excited to showcase!

They have their own style of traditional dance

Added bonus

Now this is subject to change if I find anything too janky but viola! The title written out in smallfolk text (and a fun lil hidden one)

[humbledragon669]

S2E1 - The Arrival Write Up P6 - the Present Day from Crowley’s entry to the book shop to his departure from it

Alright, let’s get stuck in – we have an ineffable divorce (of sorts) coming up in this section. Before we get to that though, let’s drop in on our new characters. There are a couple of things I would note about this scene in the coffee shop, and the first is about the soundtrack (shock horror, I know). It’s pretty tricky to say for sure, but it sounds like there’s a lack of background music playing as Maggie enters the café. That changes following Nina’s comment about her “charming personality” – you can just about hear a string arrangement in the background at this point. I’ve tried really hard to identify the song but failed miserably - it’s just not prominent enough, and I can’t hear a long enough phrase to get a grasp on it. I’m pretty grumpy about that if I’m honest, because it means I can’t even say for sure whether it’s just coincidence that the music appears to start playing only after Maggie enters the shop or not (after all, perhaps this is just a CD that happened to be between tracks as she comes through the door). If it’s not coincidental, that would give us another parallel between these two characters and our hero couple, particularly with the music in the previous coffee shop scene being so poignant. As it is, I’m just going to have to leave that as an open-ended question until/unless somebody has better hearing/sound editing skills that I do, and can actually identify the track.

Talking of potential parallels, I find it quite interesting to see the way that neither Nina or Maggie seem to be able to pick up on the cues that the other one gives them. Nina in particular really sucks at picking up the subtext that Maggie is virtually screaming at her, but it is a two-way street. And where else do we see this? Crowley and Aziraphale of course – their inability to “get the hint” from each other is something we’ve seen all throughout both the chronological and release timelines. We’ll see quite a few more parallels between the two couples as season 2 progresses, but I think this is one of the more subtle ones.

The last thing I wanted to say about this scene is going to be a bit more Nina-bashing I’m afraid. Let’s be clear – Maggie has brought this woman an incredibly thoughtful gift. How is that thoughtfulness rewarded? With a look that could sour milk.

And if the look wasn’t enough, the disdainful tone would be enough to finish the job. Honestly, is a simple “thank you” that hard? She makes Maggie feel so bad that she apologises to Nina for bringing her a gift! That one must really have stung. I don’t know if there’s maybe some sort of coded subtext here about consent; if that’s the case, the connotations and irony behind it make my head spin a bit so I think I’ll just stick with my original evaluation that Nina isn’t really that likeable (don’t worry, I will change my mind a bit later!).

Alright, time to get into the weeds! There are two things I noticed about the setting up of the scene in the bookshop, neatly summed up in the following shot:

So first off, we see Crowley removing his glasses as soon as he enters the shop, which speaks volumes about how comfortable he is in this setting. And not only does he remove them, but the way that he places them on the statue would suggest that this is something he does A LOT. I don’t think it’s been confirmed (more that it’s one of those things the fandom takes as cannon), but I like the thinking that the horse statue has been deliberately left or placed there as a convenient stand for Crowley to leave his glasses. It feels right – the demon doesn’t stop to look around for somewhere to put them, it’s almost reflex. And ultimately he doesn’t actually need to “place” them anywhere; he could have put them in his pocket, and just discarded them on one of the surfaces. Nah, the way he deals with his glasses here feels almost like muscle memory.

The second thing about this shot is to do with those damn Eccles cakes. Remember in the last part of the write up I waffled on about how I think Aziraphale orders those sweet treats not for himself but to give to Crowley as a peace offering? Well, here’s another piece of evidence to add to that theory, because he’s placed the plate of cakes (untouched I might add) in front of the statue where he then homes his glasses. And why do I think this is important? Because if he was just holding on to them for Aziraphale while the angel fumbled with his keys, he would probably have tried to give them back to him, or at least put them somewhere in the bookshop that was more Aziraphale’s than his, and this table is clearly “his” because that’s where his little horsey sunglasses stand lives. If that seems to be a bit flimsy as far as evidence goes, I’m not done yet – we’ll be back in a little while.

This next gif has been discussed by a ridiculous number of people, so I’m not going to dwell on it too much, but it would be remiss of me not to remark on it at all so here goes.

MARRIED. THIS PAIR ARE MARRIED. “Do we know a Jim”, honestly. I rest my case your honour (I don’t, there’s plenty more to talk about in this season that lends weight to the theory that Crowley and Aziraphale are already romantically involved at this point, and have been for quite some time).

Side note: how adorable is Aziraphale’s face as he prepares for impact:

Doesn’t it just make you want to go and squeeze his little cheeks and ruffle his hair? No? Just me? Probably not to be fair.

The exchange that follows is the first time in this season that I did a proper belly laugh when I first watched it (and it still makes me laugh to this day). The comic delivery here is so skilful, it’s just an absolute delight to watch. Can’t forget that soundtrack though, it’s beautifully pieced together, and adds so much to the scene. Also the camera work. And the lighting (with the shafts of light that fall through the window onto the horse statue, highlighting the fact that Crowley must be feeling incredibly exposed at this point). Just all of it really. So now that I’ve waxed lyrical about it as a whole, I have a few little things to say about some of the individual elements.

I made some comments about Aziraphale’s reaction to Gabriel showing up on his doorstep which brokered some discussion (which I was very pleased about – please don’t stop!) because the general consensus seems to be that Aziraphale is frightened of his former boss during that scene, and I don’t particularly get that vibe. I do here with Crowley. I mean, it’s pretty impossible not to, isn’t it? Crowley is absolutely terrified. And I think what’s worth bearing in mind that he has every right to be – after all, he’s the one with the memories from Heaven (this will be explicitly stated later in the season, but perhaps it’s something that is easy to forget at this point). He knows exactly how cold and ruthless that archangel can be. And maybe this is nothing, just the result of momentum as Crowley tries to put as much distance between himself and Gabriel/Jim as possible, but does this single frame look like he throws his arm up to protect Aziraphale?

I wrote that as if I was asking a question to which I wasn’t 100% sure of the answer already. Of course he’s trying to protect Aziraphale – see previous point about him knowing Gabriel’s true nature. There’s also this little gem:

Check out Crowley’s left shoulder (his left, not yours). If this is deliberate, it’s a stroke of absolute genius. It’s the tip of the wing from the cherub statue on the table behind him. It almost looks like it’s growing out from Crowley’s shoulder to shield Aziraphale. I don’t even feel like this is a stretch, it feels perfect (and I am more than a little bit pleased that I picked up on it). There’s really no need to worry though – the figure before him is anything but threatening. It took me a minute to realise why this shot of Jim/Gabriel looked familiar, and then it hit me:

We won’t talk about what happens in the film after Puss drops the “cute eyes” act.

There is something going on in this scene that I feel I have missed up to this point, and the only reason the penny has dropped now is because of this expression on Aziraphale’s face:

There’s something almost pleading about it. Like he doesn’t want to do what’s being asked of him and is trying to get somebody else to do it for him. Or more accurately, like he’s asking someone to rescue him. *huge clanging noise of a penny dropping* I can’t believe I haven’t thought about this scene in these terms before. The pair of them all but spell it out for us in the coffee shop when Crowley asks Aziraphale if the situation in the book shop is something he can “help” with (i.e. something he can rescue the angel from), garnering a desperate but silent nod from the angel. Here’s the funny thing about that dynamic now though – at this point Crowley knows he’s cornered.

He can’t very well walk out now, can he? He offered to help, something which he’s been doing for centuries without ever asking, or needing to be asked. How could he possibly abandon the rescue mission that he has actually signed up for already? And how else could he have expressed his intense annoyance at being tricked into this with anything other than with a growl? Maybe that’s what Aziraphale was angling for the whole time – personally I would be getting into trouble all the time if it meant being growled at by Crowley…

Easter egg time! At least I think it’s an Easter egg:

Jim’s yellow feather duster is a pretty close match to the one Freddie Mercury uses in the video for “I Want to Break Free”, which has some very fitting lyrics for Gabriel’s situation. What a fabulous Queen parallel to sneak in for the eagle-eyed! I will confess that I didn’t spot this one on my own - @noneother wrote a lovely post about it here.

Let’s just take a quick look at Aziraphale’s apparent thought process at this point:

That looks like a pretty confused angel to me. As in, he’s really not sure why Crowley has reacted in such an extreme manner to Gabriel’s appearance. And going back to what I said earlier about the memories that Crowley has of his last interactions with the archangel, that would make sense, particularly if he has never shared those memories with Aziraphale. If that’s the case, it might go some way to explain why he can’t understand Crowley’s emotional state, or his staunch refusal to do anything other than disassociate themselves with Gabriel completely. What it also shows though is that Aziraphale has already made up his mind that the right thing to do is help Gabriel, which will become all the more apparent in the upcoming scene. What also becomes apparent is that if he was afraid of Gabriel when his arrived on his doorstep, that is very much not the case anymore. He does appear to give some quarter to Crowley when the demon manages to communicate exactly why it is that he feels so strongly though; you can see it in the little head movement and on his face:

Quick observation here, and again this might be nothing, but doesn’t the shape of that the dressing screen behind Aziraphale look familiar?

They look a bit like wings, don’t they? I only caught this whilst I was writing this, and it could be a coincidence (I doubt it), but let’s just say that it isn’t for a minute – what would that say about Aziraphale’s frame of mind here? That at this point in time he feels very close to his angelic origins? It would explain his somewhat blind desire to help Gabriel – helping someone in need is technically the “right” thing to do after all. Coincidence or not, there’s something else of interest in Crowley’s impassioned speech:

CROWLEY: This is the Supreme Archangel of all Heaven, your former boss, who tried very hard to cast you into Hellfire and destroy you. He is not our friend.

Everything that Crowley identifies as part of Gabriel’s character relates to Aziraphale (former workplace, former boss, former offences against the angel) but all of those things inherently mean that Gabriel cannot possibly be a candidate to be their friend. Not Aziraphale’s friend. Their friend. This is protective Crowley in all his glory. But it got me thinking to about the use of the collection pronouns in this scene in general – I’ve summarised below to make it a bit easier to understand.

So firstly, Crowley uses those collective pronouns much more freely and readily than Aziraphale does. That is partly because he actually says a lot more than the angel in general in this scene, but personally I also think it speaks largely to his primary motive here, and that is the preservation of life as he knows it, which largely centres around Aziraphale. On the other hand, the angel’s primary motive in this scene appears to be a desire to do the “right” thing, never mind the cost, clearly wanting to employ that forgiveness he claims to be so good at. His use of the collective pronouns is reserved for the more manipulative aspects of his emotional scale – pleading and indignation.

I think it’s interesting that we see Crowley consciously switch to the use of singular pronouns after Aziraphale tries to get him on side by telling him about Gabriel’s needs. A lot of people would see this as being somewhat spiteful, a way to get what he wants, but I think it’s more than that – he’s trying to tell Aziraphale that his needs aren’t being met, and that he’s angry that the needs of another being are being considered so intricately. Let’s put that a bit more succinctly – Aziraphale is choosing to put another being’s needs before Crowley’s. And that particular being has a history of being nothing less than vile to both of them, especially Aziraphale. In true Aziracrow style though the angel misses his cue, only hearing the bit in the sentence where his involvement in Crowley’s life is seemingly dismissed so easily. It’s really not dismissed that simply though – look at how difficult Crowley finds it to say just how much his current situation means to him:

See the little shuddering breath he takes before he says “peaceful”? Or maybe the stuttering hand movement that goes with it? It makes me wonder if there was another word he really wanted to say here but had to stop himself from saying it, forcing himself to choose another one. And then there’s the use of the word “here” at the end of the sentence. Does he mean Earth? London? Personally I think it’s a little more localised than that – I think “here” means Aziraphale’s bookshop. I don’t think I’m the only one that thinks that either – look at the disbelief on the angel’s face as he tries to claim their collective efforts back:

And from here, it really starts to descend into madness. Honestly, I think it’s Crowley that actually starts it – his response to Aziraphale trying to claw back their togetherness is to subtextually accuse the angel of actually working against him. Well done, Crowley, you really flipped Aziraphale’s switch there, and he’s wearing the face to prove it.

Look at that jaw: this angel has made his decision people – if the demon wants to be that spiteful, he can do it somewhere else. But he doesn’t just tell Crowley to leave, does he? He accuses him of failing to fulfil his role as the rescuer, the protector.

And he doesn’t just accuse him of failing, he intimates that it’s something Crowley is actively choosing to do. You can see Aziraphale knows how badly (and probably how hurtful) his words are in two places – the first is right before he says them:

The other is in the middle of the sentence where he tells Crowley to leave – he takes a shuddering breath of his own that you can hear more than see. Honestly, I find it a little heartbreaking. Not as heartbreaking as the look on Crowley’s face after Aziraphale has uttered his ultimatum though.

Oof, that expression hits me hard. There’s so much here that isn’t being said. The slight recoil after Aziraphale finishes speaking, the half gulp he takes before he speaks, the hand gesture- THE HAND GESTURE PEOPLE. The one that indicates there is an “us” involved in this conversation.

And let’s not forget the line.

CROWLEY: Oh really. This is just- this is how you wanna do it?

That feels like such a death-toll of a line to me. The subtext feels like he’s asking Aziraphale if this is how he wants the relationship to flounder. Thank Somebody that Aziraphale doesn’t leave him hanging for an answer, because I think this that would break me, and thank Somebody else that when he does reply, his true feelings are painfully apparent.

And it’s not just his face leaking emotions here – let’s look at his instinctive choice of words:

AZIRAPHALE: I would love you to help me.

Not “I would lovefor you to help me”, not “I’m asking you to help me”, or “I’d like you to help me”. Not even a stubborn “I want you to help me”. No, he says “I would love you to help me”. He’s said too much. Crowley’s expression tells him as much.

For once it seems like he gets the message too, because he changes his phrasing:

AZIRAPHALE: I am asking you to help me take care of him.

Because you never know who could be watching or listening do you? After all, Gabriel could be right outside the door listening in. I feel like Crowley is on the verge of caving here, desperate though he is for the angel to hear his frightened pleas, but he’s not given enough time. Why doesn’t Aziraphale know by now that if you push this demon too hard and too fast, he’s going to run? There’s even a noise in the soundtrack here that sounds like a snake hissing – I don’t know if that was the intention, but it definitely gives me the sense that this is Crowley reverting to his expected demonic traits.

Right, final time I’m going to talk about this, I promise – we’re going back to the Eccles cakes.

There they are, front and centre of the shot as Crowley leaves the bookshop. They are in fact the only things totally in focus in that shot. We’ll see Crowley make a conscious effort to retrieve his glasses from the horse statue, but the Eccles cakes will stay there, abandoned and untouched. This was actually the shot that made my mind up about these – Aziraphale got them for Crowley. He was supposed to eat them and be all calm about the matter. But of course he didn’t – he probably thought he was going to get to watch his angel eating them later that day as a reward for his playing the knight in shining armour. I’m kind of glad he didn’t eat them to be honest, otherwise we might never have gotten to see the Apology Dance…

That feels like a good place to stop for this part. It has taken me way too long to get through this small section, but I have to say I was kind of expecting it – there’s always so much to say about the angsty scenes in this show, and what with this being the first episode of the second season, it was also going to have a bunch of narrative set-up to talk about too. It’s interesting that I’ve already written more words for this episode than the most words I wrote for any single episode in season one, and I’m only about two thirds of the way through. My methods are either getting more refined or I’m waffling far too much – please do tell me if you think it’s the latter, because I’m really enjoying this journey with you all and I don’t want you to be bored!

So with that, and as always, questions, comments, discussion: always welcome. See you for the next one!

[mokutone]

your art makes me wanna start testosterone

i can't read tone well, so this is either an incredibly touching ask, or an extremely funny one, and in the absence of confirmation: both!

i'm in a chatty mood, so i'll share some thoughts about testosterone and my art.

i liked being on testosterone a lot. i had an IM injection every two weeks (on tuesdays!) and because that's a sizeable dose every 14 days that slowly disperses, it can cause some mood fluctuations (every other friday i would have a crisis about not feeling like the world had a place for me in it) but even those were far more manageable than the ones that would come with my previous and current monthly hormone cycle (every month i spend a solid week thinking the world will never have a place for me in it)

It gave me a patchy little bit of scruff on my chin and a whispy mustache under my nose that still struggles on, despite adversity!

It redistributed my fat a little bit, but that's long since gone back to pre-T shape.

it lowered my voice! that hasn't changed :^)! even if i never go back on t, that won't change. it was the thing i most wanted, and its the one i'm most grateful for. Pre-T, I didn't speak much. I'm getting better and better at talking and getting more and more comfortable communicating with people because of it.

having been off t now for 3 years, i don't pass anymore—not as a cis man, or a cis woman, certainly not as anything approximating straight. if people look at me and see anything, i'd hazard a guess that they see me as A Queer (the noun—for all it's complicated connotations).

i'm not surprised that my art might make somebody want to start testosterone! a lot of my art was made out of the aching grief that came with being kicked off of testosterone, and how neatly that loss of autonomy over my own body knits in with yamato's loss of autonomy over his own.

how my body started doing things i disliked, how i didn't have the support necessary to access the healthcare i needed—how my inability to give myself what i needed made me feel as though i were trapped inside of myself and abandoned (by both myself and the world at large)

when i write comics about yamato as a trans man, i don't take away his testosterone, because that hits a little too close to home for me. for Ninja War Town Reasons, he has plenty of access to all the HRT he could ever need and nobody questions his need for it—instead, i project my own horrors onto the way Danzō defined his identity for him as a child, the way that Kabuto and Obito dehumanize him as an adult in their war efforts, and reduce him to the thing his body holds (the Mokuton). I give him a kneejerk compulsion to dehumanize himself (out of a feeling that he has a duty to his community to do so) and I give him a slow-growing resistance to that impulse (which comes out of a feeling that the people he loves would frown upon seeing him reduce himself like that)

it's dysphoria! it's not gender dysphoria, but it's a loss of self, and a need to reclaim it. it's a war between the hollow shell of a thing he thinks he has to be, and the vibrant and messy person beneath it that he is. it's a desperate need to say "this is who i am—only i can say it"

I enjoyed HRT a lot. it was a really useful tool in helping me feel like my body was my own, that i didn't have to fight it, that we were the same entity. It's not the only tool, but it was a really good one, and one day I hope to use it again.

(as for the being off of it—it's unpleasant, but i'm enduring! being somebody who now doesn't really pass as anything has put me in a weird and interesting position, where I'm constantly having to declare myself to people, because nobody knows what to make of me on any front. they don't know if i'm a man, a woman, nonbinary, nor even what age i am (Augh!!!!) it forces me to be brave and vulnerable more than I'm comfortable with—if I tell somebody I'm a man, there's no way that they will believe I'm cis, but I'm not about to recloset myself—and I don't think I could at this point anyway.)

(there's something fascinating about the position i find myself in, and while i'd leap back on t the moment that an opportunity presented itself to do so, i do feel like i'm experiencing something interesting and important in this weird zone i find myself in)

[castlebyersafterdark]

the pet name thing also opens up such interesting thoughts for me about kink or preference, because pet names often begin in childhood, so carrying those over into the bedroom as an adult is always... interesting lol

some also feel much more childhood-ish whereas others (like babe) can be almost anything and for anyone depending on accent, tone of voice, context etc. like babe could be a casual call to a spouse from another room. it could be a fun campy way to address friends. it can be sarcastic. it can be a way to coo over a child. i suppose all pet names have this objectiveness that only gets meaning applied in context. so interesting. personally for me someone would have to say 'angel' or 'sunshine' in a very very unique way ive never heard before to get me to stop hearing it as some kind of gangster who is about to rip me off/murder me hahahaha. like anyone who says 'sunshine' round here is usually catcalling me outside a gas station hahahah

i wanna list pet names and get your opinion vinny

pumpkin

cherub

sunshine

honey / honey bun

babe

baby

angel

sweetheart

sweetie

muffin

darling (different from darlin' lmao)

I really love pet names!! And nicknames and all the familiar little things that make up a friendship and/or relationship. I know what you mean with the childhood to adulthood transition with these names. Not everything needs to be part of a sexual connotation, either, but familiarity would have some bleed over. But you are so right - tone and situation and relationship influence it all.

Different uses have different meaning to different people, thus, before I get into my list - DISCLAIMER: if we disagree on one here because I'm downing it but it's special to you or I love one you (the collective you) hate, no shade! We all have different taste! These are just my opinions, Byler and personal. It's interesting to sometimes evaluate where your fictional ideas and personal experiences overlap or not. That's very human.

pumpkin - I only associate it with a parent to little kids which is fine but personally that's all I envision. cherub - I don't know a situation or setting I've really seen this one?? I don't think I'm into it. It feels a little too silly. sunshine - OK. 😌 This one, I actually could envision Mike using for Will, like in a really sweet way (not Will to Mike because Mike? Sunshine? It would sound sarcastic haha) BUT! While the vision is there - I will personally never HC it or use it causally in a fic. It would feel odd since this is what 💙 so often calls me? So, it's too personal. I really adore it though. It's so soft. Ahh. honey / honey bun - Honey bun is goofy and I think of Pulp Fiction, but I see for Will, more so using hon instead of the full honey. It's a common one to call out to your partner in that from the other room kinda way, or in a casual conversation, asking a question. I use this one, too! babe - Will -> Mike. He wouldn't really use it in a sexy way, but it's casually used pretty commonly. Me? I personally never really call 💙 this in a romantic way because as we've seen here on this blog, everyone is babe or babes hahaha. Use it irl alllll the time. I think it was a pointed choice I made at one point, a tone shift away from trying to "bro out" and use certain language, which was one of those masking things types of things that happen. I'm flirty, I'm kind of silly. Babes feels like me ☺️ baby - Mike -> Will. His faaaaavorite. Will is baby, yes he is, that's his baby. All aspects of daily life. Loves calling Will baby. Casual use for sure, but oh you change the tone in the bedroom and it makes Will melt. Especially when it's whined or moaned while Will is getting him off. angel - Spawned his whole conversation and my personal favorite for Mike -> Will. It's for those soft moments, like just waking up to say good morning when they're sleepy and tangled in bed. It's when Will needs cheering up and being reminded he's so loved, which he needs when he falls into his moods. But it's also when they're in bed together, Will is doing something and Mike wants him to give a little more, push Will a little further. Come on angel, that's it angel in the sweetest breathless voice. sweetheart - I think they'd both use this one on rare moments when the other is really upset about something. It's an uncommon little one off. Reassuring and sweet to dissipate tension and sadness. sweetie - Another one I mostly associate with parents and children. muffin - Can't take it seriously at all!! darling - Adore this for them. Both use it, but not a common one? It's situational. Being all sappy and flattering.

Other's not mentioned: You know they're dipping into fantasy stuff, like calling each other my prince and stuff like that because they are dorkssssss. I personally use doll a lot, I can see Mike using that one too. When Mike's being really flirty or needy he gets hit with kind of a sarcastic loverboy from Will, but he loves hearing despite it being a little tongue in cheek.

[dballzposting]

I just know that Videl pretty much had to raise herself. And I think that she did a pretty fine job of it. But I also think that there are things inside of her that she is not aware of just becasue she had to mold herself to be a very specific way in order to make sense to her own self-evaluation and cognition, which A.) Has been varying degrees of immature her whole life as she wasnt an adult until she was, and B.) Has created a report rife with fallacies, mis-evaluations, and repression, becasue living in line with what makes "logical sense" to your higher cognitive faculties completely skips over and shits on all the rest of you that is a living animal that operates in ways that your textbooks domt represent.

But shes done a pretty good job of raising herself because by nature she is observant and calculative and cool, and she takes things at her own pace, and she honors herself enough to have a sense of a comfortable pace to begin with. And bit by bit I think that shes found satisfaction for her curiosities and needs as they arise. She learns over her childhood who's a resource, where to find them, and when to use them; and she always relies on herself as a resource, which HONESTLY is the most important thing, I think that that understanding has kept her from falling into pits of helplessness. It's a tango of nature and nurture and shes made out alright TBH.

Her only living parent is Mr Satan and like LITERALLY his ""parenting style"" is just NOT compatible with her personality. She has a lot of questions and is not afraid of the oddities of the world, whereas Mr Satan strongly prefers to just Not Answer Questions and to say things like "dont you worry your pretty little head about all that" and he constructs a dome of denial and comfort around his world and that is just like .... The bane of somebody competent and curious like Videl is.

But hes still her dad so growing up she persistently tried to make a resource out of him. Sometimes he responded negatively to questions, and as a kid Videl didnt know why (it was the sort of questions that directly or indirectly made him feel insecure or weak, or were about a subject that he habitually avoided rather than pondered), but the rest of the time he ACTED AS IF he was there for her, cared about her a lot, and wanted to help with anything he could.

And that's true enough. He was defintiely there to offer comfort. IF he wasnt busy with something else.

Over time though Videl learns that sometimes, his answers just suck. Sometimes he has no answers. Sometimes he cant explain things in a way that makes any goddamn sense to her (a rational mind). Sometimes he sends her away. Other times he leaves the room. Sometimes he DOES offer answers, and they make sense. It's just not reliable.

So Videl learns to find and rely on other resources; mainly teachers and library books.

But she never wrote him off completely. Because he still has answers sometimes, and she still cares about his opinions.

UNTIL. One day. When shes like 12. Growing up, growing smart, the world is changing a lot to her. She has some question about something or another, and she asks her dad, and he has more life experience than her, and he gives her an answer. Ok, cool. She feels like it's a satisfying answer. She feels like it makes sense, and she trusts her judgement on that.

And usually she leaves it at that, but for some reason, she ends up asking a teacher the same question. Maybe there was something subtle about his answer that made it seem incomplete. Something her intuition picked up. Maybe it just came up in conversation with this teacher, so she freely asked it. Maybe she was just curious about an alternative persepctive.

And THIS TIME. The answer is TOTALLY DIFFERENT. Content, tone, connotation - just a COMPLETRLY DIFFERENT fucking answer. What's more, this one makes MORE SENSE than the answer her father had given her - this one coheres with a more practical and forgiving world view, more along the lines that she had always seen.

Perhaps that's why she had asked another person, because deep inside she felt that something just wasnt right about that other answer.

But what horrifies her is how subtle, even arguably nonexistent, her own Bullshit Radar had been. She has always trusted her judgement, for it's all she is -- and by her own evaluation, she was willing to accept her father's answer as Legitimate. She was going to walk away satisfied. The fact that she had posed the question to another was almost sheer chance. Her judgement had FAILED her.

That's when she learned that even if her dad gives her an answer, that doesnt mean that it's a good one. She grew up a little bit that day, and she learned A.) Her judgements are fallable, and B.) Her dad's perspective is plausibly entirely horseshit when compared to more down-to-earth perspectives. So maybe she just shoukdnt use him as a resource at all.

She still tries with him, and she keeps trying to believe in him, becasue she wants things to make sense. But especially when we see her at her debut, the disparity of realities sort of reaches a breaking point -- either she can find and fold to the truth, or she can live in denial like her dad and ignore the way that shit just isnt adding up.

I see Videl as an agent of truth, and I think that learning that her father truly is full of BS came as a great relief to her. She had always sensed it, but could never justify it. Now she can interact with him as he is without ever expecting anything more of him. WHAT A RELIEF.

[evelinessa]

I'm gonna send you another one after I've slept with a proper thought-out choice that is really about your fics, but I saw ✎ in the list and I couldn't resist :P

Trying to gain some insider info to use against me in the next exchange, I see. 😄😂

If someone were to guess an anonymous fic was mine, the easiest way would most likely be by looking at the tags themselves. I structure my tags very specifically, using the same types of tags on each fic (when on the timeline, POV, tone/genre, character & relationship modifiers, tropes & themes, minor things that happen, triggers, ending, format/structure tags, purpose/event tags, etc.), and in the same general order.

But as far as the actual writing goes, that is something a lot trickier to answer lol. As you know, I tend to write angsty topics (grief, tragedy, MCD, etc.), so the content itself could aid in exposing me. Also, I almost always write from either Phoenix's or Miles' POV, and almost everything I write has some Narumitsu element in it.

Another content thing is that I create and reference little memories (as well as items that represent those memories) for the characters in almost every fic I write. It's one of my favorite ways to flesh out a character's relationship with others and also to pull at emotions (especially if it's the case of a character remembering moments they had with a lost loved one).

For more mechanical stuff that could help give me away:

So far, I've only written in past tense.

Other than in rare occasions where there is no other way to say it effectively, I don't italicize a character's direct thoughts or write them in first person. Instead, I blend the character's thoughts in the internal monologue and narration and keep it in third person.

Along those lines, I put questions in the internal monologue fairly often.

While I don't use certain epithets (hair/eye color, profession, age, height, etc.) other than in select situations, I love using ones that show a relationship between characters (friend, partner, husband, father, sister, daughter, etc.)

I may use em dashes, colons, and semicolons more than the average person.

I use one-word sentences and one-sentence paragraphs quite often.

Not usually added until the editing stage, but when I search for synonyms, I'll usually pick words that will create alliteration (usually capping it to two or three words close together), but I won't pick an alliterative word over a synonym that works better (either more accurate or has the connotations I'm going for/gives a double meaning).

I use intentional repetition fairly often, especially in a character's inner monologue, to really draw attention/give more weight to something they are thinking/feeling.

If you see me start listing things, most of the time I will use the rule of threes.

That was what I was able to think of for now. But I'm sure there are things I do that I missed, or things that people have picked up on that I'm not aware of. It was fun to think about what I tend to do when writing that could give me away.

Thank you for the ask! 🥰

[peppertaemint]

This TaeKey situation is so messed up. Like, I don't blame people for being upset, or hurt, and wanting to let the guys know that the things they say can affect others negatively...  but at the same time the way this is going down is wild. I never thought I'd see shawols react to them like this.

The number of people(some of them that I've been following for a while, who always seemed mature and level headed) who were positively gleeful talking about Taemin and Key "getting their lashings". Calling them disgusting, saying they deserve what's coming to them, they don't want to see anything from them unless it's an apology "with tears" and all the other generally insulting things that people have been saying about their appearances and them as people.

It's like people were just waiting for their moment to turn. Or they're so desperate to show that they're "good" and they're not one of "those" fans that puts idols on a pedestal that they've gone tol far in the opposite direction and just gotten nasty.

Like, maybe I'm stupid, maybe I am one of those fans that's putting them on a pedestal but I'd like to think that Taekey are generally good kind people who always do their best to be respectful. Of course they're gonna fuck up every so often. There isn't a person alive who doesn't have some kind of internal bias about something, whether they're aware of it or not. But when someone I care about screws up, I would think the best course of action would be to say "hey, I know you probably didn't mean it maliciously, but the connotations of what you said are kind of shitty. Especially to people with darker skin tones and I hope you can consider that going forward" my first thought wouldnt be to call them disgusting and essentially get a megaphone to announce their fuckup all over social media so as many people as possible can see it and join the hate train.

I just hate this so much. And now stupid sm is just editing the video and the members probably have no clue about it and the people who are angry are getting even angrier and even more nasty.

I wish Taekey could address this but unfortunately I really don't see it happening and then it's like,where do we go from here?

Where do we go from here? A good question.

I think that where we don't go, but it's too late because it's already happening, is commenting on Taemin's IG that he should collaborate with Morgan Wallen. How is that helpful? It's disingenuous.

As someone from Canada, TaeKey's words were gross and not cool. But I also understand that they aren't from my culture, and because I watch a lot of Korean content, I know what is seen as acceptable there. That doesn't mean it's acceptable to me personally.

They deserve fans telling them how they feel honestly. And I think in the majority of cases that has happened. But like you say, some people are taking this extremely far and turning it into an excuse to be nasty, when I don't think TaeKey meant anything other than childish/ignorant making fun. That doesn't mean what they said was okay or should be overlooked, but intention and someone's character does count for something, does it not?

People keep leaving all sorts of remarks on IG, WeVerse, Twitter etc so I would say at this point, they should be aware there's a large swathe of the fandom unhappy. I did put my thoughts on WeVerse and Bubble - but I did that once and let it be. I'm not harassing people.

SM editing the video makes it worse because clearly management or at least the YouTube team know about the issue. But from what I heard, they didn't edit it well, and I think that speaks to the lack of knowledge around this issue. The staff members likely don't understand fully what the issue is and how it makes fans from certain areas feel, so they guessed at how to make it better and mostly failed.

Cultural exchange is full of this kind of uncomfortable stuff. It's easier when it's on a personal level, because then we can have a conversation with the person/people directly. We can't exactly do that, but fans have social media to use, which they are.

[beebascloset]

I think it was strange of you to say that on the post critiquing anti-homeless architecture, and quite frankly the fact that you used the term snowflake is an obvious signifier that youre both politically uninformed and not worth arguing with. you can pull in all the buzzwords you want but it doesnt mean anything if your talking point boils down to "let people enjoy things". enjoyment of the shape of a bench is fine, your black-and-white problematic or unproblematic view is regressive and unusually defensive

The bench is fun with a cool design + has a really cool and interesting historical meaning behind it. unfortunately, the execution of it was designed and built with purposeful measures to prevent homeless people from sleeping it. putting a bandaid on the gaping gushing wound that is systemic homelessness — an attempt to make public areas clean and unlived in while ignoring the question of "how did these people become homeless?" these ideas can coexist easily and someone simply pointing it out is not an attack on your morality. nobody's forcing you to introspect. you look ridiculous, and i think you need to look up what a strawman argument actually is. hope you have a good one

Hi anon! Yeah I guess this is spiraling out of control and it probably wouldn't have happened if I didn't publicly get upset over it so I blame myself and I'm sorry for those who I've upset over a dinosaur bench. Yes I know now that it's hostile architecture and I knew what it was before I saw that tweet, but I didn't think about it because, well, it's a dinosaur bench. Some might compare it to a cute bunny holding a knife but I think that's going a bit far.

And I actually have looked up what a strawman argument is unless its definition has changed within the past year. I was basically saying "cute bench :)" and the other person said "it's hostile architecture" and while yes, hostile architecture is bad, I just didn't want negative connotations applied here if you get what I mean.

Like you know that classic Tumblr post that shows a screenshot of a scene from Monsters University where that slug is late for class and someone said something like "My boyfriend said 'is this a metaphor for slower kids?'" and someone else said "OMG TUMBLR SHUT UP ITS A SLUG"

I feel like the latter person in this scenario! I was hoping you would all see that, but I suppose I came off as tone deaf, and I'm sorry to all of you. I got upset because someone pointed out something negative and true about our world, and I demonstrated disregard to it. If I become rich enough, maybe one day I'll donate to ASPCA (or some pet organization), an ethical Autism organization (Please don't donate to Autism Speaks) and a charity for the homeless. Or I could pretend to be a contractor and get rid of the spikes on concrete benches that could be sat on. Who's gonna get me, the police

[residentdormouse]

Character Interview Tag Game

Thank you for the tag @bardic-tales, @mrsmungus, and @chickensarentcheap! - I figured by the third tag, I better get this turned around instead of it sitting half finished in my Google docs, huh? Yeah. Wow, am I getting bad at doing these in a timely manner. I miss being on a writing schedule…

Rules: Answer the 15 questions below as yourself or in character of an OC of your choice. Also tag 15 people if possible.

I’m going to go with Hayden, since she is my main OC. Pulling her for questioning from the middle of ‘Just Keep Diving Down’ because some answers are reliant on story events, and could change depending on when she’s asked. This point in the timeline would be the only spot she could truly give you a decent answer to the full lot of them.

(Although, if you have the time and are curious, I would recommend starting with Something Like A Spiral. Chronologically, it comes first. Just Keep Diving Down picks up where Spiral stops. Spiral is a canon storyline to the Stand, and Diving is after canon events end.)

No Pressure Tagging: @asirensrage @tsunderewatermelon @verba-writing @karimac @late-to-the-fandom and Open Tag to anybody who would find joy in doing this.

1. Are you named after anyone?

No, but also, kind of yes? I guess that doesn’t have as simplistic an answer as most. Sorry about that. My parents decided on my name after hearing it in a TV show. I don’t believe there was any particular attachment to the character, they both just liked the sound of it. But to be fair, you could also say I was named after a little girl in Arnette, Texas.

2. When was the last time you cried?

Oh. Jumping right in it then. I suppose a couple days ago? It has been a, well… a slightly trying time, to say the least. Sometimes it all just catches up with you, doesn’t it? Feels like death’s been surrounding us for so long. You think you get away, but you never really can, can you? It’s always a possibility, especially when you have a life like mine.

3. Do you have kids?

No! No. That’s nothing I would responsibly be able to do. Doesn’t seem very fair to them. No, I couldn’t do that. Won’t do that.

4. Do you use sarcasm?

Sarcasm always seems to have this type of negative connotation to it. I prefer snark. Sass. Cheek, maybe? Playful banter? I give shit a lot. And armchair therapy depending on who you ask, I suppose. If it makes it any better, it is our group speak. Love language perhaps? Ah, it's understood between us, I guess is what I’m getting at.

5. What's the first thing you notice about people?

Body language and posture. Most people will tell you who they are before they even say a word. It gives a decent gauge to see what note to start a conversation on. What to potentially expect from the exchange.

6. What's your eye color?

Brown, but there are some days they take on a slightly more hazel tone. Mostly brown though.

7. Scary movies or happy endings?

Oh, I have enough going on in my life to skip over the scary. Had my fill, thank you. I’ll take happy endings from here on out if you don’t mind.

8. Any special talents?

Some people say I have a knack for understanding how things work, but I don’t know. Seems like that’s just something that would come with being naturally curious, wouldn’t it? You have to understand how things work if you want to use them to work for you? Its a universal concept, whether its technology, magic, music… You have to know the principles before you can begin to successfully alter them.

But that said, I would personally say the piano. I’m not the best at it, more mechanical than natural about the movements, but I still enjoy it. Or more appropriately, I enjoy the music.

9. Where were you born?

A little absurd, but apparently, my mom liked telling the story, so here goes. I was born at our home in the bathtub. My mother had a very high pain threshold. Things that could break other people were nothing she would blink at. The stories surprise me sometimes, but digressing. She thought she was having braxton hicks, and went to soak for a few moments. Doctors told her that’s when her water broke, not that she would know. So without the normal alerts that would send most moms to be to their hospital, mine was quite content to soak until the water started to take on a red tint. Thankfully my dad had a level head.

10. What are your hobbies?

Oh, I guess the piano answer should have went here, huh? Not that I’ve had much time to do anything with it lately. I get a few breaks here and there when we’re down at Gru’s, but for the most, it's been research and practice. Wash, rinse, repeat. Although, Glen does make it a mission to make sure I take sporadic breaks. Mostly he pulls me along on his paint outings. Not that I give him much resistance, the area here really is beautiful, and the company is quite pleasant. I like watching him work.

I won’t turn down a good story though either. Books on a rainy days are always welcome.

11. Have you any pets?

Had? Yes. Have? No. I think that would be much like the kid question, slightly irresponsible on my part, I’d think. I would love it, though. I’ve had many pets before, and I love animals. Plus, I’m pretty sure Glen misses Kojak, although, good luck getting him to admit that. He still claims to not be an animal person, but how they got on, you couldn’t tell. Liar.

That does bring up a good point, though. We would not turn away one in need. If another situation like Kojak comes along, and we are better than any other alternative…. But we aren’t about to seek one out though. Not with life as it is now. Maybe someday…

12. What sports do you play/have played?

I never was much of a sports fan, not gonna lie. Small get togethers with a round up softball game or something, alright, fair. But all for funsies. Nothing organized, or for an extended period of time.

13. How tall are you?

About 5’7”, a little over. I’m pretty average, I think, but I’ve had a few people say I give off tall girl vibes, whatever that means. I think it was meant endearingly, but it's hard to tell when it comes from Max.

14. Favourite subject in school?

They all have their pluses and minuses. Overall anatomy, not my favorite, but once it came to neuroscience specifically, it was fantastic. You can’t have one without the other though. Programming. You can’t advance before you understand the basics. Same with teletporation and dimensional studies. I guess it really comes down to one of my prior answers: You have to know how it works before you can manipulate it, and that can be tedious. Learning the basics is dull sometimes. But the end game is so much more rewarding.

15. Dream job?

I honestly wish I could go back to the way it was before. Studying in my lab. Proposing and testing theories. Pushing the boundaries of what we know. What we’ve seen. Connecting to other worlds in ways we would have never imagined before. Seeing out beyond our reach. It was exhilarating. Maybe one day, it will come back to that. I can hope.

[velomono]

about musababd - i am concerned, because i had reblogged a previous post of this person from a different tumblr account which he cited in another post (musababed) but upon checking it, the musababed account looks to still be active and posting as recently as yesterday in my time. could i trouble you to ask him about it?

If you open and check the gofundme links from both of those accounts, they both lead to the exact same fundraiser. For this reason, I'm not going to ask Musab about it, sorry.

His DMs should be open. I would suggest that you politely and respectfully communicate this question to him yourself, if you are still concerned.

My guess is that they managed to get access back to the old account's URL, and figured to connect the new fundraiser to it. Probably to discourage people from donating to the old one, since the old one's money was being taken by the previous fundraising team. Last time I checked his old account, it had lacked any icon and was connected to that aforementioned old fundraiser, which is why this is my guess. I could be wrong somehow, I don't know. I default to giving benefit of the doubt. If I am wrong, then I am sincerely sorry.

I'm not a family member, nor a personal friend of his, I can't speak Arabic, nor am I Palestinian myself, so it's not as if me specifically messaging him would get a faster response… I'm not someone who has the capability to vet anything myself either, if that's what your impression was before deciding to send me this. I'm just someone who messaged a guy because I was a little confused. Then I felt like it would be helpful to get his message out to others with the same question, to make sure he doesn't have to constantly explain himself. It was the least I could do for bothering him with such an invasive query.

Oh, and because I've had some people struggle with reading my tone in the past; please don't read this as me as trying to start a fight here. I'm just a bit perturbed by your question and its connotations, that's all. I don't wish to argue with you.

[thesiat]

I'm sort of the opposite, though it really depends. I love fairy tale style magic, that is very much operating on known Rules but follows its own separate logic and is still treated by the narrative as inscrutible and mystic.

I also love magic that fully answers 'well if people can do magic why wouldn't they use it for [mundane thing]?' too. For example when presented with the idea that people can use magic to transform themselves, my first question as a trans person is 'well then what's it like to be trans in this world? what's the body mod and plastic surgery community like? what are beauty and gender standards then?' etc. Very sort of Terry Pratchett, Take-it-to-its-logical-conclusion type stuff. While I don't like the magic being fully explained like its physics or science, I do like when the connotations of the magic existing are fully thought through, particularly in the case of things that could and should be used to make queer and disabled lives easier, or that would cause a huge paradigm shift in how these lives are valued or seen or not seen or whatever. It's not about 'people use it to do dishes and it's never explored what this MEANS' it's about exploring what it means for dishes to be that much easier! That's a labour-saving device! That would revolutionise everyone's whole goddamn life!

For me, there's no point in a setting being fantastical if there's no magic--for example game of thrones, or lord of the rings, have limited interest for me, since magic isn't really done there, and particularly in lotr it's more like biblical miracles than magic magic.

D&D is fun because of all the details to dig into--I really like to know how the presence of monsters or magic would butterfly effect out into wild differences between the fantasy world and this one. This is a thing urban fantasy/horror really struggles with, especially when it comes to how the fantastical or magical would affect marginalised lives in ways that might be interesting to explore in fiction. Again there's that 'well this exists but we're not going to explore all the things its existence would change, or what that would mean to multiple viewpoints of person' making it boring.

I think that, overall, I prefer my magic to be more of a fairytale tone--something like magic is in 10th Kingdom, where magic certainly exists in the everyday, and has absolutely mundane consequences (a great deal of the plot in 10th kingdom is spent chasing after a magic mirror that keeps getting sold, traded, given away as the valuable-but-mundane antique that it is; there are also various interactions with wishes and curses that explore practical absurdities of living alongside these wondrous effects), but is not explained. People know how it "works" in a purely practical sense, not in a mechanical sense. The golden fish that gives you the midas touch will give you the midas touch, which everyone knows the rules of--but it's never explained why the fish exists, what it was doing on that boat, why it has this power, how the power works, etc. You're left sort of wondering/laughing about it, and focussing on not why it's there or how it works but how it affects people--which is the more interesting question!

It's annoying when people treat magic like physics, trying to explain how the magic in their setting works on molecules or is actually recreating some real scientific effect, etc. I hate that. Boring!! How does the magic affect people and history and culture by existing at all?

If you explain magic too much it's just Science Babble with the labels switched out; but no explanation is just as boring sometimes--this is why I don't like the creepypasta/urban legend style of horror. There's either not enough explanation; or, the explanation is always the same level of unbelievable one-note 'well because it was EVIL' like with SCPs or FNAF. After a certain point it just feels like this:

...which is almost comedically boring.

TL;DR it's not about the magic being explained/unexplained, it's about the narrative focus being not on how the magic works, but on how the magic affects people and changes normalcy.

Welcome to Night Vale and The Magnus Archives made me realize just how much I want magic to stay sporadic and mysterious. I really liked the early days of both podcasts but once everything turns weird and becomes the norm I lose interest. They didn’t turn bad, they just turned out to be a type of story I personally isn’t into.

I think that’s why I like Lord of The Rings but could never get into Harry Potter. Yes, LoTR is a fantasy world but actual magic is still rare and awe inspiring. In Harry Potter people use magic to wash the dishes.

The best example I can think of from the top of my head is The X Files. They managed to raise the stakes and give us a little more info but the weirdness never turned mundane. It stayed sporadic and mysterious the whole way through.

This is of course just a personal preference but my friend who doesn’t share it and still loves both podcasts got it when they said “When the weird becomes mundane it just turns into a drama using different words” I love how it took someone who doesn’t feel the same way I do about magic in fiction to put my thoughts perfectly into words.

I’d actually really like to hear how you feel about magic and weirdness in fiction. What level does it take to grab your attention and does it ever get too much and become boring or are all levels of magic/weirdness good in your book?

[astranva]

Pleasing

Word Count: 1.9k

Category: Fluff

Warning: One (i guess) F-word

Summary: Y/N doesn’t know it, but every nail polish shade from Pleasing tells a part of Harry and Y/N’s relationship.

this is a very random concept ik

..

To be able to express yourself was a beautiful thing. It doesn’t matter how you do it, as long as you’re not hurting anyone that is.

Some are expressive through words, others through cooking, and some others through fashion--the list is endless.

5 years ago, you were most expressive through the handmade jewelry you made with your family. The connotations were endless, but they started with how much you were always able to unwind as you focused on slipping threads through beads and jewelry pieces to make the most random jewelry ever.

Your handmade jewelry was a lot, so much that they needed their own drawers, and you cherished and kept them as you grew. Early in your relationship with Harry, you remember him texting you to let you know you had forgotten a ring of yours on the bathroom counter from when you washed your hand, or you had forgotten your earrings from when you tried a pair Harry had and didn’t use, all until he stopped reminding you and started wearing them himself--he was a sucker for the rings and necklaces.

He met you in the most cliche way, although devastating to you, but things did work out in the end.

Granny’s Pink Pearls Polish.

It was your favorite necklace.

Alarms sucked. Snoozing alarms sucked more. Running late sucked the most.

You were sure you had created new swear words at that point because you definitely had run out of every swear word known.

It was no job interview, but your best friends had registered you for a salsa dancing class so you could “live life to the fullest” and you hated them for it because how could and why would anyone dance salsa or even live life to its fullest at 8 am in the morning?

“I’m so sorry, I’m late,” you had begun to say the moment you entered the class, slightly relaxing when the two instructors gave you kind smiles as you approached your snickering two friends and the rest.

“It’s fine. No worries. Y/N is it?” The beautiful tanned woman had asked with a smile and an eager, cheerful tone that was questionable because it was 8 in the morning. God, you were bitter.

You nodded.

“Okay! We’re missing one person but-”

“I’m sorry I’m late.” A deep voice cut through, the door opened as Harry stepped inside with a bashful smile, “Took a wrong turn.”

“Harry!” The woman had clapped with a grin, “Glad you could join us. Come on, stand along.”

He was beautiful, it was no fair. You weren’t the only one staring, you knew that, but he was beautiful.

You tried to be discreet about it, catching yourself and looking the other way so he didn’t feel uncomfortable.

The instructors gave a nice greeting and introduction, all before the man said the following:

“We’ll be assigning partners.”

Call it whatever you want, it was cliche and it might have been considered a meet-cute, only in meet-cutes, you didn’t tear up.

“Y/N, if you can stand beside Harry, please.”

Your best friends were snickering, again. You wide eyes eyed them before you looked at the instructors and pointed to yourself, “Me?” You had mouthed, only for them to confirm.

He was smiling when you slowly approached him, and despite the persona he was wildly known for, Harry was shy.

“Hi, I’m Harry.” He gave you his hand to shake, his eyes darting from the pretty pink pearls necklace around your neck to your face. You were adorable.

“Y/N.” You shook his hand, only briefly looking into his eyes before looking away.

Maybe the both of you were shy. Maybe it was because it was only 8 in the morning.

Not only did your, but Harry’s heart also fluttered as the class was instructed to turn to their partner and get into position. One of Harry’s hands was on your waist, the other one holding your hand, yours on his arm.

“Hi.” He had shyly said, again, a dumb, bashful smile on his face.

It was enough to have you smiling, appreciating his effort at easing the situation. “Hi.”

Through the instructions and music, every move you made was made with giggles and laughter, even some quiet “sorry I stepped on your foot” shared between you.

Now, why wouldn’t this be a meet-cute? Meeting and being partnered at a salsa class seemed like dream, one for the movies, and one for good stories.

Only because at some point, Harry’s damn ring got stuck in your very pretty pink pearls necklace and in less than a second, the thread was cut and the sound of clattering pearls was heard as they scattered onto the ground.

The music at that point was loud enough that nobody seemed to notice, but Harry’s eyes were wide as you looked at the ground in shock.

That was your favorite necklace.

“I’m so sorry, I-” Harry’s apology was cut short when you glanced up at him before looking back at the ground, “Shit, are you crying? Hey, are you crying? I’m so sorry, love.”

“It’s fine,” you shook your head. It wasn’t fine. It was your favorite necklace. “It’s just a necklace I made with my granny when I was young, I outgrew it. They weren’t real pearls, you really don’t need to worry.”

“Hey, no,” Harry shook his head as he frowned, “It was-It’s a lovely necklace. It’s very pretty, it’s a very pretty color. I’m so sorry, Y/N.”

Before you know it, Harry was on the ground, picking every pearl and chasing after them and stuffing it in his pocket.

“Is everything alright?” One of the instructors asked.

“Everything’s great, go on!” Harry replied from his scooting position.

“Harry, it’s okay, really.” You said, watching him stand and look around to make sure he got them all.

“I feel so fucking bad that I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep unless I fix this for you.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know why I cried, I-”

“You have nothing to apologize for,” he frowned, “I’m sorry. I should’ve been more careful.”

“It was an accident.”

“That I’m going to fix,” he tilted his head at you, “The best I can.”

“I-” you sighed, “I can fix it myself, you really don’t need to bother.”

But Harry was persistent. And smart.

Yes, he felt bad for snapping your pretty necklace, but he couldn’t help but think the universe was helping him because after that class, you and Harry were sitting at a cafe with a new roll of transparent string and a clasp, fixing your necklace together.

To this day, you wore your pink pearls necklace, only it now held not only one memory, but two.

Pearly Tops Polish.

You don’t need to say you love someone every single second to show that you love them.

“I love you” was an assuring promise that could be sworn in many ways beyond words, and you were no stranger to that.

Harry felt the most loved by you.

Sure, he was loved by millions and millions, and so many amazing family and friends, but you loved him differently. You loved him so subtly, but so loudly.

You showed him you loved him when you always frowned in your sleep every single morning when he woke up before you and got out of bed.

You showed him you loved him when you always attempted to stay up to greet him when he came back home when his flight arrived late at night. You were never awake, but you were always uncomfortably sleeping on the couch with your phone on the ground, showing him that you were probably waiting for him to update you on his whereabouts before you were too sleepy to hold the phone.

You showed him you loved him when you sat with his head on your lap, your eyebrows furrowed in concentration as you tweezed his.

When you try new food with your friends and always getting Harry some of your plate so he could try it, or taking him there.

When, no matter how busy, you send him texts that keep him going throughout the day:

“Saw a cute pug today that was wearing a white sweater. Reminded me of you! Miss you!”

“I watered our plants today so you don’t have to. Be back at 5. Love you x”

“I just heard the funniest joke ever, pls remind me to tell it once i’m home. Love you still x”

You were always very subtle, but everyone knew how in love you were.

You were subtle in the most shimmery way for all it matters, and that was exactly what Harry said when he was choosing that shade.

Inky Pearl.

“This is the coolest thing ever.”

“You said that already,” Jeff said.

“No, you don’t get it,” you shook your head, “This is cool. Like I could write with this forever.”

Harry giggled, wrapping his arm around your shoulders and looking at the paper you were carefully gliding the fountain pen across it in tiny swirls.

“I would sign a contract to sell my soul if this is the pen I’d be using.” You said.

“Let me get on with that then.” Jeff joked.

“Oh shut up, Jeff,” you chuckled before looking at Harry, “Can I write you a love letter?”

Harry smiled, leaning back in his seat, arm still around you, “Go ahead, baby.”

And you did.

In black ink against a thick sheet of paper, you wrote him a love letter that started with “My dearest Harry,” and ended with “Yours always, sincerely, and lovingly, Y/N.”

It was in that very letter that you wrote the words that made Harry’s double its size with love:

“I hope I spend my forever with you.”

Perfect Pearl Polish.

4 years of being in love.

4 years of spending time with someone you consider to be your person.

4 years before Harry got down on one knee, a box opened that didn’t have a ring, but a beautiful necklace of a transparent string with one single pearl in the middle.

“I was afraid I’d get you a ring and then you’d be reminded of when I fucked up your necklace,” he had joked despite his jittery nerves, “I’ve been wishing,” he breathed out, looking up at you before smiling, “I hope I spend my forever with you. Will you marry me?”

You had cried in joy, too stunned before you spoke:

“That’s such a perfect pearl.”

“Yeah?” He grinned, glancing at it, “It’s a real one.”

“Oh my God,” you laughed, “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you.”

There was no big wedding. No cakes to cut. Just Harry in a lace shirt and dressy flared pants, you in the most simple and beautiful white dress, a young photographer you had hired, and you had eloped with a beaded ring you made Harry that was simple enough not to cut or fuck anything up, and your perfect pearl necklace.

There you sat, your nails painted in the 4 colors that hold so much more stories than their formula can hold, carefully gliding the brush on Harry’s nail as you painted his nails like yours.

“You never told me why you chose those colors,” you said, “Why those?”

Harry smiled, staring at you admiringly, “You sure you want to know?”

“Should I be scared?”

“No,” he smiled, “No, just want you to spend forever with me, that’s all.”

[sebastansmut]

Insatiable.

You watched Steve with careful eyes as he once again made his way into your plushy prison cell.

By your calculations you had probably been locked away in his basement for about a week now, and each day becomes more confusing and frustrating than the last. The first few days felt like an apocalyptic type nightmare that you would discover as your reality upon waking up. Then just as the denial began to dissipate, things had certainly taken an unexpected turn last night when he had invited you up for dinner.

“Why did you ask me what it tasted like?” Steve questioned, his eyes squinting down at your sitting figure. He was holding a plastic grocery bag with what looked like clothes inside of it.

You took a moment to study his expression, trying to discern what type of mood he was in. He was hard to read but you adapted quick; So far you had managed not only to not piss him off, but a part of you felt like he had taken a personal interest in you- not just your meat. Trying your best to make your eyes as big and doe-like as possible, you looked up at him through your lashes. “Just curious, I suppose.” Though that wasn’t exactly the truth; This situation was very layered.

Squinting down harder, he bit his lip in contemplation for a moment before finally deciding to drop the grocery bag in front of you. “Well, I was thinking we could have dinner tonight.” His tone lowered as did he, crouching down in front of you. With his sudden proximity you could see the ferocity In his eyes. It made you gasp; Much to his pleasure. “And we can see how curious you really are.”

Though after he spoke he had yet to stand back up. Suddenly, his hand reached out for the side of your face, cupping your cheek as you held your breath. He smirked at the reaction and ran his thumb over your cheek in soothing motions. You found yourself melting into his touch with a deep exhale.

He chuckled, his deep voice vibrating through you and again, cursing an involuntary shudder to ring throughout your spine. “Mmmm, If I didn’t know better princess I’d say you were enjoying my presence.”

I mean, it’s not like you weren’t. As much as you hate yourself for admitting it, some part of you had grown attracted to your aggressor. Despite the preliminary seething anger and feelings of betrayal he had caused to stir up inside of you the night of your capture, you had also discovered an ever-growing infatuation.

While you must admit the idea of him slowly dismembering and consuming you was unnerving, he had yet to actually take any part of you. Not that you didn’t believe he wouldn’t, but as the days come and go you can hear the other girls faint screams and fruitless sounds of struggle as Steve would take them up to his operating room; Yet not once had he taken you from your cell.

Except for tonight. A voice rang in your head, looking down upon the bag in front of you. Inside was a nice, silky black mid-length dress and a few basic makeup items. No shoes, though. You thought, staring down at the same socks you had been wearing for almost a week.

But right now, you were trying to focus on the positive. While your situation was all but desirable, if tonight’s dinner went well, you had a feeling things were about to improve for you. If you had to guess, serial killers and crazed cannibals don’t often wine and dine their victims.

And you were right.

Disregarding the connotation that came with last nights dinner, you had to chalk it up to a success. In addition to finally bringing you some nice clothes with your dress, a simple sweater and skirt, Steve also threw in an assortment of basic makeup items in your bag. While it wasn’t everything you could have hoped for, the mascara and lip gloss he gifted you definitely worked to make your face look more sultry during your meal together.

You can admit you weren’t great at too many things, but you could always tell when a man was attracted to you; and the way Steve’s eyes never strayed from you didn’t go unnoticed.

They frequently darted between your eyes and your mouth, almost like watching you eat the meals he made got him off. It probably did. Your brain reminded you. Use it.

With slow motions you cut off another piece of the dish he prepared you, and brought it up to your mouth while never breaking eye contact. You could see the way his pupils grew and eyes darkened, prompting you to gently part your lips just ever so slightly; and take a small, careful bite. Trying to ignore what exactly it was that you were eating, you tried your best to make it look like the best bite you had ever taken.

From there, things got interesting to say the least. While the sexual tension between you two was palpable, nothing that Steve did or said gave you enough confidence that his attraction to you was stronger than his desire to consume you. At least, not until right now.

As Steve stood in front of you, you remained crouched down on your knees looking to at him through your mascara-coated lashes. “Yes?”

Though he remained silent, you could tell he was thinking about what to do by the way his jaw was clenching. Such a sharp jawline.

Still silent, he crouched down in front of you, his eyes burning holes into you. It almost worried you, the way he wasn’t speaking. His usual light banter was typically how you could tell he was in a good mood.

Trying your best to keep somewhat of a poker face, you cocked your head to the side slightly. “Steve,” you began, your voice gentle as possible,” are you oka-“

A sudden choke cut you off as Steve’s hand clamped tightly around your neck. “Shut up,” he breathed, “and let me think.” The devious look in his eyes sent a chill down your spine.

Fear began to pool inside your abdomen...along with something else. A small whimper escaped you as you took in the delicious situation. As much as he scared you, Steve enticed you even more. Besides the fact that you’ve always been an outcast and he was impossibly good at making you feel seen, his lifestyle was alluring.

And he was just a gorgeous specimen.

“You like that, don’t you?” He said through his teeth, bringing you back to reality. “I knew it. You’re filthy. You want to be daddy’s little whore.”

Your eyes grew wide, not believing the moment you’ve been craving ever since he tied you up on the first night was actually happening.

Not that you hadn’t had sex before he captured you, you had; and it was good, but Steve was playing a part back then. He acted with reservations, inhibitions.

You both did.

But now, now as you sit there relishing in the feel of his hand around your throat, you could both be free.

“Yes, daddy.” You choked out, your eyes closing as you threw your head back.

He scoffed and gripped your neck harder, a nasty smirk curling on his lips. “I fucking knew it.” His free hand hooked onto the waistband of your sleep shorts, “You pretended to be happy in your fancy corporate world,” then suddenly his hand plunged, “but , I know what you really want.” As his fingers teased their way into your folds you couldn’t help but to fidget at the sensation; Your eyes even rolled back for a brief moment. “You want to submit to someone. To me. You don’t want to ever use that pretty little head of yours for anything other than giving me pleasure.”

Steve began to gently spread his fingers and you gasped suddenly, relishing in the feeling. “Steve I-“

Your head was slammed into the wall behind you and the grip on your neck suddenly became threatening. “Bad girl,” he brought his lips up to your ear, “you know what my name is.”

Another whimper escaped you as you moaned out his new title. “Daddy, please.” His fingers began to move again, but just ever so slightly. You whined again.

“What’s wrong my dumb little bunny?” He teased, “please what?” The more gravely his voice got the tighter you felt yourself clench.

Oh god, he was gonna make you say it.

You tried to buck your hips around to attempt to create some friction but your efforts were thwarted when Steve held down your hips. “Nuh-uh-uh.” He clicked, taking his hand out from inside my shorts and causing me to let out a huge whine. The smirk that painted itself on his face grew wider at my reaction. “What is it, ____?”

You tried your best to throw your biggest, most pouty-expression on him. “Daddy, please stop teasing me.” Looking up at him through your eyelashes you silently pleaded with him. “I need to feel you.”

Suddenly you were pushed onto the floor, and as you laid on your back you watched the man above you grow hungry with desire. He quickly threw his shirt off over his head, revealing the impossibly perfect physique you had been craving since your last night together.

His teeth suddenly sunk into your neck with a delicious sting; coinciding with the return of his hand down your shorts, you gasped, and you felt his low chuckle vibrate through your body. “Mmm, you are so delicious.” Steve’s whispers danced across your neck as he nibbles on your earlobe. “My dumb, beautiful, complacent little cumslut.” One of his fingers teased your entrance mercilessly as you relished in the way he spoke to you.

It was easy for you to loose yourself like this. To just completely surrender your body and mind to Steve; Anything he wants, you’ll give him, just as long as he keeps touching you.

Once you felt his long finger slip inside you your eyes closed and a moan escaped from deep in your chest. You bucked your hips trying to meet his hand in a thrust.

“You want it rough, huh?” He chuckled, his eyes growing darker as he stared down with a sinister look. “What a dirty little slut.” Pulling his finger back out, you whined at the loss, and he started to tease your slick folds again, making him chuckle.

As another one of his fingers slid over, and across, but never inside you, a loud whine left you with impatience. You looked up at him, your eyes pleading for him to completely take over, but you knew he was having too much fun watching you squirm to make it that easy.

But this wasn’t your first rodeo, and it looked like it was about time to flip the script and pull out the tricks.

Releasing any inhibitions you previously held, each movement he made elicited a sultry moan or mewl, and tried your best to muster up the most sensual expression possible. Your eyes fluttered close when his speed picked up, and he finally plunged two of his digits inside you.

A high pitched squeak left your mouth at the sudden movement- a sound that drove Steve crazy. His smirk grew from ear to ear as he continued to plunge into you with the same delicious brute force that made you cry out the first time. Steve relished in the sounds of your moans bouncing off the walls. He loved to be the one to do this to you.

“_____, you really are irresistible.” His praises washed over you, adding to your euphoric state as he continued pumping his fingers into you at a steady rate. “I knew from the moment I saw you that I’d have to have you. I knew I’d have to make you mine forever.” Suddenly, his hand focused in on your bundle of nerves, applying a delicious amount of pressure in a circular motion that made you scream out in pleasure.

Your eyes rolled to the back of your head as you relished in the feeling. “Fuck daddy,” You breathes, arching your back to meet his hand,” you make me feel so fucking good!” Thrashing your hands around in their binds, you fervently thrust your hips up, trying desperately to create the friction you so craved.

A low chuckle vibrates through his chest as he finally obliged your requests, plunging his hand a bit deeper, and with just a bit more of the delicious force he was using. As he curled his fingers another sultry mewl rolled off your tongue, eagling him on. “You are such a nasty little slut, moaning for me.” Steve’s free hand cupped your face, “I bet you’ve been wanting this ever since you woke up chained to my floor.”

You nodded, a meek look in your eyes as you looked up at the handsome devil above you.

“And I love it when you fucking look at me like that, god.” He breathed out, his dark eyes locking with yours. “Like a beautiful, complacent little bunny. My bunny.” Your sexy new title rolling of his tongue was music to your ears and you let out another sharp squeal of joy, followed by a brief case of the giggles, making him smirk even more. As he picked up the pace you spread your legs open further, trying desperately to get him to fuck you.

“Daddy,” you whined, your eyes closed as he slipped his fingers in and out, and all over your slick pussy. “deeper daddy, please.”

Steve continued staining down at your possesively, watching how you responded so eagerly to every little touch. “You want it deeper baby?” He cooed, slipping in a third finger and beginning to pump incredibly, incredibly slow. An evil look came into his eye “I think you’re gonna have to do something for me first.” And before you could ask what, he took his fingers out of you and began to speedily undo his pants.

It felt like not a moment passed before you were faced with his impressive length, plopping promptly out of his pants and bouncing around deliciously.

Without much warning, he grabbed the back of your head and steadied himself as he shoved his dick inside your mouth, and down your throat. You moaned deeply as he began to push in and out.

“Fuck yes just like that.” He hissed, his mouth hanging open with pleasure. “Be a good little slut for me.”

You closed your eyes and relished in the moment; possibly the hottest sex you’ve ever had— and you haven’t even fucked yet.

Swirling your tongue and sucking extra hard for a little pizzazz that you hoped would impress Steve, you wished your hands weren’t still bound in their shackles so you could use them to help.

But it was kind of hot being tied up like this.

He suddenly jerked himself forward even harder, and held your head down to keep himself deep inside you for a long pause, causing a deep guttural moan to rise from your chest.

The vibrating sensation deliciously encapsulated his already throbbing member deep in your throat and Steve threw his eyes back in pure pleasure. He knew he had found what he had been looking for his whole life.

He pulled himself out with a pop, and saw a glob of saliva drip down your chin, enticing him to smear it all over your face as you continued to look up at him with those delectable “fuck-me” eyes. His smirk grew from ear to ear as he finally gave your chest a hard push, and as you fell on your back he quickly spread your legs open and crawled over you.

Positioning himself at your entrance, he placed a hand over your neck, and whispered in your ear,

“Are you ready for me, princess?”

xxxxxx

A/N: Ahhhhh guys I did it! I wrote ! If you liked it, comment, and there will be a part 2 ! If you have any other requests pls hit my ask box as it is open 😃

[uncommon-etc]

*cracks knuckles* *puts dusty former-media-studies-teacher hat back on* as it so happens, when I was having to teach a bunch of 15-year-olds who mostly loved horror and genre-TV the likes of Barthes, Butler, Mulvey, Neale, and Jenkins, I used a lot of clips from Supernatural. Why? It wasn't just because I was a pre-teen in the mid 00s, watched the show from the beginning and had something of a fondness for it, much of the show is a masterclass in both semantic and cultural coding, and my students needed a lot of help to tell the two apart.

Semantic coding at its most basic level is additional meaning by connotation, but those connotations are broadly universal (i.e. that guy's face is creased into a frown, he must be frustrated) Cultural coding by contrast is not universal, it requires a shared understanding of visual language specific to the culture in which you've grown up (including, crucially, subculture). My students had all grown up in fairly enlightened times in a relatively affluent area and roughly a quarter of them were openly queer. It was interesting that the LGBT+ kids picked up on cultural coding much more quickly, but on the whole all of them eventually got the hang of it.

We would watch certain scenes and I'd ask them to distinguish between semantic and cultural codes in the dialogue, visuals, and actions of the characters, so for example in the scene where Dean first meets Aaron Bass, the semantic codes are clear even to a clueless straight person (the students would write things like 'dean is clearly flustered - evidence: he bumps into a table') but then we'd look at the cultural coding; the prolonged eye-contact, the FBI pass slid a little more slowly than was needed along the bar, the facial expressions (and yes, the face does very different things when you're grossed out that someone you're not attracted is into you or flattered that someone you are is openly flirting) all of these choices were deliberate, and it seems nigh-on impossible that decisions about the acting, cinematography, and stylings of a scene could have been made in isolation, that's simply not how TV works.

Even if you remove Cas from the narrative entirely (and that's a big if) the whole show is littered with these instances, there's plausible deniability to an extent because the writers clearly wanted some scenes to be read as far more ambiguous to a straight audience, but even some of the dialogue employs this semantic/cultural coding combination in a way that's actually pretty clever. When Garth says 'what, purgatory purgatory?' and Dean goes 'No, the one in Miami.' the semantic coding of his tone/body-language is clear, but it takes someone with a working knowledge of the shared culture of the American LGBT population to go 'hold on, isn't that the name of a famous gay-bar? How does Dean know about that?'

It's a truth sadly and universally understood by all who lived through that era that 00s TV was absolutely rife with casual homophobia, so yes, to begin with a lot of those moments are probably written for laughs particularly around the insinuation that two actual siblings could never be close enough to live together, share motel rooms and travel around together as adults, therefore they must be a couple, but it's interesting that from the start the writers made a conscious choice to make Dean the primary focus of these gags. And when the 'mistaken for a couple' schtick grew stale, it doesn't take a genius to be conscious of how Sam was never the one put in situations where he might be perceived as showing an interest in other men.

Ironically one of the most telling lines appears in one-such late-00s homophobia played-for-laughs scene very early on in the series, Dean says 'I suppose the most troubling question is why do these people think we're gay?' and Sam goes 'well you're kind of butch, maybe they think you're overcompensating.' out of context and in isolation the semantic coding of the scene is a simple one-sibling-teasing-the-other dynamic, but A) this was an era where Brokeback Mountain had just been released and trying to look as masc as possible as a queer man was such a common occurance they did a whole bit on My Name is Earl about it, and B) the more observant viewer knows the characters well enough by now to have noted Dean's tendancy to over-idealise and emmulate his father, in a way that looks exactly like over-compensating for not being straight.

Showrunners always want to have their cake an eat it, attracting large and loyal LGBT+ audiences without doing anything gay enough to scare off straight fans with unchecked biases, and yes, it's easy for me to look back on the show in light of all of the much more diverse and openly queer shows we have now and feel like I spent most of my teenage years being queerbaited. But the standard formula for any genre show in the 00s and early 10s was to have one token gay character who never got much of a storyline of their own beyond being the token gay character, then kill them off as soon as it looked like they had the chance to be happy. It was as if writers (even those who were queer themselves like a certain R.T. Davies) were only prepared to give us queer stories cloaked in shame, trauma, and tragedy, or create queer stories with straight romances (ala Bryan Fuller and Pushing Daisies, still one of the greatest straight love-stories written for TV purely because it feels so friggin gay).

So while it doesn't make it right, maybe having a queer-coded main character who got to survive 15 seasons, experience a full range of emotions and lived experiences, and be studied by future generations as a fascinating example cultural coding in genre-tv isn't such a bad thing after all?

the thing is that if you take each individual queer!dean moment in isolation you can look at them and go 'wow straight people are fucking oblivious huh' but if you zoom out a little and start looking at the whole picture there is very clearly a purposeful pattern happening there from the writing to the acting to the directing to the editing and i know these days it's a crime worthy of being dragged through the public square to say hey actually maybe the people working on the show supernatural knew what they were doing but um maybe the people working on the show supernatural knew what they were doing