#i mean hopefully not but considering my trend so far

[cellarspider]

Qunlat 11/12: Tal-Vashoth and Vashoth Names

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So, if you want a character who scribbled on their own nametag rather than getting one issued with their high school diploma, I’ve got you covered. Time for (Tal-)Vashoth names. There’s no hard rules here, but there are trends we can look at.

Tal-Vashoth are a mixed group–obviously, they left for their own reasons.⁽¹⁾ Some don’t change their name: Salit didn’t, as far as we know. Ashaads one and two from the Valo-Kas may also be Tal-Vashoth, but we’re not ever told. Others may not use Qunlat at all, like if Bull goes Tal-Vashoth. Several Tal-Vashoth names we’ve heard tend to be specific protests of some sort. The two we know are Maraas (“nothing”) and Katari (“one who kills”), though I have a few quibbles on the latter one.⁽²⁾ 

Others? We simple don’t know. Armaas in DAO has an unknown name.⁽³⁾ We don’t have any others on record for classification, this is the full tally.

Vashoth names seem to be a mix of professional titles (Kaaras, “navigator”), possible protest names (Issala, “dust”), while others are concepts or qualities (Herah, “time”, Taashath, “calm”). Many use Qunlat, like Adaar (lit. “throw-fire”, a compound meaning “cannon”), and some appear to use Qunlat but don’t–Apologies to any Qwydion fans thought her name was a Qunlat word, hopefully the phonological analyses in previous entries show that it’s not.

Many of the concept/quality names are closer to what we’d consider “conventional” names: descriptors and aspirational qualities. Within canon, we can guess these likely grew out of the Qunari use of nicknames, but Vashoth have their own culture–or at least we can assume we do, canon has not actually shown us Vashoth culture at all. The wordbuilder in me is both sad about that, and gleeful, because it gives people more license to get creative with it.

Because that’s my goal here. While I can give people pointers on how to make this work and sound consistent with Qunlat as we know it, what you do with all this is your own. Whether you’re naming a character to play for the games or writing Qunlat for artistic purposes, I can’t tell you what fits you best. 

And… that’s it for canon Qunlat, really. We’ve covered all the stuff we can say for certain. The last post in this series will be a condensed summary post so that people can have a reference document for everything, but apart from that? Done with canon.

There are other unexplained things, sure. The most substantive missing pieces are anything to do with grammar: we have translations that imply things like “if” and “then” and “because”, that something “must be”, building similes and comparatives and using ditransitive verbs and evidentials and grammatical use of multiple different word orders and and and--

But I can’t definitively say any of them have been canonically established. They appear mostly in the translations of Philliam, a Bard!, and for reasons grumpily expounded upon before, these are not strong evidence for their existence. We are left with a limited corpus of grammar, and 232 words I’ve been able to collect, and about 40 of them can’t be confidently defined. It’s a language that sounds good, has some interesting vocabulary, but it’s a small thing.

And I decided that I wanted to experiment with it. I took the words we had, made more tenuously educated guesses about the meanings of many of them, and turned my attention to the sentences we had. The English translations implied so much more linguistic depth than I could actually see in the Qunlat, if one assumed the language continued to be very Indo-European. I wasn’t convinced the sentences were soundly constructed.

So I started fashioning grammar from the bones of these sentences, shoring them up into something that could stand on its own as a language, and express complex ideas. If a translation told me that some grammatical feature was in a sentence, I would make it happen.

The result is an extremely different language, using the same sounds, but under the hood it functions unlike any Indo-European language I’m aware of. But among my small group of conlanging friends, it’s been popular. Without trying, I’ve gotten multiple people interested in using it, despite having no prior experience with Dragon Age. We’re able to hold untranslated conversations in Qunlat, with people able to describe ideas I didn’t explicitly build into the language. That means it’s functioning as a living language, albeit a small one.

And I will be detailing how it works. People who want to stick to just canon are encouraged to do so! In the coming days, I’ll be digging into my personal Qunlat project, and how to use it as a language...

...Once I take a bit of a break. This has been a lot, and I have to do a bit of catch-up.

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Footnotes

(1) I remain sad that we’ve yet to canonically see Tal-Vashoth who didn’t reject the Qun, they’re just so intensely heterodox in their practice that they became irreconcilable with the mainstream faith. That’s bound to happen, with a religion that has a central governing body, a large swath of territory that’s difficult to communicate across, and a gradient of permissive-to-strict practice that runs from the edges of their territory to the core.

The fantastic fic Our Daily Bread makes a strong case that the Arishok in DA2 had technically gone Tal-Vashoth by engaging in conversions–something the Ben-Hassrath and Tamassrans would normally do. But that hasn’t been touched on at all by canon. We could have practicing Qunari with radically different theology! Have ones that are basically in line with everything except for one detail that seems insignificant to outsiders and those outside the priesthood, but has huge ramifications for their entire cosmic order. Give! Me! Spicy! Heresies!!

(2) We don't have a strong definitional difference between -aad and -ari, but we know -aad is used for names of Antaam roles (with minor exceptions).  Ari is a more general term that can apply to nearly everyone, including kabethari and imekari, or refer to the entity of a culture. So Katari could mean “the person who kills”, but could also mean “the person who dies”, which might be more likely given the general -ari suffix. Theoretically it could also mean “one who kills a people”, but that wouldn’t be the primary reading. 

So, how might I tweak this? Using the agentive -(a)ad could create Kataad, meaning “one who kills”. But Kata usually means “die” if it only has a subject, and only means “kill” if you give it an object. How would you say “one who dies”? Well! Canon actually gave us a suffix for that, and then seems to have forgotten about it: -(a)th, the passive derivational suffix. Kataath would thus mean “dead or dying person”, or “corpse”. 

(3) We’ve established from Arvaarad that Ar means “to hold back something”, so Armaas could be using the same root word. …I also just noted that Armaas is an anagram of Maraas, which is odd. New names formed via the Daily Jumble, perhaps?

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[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 29/03/2024

Semi-Charmed All Star

Season 3 Featured on: SiIvaGunner's Highest Quality Rips Volume A

Ripped by eva twin

Requested by Fezaki! (Request Form)

When I read Fezaki's request for this rip, it came with a pretty simple declaration on his part - that Semi-Charmed All Star may well be the best All Star rip on the entire channel. The comment kind of got me thinking for a while, because All Star is the kind of song that's at once incredibly recognizable yet also sort of old hat for use in memes today. The overly loud meme landscape of the mid-2010s was practically lead by Shrek's iconic door-slamming "SOME-BODY!!", and the song was used quite a fair bit in Season 1 of SiIvaGunner in particular, yet it never quite found the same longevity and fondness as other memes on the channel. Why is that - and how does Semi-Charmed All Star break free from that trend?

In terms of All Star's decline in popularity on SiIva, the simplest reason to point to is, bluntly, that it's at once both very easy to use and very overplayed, already beginning to feel a bit overdone back in 2016. With a steady rhythm and an all-too-common 4/4th time signature, the song is comparatively quite easy to make use of for low-effort mashups - it's no coincidence that, in Mr. Rental [B Side] ~ Out of Options, it was one of these All Star mashups that sent the Mr. Rental character on a rampage to destroy the very concept of mashups themselves. A song like Space Jam sort of occupies a similar space, likely being the absolute most mashed-up-with song in history due to its ease of use and popularity; but funny enough, due to the team's sheer dedication to finding new ways to use it to subvert the otherwise low expectations of the source, it's been wearing that position with honor rather than shame. Rips like Hoopache and Mother, Father, TechnoMan hopefully show what I mean - they go so far above what one would consider needed for a Space Jam rip and have kept the source alive along with its number-one infamy. Sitting comfortably in second place, All Star hasn't really had that luxury - it shows up from time to time, but once the bar of quality went up past Season 1, it felt like it got largely left behind.

And that makes Semi-Charmed All Star all the more interesting. In a sea of other All Star edits off of SiIva, the various ones made during Season 1, and the occasional attempts made in the years since to complicate it the same way as those aforementioned Space Jam rips, it stands at a really great balance. It is indeed an All Star mashup, but unlike most that popularized the trend, its not using the song's memed-up vocals - instead using its instrumental backing, in some ways just as iconic and recognizable, yet far less overplayed in comparison. The song its paired with, Semi-Charmed Life, is one I'm far less familiar with, yet it funny enough has notable history with All Star: The song was repeatedly used by the legendary Neil Cicierega in some of his mashup albums, the first of these, Mouth Sounds, consisting almost entirely of All Star mashups. I'm pretty sure this little nod to mashup history is intentional, as the game Semi-Charmed All Star is featuring - Rock Band - was directly cited by Neil as being the resource that made him interested in doing mashups to begin with. To my understanding, the two songs never actually crossed over on these mashup albums - in that sense, the rip is realizing an idea that was set up four years before its release.

More than that, though, the rip is just executed incredibly well, and a banger on the whole! There's little in the way of surprises to find, though I definitely chuckled at 01:14 when the vocals command a "STOP" only to be met by a sudden out-of-place guitar shred that interrupts itself, as if it just got caught being too loud. There's a real appeal to All Star's instrumental, a chill vibe that I described back in RNR (Rip No Riffs) and is sort of lost in its exaggerated vocal performance, yet one that feels almost more realized here in Semi-Charmed All Star. There's editing to the stems done to make the two songs fit better together, which is a layer of deep nitty-gritty analysis that I don't know if I'm able to discern just by ear (please remember while reading this blog - I'm not a musician!). But given just how naturally the two songs end up fitting together in the end, completely lacking that typical Season 1 roughness you'd perhaps expect from a rip using All Star - I'd say eva twin did a really good job here!! In line with a previous rip of hers I've covered on here, Blessing the Dire, Dire Rains, it at times feel as if Season 3 was aiming to better realize the ideas that Season 1 was setting up, even extending into its year-defining April Fools event as described with Fragile Snowman (Remastered). This is not to say that there weren't any *good* All Star rips in Season 1 either - the first rip linked in this paragraph is from Season 1! It's more that I feel like Semi-Charmed All Star better realizes the potential these rips have to be genuinely - and in a very distinct way - good, without going into full-on absurdist territory as Space Jam rips often does. A perfect balance is struck, althewhile paying tribute to mashup history in a pretty neat way.

Ah, gosh...All Star, what a song, what a bizarre legacy for Smash Mouth to leave behind. But I'm always happy to see it again, especially when done as well as it is here - and it's of course always a pleasure to feature eva twin's incredibly underrated ripping work on the blog. I couldn't find a way to integrate it into the post, but please - Go listen to Sable's Stickerbush sometime today, you won't regret it.

[mitziholder]

apologies for being weird and hogging your inbox like this but i LOVE your thoughts on fandom and i think very few people talk about it in a critical way without completely condemning the entire occupation. in my experience people (not just on this website but in general) tend to take a very black and white view of fandom/fic, probably because it can feel like a very personal thing for many; either they're 'normies' who think all fanworks are 'cringe' or they're the anything goes kind of person. radfems seem to me to be the only ppl who aren't overly defensive of the enterprise but can still enjoy fanworks critically. its nice to see women who aren't like. Fandom Moms talking about these things at length. i think you're one of the few people i've agreed with regarding this subject so far :/ your analyses are very much appreciated and i'd love to read more of what you think (especially regarding the point about navigating trauma). have a good day!

oh and also regarding the whole 'i want women to read better thing' ive always felt this idea that fandom culture is above criticism (or criticising it is inherently misogynistic) is in some ways an extension or at least related to the societal notion that women should be confined to the fluffy feeling aspects of writing and art and aren't as capable of intellectually engaging with things (and of course some 'criticisms' of fan culture ARE misogynistic but i'm not referring to those atm). and obviously there isn't anything inherently WRONG with silly fluff novels or romance (especially romance of course as one can certainly explore that subject in depth and i actually think there's a lack of well written romance out there) but it still feels like a limitation on female growth to normalise women ONLY reading fanfiction or even only certain brands of genre fiction i guess? and i find it sad that so many women seem to almost buy into that idea nowadays or shoot down any sort of criticism with the 'stop shaming female desire' catchphrase. and considering that there is still a dearth of well made original female work for women in pop culture (that act as cultural touchstones in the same way a lot of male works do) it's even more depressing that a lot of fanwork centers men. sorry if this comes off as insufferably pretentious lmao! i'm not even against fanwork i mean this is tumblr i still enjoy things but hopefully you know what i mean lol

like i mean. there's a reason why fanfiction is seen as primarily a female affair (even though a lot of the highly regarded published fanfics are by men. u know the neil gaiman stuff or whatever). its sort of a reassurance that women are 'limited' to writing fanworks. idk. i guess i want women to do better idk if im making any sense

ok, mandatory disclaimer that what I’m describing here is a series of trends, trends I’ve observed within fandom at large including both fanfiction readers/writers and fujos more broadly. obviously, not everyone who reads fanfic or yaoi is a woman (though the vast majority are). obviously, not every woman who reads fanfic or yaoi is a stunted teenager who refuses to engage with any other media. I will also admit that not every fanfic is jimin ABO. I don’t think that fanfic is inherently cringe or low-quality, and there are certainly a lot of respectable published works that have been created with other people’s characters or settings. but, as I’ve said, the vast majority of fanworks in the modern day are essentially pornographic mad libs. I find that disappointing. and there’s no reason it has to be this way… except for all the reasons I’ve outlined in my other posts.

things that are lazy and thoughtless and easy, that provide instant gratification, are generally more popular than things that are difficult or uncomfortable. clearly. but people who denounce all fanfic/fanfic writers and pigeonhole it as low-effort slop are not actually interested in helping the women who write it achieve their fullest potential, because they do not believe those women have any potential. it’s true that some criticisms of fan culture and fanworks are purely misogynistic… but I care about women’s voices, and I do want women to be able to express themselves. I’m not on a quest to stop women from writing or reading fanfic. I’ve been slightly flip about the subject, but truthfully, not everything that is “derivative” is bad, and there’s no reason that fanworks couldn’t be good. it’s just that the culture around them is so intensely sensitive - anti-“shaming” - that women are terrified of saying anything about the level of quality or the potentially harmful nature of most fanfiction because they don’t want to devalue media created by and for other women.

I think that’s a disservice to women as a whole. not everything we write is valuable. I’ve written plenty of crap in the pursuit of getting better - plenty of crap I currently disagree with. and if our work can’t withstand criticism - if we shut down immediately at any hint of a deeper, more unflattering analysis of what’s really going on… then what’s the point? what are we communicating? that female fantasies exist in a compartmentalized bubble far and away from our politics and intellectual pursuits? that we should be able to j/o to rape fantasies without question because it’s not that serious? that the personal is political, except for when it isn’t… and we should all be quiet and let women write whatever they want free of criticism lest we shame them so hard they go into hiding? my standards might be a tad high, but that is setting the bar… dangerously low. it’s also patronizing. since when has “just let women enjoy things!!” ever gotten us anywhere? since when has that been a cornerstone of feminist thought? is that really the best we can do? are we really so fragile?

I’ve seen a glut of posts about how useless and harmful constructive criticism supposedly is. the reasoning is always basically the same:

criticism is mean/toxic/discouraging

maybe I’m too hardened by countless death wishes I got on my old blog, but, in my experience, whenever I have something I want to say or a point I want to make, very little can keep me from doing so. I can’t imagine being so bothered by what random Internet people think. it’s important to remember that being able to determine what criticism is valuable is a skill in itself. disavowing criticism as a whole because some of it is “toxic”/discouraging is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

criticism is pointless; perfection is unattainable

of course nothing is ever going to be perfect. but if that’s your attitude, why bother editing? (rhetorical question. some fanfic authors do post unedited works… just because they can.) hell, why write? why get up in the morning? why make your bed? why try anything new at all? it’s a completely absurd, defeatist attitude. like the first point, it also reeks of intellectual laziness and self-satisfaction.

you could just be nice and say what you liked instead because that’s helpful too

please don’t blow smoke up my ass. in editing, I want to fix things that don’t work and to trim the fat. is it “kind” or “helpful” to let me do something completely stupid because you’re too afraid of embarrassing or offending me to say as much? also, knowing what people like is useful in producing more of what people like - it doesn’t help me do anything new or different. there is nothing less helpful to me than saying “good job!” when I ask you to read my work. it’s certainly nice (as long as you actually read it), but it’s not helpful.

it’s published, the author is through with it, and they don’t want to touch it anymore

I plan to do everything I can to edit and improve my writing before the thing is drawn and published, but I’m sure some flaws will inevitably slip through the cracks. currently, I’m rewriting entire chapters from the beginning because they became incompatible with what I wanted out of the series as it progressed. considering that a lot of people write fanfic on a chapter-by-chapter basis with only a very vague trope-strung outline, I have to wonder why they’re so averse to major overhauls. sure, it’s not pleasant, but don’t you want your writing to be the best that it can be? what is the purpose of uploading it if you don’t want the thing to be responded to as it is, warts and all?

also, not all criticism is limited to the specific work it’s derived from; many things can be extrapolated to future works as well. how are we supposed to correct trends that could lead to a decrease in the quality of future works if we can’t even point them out?

fanfiction is a hobby, and hobbies should be fun

I’m not under the impression that I’ll ever be able to make a living from my writing. I do it as a “hobby” in my spare time simply for the fact that I need an outlet for my thoughts - I need to organize them in some way. writing is an art form that we use to communicate meaning and to make sense of the world around us. your goal as a writer may be to have fun, but it isn’t mine. overgeneralizing and building an entire subculture around the pursuit of mindless fun limits what fanfiction and amateur writing have the potential to be.

you could just go read something else that you like more

actually, no. I don’t like any of it. I’m sorry if saying that is offensive to the 38-year-old she/they whose blog post I grabbed this from. most fanfic is bad. I yearn for the exploration of topics that are categorically not explored in fanfic - because the scope of what fanfic is interested in is constantly narrowing, feeding on itself, like an ouroboros. this problem is only going to get worse over time. why wouldn’t I be bothered? why can’t I say it’s a shame?

mass media and tiktok are worse!

maybe, but so what? at least the majority of people who spend their time watching tiktok videos and bad TV don’t act like it’s a suitable replacement for real literature. and at least there aren’t tiktok compilations being listed on goodreads(?)

anyway, more to the point, fandom is full of technically competent writers. but if they continue to insulate themselves within fandom or fandom-adjacent offshoots, they will never be great writers, because great writing requires tight editing (the elimination of things that are pointless and redundant), syntactic fluency, organizational skills, and, most importantly, an individual voice - an artistic vision - interpreting individual ideas… things that are born of criticism and a diversity of influences that are not present or valued within fandom in its current state. great writing cannot be made in a vacuum. great writers don’t allow themselves to be broken or stifled by criticism they disagree with.

sure, no one has a responsibility to be a great writer, and mediocre writing isn’t a moral failure… but I’m certainly not going to be happy about it, especially when the prevailing attitude is “fanfic is art… but I make what I want for myself and sharing it with you is a privilege and therefore you can’t criticize it!” how boring! how utterly conceited! my god. throwing a temper tantrum because you’re not 100% in control of how others perceive or respond to your creation. put it in a diary and not on a public forum if that bothers you so much… (but then, of course, you couldn’t count kudos.)

I do have a plan to touch on some of my other gripes since you asked so nicely. but this response is, once again, getting too long, and those things have little to do with what I was complaining about here. I’ve got an outline for a post I’ll develop and publish later as a final note on this convo, since at that point I really will have said all that I have to say… thanks again for writing in :-)

[thisghosts-obsessions-again]

Then you dont know much. 1) Moonborn had five seasons and one of the first books they ever made with crappy art and drawings. Will be much better for them to do a re-release. 2) Hell and Highwater is the lowest rated book on the entire app together with Elite Tag so why would they even invest more time and energy on something people hate? And 3) Chasing You is a fan favorite. This will do wonders for Romance Club when all of their old readers come back.

Dear anon,

I'll try to my best to answer this as politely as I can, given I may be misreading the tone of your ask.

I would like to start by saying, that so far I have yet to come across a negative take on HHW here on Tumblr (personally haven't played ET yet because there are still old stories I have to finish). To say players hate it is a stretch. The way I see it, it was overshadowed by the more popular and trending stories, i.e. DALS, Theodora, and HOT to name a few. Regardless of the lower rating, it still deserved to be told the way the author envisioned it to be, and so do the other stories YSI shortened because they weren't "popular" enough.

Next, Moonborn having a re-release to revamp the art style is a monumental task considering its length and the number of items in-game. A sequel with revamp art styles? More plausible. To address your comment for the crappy art, of course it was crappy! It was one of RC's earlier batch of stories. One could argue, SOS, SITF and co. had crappy art too, but they all differed in the quality of their substance. Yes, you could have amazing art and graphics, but if it's all aesthetic without an ounce of good storytelling, then is it even worth it? I'd rather have a good story with crappy designs than gorgeous art with poor quality, narratively speaking.

Lastly, just because Chasing You was a fan favourite, doesn't automatically mean one should recycle the characters to make an AU. Fan fictions are there for that. Rather than 'chasing after' their old readers, they could have easily made another detective mystery book to entice back the readers who were, foremost, fans of the detective mystery genre. There is no guarantee that a sequel can and will generate a huge spike in player activity, if the story itself is bland. On the other hand, if you're in it simply for the character/s... I wish you nothing but the best. Because it will take a lot of mental energy to ignore plot holes and the likes. I speak this from the experience of someone who played an awful story for the sake of that one LI who ultimately was semi-okay-ish character-wise.

Personally, I have no problem with CY 2 getting released. My issue rest with the fact that CY has run its course, as well as the other popular books YSI might consider for potential sequels. Would it be preferable if they fix certain endings for some books that felt like they have been rushed? Yes. Absolutely. Would it have been better for the new book to have a new cast of characters as opposed to a CY Victorian AU? For me, at least, 100% yes.

Hopefully, this makes my view on the matter understandable, and satisfies your question.

[gobbluthbutagirl]

ok so 1. this post was not supposed to blow up like this. i had no idea that was going to happen. if i had expected ANYBODY to reblog it i would have added sources. if i had known it would reach 22,000+ notes i simply never would have posted it at all. i post screenshots of news articles i happen to read all the time. none of them have ever blown up to this extent before and hopefully they never will again because this shit literally broke my activity tab yesterday.

2. the first person to add a link to the article in the reblogs did so at somewhere between 300 and 500 notes. the first person to question whether or not it was real did so at around 900 notes. meaning at no point could anyone who wasn’t sure if it was real not have simply clicked into the notes and found said link. the post gained somewhere in the neighborhood of 6,000 notes overnight, during which several MORE people added links in the reblogs. and yet people were still leaving tags and comments indicating that they didn’t know if it was real and/or they didn’t believe it was real. i don’t think anyone actually asked for a source. it was all ���i don’t know if/think this is real.” it was at this point that i added the edit to the original post, because…

3. i get being skeptical of misinformation and not automatically trusting things you see online. but what do we do when that happens? we attempt to independently verify. if you have access to tumblr.com, you also have access to google.com. if you typed in “michael imperioli” in the google search bar at the time that i posted this, the variety article that i screenshotted would have been one of the first things to pop up. the variety article is not behind a paywall. michael imperioli’s instagram is public and can be viewed without an account. this is something that takes about two seconds to verify, and i rest my case that choosing to spend those two seconds instead leaving a comment/tag saying you don’t know if it’s real or not is indeed stupid.

4. literally why would i fake this? why would i go to all the effort of making a fake news headline and excerpt complete with a stock photo of michael imperioli and just slap a variety writer’s name on there? do you not think it’s more likely that i was simply reading the news and saw something i wanted to screenshot and post? we don’t need to assume EVERYTHING is misinformation just because it’s on the internet.

5. variety was the first source i saw reporting this story but it was FAR from the only source. people in the notes have also linked cnn and vanity fair. even fox news ran a story on it. it was in the apple news trending section for a while yesterday. if you are relying on MY blog, gob bluth but a girl dot tumblr dot com, as your main news outlet, then we have bigger problems here than whether or not i linked the full article when i first made the post. if you’re someone who actually reads the news on a regular basis, you will be able to tell whether or not my post is misinformation because you will see it somewhere else besides my blog.

6. you should not get your news from tumblr. if you do get your news from tumblr, i reserve the right to consider you stupid. again, EVERYTHING in those two screenshots is easily googleable! if you’re an adult in the united states or any other country where your access to information is not restricted by the government you need to be reading the actual news. there is no excuse not to! yes the new york times has a paywall but a whole bunch of sites do NOT. if you have an iphone you have access to the apple news app which will show you tons of articles from tons of sources for free! there is no excuse!

7. your comment is also not helpful. but hey, at least now you have context!

edit because some of you guys are stupid and don’t believe this is real for whatever reason: here is the variety article these screenshots came from & his instagram post itself

[go-rocksquadsfan]

Not me making up (somewhat) canon compliant names for my COTL followers when I only have like ten with a specific appearance in mind

Speaking of COTL names, I don't know if it was intentional but I really like that one version of Yellow Cat being named Theon considering Theo/Theos means god in Greek. Personally I'm picking another name for them but it's a really nice touch regardless. Hopefully there's another name with the syllables available that form another name with a meaning. Otherwise I flashed on the name Fear, but I'm not sure if I give it to them or another follower yet.

Assuming this universe has an equivalent Greek influence on the language, names with The- must be quite popular... as well as disciples' names considering monotheist religions tend to do that (I wouldn't know about polytheist religions but I assume there must be some cases)

Maybe there are trends in specific species like cat names regularly having a "ma" somewhere or the like (kinda contradicted by all the cat names we have but shhhh... Imagine it as a "recent" trend)

COTL so far has been an unique experience in terms of lore and fandom I love it

[gravelilyaufgehoben]

I am so tired of the "It's not really a game" criticism. I'm not mad that it's gatekeep-y: it doesn't make any sense. It's always based on some contingent, unreflexive personal criterion. Far be it for everyone to be a philosopher, but if this stupidity could be eradicated from every culture I would have one less stake to pull out of my mind every time I read the steam reviews for something other than a roguelite.

I remember watching about 10 years ago a video discussing the topic (what counts as a video game?). The presenter was making the argument that a video game is something which meets a set of criteria, i.e., what is commonly understood by the word "game" (if analytical philosophy could also be eradicated off the face of the planet I would be grateful). One of the criteria was that a game should be competitive, involving an opposing side, as in soccer — which would make solitare I don't know what. This is the only point I remember: the rest, as well as the entire decade-long debate, is equally stupid I'm sure.

This complaint is usually waged against visual novels — for which I have already written a vindication. A bit more can be said, however, and that is a reflection on what then a book is. Did I not write something like "interaction = gameplay"? When I then turn the pages of a book, am I playing a game?: the answer is yes — don't be so smug about it. What makes a video game what it is, is almost just that it is digital. This is a difference in its material conditions. The mode of interaction possible for a book is thus the turning of the page and for the visual novel the clicking of a mouse. That you find the mechanisms of new forms of technology already existing and prefigured in the old should not be so shocking — nothing has fallen from heaven. The digital space does allow for more and more complex forms of interaction, including a degree of responsiveness approaching unrecognisability. It should be remembered, however, that what marks the qualitative distinction is the material basis, the medium and its possibilities, not quantities of interactivity or responsiveness, etc.

The "game" part of "video game" is perhaps more difficult to understand. Its contemporary meaning I'm sure is something which co-instantiates with digitisation and grows with it as its standard form. The marketing (and Reddit) gimmick of "gamification" is only a relatively recent corporate expression of the trend. I do not know why the game form comes to dominate the cultural formation around digital technology — maybe it's Nietzsche's fault — but it does seem to dominate. Ender's Game, Ready Player One, the representations of the future are like this — and I do hope it is an illusion — I find it irritating (including software developers as a people and culture). At least it seems China is poised to take over the space. A thousand years of Genshin Impact... very occasionally a Path to Nowhere — and we can all rejoice. Hopefully, all of their MGTOW types are killed by then, but I'm not an optimist.

(I got bored with the original point of this post about five sentences ago apparently, and now my big final sentence coming up doesn't close it properly — damn. Why word processing software is not a video game... it's considered purely instrumental, etc...)

Why am I getting mad at the vacuous drivel which leaks out of the open mouths of the plebian masses populating popular criticism? — a good point.

[allthingsfoodsystems]

Interview with local farmer, Violet Reed

Pictured above: Violet, Executive Director, and MEVO's Founder, Eric.

**This interview has been edited for clarity and concision.

So how would you define local farming? Like, what do you consider to be local? How wide of a range can you get while still considering it to be local? Especially on a global scale.

Yeah, that's a good question. Local, what would it be? I mean, I guess it depends on what's local to you. I read this book, called the 100 mile diet about this couple, in Vancouver Canada, who committed to eating only within 100 miles of their house - even salt, spices, oils, greens, etc - and that was super tough for them. They had a really hard time finding everything they needed. And even then, that was casting a wide net of 100 Miles; for them that was still within the local definition. I think for me, local would be like 50 miles or less, or even within state. I think at this point, if it's coming from within your state or the Tri-state area, it's still local because our food system is so globalized that it's very easy to get most of your food, at least fruits and vegetables, from places like Mexico or California.

What would you say the role of local farms are in their respective communities? 

As far as the role of agriculture, and small scale farms in communities - even any farm as long as it's not factory farming or using exploited labor -  I think it is acting as a community meeting space, as well as a space for cultural development because it's encouraging people to come together and get outside. Whether it's going to pick up their CSA share, being involved in a you-pick, or volunteering and being able to interface with a farmer and those who are also coming to the farm. 

I mean, back in the day, you always heard about all these celebrations around the harvest that were combining group work projects, like you know, helping one farm pick all the apples and then all the farmers would go to the other farm and help cut hay or maybe they'd go to another farm and help raise a barn, which sounds romantic now, but that was just a way of life. So combining like a harvest celebration with like, you know, a potluck, but then also getting work done on a communal level. That's what we're missing culturally as a nation, and that is what, slowly, small farms are starting to cultivate.

Right now, small farms are also in trend. It's very vogue to have small farms, it's very vogue to be a farmer right now. And then eventually it will become the norm again, hopefully. So yeah, it's kind of long winded. But those are my thoughts.

A lot of local farming movements and global warming advocates in general are calling for an expansion of smaller scale, localized farming, in some capacity or another to replace industrial large scale monocultures. How feasible do you think that kind of transition really is, at least in America?

I think it could be so feasible if there were some relinquishment of bureaucratic policies, zoning laws and permits for towns. Also if towns, or counties, or even states really take a hard look at themselves and say, hey, we have this abandoned land, we have this open plot, instead of putting a business here or rebuilding that strip mall that we tore down, what if we helped to subsidize the costs of starting up a farm. You see this a little bit more often in cities like Detroit, and increasingly Newark, where they have open lot programs where the city will rent out, or give for basically no money, a plot for a group to farm on. Every town has land, an acre here or there, where people can grow and farm. One of the farmers we learned from was Curtis Stone, he brands himself as an urban farmer. In his heyday, he was farming four different people's backyards, I think it only totaled a quarter of an acre, and he was making a lot of money and educating a lot of farmers, which was really cool. So also flipping the narrative with a widespread education campaign that you don't need a ton of land, at least for vegetable cultivation, to grow a lot of food in small spaces. 

Recently, I've been met with this question of responsibility in terms of the potentially negative social and economic impacts of this kind of transition to local farming, that would be incurred on the people in other countries whose livelihoods currently depend on supplying us with this food. What are your thoughts on that? 

Ah, I actually don't think they would lose that much work, because industrial farms would still be industrial farms. If anything I think what the small farms would do would be to give more sovereignty and flexibility back to the food system. In that same vein it would push our food system to provide more equitable and fair opportunities for those workers who are working at commercial farms, the US farming system would feel the pressure of divestment from commercial industrial farms, because people are taking back their food sovereignty and creating small farms. Part of the reason now that people are starting to balk against commercial farms is we're realizing that they're not great for animals, if they're in animal agriculture, and really not good for our land. And now more people, I think, are starting to realize that they're really not good for a lot of the migrant workers who come over. In this capitalist world, when there's enough pressure put on a system, it's going to change in order not to lose money. So, hopefully, through the pressure of divesting from the corporate industrial food system, these workers would actually get more rights. And also, small scale farms, can they feed the nation? Maybe if each town had like, 10 small diversified farms, but I don't think anytime soon these workers would have an issue. 

As you mentioned earlier, farming has recently come into trend, which brings to light issues of access and privilege. What are your thoughts on that? 

I guess just like in general, it is romanticized. So, when people are interested in getting into local farming it's important not to put the blinders on of, oh, I'm gonna be like floating around  in my carhartt overalls, and I'm gonna be in sync with the Earth, and it's gonna be so much more idyllic than my current lifestyle. Yes, there are benefits and yes, you'll probably enjoy it more. But it's definitely going to be 20 times harder than your current job - depending on how stressful your current job is - and it's really going to require a level of mental flexibility that you've maybe never had to employ. You have to become everything, a little bit of electrician, a little bit of a plumber, a little bit of a construction worker, because there's never enough money for a farmer to be able to hire all the different people and contractors we need for problem solving. And all of a sudden you're an accountant now, and you're supposed to be a math whiz, because you're creating this crazy crop plan. You also need to have really good people skills, because you're gonna have to rely on your community to help you out with a lot of things. 

In terms of privilege, it’s important to keep in mind that for a lot of people, farming is a reality that they want to get out of. I hear about a lot of second and third generation immigrants whose parents were farmers who moved here because they were looking for a better, more economically stable life. And their parents are like, why would you ever farm? We were trying to get you out of this situation. So just realizing, going back to your discussion of migrant workers,  do those migrant workers really want to farm? I'm sure some do, and some are in good situations. But overall, it's probably a situation that they're trying to get out of. I think especially for white people, it's easier to have the financial backing and the privilege to even be able to start a farm. Also thinking about discrimination in terms of the results of a white person versus someone with a bipoc background going into a town and asking to farm one of their lots. So, yeah, right now it's a privilege not a right in part because it is in vogue. It used to be that most of America was farming, or they had a victory garden; that was the norm, but it's not the norm anymore so now it's a trend and it's cool.

What do you suggest for young people who struggle with environmental anxiety and feel pretty powerless to do anything about it, who don't even know where to start. Where should we start? 

I mean, I think if you're interested in agriculture, I do feel that farming at its best is not only a charitable act, but an act of ecological restoration and working with the environment. A farm, when done right, is more ecologically diverse and productive than just a fallow field. If you steward native plants around the edges, create ecological buffer zones with native plants, and then have your annual vegetable cultivation that's low till focusing on carbon sequestration. It could be great. So finding a local farm, seeing if you can help out.* At the very minimum voting with your dollar. Also, starting at local-level government, most towns have a local green team; they're dying for young people to join and it really can make a difference because maybe you are the one pushing for a community garden or a small scale community farm, things like that.

*If you’re interested in contributing, MEVO - a short distance outside of the city - has weekly volunteer events and programs that anyone is welcome to join! 

[maybeturtlesweallare]

Yeah I feel mostly the same way.

I get why there’s the sort of condescending “think a step further” tone to this because I can imagine that there are a good amount of people just saying “But life!!” and maybe that’s it. However, I know that I’ve heard this same take plenty of times by now, and I still think the public is cruel and often unable to properly empathize with people they don’t have “the story” for.

Like, not trying to be super rude, but he absolutely lost me when he said “people [the general public] are not dumb” because it’s been shown time and time again that we very much are. At least most of the time. I know we want to imagine that we’re not easily persuaded but, and I wanna emphasize this, we absolutely are. (Given that this is a tik tok, it’s almost too ironic lol)

We see the parts of them we don’t like and decide to hate them, but if we had more of a story or understanding of them somehow, then it would be a whooole different thing because then we would see them as human. And that’s the truth isn’t it? We’re just not really viewing them as human beings right now.

This is just a minor step up, but Rihanna is a billionaire now right? If she was on that sub then I’d bet we’d see a larger group of people with sympathy because of her different relationship with the public. I’m not saying “everyone”, just a larger group of people. Now, what I did say was that it’s “just a minor step up”, because she is also not treated as a human being by the public!! Dehumanized in a different way sure, but nonetheless dehumanized. It is because we’re able to be so divorced from the situation that we’re able to be so careless with it. This actually leads into the whole deal with the step-son?

The fact that we were reporting on how the family was mourning is a part of a whole trend of (what I consider to be) wrong in our media. I mean, if a celebrity doesn’t “put out a statement” when one of their castmates from a show they did 30 years ago dies, somehow the whole public makes note of it? Many of which decide that said celebrity is in the wrong somehow? If someone I knew just died, regardless of how close I was to them, and you kept badgering me about making a goddamn Instagram post… I’d absolutely punch you in the face. We have no right to be digging into all of that business at all and should fuck off.

In that spirit, I feel that following what the step-son was doing was in poor taste. Even if he doesn’t care or whatever else, it’s still in poor taste. Who knows, maybe they did have a special connection to Blink-182 lol. Doesn’t matter, the fact that we were keeping track, and ready AS A PUBLIC to force whatever our moral stance is onto him, shows a lot about us. We don’t know the ins-and-outs of that situation so we should mind our own business. Simple as that. Because those are people too, and they are far more complex then what we’re able to comprehend as a public. And that’s the point I think, I’m not so much saying that these people are “special” in their status as humans or in their deaths, but this reaction to all of it is very telling of us.

I KNOW about the other ship, and I feel sad for them too. I DO believe that’s something we need to focus on so we can fix it. I UNDERSTAND why our focus on a few billionaires over hundreds of other people is bad and shows the flaws in our public consciousness. Saying all that does not take away from my being cautious around our lack of empathy (or sympathy or compassion or whatever you wanna call it) for the people on that sub, in fact, I think it adds to my point.

I believe that we have to be able to show so much more empathy for people… even if we don’t like them, even when we don’t agree with them, even when they won’t do the same for us… because that’s how we keep moving forward in (hopefully) the most positive way possible.

Because of that, I understand the valid place that these jokes stem from, and I’m not super “mad” about it or anything because it’s a very predictable outcome with where we’re at. I’ve even reblogged a couple jokes myself (the oceangategate one was rlly funny). As the above person said, it’s totally cool if you disagree with me, I think just the fact that we’re having this discussion at all is great! And that’s all I expect out of this tbh.

I haven’t posted at all about my opinion on the jokes, not even sure I should be posting this because I don’t actually really care enough to invite all the discourse, but here I am I guess. We all draw the line in different places, I just lean a little more to one side here.

Alright, done. I’m bored with typing all this out now lol

this is probably the best take I’ve heard so far on the debate of people being told that they aren’t having enough ‘compassion’ for billionaires making bad decisions and paying the obvious consequences for it

[whythinktoomuch]

Andrea sighs. “I hate this part.”

“And what part would that be?” Kara spares a small glance for her, but continues to tug on her socks, her shoes, and anything else that she might need on her way out of Andrea’s apartment without a second thought. Again.

“The part where you make me sleep alone.”

Kara whips her head around. “… I’m sorry?”

“Nothing.”

Andrea regrets everything as she buries her head underneath her pillow. Maybe she can blame this sudden onset of weakness on her most recent trend of foregone sleep, or maybe even the very reason for said lack of sleep now standing at the foot of her soon-to-be half-emptied bed. But it certainly isn’t something that deserves any more elaboration, much less voiced.

Unfortunately though, Kara’s never been one to let something go. The rustle of clothing dies away, leading to a padding of steps which leads to the sagging of Andrea’s bed as Kara sits down beside her. “Hey, what’s going on?”

--

“Nothing,” Andrea repeats, her voice firm despite being muffled under her pillow. “Make sure to lock the door on your way out.”

“No, come on…” Kara’s tugging on Andrea’s arm, thumb rubbing gently into her skin. “Talk to me. Please? I’m right here.”

Groaning to herself, Andrea finally sits up, frown deeply set and disgruntled. “Where are you even going anyway?”

Kara takes a deep breath before answering, and Andrea hates how these are the kinds of things that refuse to escape her notice now. “I told you,” Kara says slowly. “I’m meeting a source downtown.”

“Right now? After midnight?” Andrea says with a scoff. “You don’t have a better, more business-friendly time—I don’t know—during the day to be meeting up with these people?”

“I have to go where the story takes me! And I also have to meet my sources on their own terms if I want to cultivate a lasting sense of trust and profess—”

“But for what article?” Andrea demands. “You’ve already met all your deadlines for this week. You wouldn’t be here”—she gestures aimlessly about her bed—“otherwise, so what else could you possibly be researching right now?”

“It’s…” Kara stumbles slightly, and Andrea wills her heart to harden into something that can never sink. “This is for a new story. One that I’m thinking about pitching. Soon.”

“Okay. What story?”

“I can’t tell you yet! It’s not ready,” Kara says, and Andrea just scoffs again. “Hey, seriously. What’s really bothering you? You never care about my work.”

“I’m your boss, Kara. It’s literally my job to care about your work.”

“Just tell me what’s actually bothering you, and I’ll fix it.”

Andrea rubs at her face. “I’d just… really like to know what it’s like to sleep next to my girlfriend for once…”

“Your girlfriend?” Kara echoes. “Who’s your girl—oh!” Her eyebrows nearly shoot up to her hairline. “Wait, oh…”

Groaning once more, now about ready to bury her entire body beneath her pillow if possible, Andrea just waves her hand. “Never mind, okay? Just go.”

“No, hey, hey, hey…” Kara tugs on Andrea’s wrist, refusing, per usual, to let an unwieldy moment die down on its own. “Girlfriend?”

“Forget I even said anything…” Andrea starts, but Kara seems quite unwilling to. In fact, she’s looking at Andrea in complete awe, and Andrea can’t help but straighten up at the attention. Maybe even pushing out her chest a bit just to make a point. “All right, fine, we can talk about this. But you should know right now, that I can’t date anyone who refuses to sleep with me.”

“Pfft, what do you mean? We literally sleep with each other all the time,” Kara protests, until Andrea shoots her a meaningful look—glare. “Oh… Right. You meant, just sleeping, sleeping. Um. Okay. Well, I guess that’s something we can try if you really want…”

Andrea rolls her eyes. “I don’t want you to try it just to appease me, Kara. I want you to want it too. For your own sake.”

“I do want it too! I just didn’t realize that it was something that you’d want. From me, especially.”

“Why the hell not?” Andrea says. “I’m sorry—was the past hour and a half not convincing enough for you?”

Kara flushes all over, sputtering, “No, what I meant was… I didn’t realize that you actually liked me like that?”

“Again. Was the past hour and—”

“I get your point,” Kara says, flapping her hands. “And okay. I, you know… like you too.”

“Oh, how promising,” Andrea mutters, but her nerves were undeniably starting to settle. The flow of conversation now comfortably in her favor.

“And I do want that too,” Kara continues, cracking a smile. “So… let’s do it. Let’s be girlfriends who, you know, sleep together.”

“Deal.” Andrea clears her throat, fidgeting with her sheets. “I imagine that it’ll have to start another night though, no?”

Kara rubs at the back of her neck. “I’m sorry. I just really have to meet this source tonight. It’s really important, I swear.”

“Fine,” Andrea says in a sigh. “It’s not like I don’t understand the need to put one’s career first.”

Kara pouts. She reaches out to cradle Andrea’s face, thumb tracing down her cheek, and Andrea’s not melting, she’s not melting, she’s not.

“I’ll come back,” Kara says at last. “No matter how long this meeting goes for, I promise to come straight back here and sleep with you.”

“Oh, you promise?” Andrea laughs, but there’s a serious glint to Kara’s eyes, twinkling in the way that they do in the strangest moments sometimes.

“Absolutely. I’ll be right back. And I’ll be right here for you, okay?”

Andrea lets out another laugh, ducking her head slightly. “Okay. I guess we’ll see how you do then.”

“Thank you,” Kara says, beaming. “But for now, I really do have to go. I’m actually kinda late now.”

“Then go. I ain’t keeping ya.”

Kara leans in, clearly in askance of a goodbye kiss, but when Andrea goes to cup her face, Kara resists just a tad. “Trust me,” she says. “You kiss me like that, and I’ll never make it out of here.”

“Want to test that little theory?” Andrea asks, her voice dropped into huskier territory, and Kara accordingly flushes pink cheek to cheek.

“Oh… boy…” Kara says in a hushed whisper. “I… er, I gotta go though, so…” She quickly shakes her head. “Yup, gotta go, gotta go. So sorry, but bye!” Pecking at Andrea’s cheek, Kara all but bolts out the door.

With a tiny unseen pout, Andrea sinks back into her bed, her moment of vulnerability already regretted with that aching part of her chest. But Kara promised to come back, and she seems the type to keep promises like that—the girlfriend type, that is.

Andrea’s final thought as she’s drifting off is a fleeting hope that wherever Kara’s rushing off to meet her source wouldn’t be anywhere near the sirens that have been going off. The last thing this would-be relationship needs is for Andrea’s would-be girlfriend to get stuck in traffic this late at night because of fire trucks or something.

//

Andrea wakes up to a sudden dip in her bed, coherent thoughts still slow to return as a column of warmth wraps around her middle from behind. She blinks blearily into the darkness. The sharp bite of smoke lingering in the air somehow only seems to get stronger the clearer her vision gets.

“Sorry I’m late, baby,” comes a sleepy mumble close to her ear, and Andrea starts to chuckle, her surprise melting into blessed relief.

There’s a wry comment sitting on Andrea’s tongue as she glances over her shoulder, but the specifics of it all gets lost when she sees Supergirl curled up against her. “Whoa. W-wait…”

“Oh, m’s’rry…” Supergirl says softly, eyes still squeezed shut. “Forgot to ask… Can I call you ‘baby’ now, since we’re girlfriends who sleep together and stuff…?”

Andrea is reeling, as she takes in the sight. That is to say, the sight of National City’s darling and daring hero rapidly passing out in her bed, blonde hair strewn across Kara’s go-to pillow like a golden halo, her bulk scrunched up into a tiny ball of warmth pressed into Andrea’s side, cape splayed out without a care.

“You’re…” Andrea clears her throat, hopefully ridding herself of the dry stutter caught within. “Excuse me, you’re wearing boots in my bed.”

Supergirl lets out a small whine—there’s a literal, bona fide superhero whining all disgruntled in Andrea’s bed right now—and kicks out her feet. “But I’m so tired, maybe-baby.”

“Maybe-baby,” Andrea echoes, rolling her eyes, because okay, this is definitely Kara all right.

She manages to extricate herself from Kara’s embrace with surprising ease, considering, then manages to tug Supergirl’s boots off one by one with far less ease. But the sight that Andrea’s greeted with startles her into soft laughter.

“Hey. What’s so funny…”

“I like your socks,” Andrea says, slipping back under the sheets, eyes fluttering shut when Kara sidles right up against her once more. “You know, you weren’t wearing those when you left me.”

“Is it really leaving when I come right back?”

“Yes.”

Kara snorts, burying herself into Andrea’s hair with a sigh. “Mm, I like my socks too. Was a gift from Santa,” she says, and Andrea can almost feel Kara wiggling her toes. “I like the smilin’ fruits…”

“Yes, I figured you would.”

Kara lets out a mock scandalized gasp, “It’s s’pposed to be secret Santa, you know…”

“You know what else is supposed be a secret?” Andrea shoots back, arching an eyebrow that is of course lost on her half-asleep almost-girlfriend. But Kara seems to know, because she grins.

“Hm. We can talk about it in the morning, mm’kay?”

“Oh, we most certainly will,” Andrea says, turning on her side, allowing herself to be happily spooned. “Good night, Supergirl.”

“Yeah, yeah, good night, maybe-baby.”

[kar-krashew]

my someplace is here [AO3]

Five times Alec gay panics at a bus stop (ft. umbrellas, jackets, and a bus driver who really isn't paid enough for this).

rated: T

for @rainyhuman and @peachygos (ily!)

This is so cliché and over the top and I have absolutely no regrets <3. Sometimes (always) Alec is a himbo who is in love and his actions reflect this entirely. I don't control these things.

One.

Alec Lightwood doesn’t believe in love at first sight, but the man across the bus stop is absolutely gorgeous, and he’s twirling in the rain like a goddamn movie cliché, and Alec’s first thought is holy shit, so maybe Alec Lightwood is an idiot, and love at first sight is definitely a Thing.

Alec’s second thought is that the man is an absolute maniac— because really, the dude doesn’t even have a coat on— but Alec’s the one with an insane urge to kiss a stranger in the middle of the street, so, whatever; They’re probably both maniacs.

Alec’s third thought is that he’s about to miss his bus. Shit.

—

Two.

For the record, Alec does not usually walk into bus stop poles while staring at his phone, nor does he usually yell out “Ow, shit — !” if the aforementioned event does happen to occur. He does, however, end up doing both of these things at once a week later, and the stifled laughter behind him informs him that someone at the stop has definitely seen him, and he’s never going to live this down, ever.

“I’ve personally found that walking around an obstacle tends to be much more effective, darling,” the someone says, and Alec supposes that was called for, but hey, rude. He looks up to face the speaker, preparing himself to be offended, and—

Oh.

It’s the beautiful stranger from last time.

The man smirks at him from the bench, drenched again, and God, he’s even prettier up close. Brown eyes, smudged eyeliner, water trickling down his neck, with a tunic open down to his navel and pants that look painted on— Alec’s brain is short-circuiting.

“Hit your head a little hard there? Or do you just see something you like?”

“Huh?” Alec glances up from where he’s been staring at the man’s collarbones.

“I asked if you saw something you liked, pretty boy,” the man repeats.

Alec opens his mouth, presumably to say something that would be considered appropriate and normal in this situation, but he somehow misses his own memo and instead stammers out: “I, uh, I have an umbrella.”

He prays the rain will have mercy and just drown him on the spot.

The man’s brow quirks upwards in amusement. “Excuse me?”

Alec, unfortunately, is still alive, so he must now suffer the embarrassment he’s managed to cause himself and find a way to explain whatever has just come out of his mouth. He ducks his head, trying to avoid eye contact as he speaks. “If you want it,” he elaborates, “I have an umbrella I can give you.”

The stranger just looks at him for a moment. Alec’s sure he’s going to be told to fuck off (which would be a perfectly understandable reaction and probably have been his own in this situation) but after another second, the man defies all of his expectations and grins, so wide that it steals a little of Alec’s breath away.

“Handsome and chivalrous, I see. Do you make a habit of offering your belongings to strangers?” the guy asks. “Besides, I’m sure you’ll need it later. Perhaps you should rescind your offer, I promise I won’t harbor any grudges.”

“I have a coat,” Alec insists, “and you’re. . .” —incredibly attractive, doing things to my brain function— “more in need of its services.”

He’s not really sure why he’s so adamant about this, especially since the man is right: he will be needing the umbrella later, but his pride’s involved now, and he hasn’t really been thinking things through for the past ten minutes anyway. He might as well argue about his dumb umbrella with a beautiful man at a bus stop.

“I suppose you’re right,” comes the man’s response. He taps painted nails against his chin as he hums. “I’m not in much of a position to refuse, now, am I? Though, I doubt I’d refuse any position with you involved,” he winks. “But, yes, if you’re being serious, I shall gladly accept your umbrella.”

Alec blinks. He honestly did not think that argument would’ve worked. (He chooses to ignore the blatant innuendo to preserve his sanity for now.)

“Well?” the man prompts.

“Oh! Yeah, sure.” Really, the whole zoning-out-while-staring-at-the-hot-guy thing is going to become a problem very fast if Alec keeps doing it every two minutes. He gathers his thoughts enough to fumble with the umbrella in his hand and give it to the man, who accepts it with a graceful flourish.

“I’m Magnus Bane, by the way,” the man offers. “I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced.”

“I’m Alec. Lightwood. My name’s Alec Lightwood.”

Magnus holds out a ring-covered hand from where he’s sitting. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Alec. Short for Alexander, I presume?”

“Yeah,” Alec nods. He reaches out to shake Magnus’s hand, adding, “but no one really calls me that.”

Magnus’s smile turns into something incredibly flirty, and Alec can feel his cheeks heating up. “I like to be special, Alexander,” the other says, “and it suits you far better.”

Alec’s not really sure how to respond to that, because the way Magnus says his name is doing things to him, and that, combined with the fact that he’s still clutching Magnus’s soft hand in his own, is probably going to give him a heart attack. He’s about to say something decidedly stupid about Magnus already being special and perfect and amazing when the bus saves him from humiliation and pulls up next to them.

Alec releases Magnus’s grip to awkwardly gesture at the vehicle. “I should really. . . you know,” he trails off, and Magnus blinks at him for a second, surprised.

“Oh, right! You should get going, places to be and all that.” He waves his hand through the air dismissively. “I’ll return your umbrella to you next week, same time?”

Alec smiles dopily as he nods. “That sounds great.” He takes a step back. “I’ll see you soon, then?”

“Of course.” Magnus gives him a little wave. “It was lovely to meet you, Alexander. Safe travels.”

“Thanks, uh, you too.”

Having to walk home in the rain is so worth it.

—

Three.

Izzy laughs at Alec for the entire week when she finds out why his umbrella’s been missing, then makes it worse by telling Jace, who gives Alec an incredibly long-winded speech about umbrellas as metaphors for protection during sex or something. He also deigns to throw a condom at Alec’s face when he leaves to get the bus, which sends Izzy into another bout of cackling laughter.

They’re both assholes, and Alec is never going to cover for them at family dinners ever again.

So he’s scrolling through his phone at the bus stop, trying his best to ignore the increasingly obscene texts his siblings are sending him, when Magnus shows up, bright and beaming and decidedly dry this time, though he’s still not wearing a jacket despite the cold.

And dear lord. If Alec thought Magnus looked gorgeous while soaked in rainwater, this is something else entirely. Gold-streaked hair, unbuttoned shirt, immaculate matching eyeshadow— fuck.

“Alexander!” Magnus greets. He sits down beside Alec on the bench, and grins as he hands over Alec’s umbrella. “Finally a little dry, hm? Though I might’ve underestimated the cold and left my coat back home.”

“Yeah,” Alec says. “Not that you were wearing one when it was raining.” He’s trying his best not to stare at Magnus’s mouth, but the man is very close to Alec’s face right now, and he cannot be blamed if his gaze slips a few times, okay? He’s only human.

Magnus shrugs, drawing Alec’s sight to his shoulders instead. “Coats are irrelevant, anyway. I haven’t worn mine all week, so I might as well continue the trend,” he remarks, and Alec snorts.

“I don’t think that’s as impressive as you think it is. You sound like a petulant toddler. How have you not had, like, five colds by now?” he says. Magnus feigns a pout in response, and Alec stifles a laugh.

“Such cruelty, Alexander!” Magnus replies, “Ah, I suppose I’ll just have to suffer the elements until I’m finally back home again, since no one seems to harbor any sympathy for me. Woe is me, and all that.” He tightens his hands around his biceps, rubbing up and down to warm himself up while sighing dramatically, and Alec, well,

Alec gets a really stupid idea.

“Do you want my jacket?” he asks. “I won’t be out in the cold for that long, and I’m wearing a much warmer shirt than you are.”

Magnus’s lips part in surprise as something conflicted flashes behind his eyes. “I—” he starts, then clears his throat. “I wasn’t being serious, darling. That’s your jacket.”

“Is that a no?”

There’s a moment of silence before Magnus shakes his head. “No, it’s not. I, uh, I’d love that.”

Alec beams, and Magnus clears his throat again. “You’re horribly trusting of someone you’ve only met twice,” he says, voice a little strangled, but Alec just shrugs as he begins to wrestle the black fabric off of his shoulders.

“It’s just a jacket,” he explains, leaning closer to drape it over Magnus, “Even if I never got it back, at least you wouldn’t freeze to death on your way to wherever you’re headed.” He fixes the lapels dutifully, and smiles to himself. “Besides, you’ve already given me my umbrella. I trust you.”

“Is that so,” Magnus answers weakly, which prompts Alec to look up from his fiddling, and oh wow, their mouths are so close to each other’s.

If Magnus inches in just a little bit closer, then they’d—

They’d—

“Um!” Alec jerks backwards, face flushing, “Yes, uh,” he stammers, trying not to look overwhelmed. It’s not going great, because moving back means that he’s now being treated to the sight of Magnus in Alec’s jacket, and he’s having some issues thinking properly right now. It swallows Magnus’s wrists almost entirely and looks far too plain for his expensive printed shirt, but fuck. It’s possible that Alec didn’t think this through.

Magnus opens his mouth, hopefully to tell Alec to kiss him but also probably to tell him to fuck completely off for whatever move they almost pulled, but the bus suddenly turns the corner and pulls into view, cutting him off.

Alec’s not sure whether he’s relieved or furious about this.

“Next week, then,” he ventures. Magnus blinks at him slowly, then nods.

“Yes, of course,” he smiles softly. “Next week.”

—

Four.

“Remind me again, why your presence is necessary today?” Alec grits through his teeth, tightly gripping his umbrella as the rain pours down on them. Izzy punches his arm, not even looking up from her phone as she does so, where she is no doubt giving Jace a play-by-play of Alec’s every action as they walk towards the bus stop.

“Because I’m never one to miss out on good blackmail content,” she replies, which is true. She’s got about four folder’s worth of content of “embarrassing shit Alec has done” on her phone, most of it consisting of his painful attempts at being straight in high school, and Alec’s pretty sure she’s started a fifth, probably titled “Alec’s horrible attempts at flirting with men,” which isn’t that much better than the straight one. Alec is debating turning around and just walking to his destination so that his sister won’t be able to gain more content for her virtual blackmail folders, which is exactly when Magnus comes into Alec’s field of vision.

Alec freezes in his tracks. Holy shit.

Magnus is standing in the center of the street again, drenched from head to toe with his head thrown back . The streetlights illuminate him from above, highlighting the curve of his neck and the colored streaks in his hair as he laughs to himself, staring up at the stars.

He looks ethereal. Alec’s never been one for the romantics, but he’s pretty sure this is what poets mean when they talk about true love and angels and immortal moments in time.

“Oh, he’s hot,” Izzy whispers approvingly. Alec agrees, because, obviously, but he pretends he’s unaffected and straightens his face.

“He’s probably freezing,” he says instead. Izzy rolls her eyes— she gets that from him, he really should stop doing that— and then, before Alec can stop her, calls out.

“Hey! Hot Umbrella Guy!”

What the fuck.

“Are you insane?” Alec hisses. He was trying to look nonchalant and not like the totally lovestruck idiot he is, but now Izzy is waving at Magnus like a maniac and Magnus has noticed them and is walking towards them and Alec is going to die. He’s going to write Izzy out of his will and then he is going to collapse into a heap of embarrassment and gay panic right here, and it’s going to be his sister’s fault.

“Relax a little, hermano,” Izzy replies, and before Alec can provide her with an alphabetized list for every reason he cannot relax, Magnus is already standing before them, smiling as water trickles from his hair.

God, he’s beautiful.

“Hello, hello!” he greets. Alec suddenly notices that Magnus is wearing Alec’s jacket, which is, well. Something. (Izzy is never going to let him live this down, and also Alec is having a very hard time thinking any thoughts.)

Magnus seems to notice Alec’s wandering line of sight, following it and glancing down, eyes widening. “Oh my god, I was fully intending to return this to you, I’m so sorry. I got a little distracted. I’ll have it cleaned and returned to you next time, I promise,” he explains. Alec shakes his head.

“No worries,” he manages, cutting himself off before he says something even stupider like “it’s yours forever” or “marry me” or something, and Izzy snorts from beside him. Alec hates her.

“Thank you,” Magnus says, then turns to face Izzy, “And what may I call you, dear?”

“I like him,” Izzy declares, in what Alec assumes is meant to be a reassuring whisper but instead ends up being incredibly loud, “I’m Izzy, Alec’s sister. And I assume you’re the elusive Magnus I’ve heard so much about?”

“Izzy,” Alec warns. Magnus smirks and shakes her hand.

“The one and only,” he confirms. There’s a mischievous sort of glint in his eye as he glances back up at Alec, and Alec’s not sure how he feels about Magnus and his sister already getting along so well, but he’s sure it can’t lead anywhere good.

“Well, Isabelle,” Magnus says, “If I asked him, do you think your brother would join me for a dance?”

Alec chokes. “What?” he splutters. Magnus turns his grin to face him.

“If I asked, Alexander, would you join me for a dance?”

“I—” Alec starts, staring down at the hand Magnus has outstretched in front of him. There are so many reasons he should say no, and so many reasons this is a bad idea, but also the most beautiful man Alec has ever seen is holding his hand out for him to take, and what else is he supposed to do? “Yeah,” he says. “Sure.”

The first thing Alec notices is how soft Magnus’s hand is in his as he pulls him out into the rain, laughing as it hits his face again, and Alec can’t help but laugh along even as water soaks into his shoes and drenches into his socks. There’s something so childish about it; giggling and spinning in an empty street without any music, holding hands like toddlers, and Alec wouldn’t have it any other way.

“You’re thinking too much,” Magnus murmurs, then he tilts his head back and closes his eyes. “It’s about being in the moment.”

Alec smiles. If only he knew, all he’s thinking about is this moment: how the water catches in Magnus’s lashes, how he’s humming something entirely off-key under his breath, the way he presses against Alec’s chest. Fuck. Alec’s known this man for three days, and he’s halfway in love already.

He closes his eyes against the rain, too, and smiles at the thought: loving a man like Magnus Bane.

Yeah, he could get used to that.

—

Five.

When Alec reaches the bus stop today, Magnus is nowhere to be seen and Alec’s jacket is sitting in a bag at the bus stop with a little post it signed with the letter “M.”

It’s fine, Alec tells himself. Magnus is probably just busy with something else, and this has nothing to do with the fact that Alec froze up awkwardly when Magnus kissed him on the cheek last week, to the point where Magnus had to nervously laugh it off because Alec was too busy panicking.

It’s a flimsy argument, but it keeps Alec from losing his mind for about fifteen minutes until the bus pulls up early and Alec realizes that this is it. He’s not going to see Magnus this week— maybe not ever again, if Magnus has decided that Alec’s gay panic is not worth his time, and Alec wouldn’t even blame him.

God, he feels so stupid. If he hadn’t acted like a complete idiot last time, then he would’ve at least had some closure.

“Sir, are you getting on or are you waiting for another bus?”

Alec blinks, glancing up to see the bus driver raising her eyebrow at him. “Right, sorry, give me just a mo—”

“Alec!”

It can’t be.

“Alexander!”

Alec spins on his heel, turning to face whoever called his name, and oh my god, it’s Magnus. He’s running up to the bus stop, waving frantically, and Alec is overcome with such a large wave of relief that he forgets that the bus driver’s been waiting for him for like five minutes now and he climbs off and runs towards Magnus, only vaguely registering the sound of the bus leaving without him. He doesn’t even care; Magnus is standing right in front of him, panting heavily but still so beautiful and perfect, and Alec would walk home everyday if he got to see Magnus because of it.

“Alexander,” Magnus huffs, gathering his breath. He absentmindedly reaches out to grab Alec’s shoulder, and Alec immediately wraps his arms around his waist to stabilize him. “Oh lord, one second, I ran all the way here.”

“I thought you were gone,” Alec says, still holding onto him. “You left the jacket and I thought—” he trails off.

Magnus frowns. “I’m so sorry,” he says. “I thought I’d made you uncomfortable last week and didn’t want to make it worse, but I didn’t realize how rude not showing up would be. I know you probably don’t feel the same way but perhaps we can still be friends? I can be completely professional about it, though you seem to have just missed your bus—”

Alec grabs Magnus’s tunic (because he’s still not wearing a jacket, Jesus Christ) and kisses him.

Magnus blinks at him when they pull away. “Oh,” he says, a little breathless, and Alec smiles.

“I don’t want to be professional about it,” he admits.

“Oh. . .”

Magnus still seems shell-shocked, so Alec makes a move to let go of him, shifting his arm away from Magnus’s waist, but then Magnus leans back in and presses his mouth back to Alec’s and oh, nevermind then.

Alec’s not sure how long they spend there, kissing like handsy teenagers under the roof of the bus stop, but he’s aware of a few cars passing (and possibly another bus), so he’s not ignorant of the fact that it’s definitely been a while when they finally pull away for more than a second. Magnus is staring at his mouth when they part, though, which is not helping Alec’s resolve to actually have a conversation about this.

“We should talk,” he manages, and Magnus nods, still staring at his mouth.

“Right,” he agrees. “That would be a wise course of action.” His eyes flick upwards for just a moment, and something flickers behind them before he beams. “My place is two stops away, if you’d like to talk there. Perhaps we can wait for the next bus together, since we seemed to have missed the one I usually take? It might take a while, though.”

Ah. Alec swallows back a grin of his own. “Of course,” he replies, “I don’t suppose you know any way to keep us busy till then?”

“I’m sure I could think of something.”

(The bus comes late, and they still somehow almost miss it. Alec refuses to take any blame for this.)

—

+ One.

Alec Lightwood didn’t believe in love at first sight, but the man standing at the bus stop is smiling softly at him as he approaches, twirling an umbrella between his hands as he waits, and Alec’s first thought is holy shit, so maybe Alec Lightwood was an idiot, because what else could it have been?

“Hello, stranger,” the man says when Alec finally reaches the stop. He glances down, taking in Alec’s rain-soaked button down and slacks, and grins. “Forget your umbrella back home?”

Alec laughs. “My coat, too,” he agrees. “I got distracted this morning.”

Magnus hums, leaning in to kiss the rain off of Alec’s mouth, and Alec smiles into it, tasting the faint wax of lipstick and the salt of the rain. “Must’ve been a pretty good distraction.”

“Yeah,” Alec says. He leans in again, because he can. They have time. “He is.”

Magnus’s lips have got a lovely little tilt to them by the time they pull away, tint slightly smudged from Alec’s attention, and he’s never looked more beautiful, even with the dingy lighting of the shitty bus stop they’re standing under.

God, Alec loves him. He feels a little stupid with the feeling, and he can’t help but step back out onto the rain, holding out his hand.

“Hey,” he murmurs. Magnus’s eyes light up with understanding. “Care to join me for a dance?” And sure, Alec’s shit at dancing, and sure, they have to get on the bus sopping wet minutes later, but they’re both giggling like idiots and clutching the umbrella together between their intertwined hands and Alec’s got a little ring box in his pocket just waiting for the right moment, so what else matters?

They’ll probably have to invite the bus driver to the wedding, though. It’s only fair.

[kingstylesdaily]

HARRY STYLES CONCERTS ARE HIS FANS' MET GALA

The glam-rock pop idol is taking over TikTok, one immaculate outfit reveal at a time.

By Maura Brannigan for Fashionista.com

Twenty minutes before Harry Styles is set to appear onstage at Chicago's monster United Center, I find myself speaking to a group of concertgoers dressed as if they're en route to Stevie Nicks Night at Studio 54. The foursome made the pilgrimage earlier that day from Fort Wayne, Ind., a three-plus hour drive from the venue at which Styles is headlining two sold-out stadium shows as part of his rescheduled "Love on Tour." They're dripping in sequins and feathers, with a rainbowed assemblage of jewelry, boas and itty-bitty handbags that no doubt had been curated in the days prior.

One of the showgoers, Josie Tippmann, begins telling me about her look for the evening, which she plotted around a clompy pair of patchwork boots. "These boots just chose me," she says over the thrum of opener Jenny Lewis. Her makeup, meanwhile, is "Watermelon Sugar"-inspired, all glitter and tangy shades of bubblegum. "Anything for Harry."

Swirling all around us are folks just as well-coiffed: The mile-long merch lines come stacked with cowboy hats, slick suiting and no shortage of banana suits, a subtle wink at Styles' One Direction days. That this is just as distinct a sartorial phenomenon online as it is that night at the United Center should come as no surprise — it's 2021, after all, and fans gather across social media platforms with as much enthusiasm as they do here, reunited and vaccinated, by the tens of thousands.

Lately, that platform de rigueur is TikTok. Styles fans are posting what they call "outfit reveals" under the hashtag "#hslotoutfit," wherein showgoers unveil their concert-day ensembles against a mashup of Styles' own songs. According to data from the app, the trend has legs: From Aug. 15 to Sept. 30, #hslotoutfit had over 37 million views in the U.S. and 7,000 videos published; in this same window, video views on the hashtag grew from less than 100,000 per day to an average of 1.5 million per day.

Of course, Styles is far from the only entertainer to evoke fashion fervor through his fandom, let alone the only one to mobilize supporters on the internet. Consider K-pop marvel Blackpink, in which each of the four members inked blue-chip partnerships with four prestigious luxury houses, or Kanye West, whose own prowess landed him both a standalone clothing company and a separate diffusion line for Gap. With her LVMH-backed Fenty empire, Rihanna is her own case study altogether.

But for this tour, Styles' fans have adopted fashion as being entirely synonymous with the artist's own cult of personality, to an emotional degree. His fandom's clothes mean something to them, and with Styles, that's kind of the point: For what does he stand for as an artist if not a liberating crush of self-expression?

"People joke and say that one, [Styles] concerts aren't even concerts anymore, they're fashion shows, and two, the fans dress better than him at this point," says Nissy Simao, a 23-year-old Los Angeles-based social media producer whose own #hslotreveal video racked up almost half a million views and 120,000 likes. "Harry has definitely shown us as fans that we can be free to be whoever we want to be and love whoever we want to love. That shows in how we all collectively dress for his shows."

A long-time One Direction fan, Simao saw Styles in Denver in early September; she currently has tickets to see him in Seattle, too, and hopefully, for one of his three LA tour dates. For her first concert of the three, her look came together more last-minute than she would've liked. But come together it did.

"I'm a big thrifter, so I knew, ideally, I wanted to thrift my outfit," she says. Two days before the show, Simao had found a black vest that was almost identical to the embellished pink number Styles had worn for his first tour date in Las Vegas. He had gone shirtless underneath, however, which Simao herself couldn't replicate. "I scrambled to find something fun. The day of the concert, I thrifted teal sequined fabric and turned it into a tube top." The cherry on top was a light-up cowboy hat — "so he could see me in the crowd, of course."

Styles' wardrobe of late (as curated by stylist Harry Lambert) is bodied by a warm, vintage quality, with a glam-rock opulence peppered in at precise moments. As Ruth Smart, a 28-year-old playwright, songwriter and creator in Chicago, tells me, his fandom is taking notes.

"So many fans take his lead when they experiment with their own fashions," she says. "They learn to crochet so they can make their own replica of a cardigan he wore once for a rehearsal. They screen-print their own T-shirts that match ones he's worn. They get tailored suits and strands of pearls."

Like Simao, Smart has multiple tour dates lined up for this fall, including one show in Chicago and another in Milwaukee come November. For her first, she channeled Styles' "Fine Line" album cover with a taffeta blouse and high-waisted trousers, "plus a little dash of camp and 1970s disco flair." This sort of tribute creates a fierce bond between artist and audience, she says: "Fans feel closer to their favorites, or even a little bit powerful, when they dress like them."

Still, not all those camping out for "Love on Tour" are doing so in a glorified Styles cosplay. The majority are wearing what I can only (and slightly reductively) describe as being just damn good outfits. (This is excluding a subset of enthusiastic dads, who are known to escort their younger children to Styles' concerts in golf shirts.) While the full stylistic spread exists on TikTok, where #hslotoutfit lives and breathes, it's also on Instagram, thanks to an unidentified 19-year-old who runs the highly-followed account @hslotfashionhq.

"K," a Los Angeles-based college student who agreed to speak with me under the condition that they do so anonymously, only just launched the page last month, during the first show of "Love on Tour." At press time, the account had more than 12,000 followers and 1,870 posts, figures that are growing exponentially with each of Styles' tour dates. The account is fully user-generated, with showgoers simply DMing K photos of their outfit, which they then repost.

"I felt fans should have a way of showing off the outfits they put so much effort into," says K. "I know that many fans love to refer to his concerts as 'our Met Gala.'"

[digital-dhampirs]

thank you very much for the ask, @kachowwwww !

I did do a covernalysis for Vol 3, which you can read here: [https://digital-dhampirs.tumblr.com/post/168641851375/here-it-is-the-beautiful-twosome-vanitas-no ], but after staring at the cover of the volume for a little while I’ve started to notice some stuff I didn’t see way back in my original post from 2017. So! I will be doing an all new (hopefully improved) covernalysis four years later! oh by the holy glow of the blue moon it’s been four years

this is technically a part 2, but it’s completely separate from the first part! feel free to just read one or the other..!

VnC Volume 3 covernalysis: part 2

Volume 3 is our first cover featuring multiple characters together, and boy is it a fantastic way to start the trend! Vanitas and Noé lie peacefully in a pool of water, a golden frame between them. There is a Lot going on here, so let’s get started with breaking down the frame!

Volume 3’s golden frame is absolutely dripping in Chasseur imagery— the frame is decorated with stacks of skulls similar to those in the catacombs, the design in the frame’s corners is just like the Chasseurs’ six- winged sword symbol, and at the top of the frame we see the high- ranking vampire skull Roland shows our protagonists in chapter 14. Vol 3 contains chapters 11 through 15 of the manga— the time leading up to and the beginning of Vanitas and Noé’s adventures in the catacombs— so these Chasseur designs seem very relevant. We see one of those ever- present butterflies perched on the dead vampire’s skull, a symbol of transformation and rebirth.

We also see daisies growing in one section of the frame, possibly symbolizing innocence, purity, rebirth, fidelity, and/ or new beginnings. Maybe these daisies symbolize the new developments for Vanitas and Noé’s relationship during and after the events in the catacombs? Or maybe they’re a callback to an old Celtic myth in which daisies grew to console parents after the loss of a child? Or maybe something else!

The other plant featured on this frame is ivy— a symbol of attachment, immortality, fidelity, and eternity. Both daisies and ivy have something to do with eternal life and eternal faithfulness, which is very interesting considering Vanitas’s eventual demise. Ivy is a plant that holds on to things and doesn’t let go, which is pretty neat considering the events of chapter 53..!

There’s one last part of the volume 3 frame I want to mention before moving on to the rest of the cover— the skeletal hands adorning it. Two of the hands are holding the inside edges of the frame, reminiscent of the hands on Vanitas’s frame in volume 1, and two more are holding the vampire skull in a manner eerily similar to the way the Teacher’s hands frame Noé’s face on the cover of Volume 2.

The volume 3 frame has a lot of lil details combining aspects of Vanitas and Noé’s frames from the two previous volumes— the rectangular shape of Vani’s frame with the skull at the top, the row of beads and stick bone decoration thingys (if anyone knows what those things are please tell me I’ve been wondering what they are for literal years at this point) from Noé’s frame, the skeleton hands from volume 1 in the Teacher’s position from volume 2… the Volume 3 frame might have a lot of chasseur elements, but it’s also a combination of Vanitas and Noé’s symbolic details, once again indicating the pair’s developing relationship.

And with that I think we’re finally done with the frame! Now it’s time to tackle the main subject of this ask, the boys themselves.

Vanitas, smirking, shows his mark from Luna to the viewer. The Book of Vanitas rests on his stomach, and he has two more marks of possession on display— Jeanne’s mark, which is bright red, and a duller purple mark on the other side of his neck. We don’t know who this third mark is from yet, but just based on the mark’s color palette it seems pretty likely it’s from Noé. Unlike the marks from Luna and Jeanne, though, the purple mark isn’t leaking out onto Vanitas’s clothes— it’s just there, like a bruise, and the only place its color is really echoed is on the Book. I don’t really know what this means and I suspect we won’t find out until Noé drinks Vanitas’s blood in uhm… chapter… 105… but it’s a notable difference nonetheless!

Moving from Vanitas to his partner in crime! Noé is lying above Vanitas, with the chain from the Book of Vanitas wrapped around his arm. He’s wearing the comfortable sleep clothes he wore in chapter 11 and seems to be calmly watching Vani as the latter shows off his mark from Luna. Noé’s right hand is resting on the Book of Vanitas’s chain, but he isn’t trying to remove it or snap it, he’s just touching it.

The chain around Noé’s arm reminds me quite a bit of another piece of official art,

But on the Volume 3 cover, the chain around Noé’s arm is Noé’s classic purple-magenta color, rather than Vanitas’s cobalt blue like it is in the official art. This difference in color (along with the drastically different poses between the cover and the official art) makes the official art look far more aggressive and confrontational, while the cover image looks much more peaceful and relaxed despite the chain.

The chain’s color on the Vol 3 cover makes me think that, unlike in the official art, Noé is in control of what’s going on and is choosing to keep things this way. He could get rid of the chain at any time, but keeps it wrapped around his arm. In a way, it’s tying him and Vanitas together rather than dragging them apart.

So we’ve covered the frame, we’ve talked about our protagonists… all that’s left to talk about from this cover is the background/ whatever’s going on with the water Noé and Vani are lying in! And honestly? This is another one of those things I have no ideas about. Water symbolizes a lot of things— life, purity, the moon, transformation, and a whole lot more. But I don’t quite know why Vanitas and Noé are lying in it beyond ‘it looks very pretty’.

One thing I do know for sure, though, is that there are shards of glass lying in the water with the boys. Where might those shards have come from…? My best guess is that the frame between Vani and Noé was originally a complete mirror or picture frame made out of glass, but at some point it was shattered, and now the boys are able to lie down side by side between it.

The internal walls separating Noé and Vanitas start to crumble with their argument during the ball and conversation on the roof, and fall apart a bit more during their time in the catacombs. It’ll still be a very very long time before they can even approach the idea of fully understanding each other, but at this point in the manga they’re slowly getting closer and learning to walk side by side.

Annnnnd with that, I think this covernalysis is complete! For now. Thank you so much for reading this ridiculously wordy covernalysis, and thanks again for this ask! Thinking over a cover again four years after my initial analysis was a truly unique experience— maybe in 2025 I’ll come back to this cover one more time and cringe at this analysis the same way I’m currently cringing over my 2017 cover breakdown. Hope you enjoyed this meta/ analysis/ confused rambling thing!

Fun Fact

This volume’s inside cover features the lovely Dominique! Domi doesn’t feature too heavily in this volume, but she plays a major role in Chapter 12, and we learn a lot about her true feelings for Noé during the chapters she’s in. The color scheme of this inside cover is particularly notable when compared with the vibrant yellow and magenta of Domi’s volume 8 cover— Domi isn’t exactly colorless here, but she’s definitely quite desaturated compared to her volume 8 appearance. The magenta color reflecting on her hair and bow actually seems quite close to.. that… faded………. purple….

[unforth]

Why does everyone always recommend Twist and Shout for destiel? Like what happened in fandom at that time to make it so popular that it's now a staple? I haven't read it. I refuse. I know there is major character death and people complain it is OOC so I'm just wondering why do people love it so much? I have read so many long fics written by immensely talented writers in this fandom that end hopefully and tackle difficult subject matter while maintaining character voices that it seems a shame that T&S is always recommended

So, I also haven’t read it - I don’t do MCD, no matter how highly recommended a fic comes. However, here’s what I’d say in answer to this question.

Twist and Shout came out, it was during a period when the fandom was huge, and exploding. Season 8 was something of a Destiel renaissance (it’s when I started shipping it, for example) and it’s not a coincidence that a lot of the best known fic came out in 2012 and 2013 (for reference, T&S started posting on October 15th, 2012, according to AO3). I wasn’t active on AO3 Destiel fandom at that time (I started reading fic on FF.net in early 2013) nor was I active on Tumblr or in fandom circles where shipping was a big Thing, so I don’t know what the general fandom reaction to it was at the time, but presumably it met with a fair degree of popularity. People liked it. People recced it. I have no idea if it had the MCD tag at that time, but presumably it did. People read it knowing that. And presumably, some people didn’t like it, and some people didn’t rec it, but like any other fic it went through a process of developing popularity.

Why did it get to be first?

In my honest opinion?

Utterly random chance. If you look at ANY developing fandom, some of the trends are in fact totally random, at least to begin with. Once the avalanche starts, though, it’s self-perpetuating.

Think about it. You’re in a brand new fandom. You don’t know anyone. You haven’t read anything. You’re desperate to read something. What do you do? You go to AO3, find the ship you want to read, and you sort by most hits, or most kudos, or most comments, and decide - I’m gonna start by reading these. You see the first fic...okay, MCD, a little off putting...but it’s got SO MANY HITS and SO MANY KUDOS...just take the chance!

So, you (my hypothetical fan) read this fic. One of two things happen - you either love it or you hate it. If you hate it, you may not even finish it, but regardless, you’ve added to the stats - your views count, and maybe you liked the early chapters and kudosed, or maybe you remember everything you’ve heard about authors liking comments on early chapters of fully posted works, and you commented. So those stats have gone up, even if someone HATED it. And on the second, you love it - and you come out gushing! You kudos! If you’re super enthusiastic maybe you log out and give it a second guest kudos! And, as you start getting into the fandom and meeting people, you want to spread this love - you tell your friends - hey, I just read this great fic, and yeah, it’s MCD, but just give it a chance!

And so it begins again - if you tell four people, and they read it, and two hate it, and two love it, and those two tell four people, and two hate it, and two love it, and it just cascades.

Why is Twist and Shout the most popular fic in this fandom? Because Twist and Shout is the most popular fic in this fandom. Yes, it’s a tautology, but it’s entirely self-perpetuating. People read it because it’s listed first. People read it because they like it, and re-read it and re-read, and re-read it, to get that high. People hate read it. People read it just to find out what the big deal is. In a fandom with coming up on 100,000 posted stories, Twist and Shout has almost twice as many kudos as the fic in second (by the, in my personal opinion, far more deserving Annie D, though it’s also not their best work in my opinion, and the reasons it’s up there are likely the same), and almost four times as many hits. By any measure on AO3 surveys, it’s number one when people sort, and lots of people will read it simply out of curiosity.

That kind of popularity is self-perpetuating. And of course lots of people love T&S - it has 1.2 million hits, and almost 35000 kudos. Even if we go extremely conservative and say, 35,000 people have read T&S, that’s simply a shit ton of people, and if even only 10% loved it, that’d still be 3500 people gushing about that single fic. I’ve been writing for 5 years and I don’t have a single fic with even 3500 kudos, and I’m considered a relatively successful writer in this huge fandom.

But here’s, to me, the most important thing - I truly believe any fic can be a Twist and Shout. It’s a confluence of events that makes a fic such a juggernaut, and the vast majority are simply luck. Random drift means one fic is gonna end up on the top of the heap - and once a fic is there, reading tendencies, confirmation bias, and exposure guarantee it’ll STAY on the top of the heap.

I started the Destiel Favs Survey because I felt that the “top 20″ fics by hits in the Destiel fandom didn’t reflect the fics people actually like. I got curious, so I made a list.

In February 21st, 2017, the top 20 fics on AO3 by kudos were:

Twist and Shout by gabriel and standbyme (which, at the time, had 25,507 kudos)

Dean Doesn’t Listen to Eurythmics by Annie D

An Exercise in ‘Worthless’ by beastofthesky

Revealed by Valinde

Angel’s Wild by LimonadeGaby and riseofthefallenone

Into Your Hideaway by thepinupchemist

How (Thanks to Gabriel) Dean and Castiel (Accidentally) Raised Each Other (and Sam) by Vera_DragonMuse

A Room of One’s Own by NorthernSparrow

Out of the Deep by riseofthefallenone

Grey by Valinde

Convenient Husbands by Annie D

Forget-Me-Not-Blues by noangelsinthegarrison

When Charlie Met Cas by riseofthefallenone

Real Slick Dean by trilliath

In This Secluded Spot I Respond as I Wouldn’t Dare Elsewhere by RhymePhile

The Breath of All Things by KistmetJeska

Unfamiliar by riseofthefallenone

Shut Up (Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is) by kototyph

A Hole in the World by AnnelieseMichel

A Beginner’s Guide to Communing with the Dead by suspiciousflashlight

Today, 1/9/21, four years later, the top 20 fics by Kudos are:

Twist and Shout by gabriel and standbyme (no change in rank, now has 34,907 kudos)

Dean Doesn’t Listen to Eurythmics by Annie D (no change in rank)

Revealed by Valinde (+1 in rank)

An Exercise in ‘Worthless’ by beastofthesky (-1 in rank)

A Room of One’s Own by NorthernSparrow (+3 in rank)

How (Thanks to Gabriel) Dean and Castiel (Accidentally) Raised Each Other (and Sam) by Vera_DragonMuse (+1 in rank)

A Turn of the Earth by microcomets/mishcollin (not on the old list by kudos, but it was on the list by 2018 when I did another check in)

Angel’s Wild by LimonadeGaby and riseofthefallenone (-3 in rank)

Into Your Hideaway by thepinupchemist (-3 in rank)

Unknown Quantities by xylodemon (the first work to break through, and it’s in tenth)

Forget-Me-Not Blues by noangelsinthegarrison (+1 in rank)

Grey by Valinde (-2 in rank)

Convenient Husbands by Annie D (-2 in rank)

Professional Couple Only by saltyfeathers (our second new work)

Real Slick Dean by trilliath (-1 in rank)

A Beginner’s Guide to Communing with the Dead by suspiciousflashlight (+4 in rank)

When Charlie Met Cas by riseofthefallenone (-4 in rank)

Unfamiliar by riseofthefallenone (-1 in rank)

The Breath of All Things by KismetJeska (-3 in rank)

Out of the Deep by riseofthefallenone (-11 in rank)

In 4 full years, only three works managed to break into the top 20, even though - based on my original data, which you can view here - most of these works have nearly double in the number of kudos they’ve had in that amount of time. Further, the most recently written fic on EITHER of these lists is from 2015 - A Turn of the Earth and Professional Couple Only are from 2015 - and all the rest is older.

These fics aren’t the top 20 because they’re better, and if there was even an ounce of objectivity in this list, it would have actually shown any change in 4 years instead of looking virtually identical. 

Twist and Shout, and the other “most popular” and “most recommended” works in the Destiel fandom have that distinction because they’re the most read, so more people read them, so they’re the most read, so more people read them, so they’re the most read, so...ad infinitum.

And that’s not a judgement call against them! There are fics I LOVE on that top twenty list. But, dear anon, you ask me why I think Twist and Shout is the most popular?

All of this is why. Twist and Shout is the most popular because popularity in fic culture is the only perpetual motion machine in the universe. It is self-perpetuating, and as a result, Twist and Shout will always be the most popular fic in this fandom.

And that’s why I do the faves list - because the tops on AO3 tell us abso-fraggin’-lutely nothing, and I thought we needed a list that actually meant something for what fics people active in the fandom truly love - which DOES include some of those top 20 fics by AO3 data, and includes lots and lots of others that are just as or more wonderful.

*steps off soap box*

(sorry this is stupidly long, I have Opinions.)

[be-ready-when-i-say-go]

Inspired partially by the twitter trend of The Face Vs. The Face Sitting On It and just in time for Valentine’s Day! 

Gender Neutral Reader Insert. 

Enjoy my masterlist!

Support me on KoFi!

__________________________

While sitting in the car, you watch out the window. Folks buzz around you--some folks looking content, strolling about their day. Others are flitting around, a bit of crease in their forehead. And you feel for them. You know those days where there’s just not enough hours in the day to get it all done. Or it’s when one thing sets off a spiral of all terrible things. Or when you just don’t wake up on the right side of the bed. You know that crease all too well because currently you were having a bad sleeping week. 

You were getting tired when you were supposed to but the second you put your head on the pillow your brain was hot wired--keeping you up with all the things you needed to do, hadn’t done, all the appointments you had kept pushing off. It was finding the littlest things to find that anxiety and keep you staring up at the ceiling. Calum noticed the tossing and turning and tried his best to lull you to sleep this week, fixing you tea in the evening, getting you off your phone or laptop a couple hours before bed. He even started reading to you, but your ears picked up on the white noise of everything in the house. Your brain picked up the embarrassing memory that you hadn’t even considered in decades and now holding it in front of your mind’s eye for hours on end during the week. 

Like right now, you should’ve been at home sleeping. Your work was giving you a long weekend and you really could’ve used the time to catch some extra Z’s, but you were, admittedly, a little scared to stay home. Sure maybe you did fall asleep cuddled up next to Duke. But you worried that you’d stay up, worry yourself sick some more so when Calum told you he had some errands to run you immediately tagged along. The time running around would hopefully tire you out enough that when you got home you could actually fall asleep. 

So after Calum’s personal training session in the morning, which you sort of tagged along for, but mostly went through your own routine and getting a solid breakfast, you two were now buzzing around from store to store. Calum had gotten most of the grocery the other day, but he forgot a couple things so your first objective was to grab those and bring them back up. He then had to go to the post office to mail out his mother’s birthday cards and a few other things. 

While in the line at the post office, your head tucked into his back, Calum got a phone call from a guitar shop on the other side of time about a new model that had just come in. Calum had been eying it for ages, but he didn’t want to be reckless with his money especially after getting some work on his teeth and to the house. So he asked the guitar shop to keep an eye out for when more stock arrived in case it sold out before Calum felt comfortable spending a large sum of money like that again. 

The store agreed to set one off to the side for him and could keep it on hold until the end of the day. Which was perfect--still gave the two of you time to get lunch. You didn’t need to get anything, didn’t need to do anything. But even after lunch, Calum made one more pit stop. Here now at the gas station, you sit peering through the windshield and can see a mother with her two sons walking from the doors. They boys hold brightly colored icees in their hand, each clutching a bag field with goodies. 

You aren’t entirely sure whey Calum needed to stop here for anything. It’s not like he needed stamps, since he got those at the post office. He hadn’t pulled in to get gas. Lunch had been filling, though you tried not to stuff yourself too much just because you knew that on a long car ride, the last thing you wanted to do was be uncomfortably full. 

The door opens again, Calum strutting through with his glasses covering his eyes and resting comfortably atop the chubby cheeks. Barely hanging from the crook of his fingers is a brown plastic bag. The doors click open and he climbs into the driver seat. The guitar shop wasn’t that far, but today seemed to be a busy day on the road. Took you all too long just to get to the grocery store this morning. 

“Snacks?”

“Was craving something sweet after lunch.” 

You peer into the bag as he hands it over to you. Some gummy bears, gum, a bar or two of chocolate you can’t quite tell. You set it onto the floor at your feet. “Let me know when you want something.” But he’s already tearing into a Twix bar when you glance at him. “Or not,” you laugh. 

“The other stuff is for you--if you want to indulge. Can’t forget ya,” he pushes the glasses down for just a moment to wink at you and then looks into the rearview mirror. 

“Do you think you’re going to get this one?” you asks as the SUV rolls out from the parking lot and onto the asphalt of the highway. 

“Hmm, maybe. Gotta see how it feels first.”

You nod at his question, resting your head into the cushion of the seat. And it goes quiet for a while. The radio plays softly in the background, and every so often the packaging crinkles as Calum downs more of the chocolate and caramel treat. 

“Valentine’s Day is coming up soon,” Calum states, while paused in a bit of traffic. “Got any ideas on what you want to do for it?”

You think for a moment. Valentine’s Day has never been your thing--being perpetually single does that to a person. “Restaurants are going to be a nightmare.”

“Yeah, they will be.” Another crinkle comes from the right side of the car and then his arm reaches behind your seat, finding the small bag of trash you stash there--though you have to be careful when Duke sits in the backseat. Generally though, he doesn’t mess with too much. “My mom sent me a recipe of hers. It’s really good.”

“I’d be down for cooking.”

“Nothing else? Don’t wanna go sky diving? Give me another heart attack?”

You laugh thinking about the first birthday you spent with Calum together as a couple. “You didn’t die.”

“But I did almost shit myself.”

“You can play on stage to thousands of people, but no, jumping from a plane is a no-go.”

“Yes, because I am a sane human.”

You huff out a small tuft of laughter and turn to look at him. One hand on the wheel with the stainless steel linked chain dangling from his wrist. His other arm is resting against the door, gently tapping out a beat with his long slender fingers. “Do you want to do anything?”

“Valentine’s Day,” he scoffs. “How long have we been dating? When have I ever been dying to do anything on some random day in February.” His statement doesn’t fall venomously from his mouth. He even looks over to you with a smile. “I don’t need one day out of 365 to declare my love for someone.”

And it’s true. While Calum wasn’t super accepting of love from new people, while it took you months to show Calum that you were trustworthy and not someone to keep at an arm’s length, once he cracked open, he oozed adoration and love for people. And you knew it was a defense mechanism. You knew that when someone did care as hard as Calum did it wouldn’t always be an easy thing to win over. 

Calum, when he finally let someone one, loved hard. It could be a random Tuesday in July or a Sunday in February, and he would make sure his love was known. He never needed a special occasion to send flowers, to cook dinner, to offer to drive you to doctors appointments because he knew that sometimes you got too nervous or flustered by them to drive but did manage to push through if absolutely necessary. He’d easily pick up some gloves and an extra sponge if he saw you wiping down the walls in the kitchen or wiping through the counter. He kept fridge cleaning days marked on the calendar. And when you added reminders to wash bed sheets to the shared one, he also include rest breaks for you too. 

Calum had never needed someone to force him to show appreciation. 

“I mean, there is the option to literally do nothing on Valentine’s Day. Like treat it as any other day.”

“That’s still something,” he countered, turning on his signal and switching out from the middle lane. His exit was approaching in another mile and a half. 

“Oh fuck off,” you laugh. “We can’t cease to exist that day. Bare minimum we need to convert oxygen into carbon dioxide.”

Calum laughs softly, showing some of his teeth too. “Fair, fair. There’s another Netflix documentary coming out, true crime one. I forget what it’s fully about, but I think it’s about a serial killer if you’d be down to start it then?”

“When would I ever turn down the opportunity to be a detective with you?”

“You haven’t yet,” he states with laughter in his voice. 

“And I never will.” The ramp takes the two of you down and down and soon you’re winding through streets and not too far you can see the shopping center coming into view. He pulls into the lot of the shop and the two of you step out in unison. 

The bell above the door chimes as he opens it for you and you smile often in your thanks. “Hey, Calum!” one of the guys at the register calls out. The store is fairly empty. But you’re not shocked on a Tuesday afternoon. 

“Hey, Derek. How’s it going?” Calum heads directly over to the counter and you look up to the left wall, at the records on display.

“Let me know if you need anything,” the second guy states to you, “or if you want to see anything.” He’s younger than Derek, both look to be equally tattooed from the pieces that peek out from the short sleeve work shirts, but his face is significantly brighter. 

“Thanks,” you return and go back to the displays. You can hear Calum and Derek chatting but slowly tune it out, make it background noise to the music playing through the speakers. 

You turn to walk towards the back where more instruments sit and you can see Calum leaning into the glass display of the counter. The palms of his hand pressed into the metal edge. The sunglasses sit on top of his head and you notice the younger guy glancing over at you again.

He nods again and then goes back to his computer. Nothing else is said. And you look over the stringed instruments, ukuleles, some violins and then you spin around again, done with that lap and go to head up to Calum. “See anything?” he asks. 

You shake your head. “You’re the musically talented one. I just nod and smile when you talk about it.”

Derek returns, a case in hand. He comes out from the hinged doors that separate the sales floor from the registers and back of the store. You scoot a little closer to the display as the case is transferred over. Calum takes it easily heading to the corner you just abandoned to sit and check out the instrument. It’s a beautiful deep green, almost reminds you of the thick Washington forest. The body is slender. 

“That’s a pretty cool color,” you note, watching Calum work his fingers over the frets. 

He grins up at you. “Think so?” You give another nod. He doesn’t inspect it long before you can see the desire to give in crosses his face. 

Derek’s standing close by and you turn to him and keep your voice as close to a whisper as you can while still being heard. “What’s a bass like that cost?”

He rattles off the price, one eyebrow slightly raised over the other. You know Calum will riot--he’ll pitch a fucking fit. But you reach into your wallet and slide out your card. You had been saving--for a year. You wanted to do something big for Calum. You just didn’t know what it was yet specifically though you had some ideas, a bass was top of the list.  But you didn’t want to try and go out and buy a bass without consulting him, without getting an understanding of what he liked. You thought about maybe a really good leather jacket and some more boots. He loved the ones he had, wore them as much as he could. 

And when you mentioned possibly getting him more, he told you the ones he had were still in good shape. Calum wasn’t the type to just buy clothes to buy them. He indulged here and there, but always made a point to wear something he had down before replacing it. You’d tease the subject a couple more times after that, but he never took the bait and you weren’t going to force him into a thing he didn’t want or need. 

But it’s clear to you that this is something he wants. But he’ll tussle with himself and never give in on it. It’s pricer than you thought it would be. But you too were being smart, having finally paid off the last of your car, you start moving those payments to savings and it helped a great deal. You were fine. You get insurance and the whole deal as Derek advises. By the time you slide the receipt back across the counter, Calum comes back to the registers. “I appreciate you holding it for me, man. But I don’t think I can right now.”

Derek looks at you and you look down into the glass. “It’s--it’s yours, dude.”

“What?” Calum breathes behind you. 

“They-uh, they paid for it,” Derek says, nodding at you.

You can feel the heat in your body now and spin around to face Calum in a rush. “Consider it a not Valentine’s Day gift.”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“Ever since I finished paying off my car, I saved the payments to do something nice for you. Didn’t know what it was going to be for sure. But I know you, Calum. You’d want something and tell yourself no. I mean you can treat yourself sometimes.”

“You-you didn’t?” His eyes are rapidly blinking, head shaking like he doesn’t want to believe you. Like he can’t believe you as his mouth mumbles out, “No,” repeatedly. 

“It’s yours,” you nod. “It’s really yours.”

If it weren’t for the weight of the bass, you’re sure Calum would’ve tipped over, maybe even rushed to Derek to hand the case back over, but instead he’s weighed down, chained to this spot in the blue speckled carpet of the store, still repeating, “No,” softly. 

“‘I hate to break it to you, but you’re gonna have to find space in your office for it now. Because I refuse to return it.” You step forward, find the handle and slip your hands around it taking it from Calum. A small grunt leaves you and then you start to the door, throwing a thanks to Derek. 

The lights to the SUV blink and you can hear the locks clicking open as you push open the door to the store. “Wait--what are you doing?” Calum asks. 

“Open the trunk please,” you ask. 

“Let me do it,” he demands, stepping in close to take the case with the bass now. “What the fuck did you do? Baby, this is expensive.”

“It’s not a Valentine’s Day gift,” you answer again. “Because I love you. On a random Tuesday.”

He gets the instrument safely into the trunk and then closes it, watching dumbly as you climb into the passenger side. He walks to the driver seat and climbs in, taking you gently by the chin. “That was absolutely reckless and unnecessary-- ”

“I am just absolutely reckless and unnecessary then,” you counter, “because I’m not returning it.”

“--but thank you. Thank you so much,” he continues as if you hadn’t interrupted him. “I love you.”

“I love you.” Then it’s silent, as the two of your gaze at each other, watching what could almost be tears well in his eyes, but they don’t fall. 

“I don’t know what I did to deserve a person like you, but whatever it was, I’m glad I did it.”

“I’m glad you did it too.” The two of you return home, Duke rushing to the front door as the two of you step through it. Calum safely places the bass in his music room/office and returns shortly after to help you decide on what to order for dinner. 

As the two of you settle onto the couch, Calum takes your hand and presses a kiss to teach knuckle. “I’m gonna teach you how to play.”

“You know we’ve done this before.”

“And you were good at it.”

“I was alright at it.”

“It’ll be your bass,” he whispers. 

“I bought it for you,” you return tossing your head back to look at him. 

He kisses your lips. “Yeah, but it’ll be the one that I teach you to play for real one and it’ll be yours--just as much as it is mine.”

“A true sap,” you laugh, but nod and return your focus back to the TV. 

In the week that follows, Calum makes sure to take an hour in the evenings to set you down and pick up on the lessons. They fizzled out as work for the both of you picked up. But now things are a bit more calm. He sits next to you, assessing what you remember from last time and correcting finger placements as needed, but they go smoothly. 

When Valentine’s Day does come, Calum pulls you back into bed for just five more minutes of sleep. And five minutes turns into half an hour. But finally you two pull yourself out from the sheets, figure out what to do in the midmorning that results in food being consumed and then you slowly gravitate towards different sections of the house. 

There’s still a bit of laundry to be done and Calum takes Duke out for just a little bit. The two of you migrate back together by mid afternoon. He finds you making a quick lunch and presses a kiss to your cheek. You turn to face him, squeezing at his. “I bought some face masks,” he offers. “Care to join me in doing the bare minimum of converting oxygen into carbon dioxide after your lunch?”

“Don’t see how I could pass up such a wonderful offer? You want anything?” He shakes head, mentioning grubbing on some of the leftovers earlier while you took a nap. 

With your lunch done and the plates cleaned, you find Calum in the bedroom and let him know you’re ready for the face masks. He shuffles to the bathroom. “I hope I got the right one for you,” he mutters. “I got them forever ago it feels, so who the hell knows what I got.” His laughter is soft as he rummages through the bins under the skin. 

“I’ll be in the office,” you tell him and he nods, still pulling bins out. You settle into the couch and spy the green bass still on the stand from yesterday. You pull it into your lap and sling your arm over it. The amp next to you is off, you know but you still pluck away at it as if it were on. 

Calum shuffles in a few minutes later. “Um, babe. It’s off.”

You don’t reply but do look up. He holds up three different packages. “Here’s to hoping one of these is worthwhile.” You place your bass back to the stand and take one that sounds like one you’re okay with using. Calum hands you a towel so you can wipe your fingers off after you get it placed onto your face. He helps get it right and then you help him with his and the two of you slip onto the couch, legs entangled and leaning into opposite ends of the couch.

You laugh at Calum’s story as you scroll mindless through app after app. In the boredom you snap a picture of Calum with the face masks on and don’t think too much of it, saving it to the album with all the silly and cute photos of him are--there are tons. 

“I mean the sun is a star. Though the ones we see have been dead for a long time.”

Calum taps your leg with his foot. “It was a simple question--to be the sun or the stars. I didn’t ask for this philosophical crisis.”

“Why would it not weigh in your decision! If you’re a star like the ones we see at night, you’re technically already dead. You wanna be dead?” You huff, sitting up. 

“I mean, no, but c’mon.”

“It’s a valid thing to consider, that’s all I’m saying!”

He laughs. “Okay, sun or the moon?”

“You first,” you return and just then your alarm on your phone goes off. The two of you shuffle back to the bathroom and take off the masks. 

“Moon, maybe,” he counters. 

You nod. “Fitting. When should we get started on that recipe of your moms? Is it super involved?”

“Nah, it’s pretty easy. Normal time should be good. I’m going to read outside if you want to join.”

“Maybe in a bit.”

Calum nods, grabbing his book as he passes through the bedroom and the patter of Duke’s claws follow behind him. You go back to the music room, turn on the amp and then actually play a little something. It’s nothing fancy--just the arrangement you put together with Calum as a practice exercise once. You play it for a bit, adding a little flair. When you phone rings, you pause to answer it. You wouldn’t normally, but the number looks semi recognizable so you answer it. 

It’s just a scam call and you hang up but then notice some other notifications. Before you realize it, you’re deep into Twitter. You’ve run across the trend of people posting pictures of themselves and their significant others with the caption, The Face Vs The Face Sitting On It. It made you laugh just a little bit at first. And then you kept going down the rabbit hole. Some are silly, most are good pictures. 

While it’s not exactly secret that you and Calum are dating, you two don’t post too much. Calum isn’t incline to post on social media in the first place and while you use it a bit more than him, you try not to post too much about him out of respect. However, as you look tap on quote retweet and bring up your photos you think maybe one silly post wouldn’t hurt. So you grab the one of him recently with the face masks and then one of yourself--it’s silly too, a little blurry too in the darkness that it was taken in. 

You hit post and watch the likes come in. Then keep scrolling. Eventually you have to put the bass away and peel yourself from the couch to find Calum and see if he’s hungry enough for dinner. Just as you round the corner to the office, you spy him stepping through the glass sliding backdoor. “Hungry?” you ask. 

He nods, “Yeah.”

The two of you, with Duke trotting ahead, make your way down the hallway and into the kitchen. “You’re funny,” he states, washing his hands first. 

“Thank you. I’ll be here until you kick me out.”

He laughs. “No, the pictures you posted. On Twitter.”

You’re shocked that he noticed it that fast. Normally it took him a bit longer to see silly stuff like that. “Hope you don’t mind.”

“Nah. What I hope you don’t mind is my reply.”

At first you’re nervous. Calum could’ve gone one of two ways--super silly and broke out even worse photos of you possibly not sober or he went super on trend with it and pulled out a photo of you done up for a date night. Not that you preferred one over the other, but sometimes you liked to keep your relationship light on social media. It was easier that way. There wasn’t any real pressure that way. Though the fans seemed to have enjoyed it when you posted more posed and serious content. 

You liked to keep it a bit more real. You and Calum didn’t do the whole nine yards a lot--you two were normal people who hated getting out of bed some days and went as well into the afternoon before showering at times and walked Duke and went to doctor’s appointments like everyone does. So you always opted for a bit of a joke, a silly Tweet or photo whenever you could. 

“What did you post?” you ask. 

He shrugs, taking up the knife to dice the onion. “I’m not telling you.”

You glance at the printed out recipe and get a pan on the aisle over medium heat before pulling out your phone. As you load the app, you listen to the snap of the knife fitting the wooden cutting board. You type Calum’s name and tap onto his profile. 

While there’s is silly--I do want to take a moment to show off my favorite person in the world. So here we go, The Face Vs. The Face Sitting On It. Below is attached a picture of him--you snapped while you two were out for lunch one day. The black t-shirt tight around his biceps as he slyly grins into the camera. The lights in the background are just barely in focus of the resturant and Calum’s glancing out of the window next to him. You remember that you were recording him, or at least you thought you were, and told him that he was handsome. Not the first time, but everytime he did, he blushed and turn away. And you captured it here too. 

The photo of you is actually one with him in it. The guys got together and did a big family dinner and the two of you posed at Crystal’s request in the slightly matching outfits. You hadn’t intended to match--though black was a staple in both your wardrobes. You were a bit different thanks to the pop of color in your shoes, but in the lighting of the street lamp, you had to admit that you did look hot. The first couple of  buttons on your shirt you were undone and with your hands tucked into the pockets, you looked like you owned shit. 

“While I hoped that you’d go with something more silly, I will take this,” you finally say. 

“That picture is literally my background for a reason,” he returns. 

You kiss his cheek and then trace over the stubble with your teeth to his ear. “Can I make a reservation for tonight?”

“The table is reserved for you literally at all times,” he returns in a breathe. 

“Good,” you laugh and then glance back to the recipe. 

[911lonestarscreentime]

Owen Strand Screen Time Meta Post

Welcome to the first in a series of posts analyzing the screen time of characters post season 2 of 911 Lone Star. I thought this idea would be more interesting, and efficient, than trying to put all of my thoughts for every character, and the entire season into one post. 

First up is Owen because he’s the highest billed character and because when I put out a poll, he was the only character no one wanted to see first. So let’s dive in! 

Read my analysis below the cut:

Season 1

I’ll be honest, when I started calculating the screen time I had no idea how much of an impact Owen’s time would have on the fandom. I really don’t recall there being that much discourse over it until I posted the results... and it didn’t really bother me before I saw the numbers? But after I did that first episode I was like oh..... yeah that’s a problem. 

At least that pilot episode was the most screen time he’s gotten, though I’m willing to bet that will change with season 3′s “Owen Begins.” I mean in a way, the pilot episode was his begins episode (or could even be considered “Begins Again” like what they did with Bobby on 911) since it was about him packing up and starting a new life as captain of the 126. Essentially, the pilot episode served to set up that this would be Owen’s show. 

The other episode where he took up a larger chunk of the screen time was 1x06 (”Friends Like These”) which makes sense because it was exploring his friendship with Billy... little did we know how important that would be later.

Most of his screen time in season 1 was concentrated around 8-10 minutes. Obviously that is the most screen time given to a character on the show, which makes sense since the show and the character was written for him and he hold the executive producer title. 

The least amount of screen time he got was around 7.5 minutes in 1x03 (”Texas Proud”) and 1x08 (”Monster Inside”). I do find that especially interesting since those are still episodes where he played an important role in the plot, compared to other characters whose least amount of screen time meant they were lucky if they spoke one line. It’s also worth noting in 1x03, Owen still had the most screen time (though Michelle was a close second) and in 1x08, Michelle did beat him by a few minutes.

Season 2

We really went into season 2 with higher hopes, though it wasn’t much better (I would argue there was some improvement... but I’ll talk about that more later). 

It says a lot that Owen’s top 3 episodes are 2x10, 2x11, and 2x12. Though he didn’t beat his previous record of over 20 minutes, he got nearly 15 minutes in 2x11 (”Slow Burn”)... which if you didn’t already know, is also the episode that was written by his son, John Owen Lowe, and directed by his brother, Chad Lowe. He also got around 12 minutes in the two episodes that buffer that one, 2x10 (“A Little Help From My Friends”) and 2x12 (”The Big Heat”). This three episode arc accounts for about 32% of his screen time this season.

Before that major arc in 2B, in the first half of season 2 his big episodes fell around 10 minutes each; 10:45 in 2x07 (”Displaced”), 10:00 in 2x03 (”Hold the Line”, the crossover), and 9:45 in 2x01 (”Back in the Saddle”)*

A big difference for this season compared to season 1 was that there were episodes where he did not get as much screen time. Whereas his least screen time was 7:30 last season, this season there were four episodes that were lower than that; 7:15 in 2x06 (“Everyone and Their Brother”), 6:00 in 2x13 (”One Day”), 5:30 in 2x02 (”2100°”), and of course, a mere 1:00 in 2x09 (“Saving Grace”). That is really the only episode where Owen has completely stepped aside, playing a very minor role in the overall plot. In 2x02, 2x06, and 2x13, Owen came in second behind Tommy (in x02 and x13) and Paul (in x06). And in 2x09, he came in fourth (the only time thus far he was not in the top 3) behind Judd, Grace, and Tommy.

(*I’ve mentioned the new method I’ve been using to calculate screen time on a few occasions now and I’ve only revisited 2x01 so far (almost done 2x02 tho) anyway, I’m using the data I collected using the old method for these posts but in an effort to be totally upfront about how the new method is going, Owen’s screen time for 2x01 is actually about 30 seconds higher than I originally calculated, coming it at 10:15 instead of 9:45. Not much of a difference, and idk how much the rest of the new method results will impact this meta post, but I wanted to be clear about it).

Total Screen Time

As the infographic above states, his total screen time for the two seasons comes in at nearly 3 hours and 45 minutes. Divided in half, thats around 112 minutes per season, which does fall in line with the totals for each season (103.25 minutes for season 1, 120.5 minutes for season 2). However, there was only 10 episodes in season 1, compared to the 14 we saw in season 2. With that in mind, you can begin to see how season 2 was actually a smidge better than season 1 when it came to how much screen time was given to Owen. But the real indicator is the averages, which is discussed next.

Average Screen Time

As you can see in the infographic, Owen’s average screen time in season 1 was around 10:15 and dropped to 8:30 in season 2. The series screen time (which is the total divided by 24, not those two totals divided by 2) comes in at about 9:15. 

Obviously, even 8.5 minutes is still a huge amount of screen time. But compared to over 10 minutes in season 1, his average screen time is seeing a clear downward trend. I would take this as a win. It’s a small change, but it’s an indication that we are heading towards a day where Owen doesn’t eat up the majority of the screen time each episode.

Outliers

The idea of outlier episodes wasn’t even something I considered until a few weeks ago. This would be an episode where the screen time total was either much higher, or much lower than what is normally seen for that character.

According to my calculations, in season 1 the pilot episode at 20:45 is an outlier for Owen. In season 2, 2x09 (”Saving Grace”) is also an outlier at 1:00. And looking at the data set for all the episodes in series, both numbers (20:45 and 1:00) are outliers. (Outliers change based on the data set, so we need to look at each data set (season 1, season 2, and series) individually and not assume that an outlier for one season would also be an outlier for the series). 

What happens when you remove the outliers?

That brings us to the above question. Is Owen’s 20+ minutes in the first episode the reason why his time is so high in season 1? Is his 1 minute in 2x09 bringing down his time in season 2? And what about the series?

I’m not sure if it’s worth examining how the totals are affected since that’s pretty self-explanatory. Obviously all the totals will go down if you take out the outlier episodes. But where it makes a difference as far as we’re concerned is the averages. 

Obviously the average number is how much you should expect to see that character during an episode. But if 20 minutes is much higher than normal, and 1 minute is much lower than normal, then what happens when you take out those numbers? Well, something actually fairly interesting happens, that almost contradicts what I said before about the progress...

When you remove the pilot episode from the data set for season 1, the average comes to around 9:15. When you remove 2x09 from the data set for season 2, the average comes to around 9:15. When you remove both episodes from the series data set the average comes to (you guessed it) 9:15. 

9:15 is more indicative of what to expect for Owen’s screen time in an average episode, and since it hasn’t changed that says a lot about the progress we’ve seen for screen time distribution.

Now as for what to do with this? Honestly, I have no idea. I mean the fact is that while these episodes are outliers, they did still happen. There is an episode where Owen only had about a minute of screen time; just like there’s an episode where he got over 20 minutes. Outliers are weird because I don’t want to not acknowledge them, and I think it’s important to look at when studying the screen time as a whole. But as for the reported numbers, we can stick with what is laid out in the infographic.

Closing Thoughts

It’s hard to say whether this season saw less Owen, or about the same. Of course when taking all episodes into account, it is less. But when you remove the outlier one minute episode, it’s really not that much better. But then again, the fact that we did get an episode where he was only on screen for a minute is a very good sign, so taking it out of the data set doesn’t exactly make sense.

I guess the biggest takeaway still is that Owen still has a lot. He always will. Even if he did have less this season, it’s still much more than the characters who come in second and third had. I like to think it will get better, and maybe it will, but personally I’ve accepted that Owen will always have the most, and he will have much more than other characters, but it shouldn’t be as much as it is. Hopefully his screen time will continue to trend down and allow for more time to explore the other characters on the show.