#i promised something on twitter that tumblr might not allow me to post

[captainbaddecisions]

'Adapt and evolve', that is the way of the charming swordsman.

[ungrateful-cyborg-moved]

Social media comparison

Alright. I've tried different new/alternative platforms lately in hope to find something I really liked, and there are very promising ones. I didn't try everything, of course, but this is a kind of overview of my journey so far? Or just my thoughts on the matter.

I've tried Pillowfort, Bluesky, Mastodon (didn't last long enough to have much of an opinion, it simply didn't click), Dreamwidth and Cohost (as of today, can't post there yet).

My comparison under the cut:

► I appreciate that they're algorithm free, whether it's because they truly believe in an Internet rid of the most invasive of them or because it's too expensive to implement on a brand new platform or some other reason. Only the future can tell, but for now it's nice.

► Pillowfort: beside the post formatting that I find extremely comfortable, my favourite thing is probably communities. I feel like this is the strongest "pro" in favor of Pillowfort because this is where they truly distinguish themselves from other social media.

Communities, in a way, remind me of forums. They're however easier to take in hand since you don't have to deal with as many options and choices. In my opinion, communities on Pillowfort are a bit lacking in functionalities though. I think more tools to easily organize them would help, like a widget or something to link stuff so you can create and animate events within said communities.

(I also feel like Pillowfort would gain from not being dark blue. We have more than enough dark blue websites, and it doesn't go well with the warmth invoked by its name in my opinion, but that's a minor detail and just a matter of taste.)

► Bluesky: basically Twitter but better. No algorithm, for a start. The curated feeds are nice. They're a bit like communities on Pillowfort since they can be moderated but from a non-mod user, it's even easier to post in them: you just have to use the right keyword for your post to appear there. Well, if the mod left it open to all rather than chose to vet who can or cannot post in it. Lots of flexibility and control over your timeline overall.

I don't like the 300 characters limit, however. Never liked it with Twitter either. It's not really conductive to conversations, and the general design tends to make the website feel rather impersonal. It's really more like parallel talking than community building.

Overall I think it's a good tool to promote your (visual) art or website, etc. but not great for hosting conversations past commenting briefly what others are doing. I mean, you can make threads but it'll never be as good as Pillowfort or Tumblr for this.

► Dreamwidth: I'll start with saying that Dreamwidth isn't a social media, it's a journaling platform and I haven't used it much yet. Had in plan to post my headcanons about my muses there and stuff like that so I did spend some time trying to figure out how it works.

First, there is a lot of options to let you have complete control over who can see what. Like, a lot.

You can entirely personalize what your journal will look like. It's a bit easier than having your own website—since I reblogged a post about that yesterday—because you don't start from 0, so it might be a good option if you don't feel comfortable jumping into Notepad++ to start coding. You can just change a thing here and there, or nothing at all, or almost everything. It's pretty old school though, so for those completely unfamiliar with early/pre-web 2.0, it might not look very appealing at first. However, I'd say don't let that stop you! If anything, it's a good opportunity to learn a bit of code without pressure.

You can also create communities, which as you might have guessed is very important to me. When creating one, you can set up whether everyone can join, everyone can ask to join but has to be approved by a community admin or to limit the access to those you have personally invited. Like for your own journal, communities are completely customizable, and Dreamwidth allows adult content.

I'm not sure you can top DW communities in terms of functionalities—aside from making a forum—but it's not as intuitive as Pillowfort (though in exchange you get more customization). You're also more limited regarding image hosting (see here). That said, hosting services exist, many are free, and that's without mentioning that you can post on Twitter and the like and use the picture link in your DW posts. I don't think many will only use Dreamwidth anyway.

► Cohost: I was expecting nothing when I registered earlier today, but this is an overall good surprise: it's Tumblr, but better.

More control of what you see. More user-friendly UI. It's not fucking blue. Adult content allowed. You can change your main blog page and make it private.

The only two downsides I'd mention here would be that you can't customize your blog page appearance and you have to wait for one or two days before being able to post. Although if it means less bots, I'd rather wait.

And this ends my rather non-exhaustive tour of the social media/blogging/journaling platforms. If you catch any mistakes let me know. I didn't dive deep, this was just me sharing my thoughts.

(As far as I know, they all allow adult content and give you tools to not see it if you don't want to.)

[kuswanrudi]

Take That! R1999 [OPEN] MAP

Hello everyone, just like I promised I am hosting a reverse 1999 map and it's theme will be about relationship (friendship & ships).

I decided on making it an open MAP so that anyone could try and participate it, even you have experience on making or just a beginner.

To submit and so easily see others, I'm going to make a tag #TakeThatR199MAP and please use it on YouTube, Tumblr and or X (Twitter) or reblog this post or chat me if it's easier for you.

Of course in every MAP there will be a few set of ground rules to follow even if it's an open MAP.

If there's any questions then please contact me :)

Rules :

Don't make something inappropriate! For example, don't try shipping a minor character with an older character.

The characters in this MAP must be from reverse 1999, please don't add oc or other characters from different fandoms. If you're new and haven't played it then you could still join but please look it up.

Just like in the video said, AMV, PMV or animation are also allowed if that is what you're good at.

Watermark for the apps that you're using are allowed but at least make it less than 2, also if you want to add your own then please make it subtle and don't make it too distracting.

Keep in mind that is an open MAP, which means there might be a chance that someone would've taken your part first without you knowing, if that ever happens then please try take any other part.

This also applies with the 5 rule as if there's nothing that could be done then please be respectful and accept it, this is supposed to be a fun map and I don't wish for any conflict for just a part.

This may be a somewhat compromise for 5 & 6, lyrics are not needed as there might be a chance that they'll be a few people who have the same part and I wanted to try to include them even though the music on that part might be different.

[arom-antix]

Hi!

Sorry if my ideas are not that clear, my English is poor. Regarding all of this Samurai drama, you said something about how their phrasing could make some readers feel accused (is that the word?). That's exactly what happened to me. When they started posting their fic it was 2022, at the moment I used to had lots of free time and I would read their fic the exact same day they wouls update. Over the years I've getting busy and I would read their fic when I had the time to do so. I used to follow this person on Twitter and here in Tumblr, and their posts about how bad she felt because no one was reading her made me feel guilty at the beggining, but Idk, after a few posts I started to feeling like the wording sounded like she was blaming the readers for not supporting them enough. And because I am a petty person I stopped reading their fic at all. When I found out that they are in their 40's I was shocked because I would assume someone of their age would know better that people have to do things irl and don't always have the time or energy to read a long ass chapter of a fic, considering that in this fandom, most of the people I know are in their 20's or 30's.

They have been posting this kind of things for a long time, I stopped reading on 2023.

Futhermore, I stopped engaging with them because of their attitude. For many of us, yoi was the first queer show we had ever watched, and I've seen many queer people who discovered themselves because they related to Yuuri. I, an aroace person, see a lot of myself in him, but I read about trans gay me who also relate to him, bisexual women who also relate to him. Saying that someone is an acephobe because they don't have the same interpretation is kind of weird in my opinion.

I know I am not offering a lot but I wanted to share my experience as a former reader and follower. I would like to thank you for speaking about it. 🙏🙏

Thank you for this ask. I think it's really important that people get to hear these stories directly from the mouths of those who've lived them. Sure, one story might not do much, but it all adds up over time. So thank you for sharing your experience. You're offering plenty. And your English is just fine, don't worry ;)

And yeah this is exactly what I mean. The whining, even if perfectly legal and allowed, makes people feel like they don't count. It makes them feel guilty for not doing more or being a better fan of *checks notes* an Internet stranger's hobby. Don't misunderstand, as an artist myself, I know it matters so so much to the creator and that it's like handing people a small piece of your soul, but I also understand that I'm the only one who takes my art that seriously. Everyone else just thinks "hey cool, a piece of art", and I don't blame them for that. I'm not entitled to their enthusiasm.

Of course it sucks to not get the feedback you were hoping for, but if the only thing that matters to you is numbers and popularity, I think you might be doing your hobby for the wrong reasons. If it's a profession, it's a different story because your ability to pay rent is on the line, but I'm assuming that's not the case for Samurai. Scratch that, I know it's not, because you can't make a living off of fanfiction, it in it's nature being based on copyrighted material. You can make pocket change from commissions, but you can't make rent. So whatever setup Samurai has, her livelihood doesn't depend on writing gay skating smut.

And even if it did, I can promise you right now that if a published author was whining about low readership as if the readers they already have don't count, they'd be dropped by their readers and maybe even publishers so fast. Your words matter. People don't take kindly to entitlement. Begging for attention will either gain you no attention simply from spite or only attention you didn't want. It's okay to be upset, but other people are also allowed to be upset with you.

Getting a large following and retaining readership takes a while, and I know you've been in this business for decades, but you've been unintentionally self sabotaging for a long time too. You have to just let the readers find you. If they like your stuff, they'll stick around. If they don't, oh well, don't take it personally. As a rule of thumb, people are briefly curious about negativity, but they stay for positivity. You can do with that information what you will. It's up to you how to handle your socials. If you make people feel good, they'll stay.

Thank you for the ask, anon.

[mdhwrites]

I'm not really gonna ask anything, just complain.

I'm tired of seeing puppet Amity and emperor Luz everywhere, what's even so special about it? What's the appeal???

People see 2 seconds scenes without context and make it that episode's entire content 🤦

I don't know if ep 3 came out already but I'm not looking forward anyways.

…Angst. Angst and new designs which are probably the two most powerful motivators for The Owl House fandom. Why do you think S2A felt like it damn near cut the fandom down to its size?

This actually has to do with kind of fandom culture in general. The most visible part of a fandom is its artists. Their work is quick to consume, easily posted and reposted (with credit you'd hope but… sigh) and the easiest to take inspiration directly from the show for. Every week there'd be at least one screencap redraw that the fandom would do whenever a new episode came out. Honestly, the finale's big Lumity screencap redraw is really awkward looking to me out of context. It's not hard to see why these are so popular though. The reference is directly in front of you, it's a moment people are already talking about and you yourself probably liked the posing too so why not redraw it? It's a hell of a lot easier to do than come up with a bespoke story concept based off of each episode in a series.

That isn't to call art easy or the like, just that fanart is the backbone to a fandom for a reason, at least in my opinion. Twitter has a character count limit. Reading Fanfiction on Instagram blows. Tumblr is the closest to a place where longer form videos and stories can be posted and they still take MUCH longer to consume and share and without as much guaranteed return on effort spent. There's a reason the internet as a whole LOVES art from a commercial and consumer standpoint, even if they also keep trying to screw over artists because yaaaaay capitalism.

But screencap redraws aren't going to be everything. The more potential in the story, the more people will be able to come up with evocative concepts and stories and even make comics about the show. This was a BIG part of the fandom's peak between S1 and 2. Everyone had their own take on how Lumity would get together. Everyone had their own idea for how Amity might confront her parents. Amity in general was just a font of inspiration and the concepts with Luz weren't played out or felt contradictory to the more cynical character we got in S2 so angst with her about her mom, her world, etc. like that was still something everyone was tapping into, especially since it felt like the portal being destroyed was such a big deal.

I made a large Twitter thread the other day btw about how just shit the Portal Door is from a narrative perspective, first as a nitpick in S1 and then just a genuine problem in S2, because of it being gone, but that's a different blog.

But post S2A… What did you have? Camila's promise was never going to end satisfactorily, to the point where it goes from a moment of Luz being a good daughter to an almost inhuman monster towards her friends because it is handled so poorly. Amity is pretty much resolved outside of being happy to be Luz's girlfriend because she's already stood up to her parents, integrated into the rest of the cast and even already addressed the only piece of angst the show ever allows for her with her relationship and that's being an obsessive enough girlfriend. Sorry, I mean a good enough girlfriend. sigh Gus has had an episode but was overshadowed, Willow has had like a half dozen lines this half a season, King has been pretty much absent since his episode, Raeda was still mostly an Eda episode with literally every element of that episode just to shove Momma Eda down your throat…

It's not surprising that post S2A, the fandom has felt in general much quieter. Minus A: Huntlow and B: whenever they get a new design they can turn into Luz/Lumity angst. Everyone remember the teaser for the Collector's design that was done during a livestream and how that consumed the fandom for a little while because of possessed Luz ideas?

The puppet Amity and Belos Luz hype was effectively that. It brought even the casual artists back because they had a new, easily evocative design available to them that also had very obvious potential for angst. How many "I'M NOT LIKE HIM" pictures came out regardless of how weak any parallel between Luz and Belos is? Luz crying over a temporarily dead Amity is saddening, even if she's been little more than a puppet for the writers for a while now.

It's just how fandoms work. It's not even necessarily a bad thing. Dana has been VERY good at keeping the fandom alive during things like hiatuses. S1's hiatus is when the Betas were most popular because they dropped at a time when people were starting to wane from the show and now they had an entirely different angle to work from for anything Lumity they wanted to do alongside just good designs to draw. Most Lumity and Huntlow artists redo any piece that Dana does for the two ships. It's very effective for keeping a social media presence for your show honestly.

I won't even act like I'm above it. While I commissioned reference sheets for Rich Witch to make it easier to commission more artists for these characters, that wasn't the only reason. Rich Witch had a Reddit page (that I should clean up honestly) and its pinned thread includes the reference sheets and physical descriptions for the characters who don't have reference sheets. This is because I recognize that that makes fanart easier and that fanart is a lot easier to share than text blurbs. It is one of the ways to try and cultivate a following online nowadays or to help your fandom grow, at least in my opinion.

Can it be frustrating? Absolutely. I mean, Huntlow fanart has probably done way more damage to my interest in Hunter than anything else because it always emphasizes Hunter as nothing but a failure. Hell, it also emphasizes Willow's strength commonly and very little else about her character. Lumity has bored me for a long time in art because 90% of it is just cute fluff which isn't bad but it's not compelling. And I mocked both Belos Luz and Puppet Amity, despite the designs for them being good and the art being good, as shallow because narratively it means very little.

And the larger that disconnect becomes, the more frustrating a trend in the fandom is going to be. Plenty of people hate the Betas because they hate the edginess or the fact that a lot of people used them to start creating spicier material. There's not much anyone can do about that though. While a creator can try to promote a kinder fandom, fandoms are inherently too emotional and too large to really control outside of helping the show grow or find a new audience. It's just a part of that culture.

And frankly, I'm going to be bothered by the toxicity and inhumanity (guess what fandom will dox you for liking a ship between a bi girl and a straight guy?) of fandoms long before their art trends.

[blueaizu]

Aizu Updates: Uploading Older Art, Other Social Media Activities

Lately I've been busy doing book illustrations for a friend and I've reached a point where they have to be done now now now, so I haven't had much time set aside for making new stuff. I've got a few older drawings in my backlog, though, so to help my page feel more complete I'll be uploading some of those in the meantime. They may not completely reflect how I draw now, but rest assured they all still fit the criteria for being something I still like enough to share!

That was the actually important thing, so I'll put the rest of this post after a cut. It's basically just rambling about observations of social media I made.

So in the interest of covering more bases when I become a vtuber, I've been looking into some more alternatives for Twitter. Don't get me wrong, Tumblr's been great and I'm happy to keep using it! But while Tumblr's suited for more in depth blog posts, there's a succinct immediacy to the more rapid fire nature of the Twit. As a regular person I don't actually miss using it (I mean seriously Twitter's a goddamned cesspool); but I recognize its power in sharing quick updates with a large body of users that are scrolling through content like a naughty child unravelling a roll of toilet paper.

The platform that seems the most promising is called Bluesky, which is currently invite only because it's still in beta. It was founded in part by Jack Dorsey, the previous CEO of Twitter, so Bluesky's striking resemblance to Twitter is no coincidence. Supposedly it will allow communities to run from their own servers, but it can also carry over your account information seamlessly between them. People used to say the blockchain could have good uses when NFTs were still going around, and at the time I didn't believe them, but now I think I'm starting to see what they meant (but I still hate NFTs).

The limited supply of invites driving up demand on top of the Muskman seemingly doing everything in his power to sabotage his own platform is giving Bluesky quite a bit of hype, so I think it might actually have a chance to flourish. It will for sure start off basically being Twitter 2.0, but its more open nature supporting outside servers run by smaller communities instead of one big monolith can let it grow into its own thing. But who knows when Bluesky will open its doors to the public? Even if I do get in right now, you (yes, you, the person reading this) likely wouldn't have access.

Another alternative that's available right now and very similar to what I described is Mastodon. While I could see its potential as a platform, it's difficult to use and the audience just doesn't seem fully there. A number of people fled there from Twitter, but they didn't stick around because it's actually nothing like Twitter. They still had a net gain of new users, but I have my doubts about sticking with it. Still, I wouldn't write it off just yet since Mastodon does power Pawoo, which is a Japanese-run community that's associated with Pixiv and is quite lively in its own right. This is the true power of a platform with an open source network of community-run servers.

Anyway what was the point I was trying to make with this again?

uh

I hope these developments mean we're on the cusp of a new age of social media where we have the power to run our own communities and not be at the mercy of one big corporation? Yeah, something like that.

Also being a vtuber is cool.

Actually, you know what? Speaking of vtubers, you deserve a little reward for making it this far. You didn't have to do that, but you did! Don't tell anyone, but...

SURPRISE PEEK AT MY VTUBER!!

[pendulum-sonata]

You know? In holidays there's always this weird clash, mostly i see it in reddit and twitter but tumblr isn't free of it, in which people are all in for worker's rights and better work conditions, etc. but the moment you suggest that retail/food service/minimum wage workers should be able to take holidays off, that stores should close early and allow employees to go home, that maybe it isn't such a good idea to go to the store 5 minutes before they close for "1 last thing I promise" some people go absolutely feral, they start going off about how "this is a management issue, people should be able to buy things ALL the time" or sometimes "what if people don't celebrate holidays uh? Where are they supposed to go?" and if pressed enough they may start to move the subject from the workers to the "tyranny of the christian calendar" and any other oppressed group to defend the idea that they want to be able to buy anything they want at any time they feel like it.

Way to miss the point, and really I get where some of you are coming from, I have ADHD, all the planning, the post-it notes, the reminders haven't stopped me from being in that place where there was something I forgot to buy, and yeah, it is frustrating, I get angry sometimes, but ultimately I'm the one to blame, not a poor retail worker who's is already closing the doors because it's 10 minutes before closing time and they're already doing the day's till.

And I think people need to realize, without trying to bring other tangentially-related issues, that this is what a consumerist attitude looks like, and that maybe, is not okay to expect everything that's doesn't involve life-saving services to be open at all times of the year, just because someone might want to buy something.

[lun-isaway]

Hi! Welcome to my art blog ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡

Hey there, OP here, you can call me Lei or by my online username; @lun-isaway / @lun-isidlee, and this blog is made as a space for me to post fanart of the fandoms I'm in or general art posts I make of my interests. If you like what you see, follow me for more (I promise I post, I won't die on you all... hopefully), leave a note and comment. ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ The art mainly seen here is from Jujutsu Kaisen but I post for my other interests too. This is a fairly new art blog so any engagement is appreciated :D ⋆｡‧˚ʚɞ˚‧｡⋆ Some notes regarding my art and the blog: Can I repost or reblog your art? re-blogging my art is allowed here on tumblr (of course), but for reposts on other websites like pinterest or reddit for example, I would appreciate if I'm credited in the post. -- Can I use your art as a banner, icon or for my profile(s)? Sure! -- Do you take commissions or requests? I'll be leaving this blog's ask box on as a request box for ideas. The ask box can also be used if you want to talk to me or comment about my art (send me memes or something) For paid commission work, I am currently not taking any since at the moment, my focus is growing this blog and my online portfolio, however, I will post if ever I'll be taking paid commissions soon in the future! -- Do you draw any NSFW art? While I am of age, I don't. It's not my strong suit nor my preference to. At best, some of my art is suggestive but nothing more than that. -- Other places to find my art: Reddit: u/lunisaway_ I might make a Twitter profile for my art soon but then again, it's Twitter- - Lei

[relaxxattack]

hi im asking u this bc u seem to be bee duo enthusiast so

ive been calling c! beeduos relationship platonic because i thought that was what their cc’s said, and i thought they had said that they were uncomfortable with ppl shipping the characters. But ive seen a lot of posts that say their relationship is canonically romantic? and i absolutely do not want to come across as homophobic by watering down a mlm relationship to just friends because that happens so much in media so.

what is the canon state of their relationship / ur opinions on the platonic thibg

dont worry abt answering if u dont want to!! i see a lot of differing opinions and i trust yours :)

aw it’s totally fine, im flattered you asked me about this!

let me put it simply: it’s a whole mess, lol.

first im going to talk about what’s happened fandom-wide that caused differing opinions, and then i’ll explain my own opinion/interpretation. :]

(this got really fucking long im so sorry)

ranboo and tubbo initially proclaimed the relationship was romantic, specifically in argument with the wiki editors who had set it as platonic by default. (you can see this in the vod where they decide they’re canonically married— it’s very funny. chat tells them the marriage is already on the wiki, they check, tubbo is jokingly offended that it says platonic and asks if he needs to up the romance).

tubbo also makes jokes about adultry, which sort of implies the relationship is not necessarily a platonic one.

(theres definetly more in that stream alone but it’s been a long time since i watched it so i don’t remember a lot of it.)

the wiki, because of this, suffers from going back and forth on platonic and romantic, seemingly unsure where the joke ends and the canon begins, or if its canonically a joke! a mess, as you can already tell.

this gets more complicated as the marriage bit goes on: outsiders, such as phil and scott, both at one point say “platonic marriage”, which then ranboo and tubbo agree with. however, when chat asks them if they’re platonic, they say the opposite. so there is a lot of confusion there.

there’s also the difficulty of being able to tell streamers and characters apart. ranboo and tubbo both don’t like being shipped irl, and that’s their boundaries that shouldn’t be crossed. (they’re also minors, but tbh when they’re 18 in a year i will still be following their boundaries regardless of their legal age).

due to people not wanting to be accused of minor shipping, they started adding the platonic tone indicator to most of their drawings— basically a way of saying “no homo”. meanwhile, tubbo frequently on stream flirts with ranboo and makes quite a bit of nsfw comments towards him that are frankly hilarious.

this goes on for a while with nobody really sure what’s canon, but a lot of people assuming it’s probably platonic, until: the drama of the mods night. a few mods dmed all the wiki editors telling them ranboo wanted his canon character relationship officially set to platonic.

unfortunately for those mods; the very same day, a few hours later, ranboo on stream makes fun of puffy delivering him and tubbo “friendship flowers”. because, and i quote, “bruh. we’re literally married. this must be how the ancient greeks felt.”

in case you don’t know, the internet often jokes about how historians will call ancient greeks ‘very good friends’ when they are quite obviously gay. so in this context, ranboo is joking that people will call him and c!tubbo, who are married, “close friends”, when he doesn’t think they are.

basically, ranboo canonized romantic bee duo, the very same day the mods told everyone he’d wanted a platonic one.

chaos and drama immediately erupted everywhere. on tumblr, we were talking about how weird it was of his mods to do something like that without asking him first. we ALSO talked about how weird it was of them to assume that ranboo can’t make his own decisions, or assume teenagers cannot be in relationships without it being sexual. twitter did the same thing but in the opposite direction: called ranboo mods homophobic, or said they were mad ranboo felt pressured into making a romantic relationship canon ‘just so people could have mlm rep.’

i dont want to go into detail about the drama that happened that night because apparently official people follow me and i dont want to stir it up or have them come “clarify” things. im just saying what we talked about.

ranboo in typical ranboo fashion apologized quickly and seriously. he was deeply sorry for possibly offending anyone with how he’d portrayed his rp relationship with tubbo, and he also assured everyone the mod thing was just a miscommunication.

he said he would talk to tubbo and they’d decide once and for all whether it was platonic or romantic, and then announce so everyone would know.

it’s now been a few months and we've had no word from them on that development. we still have no clue.

-

now, here’s my opinion:

i want to take ranboos word for it that it was a miscommunication with his mods, but... we had it on good authority from people on the wiki team and people in the discord with the mods that (while it was happening) they were really going after the wiki admins, and also made some weird comments about it. that combined with the way ranboo seemingly had no clue (considering he canonized their romance that very same day).... it’s very. sus of the mods.

then there’s the canon we’ve got since then. although occasionally adults in the room have called it a “platonic marriage” and tubbo once (back when it first started) called it a “plankton tectonic” marriage, in roleplay it’s been... kind of not that. tubbo and ranboo make nsfw jokes about each other in character, and their characters also share a master bedroom and bed in the mansion. there's also the way c!tommy really thinks it’s a romance between them as well, and they agree with and play off that— for instance confirming that they “fell in love” when he asked, or ranboo confirming that they “make out on occasion”.

people will still put platonic on their art and posts, imo, because they’re worried about breaking ranboo and tubbo’s irl boundaries by looking like they ship them. or even just being accused of shipping real life minors. and that’s a valid fear to have.

the thing is though: c!bee duo are not cc!bee duo. they’re roleplay characters. cc!bee duo are not okay with being shipped, but they made their characters get canonically married, and call each other “husbands”. so it’s okay to write the word “husband” in your comic without adding “platonic” to it, i promise.

telling the ccs that their characters have to be platonic is... weird. it comes off as not only babying them, but also as saying teens can’t date without it being gross. which isn’t true.

(this is why seeing people overuse “platonic husband” so much bothers me. like, they ARE husbands. you can just say it. what are you trying to hide...?)

-

do i think they’re canonically romantic? ehh, its likely. it’s still okay to interpret them as platonic, because again, it’s hard to tell where jokes end and roleplay begins. like, maybe it’s jokes in the rp too, and c!bee duo are just friends. friends can and should be allowed to make jokes like that with each other! aro & ace marriages exist!

or, maybe it’s actually part of the rp, and they’re very much romantic. we don’t know!

some people say they could be a qpr (queerplatonic romance), which i could see. (a qpr is a relationship that fluctuates between, or can’t quite be sorted into, “romantic” and “platonic”. people in a qpr can do romantic things while having platonic feelings for each other). in my opinion this is a very valid interpretation as well!

-

CONCLUSION (sorry this got so long omfg):

are c!bee duo romantic?

its likely, but you can still interpret them however you like!

should i put /p on bee duo content?

ehhh? i find it annoying when it’s overused (as do others), but if you’re worried you can. its up to preference. putting it too much is weird though

should i put /p on things cc! bee duo do?

no. you’re not the one saying it so you can’t decide the tone tags for that. imagine you said something to your friend and a random stranger came up and was like “haha but that was /p right...?”

can i ship c!bee duo?

mmm. i’m not sure on this one. they are canonically married and very flirtatious, but the ccs don’t like being shipped and they’re close enough to being the ccs that actively shipping might be against boundaries.

can i treat c!bee duo as romantic?

yes. literally just don’t be weird about it. it’s not that hard! you can understand that two characters are husbands without making it weird

here’s the most important thing: boundaries. cc bee duo still haven’t told us what their preferences and canon is about this whole thing.

right now, i am assuming based on what they already show us they’re comfortable with, but! the second they give us any more info! all these opinions will change!

i am only going off what they do. i would never want to cross boundaries at all. i just wish they would make theirs a little more clear.

..... i hope that helped anon, i went way off the rails... i need to go to sleep.

[mariacallous]

I don't know if I agree with everything in this article, but it definitely is making me think:

Of All the threats posed by Twitter since it fell under sketchy new management in October, one of them doubles as a promise. Twitter will devolve into pornography.

Porn’s not my cup of tea, but you have to admire its ferocity and cunning. It’s a mega-genre, something the poet-philosopher Timothy Morton might call a hyperobject, ungraspable in its ubiquity and scale. In effect, porn online behaves like a predator plant, saturating the pixels with flesh colors, choking off biodiverse memes, and sowing vast digital acreage with salt.

Tumblr, which started as an artsy microblogging service in 2007, lost its allure when it was overrun by porn five years later. Chatroulette, which was founded in 2009 as a whimsical way to meet strangers, traded its lightheartedness for dick pics and leering goons almost immediately. OnlyFans, which began in 2016 as a platform for performers to post videos, now consists mostly of porn created by sex workers.

But most companies aim to marginalize porn. While OnlyFans has surrendered, Chatroulette and Tumblr appear to take a firmer stand than ever against it. Facebook and YouTube conscript armies of algorithms and humans to banish porn in deference to advertisers who don’t want brands debased by unwholesome adjacencies. Alone among the big social media services, Twitter allows users to post what it calls “intimate media.” But the platform also permanently suspends users who post upskirts, creepshots, revenge porn, nonconsensual erotica, images shot with hidden cameras, or media accompanied by incitements to violence. Pornographic images, which make up about 13 percent of all tweets, cannot yet be directly sold.

Porn in its place may be bankable, in other words, but too much of it in a venue styled as PG can scare off much bigger revenue streams.

Or so popular wisdom has it. Twitter’s new management, as usual, dissents. The volatile Chief Twit, Elon Musk, has torn down guardrails, eliminated moderators, and alienated advertisers all on his own with tiresome shitposting and hospitality to hate speech. Musk, whose personal fortune fell by $100 billion in 2022, pretends to insouciance about money in a way that’s unconvincing and hard to watch. When General Mills, General Motors, Pfizer, Ford, and Mondeléz International (the august maker of Oreos) stopped advertising on Twitter last fall, Musk lashed out at corporate America for its failure to respect the wishes of the founding fathers, who presciently mandated advertising on Twitter in 1789. Unchastened, half of the platform’s top 100 advertisers were gone in Musk’s first month.

Without moderators or advertisers, swaths of Twitter are now mangy empty lots crawling with vandals, lechers, con men, and swastikas. The time is perhaps right for porn, then. Porn abhors a vacuum. Especially where it can be ennobled as constitutional duty.

How in the world is this good news? I’ll tell you why it’s good news to me. Not only will it make Twitter2 easily quittable, but it’s pleasing to see things become what they deep down are. Twitter has slouched toward porn for years. “Slipping into DMs” is only one salacious meme in what long ago became an orgy of hyperstimulation, with people baring their souls, posting thirst traps, coyly subtweeting, and of course negging and prodding and simultaneously secreting dopamine and cortisol and God knows what other precious bodily fluids.

“I am mad for it to be in contact with me,” Walt Whitman wrote, of what he called “life’s atmosphere.” No doubt he also meant contact with the bodies of the many people he cruised and desired. Likewise, Twitter seems to offer contact with everyone, and the interface exists to make users mad for contact as it conjures life’s atmosphere of abrasiveness streaked with sweetness. The real Twitter was the friends we made along the way, as someone has surely tweeted.

That’s gone now. When the chief rolls in with tryhard trolling that misses the mark of humor, squealing in annoying feedback loops from his Wall of Sound, the warm chatter among the regulars goes silent. A pall falls. When Musk tweeted some horror fiction alleging that the spouse of a prominent elected official might have been perversely complicit in cracking his own skull with a hammer, something at the heart of Twitter seemed to die. Later, when he bellowed that Twitter in 2020 had abridged the constitutional right of trolls to post a Hunter Biden dick pic, another influx of refugees poured into Mastodon, which presents itself as a more normal haven for people fleeing Twitter.

“The Internet Is for Porn” was the catchiest song from Avenue Q, which debuted 20 years ago. That was before broadband, before social media, before the hijack of information space by influence operations and strongman solo acts like GOP trinity Kanye, Elon, and Trump. It was axiomatic back then. Porn was the internet’s reason for being, its prime directive. And it would have stayed that way had web information not been domesticated by corporations that wanted to hack our worldviews and pick our pockets for data, attention, and mobile payments.

But through all this, Twitter has retained the spirit of porn. Like porn, Twitter is not a family affair; for many, it’s also a shameful habit that they’re forever trying to quit. Since 2007, I’ve turned to Twitter to—the only word I can think of is learn. But I know its traps well. Users of Twitter, like consumers of porn, find themselves amused and stimulated, and then scroll compulsively, chasing the dragon of human connection, only to find themselves scrolling through doom, and finally scrolling for doom.

Information may or may not want to be free, but it often wants to be porn. What Musk has considered doing, according to various reports, is introduce paywalled video that would allow performers to get paid while Twitter takes a cut. Sound at all familiar? It’s the OnlyFans model, complete with a rip-off of the OnlyFans interface. The performers it’s tailor-made for are not, as it happens, cellists or mimes. They’re sex workers. And for discerning high rollers who prefer the backroom to the club, Musk has floated the idea of offering paid DMs—to be slipped into as usual, but for a fee. The online-porn business demands extreme discipline to keep it from turning criminal and leaves room for little else, but edgelord Musk is likely to fare better in the demimonde than he is on the main stage.

At the very end of 2022, NSFW content was the fastest-growing sector of English-language Twitter. It’s the way of the world, especially without diligent moderation. At the same time, the new louche Twitter comes with a harum-scarum idea of “free speech” as singularly applicable to obscene provocateurs like Jordan Peterson and Marjorie Taylor Greene, formerly banned figures who were warmly welcomed back to the site in November. “This is a battle for the future of civilization,” the Chief Twit tweeted. “If free speech is lost even in America, tyranny is all that lies ahead.”

If Twitter is going to prey on users with hyper-arousing material and the illusion of intimacy, why not go all the way? Twitter should admit what it’s up to, tell risk-averse advertisers to go blow if they’re prudes, and turn full red-light district. It might scare away the squares, but Twitter can charge a mint for spank-bank material, and a premium for the kind that somehow prevents tyranny.

[lenbryant]

After haggling with the author Stephen King (don’t worry about it), Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, decided that Twitter users would have to pay $8 a month to keep their blue verification check marks. Previously, these check marks were free and indicated an account was authentic—that’s the real New York Times, the real President Joe Biden, the real Slim Jim, and so on. They’re sort of a status symbol, in the sense that check marks make users stand out, and the process for getting one is opaque and mysterious. And they kind of confer importance by suggesting that a person or an entity or a brand with a check might be someone who someone else would attempt to impersonate. People sometimes talk about verification badges as being signifiers of “clout.”

Musk renovated the blue-check-mark system with the stated intention of making it, like, more egalitarian or something: Anybody could have a check if they paid a fee, and then they would have the glory of the check mark, even if it would no longer indicate anything other than the user having paid a fee. This devolved into chaos about as quickly as you would imagine. A blue check appeared next to an account pretending to be George W. Bush, which tweeted, “I miss killing Iraqis” with a sad-face emoji. A blue check appeared next to an account masquerading as the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, which tweeted, “We are excited to announce insulin is free now.” (The verification program is now on pause until after Thanksgiving.)

For those disgusted or confused by Musk’s antics, there is an alternative: Just go back to Tumblr, where the antics are better.

The famous microblogging website for freaks is constantly rumored to be at death’s door, but things are on the upswing there—and people are paying attention, thanks to the company’s inspired response to Twitter’s tumult. Last week, it started offering users the option to purchase, for a onetime fee of $7.99, not one but two “Important Blue Internet Checkmarks” to display next to their username. “Why, you ask? Why not?” the announcement explained. (The page for purchasing the check marks discloses that they “may turn into a bunch of crabs at any time.”) This was a good joke from the jump, but it got better when users realized they could buy more than two check marks. Someone bought 10. Because this is Tumblr, the check marks quickly became the subject of fan art—“the Important Blue Internet Checkmarks are gay and married actually,” etc. Tumblr is also selling blue-check-mark pins in its shockingly good merch store.

“We’re always looking across the industry for innovation,” Matt Mullenweg, the CEO of Automattic, which owns Tumblr, told me when I asked about the Important Blue Internet Checkmarks. Then he apologized: “I’m not good at being funny.” Anyway, he went on, you can buy up to 24 check marks. “But we are making no promises. For a technology company, maintaining the check marks is very difficult.” (Joking again.) “The check marks might transform into something else in the future,” he warned. (Referring to the threat of crabs.) He wouldn’t give specific numbers but said there are now “hundreds of thousands” of Important Blue Checkmarks on Tumblr.

According to Mullenweg, iOS downloads of the Tumblr app were up 62 percent the week after Musk took control of Twitter. (Although, to keep things in perspective, Tumblr is still much, much smaller than Twitter.) The mobile app has a pretty chic new logo. The discovery features are finally useful. And, at the beginning of the month, Mullenweg announced that the company had figured out a way to allow nudity on the site again (though it will not be bringing back actual porn), putting an end to a four-year-long ban and possibly starting Tumblr down a path to regaining the trust of users who were dismayed when it began removing, among other things, posts that showed “female-presenting nipples,” in a bloodbath of poorly considered automated takedowns.

Whoever is currently running Tumblr’s Twitter account has also been making the most of the Musk era by welcoming fleeing Twitter users “home” to Tumblr and asking current Tumblr users not to scare them away: “We need everybody to pretend to be normal for a little bit.” (Mullenweg would not say who runs Tumblr’s Twitter account, but he told me that the company Slack has “kind of turned into a writer’s room.”)

Now, maybe you see this as sort of an obvious and opportunistic publicity play by a competing social-media service. Maybe it even seems crass to you—a little grave-dancy. But Tumblr’s users and staff know something about unexpected business deals with ominous implications. (The site was acquired by Yahoo in 2013; Yahoo was then acquired by Verizon; Verizon squished Yahoo and AOL together to form something called Oath; it then sold Tumblr to Automattic at a fire-sale price—a twist after rumors circulated that it might sell the site to Pornhub.) They also know something about sudden changes and broken features and never-ending suspense over when or whether a site may disappear completely. You can hardly blame them for enjoying the fact that something has gone wrong elsewhere.

Tumblr diehards do not want the site to be a landing pad for the normies. As Ryan Broderick reported in his newsletter, Garbage Day, last week, they have busied themselves posting “cringe” in order to ward off returning Twitter users—it’s kind of a “Keep Austin Weird” campaign. (Of course, the Twitter “normies” are coming from a website where people sincerely argue that it’s classist to shower and sexist to be afraid of the woman monster in Barbarian who rips arms off—so they’re not that normal either.) But some Tumblr users prefer to be welcoming. “All of us were new to the site at one point,” Nat Ku, a 20-year-old Tumblr user, told me in an email. “If someone wants to switch from twitter to tumblr, celebrity or otherwise, good for them. Who cares? That’s their business. We’re all equally insufferable anyway.”

Today, Tumblr has a reputation as a refuge from the louder and busier social-media landscape, and those who still spend time there—or who returned to the site, as many did at the start of the pandemic—love it for being somewhat creepy and overlooked. If Musk ruins Twitter, maybe it too could have a second life as something most people are always forgetting about—in a good way.

A year ago, many would have placed their bets on Tumblr having far less time left on Earth than Twitter, but that’s life online for you. Any platform that you invest years of your interest and creativity in—that you become reliant on for community and news and stimulation and something to complain about—is about as stable as the winds of capital and the whims of those who hold it. Although it feels like the end of days on Twitter right now—which is to say, everyone is acting hysterical—there’s something a little exciting about it. It’s beautiful and painful. Now, a Tumblr user might say, you know how it feels.

“I hope both Twitter and Tumblr are around 100 years from now,” Mullenweg told me. “These are important parts of the internet, and they need good stewardship to stay around for future generations.” He said he learned the hard way that running a social network is extremely difficult—in more ways than running any other large-scale internet service or tech company—and that he is rooting for anyone who tries it. “You’ll never hear me bad-mouth Elon,” he said, after I honestly kind of tried to get him to. That said, if you’re wondering what to do now that Twitter is getting more upsetting by the day: “Everyone at Tumblr has been burning the midnight oil the past few weeks to keep up with user demand.”

Kaitlyn Tiffany is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of Everything I Need I Get From You: How Fangirls Created the Internet as We Know It.

[reedrfeedr]

Your New Years Resolution: You should get really fat.

(a conversation on your impending weight gain revelation.)

I think I know you. At least, a part of you.

There's something within you that you like to hide. Maybe you only chat with people late at night about it. Maybe you flirt with local strangers occasionally but freak out when it comes to actual plans. Maybe you've never spoken to another soul about it.

Don't worry, I can keep a secret.

I see how you spend your time - ogling pictures of fat guys on Tumblr or Twitter, not of admiration but of envy. Imagining what it'd be like to feel that heavy and soft and BIG.  While you're busy, you daydream about your ideal feeder/feedee dynamic. Maybe it's sadistic, maybe it's doting and comforting, I won't judge.

But something stops you. That line between fantasy and the cold hard clinical reality, the one that your ‘regular’ interests have to fit into, the one where you have to face your friends and family and strangers in. And that fear of unknown splits your mind. You compartmentalize. You might feel weird even saying the word 'fat' in a positive way, your mouth has never uttered it like that.

Maybe you're waiting.

Career prospects need to line up first, you're waiting for that ideal partnership like you imagined in paragraph four, some nebulous sign to tell you NOW, okay, it's time to just fucking go for it.

And I'm really happy to tell you that this is your sign, right now.

You've been on the edge, but it will feel really good to give in, to allow yourself to pursue what you really want in life.

You don't know how people around you will react, but people get fat all the time, without trying. You can do it on purpose if you let yourself.  You may have other priorities in life but if you've read this far, you know how important it is to you. Shouldn't you be able to focus your efforts on what will make you happy?

This is just a stupid set of words on a stupid website, but you can give them power.

Here, let me help you.

There's going to be a sentence, and if you read it, you are committing to a life of gluttony just like you've always imagined. But don't read it if you're not ready - these words will have power because you will give them power, and I ask you not to take them lightly.

Are you ready? If you truly want to commit, say the next sentence aloud, even if just to yourself, under your breath.

I commit myself to indulgence, and I will grow fat.

Did you feel it? That tingle of getting what you want, those veils over what you're willing to do to achieve it, what is acceptable for how you think of yourself, start to open up?

Good.

Now, you haven't committed yet to a life of excess, because these are but words until they are reinforced with actions. This phrase is going to live in your mind, and it might take a bit, but as it grows you should start to feel the influence of your commitment take hold.

The next time where you have that moment, where your fantasy spills into reality, and you think what if I ordered twice the amount I usually do, or what if I just ate the rest of this or what if I got a shake on top of that - next time that errant thought enters your mind naturally, instead of pushing back, compartmentalizing, hiding if, instead reinforce it. When you do, that phrase engrained into your head becomes a little bit stronger, and it's not just a platitude, it's a commitment you're living up to.

When you find yourself at that crossroads and choose indulgence, you have made that commitment permanent in your mind. You will find that commitment growing larger just as your body will start to.

As you solidify that commitment into your lifestyle, I want you to comment that sentence below this post. Don't worry, people probably already see what kind of sizes you reblog anyway, it's a safe space here. But don't do it before, wait until you've backed up that promise with action, and you've already put yourself on a path towards making that statement a reality.

Then, a year or two from now you can look back on this post, hopefully with fond memories of turning that simple set of words from a stupid internet blog into reality, into permanent pounds affixed to your growing frame.

And isn't that what you really want?

[lowkeyorloki]

Goldfish

Pairing: Loki x Mobius

Rating: Teen and up, but nothing more than a couple kisses

A/N: Hiiii sorry I’m never on here anymore I’m a bit busy and I don’t have time to post consistently on tumblr if I want to keep updating my multichapter! I know this isn’t my usual content but I’m posting it on my ao3 so I figured I’d drop it here as well ^.^ it’s funny, I don’t even ship lokius but I saw some fanart on twitter of them hugging and it just... inspired me. If this is your thing, I hope you enjoy <3

~

It’s just that… Loki knows it will have to be him.

He can’t read Mobius, not like he can every other human he comes across. Or being, even. Mobius has seen every moment of Loki’s life, some of which Loki himself will now never live out or understand. Mobius has watched Loki in his most private moments.

It makes the TVA agent inescapable. He knows Loki, truly knows him, whether Loki likes it or not. 

And so Loki can’t tell with Mobius. The small exhaled laughs or the allowance of Loki to fix his tie. Loki doesn’t know if Mobius does these things because he wants to, or because Loki would like to think the other man wants him to. 

And Mobius is loyal to the TVA, anyway. Even if he were to look past all of Loki’s faults, even if Mobius were to see Loki as anything more than a pain in the ass of a friend, he wouldn’t do anything. It was controversial enough to bring in Loki at all.

Loki should be thankful he has Mobius in any capacity at all. 

And so Loki knows he would have to make the first move. And he can’t do that, because Mobius is possibly the only person who could destroy Loki with a simple rejection. 

Loki keeps quiet, and lives for when his shoulder brushes Mobius’s in the elevator. 

~

Trying to find the variant is exhausting. Mobius is on his seventh cup of coffee, and his head is starting to buzz. Not the good, productive type of buzz either. The type that makes someone need to lay down. 

Apparently, Loki has already had that idea. Mobius glances at him, asleep across the table and surrounded by books and loose papers. As he drains the last of what’s in his cup, Mobius realizes he hasn’t seen Loki eat or drink a single thing since he got here. If he had to, Mobius would bet money the god hasn’t been sleeping either. 

Mobius stands up, his back cracking when he does. He groans - Mobius is getting old, something he’s noticed more and more lately. He walks around the table until he’s right next to Loki, ready to wake him up. Loki’s breaths are even, hitting the ends of a few pieces of paper. Mobius has never really seen him like this - calm, subdued. He almost looks peaceful. Mobius leans over Loki, hands on his hips as he examines the other man. 

Mobius would never tell Loki, but it is obvious that the dark-haired man is a god. There are just things about his looks that clue Mobius in. 

Loki’s skin, even as it’s gotten dull with his time in the TVA, is technically flawless. He glows, even in his embarrassing or rude moments. His cheekbones are impossibly sharp, and his lips are the reddest Mobius has seen. He would guess they’re soft. 

Loki’s hair was the most dead giveaway. It always looked perfect, loose curls that seemed to suck in any light. It was the opposite of Mobius’s graying blond hair. He’s shiny. Everything about Loki is shiny. 

Loki stirs, and Mobius straightens up, not wanting Loki to see him watching. He was upset enough that Mobius has watched his entire life over. 

Mobius ponders how to wake Loki up when a lock of his black hair falls into his face. Without thinking, Mobius reaches forward and tucks it behind the man’s ear.

Reckless. Loki really does start to wake up then, and Mobius swats him with the corner of the folders in his hand. 

“Come on,” Mobius says. “We’re not even close to done.”

~

The two of them are so close to making strides. Loki is smart, just like Mobius knew - just like he keeps convincing Ravonna - but he’s being held back. It’s like a single wrong look could make Loki wither away, be absent for the rest of the day. Mobius has no clue how someone who thought so highly of himself could be so affected by the glare of a random agent. Maybe Mobius didn’t know Loki as well as he thought. Only in small ways, though. 

And Mobius still hasn’t seen him eat or drink a damn thing. 

He stands up abruptly, surprising Loki. His head shoots up, perfect curls becoming loose and falling in his face in the process. Mobius almost considers brushing them away. 

“Come on,” he says, gesturing towards the exit. Loki narrows his eyes.

“We haven’t even been here four hours,” he says, which is generous, because they both know they’ve only been there for two. Mobius lets out a harsh sigh. 

“Am I the supervisor or are you? Let’s go, Loki.” Loki seems to know Mobius is doing him a favor, and stands up as well. Loki follows him down a new set of hallways, stands next to him in an elevator he hasn’t been on yet. 

“Am I to take it we’re breaking the rules, or…?” Loki trails off in a way that is anything but unsure. 

“It’s for the sake of the cause,” Mobius says. “We don’t need to address it directly.”

Mobius does look over his shoulder when he gets to the door, and locks it as soon as they’re both inside. He flicks on the lights, and Loki looks bored. Mobius lets out an exasperated sigh.

“Don’t say I never did anything for you. Sit down,” he gestures towards the couch. 

“Agent Mobius, are you allowing me in your home?” Loki’s eyes glint. Despite himself, Mobius finds himself relieved to hear Loki making quips again. He already might have more energy. 

“Hey, if we don’t talk about it, my job security looks a lot better,” Mobius sets a bowl down in front of Loki. “Will you please eat something? God or not, I don’t know how you’re still alive after a month.” Loki presses his lips into a thin line.

“Mobius, I appreciate the gesture, but you don’t need to -” Mobius is already prepared, and tosses a piece of food directly into Loki’s mouth as he speaks. He makes a gagging noise, and looks at Mobius furiously, but the other man is already laughing. 

“What… what are these?” He asks after swallowing, seemingly admitting defeat. Mobius laughs again.

“Goldfish. They’re from Earth you know,” Mobius eats a few, and quietly celebrates when Loki does as well. 

“Goldfish. I know of an employee you have that might benefit from these,” Loki tells him. 

“I’m flattered you think I’m anyone’s, especially Casey’s, superior. But really, the only person I’m in charge of is you,” Mobius says. Loki glares. 

“I’m always ten steps ahead of you all. Surely you know that,” he says, but it’s non-committal. Mobius can tell. 

“Yep. You’ve said before, handsome. This is all part of your plan.” Mobius looks to Loki for his next retort, but Loki doesn’t say anything. He stares at Mobius with an unreadable look on his face, and Mobius realizes his slip up. Handsome.

“Hey, don’t let my crackers go to waste. They’re hard to get a hold of around here, you know,” Mobius says, and Loki seems to move.

They stay like that for awhile, Loki sitting as Mobius watches over him. Mobius is just getting comfortable again when Loki gets up.

“It’s been great, but we probably should be heading back now,” he says, walking towards the door. “Wouldn’t want the timekeepers finding out about this, would we?”

Mobius stops him, carefully telling him to wait. Loki does, back facing him.

“I can tell you’re tired, Loki. I get it. You got here just after a war,” Loki tenses, just barely, at the mention of New York. Mobius talks faster to smooth it over. “I think you can take a day off. Better for me anyway. I don’t want to be sticking my neck out for someone who isn’t even helping all that much.” Mobius puts his hand on Loki’s shoulder. 

He’s always shocked by the amount of muscle he can feel through the material of Loki’s shirt. Loki seems so lean, but whenever Mobius touches him, he can feel how solid the other man is. He likes it. It’s soothing.

Loki turns around, looking suspicious. Mobius doesn’t blame Loki, but he does almost feel guilty. 

Almost.

“You can sleep here. Not just today. I’m sure the cot they have you sleeping in hardly compares to whatever you had on Asgard,” Mobius steps away, letting Loki go and waving his hand. “My couch doesn’t either, but it’s an upgrade for sure. Living room is all yours, buddy.”

“Where are you going?” Loki asks. Mobius looks at him. 

“To my room. I’m tired too,” he says. Loki blinks. 

“Won’t someone notice I’m not where I’m supposed to be?”

“I’ll take care of it,” Mobius says dismissively, even though he has no idea how he’s going to pull this off.

He’s practically made Loki a promise at this point. He’ll figure out how to make it all okay somehow. 

~

It’s driving Loki insane. 

Before, he could keep it all in because he was scared that Mobius wouldn’t want it. Wouldn’t want him. But now, there are moments that Loki doesn’t care. He doesn’t care that Mobius might push him away, give him that disapproving look if it meant Loki could just…

Kiss him. 

Loki scoffs at himself. He didn’t even get this caught up in the thought of a kiss as a boy. It was pathetic to feel like this in adulthood. 

What’s even worse is the thought that maybe this is how it’s supposed to be. He can recall watching Thor on Earth as he followed around Jane Foster, losing every bit of charm that kept him so popular on Asgard. At the time, Loki didn’t understand it.

But now he does. 

Everything is so high stakes for him - Loki is doomed if he doesn’t do as the TVA wants, and he would have been doomed had he just stayed on Earth like he was supposed to. But he barely even pays attention to those things.

Every waking moment is about Mobius. How he looks in the morning before he showers, hair tousled as he digs around in the fridge. The way his face lights up when he and Loki almost find the variant, and then the inevitable disappointment when they don’t. How every night, without fail, he tells Loki goodnight as the god falls asleep on his couch. 

Loki is starting to think there is something here. Because he’s paranoid, but not stupid. Mobius wouldn’t be letting Loki get this close if he thought the same way as when they first met. 

They enjoy each other. Mobius likes to lead, to rebel in the way he’s been given permission to. And Loki is realizing he doesn’t mind following a man like Mobius. 

~

Of course, the TVA isn’t so bad either. 

The organization itself, Loki hates. He’s never met the timekeepers, but they sound like kings. That was a group Loki never got along with. 

But the buildings, the center, was growing on him. Even if he wasn’t allowed access to most of the materials, Loki likes the library. He enjoys staying deep in the bookshelves, and bringing a stack out to drop right on the book Mobius is reading. Loki likes the elevators, which seemed to be the few minutes he could simply stand in silence and rest. He likes Casey too, though he tends to leave the poor, sad man alone now. 

Most of all, Loki likes the long hallways that rarely had anyone but him and Mobius. They feel private without being stifling. Sometimes, when the two go back to Mobius’s apartment too early, Loki feels sick. Like it physically hurts to be so close to having what he wants.

~

“That brown suit is hideous, you know.” Loki tells Mobius as they’re both getting ready. Mobius scowls at Loki.

“It’s uniform. You know, if everything works out, you might get one just like it,” Mobius retorts. Loki scoffs. “Alright then, mr. prince. What would you have me in?”

Loki stops, his eyes trailing over Mobius as he thinks about the question. Loki smirks, turning around as he grabs his belt.

“Anything else. You always look so uptight. No one here knows how to let loose a bit.”

“I’m uptight. That’s a good one,” Mobius says. He’s standing by the door, wanting to leave. “Could you hurry up and put your pants on? We’re late.”

All Loki is doing is tucking his shirt in, but he thinks he can feel Mobius looking. It’s in a way that doesn’t seem strictly observational. 

~

The nightmares, of course, are an issue. 

Loki hasn’t shared a room since he and Thor were children, so no one knows about the night terrors he gets. Maybe Mobius does, having had a glance at a few as he watched Loki’s life play out on the screen. But Loki doesn’t think so, because Mobius has never said anything. 

But of course, Loki has to ruin that. He wakes up with a shout that echoes off the walls. He slaps a hand over his mouth, then pulls it away, sticky with sweat. He’s pinching the bridge of his nose when Mobius bursts into the living room, slamming his hand over the light switch to turn it on.

“I’m sorry,” Loki says immediately, squinting at the brightness. “I didn’t mean to be so loud. I know you would get in trouble if someone were to find me here.”

“You.. I’d…” Mobius blinks, still half asleep and trying to figure out what’s happening. “Loki, are you alright?”

“I’m fine. Go back to bed, Mobius.” Loki leans more into his palm, cursing himself for letting this happen. If Mobius knows Loki like he claims to, he should just go.

Mobius stays in the doorway, and Loki can practically hear the gears turning in his head. Mobius sighs.

“Look, I’m not gonna ask you what it was, but… why don’t you sleep in here for tonight?” He gestures behind him, presumably towards his bed. Loki raises his head, looking at the other man.

Mobius looks sincere - painfully so. It seems like he doesn’t know what’s going on or what he should do, but he also looks like he just wants Loki to listen. 

Loki gets up, folding the blanket on the couch before he follows Mobius. Loki crawls into the bed after the other man, staying as far away as possible. He expects Mobius to say something else, but he doesn’t. Mobius just sighs and yanks the blanket towards him. 

~

Loki wakes up feeling amazing. 

He feels rested, warm and heavy as he stirs. The room smells like sleep, and Loki can’t help but raise his arms above his head and stretch. That’s when he feels something on his chest. Loki opens his eyes, peering down. Mobius’s arm is slung over him, the other man still asleep. 

Loki doesn’t move, trying to figure out how asleep Mobius still is. He wonders if they can stay like this for a few more minutes. 

He doesn’t take the chance. Loki gets up, quietly leaving so he can take a shower in the bathroom where his toothbrush sits next to Mobius’s. 

~

Mobius doesn’t like this shift in his feelings. 

He liked thinking Loki was all bravado with no depth. It was easy to separate everything that way. What was work, and what wasn’t. What mattered and didn’t. 

What was ethical or not. 

Being around Loki so much was making Mobius like him. Even worse, care. He started to dread rewatching certain scenes from his life to look for clues that might tell him where other Lokis are, because Mobius can see the effects of it all now. They’re playing out in front of him, sleeping on his living room couch. 

When Loki wakes up from whatever he was dreaming about, Mobius feels sick. He doesn’t even think about the fact Loki’s cry is loud enough to get caught - literally does not even occur to him. His only thought is, what now? What could possibly catch up to you here?

After Loki lays down in his bed (which was easier to get him to do than Mobius thought), Mobius listens for his breathing to even out. Then he reaches over, resting his arm on Loki’s chest. Mobius falls asleep making sure Loki is still breathing. 

~

Mobius notices the way Loki looks at him. The realization makes Mobius think about the two of them. What it would mean. 

It hasn’t even occurred to him to look at Loki like that, not seriously. Loki is an asset, so Mobius built up a ton of walls for the sake of professionalism. You know, for his job. Mobius is aware of Loki’s attractiveness because he has to be. It’s part of the reason all these Lokis get away with so much. 

But after that night Mobius begins to look at Loki because he can. And then he realizes he’s been doing that all along. 

“You know,” Mobius tells Loki the next afternoon. They’re in the cafeteria, and Loki is eating everything in his salad but the cherry tomatoes. “It might be better if you stay with me again tonight. Like you said, we wouldn’t want any of my neighbors to pick up on anything.” Loki raises an eyebrow, carefully setting his fork down. Mobius clears his throat.

“No need to be embarrassed, partner. I’m told I have a soothing presence.”

“I absolutely would not say that,” Loki says. “But… if you insist. After all,” Loki’s eyes glint. “You’re in charge.”

Mobius doesn’t know what to say to that, and drinks a cup of water in just one gulp.

~

And they settle into it. Loki doesn’t sneak out of Mobius’s arms, in fact, he actively seeks them out. Only once everything is quiet and the lights are out, but still. Loki tucks his head under Mobius’s chin, Mobius wraps his arms around Loki’s torso, and they both like it. A lot.

They don’t mention it ever, but it doesn’t seem like something they aren’t allowed to talk about. It’s just part of the routine. Shower, study, search, eat, get in bed. It’s nice. 

At some point, Loki realizes this is the longest he’s stayed in one place for a very long time. 

~

Just like Loki thought, he’s the first to do it. 

They’re in the elevator, and it’s taking a particularly long time, and Mobius decided to stand closer than he needed to and Loki just… kisses him. 

The best part is, Mobius doesn’t even seem surprised. He opens his mouth when Loki bites down on his lip, and he holds on to the lapels of Loki’s jacket and Loki cradles his face. Everything is so familiar, so natural, and Loki can’t help but smile against Mobius’s stupid mustache. 

And then Loki pulls away. Mobius doesn’t say anything, but he gives Loki a sad smile. Loki feels his blood run cold. 

“What?” He asks, and suddenly, he feels like a child. Like Mobius knows something he doesn’t, and now Loki is going to be chastised. 

“Nothing,” Mobius says, but that’s obviously not true. He sighs. “It’s just… that can't happen again.”

Loki stares at Mobius. “Why?” He demands. “Did you like it?”

“Yes,” Mobius says. His hands are resting on Loki’s waist, but he slides one over Loki's stomach. Mobius’s fingers find their way through the holes that the buttons of Loki’s shirt leave. The feeling of Mobius’s fingers on Loki’s bare skin make Loki dizzy, and confused. 

“Then why can’t we do it again?” He asks, wanting to rip Mobius’s hand off of him, but unable to bring himself to. Mobius grimaces. 

“Loki... Isn’t what we got goin’ enough?” Loki is cool under Mobius’s fingers. No more than anyone else though, even with his frost giant heritage. “C’mon, Loki,” when Mobius glances at Loki, then immediately looks away. The sight of Loki’s disorientated face, combined with his mouth slightly ajar… it’s too much. “You know if it goes any further one of us will screw up. I’ll even say it’ll be me. But someone would notice. It’d be impossible for them not to.”

“But… you’re the one who started this,” Loki protests, and he’s right, because Mobius is the one who brought him into this whole mess. The TVA, his apartment, his bedroom. It’s all been Mobius. Loki never asked for any of that. 

“I know,” Mobius says, and he sounds like he’s sorry. “Listen, I know. I’m sorry. We can’t have it all, but if we keep going the way we have, we can still have some.”

Loki steps away, and Mobius’s face falls. He looks more angry than sad. 

“I think I’d like to go back to my cell now.” Loki says. 

~

Loki doesn’t actually go back to his cell. But he does sleep on the couch again, and refuses to touch the Goldfish Mobius leaves out.

Mobius feels like a dick, but he’s also sort of pissed. He’s not happy about this either, and if Loki wasn’t always so selfish, he would see that Mobius also isn’t prancing around in happiness. 

“I’m not like you,” Mobius tells Loki the next morning. “Look, I can’t just… rebel. It’s not a luxury I’ve been afforded.”

“I’m glad that after seeing my entire life and death, you’ve settled on the word ‘luxury’ to describe it,” Loki responds angrily, and Mobius just backs off. He knows he won’t get anywhere with Loki, not like this. 

~

Watching Loki close himself off is… exactly what Mobius would have thought it would be. 

It’s exactly the same as when Loki arrived at the TVA, he’s just less defensive. Loki is just as mad at everyone else, but with Mobius, Loki doesn’t even give him a reaction. He does exactly what’s asked of him, no more and no less. 

Mobius misses him. 

Loki is just across the table, but Mobius misses their rapport. He wants to tease the god again, hassle him as they make their way to the cafeteria. Mobius wants to listen to Loki talk about Asgard, tell him all the little details that can’t be picked up on a screen. He wants his friend back. 

And now Mobius isn’t sleeping, either. He grew used to Loki’s head resting on his chest, the feeling of his hip in his hand. Mobius thinks about the skin of Loki’s stomach, how everything in the elevator felt. 

It was like Mobius lit up. He felt alive again, with free will and all.

But of course, Mobius doesn’t have free will. If he did, he’d pull Loki into the elevator himself, and show Loki just how much wanted this too. 

~

It hurts because Loki knows Mobius wants this. 

It’s almost worse than if he didn’t - because Mobius liking, wanting, and maybe even needing Loki back, it makes him like everything else in Loki’s life. Loki is so close, he can reach it, even hold it in the palm of his hand. A life with Mobius, at least for the time being, would be exactly as it was before the argument, except more so. Just a bit more. 

Loki can’t take it. He feels like he’s going to vomit every second of the day, because his life is a vicious cycle and coming so far just to be thrown away.  He takes long showers now, the stream of water being the only thing that can drown out his thoughts. Loki almost doesn’t see Mobius as he steps out of the bathroom, drying his hair. 

“Loki,” the other man says, and his tone is so grave that Loki stops. 

“Mobius,” he responds. “Do you need something?”

“I… I wanted to apologize,” Mobius takes a step forward. “For what I said.”

Loki tilts his head. “For which part? I recall quite a few things.” A look of exasperation passes over Mobius’s face. Loki hates to admit it, but the look is relieving. It makes everything seem less serious than it is. 

“What I said about not being like you,” Mobius explains. “Look, I know you’ve felt alone your whole life. And the way I said that, I don’t feel good about it. I’m sorry.”

Loki blinks, then throws his towel in the hamper. 

“It’s fine,” he says. Mobius shakes his head, stepping even closer, and Loki raises his eyes. 

“No, Loki, it’s not,” Mobius reaches up, running his fingers through Loki’s damp hair. “I lied,” he murmurs. “I lied to the God of Lies. I am like you, Loki. I’m your kind. I know Lokis, so I know who you would have been. But this you?” Mobius places his hands over Loki’s hips and pushes, pressing Loki’s back against the wall. “I’m still getting to know who you are now. And I like you, Loki. I really do.” Mobius stares at Loki expectantly. Loki swallows, resting his hands on Mobius’s shoulders. Mobius is softer than Loki is, and it makes Loki’s mouth water. From here, Loki can see every wrinkle and gray hair that Mobius has. He’s painfully human. Loki closes his eyes, leaning forward to press his lips against Mobius’s temple. 

“Do you mean it?” He asks. “Will it stick? Are you going to call it all off?” At this angle, Mobius can reach Loki’s neck, and he begins to suck on the delicate skin there. Loki lets out a moan. 

“I can’t promise we’re gonna get married and be together forever,” Mobius teases Loki lightly. He runs his tongue over Loki’s Adam’s Apple. “But I’m not gonna stop just because of the TVA. You.. you’re worth more than that.” Mobius slides his palms under Loki’s shirt and up his back, and Loki melts into him. “I promise.”

“Okay,” Loki says, because that’s all there is to say. He trusts Mobius, Loki realizes. He wholeheartedly does. 

“Loki,” Mobius says, exhaling. “Can I touch you? Do you want me to touch you?”

Loki straightens, catching Mobius’s eye. 

“Yes.”

[starryevermore]

the youtubers and the shield: the prologue (0) ✧ sam and colby

the youtubers and the shield ✧ a parallel universe snc au | ao3

summary: lux comes asking for a favor. 

word count: 1,121

warning(s): not proofread

note: because this series uses a lot of the source material of the falcon and the winter soldier, it will not be posted on ao3. it will still be posted on wattpad. 

Previously on “Sam and Colby vs. the Universes”...

"Did you have fun?"

Colby froze. Was that? No. It couldn't be. Why would she be there?

He sat up, his chest constricting when he saw the familiar, small girl, leaning against the wall. She looked just the same as she did all those months ago. Except, she almost didn't. She looked older in a way, the kind of older that comes with having experienced great hardships before anyone ever should. He wondered what she had gone through since they'd seen each other last.

"Fun? It was a mission," Colby said, his brows furrowing together.

"What? No it wasn't."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"Oh yeah, there was no real MTD mission for you," Lux confessed, rubbing her hand on the back of her neck. "You two just seemed so stressed out that I wanted to give you a little break. Some harmless fun."

"Then, why did the Shieldmaiden there line up so much with the one here?" Colby asked.

She shrugged. "Sometimes, universes bleed into each other. Like Sam said before, the Vikings never made it this far. Any legends that exist in this universe are a result of the Scooby Doo universe. Things are allowed to just be a coincidence."

"Wait, you weren't with us when we were talking about that," Colby said. "We said...when we were planning to come here. How could you know that?"

Lux's face flushed. "I might have been keeping tabs on you."

"And why would you do that? Couldn't you have just asked us? Why did you have to go behind our backs like that?"

"I wasn't allowed to make contact with anyone. It's nothing personal, I promise. The MTD had given me a really top secret mission, and I'd had to spend a lot of time researching to make sure I didn't fuck this up."

"So why come out now?" Sam questioned.

"I realized I couldn't do this alone. I...I needed my friends."

Colby frowned, not liking how that made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside. "And I guess that's us?"

"Of course it is."

"And what exactly is the mission?" Sam asked.

"Someone who's not Sam Wilson is carrying the shield and we need to fix that," Lux said. "You in?"

They exchanged a glance, then, together, they said, "We're in."

Present...

Except, as many as that sounded, something wasn’t right. Colby wasn’t totally up-to-date on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but that whole premise sounded vaguely familiar. Something about Sam Wilson giving up the shield and a terrorist group and…something about an hour cut of some man awkwardly dancing? 

And…if that was the plot of something in the MCU, what were they supposed to do? Colby understood why they had to fix the Karate Kid universe. They fucked it up, they interrupted Daniel’s ability to beat Johnny or whatever. But, if this was part of the plot…It didn’t make any sense to him. 

“Wait, isn’t that the plot of a TV show or something?” Colby asked. “I swear, I saw something like that on twitter.”

Sam whipped his head around, wrinkling his nose. “You’re on Marvel stan twitter?”

Colby’s face flushed as Sam’s tone. Quickly, he said, “Sometimes I like to watch petty drama unfold in fandoms that aren’t our own.” 

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Colby frowned. Was he unaware? Or was he playing dumb? “You know, how batshit crazy our fans can be. Like the whole drama between the different platforms. But, hey, if you ever need a break, go over to Tumblr. They’re nice. They call me ‘Moony’ and I bring cookies to our monthly meetings.” Colby’s frown deepened. “Well, I think they’re nice. Sometimes I can’t tell. There’s this one blog that yells at me every time I forget to bring cookies. And I think she said she’d fight you the first chance she gets. But that’s neither here nor there.”

Sam’s jaw dropped. “You have a Tumblr?! Didn’t that shit die in, like, 2016?”

“Yeah. But don’t tell anyone. It’s kind of a secret hideout.”

Lux cleared her throat. “Anyways, that wasn’t what was supposed to actually happen in the actual Marvel universe. Sam was supposed to take up the shield, end of story. While it does seem to be following the plot of the show as of now, the MTD doesn’t want us to be taking any chances.”

Colby nodded. That made sense. He guessed. He still didn’t understand this multiverse shit. “But why us? Don’t you have other agents you could’ve gone with?”

“I don’t trust the other agents the way I trust you two. And, after the success of us fixing the Karate Kid universe, the MTD decided to allow my request for you two to join.” Lux shifted on her feet. “That is, if you want to join? It’ll be more dangerous this time around. A lot more dangerous. I mean, I assume you know about the movies. It’s not that much different, except maybe more dangerous, if you could believe that. I don’t want you to feel pressured to do this just because I’m asking.”

“I’m in. Without a doubt,” Colby said. And he meant it. Some part of him should have been concerned about his personal safety. But Colby was never the type of person to care about himself like that. If he was asked to do something, he would do it, regardless of whether or not it would hurt him. And after everything that’s happened, if Lux asked anything of him, he would say yes. 

Sam looked significantly less convinced, knowing the stakes now. He started to give Colby a look, ready to deny his involvement, but Colby was quick to cut his best friend off. 

“Come on, man. We can’t pass up something like this. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

“We’ve already done the once in a lifetime opportunity.” 

Colby sighed. “Okay, look, if it gets too dangerous, we’ll pull out. We’ll stop. We’ll come back here and forget it happened.” He looked at Lux. “We can do that right?”

“It would make my job harder but…Your safety is important. If push comes to shove, sure. You can press the big red button and come back home.”

Sam ground his teeth together, looking like he was trying to find another argument. But when none came, he said, “Fine. I’m in.” 

“Great!” Lux chirped. “Grab my hand, we’re about to get superhero’d up, baby!”

Colby grabbed onto Lux’s hand with one of his hands, then grabbed Sam’s with his free hand. 

“Wait, what?” Sam asked. 

But there was no time for an explanation, because the three of them were being thrown into the multiverse. 

[writteninsunshine]

He’s Going The Distance - Chris Redfield/Ethan Winters - SFWish

Title: He’s Going The Distance

Author: Reno

Fandom: Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Setting: Medbay, Post-Dulvey Incident

Pairing: Chris Redfield/Ethan Winters

Characters: Chris Redfield, Ethan Winters, Random Nurse

Genre: Hurt/Comfort/Romance

Rating: M

Chapters: 1/1

Word Count: 1386

Type Of Work: One-Shot, Part of the For All These Times series, Whump Bingo Fill #2

Status: Complete

Warnings: Gay, Slash, Yaoi, MLM, Pre-Slash, Canon-Typical Violence, Dissociating, Blood, Deep Wounds, Trans Male Character, Trans!Ethan Winters, Possible OOC for Chris, Medical Equipment, Medical Treatment, Stitches, Sutures, I.V.s, Pain Meds

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything.

Summary: Was Ethan truly so used to pain that he didn't notice that?

AN: Hey guys, it’s me again! Just thought I ought to say, if you want vague updates and to talk to me more, I have a writing Tumblr, too! Twitter is Sunshinecackle, and Tumblr is Writteninsunshine! I also have a writing Discord that is currently pretty dead. xD If you want it, please contact me on Twitter!

More whump fic bingo! I’m really enjoying these, they’re too much fun to write. Oops, I like to punish Ethan even if he doesn’t deserve it. He’s so whumpable. I hope you guys are enjoying this, I know I sure am. This one is for my editor, Gryph, who is the best editor I could ever ask for. MAJOR shout out to her!

Resident Evil Fic Masterlist

Ethan Whump Bingo Fic Masterlist

He’s Going The Distance

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

There was an old thought resurfacing as Chris looked at Ethan. A man who could live through anything was what S.T.A.R.S. had wanted, Ethan would have been welcomed into the fold. The man was a machine when it came to surviving anything. Despite this, he seemed too oblivious to notice when something was wrong with him. All the healing fluid in the world couldn’t help the man with how much constant pain wracked his body. It was almost impossible to discern one pang of pain from the rest. That hand was a nasty wound, the staples not quite sanitary when they’d been secured into his skin.

But that wasn’t what he’d noticed just now.

“Ethan,” He began, his voice soft and wary as if speaking too loudly might shatter the other man. “You’re bleeding.”

“I am?” His voice sounded exhausted, hoarse, and so soft Chris barely heard him.

Tugging him closer for inspection, he unbuttoned Ethan’s shirt and pulled it away like a pair of curtains. Yanking up the undershirt he wore, Chris paused a moment to stare. Unable to help how his fingers splayed over the other’s stomach, eyes taking in the thick scars beneath his pecs. His thoughts turned away from the injury for a second, he only stopped when he reached the center of Ethan’s chest. He took in the soft peach fuzz there with a quirk of his lips he wasn’t in control of. Finally, his fingers fell over the thick gash leaking over Ethan’s pale skin, and the touch made Ethan recoil some. 

“Don’t,” Chris warned, eyes narrowing a little as he reached around, pulling Ethan close again by his waist, a hand on his middle back, “You’re hurt. I’ll fix you right up.” 

Leaving Ethan for a moment, he returned with a basin of warm water and a few washcloths. Where he’d gotten them from, Ethan didn’t know, and he couldn’t find it in himself to care. 

Dragging one wet cloth over the blood, he cleaned Ethan up despite his hisses and gasps of pain. What was the best option was going to hurt, so Chris started by applying a local anesthetic gel to the area around the wound. He must have found it when he brought the rest of his supplies, Ethan figured. He winced, flinching when Chris’s hands got too close to the weeping injury, but he sucked in a deep breath and bit the thin skin on the inside of his lip. It was all he could do to keep himself from making any more noise.

“I’m going to have to give you stitches.” Honestly, Chris was worried that Ethan was going to start leaking organs. It was deep, and he could almost touch the other’s rib bones. Ethan had really taken a beating, and it was hard to fathom how he hadn’t noticed this. Then again, he was in shock after everything that had happened, after all of the mental and physical trauma he had taken. Maybe it wasn’t such a strange occurrence. 

After all, he was a civilian. He hadn’t been meant to find these kinds of things. If he had stayed away, he would have been blissfully unaware, but there might have been a worse problem on Chris’ hands by the time they arrived at the scene.

“Okay.” Letting out the breath he’d been holding, Ethan nodded just slightly to save him from aggravating his pounding headache, “Just… Do it quickly. I don’t feel good.” Swaying, he felt his knees begin to buckle, and Chris caught him in a tight embrace. This wasn’t going to work with Ethan standing, anyway.

Hefting him up bridal style, Chris carried Ethan like he weighed nothing. Sitting him down on a nearby gurney, he removed his shirts and set them aside. They were stained, torn to hell, and bloody. He’d have to get him a change of clothes. Helping ease him to lay down so that his right side was facing out, he ran a hand over the other’s chest in a hope to help calm him. Maybe it wasn’t entirely innocent, but he was trying to stay focused here.

“This might hurt, but I promise I’ll be quick.” All Chris got in return was a soft murmur he couldn’t hear, let alone understand. If nothing else, Chris was efficient, and Ethan looked like he was going to faint. That might help him do this without Ethan bellyaching the whole time. Stepping away, Chris grabbed a first aid kit, opening it up and setting it beside Ethan on the cot. Digging out a needle, some antiseptic, and surgical thread, he worked the thread through the eye of the needle and set to work.

The laceration was likely already infected, if not by something typical, then by the mold Ethan had been exposed to. With a little sigh, Chris poured some of the liquid over it, making sure to use gauze to get it inside. The forceps he had grabbed entering it made Ethan grunt, but he was too tired to try and fight it. Chris diligently worked on cleaning him up, wiping at more blood before grabbing the sterilized needle. He wiped it down again with a clean antiseptic wipe before starting with the initial stick. Ethan didn’t seem to notice this, due to the numbing gel, and Chris was glad for it.

With the easy glide of the needle and his skillful hands, he made quick work of the stitches, hoping not to bother Ethan too much. Once they were tight, he cut the cord and cleaned up the wound once more, wiping away the gel with a few medical towelettes, before drying the area. To make sure it would stay clean, he rubbed another cloth damp with warm water on the site before running more of the wipes over it. A dry rag then worked over the glistening flesh, and he didn’t stop until he had patted him dry.

“Ethan, I need you to sit up. I have to wrap this.” Chris spoke, breaking the silence in the room they were in. Unfortunately, it seemed that Ethan had fallen asleep, or maybe passed out, so he had no choice but to gently shake him awake. “Ethan, you have to sit up.”

Ethan nodded absently, slowly pushing himself up with the other’s aid. Bracing himself on his shaking arms, he let Chris wrap him up with gauze from his stomach to his shoulders, surprised by his gentle hands. Once Ethan was bandaged up, he was allowed to lay back once more, and Chris didn’t think about his next action. Kissing Ethan’s forehead gently, he petted a hand over the skin and the other’s sweat-damp hair.

“You should be alright, now. I’ll keep an eye on this.” Voice quiet, he smiled slightly, hoping to keep him at ease. It didn’t seem like Ethan was going to panic, though, too worn down to do much but flutter his eyelashes. “Sleep, now. I’ll get you some pain killers when you wake up.” God knew he’d need them. Moving the gurney around so that he could be more comfortable and closer to the setup for the I.V., Chris sighed in relief. Already asleep, or so he hoped.

Settling in a nearby chair, Chris pulled out his phone. He’d be stuck here for a while, for sure. It wasn’t like he had anything better to do, he’d been set to guard Ethan while his tests were being done.

Ethan didn’t wake for what felt like hours, and when he did it was with a groan of pain. Chris was quick to give him water and a shot of morphine that he was instructed to administer through the I.V. that a nurse had given Ethan. At the very least, he was going to be taken care of.

“Thanks.” Ethan managed, his voice cracking halfway through. 

“You need care.” That much was obvious. Chris combed a hand through the other’s blond locks once more. “If that means I have to do it, then so be it.” There was an odd fondness he felt for Ethan in this moment, watching him nod, his eyes glassy and distant. “You’ll be okay.”

With any luck, he’d bounce back from this. He’d been through hell already, what was another ordeal to save him?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

AN: There we go! It’s not super shippy but I’ll still tag it, just in case. Also, this probably makes more pain for the start of The Village, but that’s okay. I might write something about it when I’ve seen more of the game. I got it preordered for my birthday but it’s at my friend’s house until I can see her again. I’ve been watching it, however, so I’ll get there eventually. I hope you guys enjoyed it!

Prompt: Ethan Doesn’t Realize He’s Injured

[btsandvmin]

A Vmin throwback - 2019 (Part 1)

3 years I have been making this post now, and every year people keep saying Vmin is dead, less close or even fake. I usually say: Do you have eyes? 

Vmin surely proved you wrong this time and I think at this point their bond is hard to deny. This post has been really difficult to make, both because of the amount of moments and also because it’s more difficult to find good gifs for everything and I can’t include twitter videos in this type of post. Just know there was a lot of moments I had to skip.

2019 was the year of the pig, aka. the year of everyone born 1995. So in this year of Vmin of course they have given us plenty of moments to gush about. In fact despite the break we have gotten spoiled with a lot of really great Vmin moments. So without much further ado let’s get this started!

There is a lot more Vmin under the cut. You have been warned.

I will cheat a little and start with Taehyung’s birthday bomb, which wasn’t released until 2019. Vmin were very cute in it.

The first time I saw this I couldn’t believe it. Who looks at someone like that while they are feeding them?

The year started of with a lot of good Vmin selcas, but even though we might not have gotten many tweets in total what we did get was still great!

And don’t you all dare forget that Jimin posted this the day after Valentines!

Then admittedly we had nothing in terms of selcas for almost the rest of the year, but thankfully Jimin came through and tweeted for Taehyung’s birthday.

Something big they did this year was of course making songs! Jimin released Promise right at the end of 2018 and Tae (the best photographer) provided the cover photos.

One month later Tae released Scenery. But not without Jimin accidentally spoiling it first.

He was very apologetic about it.

They both supported each other a lot and gave us a lot of cute moments in relations to their songs.

Jimin even sang Scenery and basically just promoted and loved it a lot. But even that was nothing compared to what was to come... I am talking about Winter Bear of course, which Jimin loves so much and has promoted more than anything ever before.

He did three vlives in a row where he gushed about the song and promoted it, and even told us stories about him and Taehyung. 

He also mentioned how he wanted to keep the song and his friend (Taehyung) to himself. The name of the first Vlive was even Say hello to me, a line from the song. Basically Jimin is both supportive and possessive in regards to Taehyung.

He sang it constantly and told us he listened to it every night falling asleep to it and even dreaming about it. 

True love and support right there! He also gifted Tae the two bears he used on the cover.

Movin on let’s look at the Run episodes of this year, because as usual they provided us with tons of Vmin moments.

It’s actually kind of overwhelming so I had to skip a lot because right off the bat they just...

First Run episode of the year and we already were in for a great start! And who knew we would get to see Vmin hold hands for minutes? I mean, Vmin seems to just have glued their hands together this year.

Stick to my side might as well be the Vmin slogan of the year. :P

And Run just kept on giving…

Tae wants Jimin to be sexy. But not too sexy….

Of course they also took selcas we will never get to see…

And some we did get to see…

The Canada episodes truly blessed us.

We even got to see Vmin share a bed for the first (but not the last) time, even if I don’t have a pic included.

They don’t even have to be on the same team...

Or even win… They still somehow congratulate each other.

Wo do love Vmin on the same team though.

They have both just seemed really happy and carefree this year!

I don’t even know how many times Jimin has said I love you to Taehyung this year… But it’s a lot.

Actually we have seen Jimin trust Tae a little too much.

But let’s move on, because we have much more to go through. This year we actually got some really good vlive moment from Vmin (besides the ones for Winter Bear I mean.). It started with the Grammy vlive.

We had Vmin doing, something… In the Hobi birthday Vlive.

And not soon after we got the infamous Rkive Vlive. Showing us some of the weirdest Vmin behaviours yet.

The clinginess is a lot… I see why they might avoid Vlives alone, because they can’t even behave when they are with someone.

I already mentioned the Winter Bear vlives.

The year also ended well with some nice Vmin from Jin’s Bday Vlive.

We of course also had a comeback with Boy with Luv that Taehyung made sure to add some Vmin to right away.

And Vmin really made sure to make this their song. Love is nothing stronger...

We also can’t forget the Lights MV.

And then for the tour. Obviously we got a ton of Vmin moments.

Special shoutout to Hong Kong.

I mean tours are always good, but the amounts of hugs and happy Vmin.

Tae holding Jimin’s hand to comfort him in Brazil when Jimin was sick and couldn’t sing well.

We also got Tae comforting Jimin in London.

And with this sweet moment, that I was lucky enough to see live, let’s end this post. It’s too long anyways, and will likely crash for many of you. As you may know I started this post in late 2019 but had so much trouble making it as Tumblr didn’t want to save my changes. I tried to remake it several times and at some point just gave up.

Then, I realized that the post is too long anyway and I might as well just post what I had if it managed to save the end part. Meaning this text here. So basically all of this post except this ending part was written and put together years ago. I know it says part 1, but I am not sure there will be a part 2 considering the problem with long posts. Just know 2019 was a great year for Vmin (as every year is), and that I didn’t even get to include everything (note the absence of Bon Voyage for example).  But finally it is done! I am so glad it saved this part and the tags. T_T

Thank you for reading, liking and reblogging (if tumblr allows it), and sorry for the delay.  💜