#i put it in recycling which takes more effort

[hyallulonelyhime]

Hyahime presents: That time when a jsk became an ironing board cover..

Today i'm sharing a classic from cgl many of you have definitely heard about: The ironing board fiasco. The story of a girl, her dad's fiance and many feels.

Everything started when OP shared this image and said the following:

Due to some unusual circumstances, I'm currently living in a partially-renovated house with my dad and his fiancé.

His fiancé is a very sweet lady who is very thrifty. She makes all her own clothes and and will usually find a practical use for something, rather than throw it out (i.e recycling old bottles and jars to pot plants).

I had a Baby The Stars Shine Bright Strawberry and Cherry Ruffle jumperskirt that I didn't wear anymore, so I was planning to sell it. From memory, it cost about $400.

I put it out in the main room next to a pile of clothes I planned to donate to Good Sammies, so I'd remember to take photos of it for the sale. I then went away for a week to visit my grandparents

When I came back, I noticed the pile of clothes had disappeared. Cool, my dad and/or his fiancé had donated them for me. But wait… Where was the jumperskirt?

It was then that I saw the sight portrayed in the uploaded. My dress had been cut up to to make an ironing board cover and a tablecloth. I don't know where the rest of the material is.

It appeared that my dad's fiancé had assumed the jumperskirt was part of the donation pile, and thought there was no harm in 'recycling' it for her own uses. In her efforts to pretty up the concrete-y wasteland of a house, she had unknowingly destroyed an expensive brand dress.

Literally the only thing I could do in that moment was stare blankly. I can't even be mad at her, she had no idea.

So now I have a BTSSB ironing board and table cloth.

the story immediately caught the attention of users as they scrolled. Some found it terrible, others couldn't help but laugh..

Though some were quick to say it must've been fake.

So.. did OP fake this for attention? Let's investigate.

It is very unlikely the fabric was gathered from a replica, judging by the print details and the fact that this isn't a very sought-after or popular piece you'd see everywhere.

But how did one dress result in so much fabric? Although it looks like a lot, one anon pointed this out:

But she knew she'd get the attention, right? ...yes, but I don't think anyone would come up with this specific odd way to recycle a lolita piece and make the community react.

OP responded to the questions and thoughts with the following:

At this point, some anons were pretty much just fighting over if it's okay for OP to be so calm or not. Which.. is a little bit weird. Others were more emotional about this than the victim themselves.

But what you may not know is.. there's more. There's more to the Kawaiironing fiasco.

Op comes back.

I queried the whereabouts of the remaining material and she showed me. She said my dad told her I was "throwing them out" (I have no idea where he drew that conclusion as i specifically said I was donating a bunch of clothes, so at the very least he should have assumed I was, you know, donating them), so she thought it was fine to cut up. My fault anyway, didn't separate the "sell" pile from the "donate" pile. HOWEVER… There were a few other brand dresses I was planning to sell. I assumed they had been donated with the rest of my clothes, as they were nowhere to be found. I was a little sad about that (they were valuable Angelic Pretty, BBSTB and Metamorphose), but oh well. Then I looked in her material bag and found they had also been cut up… When dad said I was "throwing THEM" out, he did not state a plural by accident… Pics to follow.

If anyone wants individual versions of those pics lemme know.

The loli gods frown upon me today for my unbecoming carelessness in handling burando.

Op decided to keep the truth a secret: ignorance is bliss, and her stepmother did not deserve to feel the guilt of ruining so much burando.. or to know that so many lolitas were in shambles knowing about her crafts.

..Although, anons said this wouldn't stop her from doing it again. Maybe she should know so she doesn't cut up even more dresses.

One thing is certain. that's a really cute ironing board cover. Maybe the fabric could become even more random burando stuff: headbows, little makeup bags, cup coasters, mats.. oven mitts?

Lolita home goods for all! we demand a cute life!(✧∀✧)/

[doomsayersunited]

A Decade Of Doom!

I started this blog ten years ago to compile the growing evidence that our planet would not longer be able to sustain human life by 2050, thanks to our continued, capitalist-fueled efforts to destroy all the systems we rely upon to sustain life. The first thing I put up here was this essay, on February 20, 2014. Now, a decade later, I thought it might be "fun" to look at what's changed: 1) Earth Overshoot Day

In 2014, "Earth Overshoot Day" (the day that humanity collectively consumes more resources from nature than it can regenerate over a year) was August 19th. Now, in 2024, Earth Overshoot Day is August 1st, 2.5 weeks earlier. At this rate and assuming things don't accelerate (even though they are likely to), Earth Overshoot Day will be around June 17th by 2050. 2) Biocapacity Biocapacity is the amount of resources contained on the planet required available to sustain life, measured by area. In 2014, I calculated that the planet had a biocapacity of 1.7 hectares per person. By dividing the total available biocapacity today in 2024 with the current global population as I did then, it now appears that there are just 1.5 hectares of planetary resources left per person to extract all the materials needed to sustain life, as well as all the area available to dispose of waste. That's a 12% loss over ten years. At that rate, we can expect to lose another 30% of biocapacity by 2050, going down to just 1.05 hectares per person by then, and that's assuming that the rate of biocapacity loss does not accelerate further and that the global population suddenly stops increasing after a run of non-stop increases spanning five centuries. Oh, also a reminder that the average human requires 2.7 hectares of land to sustain its current consumption habits/levels. So. 3) Individual Conservation To illustrate the futility of individual conservation at this point in the apocalypse, let me give you an example: If you were: a fully-vegan localvore living in a one-bedroom apartment with nine other people and using 100% renewably-generated electricity; who did not ever use motorized transportation of any kind or buy new clothing, furnishings, electronics, books, magazines, or newspapers and recycled all the waste you generated that was recyclable, you'd only require 1.4 hectares of biocapacity to sustain yourself. That is close to the kind of lifestyle extremism it would take to live sustainably. Deviate from that level of stoicism even slightly (say by living in a two-bedroom apartment with three other people instead of a one-bedroom apartment with nine other people and taking a single, four-hour roundtrip flight, once a year) and you're now consuming 1.6 hectares of biocapacity, which means you're using more resources than the world has available for you if everything was divided evenly among everybody. Of course, biocapacity, like all resources, are not divvied up evenly among everybody, which is why there are currently 114 different armed conflicts happening worldwide - the highest number of armed conflicts since 1946. 2023 was the most violent year in the last three decades. 4) Other Signs Of The End Times In my 2014 essay, I referenced the work of geologist Dr. Evan Fraser, who studies civilization collapse. In his book Empires of Food, Dr. Fraser noted common signs of a civilization about to collapse, which began to appear about two decades before it all goes completely to hell. Those signs were: -a rapidly-increasing and rapidly-urbanizing population We've added 700 million people to the planet since I began this blog in 2014. And where is everyone moving to?

-farmers increasingly specializing in just a small number of crops " "As farm ecosystems have been simplified, so too are the organisms that populate the farm.  A farm that specializes in a limited number of crops in short rotations does not, for example, look for plant varieties that do well in more complex rotations with intercropping.  A beef feedlot operation wants breeds that gain weight quickly on grain diets and does not want cattle breeds that digest well pasture grasses and thrive in all year outdoor environments on the range." The result? Recent estimates put the loss of global food diversity over the last 100 years at 75%. Over the 300,000 species of edible plants that exist, humans only consume about 200 of them in notable quantities, with 90% of crop plants not being grown commercially. -endemic soil erosion Climate change and the need to raise more crops have combined to increase the rate of agricultural soil erosion globally. Back in 2014, when I started blogging about the end of everything, the UN had already determined that there was only enough fertile soil left to plant 60 more annual crops. So, by 2074, we won't be able to grow food, full stop. This of course comes at a time when the global population continues to increase, and with it the need to grow more food. If projections are accurate, we will need to increase food production by 50% over the next three decades to feed everyone. -a dramatic increase in the cost of food and raw materials When I started this blog in 2014, I noted that 2011-2013 had seen the highest food prices on record. So what's happened since then?

It's important to point out here that the current food price spike started in 2020, so if Dr. Fraser's calculations are correct, the food system will collapse sometime around 2034, taking civilization with it. I closed my debut essay on this blog with a quote from the (now deceased) climate scientist Dr. James Lovelock, who advised a Guardian journalist to "enjoy life while you can. Because if you're lucky it's going to be 20 years before it hits the fan." That interview was published in 2008. We have four years left to enjoy.

[cinnamon-won]

Hi I saw that you’re comfortable writing omorashi, could you maybe do a sub!Yeonjun fic with omo involved please 🥺

Hold it | TXT Yeonjun (requested)

Minors DNI

Words: 1.5k

Description: Yeonjun didnt have strong bladder but still didn’t pay attention to your advice about drinking, so you decided that he needed to be taught a lesson.

Pairing: sub!yeonjun x dom!reader

Warnings: omorashi, humiliation, slight exhibitionism, teasing, a little fluff at the end +lmk if there’s more

Masterlist

⊱•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱

“Yeonjun, be careful of how much you drink!” You exclaimed, taking the bottle out of his hand. You knew about how easily your boyfriend’s bladder could fill up, but he always seemed ignorant to that fact about himself.

“Relax, there’s always public bathrooms around,” he said, taking the bottle of water back out of your grasp.

You would say you were surprised by his disobedience, but this is how he always acted in front of his friends. He liked to pretend he was the one in charge in the relationship whenever he was in front of them, that stupid male ego. But you knew the reality of just how obedient he could be behind closed doors. You huffed, praying he'd have an accident just so that you could rub it in his face that you were right and he was wrong.

When you all arrived at the beach, you got out excitedly and helped the boys carry all of their stuff to the perfect spot. As you set everything up, you noticed a change of expression on Yeonjun’s face which made you smile to yourself. The second you had your things set up, you pulled him onto the blanket and perched yourself on his lap, shuffling to get comfortable. His eyes widened as he held back a gasp.

Yeonjun held your hips still and looked at you with a confused expression. In response, you shrugged with a smile and reached for the pack of strawberries. The rest of the boys sat down and handed around drinks to help with the dehydration caused by the sun. you thanked them cheerily, opening the bottle and taking a sip before passing it to Yeonjun. He chugged the rest of the bottle and aimed it at the recycling bag that Beomgyu was holding.

The day went on with laughs and games, the heat of the sun making everyone drink continuously. A couple hours later, Taehyun suggested they all go for a bathroom break, but you say that you’re fine and remain comfortable in your position in Yeonjun’s arms. He seemed like he wanted to get up, but you were adamant in not moving.

“You guys go ahead,” Yeonjun said to his friends.

“Don’t have too much fun without us,” Beomgyu laughed as the four of them walked away.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Yeonjun looked at you. “What are you trying to do?” He asked.

“Nothing,” you shrugged, you mindlessly flipped your magazine.

“I need to go to the bathroom,” Yeonjun said, attempting to move you so that he could stand. You tried to put your whole weight on him so that he got the message that you wouldn’t be letting him go.

“Y/n~” he whined, trying to push you off again.

“I’m sure you can hold it a little longer. We’ll go together in a few hours.” You reached for the snacks in the middle of your picnic blanket and began eating without a care in the world. Occasionally you would feed Yeonjun, or bring up a conversation.

Meanwhile Yeonjun was doing everything he could not to burst. He tried counting in his head as a distraction but lost count when you began shuffling in his lap to get comfortable again. The pressure of you on his lap was stressful enough and he just couldn’t take his mind off the full bladder that he was fighting against. Yeonjun’s legs trembled from all the effort he put in not releasing. His mind was foggy and he lost track of whatever you were saying. After a while, he began to wonder where his friends were and they were taking so long. Yeonjun could do with a better distraction right now. However, he was also thankful that they weren’t here to see him being such a mess.

“Y/n I don’t think I can hold it for much longer,” Yeonjun said, a pleading tone in his voice.

Yeonjun attempted to regulate his breathing but knowing that you were very aware of his dishevelled state was somehow turning him on. He prayed you wouldn’t realise how much his body was reacting to the situation, but he wouldn’t be able to hide it for long.

Suddenly he had an idea.

“Why don’t we go and play in the water?” Yeonjun suggested. “It’s really hot out here.”

Yeonjun thought he was a genius for this idea. He just had to go in the ocean and no-one would know; he would get his relief and save himself the embarrassment of wetting himself. What he didn’t know is that you saw right through his simple plan. Yet you agreed, formulating a plan of your own.

“Okay, let’s go,” You said with a bright smile. You stood up and outstretched your hand to help him up.

Yeonjun’s body trembled as he tried to stand up. The second he diverted his attention from his bladder to his balance, he felt a little pee release. He quickly looked down to see if it was visible, sighing in relief when he noticed that it wasn’t.

“What’s wrong?” You asked, pretending to be oblivious.

“Nothing,” Yeonjun said with a forced smile, putting his arm around your shoulders.

You caved into the hug, wrapping your arms around his waist. Slowly, you slipped a hand under the tank top and pressed lightly on his lower abdomen. This caught Yeonjun off guard. He let out a small moan as more urine was released.

“Y/n please stop teasing!” His eyes became teary as he looked at you in desperation.

“What do you mean?” You asked innocently. Your hand travelled down until it hovered over the wet patch on his pants. “I know you’re enjoying it.”

You pressed a finger down on the outline of his dick and he felt the wet material against him.

“So disgusting jjunie, you’re wetting yourself like a child,” you muttered into his ear, making him whimper.

“N-no I’m not…”

Again you pressed your palm down onto the wet patch and he gasped.

“Y/n please if you keep teasing me I won’t be able to control-”

“You never had control jjunie, I knew you were going to wet yourself. Didn’t I tell you to watch how much you drank?” You scolded, watching the different expressions on Yeonjun’s face.

“I’m sorry…”

Whilst one hand was on his crotch, the other went back to his abdomen. You pressed on them simultaneously, making Yeonjun fold.

“Please please I’m sorry! I should have listened to you,” he sobbed. Another splash of pee and a larger wet patch. When he had slightly regained composure again, he looked at you with blushed cheeks, covering his crotch with his hands.

“Come,” you said, pulling one of his hands away so that you could hold it. “Didn’t you want to play in the water?”

Yeonjun was reluctant to walk across the beach with wet pants. It was quite obviously not an accidental drink spillage, but you were relentless on your mission to make him feel shame for disobeying you. And a part of Yeonjun enjoyed it; losing control, being humiliated and teased.

When they reached the water, the splashing waves sent Yeonjun’s mind into overdrive. His legs quivered as he tried to keep whatever dignity he had left.

“Aren’t walks along the shoreline just so romantic?” You asked, giving Yeonjun’s hand a little squeeze. He almost laughed because this situation was far from romantic.

You pulled him along, letting your feet become covered in water. Yeonjun’s heart almost stopped, over-exerting himself to keep holding. You let go of his hand, crouching down to collect some water in your hands. You stood up again and splashed the water on Yeonjun with a giggle.

The mix of cold water on his body, wet sand against his feet and your teasing laughs were too much for Yeonjun to handle.

“You better not go here, Yeonjun,” You said threateningly.

“I can’t!” He whined.

“Hold it Yeonjun,” you said.

A tear slipped out of Yeonjun’s eye and he started stuttering frantically. “I- I c-can’t I can’t I can’t-”

And before you could prod him any further, Yeonjun’s beige pants became a darker shade of brown as the wetness grew in size. He stood still, too afraid to look at the damage. You looked him up and down, wanting to keep the image in your mind forever. The sight of Yeonjun standing still, the pee staining the front of his pants, his hair slightly covering his eyes, blushed cheeks and shame written all over his face.

“I’m sorry,” he cried, lowering his head.

You quickly jumped up to hug him, not caring about the wetness. You stroked his hair and comforted him, wiping away the tears. “It’s okay,” you said. “Accidents happen.”

You then pulled him deeper into the ocean until you were both covered in water from the waist down. You peppered him with little kisses until he finally broke into a smile.

“Where do you get these crazy ideas from?” He laughed, hugging you tightly.

“You enjoyed it too, don’t lie.”

“Maybe just a little.”

⊱•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱

Note:

Heyyy!! I can’t believe I didn’t see this earlier. I think there’s something wrong with my notifs :’) Anyways hope this was ok, I wrote it quite fast because I haven’t written in a long time. Thanks for getting me out of my writers block with this ask! 🩵

[krirebr]

For the IKISKB verse: what if Curtis was the celebrity (maybe an actor) and Reader was his PA or publicist? How would that change the dynamic?

Oh, I love this question! The short little thing I came up with has real ch 1 of IKISKB vibes. I went with Actor (action star) and PA. I hope you like it and it answers your question!

Just Part of the Process

Pairing: Actor!Curtis Everett x PA!Reader

Warnings: Explicit language, references to excessive drinking, adult themes, angst

You sat at the kitchen island on your laptop, going through emails and updating Curtis’s schedule. Schedule Tetris was your superpower, moving things around to make sure everything fit just so. It was one of the reasons he’d kept you around the last two years. One of many, you hoped.

It was about 1 PM when Curtis stumbled down from his bedroom and entered the kitchen. He went straight to the fridge, pulling out one of the fancy, high-electrolyte hangover cures you kept stocked. He pounded it quickly, recycling the container, and then finally looked at you. “Oh hey. How long have you been here?” he asked, his voice gritty with the remnants of sleep and whiskey.

“A few hours,” you said quietly. “I put your drycleaning in the downstairs closet. I didn’t want to wake you up. Now, I’m just working on your schedule.” 

He grimaced. “Please tell me I’m clear today.”

You shook your head. “Your trainer will be here in half an hour.”

“Fucking shit,” he muttered and grabbed another drink out of the fridge.

You almost reminded him that his trainer was going to be pissed at him for being hungover, as Curtis was supposed to be bulking up for his next movie, but you didn’t need to bother. He knew.

“Did you have a good night?” you asked, instead.

“No,” he said in almost a growl. Shit, it was one of those nights. “Anything online?” 

“I haven’t checked yet,” you said, carefully. Wondering what was on the gossip blogs was a bad sign. “Anything in particular I should be looking for?”

He shrugged. “I don’t–” he started, then looked away from you. “I don’t really remember clearly, but I feel like there might be something.” Oh, double shit. It was a really bad night, then. 

This wasn’t fully out of the ordinary. Known as America’s Bad Boy by the tabloids and gossip blogs, it wasn’t uncommon to see stories about him insulting someone outside of a club, smashing a paparazzo's camera on the ground, loving and leaving some starlet. So you’d been surprised when you first met him to find that he was actually very quiet, soft-spoken when he did speak, respectful of your time, and appreciative of your effort. He was the third actor you’d PA’d for and by far the easiest to get along with.  

But lately, he’d seemed increasingly tired and maybe a little – sad? He’d been going out even more than usual, blowing off prep for his next movie – which wasn’t like him at all, talking to you, or anyone, even less than normal. You’d prided yourself on being a help to him, knowing how to take care of him, but this? You didn’t know what to do about this.

The other complicating factor was the pesky feelings you’d developed over the past two years. You’d always known he was hot. He was an action star, that was part of the job. But up close and personal, you appreciated how beautiful he was. How kind. How thoughtful. How gentle. You were in love with him and you had been for a long time.

“Well,” you said, trying not to show your concern too plainly, “I’ll take a look and let you know what I find.”

He nodded absently, still looking away from you. You gave yourself a moment to take him in. He was a little hunched over, his skin paler than usual, his eyes a little sunken. You sighed, knowing you shouldn’t do it. He was an adult, he could face the consequences of his actions. But. You sighed, again. “I’ll call your trainer, and let him know you’ve come down with something. But that just means he’ll kick your ass even harder next time.”

You half-expected him to respond with a shit-eating grin or a sheepish smile. Instead, he looked at you very seriously. “Thank you,” he said. “I don’t deserve you.” You just sort of blinked at that, having no idea what to say. He turned back towards the stairs. “I’m going back to bed, wake me up if you need anything.”

He was almost to the staircase when you were finally able to turn your swirling thoughts into words. “Curtis,” you called out to him. He stopped and turned to look at you. “Are you ok?”

It was then that he shot you a cocky grin. You were a little stunned by the degree to which it didn’t reach his eyes. “Why wouldn’t I be ok?” he asked, then spun back around on his heel and trudged up the stairs, leaving you to worry alone in his kitchen.

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[flyingwargle]

sunaosa week day 7: past / future

suna stands in the center of his living room, hands on his hips, surrounded by boxes. after a long and successful volleyball career, it’s time for him to hang up his court shoes, fold the compression sleeves, and frame the jerseys. his retirement press conference went without a hitch, and so did his farewell party with ejp. all that’s left is to pack up his apartment, and move everything to his new home with his husband in hyogo.

it's the start of a new chapter.

osamu is in the kitchen, carefully wrapping the glassware in newspaper and old copies of volleyball monthly. he straightens to stretch his back, suna watching out of the corner of his eye. “everything good over there?” he asks.

“yeah. where are ya gonna donate these?”

“probably the nearby restaurants. “i’ll bring the cups to ejp.” they were always short on coffee mugs in the lounge, and most of his are in good condition. “washio said he’ll take the pots and pans, komori will take the air fryer, and nagito wants the blender.” osamu insisted they’ll buy everything new for their kitchen, which is why most of it is being pawned off.

“i put the pots’n’pans in a box fer him. he can just take it whenever.”

suna nods, then surveys the living room. they’re taking his tv, but donating the coffee table, couch, porch chairs, and shelves. the books and pictures are already packed, accolades safely wrapped and sealed. the bathroom is packed too, towels tossed with his clothes, toiletries spent. all that’s left is his bedroom.

it’s surprisingly cluttered, despite how little he brought with him. leading up to his retirement, he donated most of his training gear, along with clothes that no longer fit. he prepares a box and starts going through his desk drawers, filled with old receipts, invoices, contracts, and documents. osamu joins him, recycling bin in hand. “thought ya might need this.”

“thanks.” suna inspects each piece of paper before tossing it, just in case. osamu continues to pack the clothes in another box, an effort that suna abandoned halfway for a change of pace. they work quietly, until–

“hey, rin. look at this.”

suna turns around. osamu has a wrinkled envelope in hand, his name addressed on the front. it’s sealed shut, so he fetches a pair of scissors from the kitchen to slice it open. “did ya write me a love letter at one point?”

“actually…”

inside are three folded pieces of paper. osamu stares at the first page – specifically, the date. “ya wrote this…five years ago?”

he nods, joining him on the floor. “yeah.”

“were ya gonna send it ta me, or…”

“i was, but…well, you know what happened.” although many of their friends call them high school sweethearts, they broke up when they were 21, were exes for three years, and then got back together on new year’s on the cusp of the fourth. the reasons for their separation sound amateurish now – they couldn’t handle the distance, they were chasing parallel dreams, they couldn’t, didn’t, wouldn’t make time for each other.

while they were separated, osamu opened three more onigiri miya locations; suna played in the olympics and overseas. osamu won awards for his food and service; suna became sponsored by top brands and corporations. osamu starred in documentaries and television shows; suna was featured in interviews and press conferences.

when they met again during the new year’s party organized by inarizaki alumni, both agreed that it made sense to try again, now that they were older, smarter, better. it led to an engagement. it led to marriage. it led to this.

a life together, walking down a singular path.

“i was in chicago, i think. i felt homesick after eating at a japanese restaurant because their onigiri…reminded me of you.” suna’s arm snakes around osamu’s waist, resting his head on his shoulder to read his own writing, shaky kanji after years of writing mostly english. “i missed you, but i couldn’t tell you, so i…wrote you a letter.”

he remembers that night vividly. his teammates took him there for his birthday, where all the dishes were recipes passed down through the owner’s family. as he ate, all he could think about was home, but what came to mind wasn’t aichi, hyogo, nor shizuoka. instead, it was osamu.

osamu, who would video call him for hours while working in the kitchen. osamu, who would reply to his memes or shitposts with equally cursed content. osamu, who would sleep shirtless so he could absorb suna’s body heat, even in the middle of winter.

when home is a person that you can’t have, what does home become?

osamu flips to the second page. the kanji is messier, strokes uneven, with increasing amounts of hiragana to substitute the characters that suna couldn’t remember how to write. he is quiet, eyes traveling across the lines, pensive. then, he reaches the last page, which only contains a few lines.

when i’m with you, i feel timeless, because my love for you is infinite, no matter the distance or time. i used to fear what the life without volleyball would look like, but i’m not afraid anymore, because i know that it’ll always be with you.

“rin.” a hand finds his, the slim silver band digging into his skin. suna looks into osamu’s eyes, the same as he did on their wedding day, and sees nothing but love in its depths, an endless pool constructed of memories between them, from the first day they met at inarizaki, to now, sitting on his floor among boxes, packing a past to bring into the future.

“i never told ya, but in all those years…i never stopped lovin’ ya, either.” his voice rumbles deep and tight, the telltale sign that he’s holding back tears. “i knew why we had ta do it, but…if i were more selfish, i woulda asked ta keep tryin’, an’ tryin’, an tryin’. yer worth all my effort.”

“i wish we were both more selfish,” suna murmurs. “but look. we made it.” he puts their hands together, matching bands gleaming in the light. “you’re a successful business owner. i had the best volleyball run of my life. and now, we have each other. we’ll always have each other.”

the letter falls as they kiss, enveloped in one another’s warmth. there is one part of the writing where the ink is smudged, paper slightly wrinkled, relics of tears shed for a lost love, now a witness to a love that is eternal, that will light their way through the unknown, that will guide them to a new life.

together.

[mislamicpearl]

Thoughts and favorite moments from LMK season 5, eps 8-10 (finale):

Spoilers galore below:

"Control yourself" OMGOOODDD JUST HOW COLD AND CALMLY NEZHA SAID THAT WAS SO COOL!!

Somehow Nezha calling MK a child is so cute X3

Glad his dad isn't a full on bad guy, though I think he turned around a little fast. Granted we don't want to waste too much time on this.

The Pigsy huggg!😭😭😭

And the mastermind is... a Serpentine! Seriously, my sisters and I made up whole (unserious) theories on the spot there about this guy either coming from or pre-dating Ninjago. My favorite is that the cave he was talking about was the one the Anacondrai were trapped in - he managed to escape to the Ninjago realm before Pythor cannibalized the whole tribe.😆

"Wow, I'm very used to all of our enemies just being like, recycled your old enemies?" "Or like your ex-best friend." Hahaha

Hmm so this guy knew Wukong before, interesting...I just find it kind of funny that this guy (sorry I just couldn't catch his name) that his whole evil motivation is that he wants to just.. eff off.😆

Macaque trying so hard to stop MK sacrificing himself, again I can't believe how far their relationship has come since his first appearance. 😭

"That power. Who gave that to you? Who'd you make a deal with?" "A deal..?" I'M FROTHING AT THE MOUTH, ARE WE ACTUALLY GOING TO GET MORE ABOUT MACAQUE'S POWERS IN THE FUTURE??

Mei trying to straight up bite the snake guy XD

Macaque looking back at Wukong for a moment and seeing how desperate he is to save the kid before breaking them out of their bonds again😫

What did he do to Serpentine guy though??? Seriously give us the Macaque lore already!!!

So usually I HATE the trope of the hero insisting that there's no other way to save the day except to sacrifice themselves and pushing away their friends' efforts to save them... but here I'm kind of on MK's side with this one. They didn't exactly have a lot of time to figure out another way to stop the world from literally breaking apart.

That whole MK and Wukong fight put me in mind of Clint and Natasha from Avengers End Game trying to stop each other from killing themselves, which unfortunately means it was a little comical on top of being emotional.

But let's talk about how Wukong loves MK so much that even though he's so scared of death, to the point of making himself immortal, he still decided to take his place instead.😭

OMG WHAAAT MK ACTIVATED THE PAIN CIRCLET!?

Man... Wukong's guttural screams... cartoons rarely let characters show this much raw primal emotion, probably so as not to upset kids too much, so whenever you do see it you know things have gotten serious.

The fact that Macaque said Wukong's name instead of MK's tells me that he KNEW he would sacrifice himself in MK's place😭

Speaking of raw emotion, man... MK choking up with relief that his friends would be okay was just heart breaking.

So, not that I would've WANTED the "cycle" to renew itself or whatever, but... and this is most definitely just the religious side of me speaking here, I don't know that anyone else will agree with me... but I'm getting a little tired of shows letting the main characters decide the fate of the world based on what THEY want. Like, messages about standing up for your freedom, that's all well and good when it's in terms of rebelling against corruption and oppression, things that humans do to each other. But defying the very way your world is made, messing with the natural order of things because you personally don't like it... that's just arrogant and selfish. People in reality already think they can push the boundary of life and nature however they like; if some things weren't literally impossible, like coming back from the dead, humans would definitely do everything and anything they wanted and excuse themselves on the basis of wanting absolute freedom. That's why there ARE limits, and personally, I'm not a fan of seeing them being challenged as a good thing so often in almost every modern story ever. Wanting things your own way no matter what rules you break is a villain mindset (pretty much what the Serpentine guy's motivation was). I can kind of excuse MK here for the fact that the cycle wasn't supposed to start this early and what he's doing is just putting things back on the right track... whatever, guess I just wanted to get that off my chest, rant over.

Back to fluffy wholesome moments - Wukong crying and saying "I got you" to MK after catching him!!😭😭😭

And more group hugs🥹 This is probably like the third or fourth of this season??

Toy Story 3 moment of everyone holding hands and accepting their fate...

AND WE FINALLY GET THE SCENE FROM THE TRAILER...WUKONG AND MACAQUE ABOUT TO FORGIVE EACH OTHER UGGHH! FART YOU SERPENTINE DUDE FOR INTERRUPTING THEM!!

Yes I DID pay attention to which stone lights went to which characters... and that Mei's went to Red Son, and Pigsy's went to Chang'e, AND WUKONG'S WENT TO MACAQUE!!

Oh yeah nope, we just CAN'T end the season without giving MK something to worry and feel guilty about for next time!

Wukong tearing up saying "I don't want to lose you" MY HEART😭

YO WHAT IS GOING ON WITH MACAQUE'S SHADOW POWER??? AND IT'S ON MK'S STAFF!!! MACAQUE SPECIAL MACAQUE SPECIAL MACAQUE SPECIAL OH PLEEEEASE!!!

Bro, this show... every season has been peak so far.

[allamericansbitch]

How do you reason if taylor doesnt speak up about palestine in the near future? Because there’s an air of finality in her silence about this cause. Especially now that we know an israeli supporter (capital one) sponsored her US leg of tour, even her eras tour seems dirty. She is so quick to release new versions of ttpd (31 versions as of now), after billie indirectly called her out.

(Sidebar— yes billie may be a hypocrite to talk about wasteful variants of albums to be produced one after another to supplement chart topping. BUT she wasn’t wrong and not only was taylor in a position to set an example of reducing waste in music industry because of her titan status, she used that position to punch down further on billie’s release week, despite it not affecting ttpd’s #1 rank. Talk about stepping on her gown and taking her crown. Olivia creating a distance from taylor since the royalties incident has left a bad taste in my mouth.)

Also, its not helpful that she dated and defended a racist last year, wrote an album about him.

small tangent before i get to the main point: i've said this before billie isn't a hypocrite for the vinyl thing. i think y'all really need to start looking into the actual articles instead of just reading headlines or hearing out-of-context quotes. the entire article with billie was about sustainability and how she works hard to make her variants out of 100% recycled material so they're less wasteful. she wasn't saying she was against all vinyl variants in general, she was saying she's against people who make a bunch of variants and not put the effort in to make sure it's not wasteful like she does. she was just asking people to be more sustainable with their variants.

now to the main point: i've already made peace a long time ago that she's not a good person. when she doubled down on dating a vocal bigot who says slurs for fun and gets off to black women getting brutalized and tried to make it look empowering for her, releasing a song about anyone who doesn't like bigotry as 'vipers dressed in empath's clothing', and just becoming the embodiment of true white feminism and being a huge hypocrite, fully abandoning her activism and regressing to the generic apolitical 'remember to register to vote' posts that she made before she promised to do more, all that plus she's also been openly ableist with parts of ttpd in terms of using problematic displays of mental hospitals/breakdowns and using them as an 'aesthetic', mocking/invalidating other peoples addiction/depression but then asking for empathy with her own mental issues, working with and befriending multiple abusers, zionists, etc all while remaining silent on a genocide that is dependent on gaining traction and attention so people can raise money to help (also releasing the eras tour movie in Israel actively during the genocide, then later selling it to disney+ which is on the boycott list) but making sure she's still the biggest star in the world, maintaining her platform but never using it for anything important or good, asking for more money for herself and fully showing that charts are more important to her than injustice or helping fellow humans, and showing all the causes she once said she cared about don't really matter to her.

i've fully accepted that she's not gonna talk about the genocide she can easily help. and if by a shocking turn of events she does, we'll all know it's because she was losing fans not because she actually cares (which i know isn't the point, it's not about her, and her speaking up will help the cause so much so she still should; but i'm speaking in terms of how it reflects on her and her intentions). none of this should be surprising, i've seen a lot of people say this might be their last straw with her and that's completely valid, but my last straw was used up about a year ago. none of her new behavior is causing frustration to me because i was already frustrated to begin with. i don't need to reason with it because i did a long time ago.

[olderthannetfic]

While I do feel the entire "read books my X minority" can and often is useful, I also feel that it falls under that same sort of individual consumer choices over systemic change problem we encounter a lot. Because while it is good to expand your horizons and help support authors who might be disadvantaged in the current publishing industry, what is far more important for long-term change is addressing systemic inequality in the publishing industry. It's like how it's good to recycle as an individual but it's not going to fix global warming.

You cannot tell an author's race just by reading the summary or even the book itself. In this way books can be surprisingly equitable when reaching an audience in terms of an individual looking at a bookshelf and deciding what to read (though of course the contents of the books can impact a potential reader's choice to pick it up such as the main character being non-white, as well as what they've heard about what others think of the book which can be affected by the author's demographic). But how does the book get on that shelf in the first place?

And on how many shelves? How does it get to be advertised? How is it marketed? How does it get published in the first place? What of the internet and the algorithms? What of industry connections? What allows a book to be written, when that takes time and effort in a capitalist society where women often are assigned more domestic labour and class is heavily influenced by race and the lack of support we have for disabled people andandand–! And of course many authors have managed to write under even worse circumstances but if we're talking about the general trends in the industry, where the privileged merely need to be good (or not even that) while the disadvantaged must put in double the time and effort to get a foot in the door and still they might face discrimination from publishers who do not first see a book but are dealing directly with the author first–

Not to mention I am very uncomfortable with how marginalized authors need to expose themselves to the masses' scrutiny for judgment, often at great risk of harassment with focus put on really vulnerable parts of themselves, for even a chance at success now. Making them essentially sell their status as marginalized to the public is not a good alternative to the publishing industry not publishing or marketing books by marginalized authors.

This is basically just a long way of saying we need to deal with capitalism and get a UBI.

--

And like film and such, while it's nice to have a minority author or actor, it's a fuckload more helpful to have a major publishing exec or producer.

[squib-2006]

like a month and a half ago I wrote about Ninjago for a school essay and it has been itching at my brain cuz my teacher gave me an 80 on both the draft and final despite me adding three new paragraphs to it like he suggested and also having three people proofread it and say it was good. he didn't even tell me what I did wrong and it's driving me insane. so I thought I might share it here because I put a lot of effort into it.

(will include spoilers for Dragons Rising season one but not season 2 cuz this was written before it came out)

Ninjago Dragons Rising and How to do a Soft Reboot

When a show goes on for a while, it can become pretty stagnant. The way showrunners and creators try to fix this problem is with a soft reboot. They introduce new characters and locations to spice things up, or in the most extreme cases, they reset the entire story, but still try to acknowledge that everything that happened before still happened. This can have a polarizing effect on fans of the show, and it may, or may not, drive some fans away. In the case of Lego Ninjago, a show that has been going on for fifteen seasons as of 2022, the writers have a challenge in trying to do a soft reboot, while not sacrificing the history and appeal of the show. This is the first time I have seen a soft reboot that has managed to keep the heart and soul of a show while making things fresh and new.

One of the first things that they improved was the characterization. A lot of the time, if a show goes on for a while, the characters can suffer from Flanderization. “The act of taking a single (often minor) action or trait of a character within a work and exaggerating it more and more over time until it completely consumes the character. Most always, the trait/action becomes completely outlandish, and it becomes their defining characteristic, turning them into a caricature of their former selves” (“Flanderization”). This is often quite common in media that has gone on for a while. For example, one of the characters Kai started out as a hot-headed brave person, but as the show went on, he became more stupid and reckless.

The show fixed this by giving the characters a new purpose. Kai became a mentor to Wyldfyre, a new character in the show, and he became more levelheaded and enjoyable as a character. He isn’t the only character to benefit from new characters being added. All of the new characters serve a purpose to the show. Arin is one of the new main characters, he acts as an audience surrogate, specifically for the returning fans of the series. To put it in simple terms, Arin is a super fan of the main cast. This background allows him to make references to the older seasons, without it sounding forced or out of place. On the other hand, his counterpart Sora has the exact opposite role. She is the audience surrogate for newcomers. She isn’t from the original world where some of the main cast came from. Thus, she is able to ask questions that will fill in newcomers to the show on old lore from previous seasons.

Another thing that they did, that I haven’t seen in other shows, is expand the world. In the world of the show, there exists sixteen realms. The whole plot of the soft reboot is that all of these realms merge together, which makes one massive new world. This opens up a lot of possibilities, and the world that the show existed in before the soft reboot was already thoroughly explored. Adding the new area definitely adds a new layer of excitement to the show.

The show also had a problem with stale villains. They have recycled villains multiple times, and most villains are pretty bland. With the new show, they added the kingdom of Imperium, which has its own villain empress Beatrix. Her lackeys, Ras and Rapton, are both unique in their own ways. Rapton is a dragon hunter, who is obsessed with capturing dragons for fun. While Ras is a mysterious outsider from another realm, he has an allegiance to another unknown person, and this adds mystery to his character.

I have watched this show since I was in third grade. It has been an important part of my life for years. Every time there was a new trailer, I would spend hours looking over every little detail and theorizing what would happen next. Up until season 10, all the episodes would air on Cartoon Network, which was unfortunate since my family used streaming services instead. I was so excited to go to my grandparents and watch the episodes since they had cable. Eventually with season 11, they moved the show to Netflix, and I got to watch them as they came out instead of binging them all at once when I went to my grandparents’ house.

Unfortunately for me season 11 was extremely disappointing. The season had a good concept, but a poor execution. It also used a lot of tropes for the characters and failed to resolve the conflict in a satisfying way. This season is known amongst fans as one of the worst seasons to ever come out of the show. It was so disappointing to me, that when I saw the trailer for season 12, I just lost interest. The plot seemed boring, and I didn’t care for the character they were focusing on. So, I dropped the show and ignored it for about two years, until I saw a clip from an episode I had never watched. To my surprise, I liked it, and it was actually funny for once. I ended up looking up more clips and episodes, eventually watched the seasons I missed, and regretted giving up the show. Season 11 was just a rough patch, and due to me dropping the show, I had missed two of the best seasons the show had ever had, seasons 13 and 14. Season 15 was an ok season all together. Looking back a year and a half later, it was definitely made to tie up any loose ends that the show had before the soft reboot happened.

All this change and improvement is great for the series. When the creators first announced that Ninjago was getting a new TV show, and that it would be a soft reboot of the show, I was concerned. Soft reboots have a history of not really benefiting a show at all. It often ends up falling back on old ideas or introduces new ideas that don’t fit well with the show. As more trailers and clips started releasing, I was once again reminded why I love the show so much. The world and characters are amazing, and the story never fails to reel me in. This new TV series is a promising new step in a good direction. I personally can’t wait until the next season.

[onelastskip]

Just out of curiosity, how many MCs did you make for Keyframes? Can you tell us a bit about them? I'm interested to know :D

OMGGG HAIII!!!

Technicallyyy 4? I played through the game on all seasons but my other MCs aren't as fleshed out (and I haven't drawn them...) — but I'll talk about what I have anyway!

So obviously Chi was my first baby girl, autumn, romancing Percy straight away, I yap about her a lot already but here's a fun fact I haven't mentioned yet, her full name is Chi Huệ Aubade, very cool!

My next mc was Mika (she's sort recycled from olba, sorta not because I hate the idea of being unfaithful to cove, idk if that makes sense just the way my brain works) she's a summer and... well I was supposed to romance Elio... but then the Percy summer meeting hit me like a truck and I went for him again... now she probably won't get fleshed out but I'm thinking of doing a male mc elio summer run (for real this time, no percy shenanigans)

And then I have my spring mc, Nari, and- I will admit I was very close to reromancing Percy but no! they are a Jamie romance (slowwburn tho) cause I found the cupcake confrontation was so good with a spring personality. So they're uh, well to describe them, in a word, they're self-assured (technically two but semantics). They're extremely competent and they know it, they have a big ego and tend to be overconfident, brash and competitive. Andd they also have a crippling fear of emotional connection and an avoidant attachment style. love my little guys who are so smart yet so very stupid. Anyway their dynamic with Jamie is sort of teasing? They were expecting to be annoyed by him bcos of his reputation but they ended up liking him more than they thought. They have a sort of "people disappoint me" expectation, a lot of the friends and relationships they've had in the past were shallow (not for lack of trying? but nari really didn't put any effort in) they only really mesh with deja and cam and don't even try to form deeper relationships with others, the boys are the first friends they've made in a while, and their first time besides with cam and deja actually trying to connect with people. They're an ISTJ and fun fact about them theyyy are very good at chess.

And lastly my winter mc, Yumi (name pending.) they're my no romance route (or slowburn? it depends how it plays out I guess). They're... to describe them in one word. Chill (lol). They're an artist turned law student and they are very go with the flow. They are also doing a minor of sociology! They stopped painting in their last year of highschool because they were told they needed to start taking things seriously (they had pretty bad-average grades before). While they're generally patient and relaxed, when they do get angry, they are no holds barred, cussing out authority figures, not a single thought in that brain, they get very passionate when they're being confrontational. They're an INTP and fun fact about them they know how to skateboard.

WAIIIIT- I'M GONNA USE THIS ASK TO YAP ABOUT THE ENNEAGRAM (sorry anon my attention span is kinda fucked, ADHD ramble incoming)

Okay I've mentioned before Chi's a 2w3, little lore drop, she's got family issues (eldest daughter in an asian family /hj) but yeah there's a lot of pressure from that direction, that's part why she's doing a law degree (polisci? I forget how it is in america), she was rushed into picking a degree and just went with what she was best at. Anyway I should probably explain the enneagram oops, OKAY, so she has a type 2 fixation, which basically means, she's got a gaping hole where her self esteem is and she tries to patch that up by creating relationships (people pleaser...), that's why she tries to be as helpful as possible all the time, she's got a deep seated fear of abandonment and feels like she can only be loved if she's providing some sort of support (usually as an emotional dumping ground) to the other person.

Buttt, thankfully when she got to college she met Deja and Cam, who did NOT fuck with that kinda behaviour so she's slowly getting better, I imagine over the course of her time at college she gets better at loving herself and sets boundaries with her parents, fixes the relationship (the other drama is she has younger siblings who are still with them and yeah) idk I just like writing character arcs like this it helps me understand my ocs better I think

onto my other mcsss:

uhh Mika's a 7w8, but I'm gonna skip her since she'll probably get reworked into something else anywayyy

so Nari has a type 5 fixation, their whole deal is they need to feel competent, need to feel like they understand the world around them because it's a scary place and if something doesn't fit in with the way they understand things that means they understand nothing. Anyway, their little character arc would actually be centred on the relationship, it's a story about them accepting emotional vulnerability, letting down their walls, losing their rigid world view, and choosing to trust in another person and fall in love :3

Yumi (name pending) has a type 9 fixation, their problem is... well basically, on the surface, they're confident, calm, collected, composed (heh alliteration), they really seem like they've got it all together but internally they've resigned themself to being another cog in the machine. They've lost their passion in life and they're stuck in the pit of "it is what it is". Their character arc would probably involve them dropping out of college and pursuing something they actually care about, that being art.

[nocreativityfornames]

A rant from a tired Beel enjoyer

I can't find a nicer way to get into this, so I'm just gonna go all out and say it: Why did Solmare make our chats and calls with Beel so damn boring?

I swear, ALL this man ever talks to us about is food. No matter the situation, with Beel, it always circles back to eating somehow. He either wants an opinion on food, or he's asking us to accompany him to a new restaurant, or he's arguing with someone because of food. I mean, even our first call with him on NB it's just him calling us on accident when he actually wanted to order pizza ( a trope that has already been recycled from another call in the og game, by the way ).

And I have to say, it's tiring. It's tiring because I love this character so much and I was so ready to get better Beel content when NB came out. But no, the calls and chats with him have somehow become even more bland. And now when I get a chat notification from him I just get this overwhelming feeling of boredom, because I know exactly what's going to happen: it's going to be yet another chat where we talk about food. 🙃

You can just see there's no effort being put into these convos, especially when compared with the other characters, who we get to talk about a variety of things with. And this has been a problem ever since OMSWD, since the majority of our chats with him there were also about food. But at least we got some that weren't, for example, one of my favorites, where Beel confesses that the reason he had been missing was that he was taking care of this dying flower. Or the other chats where he talks to us about training and Fangol, or just little things like sleeping on MC's lap and wanting to do it again or whatever.

But on Nightbringer? I swear, all chats and calls so far have been nothing but repetitive and forgettable ( at least for me, that is ). And it bothers me soooo much because this only happens with him! We get plenty of different topics to talk about with the others, but Beel? Beel can only ever talk about food, or Belphie, which is… not great at all…

And it sucks because Beel has so much potential, being the lovable character that he is. But the devs only give 3 layers to him: The meathead, the family protector with survivor's guilt, and… Belphegor's twin brother 😐. That's all, we get nothing more and it's left to us to give him more depth and make him less one-dimensional.

It's disappointing, to say the least. And I haven't seen a lot of people discuss this before, so yeah.

[stargazer-sims]

The Art of Redemption

(part 12)

previous // next // story index

—————

"Good news, children!" Stan bursts through the doorway of the guest room without so much as a knock. He doesn't seem the least bit shocked or bothered by the fact that Beth-Anne is curled up next to Nikolai in the big bed. "You're gonna love this!"

Beth-Anne drags her eyelids open a little further. She’s tired, and it’s an effort. "Jesus, Stan! Ever heard of privacy?"

Stan quirks an eyebrow. "What? I'm not interrupting something, am I? I didn't think you swung that way."

"The fuck...?" She seizes the nearest soft object she can reach, which happens to be Nikolai's grey teddy bear, and flings it at him. "Fuck off!"

Stan catches the bear neatly. He's laughing. "And all this time, I thought you were a morning person. You too, little Kolya."

Beside her, Nikolai groans sleepily. "This is a bad dream, right?"

"Do you often dream about being in bed with your coach?" Stan asks, his tone filled with mock-innocence.

"Oh my God. Please stop." Nikolai grabs the edge of the quilt and pulls it up so that only the top of his messy brown hair is visible. "I'm not in bed with her."

"That’s not what it looks like, but okay," Stan says.

"You know what I mean!"

"I call it as I see it," Stan says, "Anyway, it's fine. Whatever the two of you get up to behind closed doors is none of my business. You're both adults."

"Stan, enough." Beth-Anne tries to put as much steel into her tone as possible. She knows he's only teasing and she's sure Nikolai knows it too, but just because she enjoys Stan's sometimes inappropriate sense of humour, that doesn't mean everyone's going to appreciate it. It's fairly obvious Nikolai is uncomfortable, and Beth-Anne isn't keen to let that continue. "What do you want?

"I just wanted to tell you the good news," Stan says cheerfully. "We had a shit ton of snow overnight. Everything's closed. Schools, shopping malls..." He gives her a conspiratorial wink, as if the closures were organized specifically for their benefit. "Municipal sport and recreation facilities."

Nikolai peeks out from under the blanket. "You mean, the rink is closed?"

"All the municipal facilities," Stan says. "Rinks, pools, libraries, the recycling depot. Probably even City Hall. We're having a genuine, certified snow day, and personally, I don't intend to waste it lying around."

"We weren't lying around. We were literally sleeping," Beth-Anne points out.

"Details," Stan says. "Now, let's go. Haul ass, kids. Milena's making breakfast, and then we need to clear the driveway. Betka's work isn't closed, and the whole fucking world would have to end before they gave her husband a day off, so she's bringing the boys over to spend the day. It's gonna be great."

"Can we at least take showers and put on some clean clothes first?"

Stan grins at her. "Sure, if you want cold breakfast. Come on. Eat now, shower later."

And so, unable to argue with the force of nature that is Stanislav Kovac, they do.

She and Nikolai climb out of bed and trail Stan to the kitchen where Milena is in the process of making what might be banana pancakes. The warm, inviting scents of coffee and savoury sausage fill the room, and there's already a pitcher of orange juice, a carton of milk and an array of condiments on the table.

Beth-Anne has lost count of how many times she's sat in the Kovacs' kitchen and shared a meal with them. After her accident, she'd lived with them for several months while she recovered her ability to walk and her courage to face the world beyond the safety of their four walls. They helped her stay sober and sane, and their steady presence healed her in ways she's sure none of them have words to explain.

Milena and Stan and their daughter Alzbeta — known affectionately as Betka — taught her what it was like to be part of a healthy and loving family, and from them she learned that relying on others isn't a sign of weakness, that there's far more strength in the care and support of others than anyone could ever find alone.

She feels at home in the Kovacs' house and comfortable with their quirks as well as their routines. It's not strange for her to observe Milena at the stove, dressed in old gym shorts and one of Stan's shirts, preparing what she and Stan both insist is the most important meal of the day, neither is it odd for her to see Stan dancing gracefully around the kitchen in his ridiculous plush moose slippers that would be a serious tripping hazard for someone less agile and less aware of the capabilities of his body.

The vintage radio is tuned to a classical music station, and one of Stan's favourite pieces of music has just come on. Beth-Anne recognizes it. It's Les Patineurs Op. 183, by the nineteenth-century composer Émile Waldteufel, and she'd once skated to it in a competition. She suspects Stan may have skated to it at some point too. His dance looks choreographed, the movements long-remembered and clearly beloved.

Milena says something to him in their native Czech, and he replies in English, "Yes, I remember." He spins fluidly across the floor until he's next to her, and then he kisses her on the cheek. "I remember we both got something gold that night."

Beth-Anne smiles. She knows exactly what he's referring to.

Stan delights in telling the story of how he proposed to Milena. He'd been planning it for weeks and had even bought a ring, but hadn't actually presented it to her when he asked her to marry him. Instead, he'd given her his newly-won gold medal from Skate Canada. Apparently, he'd been too excited and full of adrenaline to wait for their next proper date and he'd proposed right there at the competition venue.

The first time Beth-Anne heard that story, she hadn't been the least bit surprised. It was perfectly in-character for Stan. What was also characteristically Stan was how he'd later taken that very same medal to a goldsmith, where it'd been melted down and refashioned into Stan and Milena's wedding bands.

"So we can always wear our greatest victory for the world to see," he'd said.

Beth-Anne loves that Stan considers his marriage to Milena his greatest victory.

We should all be so fortunate, she thinks.

She asks Milena if there's anything she can do to help with breakfast, although she already knows what the answer will be.

"No, it's under control," Milena assures her. "Grab a coffee and have a seat. This'll all be ready in a few minutes."

She fixes coffee for herself and Nikolai, and then joins him at the table. True to her word, Milena carries a huge platter of pancakes and sausage to the table a few minutes later. Stan finally decides to sit down as well, and they all enjoy some carefree chatter and the delicious food that's as filling to Beth-Anne's spirit as it is to her stomach.

After breakfast, she and Stan dress up to go outside and clear the driveway. Nikolai offers to help, but both she and Stan veto the idea immediately. He may be walking more confidently now, but there's no way they're going to let him shovel snow.

Milena says he can stay inside with her and help tidy up the kitchen. Beth-Anne is grateful to Milena for offering him a way to feel useful, and evidently Nikolai is too, because he happily acquiesces.

With Nikolai left in Milena's capable hands, Beth-Anne follows Stan out through the garage. They collect two wide snow shovels and then make their way outdoors. Stan wasn't wrong about how much it had snowed in the night. Yesterday, she'd guessed it might snow, but she had no idea they'd be up past their knees in it. It's still snowing lightly, with no signs of stopping soon, but if they don't start cleaning up now, it'll be that much more difficult when the storm finally does dwindle to its inevitable end.

For the first little while, they don't say much, other than to comment about how cold it is or how astonished they are by the unexpectedly heavy snowfall. By the time they've removed all the snow from the doorstep and walkway and the front of the garage, however, Stan seems more inclined to converse. They're clearing around his car when he says, "So, last night...?"

"What about last night?" she queries. "If this is gonna be about me and Nikolai sleeping in the same bed..."

"No, it's not," Stan says. "I know nothing happened. Well, nothing like that at least, but even if you did get up to something frisky, it's like I already said. You're adults. You do what you want. What I'm talking about was you screaming bloody murder in the middle of the night."

"Oh, God." Beth-Anne moans. "I'm so sorry. It's bad enough that I woke Nikolai. I didn't know I woke you and Milena too."

"You didn't wake Milena. That woman could sleep through World War Three. But, it took all my willpower not to run downstairs and check on you."

"And you didn't come down because...?"

"Because I remembered Nikolai was in there with you. Or you were in there with him, I suppose, since you didn't come up to the room we offered you."

"Yeah, well it was a little, uh... noisy up there for my tastes."

Stan snorts in his effort not to laugh. "Right. Apologies for that, but when your wife's rocking the boy-cut underwear and looking hot as fuck, sometimes you just gotta do something, you know?"

"I love that you still think she's hot."

"And why wouldn't i? Sure, she looks different than she did when we were eighteen, but so what? She's my benchmark for beauty. Everybody else has to measure up to her."

"You're amazing, you know."

"I know," Stan says, but then he turns serious again. "Anyway, I just wanted to make sure you're okay after the talk we had yesterday, and then whatever happened last night."

"Yeah, I'm surprisingly okay," she says. "I'm not cured, obviously, but I do feel better today. It was a pretty bad nightmare, but Nikolai looked after me. We talked afterwards, and he gave me some stuff to think about, whether he realizes it or not."

"What stuff?"

"For one thing, he seems to think I'm not going to end up being a danger to anybody. Maybe he's an optimist, but he thinks the kids are safe."

"Of course they are," Stan says. "Don't I keep telling you that? We didn't have you in anger management therapy back in the day for no reason, did we?"

"No. There was a reason. It was to keep me safe. And other people safe from me."

"Yeah, but it was also for your future, and you see how well it's worked out. You're like a second mom to some of those kids of yours.

"Nikolai said something like that too."

"So Nikolai tells you one time, and you believe him?"

"No, it's not that," she says. "It's not like I believe Nikolai and I don't believe you. It just seems easier to believe when I'm hearing it from more than one person, if that makes sense."

"It does," says Stan. "Not that I'm telling you to take a poll or anything, but if you did, I'll bet you'd hear the same thing from all your students' parents. I mean, the fact that they trust you with their kids should tell you as much."

She smiles wryly. "I just wish I could trust myself."

"That takes time, but you know what I think might help?"

"What?"

"Remember how you used to be," he says. "Look at how far you've come since I first met you, how much fuckin' awesome progress you've made as a human being, not just as an athlete and a coach. Not only should you trust yourself to do the right things, but you should be damn proud of yourself for getting it mostly right so far."

"Mostly right."

"Nobody's perfect."

"True," she agrees. She moves a few more shovelfuls of snow before she continues. "There was something else."

"Something else Nikolai said to you, you mean?"

"Yeah."

"And...?"

"I told him about Abby, and I told him how I got the scars."

Stan makes a sombre hum of affirmation. "That took courage."

"It felt like the right thing to do."

"How'd he take it?"

"I'd say he was shocked, but not totally surprised, and he said he didn't think any of it was my fault. And do you know what he asked me?"

Stan plants his shovel in the snow. He rests his gloved hands on top of the handle and leans forward a little, meeting her eyes. "I get the sense it's something you didn't see coming."

"You're right," she confirms. She pokes the snow a bit with the blade of her own shovel before sticking it into the nearest drift and copying Stan's posture. "He asked me if I've tried looking for Abby recently."

"Have you?" Stan asks.

Beth-Anne shakes her head. "No, but the more I think about it, the more I think maybe I should."

"Are you prepared for something like that? Like, emotionally and psychologically prepared?"

"No, but if I wait for a moment when I fell like I'm totally ready, maybe I'll never do it, and maybe this is something I need to do now, you know? Maybe it's the next step I need to take to move on."

"What if you find out something you'd rather not know?"

"Like what? The worst thing I could learn is something I already accept might be a possibility, that my sister died in the eighties. But, Stan..." She gazes at him intently, willing him to comprehend her sudden earnestness. "Stan, what if she didn't? What if she escaped that hell, and what if some foster family loved her and raised her like their own? I could still have a sister out there somewhere."

"This may not have a happy ending," he says.

"I know, but even if she doesn't remember me or doesn't want to meet me, or even if she really did pass away years ago, I think I'd feel better knowing the truth about what happened."

Stan presses his lips together as if he's deep in thought, attempting to come up with an adequate response. "I don't want you to think I'm discouraging you from doing this," he says at length. "You should, if you think it's what you need to do. I just don't want you to be hurt."

"I know," she smiles at him. "You always want to protect me, and it's one of the reasons I love you, but remember what you're always saying. We don't achieve anything if we're not willing to take risks."

"That sounds like the kind of motivational shit I'd say at the rink."

"It applies just as well to life off the ice."

He frowns, but she understands it's not because he's upset. It's because he's worried but also has to concede her point. "Knowing the truth likely would give you some closure," he says. "Maybe it would help you move on.

"Nikolai suggested Milena might be able to help," she tells him. "He said she might know how to get access to family court records and old documents from Social Services and stuff like that."

"Milena's not that kind of lawyer," Stan says. "But I'll bet there's somebody at her firm who is. I can ask her, if you want."

"No," Beth-Anne says. "I have to be sure I'm really doing this. I need to think about it a little more. When I'm sure I’m going ahead with it, I'll ask her myself."

Stan nods. "Okay. If you need to talk about it any more in the meantime, I'm here."

"Thanks," she says. "I'm grateful I can always count on you."

He smiles. "Hey, what's family for? No matter what happens, we've always got your back."

[chaserainbows]

Week 6

(so they can perform but do they know how to be funny)

we start this episode with THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE OH NO THE READING CHALLENGE

actually i just stopped including the reads since they're all recycled from the show and usually make no sense

last time i included grusha calling sidney a drug addict but this time there were no standouts so let's skip to the winner

MAY WINS THE MINICHALLENGE her reads didn't actually make a lot of sense but they're literally randomized so we take it

look at her she's recovering from the snatch game incident (1 injured fly high fearghas) and learned how to tell jokes

which is very relevant because it's time for THE ROASTTTTTTTTTT this challenge is kind of the bane of my existence in this simulator because between cordie sidney and aaron my muses tend to flop the roasts

leo won though so there's that

the theme is love which is interesting are we roasting people over being single

maybe this is a ploy by tapu koko to officiate more weddings

anabel continues her hot streak of having a sense of humor and may actually learned how to tell jokes for real look at their evolution

akari y slays this challenge too but like she slays everything are we surprised

everyone else does good which means that for the other 4 the runway will be important

JESUS CHRIST ANABEL AND MAY TRADED ALL THEIR FASHION POINTS FOR COMEDY THIS WEEK

akari y slays the runway as usual and diantha joins her in the slayage which might guarantee her safe placement we will see

agni's fucked

diantha DID manage to save herself with the runway

she finally gets a moment of peace because other than ep1 which had no bottom placements she's either been winning or fighting for her life

AKARI Y GETS HER SECOND WIN may and anabel both miss their chance to get their first win because their runways were bad

this is why consistency is important and if there's one thing about miss akari y it's that she's consistently good at everything

grusha akari l and agni are the bottom 3

based off the runways it looks like agni's guaranteed in the bottom following diantha's footsteps of never having peace but it's a tossup between grusha and akari

GRUSHA IS SAFE YET AGAIN

the power of hate may have failed him in this roast about love but it will never fail him on the runway

which means we have a bottom 2 of akari l and agni

the letter a is important today

wait this is actually such a good song for the theme of this episode because it's a breakup song

the simulator produced here

agni doesn't quite murder here but akari l doesn't seem to be putting a lot of effort

maybe she's tired of being constantly overlooked or maybe she's more of a high energy dancer type of girl because she did win against anabel to scandalous

this is such a good song i will be vibing

AGNI WINS ANOTHER LIPSYNC

right now they're 5 for 5 on lipsync wins they're undefeatable

and with that akari l gets eliminated which is kinda sad because she didn't get much time to shine but she did get to make over barry in ep1 so she stays winning

no untucked or track record list this time and you know what that means

[sagethegaywitch]

Day #21: Costume Contest

Here's the link for my other TwistedWonderlandtober works.

Of course this was Vil’s idea after he said his dorm looked the best, which led to the other dorms complaining and forcing the staff members to judge each dorm's costumes to determine who is really the best looking.  Since all the dorms are coordinated, they have to judge by costume design and how it was made.

Riddle and his group mostly bought their costumes, but I can see Trey working to make the dog ears, dog tail, and collar for Deuce.  In the end they received one point for creativity and one point for group effort (2 points).

For Savanaclaw, most of the costumes were bought, but they get an extra point for getting Leona to participate (2 points).

Jade would probably attempt to make the proton pack, but their tan jumpsuits are actually recycled from the old janitor uniform, so they get more points for creativity and recycling (3 points).

Kalim definitely bought his and offered to buy Jamil’s, but Jamil tried to make his with some of his spare clothing to get extra points (2 points).

We all know that Vil definitely made all the costumes for the trio, taking meticulous measurements and tailoring each costume to their body types.  Plus their makeup looks flawless and they've really embraced their roles (5 points).

While it is impressive that Idia dressed up and even showed up to the contest, it's the costume he designed for Ortho that was very eye-catching.  Since he designed and created it himself, he’s awarded extra points (4 points).

Lilia put in a lot of effort to get everyone to do a themed costume and he even made most of the costumes himself with some of the ancient clothing he has collected over the years.  While it's not as fancy or professional as Vil's, it still looks nice and has an aged effect (4 points).

Jasper didn't put much effort into the group costume, just letting Silas buy whatever he wanted.  Even though the shark onesies are cute, they're very basic and low effort (2 points).

In the end, it isn't that surprising that Vil has won again.  He won't outright flaunt it, but he’s displaying the trophy at the entrance of the dorm so everyone can see it when they walk in and he's wearing the ribbon/medal for the rest of the day.

[princesscolumbia]

Code of Ethics - Ch. 9 - Doing Good vs Doing Well

I'm REALLY liking how this chapter turned out! It has just everything I wanted plus a touching moment that I didn't think I'd be able to put in this early in the story.

Yet another "picks up where the last chapter left off." We'll get to some time skippage again here soon, promise!

Preview below the cut:

Diane shrugged, “Computer, activate the Operations building, please.”

There was the sudden sensation of an almost imperceptible hum as every light, HVAC system, computer, and electrically powered accessory in the building received power all at once. The lights in the office and main Ops room which had been on standby suddenly bloomed with a cool blue light that was bright enough to drive away most shadow but not so bright as to make it difficult to see. Dark paneling that Diane had assumed was simply an interior design choice flickered to life to reveal that they were huge displays that wrapped seamlessly around the entire office that wasn’t a door or window. Startup routines could be seen scrolling up all the displays and, when she looked down, she saw the same was happening on the surface of her desk. Momentarily, a holographic computer interface bloomed to life where she would expect a desktop monitor if she were at an office back ho...er, outside the pod, and a very pleasantly ergonomic keyboard rezzed into place. Oh, nice! I hate touch interfaces for typing, let’s see if... She reached out and tapped a few keys experimentally and, yes, they had the familiar spring-lock feel she preferred in her keyboards.

She smiled and looked up at Katrina, “So, Ops is activated, do we need to wait on anything else to get started with building a ship?”

Katrina raised an eyebrow, almost incredulously, “...no, though I imagine dealing with the squ...” the digital assistant glanced at Norma meaningfully, who for her part just huffed indignantly, “Tenants would take priority.”

“Is getting the ship started going to require more effort than activating Ops?”

“...no...”

Diane smirked, “Computer, begin construction on the Ad Astra based on the available blueprints in station memory.”

One of the wall-displays that had completed its boot-sequence and was on a pleasant screensaver mode flicked over to a visual of a wireframe of a spaceship. It appeared to be a fairly small craft, though obviously intended for long-haul exploration. Callouts appeared for crew quarters, a mess hall, waste recycling, fuel storage, and everything else one might expect of a small expeditionary vessel. The exterior design seemed based on a modified Straczynski-esque craft. Instead of a squat pod that held life-support and an ejectable cockpit, the main body of the ship was somewhat shaped like a ground-transport cargo vehicle, as though someone had taken a semi-truck and attached trailer, fused them into a single piece, modified the front so it looked like a fat sports car, spiffed it up to look like it belonged in space, and then made it big enough to house three to five people and everything they needed to live for long periods of time in the void of space. Attached at the corners starting about one-third of the way back from the nose of the ship were squat ‘wings’ that would never keep the ship in the air in atmosphere. They were in a vague ‘X’ configuration, which would allow for creative use of thrust from the nacelles positioned at the ends of the wings to allow for crazy-fast turns. The nacelles looked like they provided all the thrust to the ship, as well as maneuvering. It’s no Conquistador-class, Diane thought with a smile, But it does look like a sleek little ship. The display popped up with a status bar that was familiar to anyone who had used a computer in the last century and ticked up to the 1% mark after a moment.

“Awesome!” remarked Diane, “So, Katrina, any other immediate tasks? Activating anything else necessary right now?”

“Dealing with the highly annoying tenants?” offered Katrina.

“Oi! You’re the one who’s been sitting on the ability to build a starship the whole time I’ve been trying to deal with the little housing crisis in the residential habs!” snapped Norma.

Katrina glared, for all a tutorial program could glare, at the woman, “You are not authorized users of this system. Had your predecessors left this station as they should have then there wouldn’t be a ‘housing crisis’ in the residential habs.”

“Alright, that’s enough,” said Diane, “Katrina, could you give us the room, please?”

“What?!” the hologram seemed surprised, then collected herself so quickly Diane wondered if she was seeing things, “But…security protocols…”

Diane waved a hand dismissively, “‘Security protocols’ I’m not familiar with and, since I’m the fiat commander of this station, don’t apply to me if I say so.”

“I really should remain present as a precaution in case she…”

Diane huffed, “She’s, what, four feet tall?”

“Five-foot-one!” Norma growled.

“Meanwhile I’m a six-foot-one…”

“Six feet, nine inches,” interrupted Katrina with a significant glare at Norma.

“Sure, that; and I’m an apex predator species, I think I’m more than capable of taking her in a fight if it comes down to it. Besides, you’re a hologram, you can monitor the office via the security systems, right?”

“…yes.”

“Well then, you can give us the illusion of privacy for this conversation and at least take your physical presence out of the room so you stop antagonizing the person I’m trying to…” she glanced at Norma, who’d set her jaw stubbornly, “…have a conversation with.”

Whoever on the dev team programmed the personality of the tutorial program did a damn fine job of making them appear to have emotion as Katrina gave every impression of being hesitant to concede the point as she said, “…very well. If she…causes problems, simply eject her from the office and I’ll seal the doors and flood the Ops command level with a neurotoxin.”

Diane frowned, “A non-lethal neurotoxin, right?”

Katrina seemed to be refusing to meet Diane’s eyes as she started disapperating from the room, “Sure, sure. Non-lethal.” And with that, she was no longer in the room.

Diane allowed a small smile to quirk as she started removing her jacket. Part of it was comfort, part of it was a test. She was deliberately exposing the weapon stuck to her back to Norma. If the woman noticed it, she was either a human player who, for whatever reason, had chosen to take charge of a band of galactic nomads and homeless people, or was a rogue A.I. who was using the cover of being a refuge on an unclaimed station to hide from hunters such as herself. She turned just enough to drape the jacket over the back of her office chair, watching Norma out of the corner of her eye.

No response…let’s see if she’s just faking… As though reaching back to scratch an itch, she palmed the grip of the weapon while using her thumb to “scratch” the nonexistent itchy spot then casually pushed the weapon against her thigh, making it plainly visible as it adhered to her leg like it had her back.

Norma gave no response whatsoever, just sitting down in one of the chairs obviously intended for visitors to the office.

All right, Diane thought as she took her own seat, She’s just an NPC A.I., so no threat here, “So,” she began, “Not to seem like the bad guy, but I this is my station. I get that some of you were born here, but this isn’t 20th century America with a liberal policy that allows illegals to drop a kid and claim backdoor citizenship.”

“… ‘America’…?” Norma said the name of Diane’s home with stark unfamiliarity.

Stifling the frustration that the game creators didn’t bother to give America it’s proper place in history, she simply said, “A country on Earth, predates the period of space exploration and contact with life on other worlds. Point is, I am the law here. It’s my life and safety on the line if I let the lot of you stay and someone turns out to be a bad actor. I’m quite invested in keeping the skin on my back on my back.”

Norma simply glared back at the newly minted station commander.

“What I’m saying,” said Diane into the silence, “Is you will need to sell me on letting you all stay here. As you pointed out, I’ve got a starship under construction,” she glanced at the wall display, Norma mimicking her, and they saw the build progress was now at 2%. “I won’t even need to space you all. I can build a…let’s see here…” she turned to her holographic display and started tapping menues and was pleased to see it was fairly easy to navigate. She found the computer’s storage of ship blueprints and filtered out what the station didn’t have the capability to build yet, then tapped and flicked the plans over to a wall display. “I could build one of these,” the display lit up with a wireframe of another starship, but this was not something sleek and intended for exploration like the Ad Astra, this was a box with an engine strapped to it. The ‘ship’ part was what looked for all the world like a glorified camper van scaled up to house everything necessary to support a barebones crew, in-system flight, and FTL. Attached to that was a comparative behemoth of a cargo container, obviously intended to be modular and detachable. The name attached to the blueprint read, ‘ECC Goldrush.’

“Obviously, we’d have to mod the cargo container, those things are designed to haul materials, not people, and it wouldn’t be comfortable. We probably wouldn’t be able to kit it for gravity and atmosphere control would be…problematic. It would take who knows how long to get to a friendly port…” a notification popped up on her holographic display, blinking a furious red. Her eyebrows scrunched together, she tapped on the notification and saw a message: Katrina - “8 days to nearest Terran Federation station.”

“Katrina, at least pretend this is a private meeting, please…” she muttered, then to Norma said, “About eight days, I guess, to the nearest friendly port.”

The space-born woman frowned at the schematic for the surveyor ship on the wall, her face no longer a mask of anger but now showing muted concern. “I…know some of us would take you up on that. The people who came here on ships that abandoned them, people who had homes and want to go back to them…but,” she turned a pleading look to Diane, “I…I was born here, this is the only home I know!”

So much for the easy solution, Diane thought. She leaned back in her chair and drummed her fingers on the arm rest, letting the silence linger.

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