#i the unused stuff tbh i need more

[kenchann]

glasses epel 🍎

[beeseverywhen]

I just think that if someone's paying their rent and they are using the land you rent to them for its intended purpose (growing food and flowers for my households use) what does it fucking matter how they do it. Like please. What is the point. Chill the fuck out

[iarrelm]

Hazbin Hotel Swap AU - Alastor. Husk. Nifty.

Charlie, Vaggie, and Angel

I saw a few different versions of this AU going around and thinking about it made me want to draw my own take on it.

I don't have this fully fleshed out yet but I've been thinking about it for the last few days so here's what I've got so far.

Alastor -> Charlie

He still started out in Hell as the Radio Demon

However, when he disappeared for 7 years, he came back as a seemingly changed man. The first broadcast on his radio show after 7 years of silence was an advertisement for the Radio Demon's new project: The Hazbin Hotel.

Not very many sinners actually managed to hear that advertisement but those that did thought they were hallucinating tbh

I wanna say the reason why he wants to try rehabilitating sinners is mostly because he spent his 7 year hiatus with Lilith, who asked him to do this for her so she could try to convince Charlie (and Lucifer) that they're wrong about sinners. And Alastor decides to do it because Lilith promises that she'll free him from his deal the moment he gets a soul into heaven.

For this AU, I'm gonna say the person who has Alastor on a leash is Eve, and his deal with her is completely unrelated to his 7 year absence.

Because of all that, despite founding the hotel, he doesn't fully believe it's possible to redeem a soul. And it shows sometimes no matter how much he tries to convince the guests otherwise.

Nifty -> Vaggie

When Alastor brought up the hotel and asked for her help, she jumped at the chance and agreed without hesitation.

Alastor is still an overlord and still owns some souls. He owns Nifty's but made it clear to her that he was asking, not ordering, her to help with the hotel.

Before Charlie brings in more staff, she was the one that handled cleaning and pest control and all that other stuff.

She helps him brainstorm ideas for activities. Unfortunately both of them are pretty unhinged so at least 80% of those ideas are unusable

Husk: What the fuck is "Knife Monopoly"?

Alastor and Nifty: :)

She's Alastor's biggest cheerleader and helps him out by enthusiastically participating in any and all hotel activities with a smile

Husk -> Angel Dust

Instead of Alastor, Husk sold his soul to Vox, who became interested in the Gambling Demon after Alastor was seen going in and out of his casino.

Vox ends up using Husk as something like a personal assistant. He runs around all over hell doing anything and everything Vox asks him to.

Immediately after losing his soul, he moves into the Vee's Tower. It's nice because the Vee's tower is one of the most protected places in the pride ring, which means none of the souls he used to own will be able to try to come after him. Unfortunately this also means that Vox has access to an employee that can work overtime whenever he needs him to.

Husk is... so tired.

So when Alastor offers him a room at the hotel, Husk agrees before he can finish his pitch.

Later, he hears the full thing - that Alastor is trying to redeem sinners and thinks he can get Husk into heaven. Husk isn't sure what exactly made Alastor believe that, but a free room is a free room

(He is grateful though. So even if he doesn't think there's a chance in hell that he's getting into heaven, he does put in some effort toward rehabilitation.)

[sheyfu]

pretty boy

𝗜𝗡 𝗪𝗛𝗜𝗖𝗛 you comfort a crying akaashi keiji

feat. post-timeskip akaashi keiji (wife!reader)

cw: ooc; kinda rushed AAAAAAAAA (i still dont know how to pace my stories i will cry); mentions of wanting to commit mass murder; proofread but not really

prompt. free write! i had sm fun w this NYEHEHEHEH (based on this req <33) note. self-indulgent; my second piece for @lia-loves's flufftober event! this is also for the anon who requested for akaashi's version of 'i love my man', which i orginally wrote as a piece for reo from bllk! if you'd like to check it out (shamless plug LAMSODMAD), you can click on the link^ tbh this is super rushed bc i dont know how to pace my stuff but we ball LMADAOMDS AND GANG IK THIS IS OOC BUT IM SOMEONE WHO BELIEVES AKAASHI'S NONCHALANT SKIBIDI RIZZLER AURA DISSIPATES (omg big word) IN FRON OF YOU yes. read for a banger 🙏 wc. 940 (and again.. lia... i know you said don't write an essay but... huheuueh)

contrary to popular belief, being an editor for a shonen manga magazine isn’t an easy job. yes, you get to laze around until your talent submits their work to you for further checking, but only if you knew how difficult it was to work with crammers, then you’d see the hell these editors go through each passing day.

the amount of pestering you’d have to do just to receive mediocre pieces of art and an even-more-mediocre storyline that you can’t help but cry to (not that it’s unusable or course. it just needs a little (a lot) of revision :]), and the amount of times you’d have to apologize to the big bosses for the delay brings tears to the eyes of each and every editor.

personally, you’ve never experienced any of those hardships. your life as a legal practitioner is pretty smooth-sailing—save for the fact that some clients are a bit hard headed of course—but other than that, your life is a-okay!

and adding onto the fact that you’re happily wed to your husband of eight years, mr. akaashi keiji, you’d say you're pretty much content with life right now.

speaking of husband, is akaashi keiji happy with his life? definitely! a happy wife = happy life! 

and how about his work life? uhhhh, not so much.

“die die die die die die die”

the door to your apartment bursts open as a slumped figure walks in carelessly kicking his shoes in some corner of your little foyer. hearing the concerning amount of grumbles coming from your husband interrupt your little staring contest with the very demonic cat shaped cookies you decided to bake to pass time.

“keiji? you alright over there?” furrowing your eyebrows at the lack of response, you trudge to the living room to check up on your beloved.

“keiji? my love– what-”

only to see the biggest shocker of your life: a crying akaashi keiji.

now, keiji has cried a bunch of times in front of you; whether those tears have been from happiness or sadness, you’ve seen them all. you’ve also seen him go into little tantrums whenever he has his crying sessions; most of the time, these are due to his rather.. unruly clients. but no, tonight’s different. never in your life have you seen your akaashi keiji cry and be in hysterics at the same time.

“i can’t do this anymore!” continuous sobs rip out from the man in front of you—his bloodshot eyes being a telltale sign that he’s been crying even before he getting your shared apartment. 

oh dear..

upon reaching his knelt down form on the floor, you join him to litter his face with kisses. “hey now.. don’t cry please. i hate seeing you cry.” patting his head and engulfing him in a big hug, you continue to land kisses on his head.

only to be grabbed by the shoulders. “w- woah!”

“no, wife! i- i really can’t do it!” exasperated claims continuously spew out of his mouth—his cries seemingly getting worse and worse. “these… these vermins! they’re ruining my life! and that’s not even it! they also—”

comforting a crying husband on your chest isn’t part of your nightly routine. what also isn’t part of your routine is being gripped to death by said crying husband.

“i swear.. i swear to god, wife. i’ll actually throw my sketchbook at them the next time we meet.” keiji’s hoarse voice sounds from your chest; little sniffles coming out from him as you console your weeping spouse. 

oh keiji.. my sweet, sweet keiji..

“look at me, keiji.” said man raises his head up to meet your gaze. cupping his cheeks to bid the tears goodbye, you offer him a smile, “i know you’re mad– very mad—and i get you! it’s totally valid to feel like this” swiping your thumbs to get rid of the stray tears, you continue, “i’m sorry this happened to you, keiji. you know i’m not the best with words, but to try and bring comfort to you, i could join you if you do decide to wreak havoc in the office. you with your sketchbooks, me with my thousand page law books. how does that sound, hmm?” 

a small smile appears on his face—a sight you’ve seen each day, yet something you’ve never grown accustomed to. 

“really? you’d do that with me?” the smile on his face grows; eyes lighting up with glee as he takes in your words.

feeling a hot flush creep up on your face, you can’t help but utter your next words unwittingly, “you’re so pretty, keiji.” a few beats of silence pass as you process your own words.

well shit.

“o- oh, sorry! i didn’t mean to say that.. well! i mean you are pretty… really pretty actually, but–” small, yet resounding giggles stop your flow of speech. 

“even after eight years of being together, you still get flustered saying compliments” giggles-turned-to-laughter now escape from an akaashi keiji—his hand clutching his stomach as he slaps the bed. 

“hey! don’t be mean! it’s not my fault you’re so pretty..” you start sulking as you take in the sight of your now laughing husband, seemingly enjoying your flustered state.

as his laughter slowly comes to a halt, his next words surprise you even more.

“well. to make it even.. you’re really, really beautiful too, wife” a grin appears on akaashi keiji’s face as he kisses your forehead. 

your eyes widen as you process his words. 

me… beautiful… i’m… he thinks… he said i’m beautiful..

“stop your dirty tricks, keiji! this was supposed to be me comforting you— mmph!” 

he cuts you off with a kiss.

linking lia's flufftober event here!!

✧˖°ʚ🍓ɞ♡ ✧˖°ʚ🍓ɞ♡ ✧˖°ʚ🍓ɞ♡

please check her event and works out!!

🐈‍⬛️: gang first time writing for hq and I KNOW IM VERY MUCH AWARE that it's ooc LMAODMAOSDGIOA BUT EVEN SO, I HOPE YOU ALL ENJOYED MWAWMAMWA. i won't add hq to my taglist (yet. i'll still see LAMDOAMD), but shamless self plug LAMSDOAMSD if you'd like to be part of my taglist(s) for blue lock, honkai star rail, ace of diamond, kaiju no 8 and/or genshin, please access the gform link below <3

© sheyfu on tumblr

[atthebell]

do you have any recommendations/resources to learn spanish?? i've been using busuu for about 104 days now, imo opinion it's actually pretty fun and i like it but i think my main problem with it is that it goes too fast?? it's hard to explain. it's also started to feel kinda repetitive to me. i still love busuu and i'm going to continue with my course, but it'd be nice to also have something else. like, preferably not an app, maybe a textbook or a website or something :D i don't really WHERE to find resources for language learning, despite being bilingual, i never really had to look on the internet to learn the languages i speak now, i picked it up from the people around me you know?

i've also been ''using'' duolingo but tbh, i really hate it. it feels boring to me, everyday it's ''ok what sentence am i going to be forced to write for the 40th time today?'' the single 'square' has 5 lessons and a 'unit' has around 10-8 of those squares and to finish a 'unit' you have to do about 50-45 of those lessons, which is shit because a 'unit' is only going to teach about 3 sentence structures and if you're lucky maybe 5. it's so shit, those greedy fuckers basically made it unusable. i've been using for about 140 days now, every single day i take at least one lesson, and it STILL has not taught me a SINGLE spanish tense. btw, i even had an entire phase where i would finish UNITS in about an hour and a half (1 min or less for every lesson) and still not a single ''pretérito Indefinido'' actual pain 🫠🫠 one day ll delete that app, one day (i guess that's why i like busuu in the first place, it actually teaches you these tenses and even some slang while duolingo makes you write ''papá, quiero visitar a nuestra abuela'' for the 700th time this week)

i want to watch vods and stuff, but tbh, i feel way too embarrassed? like, i don't know enough spanish to really understand them and even when they say basic sentences that i understand, i still have to listen to it multiple times and slow down the clip for me to really get it. the thing with spanish is that i'll understand the meaning of the words being said but i need to take a second or so to really comprehend what they mean together you know? i don't want to have to watch the stream slowed down because that would definitely make me feel stupid 😭 maybe when i have better spanish i'll start watching vods. although i do listen to spanish songs sometimes, it's fun :D

first thing: you don't have to feel embarrassed about needing time to process things/needing to listen to things slowed down. language learning is difficult and there are a lot of obstacles for many people; this is something i do understand and want to stress that i get that it's hard. you are not a bad person or an idiot or whatever for having a hard time understanding things-- you are still learning, and besides that, sometimes hearing things isn't someone's strong suit (it absolutely did not use to be mine, but i've practiced a lot and gotten much better at it. i'm still much much better at reading text in other languages, but it is something you can always improve on). if you need to take extra time to watch things, that is not a personal fault of yours nor does it make you stupid. everyone has different skill sets, and you can always practice to get better.

second thing: my own criticisms of both busuu and duolingo, along with their strengths. duolingo first, because i've used it since like. idk like 2016? not consistently but i've used it far more over the years and i'm very familiar with various changes they've made and the esp, ptbr, and french courses. busuu ive only been using for a few months

to get it out of the way, the recent change to laying off translators and using more AI in lessons. this sucks, obviously, for a myriad of reasons. machine translation cannot match with human translation, and frankly never will be able to. there are vast amounts of nuance and cultural context necessary for translation, along with the fact that an AI led course does not actually hit on all the things someone needs, particularly on a basics/foundational level. and from an ethical standpoint, laying off a ton of human translators because you think you can replace them with inaccurate machine translation sucks and is why so many people have dropped duolingo, myself included.

duolingo also has limitations in terms of format-- it gamifies language learning, which can make it feel more accessible to people and makes people want to open it and practice every day. however, most people use duolingo to do one lesson once a day and that's it. they're not getting in practice from lessons previously completed, they're not drilling vocab or conjugations, they're not actually maintaining or even remembering what they've already learned. obviously there are people (like myself, when i still used the app) who practice far more than that and continue to drill previous lessons, but that's not the majority, and it's not incentivized by the app. the paywalling of completing certain lessons and being able to drill error words also sucks for this reason. basically duolingo is not an ideal setup for actually maintaining knowledge once you go through it the first time and also the way the courses are laid out just. does not, imo, actually make sense. they rarely actually explain what they're trying to teach you and they don't get into enough detail on most concepts. and there is no incentive to review, which is hugely important. not an ideal situation for language learning, especially on its own.

my pros for duolingo: it gets you to practice daily. this is honestly what i use busuu for at this point-- when i get a notif for it, i open it up and flick through a lesson, but i also pull out a textbook or two to look at things there and practice stuff. if whipping out duolingo every day helps you practice a language, that is, at bare minimum, something. preferably you should be studying for at least 15min if not up to an hour or more of a language a day in order to really pick things up and maintain them; you can absolutely use duolingo or busuu for that (busuu i think is far less well formatted and oftentimes the lessons are very specific vocab, at least in the later courses).

for busuu, my issues are like. it's a poorly made imitation of duolingo, aside from a few things. the community aspect is something i REALLY like-- being able to send an exercise to a native speaker and get feedback on what to work on is great, especially with how it's a short answer question that lets you form your own sentences and try out vocab in context. that's a wonderful feature, and i really think it gets at something duolingo is completely missing.

but yeah like i said in terms of the lessons, busuu has very strange ways of teaching things. firstly, it's usually super specific topics and vocab that aren't paired with anything conceptually that helps you progress. usually in a language course, it's best to pair a concept you're working on with either relevant vocab or something that can be used to talk about similar subjects/in similar ways (for instance, subjunctive with food/restaurant vocab, so that you can build sentences both with the new vocab and using the new verbal form in ways that make sense, i.e. "I'll have whatever she's having, If I were to order the pasta, I would get a salad too," "If I were richer, I would always order filet mignon" (side note subjunctive is very difficult for eng speakers so idk if these examples actually make sense 😭))

also busuu will repeatedly teach me something phrased one way or with a certain word and then mark me wrong and insist i use a completely different word/phrase. i cannot figure out why it keeps doing this it's very frustrating. and it has recently been teaching me some european portuguese which is not what the course is supposed to be so i'm just baffled by what's going on there.

another positive for busuu, at least in contrast to duolingo, is it teaches you the vocab and phrases before quizzing you on them, which duolingo does not do. this is like a positive and also an "eh, idk" because i get why duolingo does that-- it's trying to throw you into using surrounding context to figure out what a word means, and that's a very good way to practice, but i think it doesn't necessarily achieve it well and sometimes will just spring random words on you without enough context for you to know what it's referring to without just clicking on the word anyway.

also neither app are good at teaching you verb conjugation or tenses which is really unfortunate for spanish and portuguese in particular, as they're both languages where verbs are really really key AND where understanding tenses and their names are important, particularly for native eng speakers who never got taught tense names or like. any terminology for languages in english 🙃

also here is a thing i wrote up complaining about duolingo & verbs ages ago: Duolingo does not teach you things explicitly. It expects you to pick them up in a semi-immersive style, which works okay most of the time for most people but for many people makes actually learning and understanding parts of a language very difficult. For instance, it won't teach you the exact difference in usage between ser and estar, in Spanish or Portuguese. This difference is something I spent weeks on in Spanish class in high school and continued to review the rest of my time learning Spanish in an academic setting-- it is a key element of two of the most important words in the language. Duolingo also doesn't explain stem changes or irregular verbs and their typical endings-- it simply expects you to pick these up and memorize them through sentence usage. Basically it's very obvious Duolingo was created by english speakers who were never taught key elements of their own language (this is not a dig on their personal fault; i was also never taught any of this shit about english) and don't know how to go about teaching a language, and the limited format doesn't help.

third thing, finally getting to what you actually asked: there are a lot of resources for learning spanish online! i'm not as familiar with them as i'd like, as i learned spanish in an academic setting, but i'll do my best to list some things out and anyone else can feel free to add on. i've been meaning to make a language learning advice post for literally ages and i guess this is going to become it lmao.

here is a video explaining how to make duolingo work for you along with other resources: A Linguist explains how to make duolingo actually work (tl;dr pair duolingo with conversation partners, textbook work, listening to music, watching movies, etc. etc.)

i've tagged this with my language learning tag, which has a bunch of resources including some specifically for learning spanish.

tumblr user salvador bonaparte has a drive of free textbooks you can check out here, including a ton of spanish resources. i also recommend looking around the internet/specifically linguistics tumblr to find more resources as well as looking at used bookstores/amazon/etc. for spanish textbooks to use, as that will provide a more thorough foundation along with other programs/types of learning.

i've never used babbel or any other online program like it, but spanish tends to be one of the more resource-heavy languages because it's so widely spoken, so typically spanish programs on various apps/sites are REALLY thorough (duolingo's spanish program is by far their best course, with a ton more resources than most other programs. you can go up to the equivalent of at least c2 on there i believe, versus many other languages where they don't even list the CEFR levels)

finally, the not-so-online answer: if you're in college/have a nearby community/junior college, consider taking spanish classes there! this option probably costs the most out of any others, but i genuinely think an academic setting is the a great way to learn a language for many people. if you're not one of them, that is totally fine, but an actual spanish course at a college is likely to be the most thorough way to learn the language. also many CCs/JCs offer spanish classes online, so if you can't drive or for whatever reason can't go to in-person courses, you'll likely still have options.

this is everything i can think of right now but i also want to add once again that learning a language is difficult!!! i know that, and i know that i complain a lot about monolinguals, but i am specifically complaining about people who refuse to engage respectfully with languages that are not their own and dismiss anything they don't understand as being stupid/not worth their time/culturally worthless. i am not complaining about people like you, who are trying really hard to engage with non-english content AND are trying really hard to learn another language.

i also think learning languages is one of the most incredible experiences there are and that expanding the kinds of cultural and social boundaries that you engage with is a really important facet of humanity that i wish more people would participate in. i get riled up because this is something i'm really truly passionate about, not because i think anyone is stupid or whatever for not learning. i want people to just try it and give it a chance, even if it's hard for them, and i'm glad that you are trying, anon. <333

[paingoes]

cute delta things i didn’t get to focus on as much as i wanted

ie my underrated facts and as of yet unused whump ideas :)

-he literally faints all the time when using his powers and needs to be carried back out. mostly by simon. sometimes by paris :)

-martino has med students!!! they pop in sometimes i never really acknowledged them directly tho. theyre older than delta but not by that much. he is basically a case study to them but some of them do try ti get close and immediately get demoted/reassigned because of “inappropriate attachment”

-i had this idea for martino taking delta to a medical conference. delta having to be on display/used for tests w really green and overexcited students. extremely awkward stay at the conference hotel. delta is probably high for a lot of it tbh.

-also. delta is on a ton of medications to keep his powers elevated. he is only vaguely aware of this. its actually kinda considered doping in universe so most people are NOT aware of this!!!!

-simon and martino fighting more. i like the idea of simon being gentle w delta and martino going out of his way to try and counteract it and dehumanize him again to preserve his conditioning

-simon and paris talks. simon is way too much of a pussy to confront paris head on and i think they generally get along fine? becuz simon is a bystander. also paris pretends not to remember either of the handlers names even though he definitely knows them.

-delta is totally starved for affection but he would not accept it from just anyone i think hes actually kinda picky about it bizarrely enough. hes v distrusting and when his internet friends tried to be nice to him his response was invariably “just fuck off”…. and he actually likes them he just gets mad anyway cause he cant handle it 😭

-delta and paris kinda just hang out sometimes LOL…. paris always (correctly!) feels like hes in an adversarial environment whenever he has to go anywhere for work and delta is usually the only person there he trusts so if theyre not doing anything else its just gossip time.

-incidentally ^ delta was really deliberately not taught anything about history or politics or ethics at the institute because they didnt want him getting ideas but paris is heavy into that stuff and complains about it so much that delta just picks up on it. he absorbs info like a sponge its why he was such a good whistleblower.

-to me this is obvious but paris’s chillness-over-time graph is a bellcurve. like he is AWFUL at the beginning and awful at the end but in the middle he got very close to actually chilling the fuck out. he barely knew delta in the beginning and i think he did v much warm to him overtime and loosen the parameters of their relationship a lot. this is peak chill time. the assassination ruined everything but paris still… liked delta afterwards he was just insane and dangerous and delta was at ground zero of that. 

         (sidenote: some of the early paris chapters are so bad in terms of what he did and how he was written i actually feel the need to retcon some of it? it took a while for me to hit my stride w him, take the early stuff w a grain of salt)

-anyway. people LIKE delta. even though he doesnt talk hes v cute and unflappable in a way that’s very endearing to people even in empire. people do definitely go out of their way to fuck w him and its dehumanizing and they shouldnt do it but its not necessarily mean-spirited a lot of the time they just think hes interesting.

-sometimes it is meanspirited though. wanted to write something w misc soldiers trying to bully him. cause delta is obviously v submissive and incapable of defending himself but he’s also not trained to obey just anyone. in fact he would have some v large objections to that! (also an excuse to write protective paris at the end lol u know theyre dead)

-more simon carewhumper status. i wrote destroyer before i knew almost anything about whump like i didnt even know what a “carewhumper” was when i wrote it so i was surprised to see someone tag it w that. i guess it’s technically true! anyway i feel bad i let simon fall so much to the wayside. i think delta deserved more comfort over the events of destroyer and his relationship w simon really was very important to him so its on my list.

-thorn era sickfic. maybe the same psychic fever that makes him loopy? might be good for a non-canon bonus i cant tell if it would be more hurt or comfort yet

-this is a lot to get into but if i had to explain the way delta’s powers “worked” i would say that his only true ability is being a conduit. he is not really producing anything he is just tapping into something that is already there. it is not a meaningful difference to an outside party but in terms of what it feels like to use them….. its very psychedelic and psychospiritual and trippy. wouldnt recommend. also i really liked the tag that called delta a mage. its cute bcuz he actually loves pulp fantasy. he would like that :)

[majimasleftasscheek]

I was wondering if you had any nsfw headcanons re: tigerfish? mostly asking cause i was thinking about the idea of nishiki doing his little hair-slick-back thing whenever he’s feeling Spicy (more dominant, regardless of position) so if/when he does that when they’re making out or whatever saejima knows what’s coming hehe

hope this isn’t too uncomfy to ask or anything! thanks for making me a fan of this tiny little ship lmao <3

not uncomfy at all! I'm always happy to talk about nsfw 😏

*as usual, even tho I talk about em as cis dudes, yall are welcome to imagine them however 😌

so prolly an uncommon take but Saejima's always sorta sat on the ace spectrum for me personally like he's into people but not in a way that's like something he'd go out and seek nor really need to be happy. not into being touchy feely with people he's just met and needs a bit of emotional bonding to let that happen *insert some joke about him making everyone he meets his kyoudai lol*. so when it comes to Nishiki, he feels a lot more comfy being openly intimate since they've gotten plenty of time to know each other in jail. Nishiki on the other hand, gives me casual guy™ vibes so he's into slapping the salmon whenever however but not in a wildin' type of way. he's into trying new things but also enjoys comfortable patterns that don't necessarily have to change anything up.

so when they're first shooting the shit about getting their freak on, I can see Nishiki being kinda surprised at first by Saejima's preferences but totally gets it too. he's used to Kiryu being a loner type who isn't exactly going out of his way for the ultimate boner experience. where they differ tho is Saejima is experienced while Kiryu just sorta bumbles through it. Saejima on the other hand, sees Nishiki who was a prominent crime boss and conventionally very pretty so he's thinking oh yeah Nishiki's prolly some kind of sex pest but is pleasantly surprised when Nishiki's more than considerate and patient.

now, Nishiki's been with people of all sorts so he knows his shit while Saejima is more like yeah I know my stuff but I ain't into it enough to really know if I'm performing up to the standards for my partner. he has a good bit of anxiety about that sorta thing and Nishiki didn't really believe him at first cuz like, just look at him. Saejima doesn't look like he'd have anxieties about anything so that's a hurdle they'd have to cross. Nishiki ends up being the lead in most cases, if anything to show the types of things he likes and to give Saejima confidence that he's doing a good job.

when Nishiki leads, he's either topping or power bottoming which defo pumps up the fish ego. but when tiger tops, it's more of a service top thing - he wants to see Nishiki pass the FUCK out lol. he wants to see toes CURL, he wants that ex patriarch to BEG for more. it makes him happy, knowing he can bring Nishiki down a peg for all the pride he's got in him. for Nishiki, it's a nice balance of leaving the work to Saejima while still being in control, even more so when he's going evil mode and gets a mad kick out of having such an imposing man at his beck and call hohohehe.

Saejima's very much not horny ever so Nishiki's gotta be the one to get him in the mood which is perfectly fine for the two of em. it's part of their foreplay, lots of talking and touching and even if it doesn't pan out to anything, they still enjoy just being around each other.

when Nishiki tops he's real sweet about it, very handsy and slick, doing everything you'd expect out of a well choreographed movie tbh. it's a very ideal time and Saejima just sorta gets lost in it, unused to being treated well and gentle. he's definitely prone to being a bit more emotional during these times and not afraid to show it which shocked Nishiki for a time until he got used to it and has come to really enjoy bringing such feelings out of him.

EVIL MODE so there's occasions where Nishiki's into the rougher stuff *insert whatever your heart desires here* and it's a lil bit embarrassing for him cuz there's been occasions with past partners where it's not exactly been the most enjoyable experience for either party, due to inexperience or going too far, etc. he's a lil too eager and too aggressive for his own good, especially back then cuz he had some aha issues to work out and ended up unintentionally taking it out on others.

so insert Saejima who proposes hey let's try out whatever the hell that maybe other people couldn't handle and Nishiki's hesitant, thinking, oh nah you already have anxieties and I can't do that to you but it's in the back of his mind like I want to tho. a big component of nsfw tigerfish to me is that they have a theme of taking time to get to things with a certain gentleness unlike my kazumaji hcs where they have a very intense, impulsiveness to them. so it takes a hot minute for Nishiki to open up this more aggressive side of him that for a long time he's suppressed cuz he felt that there's no place for it even tho it's very much a part of him.

so when Nishiki does eventually start to tip toe into his more perverse kinks, Saejima gives him comfort in that nothing really shocks him about what he wants and he's more than ready to handle it physically. with Nishiki leading, it's a good time for the two of em; Saejima can be of service while Nishiki can feel freer to explore this part of himself without judgment or so much worry.

after all that, aftercare! very important. it's usually Saejima who takes care of Nishiki, wrapping him up and massaging out the jitters. sometimes, one or both of them can experience some mixed emotions from a variety of things, performance worries, trauma, etc so they spend a lotta time just talking to each other. there's a lot of reassurances but also just a lot of wanting someone to listen.

random shit

Saejima loves some good head and body worship. he knows he's got a fine bod so complimenting him is the good shit 👌

Nishiki's all about smooches whether they be deep ones or just lil pecks here and there. ever since post y1, he's been one for enjoying simpler affections, especially when he knows his partner means it.

Saejima's a handsy drunk with people he's close to, but it's all cuddles and kissing and then passing the fuck out.

as a material girl in a material world, Nishiki gets off to gift giving lol. definitely has a praise kink but you gotta be a bit careful. be too dick sucky and he starts to feel like you're just patronizing him.

both of em are into overstimulation for different reasons: Saejima likes the intenseness and Nishiki likes inflicting it (receiving it ain't so bad either). Nishiki doesn't exactly have Saejima's stamina so they got a lotta toys just for the occasion 👀 there's been many a time where Saejima gets into it more than Nishiki can handle and he's then down for the count.

Nishiki tends to keep his prosthetic arm on and doesn't particularly like bringing attention to his disfigurement in general so when he's being intimate, he wants to be treated as if his body is like anyone else's. in that way, he's not into body worship at all, as he sort of warps it into pity he doesn't want.

Nishiki's possessive - not to the same extent Majima is @ Kiryu but it's there in the sense of like, look at this guy, he's mine.

bonus monster AU stuff 👀

as a literal tiger man, Saejima's got a lot of cat characteristics including loving pets and pats. Nishiki's learned very quickly which spots are best to get Saejima riled up and fiesty ;)

that being said, he's got a spikey dick lol. the spines aren't harmful, they more or less lock his partner to him which can end up being inconvenient if they're in a hurry.

big claws = lots of big scratches all up Nishiki's back. Saejima gets nervous he's hurting him but Nishiki think it's pretty hot to be marked up.

[wolfsbanesparks]

I'm curious and making a seperate post about the forgotten and older Captain Marvel characters from the past comics, but what are your thoughts on them? A bunch of them aren't even used anymore, but have so much potential to them if they're ever brought back.

Like Joane Jameson, apparently she was Billy and Captain Marvel's secretary at Whiz Radio, who knew of both of his identities and helped them. I really like this idea and think it would really be useful for a Billy Batson that's a street kid and constantly wary of adults who might want to turn him back in to the foster system, she provides a safe example for Billy to look up to and actually trust. Not just that, but she could also provide assistance for Billy/Captain Marvel on missions, things he may lack insight on or informing him of villainous attacks/incidents.

Are there any characters you wish to see be brought back to the present day comics or see them be included in fanfictions more? I also really like the idea of Dr. Sivana's children be brought back into the action more, especially Beautia, since she's actually a good person (from what I remember) and on good terms with the Captain

So it's taken me literally forever to answer this because every time I do I go down a mini research rabbit hole about older/unused characters because there are SO many that I would like to see more of.

My thoughts under the cut because it got long.

This isn't even everyone, but it's a lot of cool underutilized characters I'd love to see brought back.

Because of the number of characters, I'm splitting them into categories for ease of reading:

Civilians

Cissie Sommerly: Billy's girlfriend and the niece of his boss Sterling Morris (who also needs to used more tbh) She is a sweetheart who loves her little brother (Pete) and is very kind hearted. She didn’t get much development in the older comics, but she often had to deal with Billy and Cap’s shenanigans. I would love to see more of her!

The Sivana kids Beautia, Georgia, Thad Jr, and Magnificus: we recently got an adult Georgia in the New Champion of Shazam but I want to see the whole family together! And exploring their family dynamics with only half of them being supervillains would be so fun! They love each other but it's complicated. Georgia and Thad jr were basically parallels to Mary and Captain Marvel Jr and that was a fun balance. Meanwhile Beautia and Magnificus weren't really interested in their father's evil scheme though they gkt roped into them sometimes. And of course Beautia's crush on Captain Marvel causes problems but she's still awesome and even tutors Billy for school.

Sunny Sparkle: basically he was so universally beloved by everyone who met him that they just gave him things. Bank robbers would just hand him their stolen cash. Car jackers would give him the keys. He was gifted so much stuff every day that Billy had to help him donate and sell stuff regularly. In modern comics, I think it'd be cool if he was unknowingly a metahuman whose power was being hypnotically charming.

Freckles Marvel: she was Uncle Dudley's niece and despite not having powers, liked to tag along on adventures especially with Mary. She's a lot like Darla with her upbeat little sister energy. I can see them being friends in modern comics (or maybe even related since they both have the last name Dudley)

Dexter Knox: a child prodigy and inventor who was good friends with Billy. He's basically the smartest person in Fawcett and he loves showcasing his inventions to Billy.

Villains

Arson Fiend: an insurance salesman that uses extortion and threats of arson to meet his sales quota. He drinks a potion that gives him fire powers which he uses to commit arson against people who didn’t buy insurance from him. We've talked a bit about his connection to other Captain Marvel villains like Lady Blaze who healed him and gave him his powers back when he lost them. He's such a simply evil character that works really well for comics.

Chain Lightning: a teenager with multiple personalities and the power to control lightning. She has 4 personalities: Amy (the "main" alter), Amber (the more angry/volatile alter who protects the system), the Inner Child (no name besides that but encapsulates their child like wonder), and ID (the embodiment of their id, thus more impulsive than the others). She actually absorbs some of the Marvel’s magic lightning which allows her alters to temporarily have their own bodies. Amy is in love with Captain Marvel Jr because he saved her life, but the other alters are more wary of him, especially Amber. While any adaptation of Chain Lightning needs to be conscious of the ableism that happens when depicting a system, I think there's a lot of great potential with this character.

Sabina: she is technically from the Trials of Shazam not Fawcett comics, but I think she's cool. Basically she was raised by a cult called the Council of Merlin. She was destined to be 10th in line to receive the powers of Shazam so she starts killing those ahead of her in the order to ensure that once Billy was mo longer the Champion the powers would go to her. But when Billy was transitioning to become the Wizard he chose Freddy as his Champion, bypassing Sabina and the predestined order of things. So Sabina decides to kill Freddy AND the gods he was going to get his powers from. She's so evil and cool and I really like her design. I definitely think there's a way to bring her back.

Fawcett Heroes: there are a ton of fun characters that weren’t necessarily Captain Marvel characters but were part of the same world before he was a DC property.

Bulletman and Bulletgirl: literally Billy’s favorite superheros! He reads their comics and everything! They were very popular at the time, Whiz comics second most popular characters behind the Marvels. They are a husband and wife duo that gave themselves superpowers (strength, durability etc) which they use to fight crime, particularly supernatural villains.

Mr Scarlet and Pinky: Brian and Pinky Butler are a father-son vigilante duo. They were so good at their jobs that Brian barely had any work as a district attorney because of such low crime rates. They were basically a working class version of Batman and Robin. They're good friends with the Marvel family and when Mary got her first solo series, part of the advertising was having Pinky send her pen pal letters inviting her to have new adventures with him and the other Fawcett characters.

Ibis the Invincible: an Egyptian prince whose mummy was uncovered and brought back to life (by Shazam). He uses the Ibistick, an extremely powerful magical wand, to help people as he adjusts to modern life. He can do just about anything as long as he has his wand and often gets thrown in the middle of conflicts between gods.

Kid Eternity: aka Kit Freeman, Freddy’s long lost little brother with ghost powers! After dying in a boating accident when he wasn’t supposed to, he was brought back and given powers as compensation. He can summon spirits, turn invisible, and become intangible, though his powers shifted over time. He's such a cool character and he deserves more love!

Whew that was a lot! If anyone else has characters to add (and I know there are many) I would love to hear about it! And if any of these characters intrigue you I encourage you to check them out and sneak them into your fics!

[angelgendered]

Woo! I'm gonna book my train tickets for the meet up on Monday, put away half of the hotel room cost and some spending money, then when I get my PIP I'm gonna say fuck it and spend it all on going away for a couple days cos I deserve it and life is summarily far too short to not do these kick ass things.

I just. I haven't ever really had friends except for my two close buddies irl. So this is a big thing for me. I don't 'do' social stuff cos people judge me on how I look or talk or the fact I need a wheelchair snd have messed up teeth but yknow. I feel safer in this fandom. Idk if it's the fact that we glorify the imperfect here, or because a lot of us are more mature or older, or because yall are just examples of good folks, but I feel safer in the gomens fandom than I have in any fandom for a long long time.

I feel like yall are so much less judgy and looks obsessed if that makes sense? And everyone's just so nice on the gender front too - I feel like I can hang out with some of you irl and not get the misgendering and deadnaming I get daily and that means a lot to me tbh. So yeah. Excited is an understatement!

It means Christmas will be small this year along with me going to see dt in hamlet on my birthday but... I'd rather start spending my money on myself Nd making ME happy finally than gifts for Xmas which no one really wants and that sit unused or get gifted on to someone else (no really, my mum does this a lot with 'unwanted' gifts even from close family)

This year is the year I assert some fucking boundaries in my life and start attempting to have the social life I missed out on in my teens and 20s because I was constantly suicidal and depressed. It's left me nearly friendless but things are looking up in that regard and it's all because of this silly little fandom. ���

[thejazzywaffles]

Finally had a moment to sit down and open my Hermitcraft TCG stuff from a few days ago! On one hand, I didn't get any iJevin cards (the only Hermit I have neither Common nor Rare of). Which is a bit sad. But on the other hand, I got a signed card from both Tango and Iskall. Which is pretty cool tbh! (I'll post pictures at some point, I'm super tired right now from a 9 hour shift)

Nerd time! My collection stats (not counting holos/etc separately):

23/26 Common Hermits (missing: Cleo, Hypno, Jevin)

13/26 Rare Hermits (missing: Etho, False, Gem, Grian, Impulse, Jevin, Mumbo, Pearl, Ren, Scar, TFC, xB, Zedaph)

30/42 Effects (missing: Bed, Chest, Clock, Golden Apple, Wolf, Emerald, Totem of Revival, Spyglass, Magmatite Armor, Invisibility Potion, Splash Poison Potion, Book of Mending)

10/10 Single Items

5/10 Double Items (missing: Explorer, Farmer, Miner, Speedrunner, Terraformer)

So in total, I have 81 of the cards and I'm missing 33 cards, collection-wise. Also my only copy of TangoTek (Rare) is a signed copy, so I guess I'm sorta missing a non-signed of that as well (80/114 owned vs 34/114 needed). Counting duplicates and my two signed cards, I have 205 cards (one unusable behind a collector's case).

I hope some day they decide to do a rerun so I can collect even more! I also hope I find some local fans willing to do some trading & playing!

[moodymisty]

Omg first of all: CONGRATULATIONS!! This is a giant milestone and you should be very proud of it, I'm still catching up to your works but from what I've devoured read off your masterlist so far, you're amazing! Second: You write for Darksiders?? Please imagine I'm laying a thousand roses at your feet and throwing petals after your every step. I kiss your forehead. May your pillow stay always cool on both sides and your socks always be fluffy.

Now, may I put in a request for Strife (or Death if you prefer), with the prompt "Finding out they have a memento of you somewhere on them they bring everywhere"?

Remember to sip some water and check your posture <3

❀ Milestone prompts list ❀

Author's Note: You like Star Wars and Darksiders? You have impeccable taste. But AAHHH thank you so much!! So many kind words I'm so honored you've enjoyed my stuff so far!! I live for Darksiders tbh, I enjoy it so much and I really hope the next game comes out before I turn into dust. strifegamestrifegamestrifegame

Relationships: Strife/Fem!Reader(because of the usage of the word 'princess')

Warnings: Very brief mentions of canon typical violence, Fluff

The world is a hazy, blurry mess, and any dream or nightmare you'd been floating in is forgotten the moment you open your eyes. Once you do so your heart is racing and your muscles are tight, as if ready to fight; Your body jerks, before freezing once you feel the soft fabric of a blanket over your stomach, and the gentle dip of a bed beneath your back.

Your first thoughts are of fire- Demons, and... Running. Everything else after is too much of a blur to remember. Whatever it was, it probably wasn't something you'd really want to remember, beyond just needing to have the answers.

"Hey, princess. Welcome back."

Strife is sitting right at your side, leaning forward with his elbows digging into his thighs. His body is perked up in response to your sudden movement, watching you turn towards him. His helmet is off, and you can see the way he's looking over your entirety. The voice he uses seems almost gritty from unuse, and judging by his stalwart spot, it would seem like he's just been silently sitting here for an unknown amount of time.

"What happened?"

The injuries you'd sustained must've made you lose a small bit of your recent memory; Not incredibly surprising. Strife only recalls those moments for you because you ask, as much as he'd rather forget them.

"A group of demons managed to corner you. And," HIs eyes drift away for a moment. "I wasn't fast enough."

He clearly was, if you were still here. But Strife always lets these sorts of things eat away at him, like termites in an old home until the supports crumble.

"I haven't been sleeping on the job for too long, right?" You smile at him and Strife makes a small noise, his leg bouncing as an outlet for whatever he's feeling.

"Few days. I really thought it would be longer," He runs a hand over his hair, letting out a sigh. One that sounds both ragged and relieved. It’s an odd sight to see Strife in any emotion other than happy or angry, he rarely allows them to peek through.

"I, shit- Whatever Death did, it worked."

He'll never mock Death's use of magics and necromancy again, not after this.

You shift to lean on your side a bit reaching for one of his arms and pulling it to lay over your stomach. Once you do your hands wrap around his fingers, silently observing how much larger his gauntlet is than your own hands. If he fully outstretched his entire hand, he'd covered more than a significant portion of your stomach.

With his arm fully stretched out however, the plates of his armor separate just enough to reveal something you'd not expected. They slip from in-between the seams of metal along his wrist, the cute and bright colors clashing with the scuffed gunmetal grey of his armor.

"You... Kept them?"

Your smaller hand keeps holding his and it takes him a second before he realizes you're talking about the bracelets. He hasn't taken them off once, and the wear and tear makes it obvious.

He remembers the moment you gave them to him; The look on your face and how you'd so casually gifted them to him, not even realizing how significant your insignificant little human gesture was to him.

They don’t, get gifts. Not monsters like him.

"Why wouldn't I?" He replies. They're a reminder of the very moment he realized he was irrevocably, inescapably in love with you; But he doesn't say it out loud.

"They remind me of you. That I have someone to come back to now."

You don't know Strife's backstory, no more than a few bits and pieces that allude to him doing things beyond the killing of the Nephilim. His guilt about it eats him alive every moment, and even if he shoves it off with jokes, he always acts like he's making up for it. You'll probably never know everything, maybe part of you doesn't want to, but it's not as if it'll change how you feel about him at this moment.

"Were you always this much of a romantic before I got knocked out?" Strife smirks at your compliment but when you decide to lean up and let out a soft groan of effort, he quickly jolts.

"Hey hey! Just cool it, don't hurt yourself." You finish leaning upright and roll your eyes.

"Strife, I'm just a little tired, not bleeding out." You look over your arms. There's a few bruises and scrapes along your elbows and hands, but nothing that a small bandage wouldn't cover. If they'd been worse, you couldn't tell.

"Mind thanking Death for me next time you see him? I'm assuming he's long gone by now." Strife nods. He'll thank him for you the next time the wind brings the Reaper and him in the same place; It's the perfect excuse so he doesn't feel the embarrassment of doing so himself.

He looks down at the way your hands are still wrapped around his own, and you notice it, leaning forward enough to press a kiss to his cheek.

"Now quit being a worrywart, and tell me three of your favorite colors so I can make you a new bracelet once I get the chance."

Strife's long life has made him weary, but at least now he has you as a port in the storm; Someone that makes him feel alive. He smiles, his hand trapped in yours and the lingering feeling of your lips on his cheek, and ponders.

"Only three? Let's see..."

[livmightlive]

I hope so bad that there’s more bbh centric fanfics in the future 😭

I know he doesn’t have a nonzero amount but UGH, I just need more, I’m greedy I know

like last stream he did??? That’s content gold right there. Please, like there could be so good whump fics out of that, hurt/comfort type stuff

Honestly, there’s so much good bbh content that I feel like that goes unnoticed on unused

I stg that I would write fics but I am never happy with my work 😭 words do not flow for me

if I made an ao3 thing of just fic ideas and headcanons would people like that??

Everything I maladaptive daydream is so self indulgent and project-y, idk if people even want to see that T~T

I always feel bad for want to see my favs in a whump or hurt/comfort but I think it’s just me wanting the part where they’re taken care of? I personally don’t enjoy fluff without any pain, no pain no gain y-know??

It’s deffo just older sibling projection, like he takes such good care of everyone, I just wanna see people take care of him ���� all I need is one good sickfic to tide me over for winter 💔

I would ask for fic recommendations but I think I’ve completely exhausted the bbh tag on ao3, tbh at this point I might go back to wattpad 😭 any recs there??

when I make these posts I feel like I’m stranded in the desert, pls I need to know if other people share my thoughts. Even if you don’t pls comment 🥺 I see likes come in and it makes me happy but I’m always like: “what exactly are they thinking tho???”

Dw I know that’s a lot to ask for I am needy

but like, I’ve gotten to the point where I will read fics where bbh is a good side character to get my fix 🥹

he’s just my favorite Minecraft guy and my brain is probably a little funny if you’re picking up what I’m putting down

just meowing out to the void

pls tho, touch base if you’re feeling thoughts

[starkissedblade]

💸💸💸💸💸

this is me just talking abt money and random stuff veeerrryy boring but i bought a pair of shoes a couple months ago for $200 and i have only wore them once i just stare at them and think about my bad spending decisions and i know i will start wearing them soon because they’re the only platform shoes i have but they’re also the most expensive shoes ive ever worn & i just die a little inside i need to get over it tho but i also thought of getting new walking shoes since ive had these ones for 5 yrs now (tbh i think the 200$ shoes r the only ones ive bought 4 myself new like all my shoes which is like only my everyday walking shoes, a pair of docs from hs, & a pair of flip flops i dont have many shoes & all were bought for me by someone else like yrs ago) and my feet r starting to get sore wearing them everyday but i think i might just buy new soles instead like these shoes still have traction.. cuz i need to buy a hair dryer and diffuser cup thing soon because im tired of air drying my hair and i want to make my wavy/slightly curly hair look presentable on the regular and not just occasionally and i need to spend money on that instead!!! but also will i do that??? i just put it off lmao it will probably be months before i actually buy something for that why does everything cost moneyyyy i feel like every day im making bad money decisions but i haven’t been That bad like 9/10 i use the stuff that i buy all the way. im physically stopping myself rn from dropping 40 something on this thing that a lot of ppl say really actually helps their cystic acne which ive had constant problems w. but i cant just do that. its 40!!!! instead i need to buy travel liquid containers that are smaller than 3 oz online cuz they usually only have big ones at walmart and i don’t need them to be That big i never do anything beyond a carry on because checked baggage is Expensive and it stresses me out on top of the expensiveness Anyway u can only have like a sandwich baggy sized thing w liquids in a carry on which is sooo annoying 😒 anyway there’s like $100 worth of stuff this yr that ive got that ive actually Really regretted like at the end of the day the new shoes r worth it for me because i’ll wear them until they break. i get so stressed over not using more than a third of the alcohol based mouthwash i got in feb because it burnt my mouth too much i get stressed over the cerave gentle cleanser i got but then it’s not what i need liked i needed the salacylic acid one instead so now that one just stares at me in its largely unused glory like i worry tooooo much but it’s also kind of good worrying because it keeps me in check cuz it makes me quadruple check if i really need something… but i do usually keep my impulse spending to the thrift which is usually a good thing. i bought a cool hat a couple days ago for a couple bucks but my head is too big :(( i need to look for a place that’ll give it away for free im done w giving stuff to goodwill or other places i just want ppl to be able to get clothes w out paying for it i hope that theres something like that around here. anyway i need to buy a really small point pen tomorrow to do this art thing for Father’s Day cuz my smallest point pen went dry yrs ago and this is the first time im picking up doing something like this in yrs like it’s for Father’s Day tho so i feel like it’s justified. and then i’ll need to get T in the next month 🚬 which has been 140 recently cuz i my state doesn’t cover it in insurance. at least insurance covers blood draws and my doctor doesn’t charge for messaging online abt stuff, so. and at least medicaid in my state covers some dental because ihave that appointment next month. and then ill be paying close to $200 for a flight ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh at least its not more than that ig. at least cheap allegiant flights r a thing . im so lucky in so many ways financially because of my mom step dad being so nice to me basically buying a car 4 me at 18 and letting me live w them rent free etc like idk how i got here i am still not used to it really i feel like its gonna be

pulled out from underneath me soon or something

[whumble-beeee]

🎯 for Declan?

🎓 for Stan?

🎯 -What do they do best?

Probably the best thing would be his marksmanship, he can hit a target with his S&W model 19 extremely accurately up to 60 feet away. It's also great bc that same revolver has so many quirks bc of how old it is and how many times Declan's had to fix it that it's basically unusable to anyone except him lol.

Ofc he's also pretty good at other stuff like strategical thinking, stealth, etc, but what really makes him scary as a bounty hunter is his ability to holepunch in someone exactly where he needs to without having to worry about hitting somewhere he didn't mean to. Great for intimidation, incapacitation, and torture.

🎓 - How long have you had the OC?

Oh good lord, uhhhhh. So the very first iteration of Stan was created in March of 2020 (might've been earlier tbh but that was what's on the toyhouse page). I had an idea for a cool magician design so I drew it on the drawing tablet I had gotten for my birthday the year before. He didn't even have his cane back then, that was added later, and he also had no personality or anything. Just a character design (old artwork pictured below lol)

Since then he's evolved so much, both in design, in gaining a personality, and more. I have more old art of him if you'd like me to share it And you would not BELIEVE the amount of changes he and also the rest of the cast have gone through since I first conceptualized them. Their story used to be completely different, hell, Declan and Vaughn kinda switched personalities.

Can't believe its been so long yet so short a time.

But thank you for the ask and the opportunity to ramble about my OCs! It's one of my favorite things!

[lucysweatslove]

Super first world problem rant:

I am almost out of my favorite anti-perspirant/deodorant. I use Lume after a shower but I also use anti-perspirant on subsequent days, before the gym, etc, because I don’t like to feel sweaty. The Lume is great when I’m not doing things to sweat and helps cut back on bad smells, really great for non-armpit areas especially, but it’s also expensive. So yeah, Lume after showers + additional antiperspirants as needed has been my go-to for a while now.

I’ve tried a lot of deodorants previously. I am, apparently, picky, and I rarely use up whole deodorants because I a) don’t use them super often with the Lume, and b) won’t use them regularly if I don’t like them. Spray deodorants make me sneeze and I hate how they feel going on. I tried them once and never again plan to use them. Solids are traditional and what I always used growing up, but they seem to get a film or something on that’s similar to hard pan on makeup. A lot of these also make me feel sick for some reason. It’s the smell- I’m not sure why but the smell just feels off, too strong, or somehow just gross most of the time. The most recent offender is also the worst: the Secret Sweet Nectarine solid tube. I want to vomit every time I use it, so of course I don’t use it unless I can’t find any other one, and even when I do use it, the “hard pan” film makes it pretty much useless anyway. 0/10, will never repurchase.

I recently-ish tried a clear gel (twists up like a solid but gel comes out of holes), more specifically the Secret one in a berry scent. I’ve had it for a while- probably was on sale or something tbh. I LOVE it, and I’m out. Like, I have to use that awful solid sweet nectarine that makes me feel horribly nauseous every time I smell it. This was particularly annoying because I ran out while traveling for that overstimulating wedding.

I placed a Walmart+ order last night for delivery today because in addition to needing more deodorant, I also needed conditioner and drink mix stuff (since water is gross, I said what I said). I try to avoid going in because Walmart is the further store away from us and I always get overstimulated just driving there. Can I do it? Yes. Do I ever want to? Fuck no.

Anyway, I was really excited because the secret gel deodorant has some kind of $4 back on 2 thing going on, which is a decent deal for something I wanted anyway. They have multiple scents- coconut, cocoa butter, water Lily, rose (ew), berry, vanilla, ocean breeze, lavender (also Ew). I was going to get the berry, waterlily, coconut, and vanilla, but with everything else it felt like a lot of money all at once (especially given how it can take me over a year to finish a tube), so I just got the berry and waterlily.

Walmart shopper couldn’t find the berry one for some reason and I had to approve a substitution. Wanna know what they wanted to sub it with?

Sweet. Fucking. Nectarine.

I had two option: decline the substitution, being left with just one tube and I wouldn’t get the sale deal, or I could accept it. I couldn’t see any place to request literally any other scent, like the coconut or vanilla. If I denied it, I would likely end up where I am now again- out of my preferred one and have to either smell awful to everybody else and feel gross or smell nauseating to myself.

The $4 back is good enough to almost cover another tube later on so I just accepted the substitution but i was pretty upset. I see where they were thinking- trading a fruit scent for a fruit, makes sense, especially as I wasn’t able to like, add in a secondary scent preference or whatever. So I’m not mad at the Walmart shopper. Just the situation anyway, because now the likelihood that 1 of my deodorants will be nauseating and maybe unusable is higher. I already gambled on the waterlily since I usually don’t like florals and just wanted to try it, so it’s like swapping out my safe scent for something also potentially disastrous.

They just delivered my order, and not only is there the sweet nectarine one, but the waterlily deodorant is a mf solid. Because I, like the exhausted dumbass I am, didn’t double check the listing when I added it to my cart.

So basically I just bought like 1-2 years of deodorant that I don’t like 🙃 since I’m never “going that way” and returns in general stress me out, I don’t feel empowered enough to make a return and get what I really want. If I complain to my husband, he won’t understand why I can’t return it and will get annoyed I’m complaining. If I ask for new ones, he’ll raise his eyebrows and say why when we just bought new deodorant?? Which means I’ll have to tell him I don’t like what I got and feel like I can’t return it which would then further cause an argument. I could probably get new ones near Christmas without it being weird to him. But I still feel relegated to using deodorants I hate for the next several months.

Is it a first world problem, and am I privileged to be able to afford and access deodorant in general? Yes. Am I especially privileged that I can access a wide variety of them? Of course. Am I still entitled to be annoyed with this situation? I think so.

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

Hello hi longtime lurker first-time asker, I am very sorry that your inbox is being filled with people being not nice about the whole...everything going on right now :-/

I know essentially nothing about boats and sea related stuff and I am always in the mood to hear about someone else's special interests, so do you have a favourite interesting or positive (inasmuch as facts about shipwrecks can be positive) fact related to that topic?

I love that story about the people on the Carpathia (because it's kinda heartwarming and bittersweet in the middle of a tragedy) but that's literally all I know about any kind of big boats tbh (also as well I would love to know what got you interested if that's okay to ask??)

aw thank you anon <333

its probably a bit cliche but my favourite ocean liner ever is the ms stockholm.

unfortunately, there arent too many good quality photos of it back when it was first launched in 1948 since you know, it was 1948. but its this beautiful, sleek ocean liner. she was the smallest passenger liner on the north atlantic run in the 50s, and idk, i just love how she looks. theres a lot of ocean liners that looked gorgeous like the ss france or ss united states, but they were both still a bit too bulky for me. compared to the stockholm which was just perfectly balanced for her small size.

you might also notice the very angular bow (front bit) and she had that bit because she sailed near the arctic sea so she needed a strong bow that could break ice.

unfortunately, it also broke a ship. im not gonna get into all the details of the collision between stockholm and the ss andrea doria, but off the coast of nantucket in july 1956, the stockholm collided at an almost 90° with the andrea doria.

this happened due to three reasons: fog making it harder to see, the stockholm sailing in the wrong lane (ships have ocean lanes like cars have roads) and the andrea doria attempting a starboard-to-starboard passing to avoid the collision despite the accepted passing being port-to-port.

(imagine youre about to walk into someone. if you both take a step to your respective lefts, that would be port-to-port. its starboard-to-starboard if you went right. but say you went right and they went left, youd collide)

the collision caused the andrea doria to begin to list to port and eventually shed capsize. the list made half the lifeboats unusable, but the crew of the stockholm were already rowing over in their lifeboats.

and the cherry on top was the arrival of the ss île de france, who took on the bulk of remaining passengers and was labelled the hero ship.

out of the 1705 people aboard, 1655 people survived. a much higher survival rate to titanic.

like the titanic wreck, the wreck of the andrea doria is the gravesite for the 51 who didnt make it. their bodies were never recovered.

unfortunately, the wreck is a popular diving spot and looters have taken everthing worth anything from the wreck over time. and even more unfortunately, at least 22 divers have died on the wreck.

once again, these wrecks should be protected by law like the fitz is or like the uss johnston is.

also, the collision completely crushed stockholms bow:

but away from the tragedy of the collision, the stockholm went on to have a very successful career. shes had 12 different owners and 12 different names:

stockholm

völkerfreundschaft

volker

fridtjof nansen

italia i

italia prima

valtur prima

caribe

athena

azores

and astoria

she was also sometimes labelled "the ship of death" due to the collision with andrea doria.

in 1989, 41 years after her launch, she was sold to star lauro lines and was converted into a cruise ship. and considering shes currently still up for sale today, she must have been a very reliable and very good cruise ship.

when she was known as athena, she was attacked by pirates in 2003. the crew prevented the pirates from boarding by firing high pressure wate Mr canons at them, but at one point twenty-nine pirate boats surrounded her. and then she was just fine and carried on with her voyage to australia m

in 2009, she got detained in france because the company had unpaid bills, and it just makes me cry laugh when they detain a whole ass ship. i just imagine some officer trying to handcuff a ship.

after the quick dip into the criminal world, she continued to sail until 2021 when she was bought by a company planning to convert her into a hotelship.

afaik, the plans were scrapped and shes back on the market, so if you somehow have the money to buy a boat, the stockholm/astoria is up for sale.

and it is fucking wild to remember that the ship that sank the andrea doria in 1956 is currently on the market and might be fixed up and ready to continue sailing.

the carpathia is a story that almost always makes me cry because its such a good example of the good that humans do. the carpathia sailed through an icefield at night at top speed, despite being much less safe than the titanic, to get there. its both heart-breaking and heart-warming.

i had a phase as a kid where i really liked big boats as well as whales and sharks, but im an afab trans guy and many family members did not think it appropriate for me.

i got back into during lockdown actually. im pretty sure i was lonely because me and my flatmate were trapped at least two hours away from our families and i hadnt seen my mom in so long. back in my first year of uni, i called her everyday.

and so there i am, feeling lonely and also being insomniac at like 3-4am maybe, and i dont know what made me think of it but suddenly i was thinking about the titanic and how lonely it must be down there all alone. im the poster kid for object empathy. and then i was just as lonely like i was reflecting that loneliness onto myself and i was near tears and just couldnt sleep.

so i gave up on sleep and realised i needed to distract myself to feel better so i just started looking up shipwrecks and ghost ships and all manner of these things. and then suddenly im watching every documentary i can find, every video on youtube and im reading someones very long essay explaining why the titanic olympic switch theory is wrong.

and here i am. it started as a hyperfixation and developed into a SpIn, and then when i could finally visit my mom and brother, i made them watch disasters at sea on the tv.

if you ever wanna learn about this sort of thing, disasters at sea is a good show to watch (its all on youtube) and oceanliner designs and big old boats on youtube are very good channels for beginners.

thank you for this ask anon <333 i really enjoyed infodumping about my favourite ship.