#i was better than this even during A2s

[writingmar]

hi, can I request the combination A2 and F7 for Spencer Reid smut prompts, please?? Thanks <333

'𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞.'

𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘪𝘥 𝘹 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳

Prompt A2: dryhumping + F7: in a car - (prompts lists)

after a long day of working a case, one of the BAU cars broke down, which means that all six of you have to pile into a five person car. luckily, spencer offers his lap for you as a seat...

wc: 1.1k

content & tw: sensual fluff, public, dry humping.

a/n: this is much tamer than my usual writing but i rlly enjoyed it!

'oh, for fucks sake,' JJ says as she turns the key in the ignition. the car sputters and shakes with all its might but it doesn't start. 'i'm never renting from this company again, this thing has been having issues the entire time.'

'here, let me try,' you say as you bend over the center console to try the key for yourself, but obviously, it doesn't change anything. JJ grabs her phone and calls someone. 'hey, rossi, our car has broken down, could we hitch a ride to the hotel..? yeah, i know, we'll squeeze in... great, thanks, we'll see you in a minute.'

'don't the boys have a five-seater?' you ask as JJ hangs up the phone. she looks over at you with a sweet smile. 'yeah, but like i said, we'll squeeze in. and besides, i've been seeing you eye spencer, and he'll be polite enough to offer you a seat.'

you feel your cheeks heat and tell JJ to shut up, but you know damn well she's right. you have been eyeing spencer for a while. in fact, you've been doing more than that. unspoken moments together in hallways, soft touches during long days which end in secret randez-vous in hotel rooms late at night. during those meetings, spencer shows a different side of himself, the built up sensual tension from the entire day unloading onto you, and you know he loves that day long chase.

when the boys pull up, rossi is in the passenger seat with hotch driving. spencer and derek sit in the backseat. when derek opens the door and moves to the middle seat, you can already hear spencer rambling. 'driving with too many people in the car, particularly with one person sitting on another's lap, poses significant safety risks and is illegal in many places. the likelihood of severe injury or death increases for all passengers when seat belts are not used properly. according to the CDC, seat belt use reduces the risk of death by 45% and the risk of serious injury by 50% for front-seat occupants. For those in the rear seats, the reduction in risk of death is 25%.'

you smile as you hear his voice, JJ already having taken derek's spot, meaning the car is now full. you open the door at spencers seat, 'well, then i guess i'll sit in one of the rear seats, seeing as that cuts my risk of death in half,' you say, moving yourself to sit in spencers lap.

'no, wait, that's not what i meant, i just-' spencer starts to ramble again, his cheeks warming as you sit yourself down on his legs. derek cuts him off and says, 'well then you better hold on tight, pretty boy. be her seat belt.'

spencer looks confused and a bit panicked for a second, but when hotch starts the car, he wastes no time and wraps his arms around you. 'kids, behave back there,' he says as he pulls away.

rossi starts talking to hotch about today's case, a serial killer in the midwest, while JJ keeps derek's eyes on her in conversation. you and spencer are in a little bubble, even with four others in the car, no one is focussed on the two of you.

every time hotch turns a corner or hits a speed bump, your ass moves slightly over spencers crotch, and you feel his arms tighten around you. the drive will be about half an hour, but you can tell its going to be the longest thirty minutes of your life when you start to feel something growing underneath you.

you turn your head to look at spencer, who stares straight ahead. you always wonder what happens in his mind, but especially now. after another speed bump, he closes his eyes and his lips part slightly as you feel a twitch under you.

you start to grin, his desperate attempts to keep himself composed absolutely adorable. you decide to push your luck, grinding yourself down on him subtly. he moves one hand to your hip, grabbing it tightly and stilling you. you're afraid you might have gone too far.

when you look back at him, he is no longer staring forward. his eyes are fixed on you, and he starts to pull your hip back and forth. you open your mouth slightly in a surprised gasp, not expecting him to be so bold.

JJ and derek's chatter beside you, rossi and hotch's in front, and the two of you completely silent. the radio plays softly, and you're sure nobody is actually listening, but you will never be able to listen to this song like you used to before. taylor swift's 'wildest dreams' is now the soundtrack to an intimate moment between you two, and you know you'll remember this whenever you hear it again.

spencer keeps his movements subtle and slow, not pulling any attention to the two of you. the tension is almost palpable, and you truly hope nobody notices, but the people in this car are bold enough to say something if they do.

every soft gasp coming from spencer's lips, ever small furrow as his brow, but especially every bit of movement and every twitch from his cock makes you wetter and wetter, and you know damn well that you won't be alone in your hotel room tonight.

his hand that's not on your hip holds onto you tightly, squeezing the skin on your side as he desperately tries to get you closer, maybe even to get you alone.

the drive seems to last forever, but when the car comes to a halt, it feels like only 5 minutes have passed. you hadn't realised how much you had been pulled into the moment, and judging by spencers sigh, he hadn't either.

'well we made it. go to sleep, everyone. this case is far from closed,' hotch says as you all climb out of the car. you smile at spencer, his eyes still fixed on you. 'get some rest, spence, i'll see you tomorrow.'

derek takes one look at you two and smiles at the floor. as you walk towards the door, you hear derek talk to spencer, mocking your words, 'yeah, reid, get some rest.'

'shut up,' spencer said, his voice cracking slightly on the nerves, but you know that in about thirty minutes, he will be knocking on your hotel room door and he will be everything but for nervous...

[nijigasakilove]

Thank you A-1 for this incredible adaptation and all the love that went into bringing one of the most complex stories in gaming to anime. Incredible finale for an incredible story.

For once an anime actually uses scenes from the OP in the actual show with part of that A2 vs 9s fight being straight out of the OP lmao. That was some of the best action animation you’ll see this year and again 9s conveying all that pain and confusion in every word. I love the scene of him hacking A2 and trying to break her like he’s broken and alone, but instead of giving in to the pain and suffering A2 overcomes it by remembering the warmth and love of her friends rather than just their deaths. Really a beautiful moment and playing the OP in the background during that was chef’s kiss.

“I never quite realised how beautiful the world is” A2’s place as best girl will never be touched. A-1 made her even better in the anime as well, I felt so much more of a connection with her here.

Pods 042 and 153 are the real MVPs though. There is nothing more human than defying all logic and programming to sacrifice yourself for others. In the face of overwhelming odds, to take on everyone so that 9s and 2B could get another shot together was beautiful. Yea, things could go of shit again. But they could also go much better, it’s worth a shot.

“We will continue to resist while singing words of prayer” beautiful beautiful final scene that reminds me so much of the ending of 86, no coincidence since a lot of the same staff worked on this. Just a wonderful job thank you so much to A-1 and hopefully we see a Nier Replicant anime one day

[review](https://myanimelist.net/reviews.php?id=538587)

[sparrowrye]

Demi Demon || Alastor x Reader, A2 part 9

Synopsis: It’s been over a year since we were brought under Alastor’s watchful eye. We’ve unlocked our Demonic powers, discovered our own talents, and began building the Safe Haven with Charlie and co. Alastor seems increasingly interested in the power we hold as one and intends to use it properly.

Previous part

Part 9: a different person

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spring had arrived and plenty of new faces with it.

Construction began as soon as the snow had melted. Charlie asked Alastor to create a warm oasis so the people could build more homes and buildings sooner. According to Lucifer, she had at least a hundred Demons willing to come to the haven. Many of them were Demons who had lived on the surface or had a family. Hell wasn't exactly much safer than up here.

Pentious, the snake-like Demon from Charlie's group, became head of the guards. He was in charge of making making sure people didn't wander too close to our haven as well as keeping the right people inside. We had a number of children and teens wandering into the forest once the weather became warmer.

I stood on the porch watching from a distance. I could hear the pounding of nails and cutting of wood. Two years ago it was a complete empty field and now it was a true town. Spring would mark three years for me. That made me twenty-four-years old.

I heard kids laughing and couldn't help the smile on my face. Everything was actually getting better this time. Alastor kept his side of the deal and we spent all of winter testing out my Angelic powers. He became much more bearable when he wasn't a total jackass and I found myself actually able to relax around him. His sarcasm still cut like a knife, though.

I let myself scroll through social media on Charlie's phone for ten minutes. She was the only one allowed to have a phone since Vox never seemed to hack it. It kept me in the loop on what was happening outside and it gave Charlie a reason to ask my relationship with Alastor.

Overlords had gained more power during winter, ironically enough since they hated the cold. Their territory grew and it became safer for some Demons to live in certain towns. Humans were trying their best to stay together but any form of retaliation or separation was shut down. At least in this nation. Other nations were still actively hunting them all down.

I noted the time. I usually started a session with Alastor around now but he was off talking to Spencer about something. I took the free afternoon and sprawled myself on the warm grass near the cliff side. The wind was cold but the warm sun soaked into my bones. I could still hear laughter from the haven and the gossip of teens down by the shore.

I fell asleep and woke up just as happy. I opened my wings to stretch and left them wide open, the black scales soaking up the sun even better. For once I was okay with being me. Knowing that I had some Angel in me made me feel better about being part Demon. I knew I wasn't all bad.

I stayed like that for an hour. I was happily content. Things were going in a good direction. I was at peace and I had a feeling I was going to be able to keep it that way for longer. My life wasn't all about fighting and hardships, there was now good in it, too.

I felt Alastor's magic before he appeared. "Peaceful," he commented.

"Very." I kept my eyes closed, still enjoying the sun. I was unbothered by his physical and magical presence. He was quiet for a long time. I opened one eye to check that he was still there and saw his own closed, enjoying the warm sun and salty air. His hair moved in the wind to reveal a small content smile on his face. I mimicked the smile.

One of his eyes caught me looking and I quickly stared up at the sky. The clouds dotted the bright blue landscape, occasionally blocking out the sun but never for too long.

"How have your cravings been?" he broke the silence. His tone wasn't laced with his usual sarcasm this time.

I shrugged, casting a look in his direction. "I always feel it but that's nothing new."

"You may need more with time. Do let me know if more is what you need."

"Sure." I closed my eyes again. I was feeling the craving already but I was trying not give into the feeling every time. I needed to build a resistance to it.

Another few minutes of silence passed. I was drifting into another sleep when he spoke, abruptly pulling me back. "Are you going out tonight?"

"Yeah. Another fighting ring. How did you know?" I turned my head to look at him.

"I have my ways." For once, that saying didn't make my skin crawl. He examined his red claws closely, the other hand on top of his staff.

"What were you talking to Spencer about?" I tried for conversation.

"He's been having some trouble lately. Enemies are seeking him out."

"Oh."

"It's nothing to be concerned about. I took care of them." He licked his lips.

"What about bringing him here?"

His eyebrows lifted. "It would remove him from the outside world."

"We already have a lot of people here," I argued, "And we're mostly trying to get Demons out of Hell so it's not so overrun. They might be more willing to come if they read about what life is like here."

He thought for a moment, bringing a claw up to his chin and eyes drifting to the sea. "That's not a terrible idea."

I scoffed, "Thanks." His eyes went back to me and a smirk pulled at his lips. "What?"

"Oh nothing, darling. Have fun tonight." He turned on his heels and walked towards the house. I noticed the outline of our thread again.

****

I swallowed hard. The fighting ring that had been getting a lot of attention was the same ring as my big fight that Vox had broadcasted. 

I let out my shaky breath. You're a different person now.

Some of the teenagers had come with us, eager to prove themselves useful to the community. Reagan was not among them as she deemed herself unable to help without magic or Demonic attributes. I was slightly grateful because I didn't want to risk putting her in danger again.

Giving the signal to move, the group slithered up through the shadows. We had opened just a few hanging cages before I noticed the new cameras.

Shit.

I was on high alert as everyone worked. The guards were all unconscious and every fighter made it safely across the field. It made me even more nervous when no one showed up by the time we got to the top floor. My eyes were constantly scanning the walls and my magic sense stretched as far out as it could. I was worried about a bullet hitting me like last time.

My ears caught electric static. I spun, ready to face Vox, but came face to face with Striker instead. A pure white rope hung in his claws and an ugly snarl plastered on his face.

"You're dead this time," he growled. He jumped in zig zags up to me, tossing the rope for my head. I morphed into my Dragon and caught it between my teeth.

Different person. Different person. Different person.

I pulled hard to drag him across the ring opening but he jumped over it. I reared up to slam my front claws on him. He jumped out of the way as he threw the other end over my head. It snatched one of my horns and he jerked it hard enough to make my neck POP!

I turned in a circle and whipped my tail at him. It whistled loudly and missed him by a hair. Alcine, my shadow, caught his foot when he landed. His attention diverted, giving me the opening to bring the ceiling down on him. I then opened the floor and casted him straight to the earth. I looked down the hole and waited for one of the rocks to move. But none of them did.

I returned to my Demon form and helped the last of the drowsy fighters down the stairs. I tried to look ahead for the rock pile as we came down but I was too late. White rope caught one of the teenager's throats and they were flung to Striker's feet. He wrapped an arm around their throat and held a knife to their chin.

"One of us is dying tonight, Python!" he yelled. He had lost it. His eyes were wild, his hair a mess, his hat gone, and his clothes torn. "And it ain't gonna be me."

"What do you want?" I snarled, eyes watching the knife closely.

"We're doing this the old fashioned way. No magic. Just skill."

I felt my throat run dry. Striker had his own experience in fighting and each time we had fought, he had won. Magic and Alastor were the only reasons I had escaped his past attempts.

The teenager let out a whimper when he drew blood with the knife. "Alright! Fine."

He shoved the kid away and took a fighting stance. I did the same and waited for him to approach. It didn't take long. He came straight at me this time, knife still in hand. I went to all fours and waited, jumping away at the last second. I whipped my tail up and missed his hand. I needed the knife gone.

He sliced at me, each step faster than the other. My eyes were locked on his chest as my peripherals gauged his speed and distance. I could hear the metal cutting the air, twice catching my nose and cheek.

My back hit a wall. I fell to the ground and shoved him away with my feet. He came again, this time coming from above his head. My hand brushed against his arm and my other hand came up to claw his face. I felt the softness of his eyes and his scream rang in my eardrums.

I grabbed his wrist and wrenched the knife from his grip, sending it clattering across the floor. His elbow came in contact with my nose before his fist did. The back of my head hit the floor and white filled my vision. His claws wrapped around my throat and pressed. One hand pulled on his wrist while the other clawed at his face. My feet pounded the floor as I tried to throw him off.

He let out a snarl and rolled off me. I gasped for air and sat up on my elbows. His knife was buried deep in the back of his shoulder. He snapped his head to look at the teenager who backed away. He spun on me, boot connecting with my face.

I cried out and curled inward. I felt his presence moving away from me and towards the kid. I forced myself on my knees but I couldn't look up yet. My head spun and the whole world tilted to the side.

My ear flicked when I heard the boy scream. I rolled on my side and peered through one eye. He had them on their back with a foot pressing down on their throat. He pulled out a second knife from his hip, raising it above his head.

Alcine grabbed at his shadow and held the knife back. I forced myself to my feet and threw my weight into him. He fell into the wall and we wrestled, raking our claws into ours skin and trying pin the other to the ground. 

"You were always a pain in the ass," he hissed in my ear, grabbing a fistful of my hair and pulling, "Nothing but a bother, nothing but a burden. You're so weak."

"Not anymore," I said through gritted teeth. We both had a grip or arm lock on the other's arm, desperately trying to shove the other to the ground. Blood dripped down our faces as our eyes locked. 

"You always will be." He gave way with his arms so our faces would come closer. "You'll never be enough. Always second best. It's in your nature."

"You don't know me like that anymore." I barely missed the snap of his jaws on my nose. 

"How's Reagan?" he asked nonchalantly. I bristled, falling backwards and throwing him over my head with my legs. He landed on his back, sending the knife deeper into his body, and let out a yell. He tried rolling onto his knees but I restricted his airflow. 

The corners of my vision were red as I thought back to Reagan. She was terrified to leave her room and guilt gnawed at her every time we spoke, all because of him. I then looked at the teenager cowering against the wall, eyes wide and holding their throat as they watched everything unfold. 

"Unfair," he sputtered. My face was blank as I stared down at his struggling figure. Everything about my life was unfair. He had promised me freedom if I won a championship and when I did, he threw me in another cage.

"I'm a Demon, just like you." I casted us in darkness so all he saw was me towering above him. I raised my hand and pointed a black claw at him. "We don't play fair." I flicked my fingers and his head snapped to the side at inhumane speed, killing him instantly. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author's Note:

A Demon or an Angel?

[harukadrawsthings]

I can't remember the last time I drew realistically. It was probably during my academic career in Fine Arts. My graphite pencils are survivors from that time when I sweated a lot between many evenings observing live nude models and scratching A2 sheets. This kind of work is out of my comfort zone and so I was worried that I might be out of practice (damn you, imposter syndrome!), but it went better than I thought 💪.

Do not repost. Do not modify. Always credit me!

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[valiant-if]

What would the ro’s react to a mc that’s happy and easygoing all time just get really stressed out and start crying relationship stage and if your not to busy can you do crushing stage to and if you don’t that 💯 ok to because your problem really busy sorry if this is not good English it is not my first language

Hi, anon! You don't ever have to apologize to me about your English. I only speak one language fluently, so it's really impressive that you can speak more than one!

As for your ask:

Anton - His reaction would be more or less the same regardless of crushing or relationship stage. He would offer MC an ear in the hopes that talking it out would makes things a little better, but mostly he'd just offer his quiet company and comfort via hugs or cuddling if desired. Physical comfort offered is what varies depending on the depth of the relationship.

Switch - In crushing stage, she tries to offer solutions before comfort. She would have a very "crying doesn't fix anything" attitude. In a relationship stage, she's a lot softer and more sympathetic to MC's situation and would offer comfort first. She would only offer solutions if that's what the MC wanted.

Zero - In crushing stage, she would suggest a day out (or a day in). Feeling stressed? Surely a date would make it better. Or maybe just hanging out together and watching a movie. In a relationship stage, she would be more comfortable getting personal and talking about things if the MC wanted to, but she would still offer the former options if MC just needed to take their mind off of things.

Path - Crushing stage is dependent on who has the crush. Nine times out of ten, it is more likely that MC develops a crush long before Path does, so he would be as mean as he always is in this scenario. Once Path starts developing a crush, though, he might just avoid MC because he's not sure how to handle it. Once in an established relationship, he's comfortable enough to offer MC some cuddles and might even pamper them a little bit. He'd probably also suggest sex as a stress-relieving activity.

Kiran - The same for both crushing and relationship stage. Kiran, similar to Switch, as a bit of a "crying doesn't fix anything" attitude, but they also know that pragmatism ceases to matter when stress piles up high enough. So Kiran would quietly start to handle whatever things are making MC stressed. Too much work? Kiran would just do it in their free time. Having trouble finding a solution to a specific problem? He would come up with a list of possible solutions to present once MC is ready to revisit the issue. Essentially, she would just remove whatever stressors she is capable of removing.

Yulia - Depending on the stressors involved, Yulia may or may not get involved in trying to help during a crushing stage. If the stressors involve something personal, she figures it's none of her business. But if it involves something like too much workload, she might offer to take over some tasks if they are within her capabilities. During a relationship stage, she would be all up in MC's business—still taking care of tasks that she can, but also, if the stressors involve other people, she will have words with those people.

Hex - I'm sure Hex enjoyers never saw this coming (sarcasm), but he would set himself to the task of making MC some comfort food, regardless of crushing or relationship stage. He'd make himself available to talk, of course, if MC wants to, but first and foremost he'd make the food and then be available to cuddle it out.

A2 - In crushing stage, A2 is not likely to get very involved because she thinks it's not her business (and might also find a happy and easygoing MC a little bit annoying), but she would still act more irritable than normal, being upset on their behalf. In relationship stage, if any person is the source of MC stressors, they had better watch their backs because she will be on the war path.

Thanks for the ask! 🎃

[writer-in-theory]

Aftershocks — steddie.

Summary: After the Russian interrogation takes a greater toll on Steve than expected, he tries to hide the seizures from Eddie. Everything is fine until the Upside Down comes back. Prompt: A2 - “I am not a role model” Pairing: Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson Rating: Teen Word Count: 3.6k Content Warnings: Descriptions of seizures, Mild language Also Read On AO3: Here A/N: Am I back with another completely self-indulgent fic where I put my own problems on a comfort character? Maybe. Regardless, this is another fill for @harringroveson-bingo ! A huge huge thanks to @serenity-lattes because once again, this wouldn't have gotten done without them. Between headcanoning, encouring me to write it, helping to write a bit of it, and beta-ing? Yeah, basically a co-writer over here. Also a huge thanks to @lcvingprentjss for encouraging this to be written and beta-ing, and as always, for putting up with the incessant screaming while this was a work in progress. Anyway, I hope y'all enjoy!

The first time it happened, Steve wasn’t sure what to think.

Five nights after the battle at Starcourt, when the bruises were beginning to fade and the cuts were scabbed over, Steve woke up in the middle of the night. It felt like his body was fighting an invisible enemy—his limbs moving against his own accord and his back arching then relaxing in such a stilted way he struggled to catch his breath. It only lasted a few seconds, not even half a minute, but Steve was sure it had been hours. 

He didn’t get back to sleep that night, preferring instead to sit awake on the couch with a book in his lap he’d never read. He sat guard against whatever it was that made his body move that way, keeping every light in the living room on to warn against some Upside Down force that was capable of taking over him the way it had taken over Will and Billy. 

The next morning when Robin slipped into the Beemer and asked why he looked so tired, Steve almost told her. The words got caught though, sticking to the roof of his mouth like caramel as he fought to let her in. Everyone always thought there was something wrong with his head because of failing school so badly, why prove them right?

So even when it happened again a week and a half later, then again two weeks after that, Steve didn’t say a word. He got better at managing it—learning to sleep with several pillows around him so he stopped smacking his arm against the wall so harshly it bruised, always disappearing to his own room when the Party, Nancy, Jon, and Robin would sleep piled up in the living room lest they all get scared by it. Even when Eddie would come over to help them both get some sleep, Steve would disappear into the bathroom when he could feel the warning signs, dragging as many pillows and blankets as he could out of the closet without waking up the other man.

Steve did what he always did: he managed on his own. 

There didn’t seem to be any one obvious trigger. Sometimes he woke up in the middle of one, other times, a sound would hit the right pitch for just enough time to send him straight to the ground. Though, the ones that terrified him the most, came out of nowhere, with little warning. 

It had been one of those that almost spoiled his secret for him, during one of his and Robin’s shifts at the Family Video. It had been a good day, for all intents and purposes. Tuesdays were never particularly busy, but there was a big enough rush when the high school let out that kept them both from total boredom. 

Except as Steve leaned against the main counter, he could feel a pressure building in the back of his head. It was an odd tugging sensation, one that gave him a sense of what stars must feel like when they curl in on themselves and become a black hole. Almost immediately his heart rate picked up, eyes scanning for a good enough escape. Running out the front door would be too obvious, and would inherently produce a handful of worried phone calls after Robin told all of their friends, and worse, his boyfriend. The only other spot for any sort of privacy was the backroom where they took their breaks, consisting of only an old table and a barely functioning TV. There was no padding there, nothing to protect himself from whatever his body did while he lost control, but it was his only option if he didn’t want Robin to find out.

“I’m taking a break,” Steve choked out, wincing at the way his voice shook involuntarily. 

“What? Hey, dingus, I don’t know if you forgot but you took your break twe—Fine! You owe me!” Robin shouted after him, not sounding particularly angry but annoyed enough that Steve was sure he’d hear it later.

It was the closest call he’d had in a while. Nearly the second Steve turned the lock on the door, his knees were crumpling under the weight of him. He had just enough sense to grab haphazardly at the edge of the table, slowing his fall just enough so he wouldn’t hit his head again. 

There were varying degrees of these episodes. Sometimes Steve wouldn’t fully jerk around oddly but would lose time without much warning. Others, he’d clench up and jerk so badly his joints would ache for days afterward, sometimes straining his muscles like he’d gotten injured playing sports. This was one of those other times, as nearly every muscle locked up painfully the second he hit the ground. Steve was never sure how long they lasted, but by the time he could pick himself up and swipe the tears off of his face, Robin was making a joke about how only Steve Harrington could get lost in the backroom.

Eventually, Steve began to figure out how to handle it. He knew that when the lights on the TV began flashing too much to close his eyes tight and knew all of the excuses for the bruises and scrapes that would work on the others. And though Steve knew he’d never quite be as okay as he was before the Russians, he found a system that worked well enough. It wasn’t perfect—there were still moments in time when it grew tough to hide how much he was hurting, how scared he was when a string of episodes happened too close to one another. These were the moments that threatened to destroy all the work he’d put in to seem okay because with one look Robin seemed to see right through him on those days. 

She knew something was wrong. After everything they’d gone through together, after all of the painful days post-Starcourt they’d spent reassuring each other that they were fine, that no one was coming after them, it was impossible for her to not see the fear lingering in his eyes. Robin always asked him, sometimes with a look far more effective than any words could have been, but Steve would shrug it off, distracting her with another joke or topic change. 

It worked on Eddie too. He hated making him worry, especially after Eddie had spent so much time helping him recover from the “mall fire” Steve had been caught in. After so many late nights Eddie spent holding onto Steve, promising that whatever it was that had happened in the mall was over, Eddie recognized the signs of hurt. Steve was struggling again, his hair more unkempt and those dark circles reappearing under his eyes as he feared sleep again, scared to wake up without control again. He hated it, hated that even after surviving everything it still wasn’t over for him, but he would hate bringing Eddie into this even more than he already had. Eddie got to be free from the Upside Down and all of its horrors, and like hell would Steve ever be the one to ruin that for him.

Except, sometimes there really never was a choice, it seemed. Because months later, when Steve had begun to get into a rhythm with his episodes, everything turned on its head. Suddenly he was getting a phone call in the middle of the night from Wayne Munson, saying that there was a dead body in the trailer and Eddie was missing, that the cops thought he did it no matter how many times Wayne said that their Eddie couldn’t have.

How many times would they defeat the Upside Down only to have it return again? They keep sacrificing everything, only for it to come back even stronger a year later. There was nothing worse than seeing that haunted look on Eddie’s face: the one Steve was sure he’d given once, when he was sure the demodogs would have taken him out in the tunnels what felt like decades ago. But there was no real time to explain everything, only giving bits and pieces of the years they’d spent at war with this thing so Eddie would know what they were facing. 

Steve supposed, after everything, it only made sense for the Upside Down to take this from him too, this secret he’d kept carefully wrapped up now exposed for his friends to see.

It happened after he’d been pulled through the bottom of Lover’s Lake into the Upside Down. After struggling for breath in the water, and then having to fight his way out of the hold of dozens of weird demobats with sharp claws and even sharper teeth, Steve wasn’t surprised when he felt that familiar tugging at the base of his skull.

“Oh, shit,” he hissed after spitting out the gluey blood from one of the bats. 

The second Steve was on the ground, the others’ attention was pulled away from the strange world around them to focus on him. The convulsing wasn’t as bad as it had been in the past, though Steve could feel his muscles locked up so tightly he was sure something would tear if his body moved wrong. What made this one the worst, though, was that he had three of the most important people in his life standing over him now.

“Steve?” Nancy asked, face contorting into pure concern.

Robin laughed at first, even nudging his hip a little with the tip of her shoe. “C’mon, dingus, very funny. Rabies doesn’t even do that until 24 hours aft—Shit, Steve, Steve are you okay?” The amusement quickly morphed into panic as Steve didn’t get back up off the ground. “What’s happening?”

“He’s seizing,” Nancy spoke up, instantly taking the lead once she recognized what was happening. “Quick, we have to get him on his side so he doesn’t hurt himself.”

Steve could feel hands on him, Nancy’s smaller ones pushing his legs while Eddie’s moved his torso into the right position, holding onto him as tightly as he dared to keep his body from moving back to the supine position. 

“Stevie, baby, it’s gonna be okay,” Eddie choked out, not even bothering to hide the tears building and falling from his eyes. The past few days had been like his own personal preview of Hell, but this? Seeing the love of his life suffering without being able to do anything but hold onto him? Eddie was sure nothing else could ever be as terrible. “You’re gonna be okay.”

Eddie repeated it for the full episode, using his free hand to brush through Steve’s hair as his body began to relax under Eddie’s hands. “What was that, baby?” Eddie dared to ask after Steve had time to catch his breath, instinctively turning further on his side to hide his face from Eddie. 

It wasn’t that he was ashamed, but the idea of Eddie, Robin, and Nancy having to see him like that made his chest hurt worse than the lack of oxygen. It made him hiccup, his chest stuttering harshly as he fought off the tears he so badly wanted to let out.

“No, ‘s fine. I’m fine,” Steve answered as he began to force his breathing into something that resembled normal, sitting up and pointedly staring at the ground between him and Eddie. “It’s just a thing that happens sometimes, it’s not a big deal.”

“Not a big deal? What the hell, Harrington!” It was Robin who lashed out first, standing a few steps away from where the other three were huddled together on the ground. Her hands were pulling on her hair harshly, tears streaking down her face, and the kind of fear that Steve hadn’t seen since they were being interrogated in the mall basement was written clearly in her eyes. “That is the opposite of not a big deal. You collapsed. I thought you were dying.”

Steve picked at the cuff of one of his pant legs, mourning the way he’d have to ditch his favorite pair of jeans when all of this was over. It was better than seeing the distress on all of his friends' faces, seeing everything he’d fought so hard to avoid.

“How long has this been happening, Steve?” Nancy asked, her voice gentle like she was scared anything more than a whisper would spook him. Steve shrugged, working his jaw as if he might eventually answer even when he had no intention to. “You could’ve told us. We could’ve helped.”

“Didn’t want you to,” Steve murmured, suddenly shaking his head and climbing to his feet. He brushed off the three pairs of worried hands that immediately reached for him, taking a large step back so they couldn’t stop him. “Don’t. Let’s just get moving, okay? We have to find a way outta here.”

“Stevie, we have to ta—” Eddie began, and Steve would hate himself for it later but he couldn’t help but turn on him, cheeks burning with all of the frustration, fear, and humiliation he was feeling after making his friends witness that.

“Just drop it, Eddie. I’m not talking about it, not when we have better things to do,” Steve snapped, picking a direction and immediately starting off toward the horizon, not bothering to check if anyone else was following.

No one said anything for a long time. It wasn’t until Robin and Nancy walked ahead of them in the weird forest that Eddie spoke again. They were walking so close that Eddie’s shoulder brushed Steve’s, still exposed to the chill despite the vest that Eddie had wrapped him up in moments before. It wasn’t the first time Steve had worn something of Eddie’s, but it was the first time Eddie ever let anyone but himself touch his battle vest. 

Steve didn’t have the brain power to consider the implications of that.

“Are you really okay?” Eddie asked when it was just the two of them, watching where he was walking but stealing glances at Steve every second he could like if he didn’t then Steve would collapse again.

“I’d be better if everyone stopped asking me that,” Steve huffed, looking up at the red-tinged sky like it might hold the answers he was looking for. The annoyance felt odd on his tongue, barbed and misfitting as he lobbed it harshly at Eddie. The man was just worried, Steve knew that, but already he could see how everyone was treating him differently. Eddie, as close as possible, like he could catch Steve if he collapsed again, and Nancy, who glanced back at him every so often to make sure he was still upright. Even Robin, not once making fun of him since it happened despite having had plenty of opportunities to do so.

“Stevie,” Eddie pressed, finally stopping completely so he could focus his attention on Steve. “We’re worried, that’s it.”

“I know, I know that,” Steve groaned, “I just...”

“What?”

“I don’t know, okay? I don’t know,” Steve let out, running a hand roughly through his hair. “If there’s something wrong with me, if everyone knows I could do that at any second...You don’t get it, Eds, you can’t.”

“Try me, big boy,” Eddie continued, no judgment in his eyes at all, “Before today, I wouldn’t have believed a lot of things. But evil wizards and portal dimensions kinda changed that.” Steve knew he could trust Eddie, and knew that he had been there for him in ways no one else had before. Still, he could feel panic clawing in his throat as he tried to get the words out. 

“In all this shit...I don’t know, protecting the kids? That’s always been my job, the one thing I was good at. If I can’t be trusted to do that then...what the hell am I here for?” Steve tried to get out, pointedly not looking at Eddie as he spoke.

“Hey, hey, who said anything about not trusting you?” Eddie instantly spoke, moving around so he could stand in front of Steve. He pressed in close, making it impossible for Steve to avoid looking at him. “Stevie.”

He couldn’t help the little smile that pulled on his lips, just having Eddie this close to him. So Steve looked up, his vision swallowed up by expressive brown eyes. 

“Stevie, you’re the damn kids’ hero. They won’t stop talking about you. It was almost getting annoying how much I had to hear about how great you are. I think you’re Dustin’s role model for life,” Eddie spoke.

“I’m not a role model,” Steve answered automatically, cheeks heating up at the thought that he’d really made such a good impression on them. He wanted to be a good support source for them, to help them get through all of these awful experiences they’d all had together. If he could make Dustin’s high school life a little better, if he could be the big brother he’d always wanted to be and the one Dustin had once said he’d dreamed of for years, then everything would be worth it.

“Please, you’d think Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington turned into the goddamn Mother Theresa,” Eddie teased, fingers brushing over the makeshift bandage wrapped around Steve’s middle. “This won’t change how anyone sees you. If anything, seeing you fight through this shit will make them look up to you more, they’ll be insufferable. We just want to help, Stevie, you shouldn’t be doing this all alone.”

And that, well.

“Whatever, Eds,” Steve scoffed, a soft smile clear on his lips as he pulled from Eddie’s grasp and started walking. “C’mon, the girls are getting ahead of us.”

“What, not even a thank you kiss?” Eddie called after him, pulling a startled laugh from Steve.

“Ask me after we’re back in the Rightside Up.”

Steve had almost forgotten about it, after.

After nearly losing Eddie—“What happened to not pulling any hero moves?”—and narrowly saving Max from Vecna, all Steve wanted to do was to sleep for about a week. The entire group gathered at his house, all feeling similarly that it would be much worse to spend this first night alone.

The first night was always the worst, after. When the shadows were still fresh, when he could still hear all the nightmarish sounds and feel the lingering fear of imminent death, the idea of being alone made Steve want to curl up and cry.

That was how he ended up on the floor of his living room piled on top of pillows and blankets while the Party and teens all spread out around the space. He ended up between Eddie and Robin, with his back pressed to Eddie’s front while one of his hands reached out to hold onto Robin’s arm in front of him like he was making sure she wouldn’t disappear in the middle of the night.

It was easy to fall asleep. It was much harder waking up.

It wasn’t a bad one by any means, as it seemed even his body was too exhausted to fully go through the motions. And yet Steve was still startled away by his body tensing, hands curled up painfully toward his chest as his legs twitched and kicked out at Eddie.

This time, though, he didn’t wake up alone. Instead, he came to on his side, with Eddie pressed up close to his back and nose pressed into Steve’s neck, whispering gentle words into his skin. Robin was holding him too, arms wrapped around him from the front and telling him that everything was going to be fine. They were quiet about it, voices barely over a whisper so they didn’t wake the entire group and prompt an explanation Steve was too tired to give.

But God, they were there. 

His heart ached in a way it hadn’t ever done before, the feeling swelling in his chest as he let himself be held by the love of his life and his best friend in the entire world. All at once, the past several months of pain rushed up on him, forcing a choked-out sob from Steve’s lips. The tears kept coming once one had been allowed, one hand curling tightly into Robin’s shirt while the other reached out to hold tightly to Eddie’s hand. So Steve cried, allowing himself to take comfort where he never had before. 

Steve wasn’t sure how long he cried, just that by the time the sounds eased into something resembling a whimper, he felt more exhausted than he had in ages. It was bone deep, running right through him like all of the tears had caused an outpouring of the last energy reserves Steve had been holding onto. Like, one hug from Eddie and Robin shocked him out of the adrenaline state he’d been living in since the first seizure.

“Thank you,” Steve whispered, voice watery with tears he didn’t have the energy to feel embarrassed about, “thank you.”

“That’s what we’re here for, dingus,” Robin answered, her own cheeks wet with tears.

“Go back to sleep, Stevie, we have you,” Eddie promised, pressing a kiss to Steve’s jaw as his hand started rubbing comforting circles into his hip. “You don’t have to deal with this alone anymore. We’re here.”

Maybe it wasn’t perfect. There would be more episodes, and more tears, and more tough conversations Steve wouldn’t always be ready for. But through it all, he’ll know he had this—people who cared about him, people who loved him.

That knowledge alone made everything feel like it would be okay again for the first time in months.

TAGLIST: @alessiamargaux @minispice-1 @shadetea @emily19990 @alexxavicry @raven2008 @whoringrove @strangerleaves @blackpanzy @goodproofingwater @greetings-and-salutations @lesbianpinkhairedjughead @kerlypride @singmeyoursimpsong @im-sam-fucking-winchester @angel_wings_and_tattoos

wanna join the taglist?

[hanzaikyou]

Kubota Hidetoshi Range Analysis

So. A year after the last one, and a year after I said I'd do my boy, we're finally doing Hide! Hide's will be interesting, because while he's often made to sing in a higher key (and certainly capable of it), we've also had multiple instances of key adjustments (and him requesting key adjustments) to better fit his register. So let's go~

The Verdict

From what I've found, Hide has a possible, proven range of A2-B4, just over 2 octaves. His comfortable upper range, however, most likely ends around E3. I do think he could go lower, due to the ease with which he hits his lowest notes, however no evidence has been found to prove this.

The Evidence

I think the benefit of waiting so long to do this one is that now, I have a rather vast range of materials to check through; this analysis is brought to you by my admittedly too large collection of Hide DVDs.

Lower Limit (A2)

So, I started my journey here with the Tenimyus, specifically Petenshi Da and Illusion, specifically the Dream Live 2014 version.

I came here first for one reason, and that is that this was the first known instance of a song's key being changed to suit him - his performance in Rikkai Nationals is in Masa's key, but when he got to perform it in concert for Dream Live, it was roughly a semitone lower. Suited him far better in the key change, but he killed both versions. Petenshi Da had a more subtle change - the harmonies that Bachon and Masa did originally were switched, as Mikati more carries Masa's high tone, so Hide has the low harmony.

That said. Illusion from DL2014 gave me a low of D3 (after the first mm ahh ecstasy part), and Petenshi's low harmony goes to E3. Decent starting point, though I did feel we could go lower.

And I was rewarded, almost immediately, with OP1 during the Baron Dublin part, roughly 25 minutes in - on the "even if my hands are tainted with sin" line, Hide's low harmony goes down to a C3. Hell yes. Same with Oath, his harmony is a C3. I don't believe we will get lower than that in a myu, and certainly not on a solo song, as the lowest we get with any baritone in Morimyu is around a C3-D3 (Arterton, Shunly, sort of Izawa too?). That said, I do think Hide is capable of lower.

AND I WAS RIGHT! Valentine Blue, my favourite cosy stage, and the owner of my heart. Pretty, cosy Hide hits a A2 in that, as the first note, in a really cute acapella song that had me melting. (Hearing him sing "you will never walk alone" just. Dammit I love him.)

It was right about here I remembered Hakumyu. Please understand this whole thing was written up, and all the research done, with the Bluray literally sitting directly in front of me. Like between my arms as I typed in front of me. Idk how I forgot it. Either way, checked that. We got an Eb3 in the first song, not a lot that can apply here, and I got to freak out about Hide's growls and pretty long hair again. I'm considering that a win.

Higher Limit (B4)

Okay, so starting (as last time) with Illusion, but this time the Rikkai Nationals version, we got a high of G4. He hit it, and hit it beautifully, but I have no doubt that this note was why the song changed key. Petenshi Da wasn't far off, giving us a high of F#, sung alongside Mikati.

My next plan was to head to Morimyu, specifically OP1. Hide had mentioned in the OP3 bonus DVD that he had requested after OP1 to have his parts lowered, so it stood to reason that the first myu would have some of his highest parts. That said, the highest we got was an F#4, found in The Three Brothers' Secret.

Now by this point, I was fairly certain that I'd well and truly found that highest note. But I had more Hide stages with more Hide songs. And I cannot resist a good Hide song. Reki Tame Live 3 had a song in it, which gives us a more recent iteration of that G4. Sengoku Night Blood was similar in that effect, no new info, but he hit that G4 beautifully (and the growl earlier in the song? hello).

The only one I think may have something higher is High Card - the intro song, Trickster, has a B4 at the end of its chorus. Hide is clearly singing at that point, but there are so many people singing at that point that he can't be audibly identified. Gotta love an intense group song, amirite. Similarly, the ending song Squad! has a Bb4 in it's lower harmony on that chorus - I have to assume that would have been Hide's part. A watch of the backstages proves that both he did sing those notes, and that they were stable, so I must include them. Go off my legend.

EDIT: The ending song of Host-Chan THE FINAL (I believe its called Gimmie Your Love) also contains a B4 in its chorus, and on the show where he wins, Hide can be audibly identified. He hits it, and good job to him, but he does sound like he’s straining for it.

I didn't realise his range would be so wide, going in to this - he's rivaling Shogo, and quite easily at that. I would be so curious to see how low he could go, given opportunity to go outside the Standard Musical Range, cause the dexterity seen on those Valentine Blue notes was amazing to see. This was such a fun excuse to just. flip through a bunch of Hide stages for fun; I've been focusing too much on trying (badly) to sub High Card that I didn't give myself time for all the other pretty Hides. Anyway, we'll see how long it takes me to do another, and who exactly will pop up... perhaps Kenken? I wanna rewatch the Cocoa Otoko stuff. See ya later~

[blueprint-9376]

Hey! I love your blog!

Can I ask how you study for B1 exam or how you study French in general? Any tips? Thank you!!

P.S. thank you for adding English captions to your posts :)

As for my French study in general, since I first learned French in college, I just listened to the college classes well and tried to do my homework hard. However, compared to my college classmates, I started learning French much later, so I had to study Delf separately during vacations and make a lot of effort to become familiar with French on my own.

word

-When memorizing a word, you must read the example sentence at the same time.

-Select one vocabulary list and memorize it all properly.

grammar

-It’s similar to studying words. You should choose one grammar book and memorize it all to the end. Instead of doing this and that, it is better to choose one book and do it properly.

-The recommended book is <grammaire progressive du francais-intermediaire>

reading

-When reading a text, I tried to improve my ability to interpret the sentence in its overall context rather than focusing on each word. If there is a sentence that you cannot interpret at all, try analyzing the sentence structure first.

-It is good to read French novels to practice understanding the context of the text. I chose an easy novel like ‘Little Nicola’ and read it little by little. Even if there were sentences I didn't understand, I tried to infer them from the overall content of the novel.

Listening

-Listening was the most difficult part of studying French. To be honest, I still find it difficult to listen to and understand French.

-The important thing is to keep listening to French as a habit. The apps I recommend are ‘TV5MONDEplus’, ‘RFI’, and ‘Le francais facile’.

-It's good to choose one French drama or movie and watch it over and over again. I selected a specific episode of the ‘Skam France’ series and watched it over and over again.

speaking

-I looked up YouTube videos on French pronunciation and tried to follow them.

-When preparing for Delf, it is difficult to do it alone. In Korea, there is a study service where you can take classes by speaking with a French person over the phone, but I'm not sure what kind of service there is in other countries.

writing

-Up to A2, I just wrote down all the sample answers and memorized them all. However, starting from B1, this method does not work. In the end, it seems that it is possible to get a good score in writing only by consistently studying vocabulary and grammar from the B1 level.

-B1 Writing is difficult to study in a short period of time, so I practiced writing down one expected problem every day. Then I looked at the answer again and analyzed the incorrect sentences.

💘Good luck with your Delf exam

[neteyamyawne]

https://www.tumblr.com/tsirxyawntu/725046395687649280/theirs?source=share

this is Tono and Jake being dom with sub reader, also they are yandere

https://www.tumblr.com/eyweveng/725141917745250304/training-concentration-again-your-oloetykan?source=share

this is about jake with a much younger metkaying bratty girl

https://www.tumblr.com/theblueflower05/725202779689418752/something-dirty-you-ask-something-dirty-you-get?source=share

how jakes like to fuck (im the anon too in this)

https://www.tumblr.com/quaritchsluts/725278723938582528/please-my-hope-is-only-in-you-because-no-one-wants?source=share

omatikaya jake and avatar neytiri (she is dom and they are a little out of characters but is good, also is fresh)

https://www.tumblr.com/pocoyo-yo/707798707080396800/%F0%9D%90%88-%F0%9D%90%92%F0%9D%90%A1%F0%9D%90%A8%F0%9D%90%AE%F0%9D%90%A5%F0%9D%90%9D%F0%9D%90%A7%F0%9D%90%AD-%F0%9D%90%82%F0%9D%90%AB%F0%9D%90%B2-%F0%9D%90%81%F0%9D%90%AE%F0%9D%90%AD-%F0%9D%90%88-%F0%9D%90%8B%F0%9D%90%A8%F0%9D%90%AF%F0%9D%90%9E-%F0%9D%90%88%F0%9D%90%AD?source=share

jake fucks his mate like they are young again

https://www.tumblr.com/anchoeritic/704757566041915392/%F0%9D%90%A6%F0%9D%90%A2%F0%9D%90%9D%F0%9D%90%A7%F0%9D%90%A2%F0%9D%90%A0%F0%9D%90%A1%F0%9D%90%AD%F0%9D%90%AC-%F0%9D%90%A2%F0%9D%90%A7%F0%9D%90%AD%F0%9D%90%9E%F0%9D%90%AB%F0%9D%90%A5%F0%9D%90%AE%F0%9D%90%9D%F0%9D%90%9E?source=share

dilf jake with human

https://www.tumblr.com/angelltheninth/711809888504954880/avatar-men-eating-you-out?source=share

avatar mens eating you out

https://www.tumblr.com/anchoeritic/708546015981142016/no-but-stepdad-jake-fucking-reader-sideways-at?source=share

im not really a fan of step incest or shit like that (i didn't even read this one) but i don't know if you might like this or not

https://www.tumblr.com/persefolli/724515435137187840/%F0%9D%90%88%F0%9D%90%A6%F0%9D%90%A6%F0%9D%90%9A-%F0%9D%90%8B%F0%9D%90%9E%F0%9D%90%9A%F0%9D%90%AF%F0%9D%90%9E-%F0%9D%90%B2%F0%9D%90%9A-%F0%9D%90%82%F0%9D%90%AB%F0%9D%90%B2%F0%9D%90%A2%F0%9D%90%A7?source=share

that bastart of neteyam cheats on you so you do his daddy

https://www.tumblr.com/truetogaia/713814436695146496/im-feeding-yall-so-good-rn-puttin-in-the?source=share

jake taking your virginity

if you want more tell

also thanks for before i always thinked i was crazy for being more horny during my period now i feel better

My beautiful, absolutely gorgeous amazing 🪼nonnie, i have no words, you are amazing, freaking fantastic, I'm happy we share the same period experience babes, i love you babes, thank you for all of them, i read the all last night (yes, i didn't sleep at all last night, don't come at me😭)

These just got me more horny than before lmao 😭

[arkhammaid]

Hi Anne! I've been thinking of sending this ask for a while now, so here I am.

I've been following you for a while now and got to experience your developement of writing (x Reader Fics, Crossovers, AO3 Fics and now SMAU's) and I wanted to say that I think your journey as author is incredible! So I wanted to ask, what has helped you? In general for writing but also finding inspiration? Because I know you somewhere mentioned that English is not your first language, which is the same for me.

I too have ideas for Fics, but writing them is a bit intimidating, if not scary to me. So I would be very interested to hear your thoughts and advice!

Thank you in advance and have a nice week!

hi there, dearest anon! thank you so much for your message, it's always so lovely to receive them <33

some of my thoughts, advice and more below the cut!

(please note that i'm kinda rambling here, i tried to sort it out but.. yeah, take your time reading through it!! and as always, not edited/proofread LMAO)

so first of all, here is an awesome post about writing advice (focused on smau's) by @formulafics. please check it out, because all of this can also be applied to any other fic form

the most important part, before anything else: write whatever you want!! it's your time, your passion, it's your work.

WHAT HAS HELPED ME TO LEARN ENGLISH:

reading: reading in english helps so much! but not only just regular books, the classics or bestsellers, fics as well! by reading you get to know and learn so many different writing styles, influenced by the time, genre and presonal preference. believe it or not, but i went from an A2 (borderline B1) level to B2/C1 level within months. i consumed all kind of media in english (movies, books, news, i even set my phone to english) speaking: speaking with native speakers or even fluent speakers helps especially for dialogue specific skills. it helps with general use of the language, which can be learned by eather studying or reading. i've been texting and speaking mostly in english with my best friend for years now, also having started during lockdown. her english was much better than mine, so i learned much from her, even if she didn't correct me! writing: start writing! be it small ideas, essays, or just some notes. anything in which you apply what you've been learning actively will help you to basically cement that knowledge in your mind and will make you more sure footed in your use of language. don't hesitate about mistakes, there is no reason to worry! you're still learning and mistakes can help you to advance further. i started fic writing in german and then did the scary jump to english years later... if i would read the text now, which i produced and posted, well, i would shudder to be honest. but i'm still proud of it, because it's my first fic in english, the first big step! and even now i make mistakes, but that's totally fine. because these mistakes don't stop me from being creative, instead the encourage me to do better.

2. WHAT HAS HELPED ME WITH WRITING:

german: my second language. german is a difficult language, especially if it's not your first. i was lucky enough that my mother encouraged me to read, she spent so much time next to me helping me read my first books in kindergarten and she flueled the passion by going to the weekly library visits during primary school. i've always been ahead of many other students in my age (as arrogant as this sounds), simply because i devoured books at any time i could. i had a phase once where i read around 40 or so books in a week... so yeah, my vocabulary was and still is advanced for my age, and i never had to study the grammar rules, i just knew them by feeling and always passed the exams. i have no idea if you could ever gain that kind of... level?? in a language, because my childhood has been filled with books and i only stopped reading german books in my teens, so at least 6-7 years of my life were filled with me just... reading. because of this, and because i didn't have much tv as a kid (i got my first phone at 14, which was kinda late compared to others) i have a vivid fantasy. reading fluels your own creativity, the ability to imagine!!! words paint pictures and you have to think of what happens between the lines yourself, so yes, a big contributor to my creativity goes to the thousands of books i've read (yes it's thousands, i work at the library we've been going when i was a kid and i can still access to the account information... i was curious don't come at me) rp servers: surprise surprise! a big help and a way to practice your writing are rp servers. i have no idea if they're still a thing but i've been in (german) rp servers for years now. it not only helps you practice your writing, especially dialogue, but also how to create plots (within plots), and how to write a character. either one that already exists or your own. it helps you to develop and build your character, grow with it, which has also been a good way for me to characterize the people i've been writing! frigga, my first marvel rp character, will always be dear to me. i took her because other characters i would've loved to write for the first time were already taken, but i'm glad i picked her in the end. experimenting: writing fics is all about what you like. what characters you like (or write in spite, it really depends), what fandom like, which style of writing. so it's important to experiment! do you like dialogue heavy fics? or focus more towards world building? or is it smau fics that have caught your eye? if something interests you, try it out! there is no wrong or right, as long you have fun, it's all good!! it took me YEARS to find a writing style i like, especially in longer fics. i especially struggle with filler scenes, scenes that connect two important things happeneing or even a long scene that spawns over two pages. so now i'm writing in snippets, different povs and it works out perfectly for me! don't worry if you don't immediately find something you like, it will take time. and your current prefered writing style can always change, so nothing is set in stone!

3. ABOUT FINDING INSPIRATION:

books: well, as i already mentioned, books have been a big part of my childhood. so i have so many ideas stored in my head, simply because i've somewhere read something similar! be it classics or a niche book, any work can be an inspiration for a fic (or even another book) music: music has also been a big part of my life. as piano player, i enjoy classical music, but also songs with lyrics. i once wrote a fic inspired by a k-pop song, simply because i've been listening it on repeat. daily life: so many stories, fics, books, plots, movies, etc. are inspired by real life stories. be it by something that happened to you, to family, or someone you don't know, our life gives so much inspiration to create wonderful plots! other media: movies, series, literally anything can be an inspiration to your fic! be it a trope, or even to fandoms smashed together, there are so many ideas and plots out there, you will never go out on creative ideas. BUT! it is also important to note, if you ever take some heavy inspiration of someone else idea's, credit them! CREDIT THEM!!!

4. OTHER IMPORTANT THINGS:

if you have any idea for fics, for a work, write it down!! don't make the mistakes like me and say "oh yeah i will definitely remember that, i could never forget this idea" YOU WILL. or at least, you will forget major ideas and then you will be sad :(( and we don't want that. so. write that shit down!!! never delete any written work! no matter how frustrated you are with a fic, never ever delete something. even if it's just a passage. you can always revisit it later, or write something based off that. maybe you'll even like it after some time. experiment!! i've already said it, but!! experiementing is so important. trying out, finding yourself, what fandom you wish to write for, how you want to write it, everything!! nothing will work for the first time, it's okay to be frustrated, but only if you try something out, you can develop your skills and grow as a writer and most importantly... have fun!! writing is something beautiful, you're creating worlds with mere words. you should feel happy with your works, even if you don't share it with others, because this is YOUR work. as long you're not harming anyone, only the boundaries you set are the boundaries you have!

phew, that should be the most important things... i hope this has answered your questions and can help you on your journey as writer <3

[jaywalking-rogue]

I was allowed to post silly/interesting And make Them Bloom facts on Tumblr and will henceforth use it for the greater good.

Anyway I want to talk about Yakamoz members' levels of English because there's some interesting deviations from canon and also I'm an English major, so enjoy.

Shiraishi An: around C1-C2 levels, fluent, much better than in canon. Taiga encountered a huge issue with language barrier when he first moved to America (although he wasn't half bad himself), and understood immediately that An would need English to survive in musical world going forward, because he definitely had plans for her to go beyond Japan. So he taught her a bit and basically made it so he would only talk to her in English & make her talk with him in English as well. An was initially frustrated, but as he was coming from the place of care, and it was kind of an interesting experience, she got interested in English and went out of her way to learn it even more by herself, at times taking it almost as seriously as she did singing.

She also met a lot of English-speaking people during her opera shenanigans, watched a lot of foreign productions and masterclasses and such. An was kinda interested to learn English at school too but soon got very bored with drills and grammar and in general felt like she's too ahead of the class to enjoy it. She still gets good grades in it though!

She's very good at keeping conversations, knows a lot of idioms and slang terms, but has a considerable accent since she never bothered with correct pronunciation and wouldn't know a grammar rule if it bit her in the face. Her writing is also lacking.

Additionally, An knows a bit (very little!) of German and Italian, because these languages has a lot of operas written in them.

Asahina Mafuyu: around C1-C2 levels, fluent, about the same/better than in canon. She is in very similar situation to An and is learning English because of Suzune's (Mafumom) concerns that she will need it in the future. Which, to be fair, she probably will! She started learning it seriously quite a bit earlier though, around the first year of junior high.

She's about as good at is as she is in canon, and is able to write essays and even poetry quite well. Her accent is also not as noticeable as An's; however, because of her often overthinking her correctness of speech, she struggles with keeping a casual conversation and sounds a bit "like a textbook". She's also not as familiar with slang terms and cultural context as An is.

She and An are known to exchange brief talks in English during practise or breaks, usually initiated by An. Although Touya could probably understand what they're saying, he prefers not to.

Aoyagi Touya: B2-C1 levels, about the same/slightly worse than in canon. Touya's primary source for English knowledge is school, and while he succeeds in it quite brilliantly, he never goes out of his way to learn more of it and couldn't be bothered to. Like Mafuyu, his speech is very proper and refined, and sounds very official. Could probably keep up with a business conversation, and he sometimes reads English books as a hobby, but not much else. He has very little practice with spoken English.

Tsukasa Tenma: A2-B1 levels, worse than in canon. Although canon Tsukasa's English is already... Debatable, Yakamoz!Tsukasa is considerably worse in it because he was never as interested in learning it. He only was invested in musicals briefly, soon focusing on his piano, and haven't watched much, if any, English media/musicals since, which hasn't helped. He keeps up with English at school and is okay-ish at it, on a normal level for a teen his age. That's about it, thought.

Kusanagi Nene: A2-B1 levels, about the same as in canon. Nene still spends a lot of her free time gaming, including online games, and has learned some English from chats with other players and watching reviews and playthroughs. She also keeps in touch with western musical scene, but it isn't much, and she's self-conscious when using English anyway.

Yoisaki Kanade: A1-A2 levels, about the same/worse than in canon. Although Kanade is distantly aware she'll probably need it if she wants to further her career, she doesn't have the time or energy to study English, and dislikes the idea of planning that far ahead anyway. She relies on Mafuyu when she encounters something she needs help with, and it has worked out for her so far.

[inthewaytoamultilinguallife]

Hi there! Thanks for your blog, I love it ^_^ I was wondering if you have any advice for learning very similar languages at the same time? I have to return to my studies of Spanish soon, but I'm also learning Italian (~B2). I remember when I first came to Italy and started learning Italian my rudementary knowledge of Spanish was useful in some aspects and harmful others. I'm afraid that returning to it will result in me mixing them up constantly :(( Any words of wisdom? 🙏

Thank you so much! You don’t know how much this message meant to me, especially knowing I haven’t been that active with university and projects and finals!! ❤

And thank you for waiting until I could answer this too!

I don’t know how much wisdom i can actually impart, but i can always try to help out a fellow language learner. What i will share are a few tips i discovered during my 14 years of learning languages (god that almost makes me sound old and experienced lmao), and in my 10 years of learning more than one language at a time. They are not rules and are very much shaped by my experience, so feel free to spice them up at will:

First of all, when possible: Avoid languages of the same family that are way too similar!: The more similar they are, the more difficult to keep them separated, as you might have noticed. But we all know how tempting it is to learn them all, and at the same time, even if we know that if we learn that one language we will be able to understand the others as well because of their similarities. I know you will ignore this one. That’s ok, I did too. There’s some fun to it. Also sometimes we just can’t choose the languages we learn, so let’s go to the “real” advice

Only start a new language once you’re advanced and comfortable enough in the other language you speak: For this I would say around a B1 level is ok, even tho I always started mines when I was at a A2 level, but I must say it was without me realizing it. From my own experience, I would say a B1 level is better. This is so you can concentrate on practicing using and improving one language you already know quite well, while learning new basic vocab and grammar exercises in a new language. if you start another language while you are still in the middle of bulking vocab and grammar exercises and memorizing rules and words, you might confuse the two or get overwhelmed

Consider using different methods for each language: With this I mean, for example, improving your Italian via immersion (watching tv, reading, talking to friends, etc), and studying Spanish the “traditional” way, with exercises and vocab cards, etc 

Consider learning one skill at a time: That is, concentrating on studying only writing in Spanish, and only speaking in Italian. This makes learning a language seem longer, and maybe a little boring for some, but it’s a good way to keep the languages separated in your mind, since you will be focusing on different aspects of the languages at a time 

Designate days and times for each language: Learning each language whenever you feel like it will create more trouble for you than needed, and make you feel overwhelmed and frustrated. A way to counter this is via a good structural learning routine. You can designate specific days to languages even if you don’t take language classes and even if you use all the languages each day.

What designating a day to a language means is just basically that, in that day, you will focus more on that language. Mondays and Sundays are for studying French, and Tuesdays and Thursdays are for learning English, etc, for example. You can even adapt this given your routine: for example, in my case, Monday, Wednesday and Saturday are Uruguayan Sign Language days, because my sign language classes are Mondays and Wed, and most Deaf events are on Saturdays. I find it is easier to include them in a routine you already have, and not making a new one around the languages you want to learn

Assign times to them: An alternative, or addition to assigning days. It works the same, but might be more helpful if you have problems keeping or following a routine, too. Instead of assigning whole days, you make it a time of the day. So, instead of learning or using a language during the entire day, you do it only in the morning, and in the afternoon you can switch to another language. All you have to do is keep that order as much as you can without switching them up. This, as well as the day one, will help keep the languages more separated in your mind and help you not mix their grammar and rules and pronunciation, etc

On a similar note, use different notebooks and colors for each language (in ink, highlighters, notebooks, etc). You can also designate different parts of your house to study, or different places around town if you use the language in a certain place (classroom, work, friend’s house, etc). Make the distinction physical, palpable as much as you can

If you forget your routine… well, then now is the best time to start again: If for some reason you forget yo go to a class or sit down and study on your own when you were supposed to do it, PLEASE don’t give yourself shit for it. Do the studying right there when you remembered. Or the next time you are supposed to, if you have/want to keep the routine, 

Concentrate on one more than the other: I know I know, no one of us wants this! But it will help I promise! It doesn’t mean you have to forget one or leave it aside. Just put more time, effort, or a more conscious studying in one of them (I normally do it with the language I'm just picking up, since I already know of the other, and so I can do a more “passive learning” on the one I know the most, and center in the other one)

Learning more than one language at a time is possible, even if they are very similar! You just gotta be more organized than usual, I've found out

[linaselandbasil]

Genetic analysis of Valka, oc of @lunii12

Valka is the child of Valkyon and "Erika", except "Erika" has blue eyes. She is tall as heck, has- you know what heres the drawing i made today I'm not doing more work than I need to.

Fuck, I actually need to list the traits though.

Valka:

Amber eyes-Dominant

medium skin-Codominant

brown hair-dominant

tall-dominant

Valkyon:

Amber eyes-Dominant over blue, recessive under brown

medium skin-Codominant

silver hair-read this lmao

tall-dominant

"Erika":

blue eyes-recessive

light skin-recessive

brown hair-dominant

short-recessive

So, if Valkyon, renown feral whore and "Erika", woman the size of a womens pocket did the nasty, their offspring would be as seen below. Valkyon is top row, "Erika" is left column.

I made this thing on ms paint without a mouse, if I hear one fucking word, ONE SYLLABLE of complaint, I'm jumping off a cliff and I'm taking whoever it was with me Dugovics Titus style.

Eye colour:

Amber-A/Blue-a

Valkyon has a blue eye allele. I know this because Lance has blue eyes and that means that their father had to have at least one to pass onto them. That makes it so that every child of him and Tia has at least one blue eye allele and at most one amber eye allele.

The children of "Erika" and Valkyon have the same eye genetics as Valkyon's parents: Mother aa, Father Aa. How adorable. There is a 50% chance for amber eyes and 50% for blue.

I could go on a tangent about how Valkyon can technically have green eyes but I'm not going to, because i already have.

If I do go in a rant about the green eyes he deserves (GREEN IS THE BEST COLOUR AND HES A GOOD MAN WHO DESERVES THE BEST OF EVERYTHING) I would come to the conclusion that the offspring have 25% chance of having grey eyes, 25% chance of having blue eyes, 25% chance of having green eyes and 25% chance of having amber eyes.

In all scenarios it is possible for Valka to have amber eyes, good job councilor Lunii.

Skin: very very simplified

dark-A/light-a

The offspring would have a 50% chance of being tan and 50% chance of being pale. This is not an accurate portrayal of how skintone genetics actually work, there's like 10 different genes that all work together to determine skintone and I'm not going to pretend I know anything about it.

Good job Lunii, Valka could indeed have tan skin just like her absent father.

Hair: it says haj because that's how you say hair in hungarian and i can't just say no to saving myself the effort of not writing a letter.

brown-A2 or A/Silver-A1/blond-a. On the second one silver is a

If silver hair is dominant: 25% of offspring has silver hair, 25% has ashen brown hair, 25% has blond hair and 25% has chestnut brown hair. I gave a blond allele to both parents in this case.

If silver hair is recessive and the mother is a homozyigote: All offsprings have brown hair.

I guess good job Lunii, this checks out too.

Height:

I don't even know where to begin with this one. I did some research into it but any data i would need to understand it better is behind a paywall. All I can say for certain is that tall is dominant and short is recessive.

I have concluded that Tia is short, so she has two pairs of the short allele and therefore her offspring each have at least one short allele. Valkyon's father was described as tall, so he could have had a recessive short gene, but it was overwritten by his dominant tall genes.

If Valkyon was a homozygote, his offspring with "Erika" would have a 100% chance of being tall.

If Valkyon was a heterozygote, his offspring with "Erika" would have a 50% chance of being tall and a 50% chance of being short.

Potential height is determined by genetics, but actual height is the result of good nutrition during development.

I guess good job Lunii, i can't disprove that Valka can actually be nearly 2 meters tall.

That's about it! Hope everyone had fun reading it!

@dragons-nest-black-dragon would you look at that, another genetic analysis to give to the Russians! Yes I'm still working on the dragon dimorphism one.

@losyashkakus, my other Russian. I summon you as well.

[spectaculardistractions]

To Robert Hughes Mexico City, 1959 Questionnaire for the yearly publication Film: Book 1 (The Audience and the Filmmaker) Q1. What specific difficulties have you experienced which have been caused by interpretations of the ‘audience’ by producers, distributors, censors, etc? A1. Except during my first three films, all made before 1932, and produced with absolute independence – An Andalusian Dog, The Golden Age and Land Without Bread – I have always felt the pressure more or less heavily exerted by the producer. But one might deduce from your questions that the producers and distributors are to blame by their special interpretation of public taste for the limitations imposed on the filmmaker. In my opinion, the real responsibility for the spiritual stagnation of cinema lies with the amorphous mass, routinary and conformist, that makes up the audience. The producer limits himself merely to throwing to the beasts the food they demand of him. A businessman neither better nor worse than the others of his time, the producer has no scruples. He is capable of leaping from one ideological plane to another, even if the systems are morally and artistically antagonistic, so long as he is guaranteed prestige and economic success. For the moment it is impossible to foresee any moral elevation of human society. For this reason, there does not appear even a glimmer of the spiritual improvement of the audience. One might even predict the contrary. Filmmakers will continue dragging the heavy chains of servility put upon them by the industry and the producers, who, as faithful representatives of the public, will continue their tyrannical repression of the artists’ freedom. Q2. What do you consider one of the most encouraging developments in film in recent years? Q3. What do you consider one of the most discouraging developments? A2 & 3. To my way of thinking there is not one indication in the film production of recent years, either ‘capitalist’ or ‘communist’ that encourages any hope of the spiritual improvement of cinema – unless it be in its technical aspect, where the progress of both is unquestionable. Q4. What film or films would you make if you were free from the non-artistic limitations of sponsorship, censorship, etc.? A4. If it were possible for me, I would make films which, apart from entertaining the audience, would convey to them the absolute certainty that they DO NOT LIVE IN THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS. And in doing this I believe that my intentions would be highly constructive. Movies today, including the so-called neo-realist, are dedicated to a task contrary to this. How is it possible to hope for an improvement in the audience – and consequently in the producers – when every day we are told in these films, even in the most insipid comedies, that our social institutions, our concepts of Country, Religion, Love, etc., etc., are, while perhaps imperfect, UNIQUE AND NECESSARY? The true ‘opium of the audience’ is conformity; and the entire, gigantic film world is dedicated to the propagation of this comfortable feeling, wrapped though it is at times in the insidious disguise of art.

Jo Evans & Breixo Viejo, Luis Buñuel: A Life in Letters

[wlwutenanthy]

CTS A | Week 10 Compulsory Question 1

Q1. How do you understand the Critical Thinking Skills module? Explain your choice of visual metaphor. Do you personally have an alternative visual metaphor? Include image/s in your response.

A1. I understand the Critical Thinking Skills module through visualising it as a brain. The brain is like a muscle, the more you use it, the stronger it gets, and I believe that is also true for what we have learnt in Critical Thinking Skills. I’m happy that my group used my idea for our group visual metaphor exercise, though some other examples that other groups used also appealed to me, such as using a hamburger.

Q2. Which was your favorite activity or session? Why? Which aspects of it were memorable for you?

A2. My favourite Critical Thinking Skills class activity is during week 5 of the semester, where we learned about the growth mindset. For that lesson, we ventured out of (but still kept nearby) school to take photos of different products. Then, we had to draw 15 different variations of that logo using our non-dominant hand. It was difficult to draw and make it look neat, but I didn’t give up, and managed to draw all 15. Once we were done, we looked over everyone’s logos together.

Q3. What is the value of working in a group?

A3. The value of working together in a group is that you gain the opportunity to learn different things from your groupmates, as well as possibly discover new things about yourself. Through working with others, you learn the value of collaboration, emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, and more skills that are crucial for working together with people who may have different ideas and perspectives than you do.

Q4. What do you wish you did more of, or better?

A4. What I wish I did better than what I have done for this module is work harder to make my voice heard than I have during some group projects. Even though I do speak up with my thoughts when it is needed, sometimes I am ignored or the conversation has already moved on to something else, so I do not feel it is worth mentioning. I will work on this by repeating my points to make sure what I am saying gets across.

(Word count: 308)

[valiant-if]

“fire” for everyone from the OC ask? or just Anton and Kiran if it’s too many! thank you!

Hi, anon!

fire: what’s one thing they’d destroy if they could, and why? would that destruction bring them any satisfaction or catharsis?

I can't go into the "why" on all of these, but I will where I can.

Anton - This might be a little more abstract than the question intends, but... Injustice, in the broadest sense, and it would absolutely bring him satisfaction. Most, if not all, of the members of his crew ended up where they are because of some form of injustice done upon them in the past. It may have been what brought his little mercenary family together, but he would much rather they'd never met if it meant they were happy.

Switch - A certain person's military service records from the Damiren Primacy. I wouldn't say it would bring her catharsis or satisfaction necessarily, but it would be the right thing to do.

Zero - MacKenna Industries. In some ways, that company ruined her life. To see it disappear wouldn't change anything and wouldn't make her feel satisfied, but it would certainly be cathartic.

Path - His first choice has technically already been destroyed, so he'd have to go for his second: The Damiren Primacy. He was forced to live out a life he never wanted there, and he's been forever changed by it. It would be purely cathartic since the only scenario that would bring him satisfaction out of this has long since been impossible.

Kiran - Like Anton, Kiran's one thing is pretty abstract: Poverty. Kiran has had a strange and difficult life, most of which was influence in one way or another by poverty. But he has managed to make it through thanks to his pretty unique disposition. They know that isn't true for a lot of people, however, so they would be satisfied if poverty no longer existed.

Yulia - Her greatest mistake—which actually happens during the course of the story, so I can't say too much about it. Suffice it to say, she fucks up in a very big way and it has lasting consequences. Catharsis and satisfaction aren't as important as integrity.

Hex - Ironically, the divide between The Damiren Primacy and Archon Systems that give Skiptracers most of their business. He has friends under both sovereignties and has seen unique suffering brought on by their seemingly neverending conflict. If that conflict were gone, he'd probably lose a lot of his business, but things would be better for everyone, so he would absolutely be satisfied with that.

A2 - Marauders. She's seen her fair share of carnage brought on by them and wouldn't wish it on anyone else, maybe not even her worse enemies. It would bring her both satisfaction and catharsis to destroy every marauder gang out there.

Ebrahim - Because I usually don't include him in these, but maybe I should start. His answer is also a little more abstract: Politics. Ebrahim knows enough secrets and enough about history to know that some of humanity's worst crimes are commited in the name of politics. Would he be satisfied if politics didn't exist? Hard to know, but it certainly wouldn't make things worse.

Thanks for the ask!