#i wonder what other biases we have in common hmm

[sshireens]

2, 6, 8, 12 👉👈?

THANK YOU YINNIE 💓💓💓

2. a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

this requires me to narrow down my favs, which is so much more difficult than i ever could have expected. yin if i don’t answer the ask quickly this was why. catelyn tully would never top because ned lays pipe and she’s a freak like that. saw a ss of a reddit post that was like ‘my wife likes to get blitzed and then come home and have me fuck her brains out’ and thats her. brienne is never bottoming and jaime is never topping because jaime has some kind of reversed gender thing going on that makes him want to be a girl but not to another man. and brienne lives to serve. she literally is a sword. and thats a penis metaphor as we all know. margaery is never topping men because despite being the first ally in westeros she thinks thats weird. these are compelling arguments to me! daenerys stormborn is NEVER. NEVER NEVER NEVER. never bottoming because A). thats the prince that was promised B). jon likes to get dicked down C). i personally believe that being sold and traded will lees her to discover (amidst her several trysts with irri jhiqui and doreah (bc u cant tell me otherwise. irri is canon first of all)) that she, as the breaker of chains and mother of dragons and khaleesi of the great grass sea, is not inclined to experience things at the whim of others but rather the opposite. is that appropriate to say.

6. which ship fans are the most annoying?

oh god. SORRY PLEASE DONT SHOOT ME EVERYONE! daemyra (this might be biased bc i just dont like daemyra) some sansan ppl really get under my skin…. LUCEMOND JESUS CHRIST. almost forgot about them (was almost free). wow sorry lucemond shippers first place for annoying. its not that im an omegaverse toxic incest yaoi anti its just. Its the people it truly is i cannot even enter that circle. there is a blog on here though i can’t remember the url of that makes cute sfw art that doesnt frighten me and ive been known to browse, even hit like once or twice. lucemond still stay away from me please

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

daenerys is not going to be queen of the seven kingdoms NOR SHOULD SHE BE. if daenerys takes the iron throne the whole series is pointless

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

what qualifies as unpopular. also what do we consider like. because i consider like as in ‘this is a fun character to see interact with the world’ and NOT!!!!!!!!! ‘i support this guy’. just to clarify for any other viewers at home. a character ive seen a lot of people Dislike but i think deserves to be heard out is criston because he’s funny and thats it thats why everyone should like him. but i dont consider him unpopular? hmm tough tough …… will i get flayed if i say larys like i mean he’s just sick i love wondering what is going on in that head. in regards to characters i think are not given enough attention: jaehaera targaryen. ‘she’s a little girl shes a non-character’ SHUT UP. she’s a little girl exactly. she didn’t get the chance to be her own person she is alicent’s pain helaena’s pain and her own. GOD MY BABY GIRL….. she names her dragon death…… AUGH DONT EVEN TALK TO ME DOONNTTT EVEN. um also rhaella, daughter of rhaena the lesbian AND! mother of daenerys. bc first of all rhaella and aerea switches thats true. so like. rhaella septa rhaella wondering if that was meant to be her. wondering if maybe it would have never happened if she hadn’t traded places. is it kinder to force her twin into the faith or to let her die? Augh. also daenerys’ mommy just… why dont we know about her i need more people on here like me willing to band together to make up canon. i guess thats not really a reason why people should like them. ALSO SHIREEN BARATHEON I DONT KNOW IF YOU CAN TELL BUT IM THE BIGGEST SHOOTER FOR SHIREEN THATS BABY THATS MOTHER THATS THE PRINCESS THATS MY DAUGHTER THATS ME I LOVE HER SO BAD OH NY GOD SHIREEN PEASE COME HOME THE PEOPLE MISS YOU. and i know everyone dgaf about baby boy bowl cut brown boba eyed broken bran. but i gave birth to him. and thats why you should like him.

i don’t consider myself a targ girlie and then it comes to questions abt asoiaf and i can only answer in reference to them 😔 tried to be diverse 🤞

[transienturl]

As a bit of clarification on my thought process about evaluating AI, re: my previous few posts in which I asked ChatGPT 3.5 a question:

It's possible to imagine an omnisciently intelligent AI. "'Business' is the word you were thinking of; I am essentially 100% certain of this," it would assert, and it wouldn't pass the Turing test because a human is not the same as a god. I assume this will be possible at some point, and I would be entirely unsurprised if that point was within my lifetime. It doesn't seem like either an attainable or a good goal right now, though.

It's possible to imagine an AI that's more intelligent than a very intelligent human and has access to most knowledge that's on the internet, making it right about most things. "Pretty sure you're thinking of 'business,'" it would say. This would be scary. A lot of people seem to think we have this now. I'm pretty sure we don't.

It's possible to imagine an AI that's just, or sounds like just, a very smart college intern with a voice to text program in a box. "Hmm," it'd say, some of the time, "I bet it's 'business?' I think that's a common idiom." Other times it might say, "Hm, how about 'chance?' Kind of seems to fit. Although it sounds kind of awkward to say 'I have no chance attempting it,' so if that's right maybe you wanna reword the sentence."

It's possible to imagine an AI that's just, or sounds like just, a typical college intern in a box. "I dunno; don't think I've heard of what you're trying to figure out," it would say, most of the time, and then throw out some ideas.

Nowhere on that spectrum is "assert with complete certainty that your best guess is right regardless of your level of confidence." That's a fault, in a human—something that makes us start wondering about intentional obfuscation, about malice.

Humans communicate their level of confidence in answers, and can back it up by explaining to some extent how they arrived at the conclusion in question. Will the explanation be completely true? No; we don't have full insight into our thought processes, nor do we possess a full accounting of our biases. But we have some. And that means that interrogating us can lead to more insightful realizations, that holding us accountable is potentially useful and potentially informative.

"AI" products today don't really have this quality, as I understand it (which admittedly isn't much beyond "concept of the math behind a neural net"). I bet they will within my lifetime. But I think that's a pretty important distinction, and why I feel like using the word "intelligence" is at best misleading. It's not really about how often it gives the right answer—it's how much understanding it has about the whole process. And I think it's important to make the distinction between that and progress re: getting more answers right.

Because sure, the more right answers you give the more convincing "only being able to talk in a way that would be correct if you were a god" is... but that doesn't change that when you're wrong, you still sound pretty Artificial Stupid.

[cotccotc]

hewo !! :) one day i will stop apologising for replying late, but sadly today is not that day :( IM SO SOWY. i rly do enjoy talking to you ! ive just been too busy to do most of the things i love + sadly my health hasn’t gotten any better buT im trying + im drinking more water + feel cared for by ur virtual hugs 🥺 but anYways ! ahhh a jinnie enthusiast, one of the best kinds of ppl, i should’ve known ! it all makes sense now 🥰 + it makes me happy to hear you’re doing ok !! i know it can be tough but we can rly do this together !! my sleep schedule is verY bad as well, that’s actually an understatement, but im going to make a promise to you so that we can both stop being nocturnal !! 💤 other than your sleep schedule i hope that you are feeling loved, especially by the amazing community here on ur blog ! and i hope that i can add a lil bit of happiness to ur safe space here ! 🌈 ☀️ if you ever need motivation over the next few days or for anything, you know how to summon me (i have ur notifs on ofc hehe) + i promise to be more active as i rly enjoy talking to u + sending all my love + support even though you deserve the 🌍 + more !

love from~ 💙 anon

p.s i saw ur ryujin icons + tysm for blessing me 💔

p.p.s im thinking of maybe dming one day when i feel better or maybe giving u my twt @...hmmmm we shall see 👀 but for now i stay as 💙 anon !! baiii 👋🏻 <3

i’ll stop telling you not to apologize because i get it!! (even though you don’t need to- okok i’ll stop) but HI BABE :)))

it’s sad to hear that about your health but you’re absolutely right. we got this n we can do anything together woo wooooo big hug (つ≧▽≦)つ

yeah uhhh i went to bed at 1 again last night (and 3 the night before) so yes a commitment is just what i need lolol. you’re such a sweetheart uwu 🥺🥺 you definitely bring me so much joy AH. also,,,,,,, my post notifs- 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 i am SEVERELY sorry for the amount i post on a daily basis. especially yesterday PHEW i’m so sorry 😂😂

dw about being active!! as long as you’re doing your best to take care of yourself, i am happy. but don’t get me wrong i love talking to u as well!!! MWAH

[sanchoyo]

danny phantom 14-20 thoughts!! I finished up s1 :D these last few eps were actually really really good!!!

-did. did tucker really just say esperanto was a dead language only spoken as a secret code between geeks. google says around 100,000 people actively speak it. oh my god...it being an auxiliary language doesn't mean its 'just for geeks to speak in code' ...it helps bridge gaps between people who don't have a language in common...

-danny really isn't pulling punches when it comes to fighting the ghost-cop possessed people huh. like he SLAMMED KWAN INTO THE CONCRETE SO HARD. HE THREW PAULINA INTO A BILLBOARD. will that...I mean it WOULD carry over to their bodies non-possessed, right? like if the ghost piloting their bodies gets hurt?? itd be so upsetting to be possessed, lose time, then wake up covered in bruises (and possibly, broken bones??) real horror movie stuff im sure wont be addressed in any way

-tuckers parents seem nice! I like them :)

-WULF IS CUTE AND I FEEL BAD. im so glad the gang realized he was only causing trouble bc of the shock collar walker put on him and helped. also, him wearing that big hoodie with the hood on, and thinking its subtle. we can tell youre still a giant wolfie :) THEN GETTING SUCKED INTO THE PORTAL AAAAH :( anxiously waiting to see Him Again....

-DANNY BLASTING HIS PARENTS THINKING THEY WERE OVERSHADOWED LMFAO GET THEIR ASSES. maddie marking how many ghosts she gets with lipstick tallies on the side of her portal gun? kindaaa iconic tho. (ALSO, SHE WAS LIKE, 2 FT AWAY FROM HIM RIGHT AFTER SHE TRIED TO SHOOT HIM. HOW DO YOU NOT RECONINZE YOUR OWN SON??? like sure, he might have diff hair/eye colors. but like, if one of my family members dyed their hair, and was wearing contacts, its not like id be like 'wHO IS THIS STRANGER!!!' ...he still has all his facial features!! same everything!!! I hate it here)

-paulina being #1 girl realizing danny's a friendly ghost immediately. smart queen. lancer and kwan ran away right after he made this sweet baby face at them:

which is hilarious.

-ok. im not saying his bullying is JUSTIFIED, but. dash looked so pleased with the (cute!) poster he just painted, and danny comes thru the wall and spills paint on his nice letterman jacket. his anger is justified maybe 65% of the time so far...(not the way he handles it, but STILL.) at least lancer is stepping in!! and them making a silly little bet was...cute?? until dash pulled out his GROSS UNDERWEAR AND SAID DANNY WOULD HAVE TO EAT THEM???? WHAT THE FUCK MAN. TUCKER WAS SO RIGHT ITS FUCKING WEIRD TO CARRY THOSE AROUND EWWW. THIS KID IS UNWELL. lancer was right, his animatronic setup was SUPER IMPRESSIVE?? hes actually pretty creative. danny meanwhile is stealing the fright knight's design...I hope dash is taking art classes or smth with his sports

-fright knight is the most bestest ghost so far i LOVE THAT DESIGN. I am biased towards knights, and characters with swords, but he fucks so severely. and should sue danny for copyright infringement for stealing his design for his haunted house. if some 14 yr old broke into MY house and stole MY sword, id also be pissed. his evil winged unicorn rules too with its FANGS. and he just CAN SHOVE THE PORTAL OPEN WITH HIS HANDS??? is he the strongest ghost weve seen so far? idk but hes my fav. SOUL SHREDDER IS SUCH A COOL SWORD NAME TOO. ANY NAMED SWORD ALSO FUCKS. 'flaming bedsheets of DEATH' funny king. ALSO he was polite to dash and tucker when just asking for directions and telling tucker 'oh maybe, just a suggestion, maybe be nicer to me and be more respectful :)' I LOOOVE HIM.

-I noticed this in the Ember ep, but jazz has an electric guitar in her room!! talent musical queen!! its cool to see hobbies just in the bg.

-fright knight's murder castle reminds me of the booby trapped murder castle in zexal!! another supposedly 'for kids' show with murder/trap castles! we love that. if you are a dp fan reading this, give yugioh zexal a try. its also got 13-14 year old protags and involves (alien) ghosts. the cardgame is just a vessel for the plot, which is really good. (I just want more people to watch my fav yugioh, man)

-danny. with a SWORD.

-danny doesnt NEED TO WIN this contest, dash didnt STEAL HIS DESIGNS AND STEAL A SWORD. he also got excited to hear lancer got sent to a dimension with his worst fears too just so he could win the contest? DANNY WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!!! BRO MAYBE YOURE 14 AND HAVENT FULLY DEVOLPED YOUR WHOLE BRAIN YET, BUT...THATS FUCKED. this kid casually says the most deranged things, I do worry for my spooky son. once again, therapy needed. that judo toss was great tho. I wonder if he actually did pick up some martial arts stuff from his mom?

-danny can fly 112 mph!!! thats so fast! I love the lil montage of him and his friends testing his abilities and stuff, very cute and a good way to showcase what he can do by now and how much more proficient he's gotten from ep 1!!! I'm sure he's going to get more abilities :)

-im glad...maddie's at least TRYING this ep. I do feel for her because her husband is a man baby. but the fact it took 16 episodes to get a kinda semblance of any kind of real concern or attempts at bonding. hmm. jack's 'BACK OFF SHES A MINOR' @ the ghost trying to attack jazz. also was very funny. and him wanting to make an action figure of her? are the parents redeeming themselves to me? slightly. they gotta Work Harder

-THE GHOST. IS FLYING. THE PLANE.

-fenton machete. but she doesnt carry a PHONE??? ???

-I mean I expected vlad when you namedrop him earlier in the ep, and also the title card picture, and dalv corp being fucking vlad backwards. but seeing him just pull up on a golf cart made me bust out laughing. WITH the gift baskets prepared. why wouldnt you at least be suspicious. also, if he wants danny to be his lil sonboy, why is he so fucking malicious?? dude you are going about this in such a bad way. stop it. get some help.

-maddie not even hesitating to drag danny out. fucking good. danny is so right, go on the internet to date. get a cat. how do you spend...how many years?? has it been since college?? at least 20, right, since the parents/vlad are in their 40s? hung up on ONE girl. my god, man. incel drama queen. her kung fu IS impressive, but dude. 'we both know hes a creep' SO right. it sucks but they do need a phone and shit being in the middle of NOWHERE. also, just stealing his helicopter was great. <3

-'you must be exhausted carrying the weight of that mistake you made years ago' 'well we all make mistakes. maybe I'll make one now!' WHY DID THIS EXHCHANGE SEND ME. AND VLAD WITH THE BREATH SPRAY EWWW BITCH. 'OLD BAIT BREATH' SOO RIGHT. both danny and his mom playing him HAHAH hes so dumb. or rather, I think he thinks with his emotions too too much and is...actually pretty gullible? lmao he believed danny was ready to give in SO fast. (which is sad hes that hopeful, like you have SO MUCH MONEY YOU COULD EASILY GET ANOTHER GIRL WHO HAS A KID. AND WOULD WANT TO BE WITH YOU AND BE SUPPORTED. GET OVER THIS (1) WOMAN ALREADY IM GETTING SECONDHAND EMBARRASSMENT AAAAH)

-GHOST BEAR GHOST BEAR GHOST BEAR. it was also in the title card, but I still got very excited. we love bears here

-SAM'S BAT SWIMSUIT COVERUP!!! her outfits are simply iconic.

-'i'd tell you to go to the mens room, but I don't think you qualify' top paulina transphobic moments. :( and him wearing a tanktop to the swim park? hmmm! (actually I think she was overshadowed by then, so, KITTY top 10 transphobic moments??)

-kitty just piloting paulina around makes me feel SO bad tho, paulina's gonna wake up and be like 'wtf do you mean I was dating this rando' like youre leading danny on to make johnny jealous, and also just POSSESSING POOR PAULINA. dude take your relationship problems ELSEWHERE. last time we saw them, they seemed like such a cute couple!! wtf johnny!! I mean, she sucks for trying to make him jealous, he sucks for looking at other girls...maybe they need a break, but Not Like This. or, you know, just. better communication...

-and the A-listers having a full packet and a stamp system. who organizes this. kwan fucking owning being the new danny though, this is hysterical. THE TUCKER/KWAN FLOWER FIELD TWIRL. UNIRONICALLY ADORABLE. and him giving it his all for the poetry slam. bless his HEARTTTT.

-Star owns. actually, all of the extra characters are shining this ep and I love it.

-INVISO-BILL??? NOOOO THEY DID HIM SOO DIRTY. DANNY SWEETIE IM SO SORRY.

-johnny and danny bein friends and staging a fake fight (which danny takes too seriously, once again this child has aggression he NEEDS TO WORK OUT) I hope these three stay friends, I said it before but danny needs more friendly ghosts to hang with.

-at this point, Danny's ghost enemies are a lot like, I dunno, batman's rouge gallery is the first thing that comes to mind. they all have their own gimmick and unique designs, but most of them are easy to beat after learning the Moral Lesson. I still get excited when any of them show up again, though. 18 is another valerie episode!!!! :D skulker really said you two will get along if I have to handcuff you together <3 and the gym teacher really said, youre married now, have a flour baby! ngl, I'm not really watching this show for the shipping stuff (which I am very scared to look at the fandom for after I finish this watch through- I feel like there's probably discourse/arguing about ships...) but. I'm gonna put my opinion out there. valerie/danny > sam/danny. maybe I just really love the enemies to lovers trope. And the secret identity stuff adds Extra Flavor.

-SKULKER JUST HAVING THE BOX GHOST AND DANGLING HIM BY A STRING. HILARIOUS. and him watching them with binoculars and making his silly little commentary. AND MAKING THE SACK BABY CRY. LMAO. THIS DUDE IS A BABY KIDNAPPER. skulker is super fun

-danny, you just...collapsed the water tower. and then attacked the nasty burger machine...mascot thingy...out of anger..I KEEP SAYING HE'S GOT ANGER ISSUES BUT. HE REALLY NEEDS A LESSON IN MANAGING COLLATERAL DAMAGE!!! So does valerie!! They're both pretty focused on each other. I mean it's good of Danny to say he's trying to make sure PEOPLE don't get hurt, but... (I mean I guess it's not something 14 year olds WOULD worry about, but as an adult im like, who's going to fix that? how much money will that take??)

-TUCKER MAKING BANK. and sam and tucker being super emotionally attached to their flour baby and being pretty good parents. that's cute...also him just straight kissing her and being like. WAIT. O_O JDSKAFHD. his mom baking them into cookies was the funniest possible result. tbh I dont feel like this is on tucker, if anything the other kid's shouldve been more responsible! He was just taking an opportunity to get that $$ which I respect

-Danny being more understanding of Valerie's situation in the end (helping her at her job, too, and trying to keep that a secret for her!!!) And seeing them work together this ep, and also her letting phantom get her out of the ghost zone...was very sweet. LOVE that. more valerie eps pls

-me when I realize vlad's big stupid house exploded because of his own carelessness with changing the ghost portal ectofiltrator or whatever: *pointing and laughing*

-me when I realize it means he's gonna go make danny's life hell for it somehow: >:(

-SCOOBY PARODY!!! I feel like there's gotta be some scooby doo/danny phantom crossover stuff, right? also, 'guys in white' men in black wishes

-'oh, that's right! dad married the love of your life! you're bitter and alone!' DANNNNNYY GET HIS ASS ONCE AGAIN WE ARE POINTING AND LAUGHING AT VLAD

-'jack, you captured the ghost boy!!' UMM. he did nothing <3 'we have a weapon's vault??' YOU HAVE A WEAPONS VAULT??? and jack didnt put a handle on the inside. of fucking course he didnt! why would you leave that to your son!! or expect him to clean YOUR LAB when its where you work with probably dangerous chemicals and weapons and hes 14!! give him normal chores, like, I dunno, vacuuming, laundry, dishes...CMON. I hate it here. But I'm glad Jack is more chill about danny while he's a ghost, and willing to work with him for this ep. AND. I DID ENJOY JACK PUNCHING VLAD IN THE FACE. AND GENERALLY JUST OWNING HIM. the ghost punchy fists are actually amazing. like yeah, just punch a ghost in the face. that rules.

-ep 20 opens with the coolest fucking ghost lady design. her tattoos can come off and fight. MA'AM. I like ur nose ring and your cape maam hello 👉👈😳

-sam's grandma is hilarious and the most valid member of her family and I love her. thats my grandma now. and tucker covering for sam by dressing as her. thats true friendship <3 also skipping school to go to a goth circus. just bestie things! sam's parents are haters but for all the wrong reasons.

-'my family has controlled ghosts with this for generations!' WAIT. WAIT FREAKSHOW /ISNT/ A GHOST? I didn't expect that...he's just a fucked up guy controlling ghosts? anyway watching danny shoot at police cars and rob banks while mind controlled. its like, the most stereotypical 'bad' things lmao. (tbh an evil ghost circus troupe is a sick concept)

this gives off big deviantart emo edit vibes

(I'm going to assume evil circus reaper danny has a lot of fan content. people love an edgy au, except this one is canon (even tho its via mind control...having the protag go evil otherwise might be hard, I guess?) but au where he stays with the troupe...that has to exist, right?)

ANYWAY. excited to start s2!! lowkey surprised by how many notes some of these posts have gotten. I've gone back and tagged them all with 'dp thoughts' so they're easier to find on my blog! ^^ and I will probably possibly do (more) fanart on my art blog after I finish the watch of the whole show, so like. @sanchoyodraws follow my art blog :)

[himikiyo]

cityscapes turn to dust // himikiyo week day 1

Himikiyo Week Day 1: Folklore + Magic

“Trying to defy death, hmm? You’re choosing to take the hard road just as I did. If I don’t have enough time left to change your mind, all I can do is wish you luck.”

Korekiyo's actions taking care of their sister catch up to them.

Read on AO3, DRA, or under the cut

They had to travel light these days. With the city so ravaged, it was common to pick up and leave at a moment’s notice, and there was only so much Himiko could carry. Kiyo was much stronger than her of course, but even the essentials weighed a fair bit. Most of her possessions, along with theirs, remained at their house, still locked up tight for the time being. Someone determined enough would still be able to break in, but she tried not to think about that.

Material possessions weren’t as important as a life anyway.

Despite traveling light though, Korekiyo seemed to be getting weaker. She told them they just needed rest, but they both knew that wasn’t it. The last time they visited their sister, she put up a fight. Perhaps she knew what was coming, and recognized the sickle in their hand. Either way, she bit them again. Maybe that was the final exposure their body could take after holding out so long.

Their arm was wreathed in broken veins, a sickly purplish crown centered on the bite mark. The imprint of each and every tooth was still clearly visible over a week later whenever she checked under the bandages. She picked her opportunities carefully, when they were half asleep or in a particularly good mood. That way, she hoped, they wouldn’t be quite so upset about how cold it was to remove any layers.

She checked every night to make sure they were still breathing. It was getting harder to tell.

---

People still tried to avoid saying the word zombie. Euphemisms were used: infected, changed. Sometimes there was no more than an indirect reference, like the grandmother who told her that “some of them” drove her out of her home. Maybe it was a foolish desire, since this elderly woman had clearly done well enough for herself to escape that, but Himiko wanted to help her.

“Why don’t you stay with us?” she asked. “Just for a little while. We don’t have much, but it’d be safer than traveling alone.”

“Thank you, dear,” the woman replied, adjusting her shawl. “But I like my chances. I’ve made it this far. If you’ll accept some advice from an old woman...” She trailed off momentarily, casting a meaningful glance at Kiyo. “You may want to consider striking out on your own too. There’s something not right about that one.”

“They’ve just been a little sick lately. Once we find somewhere safe to get medicine, they’ll be fine.” The lie tasted bitter on her tongue, but she couldn’t stand saying anything else. Without Korekiyo, she was sure she’d be long since dead.

“Sick? Or changing? Sometimes the hardest lesson to learn is when there’s nothing more to be done.”

“No, that’s not—” She broke off, swiping miserably at her eyes. Kiyo still sat in the corner. Wearing three sweaters to fight a mild early autumn chill, they gave off the impression of an especially gangly marshmallow. It seemed like they were oblivious to the conversation, but Himiko knew better. They always observed more than people gave them credit for.

“Don’t let your friend suffer, dear.” After pressing a small, paper-wrapped package into her hands, the grandmother left. Himiko watched until she vanished from view, hoping she arrived safely to wherever she was headed.

---

“So,” Kiyo said some time later. “When are you planning to kill me? She gave you everything you need to do it, didn’t she?”

“What? No, I’d never. You know I’d never do something like that.” Perched on the edge of the couch they were laying on, she combed a hand through their hair. It helped her fight the urge to rest it on their forehead and see how much their temperature had dropped.

“Yet you encouraged me that putting my sister out of her misery was the right thing to do.”

“That’s different. She wasn’t herself anymore.” As always, she bit back the part about how even with her full mental faculties, that would have been what she deserved.

“Any day now, you might come to find that I am not myself anymore either. Then I will no longer be able to cooperate with your attempts to do it painlessly.”

“That won’t happen,” she argued, fingers involuntarily tightening in their hair for just a moment. “If it was going to happen, it would have already. That was, what, the fifth time she bit you or something? It’s like you told me that first day I found out the truth. You’re immune.”

“Immune.” They scoffed, face contorting into something between a grimace and a scowl. “That was never anything but a lie I allowed myself to believe. I’m not immune. I’m dying.”

“No, you’re not,” Himiko mumbled. She inched closer to them on the couch, laying her head on their bony shoulder. Through sweaters and blankets, it almost felt soft. “I won’t let you.”

“Trying to defy death, hmm? You’re choosing to take the hard road just as I did. If I don’t have enough time left to change your mind, all I can do is wish you luck.” Numb fingers tugged their mask down to press a kiss to her forehead. The old, scarred-over bite wound on their neck was taking on the same purplish hue as their arm.

---

She woke up the next morning with her head resting on their chest. She couldn’t hear a heartbeat.

Shinguuji Korekiyo was dead.

After she came to that realization but before she could figure out what she should do about it, they stirred, feebly trying to shove the blankets off.

“Too hot,” they mumbled, rolling over (or trying to — the attempt wasn’t very successful with half her weight still on them).

“Kiyo?” It had been weeks since they had anything temperature-related to say that wasn’t complaining of being too cold. Not to mention the bigger issue of their lack of vital signs. Straightening up fully, Himiko leaned over them to meet their eyes. They were groggy and unfocused, but they clearly seemed to recognize her.

“What? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“I guess I have in a way,” she responded, choking out a shaky laugh. “You.”

They sat up slowly, giving her a perplexed look. Did they not even realize what was going on? Surely they had to feel different. She reached out and laid a hand on their chest, just to be certain. Was she so exhausted that she just missed it before? After flexing their wrist, stretching their arm — stiff, maybe from the lack of blood flow? — they overlapped her hand with their own.

“I see. I didn’t imagine becoming a zombie would feel so pleasant.”

“Pleasant? How can you be so calm?”

“I actually feel better than I have in quite some time,” they admitted. “It’s rather comfortable. I do seem to have a certain degree of numbness, but it’s a worthwhile exchange to be free from all the recent pain and discomfort I’ve experienced. Considering my mind seems to be intact, at least as much as I can tell from my own biased perspective, death might not be so bad. If nothing else, it gives me something new to study.”

“Oh. Well, I’m glad you’re feeling better, but I don’t know if it’s normal to accept something like this so quickly.”

She was forgetting, of course, that Kiyo had never quite been normal.

---

Over time, it became clear that them saying they had “a certain degree of numbness” was a bit of an understatement. If she happened to touch them when they weren’t looking, they only seemed to notice about half the time. Their pain tolerance, already high, had increased to such an extent that it was very possible for them to sustain serious injuries without noticing. Thankfully, it didn’t seem like they were in any danger of dying again.

They were still capable of healing, just at a slower rate than a living person. The bite wounds were gradually becoming less evident, flesh repairing itself in defiance of the laws of biology.

That didn’t save her from the unpleasantness of acting as their doctor.

Her first lesson in zombie surgery was a jarring one. The glass shards embedded in their leg likely could have been avoided if they had as much feeling as they used to, but there was no point in agonizing over could have beens. The good news was that they barely seemed affected, glancing down at the heavy wounds with little more than bemused intrigue.

“Ah. I thought something stung a bit. We should probably take a moment to deal with this,” they said smoothly.

“Um, yeah, probably. It really doesn’t hurt? You’re bleeding a lot. What if you run out or something? We don’t exactly know all about how this whole zombie thing works.”

“It’s alright,” Kiyo said. “I think. If I can heal from injuries, it follows that I must still be capable of regenerating my blood supply. However, leaving broken glass there could cause problems. You should remove it.”

“Me? Why?”

“You should get used to tending to my wounds just in case there comes a time when I’m unable to do so myself.”

---

She got plenty of practice. Most of their injuries were minor, but she dutifully took care of each one nevertheless. When she really thought about it, sometimes she wondered if they acted a little carelessly on purpose just to give her experience. They’d always teetered dangerously on the edge of masochism, and now there was the added temptation of learning more about zombie physiology to boot.

Sure enough though, that time Kiyo mentioned did come eventually. So far, it seemed nearly impossible for them to die again, but that didn’t do much to diminish the dread that flowed through her when she saw the exposed muscle and bone of their arm, flayed open like so many of the other shambling zombies they’d seen over the past several weeks.

They grimaced when she started to clean up the wound. It was barely a flicker of pain, but even that was significant considering how much they were able to get through without batting an eye.

“Apologies, dear,” they murmured. “Continue.”

“Sorry. Kind of weird how quickly this has become normal.” She leaned in, pressing a soft kiss to their lips before continuing.

Pulling the edges of the wound together and stitching it up nice and securely...She wasn’t the neatest with her sewing, but she was getting better, and Kiyo always insisted they didn’t mind.

“Beautiful work, my love,” they praised, smiling down at their rather Frankenstein-esque arm. “That’s much better already.”

Himiko just smiled, wrapping the arm up again in their usual bandages.

“I’ll always be here to sew you back again. For now, we should probably both get some rest.” They were only a day away from the village of their hopes.

[sukisdeliveryservice]

also are you comfortable with sharing your timezone? i just wonder when you read these LOL

your turn!! may i ask why you started stanning and why you chose your biases? hmm and also are there any other groups you stan/biases you have?

hihi! wow we really do have quite a lot of things in common 0.0 i actually was a casual stan since january (an irl friend introduced them to me), i knew all their names and had heard of going but i never fully got into them until september. quarentine was killing me so i decided to watch going for the first time at 3am under my blanket. they were absolutely hilarious and i that's when i decided it was time to be a carat :D

about dokyeom and shua, i usually choose my biases based of their voices :'D so normally i would listen to a couple of songs and find myself being attracted to a certain voice and in the end most of the time they end up being my bias <3

it's also the same with the other groups i stan, which are currently nct (ult) and im getting into txt, tbz and enha. my nct biases were also all chosen bc of their voices (which are ten, renjun and johnny) and for enha jungwon sounds absolutely heavenly so 👀 for txt its beomgyu but for tbz im still deciding lmao.

my timezone is gmt+8 so we're have like 12 hrs difference, its currently almost 930am ish for me.

what about you? do you have other groups you stan and if so who are your biases? also what's your favourite svt choreo? and what are your thoughts on mint choco ice cream 👁️👁️

- 💎

wahhh that's amazing how we started stanning in a smilar way!! dk and shua do have amazing voices!! shua's would probably be my favourite to listen to out of all of svt, it's just so comforting.

ooh i actually don't know much about nct but most of my irls ult/stan them so i'm trying to know more about them!! that's so crazy my irl ults ten and johnny hehe and out of all of nct renjun stands out the most to me :D AND jungwon is my enha bias!! altho i'm watching iland with the mentioned irl and i am really close to biasing jay!! as for txt...well i need to update my carrd because i ult soobin now along with chan :O

ooh 12 hour difference ;-;

other than what i mentioned ^ i don't really super stan groups other than ulting svt, but i do want to get to know more about them!! i also like itzy and twice :D ryujin and dahyun biased!!

ooh i think my favourite choreo would have to be adore u and fallin flower?? adore u is so refreshing and i started hardcore stanning svt after watching their debut stages over and over again + fallin flower is just a masterpiece in of itself! i really enjoy their older choreos like mansae and pretty u because i just prefer those type of concepts but i also adore ready to love's choreo!! what about you?

i am,,, indifferent to mint choco LOL i'm not so much of an ice cream person more of yoghurt??? and bingsu!!! what are your thoughts?

hmm do you own any albums/photocards???

[1358456]

Review Response, August 2-8, 2020

There was a bit of an issue with Tumblr, so I couldn’t post this earlier.

SC #001

1)  I never knew I needed this kind dynamic between moon and platinum.

... So... you put the review in the wrong chapter...

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Destiny #024

1)  I’m incredibly confused... I’ve reviewed this chapter. I know I have. Why doesn’t it show up?

I was quite confused too as to why you reviewed this chapter again. Hahaha.

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Destiny #029

1)  I SEE WHAT I DID. I went back lmao. Read a chapter I’d already read and was familiar knowing I’d reviewed. And then confused as to why the story seemed off. Jeez no wonder.

Haha. And now you’re back on the right chapter. No worries.

2)  You know, I hadn’t thought about the connection Blue and Platinum might have. They both suffered (Platinum on a lesser level though) with not having friends. It’s a good common factor between the two that could lead to a nice friendship... if neither of them dies in the near future. But I think their personalities clash a little. So perhaps not? But hmm come to think of it Pearl’s personality also clashes a little with Platinum’s... the magic of friendship? In any case I’m sure Platinum now trusts Blue almost completely. Which is nice, Blue needed that. Speaking of Platinum, it really was a good idea to give her that shield thingy, huh! If she hadn’t worn it, she’d be dead. And honestly, I know it’s hard to fight your friend, but, hello, survival instincts?! Of course he’d attack you instantly! He’s brainwashed! You went there in the first place to counteract that! Wake up woman! But seeing her luck, I’m almost positive she’ll win this. Her Pokémon don’t have shields, but even so. I’m willing to believe that she’ll triumph. She’ll definitely save Diamond and then they’ll all reunite with Pearl. Whom I think is going to die later. Yeah, that’s quite the damper, but I think Pearl’s gonna die. If screen time

While Blue and Platinum’s personalities MAY clash a bit... I don’t think that’ll be an issue. I think Platinum would be respectful and understanding enough to avoid any potential conflicts, and for Blue, once she is sufficiently happy, would be accepting enough to embrace any differences so that conflicts don’t happen. ... If neither of them dies in the near future, eh? Hehe. A genuine concern, I suppose. And a relatively frequent one in my stories.

Yep! This was precisely the reason why I gave Platinum the shields. ... Well, one of the reasons. The other reason was because I did the same thing in SA, so I wanted to continue the trend. But the reason why I gave her the shields in SA was so that she can continue to fight without dying. Hehe. Of course Diamond, being mind controlled, would attack immediately. And Platinum would know that, but still. She won’t want to fight him, because LOOOOVE!! Hahaha.

Pearl is going to die? Hm. Interesting. Are those with low screen time going to die in this story? Hehe.

3)  I pressed post accidentally without finishing... I’m so sorry for attacking your review section like this tonight... I’m so clumsy. Anyways. -if screen time is anything to go by. There’s not been much mentioning of Pearl, so I think he’ll have to kiss everyone goodbye. I would say “Phew! Last of the three.” but then reading one of your responses to my review makes me think that there will be more deaths. Aw shucks. Changing the mood though, I was really rather surprised by the fisherman! We have this intense scene between Platinum and Diamond, and suddenly it shifts to a fisherman. I’m not saying this is a bad thing I just thought it rather comical. But you could really sense the impending doom with that guy. It makes you think, “Fuck, poor guy he’s gonna meet Kyogre for sure.” but oh well at least he caught a fish before he died. I bid you adieu dear fisherman, may you catch all the fish of your heart’s desire in heaven. Along with everyone else who was surprised with a girl on a flying bird like thing.

Hey, no worries. As I said, I do love the notification of incoming reviews. And you just dropped four. So... :)

Hehe. I removed the death cap in Destiny, so even if a third Dex Holder kicks the bucket, it doesn’t mean any more would be safe from annihilation.

And now for something completely different with the fisherman... who got annihilated. Along with the rest of the town, of course. The games may have a severe population issue in that each town has like a dozen residents. But in terms of story, the population should match what you should expect a town/city to have, depending on the geography.

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SL #028

1)  God I wish you would continue the diamond and platinum chapters as I loved the drama and angst but wish for a happier ending. I’m biased for good comonershipping fanfics as you’re the one of the few authors that writes good stories.

... Why. Why this. Also there wouldn’t really have been a happy ending. More like a... less-sad ending.

If you want to see a happy ending type story with a little drama for Diamond and Platinum... Read Heart! That’s literally the story’s purpose!

And if you look at SL’s chart here... The last five chapters are all 15 or lower, on a story whose current review/chapter average is 23.5, which means those five have dragged it down quite a bit. If I work on such a thing now, the newest chapter will have like... what, 2? Yeah, I don’t think so. For the story’s own sake, I am not touching it.

... The AVERAGE is above 20... the last chapter I wrote that had 20 or more reviews was Legacy Prologue - Kanto, which was over 3 years ago. I bet that if I update Legacy now, it’ll have like... 5, and then I won’t touch it for the rest of the year. And at that rate, I’ll definitely die before the story does.

[feyrhycien]

A Traipse Through the Snow - 2

Part 1

A/N: i uh actually wrote something.... some of y’all wanted more so i wrote more and there will be EVEN more uh rise my friends cause i’m (tentatively) back and ready to Ship.

------

Tamlin called. Again. And Lucien ignored it. Again. He really would’ve quit this job already if it didn’t pay so well. 

“Was that your boss again?” Feyre asked, hands around her mug. Lucien sighed and nodded. 

“You should come work for me,” Rhys piped up. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. Lucien had tried not to gape when Rhys had taken off his coat and revealed his muscular arms that were shown off by his form fitting sweater. Don’t even get him started on the fit of Rhys’s trousers. “You’d have to interview, of course, but we don’t make people work on Saturday’s... unless it’s a special occasion.”

“Would you be the one interviewing me?” Lucien drawled, sketching a brow and leaning onto his forearms. Rhys shrugged. 

“I have to admit I’d be a bit biased.” Lucien could’ve sworn Rhys’s eyes trailed over his body as he spoke. He glanced at Feyre, who was sipping her latte and looking between the two men, and back at Rhys. 

“I’ll look into it.” Rhys grinned and Lucien wanted to roll his eyes at how smug he looked. 

Feyre leaned over and cupped her hand in front of his ear so Rhys wouldn’t hear her whisper, “I’d work for him just for the office sex.” Lucien raised his brows at her as she pulled away but then he smiled slowly. 

Rhys cocked a brow. “Care to share with the class?”

Lucien exchanged a look with Feyre before they both shook their heads. Rhys narrowed his eyes and reached for his teacup. Out of the corner of his eye, Lucien saw Feyre cover her mouth as she suppressed a laugh. Rhys watched her as he sipped his tea, his face softening. 

Lucien looked at her as well—her flushed cheeks and crinkled blue eyes. She looked really pretty. A few pieces of her hair had come out of her braid from her running her hand over it throughout their date and she pushed them out of her face as she continued to laugh quietly into her hand. 

“Sorry,” she wheezed, covering her face with both her hands. She peeked out at them between her fingers and her face fell.”What?” Lucien wasn’t sure what she saw on his own face, but if it was anything like the look of soft admiration on Rhys’s face then he understood the deepening blush on Feyre’s face. 

“You’re incredibly adorable, Feyre darling,” Rhys said. He set his teacup back on the table and propped his head on his hand. A smile tugged at Feyre’s lips though she ducked her head down to hide her red cheeks. Lucien simultaneously wanted a pet name and dreaded blushing like a fool if he got one.

“I’d really like to see both of you again,” Rhys blurted, which from what Lucien had gauged of him in the few hours they’d known each other was not a common occurrence. Feyre’s head snapped up before her throat bobbed.

“I’d like that as well,” Feyre said, fiddling with the necklace she wore. They smiled at each other and it made Lucien feel warm inside. He wondered how he’d ended up in the company of two of the most attractive people he’d ever seen. “Lucien?” The two of them were looking at him expectantly.

“I--uh--me too,” he stammered out before he smiled warily. Feyre and Rhys’s smiles widened impossibly. The three of them looked at each other entirely too long before Rhys broke the silence.

“Here, give me your numbers,” he said, taking out his phone. “I’ll make a groupchat for us to make plans and, you know, talk on.” Lucien realised Rhys was a bit of a dork.

They hugged goodbye a few minutes later and went their separate ways. Lucien felt lighter than he had in days.

------

Lucien had barely unlocked the door to his flat when his phone chimed. He closed the door behind him and fished his phone out of one of his deep coat pockets.

Unknown number: So when are you free tomorrow?

Lucien fought the urge to laugh, especially as who he assumed was Feyre replied.

Unknown number #2: Someone’s eager

Rhys: Darling, if you’re not available I can just take Lucien out…

Lucien felt his cheeks heat and set his phone down to take off his coat and scarf. He had more messages when he retrieved his phone.

Feyre: I’m doing brunch with my sisters at 11 so I’m free before that or after 1

Rhys: Hmm, that’s what I thought. 

Feyre: Prick.

Lucien laughed and walked further into his flat.

Rhys: We could do afternoon tea or perhaps dinner?

Rhys: Or maybe dinner’s too much...

Lucien’s stomach growled at the thought of dinner and he headed for his fridge to see if he had any leftovers. He’d ended up going into work after coffee, though he quit at the end of the day. He really hoped Rhys’s offer was genuine. He found fried rice from the night before and put it in the microwave before responding to Rhys’s messages.

Lucien: Dinner sounds nice

Feyre: He speaks!

Feyre: I think dinner would be nice, but nothing too fancy. I haven’t been given proper notice to get a dress suitable enough.

Rhys was typing for a longer time than Lucien was willing to watch the three little dots. His fried rice finished reheating and he took it with him to the living room couch.

Rhys: Thank the mother. Please do tell me if I ever overstep. I’ll make a reservation and send you the details in a bit? 

Rhys: Also I had a very good time at coffee this morning.

Lucien’s heart fluttered. At least he wasn’t the only nervous one in this situation.

-------

I really hope y’all enjoyed this cause i had a lot of fun writing it! if you’d like to be tagged just let me know xx

[gotmattitude]

plans, plans, plans

WHO: Elliott Gilbert ( @ellnaturae ), Santana Lopez ( @trickstersantana ), & Matt Rutherford.

WHAT: Matt comes to Santana and Elliott with a concern.

WHEN: 15-12-2018, we totally didn’t forget about this. 

WHERE: Sciron Square.

WARNINGS: Transphobia, dysphoria, needles/injections, illegality.

Elliott is sitting down on the hall at Sciron, some people went to rest while others came to the new turn, they were organized, but with people dropping out it was becoming harder to keep the shifts as good as before, he could notice people were getting tired in general. He looks down at the table where he is sitting, he is feeling a little discouraged, though he tries to concentrate to finish a paper on modernism, thanks to Blaine, who took the time to check for everyone's homework and get them into Sciron so they wouldn't lose their credits. He was amazed about how his friend could do that, how many hours in the day where there for Blaine to do things for himself and others so selflessly. He worried he may not be doing exactly that and putting himself second as usual. He frowns tapping with his pen "Maggrite..." he totally forgets what he was going to write. "Hmm... that guy with the apple on the face..." he says to himself though his thought process is interrupted by a familiar face approaching him.

Santana walks around, fakely positive and confident, but plotting on the inside, until she spots Elliott. "Just the person I wanted to see!" She says, getting closer and sitting next to him. She thought she didn't need to do homework or study for the shit that is NYADA, but she did it anyway so no one suspected about Her Plans. "Are you too busy? I think we have to make some plans for this to continue." She had to play the positive and encouraging card, the best thing to do to hide your future stabbing plans. "We have the money to get more food, we just need to get someone out and in back. And...we got a plan. Kind of."

Matt has been trying to "casually" look for Elliott to talk about his Issues and Concerns™, but not very successfully, and he knows it's because he's hesitant about it. Ell has been such a strong, steady and kind figure to look to during the tough moments, but he's only one of them too. It feels sort of exploitative to add another problem to the pile. Just as he's in the process of feeling guilty, Santana's voice catches his attention. His head twitches towards it, and he notices Elliott working on something. Well. Might as well. He approaches, hands shoved in his pockets, and greets them with a small smile. "Hey." He looks at Santana. It's not like he can't tell her what's going on, right? "We got a plan? For what?"

Elliott smiles at Santana, even in the worst moments she always seems confident, a lie or not, it is kind of comforting not being the only one pretending. He is about to say something  when Matt joins the conversation as well "Well, supplies are running low, people are tired, Santana seems to have a plan to keep things going" he explains quickly "I only wanted to use my powers if it was really necessary, thankfully with Sugar's help hasn't been necessary until now, I could easily teleport out and back in" he offers to Santana, even though he doesn't know her plan yet.

Santana is glad to see Matt too and greets him, but continues the conversation. "For getting enough food. Money isn't a problem, we just need to get someone out there who can uses grimoires to put all the food in there and then getting back here. I can use illusions to hide them getting in, sneaky style." She says making some exaggerated hand gestures and sparkles illusions to show her point. "Dani said Dave could go, and it shouldn't be too hard, right? Then we solve the food problem super fast!" She says, super confident about it. "Now, we could do a cool christmas and entertainment to keep people happy in here, I think the Nyada staff isn't holding it very good either. This isn't a good look on them."

Matt lets out a breath; it's relieving to know they're thinking of solutions, for some reason. "I guess we could also recruit someone who dropped out to bring us some food. It doesn't have to be Karofsky, I, uh," he scratches the back of his neck and drops his gaze. "I might have to drop out of this shit, sort of soon." He glances around, and kicks himself internally for being embarrassed. "I didn't really stock up on T before the barricade started, and it's getting to that point where I, uh, don't want to go without anymore. So I guess I could do that." And to cut up the embarrassment creeping up his cheeks in neck in the form of heat, he breathed in. "I agree with the Christmas, or holiday shit though. Some people are leaving just because of that. Not judging, I guess. But yeah. We gotta get some spirits up."

Elliott hides really well his surprise hearing Dave's name, he wonders why is that a good idea when probably he would be the most lost about buying stuff and where things are on campus out of every witch working with them, though maybe he is biased and he doesn't want Dave to be on the line, he considers Matt's suggestion but wonders if someone who had dropped out would want to help them anyway at this point, he doesn't want to sound pessimistic so he stays quiet for  while listening to what else Matt has to say "Well, if the food thing can be sorted out with Dave or other witch, and we also ask people outside, maybe Blaine could help out with that too... then I could help you out Matt" he offers "Do you get it from Penny or do you have to go outside campus?" he asks "Maybe I can teleport you somewhere in between, you get what you need, and then we meet up again and I teleport you back? Unless you really  need and want to drop out, if it is for your health I'm not gonna get in between that" he says very serious.

Santana shakes her head. "I don't trust lame drop outs. They would had do it already if they give a fuck, leave and take the chance and help from the outside, if they had to leave." She says. She didn't need capable people who wouldn't put any effort into it and do the classic of saying they would do something and then nothing. No more asking useful people with resources thing. It was time to give the useless people who were willing to do things a chance. She looks at Matt. "Dude, you can get it and for free! Motta invites. Just tell me what and where to get it and I'll put it on the shopping list. You got it." Santana is super judging everyone. She would do it too if she had like a nice plan but still she judges.

Matt can see that his idea about asking someone who dropped out is not being very well received. He gets Santana's point, though. He can't blame anyone for leaving, but it's one thing to drop out and another completely leave everyone else behind. He shrugs. "It was an idea. But you're right. They probably want nothing to do with the barricade." Nodding along to Elliott's suggestion about getting Dave or Blaine to help, he points to himself. "I have a grimoire too. I don't know how sneaky or quiet I can be, but I do have a physical one, and one on my phone. So yeah." 

And then they both start suggesting ways to deal with his shortage problem, and Aether, it takes him a long moment to react, because he's too busy thinking something along the lines of 'holy shit, these guys are fucking great.' But when he finishes processing that thought, he shakes his head. "I don't want to get you guys in trouble--especially you, with the teleporting shit," he adds quietly, but sort of like a stage whisper. "And I --um, the only time I didn't get it myself it was, y'know," this was becoming an increasingly common trend with them, "illegal. So I don't know--I could look it up, call Penny or some shit, ask if someone could pick it up for me. That should've probably been my first impulse," he chuckles, sort of embarrassed that he'd immediately jumped into panic mode. "Thanks, though. For offering to help and all that shit. I know you've both got a lot on your plate right now and... yeah."

Elliott shakes his head "It's not a problem, Matt, I would be glad to help out... there is a place where I can teleport to outside campus with trustworthy people, they are my friends... my family" he corrects himself with a soft expression on his face "If you need to get out of campus that's not a problem, or maybe I can take you to Avicenna... i mean if what we are trying is to avoid they stopping you from coming back... we just gotta be sneaky" he chuckles and winks "Aren't we team illegal magic?" he jokes "However, I don't know if Penny will tell on us..." he says a little more serious.

Santana points at Matt. "It was a idea. It's better to tell them all and consider them than just not say them at all." Santana crosses her arms and shrugs. "Yeah, you could go too, but you might get more trouble than a white cis non-doppel witch." 

Santana laughs a bit about the illegal part. "Oh my, doing illegal things, me? us? Never" She joked. "If you don't want Elliott to do it, we get it with the general supplies. Really, is not a problem for me." It might only be a problem for Dave if he is going to  get it but she doesn't care about him. "The thing is, we have choices." Then she smiled, with the full smile of hope and dreams. "Also, the having things on my plate? Worry not, my friend. I have the feeling finally good things is what I'm going to get on the plate of my life."

Matt shrugs and nods at Santana's statement. "You're right. Dave sounds like a safe bet." 

 He thinks about it for a moment. He really doesn't want to put Ell at risk, but he's also uneasy about leaving something as important as T to Dave, who didn't even know what potato chips were. Not that he doesn't respect the guy. Eyes fixed on Ell, he sighs. "We teleport somewhere private. A bathroom, or something. And if we get caught, I snuck us out. This was all my idea." As nervous as this makes him, there's a huge weight off his shoulders. "We go early in the morning, as early as possible, when there's less foot traffic around, and if you can get away with teleporting away from someone about to catch you using your illegal fucking powers, you do that, alright? No useless risky shit." A breath puffs out of his nose,  and his demeanor relaxes. "And thank you. Both. For offering. Penny shouldn't be an issue, I think. I think she'd rather I keep taking my shots than just... suffer in here without 'em." A smile pulls at the edge of his mouth. "It'd be cool to meet your family, though."

A tingle of suspicion starts building at the pit of his stomach when Santana talks about her plate, and all of its good things. He narrows his eyes for a moment. This aura makes it real hard to tell when he's actually suspicious of something she's saying in person. "Really? It's not like y-- What sort of good things? I'm glad you're looking forward to something. That's pretty good," he says, suspicious, and kicks himself internally. Maybe she was in love or something. "Are you in love or something?"

Elliott nods confident, maybe way too much, but he wants to transmit security to Matt, who seems really on edge, understandably, about the whole situation "There is no problem, we can do that, I don't think anyone will notice if we teleport to a bathroom, I will wait for you there, and you can just come and go" he smiles "I would love for you guys to meet too". After all, he now thought greatly of Matt as well, it would be like making some of his best friends meet, and that could never be bad. He wonders quietly about Santana's optimism, and even if she is lately constantly telling him about her plans and something good going on for her, now that she is telling them face to face, he feels those words aren't as truthful as they seem in text form "As long as you are happy, I guess..." he says partially doubtful "Are you in love though?" he joins Matt question.

Santana raises her two thumbs up to show her approval of The Plan of Matt and Elliott. And starts laughing when they mention love. "My my! You guys are too funny!" She sticks her tongue. "But I love to keep the mystery and to have people guess over the wrong things, so, let's leave it like that." It would be fun to give them the surprise.

[juunshua]

Things are going well - thanks for asking! Movement refers to the individual muscles and bones used in the process of dancing whereas the final product is the look at the end; is my arm the same height as the person next to me, does the group formation look proportional, etc. I wouldn't say Hoshi or Vernon are the best dancers but they have great control over their bodies (the movement) and seungkwan probably picked up on that attention to detail to a certain degree. Like you I was drawn to (1/)

svt because their choreo allowed me to engage with the music different than how I usually do with that with other groups. I'm multifandom af but svt holds a special place in my brain, hence all the mentioned groups lol. I guess I've been into kpop for a while but that interest has been in waves. In my younger days I was really into keeping up with groups but now I check them out whenever someone, usually a dancer, or music catches my attention. (2/)It's a matter of random sampling; after a while companies are bound to attract a kid with experience in something beyond typical idol expectations. It's like singing: habits die hard especially those learned when young. I'm not sure of they kept up with the (3/)It's like singing in that aspect: old habits die hard. Fei and Victoria for example rarely moved their torso because in traditional Chinese dance the expression and artistry comes from the arms and legs but in a hip hop dominated field constricting those muscles makes them seem stiff and uncordinated. Same goes for anyone who learned ballet. Another example of this is Yuju from gfriend. While her arms are fine, she has a stiff lower body probably due to having learned figure skating (4/)Where the ankles knees and pelvis has to be stiff for the jumps. But when compared to the other girls in gfriend, something looks off about her dancing even when the overall picture looks right. Fun fact: stephanie danced for the LA ballet a few years back. Her approach to dancing is creative and strong even for a former idol. considering that both jyp and lsm actively performed throughout the 90s, I'm not suprised the companies are big on injury pervention. That's not always the case (6/)Because quite a few of their idols have been injured on the job. Yuri only recently got surgery for her ankle even though it's been an issue for a couple of years now. Choreo for TT had to be modified to accommodate jihyo's knee towards the last legs of promotions. Mark's spine is in terrible condition from all the jumps he had to do for girlsx3. Jype and sme stress technique more than other companies do but that is a low bar. No one knows what ** is doing. Either name is fine love (7)

im replying super late again laskdjf i feel so bad :( i think i’ll call you technique anon! bc our conversations werent limited to dance :) 

ooh thank you for the clarification between the two! and yeah svt in general has engaged me musically in many ways that no other group really has done i always wondered if musicians felt somewhat similar about them. ahaha i used to be wayyy more multifandom back in the day but over the years its really significantly dwindled and alskdjf im the same! like when i was younger id look for new debuts and everything and make sure i checked out their debut song to see if i wanted to get into that group or not but now its way different there are so many groups first of all that debut, and as life happens i kinda got more busy so that also shifted how i approached kpop in general. also i think getting into svt for me personally was a big turning point in my kpop life too ahaha like i said before, theyve engaged me musically in ways no other group has done, but also in many other ways. i dont think ive ever been this mentally invested in a group in my life, like not even for my ult group(s) so that just naturally also takes more time up in life. its so interesting what a trained eye can catch!!! laksjdf ngl yuju was probably one of my more favorite dancers in gfriend (maybe im being biased since shes...well...my bias) i dont think i ever noticed something off about her? like in the overall picture! do you have examples? but i can see how her lower body was stiffer. i know nothing about dance and different companies, but is the LA ballet a prestigious place to be? i had no idea that she was a former kpop idol oh my. def props to her for keeping up with the demands of a dancer while still being a kpop idol though. at least when it comes to the voice, many vocalists can get ‘weaker’ (for lack of a better word) after debut, they tend to abandon technique in favor of i guess pleasing the ear or going with a certain image for the group/songs theyre approaching. is there something similar with dancers? seeing how many of them aren’t necessarily trained in hip hop styled dances? you did mention yuju and fei/victoria though i suppose it is similar. :O why did i never know about yuris ankle? :( oh my I DIDNT KNOW JIHYO got injured towards the end of TT promotions? but thats good the company adjusted the dance to accommodate for her knee but i looked it up and it seems that they just made her/twice stand in places where they/she usually sat? i feel like thats a common pattern ive seen in choreo changes for groups when a member injures something (like daniel during energetic promtions). did jihyo injure while dancing though or? omg did mark really? is there a way to prevent all this though like didnt hao also injure himself because of what he had to do for the dwc choreo (or were those just rumors bc he still does that flip)? its always just so confusing to me how, when theres all these things out there if you just take two seconds out of your life and research (which is what id assume any good ceo would do) like why is the pop world so against it. like its not just kpop, just popular music in general seems to be driven by not tending to spend much time on just knowing the proper ways to do things. its not a big huge secret that people are keeping to themselves like information is there and esp in this world of the internet, its even to an extent free? and its so sad bc we see things like jyp swearing on the ‘half breath half sound’ method because thats what he learned in the states(?) or whatever like? ??? but i guess, it also makes sense bc in a sense i suppose being popular has a lifespan? maybe people arent as heavily invested in things that could make their artists run for a longer time, because that might not be something they want? like god the 7 year curse for kidols is too real. like if ur just gonna devote only 7 years of ur life, which is obviously a significant portion of one’s life just not the companies voice, then why would they care if you can survive past that? or smth idk what im saying at this point ahaha. but at least sm and jyp are doing /something/ i guess? and i wonder why jyp is like that for dance but not vocals hmm, even if it is a low bar. 

[ask-svt-hearteu]

Hogwarts! Vernon

@hellonanibear requested: "hi loves :-) I was wondering if I could request a Hogwarts!AU with Vernon please?? I'm a real big Harry Potter fan (Ravenclaw Pride tbh) but I noticed you guys don't have one for him yet and I'd like to request one please since your Hogwarts!AUs are some of the best I've read! ☺️💙"

admin note: Tysm lovely hope you enjoy! <3

so Hansol’s a second year Gryffindor

half-blood

he has a little sister too who he loves and tries showing her magic despite not knowing too much about it himself

was shook the whole time though

from buying his books and getting picked by his wand

and asks his mom everything she can remember about Hogwarts

so he can imagine it himself

sorted into Gryffindor

which can be entertaining

bc the guy gets scared of really weird and random things sometimes

would jump at the sound of his own laughter probably tbh

things like spiders and bugs //COUGH COUGH RONALD WEASLEY TYPE//

but don’t ever think he doesn’t have enough bravery to be in Gryffindor

he will take on anything and anyone for his friends

like how someone accidentally casted Seungkwan's wand on the roof by a stray spell

dead af climbed hundreds of feet above

no broomstick or anything

just to get it back

his best friend is Seungkwan, second year hufflepuff of course

honestly what a duo they are

Vernon was sitting by himself in a carriage on the Hogwarts express his first year

minding his own business, looking out the windows in awe at the landscape speeding by

and Seungkwan runs into the carriage with his robes

ON FIRE

bc boo diva thought he could show off some A+ magic to make some friends

at least he tried?

things didn’t go as planned obviously

and Hansol being the ever calm and collected person he was

wasn’t screaming or anything lmao

dumped his water bottle

BUT NOT ON THE FREAKING FIRE BC WHY WOULD HE BE SENSIBLE AND DO THAT

no he dumped it on Seungkwan���s head

mostly by accident

but uh yea SEUNGKWAN IS STILL ON FIRE

and Joshua and Seungcheol see the smoke and run in on the two first years panicking and screaming

like “DON'T YOU CHILDREN KNOW FIRE IS DANGEROUS?!?!”

and they help put out the fire

and honestly find the kids endearing enough to invite them to sit with them

starting the iconic 13 member friend group that everyone in Hogwarts knows

and Verkwan’s friendship was literally born out of burnt robes ashes :,,,)) 

“So you got a name?” Seungkwan asked, sassy as always

“Hansol, but everyone calls me Vernon.”

“I’m Seungkwan.”

“Really I thought your name was ‘boy on fire’.”

“You’re funny, wanna be friends?”

“Sure.”

“You’re my puppy now.”

man these two started out the same height

but imagine how surprised Seungkwan got when throughout the year,

Hansol outgrew him by a few centimeters

were pretty devastated when they weren’t sorted into the same houses

“I’ll grab the talking hat you distract the teachers.”

"We can hang out in your dormitory every other day"

and so they hang out all the time

because if Hansol is left to wonder around, he might just walk off the castle grounds and get lost

would walk around thinking about stuff by himself

and fall into the lake or something

and everyone would be panicking EXCEPT FOR HIM

trying to figure out how to get him to swim back to shore

so he and Seungkwan walk together around a lot

claiming a corner of the campus for themselves

and all the prefects know Hansol by hair color or just general outline

and everyone in their friend group looks out for them because they’re the youngest

even Chan who’s younger than the both of them by a year

he takes care of the two of them too because he's pretty mature

they get in trouble a lot when they’re together

detention for hexing papers to fly everywhere in charms

and when they found out Seungcheol and Joshua were their prefects after coming back from summer break

didn’t make things easier for them at all

“I SWEAR HANSOL DONT PLAY WITH THE FIREPLACE, I DONT WANNA BURN DOWN THE COMMON ROOM.”

"Whatchu going to do daaaaaad give me detention?"

"Yea."

"Oh, sorry...? I love you? PLEASE I DON'T WANT DETENTION HYUNG!"

no one really calls him Hansol too much

except for his friend group

honestly this is so confusing to everyone when Seungkwan comes bounding up to him in the halls yelling in a singsongy voice “HAAAANNNSSSSOOOOLL~~~~”

“Why is he calling Vernon, Hansol?”

but that just shows who really knows him

even the teachers call him Vernon

Verkwan is such a troublesome friendship

always breaking the rules to sit together

but that whole group always does that

or sneaking out after curfew

and doing who knows what

there's always a classroom that has all the desks bewitched to spout out confetti or glitter the next day but no one has solid evidence so Verkwan hasn't been caught yet

can’t even split them up by separating them across the classroom

would end up sending notes back and forth

at some point the teachers gave up

and made the both of them announcers for quidditch matches

thinking that might calm them down when they’re together and using their energy towards something productive

honestly so biased though

each one will cheer for their friends only

“MINGYU-HYUNG BLOCKED IT IN YOUR FACES”

“JUN-HYUNG CATCHES THE SNITCH AND WINS IT AGAIN AS EXPECTED”

“JIHOON STOP SMOOCHING YOUR GF AND JUST WIN ALREADY- OW sorry professor!”

Hansol rapping the scores for the whole stadium

and everyone either loves it

or doesn’t say anything unless you want 12 other guys coming after you

wands drawn

despite being a kid who causes a lot of trouble

and doesn’t seem to study whatsoever

he does pretty decently in most of his classes

best class is care of magical creatures

but tbh doesn't really study

and again manages to pass stuff

but doesn't enter the library unless he wants to bother Joshua, Wonwoo, or one of his other hyungs about something

really laid back and chill, doesn't stress over schoolwork that much

he doesn’t mess up too often either MOSTLY

but when he does, he does it spectacularly

generally involving colorful explosions and fire

has a pet cat named Mr. Chwe

but Hansol just calls him Chewy

it’s the cutest fluffiest thing you’ve ever seen

besides Hansol of course

it's silver fur is honestly so pretty and Hansol loves it to death

anyway

one day you were looking for your owl, Cara

because you wanted to send a letter home

when a silver kitty passed in front of you outside

"Hey there!" you bent down to stroke its fur for a bit and it purred while laying on the ground in front of you

"Chewy!" you looked up as surprise, surprise

Vernon ran up to Chewy

and basically stopped dead in his tracks

because you're pretty DON'T DENY IT

and Vernon be shooketh

awkward human bean

someone protect him TT

and he kind of just stammers his introduction

which you think is really cute

"Hi, I-I-I'm Vernon."

and you giggle a bit bc DAMN VERNON IS REALLY CUTE LIKE YOU THOUGHT THE CHEWY WAS CUTE BUT OMFG

and he smiles because you laughing is really cute

"Chewy is it?" you smile asking him

"Yea!" and you watch as Vernon's face basically lights up as he starts telling you about how he got his cat

and you find out he's in the same year as you

which is surprising because you're familiar with his friend group

everyone at Hogwarts knows them

and you always kind of thought he was older than you

you're a ravenclaw yourself so you run into Chan sometimes

and Vernon goes on really excitedly telling you about Chewy's life story

how Chewy had basically eaten some chocolate Vernon had dropped in diagon alley

and how it got sick

and Vernon felt awful and just had to figure out how to make it feel better

until he found out the heartbreaking news of Chewy not having a family

and he basically begged his parents for days to keep Chewy will secretly hiding Chewy in his trunk

no one really knows how he did it though don't ask one of the older kids they'll claim to know no magic that can fix that cough cough liars they had to help Hansol ok? no one could say no

and you stand there just taking it all in

how Vernon was willing to go on and on about his pet to some stranger

and you were all for it tbh

and perfect timing

right as Vernon finishes his story, your owl Cara flies down from her roost to land on your shoulders

Cara is a beautiful amber color and you smile as Vernon kind of just stares at Cara in awe

"WOW IS THAT YOUR OWL, IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL."

"It is," you laugh, "Cara and I go way back."

and he just stares at you waiting for you to explain the story

and so you tell him and you both laugh at the varying adventures that you tell each other about your pets

and you both also realize you had care of magical creatures together

and you both really love animals and just never talked before

and Cara and Chewy are just following you and Vernon

Chewy following Cara with his eyes

and Cara being like "Have you never seen an owl before, you cat?"

and when you both leave

you feel all warm inside because you made a friend

or someone you really liked who knows

the next few weeks really zoom by

you talk to Vernon in care of magical creatures more now

and even Seungkwan can't help but feel like you're encroaching on his best friend

"Y/n, I know you might not know me, but since you're friends with Hansol, you have to be friends with me."

"Hansol?"

"Yea that's his real name, did he not tell you?"

"Hmm, I guess not, he said his name is Vernon."

and you're kind of like ???

because did he not consider you a close enough friend to call him by his real name?

but also why does it bother you? Vernon was just a friend... right?

and so obviously

when feelings get confusing

you're just like welp instead of working this confusion out I'm just going to pretend like they don't exist

even if you stare at Hansol a bit too long during care of magical creatures

and he always comes up to talk to you about homework help and stuff since you're in Ravenclaw

and in the same year

and all the hyungs take notice

"Hey you're Hansol's friend huh?"

"He usually doesn't even try doing his homework but lately he's actually been doing stuff."

"Oh you're that person that got Hansol doing his homework, wow thank you what did you promise him chocolate for life?"

and it's overwhelming but you find yourself having twelve new friends

bc you're friends with Hansol

and one day

"Hey Vernon! Do you wanna go work on that potions paper together?"

"Sure y/n! But uhhhh.... you can call me Hansol, it's my real name haha." he blushes but you don't notice

"Why do you go by Vernon then?"

"It's just what a lot of people know me as and I stopped correcting them, and only my really close friends call me that."

you feel your heart swelling

"Ok,,,, Hansol."

man the smile on his face when you said that

in the next few weeks you guys hang out more to do study sessions for upcoming exams

and one day when you're sitting at the windowsill of an empty classroom

Cara flies in through the open window landing beside you

carrying papers in her claw

"Cara, are you stealing people's notes again?" you laugh picking up the sheet to read it

and written at the top

"Vernon"

you're almost screaming because wow what a coincidence

"Cara, this is Hansol's" you frown

and you look at some of his doodles on the scroll of paper

and you see little heart doodles

around initials you can't really read because the ink smeared

but the meaning seemed pretty clear

he must have a crush on someone

you found yourself a bit sad

since that was Hansol's business and not really any of yours

but

you had to admit your feelings for him weren't all that straight forward and clear cut as they seemed

you sighed but continued working

the least of your worries, a silly crush on a boy who didn't like you

and the next few weeks, Cara kept bringing you Hansol's stuff

once it was a chocolate frog

and another time it was a little folded paper star with his initials on one side and a little heart

it's like your owl was trying to play matchmaker for you two

"He probably doesn't like me" you giggle when Cara dropped another one of Hansol's things in front of you

this one was a really pretty pale blue colored quill

"He might actually need this ya know."

and eventually you have a whole shoebox of random stuff Cara stole from Vernon

and you're like 'I have to return them at some point'

until Cara drops a card I front of you

and you're like ??? did you steal from Vernon again???

and on the card is a simple "Thanks to you I did pretty well on my exams, thanks for everything~ Hansol"

and you laugh as you read the post script

"PS I asked Cara to deliver it especially since she always hangs around my dormitory window"

"Awww Hansol, I'm sorry, Cara's been taking your stuff." you say to yourself laughing

"Cara, you're such a troublemaker." you gently pet her wing

and Cara sares at you like 'please just watch what happens'

and your amber owl is riiiiiiiigggghhhhhtttttttt

you gather up the shoebox with missing items to return to Hansol

and when he sees you he comes bounding right up with a huge smile on his face

until it sees the stuff in the box

and his face falls

"Hey Hansol."

"Hey y/n"

"Cara kept taking your stuff, so I came to give it back." you smile raising up the box

"About that......." Hansol starts blushing

"You see, at first I noticed Cara taking my stuff" Hansol started not meeting your eyes

"but after a bit, I ended up just giving her stuff, thinking she'd give it to you."

"Why would you do that?" you giggle blushing as well

"Well stuff like the chocolate frog, I wanted to share with you and I saw the quill in hogsmeade and it reminded me of you bc it was pretty and you're really pretty...."

you freeze blushing like crazy

"pretty..... PRETTY COOL AND YEA I LIKE YOU SO."

you're standing shocked

"And so I gave it to Cara because I thought you'd like it. So all that stuff's yours not mine, you can keep it." he smiles at you and playfully ruffles your hair

his hand lingering on your head as he pushes a stray lock of your hair back behind your ear

"I mean, if you don't like me that's ok, I just didn't want to lose one of my closest friends and best tutor ever" he smiled sheepishly

"No Hansol, I..."

his eyes met yours

"I like you lots too." you giggle

and it's that cute giggle that reminds his of when her first saw you

and he's so relieved he finally told you

that he just gives you a hug right then and there

"Yeeeeeeeeeessssss be mine then." he says not letting you go

"Haha of course." and you feel your cheeks burning

and the moment is just too cute and perfect

until Seungkwan notices you two

and basically yells

"HANSOL, Y/N, WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING?!?!?!?"

and from then on it's official

"Honestly, she's such a good influence making him do his homework and stuff" proud prefect Seungcheol

you two are the cutest ever

walking around campus with Cara and Chewy

tbh Chewy and Cara are like the bestest friends

and Seungkwan just being lowkey jealous that you're taking all Hansol's attention

"He was my friend first!!!"

but he thinks you guys are hella cute too

how could he not

you and Vernon sitting together for meals, only having dessert and getting into food fights

bc how could you let whip cream just sit on top of your pumpkin pie without smearing some on his face

before he gets you back with the frosting off cupcakes

and it's a big mess

and he grabs napkins and helps you wipe your face

one hand on your cheek as he leans down to kiss your cheek

"Hey!" you giggle

"Sorry not sorry!" Seungkwan making barfing gestures behind the two of you lmao forever third wheeling

him making you sit next to him when he wants to sit outside

just so he can lay his lead in your lap

and drift off while you're reading a book for some assignment

and you get a bit distracted every time he moves because he's so freaking adorable

and you end up just watching him nap

until he peeks open an eye surprising you

and quick as a cat

sits up to peck you on the cheek

"For a Ravenclaw, you aren't fast enough to pick up when someone's fake sleeping"

"Oh please Hansol, those snores from you were so real." you laugh

"Maybe, maybe not"

and he takes your hand in his and looks you straight in before pressing his lips against yours

and you smile at how beautiful and surreal it all feels

"Don't think I'll ever get over how pretty you are." he says tilting his face to the side a bit giving you a cute look

"Please Hansol lol."

"I'm not joking though!"

he holds onto your arm as he lays back down on your lap and looks up at you

"You're prettier than Chewy." he grinned slyly

"DID YOU JUST COMPARE ME TO YOUR CAT HANSOL?"

The Seventeen Hogwarts AU Series:

| S.coups | Jeonghan | Joshua | Jun | Hoshi | Wonwoo | Woozi | DK | Mingyu | Minghao | Seungkwan | Vernon | Dino |

MASTERLIST

[sukisdeliveryservice]

hihi! carat anon here! seeing as you used the 💎 emoji i'll use it whenever i send asks so its easier for us :)

i started stanning back in september 2020! and you actually have pretty similar taste to me 👀 my ult biases are dokyeom and shua. occasionally its also chan and hao! my favourite song atm would be lie again, second life, and all my love. my favourite album is also henggarae, and my favourite going episode(s) are ofc also ttt, and svtside out has a special place in my heart too <3

to keep things going, what made you stan svt? and why did you choose chan as your bias? - 💎

good afternon carat anon!! (well it's afternoon here but morning/evening to you as well!!) ooh another quarantine carat!! quarantine definitely gave us a lot of time to get to know them hehe similar taste i see :O maybe next time we can swap playlists :D dokyeom and shua omg i love that!! lie again is definitely in my sleeping playlist and second life is actually one of the reasons i started stanning!!

i think i randomly came across a tik tok of woozi singing the bridge to second life, and that got me more interested in them! plus i saw lots of anime edits to run to you so that was an added bonus :D

i think i really started stanning svt because i had an aquaintance who rec'd me the going epsiodes and since quarantine was pretty lonely for me all year, their friendship really brought lots of comfort? and i guess their dynamic and individual natures just felt so authentic that i don't think i'll love a group as much as i love them - sharing a common interest with stanning svt also brought me a few friends irl and online that i treasure sm <3

and chan omg he came out of nowhere!! i think his passion really stood out to me, the one part in the gose carnival episode where he spent lots of time complimenting the members was super sweet and most recently this thread: https://twitter.com/forhoshee/status/1358771716760109057 really got me realizing how much he had to endure and how special his relationship is with the other members (soonyoung comes next in the bias list right after chan!!) of course i love him for being bright, funny and super cool but those first reasons are held very close to my heart :)

your turn!! may i ask why you started stanning and why you chose your biases? hmm and also are there any other groups you stan/biases you have?

also are you comfortable with sharing your timezone? i just wonder when you read these LOL

[amandayuebing]

My Life is Very Shoujo Manga, Chapter 23: 亲

After I got home, after that stroll with Narong and Tony, their reactions were vastly different-- a real testament to their natures and which one I was more compatible with. 

Tony apologised for making me feel awkward. He always seemed genuine, caring and sincere. Whilst Narong...? I won’t even bother getting into it. 

The morning of 31 October 2014, Tony messaged me to ask what I’d be up to that day. We ended up arranging to meet up after my classes. Once class ended, I waited for him on the garden wall outside my apartment. 

Sometimes it felt like whenever I thought of him, he would contact me. Sometimes, I think it’s all in my head that he likes me, and I’m biased, believing what I want to believe. 

Believe it or not, I feel like I have been drawing him in from the start, and even the people around us suggest there’s something between us; that we’re meant to be e.g. Ayaka and Jessica would always nudge and wink at me, whenever he was around. 

Perhaps I’m more of a romantic than I thought, but I felt like we connected the way lovers were connected in storybooks. I knew no matter what complicated circumstances we were in, we were meant to be with each other. Even if we met too early for us to be together, I felt like I was connected to him through some secret line, and because of it, I could pull him closer at any time, or wait for him to come to me. I felt so selfish... using that line to draw us closer any time I felt like...

As I daydreamed, an old man approached me and wouldn’t leave me alone. He asked if I studied around here, and I lied that I didn’t and he said, “oh, because you’re standing next to a university. I assumed you study here.” Then he asked for my name, so I gave him a fake name. And after that, kept asking me sleazy questions like what I was doing tonight.

At this point, I walked away. He kept calling after me (using the fake name I’d given), louder and louder. I was so scared, I ran up to the Design & Architecture building’s café where there was a lot of people, too scared to come back down because he’d know where I live. He stayed there, for a very long time...

I messaged the kendo beginner’s group’s Line group chat, and they told me to call Tony. I called him, but there was no responses because his phone had been acting up...

Eventually, Tony arrived and I hugged him tightly because I was so scared. But the old man was gone...

Tony came to rest on the couch of the common room area of my apartment (since I told him my parents are conservative and would freak out if he came inside my apartment). It was completely empty, which was a little surprising for a Friday night. He asked so charmingly and innocently, “won’t you come nap with me?” 

I don’t take naps during the daytime, but his invitation felt inescapable. My heart felt like it would burst. Something was so appealing about the fact he was inviting me into the safety of his arms, whilst he was sleeping. I felt special, because not many people would get thr chance.

I tried to resist, by making the excuse “I can’t fall asleep at this time”. 

“Suit yourself.” He shrugged. “I’m going to sleep for a little bit."

After ignoring him for a little while, he was fast asleep. I pretended to work from my laptop a little longer, then I couldn’t help packing away my things and snuggling next to him, wrapping myself with one of his arms, head on his chest. 

His chest softly rose and fell, but for some reason, his heartbeat was unusually strong. I didn’t know what his heartbeat was usually like. I gently pressed my hand on my chest to compare. My heart was also racing a little, but it didn’t beat as hard as his. 

I wondered if he knew I was there, but I watched his eyes for signs of movement. He really seemed to be asleep.

As I lay next to him, I felt so safe with him sleeping peacefully beside me. How did it feel so comfortable? This should feel wrong; lying next to someone who’s not my boyfriend (even though he’s not anyone else’s boyfriend either), feeling so comfortable. But I think about how things are apparently complicated between Marianne and Tony right now, and whether she expects him back, and I feel bad.

But I think about how he chose to be here, right now. I watch him breathe. His chest moves up and down, and the afternoon sun is making me drowsy... I try to sleep, but I end up watching his face.

At one point, he begins very gently giving me kisses whilst his eyes are still closed, and I turn away shyly. I felt so happy-- how could this be happening?! That was my FIRST kiss. How did my first kiss happen so cutely?! Is this real life??

Why are his lips so soft...?

I was shy when he woke up. He asked me about it. “Why are you suddenly acting so coy?”

“I- I-”

“Hmm...? Is it because someone accidentally kissed you in their sleep...?”

“Y-you! You weren't asleep!"

"Sure I was," he mischievously grinned. "What else was I doing?"

[hagiographically]

Could you talk more about Stanford stereotypes regarding literally anything (idk majors?) bc they way how you explain them is literally so funny/good

lmao aw ily, you can always come to me if u want my opinion related to anything stanford (stereotypes about dorms, sports teams, greek life, a cappella ??) because i have A Lot Of It - i only wish i was more integrated with the school cuz most of my opinions are hearsay instead of personal experience

major stereotypes….hmm thats hard cuz there are So Many majors but i can just go with the most common ones and group some together, etc

engineering:

aero/astro - small department full of space nerds, most of them are in SSI, drones, i personally consider them very brainy and if i were better at engineering i would be aero/astro cuz i think it’s the next frontier. there should definitely be more women in it for sure

bioe - my ex was bioe, they’re a bunch of nerds but they have good enough hearts. they care about curing diseases and shit

CS - oh boy. ohhhhhh boy. here we fuckin go. honestly CS is barely even a sterotype at stanford cuz its such a dominant culture…..the people who decide what stereotypes even are, are probably CS. it’s gotten to the point where if i meet someone and they aren’t CS it’s worth noting. it’s gotten to the point where, in my psych/literature/communications/education classes, i expect the other people to be CS. i have so many Opinions on CS Boys because CS Boys are such!!!!a!!!type!!!! (and different from just, a boy who does CS). they worship the trinity of google, facebook, and microsoft. their junior summer internship is at least one of these. they buy into all silicon valley startup culture and they love elon musk and talk about venture capital when its really not welcome. they love talking about how much work they have and how little they sleep. all INTJs. probably virgos. there is also a subgenre of CS boy who didnt come into stanford wanting to do CS and ended up switching because its easier to be a CS Boy at stanford. they criticize the culture all the time. to this you can say, “it’s all right, craig, i know you just want to make money.”

CME - people major in this when they dont love themselves

design - i personally think this major is fuckin cool and considered it before i realized physics was a pre-req. the d school is thought to be d for douchey though because their whole shtick is so ~ideate~ ~prototype~ ~We Are Quirky and Put Post-Its On Walls~ but i dug it as a frosh. they can be kinda condescending, but theyre by far the most interdisciplinary dept in the engineering major (although its also full of white men who think theyre hot shit cuz they can use photoshop)

EE - again for people who lack self love, its supposed to be so fuckin hard

MS&E - white frat boys who glorify jordan belfort

ME - similar to design. live at the PRL. stay up till ungodly hours carving wood. somehow this is enjoyable. also white male heavy

who knows how the f to categorize this:

education - if i could do stanford over i would major in this. usually very diverse, woke, often come from underprivileged backgrounds so they want to make it better for other people and reach communities that arent currently benefited (unlike silicon valley or wall street :) ) i respect them because they do what they love and not to make $ although if educational engineering were a thing im certain people would jump ship. it’s also not in the humanities dept so i feel like theyre Above the stanford hegemony and i love that

earthsys - i considered a minor in this. usually sweet, earth-friendly people. white but woke. possibly queer. granola loving hippies and maybe some frathletes who want an “easy” major but not sure (im not shitting on easy majors. i have one. love ‘em)

generally i like girls in any of the engineering depts because they are dealing with sexism and doing it. the boys are oftentimes extremely self-congratulatory and will usually say something dumb about the humanities. even the girls will hit you with the “oh i wish i could study that!” about any non-engineering discipline, and it’s implied that what they’re really saying is “but i care about my future too much!” 

humanities/sciences:

AAAS/chicanx studies/asian-american studies/CSRE - woke poc who use lots of buzzwords and say things like folx

art - the people who major in art are usually more quiet than you’d think. we have an Artsy Type at stanf that are kind of extra (theta chi/EBF types, also very woke QPOC) but i dont think theyre art majors for the most part. i barely know any actual art Majors. lots of engineers just do art on the side

bio - i love bio majors because they are sciency but also get shit on by engineers so we’re in solidarity. they are sweet and study all the time and just wanna make the world a better place. there’s also the pre-med kind of bio who i would hate if i were also pre med but since im not i just kind of admire and fear them

chem - i like chem people much more than i thought i would. again a very small major and they just live in lab and have varied non chem interests. this year i accidentally became friends with like 6 people from the chem fraternity and i was surprised how much i liked them

complit/english - i was this major! english in creative writing are usually chill, interesting people. complit and english in literature…….it’s a shakespeare circlejerk and they hit you with the Discourse. overly educated white people. avoid the boys specifically but the girls can also be incredibly self-satisfied. maybe 50/50. but if you take a creative writing class instead of a lit class, the CW kids are usually awesome

taps - our drama department. they’re nice, but extra and intimidating. (also stanford theater is…..okay….not really as good as they seem to think it is yikes that was mean but) however, like with english, take an introductory class and you’ll meet very cool non-taps majors.

econ - oftentimes wonderful people! outside of class that is

femgen - same people as the AAAS/CSRE crowd except whiter. queer girls with undercuts. upperclassmen are intimidating to many. everyone shares their opinion even when its not warranted. my honors is in this

film studies - this was almost my minor and if i werent CW i might have doubled in film and comm! i dont know any film majors but if they arent a cole sprouse im sure theyre fine (they are probably a cole sprouse)

german/italian/french/spanish language or studies - spot the person who studied abroad!

history - like english, can be cool, more likely pretentious

humbio - the other premeds! actually humbio gets shit on alllll the time for being easy or having a fluff major, bio majors think they’re soft. thus, i like them. their course catalog is awesome and its a huge major but all the scary pre meds are straight up bio and humbios are softer but in a good way its a lot of sweet girls

intl relations - one of my favorite majors. usually very down to earth, the best of the IR/poli-sci/pub-po trinity. however, they can also be self-congratulatory for being So Woke and also they love to educate you when You Didn’t Ask

linguistics - weird, diverse people. very small major. similar to anthro, my old major. i love small majors they always have cute dinners together

MCS - a hard fuckin major. not as “Look How Smart I Am” as a bad CS. mostly quiet and stay in and study their ass off

math - love to wax poetic about the beauty of math. fun when drunk. not when sober

philosophy/MTL/classics - avoid. classics can be okay if it overlaps with archaeology because theyre just a bunch of nerds and they get really excited and its cute. phil majors would rather just educate you about how free will is fake and youre like tim can you please just get out of the way we’re in the dining hall and you’re blocking the cornbread

physics - Avoid. they think all other sciences are lesser. women and POC are ok

poli-sci - hit or miss. generally pretty friendly. very talkative. fun to talk to about Not Politics

psych - the best major hehe. generally liberal and woke and often queer. however, non-psych people in psych classes can be a nightmare (unlike english, taps, etc) and problematic as fuck. also sometimes psych majors are extra (exhibit a: me)

pub policy - probably in student government. im biased against it, but go in with hesitation. student government is by and large not as effective as they seem to think (however, a “woke” person in pub po might be cool because they will campaign for sexual assault awareness and economic diversity and good stuff)

STS - ohhhhh man. probably the major that gets most shit on at stanford. i think engineers think it’s fake. (humbio, design, and STS get shit on the most i’d say, because they are interdisciplinary STEM majors, so engineers think that they’re for people who arent smart enough to do hard majors. whereas with english or IR, engineers know they couldnt do it because they havent written an essay since 2009, so they offer grudging respect) a frathlete major. i personally like it because i dig interdisciplinary shit, but i don’t dig frat boys or athletes so i avoid. some of their courses are great but it does seem kind of scrapped together as a major and i dont know how people outside of stan see it

sociology - a small major, seems cool. stigmatized but not by stanford because stanford students dont know it exists. “dont you mean psychology?” no

urban studies - skaters? who knows. i respect them tho. i think they care about….like….architecture? and city development? its a very niche thing and i feel like it’s pretty hip n happening

[greatdrams]

Dillon vs Wells and a few thoughts on blind tasting

Unless you happened to be an incredibly secure character at school, you’ll know the deal. A couple of the big kids are doing something fun, and you want to join in. Partially because it’s fun (obviously), and partially (if you’re honest with yourself) because you want to be part of what the big kids are doing.

So when the big kids of the whisky blogging scene (Greg and Malt Review’s inimitable Mark Newton) challenged each other to a blind tasting, I took to twitter and digitally hollered the adult equivalent of “can I play?” Though actually, why shouldn’t the adult equivalent of “can I play?” be “can I play?”?

Shortly thereafter I sent Greg an unlabelled sample of the Kilkerran Open Day 2016 bottling, which he covered here. The return sample was sent once Greg had completed his move to Manchester, and arrived on my desk a couple of weeks back. First thing in the morning; completely ruined my day’s productivity, but that’s because I’m an excitable child.

As soon as the bell went for the end of the day I was out of the office and straight home. Metaphorical bell, you understand, though I’ll dispense with the children analogies now; I promise I am actually allowed to legally drink whisky... Bottle was breached, cursory sniff was taken, sample was poured and notebook was flipped open beside me.

But let’s pause there for a moment, because the practice of blind tasting is one that’s worth a smidge of consideration.

Ostensibly, blind tasting is the only way to give your fully objective opinion of a whisky. (Or wine/beer/cider/cat-food brand [delete as appropriate].) It theoretically frees you of biases and prejudices, it strips away distracting information and it forces you to focus on the drink alone.

I’ve lost count of the number of people who sneer at non-Scotch malt when they know what they’re facing, but proclaim their admiration when it’s just amber liquid in a glass. Or take me, for example – I’m quoted as saying Aberlour A’Bunadh is my favourite whisky for under £50. But one day some vicious ne’er-do-well will doubtless hide one next to a similarly secret Glenfarclas 105, and when that day comes I can only hope I get my call of “heads” right.

Blind tasting also exposes you; makes you really think; underlines any shortcomings or gaps in your experience. Not tried Rye before? Then that spicy kick will mean nothing. Didn’t know countries outside of Scotland use peat? Then good luck when Paul John Bold crosses the table. And who hasn’t indulged in a bit of a smile when a trained expert, or a particularly vocal individual comes unstuck on confronting an anonymous glass?

The problem with objective blind tasting is that it effectively requires the taster to be a robot. Human nature being what it is, we start guessing the end before we’ve even finished the beginning. We want to skip to the last page of the book. No one, on being presented with a glass, can ever truly extinguish the irritating light in the back of their head that immediately flashes: ‘WHAT IS THIS?’

And so we start guessing. I don’t care how expert or practiced you are. I taste up to fifty wines a week at work, and countless more for my wines and spirits diploma. And that’s without getting into all the whiskies I pump my salary into. (I do have a life outside alcohol; I play hockey and everything.) But that light never goes off. Dark colour: “I wonder if that’s a sherry cask?” Slight hint of peat: “hmm, could that be Highland Park?” Bit of meatiness: “do I have a Mortlach here?” You know the drill.

And once an idea pops into your head, it’s very hard to ignore. Just ask the cast of Inception. You want to be right. You want to be validated. You want to have ‘won’ at blind tasting. Most of all, you don’t want to look like an idiot. And so you subconsciously ignore the niggling uncertainties. You shoehorn your blind tasting into what you want it to be. Perhaps you try to second guess the person presenting you the sample. “Ah, she’ll give me something off-piste...he knows I’ve said mean things about this distillery before...hang on, is this even whisky?” Sound familiar?

Blind tasting can be influenced by all sorts of things. Your mood; what you’ve eaten recently; the temperature of the room; the time of day – even what music is playing (or not playing) in the background. And if you’re on the spot and nervous about getting it wrong, you haven’t a hope. You stress, you panic and your common sense slips. Which is why most tasting competitions worth noting are judged anonymously. No one does their ‘best’ tasting under pressure.

So yes – everyone should do some blind tasting once in a while. It’s fun! But stop worrying about getting the whisk(e)y right. After all, with so many countless thousands of whiskies in production, what realistically are your odds? You might get the distillery or producer from time to time. Heck, you might once or twice nail the whole shebang. But you’ll have missed the point of whisk(e)y in the process: to enjoy it. After all, the end is just a tiny part of the journey. You’re really best off taking the Ferris Bueller attitude. It’s a pretty hollow ‘victory’ otherwise – if you even score the victory at all.

And we’re back in the room. (At my house, in case you’d lost track. Wouldn’t blame you.)

My cursory sniff (ok, I also took a cursory sniff at the office when it arrived, but so would you if you’re human) raised some suspicions. Greg and I had set the rules as Single Malt Scotch of £50 or lower, but something about the aromas I found myself picking up suggested foul play.

Far be it from me to accuse my charming new boss of hoodwinkery, but I’m a mistrusting soul where blind tastings are concerned. (See: told you they bring out the over-thinker.) Besides, any holder of an Anfield season ticket who moves to Manchester has to have a wily streak about them. In as unaccusatorial a tone as I could manage I casually checked that the rules still stood. (Is unaccusatorial a real word? There’s a red squiggly line, but I feel in my heart that it deserves to be one.)

“It might well be on brief...or might have changed the game a little...who knows...” replied the Machiavellian Dillon, admitting that it was definitely a Scotch. Bet he steals from the bank when he’s playing Monopoly too. Deep mistrust smouldering in my bosom I returned to the task at hand.

I nosed, I scribbled, my brow furrowed, I nosed some more, scribbled some more, sipped a little, furrowed some more and scribbled a bit more for good measure. And then I proceeded to ignore all the advice I’ve just written above.

Straight away, I knew that it wasn’t a malt, and that it probably wasn’t under £50. Anyone who drinks as much bourbon as I do ought to know what distilled corn smells like. Which in Scotch terms more or less means either old, or North British. (Or both.)

But something about this one seemed to hint at a little more complexity. In the back of my mind, something niggled away, making me wondering whether Greg had also dispensed with the ‘single’ ruling. Which was when I stupidly decided to ignore most of the note I had just written, and start to play the man, not the ball. And in blind tasting that almost always ends in disaster.

My blended grain experience certainly isn’t vast. In fact, it’s Compass Box Hedonism, which I knew was not what I was tasting. But could I perhaps have its fancier ‘big brother’ Quindecimus in front of me?

Deciding for some reason that I was along the right lines on the blended grain front, I was torn between Quindecimus and The Exceptional Blended Grain, neither of which I had sampled previously. From what I had read, Quindecimus was the richer of the two, which tallied with what I had written. So, with great doubt and several second guesses, I presented Greg with my answer.

I was wrong.

In fact, what I had was the Cadenhead’s North British 1985 31 years old Single Sherry Butt at 54.6%. And believe you me, it holds that cask strength well - I’d never have guessed it was that high. The spirit also stands up remarkably well to the sherry - there’s not a hint of raisin, and the corn is really on song. Full note below:

Fruity. Some aspects of red berries, and some of orchard fruit (apples/pears). Plenty of sweetness; caramels and a good whack of vanilla. There’s a lightness of touch, but a great deal of depth too. Medium intensity of aroma, but very good complexity. Corn asserts itself. Slight meatiness in the background, with distinct, but not overpowering wood.

Alcohol clear, but completely controlled and kept in check by flavour on the palate. Flavours are more intense than aromas and crescendo significantly as you hold it in the mouth. Largely follow on from the nose, but bourbon-like aspects of caramel and dark sugars dominate particularly, wrapped in more of that red berry fruit. Possibly a touch of date.

More of that meatiness - not quite sulphur - on the finish, which is ever so slightly shorter than expected. Very well balanced and complex.

All in all, a delicious whisky, which I can’t thank Greg enough for. Particularly special, as it happened to be distilled in his birth month. He outfoxed me this time (though thank God I clocked it was Grain whisky - could have been a lot more embarrassing!) but you can be sure there’ll be a rematch.

In the meantime, two ‘morals of the story’ to take away from this. Firstly, when it comes to blind tasting, do as I say, not as I do! And secondly, if you play games with the big kids, be prepared for them to move the goalposts!

Cheers!

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The post Dillon vs Wells and a few thoughts on blind tasting appeared first on GreatDrams.

from GreatDrams http://ift.tt/2jtOYWs Greg

[diamondarmored-blog1]

Just some stuff from yesterday’s post nothin’ special particularly--

@corditeheart  Idek, it's so small that people think one comment speaks for the entire fandom

INCOHERENT HOWLING NOISES. I can’t even comprehend this mindset. Clearly I am still a summer child who knows not the struggle of fandom veterans. I was relatively late to the party and it’s still my firm opinion that people can do what they want as long as it’s not in an attempt to overwrite someone else. I sort of assume everyone else feels like that as well, so it’s never occurred to me to take one comment as law.

@ahmyhotdog I can only speak from where I've been. Most people in this fandom are nice. This is true. I've met way more nicer people than not nice. But I think part of the issue is if you don't want to people with certain people for whatever reason then a lot of others just don't seem to play with you as well? Or it could just simply be once you find people you enjoy playing with you just end up not looking for new muns to play with.

That’s true, actually! So it could be partly down to misreading peoples’ motivations for doing that? I would usually assume it’s because our headcanons don’t mesh, though I will say that’s happened to me elsewhere. I don’t think it’s the fault of the collective though, I think there are just arseholes wherever you go. Idk, I hear “x is a bad fandom” and I think of Bloodborne (INB4 SOMEONE IS A BLOODBORNE PART TIMER AND TAKES OFFENCE... @ them, come on, man, you know exactly what I mean here. BB is a mushroom cloud on the horizon for everyone else). 

@eruditorem I’ve heard things but honestly ive never seen anything and everyone has been so welcoming??? so idk either. also i dont pick my nose, i pick my butt. i  mean... wait-- dont reply to that

Mostly adding this so everyone knows Bri picks her butt

@legendaryturk Hmm.  Well I'm kind of newish to the fandom at least for RP, and I think...things just go in cycles?  I've seen ups and downs in various fandoms - not just 8, but also ffvii, doctor who, mgs, and tons of other fandoms I've RPed in.  overall I'd say ff8 has been mostly welcoming to me? it's small, and tumblr being the animal it is, people may just flock toward others who share similar writing styles or fanon. Idk, if I find I have something in common with another mun, be it writing style or fanon ideas, I'll kind of squee with them over it, but I *never* do so with the intent of excluding others, kwim? that said, there are times where I feel like muns talk around me and there's a joke I'm not in on, but, I think that's just the beast that is tumblr, and not fandom related tbh.

You were in MGS tho//// / ?!?!?/q/1/

That part about not doing it with the intent to exclude is so important tbh. So far, I’m getting the impression that most of it is misunderstanding. I can’t imagine anyone I’ve come across so far being deliberately dickish in that way. Eg, there’s one person I can think of who doesn’t really want to acknowledge me, but that’s okay, cos I know they’re a heavy Seiferx[redacted] shipper and I’ve already said I’m not, so I’d not be much use to them. We still follow each other, though, and I can’t think that they’d be all like YOU CAN’T SIT WITH ME if I spoke to them.

@diosleighrp  There's douchenozzles in every fandom who try to dictate what other fans can and can't do. It's quite unfortunate, but there are just entitled brats everywhere.

I can’t say much about this, I haven’t had it! Idk why. Maybe I’m too babbymode for the haters to have found. I have had it elsewhere though so I know what you mean and you’re right, they are definitely lurking somewhere. They’re lurking everywhere. 

@lionseed Just like American politics, it's the small angry voices that get the most attention for some reason. Sometimes there's a bad experience, and people take that as proof the fandom is shit.

MMMM and there’s always people with a bad experience to talk about because nowhere’s perfect, so I guess it’s partly on the reader to be on it enough to realise that. I would like if people within the fandom wouldn’t say that about all currently participating members though :( Obviously people can talk about their experience, good or bad, but their experience is with a person, not all of us. 

@underplater Okay, so. I will say that what I've personally experienced with the ff8 fandom is a lot of, "oh wow, I really like your blog and your take on the character you're doing. That's wonderful!" "Oh awesome, do you maybe want to do something with her/him/me?" "Uh... Maybe." Which... Means no. And then people are always all, "You just keep doing you, dear, it's wonderful," but no one sends in memes or replies to stuff? And it just.. I always feel like I'm pressed up against the glass, looking in.So I'd say my experience with the ff8 comm has definitely been that it's very insular and hard to for me, personally speaking, to break in on. ... Sorry, I'm fairly sure this was about my comment earlier? I think I was the one who used insular.... Unless, of course, I guess the problem could be me? But if it is, I wish someone would tell me so that I could drop the muses and just stop cluttering up people's dashes.

JJKASHDJASHFGGHFJDSJJHH this hurt me to read and is the main reason I’ve made time to do this reply post rn. I couldn’t remember who said what, to be honest with you and it surprises me that it was you, purely because you’re always one of the first people to come to mind when I think of “the FFVIII community”, you seem like a valued part of it to me, even if you’re not one of the most active. YOU ARE DEFINITELY NOT THE PROBLEM. I can’t really say with 100% certainty what *is*. With the meme thing, I think it depends what it is. If someone reblogs one of those “send me x and I’ll tell you about y”, I try to send it, but if it’s a starter or something that feels thready, I won’t unless I have an idea to back it with, cos it doesn’t feel any different to writing an actual starter for me. I’d rather do that, but I won’t do it uninvited/randomly because that’s putting pressure on someone who didn’t ask for it. If a lot of people do the same as me and don’t mention it, then that could be a big factor because people can well end up waiting for each other to approach without realising it. It might also be something to do with you having multiple blogs (particularly Reno) and that altering your perception. The reason I say that is because I had the exact same thing myself, I had a male muse in a fandom and everyone loved him - mostly everyone wanted to lowkey do him tbh - and I had a female one who got comparatively zero attention because she wasn’t as accessible to such a wide audience. Ellone in particular is a complex character and it’s a sad fact that people tumblr-wide aren’t always into the idea of paying attention to something before they interact with it. Reno is much more easy to interact with in a casual way, since he’s had more exposure in source material and is widely regarded as being a fun, not-serious character (though I acknowledge he very likely IS, and I know from experience that you will have put a lot of thought into him - I love Reno and anything that gives him some substance). He attracts people from further afield, people who might have only seen Advent Children or only know him through fan works. Ellone doesn’t have a movie or much fanfic, and she’s not really subject of the most popular speculation (lbr - by that I mean “who she’s sleeping with”), so she doesn’t have that far a reach. Your Ellone is so valuable to the whole community, you have a hell of a lot to share in your headcanons and your ideas. I haven’t seen you use Julia too much yet, but I’m sure she’ll be that way too. I think you should pick one of those ideas, pick someone who seems like they could pull it off and tell them about it, because I’m so sure 90% if not 100% of us would thread them with you. That’s all I do tbh!! I’m always prepared for someone to say no, but mostly they’re happy to have been approached with an idea to use as a starting point. PLEASE DON’T DROP THEM. You’re not cluttering up anything. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s sad to see you inactive on her whenever you are, tbh. I don’t think you realise how essential she is. I know it’s a small, slow fandom, but anything you post raises the overall standard for the sheer fact you did it, and it had your characteristic level of consideration put in. Course, I’m probably biased, cos I think I can tell when people work more behind the scenes than out front on their muse and the related background and I appreciate that, always have.

@misplacedxheroics .... I'm hoping this is permitted that I comment, as it was my blog where you read this post. I'm only addressing what I've experienced in the community, not trying to speak for everyone here. In my personal experience with VIII, more often than not, I see a lot of the insular behavior mentioned. Several blogs that start up are made to feel so unwelcomed that they leave or close up shop. Then there are the pass/agg anons, the ones who attack strong female characters (OC or otherwise) and 'correct' headcanons for canon characters. Whoever the person is, I have to believe it's just one single person. But anons have begun to reach out and outright tell people who they can or can't write with, which is baffling. And lastly, I'm guilty of this, and I'll own it -- We also become so comfortable and so familiar with who we write with we don't try out other players. There's also the overlap of muns playing with 'private' blogs. To me, the word 'private' tells me I don't have access to them. So what's the bother in following or engaging if everyone who writes muses that are in the fandom closed off to the rest of us? I can't say how the fandom should be run, I know I'm the least liked person in this fandom but this is my experience. A very polarizing, cold and unwelcoming experience.  We need to communicate more among one another, set clear boundaries and maintain community and unity, imo.

I think private is just a word people slap on a blog to make it look legit these days, or as a get-out clause if they find themselves followed by some kind of My Immortal Eldritch horror. Least, that’s what I’ve seen in my travels. Private blogs seem to favour their existing friends, but be open to others who will bring them ideas. I had one blog I called private and that’s because I kept getting people saying “wanna rp?” and I’d be like “yeah okay” and they’d literally say “alright you come up with an idea then”. ? / / //???? Also... I’m trying to word this in the least mean-sounding way possible because I’m not one to shit on anyone’s parade, but if I’m really honest with you, I had to unfollow you on an older blog because you were posting vagues about people so often. I don’t mind when people vent, but it got to the point where it was almost every day someone was on blast and I felt like I’d walked in on a family argument. You can do what you want with your blog, it’s on me to unfollow if I don’t like it, so I did. But. Any oversensitive person seeing it probably assumed you meant them and that might have something to do with you finding it difficult to connect with people. You follow that up by slating the entire fandom when it’s not exactly a fandom problem, which makes people less likely to approach you as you’ve already indirectly blasted them. I’ve had people tell me more than once that you’ve posted something about me without naming me; notably when you made a point of reblogging that one anti-Xu post from an inactive account after saying you hate people who disagree with you “on purpose”. I had just posted a silly Xu support one liner that got a few reblogs. I don’t really have a fig to give whether it was about me or not, but it’s a good example of how a vaguepost causes negative ripples. If one person assumed that was about me, another ten probably guessed it was someone else. I was welcomed to the fandom with a couple of how-do-you-dos and an anon telling me to stay away from you or you’d bully me into deleting. That was the first of several. Then you got that anon telling you to stop sending me hate when you hadn’t (what basis did that have?), and one of your friends for some reason assumed I was the one who had sent it and demanded that “anon” show IP proof, which gives the impression that they’d been led to believe it was me for some reason. I know you said you didn’t understand the logic behind me saying that, but we’re both running Statcounter, you know as well as I do how it works and what the implications are of saying that. It’s also how I know the anons I’ve had that I’ve mentioned are not all one person. Maybe it really was a totally out-of-nowhere thing that person said, but when you combine it with the vagues and the assertions that there’s a split in the fandom that no one else (so far) has detected, it causes bigger problems than it would on its own. I’m not trying to put you on blast, this ain’t a callout post and I haven’t taken any of it to heart - it’s no big deal to me - I’m just trying to offer an outsiders’ perspective because I read this as you being honestly oblivious to it, and if I didn’t I’d either have to ignore your comment or lie to you, neither of which I think you’d appreciate - and I assume since you made the effort to drop in despite not following me that you would want a response.