#i wonder where the other lala blogs are now

[spot-splatter-splash]

Once I get a good start on the rehaul of the reboot Ill try my best to keep things more organized and tagged.

I wont be archiving the old posts, I read through a chunk of them yesterday and god are they funny. Wild to think 4 years flew by since the first post on the blog so I'm leaving them up for nostolgia sake.

[halfpricedpages]

intro post (finally)

ive debated making an intro post because first off ive been on tumblr for two years and I never got around to it and secondly I am really really horrible at talking about myself because what is to much info and what it to little info and the cycle continues but im giving it a shot because I feel like my mutuals have no idea who I am lmao

HAI my name is Charlie im 15 (18+ I dont mind if you follow me but please dont dm me thank you :]) I use jasper as an online name kind of (at this point its just reserved for my best friend ace but I dont mind if other people call me jasper since I still love the name)

my pronouns are he/him but im also perfectly comfortable with common neopronouns (it/its xey/xem) if you wanna get funky with it.

im a self diagnosed autistic and ARFID (if you dont know what that is its an eating disorder where certain factors make you avoidant and restrictive of the food you eat and it has nothing to do with physical appearance. for me its linked to my autistic sensory issues(ALSO OCD NOW?!!? WHAT THE FUCK?!!?)) I have depression and anxiety and the only reason I mention this is because I relate my mental health to my fav characters in tv shows and books and stuff so if you see me posting about them like everything is connected lol

(my a03 is ghostwithfeet if you want to see me be silly and project my weird life onto fictional characters (I am the most inconsistent updater in the world please expect nothing from me if you even ask about a project it will scare me and like I turtle I will crawl into my shell never to see the light of day again))

my interests really vary about current hyperfixations but heres the master list

current hyperfixs

stranger things specifically Byler but mostly mike wheeler (this has turned into a special interest(I DO NOT support Noah schnapp or another of the other cast members who are in support of the inhumane actions the Israel government are doing. I am pro saving innocent civilians. I know that this can be controversial to be such a big fan of this show and honestly I have a lot of complex feelings on the matter but im autistic as previously mentioned and its my special interest and It won't leave my brain even if im not directly interacting with the media so im gonna yap about it on my blog thank you.))

also just Finn wolf hard for some reason (check out his band the Aubreys its awesome. also check out a recent movie he was in called when you finished Saving the world. it means a lot to me)

donna tarts the goldfinch book

old special interests/hyperfixs

the percy Jackson universe specifically nico di Angelo

the IT universe specifically reddie and Beverly marsh but more leaning towards richie tozier (see what I mean with the Finn wolf hard thing)

dead boy detectives !!

doctor who (I haven't even finished David tenants doctor yet so please no spoilers)

Alice oseman content (never read loveless or iwbft but ive read all of her other stuff)

paper girls graphic novel

other interests

the good place tv show

Kathleen Glasgows book girl in pieces

the walking dead comics including the clementine spin off graphic novels

um yeah thats all I can think of for now

my fav musicians/bands

florence and the machine

indigo de Souza

Kevin Atwater

searows

the Aubreys

sadurn

the cranberries

soccer mommy

runo plum

nep

lala lala

the smiths

hospital bracelet

Chappell roan

AURORA

Madilyn Mei!

Elliot smith

(my music taste is all over the place and is also very seasonal and I have a bunch of underground artists I dont listen to but I am here to give good recs I promise my playlists are fire)

we've gotten to the part of the intro post where im wondering if this is way to much information so sorry if I overshared idk but hope we can be silly mutuals or friends if you want (never be scared to shoot the friendship shot I would love to yap with y'all)

also since this is taking over my other pinned post I just want to put this as an honorary spot and let everyone know that my old pinned post was a quote from radio silence and that Aled last is me and I am him and the February Friday plot line is actually me and it makes me sick how much I resonate with that book

[in-pleasant-company]

Hello new friend,

I'm a 41-year-old white queer femme who has just recently retrieved my three AG dolls from the attic where I put them away before I went to college. I have Kirsten, and the original release Felicity and Addy. I brought them out to clean up and give to my daughter, but have found they have released a great deal of stored up energy, and I have been deep diving into the world of AG since I put it down in 2001. I have been working my way backwards in your Tumblr, and am in 2020 now. I want to thank you for your clear love of and dedication to American Girl, and I really appreciate your various thoughtful perspectives, especially as it relates to the historical PC and current Mattel relationship with race and ethnicity. As an Elder Millennial, I don't really know how to Tumblr, but you can find me on IG as quiltereina (my public account), so you can see that I'm not a total weirdo-in-a-bad-way - just a domesticated rebel with grandma hobbies living in a hippie suburb of my hometown of Washington, D.C.

I found my dolls, but not their clothes or accessories yet, which is a devastating. I received the dolls as gifts, but I earned all of their clothes through chores. I have already sewed more clothes for my girls (plus the three new ones I have purchased since Jan 1) than I had the entirety of my childhood, having leaned to sew in the intervening years. I am balancing the desire to recreate all of the clothes I had, using time-period appropriate prints and patterns, but in my own preferred color schemes (mostly pinks and purples), a sort of alternative history recreation for my own inner child, plus the desire to make fun and frilly costumes for my five-year-old's enjoyment. In these pursuits, I have not only saved the Pretty Dresses PDF from AGPlaythings, but have been searching for patterns that will as closely as possible replicate the Meet outfits for my girls; I have found Addy's from doll-princesse, and think I can wing Kirsten's from her school dress, but Felicity? Still searching.

So I have one very specific question - a woman in a 18" doll facebook sewing group claims that there was 1992 Pleasant Company book of patterns released, which included Felicity's Meet Dress. I have searched the ends of the internet; she is not referring to the PC Pretty Dresses Patterns; there is no record in the AG Wiki or in the Library of Congress for this book. She said someone on Etsy was selling copies of the book and the FB poster got blocked for harassing the Etsy seller for selling a book still under copyright, but I cannot find the like on Etsy or Ebay. Have you ever heard of such a book? Or is _someone_ -lying- on the internet? And if you have any other deep-dive pattern suggestions (I've seen everything on Etsy, PixieFaire, Pemberly, etc), I'd be grateful, and also happy to compensate pattern makers/recreators.

If you've made it this far, thanks for your time reading this, and again for your insightful and informative Tumblr-blog.

Best,

LaLa

Hi, welcome! It's wonderful that you're giving some love to these old dolls once again!

As for the book with Felicity's pattern, it sounds fascinating. I will keep a lookout for it. It's possible the book was an internal, company only creation that was meant for creating the mockups before the doll clothes went into production in West Germany (and later in China). I will say that there was a set of doll patterns (or possibly multiple sets?) that were briefly available from Colonial Williamsburg that the person may have been remembering as Felicity patterns. It could also have been a pattern that was made available for special events at places like the Madison Children's Museum. I know of a pattern for Felicity's Bedding that is associated with the Madison Children's Museum.

The patterns available from Colonial Williamsburg were from Past Crafts patterns (labelled Evoking Period Style for Dolls), and I'm almost positive that there was a set of doll clothes patterns designed by someone who worked in the textiles department of Colonial Williamsburg, but I haven't been successful in tracking them down.

Edit: Could it be they were talking about the GIRL sized pattern for Felicity's Meet Outfit? It wasn't in a book but a paper envelope like commercial patterns.

Edit 2: I reached out on the AG Playthings message board and got some answers. Yes, the pattern does exist but it was never available for sale from Pleasant Company. I imagine it was an internal document that was somehow leaked/stolen. Mystery solved!

[theuniverseawakens347]

JESS HILARIOUS … N JESIKA ORTIZ… OR THAT PODCAST YOUTUBE GIRL WHO HAD HE EX ON DA SHOW TALKING BOUT HER CHARACTER N SHE TRY FIGHT BACK VERBALLY N DENY WHAT HE SEE IN HER… GOT ATE TF UP… YA WAN BE A HO SIMPLE THATS WHY HA ASK “ why is it okay for her to have all these men lovers and not me” Jess hilarious…yara like Halle ya put on innocent girl look to cover up the truth… YA LOVE GOD BUT HATE THAT IAM ACTUALLY A 30 YR OLD LIGHT SKIN WOMAN WHO LOOKS 16 AND LIVE EVERY RACE AND NOTHING AT ALL… GORGEOUS INSIDE AND OUT WITH BEING ARROGENT WEAR MY FLAWS WITHOUT HATE TO SOMEONE ELSE BUT YU TAKE IT THAT WAY CAUSE YOU PROJECT UR INSECURITIES ON TO ME.. WHY YA STRUGGLE W FEMALE FRIENDSHIPS WHO ARE CONFIDENT … IM A MONOGOMOUS WOMAN… HAD LEE NOT FUCKING BUTAINED MY BRAIN VIVICCA MUSCLE RELAXED IT WITH PSYCHMEDS N METH COCAINE MIXED IN IT WOULD BE LESS SCRAMBLED TO TELL YA WHAT IS GOING ON… MY BLOG BEFORE AUG 17th I JUST STEPPED INTO MY MEMORY OF BEING GOD ON EARTH… N VIVICCA IMMEDIATELY W LEE KILLED ME MENTALLY LIKE SHE DID MY WHOLE FEMALE AND ENLIGHTENED MALE TRIBES DADS N GRANPARENTS …. I WOULD HAVE MY HOLY TRINITY ME NIP AND TRI.. BUT MY PAST LIFE LOVERS FROM OTHER DIMENSIONS STEPPED IN TO HELP BC WE OVER SEEN WHAT LEE WAS GOING TO DO TO MY MENTAL.. GODS PLAN.. OVER SEE EVERYTHINGNAND HAVE A SOLUTION FOR SUCH THINGS.. YOURE SLEEPING W MULTPLE MEN OF NO … HOW DO I SAY TREVOR IS CHRIS AND CHRIS IS NIP AND NIPMIS ME … RUSSIAN DOLL NO INCEST JUST ME CLONE MYSELF W MAGIC SCARLET WITCH… CHASING LEE THRU ETHERS SATAN TO KILL OR MAKE SUBMIT BY UNDERSTANDING SHE CUD HAVE HAPPILY PARTOOK IN CREATION FOR ETERNITY BUTNHER AGENDA WAS TO OWN ME AND TAKE OVER THE WORLD N MAKE IT MISERABLE LIKE HER … BIBLE BUT NOT REALLY BUT YES.. THE FALLEN ANGEL SATAN LEE .. SO NO YOU WHO CHOOSE POISON WILLINGLY DO NOT HAVE A SOULMATE OR TWINFLAME… UR DOING INCEST W UR FAMILY COUSIN BROTHER OR EVEN CHILD.. MARCUS IS NOT UR CHILD YARA HES A CLONE OF ME THAT LEE USED TO BE PIMPED OUT SO ID BE DISGUSTED WITH MY MEN.. WHO ARE LITERALLY JUST ME … STARSEED.. ON EARTH BUT AS REGULAR HUMANS… MEN N BLACK .. ANYWAYS… YOU WANT TO HAVE SEX JUST TO HAVE SEX OR TO LITERALLY OWN MONEY “ I’m breaking generational curse and creating wealth” NO YOURE BEING PIMPED AND IT FITS UR MENTAL THINKING OF WHAT MONEY MEANS AND PPLMWHO HAVE IT .. AND HA DADDY MOM ISSUES WHO SPOILED YOU JESS HILARIOUS LALA MILAN .. WHO DISCIPLINED YOU AND TRIED TO SHOW YOU BETTER OPTIONS ON GETTING MONEY SETTING UPMA FUTURE WITHOUT SACRIFICNG YA HEART N SOUL… YA EYES ARE LIFE LESS … YA FACE GLOWS BC YOU HAVE NOOOOO SOUL… HOT SPOT HALLE YARA COI… YA CHEEK BONE HIGH LIGHER MY STEM CELLS OR YA DAMN NOSE.,. EYES ARE THE WINDOW TO THE SOUL… IF IM STILL LOOKING AT YA EYES FIRST AND SAYING THERE BUT WONDERING IT BC LIKE DDG YA ENERGY BEING SYPHONED OFF OF.. AND A SPIRITUAL PERSON // THOSE WHO READY TO PAY DOWN PEACFULLY INDYAMARIE JEAN YA GON SEE WHO THE PERP IN THE ROOM IS AND WHOS BEING USED AND HOW WHY WHERE IF RELATED TO YOUR STORY LINE. CHARLAMANGE YA MAD AT LEE N COI FOR RUINING MY REPUTION IN THE INDUSTRY AND TARNISHING MY MOM NAME LIKE DUMBASS LEFT EYE SNEAK DISSED HER… ALL YAL WHO DID SHIT TO MY MOM N GRANNY N PAPA AND AALYIHA YEAH YA LEFT TO ME FOR A REASON. THE LAST YOU SEE N SIT W BEFORE YOU DIE. SOME WANT ME TO GO AROUND YA FAMILY N PLAY GOD FOR YA WHY JESS HILARIOUS ORTIZ… NO. ILL GET THERE WHEN ITS RIGHT FOR ME. TIMING IS ON ME NOT YOU. THATS WHY YA IN TROUBLE CONTROL FREAKS. IF GOD WAS A CONTROL FREAK I WOULDNT HAVE SAID YES TO LETTING YOU TAKE CARE OF ME NOW YAL SEEING ON THIS EARTH WE LEAVE IT TO BIG MOMA AND THE ABOVE ETHERS CAUSE SHE KNOW MORE THAN US EVEN THO SHE BUTAINED .

[black-streak]

Waiting for the Worms - In the Flesh?

Part 14

Happy New Decade present. Soo this part got split up as well since I got really long winded on some parts and now this is almost 3k and it was getting ridiculous. No warnings that I can think of here?

CLOSED list of people who deserve good things: @northernbluetongue @thethirdwheelfriend @shizukiryuu @theatreandcomicfreak @michellemagic @karategirl119 @moonlightstar64 @my-name-is-michell @mystery-5-5 @zalladane @queen-of-the-trash-planet-tm @miraculousdisapointment @dorkus-minimus @jardimazul @allthebooksandcrannies @g-arya @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @persephonescat @mycupisbroken @luciferge @18-fandoms-unite-08 @dawnwave16 @alwaysreblogneverpost @kris-pines04 @mysteriouslyswimmingfan-blo-blog @weird-pale-blonde-person @you-will-never-know-how-i-think @kokotaru @naclychilli @slytherinhquinn @clumsy-owl-4178 @ladybug-182 @darkthunder1589 @evil-elf16 @dast218 @lysslovsanime @emilytopaz @naoryllis @iloontjeboontje @thepeacetea @danielslilangel @finallyaniguana @i-like-fairytail-and-stuff @vixen-uchiha @yuulxd @bleeding-heart-romantic @magic-inthe-stars @st0rmy-w1th1n

~---~

Falling back into Marinette's body felt surprisingly gentle. It offered a sense of nostalgia from back when they use to settle in for switches back before… Well, before.

Lifting his head, Jason realized he was leaned into Marc and surrounded by the entire group all watching him wearily in a semi-circle as though to keep him from running. He had to wonder if that's what she'd been in the middle of when they swapped back. Preparing to run to him the same way he planned to hunt with Damian for her.

"What happened?" His voice came out rough and harsh around the French, having switched to English when speaking to the kid.

"Mari? Oh thank god you're back!" Chloe exasperated, moving closer to his side as Juleka spoke up.

"I thought Kagami said you lost your soulmate, but that was them, wasn't it? They're here then?"

"Did you want to find them? We can help, did you find anything out from where they were?" Marc asked next, keeping some distance.

"Horrible timing if you ask me. Must've freaked out, considering they got launched into a rogue's attack. Honestly, I can't say I blame them for taking off the way they did, or panicking when we essentially cornered them," Kagami went next.

"Ran off? Panicked? You cornered them?" Jason spoke in an almost frantic rush, "What the fuck happened?"

"Fear gas, apparently. Took us all out into lala land. Woke up to a bunch of masked guys laying all over the place. No one died, but it was a bloodbath," Juleka offered a dark smile at that, "You were gone though. Nowhere to be found, so we ran out the back door and started calling for you."

"Only when we found you, you shoved me up into a wall and started speaking in something that definitely wasn't a language you knew," Marc pursed their lips.

"Whoever they are, they stood there in a daze and suddenly tried to bolt away. Marc yanked them back and here we are. Not surprised, we are pretty intimidating," Chloe huffed, tossing her hair.

"She wasn't intimidated."

"Why wouldn't she be? Bunch of overly strong strangers crowding her in speaking in a language she doesn't understand? I'm surprised she didn't fight back more now that I think on it," Kagami gave a thoughtful hum, picking up on the pronoun use immediately and adjusting accordingly.

"She understands French just fine. It's her first language after all. English is her second. And she wasn't running away from you."

"Well then, miss know-it-all, why was she running? In a direction that was decidedly away from us," sarcasm thickly layered Chloe's tone at that.

"There's a kid in her apartment. He was shoving me out the door to go find her. She probably wanted to get back to him to make sure he didn't freak out," Jason explained, not really thinking his words through.

"Woah, what? She's got a kid? How much older than you is she?" Marc piped up.

"No, God no, not her kid, like, like a little brother or something. It's complicated. Point is, she probably felt desperate to get back to him. She wasn't intimidated by you four, hell she probably took down Scarecrow and his goons herself. Fuck, I need to find her." He rattled on at this point.

"Mari, what's going on?" Kagami finally moved closer, grabbing his hand and tilting to look him in the eye.

That's when it truly hit him. They didn't know. He never told them the truth and had assumed he never would. Had assumed his soulmate was gone forever and this particular omission would never come to light. Glancing down to where Tikki peered out from his jacket, he saw the little goddess give a solemn nod and look towards a nearby fire escape to direct him. Looking back at the people gathered around him, people who had laid their trust in him for years. Who stuck by his side all this time, never knowing the truth, looking at him with concerned eyes, he took a deep breath and prepared himself to lose them all.

"Come on, I can't have this conversation here," he gestured them forward and led the way up to the rooftops where he peered out in all directions to be sure they were alone, despite knowing the aftereffects of the miraculi made all of their senses too strong to possibly be caught unaware by a non-holder. Taking a seat on the roof edge, foot propped up against the brick and arms folded, he waited for them to gather round and settle in, either on the ledge beside him or against random pieces left up there, before he began.

"I know she understood you. She wasn't afraid or intimidated or any of those things. Wouldn't make sense for her to be. Honestly, she knows more than I do. I have no idea how she's alive. Considering she died for me three years ago."

He was met with confused looks, some more critical than others, but no one interrupted. Letting out a sigh, he decided he might as well start from the beginning.

"We switched often when we were young, but we learned to act like each other. She didn't want anyone to worry and later on, I couldn't afford for us to not switch flawlessly. No one could tell when or if we switched, though you were all aware I had a soulmate. We both lived dangerous lives. We knew the risks. Knew the consequences. We switched in the middle of her morning class three years ago, a week after her fourteenth birthday. I jolted in her seat and had a panic attack. Only a moment before, I had been held captive by the Joker. I tried to switch back, but she wouldn't let me. She held my body hostage. We'd done that before, you know. Taken an injury for the other and held on until it healed up. Been sick for one another. It wasn't that surprising that she wouldn't let me back in. And the tug calmed down, ao I assumed she was fine and going to heal up and we would switch back. Fucking stupid of me. It took a week before I realized something was wrong."

Juleka stepped in here, quiet but sure, "You're not Marinette. Are you?"

Clenching his fist, he shook his head.

"Marinette died, didn't she? She's dead?" She asked.

"Only she isn't, otherwise you wouldn't have switched today. It makes sense why you're so sure then, she would have no reason to be afraid of us," Kagami interjected before he could respond.

"I thought it was you recognizing me when you loosened your grip, but it was actually her realizing what happened, wasn't it?" Marc offered up.

"That's all good and well, but it begs the question. Why didn't you tell us?" Chloe turned towards him, slight betrayal pushing through.

Jason went quiet as they all turned to wait for his answer. How do you explain that? That the depression and guilt became too much? That you couldn't handle being treated as an outcast and stranger by the people closest to her. That you couldn't look them in the eye and tell them it was your fault that she was gone?

Tikki took this moment to come out.

"I knew. Plagg and all the other kwamis as well. He chose not to tell you. But if he hadn't, we would've stopped him ourselves. Even if he wanted to tell you, we wouldn't have allowed it."

"Why?" Kagami narrowed her eyes, flicking her gaze between her and Plagg, who had just now come out of hiding.

"At the time, we were facing an emotional terrorist. It was bad enough he could've been compromised at any given moment, was better suited to me, and had to deal with Chat all the damn time. It'd be idiotic to allow him to emotional screw all of you up. What a mess that would be," Plagg growled, looking grouchy and put out, despite a slight joy hiding in the glint of his eyes, "She's really alive?"

Tikki nodded, moving over to pull the other god into a nuzzle, "I felt it. It's definitely her."

"And after Hawkmoth was defeated?" Marc this time.

"It'd been around two years by that point. And all of us were releasing a lot of pent up anger. How well would that have gone over without the knowledge that she's alive?" Juleka cut in, saving him from having to explain.

All four of them looked to each other, having a silent group conversation, one he was left out of for once. Seemingly coming to a decision, they turned to him once more.

"So what's your name then?" Chloe demanded.

Eyebrows pinching in a weary, guarded expression, he slowly answered, "Jason. My name is Jason."

"Well then Jason, it's good to finally know who we've gotten so close to all this time," she teased.

"You're," he struggled for the word, "okay with this?"

"She's alive. Has been for who knows how long. We've worked by your side for three years now. We know you even if you weren't who we thought. Honestly, this explains a lot about some of the personality changes recently." Kagami shrugged.

"There's no use in getting upset over it now. It wouldn't help us to move forward," Marc added.

"Sure, we're hurt and annoyed and put off, but we get it. It makes sense and we're not going to hold it against you. And you heard the literal gods. You wouldn't have been able to tell us if you wanted," Chloe continued on.

Juleka nudged his side, pulling him from his shock and awe, "You know where to find her? I think I'd like to meet this new Mari."

"Y-yeah. I know where she is."

"Lead the way then," Kagami nudged him on. 

And with a small, shaky smile, taken off guard by their response, he led them back off the roofs and through the streets of Gotham towards her home.

…

Finding the place didn't take long, though he hesitated at the front door to the apartment, a shock of fear and uncertainty pulsing through for what was to come. With a nudge from behind, he knocked thrice and moved away.

After a moment, the door opened two inches and Damian peered up at him, assessing the situation and closing it an inch.

"Who are you?" 

"It's Jason," he breathed out.

The kid glared as he glared at the others behind Jason and turned ever so slightly to the side, switching effortlessly to a language he couldn't understand. A gruff response returned it and suddenly the door closed further only to open up.

"That's the same speech pattern from before!" Marc whispered excitedly.

The open floor plan of the kitchen and living room gave an open view of the dark haired figure sitting on the couch facing away from them. At his confused look, Damian spoke up.

"You need to sit down before the two of you speak. I assume you know why. You four will wait here by the door until addressed."

"Excuse me?!" Chloe gave an indignant screech.

The person on the couch tensed either and Damian growled lowly.

"We do this on our terms or you will be removed forcefully. If you're lucky, it'll be by my hand."

"Damian," the figure called, still facing away but letting off an ominous aura, as though they are aware of everything behind them without needing to see.

Damian glared and stayed in the doorway until Kagami gripped Chloe's hand and nodded their agreement.  The kid gave a huff and moved so Jason could pass. He would've just past him when he started acting up, but Jason knew better for now. Damian was closer to Marinette than any of them were and any cue from him that they were making him uncomfortable or anxious and she'd shove them out in a heartbeat. Well, the rest of them. He's not sure on himself.

Moving slowly, he moved around the far end of the couch and sat down beside her, calming himself. He could see his old body in the corner of his eye, larger and taller and way further built than it'd been the last time he saw it. A white tuft of hair curled in the front. The eyes seemed to have more green from what he could make out. His body looked very much alive. Although he was sure there were far more scars than three years ago. That was okay, hopefully she could forgive him for the scars added to her own body.

He could tell she was viewing him as well. Seeing her body as it is now, at seventeen years old and put through its own hardships and training. It felt very surreal to be sitting next to their own body, feeling like a stranger to it. No longer knowing how it would feel or react or how it moved. It was even more surreal to be sitting next to each other. Knowing that after all this time and everything they'd been through, this would be their first meeting. 

In the next minute, they would greet each other and the bond would solidify. They would either get locked in each other's body or be violently thrown back for what could very well be the last time. They couldn't know for sure which body they would settle more permanently into until they made that step though. Jason could feel the bond strengthening and vibrating between the two like a live wire, but he waited nevertheless.  This was under her terms even if he did feel like he deserved an explanation. He knew she wouldn't keep him in the dark for long, so he waited.

With a soft, almost inaudible sigh, she turned towards him at last and he mirrored her movements, meeting eyes for the first time.

Within a fraction of a second, a crackle of electricity bolted between them and they found themselves looking at the body they occupied moments before with a jolt. This time without any blackouts or confusion or yank on either of their parts. Both were glad to be sitting however as the shock wore off. As he looked at the small woman he once occupied the body of, he watched a soft smile grow on the surprisingly delicate features. How had he never noticed how she looked? He had seen that face nearly everyday for three years whether he avoided looking in a mirror or not and yet he never saw that glow to her eyes. Saw the sweetness to her smile, even when miniscule and sad. Never saw the curve of her jawline and the way her hair framed her face perfectly. How could he not notice how beautiful his soulmate was? He was in awe and he was surprised to see it reflected back at him from where he suddenly found himself looking down at her. They had moved closer as though on instinct. Reaching forward, she laced her fingers with his already partially outstretched hand and softened further as a warmth spread from their point of connection. Opening her soft pink lips, she spoke in a soft, melodic tone, one he could never manage in his time with her voice.

"Hello Jason."

"Marinette," he breathed out the name like a prayer.

Tears sprung into her eyes and with a soft laugh that doubled as a sob, she launched herself towards him, wrapping him in a tight hug and pressing her face into his shoulder.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Jason. You must be so confused and upset and angry with me and I'm so sorry you had to find out like this," she whispered soft enough he was sure even the trained and animalistic hearing in the room wouldn't catch it. Tightening his grip, he curled himself over her, unused to his new size, but taking full advantage to engulf her into his chest in a protective manner.

"It's okay. I. I would've done the same for you," he admitted.

Suddenly a small figure appeared at his side, tugging on his sleeve. Turning to look, Damian stood there, wide eyed and shaking ever so slightly, staring at Marinette.

"What's happening? Why is she crying? What'd you do to her, Jason?" The boy shot him an accusing look. Marinette must have warned him that upon meeting, she would possibly return to her old body and was able to spot the change when it occurred.

"She's just a little overwhelmed kid, relax."

"She's never overwhelmed. Marinette doesn't cry, what did you do to her?" he lashed out once more, expression growing in anger, but also fear.

She chose this moment to pull back, untangling a limb and reaching out for the kid.

"It's okay Dami, he didn't do anything wrong. I never meant to scare you," she soothed, her voice immediately smoothing out and the watery texture to her eyes retracting as if on command. Damian's shoulders came down from their hunched state as he eased forward into her grip, still darting his eyes in Jason's direction as he was drawn towards them.

Jason felt annoyance at her forcing her emotions back into a bottle for the kid but couldn't really say anything without being a hypocrite what with how he avoided the topic like the plague with the others. 

Oh shit, the others. Turning slightly, he caught sight of their bug eyed expressions, taking in the scene before them. Tapping on the back of her hand with the fingers still intertwined with hers, he caught her attention and felt as she steeled herself. Lifting her gaze towards them, demeanor calm and assessing, she looked over the group still in the entrance way. 

"You can come over now."

[puyoconfessions]

Tbh I would love to see all the hot takes you have on this series! They would defiantly be interesting considering your background around the series!

*deep breath* Hoo boy anon, you asked for it-

- I’ve said it before but my favorite, odd recurring character in Skeleton-T. Not for any deep character reason, the little guy is just adorable and his appearance is always a joy! A shame his only mainline appearance was in 7 as of late, I would have gladly traded Draco over him due to her lack of contribution to anything and increasingly irritating presence.

- Madou ARS trio is the best ARS trio. I appreciate what SEGA tried to initially do with the Fever ARS, but they have no actual dynamic and any interesting backstory or further characterization was dropped.

- On that note, I find Sig to be incredibly overrated and I kinda do get tired of hearing about him above all other characters. This doesn’t mean I think Sig fans are bad, it’s just one of those things you get exhausted with after a while. Tee is an infinitely more interesting male protagonist imo.

- Suketoudara is a great character.

- Late-era Compile is just as bad with writing as current SEGA is, and people need to acknowledge it. The Madou Saturn game was mostly rather mean-spirited, Satan was getting increasingly creepy, and in the Quest mode of Puyo Puyo Box, Arle is a straight-up jerk. When she sees a famished/starved Schezo passed out on the bridge in exhaustion, she thinks it’s a good idea to pour hot tea on him. Yeah, I would rather have the flanderized SEGA cast over this.

- Satan is a wonderful character that I adore, but I actually prefer how SEGA handled him over the mid-to-late era Compile.

- We need WAY more love and appreciation for the MadouMono final bosses…… like, Phantom God? Dark Matter? The Count? Fudoushi? Devil? My absolute lads. I love them. No one likes Rune Lord lol.

- Actually, in general, where is the nightmare core aesthetic fan-art for Fudoushi!? Can you tell who my fav Madou character is yet?

- I know I’ve talked about SEGA’s flanderization a lot, but look on the bright side. At least Puyo Puyo didn’t get stuck with Compile Heart… sure, Puyo Puyo could possibly get a more serious story, but then the obnoxious clichés and lack of development would be cranked up to 11.

- I’m still sad that Puyo Puyo made no appearance in the Archie Sonic/Mega Man Worlds Collide comic. :(

- Apparently, there’s a hate blog for Schezo floating around right now? I mean, you do you, you’re allowed to dislike a character, but I hope this doesn’t become the same as the hate for Ally or the Quest characters a couple years back.

- I don’t ship too much in Puyo Puyo/MadouMono, but I have some (a few obscure) ships that I like to play with, in my mind? Here are some:

Ringo x Ecolo

Doppelganger Arle x Rulue (I wrote about this one.. multiple times)

Dark Matter x Wish (I wrote about this one too lol)

alternatively, Dark Matter x Sleeping Princess if I want him to move on

Camus x Lala

Phantom God x Arle??

… Before I get yelled at for that last one, I view it as platonic. I think Phantom God struggles with the concept of loss and can’t figure out why they act strongly in regards to Lilith. They do not understand emotions, which is why they’re confused upon Arle being upset over Phantom God wounding Schezo.

But uh, that’s purely headcanon material for Phantom God. I can return to that maybe if people ask about it.. ;;

So those are my takes regarding Puyo Puyo, lol.

[hwarang-number]

*squeels* The Distance Between You and I is sooo beautiful! I cannot wait for the next part.

*squeals right back at you* Oh my goodness, first ask on my new blog!!! Thank you so much, for this message and for the Tumblr follow! <3 <3 <3 

I woke up to this ask and it made me want to cry (in the very best way). I’ve been writing fic for other fandoms on and off for over 15 years and was deeply entrenched in my past fandom for the past 7-8 of those, with several long, serious ongoing fics (ex. my big incomplete WIP over there is over 300K words), full of intricate headcanons and references to/retellings of fairy tales.

I just discovered SHINee in August (babywol here!) and started reading SHINee fic over the winter, then I had the miraculous good fortune to make friends with an absolutely beautiful 2min writer. In messaging back and forth, I told her some ideas that I thought would make fun fics (you know, ones you really want to read but you want/need someone else to write them for you) and she encouraged me to write them myself.

Other than some really feeble attempts at Beatles fic as a teen, I’ve never written bandfic or slash in general (do we still call it slash? I’m so old!), but I had all these fun ideas - all of them for 2min, mind you, except for one tiny oneshot idea, based on a Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin skit, that I thought would make a really fun Jongho fic. (Sidenote: I was solely a 2min shipper to begin with but the ever-amazing @lala-pipo made me ship Jongho with her delicious fic Anonymia. :D) The idea wouldn’t leave me alone so I tried to write it out of my head, as one does, and it has since spiraled into a 23K WIP. (It’s called Dream Girl, if you’re interested, and it’s on AO3 and AFF. Modern non-famous AU, very soft Jongho.)

I figured that would be it for my Jongho endeavors, much as I loved that universe (and honestly, I default to reading Jongho more than 2min these days, save for a couple of really amazing fics) - and then I heard about the Jjong’s Month fic challenge. I’m so new to this fandom and especially the whole sort of mythos of Jonghyun (I love him so much it hurts, I just know so very little compared to the rest of you!), so as badly as I wanted to contribute, I really didn’t think I could/should. (I’m also terrible at finishing stories in general, and challenges with deadlines tend to wring me out like a dishrag.)

The only idea that came to mind was an Endymion and Selene myth!fic with moon god!Jonghyun in love with handsome shepherd!Minho, but it just seemed so cheesy and predictable and probably overdone (albeit with a different pairing - I’m sure there are at least three Jongyus out there with this premise). But my dear 2min friend assured me that it would be anything but and encouraged me to write the story, so I decided to jot down a few ideas and just see what I could come up with. Because the month was already more than half over, I knew my best bet was to lean on my “voice” from my works in that previous fandom and aim for a sort of pseudo-Greek myth feel, told in slightly elevated language.

One huge downside of switching fandoms at this juncture is that SHINee fic traffic is virtually nil, especially for certain pairings (why, WHY don’t more people love Jongho??). This was especially tough as I created an entirely new pseud for SHINee fic and am literally starting from scratch - and as a brand-new Shawol to boot. Between AO3 and AFF, I’ve hit six total reviews/comments on Dream Girl in four months, and I have to remind myself that this is an accomplishment, especially in this dry season.

Yours is the first feedback I’ve received on The Distance Between You and Me, and it absolutely meant the world to hear. The entire month of April was absolutely miserable over here (thankfully no COVID issues at home, but lots of other stuff :( ) and I really struggled to get that fic out, and I was so worried that what I’d managed to come up with was flat and boring.

I’m so, SO thrilled that you enjoyed it! I cut it off where I did (I’ve already written Minho and Jonghyun’s encounter at the festival and just a teensy bit more ;D) because, as badly as I wanted to finish in April, I didn’t want to rush the good stuff in order to meet a deadline. And while I know how things will basically end up (and of course it will be happy - this girl can’t do angst!), I’m still deciding how precisely I want it to get there (and, erm, in how much detail... ;D).

As a thank-you, I’ll end this with a tidbit from the forthcoming second half. (I still have loads of writing and editing to do but I’m rather fond of this snippet as is. :D) I really hope to be done before the prompt-claiming for Summer of SHINee - I really DO have to write some 2min next, but I suspect we’ll see the next chapter of Dream Girl first. (Things are heating up over there in spite of my best-laid plans, and now the rest of SHINee wants to make appearances in the story too!)

Thank you again for your truly wonderful support! I hope I shan’t keep you waiting too long for the conclusion!

P.S. Girl-disguised-as-a-boy is my all-time favorite trope but I’ve never written boy-disguised-as-a girl, and it was surprisingly fun (in large part thanks to sassy, exasperated Key making Jonghyun pretty!).

****************************

The moon had never known such bliss as dancing with Minho, neither in heaven nor upon earth. The herdsboy’s breath fanned his cheek, warm and sweet with apple wine, as those long strong hands guided Jonghyun’s body through the steps with lingering touches at hip and shoulder, then curled an arm about his waist, lifting Jonghyun up and against the herdsboy for a leap as the steps called for.

It was an intercourse in its own right: the ebb and flow of their bodies, pressing together and apart and together once more as hands caught and clung and breath fell in quick soft pants, and Jonghyun’s eyes grew damp with both happiness and heartache, for the longer he remained with the herdsboy, the more painful it was to think of leaving him. It is enough, he told himself. To feel his admiration and bask in his nearness just this once.

Jonghyun sank into a curtsy as the dance came to its close and turned away to hide his tears, but Minho had seen, and drew him gently back to cup his face in both hands. “What is wrong, my darling?” he asked tenderly, brows lifted at their inner corners and thumbs brushing the tears from Jonghyun’s shimmering cheekbones. “Are you over-wearied by the dancing – or did I perhaps handle you too roughly in the steps?”

Jonghyun shook his head with a whimper, wiping at his eyes. “It is nothing,” he dismissed weakly, “a bit of smoke in my eyes. Come,” he bid, though he had never desired anything less, “let us clean up our picnic before another discovers what remains of your prizes.”

Minho’s hands slipped from his face with clear reluctance, but not before those gentle fingers had daubed away every last tear from both cheek and lash, and he curled a hand around Jonghyun’s to lead him back to their dining-place.

[thatyanderecritic]

Lala no Kekkon

Title: Lala no kekkon

Media: Manga. Written by Tamekou

Yandere(s): Uruji

Yandere Scale: 4/5

Criticism written by: Kai 

Editor: Julie

The Review:

Sigh. Kai here, back with a review for you all. My master Julie, is forcing me- I mean, coaxed me into pumping out some reviews for you all. She graciously gave me homework on what mangas to write a review on. I don’t mind too much but if you guys don’t know, I’m not a yaoi fan. While I do like some light hearted yaois/shounen ai, I’m one of the people who view yaoi as a porn genre that fetishizes gay men. I don’t care what people use to get off but this is my disclaimer that I’m not going to be a “Kya!!! Seme and uke! So kawaii!!!” type of person here. That being said, on to the review.

Lala no kekkon has a rather simple and straightforward plot. Lamudan, our uke MC, switched places with his twin sister, Lala, and ended up marrying her fiancé, Uruji; the seme. Lala fell in love with some random guy and ended up eloping with him. Lamudan, being a good brother, took her place to buy her some time to escape. The plan was for Lamudan to kill Uruji to free them both and escape back to his village. But of course, that fails and the classic yaoi rape scene occurred… I mean- the totally romantic sex scene where the seme persuade the uke that he’s a nice guy by using his body. My bad. Anyways, many more sex scenes continued before Lamudan finally escaped but then returned once he realized his family basically abandoned him for their selfish reasons. He also found out that him and his sister are adopted, and he was almost raped (but this time it was completely fucked up because it’s not the seme raping him) but was saved by Uruji in the nick of time because we somehow got to prove that Uruji is the best guy to end up with! Basically, all these classic angst scenes for a yaoi. Anyways, Lamudan returned back with Uruji and Lamudan is now in the state of “UwU I sort of like Uruji but he’s also fucked up. I think I should escape?” There’s a brother and whatever but that’s for like volume two that I won’t read.

Anyways, is Uruji a yandere? Yeah. This shit isn’t exactly subtle. Uruji loved Lamudan ever since Lamudan saved him as a child. He then had an arranged marriage with Lala then orchestrated Lala meeting her lover and yada yada yada, yandere stuff. There’s really nothing much to say here. “But Kai!” you might ask, “Why did you give Uruji a ⅘ instead a 5/5?” Well, I call this the “hentai tax”. You see, with hentai, it’s quite common to have rape scenes where the dom basically claims ownership over the sub. Happens almost all the time and the feel of these scenes are quite… yandere like. The dom wants to possess and own the sub. Making them only love them, mind break, pregnancies, ect. But the thing is that most people don’t look at these hentai characters and go “yandere!” because we know that they’re just fuck toys. The same applies here. Lala no kekkon is a “porn with plot” story… most yaois are to begin with. Story is pretty weak and just a vessel to carry one point to the next sex scene. I don’t mind stories being “plot with porn” but the fact that all the chapters starts or ends with sex made me think this was more of just a porn manga. During the sex scenes, they just become fuck toys and on some meta level, I thought Uruji view Lamudan as a fuck toy during these scenes. It’s one thing to selfishly keep your lovers and it’s another thing to just rape them for your own cardinal desires.

Well, that’s just my view. Truth be told, I’m desensitized to this sort of shit, so the rape scenes don’t really bother me but it just got me thinking. Within the grand scheme of story, Uruji is a solid yandere. Your basic and classic one, a 5/5. But with the constant sex scenes, he lost his sense as an actual character.

Extra: I’m sure some people are wondering about inconsistencies with our reviews. We have several posts on this blog about yaois and straight up hentai stories. It’s important to note who it was that wrote it. Julie wrote all those reviews. Yes, Julie and I are similar in mind set but we are more strict or lenient on certain topics. Truth be told, I would give all of those yanderes a lower score because of the hentai tax lol. But those are Julie’s reviews and this is mine. And for any other stories I review that have overwhelming hentai, they will get taxed a point because they are acting yandere out of lovesickness but acting out of pure lust. 

Overall Score: 7/10

[deafgaynerd]

when you love her

A Miraculous Ladybug fic about Adrien/Chat’s love for Marinette/Ladybug based on the new Jonas Brothers song, Love Her. 

Read it on AO3

Drive me crazy, make me mental

No other buttons she can push

They don’t fight often, but when Chat Noir and Ladybug are fighting, Ladybug always knows just what button to press to end the fight. They rarely fight, because his Lady never wants to hurt him, and any negative feelings between the pair could be easily exploited by Hawkmoth. Besides, after every fight, when Chat turned back to Ladybug, the sheepish smile and apologies that spilled out of her mouth for what she said melted him. Her temper flared easily, but she was never one to stay mad at him.

Marinette, sweet, nice, wonderful Marinette, had a temper outside of the mask too. Adrien, both as himself and as Chat, witnessed this constantly. Whenever it wasn’t directed at him he often stood in awe. She always stood up for what was right, and was not willing to even let a silly little thing as liking a boy to stop her when there was an injustice.

One second she's Miss Sentimental

Then she’s afraid she's said too much

Being a superhero with a dedicated website that captures everything that happens comes in handy sometimes. Especially when you have those “let’s go back and see what we were doing two years ago” moments. If there is a calm moment and nothing seems to be happening while they’re on patrol on one of those days, Ladybug will go grab snacks from home and go meet up on the top of the Eiffel Tower with Chat, who had grabbed his laptop and they would watch videos of them when they were first starting out.

Before the reveal, Ladybug would often let slip little details from her life as Marinette and Chat would soak them all up and she would freak out. They couldn’t divulge their identities, it was too reckless, and she would make Chat swear time and time again that he wouldn’t try to figure out her identity from all the things she let slip. He would promise, cross his heart, and he kept that promise.

After the reveal, they would watch the videos and reminisce on how young and oblivious they were. Marinette would often laugh about how stubborn she was about identities when the love of her life and her best friend were of course, one and the same. Adrien would shake his head and hold her tight. It was one of these occasions when Marinette first told Adrien she loved him. To her, it was way too early in their relationship for that confession and she went bright red and hid her face in his chest, only to feel him shaking with laughter and picking up her head. He told her that he loved her too, and that he always had.

Opposites attract and we're the livin’ proof of this

But I keep on comin' back like a magnet

Their approach to akumas and to dealing with their biggest secrets were starkly different. Ladybug wanted to keep their identities separate, they could not afford to know each other’s secrets, especially when they were children and new to the whole superhero job. Chat Noir, on the other hand, wanted to know his Lady’s name and face more than anything. It was the biggest thing that mattered to him. For akumas, Chat was always charging in, trying to fight first and often ended up getting knocked down because of it. Ladybug was the opposite, she often surveyed her situation and thought everything out logically, especially once she had her Lucky Charm.

Chat Noir was told time and time again that he should move on. He knew he should, and he really did try. As Adrien, he looked around his class and tried to will himself to have a crush on any of the girls (except Chloe, he’d done that before and he still dealt with the consequences to this day). The closest he ever came to crushing on someone was the sweet girl who sat behind him. His only two problems were that he just could not get over Ladybug and that Marinette really seemed not to like him. He learned just how perfect it was that she was the one he had tried to like after the reveal, of course, but before the reveal he just kept going back to Ladybug.

'Cause when you love her

No matter the fight you know she's always right

And it's alright

And they say love can hurt

But seein' her smile can get you every time

Yeah, every time

Because you love her, la-la-lala-lala

Love her, yeah

Anytime that they bickered about identities or how to react and fight an akuma, Chat Noir always yielded. Sometimes he was technically right in some instances with akumas, but he always let his Lady win. Whenever she was wrong, she always apologized and listened to him, and whenever she was right, she didn’t gloat. Chat just knew, no fight was really worth it, not when he loved Ladybug as much as he did.

Chat Noir loved Ladybug for a lot longer than she even knew, because she mostly didn’t believe him. He told her fairly often in the beginning, when he had just fallen in love. As time went on he only would tell her after there was a scary he-might-lose-her accident or whenever dealt with an akuma so brilliantly that all he could do was stand and admire her. She brushed it off, because how could he love her when he only knew Ladybug, right? Everytime she brushed it off, it hurt his heart, because how could she not believe him? She was the best person he had ever met and was so kind and wonderful, how could he not fall in love with the spotted superhero? Then she would look at her kitty and smile at him, and he melted, always. Just the sight of his Lady’s smile made him the happiest man in the world.

It also worked that way after the reveal, Chat or Adrien would see Marinette smile and basically be putty at her feet. When she started smiling with love, he didn’t think that he would survive. Alya and Nino would often tease him because there were definitely times where just a small smile from Marinette could have Adrien blushing and reaching out to her.

I put my selfish ways in boxes

And shipped 'em back to where they came

Will never let it get close to bein' toxic

And I promise I’ll never walk away

Despite being very giving and often being very nice, Adrien was still an Agreste, and he was still accustomed to a certain lifestyle. As much as he worked at being selfless and giving, there were times that the spoiled rich kid selfishness slipped through the cracks. Thankfully for him, Marinette never judged him too harshly while still bringing him back down to normal, public school kid level.

Chat Noir would occasionally get jealous of the way that Ladybug got everything, the reporters, the fans, the attention. He got some, sure, but most people saw him as the sidekick, as the less important one. Sometimes, selfish thoughts of I should be getting the attention after akumas where he felt like he did good work or when she would go and do many more interviews with all the different reporters. His Lady even had a blog completely dedicated to her, and he was featured, but it was about Ladybug mostly. However, whenever he did get upset about these things, he often just talked it out with Ladybug instead of holding onto resentment and risking his feelings turning into something toxic that could affect their effectiveness in battling akumas and working together. Talking things out with his partner would always confirm just how much he would always stick by her side.

Gotta learn to let the small things go

And know it's always far from perfect

There were so, so, so many times that just a side comment from either Ladybug or Chat Noir would hit just right for the other person and they would get upset. These were often unintentional and hit them hard because it was something that hurt them behind the mask. After some silence or some tears, the pair always talked it out and walked away from the situation understanding just a little bit more of the other.

Sometimes Marinette would just get a little tired of the perfect cookie-cutter Adrien that would often present itself at school, especially as they grew older and she was finally able to talk to him as a normal person and got to know him. She understood that he had to represent the Agreste brand and be the perfect role model but that didn’t mean that he just had to be a bland boring person sitting in front of her. She knew him now, she knew that he really did have a personality and seeing him hide it away would sometimes just get to be too much and annoy her. Ironically, Marinette getting annoyed at him for this annoyed Adrien. Why should he have to conform to her specific wishes, especially when he was an Agreste and Gabriel Agreste was expecting him to act a certain way? Not to mention that if he didn’t conform to his father’s wishes he wouldn’t be allowed to go to school with Mari and his friends any longer and that was really what he wanted most. The key to a good friendship is conversation and the pair often settled these annoyances by talking through it. Marinette really just wanted Adrien to be himself, because she knew better now. Adrien just wanted to be able to stay in school. They would often compromise, with Adrien agreeing to loosen up at least a little at school which always made Marinette happy and gave him a warm feeling when he would catch her smiling at him. After the reveal, these conversations and annoyances seemed to pile up because now Marinette knew how Adrien really was more than before.

And I know that we can get emotional

But the hardest parts are always worth it

The reveal was probably one of the biggest emotional parts of the miraculous duo’s relationship. How could it not be, with finding out that they really had been in a love square with just the two of them. Of course the first person to find out was Alya. The reporter had finally put two and two together and realised she ran a blog dedicated to her best friend. Once she found out about Marinette, she started going through just who could be Chat Noir and compiled a list. She narrowed the list based on the facts that the akuma attacks would bring her. Chat Noir was always fast to the scene whenever someone at their school was akumatized, her biggest clue. The fact that the only thing that changed for Marinette was her mask and her suit, so Alya assumed that the same would be the same for Chat. Between those facts, the fact that only two people in their class had not been akumatized ever and those two people were constantly making terrible excuses whenever there was an akuma attack, Alya puzzled out just who Ladybug’s crime fighting partner was. She knew that Chat Noir was none other than Adrien Agreste.

Figuring out their identities gave Alya the perfect opportunity to play matchmaker. She enlisted the help of Nino, because one, she already knew he was Carapace and he knew she was Rena Rouge, and two, Nino was Adrien’s best friend and she needed him to help get Adrien to go along with everything. When Nino heard her out about knowing the identities he started laughing, because of course the four main crime fighting superheroes of Paris were none other than himself, his girlfriend, his best friend, and his girlfriend’s best friend. He had often called their group “The Core Four” and now it rang even truer.

Alya decided that the best way for this reveal to be pulled off was for Ladybug to let the two of them keep their miraculous after a fight. This proved to be a little difficult but with how many akumas kept popping up that were getting stronger and stronger Ladybug did eventually agree. After securing hers and Nino’s miraculous, Alya quickly set up a blind date. This blind date, of course, was for her best friends but Marinette and Adrien didn’t know that. She set them up on the date and they were having a fun time after getting over the original awkwardness of a blind date, because they had just decided that they would eat as friends for now. They were in a smaller, secluded restaurant that not many people knew about which would help Alya achieve the next part of her plan.

Once the two had mostly finished their meals, Rena Rouge and Carapace ran into the restaurant looking directly at the two of them and announcing that Ladybug and Chat Noir were needed, quickly, and they were going to meet on the top of the building. Marinette immediately excused herself to the bathroom, as did Adrien and nearly a minute later Ladybug and Chat Noir were on the roof waiting for the other pair of superheroes.

On the roof there was a blanket set out with dessert and candles and it all seemed very romantic and the main superhero pair were extremely confused. Once Carapace and Rena Rouge had jumped to the roof of the building the questions started. Rena just shook her head, laughing, because of course these two hadn’t even realised what they just did. She looked to Carapace and commented on just how fast that Ladybug and Chat Noir had arrived at the rooftop when all they had done so far was walked into a restaurant where Adrien and Marinette were eating  looking for the cat and bug superheroes. With that, Chat and his Lady had started stuttering and making excuses before Rena looked at them and insisted that she knew and that they needed to tell each other.

Ladybug and Chat Noir looked between each other and their teammates before Ladybug sighed and sat down on the blanket in front of the dessert, understanding that this was what had to happen now. Gesturing to Chat to sit down she said bye to Nino and Alya watching Chat’s shocked face at learning who Carapace and Rena Rouge were underneath their masks. He sat down in front of his Lady, nervous about what was swiftly approaching.

Ladybug quickly started freaking out, because she was sure that Chat wouldn’t like her as much as her civilian self versus as Ladybug and that he would hate who she was. Chat quickly dispelled her worries by once again telling her he loved her, no matter who she was. In a sign of good faith towards her, he suggested that instead of revealing themselves one at a time that they would both release their transformations and look at each other on the count of three.

Three seconds. Those three seconds were the longest three seconds they would ever experience, full of anxiety, anticipation, fear, and excitement. They were going to know who each other were, in three seconds. Ladybug knew that this was for sure the hardest moment of her life so far, because having her two identities combine was overwhelming.

Three.

Two.

One.

With a flash of pink and green, their transformations dropped and the two teenagers looked up at each other sitting across their dessert. Once the realisation set in, they were laughing, they were crying, they were joking, and they were smiling. Marinette questioned his true love for Ladybug and how that stood now, because he had been so adamant she had started to believe it. He moved to sit next to her and grabbed her hands, reassuring her that the combination of Ladybug with Marinette made him fall deeper in love with her. Marinette looked at him like he was mental, before admitting that she had always had a crush on Adrien and asking him if he would ever like to go on a real date sometime, shocking him as well as herself. He easily agreed and then looked at her, laughing. Joking with her about their crazy love square that they had ended up in because of the whole secret identities thing.

They spent most of that night cuddling together in the candlelight, before separating with a promise of that real date the next day.

'Cause when you love her

No matter the fight you know she's always right

And that's alright

And they say love can hurt

But seein' her smile will get you every time

Yeah, every time

Because you love her, la-la-lala-lala

Love her, yeah

Adrien married Marinette once they had gotten older. He knew that he had to, because he was just so in love with her. He knew that no matter their struggles or their little speed bumps that they had to face, they were perfect for each other; he knew that they were soulmates. So they did what soulmates do, stay together forever, because every struggle was worth it, just to be with her and make his new wife, Marinette Agreste, smile.

[tobrodachi]

Nice! My otome game scenario is writing itself up, as expected!

Synopsis: Saito Sakura, a woman working as an author for the famous VN company “N*tr*pl*s” is currently the main writer for an otome game scenario coming up. One night, during The Crunch, she collapses and wakes up in her game world! However, she wakes up as Adelina Fugo, the main villainess/pain-in-the-butt for the commoner protagonist Petra Saenz. Worse than that, since the storyboard was never completed, she’s only got a general idea of where the story’s headed in each of the four main routes, and they all lead up to exile or death of her character!

“Well, worse comes to worse, this all serves as inspiration for when I wake up!”

Tags: Female protagonist, dense protagonist, otome isekai, her hands are rated E for Everyone, we going ham with this bois.

Chapter 01/??:

The Crunch, or how I learned to stop worrying and love coffee.

My name is Saito Sakura, a 28 year old Visual Novel writer for N*tr*pl*s who’s currently struggling to make ends meet. Got myself a nice little apartment over at the Narita prefecture, got enough money for my daily expenses, and I love my job. But if my life is so rose-tinted, then why am I struggling?

Because, and let me be clear here, having all of those nice things means absolutely jackshit when you’re pulling a month-long work into a single week. Especially if it’s the third day of said week, with the blinds closed unless I want to invoke the Mother Of All Headaches, and haven’t slept for the past 72 hours and counting; all while subsisting on a diet based of vending machine potato chips, extra-salty tuna onigiri courtesy of my juniors, and an ungodly amount of that sweet, sweet nectar known to mankind as coffee.

Thank you, God of Coffee, for allowing us mere mortals to harvest your beans for our gain. For giving us the inspiration to think of new and innovative ways to prepare your juices, so that we can pair it up with other produce. Milk for the stomach, sugar for the heart, and cinnamon for the soul.

Mmmmm, spicy~! Just the way mama likes it.

“Excuse me, miss Saito.” a voice I couldn’t identify called out to me in the middle of my coffee break, accompanied by a hand clasping my shoulder at the same time.

Rude.

I blinked to get the fog out of my eyes, and fixed my stare at.... who was him again? All I can recall right now are names of characters and places that don’t exist (yet!), and this self-important NPC comes to talk to--

“Please, go back home and take a rest, we’ll cover for you.”

!!!!!!

I take back everything I said about you, my most favorite intern! May you be blessed by the God of Coffee for anything you may need, without suffering from stress-induced gastritis until you’re late in your 40′s~

“Thank you, but I still need to finish at least some sort of idea for the Childhood Friend route, and I’m still struggling to find ideas for that.” My mouth replied still in auto mode, while brain-me was still off in lala land----

Saito Sakura, you utter and absolute fool! How dare you let your heart dictate what your mouth says!? Apologize to me, dammit!

“As expected of our senior! Please, keep doing your best!” My most hated intern cheerfuly replied as he waved and went back to his work station.

Noooooooo~! Please come back and give me back my well-earned freedooooom~!

As I took another sip of coffee in disappointment, my mind went back to think about the southern regions of the Patagonia, while my fingers started moving on their own to an invsible script.

After what felt like hours, I look at the clock hands, and they’re still at 10. Is it morning? Night? I lost count of the pass of time after my 20th cup (and trust me, I kept count), with my own sleepiness never quite leaving the edges of my mind. And now, even the center.

Can’t.

Think.

The only thing keeping me awake is that burning sensation in at the lower part of my chest that seems to be coming from my stomach, and the sheer sensation of my heart wanting to grow legs and jump out of me. What’s worse is that the burning sensation isn’t even calming down, but rather going up; but I’ll take this over not finishing near the deadline.

My sight blurs once again, and I try to focus back to the screen.

The screen stays blurry.

It’s alright, I can still type, even if I can’t see the keystrokes, it’ll just be that intern’s job to figure out what I wanted to write~

Except, well, my hands stopped moving. Huh, fancy that. I can’t feel my hands anymore drumming their beat against the keyboard, so at least I’m assuming so.

I look back at the still blurry monitor, and I can see it’s coming closer to my face, aaaaaand it just went up and above my head, and ow, now besides having this really annoying burning feeling in my chest, I now also have a killer headache.

But on the flip side, now I’m also feeling really, really, warm and fluffy and wonderful.

Maybe I’ll stay like this for a few more minutes....

______________

“-o sorry, I didn’t mean to do that!” A mop of brown curled hair doing its best impression of a person apologizing actually said to me while bowing down.

Wait, that’s actually a human person. Nevermind, carry on.

I scoffed and resisted the urge to yawn. Who does this girl think she is? Queen Anne? Puh-lease! Not with those clothes!

“Excuses, as expected of someone who doesn’t even know their place.” I replied, while picking myself off the ground-?

Wait, what was I doing on the ground in the first place? I find it unlikely I was taking a nap, I was just finishing admiring the great mountainous view of this campus---

Wait, that’s not it, I was in my office and then everything became blurry before---

I looked back at the talking mop herself, and she seemed even more apologetic than before. It seems she said something else before, but I didn’t pay attention to it. I gazed at my -gloved?- hands -whenever did I put gloves on?- and saw the silk fabric sullied by the gravel from the road. Seriously, a lady shouldn’t pick up herself like this!

“So, who are you supposed to be?” My voice sounds different- I ask to little miss mop over there, what a sorry view. But at least that question made her look up into my eyes.

Good, she’s got at least a semblance of backbone.

“M-my name--” She stuttered, aaaaaand what little respect she earned went down the drain. Doesn’t she have any self-respect? “-is Petra, Petra Saenz. I’m so sorry about---”

“Keep your mouth shut, and zip up your apologies.” I said -isn’t it rude, though?- haughtily because, again, how dare this imitation for a human try to go through life without affirming her presence?

I heard giggles around me, and turned my head to find my followers -wow, even a girl posse, nice- trying to hold their laughter at the situation. A quick glare fixed it, and they stopped the noises, clearly afraid of what may come. Good, it wouldn’t do to have anything else.

Turning back to the mop, she seemed even more cowed than before, as if expecting divine retribution, which may as well be what’s happening here.

“You’re talking to-” Saito Sakura, Saito’s the family name “-Adelina Fugo. Tennis Ace, Treasurer of the Student Council, and New York’s future Best Selling Author!” Wait, where did that come from?

Oh, wait, those were my goals when I was a kid!

But while those girls were nodding and clapping at my declaration, the mop looked more lost than ever, and this time I couldn’t even fault her.

“Uhm.... what’s New York?”

I’m asking myself the same here.

The other girls stopped clapping and looked at me expectantly.

I -want to rub my eyes and drink some coffee- pick up a flower-patterned fan I had hanging on my hip, before hiding my mouth with it.

“OOOOOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!” -damn, that felt good to do, even if it WAS hammy- I laugh before fanning myself.

“If you don’t know about it, then you’re not even fit to be in this school!” Can’t let them see me hesitate after such a blunder. My father won’t let me hear the end of it if he hears I backed down after such a ridiculous claim - wait, why would he have to hear it, I live alone - No, I don’t, I’m not even of age!

This is.....

so confusing......

A/N: Well, after reading one too many otome isekai web novels, I decided to try my hand at writing my own! If the synopsis catches your attention. I don’t know when I’ll update it, but I’m aiming for a once-a-month update schedule, both depending on response and my own workload.

This is still in its rough sketches, so the setting is bound to change eventually.

My first intention is to write a “transported to another world” where the protagonist lands herself in the middle of a visual novel she’s creating targeted towards women, where you can court any of 4 romantic interests, in this case boys. That, however, doesn’t mean that those won’t be her only options (if she ends up actually courting anyone).

Since I’m still worldbuilding, I wanted to get this introductory chapter out of the way before commiting to anything in the world.

I should definitely make a blog for this down the line

[rudybuttlar]

oh la la, qu’est-ce que j’ai fat?

OK OK. Merci beaucoup for clicking this link and giving it a read because you could seriously be doing ANYTHING else right now but you came to dive into the going-ons of the inside of my head, so....good luck. I’m hoping this blog will be a mix of light hearted stories and intro and outro?spection, so if that doesn’t interest you, PERFECT! I’ll try to change your mind. 

I’m the first to admit that I’ve always looked down on those who choose to study abroad places like Paris—places where Western culture is just as prevalent as it is in the states. Why not explore somewhere different! Somewhere it’s not as easy to fit in. But here I am.

I was at a kind of shitty part of my life mentally in the middle of my first year of college. My Capricorn energies couldn’t handle all the UCLA baddies who seemed to have everything under control all the while living their best lives. I wanted to apply to everything I possible could because I don’t actually know what I could possibly do. I don’t know if I was even excited to do any of it; it’s like I can’t escape my try-hard days as the President of Key Club (yuck!) in high school. Alas, UCLA isn’t easy. And I had to deal with getting rejected from all that SHITE too. Anyways, I remember watching the episode of Master of None where Rachel leaves Dev to live in Tokyo. When he confronts her about it, she said, “If I don’t do this now, I don’t think I ever will… I don’t want to wake up one day and think, ‘What would it have been like if I went to Japan?’”

I guess I realized I was looking for some kind of journey to reflect on things or something to define my life because I certainly didn’t know what was going on. It started to be a question of success vs. happiness in my mind.

It definitely got me thinking about a lot of things. I’m still in this weird transitional phase of my life that I felt since the first day of my freshman year in college where I’ve swung from happy and content to lost and confused every other week. It comes in waves and phases which perplex a lot of people who know me and don’t see that side of me very often, especially since I do tend to bury that negativity inside me. But I’ve slowly realized over the years: it’s okay to be honest with your emotions and admit your neurotic tendencies. And it’s up to you and ONLY YOU to do something about it. If you’re upset that you’ve sat in your underwear for a full day forgetting that your skinny (slim thiccc) bod actually needs nourishment binge watching Youtube covers in your sadness (an actual realization I had once), then somethings gotta change. 

So I attended my first travel study meeting in Murphy Hall, a huge, luxurious building on the outside with snakey hallways, dimly lit lighting—a massive maze of windowless rooms and marble floors. A few months later I’m here, back to my European roots. 

Famously, the show Seinfeld did horrible in test audiences before they ever aired. There’s an unknown rule of thumb with sitcoms – that if a pilot does well with test audiences, that’s not exactly a good sign. It means that it’s familiar. People have seen things like it before. A test audience that supposedly represented the “majority” of Americans watched Seinfeld and hated it because they had never seen anything like it and didn’t get the premise; so, the studios were ready to pull the show. WELL LOOKED HOW THAT TURNED OUT. Now Jerry has a goddamn show where he makes money drinking coffee with his friends while promoting the next Acura Legend or something. The studios that wanted to pull Seinfeld are the same studios that go, “The people want another (insert superhero franchise) so let’s give it to them! And make sure it’s loaded with nostalgia and merchandising opportunities!”

I guess what I’m saying in all these anecdotes and stories is that I don’t exactly know what I want in life. I don’t know if coming to Paris is the right move. I don’t know what’s going to happen after college - but I don’t think anyone does. 

There’s this amazing interview with comedian/improviser Chris Gethard where he talked about leaving his position at UCB Theatre to go do stand-up and lead his own talk show, dissecting why he left such a massive reputation behind. He was considered one of the biggest improv “guru’s” and was the “Golden Boy” of the UCB for the longest time, but once he talked to his therapist about how dissatisfied he still was, his therapist told him that he needed to cut out everything that prevented him from achieving what he wanted - even if that meant quitting his current job. Like any rational human, Chris said to her, “But I need to pay my rent and survive… how can I leave that behind to start something that could fail and leave me broke and homeless?”

She said, “Everything you have right now, you know you’re good at - it’ll all be waiting for you and you can always pick it back up if all else fails. But at some point, you need to leave on your own journey and answer the question, ‘What if? Because doing what you wanted to do and failing, but giving it your all will always be better than wondering all along if you could ever achieve your dreams.”

So there you go. I’m basically comparing my 19-year old life to someone who made a dramatic life/career decision as if they were on similar terms to me. I’m also not very smart.

Anyways, I have lots of more TEA to spill. Stay tuned baddies. I’m gonna dive into my CRAZY home stay mother (oh Lala), where my mind is at in the “City of LOVE”, and how I think I got roofied last night. Whoops. 

GOODBYE AMERICA, HELLO PARIS 

[velvetrouge]

I have recently started learning mandarin by myself since my school doesn’t offer any classes, I was wondering if you have any tips for studying or websites that I could use?

Hi there, sorry I took so long to answer this because this answer took me a really long time to compile 😂 First of all, great to know you are learning Chinese! Actually Mandarin is just a spoken form of Chinese, but I assume you are planning to learn how to read and write Chinese as well :D I’ve received quite a few questions about learning Chinese ever since I started this blog, so I thought I should write a detailed answer about this. 

LONG ANSWER AHEAD

Before you start, do note there are actually two sets of (overlapping) Chinese characters out there, 

1. Traditional Chinese characters (used in Taiwan and Hong Kong)  

2. Simplified Chinese characters (used in Mainland China, Singapore and Malaysia). 

I’m from Singapore so I learned simplified Chinese, I can generally read traditional Chinese as well though I have great difficulty writing them because I’m too used to simplified characters 😂😂 You don’t have to learn both, but it’s good to know the difference since you will probably encounter both types of characters at some point when you are studying Chinese/ consuming Chinese entertainment.

I definitely recommend learning Hanyu pinyin to help with the pronunciation of the words, but do note that pinyin is neither the Chinese alphabet nor meant to be a substitute for Chinese characters. There is no alphabet for Chinese… we do have Chinese radicals (further explained here) which is not really an alphabet but more like components of a character 🤔 For the most part, to learn Chinese characters you have to memorise them. Maybe you can set yourself a goal of memorising a few characters a day to kickstart the process, actually if possible I would recommend getting a Chinese copy book/app like this one: 

Writing the characters over and over is the best way to remember the words imo, also this will help you practise your handwriting! 

A good dictionary is a must, for Chinese-English dictionaries the best one I have tried so far is the app Pleco. I used to have this book of 成语 (Chinese idioms) and 俗语 (Chinese sayings) as well that I had to memorise for school, but I think you can just learn them online (found some here) if you want :D You should probably wait till your Chinese reaches intermediate~advanced level before starting on those though, if not the whole thing might be kind of confusing. 

For websites, I have never tried learning Chinese online before so I don’t have first-hand experience of any of the online Chinese learning sites, but I did find this list of online resources for learning Chinese which is really comprehensive. it covers sites and apps for everything from reading and writing Chinese characters to all types of podcasts. Actually you know what, there are more resources available online than I thought, there are even apps for you to connect to native Chinese speakers (I didn’t even know those existed until I wrote this answer) 👀 That list of sites and apps pretty much covers every aspect of learning Chinese so I don’t have much else to add tbh 😂😂 Just gonna recommend some entertainment options that will hopefully make your learning process more enjoyable! 

(Below are mostly my personal song/ show/ manhua recommendations)

For songs there are really way too many so it’s kind of hard to draw up a list, maybe you can start with the songs of some of the more famous artistes like Jay Chou, A-mei, Eason Chan, Faye Wong, Mayday, Stefani Sun, Jam Hsiao… You can search for Mandopop playlists on Spotify for a start! I’m personally quite fond of 逃跑计划, Lala Hsu and 陈粒’s songs.

Also randomly recommending 夜空中最亮的星 and 平凡之路 because they are my favourite songs (夜空中最亮的星 almost made me cry the first time I heard it, even now after listening to it for so many times it still gives me the same feeling 👵🏻).

For dramas my favourite drama by far is Nirvana in Fire (琅琊榜), which imo is the best drama I’ve ever watched. My sister and I were obsessed with this show and recommended it to all our friends, it was so good!!

(side note I think Hu Ge’s face is especially suited for historical dramas)

Some other dramas I liked were Ode to Joy, The Fierce wife (Taiwanese) and The Legend of Zhen Huan, Nirvana in Fire Season 2 was also just released this year! My friend recommends Tens Miles of Peach Blossoms which she said made her cry a lot, and I think Yang Mi’s latest drama The Negotiator is quite popular too though I haven’t watched it yet. I actually don’t have a lot of dramas to recommend because I don’t really watch them 😂😂 But coming from someone who don’t particularly like watching dramas, Nirvana in Fire is really so freaking good…

Anyway besides songs and dramas, my other recommendations are 1) Web novels and 2) Manhua.

I highly recommend reading web novels (I mostly read on them on qidian), the Chinese web novel community is seriously gigantic and I’ve honestly only explored a very very very tiny fraction of their offerings because there are so many popular web novels out there. Btw even if you can’t read Chinese there are English sites (webnovel l wuxiaworld) where you can read the Chinese web novels translated into English for free, so you can enjoy them regardless of your Chinese abilities :D One well-known novel on both the English and Chinese site is The King’s Avatar (全职高手), which was made into a gorgeous Chinese anime last year

First episode here!

Btw if you download the qidian app they have this audio book function that I thought was pretty handy, you can listen to your favourite novels being read to you ->

(Click 听书 and it will lead to the audio)

(One of my favourite novels 惊悚乐园／Thriller Paradise!)

For manhua I mostly read my manhua on kuaikanmanhua, 腾讯动漫 and occasionally dongmanmanhua. I made a short list of BL recommendations previously here, some other non-BL manhua I’m currently following are:

DOLO命运胶囊 (the art for this series is really beautiful) 

女王的手术刀

哥哥是大笨蛋

看脸时代 (This one is Korean and really popular, it’s translated into English as well under the title Lookism but personally I prefer the Chinese translation) 

A friend of mine recommended Duoluo Dalu (novel here) and Battle Through The Heavens (novel here) which I haven’t read yet, but if I’m not wrong both series are popular 👀   

That’s all I can think of for now! Kind of off topic but from the perspective of an overseas Chinese I think Mainland Chinese entertainment have improved a lot in recent years. When I was young I could only remember a few shows from China like 还珠格格, Journey to the West, and Return of the Condor Heroes, and my own childhood was dominated by Japanese manga and Taiwanese Mandopop/ idol dramas (that’s how I learned to read traditional Chinese lol). But now there is an increasing number of quality productions from China, which is great for someone like me who is fond of Chinese entertainment (sadly Singapore’s Chinese entertainment scene is pretty lacking and Hong Kong and Taiwan’s entertainment industry have been declining, Singapore is currently pretty much dominated by Kpop and K-dramas). Hopefully Chinese entertainment will continue to get better and better in the near future ^^

In any case this list is non-exhaustive, but my answer is getting way too long so I’ll just stop here. I’ll add any future recommendations under the recs tag, hope this helps! 

[richincolor]

Today we welcome Tanuja Desai Hidier to the blog to share about her writing and music.

Tell us a bit about your life as a writer. What drew you to writing and what has kept you writing?

Reading! I’ve turned to the pen since as far back as I could hold it, and savor, seep into, fall into, flip a page. I was around five when I wrote my first poems: “The Secret” (spoiler alert: it’s a feather) and “Nelly & Shelly” (the fascination with supertwins commenced early). I wrote mostly poems till my teens; I have boxloads of three-ring binders of them in my childhood home. Some of these poems had melodies too–were first songs, in a sense. As a child I also invented bands and singers: designed their album covers, wrote and recorded songs for them on my tape recorder, and had a whole index card system where I’d draw them on one side, and write their bios on the other.

Funnily, none of my singers were ever women of color (always women, though). In fact, I only realized in my 30s, maybe even 40s, that this was the same of my short story characters (and I was writing those from about six years old onwards too—a long time!).

Most likely because I’d never seen such heroes and heroines on bookshelves, TV screens, magazine pages (and street: my family was the first of our particular ‘brown’ in our town, and the first to immigrate from both sides of the family in the 60s).

Many years later—after eons of procrastination, distraction, and, mainly, self-doubt in terms of not only my ability to write a novel, but whether I even had a story to tell—one of the reasons I wrote Born Confused and protagonist Dimple Lala was to fill this hole on my childhood bookshelf with a South Asian American coming of age story. To create heroes and heroines who more closely resembled those  in my own life. My own home.

Born Confused is considered to be the first South Asian American YA novel, and recently celebrated its 15th anniversary. The sequel,  Bombay Blues, received the 2015 South Asia Book Award. Can you tell us more about them?

All those years ago, when I was writing Born Confused, I didn’t realize so consciously that it was the first South Asian American YA novel. I was just trying to tell my truth. Truths. But funny how when you do that you often stumble across the truths of others.

Born Confused is a book about a teen girl, her heart, her home, her camera, her cultures…and how they all ultimately harmonize when she stops seeing things as black and white, or even shades of grey, but rather as magnificently multidimensioned and (it’s true!)…rich in color.  Set largely in the context of New York City’s bhangra / Asian Underground club scene, the story follows Indian-American heroine Dimple Lala through a summer that turns her world on its head as she tries to bring together her cultures without falling apart in the process. The book takes its title from ABCD, or American Born Confused Desi, a term used to describe these second and third generation South Asians who are supposedly “confused” about where their roots lie—and on one level is a journey towards clarity, turning that C for Confused into a C for Creative…which feels like it better describes the desis in my own life.

Born Confused is my exploration of ‘brown.’ And, many years after that, one of the reasons I wrote Bombay Blues—an exploration of ‘blue’—was to move beyond the skin. Set against the backdrop of Mumbai’s contemporary indie music and arts scene, this crossover/adult novel/sequel sees Dimple journey from New York to Bombay, and adolescence to adulthood, in a now globalized India…where she bumps against and blurs the boundaries between tradition and the modern, East and West, in a whole new way. It’s Dimple’s first experience of being brown among the brown, and her personal and artistic journey leads her to follow blue—the color, the mood, the music, on into the wild blue yonder (that of her heart as well).

In the decade between novels—during which time I also became a mother to two daughters—I explored a few other book ideas. But in the end, I suppose I missed Dimple too much; I was wondering how and where she was, what she was up to… and knew the only answer to that question would be to write it. And Bombay, it became compellingly clear, was where I could find her.

Becoming a parent myself certainly crystallized my desire to learn this part of my own parents’ history better: the city of their courtship, of my mother and brother’s birth—yet a place American-born me barely knew. I longed to write my way towards this metropolis of myth and memory—and, hopefully, into it.

In the 15 years since you wrote Born Confused, have you seen change in the YA community?

Enormous changes! Some pretty wonderful happy beginnings are happening in the world today…which is heartening, given the difficulties of our time. For example, in the world of books…well, Dimple and I didn’t have a lot of on-page company back then. Today, the literary landscape is so different—wonderfully. Far more windows and mirrors (I look at my daughters’ bookshelves and—wow! On the desi front alone: Uma Krishnaswami, Marina Budhos, Mitali Perkins, Vivek Shraya, Padma Venkatraman, Nidhi Chanani. Nisha Sharma, SJ Sindu, Samira Ahmed, Sona Charaipotra, Pooja Makhijani, Sharbari Ahmed. To name a few!)

Back when I wrote Dimple, there was no #WeNeedDiverseBooks. No #OwnVoices. (No Twitter, either.) No community for this kind of amplification and fortification. (Thank gods we have access to it now.)

Until the readers. And then…FROCK! what a blessing. Thank you to the readers, the librarians, the teachers who have nurtured Dimple (and me! and us!) through all these years. For opening your own hearts and giving us a home. For letting us choose—and write— our heroes.

And, what a revelation: WE can be heroes!

And you know, during these fraught times, we also MUST be. Our diverse, universal stories are more important than ever. Stories can be such powerful peacemakers: slipping you into the shoes of another and showing you how to walk.

Empathize.

Imagine.

And: We can write things into being, too. Show the world not only as it is but how it could be. And show yourself how you can be, too.

Are you writing any YA right now or in the near future that you may talk about?

Born Confused is set in NYC and sequel Bombay Blues in Bombay/Mumbai…and I’ve often felt there should be a third part to Dimple Lala’s story: the London book (my base for yeeears, and the beloved city from where where I wrote NYC and Bombay: a Portobello Road flat and Muswell Hill/SoHo cafs respectively). A sister city where every inch every moment you can have a multisensory experience of all the ways race, culture, art, music, diaspora, motherlands intersect. And where Asian culture is such a part of the main and sub cultures.

Funny I’ve never written about a place while in it…so maybe I’ll have to pitch home base elsewhere for that London book (and album!) to emerge…?

How are your books and music connected?

I write songs as well as fiction, and have made albums of original music connected to both my novels (‘booktracks’). When We Were Twins: songs based on Born Confused. And Bombay Spleen—songs connected to Bombay Blues. It was a natural progression for me to explore the stories in music (I was in a playing /gigging London band while writing Born Confused and had just been in one in NYC, too).

Bookwriting, songwriting: They are very much part of the same creative process for me: shining a light on the same story from different angles, and —sometimes more audibly, sometimes more visibly, sometimes in that deep humming writing silence–exploring the same questions.

And finally: What are you doing to celebrate Dimple Lala’s 15th anniversary?

Celebrating The We! Our communities, our storytellers, our culture-makers-and-shapers. With the DEEP BLUE SHE #Mutiny2Unity #MeToo #WeMix music video project—a year in the making (massive shoutout to editor Atom Fellows)—featuring 100+ artist/activists (including authors Marina Budhos; Gemma Weekes; Kat Beyer; Uma Krishnaswami; Elizabeth Acevedo; Cynthia Leitich-Smith; Paula Yoo; Sharbari Ahmed; Mitali Desai; Eliot Schrefer; Mira Kamdar; Nico Medina; Billy Merrell; Bill Konigsberg). In a way, Deep Blue She is my birthday promise to Dimple Lala: To keep celebrating the ‘skins’ we’re in, honoring our collective and individual voices. And it’s a thank you as well, to the communities I’m blessed to know and call home, for their dedication and determination to fight the good fight. To tell our stories. And be heard.

(And hopefully to offer support and concrete help so others can do so: all artist proceeds from sales of the remix at Bandcamp to charity.)

Please watch, share, and join the #MergrrrlMovement!

With thanks and love from me and Dimple.

Tanuja Desai Hidier is an author, singer-songwriter, and innovator of the ‘booktrack’ (albums of original songs to accompany her novels). Her first novel, Born Confused—considered to be the first ever South Asian American YA novel—recently turned 15. Born Confused has been hailed by Rolling Stone Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, and Paste Magazine as one of the greatest YA novels of all time (on lists including such classics as To Kill a Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye, Huckleberry Finn, and Little Women). Tanuja is the recipient of the 2015 South Asia Book Award (for her second novel, Bombay Blues), the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, and the London Writers/Waterstones Award, and her short stories have been included in numerous anthologies. Her most recent project— the DEEP BLUE SHE #Mutiny2Unity #MeToo #WeMix music video/PSA, based on a track from her second album, and featuring 100+ artist/activists (mostly women of color)—is now live. Outlook India calls it “The We Are The World of our times.” All artist proceeds from sales of the remix to charity. More info at: www.thisistanuja.com/DeepBlueShe

[officialkmi]

“What is Love” by TWICE

Let me preface this by saying that I don’t listen to many girl groups. I did listen to some of TWICE’s stuff and some of BLACKPINK’s stuff when the two groups first debuted, but ultimately the only girl group song on my playlist is GFriend’s “Navillera” because i just love that song.

Typically I only like songs I can sing along to in the car, and TWICE’s songs were all too difficult so I slowly stopped listening. However, I’ve decided to pull in a girl group song because odds are those who see this blog will get sick of me only talking about boy groups.

Overall Sound

As I’d expect of a TWICE song, it immediately has this cute sound to it. They sound like something I’d plug into the opening of a shoujo anime opening (as compared to Dreamcatcher, which has songs which sound more suited for the action-filled opening of a shounen anime). The vocals were nice and the song seemed to flow nicely from regular verses into the chorus, which is what I’d want for a cute song like the others from TWICE. I really love how the song’s rap managed to keep the mood of the song rather than sounding more tough. The music helps a lot with that, but credit must also be given to the group’‘s rappers.

MV

The MV left me with high hopes before I’d heard the song or seen the MV simply because Twitter and Instagram were covered in posts about the references to other movies.

I don’t know every movie featured, but I was able to identify some of the ones seen. I think it’s great that the MV does feature movies like “Ghost” and “Lala Land.” There are movies which are recent featured and older ones featured, which I liked since I have a lot of varied movie tastes.

The best part of the MV wasn’t the involvement of movie references, though. It was the use of the girls as all of the characters. This includes having the group’s members play the roles of the guys, too. It made it cute but also comical in spots and kept a lighthearted feeling.

Overall, the MV works well with the lyrics since many girls take movies as their idea of what romance should be. That’s why many people praise movies which don’t put emphasis on relationships or the need to have a prince charming. Even for me, who grew up homeschooled for most of my life, I found that most of my idea of what I’d like for a relationship came from movies I watched (pottery scene from “Ghost” anyone? As long as my datemate doesn’t die right after, that is!). I fell in love with simple, cute romance rather than the sexual bits and expensive dinners. But even now i don’t quite understand what is love and sometimes wonder if I’m mistaking platonic feelings for romantic ones.

Lyrics Meaning

The lyrics are pretty straight-forward with this song. It’s a song about wanting to experience love and hoping it comes to you. I love how it takes up mention that girls may often turn to fiction to get the feeling of love. Most people associate the movie taste of women as being romantic movies and romcoms and anything other than action (disclaimer: some women like action movies, some like horror, some like all of the above. each person is different in their tastes). There isn’t much to dive into with the lyrics, but I think they do well of conveying the feelings many girls may feel (and even those who aren’t female may feel) when it comes to falling love.

Choreography

It’s really hard to actually see the choreography at this point because the MV has been out for one day, but I did my best with what I had. Girl group dances always look fun to me, like they’d be fun to learn even though I never will manage that.

From what I could see in the MV (AKA just the chorus part), the chorus of the song does use unison. There’s not much acting out on the part of the members nor anything to draw attention towards any one member. I looked at the dance practice for “TT” and the dance practice for “Likey” and both songs use unison a lot. So, I’d assume the choreography I’ve seen for “What is Love?” is right in line with what you’d expect for TWICE. Which can be really good, don’t get me wrong. I think it suits them well since there are so many members. Individualistic choreography could become overwhelming if every song has moves like that. I will note that “Likey” does have a moment where one member dances alone, but the others soon join to essentially repeat what she’d just done.

I’d listen to this song if I was…

I get in these moods where I just randomly crave love songs and want to daydream about my bias acknowledging my existence. I like to daydream alternate universes where they’d have a reason to even speak to me. This is a song I think would fit those moods well. It’s basically my daydreams.

(disclaimer: i will likely never meet my biases and i am trying to be at piece with that. it’s not easy.)

You might like this song if you like…

I’d say any cutesy song will really help keep the mood if you’re dancing to it, but then there’s also those who want to listen to it for the love elements.For cutesy stuff, I’d say “Chewing Gum” by NCT Dream. I, personally, prefer the Chinese Version of the song. Usually NCT Dream is my go-to for songs with the cute sound like you hear from TWICE. However, I usually like the Chinese versions better and their most recent music hasn’t been in that mold (I don’t really like the newer stuff, though. Oops.)

It should be no shock, but “Navillera” by GFRIEND. I will always recommend this song if given a chance because it’s really catchy, cute, great choreography, and also I read somewhere that they confirmed the lesbian relationship. It’s a great video and keeps the upbeat feeling you’d get from “What is Love?” while also sticking to the theme of romance.

Okay, I know it’s an old song, but you guys should know by now that I’m a huge GOT7 fan. I think the upbeat sound and light lyrics of “A” by GOT7 really could be put in with the playlist of “What is Love?” even though “A” is such an old song and GOT7 doesn’t really do songs like this one anymore. Sometimes it’s really good to look back at older songs for this.

“She” by TOPSECRET. Gosh, I wish they got more attention. Them and ROMEO both have a softer concept than groups like Stray Kids and Monsta X. In terms of “She,” the song has a catchy chorus that will have you dancing in the same way I think “What is Love?” will. If you do like “She” and think it fits in the playlist will, go ahead and add “Target” by ROMEO. It also has the catchy sound and upbeat music which will have you dancing along to it. (I could go on and on with underappreciated boygroups, like M.Fect, which has a few songs that could fit as well).

This next song is one I couldn’t even listen to for linking it. “Hello” by SHINee. For many fans of SHINee, I know it can be hard to listen to their music. I still haven’t listened to Jonghyun’s album... I can’t. However, I can’t deny that SHINee’s song “Hello” fits along with “What is Love?” The song and MV are both extremely pure. It fits perfectly and I think that fans of TWICE may like some of SHINee’s music and vice versa. However, I also acknowledge not everyone can listen to SHINee’s music anymore (me) simply because it still brings you pain.

[highqueen]

Hi!! Can you recommend your favorite accounts about Narnia?

Hey there! I have loads of favorite Narnia blogs (in fact I think basically all Narnia blogs are amazing) so it’s really hard to decide on just a few blogs to share with you. I’ve decided to talk about the blogs I’ve had the honor of getting to know/really admire, but know that I love all the Narnia blogs that I’m following! (And also there are so many blogs I love that I’m probably forgetting to mention but I can’t remember them right now oops.)

@lucypcvensie​ ➤ Not only is Eysha’s blog full of wonderful Narnia content, she’s such a sweet and caring person. She’s super fun to talk to and is a great encourager. I love the edits she makes, especially her moodboards, and the posts she reblogs often make their way to my queue.

@nylonsandlipstick​ @tumnusses​ @spookysusan​  ➤ I’ve put these three people together because I consider them the “Golden Trio” of the Tumblr Narnia fandom. Nina, Isa, and Lala all make beautiful edits and gifs and have so much skill in making such pretty things! They’re all nice and friendly people and are really good at explaining their own opinions in a polite yet firm way.

@rhindons​ ➤ Niki has so many wonderful Narnia gifs and she also does this really creative Narnia cooking project that I haven’t seen anyone do before. She also posts some cute and funny non-Narnia content, but no matter what she posts, I enjoy seeing it on my dash!

@sheisthehighqueen​ ➤ Though Lydia’s been pretty busy these past few months, I definitely recommend following her blog! She somehow can find the time to make some really gorgeous Narnia/PJO crossover edits. Honestly all her edits are beautiful.

@scarletgalaxy​ ➤ Jas’ blog is amazing. She makes all types of Narnia content, from edits to gifts to crossovers, all of which are beautiful and well crafted. Her blog also includes a few other fandoms, but the main one is Narnia. Jas is a great person to talk to and she explains things very well.

@highqueenlucy​ ➤ Mainly Narnia, but involving a few other fandoms, Clarice’s blog and edits are stunning. She has some really beautiful gifsets that look like they took forever to make. She’s a wonderful person, always friendly and patient.

@pensivethejust​ ➤ Lloyd has a roleplay blog where his muse is Edmund Pevensie. Not only are his posts interesting to read, he’s a great person to interact with. Besides the roleplaying, he reblogs lots of Narnia content. When I feel the need to reblog some Edmund stuff, Lloyd’s blog is one of the first ones I go to.

@queeensusan​ ➤ Priscilla is a blessing to the Narnia fandom. Her gifsets are beautiful, especially the coloring, and I am constantly in awe whenever she posts new content. I haven’t really talked to her myself, but she seems like a really good person!

@istillliveinnarnia​ ➤ I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Jessie is so creative and talented. She’s the only person I know who does cosplay, and has come up with cool crossovers I’ve never thought of before. Her Narnia edits are really pretty and should be liked and reblogged all the time!

@fyeahnarnians​ ➤ Reblogging various Narnia content including icons, gifs, text posts, and more, Mo’s blog is full of amazing posts. I often find edits or other Narnia things that I haven’t seen before. Her edits are gorgeous!

@bythelamppost​ ➤ This Narnia sideblog is very lovely. Polly reblogs great content that I love seeing on my dashboard. She also brings up really good points and ideas in discussions relating to Narnia (and other topics) and states them in a respectful way, even if she disagrees with people.

@coravis​ ➤ Aimee owns a beautiful blog, from the theme to the edits. She creates pretty typography edits, black and white edits, and beautiful moodboards. It’s always great to see her posts on my dash.

@jillpcle​ ➤ Molly’s blog is gorgeous and is definitely worth following. She posts a little of other fandoms  too, but no matter what is posted, it’s very beautiful. Her Narnia gifsets are beautiful and all the gifs are so pretty, I can’t imagine the time it takes to make everything.

@cairparavel ➤ No matter what Caspian posts, may it be edits, gifs, or personal text posts, I love seeing them on my dash. Cas is funny and kind and it’s great following this blog!

@passeurdaurore ➤ This blog seems to somehow make and post lots of beautiful gifsets and edits constantly. Wenn seems like a lovely person and I hope to talk to her in the future!

@queensusan ➤ One of many talents, Wind not only makes edits, she also writes. Her posts are always welcome on my dash and I often add her edits to my queue because they’re all so pretty!

@digorykirke ➤ Meredith’s blog is amazing and reblogs lots of fantastic Narnia content. She seems so nice and encouraging. Her gifsets are all really cool and creative, I especially love the TV tropes series that she did.

@edmundblake ➤ Vanessa is so talented, she makes tons stunning black and white gifs and graphics. She reblogs lots of Narnia content that all look really nice. She definitely is someone to follow!

@dailynarnia ➤ A super amazing Narnia blog run by multiple people, this blog reblogs amazing Narnia content multiple times a day. They’re from all different people so it’s a great place to look for other Narnia blogs to follow!

@caspiandefensenet @pevensienet @ladiesofnarnia @narniaincolor ➤ I’m totally not recommending these because I’m part of some of them. I know these blogs are networks but they’re all really amazing. Not only do they post really nice content, the members are all really talented and can make beautiful edits. Follow all of them!

[cryptidallycat]

Ailea-lala tagged me @ailea Rules: Answer the questions in a new post and tag 20 blogs you would like to get to know better. Nickname: Ally.. people have been calling me captain on Instagram since my name change and I'm living for it honestly
Star sign: cancer CRAF
Height: between 6'1" 6'2" so about 185 cm
Time right now: 12:30 am
Last thing googled: how make ender chest minecraft
Favorite Music/Artists: Kesha I'm excited for her come back. Fall out boy, panic at the disco, sleeping at last, death cab for cutie.
Last Movie Watched: I cannot remember omg
Last TV show watched: I don't watch a lot of tv I watch a lot of stuff on YouTube mostly. Brooklyn 99 probably I watched it with my sis on Hulu.
What are you wearing right now: grey shirt with black leggings
When did you create your blog: GOOD QUESTION I wanna say like 2010-2011
What kind of stuff do you post: I reblog stuff usually. Marvel, dc, art inspo, etc. I don't really post my art on here anymore because it's hard getting your stuff noticed when you're a traditional artist on here so I mostly post my art on Instagram now
Do you have any other blogs: i have two other blogs. One is my art blog where it's just my art reblogged there and the other is an oc aesthetic blog 
Do you get asks regularly: absolutely not haha
Why did you choose your URL: i wanted to switch from my allycatchan username cause it didn't suit me anymore. I wasn't that big into anime and was moving onto other interests. Captainallycat was originally what I wanted but that user was already taken so I went with ohcaptainmyallycat cause it's basically the user I wanted coupled with a quote from dead poets society which I adore.
Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff! I'm a very good finder
Pokemon team: Mystic
Favourite color: Blue
Average Hours of Sleep: Like 7-8 hours
Lucky Number: 4
Favourite CHARACTER(s): my own. I have a lot, but the ones I reboot instantly are always, Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson, dick Grayson, any of the robins really, Wonder Woman, tchalla.
Dream job: making some sort of queer comic or story idk.
Following: 264 I'll only tag a couple, don't feel obligated to do it @bicerinn @missedmartian @awkwardbirds