#id promise to post more but we all know how that goes…

[arsenic-for-tea]

to help myself get back into digital art i decided to redesign the cover of my favorite book in the murder most unladylike series—Mistletoe and Murder by Robin Stevens/@redbreastedbird—in the style of an Agatha Christie novel

reference images ⬇️

[harrysgal]

I DIG YOUR CINEMA (2)

harry styles x yn aspiring filmmaker — social media AU

I know I’m just starting and don’t actually have much experience with this, but I’m actually having a lot of fun doing it and already can’t wait to post more.

About the smau: yn starts posting videos on youtube and is trying to build a career as a filmmaker. Things are going pretty well for her and she starts getting more attention when she creates content about shows she goes to. She’s also a fan of Harry’s music and some of his fans start getting suspicious when his team starts interacting with her.

About yn: although the character does not have a faceclaim, pictures suggest reader is white.

Disclaimer: The story it’s set in 2021 and it will follow their relationship through the LOT leg in the US. Since this is nothing but fiction, I will be following some of the real timeline but also adding my own stuff. On top of that, I won’t be basing myself on Harry’s actual posts.

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PART 1 — MEET YN / MASTERLIST

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I DIG YOUR CINEMA (PART 2) — LAS VEGAS

liked by bestfriend, yourmom, mollyjane_x and 22,108 others 

yourinstagram HELLOOOOOOO FABULOUS LAS VEGAS NEVADA 

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user1 soooo… a new full time job that took you to las vegas? 👀 yourbrother Please behave  bestfriend don’t get (too) drunk without me pls harryfan STOP FIRST LOT SHOW IT’S IN VEGAS 

↳ harryfan2 She’s going to the show right???? I mean it can’t be just a coincidence anymore IT JUST CAN’T ↳ harryfan NO I KNOW THIS IS IT I CAN FEEL IT IN MY BONES

Aug 26, 2021 •

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liked by bestfriend, cuteguy, mollyjane_x and 22,451 others 

yourinstagram you’d think a lady in vegas would be out there getting wild but this one actually has been locked in her hotel room for the last 27 hours overthinking her ideas and freaking out about this new job lol if any of you could send me a pizza or something id appreciate it. thanks. 

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user1 nooooo you’re so talented whatever it is i know you can do it!! bestfriend yn ✋🏻  cuteguy Should I give you a call? 😊 harryfan17 I would too be freaking out if I had to work for THE harry styles lol

↳ harryfan16 we still don’t know if she is tho  ↳ harryfan17 C’mon she’s in vegas and molly and jeff are following her ↳ harryfan16 still 🤷🏻‍♀️ tour doesn’t start for another few days so this could be just about something else  ↳ harryfan16 also maybe she’s there because she wants to be and not bc she’s “working” for him. she’s done videos about several artists and she isn’t working for any of them is she?  ↳ harryfan17 Well yes but she literally just said she was starting a new job so 🤷‍♀️ ↳ harryfan16 so everyone just assumed HARRY, out of all people, hired her? c’mon guys lol she could be working for just anyone and STILL go to a show. one doesn’t have to be related to the other.

Aug 28, 2021 •

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liked by anthonypham, bestfriend, lookitsnyoh and 25,103 others 

yourinstagram fun fact: if you post something on the internet people around you might see it 🫠

guess im lucky this lovely group who still don’t know me at all cared enough to drag me out of my room and show me around the city. sometimes i get so caught up inside my mind that i forget how important human connection is — which is funny if you think most of my videos are exactly about that lol. so plssssss make sure to surround yourself with (nice) people. also get some sleep, drink water and feed yourself. it’ll do wonderful things for you!!!

anyway my mom was worried about my “not leaving the room post” so this is just me saying everythings good!! (i also already called her of course <3)

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bestfriend LOVE YOU harryfan the new followers the new likes 😭 it’s happening i knew it  user1 so true bestie!! this reminded me of your 2nd video i think

↳ yourinstagram omg yesssss!!  ↳ user1 ahh i missed your interactions <3  ↳ yourinstagram i knowww! promise i’ll try my best to keep interacting even if it’s not as much as before 💗

lookitsnyoh my belly still hurts from all the laughing 

↳ yourinstagram and my mind is still rushing from all the talking ↳ anthonypham go to sleep you two 

harryfan9 I DON’T KNOW WHAT’S HAPPENING BUT OMFG I’M SO HERE FOR IT

Aug 29, 2021 •

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liked by anthonypham, mollyjane_x, bestfriend and 27,257 others 

yourinstagram sightseeing left me speechless. but here’s a picture from tonight. 

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user1 omg you’re feeding us this week! i’m so happy you’re being active again <3 harryfan78 POST A PICTURE OF YOURSELF I WANT TO MEET YOU AT THE SHOW BUT I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU LOOK LIKE 

↳ user4 calm down pls? we like to behave as respectful human beings on this profile

bestfriend ❤️❤️❤️ bestfriend i’m losing my mind but i’m also so excited and proud! user7 I miss your videos :( lookitsnyoh when was this? where was I? bummed that I missed it!

↳ yourinstagram sorryyy just a last minute decision after dinner :( ↳ lookitsnyoh ohhhh makes sense now! Glad it left you speechless ↳ yourinstagram i mean the city is beautiful  ↳ lookitsnyoh sure thing it is 👽

Sep 1, 2021 •

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liked by harryfan, harryfan2 and 15,157 others 

fanwhometharry GUYS I JUST MET HARRY I’M SHAKKNG I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MY LIFE NOW 

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harryfan64 omg where did you meet him??

↳ fanwhometharry AT THE BELLAGIO  ↳ harryfan64 is he staying there???  ↳ fanwhometharry NO!! I MEAN IDK?? I DONT RHINK SO I JUST MET HIM OUTSIDE AT THE FOUNTAINS  ↳ harryfan74 hmm not tryin to be rude or something but that sounds like a weird place for him to be tbh ↳ fanwhometharry I FUCKKNG KNOW THAT?? I MEAN MY PARENTS WANTED TO SEE THE WATER SHOW SO I TAGGED ALONG BUT NEVER EVER THOUGHT ID BUMP INTO HIM THERE

harryfan62 you’re so lucky!! was he alone???

↳ imetharry I DONT KNOW?? I DONT REMEMBER I WAS SO NERVOUS  ↳ imetharry I KNOW THERE WAS A GIRL NEARBY BC SHE HANDED HIM A PEN WHEN I COULDNT FIND MINE BUT I DONT KNOW IF SHE WAS WITH HJIM OR NOT ↳ harryfan62 who was this girl? Anyone from the LOT crew? ↳ imetharry IDK I JUST SAID I DONT EVEN KNOW IF SHE WAS WITH HIM OR NOT 😭

harryfan15 Hi hun! Don’t listen to people, they're just jealous. It was really sweet of him to sign that for you! Hope you have a great time at the show 💕

↳ imetharry THANK YOU 😭😭 HE WAS THERE JUST WATCHING LIKE A NORMAL PERSON SO I DIDN’T WANT TO TAKE A PIC IF PEOPLE DON’T BELIEVE ME THEN I DON’T CARE I KNOW IT’S REAL 😭😭

Sep 1, 2021 •

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liked by gemmastyles, anthonypham, jefezoff and 35,109 others 

yourinstagram having to keep this secret from the world was the most cruelest thing that anyone has ever done to me. but whatever… it’s fine… i’m okay… i’m just gonna pretend this wasn’t a big deal and i didn’t just watch one of my favorite artists perform my favorite songs… and then i’ll just casually say: pls stay tuned for next wednesday when my new video will be up 😇

(i’ll be back and share more details once my serotonin levels have normalized again)

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bestfriend i love you so much thank you for representing us so well  harryfan I KNEW IT I KNEW IT I KNEW IT OMFG I CANT WAIT I KNEW IT harryfan2 YN KASDHUHHD PLS OMFG YOU CAN’T JUST SAY THIS AND LEAVE user1 😲 i can’t wait for this one! harrystyles soz 

↳ harryfan OMFG HARRY ↳ harryfan5 ?????????????????????????? ↳ harryfan3 AUIDHIAUSHDBAJH WTF ↳ harryfan9 ARE YOU F KIDDING ME WHATS HE DOING HERE

cuteguy Nice! Glad you’re having a good time darling. 

Sep 4, 2021 •

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PART 3: DENVER

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If you happen to read and enjoy this, pls let me know? 🙏 thanks!! it would be nice to know if this is working, or what else would people would like to see.

[beemovieerotica]

learned about a new scam yesterday in northeast US....so "mpower energy" is one of several companies ("green choice energy" is another i've heard) that goes door to door on the east coast here promising exclusively clean/sustainable energy for your home.

and they make it sound like they're affiliated with your local gas/electric utility and say things like "oh, BGE [baltimore energy] was supposed to let y'all know that we were coming out" (these people are private startups. BGE, ConEd, etc absolutely will not announce when they will be knocking on your door).

they make you show them your electric / gas bill, they copy down your ID number, and rope you into a contract where you're basically voting with your wallet at extremely high rates (through them) to push your utility provider to purchase more of its electrical supply from clean sources

^ this isn't communicated at all, it's deceptively pitched, and for people who don't totally understand how the power grid works, it is not possible for your provider to selectively send "only clean energy" to your address, and not your neighbors, or the rest of the city...but this is what they say 💀

nudging your provider toward purchasing more clean energy sounds nice in theory, but:

1) good fucking god these companies will rip you off and keep the profits for their CEO. there are posts on reddit of people saying that once the grace period of lower rates ends, they see 3 times their typical electric bill costs.

2) we already get a good chunk of our power from nuclear energy and afaik these companies are exclusively all about solar/wind which are still insanely expensive and not yet optimized to provide for entire cities out here.

3) call me a government shill but i trust my utility provider to negotiate optimal rates and contracts with their energy sources more than i trust a fast-talking 21-year old who has been allotted approximately 60 seconds to sell me on a concept of green energy that does not actually exist(???)

like can anyone verify if mpower energy or green choice energy actually themselves own land & renewables that are currently generating electricity, or are they COMPLETELY middlemen, who have been tasked with doing financial fuckery on people's power bills and reaping a cut for infinitesimally making your utility use more clean energy? (@powermonger do you know anything about this?)

[burningcheese-merchant]

2 QUESTIONS.

2: short stories WHEN!? -nf

3: any more facts about them? id love to hear more about these blorbos

Short stories soon! I have several in mind already, I just want to post a few more Spice/Golden-centric ones before them. We gotta continue along Spice's accidental redemption lol. But there will be stories, I promise

Don't want to spoil everything immediately (that's for when I post the official character sheets lol), so eat these bits of trivia about both of them:

Pepper Jack:

While he's not outright claustrophobic, he does still get kind of anxious/wary in small or enclosed spaces. Rule of thumb for him is that he needs whatever room he's in to have at least one door, or one window that he can fly through (the window is more important tbh. He just... needs some sort of view of the sky). Have that and he's all good

He has a HUGE sweet tooth. He goes nuts over candy and cake and chocolate and all those things. (The best part of Aunt Hollyberry's visits is that she always bring him and his sister sweets from her kingdom. He loves Hollyberrian desserts, they sure know how to make them over there!)

He loves flying with all of his heart. Up in the air is where he feels the most free and at peace. He'll go on long solo flights when he wants to be alone or clear his head, as no one can reach him up in the clouds (besides his mom, but she tries to respect his need for space when it shows itself)

He also likes to sit/perch atop trees and just watch the world go by (he has a few "bird" habits, as you can see lol)

BONUS TO THE ABOVE: A game he likes to play with his father (and his sister, too, after she's born) is flying up and hiding in the treetops while they try to spot him from down on the ground within a certain time frame. No jumping up or climbing the trees or shaking them so he falls out, that's cheating! (Mom doesn't usually play because it's inherently unfair. She can fly just like he can, thus she'd find him instantly)

Matar Paneer:

She is OBSESSED with getting tattoos. She was drawn to her father's almost literally from the moment she opened her eyes and they registered in her mind. Whenever he held her as a baby, she'd try to reach for them and grab at them (and at the Light of Destruction, too. She was, like... hypnotized by the Soul Jam as a baby). Every single time her birthday rolls around, she tells people she wants tattoos just like her papa (the answer is "no, you're too young" for most of her life. She gets Very Big Mad every time). She's been caught drawing and painting on herself multiple times, trying to make her own (Golden scolded her if she got her clothes dirty, but otherwise, she and Spice just thought it was adorable). She WILL get her tattoos someday, there's no doubt about that. (But what they'll look like remains to be seen...)

She loves all of her "extended family" (all of her parents' friends lol), but her #1 favorite person is Mozzarella. She and Auntie Mozzarella are two peas in a pod, partners in crime. The same way Smoked Cheese mentors and indulges Pepper Jack, Mozzarella mentors and indulges Matar Paneer. When she feels like she's struggling, and like she can't turn to her brother or her parents, she goes straight to Mozzarella for comfort and advice

Her katar were gifts from Cilantro Cobra (who is alive and well in my canon don't @ me). They were a labor of love from her and the other cobras, crafted and sharpened with the utmost care and precision. She even went the extra mile and had symbols carved into them: Golden Cheese Kingdom hieroglyphs in one, Wild Spice symbols and patterns in the other. They are some of Paneer's most prized possessions

She's very particular and fussy about her hair, and would prefer that nobody touches it lol. Her dad is the only one with 100% free reign, as they have literally the exact same hair, color and texture and everything; the only difference is hers is somewhat shorter and she wears it in a low ponytail. She thinks he's the only one who "understands" her hair lol.

BONUS TO ABOVE: She and Spice have a cute little daddy/daughter bonding thing where they'll brush each other's hair. He does hers first, then he lets her do his next. He has to sit on the floor and hunch over/bow his head so she can reach properly because she's so much smaller than him, but he doesn't mind. She babbles at him about random things while she works and tries extra hard to do a good job, and it just melts his manly man heart lol

[valerieve]

I present to you, Yuko Tsushima and how I imagine she would look in the BunAl universe. Yeah, this was supposed to be posted on her birthday but I have terrible time management issues so here we are. I was really fascinated by @thedarkone121 Yuko's design and I wanted to expand on it. So here is my design of her.

Fun fact her skirt has morse code which can be translated to 'Laughing Wolf'. Extra information under cut! Long post.

Character Stats

State of Mind = Normal Attack = 126 / 296 Defense = 125 / 295 Evasion = 18 / 126 Technique = 47 / 327 Talent = 52 /332 Aesthetics = 43 / 323 Theme = 50 / 330 Realism = 49 / 329

Profile

 Happiness can spoil people, while unhappy people are given a chance to discover true human nature.

A young woman who beams with self-confidence while being enshrouded is a layer emotional of mystery. No one seems to be able to tell what she is feeling besides her father on rare occasions. She seems to have a rather unconventional relationship with her father and is more logical than her father. She spends most of her time looking at clouds while thinking for her new book. She tries to be open minded but when people downplay her achievements she can be quite defensive.

Game Info:

Rarity = Sliver Weapon = Bow (Reason given at the end.)

Library Info:

ID Number = 79 (Yes, she got Tolstoy's id and now everyone goes one step down.) Famous works = Child of fortune, Territory of light, Laughing wolf Literary Faction = None Literary Genre = Pure Literature (Naturalism)

Misc Info:

Birth Date = March 30, 1947 Death Date = February 18, 2016 Height = 178 cm (I thought it would be funny if she was taller than Dazai) Likes = People praising her achievements and looking at clouds .

Extra stuff: I feel like she would be much more mature than her father. She is very understanding and open minded. She and Hirotsu Kazuo are friends (Since you know, being over shadowed by their father's work and all that.) Dazai, Oda, Ango, Dan and Ibuse all call her Koko-chan as a nickname. I also wrote a fan fiction on her I will post it is I don't get lazy, no promises. Also I forgot to type this but she gets summoned in my AU right after Shiga does.

Left = Stamps Right = Hair down design

I gave up colouring this one and also the paper gave up on me. I decided to change the Haori colour to blue and got too lazy to fix this one. Her ring will transform her from a Bow type writer into a Blade type writer. I made a bow her main reason because of this:

Hey Dazai (@memories-of-a-shadow) your daughter got reincarnated. You can ask question about her and I will answer in character in the comments. If you have any headcannons you can also comment it. (I am 90% sure no one will comment anyway so ehh...)

Follow up post : Here

[mortalitasi-nevarra-lore]

Mortalitasi Lore by Sylvia Feketekuty

Collected by @felassan in [Post One, Post Two, Post Three, Post Four, Post Five, Post Six] I read, copy/pasted, categorized, formatted, light edits:

Fraternities: what are some of the other fraternities of the Mortalitasi?

Sylvia:I’m afraid I’ve deliberately left this one blank, for future people to fill in if/when the need arises. Emmrich complains about the palace necromancers, so we do know there’s a special cadre of mortalitasi running the show over there.” [source]

Marriage & Children: “[Emmrich] mentions he thought he would marry - is that permitted for Mortalitasi when it wasn’t for regular Circle mages? Can they now raise their own children?”

Sylvia: Mortalitasi have a lot of power. I imagine the Nevarran Chantry might grant them permission to marry outside the Circle more regularly than in places where mages are given less respect. (Mages can also marry within Circles, so no permission needed in those cases.) The same might be true for mages raising mage-born children in Nevarra, but I say that with less certainty. I think that’s a topic I would’ve wanted to discuss with the rest of the narrative team.“ [source, two]

Mage Circles: “Do mages in Grand Necropolis learn in Circles?”

Sylvia: Admittedly, I never defined the Mourn Watch’s Circle status in game. It could be a sanctioned fraternity that takes in promising mages and trains them for the Necropolis, but isn’t technically a Circle itself, even if it oversees harrowings. (There’s a bit of banter from a Necropolis NPC on that.) This would explain why there’s non-mages around with full MW membership, like how your Rook can be a MW warrior or rogue. So I’m inclined to think this is the case. (But until it’s ever in a DA game or piece of media, I wouldn’t consider that 100% canon. It’s just my own thoughts.) [source, two]

Harrowing: "Do Mourn Watchers undergo a Harrowing?"

Sylvia: "They do! You may've missed it but there's a MWer in the Necropolis who mentions MW Harrowings if you go by them. (The MW has had to suspend theirs because chaos in the Fade.) But that's a temporary suspension, probably resolved by the time the credits roll. In general: I figure that if you're a mage who underwent a harrowing in some other circle, that stands, but that the MW would also perform harrowings for students they took in early." [source, two]

Nevarra Templars: “I enjoyed Emmrich’s addendum to the codex about Templars in Nevarra: are they primarily there as backup if something goes profoundly wrong?”

Sylvia: “That was my own take. You don’t NOT want Templars, in case some ritual gets disrupted in an utterly disastrous fashion. But other times…the Mortalitasi flex their clout." [source]

Mourn Watch Templars: “Would they ever get someone who just wants to help down in the Necropolis, pretty please?”

Sylvia: “Some Watchers might not be immune to flattery. I think a few templars could be all right under some circumstances, but that they’d be assigned a mage. (A bit of a reverse of the southern mage-templar pairs.) [source]

Non-Mages: “me + a handful of people were wondering about non-mage mourn watchers! id love to hear your notes/thoughts about them! b/c i didnt remember hearing how they become MW or if reaper uses death magic!”

Sylvia: “Sure! Not much to say, though, I think the MW is likely a mage majority fraternity that accepts a few non-mages who have exceptional skills and temperaments sympathetic to the Necropolis. A warrior of great renown, a rogue of exceptional stealth and quiet, a baby found down there in a grave, and so forth. They’d certainly undergo the same kind of oaths and bindings every Watcher goes through. I always pictured them being provided with the best enchanted gear the MW has to offer too.” [source, two]

Exchange Students: "Are Tevinter exchange students like Dorian common?"

Sylvia: “Yeah, I think they’re not uncommon. I took my inspiration from The Grand Tour, and thought it would make sense if Tevinter sent out some of the wealthier scions to see the world a little, pick up a few new spells. [link] [source]

Tevinter Rivalry: “Is there a rivalry with the Tevinter Imperium?”

Sylvia: I can’t really point to anything in the game talking about that, so I hesitate to call it canon. But to my mind it would be very natural and also very funny. So if that ever manifests, I approve.“ [source]

[redbone135]

Heyyy, Red!!! I have a writing question. How do you revamp scenes that aren’t transitioning well? My current WIP is SO choppy and I don’t know what to do! If you have any writer/English teacher advice to give id be ever so grateful😭🙏🏻

Oh boy, are you ready for a writing info dump?

So, when writing a piece that is transitioning with scenes instead of chapters, there are a lot of steps that go into it. You are probably already doing a lot of these steps instinctively, but if it feels choppy, one of these steps is usually off: 1. A scene is lacking purpose 2. A scene has not completed its purpose 3. A scene is in the wrong place 4. You need stronger transition sentences.

So the first part is the hardest. Every scene must have a purpose for existing. "It's just fun and fluffy," you might say, but even fluff serves a greater point when creating a finished piece of writing. Below is an example from the chapter I'm currently working on, I've got what happens in plain text - so you can see how random and fluffy it sounds - and then in parenthesis below, the literary purpose of its inclusion. (For an alternative tone, replace the word fluff in my advice with angst/whump)

Scene 1: Main Character and a friend are helping each other get ready for a Rehearsal Dinner (This scene establishes the relationship and personalities of these two characters in an exposition format. Later in the story, the friend will die, and so by adding a scene of her interacting with characters now, it will make their grief feel more authentic later) Scene 2: Main Character has a romantic moment with his love interest, makes her a promise that the wedding tomorrow will go smoothly (Establishes the main conflict of this piece - the promise serves as our motivation, everything challenging it will then be considered rising action) Scene 3 - 8: Shenanigans ensue. The bride's father is late to the wedding. The priest goes missing. One of the bridesmaids breaks up with her boyfriend. A wild animal gets loose in the church. The groom gets cold feet and leaves. Shenanigans are also solved at the end of each respective scene. (This is my rising action - each scene serves to make the problem of keeping his promise more difficult. It shows that at several points along the way the character could quit, but builds both his arc and the emotional stakes of the story when he does not). Scene 9: Character A shares a dance with his love interest at the end of a successful wedding (Provides an explanation for how the characters and their relationship has grown after this experience.) Scene 10: A fluffy scene where Character A and his love interest discuss their relationships future and commit to avoiding issues through honesty (Resolution of the story, sets goals for upcoming chapters, and provides the key to resolving future conflicts.)

The good news is, once you have the first part done, the second part becomes easy. Did it complete its purpose? Did you end on a sentence that really highlights why the scene is there? If it's establishing a relationship, how can you make sure the audience got that? If it's creating a conflict, how are you underscoring the consequences of letting this conflict go unresolved? If it's resolving a conflict, how have you made sure this issue is dealt with and not going to bother anyone again later? If it's providing resolution to a piece's theme, how can you point out that theme one last time through reflection or looking to the future?

Once you've made sure all scenes are complete, they are serving the purpose you meant them to, you've met all their goals, you have to ask, is it in the right place? You'll notice my example above maps onto the plot diagram: exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution. We tend to think of our stories linearly - remember my post it note advice? - but that doesn't always make for a smooth flow when writing it out. So, the next thing is to match the scene's purpose to it's place - if it's purpose is to provide exposition, it probably belongs earlier in the plot, if it's resolving conflicts, you want it closer to the end. You can achieve this through turning things into flashbacks or cutting out time relevant details in order to move things around.

Lastly, once everything is doing what it should and in the correct place, you want to make sure each new scene starts with a small tie-in to the old scene. This can be a sentence relating to time, it can be a bit of a joke by maybe contradicting how the last scene ended, it can be repetition of an important line, just to name a few. Nothing gets rid of a choppy feeling like a smooth transition in your opening sentence. Good news, this is normally the problem and it's definitely the easiest to solve.

Obviously, writing is super subjective, so if this advice doesn't work for you, feel free to throw it out. But hopefully it helps with the writers block a little? And as always, I love asks, so feel free to follow up if something was unclear or if you have a more specific question!

[sweetpea-sprite]

magical classism/fantasy politics: the megapost

[ID: a screenshot of cassiopeia casting the manna in ni no kuni: wrath of the white witch. overlaid on top of the image is impact font text which reads “this will affect the / engineering industry i think”. end ID]

good evening everyone. i’m ruby sweetpea-sprite. i’m so fucking normal about ni no kuni’s fake politics. i refuse to be the only one so here i am creating a megapost about every little piece of lore about it so that others can join me. if you’re new here: um. welcome. kublai was a diversity hire. more on that later!

for a summary: non-magical people have been oppressed since nazcaa fell, due to sages being in power and refusing to let them develop their own technology, as they “believe it to be against the gods” (and want to keep their societal power). this, ultimately, culminated into a large reason why lucien became shadar and banned magic. the goal of this post is to compile evidence for these events like some kind of fictional history lesson. it is a long fucking post.

this post will be in sections because it’s a long fucking post. recommended reading before we start, though i will be including quotes so you don’t gotta (though tbh you should read the tales of wonder anyway. for fun): the tenth tale of wonder, the flying machine.

have fun!

part one: the wizard’s companion

this first section is going to be the longest section because there’s so much shit in this fucking book dude. okay. don’t expect all of these sections to be this long the wizard’s companion is just fucked up

if you’ve just come back from reading that tale of wonder. hi! how was it. do you believe me yet

if you did not read the tale of wonder: just so you know, the wizard’s companion is bigoted.

i want to preface this section with this is not horace’s fault i promise. almost certainly, the wizard’s companion has been updated over the ten thousand years since it was written, and nazcaa has various attributes that mean there is no way anyone from there wrote this stuff (more on this later) - even excluding the fact that, you know. we actually have a timeframe for the tenth tale of wonder taking place (as the drawings the man sees are implied to be leonardo da vinci’s flying machine sketches) and it is decidedly not nazcaan times.

whoever the sages were who updated the wizard’s companion, however. well they weren’t great. to summarise: they wanted to keep their place in society and keep it WELL, by suppressing all knowledge of technology ever.

let’s start with the tale of wonder. the tenth tale of wonder, the flying machine, is about a man who goes to ichi no kuni (oliver’s world, for those who don’t know) and discovers sketches of a flying machine done by a painter. he then traces those sketches and brings them back to build the contraption - however, he is stopped by a sage. the entire tale is like this, understand, which is why i recommend reading it, but here are some choice quotes, from pages 300-302 of the companion:

“Using a machine to achieve something that should only be achieved using magic is akin to poisoning this world. “Poison!? Why is it like poison?” “Magic may only be used by those who possess a pure heart and who have undergone the proper training. Wizards borrow some of nature’s power and use it to humans’ benefit. Only those with a pure heart, one uncorrupted by evil, are able to do this. Using machines to triumph over nature is not the behavior of the pure-hearted.” Now, what the sage meant was that anyone could use a machine to manipulate nature--even the untrained and the evil. Machines gave ordinary humans powers that only gods and wizards should have.

“Esteemed Sage, wasn’t magic originally intended to make our lives easier? If machines achieve the same effect, why shouldn’t we use them?” “Because machines can be used by the wrong people, for the wrong reasons,” replied the sage impatiently. But the young wizard was undeterred. “I have been to the other world, and I know how things work there. They have people called ‘scientists’--they are the ones who make the machines--and they work miracles! They are capable of mixing iron with other rare metals to create things called ‘alloys’ which are strong enough to plough even the rockiest of soil. You cannot deny that farmers’ lives are much easier as a result! “Surely you do not believe that all ‘scientists’ seek to improve people’s lives?” the sage snapped back. “Do you not think, perhaps, that some of them wish to use their machines to control people--to bend them to their will?” The young wizard was speechless for a moment, but he soon found his tongue again. “Couldn’t the same be said for magic? Aren’t there some people who seek to use magic to increase their own influence?”

so you can see where i’m coming from.

the comparisons to poison. putting wizards on the same level as gods. stating that only those with a pure heart are able to use magic (blatantly untrue). magic as a sacred thing that cannot be defiled. “Do you not think, perhaps, that some of them wish to use their machines to control people--to bend them to their will?” the sage says, while clearly controlling what non-wizards do with their resources. this tale is directly written on the side of the sage; at the end, when the young man finally builds a cloud sweeper, the final paragraphs say this:

Indeed, he was too captivated by the scenery to spare a thought for the effect his new magical machine would have on the world. Had he known what impact it would have, you can be sure he would not have been quite so elated!

what impact?? there’s no impact i can find. cloud sweepers just exist. they help non-wizards travel. the only impact it could possibly be referencing is perhaps the start of people making more technology, inspired by this guy’s cloud sweepers. which, yeah. i guess the wizard’s companion would be upset about that.

technology, and wizards shunning it, is a large part of the wizard’s companion. this tale is the most egregious example, but there are more areas if you know where to look. we’ll come back to the tale of wonder in a moment, but for now, on the topic of cloud sweepers and how much the sages hate them, take a look at the first means of transportation section - page 129.

Non-wizards have long been forced to rely on vehicles to carry them to their destinations. This section aims to introduce some of the more common modes of transportation currently in use. All wizards are advised to read the information contained herein, for one cannot predict when circumstance--nixing, dismemberment, or wand loss, to name but three--might necessitate the use of such infernal contraptions as those here described.

note the PHRASING. non-wizards are forced to rely on vehicles. dismemberment as one of the circumstances, like you’d have to lose an arm to even consider this. and the most damning - “infernal” contraptions. they fucking hate these things

after that introductory paragraph, it does not get better: it goes on to describe cloud sweepers, in a rather bitter tone:

Wizards, of course, do not require magical assistance to fly through the air. Indeed, in times gone by, wizards would not have countenanced travel by any means other than broom. Alas, the age has changed, and now young wizards insist on using half-magical, half-mechanical contraptions known as “Cloud Sweepers.” Cloud Sweepers require only the merest dash of magic to get them off the ground, meaning that inexperienced magic users--and even non-wizards!--are able to ride them with gay abandon.

and even non-wizards! it says, with shock and horror. dear god... who let the non-wizards travel quickly and safely. this is going against the laws of nature

outside of cloud sweepers, in the second means of transportation section, this continues. with... boats. BOATS. THEY MAKE FUN OF NON-WIZARDS USING BOATS!!! PAGE 147:

Non-wizards rely upon ships to carry them across the world’s oceans. Indeed, many dream of owning their own vessels, imagining the “freedom” this would offer them.

freedom is IN QUOTES. THEY’RE MAKING FUN OF YOU FOR YOUR LITTLE BOAT RIDES!!! in all seriousness, these authors genuinely view non-wizards as inferior. they believe they will never have true freedom; always confined to the vehicles they’re allowed to make, the restrictions on which are defined BY THE SAGES. it’s kind of ridiculous.

obviously, all of this is awful. in the tale of wonder quotes i showed earlier, you can see a sage demanding that a non-wizard get rid of all of his sketches of technology. we can likely assume this was common practice back then, that sages simply had the power to do such a thing - or maybe this man was more dedicated than the rest (he had to be to actually build a da vinci flying machine when da vinci was still alive...) and they decided they had to put an end to it.

however, this kept happening. the tale continues on to say that other people, too, went to ichi no kuni and came back with stories of machines they saw there. how did they go, you might ask me. non-wizards can’t cast gateway.

there was a tunnel between worlds.

THE SAGES SEALED THE TUNNEL BETWEEN WORLDS TO KEEP PEOPLE FROM BRINGING BACK TECHNOLOGY THAT WOULD HELP THEM.

PAGE 302:

The sages realized that something must be done, because technology from the other world was threatening to ruin the balance of their own. They decided to seal the tunnel to the other world, to ensure that the place of magic within society was never threatened again. Now, visiting the other world was not completely forbidden--why, powerful wizards could still cast the spell known as “Gateway” and travel to the other world any time they pleased!

seriously they sealed the tunnel between worlds, knowing that only they would be able to access ichi no kuni. this is a fake world with fake politics and i’m pissed off about this. they wanted non-wizards to have as little power as possible.

this is, unfortunately, not the end of this section. there is one more very large thing about the wizard’s companion and this topic, that i’ve been consciously leaving out:

the sages hate technology. every section on technology is written in a bitter tone... except when they are talking about military, or already existing militarised things.

page 129 (means of transportation part one, cloud sweepers):

To give credit where it is due, certain enterprising engineers have gone so far as to attach guns to the front of their Cloud Sweepers, allowing them to attack enemies while in mid-air--a recognised limitation of the traditional wizard’s broom.

page 130 (rare weapons and armor - yes this is the page right after the one where they insult cloud sweepers):

Such items include pistols that allow one to open locks from a distance, and harps that attack one’s enemies when plucked. Should you be fortunate enough to come across such rare items, do not be afraid to use them on the field of battle. A wizard has nothing to fear from material objects.

page 147 (means of transportation part two, porco grosso):

The latest rumors emanating from the factories of Hamelin surround a battle tank known as the Porco Grosso. This leaked image--depicting the tank’s designers, the Porco twins, standing next to their creation--is the only evidence of its existence. The Porco Grosso is believed to be capable of scaling vertical walls and attacking an entire battalion of enemy troops with a single volley.

page 329 (regions of the world, hamelin):

The citizens of Hamelin are united both by their inquisitive natures and their desire to support and protect their empire. As a result, large-scale magi-scientific military projects are quite normal. Such projects are always kept top-secret, of course, butt rumors suggest that Hamelin’s latest development, the Porco Grosso tank, is several leagues ahead of any weapon in the other nations’ respective arsenals.

A wizard has nothing to fear from material objects. lol. lmao

all of these quotes are entirely neutral or positive about these developments. this edition of the wizard’s companion was published at the very start of shadar’s reign, likely before he began properly enforcing the magic ban. on hamelin’s page, the only technology talked about is that of military value; it’s likely safe to assume any other technology was forbidden.

...more on this later... haha...

part two: the implications

“the implications” of course being various things in game, and how they affect the characters. now that you know the general situation regarding non-wizards, you might ask me. ruby. how in god’s name did this start?

...well, we don’t know for sure. and it could very easily be as simple as��“wizards have power and it developed from there”. but i have a theory.

nazcaa, as it happens, was very magi-scientific. we know this because have you ever been attacked by a magimech. i have. it’s fucking terrifying. those bitches were these people’s FAMILIARS!!! nazcaa was around during the age of sages, also known as the sagely stone age, when people were experimenting with stones, discovering the power behind them (maybe i should make a lore post on rocks)! no one was restricted! magi-science was HAPPENING. the wizard king was well known for being equal, to the point of choosing his stone guardians to represent humans, animals, and creatures.

and then, of course, he was assassinated.

and then, of course, his daughter cast the forbidden spell, and doomed nazcaa entirely.

my theory is that nazcaa was somewhat of a trailblazer for this stuff (the MAGIMECHS) and that when it was destroyed, people saw their technology as the thing that cursed them. the wizard’s companion describes nazcaa as a legend; how did the destruction of a kingdom that large not make it into history books? easy: no one knows what happened. but they can guess - and my guess is that they thought their technology went against the laws of nature, and therefore the gods. over thousands of years, this translates into nazcaa being forgotten, but the idea of that still lingering. obviously, this is a theory, and isn’t actually confirmed. but it would make a lot of sense, right?

that’s nazcaa; let’s talk about more modern-day things. for example, khulan and kublai.

even without dotdd confirming it, we can assume xanadu was pretty magical. it was run by a great sage and it fucking floated. it was magical. when kublai was hired, it was a highly magical palace of a highly magical kingdom; he is non-magical, to the point where in dotdd, he uses cloud sweepers, in a clear showing of his divide from wizardry. his position in the xanadu army was... i mean i already said it at the top of this essay: he was a diversity hire.

this is why khulan and kublai’s relationship was such a well-guarded secret. have you ever wondered why in god’s name they were so secretive about it? it’s THIS. are you kidding? the implications of a great sage and a non-wizard sky pirate...

while on the topic of kublai: in dotdd, there’s a little secret cave, called the “sky pirate’s hideout” (different to the one in wotww; kublai’s hideout in dotdd is called dragon’s den) in which you find ghosts of a long lost magic pirate crew from hundreds of years ago. most of it isn’t relevant to this post, but the ghost at the entrance directly scoffs at kublai’s pirate crew for not being able to use magic:

“Using magic to move a huge ship, we were a great pirate crew that controlled the seas around the world!“ [Drippy] “Never saw you lot. Though there is a Pirate King [Kublai] who flies the sky.” “Hmph. The pirates here are small fry compared to the olden days. I guess it’s because they’ve lost their ability to use magic. How pitiful they’ve become.”

it’s a neat little insight into how wizards from before shadar’s reign viewed non-magical people - and a neat little insight into how kublai was likely viewed when hired by the xanaduvian palace.

now that that’s done. here’s the big one:

hamelin.

gascon as well, in a moment. but for now let’s talk about hamelin as a city. now that we know all this, we can pretty easily make some assumptions about hamelin: before shadar’s reign, they were making military weapons and military weapons only (supported by the fact the wizard’s companion still describes hamelin as a “seat of scientific and magical learning”). during shadar’s reign, they may have gone a little too crazy; now that the sages are no longer in power, they’re experiencing an industrial revolution on such a large and fast scale because now they can actually make machines that aren’t. guns or tanks. and they already have the knowledge to do so because they’ve already been making guns and tanks. hamelin is on top of large mining deposits - clear by the mines and quarries everywhere on the pig iron plain - and they’ve already been making the aforementioned guns and tanks, so their tech evolves first.

(xanadu was on an island right next to autumnia; i wouldn’t be surprised if the iron wyvern came out of hamelin.)

they build a roof over the city. we know from dotdd that the primary reason for this is to protect them (likely from shadar, who is right next door), but it may have also been to keep the rain out of their engines. they don’t think about the consequences - they don’t KNOW about the consequences until they have to name a chest disease hamelin heart, a name, again, from dotdd (love that game), because the smog clouds the city.

(according to dotdd, hamelin was the smallest of the cities on autumnia before shadar took over. now it’s the only one standing.)

now. gascon. gascon is the most obvious piece of evidence for this entire thing, considering his lack of magic is a large plotpoint. it seems like even though hamelin as a city has been largely letting go of all of this, in favour of technology, the noble class has other ideas - they want to keep magical superiority alive, so much so that they refuse to have a non-wizard on the throne. even though gascon is good with machines - he gives you a blueprint for a gun he designed! - and would currently be a better fit for the throne than a great sage with no mechanical knowledge, he’s unable to ascend the throne because he can’t do magic. hamelin is a mechanical empire, no one is allowed to use magic ANYWAY, and gascon isn’t allowed to ascend the throne.

genuinely i wish marcassin’s brokenhearted plotline focused more on his ability to run the kingdom; the person who was meant to and was better fit for the job left him on account of the pressure from the sages, after all. he’s doing his best. he really is. but considering he IS a great sage, and most of marcassin’s education likely revolved around that instead of anything his kingdom is known for (seriously. isn’t it crazy that hamelin is the only one of the three kingdoms run by a great sage? that it has a law on it? ...more on this later)... he is not the best for the job is he. yet even if gascon didn’t run, from what we can tell from what swaine says about the situation, marcassin would have become emperor in his place anyway.

this shit runs DEEP.

part three: lucien

this is the big one. why did lucien, as shadar, ban magic? well i hope that now that you’ve read the rest of this post you can infer why, but the answer is easy: he wanted to stop the oppression of non-wizards, by taking away the power the sages wielded. but it’s actually a lot more personal than that. a lot of this section will be going into one of dotdd’s dlc quests, in which this is essentially spelled out for you.

because, according to this dlc quest: lucien did not grow up practicing magic.

in this quest (really series of quests. there’s three of them), you meet three of lucien’s friends from when he was in the army. they’re ghosts, of course, but they’re unable to move on because they feel guilt for not standing with lucien when he turned traitor. they say, very directly:

“A long time ago, Shadar wasn’t even able to use magic.” [Esther] “Seriously? Shadar. The Dark Djinn. One of the most powerful wizards ever, and you’re saying he wasn’t always able to use magic?” [Swaine] “But... If he couldn’t use magic, how was he able to join the battle mages?” “He didn’t want to join the battle mages. He thought that he would be just a normal soldier, given that he was a young man from Halcyon. But, even though he couldn’t use magic, he was made the attendant of a battle mage magimech.” [Oliver] “Magimech?” “He was a soldier whose job was to make synthetic stones. He knew how to hit the enemy hard, but he broke himself in the process of making our weapons. He was a support worker for those who were on the front lines. Lucien was right in the middle of all that, and I think that’s where he became interested in magic.”

so just to be clear. lucien was originally not a soldier in this war. he was an engineer who made weapons (because he wasn’t allowed to make anything else) who then began fighting after he became interested in magic. not only that, he was an apprentice of some kind to a MAGIMECH. are you kidding.

(speaking of. this is very similar to a certain someone in motorville.)

later on in this quest, you find lucien’s diary - kept safe by the magimech he attended - which details his contempt for living in a magic-driven world:

Magic is to blame, if anything... I won’t ever forgive anyone who uses magic spells to harm another person. If there were no magic in this world in the first place... then we wouldn’t have such horrifying wars, either. There is no place for me in this terrifying world. Even if my existence was suddenly extinguished, I don’t think that even my friends would miss me... or notice. But, the innocence of all the people caught up in this world of magic keeps eating away at me. I want to devote myself to protecting innocence. And I want to leave this diary for my friends to read, one day. I will hide it away somewhere no sane person would ever look for it, and I will entrust it to the custody of a guardian. If ever there is a person who reads this diary... I hope that they are a person who holds the same convictions and hopes for the future of the world that I do.

we all know lucien’s motivations for becoming the dark djinn: he wanted to put an end to the wars that seemed to run rampant throughout the world (hell. if you look at some of the dialogue from king tom and cowlipha lowlah, there’s still animosity between the three kingdoms.) so he became the sole target. and i mean. crazy fucking plan but it worked! the world is a lot more peaceful now than in lucien’s age! i don’t condone the murders but he did kind of fucking do it is the thing!

but why did he ban magic specifically? why were there wars in the first place? here’s my second theory of this post: the wars were between sages.

they’re using magic to fight. they’re using armies to attack each other. why ARE military inventions praised so highly by sages, when they have magic that can do much of the same? because their armies can use them. the target in rubicon when lucien betrayed his army was a sage - alicia’s parent. If there were no magic in this world in the first place... then we wouldn’t have such horrifying wars, either.

the sages like the invention of weapons that non-wizards can use so that those non-wizards can fight their wars for them. hamelin’s law that only a great sage can run the kingdom makes a lot more sense when you consider it’s not only for a class boundary, but for control.

the, now rather obvious, reason lucien banned magic was to get rid of the power imbalance; he took down all of the sages who were oppressing non-wizards, he stopped the wars they caused, he forced them to adapt without magic because they couldn’t defeat him. and. again it worked! hamelin is expanding, the al mamoon army uses cloud sweepers now, khulan and kublai are together... things are better! despite the horrors! the world of ni no kuni, as it is in game, is in a very specific position - where shadar has now managed to achieve his aim - tipping the scales so that non-wizards are no longer oppressed. clearly, there’s still some way to go, but it’s a good damn start.

but his job is done; there’s no need for him anymore. the wars are over, the world is almost peaceful again - the last thread tying it to that time is shadar himself. and i mean he did murder and break the hearts of a lot of people also. for the world to be truly peaceful, he needs to be defeated.

and isn’t it poetic that the pure-hearted one, he who will drive out the darkness. is a kid from motor city who likes building cars and didn’t know magic existed until he was thirteen.

Using machines to triumph over nature is not the behavior of the pure-hearted.

imagine how pissed off these sages would be. they come out of hiding after shadar has been defeated like finally! the place of magic within society has been restored! we will now start banning technology again and the pure-hearted one is sitting there like why would you do that :( they’re so cool :(

THEY WOULD BE SO ANGRYYYY it would be so funny. they can’t even fucking say anything. he’s a great sage’s son. he’s from detroit. they’ve been waiting for this powerful wizard to show up to defeat shadar so they can get their world back and he turns out to be a Mechanic. from Another World. full of CARS. AND HE’S THE SECOND COMING OF THE WIZARD KING. IMAGINE.

part four: conclusion

this is where i leave you. with the knowledge that oliver’s existence is driving magical bigots batshit. good for him

thank you for reading this 4500 WORD JESUS CHRIST???? essay. if you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them in my askbox. i fucking love politics that aren’t real in any shape or form and i also love other things about ni no kuni too so you can ask me anything about it.

i hope you get it now.

[he4rts-f0r-evang3line]

random hobie brown headcanons!

all will be sfw the nsfw/spicy ones will be in pink

trying real hard not to delete this acc and kms bc of a sudden trigger

also this won't be proofread because im in the middle of a mental breakdown

he always looks for you when he performs

he's not the jealous "i show everyone who is my lover" type, more like the subtle "let's go" kind in crowded places to yk do unholy things

also small public demonstrations of affection <3 <3

like holding hands, putting his hand on your waist when you walk, small kisses both on your cheek and on your lips, small notes when he wakes up earlier than you since he's yk a spider man

he gave you one of his very own spike bracelets which i feel would be really dear to him

prob made you one esp for you

no matter how your styles differ he will still find a way to have something that reminds him of you on him whether it's a badge, a hair clip or even rings

taking you to the piercer as a first date!!

despite him being an anarchist he's actually very caring

you're sick? fuck capitalism he will make you his own medicine with some of his teas

unrelated but i feel like he's Jamaican or smth wait lemme check

ok i didn't find anything but ill js hc him as jamaican

so like yea when you're sick he makes you jamaican medicine

"take this shortcake! i know it doesn't seem yummy but i promise you'll feel better in a snap after!

you did feel better in a snap

(for fem aligned readers) when you're on your period he turns into the sweetest man ever

sometimes the two of you meet after his concerts - even though that's smth really important for him he makes sure you know you're his actual priority- you go on a rooftop and he tells you about his parents

feeling dysphoric because you're transmasc and on your period ? he makes sure you're the most handsome person he ever knew

when the two of you are doing it, he always makes sure he has your consent before trying anything new - or even before trying anything at all

he's not afraid to admit he's in love with you and he treats you like ROYALTY

you like this specific song? he'll post you to this song and even write love songs for you. remember that specific cat café you mentioned three months ago? he'll bring you there for your birthday.

going nonverbal and being overstimulated? that's no problem for him he'll sit with you in the dark in silence until you feel better.

THIS MAN IS A MAN OF AFTERCARE "you did so well for me darling <3 now what about we get some sweets and cuddle under the stars?"

he's a top most of the but yk he secretly lives when you're in control

HICKEYS HICKEYS HICKEYS ALL OVER YOUR BODY esp on your neck and in between your thighs

speaking of thighs whenever you feel insecure he turns into your girl best friend

having big thighs ? it's more comfy for when he has his head on his lap. big boobs?more comfy for cuddling. no/small boobs? it's ok clothes fit more easily. the list goes on but he always cheers you up.

UNLABELLED THEY/HE HOBIE‼️‼️‼️‼️

p sure he love when you ride him

like you're on top of him in some way but he somehow keeps control

probably likes to asset his dominance by putting a hand around your neck (wdym i don't have a choke kink i do)

BUT HE ALWAYS MAKES SURE YOURE OK THAT MAKES HIM LITTEALLY SM HOTTER OMG

he's always down for ditching class but he somehow has the best grades

which upsets you bc you're the one who always want to ditch class but your grades ain't following

omg it's giving academical rivals au

so like he sometimes comes at your place to help you w the subjects you have trouble with

eventually you end up pinned down on your desk passionately kissing

+ seeing you in a school uniform makes him go feral

fucking you in your school skirt? boy he sure is turned on

quickies in the school's bathroom ? man he loves danger so he's obviously down

+ he loves the way kissing you makes his piercing feel (idk but if i had healed piercings on my lips id love the way it'd feel)

SLOW BURN MAKE OUT SESSION IN THE RAIN

can you tell i love rain? bc i do

he makes sure you feel loved and says it to everyone he knows

"hey that's (reader's name) did you know they're my partner i love them sm"

he notices small habits and picks them up when he misses you (idk how to explain bit for example i sometimes twitch my nose because of my allergies- in that case if you did he would too)

HIGH PATTERN RECOGNITION even though he won't force you to tell him why you feel bad he instantly notices the changes in your behavior

"can you repeat, darling? i didn't hear what you said"

he makes sure you use your words despite you being overstimulated

+ his hands. they make you go crazy.

he's actually a lonely guy, give this poor man a big hug :(

no but fr tho he went through sm his backstory made me cry

OK bit of a vent now🕺🏻 but first tysm for reading ily ! <3 /p

i suddenly lost all motivation to post full fics bc i keep comparing me to others, most well known posters and it really triggers me so i guess i'll make the lonely series go on a hiatus. also working on requests! but it's getting harder to not kms bc of the pressure im putting on myself 🫠

anyhoo, kaheri there,back to dreamland! see you in the next dream! (new outro who dis?)

[hislittleraincloud]

Old Man Rambling

Yanno, I kinda miss the days of Tumblr where you kids were identifying as inanimate objects. There were kids IDing as kiwis and biscuits. Biscuitkin, kiwikin, shit like that. It kept this place relatively quiet because, well. Inanimate objects don't make much noise. And it was amusing as shit because there was always a teeny tiny part of y'all who knew it was all goddamn bullshit, but you never let the razzing force your masks off. You wanted attention and ya got it. You still kept to yourselves, even though you were thoroughly obsessed with your otherkinship.

But now. Holy Hell.

The current "kids'" personal lives are so hollow and so horrible that they've resorted to policing the lives of people they don't even personally know (celebrities, particularly young Hollywood). The identification is so strong that what they love so obsessively* couldn't possibly be anything else but what and how the heavily biased observer wants to see them as.

It is for that reason why I do sympathize with Ortega, if only a little (she did choose this life, her parents could've stopped it at any time knowing how strange celebrityhood has changed throughout our decades alive). Social media is evil. We did not have this when I was young, when the young Winona Ryder who is being splashed all over my fyp was posing for those photos, we only got to see them on paper, in magazines, bro. We didn't have all of this creepy connectivity where there was a very good chance that a celebrity would see our comments. It just was not like that at all.

So I get it, I get that it's changed and it can be really hard just to be a regular person because everyone has a goddamn video camera in the palm of their hands with videos ready to go online within seconds. It's shitty, and probably one of the things that's killing pro paparazzi (though in some cases it's made them worse); anyone and everyone can get a scoop now.

And if that's the case, why are kids behaving like paparazzi, knowing what the paparazzi did to Princess Diana (and Britney, offering up those umbrella photos out of their context of her situation that hardly anyone really knew about). The Chappell Roan concert footage is the best current example of that (I've removed the one part that I briefly posted as promised), and I've seen the biggest Wenclair accounts pass that shit around here like it's normal to invade a girl's private moments. And in some instances, using Photoshop/AI to gaslight people into believing crap that never happened. It's RPF to the worst degree, and it isn't cool.

*ETA: I started writing this last night before I passed out from the heat, but now I want to go back to the obsessive fan thing (partially bc of my recent experience here). User name redacted because I don't want to give her any more attention:

This ain't cute and not to be normalized. Had a male done this, it would've been seen as creepy.

It's this level of obsession — and the false sense of closeness that social media connectivity brings — that gives the Ortega stans a sense of entitlement over her (personal and professional) life that they do not have a right to influence.

And as someone who has studied and observed adolescent psych for decades, it amazes me to see young ♀️ adolescents behave like stalkers and get a pass for the behavior just because of their gender. Some of the most dangerous stalkers can be female, since they're not always taken as seriously as the males (male stalkers aren't always taken seriously either, so think about how much less female ones are). Jodi Arias, Victoria Rickman, Shayna Hubers, Liz Golyar, Vegas Bray...the list goes on and on.

It's obviously not a direct comparison; I'm not saying that what the kids are doing is necessarily dangerous for the object of obsession (since there is no direct relationship and physical access) or that it even has the potential to get violent (doesn't seem so), but it's not always entirely harmless.

Now, I understand that obsession is a thing with adolescents. I've seen it first hand. One of my favorite films is about the very type of 🏳️‍🌈 obsession that forms between two girls sometimes**, and features Kate Winslet's first screen kiss with a ♀️.

Most of us old farts grew up in an era where acting was acting: Even with the lack of connectivity, we knew Kate Winslet and Lyndskey weren't gay, but we still adored and appreciated the performances. Same goes for Hillary Swank in her Oscar winning role as 'Brandon Teena'; we knew she wasn't a 🏳️‍⚧️man. It was acting. More than half the cast of the original L Word was straight, and there wasn't anything close to this kind of creepy stalker crap back then.

Sadly I think that the more connectivity there is, the less real connectivity happens, and that presents obsessively attached fans with a false sense of security that would crumble if the people they worship turn out to be something contrary to the image in their minds that they've cobbled together from their celebrity's public behavior and works.

I don't think this type of delusion was present with Biscuitkin and Kiwikin. The foodkin did nothin' to anyone but exist, and food is food. The Ortega stans are fucking scary and need to cut it out. It's made fandom a scarier place for celebrities, because the Internet is forever and you're out there showing just how twisted up/potentially obsessive towards people you can be. It may not be embarrassing to you now since you have this false sense of 'community', but out there where y'all actually have to talk to real people and get on with real life crap, this type of behavior wouldn't fly. In 15 years when you're not a pimply, awkward high schooler/early college-aged person, someone might ask you how you spent your teen/high school years when a good chunk of it was scrolling through social media for pics and y/n stories about your favorite actress (and sometimes her co-stars).

[mxmasked-alien]

December Choices Insiders Tidbits

Interesting, I didn't think HS would be goc mc but I'm glad for the male readers. I'd like to see more mlm and mlw posting about their play through and experiences. Shakes things up around here.

I do feel like COP3 will come out late in the year for vip and maybe 2025 for general released but we'll see. PB has made all kinds of promises before and we know how that usually goes lol.

*Banshee screech* I am sooooo ready for ID 2! I can NOT wait to see how pb handles the poly relationship between Gabe, mc and Cas!

Im very very curious about The Deadliest Game and The Ghost of us. Along Came Treble might be good, probably a single LI Platinum redo.

I suppose the hot-headed probably arrogant trope is stereotypical for a sports celebrity and even more so for a hockey captain. But I don't normally like that kind of LI. Perhaps I'll like Casey, I'll definitely give the book a shot (heh) despite not really liking sports but the smut will probably overshadow what little plot there is anyway.

What are you guys most excited for?

[0ystercatcher]

finally the other topic thats been on my mind. the food. oohhh the food. enormous post warning. i hope to god the read more works.

ok for starters. its good. i cant complain. variety and spread were pretty great (goes so hard to have diaspora from all over the world in your country you literally can get anything if you know where to look), quality was good, portions are INCREDIBLY generous even considering price most of the time, and price is....fine. i hated it bc again exchange rates fucked me over but i didnt see anything... outrageous anywhere we went to OTHER than the baseball game but that i expected and was prepared for so i didnt like, insta vomit when i saw the menu. i didnt try nearly everything i wanted to but, well, i have limited space in my tummy.

there were... some questionable items. at the store. like, ham with cheese inside it that looked like it had some kind of pox. all sorts of um. wrong looking. gooey cheese products. all very yellow and with a scary toxic look to them. i did eat the cheetos tho they were fine and acceptably orange.

like... im sorry. this isnt ok. this shouldnt exist. this is wrong.

there were also all sorts of what id consider, niche? not very high circulation? products. that looked interesting. also cheeses, this time delicious and amazing (im still so pissed i left the horseradish cheddar i wanted to bring home in ks fridge), great great snacks, treats of all sorts (some good some eh?), all kinds of baking ingredients and cooking ingredients, so many dry spices and powders and seasonings. asian ingredients and mexican ingredients seemed greatly favored which tbh was appreciated bc there was stuff id never seen before that got me very curious + i found my fav mexican candy which i missed. also, chicken is p cheap over there, i was surprised its basically as cheap as it is here, maybe slightly cheaper even. all in all, tbh, you can eat pretty well buying fairly cheap and healthy items with...not many problems. like...a big big bag of kale was like...4 usd. thats so good. chicken and tuna and sardines were cheap. pasta is cheap as hell as it is everywhere. veggies and fruit are kind of hit or miss but i think thats somewhat seasonal as it is everywhere. canned food is cheaper there too?? not bad at all. next time i want to go to a costco and see how it goes to buy stuff in bulk, it looks promising.

idk where im going w this post so now im just gonna list the memorable meals or treats or ingredients i sampled/had over there (inconsistent list bc some are homemade meals made by moi + k but whatever) and rate them. i cant put these on a normal list bc im breaking the character limit so please bear with my horrible formatting.

baseball game hotdog: 7/10 disappointingly small for the...10? 11? usd it cost. nice mustard and onions on top. NO MAYO. ketchup and relish were Fine. at least 2-3 points of the score are just the fact it was a true baseball hotdog and my first one at that. the experience is very important for this one. i cherished that more than most other things in this "meal" so id feel bad rating it lower.

baseball garlicky fries: 8/10. again 3 points for the experience and novelty of it being baseball food. i think they were 9 dollars. ok portion. CRAZY AMNTS OF GARLIC YUM. pretty tasty. NO MAYO THO!!

double cheese burger + fries + onion rings + peanut butter milkshake: 10/10. true american meal. enormous burger. couldnt finish anything other than the milkshake and k helped w that + i was about to genuinely frow up by the time i tried the last spoonful of it. the whole thing i think was about 25-30? usd each? i dont even care. it was delicious, i think the mayo was made by the restaurant itself, it was so good. beef patties were great. vegetables were great. pickles were really good. gooey ass american cheese was great. fries were crazy. onion rings were perfect. just delicious. will go again next time im there.

pho + spring rolls: 5.5/10. not bad at all. but i think pho was greatly overhyped. i ordered it w tendon and tripe which was nice to have in the us bc i know they dont like organ meats at all. it was ok. its one of those soups that i guess gets better kinda by the end when its all gotten mixed up and nicely flavored. ive had better soups though. sorry i fumbled the tip.

sushi: 8/10. nice! didnt try even close to all the options but the eel was DELICIOUS + the maki sushi was good and, honestly, very well portioned. i dont like when the maki sushi is huge esp when im trying to sample many types. and some of the salads and soups....hell yes. good price! comparable to nice sushi places here, i didnt feel it was scandalous. im giving it an 8 bc it was tasty as fuck, but i do have a comment on this. i think the us does the same thing we do which is, they shove a bunch of ingredients into maki sushi to make new ones with a lot of shit in them and im not the biggest fan of that so i didnt order those. i like simple sushi. the ones i ordered were really good tho. 8/10 for those, i dont think ill order the other ones unless i was feeling suuuper experimental. same as it ever was.

deluxe kraft mac and cheese, orig cheddar: 5/10 without adding anything to it, solid 6 with better cheese + bbq sauced hot dog in it. see we had just watched the jerma reviews mac and cheese video and we happened to find this at the store so obviously we had to try it. it was just normal mac and cheese. i think american kraft has a stronger and kinda. nastier. cheese flavor in it. so we added real cheese and other things and it was better. solid dinner.

mcdonalds: mcdonalds/mcdonalds. its mcds. it tastes the same everywhere apparently. it was fine. fresh fries were nice tho.

taco bell chicken quesadilla: 2/10. i dont really like taco bell and i kind of objected to this meal and only had a little bit. flavorful in weirdly wrong ways. not Offensive but, yknow, a strong I Would Prefer Not To. also, made me a little bloated even with lactaid to help me cope.

various food items at family meeting: 7/10. im not rating them individually there were too many, this is an average. the ones that stood out were: crispy crispy bacon for brekky. biscuits and gravy. funeral potatos? thats what they called it i think? the yogurt + fruit + maple syrup granola bowl and the smoked trout. i think this is because it was a family thing, but if not i guess it still applies? homemade american dishes are so fucking rich. im not sure i could stand eating like that every day. i know by the end of the weekend i was like.. i need normal salad. i need some rice. this cant go on forever. still, i enjoyed every dish i tried. tasty stuff!

sweet corn we roasted in a fire: 10/10 brother i love sweet corn and oonnhh hhn the butter on it. yea man. its good.

special coffee drink + bagel w cream cheese: 7/10. very generous bagel for like...under 3 usd. 3rd worlder ass price for the crazy amnt of cheese it had imho and like, i shared it with k and i was still very satisfied with the portion i got. the coffee drink was very nice. i have no idea what that woman put in it other than the 2 large espresso shots and ice i saw she added. tasty tho! and she was nice. sorry i was very bad at understanding your accent. i realized im still not at all used to that.

espresso + chocolate truffle: 9/10 just what i needed after the fish and chips feast. beautifully smooth coffee, good crema, smelled good, tasted good. great texture, good price. 8 usd for...2 espressos and 2 truffles. i think thats more than acceptable, esp in the highly touristy area we were in. the truffle itself i think was a little ordinary but paired so well w the coffee the whole thing was a win. lovely to have it next to the sea w my love after stuffing ourselves full w fish and chips. speaking of which.

fish (cod and calamari and shrimp) and chips + cider: 10/10 my god. my god. this rivals peruvian jalea. i never believed it would be possible. but it is. it was great. fresh out the fryer, pleasantly greasy but not excessively so. great flavor. great fish. nice portion. amazingggg cider and really nice tartar sauce. just what i needed after walking around for a couple hours. just a great fucking meal. will def go again if i can.

glazed? powdered? donuts? we got at the store? i dont remember the brand or name but i was curious so i grabbed a thing and k said they were pretty good: 2/10 meh. they were... whatever. i think i had one w breakfast and then i sort of gave up on them. kind of dry and too dense for a donut. maybe they were cake donuts? i dont know. i shouldnt have strayed from dunkin, im sorry dunkin. ill never let you down again.

salt vinegar chips: 10/10 one of those snacks i just. would compulsively buy if i lived there. like this would be my go to snack. they hurt the roof of my mouth but its worth it also i like the sourness bc it makes me pace myself a little.

normal ruffles: ruffles/ruffles. i like a good wavy potato chip. what can i say. i enjoyed them.

american bacon: 8/10. i understand why the us has crazy rates of cardiovascular disease. i get it. maybe its worth it. it gets one whole point solely bc of the crazy amnt of fat you can render out of it, bacon fat was Not Lacking while we cooked and i thank the bacon for this, because thats a great ingredient to have around imho.

tap water: 10/10. preddy good!

mexican limes: 2/10. im actively racist against these citrus fruits. so much flesh, no juice. they did their job and tasted Fine I Guess but they were still lame. peruvian lime or nothing baby.

fuji apples: 8/10. im fujiapplepilled. theyre nice. crispy. go well with peanut butter. yum! nice that they are grown there.

cheetos: 5/10. i had the puffs and the normal..crispy ones? non spicy bc i dont like the spicy ones. i was satisfied. theyre better than ours. still not the best snack but i was curious. bigger portion than im used to. i think i would simply not let children have them though.

beef hot dogs, from the store. in and without bun: 9/10 broooo americans are just good at these. they put like actual meat in them. theyre dense. theyre large. delicious stuff. versatile enough, reasonably priced. if this isnt their national pride it should be. wish i could have brought a pack home. my fam would love these.

some kind of mexican chorizo thing: 4/10. it was ok. k had this in the fridge when i got there? its like salchicha huachana but less good, less fresh, less colourful and less flavorful. it did what we needed it to do, i didnt dislike it. it was just. fine.

ranier beer: 7/10. yum! pleasant. slightly sweet. a fine drink for a warm sunny day. great with snacks or other treats.

pabst blue ribbon: 6/10. yum also! i liked rainier a little better tho.

the 2 ipas i had: 0/10. the only thing i had that i actively disliked. yuck. just nasty stuff.

wait i forgot

jeppsons malort: -1/10. @worldlytutor why the fuck did you buy that. that shit tasted like rat poison fr. throw that shit away rn if you still have it.

[gloomysoup]

i'm about to go on a bit of a personal ramble here for a minute. i feel like i have a lot to say and no one to say it to, and i feel like my blog has become this safe space for me to say those things. i've shared pieces of myself (my creative work) that i haven't shared with other people before. so i'm going to get a little more personal. if you want to read, great. if not, that's fine too. maybe we'll all get something out of this. maybe we won't. either way, it's here.

i've lived in the same county, with the same people, for twenty years. twenty years in a small, conservative, god-fearing place. every single household in my neighborhood goes to church every sunday. they have bible study in my neighborhood for the adults that meets every week. i've grown up around a lot of small-mindedness when it comes to social issues. which put a lot of strain on my mental health, growing up different from anyone else. i never really fit in, even in my friend groups. there's this expectation that everyone seems to have.

i always knew i was different. there was something about me. there's a lot of things, actually, but i really just want to focus on one in particular. i never had an interest in boys. not once. i didn't really think much of it until other people my age made comments about it. i never had a boyfriend, aside from once in probably first or second grade. and we were friends, only "dated" for maybe two days. that was that. i don't really ever count it. dating never seemed like a very big deal to me for a long time. i was much more focused on school and sports. eventually i realized i was a lot more interested in girls than i ever was in boys.

i fought thru a lot of internalized stuff before i came to the conclusion that i was absolutely 100% definitely a lesbian (along w a lot of trial and error in the form of awkward college experiences). i had a lot of issues throughout middle and high school that i don't particularly need to get into. all that really matters is now.

this year, i made a vow to myself. id do more to truly love myself. to be who i am, unashamedly. i made a few changes to my diet (eating healthier, listening to the advice my doctor gave me ten years ago that i should have listened to back then, actually eating regularly for the first time in years). i got a new job, which i actually really enjoy despite how tired i always am. i love the kids i work with. my coworkers are amazing. which brings me to the latest decision i've made in an effort to keep my promises to myself.

i'm done hiding. i don't want to feel ashamed of who i am just because it doesn't fit the mold. up until recently, i've been pretty selective about who i tell that i'm gay. i never wanted it to get back to my family. i didn't want them to know. i'm still not sure i do, but it's time i stop trying to walk on eggshells all the time. i'm not sure i'll be able to say anything outright, but i don't want to hide it away anymore. i don't want to pretend to be someone i'm not. i don't want to put up more masks every time i leave the safety of my room.

i'm going to a concert in june. pride month. the concert is for my favorite queer artist. i don't want to hide my excitement at finally getting to see her live just because i'm afraid of what people will say. i don't want to carefully think through every little thing before i say something or do something, just in case it's a little too gay to brush off.

i think this is finally the year i embrace myself for who i am. maybe i'll even finally go to a pride event and post pictures. i don't want to be afraid anymore. i don't want to hide anymore. maybe this will backfire on me. maybe it won't. i guess i won't know unless i try.

[charmac]

would it be too weird to post another tweet apologizing for her behavior and saying something like 'we appreciate all you guys do for the queer community and i promise the majority of us arent like this' etc? id hate to see the ship tank over this one person, and i want them to know she doesn't represent the non invasive and appreciate queer fanbase. is this better left alone?

Yes, leave it alone. Glenn has basically said he only really sees things online that people send him, and Rob’s mentions are always flooded with Wrexham stuff, so it’s hopefully highly unlikely they see this all anyway. Just let it die.

Don’t bring it up, don’t mention it, it just makes other people go looking for OP/the original issue to engage, which gives more attention to it all. If you want to tweet something about how that doesn’t represent you/the majority, just override their mentions with something positive. Make nice fanart, tag them, review/praise their performance(s) in certain episodes of the show or other work they’ve been in. Tweet clips you like, under appreciated moments, and tag them.

Saying doesn’t do much, show them what the majority of the fans do (make beautiful stuff and appreciate the effort that goes into the show)

[lemedstudent2021]

sobering and eye opening. there really isnt much i can say.

i am jordanian and i love my country very very much, with all its ups and downs. i love the culture, the history, the land, and of course the cuisine, among a great many other things.

having been raised in england, jordan was the holiday destination where id get to see my entire family and experience things i couldnt back home so to speak, like going to the downtown souq area with my grandfather, hearing the athaan being called 5 times a day...

in november i complete a decade of living in the blessed land (shaam) and i will be forever grateful we moved here. learning about ones roots and heritage i believe is a core pillar of the human experience, learning of those who came before us and how we were alike

all this to say that as much as i love my country the same cant be said about certain aspects of its history in the region. this in and of itself can span several posts and even then id barely be able to give the matter the justice it deserves, but for brevitys sake;

in terms of history, no nation is perfect. this is a given regardless of where you are in the world. if a people are advertised as being whole or that they can do no wrong, know that there something is deeply wrong. we are all humans and we all err without exception, but for some reason when it comes to what we are taught we are all (mostly) the righteous heroes who stood up to the transgressors and fought valiantly for themes such as protecting human rights and the like.

and for the most part its true. we are different, and although im a staunch believer that said differences can and should be navigated through peaceful means and understanding and tolerance, historically speaking this wasnt always the case and conflicts arose for myriads of reasons all over the globe. nothing new here.

but the more i read and learn about the history of humanity as a whole the more i realise that history is biased as much as we wish to believe otherwise. the narratives we are fed and versions of events forced upon us is frankly depressing enough to think about, let alone after having thought the opposite your entire life. truly a betrayal of the strangest kind.

a big chunk of (modern) jordan history is that of the palestinian israeli conflict. indeed much of our history is intertwined with palestine and its blessed people in anything from dialects to traditional dresses. our borders were drawn by the british and the french, dividing us on paper but never in spirit.

i disagree with and despise much of what my country has done and continues to do by acting as a safety net for the occupation just as the west intended and some 'rulers' cemented. i promise that they dont speak for any of us the same way oppressive governments dont speak for or represent their subjects nor their best interests.

palestine is well on its way to being liberated im sure of it. whether it takes a year or ten or a hundred, it will be freed. and transgressors and trespassers as well as their accomplices will all stand in front of God and pay for their crimes dearly. i await the day- as the saying in arabic goes- [with an intensity] hotter than embers - على أحر من الجمر

“Your organization, that has been on one side of the fight, what has it achieved?”

Ghassan Kanafani “One thing: that we have a case to fight for. That is very much. This people, the Palestinian people, prefer to die standing than to lose its case. We achieved proving that the king (of Jordan) is wrong. We achieved proving that this nation is going to continue fighting until victory. We achieved that our people can never be defeated. We achieved teaching every single person in this world that we are a small brave nation who are going to fight until the last drop of blood to put justice for ourselves, after the world failed in giving it to us. This is what we achieved.”

[rikkami]

Whoa didnt think id do this ever, personal, venting about life, relationships and shit.

So uhh.. My girlfriend broke up with me. Funny how I made blog posts about her a few weeks ago and now we are here. The few past months I had noticed she wasnt as interested in me as she previously was and we had our share of issues (not fighting or arguing but like, she had a hard time reciprocating my feelings sometimes.) and turns out, she's a lesbian. Another one of my girlfriends turns out to not like men, it was funny the first 2 times but the 4th time it just hurts. Extra cherry on top, I came out as a woman to her slightly over a month or so, obviously I still am male presenting so its understandable that if you dont like men or feel any attracting to them the same goes for me, but uhh, something about that hurt even more. She truly was someone I could trust and talk to about everything, my best friend ever since I had a harder time keeping in touch with my highschool friends. We did talk about life and everything, nothing will probably break our friendship unless its me fucking something up again (it has happened before with other people). We made a promise to each other that if it gets too hard to be with her for me I'll tell her and if at anypoint during my transition she starts being into me again, she will tell that to me, that we would keep everything out in the open, but theres no reason for us to commit to what 4+ years of nothing. We'll continue cuddling when watching movies because we both like human touch etc, I just hope it isnt too much for me. And deep in my heart I really hope its just the physical part of me that she couldnt fall in love with and at somepoint we can return to how we initially felt. But going down that path is not I want to put myself on again, I know how it goes already. But I truly do feel lost because despite being in another relationship of 7 years before her, I dont think I've felt this much attraction since I was in love with a long time highschool friend of mine, and thats more than 8 years ago. Theres like only 3 people who might read this, so at the sametime I guess its my way of telling whats been down with my ass since I really dont do that ever. I still havent started transitioning, trying to get in contact with my doctor has been a fucking hassle, but my legs are epilated and im smooth as fuck boy. I'm any/all, always has been, because finnish language doesnt have gendered pronouns i dont care. New name will be a finnish variation of Rika-Lily Jenny Riikka coming from my mothers name (its a long story but she doesnt use that name) Lilja has an even more personal meaning that would take even longer to explain, but also apparently its the Yuri flower (i did not know) so uhh this ex teased me about that and we had a good laugh. oh and the boring part, Jerry, Jenny, its too easy.