#idek what this is folks seriously

[jtl07]

late night vigil

camila is no stranger to intimacy, to companionship as some would say more delicately, even if the acts they engage in are anything but. she also knows that beatrice has been as haunted as much as she’s been freed, waiting even as she’s living. or: camila learns about beatrice's strap; she helps in her own way

(mind the rating 🙈)

[twunkzilla]

Ngl I think the young adult genre actually is what got me to stop reading as a kid like as soon as I hit 6th grade I was like why is this all fucking garbage

[solurae]

four eyes (more to love underneath the frames) — PT.1

HELLO!!! okok the prologue received some good reception so i will!!! be continuing the series :3c THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE NICE COMMENTS AND REBLOGS AND OHHHH MY GOD THE MOTHER OF NERD!MIGUEL @nymphomatique REBLOGGED MY PROLOGUE (i could die happy) ty for the food and the inspiration to start this series!!!

i’m still the process of setting up my tumblr because my ass made this my secondary blog (but idek if that changes anything… i don’t think) OH AND YES THERE IS NOW A TAG FOR THE SERIES! ALSO PLSPLSPLS DON’T BE AFRAID TO SEND THROUGH ASKS FOR DRABBLES OR REQUESTS OR ANYTHING REALLY!!! i’m more than happy to feed us both hehe

tw/cw: mmmm not any i can think of (FIXING ANY GRAMMATICAL ERRORS AFTER POSTING BECAUSE I’M COOL)

PROLOGUE?! < <

“sorry students, the projector is currently out of order so i’d like for all of you to just go through the powerpoint on your own. feel free to come up and ask questions.” the professor sighs as he closes his laptop and settles down onto his desk, the chatter of other students and laptop keyboards create the perfect white noise for your 8AM lecture.

you weren’t really that keen on studying this period anyway so you’ll just get it done later but god he looked so much better up close. why did miguel have to be so fucking dorky and hot and cool all at fucking once? it bothered you that miguel has never spoken to you. ever. but with that in mind, no one would ever think of the effect this nerd had on you, not even the nerd himself.

“oi mate, mandem depending on you to pass this class.” you shake your head after you’re slightly shoved to the side of your desk by none other than your best friend bad influence. hobie, hobie, hobie… you groan as you look his way, legs propped up on the desk as if he’s completely unaware that he’s in an lecture hall. next to him is peter, trying to shove hobie’s legs off the table for fear of accidentally hitting miguel who was seated right infront of you.

peter and hobie were the angel and devil on your shoulder that manifested into your closest friends. it was so hard to make friends (partially because you weren’t interested in anyone aside from miguel) and that everyone in your class were already in tight knit friend groups, and it was clear they all wanted to keep it that way with the silent treatment and one-sided conversations. but that didn’t matter. what did matter was that neither of them were taking this class seriously.

hobie - for god knows what reason - just took the class for fun. well, hobie took it out of spite. he said and you quote, “it is my take on deconstructing the stereotypes and preconceptions of particular social groups alongside us punks that dictate that we lack the desire and strive for academic feats”. and you know what? for someone who likes to laze around and count the panels of wood used on the ceiling for half the lecture, his high grades put his narrow-minded folks to shame. oh and peter? although he couldn’t afford to skip his classes, he did anyway. mary jane, MJ - the mother to his children, as he calls her - is in the humanities elective they both share. and peter might as well skip that class instead of looking at MJ as if she invented humanities. you don’t know how watching you and hobie bicker was a better investment of peter’s time but no one was complaining. someone had to remind the both of you of operation miguel mutation, or in other words, get his gaze out of his books and onto your face.

“so much for wanting to prove the world wrong when you’re relying on someone else to do it for you”, you scoffed at hobie, pretending to brush dust off your shoulders. he chuckled, “i just wanted to know how it feels to be those good for nothing, narcissistic capitalists, is all”. you shoved him so hard it rattled your seats and you didn’t even realise you accidentally kicked miguel’s seat until his cold hard gaze towards you even made hobie look like an art piece in the middle of rendering.

“can i help you?”, fuuuuuuck off. he sounds so fucking hot. insanely hot.

his large pitch black frames could never obstruct how chiseled miguel was, he had angular features such as his nose, his jawline and even his cupid’s bow. but these features were softened with warm red eyes and wisps of his hair coming down to frame his forehead. o’hara’s face overall was slightly scrunched, his hand gripped onto the fold away desk while he faced you, his casual attire in sweats could barely hide his build. his mouth was slightly open, the very tip of his fangs making themselves known. he was definitely a specimen, a gorgeous specimen for lack of better word. you didn’t even realise you were staring at miguel until he raised his eyebrow and glanced over at hobie, then over to peter who was just happily content watching your unplanned, unconventional first meeting.

“oh. um, no?”, you were still confused why miguel (the man you’ve been trying to get the attention of ever since the first inkling of a feeling), suddenly turned around and spoke to you—

“excuse me, may i ask that you don’t disrupt your peers during class? i’m watching you too, brown.” if your teacher scolding you like a wack ass boy in year 9 wasn’t enough to make you embarrassed, your quick descent into realising that you quite literally pushed yourself - pushed miguel, rather - to make the first move. in the worst fucking way possible. you ducked your head a bit in an attempt to avoid the gazes of your classmates only to find your shoe jammed between the gap next to miguel’s seat, missing his elbow by a mere few centimetres.

you’ve got to be fucking kidding me.

so much for devising a plan to properly introduce yourself by actually trying in class by answering the lecturers questions, to the point miguel can’t help but wonder that there is in fact competition. aware of his competitive nature, miguel would try to get ahead of you or widen that gap but then realise he was all wrong from the moment you’d tap his shoulder for a question you pretend to not understand, to look as if you’re struggling so much miguel can ignore his own studies for a little while to help you. men are stupid after all. miguel doesn’t apply here but being an outcast adjacent of the entire university has its benefits, in a way where it benefits your elaborate plan from stroking miguel’s ego by helping you, to ever so slightly become more and more interested in you. once you slowly ease into getting out of pretending to be an academic victim and miguel finds the joy in being academically challenged by the one girl who braved the odds and approach the mysterious mutant, he’d ask to you to meet at the cafeteria or the library. it didn’t matter. you would then, finally then, be in miguel’s line of sight.

“if this is your way of trying to get into my pants, i’m not interested.”

papers were stuffed into bags and the squeaking of chairs reverberated the lecture theatre. people were making their way to their next class while peter, hobie and yourself shared looks of disbelief, disgust, along with hobie’s infamous expression that scream the words i fucking told you so.

what the fuck? what the actual fuck was that?

o’hara didn’t miss a beat and swivelled around to start packing his belongings, completely unaware of how his response alone completely changed and destroyed all prior preconceptions about this man - or boy as you would now call him - turns out being smart never stopped anyone from being dickhead.

you felt like you just failed a quiz you didn’t know that was happening, despite being prepared to ace it.

it wasn’t like you to fail, however. especially not to him.

[ 🩷 — TAGS! @angelicful @lilipads @zaunsin @m4dyy @okkotszn @rhythmloid @cosmicbarstardust @thespaceinbetweennothing @cu1tvenus @huniedeux @oharasfilipinawife @ilovemuppets @loonalockley ] feel free to comment if you’d like to be added to the taglist!

[brekkie-e]

I think if i write veilgaurd fic im just gonna.... x delete the factions. Would have been so much better to explore the same concepts with established lore groups. Dalish instead of Veil Jumpers. Crows instead of Xmen. Morally ambiguous pirates instead of Lords of Fortune.

Hell maybe even toss in the Inquisition as a faction of note, or bring in Southern Templars and Mages to kind of explore where those groups are now since we've been following them for so long and tbh im more invested in that than a whole bunch of groups with undefined motivations and goals.

Seriously the veil jumpers are just "random folks addressing magical anomalies as they come with no clear funding or purpose beyond we told you theyre here. theyre an established enough group to have uniforms but dont have an origin for how they came to be or an expressed end goal."

And the lords of fortune wkjrkejek3u3o3. Bunch of free spirited adventurers living on the edge for cash! Except we arent pirates because that would be wrong. We only take from ruins because that doesnt hurt anyone. Except we limit which ruins we take from with the help of our cultural sensitivity advisor. So we dont profit off of anyones cultures. So we make no cash which is kind of the opposite of what a group of cut throat adventurous thieves would do.

Just. Idek. Why did we go off the road? Why??? We're lost in the woods with these weird ass groups and none of it makes any sense

[asynca]

Im in my 20s and I was disabled by covid. At this point idek what to do to make people care. Tomorrow I literally have to decide whether I can risk exposure by going to the ceremony to receive a 1500$ scholarship (they might not give it to me if I don't go). The price tag isn't high enough to risk losing even more physical function and potentially having life threatening complications. And that's just one example of all the opportunities im missing bc nowhere is safe anymore. I hate it. I would have loved the free food & chance to network. Thanks for wearing a good mask and caring

Sorry for dropping that vent in your asks actually that wasn't cool. I was just frustrated by that post, like damn you gotta make it about fandom for people to care, but thats unfair of me. I hope your colleagues are getting good treatment! It sucks but at least we're still alive and we're gonna keep fighting to stay alive

oh god I read the second ask first and I was like, "Fuck. I guess the first post is going to be serious asy hate," but it wasn't at all.

It sucks you need to choose. People really couldn't give a fuck at this point, like they seriously think they won't be disabled by COVID. When you catch it for the first time you have a 1/5 chance - 20% - that you will be disabled by it, at least temporarily. The more you catch it, the higher the likelihood you will be disabled and the longer and worse you will be disabled by it.

If you're my age and over, you also need to worry about actually fucking dying from it. I have a work colleague who's been in and out of hospital these past few weeks and came very close to death. She's still not out of the woods right now, actually.

LIke I get people want to socialise - totally fine! - but what's with the aversion to clean air and masks? A portable HEPA air filter that will do a big room like a classroom costs $150 and the filters are $30 and you change them every 6 months. One of those lowers the likelihood anyone in the class will infect each other by EIGHTY PERCENT. A filter plus masks makes a classroom much safer for everyone, but especially for people who are at higher danger of being disabled from COVID.

The more research comes out about it, the worse we realise covid actually is for us. It's neurotoxic. You lose some brain function each time you get it - FOR REAL.

Man this is going to be one of those things we look back in 20 years and go "why didn't anyone care?" "why didn't we do anything!?"

Super big condolences to disabled folks, either pre-covid or from covid, who feel totally fucking alone fighting this thing.

[wolfblood-of-anubis]

Folks! I did a thing.

I took the liberty of screenshooting all the Among Us looks to see if they inspire you for characters (again, these are just examples and meant to inspire!) Just what I think the characters might like, and if you like them too feel free! Or match them up, play with the inventory you get as a player✨

The colors kinda just went there, but really it’s up to whoever gets the character (but seriously, if you get Willow you gotta give her orange)

i gave Nina very USA hats, a sheriff one and a classic cowboy one

as for Fabian, i gave him the sleuthy Sherlock hat, obvi. also love that his color is the same as their uniform

i gave Patricia a scary mask thing that i think she’d like, and the chef hat was fun because of her cooking stuff in s2. the viking helmet is just random but i think she’d dig it (there’s a few random ones in here)

all of Amber’s make me so happy

Joy gets a hot pink as well as the halo which i love, she has never done a single bad thing in her entire life. the flamingo is random but fun that i think she’d like

Jerome got a morally gray color and a suit obvi. the ram horns are funny bc there arent devil horns so this is the closest one, then you have the noir hat as well as the biggest hairdo they have

KT’s a goofball and she’s having fun. the diving goggles and snorkel remind me her scene with the rainbows and then you have a flower and a cherry, just as fun and happy as her

Eddie got his backwards baseball hat bc ‘murica, he has two hats on in the next picture because he’s the 2nd Sibuna leader hehe, and then a block of cheese bc idek it was random

Willow’s speaks for itself

Mara doesn’t have a hat but rather a lab coat

Mick gets a knight’s helmet

Trudy’s made me laugh like she just got done washing her hair and all of a sudden chaos is happening and she’s there with the towel

Victor got a guard outfit and angry brows

since i’m playing as Alfie, his look is a surprise <3

[tasedandconfused]

i miss k/enneth b/ranaugh

[statementlou]

Can you help me explain what rads thought was gospel? And that algorithm thing what was that? Thank you!!

oof I'm not going to really do this justice, but the whole party line of this huge segment of fandom (which bleeds heavily into discourse in larrie circles without people really realizing it- people will accept certain things as fact and then use them to base arguments off of without realizing that those ideas are just things said without basis by people who also believe, for example, that Harry is actively working to sabotage Louis' career because he hates him) is that Louis is constantly fighting his label and team because they force him to do things (like for example the reason he talks about stunt stuff is because otherwise 'THEY' won't 'LET' him tour rather than, the choices and trade offs a closeted person makes to make it in the industry are complex and sometimes shitty) and that his label and team don't do the things they should to support him and that powerful people in the industry are actively working to sabotage his career to the extent of paying radio stations NOT to play his songs because he crossed people while in 1D. And so they are very protective of him, which is nice right like aren't we all, but specifically with an inflated sense of self importance-- we have to do promo for Louis because NO ONE ELSE WILL, his label doesn't do anything the only reason any of his releases have any success at all is fan projects (yes people seriously believe this)-- and with feeling sorry for him like POOR LOUIS HE IS SO OPRESSED BY THE POWERS THAT BE (and by Harry, lol) OUR POOR HELPLESS VICTIM BABY. Louis himself, in contrast, has spent the last few years repeating that he would rather people did not feel sorry for him in a way its hard not to feel is pointed, and telling us that he has chosen to do something other than chase number ones in a way that also feels pointed (especially that he would keep repeating that while occasionally also admitting that well... it would be all right if it happened! and making some efforts to see if he can make it happen without compromising what he wants to do), and we have seen firsthand all the things his label and team are doing (including A LOT of promo) and how well it is all working. But you still get folks who will say that he's lying, he's being made to say that stuff, that his team are lying- I literally saw a post saying that the head of BMG Italy was lying about the capacity of the Milan show, that it wasn't really 17k or whatever it was, to make it look like Louis was doing well when really his tour was flopping because BMG didn't want to do their job, or, something. IDEK. So when someone says 'wow look the algorithm put Louis on a spotify indie playlist!', maybe they just don't understand how spotify/promo/capitalism work and think that's how you get a new single on spotify playlists (it's not; your label/ team pay them) but just as likely they are coming from a place of, we know his team doesn't do promo (because some people on tumblr said so) so this must be how it got there!

In today’s article we learn tons about exactly what is being done behind the scenes, and we get Louis saying how he chose the people he works with and is happy with that choice and that it bothers him to be pitied. But I can tell you with certainty that at least one person will unfollow me for this, 3 others I don’t know about will block me, and nothing will change any more than it has at any other point over the last 3 years when he told us the same stuff :/  it’s always simpler to have a villain to be mad at when things happen that aren't what you want (Louis coming out, Louis being the biggest pop star in the world, whatever) after all

[bakubub]

In which Racer!Kuroo is your roommate and you finally learn more about him...

Warnings: Mentions of loss of loved one, disregard for own life, swearing, innuendos and implied nsfw (but sfw overall), fem!reader with she/her pronouns.

A/N: Idek what this is. Its literally a 4.6 k mixture of fluff, angst and comfort... I rewrote this like 4 times :,) being a perfectionist is so,,, tiring.

This takes part shortly after this, you can definitely read this without reading the 'part 1' if you will, since they don't depend on one another.

Art belongs to @aikk00 ,, and yes I am still in love with it :D

I stumble out of the lecture hall, my eyes so heavy I bump into about 3 other students and mumble my apologies until I fully wake up and snap out of my daze.

Walking down the stairs and making my way to the bus stop, I watch in horror as the bus I was supposed to be in drives off, going fast for once in its damn life as if mocking me.

Inhaling sharply through my nose, I manage to keep my composure and sit down at the bus stop, telling myself the next bus will be here in a bit.

It's fine. It's fine. I slept through the lecture, and I still have to catch up on 4 subjects and make dinner, but at least the house is clean and I'm caught up in that one subject I picked up for this exact reason.

It's fine. It's going to be just fi-

The rumble of a loud engine breaks my shitty but somewhat effective self-reassurance motto and I open my eyes to see a black and red sports car going 60 km/h in a 30 zone, effectively getting mine and everyone else's attention.

I watched in horror for the second time today as this time it stopped right in front of the bus stop. No, no, no, no.

No.

Please no.

He rolls down the passenger window with that ridiculous hair and a shit-eating grin, as he nods towards the seat, revving his engine.

I look away, pretending he's not looking directly at me and that I don't live with the guy, which I immediately regretted when he beeped the fucking horn.

What did I do to deserve this humiliation?

I hastily put my head down as he beeped it again, giving up and rushing towards his insufferable car, getting into the passenger seat and slumping in my seat to keep my head down low.

"What is wrong with you? What are you even doing here?" I hiss, my glaring up at him from my awkward, folded position.

He laughs, and when I hear the sound of a photo being taken in the split second I looked away to readjust my bag, I sit up straight, watching him continue speeding as he stuffs his phone into his pocket.

"Are. You. Trying. To. Kill. Me?!" I ask, my voice little less than a screech as I slap his arm with each word.

"Ow, ow, I just came to pick my roomie up! I sensed you needed a ride, and this is the thanks I get?" he asks, that smirk I have come to hate returning to grace his features.

I glare at him, but a small, sleep-deprived part of my brain is distracted by his appearance. A tight black tee adorning his built figure, his biceps are on display as he drives with one hand, the other resting on the gear shift. The air from his rolled down window is ruffling his hair this way and that, and I find myself wanting to run my hands through the raven strands, just as I had when I washed his hair that one time...

"Wait- how the fuck did you know I didn't have a ride?" I ask incredulously, my reaction time clearly delayed but here nonetheless.

I narrow my eyes as he hesitates before he answers, "I just knew, ok? It's not like it’s astrodynamics, not that I can't figure that out too."

"Kuroo, what the hell is astrodynamics? Are you like, spying on me or something?" I ask, pretending to look out the window so as to not get distracted by his appearance once more.

"What do you common folk call it? Rocket science?" He says, once again exceeding the speed limit.

"If I'm a commoner, does that make you a peasant? Also, stop going so fast, I feel sick and I do not feel like dying today."

He rolls his eyes in response as he slows down by a smidgen, the speed meter barely even moving. "Seriously, you may have no consideration for yourself, but I still have a lot of things to achieve with my damn life so slow the fuck down." My words finally reach the rational part in him and he slows down considerably, now going within the speed limit.

Taking a deep breath, I rest my elbow on my door and look out the window, my mind flooding with thoughts about Kuroo's reckless driving and how it can all go sour with one delayed reaction.

Before I know it, we're rolling up to our apartment building, driving into his private garage only the penthouse owners get to use.

"I'm sorry," he mutters, filling the silence in the car.

"It's ok. I just... I want you to be safe. I know its hard, but... just try," I say quietly, unable to look at him.

"That's what he said," he says hastily before rushing out of the car before I can hit him.

Getting out of the vehicle myself, I send a murderous look his way and run after his retreating form.

A small part of me is grateful that he's acting like his usual unbearable self again, but the rest of me is just mad at his relentless sex jokes.

He hits the elevator button before I can get there and I watch the doors close, his smirk practically shining through the crack of the closing doors. I jam my foot in the middle at the last possible second, and smile victoriously as I get into the metal box and slap his arm once again.

"Ooh, do it harder," he practically moans, and my eyes just about pop out of their sockets in embarrassment as my face flushes a deep red.

"Oh shut up," I mutter, turning around and waiting patiently for the doors to open on the top floor. I hear him snicker and then the sound of a photo being taken, turning around sharply. I yell in defiance and throw my bag on the floor as I jump onto him in an attempt to grab his phone out of his hand and delete the probably unflattering photo.

I straddle his back and reach for the phone he easily holds out of my reach. Leaning across his shoulder in a feeble attempt to reach it, my feet are hooked around his chest and my other hand is using his shoulder as a brace. He's laughing hard at this point, and I'm screaming at him to give me the damn phone. Neither of us notice the elevator doors opening nor the small woman standing at the threshold staring at us in shock and amusement.

"Kuroo Tetsuro! You let that poor girl down this instant, young man!"

We both froze at the authoritative voice, slowly turning to look at a small dark haired woman with a straight shoulder length cut and narrow gold eyes that were glaring at the man under me.

"MUM!" He exclaims, setting me down and running to hug and kiss the woman, his mum apparently. "What are you doing here?" I hear him ask as I straighten myself out, fixing my jumper and tucking my hair behind my ears, picking up my bag off the floor and quickly following them out of the elevator.

"What, a mother needs an excuse to come visit her boys? Where's Kenma?" She asks, looking in the elevator again as if to check if she missed him.

"Oh, he's at his own place. Apparently he has a booked in session with this famous gamer today. Did he say he'd be here?" Kuroo asks, letting go of the woman and leaning on the wall.

"No, I didn't tell anyone I was coming to visit. Never mind that, who's this pretty young lady here, hmm?" She asks, raising a perfectly shaped brow as she walks towards me, the click of her heels echoing in the lobby of the penthouse.

I smiled down at her, since she was considerably shorter than even me, and introduced myself. "It's very nice to meet you, Mrs. Kuroo." I say, bowing.

"Oh no, no, none of that. You can call me mum too, hmm?" She says, gesturing me up from my bow and pulling me down for a tight hug.

"Oh, um, actually, me and Kuroo aren't-"

"We’ll talk more comfortably inside, no? Tetsuro, is your plan to let me stand here all day?” She asks, letting me go and turning around to look at Kuroo.

Kuroo leaps into action, taking his mum's bag and unlocking the door, helping her out of her heels and leading her into the spotless penthouse.

It was all I could do to nod in response, closing the door behind us and walking down into the kitchen to prepare a meal.

It’s crazy how much I don’t know about this guy. He’d never mentioned his mother before, and briefly mentioned that he has a sister, whether older or younger I have no idea. Kenma, however, I know well. The guy was here all the time when I first started living here, but recently I've seen him less and less. Which is a shame, considering we actually got along quite well, with sharing eye rolls and bonding over our mutual love of Minecraft.

I don't notice silent footsteps following me until Kuroo's Mother says "now, why's a beautiful girl like yourself slaving away in the kitchen? Does that boy make u do all the cooking and cleaning like some mid-century housewife?"

I poke my head out of the fridge, smiling at her fair assumptions, "no, no, it's not like that at all. I actually-"

"Uh, mum! You know I'm incompetent with this stuff. This place would be a mess if she wasn't here to run things! Plus, she loves to cook and finds cleaning therapeutic. Hey, her words not mine," Kuroo quickly jumps in, putting his hands up defensively when she looks at him with a raised brow.

Looks like he doesn't want his mother to know of our little arrangement.

"Right. He's just so hopeless, I can't trust him to do anything," I add on, sending her a smile as I prepare the fish he likes.

"You're making grilled mackerel for dinner?! Oh that's gonna hit the fu- the fun spot," he says, saving himself at the last second.

I hold back a snort as I take out a pan, "open the window, fish boy. It's about to stink here and I can't be bothered with Mrs. Suzuki coming all the way upstairs just to complain about the fish smell, and then complaining that she had to come up here in the first place. God, I hope she isn't sitting on the balcony today," I ramble, trying to see her balcony from outside the window, but fail because of the private location.

Damn these amazing architects.

I hear his mum chuckle at my rambling as she begins to take out ingredients for a salad. "Oh, you don't have to help, please sit and make yourself comfortable," I say, moving towards her to take the lettuce out of her hands.

"No, no, I'd like to pitch in. Now what kind of mother-in-law would I be to let you do everything yourself?" She asks, holding the lettuce away from me and walking over to the sink.

I stare at the back of her head, a flush creeping up my neck, "m-mother-in-law?!" I ask incredulously, glancing over at Kuroo who looked suspiciously... Smug. I look away quickly when he meets my eyes, and I hastily hyper-focus on the fish in front of me, placing it on the heated pan, causing sizzling and popping to fill the awkward silence.

"I'm sorry darling, I don't mean to be overbearing. Tetsuro introduced you as his girlfriend, so I thought things were getting serious since he actually allowed us to meet one another. You see, he’s never introduced me to a girl before, so you can imagine my excitement. I can stop if you're uncomfortable-"

I cut her off, feeling even more embarrassed as I realise the role I am to play in Kuroo's life when his mother is around. I mean, it makes sense, he can't exactly just admit he took a random girl into his house.

"I, um, no really it's fine, I understand" I say, my voice small as I flip the fish.

She lets out a delighted laugh and pulls me down into a hug once more. The smile on my face is genuine as my embarrassment melts away, the bright smile of this woman comforting me.

"So, how did you guys meet?" She asks, chopping up the ingredients for her salad on the bench while I'm at the stove, Kuroo leaning on his elbows on the bench.

"At uni," I answer at the same time as Kuroo states, "at a party."

We both look at each other with wide eyes, and I clear my throat to clarify, "at a uni party. A classmate of ours hosted one and we met each other there."

"I see, so the old boozed up one night stand turned into quite a domestic relationship hmm?" she suggests, wiggling her eyebrows at Kuroo.

"What? No, no, I would never! A one night stand? Booze? Please, what kind of man do you take me for?" Kuroo complains, looking offended.

I turn around towards the stove and roll my eyes. I've heard the rumours around campus, practically every girl in my lecture hall can testify to at least making out with the man. He really puts up a façade for his mum.

I hear the doorbell ring, and quickly take the fish off the stove to go answer it as Kuroo bickers with his mother about how innocent he really is.

"Hello? Who is it?" I ask, pressing the buzzer.

"Uh, hello? Is this Tetsu's place?" A deep voice answers. I look at the camera, seeing Kenma and a bunch of men about Kuroo's age looking confused. The one who answered is a guy with a blond mohawk and piercings adorning both ears.

"Yes, just give me a second," I reply. "Kuroo, I think Kenma and the rest of your friends are here? Should I let 'em up?" I shout out.

"Yeah let 'em in," he calls back. I press another button, letting them into the lobby.

I need to make more food.

Quickly taking out my frozen dumplings I stocked up for emergency dinners for days I couldn't be bothered to make anything better, I whip up a quick sauce, thinking I could split the fish and put it in the middle of the table so everyone can take their share.

"I do apologise darling, I let my Kenma know that I came to visit and he must have told the boys. I think they've all come to see me," Kuroo's mum confesses.

"You must be a very loved woman if they came all this way to see you. And it's no worries really, I'm always prepared for guests," I say, putting her at ease.

She beams at me as the door is banged loudly.

Kuroo mutters something about “rude assholes'' as he goes to open the door, a group of tall men making their way through the threshold.

"Hiya cap'ain," the mohawk guy says, patting Kuroo on the back. A tall, light brown haired man was next to greet him, then proceeded to exclaim "MUMMA KOZUME!!" and practically jumped onto the poor woman.

Wait, did he just say Kozume? Isn't Kenma's surname Kozume?

"Hey mum," Kenma greets, kneeling down to hug Kuroo's mum.

Who's mum is this lady?! I swear to god I'm going to go crazy.

"Hello hello everyone," A massive grey haired guy says, kissing Kuroo's mum on the cheek and hugging Kuroo.

The last guy to greet them is a tan guy with a buzz cut, and he does the same as his friend before.

"So Kuroo, when di'ja get yourself a girl, huh?" The grey haired guy asks, looking offended that he didn't know before now.

I raise my eyebrows as Kuroo just smiles guiltily. He introduces me to his friends and I wave hello, as they all begin to introduce themselves.

The grey haired guy says his name is Lev and that he's half Russian. A weird detail to include but interesting I guess.

The light brown haired man introduces himself as Yaku, and says that he was Kuroo's senpai back in high school.

"Yeah a demon senpai," Kuroo mutters in reply. My smile quickly turns into a grimace as Yaku jumps on him and they both start brawling on the floor, making a loud ruckus. A loud thumping can be heard from downstairs as Mrs. Suzuki starts to lose her mind and continues to bang the handle of her broom to her ceiling.

"Ugh, you morons upset Mrs. Suzuki! She's going to talk my ear off next time I see her..." I complain, grabbing a cushion and throwing it at the boys.

They flinch at my anger and quickly get up, muttering a quick apology. My glare softens as mohawk introduces himself as Yamamoto, and the tan guy says his name is Kai whilst vigorously shaking my hand.

"It's very nice meeting all of you. Dinner will be ready in a bit so please just make yourselves comfortable," I announce, making my way back into the kitchen.

The boys, all sporting grins, make their way to the living room and sit on the couches, man-spreading and slouching all over the place, one person taking up the usual spot for two.

I sigh, focusing on the dumplings in front of me.

I stiffen as I feel large hands on my waist, and a presence behind me. Visibly relaxing once I realise it's Kuroo, I turn around, his hands still resting on my hips, and his face nestled in the crook of my neck.

"Please just go along with it. We have to act like a couple if they're going to believe us," he mutters, his hot breath causing shivers to run up my spine.

I simply nod, instinctively placing my arms around his neck and running my fingers through his hair, something I've wanted to do since that day.

He groans into my neck, and I find myself holding my breath as I continue my hand movements.

"OI LOVEBIRDS! MUM SAYS THE DUMPLINGS ARE GONNA FUCKIN' STICK! Ow! Oh, sorry," I snatched my hands back from Kuroo, pushing his chest, my cheeks flushing in embarrassment.

What the fuck am I doing?!

I turn around back to the stove, mixing the dumplings in the boiling water as my thoughts race.

That felt too real, too much like a real relationship.

And way too addicting, apparently, since I already miss his close proximity.

The warmth on my waist disappears as I hear Kuroo running back into the living room.

"SHUT UP YOU MORON, THE DUMPLINGS ARE FINE!" I hear him scream, and then a loud thud as he presumably tackles whoever yelled at us to the ground.

I sigh as I hear Mrs. Suzuki's muffled thuds from downstairs in record time.

"You know I'm going to have to make Mrs. Suzuki some kind of apology cake because you boys can't sit down and act like adults," I complained, my arms crossed and an unimpressed expression on my face.

Lev and Yamamoto are on the floor playing some kind of Connect 4 game I've never seen before, while Kai looks to be having a deep conversation with Kuroo's mum, who is perched on the single arm chair like the queen she is.

Kenma is hogging the tv playing some kind of video game on Kuroo's ps5 (which I've hogged on more than one occasion), and Kuroo on the other hand has Yaku in a headlock.

He immediately lets go and apologises, and so does Yaku, who even bows in his regret.

I roll my eyes and shake my head at his mum, who just laughs, and I make my way back into the kitchen, setting food on the table and calling them in to eat.

After dinner, I find myself showered in compliments and not a bite of dinner leftover for tomorrow's lunch. Damn I'm good.

I served up cake I had already prepared from earlier along with fruits I washed and set on plates, and watched as that was eaten and finished before I even sat down. Kuroo's mum scolded the boys for poor manners, and they all apologised. Well, all except Kuroo, who just wiggled his pierced brows and winked at me.

I sit down on the floor next to the couch, since it was all occupied, and hear a dissatisfied sound coming from Kuroo's mum.

"Now, now, sweetheart. You don't have to be shy around me, just go on and take your usual seat next to Tetsuro," she says, nudging her head in Kuroo's direction, where the only vacant spot was literally his lap.

I look at her with wide eyes, even Kuroo seems taken aback by her suggestion, and all the boys are immaturely ‘oohing’ loudly as they laugh and make fun of us.

Kuroo makes a gesture for me to come next to him, so I hold back my heavy sigh, try my best to hide the flush on my face, and walk towards him, awkwardly perching on his knee.

He chuckles as he grabs my waist and pulls me flush towards his chest, my butt in the corner of the couch and my legs resting diagonally over his, so that my head is directly in the crook of his neck.

I hate to say it, but this is actually really damn comfortable.

Conversation has started up again, but it becomes secondary to the beat of his heart right under my ear, and my eyes start to get heavy as his scent and warmth lull me to a comfort that is beyond being awake and alert.

---

Kuroo's POV

"What a cute girl she is, Tetsu. I'm so glad you've found her. And now that you've got her, you better. Not. Let. Go." She says, slapping me on the arm with each word of her last sentence.

What is it with women and slapping me?

"Ok, ok, I know mum, I won't stuff this up. I promise," I respond, smiling at her.

"Ok, well, I'm staying over at Kenma's house. Ah, no objections. You've already got your hands full, and I don't want to be in the way of young love. Plus, I'd rather listen to Kenma's midnight streams than you two in the middle of the night," she says, not accepting my objections and giving me a knowing look. My face warms to what she's insinuating, and I mutter a quick, "it's not like that," as I duck my head into Y/n's shoulder.

By this time the boys have all left, Kenma's downstairs waiting in his car for his mum to come, but she insisted on staying back for a few minutes to talk to me.

Y/n fell asleep a while ago now, still nestled on my lap, her head on my shoulder and her figure keeping me warm.

"I know exactly how it is, my darling. I've seen how you two act, pretending to be in a relationship just so we don't ask any uncomfortable questions. I won't meddle in your life, I never did, Tetsuro. But I will give you advice I expect you to consider. Don't let her go. Neither of you were pretending about your feelings towards each other, let me tell you that much." She says, knowingly looking at me.

I look up in alarm, which quickly morphs into a nervous laugh. She's good, I'll give her that much.

But, can Y/n really mirror my feelings?

"Ok darling, better not leave Kenma waiting any longer. I'll visit again tomorrow, or you can come over to Kenma's, whichever you prefer as long as she comes along too. I want to get to know my future daughter-in-law better!!"

With that, the woman who took me in and treated me like her own left my home.

I look down at my roommate, taking in the way her lashes are long enough to brush against her face, the way her brows are just a tad bit asymmetrical, the stroke of her nose and the bend of her cupid's bow.

I can't help but bring my hand up to caress the side of her face, content to stay here forever.

Mum would've loved her.

This thought broke the dam that held back my tears since middle school, and as they fell down my face I couldn't help but think of my own mother, coming in and hugging her, making her famous pie that I can't remember the taste of anymore. A sob racks my figure and I all of a sudden find a pair of e/c eyes staring up at me, my tears having dampened some parts of her face.

Wordlessly, she straightens herself and wraps her arms around my neck, running her fingers through the back of my head, stroking down towards my nape and up again. I cry into her shoulder, tears that I've bottled up, emotions I've ignored because I've had my dad, my grandparents and the Kozume's. Later, I even had the team, and they all followed me to the racing gig, a place where I can express my emotions through the reckless driving that could claim my life any second. I should have been grateful. Instead, the pain of her absence never ceased.

I clutch the back of her sweatshirt as I cry and cry and cry, eventually tiring myself out and running out of tears.

With dry sobs still racking my body every few minutes, she finally leans back, cupping my face in her gentle hands.

"What's the matter, Kuroo?" She whispers, looking up at me with tears shining in her own eyes. "You can tell me anything, or you can say nothing at all. Either way, I'm here for you. I'll always be here for you," she says, touching her forehead to mine and closing her eyes. She stays here for a moment before moving to get up and drag me up too.

"Come on, let's get you into your pjs and into bed. It's getting late."

---

Your POV

Now in his usual shorts and singlet, I drag him to his massive bed, opening the neatly made bed and gently sit him down.

His hazel eyes follow me as I go to close the curtains, his lashes still wet from the countless tears he shed, his body still hiccupping with dry sobs.

Once I've put his blankets around him, I go to leave, muttering a goodnight as I leave.

"Y/n," I hear before I close the door. I peek my head in, "please stay."

Without a pause to think about his request, and already in my own pyjamas, I go next to him and crawl into his open arm as if I've been doing it every night, snuggling into his shoulder once more and wrapping my arm around his chest.

After a few moments of silence, he begins to speak in a raspy tone, "she's not my real mum. She's Kenma's mum, and I've... I've called her mum since I was around 7," he takes a deep breath before continuing. "I moved in with my dad and grandparents next door to the Kozumes when I was 6. I was nervous and shy back then. You wouldn't even recognise me because of the 180 turn my personality's taken. Kenma was even more social than I was. He was my first friend, and when I got him into volleyball and we met Coach Nekomata. That man inspired me to be the man I am today, and was the main reason why I joined the volleyball team in high school, and made friends with the guys. He did what my mum should've, supported me and gave me the confidence to live my life," he says, his voice cracking with the last word. I hug him tighter, knowing not to say anything as of yet.

"I just wish... I wish she didn't go. I wish she could've met you, Y/n. She would've loved you even more than Kenma's mum does," he confesses with a chuckle, sniffling and turning towards me to look me in the eyes.

"She would've seen the way I was around you. The different man I become. You make me a better person, Y/n. I find myself wanting to be better for you. I could never thank you enough for that. Please, never leave. Just stay with me, and I'll always be here for you," he says, repeating the same words I said to him earlier.

I can't help the smile from taking over my features and I lean in to kiss his nose, his eyes, his cheeks and finally I press my lips against his, something I have been wanting to do for a very long time.

"I will, Kuroo Tetsuro. I'll always stay with you."

A/n: So, I don't actually know if his mum passed away or if she left them, so I kind of just,, did both ?

Taglist: @3daa & @itsgiorgiaz

Notes, interactions and reblogs are highly appreciated <3

[aerltarg]

sansue fanatics' logic is so funny to me, honestly. “don't pit girls against each other they're SISTAAHS” or even “they're related!!!1!” when they got caught on stealing from arya again. damn, somebody call lannisters stans! jaime fans, why some of you hate cersei? they're related! cersei stans, what's up w your attitude towards tyrion? they're related! tyrion stans, why you pit him against his own family? toxic much? catelyn fans, how are you feeling? you must love lysa and cat equally, btw, bc SISTAHS. where are ppl going around and telling stannis stans that robert, stannis and renly should be loved equally? greyjoys stans, what's up? targ nation, i can't believe we really hate some of our faves' relatives smh, how did it come to us sinking that low. and actually i wish there were folks telling the assholes who theorize abt jon killing dany to fuck off bc yk what? THEY'RE RELATED

seriously tho, idek what's more dumber - claiming that if you prefer one female character over another bc ~feminism~ (as if it isn't offensive in itself to act like all female characters are interchangeable and the same and ppl aren't entitled to their own preferences...) or claiming that you shouldn't prefer one character over another if they're relatives. yk. in a fandom of such book series as asoiaf. too much stupidity to unpack here, don't even know where to start 💀

[dndaddyissues]

I ran a one shot dungeon crawl for some of my friends and 2 of them just quit about halfway through the final battle without giving me any warning and idek how to address that?? But that was my first time running something and it was a lot of work and I just really don’t want to play with them anymore but they’re in a campaign in also in. Advice I guess??? TLDR: what do you do when your players quit in the middle of combat and without warning/time frame

that’s.... really rude?? i’m sorry that happened to you. especially for your first time running something. it sounds really discouraging.

unless both players had some kind of emergency, or their internet got disconnected, or something came up in the game that made them seriously uncomfortable, this kind of tapping out is just.... inconsiderate.

like, if you’re not having fun in a session, don’t just DC without saying anything. bring it up after the session ends and tell your GM what to improve on next time. i recently implemented “call outs” after each dnd session with my main group: when session ends, we all go around and say 1 thing we liked that another player and the GM did.

and then we hold space for folks to voice their feelings about anything that happened in the session that made them uncomfortable / not have fun, and space for other players / the Gm to validate that and/or give feedback on their feelings.

finally, we go around and say 1 thing we liked about our own performance in the session.

all this is advice / suggestion for a ritual for you to implement with your players, moving forward, that could help address issues like this in the future. barring more context/further information, quitting like that is just so disrespectful to you as the GM and also the other players 🤷🏻‍♀️ sorry again that you had to put up with it!

[felassan]

I'm sorry if this is a dumb question, but... How exactly does lyrium potions work? I mean, lyrium can't be digested because it's literally poison, right? So how do mages replenish their mana during fights, given that they are unable to simply sip the mixture and throw the bottle away? Is there any explanation of this process?

hi Nonnie, no you’re fine, it’s not stupid. I encourage folks who have questions or things they’re wondering about to hmu like this becuz I genuinely enjoy talking about this stuff and tryin to help :) I put this answer under a cut because it became quite long (although Tumblr coding is doing something whack with it idek).

as you say, lyrium is a really dangerous and volatile substance, and can cause both psychological and physical harm, especially to mages. there’s not an out-and-out explanation on your query or how lyrium potions work that I’m aware of, but there’s a few things at work here. (mages are definitely able to sip the mixture of a lyrium potion and replenish mana for the record! we see this in the books, and drinking lyrium potions also grants mages such things as the ability to enter the Fade when fully awake and temporary short-term access to power levels far greater than their natural magical potential. this is supported in the lore. mages also don’t need lyrium potions to perform magic, it only enhances what they can do and speeds up the replenishing of their strength. the average combat-experienced mage can probably cast more than three spells in battle without needing to chug a potion.)

now first, the explosive and seriously dangerous kind of lyrium is actually lyrium in its raw form, the ore as it is untouched in the earth. the most experienced members of the dwarven Mining Caste are capable (just about) of safely mining it. they can do this due to their natural resistance, though it must be noted that they’re not immune, that the resistance is only partial, and that if they go to the surface it’s lost over time. they then process and refine it into a form which is less dangerous. it’s this processed, refined lyrium which is in lyrium potions. the reason why we don’t know much about how the dwarves go about this mysterious process of processing and refining is because they keep it secret, and a jealously guarded one at that, to the point that only a handful of Mining families know how. but whatever they do, it renders lyrium into a variant form which is less dangerous, although not harmless of course. it needs to be processed like this for mages to even be able to approach it.

next, only a small quantity of lyrium is in a given lyrium potion (per the item description they have in one of the games). I suspect this (what feels to me as essentially amounting to dilution) also has an impact in lessening the potential for harm, or the extent of the harm done. this idea is supported by lore: “mages [consume it in a] diluted form... [overindulgence is bad,] particularly in more concentrated amounts”. in addition, to make a lyrium potion, the lyrium is “mixed with liquid”. this is just a feeling of mine, but I can’t quite imagine that a lyrium potion is simply a small quantity of lyrium diluted/dissolved/mixed up in a larger quantity of water. this is bordering on headcanon, but it’s possible that whatever other ingredients are in there, they help to render the lyrium to be.. more inert? more stable? less harmful to the body.

the lore also does actually acknowledge that lyrium potions have a damaging effect on the body for mages (see Vivienne’s comments on mana imbalance). there’s an element of what’s called gameplay-story segregation here. mages in Thedas aren’t truly chugging lyrium potions all the time on the field of battle the way we do in-game to restore mana, just like Dragonborns in Skyrim don’t really stop in the middle of a battle to eat ten wheels of cheese and five loaves of bread in order to regain HP. as a function of gameplay, spells require mana to cast, and so we require a way to restore mana. in reality mages wouldn’t be drinking lyrium potions anywhere near as often, and use of lyrium potions by (sensible) mages would be considered and measured. this is because the lore does actually say/acknowledge that long-term or excessive use of lyrium (i.e. potions) by mages can even lead to physical mutation (the uppermost magisters of the ancient Imperium reportedly became unrecognizable and inhuman-looking due to this). so it’s a resource that would be used sparingly and at time points which would be ‘spread out’, so to speak (or so I think). it should also be noted that unlike templars in the later stages of lyrium addiction, which is progressive and doesn’t get better, mages with mana imbalance are somehow able to recuperate from the effects. whatever the reason for this is, it’ll be do to with their being mages.

also, during the development of DAO, the effects of lyrium use and addiction were originally going to be shown in both mage characters and those with the templar spec. drinking the potions was supposed to yield diminishing benefits. DGaider wrote once on this saying:

The implementation we had was that, if the addiction developed, the use of lyrium had diminishing returns. You needed more and got less. The problem we encountered, is that mages pretty much needed to drink lyrium potions [note: this ties to gameplay-story segregation as mentioned above]. Addiction was practically guaranteed. So there needed to be some method of dealing with the addiction without rendering it pointless, and ideally some kind of story implication...

...and you can see why it suddenly became costly. If we could come up with some other implementation that was meaningful, I'd like to see return in the future -- it was something templar characters were meant to face as well as mages, after all.

ultimately they dropped it because they couldn’t find a way of implementing it that was both playable and cost-effective. the fact that this was dropped in this way contributes [on a meta level] a bit to the origin of where your question comes from.

hope this helps make sense of things somewhat :)

[zabreti]

the time has finally come for me to start expressing what i have been overwhelmingly feeling for the past week, since i started to properly listen to this sunshine of a woman named joanna newsom. i want to- actually, i need to vent a little about the album ys, since it’s the one i first listened to. plus my initial contact with joanna’s work and thoughts that came with it

even though i only found out about her a few months ago, i guess everyone knows her(?); if you don’t, you should. there’s not one single moment in which i’m not mad at myself for not finding her sooner. so fyi, she’s a harpist, pianist, singer and songwriter from nevada. according to some sources, she may be the most famous harpist alive today; i really don’t know about you, but it really sounds quite badass for me.

i started searching for her stuff after watching her husband’s - andy samberg - multiple interviews, where he would be sometimes asked about their marriage. i’ve been binge watching random interviews with people i like for the last weeks, and i found myself actually watching some interviews of hers before i even got to listen to her music.

btw, look at this fucking adorable couple. just look at them for a second.

first of all, what a lovely woman! each answer, each laughter, each little thing she did on camera caused an admiration for the idea of andy and her together to grow strongly; i wasn’t even sure if it was ok for me to feel so strongly about someone else’s relationship. my curiosity grew when i started to read the comments on these videos on youtube, pretty much 100% of them being about her intelligence, her talent and how her music sounds angelical, mystical and perfectly constructed. (let it be said that it only grew more and more as i watched every single interviewer asking both andy and joanna about how different their works are, and how different they appear to be as individuals; not only was suggested that andy would probably not rise up to such an intelligent, serious taste as to fall in love with her (he doesn’t even need to say a word for anyone to realize how passionately in love he is with joanna and her entire work), but also said that no one could believe she was actually able to be a goofy, easy-going, good-humored person because of the lyrics she writes. ok, i could spend hours listing the unnecessary questions i identified in these interviews, and how i get easily annoyed by these famous hosts assuming stuff or trying to create an uncomfortable environment; and don’t even get me started on the fact that most of the interviews she was invited to would revolve around her relationship with andy. i’m choosing to let this feeling pass for now, since it’s not my focus today.)

i couldn’t help but start by saying all this since i truly adore andy’s works, and nothing feels warmer than realizing two amazing people are in love and have a family together by choice.

i mean..... ??????? c’mon. greatest couple alive. try and fight me on this.

another interesting thing i found out was that she dislikes streaming platforms similar to spotify, which probably (?) justifies the fact that i never came across her songs, since i use spotify on a daily basis and have been using it to find new artists for the last years. call me ignorant, it’s fine, truly; but i haven’t heard of similar opinions coming from artists, and it made me even more curious to know what this woman was expressing, creating, thinking. she actually told larry king: 

“spotify is a business model. it’s not good. it’s based on the idea of circumventing the payment of artists. (...) i’m not opposed to streaming. i understand that the world is shifting and that the way music is valued and monetized is shifting, and i’m ok with that. and i’m even ok with people not paying for music (...), i just wish that there was a better way to do it that didn’t only pay a company. (...) i haven’t heard of one [alternative to spotify] that seems built the way that i would prefer it to be built.”

one of spotify owners (owners or directors, idek and idec) even replied to her many critics, but she never changed her mind or retreated from defending even her honest, harsh comments about how spotify is “like a villainous cabal of major labels”. for me, that’s a badass woman. not only for expressing herself without giving a damn about anyone who might be offended in this process, but also for choosing the path that felt ethical and worthy, and being recognized all over the world for her talent while following her own ways. i know, right? simply awesome.

there i was, reading the endless comments on her interviews’ videos and wondering what the fuss was all about. there was nothing left for me to do other than to actually start listening to her songs. i could have done it by looking up her discography and starting from her first project, but somehow i stomped into the ys album, which was released in 2006, in youtube itself.

first of all, would you look at this freaking cover?

i found it absolutely gorgeous in each detail; in fact, i really wish to know if there are meanings in the little specific parts of the painting. maybe there aren’t any and i’m just trying to create a more complex joanna in my mind? sure, sounds like me. or maybe there are lots of ‘em and she already said it on camera and i simply missed this video? sure, sounds possible. i won’t lie, i spent so much time thinking about this cover... maybe way too much time. alright, on we go.

there are 5 tracks on the album: emily, monkey & bear, sawdust and diamonds, only skin and cosmia.

at first, i didn’t quite understand what i was listening to. and i’m not talking about the lyrics, i’m talking about the whole idea of the album, the artist, the genre. the conjunction formed by her high pitches and soft, delicious vocal variations, surrounded lovingly by the harp and the violins was very mysterious to me. at first, i wouldn’t be encouraged to keep listening to her. but something kept me there, seated, staring at the screen and paying attention to each second of it. it was an experience. a real transportation. i searched for the lyrics on genius, and anyone that would pass by my bedroom’s open door would see me completely enamored by what i was listening to, like a concentrated kid being told an epic, adventurous, huge, beautiful and complex story. that is exactly how i felt: in the middle of a field, picturing each image she described in the song; each figure, each feeling. she described it all in a way that made me wonder how can someone describe a dream so vividly, how can someone describe anything so perfectly, so fully, and not sound redundant, not sound at all boring. the way the melody and the lyrics fit together, as a gift perfectly wrapped and tightly involved in the most beautiful way. i repeat: it was an experience. it is an experience. this is not something you can listen to at any given time, at any given place; i would not dare to not pay attention each time i would plan to listen to it. this is how seriously submerged i felt by joanna in that moment; in that entire day.

all of this, all of this immersion, all of this dream-like state in which i found myself in, kept growing its roots in me throughout the entire album, in a way i needed to show someone - anyone - joanna before i even got to finish the five songs; and the first one that came near me happened to be my mother. while listening, she actually found it quite pleasing, “like some old movie’s soundtrack” when listening to emily, “like an 1960′s melody” when listening to sawdust and sand, and on she went about the entire album. and this got me thinking about how i would describe her genre; of course, after following her on bandcamp i found out i was actually listening to some folk/pop/avant-garde/baroque pop/chamber folk/indie stuff. sounds about right, but at the same time not right at all, for some reason. i believe it’s fair to say that joanna has a magical, rare quality to her music that makes it different to each one listening to it. i’ve said it too much and i’ll say it again: it’s an experience, a complete, true one. it ressonates with deep, personal places. and, strangely, it makes many people describe the feeling that urges to grow inside their hearts as “home”; and i share this exact same sensation.

i really don’t know if it makes any sense, but see: i cherish my alone time probably more than anything in the world. i have learned to be my own best friend in many ways, and being by myself in some quiet days, at my house, reading, listening, watching and creating is when i can truly be myself. with that said, listening to this album, i felt at home. it made me feel even more alone, and i mean it in the most loving, warm, hypnotizing way. 

the ys album is a relatively quick production to be heard, even though it feels like you’ve been gone for hours, days, weeks on end while listening to it. the amount of literary, historic and philosofical references in the lyrics is magically overwhelming; i simply wasn’t able to snap out of it for a long time, and i have, to this day, re-listened to the album about 5 times. still reading the lyrics again and again, still grasping at some expressions faintly but amazed, still finding out about hidden and not so hidden meanings behind each track. still defining it, every single day.

i hope for the great discoveries i feel like pursuing from her work, and the diverse new singers, song-writers, harpists, pianists, violinists, chellists and musicists in general i’ll try to find, understand and support from now on. i’m thankful for finding out how much i love the mix between an orchestra-like atmosphere and a sweet, honest voice ringing in my ears; and how the words assembled together feels like a psychography.

i thank the universe every single day for the opportunity to discover people like joanna newsom.

[thirstyforred]

Wild Hungover ‘77 OCs & Lore 11/??

logo by @stillness138 🤗

idek what to add, it's been in my bean for the past 2 years now

Red Riders

No one seems to know where Red Riders, a cold chrome band that one heard off before, came from. It's like they just appeared one day and got Night City by storm. But all three of them, Mona [bass, vocals], Varhe [vocals, guitar], and Nam [drums] happened to be very attractive and had a distinctive aesthetic. And what punks of Night City love the most is some good, strong aesthetic.

It also happened that after their debut during The Silverhand’s Battle of the Bands in November 2067, Sylgie, owner of Samurai Club, the newest, hottest NC scene at the time, contacted them with a sweet, sweet deal. Sylgie didn't have much experience in actually managing bands, but she knew the right people in NC and was determined to make Red Riders big. And even tho later Riders accepted a pact with the devil that is a contract with an industry giant MSM MediaCorp, they never shied away from social commentary and managed to keep their cool and style.

The first album, named simply Red Riders came out barely four weeks after the Silverhand's Battle. It was a real reminisce of that first concert - lyrics full of lack of understanding of the world as it is and rebellion against it, all basically screamed into the microphone and ears of the listeners by main vocalist Varhe. Powerful bass and drum rhythms, the actual definition of what cold chrome is about, dirt and cold sounds that might be more at home in Totentanz than in more mainstream clubs, but somehow it just worked. With songs like Where the FUCK am I?? and WTF even is this place playing almost on the loop in radio Vexelstrom, Red Riders' first album was the hit of winter '67/'68.

The band played many gigs all around the city and at least once or twice even in some forgotten bars in Badlands, and in the meantime, they partied and made connections with other bands and influential people in Night City. In the summer of '68, they released ep PROJECT MAYHEM, which really solidified Riders images as the drink&riot kind of band. Especially after the summer music festival organized by various radio stations in the city, from which the band was kicked off from the night before their concert, but returned and played their set anyway. It was Red Riders' first performance in NCRadioFest, but thankfully not the last one - they returned for the second time, tho not in the full lineup, in '72.

In '69 premiered their second, vague, autobiographical concept album  -  ETERNAL WINTER. It was still weird and exciting, and only raised more questions about where the Riders even came from. Around this time it was also revealed that the group has a contract with MSM, which to this moment was kept secret. Fans started to turn away from music that was making them feel something, but all it took to bring them all back was the concert in Reconciliation Park that Riders played in the spring that year. It was more of a spontaneously thrown together wild music fest - on makeshift stage played with Riders some other more alternative, but successful bands like The Cartesian Duelists. Between the songs, Riders addressed their fans and the controversy and then premiered their upcoming single, Tramore Bitches, with some really poignant lines: "We care, seriously, but this city is a bitch, so we won't say no to the eddies we don't deserve." Folks saw that while yeah Riders have some backup, they still will do whatever they want and not much really can stop them. Single Tramore Bitches went gold, and with some help of corporation Avera, CEO of whom was a close friend with Nam, a somewhat edited and remixed version of the song became the official theme song of CyberOlimpics hosted by Night City 2070.

Before the fall of '70 really hit Riders announced that they're going on hiatus - they wanted some time for themselves and their personal projects. Folks were crying and dying on the streets, but Riders were fast to assure that it doesn't mean the end of the group, and soon after came out Mona's first solo album. Varhe released a few eps as well, and only Nam strayed away from the music, only sometimes guesting on other artists' projects.

The only thing that surely could be called their group project during that time was a three-part album curated by Mona. Forgotten Dreams was a collection of covers of almost lost to the DataKrash songs from the beginning of the XXI century - each rearranged and performed by different artists from Night City. With the only exception being the Riders themselves who, in duets and solo, and as a whole group, covered 10 of them. The first part of this project came out in '71 in spring, and the second in fall, but thank's to the whole Digital Dead Bodies controversy that one passed by almost completely unnoticed.

In January '72 Varhe played in Unplugged for Justice in Reconciliation Park, which despite the fact that he was the only Rider at the time in Night City, was recognized as Red Riders severing all their ties with Avera and Ascalon Club, and denouncing both. In the summer Forgotten Dreams III was released and by the end of the year, it finally got all the awards it deserved. The New Year concert was even announced and Samurai Club started selling ticked for the gig when the news of ripper gang targeting and kidnapping Mona came out, and even tho the whole thing ended more or less good, the show was called off.

Red Riders still managed to surprise everyone and on New Year's Eve they streamed their new year wishes and right before the midnight hit, they announced a new album, My photographer is a vampire out and free to download from their website. And as if that wasn't enough of surprises, barely a minute into 2073 they released also their last album. Also digital, also free, also unaffiliated with MSM MediaCorp, and titled Something ends, something begins. Their last concert happened to be during NCRadioFest '73, which played only Nam [on syths] and Varhe [bass] with additional musicians from different groups. And with that bittersweet goodbye, Red Riders officially disbanded, and all dropped from the music scene disappearing to whatever place they came from. For a hot second, some people claimed that they still saw Nam and Varhe in NC clubs, but by the end of the year, it was almost as if Red Riders were never there in the first place.

[jeanjauthor]

Hello, hope you’re having a good day. I was wondering for you lovely expertise. I’d like to write more of ladies in my little book, since it’s highly undervalued in books, and want each regions to have their own distinctive style. Also all the gossip happens whilst they’re embroidering. It’s historical based and but it’s quite a mesh of different cultures at different times yet the foods pretty European mediveal and south Asian based it’s not nearly sexist. Have you got any style ideas or types?

I’ll presume you mean it’s a non-Earth setting that’s pre-industrial medieval in its tech level, with influences from South Asia and Europe.

If it’s pre-industrial, then they won’t have instantaneous communication with far-flung places...but you can still have them living within, say, walking distance of each other.  How?  Well, if it involves a whole bunch of different styles and regions and foods, etc, you will want some sort of crossroads city for your characters to live in. Examples of highly multicultural cities include Rome, Constantinople, Mumbai, Hangzhou, places like that. 

Port cities are great for this because sailing can be faster than land-based travel (boats with sails don’t get tired so long as the wind keeps blowing more or less steadily), but land-locked crossroads are doable, too--cities along the Silk Road, for instance, would see a flux of travelers seasonally, and some would bring their families, or fall in love, settle down, and stay.  You definitely will want to consider a couple of things though, and trade with other regions is merely the first of them.

European medieval...well, everything...was influenced by its climate.  The foods that could be grown, the architecture needed to survive the hotter Mediterranean areas or the very cold taiga (subarctic forests) of Scandinavia, and everything in between.  They developed many methods of preserving foods to keep it from going rotten, but a lot of it relied on smoking, drying, salting, and even freezing  (icehouses were a thing in some regions even before it became industrialized).  Clothing styles are definitely designed more for surviving the cold and staying warm than in keeping cool, and to keep their clothing warm even when wet (yay wool).

South India (except in the more mountainous areas) tend to be very hot and vacillates between hot and dry and very very wet (yay monsoon season).  Food preservation did include salting, dehydrating, smoking, but very little freezing, and the flavoring profiles were completely different, as (unlike herbs) a lot of spice plants actually require a hot climate to grow.  (People trying to grow peppers in Alaska are still having a hard time despite decades of careful cultivation, breeding, and selecting for cold-weather hardiness.)  South Asian clothing styles are designed to keep the wearer cool and comfortable, and to dry quickly when it rains (yay sari fashion, the one garment that has been in continuous use / popularity for over 5,000 years).

So you’re going to have to decide what kind of region this city is located in, and what kind of weather and/or seasons it experiences.  From there, you can figure out what kinds of architecture they’ll have, the size of the windows, whether they’re covered all year round (glass, oiled parchment, sheets of horn, etc), or only partial, or narrow pierced openings to keep the air flowing while keeping out hot sunlight, etc.

From that, you can also interpret what kinds of clothing people will be wearing.  If cultural identity is strong, some groups will cling more to their saris and chamsas, while others will wear their hose and their houppelandes, or their Norse apron dresses, their great kilts, whatever.  (Archer hoodies, aka mantles, will be popular across a wide range of eras; they’re great for keeping head, shoulders, and a bit of the chest dry in the rain, and you can turn them into those fancy cockscomb hats if you know how--ask me if interested!)

Once you have climate, architecture, clothing established, figure out which foods will be locally available, which will be imported, from how far away, and whether or not any special equipment is needed for growing said food--if glass is a locally produced commodity, with sand reserves and limestone for flux (lowering the temperature) and plenty of wood or coal for burning in the furnaces, it is possible that a colder climate has glazed greenhouses in which to grow the plants that need hot conditions to produce spices, for example.  Or it’s just that all the colder climate foods are grown on the north-facing slopes of nearby hills, and there are irrigation canals everywhere to keep everything watered.

(If it’s a world with magic, do consider the ecology of how the magic is generated, used, spent, where it goes when it’s used up, how difficult it is to use, what system is required to access it (inner energies of a mage, special runes or material components, the blessing of a deity or patron entity, etc).)

If it’s not going to be nearly as sexist (thank youuuu!!  *gives you a basket of hugs, prepackaged in biodegradable shrinkwrapped, magically enchanted in stasis so they’re a fresh-from-the-dryer snuggly warm blanket kind of hug*), then you’ll want to decide what legal protections females (and/or any nonbinary folks) have.  What positions they can hold, how much of their personal belongings and/or income they can retain or control, what they’re legally allowed to inherit, and what say they have in who they marry or what job they take up, what apprenticeships they can hold, etc.

You don’t have to shove it in people’s faces, but you can definitely weave it throughout the story--Guildmistresses of various craft positions, noblewomen in leadership roles, royalty inherits based either on the firstborn, period, or on whoever is deemed the most competent--this can be an interesting plot point for a disaffected male “heir” who was set aside in favor of his more competent sister, etc--and in other ways.  You can also have women warriors being taken seriously, whether they’re town guards or kingdom soldiers, and women sailors being treated as equal to the men, without the superstition of “a woman on a ship will curse it!!!1!”  which was the medieval version of “ewww, girl cooties!” I guess... (idek *eyerolls at medieval/age of exploration men*)

Your plot will also have a lot to tell you about the world these people live in.  If they’re embroiderers who gossip a lot, are they living in a town where their embroidery is sought out by merchants from near and far?  How valued by their society is it?  Are they plotting while embroidering to change certain laws, social situations, etc, because “nobody would suspect embroiderers of favoring the disposed Crown Prince over his sister, since surely the sister will buy all their wares? (except she doesn’t; the crown princess expects them to provide it for free, how dare!!)”

I have no idea what your plot might be, but it can give you directions and ideas if you think about it.  The most important thing to remember in all of this is that all these things interweave together.  Sometimes this will cause problems (side plots!--zomg we’re all out of purple thread and the crown princess will kill us for not having any purple dye!!) and sometimes this will create solutions (sending secret messages to the prince’s supporters via embroidery!!), etc, etc.

Hope that helps at least somewhat!

#RewritingForFeminism

#MultipleCulturesInOnePlace

#answers

[nonbinarysasukes]

[RANT] I don't ship sakusasu at ALL but for some reason all the jokes about them getting a divorce really bother me??? Like, they're both happy, they built a sweet little family, but some folk are just SO anti Sakura that they'd still want to take their boy Sasuke, who's already had a very miserable life, and take yet another family from him, all for the sake of a bachelor-pad headcanon of theirs. Like, SOMEHOW this traumatized criminal got a happy ending, why you trying to take that from him?!

I’m so sorry anon… idek where you’re getting this from but… they’re not happy. Sasuke isn’t, Sakura isn’t. Sakura’s hanging onto a childhood crush and Sasuke’s taking what he gets because it’s “socially acceptable”. Sarada is literally the only thing that holds them together! She’s quite cute and I like her, but I don’t exactly see them as a good family? If anything, they’re the most dysfunctional unit I’ve ever seen. Not that the others in Boruto are that much better. I mean, Sai/Ino/Inojin is the only valid canon family anymore? Also Chōji and Gaara’s little families are cute too... I simply take SS as being in a relationship so they can avoid flak for being gay and help Sasuke continue the Uchiha clan through Sarada. 

Yeah, it is a little sad that people are clamouring for Sasuke to be alone. A divorce however doesn’t mean that he and Sakura would stop talking or anything - Team 7 is like a family to Sasuke. They are his best friends and the people he trusts most. And Sarada won’t stop being his daughter because he and Sakura are divorced. It would probably be the healthiest thing in Boruto for both Sasuke and Sakura right now. In canon? SS act like they’re divorced already so… yeah. It’s not exactly a happy ending for either of them... 

But I see your point. I mean, it really doesn’t depend on love; sometimes you can be married to your best friend for convenience. And a divorce would just mess things up further and traumatise Sasuke unless he and Sakura were both cool and wanted it, not because they were fighting but because they thought they were better as friends. So... yeah. Probably not the best route rn. Though, canon SS in Boruto is seriously making me think about it...