#if only I actually got to experience autumn where I live

[prythianpages]

theme change 🧡🍂

yes it’s still technically summer but my local coffee shops have now started serving fall drinks, therefore ‘tis the pumpkin spice season ✨

[valrayne-faeu]

we have gotten a few asks about the “rules” for making a sona or OC in the faeu, so if you’re someone that likes to be “canon-compliant” or have a set of rules to follow when making an OC, here they are! (feel free to not follow them if you don’t want to, you’re welcome to use your imagination)

Dream and Nightmare are the oldest current living fae in the Seasonal Realms at 1500 years old, older fae either left or died during the war

there are no hybrid fae (spring/autumn, summer/winter, etc). the Spring-Summer and Autumn-Winter magics are like oil and water and cannot mix. a fae has the magic of whatever realm they were born into, and a human that becomes fae will have the magic of whatever realm they were tricked in.

Spring-Summer fae can’t travel to Autumn-Winter (and vice versa) without protections or the blessing of the king of where they’re travelling. fae will fall very ill from the conflicting magic after spending even an hour across the border (Summer fae will have a cold and Winter fae will have a fever).

it is possible to convert to another realm, but it is a process and you have to be blessed by the king of the realm you’re switching to in a ceremony. however, if you convert to Spring-Summer and then change your mind and want to return to Autumn-Winter, Nightmare will refuse to let you return. so choose wisely. Dream is more lenient—if you convert to Autumn-Winter and then want to return to Spring-Summer, Dream will welcome you back.

there are certain physical traits associated with each court—

Summer/Spring Court - Antlers. Wings: Butterfly, Dragonfly, Bee, Praying Mantis, Wasp, Fly

Winter/Autumn Court - Horns. Wings: Moth, Beetle, Cicada, Grasshopper, Firefly, Cockroach

there are fae that aren’t based on insects! fae that are bird-like, have traits of dragons or unicorns, things like that. feel free to get creative with it ^^

fae can’t lie, it makes them physically ill. it’s not worth it to try. you can trade a human for the ability to lie, however only one fae has managed to do so. most fae don’t think it’s a skill they need, and the ability to manipulate words and dancing around the truth is a highly valued skill. fae culture loves wordplay. humans that are becoming fae will find telling lies makes them more and more ill until they’re dissuaded from it.

there are realms beyond the faewildes, and other kingdoms of fae with different magics. it is possible to travel from one to another through the wildes but it is dangerous. the faewildes do not have a ruler as wild magic doesn’t like to be tamed, but there are fae that survive out there (Error is one example).

in the fae realms there are some fae known as “Aspects”. fae that went through a lot of complicated, life-altering, incredibly influential experiences that were entirely concentrated around a singular concept of some kind. it changes them fundamentally as a person, concentrating their magic on that concept until they are tied to it intrinsically and it is as much a part of them as they are a part of it. events on the level of Frisk surviving a beam from Asriel as the god of hyperdeath at 0.0000001 HP through sheer Determination, or all the things that made Sans into Geno and then ultimately into Error. they become that thing personified. Aspects are incredibly powerful and exceedingly rare, and it’s a very big deal for one to happen. notable Aspects are Dream (Positivity), Nightmare (Negativity), Error (Chaos), and Ink (Inspiration).

a lot of the faeu is based on Celtic folklore—there are many interesting concepts and creatures to read about and pull inspiration from. i recommend reading up on the Tuatha Dé Danann and Aos Sí!

all fae can make magically-binding deals, even humans that just got tricked into staying in the fae realms that haven’t turned fae yet. magically-binding deals are usually limited to things that you can actually complete, such as trading something you own/have or doing some kind of service. with study and training it is possible to strengthen your magic and give intangible things such as a boon/luck/etc. the more tied you are to the magic of the realm the more powerful you are and the more complex of a deal you can make. it takes lots of study to reach this level.

[losersimonriley]

the worms crawl in, the worms crawl out

Simon and Johnny die. And then they wake up.

pairing: Simon "Ghost" Riley/John "Soap" MacTavish

tags: major character death, but they're both ghosts, afterlife, these two are so in love in every version of themselves, actually quite sweet despite how it sounds

word count: 1252

warnings for descriptions of decomposing human bodies

There is nothing left but the two of them.

No missions, no worldly travelling, no deadlines and commitments. No war and no enemy. No bureaucratic nonsense, no rules. Only endless time.

There is no plot to follow anymore.

He's dead. They're both dead.

He's just waiting for Johnny to wake up.

Time is different here—expansive and condensed, depending on which way he looks at it.

Johnny just needs to wake up. Simon has been lying by his side for so long now—or not so long at all. The wildflowers have turned brown and droopy, the willow tree has gone bright orange. It sways in the crisp wind, and grey clouds swirl.

They died in an embrace. Simon's arm is pillowed beneath Johnny's head, Johnny's rotted hand is falling into Simon's rotted cheek. Their faces are turned toward each other, so close, as if they'd been about to kiss right before the reaper took them.

Their bodies have gone past rigor mortis and bloating and purging. The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out. He can look on and chuckle as a maggot falls from his body's open mouth onto the dead grass beneath them. There is a particularly territorial fly situated over Johnny's chest. Anytime another creature comes too close to its treasure, it buzzes them right off. At least he's got free entertainment until Johnny comes to.

He feels so light after all this time.

In another year, green grass and blooming flowers will cover the spot where they lay. The ecosystem will work them into its space in whatever way it sees fit. Simon and Johnny will be long gone away from here.

They'll go find Price and Gaz probably, just as soon as Johnny settles into his new incorporeal form. It was…a lot to process by himself, being the first to wake. He hadn't understood it at first: looking on at his own dead body as if from a third person perspective. Being able to sit up, get up and walk around their perfectly picturesque autumn hillside. No graves, no cremation or burial, no marker.

He doesn't quite remember how they got here. He's hoping Fly Food here next to him has some idea on that part. If not, they'll figure it out from Price and Gaz. He hopes they're back at base, because that's where they'll look first. It'd be just like the two fuckers to send them on a wild good chase around the world, just trying to find them to figure out what happened.

Leaves fall around them.

He hums a tune stuck in his head—one he thinks he's heard Soap sing before.

Leaves pile up, and the temperature drops. Funny how he can still feel the chill in the air. He thinks he might be the chill in the air.

Another blink, another rustle of leaves, and Johnny is sitting up from his body. It's not like how he came up from his own—Simon's awakening was violent, like shooting up from a nightmare, breathless and heart hammering. Johnny blinks awake slow and sweet, stretching his arms like he's just had the best nap of his life. Bastard.

It's a holy experience to see him like this again. Lively. Not decomposed.

Johnny grins at him. "Mornin', beautiful."

"Fuckin' finally."

Like magnets, like it's the most natural thing in the whole of the universe, like they've done it all their lives—their lips meet in warmth.

Johnny holds both hands on his cheeks, preventing Simon from moving, even if he wanted to. Simon holds the back of Johnny's head, short hair of his mohawk threaded between his fingers.

"Been waitin' to do that for forever," Johnny says against his mouth, foreheads resting together.

"Why didn't you, then?"

Soap makes a point to look at the corpses beside them, forever trapped in a lover's embrace. "Uh—reckon, I might have tried."

Simon kisses him again.

If he had to liken it to one thing, it would be falling into the sun. He's dead, but he's burning alive.

Johnny doesn't remember anything. Not actually a big surprise there. Just…he'd been hoping they could just relax and enjoy their afterlife, instead of going on a journey to solve a whole-arse mystery.

The fun thing about being dead is none of the living can see them.

The annoying thing about being dead is all the other dead people can see them.

And there are a lot of fucking dead people on this Earth.

He thought the train was crowded before? He had no idea what crowded truly meant until now; they're squished tighter than sardines in this thing. He's sitting inside another person—at not in the sexy way.

It a Living, and he's fairly sure he's giving her cold chills.

Soap is far too amused by it all, talking to other dead people. Ghosts, Soap has deemed them all. Much to his own unamusement. He's got a feeling this afterlife is going to be as long-suffering as his living-life was. Just in a different, more absolutely perfect way.

What Johnny's gleaned from his conversations so far seems to be that nobody remembers how or why they die. That's something every person has to figure out by themselves. If they want to. No rules, and all.

He'd foolishly thought death might mean a break from lessons learned and deep thoughts. Apparently not.

Some dead fuck accidentally elbows his ribs. Why are there so many ghosts on the line to fucking Hereford? Is there really that much of a hankering for the mediocre fish bar, or are they all simply travelled everywhere else in the world and a Herefordshire autumn is the last place on all of their lists?

Can they even eat? He'll have to have Johnny ask someone before they make arses of themselves in public.

A quick glance around spots his target, his other half, sitting inside a sleeping old man while talking to another old man ghost. The geezer looks all too happy to explain whatever Johnny is animatedly asking about.

Despite the crowd of lifeless fuckers, he's really never felt more alive.

He rather wishes he could've told his living self it would all be okay in the end. Because there is no end. There's Simon and Johnny, and a train, and questions to answer, and an endless amount of time to figure everything out.

Johnny catches his eye from across the aisle, and there's that mad, signature grin. He says something to the man while nodding in Simon's direction before getting up and making his way back over beside him. Then the old man grins at him. A blush creeps its way up his neck onto his cheeks. So that can still happen.

Soap sits inside the other lady next to his own.

"That's Reginold. Reggie," Soap informs.

He quirks an eyebrow. Alright?

"He died in eighteen-forty-three."

"Condolences," he says dryly.

Johnny leans in close. "An' he thinks you're just a braw gentleman."

The blush rises to his ears, and he risks a side-glace at Reggie.

"But I told him ye were taken."

Johnny kisses him there, slowly and deeply, in the middle of the train. With everyone watching.

And it's okay. It doesn't matter who sees. They're already fucking dead. All of them.

He'd like to go back to visit their bodies someday. Maybe they can bring flowers, fix up a marker, so the living world knows they were there.

Johnny and Simon, dead and gone, still here, forevermore.

[your-unfriendlyghost]

“Under the Drive-In Fence”

Jk jk- Halloween art no. 2: Over the Garden Wall au, anyone?

(kinda a collab w/ myself- I drew most of the background a few years ago but didn’t do anything with it lol. Did update it a decent amount tho for this)

“The ol’ black train’s a comin’, scraping ‘long the iron. You don’t need no ticket, boys, it’ll take ya in its time…”

-

Concept is that since the Unknown in Over the Garden Wall is basically a pretty autumnal purgatory, it’s where our boys Johnny and Dally went after dying.

From Johnny’s pov, he woke up after meeting Dally in Windrixville here in the forest with Dally. And also with some mysterious burn scars that he doesn’t remember getting.

Dally claims not to know where they are, only that they “jumped onto a train” and are somewhere vaguely “north of Tulsa”. Johnny buys his story at first, but it slowly becomes clear that Dally’s lying- and plus, Johnny keeps having dreams where he remembers bits and pieces of the hospital and the fire and all the other shit that went down.

Dally, however, knows they’re dead. He remembers everything- hazily, but enough to know for sure. So he tells Johnny that they’re just trying to get to his “Ma’s place”, when actually he’s just trying to keep Johnny from moving on and going to…whatever it is that happens after purgatory.

Their arcs, I imagine, go something like this: Dally learns to accept that the after life is a mystery and that he has to be okay with that if he ever wants to escape these woods- all while experiencing the sort of peaceful experiences he never got to have in life, from weird festivals to live music to sunsets.

Johnny, on the other hand, learns to come out of his shell a bit- the weird world of the Unknown is easy for Johnny to slot into, as he’s observant and insightful and often figures out the mysteries before Dally does. He also learns to accept his death, but not before tromping around the woods for a while with one of his best friends.

As for the Unknown, I imagine it’s a bit more of a mix of old New England and old southern/southwest culture than just New England inspired alone. Like maybe the woodsman is an old cowboy or ranger or something, yk? Just so it still has some Oklahoma-ish-ness to it lol.

Idk, those are my thoughts on it right now! Might draw/write more about it later, idk, but in the meantime that’s good enough- Let me know your thoughts on it!

[racefortheironthrone]

Hello, I’ve a part asoiaf part medieval history question. So despite the strict gender roles, we know that women (at least noble women) can enjoy some “male” activities like horse riding and some kinds of hunting (Cat says Arya can have a hunting hawk). Are there any other “male” activities women can partake too without being judged about it, or even encouraged to do so (both in Westeros and real world)?

So as medievalists and historians of gender have pointed out, ASOIAF is far more restrictive for women than actual medieval Europe. I'm actually going to leave aside the situation of noblewoman for a second, because the vast majority of women were not nobles and their experience of gender would be radically different.

What counted as "male activities" for example would vary enormously by location (rural vs. urban) and thus occupation (farmer vs. artisan). Among the peasantry, while men tended to work in the fields and concentrated on cereal-crop production and women tended to do the manifold work of maintaining the home, the reality is that the irregular nature of agricultural labor meant that in times of high demand (especially spring sowing and autumn harvest) it was a matter of survival for every single member of the household to work in the fields. So women absolutely knew how to work a plow, and swing a scythe.

As for the urban worker, while there was also a high degree of gender segregation by occupation and guilds could often be quite misogynistic when it came to trying to masculinize trades (especially those involving higher rates of capital investment), it was also true that the entire household was expected to contribute their labor, so that wives, daughters, collateral female relatives, and female servants picked up the trade alongside their male counterpart. Moreover, as biased towards men as guilds could be, they were even more committed to the principle that guild businesses were family businesses, and so in situations where a master artisan had only daughters or died childless or died with underage heirs, it was absolutely routine for guilds to admit daughters and widows as guild members, indeed usually at the rank of master, all so that the business could remain in the same family. This is why medievalists can point to so many examples of women who worked in skilled trades, often at a high level.

That's what I think GRRM's portrait of medieval society is missing: an entire world of women in business, working elbow-to-elbow with men to make a living.

As for noblewomen, part of the difficulty is that a big part of being a noble was not doing stuff - not working for a living, chiefly - and instead engaging in leisure activities as much as possible. And women were very much a part of those activities (indeed, for many of them the point was to mingle with eligible people of the opposite gender), whether that's feasting, dancing, hunting, hawking, theater and other entertainments, fireworks, tourneys and jousts, etc.

However, women were also engaged in the main "occupations" of the nobility - estate management and politics - way more than GRRM really takes note of. To begin with, as even GRRM acknowledges to some extent, the lady of the house was expected to take an active role in running the house, which meant managing servants, keeping track of accounts payable and receivable, making sure the supplies arrive on time and in the right quality and quantity, keeping an eye on maintenance and repairs (with the help of servants, natch), etc.

Given that even the manor houses of the nobility were units of economic production, the lady of the house would also be responsible for oversight of how the house was doing with its pigs, goats, chickens and pigeons and geese, bees (because beeswax and honey were really important commodities), sheep, and so on, and what kind of figures they were pulling down at the mill and the weir, and so forth.

As medievalists have known for a long time, this list of duties got even longer whenever the lord of the house was away at war or on business, when the lady would be expected to pick up all his work too - which means making sure the rents and taxes get paid, deciding which fields to distribute manpower to and when, dealing with legal disputes in the manorial court, and so on. And if the war came home, the lady of the house was expected to lead the defense of the castle and there are many, many examples of noblewomen who had to organize sieges that lasted months and even years.

However, we also have to consider the impact of inheritance by birth and the inherent randomness of sex at birth - as much as they tried to avoid it, plenty of noble houses ended up with female heirs or in the hands of widows. Most of the time in most countries, women could and did inherit (or at the very least their male children and relatives could inherit through them) titles and fiefdoms, and while their husbands would often take on overlordship de jure uxoris, unmarried women and widows very much exercised their authority as the Lady or Baroness or Countess or whatever, and history is also full of women who were extremely influential in medieval politics and backed up their influence by any means necessary.

[thefeastandthefast]

Hands down, favorite scene of this whole drama and one that made me feel something more than just different degrees of amusement:

Princess Wanning tossing her hair back to dance for the king of Dai, dressed in pristine white silk, helpless rage which cannot be vented cracking through the studied blankness on her face. Such a sharp and elegant recontextualization of all the aggressive swishing and twirling we see her do in the previous episodes.

Following closely in second place would be the scene of her wading shivering into the milky blue river surrounded by fiery autumn foliage and the red of her blood seeping out into the water all around her. The physician refers to her numerous miscarriages, but her grim, expectant, tearless face in that scene implies that they were abortions done with whatever means she could manage (likely the only assertion of agency possible in her position).

To be completely honest, Wanning's storyline is the only one in this drama that consistently triggers genuine emotion for me, even before we got the brief flashback of her years as a hostage to an enemy state. I am obviously extremely well-entertained by the production's commitment to the pulpiest of melodrama rendered with the lushest of visuals, but the lack of even the possibility of actual danger and failure for our protagonists takes much of the tension out. Yes, Xue Fangfei has trauma responses to her experiences, but we know that her commitment to vengeance carried out with morally clean and justifiable methods will still succeed in making every last villain in her path pay. We're assured of her eventual happiness and success before the story even begins because of genre conventions.

The protagonists live in the fantasy world of 爽剧- a genre meant for the purpose of the viewer's visceral, lizard brain satisfaction. The noose of the drama's world and its rules will always loosen for our female lead Xue Fangfei because this type of narrative demands it.

I went into the drama knowing this was the genre, so it's perfectly meeting my expectations... but I think if Xue Fangfei was forced to operate within the same social strictures as her female opponents instead of having her endeavors facilitated by the pulled punches of internally inconsistent world-building, this drama would have been elevated to something ultimately much more satisfying and enduring. The Story of Minglan is still the pinnacle of historical drama 爽剧 for this reason.

But Wanning doesn't live in a 爽剧; she's in a psychological horror, one where every single one of the inescapable rules of a ghoulish feudal, patriarchal world compounded to get her into the situation she ended up. For all her seemingly limitless power and privilege once Wanning returns to Yan, they are insufficient to undo the permanent damage to her status as a virtuous woman in her society and her own perception of her womanhood in such a paradigm.

I'm speculating that the king of Dai probably died painfully at her hands at some point (I'm still at episode 36, so I don't know if it's addressed later!) But in the end, Wanning's righteous fury has very few easily embodied targets for righteous vengeance, unlike the wrongs done to Xue Fangfei and those she takes under her wing- wrongs which neatly trace back to specific villains to be eliminated. And of course, XFF’s personal beef with these villains just so happen to align perfectly with the noble goals of king and country.

Even when Wanning playacts her sick little romance with Shen Yurong, a brutal emotional clarity always breaks her immersion. She has a complete lack of illusion about the world in which her story operates. She was sacrificed for the noble goals of king and country, for peacemaking, and so she knows she will get no satisfaction from those who permitted and benefited from that sacrifice. So, for me, watching her do whatever the fuck she wants in response to that unrightable wrong and indulge every selfish, horrifying, nihilistic whim is more 爽 (viscerally satisfying) than anything else in this show.

[songforeddiemunson]

Things That Go BUMP

Eddie Munson x Reader (description vague for inclusivity, no use of YN, no upside-down).

Summary: Eddie and reader agree to house-sit for a recently widowed woman, and things happen.

Warnings/Tropes: established relationship (this could also be a sequel to Next Summer), no smut, ghost story, talk of accidental death, description of and discussion of death and mortal remains, rather inappropriate funerary banter, dark themes. Avert thine eyes if death talk unsettles you, but this IS a Halloween fic, so, yeah.

Author's Note: this is actually based on a personal experience I had with my boyfriend at the time. True story, my buddies!

Here is a map of the layout of the house. I only included details, i.e. furniture, if it was relevant to the story.

Word Count: 3300

October 1991

Life in Hawkins was harmonious, and you were looking forward to your first autumn in rural Indiana with Eddie. You imagined there would be long walks through crunchy leaves whilst scenting the faint aroma of wood smoke as it drifted among the trees.

Things, however, didn't quite go as you'd planned.

Lenny Weir, a kind middle aged man that you had built an acquaintance with, was killed in a tragic accident where he was fatally electrocuted while repairing an appliance.

You had been deeply saddened to learn of Lenny's passing. Everyone in Hawkins had heard of the accident; he was a popular fellow among the locals, and was known for helping people when something needed to be fixed or tended to, free of charge. Word traveled fast, and a blanket of sadness enveloped the whole town.

He and his wife Pam chose to remain childless, preferring the company of a tabby cat called Jasper and a particularly intelligent Border Collie named Toby. You knew all of this because you had house-sat for them for a week over the summer when they went on vacation. They lived in an idyllic little cottage framed by flowering shrubs and a stream flowed through their backyard. It really was a lovely place and you had enjoyed staying there immensely.

You attended Lenny's viewing with Eddie. You had never felt very comfortable with death in the past, and you had only been a permanent resident of Hawkins for four months. You didn’t know many people yet, which heightened your feeling of shyness as the other people from town filled the room around you. You sat toward the back, nodding solemnly at the people you saw that you did know, but preferring to stay out of the way.

When it came time for everyone to file past the assembled family and view the deceased, your heart was in your throat. You hesitated, gripping Eddie’s hand tightly.

“Hey,” Eddie whispered, leaning his head conspiratorially toward yours. “I’ve got you. We’ll do this together.”

You nodded. “Okay,” you replied anxiously.

As you moved toward Lenny’s relatives, who were standing near the front of the room next to the casket, you nodded and murmured the usual script of ‘so very sorry,” and “such a tragedy,” until you spotted Pam, who looked composed despite having red, puffy eyes.

“Pam,” you said as you reached her. “This is awful, I’m so sorry, I don't really have the words. How are you holding up?”

Pam shook her head. “I don’t really think it’s all fully registered; I feel like I’m trapped in some kind of awful dream.”

You nodded sympathetically, “I can only imagine. Is there anything I can do?”

“Actually,” she replied, “Next week I’m going away for several days to stay with my sister in Utah and get out of the house for a while. Would you mind staying and looking after Jasper and Toby?”

“Of course I will,” you said without hesitation. “Do you mind if Eddie comes too?”

“Not at all, he’s more than welcome.”

“Great, we’ll be there,” you said with a small smile.

“Thank you Pam,” Eddie added. “I’m so sorry about all of this.”

“Thank you so much,” she said, her voice thick. “Now I guess you’d better go say goodbye to Lenny.”

“Here goes…” you murmured quietly to Eddie as you approached the casket, kneeling down on the provided cushion.

You quickly noticed that the glue holding one of Lenny’s eyes closed was starting to come loose, giving his right eye the appearance that it was partially open.

“Oh god,” you groaned.

“Fuck, that’s not how that’s supposed to look,” Eddie whispered.

“Jesus, should we tell someone?”

“Well I doubt we’re the first ones to notice it, we're among the last people up here…”

“This is why I hate these things. Viewings. It’s all so unnatural…” you broke off with a shudder. You were horrified, and you couldn’t stop staring at poor Lenny's eye.

“Well we started having viewings because we kept burying people alive back in the day. And it kinda looks like Lenny is starting to wake up right now…”

“Dude,” you admonished in a firm whisper.

“I’m sorry,” Eddie said, “it’s just shocking." Eddie paused, his eyes widening in horror. "Oh god, Lenny was electrocuted…do you think anyone told Pam his death was ‘shocking’? Oh man, I hope not.”

“I can’t take you anywhere,” you said. You were mortified, but the stress of everything was making you want to burst out into very inappropriate and ill-timed laughter. “We are leaving right now!”

“Sorry Lenny,” Eddie murmured hastily as you dragged him away.

You arrived at Pam’s house the following week with a duffel bag and Eddie in tow. Pam greeted you at the door and walked you through the house. She reminded you about where the pet food was and all the other things she thought you should know. Before she departed, she left you with some words you would never forget:

“Kids, sometimes weird things happen in the house. I don’t know. I wonder if maybe Lenny hasn’t moved on.”

“Say what now?” Eddie prompted.

“I wouldn’t worry about it, sometimes I just hear things sometimes, and I wonder if things get moved. Either that or I’m losing my mind.”

“Well we don’t want that," you said, and Eddie laughed a little too loudly.

“No, we would definitely prefer ghosts,” he said, making Pam actually laugh a little.

The first few days passed without incident.  You and Eddie enjoyed playing with Toby, lounging about outside by the fire pit, watching TV with Jasper curled up on your lap, and picking apples from the gnarled old apple tree in the backyard.  Out of respect for Pam and Lenny, you and Eddie shared the large sectional sofa in the living room; it was shaped like a large letter L so there was plenty of room for both of you. 

One day, your curiosity got the best of you.

"Lenny was cremated, right?" you asked Eddie.

"Yeah, so I heard."

"So where are his ashes? I wonder if he’s in the house or if Pam scattered him somewhere,” you pondered, and then began looking around the house for an urn.  

It had occurred to you that perhaps you were being disrespectful, but Lenny was such a sweet guy and you didn't think he would mind. Besides, part of you just really wanted to know if you were sharing a house with someone’s mortal remains. 

Shortly afterward, you came across a small inconspicuous brown box on the nightstand between the couch and the sitting room wall, but it was on a lower shelf that was hidden from view by the sofa.

"Do you think he's in there?"  Eddie asked.

"Only one way to find out."

You opened the box.  Inside the box was a cylindrical, plain, brass-looking tin.  The suspense was killing you both.

"I think that's it," Eddie said almost in a whisper.

"Well if it is," you said, "it isn't very ceremonial.  It doesn't look anything like what I would expect an urn to look like."

"I think– well, when my mom died they gave us her ashes in something pretty plain. It’s up to the family to buy something nicer.”

“Oh I’m sorry babe,” you said, giving Eddie’s arm a squeeze. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, it’s okay,”  Eddie said with a reassuring smile.

“But if that is Lenny, why is he tucked away out of sight as if she’s hiding him?”

 "Maybe keeping it in view is too painful for her right now."

"Maybe it's just candy or something."

You went back and forth on this for a while, but you had to know for sure.  You started to open the tin.

"Jesus, don't!"  Eddie hissed.

"I’m sorry but I have to know," you said. “Besides, there’s no harm in just looking. I’m sure Lenny wouldn’t mind.”

“Ugh, fine,” Eddie said. "But if you let out a ghost, I'm blaming you."

You opened the tin.  Inside the tin was a clear plastic bag containing the cremated remains of Lenny.  You and Eddie stared silently at it for a moment.  It definitely didn't look like what you had imagined the ashes of a cremated person to look like.  You always thought it would look like...well, ashes.  It didn't.  It closely resembled gravel, and you could see little bits of bone as if someone had smashed up what was left with some sort of hammer.  You immediately felt uneasy and replaced the lid. 

"Wow. So that's....that's Lenny," Eddie said.

"Yeah," you replied simply. You weren't sure what else to say.

You silently sent an apology into the ether, feeling a little remorseful for prying.

You didn't talk about it much after that and went about your business, but you had the very unsettling realization that you had been sleeping with your head no more than six inches away from Lenny’s remains for days.

The following day it was raining and quite chilly, so you and Eddie spent most of the day inside watching TV.  Somewhere around 8pm, the TV abruptly switched off.

"Did you lean on the remote?" you asked.

"No, it's right there on the table," Eddie replied.

That's strange... you thought to yourself.  Then Pam’s voice echoed in your mind.  Sometimes weird things happen.  You shrugged it off.

You turned the TV back on and continued watching.  About ten minutes later it switched to snow, then turned off again.

"What the hell..."  You and Eddie said in unison.

Suddenly Toby the dog lifted his head and stared into the adjacent kitchen, a low growl emitting from his throat.

"Okay, that's freaky,"  Eddie said.

"Go look and see what it is," you said with wide eyes.

“Uh, I’d rather not."

You quickly dialed Nancy’s number to get her opinion, who told you your imaginations were running wild and you just had to calm down.  She chatted with you for a while and nothing further happened, so you hung up and tried to distract yourself with a bit of making out. You had a hard time feeling interested in sex, however. You had the very unsettling feeling that you were being watched.

A couple more hours passed without anything odd happening, and you were beginning to feel quite sleepy.  You realized that you didn't want to turn off the lights, and you also didn't want to keep sleeping on the couch next to Lenny’s remains.  Ugh suck it up; what are you six years old? You thought to yourself, and laid down to go to sleep. You did leave a light on in the kitchen, however.

The night passed quietly, though sleep was difficult to find.  You tossed and turned, and what little sleep you did achieve was filled with strange and frightening dreams.  One dream that stood out consisted of you waking to go to the bathroom.  As you passed the room that used to be Lenny’s office on the way to the toilet, you saw him.  He was jogging on his treadmill whistling a happy tune, but he wasn't alive.  As you paused in the doorway his head turned to look at you. He was burned black; one eye stared at you, and the other was burned away. His mouth was twisted into a horrible grin.  For a fleeting moment you wondered how he could whistle with no lips, and then you screamed.  You awoke with a start, and stared at the window for the rest of the night, waiting for the morning light.

The next day you spent the majority of it out of the house.  You drove around and visited some friends, and grabbed a bite to eat at a local diner.  You were avoiding the house, but neither of you would admit it.  When you finally did return just before nightfall, you entered the house trepidatiously, as if something was going to jump out at you.  

You were greeted by Toby, who wagged his tail and seemed very thrilled by your presence, which was comforting.  You found fixings for s’mores in the kitchen, and built a fire in the pit in the backyard.  As you sat at the crackling fire, your eyes were frequently drawn to the house, as if you would see someone walk past the window, or worse- a charred face grinning back at you. Eddie gently teased you for getting yourself “all worked up,” but you could tell he was uneasy too.

After a couple of hours the fire began to die out, and it was getting cold.  You knew you had to go in, but you took your time gathering up all of your things.  As you entered the house from the back door into the kitchen you spotted Toby, who was sitting in the living room at the doorway to the kitchen.  It was the first time he hadn't greeted you at the door.  

"Hey Toby!  C'mere Toby!"  you called.  He wouldn't come.  He didn't growl, he didn't cower, he just stared and wouldn't move.

"That is not like him at all," Eddie said.

"I know," you agreed with building unease. 

You both continued calling to the dog, and after no success Eddie walked over to him.  He took Toby’s collar by hand and gently pulled, speaking to him in a soothing voice, but he resisted.  

He kept looking at you as if he wanted to come because he was a very good boy, but his attention was always drawn back to something else.  Something past you, past the kitchen- toward the end of the house that contained the bathroom and Lenny’s office.  Your mind was frantically trying to determine what would cause this sweet and intelligent dog to refuse to enter a room in his own house, and it freaked you out.

"Toby!  COME!"  you yelled. 

You regretted shouting at the dog the moment you did it because just as you did, Toby lowered his head and practically crawled into the kitchen to your side where he stood with his tail between his legs, whimpering.  You felt sorry for him, but it did nothing to assuage your growing fear.

You apologized to the dog and made your way into the living room, and Toby followed without protest.  Too nervous to go right to bed after the event that had just occurred, you turned on the TV.  Sure enough, after a few minutes it shut off.

"Maybe the TV is old, and there's something wrong with the wiring," Eddie said, though he seemed unconvinced.

"But how do you explain the rest of the weirdness?"

"Dunno.  Maybe Nancy’s right and we're just letting our imaginations get carried away.”

Right after Eddie spoke, a white flash shot past the window.

"Did you see that?" you asked a little too loudly.

"Uh, yeah, I sure did," Eddie replied.

"Probably a white moth reflecting the light from the front porch light."  you said. “Right?”

 "Yeah, that would have had to be a very large moth.”

“But wait.... the front porch is on the other side of the house."

“You’re not helping,” Eddie said, his eyes darting around nervously.

You sat and stared at the windows for a while. After several minutes, it happened again.

“Alright, what the fuck was that??” Eddie said, his voice increasing in timbre.

"Big white moth, remember?" you weren’t sure why you were trying to convince yourself of this when you didn’t really believe it.

"Right.  Big white moth."

Suddenly, right behind your heads on the wall against the sofa you were sitting on, there was a distinctive banging sound. Three distinctive raps, as if someone was pounding with their fist. Thump, thump, thump.

You screamed and Eddie jumped off the couch. The dog barked.  It happened again, but it was louder. THUMP, THUMP, THUMP. Toby barked again, but he wouldn't go investigate as one would expect a dog to do.  He was scared.  So were you.

"What's on the other side of that wall?"  Eddie asked.

"The bedroom!"  you replied.

"We'll go together to see what it is."

"Are you crazy?!?"

"We have to see if someone is messing with us.  What if someone broke in?" Eddie reasoned.

"How dare you use logic at a time like this? Fine. Grab the dog."

As you slowly made your way off the couch and toward the kitchen-- which the bedroom was off of on the left-- you attempted to summon the dog, who would have none of it.

"Forget Toby, he's not coming,"  Eddie said.

As you neared the bedroom door you heard another sound.  

It sounded almost like a tea kettle going off to signify the water is boiling, only it wasn't constant.  It fluctuated, almost like a person rubbing their finger across a freshly washed window.  But it was loud, and it was in the room with you.

You both screamed and abandoned the bedroom inspection, and instead ran toward the bathroom to put some more distance between yourselves and that awful sound.  As you ran past Lenny's study you remembered your nightmare, and squeezed your eyes shut as you hurried by, clutching Eddie’s hand as he guided you toward the bathroom.  

The bathroom was at the far end of the house, directly across the hall from the front door.  As you neared the bathroom you glanced toward the front door, and then a bolt of terror shot up your spine to your scalp, almost paralyzing you in place.

The front door was wide open.

Eddie was clever enough to grab the cordless phone before your flight to the other end of the house, and you locked ourselves in the bathroom.

"The front door is open!  What the fuck? The front door is open!"  you stammered in a panic.

"What?!?"  Well...we have to close it!"

"I'm not leaving this room!"

"Jesus Christ! We can’t just leave the front door open!"

You called Nancy again.  Eddie dialed while you professed your regret– out loud–  to Lenny for interfering with his ashes.  As usual, Nancy was not impressed.  She said you were just being silly and needed to knock it off.  Next, Eddie called Steve, who was more appropriately concerned and agreed to come right over, but he lived twenty minutes away.  So you waited.

Nothing seemed to happen while you were in the bathroom.  Finally after what seemed like an eternity, there was a knock on the bathroom door, making you scream.

"It's just me," Steve’s muffled voice proclaimed from the other side of the door, and you flung it open and practically strangled him with a huge hug. 

"You guys left the front door wide open," he said.  "You shouldn’t do that; it’s unsafe!" 

For the remainder of the week you took care of the feeding and watering duties by arriving solely to do so, and then leaving as soon as you were done.  You and Eddie were in agreement that you would not be spending another night in that place.  

You told Pam about it, and she said that the strange behavior didn't seem like Lenny at all, but surmised that perhaps he was just trying to get your attention for some reason. Everyone’s heard the stories about people who die sudden deaths feeling confused and unable to move on; perhaps that was the case here.  Maybe it wasn't Lenny at all, but something more malicious.  You tried not to think about it too much.

Six months later, Pam dreamed of Lenny.  In the dream Lenny was standing on a beach waving to Pam.  She tried to run to him, but no matter how much she ran she couldn't catch up with him.  She then realized with a stab of profound sadness that Lenny wasn't really trying to greet her, but he was actually saying goodbye.  

He then turned and walked away from her, while Pam stood and watched. Once Lenny was out of sight, she felt a deep sense of relief.  She never dreamed of him again.

A few months later the house burned down.

Thank you for reading! As always, comments and reblogs are the lifeblood of all fic writers. Please show us some love! :)

(yes, this is really a true story)

[avaantares]

People who live in population centers often don't realize just how much the urban/suburban lightscape has robbed them of.

Not just the stars and galaxies you should be able to see with the naked eye -- though that is also something that's almost impossible to see near cities due to light pollution -- but also the absolutely magical experience of seeing fireflies the way they should be seen. The way they can only exist away from man-made light sources.

Coming back from a historic small-town theatre I frequent, I have the choice between taking the interstate or the rural back roads. I almost always choose the latter, so earlier this evening I was driving out in the country for about 15 miles. That region is primarily farmland with a handful of scattered residences. It was around dusk, and -- friends, it was like the earth was covered in glitter. In the fallow fields and pastures, tens of thousands of fireflies sparkling, just this universal, unbroken twinkling everywhere you looked. The kind of light show that doesn't even look real because we're used to seeing just a few fireflies at a time, if we're lucky enough to have a large backyard or a patch of woods nearby. Or maybe you don't get to see fireflies at all because you're in a city and there's nowhere for them to lay eggs (in undisturbed fallen leaves, mostly), so you've only seen them in videos. But the fireflies were the only lights on this land before we put up our electric flood lights and streetlamps, and in these broad swaths of unlighted field and self-mulching fencerows, they're still thriving.

I watched this display in awe as I drove, slowing down at times to admire a particularly flashy area. And then I'd drive past a house with a billion watts of exterior security lighting, and... nothing. Not a glimmer in those yards. Maybe one lonesome flicker in the ditch by the road, a firefly that couldn't find the party or didn't make it to the darker areas for some reason. It's alone because there's no reason for fireflies to come to bright places; they light up to find mates, and they're obscured and blinded by the man-made lights.

The closer I got to my suburban home, the fewer fireflies there were along the road. When I came to the high school with its massive day-bright stadium lights that stay on all night (and which fill me with rage fully as incandescent for so many reasons), I didn't spot a single firefly for a quarter mile in either direction. Kids growing up in the neighborhoods around that school will never have the chance to watch fireflies in their own yards, or learn to scoop them gently from underneath to catch them without harming them and then let them crawl to the tips of their fingers to fly away again. When they grow up, they won't have any emotional association with fireflies that would inspire them to leave a few leaf piles along the fence in autumn, or to turn out the exterior lights at dusk and let the fireflies do their thing.

It saddens me that many (probably the majority of) people living in this era aren't getting to see how beautiful nature is when we just leave it alone. Instead of enjoying its natural state, we're spraying poisons on our lawns, and replacing native species with non-native ones because the yard looks more uniform that way, and throwing bagged leaves in landfills instead of letting them break down naturally and provide vital habitat for small animals and insects, and installing so many landscaping and security lights around our residences that you could stand in the yard and read by them in the middle of the night. Fireflies are actually threatened in some areas where they used to be common because of all these things.

If you live in a city or a lighted suburban area, I'd encourage you to try to get out to the country at least once and experience fireflies in force in their natural habitat. And if you're in an area where fireflies are native and you are in a position to, maybe leave a little pile of wet leaves for them in a corner of the yard. Turn out the lights in summer. Refrain from spraying pesticides on your grass.

Let the little guys light up the world for another generation.

[davidwarnercorner]

Hostile Takeover (1988), starring David Warner, Kate Vernon, Michael Ironside, Jayne Eastwood, and Will Lyman (Youtube Link).

This is the first obscure David Warner movie I'm reviewing! Not the first one I've watched, but the one that made the biggest impression on me so far. I genuinely liked it and would recommend it (the only downside is that the only versions I can find online are VHS rips with not the highest video quality).

The premise: Eugene Brackin (David Warner), a disaffected, repressed office worker at a local power plant, takes three of his coworkers—Larry Gaylord (Michael Ironside), Sally Laird (Kate Vernon), and Joan Talmudge (Jayne Eastwood)—hostage, but makes no specific demands. Outside, local police chief Smolen (Will Lyman) tries to diffuse the situation without resorting to violence.

The sets are limited: most of the action takes place either in the office or just outside of it (it would probably make for a good stage adaption). Hostile Takeover is a character driven story about what it takes for someone to crack and what happens when they do. It engages with ideas about modernity, alienation, and longing; interwoven throughout are references to the T.S. Eliot poems "The Hollow Men" and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (and maybe others that I didn't pick up on). Whatever you make of it, this movie was trying to say something about modern life.

(More under the cut because this gets long. Spoilers below.)

Reviews

Reviews for Hostile Takeover are mixed, but I'm going to defend it a bit. Is it a perfect movie? No. But I think the experience suffers if you come into it with the idea that this is a true horror film, when really it's a psychological thriller. There are two brief scenes where there's a lot of dramatic blood, but those make up maybe half a minute of the total 90. There are tense, suspenseful moments, but I'm quite a coward when it comes to horror and this didn't bother me.

A lot of other online reviews call it a "Thanksgiving horror movie," and I'm not sure how this category got attached to it. It came out in December 1988, so it can't be based on release date, and Thanksgiving is never mentioned, we only see that it's autumn. Maybe it's because the movie was released in some countries under the title Office Party and the fact that it starts on a day when people would normally be out of office, like for a holiday (admittedly, I thought it was just a weekend).

Characters

All the central characters in this are interesting in their own ways and get their own moments of backstory, but the ones I want to talk about most are Eugene, Sally, and Smolen.

Eugene - a man who is frustrated enough to take his coworkers hostage but also polite enough to demand that the police bring dinner for them and repeatedly says he doesn't want to actually hurt anyone. David excels at playing characters that are a bit angsty and not quite satisfied with themselves, and Eugene fits that mold.

We're never explicitly told why he did what he did, but it's not that hard to infer. Eugene is a shy middle-aged man who lives alone in a tiny apartment, has nothing better to do than come in to his meager-paying job on an off day, and is maybe a little infatuated with his younger female coworker but is too restrained (and too self-conscious?) to pursue her even when she shows interest. He seemingly followed the "right" path for the 20th-century man and yet still feels his life is hollow. He insists that he's not a crazy, "psycho-type," he only wants to be perceived that way so he'll be sent to a hospital in the end, presumably because he wants to escape it all.

I wouldn't pick up a gun about it, but I can understand his despair. The loneliness and alienation he feels (and, on the other hand, the obsession some of his other coworkers have with money and power) are predictable side effects of the capitalist hellscape we live in.

...Moving away from that, let's talk about how hot David is in this. Some of that may be down to my personal preferences: I'm a sucker for stressed-out businessmen and the role that made me notice him for the first time was Sark/Ed Dillinger in TRON. But here...the suspenders with the gun holster. Him walking around with his tie loose. Being 1988, he'd started going grey and late 80s-early 90s David is peak dilf for me, the silver streaks in his bangs and at the temples make me feral. It's no wonder the next character, Sally, wanted him.

Sally - some Letterboxd reviews were very negative to Sally, saying that she's actually the most unsympathetic character and that she manipulates and seduces Eugene. I disagree, though I may be biased because if I were in her situation, I'd probably (want to) act the same. Textually, though, I think there is some support for my interpretation.

In her introductory scene, we see her walk into the office and immediately flirt with him. It didn't seem like she was doing it to mock him—she's also the only one (I think?) to call him "Gene" instead of his full name, which implies some fondness. We later learn that Sally is attracted to power, and she comments about how powerful Eugene is in his newfound position as hostage-taker, but let's remember that she was interested in him from her first scene, before there was any hint of anything being different that day. We also see that she previously attempted to "sleep her way to the top," but that it didn't work for her and she's bitter about the whole thing.

People also seem to think her affection towards him was just in service of self-preservation, but by the end she doesn't even seem to care about that anymore. She says to him, "you can still get away if you use me as a shield...you're loving and honest and kind, you don't have to die for this, Gene!". You could argue it's some kind of Stockholm Syndrome situation, but imo she seems to be basing this on experience beyond just the last two days spent in the office.

Also, like, is it really so hard to believe that she might genuinely be into him? Some people are just into dilfs and that's okay! It's normal! Us dilf-fuckers deserve the representation and Sally is great! She hates her asshole boss and wants the old man dick, she's just like me fr.

Unfortunately (spoilers), she doesn't get her tropical beach vacation ending with Gene and instead has to watch him die. And she'll have to live with that memory. It's all the more tragic because there are hints that their relationship could have worked if they had been able to open up to each other under different circumstances. As Smolen says, "what a fuckin' waste."

Smolen - there's more to this guy than initially meets the eye. He looks like the total opposite of Eugene, a stereotypical jock, but as the story progresses, parallels are drawn between the two. Someone even accuses him of holding the rest of the police force hostage because he won't let them go in guns blazing. He also takes the time to try to understand Eugene; he's the one who figures out the poetry connection. Eventually (spoilers), he ends up being the one to kill him and, though this is probably an artifact of the bad VHS quality, it looked like there was a trickle of blood running down his own forehead. In the end, both of them were forced into violence they didn't want.

Connections

Random connections I made while watching the movie, kind of like a trivia/fun facts section I guess?

Eugene reminded me a lot of D.B. Cooper. All these years later, we still don't know who he really was or why he hijacked that 727 on Nov. 24, 1971 (now that'd be a Thanksgiving movie!). What we do know was that he was middle-aged, polite to the crew, and had an unspecified "grudge."

One of the T.S. Eliot poems the movie references is "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," a stanza of which goes like this:

No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be; Am an attendant lord, one that will do To swell a progress, start a scene or two, Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool, Deferential, glad to be of use, Politic, cautious, and meticulous; Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse; At times, indeed, almost ridiculous— Almost, at times, the Fool.

This part is not quoted in the movie, but it hit me kind of hard considering this context: David played Hamlet on stage in 1965, but it'd been almost 25 years since then when Hostile Takeover was made, and he was in the middle of being in a bunch of random B-movies. It also makes me think of when he was asked, around the time TRON came out, about playing so many villain roles and what he'd like to be in next, and he said something like "I'd like a romantic comedy." And then he...didn't get that? Ever? At least not as a lead. I...yeah. He does at least get the girl in this one! Briefly!

Conclusion

Should you watch this movie if you're a David Warner liker? Definitely. Should you watch this movie otherwise? At least give it a try. I didn't know where else to mention it but the soundtrack also stood out to me, it's very 80s but still good. The way they incorporated the popping and clanging sounds the heaters inside the building make into the music...banger.

I'll be posting some gifs from the movie soon. If you do watch this, or have watched it, please let me know what you thought....am I getting it all wrong? Are you team Sally?

Youtube Link Here. This is to a different or upscaled version than the one I watched. I only found it after I took all the screenshots and did all the gifs. My loss is your gain...?

[lolashifts]

DAY 4 OF SHIFTMAS 2024 ❆ ⋆⁺₊❅ .

⌗ 𝟒. sledding ; what does a hang out with your friend group look like? where do you go? who is your friend group?

(answering for my teen fame dr)

psa: not using pictures here bc i couldn’t for the life of me find anyone who resembled them on pinterest and it got me frustrated lol

for this dr specifically i scripted i'd be friends with the pjo cast (obviously) but i also scripted in my own friend group from school whom i adore very very much so i'm gonna write about them <3

note: i am currently doing online school because of the busy schedule i have. besides the percy jackson tv show premiere, i'd miss basically an entire semester since i'm filming the "how to train your dragon" live-action in ireland in a couple of months, therefore there are no other options for me. all this to say that i don't see my friends in school anymore but we all live in the same city so we still meet up very often!

i won't go into too much detail: my friend group consists of sadie, laurie, felix and will and this is what i can share - coming from my own script:

sadie ; incredibly taylor swift coded in the way she talks and expresses herself, she's a rep stan and a concert girlie! also loves drama, but likes to not be involved in it more and is obsessed with horror books and movies (her favorite is "us")

laurie ; that sweet, cottage core and hopeless romantic cutiepie who you'd want to hug and protect with your LIFE. she's an evemore girlie, adores palette colors and autumn and wants to study law in college + our friends say me and her are the pure souls of the group (it’s kinda cute i’ll give them that)

felix ; literally THEEE farkle minkus of our clique five !! he's on the robotics team, looks a little too much like james potter for his liking while being a remus kinnie and, in fact, despises candy but loves chocolate! also he's so chronically offline the only reason he even has social media is to keep up with us (lmao i promise he loves us)

will ; the greenest green flag to ever walk on the face of the earth + clueless adhd softie boy from the swim team everyone loves (he's such a sweetheart it's impossible not to really) and he's a reki from sk8 the infinity kinnie !!

we all usually meet at cafés to study all together or in parks to catch up. they always tell me the ultimate gossip from school and i in return share my experiences, stories from set and things that have been happening in my life. to be honest, though, i mostly try to avoid talking about my career to keep things as normal as possible. they all support me a lot and i love them for it but i don't want to make them feel weird around me because of it, if that makes sense?

anyway, i love all four of them so sm they’re great people and i actually will get them to meet the cast at the pjo premiere !! that’s gonna be fun, i can’t wait to see how the dynamic goes there 😭

[wolfhednn]

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is. Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing! Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together.

Name: rai

Pronouns: it's complicated so she/he take ur pick

Birthday (no year): may 17

Where are you from? What is your time zone? the states, east coast beast coast. (not rly its swampy here)

How long is your roleplay experience? i regularly lose count. 17 years now i think?

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? neopets, p sure. at least i can't remember rping before that. warrior cats and gifteds rps on neopets were the one-night stands of my heart

How were you introduced to TOA? according to legend, ree was reported famously to have said "we could do it tho" and then i answered "yeah ig we could huh"

Do you have any pets? nah i've come to realize that im not very good at taking care of living things (including myself) and no lifeform should be subjected to that

What is your favorite time of year and why? i'm an autumn girlie, complete with the pumpkin spice. november specifically is my favorite time of year

What is your IRL occupation? i work at a community college writing center ob it's really rewarding to make a direct impact on other people's experiences

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? gacha games, reading, poetry, hearing the dank beat drop in a song and imagining some dramatic rp scene to go along with it

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? honkai: star rail, granblue fantasy, pokemon, jrpgs, otomes, vn's in general, whatever games my friends want to stream for me while i grind granblue fantasy

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: raichu, and flying types

Tell us some fun facts and trivia about yourself! 3 stuffed animals have pride of place on my bed and they are a fennec fox named luhan, a red panda named shizi (persimmon in mandarin), and whale tartaglia

How did you get into Fire Emblem? was browsing the nearby gamestop in college shortly after fates came out, decided to pick it up on a whim because it looked up my alley. got hooked and blasted through the rest of the series in short order afterward

What Fire Emblem games have you played? everything except jugdral, but i've studied jugdral like i did ff7 back in the day in order to rp it

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: fates as mentioned above. favorite depends on the metric jsdjgsk but, simplified, binding blade remains near and dear to my heart

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! i cannot do this i do not hold enough characters in my working memory at a time

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! i think tsubaki. he was pretty and a pegasus knight, and i only liked him more as i actually saw more of his character HAHA

Any Fire Emblem crushes? huh. surprisingly, not really? was definitely expecting to have some for this one

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? 　　Awakening: lucina. and yes. always always 　　Fates: tsubaki, nishiki, and leo. and yes. 　　Three Houses: felix bc i liked his character and i always tend to s-support my faves just to see their lines. ambivalent now tbh im kinda roulette w 3h s-supports 　　Engage: gregory, mostly bc i'm also roulette w engage s-supports rather than any overt favoritism for gregory. maybe fogado?

Favorite Fire Emblem class? nomad ranger / bow knight

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? i've been told i'd be mage into mage knight but wielding dark magic. magic nuke but kind of whatever everything else. lysithea but mounted i guess. if i'm somehow playable the circumstances must be EXTRAORDINARY because good luck peeling me away from my nice quiet life for your continental justice war no thanks

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? black eagles probably and i'd cringe abt it

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? reason and authority boon. gauntlet, heavy armor, flying bane. i don't rly think i'd have a budding talent in any of the rest

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? tbh i'd probably be from elusia

How do you pronounce TOA? individual letters

Current TOA muses: felix, caeldori, rosado

Past TOA muses? too fucking many yall. ugh lemme see. volug, sety, idunn, leif, yuri, kurthnaga, ephraim, lucius, etzel, nel, citrinne, nishiki

Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again? will smith gestures at the grumpycat

Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? reckless boys with hearts of gold (felix, leif, zeiss, ephraim); perfectionistic dreamers (caeldori), charismatic cunning extroverts concealing a boatload of issues, somber cerebral sages (sety, etzel, kurthnaga arguably)

Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could? there's plenty of archetypes i don't gravitate toward, but i don't really wish i did either. so not really

What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? i like dramatic, fast-paced action scenes. i also like anything that explores complex topics and reveals how subjective the world really is, situations that challenge a character's views and beliefs and force them to reflect on what makes right or wrong

Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”? not really right now. i don't usually have rp wishlists like this because my enjoyment of a scene depends more on how effectively i feel it's being executed rather than just getting to do the specific scene by itself

Favorite TOA-related memories? probably running team mercy in lock&key? that was a really fulfilling experience

Present or past tense? present tense

Normal size text, small text, no preference? small text but idc what my partner uses

Got any potential muse delusions to share? i have muses falling out my pockets. lately i've been fistfighting the ilios in my head constantly. sometimes you just want to play a loser

[rickie-the-storyteller]

Meet the Writer Tag!

(Thank you so much to @mysticstarlightduck for tagging me! Sorry I took so long lol)

This is me!

(I don't normally wear this many accessories/jewellery lol. But I wish I did! I love it sm)

Three Fun Facts About Me:

I have never been in a relationship before. Ever. The only experience I have in that department is through other people's stories, not really my own. And by that, I mean that I'm used to watching my friends/people around me getting in and out of relationships, and listening to songs about romance and love and heartbreak... but not really relating to them due to not having any of those experiences myself (but it's alright, tho. It'll happen when it happens! In the meantime, I always have my made-up ships from my writing lol).

My favourite book growing up was "Matilda" by Roald Dahl. I thought Matilda was such a cool girl growing up lol. And lowkey relatable in a lot of ways. No, I wasn't a child genius. But she kind of fits into the archetype that I always found comfort in due to being that kind of person myself. Smart/intellectually curious, bookworm, introverted/independent, genuinely kind and has a heart in spite of being seen as cold by others (another example of this is Huey from Boondocks. Been rewatching some episodes of that show recently and wow... forgot how crazy it was lol. It's good, tho).

Christmas is my favourite holiday! 🎅❄️🎄I do get why some people may dislike it, I guess (like, my younger sister isn't a fan, and she's explained why... I get it. The over-commercialisation of it takes a lot of the "specialness" out of it, you know? Distracts from the actual meaning behind it and all. Plus, it can suck if you're just feeling sad and lonely during a time of celebration for everyone else. Aside from that, technically Easter is more significant if you look at it from the lens of which Christian holiday is most important). But I love the joyfulness and festiveness. Makes me feel all jolly and cosy inside. Plus, I love singing Christmas carols. And presents. And Christmas movies. I just love Christmas lol.

Favorite season:

Autumn. Or fall, as some others prefer to call it. That's when my birthday is!!

(Second place is summer because that's holiday season. Plus, that's when my sister's birthday is.)

Continent where I live:

I live in the UK, so Europe.

How I spend my (free) time:

Writing (duh)

Writeblr stuff (tag games, making OC playlists, answering questions, communicating with followers and having discussions with them about writing, etc)

YouTube (mainly watching videos... but I do want to start making videos myself at some point. Stay tuned for that, I guess)

Studying/school assignments (I'm in university)

Listening to music

Singing

Watching movies/TV shows

Reading

Eating lol

Are you published?

No. It'd be cool to be, though. Pretty sure I've mentioned this at least once before, but I want to self-publish the Stephanie Smith saga once I'm done with it.

Introvert or extrovert?

Introvert. 100% introvert lol. I feel most comfortable within myself when I'm by myself. As a kid, I was so painfully shy that the thought of going up to someone and asking a simple question would terrify me lol. As I got older, though, I was super duper lonely, and I realised that I had no real friends because I was keeping myself all closed off in a tight shell, so I'd literally force myself to open up and become more social and make friends with other kids. I practised it, like how you do with any skill. Now it's not so bad. I'd say I can carry a conversation with someone fairly well, even if I don't know them so well.

Favorite meal:

Ooooh.... this is hard. I love most foods lol.

I think I'll go with something a little bit more traditional. I'm Kenyan, and one of my favourite meals that I've grown up eating is chapatti and stew (any kind of stew, or soup. But my mum would usually make this stew with kidney beans. That was a big hit growing up). Haven't had it in almost a year, tho.

Aside from that, I love pizza. And Nandos.

Tagging: @clairelsonao3, @exquisitecrow, @mister-writes, @winterandwords, @mjparkerwriting, @e-everlasting-g, @erieautumnskies, @annethewittywriter, @writingwithfolklore, @ashwithapen

[sk8termikey]

Chapter 11 of 21 Questions

better interface on wattpad

Today was one of the most important days of Alex's life: she would be trying to get tickets to see her favourite YouTubers, the Sturniolo Triplets. The three brothers were planning a tour around the start of autumn and Alex was more than ready to go to a show. She had been mentioning it to everyone around her, meaning her friends and family, and would annoy them even more if she managed to get tickets – no one wants to know how she'll react if she does not get tickets. Her main goal was one of the last dates of the tour as the triplets would end it on the East Coast, near enough Spring Hill where Alex lived. T-time was approaching and Alex almost regretted the day off she took for this as being alone was stressing her even though she knew it was the best way for her to get tickets. Her motivation got a bit higher when she received a text from her best friend.

Lily loml🌻

Hi bestie, ik it's almost time so i just wanna wish you luck and keep me updated<3

I will if i succeed but don't expect anything if I don't get them😭

Although she wanted to stay positive, Alex was still mentally prepared to spend the rest of her day crying in bed while eating ice cream. Obviously, she really wanted to see the triplets but thinking about the worst that could happen would help her not be too disappointed. It would hurt less, right?

Well, it still hurt a lot when it was time to get tickets and the power went out, meaning that Alex's Wi-Fi connection was temporarily off. Quickly, the girl took her phone and switched her mobile hotspot on while trying to get Ticketmaster to work – always some issues with that website. As she kept refreshing the tabs on her laptop and phone, Alex's motivated smile started to turn upside down. She knew not to immediately quit when the website wasn't letting her select a ticket category because there was none left. It simply meant that people might just be thinking about buying the tickets and could let them go at any time, whether because they didn't want it anymore or because of the stressful timer that didn't last very long.

However, half an hour of waiting for available tickets turned into an hour and hope had completely left Alex. Not even any general admission tickets left? This is crazy, Alex thought. She had expected the VIP tickets to go first as people would mostly want to experience everything during the tour but even the most basic ones were sold out. Only the “front line extra” was left but they were worth nothing without at least a normal ticket. Alex kept switching tabs between the Orlando and Tampa shows but because nothing was becoming available to select, tears started to form in her eyes. It was becoming real: Alex wouldn't see the Sturniolo Triplets this year. The blonde was in such despair at the moment that she closed her laptop, threw her phone on the couch and left the living room to go cry in her room – not before grabbing her well-deserved ice cream that would have either celebrated the ticket purchase or in this case is actually to prevent Alex from throwing herself from her window.

~~~

At the café, Lily was currently frowning at her phone when she noticed that her best friend hadn't texted her in almost two hours. This is not good, Lily thought. This is not good at all. Indeed, this was a clear sign that Alex hadn't succeeded in buying tickets to see the triplets. Lily turned to her coworkers with whom she was closing and asked them for advice:

“Guys, I don't think Alex got tickets because it's radio silence”

“Oh shit,” Jade sighed about the news. “And it's not like any of us got better luck.”

Unbeknownst to Alex, her three friends had tried to get tickets during their shift as they had all had their phones opened on ticketmaster and even the store's computer – which led to some complaints from customers as they would take longer than usual to take and prepare orders. It was for the greater good though because when one of them is in need, the others do what they can to help. Each one of them had focused on one show in Floria to increase their chances: Lily had failed for Orlando, Jade had failed Tampa and Lucas had failed St. Lauderdale. It still was crazy to them that they probably lost the “Ticketmaster war” against thirteen year-old children.

Thinking about how they could raise Alex's spirits, Lucas, Jade and Lily decided to head to the supermarket near the café and buy the ingredients to cook homemade pizza for Alex – not basic circular pizzas obviously but differently shaped than the usual such as hearts or stars. They knew it would make her feel better because she deserved to be and although they couldn't cheer her up with tickets, they would try their best to bring a smile back onto Alex's face. Moreover, today being Wednesday meant that a new video had come out and Alex had certainly missed it by being too focused on trying to buy tickets to the tour. In conclusion, tonight's plan was to get Alex out of her bed to make her enjoy life again with pizza and the Sturniolo Triplets – all a girl could wish for, right?

~~~

After coming back to Lily and Alex's house, Lucas and Jade started to prepare the food while Lily was given the task to go check on her best friend. While going upstairs, she quickly texted Matt to let her know about her change of plans.

Matt🍂

Heyy, I know we had said we would play fortnite tonight but smth urgent came up and imma have to postpone ://

Is everything ok?

But no worries, we can find another day!

I mean i am fine but my friend isn't really feeling good so we're spending the evening w her

No problem, i hope she'll feel better

It's alex right?

Yepp

Text me when you're free then

I should be able to find time during the weekend 

Great, thanks for understanding

I'll get back to you soon!

As she knocked on Alex's door, Lily gave a last fast thought to Matt and smiled at how kind he was – never judging her or holding grudges against her. In complete honesty, having to postpone stuff happened to both of them as they each had their own life with jobs that took a lot of their time: Matt had to film two videos and a podcast that his brother Nick would post every week whereas Lily had her full-time job at the café.

Due to a lack of response from Alex, Lily gently opened the door and was met with her friend in quite a poor state: Alex was wearing a hoodie that covered almost her entire face and had a half-empty ice cream pot in her hands. Her laptop was opened on the bed and was showing one of Alex’s favourite Tv shows – Merlin.

“I hope you’re not watching the end of season five just to make you feel even sadder”, Lily tried to joke.

“Nope,” Alex replied as she paused the episode and turned to face her best friend. “I can never survive this part ever again.”

“Neither can I.” After a short silence of looking at one another, Lily understood that she had her friend’s attention. “You wanna come downstairs and eat an actual meal? Jade and Lucas are here as well.”

“Hmm”, Alex feigned to think as she knew exactly that her friends were aware of today’s failure and wanted to cheer her up. “I guess I can come say hi and focus on something else”.

Alex’s agreement to the idea was enough to put a grin on Lily’s face and as the blonde left her bed for the first time in two hours, she also managed to reciprocate a small smile. Before leaving the room, Lily pulled Alex in for a quick hug then took her hand before descending the stairs.

When the two girls arrived in the kitchen, they were met with Lucas and Jade putting the pizzas in the oven. They had made heart-shaped pizzas – one with pepperoni, one with vegetables and a third one with multiple cheeses on it. As Lily forced Alex to sit down at the table, she started setting everything up and put out some snacks to eat while the four friends would wait for the pizzas to cook.

Everyone knew not to mention the reason why they were hanging out and without even having to explicitly agree, the evening would be a normal one simply happening because they wanted to spend time together.

~~~

After a dinner filled with laughter and fun facts about some customers, Alex was definitely feeling much better. She knew that even though the triplets might not do another tour soon after this one, she still had time to meet them later in her life: they were young and not stopping their career anytime soon.

As they were finishing to put everything away, Lucas and Jade were also getting ready to leave the girls’ house and come back to their respective homes. The door was opened and the four coworkers were all standing in a circle in the doorway, just smiling at each other. Alex was the first to break the silence:

“Thanks guys for tonight, I don’t deserve you. I hope you all know I’m grateful for you.”

“Of course babe”, Lily answered. “We’ll alway be here for you.”

Jade and Lucas agreed then decided to start a group hug. Being the tallest, Lucas was easily towering over the girls and could hug them all at once. As Lily began to sway from left to right, they all laughed because she was making everyone lose their balance and almost led to Jade tripping on a shoe.

“Oops,” Alex chuckled. “That’s mine”.

The small incident marked the end of the hug and the beginning of actual goodbyes. Waiting for their friends to drive away, Lily and Alex waved at them before closing their front door as they saw the car leaving.

A comfortable silence settled between them as they made their way upstairs. It was an unwritten agreement between the two best friends: if one of them had had a miserable day, cuddling was mandatory. Therefore, while Lily went to take a shower, Alex sat on the brunette’s bed and opened her laptop. With everything that happened today, Alex had forgotten about the triplets’ new video and so it was the perfect way to end the day. Even if they weren’t seeing the triplets in real life, they still had their videos which were waiting to be re-watched as many times as necessary.

~~~

By the time the girls had finished The great family vacation video, Alex was getting sleepy. Lily thus decided to put the laptop away because she realised she needed to rest as well. Barely five minutes later, Lily came back in bed and saw that Alex was already sound asleep. As Lily went under the covers, her best friend unconsciously shifted closer to her as if to seek comfort from having someone with her.

Right before closing her eyes, Lily took her phone to turn it off and received a message at the same time.

Matt🍂

Here to check in, I hope the situation is fine now

Don't hesitate to reach out

Good night Lily :)

With a quick but genuine smile, Lily mentally thanked Matt. Then, as she was too tired to immediately reply back, her eyelids grew heavy and she fell asleep. Phone still in hand, Lily's brain got influenced and although her mind had no idea what he looked like, she could feel Matt's presence in her dreams.

Thank you for reading. Votes and comments are always appreciated if you like this story :) The story is co-written w @/little_grapejuice on wattpad

[ratatatastic]

eughhh pack omega ekky so happy to welcome omega matthew to the team and they get along so well they r so wonderful. im sure they love nesting with the goalies from time to time

while i do agree pack omega ekky eventually welcoming maffhew in its certainly a bit of a rocky start because we do have the acknowledge the huby and weegs sized elephant in the room because as much as cushy ekky and maffhew are now it certainly wasnt always like that because omega does get sad that their beloved packmates they spent absolute y e a r s got traded for a percieved hotshot instead but it doesnt last long considering how nice maffhew is that he wins ekky over but ekky certainly at odds with the strange new scent floating around and i can imagine some unbidden chittering coming from ekky when maffhew strays a little too close for his liking but matthew doesnt take it to heart he knows what ekky is going through and ekkys absolutely embarrassed about how immature hes acting and how hard hes taking this loss that he does kinda bully himself into playing nice with a terribly sweet omega who really is just trying to fit into the new team they wanted to be with and if pack alpha wholeheartedly accepts them ekky knows he will too... it just takes some time is all... a hurt omega is hard thing to convince but he knows eventually matthew's offputting spice of a scent that makes his nose itch will eventually be comforting—like nice cinnamon on an autumn day

anyways aside from that i absolutely do think they create a huge cuddle puddle of love with our tandem when they allow them too and when they can

its a bit of a special event but the team does chuckle when they walk into the dressing room only to see all the laundry bins upturned, all manners of equipment and jerseys strewn about in the middle with 4 bodies just piled on top of each other its hard to tell where one body begins and the other ends. really the only warning they get of this is when theyre about a couple feet from the locker rooms and they hear a chorus of purring that would rival a bike gang going on a joyride like oh? i guess its that time of the year again? never underestimate the strengths of their omegas though and its why they try to tiptoe around the breathing living pile in the middle—sometimes they have previous plans, sometimes its not their turn on omega cuddle duty, sometimes theyre not quite in the mood to become a glorified body pillow for hours on end and thats okay! its why we have a whole pack! someone will want to join the pile but if they dont then its best to creep around it if they dont want to be sucked into the black hole of cuddles. a couple of the betas have horror stories of skirting a little too close to the mess because theyre a bit oblivious to whats the radius thats safe to walk in and not get yoinked and predictably getting their ankle grabbed from out of nowhere and dragged in. its certainly an experience to have 4 omegas on you trying to scent every inch of you thats for sure!

but its a little worse when ekky decides hes actually a glorified therapy dog and just drapes his large body over your stomach and start purring like crazy, pinning you down with his frame like a weight blanket. maffhew likes to snuggle up by your neck and start rubbing his cheek against every spot of free skin he can get, starts moving cloth out of the way to get it. and if hes really gone enough than be prepared to be something of a chewtoy because hes gonna find something and hes gonna start teething on it—earlobes, fingers, the spot where shoulder meets neck, anywhere he can fit his mouth around and its a love language it really is. bobby just likes getting a paw on hair, likes running his fingers through it as a grooming gesture, quiet little chirps falling from his mouth, just some serene snuggle time, maybe grabs a hand to hold onto as he does so but other than that hes not too much of a menace like the other two. and knighter? hes still young hes still coming to hes a little more too himself than usual but he does try. really hes just content to let maffhew and ekky take most of the space maybe just pushes his face into a thigh and sighs in content for a bit (hierarchy and all that) but maffhew is always quick to notice and drags him up, shares some part of neck scenting duties with him as he goes down and chomps on a thigh for a bit.

yeah this team is a bit of mess and they have to pay the dirty jersey tax that is chucking their laundry into the circle like an offering to keep their omegas happy lest they get dragged in against their will because they still have said sweaty jerseys on but they wouldnt change it for the world. but it certainly does help to have more than 1 person in there because man is it hard to distract 4 omegas at the same time

[servin-up-surveys]

survey #226

Has anyone ever made fun of your taste in music? Uh, maybe? Not that I remember.

What’s your favorite season of the year? Autumn.

Is anyone’s birthday coming up? My mom's is the beginning of next month.

Does someone owe you over twenty dollars? I've spoken about how my sister stole $100 of gifted money from me behind my back and I only know because of my mom. I don't like bringing it up because I'm still bitter as hell she never said to my face "hey Brittany, I need help with bills, can I pay you back?" or anything like this. I don't think she even knows I know.

Do you like sour candy? I love sour candy.

Ignoring nutrition, could you live off veggies for the rest of your life? Absolutely not.

Has someone of the opposite sex ever told you that you were sexy? Somehow.

Do you prefer to take your showers at night or in the morning? Of the two, mornings. But I tend to do later in the afternoon.

Do you have any ‘naughty’ photos on your phone? No.

Do you tend to fall for players? No.

Have you spoken to your mother today? Father? Mom, every day. I haven't spoken to my dad in a while.

Have you ever gotten a flu vaccination? No, but I got my Covid vaccine. I SHOULD get flu vaccines, I just... can't be bothered. That and I don't like LONG needles going into my skin. Covid was too serious a threat to not get vaccinated.

What’s the last restaurant you ate at? It was some Mexican place Nicole took Mom and me to. It was pretty nice, I just can't remember its name.

Double dates: a do or don’t? I think they're fun, but I'd certainly advise one-on-one dates, too.

Do you know any guitarists? Yes.

Do you have any relatives that have shunned you, or vice versa? My immediate family doesn't associate with one of my mother's brothers because he's pure fucking garbage that disgraced his dead mother's wishes as to what would be done with her money. He lied, evaded, and greatly risked being sued if we actually wanted to. He's rich filth.

Which would you rather have, a new puppy or kitten? Neither, realistically. If I move in with Girt like I want to one day, we're gonna have two cats since I have one and he has one, and I don't want to start out in a house with three cats to deal with; I might never want three cats. Pet dogs aren't my thing, but I'm sure we'll have one when I live with Girt again, because he is a GINORMOUS dog person, so if he wants a dog, he can have a dog.

Does/did your high school have pop machines? It did.

Do you know anyone who’s won the lottery? Nope.

If you could work at any retail store, which one would it be? I will never fucking ever work in retail ever again.

Have you ever stringed green beans before? I feel like I did this at Colleen's in-laws' once...?

Have you ever had any painful dental work done? If so, what? Yes, that's what happens when you spent too long neglecting your teeth. Deep cleaning HURTS, especially because in my case they had to do an injection into the very roof of my mouth, which was my most painful experience ever with a needle. I had two wisdom teeth taken out but we couldn't afford to put me to sleep, but that was just more scary than painful, because obviously I was numbed to hell, just the jarring sound of your teeth breaking (my bad one had deep cavities and this made it break into quite a few pieces) is extremely fucking unpleasant and because you obviously expect pain, it's a very strange and shocking experience.

Do you shop at any independent music stores? No.

Which flower is your favorite? I have a lot, honestly... Orchids, hydrangeas, roses, specifically pink tulips, hibiscuses, etc.

Have you ever picked wild flowers? I know I have as a kid to give to my mom.

Have you ever walked through a forest? No, not a true forest. Just woods around my old house.

What was the last wild animal you saw? Some bird.

Have you ever seen a mountain in person? Yes.

Do you prefer jam or butter on your biscuits? Jam.

Have you ever explored somewhere abandoned? Yes.

Where is the last place you went to as a tourist? Charlotte.

What country do you most want to travel to? South Africa.

Do you prefer to read in bed or in a chair? A chair on the back porch, but if it's too hot or humid, I read in bed.

Have you ever kept a physical, hand-written journal? Yes. I regularly did this the many instances I was hospitalized.

Which season do you think is the prettiest? Autumn.

What style house do you want to own? I don't even know house styles, man...

Would you rather swim in a lake, a river, or the ocean? Ocean.

Would you rather play in the snow or the rain? Snow.

Have you ever pressed flowers or leaves into a book? No.

Have you ever found a four-leaf clover? I've found multiple. At one of our old homes, we had a patch that had a mutation apparently and it continued to reproduce so we had quite a bit.

What did you do the last time you hung out with your best friend? I watched him play some of the Elden Ring DLC and we cuddled in bed for quite a while.

Have you ever taken an art class? All available semesters in high school (there were either three or four), plus lots of photography through HS, college, and even beyond, and a painting course in college.

What is your ethnic background? Basic white bitch. Just German, Irish, Polish influence that I know of. We don't really know my dad's heritage.

Do you like coffee? I've hated every coffee I've ever tried from anywhere.

What was the last thing you wrote by hand? An appointment in my planner.

Who did you last worry about and why? Myself, honestly. My last psychiatrist appointment was extremely eye-opening and scary, but in a way that was needed.

Are you currently looking for a new place to live? Not actively, but certainly passively. Mom and I hate it here, A LOT. Girt sometimes looks at places, and I have no idea if he plans on taking me with him immediately when he moves. I... hope, but it's not my place at all to push him about it. I feel it'd be wise for him to establish himself first, but I can't help hoping we'll just move right in together.

When was the last time you ate/drank something gross just to be polite? Probably sometime I was at Girt's for some party. I have in VERY few cases enjoyed his mother's cooking. I can't pull this off well, though, and by this point they're so familiar with me, I don't really do this; my face and general bodily reactions are SUPER SUPER FUCKING TELLING if I don't like something despite my best efforts, and they know this about me by now. They know my pickiness and intense reactions to food I dislike aren't things I have control over, so they at least say they don't mind.

Last time you heard a growl, who or what did it come from? Our dog because she heard something outside.

When did you last make up a baby’s bottle? Never.

When did you last see the sea? It's been many years.

Do you apologize a lot? Yes, I'm absolutely one of those people who gets told "stop apologizing" and stuff.

Is there a gang problem in your area? In my city, yes. Among locals, it's known for crime, like murder and a lot of shootings.

Would you date an already attached person? No, only monogamy would work for me. I KNOW I would get jealous in poly arrangements and be convinced they don't actually love me; I DO believe poly people can absolutely love all their partners, I just know I would have problems remaining confident in my OWN poly relationship.

When you marry, will you wear white? Probably not, but possibly.

Could you date someone who’s only been your friend for a long time? Ha, this is literally mine and Girt's story. Ended up being a fantastic decision, so.

Do you think it’s better to look for love or let it find you? I think it's generally better to let it find you. However, I wouldn't say it's always a BAD idea for any person imaginable to seek it out, especially depending on lifestyles, like for people who basically never go out and interact with others. They deserve love too if they want a relationship, and it'll be hard to find UNLESS they make an effort.

Have you ever learned an important lesson as a result of a breakup? Oh for sure. Anyone who reads these probably knows about it.

Do you or would you ever wear fake eyelashes? No.

When was the last time you slept in a tent? Not since I was a child.

What was the last television show that you sat and watched multiple episodes of? Uhhh... I'm not sure. I only ever really watch TV with Mom and rarely Girt, so... oh. Maybe The Floor.

Is there anything significant happening this month? This month is almost done. No.

When was the last time you had a Poptart? It's been maybe like... two+ months?

Do you like hot chocolate? Totally.

What’s your favorite Michael Jackson song? Maybe "Billie Jean." There's a cover of "They Don't Care About Us" that I adore, but I've never actually heard the OG.

When was the last time you got your hair done professionally? Like a month ago, to dye it lilac.

Have you ever gotten your legs waxed? No, that sounds excruciating.

Have you ever read anything by Edgar Allen Poe? Of course.

Do you like horses? Yeah, I think they're extremely majestic and deep animals.

Have you ever seen a snake in real life? Yeah, I literally have one in my bedroom.

Do you know anyone that has been held hostage before? No.

[cookinguptales]

wwdits tarot: death

Sorry for the late posting tonight! I……. forgot. lmao

It’s time for probably the most misunderstood card of the entire deck, to the point where it’s almost a cliche when you’re talking about tarot.

XIII. Death.

Now… Death isn’t about literal death, most of the time. It is about the death of the now. It is a card about change, but unlike Wheel of Fortune, there’s a very real sense that you need to get rid of what you currently have so you can have something new. You must abandon attachments that are no longer serving you and reach out to something better.

Death, as a card, is death in the sense of autumnal foliage. Leaves die, yes, but only to protect the tree during the coming winter. And then new leaves can grow in their place. It is a necessary death to make room for new life, y’know? Like many deities associated with death, this card is largely about the death of the current and the death of the self — but not necessarily a permanent death that signifies the end.

When this card comes up in a reading, it’s usually actually a sign of opportunity. It tells us that change is inevitable and often uncomfortable, but it will give us the opportunity to grow and change and experience new things that will make our lives better in the long run.

With all that in mind, you’ll probably understand why I’m not just being too literal when I tell you that I’ve chosen Colin Robinson.

Yes, Colin is the only one of our main cast who’s died in a meaningful way. (Like… I mean, they’re almost all dead, but not dead-dead. Not head-crushing dead.) And when he died, the cast all had to grapple with their grief in very disparate ways.

But like Death the card, Colin Robinson’s death was an opportunity for change and rebirth. He managed to come back as a wholly new person, bringing up a lot of questions about nature and nurture and the essence of change.

I’ve always thought that Colin Robinson’s journey was interesting because it did bring up such questions about meaningful change. Like… he did read his journals and revert back to his former self, but he seemed intrinsically changed by his experience as Laszlo’s son. He could never grow up into anything but what he was, but he got to have a childhood blessedly free of all the things that seemed to burden him as an adult.

As an adult, Colin Robinson always seemed to have trouble with his own existence. Sure, he liked draining people, but you could tell it bothered him, that he had to drain his loved ones even when he didn’t want to. It bothered him that no one wanted to be around him.

When he was reborn as a child, suddenly, he didn’t have that problem anymore. Everyone wanted to be around him. Laszlo, Guillermo, and Sean all became quasi-father figures and he had adoring audiences at the club.

It’s… debatable, honestly, whether young energy vampires just feed in different ways (being annoying, demanding attention, breaking things, being loud, etc.) or if that’s uh. Just how children behave. But either way, this did give Colin Robinson a second chance at creating these meaningful interpersonal relationships.

That’s why it was so sad, in a way, to see familiar patterns playing out with him. Having difficulty making friends his age, starting to hurt people just to feed on them, etc. And then, in the end, he largely returned to who he’d been.

But did he always have to? It’s hard to say whether this was the first time Colin Robinson had been through this cycle of death and rebirth. He didn’t remember a life before the one he was living in the first three seasons, but it’s possible that this was just the first time he’d left notes for himself.

(And if it was the first time — why now? Who knows!)

It’s just interesting that Baby Colin seems to be so thoroughly a symbol for the inevitability of change, but also an intangible sense of self that you can’t escape from.

Like Colin, Death is about change while retaining who you are. It’s not a literal death, so you are who you are before you changed. Just… a different version of yourself. Maybe a better one, if you’re lucky.

I’m so curious to see if our Colin Robinson will also find himself permanently changed by his period of rebirth. His humming Rap Tap On Wood does seem to imply that no one can be wholly unchanged by a parent’s somewhat dubious love, even if they are an energy vampire.

Either way, I do think he makes a fantastic Death. His very existence seems to predicate on a need to be reborn once a century, and the husk of his old body is very literally discarded to make way for a new one that seems to feed on attention until it can grow into a brand-new adult form. Death is all about abandoning attachments that are well past their expiration date, and. Well. I guess an entire body could qualify.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose, I suppose.

Anyway. Imagery.

In the Rider-Smith-Waite tarot, Death rides on a pale horse wearing armor that shows the invulnerability of death. Around him, people from all walks of life fall to his feet. There is no one who can escape Death or the change that it brings.

Death’s pale horse really does seem to be a very key part of this iconography, so — what the hell, Colin Robinson. You can keep the horse.

So our Colin Robinson will be riding on a horse, but — I think a reversal could be fun. Instead of death being all bones, his pale horse will be. So Colin will be riding on a horse made of bones, his armor of corporate casual on his back. His eyes glow blue, and those around him are falling as he drains them dry.

And standing there next to him, one hand stroking the skeletal horse’s side, is Baby Colin surveying all that one day he must become.

(Baby, you would’ve loved the puppet in War Horse.)

wwdits tarot masterpost