#it scratches such a specific itch in my brain that i didn't know i had

[lazylittledragon]

i read legends and lattes recently and now i just think karlach should have a coffee shop

[lizardtakesflight]

The "Humans are Space Orcs" trope has always scratched a real good itch in my brain. I have something I want to write for it, but I'm really shit at coming up with a plot, so I keep just doing little drabbles like this:

"You know, I don’t like that they call you that.”

Thirtytwo’s ears perked up and swiveled towards Alex, who had been sitting in the corner of the room and watching nem type away at their console. The Terran had seemed content to spend this work cycle just monitoring Thirtytwo in neir duties, and if ne hadn’t been used to this by now, it probably would have been more than a little anxiety-inducing to be stared at by a predator species for so long. With those eerie, front-facing eyes, it was always pretty clear where he was staring. 

Alex had been silent until now, just moments after Thirtytwo ended a call with one of the overseers.

“That they call me what?” 

The Terran scowled, and Thirtytwo had repress the urge to shrink down against neir seat at the show of disapproval. “Drudge.”

Thirtytwo’s spines raised slightly in confusion, and ne turned in neir chair to fully face Alex. “That is… what I am, though.”

Alex huffed through his nose. “Yeah, but that’s not– you’re an individual, not just some faceless member of…” He seemed uncomfortable with stating the rest aloud. “You know.”

“The serving caste.” It didn’t bother Thirtytwo at all to be referred to by such; it was just a descriptive of what ne had been born to do. It wasn’t quite clear to nem why this subject seemed to agitate Alex so much any time it came up.

“Yeah, that.” The words sounded flat and unhappy through Thirtytwo’s translator. “They won’t even let you have a real name.”

Now ne was really confused. “My designation is Vega-Bluelight-Drudge-32nd-Born-of-24th-Generation.”

“That’s not a name, that’s just saying what you are!"

Alex’s agitation was beginning to affect neir mood as well, triggering an extremely strong flight urge, and ne couldn’t help snapping back at him.  “You aren’t making any sense! They’re the same thing!”

“Okay, okay, sorry. Look." He scrubbed a hand through the short, yellowish fur on the top of his head. "My name is Alex, right?”

Thirtytwo's ears flicked. "Alexander Marcus Sullivan Sol.” That had been on the crew briefing that was sent out before Alex had come on board for the first time. Pronouncing it was a little bit difficult, because neir translator didn't pick up those sounds as translatable words. It always seemed odd to Thirtytwo that the Terran's name was just… gibberish.

“Right. Now, do all those words say what I am?”

Thirtytwo’s spines were beginning to soften out of their defense posture. “Sol means… you’re from the Sol system…”

“And the rest?”

“I don’t know.” They seemed to be nonsense words, but ne didn’t want to offend Alex by saying so. “They don’t translate.”

“Where I come from, names aren’t just… a label, so you can be sorted or ordered around. Names are a way to differentiate you from everyone else. They’re a word or combination of words that very specifically mean you.”

"So they're… descriptive words." 

"Sort of. They can be. Most Terrans are named by their parents, or whomever raised them. Sometimes it's a traditional family name, or maybe the name of someone else they want to honor. Or sometimes, they pick it hoping that the kid will grow up to have the qualities of their name."

"So… what does your name mean?"

Alex paused for a moment, then shook his head. "Actually, hold on a minute." He picked up the datapad he'd brought in with him earlier and started tapping away. Probably accessing one of those databases only the higher castes had access to. "Alex is short for Alexander, meaning 'defender of men'," he read aloud.

"So… a warrior? That sounds like a caste assignment."

Alex shrugged. "That's just a coincidence. My dad was an agricultural laborer, Mom ran the transport for the company Dad worked for, and Tati stayed home and watched the kids. I was the only one that took military service, the others chose to work with Dad."

"And Marcus?"

"Eh…" Alex scrolled on his pad, was quiet a moment, then shifted a little in his seat. "It relates to an ancient god of war."

Thirtytwo gave him an unimpressed look. "You're not proving your point, here."

[gtsdreamer2]

"Ahhh~ We're here!" Your step-sister exclaimed, bursting through the threshold of your home. She leaped towards you uncharacteristically, as if hoping for an embrace. You instinctually wrapped your arms around her thin frame, eliciting a happy squeal from her lips.

"Welcome to my house" you said meekly to your sister and parents. It was the first time you had invited them over officially, and there was no better time than now for Christmas. You got them seated in your living room and made sure they had access to all your appetizers and beverages.

"So what took you so long to have us over?" Your step-mom started. "And how come you missed last Christmas?" You father finished for her.

"Well, truth be told, we've been working on a massive project at work, like literally years long, but we're finally nearly finished. I can't really get into specifics, but it's for the military and it's going to help the ground troops. It's really cutting edge stuff. Literally the reason I went to college for." You were beaming with pride and filled to the brim with want to tell them all about the project, but the only one that seemed to look even semi-interested was your step-sis.

She had never made much of an impression on you when you two were living together, and she was far from any step-sibling fantasy growing up. But it had seemed like she had finally come into her own since moving out on her own. She was still rail thin, for the most part, and her face cleared of all her teenage acne. She HAD developed a rather sizable rear, but you could tell that it was from hard work rather than being inactive... not that you were staring. Looking back now, you realized that you hadn't been keeping in touch with your sis or your family much since you started your job at the military research facility.

"It hasn't been from lack of wanting to reach out to you guys, the job has just been really demanding since the get-go." Your excuse didn't seem to work too well on your parents.

"Well, I missed you and I'm glad you're here now." Your sister chimed. "And look at this big fancy house you live in now thanks to all the hard work you're doing! I bet they're paying you really well too!" Her praise was scratching an itch in your brain that was undeniably inflating your ego a little bit. This was very awkward coming from someone who mostly kept to herself when you two shared a house. She did seem interested in the same research that you were and seemed passionate about your dreams and goals, but she for sure didn't pursue the same dreams or actually understand the science behind it. She was always supportive of you reaching your goals though.

As the night wore on, your parents finally decided to bow out and head home, leaving just you and your sister, facing each other on opposite couches. She leaned in closer. "So tell me," she whispered, as if anyone else was in the house to eavesdrop. "what's really going on with your research? I know when we were younger, all you would talk about was making tech to make 'super soldiers'. but did you actually do it? You did, didn't you? You can tell me." Her words seemed almost manic, as if begging for information. You couldn't hold it back any longer.

"We did! It's so exciting. Like, you don't even know. All my research, all the grants, my whole team, it all came together perfectly as a culmination of my dreams and hard work. What we've created and what it can, in theory do, are just mind blowing." You were beaming and gushing at this point, like a parent, boasing about their child. "I can't wait for you to see the practical applications of it in a few years after it had gone through all the safety testing and red tape." She seemed defeated after hearing that last part. 'It's always the waiting' she thought to herself.

"Whaaaat?" She sighed, audibly protesting. "I don't want to have to wait years to properly see my brother's hard work! I want to see it now!" You sister whined like a child when she wanted to get her way, and now was no exception.

"The tech is solid, and the prototype is finished, but there's still lots of hoops to jump through and safety tests to perform before we can just start putting people in it, silly. I still wish you could see it, but it's just not there yet." Her ears perked up at the thought of her opportunity presenting itself.

"Well clearly I've had too much to drink to be able to drive myself home tonight. I think I just need to spend the night on your couch and then I can go home tomorrow." She turned on her side and laid her head on the arm rest, feigning fatigue.

"I have to work in the morning, so you need to be gone before I am, I don't have any spare keys or anything like that." You told her sternly.

"Maybe I'll just come with you to work then, so you can show me what you've been working on and I can praise you properly." Your sister said, filling your cup with more alcohol. You hadn't noticed, but clearly she was trying to get you drunk.

Morning came in a flash as you could barely hear your alarm from your bedroom. You awoke on the couch, not sure of how the night had gotten away from you. "Morning sleepyhead." Your sister teased. "I couldn't move you from the couch since you're too heavy, so I slept in your bed, I hope you don't mind. Also, since your alarm is going off, I assume that means we have to go to work now." She slid a cup of coffee into your hands as the brain-fog began to lift.

"Huh? We? What are you talking about? I can't take you to work with me." Clearly you hadn't been tough enough on her last night.

"What do you mean? You told me last night that I could come see it! You said you were happy to show it off to me and that no one would be there so there shouldn't be any issues! You promised!" You sister started to huff and pout, crocodile tears filling her eyes. Had you promised her that? It WAS true that you were going to have the lab to yourself.

"Did I really promise? I mean, I guess..." You trailed off, knowing already by the smile growing on her face that you had lost and she had won. Grab your things, let me get ready. It'll be a short day and then I'll treat you to lunch." She giggled to herself at your suggestion of buying her lunch. 'That's right you will. It's working!' She thought to herself giddily.

As you strapped into your car, your sister did the same. Turning the air off and making sure the windows were rolled up as she did. The drive was short, but the air was stifling. You moved to turn the air on, but your sister cut you off, blocking the knob. "I don't want to get chilly. Leave it off." She said it as a command, and your body froze. You nodded your head and reluctantly returned your hand to the steering wheel. 'That was a weird reaction.' You thought to yourself, remarking that as the drive wore on the stale air seemed to get sweeter and sweeter. Suddenly, you became hyper aware of your step-sister. You had never been attracted to her in any physical capacity, but suddenly, her feminine charms seemed to be turned up to eleven. The heat rising in the car and your increased heart rate suddenly made you break out in a sweat, and the outside world seemed to fade to grey as you continued driving to your place of employment on autopilot. All the while, you couldn't help but steal glances at your sister. She wasn't oblivious to this in the slightest as she adjusted her low-cut top, revealing her small amount of cleavage. She rubbed her legs together in her fuzzy leggings that clinged to her just tightly enough to leave nothing to the imagination. You started to pant from the blood boiling under your skin.

"What's wrong bro?" She asked teasingly. "You seem kind of hot and bothered." She put a hand on your thigh and electricity jolted through you. You could feel yourself growing hard only inches away from her hand as thinking became harder and more frustrating.

'Focus on the road' You thought to yourself, unable to vocalize any thoughts out loud between pants and stifled moans. Moans? 'Why am I moaning? What's wrong with me?' As you approached a red light, your step-sister grabbed the back of your head and shoved your face against the nape of her neck. As you breathed in her heavly scent, you were sent nearly over the edge.

You could feel your member surge longer, reaching maximum length. Your heartbeat throbbed through it, resonating at the tip, and you felt ready to burst at any minute. Suddenly, your sister pulled you away and turned your head back to the road. "It's green, dummy." She said cheekily. "Are we almost there?" You nodded, trying not to dwell on the fact that you were almost there in more ways than one.

Finally you pulled up to the facility, the gate cam scanning your registered plate and swinging open. You pulled into your parking spot and finally were able to shut the car off, throwing the door open and clamoring out for some fresh air. As you took deep breaths out in the open, you could start to feel the fog in your mind lifting ever so slightly. You were just starting to regain some composure when your step-sister came from behind and put her arms around you, forcing herself too close to you and refilling your lungs full of her alluring aroma.

"Let's go inside, it's chilly out here." You nodded, your eyes clouding over and her control over you reasserting itself. You flashed your card at the door and it clicked open. Your sister opened the door and ushered you through. You shambled after her with her leading you by the hand. It seemed like she knew exactly where she was going. Suddenly you found yourself in the testing room with the tech safely on display in its glass case. Right in the center of the room was a jet black suit that looked like latex. Although very unassuming and more than slightly lewd looking, this was the culmination of you and your team's hard work.

Upon seeing the black suit in the case, Belle immediately dropped your hand and sprinted up to it, placing her hands and nose right against the glass. The suit seemed to shimmer and shiver in response. "So while you're getting everything ready, how's about you tell me what exactly this is and how you made it?"

You cocked your head to the side before trying to shake out more of the fog that was clouding your thoughts. "Get what ready? I'm still trying to figure out how I agreed to bring you here. And what happened to me on the way over." You took this chance to slump into your chair at your control desk and take in some more air away from Belle, who was already quickly rushing over to you.

"What do you mean?" She said in her whiny voice as she perched herself on your lap, throwing her arms around you and placing her neck, once again, in range of your nose. "You told me last night that you'd bring me here and show me your lab and the tech and tell me how it works! You even told me that I could try it out!"

That didn't sound right to you. You wouldn't compromise your project that hadn't even been tested on humans yet. You especially wouldn't risk harming your step-sister...and yet. "Did I say that?" You asked, half slurring your words while reentering your trance."

"That's right. You told me that I could be the first super soldier and that you'd make your little sister grow big and strong." She pouted and snuggled against you, rubbing her scent on you and forcing another wave of arousal to surface. You could feel your bulge pressing into Belle's thigh, and she giggled knowing that she had you back under her spell. "Be a good boy for me and start getting it set up while you tell me all about your project." She whispered in your ear, her hot breath sending chills through your body. She got off you then and walked back over to the case as you turned to your control panel and started pushing buttons and entering codes.

"So basically we found this organism. It's unlike anything from our dimension." you began, telling a speech that you'd been rehearsing for months just for this big reveal "So we theorize that this thing came through a Mandela hole, which basically is a crack in our dimension that leads to a parallel one...but that's not important." As you were speaking, your sister quickly got naked, leaving her clothes in a messy pile on the floor. You were far too engrossed in your trance to notice. You pulled a lever and the glass of the case receded into the ceiling, leaving the suit exposed to your sister's quick clutches. She immediately grabbed it and started to put it on while you continued your procedures.

"So we quickly found that this organism was still tethered to its home dimension and that by binding it to some cutting edge technology, we could channel that energy into a host that the organism more than willingly bonded with." Your sister didn't seem all that interested in the science of it all as she was sliding into the suit that seemed to vibrate and slither further onto her.

"Why is this thing so tight if it's meant for big strong men to put on?" She asked, trying wriggle herself into it. You instinctively pushed a button that sent an electrical pulse through the tech, causing it to immediately expand and envelop Belle, covering her just like an inorganic body suit would. This, however, was not inorganic and seemed to quiver and purr in the satisfaction of being united with other living tissue. "That's better!" Your step-sister squealed, checking herself out and feeling herself up.

You pressed a few more buttons and twisted a big red dial as the screen lit up with your step-sister's biometrics. The screen displayed her vitals and the organisms output, showing just a measly tenth of a percent. As the suit fully bonded to your sister, she made an uncomfortable noise. "OW! It feels like i just got poked by needles all over my body and...and...oh. Now I feel better. Now I feel...kinda good."

"I just need to...need to...Why am I doing this?" With the suit covering your sister's skin, the scent in the air began to quickly fade. You finally looked away from the panel long enough to realize that your sister was fully bonded to the suit. "Shit, Belle. What the fuck? We need to get you out of that right now!"

"I think it's a little late for that, bro...mmmph. I can feel my body being fed that energy that you were talking about. It's ever so slowly entering my skin through those little needles that I got pricked by. And it's just making me feel so good." You could see now that the suit that had coated your sister was pulsing as it was being fed and, in turn, feeding her, forcing its host to absorb the energy that was being transmitted. You looked from her to the screen. All vitals were improving rapidly. 'This is valuable data,' you thought to yourself. 'but this is way too dangerous to continue.'

"I think we might need to pump the breaks here, sis." You said, trying to be the voice of reason. "You got to try it out. You're super healthy and strong now already according to the vitals monitor. It looks like you're already way stronger than me judging by the muscle density scanners."

"Is that so?" Your sister said, enthusiastically. She sauntered over to you, making sure to sway her wide hips with every step, the fluorescent lights of the lab creating a sheen against the body suit as she did. She was suddenly sitting in your lap again. The suit being on her combined with her increased muscle density made her noticeably heavier than when she sat on you only minutes before. But it was more than that. Her whole form seemed larger. This was a theoretical side effect of the tech, but you still were in awe of getting to see and feel it first hand. "You know..." She started, putting a hand on your chin and forcing eye contact. "I worked really hard to save up the money to get the pheromone concoction that I used on you last night to get you here. Sneaking it into your drink and downing the control agent myself. Forcing you to be in the car with me on the way over to make you even more susceptible to it. It wasn't cheap and it wasn't easy, but it got me here. It's just a little hiccup that my body stopped pumping it out when I bonded with this suit." She gestured to the pulsing blackness that coated her body, running her hands up and down herself as she grabbed two handfulls of her tits. "God, even these feel bigger and better. You have no idea how long I've fantasized about this. ever since you told me about your dreams of making big strong soldiers. Maybe even before that. I've always wanted to be bigger. And now you're making it happen!"

She readjusted herself in your lap as she stalled you with her speech while the energy continued to flow into her. "I can feel my body changing by the minute. becoming more and more and more and...mmmm...I'm so much stronger than you now and growing bigger and stronger still...I could just make you do what I want now." For the first time in your life, you had become genuinely afraid of what used to be your little step-sister.

"Belle, let's talk about this. It's true that you're bigger and stronger than me now, but that's enough right? How tall are you now? Six? Six and a half feet maybe. That's huge. And your muscles are so tight and toned now that-

"I know!" She cut in, flexing her muscles which rippled and defined themselves against the suit as she did. "I can FEEL how strong I'm getting! It's amazing! This truly is marvelous technology that would have revolutionized modern troop warfare. But it's mine now. And it feels way too good to stop. And your definition of huge and mine are way different. So I need you to be a good brother and turn up the juice. I'm tired of being drip fed this energy. I need you to flood me with it." With that, she got off your lap and skipped back to the center of the room, before twirling around to face you. "And before you even think about trying to say no, just know that even if you were to shut off the whole machine now, it's too late. I'm warning you. I'm so much bigger and stronger than you that you wouldn't have a chance, and I would be far too angry to hold myself back. So it's really your only option. I'm counting on you bro."

"Right..." You uttered, completely defeated by your newly monstrous sister. 'the fucking pheromones' you thought to yourself as you started to play with the controls again. 'that's how she got in my head and made me give her everything she wanted. I wonder if I have any other options here.' You looked at all the controls and came up with only too paths to choose. Path one would open the flood gates like your sister asked and make her an extra bulky bitch in no time, side effects be damned. Option two would be to reverse the energy flow and drain all of her new power back into the organism. That option came with too many risks to calculate. What would happen to the organism with that much energy in it? Would your sister return to how she was, or would she waste away? You were running out of time, and all the while your sister was still being pumped, albeit ever so slowly, full of energy. "Ok, fine. You win. I'll turn up the output. I'll make you stronger. I don't know what else will happen to you though...we haven't even run simulations on this kind of output. Are you sure you don't want to stop?"

"Come on! I need it! Hurry!" She was growing more and more impatient by the second and you didn't want her to end you, so you started to type in codes ignore warning screens and type in more codes to get to the most advanced settings.

"Here goes." You said, voice quivering with fear, and admittedly a little excitement, about your project being used to its full potential. You cranked up the dial from one tenth of a percent to ten percent all at once.

"Oh fuck!" Belle cried out, falling to her knees and then lying down on her back. She immediately started to convulse as the suit pulsed and purred around her, pumping massive amounts of energy into her already enlarged form. "I feel like I'm going insane! There's so much being forced into me! It feels amazing! Umph! Bigger!" You watched as your sister began to pulse larger and larger with each pulse of the suit. As you looked back at the screen, the instruments for her vitals were completely nonsensical. She was literally off all the charts and growing fast. eight, ten, twelve feet went by as she moaned in pleasure. "More more more! Turn it up higher! I can take it!" You cranked the dial to twenty percent and your step-sister doubled in size, orgasming as she did. She felt herself gush hard, her whole cunt clenching as her clit rubbed against the suit while she bucked her hips in ecstasy. Every part of her seemed more sensitive in the most pleasurable way. She felt herself up reveling in the sensation of her nipples protruding against the suit. She rubbed her fingers over them and felt them grow even harder in response. As she twisted and pulled and squished them against her already bigger breasts, she could feel them swell under her fingers, growing faster than the rest of her and evening out her hourglass figure. "That's it! I love this! I feel like I'm ascending! Like I'm finally going to be as big as I've always meant to be!" As your sister became more in tune with her growing body, she could feel the pheromone concoction still in her system. Forcing tiny holes in the neck of the suit to open, she told her body to produce more of the pheromone, and it complied. Immediately, you were overwhelmed.

"Turn it up. All the way." Your sister commanded, still writhing on the ground in growing bliss between constant climaxes. unable to resist, you cranked the dial all the way. Rapidly running out of room, Belle ballooned up to an impressive eighty feet and exploded out of the building, her giant suited foot shielding you from the rubble as it plowed right through your control panel, destroying the connection to the suit. She hardly noticed outgrowing your lab, but the feed of energy being severed left Belle with a sense of longing. She lifted her foot and the surrounding debris away from you before scooping you up into her hand. "Fuck you're tiny." She said, standing up to her full height of one hundred feet. "Everything is tiny. But it could be smaller. I could be bigger. I should be." Using her connection to the suit, free of tech, she reached out to try and find a source of energy. She could feel something in the distance, outside the city. "Where did you say this thing came from? A Mandela hole? I think I can sense one. I want to drink from it." Your big step-sister opened a hole in her suit exposing her vast cleavage and dropped you in. "Lets go 'little bro' I wouldn't want you to miss the show." She began walking towards the source of energy, all the while her suit purring and hungry, just like its host.

[streakyglasses]

Coming off of the dog prompt, I really always imagine Stris having two little girls. And I mean in the near future, 3-4 years ahead. I think two little girls would heal a lot of Chris’ heart and streets inner child. If you would be comfortable writing something from this, I would love exploring that side of them so much 🥹

hello, love!

so, a little bit of a long explanation, but i promise there's a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow!

i've always had a hard time imagining stris with kids for a few reasons. the main two being that i don't see myself having kids, so how i relate to and inherently put myself into my writing makes it difficult, and because i myself am the baby of my family (and i'm 23). the closest thing i have to a kid in my family is my best friend's niece, who i see maybe three times a year. i love kids, but my complete lack of experience with them makes it extra difficult and scary to come up with something that feels realistic and that i'm confident in writing. (i know there are many resources out there to write kids and know their stages of development, but i would so get sucked into that rabbit hole of worrying about being too accurate, and nothing would ever get written).

that said, i love stris fulfilling an aunt/uncle role in the lives of chris's nieces and nephews, the kay kids, vivian, etc. they're both so caring and have so much heart that, even if i see them as being too scared or deciding to not have their own bio kids, there's no way they wouldn't go all out to take perfect care and create the safest spaces for any kids they are responsible for, if only for a time.

so that's the route i decided to take for this fic (mostly). brief spoiler that they do decide to become parents and have a child at the end, but the majority of it is them babysitting two of her young nieces. this gave me room to feel comfortable writing about how they would interact with kids in a more relaxed environment, while still hopefully scratching that itch and providing all the feel-good fluff of stris with kids.

also, i totally misread your ask as their kids would have a lot of Chris's heart and Street's inner child instead of heal. and i've been kicking myself for the past ten minutes since i realized that, because there's nothing more that i love (as we know) than angst and exploring their childhoods, and the two of them comforting one another. i did still imbue that into this fic, though i didn't go into great detail about either of their childhoods- just hints of worries and insecurities bred out of their specific situations. but, you have such a big brain and i'm so here for it- thank you for sharing it with me.

to wrap this up, thank you again for sending because i truly had so much fun writing this fic. it was challenging, it was so sweet to write all the fluff, and i do believe that street would be the most doting, caring person on chris (not that he isn't always) if/when they have a kid. plus, the ending gave me a ripe opportunity to write the team and her family in; i love that shit so much, it should be studied i think. and, for all my talk about these prompts being short and sweet, this is over 6000 words so. do with that what you will.

i'm not attaching the fic directly to this ask because i've yapped enough, but it can be read here, on ao3, or on ffn. enjoy!

[leftmyheartinthetardis]

I've been listening to the TAZ Ethersea OST recently and it's so cool how different each of griffin's soundtracks are. The Ethersea OST curates such a specific and intangible mood, it really scratches an itch somewhere in the back of my brain that I didn't know I had

[bl-bracket]

4, 8, 16, 24 for ask game

4. Favorite Side Character

Okay this is so hard cause I love side characters so much. I think in terms of who has given me the most brain rot, I gotta go with my son Sound from My School President. Like angsty lonely gay teenager being adopted against his will by a group of weirdos (affectionate)? It's like they made a character specifically for me to project onto. I'm constantly torn between wanting to shake him around in my teeth and wanting to give him every good thing in the world. He's just so!!!!

8. First BL

So way back when (like 2017), I somehow discovered 2 Moons (the original one). Now I had never seen or heard of bls before beyond like yaoi manga, so like a full length live action tv show was so revolutionary to me and I could watch the whole thing on youtube? wow! I was obsessed (especially the ming/kit story line). Now, I wouldn't rec the drama nowadays but like little old me was shook and told all of my friends at school about it. BUT somehow I never watched another bl or show from Thailand until 2022 when I saw people posting about Not Me on the dash/trending tab and decided to watch and then from there I got into the BL fandom proper. Anyways when I saw people posting about Triage I was like so shook because I knew those guys!!!! I, for the record, have not seen 2 Moons 2 nor rewatched the original in so many years.

16. Favorite Trope

Ok so there are many tropes that I love a lot, but nothing gets me more excited then some good ol classic identity porn (side note: I really wish that it was called something else because telling my irl friends that I'm into identity porn is the worst). But yes I love it when characters have a secret identity and then when they interact with the same person in both identities? ooo that's the stuff. Guardian is my favorite example of this. Like all the work Shen Wei put into keeping Yunlan from realizing he was the Black Cloak Envoy? The quick identity switches? Zhao Yunlan putting the pieces together slowly? Ugh it's just so good, especially in romance stuff where like the character is falling for both identities and doesn't know what to do. I also love a good character reveal, particularly when they're revealing that the character who seemed very ordinary and normal is actually very powerful and cool. (another reason why I love it in Guardian). It can definitely be dragged out too long (I have not watched Miraculous Ladybug other than a couple episodes in my French class when I was younger but I have heard much about the infamous love square that is two people), but like it's definitely something that needs to last for a considerable amount of time in order to really scratch that itch in me. 23.5 kinda did this with the Earth/Ongsa thing, but while I did love that, I wouldn't label it was being the same as Shen Wei/Black Cloak Envoy. Like with Ongsa it was more of a mistaken identity/miscommunication thing while I like it when the character already has an established alter ego thing that they don't intend the LI to get close to, if that makes sense? Anyways this is a quite long of saying I like when characters are revealed to be more than they seem.

24. Dream Actor Pairing

Look I'm not breaking new ground here when I say that I want Jeff and Bible to do a drama together. It's so evil that Kim and Vegas didn't have any interactions. I think they would kill it (no pun intended) playing a couple in a drama. Other than that, I'm not too sure? There's a lot of actors I really like and want to see more of or think could act well with another, but I don't have many other I need these two to play lovers that haven't already? Like I would absolutely love to get Gawin/First again (Danyok was not enough for me) or for Tor and Gun to actually get to play lovers some time.

[macgyvermedical]

Curious if you know much about food sensitivity testing. My cousin's SIL is purportedly a wellness NP and has their whole family getting their sensitivities checked every 3-6 months with lab draws. I always thought allergy testing was done with scratch test on skin. And like how do you cast a wide enough net to test for everything? I didn't think labs really worked like that? I thought you kind of had to test for specific things and almost like a process of elimination.

It seems as though every time cousin gets tested there is a whole list of foods she should remove from her diet because she is "sensitive" to them. It always feels like that list is whatever she's been eating most recently (and usually that food is something that she used as a replacement for something she was sensitive to last time) for example she cut out cow's milk and went oat because oat was ok on the list. Then all of a sudden oat wasn't ok anymore and she went coconut. Now coconut is supposedly causing trouble. Cousin said she didn't think she was having issues with it but is now looking for alternatives and I'm just worried about her.

When I asked the SIL what the sensitivities mean the response was that it causes inflammation which can lead to skin conditions, weight gain, problems in the digestive tract, or cancer.

Obviously I know food sensitivities exist and that there's a lot of processed garbage in our food the whole thing just feels off.

No worries if you don't want to answer thing or if you don't know. This is partially me venting in your askbox

Before we can talk about what your SIL is probably doing, we have to talk about food allergies, food sensitivities, and how we test for them.

A food allergy is an inappropriate immune reaction to a chemical that is present in a food.

The first type is the "immediate" type. When the food is ingested, the body's immune system misidentifies one or more proteins in that food as dangerous and "overreacts" by creating an antibody called immunoglobulin E. Immunoglobulin E (aka IgE), triggers the release of histamine and other chemicals that, in the extreme excess caused by IgE, cause symptoms like itching, swelling, hives, low blood pressure, difficulty breathing, vomiting and diarrhea. These symptoms can be life threatening. Less severe versions of this can trigger gastritis, brain fog, asthma, and non-life-threatening versions of the symptoms listed above.

Proteins from peanuts, tree nuts, cow's milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, soy, wheat, and sesame cause about 90% of these allergic reactions.

There are other immune reactions and other Immunoglobulins. For example, there is immunoglobulin G, which serves as a "memory" and helps protects against viruses and bacteria. IgG essentially makes an impression of everything that comes into the body. When you get titers drawn to determine whether you're immune to something (a test you might need to get if you work in the medical field), the test looks for specific types of IgG to determine whether your body still remembers the virus or bacteria you were immunized against or exposed to. More about this later.

IgG, along with IgA and IgM can contribute to autoimmune conditions like MS, graves disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus (which are very technically allergic reactions to oneself).

A food sensitivity or intolerance on the other hand is a condition caused when a person doesn't have the necessary enzymes or microbiome to digest a particular sugar or protein in a food. Food sensitivities do not have anything to do with the immune system. Instead, they have to do with digestion. A food sensitivity often results in bloating, gas, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. While unpleasant, you won't die from an intolerance or sensitivity.

While not technically an allergy or a sensitivity, people also may have conditions that are exacerbated by certain foods, such as sugar or wheat exacerbating arthritis.

Now onto the testing. Allergy testing comes in several forms. You can do blood testing for specific allergens by looking for specific IgE allergens. For example, if you suspect you are allergic to peanuts, you can have blood drawn to check for peanut IgEs. You can also do a skin test, where a section of skin is marked with a grid and small amounts of allergens, along with control solutions, are injected into each section. A welt forms if the substance triggers histamine, and means the person is allergic to the substance. Another test is simply to give the food (in a controlled setting) in increasing amounts until the person has an observable reaction.

For non-dangerous allergic reactions and intolerances, an elimination diet can be done, where a person limits themselves to foods they know are completely safe, wait for symptoms to go away, and then start adding in foods one by one and documenting responses. This can take several months but can be worth it for someone who feels they have many foods that trigger unpleasant symptoms.

What your SIL is probably doing:

There are many companies that offer home allergy testing. This is usually done with a card, where someone places a few drops of blood on the card, mails it in, and gets results for between 90 and 100 different substances.

The problem is, home allergy tests do not test for IgEs. They test for IgGs. Remember that IgGs don't have anything to do with allergic reactions- just the presence or absence of a recent ingestion. All IgG testing does is say "yup, dude ate some peanuts recently".

You might then connect "hey, when I eat wheat my arthritis gets worse, and you said arthritis is partially caused by IgGs" well yes, but your arthritis is caused by IgGs that have identified your cells (among other things), while the antibodies tested for in the test are the ones which have identified the wheat proteins. Just any ol IgG won't do- it's gotta be specific. Wheat may be doing something to aggravate your arthritis, but wheat IgG's aren't what that is.

To be clear, this isn't just my opinion. Every allergy-related organization in the world is in agreement- IgG testing does nothing to determine what you're actually allergic to. We have lots of tests that work for that. IgG testing just tests for what you've eaten or been exposed to recently. Which sounds exactly like what your cousin is experiencing.

R E F E R E N C E S

[souridealist]

For the 40 questions game, #29 and/or 38!

29: If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?

My mind went immediately to A Feather's Edge by Boomchick, which is an FFVII fic wherein Cloud travels back in time clearly intending to kill Sephiroth, discovers he has traveled back in time far enough that his worst enemy is a terrified child, and is like "guess I'm rescuing a kid who is also a walking PTSD trigger for me now" -- all told from the tiny Sephiroth's perspective. It scratches some specific itches really really well for me, and its ending is satisfying enough but open enough to get the gears in my brain whirring -- there's at least one specific scene from such an imaginary sequel that I've ended up daydreaming about, though I don't think I'd write (or at least wouldn't post) it without asking.

38: Talk about a review that made your day.

I have been so, so lucky and so spoiled in this -- I'm bad at replying to comments because I'm easily overwhelmed by praise and even talking about these things feels uncomfortably like bragging, but I have been so lucky so many times. I've gotten compliments from writers I admire very much myself, and once from a writer whose fic years earlier had helped unlock a greater understanding of how to do this thing. I've gotten the same person leaving messages that say "reread kudos!" three or four times, spread out over years. One time someone went through a bunch of my fic leaving a lot of quick little comments, and eventually explained that they'd been going through my archive while they sat up nursing a fussy baby. One time, right after fucking up a reversible but deeply humiliating bit of adulting, I got someone saying I'd nailed an experience that I wasn't actually writing from life, and it yanked me out of a shame spiral. I've gotten comments on weird, tricky fic that made it clear that for this person I'd done exactly what I was trying to do; I've gotten comments that pointed out things I didn't know I was doing. I've gotten comments on niche as hell fic that make it clear at least one person wanted this thing. Once someone told me that my fic for a then-controversial ship gave them the courage to post their own. For Yuletide in 2019 I happened to draw a recipient who I didn't know, but who I'd crossed paths with a few times in multiple different fandoms besides the one we'd actually matched on, so I felt like I could stuff the fic with a bunch of easter eggs decently tailored to what I knew or could guess about their taste, and their response suggested I'd nailed it. God, I've been lucky.

[iguessitsjustme]

Hello. I actually don't know if you've done this one because there have been a lot of posts about this so if you have just link the post. 2023 top 5 BL songs. Thanks

Rose💜

More music asks wooooooo. My favorite. But top 5? Just 5? Only 5? I'll try.

Here is my top QL music of 2023 but let's see if I can't change it up a bit.

5. The Sign theme song. Every week I am blown away by this opening. I'm just straight up in love with the music here. It reminds me of something but I cannot remember what. I think there's a specific anime opening it reminds me of but I can't put my finger on it. But I am absolutely in love with it and it fits the show perfectly.

4. The Eighth Sense theme song. I always talk about The Story by Conan Gray when I talk about the music for this show, but I would be remiss to not mention that I also love the theme song. It's simply amazing. I love it a whole lot and it deserves more love and more mentions.

3. My Fault Acoustic- Sing My Crush. This song is the reason I first fell in love with the show. That guitar teacher does not deserve the love that Ba Ram put into this song.

2. Rainbow - Love Tractor. I had my issues with the show but the soundtrack was not one of them. I love this song a normal and healthy amount.

Second Wind - Sing My Crush. Is anyone surprised? Anyone. Nope. Didn't think so. This song just scratches a very particular itch in my brain and I love it. I will love this song until the end of time.

Ask Me Top 5 BL Anything of 2023

[radioactivepeasant]

Fic Prompts: Free Day Thursday

My writing brain is on a roll with the Meddling Mar au, so that's what y'all are getting once again lol (Faulty Info has been Fighting Me, but I'm finally in the home stretch for chapter 10)

Part One, Parts Two and Three, Part Four, Part Five

The second day was the hardest. 

It was the first time Jak remembered waking up, not that he was awake for all that long.

There was an itch in the crook of his right arm, but he couldn’t even muster the strength to lift a finger, let alone scratch at the offending sensation. He couldn’t open his eyes. He couldn’t move his limbs.

The smell of antiseptic permeated everything.

If he'd had anything in his stomach, he would have vomited.

Seconds, minutes, hours- Jak had no way of knowing how much time was passing. Or if it was even passing at all. One moment he would hear voices near him, the next there would be nothing but the whirring of fans and an ever-present, infuriating beeping. 

He hated the beeping.

As if it somehow knew that, the sound would get faster the angrier he got. But being angry was as exhausting as everything else, and soon enough the beeps would slow down as everything spun into nothingness again.

Jak dreamed -- though what he'd dreamed, he couldn't have said afterwards. There were only impressions of colors and voices and an endless sea. 

Sometimes he woke to something blessedly cool resting against his head. Mostly he wasn't awake long enough to pin down any specific sensations at all.

He woke periodically through the night, each time expecting Daxter to be there.

He never was. There were only solemn, painted faces looming over him and chanting prayers. 

Jak decided he was still dreaming.

The longest he was awake was the moment they took out the IV. Until then, he hadn't even known there had been a needle. Jak remembered screaming, yanking his arm away from the old woman. It was more movement than he'd been ready for, and he'd collapsed against the pillow, out of breath. 

The woman didn't scold him for making her job more difficult. Instead she had cooed and apologized -- apologized!! -- to him for hurting him. Hurting him!

"Oh, oh, I'm sorry, dear," she'd clucked, wrapping a bandage tightly around his elbow. "I know that stung. I'm sorry. That was the last one, promise."

That was how Jak found out he'd been hooked to electrolyte solutions for two days after collapsing in the desert. He'd panicked again, looking around frantically for his companions. 

He was alone.

The old woman squeezed his hand and propped a pillow up behind his back. The gentleness of it all very nearly brought him to tears. 

She wouldn't if she knew I was an eco freak.

She wouldn't be so kind if she knew I was just the Precursors' spare key.

"Mm-" Jak's voice was rusty with disuse, cracked and no louder than a whisper. "Mm-y b- bro-ther-?"

A calm smile split the woman's leathery pink face, and she patted his hand comfortingly.

"We released him to the convalescing ward just last night, love. You know, you probably saved his life, wrapping him up like that."

She nodded with approval.

"That was a very brave thing you did."

Jak wet his lips and tried to ask about Daxter. Fear held his lungs in icy claws, threatening that he didn't want to know the answer.

He slept again. 

The next time he remembered being awake, it was night, and a man with glasses was writing something on a datapad at his bedside. He stared at the man and gripped the thin sheet that had been draped over him.

The man looked up and blinked in surprise.

"Oh! Bless me, you're awake! Hello there, young warrior. You've certainly had a close call, haven't you?"

 "Where am I?" Jak tried to ask, but all that came out was, "Where-?"

"Emergency clinic," the man answered. "My name is Petros, I'm a pediatrician."

A what now? Jak had never heard that word before. His confusion must have been somewhat obvious, because the thin man clarified, "a doctor who treats kids under eighteen."

Under eighteen? 

Well. Jak had always known he didn't actually have an autumn birthday like Daxter, but he would've thought he'd be at least eighteen by now. The doctor was probably assuming he was younger because he was short. Those dark eco experiments had really messed with his growth.

Deciding to humor the man -- because he couldn't think of anything else to do -- Jak slowly accepted a tin cup from him. The water had a slightly metallic taste, but it was far cleaner than anything he'd had in Haven. It felt like heaven, cooling his dry throat and clearing his head. Was it because it was clean? Jak examined the bottom of the cup warily.

"Just a bit of green eco mixed in," Petros said, a little too cheerfully for Jak's taste, "We already reversed the organ damage with the high-grade stuff. This is just to soothe your throat a bit."

"Or- organ damage?!" Jak's fingers tightened on the cup. 

"Now," the doctor said briskly, ignoring him, "You've still got a long recovery ahead of you. Judging by the bone scans we did, you've been through quite a lot, and your body is still playing catch-up."

He stood up, groaning as his knees crackled and popped, and slid his notes into his pocket. 

"I'm going to bring you some more water, and a little broth -- slow sips, mind you. Let's not have you making yourself ill -- and when you've finished, you're going to take a cool bath."

Jak shifted uncomfortably in the cot. "What's the cost?" he demanded, "Nobody does this for free."

Petros leaned back as if startled. His eyebrows climbed so high they almost vanished into his receding hairline. For a few seconds he said nothing. Then, he sagged, looking as if he'd aged a few more years with the space of a breath.

"Ah," he said, almost sadly, "I see. Been that sort of life for you, has it? Well I don't charge minors, so you don't need to worry about that. If you and the little one end up being assigned a temporary guardian to help you transition into city life, they'll deal with the cost."

Then, seeing that Jak wasn't convinced, he pasted on a small smile and shrugged. 

"But, when you've been deemed to be sufficiently recovered, you can always bring me some medicinal herbs from the clifftop farms, like the other children usually do."

"I'm not a child," Jak muttered with a scowl.

Petros took this in stride. "Adolescent, then. Still got a couple years before you'll be allowed to pitch in with any of the heavier work around here, at any rate. But you can discuss that with Damas once the monks let you out of convalescence."

"What," Jak said slowly, "does that even mean?"

The doctor smiled blandly and began to walk away. "Later. Right now, we get food in you. Then you wash off the paint and get some rest. Before dawn tomorrow, you'll be moved to the convalescing ward with your brother."

Paint? What paint?

Jak frowned and, for the first time, realized that his cheeks felt a little stiff even after the water. Cautiously, he reached up and touched two fingers to the skin. A flake of white came back on his fingertips, and his eyes widened.

He held the tin cup close to his face and stared at the reflection.

A broad, red stripe had been painted in an arc over the bridge of his nose and down to his jaw, ending in an old pictograph for "peace" on his throat. The rest of his face had been painted bone-white.

They had shaved him to make the paint lay even on his chin. 

He looked like a little kid like this!

"Oh what the-?!"

Petros paused and looked back. He grimaced.

"Ah. It's...well son, I don't want to scare you, but we almost lost you the night you came in. The monks started giving you last rites before the eco kicked in and your body really started fighting."

"Last rites?!" 

Jak's breathing quickened, and his chest felt constricted.

They'd touched him while he slept. Took a blade to his face. What else had they done? How much had they seen?

He resisted a sudden, overwhelming urge to check the pocket Tess had sewn into the lining of his pants, just to make sure his and Mar's seal was still there. 

"Wh- where's my brother? Where's Daxter?"

We need to leave.

Petros tilted his head. "Daxter? That's your brother's name?"

The misunderstanding was just weird enough to let Jak get a full breath before the panic settled into something more manageable. 

"What? No? He's-"

"He's Mar" almost slipped out of Jak's mouth, but he stopped himself just in time.

He didn't know where they were, or how far from Haven they'd gotten. He wasn't going to risk word getting back to the Council.

"He's the orange guy," he amended quickly. "Where is he?"

The understanding on the doctor's face was a welcome relief. He knew what Jak was talking about. That had to mean Daxter was okay, right?

"Oh yes!" Petros nodded. "Last I heard, that little fella has been standing guard over your little brother. He's bitten at least one monk so far."

Jak fell back against the pillow, feeling as though he'd just run a marathon. 

"He's okay," he gasped. "They're okay."

"Thanks to you, yes. They're okay."

Petros assured him. Then he was all business again.

"Now: no more stalling! Soup, and then bath. And don't even think about trying to sneak out of that bed! I've been doing this for twenty-five years, and I've got a sixth sense for teenagers sabotaging their own recovery!"

He shuffled off, leaving Jak worn out and thoroughly bewildered.

Who are these people?!

________________________________,_________

Mar was bored. 

Incredibly, infuriatingly, bored.

He wasn't hooked up to the beeping box anymore -- the one the doctor lady said measured his heartbeat -- but that didn’t mean he was free to run around. For the first day after the needle came out, he'd been too tired to move at all. Now he still got tired easily, but he didn't want to sleep! He wanted to find Jak!

But every time he got out of bed, one of the people with the colorful face paint would find him and take him back!

Once, a man with spikes in his head had found Mar, halfway up a staircase where he'd run out of breath. He had given him a very strange look, and then the next thing Mar knew he was being carried back to bed.

At this point, he was pretty sure the horned man was the painted people's guard, to make sure he didn't escape. Because now every time he made it to the door, the horned man was somewhere nearby. All he had to do was give Mar a Look, and it was enough to send him scurrying back to bed.

At least Daxter was here. Mar didn't think he could've endured it if neither of his big brothers was present.

"Do you think Jak’s okay?"

Mar pulled his knees up to his chest and frowned at the curtains around his bed. He'd seen grown-ups in the other beds when he'd tried to sneak out before, usually with casts on limbs or sleeping. They weren't mean or scary, but they usually ignored him.

Generic adult behavior. 

If Jak had been in one of the other twelve beds, he would have come to check on Mar by now.

Daxter stretched to peer through a gap in the curtains. Then he sighed and returned to carding through Mar's coily hair with a comb that had been left unattended.

"I...I dunno, kiddo. The last time I saw him he-"

Daxter swallowed and forced the words out.

"He wasn't lookin' so good."

Mar's stomach clenched with worry. He gnawed a thumbnail for a few seconds, then asked in subdued signs, "What do we do if he- if something happened to Jak?"

The ottsel let go of the comb -- leaving it vertical in the boy's hair -- and scrambled around to take Mar's face in his hands.

"I'm gonna stick by you, that's what. It's you, me, and Jak, to the end of the line." He squeezed Mar's cheeks to punctuate his words. "I p- I promise, kiddo. One of us is always gonna be here to look out for you."

With a sniffle, the little boy suddenly reached out and dragged Daxter into his arms. He clung to him like a lifeline -- like Jak used to when they were very little. And just like with Jak, Daxter didn't need to see Mar's hands to know what he was saying.

I'm scared, Daxter.

Daxter wrapped his arms around the kid's neck and sighed. "Me too, kid. Me too."

You'd better be okay, Jak.

[lixenn]

Hello there! Ask game time!

where do you get your inspiration?

what is the longest amount of time you’ve let a draft rest before you finished it?

Ohhh! A distraction! I welcome it with open arms and cookies! Thank you for sending something in 💜✨🥺

14. where do you get your inspiration?

Hmmm, honestly I get inspiration from a lot of different things.

I'm inspired by my favourite authors (fanfic and original fiction alike). I read their works and strive to be as good as them someday. Which. This is more for writing style and ability.

If it comes to ideas, again for fanfic sometimes I just pick up a concept from a fanfic I really liked and try to give it my own twist (see the Varia Housekeeping thing inspired by Umei-no-Mai).

Othertimes it's just super random (there's a reason why I call my writing brain the nonsense generator). I got the idea for the power system of one of my original works from a item in a Dragon Quest game. When it comes to KHR specific stuff, well I'm rereading the manga and sometimes this random side info that's really not relevant to the actually plot slaps me in the face, leaving me blinking and wondering. It makes me want to elaborate on this one panel, this one tiny piece of info.

As for OCs... a lot of my OCs are inspired by people (current count if I'm being genourous: 5). People, their experiences, their thoughts, their personaltiy and even just their vibe... They can be so inspiring. I metaphorically look at my friend who just told me a snippet of their life story and think: This is fascinating, I could make a character based on that. It doesn't happen with every person I interact with and I can't pinpoint what scratches the itch and what doesn't but for me it happens a lot. Naturally I always ask if people are okay if I make a character based off them especially if the OC is really similar to the person I'm basing it off on.

10. what is the longest amount of time you’ve let a draft rest before you finished it?

Okay so I can't promise if this is really the longest time because I don't really post much and everything I don't post is mostly unfinised anyways but for my Naruto fanfic I had a rough draft for my third chapter for 3 fucking years until I finally managed to get back to it and finish it. The chapter was nearly done but past Lix wanted to add more stuff but didn't know how so I got stuck. In the end when my writing mood randomly struck me again (and my original work being too much of a fucking mess to sort out) I got back to the fanfic and decided to just figure out a short ending and finally post the chapter.

writer ask game

[justanothersnakeblog]

My thoughts on Weston College Arc

Episode 1

Wow! This was a fantastic start, like amazing!!! I noticed a couple of scenes out of order, but I actually love how they did it here. The first like 5 minutes reminded me of UP, and the pendulum swing was so mesmerizing.

My favorite sounds were the bells, the pendulum swing, and the crackling of the fireplace, too. I experienced the first episode with headphones on, and it automatically enhanced the experience!

The way MacMillan said “P4!” made me snicker. I wasn't expecting his voice, I'm sorry.

I gasped at its beauty and when Sebastian walked in, I felt his presence! It was demanding and domineering? but welcoming! He looks so damn good, I bit my finger. 🫦

This first episode got me fucking hyped! Oh and “Yes, my lord” with his hair falling out from behind his ear was perfection!

The only nitpick I have is the change from fags to drudges but I understand why and I'll get used to it. It just… feels too vague to me while fag was used for a specific reason since Weston (Eton) is a British school and not because teehee f slur.

Episode 2

I didn't enjoy this one as much as episode 1 but still liked it nonetheless. The animation of the cover, best fucking part! I fucking gasped. Oh and want the fucking tea and the lemon myrtle soufflé glacé… ca cest toujours delish!Seeing

Soma at the end was great!

Episode 3 

Best one yet! I liked that they added a recap. 

I awed when Agni showed up and cried for his master. 🥺 It was better than in the manga! The sound design fucking wowed me once again! 🤩 The hooting, bells, and organ were perfection.

Maurice Cole is more tolerable now re-reading the manga but I still don't like him. His scenes with Soma and Ciel exposing him were funny and satisfying af, cooked to perfection! Edgar breaking his bond and seeing his devastation and his fucking ugly ass were the cherries on top!

The expressions were on point, especially with Maurice Scowl and Ciel's face when he said he wouldn't know what it's like to be a second son, forever untitled. His voice changing from soft and feminine/innocent to his real one was also perfect.

I'm glad they included the elephant scenes because I loved them and the sound the elephant made. It was not as great as the manga, but the scene with MacMillan and Ciel sharing a bed was nice, too.

Ciel is such a manipulative bastard and I love it! I'm glad he shared a laugh with the P4. They're buying his performance and good vibes all around. The organ music playing while he accepts the flower to be Clayton's fag? Magnificent. That devious smile sells it and sets up for a great viewing experience next time. 

The only nitpicks I have are I wished Ciel was asleep while Sebastian rummaged through the trash and the chibi demonstration while Ciel explained vibrations was kept.

Episode 4

The footsteps, clinking of the teacup, and pouring of the tea sounds so clean. The sound design scratches the itch in my brain. The crunch of the bread!

That whole scene under the Swan Gazebo was the best one. I love it when Ciel masks and laughed at Violet, not drawing Greenhill, who got clonked with a piece of bread. I gasped because I knew the scene was coming.

*dramatically gasps for air* That charcoal snapping off and hitting the ground was fucking perfect! 🤩 It didn't disappoint me one bit! This sound design is fucking fire and crisp as hell! They really sold me on this whole scene.

I've been looking forward to this scene as well as a few others. It captured the intensity of that scene and the comedy of it as well! I'm glad they put no music and showed everyone's reactions rather than something dramatic playing in the background.

The scenery around Swan Gazebo is beautiful! I rewinded it. They also changed embroidery to poetry for some reason?

This episode had me laughing with Agares falling down the stairs. I also love Sebastian's reaction to him and how he looked at his hand. That's enough of a giveaway to anime onlys that something about him is off.

Lantern scene: Manga vs Anime

I also finally watched the fire scene where Ciel threw the lantern, and I like it more now that I've seen the episode in full. I think the music here was wonderful, and the whooshing sound/smashing of the window while the dorm caught fire was great!

Manga

Is it inconsistent and makes less sense for Ciel to throw it that far? Yes, and yes. I like it, though, because impossible things happening is the beauty of fiction, and he is doing something himself.

He also has agency and he does have Sebastian use his powers to find Derrick but only after he gives the order. He had an option because of the dialog. Of course you can argue Sebastian is doing what he can help his master.

Sebastian teased him in that scene, though, thus bringing up how Ciel is going to go about this. I like that teamwork makes the dream work, but in the manga, Sebastian gave Ciel an option to make his own decision, and that's what I like about it.

Episode 5:

Yes!!! Burn. Burn! I like the burning and crackling of the fire in any scene. I also love the glow of his eyes and the negative effect used in the anime (as seen with Undertaker and in the intro).

Like, ooh! Ah!

That poor elephant. I like his sounds and scenes, too, like Soma telling him he did a job. I give props to Soma for calling out Violet but a mayor of purple house? Lol. I'm sure he meant prefect.

I like that Clayton being hit comes into play later. It's not really significant, though. It's just funny that he gets hit twice in the same fashion. Next time, don't have a voice that makes you sound like a crabby old professor.

"Shit! There's people around, and I better act normal." *runs gayily toward his "teacher" and places his hands on his chest rather than a normal thank you* Love these two, especially when they share a conniving smile and a brain cell.

I love their entrances, especially Violet Wolf but maybe I'm biased because their my favorite house. It's cute that Lizzy cheers them both on. Ciel should have Edward Midford down as cause of death on his death certificate, lol.

The individual fires are so pretty and combining them are even better!

Pfft, Violet Wolf dormitory eating like gremlins.

Lawrence sisters have really lovely designs, and the little sister they offered to Ciel as a wife looks the best. Soma looks good as well, and Sebastian winking at them... hot! 😍

Edward is clever but couldn't figure out who Mr. Michealis was, lol.

Start of the Sapphire Miracle fashback: *sniffles* Those men are beautiful! I love me some Vindee. ~

Episode 6:

I love that we continue with the flashback of the "Blue Miracle." Vincent may be a cunt who likes to mess around and cheat but he won't let anyone speak badly about his house, even another prefect. The wind and the shadow shows he means business.

I like the sound of birds and the water and the music as well while they talk. The transition from "You better hold up your end of the bet/You as well" to Green House losing was absolute perfection! 😂👌🏻 The music is wonderful, and the sway of his hips as heads toward the boat just... the ✨️ sassiness and sexiness. ✨️ People don't like Vincent's eye color but they made both men beautiful.

Dee swimming after the boat had me rewinding and snorting this time around. Lmao! His voice actor did a wonderful job. I know Alexis is the original fanboy. He ships them! Anyway, their faces at the end of the flashback was priceless. Everyone else is either o.o or 😒 while MacMillan is just 🤩✨️. I wish we saw it.

Imagine being named Coward. That's unfortunate because your teammates could yell at you like: "Get the ball, Coward! Defend the wickets, Coward! We lost the game because of you, Coward! 😤" I'd cry.

Okay, so I don't have much to say about the cricket part overall, except it's beautiful, the hits are satisfying, and like father like son. The Ciel is evil, and that part with Harcourt being sent to heaven DID NOT disappoint! One of my favorite moments, and they did it justice! 😂 There are smaller but significant moments I like, but I'll get to those when they come.

The bit between Tanaka and Sebastian is always great. The old man knows they use dirty tactics but still respects them for it. I like his new VA, too.

Purple Burnout is so pretty! Not so significant, but Edward observing other people and making their moves his own is what makes him great. It's like a fanfic of an original work. He's playing homage to it or gets inspired, and/or even if he copies it, he still respects the author who created it originally.

I love how he can see through Ciel's tricks quickly and that he's there for the Queen, but not that Sebastian is Professor M. God bless him, lol. At least Greenhill sees that he's a genius.

The Radetsky March was done nicely. There's not much to say there.

I honestly thought that removing the cricket explanation and funny bit with Bard's pie missing is sad and fucked the pacing first time around. Also, no Snake. 😭 Stop doing this to my boy!

I love the last shot of Sebastian taking off his disguise, though. Possibly, my all-time favorite part is next. Go, Sebastian!

Episode 7

I like how when Ciel imagined Sebastian, the heart had little sparkles and it floats away! I love when Lau pulls the "Sorry! My English no good" shit! 😆 Lmao, on top of it, Cole is so salty.

The tiny flags waved by Tanaka. 🥺

Yesss!!! The principal vanished?! That would make a cool ending of an episode, but I like how they did it here.

I love it when they do the demon eyes all staring at you twice: First when Ciel trespasses at Purple house and now with Blue House players surrounding the wickets. The first batter for that round feels dread, lol.

The chant "It's not cricket!" to complete silence with no music is wow! That was so good. The cliff tactics visual is really cool and I like the sound of thunder and the batter falling of the cliff.

They went from laughing to being in awe, and the wickets clattering was satisfying as hell. Ooh! I love the visual of Bluewer and the Owl, too. I like the flashbacks they put in the games as well. That smack made my mouth hang open. Like, damnnn Greenhill. The ball damaged the seating area!

Is that a piano version of "The Parade of Battlers" when Ciel is giving Bluewer a different ball? That's awesome until... Ciel gets hit with the bat. 😆 It's the dramatic, and the sound of Ciel grabbing the ball is good like their sportsmanship, and they WON the game!!!

Episode 8

The moment they moved everyone to tears to Sebastian tending Ciel's wound was just beautiful. That Eton looks delicious too. Love anime food! 🤤

They all look so good in the uniforms, and I like the photograph and how short Ciel looks in it compared to the rest. The music is heavenly!

Okay... both the boat scene and the festivities are where the visuals and sound design fucking shine! They are at their best thus far and probably won't get no better! The sword draw was clean and fireworks sound so nice along with the music and other stuff. I want to be there celebrating the festivities with them! Just wow... Amazing. 🤩

The owls cooing, crickets chirping, and the piano music playing while everyone's asleep... "Weston College is blanketed in a silence that sharply contrasts the day's clamor." That's actually worded better than how I would've put it. That flower and teacup/saucer is really pretty! I wouldn't mind having a bouquet and teased like that. It's even prettier when it blooms. *gasps* The bells, the organ, the moon and garden, the opening of the passage, and the clinking of teacups... I love it!

I like how the shadows are over the other boys in the photos and Derrick in the middle as he is the minor antagonist yet main focus of the entire arc.

Great ending with him showing up as if nothing happened. Fabulous!

Episode 9

I like the petals. The voice going from normal to like demonic... that's good. I don't know the sound made after Ciel points his gun at The Headmaster, but I'm down for such a heavy sound. The wind is back with the brief silence, and I have no complaints. Ooh... Derrick's death reveal! 💯 They made Undertaker being Ryan's research partner more obvious, lol. Omg the heartbeat growing louder, yes!

Teeth, teeth, teeth! And Sebastian's red eyes. Lovely!

The visuals and music/sound design for his reveal in this scene is everything! I'm glad Junichi Suwabe returns to voice Undertaker! The cinematic record, the ink, splatter, his smile... absolute 🔥🔥🔥! Not to mention the style and colors, too. I adore that they added this, and it's the coolest way to recap and remind us who he is/what he did up to this point! ❤️

One of the students being hit made me bear my teeth. 😬

Episode 10

I don't think I like people being hit in general but I'm okay with it in Derrick Arden's case. 😌

*chants* Teeth! Teeth! Teeth! Teeth!

Yes! Rock and wobble while laughing in that chair, I love you crazy old man! Also, the whole explanation and imagined fight were so awesome! It shows the difference between Sebastian and Undertaker and how the soul he crafted and molded to be stolen away from him as well as the person he cares most about.

I didn't know Edward came back with a sword. Does that mean he was going to fight and/or protect? In the words of Lizzy: "Big brother! You're so cool!"

Love the shot of the bloodied flower.

My boy is back! I missed the chaos and enjoyed it more in the anime with the sheep chasing Meyrin and Tanaka riding one, lol! I wish they kept "bastard" but I can't complain because my boy is back!!! 😄🥰🙏🏻😭

The striking of the match and crackling of the fire is always pleasant. I wish they kept the photo, though. 😔 It does look like the oven or stove is like the ones they had back then!

She's got to be the antagonist. That bitch is up to something! There's one episode left but this was a very nice wrap up for WC Arc!

Episode 11

We wrap up this arc with chapter 85 and end it with the beginning of GWA after the credits. Let's talk about it!

Okay, so the beginning scene is really nice! My baby is back, and he's looking beautiful! 😍 Finnian humming is really cute, and a scene that confused me was explained. I was confused because I thought she walked toward another cabinet, not backward!

Who is Agni's VA? They did a wonderful job, though brief, I loved seeing him again! 🥹❤️ These two are always a riot.

Everything looks so pretty, and I love the stuff they add, which made the scenes better imo. The servants are so fun and adorable with the glasses and Ciel the hat!

The Snake and sexy girl scene made me laugh and the cigarette scene was done well, too. Finnian with a lollipop! 🥺 I like that they gave Bard a scene to explain Somerset House.

I like the clinking of the mourning hair jewelry, and it looks really pretty!

They didn't lag in the second half either! I enjoyed the music and the cards gracefully floating down to the audience with sparkles for pizzaz! Miss Irene is looking beautiful in both her appearances as herself and Juliet. This part also got laughs outta me, such as Sebastian pulling the carriage, the crowd rushing toward them, and Ciel's "Sebas-chan!" when he got pulled back and held up. Plus, Sebastian's little clapping bit, lol.

The last couple of minutes after credits like omg! They get you hyped, and there's no down in the quality either! They also actually speak German, and it sounds SO good! I can't wait for my favorite arc to be animated!!! 🤩

In conclusion:

Very solid anime with gorgeous animation, voice acting, and 100/10 sound design that stayed faithful while adding its own touches. The outro isn't bad and is super gay while the opening plus visuals is a banger! Episode 10 is my favorite. I'm over the fucking moon for GWA being animated and I actually enjoy Weston College Arc a little bit more now. Thank you for your excellent work, Cloverworks!

[iholli]

Can we talk about Justice Lord J'onn for a moment? Because I feel like I was robbed. A Better World could've showcased how J'onn had changed due to loosing yet another person he cares for, and I frequently think about what the conversation between him and his Justice League counterpart would've been like.

Like Justice League J'onn would be so critical of him but he'd be like, "You'll be like me eventually." And that would've scared Justice League J'onn so badly IMO.

I also wish we could've seen more of how people's freedoms were taken in the Justice Lords' universe. Because something tells me Justice Lord J'onn no longer has an issue with using telepathy on those who don't accept the new regime.

YES PLEASSEEEEEEEEE. I can talk about J'onn all day and I can DEFINITELY talk about Lord J'onn omg.

YOU'RE SO RIGHT. He really didn't get enough screentime in the episode. I love love love what he got though and it says a LOT to me about his character tbh. He's very close and even kind of casual with the other Lords and he honestly seems like he doesn't want them to be on the ground [away from the Watchtower where they're protected ??? take it as you will] at least until they convince him it's necessary. He's got no problem lying to outsiders and taking advantage of their trust, and just generally going along with whatever the group decides. He reads kinda "I survived the loss of one family and I won't fail my new one [again]." to me. [this has me thinking like, what if Lord J'onn has this immense guilt bc his morals didn't allow him to read Luthor's mind without permission and that would've prevented Wally's death. SO HE DOESN'T HOLD BACK ANYMORE. fellas he makes me so sad. I make myself sad thinking about it. ow]

OH I TOTALLY AGREE, and to add, I think the conversation in Divided We Fall would be "You're already like me." [ALSO I'M STILL MAD HE'S THE ONLY ONE WE DIDN'T SEE FIGHT IN THAT SCENE.] I've got a little on this coming up in my J'onn ramble part 2 but we can see in JLU that he's already going down that road, however he knows and regrets it, he doesn't WANT to get to that point. So having that version of him that he KNOWS exists, that he's trying so desperately to keep himself from becoming, telling him he's already past that point would be a horrifying wakeup call. And I could easily believe this was a big driving force in why he ends up leaving four episodes later [he DID try to leave at the end of A Knight of Shadows sooooo 👀]. That's not going to go away especially for someone who's so intensely empathetic.

GOOOOOODDDDDDDD, I could genuinely just watch an entire DCAU series about the Justice Lords, they scratch such a specific itch in my brain and I'm so fascinated by them. I 10000000% agree with you. J'onn with no holds barred, J'onn who has lost too much, J'onn who genuinely believes it's him and his family against the world for better or for worse, he's not going to lose anyone else. LOOK AT STARCROSSED. When everything was at stake he didn't just invade Kragger's mind, he DESTROYED it. And J'onn is already incredibly impulsive as is, so if it's going to come down to the safety of his League family or the world ?? Game over. He's not even going to think twice. I actually talked about the telepathy issue in my long analysis and you are 1000% correct. In JLU J'onn already has less and less issue just taking whatever he wants from others' minds, it would genuinely only take a slight push for him to start using his powers to force people into line, so it's easy to assume this is the case for Lord J'onn. And honestly ??? League J'onn is angrier, he's more involved, he's kind of ruthless doing whatever it takes to protect his family [and only stops short because he constantly, consciously knows he has to keep himself in check. even that holds him back less and less as JLU goes on]. I think he'd be even scarier than Lord J'onn had Divided We Fall ended differently. Hell, he nearly sacrificed the world once, and that was way before he really saw the worst humanity had to offer.

or perhaps Lord J'onn was the same way at the same point in his timeline, and we just saw him after the world was already secured and he could sit back a little ?? that could explain a lot tbh. like I said, I could talk circles about him 😂

[cinephobia]

took a random book i'd never heard of from my dad's office bc the cover looked interesting and it turned out to be a collection of short stories i swallowed entirely in record time like holy shit the way this woman writes scratches a very specific itch in my brain i didn't know i had

[remyfire]

Fic ask meme!! A, L, and/or Q <3

Fanfic Ask Meme A: How did you come up with the title to [insert fic]?

Ahh, Rosie, you didn't give me a specific fic title, so I'll go general!! —54% are song lyrics —6% are prompt-based —40% are completely random, just what came to mind when I considered the content of the fic

I go for song lyrics more frequently nowadays but I also do not have as modern or expansive of a music library as much, so I do a lot of repeats of the same songs!! I'd love to start using poetry as well, but I still am having trouble digesting poetry with my focus disorder. Work in progress.

L: What’s the weirdest AU you’ve ever come up with?

I still think traphawkahy seminary incubus AU—with or without the optional addition of B-girl content—is probably the silliest possible title at this point. Notably I am not responsible for all of it—shout out to @hesgomorrah—but I'm very fond of it so I am putting at least a wee bit of claim on it.

Q: Do you have any discarded scenes/storylines/projects?

I have the very very very bad habit of entirely deleting scenes that I edit out rather than saving them in another doc for possible later use, but I still have a few moments from Scratching The Itch kicking around. Multiple ones, so they're unedited under the cut for anyone curious.

When I was brainstorming how to get to the massage/sex scene in chapters 4 and 5, originally I had Hawkeye playing a little bolder and BJ meeting him competitively in the middle and overruling him. It ended up not working for my purposes, and I appreciate getting to go the more tender route with BJ especially. iirc correctly, this snippet was going to take place directly after Freddie's departure, with Hawk teasing BJ about how hard he is and how he's refusing to go take care of it. But you can see the thread that I carried over into the actual shower chapter itself.

"I've done without for this long," BJ drawls, lips quirked in that hint of a smile that teases what California sunshine must look like. "I can last a little more."

"But why bother?" Hawkeye tucks one finger in BJ's belt loop, just barely fitting between the smooth leather and the rough fabric, and gives him a tug. "We don't want a Sunday pot roast, Beej. The longer you let that sit and stew, the more tender it's gonna get, and how's that fun for anyone?"

BJ puts his hand square in the middle of Hawkeye's bare chest and gives the gentlest nudge, and Hawkeye is so taken aback that he lets him, lets BJ walk him backward one step at a time. Those lips turn upward just a hint more as blue eyes sparkle down at him like the sea and the sky have swapped. "Because the first time that you make me come," BJ murmurs, "is going to be when I'm fucking you."

Hawk's eyes widen so far they feel like they might bulge out of his head. It's not the first time he's felt BJ's hand on his skin, but there's intentionality here beyond just pulling him to sit beside Beej on a bench when they're 8 straight hours into surgery, beyond the way BJ's fingers would find the slim gap between Hawkeye's shirt and pants while they stumbled laughing back from Rosie's.

Those beautiful fingers are a weight on him—but a grounding one.

The back of his knees hit the bed and he tips into sheets that still smell like sex and sweat, and suddenly he's desperate to know how BJ's pheromones are going to mix.

"That's what you want, isn't it?" BJ's voice is barely over a murmur. "You want to know what it feels like to be as full as you've made all those pretty girls your whole life." BJ lifts his eyebrows, wrinkles spreading across his forehead. "You want. To be. Fucked."

Finally the words creep in fully through the post-orgasmic haze, slithering around his brain, squeezing, ready to make a meal of him. His blood goes cold and leaves goosebumps along his entire body.

BJ is a prankster. He's as mercurial as the god that word is named for. He takes delight in teasing, needling, but never in a cruel way. Right? Has BJ ever been cruel to him—intentionally, sadistically, curving his wrist to make a bleeding gash in Hawkeye's heart? Suddenly he can't recall, can't be perfectly sure. Those glimmering eyes are waves crashing down to drown him.

"I-I..." Hawk fights to find the light he had in his chest only moments ago.

And these are assorted bits of dialogue that ended up not being used, originally used regarding Freddie and in the shower scene respectively.

"I think the war's aged me fucking fifty years. Jesus. You're gonna laugh, but I'm so tight, I think I almost pulled something just from fucking her."

~~

"You're telling me this because if I ever said a word about you and Peg being open, you'd be able to take me down with you."

"I'd never take you down over anything, Hawk. But if that's what you need to believe, then go ahead."

This is the original ending of the R&R scene in chapter 6, right before the pivot back to camp. I wrote this before doing anything else with chapter 6, and then when I started from the beginning, I realized BJ had a lot more rage and grief regarding how his attempt to be domestic with Hawk (has BJ done this before with men? Has it worked? Is Hawkeye special?), so I couldn't use it, and again, I prefer how it ended up moving, even though it left a lot up in the air for me to play with when I circle back. (notably I had also forgotten I gave them three days of R&R, so I couldn't send them back that easily anyway when they still had a full day left to go hfdkd)

BJ clicks his tongue against his teeth. "You've been touching me this casually since I puked my guts up in front of you and nobody's said a word." When he glances over his shoulder, the flatness is gone. "Yeah. Of course it'd be casual. What else would it be?"

Hawkeye opens his mouth, shuts it again, and forces himself to think before he speaks. "I'm, uh, glad we're on the same page."

BJ chuckles and pats Hawk on the cheek just a little too firmly. "Can we head out before they leave without us?"

"Oh, sure, sure," Hawkeyes drawls. He goes to grab his own bag in turn. "I'm in such a hurry to get back. I wonder if they're serving liver or liver tonight in the mess tent."

"At this point, probably sewage soup."

Hawk laughs. "Perfect meal for denizens of a swamp."

[bonesandthebees]

Also, while I’m here. Could you do 2, 4, 6, 13, 17 and 18 for the ask game if those haven’t been answered? Or pick any of those cuz it’s a lot.

-🌲

2. Do you read/reread your own fics?

Absolutely. I write my fics for myself first and foremost, so yeah I reread them a lot. It doesn't hit the same as it would reading someone else's fic, but there are so many times I want a very specific niche of content I can't find and I'm just like "well gotta do it myself." A lot of times I even get distracted from writing bc I start rereading a different fic of mine. that almost happened with world forgetting last night but I pulled myself out before I could start rereading it bc I had stuff to do lmao

4. How many WIPs do you have right now?

Uh. This depends on your definition of WIP. If you mean something in progress I know for sure I will continue posting, then 2 right now (glass and tinfoil) (and also the series that roses was a prequel to but I haven't started properly writing it yet I've just been doing a ton of worldbuilding for it recently). But if we're talking anything in progress that I might end up posting at some point but probably won't... too many to count

6. Are there any fics from others you reread all the time?

the thing is with the fics I REALLY enjoyed (like from a storytelling perspective) I won't actually reread that much because if I do, I want to sit down and do it properly yknow? so the fics I reread tend to be easier, simpler one shots or just snippets of fluff fics if I just need a shot of serotonin straight to the brain. I will say though, I make it a point to reread ritual purposes by thanotaphobia on a semi-regular basis because there's just something about the atmosphere and the story and all of it that really hits for me. just the way roxy describes small details scratches an itch in my brain so I adore rereading it just to pick up on those smaller bits

13. How much planning do you do before writing?

If it's a 'smaller' fic (ie: anything below 100k words like honey and tangerines and below) then I'll usually do a loose bullet point outline of the entire thing before I start writing. if it's one of my big fics then when I start I usually know the beginning, the end, and some in between scenes I know I'll throw in at some point, but that's it. I'll do a loose bullet outline usually 2-3 chapters at a time, but I won't plot out the entire thing in one go because then I'll get bored of it. Coming up with most of the plot as I go helps me to not only keep myself interested, but I feel like it helps the plot flow better because I get into a rhythm with the story and I can let it go places I didn't originally plan

17. What’s something you’ve learned about while doing research for a fic?

well the other day I googled "heat capacity of rivers" doing research for the eventual big royalty fic I'm gonna do after glass is over so. learning a lot of climate stuff! (apparently the reason coastal cities have a cooler, more stable climate than inland areas is because of the heat capacity of the ocean so I wanted to see what the heat capacity of a river would be and if a river would have a similar if less noticeable effect on the climate of a town)

18. What’s one of your favorite lines you’ve written in a fic?

I usually answer with the same thing every time so I tried finding a different answer to this question this time around

I really loved this whole segment I wrote in the penultimate chapter of stars. especially the lines about Prince Theseus being a child of Eldingvegr itself. Idk what I was on but I just love the mental image this provokes

ty for these spruce!!

ask game!