#it’s very specific idk how else to describe it because there’s a difference between someone who listens but is having a hard time

[gwyoi]

Sometimes people learning languages sound tone deaf in a way where I know they don’t really even listen to speakers of said language. It’s not just the normal bad it’s like worse than the first day of language class

[hyukalyptus]

something nice — sub!fem!reader x dom!yeonjun x servicetop!kai

cw. reader is in an established (open) relationship with yeonjun, cucking? (kai eats reader's pussy while yj watches lol), cunnilingus ofc, nipple play, orgasm denial, edging, pet names (baby, jjun), begging, mention of "punishment" but nothing's ever done, yeonjun and kai talk about reader and what they're gonna do to her (without her understanding—everything is consensual in the beginning, but read note below), let me know if there's anything else. notes. IMPORTANT: ok so the tea with this one. the idea here is that the reader doesn't speak korean well and kai and yj are speaking korean to kinda talk about the reader and what they're gonna do to her so she doesn't understand. nothing aggressive, just describing what to do to her body so she's kinda surprised? SO!! anything in italics is in korean. thats important!! also idk how i feel about this???? smut under cut. wc. 1.5K

“Did she give you a reason or did she just break up with you?” You’re eavesdropping on Yeonjun and Kai—not that they’re being very secretive. They’re talking about a woman Kai’s been seeing while you play video games and attempt to translate in your head, but you're not being too successful, catching a few words here and there. 

“She did say one thing,” Kai says hesitantly. “But it’s kinda embarrassing.”

“What is it?”

“Well,” he starts, scooting closer to Yeonjun to awkwardly whisper something to him, twiddling his thumbs, running his fingers through his hair.

“Oh,” Yeonjun chuckles. “That’s…man, if you get really good at that, you could date anyone.”

“What are you talking about?” You finally pause your game, curiosity getting the best of you. Looking up, Kai looks like you caught him stealing cookies from a cookie jar while Yeonjun tries to hold back a chuckle. The three of you exchange looks until Yeonjun rolls his eyes to bluntly say—

“Eating women out.”

“Yeonjun—!” Kai says, shoving his arm.

“What?” He chuckles, returning the shove. “I eat her out all the time. She knows what it is. She knows you eat pussy too.”

“But that’s why that woman broke up with you?” You ask. “Because you…you're bad at eating pussy?” He blushes, averting his attention to the floor while he clasps his hands together, nodding shyly.

“Be honest, babe—am I good at eating you out?”

Looking between the two of them, you sit up and say, “Yeah, you’re probably the best I’ve had, but we’re super compatible, you know? We’re, like, super in love. That makes a big difference sometimes.”

Holding back a cocky smile, he asks, “But, objectively, I’m pretty good, right?” You shrug and nod—really, he probably is the best you’ve ever had, but that’s another story. 

“What makes it good?” Kai asks.

Humming, you think before saying, “First, he doesn’t go straight for it.” Turning red and ears getting warm, you gush and— “Oh god, Kai, don’t look at me when I tell you this.”

“Ah, this is ridiculous,” Yeonjun exasperates. “Do you just wanna practice on her?” You both whip your heads in his direction. “If you’re comfortable with it, of course,” he says to you. “Just thought it might be helpful.”��

Oh, how did you end up here? Laying in Yeonjun's bed, clenching your thighs together out of nervousness. “Remember, this is kinda specific to her. Pay attention to what whoever you’re with wants.” Kai nods, kneeling at the foot of the bed.

“She already said this—” Yeonjun says. “I don’t go straight for it. I kiss her first, then make my way down there.”

“You want him to kiss me?”

He shrugs and says, “If you’re alright with that.”

“If you are,” you say, looking Kai in the eyes. Both of them can’t help but notice the confidence you seem to be exuding, especially compared to Kai. Trembling fingers reaching for your cheek, he looks at you for permission one final time. Finally leaning in, his lips press to yours. 

You’d forgotten what it was like to have a first kiss with someone. Kai’s kisses are different from Yeonjun’s. Kai’s are much more cautious, more careful—not necessarily shy, but careful. It quickly turns hot and heavy. But you remember Yeonjun is watching you, suddenly overtaken with bashfulness, you break the kiss to glance over at him. 

Him and that sinister smile. 

Turning back to Kai, you crash into his lips again, humming into his mouth and smirking to rub how much you're enjoying this in Yeonjun's face.  

“Touch her,” Yeonjun says. “Kinda slowly, but then a little more intense.” Kai does as he’s told, his hand dragging up your hip to squeeze your tits. “Under her shirt.” 

His hand on the outside of your bra feels new and exciting. Reaching around your back to unhook it, you break the kiss to take your shirt off, pulling at the hem of his. 

“Slow down for a second,” Yeonjun chuckles and Kai listens, placing gentle kisses to your collarbone. “Lick her nipples.” Swirling his tongue around your nipple, you gasp, reaching for his hair. “Pay attention to which one she likes better.”

Kai tests both, slyly licking between the two. After testing the waters, he picks correctly. You chuckle thinking about Yeonjun sitting on a chair across the room, smirking in approval. You could look for yourself, but you can’t bring yourself to open your eyes. 

“Keep licking her until her hips roll.” This is a bit crazy, isn’t it? The guy you love telling another man how to fuck you the way you like. “Not yet.” Yeonjun switches to Korean, making you roll your eyes. If you didn’t have the energy to translate in your head earlier, you definitely can’t focus enough to translate now.

Lips trailing down your body, he tugs at your shorts, but keeps your cute pink panties on. Yeonjun talks him through every move—to lick his thumb and rub your nipple, to press his nose to the outside of your panties, to skate his lips across your inner thighs. 

Your hips roll uncontrollably, practically begging him to taste you. 

“Kai—” You whisper, your body instantly burning at the sound of the both of them chuckling. Pulling your panties down and off your legs, he throws them to Yeonjun who happily wads them up to sniff them and smell how delicious you are. 

Licking his thumb again, he keeps rubbing circles over your nipple as he finally licks your clit, your back arching as soon as he touches it. 

“Fuck—” You say breathlessly, looking down at him as his eyes sparkle up at you, your head dropping to your pillow with a thud. “Who the fuck is this bitch that says you’re bad at this?” He shakes his head, digging deeper into your pussy. 

Smiling cockily, you look over at Yeonjun, trying to control his breathing. He can’t help it—the two of you are just too hot together. He's never been able to enjoy this kind of view before. Seeing how every part of your body reacts to being touched—it's an incredible view.

“Please tell me he’s allowed to make me cum, baby,” You beg.

“Of course,” he chuckles smugly. “If he can.” Kai’s eating you out like he’s absolutely starving. And it’s true—he can’t help it. You taste too fucking good. 

Your eyes squeeze shut as you start squeaking, throwing your head back. 

“Okay, that sound means she’s gonna cum soon. Try to bring her as close to the edge as possible and then stop.” 

“Fuck, Kai,” you breathe. “Right there—yes.” You can’t believe how good he is at this, especially given the reason you're under his tongue right now. He’s supposed to be bad at this, right? 

You’re so fucking close and he can feel it. “Don’t stop—” he brings you right there. And then he does it. He stops. “Agh, fuck you,” you groan. Looking down at him, his smirking at you, eyes flashing between you and Yeonjun. 

He doesn’t waste too much time before getting back to your pussy, flicking his tongue over your clit. 

“Take it away from her for a bit. Lick her nipples again.” He does just that. You’re aching, bucking your hips over and over, desperately trying to relieve some kind of tension. But his tongue does feel amazing on your tits. Threading your fingers through his hair, you tug at it hard. He groans, his mouth dropping open like you just unlocked a new kink of his. 

Now he can’t take it anymore. Hips jutting forward, you feel the roughness of his sweatpants drag against your center, relieving some of that tension. You gasp, resorting to begging him to get back to licking you. 

“No, don’t,” Yeonjun says sternly. 

“But I want to,” Kai whines back, looking at your pussy hungrily, sticking the tip of his tongue out, giving his best begging eyes. But Yeonjun just shakes his head, satisfied with watching you uncontrollably rolling your hips up toward Kai’s mouth. Kai compromises, wrapping his hands around the backs of your thighs to yank you closer to him and presses his lips to the skin right around your clit, teasing you even more. 

“Babe—” you breathe, begging Yeonjun with your eyes to let him continue licking you. 

“I know, baby, I know…” he responds, his voice low and rough. He finally lets him lick you again. But he doesn’t show much mercy. He repeats the same tactic over and over—having him bring you right to the edge, even to the point of tears, then he stops right in his tracks.

"I'm gonna tell you to stop, but I want you to keep going, okay?" Kai nods, agreeing to his instructions. Bringing you to the edge again, you're begging for mercy, begging to cum. "Don't let her cum, Kai," he says, making tears form in your eyes. "Stop—"

And he does.

"I told you to let her cum that time."

"Sorry," he smiles up at him, licking his lips. "It's so fun to see her beg like that though." Tilting his head toward you, he says, "Look at her...she's got tears in her eyes. Isn't that the hottest fucking thing you've ever seen?"

"It's okay, baby," he says, fingers flowing through your hair while Kai's mouth finds your clit again. You're moaning, gasping for air, swearing, screaming, anything to try to find a release. "Not yet. Don't let her fucking cum, Kai." You don't think you can handle this much longer. Edging is nice, yes, but this? This is bordering torture.

"Please, please, please, Jjun..." you trail off. "Just please let me cum. I can't take it anymore."

"I know you can take it, baby. Fucking taking it so well..."

It's building again. That knot in your stomach that gets tighter and tighter with every second. That white hot fire in the pit of your stomach waiting to explode.

"Don't stop, Kai," you blurt. "I'm gonna cum—" Slamming your palm over your mouth—you shouldn't have said that. He's gonna make you regret saying that.

"Don't let her cum," he orders.

But his grip gets tighter. His tongue licks furiouser. His face digs deeper. You're so fucking close. Closer than you've ever been tonight.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, Kai..." your orgasms crashes over you like a bolt of lightning. "Yes, fuck yes, that feels so fucking good." You feel like you're having an out of body experience. It's one of the best fucking orgasms of your life. "Don't stop, right there." You chest heaves with heavy breaths.

Coming down from one of the best orgasms of your life, your vision clears up and all you keep thinking is how much Yeonjun's gonna make you pay for this. You came without his permission—what's he gonna do now? Everything flashes across your mind: not letting you cum for a week, spanking you until your ass had his hand print on it, tying you up for hours, you're not sure.

But he doesn't do any of that. His hand caresses your cheek as he smiles down at you, "Did that feel good, baby?"

Confused, you nod, "Mhmm." You're still nervous, looking around at everyone's reactions. Kai's smirking while he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. "Bad at eating pussy my ass," you say, shoving his shoulder with your foot.

"Ah, I knew you a had a little crush on him...I've seen how you look at him." Your face turns beet red. He's noticed that? Oh god... "I just wanted to do something nice for my baby."

[teaboot]

Hi

I have a question for u

It is maybe a very cliché question but I am sincerely looking for the answer because it feels like most other people know it and just I don’t understand

So here we go: what differentiates love from friendship?

I can recognize friendship. All explanations given to me what others told me makes the distinction to loving someone (romantically?) didn’t make sense to me mostly because it always included some people that fall into the definition of friends

So yeah.. I’m having difficulty with relationships (apparently)

Thank u for ur thought! Ur blog always brings me happiness!

I hope u have a wonderful day with some quiet time to watch the fluffy creature

-🥬

Personal opinion?

Friendship is love. Love is friendship. Kissing is friendship and holding hands is love. Sex is friendship and washing laundry is love.

I've had crushes on people I'd never want to date. I have friends I'd be comfortable kissing. I don't think I've ever been attracted to sexually, but there are people I think are beautiful who make my heart race. I don't know if I've ever felt romantic attraction, but there are people I want to spend my life with, and others I'd rather admire from a distance, and others I want nothing to do with.

I think that honestly, really, words like "Husband", "Wife", "Partner", "Friend", "Queerplatonic", "Soulmates", "Life Partner"... I think they're useful tools to describe specific experiences, more than they are rigid boxes to sort and divide our experiences into.

I'm not sure if I understand tge difference between platonic affection, aesthetic attraction, romance, and friendship, but I find my best relationships so far have been, "We like being around each other, and we work together to find what kind of intimacy we want from each other".

Sometimes that intimacy is physical, like kissing or sparring. Sometimes it's emotional, like sharing feelings. Sometimes it's just good, quiet company, or doing things together.

I can't speak for your own experiences, but in mine, idk. Just kinda letting things happen.

(It is hard when you feel lonely, though, and don't know how to describe to most of the world what it is you want.)

Long post, but uh. Same boat, I suppose?

afraid I don't have a better answer right now, but if anyone else figures it out, I'd love to know.

Thanks for the ask, and I hope you're having a great day too!! ♡

[sn0wp1anets]

observations about joel (mostly speech stuff) and interactions with others bc ive been hyperfixated since the beginning of time (also theres alot of bs commentary im sorry)

general stuff:

very very british like extremely british

'bloody' and 'blooming' ALOT - when he's annoyed or shocked or offended (im gonna call this his pseudo swearing for the rest of this for convenience)

instead of very he says 'well' sometimes (e.g. "this bloody pico park music is well annoying) and "absolutely"

instead of really he says 'proper' sometimes so "stress is proper northern" etc

instead of 'i haven't' he says "i've not"

he gives an explanation for basically everything he does and instead of because he says 'as' alot

'to be honest' "i bloody hate woodwork to be honest" (sometimes he says 'to be honest with you' too)

'innit' occasionally "it's like waterslide innit"

'like so'

'by the look of it'

he gets irritated really easily - "for goodness sake" and he'll start cutting himself off alot "this bloody-" and also his voice gets much more high pitched and his pseudo swearing gets way more frequent. also 'blooming heck'

(and also this isn't super relevant but when he gets mad all his friends start commenting on it and its the funniest thing- in the overcooked stream as soon as he starts getting annoyed everyones like 'oh here he is')

i didn't know if i should put this in a specific section but he says 'babe' alot - not just to lizzie but to jimmy like ALOT and also in general - i'll talk about this a bit more later tho !

pauses alot: in between words/phrases, and also before he answers questions (this is not as often but also if he wants someone to stop him- he was playing scrabble and was basically asking if someone could spell out vagina so he was slowly going 'and a g....and an i...and a n...' etcetc idk this isnt relevant i just thought it was worth mentioning)

he's kinda an oversharer 😭 ? (this is lh hes 31 im sure he shares what he thinks is appropriate) but at any given moment he starts giving details about his life- a kinda memorable example of this is in mcc26(?) when w*lbur made fun of his accent so he started telling a story about his grandfather and giving alot of details about him after he said he couldnt talk too much about it AND grian begged him to stop

repeats things (especially when he's annoyed) : "game's a bloody joke. game's a bloody joke"

he basically never says 'oh my god' its always 'oh my gosh' or 'oh gosh' sometimes its 'oh jesus'

his voice is generally higher pitched and more expressive in videos than in streams but this is more of a general cc thing than a specific joel thing

very confident in his builds (AS HE SHOULD BE !!!) and he'll share his thoughts alot : "i think it's come together really well" "lovely" "i'm really happy with it/with how it's turned out" etcetc

when he narrates he uses a mixture of 'I' and 'We'. what i've noticed is he uses I for his thoughts ("i feel like" "i think") and we for everything else ("we need" "we're quite high in the sky" etc)

'genuinely'

'what (are) you on about'

'what the heck'

he will say very random (kind of odd) things just out of nowhere as if its normal and he'll only realize it's weird when someone questions it? e.g. the mumbo trauma dumping bit in SL, or in one of jimmy's streams he said 'until i get back to the hotel if yk what i mean' and jimmys like 'i dont' and joel just goes 'idk either'

accent stuff:

it's really recognizable idk what to say

very northern: hes from yorkshire - his accent used to be stronger in his old videos but you can definitely still hear it (like its still super different from grian or like mumbo idk)

his 'th' sounds come out as 'f' (idk if this is an accent thing or a joel thing but he's talked about it and said his family members have it too)

again not sure if this is an accent or joel thing but when he says any word with 'con' he says it kinda differently- it's hard to describe but for example when most people say convention the 'on' sound is more like a 'un' sound? whereas with joel its very much an 'o' sound like in 'box' or 'coffee' (genuinely have no idea how else to explain it but in phonetic symbols- joel essentially never says /ʌ/ it's almost always /ɒ/ when its a 'con' word)

jimmy-

NICKNAMES !!! 'jim' is used alot - more than anyone else and one of the only people who calls him this. hes used 'mr neutron' too (idk how many times'

(he also doesnt actually say tim/timmy often and when he does its exclusively when grian is present)

typical british male friendship nicknames: 'lad' 'big man'

when he joins jimmy's stream he always says hi in a very dramatic way?? usually with a pretty deep voice (idk this is just something i noticed)

he calls him a loser alot?

(this might be more of a bad boys point) but joel is generally not that mean to jimmy? definitely he's meaner than he was a few years ago but that makes sense because they weren't as close but. he'll call him a loser and stupid/idiot sometimes but his main 'bullying jimmy' momentsare usually always when he's with someone else (usually grian, sometimes fwhip)

'what are you doing jimmy' or sometimes 'what are you doing with your life'

lizzie:

'babe' like all the time. once lizzie mentioned that they don't even really use each other's names alot because they just say 'babe' all the time

oli:

ok so joel really doesn't use that much like modern internet language but oli does and then joel will pick up on it (its cute but also horrifying sometimes)- he kept saying 'dogs' in reference to feet after oli said it

they flirt alot but differently to how he does with jimmy (hes more passive whereas with jimmy he initiates it more idk how else to describe it)

he calls him 'man' sometimes

he's also really giggly around oli theyre adorable

(tbh theres so much more to say about oli and lizzie but idk if i have the energy and time for like 10+ years of interactions rn - and honestly alot more for everyone else too but like.)

grian:

in general joel picks up on people's energy etc and mimics it alot but it happens so much with grian specifically - this sounds very weird but the more time he spends with grian in one go the more he starts to act like grian (especially with interactions with jimmy)

[ilikekidsshows]

Lately I've been seeing a lot of people attacking others for shipping a problematic ship in X and this somewhat bring back a bad memories when I was still active in ml tweet back then.

It was around Luka episode introduction, I think when I saw someone asked Thomas about Luka's age and he said Luka is Juleka's brother, older by 2 years. Make senses considering we never see him in Dupont and how he has part time job that time. But I also saw how people feel disgusted because Luka being Marinette love interest who's older than her makes him a potential groomer because of the imbalance power dynamic.

thing is, when I looked back at the reason why people become anti Lukanette and how current Adrienette dynamic is, it become... Very funny if not ironic? Like how they talked about power dynamic and imbalance in Lukanette and yet remain silent at how much imbalance the current Adrienette is. This also make me realize that you don't need to have an age gap in a ship to make an imbalance power dynamic or be the older one in a ship to groom the other, because power isn't always about who's older, but who has more information and knowledge. Maybe I'm jumping too far, idk, but aren't what Ladybug did in s4 basically groomed Cat Noir into obedience? By gaslight him, manipulating information, silent treatment and that judo throw.

---

I will say this: people online have turned the concept of grooming into both this big, scary boogeyman but also this thing that happens constantly with so much ease it could be accidental. Basically, there's this idea that we need to constantly be on the lookout for groomers because the world is crawling with them. There's a reason for this: online fan spaces are easy hunting grounds for groomers and the internet acting as an in-between makes the people involved ignore personal boundaries more easily because it all feels less real. So of course terminally online youths are scared of a threat that exists primarily in terminally online ingroups.

So, a lot of fanspaces treat age differences between characters as inherently suspicious. It doesn't matter if they're both adults or both kids, if there's an age difference, it's “grooming” to these people. Like, yeah, it's reasonable to wonder what someone in a very different life situation would want with someone who’s basically “dragging behind” from their perspective, but sometimes you just like a person and want to hang out with them and don’t necessarily want anything with them. Grooming, in this context, is a very specific thing that isn’t just about age. It’s a pattern of behavior where someone purposefully manipulates someone else to get them to fill a certain role for them, usually that of a romantic and/or sexual partner. Grooming is actions, not a situation.

Not all unequal power dynamics involve grooming, but I get what you mean. It feels like there should be a word to describe this kind of relationship, but there isn't anything specific. It's just “toxic relationship”, “one sided relationship” and “being used” when Marinette is explicitly shown benefiting and preferring when her partner doesn't ever show any personal feelings about anything. She prefers him joking and therefore keeping a distance between herself and his feelings. It’s the same way with Luka, whose family situation makes it look like he’s gone through parentification or at least suffers from abandonment issues, which would make Luka another case of a traumatized boyfriend whose trauma manifests in a way that Marinette can and does take advantage of.

The thing that makes Marinette not the groomer in either of these situations is that she didn't cause these boys to act this way; they conveniently came to her pre-traumatized/conditioned and she merely shamelessly took advantage. In the case of Cat Noir the matter is grayer, since his responses to her are reactions to her treatment of him as someone inconsequential, but him reacting to such treatment with submission instead of outrage was trained into him by Gabriel and Emilie.

[bebsi-cola]

sorry if this is the wrong place to ask. i just saw on your post you're physically disabled so i figured you may be in the cpunk community.

do you think ibs counts as a disability? like what's the difference between chronic pain and disability and chronic illness? is having chronic pain automatically mean you're physically disabled?

don't feel bad if you don't wanna respond i will probably ask someone else too after a day or two because i can't find very good things online

hmm ... well a chronic illness is definitionally an illness that happens long term or comes back. like chronic vasculitis is having illness periods of vasculitis, which is an inflammation of the blood vessels. my da has this. my sister also has a chronic illness in the form of chron's disease. actually we usually misuse the term chronic illness online often, like when we want to talk about conditions like fibromyalgia (i have this). because fibro is not actually a disease that lasts long or recurs. it describes a condition that's constant but not in like. idk active disease mode ygm. a chronic illness would be for things considered diseases like COPD.

for chronic pain (and chronic illness too tbh) it's medically labelled chronic as opposed to being considered acute. which is like immediate. it either lasts for a significant amount of time (in the matter of months and/or years depending on who you talk to) or is an illness that's recurring over a similarly long period of time. chronic pain is just pain that isn't acute.

a disability is different from the other two in that the focus point is actually how affected you are, like how much it impacts and impairs you. so chronic illnesses and conditions that significantly impair normal activities of daily living are usually considered disabilities.

this is why it is sometimes less useful to ask "is this condition a disability" when the direct answer would be "well does it disable you?" my sister when not in flare goes through life largely ableds without significant affects from chron's on her ability to do daily tasks or essential tasks of living. when she is in a flare it can be really bad and impact a lot. she's chronically ill, but whether or not she's disabled kinda depends on just how much she is impacted and how often. and also how she feels, and somewhat if she interacts with the world and society as a disabled person. this can put chronic illness in a bit of a grey zone but like the easiest way to manage this is just believe when people say they're disabled. instead of arguing about like if a specific condition is a disability or not, just accept that they are being disabled by it and they acknowledge that and they told you. imo

so does chronic pain or chronic illness automatically make you disabled? some would say yes. some will say that it depends on if it impairs you. like quite literally how it disables you and stops you from doing certain activities. some people say it might but that "disabled" is a category of person that goes through life in a radically different way than abled people, including abled people with health conditions. that to be disabled is to take on that social categorisation. personally i think the easiest one to decide is to just ask yourself, hey does this disable/impair me? if it does but you can get away with being considered abled or the impairment is there but not super severe you can decide to call yourself disabled or not as you see fit. this is a somewhat contentious topic. there are some people who, like my da and my sister have conditions that are chronic and arguably impair them in various ways. i have asked them and other friends with health conditions and they said they don't consider themselves disabled because they largely don't experience life as a disabled person. for them it impacts them but they personally don't consider it significant enough. this is their choice. if my sister was like actually yeah i am disabled. i can't do all these things because of this illness i would be like yeah true. like either way i'm not gonna argue with her because like she's not wrong.

so tdlr. i think if something impairs you in a significant enough way to impact how you live on a day to day or week to week basis then you can call it a disability by definition. you can end it here btw. just go yes i am disabled. or no i'm not but i have a chronic condition.

the second part is whether you want to call yourself disabled, and that's a philosophical debate about the socially stigmatized category of person that is "disabled" and how you navigate an abled society. this doesn't have a clear answer because you can argue a lot of different ways but at the end of the day you can decide that one for yourself

thanks for coming to my lecture, the seminar will be on monday. please finish the required readings beforehand.

[ewingstan]

I think what I love about Claw is that the protags don’t feel like they’d be protags in other WB stories.

Mia and Carson would be mooks or lieutenants to Coil, Tattletale, or Cauldron that Taylor and Victoria would barely interact with beyond potentially fighting them if need be. Val gives big sierra/charlotte/natalie/presley energy.

Ditto for Pact, Pale, and Twig (no spoilers because idk how far you are in those stories).

But because of this world in particular, they feel perfect for having the spotlight shining on them, if that makes sense.

I do agree that Mia and Carson have the vibe of people who'd be side characters in another story. I mean, the closest character I can think of to Mia's archetype is the vacuum cleaner guy in Breaking Bad, who's very memorable but is barely interacted with. For wildbow characters, she almost feels more like Piggot than anyone else. Piggot in a story where her startling effectiveness and ruthlessness wasn't rendered useless by virtue of not belonging to a superhuman.

There's isolated aspects of her that fit into the typical wildbow protag mold, particularly her ability to gain and use an incredible amount of information others couldn't (traits shared by main protagonists like Taylor and Sy as well as deuteragonists like Lisa, Jessie, etc.) What sets her apart (outside the obvious context of her being an adult parent) is her limitations. She doesn't have Taylor's powers or Sy's charm, which allow them to adapt to new information on the fly and instantly set new plans into motion. Instead, she relies on being so well-prepared that there's nothing she faces that she doesn't already have a plan for.

This changes the whole mode of storytelling. Rather than "how is the wildbow protag gonna use her wits to get outta this one?", its "lets slowly pull back the curtain on the complex machine of a plan the protagonist has put into place for just such a situation." Its a subtle difference, but it has a big impact on how the protag is characterized and what the audience's reaction to big moments are. Like narrating a tense firefight, vs lovingly describing the design of a complex rifle you made a while back and finally get a chance to use. There's a big difference between "oh wow, she just made a bomb to deal with the guys chasing her!" and "oh wow, she's had a bomb in her trunk the entire time on the off-chance someone started chasing her."

Carson's whole "unflappable amoral ladykiller" thing actually is pretty common in protagonists, I've seen bookshelf-filling series that star those types. Whats different about him is that rather than being a hyper-competent one-man army like those characters tend to be, Claw is pretty upfront about the fact that he'd be a two-bit drifter if he wasn't working with Mia. Being that dependent on someone else for your effectiveness bucks a trend not only in shlocky pulp protagonists, but in wildbow protagonists specifically, since wildbow loves taking away his guys allies and resources away only to have them still come out on top and display how they're incredible on their own.

Valentia I might disagree with slightly, if only because she reminds me a lot of Taylor both in her backstory and how her action gets narrated. She fits much more into the "desperate on-the-fly thinking" mold of the average wb protag than Mia "ohoho, you stumbled onto yet another of my landmines" Hurst.

[aphantimes]

Hey, I don't know if it's alright to ask like this, but your mentions of sdam and aphantasia have piqued my curiosity, and I was wondering if you would mind informing me kind of what it is actually like experiencing or not experiencing certain things with them?

I don't know. Just, I guess, are there any particular instances where the difference between what you experience and other people experience stand out, maybe?

Don't feel at all pressured to answer, or to answer any particular way if you do choose to respond.

Sorry if this is at all uncomfortable and for being so awkward with this. I think you are a wonderful person and love your art and stuff. Again, sorry and just feel completely at ease to interpret this how you want.

NEVER FEEL BAD FOR ASKING!!! I love talking about SDAM and aphantasia, so little is known about SDAM especially so very little people talk about it, information is hard to find.

tbh I don't think aphantasia has that big of an effect on me, I don't see it as a big deal anymore. I can conceptualise things fine, I can daydream about characters and scenarios there just aren't "visuals". It can be mildly frustrating to be given "exercises" that involve visualisation while I'm unable to visualise, lol. People that can visualise assume everyone else can. I had a teacher tell me I should imagine myself on stage as like a way to lessen stage fright? He was confused when I said I couldn't do that lol

Drawing tends to be a bit of an exercise of trial and error for me. My sketches look horrendously messy because I have no idea what something will look like before I put the lines down, so a lot of time is spent trying things out to see how they'll look. I don't think I'll ever be able to instantly put down perfect lines with no sketch like I see some artists do online idk how the heck they do that LOL

SDAM I feel has a much larger effect on me. It causes real problems and a lot of embarrassing moments for me. One thing is that a friend had come with my family to arcades multiple times, and one time he had some money left on the card. Months later he wanted to use it up and told me we should meet up at a specific arcade, but I had literally zero memory of him ever being at the arcade he specified. I only ever recalled him at a different arcade, so I thought he misremembered.

I was wrong. We showed up at the arcade I said it must've been with a card meant for a different arcade. I still for the life of me CANNOT remember him ever coming with us to the other arcade. Even my memory of this embarrassing moment is lacklustre. I remember what we tried to play, I remember someone working there saying something along the lines of "oh you can't use that card here", I remember crying out of embarrassment. I'm not "reliving" the embarrassment, I just know the fact that I was embarrassed. All other details are gone.

Another thing from just yesterday. My brother was asking me about the time I went to Funfields, specifically if there were any food stalls. I couldn't tell him because my memory of my trip to Funfields is just, "it was related to my taekwondo lessons. I got lost and ended up with the wrong group." That is literally it. I don't know what ANYTHING looked like. I don't know ANY of what I did. The entire trip is summed up in those two sentences for me. No visuals, no sensations, no emotions.

A lot of expensive trips end up like that for me. I know the fact they happened and maybe one or two specific details and that's it. My trip to Disneyland is just, "I insisted on going on one ride, I acted brave but was shaking when we came out. My mum bought me a mickey ears headband that we forgot at the hotel." I know that the ride I mentioned was in a dark room with projections, but that's the extent of what I can describe. I don't remember any other rides. I don't remember any sounds, smells, sights, anything. Just a couple vague facts.

Comparing my memory to friends and family really shows how lacking mine is. My parent can give these long detailed stories from her childhood of things she did with her friends, and I know I spent time with friends plenty as a kid but I cannot describe anything with the same amount of detail. Dozens of trips to friends houses and sleepovers all blend together and I'm seriously struggling to pick out specific things we might've done. Like seriously I'm racking my brain here and all I can say is that we used to stay up watching shows and we played Just Dance one time. This is years worth of visiting these friends. That's all I can remember of it.

Kinda makes me feel like a bad friend y'know? Years of friendships all blurred together and mostly forgotten. People tend to remember more of me than I do about them.

[chibishortdeath]

I got a new sketchbook since I filled one recently :3c. Shout out to suddenly getting a ton of energy and drawing bizarre fanart at 1 am 💀💀💀.

I’m putting the more violent ones under a cut even if the post is already tw tagged because of the subject matter being a bit dark d(^^ ).

Along with explanations for all of them of course!

⚠️tw for self harm and burning past this point⚠️

First one (before the cut) is just some pose practice. Simon’s just sitting, all sad and mopey. There’s also a little chibi doodle of him in the bottom corner and a little pose armature in the top corner for a pose I didn’t even end up drawing whoops lol. I feel like I drew his face a little differently than I usually do in this one :O. Idk how that happened lol.

This one is to show the differences in anatomy between each game! The curse takes a lot out of him, poor guy, so he’s a bit less jacked than usual 😔. Well, more specifically he doesn’t have as much of a layer of protective fat anymore. And he’s also very tired :(. But yeah, this is just a reference I’ll look back at to keep this detail consistent! I was going to put scar reference on it too, but I completely forgot and eh it mighta made it kinda hard to make out anyway d(- - ).

I drew this side profile of Simon while watching a video talking about lost media stuff. I think the image I based it on was something Saki Sanobashi related, idk I just liked the vibes of the hair being blown back by wind and got inspired :). And yes I know that Saki is probably a hoax 💀💀💀💀💀, I didn’t have much interest in it tho tbh, besides just hoping something lost gets found in general. Lost media videos are honestly great for putting on as background noise when drawing :)

Simon is totally me when I have a crisis and cover my face with my hands, but make sure one eye is visible and miraculously out of shadow for dramatic effect!!!

Ok spookier stuff time, first of the below the cut drawings. This one is based on how sometimes vampires are depicted as being able to drain someone from long distances or beyond the grave. Dracula is mean, and Simon is suffering from the curse, the usual. Augh I actually need to do things cause I keep thinking of a cool scene of Simon having a weird Dracula nightmare and then waking up to see it wasn’t a dream, and that’s tropey as hell, but it’s spooky!!! Do you see my vision?

This is a depiction of like what happens with a game over or something :O. Like an absolute worst possible outcome: Simon dies and Dracula is unsealed and fully regenerated. I basically just took is Simon’s Quest design and then rehydrated it and tada, Dracula is no longer a skeleton— He ends up looking way more like Vlad the Impaler in this outfit hmmm. Also, unrelated, but a friend of mine mistook Dracula for Jesus in this drawing 💀💀💀.

Oh boy, edgy depictions of uh a lot of not being very kind to yourself themes. Idk how else to describe this one other than ya know when you get really mad at your past self for making a mistake or the wrong decision that you could’ve only known about in hindsight? Also in part the fear of actually becoming a vampire at the end of all of this? And I guess a bit of feeling like it’s your own fault, you’re the one that keeps shooting yourself in the foot, but I feel like he’d also attribute getting hit by Dracula in the first place as his fault too… hmm just a lot of very sad things going on, this one was definitely a later 1 am time drawing, maybe 1:40 or something. I think what I draw at night is further proof to not trust you when you’re tired; I get weirdly existential at night and then it’s totally fine in the morning. Simon! Just sleep! Stop overthinking!!! You’ll be ok!!!

This one I debated putting up at all cause it’s graphic and not finished (TwT ;). But it was a rare drawing of Simon smiling that didn’t look uncanny, which is kinda ironic because Simon this is not the time to be smiling—! That is also wayyy too far for just the Dracula ritual, you really only need a tiny amount to open the seal, but I’ll cut him some slack cause he is a bit at wits end by this point. I’d say maybe he’s smiling because he thinks he finally won, but tbh I thought of it more like when things are just so bad you start laughing. Like Dracula just rose from the altar and the morbid irony of it all is just so absurd, the irony that you did everything right and fought tooth and nail (Dracula’s to be exact lol) to stop it and here it is happening anyway. I wanna give this guy a weighted blanket and a bowl of warm soup—

These last two are based on what could’ve happened to him. The Grey ending is pretty much usually considered the “worst”, but they’re all nearly interchangeable, especially in the Japanese version. For example: the western release really makes the Blue ending seem like he died and didn’t kill Dracula, but it’s a lot more that he just died doing it in the original, which is to say that it’s kinda like the Grey ending just with a different eulogy— Anyway, the Grey ending is the only one that doesn’t show Simon at Dracula’s grave, so I’ve always taken it as he didn’t make it out of the castle basement. And well, setting Dracula on fire is a pretty common way to kill him so uh um, R.I.P. I’ve got a couple ideas for alternate comic endings to say the least. I might honestly just depict all of them and leave it entirely up to the reader which one happened because it doesn’t change much— Though this also has me thinking of how him surviving would work now. The curse would definitely have left some lasting effects, you don’t just magically stop having been rotted, sleep deprived, and whatever else it did. Idk I picture him being like Renfield levels of lost it afterwards if that makes sense… that could also be a pretty solid explanation for why his story isn’t told correctly and the cycle repeats with Maxim later; it’d be a pretty traumatic thing to talk about tbh. Ok but yappersvile over, next doodle 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀

Aside from the burnt doodle that’s uh same explanation as the above (R.I.P.), the other two are just a little head angle and expression practice and one tiny one towards the top that’s Dracula being all spooky ghost vampire, but I didn’t like how it was looking and gave up on it 💀💀💀. It’s very hard to draw a vampire attacking someone and not have it look kinda awkward or unreadable. Tbh I struggle putting two characters in one image anyway because I have to draw the anatomy lines for both of them and they end up getting really hard to tell apart when one is behind another, one character suddenly isn’t proportional compared to the other, or you find out one of them isn’t tall enough for the pose you had in mind (>~< ). So anyway Dracula was accidentally way too short all of a sudden and I couldn’t figure out how to draw his torso without making a completely incomprehensible blob behind Simon oof.

Okie, it’s lunch time, bye :3!

[dandylovesturtles]

For the writing meme: 11, 16, 24

11. Link your three favorite fics right now

AH NO questions like this are so hard... ok I'll do my favorite completed and my favorite ongoing that I'm subbed to.

I'm basing this on how much I reread them lol

Completed:

who're you hiding - Leo gets sick and hangs out in Donnie's lab.

all the things that I could live without - Disaster Twins post-movie recovery fic.

Panic Buttons - Leo has a panic attack and Raph helps him (cw that the panic attacks depicted are very graphic)

Ongoing:

The Old College Try - Disaster Twins go to college.

Three-Sided Coin - Three Leos from three different points in the timeline get transported to an alternate dimension (I think??).

call me here (I will appear) - Leo dies in the Prison Dimension and comes back to his family as a ghost.

Bonus (some favorite fics not from ROTTMNT):

Poor Wayfaring Stranger (Final Fantasy XV) - AU where Cor finds MT!Prompto and brings him back to Insomnia to take care of him. Idk how else to describe this fanfiction. It's one of the best pieces of writing I've ever read. It basically reconfigured my brain.

ikanaide (Project Sekai) - Tsukasa gets sick and his friends take care of him.

(do you take this jerk to be) your one and only (ATLA) - AU where Zuko is engaged to Yue and Sokka does not like that (though his reasons change over the course of the fic, if you know what I mean).

(putting the rest of my answers under the cut because this got long lol)

16. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Share one of them?

OH GOD SO MANY they basically don't stop.

Of the ones I feel confident I will write at some point, there are... 5 I think. 100ft is one of them so I won't talk too much about that.

The other chapter fic I want to write is my take on the "save everyone in the doomed timeline" style fic, and I've talked about it before. I've been tentatively calling it "Donnie and Mikey's Step-by-Step Guide to Saving Your Doomed Family," or just "Step-by-Step Guide" and, like I've said, it's intended to be heavily B Team focused.

The idea came from my interest in the time between the end of the Season 2 finale and the start of the movie, a time where Leo and Raph fought a lot and Donnie and Mikey had to lean on each other. They've always been close but in the movie they're downright clingy, with Donnie reflexively tucking Mikey under his arm or holding on to him in so many scenes, and like a lot of other people I interpret this as a consequence of Raph and Leo's fighting and the tension it created in their dynamic. But I also kinda shy away from that actual time period, because if you stay canon compliant with the movie it's kinda hard to have an actual resolution to that tension without overwriting it some way. And I know some writers thrive in that limbo, but I am not one of those people haha. It's just not something I'm personally interested in writing myself.

So this fic will be set in the immediate aftermath of the film, where things are kinda resolved but not really because Leo and Raph are still too seriously injured to have an actual conversation, and Mikey and Donnie are still left in uncertainty of what their sibling bond will look like when all is said and done.

And what better way to distract yourself from the growing tension in your own family than by involving yourself in someone else's problems - specifically the problems of yourselves from a doomed future?

I'm really excited about it... whenever I get to it haha.

24. Worst writing advice anyone ever gave you?

I caaan't remember if I've told this story here but if I have I'll just tell it again lol

I grew up in a really small rural town that happened to have a very small private college in it (the entire campus could have fit in the commuter parking lot of the state college I went to). Every now and then this college would host some kind of speaker or a workshop that was open to the public, and this was a big thing because my town didn't get a lot of that kind of thing coming through it. One of these workshops was hosted by a published author, and it was a class for beginning fiction writers. I was around 17 or 18 at the time, and me and two of my other friends (who also wanted to be professional writers one day) were very excited to sign up.

I mean, I can't stress to you guys how hype we were for this. You'd think we had backstage tickets to a Lady Gaga concert. But our town didn't have a lot of people you could talk to about this kind of thing. Getting advice from someone who had actually gotten their books bought and published by an actual publishing house was a big deal to us.

So we get to the workshop. We're the only teenagers there, but we weren't worried about that. We were the nerds in high school, we were used to this. We all sit down in the same row, pencils and notebooks ready to go. Ready for wisdom!

She asked the group to give a short, punchy summary for a story idea we each had. Like the straight A students we were, my friends and I all put our hands up first. She called on me, and I rattled off my back-of-the-book style summary for something I wanted to write, a fantasy novel about dragons and swords (I was a dragon girl).

I remember she gave me this nasty look and said, "Oh, you're one of those."

She preceded to go into a prolonged rant about how genre fiction is pointless; how there's nothing redeemable about fantasy worlds, how it's empty-calorie entertainment, the potato chips of the literary world. Books, she said, are supposed to be about real things. Contemporary and historical fiction were the only worthy genres in this woman's mind.

I don't remember a lot of the advice that came after that, I just remember sitting in my chair feeling dejected and stupid.

I think about that sometimes, and how one person can be so wrong. Genre fiction may be set in fantasy worlds or sci-fi futures, but it's still about real things. Real emotions and real struggles and real philosophical questions. If you cut yourself off from fantasy and sci-fi just because it deals with unreal or theoretical concepts, you cut yourself off from a broad spectrum of human self-expression.

Anyway, she may have sold a few historical fiction novels but I have 250K hits on AO3 so who's laughing now, lady

[alyjojo]

New Year Reading for 2024! 🌟 - Virgo

Preshuffle: There’s a feeling of trepidation with your reading, and your years feel split. 2023 was part 1, and then 2024 is part 2, an end to something, I heard “finale” or “finality”, both, either. For some this is in direct connection with the law. Some of you may be finalizing a divorce, a lawsuit, some may be caught up in court proceedings (whether your own or someone else’s). Some of you may be up for Jury Duty (if in US), and some may just be intensely political or involved with the law in some way. For most I don’t get it’s by choice. You’ve been expecting to hear news before you actually will, and by the time you will, you’ll be pretty grumpy about it. Something has been delayed or has taken an unnecessarily long time. A water sign may be the one actually delivering the news to you, who it’s regarding, or this could be something that’s close to your heart and you’ve felt on pins & needles waiting for red tape and whatever is out of your hands to once again, be back in your lane of control. Some of your experiences will be more toxic than others, The Devil is attached to this, and through much of last year, you could’ve felt like your hands were tied.

Meditation: Not a fan of this one but maybe it’ll resonate. You were an investigator of some kind - or Dr. Who? - “you” were played by Matt Smith 😆. I’ve never even seen Dr. Who, not one episode, so idk if he deals with murders or what he/they do. You left a door labeled 2023, heaved a sigh, wiped your forehead, straightened your jacket, and confidently marched into 2024. Right into an active crime scene. By the time I entered the room, you were labeling gory crime scene things all over the room with numbers, up to 20+ numbers, labeling evidence. A single bullet hole in the wall is what you were fixated on. Was the killer even in the room? The only thing between this room and the next, a long distance from this one, was drywall & insulation, no entrances or exits. I don’t know if any of those details matter, with you guys…details matter, I am a little shook by this vision. Why *this* lane? You were trying to figure out how a disaster had occurred, tracing every step, doing what investigators do. It was just so detailed…felt important, and the jarring shock of an active crime scene jolted me, not you. You acted like you do this everyday. First card out to describe you being King of Swords…makes sense. Detached. Working. Busy. Intelligent. It didn’t bother you at all.

🔸 Whole of Your Energy: King of Swords, 3 Cups & Justice

Regarding: Ace of Pentacles rev

This definitely fits with those of you dealing with court cases or anything legal. 3 Cups is celebrating, even if you’re losing some money with Ace of Pentacles rev. You’re going to be happy with the outcome, either because it goes in your favor or just because it’s done. Eventually. Whatever it is, will be different for everyone. Justice is a final decision being made, King of Swords with this can be a lawyer or judge. Seems to be your energy. Emotionally detached, intelligent, only focused on what’s *right* and what’s *wrong*, and what the most fair & balanced decision to make regarding that is. If there are no legal cases, then that’s just you, and that was the energy you had in the meditation. It came off as cold, calculated, extremely detailed and focused, intelligent & mentally quick. BUSY, very busy, 2 Pentacles shows you being extremely busy learning - Page of Swords. Some of you could literally be studying law or criminal justice, and the loss of money is going towards school, that’s reflected in the single’s row too. Outside of this oddly specific story, you’re extremely busy, could be pretty detached from everyone. Family, friends, lovers, for the most part there’s a solo energy…and you are The Hermit. But you’re busy too, and busy *thinking*, all of the energy for you is showing up as logic, intelligence, and learning learning learning. Rabbit holes may be your friend this year, your mind is attuned to figure things out. It’s possible you’re missing an opportunity with a friend, could be job related, because you don’t feel like you know enough, or you literally don’t - you need a degree in something you don’t have, passing it by purposely. Or canceling on some event, which must be a big deal to be in the main energy. Even if you’re not spending time with people, there’s a lot of communication here, you’re not keeping people in the dark. You’re just *busy*.

🔸 Character Card: The Pilgrim 💡

Walking a cobblestone path at night, The Pilgrim is wise and tired, he’s been walking so long he doesn’t remember where he’s even been. Or where he’s going. The road is very long and there are countless lessons and blessings along the way, but The Pilgrim doesn’t really stop to appreciate them when they do come. The rewards are in the journey itself, not the destination. There will always be another destination, enjoy the present ❤️

🔸 Relationship: Strength & The Hermit

Regarding: Temperance

Some of you could feel alone even within a relationship, for many it’s your own doing. You could prefer that, you both have your own beds, bedrooms, “caves”, hobbies, there’s a lot of separateness here, but it’s the relationship row - you do have one. Doesn’t seem like it. A lot of you are simply holding back from ending something - because you don’t want to be alone (but you kinda do). But you also don’t want to be fully committed either. Marriage? Joint finances? No thanks 💯 Temperance here is an energy of coasting along, not choosing either side, not committing to anything really, essentially what The Pilgrim is telling you to do. Enjoying the moment. You are, at least in relationships, but is that for your own purposes or is this mutually agreed upon…idk.

Some of you could be married, and are financially tied to someone, and you hold on for that reason. Not all, but some. Religious beliefs, feeling established, age perhaps, there are other reasons why you’d rather just stick it out than start all over. Money is a big one. Or it’s possible your person is like this, not you, and they’re stingy…with money, commitment, taking you or this seriously, you could’ve been waiting forever yet still feel alone. I don’t get sadness though, just Temperance. Waiting for things to change, enjoying the moment, being patient, ironing out differences, a little bit here and a little bit there as best as you can. Sometimes you’re alone. Sometimes you’re with them. There is no clear definition of your relationship though, whatever it is, it just “is”. There is a small portion here going through divorce or separation - heavy legal energy, and if so you’re being patient. Kind even, there’s no toxicity with this, some of you are learning to co-parent and actually handling this very well - for being a difficult situation. If you’re maintaining a relationship with the ex (forced or not), it’s a healthy one, bravo 👏

🔸 Singles: The Hierophant & The Star rev

Regarding: The Emperor

I don’t see anyone with real potential coming in this year - at least for the majority. Knight of Swords clarifies, showing it’s possible you’re talking to some, communication is here too, but they’re followed by Strength & 8 Swords, that communication will probably stop whether it’s because of you or others. I’ve reached for the character deck twice to get a “maybe” someone and heard “no” each time. Okay then. Some of you could be going to counseling, The Star rev can indicate depression, the last person could’ve really put you though the ringer and you need time & space to really sort yourself out. Sending you a lot of love ❤️

Those of you splitting up from a marriage, this year or last, have no desire. Zero. Until the split is entirely done, I don’t see you even entertaining the idea, and then after idk, not this year. Some of you are simply in school, have a job that keeps you busy, or a boss that has you on call 24/7, there is no leeway in your life or room for anything new, as far as you’re concerned. And you’re crystal clear about it, even if you’re talking to people you’re very upfront about where you stand on relationships, commitment, and where your time is going, because you don’t have a lot. Some of you are looking for “an Emperor” and just aren’t finding one of those wherever you are, it’s all clowns 🤡 in this city, but you won’t settle for anything less than what you want. For someone it’s possible you’re obsessed with your actual boss, also reflected in the career area, and you’re holding on to that rather than exploring other potential options. I’m not sure if you’ve told them or not, or if they’re open to it. For Spirit to refuse me a card to describe even them, I don’t get them as a serious player in the long game yanno? That could be a message in itself.

Singles Oracle:

31 Communication

The clarity, interactivity, and timing of communications is crucial.

🔸 Career: Death & The Devil

Regarding: Knight of Cups

Some of you are obsessed with work because you’re obsessed with someone AT work, and it’s something that will inevitably end. You could also be the one being obsessed over, and it makes you uncomfortable. Either way, love interests and entanglements at work can cause problems for you, some of you may end up leaving altogether, or the “problem” does. 4 Cups is here showing at least one side of this just does not care, they don’t choose this, don’t want this, and they’re going to end it one way or another. From the larger perspective of all sides, it’s possible there’s a sexual harassment case going on (could be that “law” energy from earlier) or even discrimination or some kind. Devil energy at work, related to romance. I’m not sure where you fit in this. You may be on the outside of some major drama at work, and not even give a damn like you are here for the MONEY, can y’all grow tf up please?

Some of you have been pushing really hard for something, a raise, a promotion, recognition for everything you do, you could go above and beyond for this place and feel snubbed. It’s possible there’s an opportunity somewhere else for what you want, and you’ll tell this current place sayonara ✌️ Some of you are the bosses having to play judge & jury to some major drama going down at work, could be related to a romance. Or an age difference, all levels of ick issues, I don’t like legal implications with The Devil and age issues, I’m just gonna leave that there, take or leave it. Don’t do anything unwise or unlawful, that really applies to all of you, you’re likely to get caught…or be the one catching someone, especially at work. Investigator mode 👀 Some of you have obsessive love thoughts, daydreaming and fantasies, that you aren’t recognizing your work for the opportunity it is to disengage from all that. You may not care. There’s an unsettled feeling with you no matter which lane you’re in, not unhappy but not happy, not present but right there, not interested but *wanting*. Swords energy is here to help you cut through all of that. What’s fair, what’s balanced, what do you actually want, definitions of things instead of murky “bleh” towards everything…but obsessive thoughts about it too. Anything/everything. Especially career, either in action or thoughts. Or at work, you’re obsessively thinking of love.

Career Oracle:

02 Push

Don’t feel inadequate; forget how to quit. Push on, no matter how things look.

🔸 What needs to be left behind in 2023: 7 Pentacles & 8 Pentacles rev

Regarding: The Tower

Difficult energy to describe. It’s like you wait for disasters to happen before you put any effort into a situation. The example I’m getting is someone who always assumes things are going to fail, so they don’t put any effort into them, and when it inevitably fails (because - no effort), they’re like “told you so”, and then abandon the issue altogether because they always knew this would happen - without taking any accountability for their (lack) of effort, attention, planning, etc. Like putting a seed in the ground with no prep effort and acting like you knew it wouldn’t grow, when it didn’t. Well, of course not, you have to start it inside, grow a root, start it a little pot, let it grow & then transfer it outside. Seed in hole doesn’t always work - sometimes it does but for the sake of argument let’s assume all your seeds are not those seeds. You’re more eager to leave a situation and prove others “wrong” on something, than take accountability and put in the work to make things work…then if they fail anyway it’s not *actually* your problem to then avoid, you can feel secure knowing you did all you could. Whew. Hopefully that makes sense 😥 Let that go & instead give your life and everything in it - its best chance to flourish, grow, and succeed. You want to win, not lose, and this vindictive 5 Swords when you lose…you’re only hurting yourself, it’s self sabotaging behavior.

222 is here as a message that while you constantly go back and forth on issues, the only option that needs to be cut off (Justice) is the option to give up or quit. You always think that’s an option and you shouldn’t.

4444 is showing you needing to step up in regards to your single life, options around you, what you actually want. You make the rules here and those rules & expectations need to be communicated to other people - or they to you in some cases. You’re done with 4 Cups, being treated as an option, not being chosen, not being celebrated, or someone is done with that same behavior from you. 4 Cups is always bored, apathetic, disinterested, can’t be pleased. Could be love or career, it bleeds into both, different for all. If you’re crushing on someone at work, they may need to get quite stern before you get the hint, or switch that. Genuinely don’t care 💯

8888 are actions necessary for the self, you, and Strength is here twice, mostly in love. Either these are very difficult situations you’re working through or you’re holding back from giving yourself at all - ultimately leading to the demise of connections/potential. No effort, no nurturing, no communication even. With all of this Swords energy, whatever is ending here is due to lack of effort, and you’re being asked to leave this behavior behind, where you’re the one doing it. Cutting this off altogether if it’s someone else, you deserve more than that. Some of you may literally not be working and your issues are mostly due to that, and you could be sabotaging yourself in this way, by putting it off. Time gaps & such in a resume.

Astrological Shifts in 2023 (for Risings):

Jan 01 - Mercury direct in Sag

Jan 21 - Pluto enters Aqu (again) - 6th House 🤒🐶

Feb 14 - Mars conj. Pluto Aquarius - 6th House 🤒🐶 - likely intense, powerful, & transformative, possible power struggles with coworkers, getting a lot done during this time 💯 smashing tasks like a beast, could be making more of an effort towards your health & wellness, transforming your diet, be careful you’re not the controlling one especially at work, for the obsession story it could reach a peak here

Mar 09 - Mars Aqua squares Uranus Tau at 5:55 P.M. - likely a day of conflict - 6th 🤒🐶 vs. 9th 😇 could show some kind of information coming in that contradicts what you’re doing, like if you’re going vegan, research regarding the nutrients you’re missing/needing, there’s a need to be more informed about whatever you’re doing, but whatever you learn could annoy or contradict you

Mar 21 - Venus conj Saturn Pis - love & boundaries go hand in hand

Mar 25 - Lunar Eclipse in Lib - 2nd 💰

Apr 01 - Mercury retrogrades Ari - 8th ☠️ not a good time to sign contracts, commit to anything long term, get married, could have issues with other people’s money/assets, especially if this relates to your job

Apr 08 - Solar Eclipse in Ari - continued lessons from the nodes throughout this year, issues between masculine/feminine likely, father/mother, action/reception, others/self

Apr 24 - Mercury direct

May 18 - Venus conj Uranus & Sun conj Jupiter, all in Taurus - 9th 😇 a fortunate placement regarding education, law, travel, and all things spiritual, you could be hearing or learning about something that is beneficial for you, possibly even financially, with Venus & Taurus involved

May 25 - Jupiter enters Gem - 10th 🔨, positive energy regarding your work, reputation, authority figures, and your father, this may be an abundant time for you, possible promotions, bonuses and opportunities for growth & expansion, this area of life is mostly lucky for you - depending on aspects

May 29 - Mars conj Chiron Ari @ 22’ - 8th ☠️ addressing pain related to death, endings, transformations, joint finances/assets, inheritances & wills or investments

June 29 - Lilith enters Lib - 2nd 💰 Only felt with close aspects, or synastry, may be a source of contention in the home, regarding a home, self esteem & values, or personal finances & assets, this can be an energy of spending to impress or “flex” on people, or feeling triggered based on material things, self conscious or insecure behavior, be careful you don’t act out of shadow in this way. You/them. Being in the house of personal values, you may value others with a sort of “vixen” quality to them, very sexual, rather than something with long lasting, especially for the men with this transit.

July 06 - Venus Can square Chiron Ari - 11th 🤝 vs. 8th ☠️ - issues with friendships, social media, groups of people, especially related to finances, borrowed money perhaps, having to share resources in some way or being/feeling judged, feeling unworthy, a particular friendly connection may need to go, or just does and it’s out of your control, you could miss friends that are gone or realize things are different now

Aug 04 - Mercury retrogrades Vir-Leo - 1st 🫵 & 12th 😵‍💫 this is a time of nostalgia, reflection, processing emotions, you may be reminded of the past or old wounds/experiences resurface, doesn’t have to be bad, old contacts may get in touch, or you could have crazy dreams, spiritual signs, could be positive

Aug 19 - Venus Vir opposes Saturn Pis & Jupiter Gem squares both - T square of 1st 🫵, 7th ❤️, and 10th 🔨 could see an argument going down publically or one where other people know/are involved, a workplace romance could cause issues or make itself known, you may get especially irritated with those you work with or be dealing with an “enemy” there

Aug 27 - Mercury direct Leo

Sept 01 - Pluto enters Cap (last time) - 5th 🎉

Sept 16 - Venus Lib opposes Chiron Ari @ 22’ - 2nd 💰 vs. 8th ☠️ - not a fan of the degree being 22’, involves or addresses pain regarding finances 💯 you could feel attacked in some way or are especially vicious in response to some wound surrounding a home, money, possessions, self worth, yours vs mine, there may be some painful power dynamics and control issues surrounding a marriage or financial agreements of some kind, there’s a petty/control sort of energy going on with this

Sept 17 - Partial Lunar Eclipse Pis - 7th ❤️, preparing for the nodes to shift next year

Oct 02 - Solar Eclipse Lib - 2nd 💰

Nov 19 - Pluto enters Aqu (for good) - 6th 🤒🐶

Nov 25 - Mercury retrogrades Sag - 4th 🏡 issues surrounding family may pop up at this time, or you may get nostalgic and spend more time with them, going back to “the good old days” for a spell, it’s good for the soul

Dec 06 - Mars retrogrades Leo - 12th 😵‍💫 a time of reflection, meditation, calm, processing all you’ve been through and sorting through your own emotions - likely a needed break

Dec 15 - Mercury direct Sag

Dec 24 - Jupiter Gem squares Saturn Pis - 10th 🔨 vs. 7th ❤️ again an issue of coworkers, career, authority figures, everyone involved with work, or possibly a father figure, causing some sort of upheaval in your life, or you’re just especially irritated/touchy with these right now…you seem to get breaks in between frustrations, and they’re necessary…Jupiter is good fortune, you may have to work unexpectedly, but maybe for double time or some kind of perk, it could be positive. If you’re seeing someone at work, schedules could be conflicted or you may not want to meet the family just yet, particularly a father.

[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!

[ps-dane]

RIGHT

It so fucking infuriating when someone racewashes a character because they think they have some kind or stereo type or are "coded"

Like gender or sexuality are one thing so long as you don't try to claim it's canon when it's not confirmed officially

But when it comes to a characters damned skintone ESPECIALLY when the character isn't even human, it's just a bunch of racist trash. Even if done by black people.

There this one Asian character I like that's actually tan. They are literally just a tanned Asian character. But so many people claim they are "black-coded" or just straight up black because they can't seem to understand that Asians can be tanned. (and then there's those that think Asians can't be pale and must have a yellow skintone)

And it's not even just her skin. She has a "rock and roll" aesthetic, which BTW that music genre apparently come from the worlds equivalent of France so idk why they see so hung up on realism in that Fandom anyway. So she has this "scary appearance" that so many fans like to blame on her skin or think the game devs are being racist for describing her as "scary" when she has dark skin. But it's all because of her dress and make up. Like she's a tanned Asian woman they aren't scared of her because she has darker skin. Best part is that her clothes are still made like they are from her country just with a rock and roll aesthetic. She has an Asian name, lived in her worlds equivalent of a specific east Asian country. In the English dub she has a very American southern country accent. But that's literally just localization because if her English VA tried to do the Asian equivalent of an country accent it wouldn't make sense to English speakers. In her proper language she doesn't have that American country accent. She sounds how she's supposed to.

(I'm trying not to give away who she is too much)

And there's so much to her design that alot of black people try to claim is "African this" or "black coded that" and it so fucking annoying how little they know of anyone else's culture LET ALONE THEIR OWN since they can't even tell the difference between their culture and the one she's inspired by.

There is just so much wrong with racewashes and blackwashers especially I honestly don't even know what to do at this point.

They care so much about "representation" but they choose to do it in the most disgusting and disrespectful way. A way that was used against them but they seem to think it's okay for them to do because they have a victim complex.

Sorry for the rant this stuff just literally makes me so mad.

MY FIRST ANON ASK !!!

I don't have anything to add to this, but I'm not gonna let this rot in my inbox, since I agree with it so hard.

[buffintruder]

from the ask game: 6, 10 and 11!

Thank you!! From this ask game

6. Do you have your work beta'd? How important is this to your process?

I think it's usually important, but not essential. If I have a friend in the fandom who is up for it, I'll probably ask them to beta like 80-90% of what I write in that fandom. But I've posted many fics (probably more than half? I'm not sure) without a beta. There are some fics where I'm really uncertain about something and I will really want someone else to go over it to tell me if it's actually a problem or not, and if so what exactly is off about it.

But usually I think, it's mostly just nice for me to be able to talk about my fic with someone, both to get ideas and stuff but also just for fun.

10. Cltr+f "blinks" on your WIP & copy paste the first sentence/paragraph that comes up

"Manga is art," Sonoza said.  Sonoi blinked. "Is it?"

From my Donbrothers fic where a nonhuman guy tries to understand how art and emotions tie together, along with his friends girl who is obsessed with understanding love and guy who is obsessed with manga (also his rival who is the sun to his moon and the sky to his sea)

11. Link your three favorite fics right now

Okay I have a very specific list of 3 fics that make me feel certain emotions I can't get elsewhere, and idk if all three of them are really my most favorite fics, but they do go as a set so I'm reccing them together (even though once I started looking through my bookmarks to find these fics, I kept finding more fics that are so so so good and I would be here all day if I didn't stick to this trio)

Cornstalk Fiddle by notbecauseofvictories

I rec this to literally everyone because I think it is one of the top 10 works of fiction in general that I have encountered. It's a fic of the song The Devil Went Down to Georgia (so very little context necessary) and it's a really really beautifully written story about music and hope and life, and also a very human person falling in love with the very inhuman Devil

We Must Tend our Garden by DesdemonaKaylose

This is a Small Gods post-canon Discworld fic about the god Om being in love with his head priest Brutha. The dialogue and narration feel very Discworld while also having a sort of peacefulness and heartbreaking yearning that isn't really Terry Pratchett's thing, and it works together so well.

Of Uruk by electrumqueen

This is a pre-canon Bartimaeus fic and idk exactly how to describe it. It's basically a character study between the djinni Bartimaeus and a boy he once loved, Ptolemy, though 5 different scenarios where over the course of them knowing each other Bartimaeus tells Ptolemy his "origin story" (different from his story of being created), each with varying amounts of truth to them. It's just such a good story about names and the way other people in the past and present can shape you and how you tell a story impacts it but also what it says about you and your audience, and I wish Bartimaeus was a more popular series just so they could read this fic (that's a lie, I think it the series should be popular for it's own merit, but anyway)

[chocolatey-umbreon]

TMA Season 5 Live Blog

Episode 171 - The Gardener

I despise Jared Hopworth’s voice SO much I want to chew glass whenever I hear it. But I have to endure. Fine. At least this time it’s not the whole episode.

I really really like how this one is done, despite hating the actual descriptions, in the way that they’re supposed to be hated, I guess. There’s so much to the Flesh. They said it coles from this animalistic fear that when mixed with modern humans’ things get weird. And they do. So it’s great that they set this main topic of being distressed with your own body and explore it so deeply and with so much detail. The notes describe very specific points which makes them so poignant, but at the same time, especially considering all the flowers, they all make up for a very broad range to find meaning. I like how it’s separated to really dissect each little piece, which become even clearer when you compare and contrast each part.

For example, the difference between the first flower, that constantly feels like is not enough and has to be more so it grows as much as possible, and the second, that instead feels like it has to be less, so it stays as small and fragile as possible without crumbling. The difference between those two that want to be more for the sake of being more or less for the sake of being less, and the third that is neither but instead wants to be just right in a way that’s not only unattainable but also impossible to preserve. They seek symmetry but it doesn’t come with the stability and equilibrium that’s usually associated with it. So it does have that same fear and despair in common with the others. And the difference between the Rose and the Lily, with how the Rose wants to be less but wants to be seen and wants to be perceived as beautiful, while the Lily needs to straight up disappear.

I like the remark with the Lily of the Damned that implies how being uncomfortable in one’s body doesn’t always have to be about its appearance. Just its presence, the fact that you can feel it and that it takes up space can be enough.

On the second listen this one reminded me of a day when I was in high school. It’s going to sound like a stupid example but it’s meaningful enough for me. The english teacher wanted us to get in pairs to discuss what we had done as homework, but first, I hadn’t done the assignment, and second, I didn’t know most of the kids in the classroom. I have social anxiety and it was at its worst in high school when everything was different from before (I went to the same small school from preschool to middle school). We had these rolling chairs that were easy to move around. So I stayed in my seat, panicking, as everyone else rolled to pair up and as the teacher asked me a couple times to just find someone, but I didn’t even have the courage to tell her why I couldn’t. After I had waited too long, I just remember her smiling, grabbing my chair, pulling it and pushing it in front of someone I had never seen before and then leaving. She was so proud of herself that she had solved the problem. In the end I think I tried to do whatever discussion we had to but eventually I just ran out the room and went to cry in the bathroom.

So when Jon talks about the gardener pulling the poor plant up into the open air I just. I get it.

And the whole Idea of the Gardener. Like, in previous episodes they’ve been like “oh this is this guy’s domain” and like yeah they’re the avatars supervising the place and such but. idk the idea that they actually owned it felt a little empty. Except for the landlord in Fire Escape —which I did mention in my post about that episode, how he did, like, represent Something within the fear itself—, and the Gardener here. He’s not just there. He loves his creations and he’s making sure they’re growing how he wants them to, enriching their environment with the proper conditions of insecurity and anxiety. Because this kind of distress is honed by an external agent, a person or a group of people or a god or anything, whose validation you’re desperate for. And it sucks that they impose those terrible feelings on you but also they do do it out of love and you do know that. You know it enough to actually feel kind of bad when Jared says goodbye to the plants. I just think it’s great.

I also think it’s great how there’s a similarity with the Archivist pointed out. He watches and soaks up on all these people’s fear, and he enjoys it. But he is, or at least pretends to be, no more than a passive observer. He wouldn’t be the one to actually tend to the garden would he? 👀

At the end once again it’s brought up this distinction Jon has to make when he decides how deserving of death he considers each character. It’s interesting how he chooses. Obviously it never was about doing good. But who is it really helping to actually pick and smite only some of them?

[moo-nstone]

ASTRO OBSERVATIONS [part 5]

— people with jupiter in the 8th may experience an “abundance” of traumatic experiences throughout life, often relating to death; these are the people who truly feel like everyone they love ends up dying. at their worst, they can become desensitized to death— jupiter is ruled by sagittarius, a sign known for being in denial when in difficult situations in favor of optimism. these natives can pretend like nothing actually happened, or minimize the situation in their head so that they don’t have to face it.

— okay this might be a weird one... like, you know in asoiaf when arya was walking through the streets and was always like “i’m as quiet as a shadow”? that’s literally the energy of someone with planets in the 12th house/chart ruler in the 12th house. these people are so stealthy. they’re able to move so quietly and without anyone noticing, both literally and figuratively. on one hand, they’re very quiet about their plans and ambitions to the point where other people only find out when they’re achieving success over it; on the other hand, they just. don’t like making noise while walking idk bitch you’ll only see me coming when i’m right beside you, i even get paranoid that i’m breathing too loud and that other people will hear 

— people with moon aspecting mars can be incredibly impulsive when they feel hurt or triggered. yall need to be careful with doing things in the heat of the moment that you know you’ll regret later... but in the moment, you feel so hurt that it clouds your rational side. please be more self-aware about this because you may make decisions that will directly affect you for the worse in the future 

— people with leo mars ft. constantly asking you for pictures... about anything. they just wanna SEE LMFAO THEY DON’T CARE WHAT IT IS THEY’RE SEEING. you just got ready to go out? “send pics of your makeup and your full outfit”. you’re waiting in a long boring line to get the covid vaccine? “send pics of the line”. your mom baked cake? “send pics of the cake”. plus they send so many random pictures while texting, it’s their special love language

— having moon conjunct moon/venus in synastry feels insane. you tell them something you’ve been through, and they’re immediately like “that happened with me as well.” it doesn’t even have to be something grand, sometimes just very specific things you thought were particular about you. the amount of understanding that comes with this aspect in synastry can feel very new and intense especially if you’re used to seeing yourself as the “odd one out”, used to feeling isolated in your experiences 

— people with pluto in the 1st house often feel the need to erase “traces” of their existence, for example deleting messages that they sent people, deleting all of their social media posts. they can feel anxious and paranoid about other people having access to their past self, even if the past self in question is from, like. a week ago 

— people with chiron in the water houses (4th/8th/12th) might’ve suffered bullying to the point where they repress their memories. a lot of their memories of their school years may feel foggy if they were bullied in those years

— also. people with chiron in the 8th house may feel as though they’ve been punished for wanting to experience intimacy. it’s like, the people who were supposed to be the closest to them – for example, their sibling or something – were the ones who hurt them the most. 

— people with mercury-neptune aspects and strong pisces/neptune energy in their birth chart might struggle with only remembering things when they’re right in front of them. you should keep things in your peripheral vision to remind you of reality, especially when it comes to feelings— so that you won’t start getting lost inside your own head. like... keep the letters your friends wrote you by your bedside table so you can read them every time your brain starts convincing you that you’re not loved. keep the gifts you’ve been sent on display in your bedroom wall, or sentimental material things that remind you of past happy experiences.

— earth placements and their thing for asmr... omfg. it’s like they’re always looking for things to up their sensory experience/sensitivity. like, earth signs are the ones most connected to worldly experiences so they feel so soothed with the whole asmr experience: just hearing someone gently whispering or tapping on/scratching things calms them down and helps them fall asleep. they love the tingles it’s heaven for them

— moon-saturn aspects might hold and caress themselves while they sleep because their parents never did. yes i woke up and chose violence <3 your secret is NOT safe with me 💋

— while we’re on the topic of sleeping, a majority of the pisces moons i know need to sleep while hugging something, at least a pillow. they can’t just not hug something while they sleep, it’s very instinctive for them. anyways if any pisces moon needs a pillow to hold, i volunteer as tribute 💋

— virgo placements feel sososo soothed by hearing their cats purr. thinking about how my virgo placement friends are always the ones who send me videos of them petting their cats... and then i get soothed by how soothed they feel. it’s a win win situation, if you have virgo placements it’s hereby your duty to send me a video of you petting your cat while they purr. right now. GO

— people with gemini in the 3rd house might have shaky movements of the hands when other people look at them doing things. very specific i know but the third house rules hands and gemini is a sign that has somewhat of an anxious, twitchy quality to it. on the other hand, people with capricorn in the 3rd house (scorpio risings, using whole signs) have the steadiest hands i’ve ever seen lol their movements ooze confidence, these bitches know how to make you feel as thought they know exactly what they’re doing

— people with venus in the 1st house ft. altering their pics with photoshop and hating posting selfies without filters because they never feel like their appearance is good enough. stop it. you don’t need to always look your best and especially not if your ‘best’ isn’t even what you actually look like. also... don’t even think about making self-deprecative jokes about your appearance. next time i find one of yall saying “ahaha im not bad for a 5 without talent” i’m squishing your head between 2 pieces of toast and calling you an idiot sandwich. you’re BEAUTIFUL 

— having venus in the 3rd house in composite with someone? do you mean calling each other the absolute ugliest nicknames in the most endearing way? 

— leo deals with themes of the ego, and it seems that leo placements often struggle with attracting narcissistic people into their life... leo suns/mercuries can be raised by loud, overbearing, narcissistic parents who see their kid as an extension of themselves and who teach the kid to always be very supportive and caring towards them or else they’ll deny them of words of affirmation-- either by insulting them to shatter their self-esteem or simply never complimenting the kid back. leo moons/mars/venus tend to attract narcissistic partners who only care about serving their own emotional needs and ignore the ones of their partner, and who feed off of their supportive and giving nature. which is why leo placements really need to watch out for being gullible, naïve and dismissing the red flags because my god, you be falling for some shady people. 

— people with personal planets in the 12th house/chart ruler in the 12th house might feel like they can’t let go of their past life— they may dream of memories, people or places from another life. it’s like they can’t detach from it, and even if they can’t directly remember their past life, it’s like they feel it in their bones. also, they might’ve felt... estranged from their family ever since childhood; there may have been feelings of being unable to emotionally connect to their (often, distant) parents, and they might’ve even wondered if they were adopted because of how different they felt to the rest of the family. 

— okay so, a thing that people with saturn in the 3rd house need to look out for is mentally checking out of conversations while they’re still happening. these people can detect when they’re being manipulated really fast and their way of dealing with it can be to immediately shut down, to grow cold and silent and not even bother answering when you’re expected to respond. and, like, that’s great when someone starts screaming at you or being insulting/trying to coerce you into shit, but take notice if you find yourself shutting your loved ones out as soon as they say anything that triggers you. don’t simply detach from them, communicate what’s wrong

— aries placements, ESPECIALLY aries suns and moons, value generosity so much and they get so turned off by stingy ppl who don’t share with others, especially when others need it. like.. if you’re hanging out in a group with them and someone asks for a bite of your food because they have no money and you say no... espect them to never respect you. ever. 

— people with libra placements use soooo many adjectives to describe things. something can’t just be beautiful, it has to be DIVINE and CELESTIAL and INTOXICATING. they can be so expressive god it’s so fcking funny 

— capricorn placements HATE asking others for advice because they think no one knows better than them (and they’re not wrong, lol). when they truly care for someone, they might ask the person for advice simply as a sign that they respect, trust and value their judgement. even if they don’t plan on taking it LMFAO 

— people with mars in a water sign can have this terrible habit of expecting other people to guess what they want. and then they get passive agressive when you don’t instinctively feel what it is they want... and when you ask them “do you want this?”, they go like “FINALLY. i thought you’d never get there”. stop it. i know that you want people to understand you in a way that transcends words, but you can’t expect people to read your mind and then get disappointed when they don’t, thinking “oh if they loved me that much then they would’ve known that i really want chipotle for dinner :(” GIRL WHAT. COMMUNICATE YOUR NEEDS