#it’s very unrealistic I know

[somehow-still-here-7]

Here’s the scene.

It’s about maybe half way through season three.

A series of weird and wild and tragic events has led Aziraphale to Crowley.

They are somewhere (I don’t know where yet) Crowley has his back turned to Aziraphale he’s angry rightly so and Aziraphle is distraught. He’s confessing.

Arziraphale: And it was a mistake, a stupid stupid mistake Crowley. I never should have gone and I’m sorry that I left you, I’m sorry that I didn’t understand, but I do now I do and I- (beat) I was wrong.

Silence.

Crowley still with his back turned his head lowered quietly mutters: Do the dance.

Aziraphale voice quivering slightly: pardon?

Crowley lifting his head now back still turned: do the dance

Aziraphale still in shock does not proceed

Crowley whipping around to face Aziraphle finally: I have had nothing to live for. No one to turn too. No one to rely on. I confessed everything and still you left me the LEAST you can do. Is to do. The Dance.

Aziraphle proceeds with the apology dance.

It doesn’t fix much but Crowley is secretly happy that Aziraphle came back.

Thank you.

[galacticlamps]

if i was edwin payne and a giant inter-dimensional ghost-eating mushroom was about to consume me and my bff of 30+ years on the same day i went out of my way to dress up nice because i literally just figured out i was deeply and completely in love with him and despite my 100+ years of edwardian-era repression i already decided i needed to share this information with him as soon as possible because we are indeed that close, and said best friend/love of my life decided to take his hand off the branch/root thing we were clinging to trying not to get swallowed just so he could put his hand over mine for comfort in what even the evil witch attempting to obliterate us felt the need to comment on for being a sweet final moment, i would simply pass away. again.

[brainrot-jikan]

im not the biggest alhaitham/kaveh shipper (because im a rare pair ho) but it seems to me that in alhaitham/kaveh getting-together fics tend to be... unequal.

the beautiful thing about alhaitham and kaveh is that they're both equally right and equally wrong and equally dicks about it. but the writers for alhaitham/kaveh much more frequently seem to give alhaitham the burden change (the burden of the character flaw) instead of kaveh.

in any good character arc, the main character has a fatal flaw or misconception, and by the end of that arc they have addressed that flaw in some definitive way. scrooge was a scrooge and learned that being that way was detrimental; merlin from finding nemo was overprotective to a fault and had to learn that he couldn't (and shouldn't) control everything and to let go; the wolf from little red riding hood learns that you should stop while you're ahead.

stories centering around romance tend to lean heavily on character arcs, which makes sense. and since romance generally requires two individuals to be vulnerable and open and emotional with each other, it makes double sense that alhaitham/kaveh authors zoom straight into alhaitham's lack of emotional vulnerability.

this bothers me.

in society, individuals are expected to experience and present emotions in a specific way. if someone dies, you cry. if someone smiles at you, you smile back. if you're at a party, you're supposed to be having fun. if you don't do these things, you're seen as impolite at best and a inhuman freak at worst. when these behaviors are frequent it's often viewed as emotional immaturity, or a lack of ability to feel at all. the inability or lack of willingness to conform to societies emotional expectations of you is seen as a flaw and a reason for exclusion.

alhaitham is canonically disliked and avoided for being the way he is. he prefers it this way, but that doesn't mean the people perpetuating this avoidance are in the right. they are the societal pressure to conform that alhaitham blows off. alhaitham could be the way he is for a lot of reasons: avoidant attachment style, trauma, following someone else's example (eg. his grandmother), or just his base personality. it doesn't MATTER. he is the way he is. kaveh having to accept that should be part of the story.

putting the burden of the fatal flaw on alhaitham, making the way alhaitham treats kaveh and the people around him the problem, feels invalidating. it implies heavily that alhaitham's way of interfacing with the world, alhaitham's very SELF, is incorrect. my suggestion is to flip a larger portion of that burden onto kaveh. kaveh 👏 character 👏 arcs 👏

some examples/recommendations:

- make kaveh project his insecurities onto other people but especially onto alhaitham; he's overly reliant on other people for his own self worth, and he perceives alhaitham's lack of positive feedback as a direct reflection of how alhaitham feels about him. but learns along the way that alhaitham doesn't hate him, kaveh's actual struggle is with hating himself and being unable to his own self as worthy of love. maybe throw in how you are responsible for your own recovery, other people can help but you can't rely on them to carry you through self actualization.

- or, kaveh tries to make alhaitham behave more like a "normal" person, to be more pleasant and emotive and forthcoming, and then realizes he's in the wrong for trying to make alhaitham into something he's not, possibly for all the wrong reasons (not because he likes alhaitham better like that, but bc society says that's healthier and a better/more conforming way to be)

- or you could go ahead make alhaitham's issues the main problem but they're too complicated to overcome in a short period of time, so kaveh has to accept alhaitham is doing his best in his own way and not push for unrealistic and unhealthy changes. he could alter his own behavior to give alhaitham space and time and a safe place to land.

that got sappy so it's past time for me to dip out. go forth and ship things; but maybe consider letting alhaitham be a rude stone-faced bastard if he wants to be.

[mortysmith]

while we're on the subject of "morty-prime teamup" what if there was another two crows situation

[cheeseburgersinparadise]

another day another fantasy of being an owner of a high end feedist hotel/sex club that gets to watch the staff and guests all day, observing who would be best to bring up to my private room and have my way with for the night (a high honor that people who book know could happen) and finding that perfect feedee who gets to stay indefinitely.

[kingofthering]

FCO AU. Inspired by @moonshynecybin's answer and her tags here. Marc was photographed on dates with another man during the winter break (well, the press assumed it was romantic dates anyway and so did Valentino).

This is set up I think during one of the testing sessions, either Sepang (always Sepang, right) or Phillip Island (literally happened two weeks later), first time where Marc and Valentino see each other since they've "broken up" a couple of weeks after Valencia.

Don't ask me why they're in Marc's motorhome but they are. I didn't have it in me to write the whole thing (wasn't even supposed to get that long to begin with) but Valentino says something about Marc's "new boyfriend" and they start arguing and that's when Valentino clearly expose that he was told he didn't have to pretend with Marc and he could have left Marc alone to deal with the aftermath of the photos.

Essentially :

—

"Why are you only telling me now?" Marc eventually breaks his silence. He's not looking at Valentino, his eyes firmly planted on the poster on the adjacent wall.

"What?"

"It's been a whole fucking year," Marc turns to him then, the line of his jaw set, his face adorning an expression Valentino doesn't know how to decipher. Too rigid. "An entire year since it began and months since it's been over and you decide to tell me now? Like it's some kind of weapon you've been keeping in your pockets to use when you needed the upper hand in an argument with me? Like this is an immunity totem supposed to give you the higher moral ground? Actually no Marc, I can't do no wrong because one time, I decided to not be a selfish person to help you."

Now, when Marc put things out like that it did sound bad but that wasn't— "You're misinterpreting things."

And if eyes could kill, someone would have to find Valentino's dead body lying at the bottom of the couch of Marc's motorhome the next day.

Right. Not the way you prove to someone that you're hearing them. Maybe they should send him back to Communications 101. Maybe they should have sent Marc and him to fucking couple therapy while they were at it last season.

"Then tell me why," Marc says. His voice is still hard even though his volume has dimmed compared to his previous words. "Why now?"

"Because you deserve to know."

"Bullshit," Marc shakes his head. "By doing it today you're only making yourself feel better. If it's even true, why now and not on one of the billion occasions you had last year? "

When Marc starts questioning the veracity of the fact, Valentino's heart goes heavy, pulsing too fast like he's just received an unwarranted jolt of electricity.

Valentino swallows. This might be the most confident he's ever seen Marc when he's not mounting his bike or wearing the armor that his leathers are.

Valentino's aware that the past year changed Marc, changed them. He thinks about the stone cold expression on Marc's face when he tried to confront him after Phillip Island, the way Marc wouldn't even look at him, let alone answer Valentino back.

Maybe a proper fight then would have prevented a lot of things. They'll never get to know.

"You didn't need to know. Everything went fine with that configuration of things, didn't it?"

Marc looks at him unimpressed and Valentino knows it was the wrong thing to say.

He's stalling. He's not answering Marc's question. He's proving him right on the stupid "higher morality point" thing, which means Valentino has two options. He can let Marc believe that he was right (and he probably was just a little because at the end of the day, Valentino is still an asshole who refuse to lose an argument) or—

He's had over 3 decades of racing to teach him that you don't obtain much if you're not willing to take risks.

"Sorry," Valentino breathes. His right thumb goes to his left hand, playing with the rings there. "I just— I'm not sure what you want me to tell you about it. I didn't lie. Yamaha did tell me it would be easier to deny that it was me. They even asked me if I thought you could be okay with that."

The question had thrown Valentino around for a loop, the burn in his stomach spreading while a treacherous part of his brain was whispering "yes, of course he would, it's silly to even doubt that".

Valentino risks a look up to Marc. Face still unreadable but seemingly focused on Valentino, the arms crossed in front of him a clear demonstration of self-protection. No proper reaction yet, still waiting Valentino out.

"I said I wanted to be in the meeting with you and I came in not sure of what I wanted to do and I listened and I looked at you and I don't know, I had to say yes, had to push for that solution."

"Just a spur of the moment decision, really?" Marc asks and Valentino can't tell if he's unimpressed or non-believing.

Valentino shrugs. "I guess."

"Right, I should have known. It’s your thing after all, no? You look at me and you forget how to think? How inconvenient."

"Yeah, well, you’re the only person who does that to me so you can blame yourself if you want."

Maybe blaming Marc was once again not a smart move but it said a lot, considering the amount of great rivals Valentino had had in his career. None of them had ever managed to get under his skin the way Marc had.

None of them had ever made Valentino feel so much for them, whether it was admiration or hatred or things he still wasn’t sure how to name.

"And yes Sepang was shitty, both the press con and what I said after and what happened in the race. And then the photos happened and I watched you in that stupid office and you looked scared and everything was wrong and maybe I forced your hand into this but I still believe that was the right thing to do. For once."

And maybe it stroked his ego a little in the beginning because telling himself he was doing it because he was a good person was much easier than facing out the real why. Especially with everyone in on the secret telling him this didn't make sense after the events of the previous months.

"I'm not saying this is the way I envisioned to come out and if I have to do one more couples interview game I might kill a journalist or two but in the end, if I look at last season, I'm not mad for that one impulse."

Valentino looks at Marc, watching for his micro-expressions, anything indicating that he's processing what Valentino has just poured out into the air between them.

He thought this was supposed to make him feel better, lighter, but the more the seconds go, the more Valentino thinks he's going to be sick.

Unexpectedly, Marc walks towards the couch, slouching down on it but keeping a good meter of distance between them, his elbows on his knees, head resting against his knuckles.

Valentino tries to wait him out. He's never been good with silence and his anxiety gets the better of him.

"Of course if we try to add the good and the bad points I probably have a really shitty score but it's not like we have to stop the game now, do we?"

He cringes at his choice of analogy the second he's done with his sentence. It does get Marc to laugh. The first real laugh that Valentino has heard coming out of his mouth in months.

Valentino watches him use the palm of his hands to press against his eyes and when Marc finally looks at it, his eyes look red. Not really angry anymore, though.

"Fuck, you've given me a headache."

"Sorry? Do you want me to get you some water?" Valentino asks, a little stunned.

Marc chuckles again, shaking his head no. Valentino tries a small smile for himself, not realizing how tense he's been too. He was still mad at Marc just a handful of minutes ago but the anger has gone now, poured into his words and diffused in the air on its own.

Valentino feels tired, likes he's lost too much blood when he was busy pouring his heart out.

Marc lets his left arm fall to the couch, his palm open in the space between them, back of his hand against the cushion.

"Okay," Valentino nods, gathering himself because if they stay in silence for too long, things are just going to be more awkward than he can handle. "I should go then."

"Stay."

Valentino can't tell if it's a question or a demand. An order or a plea.

Marc's palm is still an open invitation between them.

The truth is, there are lot more things that Valentino wants to tell Marc and a bunch of stuff he needs Marc to own up to or else Valentino will just use them as ammunition during their next fight and he would rather not.

He's too drained for any of that to happen tonight, though.

Stupidly, Valentino thinks, maybe if they sleep with the curtains open, photos will get taken and they will have to start this whole charade all over again.

Valentino is the one who takes care of closing the blinds when Marc is brushing his teeth and getting himself ready to bed.

He accepts Marc's hand when it's being offered to him to slide under the cover together. And if Valentino thinks that he's go too much to ponder over before being able to fall asleep, the emotions of the day are here to prove him wrong, taking him out mere seconds after he's pressed a kiss good night to Marc's nape.

[samioli]

honestly. its very funny to me that finding out my father did a very bad thing like. 16 years after the fact made me grow to appreciate other takes on Manfred von Karma other than "he's an abusive monster"

me and franziska are shaking hands over here 🤝

[carriehobbs]

if i can be honest here this is really one of my least favourite parts of the way the romances are written. the idea that you can only really fall in love once (and both the related ideas that, if this love is real, then every other relationship you've had must not have really been love and that, if you have been in love before, your previous love somehow cheapens the current love) is so completely juvenile. it's the kind of line of thought you'd expect to see in a young adult novel marketed exclusively to 12- to 16-year-olds for whom every emotion feels like the most intense, ultimate feeling they could ever have, and who do not yet have the life experiences to understand (or appreciate) the complexities of love. "i've only ever loved this one person this way, every other feeling i've thought was love has just been a poor imitation" is a pretty thought but is ultimately a fantasy (and one that i, personally, find incredibly disrespectful towards people who have been in love and then fall in love again).

it would be one thing if this idea was espoused by only one of the characters. if only n (just as an example) bought into the idea that only one love can be your true love, then that would say something about n's character, their romantic and life history, the way they view and interpret the world, etc. but instead all of the ros seem to follow this line of thought - they've all never been in real love before, if they and the detective broke up they'd never experience this kind of love again, they're all soulmates, etc. and in that way this idea is not a characterization choice for particular characters, but an idea perpetuated by the work as a whole. and in my (biased and personal) opinion, it's a childish and unrealistic idea.

[butteredfrogs]

im just gonna say whats on my mind feel free to ignore this post its kinda petty but i just have to let it out

[laura1633]

Max to Mercedes? Max to Aston Martin? Do you know what I would love? Max to buy out a team and have Verstappen racing 😂

[gojooooo]

man i love open endings. the fact that thanks to yuuji there might indeed be the next time sukuna talks about in case some idiot decides to eat a finger again. and we need fics where yuuji is that idiot

[amangelaa]

You know the brain rot is real when you start dreaming about amangela again ;) also some shourtney

In my dream, Angela was filming a story on her phone about a hotel room before walking to the same bed as Amanda and making a joke at her. Amanda then started making silly faces to the camera.

You can hear Shayne & Courtney in the bed next to them, Courtney giggling at their antics, also recording a story of them as Angela & Amanda cuddle under the bed and pretend to start making out.

Shayne & Courtney pretending to be grossed out as they yell out in surprise and cover their faces.

It just makes the group laugh harder, and then they stop recording.

Someone write the drabble, these fics really do come to me in fever dreams

[allgremlinart]

I'm not hating but I do see some confusion around Zuko's flashbacks in Zuko Alone and the flashbacks in The Search re: people going "whaaaat this family dynamic is so weird Azula is acting so weird no one actually acts like this" and like IDK HOW TO TELL YOU THIS. BUT UHM. THEY DO. if they're fucking insane. and abusive. which was kind of the whole point

like hey its GOOD. that you have never seen this kind of shit irl but. it IS kind of textbook. idk how to break this news w/out sounding like a dick sdhsdhs

[sannehnagi]

Is there a place or specific post where I can start learning sannena'iši?

Unfortunately the only place is in all of my documentation. I've never intended it to be learned, at least not until it is finished to my standards, which considering how I think about it and work on it will be never. In my fantasy where I am motivated and hard working I would write a fantasy novel set in the world of the people, and I've always conceived of it as told from an explorer from another continent's perspective, so the reader learns of the world along side the narrator. And they would learn the language beside them too. So, the ideal would be a book that slowly replaces words as you learn them until at the end the narrator's journal is entirely in the new language by the end.

[squuote]

if I made a dumb little coffee shop au of my own and had stanley throw a drink at the narrator, would that be too much or am I allowed to go wild with it. serious questions here. so serious

[celestialecho]

🌦️&💤

on childhood best friends.

via ill give you the sun by jandy nelson // via the art of ponyo by hayao miyazaki // jack johnson, we're going to be friends // a message from my childhood best friend // mitski, i guess // via a little life by hanya yanagihara // adventure time, island song (come along with me) // via unknown // abba, chiquitita