#lifeofkj

[painepentaghast]

this is absolutely killing me this was my entire teenage fanfiction.net experience summed up in two paragraphs lmao the forum shipping wars we used to have! simpler times i miss it

[msviolacea]

lifeofkj

 “There’s a “care and feeding of writers” post going around, and one of...”

Also, not everything is to everyone's taste. A writer I otherwise love might write a fandom I don't know, a pairing I dislike, or a genre I'm not into. If any of my friends/readers look at a story summary and think "not for me", I'm not going to guilt them into reading it anyway.

That’s exactly it - that’s what rubbed me the wrong way about the phrasing in this graphic, I think? I know what it was getting at, but it’s such a broad statement/directive as to be pretty much useless. 

[thegodawfulgatsby]

lifeofkj replied to your post: …..y’all I’m 24 wtf

Happy birthday to my birthday twin! I don’t have my life together at 44 and don’t expect to have it together at 64, but I’m content with who I am and that’s enough. Have a lovely day and year to come!

ahhhhh YOU’RE SO NICE thank youuu that actually is really comforting <3 HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU TOO!!

[alias-sqbr]

Isabela, wearing a skimpy blue dress, smiles at Fenris, who is wearing Hawke's favour around his wrist, holding a wine glass and staring off-screen sadly. Drawn for @lifeofkj for Remix Revival.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/15561753

[sepdet]

@lifeofkj​ pointed this out on Dreamwidth. As she said, this is going to kill a lot of fandom history.

Photobucket thinks it can afford to charge people $400 a year for the privilege of image hosting. 

I know there’s other free options out there... for now. But if you want to avoid the problem, there’s a 20th century option that still works: webhosting. I’ve had my webhost for $72/year (I think it’s $80 the first year) since 2003.

Webhosts predate the modern web of Myspace, Facebook, Tumblr, and other Web 2.0 platforms where you have an account but they decide what content you can post and how. Webhosts leave those decisions to you. It’s like the difference between living in an apartment complex or homeowner’s association with lots of rules, vs. renting a lot in a trailer park— except you can build a full-sized house on your lot.

Webhosts provide server space, security, and (usually) tools to help you set up your own blogs or shopping sites or whatever kind of website you want to build. You can store any file on the web from HTML webpages to images to mp3s. In the early days, we hand-coded every webpage from scratch using HTML. Nowadays we’re lazy asses and install third party tools like Wordpress blogs to do all the coding for us. 

Over the years, my webhost ICDSoft has upped its basic account from 20MB of storage to 1GB, without ever raising its prices. It’s fast and stable— my main website’s gone down only 3-4 times since 2003. ICDSoft saved my ass when I recc’d them to my Mom for her business. Now she bugs their online tech support instead of calling me. XD. And no, they don’t give me a dime to plug them, I just don’t know any other reliable webhost.

Note: if anyone gets their own webhosting as an image solution, I recommend disabling hotlinking by default, then adding “permitted domains” manually to specify other accounts/websites where you plan to display your images. Otherwise, random sites will start embedding your images on their pages without your knowledge. A few won’t matter, but if enough of them do it with especially popular images, they can eventually chew up your monthly bandwidth limit. (As I discovered many eons ago when I had a geeky LOTR fansite that included some pictures of Legolas. Whoops.)

[thessalian]

It wasn’t that Morrigan and Neria didn’t get along. They just had a very different view on the world, and appreciated the challenge that the other represented. They were fun. So was this challenge, and I greatly appreciated @lifeofkj giving me said challenge.

lifeofkj replied to your post: Thess vs Terminal Boredom

Morrigan vs too much paperwork (or whatever the Thedosian equivalent would be)

“MUST you pick up these needless pieces of paper? As I recall it, t'was your fool notion to go rescue these fool mages from their own stupidity.”

Alistair looked over at Wynne, a slightly worried expression on his face. “I … don’t really like Morrigan all that much, but … shouldn’t we … maybe … step in, here? Someone’s going to get their face burned off, you know.”

The little quirk Wynne’s lips gave might have been a smirk, but it was hard to tell. “It’s unlikely to be any pupil of Irving’s who comes off the worst in this.”

“Yeeeeeeeeeeees, but Morrigan was trained by FLEMETH.”

That got a slight frown of consternation from Wynne, but she let the argument continue, tuning back into the conversation in time to hear Neria say, “–not leaving easily-triggered FADE PORTALS open behind us. Not with everything in the mess that it is. And if you don’t like the paperwork involved in this - or the trip at all - you can stay and guard the children!”

Morrigan rolled her eyes. “I will not sit there and listen to that pious fool of an apprentice bewail her fate and blither about the curse her idiot Maker has put upon us all! I simply wished to point out that if you persist in dealing with every shred of unresolved paperwork in this tower, we will simply never leave and the Blight will overcome us all. I hope that was the plan for dealing with the current situation.”

Neria simply looked at Morrigan for a moment, then shrugged. “Well, if you really think that some Fade Rifter is going to best you, or even take more than two minutes to best, I can only express my sympathy for your total lack of confidence in your own abilities. Me? I figure that any demon I leave dead behind me is one less to deprive me of mages for the army we’re going to need. Or are mages so very useless to the war effort?” The expression on her face suggested that Morrigan speak carefully, as it was herself she was denigrating as much as Neria or any other mage.

Morrigan looked at her for a long moment … and then chuckled. “And I am reminded why I like you. Come, then; if you insist we sharpen our claws on demons and such to prepare us for the battles to come, so be it. Though t'would be preferable if we could avoid further paper nonsense in future.”

A moment later, after a rummage in a chest in Irving’s study that she’d always wanted to have a look in, Neria smirked and held up a large grimoire bound in black leather. “You said you were done with paper, Morrigan. So … I guess you won’t be interested in this?”

Despite the horror they’d waded through already, the expression on Morrigan’s face made Alistair laugh until he nearly choked.

[dankokaji]

[FFX -Will-] Quatervois (FF Kissing Battle 2017) (Baralai/Yuna)

Written for seventhe’s Final Fantasy Kissing Battle 2017 on livejournal.

Prompt: Baralai/Yuna, many paths to the same destination

@lifeofkj this is for you, 

as you continue to inspire me with your stories

Rating: PG

Warnings: Spoilers for FFX-2.5 novel

Word Count: 3647

Yuna’s hand hovers over his door, her knuckles just shy of the knock. She had woken up from a fitful nightmare no more than a couple of hours after she had decided to try at sleep. The events of last week still plague her mind, of Sin’s beckoned return and the inevitable shadow it casts.

Sighing, she drops her hand, and folds her arms. ‘What am I doing here…?’

Yuna left the comfort and safety of her home island to visit Bevelle on a fool’s errand, concerned by Tidus’s ailing health; in the end, she let herself be carried away by the Council’s plight. How Baralai manages to maintain his calm, even during moments of extreme stress, Yuna does not know, but she envies him for his initiative.

While everyone had been reduced to a mindless panic over Sin, Baralai acted quick to dispatch his Senders, banishing it within the first hour of its conception. Confidence and resolve raises his shoulders, instead of burdens them. Less people are calling upon the High Summoner now, hailing the Chancellor as their new hero. She can’t blame them, not when she sees how he throws himself into the heart of social media as the icon of progressive politics. Baralai shines so brilliantly in the limelight that it repels her, casting light over the shadows in her heart.

‘How can I face him?’

Yuna thought they had managed to come to an understanding, despite her persistent cold shoulder to his repeated summons. Their personal interests and private associations are always at conflict, and as always, Baralai never holds it against her, even while they stand at a crossroads, in which she had been the one to conjure it. Sometimes she wonders what that man sees in their fragile, complicated friendship; that being the least of her problems. Being here in Guadosalam, so far away from everything from the events of last week, makes it easy to forget it ever even happened. Pushing Tidus away by ending their relationship, surviving the invasion of Sin, hosting a vigil of all the lives lost― she thought that had been the end of it, at least for awhile.

But Baralai had to prove her wrong.

She bolted, at the high point of the meeting, right when he highlighted the primary causes of the Beckoning phenomena. He cited her actions, vanquishing Sin and then disassembling Vegnagun, as the two catalysts for the Farplane’s imbalance. After the dissolution of the Summoners, no one saw the point of continuing the Sending rites, therefore the pyreflies had no guide to usher them to the Farplane, thus overflowing the surface world with more fiends. Add Vegnagun and its leech of the Farplane’s energy to fuel its cannon, no wonder Spira wound up like this.

And then Baralai proceeds to flip that argument on its head, stressing the importance of Summoners and refuting the memory of Beclem’s cruel words.

“We need Summoners more than ever. They are responsible for recycling the energy that flows in our world, ushering the pyreflies of the deceased to rest within the Farplane. It was a grave mistake to believe Summoners are irrelevant then, and now we are paying for that ignorance in light of the Beckoning epidemic.”

Yuna felt shame, fear, and frustration all at the same time, the fact that she were to blame when she only did what she believed had been right. No one could have predicted this kind of turnout... not unless you were a suicidal psychopath the likes of Seymour. If Baralai’s statement were to leave that room, the people of Spira may turn on her, the leader of an unpopular organization of scapegoats. For that reason, she had been avoiding Baralai all day, brushing off Tromell and Kurgum's fretting concern, and Wakka and Paine's insufferable looks. But by the end of the day, she knew. Baralai never outright attacked her, only provided an objective thesis. His ability to separate his emotions from his profession, she wants to know his secret, because she can't do it, not anymore.

'Enough is enough. If I don't talk to him now, I'll never get around to it.' As much as she wants to avoid this, she must, and so she knocks, and she waits.

For a fleeting moment, she wonders: 'Is he asleep?' A part of her prays that he is, so she could use that as an excuse not to face him, but then she hears his voice answer, dashing her fickle, delirious hope to ashes.

“...come in.”

Yuna takes a deep breath, rewraps the cotton robe around her frame, and twists the doorknob, slipping inside. She finds him seated at a coffee table with his back turned to her, contemplating over the documents spread out before him, his hand busy with the pen.

“My apologies, Scisero. I meant to wrap this up earlier, but I happened to remember some things I wanted to write down…” Baralai does not even take a moment to fix the open collar of his silk bathrobe before he turns to face her, expecting her to be his Guado advisor. Now he stares at her in surprise, startled by her presence in his room. “Lady Yuna, good… Good evening.” He rises to stand, one hand on the edge of the table, where a thin stack of papers flutters to the floor. Embarrassed, Baralai stoops to recollect them. “Ah, sorry about that…”

“N-No, it's alright, I… it's me who should apologize…” Yuna manages a feeble reply, caught off guard by this rare moment of clumsiness from the most composed gentleman in Spira. She shouldn't find that cute, but she does, and so she stifles the smile.

Baralai straightens up on his feet, clearing his throat, setting the papers aside. “To what do I owe the visit?”

She watches him lean on the edge of the table, crossing his arms over his partially exposed chest, and she realizes how this must look. She came to his bedchambers in the dead of night, clothed in only a bathrobe and a sheer camisole. No wonder he acts so guarded.

She blushes, self-conscious.

“I… I wanted to apologize, for earlier… I ran out on your meeting, right when you reached the key point of your presentation. I'm sorry. You must be upset with me.”

“Upset? No…”

Yuna looks up at the sound of his chuckle, seeing his soft smile.

“I was worried. For some time, I thought I said something that upset you.”

“You did. I mean, I know you didn't mean to, but I― Did you really mean it? Did you… Do you honestly think… it's my fault, that we're in this current state…?”

“Lady Yuna, even the noblest of intentions can lead to negative consequences." His forthright words carry more impact than she ever expected they would, and she finds herself at a loss for words, uncertain of how she should feel. So adept at switching between the faces of friend and politician, that he often bewilders her. "I only stated the facts. I don't blame you or your actions; I praise you, in fact, for only you and your Guardians could have accomplished any of those feats. But it doesn't soften the truth, that we are all at fault for failing to notice sooner.”

His kind words render her speechless, and in the ensuing silence, Yuna catches him watching her, feeling self-conscious. She averts her eyes when he attempts to initiate eye contact, afraid that he can read her.

“We've come so far from where we used to be, and yet here we are, stuck at yet another impasse…” Baralai chuckles, thoughtful. “I abandon the Yevon name to start anew, and you go ahead and adopt it not long after. Coming from the woman who gave away a highly confidential and controversial sphere to the Youth League, I am quite surprised. What inspired this change of heart?”

Yuna remains silent on the matter, not ready to open that can of worms.

At her cold response, Baralai sighs. “...was that all you wished to talk to me about?”

“Ah, yes. Sorry to have bothered you… I… I, um, shall be going back to sleep now...”

He smiles, amicable. “It was not a bother. You can come to me anytime.”

His words make her pause. With one hand on the doorknob, she weighs her options.

She meant to walk out and never look back, but… They are alone, and she can ask him anything. When will there ever be another chance?

“...No. That wasn’t… everything...”

Dropping her arm, she scavenges the courage to turn around and face him. His posture has not changed; he still stands there, leaning on the table with his arms crossed. Only the expression on his face changed, regarding her his usual mild-mannered smile. “C-Can I ask you something? Your meeting today… it got me thinking…”

She walks forward, one tiny, timid step at a time, with her head bowed and her gaze glued to the floor, tracing the path of her feet. “Spira’s been thrown in a state of confusion, and you… somehow, you… You were able to make sense of everything.”

Now, Yuna raises her eyes, scavenging the courage to look him in the eye. “Could you help me understand something that happened in Besaid... one year ago?”

“Certainly.”

She blinks, startled by his immediate acquiesce. He accepted it without so much as a second thought that she wrings her hands, self-conscious. “I― I-I must warn you, it’s a long story… a-and, you must be tired―.”

“It’s quite alright.” Baralai smiles, appeasing her of her rapid, anxious thoughts. “I wouldn’t have said yes if I weren’t in the mood. Here. Why don’t you take a seat?”

He motions to the one other chair in the room, and she accepts his offer, sitting across from him as he follows suit. “Um, where do I start…”

“You can take as long as you need.”

She frowns. That’s just being far too gracious.

“...After we parted ways, I went back home after deciding to leave the Gullwings. I prepared myself to face the matrons, to speak with them about that day I felled Sin. I had been avoiding the truth over my victory against Sin, the dissolution of the Church, because…” She chokes up, sensing her throat constrict.

‘I was selfish. It was too personal for me to share... If I talked about it, I would have had to acknowledge that he―.’

“Lady Yuna?”

His concerned voice anchors her back to the present, and she swallows. “I-I couldn’t tell them. I wasn’t ready to tell them. For two years, I couldn’t… When I joined the Gullwings, even after I scoured every inch of Spira, I still couldn’t find… what I was looking for. I could have looked longer, I know I could. That thought crossed my mind many times, but… I felt that I looked enough. Our battle in the Farplane reinforced that feeling.”

Yuna stops to take a deep breath, losing the strength to continue. ‘I can’t stop here. I must…’ 

“But, the moment I arrived at Besaid, I… I found him. He was waiting for me. The person lost to me, my Guardian… The Fayth of Bahamut returned him to me, for one lifetime. It made me… so happy...” She trails off, sensing the tears well up in her eyes, and she hesitates to wipe them away, for fear that would expose her.

“Congratulations.” He smiles, reclining on the back of his chair with a casual cross of his arms.

To her relief, he spares her any comment on her tears, and she sniffles.

“Of course, I couldn’t... be happy for long. His return threw all of my priorities into question. I wanted a life with him, more than anything, but… I knew I couldn’t keep running away from my responsibilities either, so… While the dinner preparations for my homecoming were underway, I spent the entire night with them. I told the matrons everything, and they begged me to restore the idle clergy. I managed to avoid giving them a straight answer by telling them I needed time to think about it, and I…”

She pauses to giggle, overtaken by the fond memory. “I convinced the Besaid Aurochs to lend me their boat, The Ace, so I could be alone with… him…”

“Ah.”

His knowing smile makes her want to self-combust from mortification. “Y-Yes, I― I-It’s been so long, I― I just wanted to, erm…”

He laughs now, waving her off. “You don’t have to explain yourself."

“Yes, um… right.” Yuna clears her throat, composing herself. “Y-You can stop me anytime you want me to, in case you get bored or―.”

“No, no, continue. You have my undivided attention. After all, I want to believe there lies a point to all this gratuitous context.”

“...so, we, um, drifted out into sea, but not too far from Besaid, and we had… a long talk about everything. The passage of time between us, what I must do now that Spira has settled into the Eternal Calm. We ended up disagreeing… on a lot of things, actually. I shouldn’t be surprised. We always tend to disagree on things... The distance between us made it even worse... And then, a terrible squall hit Besaid overnight, and we were stranded somewhere farther out at sea where we couldn’t see any stretch of land. With our boat nowhere in sight, most likely destroyed due to the storm, we struggled to keep the aquatic fiends at bay, until eventually… I don’t know how, I passed out at some point, but we woke up on an island eerily similar to Besaid. We didn’t know where we were, and we couldn’t find any people, let alone a village, but... Little did we know at the time, we were marooned on an island summoned by an Unsent Summoner from a thousand years ago. A Dream version of Besaid, not unlike Yevon’s summoning of Zanarkand.

“As we continued to explore it, we found statues of old deities I never heard of. I don’t remember all their names, they were etched on the stone... Luchera, Guard, Kush… Ifarnal… to name a few. They were positioned in such strange ways that we couldn’t understand if they were meant to lead visitors astray or protect the children from getting lost.” Yuna stops there, becoming aware of her rambling. Because of that, she catches the rapt expression on his face, of him immersed in thought.

“Fascinating… To think there might have existed a completely different type of religion worshipped by the people who lived before Yevon’s time. Gods and deities separate from the Fayth we knew… How did their mythology come to exist…?”

She giggles, amused. "That’s something I never thought to ask. Maybe I should have...”

“Who?”

“Ifarnal. The Unsent Summoner I mentioned earlier. He inhabited the island with a woman he called his ‘Aeon Core,’ a different kind of Fayth. Not a stone statue, but a being who could exist after death. Like a fiend. She introduced herself to me, after I came in contact with her Summoner. He, Ifarnal… helped me restore Tidus to his original state, after he…” Yuna panics, cursing at herself for getting carried away with details.

‘Oh, no, I’m slipping… I shouldn’t have gone that far…’

“Tidus was… mortally wounded… by a bomb disguised as a blitzball…”

Baralai’s eyebrows rise at that. “Really?”

“Yes. Ah, one of Ifarnal’s other Aeon Cores, a human who was part machine… I think it was human… When it saw us, it probably confused us for hostiles trespassing on their territory. Its mind might have still been stuck in the time of the Machina War…”

“I am relieved you two made it out alive, then. But… What did you mean when you said, ah… Ifarnal, was it? He helped you restore Sir Tidus to his original state? You couldn’t have healed him with your magic?”

“I… didn’t have my staff! I was in a panic, and I couldn’t… put myself in a proper state of mind…”

“So, what did he do? This Unsent that felt compelled to help you?”

Baralai looks unconvinced, and she starts to sweat. She must divert him with another topic of interest.

“...ah, um… he bestowed upon me an ancient technique… of summoning, unique to Bevelle. Tidus is… not like the rest of us. He’s from Zanarkand, a dream version of Zanarkand that Yevon summoned with his city of devotees. He managed to exist outside this Zanarkand by riding Sin, and… because of the Fayth. They sustained his mortal life during his time in Spira.”

“...I see.”

He hums, thoughtful.

She doesn’t know if that’s a good thing, so she waits.

Even though Yuna only revealed a portion of the truth, would he be able to figure it out?

“Does that mean… His life is not his own, then? He can exist so long as the Fayth wishes him to, but even then… The Fayth departed from our world after you vanquished Sin. Why is that? They didn’t have to leave us, did they?”

“I only spoke to Bahamut at length, but they all seemed to say… That they were tired of dreaming. They wanted to sleep, after so many years…”

Back then, Yuna didn’t understand the depth of their suffering. Not an inkling. But now… She wishes she didn’t. She scorns them and criticizes them, even though she empathizes with them to avoid the glaring flaw in herself.

“That makes sense. I don’t blame them, honestly,” Baralai says with a wry smile, bringing her back to the present. “Hm... That begs the question, though...”

“What?”

“Is Sir Tidus a beckoning?”

Her breath stops, and she cradles her hand over her wavering heart.

“...No.”

“Did he die, then? In that explosion. You were being awfully vague about that part.”

As much as Yuna wants to flee from this room, she had been the one to dig this hole. Now she must lie in this bed that she made, hoping she can die in it. Anything to avoid his soul-piercing questions. “...Yes. But he is not a beckoning. I can assure you of that.”

“What is that, if not a beckoning?” He sounds more weary and annoyed than anything else, least of all condescending, but she can hear his sarcasm in the rhetoric. It evokes that feeling of guilt and shame, but most of all―

‘No. I don’t… regret anything…’

“He… is a dream. He’s my dream now, not the Fayth’s anymore. I’ve been… summoning him all this time. Ifarnal taught me how.”

“Lady Yuna.”

Baralai opens his mouth, about to say something, but then thinks better of it and sighs.

She senses he must be revising the words in his head. Soon, she will be wishing he never spoke at all.

“Lady Yuna… Why do you keep doing this to yourself?”

Ire rises in her throat, and she bites back the spiteful frown, incensed by his tone. “It’s my choice. I don’t expect you to understand.”

She knows she made a fatal mistake the moment those words flew out her mouth. The kind amber glow in his soft eyes darken to pitch black, and he looks away, propping his cheek on the end of his fist. The way he stares off into space frightens her, because she knows what kind of thoughts he tends to harbor. He once carried the shadow of Shuyin, after all, and she can see a trace of him now, of the rage outlined in the tension of his jaw, the intensity of his gaze.

“You love him, but you can’t find it within yourself to let go, can you?”

Something snaps within her, in which his words open the floodgates and she can’t hope to keep them shut any longer.  

Yuna crumbles into herself, allowing her tears to flow free.

~

Yuna dreams of the ocean.

She dreams of sleeping, feeling the waves rock the wooden, creaking walls of The Ace in its gentle, strong embrace. As the boat sinks for the last time and Yuna sinks further into the bed, she stirs, curious by the sudden loss of swaying. Inside this sparsely-decorated cabin, sunlight filters through the porthole, blanketing her in warmth. Darkness swathes her surroundings the moment she opens her eyes, blinded by the candlelight bleeding into her blurry vision, before someone’s hand reaches out to dowse the wick. She stares up at the broad back of her bedside companion, watching him brood in silence. The scent of sweet smoke fills the room, tickling her nose, and she sneezes.

Sensing him turn to look at her, she feels shy under his fond gaze. 

“Bless you.”

“Th-Thank you…”

“Did I wake you? If so, I apologize.”

“Ah, it’s alright… Um, I’m sorry… I fell asleep on you…”

“No worries. I assumed you were tired. You unloaded quite a lot of baggage there.”

She blushes, self-conscious, and before she can formulate a witty retort, he reaches out to stroke her head, brushing her long, messy hair out of her face. Her heartbeat races, and stills again when his hand begins to slow, projecting his timidity as well as her own. He lifts a lock of her hair between his fingers and touches the tail end of it to his lips, lingering on the gesture.

“Goodnight, milady. I shall see you in the morning.”

Scarlet heat blooms in her cheeks, and she squeaks in response. Thank the Fayth he cannot see her face in the dark.

Baralai smiles and drops his hand, standing to exit the room. In the quiet echo of the door’s close, another one opens, and she tries to deny it by burying her blushing red face into the pillow in vain.

‘I didn’t even finish telling him the full story. Oh, well… Maybe next time.’

[faejilly]

@bloomingcnidarians tagged me to list songs that remind me of my OCs

which is really very difficult? I’m tempted to say NO, I NEED ENTIRE PLAYLISTS

but that’ll take a year or something so, uh ... classic/jazz edition? (and I still have two each instead of one. *snorts*) 

Adelaide Hawke: Lilac Wine (Eartha Kitt) and God Bless The Child (Billie Holiday)

Theia Hawke: Whatever Lola Wants (Sarah Vaughan) and Mack the Knife (Ella Fitzgerald) (honestly ‘cause that version makes me giggle, but whatever)

Ella Shepard: Afraid to Dream (Josephine Baker) and  Non, Je ne regrette rien (Edith Piaf)

Erana Lavellan: Wild is the Wind (Nina Simone) and Graveyard Dream Blues (Bessie Smith)

If you’d like ... tagging @atomicpen, @shadoedseptmbr, @lifeofkj, @janiemcpants, @shadesofmauve​

also if you’re following me and WANT TO PLAY, consider yourself tagged <3

[heyheyrenay]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Final Fantasy X-2 Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Summary:

Gippal kisses Baralai in view of the entire world during a tumultuous political time to save him from an incredibly awkward date. To prevent his carefully laid plans from going askew, Baralai has to pretend to date Gippal, when all he really wants is to date him for real.

Happy birthday to @spindizzily! She has been waiting a year+ for this fic to be completed. This is a gift from me to her, but also from her to me: today is my birthday and I get to return to my tradition of posting fic for pals on my birthday and give her the completed version of this story, which I would never have been able to do if she hadn’t cheered me on and believed in me. Thanks, friend!

Thanks to @lifeofkj and @justira for beta!

[msviolacea]

Y’all, the Hugo finalists look AMAZING. It appears that either a) the pups mostly gave up or b) the rule changes worked. I haven’t been paying enough attention to things this year to know which one it is, or a combination of both.

But special congratulations to @heyheyrenay and @lifeofkj and the rest of the folks at Lady Business for their Best Fanzine nomination!! It is very well deserved. <33333

[walkthegale]

lifeofkj replied to your post “There’s a specific part of my Tumblr dash that I asked, some time ago...”

Another enthusiastic YES here! :D Just be prepared for it to eat your life.

Hee, I have been convinced! I’m going to try it! I am somewhat afraid of it eating my life! ;D

glass-soldiers replied to your post “There’s a specific part of my Tumblr dash that I asked, some time ago...”

Absolutely it is a FANTASTIC show with so much content it's frankly ridiculous. The story line is amazing and the cast is really sweet and awesome. I HIGHLY recommend it ����

Yay, excellent! Based on all these enthusiastic recs, and the gifsets I’ve seen, I’m definitely excited to watch it! :D

[janiemcpants]

lifeofkj replied to your post “But WHY would you take something that used to be made of solid...”

no no no no

dreamingrain replied to your post “But WHY would you take something that used to be made of solid...”

Wait that's not Terry's is it? It's still the same right????

@servantofclio  D: who is messing with chocolate oranges???

@ouyangdan  WAIT NO ONE CHANGED CHOCOLATE ORANGES, RIGHT? RIGHT???

No no no, don’t worry, it’s not Terry’s! They’re still the same. (THANK GOD.) This was an off-brand that I got by mistake, and it was terrible--flavors way too strong, and everything had that cheap graininess. In this case, I meant more ripping off a good idea and then making it worse, rather than ruining the delicious original (like the Hershey kisses did). I didn’t mean that to sound as alarming as it did. :)

[thegodawfulgatsby]

loveforluna replied to your post “despite being utterly gutted, despite that “why even bother” numb...”

I'm proud of you! I wasn't able to make it to school because of mine but I'm proud that you were!

SENDING LOVE <3333

lifeofkj replied to your post “despite being utterly gutted, despite that “why even bother” numb...”

Hugs. And read the joint statement from the CA legislature leadership if you haven't. It made me feel better anyway.

I did read it! it definitely helped. also definitely hiding within CA  borders for a while

[madlori]

What'cha cooking?

WELL.

I’m going to a docent party at one of my friend’s weekend house in Hocking Hills and i’m bringing appetizers. I’ve decided to make two varieties of filled fillo dough shells. One will be Cuban Sandwich, with diced ham and swiss cheese, topped with dill pickle relish and spicy mustard, and the other’s going to be savory mushrooms and asparagus with some gruyere on top.

Then I’m making this Martha Stewart strawberry cake some of my FB friends keep talking about just because.

[msviolacea]

RULES // POST 10 RANDOM FACTS ABOUT YOURSELF AND PASS IT ON 15 PEOPLE

I was tagged by both @jonesyi and @blindvogel, and it seems like a good thing to do for distraction on a Monday!

1) I’m named after the Bionic Woman. I was supposed to be named Susan, but my mom started watching the (original 70s) TV show when she was pregnant, and decided she liked the main character’s name better. So I became Jaime, and my little sister got to be Susan.

2) I collect tarot card decks.

3) New Orleans is my favorite place to visit for vacation.

4) I have strabismus - I am also farsighted and have a slight astigmatism, which really makes it wild that I managed to go for sixteen years (from ages 14 to 31) without wearing glasses at all. 

5) My favorite ice cream is vanilla soft serve. Yes, I know I’m boring. I don’t care. I love soft serve.

6) I started getting gray hair when I was 17 years old. At 40, I’d probably be full salt-and-pepper if I let my natural color grow out. Which is why I never let my natural color grow out.

7) I got my very first internet connection 22 years ago this month. Holy shit.

8) I was a hardcore Pepsi devotee up until I switched from regular to diet soda around 10 years ago; now I can’t drink anything but Coke (diet or zero).

9) I never have developed a taste for alcohol. I don’t mind the occasional fruity drink or hard cider, but I like those despite the aftertaste. Mostly, I just don’t drink at all, because it just has never been a priority to develop the taste for it.

10) One of my very favorite things to do is go out to dinner by myself and read a book. 

I tag ... @lazyscience, @lifeofkj, @faejilly, @janiemcpants, @buckysleftarm, @summonerskies, @dimir-charmer, @rhiannon42, @scahill42, @lafemmedarla

[blossomsinthemist]

lifeofkj

replied to your post“I really will miss all you guys, and being in the fandom, and talking...”

Hugs. I totally understand wanting to step away for awhile. I hope the break does you good, however long you need it to be. <3

Thank you. <3 *hugs back*  Yeah, things have been . . . rough.  I’ve been very emotionally invested, which I think just makes the break even more emotionally necessary for me.  Thank you. <3  I really appreciate that.

nagth

replied to your post“I don’t really know how to make this post, but I figured I should say...”

Whatever you need to do to make yourself feel happy and okay it`s right. Your writing has helped me along a lot of times when I felt down or just not right inside, so I really hope that you get that too in any form it may take. Thanks a lot and lots of love for you :)

Thank you so much. *hugs you*  I’m so glad it did, that I could do that--and I hope it continues to, whether what I’ve already posted, or whatever I write in the future.  (I’ll write something, I’m sure, just not sure what yet).

Thank you so much. <3  Same goes for you.  Please take care too.