#like i am so cool with leaving where they hang out free of stuff but theyve gradually expanded where they hang from a smaller section to

[iknowwhereyousleepatnight]

considering a deer scare but tbh they're true idgafers the dogs'll be on the edge of the fence barking their heads off and they'll be on the other side 2ft away blank eyed staring at them they don't even care if ur within like 15ft of them they'll walk up to the back door and look at the dogs growling at them nothing in the world bothers them i think a deer scare would do nothing

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for not having time to read my mutual's writing?

Met a mutual on here, bonded through fanfic, have been tight with them for a few years with pretty much no bumps in the relationship, just overall had a really good time hanging around them when I could. We both write a lot and share our writing, and occasionally we talk about that writing/workshop it in passing.

In the past few years I've gone through a ton of life changes. Most notably I went from a multi-person household to a single-person one, and I've been living alone in a prohibitively costly city for a while now working 40 hour weeks and barely scraping by. As soon as the transition started I spent the last of my free income on a shitty little laptop so I could still write, putting down words on my bus/train commutes in the morning and quite literally writing on my breaks at work because I feel insane when I can't create. I bring this up to really stress that I don't have the time for the hobby, I force myself to make the time and even then it never feels like enough.

The only thing I can really stand to do with my 3 hours of free time at night is hang out with my moots online. I'm an extrovert so being around people recharges me. If I don't have designated social time I get super depressed and can pretty much feel my soul withering away. I also feel like I should probably mention that I kinda have a slew of mental issues, personality disorders and PTSD and AuDHD and the works. Point being, shit is rough my dude, but I am a person who likes to work hard and face challenges head on and even though we strugglin, we doing it with a positive outlook.

But! I am an incredibly solution-oriented person and I have found what I personally believe to be a good balance. No one should have to live like this, but I do, and I have found a way to be happy. My writing and my social time is all load-bearing. It is not something I just choose to do on a whim, it's all planned and scheduled and I adhere to those routines very strictly because, I cannot stress this enough, I will go fucking bonkers if I don't.

I'm mutuals with a lot of writers obv, and I sadly don't have time to read their work anymore, unless I get some extra time on my days off or something gets cancelled or like, I end up taking a vacation. I carry a great amount of guilt for this, though, even though I logically know it's reasonable. I try to support them where I can, cheer them on when I see them writing and tell them how cool their ideas sound, hype them up even when I can't actually read & review.

One of the things I do is sometimes I leave a kudos on fic I haven't read. I'm not trying to be ingenuine, and if they asked me I'd tell them like 'Oh I didn't read it yet, just wanted to show support!' but to me it's kinda like ripping a paper tab off a poster so that other's feel inclined to do the same. Plus my pals get a little email and a hit of serotonin.

Except one of my acquaintances, the one I mentioned at the start here, saw that I left kudos on a couple pieces another mutual of mine wrote this year. They more or less blew up my DMs with a ton of accusatory (like, literally presented like a 'GOTCHA!') stuff about how I was selective in who's fic I read, more or less implying that I secretly held some sort of grudge or negative feeling toward them and was making the conscious decision not to read or interact with their writing because of. Something, I don't actually know what they were trying to say. They also told me they vented to their friends about this MULTIPLE times, but they never once approached me to let me know they were feeling paranoid or neglected, they literally just took the most bad faith reading of it possible and then presented that to me like it was something I intentionally did, while the whole time I was unaware.

I tried to explain to them the kudos thing, that I didn't do it to every story, just ones I caught/noticed in my busy schedule. And I laid all this out and asked, multiple times, what free time am I supposed to read with? They didn't answer, and doubled down, kept trying to show me 'proof' that I was shorting them and no one else. Once they started to realize how wrong they were they backed down, but they didn't really apologize, or admit they were wrong, and they tried to end our relationship and left every single server we were in together. Because of some other unrelated stuff going on in my life, I didn't really consider them to be a close friend, but they were someone I really held dear and would've walked through hell for if they'd asked.

I still feel like there is something I'm missing here, and that's why I wanted to ask if I'm TA. I'm a pretty good communicator but one of the things I told myself when talking down my disordered thoughts (guilt about this prior) was "no one in their right mind would use reading fanfic as a metric for friendship." Now that I've had that exact thing happen, I'm starting to think maybe those thoughts weren't so disordered. Maybe this IS a big deal, and I should think about it more, but I don't even know what the solution to that would be. I just. Don't have time to read something lovingly crafted and appreciate it for what it is. All the hours in my week are used up, I'd have to lose sleep for this and with my mental health the way it is that is not an option.

Feel free to be a brutal, my skin is thick. Thanks!

What are these acronyms?

[redhoodsdeer]

hiii I really love ur writing I eat it up everytimee ❤️❤️❤️😍😍😛

I was wondering if I could request a Jason Todd like thingy where reader is new to Gotham and she doesnt know her boyfriend (jason) is red hood or who he is really . And one night he just passes out straight in bed without even thinking about his suit and helmet and reader wakes up to this masked man in her bed and is like screaming and being like “wtf who the hell are you” “my bf is huge and he’ll fuck you up” and calling Jason and stuff and he’s just like tf?

Ik this request is like all over the place but I just randomly had this cute idea and I thought you’d eat it up 😍

thankkk uu ❤️❤️❤️

rough night (aka civil!reader x vigilante bf jason)

civil!reader x jason todd

prompt: where jason still keeps being a vigilante a secret from you, and you continue to be clueless that your boyfriend is red hood, until one rough night he forgets something a little important.

a/n: omg hi! i'm so happy with your request, sorry that it take so long, but here it is, i love how your mind work btw, hope you like it, i actually don't think my writing is good on this one, but the prompt is amazing! feel free to send requests!

It was a particularly calm night, at least for you, who had already done your bedtime routine, and were curled up in the couch with your favorite book, waiting for your boyfriend.

You watched on the news that there was a chasing, but this is Gotham, there is always a chasing on the news, you may not have lived here for long, but you are used to the special way of the city, fights, deaths and crimes that flooded the city on an ordinary weekday.

As much as you enjoyed waiting for your boyfriend to get home, so you could go to bed with him, he was pretty late today, and it was already late night, sleep was starting to overtake you, the book slowly becoming less interesting and more hazy, finally making you decide it was time to go to bed.

Now, even though Gotham is a dangerous city, and more than anything, unexpected, you definitely didn't expect that on a cool tuesday night you would walk into your room in your pretty pajamas and comfortable robe and find a huge vigilante lying on your bed, comfortable, as if he lived there his whole life.

And no one can blame you that your first reaction was to scream, scream for your life, while the book falls from your hand, you were in complete shock, the vigilante waking up confused as he looks around and finds you wrapped in your pink robe looking absolutely terrified.

"Who are you? What are you doing in my apartment? How did you get into my fucking apartment?" she said frantically as tears began to well up in your eyes as you grabbed the closest thing to you, to defend yourself, which turned out to be the lamp on your nightstand.

And the man lying in your bed looks just as confused as you do, even more, his head tilted to the side, you can't see through the intimidating red helmet, but you're sure if you could, you'd see a huge question mark hanging on his face.

"What do you mean who the hell am I? Have you lost your mind, honey?" And it wasn't until his voice came out modified by the modulator that Jason realized he was still in his full uniform, including his helmet, which explained his girlfriend's complete panic upon seeing him.

"Look, my boyfriend is going to be here any minute, and he's huge and he's going to beat the hell out of you, so please leave."

The words might have been intended to be threatening, but they lost their effect almost instantly when he knew that the boyfriend she was referring to was the one lying on the bed being threatened at that moment, and also by the tears he desperately wanted to wipe from your face.

And, as Gotham is the city of the unexpected, the unexpected happens, and the huge vigilante lying on your bed starts laughing, but not a threatening laugh, or a shy little giggle, he starts to really laugh, the kind of laugh that you throw your head back for laughing so hard, while slowly removing the helmet from his head.

And when your beloved boyfriend reveals himself, the lamp in your hand slowly lowers as your lips part in pure shock.

"Jason? What the hell is going on right now?"

She said while still holding the lamp, and looked at him more confused than ever, and the once scary and threatening vigilante stands up and wraps you in a hug, while you remain in complete shock.

"Did you have any intention to tell me about this at some point?"

Your mind, still recovering from the shock, manages to elaborate and ask, while you return the hug, as tight as you can, still shaking from finding out that your boyfriend is the fucking Red Hood.

"Honey, I'm so sorry, I swear I was going to tell you, I just didn't know if you were going to be ready to hear it, and if you would still be with me after you found out."

"If you would still see me the same way, you would love me the same way"

And now your shock is for a completely different reason, as you pull away from his embrace softly, your brows furrowed in pure indignation.

"Are you kidding me right now? Jason I would love you and be with you even if you were the fucking Batman."

And a comforting smile appears on your face, as you, on your tiptoes, hold his face in your hands as if he was the most precious thing in the world, and for you, he was.

"Jay, I love you regardless of any of this, if you're a secret vigilante at night, your secrets or anything else, because I love you for who you are and I need you to know that."

And now the bright tears in your eyes were for a completely different reason, you just didn't expect him to think that way, when right there in front of you is the man you loved the most in the world.

"God, what did I do to deserve someone like you?" he murmurs into your hair as you're wrapped around each other, you guiding him towards the comfortable bed.

"I ask myself that every day, Jay."

And now, with no secrets and curled up comfortably in each other, as it should be, he whispers to you.

"About that Batman thing, we need to talk."

[guzhufuren]

Hey, I've noticed you've been pretty quiet lately and I hope you're doing okay. I know we're not friends or even mutuals so I'm sorry if I'm overstepping by messaging! I hope the world will treat you kindly and that you can find comfort and support if you need it 💕

hi sweetheart wow this is so genuinely nice and kind of you, thank you so much for caring to the point of reaching out

i'm on the way there! i will be okay, hopefully soon. it's not serious, i just had a medium sized break down after receiving a very negative comment on something i made, in mix with a bit of unrelated loneliness and yearning on top of that, plus many many 4am drowsy what-am-i-doing-with-my-life regretful thoughts that i have had in the last months swimming up. like for my unwellness history it's really only about 6 points on the scale where the maximum is 10, so not big. i turned all social apps off but couldn't shake off the distress caused by that one stranger on the internet being unkind to my project, despite knowing they were misunderstanding and were also not in a state to understand at all, so i was kind of confused about what's up with my brain and why it can't move on

and it was a good choice! because after being only with myself without any internet distractions for the first time in years, figured out in just a day that mood swings have been back for a while, over one month at least (so anger issues weren't totally Yunho's fault actually bless him), some other parts of mental health worsened too

got a grip on myself, went to my doctor, got back on meds, now i'm sleepy every minute of waking hours while my body is getting used to them again, but it's gonna be fine. received advice on how to write a mood log, turns out very helpful as additional treatment to keep hypomania and anxiety under control. i even started working out, doing memory exercises and preparing my exam notes tentatively, which is so hard and scary, oh my god, but i must. job search is even scarier but i'm working myself up to finding a good one with little, very very very very tiny steps but they are moving

in the first day of self made quarantine i rewatched the queer korean show Love for Love's Sake that cured me from depression for a while and from any possibility of suicidality for a lifetime last year. it didn't work the trick again, because i'm really not living in the best or even just calm psychological environment to let it do its magical healing thing the way it should, but it did give me new clarity and make me intensely cry some shit out, so that was also very nice

accidentally found the best fic ever and it brought me so much very needed comfort in the past week. it's sweet, funny and stress free. like a warm blanket. or a cup of vanilla cocoa that makes your cold toes tingle in winter. or a hug from the love of your life. first atz and woosan fic to enter my hall of all time longfic favourites. very rare honor but it deserves it completely

also found a bunch of bloggers who post videos of the ocean in Thailand, some even stream the beach 24/7. it's so cool, i watch it in the evenings for short periods of time. helps making it bearable to just survive here a little bit longer until i am able leave

i sort of of really like that when i don't spend 12 hours a day on the phone doing mind-numbing scrolling or posting, there is so much free time to do cool stuff? i have kinda felt like i can be back on here for a couple of days, but i still freak out a bit for two reasons. first, that bad comment is still hanging there and it still makes me too upset to open notifications or my own blog page, which is ridiculous but that's how my dumbass unwell-brain-made feelings are. so i will see how that goes away and i get over it like an adult. second, i'm scared to be sucked back in the addiction to the colourful little hellsite app so i usually end up throwing the phone away in panic after 5 minutes of the app being open. maybe i will work up to it more gradually, don't know, let's see how that goes too

thank you again my little treasure, i will happily take that kindness and comfort you offered here as you are a part of the world. and you can message without worrying anytime, no mutualship or officially labelled friendship necessary. i'm very cool with small amount of interactions, just not big on chatting online one on one for long and don't enjoy it super much. and also with how often i see you around we are considered friends for sure. so thank you again for being so sweet i really am so grateful to you for this, one hundred friend hugs in return

[puckpocketed]

good morning puckpocketed it is @wehaveagathering from my main blog! I was wondering (and if you have already talked about this link me!) what your feelings are on the sharks upcoming offseason, who you're hoping for them to draft, who you're excited to see play either in their nhl or ahl roster, anything! :]

first of all. hello wehaveagathering dot tumblr my sour gummy candy my bespoke watchface my press-on nails....! thank you so much for dropping by <33 hearing from you is like oughh hello microcelebrity who decided i was cool... !!!! ok. deep inhale. I present to you:

puckpocketeds sharks offseason roundup

I am of two minds with Sharks hockey:

Nothing will ever go as I expect/predict because Mike Grier works in mysterious ways (Hertl trade was a wild day) and given I am following the San Jose Sharks ...we are here for a laff first and foremost. At least until we're competitive again. No point in thinking too hard because it ain't that serious and i have 0 control over what happens <3

On the other hand . kljsdalkjsdkl I am reading Elite Prospects' draft guide like the morning paper and absorbing massive amounts of data about my little guys and listening to podcasts and also following juniors games (you may have seen my very regular and hinged Memorial Cup Posting) and, yes, I even watched college hockey . I am unofficially the prospects slide maker for the Sharks Primer that I haven't opened in a week.

You may have asked the one person on tumblr who can give you an unskippable cutscene i hope ur ready for an unskippable cutscene !

General Off-season stuff/contracts

i am being fed off the scraps of Henry Thrun + Devin Cooley interviews in scf post-game shows and stalking all of our beat reporters. i have all of them with notifications ON and they keep doing really funny stuff like suggesting Draisaitl coming to the sharks. also . wekky and keebs are hanging out with Alex Holtz this summer and it is THEE best thing ever. matching slides for you in these trying times? feeling very deprived of sharks hockey but sustaining myself by having little breakdowns about it with friends :3

Couture is the biggest question of the off-season to me. The plan rn is that he will be ready to play by opening night, if all goes well during his rehab. He's our captain, the team looked visibly improved when he was on the ice for the gorgeous 6 game stretch that he played with us last season (Coochie era you will always be famous), and honestly I think his contribution to morale is more valuable than anything else he brings to the ice. There's no chance he gets moved right now given his contract and health, but there's a chance he never plays another NHL game... his health and readiness to play determines who the Sharks target for acquisitions and what our team looks like down the middle (where our two biggest prospects, who are both centers, will end up). so much hinges on whether or not Cooch is healthy!! but at this point I'm just rooting for his long-term health no matter what happens with the team !!

To preface any contract talk; the vibe about Mike Grier is he’s wary of giving out long term stuff in light of his predecessor leaving behind the husk of Marc-Edouard Vlasic (said with deep affection) and several other nearly immovable contracts. pundits don't really see him giving anyone term unless they’re Confirmed Core Players and i agree! other than that... i don't have serious takes or predictions about term/dollar amounts. HOPES and DREAMS and PSYCHEDELIC VISIONS, on the other hand...

We're gonna lose some of our guys to free agency because they're. um. untradeable and not very good </3 (Hoffman, Labanc, Barabanov <- this one is a special case, Barbie's deal fell through because the Hertl trade happened and we're using our last retention slot on him) and whilst I do love the ongoing Bit of uncle Mike and sweet cousin Kevin, this frees us up to go looking for some guys who can mentor our young core!! (I hope Labanc gets a second chance somewhere and shows everyone that the sharks monumentally fumbled the bag on yet another ex wife !!)

The doors are open for free agency acquisitions... Everyone's throwing around big names but I think they're forgetting the fact that we actually gotta convince them to come to San Jose LMAO. cost of living + basement team unlikely to be serious about a cup run for at least another 4-5 years = not the most appealing place to go. We have seen speculation about FAs ranging from Stamkos to Marner lmaoooooo and i'll be honest I don't want to add to all that. I just hope whatever old man we staple to our youth he's fun and NOT a criminal !

For our other UFAs:

I'd like to see us re-sign Justin Bailey because he worked really hard for us down the stretch. we poached him from the cuda early on because all of our forwards were exploding and never gave him back even when everyone started getting healthy again! Maybe he can go help our cuda not flop <333

Jacob MacDonald holds a very special place in my heart because we like making multi-class jokes (he was forced to play forward for a big chunk of his time w the sharks even though hes a d-man LMAO) . I find his work ethic charming <3 he's done everything they've asked of him, and he's honestly done it Not Terribly. I would LIKE for the sharks to offer him a place here due to sentiment and i sort of think he's a sleeper depth pick…. but it seems less and less likely given that we’re going to market for d-men and we’ll have more forwards healthy next season.

Ryan Carpenter is another cuda acquisition we never gave back and is our beautiful returned shark son <33 he was a steady 4th line center throughout the Horrors. however, we were trying out one of our younger guys in that position (hello jack studnicka!!) towards the end of the season and im really wondering if we'll see him up with the sharks again. He's a great AHL player and I see him helping the cuda become competitive if we bring him back!

Devin Cooley my beloved. our junior shark. our silly rabbit. some context: the sharks org is doing something very strange and deeply funny with their goalie situation. we have like 6 of them and i genuinely have no clue where this is going. Optimistically, Cooley gets a something thrown at him because he's shown the ability to grow under the limited tutelage of our Very Good Goalie Coach Thomas Speer + he's a great feel-good story !! less optimistically... he gets traded on the draft floor because we can't have shit in san jose (KNOCKING ON TEN MILLIOB WOOD)

Our RFA sitch is a mixed bag:

Luke Kunin absolutely comes back. barring offer-we-can't-refuse type deals... they love him here. Is he GOOD? well no <3 analytics-wise, he is our worst performing forward and actively makes his lineys worse. but (and i imagine this is whats going on in sharks front office discussions) must a goonwag do silly things like "play hockey"?? can't he just get all snarly when our guys are pushed around? can't he play leg weight to our beloved prized prospects? teach them how to drive a line despite being hamstrung by the sloppiest turnovers ever? cant he just be sophia's less accomplished trophy husband...........???? also in his defence, he should never have been our 2nd line center. but everyone else exploded so !!! anyway I think he would flourish with fewer minutes and easier match ups on the 3rd/4th line. i want to see him hanging out in a depth position next season and goonwagging it up <3

I watched Thomas Bordeleau really work to solidify his place in the lineup towards the end of the season. I love his absolute determination to finish every game fighting. I am SO proud to call him a shark and he's become one of my favourite little guys <3 I knowww everyone knows him from the Narratives but EYE got to know him through his hockey and I am WRETCHEDLY endeared by it. He will stare down a 0-4 scoreline and keep playing hard no matter what, he has sprinted down the ice with seconds on the clock to make a play and ough ough oughhhhhghgh he is SO special to me okay !!!! okay. And I truly think that gmmg has to see that. They're trying to build culture here... something about being hard to play against, having will and size and skill.... Bordy doesn’t fit the Big Boys vision that Grier is open about chasing, but he does bring the attitude and work ethic… I want him to stay forever <3 next year is his breakout year MARK MY WORDS!!!!!

Henry Thrun was a bit up and down but honestly who on this accursed roster wasn't?? Some nights he was unironically our most effective d-man (as much as one can be on the 23-24 sharks) other nights he was competing in a flop contest with Pickles <3 i would like to see him get more pp minutes next season and work on being consistent, which I absolutely believe he can achieve. our beautiful draft dodger + harvard double major <3

Ty Emberson is a complete mystery to me. I've seen him play like 3 games. he's been very injured this season. I liked what I saw when he was on? Making his slides was SO hard ill be honest, there's so little out there about him. but i have a soft spot a mile wide for reliable stay at home d-men, i hope he gets a fair shot. also hes mackblack's bestie and nobody knows that and i need everybody to know that he has a special bond with his goalie like his defensemen forefathers . thats our defensive defenseman and his goalie okay . okau.

Calen Addison is . listen okay I love our little guy. let him say fuck!!! but he hasn't done well this year and this was sort of supposed to be his fresh start. what I want is that he stays on the sharks and turns things around and goes on to blast all his haters. I'm not very sure any of that will happen.

I can't be objective about Filip Zadina. I will not lie. I want him to succeed very badly but also I love our failwife dearly regardless... high draft pick who was touted as a goal scorer... can't let go of that identity... every coach hes ever had psychoanalyses him and is a leeetle obsessed with nursing him back to health like a sickly baby bird <3. gmmg give him 8x8 ! his place on this roster is very uncertain given that this was his 'prove it' year and it didn't go super well. i dread losing him. every day that ticks by where we don't hear about him re-signing leaves me less and less hope

Jack Studnicka compels me so much. We call him Dave . dont ask. He's in the process of shaking off his previous identity as a playmaking center and his anxieties/insecurities about uhhh having to fill the gaping hole in the Bruins' forward core left behind by a bunch of their veterans leaving. He's learning how to drive a checking/energy line and I feel a tenderness for him I can't describe... he's almost almost made it to the show and he will do whatever it takes to stay.

regarding certain trade rumours

There is once again trade buzz around Mario Ferraro.

...i think the rest of the league is under the impression he’s a top 4 calibre d-man. this is very funny and also i’m terrified that gmmg will trade him because of this. You truly don’t get a feel for how little any given team’s media pays attention to other teams - how little the national media pays attention to the western conference good GOD — until you follow the cali polycule.

if any disappointed Leafs fans are reading this after it was suggested they aren't looking to acquire him anymore . my brother in christ. Mario only eats those minutes because he’s got seniority here by default !!!! we simply do not have anyone else because they’re injured or they suck!!! i would go to war for our youtuber ,hes the greatest gamer and d-man in the entire league in my heart BUT i do have eyes and as the kids would say . he has improper crosshair placement and can't mulligan to play on curve </3

And for nuance…. perhaps there IS something to the fact that Mario was like .the only one who survived the 2019-2023 San Jose Rookie Woodchipper/Meatgrinder/Hydraulic press. idk. i wasn't there. He’s had a career high year this year (not that 21 points is that high asdljkasklj but. again. 23-24 sharks) so maybe he’s just waiting for the right conditions to break out, a team where he isn’t solely responsible for gluing the shambles together, and all the chatter about him being a prime trade target is true and this summer will be when his trade value is at its highest. it still doesn’t change his value to this team as a locker room personality and leader. He’s made zero statements about wanting to leave. the current regime does do Personality Hires and Intangibles (see Luke Kunin and i suppose now the Goodrow acquisition??), we can’t have our upcoming d-core thrown into the deep end without some mentorship and it certainly isn’t gonna come from Pickles — not that he can’t, i just believe in Marc-Edouard Vlasic’s right to be a bitch in peace! no one is untouchable but im 90% sure Ferraro stays.

THE DRAFT AND OUR PROSPECT SITUATION

The Sharks currently hold picks 1, 14, and 33. 1OA is spoken for <3 so 14 and 33 are the ones we care about here. (we have a bunch of later picks to play with as well — 42, 85, 116, 138, 143, and 194 if anyone was curious <3) And okay okay so,, Mike Grier was hired 2 days before the draft in 2022, which means 2023 was his first real draft year and this year will be his second. realistically, we simply do not have a lot of data for his drafting tendencies, nor will we know his 'hit' rate until years from now. our current pool, while thin, is looking... good? tentatively? the class of 2023 did very well. more on them later. so accounting for lack of data... i truly have NO idea whats going on except maybe we're leaning towards deepening our defensive prospect pool + throw in a goalie, and a slight preference for physicality and size but like thats every headass GM on the planet right now??? (as i type this out, ozzy weisblatt has been traded away for a someone over 6ft tall!! the mike grier big boy plan strikes again….)

so. i won't speak to who i think the sharks will draft but you will get to hear a very rough essay fragment i don’t think i’ll ever finish:

something i’ve been thinking about lately between reading all of these prospect draft profiles (and to an extent, making prospect slides for the sharks) is how few guys make it to the big show. these 17-18 year olds have dense paragraphs written about their puck handling and skating and hockey IQ — i enjoy the stylish ones that say stuff like “he’s the most creative forward in this year’s draft, he’ll dangle your best over a cliff” the most — but how many of them will pan out in the end? here, i could pull up the numbers. i don’t need to. we all know there are only so many nhl contracts to hand out, and only so many stalls in a locker room.

i’ve grown attached to a few names though their draft profiles. there are little threads of narrative you can catch from reading their game reports in chronological order. some of them visibly gain confidence month to month as they solidify their identity within the system and team they play on, some of them master board battles, some of them find their scoring touch. i am charmed by the interview fragments i’ve seen, their stupid answers to "what animal would you be?", the silly facts livetweeted by scouts at the combine. many of them come highly touted — the 2nd-12th project as almost certain NHLers. i’ve seen them shine in their juniors and ncaa matches. I feel like they must be destined for greatness.

Yet, i go back into the histories — a year ago, two years ago, five years ago, thirty years and beyond — and the histories tell me that no matter what was being said the day they got drafted, anything could happen. 7th overall buried in the press box. 123rd overall breaks a scoring record in his d+1 year. 29th overall carves out a regular spot on the first line and goes on to score 40 goals. 1st overall never scores more than 62 goals in the NHL. it's probably not smart of me to become invested in so many when, statistically, a whole lot of them will fail to live up to their projections. in the back of my heart, right behind all the inadvisable sentiment, lives a scream of frustration. it isn't fair that for the majority of these kids, the draft is as close to the nhl as they'll ever get. i hate that not everyone will get to reach for the stars. my heart will be broken when one or more of my favourites inevitably burns out of the league. and the real horror is knowing all this hasn't stopped me from becoming endeared.

my current draft favourites, no thoughts head empty if i could have any of these guys on the sharks:

Berkly Catton absolutely will fall to 14th overall in my HEART!!! this stupid league and its stupid preoccupation with tallgirls. doesn't matter that some of the best players hockey has ever seen were under 6ft tall <3 doesn't matter that high impact nhl players RIGHT NOW are hanging out around the 5'10 mark. Berkly Catton is elite stock by so many metrics except for his size (5'11, ~163lbs) and THAT will ensure he falls in the draft. and the dream is if he falls to 14th we snap him up and he comes to hang out in cali <3 i love his fish-eyed blank stare. he said he'd be a dolphin because they're slippery <3 and here's the short version of what I've read per his draft profile: he played on a bad team, with heavy minutes, being targeted by every opposing team as the only threat, and still doubled his output during his draft year. all of this while he worked hard in his own zone, dedicating himself to the more 'boring' aspects of the game. like he will hustle for a backcheck god BLESS. i love when skilled guys are defensively responsible SO MUCH. what little i've seen myself of his raw skill is incredible. magical hands maintained with speed. i also like how much he scans. i love being freaked out about a highlight, wondering how he knew where his teammates were, scrubbing the video back and seeing him scan the ice regularly. its beautiful. just like playing league of legends jungle . ahaha <3

if not Catton, then Andrew Basha at 14th, and if not then 33rd. Despite how high some draft boards have him, the reviews are mixed as hell due to the Spectre of Gavin McKenna and Cayden Lindstrom that hangs over him. It did not stop him from having an incredibly strong season in the WHL. fast, skilled, works hard. puck mover. in learning about hockey, I have come to love transition forwards SO much. Troy Terry was my favourite Duck to watch when he wasn't exploding <3 Controlled zone entries are soooo gifable to me. i got no clue if Basha will be available at 33 - a few are predicting he falls to the second round - or if the sharks would want him even then, but I would love to see him on the Sharks! if his speed and skill on breakouts can translate to the NHL it would be bitchin!!!!!! also, I have this idea in my head that he's already used to playing with elite talent and so wont be swallowed up by the huge shadows celebrini and smith will cast. maybe he can manage egos, maybe he's just really good at working around prodigies, maybe he's a prodigy himself, who knows!! I am compelled though!!

for d-men... Zayne Parekh. There are serious concerns scouts have with this guy's game. he is described by some as thee boom-or-bust prospect of this year's draft. dynamic as hell offensive defenseman, does things no other prospect in this draft would even think to do and . um. sometimes that thing is turning over the puck <3!!! or, as a random red wings podcast i was listening to this afternoon said: With Parekh, you might get Erik Karlsson, or you might get Erik Karlsson. and listen if you made it this far down you gotta understand that im a deeply unserious person about these things and this DID convince me that we GOTTA get him somehow. tbqh i wanted the Ducks to draft him because he was tragically separated from his bestie Pavel Mintyukov and i think a reunion would bring about an unprecedented era of world peace. but also. if they were on RIVAL TEAMS in the BATTLE FOR CALIFORNIA!!!!!!! oh that would be delicious <3 There's absolutely no way Parekh falls to 14th but this list isn't about realism its about my silly little dreams <3

Cole Hutson at 33 or 42 purely because i'm a fan of Lane Hutson (so so so jazzed to watch him play next season on either laval or montreal!!!!!) and they are similarly shifty and small. there is NO way mike 'you must be this tall to ride' grier drafts another 5'10 puck mover (<- more on this guy in a min). a fella can dream though <3

prospects who are my special little guys

Luca Cagnoni

ok quick recap. mike grier drafted Luca Cagnoni at 123rd last year. he is 5'10 (generously <3) and he's so special to meeeee <3 He's always been an offensive ROCKET!! so smart. WILL break ankles. great puck mover. great distributor on the pp. he's been working on his defence this year.

NO ONE THINKS HE'LL MAKE IT IN THE NHL BECAUSE HE'S LITTLE BUT EYE DO!!!!!!! If you go and check the Luca Cagnoni tag its literally just me and 1 other person. that 1 other person is now my friend. sometimes, my other sharks compatriots join in. but such is the nature of adopting a special little guy !!!

I get all misty-eyed thinking about how far he's come, from being undrafted in the WHL, falling to the 4th round in the NHL entry draft, and going on to have the strongest season a d-man in the WHL has had in 30 years. and yes he WAS the 123rd overall pick i was referring to earlier. He signed his ELC and it was the event of the offseason (to ME). it was more meaningful to me than the will smith signing i will be so real right now . I am hoping and praying that Luca gets a chance on the Sharks and flourishes.

sorry. sorry. i will NOT shut up about Luca Cagnoni. mike grier took a huge swing at the fences for him, he is so out of the gmmg wheelhouse its hysterical and i am genuinely shocked we drafted him. i wasn't there for it obviously but what was the draft floor like that day?? were people asking him Are You Sure, Sir. I'd have asked. i'd have knocked on his bald ass head to check if it was hollow (i, a bald person, can say this <3)

despite this. Luca Cagnoni WILL make it. ON GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kasper Halttunen

ok you saw me mem cup posting. this one isn't as deep!

i think he's got that dawg in him. him and his nepobaby london knights team were fun to watch!!!

i liked that he was squeezing denver barkey like a chew toy (gifed it, even!!!)

i am genuinely obsessed with the comments he leaves on other prospects' instagram posts. i've only looked around at a couple but yeah he's sure got a sense of humour <3

i would LOVE to see him develop out his 2-way game a little more and refine his beautiful bomb of a shot even further. i am excited to see how he progresses!!

bring him to the AHL as soon as possible gmmg i need to watch him squeeze the life out of his fellow sharks prospects

Macklin Celebrini

Alright this one seems so obvious because he's 1OA and automatically special BUT you guyyyyys. you guyyyyysss.... he's soooo good. I watched a couple of his college matches. I went back and watched some of his worlds matches. i have devoured so much literature on him. remember when I said i love when skilled players are defensively responsible?? Macklin Celebrini is that guy !! he is just so Shaped. the shape is Round. he is well-rounded like the beautiful sphere . the sphere where we will be drafting him. <3 yay !!!

no joke he IS a bit of a goon. finished his checks with a surprising amount of brutality in all the games i watched !! and like he had to be, I imagine he was getting targeted to hell and back in the NCAA. being 17 and playing against grown men. i like that he's got a bit of bite!!

listen, when the scouts and journos and pundits and coaches say he's "got a motor", what they mean is HE IS RELENTLESS. HE WILL NOT GIVE UP ON A PLAY. HE WILL RUN YOU DOWN AND THEN TURN AROUND AND SCORE ON YOU. HIS TEAM FOLLOWS HIS LEAD.

I just... I get the feeling he raises the people around him up to his standards because they can't help but want to match his intensity. I get the feeling that he is, aside from a great player, a great fit for the kind of culture the Sharks are trying to build. the Never Say Die Team. the We Will Eat You Team. i am completely, utterly endeared by his work ethic.

I think his little :^| face is so funny. i have posted about this before but when he smiles it looks like he has a few too many teeth and its GREAT. our shark. OUR SHARK!!!!!!

Honourable mentions:

Danil Gushchin: undersized creative forward with soft hands heloooo i love uou. mwah. unseat one of our girlfailure depth players next season i want to see u in the nhl <33

Shakir Mukhamadullin: Shak my noodleshark . he will absolutely see NHL ice full time next season if we remain bare on defence, so im not sure he counts anymore as a prospect. i believe in him so bad!!!!!!!!!!!

Georgi Romanov: unironically I think hes our only realistic hope for a Goalie of the Future. please survive the sharkuda experience my love <3

Will Smith: ROBBED of the hobey baker by our very own macklin celebrini. doesn't matter because he scored a dicktrick at hockey east finals and that shit was funny as hell. i think of him in terms of his boybestfriends BC Line which is forever shattered by his decision to sign with the sharks which means hes the driver of tragedy which makes him ELITE in my eyes.

honourable mentions 2 (obscure non-sharks edition):

Isaiah George: i fear i will actually have to watch the NY Islanders soon enough when they play him . i was watching the London Knights for Kasper and, as I do sometimes, I was struck by lightning after seeing him do something really interesting. I think I can probably go find the exact tags from when he first caught my eye. anyway! i am invested in him now and there is 0 current coverage on him !! ough my smooth skating defensive defenseman <333

Aatu Jamsen: a high skill/flashy forward the la kings signed to his ELC not too long ago <3 excited to see him play for the Ontario Reign. his lore is incredible. not to shill my own blog but i did a small post about him here and i am BEGGING everyone to go find out about him he moonlights as a RAP MUSICIAN!!!!. lak do not to bury him in the AHL forever im on my KNEES

Xavier Simoneau: les habs and their prospects got me. little guy (5'6) who is a bit fight-y. can and WILL go to battle against huge opponents for a puck and WIN. i look at him and slap my knee and i think. god damn he might actually do it. he might actually make the NHL.

Okay I think I will stop here before i start goin off about all the little guys i have tucked away...!! thank you for your time. thank you for handing me a mic and an excuse to yell about my little fellas. wehaveagathering dot tumblr you are thee flyers source to me. our failteams will soon share a shade of oranmge. I am very excited to fall in love with them!! <3

[expatesque]

girll give us tips for planning our travels, please! going to greece next month and i don't know where to start

Girl! This girl barely planned this one, I stole my friend's itinerary and just adapted it 😂 And now that I'm in Seoul I'm fully relying on my Aunt 😂

Okay but I do have tips which start with: What kind of trip are you taking? I tend to divide into weekend break, week long jaunt, and long trip (10 days+).

For weekend breaks, I either (i) stay in a beautiful hotel and plan to do nothing but read / lay about in gorgeous pajamas / drink champagne in tubs (the classic example of this is a British countryside weekend) or (ii) stay somewhere where there's plenty of things within walking / easy driving distance and just go where the flow takes me, usually centered around one sight or town or restaurant I want to visit.

For week long trips, I like to do two locations typically - I find it's a rare place I want to spend a whole week in, and changing every three-ish is days let's you settle in enough but not get bored. An example here would maybe be like 3 days in the Champagne region of France + 3 days in Paris.

For long trips, I like to do a combo of: city, cultural site, lay around place. In the city I go to good restaurants, see sites and hang in cafes, in the cultural sites I usually focus on a museum or place I really want to see, and then my last stint is either beach or place where I'm just hanging around a hotel. My Korea trip has basically followed this pattern but in reverse order (due to my aunt's timing - I generally recommend the chill part at the end). I started on the beach (Jeju), then the cultural part (Busan (Spa Land is cultural okay) then the ancient capital Gyeongju, then 24 hours in a Buddhist temple), followed by city time (Seoul!).

So for you, if I were in Athens for 3 days my schedule would be very different to if I were in Greece for two weeks! For Athens I might see the acropolis one day, museum another, cool bookstores and cafes my third (or something, I haven't actually been to Athens but I will this summer, so could be really off base). For two weeks, I'd do Athens, another archeological site, then some time on a beach (I've heard good things about Milos)!.

Other advice:

As a general rule, I plan one outing per day, but I generally don't do this until I arrive in the place or like a few days before. All I do is get accommodation and transport and let it roll from there. The exception is stuff you need to get in advance (e.g. I'm going to Paris for the Olympics with my fam in August, you have to get your museum tickets in advance bc of the Olympics). An activity can be one thing or several, but generally it's one block of leaving the house. I tend to only plan one block per day and leave the other one free for what I feel like.

I always plan at least an hour back at my accommodation to chill before dinner. Nothing more stressful than being rushed on vacation.

I honestly am a very chill traveler, I feel no need to see everything or fit it all in - I want to experience a place, hear new sounds, smell new smells, taste new tastes rather than see everything on some arbitrary checklist.

Also: Keep a travel journal! I hate journaling, it's not for me, but travel journals are different. Even if you just note down where you went and what you saw with a few ticket stubs here and there, it will help you remember the trip so much better and you'll appreciate it in the future, I promise.

[lagncx]

birthday

Erm. Enjoy. Sorry I don’t have fancy format. Wait here I got you!

ahem Tw: none really just fluff, a son, and laezel and shadowheart kinda ship in here. Please don’t take these serious unless you enjoy it. Leave likes it helps!

words: idk…if I’m guessing 700 or something

—————————————————-

   Your husband brushed your sons hair to the side neatly “Are you sure you want to go? You don’t have to.” He said and you groaned “Astarionnnn you asked him ten times and he answered yes ten times” he just huffed “I know but he’s never hanged out with his friends without us there!” You rubbed your eyes “and he won’t all parents are going to be there just not patrolling them” your son looked between you both his face all puffy “And! You agreed to watch La’zel and Shadowhearts daughter!” He did and he sighed they both adopted a real youngin and Astarion was somehow great with babies and they were busy with other things so they called him and he being so caring took the job as a challenge free of a fee. 

  Your son was 5 and he had the cutest smile like his father's teeth sharp and not many people know about your husband and son's little fangs. 

  You guys arrived at the home. It was large but not overwhelming and Astarion didn’t have to ask as you both were seated next to the cheese board and food facing the grass yard where the children played. “It’s so good to finally meet you, our boy has done nothing but talk about your son all the time!” Lorraine, mother to your child’s friend said. Astarion smiled as he bottled fed the little baby he was watching for your friends “it’s so nice to meet you also.”    Luckily Astarion had on a cloak and was in the shade but he had his eyes on your son as he ran around playing tag and all that kid stuff 

  Your son, Arthur had fallen on top of the other parent's kid. Astarion gasped “Oh! Darling are you alright” The other boy’s mother rushed over. “Alright let’s see the damage” she whispered wiping grass from your son's shirt as he wailed loudly, his mouth catching his tears. You got up and hustled over “Hey my little Prince what’s wrong?” You whispered kneeling down to see his busted lip. “Oh damn.” You cursed. His little fangs nipped his own lip. “Is he alrig-…oh.” Lorraine whispered before looking back at Astarion who was clueless

 “Listen Lorraine he’s-“ you started but before you could finish 

“A vampire.” The other boy said “Cool!” He smiled “no no. Not cool. You don’t know if he’s hungry!” Lorraine hushed her son’s excitement. You stood up immediately growing defensive “Excuse me!” You growled “He’s not some rabid dog!” You lurched over her, your shadow blocking the sun from her face.

“but your gonna know what a real one is.” You warned your nose scrunched with rage and disgust. Astarion ran over to your side cloak covering him holding the baby tightly (sweet dumpling had no idea what was going on and the sight of astarions beautiful chin was all she needed). 

  Star looked down at his boy who’s lip was bleeding watching him reach for his freind but your leg blocked the way as you stepped forward. Astarion sighed frustratedly putting a hand on your chest. “My son isn’t a monster. He barely got his fangs in and he’s still not ready for any real bloodlust yet. I’m sorry I know the scare is a lot, and please excuse my partner.” You snapped your head at him “Dont speak for me Astarion. I am an adult.” You huffed and he rolled his eyes “Darling please. They’re scared and that’s okay.” He said “The hells are they scared of?!” You yelled. 

  “Because my home was opened to you, my son and your son have been around each other countless times it is important information that I have to know!” Lorraine tried to reason with you “And monster never. Never. Came out my mouth!” She said her boy only pushed her out the way and went over to your little baby bat and hugged him “I’m sorry I fell and tripped you.” He whispered rubbing your sons back as he sniffled. 

Lorraine stood back watching the two boys. “I didn’t mean to scare you.” Your boy said his voice broken and small his white hair filled with grass and leaves, astarion itching to pick them out but…he can wait. Lorraine’s husband walked over “Eh, it’s a bit of a shock but damn shits been crazier. Plus them boys love each other look at that. Brothers till the end. Plus you ain’t the only one with a kid with a bad reputation. Cept our boy who’s 14 he’s a theif. Not a cool undead being.” His accent was heavy. Throwing off the whole situation as you and star looked at each other shrugging. 

   After telling Lorraine there was no need to worry. You decided it was time to go HOME fucking bummer of a party and the food wasn’t even good.

—-

  Astarion brushed your sons hair while you put some balm on his lip. “Papa…am I a monster?” You blinked and looked at Astarion making eye contact 

“No.” “Yes” you both said at the same time. Astarion glared at you. “What?! I thought we were telling the truth” you could’ve swore air popped out of Arthur the way he slumped back sadly. Astarion sighed “you are a monster but your not a bad one. You can be but papa is also a vampire. And I’ll always be here to help. You come to me when you need it okay?” He smiled kissing Arthur’s nose making him go from frown to smile squealing from the small tickles. 

——

After  You laid your son to bed you crawled into the bed with your husband he was sewing your sons new custom wardrobe. “What do you think darling? Some flower designs? Vines? Thorns?…hm. Thorns” you smiled what was the point of asking if he was gonna decide himself. You smiled and pushed his hands out the way and kissed him a bunch “Astarion, I love you” you cooed “Ohhh no no you don’t what did you do this time?!” He fumed 

You sniffled “okay first kiss me a few times so I won’t be scared to say it” Astarion scoffed but kissed you back sweetly around your lips before pulling away “speak” he ordered.

 You sniffed “so you know how you said to soak his new clothes you made him.” Astarion nodded eyes wide “Yes and I put a paper with the exact order of how to.” He nodded “Okay so I put one of the clothes in the pink soap and rose oil first.” Astarion nodded “yes.” You stuttered tears coming up “stay with me love! Tell me the rest” he encouraged. “T-then I put the other clothes up to dry.” 

Astarion pushed hair out of your face smiling “Darling that’s literally everything you were supposed to do.” He smiled 

You kissed his hand and his knuckles “yes…and” you whispered 

“And?” He raised a brow smile fading 

“They were taking too long to dry so I decided to put some heat around with just a bit of fire bolt without throwing it but then they caught on fire and I think it was because of the oil!” You gasped letting it all out at once. You saw the way your dressers shook and the sound of the world shaking felt like the damn absolute was coming back but it was just the waves radiating from Astarion. You smiled “but I love you. And I decided to give them to a tailor to fix it so you wouldn’t have to work on it. ^~^” you smiled.

“WHAT!!” he yelled.

////

This is something from a few months back I decided to finish it and yk it’s just brain rot

[lynxgirlpaws]

♥ lynxgirlpaws tubmlr ♥

Hey y'all ! Welcome to my silly little tumblr. I uh. I do stuff sometimes, uhm. Feel free to hang around !! . T. There's some info u. under the cut i. if you ca re. Oh ueah if you follow me a. and You're under 18 or don't have an age in your bio,. I'm gonna block you immediately. Like, instantly. Okay thankgs.

Hey!! uh,. so. I'm a Girl [recent update] who . does YouTube . and the doodles. uh. S. So here's that stuff about me I promised!! ♥ I !!! Use She/Her !! I won't die if you use they but y'know. girl. ♥ I am . 18. My birht day is on the 20th of June !! ♥ I live in. Connecticut. ♥ I used to be RamenBoy21 before the whole Girl thing so. If you were wondering where my old blog came from , hi ! I'm here now !! sorry for leaving ! ♥ I am ! African American ! (My Dad's Black and Mom was White [As German as an American can claim to be] for anyone curious. Nein, meine deutsch ist nicht sehr gut. Es tut mir leid) ♥ Oh yeah I'm bisexual! Like. I like people. All the people. Have you ever seen them? People. Prredty /w\ ♥ I am absolputely a girlfailure . Just. Trust me on this. I'm like if they made a girl that really sucks lol Okay. With that out of the way... now for . Uh. Links !!! If you wanna find/support me off of Tumblr! YouTube - I make silly little videos. Currently working on a Friendlocke I did a few months back with some pals, and singleplayer Vic2 stuff but. There'll be more in the future - and there's a lot of old stuff on there so. Feel free to check that out ! SFTV Lounge [Discord] - The silly little discord me and my pals own !! feel free to join . always good to have more cool people in there, y'know? BlueSky - I have not used this in literal months but. I deleted Twitter so like. It's the alternative lol If I make any other social medias I!! will update this!! And... now here's stuff for if you wanna find me here on Tumblr !! Accounts- Firstly,,, my NSFT Alt! - Sorry chat, I'm not gonna be horny on main. But, if you click that link, you can't be mad if I talk about dick or nuts or pussy or boobs. You just cannot be upset. them's the rules Tags- #AskAvie - I couldn't think of a better asks tag. It's alliteration. I'm sorry. You're always welcome to send me asks btw !! #AvieDoodles - Well I can't use RamenDoodles anymore. For reasons obvious in the rant. So... AvieDoodles? It doesn't work as well. But it has to work. I'm never gonna call it drawing properly, that makes it seem way higher quality than it is lmfao #AvieRants - I used to call when I'd ventpost Ramen Rants... so. AvieRants will be an ACTUAL tag you can block. I should come up with better names eventually. So yeah!! That's ! My silly little tumblr page! I. I still don't know how to properly make pinned posts but. This one seems good enough so uh, .yeah!! Hope you enjoy my dumb little corner of the internet! Have a lovely day! ^^

[lime-miracorp]

[Start Recording]

"Hi everybody! This is Lime, coming to you live from inside the vents of MIRA HQ! Wow, it's kinda dark in here, hang on just a second..."

[Sounds of rustling and a button clicking]

"That's better! Good thing I brought a flashlight! For the first time in history, I'm gonna be your guide to the ventilation systems and give you all a tour of the routes I find interesting! Why I'm doing this you ask? There's not much else to do and Purple is busy at the moment so it's just me today."

"As an engineer, it's my job to ensure that the AC systems and the ventilation fans are in tip-top shape. But there's other reasons that I like to be in the vents sometimes, for activities that I guarantee are 100% free of murder, really have to clarify this first! Anyways, let's get started! Oh, better put this away in my pack first! Not a good idea to have a phone out while you're sliding around in a greasy metal pipe, am I right?”

[Metallic clanking]

"Here we are! Looks like we're over a meeting in one of the boardrooms. They're probably talking about minerals, space travel, research, other business things. We need to be quiet so we don't disrupt them. Moving on!"

[Shuffling]

"Oh, look at this! This is one of the laboratories in MIRA. Pretty cool, isn't it? These scientists tend to do a lot of neat stuff like testing exoplanet water for oxygen and brushing fossils. We better leave them to it. I don't think they'd appreciate being disturbed, especially while they're working."

[Pause]

"Oh yeah, you're probably wondering why these vents are big enough to fit me and not fall apart while I'm inside them! MIRA is a very tall skyscraper, therefore it requires more fresh air than other buildings since it's so high up in the atmosphere. Don't worry about me, I've been in here more times than I can count on my fingers, and I know every inch of reinforced sheet metal like the back of my own hand!"

[Muffled clanking]

"So now we're gonna... hold on, did-- listen, did you hear that? It sounds like something crawling in--"

[Sudden and loud snarling approaching rapidly]

"Oh shoot, that's an impostor! We need to get out of here, I gotta boost off this wall, oh crap oh crap OH CRAP! I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE! IF I NEVER MAKE IT OUTTA HERE ALIVE, TELL PURPLE SHE CAN HAVE THE REST OF MY BEEF JERKY--!"

[Recording stops abruptly]

[Start Recording]

"Hey guys. So, I hope you don't freak out about this, but I almost got eaten. Like I've said before, I'm very good at navigating the vents. It's just that... I didn't expect that there would be an impostor lurking near me. Sorry for scaring anybody, I guess this is where my tour ends. Note to self: never enter the vents unless you're fully prepared to crawl for your life…”

“…”

“Darn, I think I need to fix my phone screen again.”

[End Recording]

[sunsetrubdowns]

Also. Hi. I remembered I can talk as much as I want to on here. Do you want to hear about this guy I kind of broke up with but kind of wasnt really dating to begin with and will probably have to break up with again for good measure. This actually turned into an insanely long post because it's an insane situation so I'm putting it under a cut because I love you and your scrolling experience and it's probably incoherent anyways

So. Well you may or may not be aware but I was couch surfing for like 3 weeks in September and a friend of mine who I met through work helped me out a lot with moving my stuff out of my apartment and into storage and helping me get my shit together. And in the weeks leading up to me moving out/while I was homeless we spent a lot of time together (like. Pretty much every day LOL) because I needed to be constantly distracted and he apparently had all the free time in the world. Cool!

Now it's important to give the context that he had asked me out back in like June and I said no because not only did I think we had very little chemistry and he was very needy but ALSO I was going through one of the worst depressive periods in my life. Really just was not the vibe at the time. Also my read on the situation was 100% correct like I was right about everything lol.

So you know obviously I'm aware that he has a little crush on me this whole time but I'm in a truly delusional headspace where I'm like well this is not so bad :) I'm having fun hanging out with him so whatever happens, happens :). And what happens is that WHILE I am still homeless we end up having a little feelings talk where I'm like well this is nice but I've kind of got a lot going on right now and I need to settle my life situation out before I'm comfortable getting into anything official or serious. And he's like yeah I totally understand that. But then maybe a week later after I secure and move into my place he IMMEDIATELY. And I mean like immediately. Starts calling me his girlfriend. Not to me but to other people. Like going around to my coworkers and people at work to be like btw we're together now :). Which made me kind of uncomfortable but I just brushed it off because I am a huuuuuge pushover and I was like, sure I guess we're together. Even though I'm very private about my personal life and it took me like a good month to refer to him as my boyfriend out loud and I didn't even MENTION him to my best friends (hi besties) for a couple weeks after that. Because I was like damn I don't even know what to say. Also he never even attempted to do anything more than hold my hand a few times so we were still just hanging out the way we had been to begin with.

And THEN he started coming to the bowling alley where I work every single night and just like.... hanging around for hours and hours until we closed to drive me home (6 blocks away) and to talk to me while I'm working and on my breaks. And when he drove me home after work every SINGLE night he would park and walk me to my door and unless I was very clearly like yeahhh I'm exhausted Goodnight Bye :) he would often invite himself into my apartment just to hang around until I was like. Okay I have to go to bed because it's after 1am please leave. And it got to the point where I felt like I never had any time to myself and my social battery was constantly at 0 and I was also spending way more money than was within my budget because he was dragging me out to eat and do things constantly and to go to Disneyland and shit and also at the place where I work every single day and not leaving no matter how clearly Im like hey sorry I'm just. soooo tired right now and work is so busy etc. There were only THREE days in October that I had totally to myself. I could barely even find time to spend with my roommate I had just moved in with and he also was not really seeming to spend time with any of his own friends when he'd had an incredibly active social life like, just a month ago.

It was starting to really freak me out that I felt like he was trying to replace not only his previous long term girlfriend who broke up with him earlier this year but also his entire social circle. With lil old me. And I felt like he was trying to force a level of familiarity with me that simply was not there like... man you don't even KNOW me like that don't talk to me like you know me. Don't talk to me like you know me when you're also trying so hard all the time to like, impress me and prove something to me.

It got to the point by mid October that I was like desperate for time to myself to decompress and process things and most of my mental energy was going to trying to find ways to avoid him and scripting a breakup speech in my head. And instead of trying to talk to ME he would go into my workplace and try to ask my work friends. While they were working. For advice on what to do when I seemed distant or unhappy. And even though they really only ever told him to just communicate with me he decided to wait until the day before Halloween to be like "I realized that I was maybe doing to much by going to hang around your workplace every day and also it's been a month and a half but I want to officially ask you to be my girlfriend now :)" and was somehow genuinely shocked when I said no. And basically outlined everything I've said here to be like I need to be left alone or I'm going to kill myself a little bit so please leave me alone.

But it seems like what he took out of the conversation was "I need to take some naps and then I'll feel better and then we can go back to normal :)" because he just kept being like "how do you feel how are you doing you look better are you feeling rested" and continuing to go to my coworkers and my roommate at work and asking about me and show up at the bowling alley frequently and text me continually as I just brushed him off over and over and eventually stopped replying to his messages. Until finally last week I was working on a day I normally don't work and he came in and I, again, kind of brushed him off when he came to just like do small talk with me. So he went to my roommate who was also working to be like "oh I think I'm going to talk to them today we need to talk but I don't know if they just want to be left alone or not..." while she (blessed angel that she is) just refused to give him any real information. But then he just kept like, trying to chitchat with me while I was working so I started brushing him off again and he ended up going to my roommate AGAIN to vent about me. And then left and texted her all this stuff about how he doesn't know if I like him anymore but he's just going to leave me alone and try to get over me etc and how he's been so stressed over stuff with his parents etc etc and framing it as if HE is breaking things off with ME. But since then has continued to go to her to ask about me and talk about how he's trying to get over me and heartbreak and whatever and etc. But has not expressed anything at all to me personally in any capacity since I told him I needed space.

Meanwhile I've gone on multiple dates with someone I genuinely really like and who has slept over at my apartment multiple times LOL. And there are so many little details of weird shit that I've had to cut for time here but like genuinely what the hell man

Anyways have I mentioned that this man is 34 years old. Because he's 34 years old. And if you've read all this you are so cordially invited to share your thoughts and/or guess his chart placements in the replies. Funny as fuck situation that I'm in

[storieschats]

First ACOTAR reaction: Wolves, Fae, and Cursed Masks!

Hey everyone! This is my first time reading A Court of Thorns and Roses, and I'll be posting my reactions to the entire series, so join me on this journey! Feel free to comment, reblog, and talk to me about books anytime—I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Where I am: Book 1 Page 102 of 419

What's happened so far: So our story begins with a girl called Feyre who is very poor and has to hunt to survive. Feyre hates her family, which is fine because her family hates her too. Her family is horrible.

Anyway Feyre is hungry and Feyre's sisters called Nesta and Elain are also hungry and since Feyre promised her mum who died when she was a kid (she didn't like her mum either btw) that she would look after the family, we decided to go hunting in the woods Katniss style. Hunting in the woods is dangerous because we live near the border of the faerie world, which governs the northern part of the world leaving mortals with the southern part. And then we get lucky and find a deer or elk or something but oh no a wolf will eat the deer... So we kill the wolf. And we take its skin and sell it at the market along with the deer skin to a cool mercenary who tells us about her fights with faeries. Ah also there's a father somewhere but don't worry about it.  But oh no, a wolf/lion who says he's a fae breaks down the door of the hut where we live with our sisters (and that dad) and says that we killed his friend and now we have to let him kill us or go live with him in the land of the fairies for the rest of our lives. No third option. Easy choice. We're not going to fairyland.

We go to fairyland and they treat us well and feed us and clean us and stuff but we want to run away because the family needs Feyre to survive because they're useless. But hey, we don't need to run away after all because the lion/wolf/fae who kidnapped us turns out to be a human-looking fae man with pointy ears and he promises that he's looking after our family and we believe him because everybody knows fae can't lie. Ok but there's trouble in the fairy kingdom, a magical disease is spreading across the land, our kidnapper called Tamlin and his friend Lucien and our maid Alis are cursed to have to wear masks (ahahahahh what the hell) and the evil fairies who used to be afraid of the lords that Tamlin and Lucien are, now aren't afraid of anything and hang around our estate (good for them, go queens).

What I think so far: I like it! I've never read anything with fairies even though it's a super popular genre these days so I'm having fun.

Positive points:

I like the world, the fairies and the vibe of the descriptions of the woods and the village. It's giving me medieval fantasy vibes and I like it.

I like Lucien, our captor's friend.

I like the different types of fairies.

I like the part of the story where a poor girl is taken to a palace and given food and luxuries! I don't know if that's a trope but if it is it's one of my favourites!

Negative points:

I think I like this style of writing better than Fourth Wing, but it's still not my favourite.

The story is a bit slow, at least at the beginning, but I'm enjoying getting into the world. So far I feel the story is slow but not boring.

The fairies seem too human, I wish there was a more supernatural or eerie feel to them, but I don't think this is that kind of book.

Stars: ⭐⭐ but going for 3.

Prediction: I feel like this is going to be a Beauty and the Beast kind of scene where she needs to fall in love with him to undo the curse of the masks or something.

What I knew before reading: I knew it was about fairies (lol) and I knew she didn't get with the guy from the 1st book... so I know she doesn't get with Tamlin. I don't know who the guy in the 2nd book is, but I bet when he shows up I'll realise it.

After this reaction in conversation with my friend I found out that Lucien was going to be a love interest of one of the sisters and that it was a beauty and the beast retelling which even thought it was obvious made me feel very smart to being able to catch.

[purplesimmer455]

Iseul crosses her arms and looks across the table at Megan in the common room’s dining area. “I’m sorry for how I left things in our text. I felt like I was spending so much time with you and not enough with Tessie, and I felt guilty and like I had to distance myself, but I did it all wrong.” Megan says in a rush as Iseul’s expression clears and her eyes soften. “Why didn’t you talk to me about it, Megs?” She asks gently, leaning close. “I was embarrassed to admit it, plus I didn't want to hurt you but unfortunately that's what I ended up doing by not being straight up with you." She says. Iseul nods. "You did, Megs. I was wracking my brains thinking what the hell happened? Or thinking maybe the last time we hung out that I said or did something." Iseul admits. Megan nods, biting her lip and says. "I'm sorry Issy, I hope you can forgive me." Iseul smiles faintly. "I can, Megs. Next time just talk to me, and if you feel like you need to spend time with Tess or your kids** and can't hang out, just let me know. I won't be mad, plus I know how much you love them and they're important in your life." Megan nods, her face clearing up and her eyes turning brighter. "You're important too, Issy. I mean, you're my best friend." Megan adds as Iseul smiles softly.

"Do you have time to hang out after your class?" Megan asks. "Hmm, let me check my schedule." Iseul jokes, and Megan shakes her head but smiles. "It's a thirty minute class, I'm just covering this semester for the professor because she's on maternity leave, but I'll be free after." Iseul says, her eyes softening too. "Cool, there's a tea and poetry event happening here where you can read your own poem or recite a poem that means something to you, some of my language and literature students are reading their poems* and I'm reading something too." Iseul smiles. "I'd love to, Megs. What's your poem about?" Megan grins as she and Iseul head out of the commons so she and Iseul can buy coffee before Iseul’s class starts. "It's a surprise, Is." She says, and Iseul grins. "Is it about how amazing I am, and how in our friendship I'm the cool one?" She jokes, and Megan snorts. "Wow, Kang. You're very full of yourself." She teases, smiling at Iseul. "I prefer the term self assured." Iseul jokes before adding, "I'm kidding Megs, I'm sure it'll be good." And she smiles at Megan.

They walk over to the coffee cart and wait after placing their orders. "It's pretty cool that you'll be on campus too, we can get lunch together, hang out in our free time and grade stuff together." Megan adds as she and Iseul take their coffees and sit on a nearby bench. "Can you believe we were once college students here, and now we're the old as heck professors? Well mostly me but you'll be the cool professor with the short hair and leather jacket." Megan adds jokingly. Iseul grins and shakes her head. "Megs, stop, you're making me blush." She jokes. Megan snorts, "Don't go and get a big head about it, I just meant that you look cool." She says. "Well, you're cool too, Liao. I mean look at you." Iseul says, gesturing to Megan, who grins. "Now you're making me blush, Kang." She says, Iseul rolls her eyes but smiles.

[lesbianboyfriend]

((i’m sending this to blogs i know are run by lesbians, feel free to delete/leave unanswered))

recently i’ve had a spiritual awakening.

despite my fluid sexuality,

my soulmate is going to be another woman.

i can only imagine waking up next to a woman for the rest of my life.

i have known this for years yet never said it out loud.

how do i get over the fear that i am “missing” something by not “trying out” men?

how do i live my life prioritizing women and the relationships we have?

please share any thoughts you may have. thank you and blessings. ✌🏼🌿

hi anon!!

okay so firstly i would like to very gently suggest that if you can only ever imagine being in a lasting relationship with a woman, your sexuality might not be as fluid as you think. you might be a lesbian.

and i knowww it can be super scary to admit that. even to yourself. it took me a while to accept it for myself BUT the thing is that accepting i’m a lesbian has made me so much happier in my skin and self….and i say this even as someone who is not “out.” just allowing yourself to live that truth even if it’s just a personal truth is so freeing and wonderful. being a lesbian is actually so fucking awesome

obviously you know yourself your feelings your sexuality best so if lesbian doesn’t fit for you that’s cool. but i think the best way to come to terms with and learn to love your identity is simply engaging with lesbianism. which doesn’t have to be dating—talk to other lesbians, read lesbian novels, watch lesbian movies, find lesbian art….allow yourself to imagine a future where you are with another woman. allow yourself to imagine a future where you are with another woman and happy.

now how to get over feeling like you’re missing something from not having relationships with men. for me this one is really easy bc i’ve never met a man who isn’t the worst fucking person on the planet. i think about every woman i know in a relationship and how she’s settled for someone who doesn’t treat her as good as she deserves, who doesn’t help around the house, who doesn’t know how to express their emotions etc…..and obviously this is a huge issue and i hope all straight and bi women with boyfriends/husbands are happy and treated well. but i also know realistically that’s not the truth and most men fucking suck. so i mostly just think about that. and if you’re not attracted to men, especially with the prevalence of misogyny, there’s really. nothing attractive about having a relationship with a man other than social capital. (NOT saying that lesbians/lesbian relationships can’t also be bad/abusive/etc.)

now i can’t really give advice on being in a romantic/sexual relationship BUT i can give advice on prioritizing women in your life in general. number one, seriously confront the misogyny you’ve ignored from your male friends and acquaintances. chances are, if you’re like me, you’ve let stuff slide because you know they “don’t really believe that” and they’re “just joking.” well that’s not true. they MIGHT think they’re just joking but realizing that misogyny in the first place is even funny to them and actually grappling with that…changes how you see them! and you can do with that information what you will. but most importantly view it as a catalyst to simply prioritize the women around you. talk to them, hang out with them, compliment them, tell them when their boyfriend is being shitty and they deserve better (but be sensitive to the situation and don’t push. let them know you support them but don’t give them cause to pull away esp. if you’re concerned about abuse but that’s an entire other convo). flirt with women, uplift them, etc….if you find yourself focusing on mostly the men in a situation or even like when watching a tv show, ask yourself why? actively look for the women in a situation and ask yourself how they are being treated, who is being prioritized, and make it your goal to treat them right and prioritize them.

and at the end of the day, remember these phrases: “he’s just a man” and “i hope jakey dies”

i hope this was in any way helpful and good luck on your journey…..loving women + being a lesbian is literally the best <3

[whumpy-wyrms]

mundane and rot for the ask game :3

(from this ask game)

34. MUNDANE - Would you survive in the shoes of your main character?

I THINK ABOUT THIS A NORMAL AMOUNT (all the time) SO. would i survive if i was Dew… short answer: yes i’d basically become best friends with Anton right away because i’m insane.

long answer:

it depends on whether i Knew Anton beforehand or not (about to say the most unhinged shit and expose myself but idc), but either way, if i got kidnapped by a mad scientist who used me as a test subject but actually tried to be Nice to me and GAVE ME FREE TOP SURGERY AND WINGS… I DON’T THINK I WOULD WANT TO LEAVE. THINK ABOUT IT. if there was an autistic trans mad scientist who was best friends with a talking mouse and could give me wings i think i would choose to stay in sci-fi world instead of living on my own working at mcdonald’s and struggling to pay rent (that’s metaphorical, i don’t do that stuff (yet unfortunately)).

and i wouldn’t even be trapped there against my will for long either. i would literally Not last long as Anton’s test subject because the second we become friends and trust each other, he’ll just feel bad about hurting me and literally let me do whatever i want. we’d team up and become unstoppable. i would be free to do my own thing but like, still hang out with him obviously and i’d show him the beauty in the world and change his mind about the whole,, torturing innocent people thing. basically i can fix him. that’s what im saying here.

also not to spoil but Anton’s the type of guy where like, the second he’d form a genuine human relationship with someone, he’d just abandon the whole “kidnapping and (unethical) experimenting on unwilling human test subjects” thing. because there’d be no real point anymore. yeah, science makes him happy but so does having a best friend! and he’d still be a silly mad scientist!! but ethical!! mostly!! we’d team up, abandon the whole immortality thing because it’s stupid, and go hunt down Pierce and kill him!! it would just be fun.

if i was Dew, i would literally scrap trying to escape and instead focus on becoming friends with Anton because that Would Be one of the best outcomes. so yea :3 i may be weird but at least im honest about it (honestly though, i daydream about being friends with all my ocs :( they’re just so cool and we would get along so well. im normal. ignore me). this got long and rambly oops

OH YEAH about if i Knew Anton beforehand or not, like if it was a situation where the Present Me right now, like the person who is typing this and Knows everything about Anton because i created him, then that’d def affect things because i’d have access to all my prior knowledge about his character and backstory. it’d def make things faster and easier because like, i’d know who he is and what he’s capable of, and he wouldn’t be a complete stranger. but if i DIDN’T know Anton and if he was literally a stranger to me and not my oc, then it’d be scary at first but it’d still turn out the same.

i mean you guys don’t understand how deep this goes. before Dew existed, the daydreams i had with the unnamed scientist whumper (Anton) were all just,, Me as his test subject whumpee. i was Dew before Dew was Dew. OBVIOUSLY HE’S NOT A SELF INSERT ANY! MORE! HE’S HIS OWN COMPLEX FLESHED OUT CHARACTER COMPLETELY SEPARATE FROM ME! but that’s just how all my whump scenario daydreams started, and then i got attached and had to make characters and stuff.

i am rambling so much rn ANYWAY! yeah. this was a fun question that definitely won’t make people think i’m any more weirder than i already am (im not rereading all that so if there’s typos ignore them <3)

39. ROT - Which of your OCs is the best villain?

this is a hard one i think,, like out of the tllr ocs the actual villain of the story would be Pierce (not rlly a spoiler because it’s pretty obvious i think) but he’s not the BEST villain because i hate his guts (but he’s like Actually evil and terrifying and thinking about him makes me Afraid and filled with despair).

is Anton really a villain? yeah. but i guess i see his character differently than u guys because i know his character development later on in the story, and i know his entire backstory too. so that def chances my perception of him compared to how everyone else views him i think? maybe? idk

[cambrian-creature]

Hello, and welcome to M*A*S*H enjoyers anonymous

Now tell us, why are you here?

(basically just a free space to talk/infodump, be free my sweet cheese)

Oooooh boy.

MASH is a show about war, but also mostly it's about people and how people react under stress. Something to note is that it's about the Korean War, but it's actually about the Vietnam War.

It's got its issues, definitely. It's not particularly respectful to Korean people despite being set in Korea. But it was the 70s so like. Idk, can't expect much. There's a lot to unpack in the way of imperialism. The show is very anti-war, but mostly focused on the Americans, which is pretty damn reductive if you ask me. There is also the misogyny and if one more person calls Major Margaret Houllihan "hot lips" I am going to throw hands. I'm not making excuses for any of this, but it's an old ass show and you can't get too hung up on it. ANYWAY, you asked about the good stuff.

The main character, Hawkeye, is this. Unhinged, sleep deprived, alcoholic surgeon who's just. Unreasonably good at his job. Despite the Horrors of War, he's still one of the kindest, most lovable people, and he only put Frank in a shipping crate one time, so it's fine. And the blood he stole was for a good cause. As was the money he stole and the one time he gaslit a guy into thinking he'd lost his mind. All for a good cause. He's so cool, he's a menace, he's a slut, he's deeply psychologically damaged, he's a little silly, he invented the principle behind Goncharov, he's even bisexual.

Hawkeye's best friend and roommate is Trapper John, fellow manwhore and prankster extraordinaire. He always makes me a little sad cause I think he's Hawkeye's best friend and Hawkeye isn't his best friend? To him, it's all temporary, and he'll get out of Korea and go back to his wife and kids and probably try to not think about any of it ever again, but Hawk's such a ride or die friend, and he depends so much on not being alone and. Fuck, man. He's just like me for real. No shit, I realized this a couple years ago, and it sent me into this huge spiral of wondering if my friends love me as much as I love them and it lasted like. Years. And then I did that thing people do where they tell other people about their feelings? Which was weird. But it was also cool and now I do not worry about that as much anymore. A little bit, because the fears never cease, but y'know. It's cool. Apparently I am also sad and lonely because I am FULLY spilling my guts here lmao. Don't read that. Fuck whatever BJ has going on, THIS is the Trapper Complex.

Also Trapper leaves like three seasons in and is replaced by Blow Job Hunnicut, who keeps saying shit like "man, I bet you sure had fun with Trapper, huh" and "boy this must be just like the good ol days with Trapper" like we get it, you're jealous. He's also deeply psychologically damaged. I don't like him so much, but I also haven't seen a lot of him yet so I guess we'll see.

Okay, now MARGARET. She's amazing. She's cool and fascinating and ALSO deeply psychologically damaged! She's a strong woman in the 50s, she's so angry all the time, she just wants some goddamn respect and also someone to hang out with her to do manicures. She has this fascinating mix of wanting to be feminine and pretty but also needing to be masculine and angry to get respect. She's a hardass, she's obsessed with the rules, she's so mad at everything all the time because she has so little control over her situation, she's just like my mother and I love her so much. She could do any man's job in that camp so much better. I like to think after the war she goes back to medical school and becomes a doctor and gets some GODDAMN RESPECT.

Also she's dating (she dumps him don't worry) this absolute schlub Frank who is. A garbage human being. He's so pathetic and funny but also like genuinely terrible and canonically homophobic. If he were in modern times he would vote for Trump. He's Mr. Patriot. He's the Yankee Doodle Doctor. He's a shit doctor. He's so funny to watch cause everyone around him is so funny and witty and good at snappy comebacks and he says shit like "ohhhh you- you- guys!! >:(" Like yeah Frank. Get em. Don't hold back. He's a real "why I oughta-" kinda guy. Apparently the actor got so much hate mail he quit the show which is honestly so mean and tragic because Frank is such a fun character. I want to watch him fail again and again and again and then cause more problems. He could call me a slur in a Walmart parking lot and I'd just laugh at him and ask him if his wife knows about his girlfriend. She doesn't.

When Frank left, he got replaced by this other guy and I have no idea what his deal is. My apologies to Charles Emerson Winchester III. People like him I guess. He seems boring next to Frank tbh.

Now lemme tell ya about Klinger. Actually lemme show you.

He's beautiful. Gorgeous. Show stopping. He started out as a bit character and the joke was that he was trying to get a section 8 discharge (sent home on the grounds of being mentally unfit to serve), but everyone loved him so much that he became a recurring character and the outfits kept getting better and it went from "haha man in a dress" to "he's a genuinely deep character and this is his coping mechanism and he is so afraid of this war. Also he's the hottest guy around and everyone knows it. Even the priest wants him carnally." Genuinely the best fucking guy. In the early seasons, the laugh track goes off every time he enters a room and it makes me so mad. Take his whimsical ass seriously.

Also I mentioned there's a priest. I'm not sure why they have a priest, but I think that was just a thing in the 50s. He's got too many names. You can find him currently in the Catholic Characters Tournament and it's funny cause the person who runs that keeps getting his names out of order. It's John Patrick Francis Mulcahy, cause they gave him one name in the movie and then changed it in the show like twice at least so. Four names. Anyway, he's the only priest I trust. He literally just wants to help people and he has no way of knowing that he's doing any real good so he wants recognition for his efforts but that goes against what he's meant to be doing, he's meant to be completely selfless, but he wants to know that he's at least doing something, otherwise what's the point. What's the point of everything he's worked for. What's the point of devoting his life to this. To these people and to his god and to being a good person. Because if he thinks of himself, if he wants anything for himself, does that not mean he's selfish? And that's bad, he can't be selfish, but he is because everyone is, that's just human nature to want to know the results of your work. Also he's convinced he's the second coming of Christ or some shit. I can't fully explain this one, but he really does think he's like. God's special little boy. Which is kinda fair, cause he gives fucking EVERYTHING to these people, to the doctors, to the soldiers, even to the enemy, because he just wants people to be okay. He wants people to stop fighting and to heal and to love one another. And he also wants someone to tell him he's doing a good job and that he's making a difference and he wouldn't believe them but it would be something. Also he wants to punch people sometimes. All the time. He could kick anyone's ass in single combat. I love him.

Am I missing anything.

RADAR!!!!! They put a child in a warzone but luckily he is hyper-competent and literally psychic. He makes me sad because he is 19 years old and he has a teddy bear and he is short and angry and eats a lot because he's a growing boy and everyone makes fun of him for having teenager behavior when he is!!!! A teenager!!!! He graduated highschool yesterday!!!!! He's the same age as me and he's in a warzone!!!!!! Get him out of there!!!!! Put him in college and let him work a boring ass fast food job like a normal teenager!!!!! And stop laughing at him for having a teddy bear!!!!!!! He's not even that short, it's just that all the guys in this show are at least 6 feet tall. Anyway, he basically runs the camp because Henry is fucking incompetent (affectionate) so yeah. This child is their commanding officer and the only one anyone respects.

Their actual commanding officer is Henry Blake. He just wants to go home and see his wife and kids again and go fishing and chill the fuck out. He's a good surgeon but genuinely a pathetic army man. But also I love him so much cause listen. He could just fuck off. We see another guy in his same rank and position who just hangs out in Tokyo the whole time making money off this shit. So despite being very afraid all the time, Henry sticks around in a shitty camp 3 miles from the front to patch up kids full of lead. He stays not out of any duty to the army, but a duty to his patients and his people, because he's a good person and a good doctor and genuinely one of the bravest people around. He could've been a coward and hid, but he stayed and he helped people and even though he knew the risks, it just never occurred to him that he could abandon his people to do it all without him. He stayed and he died and he never saw his wife and kids again and he never met his newborn son. He tells his oldest son over the phone to be good while he's gone, to stay strong and keep everything running until he comes back, and he never comes back. I am genuinely crying. Fuck. I hope he's catching the best fish at the big lake in the sky.

Anyway. I'm gonna stop before this gets out of hand. More than it has.

[stagmalinay]

Session 02 part 2

Didn't mean to leave you guys hanging, but Author sort of got married a few days ago, so yeah. Congrats! And moving on.

Alright, so Dirt Guy finally stops and tiefling lady talks to him for a bit. Mugen catches up to me and I just sort of wait until everything's okay and the two start to return. We all took a long walk out of town for nothing. Sort of disappointed about that, but it's okay.

So we get back to the tavern and the tiefling takes us up to her private room overlooking the rest of the bar and asks what's been going on. Dirt Guy and Mugen are just so chatty, 😒, so I jump right into how we're supposed to go and catch this guy except no one knows what we're doing. We've no weapons and no one seems to know where to go to get them, nor do they know how to get to where we're going. I can't even read, I have an excuse, but what's up with these guys?

Curious, the tiefling asks if I can't even read dragon-something. I told her to just assume I can't read anything, I skipped school. Technically true regardless of which realm we're talking about, but I didn't feel like explaining the whole bit about how I'm from another world to her and we apparently write differently there.

Upon hearing this, she offers us drinks. I turn it down initially because I don't really care for alcohol, but she ushers us on and I finally drink it.

It tastes nasty as fuck!

But, you know, after a while she motions out to the bottles of drink behind her and asks me if I can read them. I laugh, knowing that I can't, but take a look anyway. And I did not expect what I saw. It was like I was reading Theran, but it didn't look like Theran. I just instinctively knew what it said when I tried to read it.

I immediately pulled out the wanted poster and the note she left me earlier and read them, fascinated. Not entirely sure how a drink can do that, but that is seriously cool.

She tries to get Dirt Guy to drink his, which is a different color, and he does, and then it looks like Mugen has the same drink as mine, but he refuses.

She gets a little more information out of us and in the midst of it all, I bring up all the shenanigans Mugen was up to earlier with making the drunks more drunk. She got pissed! But I tried to remedy the situation by telling her about my weird bottomless pit purse. She was confused and asked to inspect the purse asking what else I'd put in there. (I wasn't going to tell her what I wanted to put in there.) Afterwards, she came to the conclusion that anything I put in wasn't coming back.

"That's the solution I'm offering you. Dump the bad water in the coin purse and replace it."

She didn't buy it and handed the purse back to me.

At this point, she started to realize what I'd started to realize, we were screwed. I am an idiot because I don't know anything about this world and the other two aren't much better and they're from this world. Which is fine, I guess, because my ultimate goal is really just to keep busy. You know, keep my mind off of things, so this is what I'm doing: walking around picking up odd jobs that clearly none of us are skilled enough for. But to be honest, at least this one gets me out of town too. It's kinda small.

Probably taking pity on us, Adelaide, the red tiefling, sets us up. She has Dirt Guy hole up in the kitchen learning how to cook and allows me to help out at the bar.

Over the next three days, I get real popular and breathe a lot of life into the place. Everyone likes me and offers up information, happy to talk about whatever their livelihood is. I learn all about "domesticated" animals and crops. I don't really care much about the plants, but they seem really proud of their stuff and often bring me free food. The others tells me all about their animals and other kinds that aren't in the village and I even get to meet some of them.

I gotta say, horses are really interesting. An animal that lets you ride them. Amazing.

I will say that I learned what sort of red berries they threw at that one drunk guy back in the oasis. It's called a tomato. Such a weird word.

At the end of the three days, a lot of the townspeople show their obvious bias against me leaving, but I've already gotten kind of tired of this place. Adelaide hooked us up though. She got us two horses, one for me and one for Dirt Guy, and some supplies to last a few days. Also got a couple of tailor made outfits for me so now I'm not wearing those tattered and oversized clothes from before. These are actually flattering. And after all that, we head off.

All I gotta say is that riding a horse is like flying through the air. My horse and I were completely in tune with each other. Dirt Guy seemed to be having issues though. It kept wanting to graze instead of run. Not like we weren't feeding it. And Mugen kept up by running. He's pretty fast for his size, but then again so's the horse.

The second day of our journey wasn't as fun. For whatever reason, a bunch of watch dumped out of the sky. My horse really wasn't liking it and I don't blame. The fuck was up with the sky? And what was dumping water on us? None of it made sense.

But then the third day... I don't know what the fuck is up with this realm but my face hurt and I couldn't breathe. Dirt Guy was fine, but Mugen and I couldn't stop coughing and sneezing and no matter how much shit I got out of my nose, it just wouldn't stop! I don't know what's wrong with me, but clearly anything coming from the sky is bad! Super fucking bad!! Mugen kept trying to explain that we were sick, but that just don't make any sense. I didn't eat anything that would upset my stomach and this is my face we're talking about here. My face! At one point, I gave up and cried because I've never felt so horrible in my life.

Thank god it got better the next day.

I really wasn't riding all that quickly that day and kept my eye on the sky for any more water dumping. I do not want to go through that again. And I felt better, but Mugen was starting to look a little less green and didn't talk as much. He always talks, but I didn't question it because I wasn't exactly in the best mood either. This trip sucks!

But anyway, the fifth day is mostly uneventful, but we manage to reach the town later in the afternoon. And that is what I'll be talking about next time. Don't worry, I won't make you wait too long for another update. Don't trust the sky, people! Especially if it's gonna dump water on you!

Context: Thera doesn't have weather, so the sky being anything but clear is a huge abnormality to me. Also, people don't get sick on Thera. Disease has been eradicated for years. You just don't get sick, okay?