#like sometime ago i was in a harry potter mood and somewhat thought about checking out dr*rry and it's like the same exact thing

[usuallydeepcoffee]

Oof... I feel like it were the same people who started out with Stony for Tony, then got into Stucky for Bucky, and now after Endgame they're into SamBucky for Bucky. Like it's the same fics and the same bs all over again. 1 gets all the attention, the other is cast aside and used as a prop

And also: the absolutely super annoying tendency to make everything about Bucky. Literally everything shield/hydra did got attributed to Bucky like "oh they did this for the asset" they literally were working with Steve for over 2 years, OF COURSE THEY GOT PROTOCOLS IN PLACE FOR HIM.

"They knew how to wake Steve up because of Bucky" bolt of you to assume Marvel had even planned ahead that far. Also, that would be incredibly stupid because Steve and Bucky have different versions of the serum and it's entirely different context.

Anyway, not everything is about Bucky 2021

Ooof, I'm so sorry to hear that, anon. I was kinda hoping they wouldn't pull this shit with Sam as the other part of the pairing, because of the gross racist implications, but once again, I seem to have given fandom too much credit.

I feel like a big part of the B*cky fandom has just been discussing his trauma and suffering for so long (and throwing tantrums when that was not the focus of entire movies), that they don't realize that the other characters a. Have lives outside of B*cky b.Are not obligated to play therapist for him for no reason at all.

Also, I don't know what's up with that, but I feel like in a lot of ships fandom just collectively picks a fave and they pour all the interest in them while the other is stuck in the caretaker role. I don't remember it being so unbalanced when I got into fanfic -and sure, it's not like this in EVERY fandom, but it's certainly a trend I've seen more recently (especially in m/m fics).

[bonjour-rainycity]

The Long Way Around ~ Chapter 8

Link to previous part: https://bonjour-rainycity.tumblr.com/post/623476978292555776/the-long-way-around-chapter-7

Pairing: Jasper x Reader

Word count: 2191

Warnings: None

Jasper’s POV

It doesn’t take long for us to get to the waterfall. I had been careful, keeping us deep in the woods so the chances of running into a human were slim. Really, I probably shouldn’t have taken the risk, but Y/n seemed so happy at the prospect of leaving the house. And, I really love this spot, so I was eager to show her.

It’s dark when we arrive, the moon high in the sky and stars twinkling all around. Y/n, of course, loves it. She gasps, immediately running to the edge of the pool to let the waterfall splash droplets into her face.

“Jasper, it’s beautiful.”

I close my eyes, enjoying the way she says my name. So soft, so sweet, and without any judgement or fear. I find myself wishing she would say my name more often.

She tugs on my hand, pulling me out of my thoughts. “Let’s go to the top.”

We have to let go of each other’s hands to climb the steep rocks, and I’m surprised to discover I don’t like the loss of contact. What’s that about? Y/n sees my frown and I feel her insecurity. I mentally kick myself. Stop being so obvious with your feelings. Get it together.

We reach the top and I force a grin, trying to even out my behavior and squash my nerves. “What do you think?”

She chuckles, still on her guard. “I think we’re very high up. If I was human, I’d be terrified.”

As it is, I can still feel some fear. Using my ability, I push it away. Suspecting I’ve intervened, she smiles. “Thank you.”

She plops down on the top of the wet rock and, once again, I mentally curse myself. I should have brought a blanket or something. She doesn’t seem to mind but still, I feel guilty. One would think I haven’t an ounce of chivalry.

“So how does the mood control thing work anyway? Like can you only calm people down or is it a little bit of everything?”

I sit next to her, surprised we’ve never talked about this before. “A little bit of everything, though I try to stay away from some of the more manipulative emotions. It’s not right to mess with people like that.”

I feel her interest. “Manipulative like what?”

I take a breath, hesitant to make her aware of the more dangerous aspect of my ability. But she asked, and it would be selfish to deny her. “Fear, mostly. Lust, love…” I trail off, feeling the nearly imperceptible shift in her emotions. She’s intrigued.

“Can you make me feel something right now?”

At my immediate shake of the head, she rolls her eyes. “Nothing extreme, just something everyday. Like you’ve done before. I want to see if I can tell your influence from what’s natural.”

Seems harmless enough. With a sigh of reluctance, I nod. She grins in anticipation.

It doesn’t take much effort to make her feel calm and lethargic; I’d done that many times before. Still, it’s a bit unnerving to see her posture slump as the force of my ability hits her. So, I switch to something more positive and make her feel giddy. She breaks out into delighted laughter, only some of which is my doing, and claps her hands.

“That’s so cool!”

I smile, a spark of pride running through me.

She shakes her head, her disbelief coming through. “Gosh, how do you do it all day? Feel everything. I would go crazy.”

My smile turns a bit rueful as I look off into the distance, contemplating. “It is a lot, sometimes. Most days I can tune it out, though I can never ignore it completely. It’s just like a constant presence in addition to what I feel for myself.”

Y/n follows my gaze, going quiet. At first I worry that I’ve upset her somehow, but a quick check into her emotions tells me that’s not it. She’s hesitant, nervous. I can feel her psyching herself up and, perhaps unethically, I push courage her way. I really want to know what she’s thinking.

She doesn’t look at me when she finally speaks. “How do you differentiate, then? Like, how do you know something you’re feeling is yours and not the influence of someone else?”

I pause, wanting to take the time to explain correctly. What she’s asking is valid, and something I considered often during my early days. “Everyone’s emotional climate is uniquely theirs. It’s more difficult to discern what’s mine and what’s not when I’m with a crowd of strangers, because I don’t know them well and can’t…” I struggle for the right word, “learn them, so to speak. But with people I’m around often, it’s as easy as breathing. If you’re upstairs and I’m in the basement and there’s a houseful of other people with their own emotions between us, and there’s a change in all of your emotions at the same time, I would know which was yours and which was Emmett’s and Esme’s and so on. Each of you has a distinct feel to you that I’ve become accustomed to. I don’t even have to think about it anymore.”

She nods, and I feel her fascination as well as her…tenderness?

Instinctively, I know that now is the right time. With great effort not to project my own nervousness onto her, I reach over and grab my backpack.

“I uh, got you something while I was out earlier.” Ugh, why do I sound like that? I find myself wishing there was someone out there to control my moods.

Y/n smiles shyly, her emotions indicating hesitancy and anticipation. Okay, nothing alarming.

“You did?”

I shake my head, suddenly feeling very shy myself. “It’s nothing special, just…well.” I take the jewelry box out of my bag and put it in her hands.

She gives me a quick, nervous glance before opening it, and then I suddenly feel much, much better about my decision.

She gasps in delight and her happiness overwhelms me. “Oh my gosh, Jasper…” She pulls the necklace out of the box and holds it up, allowing it to catch the light of the moon and sparkle.

The necklace is simple, really. The gold, braided chain is unassuming and the butterfly pendant, relatively small.

Her smile softens, as she strokes the butterfly carefully. “You remembered…”

And I did. All that time ago, when she had mentioned her love of emeralds, and a little later when she sat in awe as a flood of butterflies darted past us, I took note. I had gone to town hoping to find something to give her, not really having any idea what. The necklace practically smacked me in the face when I saw it, it being so perfect. And although she hadn’t mentioned liking diamonds, I figured it wouldn’t be bad to include just one, and the salesman agreed. We decided that the small, oblong diamond making up the body of the butterfly wouldn’t be ostentatious and wouldn’t take away from what made up the wings.

Y/n exhales, her disbelief apparent. “Jasper, are these real?” She holds the necklace closer to her face, getting a better look.

I rub the back of my neck, suddenly sheepish. Technically, yes, everything in the necklace is real, but I know to what she’s referring. Her attention is caught on the clusters of twinkling emeralds that make up the butterfly’s wings.

I nod, not trusting my voice.

Without warning, she throws her arms around me with a force that nearly knocks me to the ground. I grip her waist, steading us. She sinks deeper into the hug, nearly in my lap now, and I allow myself to wrap my arms around her and pull her close. I don’t want to move. I don’t want to do anything that could cause her to pull away because this is the most amazing thing I’ve felt since…since ever. Nothing has ever felt so right. Her emotions support my wild hope that she’s feeling the same way, that she’s enjoying being close to me as much I’m enjoying it with her. We stay like that for a while, and I let my head fall into her shoulder, taking in her scent. It’s comforting, and a little intoxicating. If hugging her is this wonderful, imagine-

And I stop myself right there. Y/n is still so young to this life, and it would be ridiculously wrong of me to burden her with my budding feelings. She has way too much to focus on right now without worrying about her best friend trying to get with her.

So I reign my emotions in, hoping I haven’t unintentionally projected anything onto Y/n. Her emotions tell me no, and that, thankfully, she hadn’t noticed my sudden shift in demeanor. I try to dispel my regret and pull back from the hug.

She’s smiling, and it’s a beautiful sight. I can at least allow myself to acknowledge that.

“Help me put it on?”

She turns and holds her hair up, giving me room to gently clasp the necklace in place. I make a special effort not to brush my fingers against her neck, knowing that would only torture me.

She sits next to me, holding the necklace carefully. “Thank you. I love it.” She means it, and it lightens my heart to know so.

We sit in comfortable silence, her admiring the gift and the night, and I admiring her. After a while, she pulls out the Harry Potter book, and I find myself grateful that she had the forethought to bring it. I lay back on the rock, enjoying the lilt to her voice as she reads softly. The Harry Potter’s are fine, really, but I wouldn’t have finished the series if we weren’t reading together. It’s just nice to enjoy the quality time.

Two chapters later, she turns to me with a grin. “Do you want to jump off the waterfall?”

Our excitement mingles and I can’t help the wide smile that spreads across my face. “Definitely.”

We stand, quickly pulling off our clothes so we’re in our bathing suits. I make sure to keep my gaze is respectful, desperately not wanting to freak Y/n out or make her feel uncomfortable. She, on the other hand, refuses to look at me, and my insecurities rush to the surface. I know my scars are bothering her.

But she holds out her hand, and that soothes the wound somewhat.

“You promise we won’t die?”

I chuckle, taking her hand in mine. “Promise.”

With that, we fling ourselves off the cliff.

Water hits us from all directions but, being virtually indestructible, it doesn’t cause any pain. It’s just fun.

Y/n laughs wildly as we fall, only stopping when we break the surface of the water. We sink deeply, and it’s a good thing we don’t need to breathe. As humans, we would never make it to the surface in time to get air.

Y/n releases my hand to swim deeper underwater, apparently intent on reaching the bottom. I follow, her excitement contagious. The bottom is rocky and slimy with algae, and she makes a face when her feet make contact. I burst out in laughter, the last remnants of my air escaping to the surface as bubbles. Y/n rolls her eyes in mock annoyance and reaches out to tug on a strand of my hair, which is long enough to float in the water. I only laugh though and push more water in her direction which, of course, does nothing. With an impish grin, she swims to the top, leaving me no choice but to follow.

She breaks the surface only a second before I do, gasping for air out of habit. “Being a vampire does have its perks.”

I wipe the water from my eyes. “I’m inclined to agree.”

The sky begins to lighten. I hadn’t realized how long we’d been here.

Her thoughts match mine. “We should head back soon. We’re already pushing the time needed to hunt and you,” she eyes me playfully, “still need to lighten those eyes.”

I nod with mock seriousness. “Yes, ma’am.”

The burst is so quick I almost miss it. Almost. For a split second, attraction becomes Y/n’s dominant emotion. But as soon as I notice it, it’s gone. I must’ve made it up or accidentally projected it onto her.  Whoops.

She smiles, feeling a bit nervous. “You ready?”

No. “Yes.” In all honesty, I would quite like to spend days here in the water with her. But, I agree that it will be suspicious if we stay away too much longer, so I get out of the water after her. I climb up to the top once more to get our stuff, then drop down beside Y/n.

She rolls her eyes without annoyance. “Show off.”

But I only grin and take her hand, feeling much more confident in the action now that she’s initiated it so many times. I feel her contentment, and can’t help but feel at home.

A/n Hello hello! Let me know what you think so far and if you would like to be added to the tag list!

xx, 

Bjr

Link to next part: https://bonjour-rainycity.tumblr.com/post/623756834957885440/the-long-way-around-chapter-9

Tag list: @puer-de-infinitate @charliestuff @hindustani-diaspora @one-thread-can-save-a-life @salsameter @meashy-moo @sana-li @enchantedcruelsummer @femflorals

[orihara-infobroker]

Ranty rant rant about stuff because this cat just needs to vent.

So I've mentioned this before a few times though I don't really talk about it all that much. One of my on-and-off hobbies is role-playing. Tabletop, live-action, or narrative writing, I pretty much enjoy them all. For similar reasons to why I love writing stories. I like creating characters and worlds. In writing I do all the heavy lifting but role-playing has the unique experience of collaborative storytelling and that adds an element that can be very fun. Also, sometimes it's just fun to play in someone else's sandbox for a change.

Some time ago, a friend invited me to check out a Harry Potter rp site. The site itself is pretty decently setup and it seemed like it could be interesting. I'm not a huge Potter nerd but I've seen the movies and I'm a sucker for fantasy settings. But this isn't the first time I've dipped my toes in the HP universe so I thought that instead of doing the standard Eurocentric character, I'd try something different.

I admit, I'd been working pretty heavily on Shadow and Light at the time so that was strongly influencing my mood insofar as what I wanted to play with. So I submitted the idea of a Japanese character who had grown up in Japan but recently moved to London (thus why I'd be attending Hogwarts). The character's parents were onmyoji, part of a branch family of the Tsuchimikado clan. This clan is somewhat famous for its relation to Abe no Seimei who is arguably the most famous onmyoji in Japanese folklore. I also requested that the character be a metamorph which is a wizard who can change their features. Basically a kind of shape-shifting. Tonks was a metamorph, for reference. In requesting this, I was asked to explain why my family had a metamorph. So I wrote a piece where the character's mom told him the story of Abe no Seimei's mom being a fox that his Dad saved and that there had been stories told of how Abe no Seimei could change his appearance. (Not into a fox. Just change his appearance.) And how sometimes people in the clan would be born with the same ability.

Note that everything I incorporated into this character's backstory is based off actual Japanese mythology and not Harry Potter universe. Harry Potter universe doesn't actually address anything about how magic is done in the East. (And if Rowling ever comes up with anything it'll probably be hideously racist anyway but I digress.)

All of this is important, I promise.

So I was a Japanese pureblood kid raised to become an onmyoji only to end up at Hogwarts by pure misfortune. I thought this would be fun to play, basically a foreign exchange student completely out of his element, not understanding how Western magic works, struggling with having to learn English on top of magic, etc.

Well.

Apparently my idea set all sorts of fires under the admin staff of this site. They were opposed because:

1. They didn't think I knew what I was talking about when I suggested being onmyoji (wherein I proved that I actually know more about onmyoji and Japanese mythology than them.)

2. They didn't have lore on the East therefore they didn't want me making stuff up because it might not mesh with what they might eventually get around to creating somewhere down the road. Even though they had no current plans to develop the Eastern setting. (Yeah. You read that right. I was told... in a role play game... not to make stuff up... which is ironic given that I didn't actually make anything up, just liberally stole from actual Japanese mythology. Further, my character was going to Hogwarts so all of this was just backstory and flavour.)

3. I CANNOT BE RELATED TO ABE NO SEIMEI HE IS LIKE THE JAPANESE MERLIN!!!!!!! (Oh yes. Please. Make more ignorant racist comments at me. From now on I shall refer to Merlin as the English Abe no Seimei. -_- Abe no Seimei, while unlikely to be as mystical as he was made out to be in the stories, was a real person. Merlin was never real. He was always a fictional creation. Further, I never claimed to be related to Abe no Seimei. I claimed to be a branch family of the Tsuchimikado Clan to whom Abe no Seimei was either a member of or the founder of, depending on varying stories. So. Apparently they don't understand how Japanese clans work? Or branch families? No? OK, great. GREAT.)

4. They claimed that my story about the kitsune wasn't appropriate because kitsune were a type of mythical creature and metamorphs are completely human so I can't be "half-fox". Further, one of them claimed I wanted to be "half-demon". (Which is both a grave misinterpretation of what I wrote *and* a completely incorrect assumption on what kitsune are. They are not any kind of demon. And I didn't want to be any kind of half demon or even half fox. It was a story told from a mother to a child, using a classic myth to convey a possible reason why their family sometimes had metamorphs. That's it. Which, if they had understand that whole BRANCH FAMILY thing, they should have definitely realized. But apparently I wasn't clear enough? Ok. Fine, maybe I was too fucking subtle. Still never asked to be half fucking anything. Asked to be a metamorph. That's it.)

5. Labeled me as a problem because of all of this. Which occurred over the course of two conversations and a handful of days. Yeah. YEAH. I'M A FUCKING PROBLEM BECAUSE I TRIED TO BE FUCKING CREATIVE IN THEIR FUCKING SANDBOX AND HAPPENED TO ACTUALLY KNOW WHAT THE FUCK I WAS TALKING ABOUT WHICH TURNED OUT TO BE SIGNIFICANTLY MORE THAN THEM.

And it's so frustrating because I was looking forward to playing with my friend on this site and I genuinely felt like they were targeting me because I didn't choose a basic bitch character and I had the nerve to ask questions when they tried to contest it. Like, it wasn't a genuine conversation where two sides explained their opinions. It was literally me trying to propose something and being treated like a child when I was repeatedly trying to explain where they were misinterpreting the things I had written because they didn't know Japanese history/mythology.

I've been a gamemaster/storyteller for games before. Over the course of my time role-playing, I've run four Larps, a handful of tabletops and hosted a couple online rps. My Discord server is technically a role play server that I moderate ( currently its mostly just chatting, not a lit of rp but it was designed to be rp lol). I know how these things work. And that just makes this more frustrating because my impulse, as a storyteller, has always been to work together with players to create engaging stories. I've always been willing to accept the potential of new ideas because the whole point of fucking role-playing is getting to exercise your imagination and tell stories together. So from my perspective, I'd be more than happy to work with them on this. I'd be more than happy to share what I know and talk about what could work or not work. But they don't seem to want to engage in that way and it makes me sad, frustrated, disappointed. Especially because I had really been looking forward to playing with my friend and now it seems that this whole thing is doomed to failure.

All because I got creative and asked questions. :/