#mvp all the way

[lu-sn]

macau looks away graciously for much longer than pete expects him to, then lets out a horrified squawk when he turns around to see vegas and pete still kissing.

"we get it, you're in love, happy fucking new year, now spare me," he says, yanking ineffectively at pete's shoulder. vegas bats macau's hand away, then dips pete further back against the couch for show, smiling into pete's mouth.

and then macau thoroughly wallops vegas with a couch cushion. pete drops backwards, watches as vegas growls out a "you're in for it, you little shit," launching himself at macau as macau shrieks and bolts away.

when vegas hauls macau back, firmly secured in a headlock, pete makes sure to grab at vegas's forearms, pulling macau closer and pressing a sniff kiss into macau's hair. this earns him a litany of protest, so vegas does it too, and macau wriggles like a fish while doing absolutely nothing to try to get away.

[miabrown007]

Félix: kidnapping is a love language Kagami: you have no social skills, idiot

*two weeks later*

Félix: okay, so when Marinette's at her most vulnerable, I'll gaslight her into thinking I'm her boyfriend, so she'll follow me into an abandoned building where we can put her in an altered mental state and present to her my family's life story in the imaginable most cryptic play of theater she has ever seen, which will reveal to her our horrible secret and the fact that her abusive father-in-law is also her arch-nemesis Kagami: you're so big brained, bae 🥰

[the-physicality]

thinking this labor day about all the athletes in women's sports who didn't have a stable league, who were only making decent money from a spot on their national team, who had to fight to get even a fraction of what they deserve. who spent their prime without a club league or the infrastructure to propel the sport. who came of age after title 9 in the usa [forcing schools to fund women/girls’ sports], the ones who fought for cbas and are only seeing big change at the end of their careers or after their careers concluded. who didn't have the media attention before, but are now showing just how much they can sell out stadiums and arenas. the players who played year round because overseas teams paid athletes what they were worth. athletes who endured and reported harassment but the league never took appropriate action. athletes who never had the media attention or ability to monetize their talent but who had careers that were just as impressive as the stars of today. who did it without the help of the science, technology, and medicine we have today. who set records with less support and fewer games in a season, which will be broken by kids who have had personal trainers since high school. athletes who played great games that are no long available to view, their talent no longer archived and accessible for young or new fans. athletes who still don't have a league or are just getting one in 2024. athletes who took it upon themselves to create change for which they will never reap the full rewards.

[viserya-firstofhername]

Listen, I thought I would survive this season lurking on the sidelines, but I can’t. Jace broke my heart tonight after surpassing any and every character GRRM ever created in my brain and heart since reading Fire and Blood, and I need to talk about 2x07.

Strong words, yes, damn ugly, when Jace is calling people ‘mongrels’ (no we ain’t letting it slip, no, but the rest of men are sometimes getting away with whores, mothers-of-bastards, are we good with these now cause its common speech or smth). Imagine that tho, classist Jacaerys going through calling himself things in his head every day of his life while looking at his beautiful visibly not-silver curls getting in his eyes. Just imagine for a second. So distinct.

It’s bubbling in him for years. And his entire family - his mother, his father, his other father, his third father (the epitome of Targaryen legacy if there ever was one), his grandfathers, every person that his young heart wants to trust - refusing to talk to him about it. While every ‘family’ member deemed unsafe - read - Aegon, Aemond, Alicent (even fucking Cole) is out there ready to discuss the obvious with anyone at any given time, including Jace himself. Why does his mother play pretend for 16 years not once speaking to him about it? How often does he ask himself? Alicent has dark hair, why does Aegon look like a true Targaryen? How often does Jace lose sleep over this thought.

I have news for you babes. He got his first perception of what ‘mongrel’ is from the mirror. If you need him to spell it out, you haven’t been paying attention.

I’ve slowly shifted to preferring his show characterization to the one in the book (he is my favourite Targ in asoiaf books and shows verses, and I know I know book!Jace had the whole little pet project with the Dragonseeds and he had two dozen powerpoint presentations and a huge spreadsheet document about it, and a separate spreadsheet he made just to calculate and weigh in benefits and negatives of offering such power to bastards. Yet. YET). He sees what neither Viserys nor Rhaenyra allowed themselves to see, blinded by their entitlement, classism and feeling of supremacy. Jacaerys, mind you, everyone that is calling him a bastardphobe and whatnot, realizes that if anyone—anyone—I repeat—ANYONE—outside direct family is to claim a dragon, in 25 years he himself will be in the exact same situation as his mother. Vermithor or Silverwing alone are no lesser treats than Vhagar, and as his mother like to remind him, Vermax is young. If a man (pay attention) claims any of the two, Jace’s inheritance will be out the window, no matter how many silver-haired babies he has with his cousin-step-sister, Rhaenyra's intentions would die with her last breath.

So what is he to do? Is he to lay abed, eat cake and dangle his feet, waiting for the inevitable to come? No. He is to do exactly what he has been doing since he was 8 (younger even!) – learn High Valyrian, train with the sword, be impeccable in dragonriding, in diplomacy, in manners, while nourishing the relationships with all his younger siblings, preparing them to be his closest allies (half of which we have never seen Rhaenyra display, except the proficiency in the only two skills that are explicitly Targaryen, nigh a feeble attempt at diplomacy once when she tried to betroth Jace to Helaena, and after her ex now stepmom turned her down she fled to the nearby island). Not to mention he was doing fine managing amiable connection with Aegon and to some extent Aemond before the grown-ups and their big fucking heads laid the seeds (ha!) for the feud to continue in their generation.

Read the above paragraph again. He does it all, for years, as well as he can, while also taking care of and shielding his brothers. And so far, instead of acknowledging his accomplishments we’ve only seen Rhaenyra respond with slack filler statements like “No worries Jacey, precious, it’s far in the future, don’t push yourself too hard” (listen, I know we can’t be certain just because it wasn’t on-screen, and she definitely did good raising her kids, but I’m getting the vibe she isn’t one for words of affirmation, she ain’t really good at that iykwim, and it’s his language), and Jacaerys bows his head, says ‘Yes, Mother’ and then proceeds to pressure himself beyond his limits (and Luke as well – as we saw in 1x10 – because he realizes how delusional and naïve the ‘no pressure’ statement is.)

Gods oh gods, and imagine, this is just one layer, but he is also a young man, and a young man’s ego.. Well. I feel like I should also quote bby boi Jon Snow, and his reasoning on why he won’t lay with women (ironic how that turned out).

Now layer all the above with the following. He is born with black hair. Luke too. Joff too. Obviously Jace as the oldest will take care of them and shield them. But then, but then, the moment she gets the opportunity, Rhaenyra marries Daemon. And of course. Names her first silver-haired son Aegon. (her channelling her father here SO much i can't even). Do I need to start a counter of the fucking number of daggers in Jace’s heart by now?

One more Rhaenyra says. One more dagger should be fine, he is her bestest most perfect boy, nothing can hurt him. Nothing can hurt him, so she leaves him to deal with the Small Council on his own repeatedly. Nothing can hurt him so she conspires with a rando and refuses to keep him in the loop. Nothing can hurt him, so she flies out alone and comes back with her shiny new dragonrider and doesn’t even acknowledge Jace, he has to go reach out to her first. (good gods, imagine if Addam had silver hair).

He can take one more, the most perfect boy, Rhaenyra says. (I wrote this one before Emma D’arcy’s new interview where they directly confirm Rhaenyra felt justified to choose herself over Jacaerys).

Let me dive you for a second in Jace’s POV for this one (in the magical method of David Lightbringer): Imagine you are the first born child. You have studied and build yourself to be deserving of being your Mother’s son, but you never quite get proficient enough to change your physical features. Then. Your grandsire dies, your uncle steals everything from your Mother, and your first proposal on any counteraction gets your little brother killed.

You blame yourself, you feel tremendous guilt - how did this happen - you were always the perfect son (you don’t even acknowledge the small victories you win for your Mother, you were always good at these skills you honed pedantically for years, it is not an achievement). You do not let yourself grieve, instead you have to make it up for the loss you caused.

But your Mother continuously keeps you in a cage allegedly for your own wellbeing, which brings its own amount of frustration at the age of 16. But you sneak out and win another small victory – the only price you need to pay is your late father’s rightful inheritance. You get recognition for a second, but then Mother complains that her ails for being caged are greater than your ails for being caged, and you as a good son try to figure a way out for both of you.

So, after keeping you in this cage for safety, which you are not asking for - on the opposite - your idea gets transmuted by some rando into a plan that will take away the last pillar of legitimacy you see in yourself. Imagine now, not only have you been stripped of it, but Mother scolds you for complaining.

And you finally break – no mother, if you do this I am exactly the mongrel I was told I was all my life, I called myself – but it comes out jagged and aggressive and immature, and you become a little entitled primadonna. But either way you ask, beg, plead for one thing, just this one thing – truly for yourself – you must deserve that much, one need for your very being to remain whole and for yourself to be able to keep your feet on the ground and mind whole. That one thing, that one time, you ask her to pick you over herself. And Mother choses herself.

In Jacaerys’ mind this last decision of hers invalidates all her arguments of keeping him safe, because ultimately, he realizes she is keeping him safe to satisfy her own needs, without realizing 1) what damage she is doing to him as a human being, and most importantly 2) she is preserving himself only while she lives – she ultimately does not care what will happen to him once she is no longer alive.

It is very rude way to put it, but it is a very human and very real thing real parents do sometimes, especially when their (eldest) kids are severely parentified. And Rhaenyra, bless her, not putting the blame on her entirely, is in an impossible situation too, but is also immature more often than not. It’s in the genes. And has been lonely and abandoned often, and believes if there is one man that will never abandon her, it’s her bestest boi Jace. And no one told her a firstborn son is not supposed to fill the role of a partner. I am however very saddened to see she did not learn a single lesson from her interactions with Viserys – especially that she seems incapable of realizing she’s shutting out Jacaerys brutally, just as her father did with her. For 20 damn years, she has been subjected to abandonment and being left all alone (by all the men in her life), and she can’t realize she’s doing the same to Jace, while also keeping him on a leash, caged with her, unable to seek refuge anywhere.

Truly heartbreaking.

I think that ought to be enough layers to cover the strong classist word for y’all. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

(I feel a quick exclaimer is needed. As a viewer I find that development extremely juicy, it fed me well and I am relishing and relating to both, not criticizing. But Jace is also my best boi, so there you go.)

[pergaminaa]

Modern au

When asked, Manon would confess that pregnancy wasn't all that great, and she honestly can't understand how some people willingly put themselves through that kind of thing again and again.

The first few weeks were okay; she really didn't think too much of it, and from how things were going she believed it would be smooth sailing. Why were people complaining? Everything is seamless (she really thought she was built different)

A few weeks later, morning sickness began, and with it, Manon's earlier sentiments went out of the window. It was hard and downright brutal. She believes that calling it morning sickness is wrong because it was persistent all day and night long, for days and days and days. Really, it was endless. She was feeling sick most of the time; she wasn't eating and she was tired all the time. During that time there were regular hospital visits because she just kept throwing up and all that dehydration was not good neither does her nor the fetus growing inside of her.

A few weeks later it eased up a little but did not stop. She was still going to the hospital once every few days getting hydrated through an IV because really, her body is not dealing with this at all.

A while later when she was 4-5 months along, she began noticing some spotting. Dorian called the doctor and got them seen almost immediately. Things were okay, they’re baby is doing fine but from that moment on Manon was put on strict bed rest until her daughter was born.

At around the sixth-month mark, Manon was so over being pregnant. "Hate to break it to you, witchling, but you still have three more months to go," Dorian got kicked out of the room that night for his smart remark. But she called him back later on because she was lonely and by that point, she wasn't used to going to sleep without him being there.

It seems that all of her biology lessons in school have evaporated. And she was horrified at finding out some things she was certain she'd remember if she had actually studied them. She honestly didn’t think of what the difference is between giving birth and having a c-section in her mind she was just ‘a baby gets born’ without thinking how that would actually happen (Asterin was the unfortunate soul that discovered this and had to explain it)

'It's not too late to back out from this now, is it?' Asterin only rolled her eyes at her because yeah sure, by all means just stop being pregnant.

Newfound information aside, nothing actually prepared Manon for the grand finale: almost four days of (slow labor) and a little over 30 hours of active labor was all it took for her daughter to be born.

Manon, bless her soul, right in the middle of active labor, (literally her baby is only a few hours away from being born) realized one thing: she wasn’t her ready to become a mother.

The notion terrified her, and she seemed to realize it all of the sudden. She confidently thought that she can stop or try again later (???) but that wasn’t possible for obvious reasons. She wasn’t in pain (thanks to the epidural) but she was terrified. That is something she doesn’t know how to navigate and she was just panicking. She did end up having a panic attack and yeah imagine going through that while giving birth. (She really wasn’t having a good time)

Dorian was right next to her, his presence steadied her somewhat and after a WHILE she finally started listening to him and calmed down enough to focus on the main task.

Honestly the sudden cries kinda distracted her then she realized that her daughter is actually born and it took her a minute to fully realize that it’s all over.

Honestly, she'd rate the experience -10/10 even though her little baby girl is so worth it. She was born a little early (3-4 weeks, nothing too major) and she might have taken over 30 hours but she was out at last.

She won't do this again willingly though. Never.

Manon's both in awe and lowkey wonders of Aelin and Asterin are okay in the head. Her cousin went though this twice (willingly) and Aelin has like four children and Manon just cannot comprehend this.

[ssreeder]

Official “Jee ask”

BRO. JEE.

Istg. Jee.

That man.

Oh my lord.

THE SASS?? HELLO??

It’s soooo unserious. Every time I read his pov my highscore on the giggle-meter goes up.

he is my favorite non-sokka pov to read because of how hilarious his reactions are.

those eyebrow muscles must be swole as hell. Im serious. His eyebrow game must be studied.

I looovee his attitude bro

“Chang practically announced to the whole bar” when they were debriefing what went down in the SWT camp oh my god he is soooo dramatic

Or when he asks Bato “is this another one of your hypothetical scenarios?” Oh my goooodddddd 😭 I’m literally dying he is soo funny. And I don’t think he even realizes.

He is genuinely one of the most entertaining povs to read if I could make one of those “why we <do xyz>” list on “why we read liab” I’d definitely have “for Jee’s eyebrows” or “for Jee’s attitude” up there.

You know exactly how to write middle aged people who are just Done™ with everything.

That poor man cannot take one more problem added to his list and he will make sure of it.

In a way he kinda reminds me of V, (oh my god it’s been so long since I’ve thought about V) and her no-nonsense attitude

Okay I have so many more things to say but I’m not forming coherent thoughts right now, but basically this is the official

Jee Appreciation Ask™

We ❤️ Jee.

We ❤️ LIAB.

official Jee ask deserves the official LIAB Jee image:

@vintageskeletons for making this hahaha

I’m really glad the way I wanted Jee to come across translated well because an unintentionally intentional sassy old man who was fed up with everything while also caring extremely deeply about everything and everyone was my goal. Yayayayyayyy I’m glad you like him haha.

[yubnubforhire]

The first half of episode 5 is sooo funny because first you have the hospital scene where Way tries desperately to turn Babe off Charlie by telling him about the brother reveal and being like see 😡 he was lying to you all along 👿 meanwhile Babe is just like 🥺 so he wasn’t cheating on me 🥰 the wedding is back on 🥰 🥰 and Way literally rolls his eyes because fuck that backfired

And then the next scene is Babe acting all petty like ‘oh don’t you need to cook for your bRoThEr you know your BrOtHeR Jeff that BROther’ while his internal monologue is clearly just rail me rail me rail me as evidenced by the fact that he melted after one (1) single whine from Charlie and proceeded to try to fuck him right there on that couch while being like 5 minutes out of the hospital

All the while detective Kim is in the background being the only one with a brain cell since everyone else decided to just lob accusations at Jeff before checking the fucking security footage that apparently everyone and their mother has access to

[moregraceful]

i was rewatching buster posey's retirement video tonight for purposes and getting emotional every time his voices catches, like boy (me). they literally rehired him a month ago, he is literally running this entire giants organization at this very moment, It Is Literally Fine. i think a lot about sorrel saying buster posey is my blorbo bc i really had never thought of him as my blorbo but it is true that if you are crying at work over buster posey's retirement (circa 2021), you've gone so far past being normal about that old man. not even in like yaoi way yk like i have enjoyed a few dynasty era giants fics in my time but at the end of the day it's like that's my family lmao. that's buster posey, we came of age together...

i think for me the giants are always gonna be The Team, like the one team, and the reason i know this is less bc i want them to win every game (they Will Not) but bc no other team on planet earth can make me feel such a broad spectrum of emotions. not in a way where i get sore about them losing bc hello it's the giants lol but like the complicated emotions that come from being way too deep in it. like for me giants baseball is not even about winning or losing, it's just like...living

[completeoveranalysis]

[2]

I mean I’m sure they’ll tell us the specifics later but it sure does LOOK like Syaoran collapsed Evil Wolverine’s pocket dimension and left him stranded here and exposed, with a stab wound. 

I do like that!

Is his whole lair gone or was he just kicked out of it? It’s dramatic enough that I could believe it was all destroyed with a spell that big. 

Did Evil Wolverine lose all his self-branded merch?! The truest horror.

If we’re still talking about parallels let’s throw in Infinity when Fai stabs Sakura and Kurogane yells at him not to pull out the sword, because that makes it so much worse. But Fai, panicking in grief, does it anyway. 

AND HERE WE ARE, Syaoran is stabbed, and Evil Wolverine pulls out the sword deliberately to do more damage out of pure rage for whatever Syaoran just did.

It’s also absolutely wild that there is this much blood pouring out of Syaoran on screen and Evil Wolverine still is not permitted to say a swear word. 

[spatio-rift]

some kind of fantasy or royalty au where saikos dad, as per tradition, sends saiko out on a quest to prove himself worthy of inheriting his position. it sounds brave and grand, but it really is nothing more than a simple, completely safe little field trip, because saikos dad could never put his beloved son in danger or even let him face difficulty. only saiko is terribly bad with directions and never bothered to learn what the land hes inheriting even looks like, and the three servants accompanying him are all ridiculously incompetent, so not only do they get lost, but they end up talking to the wrong guy, and by way of saikos dads instructions being somewhat vague and unclear and none of them being all that bright, what was supposed to be a mere errand becomes a deadly epic

[e-adlirez]

Just looked on the older books for refs of Thea and

Boi Curse of the Cheese Pyramid is insane

It literally starts with G heading to work on time at 9, but William comes in like "BOI YOU'RE SPENDING TOO MUCH MONEY ON THE GAZETTE YOU HAVE TO CUT DOWN THE BUDGET" (Imagine this screamed directly into Geronimo's ear)

Obviously William's definition of "cut down the budget" is this

TW: Spoilers for Curse of the Cheese Pyramid, William behavior, do not click on if you don't want a spike in blood pressure

If you choose to turn away now, the following fume was just an intermission for finding this picture lmao

He pawned over everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) in Geronimo's office, from his desk to his armchair to his carpet to his book collection to his art collection, and replaced it all with a single plastic chair and desk ("All you need in an office is a desk and chair!")

He fired ALL THE STAFF and decided that only family members will be working for the paper (because family members don't need to be paid as much probably (if at all) when working for a family business-- they all share their finances with each other, anyway maybe (it's not clear what their salaries are gonna be (wanna bet G is paid minimum wage while Thea is paid 50% of the Gazette's monthly expenses after this clean sweep))). The only person spared from the firing spree was Shif T. Paws, the Gazette's sales manager, who apparently offered to work there for free.

He delegates all the work of the Gazette to four people-- G does all the office work (taking calls, building maintenance, writing, editing, printing, clientele stuff), Thea does all the interviews and field work stuff, Trap does all the cooking, and Benjamin is "William's personal assistant". Lord knows what that last position means for little Benji. (Okay reading ahead Benjamin seems fine, but he does say that William is "a bit pushy".)

He sends G out on a work holiday thing and he overworks the crap out of everyone, to the point where even Thea is sick of William's senile old-fashioned ass, and it seems that the Gazette was also going downhill because of this mouse furry ripoff Daniel Dancer. (To give a preview of what he did in the working perspective, he basically had Trap work seven days a week)

He was planning to have staff give use old newspaper instead of toilet paper (T&B expenses), make a 30-second time mechanism for the restrooms (to maximize manpower efficiency and possible humiliation for anyone going number 2), and was considering cutting all electricity to the building and just have staff work on typewriters "just like the old days".

This man's senile ass--

[flowercrowngods]

it was honestly a little hard writing post-s4 max and not make it the most fucked up depressing thing, not get lost in the trauma and absolute grief she has to work through. to write a story that doesn’t lean into her sheer desperation to stay alive and the heaviness that comes with having the most basest of survival instincts triggered with such helplessness. it was a little hard taking that beautiful wonderful amazing artwork that shines with banter and joy and hope, and not absolutely ruin it with a rightful exploration of angst. so i’m really grateful that y’all see this fic not as me glossing over max’s trauma in favour of silly banter, i’m grateful that y’all see the heartbreak in all those lines and still watch as the hope shines through. a hope that is tentative, a hope that is laced with guilt for feeling hope in the first place. it’s not mere acceptance of this new post-traumatic state of being, and it’s not a crippling display of absolute fucking trauma and angst.

idk i’m just grateful that y’all see this fic for what it wants to be 🤍

[applecherry108]

So I uh, got an emulator for my iPad. And I’m playing Herat Gold. 14 years after falling in love with Soul Silver.

Am I just recreating the same team from college? Yes. Am I treating them like fun little alternate universe variants of my beloved ss team? Also yes.

Important Two Nickels moment though: back in X I had a Marill for 5 minutes bc I was struggling to evolve it from an azurill and by the time I got the marill it then went straight into azumaril. Well just now in hg I preemptively gave zubat a soothe bell and well…5 minute golbat lmfao.

[the-physicality]

2007, conference finals phoenix vs san antonio

[hotcinnamonsunset]

driving across wisconsin really just is cow. cow. cow. dead deer. nicolet law billboard. cow. adult store where you change highways. nicolet law billboard. cow. dead deer. nicolet law billboard.

[applespider]

Ok so watched Quackity’s vod from today. It was a punch to the gut. About ten different times. “Orita no. Orita no.” “I need you to leave. I need you to leave this general area. Please.” Him going to Slimecicle’s base with TNT and leaving without placing a single one. He fell asleep inside Tilìn’s grave, curled up next to their dead body. God. Slimecicle was righteous anger. This just hurt. “Y te lo dejaste. Y te lo dejaste.” He just bulldozes through any suggestion that Tilìn is dead, then as soon as it sinks in. Just. It’s like every bit of life left him. He doesn’t even have the energy for revenge. Just total calm. Everything’s shut down. Fuck. That made me cry. Not just tear up. That made me cry.