#no delving into an issue no thinking about it because “surely” it must be me first and foremost

[delopsia]

Santa Dress | Bob Floyd x Reader

Word Count: 5,400 Cross Posted Here on AO3 Warnings & Notes: 18+, Fem!Reader, unprotected sex, surprise welcome homes, unrealistic snow because who gives a shit about realism, bob fingering you while he drives, ✨road-head✨, and my personal favorite, sex against a wall :D

It's a flurry of red and white behind this tiny little bar, velvet red dresses flowing back and forth as you and Penny put together drinks and fetch ice-cold beers from the mini-fridges. It's been hours since you've last been able to feel your hands, frozen into numbness by the sea of orders. The never-closing front door has long since sucked out any ounce of heat, and you've long since given up on tucking your hands into the faux leather belt of this short Santa dress. 

Curse whoever decided not to give this dress pockets.

"Thank you again for helping me out," Penny says aloud, sidling up to you to fill a chilled glass with Belgian White, "I know you always hated the Holiday Rush when you used to work for me." 

The two Budweisers in your hand are desperately attempting to slide out of your weak grasp; the pilot you're serving is quick to reach out and take them, at least. "Me, hating the Holiday Rush?" Feigning innocence, under the thin veil of a barely audible gasp, "I could never!"

Although you can't see it, you can feel the hard stare fixating upon the back of your neck, "the only reason you didn't quit that last Christmas was because you met your little drummer boy." 

"As if you haven't stayed over just to spend more time with a cute Navy boy or two," and you had more ammunition to tease her with, but a stone-faced Admiral is speaking up, ordering a whiskey on the rocks. 

Great, more ice! 

You're still not sure what made you agree to this. Maybe it's the boredom that comes with being unemployed. Maybe you're chasing the wistful memories of looking up from the bar that fateful evening and locking eyes with a shy new Top Gun student sitting on the far end of the bar, visiting early to spend some time with his buddies for the holidays. 

It certainly isn't money or the overwhelming pressure to find a job, that's for sure. Bob's position in the Navy pays quite well, and he's been sure to make it very clear that you don't have to work if you don't want to. "Money is never going to be an issue, sweetheart," he always reminds you.

Maybe you're just hoping that every time you turn around, you'll find him standing there in those same old glasses with that same bashful grin. If you try hard enough, you think you can still feel the way your heart fluttered when he kept coming back to see you again and again.

"You've got me there," that flashy diamond ring on Penny's finger is enough proof of her own ventures with a Navy pilot. Strange, usually Maverick is looming around the bar at this time, a vulture seeking to claim the next available seat.

The whiskey on rocks is by far one of the easier orders of the night. Nothing special, so simple in fact that you only remember handing it off to the Admiral and then immediately being hit with more beer orders. 

"How's Bob?" Penny asks as you pass her once more, "coming home for the Holiday?"

"No," resisting the urge to flick this bottle cap at the man rudely trying to flag you down, "they've decided to keep him until after Christmas, for whatever reason." 

"Santa must need a WSO."

The rush is just about over; a few more fussy customers and you think you just might be able to catch a breather. Back and forth, the skirt of your festive dress flowing with each and every turn, the soft white fluff on the ends brushing against your cold thighs. You're not sure if it was Penny's idea to wear these for the holidays or if it was Maverick's. 

Your gut tells you it was Maverick, and a part of you hopes he gets forced into a Santa suit again. If Rooster could find a way last year, you're sure he can find a way this year.

Reaching below the bar, your frigid digits open the door to the mini-fridge and delve inside, seeking another ice-cold Budweiser, "damn it."

Penny's head tilts over her shoulder, too preoccupied with mixing this drink to fully turn around, "we out again?"

"You still keep them in the same spot?" Your question is answered with a simple nod of her head, and that's really all you need.

It's almost strange how easily this has all come back to you. When you left, you truly never thought you would be coming back here to work again, but here you are, stepping into the old backroom, and it's like nothing has changed. It's still lined with old pictures that couldn't fit onto the main floor. There's still a mark from the time you snuck Bob back here and pushed the door open so hard that the handle put a dent in the wall.

You're the reason why the door handle was removed in exchange for something less-destructive to innocent walls. 

You'll have to remember to take picture of this and send it to him before you leave. You can only imagine how pink his cheeks will get at the memory. For now, though, there are people in the bar who will not be happy if you let the memory of kissing a Navy WSO until he's lightheaded get between them and their beer. 

There's a crate already loaded and ready in the walk-in cooler. This used to be one of your favorite places to get away for a minute or two, but that will have to wait for a day when your hands aren't going completely numb. 

It's a hell of a task just to bend down and pick this thing up off the floor; the designers of this tiny Santa Dress truly did not have functionality in mind when they made this. God, you forgot how heavy these things are when they're loaded fully. 

Cold-crate in your arms, you head back out into the bar floor, carefully balancing your fragile cargo while minding each and every customer that decides to offer you a rushed "excuse me" as they step right in front of you. 

Someone steps out a little too fast, his shoulder colliding with your crate, the beer bottles rattling dangerously. The bar equivalent to a rattlesnake shaking its little tail, threatening to create a problem.

"Watch where you're going!" 

This is why you quit. 

Biting your tongue, you step past him, darting into the safe confines of the bar itself. If Penny overheard any of that, she hasn't said anything just yet, still chipping away at yet another unique drink order.

Every bar has a regular asshole, and for some reason, the Hard Deck seems to be running rampant with them. For every sweet and well-mannered person that walks through that front door, two fussy assholes come in, asking you to give them the moon and the stars. Something you really hadn't paid much mind to until Bob came through those doors.

Oh, Bob. Sweet, sweet Bob, who would beat you to picking up that heavy crate by a mile, would offer to put these cold bottles away because he knows how cold your hands get on shifts. Bob, who just had to walk through that door and remind you of what a real man is.

Bob, with his gentle hands and kind heart, that's too big for his body. Who would visit you during your shifts, no matter how exhausted he may have been, and drove you home when your car wound up in the shop because it's not safe for you to walk alone in the dark. Who climbed a tree and fractured his ankle because Amelia's new kitten had gotten stuck up there. 

It never healed right, still bugs him every once in a while, and leaves him with the slightest limp, but he always says it was worth it because, in the end, that kitten wound up safe and sound.

You're thinking so hard that you swear you can hear him laughing as you finally hand off this beer to the man that's been waiting all this time. It's not him; you don't know how many times you've sworn you heard him laugh, only to get excited and realize it's not him at all. 

You can't wait to go home and sleep in one of his old t-shirts, pretend that just for a little bit, he's here, with you, and not anywhere else. 

Empty crate in hand and your latest order taken care of, you turn to head back out of the bar; if you leave this thing out, one of you will trip. And these aren't the kind of clothes you need to be tripping and falling in. 

You aren't two steps out onto the open floor when that same guy walks past you, throws a glare over his shoulder as he passes...but strangely, it falls right off his face. Expression wiped clean and left pale as a ghost before he scurries off into another part of the building.

...did you look at him funny? 

There isn't much time to dwell on it because, all of a sudden, another Hard Deck employee is walking up to you, taking this crate off your hands. "I'll take this off ya," is all he offers, disappearing into the backroom with it. 

Odd, Penny told you she couldn't get anyone to work today. 

You're turning around, question heavy and burning on the very tip of your tongue, but it dies before you can even open your mouth. 

Because you either miss him so much that you've started hallucinating, or that's Robert Floyd sitting right in front of you. In the same damn chair that he always sits in, smiling so big that the corners of his eyes crinkle from it. 

"Was wonderin' when you'd notice me starin' at you," and he must be exhausted because that Southern drawl is thick as can be, absolutely dripping off his tongue.

You aren't sure when your feet start moving. All you know is he's standing up, opening up those big, warm arms, and wrapping you up in them for the first time in what feels like years. He just about melts into you, so tired and worn down that you can feel it radiating off of him. Even so, he still has the energy to lift you off the ground by a few inches, swaying back and forth like he always does.

"I missed you," murmuring into the crook of his neck, where you can still catch the faintest hint of his favorite cologne, "how long have you been sitting there?"

"Since Penny texted me and said you went into the back," he chuckles, pressing a kiss to your temple.

Your jaw slackens; of course, it would be Penny that constructed this entire thing. "I thought you were stuck in..." but there's no point in finishing your sentence because he's already shaking his head.

"Pulled a string or two," gently, he lets you slide down until your feet comfortably hit the floor once more, "didn't expect Penny to put you to work, though."

"Consider it retribution for all those times you two snuck off during a shift!" Penny all but yells, shaking her damp towel at you with an animated iron fist. 

Just like that, Bob's cheeks tint pink, "didn't know those retributions included freezing you half to death." Wandering hands slide up your shoulders, trickling down your arms until they reach your numb fingers, jumping at just how cold they are, "always so cold."

"You're lucky I didn't stick my hands under your shirt," because while you always seem to wind up frozen, Bob runs as hot as a furnace, no matter the weather. 

His large, warm hands encompass yours, and you can already feel the ice starting to melt from your bones, "well, if you let me drive you home, I'm sure I can find a way to keep you warm."

"You didn't tell me it was snowing!"

"I thought you knew!" 

God, it's everywhere, ice-cold snow covering everything the eye can see, draped in a white blanket that sparkles under the street lamp. There hadn't been a single snowflake when you first went in, never mind catching a glimpse of it falling through the windows. It's a good couple of inches, at the very least, enough that it's going to get into your black slip-on shoes. 

In hindsight, the boots were a much better option.

It's by some miracle that he's already found your car; you're not sure who else would have cleaned the snow off your vehicle and your vehicle only. Parked nice and neat in the back of the lot, where nobody other than employees are likely to park. 

"I didn't know it could snow in this part of the state," a breeze has you stepping closer to him, eagerly snuggling into his very, very warm side. 

"I didn't either," Bob squeezes you closer to him, just about cradling you into his chest, "hold on, I've got an idea."

Apparently, that was meant a little more literally than you thought. One moment your feet are firmly on the ground; the next, you're being scooped up like a bride, clinging to Bob's broad shoulders as he starts to carry you. This certainly isn't what you had in mind, but you'll take it. 

The hand on your thigh plays dangerously close to the inside of your dress; it's been so long since you've last felt that, the slide of his soft, strong hand on your upper thigh. Oh, the things you would do to get him to slide that hand just a little higher...

It takes a little maneuvering to get the car door open, but soon enough, you're perched in the passenger seat of your own vehicle, watching your favorite WSO struggle with readjusting the driver seat.

"This car gets smaller every time I get in it," he chuckles, "don't think I remember a time where my knees didn't wind up pressed into my chest." 

"I think you're just getting taller," you're genuinely convinced that he's gained an inch or two since you met him. That, or you're, for some reason getting shorter.

The world will never know. 

There's that eye roll, scoffing like he's just heard the most ridiculous statement of all time. Such a little action that makes your heart flutter, even now. You're just as jittery as you did the first time he drove you home, but even now, no matter how many times he's done this, he manages to completely miss getting the key into the ignition. 

The streets are just about empty, sparkling with snow that nobody quite knows what to do with yet. It's breathtaking, your own private winter wonderland, and yet, you find your attention fixating on Bob. The way the street lights illuminate his face, one hand on the wheel, the other resting on the console because he's so used to driving a stick shift that it just winds up there out of habit. 

You can't fight the urge to reach out and tangle your fingers together; it's been so long that you've become powerless to resist even the tiniest of things. His hand lifts, and for a second, you think he's pulling away from you, but instead, it comes to settle on your thigh, squeezing lightly. 

"Jesus, you're like a little ice cube over there," gasping, he runs his hand up and down your chilly skin. But you're so sensitive after these past couple of months that heat blossoms between your legs. Just from his touch alone, your legs involuntarily flutter shut, trapping his roaming hand between them.

"If you keep doing that, we're going to have a new problem, Bob," you grit, composure rapidly slipping out of your grasp.

For a moment, he's quiet, but then his hand starts to move again, swirling light circles into your inner thigh, climbing up and down, higher and higher, until you feel him brush against your thin panties. "I did promise to keep you warm, doll." 

All it takes is for you to part your legs the tiniest fraction, and you're rewarded with a taunting finger, stroking up and down your folds through the thin fabric. All the while, his eyes are trained on the road ahead. 

Cute bastard.

It's a traffic light that becomes your saving grace, flickering red and forcing you to come to a stop. Bob's hand slips out from between your legs, and you catch yourself whining at the loss; the radio does nothing to conceal the sound. 

"Hold on," chuckling, he wets two fingers with his mouth, pink tongue visibly swirling around the digits until they're dripping, "I promise I ain't done with you yet." 

Then he's reaching back down, sliding your panties to one side as his fingers tease your entrance. Only one dips inside, but your head hits the headrest all the same; it's been too long. You've almost forgotten how thick his fingers are.

"You've gotten so tight, baby," he's so fixated on watching his finger work in and out of you that he almost misses the light turning green. You certainly believe him; can feel yourself stretching as that second finger eases in alongside the first. Shallow thrusts that stop just short of halfway, giving you what you want but not quite enough.

Impatient, your hips squirm further down the seat, urging him a little deeper. Simultaneously, his fingers curl upward, dragging deliciously against a spongey spot that sends you reeling. You can never seem to hit this spot the way he does, and he makes it look so effortless. Working back and forth, curling and uncurling where you're most sensitive. You're quivering around him, growing wetter and wetter, and he hasn't even so much as brushed against your clit yet. 

But you're still so far from home. 

"Baby, sweetheart, I'm driving," Bob hisses, but there's no malice to it, a weak warning that's only half a bark and no bite. 

"That hasn't stopped you so far," smiling big and wide as you stroke up his thigh; those sweatpants do nothing to conceal his cock as it twitches. 

His bottom lip quivers as your palm rolls over him, once, twice, before stopping in opt to trace your fingers along the outline of his cock. That left leg starts shaking, bouncing up and down, with some hellish mix of hesitance and impatience. 

It's so easy, reaching up and slipping under his waistband, circling around his girthy length and making him jump. 

"Seems I'm not the only one that's sensitive," you tease as you gently ease him out of his pants. 

The streetlights shimmer against the already wet head, still dripping and slicking your hand up as it experimentally strokes down. Despite his warning, he's already twitching up into your touch the best that he can, eyelashes fluttering behind wireframes. 

Reaching down, you guide his fingers out of you, already longing for him to delve inside of you once more, but not as much as you long to feel him against your tongue. 

"Oh no," he whispers under his breath, but despite his audible expression of concern, he does nothing to stop you from leaning over the center console. 

It's been so long since you were last able to run your tongue along the side of his cock, from base to tip and then back down again. Bob twitches under your touch, audibly inhaling through his nose, and you just know he's trying to force himself into silence. Don't react, and maybe it'll stop. 

Tentatively, your tongue swirls around his head, slow, languid motions that treat him like a damn lollipop. Over and over, like he's the sweetest candy you've ever had until he's so wet with your saliva that he's dripping. 

That breath punches out of his lungs the very moment your lips wrap around him, keening high in his throat as you hollow your cheeks and suckle at him properly. The hard plastic of the console digs into your ribs as you sink down on him, but you can't bring yourself to pay it any mind. Not when he's panting above you, free hand scrambling for purchase on the back of your head. 

"Oh God," Bob whispers, gasping between words, "feels good, feels so good."

You can't help the satisfied hum that he churns out of you, and God, he shakes, and he hasn't even hit the back of your throat yet. Just another inch, and he does just that, fat head pressing against your hot throat; you can't take him any further, not when you physically can't lean any further across this console. 

Instead, you reach down with your other hand, dipping between his legs to find and stroke his balls in tune with your mouth. Such a simple motion that rewards you with the prettiest moan. Caught so off-guard that he can't hold it back. 

Drawing back until only his head is in your mouth, you give his slit an experimental flick, can hear the way his hand tightens around the leather steering wheel. Then you're going back down, settling into a slow bobbing of your head, going as far down as you can, and then all the way back up. 

Bob's left leg is shaking, struggling to maintain some sort of composure that just about melts when you swallow around him, forcing him to feel your mouth and the entrance to your throat contract around him. 

"Almost—" he tries, gulping, "house is right there."

With a loud, wet 'pop,' you draw yourself off of him, peering out the window. You recognize where you are now, only a few hundred feet from your driveway, by the looks of it. And as if you hadn't just been tormenting your poor boyfriend, you settle back into your own seat, wiping your spit-slicked lips clean. 

"Actively trying to kill me," you hear him mutter under his breath. 

You suppose you'll be nice and reach up to press the button on the garage door opener, seeing as he's actively attempting to tuck himself back into his pants and turn the vehicle all at once. It's remarkable just how well he manages to park your car, all pink-cheeked and chest heaving, struggling to catch a breath that you seem to have stolen. 

As soon as the car shuts off, you're getting out of the car, and you don't need to look over your shoulder to know if he's following or not. Walking straight to the door and stepping inside your warm, cozy home, fumbling for the light switch.

You don't hear the garage door rumbling as it shuts, can't pick up on the soft pitter-patter of shoes on the hardwood floor. All you know is that you find the light, and all of a sudden, you're being pressed against a wall, and there's a pair of lips on yours that you haven't felt in ages.

"Got me wrapped right around your tiny little finger," he grumbles into your mouth. 

The words are on the very tip of your tongue, but he's already kissing you, open-mouthed and completely unyielding. Strong body pressing against yours, firm hand settling on your waist, gathering you closer, the other audibly thumping against the drywall as he backs you right into it. 

Your surprised gasp opens your mouth to his, and your tongues meet for the briefest moment, only broken apart when he settles both hands on you and lifts. You're caught by chiseled hips sliding between your legs, strong hands cupping your ass as your legs lock around him. 

There, there, now you feel him, hard and heavy, right between your legs. All you're aware of is his mouth on yours and his heavy cock, grinding directly into your dripping core, so close to where you want him to be. 

It's all Bob and his tongue that tastes like the lemon candies he can't quit sucking on and his big hands that work in the backseats of fighter jets so effortlessly that he makes it look like child's play. Bob and the scar you can feel as you tangle your fingers in the hair resting at the nape of his neck. Bob Floyd and the well-concealed muscles that you can feel rippling against you, such a pretty body that so few get to behold. 

"Here?" Weakly, you pant into his mouth, unsure of his next move. 

You don't get a verbal response, just a soft 'mhm' against your lips before he pulls away in favor of nibbling at your jawbone. Teasing nips that tug at your skin until it's red and sensitive, then beyond, settling comfortably at the soft spot below your ear. His tongue laves over the spot, such a surprising sensation that makes you squirm away, tugging at his hair. 

"Sensitive?" He asks, drawing back in tune with your pulling.

Nodding your head, "very." Carefully, you reach up, taking hold of those silver frames and lifting them off of his face. Only intending to gently place them somewhere safe, but Bob's faster, taking them from you and tossing them to the kitchen countertop with a loud clatter.

"I was trying to be careful," you pout, feigning hurt. 

Bob chuckles at that, already returning to your neck, "need new ones anyway." 

There's not a doubt in your mind that there's going to be a few marks on your neck in the morning, not with the way he sucks at that same spot and soothes over it with his tongue, only to repeat it in a neat little line to your collarbone. This position leaves you with no other option but to squeeze your legs tighter around him and pant into his ear. 

His hands are wandering again, up and down your ass, dipping under the thin band of your panties but never staying for too long. Cock grinding into you, such a feeling that makes you twitch around nothing, simply from the reminder of how big he feels between your legs. 

"Robert—"

"—I know, darlin', I know," voice husky and deep as he momentarily draws his hips back, holding you up with one strong hand as he fishes himself out of his sweats.

His cock hits your inner thigh with a soft sound, still wet from your mouth. There's no option to remove your panties in this position. The most you can do is reach down and push them to the side, but oh the feeling of his head dragging between your folds could kill you right here and now. 

Circling against your clit, the first attention it's gotten all day, and it is delicious. You almost wish he would get you off just like this, just the tip of his cock rubbing against that sensitive little button until you're cumming just from that. But then he's dragging back down and catching on your entrance, and you realize that the idea will just have to wait for a time when you're too sore to take him. 

"Do you want me to open you up a little bit more?" Sweet, sweet Bob, who always has to keep asking questions, too afraid of hurting you on accident. 

Impatient, you lock your legs behind his waist and push down, forcing the thick head of his cock into your pussy without warning. It's been so long that you've almost forgotten how thick he is; there's a dull sting that's already settling between your legs. However, that's completely forgotten in favor of watching his eyelashes flutter, baby blue irises momentarily drawing into the back of his head at the feeling.

"Fuck."

You take pride in being the only reason Bob Floyd will swear. 

Gently, he sinks into you, stretching you open around him. Opening you up a little bit more may have been helpful because even you can feel just how tight you are. The slow drag of his cock against your gummy walls is dizzying, has Bob pressing your foreheads together as you both pant, overwhelmed by the feeling. Every time he comes home, it's like the first time all over again.

"So tight, sweetheart," he cooes, right against your lips, "almost all the way, I promise." 

And somehow, he manages to delve even deeper, to places that your little vibrator can never seem to reach. So full that you feel like you can't breathe, unable to take a full breath with him opening you up like this. 

His hips press flush against yours, bottoming out entirely, and for some reason, you're concerned that he may just keep going, even now. 

"Who knew you were this fucking big," you gasp. Even after all these years, even you manage to forget his size. 

"Who knew I was comin' home just to find you in the tiniest little dress I've ever seen," already drawing back because he knows your cues better than you do, "and to think I almost didn't get to see it." 

There's something you want to say, some little recollection about how when you'd fantasized about him coming home and bending you over the bed the moment you put this little garment on. But you can't get it out, not when he's drawing out until he's about halfway and then snaps his hips back in, a little half thrust that knocks the breath right out of you. 

Stars sparkle behind your eyelids as he does it again and again, hard, short thrusts that take their time on the drag out. Such an overwhelming feeling that only seems to build each time the head of his cock kisses that little gooey spot along your walls. Over and over on each bypass makes you flutter around him and your hips start to squirm, unsure if you want more or to escape it. 

"Oh, you feel so good," he gasps, "I should've come home sooner, fuck—"

Your nails bite into his clothed shoulder, struggling for purchase on anything that will keep you from falling after every hard thrust. Oh, it feels so good, the way he stretches you open, how he never seems to miss that sweet spot that makes you grow wetter and wetter until each thrust is punctuated with a soft squelch. 

"Bob, Bob," you chant like a mantra. Like it's the only word you can remember.

His pace is changing, quickening, as soon as he's pulling out, he's already pressing back inside, can't punch the breath out of you anymore because you can't even breathe now. Feels so, so good that you don't realize your mouth has fallen open, whimpering so loud that it echoes throughout the kitchen. 

"'M already close," he warns, and without missing a beat, he takes one of your hands off his shoulder. His soft tongue wets the bottom of your index and middle finger, guides you down between your legs, "touch yourself for me, sweetheart." 

As soon as your wet fingers find your neglected clit, a shudder ripples throughout your body, your pussy clenching down around his pistoning cock. Your skin feels like it's been set alight, walls twitching and beginning to spasm as your entire body begins to shake. 

You're close too, so, so close. 

"Baby, baby, baby," Bob whines, his head tilting back, "fuck, can—can feel you spasming around me."

It hits him first, seemingly by surprise, because one minute he's weakly looking you in the eye; the next, his eyes are fluttering closed, and his hips are just about slamming into you, drilling directly into your sweet spot just one more time. You've got no choice other than to feel his cock pulsate inside of you as his hips hold you down, and like a freight train, you cum too. Trembling, crying out as you bury your head into his sweaty shoulder and cum around him. 

The world is spinning, everything turning white as it washes over you in tidal waves, so overwhelming that your entire body downright tingles. 

"Talk about a hell of a welcome home," Bob mumbles directly into your ringing ear, and you don't know how long it's been because it feels like you've just woken up from a dream. 

"Welcome home, loser," barely strong enough to lift your head and kiss his cheek, "have fun cleaning up the mess you've made between my legs." 

It's weak, but you feel his cock twitch inside of you. "I'm sure I can fuck it out of you in the shower."

You're not sure if you'll be able to walk when Christmas day finally rolls around. 

[flodaya]

Do you think critics are biased towards Z because judging by their reviews she did some awards worthy acting but for me she was just okayish? Both men outperformed her by miles imo. She really needs to work on her line delivery and emoting

i think you are biased against her, baby girl <3 you also suck at being subtle lol

anyway, this gives me a chance to rant about an issue i've noticed with Luca that keeps happening in his movies so let me just rant, kind of spoilers i guess

Luca tends to focus stories that should be centered around a female lead on her male supporting cast, Tashi might have been the main character but i did think the story of Art and Patrick was perhaps developed a little too much compared to Tashi, i had a similar issue with Bones and All which took a lot of the focus away from Taylor's character and fleshed out (pun intended) Timmy's character a lot

i don't mind secondary characters being complex, i do think especially for a messy story like Challengers it was important to see all sides of the triangle BUT I still wish Tashi had been THE focus instead of the men getting almost a more complex relationship development than Tashi with Art/Patrick

Tashi and Patrick were developed really well, i think for me something was missing between Art and Tashi, eg. they didn't at all go into them having a child together, their daughter must surely be a huge factor in their relationship but besides Tashi watching her husband and daughter sleep they didn't at all delve any deeper into it

[yuzukahibiscus]

Jewels of Takarazuka – Serika Toa-san [Cosmos Troupe] (from Fujingaho August Issue)

"I realise that I'm colourlessly transparent in nature that I haven't changed much."

This series documents the powerful words of Takarazuka Top Stars that give courage. The new Cosmos Troupe Top Star Serika Toa-san appears on this month's issue. No matter what kind of profound roles that she plays, Serika-san always gives a feeling of a "dominant immaculacy". If you look at her and things surrounding her, you'd realise that she has been walking forward without hesitation and her accumulative experiences have reflected this complex but beautiful radiance, which we now want to know more about what she is thinking about.

(Note: Happy Shonichi for Serika-san's "Xcalibur"! This is her first performance as a Top Star, and it's worth the celebration of a translation:D)

“I am colourlessly transparent”. I remembered being a little shocked when I heard Serika-san’s words from before. Because Takarasiennes always do their best to showcase their respective strong styles…

3 years has passed since then, and now she has become Top Star, I wonder if there have been any changes?

“I’m not sure if there were any changes. But my position before was that I was able to play many interesting roles. It really was a good experience that I got to play a wide range of roles.”

So among those, what was the most ambitious role that you’ve taken on?

“I would say Rocky from “HIGH AND LOW” was quite difficult. It was very hard of Kuroki Keiji-san to play [Rocky] with that impression, and later knowing that [HIGH AND LOW] was going to be staged as a musical, there was difficulty that Takarazuka Revue is going to be performing this. [Such as thinking Rocky]’s going to be singing…? Finally, I wanted to mix a little of Kuroki-san’s vibes of Rocky [into my portrayal] and aimed to adjust my mindset to perform as such on the stage.”

What lies at the heart of Serika-san’s approach to portray these characters?

“I would make myself aware with how these roles would ultimately end up as. After figuring our their final destination and the “present” [of the plot], then I dive deeper from there. When there’s a goal and the present [starting line], then my approach is that I’ll delve deeper into whatever is in between the two.”

Would that also be a way of thinking that can be used not just for approaching your characters?

“I’d say so. When I think about my objective, and the current situation that I’m in, I will go deeper into that gap in between…For instance, if I couldn’t turn well in my dance, I would think whether there was something wrong with my posture. When I realise my situation, then the image of the solution will appear itself. The key is how to focus on yourself. No matter what you do, knowing about yourself is the best shortcut of growing up and improving. And the many failures will be the times when you know more about yourself. Looking back on the failures, it’s shock after shock after shock... You definitely want to evade [from those failures]. But you can’t escape from them by chance and each time you’d have to think logically… and that’s the approach that made me arrive at this point.”

Behind that sparkling smile as she talks, she looks back to the failures and realises these experiences that have accumulated solidly. But those times had been difficult… I wonder what she would be thinking during these times?

“When there were times that I couldn’t help myself, there is a great presence [of support] from everyone in the troupe after all. There were many times that I thought we could overcome this because we’re all in this together. I believed that my roles and lines exist for partners [that act alongside me]. For example, if I have to portray an amazing role, it is by the strength of surrounding factors that could show how amazing the role is. So for that, everyone and I must be careful with showing it. This [cooperation] is the culture of Takarazuka Revue, and also the responsibility of an upperclassman. When [the cooperation] is being executed, you can feel from everyone [that they are working on it together].

When she was transferred to Cosmos Troupe [in 2018], I thought how Serika-san used to say it was difficult to guide her juniors but for Serika-san now, she felt a great change in herself from that.

“After all, when we communicate daily, I got to know how this person is like from their ways of thinking in this process. It has been a while since I transferred into Cosmos Troupe and I’ve been feeling great changes since then. Of course, this is also for the change in position. Our great troupe leader (kumichou) Susshi-san (Kotobuki Tsukasa) and [previous] Top Star Makaze (Suzuho)-san graduated, and I’ll have to think of how to lead the whole troupe. But when I give advice to my partners, or when I look back on how I console [people] from their troubles, in the end that was the greatest I’ve seen in my growth.”

From there, Serika-san’s Cosmos Troupe begins. What are your hopes for the reliant Cosmos Troupe members?

“Everyone in Cosmos Troupe is very serious and are very skilled. But even we enjoy being fun and unserious every day, we try not to do that on stage…I hope to support everyone and adding colour to the sophisticated Cosmos Troupe members is one of my missions.”

Her [Top Star] debut performance will be “Xcalibur”. This will be Japan’s premiere of this Korean musical with the songs composed by Frank Wildhorn.

“Korean musicals have an image of [encompassing superb songs]. For this performance as well, the volume and textures of Mr Wildhorn’s songs are fantastic. It takes the strength to sing Mr Wildhorn’s songs but it’s great to sing them. Besides, some songs delicately touch the heart and you could feel the softness of the piano melody. When creating this performance, the songs help me expand the imagination on how to portray my role, so I am looking forward to other hints that this musical would provide.”

Even with a condensed career, she has this immaculacy and transparency that never fades, and from there she continues to solidly accumulate her honed skills and mentality… Along with the struggles [that may rise], we look forward to how Serika-san’s energy will radiate.

MY JEWEL ~The jewel of the heart~

When talking about her teacup poodle Candy-chan (on the right), Serika-san’s face melts away in happiness.

“I love her dearly because I thought that I should work harder every day for her… Since she came to our house, I never wanted her to hate this place, or fear this place. When I ask “are you gong to sleep?”, her fixed position is [sleeping] on my lap… She’s just a princess.”

On the left is her chiwawa Purin-chan from her family home.

ON STAGE…

This is from the finale of “Casino Royale~My Name is Bond”.  Serika-san played an antagonistic role of Le Chiffre, but in the finale she showed a bright smile and appeared almost like a “Prince Highness”. This costume with a tight collar is matched in noble elegance. 

Cosmos Troupe performance: Musical “Xcalibur” (Adaptation and Direction by Inaba Daichi)

The Korean production company EMK Musical created numerous works such as  “Mata Hari”, “The Man Who Laughs” and they collaborated with the outstanding creator Frank Wildhorn for this gigantic musical. Ever since the premiere in 2019, this has been a topical performance with over 32 thousand audiences in Korea.

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

About the Altruists fan ask: why would Kay think her fans are degenerates? (I mean her IRL fans probably are but i think that's just the target demo for IFs lol). If it has to do with the sheep stuff, do you think that speaks to a larger problem in the DYVJ universe? Like do you think parahumans with unusual bodies in the public eye would face more objectification, fetishizing and exploitation? Its always intresting to think about the broader implications In fiction and how that can shape story.

Basically, Kay is generally insecure and would be quick to jump towards the worst case answer that plays on her body image issues.

"I'm a villain" -> "what kind of people like villains?" -> "it must be because of my appearance" -> "they're fetishizing me"

Kay wouldn't think about how she has cool, kinda flashy powers and is exciting to watch. This is all new to her after all.

I'm not sure how much I'll be able to delve into some things in the broader DYVJ worldbuilding because Dime necessarily has a very strangled perspective on a lot of things. I'm hoping to include some stuff a bit more organically throughout the narrative to explore how parahumans are viewed and to an extent commodified* (thanks, DPR!) But yes, I think unusually-bodied parahumans definitely get treated differently in the media and online.

I do think villains genuinely get fanbases provided they're not absolutely reprehensible. The presentation of masks is such that they're often treated in a larger than life, celebrity manner, so assuming that your villain isn't just murdering people left and right, they'll probably have some people thinking they're cool/badass. (and getting yelled at on the internet for it)

*(there's potentially a little bit of discussion if one hangs out with Mal in the current patreon update, and I still want to adjust something from the flashback chapter as it's currently trapped underneath a highly Beth-specific interaction and I think it helps paint the setting a lot!)

# Did she have to say it like a supervillain?? Seriously, all she needs is a white cat and one of those swivel chairs and she's in touching distance of becoming a criminal mastermind. "Beth, if you're going to start muhahahhaing, please at least give me some warning, okay?" She blinks. "…What?" "Only supervillains talk like that." Beth raises an eyebrow. "I have no idea what you're saying." "Have you seriously never listened to a villain speech?" "No, due to the fact that they are criminals and hence unlikely have anything of value to say." For a second you just stare at her. Bombastic villains proclaiming they'll crush their enemies (and then laughing evilly) are like a staple of your weekly online watching. It boggles the mind that your best friend neither watches what are probably the most interesting news stories, nor has ever picked up on your own habitual browsing. "So let me guess this straight. You've never heard Glamoura gloating that she'll restyle an entire city? Hallucinogem giving one of their 'diamond membership addresses'?" Beth throws up her hands. "$!{mc_name}, I do not know who either of those people are!" Your jaw drops. You get so caught up in quizzing an increasingly-baffled Beth about various villains (and then, in utter disbelief, heroes) that by the time you reach your destination, you've distracted the both of you away from the topic of crushes.

[noodleblade]

Do you have any favorite headcanon about cybertronians culture or "biology" you like or would want to use in your writing?

HMMMMMMMMM Interesting questions. Sorry for the ramble, I hope it makes sense but it really got me thinking. This became less headcanons and more just a rant fdkjvbefjvskndjnfjfdknvkjasvfn

As far as culture, I like leaning into what's been established a little.

Example: I like the fraught nature of Velocitron prioritizing speed and creating a system that revolves around it. I'm pretty sure the extent of it discussed is political, but I think it would also stem culturally (and maybe it is in the comics but I haven't gotten there yet).

Music having faster rhythms and beats, childhood games centered around racing, courting rituals based on showing off your speed or racing together.

And on the flip side, Velocitron does devalue slower, bulkier bots which creates this caste-type system. I like the idea of those mechs having their own culture, which is stemmed from their physicality but also their political situation of being outcasted.

Like, since Velocitron is all about who is the fastest, I think an interesting cultural attitude is created where you are constantly trying to be better than others, but if you are already limited being able to go fast, proving you are better isn't as important when society tells you differently. It shifts the value of the Importance of Self to the Importance of Community. That in itself creates a shift in culture.

Not to mention the ADA Compliance angle of there are areas of Velocitron that just have structures that allow for bigger, slower bots. I think I wrote something along the lines of Breakdown complaining that going to a convention medic on Velocitron as a bigger bot often ends up with misdiagnosed problems because they are so focused on the idea that you must be fast and smaller that they offer reformatting without looking at what the root of the problem is. (I know many fat people have this issue of doctors suggesting "losing weight" when addressing medical concerns without digging in deeper which is bullshit but aside from the point).

A SIDE THOUGHT: I would love to read (or maybe write???) Cybertronian folk stories/myths. I think that would be a fun avenue of culture to explore. It would be a way to delve into multiple aspects of culture and each city and colony would naturally have different ones or even rival ones. For example, taking the Velocitron culture into consideration, there could be conflicting folk stories alla a tortoise and hare situation. Speedy, conventional mechs would have a story framed around the "hare" being the winner where a slowly, bulkier mechs would have it framed around the "tortoise" being the winner. Idk i think that is so cool and interesting and gahhh.

BIOLOGY THOUGH x---x science was my worst subject in school already and i struggle with anything related to it. Writing such topics is a fun challenge but very difficult for me to broach, especially when we add mechanical components into it. I am writing a fic with the basis of scavenging the parts of deceased/offlined mechs and using them to rebuild another.

[bloomshroomz]

I think I'm aroallo?

CW: sex mentions, talk about aroallo stereotypes

I think I'm aroallo. I've been identifying as aroace for a while now, but I keep saying to my girlfriend, "I feel like I might not be asexual after all." I've been saying that again and again for months. Her response is always, "You're probably not."

I don't question my aromanticism at all. It's one aspect of my identity that I'm very sure about. But my asexuality, on the other hand... I don't think that I'm really ace. I feel like I've been clinging to the asexual label because of the assumptions people make about aroallos. Being aroace is one thing, but being aroallo is a lot harder for me to accept.

People tend to assume that aroallos are always hypersexual, or always loveless, or always prioritize sex above all else when it comes to their relationships with people. And all of those things are valid experiences, but they don't apply to me personally.

I've been trying to put it into words... People think that a lack of romantic attraction necessitates an amplified sexual attraction. Like just because I'm aro, I must be "more sexual" than other allosexual people. It seems like people think sexuality has to be "balanced out" with romance. But I'm not particularly sexual; I'm just not ace.

Tangentially related, this idea that "no romantic attraction = amplified sexual attraction" also seemed really prevalent in SAM discourse a while back. One of the big arguments people used against romantic orientation labels was that they were "oversexualizing" sexuality labels or "reducing everything to sex" by separating the romantic aspect from the sexual aspect.

I'm talking about the people who would say shit like, "Why would you call yourself biromantic instead of bisexual? Are you implying that bisexual people only care about sex?" when they saw a biromantic ace. That sort of "logic."

And the implication with that argument is, if the tables were turned (i.e. they were bisexual and aromantic), it would be appalling to them. And it was especially paired with the assumption that sex - romance = oversexualized, in whatever way "oversexualized" may be defined. Lots of sex negativity mixed in with the discourse.

On another note, I've voiced my disdain for the Attraction Layer Cake elsewhere before. There are a lot of problems with it, but I'm going to focus on the "Crimson" part specifically: the crimson layer is the only option if you're aromantic without being asexual. That and "Red" I suppose, but the red layer could describe any allosexual orientation, whether aromantic or not.

Crimson is labeled as aromantic sexuality, which is a problem in and of itself. It should say aromantic allosexuality. But that's not the part I take the most issue with. I hate the description.

"The purpose of relationships is primarily sexuality. Romance is not specifically desired."

Again, there's nothing wrong with prioritizing or emphasizing sexuality. But that's not an inherent aspect of being aroallo, and it doesn't describe me personally. The primary purpose of my relationships is emotional connection. Sex is just a cool thing that I may or may not do with people.

Also, "relationships" is vague. Does it mean relationships in general, regardless of whether they're romantic, platonic, etc? In that case, that's a huge generalization of the many types of relationships aroallos may have.

Or does it specifically refer to romantic relationships? In that case, that's also a huge generalization, because it assumes aroallos will have romantic partners, and it implies that it's only okay to have sex with people if you're also romantically involved.

Aromantic people also have to deal with a lot of explicitly negative stereotypes. Manipulative, abusive, cruel. I feel like these assumptions get amplified when you're aroallo specifically. A lot of people think that explicitly wanting sex, without explicitly wanting romance, automatically makes you a horrible person. I'm too exhausted to even delve into these stereotypes.

All I'll say is, there's nothing wrong with wanting sex, and there's nothing wrong with having no desire for romance. Sexual attraction doesn't need to be "justified" via romantic attraction, and sex doesn't need to be "justified" via romance. As long as everyone is consenting and upfront with their intentions, whose business is it anyways?

I'm not 100% sure if I'm allosexual. But after months of saying, "I don't think I'm asexual after all," I think it's safe to say that I'm not aroace. Maybe I'm greysexual at most, but eh. Whether I'm allosexual or ace-spec, there's one thing I'm certain of: I'm more aro than I am ace, if I'm even ace-spec at all.

I'm sitting here sort of feeling... Out of place. Like, everywhere. I'm a romance-indifferent aroallo, who isn't heavily sexual, but still enjoys sex. It's sort of isolating, I guess. It would be reassuring to see more people with similar experiences.

Slightly unrelated, but my primary special interest is Littlest Pet Shop, and I love putting these little guys on pride flags. So, here's the aroallo flag with a bunny on it. Makes me happy despite all the confusion and conflicted feelings

[abyssal-ali]

Maribat Ships and My Vibe Explanations

These are based on the most popular tropes and scenarios I've seen particularly for a specific ship, but some are my own vision:) Moodboards I made for each ship, which are partially inspired by the below thoughts, are linked in the ship name.

Brucinette:

Boss x Secretary trope or Socialite meets Other Socialite and Both Discover each other is Less Shallow than they Thought

Alternatively,

Hero x Villain Love story.

Look, we all know Bruce has a bad track record with his Rogues and also Love in general

Black Cat Mari is the most popular, probably, but I think we should see more Villain/ Morally Grey Mari with other Miraculi

Not my favourite ship but it can be fun

Particularly when we add Dad Bruce and Mari gets to adopt the Batkids and be a Cool MomTM.

Dickinette:

Often a Villain x Hero romance, usually Black Cat Marinette and Nightwing.

A good trope to be sure, but I think we should spice it up more.

Vampire Dick Truthers (you know who you are) have a point with their Vampire Dick and Mari fics. Why not make Dick the villain in Mari's Rogue Gallery???

Overall a great trope, especially if you really delve into their characters: both are 'sunshine' characters who fight everyday to be the nice, kind heroes everyone thinks they are and expects them to be, even though it's the hardest route to take.

Jasonette:

(I'm biased as it's my #1 Maribat ship, but I'll try not to go on too long >.<)

Villain x Hero? Hero x Hero? Amazing, outstanding. What about Villain x Villain? I myself would love to see more Rogue Jason and Rogue Mari fics.

Any AU is amazing. I admit to having a fondness for Mob Boss Jason, partly because he is one in canon, at least for a while, and because I'm addicted to dark/mafia romance novels. Lieutenant Mari? Yes, please. Rival Mob Boss Mari? Heck yeah! Bat-affiliate Mari? Gimme. Please.

The amount of character exploration you could do if you wrote a romance where they actually stayed together, looking at you, DC is intriguing. Would Jason change for someone he loved? Would he give up crime lording? Would Mari accept him anyways but then they'd have to deal with one half running from the law/vigilantes and the other half being on the vigilantes' side?

Also, soft Jason. Nerding out over books and music and fashion and appreciating the fine things in life and meeting this cute fashion designer with a penchant to listen to Jagged Stone-

So many AU opportunities!! Bakery AU! Mafia AU! Coffee Shop AU! Meetcute at the Museum AU!...

Okay I'll move on now:(

Timari:

LISTEN

This ship IS THE DEFINITION OF THE CEO X SECRETARY TROPE!

I need more, I don't care if it's overused

Also, rival hackers or geniuses.

OR COFFEE SHOP AU

They're both coffee monsters, it's perfect

No I don't care that there are two dozen coffee shop Timari AUs, give me more.

Daminette:

ACADEMIC RIVALS TO LOVERS

Or just rivals to lovers is fine too

YOU REALLY THINK THESE TWO 'MUST BE THE TOP IN CLASS' WOULDN'T BE FIGHTING OVER GRADES AND THEN PAIRED UP ON AN ASSIGNMENT BECAUSE THEY'RE TOO INTENSE TO WORK WITH ANYONE ELSE AND THEN THEY HAVE TO WORK TOGETHER AT ALL TIMES LEST THE OTHER SABOTAGE THEIR PROJECT AND THEN THEY FALL IN LOVE-

anyways

I'm not even into HP but I want a Hogwarts AU with these two-

or any dark academia rivals to lovers au

Roynette:

Enemies or Rivals to Lovers

It's just a simple misunderstanding, as all large rifts start off with.

There's a translation issue or an eavesdropping that is taken out of context

(they're both idiots your honour)

But then something happens and they have to work together or they're made to talk and they realize it's all just a misunderstanding

And then they're like... " while we're clearing the air...so uh, I kinda have a crush on you'

"no way, me too!!"

And Mari meets Lian (or maybe that's what starts this, Jason and Mari are hanging out babysitting Lian and Roy comes to pick Lian up and they start talking and and and-)

And Mari loves Lian immediately of course, who wouldn't?

And so Roy likes her more because she likes Lian so automatically she's not as bad as he thought, and Lian really likes her too

And then they fall in love and Jason and Lian are the master matchmakers behind the scenes

You can pry OTP Jason & Lian setting up Roynette out of my cold dead hands

Konette:

I haven't seen or read a ton of Konette, but they usually meet at the Titans

Friends to Lovers 100%

They're both quiet and new and feeling out the dynamics

so they're often pushed together on purpose or by accident because the others are just so loud and chaotic

And then they become BFFs and are less inclined to join the others' chaos and so spend more time together, and so the cycle continues

And then one day something happens

Kon is Kryptonian and Mari had the Miraculous, they're usually the least-damaged members, but something happens, there's Kryptonite or magic or Something and one or both gets hurt.

The other jumps in front of them to take the blow because they can't let the other get hurt

"Why did you do that?!"

"I couldn't let you get hurt. You need to save our teammates."

Then the hurt one faints or passes out and the other confesses and thinks they can't hear them

They get back to the Tower safely and get treated and wake up and then they see the other

"Did you say you loved me, when I was passed out?"

"You heard that? Uh...yeah, I love you."

"I love you too!"

I haven't read much of any of the other ships to get a good feel on them, so I'm stopping here:)

[raveneira]

Stop Lyin

'KawaSara fans just want everything to just be Naruto 2.0, they dont want anything new or different they only ship it cuz its like SS'

The same mfs sayin that:

Stfu, the only ones your fooling are yourselves, your just fine with Naruto 2.0, but only for the ships YOU want canon.

'B-but their a mix of multiple OG ships not just one so its different!'

Thats even WORSE, it makes them the most unoriginal ship and just a weird amalgamation of OG ships with nothing of their own, their just NaruHina, MinaKushi, ItaIzu, ObiRin, NaruSaku, SasuSaku, SasuNaru etc all over again, but yea you sure showed us about wanting 'originality' lol

And just to burst your bubble even more, your not special, and your point is invalid anyway because I didnt hear nothin about 2.0 in OG Naruto when these were happening but NOW suddenly its an issue.

But now suddenly its a problem, back then yall called it 'parallels' and 'foreshadowing' but for some reason conveniently when its KawaSara and BoruSumi suddenly its Naruto 2.0 and we need something different than past dynamics

BUT YALL HAD NONE OF THAT ENERGY WHEN NS WAS COPY AND PASTE OBIRIN/JIRATSUNA

NONE OF THAT ENERGY WHEN SS WAS JUST KAKARIN/DANTSUNA

NONE OF THAT ENERGY WHEN NH WAS JUST INVERTED MINAKUSHI

But god forbid KawaSara is just a little too much like SS or BoruSumi a little too much like NH, but Bsa being like [in your words not mine] literally every past OG ship is totally fine and the pinnacle of originality you all wanna see from the sequel, give me a danm break lol

What makes this even more pathetic is that Im not even exaggerating, they've gotten so blatantly hypocritical their even trying to use the Minato one-shot as foreshadowing for Bsa, keep in mind these are the same people who claim to want something new and different, are using a one shot set in the past for an OG ship that happened WAY before Bsa even existed all because of the vortex symbolism and the sequel just happened to have the name vortex in it they think its some kind of parallel/foreshadowing for the pair...which is utterly ridiculous but this aint the post for that, but just friendly reminder the Shippuden in the Naruto sequel meant Hurricane chronicles/legends and the Uzumaki clan has always been symbolized with whirlpools/vortex way before Boruto was even thought of, hell their clan symbol is a literal swirl like a vortex...nuff said, this aint the post to delve deeper into that.

Im mentioning this purely to point out the hypocrisy of wanting something 'different' yet using every possible OG thing thats even remotely similar to boost your ship and show how canon it is, yet KawaSara and BoruSumi cant because then its Naruto 2.0.

Their newest thing lately I've been seein the most is that BoruSara is like MinaKushi and NaruHina because Sarada stalks Boruto etc, so I thought I'd bring this reality check back since these same ppl talkin about other shippers just wanting Naruto 2.0 again.

Like I said, the only ones your foolin are yourselves cuz nobody buys your bs cuz everytime yall pull that card you put your foot in your mouth with all these 'parralels' that are suddenly ok now, but NOT ok when its any of your rival ships . Sit down.

PS: This aint the post to go into this either, but like I mentioned earlier that Bsa is actually the most unoriginal new gen ship, I could literally make a separate post showing how that is and how KawaSara and BoruSumi are actually the more unique ships of the options. You may have noticed I havent mentioned Ksu at all in this...thats because its a joke atp that I nor anybody besides their shippers take seriously, but if I must address it its literally just poorly done SS and SH with a dash of SK so why would I even bother with such a joke of a ship that exists solely to play keep away for Bsa but not because theres any legitimate basis in canon and thrives purely off headcanon and Hondas rewriting of events that amounted to nothing because, shocker, the manga wasnt building anything between them, so Honda created a completely made up foundation for nothing that they scrapped immediately and never acknowledged it again. So much for 'the anime is the complete version of the manga' yea funny how they backtracked alot of their mistakes when they saw the manga contradicting it, cuz at the end of the day the manga is the MAIN source material, so what happens there is more canon than anything the anime does afterwards.

[uniquezombiedestiny]

actually fuck it. i need to ramble more

thinks about the snow queen and bella. ive recently delved into her story and some of the of fairytale (dubious from some webbed site but. yknow lmao) and wound up with lots of think of... based on her ruina dialogue + appearance, the queen like to challenge the brave. in the fairytale, kai and gerda's childike hearts are still there at the end. bella is someone with a kind heart and not much bravery. (really, she polarizes, but her bravery is more around the alternate alone. she can be brave!! but usually and - especially as she declines - she loses that aspect, likely trading it for simple anger, red-shoes-y desire, etc.) she was also forced to grow up - she is still that lonely kid she was years ago. she is still in t-589, still in c-127. she has a lot to learn, still, and to discover.

the snow queen is.. an interesting figure to me when it comes to her relationship with bella. she is cold, silent, only watching bella as she simply speaks into basically nothingness. she may, sometimes, give her a cruel smile. what a childlike, brave little soul; one who chose to bear the cold. one who enjoys her presence.

"kai saw things he didn't need or want to see." / "he felt like what he knew amounted to so little."

to bella, the queen is a respite. friendcorp has shown her so many new things, good and bad. on the bad side, her mental issues have been unraveling. her unhealthy mindset isn't going to work indefinitely like it used to. but, with the snow queen, it's familiar. it's not even that cold anymore, you know? she's long been used to cold, quiet, endless hallways. talking into the silence - like her words are simply carried away by the wind - is a relief, because noone can hear them. for once, she can speak, and there will be no consequences. and if the queen does hear, well, that's alright. she trusts her, now.

the cold isn't so bitter anymore. it's homely. familiar. it's lively, biting into her skin, sending shivers down her spine. she feels real.

and, ofc, i'll talk about her suicide attempt too. especially her own views on it... eventually, it becomes like a knightly duty to her. she must do this to save everyone else - surely, we'll all be happier this way. yes, you'll have to face this loss. but beyond it is a better ending for everyone here. this is the most logical choice... isn't it?

the snow queen gave kai a kiss - one to no longer feel the cold, and one to forget everything. his family, friends, etc etc. that way, he would stay with the snow queen. she would show him the truth of the world - the shattered mirror shards, his knowledge being so little, the mirror of reason.

"what a shame... all your friends who could help you are gone." really, it's like she pities bella and her kind, lonely heart. she pitites most people, i think, like when she laughed at lee during their duel, or gave merry a sickening smile shortly before being frozen. where her heart should be is empty - she is a cold and calculating being.

in ruina, the mirror is surrounded with frozen people, with the throne being the head of the circle. really, both her and bella have done this time and time again. bella has endured loss after loss, leaving entire worlds behind. the snow queen has killed person after person, snuffing flame after flame. her suicidd isn't much different. it's just, this time. it's a calm, slow end. bella puts up no fight or front of bravery, now. she just wants to return to her dreams of a better world. the queen will gladly show her this, in a place made only for themselves, where bella can finally be completely and utterly herself, in all it's flaws, without consequence. with all of her emotions overtaken by freezing cold, she can finally smile.

and she'll be preserved as an angel. she'll look beautiful, perfect, in this ice, like a bug in amber. she will always be the perfect kid.

also, in the og story, the shattered mirror wound up being made into things like glasses and windows. that fits well with bella's glasses. when kai's eye gets a tiny, tiny shard in it, he sees everything as distorted and ugly. but he sees perfection in snowflakes. the snow queen is made of them, the queen to the "snow bees" that are snowflakes. (they're actually described as snow bees in the story!)

[crystal-overdrive]

Towards Tyranny Post Mortem

I put it to a poll whether folk wanted to read my thoughts on TT now I've finished it and you said yes, so here it is! Under the cut, 1675 words. Perhaps some minor spoilers but I don't outright say what the ending is.

PROCESS

Towards Tyranny was my first piece of fanfiction and my first long-form piece of prose. I worked on Towards Tyranny for ten months, at a rate of a chapter or 2 -4l per week. I was surprised at my ability to continue a project for this long, as by three months I’m normally chomping at the bit when I’m working on other forms of writing. I think releasing serially and getting constant feedback was a huge motivator I wanted to give my audience something every week and I looked forwards to what hey had to say. I’m not sure I could have written the whole thing by myself without showing it to anyone.

Unlike how I normally work, Towards Tyranny was not edited. It would have taken me about double the time if I’d edited, and editing chapter-by-chapter isn’t particularly helpful to me, as I tend to do a structural and character pass before delving into line edits. I think my writing must have improved over the course of this project, as I don’t believe it is too noticeable that the first ten or so chapters have about four rounds of editing, and subsequent chapters have none. So that’s nice!

Plotting and outlining was pretty odd on this project. I am normally very much a planner, but the fic diverged from the original outline very quickly. At points I abandoned the outline and went chapter-by-chapter. I did make (several) more outlines during writing, but the main purpose of these was to prove that the work could actually be finished than a guideline for writing. Having a bit of room for the characters to speak for themselves was a good thing, and I think this has taught me that I can relax a little with my outlining and still complete long projects.

The pace I wrote this at was reasonable, but it was only possible because I didn’t have a full time job. I “stole” time from uni, and during September and October worked on it full time to get finished. One thousand words a day is my full time pace which, while comparable with professionals, seems to pale in comparison to other fic writers. With any luck I’ll have a full time job soon, and I think on top of working, a reasonable pace for outside writing projects is something like 1k a week. That means I probably won’t be writing a longfic like this again. If I do write something of this size it will probably be an original. I’ve proven to myself I can write at length, and I’d like the challenge of original work.

This doesn’t mean I’m done with fandom, it’s just more likley to be the odd one shot when I feel inspired rather than anything big.

PACING AND STRUCTURE

I think it is evident from the text that my outline was changing during writing, as the structure is odd at times. It feels like the front half is all romance, the back half all plot, and then there’s almost a resolution which is undone by my subversive ending. The way Towards Tyranny ends is pretty typical of my work, but I think part of me was channelling the frustration I felt with the project into the characters motivations by the end. Perhaps a more simple romance ending without The Cell or Astarion/Gasper would have made for a stronger ending.

If I was to do a structural edit, I would either remove or make more of the political plotline. The Hand of Baldur goes nowhere, so I’d either add that in or replace it with the Drains and Underways, because they essentially did what Tav suggested the Hand of Baldur would do in that parliament session. I’d also make more of Jannath considering where she ends up. These are fairly minor things to catch in a structural edit, but for a released work they’re not great. This is just a hazard of releasing serially and changing the outline as I went!

Another issue I have with the political plotline is that it often develops between chapters. I thought writing it was boring, and therefore reading it would be. This means we get a lot of telling not showing in regards to Tav’s poltical prowess. If I had leaned in here and done more political chapters though, the work would have been so long, and it would have veered even further from romance as a genre.

One thing I think I do do well with is foreshadowing and setting up characters and mysteries. This was less deliberate planning, and more “I need a character, guess I’ll pull a name I’ve used before”, but it worked. There is also a lot of nice dramatic irony on a second read — I particularity liked Enver telling Tav he “had to have her before she took the Gate from him” in chapter two. Like, you STUPID man, if you’d have left her alone she’d have been no threat! I

Generally, while too much happens off screen and the structure is a little odd, every plot point feel like it is set up and paid off, and we have a cohesive main plot in the Bane storyline. And the Bane storyline is kind of the big gotcha here. Towards Tyranny isn’t really a romance. The real story is about Bane and Tav’s decent into religious fascism, but that wasn’t my original intent, and it wasn’t until about chapter ten that I actually figured that out. If this was an original and I was writing to market, I’d probably be looking at turning it into a political fantasy with a romance B plot rather than the other way around.

In terms of pacing, the political plots are fine, but the romance pace is a bit weird. We got from quite tame flirting to really quite sexual advances in chapter ten which was faster than made sense on a second reading. Again, if I was to edit, I’d add another romantic scene before it that started to cross the line. I would also add another sex or romance scene before the final chapter that demonstrates that while the power dynamics have changed, Enver and Tav do still love one another, because right now I feel like their feelings could be read as ambiguous at the end. Also, I just think it’s funny that they went from flirting to married in basically two weeks. Time was all over the place in the fic, and juggling a lot of plot points made it hard to manage at times.

QUALITY OF PROSE

I don’t consider prose my main form of writing, so I’m largely happy with how the prose turned out. There’s some really lovely metaphors, similes and description near the beginning that grounds the reader in Tav’s head and world. This does fall off as I stop editing and being to write faster, but in my defence, by chapter thirty, we don’t need more description of Wyrm’s Rock! Some of the description in the later chapters feels overly simplistic—more like stage direction than the sort of description and action that also conveys emotion, theme, tone etc.

While I was writing I was concerned about the overuse of things like smiling, learning, smirking, said, because I tended to use these as fillers between dialogue and they are known as somewhat annoying, but when I read back I didn’t notice it at all as a reader, and though action and dialogue flowed quite well. Nearer the end, we start to get heads talking in the void. I had purposefully used less action and dialogue tags because I had noticed that I used them more than I found them in published work. Looking at it now, I think, no, I don’t need to tag every line, but I prefer (in my own writing at least) more tags and action than less.

I am very pleased with my dialogue. I think it is natural and consistently in character. Each character has a distinct register that I am happy with.

FANFIC VS ORIGINAL

If this was an original, it would have to have been far longer. Through I do a lot of worldbuilding as far as Bane is involved, the pre-established worlds and characters do so much. Without contextt of the Gods, the cults, the adventure, it wouldn’t make sense. An original would have needed flashbacks to the adventure, or perhaps this would have to come as a part two.

I really enjoyed getting to take an established world and pick at it and expand it. By mid-way, when the main cast were mostly OCs and the story had become about my take on the cult of Bane, it felt closer to an original, but the process was still very different.

It had different motivations from writing an original piece too. While I love interacting with readers via comments, and at times it did feel like I was writing for comments, I was ultimately writing for myself, and at points as a form of therapy. During writing I went through a religious crisis, dropped out of a PhD, got engaged and dealt with a lot of family drama. Wonder where half of the plot of the fic came from…

On that note, I back and forthed a lot about whether Tav was a self-insert. She was a lot of my character traits, personality quirks, and I sort of wrote from a what-would-I-do perspective for a while. As she turned more and more evil, more of a gap formed between us, and I think that made writing harder. I started to feel uncomfortable that I had identified with a character whose morals were so unlike my own by the end. In the last few chapters I embraced Tav as not-me, just some cool evil woman, and that was better.

Overall, I’m really happy with Towards Tyranny. It’s the longest thing I’ve ever written, I feel so proud of how I committed to getting this done, and I like the end result!

[thyandrawrites]

hi! please feel no pressure to answer this ask, but as a former Dabihawks shipper I am very curious if you see any possible scenarios for their post-canon relationship? even throwing the ending out of the window, I just can't imagine what their relationship could be like after the war, which is weird with the way they were so consistently set up as close narrative foils 😅

That's valid. Honestly even tho I still ship it, this pairing has lost part of its original appeal for me too, given my preference for canon-compliant stuff and how canon went. But I think that a lot of things are possible in the realm of fanfic. All it takes is just a strong and believable enough foundation to justify why a character would make x choice instead of y, you know?

As I mentioned in previous replies, I have little to no interest in exploring any post canon scenarios that stem from the canon ending, personally. But if I were to write one, I guess my focus would be on getting Dabi and Hawks to be on speaking terms again, first. They didn't part on good terms, and there's several unsolved issues between them that I'd want to address before building up on their relationship. Here's a few off the top of my head:

Not to revive a dead horse just to beat it to death again, but Hawks... very much still thinks his actions during the war were justified. And he got a promotion out of it too, which wouldn't help him see them under a critical light, either. This poses the biggest problem to a post-canon dabihawks scenario imo because that dehumanization and Othering he does subconsciously is anthitetical to him seeing a romantic partner in Dabi. Or to being the kind of "think for yourself" person Dabi would be fond of. Unless, like. You were interested in writing a toxic relationship, I guess.

Building off point one, if Hawks doesn't think heroes did wrong in the war, then he would not have the necessary perspective to change society for the better even in his new role as the HPSC president. Ideally, I'd want to develop his character to the point where he stops thinking in such black and white terms anymore. Dabi would simply never respect him if Hawks didn't walk that mile first imo. On the other hand, if Hawks did grow from his old stances, and eventually learned to use the lesson Twice was trying to teach him before he died to make society better, I think that would make quite an impression on Dabi. It's all about overcoming that mental block Hawks seems to have against victimhood and his own complex relationship with it.

As for Dabi, he threatened Tomie and scared her so much she fled, again, leaving her son behind. And maybe Hawks didn't have much of a relationship left with his mom, but Dabi did take that chance away from him, whether Hawks was ready to cut off contact with her altogether or not. That's bound to leave some baggage, and there must be resentment there that they'd need to address and work their way past. You know... maybe reconnecting with his own family could make Dabi grow enough in turn to realize what he needs apologizing for.

The wings... I haven't read the fight with AFO so I'm not sure how Hawks ended up losing the stubs too, but Dabi did begin the process, and it left Hawks quirkless. Again, that's bound to have more consequences than him being immediately fine with it. Hawks' entire life was shaped by his wings' usefulness to those around him, and suddenly he lost the very thing he centered his entire identity around. If I was writing their reconciliation, I'd probably address the mixed feeling he must hold for Dabi, the person who did that to him, but also Touya, the son of possibly the only person Hawks has ever fully respected.

I'm sorry if you were looking for specific scenarios as in fic ideas, but even if I wasn't writer blocked right now I doubt I would want to delve that deep into this. Hope this answer somewhat sates your curiosity tho!

[paperstorm]

After the finale, I saw the Carlos/Andrea scene from 4x12 a tiny bit differently. Still maybe a bit sloppily written, but I think it makes a little more sense what they were going for. Carlos is saying that TK and Owen have had a special relationship since TK was little but Carlos says he just started his relationship with his dad, and Andrea said that wasn’t true…but based on the VHS of little Carlos and Gabriel, we see that Andrea was right. Carlos did have a special relationship with his dad when he was little. However, somewhere along the way, they lost it and I don’t think they quite acknowledge that fact enough. What made them go from that sweet scene on the video to a relationship where Carlos believed he wasn’t enough and was too soft and his parents’ love was conditional? Since Carlos doesn’t really even remember the close relationship, he must have been quite young when it changed, so I really put the blame on Gabriel for whatever happened between them, even if it wasn’t intentional on Gabriel’s part. And of course that’s what Andrea really fails to acknowledge because clearly there’s a lot more going on there than Carlos’ parents not knowing how to talk about his sexuality with him. The issues between Carlos and Gabriel must have started years before Carlos came out. I’m not quite sure whether the show is just cutting corners and simplifying things by pretending there’s not more going on or whether it’s supposed to be Andrea who’s doing that within the universe of the show. Of course, on a show like this, they’re just not going to have the time to delve into this stuff nearly as much as I would like, so I think a lot of the nuance just gets lost. It’s unfortunate because I love this nuance and I’m fascinated by what went on in the Reyes family. Unfortunately, they’re background characters in a show that already has like 10 main characters to balance plus the need to focus emergencies/rescues at times, so we’re only going to get Reyes family details when it’s needed for the plot. The most we can hope for is that the details given to us are able to be woven together in a way that makes some kind of sense and then fandom discussions and fic can fill in the blanks!

Yes all of this! This is a great explanation. It’s such fascinating nuance and it was a somewhat clumsy portrayal of if. There are parts that were great but it always rubbed me the wrong way that Carlos’s pain is sort of dismissed by his family. It’s canon that his relationship with his dad was so strained that he literally doesn’t remember it ever being good. So it feels unkind to have his mother and sisters act like he was just imagining it all. But, that is also in line with how families with bad communication function. It feels unkind but it’s maybe not unrealistic for Andrea to also have a hard time being honest and facing the truth because it’s painful to admit how much they hurt him. Parents aren’t perfect and Carlos got that avoidance from somewhere. It’s really fascinating nuance that they touched the surface of but I wish had been examined more.

[gale-heart]

I’m not doing well at introspection. In hindsight, perhaps I ought not to have delved back into my worst memories alone at night, when I was still emotional and weary from travel. I’ve only accomplished making myself sad and further twisted up about even more things than I went in thinking about. I think the others could tell something was off after the meeting at town hall. I did tell them of Kerrius’ offer to do more work with us, but held off from everything else. Didn’t seem like the time or place to risk falling to pieces over my hot chocolate.

Remington is stepping down, both from the Council and as Head of Commerce. I’m glad she’ll have more freedom and space to take care of her personal business, and of course I like and trust the folks stepping up in her place, but it feels oddly…melancholic. I shall have to try and deal with it anyways—at the end of the day, I care more that my friends do what’s best for them. Even if I see less of them for it.

Waited until it was polite to leave and then threw myself into the skies and just…went. No real aim or purpose other than to be alone with my thoughts. I must have been up longer than I thought, because I was in Westfall by the time I got out of my head. Didn’t think they had Moongates that far south in the Kingdoms—definitely didn’t expect to find one on a tiny little spit of land off the coast, or the lone, ancient kaldorei knelt in prayer. I was torn between curiosity and not wanting to be rude by intruding (also not wanting to invite even more ire than I’ve previously received from Elune’s chosen) until she just invited me down.

Kiroette was far nicer than I’d braced myself for. She only checked that my boots were (relatively) clean (apparently not supposed to bring too much dirt to these gates) and then soon had me talking with surprising ease about myself and where I came from. Didn’t pry into what problems I was trying to work through—just invited me to silently share it all with the moon. (I’ve been uninvolved for so long that I’m…not sure if that’s quite how this works, but I don’t find myself inclined to doubt in this case.)

I haven’t sought Elune for anything in a very long time, associating Her attentions with the hostility of folk who mostly either thought I was dangerous for my magic or my choice of friends. Truthfully, I’ve half-believed that She would smite me into moon dust herself if I ever caught Her eye. This new idea—not only that She would still deign to care about my problems after I’ve fucked up twenty ways to Sunday, but that I could seek her comfort independent of an organized sect…I don’t know, it still seems audacious of me. But I suppose Kiroette has a point: Elune has probably seen far worse from people than a petulant youth with anger issues, and forgiven people for being away far longer than I have. At risk of being smote, I would like to think She’d be forgiving.

I suppose I would like to feel like I belong with the kaldorei, in spite of everything. I love the Fence dearly, and I don’t intend to leave them anytime soon, but I’ve been increasingly cognizant of how alienated I feel from my own people. Problem is, I alienated myself back then through my own actions—now, by joining a neutral (but mostly Forsaken and sindorei) company, I may have further killed any chance of my being welcomed back into society, or even tolerated. I’ve certainly met enough kaldorei in recent years who had no qualms in declaring me as good as the enemy. Sadly, tentative reconnection with Elune from a distance may be the best I can hope for at this point.

Fucking hell, I was supposed to come back from the Dragon Isles feeling good and confident about myself.

[writingway-in-writinghell]

I just want to say, I appreciate your highlighting of the way people of colour expressing discomfort with how Nate and Shandy have been handled is often being ignored by this fandom. It may not be intentional, but all these written interactions are so charged, and excluding Nate, one of the most important characters in the show, from half the episodes of the season while at the same time bringing the character that made his life so unpleasant to the forefront, has so not been sitting well with me. Having him have to “earn” the right to be treated like a person is gross. And Shandy…the offloading of all the problems associated with her hiring onto her, rather than acknowledging Keeley’s failures; the treatment of her as a joke; the way Keeley makes more of an active effort to connect with Jack than she has all season with the “underlings”…it feels like an intersection of racism and classism, and I am just not feeling it at all. Anyway, sorry for the ramble, I just wanted to say, I appreciate you emphasizing the need to believe us when we call out things about this story.

Thank you for your message, anon, and the added nuance to this topic. It’s something I can’t word quite as well, surely due to my own bias as a white European, and the credit for bringing it to my attention lies solely with good folks like you who point this stuff out. <3

See, I didn’t even think of Jamie’s and Colin’s arcs in relation to Nate’s here. I think Jamie’s is a very important story to tell, to show audiences how toxic men were once boys suffering under violent fathers, and how hard it is to break that cycle; and I also love the young queer/queer elder friendship we’re getting. But I also have to… kinda ignore at what cost we’re getting both if I want to take this direction in as it is.

It is jarring to think back on the Richmond team walking out of that tunnel and glaring at Nate like that. There is no compassion. No reflection on what they did to HIM. Only the expectation that he should be thankful that they… stopped bullying him??? That’s fucked up.

And look, I am STILL holding out hope that they’ll somehow address this, that they’ll give Nate the chance to heal from the *Richmond* trauma. He lashed out against Ted in an attempt to get back at Richmond as a whole, I think, and no wonder! How many years has he suffered the abuse coming from Jamie and Colin before Ted came along? How long have the others just watched? Is this a result of Rupert’s management, the toxic coach they had before? Why not address that?!

I think the focus is just way off this season. I wanted to see how Nate deals with the aftermath, and the first few episodes delved right in, even adding Shandy as a mirror to Nate’s arc!

Only to drop it in favor for a narrative that serves us white queer folks, on of which was Nate’s bully. And like. God. I am so conflicted because the AIDS epidemic wasn’t even that long ago! Gay men are still very much struggling. Queer people are still ostracized. There’s a genocide on trans people on its way. I’m queer myself and love what they did in the last episode.

But shouldn’t there be room for ALL of us? Especially, you know, people of color who are also very much still dying at the hands of other white people? What stopped them from doing Keeley/Shandy, for example? Why must it be her white skinny rich boss? (I mean. We know why, right.) There’s so much room for more, and in light of the things they DO get down SO WELL, it’s especially frustrating because the writers seem like they should be aware of these societal issues.

Well. You see me rambling as well now, anon. Goes to show how hard it is to discuss this all in a nuanced manner, especially since I’m lacking so much context myself.

But yeah, this is why we can’t just pick people of color for the roles we write and then change nothing about their arcs. Intersectionality and CRT needs to be mandatory at writing schools if you ask me.

[ehh-is-the-name]

Hello, just saw your post while searching tumblr about your exposure to seikon no qwaser and watching it 3 times while being presumably straight at this age

The question is - has it influenced you and if did in which way? I'm asking because it's the same for me?? Omg I thought I was a freak who watched it 3 times at the same age as you did 😭 such a relief that I'm not only one

Holys shit- I forgot about that thang.... Never expected to be put on the hot seat about it, but lemme break it down.

Has it influenced me?

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: Under the cut, got too much to say sorry.

Had to look back at the thing I posted about it, and yeah 10-12 was an age to watch that for sure. Those were the ages I was on the "I identify as an attack helicopter" side of the internet, you know, mid 2010s and such. So I was very much a "I'm 100% cis and straight" kinda kid. I didn't care about others being gay, I was just sure that I wasn't. At that point, I saw sex as a whole (whoever doing it to whoever) as the funniest shit in the world. Hence watching that anime so many times.

I still kinda see sex as funny, but I digress.

I kept it in my head that I was straight up until the pandemic hit. Something about a year of quarantining really kicks the self-analysis into high gear. Around that time the sexuality and gender crisis hit, you know like with everyone else. I somewhat remembered Seikon no Qwazer but I mostly thought of all the other bs like that I'd seen in the context of "...Am I gay?" To which I have to say, no not saphic surprisingly. Or at least I think not..? Hard to say.

The question when thinking about the anime girls in shows like that went from "Am I gay?" to "Do I want to be her?" to "...Um, what is a woman and what happens if I'm not one?"

I think I was more attracted to the designs and outfits of the characters rather than anything else going on. I remember clearly thinking "Would I wanna be in the MC's place?" when trying to solve the "Am I gay?" riddle, and it was always a half-hearted "no, not really". I didn't rewatch the anime to get a hard-on for the tits, that was the comedy to me--the over-exaggerated way he'd fuckin' suck them KILLED me when I was younger. I didn't understand how or why people would watch that stuff to get off, it just didn't make sense to me really. By the pandemic I got it, and realised how not getting it at all may have signalled I had the ace of spades, if you catch my drift.

Gender and sexuality were very rigid structures in my head when I was a kid (girls liked boys) and wanting to be a "good kid", I always said I liked boys. I didn't fully get that liking anyone was just a thing you felt and not actively thought about doing until.... honestly around after seikon no qwazer age- so around 13-14, maybe even 15. Either way, it didn't really pose an issue for me since I liked fictional boys, which is the same as liking real boys, for sure. yeah. (wrong). Learned that the hard way, the VERY hard way.

Getting exposed to physicality was... another questionable variable. Will not delve too much into that, but it's made me loop back around to the "Am I gay?" question a couple of times. And still getting stuck in "do I even really care?" limbo.

If anything, ecchi shit made me realise I wasn't fully allosexual or cis. Which of course came with its own line of questioning, of course. However my favourite realisation from seikon no qwazer specifically was: "Damn their fuckin' backs must HURT."

- - -

Sorry it wasn't a Straight -> Lesbian pipeline for me, if that's what you wanted guidance on- There's a lot of nuance to that too, but I was put on the Straight -> Asexual bus so I can't speak for the other. All I can do is give you the "can I really be ace if I think about sex positively? Frequently? Is there a threshold..?" kind of existential dread.

I was a freak then and still am now, only difference is now I'm a freaky ace~!

[ryanaizan]

Critical thinking Week #1: What is Critical thinking?

Q1. Describe your understanding of critical thinking that you had before the class, and reflect on what you may have learned.

02. What have you learned about Mindfulness? How might you integrate this into your learning environment?

Q3. Describe an eventful moment you have experienced in this class.

My understanding of critical thinking is that it requires us to delve deeply into our thoughts and ideas. We should outline and evaluate each piece of information, continually reflecting on and questioning every aspect of the topic at hand. As designers, it’s essential to think creatively on our own, allowing us to create designs that attract consumers. Additionally, we must analyse and judge the work of others, which also demands strong critical thinking skills. This ability not only enhances our creativity but is also invaluable when we face challenges or need to make significant decisions in our design projects. We can better negotiate difficult issues, consider our options, and come up with creative solutions when we use critical thinking. In the end, having this ability helps us improve as designers and makes sure that our work is both beautiful and functional. That’s my perspective on the role of critical thinking in the design process.

I believe it has aided me in being more self-aware of myself without any criticism. Specifically, my thoughts and feelings are thoroughly discussed. Being humble and staying calm helps me cope with stress and difficult situations. For instance, I typically delay and complete my assignments when they are piled up. Having to complete everything in one go is causing me to feel overwhelmed because I was worried about not being able to meet the deadline or provide the minimum required. However, by practicing mindfulness, I was able to effectively manage my stress and complete my assignment ahead of the deadline. This is the reason mindfulness has been beneficial for me and will also be valuable for others.

An exciting moment during class occurred when my classmates and I had to create tension using strings. Other materials could be utilised to enhance creativity in the making process. I enjoyed myself and had to practice mindfulness by coming up with imaginative ways to utilise the strings.

Word Count: 318 Words