#rambling berry

[casper-ry]

I am so fucking pissed right now.

I've been on AO3 for three years now, and in all those years, I've always kept my works publicly available, because for a long time, I had no account and I wanted people in similar situations to be able to read my stories.

Now, none of my stories are really big, in fact, my two most popular stories are around 2k hits and 200 kudos, so nothing amazing, really. Therefore, for the past year, even with all this generative AI nonsense popping up, I thought "Who'd want to bother stealing my stories" and kept my stories open.

And here we are, five days into 2025, and I had fifteen different people on my tumblr tl telling people to hide the stories from users without an account, bc AI is getting worse and worse.

Today was the worst though: So basically this happened, and while I was not personally affected (luckily), I got into an argument with my sister about generative AI, because she said "Well if you put something on the internet of course it's gonna get stolen", and so on.

So all my works are now hidden for unregistered users (sadly), and I feel like this meme a friend made since they're in the same mood as I am:

and while I could go on an angry rampage about how much of an asshole some people can be, that just for a few cents they completely abandon their morals and sense of intellectual property, and how this is all one huge capitalistic scam-

I won't.

Because today was the best day of this year so far, and I had an awesome day, and I won't let AI take my joy from me.

So enjoy this doodle I made of a snow angel I made since it was the first snow this winter and you're never too old for a snow angel

[the-messy-artist]

Has this been done yet

[foldingfittedsheets]

I can’t remember a time in my life where the summers weren’t full of berries to eat. Every trail has at least a few bushes offering their wares to people walking by.

Many of them aren’t monetized, they don’t keep well, not appealing enough for the bother of cultivating them. Salmon berries, huckleberries, thimble berries. We have black and blue berries, too. But you don’t see most of our local berries in the grocery store.

One of my most precious memories with my beloved was our earliest hike together. They didn’t grow up native to the area and exclaimed in alarm when they saw me reach casually toward a bush to pick a berry as we walked by.

“You can’t just eat berries! What if it’s poisonous?!”

“It’s not,” I said, puzzled. “I guess there’s some poisonous berries around here but I don’t eat those ones, it’s really easy to tell.”

“Those are safe to eat?”

I laughed and popped it into my mouth only to immediately realize it was horribly unripe. Salmon berries come in two colors you see, orange and red.

I’d mistaken an unripe red berry for a ripe orange one. It had felt soft enough to be ripe but it was so bitter it hurt. So an instant after asserting it was safe to eat I opened my mouth with a “bleh” to let it fall back out.

“They- they’re not poisonous it just wasn’t ripe,” I insisted.

My beloved looked skeptical but scanned the bush and plucked another berry to me. “Try this one.”

The sun shone beautifully through the dappled tree canopy, illuminating the gleaming berry in their hand, a perfect snapshot of a romantic summer moment. I took the berry, my fingers brushing their palm to bring the little fruit up to my lips while looking into their smiling eyes.

I had to spit it out.

It was as overwhelmingly bitter as the last one, but I didn’t mind the way my beloved laughed at me.

[berristreasuredlibrary]

Forever With Me

"Does this make me a bad person? Do you think I'm a bad person?"

"I think you're a fucking monster."

"Do you really? Is that by your own free will or what you've been led to believe by other people, my love?"

"Does it matter?"

"To me it does."

Chains rattle as hands raise up, showing off wrists rubbed raw. "It's my free will." A click of teeth, a hand running through messy hair, an annoyed huff. "That's not true. Don't be so cruel to me."

A sharp laugh followed by a scoff, head whipping up to meet crazed eyes. "Cruel?! You've got some balls. You're the one who chained me up."

The cold metal of a blade presses against warm flesh, digging into skin and just barely piercing it, and a low voice beside an ear. "Come on, don't be like that. It's me and you until the end. You're with me. Forever with me, my angel."

[fumifooms]

What if we were both magic prodigies and it otherized us in different ways and we devoted ourselves to protecting a family member who has general other goals & priorities. What if we both did self-sacrifical devotion in opposite ways.

What if we were dark mirrors of each other and where I've grown overcontrolling you've grown complacent. What if, bought as a servant into a pretty loving home, ownership and control is what love looks like to me, and to you neglected and lonely growing up, love is gratefully taking any scraps of it you’re lent.

By belonging to someone, even if she comes back injured or fails at finding Delgal, she feels like she belongs and is cherished, by owning someone he feels safe in them not leaving him.

She’s what’s tethering him do you see… And he’s the only thing giving her direction and purpose in her state. She needs a compass and he needs a support.

They’re both so out of it 😭 It’s the weirdly intense and unearned mutual trust and reliance on each other?? They’re each other’s weird little comfort codependent teddy bear. Or at least they were headed towards that before SHE DIED THEN HE DIED THEN THEY BOTH FORGOT ABOUT EACH OTHER AND NEVER MET EVER AGAIN. Though she’s also the guard attack hound keeping him safe… And vice versa he heals her and can rewrite her very being with just one wave of his hand. They’re both so so mentally and physically vulnerable both but they cling onto each other. They can’t perceive things accurately but despite it all someway somehow they stumble into something closer to resembling companionship just before they both die. Falin is just that kind and Thistle is just that lonely. Overworked.

We both haven’t lived for ourselves in a very long time, haven’t we.

They both have a similar devotion to the people they love but again the difference is that Thistle starts overtsepping while Falin is self-effacing. The other difference between them is that people care about Falin <3 People have given up on Thistle long ago, and he has given people reasons to, while people refuse to give up on Falin. Yaad has a mini arc about it dw about it it’s ok he’s not all alone in the end 😭😭 He reached out for Marcille’s hand but they already all wanted to help him, they just had to be given the chance to, Yaad just had to be given the chance to, it’s okay I’m okay

Hey what if we learned to get in touch with our own identity and the world around us and living in the present again through being in the worst codependent situationship ever.

Falin and Thistle sitting in a tree, sucking on flowers together because they’re h-u-n-g-r-y 💕💕💕

I bet he’s only ever thought of flowers as useless ornaments. Weak weeds. But she shows him they’re tasty and useful and good and pretty in their own right too and deserve existing without proving their worth and waaa <33 Thistles…... Did you know thistles taste sweet if you remove the thorns and eat them?

"Even as a chimera, her kind nature remains" you can’t suppress her in the way that matters. You can’t soothe him in the way that matters. It’s doomed. You’re doomed. It’s all doomed. Save me.

[chaotic-starlight24]

I have a little headcanon about The Outsiders Musical :) Just a little thing I’ve noticed.

The original cast as their characters play them how Pony sees them. That’s why certain characters may seem a little off to us. Like Dally may seem older than he is and more put together, but that’s because they cast him based off of how Pony writes him. Or Johnny is softer and seems younger cause Ponyboy writes him that way. This could also explain why Darry seems a little meaner and why Steve is barely there-

Meanwhile a lot of the covers play the characters how the characters would actually be like if they weren’t influenced by Pony’s narrative. Namely Daryl Tofa as Johnny and Dally. Dally seems younger and more scared because that’s how he really is. Or Johnny being small yet still acting more mature and his age.

That’s what I’ve picked up on at least but I don’t know if people who have seen the covers have any other opinions, this might just apply to Daryl’s versions of the characters idk

[brokenlovesong]

THE DAN SODAPOP ANALYSIS I MENTIONED AND FINALLY GOT TO:

So as I have not shut up about, I saw Dan as sodapop on Thursday and I HAVE THOUGHTS.

First off, his soda feels the least easy going if that makes sense. Like every smile is a front. Yes he has fun with the greasers and during ggah he seems like every other easy going soda (side note the way he looked at two-bit during his verse???? He WANTED two-bit). But you see how hard he works to keep up those walls during the scene right before great expectations.

That scene for me was the first one that really separated Dan soda from the others. He seemed actually tired and you can see how hard he’s trying not to crack when pony asks him about Sandy. There’s a pause before he says “I do?” Like he’s shocked. Because he’s worked so hard to seem fine, to pretend she doesn’t exist.

His energy shifts after Sandy is brought up. He’s suddenly more aware of the cracks in his facade and he’s gotta work extra hard to make sure pony doesn’t notice anymore.

Moving on to runs in the family reprise. He is the most confrontational and active Sodapop in this scene in my opinion. When they first start going at each other, you see him frustrated and something I love is how he kept looking back at Johnny almost as if being like “you guys are fighting in front of him and you know how inappropriate and insensitive that is.” Im pretty sure he even apologized to Johnny at one point.

But when he inserts himself between pony and darry at the table, it feels very intentional. Because he doesn’t just sit. He is actively trying to keep pony calm and reassure him that darry doesn’t mean what he’s saying. And bro when he jumps up to block darry, hes not just putting himself between the two. He was actively holding darry back and even when they weren’t physically fighting, he was like squaring up with darry, daring him to try some shit. And he was ANGRY about the fighting. His face was so intense. Way more so than any other soda.

Not only that, he was yelling at pony too once pony stood up. He kept pointing at the chair and like demanding pony sit, getting very obviously frustrated when pony wouldn’t. I LOVE this detail because it shows how soda doesn’t just see the fighting as one sided. He’s not just trying to get darry to stop fighting, he’s going at both sides trying to get them to calm down.

During run run brother, that anger he had is THERE man. Specifically on the line “sooner or later you’ll learn�� he’s right up in darry’s face yelling at him, angerly pointing at the ground.

Changing the topic a bit I talked a lot about how intense his soda is and how hard he works to try and stop the fighting. But it’s because he really loves both his brothers and man you see that so much during throwing in the towel. The song is easily one of my favorites and dude the way he sang. He did SOOO many opt ups which really made the song seem so hopeful because at the end of the day that is who soda is. He works hard to stop his brothers from fighting because he knows they love each other and can be a family again. Also he fully on bear hugs darry at the end. Like drops to his knees and buried his face in Darry’s chest🥺

God during Johnny’s death, he had me BROKEN. (Yeah as you can see I spent half the show watching him and I have NO regrets because that man is so in the scene whether he has lines or not) He was so fucking broken, it was devastating. When he went to pony, you could see him begging pony to say something or do anything and then he pulled pony to his chest and was rocking back and forth sobbing it was so heartbreaking.

Also side note but I wanted to mention how he’s the only soda who really plays up the injuries from the rumble. Like after Johnny dies and dally pushes him away (which he fell to the floor for) he like limps over to pony and held his side while walking. Just something I found interesting.

The last thing I’m gonna mention in this very long ramble is the way he reacts to the end bit where darry is telling pony he has to go to school. When darry is on the floor and pony is yelling at him to shut up, soda starts trying to interrupt them even before he jumps down to break up the fight. He starts shouting “hey hey hey” and then repeats please multiple times before begging them to stop fighting. And god it’s devastating. Because he has no anger left. He’s just hysterical sobbing. Specifically the line “and that’s worse than being dead” is often an angry one for soda. But because dan soda shows his anger instead of trying to keep it at bay during other scenes, he is more just broken in this one. He’s yelling and crying and it’s so sad.

It’s such a good reminder that soda lost two of his friends, too. Something interesting in the book is that pony at first doesn’t even like dally. Dally is Johnny’s friend. Soda is the first one to have a conversation with him in both the book and movie because while we don’t see much of it, I do think soda really cared about both of them. You see that so much through Dan’s acting choices in the ritf reprise scene where he’s constantly interacting with Johnny and right after Johnny’s death when he’s the first one to try and comfort dally, even though dally won’t let him.

Soda is someone who loves so intensely and cares deeply about the people in his life.

Dan Berry is such an incredible actor and I need to give him his flowers because I’ve seen him in every role he covers now and while is Darry is my favorite, his sodapop is really where I got to see how good of an actor he really is. He’s such an active member in every scene he’s in because while soda may not have many lines in a lot of scenes, he’s always in the scene if that makes sense. He’s constantly reacting and making choices that fit his character so well. He really brought sodapop to life for me.

[angelwiththeblue-box]

babe wake up new d20 rarepairs just dropped

[bucketfullofstrawberries]

..WELL! Everybody ELSE seems to be doing it,

...and there ARE a lot of Narrator (& Stanley) designs I've been meaning to try and, at the very least, DOODLE,,,;

SO--!!

SEND IN YOUR NARRATORS, STANLEYS, CURATORS, TIMEKEEPERS & WHATEVER WONDERFUL DESIGNS YOU MAY HAVE IN YOUR POSSESSION, BOYS (/GN) & I'LL DO MY UPMOST VERY BESTEST BEST TO DRAW AND/OR DOODLE THEM!!!!

Though I will apologize for if getting all of them done and dusted takes longer than expected. But I'm WILLING to TRY!!

GO CRAZY!!!

[yume-fanfare]

isn't this some lifechangingly cute character design.

[leesbian42-rp]

Open RP

Saga - a young child with pale sunburned skin, very long platinum blonde hair and the brightest blue eyes, wearing a yellow 70s hippie dress - sat on the floor of her Dad's car, an old red one she didn't know the name of.

She pressed against the old weathered leather seats and hid as much as she could from the explosions and gunshots ringing from the outside. Her Dad had left to find something to eat a while ago, probably dumpster diving or pickpocketing, and he had yet to return. Saga hoped he was out of harms way, as well as anyone could living in Gotham City.

(She missed her home country, in times as these. The government and Authority had been the reason of her mother's passing, and the eviction of their tiny house in Falun. But she hadn't needed to worry about the violent fights as these there, hadn't needed to worry about her Dad getting in the crossfire or exploding alive. Barely had she needed to worry much about goons in general.)

Saga looked up through the windows again, fire casting orange shadows across the buildings across the street, hoping her Dad would hurry back so they could leave this city already. Or at least this part of it. She tugged her knees closer to her chest, hugging herself tightly as she listened to the quickly approaching fight outside.

She'd give Dad a few more minutes before she'd drive away from here herself, despite her being far too small for such a thing. Maybe they could try Metropolis or Fawcett next time? She thought that was the name of the cities at least... Or just some normal city for once!

She hugged herself tighter, covering her ears as the sounds got louder, tears threatening to fall as all she could only think was:

Where is Dad?! Dad, come onnn hurry!!!

Where is he???????

Dad, where are you? Come back! I want my dad, I want my dad, I want my dad-

Jag vill ha min mamma- I want my mommy!!

[foldingfittedsheets]

My mundane super power is that I love blue heelers so much that every time I see them I ask to pet them and their owners always warn me they’re not overly friendly which I know because my boy Sly was also very aloof but every time the dog feels my infinite love and always greets me warmly.

[the-messy-artist]

Combine them, cowards

[tealmaskmybeloved]

I want this in real life

[chaotic-starlight24]

When you hear more news about people sexually harassing the actors (The Outsiders Musical)

[moonwoodhollow]

Working on the dl post; it also finally has a name: Mirea Inn

I'm thinking about a small inn, that an elderly couple owned that is now up for sale. I got inspired by Romanian architecture and I also feel like it somehow looks a bit similar to southern German Architecture (Schwarzwald/Black Forest).