#seriously bless everyone who actually read all that shit

[vaaaaaiolet]

Sleep-deprived Leon's upstairs neighbor works late 'cause she's a singer on a deadline, and he's having none of it. He comes up with a wild solution to the problem in a moment of desperation, and he's surprised when you actually go along with it, but anything to get a full night's sleep, right? Then he finds himself wanting a bit more than camaraderie with you in the process.

f/m, romance, fluff, does this count as crack??? popstar reader w/ a twist, ID leon is USELESS w tech + lives under a ROCK, also you manic pixie dream girl a bit too close to the sun but it's ok bc ur cute LOL

word count: 2.6k // read this chapter on ao3

a/n: req fic + belated bday gift for my lovely 🍍 anon!! as usual i got carried away and butchered it. um. NOTHING makes sense just go w the vibes i beg you </3 pt. 2 coming out asap bc this fic will not leave me alone in the best way :)

chapter one

Rule of thumb: don’t bang on the first date. 

Leon’s wrapping his pillow around his head like a pair of goddamn Beefs (or is Beets? those tacky, overpriced- oh, forget it) while his upstairs neighbor gives her bed a run for its money on a Friday night, at a blessed 9 PM no less. 

Oh yeah. Her.

Thump-thump. Thump-thump. 

R-rated suspicions aside, Leon tries hoping for the best. His new neighbor might just be an interior designer of the nocturnal sort. Sick of his previous rowdy, college kid-infested apartment building, he’d moved into this complex not too long ago thanks to a very politely-worded call to Hunnigan about open listings in quiet, senior citizen-friendly neighborhoods. Call him old, call him boring, but after a long day of running around saving humanity from the newest bioweapon to hit the market, all Leon ever wants to do these days is get a few winks of sleep. He’s pushing 30. Insomnia’s no fountain of youth, people. 

Thump, thump-thump-thump. 

New Girl upstairs seemed to have the same idea but with far more nefarious intent. She’d moved in at the same time as him, he’s sure – Leon saw a flash of her face a few days ago when she was lugging boxes of stuff into the elevator up to her floor. She’s the only sign of life from the 21st century he’s encountered since the day he came to sign his lease papers. Why? 

Because Hunnigan had fulfilled his request to a T. Leon’s new apartment building is long-term care home adjacent. 

Full of grandmas and grandpas who got about as loud as their record players, only leaving their homes to fetch the mail – telegrams by the wrinkles on some of them. It was perfect. Leon was positively thrilled when Eunice from Unit 202 very, very slowly, waved hello to him on his moving day.

THUMP-THUMP! THUMP-THUMP!

And then she happened.

Maybe he’s just a grumpy old man right where he belongs, in all his 29-and-a-half glory. But the pounding that girl is giving her bed with some frat boy right now is giving Leon the college dorm experience all over again. It takes him half an hour of tossing and turning in his sheets to throw on an old jacket, beeline to the elevator, punch the neon 3 button, and darken New Girl’s doorstep. 

His turn now. A quick knock, knock is enough for Unit 304’s door to open a crack.

“Hey, I’m from downst- oh my God, are you decent?”

And you, standing at the door in a dress that’s more sheer than his disbelief, only tilt your head to go, “Huh?” 

“Listen, I know tomorrow’s the weekend but I- shit,” his face burns, “could you keep it down, please? You guys are really loud and it’s late.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You- you and whoever you’re with, could you not do this right now?” Leon croaks. 

Your hands flail wildly in dismissal. “Oh no, that was just me jumping on my bed! Helps with my creative process,” you say, smiling weakly. “I didn’t know the floors were that thin, I’m sorry.”

Bullshit. “They are.” Leon grimaces, “And um, it’s fine if you guys are loud, just save it for when everyone’s asleep next time.”

A frown interrupts your smile. “I just said it was me. There’s no one else here, seriously.”

“So what’s with the getup?”

“The-” your eyes drift down to the near see-through of your dress and Leon gestures vaguely, as if you need more explanation to why he’s avoiding eye contact with your chest. “Oh, this?”

He nods. 

“Creative process!” you chirp brightly.

“For what, pray tell?”

Curiously, that puts the wind out of your sails. Suddenly you having trouble meeting Leon’s eyes, lashes fluttering as you look up, down, anywhere that’s not his face. 

“For school,” you finally make out, fingers wrapping around the edge of your door. “I’m a music major.”

Pianos and prancing on beds don’t exactly mix. He can’t help but squint at you. “And the jumping helps with…?”

“Getting past writer’s block!” 

Back to bubbly with the ball in your court, you go so far as to open your door a little further to explain. Leon’s cheeks blaze as he tries his damndest to keep his eyes from drifting south. 

“I read online that moving around helps with ideas, and I’m supposed to have a whole album written by the end of the week. I probably shouldn’t have procrastinated…” you trail off with a half-hearted chuckle, “so now I’m throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks, y’know?”  

He hums. “You wanna be a singer?” 

“Mhm!” Your updone hair bobs with you, reminding him a little of a bobblehead. It’s almost cute enough to make his AMs worthwhile.

“Then you better start singing somewhere else, sweetheart. The walls are just as thin as the floors.” 

And Leon immediately turns his ass around to go back to sleep.

In hindsight, it might’ve been a little mean of him to leave like that. But his bed is just so heavenly, and with the sleep deprivation he’s been racking up lately, Leon’s half sure he just dreamed that entire exchange. There’s no way a girl like you in college – in her 20s, give or take – is seriously jumping on her bed on a Friday night for a homework assignment. That too in a dress fit for the club to add to the irony. Are all creatives this weird?

He pinches the bridge of his nose as the elevator descends, pushing aside his last glimpse of the glum expression he left you with in your doorway. So much for first impressions. But hey, you didn’t really make a great one either. He’ll call it even. Maybe get you a gift basket for chivalry’s sake.

He considers all this as he slips back under his blankets, finally, at 9:45 PM.

And then he hears a creeeaaak.

“Please,” Leon groans, jamming his pillow over his ears. 

Thump…thump?

Nix the gift basket.

6:00 AM on Saturday finds Leon with his eyes wide open and glazed insomniac red.

His alarm blares as if to say, you actually thought you’d need to get woken up, didn’t you?

It’s a little patronizing. He teaches it a lesson by throwing it off his nightstand.

Sometime between 11 and 12 at night, you’d gotten bored of your bed and taken to something with wheels. An office chair is Leon’s best guess. You’d rolled across your floor all night, and the resulting clatter of plastic grating on hardwood had kept him awake until the sunrise. Hangovers were more pleasant than the night of sleep (or lack thereof) he’d just gotten, and Leon’s no wimp. He’s a man, goddamnit. A decorated government agent!

So he handles the problem at its source. Whips out his flip phone like a man, and makes a very important call.

A disgruntled female voice crackles through at the first ring. “May I remind you that this line’s only for emergencies, Leon?”

“It is! I need you to find me another apartment, Hunnigan, please,” Leon sits up, rubbing his eyes to plead his case to an unimpressed Ingrid Hunnigan. “My upstairs neighbor won’t let me sleep. The floors are thin as hell and she’s been moving around all night. It’s even worse than my last place.”

“Really? An old lady is giving you that hard of a time?” 

“She’s college age — a singer — and when she starts singing for her homework all the time, I’m really not going to get any sleep. I’m begging you, Hunnigan. Get me out of here.” 

“Strange.”

“Isn’t it?”

“Truly,” Hunnigan deadpans. “You know how hard of a time I had getting you into an apartment building only for people over 55, Leon?” 

He winces, holding the phone a little further from his ears just in case. 

“How many favors I had to cash in, strings I had to pull, all because you’re hopeless at navigating an apartment listing site, let alone anything on the Internet? Do you realize I had to do that in my personal time because your request would fall under illegal use of federal intelligence resources?”

Leon falters. “I didn’t-”

“So here’s what you’re going to do,” Hunnigan says shortly. “You are going right back to your neighbor and working out a solution like an adult.”

“But I already-”

“You’re solving this on your own, Leon. Figure something out because I know you can delegate. Got it?”

He really doesn’t. He’s only good at that outside of the US.

“Is that clear, Agent Kennedy?” Hunnigan repeats for semantic measure.

“Crystal,” Leon mopes, sapped of all hope when she ends the call with a ‘good luck’, just like back in Spain. A familiar routine.

He’s back in front of Unit 304 by 9:00 AM. 

You open your door with a half-chewed yawn, wrapped in a robe and looking deceptively angelic, that is, if it weren’t for the immediate pinch your pretty brows take on when you grace him with a decidedly sour look. 

“Up already?” Leon tries.

This time all he gets in response is a quick nod, a mouth parted in distaste. 

Forward march, Kennedy.

“You were up past midnight. I heard you, y’know, on your chair. Kinda loud.”

“I’m not annoying you on purpose,” you sigh, tucking your arms into a tight cross over the fluff of your robe. “I just really have to turn my album in on time and I’m having crazy writer’s block. They told me the people here are quiet and easygoing. I haven’t had a single noise complaint so far except for you, did you know that?” 

“That’s because everyone in this building either has hearing aids or doesn’t realize they need them yet,” Leon grits. “I don’t even know how you got in here, to be honest.”

“A sparkling letter of recommendation, thank you very much. And you?” You push up on your toes indignantly. “Are you just older than you look? ‘Cause you might need a pair of hearing aids yourself.”

Leon bites back a scoff. “Don’t need ‘em. I can hear you plain as day from below.”

Sirens are starting to blare in his head and it’s like he can feel Hunnigan glaring at him from her HQ in the sky. Aborting mission again isn’t an option. If Leon doesn’t fix things now, he’d be starting bad blood that might outlast the combined remaining lifespans of the building’s tenants. His salary could cover rent that long; his ego, not so much.

You’re about two seconds away from shutting your door in Leon’s face before he interrupts with a save pulled straight from his ass: “I’ll help you write your songs.”

So instead, you squawk, “What?”

He sticks the toe of his shoe in your doorjamb for insurance. Blurts, “I mean it. I’ll help you come up with ideas.”

“How on Earth would you do that?”

Great question. No better time than the present for the both of you to find out. 

“You said moving around helps?” Leon repeats for you to confirm with a quizzical nod, “I’ll take you anywhere you want. Anywhere in the city, you name it, I’ve got a motorcycle I’ll get you there on. It’ll be a change of scenery. Just whatever you do, enough with the gymnastics at midnight.”

It’s a desperate lifeline, a creepy one now that he’s had more than two seconds to think about it, but a lifeline nonetheless.

And to his horror, all you do is stare. 

The resulting silence feels like crystallizing amber. A clock ticks agonizingly from somewhere in your living room. Tick, tick, shit, he desponds. But thankfully, your laugh bubbles out not a moment too soon, sending a tsunami of relief down his shoulders. 

“Gymnastics, really?” you snort, covering your mouth with a well-manicured hand.

“I’m serious.” Leon shoots for a winning smile. “But I have to ask, is working late also part of your creative process?”

Your eyes crinkle maybe, but you shake your head no. 

“Then we’ll go whenever you’re free. Show you a few of my favorite spots, see if it speeds up your songwriting. Sound okay, sweetheart?” 

“How about now?” you pipe up.

Leon coughs his splutter into something more dignified. 

“You said whenever I was free! It’s a Saturday, you’re free,” you point a finger at his chest, “I’m free,” turn it back on yourself, “and I need to finish writing my album by, like, yesterday. This is perfect!” With a miniscule squeal, you disappear back into your apartment.

Leon’s left standing in your entryway wondering when his lifeline became a dynamite detonation cord.

“You haven’t even asked me my name,” he calls out to deaf ears. Cups his hands for effect because he can hear you flinging hangers onto the floor. “Don’t they teach you about stranger danger at school?” 

“I’ll find out eventually!” floats back your worrying response.

You’re an efficient dresser, Leon gives you that. A thankfully normal one too at the dress and heels you rush back up to the door with. A large pair of cat-eye sunglasses perched on the bridge of your nose makes Leon do a double take at the cloudy sky outside, but then again, maybe it’s another part of your creative process. Beyond his pay grade.

You adjust your sunnies with gusto, grin up at him when he gives you a curious look. 

“Well, go on,” you say, pulling out your phone. 

Leon blinks at the glowing rectangle.

“Number, name?” You tilt it as if you’re trying to entice a toddler. “I can’t just keep calling you Mr. Noise Complaint.”

“Aw, you’ve been telling your friends about me?” Leon chuckles at last, pulling out his flip phone and handing it to you.  

And suddenly it’s your turn to stare at a piece of foreign technology.

You take your sweet time putting in your number. It’s very entertaining, the way the tip of your tongue sticks out the tiniest bit when you make a mistake and the sound of furious keypad backspacing follows right after. Leon’s no better, setting himself on your phone as “LOEN KEENAYD”, and with his pride bordering on hubris, he has no choice but to keep it that way.

“Really small backspace key,” he fibs when you peer at the gibberish in your contacts. 

Your lip bite makes for a piss-poor job of hiding how funny it is.  

“It’s Leon, by the way. Leon Kennedy. Apartment 204.” 

You fix his name in half the time it took him to put it in. He holds his hand out for a shake, timeless enough, and you give it three businesslike pumps.

“I have to grab a spare helmet from my place, I’ll meet you down at the garage,” Leon promises.

You point at him before stepping into the elevator. “Either your idea works or I’ll have to work past midnight to get this album done and then you’ll really owe me, Leon.” 

In another life, you could’ve been a CEO. You’ve certainly got the pointer finger for it. 

Leon tips his chin in acknowledgment. “Whatever it takes to get back into your good graces, ma’am,” he grins.

That gets a cackle out of you as the elevator doors slide shut.

And he takes the stairs this time, waves good morning to Eunice in 215 on his way to pick up that helmet for you. It must be a good day, Leon thinks, sounding out your name in his phone’s contacts. Eunice even has a post- Great Depression era vinyl playing on her record player. Maybe it’s a sign to not be so glum about his situation. He’s finally fixing it, isn’t he? 

So be it. A guy can dream. In Leon’s case, he’s hoping he gets eight hours by Monday.

psst, find more of my work here!

comments and reblogs are very much appreciated <3 take care and i love you!

divider by @/saradika-graphics <3

[slickfordain]

Your work is awesome!!

I'll read everything else rq, but first-

Hello, how was your day? How are you feeling?

If it's okay, may I share a bit of my game and ask how will characters react on it?

So uhh

I always say out loud how adorable Nahida is and how she is my "adopted child"

Also during the archon quest I was litteraly chanting "someone help, love and protect her please"

Also when I didn't get Nahida on her banner, I was like "Sages, if it was You, I'm about to destroy you"

I also always greet my team and say "bye" if I'm leaving.

I switch to every character and tell them it. Even how THEY did while I was gone

Maybe I'm going insane Idk?

If you don't want to do it, it's okay!^^

Bye-bye! And again- your work(s) are awesome! Gotta read some more

I may sound insane but I as well say “Hello / hi” to Genshin characters one time because I wanted them to feel welcomed??? I’m kind of new to this shit so I stole my friend’s phone to say hi to them 💀💀 this is such a cute request overall, Nahida is such a baby 💔💔

Also I’m doing just well hon, thank you for asking me. <3 I hope you’re feeling well yourself.

Teyvat is protective of their creator no matter what gender they’re specified with;; however, it seems that you favor Nahida more than others— Most likely as if you made her to actually be your related child. Nahida was hesitant and shy at first, but over the time when she thought about it, she couldn’t help but feel so free and blessed with such a humble God mother/father figure like you.

You’re protective, even if it’s the traveller and Paimon… You still warned them to make sure that Nahida stays secured and safe. Everyone in different nations although takes this request far too seriously- that at this point, Nahida feels rather isolated. Though she knew you never meant any harm, how could she ever assume you would? She’s a wise sweet little girl, humble as you even, she honestly could see the connection of being your child. Literally.

But, that of course makes other children jealous… NPC children would most likely have different voice lines when it comes to Nahida too— which is basically in Sumeru city, and, I guess the Archons has to be checked 24/7 all of the sudden? Confused as you are, you weren’t displeased with it, you felt… Happy actually. Happy that people are acknowledging Nahida. (Although they’re fighting over who gets to be Nahida’s other parent)

Alhaitham especially would have some rooms prepared for Nahida, like, y’know, if she’s tired in a middle of nowhere— there’ll always be a house nearby her area, her spot. The followers of you would be cooking food nonstop for the little child, hoping that she’s willing to test their taste. After all, only she knows what you love in a guy/girl ~!

Oh oh, and since you did say you want someone to also protect Nahida during a quest— Nahida will be bawling her eyes out and ugly cry. (Pretty cry actually) People will be freaking out of why the fuck is shE EVEN CRYING— The NPCs will all baby her and, treasure hoarders? They won’t even get the chance to lay a finger on her because of the Archons killing them off. (Not like you know 😻)

Nahida would be an absolute troll however. Yes, she is sweet and always devoted to drop the entire lore to help people out— (For example she dropped the entire shit lore to Aether / Lumine) But she is heavily LOYAL to her mother/father figure.

Imagine Dottore especially trying to talk it out with her since they did sort of have a conversation beforehand. So he thought it’s only fair he becomes her dad, by marrying you right? HAHAHA, wrong. Nahida is truly worried and overprotective of you, despite being just a kid version of her Archon self. She will lie, telling things to the Fatui doctor what you did not like.

And this has gone on for so long, it’s absolutely hilarious. Especially for Sumeru as they see this as an attempt to bring their divine being closer to them.

But the thing is, you’re not that expressive— you’re just existing and trying to live on while babying Nahida who just sobs into your affection. Girlie never got so much, so it was truly a blessing to have herself in your care.

And talking about Sages, just imagine Enjou overall having troubles with trying to get to you. All because of Sages 💀 look, if mans wanna get your forgiveness, better as well protect Nahida from the half monster hybrid looking ass hot man. Enjou is in so much misery… (Cue CPR)

Also, can we just appreciate how caring you are? No, it’s not only for Nahida you’re just caring for— it’s not even the reason she’s so loyal to you. (Well, it is but still) The true reason is, is because you keep saying “Hello” and “Bye” to them everyday, no matter how tiring it might get.

I think Diluc would especially love this since uhm, well, his dad ain’t here y’know y’know. (Or any traumatized character really)

…

Imagine Archon Timmie flying up to the heavens above just to replace Nahida and be your son— (Archon Timmie /srs) But then fails because Nahida is too logical and wise that his brain couldn’t take it anymore either.

Okay I’m stopping there 💀💀💀

Also have a sneak peak of my fanfic because I know some people will assume I’m not working on it 💔

It looks shitty but whatever

[strawberryseeded]

thinking abt bllk (no surprise there) and how (at least until now) all (well, most of?) the characters backstories aka basically the reason for their most prominent issues are, instead of extremely tragic and complex events, simply children's logic applied to recurrent situations in their daily lives (and especially the sport they love):

bachira feels lonely: bachira was a weird and lonely kid who was also extremely passionate abt (and talented in) football, more than any other kid, making bachira feel isolated even when he was playing with others. this got even worse when the kids he played with started to resent him, calling him a "monster" and bullying him. while talking with his mom, she told him to keep believing in his inner voice and ignore those who dont understand him, resulting in bachira giving that voice the form of a "monster" that can play football with him to feel less lonely. which, obviously, made him even more lonely, even if it was an imaginary friend created to aliviate that feeling. because bachira still felt lonely, even after many years and even after playing with other people in school who werent any fun for him, he kept the monster by his side. believing no one could ever beat this monster (thank GODNESS he did 🎉!!! HE is the monster no one can beat!!!! his arc is one of my favs hes literally unstoppable now, i love him dude i love h)

isagi holds himself back too much: isagi (i read the light novel abt him hehe) was a timid and mild mannered kid until he discovered football, which he fell in love with. while playing the sport he could let go of his shyness and actually be selfish and go all out. uuuntil... he entered his high school's reputable football club, where the motto was to play as a team above everything else (a very anti-blue lock logic lol). isagi then, in an effort to accomodate to the social norms of the club (bc hes isagi, and off the field hes calmer and timider), had to simmer down in the field as well. supress himself. at times it seems like his on and off switch is kind of stuck.

barou has main character syndrome: barou was a very, on top of talented, meticulous kid and therefore the best in football out of every other kid he knew, who didnt take it as seriously and were more than happy to let him score all the goals. he didnt understand why they were satisfied with letting other people take all the glory, so he secluded himself, convinced that he was the only player that actually mattered on the field. the best. the Main Character. everyone else was completely worthless, their only use being to serve HIM. (until he got his ass kicked by isagi and became the villan instead of the main character, bc oh, shit, barou's not actually the main character???? then he'll hunt down & DESTROY the main character).

rin (god, rin) has a brother complex (i used to hate when ppl oversimplify whats wrong w him w this term but tbh it does boil down to this lol ToT): rin idolized his older brother like crazy and wanted to be just like him. bc he was also blessed with talent and also had a great relationship w sae, he had everything he needed to fulfill his dream of being the 2nd best striker, the 1st obviously being his older brother, who rin viewed as the best, most talented player in the world. when sae comes back from spain and tells him 'the world is big and im not actually the best, you go and be the best striker by yourself' (basically: our (your) dream is over), rin has a fucking breakdown. its not really a tragic, despair-inducing event, objectively speaking. but in the manga its framed as such bc for rin, in his childish logic, it is. bc his brother IS the BEST player, what the fuck do you mean hes not number 1 outside of japan?? ....then what about rin? if his brother cant be the best, rin cant be the 2nd best either, let alone the best. he feels like sae ruined everything, gave up, broke their (rin's) dream!!!! after sae humilliates him, rin directs all of his frustrations at him and bows to defeat him. as long as rin sees himself as sae's little brother, he's never gonna be able to surpass him, bc in rin's mind, sae is still the best, his talented big brother.

ness believes kaiser, not him, is the magician: ness's case is more serious bc his family was (is?) emotionally abusive towards him. basically, like every other kid, ness believed in magic. the concept of magic is exciting for children and gives them, in the form of play, the opportunity to express their creativity and exercise their imagination; work out a way to make the impossible come true. bc this is so important for their development, usually its the parents role to, at least to a certain degree, keep alive the belief that magic is real. ness's parents, on the contrary, shut down this belief bc it didnt match with their own views. they saw his interests as a waste of time, even letting his sibilings bully him and treat him badly to make him give up on them. ness, however, didnt, and instead found a more socially acceptable way to 'do magic' and express his creativity: football. he feared greatly, however, that football would be taken away from him, so in that faithful match in which he met kaiser he decided to put all of his trust and hard work on him, bc ness believed kaiser was the person who would be able to make the impossible, the magic that ness wanted to create, happen. i think the key to unlock his full potential is stop relying on kaiser so much and start believing in his own magic (kind of like what happened in hiori's arc). we have yet to know kaiser's backstory but i have a feeling those two enable each other's worst traits...

ETC !!!! sorry i got tired of writing lol

anyways these r just my interpretations of the characters feel free 2 b like "was is she ON about"

[panzershrike-pretz]

are there any hbowar people in the fandom u find iconic? whether it’s for their ideas, fics, gifs, edits, thoughts? jst anything really? u can list multiple btw!

Oh, hi anon! <3

I do have some, actually. To be very clear, I loves everyone of my friends, especially because of the Kinky Ron Server, but I actually do have a very VERY special spot for some people with whom I had the pleasure to become closer! Mainly, the people that made me actually want to stick around and stay a part of this amazing, amazing community in the first place, so here:

- @coco-bean-1218 - she was actually the first ever person with who I ever spoke on tumblr, I think? I wanted to read some Doc Roe fics and this blessing of a gal appeared to hand me some. If I may really be honest? It was her who made me look more into the BoB fandom and decide to start reading works, which leads us to the next person:

- @malarkgirlypop - Oh. My. God. Thanks to Claire, I started reading and ended up finding Kate's amazing MEDIC! Fanfic and if Clai was the reason I decided to read, Kat was the reason I decided to interact. Seriously, I'll never be able to thank them enough! If it wasn't for both of these gals, I'd never be here because I was a scared little shit. Also funniest person? Ever?? Yeah

- @next-autopsy - ok, if I remember correctly, I found out about Nex just some time after I found Kate and I was immediately in love. REALLY! I think Nex was the person I originally most looked up to, along with Lou. And I believe she still is. Seriously, never have I seen a more talented person? Ever?? I won't ever stop saying this but Made of Glass is the best piece of fanfic I've read in a long while and O wish I could print it out as a book!

- @luckynumber4 - along with Nex, Lou was another person I was most definetely a little gremlin fan of. I don't really know why but I was immediately drawn to her? And she was also one of my first mutuals; I remember the day she followed me I went insane talking about it to my friend like!!! THE celebrity of all time is following me!!!!!!!!! ITS HER!!! Anyway, nowadays we talk on Discord and I ADORE it!! Love u, Lou!!

- @xxluckystrike - I love Blu. She is so talented and kind and JSBDNWJA I love simply talking with her, her whole vibe is amazing. Also Francis is my daughter nd I won't be sharing her. She's my baby and I'll kill for her.

- @footprintsinthesxnd - ONE OF THE CREATORS OF THE BEST SERVER ON THIS PLANET???? HAD TO BE INCLUDED???????????? OBVIOUSLY????? I LOVE JESS SO MUCH HER STUFF IS ALWAYS SO AMAZING ITMAKES ME SO HAPPY I LIVE IT!!! I LOVE YOU!!! *ex,plodes tou with mind*

- @land-sh - you. You make me very happy. I love talking with you about our countries culture and having someone to relate with about the latin-american shit >:] and also you are very cool, i love when we talk and vibe kekekekeke

- @whollyjoly - finally, Em. I could NEVER let our cult leader out. Ever. This gremlin of a person here is the fucking reason Me and the Gang (Bottom Text) exists and I could not be more grateful. I LOVE YOU, EM!!! YOUR VIBES ARE INSANE AND YOU KNOW WHAT? GOOD. The Holy One. ✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️✨️

(To any mutual os friend I didn't include here, I'm very sorry and i love you too! Have a catfish)

[koalatysleep]

What?! Even Keiko kissing Yusuke on the beach at the end of YYH anime has Kuwameshi subtext?!? 🤣🤣

Yup you heard that right! 🤣🤣 Let's break it down!

The anime uses masterful Show-Don't-Tell techniques as I wrote about in this breakdown of The Chocolate Shake Date.

A big part of this technique is the body language tells and non-verbal cues, which the anime does a SUPERB job of.

(SERIOUSLY THE ANIMATION TEAM IS AMAZING FOR PUTTING IN SO MUCH EFFORT!!! HUGE SHOUT OUT TO THEM!!!! )

If you watch this beach scene, you can see how taken aback Yusuke is at Keiko throwing herself at him, and despite his lightning fast reflexes, he doesn't catch her at all or even return her hug, he lets himself fall to the ground with his arms wide open to the sides, without touching her at all.

Then when she initiates the kiss, Yusuke freezes with his eyes wide open in fear like a deer caught in headlights the entire time! You can see he only blinked twice during her kiss in a shocked "oh-shit-I-can't-stop-this-from-happening" way!

This is NOT the reaction of someone in love with Keiko who's been pining for Keiko for years in the makai, if that was really the case, he would have closed his eyes to kiss back! Or at the very least, returned her hug!

This is the reaction of someone who's totally taken aback because he doesn't have romantic feelings for Keiko, yet he loves her platonically as his found family and cares for her deeply, so he doesn't wanna hurt her in front of everyone else by outright pushing her away or stopping her kiss while everyone's watching.

Which is why he uses the excuse of the wave crashing over them to move FAR away from Keiko the first chance he gets!

Like, given the wave is washing over them at a 90 degree angle, it would not have been possible for the wave to move them back from each other, it would at most have tumbled them over each other or dislodged her off him a little. Which you know, if he had romantic feelings for her, he could easily have still kept her close with a hand on her back. But he doesn't do any of those things. In fact he sat her up and then scrambled back from her, under the cover of the wave!!

If you look at the screencap above and the physical distance between them, and the fact that they were literally doused with water (like someone doused your flames of passion with a bucket of cold water over your head), it's NOT a visual analogy of two people getting together, it's the opposite!

I also wonder whether Yusuke used Reiki to make the wave way bigger than the rest of the tiny gentle waves that have been lapping at the beach this entire scene .. in the above image of the wave, you can see Yusuke's left hand is raised into the air as the wave grows in size..

The English dub also hinted at what this scene is about when Yusuke tells Keiko "you stole that lip time from me!" / "you know I can dump this whole ocean on you if I wanted!". This dialogue is not in the Chinese or English subtitles for the original Japanese dialogue (which is more subtle in dialogue but has same subtext in the show-don't-tell techniques, body language, Reiki wave, etc), so I feel like the English dubbers also noticed the same thing about the body language cues and this one wave being abnormally bigger than the rest of the gentle lapping waves, and their dubbed English dialogue was them subtly telling us what this scene was about. 🤣🤣

Given the above, this is how I read this scene:

Keiko kissing him was her last attempt at confirming for once and for all how he feels about her, and when she feels him not kissing back and actually moving away from her under the cover of the wave, she knows he's not romantically interested in her and has subtly rejected her.

Yusuke knows Keiko knows, and they stare at each other for a moment, Yusuke worrying whether this will end their platonic found family relationship which is very important to him, and Keiko processing her emotions.

Then Keiko, god bless her soul, smiles at Yusuke even though she was romantically rejected, because Keiko really IS genuinely happy Yusuke's back, and that she finally got a clear answer so she can move on romantically!!!

Yusuke smiles back, happy and relieved he still has her in his life, and Keiko is happy she has Yusuke in hers. I'M MOVED TO TEARS I TELL YOU!!! Yusuke needs all the family he can get!!!

Like she already had a lot of doubts about them as a romantic pair before he went Makai (she wrote "anxiety", "hesitation", "doubt" in her room when studying for English and thinking about Yusuke romantically), so i think she's glad to finally resolve her own doubts once and for all and move on romantically!

That's why i think they'll be totally good as platonic found family after the anime ending, and they won't actually start dating.

I think Yusuke has been hesitant about outright telling her he doesn't have romantic feelings for her throughout the entire series, even though he knows his own feelings from the start of the series (as evident from his freaked-out reaction when she almost kissed his unconscious body when he was a spirit in the house fire episode back when they were 14, and him wanting to go on a date with Kuwabara in The Chocolate Shake date episode), because he was afraid of losing Keiko as his found family, which would have been so devastating for him, because Keiko and Atsuko are all the family he's got.

Narratively, Togashi/anime studio use Keiko's character as a romantic misdirection so they can tell the real Kuwameshi love story, because most heteronormative audience members and even all other characters in the show (with the exception of Genkai and Toguro of all people) just assumes Yusuke is in love with Keiko, but actually it's clear to me that Yusuke himself has never viewed Keiko romantically!

But i digress! This scene also mirrors The Chocolate Shake Date back in Episode 14 when our boys first started to realize their feelings for each other!!!

When Keiko and Yusuke are splashing each other in the waves in this beach scene, YUSUKE DRAWS IN KUWA BY SPLASHING HIM IN THE FACE, just like Yusuke drew in Kuwa in The Chocolate Shake Date!

And Kuwa, who has been giving Yusuke and Keiko space during this beach scene as well as throughout the series, responds immediately to jump into the water with Yusuke and grabs Yusuke into a headlock that mirrors The Chocolate Shake Date headlock!

Kuwa was watching them splash each other with a genuinely happy laugh (because he really loves Yusuke that much and just wants him to be happy even if he's not romantically with Kuwa, although I personally feel the animators were trying to hint at a bit of pained romantic angst in Kuwa's expression), then he gets shocked out of it with the water in his face, and then Yusuke mirrors what Keiko did to him during the Dark Tournament when Keiko was in love with him - he points at Kuwa with a finger gun and says Bang, as though saying you're the one!

Look at Yusuke using the opportunity to hold Kuwa's wrist during the headlock! Kuwa is also using the excuse of the headlock to touch Yusuke's cheeks just like he did in The Chocolate Shake Date! (I think Kuwa has a thing for Yusuke's soft skin okay LOL). Look at how it mirrors The Chocolate Shake Date scene!

Look at how happy Yusuke looks!!!!!

Look at how Kuwa throwing his leg over Yusuke mirrors how Yusuke threw a leg over Kuwa post Dark Tournament when he needled Kuwa for food, when our boys were almost on the verge of getting together before the whole Sensui shit hit the fan!

Food is a symbol for romantic desire / love, I'll meta another time about a HILARIOUS time in anime when the animators made Kuwa mime jerking off when he was eating with Yusuke I KID YOU NOT!!

ANYWAY!!

I think this anime ending is such a hopeful one for all the characters involved!!!! It clues us into the romantic direction Yusuke and Kuwa's relationship can head in, while telling us Keiko and Yusuke's relationship will be platonic, and that Keiko can finally move on.

And prior to this beach scene, we see that Kuwa's fixation on Yukina has reduced in intensity (I personally read Kuwa's fixation on Yukina as a desperate move on Kuwa's end to try to get over Yusuke, but I'll meta about this another time), and of course Yukina being aromantic (that's how I read her character) will be totally happy Kuwa can finally get together with Yusuke!

I JUST THINK THIS IS A VERY HOPEFUL ENDING OKAY!!! After all the sacrifices our heroes had to make in order to save others / the world, they deserve to be happy and together at long last!!!

AHHHHH What I wouldn't give just to see Kuwameshi get together and be happy at last!!

[mywitchcultblr]

OMG I love Yaoshi and the path of abundance too! I suppose I just have a thing for misunderstood healers

Just in case this is not me shitting on people's favorite xianzhou husbando or waifu, go simp as much you want, go pull for their banners, this is not an attack on any xiaznhou blogs here or blah blah, nor am I saying "Ahhhh all the xianzhou are irredeemable evilz" whatever, but merely an analysis and critique of HSR narrative:

I hate how abundance is treated in HSR so far, I know all factions in HSR are grey but feels like the xianzhou doesnt get called out enough like the IPC does despite the atrocities they committed and there are arguments in the story telling "oh but the followers of abundance did this and that and OH Yaoshi blesssing are ruining planets" "followers of abundance are monsters and abomination anyway so who cares"

Sure you can argue that just a part of the grey narrative, but I have a feeling so far those arguments against Yaoshi and their followers are used to make the xianzhou more palatable to sell the banner and because space china cannot looks bad or else hardcore main land fans and the CCP government will be angry.

I know abundance followers are not perfect, there's no factions in HSR who are morally pure, but the narrative so far is so imbalanced to the point people on reddit thought Yaoshi and their followers are nothing but evil troublemakers who must be weeded out (fuck reddit seriously its full of moronic edgelord with the worst takes)

Also FYI just because the xianzhou are not happy after they got immortality, doesnt mean other yaoshi immortals followers are unhappy with their life or their planet suffering. In fact the food and water became ever replenish and I'll do anything to get that blessing

I'm not saying everyone in the xianzhou are evil no, but the narrative is so imbalanced and they dont get called out enough. Dan Shu diary can be missed and she ended up as a cartoonish villain.

And I legit cringed so bad when Loucha is called 'abomination of yaoshi' despite the fact he is sentient

And when there are condemnation of Xianzhou/Lan actions, its all hidden behind text that you might missed easily. So its kinda like brushed them under a rug???

While the IPC atrocities are showed blatantly with Boothill story

Herta log mentioned a peaceful snake people who are blessed by Yaoshi but Lan KILLED ALL OF THEM just because yaoshi blessed them and this fact is not told directly but hidden behind a text.

Hoyo write themselves into a corner with the xianzhou, the basis of their faction story telling is grey to dark but they (so far) cannot portray the xianzhou as villainous or in a more honest way that will make this faction, obviously not honourable or good guys right?

Like this faction is actually more grey more darker but a lot of fans doesnt seems to grasp it? And I have seen some of them acted SHOCKED when I pointed that nah... Xianzhou is not morally good faction. (0 factions in HSR are morally good and pure) Because hoyo fans are notorious for their lack of reading comprehensions and this faction is portrayed as very favourable rn, because like i said china coded country cannot looks bad *rolls eyes*

You can't have your cake and want to eat it too.

Hoyo should have made the Xianzhou a chill, neutral faction like Liyue. I legit quit HSR during boothill banner, after I pulled him and find out another world is yet another xianzhou ship I just... Give up.

Not necessarily because I think everything will be awful or all xianzhou are irredeemable but like... I can't stand the narrative imbalance anymore and as Yaoshi simp I just can't stand it no more.

Maybe I'll return in version 10.0 when we finally see Yaoshi planet but if hoyo still paint Yaoshi and their followers as 'EvIL whO ShoULD be RIghtFULLy EraDICATed" I will fucking boycott Hoyo

I had a philosophical awakening because of yaoshi as well, that led to "yeah i dont think immortality is bad, and if there's a way for me to get it i will take the pill of eternal life" so yeah there's that

[safetycar-restart]

This is such a random thought but you guys seem to enjoy random thoughts, here are some thoughts about how I think some of the drivers message/call you:

CHARLES:

Charles is texting you every second of every day. And honestly it’s almost never important stuff. Like he won’t tell you that he’s missed his flight, but he’ll send you five messages about the coffee he bought while wait it for his next flight.

And he’ll send you random thoughts too and random pictures!! You’re always getting sent pictures of Carlos at terrible angles and also random selfies. You don’t have to response to all the messages, but Charles just adores sending them so much.

He also always wants at least one FaceTime a day. He doesn’t care if you’re not presentable or are busy. That’s perfectly fine!!! He’ll happily just come along! Like yeah you’re on a run, so? You have signal! He’ll send you data if need be, just let him come along!! Often you’ll be busy cleaning or ironing and then FaceTime Charles and he’s so happy!! He loves catching up with you.

So yeah, messages are for random thoughts and then near constant FaceTimes. He manages to be needy when when you’re not in the same country as him.

(Oh and nudes of course. He’s supposed to massage you if he cums, but uh… he just sends you pics of his cock instead, has zero issue with that or any concerns the pictures might leak.)

LANDO:

Lando is a chaos messenger, absolute chaos. He sends pictures more often than he sends messages. Like you’ll message him and ask where he is, and then he’ll send a picture of the meat section at the store instead.

He’s not the biggest fan of FaceTime, but he loves just calling you. If he can’t sleep, he’ll call you and then you’ll chat with him until he falls asleep. He’ll fall asleep on the phone call actually, and it’s quite common that you fall asleep too and then you both wake up the next morning still on a call with each other.

Really he’s just a little gremlin who communicates via memes and pictures and emojis and you must simply learn to speak Lando.

GEORGE:

George texts with full sentences and punctuations and says things like “Oh crickey!” and “goodness gracious”. He also doesn’t understand emojis aside from thumbs up, smiley and heart. You sent him the 🥺 emoji once and he literally asked what you were trying to say.

But bless, he tries. He also sends you memes incorrectly, like in the complete wrong context. But it’s very very entertaining and you love him for it.

He’ll also send you pictures of his schedule every day because he always wants you to know what he’s doing and where he’s at so that you know when he won’t be able to respond to you.

And he’ll send you a full voicenote after every race telling you all about it. Sometimes they’re over 20 minutes.

In conclusion, he’s lucky he’s cute.

LANCE:

Lance is quite possibly the worst texter in the history of texting. Seriously, he’s atrocious.

You learn pretty quickly that him leaving you on read isn’t because he’s upset, it’s just because he’s lance and that’s what he does.

He LOVES calling though. He’s terrible at expressing himself over text and he’d much rather call with you. In fact most of his messages are just “can we call?” or “when are you free to call?” because he does not do texting. Nope. Horrible at it.

And it’s so odd because he usually hates calls too? With everyone else, he’ll withstand texting so that a call doesn’t need to happen but with you? Texting is evil and he must call. He’ll call over the most stupid shit.

He forgot what coffee beans you want from the grocery store? Call. He wants to know what time you’re leaving to the airport? Call.

But it’s okay because he’ll also catch up with you and genuinely loves calling with you.

He’s just a little shit about answering messages.

[bloodiedrogue]

*eating my cereals and scrolling through tumblr* *notices summer's tumblr break has ended* SHIT! *throws the cereal away, puts suit on and quickly grabs microphone*

HELLO EVERYONE AND WELCOME BACK TO TUESDAY INTERVIEW!

I'm Annie and we're here —once again on a Wednesday because time is relative— with our amazing Summer! A round of applause for this blessing to our world!!!

Truth be told *checks notes* not much has happened since we last saw each other but DO NOT FRET! I have always have something up my sleeves and this time of year in Italy, it mostly tends to be stinkbugs... they're everywhere

ANYWAY, back to business! The latest chapter of "A lover's folly" hit ours (mobile and/or desktop) screens last Saturday, leaving behind a trail of broken hearts and readers being left with bathed breath. Summer, how do you feel knowing you were the cause of such despair?

Moreover, just to take a quick dip in the pool of your past, the first episode of Loki dropped last Friday, leaving many people swooning over Tom Hiddelston's magistral acting and also to the amazing and hilarious banter between Loki and Mobius (and let's not forget the adorable and entertaining addition of OB to the cast). Summer, as an (former) all-time Loki fan, what did you think of this episode? And you think we should expect from this season?

Before I leave, I would like to remind everyone watching that there are real people behind the fics you're devouring, who have real lives and tons of things to do and still manage to put out amazing pieces of work that you can freely enjoy. So be kind and don't pressure writers, okay? Otherwise, I will find you :) Anything else to add on this matter, Summer?

omg hi annie <3 happy tuesday but actually it's wednesday (thursday for you by the time you read this) interview! always happy to hear from you my darling bard. (i say as i literally talk to you pretty much every moment of the day we are awake...)

anyway, a lover's folly. mhm, yes, what a devastating chapter that i totally didn't meant to leave on a cliffhanger and fuck off for two weeks...

seriously, i feel kind of bad for doing that but also, i'm a slut for angst and wrecking people emotionally so i'm absolutely living for all the screaming i've received via dm. for real, i love every single one of you but man, y'all have had it too good with all the fluff i've been writing.

in terms of loki, i really liked the episode. obviously because of the past season i have my reservations in regard to fully enjoying it but so far it's promising? personally, i find the pacing to be a lot better already. as well as the dynamics between characters but that might be due to having more time to work together.

also ob is literally my favourite. i would die for him and i really, really, REALLY hope he's not just a side character that's been overly hyped and gets like no screen time. otherwise i will be sorely devastated.

that being said, aside from ob i hope a lot more of the newer characters get more screen time too. last season we only had a very small cast and while it was fine i definitely wanted more interaction and conflict, so hopefully we get more of that? also, i'd really like for the show to actually focus on loki in a more positive way but considering last season that might be wishful thinking.

(also nothing to add except love you and have a good day!!)

[phychohex]

I met a vampire down in Santa Carla (chapter three)

I am now fully settled in having found my way around to life back in Santa Carla. The past month I have slowly made my room mine once again. The frame is the same only the fairy lights are replaced with new ones that actually work.  Two nightstands both black with neon green skulls all over them. One holding my medication and sleep stuff the other having random junk. I also finally have a desk that also acted as a makeshift vanity. The mirror that hung above has a black frame with some lights hot glued along the edges. The desk was black with the top having a leopard print design and the chair was a rolling one with a leopard print blanket on the back. My dresser was replaced by a big wardrobe which I painted black to match the nightstands. I also have a lamp in the corner of the room which I made myself using a prosthetic leg, an old tall lamp, and a leopard print lampshade. It was over by my makeshift reading nook where a hanging chair stayed along with a large corner shelf. When I switched to a wardrobe I was able to uncover the doors to the patio. I made sure to keep it up to my stepdad's standards. I used black curtains to cover the doors when I didn't want to go out. My bedding was now black with satin sheets and pillows. I'm not done with the room but it has only been a month. Using any tips and the money Steve didn't take to make it all done up. 

With Steve still not believing how much I make was now a blessing. I am rarely around him especially after we got into a fight and my mom tried to stop it from happening ending up with a broken arm. Begging me not to tell the truth to anyone and also feeling guilty I tend to stay in my room when I'm home. If I'm not at home I'm at work which was more bearable. Tyler was an asshole always having some shit to say under his breath. He mostly kept to himself so I do the same. It also doesn't help that no matter where I'm at the group of bikers seem to linger. Every night they were out on the boardwalk doing whatever they wanted as if they owned the place. I try to stay as far as I can they just leaked trouble. Somehow though they are always there. I get off work and they are at a store not too far away leaving as well. Getting gas well guess who just so happens to be getting gas too. I'm sure other people have the same kind of routine as me having recognized other people but they stood out like a sore thumb. The only real peace I seem to get is on Wednesdays when I go to the Shack for DND and band practice. 

We were rocky at the start having to refind our groove and style but once we did we didn't sound half bad. Again it's only for fun so we never take it seriously. If someone misses a note or Josh and I have voice cracking or sing misheard lyrics we just laugh it off. I also have my room at the shop just how I want it. I bought a CD player along with a CD book for people to choose from. Most of it is stuff I like but since not everyone shares my taste I also have other music. I also have a mini fridge where I offer free drinks. I offer soda, sweet tea, and water. I got a snack basket on top of it again free to those who need it. This is handy for people who don't take tattoos very well and have blood sugar problems. I find this tends to get me good tips which I use to buy more snacks. Setting up my area getting ready for my shift soothing through my CD book.

 I hear the bell alerting us we have a client looking to get something done. I didn't have any appointments for another couple of hours so unless Tyler gets to the counter first I am free. Sadly I didn't make it hearing him talking to whoever it was. "RORY" he shouted which was startling. I peek out and instantly get annoyed. Standing at the front talking to Tyler was the biker gang. I shake off whatever thoughts I have and make my way over. "This is David he is specially requesting you for his tattoo" the jealousy seeping out in his voice. 

"shouldn't a tattoo artist have tattoos" he questions getting a kick out of this. I lift my sleeve showing him my bat wrapped around my right wrist. "That's it" 

"no I have a bunch, I just so happen to be a lady who dresses modestly" I lean against the counter "Do you want a tattoo or not" I had to put on a tough face the last time we met I was too nervous. Drumming the counter standing up turning to his friends saying something. The other three leave and he turns back. "good what ya thinkin' on getting" 

"arm wrap, barbed wire?" I turn grabbing a big binder filled with regular tattoos that people tend to get flipping to the right page showing him the different kinds he could get. Looking through them before picking one he liked.

"Okay follow me and I'll get you set up" I take the page out and head to my room him following close behind. "just take a seat while I draw this up" I turn to the desk that was set up getting the stencil ready. "you have any music you prefer or if you want to talk we can. Help yourself to any drinks or snacks as well" 

"I'm good" I felt him right behind leaning over watching me.  With it done I turn around only to see he was still in his trench coat. 

"the jacket" I point. He nods taking it off wearing a black short-sleeved shirt. His arms weren't jacked but they had a nice tone his shoulders were broad and his shirt seemed tight against his chest. He sits down I put the stencil on and make sure it looks okay. "look in the mirror and see if you like it, if not I can change it" he gets up not really looking.

"little lower" I turn redoing the stencil and prepping his arm lowering the placement. Now liking the placement I finish getting him ready. 

"so any music" I offer one last time. 

"that's alright" I start trying to get into my headspace which clearly was going to be a bit hard. "where you from" 

"New Mexico" 

"What brings you to the murder capital" 

"it's complicated" I mutter glancing up his eyes never wondering. I go back to the tattoo hoping this won't be as antiganizing as I think it's going to be. "what about you" I ask trying to flip it to a different topic. I do this a lot letting the client talk about themselves and share their story. It was one of the things I enjoyed about this job. 

"complicated." Well, there goes that plan "We have a while we should swap stories" That was his motive. 

"Why do you want to know" I ask "What do you want to know" 

"I said I'd see you around, didn't I? Tell me whatever" 

"you hassle all your artists?" I joke reinking the needle

"Just the pretty ones" I look at him. 

I gasp "Don't let Tyler hear, it'll hurt his feelings that you think he isn't pretty" I playfully pout.

"so she can snap back here I was thinking you didn't have it in you" I roll my eyes." seriously though what about the murder capital that has attracted you here? One of those true crime junkies" 

"let's just say I grew up here then I left collected up some baggage and now I'm back" The silence was loud but I finally got the peace I wanted. I hyperfocus back on my task. I find myself playing stories in my head when I do. If someone is telling me their own I picture it if not I let the music guide my thoughts but silence. I hate that it gives me little to work with and my mind drifts to its own memories. It would be about the Dnd stuff or what I should've said in an argument when I was younger, but now my mind decided to bring memories of him back. The first time he cheated is now at my forefront. 

I came home late due to night classes. The house was pretty dull but I did hear moaning. Confused I go and see John having another girl in the bed. I lashed out asking what the fuck was going on. Who was this bitch laying in my bed with my guy? It didn't take much for him to throw me against the wall yelling for me to get the fuck out and slamming the door in my face. That was the first time he put his hands on me. I didn't talk to him for days no matter how much he tried. That didn't last long either tho because once he was done with it he yelled at me throwing himself to my feet gaslighting and guilt-tripping. I sit up looking at my work. 

It was good and I have most of the front done. "turn your arm please" I mutter. I didn't notice it but he was looking at me. His once sarcastic demeanor was gone as the tension thickened. I take a deep breath to gather myself.

"mind if we listened to something," he asks I nod agreeing to the break stopping the clock. I hand him the book "You pick" I shrug and put it back pressing play on the stereo. The misfits blasting and getting back to work humming along to the songs. It brought me out of that gutter I was in making my mood better. I put the finishing touches on cleaning up and sterilizing everything again. He looks at it in the mirror before going with me to pay.

"thank you for choosing me to give you a tattoo it was nice" I smile "I hope you enjoy it" he nods paying before leaving. I felt bad I must've made it awkward with my answer. I couldn't let it get to me though I had the appointment coming in any time now. 

A couple of days have gone by. Right now  I'm getting my nails done by Kayla. I promised I'd stop by yesterday so here we are. I'm getting acrylic nails in oval shape. With a clear coat and the tip being white with little cherries all over. "so what you doing after this" she asks

"Nothing, I got tonight off" I shrug "Probably just go home" 

"No shit" she smiles "let's go get drunk then" Now there was something I don't do. The few times I have in never ended well. John used to be a very touchy and angry drunk so I never really got into the whole party hard and drink your liver to death. 

"I don't know" I shake my head "I'm not a big drinker" 

"even better you can be the DD" I guess it wouldn't be too bad. Plus gave me a good reason not to go home. 

"Fine as long as it isn't a bar that's on the boardwalk" 

"what's wrong with the boardwalk" She looks up switching hands putting the one she currently was working on under the little light. 

"cause that biker gang will be hanging around"

"biker gang?  you mean the guys with the mullets so what"

"well yesterday the one with the trench coat ya'know the leader, he specifically requested I do a tattoo for him the other day. While doing it he started playing asking a thousand questions and after I told him why I moved it just got quiet and awkward" 

"damn what did you tell him" 

"not much I just said I left got baggage and now I was back. I wasn't about to trama dump on some random dude, especially not a client. Before this, though they just were always" She gives me a look smiling "What" 

"he might like you" she teases "or at least did before you scared him off" I didn't think of that. The thought of someone liking me was the farthest thing from my mind. After everything with John, the last thing I want is to jump into a different relationship, especially with someone I didn't know.

"I guess but that's kinda creepy no?" 

"yeah it is I mean he doesn't even know you or has talked to you" 

"Well," I draw out the word gaining me a quick lookup.

"go on" also draws out the last word ready for any information I have left out. 

"When I got done with my job interview I went to that little coffee shop. The one with all the books. Well he and his gang all burst in there like a bat out of hell and we made eye contact. I guess he took it as his cue and came over to where I was searching for a book. I was over by the horror section so way back in the corner. He grabbed the book I was looking at and held it above my head asking for my name. It was like I was in high school again I swear." 

"oh he definitely likes you" 

"so" I scuff "I'm not looking for a man anyways" 

"no, but a little fun wouldn't hurt if you know what I mean" 

" hell no" I laugh "Trust me that is the last thing I want" as she finishes up my set getting me checked out. "I'll wait for you at my car I'll take you to come get it tomorrow okay." 

"Okay, but we are going to Drunken Sailor" I give her the bitch really look. 

"that's on the boardwalk" 

"Oh come on Rory it will be okay pretty sure you scared him off anyway" I roll my eyes and get in the car and wait for her. She was right no guy wants to fuck around with some chick with tons of shit clouding her past. I guess that's a good thing because now I can have some girl time. After about an hour she comes out ready to go drinking. We drive up to the bar being very surprised. The atmosphere was almost club-like the music was loud but not so loud to where you couldn't hear the person standing next to you. There were people at the bar all young and ready for a party others were already drunk or tipsy dancing their hearts out. Kayla rushes to the bar pulling me along. "two shots please" the bartender looks at me nodding before making them. She takes both swinging them back. I look at the menu.

 "can I get a virgin strawberry daiquiri please" Going to make the drink Kayla groans. Tugging on my arm as some pop song plays. 

"Let's dance" she ushers I beg for her to wait up but she is already out and partying. once my drink came I joined dancing as well I could covering my drink. "put it down" I shook my head "Fine I need more anyways." after an hour or so sipping on my drink and her doing the same. Going back and forth on the dance floor I end up sitting alone at the bar while she dances her heart out. Keeping a close eye on her when the bartender comes over with a cocktail. 

"oh sorry I didn't order one" I smile 

"on the house" he smiled "sent by that gentleman over there" I looked up to see David looking right back at me. The smile on his face and a little wave let me know I didn't scare him off. I look at the cocktail and stop the bartender. 

"Can I get another virgin daiquiri please" 

"yeah want me to send it back." he offers. I glance over and shake my head. I get up gathering up the balls to go and sit with him. I sit down and stay silent not sure what to do now. 

"thank you" I smile "but I don't drink" I slide it over to him. 

"Cause of the baggage" he questions I look down all courage gone. 

"Look I don't know what you want but maybe next time you should start with hi how are you this evening." I get up ready to get my drink and leave. He stands up following me. 

"wait" he gets in front "I'm sorry let's start over okay?" he offers. I look debating on it I sigh and sit back down. He sits next to me before downing the drink he offered like it was nothing. I was taken aback by this usually those things are filled with alcohol. he notices me staring "What, you said you don't drink and I wasn't bout to let it go to waste" he leans against the bar. "so if you aren't here to drink then what are you here for" I look out and point to Kayla who was currently in a group circle dancing. "why not join" 

"cause I've had enough dancing for tonight" The bartender comes back with my drink I pay with a good tip. "before you start this is a virgin" I take a sip enjoying the slightly sour drink. 

"no that's a slushie" leaning into the whiskey. "so your friend is over there dancing all by herself while you sit at the bar?" 

"I might be a tad uptight, I don't make friends as easy as she does." 

"yeah I noticed" He jokes 

"Sorry bout that." 

"it's fine you have those guards up for a reason" he looks at his drink as if thinking.

"to be honest" I glance at my glass not sure why I wanted to open up. It isn't like I had a buzz, but he was easy to talk to. "they are kinda new. I didn't use to be this way." 

"you want to forget?" he leans in our eyes meet it was like I was falling under some sick spell. "even if it is for one night" I shake my head letting out a laugh. It sounded like one of those you hear in a movie when the character was trying to hold it together. 

"no, thank you. That's the last thing I need" I hold my glass tighter. "I'm kinda over being a toy" It was silent I had said too much. Starting to regret having come over and not just sending my drink back like any normal person.

"fair enough." he leans back taking another long sip of the whiskey from before. "how bout this, me and you go do something fun, no strings attached" I look at him confused. 

"why" 

"why not, got nothing else going on." with the idea not sounding too bad I'm about to answer when Kayla leans on me. 

"what ya doing" she hugs looking over at David. Turning to my ear she attempted to whisper "is this him" I felt my face become heated with embarrassment as a smirk was plastered on his face. 

"Kayla" I look at her "What are you doing" I try giving her a hint to not do whatever her drunk mind was telling her. 

"just checking in" she pouts and touches her forehead on mine. "is that him" I nod hoping the hint finally clicks. She looks at him looking up and down. "get it girl" Now fully embarrassed and ready to go crawl in a hole and die I stand up. 

"I think we should go" I help her standing up much to her protest. "excuse her she is very drunk" I apologise "Can we take a rain check" I ask he nods in agreement. I hand him my phone letting him put his number in my phone. As he hands it back looking up and down I rush her out saying bye. Once in the car we just sit there. 

"he was cute" She looked at me I looked back the laughter was too hard to hold back. 

"you are such a bitch" I laugh starting the car. 

"oh shut the fuck up you know you love me" I start the drive to the shack. Getting her in the door was easy. we sit on the couch with a random movie playing only for her to instantly fall asleep. I hear my phone ding looking to see a new number on my phone. 

[sajaffery]

3...

i have to come up with a different proverb. maybe a new one. this is harder then i thought. but im really enjoying doing it. it feels like a wrting exercise. shit! it is a wrting exercise and i hate those. i absolutely hate them because they feel gimicky and unimaginative. but i came up with this on my own. so is it unimaginative? wait isnt there something called free association writing? is that what im doing right now? im not sure. i dont think youre allowed to think in that you’re just supposed to write and write and write and write. but how can you write without thinking? okay charger has been plugged back in and i can stop and think again. full disclosure by the way i am cheating to a certain extent because i keep editing every fifth mistake i make. im still leaving a lot in there to make this feel authentic. i felt like adding an emoticon there. cue self loathing. but no wait. old white men dont like emoticons do they? that good we like that. but young white girls do like emoticons. and justin bieber. dont know which way to turn now. lets move on. and i’m blank. i cant get justin bieber out of my head. good thing its not young white girls because that would be creepy. andd liable. is liable the right word. i want to google but i cant. new rule! no googling allowed. just train of…no no no. we cant use that either no trains allowed. old white men use trains. river of thoughts? cheesy. to similar to stream of consciousness, which isnt so bad because Virgina Woolf is a dead white woman. and i hate to love joyce. Love Dubliners. Love the idea of Ulysses, despite never getting past page 50 and not understanding what the hell happened in the forty or so pages i do read. except a young jesuit was or wasnt shaving. no word count either. new rule. im always checking word count to make myself feel good but we wont be doing that anymore. but i cant do this in the mornings anymore. not when i have to write. i mean seriously write because i would like to get published one day. read my name on the cover of a book. a hardback thak you very much because i do still love those (dead white men be damned) even if i dont particulalrly like paying for them. 15.99 for a book is ridiculous. especially when you can get it for 1p plus shipping costs in a few months time. i just cheated again. i deleted a whole paragraph i dint like anymore. its just felt repetitive like i was just telling you the same thing all over again in different word. filler. and we don’t like filler. its something EL James would use. i’m so glad EL James has become the by word for bad literature. she fully deserves it and im not just saying that because shes made a shit load of money. it does help though.it also helps that everyone seems to know who she is. James Patterson is equally shit, actually hes a different kind of shit. those alex cross books werent too bad to begin with. they certainly made good movies. anything with morgan freeman is a good movie. i hope if god does exist he does look like him. i wouldnt mind listening to him for all off eternity then. but then he started buying up unpublished manuscripts, polishing them up and printing them as his own with the real author getting a co-write. that fucking pisses me off. and he has the nerve to defend it by saying that he’s helping young unpublished authors. no you’re not asshole youre just printing money and using struggling authors just like every other arsehole looking to make a quick buck is. but you cant badmouth patterson because most nonreaders don’t know about him. but everybody knows EL James. god bless anal beads. okay im back. its the same day but i just posted this went downstairs to make some more green tea and came back up to add a little more to it. had two slices of chocolate cake too. i thought i was eating more because i was having a hard time writing but apparently i just like cake. and stuffing myself to point of explosion. edited slices and explpsion. there must be a way to switch off the squiggly lines that come up while im wrting this. typing. i’m only typing this.

[hayleykiyopioids]

oh my good lord i hate my job so much dudes

hello to the 4 real people that follow me, and all the bots i haven't had the energy to block yet! i need like 5 minutes to talk shit about my job, so if that's not your vibe tonight please feel free to just not read this shit because this is the last corner of the internet that's blessed with anonymity and i would like to scream into the ether without consequence <3

so i'm the entire IT department for a shitty little car dealership in Almost The Middle Of Nowhere, USA and like maybe 6 out of the 50 people that work there have more than one single brain cell. there is so much crap in that building that only i know about, and i'm at the end of my Got Damn rope guys.

the GM of this dealership is the dumbest and laziest man in this building, and every 3 months or so he decides to go on some kind of fucking crusade to try and convince everyone else he does something around there. probably every other crusade, i end up a fucking target because he can't comprehend a single thing i do on any given day.

i very seriously need you to understand that i have never received an email from this man that wasn't a paragraph of a run on sentence. i had to teach this man how to upload photos to the vehicle auction site that i don't even have access to. this man does not know a single policy in the building, he has never filled out a single form correctly, and is constantly losing Important Documents with enough sensitive information that someone's whole identity could get stolen! almost every single decision he makes on a given day costs the dealership money and somehow still screws the customers over! but for some fucking reason the owner trusts his word like fucking gospel. this man is going to run the dealership into the ground, and he does not give one single shit

that's all just kind of background info so the actual thing i want to complain about makes some kind of sense. today was the day the GM decided to open up another crusade, and i got caught up in it for pretty much no damn reason.

we have this storage area we call the loft. it's a fairly small second floor type thing, that once upon a time someone built out of plywood and 2x4s. it's ugly, it's dusty, it's probably not even all that safe, and it's a dumping ground for all the crap we don't have space for anywhere else. this space has been a disorganized shit show for the last two and a half years.

well, the parts department is packed at the seams, and the only real solution to this is to put more shelves up in the loft. the GM was up in there, and decided to get pissed at me and the accounting department, and the "marketing" department for not keeping our shit up there organized.

THING IS: THE MESS UP THERE IS NOT OUR FAULT!

half the crap up there belongs to detail and service, and another quarter of it is paperwork that our state requires us to keep paper records of for a number of years before it can be sent to be shredded for customer privacy

half of the IT stuff that the GM found up there can't possibly be pinned on me. a lot of it was up there in unmarked boxes, and has been there since well before I started working here. how are you going to be mad at me for not going through UNMARKED BOXES in a space that is famously everyone's dumping ground?

everything that was in an unmarked box was also special shit from other departments! even if i knew it was there, it would not have been my call to get rid of old credit card readers and check scanners. that shit has never been on me, it's been on the departments who use those things.

the other half of the IT stuff was crap i've been wanting to get rid of for so long! but every time i bring it up, it's "well someone might need that printer so let's hang onto it" "those monitors still work, so let's hang onto them" "lets save that monitor wall mount in case we need it" EVERYTHING i was told to save when it should have gotten tossed has been collecting dust up there for well over 6 months at least.

everything else that the GM was mad about: it was the GM who said to store it in the loft in the first place. AND almost everything that gets put up there gets moved around by anyone and everyone! when shit goes missing or gets put in stupid places, it's never because of the person who's actually supposed to be keeping track of it

so anyway, since the loft is an obvious problem, the GM now has an excuse to nitpick literally every other aspect of the departments he's pissed about now. me, my friend who's the cashier, and the "marketing" department now all of a sudden have to send an email at the end of every fucking day detailing everything that we've done that day. this isn't the first time the GM has made up this stupid little rule, and every other time i've had to do it i get told to stop after about a week or two. that, or i just kind of stop sending them because i know full well that he doesn't read them. i don't think the GM has literally ever read a single email i've sent him.

the worst part about this crap is that i know he doesn't understand a single thing i do in that building, let alone how long any of it takes. one of the time i had to send these stupid emails i was told to include an estimate of how long it took me to do each thing on the list! LIKE WHAT THE FUCK?? and it also doesn't help that 99% of my job is just waiting for something to break so i can go fix it.

the only upside is that i'm a little less than a month out from switching jobs. the dealership hires this other guy to manage the network in the building, just about the only thing i don't have my hands on since i don't have the knowledge yet. he used to be the one they called to fix all their stupid little problems too until they hired me. i'm kind of being handed off to go work for him, and they'll just call me like they used to call him before. i'm also going to be essentially working to build up his company, since up until now he's been a one man operation. me and him work incredibly well together, and i've been doing work for him part time in my off hours for the last 6 months or so.

that god forsaken dealership is going to go under in the next few years if the owner doesn't fire that GM. there's a million and one issues with the way that place gets ran, and the owner doesn't seem to give a single shit. she punishes the small handful of people who actually do their jobs right for all the others' mistakes, and people are already starting to jump ship. i don't think there's a single employee there that doesn't have some kind of issue with either her or the GM or both. and the saddest part of it all is the the owner of that dealership is so fucking smart when she takes her head out of her own ass! she doesn't realize how much she leans on a small handful of people there and how close they all are to quitting.

[bria-doublen-a]

Book Review: Crown of Midnight

Non Spoiler Section

Wow. What a fantastic read! In this sequel to Throne of Glass, we pick up right where we left off. It's been two months since Celaena was announced as the King's Champion and Maas drops us right in the thick of it! Honestly, this book grabbed me by the throat and didn't let go until the very last page.

It's actually pretty difficult to review this book without giving too much away. All I can say is that this story posed so many questions and I was suspicious of literally everyone. But what Maas excels at is her ability to write admirable characters. We get to see sides of these people we had no idea existed. And yet…we still love them.

Even when they're isolated and feeling alone and untrustworthy of anyone. When they make their biggest mistakes. When they're at their lowest. Still. We love them. Now that is proper storytelling.

This book is going to make you laugh, cry and scream at the top of your lungs. Oh, yeah. You're in for a doozy. Highly recommend.

Spoiler Section

So, anybody who read my review for Throne of Glass knows this is my first time reading fantasy. Let me just tell you this: I AM SO IN.

When I read Celaena and Aelin Galanthynius in the same sentence???? I damn near lost my mind. I hooted. I hollered. I jumped around and talked in gibberish to my husband. Are you freaking kidding me? That was so unexpected! You know, the more I read the more I'm convinced that Celaena's not a very reliable narrator. I can't believe we went almost two books without even the slightest hint of her heritage!

AND SHE'S FAE. WHAT?!?! I mean, don't get me wrong, when that Wyrdmark showed up on her forehead during the competition, I knew something was up and I kind of knew that she would somehow be blessed with some kind of Fae magic. But I wasn't expecting Celaena to know. What a secretive little bitch! But that scene was so badass when she jumped through the portal and instantly changed. Dope dope dope!

Okay, enough fangirling. Can we talk about how heartbreaking it was to see Dorian be pushed out of his friend group by Celaena and Chaol? Not only is he going through a change that he knows nothing about, but Celaena's also been needlessly rude to him?

I mean, I get it. She's gotta put up this front and make everybody believe that she's the perfect Champion and loyal to the King. Sure. But she's gotta know that any sideward glance or shadow of doubt cast by Dorian is in response to how eerily accurate and easy it is to play the King's assassin. And to turn around and start dating Chaol when the reason she and Dorian broke up was so she could experience what it's like to be free? That was harsh.

Which brings me to my next point. I HATE Celaena and Chaol. I tried. I really did. But I hate it. Some of those scenes in the beginning were kind of cute like their dinner date and the constant sexing and the broom closet. But then everything turns to shit because Chaol has the Midas touch and it's like Chaol loses every ounce of trust for Celaena. Even though he can admit that he was in the wrong and admit that he loves her and admit all these great characteristics about her, he still thinks the best course of action is to lock her in the dungeon for four days. WTF???

While Chaol was in the doghouse, I loved watching Dorian and Celaena grow close again. Not because I'm officially a diehard Celaena/Dorian shipper now, but because it was what they both needed. Celaena and Dorian spent so much time hurting and feeling like they could confide in no one. I was so relieved to watch them find solace in one another.

And you know what? Despite all those things I said about Chaol, I still like him. I have lots of questions, like why he was so blindly loyal to the crown until now, but I still like him. So, can I forgive him for being a crucial part in Nehemia's death? I think so. But I seriously can't stand the idea of him being with Celaena. The thing that drove me crazy at the end when Celaena's sent off to Wendlyn is that she admits that she loves him and hates him at the same time? He's her greatest love and also her enemy?

Ugh. I wanted to throw up. Like if you don't take your little Fae ass and kiss Dorian already, I stg.

But AELIN GALANTHYNIUS?? FAE???? God, I can't get over it. I'm so ready to dive into the next one!!

[ark-of-eden]

R is drunk and raving (not in the party way).

(R:) Additionally, I’m procrastinating like a fucking champion at working on fic construction, so you know the best use of my time is going off about random social media crap on the internet.

tl;dr: Putting all commentary in tags on Tumblr makes R cry and shit thousands of words into the Internet.

Every social media site inevitably develops sets of unwritten social conventions. Some of them actually make sense as being derived from meatspace etiquette and therefore you don’t really have to stress about remembering them as long as you play nice like a decent creature.

And some of them just don’t make any fucking sense that I can see. Folks on Twitter using a deliberately space-limited form of media to write a page’s worth or more in a string of 30+ rapidfire tweets? This is just how it’s done over there? (Tweetlonger exists but for some reason these massive chain-tweeters never seem to use it. Same with posting the whole thing in a long-form site like LJ/DW/Tumblr and just linking it to a tweet.)

And Tumblr has things that I literally had to put effort into learning after I migrated here, and after I learned about them I frankly decided to ignore them because I couldn’t see the point in them. Tumblr has this bizarre allergy to commentary and, likely derived from that, the practice of instead commenting by putting it all in awkward tags that render the tagging system not especially useful and are harder to get to if you’re actually interested in an individual’s thoughts about a thing and not just the twelfth instance of the same post crossing your dash in a day or two. It’s not like you can’t engage with people, because asks and messaging and such exist, but like...there’s this strong sense that it’s Terribly Ill-Mannered to weigh in with your own impressions right there, in the body of the post, typing your own words in that seductive, wide-open text box that appears all on its own when you go to reblog something. The properly-socialized Tumblrite eschews that tempting text field and instead posts weird sentence fragments in tag form (interspersed with actual tags that might serve to usefully categorize the post’s content), to the extent that some people can add on a good couple paragraphs of material down among the hashtags where others need to go looking for it on purpose if they want it. (I, at least, haven’t been able to find a plugin or something that automatically expands full tags on all posts so that I don’t have to fuck around with extra interface elements to get to them. I admit that I haven’t looked super hard, though.)

Preserving the original form of the OP’s post is a noble practice that I heartily support, but how is adding commentary a problem if you’re only adding a separate thing, not taking away or altering anything in the original...? This was already a practice/convention/code of social interaction on Tumblr when I got here, so I was never in the front row to witness this element taking shape. I suppose it must have made good sense at the time, but every time I see ten people reblogging the same post with no additions and a paragraph of tags appended to it, it’s like a splinter in my brain that has been digging into me for years now.

And I’m not hating on people who do that! I get that that’s The Way It’s Done Here and I am the deviant weirdo for continually adding comments directly onto things that I reblog. Tags are where individuality lives here, unless you’re producing your own original posts, which I guess other people are then supposed to reblog without commentary so that you have to go hunting after all the reblogs individually if you want to get an actual sense of what these people were all thinking when they reblogged your thing. It all just seems...so...WORK INTENSIVE, refusing to use site functions as they were intended??

Look, I absolutely know that my commentary is not the work of incisive genius that unfailingly adds value to every post I find worthy of my attention. We’re pretty much solid shitposting on this blog. Because I’m a little loaded at the moment and that gives me a handy excuse to run my fingers like an idiot (plus I put that readmore up there, so if your eyes are actually consuming these words, you have only yourself to blame for being here), let me run down relevant history of how we got here.

LJ was home for a good long while. Then shit got seriously messed up and Dreamwidth was created as a better LJ, so we migrated all our stuff over there. And journaling sites along those lines still feel like a native environment. I, in particular, am the most long-winded piece of shit we know and I am honestly incapable of talking about anything of worth in short form. It’s a sickness and I just sort of have to own it. :/ But that’s why journaling sites are a good place for me to live, because that’s where people go when they have the inclination to read meandering scrawls about the depths of other people’s lives or whatever.

We went to Twitter for a good while because all the cool people we knew from LJ were going there for some unfathomable reason. These people wrote things that were complex and fascinating to read, so all of them jumping ship to a place that limited them to 140-character chunks made no damn sense, but we loved those people and wanted to trust that they knew what the hell they were doing. And they probably did, and a couple of us were actually okay with Twitter, but I, being the long-winded shitpiece, spent a lot of time frustrated and kind of overstimulated.

Then things started going to hell more and more consistently for me personally (and us generally by extension, but that’s unnecessary detail). Bunkering down specifically to protect people that you care about from the fallout of your crazy is a fairly common thing for mentally-ill people to do, I think. So I’d shut up online until I felt stable enough to talk to people again. Those periods lasted a few days, then a week or more, then a month, then eventually I stopped talking entirely. I missed the LJ/DW format, but in the past I’d written about life events and things I was thinking about and such, so...at the time, all I really had to write about was the bad stuff. So LJ/DW was basically unusable as well.

I literally came here to be as shallow as I could possibly manage. Tumblr had a rapid, chaotic flow similar to Twitter, but could hold longer content like LJ/DW. We’ve never really used the site’s full functionality at any point, though. For at least a year, all we were following was the most lightweight, zero-calorie entertainment that we could find. (We actually came here for Flight Rising content, so there was a lot of that.) Being engaged with fandom in any consistent respect is an extremely recent thing.

And I’m not saying that fandom hasn’t got depth and complexity because it absolutely does and that’s one of the beautiful things about shared fan experiences. I kind of got into that sort of fandom by accident after getting here and rediscovering Transformers. But the unvoiced policy that I’ve always had here is to avoid the Too Real and dodge serious topics whenever possible. Thus, no gender theory, no neurodivergence or multiplicity, no nonhumanity, no religion or UPG, nothing with real substance behind it that bared real vulnerabilities. (Apparently this was a good move anyway because the nonhuman and multiplicity situation here on Tumblr is a bit of a clusterfuck? I honestly wouldn’t know, as I haven’t made a lot of effort to link up with those folks.) That’s still the policy. That might remain the policy forever until I reach some vaguely-defined threshold of sanity that makes me worthy of talking about those things in places and formats that other people can interact with.

And I’m sorry for all this talk about mental illness, but it’s simpler just to explain things clearly. I likely won’t go into any more detail about it on Tumblr. Or anywhere else, because I care about people even if I’ve never met them or talked to them at all and I still want to keep it all in the bunker to protect good people from the crazy. Sometimes, all you can do is just prevent the damage from spilling out into other people’s lives, and that’s the place that I usually operate from.

I’m still pretty drunk, so I’m allowed to ramble from too much truth serum, but all of that explanation was to get around to saying that the format of online communication that is most intuitive to me is the long, oversharing gut-spill of random people talking about things that are really meaningful to them - not in the sense of elaborate philosophy or artsy epistles to the cosmos, but just people being super real about things that are meaningful to them and going into lots of detail about them because gushing about things you love is great. And it’s possible to get that sort of discussion and gushing in Tumblr fandom, and I love it because it reminds me of better times, and the fact that I love it is WHY IT MAKES ME SO GODDAMN FRUSTRATED that Tumblr culture is basically stifling discussion and feedback and RESPONSE to things that people find interesting!!

Like, here’s how I see it. Unlike on LJ/DW, where you were limited to hyperlinking to a cool post in one of your own posts if you wanted your readers to go check it out, on Tumblr, if you find a super cool thing, you can pull it directly into your space and let other people experience it directly, exactly as you experienced it. But the thing is, I also subscribe to the My Blog My House concept. If I pull a thing into my “home,” I do it because there’s something homelike about it; it belongs in my home for some specific reason. I don’t take “ownership” of an item in the sense that I’m claiming it in place of its creator, but I’m taking ownership of it in the sense that it’s part of my Stuff now and it’ll get my fingerprints all over it and be blended into the general morass of Stuff that I recognize as my home. I don’t just pull random crap into my home for no reason at all.

And I just figure that other people are similar in the sense that they reblog things for distinct, unique reasons, not in the sense that they have some master plan for their blog content (some do, but it’s not necessary), but just that they have compelling reasons why they pick certain bits of content out of the larger river of their dashboard and put it in their own space for people to experience with them. I follow people based on the interesting things that they find interesting. I’m interested in why they’re interested in those things. They seem like interesting people to me because they’re interested in what they’re interested in.

But the WHY is a really important part of the equation for me. Did this person reblog that photo because they’ve been to that place themselves, because they like that kind of tree, because they reblog photos with that color scheme every Thursday? Did that person reblog that piece of art because they love that character, because they’re studying that art medium, because it reminded them of something funny they saw somewhere else? People attach their own context to things that they latch onto. It’s so freaking weird to me that people have to hide their interpretations or impressions in tags here on Tumblr, making them unimportant and optional in the process of sharing things they like with others. (Okay, people also share a lot of things they hate, but reasons for outrage are still part of the context that one adds to content.)

I WANT TO KNOW WHY YOU CARE ABOUT WHAT YOU’RE SHOWING ME. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT MAKES IT IMPORTANT TO YOU. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT IT MAKES YOU THINK AND FEEL. Even if it’s a blurb about how giant robots fuck or a cute kitten video, I NEED TO KNOW THESE THINGS.

Not in excruciating detail or with insightful analysis or even a lot of text at all. Mostly, the things that people put in tags are things that, to me, are a really crucial part of the experience of being able to go into someone’s “home” and see the Stuff that they chose to put in it. Reducing oneself to a glorified signal repeater is...okay, I guess, though it turns a Tumblr blog into a kind of faceless stream of other people’s material a lot of the time. The personal touch is what makes it all interesting. And I’m just unutterably frustrated that, somewhere along the line, it was decided that personalizing an experience by sharing one’s own impressions of it became rude enough that polite society decided that it had to be hidden away in tags. I want all of it, so I do go looking for it, but omg it requires MORE EFFORT and BURNING CALORIES and BODILY MOVEMENT and WAAAAH, you know what I mean. :P

And possibly Tumblr society is right and it’s done for a good, decent purpose and I’m being pigheaded and uncool by insisting on doing things my way without bothering to try and understand the local customs. I’m not usually that much of an asshole, but I am about this, for some reason. And I admit that my craving for those personal touches could very well spring from how utterly isolated and lonely I am, so maybe normal people really don’t need all the extra info and actually do just want mostly-impersonal streams of content. And that’s fine, since I know I’m kind of a weirdo even on my best days.

I’m pretty sure that that was all that I really wanted to say. I’m probably overreacting about the whole comments-in-tags thing. Like I said, it’s kind of an irrational irritation. Also, I need to stop before I write myself sober and no longer have an excuse for all of this. If you actually read all of that, you are an awesome, generous person and I’m pretty damn certain that I love you even though I have no idea who you are.

[primofate]

Genshin x fem!reader [Volleyball Team AU - Inspired by Haikyuu!] He introduces S/O to the team

Before you read this, might be a good idea to read the introduction first. To give you the whole low-down of the team and their dynamicsssss.

Other works in the Volleyball Team AU Series: Click Here

Scenario: You and him have been dating for a while now. Why does the team not know and what’s their reaction in finding out/when he introduces you?

Warnings: AU if that’s not your thing then don’t read, not proofread...as usual.

#1 Zhongli (Captain/Wing Spiker/Ace)

You’ve been dating for nearly 5 months at this point. Beforehand the two of you were close friends. So the team kind of already knew you guys were close, but you’d never met the team properly.

It’s not that he was HIDING your relationship, its that he didn’t want to pressure you into meeting his team. They could really be an overwhelming bunch of high schoolers sometimes.

As it happens he walks to the gym hand in hand with you one day, his other hand on his duffel sports bag, thinking that he’d be the earliest one there as always. 

But when he slides the gym doors open his WHOLE TEAM greets him “CAPTAIN!” and then there’s an awkward silence that descends as they all catch him with his hand intertwined with yours.

KAEYA AND TARTAGLIA LOSES IT. “C-Captain, you had a girlfriend and didn’t tell us?!” “You finally made a move on her?!” “S’about time!”

Needless to say they both get knocked on the head by Zhongli’s fist. 

Zhongli sighs and turns to you apologetically but you say that you don’t mind meeting them. He perks up and claps his hands to ask his team to line up.

They do so diligently. Kaeya, Tartaglia and Thoma are giddy while looking at you. Xiao and Kazuha have their mouth slightly agape as if you’re some kind of rare species. Diluc and Albedo stare you down. 

You introduce yourself as Zhongli’s gilrfriend and as you do so Tartaglia’s eyes dart towards Zhongli who has a slightly shy expression on his face. 

“Oh, oh question time!” Thoma raises his hand “Does the captain secretly eat sweets behind our back?” You haven’t even answered when Kaeya asks “Does the captain ever glare at you (he mimics Zhongli’s face) and say 10 Push ups NOW!” Surprisingly Diluc raises his hand too “...Is the captain strict with you too?”

Zhongli gets irked the more questions are asked and he finally steps in with an ominous presence. “10 laps around the gym...NOW!” 

He apologizes to you again but you reassure him it’s totally fine and they all seem like such fun. 

#2 Diluc (Vice Captain/Wing Spiker/Defense Specialist)

The vice captain is a very secretive guy.

Not even his brother knew.

It’s not that he was ashamed of you, he just liked his privacy and you already knew that. 

But there was this one time where he forgot his textbooks under his desk and you had to go and give it to him while he was at practice.

Shyly looking into the door the first one that spots you is Albedo.

“...Do you need something?” you tense up at Albedo’s question and shakily hand him the textbooks.

“U-Uhm... D-Diluc’s...”

Albedo tilts his head and turns to shout at the team. “Someone’s looking for the vice captain,”

Everyone stops what they’re doing and snaps there head towards you.

Diluc jogs over, sweat still fresh on his forehead. Without thinking he takes the books from you, small smile on his face and thanks you.

The rest of his team freezes up all thinking: “Hold on, is he...SMILING?”

You’re oblivious to them staring and give him a quick kiss on the cheek before leaving. When Diluc turns back his team is glaring daggers at him, he stares back at them. Doesn’t say anything, and continues practice.

No one is brave enough to ask him about it.

Tartaglia whispers to Kaeya “You didn’t know about it either huh?”

#3 Kaeya (Middle Blocker)

This MF would talk about you whenever he had the chance.

Y/N this, Y/N that, Y/N is so cute. 

Frankly the team is kinda tired of it. 

But when you finally visit one of their practices the team levels their gaze at you and think “Oh shit, he wasn’t lying, she is actually cute,”

Sees his teammates expression and brags even more. “I know what y’all are thinking. You’re thinking, OH! She’s actually really cute! Hm?”

Slings an arm around you shamelessly with a grin. “Back off boys, I’ll block all your attempts,”

Diluc is the one that walks up to you and you blink at him. Kaeya blinks at him, confused as well.

Diluc suddenly bows, “I feel sorry for you but please take care of him,”

The rest of the team either bursts out laughing or snickers behind their hand.

Their vice captain is low key savage

#4 Albedo (Setter)

The team finds out about you cause when they finish practice they find you waiting outside the gym.

Kazuha asks politely while the others look on “Are you lost?”

You straighten up and stutter a little, “Ah, uh, no, I’m...” You’re at a loss for words. 

Then Albedo suddenly appears from the gym doors and sees you. “Ah, were you waiting long? Sorry,”

Thoma tilts his head in question. “Albedo...Your sister?”

Albedo at this point was standing next to you already. “...No, my girlfriend,” like it was the most normal thing in the world.

Everyone is stunned into statues.

“H-How did you get one before me?” Tartaglia looks as if his soul had been sucked out of his body.

“Next time you can just come inside and wait inside the gym, it’s dark out here,” their responsible captain suggests and you’re amazed at his kindness and bow at him with a thank you.

Albedo doesn’t see what’s the big deal and just grabs your hand and starts walking away.

#5 Tartaglia (Middle Blocker/Wing Spiker)

The team already knew since the first date. It’s because he.would.not.shut.up.about.it

That particular day at practice his spikes were a tad bit stronger than usual.

“Oi... you’re getting too excited...” Xiao mumbles at him. Tartaglia just grins and scratches the back of his head. “Aaaahhhh... I can’t help it, I’m so nervous for my date with Y/N!”

A few more dates later he starts showing off his phone wallpaper to the others. It’s a picture of you and him.

Kaeya tries to piss him off by saying, “Huh, we’ve never actually seen her in person. Maybe it’s photoshopped,” The others snicker.

Is so pissed, asks you to come immediately.

You thought it was an emergency so you come into the gym with a worried look on your face only to be hugged tight into his chest. “See? See? She’s totally real and totally cute!”

Albedo crosses his arms and blinks, then looks at Kaeya “...You totally baited him, he’s such a simpleton.”

Kaeya responds with a smirk “Right?”

#6 Kazuha (Decoy/Middle Blocker/Wing Spiker)

The most formal out of all of them and even tells them seriously that he had an announcement to make.

Next day he comes into practice with you in tow.

Properly introduces you as his girlfriend. 

Everyone is wide-eyed at how official it feels. Then you suddenly take out a big container of fruits and tell everyone it’s for them (The captain doesn’t allow sweets, he thinks it’ll fatten them up or some crap.)

EVERYONE IS BLESSED BY YOUR PRESENCE and Kazuha is just enjoying you getting along with them.

Kaeya and Tartaglia try to whisper and bribe you into making cookies for them. 

Albedo and Xiao stares at Kazuha thinking ‘If someone like you can get a girlfriend, we can get one too, right?’

You offer to come back next time with more fruits and some secret cookies.

#7 Xiao (Libero)

Tried to keep it a secret because he knows his team will make a fuss about it.

The team finds out when his phone suddenly starts ringing in the middle of practice and he asks for a timeout to pick it up.

“Mm... Yeah... I’ll pick you up when I finish,” Everyone starts nudging each other when they hear him talk to you in an unusually calm and soft tone. So different from when he plays volleyball and gets angry at them.

By this point everyone tries to keep quiet and enlarge their ears to eavesdrop.

“Idiot... I won’t be late. I promised to take you out didn’t I?” 

Hearing their tsundere libero say something so sweet makes everyone combust.

When he turns back everyone is staring at him with smirks on their faces. “Hey, why not just ask her to come here?” Kaeya sneakily suggests.

Xiao blushes “A-As if I’d let her near you bumbling fools!”

He was worried it would scare you away, actually.

#8 Tohma (Pinch Server/Middle Blocker)

Literally no one is surprised he has a girlfriend.

It would be MORE of a surprise if he DIDN’T have one.

But they find out cause he left his phone out on the bench one day and there’d been a text message while Xiao was conveniently sitting on the bench.

“...Tohma, someone me--” Xiao looks at the screen where the message ‘I love you!’ is clearly written.

Xiao is so curious but is not gunna admit it so he nudges Kaeya or Tartaglia who might be sitting next to him and secretly motions over to the phone.

They read it and ask in a real loud voice “Oi Tohma! Who’s Y/N? They said I love you!” 

Tohma laughs nervously and since it’s already out he might as well introduce you. 

“This is my princess,” he says when you enter the gym to walk home with him that afternoon. You bow and introduce yourself and everyone looks at you thinking... “Ah, they look like the perfect domestic couple,”

Low-key everyone is jealous of how you dote on him.

Hello Hello! Technically this could be counted as fluff, but I understand that not everyone is fond of AUs, so, if you don’t mind being tagged to something like this, please fill in the survey again (I’ve added AU as an option, just click that one if you’ve signed up for the others before!)

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[astrobyoph]

Astro observations #3 🌶

Spicy edition 🌶 18+

Hello everyone!!! Sorry for not posting much content, finally finishied writing this spicy astro placements post for you all. I tried to mellow the content, but viewer discretion is adviced? Don’t say I didnt warn you, if you’re uncomfortable with sexual content, please move past this

With that said, thank you to my friends for helping (you know who you are <3) and hope you guys enjoy! Of course i know you will lmao 💀

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Pisces placements take aftercare very seriously, they want to baby their partner after sex

Taurus placements might have a thing for people with nice necks/collarbones

Aries placements might be into crying during sex. Either enjoys crying from pleasure or making their partner cry from pleasure

Leo + Scorpio placements are usually really proud of their partner, they probably enjoy getting marked by/marking them. They probably enjoy the concept of ownership a lot lmao

Capricorn stelliums tend to have very masculine and dominant energy no matter their gender. Usually tend to be the dominant one too

Scorpio placements only have an either/or when it comes to sex. They’re either extremely kinky & dirty, OR they’re actually extremely vanilla and don’t understand any of the appeal to kinky sex.

3H Stelliums really enjoy dirty talk, probably can get off it easily too

8H Saturn people are probably into extremely dirty stuff, maybe BDSM as well

Gemini placements might have a hand kink. Or even might be into breathplay during sex 

Virgo stelliums enjoy being brats, or being disciplined in general. Probably because they are so disciplined in the day about their lives, they need an outlet to be lazy and be forced into their place

Virgo stellium boys enjoy being ordered around 

Pisces mars men can't be rough normally, unless you explicitly ask them to get rough with you, they most likely can’t.

2H/7H/9H Stelliums might have a thing for big age gaps in sexual encounters, they enjoy the thrill of being with someone that’s older than them

Water dominants may enjoy sneaky sex, the thought of getting caught probably turns them on so much more, might be into exhibitionism as well

Virgo/Aquarius placements might enjoy getting fucked by their teachers, teacher student kink perhaps. Or at the very least they might fantasize about their teachers/authority figures

Leo mars people enjoy standing up and having sex, probably against the wall. Or watching their partners masturbate turns them on too

Aries placements are passionate and sometimes reckless in love (or bed) but they don't go bat shit crazy. They know how to stop before messing up shit, probably have surprising amounts of self control too

Cancer placements have a serious breeding kink problem. Probably because cancer is linked with fertility so..

Leo risings can tend to have a very strong sex appeal over the internet, or in person as well. People usually get attracted to them easily because of this

Moon/Venus dominant people might be masochists, either enjoys inflicting/receiving pain with their partner

Aquarius/Capricorn placements might be into bondage. Either getting tied up or seeing their partner get tied up can turn them on

Mars in 6th in a composite chart is a blessing and a curse. Probably having sex but being bored at the same time. Might just intergrate sex into their daily routines even though they’re bored

Wanna get a Libra turned on? Show emotions when you’re having sex. Act like you melt under their touch. Also the mood is very important for them

Libra placements probably enjoy foreplay too much

Leo + Pisces placements can result in someone being a switch, but still leaning to the submissive side because they want to be cared for

Sag mars people are probably secretly kinky but they just don’t want to get outed for having such a filthy mind

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Phewww that was kind of spicy lmao 😮‍💨. Thank you for reading till the end, really hope you enjoyed the post! Let me know if anything resonated, I’ll be glad to listen :) Drop any suggestions into my ask box for future posts, see you next time!

[tyrannosaurus-trainwreck]

The May 5th entry for Dracula is just conceivably the best, most off-the-rails thing.

Picture, in your mind’s eye, this complete idiot of a baby lawyer standing in a courtyard with his stupid fucking travel dictionary and frantically looking up words while he’s listening to an entire fucking town reading somebody for filth while constantly blessing his ass.

Jonathan’s just like, “Oh, that one means ‘cannibal serial killer,’ how interesting!  What could they possibly be talking about while pointing directly at me and remonstrating with the carriage driver?”

Also, can you imagine if the blessings actually took?  Jonathan rolls up at the castle, standing there on the doorstep like a walking talking holy relic courtesy of everyone in the zip code lining up and calling down divine protection like a nuclear strike, Dracula’s just gritting his teeth like, “This is fine.”

“I could hear a lot of words often repeated, queer words, for there were many nationalities in the crowd; so I quietly got my polyglot dictionary from my bag and looked them out. I must say they were not cheering to me, for amongst them were “Ordog”—Satan, “pokol”—hell, “stregoica”—witch, “vrolok” and “vlkoslak”—both of which mean the same thing, one being Slovak and the other Servian for something that is either were-wolf or vampire. (Mem., I must ask the Count about these superstitions)“

Jonathan ‘Balls of Titanium’ Harker: Hey, Count Dracula, everybody seems to think someone in this neighborhood is shady as shit.  Is that why you’re moving to London? *loudly sips wine only he ever drinks*

The coach driver pulls some absolute Fast and the Furious bullshit all the way to Jonathan’s drop-off point.  Every other passenger is not only down with this but like, urging him on and stuffing garlic and wild rose and shit in Jonathan’s pockets. The dude manages to get there a fucking hour early, barely slows down, and is like “Hey look your ride’s not here, guess we better drop you off at the next town let’s gooooooo!”

Count Dracula, pulling up alongside them in his own carriage, is just like “Hey, ‘sup? Where’s the fire?”

Everyone in the carriage: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Jonathan is like, okay, I guess this is what I’m doing now, which is more or less fine until he realizes that Dracula is just driving him around in circles.  Does he ask about this?  No.  Which is fair?  I mean, whomst among us hasn’t been like “Okay, I am definitely getting murdered, but maybe if I pretend I don’t know that I can squeak a few more hours out of this?”

Also, I mean.  Can you even imagine how awkward it would be if you were like “Hey, man, why are we driving around in circles?” and then your driver was like “We’re not.” You know he’s lying, he knows he’s lying.  He knows that you know he’s lying.  You know that he knows that you know he’s lying.  And now you’re stuck in the back of this buggy with him driving you around in circles and lying about it like a weirdo for however long it takes for him to knock it off and take you to the castle.

Then the driver just hops off the bench and goes after some blue flames. Jonathan’s like “Fuck.” Dude does it again. “Fuuuuck.” Dude does it and is gone so long a bunch of wolves show up and stare at the carriage. “Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.” It’s fine though, because the driver can control wolves with a gesture!

Sidebar: I just really appreciate that Jonathan is eventually like “I think the driver and Dracula are the same guy!” because.  Seriously.  Option A is ‘Count Dracula is a wolf-wizard who masquerades as a coachman because he’s too cheap to hire a dude to drive his coach.’ Option B is ‘Dracula has whatever the fuck is going on with him going on with him and also has a fucking wolf-wizard working as his goddamn coachman.’ One is not appreciably better or more comforting than the other.

“This was all so strange and uncanny that a dreadful fear came upon me, and I was afraid to speak or move.”

Jonathan, my dude, you were just surrounded by hungry fucking wolves in the middle of nowhere.  This is the most basic and natural thing to be pants-pissingly terrified of in the entirety of human history.

Once they get to the castle, Coachman Wolf-Wizard vanishes, and nobody seems ready to open the door, so Jonathan’s just like, “Guess I’ll stand here until dawn, then! :)”

Dracula’s like “Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own will!” which is some serial killer wolf-wizard nonsense.

Jonathan: Let me now describe to you the physical aspect of Count Dracula.  He looks like a fucking vampire.

Jonathan’s Boss’s Letter: It’s such! a! shame! that I can’t come all the way out to Transylvania to get eaten by a werewolf.  Gout.  Such a bad attack of gout.  Stars not right.  Can’t make the journey.  Jonathan, on the other hand, is absolutely delighted to get the absolute hell bitten out of him and probably go mad.  You can trust him not to question anything, up to and including wolf-wizardry or all the peasants telling him you’re a murderous corpse.  XOXO, Mr. Hawkins

Jonathan: My boss said something complimentary about me! :D!