#she is subjected to a lot of it but it is also not something she wants to subject another person to like you are doing what Jimmy does and

[yurrrsssss-ghoul]

I keep thinking about that one little detail that was never mentioned ever again— which being Tim had a history of exploding League's bases all over the globe, and I don't mean it like 'Tim Drake is so cool that he had a very high body count but was nonchalant about it', but more of a 'Did they ever inform Damian that his big brother technically killed a lot of people from his childhood?' way.

Like, imagine one day, all of the sudden people that you've known your whole life suddenly went no-contact. The very few soldiers that once scatter across Gotham, tasked to either carry out your grandfather's bidding or your mother's in bringing about peace of the world through radical means or just to watch over you suddenly cease to exist.

You weren't supposed to notice, but you did.

At first, it doesn't bother you— not by much, of course— they're busy people, after all. So you give it a benefit of the doubt and wait.

And wait.

And eventually you start growing suspicious.

Because it's not just the soldiers nor the people who are actively going down the field that went AWOL, but it's also the chefs, the gardeners, the doctors, your trainers and teachers, even your disciples that went quiet.

You couldn't reach your mother and inquire about it, as she's also out of reach. You can't ask your father nor any of your many siblings since it feels like a sensitive subject for them, plus it's not like they'd know any better than you.

So, you wait.

And continue waiting.

Until one day, you found out that they're all dead. One day, something compelled you to go through old reports on everyone's mission, and you found out that your older brother (who was supposed to be the perfect Robin, the ideal Robin, someone you should aspire to be, someone that you fought tooth and nail for to get his approval) had override each and every safety control installed on the computers' database the League's bases are equipped with, causing it to detonate, killing almost millions in the process.

But no one told you.

No one informed you how there's probably mass graves of people that you once knew, that there was no one to mourn for them and that you weren't even supposed to find out about it. No one told you how people you knew are nothing but ruins, or that there wasn't even a site to visit them to speak of.

You weren't supposed to find out, but you did anyway.

[nhl-stories]

Head Spinning – Miles Wood

Summary: Even after a gut-wrenching break up, you're finding difficult to extricate yourself from Miles life.

Author’s Note: Definite adult content further in so fair warning. Also sort-of a kidfic if that's not your thing.

Word Count: 2.1k

13 going on 30 is playing on the TV because you’re determined to teach Mikayla about the importance of an early aughts romcom. 

Neither of you are really paying attention, the focus on the puzzle on the coffee table. Though you’re realizing the fruit puzzle is looking a bit more vaginal when the image is blown up like this.

“Your big 13th is coming up, any party plans?” you slot in the last piece of an especially sexual-looking grapefruit.

“Dad says I might get to have a boy-girl party.”

You snort before you can stop yourself.

“And maybe dad will be on a road trip and you can chaperone,” she doesn’t even try to use her puppy eyes, because she knows it’s a pipe dream.

“That’s not gonna happen.”

You have no reason to, but you feel like doing Miles a bit of a solid. Or maybe it’s just you trying to preserve Mikayla’s youth a little longer.

“You have plenty of years to hang out with boys, and even then, it’s pretty overrated. I say have a slumber party with endless amounts of pizza and sugar.”

“Will you come over for cake and presents?”

“You’ll have to ask your dad.”

“But it’s my birthday.”

“I know, but I think your Dad and I need to set up new boundaries. And that means not being at so many family things.”

“You’re basically my mom.”

“Well, I’m not your mom,” you feel yourself snap a little without meaning to, it’s a bit of a sore subject.

You take a breath and calm down, “your dad made it clear I’m not and I need to respect that.”

Mikayla has a lot to say on that subject.

“But babysitting me or going to parent-teacher conferences is okay not-mom stuff?”

“I guess,” you shrug. “You sometimes need an adult when your dad is away.”

You don’t really know how to explain it yourself. But you don’t feel like breaking open that box, so you take the easy way out and find some levity.

 “I think it’s more like I can’t buy you bras anymore.”

“Gross, I’m never going bra shopping with dad.”

You giggle at the thought of Miles pacing the edge of the bra section of a Target, refusing to look in his daughter’s direction.

The conversation dies down and you both look up at the movie when “Ice Ice Baby” starts playing. And just like a dad, Miles walks in right when the man takes off his pants.

“What the hell are you watching?”

“13 going on 30,” you both say without looking towards him.

He stays standing behind the couch to watch, also a classic dad move.

“Why are you in your pajamas,” Miles finally moves to sit on the couch, ruffling Mikayla’s hair as he sits behind her.

“I didn’t think you were coming home tonight,” you shrug.

“What?”

“You’ve been seeing this woman for a bit, I just thought, you know…”

“We thought you’d be getting laid tonight,” Mikayla butts in, and Miles looks a bit scandalized.

“I didn’t tell her that,” you feel the need to defend yourself.

“I’m a middle schooler with the last name Wood, I know what sex is.”

You have to hold back a laugh, the tween has always lacked a filter. The older she gets the more the results shock Miles. 

You’re sure gray hairs will be popping up soon.

“Okay, I think it’s time for you to go to bed,” Miles says.

She makes a face and opens her mouth, something snarky surely on the tip of her tongue. 

You give her warning eyes and shake your head. She groans and gets up to go to bed.

“Wait,” you hold open your arms, “good night hug.”

She rolls her eyes but comes to hug you anyway, still sweet underneath the budding teenage angst.

Miles grabs her before she can pass, squeezing her tight and kissing her temple.

Then the awkward silence sets in. You wiggle your toes into the soft rug, the one you picked out after the cross-country move. 

“You don’t talk to her about that, right?”

“No,” you dig in your heels, notice the chip in your second toe’s nail polish.

You think someone should probably start talking to her about those kinds of things, and you know Miles won’t be the one to do it. But that’s not really your business anymore.

“But she’s not stupid and she’s the result of a teen pregnancy, she probably knows more than you’d like.”

Miles grimaces.

“But I do think I laid some groundwork for a slumber party over a boy-girl party so really you should be thanking me.”

Some tension leaks out of his shoulders, “I’m not ready for her to be going to parties with boys.”

“Boys are gross, I try to make that clear to her,” you smile and bump Miles shoulder.

“Thanks for looking after her,” he smiles, his teeth are in which is weirdly jarring, “We’ll see you around, I guess?”

“You trying to kick me out? No way, I’m already in my PJs, my night routine is done. I’m spending the night and you’re making breakfast in the morning.”

Miles stares you down.

“This wouldn’t have been a problem if you had gotten laid.”

“How do you know I didn’t get laid?”

“You like to cuddle too much to have left afterwards,” you hate that this all feels like picking up a well-loved book: familiar, comfortable.

You don’t mean to add on, you don’t want to know, “especially if you like this woman.”

Still, you dare to look at him. His face doesn’t give much away.

“She’s nice, still early days.” 

He’s acting nonchalant but you can tell he’s uncomfortable. Something stiff in place of his usual easy-going vibes. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t want to talk about this with you.

You’re not sure if you want to dig your claws in and find more answers, or too afraid they’ll be the ones you hate.

“How’s your dating life going?” He throws out casually.

And if there’s any avenue of conversation you definitely don’t want to get into, it’s your own non-existent dating life. 

Miles had ripped your heart out on a random October afternoon. And you’ve been too busy rebuilding a life on your own, you haven’t even thought about dating. Miles doesn’t seem to have the same problem bouncing back.

“Do you really want to know about that?” You arch a brow, so it sounds like a challenge, hoping he can’t see through the mask. 

He shrugs, “You seem pretty confident about the number of dates to sex ratio, maybe I want to know if that’s from personal experience.”

His mischievous grin feels like hot knife cutting through your guts. So, you do something impulsive and dumb. 

Swinging a leg over his lap and kissing him before you can think twice. He doesn’t kiss back right away and you’re worried you’ve miscalculated this. But then he starts to kiss back, you find a rhythm even if it’s weird with his teeth in. 

Miles grabs your hips and pushes you back a bit. 

You have to scramble to say something before he says this is a bad idea; lets you down easy and you have to slither away to smother yourself with his guest room pillows. 

“Let’s just agree we’re both a little hard up and this doesn’t have to mean anything.”

He certainly has no argument when he lifts you up and starts to carry you towards the stairs.

“No, guest room, Mik will probably hear us in your room,” you squeeze your thighs against him and he changes course.

He tosses you onto the guest bed, crawling on top of you and kissing you again. 

You push his shoulders back so you can look at him, “take the stupid teeth out.”

Miles laughs and pops out the bridge. It’s kind of gross seeing him set them on the bedside table, a long trail of spit pulling until it finally snaps. 

It doesn’t really faze you once your tongue traces that familiar gap. In fact, the thing that once was new and a bit disturbing is now putting your body into overdrive. 

You’d describe it like riding a bike, how easy it is to remove each others clothes, how Miles knows the exact spots to kiss to make you gasp, how you know the best moment to take control and flip Miles onto his back. 

Familiar intimacy that’s hard to forget.

You spit on your hand and reach behind you, stroking Miles from half to full hardness. When you rub your thumb over the head, he lets out a deep groan that you know means he’s starting to tilt towards his orgasm. 

When you look down at his blissed out face lying against the deep green sheets the ones that contrast so much from the light crisp blue ones in the main bedroom, you’re reminded how long it’s actually been. 

Maybe you should ask if you need to grab a condom, the thought makes you a little lightheaded.

Miles grip on your hips tightens, like you actually froze while stuck in thought, or maybe the lifting motion he’s making just means he wants you to get on with it. 

So you lift yourself higher and move him until you can slide down in one smooth motion. You let a high-pitched squeak slip out at the sudden pressure and fullness. 

But you quickly adjust and start working yourself up and down. Miles hands start to roam up your body, cupping your breast and thumbing at your nipples. 

Your thighs start to burn faster than they used to, but you try to keep up the pace. It’s a losing battle, even if the crest of your orgasm is so close you can taste it. 

Miles seems to read that your legs are losing steam, a few months isn’t long enough to stop innately knowing everything about a person. He flips you both over and thrusts hard enough to hit that deep spot just so. You have to clamp a hand over your mouth to stop yourself from moaning obnoxiously loud. 

He keeps up the pace and you edge closer and closer. He moves your hand and kisses you and it’s so all-consuming you just let go. Clamping down so tight, Miles topples over the edge too. You release into the floaty, loose-limbed bliss.

You don’t even care when Miles practically rag dolls on top of you; just let the afterglow settle until he softens enough to slip out and you become all too aware of the nauseating oozing feeling. 

After a quick clean up in the bathroom you’re not surprised to see Miles has made himself comfortable, probably in a near coma sleep. Typical.

You crawl into the bed, too aware that it’s on your usual side of the bed. You don’t have a side of the bed at your apartment now. Even in his deep sleep Miles is drawn to the new heat source, burrowing into your side. You’ll relish in it even if it makes your heart ache a little. 

Everything is so familiar, but it will never be the same again.

You wake up the next morning in the middle of the bed, alone. It’s what you should have expected. You feel like you should be over it, or at least on some trajectory to moving on, but it’s hard to stop loving someone cold turkey.

Making your way into the kitchen, Miles is already brewing coffee and stirring waffle batter. He gives you a toothless grin as you sit at the kitchen table. 

He pours you a cup of coffee, puts in just the right amount of almond milk. You can’t help but smile back over the lip of the mug. These are the moment you loved so much, that you imagined having for the rest of your life. 

You can give yourself the right to soak this in, enjoy it while you can.

Mikayla comes downstairs, looking mostly awake, “Ooh dad’s making waffles? Did he lose a bet?”

“I don’t have to lose a bet to make breakfast for my favorite girls,” he says it with some conviction, like it’s the truth, full stop.

Mikayla looks between the two of you, a scrutinizing kind of look that a teenage girl masters. Her gaze stays on you for a moment longer, like she definitely figured something out. 

“Whatever, keep your secrets. Do we have any of those Trader Joe’s hash browns?” 

Mikayla looks at you one more time before going to the freezer. Even if she knows something she doesn’t want to say it out loud. She’s gonna soak up this one morning, just in case it’s actually the last.

[miyamiwu]

To Be Hero X: Supporting Characters’ Names in Chinese and English + Chinese Name Meanings

As mentioned in the Top 10 Heroes version of this post, here’s a names meaning post for the supporting characters.

Characters are sorted by order of appearance, and names are listed in this order: English, Chinese, Pinyin, and Nickname/CN Abbreviation.

(The last two are just for my own reference. And ignore the colors in the text. That’s also just for my ref)

Post will be updated as new supporting characters are introduced.

Lin Ling’s Arc

1. Miss J / 娟姐 / Juān Jiě / JJ

I really didn’t want to abbreviate her as JJ because of Yuri on Ice, but since Ice Ado movie is cancelled then whatever

Juān 娟 means beautiful/graceful, while jiě 姐 is a honorific that means “elder sister.” But jie can also be used to address older women in the same generation or in a generation close to you, so the translation of “miss” in English is apt.

2. Moon / 潇月卿 / Xiāo Yuè Qīng / Yue-jiejie / YJJ

As compensation for me fangirling over her murderer, I will call her my jiejie 🙏

Dictionary definitions of each character in her name:

潇 (xiāo) = (of water) deep and clear; (of wind and rain) howling and pounding; (of light rain) pattering

月 (yuè) = moon

卿 (qīng) = high ranking official (old); term of endearment between spouses (old); (from the Tang Dynasty onwards) term used by the emperor for his subjects (old);

The association of xiao with water, the word for moon, plus qing being both a term of endearment between old couples and one used to address someone of high status. Something something about Xiao Yueqing being put on a pedestal and also the fact that she is now Lin Ling’s white moonlight:

The Chinese slang white moonlight (白月光 , bái yuèguāng) typically refers to someone or something that remains unattainable yet deeply cherished in one’s heart. It represents a love that lingers—idealized, untouchable, and forever out of reach. While often translated as a “first love,” it specifically describes a love that was never fully realized or reciprocated.

3. The Enlighter / 启士 / Qǐ Shì / QS

Qǐ 启 means “to enlighten/awaken,” and Shì 士 is a suffix used to denote someone as an expert in something. Thus, Enlightener Enlighter.

The correct word is Enlightener, not Enlighter 💀. Li Haoling, I beg you, stay in your lane and leave the localization to the experts 😭

3.2 God Eye / 天眼 / Tiān Yǎn / GE

Tiān 天 translates to “heaven” or “sky,” but depending on context it can also stand for “god.” Yǎn 眼 means “eye.”

Imma call him by his English name since the translation is good enough. GE is also a much better abbreviation than TY, which can stand for “thank you.”

4. Wreck / 破坏王 / Pòhuài Wáng / W + 雷克 / Léi Kè

His Chinese name means “Destruction King,” and in Chinese it sounds like what one would call a very troublesome child. The Chinese fans hate it and refuse to call him by it 😂. In the Chinese fandom, some just call him Wreck (written in English) or by its transliteration 雷克 (Léi Kè), which can mean “Thunder Conqueror.” And honestly, that sounds a whole lot cooler than Destruction King 😭. 雷 is also internet slang for “terrifying,” apparently… Yeah, that really is cooler 😭😭😭

Once again, Li Haoling, please stay in your lane

5. Firm Man / 英雄不倒 / Yīngxióng Bù Dǎo / BD

I initially thought Yīngxióng 英雄 was just a title they add on to a hero’s name since it just means Hero, and in-universe there’s an ad that addresses Nice as Yingxiong Nice. But in the case of Bu Dao, I guess it really is part of his hero name since nobody calls him by just Bu Dao.

Bù 不 is a negator, and Dǎo 倒 is “to fall.” Direct translation of his name would then be something like Never Falling Hero, Infallible Hero, etc.

Firm Man is such a terrible translation 💀

6. Wolf Girl / 蛊狼 / Gǔ Láng / GL

Gǔ 蛊 refers to a type of poison that is used to bewitch someone and can be controlled from afar. This choice of character is then very fitting for Gu Lang, since her powers work by changing the public’s perception of Bu Dao without directly confronting him.

Láng 狼 means wolf. Altogether, her name can be translated as Poison Wolf. Some have translated it to Mad Wolf, since Gu can also mean “to drive someone to insanity.” Personally, I prefer Bewitching Wolf or just Wolf Witch.

See now how “Wolf Girl” is an injustice to her actual hero name?

7. Mr. Shand / 尚总 / Shàng Zǒng / SZ

(will update his image with a 3D one once we actually see his face in 3D)

Shàng 尚 is just a common Chinese surname, but here are some of its dictionary definitions: still / yet / to value / to esteem.

Zǒng 总 is a honorific for your superior in work. I’ve often seen it translated as “chief.” So, Chief Zong

Idk why the team decided to change the g in Shang to d. Shang sounds much better than Shand, and English viewers shouldn’t find it so hard to accept since there was a guy named Shang in Mulan...

8. Blankster / 忘仔 / Wàng Zǎi / WZ

Wàng 忘 means “to forget,” while Zǎi 仔 means “child.” I guess the zai is there because WZ has been a hero since he was young.

And that’s all for Lin Ling’s arc! Will add side charas from future arcs as they appear...

If there are any errors, just tell me and I’ll correct them.

[hollowed-theory-hall]

Hi, I really like reading your takes on the Harry Potter books. I think they're fresh, logical and open-minded. So, I wanted to know your thoughts on Hermione's career.

Rowling says that she became minister for magic, while I like the idea, I find it difficult in execution. Like, it's common knowledge that politicians need to be charismatic, people smart and influential. And none of those traits apply to Hermione. I'm not saying that she isn't smart. I'm saying, her personality isn't suitable for a political career. I don't see her accomplishing anything in that field.

While recruiting for the DA, it's Harry's influence that brings people in. Sure, she did the heavy lifting with the list and coins, but she wouldn't have been able to convince anyone to join on her own. She tries and fails with SPEW.

I think she's more suited as a researcher or a journalist.

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe she changed a lot after the war but I just don't see it. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Thank you! 💕

Kind of talked about this here.

Hermione is really good at organizing things. She really shines when she needs to get people together, prepare a plan, research information, and organize said information. She would be brilliant in managing an office or department, but I don't think she'll be great as a politician.

Because you are right, it was Harry, the D.A. joined for, not Hermione. Later in DH, Harry was the symbol everyone followed and rallied behind, not Hermione. And a politician needs to be charismatic and learn to work with the WW's crapy system. Systems don't change overnight, and you need to understand the ministry to change it. Hermione, while very patient when researching a subject, she isn't very patient when it comes to getting things done or with people she considers not as smart as her. (Ron is the only people-person in the Golden Trio)

I think Hermione would work well in various roles in the ministry, I just don't think being the minister is one of them. I think she'd cause a lot of tension, and that it's the kind of position that would make her worse rather than something she would enjoy long-term. Becouse she'd start passionate and idealistic, and the ministry is going to grind her down, and when that happens, Hermione would swing back even more aggressively and create more opposition for herself to deal with. She'd enjoy researching for the ministry, but I think she'd find the actual politics part of it, trying, frustrating and she'd feel like she's constantly scrambling.

Hermione isn't a good liar, nor is she good at thinking of things on the spot under pressure. If some other politician presses her enough to stress her, she might freeze up and forget half her planned bullet points. She can also be more hesitant than you'd want to be in some situations as a minister — she can be very cautious and self-doubting when it comes to more risky, bigger plans (as seen repeatedly in DH). She struggles to say "I planned enough, let's do this," and often needs that push.

So, yeah, I don't think Hermione is minister material, but I think she could manage certain offices and departments in the ministry (that are more research-heavy) if the right people are working around her (which she would be able to control, so, yeah).

I think Hermione would be a brilliant journalist, actually. She would do all the legwork for research, she eavesdrops on conversations and likes being in the know (she is very nosy), she's very articulate and well-spoken — yeah, I back this. I think Hermione could have a blast being a journalist. It would also allow her to shed light on injustices and systemic issues in their world. It's one of the better headcanons for a profession for Hermione I've seen.

[lume-ish]

another little lore drop thing but this time about Hotel OJ's first 2 tennants. Test tube and Fan!

Test tube and Fan met during College, and have been inseparable ever since.

Test Tube's has a dual major in Biochemistry and engineering, post-college she got hired at her dream work place but for reasons unknown to Fan, she suddenly quit one day; then the 2 moved into Hotel OJ.

Fan's asked a couple times about what happened but each time Test Tube has skipped around the subject. For now Fan's chosen to leave it be and hope that when she's ready she'll tell him.

Currently, Test tube is working at a nearby Gas Station, she rides her bike there and back.

Fan has a major in Film with a minor in Programming. He struggled to find a job a job in the film industry after graduating and instead started freelance programming while occasionally posting on his blog/vlog about aliens and the extra terrestrial. He's kind of a conspiracy blogger/vlogger.

That means he stays at the Apartment a lot so he sort of gets to know Paper and OJ, not a whole lot considering he spends most of his time at his laptop, coffee in hand. But he's talked to Paper about birds on the one occasion they ran into eachother.

After a couple months of living at the Hotel. The 2 realize, theres something quite strange about the place. Strange power outages, even stranger dreams, weird lights, waking up to a loud wailing noise only to find nothing. Fan decides to begin his little investigation, and after realizing he's bit out of his field, he includes Test tube and the 2 have funny little shenangans. and OJ and paper are there sometimes too. They have their own story/arc but it would intertwine.

In this au I imagine the 2 started dating in college and have been dating since. Thats bout it.

ok but in college Lightbulb was roommates with Testtube and Fan was roommates with Cheesy(Cheesys a door to door salesman now). They keep in touch with the occasional call, but otherwise haven't really seen each other since graduation.

Also during college I imagine Testtube and Fan when they had time would go "Alien hunting" "like ghost hunting, except not fake" -Testube, cause neither of them believe in ghosts but they do both believe in aliens. They were also really into unsolved murder/crime documentary stuff and would binge those while studying. But then school got busy and they kind of forgot about it.

[ceratedfish24]

Knowing that most wildcards if not all were made in a week between the sessions, it feels like a much bigger task than sorting through viewer suggestions and making them up from scratch, tho I can't know for sure.

Yeah, the difficulty of the tasks varied a lot, but it kinda didn't bother me too much, because then they could be done with the task and do their own thing. I did love Pearl's task of getting hearts from people, but I'm a Shadowmoon shipper and the moment it created has been ingrained in my heart.

From Etho's episode I mainly remember the part where he washes himself away, so that he doesn't actually move, but moves. I'm a Doctor Who fan and I loved the reference, but yeah, quite limiting, especially with how they have to travel some time between bases and you can't know if someone is spying on you from afar.

Hm, you could say keeping it a secret is like if everyone was a boogeyman or well, playing a game of mafia. I do remember that a few times others were able to guess the task, but if they wanted to help the person, they played a game of crocodile, not being able to say anything outright, just imply.

To me a lot of tasks felt opposingly team uniting. With how Bdubs task started the whole Mounder thing. And then Joel's task (the cult one) brought Mounders even closer in a way, pft. And sometimes guessing the task incorrectly spawned an event, like almost the entire server hanging out at Pearl's mound base. Also Pearl helping Bdubs and Mumbo with their tasks (dragon, cursed tower). So yeah, I love Matchbox and Mailbox.

Out of context, but i remember people (CCs as their characters and the fans) were saying that Mounders aren't loyal and will fall apart or something. And in the end, Mumbo started to act as a red and tried to kill his teammates a few times, but they still accepted him. You can tell I love Mounders, tho all the other teams were great. The dog boys had such a fun dynamic, them often going to talk to BigB or Scar and having silly interactions together. To me the Bamboozlers flow so well from Secret Life: the winner, the unlucky and the loser /affectionate, they're definitely my favorite team that happened in Wild Life. Pearl and Mumbo would have fitted in with them too, all a little bit pathetic.

I agree with the love island team point? They are such a fun team up and there could have been more. Definitely the fact that BigB started as a loner because of his task and leaned into the backrooms creature vibe made it seem like he had to play two different characters at a time? Perhaps, that is not what you're talking about, but people were suspicious that BigB won't stay loyal and is more by himself, but they trusted each other. I don't fully remember the moment, but I think Skizz made someone think that he believes that BigB is a traitor, but then turned on them instead. Or this is memories connecting wrong bits. I don't joke about having troubles rewatching stuff, even when I love it.

Oh, yeah. Mine is all subjective and personal heaven, which I know is flawed, but I see the good and the bad bits and enjoy it as a whole, like you are with Wild Life. I am not a Third Life lover 😔 It's good, but if I'm ranking it, it will go to the bottom (all cause Pearl wasn't in it /hj)

Yes! It all felt like wacky cartoon episodes, which to me is a high praise, as I love Adventure Time and other episodic shows with an overarching plot. Again with my hyperfixation, Pearl died a lot, she literally had the first death on the server (i am replying as I am reading or else I'll forget my thoughts, but you mentioned it and we kinda divided on it? I agree, but also I can excuse it. It's brutal and unfair, but it did help others avoid the same fate. This is also a point in the: I think they should have given themselves more time to test the wildcards, because it feels like a thing you could fix, if found). But it was all because of a part of a mechanic of a wildcard that has not been found out before, which she immediately shares with her teammates. The opportunity to play around and find a way to work the wildcard in your favor or at least to not die from it is amazing. It just felt dissapointing, when people were trying out ways to have an advantage over snails in a way and got punshed for persisting and being curious (the inconsistency of when the snail jumps in your face. I know it's like 3 blocks but some were closer or farther, and with Pearl's second death potentially being caused by Aussie ping). I understand that if there was a way to battle snails completely, everyone would have gotten rid of them in the first hour and there is no more wildcard. But the whole point of an immortal snail is that you get some advantage (money in the original case) and you can figure out things to feel at least somewhat safer.

I would have said that making each snail have their own thing to slow them down/make them stop for a moment and have some cool down for that effect is too much, but they made a whole superpower wildcard so.. It's different but something lesser, like being able to feed them a certain somewhat rare item to slow them could be cool? Idk if the range could allows it, but if you can click on snail with an item (like feeding a dog a steak) and not get it jump on your face immediately. There is a possibility of no one even figuring that out especially if the items are too rare, but at least there would have been something? For Bdubs to feed his snail a clock and make it slower or stop for a certain amount of time with a cooldown (you would have a moment to breath, but you might also forget about it, so it's still a risk). I just feel like they are smart enough to flesh it out more, and I never fully understood why they put such a harsh time limit on themselves. They were most likely concepting wildcards for longer, but when you actually get the moving snail and test it out, you might have to fix some issues and if it's too close to deadline, you'll just have to give up on a good idea.

I know that if you are creating a big time sinking project, you have to organize and pay every person who is involved in the creation, so extending the time frame or the complexity, would have upped the cost significantly. I read some comment about how they could have made a whole series out of each of the wildcard, and I am on the side that having a new thing each week is a cool concept. The only part I do agree is the superhero wildcard. I just think a superhero life series (or maybe a sibling series) could be genuinely fun. Am a sucker for AUs.

Snails were very cute and funny, but they were undeniably too much. They had to stop the session earlier and all the CCs were exhausted by the end of it. You can see how the death count skyrockets because of snail, and the balancing by giving players 6 lives worked out i guess, but them ending early means if it wasn't stopped, there could have been even more deaths or even a first person to get out of the series in session 3(4?).

And final deaths are supposed to be at least somewhat tragic or emotional (in a funny or sad way). Skizz's and Mumbo's final deaths were cool, but Gem, Impulse, BibB, Scar died in a less fair(?) way. And Grian knows how important it can be to get out of a series in a satisfying end, Jimmy and Lizzie dying was sad, but epic and he helped to achieve that.

Okay, that's a fair point. I was afraid of getting into life series, because it felt like there were so many people and all had their own unique storyline. To me, I just accepted that I will get information about their videos secondhand, and if it intrigues me, I would go and watch the episode myself. I am happy that it was enjoyable for you and easier to engage with.

Big groups feel clanky to me in a way that everybody is trying to help the team, but when you have to listen to so many people at once, it becomes either a corporate meeting or a hangout at the loud bar. I do understand the appeal of a bigger group interacting, but I always feel like a lot more people get talked over and if there is no enemy, there is no conflict and there is no one to fight? A lot of times people were trying to mention who they were enemies with and it consisted of "hmh, we are kinda okay with them, and them too, and them". To which, Secret life didn't have that much outright betrayal or enemies, it was kinda more sitcom-ey. There were a lot of rivals, not enemies. In wild life it feels like there are almost no evemies and no rivals. Even bringing up the Impossible Minecraft, it's a smaller series, but there is a collaborative process, so big groups are encouraged, because there is no competition (the winners and placements don't actually mean much in the same way as MCC or similar stuff does obviously. It's all more about people creating a narrative and a story).

I do think Scar is a pretty good player, just unlucky at times. He did win by his own strength in Secret Life and got to the end in Third Life (while being the first one to go down to red and so early), he and Grian also being the 4th(?) soulmates to die and it was Grian who died, I'm pretty sure. You might not be implying that, I just dislike when people kinda dismiss his achievements.

I also enjoyed the Gs. The only thing I have a beef is that Tango was hanging around them at the start and I was so hoping for him to join them, tho the Tuff guys is also cool. I do find it funny how Gem and Pearl exchanged teammates from last time.

This all is a toll on anyone and when you have to organize and also be involved in the project, where your friends's income partially depends on you and you have to try to cater to them and to the viewers all at once. And well, when you see your friend so exhausted and trying so much to make you enjoy the series, I think it would feel brutal to complain about anything. They're friends and I don't know how they interact behind the scenes, but I would never want to upset my friend over something like that. Of course, if someone didn't vocalize their concerns, it's partially on them for doing so, but it's understandable. There is a part of me that wants Grian to delve more into different series, and with Impossible Minecraft, it seems like something he had in mind? Fans like to find parallels and will always compare previous seasons, so anything new will be met with a bigger criticism. Impossible Minecraft didn't capture everyone's attention, but I still feel it got good reviews and players seem to enjoy it. There is a difference that even through you can analyze CCs as characters, it is definitely much less roleplay and more survival. Not everyone found it appealing, but people also weren't compelled to compare it to life series, because it is distinctly different and we got both traffic and it. If Grian makes more of completely different series with no overarching expectations or limitations, it could be cool. Some people might be angry that they have to wait for a new life series season longer because of it, but it's not like we were ever really promised it and even if we were, he can decide to not go forth with it, if he wants to, it is his project. Idk if all my blank suggestions or ideas are out of place, but I very much love all the CCs and wouldn't want for any of them to get burned out and not participate in the life series or other projects.

I completely understand and agree with your whole last paragraph. Mine is similar, just replace Wild Life with Secret life. And I still enjoyed a lot of Wild Life, and I do have my own criticism of the Secret Life. I do understand people voicing and sharing their complaints, and not all should be like, thought out essay. Sometimes you watch a movie and find it meh, but can't put it into words. People not wanting to give Wild Life or any season a chance for whatever personal reason is understandable. Grian and others are still content creators and have to take into account a criticism of a casual viewer, which most of their viewers consist of I would think. But that's kinda why still discussing those things in the fandom is important. How would Grian know what we want to see, if he can only see the passerby viewer say "meh, not the same" and nothing else. Being afraid to hurt the CC can lead to it either way, when fans lose the interest and stop watching at all. It's not that Wild Life was horrible, it's that a lot of fans felt unheard. I assume that when you are making content for a long time, it can become stale and samey and you might lose confidence of if your content is actually good or not. They became CCs, because they wanted to share something that people would love, so hearing back is useful. When you start to see anycritisism as hate, it makes fans not want to share their thoughts and CCa are left one on one with angry/indifferent redditors (idk how bad reddit is, never used it besides googling weird things).

Idk where Grian saw that fans didn't want for him and Scar to team up, most fans love their dynamic. I do know some were complaining about the sameness of the teams, like the 3Gs. But some simply called 3G toxic, which is not completely untrue and doesn't mean they disliked the team? They have a very complicated history and that's the fun part of them trying to rebuild this. It's unrealistic for them to just forget everything and forgive. You can say that you forgive, but that doesn't automatically rewrite how you feel about it. There was a great episode in Amphibia that ended with the main character Anne forgiving a side character Hop Pop, but in the next episode Anne and Hop Pop are being weird and it escalates into a fight. There were still things unsaid and Anne just bottled everything up to try to move away from the situation, they needed more talk and more time to truly understand and forgive. I know that I reference a scripted cartoon show and Life Series is not a scripted play, but it is a roleplay for a lot of CCs, and dnd shows how improvisation can create great narrativess. It wouldn't be a death series without all the drama and all the betrayals and complicated relationships.

I hope this ask won't get killed by Tumblr, idk what's the word limit and how it works in general. I also reread it just once, sorry for any inconsistencies. Thank you for your time!

Hey! Sorry that it took so long for me to respond, but this was a really long ask that I had to break down paragraph by paragraph, which isn’t a bother! It just means that it takes me a little longer to respond to.

The problem that I had with the tasks was when tasks were too hard or had players do something consistently throughout the episode that didn’t really make their episode much more interesting. For example, I loved the concept of Etho’s weeping angel task. I’m also a Doctor Who fan! It’s just, yeah. It was difficult for him to enforce when in an open space. If the tasks were consistently like that, then I wouldn’t care as much, but it felt unfair for some people to be able to progress with more freedom than others. It wasn’t that big of an issue, of course. It’s just a little pet peeve.

As a com sci major, oh my gosh I can only imagine how difficult it must have been to program all of those wild card in such a short amount of time, especially the ones that were only decided upon in response to episodes (I believe the quiz bot was originally a scrapped wild card but was then brought back to the workshop last minute in response to players’ performances, but I may be misremembering).

I totally recognize that players still found ways to help each other, I just wish out of preference that there was a way for them to have been a little freer with their firm factions. I know that such a rule would be difficult to make concrete decisions on, but I know that Impulse felt disappointed that he didn’t get much of a chance to get to know Scott as a teammate. I don’t think that it was a bad decision. After all, it is called Secret Life. I just wish I could’ve seen certain teams loosen up a little more around each other. You raise a good point about the Mounders, though! They were a really great team. It’s just a shame that other teams weren’t able to communicate with each other as subtly yet effectively as the Mounders. Honestly, I’m not sure why people insist that a team will fall apart before that team shows signs of falling apart. Each season is a fresh start. While there may be history, each person still chooses whether or not to let that go.

God, someone PLEASE make BigB the leader of a big team. I need to observe his behavior in such a role. It's for science.

Third Life isn't at the top of my list either! There's definitely parts of it that I loved, but there were also parts that I was personally frustrated with. It’s not anyone’s fault at all. It’s just a matter of preference. It also totally gets a pardon due to it being the first ever season, but that doesn’t necessarily win it more points in my heart.

Pearl’s first death, I totally excuse it too. I didn’t mean to come off as if I disagree with the decision to keep it in. It’s a game mechanic and all. It just felt like such an unlucky “first to find out” situation, but that's part of the game. As for the snails, Grian didn’t intend for this to be an easy wild card. He expected more player deaths than normal, though he did say that there were still more than he expected. However, he also said that he had a moment where he considered using the Quizbot to gift back lives and decided not to. He wanted players to really feel the cost of each life. It’s a decision that he’s very firm about, and I respect that. I will say that the players who died significantly more than other players had a lot of deaths that were simply careless. There were of course many deaths that were the cost of an experiment or were just so terribly unfortunate (double Bdubs death), but I think a lot of deaths were from not keeping an eye on their snail (Scar gets a pass because his snail was literally turned invisible by other players). Here’s the thing. The problem that many players experimenting with the snails had was that they were experimenting with their own snail. Jimmy is a great example of someone who did NOT experiment with his own snail very much, despite his crazy number of deaths. Most of Jimmy’s snail experiments were done on other people’s snails, and he learned a lot from testing on them. In other words, there were ways to test on the snails that were much less risky, especially if you have a friend helping you.

The feeding the snails to slow them down is a really cool idea! I just don’t know if it would be worth the risk of getting close to your snail nor do I think that the players would have figured out that they could feed their snails, especially if the required items are player specific. I think that it would be a really really cool concept for a longer series or just snails, but it doesn’t work well for only one episode. Grian could’ve told people, of course, but Grian was already telling people quite a bit about the snails and he evidently would have trouble remembering what each snail eats (he couldn’t remember assigned superpowers even though not even everyone had an assigned superpower. I don’t blame him, though. I can’t remember people’s names ten minutes after meeting them, and I can’t throw stones in glass houses).

I would TOTALLY be down for a whole season of superpowers. I thought the superpowers were so so so cool. I do find it weird that someone commented that they could make a whole season out of each wild card when so many people said that the wild cards were boring. I don’t think that would go well in terms of viewership.

I understand finding the snails to be too much, but every creator we know of said that the snails were fun, even if they were stressful. After the snail episode, Grian very urgently checked in with everyone more so than usual, and, according to Impulse, Grian, Martyn, and Skizz, everyone found the snail episode to be a lot of fun. I don’t think that the snails were too much, because everyone had fun and got a great episode out of it. Additionally, due to how long the season surprisingly ended up being, I worry that trying to make the wild cards safer might have resulted in a longer season than the cast was hoping. They typically try to keep the seasons to 8-9 episodes, and Wild Life hit that quota despite the number of people saying that it would definitely be the shortest season ever (which is a little strange considering Double Life was only 6 episodes long, and I doubt that Wild Life ever even looked like it would only be 5 episodes long what with so many people having all of their 6 lives for so long). All in all, I don’t think that the players minded a shorter session when they all got an exciting normal length episode.

I absolutely understand being disappointed in some of the final deaths, but that’s not really a concept that’s new to Wild Life. I mean, while Grian’s final death in Limited Life was thematically cool, it would’ve been pretty anti-climactic without Jimmy’s death. It’s something that happens, and I’ve made my peace with that, especially with how exciting everyone’s life was to me. Of course, I understand that all of that is a matter of personal preference.

I’m glad that you understand my perspective on having an easier time staying caught up. I’ve been watching Minecraft YouTubers for a long time, and I was a big fan of particular big groups. I’m pretty used to hearing them talk over each other and didn’t really think about how that was absolutely a matter of personal history of enjoying hearing 6-10 people in the same call all of the time. I’m sorry to hear that it was more frustrating for you, and I totally understand feeling like there was less content in Wild Life and that the content that was available felt socially clunkier. I hope the next seasons are more your taste!! I got my fair share of what I wanted :)

I understand what you mean about feeling like there were no enemies, but I interpreted that as feeling as though there was no specific enemy (other than everyone vs the family) because most teams had wronged people pretty equally. There was definitely enemies and rivalries, they were just more player specific than team specific, which I understand is unusual for the Life Series. Impulse vs Gem was a pretty big rivalry, as was, of course, Grian vs the Bamboozlers, particularly vs Scar. Mumbo vs Scott was a weirdly spawned in rivalry. I don’t know why Mumbo latched onto that so hard, but I respect him for committing to the bit like that. Another rivalry, which was mostly a result of miscommunication, was Scar vs the Tuff Guys. See, and this is the most insane looney toons incident in the series, Bdubs pretended to do something “tuff” to the Bamboozlers so that Tango and Etho would think he was tuff. Then, Etho actually did something “tuff” to the Bamboozlers, which Scar got payback for by burning down Tango’s base. Tango then got revenge by attacking ALL of the Bamboozlers’ parrots. In other words, I don’t really think that there were fewer enemies and rivalries. I think that the relationships between individual players were just insanely more convoluted. The only team vs team enemies who I can really think of were the Spanners vs the Gs. Grian really wanted to eliminate the try hards who were stronger in numbers (though, as Scott has said, larger groups don’t often do better in the Life Series). The whole thing was like watching a drama series. I really loved it, but I totally understand how it’s a lot more confusing compared to past seasons, where enemies are more straightforward and agreed upon within teams. The problem was that players were having a lot of personal beef with each other but then projecting that onto the other player’s whole team, who hadn’t been told about this beef and is then confused when told that something is wrong. The Gs and the Family were a little better at communicating between each other, but that didn’t mean that they always entirely agreed on how to deal with the issue. As for the storyline and collaboration points, I totally understand wanting that. I think I gave Wild Life a lot more grace, because every episode was like a first episode, where everyone is still helping each other navigate the new gimmick. That’s a part that I, personally, really enjoy about first episodes. This is much less a rebuttal against your point and more of a “this is how I understood it in the moment and a matter of my personal enjoyment, and I absolutely understand if it wasn’t for you”.

Oh I definitely agree that Scar’s a great player! I think he doesn’t really pick up on new situations as quickly, but, once he has it, he’s mastered it. He’s also just a generally skilled player. That man is INSANE in combat. Who taught him how to fight like that. It’s so strange when people say that Scar isn’t a “real” winner. Winners may statistically be more likely to rise from smaller teams, but that doesn’t mean that it’s easiest to get to the finale all by yourself, especially when you have as many enemies as Scar did that season.

I also love the Gs and the Tuff Guys, but GOD I understand what you mean. I’ve been dying for Tango to team up with new people, particularly Scott, for AGES. I want more Snowbugs content. Please, Mr. Smajor, PLEASE team up with different Hermits. I love every single one of Scott’s teams and dynamics, but I’m so eager to see him interact with people we don’t often get to see him hang out with.

I understand what you mean about not wanting to hurt your friends feelings, but Grian specifically requested criticism from each player after every session. There are of course so many ways to go about this situation, and no one way is necessarily the “correct” way to deal with it every time, but, if my friend was asking for criticism, I would want to help them feel as though they have improved their project as much as they are ready to. I’m not saying that I would complain or criticize or be harsh, but expressing an honest opinion about your own experience is so so so critical during game development. This is particularly critical in the Hermitcraft community when Hermits ask other Hermits for criticism. Grian in particular likes honest constructive criticism when he asks for it.

I absolutely agree about wanting to see a variety of series. While I understand that it doesn’t always do as well as their main content, I find it really exciting to see my favorite creators in new situations with different goals and expectations.

When I get upset about people sharing their complaints about Wild Life, I absolutely do not mean people who have real complaints about how the game operates or how it played out. Everyone is entitled to their preferences. What I mean is people who blatantly commented on Grian’s videos stuff like “Grian, these wild cards are boring” and “how is this an episode” or tweeted at him about how they hate Wild Life but didn’t have anything constructive to say about it. There were a lot of comments like this on Jimmy’s Instagram too, and that just sucks. If you have something like that to say about someone’s project that they’re so passionate about, there are more appropriate places to do so. Do I expect Twitter and YouTube comment sections to be free of hate? Absolutely not. However, people need to recognize that Grian doesn’t go on Twitter and YouTube looking for those types of criticisms. The kind of hate that pops up on Twitter and YouTube is so common that a lot of seasoned creators tend to be rather unbothered by hate on those platforms to the point where they skip over genuine criticism. Reddit would’ve probably been a more appropriate and effective platform for constructive criticism when trying to communicate your opinion with people like Grian, who don’t use Tumblr and have been on Twitter and YouTube for too long to take those kinds of comments into consideration.

The Grian and Scar thing was almost entirely Twitter and YouTube. While there are definitely people on Twitter and YouTube who LOVE Scarian, they’re also the platforms that are most concentrated with Scarian haters. It’s really tumblr with a denser population of Scarian fans, but Grian doesn’t get his feedback from tumblr, especially when tumblr and hermittwt are a lot more shy than haters tend to be.

Here's the thing about the Gs. A lot of people were insisting that the Gs were going to break up because “Cleo and Scott always betray Pearl”. This is not true. Scott’s history with Pearl is more complicated, but Scott had a good reason to not want to team with Pearl again. He couldn’t communicate this very well in character, but Scott literally could not be her teammate again, not after he just won Last Life with just Pearl as his teammate for a majority of the season. In other words, Scott didn’t really feel significant negativity towards Pearl until she started acting crazy, which Scott isn’t entirely at fault for. He wasn’t neutral in the matter, but it would be unfair to blame it entirely on him when Martyn immediately abandoning Pearl despite being in the same situation as her, Scar and Ren pushing the “5AM Pearl” character, and, of course, the fact that it was 5AM for her are all fairly equal contributions to the way Pearl decided to present herself. Additionally, Pearl chose to forgive Scott immediately after he blew himself up, which isn’t to say that frustration and resentment can’t ever resurface, especially if the event was particularly traumatic, but Pearl and Scott both gave themselves a whole lot of time to reconcile with what happened and come to forgive each other. It’s also not something that either of them ever bring up, spitefully or not. They’ve never held Double Life against each other even as enemies, and it’s not something they hold against each other when they have disagreements as allies. As for Cleo, Cleo has never betrayed Pearl. Has Cleo been enemies with Pearl, sure! But never when Pearl was ever entitled to Cleo’s loyalty by any means. The Gs was the first time where Cleo and Pearl were on the same team for the whole season, and it's not like Cleo betrayed Pearl during Last Life either. I genuinely believe that there’s an excess of attention on Cleo and Pearl hurting each other because they’re both women in a male-dominated space, because they haven’t been crueler to one another than would be expected of people on different teams. It’s kind of like saying that Scar and Lizzie are a bad team because Lizzie hated Scar in Secret Life, when what we were seeing in Wild Life didn’t show significant evidence of that grudge.

Were the Gs toxic? That’s up to interpretation, but I don’t think it deserved the amount of backlash some people gave it without criticizing other teams. I once made a post about Mumbo “manipulating” Skizz and Grian in the same way that Smajor haters claim that Scott is “manipulative”. I DO NOT believe in what I said about Mumbo. The point of the post was explicitly to show what the narrative looks like on someone who gets way less hate for behaving the same way or “worse”, and I do state that at the end of the post. The Tuff Guys, too, were SO messy. They could rarely agree on anything and almost always resorted to insults, but that wasn’t the result of people who hate each other. That’s the result of people who love each other so so so much and trust each other to know when they do and don’t mean things and to feel safe bringing it up if a line was crossed. I mean, no matter how much Tango and Bdubs insulted and rolled their eyes at Etho or were mockingly offended by his comments, the only time they acted properly upset with him was when they found out that they might not be his priority team (and they didn’t even know about the team he was actually loyal to in the end!). In that same sense, Scott, Pearl, and Cleo are best friends who love each other so much. Their friendship is apparently strong enough to withstand tough breaks in that relationship. It’s one thing to say that you like a team and interpret their dynamic as antagonistic, but it’s another to actually get mad at the actual Scott and Cleo for “teaming up with Pearl to manipulate her”, which was such a common kind of post that I was seeing throughout the first several weeks of Wild Life.

Your ask did not get killed by tumblr! I’m starting to think there may not be a character limit on these things. I copy asks and write out responses in Google docs cause it’s more convenient to access when I have time, and this ask was 5 pages long in 12 point font 1.15 spacing. Whatever kills asks, it’s not word count. Thank you for the ask! I love long asks :D And thank you for your patience! My housing situation has been... weird. I'm not in danger of losing my place or anything; it's just been over-complicated and slow to progress.

[storiesbyjes2g]

3.240 Debrief

While Desiree attended school and Sophia went to work, I hired contractors and designers to begin our home renovation. I told them we wanted to maintain the Craftsman style of the home and requested for the living room furniture to remain because with all the changes pending, we still want the house to feel familiar. Besides, me and Sophia decorated that house together. We don't want all our memories erased. The lot is medium-sized, so even though we'll have more rooms, they will still be fairly small. Some spaces, like the upstairs hallway, will remain cramped, but I still think we will be happy with the changes. Bonus points for the contractors not thinking any of our requests were too farfetched or impossible. Completing the work on time should not be an issue, they said.

At last, 3:00 rolled around, and we waited not-so-patiently at the front door for our baby to arrive. I don't know if we spooked her by standing there or if her day did not add up to the hype, but she didn't look as excited as I thought she'd be when she finally walked through the door. Maybe she was overwhelmed or tired. At least, I hoped that was the case. After hugs and kisses, we settled in the kitchen for the play-by-play while she had an early dinner. Thankfully, she was much more lively recanting the events, so it wasn't a total bust.

She wandered around, peering into windows until she found the principal's office. There, she found a nice, younger woman who preferred to be called by her first name, Hillary. She told Desi about all the clubs and after-school activities, gave her a brief rundown of her teacher, Mr. Hanks, and suggested she introduce herself before the first period began. After her speech, she asked if Desi had questions. Desi said she noticed other students wearing the same outfit and wanted to know if they had to wear uniforms. Miss Hillary clarified saying while no official uniform existed, they sometimes encouraged particular clothing choices on certain days. Like, today was career day, so everyone wore their letterman jacket. They also have a club shirt day. Do the students enjoy it as much as Miss Hillary thinks? Because if I was in school again, I wouldn't be down for it.

When Desi left the principal's office, she ran into Tami, who looked sad. I tensed up because it wasn't my place to divulge the potential reasons for her sadness, but I low-key hoped Tami would tell her why and give me more insight, heh. Desi, being the caring sim she is, asked if she was okay. Tami started whining about the outfit, saying she's tired of the uniform days, and that it felt like every day Miss Hillary found something else to make them wear. Between just wanting to wear her own clothes and Maia not letting her wear what she wants to wear, she's just sick of constantly being told what to do. I remember my friends complaining about their parents and sharing similar sentiments. Compared to them, I had all the freedom in the world but still felt pressured to behave a certain way. I started acting like a tough guy and making unnecessary demands at home. Teenage life is so volatile. They're still kids, but they're also not children anymore. That call for independence is so strong, and I sympathized with Tami. I was relieved she didn't bring up the drama at home, but is she upset about the uniform or is she masking her real pain? Desi, of course, was oblivious to all of this, so she tried to cheer her up by showing pictures of the birthday party. She's such a sweetheart.

The bell rang while Tami was still gushing about her horse, so they walked toward the classroom buildings together. Desi's first class was Business Concepts. It's cool they're teaching that kind of stuff in school now. We didn't have neat subjects like that. Maybe if we had, I would have done better. They went their separate ways, and Desi was bummed. But when she entered her classroom and saw familiar faces, she was so relieved. Savannah, her twin (Stacey), and Breanna were in her class. I was thrilled for her because, besides the boys and Tami, those are literally all the kids she knows, and now she has her entire social circle together in one place, more or less. Asking about Savannah and Stacey was so tempting, but I resisted. Good thing she didn't look for her teacher before class because he was late. Some students had to sit on the floor because there weren't enough desks.

Lunch followed the first period, but the career fair shortened it. That was something else we didn't have when I was in school, so I asked about it. She explained the entire school convened in the auditorium, where industry representatives manned booths and showcased their careers. There was a doctor who just stood around and watched, a lawyer, and another lady. She couldn't identify her outfit, but she looked sketchy, lurking in the corner all day.

She briefly caught up with her cousins before listening to the lawyer's presentation, but Lex thought the whole thing was lame and left. That was rude and unacceptable, and I considered talking to him about it when we get to Sulani. I had to remind myself he's not my kid. Besides, I don't want to mess with his and Desi's friendship and get her labeled as a snitch.

I asked how she liked the lawyer's presentation, and she said it was okay. The speaker was good, but the content didn't spark joy. Overall, she enjoyed the career fair and said if they keep having them maybe she can figure out what to do with her life. There's so much I wanted to say in that moment regarding her future, but we didn't need to discuss it right then. For the moment, she just needs to finish her dinner, do homework, and pack for vacation.

As always, me and Sophia tried to help as much as we could, but I'm not sure how much longer we'll be able to do that. The subjects were getting more difficult, but we got through it just in time for the season premiere of Game of Llamas. Alessia ran in as the opening credits were ending. Apparently, her kids don't care about the show and neither does her dude, so she raced over here to watch with someone who did. She probably just misses us because Less is usually perfectly fine watching TV by herself.

As the children of two only children, we didn't have the pleasure of growing up with cousins, aunts, and uncles. I love watching Less and Desi's relationship. They're friends, but it's more than friends. It almost feels sister-like, but it's not that either. Whatever it is, it's special and unlike anything she shares with us. It makes me even more glad Sophia suggested we got Less in on the youth potion plan. One day, Desi might go through something she doesn't feel comfortable telling us. I'm glad she'll have Less to lean on for a very long time.

[skzhocomments]

Dear Diary, - Kim Seungmin Stray Kids Fanfic (Masterlist)

General Masterlist

Pairing: Seungmin (of Stray Kids) x OC (name: Lee Phoebe)

Genre: non-idol AU, University AU, friends to lovers, mature

Word Count: ~71k

Warnings: angst, mentions of depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, explicit smut, surgery, mentions of heart-attacks, swearing etc.

This is just a story that doesn’t describe Stray Kids members' true characters in any way. It’s just a product of my imagination and should be treated as such.

This story is also on Wattpad (click here) and AO3 (click here)

A/N: As any other writer out there, I would appreciate reblogs and your comments on this story. Please let me know if you enjoyed it, and most importantly, have fun!

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Summary:

Dear Diary, If I wasn’t sure until now about what I’m feeling, now I know. This is not a simple crush. It’s far more than that. I’m in love with Kim Seungmin.

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Lee Phoebe is just starting out as an adult. Far away from home, she discovers herself during her University years, a journey thoroughly documented through her journal entries. Like many students, she falls in love, experiences heartbreak, forms lasting friendships and figures out who she is by making mistakes and learning from them. But hey, if it all worked out in the end, does it really matter how tough the journey was?

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non-idol AU Kim Seungmin (Stray Kids) Fanfic Mature content ahead. 18+ ©storminsidemycore

Dear Readers,

I'm back with another story.

Dear Diary, is a story I've started writing almost exactly a year ago, on 28/04/2024 that I'd like to dedicate to my friend @chopchopslide-juggalo

It's a non-idol, University AU and has around 71k words - my longest story so far. It has 25 chapters and an Epilogue, and I'm very excited to post it.

I hope you'll enjoy reading this slow-burn as much as I enjoyed writing is. The main trope is Friends to Lovers, and the relationship between the characters will progress slowly, which I hope you'll have fun with following.

The main character's name is Lee Phoebe, the story is however written in 1st person, and we see everything from Phoebe's perspective.

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Important! Disclaimer:

This story will be 18+ where lots of sensitive subjects will be mentioned and/or introduced in some form. None of these will be marked during the story! Should you decide to read, do so at your own discretion, and if something triggers you or makes you uncomfortable in any way, please stop reading immediately.

You can expect the following triggers and more: angst, mentions of depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, explicit smut, surgery, mentions of heart-attacks, swearing etc.

Once again, there will be no other warnings during the story.

*This story is not a real description of Stray Kids' true personalities in any way. They are just characters I've created, so please don't take anything too seriously.

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Please vote and interact with the story if you enjoy it, as this is the only thing that keeps me posting. I write for myself, but I share for others, so I would appreciate knowing if you enjoy my writing as well.

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Without further ado, let's go!

I hope you'll enjoy this story and I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts. ♡

With love,

Storm

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Chapter 1 - Tumblr + Wattpad + AO3

Chapter 2 - Tumblr + Wattpad + AO3

Chapter 3 (coming soon)

[nymphsconstancy]

i actually have a lot of thoughts about rhine and why she's like that! way more than i thought i did. see under the cut for a lot of soundboarding/internal theorising:

explanation 1: rhinedottir's like that because of abyssal corrosion. we know from the little witch description that she has "precious little lucid time," which i'm personally taking to mean that she experiences something like the 'living hallucinations' we see in natlan's interlude chapter. unfortunately, i don't think this holds up as well - from what i remember, they were described as fairly permanent, where rhine seems to be fairly back-and-forth? so it could go either way on this one.

explanation 2 (sort of joking, sort of not): little witch vol 3 is an allegory for either rhine herself or for her kids. rhine's experiencing the "dissonance in self-perception and self-dissociation" that the mold demon king is. her 'truth of the world' is something like the mold's questions about senses of self, and in rhine's case she's more like. who can 'i' be when the world itself is illusory? i'm leaning pretty heavily on simulanka for this one, and i'd otherwise discard it, but tomorrow we're getting hexenzirkel information and little witch volume 2 is set on the same day, so. you never know!

explanation 3: rhine genuinely sees nothing wrong with what she's doing. this one relies a lot on concepts of 'vision' - as in literal sight, for once - and not so much the way that rhinedottir sees the world, but the way that her children do.

albedo's an exception to the rule, but all of rhinedottir's 'children' and related creations have differences in their perceptions of the world. durin sees his destruction during the cataclysm as both a form of play and a dance with dvalin, the rifthounds want to both 'replace' the real wolves out of jealousy and to 'make names for themselves' per the wolflord description, and elynas and the melusines both have different perceptions of what makes the world 'beautiful'. i think subject 2 fits into this pattern, following the same ideal as the riftwolves - replacing the ideal in the hopes of acknowledgement, or something like that?

so there's an established pattern of gold's creations having warped perceptions of the world. worth noting also is that they do not understand death, with the exception of sigewinne and elynas. in line with that, i think it would make sense if rhine herself also saw the world differently, and instead of the cold rhinedottir who taught albedo and the colder rhine who discarded all of her earlier creations, it was all just one version of her, who saw cause but not consequence, who like her creations did not understand that she brought death with her actions? a lot of this is more inference than anything, but it's the theory i'm most fond of

I'm thinking about Rhinedottir again, I find it so hard to place her motives and personality. She is one of the five sinners, has created many monsters and even abandoned her creation. Albedo describes her as cold and strict yet cares deeply about her and Rhinedottir spoke very lovingly of Albedo as her only child. She is also a dear friend to Alice and at least an ally to Barbatos. The latter is especially interesting considering how much her creations has caused trouble for Mondstadt. I like the conflicting dynamics and reputations she has but I wonder how things have played out. Hopefully in this patch we'll be able to get more answers.

[dykedvonte]

I think depictions of Anya being cruel to Curly or drawing out his suffering are artful and chilling but completely miss the point of the story and her character.

I'm not saying she doesn't deserve to have that "I told you so" moment with him but not in something callous or cold. Even if that is how it happened, she'd immediately feel guilty cause at that point she's not tormenting her tormenter or even the person truly at fault. She's doing something cathartic, similar to how Jimmy likely hits Curly to release rage he can't against the rest of the crew. She'd see herself as no different when she'd come back from the moment and see Curly cowering at her. She wants someone to take responsibility but how does being cruel to the defenseless help? Why would she want the power Jimmy has over her over Curly?

The idea of her extending someone else's pain is just so against the struggles she already faces and how she can't even bring herself to cause someone pain even to help them. Her very desire is to release herself from her own suffering and I doubt she'd even fine some sort of guilty release in being cruel to another.

[littlecrittereli]

So I was reading this transcript of an interview the Kratt brothers did and at one point Martin talks about how he almost became a veterinarian, but ended up changing his mind and becoming a zoologist.... so I raise you.... TEAM MEDIC MARTIN?????

Bro carries around a slew of random medical supplies on him at all times. (Just like the creature power disks nobody understands how he can remember where everything is but he's always handy with exactly what he needs)

Chris skins his knees climbing up a cliff? Martin's got bandages and antibacterial spray.

Koki burns her hand while tuning up the Tortuga? He's got burn cream and a cool towel and making sure she compresses it for at least 10 minutes

and God forbid someone in the Tortuga so much as SNIFFLES in his presence. It's bed rest, soup, and fluids from there.

And beyond that, I think he'd be very knowledgeable about natural remedies too. They ran out of cooling ointment for their sunburns? its okay, they can use the aloe vera plant sitting in the window! Aviva is nauseous because she's had nothing but redbull and coffee for 2 days? peppermint oil and ginger tea!

Just like how they learned from the Orangutans about the leaves that relieve muscle sores, Martin would pull a lot of inspiration from nature's remedies.

[sneakyfox55]

To The Moon Beach Ep spoilers

just. just. thinking about the fact Beach Episode implies the rest of the games were all in Eva's memory this entire time. she's reliving it all so she can get to this point on the beach with Neil. all so she can live in a memory with a him that in reality has already been long gone. hhhhhhh

[ai-the-broccoli]

ahhhh the latest Hyuna comic... I already liked her a lot, but she's probably rising up on my ranking of favourite characters

[ecrireverie]

okay lol mini rant in the tags sorry i just HAD to get this off my chest 😭 sorry if this is very incoherent and poorly worded or structured or whatever i'm just. pretty out of it and i cannot really think to write this properly. well, that or i am probably just illiterate actually. Yeah that's it lol

[hsslilly-blog]

the thing about hunt and claire . to me . is that everything about them has to be restrained. repressed. inhibited. these two stupid idiots need to be in situations that require them NOT to express or address whatever the fuck is going on between them. everything about them is unsaid is implied is left to the imagination. these two need to be fighting against And alongside decorum. they’re bubbling beneath the surface. there’s something constantly censoring them, and that something is themselves. and actually it should never be realised. they do not want it to be realised. which is why they keep up with the ridiculous act forever. because there is something deeply attractive about impropriety for both of them and admitting that is extremely shameful. and they're going to make sure the other one is ashamed of it. this is a novel of manners of their own doing. this is masochism!!!

[fromtheseventhhell]

A former slave came, to accuse a certain noble of the Zhak. The noble had taken her maidenhood, used her for his pleasure, and gotten her with child. Her new husband wanted the noble gelded for the crime of rape, and he wanted a purse of gold as well, to pay him for raising the noble’s bastard as his own. Dany granted him the gold, but not the gelding. “When he lay with her, your wife was his property, to do with as he would. By law, there was no rape.” Her decision did not please him, she could see, but if she gelded every man who ever forced a bedslave, she would soon rule a city of eunuchs. — ADWD, Daenerys I

A feminist icon, right ?

Daenerys never treats slavery as an evil in and of itself, as an affront to human dignity. It’s a legal technicality. It’s why she acted the way she did in the Lhazareen village, it’s why she doesn’t understand how she needs to treat her “handmaidens” differently if she wants them to understand they are no slaves, it’s why she can almost pettily declare Meereenese can sell themselves back into slavery if they want so long as she gets a profit. She doesn’t understand the fundamentals of why it is bad. The same way she doesn’t understand the concept of rape. That’s why her quest is so empty and doomed to fail. She doesn’t understand it and she doesn’t care to try.

I'm not even gonna bother putting energy into answering this cause it's obvious to me that you and reading comprehension have a strained relationship. You're just not smart and there's nothing I can do to change that. All I'll say is that you could only come up with interpretations like this by removing all context from Dany's arc and cherry-picking quotes. Luckily, the rest of us aren't reading the books with our eyes closed.