#she talked about how valid y'all are and how much she loves you

[byfulcrums]

So I went to the Lolla Palooza for Aurora today and it was amazing. I was so happy. That woman is amazing, I love her. She's so cool and her music is so?? Alive??? Not many artists have that. It was so good and I loved every single bit of it

Honestly, I could've gotten shot right there and I wouldn't have cared. And I'm being serious

I was feeling like shit. My head hurt, my legs hurt, my foot hurt and I was tired as fuck because I didn't sleep well. But I didn't give a fuck because I was like I'm going to see Aurora! That makes me happy even if i'm miserable right now!

Since it was a Lolla Palooza, she wasn't the only person doing a concert there, so it was pretty short (one hour, and I arrived late) but we stayed there for the other artists too. And the music was so loud it made my ears hurt. I was overstimulated, about to cry and feeling even worse than before but I never (not even once) said that I wish I hadn't come. I was like “I want to leave” all the goddamn time but never “I wish I didn't come” because Aurora was there and she made all that shit worth it

[adventuringblind]

He Must Be Lucky!

Max Verstappen x Reader

Genre: fluff and crack

Summary: Max gets wasted and can't remember that the reader is his wife. It's endearing how much he simps bith sober and drunk.

Warnings: Alcohol consumption, a wild party (at least for Max), Max being down bad

Notes: This one is for @amajixi! I hope you like it! Does anybody wanna send me asks and talk about drivers with me? Give me your most feral thoughts because I'm genuinely curious... please >_< (I even turned my anonymous asks back on please just send me things).

Side note: my fics haven't been getting much traction as they usually do. Is it something on my end? Have y'all disappeared on me? I know I shouldn't care, but y'all are the only ones that validate my writing T_T

Masterlist // Request Form // My Website // buy me a Ko-Fi

Max has a track record of partying hard. It's who he is, and she lives him for it. There isn't any kind of gripe of hang-up, just Max having fun and doing dumb shit that makes her laugh.

Lando is throwing a - well - a party. There was an excuse for it in the invitation, but she's too buzzed to remember it.

The echoing sound of Max's laughter ricochets off the walls. Daniel is with him, probably getting them into more trouble, but she knows Daniel will look after him. At least until he's trashed and can't get off the floor.

Alex brings her another shot glass. She has no idea what's in it, but Alex is letting loose, and she'll be damned if she doesn't partake.

He raises the shot glass in a toast. "To whatever this party is!" He cheers. They clink their glasses together and down the shots. She gags at whatever was in it.

"The fuck was that, Alex?!" She sputters.

He gives her a blank look. Really thinking hard about what he gave her. "I've got no idea."

The hours seem to tick by. The people are slowly dissipating, leaving the safety of this weird little bubble they've created.

She's lightly buzzed still, having danced off the majority of the shots Alex had her doing. The couch is her new best friend, and Lando had brought her a blanket at some point in the last twenty minutes.

A weight on the other end of the sofa catches her attention. Max, with complete adoration in his blue eyes, is staring at her. "Wow," he slurs. "You are the most gorgeous woman I have ever seen."

She laughs at his drunken thoughts. "You're not too bad looking yourself, babe."

The smile on his face is almost childish. It's big enough to almost fall off. His cheeks tinged a darker red with the blush adding to the alcohol flush.

"Go on a date with me? Please?" He tries to pout, but it ends up looking awkward mixed with the grin.

She flashes the ring at him. "Sorry, I'm spoken for." Alex and Lando are giggling from where they are watching this interaction unfold.

Max looks like a wounded puppy. Eye's glossing over like her might cry. "He must be such a lucky guy. You're just so perfect!"

"Awe, love, you wanna know a secret?" She leans in to whisper into Max's ear. "You married me."

If Max could hand you the world on a silver platter, he might have tried in this moment. The Dutch is vibrating in pure, unadulterated joy. Like a child who just got the ice-cream they were so desperately craving.

"Holy shit! I'm the lucky guy!"

Max smothers himself against your body. Eventually falling asleep, mumbling about how she's so amazing, and how he loves her so much. It's endearing to here his drunk affections laid bare for everyone to see.

It's the lullaby that calms her to a restful state. Fingers tangling with the softness of his hair. "You're not the only one who's lucky. I guess I'm pretty lucky, too."

[dancingwithreality]

romeo and juliet t.w.

gif not mine!

pairing: toto wolff x verstappen!sister

word count: 3.1k

summary: red bulls golden girl has been in a long term secret relationship with the team principal of mercedes, and it gets harder to keep the secret.

warnings: implied sexual content, jos verstappen 🤢, fluff, light steam but no smut

a/n: yes she’s a little child prodigy, but it works better for the plot. if this gets love 'n y'all really want more i'll do a second part maybe :)

please don’t take my work! enjoy and interact :)

JOS VERSTAPPEN was not a nice man, and an even worse father. He was demanding and mean, pushing his driving legacy onto his children. Well, onto Max. When his first child was a girl Jos was not happy. He didn’t think a girl could uphold such a prestige, so he never tried hard. You gave your all to impress your father but it was never enough for him. Then a few years later, he got Max, and when Max was of age he immediately started karting. You were quickly pushed to the back of his mind.

Through the years, even though you did better than Max, he still never cared about you as much as he did Max. Which is definitely saying something. You made your career as the youngest female driver to ever get second in the F2 Championship at 16 years old. At the last race, when you solidified your position as second in the WDC, you will always remember how your 12 year old baby brother went running up to you, pride swelling in his eyes.

He kept chanting your praises and hugged you tightly around your waist. Tears were brought to your eyes and you hugged him back. You took Max up to the podium with you and celebrated with the whole world watching. Except, Jos. His arms were crossed as he barely spared you a glance. That was the last time your heart broke because of him. You swore to yourself, you’d be there for Max how your father never was, and you’d stop relying on him to validate you.

Your success put you on the radar for many teams. The one you went with, was Red Bull. You joined their academy and were their first female reserve. There you met Daniel and became quick friends. Years later, when Max joined Toro Rosso you’d been driving for Red Bull for years already. You were the one that pushed for Max to be your reserve the following year, and everything fell into place.

Now you were 28. You had four consecutive vice championships under your wing and were driving alongside your two-consecutive championship winning brother. Everyone called you the ‘Wonder Twins’ and your family legacy had never burned brighter.

You were having a relaxing dinner with your brother and best friend, reminiscing on your life and how lucky you were. While Daniel and Max took over most of the conversation and were laughing the entire time, you memorized this night to remember it forever. Unbeknownst to Max, your boyfriend of four years was sitting further back in the restaurant having his own night. Glances were being passed back and forth between you to as your relationship was still a secret.

•••

It was 2018, after the Singapore race. The whole grid was out at some club and even some principals and team members joined you.

You and Danny were having the best time dancing and drinking, when you felt someone’s eyes on you. Finding the source gave you a shock and surprise to see Toto staring at you. When your eyes met, he sent a wink your way that made you blush and look back at Daniel. Hurriedly you whispered to him what had happened and the Aussie was at a loss for words. He knew of your little crush on the Austrian often teased you about it, but he never thought the crush would be reciprocated. Nonetheless he matched your excitement and decided you would do something about it.

Danny fluffed up your hair, and your ego, while encouraging you to go talk to him. ‘Open, lemme see your teeth,’ Daniel made a face at you telling you to do the same. You did and he confirmed that nothing was there. ‘Right, go at ‘em!’ He started to push you towards the bar.

‘What am i supposed to say!’ You started panicking while trying to look calm.

‘Turn up that Dutch charm or something! You’ve got this,’ Daniel winked and sent you on your way with a gentle pat on the back.

You were skeptical that Toto would even follow you to the bar. But he did. And somewhere in the night, small talk and glances turned into light touches and smiles. Which turned to laughs and close proximity, which led you going back to the hotel room with him for more privacy and a nightcap. The night was one to really remember as it started what you could only describe as the best thing to happen to you. The morning after wasn’t a walk of shame, no, your held was high and you were filled with joy and you stumbled all the way back to your room, eager to tell Danny all the details.

•••

You were brought back to reality as Daniel kicked you under the table and cleared his throat. Your face burned from how long you kept eye contact from across the room, while your brother sitting a foot away. ‘Sorry, I spaced out,’ you laughed and took a sip of your wine.

'You spend too much of your time with us,' Max sighed and looked at Daniel for his agreement.

‘Max,’ you chuckled, ‘You guys are my best friends, and you’re also my brother, why wouldn’t I spend time with you?’ You asked.

‘I’m just saying, you’re with us all the time. And when you’re not you’re always in your room or by yourself,’ Max stated like it was fact. Daniel let out a quick laugh at the idea of you always being ‘alone’ when he knew where you really were.

This time you kicked him, ‘And what’s wrong with that?’

‘Darling we can’t be your only friends,’ Daniel teased. You shot him a deadpanned look and pretended to laugh.

‘I’m serious!’ Max looked almost offended that you and Daniel weren’t taking it as seriously as he was. Both of you immediately turned to him and looked concerned. ‘Daniel has Heidi, I have Kelly, you’re not getting any younger and you don’t have anyone.’

Your mouth was agape, did he just call you old? Daniel couldn’t hold his laughter in anymore and in classic honey badger style, he bursted out and was laughing so hard he couldn’t breath.

‘Max, I can assure you, you don’t have to worry about me.’ You tried to calm this conversation and put it to an end.

Much to your chagrin it didn’t really end. Max went on for a little while longer and you couldn’t have wished to not be there any more. When he finally got up to go to the bathroom, you slumped down in your chair.

Daniel was trying to get his breath back and was drinking his water. 'What was that? Max never cared about my love life!' You pinched your nose bridge and put your head down on the table.

'Why don't you just tell him? It's been four years, I don't think its too fresh anymore.'

'Oh yeah like it's that easy, 'Oh hey Max! I've been dating the Team Principal of Mercedes for years now, i just never told you!' You pretended to smile and used the fakest high pitched voice you had.

'You sarcastic little girl, it's not that big a deal. If you love each other, what's the big deal?'

'Okay don't call me a little girl you're like a few years older than me. Ugh, I miss the days when we had a PR relationship for publicity. No one asked me about my love life back then,' You groaned and took an even larger sip of your wine, the cup almost empty now.

'Just eat your food and stop sulking. You're secretly dating tall, dark, handsome, and hunky, like your life is so hard. Poor Romeo and Juliet.’ Daniel cut a piece off his steak and went back to eating. 'You're leading the championship and getting dicked down-‘

'Daniel!'

•••

You were all at Silverstone now. You just finished qualifying and the feelings were mixed. Max had unfortunately not done as well, but 6th wasn’t horrible. He was sure to make it up.

You were on your way back to your hotel when you got a message from Toto. Unfortunately for him, Lewis and George struggled a little more than they’d prefer. Toto had asked the front desk for an extra key to his room and had given it you prior. He wanted a bit of comfort tonight. He already let out his anger in the garage earlier, he would need another headset for tomorrow, and he wanted you to spend the night. you told him you’d be right over as soon as you were ready.

So a shower and an outfit change later, you were running over to his room and sliding the room key in as quick as you could. You always had to make sure no one saw when either of you went to the others room, so you’d gotten fairly good at it over the years.

As soon as you closed and locked the door, behind you came a pair of arms what wrapped themselves quickly around your waist. ‘Oh, meine liebe,’ the arms sighed in the crook of your neck.

‘Hello my darling,’ you leaned backwards onto the strong chest of your boyfriend and rested one hand around his neck, where his head was pressing kisses on yours. ‘How are you?’

He spun you around in his arms so he could rest his forehead on top your head. ‘Qualifying was piss poor, it seems we can’t get out of 7th and 8th.’

‘If it makes you feel any better, Alonso hasn’t been doing too well these last races. If Lewis manages to move even a few places the gap will tightens between them.’ You rubbed your hands up and down his back, trying yo offer some comforting words.

‘How can you be so impartial?’ He pressed a long kiss to your lips. ‘We’re from rival teams, shouldn’t you pray for our downfall?’ he kissed you again.

This time when he started to pull away you went to your tippy toes chasing after him, ‘We can both succeed without hurting the other.’ One of your hands was behind his neck, the other in his hair. ‘Well, so long as I’m winning.’ Each time he kissed you grew more passionate and desperate than the last. Neither of you had even realized that you’d walked backwards onto the bed until Toto’s legs hit the frame and you both fell.

After his back hit the mattress and you braces yourself on his chest you both erupted into laughter. You laid with your head and arms in his chest as he put one behind his head so he could see you properly. ‘It’s only a good race if you win darling,’ the look in his eyes was so intense you could feel your whole body get hotter.

Your ears grew red as you two kept the silence and just, stared. ‘I love you,’ you softly said.

‘I love you,’ his thick accented voice soothed your heart and made it swell four times the size.

‘I wish we didn’t have to keep everything so secret,’ you uttered in a sort of defeated tone.

‘Meine liebe, I’d get all those silly little social media apps just to tell the whole world about us if you asked.’ He sat up, and pulled you with him into an upright position. You were straddling his lap, arms around his waist, as he pulled you in for a deep kiss, all in an effort to emphasize his love for you.

You would be lying if you said you didn’t like it when he held you like you weighed nothing. At eye level with him now, you couldn’t hold back anymore and jumped at his face. You kissed him so quickly and deeply you could’ve sworn he gasped. You nibbled on his lip and he let out a groan that you immediately swallowed, the sound only sending you into hyperdrive. Your intensity fueled him and you both became hungry for each other. Hands roaming and bodies moving in sync with each other.

His hands gripped your thighs and you tightened your legs around his waist. Once again, like you weight nothing, he took advantage of your tightening around him and lifted you up so he could further up the bed. Not once did you disconnect from each other as the night began to escalate.

He laid you down on your back and hovered over you, only a mere few inches from laying on you. Lips swollen and eyes dilated in lust you uttered ‘I love yours’ once more before connecting your lips for what feels like the tenth time that night.

All you were was a mess of sweaty skin, hushed breaths and some of the most explicit sounds that would make anyone blush. Nights like these, we’re you were able to care for each other and pretend the world outside didn’t exist were your favorite. Nights where you two could just be in love, not Mercedes Team Principal and Red Bulls Golden Girl.

Nights like these where you were Romeo and Juliet, fighting against your families and becoming your own.

•••

It was the last lap of Silverstone and adrenaline was running high. Your father had shown up to this race which already put you in a sour mood, you just wanted him to leave. You had Lando pushing behind you, granted the gap was 11.63 seconds but you wanted it to stay that way. Your only goal now was to get fastest lap to really tie it in. All these years later and you were still desperate for your father to see how good you were. See how you did it all by yourself.

You knew that behind Lando was Max, and even though you would always wish the best for the papaya boy, you knew that if max couldn’t overtake Jos would not be happy. His permanently disappoint disposition still hurt Max and it hurt you to see it.

Tension was running high as the race was coming to a close. There wasn’t a sound you could hear besides your own heart and you crossed the finish line. Lando followed behind and Max just .01 of a second behind him. It was close, and you were just so happy for both of them that you didn’t care if your brother didn’t overtake him.

When the final lap was over and you parked your car, the first thing you did was take off your helmet and look at the crowds. Amongst the cheering crowds, McLaren going wild and Red Bull screaming at the top of their lungs you watched as your brother pulled into the third spot and got out. Max made eye contact with your father and you could watch his heart break. Although he had preformed so well Jos was never pleased.

This ignited something in your veins. You watched him cross his arms and stand silently in the crow of cheering Red Bulls, the cameras showing off the orange army going insane in the bleachers. Yet somehow, the happiness couldn’t rub off on him.

You were tired of him.

You couldn’t take a single second of his attitude anymore.

So with all your courage and fire, you arm over to where Mercedes had piled off to the side. Your pushing through the crowds caught the cameras attention and all eyes were on you.

There in that second there was only one thought in your head. One idea: and you were going to follow through. You always do. You found Toto looking around shocked and confused as to why you were right in front of him. And in that second, you kissed him.

You brought both of your hands up to cup his face and you smashed your lips against his. As if the world melted around you his hands found your hips and the two of you were pushing so hard into each other, it was hard to tell where you ended and he started.

Just like the night before, you were one. You weren’t Mercedes v. Red Bull. You were boy and girl, hopelessly in love.

The crowd and gone silent.

You two pulled away ever so slightly, foreheads rested against the others as Toto supported your weight so you didn’t have to strain your feet too much to reach him. Despite just hard launching your relationship without any kind of talking about it before hand, the two lovers embraced each other.

‘The world knows now,’ he whispered in your ear.

‘Let them.’ You smiled as you hugged him tighter. ‘I love you.’

‘I love you.’ he whispered back.

Cheers and whoops erupted around you. Despite the initial shock of your relationship people were just happy. It was a good race with an even better surprise at the end, how could they complain?

The two of you pulled apart and smiled at each other, the world so unused to swing Toto so domestic and soft. You have him one more hot kiss before walking back to do the post race interview and award ceremony.

‘I guess she isn’t so alone, huh..’ Max looked star struck as Daniel laughed and patted him on the back.

You walked back and Jos was furious at your vulgar and inappropriate display. You’d never seen him so mad. It made you audibly laugh.

You put your Rub Bull cap on and walked right up to David Coulthard and smiled, waiting to start the questions.

‘Well that was something,’ He laughs in a slightly awkward manor. ‘Can I assume there’s something going on between you two?’

‘We’ve been dating for a while, I love him.’ You never smiled brighter.

‘A congratulations is in order then, for the race and for your love!’ He barked out in laughter as you thanked him and giggled.

Your eyes never left Toto, even as the anthems played and the trophies were handed out. Even as you sprayed each other with champagne and celebrated. Neither of you looked away. The smiles so evident on your faces and that in love glow never left. At that moment, neither of you cared about the repercussions that would follow. The PR mess and the scolding from Christian. It was just you two, in love.

The love you shared didn’t have to be bottled anymore. You two didn’t have to hide anymore, you could be together freely and honestly. That was all you wanted in life. To be with your love, in love, with no secrets or shame. You loved each other and that was all that mattered.

fin.

[haveateadude]

bleak horizons

summary *. ⋆ ⋆·˚ yeah, okay. maybe you're sad.

warnings *. ⋆ ⋆·˚ depression, self-harm, mommy issues (dw there's A LOT of fluff and cuddles and hugging and it all ends up alright) this is just talked about but it can still be triggering!!!!! pls take care of yourselves!!!!!!!! my dms are open :)

author notes *. ⋆ ⋆·˚ wasn't planning on posting this but i love validation. also, this is not like cannon ellie i guess?? i did a really bad characterization bc i used this as a vent and i just wanted comfort lmao. hope this still makes y'all feel seen or fucking something. btw this first part is really boring hehe, i wrote this when i was in a rush and in a train and i was tired and sad so i don't mind if it flops lol

i hate this so much idk why i'm posting this as my first pots. aghh. here u go ig. don't hate on me. bye.

(not proofread, sorry abt that)

pt1 — pt2 — pt3

you look so out of it

pull it together

we can love you

forever and ever

I've recently moved in with Ellie after weeks of looking for someone to move in.

I had checked other apartments, but this was the one that didn't smell like there was a corpse under my feet, hidden from the light beneath the floor and it didn't look like it was haunted by ghosts. The walls weren't chipping away, also, so that was a plus. There's no denying that getting used to living with someone else was difficult, but it was the only alternative to live away from my parents. Not to mention I had developed feelings for Ellie—she's beautiful, with those eyes and auburn hair, and her tattoos just make her look fucking badass.

After a few weeks, I settled in with her: we both have a routine, and established unspoken rules, and now it's comfortable living with her.

Tonight was a lovely night—I had already finished everything I had to do, and I didn't have an exam until next week, probably—until I got a call from my mother. I know I can't run away from this one. She always threatens to unroll me from college and take me home when I don't answer her calls. And I know she's capable of doing so.

“Hello?” I said as I went out to the kitchen, to take a glass of water.

“You know, most people say something sweet when they answer their mother.”

I roll my eyes, even if she can't see me. It was just a fucking hello.

“What happened, Mom?” I ask, not wanting to fight.

She takes a second to answer, “Well—I was looking at some resources and there are a lot near your area…”

She takes a second to answer, “Well—I was looking at some resources and there are a lot near your area…”

“Resources about what?”

“Therapy. Conversion therapy.”

It takes all of myself not to gasp, or cry. I don't know. I hear Ellie going out of her room, and walking towards the kitchen. I don't care if she's here; I haven't been caring about anything these past few days.

“Okay,” Is all you say. I don't know how to answer, or what to do. I leave the glass on the aisle with trembling hands.

“That's all you have to say?”

“I—I don't know what you want me to say.”

“‘Thank you’, maybe?” I stay quiet, I don't want to thank her, I don't want her to speak to me ever again. “You could also get therapy for, you know…”

“For what, mother?”

“The cutting. Your scars—I always thought they looked repulsive. No one is going to lov—”

I hung up before she could say anything else. I hate her. I hate my mother. I can't even believe she's a mother, let alone mine. I suddenly feel the need to hurt, and I hate to admit it, but my mother has always been right about the way they look—so I just shut my eyes and try to breathe. It always helps—deep breathing, that is. I have to remind myself that I'm clean. I've been clean for months. Maybe even a year, I lost count.

“You okay?”

Ellie's voice almost makes me flinch, already having forgotten about her. I open my eyes as she walks over to me and lays her elbows on the aisle, while I rest my back on the counter behind her.

I look at her, with a knot in my throat, “I'm fine.”

“Your mother…” She makes a pause, short enough to not make me go crazy, “Is she, like, a pain in the ass?”

I chuckle at that as I cross my arms, “Yeah.”

“If it gets too bad, you can talk to me. I don't mind. And my dad has some contacts, we can maybe scare your mother away.”

“It's okay,” I tell her with a smile. “I can manage.”

“I know,” She smiles, and I can feel my heart fluttering in my chest.

Before I say anything I regret, I go to your room with my door open—a technique I've acquired to avoid hurting myself.

I sit at my desk and look up conversion therapy first, I want to know what this is all about—I know that it's harmful to people in the community, that it leaves you screwed and fucked up. I don't like what pops up on my screen, so I close the tab and go to another one—where I search for therapy. The real one.

I went to a lot of therapy sessions, but my mother was always behind them, so I don't know if it ever was effective. I like this one a lot better. It should be helpful. It will help, I know that for a fact.

I'm having dinner with Ellie, which we normally do—today we ordered, since we were hungry and it always takes a little while to prep a meal—when I think to ask her about the topic.

“Do you know any therapy center?” I ask her. “Or the number of a therapist? Whatever.”

If she's curious, she doesn't show it. She stops chewing on her food, then looks at me; then continues to chew, and after she swallows she speaks, “Sure, I have some friends that go to the same therapist, so it's completely trustworthy, I guess. I can ask for the number.”

I wipe my mouth with the napkin on my side, “Yeah, that'd be alright.”

Ellie takes a sip from her cup and then looks at me, “You okay, though…?”

“I'm fine, just—you know, making sure everything's okay.”

She nods, “Got it—I was just asking.”

After my first therapy session, I ended up tired. My therapist—which feels weird to say out loud and even in my head—is a nice lady in her thirties who looks like a hippie.

I've realized I tend to lie a lot—I didn't talk about self-harm or my mother. Or anything else, really. Just about the movie Speak, and then almost cried when talking about the weather.

So, “Yeah, it went well,” is my answer when Ellie asks how it went, sitting in her car. She picked me up since I had taken my car to maintenance.

“Okay, then,” she says once the car engine starts. She connects her phone to Bluetooth, and we listen to music for a while. Ellie places her hand on my knee when I start bouncing my leg, which sends shivers down my spine and gives my brain something to think of that isn't any of my shit. “Do you want to go eat something?”

“Sure,” I accept. Her thumb makes little circles on my knee. I wonder if she knows what she's doing, her eyes are still fixated on the road. My heart does the flutter thing that it did a few days back again, and my core heats up.

She doesn't want you, I try to convince myself. She's your friend, she doesn't want you. She will fall in love with you, not your brain nor your scars, and when she finds out about the way you think she'll leave.

When we arrived at the restaurant, we ordered a plate together, since we always share and the food here comes in big sizes that we wouldn't finish if we ate it separately.

When we arrive at the restaurant, we order a plate together, since we always share and the food here comes in big sizes that we won't finish if we ate it separately.

“So, how's work?” I ask when we're waiting for our food.

“It's going well, I guess.”

“You guess?”

"I just hate my boss."

I furrow my eyebrows, “do you want to talk about it?”

“It's fine, he just sucks. But well, Jesse is postulating to—you know, be a boss; that fucker.”

I chuckle, “Well, I like Jesse.” I soon realize what I said, and my cheeks go red. “Not in a, uh, romantic way or anything. You know. Fuck. He's just nice.”

“Just nice?”

“I like you better than him,” I blurt out, which only adds to my embarrassment.

Oh, oh.

I like Ellie.

Fuck, yeah. You do.

Who am I kidding, I knew I did. From the start—from the first time she looked at me, for the first time touched my hand and spoke to me; for the first time she played guitar for me and made dinner because she knew how tired I was.

Ellie is flushed. I can tell.

“Oh, do you?” She asks with a grin.

The waitress comes with our food, and leaves the plate. I look at her, she looks at me at Ellie and then leaves.

I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear and lay my elbow on the table, with my chin propped up in my hand.

“What if I do?”

She bites her lip, looks at mine and then at the food, “The food's getting cold.”

What the fuck. What the actual fuck. Did that actually happen, or was it my imagination? Holy shit. Shit! Fucking fuck.

It leaves me thinking, but my thoughts leave when I hear her laughter after I crack a joke.

We take the stairs up the apartment, and we laugh all the way up. We just laugh and laugh and laugh because she said something and now I'm almost falling to the floor from how much my stomach hurts.

“Stop,” I say when we get to our apartment door. I keep laughing because Ellie's laughing too and she can't open the door. “My stomach hurts.”

She looks at me and laughs. Idiot. I laugh, too.

“Hey!” We hear our neighbor say. “Quiet down!”

“We're sorry!” I exclaim back, as he closes his door.

Ellie giggles, “You're so fucking dumb, I'm not sorry at all.”

“Shut up,” I say.

“Oh, make me.”

And then—oh, god—and then, and then she looks at me as the curvature of my lips goes down, and then I kiss her.

I kissed her. I fucking did. Me, not her—not Ellie's brave and confident ass, but mine. The butterfly in my chest flutters harder when she kisses back. She puts both of her hands on my waist and deepens the kiss, while my hand moves from her cheeks to her neck, then finds its way to her torso.

Ellie manages to open the door without breaking the kiss, and then she shuts the door with her foot.

“We should—” I speak between kisses. “Ellie—couch.”

“Yeah, okay. Okay.”

Our tongues fight, but our souls mend and I find my way to her in every sense. 

[universeskies]

I wanna talk and appreciate so much... Marina Ida. AND I mean That since beginnings. Not beginning Splatoon 2, But rather back in the First Hero Mode of Splatoon! Back when, Marina designed and built ALL The kinds of weapons and Octoweaponry bosses We Fought. (Note, Im gonna refer as First Hero Mode as "Hero Mode" and Splatoon 2's Hero Mode as "Hero Mode 2")

Something that I LOVE SO MUCH about Hero Mode and Hero Mode 2!! Is that, there's a nod and details in how much like, Marina isn't there with the Octarians anymore per say, and its not only on the Music! Given that the little music motlifs that Marina loves to give are present in Splatoon's Hero Mode, but it couldn't be heard during the Hero Mode 2 (instead You hear Callie's voice and as well the song titles being a callback to Squid Sister songs)

And that is on the machinery that We see in both Hero Mode. Marina Ida is recognized and very much so well known to be a HUGE Genius when it comes to building and Machinery, especially when it comes to Octarians Weapons. Thus earning Her ranking of quite a GREAT Elite Octarian. And We do see that during Hero Mode. We do have that confirmation during Octo Expansion and a hint from the first Sunken Scrolls from Hero Mode 2.

Upon closer look, Octostomp doesn't look That much threatening. If anything this could Even Be seen as The Testing of Power before going to the Big guns!

And it shows! See, one thing that I noticed is that, the Bosses that We fight during Hero Mode, really relies in so many kinds of Machines that of course to a degree uses the Octo's limbs of course. We know these. Like all kinds of weapons and all of these are really intimidating and incredible design to go against the Inkling Menace. I really appreciate how out of what the Octarians have and the little scraps they got from the Underground to build all of these. Marina Ida, Elite Octarian everyone. Really should SO MUCH get such incredible appreciation of Her insane skills, and not only that? But We also know this as well with how MANY Shifty stations She has made. MONTHLY MIND YOU. The second Boss is based on rotating and throwing so much Ink, to shoot Around! THIS to test The aim. Then The Third to test The reflex and agility of The Inklings Menace. It's ALL and they get stronger to it.

Like LOOK AT THIS!!! THIS IS TERRIFYING. THIS BOSS was a STRONG MAWS. AND IT ONLY GOT STRONGER.

MIND Y'ALL. ALL OF THOSE GREAT AND REALLY TERRIFYING AND DANGEROUS WEAPONRY?! MADE WITH ONLY LIMITED RESOURCES AND SCRAPS. All by Marina! She is an AMAZING GREAT Asset and it shows!!

Now then. With that being said, lets look at Hero Mode 2. And already, There's a really great decrease of what can be considered Octoweaponry compared to Hero Mode. One could even say that the Bosses are easier in Hero Mode 2, though that is mostly subjective to how one plays. Could be harder or easier in-gameplay. Both are valid.

But then lets look at the designs and what goes behind them. See, for me, I believe that the Octoweaponry in Hero Mode 2 isn't as impressive or like...really unique compared to like what We saw in Hero Mode.

Thats a GREAT AWESOME Narrative detail in this retrospective! Marina Ida has desserted the Octarian Army. Marina isn't there anymore to like design or build up or built the blueprints for these kinds of Octoweaponry that We see in the first one. If anything, One of the bosses are more so, a Mano-to-Mano combat, which is the Octo Samurai Himself.

See, You could say, what about the Roller he wields? That has to be that, right? Like very heavy machine? Well yes, but also no. I think its kinda like an Octo Version of the Dynamo Roller. Octo Samurai could be one of the many Strongest Octarians all around to wield such Dynamo Roller with ease like it was a Splatana, or even like a Carbon Roller.

Not only that, if You look more, Hero Mode 2 has a RETURNING Boss, which is Octostomp!! But with a New Sick coat XD

That being said, already in Hero Mode 2, We really only have TWO NEW Octoweaponry designed for the Inkling menace. And these two machines....really don't seem that much impressive.

Octo Oven? Feels more like a Bubbler or Shield like weapon to be defensive rather than Offensive.

Octo Shower? Its just a bigger version of an Octo Drizzler...that can fly and not FLY BY ITSELF. With help. Add Stingray to it, but to be honest, the Inkling Menace can also use Stingrays...and Tenta Missile...AND a Charger. There's already limit with these two.

We talk about Octo Samurai and that dude isn't really a machine. Just one Honorable Octarian that wants a fair duel. Splats with Honor after all.

Then We have Octostomp that of course, is a returning one. And to be honest, the new coat just seems a more of a simple thought going "More face, means more difficult right? The more the merrier." HELL!! IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE EASIEST BOSS IN HERO MODE!!! And it came back trying to act like being a Third BOSS! When it's Just... They just simply added few more things to make it more of a nuisance rather than Threatening or DANGEROUS.

I want everyone to ALSO know and be aware That... I won't talk about Both DJ Octavio's fights. Cause I believe That those fights speak already from My point in what I'm speaking ABOUT How Marina is such an incredible skilled Set Elite Octarian.

She built then Octobot King used for Both fights!! The FIRST fight was really challenging and was equipped with SO MANY Special weapons. From a Killer Wail to an ALMOST STINGRAY. A FUCKING STINGRAY.

ANd The Octobot King II simply had an added platform for Callie to dance. And spam Bomb Rush specials. Hero Mode 2 DJ Octavio wasnt at full Power and That Made sense since I lean, there really wasnt much to Work with.

Soooooo, I feel that Marina's skills and mindset is just one INCREDIBLE set of thoughts. If anything, I can feel that the Octarians, dealing with the loss of Marina, decided to so much take inspiration and follow in per say what Marina thought. But thats as best as they could get.

There's nothing much You can do and such with already limited resources and already with Marina gone, they have even more struggles to really seek what could go against an Inkling Menace.

Remember... Marina did ALL OF THAT STUFF WITH LIMITED RESOURCES AND ENERGY.

So I really enjoy how the details of how the struggles of the Octarians are still seen and not only that, but also showcase as well, that Marina is still quite struggling cause I'm pretty sure that She still has to deal with just those kinds of thoughts. She doesn't have to deal with it alone of course, but its simply incredible the kind of attention its given within the narrative of Splatoon's Hero Modes.

Hell, We see inspirations of those Bosses in Side Order. The Ball boss from Side Order is clearly inspired by the same one in Hero Mode from Splatoon. Not only that, but if anything the kind of weapons and the uniform plate armors that Parallel Canon AND Eight uses, are very Octarian-like. Not only that, but also the way that the Pearl Drone functions is really similar to how many Octarians will try to pin point the Inkling Menaces and try to attack with mini Inkstrikes.

All around, MARINA IDA EVERYONE!!! SUCH AN AMAZING SKILL DJ TOO! YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!

[koolades-world]

Animal lover Mc!

y'all one of the first questions I had when I started playing obey me was "what is going to happen to my pets while I'm gone??" obviously I would find a way to bring them with me I will NOT be separated from my babies just for some hot demon men

currently I have three cats and a dog, all rescues and eight foster kittens, like, who's gonna feed that many critters for the whole durations of the exchange program not to mention I would miss them!

the first question mc is asking is "where is my entourage?" and when Dia asks what, they're gonna continue to describe their pets in a way only a pet owner would understand. Lucifer understands because he himself is a pet owner

"Welcome to the Devildom! Any questions?"

"where is my entourage?"

"What are you talking about?"

"you know, my zoo? my shadows? my cutie babies? my sillies? my children?"

"Oh, do you mean your pets?"

"Lucifer how did you understand that"

life in the HoL is about to get ten times more chaotic let me tell you

since my dog is a rescue we don't know too much about her past but she does not like tall men and omg what a coincidence! the HoL is all tall men!!1! anyone that doesn't look like me is a red flag to her she's super sweet though once you give her time (one time my school bestie shook a posterboard at her like three years ago and she still remember it to this day and hates him for it)

she warms up eventually if you respect her and listen to her whims but girl... we all know Lucifer would be too prideful to conform to what a dog wants that isn't Cerberus. Satan is a cat person, Beel is a literal giant, Levi would be afraid. she would def like Mammon since he kinda looks like my dad, Belphie is always asleep and therefore can't be a threat to her, and everyone loves Asmo! including me and my dog!

idk about other dogs but my dog just loves to beg and I give in every time. Beel is always eating and probably will give her a little too since he also seems like the puppy eyes would work on him.

I feel like dogs love Levi but he's probably afraid

"AWUBCUOBWVCGJ MC HELP"

"Levi we talked about this"

"THAT THING IS THE REAL DEMON"

"Are we talking about the same dog? The one that gets excited every time someone arrives home? The one that does a cute little roll over trick? The one that warms your feet on cold nights?"

"DEMON DOG"

"She's just looking at you"

"IT GOT CLOSER WVADUVJIOSUBSDFO"

"Not helping you"

all of my personal cats are kinda jerks lol... don't get me wrong I love them but like if you aren't used to them (or if they aren't used to you) you will get bitten. two of them have valid excuses, one is an old man, a curmudgeon if you will, and one is a blind kitten so she doesn't take well to new sounds, especially new voices. but my other cat, about three years old now is literally just a brat LOL he once attacked me in my sleep cause i moved a little too much love him tho

just cat things in general, they knock over everything on counters and shelves, they zoom around in the middle of the night, they attack ankles! Satan is in love but Lucifer nearly kicks them

the middle cat loves to sleep in my bed with me, like right on top of me. on my head, on my chest, on my stomach, on my shoulder, on my face. so like, there's no room for anyone else in my bed. yes there might physically be room but my cat's ego is so big there isn't room for another

sorry hot demon men my cat comes first

Belphie would make an excellent pillow for all cats, he's warm, he doesn't move much and he won't care

"Do you know where Belphie is?"

"My room, but don't bother."

"Why?"

"The cats have taken him as their own"

"THAT SHOULD BE ME"

The more Asmo doesn't want cats in his room the more the cats will want to enter his room

omg Satan is about to be your bestie so much quicker than in the original arc. I love the love and care that was placed into befriending Satan but this is the quickest way into his heart

"You must be the exchange student. I... what's in there?"

"My cats"

"Lucifer is letting you have them in the house?"

"Yes?"

"You're coming with me. Bring the cats."

"What does that mean? Do you like cats?"

"there are no words to describe my love for cats as deeply as I care for them. they are magnificent creatures. you have single handily done what I have tried to do for millennia. you are my best friend now"

"We will get along just fine"

This isn't even mentioning all of the strange Devildom critters Mc would def befriend

They drag a different brother along each time to feed weird animals that show up in their yard

Feeding stray cats with Satan!!

Dia would totally take them on expeditions to go see Devildom animals in the wild even during school days

Speaking of that, Dia also makes regular trips to the HoL to visit any and all pets

He will never hear the end of it from Barb oh god he will die from all the animal fur he brings back with him

I love rodents but Barb does not...

Nobody tell him that Mc may or may not have a rodent

Mc rescues all of the rats that Barb tries to eliminate and sets them free far away from the castle

the possibilities are endless with this might make a part two

[lovemyromance]

Let's Deep Dive into Niche Elriel Moments! (Part 1/??)

So to preface this, I just want to say it's going to be a pretty long post. And y'all have seen my normal posts, so just be warned, this one is going to be thicccc. I wanted to specifically talk about the way Azriel views both himself, and Elain, in the context of the infamous BC ft. a hint of Nessian & Feysand.

In the ACOSF BC, we get Azriel's POV for the very first time. And lo and behold, his thoughts are centered around Elain. Her hair looks like the sun at dawn and we find out he brought her a gift and thinks about her so much that he loses sleep. I'm sure that entire POV is imprinted in our brains right now, so I won't rehash it too much.

What I want to talk about is Azriel's feelings toward himself, and towards Elain. A lot of the argument we see from the other side of the fandom is that Azriel has such bad self-esteem issues, he considers touching Elain to be tainting her pure innocence. He is concerned the blood staining his hands makes him undeserving of her love, her attention. That belief is further "validated" in his head by that the Cauldron paired Elain up with Lucien, not him.

The antis seem to think (yk, when they're not contradicting themselves and calling him an incel) that Azriel holds Elain in such high regard, puts her on such a pedestal that he feels so undeserving of her love.

And honestly? They're right. He does put her on a pedestal. He does view her as some kind of beautiful, compassionate, goddess. He does think his sins will taint her perfect skin.

But then I must ask the question - Is that bad?

Antis are focusing on the "self-hatred" part of what Azriel feels when he thinks of Elain. They claim that because he holds her on a pedestal, they are not equals. That he will be insecure and doubt himself constantly alongside her. They argue that is not a foundation for love.

And honestly? They're right again. Two people cannot be soulmates (human terms, not SJM mates) at a given moment, if one of them has such self-deprecating thoughts around the person who they seem to revere above all else.

Note: At a given moment

People are so focused on Azriel's "self-hatred" they are ignoring that his entire POV gave us a peek into his head, and hinted at his future journey with Elain.

Because when you love someone (and they love you back), even if you initially had them on a pedestal, together, you learn to bridge that self-imagined gap.

You learn to love yourself, and you learn the other person's flaws, and you realize you love them anyways. Their love for you helps you realize that you deserve love. You deserve their love. They see you for who you are, all the little parts you try to hide away from prying eyes, everything you're ashamed of - and they love you anyways.

It's crazy to me how people can't see what is happening with Azriel's feelings towards Elain - and how it is a direct mirror to Nesta and her feelings toward Cassian. Even similar to how Rhys felt about Feyre.

Nesta also felt like she was an awful being. Someone who felt guilt over her father's death, her relationship with her sisters, everything she had done had weighed on her and turned her bitter and cold and she also felt underserving of the bright light that was Cassian. She called him names and fought and bickered with him endlessly, but we see from her own words that she felt like she didn't deserve Cassian. Not because she was had a title/status -> those were the reasons that Cassian put her on a pedestal.

He felt like a "low-born bastard" was never going to be good enough for someone like Nesta, someone who was destined to wed a Prince or a duke or a king. He had placed her on a pedestal because she was too good for him on the surface level. But Nesta also thought Cassian was just as far out of reach because she felt his kindess, his nature was too good for her. She felt like she didn't deserve him. He felt like he didn't deserve her.

They healed together. Through their love for each other, they discovered that they themselves were worth loving.

Let's look at Rhys & Feyre. Specifically Rhys, who considered himself so undeserving of a family, of a mate that he didn't dare to even hope for such a future.

Sounds familiar?

Good. It should. Azriel is exhibiting the exact same theme of feeling undeserving of love, feeling like he's not good enough for Elain, thinking his sins would ruin her, thinking she'd be disgusted if she knew what he'd done - all these are literally exactly how SJM writes her tortured angsty pairings.

The MMC always feels undeserving of the FMC's love. They find out they are equals - together. It's not a question of matching strengths or opposites attract or like calls to like. It is literally a question of do they love each other and accept each other, allowing them to finally feel proud of who they are themselves.

We haven't even received Elain's POV yet, but I am sure we will hear the exact same inner thoughts reflecting how she doesn't feel good enough for Azriel, she's not a warrior, she's just some poor human girl turned fae. We haven't even heard her story yet, heard her thoughts and what makes her tick.

They might not consider themselves to be equals - but that's how all of SJM's pairings start. They learn and grow together. People are acting like Elriel can't be together because "they're not equals" is crazy especially when you consider we haven't even started their story.

That's like if I began ACOMAF and was like - "Rhys & Feyre can't be together, Rhys is a high lord and Feyre is just turned fae - it would never work"

Or if I read ACOFAS and decided "Um sorry but Nesta seems like a dick. Cassian deserves better and to be loved. Nesta isn't his endgame."

And all it took was one book - one story centered around them to get these couples together. They didn't get together in a BC of someone else's book. They got the time they needed to learn to love each other and themselves.

I don't know why y'all think Elriel would be any different.

[polaris-likethestar]

as annoying as raven is and as much as i want to stab her 24/7 i see SO much raven slander and while i genuinely agree with most of it, i want to talk about why i feel like y'all over hate on her (specifically her in first class)

now warning, this is going to be very long, and this is nowhere near an accurate character study but just how i personally view it so that’s just me. pls no hate thank you :)

so she meets this boy when she’s a kid - charles - and thinks, wow, there’s finally someone out there like me. i’m not alone, i don’t have to be alone. he gave raven the same sort of reassurance that he gave erik and while this is, in no means, supposed to be hating on charles, ultimately, raven was right in the sense that as much as he wanted mutant equality and as much as he just wanted safety for his sister, he, whether or not he meant to do it intentionally (which i don’t believe he did) fed into her insecurities by telling raven to basically hide herself.

and yes, i get why he did that, and yes, she should’ve spoken up on how she felt, but if the one person who was supposed to get you and understand you and unconditionally love you when no one else did was suddenly treating you the exact same as everyone else would have treated you, forcing you to hide, you would feel a tad bit angry at yourself, the world and that person, wouldn’t you? reminder that when she asked him if he’d date her if they didn’t know each other he said yes of course before realizing she meant in her blue form and then he just went uh well i do know you that’s the thing so it’ll be weird. like um wow okay. hypocrite.

so, now, as much as she hates it, raven has it in her mind, i wish i didn’t look like this, i shouldn’t look like this, i feel ugly, i hate myself which quite honestly made for a more relatable and genuine main character inner monolouge instead of charles’ i want world peace, but either way i’m confident in myself or erik’s i want humans to die, but either way i’m confident in myself. all raven really wanted for herself was to feel confident and a lot of that turned into a need for validation which we’ll get into later.

(random but the part where charles is like put some clothes on raven girlie thats ur brother he doesnt wanna see u naked but moving on)

then, enter hank. someone who gets it. someone who visibly looks weird although let’s be honest, weird feet compared to being blue? it’s literally nothing but whatever. he understands her, she understands him and right now she doesn’t want to be blue and he doesn't want weird feet. she finally feels understood, in a way she believes charles could never understand her.

and then erik comes along. he’s all for pro mutants, be confident in yourself, mutant and proud, and she’s never seen someone like that. her immediate attraction to him is because of his overwhelming sense of security in his power that she’s never had. he tells her she’s fine the way she is and while, similar to charles, erik’s power isn’t “visible” so he can’t really be talking, she’s not even considering that just because she’s just so in shock that someone could actually not only accept her in her natural form, but embrace her.

she no longer wants the cure because she believes someone truly cares about her. she no longer believes that she needs to be insecure. all the things she hated about herself, she learned to love. and it’s really sad because as i said before, she thrives off of validiation, which she’s never truly received - until now. one person validates her and she feels like her life is complete. that’s sad. but ultimately, she feels more secure in herself now.

and then hank again. she wants him to see himself how she now sees herself. but he doesn’t and basically calls her ugly except it’s not even basically cause he straight up says you’re not beautifull and i know he didn’t mean it like that but bruh that was neither demure nor mindful.

and then she goes to talk to charles thinking alright so maybe hank doesn’t agree with me, neither does charles, but charles is my brother, he loves me. he’ll understand. but the thing is, he doesn’t say anything to insinuate to raven that he does understand. he straight up says something along the lines of i thought hank found a cure for you. which i personally thought charles understood what raven was going through, sure he didn’t have a visible mutation, but he was still a mutant, so while i do believe he was understanding, i think he didn’t show it very well.

now, the one thing raven did that i can’t defend, is the beach. leaving charles. while i know that she did want to go with erik, i don’t think she would’ve left if charles didn’t tell her too and at that point raven probably thought charles didn’t even want her around and that kind of would’ve confirmed it. still, that’s not right, that’s your brother, your only friend, you don’t know if he’s gonna survive. i get why she would’ve left, also because she was angry, but that wasn’t right.

ultimately, she was just an insecure girl, who quite honestly, didn’t know what she wanted and felt alone in the world and while she wasn’t the only one, and was extremely annoying about it, especially since she refused to see the other side of things and focused mainly on herself, i can’t really blame her, and i don’t think she deserves all the hate she gets.

[mimithelion]

I love furina so much, I hate the infantalization of her sm it's not even funny. I was talking about this to my friend yesterday and it's genuinely infuriating, so let's start

1. Her backstory was extremely sad and it made the fandom feel sympathy for her (as it should). But it really does get to a point. The fandom instantly started babying her and turning her into a "Traumatized silly who eats cake 🥺". I really hate to bring this up, but regarding how people in the fandom treat neuvifuri just says it all. "Furina's literally his daughter" She's a grown ass woman who's his FRIEND 😭. That is a popular headcanon, one that I genuinely hate because it's literally just another way y'all baby her. The fanart with this headcanon just says it all, with furina being extremely short and being insufferable to neuvilette for some reason.

2. The reaction you get when you find her attractive in the same way people find characters like yelan, chlorinde and ei attractive. She's short (like most of the female cast) and flat chested so people think that makes her a child. "She's cute not hot" it low-key just shows how half you people who were "excited" about her not being oversexualized and having normal body proportions aren't actually all that accepting, because the second you aren't curvy like the other female characters, they instantly see them as a child.

3. "She's one of wriolette's children!" ☠️ No hate to normal wriolette enjoyers but the main reason why this fandom sees her as a child is because of this ship. For some reason, this fandom thinks female characters get in the way of gay ships, so they have to make them pick-mes or children. Same thing in the hsr fandom, with mozeqiu and how they babied feixiao.

4. 98% of her fanbase has an extreme victim complex and it's genuinely concerning. Most of the genuinely bad Furina hate stopped after 4.2 when her backstory was released. Everyone had a valid reason to dislike furina before her backstory dropped because nobody likes an 'bratty' archon who SEEMINGLY does not do their job, especially after a lot of us were hyped for a female character who could do her job instead of abusing her people for a couple hundred years and then instantly being forgiven..⚡ "proud to say I never hated furina" I know 50% of people who say ts are lying LMAO. She's also a fictional character. Dislike her if you want, you're not a misogynist.

5. Too much focus on her trauma, it's been months, I get it, it's tragic, but what else? Y'all done gave her the aventurine treatment and then claimed to love her ☠️

6. I understand headcanoning her as aroace for fun but I can tell when it's because y'all don't like a certain ship, it's just another way to baby her. "She needs healing, not a boyfriend!" And it's coming from a wriolette shipper?? Neuvilette needs healing too but I don't see you headcanoning him as aroace. Fandom acts like significant others are just people who hurt you more, like you can heal WITH the person bro 😭👻.

Anyways, thanks for reading, Mimi blesses you :3

@ironunderstands friend I talked to yesterday go follow them 🧍🏽‍♀️

[sarah-yyy]

Sorry to bother you, is My journey worth watching?

what: period cdrama // completed // 24 eps, roughly 50 mins each where: iqiyi (i think most eps are still vip-locked) (standard disclaimer that i don't use eng subs so i don't speak to the quality of the subs) why: ngl, i was in it purely for zhang linghe to start, but then got !!! over cheng lei and lu yuxiao, and was too invested to quit even when the plot got sloppy. extremely gorgeous cast, extremely gorgeous set. the cinematography?? chef's kiss. you can see the budget for this show was good. the relationship between the characters? v interesting.

story revolves around the Gong family who is v prominent in jianghu even though they live up in the mountains and keep themselves sequestered away from the rest of jianghu. the Gong family itself is split into 4 different factions: Shang, Jue, Zhi, Yu.

Yu 羽 - the Yu household deals with internal affairs. the head of the Yu household is the head of the Gong family (the title is Sword Wielder or zhiren)

this is our male lead, gong ziyu (a baby). second son of the Yu household. his dad is the zhiren and his big bro (gong huanyu) is the named heir who will inherit the zhiren position. has a v lukewarm relationship with his dad. introduced as being quite useless. his martial arts is :/ and he sees no need to improve his skills etc because his brother will be there to protect him.

is quite suddenly thrust into the position of zhiren when his dad and his brother die under ~mysterious circumstances :(

Jue 角 - the Jue household deals with...external affairs, they are the ones who leave the mountain to Get Things Done outside and manage all relationships/partnerships outside

gege step on me this boy is gong shangjue, head of the jue household. he is The Man. the pride and joy of the gong family. everyone (*cough*i say everyone but really yuanzhi-didi does it enough that he counts for everyone*cough*) worships him. martial arts skills?? loyalty to the gong family?? incredibly attractive resting bitch face??? he is a 10 no matter how you assess him.

missed out on being the zhiren by virtue of him not being home when tragedy struck the old zhiren and gong ziyu's brother. doesn't think gong ziyu has what it takes to be zhiren and take care of the Gong family. my boy gong shangjue would make an Excellent zhiren tbh

do i have to seduce y'all into watching this i think i have to:

Shang 商 - the Shang household develops/produces weaponry

for most of it, the show has a p dark vibe, BUT whenever gong zishang shows up, we know we're in for some laughs. this zishang-jiejie is the eldest daughter of the head of the Shang household.

her father doesn't take her v seriously because she's a girl (also because she's always following behind gong ziyu's personal bodyguard jin fan like this: 😍💖🤞🏼; valid life choices tbh because same) but she does take her craft v seriously! ride or die for gong ziyu.

Zhi 徵 - the Zhi household develops poisons

YUANZHI-DIDI!! this boy loves two things: poisons and gege. #1 gong shangjue fanboy at least 10 years in a row. parents died when he was p young, and gong shangjue took him under his wing. whiz at poisons and v fight fight fight (ง •̀_•́)ง. is suspicious about everything and VERY protective of his gege.

alright that's the main Gong sibs all sorted. there's also an assortment of Inner Mountain (houshan) characters that are v interesting but i won't get into because 1) spoilers, 2) this post will get too long if i get to talk about hua-gongzi and xue-gongzi/xue-tongzi.

okay so the Gong family live in p much a fortress up in the mountains. no outsiders are allowed in, and only a select few are allowed out of the Gong family territory at all. we learn that this is to protect the Gong family from Wu Feng, a spy organisation which has p much taken over jianghu. Wu Feng learns that the Gong family will be holding a bride selection contest thingy for gong huanyu, and sends:

yun weishan, a low-ranking assassin in Wu Feng (Chi, the lowest out of 4 ranks chi, mei, wang, liang), disguised as a bride.

her mission is to be picked by gong huanyu as his bride, and become the next zhiren-furen so she can p much feed intel to Wu Feng. when gong huanyu and the old zhiren both croak, her attentions turn to gong ziyu who is by that point already 😍🥰😘 over her anyway NO SURPRISES. the 恋爱脑 on that boy istg, absolutely head no thoughts only yun weishan at least 20 hours in a day.

shangguan qian, a higher-ranking assassin (Mei, one rank above yws) in Wu Feng

my love my wife her mission is a little different from yws. her target isn't anyone from the Yu household but gong shangjue instead. the goal is to get her hands on this secret weapon (this is also a v HMMM part of the plot but no matter we endure what we have to) that the Gong family is safeguarding.

the relationship between these two wu feng spies is so interesting too!! they're not friends, not exactly allies, but also not quite enemies. they will help each other out if they really have to (and only if it doesn't jeopardise their own positions and there is adequate compensation), but will also not hesitate to stab each other in the backs if it serves their respective missions.

i needed like 100000 more scenes of them together ngl

ANYWAY the plot revolves around the Gong family trying to Catch The Spy, the Wu Feng spies trying to Complete Their Mission, gong ziyu trying to Prove Himself as the zhiren, and ofc there's romance sprinkled around. that's p much the gist of the show.

listen listen listen... i know this show has a bad rep in the cdrama circles, i agree. the plot is......HMM and it tries to hard to be one of those clever mysteries when it should just be what it is which is p much an idol drama?? i mean...it is a guo jingming show, we weren't going in expecting to be wowed by the plot. i think if they'd just stuck to the basics, this would have been a stronger show, but imo this wasn't bad bad. the worldbuilding was good and the characters were interesting, and like i said, the whole thing is shot really beautifully!!

the ending was......but i'll keep this spoiler free and just say that it was HMMMMM and v unnecessary what they did.

with the preface that i watched it without much expectations as to the plot, i enjoyed a lot of parts of the show! it's an incredibly easy watch, and because it's only 24 eps, the pacing is quick and conflicts don't tend to drag on for too long. if you're looking for some easy entertainment, i'd say go for it, but if you have Standards regarding plot etc, this is probably not the show for you

[starrylayle]

Marauders Fandom > "There is no canon !!" and other rhetorics

Guess who's back in their marauders phase after 2-3 years of being dormant lmao?? ((spoiler its me lol)). Anyways, a lot has changed since 2021 in this fandom so I just wanted to talk about the direction i think it's going.

I remember in 2020-21 the fandom started to boom in popularity on tiktok --> esp with the rise wolfstar + atyd. I remember people were so suprised with remus' characterization as 'rougher around the edges' instead of the 'soft boi' thing, and how that influenced the new wolfstar dynamic. [Just want to add that the atyd characterisation is much more complex than this and its one of my fave fics --> I'm more talking about the fandom at large's reaction to this)

And since fandom is incapable of having two nuanced and characters who are not stark opposites,, their roles were basically reversed and now Remus is the toxic dom alpha male and sirius is the cute girlyboy twink --- which um,,, the oc-ification is so real its embarrassing but whatever (omg don't even get me started on jegulus 💀)). I just assumed these would stay as headcanons. But now we have people saying, that 'we barely know anything abt the marauders in canon' or 'isn't the whole point of fandom to make shit up?' which i have sO many issues with so let me just try and compile my thoughts into dot points for the sake of coherency.

'we barely know anything abt the marauders in canon' ---> First of all, Remus, Sirius and Severus are fully fleshed out characters in the og series -- why do you think people would care enough to create an entire fandom based on their backstories if they were 2d flat characters in canon?? Like bffr. I saw a post on here (forgot who it was by, let me know if u know!) that said, 'I didn't cry over sirius' death in OotP just for ppl to say that we know nothing abt him in canon'. Like, its just mind-boggling to me lol.

'isn't the whole point of fandom to make shit up?' --> Ok y'all. For a fandom to work, there have to be some guidelines, some kind of source material, some point of reference so people can build upon it and make content. I think we can all agree on that. One reason why HP is such a popular place for fandom is the world-building and potential plots/storylines. I see some people argue that jk rowling was a shit writer anyways so might as well contradict everything she says. Now, I don't disagree with that point in particular, Jo is a pretty mediocre writer and a terrible person. HOWEVERrr, I'd argue that it is a lot more fascinating when people expand or work on the concepts in HP. JK Rowling has a lot of great ideas but executes them terribly -- I love when fic writes do this, which prolly explain why I love atyd as it is still very much canon compliant but executes themes on class, disability and queerness that jkr could barely do in subtext. This doesn''t mean I only think canon compliant fics are valid. That's not the case! I think as long as the charcterization is consistent to the character and the particular circumstances/world they're in, its fine! In fact, I love seeing how the same character would function if in a different place! I also love seeing explorations of the magic and magic systems in aus or fix it fics (or even canon compliant ones) that still fit in with the canonnical system that we know.

I guess what I'm trying to say I wish the marauders fandom explored the world and charcterizations more deeply instead of creating shallow oc-fied version of the characters that fit into whatever's trending -- like just write your own book or smth lol -- booktok will eat it up i promise.

Also, kinda related kinda not but um,,, why are we romanticising fascists -- like babe no evan rosier is not your babygirl he canonnoically tortured multiple ppl and became a death eater soo... not saying that I wouldn't want an exploration of his character or even a relationship with barty -- (who's not some cool dairk-haired edgelord but a actually a cowardly fascist murderer with blond hair -- yes the blond hair is important) -- I'd just want them to be portrayed as the not morally good people they are. Like,, if u want to oc-ify a character like pick someone whos not a death eater or has little info on them like dirk cresswell or frank longbottom,,, or ya know,, one of the MANY female characters in the fandom ((This fandom also has a problem with women and sapphic ships in general but that's a whole other issue lol).

I know this 'babygirlification' of death eaters doesn't mean to do this, but it also ends up watering down the themes of oppression, bigotry, etc and leaves us with not nearly as complex characters. Also one of the issues I had with the og HP world is that JK will introduce concepts like wizard racism and slavery and then just like,, not really do anything about it or just have half-arsed redemption arcs whilst not ever actually exploring the root of the issue. And now i feel like the fandom is following in those footsteps unfortunately.

Anyways, i've been rambling for too long so I'll just leave it here. Sorry if this came off as mean spirited in anyway,, I just have a lot of thoughts™ and my family is sick of hearing them lol. These opinions are not set in stone however so I'd love to hear your thoughts on this subject! At the end of the day this is fandom and we're supposed to have fun -- so yeah !! thanks for reading if you made it this far!

[phoenixtakaramono]

I believe Cheating Men must die is a great story

It adds wonderful twists in existing tropes and genres. The protag isn't perfect but she's great, she likes eliminating assholes, which is valid

It's also interesting how Su Luxia doesn't have an identity issue since she lives under so many identities but I guess she's hardened for the job

For everyone who hasn't read Cheating Men Must Die (comic "Wan Zha Chao Huang" (万渣朝凰) by Shi Dai Man Wang (时代漫王)), this is an open invitation for y'all to read it. Genre: quick transmigration, revenge story. Basically your ex-cannon fodder MC, Su Luxia, is a System agent who transmigrates (isekais/ world hops) into the bodies of women of each world who are wronged by the Male Lead, Female Lead, another canon fodder, author, etc and changes their fate. I forgot how many chapters of the manhua there are presently but I believe the freshest ones that are still being updated in Mandarin Chinese are over 700+ chapters of art. (The MTL offers English translation, but y'all can also peep at other sites for ENG fantranslations.)

There are a couple of different summaries but I love this summary the best:

Don't you think that all cheating sc*m need to die? Su Luxia, an intern pro working in a transmigration agency, doesn't believe in that. For her, all cheating bastards need to rot in hell before they die. Or else they won't suffer the taste of their own medicine! Using elaborate means, she beats up countless cheating bastards and b*tches. Su Luxia sneers... "People take everything they get for granted. The more they get, the more they don't strive for it. An unrequited love is an example. There is always a sc*m who takes advantage. Since they brought this upon themselves..." She studies her face in the mirror and smirks, "... let them have a taste of their own medicine." System: "You're making that scary face again!" Follow our female main lead, Su Lüxia, who is bound to the Female Lead Counterattack System and transmigrates to several small worlds beating up countless sc*m.

Art bait for y'all who are still hesitating (and some of my favorite arcs, and those that'd surprised me like the arc where she transmigrated into the Second Male Lead):

RE: I have to agree! Ty for the Ask, @bernkastel11! I had a response ready for ya the day I saw this in my inbox and literally typed a long essay with links, but lo and behold tumblr ate it. 😭 But finally I have the motivation for a take 2. Honestly the manhua is a guilty pleasure of mine. The art's great (we definitely see the artist improve over time with each arc...even with the obviously borrowed assets and sometimes janky perspective, hahaha) and I love how Su Luxia is a badass femme fatale (white lotus & green tea b*tch), as well as her friendship with her cute talking hamster System. I also love how the artist is giving variety; it's not all just kicking butt, chewing bubble gum, finding romance. She's become an empress, made a friendship with the exorcist Female Lead, become a mother, led revolutions, survived a death game, became a guy, made a Male Lead yandere and obsess over her to the point of trying to hunt her down in whichever world it is, has some...questionable sapphic overtones, transmigrated into a BL novel, revisited some worlds with reoccurring characters, etc. They satirize a lot of preexisting tropes, and I love it when artists and writers have fun with the meta. I also like how they're slowly expanding on the lore of her interest with previous System agent Zero (the whole reason why Su Luxia became a System agent).

"It's also interesting how Su Luxia doesn't have an identity issue since she lives under so many identities but I guess she's hardened for the job"

The thing about QTs in general is the artist or author usually don't put much emphasis on the consequences of transmigrating so many times into other people's bodies. It's just a staple of the genre (because they're usually portrayed as badass, cunning, and OP, what have you with a strong willpower to assume all these identities, overcome challenges, and not experience dysphoria). So far I think the only writer I can think of off the top of my head that addresses it is: The Exhausting Reality of Novel Transmigration (novel / manhwa). I highly rec it. So far it is one of the few works where they explore that concept of how mentally exhausting it is adopting another person's identity as well as the consequences of "the characters" finding out (it's not your usual "oh, you hopped into my dead daughter's body and assumed her identity? Well la de dah, guess you're my daughter now." No, we're talking about the mother suspecting, finding out, being horrified, and having a mental breakdown trying to exorcise "the evil spirit" who's taken possession of her daughter's body). It also touches on the danger of an ordinary woman transmigrating into the body of a Female Lead in an R18+ novel where the Male Lead is a yandere.

Since you'd mentioned CMMD, I can give you several other links:

Cheating Men Must Die animated audio version of the first few arcs (King of the Phoenix), comes with ENG subs

Mission in Parallel 2022 Chinese short drama (it's the late 1910s socialite arc where she transmigrates as the overweight nightclub owner & wife of the abusive husband who gets seduced by a singer who's also a transmigrator), comes with ENG subs

Cheating Men Must Die (2022)(it's the arc where she transmigrates into the world where she's the villainess and the CEO Male Lead is self-aware, and the author has signed with the evil System trying to kill off Su Luxia so that she herself can transmigrate into the body of her own FL), comes with ENG subs

[hannigramislife]

I am not a dazai hater by any means, but you talk so respectfully (and make a lot of sense) about your opinions on him I can't help but really enjoy your blog! I particularly loved your ship opinions posts. Any other characters you want to share ship opinions on?

Hi friend!!

I'm glad I came off as respectful and left a positive impression on you! I do a lot of shit-posting about Dazai, but I do feel like I am at least fair to him when I am analyzing his actions? Other times, yeah, I'm just indulging in my desire to beat him bloody. Just, like, once. To get it out of my system XD. For science.

And the ship posts! Those were soooo fun to make. And oh, let me think about any other ships and my thoughts on them...

Fyolai (Fyodor / Nikolai) – Remember how I was like "there's just some things you don't write if you don't want people to ship two characters?" This is another case. This is the reason I disagree with people that go like "bsd is the only manga where no ships are necessary," like bro, there's so many things wrong with that sentence. It is absolutely necessary to make a bond such as these two's feel almost tangible to the viewers. It is essential to understand Nikolai's emotional dependance on Fyodor as a driving factor to his actions. Nikolai is orbiting around him, and you can see Fyodor having a genuine interest in this man, who doesn't play a big role in his grand plans. To me, these two feel kinda like Soukoku? Something something "the stars aligned so we could meet." 10/10 ship.

Ranpoe (Ranpo / Poe) – What God do I need to pray to in oder to get about 50 OVAs with these two?? Season 4 Ranpoe was the biggest treat and gift to me, personally. I love love love their dynamic so much. Like, yeah, Poe idolizes Ranpo, but he is now just as much in Ranpo's radar as well! Ranpo imprinted on him, he is Ranpo's emotional support rich boyfriend for fuck's sake. The way Ranpo uses his ability seamlessly?? Like it belongs to him?? Like he's so goddamn comfortable with it?? And what about the, "What would I do with myself if Ranpo-kun were to die..?” They're literally soulmates. They met and clicked so hard, they found each other, they suit each other, they complete each other. 10 million/10.

AtsuLucy (Atsushi / Lucy) – Firstly, I love Lucy, I think she's a great character, I love her design and personality and ability and everything. My baby. However, I have no particular attachment to this ship. It's not bad, and it's perfectly valid, but I don't see like- a need for it, you know? They understand each other, have stuff in common, and impacted each other's lives; I do love when two characters save each other left and right, so kudos for that. Honestly, they seem like they'd be absolutely amazing friends, really close, and honestly, I would love to see Atsushi have such a friendship, I think it would be good for him, but personally I don't see them in a romantic light. 9/10 ship due to the lack of feels I got from their interactions.

HiguGin (Higuchi / Gin) – I think that they're amazing and I would die for them. I need a spin-off of them. I need at least a whole WAN episode of them going on a date and shopping and eating ice cream and training and going to the beach– basically everything because they'd have the best relationship ever. I can just see them cuddling on a couch and watching TV as sskk fight over the last dumping in the kitchen. I need more about them like I need air. Also, petition for Beast Higuchi and Beast Gin to take over the Mafia. For reasons. 10/10 ship.

FukuMori (Fukuzawa / Mori) – Yeah, yeah, they're divorced Double Black and whatever, but let's be real for a second; no one can convince me that when Fukuchi first showed up, y'all's reaction was not, "Hold on a second Fukuzawa, what about your husband?!" The way Fukuchi behaved with Ranpo screamed new boyfriend trying to gain the son's approval, I was dying XD. "But Fukuchi knew Fukuzawa first!!" Yeah, yeah, I don't care– I'm not a zskk shipper until Fukuchi enters the screen. Let Fukuzawa and Mori be the yin and yang pillars of Yokohama. 9/10 ship because Mori is *sigh* a bad guy. Sad.

Odango (Oda / Ango) – They are married. No, I will not accept criticism. This is canon to me.

KuniBram (Kunikida / Bram) – My sister has decided they're also married and coparenting, so the conclusion is that they're married and coparenting.

I can't think of any ships right now, but do mention if there's one you like that I have missed!

(Honorary Mention: Dead Apple Trio) – So, we agree they fucked, right?? That wasn't subtext in the slightest, that was the greatest amount of subtle and yet ostentatious display of repressed homosexuality I've seen since SuperWhoLock hit this website. Dazai did not look that good to simply not be pushed against a table/wall. That's a disservice to him.

[dreamer0903]

How much I relate to each Marauders era character:

Sirius = 4, bad childhood, and I tried to escape from my home when I was 8, and then when I was 11 (??) but that's it

James = 7, honestly, I always thought that I was the complete opposite of him, BUT recently I realised I'm basically a people pleaser who doesn't want others to really worry about me 😆 so yeah, that was FUN

Peter = 7, okay, I'm not gonna go around backstabbing my friends 😉 but this guy likes food and sleep. He is a little shy compared to the rest of his friends, and I hc him as ace and Bi, so that's me folks.

Remus = 9, I am full of scars and health problems, and back pain is my BFF. I love to read, and I would actually prefer reading with a cup of tea rather than going out to clubs or parties.

Lily = 5, not much to say, I love her, but apart from -> I like to study and I am anxious if I don't, we don't have much in common

Marlene = 1, babe...idk just never related to her much, the only thing I can think of is the fact that I am vaguely disgusted by men lol

Mary = 3, just for the vibes, I feel like she would be a sarcastic girl and I am very sarcastic

Dorcas = 6, I am mean with people who disrespect me and my friends (!!) also kinda sarcastic, too, so yeah, I feel you, girl

Pandora = 7, I have strange dreams every night, and I try to interpret them as much as I can, I love to daydream and I like to help my friends, I want them to be able to talk to me about everything (I feel like this is relatable also for James)

Regulus = 10000, this man, oh boy, I am basically like him, he is me, sarcastic little shit? check, can't deal with his feelings? check, little sibling that feels like a waste and always compared to his big siblings? check, mean but actually cares but doesn't know how to express themselves? yes, likes to read, quiet, cats, and craves academic validation? Yes, that's me

Barty = 8, I would use violence to get back at someone for begin disrespectful to me/people I care about, kinda crazy, doesn't really care what other people think of me.

Evan = 7.5, for the vibes, I am the crazy friend but also the one that needs to keep the others in check before they go too far, snarky little remarks about people I don't like and I would insult you to make you understand that I care about you

NOW, those are my personal opinions on how I view the characters, obviously, so if you feel like "nah Barty is not like this," remember this is just how I view him and relate to him.

Maybe this was a little too personal but...who cares?

Love y'all babes, take care

[punkeropercyjackson]

Came up with a Jercy take/au so i remembered those hcs i promised @kitkatperce LMFAO Here you go Sar🤟🏼

Black4Black obviously-Percy's monoracial and Jason's mixed because Sally's afro-dominican third gen inmigrant and the gods are black.Jason's a natural dirty blonde and has brown eyes and lightskin swag /lh

Certified t4t couple.Jason's a wolfgirl turned werewolf-adjacent trans man who's the walking embodiment of positive and healthy masculinity and is fully transitioned with top surgery scars and Percy is a pastel punk trans woman who canonically acts extremely femme eggy so she's a blue hair and pronouns mermaid-esque gamer girl and her new full name,Persephone,was chosen because the og gave her Metamorphose,food that's been blessed by Aphrodite to give the eater their ideal apperance so it's basically hrt for trans people,as a gift and Percy wanted to thank her

Also transhet4transbi demi4demi and autistic4autistic but Percy's got no masking game and Jason's got all of it but he don't play with her ever

They were kinda meant to have a spark in every way-Tons of similarities but a few significant contrasts that don't lead to toxicity but instead them being complimentary and good for eachother,the beef between Zeus and Poseidon and how much Percy fucking despises her dad and Jason wanting to be completely free of Jupiter,Percy's severe older men trauma and Jason's defiement of what men are 'supposed' to be that's influenced by his transmasculinity but also a genuine effort on his part and connection with Percy that women are inherently better caused by the misogyny he also faced pre-egg cracking and even some afterwards from particularly big jerks and Jason being Hazel's pseudo-dad pre-Hoo and Percy being Nico's pseudo-mom before All That Fuckshit.Obviously they're not perfect together based off that last part alone and Jason's mostly a hc but it's certainly better than adultifiying Hazel!!

Percy's tgirl ass was glad to be friends with a guy who was taller than her for once and Jason found her 6' height hot on sight and immediately wanting to shock himself for because JASON THAT'S INNAPPROPRIATE,SHE'S A LADY AND YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW HER!!!!!!(There was minus zero nsfw thoughts going on and he's just a prude)

'She's Lois Lane........But with Aquaman's powers.Does that make sense?'-Jason telling Piper about his Percy love epiphany and she rightfully laughed at him for it and he fumed in humiliation

Piper is a false romantic lead but there's no jealousy on Percy part and none on Piper's part either actually because she never actually liked Jason and only used thinking she did as a heterosexual allusion to avoid confronting her internalized lesbophobia(which is the general term for anti-sapphic in case y'all get mad,i know she's canon unlabeled and mspec)and Jason realized he's transhet instead of bi transmasc like he thought and just had envy of Piper's butch swag so they were on great terms afterwards

Huge on physical touch,quality time and words of affirmation.Percy can't keep her hands to herself once she really falls in deep for him and he's loving every second of it but is completely oblivious to the change,they do parallel play on a daily basis but also share a few special interests now thanks to infodumping and participating in them together and they're training partners and aside from direct verbal validation,they also leave sticky notes with sweet messages('Even if you weren't perfect today,you're still my Superman'-Your Blue Kryptonite/'Hey,the sea may not liked to be restrained but i heard she likes this'-Bolt Boy')and talk good things to others even when they're not around

Outcast gf x Popular bf but they cut the bullshit and go straight to best friends with zero judgement and only sunshine and clear rain.Them getting together by Boo would be forced asf so instead they're a Ghostflower situation:Besties with implied subtle crushes > Significant seperation period causes their hearts to grow fonder and they're fullblast soulmates by choice > They settle into it for a long while so they can be a real couple and true true love.This includes Percy having a Jason tributed hairstyle change as she dyes her faded from gray to white streak sky blue and Jason asking for tons of Percy sculptures to be made in her honor and she's as flattered and flustered and teasing about it as Gwen was and Jason has the rizz Miles does too

Back to the Percy older men trauma thing,i think we all picked up on how Weird And Unnecessary Luke is towards her in canon and i won't get into it so it dosen't get triggering but even though he never dated her,his frequent and looming presence combined with his again canon pedophile status to her own best friends(Annabeth and Thalia)and another friend of hers she felt awful for not keeping an eye on(Silena),he left scars on her regarding manhood that only fueled her transfemininity and hatred of the gods and Apollo in particular due to his treatment of the Hunters and 'history'.Jason's entire Percy appeal is despite the looks,he acts nothing like how boys are taught to and punished if they don't and the closest exception is how gentlemanly and chilvarious is he but even then that's black dude swag specifically

Percy is 4d,Jason is 4c.Her usual style is comics!Starfire hair i.e down to her hips and BIG FLOOF,his is shoulder length and his natural very thick curls.They have wash day together and Percy's uses fruity shampoos and gets Jason to do the same and they try out different looks together-Percy's favorites are butterfly locs,a blk version of mermaid waterfall and jumbo ponytail and Jason's are twists,afropuffs and at one point he got an afro fade with a lightning bolt and Petcy damn near forgot how to breathe

Nico's also black(Maria was black-italian)so cute lil found black family sitch.He could NOT stand Jason's ass at first for no reason,he's just a posessive brat over his big sister slash mom but Jason proved himself not too much into it by defeating Cupid before he even got a hint of what he was tryna get out of him and Jason telling him that he only cared Cupid was forcing him into something earned him lifelong trust.They're an official quartet as off Hoo finale and Jason makes regular trips to the Familia Jackson household and they have both quests and normal adventures and they can be found doing just about anything together from wholesome down to earth activities to buck ass wild supernatural shenanigans

Hazel's also a lesbian and pastel goth so her and Jason's semi-normie ass have a lot of fun getting to know eachother again /gen /pos.Naturally they talk about their gfs with Hazel's love life being as Mabel Pines-esque as she is by herself and Jason is goofy black dad from a sitcom-coded and supports her in her nonchalantly macabe nature and you can just feel the rekindled familial love there like you can Nico and Percy and when Jercy finally have their bio kids,Nico and Hazel become the best Tío and Auntie ever

Jason is Percy's All American Boy in a black biracial kinda way and Percy is Jason's Girl Next Door in an afrolatina kinda way

Something something The Man with his head in the clouds and The Mermaid who keeps her head above the water meet where the sky and the sea do and their worlds are forever transformed by it as they become just one united

And since this is a ships trend with me at this point:Jercy-coded images

[genericpuff]

I think praising someone (Mongie) considering her incredibly racist comments and disrespectful behavior towards nonwhite fans, simply because she isn’t Rachel, is a bit gross

? I mean, yeah I agree with you, she's acted very immaturely and cruel towards her nonwhite fans. I'm assuming this has to do with my post talking about mongie's announcements at NYCC with her getting an anime? (if not please link me to the specific post for context). I don't really see any of that as 'praising her', more so just acknowledging the fact that she at least had the balls to step away from WT when she knew it wasn't working for her anymore, and the fact that she's managed to succeed separate from WT thus proving that it is, in fact, possible to succeed in this industry without relying on one single platform. The comparison to Rachel was more so just to prove a point that LO is in development hell lmao

I was more so just trying to praise the action in and of itself, not praising mongie for being a good person. I'm very aware of and have talked about her issues involving her racist opinions (the Vicky incident especially), I don't think her not being Rachel makes her a good person or good creator by default and that's not the point I was trying to get across. I'm not interested in continuing to read her work (like with LO I used to be a huge fan of Let's Play until it fell tf off in S3, then I found out about all the racism) but I can acknowledge the fact that she found a way to break out of the mould of Webtoons because I think that's something that should be talked about so that others can see it is possible to survive outside of Webtoons (not just for the aspiring creators, but also for the Originals creators who have spoken up about feeling 'stuck' with Webtoons because they don't feel like they can succeed without WT). It's just a shame it was, y'know, the person who has treated her fanbase like shit and acted out over very valid criticisms of her depictions of nonwhite characters. That's pretty much all I was trying to get across, it's not much more complicated than that lmao Weird analogy but it's like when you smell something cooking that smells really good and then you find out that it involves ingredients you can't stand LOL

But hey, you do raise a good point that highlighting the success of someone who's shitty towards their readers and how they write nonwhite characters is just giving them more press and recognition, so let's use this opportunity to highlight a not problematic creator who also found success in this industry while never once being an Originals creator - Alice Oseman! Heartstopper is wonderful and beautifully written especially in its characterizations and depictions of queer relationships and identities, the Netflix adaption is very warm and comforting to watch, and Alice herself seems like someone who I'd love to have coffee with if I ever had the chance. Go read/watch Heartstopper y'all , and remember to include non-Originals creators in your search for good comics to read <3 I'll probably make an actual post about Heartstopper sometime because I still need to watch the second season of the show and I'm sure I'll have plenty to gush about after I watch it just like I did with the first :' )