#so as a kid it genuinely never occured to me how popular it was

[charlottedabookworm]

Charlotte, as much as you like elves and angst and drama and you've NEVER read or at least watched lotr???

If you can't get into it, its fine, but i think you'd really like it. Especially the inherent angst of the silmarillion, and the amount of room to play in between the lines there is!

Just stay away from Rings of Power, thats basically very very bad fanfiction made by Amazon.

lol yeah as a kid i watched my sci-fi and read my fantasy but my fantasy reading was much more focused on vampires and demons and child spies that eventually transitioned into just. crime novels

the only part of anything lotr/hobbit related i've actually read was the first chapter of the hobbit that got read to me during a primary school assembly (which is the absolute worst way for me to absorb anything i read too fast adn find it too hard to focus on other people reading to me tbh)

i have actually been meaning to get around to reading lotr at some point it's just really not particuarlly high on my list

[bbeelzemon]

okay first of all was anyone going to tell me that ac/dc is an australian band. and second of all was anyone else going to tell me that they're apparently colloquially referred to as "acca dacca" in australia

[ncttytrack]

Favorite Flavor - p.sh (m)

Every little dirty story that revolved around older men you read that night, you thought about him. Since that day, your deepest darkest fantasy was your crush on Park Sunghoon, your best friend's dad. 

Summary: You loved your best friend, and you have known each other for a long time. But as you grow older, so does your attraction for her dad, Park Sunghoon.

Genre: Smut, Best-friends-dad!Sunghoon x reader

Words: 5.5k+

Warnings: Huge age gap (reader is 20 and Sunghoon is 38) Don't like - don't read, Dom!Sunghoon, Sub!reader, creampie, reader has an age kink

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You genuinely have the best friend ever. The first day you met each other was all the way back when you were twelve years old. All your classmates had decided to make you the new victim of their bullying, resulting in you not having any friends for the first two weeks of school. Until one day when your now best friend decided to sit with you at lunch. Being unsure of yourself, you had a problem opening up to her. Is she sitting with me to make fun of me? But you were wrong, so wrong. You talked the whole lunch period, making jokes and talking about your interests. That's when you found out that you both liked manga, and that she had a big collection at home that she wanted to show you. 

She invited you to her home later the same week, and you were beyond excited. It was a long time ago since you were invited to someone's house, that was not your aunt, or some other family member. You remember that you stood in front of her door, eagerly, waiting for her to open the door you just knocked on. 

And that's when you met him. 

The person opening your friend's door was indeed not your friend, but someone much older, and ofcourse, manlier. The door swung open and there was a man standing in front of you. He looked at first glance tall and slender, probably because of the clothes that he was wearing, a thick hoodie and a pair of sweats. His hair, which was black, was not close to styled - and it actually looked like he just woke up from a deep slumber. His face however was beautiful, not that you thought about that at the ripe age of twelve, but you still remembered how pretty he was. His lips were pink and plump, and his nose was big and pronounced, decorated with a mole on the side of it. During this time, he was rather young, around 28, so your first initial thought was that he was her older brother. It was weird, she never mentioned an older brother, and it never occurred to you that she had one?

“Oh, hi! You must be y/n, Im Sunghoon, Yeris dad!” The first thing that you could think of is how young her dad looked. Did he just look young for his age, or was he actually in his late twenties. Before the situation could get anymore awkward, beacuse you didn’t have the courage to answer the gorgeous man in front of you, Yeri ran and pushed her dad away from you and grabbed your hand to lead you up to her room. While you two walked away, your hand still in hers, you looked back at Sunghoon still standing in the doorway. 

That was your first encounter with Mr. Park, and when you were a kid you didn’t think that much of him. Yeah, he looked good for the average dad, but that's what he was: your best friend's dad. Even thinking he was attractive was so morally wrong in your head, so you didn’t let the thoughts get to you. You did however remember how popular he was amongst the other moms, especially your own. It was also then you discovered that he was in fact super young, being 16 when he got Yeri. You could hear your mom talking for hours about how brave Mr. Park was for taking care of a child from such an early age, despite the fact that the mom left when he and Yeri were 18 and 2 years old. You can’t imagine how much work that must have been for him, both having to think about his studies and his two year old child. 

It wasn't until you became 16 that Sunghoon had an effect on you. When you're 16 years old, you are well into puberty and the effect it has on you, both physically and mentally. In the same rapid speed your body got grown, so did your mind as well. Suddenly a guy was not only 'good looking', but put you in a position to sweat and turn red - just by the thought of being in the same room. It didn’t even need to be one specific guy, suddenly you found yourself being attracted to a lot more. Before, when you were glancing at a male classmate's hand, you didn’t think much of it. But now the veins, the bone and the soft skin made it too hard for you to concentrate. 

You clearly remembered the first day you looked at your best friend's dad the same way you did for the boys at your school. It was in the middle of the summer break and you decided to visit Yeri at her place. The sun was out and it was almost criminal how hot it was. If you didn't wear the light clothing you wore, you would totally be drenched in disgusting sweat by the time you got there. Your house was not that far, resulting in you always going by bike during all weathers to get to her place. The bike rack was by the side of the garden, and that's where you always put your bike when arriving. That’s when you saw Mr. Park in a state you never had seen him in before. He sawed planks with a massive chainsaw, which was probably several kilograms. His sweat was glistering in the sun, making his white tank top almost see through, and you curse yourself for staring at his hot worked out stomach. His arms were pumped up, and dirty from all the work. The sweat made his hair wet, making it stick to his forehead, before bringing up his hand, pushing the hair back. You are glad that he didn’t see you gawking at him, because that would be utterly embarrassing. 

The thing only got worse when your new interest in fanfiction made you realize your darkest fantasies. You had heard from Yeri that you could read stories about your favorite anime characters, and imagine that they were real and that they knew you. What she did not mention however, was that you could find so much more than that. You don’t even want to talk about what you used to read, but you could addmit that it was nasty, and utterly addicting. It started off light, even the slightest makeout story making your body tingle, but it came to a point when that wasn’t enough. So you searched for more, not knowing what it would lead to. It was then you found a story about having an inappropriate relationship with an older man, and it only went downhill from there. What was the problem however was the fact that the fanfiction could be written about anybody, but it couldn't stop you from thinking about Mr. Park. So that's what you did. Every little dirty story that revolved around older men you read that night, you thought about him. Since that day, your deepest darkest fantasy was your crush on Park Sunghoon, your best friend's dad.  

It wasn’t long until you were 18 years old, and you of course celebrated it with your family, and your best friend's. The big birthday cake, chocolate flavored, with all the eighteen candles was in front of you, and you were wearing one of those silly party cones on top of your head. They sang for you and you were the only one sitting down. You looked at the lit candles, getting ready to blow them out when the song was over. “Don’t forget to wish for something”, you hear a voice say that you have heard too many times to not recognize. You look up at Sungoon and smile at him. “I will '', you say with a small smile, nervously gulping down your saliva before looking down at the cake again. You close your eyes and blow out the candles, knowing exactly what you are going to wish for. After you opened your eyes, Yeri gave you a big side-hug before jokingly saying, “Omg! Now that you are 18 you can finally fool around with older men that you have read about without catching a case!”. Embarrassed, you lightly punch her shoulder and laugh nervously while tugging your hair behind your ear. You silently hoped that Sunghoon didn’t hear her, but by the look on his face, he certainly did. 

It was the same day but later, and a lot more people were in your house celebrating your birthday. Including some friends you finally have scrabbed together over the last six years. Because you finally could drink alcohol, at least legally, it didn’t stop you from doing so, making you right now extremely drunk. It was dark inside the house, with disco lights spreading throughout the room and you craved another drink. You wobbled towards the cabinet to grab the last vodka bottle, but right as you picked it up, a hand stopped you from going further. You looked irritated beside you, only to be met by Sunghoon. “I think you should slow down a little”. You look at him annoyed, trying to get the bottle back from his hands. But Sunghoon held the bottle so high above his head that you couldn't reach it, having to stand on your toes to even be close. Suddenly Sunghoon grabbed your arm with his other hand, bringing it down by force and close to his chest, dragging you in close to him. You breath hitched because you were super close, and he slowly brought down the bottle and put it on the table behind him. Before the liquid courage would force you any further, you backed away from him. “I think I am a little tired, I should rest ”you say and run up to your room. 

What you did not know however, was that you had left your phone on the same table where Sunghoon put the vodka. He knew that it was wrong, but he could not stop thinking about what his daughter had said earlier. What older men had you read about exactly? What if you were talking to someone and you were in danger. He wouldn't let an older guy take advantage of you like that. He did know your iphone code, he had accidentally seen you tap it in some days before, and luckily he remembered the numbers. He sneakily brought up your phone, and unlocked it. Right as he opened it a notification popped up from an app called wattpad. What’s that? He thought, as he opened the app. Right as he opened it he wished he didn’t, because now he could exactly see what you had been reading over the past two years. The stories were filthy, and so were the age gaps, all the characters were even older than him. He couldn't look at it anymore, not believing that a girl like you could read something like that. What he did know now however, is how difficult it will be to act normal around you. 

And oh, it was. Now you are 20, and over the last two years, from the day you turned 18 to now when you were 20, he acted weird towards you. Not that you knew why, because you never saw, that he saw what you had been getting off of over the past years. And he was getting cocky, I mean he knew that he was hot, and the stares that he would give you over the dinner table when you were with your friend was almost too much for you to bear.

Today was a hot summer day, and you were laying by the pool in your friend's backyard. It was the first day of summer, and you have always celebrated it with Yeri, even after you both graduated from high school. When you both were as young as 15, she smuggled in a bottle of alcohol to drink, not caring that it was clearly illegal. Of course you never get caught, Yeri makes Sunghoon go away for the day every year so he doesn’t interrupt your fun. Over the last years you had always covered your body, never wanting to show it. Even when it was only you and your friend, you wanted your t-shirt over your swimsuit to cover you even when swimming. It wasn’t because you were insecure about your appearance, you didn’t think much of it, but maybe it was for private reasons. But this time, it was different. 

Last night your friend called to make the not-so-awful news that her dad is not leaving for the day like he usually does, which means he is going to be there. You try to act disappointed on the phone, but you were far from disappointed. Quickly after the call ended, you searched through your closet trying to find something as close to a bikini. As you start to lose hope, you see the perfect one, a blue halter neck bikini with a low-waist bottom. You bought it a few years ago and you never had the chance to wear it. But now you did. 

When you greeted Mr. Park in the backyard you were already wearing it, making sure that your boobs were pushed up into the small bikini top. Throughout the day you had tried to do anything to get Sunghoons attention, but nothing seemed to work. That's when you got an idea. You laid by the pool and decided that you wanted to go top-less to sunbathe your back. Sunghoon could not stop staring at you from the barbeque-grill when you laid down on your stomach, carefully removed your bikini-top without flashing your tits, and relaxed against the sunbed. He almost burned the meat from staring at you. Did she do this on purpose? He did remember the things he saw on your phone on your 18th birthday, how could he forget?

Feeling way too hot, you decided to put on your bikini top again and head inside to cool off and grab some water from the fridge. As you open the fridge to take your drink, your thoughts get disturbed by a voice coming from behind you. “What do you think you are doing?”, you turn around looking at Sunghoon innocently and dumbfounded. He better not think he will get to you this easily. “What are you talking about, can’t I get a drink?”. Sunghoons sighs, put his hands on his hips and looks to the side. His foot is tapping fast on the ground. He is stressed. And his tongue pokes his inner-cheek. And irritated. You slowly walk to him, and tilt your head to the side. You look at him and scrunch your eyebrows, making you look clueless to what he is accusing you for. “Are you angry at me? I mean no harm, I am just your daughter's best friend”. He sighs and looks away for a second, before looking back at you with a smile. Right, Yeris best friend, he internally says to himself. It was a dumb thought that she did all that on purpose. “Of course you can take a drink, I’m just messing with you” he says and walks away. 

It has been two weeks since you talked to Sunghoon, avoiding him at all costs out of embarrassment. You can’t believe what had gotten into you that day. It is three in the morning and Yeri is already asleep beside you. That's when you hear the front door open. You didn’t even notice that Sunghoon wasn’t home, and why did he get home this late? Suddenly you hear more than one pair of footsteps, it sounds like someone is with him. Did he bring someone home? Out of curiosity you carefully walk out of the bed Yeri is sleeping on, and towards the bedroom door to see what is going on. And that’s when you see her. It’s a woman. Sunghoon really did bring someone home. And it wasn’t anyone, it was a woman his age, which means she was nothing close to you. You silently watch them, how they intensely makeout with each other and walk into Sunghoons room, closing the door. You can’t stop yourself, and walk after them. 

You lean towards his bedroom door and you can hear the sounds coming from their fun. The huffs, the puffs and the moans. You hear how the woman is calling for Sunghoons name, and that he should go faster and harder. The ache in your stomach grew bigger and bigger at her words, until you heard Sunghoons voice through the bedroom door. He sounds demanding, ordering her around, making her begg. Your body trembles, and you can feel your core getting wetter and wetter with any second. You have never heard Sunghoon like this, and you can’t get enough of it. You need more, your body can't physically leave.

Still listening, you slide down to the ground, your body still leaning against the door. You tilt your head back and take a deep breath as you slide in your hand in your panties. The fingers lightly touch against your wet core as you concentrate on Sunghoons demands, imagining that he is talking to you, that you are the woman he is messing around with in his bedroom. Your fingers slide in your pussy, imagining it is Sunghoon's cock roaming inside of you, stretching you out. While doing so, you use your thumb to massage your clit, bringing you closer to your release. It’s when you hear Sunghoons harsh demeanor switch to beautiful moans that you can’t take it anymore. As Sunghoon comes, so do you, making your hand completely coated with your own cum. What the fuck are you doing?You instantly get embarrassed, and run away as fast as possible to your friend's bedroom before you can get caught. The idea of washing your hands disappears when you hear the bedroom door open again. 

It is five am, two hours after the ‘incident’, and you haven't slept throughout the whole night. How could you? The only thing you have thought about was the fact that you masturbated to your best friends dad, fucking. Not being able to wait for Yeri to wake up, you decide to go to the kitchen to eat something, and maybe wash your still cum-coated hand. Just as you were about to open the refrigerator, Sunghoon came out of the bathroom door. You turned around and instantly gaped at the sight. Sunghoon had just showered, only wearing a towel that was extremely low on his waist. He looks so sexy with his hair wet, and you can’t help but imagine what he would look like without that towel. "Y/n!" What are you doing this late?” He says looking at you embarrassed. She didn’t hear me earlier, right? Not being able to answer, you bite your lips and look down on your feet. You don’t know how to face him after you heard him earlier, and what you did while listening to him. He cocks an eyebrow, getting suspicious by the way you are acting and he walks towards you. “I’m sorry, did I wake you up before?” He says, trying to bite back a smile. “Ah, it’s okay…” you say, still looking down. This can’t possibly be happening right now. He gets closer to you now, so close you can smell the lavender soap he used while showering. “Oh so you did? Probably listened on purpose” He says and laughs teasingly, forgetting that you are his daughter's best friend, and not some random woman he met at the bar. 

You look up at him to protest, only then noticing how close he is to you. Your hands come in front of your chest to bring some space between you and Sunghoon. “No I did not-”, before you can continue your pathetic statement, Sunghoon grabs your arm and lifts it up. He looks at your right hand, examines it, before to your surprise putting your fingers into his mouth. That was the fingers you touched yourself with earlier. You feel his tongue taste the cum of from your fingers. He takes out your fingers out of his mouth, licks his lips and looks at you with a teasing pout. “Aww did you touch yourself when you heard us? Did you get off? Did you finish?” He says, speaking to you as if you were a baby. You don’t know what you are going to say, deny? No, he already knows. Denying by now would only be foolish for you to do. It seems like the only thing for you to do is to stay quiet. The way you do not respond is enough for Sunghoon to understand the situation. He tilts his head to the side, using his other hand to tuck the hair behind your ear before grabbing your chin gently. Making sure to not hurt you. 

“Don’t act so clueless, I know what filth you are reading. Your best friend's dad hm? How dirty of you.” You look up at him, biting your lips, almost trembling with fear for what he is about to do. What if you are not ready to live out the fantasies you almost always had about your best friend's dad. “You are so cute”. Sunghoon swipes his thumb over your bottom lip, gently, getting more rough by time with his touch. His thumb slowly enters your mouth, first playing with your bottom teeth, before making contact with your tongue. He looks at you with furrowed brows and an expression that could only be described as arousal. 

His thumb is completely inside of your mouth, and you begin to suck on his thumb like it was his cock, looking up in his eyes. The rest of his hand is tightly grabbing your face, making you stuck on his thumb. He tilts his head back and sucks in his breath. “Just like that baby, soon you are ready for the big thing” He says teasingly. Suddenly you hear footsteps coming from Yeris' room. Quickly Sunghoon slides his thumb out of your mouth and runs back into the backroom. You quickly make your way to the refrigerator, acting naturally, looking for an early breakfast. Yeri steps into the kitchen and looks at you. “Are you seriously looking for food at five in the morning?”. You look back at her, kinda feeling bad since she doesn’t know what just happened. “Yeah, I got hungry.” You say, before grabbing yogurt from the fridge.

It’s Friday, two weeks after you sucked off Sunghoons thumb in his kitchen. Even though the natural thing to do after something like this is to avoid him at all cost, but since he is your best friend's dad, you can’t.

You are sitting with Yeri and Sunghoon in the kitchen by the table, eating dinner. Eating dinner with the Parks has always been something you enjoyed, but this is getting awkward. Sunghoon can’t even look at you, and you two have not been talking to each other since you got here. Not that Yeri seems to notice, she is all up in her own world talking about the latest anime she had seen. You try to concentrate on her word, doing your best to respond, but you can’t resist looking at her dad. You are such a horrible friend. 

When you are done eating, you put the dishes in the sink. Normally both you and Yeri would help each other out with the dishes, but she chose to take a shower today instead of helping you. She claimed that she hasn’t showered for two days and needs her one hour shower immediately. You let her get away with it, this time at least, and decide to do the dishes yourself and be a good friend for once.

You are hand washing the plate clean, and drying it with a towel on the counter in front of you. The Parks keep their plates on the highest level of cabinet, which is difficult for you to reach, making you struggle. That is until you feel a hand grabbing the plate above your head, putting it in the right place. You already know who it is, and because of the incident that happened two weeks before, you don’t have the stomach to say anything. Your breath gets heavy, knowing that the figure behind you is your best friend's hot dad, making you weak in the knees just thinking about him. His hand suddenly appears on your waist. “It seemed like you needed help with the plate,” Sunghoon says while giving your waist a squeeze, earning you a small squeak. He leans into your neck and rubs his nose deep, smelling you, taking in your scent of adolescence. He parts his lips and gently places them on the back of your neck, gently kissing you up your neck to your ear. He bites your earlobe making you hiss. It’s all going extremely slow, and it’s obvious that he is teasing you. One of his hands is still on your waist, while the other is slowly going under your shirt creeping up your stomach, soon meeting your breast. Sunghoon is still kissing your neck when he grabs one of your tits, gently massaging it, occasionally giving it a squeeze which makes your back arch.

It's when you moan when Sunghoon suddenly stops, he takes his hands out of your shirt and puts them on your hips, still behind you. “We can’t do this y/n”. You look back at him. His face is flushed and his hair is messy. “You are my daughter's best friend. You are 18 years younger than me.” You are still looking at him, frustrated. You need him, now. You can't wait any longer. “No Sunghoon, Please, I need you to fuck me” You pathetically pleading to the older man. Suddenly his hold on your waist tightens and he pushes his clothed cock towards your ass, making you feel him. You gasp, pushing your ass back harder on his hard cock. “This is how you make me feel y/n, this. I can’t be around you. And doing this will only make it worse.” Despite his words he doesn’t stop grinding into you, af if he can’t. Only the feeling of his cock pressed on your ass is making you tilt your head back out of pleasure, leaning on his shoulder. You look up at him with pleading eyes “Please Hoon, I need you, I need your big cock”. He turns you around with force, making you face him. His big hand grabs both of your wrists pinning them above your head on the cabinet. His other hand pushes you up, being strong enough to make you sit on the counter just by the sink. Before you could say anything he grabs your chin and kisses you roughly. You let his tongue take completely over your mouth, and it almost hurts how wide your mouth is open. His tongue is deep in your mouth, showing dominance in not letting you breathe until he lets you. 

He then pushes your mouth away from his, “Have you ever sucked someone off before, baby?” He says, his hand still pining your wrists. Not lying, you nod your head. He looks down at you and chuckles. “Of course you have, you dirty slut”. He says and lets go of your wrists, and pushes you on your knees in front of him. He unbuckles his belt, and drops down his pants to let his cock free. He is massive, and you can see the preecum leaking out of it. The sight makes your thighs squeeze together, something he noticed and loves. You look up at him, waiting for him to give you his orders, so you can follow him like his peasant. He smirks and licks his bottom lip, before biting it. He takes a fistfull of your hair, using it to control you and lower you towards his hard cock. You begin to lightly lick the tip, teasing him, before wrapping your mouth around the top of his cock. Sunghoon breathes out and tilts his head back “Ah, baby, just like that”. Looking up at him seeing how affected he gets by your mouth makes you even hornier, making you lean down on his cock even more. You remove his cock from his mouth to spit on it, which makes Sunghoon inpatient. He grabs our hair harder this time, and tilts your head up. “Open your mouth, slut” He says with a stern voice, and you follow his command. You open your mouth and he spits in it, making you moan at the ill treatment. You feel his spit sliding down your throat. He then slams his cock into your mouth, making you suck on it. He moans again at the feeling of your mouth, making you moan as well, vibrating his cock in your mouth. 

Just as you think he is about to cum, he slides his dick out of you, and makes you stand up. “Why did you stop?” you plead, wanting him to use you as his mouth slut. He grabs your waist and makes you sit on the counter behind you. He takes off your shirt, as well as his, as you take off your pants. “I want to feel you before i cum”, His hand slides over your clothed pussy, and he can feel your wetness through the fabric. You tilt your head back, leaning against the cabinet. The feeling of his fingers lightly teasing your clothed clit makes you moan. “You want me to touch you that bad, baby?” he says and looks at you with big deer eyes. You whine out a yes, before his hand rips off your panties and touches your folds. “So wet for me already, did you get turned on that easily by sucking on daddy's cock?” The sight in front of him could make him cum alone. Your makeup is smudged, and your lips are covered in drool from all the sucking and kissing. Just the way you look at him, tells him how much you want him to get you off. His fingers finally slip into your tight hole, and you moan at the feeling. But it's not enough, you need his cock, and you need it before your best friend comes back. 

“I need you Sunghoon, please I can’t wait any longer”, not having time to make fun of you, he has done that already by now, he quickly pulls his fingers out of you and brings his cock to your entrance. 

He grabs his cock and slaps your pussy making you let out a loud groan. He knows he is massive, and makes sure to be extra careful with your fragile little body. You both let out a relieving moan at the same time as he pushes all of him into you. The feeling makes Sunghoon almost collapse, having to tilt his head on your shoulder. Your legs wrap around his waist to push him even more into you, making sure that you can take everything he has to offer. Because of the risk of getting caught, Sunghoon doesn’t waste a second before fucking himself into you, pushing his cock in and out of you in a rapid pase, almost too fast for you too handle. His hand is still by your neck, biting you to muffle any moans coming out of his plump lips hitting a sweet spot. This makes you moan, and grab his hair to stabilize yourself. Feeling close, you bring your hand down to draw circles on your clit. Sunghoon suddenly slaps your hand away to replace it with his own, making him do the work for you. Because of the foreplay, it’s not long until you cum, and by the time his hard steady thrusts become sloppier, and sloppier you know he is close too. He comes into your pussy, and slides his cock out of you, looking down at your drenched pussy leaking out his cum. 

It’s then he looks at you with a stressed expression. “We need to clean up before Yeri comes back”. So that’s what you do. Sunghoon uses his shirt to clean you up, and help you put your clothes back on. You quickly do the dishes, getting help from Sunghoon putting it in the cabinet. After you have cleaned yourselves, and the kitchen, Sunghoon looks at you with regret in his eyes. “You didn’t do this because you felt pressured, did you? I’m older than you and would have easily taken advantage of you if I wanted to”. You look at him, smile, and walk up to him. You stand on your toes to reach up to his level and kiss his cheek, stabilizing yourself by putting your hands on his shoulders. You lean into his ear and whisper, “You are forbidden fruit Sunghoon, which happens to be my favorite flavor”

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I hoped you enjoyed this one-shot! Feel free to send requests. It can be everything from a one-shot request, to a hard thought that you want me to comment on 🥴.

[marciabrady]

Idk if it's a generation thing with zoomers being clueless about what the Disney fandom was like before they got into it but I've seen so many people deny that anyone was ever presenting faux feminist critiques of the princesses, esp Walt's girls. But I don't even understand why they deny it, it's become a huge phenomenon you still see today and it takes only 5 seconds to use Google and find thousands of articles, memes, videos, comments, etc calling the girls weak and sexist. I feel it stems from these fans just not caring about the particular princesses who tend to be hated on and don't notice the unfair hate because their focus has always been on the popular, safe princesses (ie Mulan or Moana or whoever). If any of that makes sense lol. Just wondering your thoughts!

There's a very apt characterization of what occurred and it definitely comes down to a few things. The first being that a lot of these people didn't really have a strength of sentiment, one way or the other, for the original girls and just kind of assumed and inherited a lot of the misogynistic undercurrents in those contemporary, popular social criticisms that were parading around as feminism. I think a lot of those people pretended to have that passionate, spirited outlook on why Walt's girls were reductive somehow, while never really having had that opinion themselves. Most of those people didn't really spend much time consuming or thinking about their films, but did so because they felt it aligned themselves with being progressive or having a good social image.

There are some people that genuinely did seem to have seen those movies at least once and continued to carry that outlook, but it never really seems to be rooted in anything we see in the films themselves. Those people tend to just view every woman that was prominent prior to the 1960s with the same reductive paint-stroke and feel they were all victims of being socialized in a different time (which is so stupid lol if it weren't for the women that lived in that era, we never would have gotten the social movements we have today, nor the progress we have in each of them; but many people have told me "all woman born before the 1950s are inherently sexist because they're victims of what the system was like" which...). Then, there are people who- again- have seen these movies, but tend to condemn Walt's girls and pin them as a symbol of everything that was anti-feminist of that time, as opposed to actually judging them for the contents of their character. I'll never forget a book I bought at a used store called "Where the Girls Are," because it talked about female representation in the media and harked back to one of my favorite film titles. I was shocked when I read the book and it talked about how Cinderella in such shallow, mean-spirited terms. It brought up so many questions...the author writes that Cinderella had to be attractive, but wasn't allowed to be vain or spend a good deal of her film primping in front of mirrors- and I uploaded a good deal of screencaps to the contrary, but then it ran through my mind...if the author had been aware of that side of Cinderella, she probably would've condemned that too and called her materialistic or looks-obsessed. So it isn't really about what Cinderella herself did or was, but ultimately the author must've just held her up as an unfair expectation of what she, as a woman, was meant to live up to and made Cinderella a figure of all of her childhood frustration. That tends to be the case with a lot of boomers that grew up with Cinderella, and even kids today that write sympathetic backstories for blatantly abusive characters, like Anastasia; they emphasizing with her, despite all of her privilege and the atrocities she's committed, because she would be conventionally unattractive in our world and they project onto her what she must feel and what her lived experience would be, while discounting Cinderella- because she's conventionally attractive in our world- as being shallow or having privilege. It really is a fascinating study of how people view the world, which can be surmised through their view of the characters and how they react to them.

Which, and I have to make this note, but I'll truly never understand how Cinderella, the story about a female orphan who suffered abuse her entire life and continues to build a community and resources for herself so that she can escape and transcend her circumstances, has been painted through history to be a story about women being meek and staying in their place and being complacent and perpetuating so many patriarchal ideals about marrying rich and feminine beauty??? Especially when that wasn't Cinderella's goal, but the goal of the stepsisters who are always putting themselves in competition with Cinderella and are actively wanting to marry money and take a much greater delight in material riches.

[realcatalina]

More mystery with portraits of Hasburgs

These two paintings are located in different museums, but are believed to be once a part. Currently they are labelled currently as Philip of Austria and Margaret of Austria, 1483, by Master of Legend of Magdalene.

And it's kind of a problem. Because at least the boy doesn't look like early work of this artist at all! Not even remotely close.

So other artists have been suggested instead, and for example the girl's has been most recently labelled as by Pierre Coustain.

Which doesn't make any sense either. Because while this was court artist in Burgundy, he specialized in making coat of arms and flags, sculptures etc. Like we can speculate on Pierre Coustain's involvement in these portraits(figures by Pieter van Coninxloo):

But only about the coats of arms. This guy wasn't portraitist.

...And you know me, I am nitpicker. I my motto is:

Never trust period label...because often times they are added centuries later.

So of course I checked the labels. On first glance, they seem as very genuine. This form of letters was around in 15 and 16th century.

...So I needed some help reading it, but luckily on wikipedia it was in description of paintings.

Girl's:

Gedaen Int Jaer ons here 1483 tsinen v en Jaerre/FAT LAN M.IIII.C.IIII.XX ET TROIS QUE LORS AUOIT TROIS ANS ET TROIS MOIS)

This was created in 1483 and she is 3 years and 3 months old.

(Very specific...oddly so.)

Gedaen Int Jaer ons here 1483 tsinen v en Jaerre / Fat Lan m. III c. IIII xx. z trois ou ve. an de son eage.

Once again it says year 1483, but that Philip is 3 or 5 years old.

Like how does nobody question this? You cannot be specific to month with girl, and not know how old the boy was!

Unless the label is not original at all! And likely not even done in 15th century. Because at those days, labels weren't really popular. They took off mainly in 16th century. And given the amount of mistakes I doubt Margaret nor Philip were even alive when this occured.

Because have they been, somebody would take greater care in getting it correct!

(And, If the text is from much later it is damn well-made.)

So if text is untrust-worthy, the dating of 1483 is also untrust-worthy, and then we cannot even be sure it is Philip or Margaret!

And though the boy doesn't fit Master of Legend's early work, he damn sure looks very alike to his late work! (1510-1527)

But then these kids cannot be royals from Netherlands. This is not its fashion from 16th century. We have portraits of Philip's kids raised in Netherlands, we know what they wore.

And while, yes the girl's hat looks bit like 1460-1470s male hats worn in netherlands, girls didn't wore this I checked. And given Netherlands were already back then northern capital of painters. It's very unlikely it wouldn't appear in art of that time from that country.

So possibly these are foreign royalty. But whom?

Well, artist started working around 1480/1490 and stopped about 1527. (Assuming we have correct artist.)

And the boy wears order of golden fleece around his neck. And clearly he is not adult. List of knights of Order of Golden fleece is on wikipedia and it includes when people got it and their birth year.

So finding people who got it before age of 15 in corrrect timeframe wasn't that hard.

Six candidates:

Philip of Austria (who it is currently identified as)

Henry VIII

Charles V

Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor

Louis II, King of Bohemia and Hungary

Philibert of Chalon

But at age of 14 and 13, Henry VIII and Philibert are simply too old...to be depicted here. And Louis II's sister was older than he. And we know what Charles and his sisters raised in Netherlands wore.

Thus if not Philip and Margaret, the only other valiable option is Ferdinand and Catherine of Austria.

(if the list of candidates was complete...)

And it just so happens that if you put correct dimensions to these(in cm), and put them in order of birth, they don't look so weird...

Potentially this might have once been full set of siblings.

Done firstly around 1507(first four)

and rest after 1515, when Ferdinand became the member of the order.

...And if we compare what the girl wears with spanish fashion, then at least in examples from 1490s similiar hats were popular(not as much raised, but we always see them on adults. Maybe then the raise is not so high, and traluscent veils of this kind even much later(those are with cofia de tranzado)...this shape of neckline, also very popular in Spain at least around turn of the century.

In my research into iberian fashion, i didn't go that much into fashion after 1505(not in debt) and it's not ideal that I point to examples about 20 years prior to when I think it might be.

But it is a possibility, and would explain the resemblence.

...

However then we have to assume 2 more possibilities.

A) the list of knights of order of fleece was not complete...and we're missing candidates...and then once again, where does the fashion point us?...Spain in case of girl...

B) But what if the boy and girl don't belong together?

What if they just had same background(popular in Burgundian/Netherlandish court from 1450? to about 1507)

and same dimensions(by chance, or they were later cut to make them same dimensions)?

(C)what if both options? L)ist wasn't complete and boy and girl don't belong together?

Well, the boys who got orders of golden fleeces as kids were usually royalty, with whom Hasburgs had friendly relationship.

Only other option already not covered, would be either Christian II of Denmark-but he was made member in 1519-so he is on the list, as adult...

or John, Prince of Asturias and Girona. He married Margaret of Austria, in 1497 and died that same year. And Joanna married Philip of Austria in 1496.

We know Margaret's portraits were created in early to mid 1490s, likely to be sent to Spain, and probably Philip's also.

But what if Spanish send reply? And Hasburgs send their own painter, to paint Spanish royal children? That would also explain resemblence to Joanna's children. Because boy would have to be her brother, and girl Joanna herself.

Again, the boy seems to be later work of the master, but it was a workshop. It is possible one of its member simply became more prominent later in workshop's lifetime and it happened to be him who was sent to paint the boy.

And i cannot get further than this. Dendrology would be helpful here.

However as these portraits have year upon them, the institutions who own them think they have the correct date already. We can only hope they decide to test it anyway.

[meadowlarkx]

Explore my bookshelf!

Tagged by @searchingforserendipity25 @jouissants and @swanmaids! Thank you so much 💕💕

An estimate of how many physical books I own: I really have no idea especially because they're not all in one place right now. Maybe 200-300? Hmm. A lot (to me)

Favorite author: Tolkien right now? Ursula Le Guin? I really like Sarah Waters and as a wee lass I really adored Patrick Rothfuss. Umm. I realize I usually tend to pick stuff to read from individual authors based on their premise instead of going through an author's repertoire. Sorry, authors. But it's genuinely hard for me to pick a favorite since they all strike different notes! Fandom writers I've known past and present also loom large here for me.

A popular book I've never read and never intend to read: Hmm maybe The Locked Tomb? The vibes just seem too ironic for me. But I might still read it sometime, it just hasn't grabbed me yet. Probably also Discworld. Sorry to everyone.

A popular book I thought was just meh: The Song of Achilles... Whoops. Anyway, I found some aspects of the writing style lovely, but as a story and a retelling it majorly fell flat for me.

Longest book I own: Les Misérables probably, or one of the big compiled editions of Shakespeare or Austen

Longest series I own all the books to: Hmm, I think A Song of Ice and Fire from my fan days in high school—but kinda by accident (I'd already read the last books on ebook when I was gifted them). Still surprises me to think I do actually own all of those tomes in hard copy

Prettiest book I own: Mariana and the Merchild... yes it's a children's picture book. And you've almost certainly heard me bring it up sometime. Lesbian-coded child-rearing of my heart. Look at the pictures!

A book or series I wish more people knew about: As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann—imagine a fictional microhistory that's also a darkly painted yet tender and gripping gay romance that's also about utopian experiments and the English Civil War. When Fox is a Thousand by Larissa Lai—this book is a dream, a messy and confusing dream, but I recommend it to everyone ever! Chinese folklore and mythology, queer and sapphic-ness, through time and space from ancient China to modern-day immigrant communities in Canada—so touching and really beautiful. Many moments from this one still stick in my brain.

Series: The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud—OK, it's been a while since I read this in full, and I just said I don't always like irony and these books are crammed full of silly little jokes and targeted towards a younger audience, BUT just thinking about them makes me tear up with emotion. Ages-old wry shapeshifting djinni, snotty-kid-becomes-politician, and hardened girl from the underclass navigate an alternate magical-spirits-powered British imperialism. It's queer and incisive TO ME.

Nonfiction: A Biography of No Place by Kate Brown, about borderland villages in Soviet Ukraine and the drastic changes in structures/social organization and identities that occurred from 1920-1950. Poorly said but I just think the perspective this book takes is unique and insightful and empathic and everyone should read it.

Book I'm reading now: The Bandit Queens and Lays of Beleriand. In theory I'm reading them hell yeahhh

Book that's been on my TBR list for a while but I still haven't got around to it: Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino and The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. I checked both of these out to read over the summer and renewed them like 3 times and did I read them... no I did not. Also a bunch more are on the TBR but you know how it is

Do you have any books in a language other than English: La Reine Margot in French is the one I tried seriously to read in recent times, but I have some others in French and Spanish, mostly from high school. 1 in Czech (a copy of With Fire and Sword I have from @sparklingdali for the pictures ❤️). Polish With Fire and Sword & The Deluge pdfs & a couple of physical books ambitiously in Polish, emphasis on the ambition part.

Paperback, hardcover, or ebook? Ideally I check out whatever version the library has. I prefer physical copies and I guess paperbacks, but I'll do ebooks if I have to! At this point I try to only actually buy (hopefully secondhand) books I think I'm really going to want to keep, because I already have too many to move with

Tagging @themelodyofsilence @nibi-nix @tuulikki @sparklingdali @bachaboska if you'd like to do this, and anyone else who hasn't done it yet!

[lurking-latinist]

reviving a meme I previously got from @swinging-stars-from-satellites

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

158 (one currently unrevealed).

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count?

103,185. I cracked 100k recently!

3. How many fandoms have you written for?

All the Doctors Who + Gallifrey + Iris Wildthyme + The Time Travellers + GoR etc.; Ancient Greek Religion & Lore; WtOVPIC; Blake’s 7; Dracula; Discworld; Windrose Chronicles & Sun-Cross series also by Barbara Hambly (one crossover); All Creatures Great and Small; Lost at Christmas, heaven help me. That makes nine as I count it. Most only for one small thing or crossover.

4. Top 5 fics by kudos?

Skipping kudos bot victims:

Ms Smith (13 and Sarah, fun with fake names)

don’t worry, he’s with me (Ten and Donna five-times-fic)

Vicarious (Six & Martha drabble)

Time Flies Like an Arrow (witches fly on a broomstick) (Discworld, Lancre Witches, having a philosophical conversation about time) (I have come to detest this title but I’m glad people enjoyed the fic)

to all our nights and days to come (Seven/Romana Time War AU)

It’s helpful to include extremely popular, well-known characters in your fics. Or, apparently, to write a slightly darker twist on your rarepair OTP and happen to plug it one day on a relevant popular post.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why/why not?

I do, because I love getting comments and I am always genuinely grateful to hear that someone has enjoyed my work!

6. A fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Wow, last time I did this meme I said it was That Which We Call. That’s changed. It might actually be to all our nights and days to come, or else one of the Six-post-Trial ones.

7. Do you write crossovers?

Apparently! But not much, and not well.

8. Ever received hate on a fic?

Nope, touch wood.

9, Do you write smut?

Not my thing.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

11. Ever had a fic translated?

Yes!! @sci-firenegade translated Making History into Portuguese! It is so cool.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Sort of, with Moki! We more tend to write sequels to each other’s stuff, but we also have listed ourselves as co-authors on a couple of things.

13. All time fav ship?

Seven/Romana.

14. WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Never say die! Probably the Eight/Charley babyfic AU, though. If I go back to it it’ll be as a very different writer and I’ll probably want to rework what exists and it’ll be technically a different fic.

15. Writing strengths?

Character voices & dialogue. Also, focalization. I always know what A thinks of B and what B notices about A, which is hilarious as I absolutely do not know any of this in real life.

16. Writing weaknesses?

Used to be length; I’m still very brief but I feel like I have more control over the length of a fic now. Like it comes out more or less the length I expect it to; I can tell what size something’s gonna be. Probably now I would just say plot. I’m not great at Things Occurring. And like everybody else I get hung up on how to describe basic actions like walking across a room.

17. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

Don’t do it if you can’t get the other language right (as well as how code-switching actually tends to work). Also, translation convention exists for a reason. Probably don’t pull an ‘opening lines of War and Peace’ unless you are in fact Tolstoy, in which case you don’t need my writing advice. Nothing inherently wrong with it though.

18. First fandom you wrote for?

Officially, DW. Unofficially, probably something as a kid before I knew fandom existed. Redwall or something.

19. What’s your fav fic you’ve written so far?

to all our nights and days to come, probably.

Not tagging anyone, but memes are for stealing!

[unnamed-axolotl]

Hey, everyone. I was made aware of the callout post made by @/antimennard on Instagram, and I wanted to share my side of the story, so everyone has all the facts and are well-informed.

Please do not harass anyone mentioned in this post.

TW/CW: grooming/manipulation, proshipping/incest

I'll address things in order of occurence. I've gone back and looked at some dates to get the most accurate timeline possible.

The Steven x Spinel allegations are a very serious thing, I agree. This was late 2019, early 2020 - I was 15 or so at the time, and I was in a group that was kind of organized by a person named Nano. She was an adult, and the group was full of minors and adults. The adults of the group were actively sharing NSFW, and were encouraging and allowing minors to do the same. We all thought it was okay, because we were kids. We, collectively, were actively groomed into thinking it was okay.

I posted the things I created because I was never told not to (not by parents, friends, family, nobody), and I was too young to know any better or realize that it was wrong myself.

After a while, a few of the members started to realize how disgusting the situation was. Members of the group were now actively agreeing that what they were drawing was incest. Me and another person, who I will not name for privacy, left around the same time, I believe. If you look at Nano's account (which I believe is still under @/what_the_fudge_nano or something along those lines), she IS a proshipper, and proudly so. She didn't have a label put on herself when I was associated with her, and I only saw it recently, maybe a few weeks to a month ago, when I went back to make sure I'd blocked her. I have cut her and other adults from that server off completely, and the accounts that I posted Steven/Spinel stuff on, as far as I'm aware, are out of my access. I have deleted them.

I will be going back to my account and doing a delete spree, because now I realize there are most definitely things that remain on the account that shouldn't be public.

That was, I think, the end of my experience with the SU fandom as a whole, actually. I didn't stay in it for long, especially after the show ended. I am not proud of what I did in the slightest, and I think I just suppressed all of it in hopes that I'd forget about it. I genuinely don't know why I didn't go delete things. I knew I was uncomfortable with everything, so I'm honestly, genuinely confused with my past self for that. At a point, I suppose I figured that the posts were old and buried enough that they'd never see the light of day again, so I just didn't go back and delete them. I acknowledge now that this was not smart in the slightest, and so I have gone and done that.

Moving on... When I was 16 or so, in and around 2021, I got into FNaF again after being out of the fandom for a long time. At this point in time, I'm sure you know, Gacha FNaF content was making a surge in popularity, and that was my re-introduction into the fandom.

Mennard was something that was incredibly popular at the time in the Gacha FNaF community, and since that was my main input for FNaF content at the time, that's what I locked onto. I did draw it, and I did post it, and I am NOT proud of it now. I bring that phase up as a joke sometimes, because I figured it was just one of those "haha cringey phases", but I have been informed now that it makes others uncomfortable. I'm sorry for the damage I've caused through this. I will not bring it up anymore.

I understand and am fully aware that this is not an excuse, but I feel it is worth mentioning at this time that I am autistic. I was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder when I was young, and I have been due for reassessment for years. My IEP states that I have a learning disability. I feel like I have mentally aged and matured slower than others. Again, I know this isn't an excuse, but rather maybe an explanation as to why my brain worked the way it did and still does. Still, I'm sorry.

Later on, as I matured some more, I began feeling weirded out by the concept of the ship, and the things I was making, and so I stopped. I moved onto other things. I do not ship or feel comfortable in the slightest with Mennard anymore.

Occasionally I will draw the two together as friends or found family; anyone that knows me knows I hate sad or bad endings, so I just put them in situations where everything is okay. However, I would like to make it clear that I do NOT see them in the way I used to.

The callout post mentions that I liked art recently that was posted by a Mennard shipper on Tumblr and Instagram. I'm going to be incredibly and totally honest with you; I did not realize. There was one that I liked on Instagram that had the mennard and michaelxennard tag, and I didn't even see that tag. I was simply scrolling through the Ennard tag at the time and liking things I thought were cool.

Regarding the posts that are still up, I have deleted a good few of them, but I will be going back and purging everything that I have not yet deleted. I apologize, sincerely, for leaving them up for so long. I'm not sure why I never deleted them, but I will be actively doing that as soon as this is posted.

Finally, I would like to apologize for any stress or harm that I have caused to either involved fandom, or any people involved. I genuinely hope to move past this, as I believe I have genuinely improved myself and grown from this over the years.

I do not have a grudge or sense of anger against the creator of the callout post. I understand that you and others were uncomfortable, and I am sorry for making you all feel that way. All of this happened a long time ago, and I assure you and everyone that things have changed, and I do NOT indulge in any of these things anymore.

Thank you for reading. Please let me know if there's anything else I haven't touched upon or if you have any questions at all.

[saraa-lancee]

If you don't mind, I think I've had a minor Epiphany about Gender and Names and I'm just gonna....

I've honestly really always hated my name. Not like in a visceral way but like. It just doesn't Feel Correct. It's Not Me in a way I can't explain.

I've felt this way since literally forever. As a kid, my brain rationalized it in a few ways.

It's a very popular name-- i was one of many. It was *the* popular name in my cohort until I got to high school. I don't know if that area was just booming with Raechels (and all 100 ways to spell it) or what. I feel like most little kids probably wouldn't love being one of like 10. It brings practical problems (are they talking to me? About me? Am I supposed to respond) but also like. Why does everyone (except for Ben and Ben) else get their own name, I guess. I don't know, I was in elementary school. But i always said I hated my name because it was so popular.

Then, I just hated it because of the way its spelled. I used to get teased about it. I don't think it was outright bullying because it wasn't ever genuinely mean but it still hurts when it happens a lot, y'know. It's technically spelled phonetically but everyone else spells it at least five different ways but mine was the Weird Way that nobody had ever seen. They'd seen Rachel and Racheal and Rachell and Raychel and whatever. But whenever other kids saw my name, they would make fun of how it's spelled. They'd intentionally say it wrong even though they knew I got upset (hell, some people still do that). They would say it wrong and say it wrong and it upset me and tease me for my "name being spelled wrong". (Like, It's not actual bullying but to this day when just about every one asks "is it pronounced Rachel or Rachelle" I flinch and i hate it. It's a professional setting and I was never even *actually* bullied but I still hate it).

Like, it's easy to say well obviously I don't like my name because it's common or it's irritating that everyone misspells or mispronounces my name (I'm side-eyeing you, DMV guy who took four tries to get it right). But at the end of the day, you don't actually really hate your name in those situations-- you hate your name being wrong. The name itself is fine. But for me, I realized recently that the problem wasn't just the irritation-- it was the name itself.

Like, when I think of myself, I've never ever thought my name matched, y'know? It's so hard to explain l but I'm hoping somebody might get it. Like, the name has always felt wrong on my tongue, on my lips. Ever since I was a child I just remember this feeling of "I'm not Raechel".

I went through a brief period recently of "i don't hate it, I just need to reframe it! I share a name with Rachel Carson, someone who was very important in Eagle conservation (something that is important to me)." But then I just really came to the realization that... I don't. I don't because *im not a Raechel*. (Any way you spell it)

I used to collect names (in a non-writer way) as a kid. Names I liked-- names I liked the sound of. Based on nothing, really. Susan. Margo. Carmen. Just characters in books or whatever. And I used to almost... try them on for myself. Whisper them and repeat them in my head and Think of them. But they weren't Right. And it felt a bit frustrating because My Name was Wrong and I couldn't find one that I thought felt better-- like shoe shopping but all they have is half sizes in the wrong direction. So I grew up, went to high school, and it was Whatever. Fuck it.

But now... I think I've always just been Like This and My Name just Didn't Match.

So I collected and tried on Girls Names because I was a Girl (just a bizzare Girl) and maybe I didn't like my name but I'd find one, as you do. As an autistic person, I think it just literally didn't occur to me at the time to consider "boy names" (black and white thinking and all). The concept of "other" or breaking a Labeled Box just didn't occur to me.

But a few months ago (maybe), something just snapped and the name Soren popped into my head. And I haven't been able to ignore it since. There's just... something about it.

At the end of the day, the name Soren has a lot of personal meaning to me, right from childhood. Maybe I'll decide it doesn't fit after all, who knows 🤷 Maybe it doesn't represent All of Me, but it definitely represents a Part of Me. (I don't think that makes any sense either but I digress).

So yeah, I've disliked my name because It's Not Me but I don't hate it because it Represents me. For now, I think I like Soren. I don't know, and I might decide later. I've never even had the courage to do the Starbucks thing (I am working woth social anxiety here) I don't know how I'm going to do this going forward (irl, etc) but for now, I Am Soren in some weird way I was never Raechel.

[bonnieventure]

10 facts for 28 ! ^.^

📛1️⃣ | '28' is how she chose to enter the competition, in a moment of glancing at her date of birth already filled out + thinking 'oh this is maybe silly haha i shouldn't use my actual name' and it just never came up a moment or need yet to correct it. she goes by '2' as a nickname

👗2️⃣ | her style of fashion is preppy, academic, skimpy, with a little bit of girly groove...?! default go-to outfit is a crop top, plaid skirt, and go go boots. wardrobe is mainly pink, white, red, & orange. hair is naturally brown, and she dyes the ends in a 'once-trendy' blonde ombre

💁‍♀️3️⃣ | to describe her in 3 characters.... marcia brady, cher horowitz, elle woods. that sort of perky driven optimist 'everything just goes my way !' personality that can range from oblivious pushy popular girl ego, while having moments of genuine sweetness, problem-solving, and wanting to do good for others

🥪4️⃣ | relationship with tuna fish sandwiches one might say comparable to popeye and his spinach...jk, gravitates towards to-go lunch time sorts of foods. always drinks a can of soda with a straw and holds food carefully like it is an insect to be observed. the first in the group to bring up meals and whine about getting something to eat, then barely has anything...!

👭5️⃣ | of everyone else she is closest to bonnie, they were best friends in childhood. she is the only person who knew 28 prior to the competition, and once again becomes a safe voice of reason to confide in like when they were kids. the person she likes least is mkay, who she struggles competing against in the job of 'influencer'. mkay holds a harshly opposite approach and perspective to the way 28 does things, so it really throws her for a loop... ! they butt heads in a way that causes her a great deal of stress

💰6️⃣ | not totally oblivious to the fact the $28,000 prize isn't a life changing amount, but she has a mixture of sunken cost fallacy and delusion of grandeur. it is more than she has ever had at once herself, and believes by fate she is destined to win it based on the crazy coincidence in amount. (hasn't thought through specifically what to do after winning, though. its the chase of proving this, specifically, was meant to happen for her)

🖤7️⃣ | develops a bit of a crush on candy (......candy crush. lol) as c starts to be a 'if you listen to me i can help you (us) win this' source of support. for better or worse they have a dynamic where they bring out the chaotic more unhinged qualities in each other when teaming up. 2 enjoys how c challenges her to Get Crazier With It

✏️8️⃣ | when she's not competing, 28 likes to doodle - her and the girls have a little 'rpg' (idk why this is my go-to reference to describe it. but think of the attic plays in little women) when bored in the evenings, they've been making up a cheesy thrillling action spy story where they each play a cliche part (hero, leading lady, villain, guy in the chair, etc.) and try to 'win' when they each go around adding another part of the story onto the pile. 2 draws these goofy plots out for fun to make the others laugh

🔮9️⃣ | her biggest flaw is being stubbornly rigid on fate, whimsy, luck, etc. if something doesn't work out how she planned, she is quick to dismiss it as not meant to be, instead of trying again. 28 views events as happening *to* her, rather than something she could have influence over 'when i win, it's because that was part of the plan' curiously she doesn't question much further 'who', then, is creating this plan for her

💭🔟 | when ghost gets in her head, it causes her perspective of reality to be sliced in half and divided up who knows where. she has no way to explain what this feels like to anyone else, how disorienting and sudden it occurs. as such she comes off increasingly spacey, forgetful, a daydreamer ditz - its an insecurity when others start to pick up on that. 2 is in great denial to others that ghost has that sort of power over her

[cartoonsarelife11]

Reblogging this again, this time with an essay (sort of) for TDKR because it has now occurred to me that it's losing. So just hear me out on this.

(Warning now that this is somewhat long and without pictures. Although I may add some later.)

Now as much as I love Weblena and Violet's introduction in Friendship is Magic as much as any other person, The Duck Knight Returns is just too powerful of an episode to compare. (Plus there's plenty of other amazing Weblena episodes that aren't as appreciated and you should definitely vote for as well)

Or you may be finding Darkwing in DT2017 fairly annoying as he gets so much screentime that could've been used for the actual show itself, and that I understand. Especially with the fact that Lets Get Dangerous is 40 minutes long and has much more going on; we don't need all the DWD episodes to win the poll, let alone this one.

However, I actually find TDKR a stronger episode than LGD. Yes, I know. And before you all murder me for that, let me explain myself on why it's so good and underappreciated

It's not just a Darkwing introduction episode (which by itself is already so so amazing), it shows DuckTales 2017's struggles of being a reboot of an old loved TV show.

There's so much symbolism behind this episode, such as LP and Starling representing the old die-hard fans who can't accept new things, and the "Darkwing: First Darkness" movie producer guy (forgot his name sob) representing the people who are just taking advantage of the old shows popularity to make something out of it only what they want it to be. But I guess Dewey and Scrooge play that role as well.

Then there's Drake, the fan of the old show who's making something new out of it, and mentions, "Look, I know this new movie's not perfect, but I really want to make it better. And maybe someday I'll inspire some other kid like me." He's not trying to ruin the show into what he thinks is best, he is a true fan who genuinely wants to make the best of something he loves. And that represents the DT2017 writers.

So go try and tell me the writers weren't using this episode to call out their experiences while working on DuckTales. This episode was definitely their way of expressing their intentions behind the reboot.

Now onto the second point. Not counting the fact that it is literally showing us what the creators intentions behind creating the show, the episode as a DWD introduction by itself is absolutely so genius.

For example, Jim Starling being NEGADUCK from the 1991 Darkwing TV show caught me so off-guard and is SO PERFECT AND FITTING. I did not see that twist coming. (I should've, though. I'm ashamed to say I didn't expect it despite the chainsaw and the other dead giveaway details). This gives us a whole new look at Negaduck, who in the original show, was merely existing to be an evil clone of Darkwing. Now he gets a more complex backstory and character just how Glomgold did!

Additionally, Drake's attitude of "get back up" was a really cool character motif that I think the original show missed the opportunity to give to their Darkwing. It may be just me, but I love this idea of Drake having this reason to be so willing to fight crime and never give up, its the extra character lore we never knew we needed.

AND HOW CAN I FORGET DRAKEPAD? (Not necessarily as a couple; I do ship them but this is not about that right now) Their dynamic here is just so powerful; no offense to the og DWD, but I prefer that DT2017 Drake and LP have something to bond over rather than the idol-worship dynamic they had in the 1991 show.

In conclusion, this episodes writing is so clever and I could spend so many more hours rambling about how good it is. It deserves to pass at least the second round. Unfortunately, this is already getting really long (also I'm on mobile and its a real pain to type :,D).

So please guys-

Vote for The Duck Knight Returns, one of DuckTales 2017's best episodes.

Do it for its brilliant writing. Do it for Darkwing's introduction into DuckTales 2017. Do it for Drakepad.

Do it for Jim.

ROUND #2

[passiveagreeable]

You ever just think back on something you did or a particular way you behaved and think. Goddamn, that was kinda metal.

In sixth grade, one popular girl in my social studies class took it upon herself to start bullying me. She and her little friends in the class all were in on it. They were constantly bothering me, she’d call me ‘best friend’ all the time (whether she even knew my name is a mystery to never be solved) and try to physically cling to me or jerk me around, ask me digging and invasive questions, try to get me to do their homework, etc. They may have also tried to trip me on a number of occasions, if memory serves. It’s been like, a good amount of time since then, more than ten years, so many of the details have faded away. But they all around made me uncomfortable, that I’ll never forget.

But here’s the thing. I genuinely didn’t realize they were bullying me. I was just confused. I thought they were being really weird and annoying, and just kinda thought they were stupid. I even helped them, sometimes, with assignments and explained class work, though I didn’t give them answers or do it for them. They never succeeded in tripping me that I recall, because I was then and am now always aware of the floor as I walk, and brushed off their split second attempts to do so as accidents. It never occurred to me to be offended or upset, or that their words and actions were supposed to be tearing me down and making me feel small and inadequate.

That’s part of why I don’t remember it vividly. Because that’s how little it really affected me, and I didn’t really carry it with me past about the seventh grade.

It was more than six years later, when I had just started college. I was in a small orientation group, and some of us had gotten together for dinner. One girl brought these question cards and we were using them to start conversation and get to know each other. And one of them asked some question about the past, I don’t know what it was.

And it hit me right then, all at once. It was the first time I had probably even thought about the whole ordeal since I left middle school. They weren’t just being dumb and joking around, they were actively trying to hurt me and make me feel bad.

It also explained why a different girl in the class, by all means also popular but in a different group of friends from these other girls, about halfway through the year very suddenly struck up a friendship with me. I was also confused by this, but she was just so nice and smart, so I wasn’t that bothered. I didn’t know why she suddenly asked to sit next to me in class and why we worked together on class work and projects. And when she was there, they didn’t bother me.

Because I didn’t see what they were doing at the time, but she did. She didn’t even know me at all, and she stopped them, I guess in probably the only way she could come up with.

But like. I can’t believe I was subconsciously such a secure kid at like 11 years old that a group of girls ganging up on me for like half of the school year just rolled off my back like water off a duck. I mean, I wasn’t like, very confident or whatever, I wasn’t that secure, but apparently I had an extremely strong sense of self worth and assurance that their every effort to tear me down every day for months just didn’t even worm it’s way into my head. Or I was just that stupid, which is also completely possible.

God, I wish I was that secure now. Or even that stupid. I’ll take whatever I can get.

[selormohene]

day 104 (sunday, october 15th 2023)

On inviting love into your life. I went to a going-away party on the Saturday of the previous post for a friend of mine who's leaving the city (and the country, and the continent, in fact) to move to Europe for work. It was quite an experience and I had many emotions, especially as I was coming off an eventful and emotional weekend (on some of which more later) and still dealing with the problem of having lost my phone (after having lost my passport!) and not knowing if, or when, I was going to get either of them back. First: there were so many people, and they all seemed to genuinely love him. And they had all come out to celebrate him in Boston, a city where people pass in and out and creating much of any community at all, much less one so large and genuinely loving, would seem impossible especially at a young age. Also, this particular person is someone whom I’d only really hung out with a total of four or five times: at the Burna Boy concert last year, at Takuya Kuroda in February, at a random event at Dawit’s (there may have been more than one of these, perhaps also pregames to something or other), at Newport Jazz, and at that event at Big Night Live, Uncle Waffles I believe it was. (I'm definitely overcounting or undercounting some of these, in particular the number of times I’ve seen him at Dawit’s or at Big Night Live.) But the point is this: just in that handful of interactions, he always made me feel welcome and I kind of did get a sense that he was just a really popular, nice guy. Like you occasionally see people on Twitter say things like "I was unpopular when I was in high school and I used to resent the popular kids, but then I hung out with one of them and I could immediately see why they were so popular.” And there's something profound about that simple and almost truistic realisation that the reason why some people are popular, the secret sauce, as it were, is simply that they're really nice, likeable and friendly.

I think the fundamental feature that struck me about him, watching him at that party and being part of it in general, although it occurs to me that this is probably just so deeply part of his experience of life that it would seem rather strange to formulate it as a background belief, rather than a given reality, was that he seemed to exude, in fact to inhabit, something that's never really been close enough to ubiquitous for me that it would go without saying: namely, an expectation that love will come into your life. Like he seems to be someone who is familiar with a large range of people, who is happy getting to know a lot of people and enjoying their company, etc. Whereas for me, due both to past experience (and probably rejection-sensitive dysphoria/weighting negative experiences much more heavily than positive ones) and to being neurotic and awkward and in my head and I guess not feeling like I’m wanted or whatever, or always having suspicions of how many people are wereys in disguise, like I feel like my social presentation is just a mess, or a maze, or a minefield, whereas for other people it’s a wide open field full of potential connections. It's like a mindset of abundance, combined with actual abundance, leading to greater abundance, versus a mindset of scarcity combined with actual scarcity leading to more scarcity, no matter how much you recognise this and how much you want to change it. Anyway this has been a source of pain for me for much of my life, but I'm not sure what to do about it. I've been embarking on this grand journey of self-transformation which is so complicated that I'm not even sure that I have a handle on it, and in fact it often feels like it's bigger than me, that I'm changing or something within me is changing me and I barely have any agency or control over the matter, and I just think I do in fleeting moments. But I really hope that this sense of expecting love to come into my life, and being able to invite it, is something that comes out of it at the end.

[were-wolverine]

okay let me explain my gay steve harrington thoughts to you guys

steve is desperate for any type of love/affection. he has a hard time trying to differentiate between romantic and platonic feelings (ex. robin but i’ll come back to that). his only “friends,” tommy and carol, were only around him for status/only knew the side of him he showed everyone else. he’s not truly known by anyone until robin.

in HS he’s popular and attractive, therefore expected to date/hook up with girls, so he does because it’s what he’s been told is “normal” (this is why he has a reputation for sleeping around in junior year, he kinda overdoes it because he’s just doing what he thinks he is supposed to)

then nancy wheeler comes along, who doesn’t care that he’s popular, doesn’t treat him differently from anyone else and it’s just… it’s refreshing to be treated like a regular human being. he actually enjoys hanging out her and cares about the things she does (unlike with tommy and carol, who he doesn’t really like being around).

he genuinely wants to befriend her, but has never felt like that with someone else before so he just assumes it’s romantic attraction (nancy is “the first girl he loved,” in reality she’s the first person he ever actually wanted to be friends with, not just his parents friends kid or someone that his parents approved of)

so they date (also nancy is a lesbian with comphet and was in love with barb). season 2 happens etc etc

in s3 he no longer in has his highschool popularity status, and is wrongfooted and awkward, not sure of his place in society. so he attempts to go back to what he knows: flirting with girls. which does not work out at all. but since he has a reputation as a playboy, he continues to flirt anyway (because who is he without that?)

then along comes robin, the second person steve has ever wanted to befriend, and he likes her even more than nancy because she’s snarky and funny and they’re a surprisingly good team. mistaking platonic feelings for romantic feelings part two occurs.

but then robin tells him about tammy thompson and his mind kind of shuts down, because all he can think is “it’s okay to like someone of the same gender? it must be, because robin is awesome and she does so, maybe… maybe it’s okay if i do too?” and then he realizes robin is kind of freaking out and he swallows thickly, chewing on his lip before just asking “if you can like girls, does that mean i can like boys?”

and robin freezes, extremely confused and not at all expecting that reaction but soon realizes he’s being serious and nods. “yeah, dingus. you can like boys. and girls too if you want.”

steve’s lip wobbles and his eyes are glossy when he whispers, “is it okay if i only like boys?”

robin inhales sharply and decides that she would die for this man in a heartbeat, and that she’s never letting him go. “yeah, it’s okay.”

she pulls him into a hug and they both cry, steve apologizing through tears for ruining her coming out and robin just giggling wetly and telling him to shut up. eventually steve explains it all to robin, and she tells him about how she realized she wasn’t straight.

later, steve will tell her “i think you’re my best friend,” and she‘ll smile and ruffle his hair and just say, “yeah, me too.”

btw i heavily imply that he’s autistic throughout this, so if u notice that u get a forehead kiss

[wiggles-mcgee]

Another opinion is that I don't hate Mabel Pines - I adore her, actually. This occurred to me because I've met a lot of people who don't like her, because they find her annoying or selfish, and I get it and can understand that perspective, but I don't feel the same. She has moments like that, but she's a sibling, and a child, and a human being. As someone who is or has been all three of these I think its perfectly acceptable. Nobody's perfect.

The selfishness I can see why people say that - Dipper sacrifices a lot for her throughout the show, and Mabel doesn't seem to return that. But even if there are less of these moments, we do see Mabel doing the same when it matters. And she supports her brother with her enthusiasm and optimism and deep, genuine care for him. They rely on eachother a lot even if they are capable of being independent, because they choose to support eachother. She's not a perfect sibling, but neither is Dipper, who wants to look cool and mature and fit in, namely because he wants recognition and validation and not to he seen as some scrawny little kid, and he has intentionally or unintentionally treated Mabel poorly because of it (Summerween is an obvious example, but his initial behaviour in The Inconveniencing also stands out to me as a prime example of this). So both have treated eachother a little bad because of a little selfishness, at the end of the day.

What is most important is that Mabel and Dipper are still kids - 12, turning 13 this summer, and that is key to their characters from my point of view. Mabel is shown to be a girl who's a little scared of growing up, and is just starting to meet the point of her life where people look at her and her behaviours and interests and quirks and no longer go "oh, how sweet!" but rather "oh, weird". This is really well emphasised in her conflicting interactions with Pacifica and her friendship with Grenda and Candy. And I completely get it. Dipper is a kid who has been nerdy his whole life, has always experienced being called weird and being a bit of a social reject. But Mabel is a kid who in elementary school/middle school has been popular because she is nice. And now she's being called weird too, which she has never experienced. The cruelty of others is affecting her too now, and she is struggling. 

At least, this is my interpretation of these characters. Dipper wants to not be treated like a child, to be recognised as capable and mature, and to be considered cool or fit in. Mabel is scared to grow up and lose the wonder she sees in the world, because being an adult doesn't seem perfect anymore. I may be projecting onto the twins a little, but its because I have always strongly related to the both of them. I've always struggled with liking things and books and media and behaving in ways which are perceived as childish and therefore uncool. I've hidden lots of my interests and fandoms because of this, tried to act like a mature person when I'm literally still a teenager. I need to grow up, I want to fit in with my friends and want to be cool, but I also don't want to lose my childhood innocence and wonder and creativity, even though to an extent I already have. But I can't go back to that era - the future comes for us all, and nothing stays the same forever. 

Dipper and Mabel have always represented this conflict I have with myself for me, and so both of them are dear to me. Both remind me different facets of my childhood self and my current self. I'm resolving this now, and much happier for it now that I'm less ashamed about liking supposedly childish things. And so I look at both Mabel and Dipper with fondness. Because at the end of the day they are both kids struggling with growing up in different ways, and so am I. I'm 19. Times are gonna change. And if I want to go back and watch and enjoy a kids' cartoon from about ten years ago then so help me I will, and I don't care enough about what people think of that anymore.

OPINIONS ON GRAVITY FALLS

OK SINCE YOU ASKED I WILL ANSWER WITHOUT GIVING SPOILERS FOR SEASON 2!! Because I know you've not seen it yet. Not sure how much of this is opinions and how much is just rambles though.

First, context, Gravity Falls is a show I have been obsessed with since it came out. I own a copy of Journal 3 and Dipper's hat and can't wait to get the Book of Bill when it comes out. So my opinions are gonna be biased!!

The greatest episode of Gravity Falls and my favourite of all time is S2Ep4: Sock Opera (watch the episode and you'll understand why, though please watch the rest of that season too haha). No further questions needed, it speaks for itself in every second of that episode.

My favourite episode from Series 1 would have to be either Legend of the Gobblewonker or Dreamscaperers. Both are fun to watch and have sweet endings and notes to it, as well as incredible comedy and great pacing. They hit so good every time.

Boyz Crazy is one of my least favourite episodes because it reminds me of primary school where everyone was feral about One Direction and I just didn't get it at all, but I still find it hilarious.

Most of my least favourite episodes involve some kind of romance subplot - thats not to say all romance centric episodes are bad, I just find it less interesting to me when it turns out Mabel's new crush is Regular Guy (Normal Man) and not five gnomes in a hoodie. Or oh look Dipper is crushing on Wendy, what's new? Its probably because I never really related to it.

My favourite character is Grunkle Stan. He's funny and a weird old man, as Mabel eloquently puts it. He's gruff, sweaty, wrinkled, and a bit of an asshole. And he cares so much for his family. He tries and thats what counts. Also his absolute lack of shame about cash - like in Double Dipper where he launches himself at that dollar bill - and conning and scamming tourists out of their money is so hilarious to me. Grunkle Stan is dear to my heart and will always be my favourite character.

Pacifica is another one of my favourite characters! She gets a fair bit more character development in the second series, and I still find myself laughing at every interaction the Pines family has with her when I rewatch the show - she's hilarious in every sense of the word. Her growth as a person is really nice to watch.

If I met Tambry irl I think I would inevitably punch her, I cannot lie, she frustrates me too much

Bill Cipher my beloved <3 (you'll see why when he shows up again in season 2)

I have rewatched this show many times since it came out and I firmly believe that so many of the jokes still hold up to this day. It shaped my sense of humour greatly. And the best bit about being older is that now I get all the jokes I didn't get as a kid!!!

My favourite running joke is Guy Who Married A Woodpecker!! He just shows up every now and again and we see a snapshot of his failing marriage and I love him.

The pool guy is objectively and unironically one of the funniest people alive. As is Quentin Trembley, 8½th President of the United States, who also absolutely shaped my personality and humour.

Certain episodes in the later half of Series 2 tone wise feel like they should have been at the start of the series or in Series 1, and the series does suffer for it in my opinion. Of course its a kids show, you don't want it to get too dark, but I feel like some parts of that series just felt inconsistent to the rest of it. Of course the rest of that series is absolutely stellar in my opinion, most of my favourite episodes are in that series, so its swings and roundabouts I suppose.

The Wendy crush is nothing short of frustrating to me every time I see it. Had to reiterate this, and I get that people don't get over crushes quickly, but especially in Series 2 it frustrates me. tbh I probably had a crush on Wendy too as a kid I cannot lie.

The ending is so sweet to me and makes me want to cry or actually cry every time, not just for nostalgia, but because it hits me hard and emotional in so many different ways. No spoilers yet!

And ending it with a really strong opinion here, you should watch Series 2 (a shameless suggestion, I don't regret it)

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Idia, Leona: Oh, Brother!!

I don’t know why, but Idia’s cap reminds me of Dipper Pines from Gravity Falls—

Also you didn’t hear this from me, but I was definitely not staring at Leona’s chest and shoulder in the Groovy art 😂

Imagine this...

Idia stared.

He stared and stared and stared at his birthday interviewer.

Leona Kingscholar, Savanaclaw’s infamous dorm leader. Broad shoulders and muscled frame, a mess of unruly hair, a handsome face that commanded attention, striking eyes, that signature scar... And a haughty aura that just screamed “I’m an all-around pompous meathead”!

Idia knew his type.

Leona was the sort of person that walked with a lazy swagger, his pride smelted and shaped into a crown, loyal minions at his beck and call. The scar threading through his left eye gave him a foreboding look--perhaps indicating a troubled past, a wounded heart. Definitely some kind of a bad boy.

If Leona were a candidate in some cheesy dating simulator, there was no doubt in Idia’s mind that he’d be a popular pick.

The appeal of a character like Leona-shi... It’s to ‘fix’ his broken self so he can give a genuine smile... But that line of thinking is all wrong! Totally wrong! Leona-shi’s true charm points are... his fluffy ears and tail, obviously!!

Idia looked on longingly at the beastman’s twitching ears, his swishing tail. W-Would I die if I asked to touch them?

“... Oi.”

“E-Eeek! Wh-What is it?”

“Stop staring at me, you gloomy bastard. I’m interviewing you, not babysitting you.” Leona scowled. “Those sparkling, eager eyes... Tch. They remind me too much of a certain little furball. It’s gross.”

“S-Sorry! Sorry for being gross!!” Idia bounded back, putting some distance between him and his fellow dorm leader. The less he got on Leona’s bad side, the better. “But... I-I didn’t know you had a little brother too.”

“Please,” Leona scoffed. “I am the little brother. The furball I was talking about is the king’s kid.”

“E-Eeeeeh?! Th-Then... The mega-bad boy meathead Leona-shi is someone else’s little brother?!”

“... What are you going on about?” The beastman’s scowl deepened. “Is it really so shocking to learn that? I have my delicate side too, you know.”

“I-It’s just... When I picture a ‘little brother’... I-I think of someone Ortho’s age... curious and loving and everything...”

“Hah!” Leona threw his head back. His laugh was low and mocking--a tone that Idia didn’t take well to. “You’ve got some strange ideas in your head, Daikon Sprout.”

“What... What’s so funny?”

“Has the thought ever occurred to you that not all families are as closely knit as your own?” Leona’s words were flecked with bitterness. “Older siblings and younger ones... They’ll fight, they’ll disagree, they’ll grow apart from one another.”

One will rise, and the other will fall into obscurity.

“O-Of course it has... I-It’s just not something I like to think about...”

It’s not something I want to think about. Fighting, disagreeing, growing apart from Ortho... Losing him... That’s not something I ever want to think about.

“Hmph.” Leona turned his head away. His tail cracked like a whip. “It’s another year gone by. Say what you will, but the kid won’t be with you forever. Being overly attached to him will only hurt you in the long run.”

Idia’s chest twinged, heartstrings plucked by the painful reminder that, someday, he would no longer be with Ortho. Flesh and bone would never outlive metal and magic, no matter how much of a genius he commended himself to be. Idia hanged his head, hugging his arms to keep stable.

I was right. Leona-shi... he’s definitely ‘bad’.

The lion regarded the birthday boy and his slumped shoulders with a cool gaze. Pressing a hand to the back of his neck, Leona expelled a groan. “... Relax. No need to be so depressed.”

“H-Huh?” Idia’s eyes darted up. Are... Are my ears deceiving me, or did Leona-shi say something semi-encouraging just now?!

“As gloomy as you are,” the beastman continued, “it looks like the one of the few things you can afford to be optimistic about is that little brother of yours. That precious brotherly bond... I may not understand it, but don’t let my humble opinion eat away at your happiness.”

“L-Leona-shi... I-I didn’t think you had it in you to give such an inspiring speech... Sure, I guess you can be a delinquent with a black soul and no motivation whatsoever, but e-even someone like you has the capacity to be decent...”

Leona made a face. “Decent, am I? We’ll see about that.”

“S-See about wha...”

SPLAT!!

With cat-like movements--quick, lithe--Leona had snatched a pie off of a nearby table and launched it at Idia. Whipped cream splattered in the birthday boy’s face, and across his clothes. Idia’s mouth was caught in a shocked “o” before curling into a frown, his eyes turning cold and dead.

“ L e o n a - s h i . . .” He gnashed his sharp teeth, his face a mask of peak passive aggressiveness--the sort of face he usually reserved for the saltiest of gaming nights.

“Uh-oh. Looks like I’ve made you mad.” Leona didn’t sound too threatened by the prospect, instead meeting Idia with a smirk and two hands raised in an act of innocence. “What ever am I to do?”

A revenge battle to the death would soon ensue.