#so i guess you could say it's really just the basic premise of it that's real:

[notsocheezy]

Brain Curd #50

Brain Curds are lightly edited flash fiction - practically first drafts - posted daily and sometimes written with the express intention of being terrible… but, you know, in an endearing way. Please enjoy.

The sound of Pomp & Circumstance filled the entire hall, weaving through the ears of proud parents and extended relatives. Backstage, the graduates stood in line, waiting for their turn on stage, but none was more excited than the one and only salutatorian, Patty Ward. Unlike most other people, Patty relished public speaking.

While the five valedictorians discussed their division of labor in the corner, Patty stood confident in the knowledge that she’d already practiced and memorized her speech over the previous week. She was going to kill - absolutely kill.

The valedictorians went up first, nearly tripping over each others’ gowns on the way to the podium. The tall one took out a stack of index cards and tapped them on the podium before flipping through them and handing them out to the other four.

“Wait, wait, wait,” the short one whispered. “Why do I have three cards? The rest of you only have two.”

“Weren’t you paying attention?” The blonde one asked. “We agreed that since you go last, you have to take the extra card.”

“Where was I when you made that decision?”

“You know what, actually,” the bearded one rubbed his hairy chin. “I think you might have been in the bathroom. But it’s just the closing remarks.”

“Guys!”

“Look, it’s not a big deal, I’ll take the extra card.” The brunette swiped the card from the short one and added it to her stack. “Can we please all get along? This is the last time we’ll all be in the same room together. It’s important.”

Patty agreed. In fact, she was counting on that fact for her speech.

The tall one approached the microphone first, and awkwardly read from his cards. His part of the speech was something about unity in the face of challenges, but it was brief since each of the valedictorians only got about twelve seconds for their portion of the speech.

The rest of them gave similarly stilted reads of their lines, which for valedictorians seemed poorly written and low effort. They just didn’t seem to have anything to say.

Single file, the five of them left the stage, and Patty knew it was her turn. She got a whole minute all to herself. She confidently approached the podium, staring out into the massive crowd of faceless silhouettes. There was no need to ‘imagine them in their underwear’, or whatever people always said to do. Each person ceased to be human, ceased to be an individual with complex thoughts and motives. They were all part of the hive mind known as the audience. If one laughed, all laughed. A clap could begin anywhere and radiate out at the speed of sound.

Patty adjusted the microphone to her preference and slid her finger along the remote in her pocket. It was smooth to the touch.

“Greetings, all! It is my honor to speak to you all today and to congratulate the Class of 2017 for their great achievement. We did it!”

She held her arms in the air and the cheers quaked the room, localized in the teacher region of the audience.

She continued. “But it wasn’t easy. We struggled, we persevered. We studied, we procrastinated. We tried, and sometimes, we failed. Except the valedictorians, of course.”

She gestured to stage left, where the five had gone and now stood in the shadows. The crowd erupted into laughter. It didn’t take much.

“Me, personally? I stand before you as salutatorian - that is, the second-best - because I worked hard. Because I never gave up. Because of that one B in AP History.”

Everyone laughed at that one, as expected, and no one laughed harder than Mr. Idolt, the teacher who gave her the grade that sealed her fate. The one semester in which she didn’t get an A in every class. She took this moment of pause to pull the remote from her pocket and hold it up in the air.

“The funniest part is I’m not fucking joking.”

No one in the crowd could tell what she was holding, but the quiet that immediately took the room told her that she had them worried.

“This remote is attached to a series of explosives I have placed around the building. I don’t want to have to use it, but I did not come THIS FAR to leave with a goddamn three-point-nine-seven GPA! I get a four-point-oh or every one of us turns into a crater!”

Patty pointed at Mr. Idolt. “Come on up here!”

He stumbled, clearly scared out of his mind, across the row of seats to the aisle and walked toward the stage. He climbed up awkwardly and brushed himself off before hesitantly approaching the podium.

“Why don’t you tell them all why I ended up with a B, teach?” She pushed the microphone toward him.

“Uh…” the microphone popped and he pulled back from it by an inch. “I didn’t think your essay was quite up to par with AP grading guidelines. For a nine. I gave you an eight instead. That is still very good.”

“Were there better essays?”

“I have seen many -”

“Were there better essays in this graduating class?”

He adjusted his glasses, which slipped down his nose from all the nervous sweat. “Uh… no. No, I don’t suppose there were.”

Patty pointed back off stage. “So why did you give blondie over there a nine?”

The crowd gasped. Idolt began shaking and looked toward his wife, who shook her head in disapproval. He gulped.

Patty rubbed her thumb along the contours of the button on the remote while refusing to break eye contact with the man.

“I… I must have made a mistake. She… didn’t deserve it. It… wasn’t as good as yours. I’ll - I’ll fix it, okay! I will!”

“You’ll give me an A for that semester?”

“Yes! Yes! You were my best student, you always were!” He started crying and fell to his knees.

Patty looked at the crowd, satisfied by her revenge, and clicked the button. Contrary to what she had claimed would happen, however, no one exploded into a million pieces. The projector screen descended behind her on stage and the lights dimmed. She moved the microphone back into place for her to speak into it.

“And with that, ladies and gentlemen, I leave you as the sixth valedictorian of the Class of 2017. Please enjoy the rest of the ceremony.”

[euphoricimagination]

𝓗𝓪𝓲𝓴𝔂𝓾𝓾 𝓫𝓸𝔂𝓼 𝓶𝓮𝓮𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓪 𝓹𝓲𝓬𝓴-𝓶𝓮 𝓰𝓲𝓻𝓵

Feat. Nekoma & Inarizaki -> Part 2 [Aoba Johsai & Fukurodani]

Premise: You had to do something else for a week and a half, leaving the boys alone for that period. Although they told the coaches that they could survive without you, the coaches ask a girl to help them out instead. They weren’t particularly excited, which got worse the more they spent time with her

Nekoma

You arrived later than you expected, just on time for the club, So you didn’t get to see your dear team until much later

When you enter the gym, you see a…strange view

No one in the team was happy

Yaku and Kai didn’t have any expressions on them, Lev was pouting aggressively, Fukunaga had a frown, Yamamoto was mumbling words and Kenma was nowhere to be seen.

The girl that was supposed to replace you for the week was walking besides a very annoyed Kuroo, who was pushing the cart with the balls

Weird, considering that doing that was the basics for being a manager

They were so out of it that none notice the sound of your shoes, weird considering how attentive they are

“Ah Kuroo senpai, thank God you helped me! I’m so small and weak that I wasn’t able to push it over” you heard her say, making you cringe at the sentence

“Yeah, whatever” said a disinteresting Kuroo

And that’s when you confirm that something was really wrong, Kuroo was never this dismissive

“What’s happening? Everything ok?” you asked making Kuroo turn around with a relief smile on

“Oh hi, Kuroo senpai was just helping me since you know, I’m so small and weak” says fluttering her eyes at him

“It’s just pushing the cart. It has wheels on it…” You gave a disbelief look to Kuroo, who just rolls his eyes “it’s not that hard”

“Maybe for someone as big as you it wouldn’t be so difficult!”

That was it for Kuroo, who quickly move to your side giving you a hug

“Well, guess you can leave now that our manager is back. Bye”

"Kuroo-senpai!! Stooop! I can stay here too!” says stomping her feet

The whole commotion cause everyone to look at you, and you swear you heard a collective sigh full of relief

Quickly enough you felt a bunch of arms around you, a bunch of head pats and a ton of screams of your name

Which quickly was interrupted by a loud scream by the girl “KYANMA!!”

You look at the stairs where Kenma was standing shaking slightly with big eyes. The girl tried to get close to him, yelling “They are being mean, Kyanma!” but he just runs away towards you

Yes. Run. He hated her, she was so loud and desperate, Kenma literally couldn’t stand her.

“You’re back” says Kenma hiding behind you, showing more happiness that you ever have seen from him

So happy that he went to hug you tightly, he really missed you

“Anyways, now that our team is finally complete you can leave. Please go out” says Kuroo

“Agh! Fine! I’m way too good for you anyways!”

She sends you a look full of venom, but you didn’t really notice it

After all, you had a clingy Kenma hugging you tightly and the rest of the team waiting for one

Inarizaki

After your small break reached an end you finally were ready to go back to your boys

They were having a small hangout in the Miya household

They tried to be sneaky about it, not wanting to invite the girl that was replacing you

But sadly for them, she somehow knew and crash into them before you could arrive

She’s the first person you see when you enter their house with the spare key they gave you

“Who are you?” she asks with her eyebrow raising

“Ehh…I’m Yn, their manager. You helped them while i was out?” You ask back, confused at her sudden presence

“Yes…I actually think I should be the new manager! After all I play like 17 sports and definitely know more than you about sports. What do you think this is? Cheer? Not like it’s a sport, but whatever” she says with a overconfident smirk

In the meantime the guys that were already in the house starting to appear into the hall, confused at how loud her voice was being

“Anyways! Why don’t you leave? A girl like you probably doesn’t even know a thing about sports! We’re gonna play videogames while you probably just want to paint your nails or whatever!”

“Who says you’re staying?” Atsumu says, frowning

“Ha Ha, you’re so funny Atsumu! Of course I’m staying” she says nervous

“No, you’re not” Osamu adds

“I’m sure we can all hang out tog-” you try to say

“You shut it! I bet you don’t know anything about the sport!” She says to you despite you trying to help her

“Really? You barely even know what we play, you just join because you wanted to see hot guys” a voice behind you says, Suna entering the house as he passes his arm through your shoulders

The girl immediately went pale, stammering the next sentence “well…well, I mean, of course I know!”

“Sure, that's why you asked 'if we knew' the rules of basketball yesterday. Just leave, nobody wants you here anyway”

She scoffs annoyed, looking at the rest of the team as if asking for help, which she doesn’t receive. She scoffs one more time, walking towards the door and leaving as she shoots a glare towards you

“You guys are so mean” you say, receiving a chuckle

“She deserved it, if anything she just hinder our practice” Osamu adds

“Besides, nobody talks about our beautiful manager like that” Atsumu hugs you along side Suna

The rest of the team also comes to hug you, and while they were a bit rude, you knew that they only had good intentions

You love this foxes too much

----

Note: a little something about my boys, also, I cringed way too much while writing this

[reiderwriter]

So obviously Spencer is iconic for his wide range of haircuts over the show, and I have this vision of a Spencer x hairdresser fic where he goes to the same hairdresser all the time because he likes the routine and it’s what he’s used to. So like they’re low-key friends bc he’s been her client so long, but then she notices he can’t come as usual and he tells her it’s because he’s always away or working late. So because they’re close she gives him private late appointments after she closes bc they’re more accessible for him, and then they’re always together late at night, and eventually they fall for each other!! And like she loves his curls and cringed when he wanted it cut short but loves it regardless AHH I JUST LOVE IT. Bonus points if Spencer gets to recommend his hairdresser girlfriend to his teammates just to brag about the fact he has a hot girlfriend lmao. I get it’s kinda long lol, if it’s too long a premise then no worries, just sharing it is nice :)

A/N: Hi! I love the idea of hair stylist reader, so I had a lot of fun writing this~♡ Thank you for your request, I hope you enjoy it!

W/C: 2.1k

Warnings: implied Autistic Reid, brief mentions of sensory issues, writer does not care for the shows Canon hair continuity and does basically whatever she wants.

Masterlist

The first time you'd met Spencer Reid, you hadn't been able to cut his hair. Which was a damn shame because it really did need cutting. 

Sweeping up the floors of the hair salon you worked at, you had noticed the man lingering outside, wringing his hands together and pushing them awkwardly through his hair, approaching and retreating every few seconds. 

You watched him through the mirrors, and let him dance around like that for five minutes before deciding that the evening breeze would be a boon during the hot summer night that was about to set in on you. 

Opening the salon door, you stepped outside and soaked in the fresh air before turning to the now frozen, slightly awkward man. 

“Can I help you?” You tried to put a welcoming smile on your face, but the salon was past closing and empty beside you. You should've been heading home by now, but something in the man's posture had you dawdling.

“The barber shop down the road closed down,” he said quickly, as if the words were practised on his to guess moments before. 

“Yes, that's true. It's been six months now.”

“Six months?” he squeaked out, running a hand through his hair as he turned inwards. 

“Do you… need a haircut?” 

“Yes. Yes, are there any other barber shops in the area?” 

You rolled your eyes and walked back into the salon, picking up a robe and a shoulder cover and spinning around the closest chair to welcome him. 

“Well, are you coming in?” 

“But you're closed. Your sign says you're closed.” 

“And I'm still here, aren't I?” 

He didn't argue any further and hesitantly stepped into the salon. 

You helped him out of his bag and put it away before helping him into the robe and shoulder pad. 

He awkwardly stood around as you prepared your scissors and station again, switching on the mirror light so you could fully see his face and hair. 

And damn was he attractive. As you smoothed his hair out of his face, you were met with warm brown eyes, open and anxious, like a deer caught in headlights. Or, more accurately, a dear caught in a hair salon. 

You had to blink and look away as you remembered what you were about, standing up and leading him over to the sink. 

“I'm… I'm a little bit sensitive about my hair,” he admitted quite meekly as you tested the temperature of the water. 

“Okay. Is there anything specific?” 

He sat himself in the chair but didn't lower his head to the bowl, so you waited. 

After a minute or two, he gently lowered his head to the bowl, and you helped his progress, making sure he was comfortably settled. He didn't speak, just let his shoulders relax and closed his eyes as you turned the water on his locks. 

You enjoyed the simple repetitions of your job. Everyone's hair was different, that was true, but there were really only so many ways to wash hair. 

You rinsed his hair thoroughly, keeping the water away from his face and ears with a face guard before beginning to lather it up. 

For a man who hadn't seen the inside of a salon in six months and likely a hairbrush in the same length of time, his hair was healthy. 

De-tangling as you went, you ran your hands through the lengths of his hair, taking note of how it fell, which parts were healthy, and which had developed split ends. Then you began massaging his head, working the shampoo into his roots, making sure his scalp was free from any possible dirt or dry skin. 

This was the best part of the haircut for you, and you knew your regular clients enjoyed it greatly as well. Which is why you probably shouldn't have been too surprised when the man fell asleep. 

It took you a few minutes to realize that was what happened, the face guard obscuring his face from your vision. When you squeezed the water from his hair, patted it dry, and twisted it into a towel so the water wouldn't run down his back, you had no clue that he was away with the fairies. 

It wasn't until you asked him to stand, and he didn't even move that you moved around the sink and lifted the face guard. 

If he seemed anxious awake, it had melted away now. He looked younger asleep, more calm and confident somehow. His eyelashes were long, a fact you only noticed when you leaned in to get a better look at him. 

It was your hand unconsciously tracing a hand along his jaw that woke him back up, and for a second, you just stared at each other, faces inches apart. 

“I'm.. I'm so sorry, I should go. Thank you for… I should go,” he said hurriedly, pulling the robes and towels off and snatching his bag up, running out the door. 

“Wait, your hair,” you called after him, but he was gone. 

And he hadn't paid. 

It took a week for you to collect the payment, though you couldn't care less about the money anyway. 

But a week thinking about the man's delicate features, his shy smile and stutter, and you were very distracted. 

Thinking about him had become your full-time job, as much as cutting hair had, and you'd had a few close encounters with the scissors when you were lost in thought. 

You'd been thinking up back stories for the man ranging from the romantic to the obscure to the downright realistic. So, a week later, you found yourself behind on work and needing to stay late, just as he stepped into the shop a second time. 

“Hello?” You shouted from the backroom, hearing the doorbell jingle as it opened. “We're actually closed right now, so- oh.” 

He stood awkwardly in the door, his face already flushed slightly. 

“Hi.” 

“Hi,” you said, trying to stop the grin spreading across your face. You didn't want to scare him off a second time. 

“Last time, I… kinda ran away. I was… I'm not the best with-” 

“With haircuts?” 

“With change.” You both nodded at that, awkwardly staring at each other. 

“So…?” You lead, trying to encourage him to introduce himself, hoping he would reveal something you didn't already know. 

“You're closed again, but could you cut my hair?” He asked, pushing the long locks back on his head as he stood a little taller. 

“It would be my pleasure…” you trailed off as a question, needing to know his name. 

“Spencer. Spencer Reid. Doctor… just Spencer is fine if you'd prefer.” 

“I'm Y/N. Come and take a seat.” 

You slid him into the robes once again and got through a hair wash without any accidental naps this time. Though you did notice that he seemed to be enjoying it just as much. 

His sighs left you feeling hot, your heart beating as you focused on his hair to draw your gaze from his lips. 

When he was back I'm front of the mirror, he again looked like a scared cat that had been backed into the corner. 

“So, what'll it be, Spencer?” You asked cheerily, combing your hand through his locks to detangle them. 

“Hmm? Oh, a water would be nice.” 

“For your hair, Spencer. What haircut do you want?” 

“Oh! Oh, um, just a…just a haircut.” 

Your face scrunched up in confusion as he doubled down. 

“But what kind of haircut?” 

“What kind?” 

You pulled away from his chair for a minute and went to grab a cut reference book. 

“Okay, so we've got undercuts, or trims, I can do pompadour or bowl cut or-” 

You looked at Spencer's face again and saw that he looked more than confused. 

“How about I just cut your hair and after you tell me if you like it or not?” 

He nodded and gave you a weak smile as you grabbed your scissors. 

Twenty minutes of silence later, and you felt Spencer exhale in relief as you dusted off the back of his neck and pulled the robes off of his clothes. 

You'd gone for a shorter cut, but his curly hair had such a nice natural texture that you left it a bit longer on top. Without his hair in his face, his jawline was sharper, his eyes brighter, and you were somehow more infatuated. 

He stood up shyly and you smiled at how good he looked. 

“Okay, perfect! Let me just-” You lifted your hand and smoothed out some of his hair, picking up some strands and pushing them back and forth until it was just right. 

He caught your hand just as you were about to pull away, and you suddenly realized how close he was. Or more accurately how close you had gotten. It was like you were breathing the same air. 

“D-Do you like it?” You asked, voice small and high as it battled your heartbeat to be heard. 

“Yeah. I like it. It looks… it looks like a haircut.” 

You giggled as his grip became gentler, and your hand fell down to your side, brushing his chest gently as it descended. 

“How much do I owe you?” He asked, and you led him over to the register to complete the payment. 

“Thank you,” he said as he grabbed his bags to head out the door. 

“Just doing my job. I'll see you in six weeks,” you said, waving him off. 

“What for?” He asked, voice confused but bright. He sounded almost hopeful. 

“For your next haircut, Spencer.” 

He smiled and waved back as he walked back into the dark and disappeared down the street. 

No one could ever accuse Spencer Reid of being forgetful, and six weeks later, he was back in your chair. 

Except he didn't arrive at 11pm this time, but instead 11am. 

The other customers and stylists gawked at the man as he walked in, and you thanked the gods that your seat was free as he met your eyes. 

“Hi.” 

“Spencer! You're back.” 

He nodded shyly, head hanging a little as he ignored the many looks from the women in the room and the eruption of whispers and loud glances in his direction. 

“It's been six weeks. You said that's when I'd need another haircut.” 

You laughed a little as you pulled the robe around him. 

“You know, I say that every time, but most people ignore me. I love a man who can follow directions.” 

The eruption of red on his cheeks left you feeling suddenly tongue tied, and you carefully redirected the conversation back to the task at hand. 

“Same again, Doc?” You asked, readying your spray bottle and supplies. 

“Actually, could we, ah, go shorter this time?” Hesmiled sheepishly and watched as you ran your fingers through his tangled hair. 

“My boss, last time, said I looked like I joined a boyband, so…” 

“Your boss at the hospital?” You asked, clinging to every detail you could get from him. 

“The hospital?” 

“You said you were a Doctor, do you work in a lab instead or-”

“Oh. No, I work at the FBI. I'm not a medical doctor, I have a PhD. I have three, Chemistry, Engineering, and Mathematics.” 

You whistled. “Impressive. You can't be older than 30.” 

“I'm 29.” He said, smiling at you in the mirror, and you smiled back, hands still running through his hair. 

“So, no boy band haircuts, okay. For what it's worth, though, you look totally hot.” 

The words cut the conversation short, and you tried your best to take the words back as you went off to the sides to grab your sheers. 

Half an hour later, and you could swear that half the salon had given up pretending to be doing their jobs and were just awkwardly ogling the man. If the shorter “boyband” hair was good, the undercut you'd done for him was even better. 

You turned him around to get a closer look, using the excuse of making sure his hair was symmetrical enough to stare at him some more as you got closer to finishing. 

“Okay,” you said with a sad sigh. “You're all finished, Spencer. Let's get you rung up.” 

He nodded and followed you quickly, pulling out his wallet as he paid quietly. 

“Okay. And I'll see you tomorrow,” you said, as he picked up his bags to leave. 

“Tomorrow? I thought you said it was six weeks between haircuts.” 

“It is. But it's also my day off tomorrow, so I was wondering if you'd like to have dinner. With me.” 

He blinked at you once. Then twice, and another time before smiling and looking away. 

“Okay. See you tomorrow, Y/N.” 

He ran a hand through his hair and nearly walked into the door he was trying to walk through, but your heart still fluttered as you waved him out. 

[itsnothingofinterest]

This is probably a weird note to end my time with MHA's run on; but I find it so strange how I still see people calling Tomura out on just being a destruction-hungry villain with supposedly no plan or follow up...as though he is unique for that simplicity. Especially after the ending we got. Like, Deku and All Might never really had a plan when they were reshaping society by beating up the enemy and everything worked out fine for them, but does anyone call them out for just using violence to mindlessly solve everything with no further plan? (Well, yes. Me. Right now.)

Because like, really thinking about it; how different was All Might's plan from the start of his career to take down AFO and become a symbol, and Deku's plan to end the villains and bring everything back, from Shigaraki's plan to end hero society and bring about a world accommodating to the League? It all seemed to boil down to the same basic premise of Step 1) Beat everyone & everything making things worse, Step 2) ...it all just kind of works out from there. (I guess All Might planned on being inspiring and uplifting, but then we could also count Tomura's plan to be imposing and...uplifting but for different people. Deku was winging it every step of the way though.) Everyone's getting on Tomura's case for doing nothing but destroying; but all evidence from when the heroes do it suggests violence & destruction works. And it just never fails to bug me when people call Tomura out for stuff that's fine when heroes do it.

Which, yeah, let's touch on how it did just work out for Deku that way for no logical reason, least of all anything he planned. He punched out the big bad just like All Might and now things are like a hundred times better than they were under All Might with no more Tenkos abandoned in the street. If stuff like that just happens if you punch out your enemies hard enough, then why couldn't that happen for Tomura? Maybe if he had destroyed the government & hero society it would've, idk, been so fear/awe-inspiring that all the villains would've been nice and cooperative under the PLF and everything would've been fine. Or something. No more contrived than what we saw with the old lady plot line, MHA is just a series where that stuff works out. Heck, one time it actually did just work out that way for Tomura:

Again, violence and destruction works in MHA. I mean; duh, it's a shonen manga.

Plus all this is ignoring the fact that, unlike those two, Tomura did have a follow up to the violence. He did have a step two, or at least one & a half, after "beat down all the bad guys in the country." Rather than just going "and everything will work out from there," he had his guys plan for the future so he could say "and Spinner, Toga, and RD et. all will make sure everything works out from there." (Admittedly, not much; but also, not hopes and dreams.) He did have a plan, it was just the plan from the Overahul arc, where he was last asked to have a plan: leave it to his allies.

And hey, that means it's actually better than what we saw from genius All Might and brainiac Deku. So why are we still, even after everything was over, acting like there's some expectation as a villain he didn't meet? I guess it's just in the nature of a 'tantrum-having man-child who wants nothing but destruction' to put more forethought into the future he wants to build than the society-uplifting greatest heroes.

That or maybe everyone had really detailed follow-ups for when they won that Hori never went much into, but that'd render this post a bit pointless so shhh.

[youhideastar]

Hello! I just needed to say that your tags on that ABO post (#maybe someday I will write that essay on how I think a/b/o starts from a fundamentally ace perspective#ie that it starts from a premise of no desire#into which desire arrives as a rare unexpected unwelcome and often traumatic deviation from the baseline) shook my brain like a magic 8 ball and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

I mean I guess I kind of already have since I follow your blog but like. That is genius and also I think that approach helps explain part of why I loved your ABO bingo series so much!

Anyway just wanted to say that, hope you're having an awesome day!

Aaahhhhh thank you so much! All credit to the initial poster for kicking my brain into gear on this. (For the curious, here's the series the ask mentions!)

But yes, to expand on those tags, there's so *much* about a/b/o as a genre that, to me at least, starts from an ace perspective.

For example, in most a/b/o universes where there are, in fact, betas (as opposed to another common take on omegaverse worldbuilding where there are just alphas and omegas), then the inherent starting premise of the world is that there are two kinds of people--people whose lives in large part revolve around intense, consuming, and uncontrollable sexual desire and people whose lives don't--which is to say, the inherent starting premise is that some people are (at least symbolically) ace. Indeed, in most of these fics, that's considered unremarkable in-universe... which is, from that point of view, a fantasy of a world where asexuality is commonplace and accepted. (Then again, it's rare for the main characters of such stories to be betas - it looks like a fantasy of ace acceptance, but the symbolically ace characters are relegated to the sidelines, as if a life that doesn't revolve around that kind of desire isn't worth telling stories about.)

In another example, a/b/o fics often posit a worldbuilding where the norm is that a person will only go into heat or rut (i.e., experience sexual desire) in reaction to a particular person--maybe a "fated mate"--and indeed, that the presence of sexual desire is proof of some kind of intense emotional connection between two people... which is basically just a sci-fi-ification of the experience of being demisexual. It's really that straightforward.

And that's without even getting into the ways that heat and rut often appear in fics as funhouse mirrors of what garden-variety allosexual desire looks like to people who don't experience it themselves. The original post says that "magical pheromones made them do it" sounds just as plausible to an ace person as "looking at someone in their underwear made them do it," but you don't even need the word "magical" - the idea that hormones could make you lose your head with desire and behave in ways that would embarrass you (or worse) once their influence wanes is both a sci-fi conceit for fanfic porn and actually how many, many people on this planet go through their lives on a regular basis.

What's ironic is how, despite all this, most a/b/o fic makes no room for real ace people (as opposed to symbolic aces, i.e., betas), especially sex-repulsed ace people. What are those folks supposed to do when heat strikes? Or other people who, for various reasons, might not want sex or be in a position to consent to it? I think a/b/o often teeters on the edge of body horror; in those situations, it tips right over. Most a/b/o worldbuilding does nothing to address this--and I think that's one of the great blank spaces in the genre that is ripe for exploring with all kinds of interesting fic!

[noodlecarrot50states]

I’m afraid it’s time I confess something: in case you haven’t realized, not only do I ship HammerHunter… but I’m not that fond of Jlaire. AT ALL.

GUYS DONT THROW THE TOMATOES AT ME YET PLEASE !!!

So I guess I should explain WHY.

Look, I loved them in Trollhunters. I found them really cute in season 1 and 2. Season 3 they did basically nothing and I have zero problems with that. You wanna know why? Because they had bigger issues in season 3 to worry about, so Jlaire was not of importance. I’m glad they didn’t make it a focus, because it really wasn’t necessary.

But Wizards. Oh WIZARDS.

Wizards made me want to bash my head in for many reasons. The writing inconsistencies for one. But also the erasure of like a lot of characters. While the movie really threw them into dog water, Wizards was already setting up the character assassination of Steve, Claire, literally anyone else who didn’t go back in time. I mean I get that the series was supposed to be two seasons and then for some reason got cut down to one, but…

… if they had to cut SOMETHING…

WHY DIDNT THEY CUT THE 15 MILLION JLAIRE MOMENTS BRO 😭😭😭

I DONT CARE IF ITS CUTE OR WHATEVER IT WAS NOT NECESSARY. This series is supposed to be setting up the movie and its new conflicts. They should be focusing on developing the Arcane Order, the OTHER CHARACTERS, not the relationship that we already saw develop in the FIRST SHOW.

Claire for example. My pookie wookie bae. She lost her shadow staff but her powers are returning to her and she’s going through the mental conflict of not wanting to end up like Morgana. THAT could have been a great premise to complete Claire’s development and to help her become stronger. PLUS we could have had Morgana (since she became good again) showing Claire some spells.

BUT NO. That entire plot line gets shoved into ONE EPISODE (episode 4) and every other second is just her going “Jim!” SHUT UP!!

It’s not doing anything for her character, it’s not doing anything for his (because he had his own shit going on) SO IT MEANS NOTHING!

And then I saw some people on Reddit like “oh they’re in love though so of course they are gonna be worried about each other”

First of all, weak argument. Secondly, how have they reached THE LOVE STAGE?! Toby had said in the beginning that Claire “barely knew Jim existed” and even if she did have a crush on him that implies they barely interacted with each other. And if we follow my stupid ass timeline for the show then like they only became real friends around the spring fling which is like March or April. Trollhunters ended on the last day of school which would be in like June, and Steve said in the beginning of Wizards that “the rest of the summer will eat farts” so that implies it’s like late July now. So that’s only 5 months or something. 💀💀💀 only 1 month or a month and a half of Claire and Jim in New Jersey that we didn’t see, but Jim got attacked by the green knight at some point so that subtracts time 💀💀💀 my point is it takes normal people like a year to say “I love you.” And don’t even bother saying “well it’s a cartoon”

THEN DONT WORSHIP THE RELATIONSHIP AS IF ITS THE BEST WRITTEN SHIP TO EVER EXIST.

NOT LIKE IT MATTERED ANYWAY BECAUSE JIM LEFT MY LATINA BAE BEHIND JUST TO SAVE STUPID TOBY 🫠

Anyway uh GOT A LITTLE HEATED THERE SORRY 🥰 yall can ship what you want I just wanted to share why I personally don’t like the relationship.

[slexenskee]

Okay so on May Death Never Stop You there was this forewarning that you don't recommend anyone read JJK and that you'll probably rant about it on Tumblr later. As someone who recently consumed all of JJK in a fever dream this is me politely requesting that rant because I deeply resonated with that, lmao.

OOF hi finally got back on tumblr and let me just roll up my sleeves here for a second 😂

ok at some point I had a whole rant about this with references to interviews and everything, but at this point the open wound that is JJK doesn't hurt as much so I'm not as passionate about it and don't have the spoons to come up with a thesis-worthy response here.

Basically, I think Gege just kind of gave up on this story about halfway through with it. Take your pick of reasons - first of all, he's on record saying his editor forced him into the premise. he didn't want to do the usual shounen trope of 3 protagonists, 2 boys and a girl, and he didn't want them to be in school either. (I think this is why JJK always reads better to me if I pretend they're in college, but I'm also a GoYuu shipper so I'm probably biased lol) we can infer there were probably a lot of things about the usual shounen troupe that got shoe horned into his story that he didn't like, so straight from the get go it wasn't the story he wanted to write. He was also told it was 'too dark' - which, if it was too dark in the beginning boy oh boy did that editor not know how things would go! He's also on record saying he wants to write an idol manga, which is just... sure?

Also towards the middle of it I kind of realized all at once that the character development I was hoping for was just never going to come. This was an action manga with more emphasis on convoluted power systems and video game mechanic buffs and debuffs and fight scenes than it was on backstories or authentic developing relationships between characters. He's also on record saying he finds that aspect very difficult, so yeah that checks out. And that part I totally get. If it's not something you want to write or are good at writing, of course you struggle with it and all that. So I guess I just wish he had a stronger editor to push him or just remind him that that kind of stuff is really important in a story where we need to be motivated by being invested in characters? Or maybe I'm just an outlier viewer and most of his audience is more interested in the fights.

Which brings me to another ??? I didn't understand. Purely from a marketing perspective, why would you kill off all your most popular characters? I guess in the end Nobara wasn't actually dead ,just noped off screen for most of the storyline, but Nanami and Gojo? I guess maybe Nanami wasn't that popular outside of internet fangirls haha, but Gojo? He and Nobara were main characters- they're in all the collabs and all the merch, it felt very odd to just kill them off. But now I recall that Minato merch is pretty successful in Japan, considering I could get my hands on it years after the show ended, and homeboy was literally dead for the whole series lol. So maybe it just doesn't affect the bottom line as much as I assume.

Anyway, I guess part of the reason I like the shounen genre so much is that it follows a script that I find comforting. It's like a romcom, you know? Yeah they can be novel and original but at the end of the day there are some universal truths, like the main couple gets together in the end, and even if the premise seems dark it's always funny somehow. Shounen is the same. The hero comes out at the end, and it can be a long and difficult journey, and there will be deaths that hit hard, but every since Dragon Ball there have always been characters that have plot armor against that, you know? Like if the main character dies, he gets resurrected again. Most of the main cast has close calls but never actually dies. Sure, there are some heavy deaths, like Ace in One Piece, or Jiraiya in Naruto, but there's a reason Bakugou didn't actually die in MHA. That's just not Shounen to kill him off, and I think fans appreciate that. So Nanami dying in JJK felt like that - like it was meant to be the heavy hitting death. So did Mai for Maki. Nobara's 'death' always annoyed me because it was completely glossed over and didn't serve any purpose. And then there's obviously Gojo. It didn't feel like it had a purpose to me, other than the fact he was too powerful to make sense in the story to leave alive.

Like why did you just drag us through this sad and exhausting slog through a very high-stakes chase to unseal him, only for him to just die after all that? It just felt hollow and exhausting to read it. Like I was done with despair. Despair is good when it's paced well, but it felt like there was nothing in this story but doom and gloom ever since the 'heroes' failed in the Shibuya Arc. There was nothing to break it up, it was just more doom and gloom over and over again. Not to mention I just found everything about the Culling Games to be deeply confusing. There were way too many convoluted rules involved. I can't fathom trying to read that arc one chapter at a time, once a week. I would never be able to remember what was supposed to be going on.

I honestly stopped caring after the Maki arc. It was my absolute favorite arc besides the hidden inventory one, and I think the story peaked there tbh. JJK was his first long-form project and I think it shows. The pacing is off, the story beats are misaligned, and it feels very rushed. JJK 0, Hidden Inventory, the Maki arc, those are some incredible and tight storylines that hit every beat and are just incredible. And I don't say this to point a finger at him - it's his first long-form story and his debut to boot, of course he'll find it hard. I blame his editors for it honestly.

Okay now my fingers hurt lol sorry for the rant I hope it was as cathartic for you to read as it was for me to write!!

[holidaygirl1224]

💬New Post from holidaygirl1224

So, I like horror movies a lot... I thiinkkk I've said this a few times here, at this point XP. I just think being scared is fun, and sometimes they can have really great stories! There's one particular series of horror movies however that I've avoided for basically my entire life... it's the one where like... everyone just dies. That's it. That's the whole thing. Every movie, it's just these terrible, elaborate disasters happening to everyone because one person "cheated death"... no one EVER lives!!! XD I don't mind characters dying, that's just how horror works... but from the start you basically know everyone's going to die... and then they die!!! And that's it!!! The thrill of it, of course, isn't about the destination... it's about seeing just how each character ends up FINALLY dying. The main reason I avoid these films isn't because of that, though... it's that almost every death is with completely mundane, real life things! Someone will drop a fork, and that'll cause the most RIDICULOUS chain of events, and by the end everyone in the room has had their heads chopped off. My problem is that I am ALWAYS thinking these things. Like, ALWAYS. When walking down the street, I'm thinking about all the things that could go wrong, and kill me... even when I'm alone in my room at night I'm waiting for the roof to suddenly cave in and crush me XD All the thoughts are of course not going to happen, they're ridiculous... but these movies? They're all ABOUT those sort of thoughts coming true... so watching one I've always feared would just make my thoughts ten times worse. Over the years I've seen some scenes from these movies, but I've never sat down to watch a full one...... until earlier today. I went to the movies with, umm.... well, someone, it doesn't matter who! But I let her pick out the movie... and guess what certain series just HAPPENED to have a new movie out in theaters. DXXXX It wasn't... bad. It was absolutely not a bad movie, in fact it had a lot more good plot and twists throughout than I expected... overall, I'd say it was a good movie. But GOODNESS. GOODNESS. GOODNESS. It was ROUUGHHHHH to watch XDD I'm always happy to be in a cold room with popcorn, so there was that... and I wasn't alone... but goodness it was a hard movie to sit through. Since getting out of the theater, I've felt like EVERYTHING is going to kill me LOL Once we got out of the theater I was walking so slowly, trying to be as careful as I could... and hey, it paid off, cause your girl's not dead!!! XD Ya'know, the whole movie's premise is based around the idea of if you cheat death, it'll come back to get you... Which just makes me think of a time me and my dad were driving during a storm, and we stopped at a traffic light..... and while we were sat there, within mere FEET of our car, a huge bolt of lightning struck DIRECTLY NEXT TO US!!! My dad turned to me, expecting me to be super worried and crying... but I was just silent... I think the shock (XD) of the situation really just stunned (XDDD) me. If it just hit a little more to the side, well... it would've been smoked venison for dinner XD Thankfully we lived to drive another day... but I wonder if that counts as cheating death.......... hope I never find out!!!!!!!!! XP

[showtoonzfan]

Now I want to talk about Charlie cause good GOD. I never cared much for her in the pilot, I’ll admit that. I always called her boring compared to the other characters because of how developed they were compared to her. However the show takes everything that the pilot build up for her and just made her 10x worse to the point where she’s INSUFFERABLE to watch.

When I got to the very end of the season, I realized that she barley did anything progressive or had an impact on any character, at least what we’ve seen on screen. I understand this was the first season, but what exactly was her arc and what exactly did she do? Nothing. Throughout the season she wasn’t a leader, the most she did was help Sir pen with lessons and have that fight at the heaven trial. In the end they try to act like she overcame some arc about learning to lead and take charge but…she didn’t really. She was helped constantly by people around her, mainly Vaggie/Alastor/Rosie and she never really did anything on her own that was enough to signify her independence as the MAIN character or even the princess of hell. I love how she needed to be TOLD that her girlfriend cared for her…like wow. Vaggie also states that she’s “done so much and touched so many souls”- and all I could think about is how I actually wish we saw that on screen. Husk said she “wants to fix everyone’s problems but her own” and I never got that vibe out of her??? If she was more like Luz from the Owl house where we constantly saw her avoid her own emotions and problems and focus more on helping other people, then it would make sense but guess what, we don’t see any of that because the show is so disinterested in ACTUALLY focusing on Charlie shining at the front and helping people. They scrapped the main premise of her wanting to help sinners and instead used up all the time they had to introduce new characters. It’s all tell and no show as expected.

She’s painted as someone who’s desperate to save her people but when she’s not the focus and actually helping someone, she’s a whiny frustrating crybaby who needs to be coddled or steered in the right direction, and it’s SO hard to watch how her character is treated like a child who can’t do anything. This character has existed for 200+ years canonically but she isn’t written like that. She’s dumb. The fact that she’s such a doormat that she can’t even realize Angel is being abused by Val or even DO ANYTHING about it is fucking baffling, she’s THAT useless. There were so many moments in the show where she could have used her authority or powers to save trouble, but she just doesn’t do it because she’s useless, and I’m tired of people trying to say she’s a pacifist to excuse the shitty writing. She’s also basically Viv’s self insert in a way, an unfunny woman child who’s a hypocrite. Like Charlie is the equivalent of dry white chicken. There’s no seasoning or flavor to her character, she’s SO bland and boring that Lucifer and Alastor end up being more important than her and having more screen time, she’s ATTACHED to them and it really shows, rather than her being at the front. And I know we’re on season 1, but you’d think that Charlie’s childishness would actually be a character flaw and something she needs to overcome and grow up about. But this isn’t really seen as an issue and more of a quirky thing cause Viv thinks being a woman child is funny, the “fuck you you old bitch” scene made me cringe so god damn hard. Everyone has already said it, but Charlie cursing so so forced and unnatural for her character. I don’t like how she’s supposed to be a cinnamon roll but then at the same time swears and acts feral at times. It doesn’t fit.

During the fight scene in the end, she also does absolutely nothing. She made a whole deal about how she wants to defend her people and get back at the angel’s, but aside from throwing Adam and hitting him once, she needed to be protected or saved, Lucifer ended up actually doing the work and it was so hilarious. Speaking of that, Charlie’s daddy issues arc was also rushed, her and Lucifer reuniting and then making up within the same episode was a mistake. Then you realize that her daddy issues was mainly all Charlie had to her in terms of depth and what was explored in the show. I’m so tired of Viv giving her characters daddy issues, it’s getting old lol. But regardless of what Charlie has to her, in general the show just doesn’t focus on her. She’s not the main focal point of the show when she should be. SHE’S the one who wants to redeem sinners, the hotel was her idea. Even tho the pilot was a mess I still felt like she was determined to take the lead due to her beliefs. And yet she still feels like a side/background character who only occasionally gets focus here and there but certainly not compared to the others. The potential is there but due to the favoritism of the writing she’s such an empty and boring character and stayed like that till the very end.

[halowishes]

april favs!

what i recommend this month

ships: a skts month (again)

last one to midnight loses!

t. 14.9k. new year’s skts.

in a time of challenging myself and doing scary things, this fic arrived on a silver platter. atsumu has to complete 10 of his never completed new year resolutions so his brother can ask out suna! SOOOO hilarious, sweet, and full of bravery and love. life becomes a little more possible when you find your people and hold onto them.

homebody and dry skin

t. 66.3k. canon post-skip.

atsumu has a shitty night and kiyoomi helps out because he’s nice. this fic was wonderful. atsumu being a not perfect person, kiyoomi being a horror geek, kiyoomi’s family being perfectly odd. this fic just felt so human. i’ve been catching myself being a bit like this atsumu (complaining endlessly and unreasonable and weird) and it’s so empowering to remember i’m not alone, even when i’m like this.

relax, it’s all ten fingers

e. 6.0k. canon universe pwp.

i’m sooooo glad someone got a massage and thought “sakuatsu” because i’ve literally had that image in my head for weeks. basically, athletic trainer iwa (27) suggests kiyoomi get a massage to loosen his shoulder. then guess who the masseuse is!!

two’s company, three’s no crowd

e. 7.9k. skts fwb + ushijima watching???

ushijima asks to watch skts have sex as a study of passion in relationships😭 the premise was so funny that i couldn’t not read it and it didn’t disappoint! the dry and objective ushijima’s pov made it so fun. but don’t fret! there was lots of skts!! also it took place during the olympics era which was a cherry on top.

rotten work & other things worth doing

t. 3.0k. domestic skts.

atsumu’s bathroom is a bit of a mess. they clean it together. as someone who took weeks to organize the shit in their room: i did not know i needed this. cleaning can be so mentally taxing and it’s so lovely to have someone who wants to do it for you, to help you. love love love the message.

unless you call tonight

e. 7.3k. fwb skts.

stubborn fwb skts to lovers will always be one of my favorite tropes. it just fits them so well (they’re idiots❤️). this fic was not only very hot but it had such amazing characterization of kiyoomi and atsumu. it really felt like i was just sitting in on their lives. and bonus for the background osasunakomo mention!!

loyal to you

e. 8.2k. prince kiyoomi x knight atsumu.

*slow clap into standing ovation*. this was quite literally everything i needed it to be. prince/ knight, childhood friends to exes (?) to lovers, body worship, saying i hate you immediately followed by making love. how could you not love this?? i’ve actually read this before but it somehow slipped through my previous recs. this made me blush.

so this is love: the reprise

m. 12.9k. yakuza atsumu x doctor omi.

this was sooo rom-com mixed with action movie. i really enjoyed it. atsumu is hilarious and a walking flirt as always. kiyoomi is an exhausted doctor with a sweet tooth. what more could you need. also! there’s soulmates/ soulmarks in this fic! lovely addition as always.

switch

e. 5.5k. pwp (again!)

sorry i read so many pwps this month😭😭 but this was a classic body swap situation so they have sex to see what happens! super hot, established skts, and silly! there’s really not much else to say. it’s just a great time.

—

sorry if this months recs are badly written😭 i honestly was so close to not even posting a list because life has been so painfully Real lately. that’s partly why i haven’t been reading as much as usual.

but it’s also because i’ve been writing a lot more!! using up my feelings and putting them into something more digestible for myself (giving them to skts lmaooo). so i may or may not be sharing those. some are very personal so im hesitant but we’ll see!

thank you for sticking around <3 seeing y’all interact with my recs gives me all the motivation to keep these up.

lots of love,

halo💛

[martianbugsbunny]

That's How He Knows He's Yours (A Lokius Fic)

Okayyyy I would have sworn up and down that I had already posted this fic ??? but I did a bunch of different search attempts and I couldn't find it so I guess I didn't

The premise is basically Loki and Mobius are going to a party and Mobius is helping him with his hair, but Mobius has been studying up on the meanings of different Jotun hairstyles and accidentally-on-purpose picks the one that means "I'm taken." Ofc there's a bit of cultural headcanon involved. It's super fluffy w a little bit of flirtatiousness, so read on and enjoy!

The TVA was having a party.

That wasn’t really the important thing, but it was interesting. Mobius couldn’t remember the last time they’d had a party—but they needed to keep their spirits up after finding out that their entire lives were, in fact, lies, so a party it was. Every sector was having its own, because the TVA was too immense for all of the employees to have fit in a single room if they’d been threatened with death to do it.

Well, anyway, the important thing was that Mobius wasn’t going alone. He’d convinced Loki that it would be more fun to go together than to go separately, or not to go at all.

The other important thing was that Mobius had offered to braid Loki’s hair, which had grown considerably longer than it had been the first time they’d met, and that Loki had taken him up on it.

He’d spent hours studying both Jotun and Aesir braiding styles—not just the actual construction, but also the meaning behind them. In the end he’d picked the Jotun style that signaled “I’m taken” because it was beautiful, and because he was pretty sure Loki didn’t know enough about his own culture to know what it meant himself, so Mobius could convince himself it wasn’t that much of a presumption.

“I’m not so sure about this suit,” Loki said, sitting patiently as Mobius brushed his hair before plaiting it. “The gold stripes are a bit much, don’t you think?”

“What happened to the guy who used to strut around wearing gold armor and a cape?” Mobius teased, beginning the first braid. Left under the middle, right under the middle, he muttered under his breath.

“I’ve been wearing your boring TVA clothes for months,” Loki said, holding out one arm to watch the threads glitter. “The drab must’ve rubbed off on me.”

Mobius rolled his eyes. The truth was, he was outside his own comfort zone in a fancy suit. His didn’t have metallic pin-striping on it like Loki’s did (because it was a bit much) but it was a much sharper cut and a much more dashing style than he was used to wearing. He’d been just an analyst in a plain brown suit for centuries, and now here he was all dressed up like he thought he was Prince Charming or something.

He tried to focus more on the different strands of dark hair in his hands than on the way his fingertips brushed against Loki’s temples as he gathered new locks to add to the braids.

He failed.

As he began to pin the braids up using glittering golden hair pins, he tried to focus more on not stabbing Loki’s  scalp than on the brush of his hands against the nape of Loki’s neck.

He failed.

Loki was built like a prince, Mobius sometimes caught himself thinking. It didn’t matter if it was princedom of Asgard or of Jotunheim. There was an elegance in the set of his shoulders, in the movements of his hands as he wielded his magic, and a determination in the curve of his back and the way he stepped, that was utterly regal. Gold, like the simple rings he was wearing that night and the hair pins Mobius had found for him and the single slim chain around his neck, seemed to have been built into the cosmos for no reason other than to decorate Loki's trim form.

That was waxing poetic. Mobius didn’t do that often—only for Loki and Jet Skis. What could he say, they were both remarkable singularities in the universe.

He finished setting the last braid into place, nestled among several others like a crown across the top of Loki’s head. “All done, puss,” he said, patting Loki on the shoulder.

Loki’s head turned slightly to the side at the use of the nickname, and Mobius could just see a smile tugging at the corner of his mauve-tinted lips. “Do I dare look?” he asked.

“I didn’t mess it up that bad,” Mobius said. Loki chuckled and got up from the floor in front of Mobius’s couch to go check his reflection in the mirror on the other side of the room.

Mobius could see the reflected green eyes widening as Loki caught sight of himself. For some reason Mobius’s heart was in his throat.

“I didn’t know you knew how to do this,” Loki said.

“What, braids?” Mobius managed to speak past his racing pulse. “It’s not that hard.” It was, actually, quite difficult to his untrained hands, but learning it for Loki had made it seem easier.

“No. The Jotun style.”

That quick pulse stopped altogether. Mobius sat there, stock still, feeling very much like he was going to throw up if Loki didn’t break the sudden silence.

He turned from the mirror to look Mobius in the eyes properly. He was smiling, his eyes glittering beneath the faint liner he’d applied earlier that evening and a light dusting of shimmery grey eyeshadow. “Seems the pussycat has caught himself a guilty little mouse,” he said, his voice sultry and honey-smooth, dripping into Mobius’s soul. “You didn’t realize I knew what these braids meant.” It was a statement, not a question. There wasn’t a hint of doubt on his face.

“You caught me,” Mobius said. He was impressed with himself for being able to get any words out at all with Loki’s gaze focused on him like that.

“I’m taken, am I?”

Now Mobius found himself entirely unable to speak. What could he say, after all, other than we’ve been spending a lot of time together and you don’t mind when I call you ‘puss’ and I catch you staring at me sometimes in a way nobody ever has? It seemed stupid even in his brain. None of it meant he and Loki were…whatever he’d been subconsciously thinking they could be when he’d picked the style.

Loki walked back across the room, a new sway in his hips that Mobius was positive hadn’t been there before, and sat down on the couch to lean directly into Mobius’s personal space. For a long moment, far too long, far too breathless, he simply studied Mobius’s face, as though he could see everything single thought that had ever crossed his mind.

“We’ll see about that when we get back from the party,” he said finally, gaze flicking briefly down to Mobius’s lips. “Maybe you’re the one who’s going to be…taken.”

He crossed into that last bit of personal space and pressed their lips together, his touch surprisingly light, stunningly tender, as one arm came up to drape across Mobius’s shoulders and draw him even closer.

“Don’t be so sure of yourself, puss.” Mobius finally found his tongue again and flirted back, laying a hand on Loki’s thigh. “You’re the one with the fancy hairstyle to prove it.”

As Loki laughed, Mobius captured his lips in another kiss, just as soft as before but oh-so-many leagues more passionate, and he thanked his lucky stars he’d been fool enough to pick a Jotun way to call Loki his.

[foone]

Not to think too deeply about writing Tumblr fiction, but I've noticed I've repeatedly been interested in the idea of "imagine a world like ours but with a difference: now post like someone from that world". I've done several posts like this, and I've seen similar premises reblogged around the place. Why not? It can be a fun idea to play with!

But the odd thing for me, is that this is basically the same idea as "THING dashboard simulator", you know? It's just a diffent format with the same basic idea, isn't it? Instead of one long post, you have multiple short posts (inside the real post) from different (fictional) authors, with the theme announced up front instead of in the story text itself.

And you might think why is that odd? Most basic story premises come in a few variations in how it works. So this one comes in two similar instances/memes. Seems normal enough.

Yeah but I personally like the former (a fictional post from a hypothetical different world), I dislike the latter (a "THING dashboard simulator").

And that's odd to me because I'm not really able to figure out why? They seem so similar!

Is it the premise announced upfront? Maybe I like the mini-puzzle of figuring out what the difference is in the story?

Is it that it's about a fictional difference rather than a real one? Like, the former is basically "how would people post in a world where we could all fly?" and the latter is "how would people post in ancient Rome?" and I just like the science-fictional element more?

No, it can't completely be that, because sometimes people do make posts in that style with science fictional premises rather than specific existing setting ones. I guess I could say that maybe it's more likely that? And it lowers the my enjoyment of it below some threshold?

The only other thing I can think of that really divides the two formats/premises is that one has a single fictional author and the other has multiple. I don't know if that really makes it less enjoyable for me, though. Maybe?

And possibly it's just all these options to some degree, and it just adds up to too much in my brain.

[spock-smokes-weed]

i think that you are mostly right about Sanji's fashion sense. However, I do think that one place where Sanji is particularly meticulous is in personal hygiene. One of the SBSes mentions that Sanji is the only man on the crew who showers on a daily basis, and I like to think that extends to just generally liking being clean. I think he probably likes to smell nice too and maybe uses cologne or perfume as well

Hmm true but I don’t necessarily think taking care of basic hygiene = being looks oriented in the way I see some people depict him as being.

I think you can shower everyday and even wear cologne without how you present yourself being a big aspect of your character. That’s what I was mostly try to get at with my post.

I actually think the other guys are the odd ones out. I don’t think it’s really that Sanji is meticulous about hygiene, and more so that the other guys have bad hygiene. That’s the way I see it at least. Sanji may put more thought into his hygiene than the other dudes, but it may seem like a lot more when the bar is in hell.

I also think this has more to do with the fact that Sanji is arguably the most normal of the strawhats? Like before the WCI stuff is revealed, Sanji had somewhat of a stable upbringing??? He had a good father figure, a place to call home, and a community around him. Usopp, Luffy, and Zoro were all vagabond orphans so it makes sense that they would have low standards.

Also, I think this is another thing that goes back to Sanji’s identity as a chef, because when you work in a restaurant good hygiene is DRILLED into you. Especially at an upscale place like Baratie. Idk if you ever worked in a restaurant, but I know some people would get sent home if they smelled or looked unkempt.

I guess the reason why I’m elaborating on this is because I’m tired of Sanji being “well groomed” constantly coming up in fics and dialog, when it’s not reeeeeally a relevant point in canon. You could argue the same for the color walks, since it’s bonus content you won’t see if you don’t read the manga or seek it out, but since it’s a reoccurring pattern in the way Oda draws Sanji “off the clock”, I find them to be relevant.

I just find Sanji calling Zoro dirty, smelly, brutish, and an ‘animal’ kind of grating, especially over a detail that was mentioned in an SBS. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Sanji target Zoro’s hygiene in canon, and it’s just starting to bother me how often zoro gets called an unbathed animal. Mostly bc I don’t think Sanji would care that much? I think he’d find it gross but I don’t think he’d clutch his pearls over it. He lived with dozens of rugged men for a good portion of his life, I think he knows a lot of dudes from Baratie who didn’t wash between their ass cheeks (especially since it’s mentioned that baratie had high turn over lmao)

That was a lot of typing, especially since I mostly agree with the premise of your ask, I just don’t know if I would say that Sanji being hygienic is really that important beyond being a funny detail that he’s probably the only guy on the crew who was taught to shower regularly lol.

[catmiemy]

Another Chance to Live Final Part (Ana Maria Crnogorčević x Reader)

Summary: Ana and you are facing some big changes.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

A/N: I'm actually very proud of myself for finishing this story relatively fast. And it was a lot of fun to write :)

Thank you to everyone that stuck around till the end. I hope you enjoy this last part!

Of course you didn’t just trust your parents to respect the boundaries you had set in place; that had never been their strong suit after all. Once you had successfully weathered the first onslaught of emotions, you thought about it more carefully and together with Ana put a few precautions in place.

For one you informed the staff at Real that none of your family members should be granted access if they came by to see you. A wise decision, as it turned out. Only a few days later your mother showed up, arguing for so long that she had to be escorted off the premises by security personnel.

You also basically moved in with Ana. No one from your family knew where she lived, so they couldn’t just drop by like they could at your apartment. Another good call as you learnt when your neighbors told you that they had almost called the police because a man fitting your father’s description had been standing in front of the house for so long.

All of this made your guilt kick into overdrive and you were grateful for your girlfriend’s support. She never told you what to do, she was even hesitant to tell you what she would do in your place, but Ana was always there to listen and help you keep apart what you truly wanted from what you felt you should do.

While things with your family were at an all time low, you were incredibly happy with Ana, and practically living together was a welcome change in pace. Both of you were committed to making each other smile with small gestures, so your everyday life was filled with much more happiness than ever before. 

Ana loved to start your day off with a big smile by turning your coffee into a small piece of art, constantly trying out new foam designs. And it didn’t matter if they turned out right or not, you appreciated the effort, and attempting to guess what your girlfriend had been going for was half the fun.

You knew Ana felt the same about something you were doing to brighten her day: learning some Swiss German words. Which wasn’t easy because you couldn’t just use any old translator, you had to invest some time to find the correct words. And often times you failed horribly at pronouncing them, making your girlfriend giggle while she was trying to decipher what you were saying. That in turn always got you laughing as well, which made it even harder to pronounce anything properly.  

The biggest laughing fit set off by your Swiss German attempts occurred when you very proudly asked Ana if she could give you a Schmützeli. You didn’t get quite the reaction you hoped for, a kiss; instead your girlfriend was staring at you, and you couldn’t tell if she was amused or annoyed.

“Wait, does it not mean kiss? Did I mess this up? I’m so sorry if I said something offensive,” you apologized frantically, already pulling out your phone to look at your sources again. You had been so sure, you had even double-checked this.

At that point Ana began laughing, so hard that she couldn’t even say anything. Now it was your turn to stare at her, wondering what was so funny. It was a huge relief though; it couldn’t have been anything too bad if your girlfriend found it so amusing.

After a moment you couldn’t help but join the laughter. You didn’t know what you were laughing about, but Ana’s laughter was simply infectious.

Once your girlfriend had calmed down, she explained it to you still a little out of breath, “Okay, so it’s not even really that funny, but Schmützeli isn’t a word you would use with a partner. At least not where I’m from. It’s more for like small kisses between family members or friends. And it just really caught me off guard.”

You silently agreed, this wasn’t really that funny, and you were still a bit confused why it had made your girlfriend laugh so hard. Then again you were always happy to make Ana laugh, so you weren’t going to complain. And you definitely kept using the word again every once in a while because it amused her every time.  

There were other things you did for each other, like Ana playing the guitar for you, sometimes even singing a song you requested, which made you all chocked up whenever she did. Or you taking pictures of small beautiful things you saw in your day to day life to show to your girlfriend in the evening, eager to share the beauty you had encountered with her.

You also did your best to make your everyday life as special as possible, savoring the time you got together. A part of this was ensuring that you weren’t just spending time together by being around each other, but also by doing things and actively spending time together whenever your crazy schedules allowed it. And sometimes even if they didn’t, carving out time when you didn’t necessarily have it.

It was a good thing your personal life brought you so much happiness because the same thing couldn’t be said about your work. To be honest thinking of football as merely that, work, was painful enough by itself. Sure, it was, but it also always had been so much more than just a job.

Sometimes you still debated if you should just retire and try to find something else that would spark some sort of passion again. However, at the end of the day you weren’t ready to give up on what had been your life’s biggest passion so far.

So you resigned yourself to this reality, where the joy you once found in football only showed itself on very rare occasions. And whenever it did, you clung to it with ferocity to tie you over until the next minuscule moment.

Then, completely out of the blue, you got an offer from another team. It hadn’t even crossed your mind to look around for another club; leaving Madrid had never been something you considered. It hadn’t been something you thought you would ever want to do.

But when you were approached by the managers of Tigres Femenil, you realized all of the sudden that it might be exactly what you wanted. It helped that it was the team Jenni was playing for, so you knew if you actually decided to go through with this, you wouldn’t be totally alone on another continent.

That wasn’t the appeal though, that was merely a helpful factor. What really made you want to do it was the fact that it would be your choice, only yours and no one else’s, not your family’s and not your club’s. It would be you deciding what to do with your life, instead of rolling with the punches others kept throwing at you.

Was that a good enough reason to move halfway across the world, though? Especially since there was one obvious reason keeping you in Madrid, Ana. The thought of not seeing her daily was hard to bare. Then again it probably wasn’t healthy that she was the only good thing in your life at the moment, that was too much pressure to place on one person. So perhaps it would be better for your relationship in the long run if you decided to do this?

On the other hand, Mexico was a long way from Madrid. Would Ana be okay with doing long distance or would this be the end of your relationship? Because in that case you wouldn’t do it.

As was in your nature you drove yourself crazy thinking about every possible outcome either of your choices could have. You did your best to not let on that something was bothering you, but Ana must have noticed anyway because she began acting a bit odd herself, switching between being weirdly distant and overly clingy.

You had almost reached the point of finally broaching the subject, when your girlfriend took the first step. In the morning before leaving for your respective training sessions, Ana nervously asked if you could talk later that night. Of course you agreed, thinking that she wanted to ask you what had been on your mind lately.

Consequently you spent the entire day agonizing about how you could put your thoughts and feelings into words. You made countless drafts in your mind, even though you knew that you wouldn’t be able to remember them in the moment. At least they made you feel a bit better prepared.

Ana was back at your apartment before you and she set everything up nicely with candles and flowers she had gotten for you. You appreciated how she went out of her way to make sure you knew everything was okay. Every once in a while you still got in your head, worried that your girlfriend would leave you if you made on small mistake.

Once you had both settled down, Ana took a deep breath, blurting out, “There is something I have to tell you.”

This took you by surprise. You had been under the assumption she had set this all up to get you to talk. And you instantly began wondering what your girlfriend had to tell you. Naturally your first thought was that she might break up with. However, even you had to admit that preparing a romantic candle light dinner would be a very strange move if you wanted to break up with someone.

“Oh, what is it? I actually have something I need to tell you as well,” you replied, trying to keep your worries out of your voice.

“Really?” Ana exclaimed in surprise. This in turn surprised you, you didn’t think you had been doing a good job at keeping your over thinking a secret.

“You can go first,” your girlfriend quickly offered.

Normally you wouldn’t have accepted such an offer, especially not when Ana had been the one to set all this up to talk to you about something. However, something in her tone sounded almost pleading, as if she desperately wanted you to go first. And begging from your girlfriend was something you could never resist.

“Well, I’m guess I’m just going to come out and say it,” you started, taking a deep breath, steeling yourself for whatever might be Ana’s reaction, “I’ve gotten an offer from another club. And I didn’t think it was something I would be interested in, but now that I have it, I realize that I really am. You know how I feel at Real, so this might be my chance to enjoy football again. But then I also don’t want to leave you alone here because I love you and…”

Ana had been listening to you rattling on for a moment, her face unreadable, until she interrupted you sounding oddly excited, “Wait, you’re thinking about leaving Madrid?”

You frowned at her happiness. It was one thing to be excited about something good happening to your partner, but being so happy about them moving away seemed weird to you, and a little painful.

“Wow, no reason to be so happy about getting rid of me,” you mumbled, avoiding your girlfriend’s eyes.

“What? No!” Ana cried out, reaching over to grab your hand. “That’s not what this is about at all. The thing is that I too have gotten offers from other clubs and I didn’t really consider them, but then a few days ago Atleti told me that they wouldn’t renew my contract, so I have no choice but to leave.”

“And I have been feeling so bad about it because just like you said, I didn’t want to leave you behind here either. But if we’re both leaving, it’s a totally different scenario. Sure, long distance is going to suck, but it won’t be forever and at least this way we hopefully both end up in places where we feel happier than at our current clubs.”

Suddenly Ana’s behavior over the last few days made a lot more sense. You had thought she was acting weird because she had picked up on your distress, but really she had been dealing with something herself. Being dropped by yet another team and faced with having to upend her entire life again.

“Ugh, I didn’t think I could hate Atleti more than I already do! How stupid of them to let you go,” you grumbled.

Your girlfriend blinked a couple of times, a smile appearing on her face, “That’s what you’re focusing on right now?”

“Yeah! I’m really annoyed with them! But also…Why didn’t you tell me?”

It wasn’t something you could really complain about since it was very much exactly what you would have done in Ana’s position. Your girlfriend was much better though, when it came to opening up and discussing her struggles. So the fact that she hadn’t told you before didn’t sit right with you.

Ana sighed, rubbing her forehead. “I made up my mind so many times to just come right out and say it, but every time I lost my courage in the last second. Because at it turns out it’s not so easy to tell your girlfriend who you love very much and who has a hard time at work and with her family that you’re moving to another country.”

“Oh.”

You understood that, it was the thing you had been worried about, that Ana felt too much pressure to bring joy to your life because so little else did. Under different circumstances this might have been harder to swallow, but in the current situation it actually helped. It left not a single doubt in your mind, that leaving Madrid was the right choice.

“So, what are your options?” You asked to move on the conversation.

“There are different clubs in Switzerland I could go to, but I don’t really see myself doing that. It would be nice to be close to my family and maybe I should do it to help further women’s football in Switzerland, but it feels more like something I should do, not something I want, you know?”

You knew precisely what she meant. In fact for so long you had made all decisions based on exactly that feeling of ‘I should’, so you were happy Ana didn’t plan on making the same mistake. And you tried to show her that by nodding encouragingly.

“However, the other option is pretty far away, so I just want you to know that no decision has been made yet, and I really want to know what you think. Because if long distance on that scale is a deal breaker for you, I won’t do it,” your girlfriend continued.

Again you nodded, hung up on the fact that you had been having exactly the same thoughts. So as far as distance went this would either work out well for the two of you or Ana would really end up on the other side of the world. What even was on the other side of Mexico? You cursed yourself for your geography knowledge that was clearly lacking.

“Okay, so, the other option is Tigres Femenil. Jenni’s team in Mexico,” your girlfriend rushed out, her eyes flicking between you and the table, as if Ana was torn between wanting to study every miniscule reaction you might show, while also trying to avoid jus tthat.

“What?”

This had to be a joke! Ana probably learnt about your offer from then and decided to play a prank on you. Maybe Jenni had heard about it and told your girlfriend to do this, that would be a Jenni thing to do.

Except not really, though. Your older friend was known for playing pranks and amusing herself at the expense of others, but there was a clear line that she never crossed. And playing with someone’s heart and feelings was on the “don’t”-side of that line.

“I’m sorry! Like I said I haven’t decided yet and if it’s too far then I’ll go to Switzerland. I’m sure that will be great,” Ana apologized frantically. 

“No, wait, that’s not why I reacted like this. The thing is my offer is also from Tigres Femenil, so it just seems a bit unbelievable? People don’t get this lucky in real life,” you explained, disbelief still coloring your tone and set firmly on your face.

“You’re joking right?” Your girlfriend inquired, apparently also having some issues fully accepting this miraculous coincidence as true.

“No, I’m not. They offered me a one year contract with the option for additional years if I like it there and fit well into the team.” Hopefully the added details would make it easier for Ana to believe this was actually happening.

After that the two of you stayed silent for a while, your hearts and minds needed some time to let themselves open up and accept that you were getting much more than you ever hoped for.

You reached that conclusion almost at the same time, huge grins spreading across both of your faces and then there was nothing holding you back anymore. Ana jumped up from her chair first and you swiftly followed suit.

Mere seconds later you basically jumped into your girlfriend’s arms, thinking in the back of your mind that this was exactly how you would celebrate a goal if you would play for the same time. Your heart jumped happily when you realized that you might get a chance to do precisely that next season.

“I’m so happy!” Ana squealed into your ear and you echoed that sentiment.

Moving abroad and playing for another team had sounded excited, but doing so with your girlfriend? That seemed more like a dream than anything else.

Ana and you stayed wrapped up in each other’s arms for a good while, just basking in the happiness. It was a welcome change from the usual reasons you spent so long in each other’s embrace. Normally you did so because one of you, more often than not you, was sad and needed comfort. Now there was not an ounce of sadness present, the air was electrified by excitement and the possibility of everything that was to come.

---

Of course you didn’t decide that night to accept the transfer, not legally at least, but emotionally you definitely did. Still, like the reasonable adults you were, you thought it through, gathered some more information before officially making the choice you had already made the moment you learnt both of you could go to Mexico together.

You called Jenni together to tell her the good news and she was overjoyed. Although if the amount of teasing you had to endure during one measly phone call was anything to go by, you were going to have to put up with a lot next year. You didn’t mind, though. Also you were aware that Ana would put a stop to it if she thought it was getting out of hand. You could as well, Jenni would listen if you seriously told her to stop, but you knew yourself well enough to know that you wouldn’t.

After that Ana and you focused on wrapping up everything in Madrid, sorting out your apartments and such. There was one particular subject you avoided like the plague, your family. You couldn’t leave for Mexico without at least telling them and try one more time, but you also weren’t ready to face them again in the slightest.

Finally you reached a point in time where you could no longer postpone it. Your girlfriend offered multiple times to go with you, but you declined every time, much to Ana’s chagrin. In the end she decided that she would at least drive you and wait for you in a nearby parking lot. You gladly accepted that suggestion.

“And please leave if it gets too much, yeah? Or call me and I will come get you,” Ana reminded you resolutely, still reluctant to let go of your hand.

“Don’t worry, tesoro, I’ll be fine. I don’t think much will come off today, but I just have to try one more time before we leave,” you explained. And it was true; you didn’t have high hopes for your conversation with your family. But even so you ended up being disappointed.

It started with a very frosty greeting, your father leading you into the living room where the rest of your family was sitting. You had chosen that day specifically because you had thought no one else would be over, but apparently you were out of luck. All of your aunts and uncles were assembled, staring at you disapprovingly.

You swallowed roughly, wetting your lips nervously when it became apparent that you would have to lead this conversation. This had been expected, you had even practiced a bit at home with Ana, but now in the moment your mind felt terrifyingly blank. With everyone glaring at you the only thing you could think of was to apologize. And that was the one thing you remembered you didn’t want to do.

“Did you just come here to stare at us?” Your mother questioned unfriendly.  

“No, I…This isn’t so easy. You’re making this really hard for me,” you muttered

“We’re making it hard for you? Do you have any idea what you’ve done to us? Just completely cutting us out of your life because of some random girl you met a few months ago,” your mother accused you.

The guilt and self-doubt threatened to consume you, but you tried to focus on your anger instead. At least the anger would allow you to say what needed to be said, even if you couldn’t lay it out as calmly and clearly as you wanted.

“See, this is what I mean. Everything is always my fault and you never listen to what I have to say,” you defended yourself. “And Ana isn’t just some random girl. I can’t stand that you talk like this about someone I love, someone who I’m pretty sure is the love of my life.”

Your family exchanged meaningful glances, the sentiment on their faces clear as day; they thought you were being ridiculous or childish or dramatic. Three adjectives they loved using to describe you.

“You’re getting too emotional again, niña, that has always been your problem. How do you expect us to take you serious like this? And think about this, you say we’re always acting as if you’re the problem, but in reality it’s you doing that. You always blame everything on us, your horrible family. Poor you with parents, aunts and uncles that support you!”

Condescension was something you were used to, and it had always made you feel very tiny and incredibly mad at the same time. You were an adult for crying out loud, not a little kid. And still in that moment you felt exactly like that.

“Fine, you know what, I can see that this is totally pointless! I don’t even know why I thought I should try again. So I’m just going to tell you the one thing you need to know; once this season is over I’ll go to Mexico to play there. So I guess, see you never?” You yelled, turning around and stomping out of your childhood home, without giving your family any chance to reply. What was the point?

Tears were already streaming down your face as you ran down the street to where Ana was waiting. Your girlfriend saw you coming; she had been keeping an eye out for you practically from the moment you had kissed her goodbye.

When she saw you rushing towards her, Ana’s heart broke. She had hoped this would go better, but your demeanor and the fact that you were back so soon told her everything she needed to know.

Ana quickly clambered out of the car to meet you with open arms. You fell into them, allowing yourself a moment to completely lean into your girlfriend and absorb some strength from her. Not too long though, you didn’t want to risk anyone catching up with you.

“Come on, let’s go,” you requested, already moving to the passenger’s side.

The drive home was mostly silent, your girlfriend held your hand whenever she didn’t need both of them to drive, and only asked you in the very beginning if you were ready to talk. You just shook your head in response. First you would have some more crying to do, before you could even hope to use words.

And you did exactly that, once again safely tucked away in your girlfriend’s arms. You couldn’t wait to get to a point in your life where you didn’t need so much comfort anymore.

“How are you feeling?” Ana prompted once she noticed you were ready to talk. She had seen you biting your cheek, contemplating how to start the conversation and decided to help you out with questions.

“I didn’t have much hope to begin with, but apparently I still had some that could be crushed. And also…,” you stopped, uncertain if you should continue. It felt like you kept bringing up the same things; shouldn’t you get over them at some point?

“Also?”

There was nothing but love and concern on your girlfriend’s face. You didn’t have to worry about her judging you, this was a safe space.

“I’m so annoyed with myself. I couldn’t even say much before I ran away. I can just hear them calling me a dramatic little girl who runs away as soon as things get though”, you gritted out.

Ana tensed at your harsh words towards yourself and she forced herself to count to three before answering, not wanting to sound too intense. There was however nothing she could do about the emotions lingering in her voice.

“Please stop listening to their voices in your head. I don’t think removing yourself from a bad situation is running away, that’s a smart move really. You need to take care of yourself.”

You nodded thoughtfully, “You know I’ve been thinking about that and realized I often put their needs and wants over mine. But I guess putting others first only works if they do the same. Otherwise if I always put them first, but they never put me first, I’m just always going to end up last, right? I think that’s what’s been happening all my life and I’m done with it!”

“Absolutely! If anything your parents should be putting you, their child, first. That’s what my mom said when I talked about it with her. She also said some other things, but I’m not sure if you want to hear them or if it’ll just make you sad.”

Ana studied you carefully, every sign of pain embedded in your body hurting her as well. She hated how that you had to deal with this, so the last thing she wanted to do was to add any pain to it.

“No, please, tell me. I think it will be helpful, hearing what an actual good parent thinks about all of this,” you requested.

You had only met Ana’s parents twice before, but they had been everything you wanted your own family to be. They were excited to see their daughter, but expressed that without making her feel guilty for not being around more. And they had welcomed you with open arms, clearly very pleased that Ana had found a special someone to share her life with.

“She also said that nothing makes her happier than seeing us, her kids, living our best life. Not some life my parents pictured for us, but the life we choose. She can’t really understand why so many people try to force their kids to be something they’re not. According to her slowly getting to meet your children’s truest self is one of the biggest joys of them growing up.”

Your eyes filled with tears again causing your girlfriend distress. You had been sitting opposite each other, hands intertwined in between you, but now Ana pulled you into her embrace again.

“See, I knew I shouldn’t have said anything,” your girlfriend cried out.

You shook your head, “I wanted to hear that, I needed to hear that. It makes me feel less unreasonable and ungrateful.”

Ana gently kissed the top of your head, rubbing comforting circles on your back. “You’re anything but, you’re absolutely amazing.”

The longer you were with your girlfriend and the more she told you things like these, the easier it became to believe them. It wasn’t easy or natural yet, but you found yourself questioning your old beliefs much more often.

You didn’t speak more about it that evening, indulging in some self care instead. However, a few days later you recognized that it was still bothering you. There was no way you would try again, but it also didn’t feel right to shut the door to your family completely.

Surprisingly when you brought it up to Ana, one day after training when you were cuddling on the couch, you practically on top of your girlfriend, she informed you that she had been thinking about that as well.

“How about you set up an email account just for them? This way you can check it every once in a while when you feel up to it, or I can even check it if you prefer. That would allow them to contact you if they have a change of heart, but you aren’t constantly bombarded with unwanted messages.”

A huge weight was lifted from your heart when you heard this suggestion. That was precisely what you wanted, some small gap left open, but nothing that would affect you in your everyday life. The last thing you wanted was to constantly get attacked by hurtful messages.

You placed a few kisses everywhere on your girlfriend’s face, uttering one word between each kiss,”You. Are. The. Best. Girlfriend. In. The. World. And. I. Love. You. So. Much.”

Ana happily accepted your kisses. “So, no second thoughts about moving to Mexico?” She inquired cautiously.

“Not a single one, I’m so excited for it, and I won’t let my family ruin it. Plus it would be the same if I stayed here. If anything being not only in another country, but on another continent might actually be good for me.”

“Good, because I’m very excited about it,” your girlfriend announced with a big smile.

“Me too,” you agreed.

In fact you couldn’t wait to start that adventure with Ana. You had never allowed yourself to be an adventurous person, telling yourself, or really being told by your family, that you were anything but.

However, now you realized that you did have an adventurous streak and it was high time you used it. For too long you had lived the life everyone else wanted you to live, but now you were getting another chance at life, at the life you truly wanted.

You didn't even wait until you moved to Mexico. A few days before leaving, you dragged Ana to a hairdresser, stating that both of you should change up your look to start over fresh.

What you didn't expect though, was for your girlfriend to decide she wanted to color her hair pink. You had thought about something more along the lines of cutting your hair a little shorter.

But then Ana announced with a big grin that she was going pink, and you made a split second decision, telling the hairdresser to whip up some purple hair dye for you.

And that's how the two of your started off your new life, one of you pink haired and the other one purple. You loved the way it looked and couldn't care less when pretty much the first thing out of Jenni's mouth when she picked you up from the airport was, "Where are you two going? A five year old's birthday party?"

"Shut up, Jenni, you're just jealous of us," Ana retorted.

Jenni rolled her eyes, "Maybe, but I get a feeling you're going to help me get over that by annoying me with your lovey-doveyness."

"Absolutely," you agreed, pulling your girlfriend against yourself and kissing her passionately.

"Fine! I'll stop if you stop!" Jenni exclaimed, grabbing one hand from the both of you and marching you towards the exit. "Bienvenida a México, chicas!"

[veliseraptor]

top 5 fic recs? any fandom

five? any fandom? anon I have 1,065 fics in my bookmarks on ao3, which doesn't include in progress works that I'm really enjoying, and while some of those are for fandoms I'm no longer in it's like. that's a lot of fic to try to pick five from.

but I guess if I say "five completed single fics on the longer side (i.e. not a series)" then that narrows it down a little at least. and I'm still like. but what about everyone I'm leaving out.

so consider this a top frive fics that's in no way definitive.

Hard Mouth by road_rhythm.

There's something in Caleb's dreams. It wants him to know that he's not alone. It wants him to know that he'll never be alone again. Elves don't dream, so all Essek can do is watch.

It's been a minute since I read this one but it's a remarkable piece of work. It's Shadowgast canon divergence from late in Campaign 2, featuring Caleb suffering a whole lot and one of the best action scenes I've read in a fic, ever. Knotty and plotty and compelling.

Bargaining by @proantagonista

Faced with an eternity without his brother, Loki strikes a bargain to change the past. Post TDW.

I feel like the fact that this is MCU and I still had to put it on here speaks for itself, a little bit. This fic is possibly the best one I read in the MCU fandom, in terms of craft and also how much it made me feel; the slow build and arc of the plot makes a thing of beauty. One of the Loki fics I read that just lives in my head.

The Shadow That Remains of You by tenddisorder

After failing for years to restore life to Xiao Xingchen, Xue Yang decides to take a different approach to the problem. It goes almost entirely to plan.

Given the premise of this one (SongXueXiao travel back in time to dinosaur country) I would've been skeptical, but I think it was recced to me compellingly enough that I gave it a go and boy was I rewarded for that decision. Turns out that concept is a perfect way of basically isolating all three of these characters from everything else while they work out their shit. And there's some truly choice whump in there, too.

Under the Wheel by @silvysartfulness

Some few lucky times, the only thing you need to fix your horrible shared tragedy is a single heartfelt wish and a second chance to get things right. Or two. Or three. Or- okay, it's a bit of a work in progress. Song Lan spends centuries searching for a way to go back to a time before all horrors, undo all hurt and give him and Xiao Xingchen another chance at happiness. It could have gone according to plan.

Admittedly this one was written for me so that probably informs this decision a little, but it really is tailor-made for my specific wants and pleasures and it really pays off. Several of my favorite concepts combined (time travel, time loops, multiple people having conflicting goals having to work together) into a delightful piece of work. (As far as Silvy's work, The only reason Heaven Has a Road didn't make this list instead is because it's not complete yet.)

til my feet are memory by @curiosity-killed

The first time he meets Crimson Rain Sought Flower, Mu Qing barely makes it out alive. He throws himself, claws, crawls his way back to the heavenly court with his soul half out of his body, his limbs shredded and heart fluttering weakly as it weeps blood into the floor of his palace.

I waffled a little on the final one for this list - there were a couple VegasPete possibilities and an FMA fic that almost made it on, and I considered just having this list be a top seven instead of a top five) but ultimately I decided on this one partly because I am obsessed with this pairing, there's very little fic for it with the dynamic I prefer, and the execution in this fic is everything I want from it. In general this author does excellent work just...across the board, but this is possibly my personal favorite, at least of the works on the longer side.

so there's five. but like. I'm serious about that 1,065 bookmarks, all of which I rec to one degree or another. this is just a selection.

[low-budget-korra]

Honestly you're overreacting. The intimacy coordinator thing didn't make waves at all outside on social media. The idea that Anora winning is "dangerous " is utter bs. I do think that intimacy coordinators should be there but making a boogeyman out the film isn't gonna solve anything.

Also "Mikey was probably exploited and doesn't realise" is such a horrifically condescending and insulting way to talk about her, she isn't a child. Unlike those other examples you mentioned, she has the resources for help available to her and has spoken about how safe she felt and how she notes the backlash and look forward to working with ICs in the future. But I guess its Believe All Women until they say something you don't agree with, right?

It wasn't even the only Best Picture nominee to not have one. (And Margaret Qualley has spoken about how horrible filming certain scenes of The Substance were and no one cared). But I know you wouldn't be weighting this pearlclutching post if any of them had won because the Internet didn't tell you to care about them.

Yeah I'm overreacting for understanding the importance of a professional and for not wanting abuse, harassment and uncomfortable situation happening in scenes where the actors are the most vulnerable.

Do you really, really think that the winner of the biggest Hollywood Award doesn't send a message from and for the industry? If not, you're just naive, I'm sorry.

Sure, Mikey is a grown woman but she is still a young and inexperienced actress. And guess what, putting your actress through unnecessary and not artistic shooted sex and nude scenes is kind of exploiting her. And this does not mean he is abusive or a creep, I'm not saying this. But he is a man making a movie about a sensitive topic surrounding women, it's not crazy to think that his male gaze gets in the way of some scenes that could be better if it was a woman directing them.

"but I guess it's believe all women until they say something you don't agree right?" Okay Sean Baker, I see it's you lmao. But seriously tho, it's good that she felt that way and everything. Again, I'm NOT mad at her, not at all. My ""anger"" is towards the director.

Ooh look who is being condescending now... You're probably talking about the Pump It Up scene where Margaret said it was like the hardest scene for her to shot bc of the close ups on her body. But the thing that you seem to not understand is about what is necessary and unnecessary in a scene. For instance, it was necessary for Sue to have this scene exactly the way it was shot? Yes, because she is seen as merchandise other than a person, so she is often shot like that, like a merchandise. And is one of the premises of The Substance. Now for Anora, do we really need all those sex scenes who tell us nothing new about the character or her relationships and are not even "artistically" shot? The movie is supposedly an ally to sex workers and yet reduces their main character into her work and the men in her life. She is basically treated like Sue, the difference is that Coralie Fargeat intended to treat Sue as a merchandise, meanwhile Sean Baker acted all "white savior" thinking he was doing this great help and revolution towards how ppl view sex workers when he was actually doing the same: Treating Anora more as merchandise than person. (At least In the first half of the movie)

And why do i say this? Okay let's talk about Anora. What are Anora's dreams? What are her fears? What does she like to do in her free time? Does she have any hobbies? Or religion? We know little to nothing about Anora besides her work and work relations. And the script doesn't decide if she is supposed to be a baddie or stupidly naive. Sure these two traits can coexist in a character but the way the script does is just not good. In summoring, who is Anora? She is a sex worker who lives with her sister, they don't seem to be close with each other. She also has a beef with the management of the club she works on and beef with a colleague. And she has a Russian background.

In comparison, let's see Ivan. Ivan is rich and comes from a traditional and conservative family. He is that kind of guy that is so rich he doesn't give a F about how much he spends and at a first look he seems really cool and someone you want to be friends with. He likes to challenge/get the attention of his parents, yet at the time is afraid of their punishment. He is impulsive. He likes to play video games, parties and smoking. He is childish and spoiled af, and seems to never really had faced any consequences for his actions. And he doesn't really change, he is the same from start to finish. And Boros, Boros is a family dude who babysits Ivan, and had to deal with his bullshits for years. He is also afraid of Ivan's parents, especially Ivan's mother. We know his family situation may be screwed after he left his grandson baptist to deal with Ivan's bs. He is a decent man.

See the difference?

Anyway....you may not even read all this but still.