#so i had to watch it on a diff website

[multifanritz]

okay so the dc tomorrowverse is FUCKING AMAZING. like holy shit. ESPECIALLY the long halloween. omfg. all the characters looked amazing and their personalities were GREAT. like damn.

this SOOOOO makes up for the shit they pulled with justice league dark apokolips war (aka the movie that DOES NOT EXIST TO ME). omggg so so good

[julilovesyou444]

ok first of all your writing is so good i’m literally in love????? anyways, could i request a tom x reader fluff with them cuddling but like tom doesn’t rly know how to do it bc he’s used to hook ups and stuff and so it’s diff for him?? i feel like that’s super specific but i think i wld be so cuteee idkk. anyways tysm pookie 💗💗💗

show me how ~ tom kaulitz

AHHHH thank you love!! you are so sweet💟 I’ll try!!! thank you for requesting, this is my first time doing one of these so I’ll do my best!! if you have a request, feel free to do it in the little thingy on my page, this was so fun !! ALSO, if this isn’t what you were expecting or anything, I’ll write it again differently, no problem ☺️

background ~ you and your boyfriend had just started dating not long ago, and there were a lot of things in the relationship that were new to him. he hadn’t been in many relationships at all, so he isn’t sure on everything, for example, cuddling and affection. you show him how :)

warnings ~ none, just fluff and cutesy stuff, tad bit of angst too

I’m Montenegrin so please forgive me if my English is messed up !

~

you had been at home all day, just picking up and relaxing. it was a pretty chill day though. you’re boyfriend, Tom, was at the studio all day. At first it was just a couple days of the week for a few hours, but lately it had been everyday for the whole day. You could tell it was taking a toll on him. He was tired and more irritable. You knew it wasn’t his fault, and you honestly felt really bad for him. When he would come home, he wouldn’t want anyone to bother him. After dating Tom for a week or two, you came to realize he was not an affectionate person. You thought that he just needed to warm up to you, but it had been almost a month. Besides kissing and sex, he rarely touched you. You couldn’t figure out what was wrong, so you tried to ignore it for the main part.

today was another long day for him. you weren’t living together yet, but he just slept over at your place all the time. you had made dinner for him tonight, not something you always did but you wanted to be nice. you were sitting on your bed, scrolling through random websites on your laptop when you heard the front door open and shut. Tom didn’t call out to you like he usually did. You knew today probably sucked for him. The fear of him rejecting you as he sometimes did made it hard for you to leave your room, but you did anyways.

You walked down the hallway to main room of the apartment to see Tom sitting on the couch, watching tv. He looked angry. The dinner you made him still sat on the table, untouched, and probably cold now.

“I made you dinner.”, you spoke softly. His eyes darted from the screen to yours. Tom looked so upset, almost as if he wanted to cry.

“I know. Thanks, but I’m not hungry.”, he replied coldly.

You took a step closer to him, almost testing the waters.

“How was the studio?”

“Shit. It was shit. Do I need to pause this or…?”, he replied rather harshly, referring to the television.

“Tom…”, you trailed off, very quiet. He saw the hurt in your eyes and immediately hated himself for taking his anger out on you. He grabbed the remote and turned off the t.v.

“I’m sorry, I’m just in a bad mood. I’m really stressed and tired and I don’t know how to get rid of it, but I shouldn’t take it out on you.”, Tom said, sounding genuine as ever.

“come here.”, you said, putting your hand out for him to take. You could tell he was very hesitant, but he took your hand and let you pull him up from the couch.

before he could argue or protest, you pulled him into a hug. you usually didn’t hug, but it felt like he needed it. You wrapped your arms tightly around his torso and pushed the side of your face into his chest. At first, his arms were just outwards, unsure of where to go. When he became more aware and comfortable, and put his arms around your neck, hands on the side of your head as he placed his head on top on yours. you could feel him relax into the hug, and it made you so happy that you were finally able to do that for him.

“I’m sorry for being rude, today was just so so bad, and these long ass days are tiring me out.”, Tom said, his voice muffled into your head. He left a soft kiss on the crown of your head.

“I know, and I’m sorry. Let me help.”, you pulled away, looking up at him.

“Help how?”

“Y’know, help you relax and stuff. Make you feel better.”

“I’m not really in the mood to fuc-“

“No, Tom, not that. Like just get into pajamas and I’ll rub your back and cuddle you, yea?”

“Uhh-“

“Please, trust me, you’ll feel so much better.”

Maybe it was your pleading eyes, or the fact that he secretly wanted to be intimate with you in this sense, but it didn’t take a lot for him to give in.

“Okay.”

“Yea?”, you beamed. He couldn’t help but smile back before playfully rolling his eyes.

“Yea.”

“Okay, go get changed into something comfier.”

He nodded and grabbed some of his clothes from your room before heading to the bathroom.

You quickly went into your room and started trying to “set the mood”. You dimmed the lights as much as possible and lit a few candles. You grabbed a bunch of really soft blankets and some water too. You wanted him to feel comfortable around you. He wasn’t affectionate or that touchy with you, and you wanted him to be.

Tom walked into your room, looking around, admiring your dedication.

“Lay down.”, you instructed.

“So bossy.”, he jokingly muttered.

He laid down on your bed as you walked over.

“Lay on your stomach.”

He groaned but turned over onto his stomach.

You climbed up onto the bed, and then put one of your legs over him so you were straddling his lower back.

“what are you-“

“shhh just relax.”

your hands found their way under his shirt, making their way up to his upperback. You began to slowly massage circles into his back, feeling him instantly become less tense under you. You gradually added pressure in places that felt a little more stiff. You began to knead the knots out of his back too. There were a lot. No wonder the poor boy was so upset, his stress was causing him to get strained.

You went on massaging him for a bit more, and you could tell how calm he was getting.

you climbed off of his back and laid on your side next to him, facing him. His face was towards you and his eyes were shut, but you could tell he wasn’t asleep just yet.

“did you like that?”, you said softly. he opened his eyes narrowly and nodded.

“yes, thank you. you don’t even know how much I needed that. I’m so tired now.”, he murmured.

you opened up your arms. Tom watched you intently.

“c’mere”

“for what?”

“pleaseee don’t fight me on this one. I just wanna hold you.”

“what, like cuddling?”, he questioned, looking doubtful.

“yea… is that okay?”

“um… yea, yea it is. its just that… fuck, this is embarrassing.”, he rubbed his eyes, trying to hide his uneasiness.

“listen, all of the girls I’ve been with before, I never really did anything like that with them. usually we would just hook up and they would leave. what im trying to say I guess, is that I don’t really know how to cuddle or anything like that. I sound so stupid. its kinda just like hugging, right?”, he rambled.

at first, you couldn’t even say anything because you could believe that your beautiful, beautiful boyfriend had never been shown love and affection like that before. he so clearly deserved it, even though he had his moods, he was the sweetest thing. You felt bad for him. That was probably why he hadn’t shown or done anything like that for you before.

“I’ll show you how.”, you responded with a small but sweet smile. his eyes sorta lit up and he picked up his head from the pillow.

“show me how?”

“mhm, c’mere. don’t make me wait any longer, im tired too y’know.”, you teased him a little. Tom scoffed before scooting over to you, waiting for your instructions.

“put your head against my chest, under mine.”

he listened to you, putting the side of his face against your chest. You took his arm and wrapped it around your waist, and he quickly got the memo and snuck his other arm beneath you so that they were both wrapped around you. He pulled you closer, forcing you to smile. you entangled your legs with his.

you two were finally cuddling. you had wanted to for so long, but you didn’t know how to ask. you could feel Tom’s slow breath blow out against you as he got closer to falling asleep.

“thank you, baby.”, he sleepily mumbled.

“of course. I’m sorry your day wasn’t great.”

“it’s definitely better now. I wish we would’ve done this earlier.”

“I thought you didn’t really want me to touch you, or for you to touch me, in this way, I guess…”

“I’m sorry, I wanted to but it was just unfamiliar to me and that kind of scared me, I didn’t want to do anything wrong and I’m not used to this kind of affection.”

“I’m sorry, Tom.”, you said, gently stroking his hair. he breathed deeply, showing you how relaxed he was becoming.

“it’s okay, I have you now.”

You continued to play with his hair as he cuddled you, and you could tell just how peaceful he was. He ended up falling asleep pretty fast. You were so happy that he was able to unwind and open up with you. You reached over to the candle and blew it out. You flipped the light switch off and let yourself fall asleep in Tom’s arms.

~

a/n ~ awww this is very sweet to me😭 I love doing these cutesy little stories, they are my favorite to write. I’m in my home country right now so I’m sorry if my posts are very inconsistent or posted at a weird time, thank you for the request!! all of the comments are so sweet too, and they make me feel a lot less insecure about my writing. have a good day !!!💋😽

[swifty-fox]

hi, sorry to pop in like this. i've followed you for a while and i was intrigued by your mota posting, so when i was on an airplane recently i watched the first three episodes on the free in-flight service, and... first off THANK YOU for that. i have now finished the whole series and fucking loved it??

anyway, second off--i hope this isn't too awkward but i was hoping i could ask a million questions about like...... what your experience is writing fic and how you tag things and approach the historical aspects etc? i've just started poking around at the ao3 tag but i'm getting fic ideas and i'm not sure how to go about the tagging/writing/etc

(either way, i'm excited to dive into your fics because some of these are 👀👀👀)

HELLO I LOE YOU WELCOME TO DEAD GAY PILOTS!!!!!!!

First and foremost, I would recommend following @hogans-heroes who knows all things plane and has written up some good info on how they work. And also pilots in general

@thatsrightice has a TON of good research done about the irl boys as well

And in general check out the tag for all our lovely lovely writes there's so many to name.

For meeee i think the HboWar fandom understands the separation from the real guys and the fictionalized versions we play dolls with. Some people will put disclaimers but not all. Generally you're not going to piss anyone off by exploring them through a queer lense so long as nobody's harassing the real family members (really only find them in the FB groups. @bcolfanfic has had some sweet exchanges with the Egan and Crosby family)

In terms of researching, my kind of separation from the real people is that I only take show canon as fact. Anything not included in the show about the real guys I don't follow. That's what feels respectful of me! But there's so many lovely writers out there who do follow the events of their real lives and such good content for 'canon' fic.

In terms of researching Google is my best friend as well as the historians we have in the fandom. (Hogans-Heroes again is a gem. @reallylilyreally has a great attention to detail and we also have a few current/former service members who family of service members who are good points of reference!)

In terms of other research. the Masters of the Air book is a great go to

Cros actually wrote a book called A Wing and a Prayer which is a great resource and also pretty heartbreaking!

I personally referenced The Evening Crowd at Kirmsers by Ricardo Brown for queer underground culture in the 40's

Coming Out Under Fire is a fucking devastating but really helpful book about gay service members in the 40's and kind of the danger they were in. @bcolfanfic also has some excerpts from that she posted a while back if you don't mind digging.

I've also used ancestry.com to research the guys as well as these websites contains the personnel and mission files as well as photos of the guys!

https://100thbg.com/ you can search both the guys AND the planes!

another great website with a similar search function but they have a few diff documents.

For tagging the main tags are: Mota, Clegan and Hbowar (this one will include the other shows like Band of Brothers, The Pacific, and Generation Kill)

Really it's treated like any other fandom. Everyone understands that we're playing with dolls, not real people. But also RPF is fine kill the cop in your head and join the hockey rpf fandom next >:)

[wewinbees]

Techno vs Dream Duel

i saw twitter talking about the dream vs techno duel and it revived something in me im talking about it again (on here i won’t use that website but they missed a few stuff and hgnfnfn thoughts must go somewhere)

edit: putting this disclaimer at the top of the post bc its long and i didn’t realise it was technically cc neg until after posting it LMAO. basically tl;dr is duel weird, glad theyre friends now

so the big prerequisite to the duel is based on reputation. despite his channel being quite content based on mid-2019 with his new skyblock series, technoblade soon joined minecraft mondays, where he earned his reputation among the larger YT circle as a PVP god, winning 4 times and coming 1st individual more often than not. there was plenty of toxicity from other players, but the event helped his channel take off during the new minecraft resurgence. techno’s fanbase grew quickly and began to hold High Expectations for him, seeing all the times he’d won in the past

around this time, dream started his channel and actually was in MCM 9, teamed with BBH and it was one of his first big events. he ended up in 11th individual, with techno coming in 1st, though dream and bbh finished one place above him in teams.

dream established himself through his speedrunning, both challenges like the manhunts and ‘minecraft, but’ videos, and was shown to be one of the best 1.9 pvpers. and rose very quickly, hitting 1mil by the end of 2019 and growing quick through the rest of the year. he quickly became known as ‘one of the best minecraft players’, and made lots of videos with mr beast at the time, all of which portrayed him as such - a legendary minecraft player.

funnily enough, techno had an interaction with mr beast already, during MCM week 13 with wilbur, where he placed a 15k bounty on him in the final round of hunger games, announcing it halfway through the tournament, putting stress on both him and wilbur (who had 0 chance of winning Anything, by the way) and probably screwing their chances of winning. and when techno was panicking and brought it up, mr beast went “haha. anyway!” like LITERALLY he said “aren’t you the best minecraft player??” like that’s gonna stop getting hard targeted. they didn’t win, and wilbur was really cool about it, this is still one of my fav MCM POVs bc they’re so fun together despite this being like the first time they talked. but still. mr beast’s attitude with dream is already Pretty tonally different than his w techno back then

now i could only find one video of them together between this and MCC 6, Dream’s enderdragon vid which was pretty chill, but the techno vs dream rivalry was born from MCC. i didn’t join the new mcyt fanbase until around october, so i don’t know the full extent to how they were compared before this (most is just researched through youtube comments and reddit as well as just word of mouth accounts from diff ppl), but i’ve seen a little bit, specifically in a dream and mr beast collab, where dream didn’t want to go along with that, but he doesn’t Quite keep up that attitude later on. if you watch that clip, you might wanna watch a little bit after it as well, they go on for longer than a minute (which oh my god why)

at the time, techno was in the last 2 weeks of the potato war where he farmed nonstop, meaning he hadn’t practiced at All - this was one of his 3 interruptions from farming, and as a result it was his worst ever performance…. at 9th place, still coming 4th in teams, only 195 coins away from dream’s team. 9th individual is still a good score, might i add, he’s one of the only players that have never dropped out of the top 10 despite playing in 10 canon events. dream got 3rd individual, which is amazing for a debut, but this led to uh. ahha

dream made his Only Ever MCC video, the day after the tournament, to hype up the new rivalry. now i made a post about this before that summarises it, and framed it comedically so i could put it in the dream tag, but really this is a Big example of dream pushing the rivalry more than techno. and techno is shown to HATE This fucking video man. like ohhhh boy he doesn’t like it, which, yeah, absolutely fair enough!

if he made a vid out of MCC 9, dream getting 13th and him getting 2nd, and then framed the whole vid around that, it would be EXTREMELY BM!!! especially since as this point they didn’t know eachother very well, dream saying they only really became friends after techno joined the dream smp. So It’s A Yikes there. the antagonistic tweets are more obvious for that, but i know dream deleted a lot of them (which is good on him, actually)

basically, while techno absolutely added to the rivalry bc it was good content, dream pushed it a lot more, and in more of a taunty way that techno. and from what i see it was largely bc of his reputation as a New Minecraft Youtuber. he wanted to hype himself up more, and what better way to do that than taking down the old king.

i haven’t found the clip quite yet, but there’s a bit of techno talking about his reputation before dream came around, where most people said that techno wasn’t that great at PVP, but made up for it in his ‘high IQ plays and good game strategy’ and how after dream came around that was inverted, which him and everyone else in the call agreed Was Worse. he would rather be smart than good at video games. that’s not true though, we’ve all seen the potato war here, he is Scarily smart

now MCC week 7 is an event. here’s another post of mine on it, but to summarise it was SCUFFED and Dream’s team suffered bc of it and he got Kinda Toxic. threatening to log out midgame and saying the tournament was rigged in techno’s favour (which, haha, laughs in MCM). this is BAD and ended up festering some hate towards the noxcrew, which is a great way to make me personally lose all respect for anyone bc i love MCC and noxcrew and oh my god i want their hand in marriage so bad it’s my favourite ever.

but anyways, the next event is MCC 8 where they team, and THIS is where the duel was born. basically, in the team announcements, mr beast brings up the duel (see above) and techno and dream both respond. dream’s response is deleted, but he said something like “hell yes, sign me up, my middle name is down” to which techno says

now my issue with this one? based on these tweets, THE DUEL HADN’T BEEN CONFIRMED. AND IT WAS MENTIONED PUBLICALLY. WHAT. now i’m going by the assumption that it had been at least mentioned in private before this, but a precedent has been set with these tweets: mr beast wants to do it, dream wants to do it, techno does Not Want To Do It.

meaning if it never happened, people would know who backed out. so there is now Public Pressure on techno to accept this duel, for which the stakes are Insanely High, or else people will know he was the one who wouldn’t do it, making him seem cowardly and unofficially confirming ‘Dream’s better than him’. so now he basically HAS to accept

basically immediately he jumps into the training arc, from the potato war and straight into the 1.9 training. from what i’ve seen, he mainly trained with fruitberries, cxlvxn and tapl (dunno if firebreathman was there for this one?) in both 1.8 and 1.9. apparently techno had actually suggested they do all the rounds in 1.9, dream’s main version, but it was split both ways. techno trained this for it looks like most of august, and his according to friends had ended up busy enough he barely talked. this stream at 31:19 is just one example, here’s a great phil clip too, but this duel was a Big Deal!

not even bc of the money, the guys were already loaded, but because of his reputation, Because that’s what the stakes of the duel were for techno. he’s supposed to win. and as a result the pressure was insanely inproportionate. from what dream said, he thought this duel would be interesting because he wanted to know who would win, and he wanted to prove himself. for techno, it was more that he Had to prove himself

this clip from techno says it best. because this is what it hinged on. techno had everything to lose from this duel. dream didn’t have to win, he’s a speedrunner, his audience never had such high expectations for him it became a meme to say “L” when he won. he could afford to lose. techno couldn’t. and as a result, oh BOY was there gonna be stress, and for a guy who already has anxiety issues that could not have been fun

they split the money before the duel, to try to reduce the stakes a little. techno’s tweet on the image a lil bit below shows him openly admitting to being stressed, which is such a tonal difference to dream’s taunting tweets by the way, plus there’s multiple clips of him saying he couldn’t eat for a few days before the duel [at 4:15] then one saying he couldn’t really eat AFTER, all because of stress.

the mind games around the duel are interesting. apparently dream considered his big advantage to be techno’s stress. he wanted the first round in 1.8, hoping to beat techno in his own version to psyche him out for the rest of the game, he told techno that he knew the name of his alt account just before the duel started and overall thought his lack of stress from high pressure situations would be what would win him the duel. he duelled tommy, wanting to underperform apparently just bc he thought techno would see and underestimate him. Huh?

ironically, he found out techno’s alt and panicked bc techno had a 99.3 KDA, and lost the round in 1.8 and said he was nervous for a few rounds that he won in. which brings us on to Sportmanship. if you want to see for yourself watch (or just skim) these two videos. now techno is a great sport most of the time, it’s a big appeal of his content for me, but dream repeatedly makes excuses for his loss and techno’s win

that he “should have won” and got “lucky hits” and that he overall “performed better” because he finished with more health on some rounds? bro. You Lost. now from what I’ve heard the claim that “two equally matched players can 7-3 eachother depending on the day” isn’t completely untrue, which is code for i heard fruit say it once, so i trust dream on that one. but the amount of excuse making here does Not sit right for me. like i get he’s salty bc the loss, which again! Fair! but it’s just. Ehhh. take the L on that one bro

i will say, in a brief defence of dream, even though he WAS kind of a dick around the rivalry, no one knows that better than himself. he’s expressed regret about the kind of way he acted around this time, and him and techno are still friends now, and he’s straight up said losing the duel to techno humbled him, and was probably for the best.

BUT ALSO THIS VID WHERE HE HAS TO 1v1 LIKE 50 PPL AFTERWARDS FOR HIS EGO HAHA WHY DID YOU DO THIS ONE DREAM WHAT

adding later, but heres a thread from dream’s private Twitter talking about how stressful it was for him and what it felt like after losing! there was a lot of stress on both sides on the competition

as for the mr beast bias, the format of the video was meant to be karl: dream support, chris: techno support and then him as a neutral commentator. Didn’t Work Out, techno won and mr beast went “Noooo-oh, my goodness!” and when dream was losing, he went “dreams meant to be one of the best players in the world, where is this coming from?” to which techno says “im not half bad myself”. not the best unbiased host. also techno tried to shout out calvin for help with training rod PVP and the editor put in a picture of Famed Protestant John Calvin. scammed

now the dream vs techno duel is Literally what made me a techno fan. and it’s all bc of this one clip that i saw in a compilation that made me lose it. he trained for like a full month w the best 1.9 PVPer. and NO ONE TOLD HIM?? huh???? AND HE STILL WON?? bro that’s hilarious my brains picking that one

rewatching the duel theres at least 1 obvious point where he tried to axe crit while sprinting (he comments “i miss the axe crit there and lose the fight as a result”) it is just. Wow. and im not even good at PVP or PVP analysis, so chances are there’s more i didn’t notice.

now technotwt found this and were understandably sad about the lack of support techno got. that’s not my main issue here though. this was run BEFORE the duel. it was recorded later that day, on the 27th, and then released on the 29th. that’s why i have the 2 other tweets, to show the timing. bullshit. Poll, techno saying he’s stressed and THEN recording time.

techno had to go into the duel knowing only 20 fucking percent of people had confidence in his win. WHY? there was literally no fucking need to run the poll beforehand, if it was done after the recording but BEFORE the upload, it wouldn’t have changed the content at all, But no. techno went in with a NUMBER. 20% of people. goddamn it. oh well, his dad had his back at least. technodad, you’ll never not be the coolest. i don’t think mr beast had any malicious intent w this but still makes me mad

on the subject of dads though. philza minecraft, the only man? fuck yeah bro. he had techno’s back, dude, oh my God. here’s a clip of him telling techno how hyped he was for the win (plus tommy talking about missing techno while he was gone training). while all of Dream’s friends were taunting techno w pics of bacon and pigs? PHILZA DRANK WHATEVER THIS WAS!! MY STREAMER!!

techno also had the support of like tapl, calvin, sophie, niki and plenty others, with tommy and tubbo showing their vouch when reacting to it on stream, and plenty were neutral (as seen in the poll) but the scales were notably weighted towards dream, especially in terms of content creators. techno probably knew that going in, but still must have sucked. reblogging this post w a redemptive feature of this though

extra things:

this is a must watch for this subject by the way, i linked it before but just in general Watch This One

this is very good further watching too, this guys analysis was amazing

this is funny too, but it’s quite recent and shows dream’s past the bad days of the rivalry

techno being funny in the duel

more recent, but the techno banter episode talks about a lot of the things in the post at around 4:14

i’ll also say, it doesn’t seem like there’s any bad blood between techno and mr beast or anything, like at all. as much as this post may suggest, they’ve done plenty of videos together since the duel (with one coming out relatively soon i think??) and this is all just my interpretation and part of why i personally am not a fan of the guy, but from what the fans can see they Are chill and it’s weird to assume content creators secretly hate eachother.

exactly the same thing goes with techno and dream! we know that they’re good friends now, and no matter how iffy things seemed around the duel, it is all in the past and we shouldn’t use the duel or things from the early rivalry as any kind of overruling event to judge them on who they are now. these are just my words on it all

now i didn’t clip or source Everything, bc some videos wouldn’t let me clip and i didn’t want to put a tonne of timestamps, but if you want me to hoke something specific out please let me know and I’ll put it in the replies (or the main post i don’t mind)

[boognish-worshipper]

Midnight City AU

this is an au where the main characters are all young adults!! (or millennials ig? they’re in their 20s basically) i gave a rundown of what’s what on a diff post,, i’m also splitting it up into diff chapters,, so this is gonna take a looooong time to finish. i’m posting this before i nitpick my writing to the max

it’s basically a lot of references to that point in time, artists, pop culture etc. all the chapters are named after songs from that era (including the name of this au bc i love midnight city and what better way to describe LS ‼️), and the lyrics r usually connected to what the chapter’s about, or about a character dynamic :D i hope this isn’t too cheesy, or sounds off ig. any typos in this were probably over looked bc i constantly reread my writing and rearrange stuff and make sure it sounds good 🥳 hope y’all enjoy !!! i’m also including a tag to find the chapters under :)

//Chapter 1: Crimewave

Trevor would never, ever admit it, but he had fallen into the category known as “post-hipster”. This was a strange era that began culminating, taking LS by storm. Whether he liked it or not, he could never avoid it. Even if he swore up and down he wasn’t like them, it was practically a paradox. Saying he wasn’t like them just made him a branched off version of the thing he denounced. Each aesthetic that was churned out as the 2010s rolled in were tied to a style, a sound, and Trevor couldn’t care less. It’s not like people liked what he liked. He didn’t belong to anything in particular, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t like them. If anything, he just became another obscure genre in the mix.

One of his favorite music groups was a Canadian duo called Crystal Castles. He enjoyed a good number of their songs, developing an interest for electropunk and pop punk. There was something unique about the sound, and it made Trevor feel special, like he discovered some sort of hidden treasure. He was into pop punk groups like Paramore too, but it was something about them that was just different. People knew Paramore. He often lingered around Sterling Lake, where other post-irony hipsters and classic hipsters resided, careful not to fully associate with them. After all, he apparently despised them, even though he participated in their strange… “culture”. If you could even call it that. From time to time he would find himself discussing his favorite artists with whatever semi-normal person was there, making a couple friends himself who weren’t the snooty kind he’d grown used to.

They all loved talking about how exceptional their taste in music was, a wide variety of people hanging around with their own cliques. Some liked Fall Out Boy, while others liked Blink-182, and then there were the weirdos who liked groups like Radiohead. Most of those guys were whiny, proclaiming how misunderstood they were. He knew maybe one Radiohead song at most (he definitely, definitely never cried to “Creep” and even if he did, so what) but never found himself willingly getting into their music. Then you had the nosedivr crowd, which consisted of mostly girls, and the occasional hipster guy that defected. Their taste was.. alright. Consisted of artists like Lana Del Ray and Marina and the Diamonds, who were their idols. He found almost everyone there besides the few friends he made kind of edgy, and not in the cool way. But he figured all hipsters and guys like them were kind of uncool. Don’t even get him started on those other indie rock types. God. He still came back as often as he could though, establishing some kind of routine. Most people there avoided him anyway, which he preferred. He had enough troubles with them in the past. There was one day he grew tired of the people gawking at him, and he launched a hipster right into the lake. So yeah, nobody within their right mind so much as looked in his direction. That was just how he rolled.

Today, he sat on a nearby bench in Sterling Lake’s park, watching some ducks float on water. His usual friends had been there too, seeing his clowncore buddy Wade with his cousin Floyd. Wade was extremely different than the pretentious fucks around them. He had a shit ton of piercings, and ICP was his favorite music group. Floyd on the other hand, fit right in. Almost too much, like it was something he was forced to do. But he did genuinely enjoy Weezer, of all things you could enjoy. Wade started waving at Trevor, while Floyd hid behind him. All he did was awkwardly wave back, turning his attention back to the lake. He liked Wade, but the clown stuff he wore sometimes spooked him. He didn’t pay much mind to his relative. Looking back across the water, he saw someone new, observing the area. Some dude a little above the average height, hands in his pockets walking around. He seemed a bit lost, and Trevor figured he should help if he was. After all, what was this guy doing here? New people didn’t show up often.

“Hey bud, you lost or something?”

“Oh uh, nah not really. I’m just looking for this girl I met a while ago, said she hangs out around here?”

“What she look like? I’m here pretty often.”

“Uhh kinda short, dark brownish hair? Wears fishnet stockings, high waisted shorts or whatever those grunge people are into.”

“Let me guess, she into the Neighborhood?”

“How’d you know?”

“Yeah, that’s Amanda, she’s a bit of a regular. Not too fond of me I must say.”

“How come?”

“She’s just petty towards me.” He said with a shrug. He didn’t feel like relaying his encounters with her if the guy was dating her or something.

“Oh… well d’ya think you could help me find her? I don’t really know anybody else here. I could actually use the help, since you know her.”

“Eh sure, why not.”

It’s not like he had anything better to do. The two began to walk around the park, gravel and dirt crunching beneath their feet.

“So.. what’s this place about?” The strange guy asked.

“Hm? Oh, it’s just one of those places the hipster folks meet up I guess. Don’t understand it much myself, nor do I really like them.”

“Then why do you come here?”

“Dunno. It’s relatively peaceful, those freaks keep to themselves.”

The man, who was only a smidge shorter than Trevor, glared up at him.

“Hey man, don’t call my girl a freak.”

“Ehh I don’t really count her in with the generic skinny jean wearing hipsters. More of a.. what is it called.. nosedivr type. Whatever that stupid website’s called. Why do you think she dresses like that?”

“Huh.. Never really thought to ask her.”

As he thought about the stuff Amanda wore, he took note of how the man next to him was dressed. He sported an olive jacket with a black turtle neck, and a plain pair of jeans. He wore beat up black converse to top it off, and a pair of Rimmers sunglasses sat upon his head. He looked simple, yet distinguished with the way he presented himself, hair neatly combed back. He figured the two would look nice standing next to one another. They would’ve made an attractive couple, if they weren’t dating already, the kind that turns heads. Trevor wasn’t like them. He wore a black beanie over his mullet, and his favorite pair of red Dix sunglasses rested on the bridge of his nose. The rest of his fit looked disheveled. He had thrown on a wrinkled top, solid black with little surf boards and cars along the bottom- he was a sucker for Hawaiian shirts. His pants were tan colored but had some bleach stains, with old combat boots on his feet.

“Yeah, we may not like each other but I don’t really consider her a freak like those guys.”

He jutted a thumb in the direction of a circle of guys huddled around a phone. The man holding the phone had strawberry blonde hair and a clean outfit on. An expensive looking outfit.

“Who are they?”

“The people here I absolutely cannot fucking stand. The genuine hipsters.”

“Oh.. and you’re..?”

“I’m my own kind. I’m not like these losers, all uppity and shit.”

“Right. Gotcha.”

They walked around a bit more before finding the group Amanda was with. She sat on a bench, chatting with a few girls who dressed similarly to her. All of them had black incorporated into their style. She herself had a black jumper on, tucked neatly into the front of her jean shorts. Just like the guy described, she had fishnets on under them, skater shoes to match. Loose braids fell on her shoulders, and a small black choker was wrapped around her neck.

“Oh, there he is now! Babe! Over here!”

She narrowed her eyes upon seeing Trevor standing next to him.

“Hello, Trevor.” She huffed.

“Relax, I was helping your boyfriend or whatever look for you.”

Her face softened slightly, but still kept a small glare in his direction. She pressed her lips together tight before replying.

“Thanks, I guess.”

“Yup.”

The man turned to face Trevor, sticking out a hand.

“Hey, thanks for showing me around. Trevor, is it?”

“Don’t wear it out.”

He shook his hand, noticing how soft it was. It was in stark contrast to his own, which was rough and calloused.

“Name’s Michael. I’ll see you around most likely? Thanks again.”

“Yeah, no problem.”

Amanda huffed again, nudging Michael’s shoulder.

“Let’s go hun, Bean Machine closes soon!”

“I’m comin’ I’m comin’!”

The two sauntered off, hand in hand. Trevor stood dumbly, watching them walk away. He was right. They did look good together. He wondered if he would actually see this Michael again, kicking a rock. He went back to the bench he originally sat at, putting his earbuds in, listening to some Crystal Castles again to pass the time. The beat thumped in his ears, and all he could think was how much better this shit was compared to that club music shit that played on every radio station in a 5 foot radius. He sat there, scrolling through his own secret nosedivr account, reblogging some photo of a lit cigarette. Right before a hand touched his shoulder causing him to jump.

“What the fuck- Oh. Ron.”

Ron was another friend of Trevor’s, a guy he had met outside one of the iFruit stores talking about how “they’re tapping the phones they sell in there!” and all that conspiracy nonsense. He was a paranoid guy, but Trevor kind of liked that about him. Those were the kind of freaks he liked. He was shorter than Trevor, sort of frail in stature. He wore a bright red windbreaker over a faded tourist tee that read “I went to Liberty City and all I got was this lousy t-shirt!”, along with khaki colored cargo shorts. It didn’t help that he wore some goofy looking bucket hat, and socks with sandals. He dressed like someone’s middle aged father.

“Trevor! Have you seen Wade around anywhere?”

“Last I checked, he was with Floyd.”

“Did he say where he was going?”

“Uh no, but my best bet is they went to that vinyl shop Floyd’s girlfriend works at.”

“Will ya come with me to find him?”

“Now why the fuck would I do that? What do you need him for?”

“Well I- I uh- um..”

“I uh! I uh! Spit it out Ron!”

“It’s about the Merryweather Night Club.”

Merryweather was a big organization that had a wide range of private clubs all over the country, and complimentary body guards to suit. They were all expensive as fuck, and anywhere they settled jacked up the prices of everything else. A lot of neighborhoods became gentrified as a result, and people actually considered it a good thing. What a fucking joke. Trevor of course couldn’t stand it. He hated bullies, and Merryweather was no exception. He’d been wanting to dismantle the club since they settled in LS, seeing as they only amplified the fake feel of the city. Let’s just say he’s gotten into more than a few scuffles with the club. And let’s just say it ended with someone getting stabbed as a result. The guy had it coming to him anyway. Between bouncers and the clubbers, they didn’t like Trevor or his kind loitering around the joint. It didn’t stop him from plotting some sort of revenge though. Ron per usual was on board, his reason being Merryweather’s violent history that had been swept under the rug. They were rather forceful relocating people who had lived in certain neighborhoods for years, Ron being one of their victims. Wade only decided to tag along because he wanted to be included.

“Ah fuck, what’d those bastards do now?”

“They’re throwing some big party!”

“…What fucking for?”

“All I know some guy’s coming to visit, somebody they labeled important and he’s-“

“Woah woah woah wait, Ron. Who?”

“Steve Haines.” He breathed out, careful not to be overheard.

Trevor’s eyes widened, his gaze shooting over to the posse he had poked fun of before. Steve was talking to the group, all of them doing that fake laugh they always did. God, even their humor was pretentious.

“Those fucking hipsters!” He hissed.

“I abhor them, you know that-“

“I know. I know. But, that Weston guy’s gonna be there with him-“

“Weston? Devin Weston?”

If Trevor hated hipsters, then he utterly loathed rich daddy’s money boys like Devin Weston. He had only gotten that stupid fucking night club because his father paid Don Percival enough money to let Devin do whatever he pleased with the Merryweather body guards. It was an elitist club, and they only allowed the best of the best in there.

“What the fuck’s going on there?”

“Something to do with those guys he hangs out with. I think they’re doing something major, expansion maybe-”

“And him and Devin are working together or..?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t hear much after that, that’s why I wanted to grab you and Wade and-”

“Then let’s fucking go get him, Ron!”

The two rushed out of there, heading for the vinyl store to look for Wade. Trevor knew a shit storm was coming, and he absolutely couldn’t wait.

//the next chapter’s gonna be longer i promise lolz

[dinosaurtsukki]

Tsukki fanfic owo S/o is always loving and caring towards tsukki but one day tsukki keeps being emotionless and neglecting s/o. He thinks that s/o will always be there cuz s/o has always been the one saying how much she loves him. But s/o gets mad cuz it was a bad day and tsukki is still emotionally off. S/o ain’t like screaming or anything but silently crying cuz that’s how tsukki is and thinks that she should take care of her own emotions. Tsukki sees this and opens up about being stoic.

Heyyy if you’re taking requests for tsukki fic, can you do a wholesome tsukki and s/o kinda thing. I wanna have one where tsukki laughs and enjoys his time with s/o. like he secretly thinks a lot about how much he loves s/o. idk but I just wanna read fanfic where tsukki laughs and smiles a lot :”)

okay i know these two were probably sent by two diff. people but i kind of wanted to do both of these in one, slightly long drabble hehe. i hope you all like this i had a ton of fun thinking of it and writing it :). also, i made reader a university professor because that’s an occupation i’m more familiar with. and,,, i hope this is what you were looking for ? (i kind of went off a bit ahh i’m sorry!) 

You and Tsukishima struggling with being around each other 24/7 during quarantine 

(feat. arguing, pen-clicking, and then some singing and fluff later on)

between you and tsukishima, it was him who predicted that the pandemic would inevitably lead to a long lockdown period where you two would have to live in the same space, twenty-four hours a day. it was your one ray of light during that dark time when the world was essentially on fire. you and tsukishima tended to have busy work schedules with him at the museum and you teaching at the nearby university so you saw the lockdown period as a way to spend more time with your boyfriend.

the first few weeks were fine aside from the constant caution whenever you or tsukishima went out for groceries. neither of you had work yet with the university and museum still adjusting so you two spent the time learning how to bake bread, sleeping in until noon, and staying up late, curled up on the couch and re-watching the Jurassic Park series.

the next few weeks were... less than fine. both of you had to get back to work, which meant a whole lot of online meetings. tsukishima spent hours working on the new online exhibits that the museum was doing while you were grading papers for days. that’s when you started picking up on some of the annoying things that your boyfriend did, like: not putting the milk back in the fridge, hogging the blankets when you guys slept, and playing the music on his headphones really loud that you had to remove them yourself to talk to him. but you weren’t the only one picking on annoying habits. tsukishima felt that he was just now realizing how many products you had in the bathroom that he couldn’t even find his own shampoo. he hated that you always finished the hot sauce by dumping two tablespoons on your food whenever you ate. and he absolutely loathed the sound of you frantically clicking your pen whenever you were stressed.

but, those few weeks were still somewhat alright. the two of you either dealt with things by talking it out or just ignoring them altogether. tsukishima would still carry you to be whenever you passed out on the dining table and you still made him an extra cup of coffee in the afternoon.

and then, the next few weeks happened. at this point, tsukishima barely had any work to do with the museum’s online exhibit up, except for answering the occasional dumb question on their website. he spent most of the day pacing the house, looking for something to do unless he was going to lie in bed while blasting music. you, on the other hand, were chest-deep in writing course packs, syllabi, compiling readings, emailing students, and conducting online classes. almost everything you two did led to you or tsukishima jumping at the other’s throats. 

and that’s when the metaphorical shit hit the metaphorical fan.

you were in the middle of checking papers, knowing very well that your deadline was fast approaching and if you wanted your students to get on with their next task, you had to send them the drafts of their papers as soon as possible. as per your usual habit when you were stressed out, you were clicking your favorite violet pen like crazy. tsukishima, who was at his desk on the other side of the room that you two shared as your office, could feel his sanity hanging by a thread that was unraveling with every click of your pen. and you were clicking your pen a lot. 

‘it’s their nervous habit, it’s their nervous habit, it’s their nervous habit,’ tsukishima repeated as he closed his eyes and increased the volume of the music he was listening to in hopes to drown out the sound.

click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-click-cl--

“can you not?” tsukishima tugged his headphones off and swiveled around to yell at you. the sudden volume of your boyfriend’s voice made you jump in your seat but unable to react fast enough when tsukishima stood up and plucked the purple pen from your hands. 

on any other day, you would have simply apologized and reasoned with tsukishima about your nervous habit. but, you weren’t grading a shit ton of papers on any other day.

“easy for you to say when you don’t have all these papers to grade!” you stood up and looked at your scowling boyfriend right in the eye. both of you had dark circles under your eyes and unwashed hair and neither of you cared. “why don’t you get out of the room if it’s so damn annoying?”

“maybe it’s because i also live here and i have every right to be comfortable in the office without having to hear the sound of your pen 24/7!” tsukishima yelled.

“well it’s not like you have anything important to work on,” you snapped, putting emphasis on ‘important’. that struck a vein with tsukishima and you could see the irritated quirk of his eyebrows. 

“are you saying that i’m useless here?” he said slowly and menacingly. “it’s not my fault that the fucking museum isn’t open at this time.”

“i’m not saying that but it sure would be nice for you to give me a helping hand once in a while when you know what i’m going through,” you huffed. you knew that you two were straying far away from the discussion about your pen-clicking habits but all those weeks of putting up with each other’s habits and other frustrations were bubbling from the surface.

“don’t you think i wish i could just take a break from all this? it sure would be nice if you just asked me how i was doing or cooked dinner more than just a few times a week!” you yelled.

“what am i, your mom?” tsukishima scoffed.

“no, you’re my boyfriend,” you emphasized. “and you’re just supposed to do things like that especially when you know what i’m going through. like, i get that you like keeping to yourself most of the time and you’re not super into cuddles or anything but, i don’t know, a ‘how are you?’ once in a while would be fucking great!” you gasped for air after your rant ended. for a fraction of a second, tsukishima looked almost sad or sorry and you began to hope that maybe you got through him. but, as quickly as it came, tsukishima scowled and turned away.

“if dinner’s what you want then fine, i’ll make something later. but for the love of god, stop clicking your fucking pen,” he sighed and sat at his desk before putting the headphones over his ears. you fumed at his indifference, you could practically feel your face heat up from anger. in a few strides, you crossed the room to his desk.

“we’re not done talking tsukishima!” you yelled over how loudly you knew tsukishima was blasting his music. in one quick motion, you unplugged the aux cord of his headphones.

unluckily for tsukishima, his phone did That Thing called ‘Playing Your Music Out Loud After Removing the Headphone Jack’ that he desperately avoided again and again by constantly lowering the volume on his phone before removing his headphones. even more unluckily for him, he was blasting his playlist full of taylor swift songs that had somehow held his sanity for the past few weeks.

and you, a sworn taylor swift fan, heard the very familiar opening track of ‘Wildest Dreams’. 

both of you were quiet as the intro played, both very shocked from the sudden interruption that had broken your heated argument. and then, tsukishima reacted by reaching for his phone. unluckily for him again, you reacted faster and grabbed the phone first.

“no way,” you exclaimed as you opened his playlist and scrolled through the songs, your anger quickly forgotten. 

“y/n, give it back!” tsukishima gritted his teeth and swiped at the phone in your hand. he could feel his own face heating up from embarrassment at his secret being revealed. 

“why are you embarrassed about it? it’s cute! you should have told me way sooner and we could have listened to folklore together,” you grinned at him. “and i love this song. ‘you said let’s get out of this town--’”

“give it!” tsukishima grabbed the phone out of your hand while you were distracted singing. 

“no, no, no! don’t pause it! i love this!” you whined, grabbing at his arm as he sat down. tsukishima was one press of a thumb away from ending your enjoyment. but, it was exactly that which stopped him from pressing ‘pause.’ now that he thought about it, when was the last time he heard you laugh.

and besides, ‘Wildest Dreams’ was a good song.

“come on tsukki,” you grinned cheekily. “look! it’s about you! ‘he’s so taaalll and handsome as heeeellll,’” you sang, trying to reach taylor’s high notes. 

“do you realize how embarrassing you’re being right now?” tsukishima sighed, but the hand over his mouth hiding the grin on his face betrayed how flattered he was.

“sing with me! sing with me!” you chanted, jumping up and down on the balls of your feet. “come on, nobody’s watching! in case you haven’t realized it, it’s literally been just us here.”

tsukishima looked at you. he wasn’t that unhinged from the lockdown yet that he would start singing taylor swift out loud.

but the ecstatic look on your face was something that he undoubtedly missed, along with his favorite strawberry shortcake at the cafe you two frequented. and you were right. it was just the two of you.

“...say you’ll remember me,” he sang softly. the grin on your face widened and you let out a giggle before joining him.

“standing in a nice dress staring at the sunset babe,” you sang. tsukishima smiled freely as he sang and watched you enjoy yourself. and then, you held at his hands and tugged him from the chair.

“what are you doing?”

“we’re going to dance. duh.”

“wh-what? no!” tsukishima shook his head even as you successfully tugged him out of his chair. “singing is one thing and dancing is another thing.”

“think of it as more like, you already sang so might as well dance,” you smirked at him. tsukishima stubbornly kept still even while you held his hands and swayed from side to side. “tsukkiiiiiii,” you whined when he still refused to move. you kept swaying while pouting up at your boyfriend. finally, he let out a sigh and put a hand behind your back before pulling you closer to him.

“that’s not how you dance, idiot,” he muttered. 

“so... you’re going to show me how?” you smiled cheekily. tsukishima rolled his eyes but proceeded to sway you back and forth as he hummed along to the music. you enjoyed the slow dance before, without warning, tsukishima grinned and spun you around.

“hey!” you laughed, feeling yourself stumble before being pulled back into tsukishima’s arms. 

“what? i thought you wanted to dance?” this time, it was his turn to smile cheekily at you. 

“yeah but--” you were cut off with tsukishima spinning you around again. “tsukki-- i-- stop!!” you attempted to say in between your boyfriend laughing and repeatedly spinning you around. 

“stop! i’m dizzy!” you erupted into fit of laughter as you wrapped your arms around your boyfriend to stop him from spinning you again. “where the hell did you learn that?”

“mom always had this thing where she would suddenly dance during christmas and new years when she had too much to drink,” tsukishima smiled at the memory as his hands circled around you. “usually, it was akiteru who she pulled to dance. i kind of, picked up a thing or two.”

“hmmmm, a new fact about tsukki,” you hummed and looked up at him. “i’ve learned two new facts today.”

“two new facts that you’re going to keep secret,” he emphasized, flicking you lightly on the forehead. 

“yeah, yeah. you can stop burying yourself in your headphones now and blast your favorite artist on loudspeaker,” you sang. 

“fine,” he muttered, wrapping his arms around you tighter. tsukishima realized that he hadn’t hugged you like this in a while. hell, you two hadn’t had this kind of break in a while. after weeks of feeling like he was ‘putting up’ with you, tsukishima remembered what he was doing sharing a living space with you in the first place. 

“hey... i’m actually not that bad at grading papers. like, i know grammar and how to write a proper argument. also, i had to tutor two idiots throughout high school,” tsukishima said. you looked up at him with a relieved smile on your face. tsukishima felt a knot in his chest loosen. maybe he should have offered that weeks ago.

“that would be great, tsukki,” you smiled. “i’ll... try not to click my pen too much.”

“yes please,” tsukishima sighed with relief and let you go. “i’m getting some water from the kitchen. need anything?”

“some tea would be great right now,” you nodded and sat back in your chair.

“got it,” tsukishima nodded and started for the door. but before he left, you called out to him.

“love you, kei.” 

tsukishima smiled as he reached for the doorknob. “love you too, y/n.” 

taglist (still open to anyone who wants in): @montys-chaos​ @miyumtwins​ @strawberriimilkshake​ @pocubo​ @sugawara-sweetheart@akaashisbabydoll @laure-chan@therainroguefanfiction@atetiffdoesart@stephdaninja@oikaw-ugh @charliefredb @dramaqueenweeb1469@tremblinghearts @applepienation also you @janellion because you’re responsible for any swiftie!tsukki content that i write from now on

[gazellefamily]

THE STUD (1978)

“Sigh...fire. OK you guys: Do I need to start reading Jackie Collins? Because I’m trying to envision how the actions of this film were described on the page. I  love that she gave this Roxy Music disco nightmare to her sister to star in. Joanie embodied tart bitchery with such pizzazz that she spun a PG-rated version of the character into an iconic run on DYNASTY: Posh decadence. I felt serious BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS vibes - overlapping party dialogue, casual drugs, jolly homophobia, orgies, disillusionment, corruption, but transposed to the grey nocturnal London lorded over by Bryan Ferry and his well-cut suits. Piping hot trash. I can’t wait to watch the sequel (Called...not kidding...THE BITCH).” -Tommy Gazelle “Yo! Sincerely want to thank Tommy for alerting me to this. Shit was... fire. AMERICAN  BRITISH GIGOLO. Had it been in Golden Cali instead of Grey London the vibe woulda been so diff (I guess it would have been BOOGIE NIGHTS; it even had a dark New Years Eve countdown scene.) Actually the movie it most reminds me of was Ashton Kutcher’s SPREAD, which only I and I alone have seen. JoColl is so sessually wicked. Like a real life Disney villainess with milfe-overdrive energy. Her stepdaughter looked alarmingly young for the protag to be eyeing like that. French indoor water-park orgy looked actually fun/hellish and not a place to have feelings. Soundtrack was pure fire but I really wish it included Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Baker Street’. Moral of story? Don’t make life only about your dizz. Can’t wait to watch THE BITCH on a sketchy Russian streaming website.” -Sonny Gazelle

[yibowang]

1) I am wondering if you can comment on the difference in experience between being a fan of kpop idol/actors vs someone in the c entertainment such Yibo? Difference in fandom? Difference in source material? Difference in culture? Size of international fandom?

2) I feel like lots of c netizen rates CQL quite terribly (feel like their opinion is quite influenced by the fact that it is based on BL novel + idol actors). I am not sure if mydramalist has a more subjective rating either because only those people who might be open to like cdrama (and possible not against BL content) tends to watch CQL and thus might have inflated rating. Your thoughts?

3) Also want to ask you, do you feel like fanning someone in C entertainment is somewhat lonely existence? I feel like sometimes there is big gap between opinions for i fan vs c fandom (culturally). Unlike kpop/kdrama that tries to cater to western audience, there is very little effort made on c entertainment part.

hello! i want to start off by saying that yibo is the first and only chinese artist i’ve stanned so i really don’t know much about the c-ent industry and fan culture outside of what’s related yibo. i’m also relatively new to stanning a chinese artist and there’s honestly still a lot that i don’t know/don’t understand so this is just my limited experience. also i won’t be commenting on cql bc i really don’t know what c-netz think of cql ;;; this might get a bit rambly as well adjklfahdfk

in my experience yeah, there’s a big difference in stanning a kpop group compared to yibo like i was honestly scared when i first started stanning... there were so many new things i had to wrap my head around, so many new apps/websites i’ve never navigated before, different unspoken rules as to how fandoms run etc etc. but the first thing i want to say is, stanning yibo even tho he is only one person takes up so much of my time. like just constantly heaps of content + information is being released i feel like even when nct is actively promoting there’s not these many things to look out for. this might have to do w the fact that he’s insanely popular so there’s constantly brand promos, shows, new releases, rumours, fandom drama that needs to be kept up with. and omg the rumours. like this is not really something that was a big deal in kpop but for yibo??? i feel like rumours are a big part of c-ent. rumours of which brand he’s going to endorse next, which drama is casting him, which actors want to work with him omg like i said before just sm information even if it’s unreliable information 😭😭and before as a kpop stan all my info was from twt but now my main source is weibo. i think we’re quite lucky tho bc yibo’s international fandom is relatively big so a lot of weibo info does get shifted over to twt!

as for the fandom itself, i always feel like international fandom is quite chill lmao maybe bc i’m nctzen 😶but compared to i-fans. yeah. they’re really passionate and do a lot of things in support of their idols. for e.g. recently yibo’s fans have been going out in public asking for people to vote for yibo. this is not really something we’ll see in the kpop fandom. fans also play a huge role in the artist’s image + selling value i feel like? yibo on his own has a good reputation amongst gp but his fanbase also have to reflect that. it’s kind of stupid but the fans really do impact the artist a lot more. competitiveness is also on a whole other level bc of this passion tbh like fandoms of the top traffic stars generally don’t get along well + should try their best to stay away from each other. for this reason stats + rankings seem to be pre important and i need to mention this bc why are there sm rankings??? it’s like everything is ranked adjfgfhdkl and there’s weekly rankings for everything!!! just as how fans are super supportive antis are insane. hate is everywhere and in my opinion a lot worse than what goes on in the kpop fandom bc of the scale that it can get to. i feel like this is bc of the behind the scenes influences that go on in c-ent which seems to be a lot more apparent + stronger than kpop. like there’s a lot of shit that goes on behind the scenes that we don’t know about and is really out of our hands bc power + money does matter 🤭

as for accessibility yeah )): it can be difficult but like i said before i think we’re lucky bc of yibo’s relatively bigger international fandom. his china bar also tires to cater to international fans and provides subs + information on twt. but content esp older content is a lot harder to find sometimes it’s not like kpop where you can find almost everything from a few sources and just need to slowly make your way through it all. with yibo i’m constantly discovering new things i’ve never seen before but it’s usually through digging or pure luck 😩😩ngl frustrating at first esp when you’re not familiar with navigating the necessary apps. however you do get used to it and eventually it kind of just becomes like any other stanning experience tbh only a bit more effort is needed! 

sorry this got kind of long i hope i made sense but this is honestly something i can go on about bc the experience really is so so different. i tried to only talk about the main things i find diff but there’s sm little things that also play into it ahhhhhh c-ent really is complex 

[missguomeiyun]

Homecookings [Apr. ed]

Hi friends~

Due to the home-cation during the 1st little bit of April, I actually had time to do more ‘extensive’ cooking/posts so the content in this post will be quite limited...

But here we go!

Good ol’ spaghetti + PC brand flatbread (the chicken one that I didn’t enjoy......)

This was an interesting snack. Have you tried shrimp crackers by Nongshim brand? This had similar vibes to that but thinner chips & a diff ‘taste’ bcos it’s fish-flavoured haha I got a bag for myself, & also gave a bag to the nieces so try. They did not like this! I thought it was okay; not my favourite but I finished it all anyway. It was my Penthouse snack :P

I don’t know why I thought this package of zucchinis was cute. ..

I have deonjang (Korean soy bean paste) soup with the zucchini, tofu, imitation lobster meat, & underneath that, there was also some napa cabbage. To add some extra flavour, I added gochu powder & some salted shrimp sauce.

Another zucchini in soup lunch.. . no, I’m not on a diet haha I actually had more of this soup in my pot; I just scooped out this much for the photo. For this soup, I had zucchini, tofu, imitation lobster meat as well as fish cake. I personally liked this one better than the previous. Some ppl may not like it bcos of the added fish cakes, making the soup “fishy” but I am a huge fan of the fish cakes! Paired it with some radish & injeolmi!

[where my injeolmi came from] This was from the small bakery section at the U of A location of Hmart. I haven’t had injeolmi for such a longgggg time.

Breakfast after a long stretch >.< I needed to reward myself haha

Jjajang-ddeokbokki. Instead of the traditional spicy version of ddeokbokki, I’ve been making this more often nowadays (aka the black bean sauce version). This has become one of my regular lunches bcos I’ve figured out a way to cook this so that when I microwave it the next day, the rice cakes are still chewy (not soaked/soggy). I have tried bringing the regular spicy ddeokbokki for lunch before & for some reason, it just. .. never worked out the way I wanted it to be. I’ve tried diff brands of rice cakes etc... I’ve experimented with it a handful of times. However, it seems to work with the black bean sauce o_O I’m not sure why. This is the day-off lunch version but basically if I’m making some for work lunch the next day, I actually undercook the rice cakes & save the extra sauce in a separate container. Before I head out to work, I pour the sauce into my rice cake-containing container (to prevent overnight soaking). & while I’m at work, I heat it up like.. . hardcore! For like 3mins... (bcos some microwaves at work are old & not very ‘strong’). The rice cakes are bouncy & while it’s being microwaved, they actually take up some of the liquid/sauce! SUCCESS!!!

Another drama snack~ This was my snack while I was watching the Kdrama “Cheat On Me, If You Can.” Not as good as Penthouse but I was also really into it & finished it in a few days. This snack was interesting- while the flavour was meh, I was actually in love with the shape/texture. It was rotini-shaped, & the texture was puffy!

Beef seasoning~

Yes, more zucchini. .. I legit ate all 3 by myself over the span of 4-5 days haha oh no, my mom used about half in a stir-fry one evening so I guess I ate 2.5 zucchinis. Anyway, I used the above beef seasoning for this soup that consisted of zucchini, napa cabbage, regular green cabbage, minute amount of onion. Yes, it was vegetarian.

Laksa vermicelli noodles. YES MORE ZUCCHINI! I swear this is the last one lol but I needed to use it up bcos prior to cracking open the saran wrap/packaging, it was actually sitting in the fridge for almost a week already so I needed to use it all up like fast! Anywho, I threw away the package of laksa soup base that I used here but it was by the Asian Home Gourmet brand. I used the entire package, diluted with half:half chicken broth & water for my soup. It was delicious! For toppings, I had my zucchini, napa cabbage, baby clams & a variety of fish balls.

This was interesting. I will likely make this again NOT bcos it was particularly “tasty”, but iuno. .. the combo of textures was just great! I had buttered toast, a single layer of yellow radish, mashed up imitation lobster meat (did not add anything to it), & then furikake. It was like crunchy & soft, & just, overall, a burst of diff flavours in one bite!

Korean fried chicken by MEEEEEEE~ I have gotten rid of the double-frying practice bcos it takes too long & too much effort. Now I do the wet-dry batter method, & the outcome is equally as crispy! ^^

If we buy these frozen lasagnas, it’s always the PC brand, but we have this Western Family brand this time.

Looks like this... o_O wasn’t impressed.. . Why is there so much ice!?

I don’t have a finished photo bcos it was so sad... why?

I used microwave method, & . .. it turned out to be such a big mess =(  it become so liquid-y & everything was just. .. melted down. I think it was bcos of the water content, plus the extra ice that dripped onto the pasta. Anyway, flavour was good but nothing crazy! Will be sticking to the PC brand :P

My version of mapo-tofu. I have satay sauce + bulgogi sauce, diced green cabbage, eggplant & tofu! Topped with a gochu powder~ YUM!

& now I wanna talk about my vaccine with you all~ if you’re not interested, check out my Etsy shop here instead! https://www.etsy.com/shop/OneOfAKo

Okay, so my vaccine story.. .

1st of all, a little bit of background in regards to my province’s C*vid situation .. . long story short, it’s NOT good. To be fair, I’m in-and-out of tuning in to the daily updates; I look once every few days &. .. yeah, it’s just NOT good! We are hitting record numbers; surpassing the worst numbers in the 2nd wave.. . I don’t get it >.< I’m not sure why the numbers are so high despite ppl are getting vaccinated *shrugs* but I think everyone should go get vaccinated if you are eligible to!

Right now, in this province, there are 2 routes of getting vaccinated: select pharmacies & via provincial health services.

When I was eligible to book (I’m in health care but not front line so I just got the eligibility this month!), I went thru the pharmacy options that were closest to me. Why? Bcos it was convenient by location. I read into it a little more, & realized that I’ll be placed on a general waiting list. I ended up signing myself up for 1 pharmacy, where the location was TBD until they actually confirm my appointment, which they say, could be weeks to months down the line! O_O In any case, I just left it as is bcos there was no way to cancel being on the wait list.

In the meantime, immediately after I did the pharmacy registration, I went on the AHS website. Did the questionnaire & got the ‘final page’, where they gave a date/time option with a 10minute timer running so you have 10 minutes to finalize your booking. Except when I hit “confirm”, the next page said, “this time has been taken”. So I had to go thru the whole process again. And again. I clicked the “confirm” 3 times, & finally got a date/time for my vaccination! YAY!

Went to my vaccination appointment ~10mins before my scheduled time. There was a "greeting” table, where I was required to change into a new (provided) medical mask. Then I was instructed to line up for the sign-in table, where the staff at the desk asked for my 2 pieces of ID. I was also given the vaccination record form. After that, I went into another line to actually enter the vaccination room. At my location, it was a small-ish room with about 10 vaccine administrators. There was a girl who was monitoring the “ppl flow” from the line to the vaccination station. A little more info was given by my administrator, & a final “do you want to get the vaccine today?”. The shot itself was short, & to me, painless. Then everyone had to move to a waiting room, where we had to wait around for 15mins to make sure we don’t get an allergic reaction. This room was the PROBLEM! It was SO small & spaces between chairs was only about a meter! It was stuffy in the mask AND in the room. I could FEEL it. It was very bad! & worse of all, the number of ppl who got their vaccines exceeded the number of ppl exiting the room, so when I was there in a chair, there were ppl standing along the wall & the room got even more crowded. This part was the worse part of the experience =/ 15mins done, & I was able to leave!

So yeah, glad to have the privilege to be vaccinated (about time!), but I don’t know why our numbers keep climbing >.< Cooperate, ppl!!!

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

Was reading your response to the Okumura Ryuji/Morgana fight, and the way the person worded Ryuji's character made me wanna ask... Do you think a bad fanbase is a fair reason to dislike a character? I've heard people say things like "no look at the character too", but... For example, I'm very neutral on Ryuji. When he's good, hes SO GOOD, EXCELLENT BOY, but Ann is my favorite girl. Guess who he pervs on exclusively and is rude to all the time? I've never seen his fans talk about (1/2 sorry)

His rude behavior, or his pervy tendencies, or his more selfish desires regarding the PT. That's fine!! Not everyone wants to constantly talk about bad things their fave has done!!! But people referring to him as a "woman respecting king" so insistently rubs me the wrong way, since he treats Ann Like That. That, and (more personal) i remember making a post/ask thing once about my grievances with Ryuji, esp his perv stuff, and the fans that interacted very aggressively denied his behavior (2/3)

And it even turned into a big discourse on the blog I submitted it to (it was that one confession blog). All the people that responded and just tried moving the arguments to "well Yusuke did this-" or even tried to push blame on Ann "she was asking for it" just kinda cemented my already growing dislike for Ryuji. Super sorry this is so long!!! Final question: is a bad fanbase a fair reason for disliking a character? (3/3)

Don’t say sorry about multiple sent asks, I don’t mind kfdsjla;fja As for the answer, I want to say yes and no, but really it’s just “yes with a side note attached.” Yeah, it’s ok to not like a char because of their fans, but I think it’s as long as you know why you dislike the char beyond the fans (well tbh, imo it’s usually the crazy fans so I think stans is a better word, but even then there’s diff stans). And tbh, I....can’t....think of a character I don’t like that the fandom/fanbase does....but I know nothing about the char all the while (closest and most recent example this....is....I know people dislike that grey haired moe blob on twitter even tho I don’t think they watched the show, and while I’m not a fan of the moeblobness I don’t know anything about the char so I’m personally not upset). I can only name chars I don’t like because of what happens in the text, fandom be damned (but sometimes they don’t help). Which is why it’s a yes with a side note. If you don’t like the char despite not knowing them.....probably get to know the char first even if your impression is clouded by the fandom....at least you gave the char a chance. 

Under cut cause length (first few sentences in the first paragraph under the cut/tldr at the end gives you the answer a bit more in depth, the rest is rants related to that and why I get frustrated in a similar sense too, but yeah sorry if I repeat myself, I kinda jumped all over + my tendency to try to nail a point home I feel like might’ve had me repeat a bit more than usual akslfjdakfjaf):

I say this because.....it’s hard....it’s hard to keep them separated, unless you completely isolate yourself from the fandom (which is basically impossible if you wanna keep up with news, even the comment section is part of the fandom tbh...and you might be looking down their for diff reasons). And then.....well...the big reason....sometimes seeing the fans really highlights the reasons you dislike the char. That’s what happened to me and Makoto, specifically cause of....a certain fan (and buddy if you happen to see this, nothing against you, no bad blood, def won’t mention your name I respect you and the debates we had)....AND TO THE TUMBLR READERS WHO GET NERVOUS: It wasn’t on this website in case anyone is freaking out so if you’re thinking “Oh god it’s me” it is most likely not you (tho I think we do know each other on here cause of usernames/saw each other in passing but we def aren’t mutuals last time I checked), and while I do respect that person.......my god did they highlight the reasons I had issues with P5 and Makoto. Ironically in trying to defend her and show off her good sides, I realized the writing issues more and more and her bad sides became more glaring. It turned my frustrating dislike and attempt to try to work out my issues with her and P5 (ironically “working out” in hindsight would’ve been me....denying and refusing to look at P5′s flaws) into....well......the salt factory you know today. (same thing happens with like......Yukari and Junpei fans too tbh...that’s more recent tho, it feels like they are just downplaying their negatives constantly and I’m not about that). Basically, you probably have issues already, they are just more pronounced now. 

As for “look at the character”....you kinda already are doing that, and that’s probably where your existing issues originated from (tho if someone wants a more in depth reason as to why, while you DON’T OWE them an explanation, it is also hard for someone to understand your feelings and reasons if you don’t try to explain). 

As for Ryu, yea, I getcha, I like the guy, I’m neutral positive on him....was my best bro but he’s 2nd best thanks to post-Kamo writing. I like him because of his positives, but I always keep his negs in mind because. Cause like while I agree with the fans IT MAKES NO SENSE! P5′S WRITING IS BAD! it happened, same as I agree that Anne kicking Ryu’s ass, along with the other girls, is shitty. Hate the scene, and I accept that it happen (low key gonna start some kinda 2nd wave war with this bs cause the fandom be like that, but I’m really surprised no one took Anne smacking Ryu behind the neck cause he was being too loud as super offensive and abuse.......it’s def something a friend might do, not like belting him just a tap, and it’s framed as chill and also as warning him to reign in the volume control, but high key surprised no one has tried to cancel her cause of that). BUT that DOESN’T mean it erases all the creepy stuff he’s done. Is he the goodest boi when he’s being good? The best. Is he always a good boi? No, he def is not. And hearing that he is can be frustrating to people that do see his flaws (cause they are there). And like....you are 100% able to like a character despite and because of their flaws, while also accepting they have those flaws. I do it with Yosuke, Ryuji (for the most part), Teddie, Shinji, Ken, Kanji (when he’s not around Naoto, then he’s in a trash can for me), P1/2 casts, Aigis, Mitsuru, as long as the flaws are within reason and are treated pretty well....then I’m ok with it. (again, Kanji/Ryu have moments when I’m like....NOPE! but when they aren’t doing the bad thing I’m cool with them). As long as the flaws are withing reason (aka they aren’t making a jerk person out to be the person in the right, or the writing is trying to sweep what they did under the rug, or trying to force us into empathizing with them despite what they did while also trying ot sacrifice empathy towards another char.....*cough*Makoto/Yukari/Junpei*cough* if the writing isn’t doing that...... I’m probs neutral to pos on them). 

Like I’m fine if they are criticizing the writing and being like “Him doing this makes no sense cause it conflicts with the good boi we’ve already seen!” That’s a-ok! Not only do you recognize your char has flaws, you also are able to identify issues with the writing. But saying “so I’ll choose to ignore that scene” isn’t....ok. Because sadly it did happen, as contradictory it did happen. AU it all you want, but you have to accept it happened outside of that AU. Like, I don’t like the Mika conflict in Anne’s CoOp, by which I don’t like how it went down (100% fine with Mika, and there being conflict with her). How it the whole thing started doesn’t make sense if you put MainStory!Anne in her CoOp. MS!Anne can read the room and other people’s emotions (only other person capable of that is Haru, or at least with Mona), hell she was so good at it she noticed something was up with Shiho without Shiho telling her about it! The issue was the fact Anne’s not a mind reader and could only assume the issue Shiho was going through that Anne was aware of (and that was her spot on the team). Now MS!Anne is not like Yosuke, she doesn’t put her foot in her mouth. She’s not like Naoto who can’t read the room. She’s not super eloquent, but can empathize and when she can interact with people she can do it pretty well. So why the hell does she basically not think before talking and insult Mika? Sure Anne’s not GREAT at school, but she’s not a moron, she can talk to people. But her CoOp makes her a moron all around, 100% airhead, and that’s how her issues with Mika start, by not thinking before talking and accidentally insulting her via blatantly “not caring” about the job to a full time person......it’s stupid, it makes no sense, I hate it. But it’s there, the flaw might not be present in the main story, but for the all around character (cause CoOps are included) it is now and I just have to deal with it. We can bitch about it all day (and trust me I will) but it happened. Basically never frame it as “it didn’t happen,” but instead “It SHOULDN’T HAVE happened.” One is denial, the other is critiquing the text. 

Anyway my rant aside, yeah I hate it when...well Ren/Ryu/Yusuke (no one’s said Mona yet, cause....well yeah...which is good they haven’t labeled him as it yet tho), are labeled as “drinking respect women juice” and I’m like “I have one to a few women who would disagree.” I know some people will argue Goro is drinking it, and imo he’s not....he’s just eating the “I don’t discriminate sandwich” which is different. And yeah the “But Yusuke-” yeah yeah we’ll get to him, but right now we’re talking about RYUJI. I’m not a fan of derailing a topic *war flashbacks* *shivers* anyway. But yeah I remember that debate, I was probably one who was like “We’ll get to Yusuke but right now we’re talking about Ryuji” and pushing the blame onto Anne is disgusting and Kamo Arc!Ryuji would be very upset. >:( (btw high key I think I was the first one who started the first anti-makoto war wave with me saying “yeah Anne shouldn’t have apologized Makoto started it and blah blah she was an ass” not the exact words but basically just calling her out on her shitty behavior cause the game certainly didn’t......tho as Miley Cyrus would say.....”I didn’t mean to start a waaaaaar~!” I actually wrote my first Persona Problems on that topic.......but it got lost in the drafts....my photo examples kept getting messed up which is bad considering the whole post really relied on them....I should try to dig it up tbh....)

Tldr/short answer: Yeah, you probably already have issues with the char to begin with tbh, and the fanbase can highlight those issues more. It’s also hard to escape the fanbase (I see stuff I don’t wanna see despite trying my hardest to avoid certain circles, it just happens).

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

For the past few months, Alicia Wertz has barely seen her husband. Since schools closed in their northern Alabama town in March, they’ve been single-mindedly focused on a single goal: making sure that someone was watching their three kids. At first, Wertz tried working from home. But she wasn’t getting anything done, so they tried splitting the hours: Wertz’s husband watches the children in the morning, then a sitter comes to relieve him in the afternoon until Wertz takes over when she returns from work.

“When we’re not working, we’re by ourselves with the children. It almost feels like you’re a single parent. All you do is go to work and care for the kids,” Wertz said.

In her mind, Wertz is counting down the days until schools reopen. But there’s a nagging worry at the back of her head — what if they don’t open at all? “The thought of [my kids] not going back in the fall is devastating,” Wertz said when we spoke in early July. “It raises this question of — if one of us has to stay home with the children, whose job is more important? I think it was something that we did have conversations about before, but COVID-19 has made it much worse.”

Wertz isn’t the only working mother for whom the thought of the fall calendar sparks both relief and dread. And what comes next could have disproportionate — and long-lasting — effects on the careers of countless women across the country. Studies have shown that women already shoulder much of the burden of caring for and educating their children at home; now, they’re also more likely than men to have lost their jobs thanks to the pandemic. And the collapse of the child care and public education infrastructure that so many parents rely on will only magnify these problems, even pushing some women out of the labor force entirely.

“We’re in danger of erasing the limited gains we’ve made for women over the past few decades, and especially women of color,” said Melissa Boteach, Vice President for Income Security and Child Care/Early Learning at the National Women’s Law Center.

The crux of the issue: Child care just isn’t as available as it was before the pandemic. Data provided to FiveThirtyEight by the job-search website Indeed shows that child-care services have been much slower to hire again (a useful proxy for re-opening) than other areas of the economy:

Combine that with the news that many schools will remain closed in the fall, and it’s easy to see the crisis at hand. If polling is any indication, the vast majority of the fallout is being weathered by mothers, who were already doing the majority of household work even before the pandemic began.

In 2015, the Pew Research Center asked parents about how they divide family responsibilities when both work full-time.1 Some tasks were split relatively evenly: Twenty percent of respondents said the mother disciplined children more, 17 percent said the father disciplined more, and 61 percent said that responsibility was shared equally. For every task, however, more respondents reported that the mother carried a greater amount of the load than those who said the father did — including areas involving managing children’s schedules, caring for children when they’re sick and handling household chores.

Moms usually shoulder more of the load at home

Share of parents in households with two full-time working parents who say each parent does more work in a given category, according to a Pew poll

Share of parents who say… Category Mother does more Father does more Work split equally Managing children’s schedules/activities 54% 6% 39% Taking care of sick children 47 6 47 Handling household chores, etc. 31 9 59 Playing/doing activities with children 22 13 64 Disciplining children 20 17 61

Based on 2015 poll by Pew Research, with a sample size of 531 respondents. The sample included male/female married couples only.

Source: Pew Research center

Along similar lines, Pew also found in a poll from 2019 that 80 percent of women living with a partner who had children did the primary grocery shopping and meal-preparation duties for their families. And according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey — which tracks the average amount of time people spend per day on different categories of activity — married mothers with full-time jobs spent 56 percent more time doing childcare and housework than corresponding fathers. By contrast, fathers spent more time on work-related tasks, travel and leisure activities.2

All that extra time moms spend really adds up

Daily time spent doing various activities by married parents of children under 18 who both worked full-time, according to the American Time Use Survey

Hours spent per day Activity Mothers Fathers Diff. Household activities 1.87 1.23 +0.64 Physical care for children 0.59 0.28 0.31 Child care – other 0.36 0.22 0.14 Child-related travel 0.25 0.13 0.12 Education-related activities 0.10 0.06 0.04 Reading with children 0.05 0.03 0.02 Playing/hobbies with children 0.27 0.29 -0.02 Total 3.49 2.24 1.25

Survey data covers the combined years of 2015 through 2019 and includes both opposite- and same-sex couples.

Source: bls.gov

Even under normal circumstances, it was difficult for mothers of young children to balance work against the heavy burden of child care. The BLS found that in 2019, the labor force participation rate for women with children under age 6 was 66.4 percent, well below the rate for women with children age 6 or older3 (76.8 percent). According to a 2014 survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, 61 percent of women who were out of a job and have young children listed “caretaking” as a reason why they were not employed. Forty-six percent of women who were out of a job and have older children said the same. To put that in perspective, only 10 percent of all respondents who were out of work gave caregiving as a reason.4

A similar strain is apparent in working mothers’ decisions to take unpaid leave, or even part-time jobs instead of full-time ones. According to that same census survey from 2014, 30 percent of women who were part-time workers with young children — and 19 percent of women with older children — said caretaking was a reason they worked part-time. (Among part-time workers, the overall share is just 7 percent.)5

Now, with schools closed and day cares struggling to remain open, even more women may conclude that the best — or perhaps the only — choice for their family and their own sanity is to reduce their hours, or even press “pause” on their career.

“Sometimes I’ll get to a point where I’m like, ‘I’m so tired, I’ll have to go part-time to make it all work,’” said Lee Dunham, a lawyer who lives in Delaware. Since the pandemic started, Dunham has been mostly responsible for her 10-month-old daughter during the day — which means her work day doesn’t start until 8 p.m. and usually wraps around 2 a.m.. “I’m just basically not getting enough sleep because I’m watching the baby 40 hours a week and doing my job 40 hours a week. It’s really rough.”

Dunham feels she’s lucky to have an understanding employer who told her earlier this year that they’d be cutting all of their employees some slack because of the pandemic. But at the time, she added, everyone was assuming day care would be up and running by mid-summer. “It might be that I have to dial back my hours, which of course means I will get paid less.”

This kind of calculus already depresses women’s wages and makes it harder for their careers to progress. According to the National Women’s Law Center, mothers are typically only paid 71 cents for every dollar paid to fathers. In fact, a lot of recent research into the gender pay gap has found that much of it is simply due to the constraints on working mothers. For instance, a 2018 analysis of data from Denmark — which offers a counterpoint to the United States in terms of social safety net, yet still has a very large and persistent gender wage gap — found that women’s earnings drop significantly after having their first child, while men’s earnings aren’t affected at all. And crucially, several studies in the U.S. and other countries have found that the trajectory of wages for women who don’t have children resembles those of men, whether they have kids or not (although some research has actually suggested that becoming a father can contribute to men’s career success).

This disparity is particularly intense for women of color. Black mothers are paid only 54 cents for every dollar paid to a white father, according to NWLC; for Latina mothers, it’s 46 cents. Low-income women of color are also among the likeliest to have lost their jobs in the current recession. And they’re disproportionately likely to be the child-care workers who are being asked to come back to work, sometimes in unsafe working conditions, for low wages. “We’re in a vicious cycle where we need child care as one of the tools to get women to equal pay, and yet unequal pay is one of the primary reasons that women are pushed into staying home,” Boteach said.

Leaving the workforce, even if it’s just for a year or two, has ripple effects that can follow a woman for the rest of her life, even depressing her earnings in retirement. Finding a new job after a few years on hiatus can be very difficult for mothers, who may be stereotyped as less serious about their careers because they took time off to be with their children. One study from 2007 found that mothers were perceived to be less competent than fathers, and their recommended salaries were also lower.

During this pandemic, you can already see the disproportionate impact taking shape. The unemployment rate for women in April was 16.2 percent, higher than it has been in any month since at least 1948, before dropping to 11.7 percent in June — a percentage point higher than the rate for men (10.6 percent). Even more striking, labor force participation for women dipped to 54.7 percent in April before rising to 56.1 percent last month. Both of those numbers are reminiscent of the rates for women from the 1980s — back when the very notion of women in the workforce was still gaining momentum.6

Wertz has no plans to leave her job — at least for now. “I worked incredibly hard to get to where I am now,” she said. “I essentially paid my way through school with no family support. For years I worked entirely too hard for not enough money.” Already, she worries that she’s perceived differently in the workplace because she’s a mother. “Even if it was just a year, I know how that gap would look on my resume,” she said. “If I had to take that step back, I just don’t know if I’d recover from it.”

[cchilyoja]

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Mun & Muse - Meme.

fill out & repost ♥ This meme definitely favors canons more, but I hope OC’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multi-Muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm.

tagged by:   tagged by the always wonderful @foxcharmed tagging:    anyone that follows me, sees this on their dash & wants to do it :)

MY MUSE IS:   canon / oc / au / slightly canon-divergent / fandomless / complicated.

IS YOUR CHARACTER POPULAR IN THE FANDOM?   YES / NO. Well, he is the main character of the show, but seeing as there’s only me & @legcndreportr that write character from the show, I’d say, the RP fandom for it is tiny, but I think a lot of people that watch dramas like the show & the characters.

IS YOUR CHARACTER CONSIDERED HOT™ IN THE FANDOM?   YES / NO / IDK. [ I mean, he’s played by Ji Chang Wook, I mean, obviously yes. Have you seen just how many fan JCW blogs there are on this site? Understandable. Honestly, and truly.  ]

IS YOUR CHARACTER CONSIDERED STRONG IN THE FANDOM?   YES / NO / IDK. [ I’d say he’s very skilled & flawed. There are many things that he can do, many things that he is good at, but the slew of both traumatic and just plain shitty things that had happened to him over the early years of his childhood, combined with HUGE abandonment issues that he has never really dealt with. All of that can make certain mundane things a lot harder than any 007 stuff that he sometimes does. ]

ARE THEY UNDERRATED?   YES / NO / IDK. [ I think, even though I love the character, obv been RPing him for years. I hate that people don’t STAN the other characters as much, especially the other main female characters that are just as interesting, complex and worth loving. But alas that is the world we live in. ]

WERE THEY RELEVANT FOR THE MAIN STORY?   YES / NO,he is the main story, if you know what I mean. But no, seriously, he is the main character. 

WERE THEY RELEVANT FOR THE MAIN CHARACTER?   YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG. [ Yeah, but tbh, I find it that in the show, the two main characters are equally sorted in the first place, Jung-hoo is nothing without Young-shin. There would be no development, no revelation about his life, childhood and interesting complex storytelling and showing without her.  ]

ARE THEY WIDELY KNOWN IN THEIR WORLD?   YES / NO. [ One would assume that I should put YES for this, buuuut, while HEALER is known to the criminal underbelly, police and those that would want or need to hire someone like him, the general public has no idea. Which is exactly what he wants, because attention isn’t really a useful thing in his line of work, or just the way he lives his life.  ]

HOW’S THEIR REPUTATION?   GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL. [ Good when it comes to how skilful he is, but bad as a person. His character arc really goes a looong way from where he is in episode 1. Like the first thing we see is him playing a tennis VR game, complaining that he can’t pick the character he is playing against to have less clothes (that being a computer-generated character but still), which isn’t really all that interesting and for sure not someone I’d be all into writing. And also his lack of care when it comes to what he does, like the guy he was protecting also in ep 1. Ends up dead, and he’s annoyed bc the police think he killed him, the fact that he’s dead, he couldn’t care less. ]

HOW STRICTLY DO YOU FOLLOW CANON?   —   I’ve been writing him for over two years, and it’s just no fun to just follow the canon. He has developed overtime on his own, and besides that, I just never really like any CANON fully. When it comes to the show, bc there are only 16 eps, and as with most dramas there is only one season. So I’ve taken the liberty to expand on the canon and to create Jung-hoo as I think he’d be, away from the scenes we can see him in.

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals.   —   For me personally, I really found it interesting that the mother that abandoned him, married someone else and had a whole new family, after his father died. Jung-hoo cares for her, meets with her, gives her money etc. He doesn’t hate or resent her, I think that shows a lot of compassion but also emotional intelligence. He has this me vs the world outlook, way of life, mentally, however you want to call it, but is in desperate need for someone to SEE him. Like acknowledge his existence, to stay, to love him. He is incredibly skilled & capable, everything you’ve seen 007 do, he does it better. Also I’ve made sure to include diverse verses so there is a way to explore pretty much anything under the sun that you could think of.

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?).   —  I think he can’t really move past the whole I hate everyone & I need someone. So he goes back and forth, it is difficult to create a meaningful connection. I’ve been lucky to do that but that’s also bc I’ve written with some people here for years. 

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO RP YOUR MUSE?   —   I had taken a few years break from RP, which used to be like one of my main interests, writing in general. And then I was getting into just watching Kdramas, watched HEALER, and I was instantly like I HAVE TO WRITE HIM, and never looked back really. 

WHAT KEEPS YOUR INSPIRATION GOING?   —   Auditory stimuli, be it music or just sounds. For example, when I write I tend to use programs or websites where you can put different sounds in the background like thunder, rain, wind, chatter etc. Watching yt clips, seeing people on my dash tbh, like people that I follow also inspire me bc they make me go I WANNA WRITE WITH ALL OF THEM.

Some more personal questions for the mun.

Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

DO YOU THINK YOU GIVE YOUR CHARACTER JUSTICE?   YES / NO / I SINCERELY HOPE I DO? [ I think I tend to have all of these feelings, sometimes I’m like, yeah, this is Jung-hoo, this is exactly what I wanted, sometimes I’m like who am I writing? But I just focus more on me enjoying writing him, than thinking if people think I write him as they think I should.]

DO YOU FREQUENTLY WRITE HEADCANONS?   YES / NO / SORT OF? [I have a bunch of headcanons about like the smallest of things, like the fact that I don’t think he likes wearing socks is one of them, but,  I don’t write them or post them on here. I’m not sure why, I guess I prefer to sort of just sprinkle them in the threads??? ]

DO YOU SOMETIMES WRITE DRABBLES?   YES / NO [ Kinda. I also write fanfiction & I had started this original one with sort of Jung-hoo in mind but not really him. I realized I really like writing starters, I think that’s probably like an unpopular opinion or way of thinking but I really enjoy starting the thread, and I kinda sometimes think starters are like drabbles, I’m not making sense. ]

DO YOU THINK A LOT ABOUT YOUR MUSE DURING THE DAY?   YES / NO

ARE YOU CONFIDENT IN YOUR PORTRAYAL?   YES / NO / SORT OF? [ Depends on my mental state. Like sometimes 100% and then other times it’s like what am I even doing?? ]

ARE YOU CONFIDENT IN YOUR WRITING?   YES / NO / A LITTLE BIT. [ I enjoy how I write, if that makes sense. I’d like to think that I can switch it up now and again, keep it fresh, I def know that I’ve evolved over the course of the years I’ve been RPing ]

ARE YOU A SENSITIVE PERSON?   YES / NO. / SORTA.

DO YOU ACCEPT CRITICISM WELL ABOUT YOUR PORTRAYAL?   —   Sure. I’m fine with that. I just think that the INTERNET does not know how to compute that, or people on the internet. It’s either, you can do no wrong or you should die a horrible death. It’s like either STAN or HATE. And it’s also somehow part of the rp community here on Tumblr. Where there’s just either fake praise or just unnecessary hate. And then there is a bit in the middle where like you can talk and exchange ideas and thoughts. But it is not the main focus by any means. If anyone wants to tell me to change something, or to do something diff, sure, let me hear you out, you might inspire me to improve. But that rarely happens. 

DO YOU LIKE QUESTIONS, WHICH HELP YOU TO EXPLORE YOUR CHARACTER?   — Of course, I think a lot of people are like this. Talking about my character gives me muse for the character. Like we could be talking how he’d eat a salad and I’d be like, okay now I have to write a novella about this other thing I’m inspired about. 

IF SOMEONE DISAGREES TO A HEADCANON OF YOURS, DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY?  —  That’s weird to me just bc I feel like when I read someones headcanon, this is how they, and them uniquely see the character, so I can’t really disagree with that, I can have an opinion for sure. But that’s like someone being I like this band, and you say, no you don’t, it just doesn’t make sense to me.

IF SOMEONE DISAGREES WITH YOUR PORTRAYAL, HOW WOULD YOU TAKE IT?   —  Same with the previous one. Like I often find blogs where they are writing a character that I either love from a show, move, book whatever, or it’s a canon type character that I find really interesting, like the idea behind it, but then I read their writing and then I go, aaaah okay nooo, no NO. And it’s never personal, it’s like, we ain’t gonna mesh, which is fine. And if someone is like that with my writing, fully understandable, just don’t be a dick about it, and we’ll be cool.

IF SOMEONE REALLY HATES YOUR CHARACTER, HOW DO YOU TAKE IT?  —  Couldn’t really give less of a shit really. RP to me is this little bubble where I am this fictional person that can do and try everything. It is in no way connected to any other aspect of actual reality or my life. The only connection is if I have to take a hiatus or smth, but like even if I write OOC things, it’s about IC stuff. I have other social medial for real life, this is just my RP bubble. So if someone is wasting their time hating a fictional character, they have bigger fish to fry. 

ARE YOU OKAY WITH PEOPLE POINTING OUT YOUR GRAMMATICAL ERRORS?   —   Sure, English isn't my first language so mistakes happen. If I see someone make a mistake and the write with me, I just change it when I reply to them, but I don’t point it out bc you never know, someone people could be okay cool thanks, and someone else could really feel down on themselves, which would be bad, and I wouldn’t want that to happen.

DO YOU THINK YOU ARE EASY GOING AS A MUN?  —  I’d like to think so, especially that I’m easy to approach and talk to. I don’t take many things seriously, not just on here but like in life. So I’m always open to any idea anyone might have. I’ve been lucky with the people that I’ve been following & those that have followed me, a huge percentage is just really dope people, nice to read their writing, nice to talk to, great to write with. And I hope that it stays that way, so we can also have this as some kind of mental break from life :) 

[pandawritespoorly]

With Time: Chapter 13 - Confidence in Progress

Author’s Note: Here we are, posting more With Time! I love the response to the akuma in the last chapter, it was a ...unique thing to write. Anyways, without further ado, here's chapter 13!

Chapter Summary: Marinette talks with Fu quickly. The Quantics and Co. bake cookies.

First | Previous | Saturday

Marinette knocks on the door, waiting for the Guardian to open the door. 

She doesn’t have to wait long, she’s allowed in quickly, “Ah, Marinette, we’ve been expecting you.” Master Fu speaks calmly.

“You have?” Did she mess up that bad?

“When Wayzz and I saw that The Revealer lasted so long, we were certain it would not be long before Tikki or Plagg fell ill. It would seem Tikki is the first.”

“Given Plagg’s nature to take longer breaks, that is no surprise.” The turtle Kwami shows up above Fu’s shoulder. They walk into the same room where Tikki first got healed. Marinette lifts her Kwami gingerly from her bag and gives her to Master Fu, who nods and begins.

After the ceremony is finished, Tikki munches happily on a cookie in front of Marinette.

“Master?” She’s been debating this for so long, postponing and procrastinating as long as she can, but being here already, she has no more excuses. “Yes, Marinette?”

“I can’t call on Rena Rouge or Carapace anymore.” Given how she reacted to simply seeing Alya and Lila, there is no hope that she can work efficiently as a team with them anymore. She studies the floorboards, unable to meet his eyes. She failed to choose heroes well. He’s going to be so disappointed.

He sips from his tea calmly, “Why is that?”

“I- you told me to choose someone I can trust, and…”

“And you no longer you feel that your choices are worthy of that honor.” She would have phrased it a little differently, more along the lines of fearing the wrath of a betrayed friend, but maybe she can think of it that way instead. It feels better that way.

“...yes.”

“Very well. It is understandable to come along bumps in the road. You are a smart heroine, Marinette, I will trust your judgement.”

“But what if I choose wrong again? How many ‘bumps in the road’ will there be?” She doesn’t want to mess up again. Not after last time.

“Perhaps you should consider the actions of a hero. When I looked for people to become the holders of the Black Cat and Ladybug miraculouses, I considered their actions. You, as well as your partner, proved yourselves to already being capable of heroic acts, without the jewelry.”

“So I need to find people who… already act like heroes?” She finally meets his eyes, and finds nothing negative in them.

“Indeed. Being heroic does not require magic jewelry.” He pours more tea for himself, “You mentioned that Rena Rouge and Carapace would not be fighting anymore, but what of Queen Bee?”

That didn’t even occur to her. She’d not even considered Chloe, because the blonde had been less involved in the actions leading up to Marinette’s transfer. No, that isn’t entirely right. She’d been involved, but in a positive way. She’d been the one to bring her home on Thursday, calming her down in the bathroom.

She’d even apologized for her past actions. 

“I- I think there will be a new holder for the Bee miraculous as well.” “But…?”

“But I think that having the miraculous has helped Chloe change. For the better. I think that if I needed back-up and she was available, I would choose her. I trust her - more that Rena and Carapace.”

“So in the event that you require the assistance of the Bee, or if the new Bee holder is unavailable, you would allow Ms. Bourgeois to take up the title temporarily?” Master Fu looks to her for confirmation.

“Yes. I would.” She nods.

“I will inform Trixx and Pollen.” Wayzz floats up from his snack. Marinette feels bad, he and Nino seemed to get along well.

“I’m sorry, Wayzz.”

“It is quite alright, Marinette. I was aware from the start that the arrangement may not be permanent. I do regret that Nino made the choices he did. Perhaps this will be a learning experience for him. I can only hope.” 

Marinette smiles weakly at him and he flies to the Miracle Box. Her phone dings in her pocket.

“Perhaps you should be on your way. Unless there is anything else?”

“No, Master.” She starts toward the door, “Thank you.”

Once outside she glances around quickly before looking to her purse.

“How do you feel, Tikki?” The little Kwami looks a lot better, she’s sitting in the purse looking up at Marinette with bright eyes holding a cookie in her paws.

“Much better, thank you!”

“It wasn’t a problem, you were sick, I couldn’t leave you like that.” What if there had been another akuma? Tikki would have felt even worse after that, and that would be terrible.

“Why am I any different than you?” She knows the Kwami is thinking of her behaviour on Saturday, overworking herself to get her to the point that she got to. Marinette shakes her head. 

Why is it different? It just is. Tikki is the Kwami of Creation and Marinette is just some human girl. But she’s Ladybug, she’s a hero. Maybe it isn’t that diff-

Tikki makes surprised squeak and ducks back into her bag, Marinette glances up and sees Adrien coming this way. She’s still standing in front of Fu’s place and there’s no way she could leave without catching his eye.

He hasn’t noticed her yet, due to how intently he’s looking into his bag, seemingly talking to himself. Once he reaches the massage shop, he stops and looks to the door. He finally notices Marinette and pauses, staring at her in slight confusion,”Oh, uh, hey Marinette. What are you doing here?”

“I- uh, um, tea! My… maman! Yes, my maman wanted some tea and sent me here! For the tea!” she smiles convincingly, “Wh-what about you?”

“My uh, Chinese tutor, uh wanted me to come to him today, so… yeah.” 

She nods, that makes sense.

“Actually, Mari, how are you?” He cocks his head at her slightly, looking at her caringly.

“What?” Did she worry him somehow? How did she do that? Why did she do that?

“I, um, happened to be near your school during the akuma attack. I saw Alya and Lila… it looked like you had noticed them too? I just, uh, tried to distract them. They’re back at Fr- school now.”

Right. Alya. And Lila. Do they know? Do they know where she goes now? Are they going to find her? They’re going to find her at school tomorrow. They’re going to confront her, her friends will find out just how much she sucks, they’ll hate her too, because of course they would that’s what she des-

Adrien puts a hand on her shoulder, interrupting her spiraling, “Marinette.”

“R-right. Um, I’m good. I-I’m fine.” He looks at her doubtfully, but before he can say anything more, she continues,”Anyways, I should get this tea! Back to Maman! And you, probably need to uh, get tutored! For chinese! Ummm… yup! Bye!” She turns and hurries away, waving over her shoulder at him as she goes.

The rules. The rules. She can’t just disregard the rules.

 Rule #6: If asked, you’re doing good

 She’s good. Absolutely fine. Perfectly great. No need for anyone to worry about her. Her phone dings again. 

Right! She’d completely forgotten that someone had texted her. She’d ignored someone. They were probably worried about her now. Stupid.

 Rule #11:  Adrien, Claude, Allegra, Allan, and Felix have been nice enough to put up with you, don’t make them regret it.

 Or it’s her parents, who don’t have a choice in enduring her stupidity. Either way, she’d ignored someone for longer than necessary and now they’d either been forced to check with her again or they were finally letting her know that they’re done with her nonsense.

 Kid Mime: hey if u want to come over when ur dun u can!

Kid Mime: were mking cookies

 HE LOVES US: I fear they may burn down the building.

HE LOVES US: ...

Felix: Marinette, excuse me for a moment to exact revenge on Claude.

 The Mom Friend: dont worry

The Mom Friend: there fine

 Oh. They weren’t mad. They didn’t hate her. 

Yet.

Maybe she should go? They wouldn’t hate her for it if she’d been invited. They were making cookies, that would be fun. 

You’d get in the way. You’ll be that killjoy that gets too specific about the recipe.

“You should go!” Tikki has made her way onto the girl’s shoulder, “Cookies are fun!”

Tikki likes cookies. She would go for Tikki. That’s okay, right? It’s not selfish if you’re going for someone else?

 Patiserie Princess: im on my way

 ---

 As soon as she knocks on the door, it opens and she is whisked into Claude’s kitchen, where chaos is likely about to ensue. There are, presumably, all the ingredients necessary out along with a few measuring cups. There’s a bowl on the counter that might be meant for mixing all the ingredients, but it’s probably too small. The stove has a pot on it but the stove is off. Claude already has some flour on him, despite the flour being closed. Allan is taking out a few more ingredients, while Felix sits at the counter with tea, content to watch for now. It’s probably a good choice considering his black clothing would display any and all flour that lands on it.

Something is placed on her head. She looks up to see Allegra beside her.

“Thank goodness you’re here. Claude decided I’m in charge and I don’t know what I’m doing. You’ve got the hat so you’re in charge now.”

“M-me?! Are you sure I should?”

“You live in a bakery, and regularly assist in baking goods for sale. Of all of us you will be the most capable of directing us in creating baked goods.” Felix sips his tea as he says this.

“Yay! Marinette’s here to save us!” Claude throws his arms in the air as Allan puts the last of the ingredients on the counter.

“Hey, ‘Nette.” he looks at the chef’s hat, “So what do we do?”

“I don’t know, uh… where’s the recipe?” She still wasn’t convinced that she is the best to be in charge. They’ve never seen her as a leader, are they sure they want her to do this?

Allegra hands her a sheet of paper printed from a website. Marinette skims it quickly. It’s pretty good, but being raised by two bakers she makes some small adjustments in her head. Used to correcting recipes at home, she grabs a pen and quickly scribbles them onto the paper. Something in her switches, and she steps back with a mindset she hasn’t used in her civilian life since before. Her friends see the different expression - a new one for them - and smile.

“Alright, so first we’re going to need to melt the butter. Allan, I’m going to need to you turn the stove to a medium heat and keep an eye on it. Once it is boiling, stir it constantly until it is an amber color. At that point let it cool for twenty minutes.”

She hands him the two sticks of butter and turns to Claude and Allegra, “You two should measure out and mix the dry ingredients.” She hands them the corrected sheet, “And you’re going to want a bigger bowl.” She approves their new bowl, taking the old one with her as she clears a space a little away from the others to cut up the pretzels.

While they’re all distracted by their tasks, there’s a knock at the door. Felix stands and opens it, allowing Adrien into the kitchen. He starts to speak, but stops abruptly as he takes in the scene before him.

At this point Allegra and Claude have finished mixing and are just talking. Marinette has mixed the chocolate and butterscotch chips and pretzels together in a bowl. She’s standing at the stove with Allan and they’re talking as well. Felix has returned to his tea and none of those involved in the baking have noticed him yet. A timer beeps and Marinette straightens.

“Alright, the butter is cool now. Allegra, can you put the eggs and vanilla in with the butter? Allan can you do the brown sugar? I can mix it, and Claude, you can mix in the stuff in the other bowl when we get to that point.” Marinette is entirely in her element, having been raised on recipes that were probably more complicated than this one. She knows what to do and is easily directing those around her to include them all in the process.

Adrien hasn’t seen her so comfortable and confident - especially when directing others - in, well, a while now. It’s nice to see. He decides against interrupting and sits next to Felix to watch.

Father wouldn’t allow him to join in such a messy activity anyways.

Soon enough, the cookies have been put in the oven and Marinette sets the timer for them. She takes the hat off her head, “There! All done! I told you that it wasn’t that complicated!”

“That’s ‘cause you actually knew what you were doing!” Claude exclaims, hugging her.

“I am still certain that without your presence Claude’s kitchen may not have survived this experience.” Felix stands to put his mug away and the others finally notice Adrien.

“Oh hey, Adrien. When’d ya’ get here?” Allan sits at the table with the blond.

He shrugs, ”A little bit ago. I didn’t want to interrupt.”

“You could have said something, if you want to join.” Marinette has yet to flip back to her normal state of mind. She’s channeling her Ladybug mindset for public situations.

“Father wouldn’t have wanted me to.”

At this, Marinette gets a defiant tone and her expression changes to yet another new one for all but Adrien, “Well y-” She cuts herself off abruptly, remembering herself and slouching slightly, “Well that’s unfortunate.”

“I think that you should do what you want. He’s not here to stop you.” Allegra sits as well.

“Last time I tried that we were chased through Paris by a mob of fans.” The others are confused, but before any of them can question further, Marinette drops her head to the table.

“Ugh. I still can’t believe I was in my pajamas that whole time. How did I forget to change into my clothes before leaving the house? Aaaaaah.”

Adrien snorts at that and Claude slams his hands onto the table (but gently), “Storytime?!”

“It was on the news…” Adrien supplies, wondering if that would jog their memories - if they’d seen it at all.

“Don’t remind meeee…” Allan pats Marinette consolingly. Her head is still on the table.

“It’d still be more fun to hear it from you guys.” Allegra leans forward excitedly.

Adrien shrugs, deciding to start with the news footage. He pulls it up on his phone and puts it in view of all of them. Marinette sits up to watch it, cringing every so often.

“Anyways that’s just the early stuff-”

“So not even all of it, you didn’t even see my brilliant disguises.” Marinette covers her face with her hands.

“It turned into an akuma attack eventually.”

“You got dropped off the side of a building…”

“He what?!” Allan interrupts them, “Were you okay?”

“You guys lead very eventful lives...” Allegra adds.

“Ladybug caught me. Also her cure would have fixed anything anyways.”

“Still.” Allan shakes his head. Marinette’s point goes unspoken. What if it didn’t fix everything? What will happen when she inevitably messes everything up and can’t reverse the damage? People shouldn’t trust Ladybug so much.

“I don’t think that our lives are that eventful…” Marinette tries to draw their attention away from Ladybug. It’s hypocritical, but as much she wishes they wouldn’t trust her hero alter-ego so much, she fears the day when everyone realizes how useless she really is.

Well, maybe useless is a strong word.

“The lives of spectacular people are always eventful! That’s what happens when you’re talented Mari!” Claude throws his arms in the air excitedly and she blushes.

“Well, if the heroes of Paris recognize ya’ by name your life has gotta’ be at least kinda’ interesting…” Allan chimes in.

Marinette shrugs noncommittally. She wouldn’t mind telling them those stories, but they involve her old classmates and to think about them too long would make her feel bad - which would be against the rules - one of the newer ones.

 Rule #12: Don’t do anything that could attract an akuma to you.

 She’d already messed that up earlier, but she hadn’t seen it coming. Alya showing up with Lila had been a surprise.

You should have realized that she would have shown up at an akuma attack you idiot.

To be fair though, Alya was only part of the problem, it was Lila’s presence that had really pushed her over the edge.

No. No excuses. The whole point of her rules is to have her accept these things as facts. If they’re facts, then she shouldn’t feel bad, thereby making her safe from akumas. She can’t just follow them whenever she pleases - that’s not how rules work. She’s been breaking the rules a lot recently, especially when she got sick. Maybe it would be for the best if she re-read them tonight. For the sake of reminding herself.

She’d memorized them, so she hadn’t read them in almost a week.

“What should we do while the cookies are in the oven? Board games?” Claude suggests.

“Sure!” Allegra clears the table to make room for whatever Claude drags out of his room. He brings a few different things out. It’s impressive just how many things he manages to carry at once.

“Okay! I got Jenga, Suspend, Sorry, Sleeping Queens, Dixit, Coup…”

“That’s a lot of games at once, Claude.” Allegra looks at him doubtfully, “Do you two even know how to play some of these?” She looks at Marinette and Adrien.

Marinette nods, but Adrien shakes his head.

“The only board game I’ve played is Monopoly. I hadn’t even played that until a few months ago…”

“Welp. Claude’s gonna’ introduce ya’ to all of his.”

“You bet I am!” He punctuates this statement by dropping everything at the end of the table.

Eventually the group settles into their games, and when the timer goes off, Marinette takes the cookies out to let them cool, turning the oven off before joining back into the game. They play a couple different games for a few hours, eating the cookies while they play. Marinette slips a couple in her purse for Tikki.

“These taste like friendship!” Claude declares.

“They’re pretty good.” Allegra says, then notices Adrien hasn’t had one yet, “Do you want one Adrien?”

“Well, uh,” he rubs the back of his neck, “Do you think I’m allowed to? Father…”

Before the rest of them can respond, Marinette hits her palms to the table, looking at Adrien intensely, whispering conspiratorially, “Rebel.”

The group laughs when Adrien eats a cookie quickly, seemingly having been entirely convinced by this.

Eventually it’s starting to grow dark outside, and it’s time for them to leave. Claude shows them out.

“Farewell, friends!” The other five smile, waving goodbye as they leave. Once they’re outside Marinette wraps her coat around herself tighter, hissing at the cold.

“You gonna’ be good ‘Nettie?” Allan cocks his head at her.

“M’ house isn’t that far.” The girl sticks close to the rest of them, which doesn’t seem like it would do much good. Her miraculous condition makes her extra sensitive to heat in the winter though, so for her it’s a little better - she can sense their body heat. It’s entirely unconscious, but she always can tell where a heat source is. It’s not super useful when she’s too tired to move, but at least it means she typically falls asleep on the warmest person.

“We’ll walk with you - just to be safe.” Allegra wraps an arm around the shorter girl’s shoulders, who leans into her.

They carry on their conversation as they walk, dropping off Marinette first. She goes straight to her bed, as does Tikki. Before Marinette can sleep, she forces herself to sit up, remembering her promise to reread the lists.

After she reads them she thinks that maybe it had been too long since she read them last, seeing as now she felt bad and that is the whole thing she’s trying to avoid. 

She goes to sleep afterwards, because she’s still tired. She can think about the lists again in the morning.

---

Author’s Note: That definitely wasn't an excuse for her new friends to put her in charge of something while still allowing her to stay in her element. No,of course not. They're just helpless in the kitchen.

The recipe is here, if you're interested. I baked it with a friend a bit ago, and it was fun. They turned out pretty well, but I feel like a bakers' daughter such as Marinette would have adjustments to make.

Did I give Claude some of my own favorite games? Yes, yes I did.

Thanks for reading, and constructive criticism is welcomed in the comments below! The comments are my favorite part of this!

First | Previous | Saturday

[nikosasakis]

Yeah, it tells you towards the end, I think it's at about when you only have 100 characters left. I think it also includes spaces, so it def shortens the amount we can write even more. Back home we've only had HBO for half a year now, I think. And Netflix wasn't that popular up until about a year ago or so. It was either you watch what's on TV, or you find some other way to watch stuff. I can't complain much cause we do have a bit of a quite diverse content back home, and I used to actually 1/3

watch some of my shows on TV, but tbh most of them weren't available anywhere so it's been pretty much downloading everything. I really wish we had a TV version of Spotify. Prices could be higher than the usual £5.99 (and equivalents) but we'd literally have every show currently broadcasting, and it could still def be in a weekly basis not all-at-once like at Neflix, and we wouldn't be running around diff torrent sites looking for a suitable download. Oh yea, one thing is to see spoilers 2/3 on tumblr - it can be avoided or tagged, but in a face-to-face situation at least have the common sense of asking if someone else has seen it before you spoil the whole thing. I'm so used to coming to tumblr on tuesday's mornings and trying to be super careful not to see any 911 spoilers, and today it took me a while to understand why there wasn't much 911 content circling around. I think I'll end up rewatching 911 and ls at some point too. I'm also considering rewatching arrow 3/3

---

Oh, that’s annoying that it includes spaces, ugh. Sometimes this website frustrates me. Not that I’d ever leave it. I’m stuck here now 😂

British TV can be kinda weird, and I don’t usually watch a lot of it. Unless it’s like... the Great British Bake Off lmao. 

I wish there was  something like that, that streamed episodes globally as they air. I would genuinely buy it with no hesitation!

Yeah I think I saw one on Facebook, because unfortunately, you can’t tag that but oh well. Also, people are assholes. Unfortunately. 

I’ve usually got the episode downloaded and am making content by now so it’s... weird.... not to be 😅😅

Yes! I watched part of Arrow, but ... I got kinda confused with the plot so I stopped watching. I might actually rewatch Community, because it doesn’t require too much focus.

[jjkfire]

I really really enjoy reading your writing and I’ve just finished reading Sweet Saccharine, where did u get the idea to write a story like that? In all my reading years I’ve never come across something as great as this story is

omg wait this is one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me!!! I’m actually sobbing 😭 I’m really glad you like the fic! and ahh your question! that’s like my favourite question ever haha.

regarding how I got the idea hahaha well get ready to dive into the depths of my chaotic mind!!!

so it all started with that sugar baby conference article I talked about in the first chapter. I saw it on my fb timeline and read it and was like that’s just so crazy cool. then I went through sugar baby threads online just to see what it was like to be one and a few of them were talking about platonic sugar relationships and I was like huh that’s really interesting! I had always wanted to write something in the sugar daddy au sort of realm so I thought it was a nice little way to go about it. (also i watched a short video about the guy who started the sugar daddy website seekingarrangement and i find it funny cos he’s singaporean ahhaha anyway that’s probably why the sugar baby conference article was on my timeline).

so next, the jungkook in the au needed a job lol. i thought about going the businessman or maybe a tech company route but truthfully I’ve always found the logistics industry very fascinating… i even used it in my other fic escape and so i was kinda apprehensive about using the concept again but i didn’t really get to delve into the logistics world in that fic so i wanted to do it in this one. i think the idea stems from that one time i watched a very cool documentary like I don’t know 5+ years ago on national geographic about perhaps the suez or panama canal so that’s where most of the logistics part of the fic stems from… plus I watched other documentaries after having started the fic just because i find it really cool hahaha. anyway, the transportation of drugs/other illegal materials and just a lot of smuggling in general happens at ports and etc. which i thought was quite fitting because that meant i could probably fit a gang aspect into the fic.

I had been itching to write something that’s like a gang au so this was the perfect chance. though sweet saccharine isn’t entirely a gang au fic but it plays a pretty big role. and so for the gangs I had watched a documentary about the cali cartel and Escobar… actually it all started from watching a Vox video about escobar’s hippos lol. also, my father had told me stories of when gangs were thriving in my city back in the old days. also, the topic of corruption within the government and how it goes both ways is always a fun one. so i wanted a piece of that in the fic too.

and about the whole social class system I had watched another video or documentary or maybe it was an article but it was about gentrification also anyway the whole urban/rural divide prevalent in a lot of countries has always fascinated me. then shortly afterwards I had to take a class on the divide of information between races and social classes. so yeah very timely hahaha. i just think the fact that discrimination still exists between different races and also urban/rural population is just really shitty so i wanted to feature a part of that in the fic.

anyway, this answer is probably a lot longer than you wanted it to be but haha that’s just how my mind jumps from one topic to another lol. and i know the fic at the moment seems to have so many random facts sprinkled all over the place but i swear it’ll all make sense in the end haha. not to toot my own horn but i think it’ll be really fun from chapter 4 onwards. it’ll all fall into place. from the event that occurred with jungkook’s father, to the whole insurance debacle at the hospital, to oc’s uncle and mum to jungkook’s grandfather’s past. like it’ll make sense soon ahhahaha. i’m very excited to tie it all together in the next few chapters and honestly it pains me that i don’t currently have the time to write as much as i want BUT i play the whole storyline in my head in my free time like a movie ahahhaha. anyway thanks for asking this question i love it when i get to talk about my thought process lol. again, you’re really so sweet and this ask seriously made my day!!! i hope you’re having a great day anon :3

also since you asked me my absolute fave question, here’s a little preview! (also if you guys made it this far into my answer you totally deserve a preview lmao) heavily, heavily unedited and it’ll probably look diff in the final draft but very important scene haha.

////

Years Ago

“Mr. Jeon! Mr. Jeon! Please, god, you haveto wake up!” The man begs from the front seat, looking at the CEO that’sslumped in the back. The car is now tilted precariously as water begins to seepin fast. He smashes down on the window buttons a few more times, as if it couldhave a different outcome if he tried one more time. There’s a whir and a click,but like all the times before, the window doesn’t move an inch.

He undoes his seatbelt to reach for MrJeon’s phone, climbing onto the centre console, pants soaked as the water nowcomes up to his knees. Like his very own phone, it showed that there was nosignal in the area. He shouldn’t call for help, he’s been instructed not to, buthe was also promised that he would be pulled out of the car within the firsttwo minutes yet, it’s been perhaps close to 8 minutes and they were nowhere insight. From the way the water was rising close to his chest now, he thinks he’llonly have 5 more minutes to figure something out. He quickly undoes his belt,using the metal piece to strike at the window, hitting at the corners whereit’s the weakest, but this is bulletproof glass and he knows his effort is futile,but he has to do something. He grumbles to himself, trying the windscreen butif anything, the glass is thicker there. He does everything he can think of,punching the glass, kicking it even with as much force as he can muster.

“Mr. Jeon!” The man shouts one more time,this time climbing into the backseat to shake him. Mr. Jeon doesn’t move, hischest rising and falling at a set rhythm, unaware of the precocious situationhe was in. The man sighs, sinking into the backseat as he gives Mr. Jeon onelast, weak shove, almost all of his energy now expended. He wondered ifanything would be different if he had managed to wake him up. Unless he was amiracle worker, probably not because see, the Triple Axes never left any roomfor mistakes. That meant that if this was what they had wanted from the start,then it’s what they will get. He should’ve known he was going to be ascapegoat. Why else would they assign a mission like this to him?

An area with absolutely no coverage, a carwith bulletproof windows, one meant to withstand force, no walkie talkie, noplan B. It was clear now that he wasn’t meant to get out of here alive, neitherwas Mr. Jeon. The man remains emotionless as the water reaches his chin. Helaughs, almost bitterly as he turns to look at Mr. Jeon.

“I’m sorry,” He manages to say. It’s notlike the logistics tycoon could hear him, but it didn’t matter. God, all hewanted was some extra cash so he could help you and your mother. Your fathermust have sniffed out his plan. Otherwise, this was too much of a coincidence.He only hopes your mother figures all of this out fast enough.

[dragoninthecloud]

Surprise? part 2

So you know how I said that Ladrien accidental pregnancy thing I did was a one shot? Yeah.... Have a mostly fluffy follow up conversation to it! which completely changed from what I said I wanted to do shhh don’t look at me like that 

Huge thanks to @tbehartoo for all the help <3  

Part 1

-~-

Ladybug felt a wave of relief flow through her, and couldn't stop the small laugh that bubbled up as she finally felt herself start to smile. She reached up to hold his wrists while he still held her face, and he was smiling back at her as they both took a moment to bask in the new connection between them.

When he started to pull back she tried to quickly scrub her damp cheeks dry, only for him to catch her hands and hold them gently in one of his as he wiped the tear trails away himself. She couldn’t help but laugh again, and shake him off to gently run her thumbs under his own shining eyes instead.

“So, how’re you feeling?” has asked quietly when they had both stopped drying tears. “Do you need anything?”

“Well, I could do with a hug if you don’t mi-”

She didn’t manage to finish her sentence before he started to scoot back on his bed to sit against the wall, holding his hands out wide and wiggling his fingers in a ‘come here’ gesture. She giggled, sounding almost normal she was proud to note, and climbed over to sit across his lap, resting her head on his shoulder and he wrapped his arms tightly around her and kissed her hair.

“I will never say no to hugging you. Especially not now.”

She sighed softly, snuggling her head against his neck and closing her eyes, wriggling to get one hand snaked around his back and the other up to grip the t-shirt at his free shoulder.

“Thank you Adrien. You really are the best thing that has ever happened to me.”

“And you to me. Now. Tell me honestly, are you ok? I know what you’re like, and I’m having trouble believing you’re as calm you’re acting right now.”

She choked down a laugh that wanted to be a sob. He knew her far too well.

“Honestly? I’m a bit better now I’ve told you, sort of. I was more afraid of how you might react than the actually being pregnant part. I mean, you’re only twenty Adrien. This is a major change to your life, and I know you just said you want this but I really will understand if-”

Fingers found her lips and gently pinched them shut.

“And you can’t be much older than me, if not the same or younger. And, actually, are you sure you want to…” he trailed off, and she pushed herself up from him so quickly his head bounced off the wall and she untangled her arms from around him to hold his face between her hands, staring desperately into his eyes and willing him to believe her.

“Yes! Don’t ever think I don’t want this with you, or I’m not perfectly happy to have your baby! I know I’ve not mentioned it before, but I’ve been imagining our lives together for as long as I’ve known you. And it’s always been you, me, a hamster, and three children. So this is a start towards my dream.”

He stared at her, mouth hanging open slightly, before it shifted back into a sappy grin, his eyes misting over again.

“Make that two hamsters then. Because my dream was always you and me and a hamster on a tropical island somewhere. But I’ll trade that island for children with you.”

She laughed, running her hands over his face and leaning in to kiss him, softly at first then harder as he wrapped his arms back around her. They were panting when she finally pulled back, and she couldn’t stop the giggle that bubbled up inside her, answered by his low chuckle.

“So. Do our children have names?”

“Hmm?”

“You said your dream was three children. I want to know if they have names.”

“Oh. Erm, Emma, Louis, and Hugo. But that’s just what I picked years ago, I mean if you don’t like them or want something diff-”

She was cut off with a kiss again, soft and gentle and she could feel the love radiating from him through it. Her fingers started to move through his hair, slowly and gently and just enjoying the care and calm that surrounded her. She pulled back before they could get distracted again, since there were still things to talk about.

Adrien pouted but let her, seeming to understand what she intended. It was one of the things she loved about him. He knew her so well, sometimes knowing what she wanted or would do before she’d realised herself. He dropped his hands to her hips and started drawing loopy relaxing patterns, and she settled her head back against him.

“I really want to go back to those plans of yours later, but for now tell me everything. You’re, what, just over four weeks?”

“Mmmm,” she hummed, kissing his neck softly. “Four and a half weeks, yes, since that’s when we, yeah.” She paused while he snickered, and she felt the blush start to form. She knew she should be able to talk about things like this, especially now, but there was a big difference between talking and doing in her mind.

“Or I might be six. I need to talk to the doctor, since pregnancy is normally counted from the start of the last period, but we know exactly when it would have happened so I’m not sure how it works. But anyway, according to the internet baby is about the size of a poppy seed right now, or a sweet pea. I’ve been getting cramping, which I’d thought was my period being late but is apparently baby, and I don’t think I’ve started with mood swings yet, but I’m not sure my roommate would agree given how she’s been acting with me the last few days.”

He laughed, and the way his whole body shook made her grin.

“I’m going to be getting tired, and cranky, so I apologise now if I get mean with you at all.”

He laughed again, lifting a hand to stroke gently through her hair as his other stroked along her back.

“I’m pretty sure you’re allowed to be cranky. For at least, oh I don’t know, nine months maybe?”

She snorted, tilting her head up so she could kiss his jaw, then his lips as he bent down to meet her.

“Dork,” she muttered playfully, grinning up at him when they parted, before snuggling again. She stayed there, happy to just be with him and enjoy the moment. She hadn’t stopped thinking of worst case scenarios since she’d done the test yesterday, and all the different ways this could have gone badly were still haunting her thoughts even after his reassurances. Because there were still ways this could go wrong, with the things left to discuss.

“Do you want the websites I was looking at yesterday by the way? There’s a chart to show you how big the baby is at each week, and what sort of effect it’s going to be having on me.”

“Yeah actually, that’d be great,” he said, reaching around her for his laptop at the end of the bed. “I mean, I was going to start looking things up as soon as you’d gone so I can figure out how to help you best, and if I need to buy anything, so having that to start from would be nice.”

She pulled away from him, ignoring his pout so she could grab his face and squeeze his cheeks gently between her hands

“Adrien Agreste, you are not to go mad and start buying stuff. I am telling you now, no. How would you explain a load of baby things showing up in the post to Nino and Alya anyway? They don’t even know you’re dating! Besides, the first ten to twelve weeks are the most dangerous, so you have to wait till after that and me telling you who I am at least.”

“Ten to twelve weeks? You want me to wait…”  he trailed off, eyes wide with shock and hope, before continuing in an awed whisper. “You’re going to tell me who you are?”

She bit her lip, then nodded hesitantly.

“Yes. I, I need to tell Chat Noir first, because he’s been my partner for five years and I’ve always promised him that if I had any choice about  it I’d tell him first. Which is the only reason I’m not telling you right now. But I want to tell you, soon, so you, we can start telling people that are important to us. But I promise, as soon as he knows, you will too.”

Of all the reactions she expected from him, bursting into laughter wasn’t one of them. He dropped his head to her shoulder and she couldn’t tell if he was laughing or crying as his shoulder started to shake, even as she reached to wrap her arms around him. Stress could make people act strangely sometimes she supposed, and she had just dropped a lot on him all at once. When he calmed down and leaned back against the wall, he was grinning widely as he rubbed at his watery eyes.

“Sorry, sorry. I just, yeah. Sorry.” He cleared his throat and rolled his neck, and his smile became something more sheepish, and she was immediately on alert.

“And, erm, my friends already kinda think I’m dating someone, so it won’t be as big a problem as it could be?”

“Oh?” she asked, keeping her tone even while her stomach flipped.

“Yeah. See, Nino has been making jokes lately, about how I’m secretly dating someone, and he then starts talking about our friend Marinette? You remember her, right? Well he keeps saying things about how we always disappear at the same time, and come back all out of breath. And points out how we always end up sharing a sofa when we all watch movies and she really likes to cuddle so I’ve been letting her, and I think he’s heard you here a few times and thought it was her, and then he found a receipt once for flowers I’d bought you which are also her favourites. So Nino has been saying about how he gets it, he understands why we just haven’t told anyone because we don’t want to deal with the hassle of the press and all that. So… so we can always fall back on that if we need to?”

Her heart stopped for a beat while she tried to process what he was saying, and her face must have changed somehow because he rushed on.

“Not that I’m dating her! That I’m dating I mean. Because I promise, there is nothing like that between me and Marinette. You’re the only person for me Lovebug. And I’ve let them make jokes because it was easier than fighting them but I can start shutting them down and talking about you being someone else now so it won’t be such a shoc-”

She pressed a finger to hips lips gently, stopping his babble as her mind raced. She’d stopped denying Alya’s jokes about her having a secret boyfriend, who she kept sneaking away to see during Akuma attacks, years ago. And then had jokingly agreed and moved the conversation on when Alya had started suggesting that she’d finally gotten with Adrien when she had started dating him. But to realise that was now all working to her advantage was, well, a miraculous stroke of luck.

“I know Adrien, Marinette is just a friend,” she said dryly, enjoying his pout at the long standing joke. “Don’t change how you are with your friends just now. Try to keep acting the same, so you don’t make them suspicious. I know what Alya is like remember, and how she is when she thinks there’s a story to uncover. And we can work out the details when you, you and Chat, know.”

“Ah. Yes. When, I mean, what are you going to tell Chat?”

She sighed, having expected him to ask, but still not sure what to say. Which was why she’d avoided it.

“I’m not sure? I only just found out yesterday, and it’s still sinking in, so I’ve not thought of how yet. Say,” she said, sliding her hands from her lap to his shoulder and meeting his curious gaze.

“If you were Chat Noir, my superhero partner of five years, who was madly in love with me until I got a super-hot boyfriend, how would you want me to tell you that I was pregnant with said boyfriend’s kid?”

She watched, fascinated, as his face cycled through in a mixture of amused, embarrassed, proud, thoughtful, and smug.

“Super-hot, huh? Heh. Ahem. I guess I’d want you to let me know as soon as possible, so I could make sure I can protect you better and you don’t get hurt more than needed?”

“That’s when, Adrien, not how.”

“Right, right. Er. Maybe on patrol? You’re meeting him on Thursday, right? So maybe near the end, you stop him on a roof away from everything and let him know that you had an awesome and fun night with your super-hot model boyfriend a few weeks ago and now-”

She grabbed his pillow and hit him over the head with it, laughing at his yelps and attempts to hide by burying his face in her neck.

“Yeah no. You know he’s super protective of me, and while he knows I'm dating someone, I don’t think things would go well if I drop it on him like that. I especially wouldn’t like your wardrobe's chances if, or rather when, he then finds out who you are.”

“Somehow I think I’ll be fine. You could just be straight with him, don’t beat around the bush. Just be 'Oh hi Chat, nice day today,'" he said in a surprisingly good impression of her voice as he pulled back from her. "'I think we should maybe swing around the Tower tonight, I'm pregnant, and then maybe drop by Alya’s and see if she has any new leads we can follow-'”

She rolled her eyes as she pushed the pillow against his face, muffling his laughter, then froze as she heard keys in the lock from the main room. She quickly climbed off him and moved towards the window.

“Sounds like Nino’s home. I’ll see you later my darling sunshine boy,” she said quietly, jumping up to crouch in the open window as Adrien joined her, aware of Nino and Alya now moving around in the other room as she grabbed his shirt to pull him closer.

“Later my lovely bug,” he whispered back, kissing her softly before stepping back and letting her swing away.