#so much less pressure and people only play it because it's stupid

[fooltofancy]

competitive mystery heroes is very funny because on the one hand you can have a perfect team comp and nobody knows how to play their heroes so you just get rolled, OR you can have a three healer frontline because those three are support mains and still somehow hold for four minutes despite your other two teammates hiding behind the point waiting for you to die.

[choppeddreamworm]

Can I get something where fem reader/(Y/N) is in the school musical/play and they are secretly dating James Hook and his crew don't want to go to the show cause it's "stupid" or something and James sneaks into the musical/play and sits in the back just to watch his secret gf.

Musicals have a special place in my heart so I loved when I got your request! I feel like my writing fell a bit flat towards the end but I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

-nini 𓄿

One Act play

Pairing: Captain hook x fem! reader

Warnings: none, just hook being rude :] not to you though Word count: 2.2 k (not proofread apologies for grammar/writing mistakes! )

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Song used:

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       "15 minutes till opening!" your directors loud voice notified the cast. The people below you conversed amongst each-other as they tried to fix the bottom of your dress. You held your arms up subconsciously trying not to block them, the puffy shoulders not helping. Before the director had come in and interrupted your train of thought you were running over your lines even mouthing some out loud if needed to fix your pitch. But now you could feel how overbearing your quick pulse and butterflies in your stomach fluttered enough to feel them in your throat. were.

This was the day you'd actually perform the musical you and your classmates had been working on for weeks. You put your heart soul into the auditioning process and your effort paid off because you got the lead role! To add to the overwhelming pressure you had invited your pirate boyfriend to come watch. Which gave you a whole new reason to take this play seriously. He had assured you to not over stress your little head about it but you wanted it to be perfect. No one knew the love you shared with the villain and this was the closest it would come to both of you seen in the same room without suspicion arising.

"Come on Uli it won't be so terrible," hook wasn't one to actually beg with the sea witch but he was trying to keep true to the promise he made you that he'd be there. It would be less weird if him and the Vk's arrived maybe cause some havoc afterward his leader would just have to agree to it. Uliana had other plans though she was too focused on fixing her appearance. It was fitting her room having a big mirror just for her. "I don't want little royals in my ears, singing songs about sappy true love or happy endings!" She puts her hands close to here face as she purposefully makes her voice whinny, mocking the overdone perfect fairy tale stories told. Hades and Maleficent can't help but chuckle at Ulianas   Sarcasm from across the room. Both laying on Mals bed since Uliana and Maleficent shared a room. Hook tries to not seem tense over the unknowing  jab Ursula's sister had taken on his royal girlfriend. Uliana rolls her eyes seeing that hook didn't bite back and goes back to her reflection instead. Hooks eyebrows lift, trying to give Mal a knowing look of "help me out" since she was the only one who knew of you being his lover. To which she ultimately just shrugs her shoulders at him going back to making heart eyes at hades. He looks towards Morgie knowing he'd jump on the bandwagon but for once he was actually focused on doing his biology homework. Something about different dog breeds...

He sighs, opening his mouth before Uliana cuts him off. "-While all of you are blinded by futile ... desires," she turns back around taking in Morgie actually doing homework like some good student at Mekong Academy and the two love birds doing nothing but gazing into each others eyes. She immediately belittles them in her head, "I have better things to tend to". Her tentacles push Hook as she stomps towards the front door. He bites back a snarl,not helping but at-least let a snarky remark leave his lips before she leaves, "don't let your tentacles get caught on your way out!". Which only earns him a little shut up from Uli. He laughs to himself mumbling how good the joke was only to be met with defeating silence now taking over the room. His other friends so caught up in their own personal "adventures".

"Yeah.. I'll just be going as-well, I love all of you too!" He whispers to himself as he follows Ulianas actions by walking out of the room. If he'd have to go alone then so be it.

"Giselle! you're up in five" One of the backstage managers gave you a smile along with small nudge as she called you by your characters stage name. You could only give a pitiful excuse for a grin back. A few tremors going through your body, clammy hands playing with the stage curtains. The people playing narrators were already on stage giving the intro to the audience. From your nervousness you couldn't help but peep in behind the curtains. A theatre half full, with many faces you recognized from classes except one... 

Your eyes desperately scanned each row staring with hope but ending in disappointment. While your heart seemed to try to beat out of your chest and eyes trying to start streaming like a faucet you stated to focus on evening your breath. It would be a shame if you had to force the makeup team to give you a last minute touch up. So instead of focusing on the missing villain in the crowd you started playing with your fingers. He would surely show up soon.

"ticket please," the female student located behind the table declared to a stumped Hook. "admissions should be free this is a school event,"  he answered back in frustration. The ability to afford the entrance fee was not of question it was the fact his valuables would not match school accepted currency. "yes should be, but tonights the opening night for the play though," she sticks her hand out more obviously. He shouldn't have used you as an excuse but he was grasping onto last resorts here plus he didn't tell the complete truth so your relationship was safe, "look lass my... friends in the play, main lead actually-". His words were cut short by the girls obnoxious snort, "your girlfriend- the main lead?" yeah sure!". She jeered looking him up and down not believing a pirate let alone a villain was associated with any person in the musical cast. "maybe you're just mistaken so I'll say this once, your holding up the line.. move" her demeanor changed from taunting to serious, hand no longer stretched out instead now holding a firm position down on the table. Hook leaned down, trying to see if he could intimidate his way in, but he remembered it wouldn't look so good on his part, dulling your staring moment and not seeing you act. "That hair looks awful on you darling maybe ask Fay to bippity bopitty fix that for you yeah?," he let the hook drag on the table a little too hard, ripping the table cloth just a good amount till deciding it was enough. While he strides away from the table towards the outside of the building the ticket girl that had attend him cant help but grab at her hair starting to doubt her own appearance.

He was trying to do things right and the universe seemed to be throwing it back in his face. Many scenarios played out in his head, his love distraught and hurt. There was no way he'd let that happen, he was sure there were other entrances not just so openly disclosed to the public. Presented perfectly to him while walking outside near the backside of the building was a door labeled 'storage', slightly opened, letting only a wisp of light out many people would probably miss but, not him.

The audiences claps brought you back to reality along the narrators walking off the stage towards you giving you a small 'break your leg'. Your breath caressed your teeth watching the lights dim exponentially, being able to conjure only the light silhouette of the props crew setting your scene up. A cozy forest with a castle far in the background. Last thing they did was talk into their mic, giving a thumbs up before leaving the stage. The darkness only teased you with going back in your head the blasting music with the violins and drums made you tense back into your senses. Your feet walked forward in airplane mode until reaching next to the prop mannequin created by you. A few thumps followed behind you, turning towards the dark audience you were met with the other cast kneeling in front of you dressed as animals. Lights slowly coming alive.

Hook was traveling through a dark room quietly before the loud music spooked him making him run into something. He was left cringing more as the objects falling caused a commotion. A few muffled voices made him sprint to the other end of the room where another door was. His eyes deprived of light were blinded when instantly met by the harsh bulbs. As he tried to recuperate people passed by him some dressed in office work clothes, others as animals and one specifically as a squirrel. He tried regain his posture realizing he was backstage. One passer by not helping but say, "I thought pirates weren't supposed to happen till the last act?". Deciding against asking for help since he must've already attracted attention dressed as he was, he tried finding his way cutting across many corners. Until he heard your voice traveling through the walls. He immediately grabbed some unsuspecting victim immediately, "you! where the door to the theatre seats?!". Too afraid to even speak they pointed to a door directly in his sight. He let them go without another thought dashing to the entrance.

"when you meet the someone, who was meant for you" you perked with a bit of faultiness, still struggling with getting into character. "Before two can become one theres something you must do...." your eyes were stuck on the audience still searching for hook. The character was gleeful and confident not unsure and meek.

"do you pull each others tails?" one of the cast members dressed as a bunny pulled on your arms while delivering their line. Which wasn't part of the act but it successfully made you remember your next steps. "Do you feed each other seeds?". You gently took their hand off you, your response along with your next words made it seem intentional. A small chuckle fought your lips , "No, there is something sweeter, Every-body-needs". With every jingle you touched each actors nose. A little sadness lingered in your heart when you looked up to the mannequin with dark hair dressed in red and a fork in his hand per your request.  "Ive been dreamin' of a true loves kiss, and a prince I'm hoping comes with this," the longing in your eyes as you looked at the inanimate object were real and . "Thats what brings ever-aftering, so happy," you gave fork a light touch with the tips of your fingers. Your head went back towards the "animals" who were supposed to be learning from you,"thats the reason we need lips so much". You made small motions with both your fingers connecting them, "for lips are the only things that touch".

"So to spend life of endless bliss.. just find who you love through true love's kiss,-" towards the middle of the singing you looked up with closed eyes feeling the words in your heart. Then with the last few words you looked up onto the crowd, hands out, a small figure towards the back side of the theatre cutting your last note short. You could recognize the frame of your lover anywhere even when you had blasting white lights rendering you blind. He raised his arm, dismissing any doubt in your mind was a shadow of a hook. When James had first laid eyes on you while singing your third verse he had to do a double take. The dress was so dramatic yet you looked so beautiful like A true princess indeed. Even more heartwarming was the fact he came in when you were singing those romantic words to a mannequin that suspiciously resembled him. 

Finally having his eyes on you made you miss your queue to riff, too focused on the way your pulse skipped and how embarrassing your wardrobe must've looked. Big, puffy and white to imitate the wedding taking place in the act. A big true grin now on your face played perfectly into the next sequence, the animals singing about you, repeating your own words. "She's been dreamin' of a true love's kiss," they start circling you. "And a prince she's hoping comes with this," you follow their gestures to the dummy next to you, making your advancements towards it. "Thats what brings ever-afterings, so happy,"  once they finished the verse and onto the next you started swaying with them, "and thats the reason we need lips so much For lips are the only things that touch".  

You gave a wonderful spin letting the artistry of the fabric be shown while your cast members last note rang out. A foot in-front of the other you step closer towards the edge of stage, hands clasping each other  on your chest. " So to spend a life of endless bliss," you cheeks puff, eyes finding the pirate in the audience once again as if singing to him you let passion flow out of you. " just find who you love through true loves kiss"

James didn't hide the big mushy look on his face, he spent every moment in public hiding his feelings for you but the darkness in the auditorium offered him hide out. Where even in everyones eyes you were just acting only two hearts shared their emotions out in public with no one having a clue just them. Ulianas words did make him want to laugh though, this play had just been "little royals in my ears, singing songs about sappy true love or happy endings". Except it was like a dedicated love letter to him and only to him by his theatre loving girlfriend. He would cherish it till his death bed, "embarrassing" parts and all.

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[a34trgv2]

Top 10 Cartoons I Hate But Many Others Like

#10. The Amazing Digital Circus: Yes, I'm aware only 2 episodes have been made of this cartoon. I'm also aware that both episodes have been praised by viewers and critics alike. As much as I would love to join in on the fun, I cannot ignore how badly structured it is. From the unlikable characters, the poor world building, the unfocused narrative to the lackluster jokes, poor handling of themes and lack of stakes, this it the kind of unmitigated mess that more infamously bad cartoons are ripped to shreds over. I will say that the animation and voice acting is well done so it's not all bad.

#9. The Owl House: Many people were disappointed by my disappointment with this disappointing cartoon. But no one was more disappointed that I was left cold by the show than me. I love fantasy, magic, mystical creatures and enchanting worlds. The Owl House should've been up my ally, yet in practice I wouldn't even spit in it's direction. With an irritating cast of characters, bad world building, formulaic plots, the writing was already on the wall. Then Amity showed up and it made the show unbearable to sit through. I'm all for LGBTQ rep, but I draw the line at a bully and their victim becoming and item. I'm sure Amity has some sappy sob story about how her parents pressured her into being an entitled brat, but she's still and entitled brat that shouldn't even have friends, nevermind a girlfriend, because her attitude STINKS!

#8. The Loud House: I've made it no secret that despite the warm reception and continued popularity of The Loud House, I was never a fan. I never found it funny, well written, or relatable. All I got from The Loud House was this is one of the most annoying dysfunctional families I've ever seen. I do think it's well animated and I commend the crew for moving forward with the show despite the disgraced creator's termination.

#7. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: I consider myself a big Marvel fan thanks to the MCU and Spider-Man franchises. I never heard of Moon Girl or Devil Dinosaur before this show was announced, so I was genuinely curious to see how this would play out. Needless to say, I was not impressed. Despite having dazzling visuals and really good voice acting, the show is just badly made with terrible writing, unfunny jokes, dull characters, and repetitive action scenes. This show clearly has its fans, but unfortunately I'm not one of them.

#6. Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous: Those who know me know I love dinosaurs and am a huge Jurassic Park fan. You'd think a cartoon based on the series would be as exciting and interesting as the movies. Well like so many of the dinosaurs victims, you'd be DEAD WRONG! This show shoots itself in the foot by having 6 unlikable and annoying characters, and not one gets eaten by a dinosaur. Not to mention it's sluggishly paced, the animation is stiff, and the score only reminds me of the movies I'd rather be watching. Clearly I'm in the minority here as I had a blast watching ALL the Jurassic Park movies, even the ones critics didn't like at all, over this.

#5. We Bare Bears: I like bears as much as the next guy, with my favorite cartoon bear of all time being Winnie The Pooh. Despite my fascination with this big, furry creatures, We Bare Bears never made me like the main trio, much less love them. They're all varying degrees of unlikable and the show isn't funny or well written to keep me engaged. They also did San Francisco dirty by making the people so unlikable. The one element that I think would've made for a much more interesting show is Chloe Park. Her character was utterly wasted on this stupid show as she's a kid with a high IQ and is in college but still wants to be a kid. She deserves better.

#4. The Mitchells vs The Machines: As much as I like Sony pushing for more expiremental animated films lately, this expirement didn't succeed in my book. Sure, the animation is amazing and the voice acting's mostly good, but tells such a generic story, has such incompetent and unlikable characters, and I will never get over the fact that Aaron Mitchell sounds like a middle-aged man and not, you know, A CHILD! The worst part about this film is despite it's best efforts, it is just NOT funny. It relies so much on cringy, outdated memes, weak slapstick, and dull visual gags and I never once found it funny.

#3. El Deafo: I was confused as to what this show was supposed to be based on the trailer. Watching it for myself, I found that it was more frustrating than anything. Don't get me wrong, I commend author Cece Bell for turning her personal struggles with impaired hearing into a comic turned cartoon and I fully understand wanting to tell a story from a deaf person's perspective. That said, though, I just despised the execution from the awful writing, the unlikable characters to the terrible sound mixing. As pure as the intentions were, they were sorely lost in the execution in my opinion.

#2. Frog and Toad: When I was a kid, I loved reading the Frog and Toad books. They were simple, yes, but the characters were so interesting and the illustrations were well crafted. This show should've been exactly what I was looking for in an adaptation of the books. What I got instead was a prime example of how NOT to adapt a beloved children's series. Despite having spot on voice acting, the abysmal writing, the incompetent characters, and the lackluster animation really soured the experience. I know the author's children were involved in this, but I don't think they did the books justice. The show didn't take full advantage of the medium and played more like mediocre live reading of the books.

#1. Summer Camp Island: I clearly struck a nerve with fans of the show when I said I hated it. Well, y'all will be please to know that your efforts to change my mind were all in vain. I just couldn't get passed how badly written it was, how hatable the characters were, how grossly unfunny it was. The worst part is that this is a world where anthropomorphic animals and mystical creatures exist, yet they can't tell anyone about the magic on the island. To this very day, I CALL BOLONGA!

Conclusion: I'm not saying y'all are wrong for liking these show and you definitely won't see me call them "overrated." I just wanna offer a different perspective on these popular and well liked cartoons. Some honorable mentions include Miraculous Ladybug (many people love it, I can't stand it), The Ghost and Molly McGee (you all know how I feel about that chatterbox), and the "adult" cartoons that received critical acclaim such as Rick & Morty, Smiling Friends, Bob's Burgers and The Simpsons. Agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments and I'll see you next time.

[herecirmsims]

Questions For Storytellers

I have (I think) finally caught up on my list of poses to make, so I wanted to do something a little fun (for me, not for anyone else LMAO) and entirely self-indulgent. I read stories and tell my own over on Instagram, but of course it's harder to post long-form text like this over there.

Special thanks to @freezerbnuuy as I'm copying their post. ❤️

What’s the last screenshot you’ve taken for your story?

This is from the middle of my last post, but it's the last screenshot I took because I went back and added this scene in after finally caving and making my own stupid poses for it hahah.

2. Describe your story in three words or less: Needlessly long tbh

3. Describe (insert character here) in three words or less: Uhhh I'll pick Saxen since he's my MC... wet cat energy (which I think is something @nefaricussims said actually??). Or "90s cocaine chic" as @southernsimmin so beautifully described him. 🤣

4. How did you choose the name of your story? It's called The Cottage because it's... based in and around a cottage. 🥲 I have a very imaginative mind!! 🤣 But also, the cottage plays an important role throughout the whole story and especially in the upcoming finale.

5. How do you choose your characters’ names? My Sim story is based on a novel I never had the confidence to finish - in that version, Sax is an ælf based on Anglo-Saxon belief. I made him a vampire in Sims because that was the only pack I owned at the time, besides base game, and for gameplay purposes I thought vamp put him close to how I imagined him. I now realise I could have easily used CC and my own damn imagination to make him an ælf but I didn't know much about CC at the time, either. 🤣 Because of this, the original story leant into fae lore and the stuff about never revealing your true name. Saxen isn't his real name anyway, but for an added layer it also isn't spelt how you might imagine if you heard it spoken. The same for Thom and Jac who are also characters who came over from the 'original'.

6. How long have you been working on your story for? A little over three years! I have learned soooo much in that time.

7. Whats the biggest risk you’ve taken with your story? Did it pay off? I dunno that I've taken any risks, other than putting it out there in the first place.

8. What about your story are you proud of? I think the fact it exists at all. I've been writing stories since I was a kid, but at some point I lost confidence in myself and have never finished anything/wanted to share it with people because I end up overthinking and deleting it. So I am proud of myself for having maintained a continuous story for three years, and for having other people read it. I think because there was no pressure with a Sims story - with a novel I kept thinking, this has to be perfect and polished so that I can publish it someday. With a Sims story, I'm free to just write the silly tropes I enjoy and allow myself to suck and learn and get better at it.

9. What about your story are you looking to improve on? I read a fantastic article about ma - including pauses in your visual storytelling, space for the characters to sit and breath and reflect. It's ma that makes Ghibli movies so wonderfully distinctive. Being able to make my own poses means that I can show a character's expression or body language in response to a situation, without the need for overlaying text. I'm trying really hard to move away from the "talking heads" style that reads more like a script, and letting the visuals tell the story for me instead. I'm not very good at it because I enjoy my blah blah, but it's fun to try!!

10. Is your story fully planned or are you still working things out? Is there a definitive end? I'm approaching the end of it now, which has been planned for the last three years, so yes - I know pretty much everything that's going to happen. Sometimes the characters still throw a little surprise for me though.

11. Why have you decided to tell this story? Are there any messages or meanings within it? When I got the Sims almost 4 years ago, I had absolutely no idea that there was a) a whole community around it or b) that people used it for storytelling. I'd already made Sax, Thom, and Jac in the game, because I'd wanted to see them come to life during gameplay. Then I discovered poses and started sharing random staged screenshots on Instagram, and became friends with the exceptionally talented TheSimmerKay (now making machinimas!) who showed interest in my silly little characters and suggested that I try telling a story too. I owe her a lot!! As for messages and meaning... I'm very interested in what makes people do the things they do, and how the hero of a story often depends on whose POV we're hearing the story from. There's a fine line between hero and villain sometimes, and a hero acting out of love can cross from protectiveness into control.

12. Do you actually play the game or do you just use it as a storytelling medium? Yep - I have a designated story save, which is the one I take all my screenshots in and which never has gameplay. Then I have a Happy Ever After save for Sax and Fen and another save for for my Globetrotter Challenge Sim, both of which are gameplay only. I think it's important to have that outlet; I can work on my story, make poses, or just play the game, depending on what I fancy.

13. From basic planning to a finished post, how long does that take you? 2-3 evenings. I tend to get everything laid out and text added, then let it sit for a day because I inevitably think of a way to do something better if I give it chance to breath. 🤣

14. Do you have any regrets about your story so far? If you could go back in time, how would you fix these? Not regrets, really, but there are some threads that I put in - fully intending to complete them later in the story - but never did, due to them just not fitting with the story or wanting to try and bring things to an end sooner. But similarly, there are times when I was going to put in a little hint or foreshadowing in and didn't, and then later in my story have wished I had! The tricky part of serialised storytelling is you have to just live with what you have (or don't have), you can't go back and remove or add scenes like you would with a drafted novel.

15. What have been the highlights of creating your story? I've met so many incredible people due to it, oh my goodness. Truly extraordinary Simmers who've shared their time and knowledge with me. We have a little mutual reading group on Insta where we all read and geek out over each other's stories and it's just wonderful. I was honestly shocked when i went to other platforms and realised how much drama there can be in the Sims community. 🤣

16. What about the process do you enjoy? Not that I don't enjoy the process... but I mostly love it when it's finished and I can share it, hahaha.

17. What about the process do you hate? I don't hate any of it... it's a hobby and I do it because I enjoy it. That being said, it does fuck me off when I have multiple Sims in a scene, everyone is in place and has poses queued, and then MCCC Dresser FREEZES MY GAME NOOOOOOOO WHY

18. Choose a song that reminds you of your story:

This is the unofficial theme... specifically this version in Old English, which is Saxen's first language. "It's our destiny then to find love again / Where we failed once before now we'll win"

19. Choose a song that reminds you of (insert character here):

Another one for Sax I guess because he's special. 😌🤣 "But you, a cinder of the fire that's yet to come / Will you just sit and mourn this fragile thing that you've become / Or instead will you consume the very things you can't outrun / Until you finally see all of the strength that you draw from?"

20. Choose your favourite shot from your story so far: Hmmm I think this one, which was me being lazy and reusing a screenshot from an older scene during a flashback-style narration. 🤣 I was trying to achieve something else with the editing but did this by accident and liked it.

21. Choose your least favourite shot so far: Too many to pick from LMAO

22. Choose a favourite character from your story so far: Sax, obviously, he's my lil chew toy/punching bag. But then there's also Idris, for whom I only wish the best. She's going through some trouble right now and I don't enjoy it. It's much more fun to bully Sax.

23. Choose your least favourite character so far: I don't have one! Although Vlad makes me deeply uncomfortable tbh. I find him to be a really creepy villain, and unlike any of my other villains, he's not in any way misrepresented or redeemable. I'm using a makeover version of him by WistfulCastle (I would link, but I don't think he's available anymore?)!

24. Are there any characters who remind you of yourself? No... well. Whenever baby El randomly info-dumps on a niche subject, that's mostly me taking advantage of a captive audience to tell them about karkadanns or medieval torture items or dead bodies on Everest. 🥲

25. What inspirations have you drawn on for your story? I honestly don't know - I can't name anything that I've consciously drawn on, though I know for sure I must have. Funnily enough people have told me things like "oh that's like in Vampire Diaries" or "that's like that part in the Harry Potter films" and I haven't watched either of those, so I think what's happening is we're all drawing from the same well of folklore and mythology and trope. There is occasional story drama about being copied and the thing is... unpopular opinion alert... many of us aren't as unique as we think we are. 😅 What we are unique at is taking a trope and telling it in our own distinctive way. No one else can tell your story quite like you can.

26. Have other sim stories inspired you? I have soooo many talented friends who inspire me to do better when it comes to visuals and storytelling!! @callmedomino is the queen of silent storytelling and a huge inspiration on my journey to discover ma. I really love how well she can tell a story with no words.

27. What genres would you describe your story as? I call it rural fantasy lmao

28. If you could reproduce your story in another medium (movie, novel, comic, etc.) what would you choose and why? I mean obviously I'd say movie because HOW COOL would that be?! Especially an animated one!

29. What would your story’s rating be? (G, PG, M etc.) Ummm probably M because there is the occasional spicy scene. Sometimes three a year LMAO.

30. If you were leaving simblr Simsta and had to choose another creator to continue the story for you, who would you ask? Well tbh I've given Sax and Fen to several good friends already; some of them have them in ongoing cameos in their own stories. I wouldn't ask anyone to continue mine, but I like to think that Sax and Fen could live on in my friend's stories and games if anything were to ever happen to me.

31. Drop some random trivia about your story: When I started I only meant to do short, random vignettes about daily life at the cottage. Somehow it snowballed into a three year epic. 🤣

32. Give a light spoiler: "This is who I am. If I was any other way, I would not be myself."

[tellyouily]

i'll take you all the way

dnf - fluff - late night conversations - 792 words

just dnf talking about silly things late at night and being very soft about it as per usual

my first dip into writing in a long while – i hope you enjoy!! :)

Credits start to roll on George’s laptop screen, and Dream lets his eyes fall shut to the familiar outro music. George’s warmth leaves him when he sits up to move the laptop onto the floor, and Dream is tired enough to try to pull him back immediately.

“Okay, chill,” George huffs, but Dream ignores it, burying his face in the back of George’s neck as soon as he’s lying down again.

“What even is that show?” Dream mumbles, his words muffled. “It’s ass.”

“It’s not,” George insists. They’ve had this discussion before, and Dream usually doesn’t win. Either way, he is happy to watch almost anything that George wants if it’s late enough and the day has been long enough.

George shuffles around and pushes at Dream’s shoulder gently, urging him to lay down flat so George can lay his head on his chest. “I think you like it subconsciously.”

Dream hums. Maybe he does—he honestly couldn’t name one detail of any episode they’ve watched. Mostly because he has been half– if not fully asleep for all of them. He closes his eyes and absentmindedly slips just his fingertips under the band of George’s sleep shorts.

“Dream.”

“Mm?”

“Do you think people actually have good sex on their honeymoons?”

“Wh–” The absurdity of the question makes Dream laugh despite the exhaustion in his limbs. “I don’t know—how would I know that?”

He can only assume that he missed something to do with this in the episode, but if he’s honest it could just as well be taken completely out of thin air. George shrugs, “You know things.”

Dream tries to picture it—the first night together between a married couple. “I mean, I’d assume not,” he says eventually.

“Why?”

Dream sinks slightly into the hand playing with his hair, feeling so comfortable that he could slip away to sleep in less than a minute if he wanted.

“‘Cause you’d be tired from the wedding and the dinner and all of that,” he replies anyway, because George asked.

“And there’d be so much pressure,” he adds.

George hums thoughtfully.

“Plus… you’d probably both be super drunk, and like, overexcited.”

Dream fidgets with the fabric hem between his fingertips, his thumb grazing the soft skin of George’s stomach. He’s been getting toned this past year and Dream is as obsessed with it as he is with everything George-related: very .

“Also, some people save their first time for their wedding night, right? And that sex just… can’t be good. There’s no way.”

George snorts, which makes Dream laugh, too.

“Why is that funny?”

“Just is,” George says with another shrug. “Why do you know everything?”

Dream noses at soft curls. “I don’t, idiot.” He slides his hand across George’s stomach, “I just know the answers to your stupid questions.”

George laughs, carding his fingers through Dream’s hair and trailing them down to his ear, his jaw. His thumb ghosts Dream’s bottom lip, pressing into it once.

“We’d both fall asleep early,” he predicts after a moment.

Dream smiles, because George is probably right. “Yeah.”

Silence envelops them then, and Dream feels like he’s punishing himself when he reluctantly draws his hand away from George and pokes one leg out from the duvet. He turns to George, “I have to go put Patches in her room."

George sighs and stretches, and Dream leans in and kisses his face at random before getting up. "I'll be right back."

The tiles in the hallway are cold beneath his feet and it might just be how tired he is, but not being in his bed right now hits him like physical pain. It hurts enough to make him hurry up, beelining for the room he knows Patches is in.

His office is her favorite room in the house as much as it’s his least favorite right now. Both because it’s a room without his warm bed that currently has George in it, and because Fusion is slowly making him lose his mind. He finds Patches curled up into herself in her usual spot in his office chair, and lifts her carefully into his arms to take her to her room.

She would wake them all up at four a.m. if they let her roam free, so getting her a room was the compromise. That is, a room with food, water, a litter box, soft blankets, and a cat door she hasn’t realized (yet) that she can use whenever she wants.

Back in his own room, Dream has never been so ready to let sleep overtake him. He slips back under the sleep-warm covers, and smiles when George – already dead asleep – immediately melts to his side.

If their honeymoon ends anything like this, he couldn't be happier.

[rambleonwaywardson]

Clegan Olympics AU - Beacon

Beacon the therapy dog! USA Gymnastics Goodest Boy! From this ask

Takes place at U.S. Olympic Trials in June.

Find the rest of the Olympics AU here

Author's note: Since the Olympics are like a real thing now, I have a feeling I might start writing some extra little things for this AU outside of the "main timeline" I've developed. Like this. Or that massage gun scene. People wanted Beacon, so Beacon you will get. I’m also giving Beacon a bigger role on the competition floor itself because it’s more fun that way.

I'll have to figure out a better way to put things like this into a masterpost.

Photo from goldendogbeacon on Instagram

---

Don’t fuck it up. Don’t fuck it up. Don’t fuck it up. 

Don’t don’t don’t don’t don’t 

Don’t fuck this up John. 

Breathe. Focus. Focus focus focus 

Hold yourself together. Don’t think so much. Stop thinking so much. 

It’s just a normal meet. Nothing weird. Not at all. You’re fine. Your leg will be fine. You wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t fine. 

Under-rotate the landings if you have to and you’ll be fine. Wear the brace even though it bruises the shit out of your shin. Small price to pay. 

It doesn’t hurt you’re being stupid you only have three events left you’re halfway done you’re doing fine it’s going to be okay stop thinking so damn much. 

Don’t. 

Fuck.

Up. 

Don’t-

Bucky’s internal monologue is interrupted by something wet pressing against his arm. He glances down to see a moist black nose sniffing at him, nuzzling at his hand. Again. 

Beacon. USA gymnastics certified good boy, their emotional support golden retriever who the entire team has fallen in love with. He’s been making the rounds in between rotations, cheering up athletes and lightening the atmosphere of one of the most stressful days of the season: the fight for a ticket to Paris. The gymnasts play with the golden every chance they can get. It’s only rotation 3 and already Curt has had to be half dragged to the apparatuses because he doesn’t want to stop playing with the dog. 

“This is clearly more important,” he told their coach, who could do nothing but roll his eyes and gently shove Curt on to his next event. 

Everyone can benefit from a therapy dog hanging out at the meet. But the dog in question seems to think Bucky, in particular, needs all the emotional support in the world. 

Bucky huffs out a breath and feels his mouth attempt to lift into a shaky smile that falls immediately. He reaches a hand out to scratch Beacon on the head. He’s sitting on the floor in the center of the stadium at Target Center, his left leg stretched out in front of him, awaiting the start of rotation 4. He can’t decide if he’s actually starting to feel pain in his knee, or if it’s his mind playing tricks on him. He’s been paranoid all day. 

It’s the U.S. gymnastics trials, a meet that Bucky didn’t even think he’d be at six months ago. It’s June, and he didn’t even start tumbling on floor again until April. Didn’t stick his first landing until just two months ago, and even then, most of the time it was onto a mat rather than onto the spring floor itself. The doctors warned him not to come back too soon. They told him he may never compete internationally again. They begged him not to do floor, at the very least, because of the pressure it puts on the lower body.

But he’s never been one to back down from what he believes he needs to do, no matter how sick to his stomach it makes him feel. So he didn’t listen, and now he can’t help but wonder if they were right.

He didn’t decide to compete at Championships, much less Trials, until the eleventh hour when he could no longer stand the idea of missing out on the mere chance of competing in Paris just because he was scared. 

Scared. 

Ridiculous. 

Scared is not something John Egan has ever felt about gymnastics. Fearless, they used to call him. 

He supposes they still do, whoever they are. The commentators. His teammates. The whole country, if he’s feeling egoistic. They don’t see the spiraling abyss that is his mind. All they see is the U.S. gymnastics poster boy who was counted out three months ago due to a catastrophic injury but crawled his way back up from the ashes with a blind determination to get back on top. 

They can call him fearless if they want to. But sitting here, in the middle of the stadium, surrounded by other team USA hopefuls, he doesn’t feel fearless at all. He’s survived floor, pommel horse, and rings. He should be feeling more confident by now. He should be calming down the further into this competition he gets. But he finds the opposite to be true. His heart keeps beating too fast and he can’t make it stop. He’s twitchy. He’s nervous. He’s tense. 

He hates it. 

Maybe that’s why Beacon the therapy dog keeps seeking him out in a gym full of other athletes who must be feeling nervous, too. Something about dogs being able to sense how you’re feeling, right? Maybe John’s anxiety is just that much more obvious. 

Great. He went from being cocky, carefree, confident John Egan, USA gymnastics champion to being… well, an anxious mess of a comeback story who can’t afford to let the world see how badly he wants to disappear at this moment. All they see is the smiles he gives the camera, the high scores he puts up on his events, and the way he walks around this stadium with his head held high like he already knows he’s back on top. 

The dog, on the other hand, sees the way his heart is pounding too loud, the way his fingers twitch in his lap, the way he keeps trying to rub the tension out of his bad leg. 

Bucky finds it funny that a dog can see right through him when no one else can. And yet, it works. As he pets the dog, he feels his heart calm down. The tension eases just the littlest bit out of his shoulders. Beacon nudges his hand again and lays down, crawling half into Bucky’s lap. 

“You’re a good boy,” Bucky says. He takes another deep breath. 

“Is he bothering you?” Beacon’s owner asks, even though they know full well that Bucky must be freaking out a little if Beacon keeps returning to him. The dog always knows who needs him. 

Bucky laughs shakily and shakes his head. “No. No, not at all.” He runs his hand over Beacon’s soft hair, looking into the dog’s innocent brown eyes, which look right back at him. “Actually, would it be okay if he stayed with me for a little bit?”

Beacon’s owner smiles at him and tells him of course that’s okay. And so, leash in hand, Bucky finds himself with his own personal therapy dog for a little while. Every time he starts to feel nervous again, the dog knows. He starts licking Bucky’s hand or cuddling against him or booping him with his nose. And it always makes Bucky smile and take a deep breath. 

“You’re monopolizing the dog,” Curt tells him when he finishes on still rings and returns to Bucky’s side. 

“He’s mine now,” Bucky declares. Beacon nuzzles against his leg as if to prove the point. “He’s my new bestie.”

Curt gasps dramatically as he reaches for his water bottle, pressing a hand over his heart. “I’ve been replaced!”

“He’s a hell of a lot cuter than you,” Bucky teases. The dog smiles when Bucky smiles, like making Bucky smile is a great achievement. Like he’s saying yes! Be happy! Good job!

Curt reaches down to pat the dog on the side. “Well we’re moving to vault, so you’re gonna have to give him up to the rest of us.”

Bucky’s vault goes off without a hitch, other than his brace slamming uncomfortably against his leg with every step as he sprints down the track. It’s not the event that nearly ruined his life, but it puts his bad knee through more grief than any other event except maybe floor exercise. He nearly collapses after he sticks the landing out of pure relief, the adrenaline still coursing through his body and making his heart pound even as his leg feels like jell-o. He shakes himself out, wills the feeling to return to his leg, and slowly, carefully, hops down off the vault podium. 

Before he can even sit down, Beacon is at his side, tail wagging excitedly as he smiles up at Bucky. “Hey best friend,” Bucky chuckles. He eases himself down into a chair as one of his coaches kneels in front of him to help him get the brace off and set to work massaging his knee. The dog stays loyally at his side through the whole ordeal, his head resting on top of Bucky’s thigh. 

“Got yourself a friend,” the coach says. 

Bucky smiles, his breathing starting to return to normal. “Sure do.”

—

After parallel bars, Curt and Croz pat him on the back and remind him that he’s almost done for the day. He’s so close. Just one more rotation. Just high bar to go. 

Just high bar. 

Bucky feels like he’s moving in slow motion, slogging his way through reality with far too much effort as he smiles at his friends and walks back towards the chair he left his bag on. He only has one event left today. Just one. But it’s the one that almost ended his career. 

It’s the event that he’s been afraid of ever since. The one that he spent months retraining himself to do, just trying not to bail out of his release moves because of the fear he couldn’t control. The one that made him scream in frustration and think about throwing in the towel because if he couldn't get past the damn mental block what was the point? As recently as the day before US Championships, he was still freaking out halfway through and letting himself tumble off the bar because his chest would seize up and his leg would throb and the world spinning around him would make him so dizzy he thought he might vomit. 

It was a freak accident. Theoretically, he knows that. It’s not something that’s likely to ever happen to him again. But he is not in the business of luck at this point. Luck is an altar at which he’s never worshiped, and he sure as hell isn’t going to now. He’s forcing himself to accept the fact that shit could go south, and he has no control. All he can do is try his damned best to push himself through and do what he’s trained his entire life to do. 

It’s just another meet. Don’t think about it too much. 

He didn’t start competing again until early May. At that point, he wasn’t even doing every event. Hell, he wasn’t even doing dismounts. On high bar, parallel bars, and still rings, he’d simply do his routine and then ease himself off the apparatus. Everyone in attendance, every athlete and every judge, would cheer so loudly for him anyways just because he was there. Just because he was doing it at all. 

But that won’t fly here. Not if he wants trials to count. Not if he wants that ticket to Paris. 

And he told himself yesterday that the win was being here. It didn’t matter what happened. He got himself here, and that was what mattered. But it’s not enough anymore. Not now that he’s in this stadium, pushing himself through this competition with a dizzying mix of anxiety and pure, ferocious determination coursing through him. He won’t have won until he’s on a podium at the 2024 Olympics with a medal around his neck. 

“You’re so close, Bucky,” Curt is saying as he walks away from parallel bars. “We’re almost done. We can do this.”

But it’s not his friends that break through the muffled underwater way he’s experiencing the world around him. It’s a happy-go-lucky golden retriever. 

Beacon breaks away from a group of other gymnasts when he sees Bucky walking towards him, and the other guys can’t even be disappointed about it when they see the way Bucky collapses onto the ground and wraps his arms around the dog. Beacon licks his cheek and nuzzles at his ear, and Bucky hides his face against the soft fur, willing himself not to lose it. His chest feels tight. His leg is aching. It’s not in his head, it’s real. And he’s trying not to let a dull but taunting pain, which historically he would’ve pushed through no problem, pull him out of Olympic contention. 

But the dog won’t leave his side. He knows what his job is, and he tries his best to take all the fear away in the time they have before Bucky starts the final rotation. 

Stay calm, Bucky tells himself as he pats the dog on the head one more time before heading over to high bar. 

Stop thinking so much, he tells himself as he adjusts his grips over his fingers and around his wrist. 

Don’t fuck it up, he tells himself as he rubs chalk over his hands. 

And then his coach is lifting him to the bar and he doesn’t have time to think anymore. Just do it. You can do it. You have to do it. 

“You got this!” Curt his yelling. “You’re good! You got it!”

So Bucky takes a deep breath and pulls himself up, sends himself into his first giant, then his first release move. His second. His third. 

He doesn’t think. He lets himself fly through the air, lets his body do what it knows it has to do, and when he lands, he can’t keep the grin off of his face as he yells out in triumph. 

It’s only his second time doing a full dismount off high bar in a competition since his accident. His second. And he stuck it. He did it. He fucking did it. 

Now he just has to do it all again tomorrow. 

As he hops off the high bar podium, overwhelmed with relief, Curt and Croz flank him on either side, cheering him on as he closes out day one of trials well in the lead. As he walks away from the last apparatus, though, his eyes find a happy golden retriever, staring right back at him. Beacon pulls against his owner’s leash, and the owner lets go with a laugh, letting the dog charge at Bucky. 

Bucky grins and drops to his good knee just in time for Beacon to barrel into his chest. Bucky scratches the dog all over, laughing as Beacon licks his face and wriggles around in his arms. 

“You gonna be my good luck charm?” Bucky asks. “You gonna help me get to Paris?” The dog licks his nose in reply. “Good. I’m gonna need you to help me through this.”

When asked what it took to get to the 2024 Olympics, Bucky will talk about the excruciating recovery process, the training, the frustrating days spent in the gym, the never ending support of his teammates and coaches. He’ll talk about everything it took to get to Trials alone. But then he will also always give credit to Beacon, USA certified good boy, because he honestly believes he wouldn’t have made it through Trials without him. 

…

…

Beacon will return in a future event finals update

[solarpunkpresentspodcast]

There Is No Perfect System

There’s no dipping one’s toe into the solarpunk stream without noticing that although not all solarpunks are anarchists, there is a strong sense in solarpunk that we won’t be living happily, freely, and sustainably until we dismantle both capitalism and the state.

Ah, but if only it was only capitalism that is capable of social and environmental savagery. And, hey, hang on a second. It’s not as if even democracies can only be stifling and oppressive.

I will admit that for decades I too have dreamed of living in a society where we didn’t need the police, prisons, or laws because we all just voluntarily treat each other decently and all personally make sure to commit no crimes against the environment. But the older me has become skeptical that such a systemless system could ever work. Are we going to ship all the people who can’t play well with others to Mars? Look at how much trouble we’re having already, especially now that so many people (and politicians) have figured out that they can pretty much get away with murder by ignoring the social norms that keep society functioning by filling in the gaps in between the laws.

I’m 100% with you when you say that capitalism has been terrible for people and the planet. The less carefully regulated capitalism is, the more it is a race to the bottom where 15 people on Earth have all the money, the natural world has given way to soy bean fields, palm oil plantations, and toxic garbage dumps, and the rest of us are living in misery and vastly reduced life expectancy in hovels or in prison.

But—honest question—is there a better alternative?

Communism, as it was practiced in the 20th century, was also terrible for the environment. Often egregiously so. My better half grew up in East Germany and it’s tons less polluted now than it was under communist authoritarianism when, honestly, nobody cared one bit about the damage they were doing to people or nature even when they weren’t under pressure to make profit. Today, under capitalism in a still at least somewhat social democracy, there are rules and investment directed at preventing, among other things, factories and powerplants from dumping their waste or sending it unfiltered out through their chimneys.

As much as it’s easy and not far off the mark to rail against the evils of capitalism, it actually isn’t capitalism—or communism or any other -ism—that treats the environment as nothing more than a repository of resources for human use. It’s the people operating within the framework of capitalism (etc)—or at least a pretty good chunk of them. And if that is the case, why should we expect that anarchism and its lack of a state will magically delivery us from the human selfishness, laziness, shortsightedness, and greed that lies at the root of the cruelest, most unjust, most environmentally damaging, and most unsustainable aspects of capitalism?

No matter what, we will never escape ourselves. Wherever we go, there we still will be at the heart of any system we use to order ourselves and our economies.

It is as my friend Don, the now retired librarian that I talked to in Season 2, Episode 2 of the podcast, was telling me the other day. It’s comforting to think that we just need to set up the perfect system and then everything will be utopian. But there is no perfect system because systems are created and administered by people and every single one of us is flawed. We are all to some degree—although some of us to more degrees than others—clever but stupid, short–sighted but wise, fair but unfair, greedy but generous, hard working but lazy, clear thinking but delusional, and honest but mendacious.

So why are we dreaming of the day that we finally have a perfect system when instead we should be working on ourselves and how we work together to get things done?

This isn’t to say that some systems aren’t worse than others. I mean, who wants anything as lacking in counterbalancing measures as monarchies, repressive authoritarian regimes, or dictatorships?

In the name of the sensible aspects of solarpunk, let’s work with what we have on hand: the the democracies that, at least as of the time of this writing, we still have. Let’s put our dreams of anarchistic perfection on the back burner and get down to the very real, very urgently needed work of shoring up our democracies against the corrosive attacks undermining them.

I don’t know about you, but given the upcoming elections and all the hatred people seem to have for each other, for the first time in my entire life, I’m worried about what the near future will be like. And I feel like that by the time we all take to the streets to rail against the rise in authoritarianism, it may already be too late.

[starry-eyed-steve]

I'm annoyed with people who completely vilify s1 Steve or King!Steve in general and put him onto the same level as Billy or Jason, when in canon, it's simply not true. Steve did one bad thing at the end of season one, which he realised, immediately checked himself, and apologized for.

People act like he was a big bully, constantly shoving people into lockers and committing hate crimes, so to speak, when in reality he wasn't like that.

The reason he was an asshole to Jonathan was because Jonathan put himself into the role of being the school weirdo. Plus, him being a creep and taking those pictures and developing them in school isn't exactly helping his case. Steve smashing the camera was totally valid as Jonathan violated Nancy's privacy and Steve's as well. He didn't have to buy him a new camera because he was in the right for that.

Throughout s1 and s2, Jonathan gives off "I'm not like other girls" vibes, he constantly judges people who are popular, and he even judges Nancy. Will called him out for having no friends because Jonathan doesn't want to open up. Granted, he suffered a lot of trauma and had to grow up quite early to take care of Will. I won't hold this against him because he had it not easy, but it still doesn't change the fact that he can be a judgemental asshole, like Steve essentially.

In s1 ep 2 it was shown how King!Steve wasn't this big asshole when he throws the party. He invited Nancy because, duh, he liked her, but when Barb showed up, he never made a big fuss about it even though he probably anticipated Nancy coming there alone. Later, when Barb cuts herself, after being pressured by Nancy to participate in drinking, he never made fun of her for that. He was concerned and honestly less of an ass than Nancy was in that scene. To me, this shows his true character because he could have easily made Barb feel terrible in that situation, as he obviously doesn't like her that much, but he didn't because he isn't evil. Even after she was gone to take care of her hand, he never made a joke about it with Tommy or Carol.

In s3, when Robin gave her speech to Steve as to why he was the worst (after him being brutally tortured which was played off for laughs) she couldn't even come up with good reasons why he was so horrible. She literally says Steve was a real asshole because he:

Was late to school

Asked dumb questions

Was funny and cool

Got bagel crumbs all over the floor (the worst crime committed by a person)

And the girl she liked was only looking at him and his "stupid" hair.

Another reason why the show itself villainizes Steve so much, and has to remind him and the audience how bad he was every season, is because it's written by people who were nerds and had a bad experience in high school. Like the basic concept of the show is nerds=good and jocks=the devil. They are literally judging popular kids because of their own prejudices. And with how they set up s5, Steve will have to prove again he's a changed man, this time to Jonathan (again) despite him saving his ass twice, and him apologizing to Jonathan in s1. It's like Steve is never allowed to truly move on, simply because he was popular in high school. He still has to make up for the mistakes of his past while other characters in the show just get a pass for theirs.

We are never shown this big evil Steve, we are only told by people who themselves have prejudices towards the popular crowd. Eddie literally gave this whole speech about how he doesn't like people who fit in, he was harassing them and couldn't find it in himself to postpone the final campaign because he hated how Lucas wanted to venture into other hobbies. (The show basically vilified Lucas for playing basketball.) Eddie isn't really better than the popular kids. However, because he's a nerd, he isn't portrayed as the villain but as a person who just gets it.

In conclusion, yes, Steve was an asshole in certain situations. Yes, he was (still is) vain and cared about his reputation. But in no way was he this big bad bully like people and show make him out to be. He was popular because he was charming and had the ability to converse easily. I mean, he was still able to become prom king in 1985, despite falling from grace in '84. He wasn't awkward and knew how to make people like him. He was still King!Steve up until Billy, even with dumping his friends, because he probably got along well with others in general and was only judgmental towards people who actively seeked out keeping to themselves rather than participating in "normal" high school society and were judging the popular crowd for participating in return.

Also worth noting is Steve being mean or an ass was really amplified by the friendship with Tommy and Carol. It's like he thought he needed to be extra mean in order to be perceived as cool by them and vice versa. They all brought out the worst in each other, when Steve realized that he cut them off. Like he said, he cared a lot about superficial things, but in the end, when it comes to serious things, he will always come around.

[fanficonly]

Wenclair- One-Shot

Trustfall

I feel like someone asked for this or mentioned this song in regards to Wenclair and now there's this.

I did not mean for this to be so emotional but I listened to Trustfall by pink on repeat while I wrote this and like... yeah this happened

TW: Death.Description of Blood.

Please don't kill me ...the other one-shots in my drafts are far more fun and less tragic 😂

"Enid ..." Wednesday had allowed every piece of humanity within her to become intrusively transparent as she held the wolf in her arms, rocking back and forth while she bled out. "Please don't leave me" she begged, the image of Enid being viciously attacked by the Hyde replaying on an endless loop in her head while her best friend bled out in her arms.

"Hmmm" Enid's voice strained out the noise after hearing Wednesday's shaky and solemn voice plead with her to just live, just be alive, just don't leave her yet.

The wolf shuddered under the Seers touch, her open wounds causing her to wince, her vision becoming blurry as she faded in and out of consciousness due to the extraneous blood loss.

To bare her heart and soul in what she believed to be Enid's last moments, to let her into the place in her heart that no other had ever penetrated, to admit she was finally accepting she had fallen for Enid. Wednesday was ready, she couldn't let Enid die without knowing the impact the wolf had had on her life. But instead in her tired and panicked state all that came out was

"You are not allowed to die Enid I forbid it!" She screamed applying more pressure to her wounds and frantically pressing into every part of the werewolf she believed needed saving.

"It's okay Wens" she took a sharp breath in gripping at the slither of oxygen her lungs allowed her to inhale. "It was worth it" the strained smile that peacefully played on her lips was enough that, for the first time in a decade, Wednesday's eyes watered, seasoned tears glazed over her now bloodshot eyes.

She had to help her. She could not lose Enid now.

"No Enid l, you can't do this you can't leave me, I-" Wednesday body tensed at the fourthcoming admission of love she was about to let free "I've fallen Enid, into that corrupted abyss they call love and it's with you I think I - No I know I love you Enid" she breathed out, her lips tightening after each word. She stroked Enid's hair from her face staring darkly at her wounds and lovingly at the ever-present smile that remained still and in place on her face.

"I had no idea you cared so much" she whispered, sinking into Wednesday's arms as she weakened.

"I do Enid we were meant to- You're not leaving me or so help me god I will follow you down to deaths door and claw my way in to bring you back" Wednesday expressed her distress through threats and unfiltered fantasies.

Enid's body jolted as a small "Ha" left her lips. The werewolf girl wasn't stupid, she knew there was no way anyone would get to her in time and she had accepted that because at least Wednesday was safe. She regretted nothing. She would do it all over again if it meant the girl she had fallen in love with herself, would continue to live her fulfilling life.

"I wish others cared about me the way you do" Enid's smile faltered slightly as she stared up at Wednesday, her body shaking due to the hypothermic temperatures of the midnight air.

"They do Enid everybody-" she began but was cut short by the werewolf's quiet voice forcing out

"Not like you, my family, my mother and the people hear only like me because I'm-" she chokes on her words as her throat becomes dry and she winces slightly as she feels a hush of red escape through the injured parts of her torso.

"Forget about all of them Enid." Wednesday had never felt so much emotion at once as she finally let a tear trail tragically down her tainted skin. "You and Me. Just you and me against the world Enid just look at me." Wednesday spoke with force, urgency, her tone harsh but quiet to match Enid's as she lifted the werewolf's chin to meet her heavy eyes.

"you're only saying that because I'm dying" Enid tries a laugh but fails.

"you are not dy-" her lips betray her, not allowing the words to float into the air. Was this it? She finally admits to falling in love with Enid and now it was all over. She will not accept this.

She swallows hard, in denial plaguing her dark mind "You're not dying." She cradles Enid carefully, caressing her body, nothing but pure unfiltered love pouring from every part of her like a raging waterfall "Please Enid just hold on, help will be here soon" Wednesday had never begged like this before. She had never been in a situation where the person who was affected was ever anyone she cared about and it hurt. God it hurt so much. She hated every vile moment as she refused to accept the truth.

"What do I have to hold on too" She admits weakly, shocking Wednesday from her thoughts. Enid's life was flashing before her eyes and all the bad found a way to seep into her memories like spilled ink in a pool of water.

"Hold onto me" The Addams girl desperately grips at Enid's body sliding her hand to the back of her neck to raise her up, while she herself remained crossed-legged on the cold dirt beneath them.

"Wednesday" there's a light trace of defeat in her tone.

"Enid I-" Wednesday couldn't fight it. She didn't want to fight it anymore and she reluctantly let another tear fall as she threw her head back to curse at the sky for a moment "I feel-I love-I- you made me I-" Wednesday words become blurred as she stutters for the first time in her life trying to convey how happy Enid makes her. "Enid I-" She looks back down unable to form a sentence and her face scrunches as she sees Enid's deep blue eyes still staring up at her.

" I love you too Wednesday" Enid cuts her off once again, weakly raising her hand to touch Wednesday's frozen cheek. As her breathing slows and her eyes close, she expects to be at peace. It feels like she's floating but Wednesday's voice burns through the clouds and she can't help but force herself to stay grounded as she hears the love of her life's desperate pleas.

"Open your eyes please please open your eyes!" Wednesday's voice raises a fraction, her eyes practically bloodstained with translucent tears now. This wasn't her but the thought of losing Enid forever caused Wednesday to feel more darkness consume her entire being, something she deemed impossible until now.

"Enid listen to me" she shakes her slightly and Enid struggles to open her eyes, but does it because she had never felt so determined to listen to Wednesday say everything she had been waiting to hear the moment she had met her.

"Picture it Mon Chiot. A place somewhere far away from everything, away from your family, the awful people here just me and you far far away." She breathes in deeply, trying to force out the future she knew was an impossibility.

"Sounds nice" Enid hums out.

"Somewhere only we know. We will run away together no longer afraid to be you Enid just leave it all behind just trust me...fall with me...don't let go yet" Wednesday continues her monologue, watching as peace falls across Enid's face.

"Hold on for me just trust me, fall into me, hold onto me" she repeats, crying out at the thought of never seeing Enid again. Never hearing her laugh, never seeing her smile. Never feeling her touch ever again "And I'll -Ill be everything they weren't I promise" Wednesday pleads with her again, knowing that it's not enough but still grasping onto hope regardless.

Again she smiles.

"I'm not letting you go." Her eyes close.

"You're not alone Enid" One.

"I'm here" Last.

"Trust me" Breath.

Silence fills the air, the shadow of death crowding over the two girls who now remain still, unmoving with tears stained skin and defeated bodies.

"I'm sorry" Wednesday whispers shattering the quiet and placing a light kiss on Enid's forehead, while stray tears still fall from her now closed eyes.

The only thought in Wednesday's head leaves her lips without permission

"I shouldn't have waited to tell you how I felt" Falling upon the deaf ears of the dead as she buries her face into the body still wrapped up in her arms.

...

*One month later*

"Wednesday this is the 4th time this week!" Enid chuckles, shaking her head disapprovingly.

"Your point?" the Seer smirks an unhinged smile threatening to reveal itself.

"My point isssss I'm trying to Rest in peace over here and you're making it incredibly difficult" Enid rolls her eyes, watching as Wednesday adjusts one of her summoning candles.

"Good" she smiles. A genuine happy smile.

"You can't just hold a seance every time you miss me" she lets out a giggle and Wednesday's eyes light up at hearing her laugh once again. God she missed her laugh.

"I can and I will." She bluntly states "Besides I have a different agenda today" the psychic clears her throat quietly.

"Wednesday I love you but-"

"Try and stop me" she smirks once again and begins chanting as she rises from her seated position and moves towards Enid's spirit. Enid knows full well there is nothing she can do as she reaches out and her arms swipe through Wednesday's body, giving her that beautifully sinister chill the dark spirited one of the 2 thrives off of.

Wednesday continues chanting for 39 seconds before she raises her hand an inch away from the blonde's faded face and halts her words . Enid lets out a large breath, her features becoming clearer as Wednesday lightly caresses her face. Smiling at the victory.

Enid's eyes light up " I-I can feel you" her mouth agape before she closes her eyes and slides her hands up to feel Wednesday's hand on her cheek.

"Good because I never had the chance to do this" and with this statement Wednesday pulls Enid closer, keeping one hand firmly on the blonde's soft cheek as the other wraps around her waist easily.

"Do you trust me?" She asks, inches away from the ghost she had fallen in love with.

"With everything in me" she replies.

"Good" she whispers before closing the gap between them to capture Enid's lips with her own. A moment in time she would never forget, finally kissing her beloved.

As she pulls away she whispers "One day we will be together again Mon Amour just you and me and that far away place" pulling her in for another passionate kiss.

Hello beautiful readers ... I have written an alternate ending to this where spoiler alert Enid doesn't you know... die. So let me know if you would also like to read that😋

[funnyscienceman]

tbh i dont think the penultimate chapter of ghost trick is ever going to leave me.

(spoilers below the cut)

like, you've just spent how-many minutes, maybe most of an hour, trying to stop a missile from exploding on impact, then trying to help your friend who can't swim and her friend who's a child and unconscious and also can't swim find somewhere safe while the submarine you're all stuck in is capsizing from the aforementioned missile. the water is rising, the music is as intense as your heart rate trying to figure out the damn cracks in the tubes so the hot air escaping doesn't hurt your friend, just clearing a path and making a path as you go along. then you're finally safe from the water, you've found someone else who's also stuck here (nevermind the part where he's the guy you thought was the main villain all this time), you're all reeling from everything in a room turned 90° because of the capsizing, and… there's still no escape.

you're sinking to the bottom of the ocean.

no one even knows you're here, everyone who did is either dead or too far away to help. if they even find out about you, it'd already be too late. You're out of reach of everybody else.

on top of all of that, you, the ghost who started this night waking up to realize he'd died, and can't remember his own name, much less his face — you still can't remember who you were in life. you had an idea during most of the night, but that's been disproven. the guy you thought you were is stuck down here too, so what the hell does any of it matter?

after Yomiel's explained everything - his motive for revenge, the ghost powers, etc - yeah, you have a lot of questions answered, but… as Yomiel says, "The only thing left to do now is wait for water pressure to crush this submarine."

there's a very brief bargaining phase where you try coming up with ideas to get out or get help, but they're quickly shut down. the submarine rumbles as more water rushes in, as more of the sub is crushed.

Lynne, your friend, suddenly says to Yomiel, "I think I kind of understand now, what you've been feeling these ten years. This feeling… cut off from the world, all alone in a submarine… Sinking slowly towards the bottom of an endless sea… This must be how you felt all along."

all while motherfucking Chained Past is playing, because the ghost trick devs are cruel sadistic assholes who throw the goofiest character designs and hijinks at you before sucker punching you with tragedies that could all be summarized as "if people werent so fcking stupid and shitty we wouldnt be in this mess"

anyway i love the part where a house dog and a stray cat save the day

[petruchio]

Okay YES!

You said Dolly Parton and that’s EXACTLY what I mean!! She has the quintessential East Tennessee voice and I saw so much of her influence in Rachel’s amazing characterization of Lucy Grey!!

Tbh I think there’s a level there that plays on the current day stigma that comes with being Appalachian. Like I don’t want to act like the image of Appalachia as backwards is unfounded (it’s not), but it’s also wielded unfairly. Like is Appalachia underfunded and undereducated? Yeah. But every community has strengths and weaknesses! In fact diversifying those is good!

By having an accent in the Midwest, I indicated to my peers (no joke) that I must be less intelligent. And this wasn’t entirely new, even in Tennessee, being “from the mountains” was seen as a sign that you must be stupid/backwards.

And there was a spectrum of dialect that they considered acceptable. On multiple occasions I had Tennessee teachers teach me not to accent certain words in certain ways (because that would be inappropriate and hick - which is funny because we all sounded extremely Tennessee, but we didn’t ALL sounds so Appalachian)

So moving to the Midwest and having that “acceptable range” immediately moved to zero was jarring. I’d never thought I sounded like Dolly Parton before, but suddenly everybody I met was mentioning her and asking if I was from Tennessee.

It very much puts you on a stage, and there’s this immense pressure to mitigate it just so you can get off stage. I think there are some intentional links there with the “stage” and preforming that Lucy Grey encounters in the capitol!

Will you try to hide how you talk? Not just your sound but your word order and sentence structure? Your blatant colloquialisms?

Dolly is a very interesting comparison because her answer is generally, no. When Dolly does her thing, the colloquialisms are part of it. She won’t hide, she might tweak some things for the stage, but she clearly retains her identity and culture. (Just like Lucy Grey.)

And we get this layered commentary about the double stage with both of them!

There’s the stage they’re put on as outsiders. Moments like “only her pearly white bones” (such a southern thing to say lmao) show this off. Lucy Grey’s world is a stage now, it’s felt that her differences are othering, but still she throws out a colloquialism. Dolly is similar, even “off stage” she’s being judged for her background and is forced to preform. Yet she chooses to retain some the most othering characteristics, just like Lucy Grey.

Then of course, on an actual stage with a guitar and a song, Dolly and Lucy Grey have incredibly similar stage personalities. “Is that for me?” “I stopped drinking when I was 12!” “It’s to clear my pipes!��� Lucy has never expressed an interest in alcohol, or even mentioned it prior - but she plays it up for the crowd, and the fact that they know it’s untrue is half the joke. That’s incredibly similar to Dolly, if there’s one thing Dolly Parton will do it’s tell a joke before her set.

So I think your Dolly comparison is super interesting and that there are layers there I’m not even thinking of atm. (I feel like I’m in front of a conspiracy board right now, but idc bc you really got me thinking!!)

I also think this could be related to your thoughts on Lucy Grey as an inversion of Peeta! Like I can’t help but think back to that moment before their first game where he says something like “I wish there was a way to maintain my identity.”

Like choosing whether or not to hide those Appalachian traits is a thing people struggle with to this day! I remember sitting in front of the mirror and practicing not a “non accent” & not jutting out my jaw when I spoke (catch Rachel Zegler doing exactly that - performance of the century)

Even beyond speaking, cultural norms like not trusting cops and insistently sharing food with everyone (also asking for food never being rude), knowing your neighbors personally and being familial with them, (“you think I don’t hear your stomach growling Jessup Diggs?”)

Even choosing to find Jessup immediately and sharing everything with him! (Coryo’s face when he said “are you going to share everything I give you with him?” 😭 Like, yeah. seek help sweetheart)

(There’s also the obvious theme of validity between different lifestyles. Like, I’d rather be uneducated than allergic to sharing. Yeah Lucy is a bit backwards but all the funding and education in the world didn’t teach Coryo not to be a selfish bitch??? So like?? Hmmm. Maybe there are many ways to live?? Anyways!)

When it comes down to it, Lucy Grey will do what she needs to do to survive. But the forefront of her mind is maintaining her identity, maintaining her humanity. Which may or may not be palatable to the Capitol audience, and may or may not immediately other her, etc. Peeta is doing this too - unlike Katniss and Coryo who are in survival mode - Lucy Grey and Peeta are concerned with their identities. They both choose to play it up for the audience, but also remain dedicated to keeping that humanity (as they know it) intact. So it plays super well to have that identity be such a culturally distinct existing one!

Anyways!!! Just some thoughts!

oh wow what a gorgeous ask! i don't know that i have that much to add but this is one of those asks that just must be published because you've said so many beautiful, fascinating things here.

i think the thing that really strikes me in your piece is the way you've hit on so many hidden markers of class in american society and identified so many of the subtle ways in which accents denote a particular class background or education level. (and love your acknowledgement of the ways in which structural inequality is baked into these stereotypes. because, like most inequalities, class is real and not real (wink wink) at the same time. it's an external construction -- it's not in any way intrinsic to humanity -- but it has very real effects that ripple through almost every aspect of our lives. we have to be able to hold both of those truths at the same time in order to unpack and combat the effects. and yet i think you've also framed it so beautifully that it's also important to embrace our differences as unique but beautiful threads that make up the fabric of humanity. lovely. but let me get back to the point.)

i think this discussion of accent and class is so interesting because i think it's something we hear a lot about in british english, but it isn't as often spoken about in the united states, and seeing it all laid out here is really illuminating!! and that, to your point, makes it all the more special that rachel zegler (and the filmmakers) made such a conscious effort to preserve lucy gray's accent in the film -- because all those subtleties that you just pointed out are present in a way that they might not be (or at least, would be harder to parse as a viewer) had they just had everyone speaking in the standard californian/hollywood american accent.

and to your point about class and performance... WOW! YES! i love the way you teased out that connection between lucy gray, dolly, and particular accents as being both markers of performance and authenticity. because there is this sense that your accent would be you at your most "authentic" you -- and thus adopting the accent of those around you is "performative" -- but then when you think about the ways those markers of class are so pervasive, to suggest that "authenticity" is even relevant might come into question. it kind of ties back into the post i made earlier about snow and katniss both understanding the ways in which poverty forces someone to "perform" the role of a wealthier (or more comfortable) individual, and playing an accent up or down is another extension of that. so in that way, it's interesting that lucy gray makes absolutely no effort to do that -- she's performing, but she's NOT performing. she's being authentic and playing a role at the same time. she's both; she's neither. she's alive but she's dead, etc -- she's a mystery.

i loooove the way we're connecting this to dolly too! because for me, when i think of dolly, i think of someone who saw the way the world was perceiving her, and rather than trying to squash that down and become more palatable to the masses, she tapped into all those things she was being mocked for and said: "you think you can make fun of this? i'll do you one better -- i'm in on the joke." and that's kind of the magic of dolly, that she's in on the joke, and she's having fun doing it. you can't help but love her for it; she projects such a confidence in herself and her persona, and it's part of her magic. she KNOWS it's a costume -- and that's kind of the whole point.

and i guess there's a way in which that's kind of the brilliance of lucy gray as well -- that she's in on the joke. she's in on the game. and nobody expects that of her. because the point of the games is to show "true human nature" but lucy gray identifies, from the minute she's called on stage at the reaping, that nothing is authentic about the games at all. because nothing is authentic about LIFE. everything is constructed, everything is performative. it's about realizing and acknowledging that, and breaking down the assumption that there is any "one true human nature" -- because there isn't. we're just here for a good time. we're here to make art, to make friends, and then maybe at the end of it all, we can say that we sure did put on a good show. for ourselves and for our communities.

maybe we wrote one great song -- and maybe that one great song will matter, someday, to someone. maybe it will be our song that changes the world <3 and that's why we keep trying.

[uptoolateart]

Ladybug Never Makes a Mistake

So, a lot of us feel that Marinette / Ladybug can sometimes be too controlling, yes?? What divides us, maybe, is whether or not we forgive her for it. I’m on the side of forgiveness, and I want to explain why.

First, Marinette is only 14, and she has plenty of time to grow. We all did stupid things at that age, and even older than that.

But more than that - I think Marinette does what a lot of people do: she tries to control what she can, when it feels like the bigger things in her life are spiralling out of control.  For all that Adrien gets called ‘perfect’, the true perfectionist is Marinette.

The worse things get, the more she takes charge. The Cat Blanc secret she’s keeping? She’s terrified of what will happen if she lets the cat out of the bag (I couldn’t resist). That plan to get Cat’s identity, in ‘Ephemeral’? Absolutely awful - but also, that was her feeling powerless under Su-Han’s threat balanced with her vows to Master Fu.

She’s always had this streak in her. Think of her as Marinette, needing to wear her lucky socks or orchestrating complex scenarios involving romantic carriages, just to tell a boy she likes him. It’s not ‘stalking’. More like if she can control all the variables, maybe she’ll get the outcome she wants. She’s terrified of the unpredictable...because she’s afraid she won’t know what to do with it and will make a mistake with huge consequences.

When she became Guardian, this tendency got so much worse - because the stakes were raised. The more pressure heaped on her shoulders, the more she tried to control things, so that she felt more able to cope with her new responsibilities. By the end of S4, when she had her breakdown, what we saw was her feeling totally out of control, with no idea what to do anymore. She needed Cat to step in and take control again, to give her the security she suddenly lacked.

In S5, I think we’ve seen a less controlling Ladybug. She’s not all the way there yet, but she’s definitely changed. When she gave Cat the rabbit miraculous, for instance, that was a moment of her letting go and giving away. That kiss in ‘Elation’ was her giving in to her feelings and letting loose. She finally allowed herself to have some fun. She then gave in to akumatisation - and while this obviously wasn’t good, it was her allowing herself to feel all the stress that had been piling up on her for so long.

What triggered all this was the loss of most of the miraculous. And here’s where it gets interesting. I think losing the miraculous was a blessing in disguise - the thing Marinette needed to teach her to let go. Significantly, this moment of loss leads her to admire Cat Noir...because he’s flexible. He’s strong like grass - he knows how to bend with the wind when the storm comes, and spring back up when stepped on.

There’s this Buddhist practice of creating beautiful mandalas (geometric designs) out of coloured sand sprinkled on the floor or a table. They will spend months on one picture. On completion, they destroy it with one swipe of the hand. And no, no one takes a photo first. It’s meant to be a lesson in impermanence - the fact that nothing is 100% secure and we can lose everything in the blink of an eye. Life is ephemeral. We need to be able to adapt.

If we think back to ‘Gamer 2.0′, Cat tells Ladybug she needs to enjoy playing. And at the end of the battle, what does he do? He lets himself fall. Just like he takes that leap of faith in ‘Lies’ - or as Adrien, in ‘Gorizilla’.

Cat Noir easily surrenders himself to the flow of life and has faith that, one way or another, it will all work out. While this attitude puts further pressure on Ladybug, we can see it as the opposite extreme to her. He lets go just as much as she holds on for dear life.

Don’t get me wrong. Symbolism aside, on a more practical level it’s good that in season 5 we’re seeing a more composed Cat Noir who values life and has faith in his own ideas and capabilities. But Ladybug / Marinette really needed to learn from him, too - and she’s still learning.

The end of ‘Strike Back’ was a good first step for her. She still has a way to go, but it’s all part of her character arc. I believe that as her confidence grows, her need for control will ease off. She’ll listen more to the input of others, as we are already starting to see. Ultimately, she will still be the one with a plan...but she’ll understand know that a plan isn’t always needed. Sometimes you just have to ride the waves and see where the current takes you.

[3416]

i think you've talked about mcdrai/1634 parallels before which is so smart and true. neither set of generational superstars has been able to bring the cup home but only one side (and mostly one player) gets hate for it i wonder why!! is toronto media that much more heinous or is it because connor and leon can both grow beards. we may never know.

i don't know that i ever have talked much about that though i definitely SHOULD (or maybe i have in the past and forget flksdj)(ALTHOUGH I AGREE... their parallels fascinate me) like....... connor and leon trapped in EDMONTON. and if they want to keep playing hockey together, they have to stay there and suffer under the weight of gretzky's legacy. basically only have each other to lean on... while mitch and auston are trapped in the worst media market in the world as guys who actually like their privacy, lol. want the spotlight and also hate it at the same time and i think you can tell, lol. want to bring glory to a place that's not seen it in ages but has a fanbase actively wishing for their demise for the sake of change...

JFLKSDFKLS i do think there's a level of truth to the way connor and leon elevate in the playoffs when ppl compare 2997 and 1634... i just can't BELIEVE people think it's IMPOSSIBLE for 1634 to eventually do it... like they've shown promise at certain points? what makes people think it might not be coaching?? they've only ever played for 2 men... but. on a less serious note, the comments about mitch and the pressure on him specifically is 1000000% bc he doesn't present as manly enough and has actual outward feelings about the way he's treated vs robot connor and bitchy leon and stonewall auston. and it SUCKS bc mitch performs well in this stupid fucking market, lol. sorry if consistent 90 point seasons isn't enough for you, but that's SILLINESSSS

[kharmii]

not sure if you have noticed but there is someone in the submas tag whacking the beehive with some mean sounding posts and honestly I think it's hilarious and I'm all in for it.

The fandom bullies need to be pushed off their high horses and brought back to reality that they are just some rude bullies on the internet harrassing people for having a different opinion on fictional characters

And honestly the person is also right: they are frustrated because Ingo in LA took a lot of the shine off the original cast of the game. It is a tragedy he's there but it's also a shame the other cast gets sidelined so much.

And the fandom makes it difficult for others to enjoy the content. It's basically that bird meme with the crow being submas fandom being so obnoxious and loud the other part of the LA fandom gets totally overshadowed.

And I say this as a submas fan. I love the twins a lot. But the fandom is on the brink of becoming unbearable. At least the loud annoying obnoxious part, I actually think the "unpopular" side is much more calm, chill and friendly. And much less in your face.

The fandom needs to get down off their high horse and become a more calm fandom again.

I didn't get along with either side of the fandom, and truth be told, I think a lot of them are the same group of cowards and hypocrites playing politics. This fandom is smaller than I thought. Recently, someone on the crazytrain tag inadvertently let me in on the spice Twitter of one of the very first antis who blocked me. The twitter has 'Proshitters DNI' on their pinned post, (hurr durr durr, get it? Pro SHITTERS. How cleever..) and yet the whole blog is full of fat furries with top surgery scars. FOR SURE that person has a blankshipping side blog FOR SURE.

Side note: I'm into men, but Rule 63 isn't bad if the female version is hot. There's nothing grosser, however, than seeing a male character made into a fat gross furry with top surgery scars and a vagina. IDC about your trans representation. That's GROSS. IDG why trans is such a prevalent social contagion when it's represented in a way that makes me throw up in my mouth a lil like, ..ew..ew..ew..ew..EWWW!!1!1 Why would you wreck him like that?!

Nobody on earth wants to see that shit unless they are into that specific fetish. I doubt even trans males want to see that shit. Hey, you want to be a real male, right? That's the ideal right? Then represent yourself as an actual male and not a gross looking morbidly obese mutilated biological female with a rank dog's head. Fandom is supposed to be escapism, so spare me your harsh, repulsive reality.

Anyway, not only does that person have a side blog, but I'll bet they were on the blankshipping tag putting the most stupid of stupidest head canons out there, like 'RICH WIDOW OMEGAVERSE INGO, YO!!' Where Omega Ingo is yeeted to Hisui, and everybody assumes his alpha (his own brother) is dead because his werewolf bite mark is fading. Everybody in Hisui is pressuring him into choosing a new mate so he can crank out a litter of ass-puppies from his bunge-womb and save Hisuian society from a population crash (Omegaverse totally isn't dog-fucking, but like all the terminology is dog-related).

Almost everybody in the blankshipping tag was into Omegaverse or general werewolf bullshit, so don't even act like you don't know what I'm referencing unless you joined this fandom last week. Other than that, it was annoying when people would use their autism to be obnoxiously antisocial (I only want 'likes' or conversations in tags), or like when people had an issue with me reposting slim beautiful bishounen twins from Asian artists off Pixiv or Twitter. People have been doing that since Tumblr began, -there are entire blogs devoted to it- and yet it only became a problem when I started doing it.

*checks* I think I found the blog this ask was referencing. It's a fun blog because it gets people talking. That and Emmet month has the fanart picking up. My drafts are packed. There's a lot I disagree with though, like how Ingo overshadows the other characters and makes them less relevant. Actually, people being into the Train Twins might make the PLA characters MORE relevant. PLA might have been a forgettable game to some people, but love for submas angst made the other characters grow on them.

Also, they complain that the PLA tags on AO3 are either full of Train Clown fics or Volo x underaged Akari. In the absence of the twins, Volo x Akari would be the ONLY thing you'd see on AO3. You'd probably see even less of the other characters. The Volo betrayal might be the most interesting part of the game for most people. -So many people got taken in by how he pretended to be your friend, tried to get Giratina to kill you, then made you feel sorry for him at the end.

That last part was a guess, btw. I've read very little of both Submas and Volo fan fiction on AO3 outside of the specific ships I'm into, and I've read very little of those too. Most fan fiction comes across as dismal and unpleasant, so I make sure not to read it. That's the responsible thing to do. If you read something in a description you don't like, then don't read it. IE: Not once have I ever clicked on an Omegaverse after holding the bridge of my nose and reading the description of what it is. It's still fun to take the piss though, like....hey maybe people would write more Adaman x Irida -or- Commander Kamado x Beni if there wasn't so much RICH WIDOW INGO MAKES A NEST TO PLANT HIS ASS-PUPPIES INTO11!!1!!!

Art credit: ばた@bataabiiru Twitter.

[lurkinglurkerwholurks]

Shoulder to Shoulder

First posted: April 13, 2019

Focuses on: Tim Drake, Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson

Favorite bookmark: None, no one is being clever

Tier: Lower-mid on all metrics except comments and bookmarks, where it's in the bottom 20.

This is my “behind the scenes” series where I indulge myself horribly by annotating my fics. Link to the fic itself above. Thoughts below the cut.

Another one-year ficiversary piece, rewriting Carried from Dick's POV instead of Tim's.

It was the first time in Dick didn’t know how long that his hand itched to throw something and it wasn’t Bruce’s fault.

I was still playing around with the arc of Dick and Bruce's relationship. I still am, really. Some canon and fanon paths have them viciously at odds during Dick's teen years and/or immediately after Jason's death, while others less so. I do think there has to be some friction, because that's part of the uncomfortable stretching of independence, but I haven't settled on a consistent tone or tenor yet. I tend to have to write a fic specifically about a thing to figure out that thing and I haven't done that yet.

Here their relationship could be described as tetchy.

Dick felt like he was being punished. Screw up one brother, shame on you; screw up two... He had failed Jason, miserably and completely, he knew that, but shouldn’t that knowledge be punishment enough?

POV musings seem to confuse people, for whatever reason. They take the character's words or thoughts as the author's. When writing from Dick's POV, Dick in my fics will state that he failed Jason, that he was a bad big brother, that he was too distant, too unavailable, too disconnected. Dick is not an unbiased observer.

Bruce was dressed in the Armani suit that worked like a pressuring lean on a shoulder.

I panic any time I have to describe a rich-person thing. Yes, sure, I can google, but I would imagine the true rich-person things are not available to the average googler!! Whatever, celebrities wear Armani on the red carpet, it's probably fine.

Not ostentatious, not aggressive, just the understated but deliberate expression of I am richer than you that would do more to steamroll anyone he met today than a tight handshake or a punch to the jaw ever could. Alfred stood at the door of today’s car, a stately, almost old-fashioned limousine Dick had seen Bruce use only once or twice before.

Bruce Wayne is clever, and he is subtle, and he knows how to wield wealth and legacy like a weapon as deftly as any blade. And that's that on that.

“You should have called,” Dick muttered once he reached Bruce. Bruce’s chin rose infinitesimally. “You told me—” Dick held up a hand. They wouldn’t get on this ride today, this whirling teacup of you told me not to call and why are you always so pigheadedly literal.

They're both so stupid and I love them so much. (Bruce is Team Say What You Mean and Dick is Team I Know You're Just Making A Point You Jerk.)

“Can I ride with you?” Better to go as a united front, even if they risked picking another quarrel on the ride over. Bruce, to his credit, didn’t hesitate. “Of course.”

To his credit—Dick you proud teenage hothead, that's your dad of course he's going to let you ride with him, short of a BOMB strapped to your chest with five seconds left he'll say yes and even then I'm not sure he would do any differently.

They didn’t talk on the ride over. Dick fidgeted with his cuffs until he caught Bruce looking, then stopped. When they arrived at the cemetery, Bruce held out a hand, blocking Dick’s exit. Dick braced for whatever thought Bruce had been chewing on, but instead, two large, calloused hands reached out and gently straightened his tie.

nananananananananananananana DADMAAAAAAAAN

Dick met Bruce’s eye. On the other side of the car door awaited a funeral with a minister, mourners, and an open grave. They both knew what to expect, both would likely pay for it in their own ways later. A united front. For Tim. Dick nodded, once, and Bruce returned the gesture before letting Alfred open the door.

These are two people who love each other very much and love a third person equally as much and I love it so much.

Tim sat at the front, shoulder to shoulder with his father.

The one thing I can't do in these notes that I could in a printed book is pointedly underline and/or circle things with no other comment.

He could remember being where Tim was now, at the edge of a grave looking down into incomprehensible loss and an uncertain future. He remembered leaning into Bruce, then a virtual stranger, and being grateful that he wasn’t alone, that there was someone whose side he could cry into, whose arm could circle around his shoulders, firm and warm.

They're fighting and Dick still knows Bruce will always be there for him. 🥺 Write me a fam like that or I don't want it.

And then Bruce was there, shrugging on his Brucie persona like an old coat just before stepping into Jack’s path.

Dick had forgotten what a relief it could be to have Bruce take charge. He’d forgotten what a marvel it could be to watch his grunting, reclusive guardian oil the gears of Gotham society to get exactly what he wanted.

A magic trick doesn't become less impressive when you know how it's done. If anything, you get the magic of the illusion and the awe of the sleight of hand skill.

He wanted to throw something. He wanted to break something. “You have to do something.”

parallellllllllllllls. It's not the prettiest but I still enjoy them.

“That’s today,” Dick argued. “And tomorrow, if Jack doesn’t care, which he won’t. What a măgar.” His mother would’ve washed his mouth out for that one, but it felt good, to throw venom at Jack Drake with his words at least.

I've backed off Romani Dick because it's a line of fanon that I don't feel any particular way about (and "ah the traveling circus people are wandering Romani, of course" feels not great from me, someone with zero Romani heritage), but I was still parsing through the heaps of fanfic I'd devoured and trying to figure out what I ascribed to as a writer, so there it is. (I was also still desperately trying not to swear in English in my fics.)

“He can’t go back there. He’s just a kid, and he shouldn’t be alone in an empty house. Who’s going to look after him, the cleaning lady?” Bruce’s reply was little more than a mumble, “Turned out okay for me.” “Because you’re the picture of mental health,” Dick snapped. 

Richard. Apologize to Bruce AND Alfred.

He stopped pacing and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.” “You did,” Bruce countered, his voice placid.

Let me tell you, that response, without malice or heat? A power move.

Dick knelt in front of Bruce’s chair so he could look up into Bruce’s eyes. This was something he knew well, a sensation as ingrained into him as somersaults and backflips. He would always look up to Bruce, one way or another.

THAT'S HIS DAAAAAAAAAAD

“He needs Jack Drake.” Bruce sighed, and Dick, still on his knees, noticed the lines around his eyes, the silvery hair twinkling at his temples. When had they changed? When had they both grown up and apart?

Noticing your own parents age hurts. It's lowkey terrifying. And then add being fresh off a funeral for someone else's parent...

Bruce held out a hand, and Dick let him help him to his feet. “I’ll be better,” Bruce promised quietly, Dick’s hand still in his. “He’s welcome here. He’s been... welcome. I’ll be better about making that clear, from now on.”

Double meaning maybe?? Who's to say????

Dick tightened his hand around Bruce’s, a hug between two people who had fallen out of practice. Wuss. The sneer had an Alley cant to it.

As Dick says in the very next time, they have to be better. Together. Because brothers die and parents die, too.

Dick leaned in and wrapped his arms around his... his Bruce. 

Sometimes I use this kind of language as a character-specific hesitation. Here, I think it was meant to be because I'd only written Mother Bruce the year before and I liked the emotional uncertainty of Bruce as legal guardian but not necessarily parent. However, another, more heartwarming way to read this is that for Dick specifically, Bruce isn't a step less than a parent, he's more. He is legal guardian and big brother figure and mentor and friend and dad. He is not one of those things, he is all of those things, and so he is Dick's Bruce.

[setaripendragon]

Trying to organize my ask notebook better since I've run out of space under general fandom asks and I would like to know what fandoms you are in so I can ask the correct people about the correct fandoms.

I think my main ones are Bagginshield/The Hobbit, Sherlock/Johnlock, Dragon Age Inquisition, {Pippin/Faramir Merry/Eowyn}/The Lord of the Rings and I dip my toes in a few that I currently can't remember but ones I don't engage in canon at all are Good Omens but only for Crowley/Azirapheal ship, Stranger Things but only for Steve/Eddie ship, The Witcher but only for Geralt/Jaskier things and Ladybug and Cat Noir but only for Adrinette .

Also do you like getting asks that are or include story ideas or snippets?

*Asks are sent for fun, no pressure to answer within a certain amount of time or at all.

Ooh, I am in so many fandoms XD It wouldn't actually be easier to list the ones I'm not in, but sometimes it feels that way.

Definitely there with you on The Hobbit and Bagginshield and Lord of the Rings and that whole 'verse, and I'm all in on the Good Omens and The Witcher (well, all in on most of the fandom, I've read some of one of the books, played some of one of the games, watched some of one of the shows... XD).

I also enjoy me some Sherlock, but my preferred flavour is Elementary, rather than BBC.

At the moment my main fandoms are One Piece (catching up with the anime atm, it's taking a while XD), Supernatural, and Star Wars (pretty much entirely second hand, except for the Kenobi show and recently being bullied into watching the Mandalorian with a friend =P).

Okay, I'm going to try and be concise now because otherwise we'll be here all day. Here are fandoms that I've written stuff for (published or not): A Song of Ice and Fire, Alice in Wonerland, Assassin's Creed, Avatar the Last Airbender, Black Butler, Bleach, James Bond, Charmed, Criminal Minds, Critical Role, Emperor's Edge, Fairy Tail, Firefly, Frozen, Fruits Basket, FullMetal Alchemist, Girl Genius, Rise of the Guardians, Harry Potter, Kingsman, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Merlin, Chronicles of Narnia, Naruto, Avatar (2009), Once Upon a Time, Peaky Blinders, Percy Jackson, Pride and Prejudice, The Sandman, Shadowhunters, Sinbad (Dreamworks), Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Teen Wolf, The Untamed, Torchwood, White Collar, X-Men.

I'm not, you know, deep in the fandom of more than usually three or four at a time, but my muse wanders like she's got itchy feet. And I'm probably at least passingly familiar with several other fandoms: I'm enjoying watching Dungeon Meshi at the moment but I haven't yet got the itch to play in that sandbox, I love reading Scum Villain's Self Saving System fanfic but I don't feel I know the characters well enough to write my own, I watched basically all of the Disney animated movies as a kid but I haven't yet had a solid enough idea to write, I have seen some of Stranger Things but I watched most of it while somewhat sleep deprived and that is not the best way to watch horror ^^" I've played FF7, I've read the Hunger Games, I've watched Yuri On Ice, etc, but I don't have a convenient list of those, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I won't make this any longer than it needs to be going into my ships unless you ask specifically, but let it be said that I'm a polyshipper in a big way (nothing gets my brain to go brrrrrrr like complicated relationship dynamics =3), and making it onto my NoTP list takes some seriously rancid vibes and/or overly pushy fans, and it's always safe to ask me about a ship =P

Story ideas are very welcome! The muse needs constant feeding =P I won't make any guarantees about them going anywhere, but I love seeing them all the same. Snippets... are probably the same? I don't know, I've never been sent one. I'm probably even less likely to do anything with them, just because of stupid brain quirks, but who knows?