#sorry but like this has just been an overall shitty week

[steddieas-shegoes]

I’ve had three full days of ✨d e p r e s s i o n✨ but i just started crunching some numbers on my handy dandy budgeting notebook (my phone calculator) whilst scrolling through that dreaded website (Zillow) and it does appear

That if either 1) student loans get cancelled for real in the next year (unlikely but the hope remains) or 2) i get another decent raise (very likely according to my boss)

I could actually for real afford a two bedroom apartment in Colorado for me and Liam

And i have been crying for 30 minutes because I’ve never been THIS close before and it’s never felt THIS real before and there’s still a lot of things that have to fall just right but sometimes i do like to think that things will fall right eventually for me

[thevirtualvalentine]

TAPE FOUR : BOOTY BANDIT !

Staring … Trafalgar D. Water Law 📸

SET SCRIPT : “hii! congrats on 100 followers. could i request a burglar!law x f!reader with dacryphilia or sadism? thank uuuu 🫶”

MATURE RATING(S) : ! NONCON ! SOMNOPHILIA , stalking, sadism (he slaps and spanks you here and there), dacryphilia, degredation, reader is called ‘bunny’ occasionally, unprotected sex, mentions of getting you pregnant, afab!fem reader, ooc law, overall this is very NSFW & be advised before interacting.

DIRECTORS CUT : for thee Trafalgar Law enthusiast @hesmything , sorry this came out so .. dark and disgusting. My first time writing dark content, & thank you for requesting <3

It’d been a week. A week of him watching you go in and out of your house without closing your blinds or properly locking your door. All he really wanted was some shitty belongings to pawn off you, but… you ended up being a favorite part of his day.

The way you dress yourself, how you undress yourself, and he’s particularly fond of the window in your bathroom that gives him a view of your nightly ritual. The way you lather yourself in expensive lotions so carefully… he needs it to be his hands that cascade down your naked curves, reaching places you can’t seem to. A man only has so much restraint, and with you? His patience is wearing thin.

Especially after tonight, he watched as your fingers rammed in and out of your aching cunt, how you couldn’t seem to make yourself cum no matter how hard you tried. Humping your little cunny on your pillow wasn’t cutting it either. That’s why he decided; if he wants something, he’ll simply take it.

It’s the late hours of the night, maybe even the early hours of the morning, but for all he cares you’re fast asleep. Draped in your bedding like the princess you are, bare legs shining against the light of the moon. Law could already feel himself getting hard, your tank top did little to cover your exposed chest. Underwear showcasing a damp spot from how you worked yourself up earlier.

No worries, he’ll take care of it and you. You’re beautiful he thinks, he’ll rob more from you than just some petty belongings. He didn’t even notice how his hand had involuntary began palming himself as he watched you in your own room, need clouding his judgement as soft whines fell from your lips. Tits jostling around as you tossed and turned. He walks over to your side of the bed, kneading your breast and then tugging at your nipple as you lean into his touch. They harden at his ministrations and he groans.

“Naughty girl… having wet dreams are we?” You’re so soft and pliant in his hands, breasts warm as he plays with you. He grins to himself when he pulls a meek mewl from your plush lips. “Bet you feel good baby,” he says as if he knows anything about you. His spare hand finds his own rock hard member. Unbuckling his pants as his appendage traverses down your torso. He has you flat on your back, helping spread your legs while inching his form between them slowly. Following the inhale and exhale of your form as he arranges himself.

He’s pleasantly surprised you haven’t woken up just yet, something sick in his head makes him want to fuck you so good you’ll be begging him to make you squirt. Your body will tell him exactly what he needs to know, evident by how much wetter you’re getting already. “Made me so horny all week, it’s your fault y’know. I’m just takin what’s owed to me…” that’s what he tells himself, but he knows it’s wrong. That’s partly what’s making it so tantalizing for him.

He towers over you, almost not wanting to move and spoil his own splendor, you look so beautiful like this. So comfortable in your sleep, but another thought tells him to fuck that sweet face off of you, to give you something to cry about.

Your arms are splayed on either side of you as he kneels between your legs, putting two fingers on your clothed slit. It makes him even harder feeling the dampness accumulating, but you stir and he pulls his hand away. “Shhh, still,” he says as if you could hear him. Instead he begins to pull your panties down your thighs, eyeing the string of slick that connects you to your underwear. He almost moans at the sight, “fuckkk, what am I gonna do with you.”

Unlucky for you that you live alone right now, but it’s very lucky for him. He can’t bear the thought of waiting to fuck your hole any longer. It’s been gnawing at him all week— now that he’s face to face with it— he can’t help himself. Law wishes he had more control than this, more time to savor your innocent form but the ache in his cock says he needs to act now.

He knows it’ll wake you up, and he knows you’ll be scared; but he’ll prove to you he knows what he’s doing. “Dumb slut gettin wet in your sleep, look at ya drippin all over your own sheets.” Law tugs his shirt between his teeth as he pumps his leaking tip, reminding himself to inch inside you delicately instead of all at once.

He loses it, the second your cute cunt wraps around his tip he fucks you to the hilt. You wake up wincing trying to figure out what the hell was going on and he immediately grabs your wrists, pinning them above your head. “Calm down, shhh hey hey, I’ll only get as rough as I need to be.” He felt the way you clenched around him as he slid in, you must like pain.

Oh and don’t even get him started on that look you’re giving him, like a deer in headlights as you babble about how you’ll give him anything he wants if he stops. “I just want you,” your body goes limp when he says this; can’t even free your hands as he starts to fuck his length in and out of your abused and defiled cunt.

He can’t stand to see you sad, he’ll just have to make you feel good enough to stop yammering on about things that don’t matter right now. That’s why he lets go of your wrists, pulling your knees up to his shoulders as he splits you in two. Tears of frustration and embarrassment cascading down your pretty face. “Awww, don’t cry. It’ll just make me fuck you even harder bunny.”

You’ll never forget those eyes, the ones that glow gold as he kisses the inside of your thighs, possessively marking what isn’t his. You can’t help the way that you moan as the tip of his cock reaches your cervix with each repetition of his hips.

“See, knew you’d like it. You’re squeezing me so tight,” he spits out between his own grunts. You can’t stand the fact he’s proving himself right. His cock shouldn’t be making you so submissive so you turn your head away from him.

He slaps you for being defiant, but his strokes into your drooling warmth never letting up. “Look at me, tell me you love it.” And yet again you clench around him like a little painslut, he adores it.

When you don’t answer him he leans over you, angling his hips deeper into your body as he fucks you up the bed. Your tummy bulging from each rough thrust as your eyes begin to roll back. “I said, tell me you fucking love it whore,” another slap to your other face. Causing your cheeks to heat up from the contact.

You can’t even begin to think clearly; whether it be from fear, from how you’re getting fucked stupid by a man you didn’t know, or from how turned on you are. It’s sick and disgusting and all you can do is cry and profess, “love it, I- I love it.”

“Atta girl,” his large hand wraps around your throat as he drills you harder, hips rolling in and out of your pussy as you grow wetter and wetter. “My hole to fuck,” he tells you, dangerously pressing down even further on your neck as your legs begin to wrap around his torso.

“Fu— fuck gonna,” you rasp out, but he can already tell. His eyes transfixed on your tiny pussy that’s currently clinging to his cock like you need him more than oxygen.

He slaps the back of your thigh, sliding two of his fingers in your mouth to prevent you from screaming any further. “Cum for me bunny, go on,” and there’s that shit eating grin of his. The one that lets him know he’s won as you moan and swirl your tongue around his fingers like a trained pet. “Look at you creamin’ for me. What a good girl.”

Your chest is heaving, face sticky with tears that can’t seem to stop. Vision blurring in and out as this man continues to fuck you senseless. Your body simply limp as he moves you according to his will.

He flips you over, not caring if you have time to come down or adjust before he’s sliding himself back in you as if he belongs there. “Cry for me painslut, cmon.”

He berates your backside in swings of his large palm against your sensitive skin. Causing you to scream into the bedding as your mind shatters into pieces. The only reason you haven’t collapsed into the sheets is because he’s the one holding you up like you weigh nothing to him, ushering the full reality of what’s happening.

You’re nothing but a slick and warm hole to be used, he makes sure to remind you of that as he presses the back of your neck deeper into the plush blankets. “Gonna fuck you full bunny, don’t waste any of it or I’ll have to come back and fill you again.”

Your body jostles in accordance with his punctuated thrusts, carving your walls to fit his cock. You’re a whining, sticky, drooling mess and your dumb cunt only continue to flutter around him. “You want that? Want me to fuck a baby in you?” He presses his body weight into you, spreading your legs apart with his knees as he grinds into your cunt. It’s sick, he’s mocking you, his body moves like he’s making love to you and that’s not what this is at all.

But, he feels so fucking good and with the way he’s degrading you. That deep voice of his, it only makes you want him more.

You feel disgusting and humiliated by him and all he does is coo at you like you’re a helpless little bunny. “Shh, just take it.“ He has your hair in his hands as he forces himself inside you. Each and every inch of his fat length ripping you apart. You feel yourself cumming around him again as you whine and claw at the sheets desperately trying to run as he fucks you stupid.

“Oh fuck— you’re so dirty, cummin’ all ahh- over me,” you’re so warm and tight it’s making him lose it. Watching you could never compare to fucking you raw. He bites and licks at your neck to silence himself as his balls start to constrict, “pussy’s milking me. Fuck you’re so good.” His words should make you feel good as he praises you, but it’s nothing but filth as you feel him release his hot load. Bucking his hips faster and faster to fill you full to the brim. He bites hard enough to draw blood as a reminder that he can and will come back to take exactly from you what he desires.

Enjoy? Reblog & click here 2 see more!

[misakura250]

Tighnari

Obedience

Afab reader, no pronouns, oral (f receiving), spit swallowing, pet names (calling tighnari “puppy”), heat mention, female dominance, cowgirl, face riding, knotting, unprotected sex, creampie, somnophelia, dubcon, tighnari being a brat, hair-pulling, overstimulation, grammar errors, not proofread. Please DNI if uncomfortable.

Tighnari had been a total brat the entire day, getting all snappy with you, being sarcastic and overall just being a bit more of a jerk than usual. It wasn’t like him at all to be THIS bad, so what was going on with him? You go to ask as he’s working at his desk, but before you can even get a word in he shushes you. “I’m busy right now, go away.” He says, only half paying attention to you. Fine, okay, if that’s how he wants to be that’s how it’ll be. You left him be and gave him the silent treatment the entire day, though he didn’t even notice.

Once nightfall washes over the land, you both crawl into bed together, but instead of cuddling you, holding your hand or even facing you, he turns away. You’ve had enough of this behaviour by now so you ask him “Nari, what’s up with you? You’ve been so snappy and cold.” You say, and he can hear the slight pout in your voice. He sighs and turns over, looking into your eyes “I’m sorry, I’ve just had a rough week… I’m… going into heat soon.” He said, embarrassment causing his face to flush. Ah, that makes sense, that’s why he’s been so hormonal.

You smirk at his flushed state and before he can retaliate, you push him to the bed by his shoulders, straddling his waist. “You’ve been a little bitch all day and you expect me to just not do anything about it? I guess your time of the month has impacted more than your shitty attitude.” You said as you grabbed him by the hair, forcing him to look you in the eyes, “well? Anything to say for yourself?” He winced slightly at his hair being pulled “I-I’m sorry, okay!” Your smirk widened “that’s not genuine enough, sorry~” parting his lips with your thumb, you kiss him roughly, causing him to whimper and squirm due to the friction making your crotches rub together “a-ah, [name] p-please- ah-” you force his mouth open and spit in it meanly, forcing him to swallow. Well that sure shut him up as he just lied there, waiting.

You saw this as a perfect opportunity to strip your clothes off, and hover above his face. “Well? Start licking like the good puppy you are.” You said sternly, and he looks at you with an embarrassed gaze before sighing and grabbing your thighs, gently spreading your lips before rubbing his tongue between your folds, lapping at the slick glazing his chin. You two form a rhythm, riding his face almost desperately to catch your high and he leads your pace. You thought you weren’t, no matter the situation he’d always have the upper hand, you refused to believe this but deep down you knew. Clouds of white spotted your vision as a wave of pleasure washed over you as you felt your orgasm wash over you, his lips latching onto your hole, drinking your release and not letting a single drop fall from his delicate, pink lips. “Better?” He asked with a cocky smirk on his face as he held you up, still a bit weak from the intense orgasm. You signed, knowing that he had won, that round at least, you had something else in store for him.

You put your hands against his chest for leverage as you slid down his girthy length, archons, the stretch was so good every. Single. Time. He wasn’t expecting the sudden warmth enveloping his cock, causing him to let out and embarrassingly feminine moan “A-ah~ a-a little warning next time?” He whimpered softly, drawing a sharp breath “not if you’re going to be a little shit next time” you said, riding him hard and fast but purposely avoiding your G-spot. You were going to make him cum first, period. Sharp whines and moaned struggled out of his cute wet lips, damp with your previous release. “P-please, [name], slow downnn.” He pleaded, his cock throbbing as he got painfully close to cumming. You chuckled “As if.” Before slowing down as you felt his knot form inside of you, his cum painting your insides white with an impressive amount, but none spilling out due to his thick knot inside of you. “Good boy~” you whispered softly to him as he whimpered and jerked, his orgasm washing over him intensely.

Before he could even stop cumming you started moving again, meanly chasing your own orgasm as he started to ache from overstimulation “Ah~ a-a-ahhh~ [name] p-please! Ahh~” you barely even heard his pleading as you rode him, the pleasure making your mind hazy. The pleasure was too much, he couldn’t take it. He passed out, going limp into the mattress, but you didn’t stop, oh no, you continued fucking him into the mattress. If he got to cum so did you. You didn’t even realize it when you came, your legs shaking as you collapsed on his chest, squirting all over his thighs, cock, abdomen and the mattress. Archons it felt heavenly but you were completely spent. You gently played with his hair and he soon woke up, still inside of you but now soft. He blushed at the situation and sighed “I passed out, didn’t I?” You giggled “yeah, yeah you did.” You said with a smirk, gently playing with his fuzzy ears “so, will you continue being a little shit to me or are you going to be a good puppy?” You ask with a grin, already knowing the answer. “I… I’ll be a good puppy…” he muttered, not wanting to get overstimulated to the point of fainting again. “Sorry, what was that?” You asked, teasing him. “I… I said I’ll be a good boy for you.” He glared “happy?” You smirked “very” you nuzzled into his chest happily and slowly fell asleep, deciding that the mess was a later issue. You were so tired, and his arms were so comforting. It was perfect, falling asleep in his arms, his soft floral musk and soothing heartbeat lulling you to sleep.

Thank you for reading, this is my first time writing so sorry if It’s bad.

[melodygatesauthor]

Melody

Since I've had a rough week, can I ask for some fluff to warm my heart and calm my mind?

Marc Spector + 23 “Thank you for choosing me”, please💕

And happy upcoming birthday again!🌷

The Agreement

Marc Spector X gn!Reader

Anna this is so sweet. I'm sorry that it took me so long to get this out but I hope your week got better even without this drabble 💙 Soft Marc is such a baby boi. - I also didn't get the chance to use the prompt itself in the fic, but it has the overall vibe of that line so hope you like it! Hahaha.

Tags/Warnings: SFW, comfort fic, soft Marc, fluff, just a nice little drabble to make you smile, might hit you in the feels, mentions of sex but no actual sex.

Word Count: 532

You’d had a rough day, that much was apparent when you walked through the door. Marc froze, he knew that look. It meant one of two things. You either needed Steven to comfort you and watch your favorite movies, or you needed Jake to fuck you until your brain was mush. Either way, Marc wasn’t your go to guy.

His brow furrowed as you waved and said, hey, and made your way to the kitchen. He’d been looking forward to seeing you, and spending the evening with you, but when you were upset, he knew he wasn’t the one you needed.

Like riding a bike, the boys all fell into place, Steven fronting, Marc in the headspace where he would stay for the evening, and Jake waiting for his moment if you needed him instead of Steven.

You knew it was Steven when he came over behind you and kissed your cheek. You turned around and he was smiling at you, but you sensed something burning just under the surface. His eyebrows always gave him away.

“What?” You asked, brushing a stray curl from his forehead. “This is Marc’s coat, did he front today?”

“He was fronting, yeah, but then he saw you were having a rough day so…here I am.” Steven let out a nervous chuckle and leaned in for a kiss.

You put a finger up, stopping him, “I’m sorry, what happened?”

“Oh well…”

Pendejo, this is something we just do, we don’t need to tell them about it. Jake said in a gruff tone that made Steven nervous.

“Do you guys have some sort of agreement? Steven?” He would always be honest with you.

“No.” He pressed his lips together tightly.

“Steven Grant, don’t you start lying to me now.”

He changed, his expression went from sorry to a harsh scowl. Marc.

“You don’t expect us to think that we don’t have you pinned after a bad day, right? You have a bad day, Steven comforts you, Jake gives you what you need…physically. You don’t need me.” He crossed his arms over his chest defensively.

“Marc.” You put a hand on his arm. “You’re being stupid.”

“Thanks.” He rolled his eyes and looked away from you.

“No I mean…Marc…” you touched his cheek and brought his gaze back to yours. “Yes it’s nice what they do for me, but I need you too. I was always wondering why I don’t have you there to rant about idiots with when I’m mad or someone to laugh with me when I bitch about my shitty boss.”

He shook his head in confusion, “you like complaining?”

You laughed, “yeah sometimes! It’s nice to have someone to talk shit with. The other two are great but, I don’t get to vent the way I do with you. Steven just tells me it will be alright and makes me tea and watches tv with me and Jake just…well you know.” You gave him a reassuring smile. “Those things are both really great, but sometimes I just need something else.”

“So…you do need me? Even when you’ve had a bad day?” He raised an eyebrow before finally lowering his arms. “Sometimes I especially need you.”

Celebration Masterlist

[joelletwo]

wrestling with the 4devas bitchslap again to convince myself its fine if graveyard wins the best ep tourney: it's not the other bloggers who are wrong, it's me

not a complete response to but definitely in conversation with and asking some of the same questions again as @reductionisms's 4devas essay, which tries to square gintoki's "life doesn't need to be fun, i just need you to live" being a series-sanctioned message he's given to villains as an arc-concluding moral continuously up until 4devas with it here being an incorrect worldview that needs to be (physically) corrected by shinpachi, the straightman tonal signpost of gintama

a conflict i have been perplexed by ever since i got to this line on my first watch a year or two ago, since i've seen this line before! all over fandom! as part of the general "dont [bottom text] kill yourself" motivational messaging of gintama that i love!

and, briefly, when i hit 4devas i was also in the middle of being really frustrated by the new arc pattern i was seeing crop up: i loved the villains-turned sympathetic-turned someone worth saving by gintoki tune of the first half of gintama, but it fell massively flat for me in Yoshiwara in Flames, where i was never convinced to be on housen's side but had to watch him get a heartwarming redemptive death at the side of the woman he abused anyways.

then shortly after i had the same exact experience in Red Spider with jiraia, and i thought, if this is what gintama is gonna do with its shitty dudes from now on im gonna quit the fucking show. and then shortly after that i met jirochou and saw him cut down otose the woman he loved (under a raining sky!!! the fucking sky motifs!!! the signpost im about to watch a dude be shittily violent to women and be expected to feel sorry for him about it) and saw too much red to really take in the rest of the arc level-headedly or care about anything in it lol.

so it was written off in my mind as the 'otose almost gets fridged' arc until i rewatched it this week. then i had to remember, oh yeah, there's a ton of political maneuvering fakeouts in this arc that i never actually squared back with how the plot presented itself prior to the reveals, so i'd still been thinking about the "fakeout" plot. then i read the manga version with all the "truths" in mind from the start, and finally i felt like i could understand what this arc is doing a little better.

(way) tldr (4.4k words. sorry): do i love this arc? eh. do i still hate it? eh. but it's doing stuff!

first, i was able to see an echo in all the "actually i was planning to betray you the whole time" "actually i was working to help you the whole time" plot beats of what sorachi does with the larger edo/universe story further into the back half of the manga. if i ever sound like i didnt enjoy or wasnt convinced by the execution of these "reveals," it's because i didnt and wasnt, lol. but it's fun that he had fun with them i guess.

the arc starts with pirako ingratiating herself into yorozuya, then having a classic "bump into you and pretend to be injured to extort you" encounter w her dad's gang. to resolve this without escalating into violence, gintoki... does it back to them, which is really funny. but thus the tone is set for the arc of: DISHONEST APPROACHES TO CONFLICT.

pirako isnt honest about her overall intentions the, like, seven different times that she "admits her real ones." kada plays at peacekeeper in the devas while being the ultimate person scheming to get the upper hand over everyone else in the end. (she's also secretly harusame, evil amanto outsider who acts as a unifying force for the kabukicho fighting itself to band together against and expel: sorachi's favorite move! the problem was never internal, it's the shadowy REAL antagonists who infiltrated us)

jirochou and otose are ultimately doing a pantomime of conflict to try to keep temperatures down and escalations from breaking out, so no one they care about has to get hurt. gintoki doesn't know this until the end, but he follows in their footsteps after his encounter with them in the graveyard: he plays at having given up to the rest of yorozuya so they'll leave and escape the coming kabukicho war, the same thing otose was trying with him. it fails both times. i'm really not sure why gintoki and otose thought it would work, honestly. they should know their kids are stubborn as hell.

but gintoki is in a bind because of the things he needs to protect, and all of his actions are primarily in service of that, to the detriment of how he'd prefer to act if he were less restricted. he is unsurprised and unoffended to hear saigou is only willing to warn them, not help them, because her son is in danger if she acts directly. all four devas are, seemingly, being mutually restrained this way, holding back even when blatantly manipulated to do so. the other constant of this arc: everyone is dishonest, and no one wants to risk losing what they have.

gintoki understands that! of course! he's had to make that calculus before, after all :)

and this arc is just one big cliff scene echo: the entire graveyard scene pushing gintoki to emotional regression because he thinks he's losing another parent figure, one he's just seen the Gintoki Figure of the arc cut down, no less (takasugi stolen valor when he goes berserk against him and only ends up uselessly bleeding out on the ground about it, honestly). otose goes into this willingly so gintoki can live. he accepts this decision because he values protecting her values (her kids living on) and is briefly broken by it (the story says, before giving him shinpachi to "put him back on track"). prior to the bitchslap, after saying he just wants them to live, even if it has to be without him, he says:

i dont have a good understanding of when we start getting reveals of gintoki's backstory versus foreshadowing because i went into gintama already knowing most of it, but definitely by the recent red spider where we get our first real look at (or really, first listen to) shouyou. but here we actually get some of what gintoki felt about it, which he keeps closely guarded even when the whole truth comes out: he's done his best to survive having lost, but it was so unbearable he can't face losing again.

(also, honorable mention backstory echo, the person calling him a brother sets his home on fire to drive him and his parent figure out of town. as i liveblogged: this one would really hurt gintoki if gintoki cared about anything oboro ever did!)

but with the shinpachi story-rerouting, they get the good end, keep everyone (otose, yorozuya, all of kabukicho, even pirako and her dad - everyone but kada) safe without having to sacrifice a single thing, even keep gintoki hopeful for this outcome. so, as goose points out, we are left to understand that there could have been a good end on the cliff, that something is different here than there, and, skipping a lot of math, that that is the people around gintoki.

which i do find really funny to imagine as a slam on takasugi and katsura. sorry you kids suck too much, your teacher dies bc u were cringefail. but lets look at it.

everyone is dishonest, no one wants to risk what they have: gintoki rallies himself to keep fighting but is determined to do it alone. kagura and shinpachi fight him on this; they can't leave because they don't want to lose their home, they can't let him fight alone because they don't want to lose him. they're just as restricted by what they have to keep safe, but their only option is to act where everyone else's is inaction. shinpachi says:

if i may skip over the bitchslap itself for now, gintoki does consent to let his allies fight with him after it. yorozuya stands alone against saigou, who's heavily demoralized but resigned, strongarmed into fighting them by the threat to her son. but on seeing their resolve to keep protecting their own precious home and family she says:

and, to skip straight to my thought, i think this is what turns the tides back in their favor. there are more twists and turns to the fight. pirako equates what binds saigou, which she herself equates to what binds the yorozuya, to what binds her:

(with an intentional distinction that she's willing to actively destroy the others', as opposed to their purely self defensive fighting, which is echoed at some point in her distinguishing gintoki from jirochou in the same way, that jirochou not only lives to protect like gintoki but is willing to destroy in the process. i don't find that part as interesting, but it's more fuel to the power of having something to protect as a driving force as an arc theme.)

so now all three stand on the same ground, absolutely unwilling to give up what they hold dear, but all their cards are on the table. they aren't dealing in 12 dimensions of tricksy defensive pre-emptive moves anymore. they know it wouldnt work, anyways, since they all know their drives to protect are the same and no one will be talked into backing down. now they can directly duke it out and let the winner be determined that way, on strength of will. even before the actual circumstances change, the fight somehow feels freer seeing how inevitable it is. and with everything out in the open, yorozuya can now protect each other and saigou's son, taking out one side of the conflict.

(and with everything out in the open, the ultimate 4devas villain can become the single person who continues to betray the others, kada, whose further machinations - with everything out in the open! - saigou (and later yorozuya) can choose to protect pirako from. everyone wins! because everything was out in the open! do you see where i'm going)

and so we come back to the question: gintoki is corrected, the arc is rerailed to the better outcome. so is the correction justified?

what does the correction accomplish outside of its moment? most convincingly to me of goose's presented options, i also think it's done as a thematic shift, a, okay, just live was a strategy that worked before but now doesn't suffice, so we need something more.

as to why this is needed now and not earlier or later...tldr bad planning <3 but like.

we have, prior to this, a consistent thrust of arcs where gintoki teaches people to lose. as well, while we meet the harusame and we visit space and we get the barest glimpses of takasugi's weird shadowy background moves there, largely we're dealing with kabukicho characters and kabukicho stories. we see or only hear about the shogun for short comedic moments only. we've largely dropped the series intro focus on things like the shinsengumi or hasegawa acting as foreign diplomats. it's a local series, a hometown series, a kabukicho and not even an edo at large series, a personal story about gintoki making personal connections with his personal experience as a flawed person with a flawed approach to life that has let him, chronic slacker, get by on the bare minimum.

at this moment, chapter 300, we have a slow trickle of gintoki backstory starting to come out to us. we've recently expanded the story focus to include yoshiwara, which gets a callout in this arc by kada to keep it relevant. we have an arc of sorachi testing out plot beats that he'll use again for the endgame, in all the political maneuvering and alliancing and betraying and shadowy outsider space governmenting, where he's also doing a lot of echoing of that backstory that only becomes clear later. so it's possible he's thinking about shifting gears and setting up for the eventual endgame, which means getting out of the episodic cycle so things can stick.

and after this arc, to my opinion and memory, we stop getting the classic gintama flavor sympathizable'd antagonists. a lot of the bigger arcs don't even have clear Big Shot antagonists anymore, being more about the shouyoucore theme of characters fighting against themselves, or if there is one they're always explicitly part of the Shadow Government now, a unified and more daunting force than someone they can win over with an inspiring gintoki interaction.

so 4devas does act as a turning point at least in some way. and it's not possible to say this definitively, since all gintama arcs are ultimately never going to be about gintoki or his friends Actually losing something instead of beating the odds, but it does feel like theres a different flavor to, say, dekobokko with its direct look at how chars lives could be different and better and they will still choose to keep struggling as themselves. and Kintama arc definitely doesn't feel like an early days arc, like it can only resolve the way it does with a gintoki who is now able to face his past and the possibility of losing again and again and again (now with, natch, his faith that yorozuya will by his side when he does).

why now, after 300 chapters of letting it sit ignored in the back of his brain working out perfectly fine except when it doesn't (the very reminder of shouyou in a fight making him go Demon Mode, which is like regular gintoki but worse at fighting, bc he is so unprepared to think about shouyou)? well i personally am in big favor of the "take a decade off" strategy for facing problems. it worked for me too. realistically watsonianly its nice to let things percolate in the brain and do some of the processing behind the scenes until its less immediately painful. and he's made many bonds over these 300 chapters, shown in this arc when the whole town rallies behind him, that are there to support him when he needs it now and weren't there before.

realistically doylistly eh. bad planning.

and so we come back to the question: gintoki is corrected, the series as a result is rerailed to a writing space where things can start changing (leave the episodic, as you guys say, sazae-san format). it's useful in the future. so is the correction justified in terms of what comes before it? was the correction needed?

thinking about the bitchslap leads to thinking about the cliff scene leads to (sorry kagura and katsura, you guys arent really relevant here) pitting shinpachi and takasugi against each other in how they act with something on the line they can't bear to give up.

i don’t need the lesson of 4devas to apply logistically to the cliff scene. once they were set up on that chessboard, frozen in their assigned places as a backstory, it’s not like takasugi could’ve power of friendship’d his way out of being physically retrained if he decided he wanted to. it’s set up as a forced choice, it has to play out as a forced choice.

but we see that even before it’s asked of him, takasugi is willing, prepared, unbothered to give up his own life for shouyou’s. this is, goose lays out in the sequel, the cardinal sin in gintama - a teacher shouldn’t outlive their student. it would have been especially egregious to shouyou, whose whole desired life’s purpose is to raise students who can outlive him and outgrow him, take his lessons and go out into the world and do their own thing with them. takasugi doesn’t expect to do this and doesn’t seem to see a point in the possibility if shouyou isn’t back with them.

though we can also think of shouyou as a little too quickly willing to give up on the cliff - sorry, gintoki, the suicidal guy has thought about it for .02 seconds and decided the best outcome is for you to kill him even though he could get out of this no problem. maybe its no wonder gintoki gave up too. can we ask katsura what he would’ve done?

and is takasugi different from shinpachi there? he rejects the mentor’s attempt to exchange his own life for his. he’s not willing to consider a life without him.

but shinpachi is convinced no one is going to die. because they’ll be there together. incredibly naive - shinpachi and kagura, restricted to one option by what they need to protect like everyone is in 4devas, have acting as that one option because they are still free in a way gintoki and the other adults aren't. they’ve never actually experienced the impossible choice that forces you to give up, so they can act as if there isn’t one - what else would they do? why would they think to give up?

but gintoki is defined by having lived the impossible choice. its built into the foundation of him as a character and leaks out everywhere. he couldn’t have relied on his friends on the cliff because they were quite forcibly removed from the picture as an option, not by his or their choice. its written as an inevitability, logistics we find out later be damned.

if we refocus to 4devas, we can look at the Gintoki Figure for a different angle. jirochou, after he and gintoki resolve the arc conflict by being able to team up because they - say it with me - put everything out in the open, tells gintoki about his impetus for abandoning his family and coming back to his wayward life in kabukicho, the death of otose's husband.

it's, um, another now really obvious parallel to gintoki, lol. characters talk about how jirochou does everything he does in this arc to try to atone for his failure to both otose and tatsugorou, and i guess thats true bc he was written that way but he has an odd way of showing it, but anyways he resolves that, despite his guilt over this, all he can do now is keep living and keep protecting what they loved together. he's come to the usual gintama message all on his own, reinforcing that this is the correct way to live in this series. he had his own unavoidably shitty situation, and he came to terms with it.

so then where did jirochou go wrong, in the narrative's eyes (other than abandoning one woman and their child to deal drugs in the town of his other woman while ignoring her)? was there a point he could've changed how their trio's story played out? but he loved and trusted tatsugorou, and he was happy to step aside and let him be the one by their otose's side. i doubt he would have been happy stealing her away even if it were possible.

but if we look at the resolution tool of 4devas... he never put everything out in the open!!! everyone knows he loved otose, but in more of an open secret way. in classic romance plot, he never confessed for second male lead rejection closure. indeed, in the closest we ever get to a main character having a romantic plot in gintama, the very ending of the arc flirts with him doing just that now that he's made a little progress with the arc message, with the entire cast of the arc expecting him to (and interrupting before he can).

but if he had when they were young. if he had been honest with his friends. could it have opened up other options that weren't available on his own, that they didnt know to offer? i have a preferred one lol. but u can get creative with all sorts of life paths that avoid tatsugorou dying that way or, at the least, jirochou feeling chained to a shameful life (living in a town he doesn't go out in to protect a woman he doesnt talk to and feeling like he doesnt deserve the family he abandoned for this) because of it.

and then if we take this and rewind back to the cliff... we get to grind my favorite ax, "shouyou shouldve told literally anyone literally anything about his deal." if gintoki knew more about shouyou, they could've faced his horrors together, the whole time. he couldve known that shouyou was being literal calling himself a demon and not internalized his own identity as one for life just because shouyou bonded with him over it. i truly genuinely think the logical conclusion of all of gintama's big messages are that shouyou and gintoki should have been more open with each other.

but i don't think sorachi thinks that. and, you know, by 4devas rules, the unriskable precious things he was protecting by staying silent were his students' humanity, and secondarily his own fragilely newly hopeful heart that literally couldnt stand another 10 millionth round of rejection (killed himself and then went on a 12 year rampage over it. girl i would too).

and takasugi really isn't dishonest about what's going on in his head when he tells us he expects to die for shouyou. that's as cards on the table as i could ask. gintoki is, a little bit, by omission. he does what i'd want him to here - tells takasugi try just not dying - but doesn't give him a reason to, and doesn't tell him he has no plans of letting anyone die for shouyou.

so what goes wrong on the cliff - shouyou is happy, gintoki is happy, oboro's even kind of happy, katsura is irrelevant - is that takasugi is blindsided (whoops) by their silent agreement that betrays the one he thought he and gintoki had. and then ruins everyone's party about it and spends the next ten years doing so for good measure.

which is also, basically, what shinpachi is going through that prompts the bitchslap, too. he thought they were a team, that they had each others backs, not that gintoki is a one-way protector of them. he is blindsided by gintoki lying to and tricking them and hiding things from them. he is hurt by gintoki feeling hopeless all by himself when he could share that with them and be encouraged by their endless child optimism.

and would it need to have changed anything on the cliff? in the moment after the bitchslap, what contributes to gintoki changing his mindset is tama telling him, we trust that you're capable bc youve always shown us that, can you trust us this time? when, later in the arc, gintoki seems to regress by sending kagura and shinpachi away, he asks them to trust that he's still trusting them, relying on them to help shoulder his burden, and in return they know he's staying alive, not self sacrificing. maybe it would've helped just to feel on the same team and not shut out, to be able to trust gintoki like gintoki was trusting shouyou?

so. two paralleled instances of gintoki making a bad situation worse by keeping to himself and being too self sufficient. that feels clear cut that feels fine im okay with that as a takeaway. do i think its exactly what sorachi had in mind while writing this, as opposed to just a good series 'hey lean on your friends' moment to read cool and tug at the heartstrings? eh lol. i think theres definitely room to read takasugi into this arc (i still need to refind the takagin 4devas post...) but its not so baked in that i think he was a PRIORITY in the plotting.

but is the shinpachi SCOLDING necessary is the scolding justified... and yes its in response to life doesnt need to be fun i just want you to live. still a confusing framing i can't immediately square. but/and more immediately its directly responding. to gintoki opening up to them about his insecurities!!

which, as said, he doesnt do!! he doesnt talk about his failures! its basically like, here and to hijikata that one time and otherwise even when we know all the facts about what happened we still never hear gintoki himself talk about it. (so he really DOESNT learn the lesson here either. he stays dissociated and triggered every time utsuro comes up. he tries to solve the altana baby problem on his own. he doesnt talk to his new friends OR his old friends. bwah. gintoki. silver soul.)

so this is like. its just in the wrong order!! its just in a baffling order lol. if you want gintoki to share his burden do you need to punch him when he shares it. does it also need to sound like you're blaming him for not being capable of upholding his promise to protect anyone when thats the insecurity thats got him all discombobulated this arc in the first place (a whole set of notes i took on this that i didnt find a place for in this post)?? its so weeeeiiiiiirddd lol i dont liiikeee itttttt. theres plenty of things shinpachi can validly punch gintoki for but this is such a weird one.

so i guess. having a clearer understanding of this arc do i hate it less? YES honestly. i hate fakeout plots generally they irritate me but everything... more or less makes sense by gintama standards now that i have the whole plot in mind.

do i hate jirochou less SORT OF? i enjoy him. in his individual relationships. i like his shitty dad deal i love shitty dads. i like him pining for otose who genuinely likes him but also brings up her husband every sentence she says to him just to keep him down. i like his parallels with gintoki that they both explicitly acknowledge and find macho comfort in. hes still not theeeeeeeee most well-developed gintama antagonist but you know? i at least think otose and pirako would want to be around him after this.

do i feel like i have a clearer understanding of the bitchslap moment. NOT CONVINCED I DO. i feel like its going to be one of those things that slips in and out of my understanding like sand in cupped hands. i have a tentative understanding of it that i dont think sorachi actually had in mind. so i dont think ive solved it lol.

will i be cursed to think about 4devas forever? god i hope not. am i okay with it beating farewell shins in the polls. god i fucking hope it does. in the horrible timeline where i have to see 305 make it all the way and then lose i guess id rather it be to this one than to hijigin. consider this poll propaganda?

[paperstorm]

I want to give that previous anon a hug because I know it’s just been one episode but damn I feel the same way, that TK has been shuffled to the side- like I’m happy for Carlos and Rafa deserves all the flowers and more but in one of the interviews Rashad said TK’s big story this season is the Jonah thing and that isn’t even happening until the seventh episode and it’s like- is TK just going to be sitting and waiting for Carlos to call until then?

And it’s just- Enzo and Jonah were not mentioned ONCE in season four- they didn’t attend TK’s wedding- why do they get to be his main story in the last season that we will ever get?

And for me it’s that TK and Owen were the cornerstone of the show and now it feels like that relationship doesn’t matter - like this is the second season premiere out of all five where they didn’t share a single scene - the other time this happened was season three- which was also a season of there were literally SO MANY times where an Owen and TK scene should have been included but wasn’t.

And I can hear it, I know I’m being a bitch and unreasonable, and I know it’s for other reasons (information you didn’t ask for and you might hate me for sharing; I also relate to TK a lot because my parents divorced when I was seven and I had a parent take a new partner immediately after- and two weeks ago my dad calls me and tells me that he and the woman he’s been with for twenty four years are splitting up/ like for fucks sake you aren’t supposed to go through your parents divorcing twice in one lifetime)

And no offense to Wyatt but for us to see more of him than TK- like I want to get there- but the knowledge that there are only eleven more episodes we’ll ever get- its not enough time.

Hugs for both of you and anyone else feeling this way. I don't think you're a bitch or unreasonable, I think it's very reasonable to feel upset because you're worried your favourite character is being sidelined. And I'm so so sorry about your own dad. That fucking sucks, it just does and there's no way to put a positive spin on it.

The only thing I can really say as advice that no one asked for is to just wait and see. This fandom has a tendency (not you specifically but as an overall thing that I really notice) to do a lot of jumping immediately to the worst possible conclusions and then not really learning the lesson when it turns out they didn't need to worry. We'll get a screen shot - like the one of TK frowning at the taco truck - and people instantly decide that something terrible is happening to TK in that scene or Carlos is disappointing him etc because TK wasn't smiling for that one split second, and then the scene airs and that's completely not what was happening, and then it will happen again the next time we get a still. It happened constantly during season 4.

We just really don't know what's coming! It sounds to me like the Enzo stuff is actually going to be about TK and Owen, because the reappearance of TK's surrogate second father is going to make them both confront the fact that Owen wasn't around when TK was a kid. It sounds like the Enzo thing could make TK and Owen even stronger and even closer. If it turns out that TK doesn't have much to do in this season then that will suck and you'll have every right to have feelings about it. It just to me seems so harmful to yourself, ultimately, to decide things are going to be shitty before those things have even happened.

[not-poignant]

Hi Pia

I'm so sorry you've been experiencing difficulties recently. I'm sending all my love and light your way and hope you start to feel a little less shitty soon.

P.s - Do you mind sharing your tiktok so we can follow you there too? Or is it a private acc?

Lots of love to you <3

It's not private! It's just not updated very often. Overall I'm more active on Instagram. But neither are private. The Tiktok is very art-focused so it might not be what you're looking for. But it's also pretty harmless overall.

And thank you anon <3

The last few days I had to stop writing and like...quickly redo my schedule for December and cut it back a little, which always makes me sad, but I'm trying to conserve my mental health as well as my physical. I realised I met all the criteria for a pretty serious depressive episode late last week (I have, alongside severe PTSD, Major Depressive Disorder, which is the one that will kill me if I don't keep an eye on it -> though I'm happy to report I'm not like in a very like 'I don't want to live' space right now, I can just tell I'm feeling / experiencing a lot of the red flags that go in that direction), and if I don't act now, that tends to lead to pretty bad places.

So I've redone the schedule for December and that will come out likely on Friday or Saturday. And then I'll only be posting during January for half of the month, and not the whole month, and taking off two weeks re: posting. Hopefully these are the sorts of things which will head off me needing to go into hiatus because I desperately don't want to do that <3

I can already tell I'm doing a little better after being a lot firmer with some boundaries, and also just...with myself re: taking more time off. I wish I didn't feel so guilty about it? But that's not anyone's fault here, that's shit to work on with my therapist/s, lol.

Today I spent around 3 hours researching a response to an ask (whoops), and then realised - not through any one person's actions but a bunch at once - that I need to kind of stop engaging with facecast stuff (nothing wrong with facecasting, the problem is wholly on me there and I wish I'd seen that sooner and saved people some pain and saved me from some rudeness).

I put away the shopping (we have a really good grocery delivery system here which is great for my disabilities etc.), and had some raspberries, and put on the Christmas tree lights.

I was so tired at lunch that I could only manage a bowl of cereal (and couldn't eat breakfast. I think my therapist would be like 'why are you putting three hours of research into responding to something instead of focusing on eating food' but well, whoops? Lol. To be fair I thought it would be way easier to answer, but Tumblr's search function is SO broken).

I fed my wonderful cat, Maybe, and got some sleep in the afternoon and then did some writing (1,200 words) on Palmarosa. It's like 7.00pm right now, and I'm going to put up some chapter commentaries on Patreon and Ream.

Tonight I might do some watercolour art, and I'm hoping to finish Palmarosa tomorrow.

December is actually a hard time of year for me anyway. It's the month that has the most chronological / time-based triggers, and my therapists know this and I'm hearing a lot of 'how are you in the lead up to December' which is about to become 'how are you coping with December.'

I'm grateful for small pleasures. Like my dahlias are looking pretty awesome right now. Here's some photos of this week (some art I'm working on, Maybe being cute, or screm, dahlia, Christmas set up, T-Rex ornament, Santa Platypus ornament):

[p0ssywhippedcream]

HIII OPHEE !!! im sososososo glad youre back now !! how are you ? how have you been ? ill admit i was really worried about you since youve been gone for so so so long, but i was hoping it was just a break from writing. i hope youve been alright for the past months !!

again im sosososososososoooo glad youre back !! youre definitely my favorite blogger here, i checked nearly everyday to see if you posted again and i was SO SHOCKED when i saw you liked my post !!

im so happy youre back now !! i really really hope youve been fine lately, its been soso long ! ❤️❤️❤️

MY BEAUTIFUL PRECOCIOUS MOOT😭😭😭😭

you have no comprehension of how much i missed you personally like talking to you is one of my favorite parts of tumblr and i can’t wait to fangirl over fictional men w you again!!

i’m sorry i didn’t return when i started liking stuffs, i wanted to get the feel of tumblr first for a couple weeks and really try to write again before promising to return and then not having anything to show for it. so i was liking a ton of posts and i bet it confused some people😭😭

(TW: talk of SA below, not graphic just mentions of the word)

life has literally been so crazy but great; i went through a really shitty relationship but it taught me that i needed to value myself and my love more. i went to court for my childhood SA and he got found guilty of all charges and put in prison for 120 years! i got like four more tattoos and i made a ton of really good friends, dyed my hair blue than pink and orange than bright green than red and now it’s white! my other rapist died in a car crash (karma loves me in 2024 bro) and i got a new job that i absolutely adore! my bio dad tried to come back into my life by following me on instagram (declined fAWk that) and i quit and unquit and requit nicotine like four times. much has happened there’s def a ton i left out but that’s the overall gist lol

i’m so happy to be back, tell me everything!! how’s your life been, anything big? anything small? anything at all? (pls pls tell me stuffs i’m so curious)

[lexa-griffins]

Omega Lexa works in a sex shop and provides extra services for the customers via a glory hole. Her identity is kept secret for her protection. Alpha Clarke is one of her usual clients. Clarke accidentally knots Lexa through the glory hole so they're tied together waiting for Clarke's knot to deflate

The.... visual of them then tied together through the glory is... too much. Is porncom a genre? Because that is exactly what this is ajskdkdnd

Lexa knows Clarke, she's seen her walk around the store. She's bought a few things here and there, some she assumes are for partners and not herself but Lexa has learned to not judge a book by its cover.

She visits the glory hole a few times a month. Lexa likes her. She's easy to make cum, she's always polite with her even when she can't see her. Overall, a joy of a client and of an alpha.

Lexa has had a rough week and Clarke feels good inside of her. So fucking good. She's exactly what Lexa needed to make her forget the shitty week she had, from being yelled at by an alpha after so much as implying the dildo he was buying was for him and the beta she had to comfort as she cried about the omega she cant seem to keep as he keeps running back to his ex so she thought a funner toy could help.

Clarke is good at making her forget theres a wall between them. A literal one. She stays out most of the time and lets Lexa do her job o nstead of trying to be the big dominant alpha.

Maybe if Clarke had been more in control she would have been able to realize how close Lexa was to take her and she would have been able to pull out before. Lexa is so lost in how good the stretch feels she only realizes shestaking the knot when she's past the point of no return.

"Oh my god." Its really the only thing Lexa can say as Clarke fully enters her and groans, cumming inside of her.

Fuck doesnt quite cut it.

"I- Im stuck."

Yeah, no shit, smartest alpha on earth.

"We're stuck."

"I should have pulled out, Im sorry."

"I was the one in control, I should have realized it, its my fault."

Silence.

"Are you comfortable like that?"

No, "I guess. Its not like there much we can do anyways." She's bent over and her legs are a ldittle shaky but luckily the stall is small enough she can hold herself up.

"Im sorry."

"Youve said that already."

"Oh, yeah. Sorry."

Lexa snorts with humor, making her body shake and a small moan to leave them both.

"How long do you usually take to go down?"

"Half an hour, one hour? Depends. My rut isnt close so it should be more on the higher end."

"Great."

"Im s-"

"Clarke if you say sorry i will punch you once i get to see your face."

"Hey i- wait how do yoh know my name?"

"Hmmm....."

"Wait, your voice.... oh my god are toh Lexa, the front desk girl?"

Lexa winces, "Hi."

Clarke's breathing seems to get slightly faster on the other side of the wall, "are you doing okay over there?"

"Yeah, yeah." A laugh.

"Whats so funny?"

"Ive had a crush on you for ages now. I had no idea it was you on that side."

"What?"

"I havent had a partner in ages. Ive been accumulating sex toys i dont even use at my house for months just to come here and see you. Oh shit that sounds really fucking creepy when i say it out loud doesnt it?"

"A little. But sweet. In a slightly creepy way."

"Oh my god this day could be going better."

"I've had worst ones this week."

"Really?"

"Yeah. But i doubt you eanna hear about it."

"Oh believe me I have nothing but time."

Its about forty minutes before they can get free. Lexa gasps at the amount of cum that leaves her before she sees a small towel being offered to her from the top of the stall door, the watch on the wrist a clear indication its Clarke.

"Sorry, i know its usually hm, a lot."

"Its alright. Idn another circumstances id probably be delighted its so much."

"Im gonna leave the at the counter and go. With extra of course."

"Oh, okay."

There's a throat clearing from the other side of the door, "Bye Lexa. For all its worth, there is no one else id rather be stuck like that with."

Lexa stops cleaning herself to stare at the closed door. She snorts again.

"I really need to stop sounding creepy dont I?"

"Yes. But it had its charm-"

"Im a creepy way." They say in unison before laughing.

"Bye Lexa."

"See ya Clarke."

Lexa listens for the bathroom door to close with a little hesitation.

By the time she's presentable, Clarke is gone and the store is empty. The money sits on the counter with an added 50$ for the whole mess. As Lexa collects the money she finds a paper with a phone number.

"I swear im less creepy face to face. X Clarke"

[theratandcatshow]

Episode 5: TURBO

Summary:

After closing your eyes for a moment on a treetop, you notice a piece of paper lying on the ground with something written on it. This results in a wild beginning for an encryption, thoughts and fears that come up and finally a meeting with the prototype. And a little character development in between. Can it get any worse? Yes, it can.

Notes:

Ahhhh, folks I'm sorry it's taking me so long. It's just that lately I've been looking at my work and thinking things like “there's not enough personality involved” or “there's not enough description of the situation”. Personally, I hate losing the thread when I'm reading, not knowing where I am. That's why I try to keep it simple, with thoughts and extra descriptions. I took a look at my first chapters ever, from the “To Understand The Soul” and “The Genius” fan fiction, and I have to say...it's fucking shit writing. I wouldn't say I'm bad at writing overall, but my very first chapters are so unbelievably dogshit that I wouldn't be surprised if people stopped reading them right away. Well, it doesn't matter. Enough yapping, have fun reading this chapter, and pay attention to the details!

---

Beginning of the last week.

168 hours remain until the Hour of Joy.

You can't sleep. Since you've been here, in Critter Valley, you've highly slept for minutes.

It wasn't that you weren't physically able to do it. Your mind is just... somewhere else. The constant clicking of your internal clock, simultaneously thinking of the plan and the imminent rise guided by the prototype and CatNap: The Hour of Joy.

You're in a pretty shitty position; either you report the uprising of the two, prevent yourself from being dragged into it and avoid a lot of deaths. Or you don't report it, wait and see how everything goes and continue to watch the critters.

No matter what you choose, it looks damn bad for you. I wonder if the people out there would give you protection because you're doing their dirty work. After all, they're relatively fickle, like when you write insider information about critter relationships in the reports.

But there's no light at the end of the tunnel for you, you've already gone through most of the scenarios in your head. Trying to kill CatNap wouldn't be a good idea, because as long as you can get information about him and the prototype, he's worth something.

Just in case... In case you have to defend yourself or simply get the order to kill one of them, the critters.

Then you would slaughter Kickinchicken.

It's not an objective opinion, it's just yours. When you weren't here yet, but the short three days in this training. So finding out everything that is known about the Critter from the outside was a thorn in your side.

Kickin wasn't special, unlike the others at least, in your opinion.

In the episodes, he was always the joker that nobody took seriously. But it's almost the same here. Even though he's often out and about with Hoppy in the wide open fields of the valley, you can read them both clearly. He's an outsider, and it would hardly be noticeable if he disappeared.

Each of them was special in their own way, just like all critters.

DogDay was the leader, even if he often refused to be. He played the dog of the group, and even if you already know that he used to be a human, he seems to have characteristics of one. He smells damn good, has an outgoing nature and hangs out with the others incredibly often, he's hardly ever alone.

CatNap, who seems to have some kind of relationship with DogDay, was more the outsider of the group. You already noticed this in the Smilling Critter cartoon, as he rarely appeared, and when he did, he didn't play a leading role like the other critters. However, CatNap is a danger to your mission, with this prototype he is planning a riot, and this could ruin everything.

Bubba was the smart one of the group. For you, an absolute no-go and a threat to be killed if necessary. He had already stalked you once, and probably already suspects that you are some kind of spy from the people outside. He often hangs out with the others, seems to have cameras and often stays up late reading books. You had already guessed it: Come near me again and I'll rip you apart.

Crafty and Picky were also sometimes outsiders, but they spend a lot of time together. Whether Crafty is painting and Picky is nearby, they are rarely alone except in the house. Crafty often seems to stay up late at night, while Picky often falls asleep too early, and sometimes outside.

Hoppy was...annoying. She definitely has the best hearing of all, by a long, long fucking way. Sometimes, when you follow them into the woods because they're all talking about this whole fake world, she seems to hear the incredibly quiet rustling of the bushes you're moving in. She always turns her head rapidly in that direction, and the others always look at her as if she's crazy, which is a big advantage for you. After all, you are only a few meters away from them, and if someone were to come looking, it would be a problem.

And then there was him, Kickin. The most annoying, stupid and unnecessary of them all. He can't do anything that the others can, doesn't make anyone laugh with his bad jokes and, in your opinion, should finally disappear. He is discreetly out of place in a group where everyone can do one special thing except him. If you could, you'd probably ask the scientists why they created someone like him in the first place.

But in the overall situation it looks unimportant, especially right now.

Although you are not asleep, you have rested for an hour, here, in this quiet place. At the top of the huge tree crown, the biggest tree in the whole forest.

It went like this: you opened your eyes, disgusted by the metallic feeling, and stood up. Then you cracked your limbs, the unpleasant 'click' sound, which sounded more like a doll, reminded you of the whole situation again.

There was a note there.

But you didn't grab it straight away. A quick glance to the right, left and upwards. Then you listen for thirty seconds to see if there is anyone nearby or if there might be something like a quiet message from the scientists coming through your ears. Because nothing came and you didn't see anything, you finally pick up the note.

It read:

T U R B O

W hvwby mcif dcksfg ct cpgsfjohwcb ofs ibweis, Foh.

Cqn xcqnab mxw'c bnnv cx twxf cqjc hxd'an j byh, fqrlq rb j pxxm cqrwp.

Z'cc fwwvi pfl r uvrc kyrk nzcc yvcg lj sfky.

Fkyjw fqq, dtz uwtgfgqd bfsy yt pstb bmt dtz bjwj gjktwj ymnx...wfy.

- LNKPKPULA

The only thing you think when you see the paper is, "What is that?".

Standing in the middle of the forest, on both feet and standing up straight, you look around again. No one to the left, no one to the right, but something is wrong. This feeling that you're standing in the wrong place, and when you see yourself right here, with this paper in your 'hands'.

You don't need a minute, if at all seconds. It happens automatically, you tense your hands so that your claws come out, which you can't see under the long gloves but don't change anything. Then you tense your tail, you feel the metallic sensation with the next step and have to try hard not to gag. But within a second, you tear your claws into the tree, pull yourself upwards and push yourself further and further with your sharp tail until you are sitting on the treetop again.

Is this a message? Is it written in another language or what is this?

No matter how you think about it, it was pure gibberish. The letters don't fit together logically, the heading on the paper made no sense and everything looked like it was written by a toddler.

But then, the very next time you look at the white paper and the black ink, you understand.

It is encrypted.

You immediately pull out your own notepad from your backpack, wipe over the pages with your notes about the individual critters, and finally land on a free page. You hastily grab a pen and place the two pages on the crown of the tree. You lean against the trunk, spread your disgusting, unnatural-feeling legs and look at the page again.

The text is encrypted, but in what way? It looks like random letters thrown around, it doesn't make a bit of sense, and there's nowhere to start.

You look at the page lying on your legs. The Black Tine had already dried a long time ago, but you go over and confirm what your eyes have already told you.  You look at the heading.

Turbo. Turbo? Is that a reference to something? Maybe Hoppy, because she's the fastest of the critters? Or maybe to one of the scientists from outside? Is one of them called Turbo? Or maybe spelled 'obrut' backwards?

This brought to mind the next problem you would have to solve:

Who left me this encrypted message?

You think, but somehow no answer really seems right. You may be clever, but you can't just string together facts that don't exist to come up with a solution. Somehow, however, only two people seem plausible:

The scientist who looked after me, out there. Or the prototype.

Looking at the paper, you notice something that you should have seen beforehand based on your powers of observation. In the last paragraph, or the last word of the paper, there was a minus sign, it looks like a signature.

LNKPKPULA. L-N-K-P-K-P-U-L-A. It has just as many letters as the word 'prototype'. Wait a minute...

Could it be!

You look at the paper again, but this time at the heading: Turbo. The word was obviously scrambled, but it looked like a clue to you. Because when the signature reads the word 'prototype', you already have the first clue.

From LNKPKPULA to Prototype.

You let the pen in your hand sink slowly to the blank page, slowly and surely, although your mind is already going ahead, your hand follows.

4 letters back! That must be it! L to P are 4 positions in the alphabet! It is a Caesar cipher!

Your hand glides over the still blank paper and smears it. You are completely in the flow, your ears pricked up for your surroundings, your arms for the perfect movements when deciphering and your legs for holding the paper.

L (12) → P (16) → +4

N (14) → R (18) → +4

K (11) → O (15) → +4

P (16) → T (20) → +4

K (11) → O (15) → +4

P (16) → T (20) → +4

U (21) → Y (25) → +4

L (12) → P (16) → +4

A (1) → E (5) → +4

Your eyes catch sight of the paper, your mind is already thinking, while your body barely moves. There is something like a cool breeze on the back of your neck, which brings your consciousness back to the here and now.

So the prototype, why does he write in encrypted form? Is he worried and afraid that someone will find the note before I do? No, I don't have time to think about it, first I have to decrypt the entire document!

For anyone, the view would probably have been surreal: You, a rat-looking critter, on the top of a giant tree with a killer look while you scribble on a paper like a madman.

Your tail hung slightly from the crown, but you were far too busy to pay the slightest bit of attention. Every letter, every punctuation mark was burned into your brain as you slowly but surely deciphered each character of the message.

It would have taken anyone else hours to decipher the pattern and then every single letter, but you're not just anyone.

And that's exactly what you wanted to find out, who exactly were you before this rat? Why were you turned into a rat and the other critters into these weird cartoon characters? What was the point of it all, apart from sales for the humans out there. Were you perhaps one of the people out there who saw something they shouldn't have?

And now, are you being monitored while you decode this message? Will they kill you for it? Torture you until you give up every single piece of information you have about the prototype? What did the prototype do that they left him as a metallic monster? Or you, that you are a rat freak with pieces of metal on your tail and sharp claws?

Or is it all, exactly that, just a dream? A dream from which you can't wake up or don't want to wake up? And even if all this isn't real, the huge fields of grass, the bright sun and the colorful sky above the clouds, what's the point of it all? Is it the calm before the storm? Before your death arrives? Or were you already dead?

That was exactly your rambling thoughts while decoding the message. Everything, really EVERYTHING seems so fake. Your mental status is getting worse and worse, and maybe, just maybe, you are afraid of what your body will do automatically when you are mentally at the end.

And that was the moment, not only when you finally finished decoding the message, no.

It was also the moment when you could understand the critters, a mixture of compassion and understanding on a level far above that of an ordinary person.

But finally, after 19 minutes and 46 seconds, you had finished decoding the prototype's message.

It was difficult to first crack the pattern, and then to decipher the most important letters, resulting in whole sentences that finally made sense. A cramp in the hand, like students when they write an exam for too long, stiff legs like an athlete who has just run a marathon, and an empty head, like someone who has just come from a parent's funeral.

Your eyes, half open, finally wander over the full sheet with your writing. No more logically incongruous letters, clear words with a clear message behind them.

F L A W S

I think your powers of observation are unique, Rat.

The others don't seem to know that you're a spy, which is a good thing.

I'll offer you a deal that will help us both.

After all, you probably want to know who you were before this...rat.

- PROTOTYPE

You may not like to admit it, but the encryption was damn clever:

Every single sentence and paragraph is coded according to the heading. So a shift from T to F is +14 letter positions and the first sentence was constructed with this exact shift. But you weren't stupid and wanted to test every way first, which is why you tested the letters 'FOH' first. And your theory was correct, with the shift the word 'RAT' came out.

So you carried on, quickly deciphered the most important letters and brought the sentences to a logical conclusion.

But what was the point of the message? You already knew that when you deciphered the signature 20 minutes ago.

A meeting.

Between you and the prototype. He seems to want to make some kind of 'deal' with you that "will help us both". Of course, you don't trust him one bit, especially after you saw and heard how he treated CatNap. It was pure manipulation, which CatNap, the idiot, didn't even seem to notice.

But he had apparently had something to do with the prototype in the past, he called it 'Theodore'. Maybe you could blackmail CatNap with the name too? Force him to say it, otherwise you'll go to the other critters and tattle.

But what's important right now is where exactly the prototype wants to meet. Maybe at the same place as with CatNap, or maybe not.

Should I make my way to the spot where he met CatNap?

No , my biggest advantage right now is that neither CatNap nor the prototype know that I know when the Hour of Joy is happening, or that it's happening at all. Neither party knows how much I know, and the prototype is dangerous.

If he's from the outside world, he definitely knows where I am by observation, it doesn't have to be that he knows that I was secretly at the meeting. I have to take advantage of that!

I will stand above that flock of pigeons, and I will control them!

Your eyes fall on the paper again, you haven't really moved from your position, after all, something was still missing.

He certainly doesn't want to meet up in the normal area, where there's a risk of encountering a critter. Certainly not in the Dark Forest either, so somewhere on the edge. But where exactly? The area around the edge of the forest is far too long to simply search, and anyway, when does he want to meet?

You turn, shove your right arm into your backpack and pull out the map showing the whole of Critter Valley. As you pull it out, you feel a slow headache coming on, right above your eyes.

You ignore everything around you, place the map next to the decrypted message and do your best, with all your intelligence, to find any position on the map.

Turbo

Turbo.

Turbo.

T = 20

U = 21

R = 18

B = 2

O = 15

If I assign a number to each letter, then use it as a reference for coordinates, it should work.

It was a guess at best, at least the word turbo made sense in contrast to the whole encryption. Your head feels even worse than before, you haven't thought as much as you have just now in the last few weeks, especially since the critters were all easy to watch.

Then the X-coordinate would be T + U, i.e. 20 + 21 and that is 41. Y would then be the sum of the last two letters, B + O are 2 + 15, i.e. 17 for Y. But what about R? Either it is a height coordinate or simply for a more precise point.

But as you read through the whole message again in your head, letter by letter, word by word, you also read the coordinates off the paper. And as is the case with a coincidence, an absolute coincidence, you don't understand it yourself.

You read the 'R', automatically as 'Right Now', out of pure chance and your tiredness. But even without the indicators of your mental state, no other options were really open to you than to interpret and hope for something pure.

Your gaze lands on the map, the coordinates were far away, on the other side of the valley. Where the employees come at night and exchange the things you wrote down in your notes.

Maybe...Just maybe it was some Force of Nature that chose you. There were so many possibilities that you just didn't understand it, didn't even get the message decoded or something else...Maybe it was fate.

And that's exactly what you're going to find out.

If you were already paranoid, tired and absolutely drenched in adrenaline before, it was even worse now. Before you set off, you had thought about whether it was really the right idea to go. But what did you really have to lose? Does he want to tell the Critters your real identity as a spy? Then you tell them with the Hour of Joy, simple as that.

But all the pressure, panic and adrenaline that came up when you were thinking was only because you were already thinking about the situation.

But now it was real. Every few seconds you had the feeling that someone might jump out of the nearest bushes, fire a shot or let out a scream. The forest had never been so damn quiet, you couldn't hear a single sound apart from your footsteps.

The green grass, the gray stones, the brown trees and the sun above you are a sign that you are still close to the valley. The Dark Forest is still too far away.

Every few seconds you pull up your gloves as if you had to attack someone. Even unconsciously, your hands were both tense and so your claws were out, but you couldn't see them because of them. You are quite happy that you found these gloves.

"Rat..."

You almost jump in fright like a cat. You turn around quickly and are confronted with nothing but darkness, from which a certain tension comes towards you. You don't see it, the prototype, the darkness takes any light that was in this happy world and swallows it up.

The only thing that showed you he was here was the voice. Just like the observed meeting between the Thing and CatNap, it was rough and sounded more like a machine. It doesn't help that you don't hear a shape to the voice.

"So you...decoded it." The voice gives you chills, a shiver that runs down your spine, telling your instincts that you absolutely must take a step backwards. You do so immediately, and say your first words since you've been here in Critter Valley.

"It wasn't hard." That was all you said, perhaps even with a slightly lowered voice, after all, your normal pitch would seem like a child in contrast to his.

"For someone... like you." That's all the voice says, but now at least you can see something in the infinite darkness that lies before you. This metallic hand slowly but surely sticks out of it, your eyes follow the fine fingers as they move.

"And who exactly would that be?" Bingo. You can steer the conversation directly in the direction you want, find out what he knows.

"I'll tell you...if you do me...a favor." The voice becomes even rougher than before, as if he doesn't have much time.

"And the would be?" You're getting really tired of this small talk, the first day with the critters where you didn't talk and now that you're both just answering as briefly as possible.

"You have to help CatNap...convince the others to join an uprising." That's the longest sentence you've heard him say so far without pausing again.

"What kind of Uprising?" You say, full of confusion and inner conviction that he doesn't know you were eavesdropping on him and CatNap's conversation.

"You already know that."

That was the moment when you felt like you were finally dead. Your eyes widen, your legs tremble slightly, your breathing quickens and your heartbeat becomes so loud that you can hear it through your ears and it absolutely drowns your thoughts.

The adrenaline doesn't even let you think, let alone fully understand the situation. So now you were in his Mercy, your lie was badly received, and even worse... The power of this conversation now fell into his mechanical fingers.

"I already know...How it will all end...Theodore won't make it and that's...a shame." You're only half aware of the words, the rest passes you by and disappears into the huge forest behind you. The fingers move slightly, making a 'come closer' gesture, which you don't return. "Besides... I have some information for you... which is incredibly valuable... but which you won't write in your report."

Information that is worth a lot, but that I can't write in my report? What exactly does he mean?

"And that information would be?" If your shaky voice, your gasping breaths and your hunched posture didn't already give it away, you were extremely nervous. You weren't even that nervous when you were about to be caught spying by one of the critters. Because there you always had the chance to somehow talk your way out of it or simply disappear, but right now, the situation was not in your hands at all, but in this mechanical one in front of you.

"The Critters... want to break out of here in four days."

Dawn of the Last Four Days.

96 hours remain until the outbreak and 168 until the Hour of Joy.

---

Can it get any worse? I mean, your mental state, the prototype knowing about your eavesdropping and the fact that the Smilling Critters want to break out? Oh yes, it can! Well, the next story to get an update is my Hold on fanfiction, after all, it's time to write about the year class trip. (in between, of course, another chapter for the Arcane Story, the second season is coming soon and I really need to finish everything). I hope you are all doing well! Leave kudos and a comment!

[celestie0]

ELLIE YOU ARE DELIVERING! 🥰😩😩 everything has been divine. the new theme. kickoff chapter 12! IHM CHAPTER 4! you are an ARTISTE! chefs kiss mwah mwah mwah. I’m sorry about your bad experience w that mean preceptor 😞 i’m glad he apologized tho bc most attendings are lowkey pretentious butts

i’ve had a decent experience overall but i do have a fac member who LOVES to roast me bc i say dumb shit… but it’s ok bc we’re learning! you’ve got this and you’ll be able to handle whatever else comes your way ! i have an exam next week so thank you for these chapters. i am now well fed and motivated to study 🤭 take care and take breaks!

love,

- 🐝 anon

hiii bee babie!! i’m so happy u enjoyed the new worksss <3 i’ve been trying to write at night instead of scroll thru tiktok bc i’ve since learned how shitty my attention span has become this past year or so 😂 it’s been productive tho

yeah some attendings are rude it kinda shook me up a bit but?? idk if you relate to this but just being chronically exhausted kinda makes me not give a fuck ab a lot of things anymore,? like if i got yelled like that when i was in undergrad it wouldve affected me more but rn im like ok i dont have time to cry lmfao

good luck studying! hope all is well for uuu

[formula-fun]

https://www.tumblr.com/formula-fun/751930291808010240/i-have-so-many-thoughts-abt-mxiel-nearly-all-of

Would you be willing to expand on this?

I personally think L*stappen is the toxic shitty Max related ship, and find M*xiel quite agreeable, so I’m fascinated! 😊

(I am asking this is good faith. I love reading people’s takes on ships.)

Hi! Yes I can expand, but please don't click 'read more' if you think this post will make you angry

I'm taking this question in good faith that you're just curious, but this is a disclaimer to others: if I get hate anons for my shitty takes, they will be deleted and not responded to. If this makes you upset I'm really sorry but this post isn't for you. I'm not shitting on m*xiel, i'm just relaying my own read on it

I'm also not going to compare the two ships, I'm just talking about my read on this one. And obviously I'm not talking about real people, I'm talking about what we as a fandom consider to be these characters and their fictional, made up dynamic

It's been a little while since I wrote that post, but I believe it was around the time the sand racer video came out, because I was seeing a lot of people talking about that moment where Daniel wrote a 33 on Max's racer and Max crossed it out and wrote a 1. There were a couple posts circulating about how Daniel's view of Max has never changed and he still wants to be living in the time when they were still teammates and everything was good. And that's a perfectly fine read, but to me that moment was....kind of insane.

The fandom depiction of their early relationship is usually that Daniel took Max under his wing in F1 and mentored him through the first couple of years, and he's generally a happy-go-lucky person who maybe lacks a little maturity but overall knows what he's doing and what he wants out of life. It's a good story and there's nothing wrong with it. However, I have an alternate read that keeps me up at night with the need to write a depressing indie breakup fic about it (not going to actually do it):

Daniel wanted to guide Max through the sport and liked that dynamic because it put him firmly in the position of the #1 driver, and he liked that Max looked up to him. Max liked Daniel because he was funny and open and treated Max warmly when everyone else on the grid kind of iced him out, so within a few years they got together. Daniel likes the idea that Max needs him, but that was never really true in the first place. Daniel felt like he was guiding Max through the sport, but Max has Jos and Raymond and people call him the inevitable, he doesn't need guidance through the sport. He needed affection and maybe genuine praise, but he always knew where he was going. It's glaringly obvious to everyone from the start, but for Daniel it's only glaringly obvious after a few years, and by then he's so desperate not to be usurped at red bull that he convinces himself he can win a championship with Renault. He leaves, they break up, Max is hurt and doesn't know what he did wrong, Daniel is on a horrible path in his career

Is the massive spiral in his career his own fault? Probably. Is it Max's fault, in a way, in his head? Maybe

Max became what people always knew Max would be. To Max, nothing has changed. When Daniel comes back to the team Max expects expects them to maybe be able to pick up where they left off, but he doesn't expect it to be exactly the way it used to be. Within a few weeks it becomes obvious though: there are these instances though of Daniel forgetting anything has changed, or not wanting to believe it. He doesn't use Max's real racing number; he doesn't like acknowledging that he has friends his age within the sport who he grew up with; he teases him for his age even though Max is pretty much median age by now and offers to pay for things even though Max's salary is higher than his. When Max invites him over he's seemingly taken aback by the fact that Max has his own flat, and when they hook up it's always at Daniel's place even though it's smaller and the view isn't as good. Daniel drives him everywhere and Max convinces himself it's because Daniel knows he doesn't like driving road cars, but secretly he knows Daniel doesn't like driving them either

He still wants to see Max as a teenager who looks up to him and relies on him in some way, but from Max's perspective it makes no sense. He never relied on Daniel and his becoming a champion was as inevitable as him getting older every year. He wants his friend back, but his friend is uncomfortable unless he downplays Max's achievements because they remind him of his own mistakes, and that's no way to love someone. Max still wants to be taken care of in the way that Daniel used to take care of him, but he also wants to be praised for who he's become; he can't get both from Daniel. Daniel wants to give him what he needs, but he has no idea how to do that anymore because he can't wrap his head around past Max and present Max being the same person

im not even touching on their age gap which i think is so fucking sus actually but this is a positive post so i wont go there

theres honestly so much more that could be said for how this is a toxic doomed by the narrative vibe, and i know why people don't want to dive into it (it's a huge bummer) but it just fascinates me how much is there. In conclusion, not trying to piss anyone off with this, thanks for reading and if you want to talk about it more (in very neutral tones which will not get me assassinated) im here!

(there were a few other instances recently of daniel treating max like a kid, but i dont remember what they were. if you remember you can feel free to let me know)

[childofaura]

The localization/censorship debate and why people need to do their damn job

… I know I’ve been making too many posts for someone who’s supposed to be on break. I may have to modify it to “I won’t be engaging with anyone right now and I may just pop in once in a while to talk about issues going on”.

Because right now, this issue is pretty important and as you all know, I hate censorship or dishonest localizations. That was my big issue with Fire Emblem Engage, and you can find my post with the video from Censored Gaming here: https://childofaura.tumblr.com/post/711372254663131136/so-as-ive-been-playing-engage-with-the-japanese

ANYWHO, there has been a MASSIVE shitstorm in the anime/localization community happening the past week or two. This has actually been brewing over several years but it’s now been gaining traction. And right now I’m here to divulge it to Tumblr so people understand what’s going on. Putting a Read More because this could get lengthy.

So as far as I can reach back to see where this recent maelstrom of drama has started, it began with this recent announcement:

(Sorry, had to post the IMDB article, the official tweet doesn’t mention AI)

Now personally, I still stand firm by my AI stance, but I don’t defend official localizers. If I can make the decision, I’d go with fansubs; I’ve watched Ginga Densetsu Weed and currently am watching the OG Urusei Yatsura anime with fansubs (fansubs are charming and I appreciate the context they provide with translator notes. Yeah we all clown on the “According to keikaku” meme but it’s harmless to the overall sub).

Personal note aside, this has caused many localizers to start flipping their shit on Twitter, and somehow infamous “localizer” Jamie Marchi, the one who was responsible for the cringy and insecure “pesky patriarchal societal demands” and the infamous rewrite from “But we’re girls” to “But I don’t like girls” (which from general consensus comes off as a homophobic rewrite), catches wind of this. And she goes apeshit over people calling out her horrible line rewrites:

Constantly ignoring better suggestions, the story’s own canon, and just generally throwing a huge hissy fit over the fact that people (like me) don’t fucking like their product being tampered with.

All of this was sent to a Youtuber named Asmongold TV. I don’t know who he is, I’m not familiar with him, but apparently he’s got a pretty big following, and a big Japanese following too. Thus, this video was made:

And this caused a HUGE outreach; even people in Japan are taking notice and this is spreading like wildfire:

So now it looks like people are REALLY taking notice of this issue that’s been underlying the anime/manga community.

My thoughts on it:

This is why people who inject Western culture, slang, or politics into subtitles should have just stuck to their fucking jobs. This isn’t a general statement to all localizers because I know there’s probably a few who actually care about preserving the context of the original media, but this is what happens. You have shitty players in this game who not only ruined it for themselves, but for EVERYONE. This was self-inflicted. And I’m glad that it’s starting to spread like wildfire, because accurate translations should be expected and the norm. We shouldn’t even be here in the first place.

[twopoppies]

Hi Gina... I need to rant 😠 lmfao

As a life-long Chiefs fan and KC native all I can say is this T*ylor shit is fucking annoying. I know you talk to a LOT of people in the fandom, so you may not remember, but I'm a fellow Sw*ftie hater (maybe that's too harsh but idgaf) and I didn't think it was possible to get more annoyed with this woman than I've been since I stopped being a fan in 2018. Boy, was I WRONG. I'm a die-hard Chiefs fan. I loved my team even when we sucked and couldn't make it to the playoffs (before Patrick Mahomes), so to see EVERYONE make the game on Sunday about her is beyond frustrating. People (Sw*fties) are seriously saying she's the only reason we won. Like we haven't won multiple AFC championships and two Super Bowls in the past three years. Maybe I'm just taking it too seriously, but when our boys played a kick ass game on Sunday after such a shitty season opener (that we lost), it was so nice to see that we're getting our mojo back but I literally can't look at any post, tweet, article, tv segment, etc that doesn't make the game about her.

God, please don't let her be around for the rest of the season 🙏🏻

Also, I'm not saying they're not hooking up, but this is 100% for PR. I've personally never seen them pan to a celebrity so many times during the game. I've never seen "candid" photos of Travis Kelce, Patrick Mahomes, or any of the other popular Chiefs' players leaving Arrowhead Stadium after a game like we just got with Travis & T*ylor, or "candid" photos & videos of any of the popular players driving through the city, which is so sus. And then what really sealed the deal for me was that T*ylor announced earlier today that her concert film will be shown internationally. She was also named as an entertainer of the year for entertainment weekly and is on the cover. Not to mention, she has a new re-recording coming out in a month and continues to announce new versions of the 1989 re-recording. "Someone" must not be happy enough that she's already broke records with the Speak Now sales, is selling the most number of albums overall, but she must be aiming to break those Speak Now records with the 1989 re-recording sales bc she's releasing new versions quite often. I mean, how greedy can one person be. Like you haven't sold enough albums? You don't have enough publicity? You don't have enough money? It's just gross to me.

Also, I personally just found her reactions over the top for someone who isn't even a fan, especially whatever that head shake thing is at the end. But maybe that's just because I find everything she does annoying and cringe.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CxmAHqjrACL/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Plus, the stats around Travis and the Chiefs have skyrocketed. So they're absolutely getting a lot out of this as well as the NFL like someone mentioned earlier.

I'll attach an article but here are some numbers:

Travis' jersey sales went up almost 400%

Stubhub ticket sales for Chiefs' home games increased threefold in just 24 hrs

Travis gained 325k new ig followers - more than he gained after winning the last Super Bowl

Sunday's Chiefs' game was the most watched NFL game on any network last week

It was also the most watched game among girls and women 12 to 49 yrs old

https://www.axios.com/2023/09/26/taylor-swift-travis-kelce-merch-sales-up-chiefs-kansas-city

And yes, I know I know a lot about her for someone who doesn't like her. But she's inescapable even when I have muted everything related to her... And now she's taking over my everything related to my favorite football team and my city 🤢 Where's Pete Davidson when you need him? 😂

Ok, sorry for that rant. I know I probably sound ridiculous, but I prefer my life T*ylor free just like I prefer my life Ol*via free, and I thought you might understand 😂 Anyways, feel free not to post if you don't want to discuss her anymore.

I hope you're having a good night, Gina. Lots of love.

She really is a horrendous actress. Everything she did at that game was so embarrassingly fake. But clearly people want to believe it because it’s everywhere.

That’s bananas how much his stats already went up and just shows why it’s worth it to do this kind of nonsense, even to someone who’s already really famous.

I’m not interested in football at all, but I’m so sorry she’s contaminating your safe space. 😩

[krikeymate]

Another canon divergence.

Tara’s speech to Sam, while understandable, was very harsh in some regards. The whole “you followed me, you’re working two shitty jobs, what are you doing with your life?” I’ve seen your HC about Tara actually not being angry at Sam herself but the situation.

So what if after Tara blew up at Sam, Sam said “okay” and then walked off to deal with the hurt of what Tara said. What if, instead of killing Jason and Greg that nigh, Bailey as Ghostface and maybe with Quinn sneaking out saw an opportunity to kidnap her. Holds her hostage for days. Maybe weeks!

How does Tara initially deal with Sam seemingly taking her words to heart and leaving completely? And then how does she feel when the Ghostface killings start and Sam is missing and the police call telling Tara they find her drivers license at a crime scene along with maybe something personal of Sam’s that she had on her the night she disappeared. But as the cops start testing the blood, they verify that along with Greg and Jason’s, Sam’s blood is mixed in?

(Overall Sam probably ends up figuring out a way to trick the Baileys, distracts them. Is able to kill one or two of them as she fights her way out but weeks of isolation without access to her meds messes her up even more, not to mention that the last convo she has with Tara makes her think that Tara was probably better off while she was gone)

Ouch, why would you hurt us like this?!

Tara doesn't leave her room that night, she doesn't notice that Sam doesn't come home. She eyes Sam's door in the morning, thinks about knocking, turns away instead. She doesn't hear from Sam all day, and it makes Tara guilty. She thinks Sam's avoiding her. She tries to call her. Once, twice, three times. She leaves a message: "you're supposed to pick up when I call. I'm sorry ok. Can you just… please just call me or text me or whatever. Just… I'm sorry."

Another night passes without hearing from Sam. The next morning she's visited by Quinn's father. He starts asking about Sam: is she around, when did you last see her, how has she been, any strange behaviour lately? Then he drops the news: Sam's license and blood was found at the scene of a double homicide. Sam's the current key suspect.

Tara doesn't believe it for a second, she doesn't even entertain the idea. Chad & Mindy aren't so sure, it causes a rift. There is no 'Core 4' in this timeline. Kirby appears, offers to help Tara find Sam. Tara doesn't trust her, but she has no one else to turn to. Gale still corners Tara at some point, asks her an insensitive question about her sister, gets punched, offers her help as well.

Sam is tied up in the shrine, Richie's videos on repeat, constantly being drugged to keep her docile. She sees her father. She sees Richie. Ghostface tells her all about what she's done, how she's going to pay. Ghostface tells her all about what they're going to do to Tara.

That's not something they can ignore. They want Sam to suffer. They bring her Tara's jacket, bloody and with 'stab marks' in the back. They tell her about how she cried as the knife went in, how she's not dead yet but she'll see Sam soon. They chased her down, caught her by her jacket, she managed to wiggle out of it and escape.

There's bodies they stack in the room, a new one each day, each propped up in front of a Ghostface case. People Sam's killed, they say. Billy points out how they all look like her sister - small and slight and tanned, dark hair and big brown eyes, empty in death. They dress her up in her father's robe and drop the mask in her lap. They tell her how the police are going to find her here, surrounded by the dead, and over the mutilated corpse of her sister. She was just so angry, they say, about her ungrateful little sister.

Except Gale is too good at what she does, she finds the shrine too early. Gale and Kirby and Tara, they don't waste any time checking it out. Ethan & Quinn are there, tormenting Sam. They split up and call for their father to get there asap. Kirby & Gale are distracted fighting the Ghostfaces, while Tara heads straight for Sam. Sam's delerious, from the exhaustion and the drugs and the constant mental attacks. She doesn't even think that Tara's real. She tries to listen to her anyway, she can't ignore Tara's crying even if she's just a figment of her imagination.

Bailey storms into the shrine, gun pointed straight at Sam. This wasn't going how it was planned. Kirby appears, injured, pointing her gun right back at Bailey. He tries to convince her that Sam is the killer, that she was caught on camera, how he followed her trail back here. Kirby looks at Tara, who looks back. She's got Sam's arm around her shoulder, she's holding her sister up, barely. Kirby looks back to Bailey and begins to walk backwards towards the girls.

They prevail somehow. The three of them took down Ethan together. Gale killed Quinn elsewhere. Tara gets shot and Sam still gets to multistab Bailey. Tara stops her from killing him and gives her an emotional apology and says that she doesn't know what she would do if she lost her. Sam says she forgives her and she's sorry too, and then Tara turns around and stabs Bailey in the eye and then slits his throat, for fucking with her family, and then hugs a shocked Sam.

Kirby and Gale watch this happen from the sidelines and share a glance that says fuck these girls need therapy.

[nerdyqueerandjewish]

Hey just wanted to say I'm sorry about the web of tragedy in your life rn. you are right that it never ends, and is hard to explain to people from "nicer" areas. I experienced a lot of shitty stuff in my rural hometown and family, and now as an adult the news keeps following me, it's always something. I wanted to say two things- 1. please take some time for self-care even if you feel like you shouldn't or are "less affected". it adds up over time (1/2)

secondly, the only way we get through this world is finding the beauty in small things and counting blessings. when our lives are absolute shit and everyone is dying, it's not "toxic positivity" to say, well at least I have housing, well at least the trees and garden are beautiful today. it's coping but i think that's healthy and normal, to grasp at what beauty is left. if you don't look for any blessings then there isn't anything left. "toxic positivity" is pretending the bad stuff isnt there

it's ok to mourn and feel the bad things but also look for signs of blessings and beauty!! but also i very much feel you with hating true toxic positivity....which feels like a form of straight up denial and repression of emotions. feels like the difference is acceptance, and adding "and" vs. denial (3/3 im done now). hope you find some good things this week

Thank you - I needed this. I’m the primary person giving emotional support my partner while they go through an intensive outpatient program and while it has been overall good for them, there is just a lot going on and they are feeling a lot of emotions, especially frustration, depression, and anxiety. So there’s just a lot of stress in my home right now, and it’s a lot for me to try to be there but also regulate my own emotions and break some of the patterns that I learned in childhood. And then on top of that people where I grew up keep dying in awful, horrible ways. I’m reminding myself that during the height of the pandemic, people talked about the mental toll of disenfranchised grief, and I think that this feeling is similar to that,m. It just keeps rolling and it gives me weird survivor’s guilt and also makes it feel like I’m going to drop dead at any moment.

It can feel uncomfortable to do the nice things for myself, like I’m “supposed” to be only feeling bad with all this (while simultaneously not being effected because nothing bad is happening directly to me? Make up your mind, brain!) but I’m trying to re-frame it as practicing, so that someday I can do it more comfortably. And I feel like I have gotten better too! I think in the past I would have not made time for myself to decompress and do outside things.