#sorry if this is incomprehensible it’s late i just had a lot to say

[turbulentscrawl]

Reminders of the Horror (Norton & Edgar)

warnings: character death (you), descriptions of heavy gore (I mean it. the Norton one is p bad), angst, lots of blood and pain

Your ears are ringing.

There’s not really any reason for them to be. All things considered, the wall coming down wasn’t that loud, and neither was your screaming. But your ears are ringing like you think Norton’s must have during that horrible event so much like this moment. Aside from the volume, everything is exactly as he’d described it on those late, sleepless nights. The dust, the dark, the agonized cries. (Yours.) Somewhere in your scrambled mind, you’re sure Norton sees the ghosts of his spiteful coworkers littered about him, but it’s just you there, trapped under the rubble of the asylum’s collapsed walls. You’ve seen single portions of wall collapse at the church, but never anything like this. Fools Gold had somehow managed to bring down an entire section of the sprawling building. Right on top of you.

You’re wailing and screaming for Norton, and he’s just sitting there, mere feet from you, paralyzed. His face looks like a dead man’s.

“Norton!” you scream, almost incomprehensible. His name leaves your lips along with all the air in your lungs, the rubble crushing everything out of you. You’d never dared to imagine what this kind of death felt like. Never wanted to experience the horror of it. And the pain is beyond words. Every cell in your body screams wrong, wrong, pain!

The rubble continues to settle, shift, and somehow it all gets worse. Your bones give like fragile chalk. Your abdomen shifts, squeezed from the bottom-up like a tube of toothpaste. When you open your mouth again, blood and bile gush forward, followed by a bulge of something horrifically organ-like that chokes your airways. You claw a desperate hand towards Norton, and he reacts only by numbly pushing himself away.

His back hits the far wall, still staring with unfocused eyes, and through the window above him you spot Fools Gold amble into frame. He’s grinning, albeit tightly.

“Don’t mind him,” the Worse Norton says, stepping through the window. Stepping on Norton like he’s an insect. Stepping right into the pool of your liquified viscera. “Sorry, babe, you know I wasn’t aiming for you. Just trying to give that one a hard time. That sure looks rough, though. Let me help you out real quick.”

You’re crying, but there’s no air to sob. Only bloody, salty tears as your feel yourself about to burst from the mouth. Fools Gold raises his pickaxe—perhaps the one mercy he’s still capable of giving—and brings the heavy point down on your head.

There’s so much blood. Your blood. It’s unnerving despite Edgar’s assurances that it’s good.

From your position, though, it’s hard to see how this is good. Only you two are left in this match against the triplets, and you’re only meters from the exit gate death’s door with a porcupine’s worth of metal thorns lodged in your body. The wrecked wedding venue does not help the mood, and freedom being so close by is but a taunt. You have a win at hand, if only Edgar would flee. Edgar, though, is determined to drag your mangled figure out with him no matter how much it cost.

And it was costing a lot of hurt. The spiks caught in the dirt, in the cobblestone, and pulled on your flesh and muscle, poking and swirling around inside your bruises.

“Go,” you gasp, hiccupping in pain. If he’d go, secure the win, you could die faster too. The pain would stop faster. “Go, Edg—go. I won’t…last. Go.”

“You need to tough it out,” he says through gasps of strained effort. His soft face is twisted with determination. He is not a strong man to begin with, and the added weight of the spikes is only making this harder for him. His skin and hair are dripping with blood, sweat, and mud. “I told you I can do this. Just deal with it a little longer.” In the not-so-far distance, you hear the familiar metal and cloth of the triplets shifting out of their dreaded Breaking Wheel.

“Ed,” you sob, crying dirty tears. Everything is blurry, indistinct. A bubble of blood comes up with your next scream of pain, “Go!”

“I am not afraid of death,” Edgar snaps at you. “Least of all for a situation like this.” Suddenly, he drops you and his hands are all over your body, your wounds, on the ground. Touching until his fingers and palms are running with rivulets of your blood. Then he starts smattering it about his last blank canvas with a desperate speed you’ve never seen utilized for his creations. A mania-like joy overtakes his eyes as he smacks, pokes, and smears your blood into something to distract the Hunter.

“It’s perfect,” you hear him say. When he grabs you up again, you jolt with a scream and realize, foggily, that you blacked out during his creative process. And will black out again, despite the pain’s best efforts to keep you conscious. Edgar starts dragging you again, somehow, miraculously making it to the door. When you look up, you see the triplets there, looking over a propped painting in the aisle. They’re shaking, then howling. With rage.

They grab the canvas and launch it in a tantrum towards your now-immune forms stepping over the invisible line. It clatters in front of your fading eyes, allowing you to see, barely, the butchered forms of the triples painted in your blood. A daring threat from the painter holding you to his chest as you’re swept back to the manor, where you can die and rebirth in peace.

[seagoober]

Meet me at our spot

TFP Orion Pax x Cybertronian! Reader

*in this reader is a higher caste bot and as such they are very small like shorter than Arcee small*

*also elita-1 and Orion are exes in this. They weren’t conjuxed just the Cybertronian equivalent of dating*

Barely anyone wants to give him love so I guess I’ll just have to do it myself. I wrote this one kinda quickly so is a bit short and may not be amazing but it’s here so 🦾🦾

Orion knew what you two were doing was wrong. He a simple archivist being romantically involved with someone of your status. And yet when you say things like that he kept coming back every time. You made him feel alive….

“You’re late Orion” You chastised the young archivist. Your helm facing away from said approaching bot, your optics looked far off into the distant wonders of Cybertron.

“I know I’m sorry, there was a lot of work Alpha Trion handed me last minute.” Orion stepped ever closer. Reaching your short form, he knelt down to press a soft kiss to your helm. “I missed you my spark” he murmured as he guided his larger frame to sit beside you.

You hummed and your optics closed in delight. It had been too long since you both had been able to bask in each other’s presence. You had missed him so and he you.

“I wish we didn’t have to meet up in secret” you whispered as your frame naturally sought out Orion’s comforting embrace. He welcomed you without hesitation, his helm finding solace in your neck cables brushing gentle kisses across your neck.

“ I know sweetspark.” Orion exvented against your audio receptor. He knew you hated hiding your aching love for one another. His spark sought out your own when you weren’t near. But.. you had responsibilities and he had his own. He knew you couldn’t possibly be together in the open, but in the darks of twilight he can give you what you want.

“Look at me Orion” you murmured. Orion happily obliged as he turned his helm to match yours. His optics gazing into yours, a compassion flowing from one to another.

“All I want is you. Here. Forever”

Primus that’s all he wanted too. Sure Orion was content in his position at the Iacon archives, but what his spark yearned for was to be United with yours. His deepest desire, his one truth in his spark. All he truly wanted from this life was to be conjuxed with you.

“I know” he whispered bringing his dermas to yours. “That’s all I want too” He kissed you with his entire spark behind his dermas. Two bots so close yet so far away from each other.

Primus he wanted to give you the world, everything you could ever conceive of wanting. He would give it all to you, but the one think you wanted was the one thing neither of you could grasp.

Even with the rift between your two sparks, both desperately held on to each other for dear life. His past love was incomprehensible to this one. Even if he couldn’t conjux with you, he would be selfish and whisk your nights away.

For the your night belonged to him. The passionate love you shared throughout the twilight was what drove each bot to come back to one another. The flame enveloped you both in its hearty warmth.

Even if you could never be united through conjux, you could both fall further into the feeling of each other. Each night was worth a thousand life times.

If only for a single moment, you truly belonged to each other.

Yay ORION TIME BABY!!! I love Orion Pax’s character. He’s so sweet n sassy. Optimus in all forms deserves love. This was kinda bittersweet, but eh what else can you do.

Thanks for reading! Seagoober rolling out ✌🏻

[grimbeak]

Welcome to Night Vale episode 250 "Father Kevin" transcript

Episode description: There is no Night Vale. There is Mother Lauren's Brood. We are loved.

I don’t make the rules. I just gleefully enforce them, even though I don’t have to.

Welcome to Night Vale.

###

There is no Ralphs. There is Mother Lauren’s pantry. There is no hole out back of the Ralphs-- there is Mother Lauren’s soil embrace. There is no Night Vale. There is Mother Lauren’s brood.

We are loved. We are loved! We are--

[Radio interference. It fades in and out between incomprehensible moments of a man speaking, a woman speaking another language, and a band, before increasing in volume and suddenly cutting out.]

Sorry. It is difficult to break free of the malign influence of Mother Lauren. 

We live in two realities. One in which all is well, and one in which we are teetering over an edge from which we cannot return. I speak from both realities. I speak from both sides of my mouth. 

The conflict that roiled Night Vale continues, but in a strange, slow way. Mother Lauren stands on a podium in what once was Grove Park, her tendrils snaking through every part of the town, and through many of the people. The buildings expand, and contract, like lungs. The trees are melting. The people of Night Vale still bravely fight, but like people fighting in a painting; smudgey, and two-dimensional. 

The Boy--who is the younger version of Kevin from Desert Bluffs--stands next to Mother Lauren, holding her hand. His face shows exertion, as if the greatest battle is inside his body. But he cannot move. 

The last time Lauren came to Night Vale, she came as a representative of StrexCorp, here to conquer us in the name of capitalism. This time? Is different. This time she fights with stranger, stronger stuff. I don’t think she is turning us into another Desert Bluffs, I think, if anything, she is making all of us part of her body. She is transcending, and we are fodder for her change. 

Mother Lauren speaks, and her voice rings out from every part of her body-- which is the entire city. “I am bored already of this,” she says. “It was too easy to defeat you. Your loss is not as delicious to me as I had hoped.” 

But all is not yet lost-- there is a plan. Our future lies with Alejandra Nuñez, Ronnie Sharma, and Nanako Barnes of Mr. Prescott’s 5th Period AP English Class, otherwise known as “The Library Tweens”. These brave children have followed in Tamika Flynn’s footsteps, coming face-to-face with a librarian and emerging victorious. Now they must come face-to-face with something maybe…  fifteen percent more horrifying than a librarian. A twisted, cosmic god. 

The kids told me they could not give me the specifics of the plan, only that it involved using ropes and grappling hooks to cross the dangerous city streets through the air, guerrilla-style strikes on Mother Lauren’s weak points, capturing Kevin, and finally attacking Mother Lauren when she least suspects it-- at noon today. She’ll never see it coming. 

As part of the plan, I have been asked to create a distraction so that Mother Lauren and Kevin won’t notice what they are doing until it is too late. They told me it is “vitally important” that no-one notice until the plan has been completed, and so I had been sworn to secrecy-- a secrecy I will break for no-one! Except of course, you, my listeners. I could never keep anything from you. 

I thought a lot about what a good distraction would be, and here’s what I’ve come up with-- Hey! Look over there!

[Cecil runs away from the microphone, his footsteps going right-to-left-to-right, before they fade away. In the distance, after a brief pause, a window is smashed. Several sirens sound, seeming to be cars driving down the street as they fade in and out accompanied with scraping metal. Multiple dogs bark before they fade away as well. A car zooms down the street, seeming to possibly loop around the station before fading into silence. An air-raid siren fades in and out as wind blows, brief chanting is heard, what sounds like an old movie with incomprehensible dialogue plays. The siren stops as the chanting returns, an incomprehensible voice seeming to come from a radio plays, a rumbling is heard, and the Indiana Jones theme plays follows the rumbling right-to-left. Wind seems to blow again and fades out as Cecil’s footsteps return, the beginning few sounding like he just jumped through the window he may have broken. He continues walking over what sounds like metal, and then returns to the microphone, panting through his words.]

So…sorry… little out of breath. …We’ll see if that worked. 

Oh no. Despite what some might say is the best distraction anyone has done in the history of getting people to look away from something important, it appears that Mother Lauren somehow got wind of the plan. She flinched, and the world flinched with her. She glared, and the world swooned. She no longer even has to fight; Night Vale is her thick, sludging heart, her pockmarked lungs-- she has made us part of her disease. 

“I am the universe itself,” she howled, an air raid siren of a voice coming from all places at once. “To fight me is to fight the fabric of existence-- a laughable effort.” 

The Library Tweens were seized by Mother Lauren’s drones--who once were our own citizens, but now are pink, spongy lumps with no eyes, constantly screaming; “Help me! I still feel all of it, there is some vital part of me that remains untainted, I still have a soul!” as they lumber comically towards the tweens. The tweens put up a valiant fight, but they were captured and thrown into the town prison-- which now is covered in a pale, flakey skin. 

The Boy watched this all happen, holding onto Mother Lauren’s hands, enfolded in her multitude of oil-slick wings. Something came over him, and he turned, and struck out at Mother Lauren! With the effort of his entire soul, he resisted her influence, and he stuck a knife into her side! …Without bothering to look his way, she weaved her tendrils around him and he was absorbed into her being. The Boy now stands at her feet, the tendrils fused with his skin, and pulsing sickeningly. His eyes are blank whites. His hands flap about like they are playing an invisible piano. 

Oh, Night Vale… This is the moment of greatest despair. We have not only been defeated, but… changed. We are no longer who we are. 

And to make matters worse, here comes Kevin, unfolding himself from the crowd, strutting up to the podium of his victory. 

He looks around at the city that he has finally driven under his thumb. After years of resisting him, we can resist no more. He sees the bowling alley, enrobed in veins and arteries and malignant tumors. He sees town hall turned into a tongue, covered in white fuzz. 

He sees my own station, my beloved radio station, now entirely made of the same stuff as toenails. He sees all the evidence of his victory. And then he turns, and looks at The Boy. The Boy that he came back for. The Boy that is the younger version of himself, he looks at the helpless boy and he smiles. 

Here, there is a… heavy stillness, but somewhere, thunder. Somewhere, snow. Somewhere, far away, weather. 

###

Weather: Cutting Teeth by Priscilla Snow.

###

Well. 

Okay. 

I don’t know what to do here, honestly. 

Usually when we go to the weather report, a great struggle, or, climactic event happens concurrently with it, and we come back to a problem solved. With my perspective now shifted to the past I can then fill you in on how we made it through yet another dangerous day in our fair town. Now some people mistake this for the weather actually fixing the problem but that’s… that’s not the case. The weather usually just happens at the same time as what fixes the problem, and then I, (utilizing my expert narrative skills), tell you how that happened. 

This time however, everything is more or less how we left it. The Boy? Still captive. Mother Lauren? Still ascendant. And Kevin? Still smiling. 

There will be no victorious shift in perspective. Only a terrifying march through the ceaseless present. And in that present moment, Kevin turns to The Boy. He kneels down, still smiling, and takes The Boy’s hand. Gently, he untangles Mother Lauren’s tendrils from The Boy’s skin. He guides The Boy down from the podium. Mother Lauren, her eyes to the cosmos, is seemingly impassive to the final meager death throes of our little town. 

The Boy looks at Kevin. Kevin smiles at The Boy-- I do not like that smile, but then… I have never liked Kevin’s smile.

 “The last time I was here,” Kevin says, “I said that this was a situation I would not be able to handle alone. And I was right! And I was wrong. Because I can handle it with just me, but, I cannot handle it with only one of me.” 

“I’m sorry,” The Boy says, “but I don’t know who you are.”

It seems that his encounter with the body and mind of Mother Lauren has left him without his memories. He stares blankly at the world like it was a book in a language he took a few classes back in high school, like he should know it, but he doesn’t. 

“That’s okay,” Kevin says, “because I remember enough for the both of us. I’ve never talked much about my father-- he was a jovial man, but a stern man. He was a fair man, but with priorities I did not always understand. I think he did the best job he could-- in fact, I know he did, because, in this moment, I understand him better than anyone has ever understood their own father.”

“Okay,” The Boy says. He clearly doesn’t know why this man is telling him this. He says, “I don’t have a father.” He doesn’t say this tragically, but like he was telling the time to someone who asked. 

“Ah,” says Kevin, “but you do. My childhood was a strange riddle I never could quite solve, and here you are, a neat solution to the question of my life.”

Listeners, I am starting to understand what Kevin is getting at here-- and I’m not sure I like it, but it does have a certain… symmetry to it. Life is rarely fair, but it is often balanced. 

“What are you saying?” The Boy says. 

“Your name is Kevin, and I am your father, “ says Kevin, who is Kevin’s Father. 

“I am? You are?” says The Boy who is Kevin. 

“Yes,” says Kevin’s Father. “I will raise you well, or well enough, or, well, enough, you know? I will see you through.”

He looks up at Mother Lauren. She finally looks down, her tendrils weave through the earth and the bricks and the flesh of Night Vale, her sunny smile clouds over. 

“I thought I was through with you,” she says. 

“You were wrong,” says Kevin, and Kevin’s Father, simultaneously. Kevin’s Father stands tall, and Kevin stands as tall as he can, which is not nearly as tall as his father. Not yet. 

“Dead wrong!” calls a voice from the crowd, and here steps forward Alejandra Nuñez, Ronnie Sharma, and Nanako Barnes of Mr. Prescott’s 5th Period AP English Class, otherwise known as “The Library Tweens”. 

“I thought you were in jail,” I say from my radio booth, because this is all happening in the present moment so it just now occurred to me that I could be an active part of these events. 

“We were,” says Ronnie, “but then, this nice old lady busted us out!”

“I am not old! I’m in my early twenties for God’s sake!” says Tamika Flynn.

“She did a real daring and action-packed jailbreak!” says Nanako. “I wouldn’t have known someone that ancient had it in her!”

“Ugh,” says Tamika. But she does look exhilarated about having once again taken part in an adventure. In one hand she holds a rope, and in her other hand she holds a copy of the novel “Autumn” by Ali Smith. It’s the British first-edition, the one that was printed on a working blowtorch. 

“Point is!” says Alejandra to Mother Lauren, “You’ll have to stand against us!”

“And me,” says Tamika, shooting a menacing jet of fire from Ali Smith’s elliptical portrait of Brexit-era Britain. 

“And me,” says Kevin’s Father. 

Kevin, the young boy that he is, looks around, unsure. This is all a lot of new information all at once. But he makes his decision; “And me,” he says. 

Mother Lauren laughs, and the mountains laughs with her, hollow booms in canyons and passes. She swats at Kevin-- but Kevin dodges. Mother Lauren’s face flickers with concern, she swats again-- nothing connects. The streets roil. 

“I knew you before,” Kevin’s Father says, “I know that somewhere in there is human vulnerability!”

“Laughable!” screams Mother Lauren. She is not laughing. 

Mother Lauren’s drones advance, but a few stop. And then, human faces start to come out of their pink, fleshy lumps. 

“We could neither breathe, nor could we die!” the people inside the drones say. “We were… trapped! In the moment between breaths! It was torture without end!” 

Other Night Vale citizens give them thumbs-up, indicating empathy.

“No! I am a god!” shouts Mother Lauren. 

“Yes,” says Kevin’s Father, “and like any god, you are defined by the belief of your worshippers.”

Mother Lauren’s face screws up in fury. And then she scowls, up again at the cosmos. “Yeah! Okay! Screw it!” she says. “This universe was getting too small for me anyway.” 

And with that, she floats into the sky. The stars open like a door for her. She steps through-- she glances back, for a moment, at the city below her. “One day, I will return,” she says. “Or I won’t. T B D.” And then the stars swing shut behind her. And she is gone. 

Gradually, the city comes back to itself. The people shake off the influence of Mother Lauren. The buildings. and the earth, and the trees return to themselves. All is as it was. Minus those who are dead, or injured, or missing, which is… a good amount of people. 

At the center of all this is a boy and his father. The boy is holding his father’s hand. The Boy is holding his own hand. Kevin is holding Kevin’s hand, and together, Kevin walks back to his home, to live, if not always happily, then at the very least, ever after.

After the Kevins pass through it, Carlos pulls the plug on the portal, deciding that science, while worth some cost, is not worth every cost. Science must be in the service of humanity, never the other way around. It is a tool, not a goal. 

Oh-- he says that the portal made a real cool “zap” sound as it turned off. 

The Library Tweens--as they wish to be called--have declared the creation of a new teen militia, to protect Night Vale from any further incursions from Desert Bluffs Too, and anyone else who might want to mess with them. Tamika Flynn, who knows a thing or two about leading a teen militia, offered to be a mentor, but The Library Tweens put out a statement saying; “Uh, that’s okay, no thanks, ma’am.” 

What lies ahead for Night Vale? 

I cannot say. Our future is an unwritten slate. Our past is a diary scribbled in handwriting none of us can read, and our present is the view through a dirty window-- specifically, for me, the dirty window in this studio, through which I can see Amber Akinyi teaching her son how to ride a bike. I can see Michelle Nguyen and Maureen Johnson taking their poodle-earwig mix (or, poowig) out for a walk. I can see-- ooo, I can see a mysterious van with the symbol of a labyrinth on it with a man who is not tall and a man who is not short inside, driving some unknown cargo out into the scrublands.   

In short, I see the day-to-day of a town who has been through… a lot, but remained, through it all, very much itself. 

I see Night Vale. 

And I love it. 

Goodnight, my favorite town! Goodnight. 

###

PROVERB:  Hit me with your best shot! Ow! Okay, actually, that sucked! Uh, please hit me with one of your worse shots, instead, thank you. Ugh.

[mokaisathome]

First Date

On AO3

[You see that thing in shojo manga when the main girl arrives late on a date and goes "Oh no, I'm sorry for being late :(" and the guy she likes says "It's not a big deal, I just arrived"? It's that. Almost. Not really. Kalim is trying really hard to make it reality though!]

   What made a first date great? Lots of things if Cater and his advice were to be trusted – and Kalim obviously did. It all began with the meet-up – the very base so to speak. Hidden behind a wall, Kalim snuck a look at Jamil waiting a few feet away from there, leaning on a lamppost. His boyfriend wasn't doing anything other than check his phone from time to time, yet he looked effortlessly cool, probably helped by the fashionable clothes he was wearing… Or maybe it was because Kalim wasn't used to seeing him in street clothes these days? Their school uniform wasn’t bad and the Scarabia one fit Jamil perfectly as did his basketball jersey, a casual outfit felt different as if today was truly special. It didn't really matter in the end – Jamil was simply handsome and that was a very big problem at the moment.

   According to every movie, series, and book Cater recommended to him, Kalim was supposed to be a little late to their meet-up. Why? He wasn't sure himself, but that was a staple of everything he looked at so he followed the guideline even if he really, really, really wanted to just come out of his hiding place and jump in Jamil's arms right now. Jamil's frequent glances toward him didn't help. 

   Of course, they came here together so he knew where Kalim was and was just playing along with whatever he was doing. Every time their gazes crossed, Kalim's body unconsciously moved toward Jamil, but he bit his lips and retreated behind the wall. Who knew a first date could be so hard?

*

“Rejected.”

“Why?!”

   Kalim's plan was supposed to be perfect. After all, he went through it with Lilia and Cater and took every suggestion into account so when Jamil shook his head, he didn't understand at first. What was the point of contention?

“We're not going outside separately,” Jamil finally explained in front of Kalim's incomprehension. “Remember what happened last time you went in town by yourself?”

“I met Fellow and Gidel so it wasn't that bad–”

“It was!”

“Tch.”

Jamil firmly pinched Kalim's cheek. “Whatever you say. We're going together.”

“Then it's not like a real date!”

“What does that change? We live in the same place anyway.”

   An impressive feat of logic but Kalim wasn’t about to give up on his idea. It wasn't about going outside alone really. Rather, it was deeper than that – it had to feel different from their usual outings because a date was special, wasn't it? Treating it just like when they went into town to buy books or go to a café didn't sit right with him. The pressure on his cheek had lessened, but Jamil still hadn't let go of his face, waiting for his explanation.

“Jamil… It's a date, right?”

“Of course. Have you forgotten already?”

“Absolutely not! That wasn't what I meant…”

“Then what?”

“Guuuh… Just wait a sec!”

   Batting away Jamil's hand, Kalim rushed to the corner of his room where he had thrown his schoolbag – despite Jamil's warnings – when he came home and rummaged through his books until his hand closed around the thing he wanted. He flipped through the worn-out pages – from what Cater had told him, his sisters bought it a long time ago – until he found what he was interested in. Then, he scurried back to Jamil, thrusting the book in his face.

“That!”

   Jamil pushed him away just enough so he could read properly. At first, his face only expressed confusion, then as his eyes moved across the pages, his lips curled downward and when he finished reading, he sighed. Kalim's shoulders slumped in disappointment, but he quickly perked up at Jamil's next words.

“You're so embarrassing…” He mumbled before adding, “Do whatever you want.”

“For real?”

   Jamil held up a finger. “There's a condition though.”

   Kalim nodded without even listening to it first.

*

   Jamil's condition ended up being a simple compromise. They'd go out together, so Jamil could keep an eye on him, but they'd separate before arriving at their meet-up place – could they really call it that when they met up that morning already? – and from then, Kalim had five minutes to come to Jamil. His boyfriend truly thought about everything – both his safety and his wishes were protected.

   Kalim ignored Jamil's impatient glances as he looked at his phone one last time. There were still thirty seconds before their meet-up and after these five minutes spent observing Jamil under every angle, Kalim… Well, he wasn't sure his heart could survive the whole date. If simply looking at Jamil from afar made him want to hug him and not let him go forever, what would happen if they held hands? Walked around together? Was that the power of dates Lilia talked about? Perhaps that was a greater magic than anything Kalim could ever produce…

   Kalim crouched, hiding his burning face in his hands. A few seconds later, he slapped his face and rose to his feet, full of determination. Dates were a hundred times more amazing than what he expected, but he couldn't disappoint Jamil and not show up–

“What are you doing?”

“Uwaaah! Jamil, you scared me!” Kalim tilted his head. “Weren't you supposed to stay there?”

“I said I'd give you five minutes, and you've been here for six.”

“Wow, I didn't notice at all…”

   Jamil sighed. “Yeah, I thought so.”

“Sorry, sorry! I was thinking too hard about something”

“What did you need to think about?”

“You were so cool that I thought I'd fall in love with you again!”

   He didn't quite catch what Jamil replied but seeing his boyfriend reach for his – nonexistent as he wore a simple jacket – hood to hide his face and his reddened ears, Kalim smiled. He didn't even feel the slightest twinge of disappointment at not being able to follow his plan. Yep, dates were truly magical if only because he could see so many facets of Jamil in so little time

[creamecafe]

Hello! ((＼(^_^)／))

I have a K'uk'ulkan request!

Can we get some sleepy ramblings from him? Like, him and the reader are going to sleep, and he's saying some incomprehensible, random, kingly duty nonsense, and the reader is just finding it hilarious. Just trying to holding in their laughter while he's just going on and on.

𝐋𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 | 𝐍𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐫

𝐍𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 | 𝐑𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐆𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 | 𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐈 𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐫 | 𝐍𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭 | 𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐩𝐚𝐝

Summary: It's nothing new that Namor talks in his sleep and while you sleep next or by him you hear it all. But one night he talks in his sleep and things are hilarious.

Pairing: K'uk'ulkan/Namor x GN!Reader

Word Count: ???

Warnings: none just major fluff

a/n: tysm for requesting I hope you enjoy it! Almost my first Namor fic AHH! Also the title may or may not have been inspired by Harry Styles song 'Late Night Talking' I couldn't think of any titles that would fit ok?

You and Namor have always slept by each other as long as you both can remember.

You guys would cuddle up together in your big bed and sleep holding each other. But you notice that while you guys are sleeping, Namor would talk or ramble in his sleep.

You sometimes joke to Namor about it but he denies saying he doesn't talk in his sleep. Until one night.

After a long day of looking over Talokan as both King(s)/Queen, you guys decided it was best to go to sleep. You both said goodnight to each other

"Goodnight my queen/king." Namor kisses you sweetly on the lips.

"Goodnight my love." You kiss him back.

You both pulled back and smile at each other. You get into your shared bed and cuddle with each other. Namor started rubbing circles on your back and you started falling asleep quickly. You love it when he rubs circles on your back.

A few hours later, you guys are sleeping soundly and peacefully. Then suddenly you hear talking out of nowhere. You get up rubbing your eye to see who was talking this late.

Then you recognize the voice. It was Namor's voice. You look to your right to see him sleeping, knocked out cold and just talking whatever incomprehensible nonsense is coming out of his mouth.

"Imperius Rex! Rise Talokan! Rise Talokan!"

You just laid in bed looking at him while trying to hold on your laughter to not wake him up. But to your efforts, he continues.

"I am king of Talokan, and you will not disrespect my partner! Imperius Rex!"

After a while you could hold it in anymore. You started laughing and quickly covered your mouth. Namor woke up to your laugh. He turned to you confused why you were awake.

"Is everything alright Y/N? Why are you awake? And why are you laughing?"

It took you a minute to calm yourself down to explain everything. Even when you were talking you had a smile on your face.

"Y-you were talking in your sleep Namor."

"I was?"

"Yes"

"No I wasn't."

"Yes you were Namor you weren't saying king duties in your sleep and bunch of nonsense."

"What did I say?"

"Oh you were saying a lot of things. You kept saying Rise Talokan, imperius Rex, and saying to not disrespect me." You smiled.

Namor looks at you confused about his sleep talking but can't help but smile at you because of your expression.

"Well I guess what you say is true about me sleep talking. I just thought you were making it up."

"No why would I do that?" You laugh and Namor laughs with you.

"I'm sorry if I interrupted your sleep."

"It's ok," You reach your hand out to play with his curly dark hair and move down to cup his face.

"I don't mind losing a bit of sleep because of you."

Namor smiles at this. He just loves you so much. You both went back to sleep to cuddle with each other. It's needless to say the next morning you would nonstop make fun of Namor of his sleep talk.

Namor would be annoyed but can't be mad at you because he loves you and you do the same with him.

[noodyl-blasstal]

Piano Man

Big thanks to @ceilingfan5 who sang "pretty lizard" to the tune of "pretty woman" this morning, it got stuck in my head, morphed into "pretty wizard" and now we're here. Enjoy below or on Ao3.

-

Kravitz is tired. Kravitz is tireder than tired. Not in body, his hands would keep skimming the keys forever and always if he doesn’t occasionally put them away, and he can’t ever resist singing along to something whether he knows the words or not. No, what Kravitz is tired of is fancy people parties and all the fancy people nonsense that comes along with it.

The pay is good enough, that’s how he knows he won’t walk out, no matter how bad it gets - someone has to keep his apartment paid for - but these parties are always full of the most obnoxious people. His mouth is dry and his back is sore and Lydia, sorry, Ms Adventurezone, because ‘we don’t use first names, darling, it’s uncouth’ has been promising him a break for the last 23 minutes, but every time he winds down she suddenly appears to ask him for just one more song. It looks like she’s on her way to derail his break for the seventh time when someone, a glorious, perfect, wonderful man in a huge elaborate hat steps into her path, blocking her from Kravitz’s view which definitely means she also can’t see him!

Kravitz mentally beams gratitude at his saviour and respectfully doesn’t notice exactly how fantastic the guy’s arse looks in those silky trousers as he finishes up the song. The man is probably just intervening by accident, Kravitz needs to reign in his impulse to romanticise. There’s no deeper plot to rescue him from Lydia’s clutches, but he definitely needs to take advantage and escape while he still can - in fact, it looks like Edward, sorry, Mr Adventurezone, is headed his way. Kravitz will commando roll under this piano to escape if it comes to it. It doesn’t. He cuts the song a few bars early, pretends not to see Edward (ha, take that!) and beelines for the bar.

“Hey Krav, you sound great!” Ren waves in greeting.

“Thanks.” He croaks slightly.

“Say no more.” She laughs as she hands over a glass of water. “I’ll be back with your tea in a tick. Have this in the meantime.” She nudges a plate his way too.

Kravitz smiles his thanks and is already shoving the lemon-y mousse topped biscuit into his mouth. He needs to start eating before he comes to these things. They always say they’ll feed him and it’s rare they bother. Praise the lady for Ren, her fancy cocktail bar for hire tends to mean they coincide at a lot of these events. They very quickly worked out that they had allies in each other and used it to their advantage whenever possible.

“Anyone sat here, handsome?” Asks a voice over his shoulder.

Kravitz prepares to turn away whichever entitled prick is trying to ruin his break, but clamps his mouth shut when he realises it’s his saviour.

“No, no one is, that’s good, that’s fine, it’s free.” Kravitz intends to pat the seat invitingly, panics, withdraws his hand, and ends up caressing it instead. Perfect. An incredibly normal gesture. Maybe the guy will just turn and leave, spare Kravitz from any other awful attempts to flirt.

The man sits down instead.

“Thank you.” Kravitz says, realising slightly too late that the guy probably doesn’t have any idea what he’s thanking him for.

“No problem, I figured you were due a break. I used to work these things before, well, you know.” He waves a hand as if whatever incomprehensible thing he’s alluding to is obvious. “She hates that she has to invite me instead of hiring me. The handle’s Taako, by the way, what’s yours?” He crosses one knee over the other and his trouser leg parts to show a length of dark skin. Kravitz wants desperately to find out exactly how high the split in the thigh goes.

“Kravitz.” Says Kravitz. Focusing on doing anything that isn’t staring intently at Taako’s thigh. Not that Taako seemed to mind, he definitely grinned when he noticed Kravitz go slack jawed. But still, he could have misinterpreted, easier to stick to small talk. “What did you use to do at these things?”

“Steal, mostly, you know, light pick pocketing here, grand theft auto there… the usual stuff.”

Kravitz’s eyes widen. Fuck. He couldn’t tell Sloane about this one, she was already keeping the list of ‘reasons Kravitz isn’t allowed to pick his own men’ and ‘being immediately attracted to possibly a mob boss’ was likely to make it into the top 3.

“I’m joking, Krav.” Taako takes a sip of his drink, swallows slowly, eyeing Kravitz as he does.

Kravitz’s stomach clenches, he likes this, he likes this a lot. Taako’s welcome to observe him as much as he wants, preferably when he’s wearing less.

“Of course. Yes. You got me!” Kravitz manages a short laugh, it’s breathier than he intended it to be.

“Good to see you, Taako!” Ren greets Taako, plonks a cup down in front of Kravitz, winks, and leaves to attend to the disorderly queue because none of these people knew how to wait their turn.

“Do you like these things?” He asks Taako, then sips gently at the tea. It’s sweet, honeyed and fiery with ginger. Ren’s good to him.

“Nope.” Taako says passionately, looks like he means it. “They’re boring as all hell, my guy. No one is any fun.”

“You seem fun, the hat’s definitely fun.” Kravitz points at the spangled monstrosity atop Taako’s head.

“I’m a wizard and a genius, obviously I’m a delight. I meant the rest of them.”

“No one else is worth it?”

“You think Lydia’s fun?”

“I thought she might be if she respects you.”

Taako snorts. “I’ll let you know if that ever happens, but I wouldn’t hold out hope… fuck, speak of the devil.”

Kravitz turns to see Lydia stomping over. By the time he turns back, Taako’s gone.

“Kravitz! There you are.” The vulgarity of first names didn’t extend to talking to ‘the help’ clearly. “You need to be very careful about overdoing your breaks, you were supposed to take 15 at 9 and it’s already half past. You wouldn’t want me to review you badly would you?” She smiles her awful poisonous smile and eyes him with undisguised glee.

Thankfully he knows this dance. There’s no point in arguing. He’s only had 5 minutes and the reason he didn’t go at 9 was because of her, but she’ll just use any rebellion against him. He just nods demurely, finishes his tea in a long gulp, and says. “Of course.”

She looks disappointed about the lack of fight in him, which is exactly what he was hoping for. He leaves without another word.

–

The first few times he thinks he might have imagined it, but Taako is definitely gravitating closer to the piano. Kravitz didn’t notice him at all before, but he’s danced by, walked past, or stopped to look on appreciatively. Kravitz smiles every time he catches his eye and Taako’s even winked back at him a few times, but he needs to do something to show he can be the fun person Taako’s nights are lacking.

Lydia doesn’t seem to notice the Thong Song instrumental he works into the rotation, Taako spits champagne through his nose and claps so hard Kravitz can hear it over the general smattering of applause when he finishes a piece. It emboldens him enough to try something, he just needs to wait for the perfect moment.

Taako finally does a walk by, flicking his gaze to Kravitz as he finishes a song and transitions into Roy Orbison.

“Pretty wizard, walkin’ right past me”

Taako pauses.

“Pretty wizard, the kind I liked to meet Pretty wizard, I don't believe you You're not the truth No one could look as good as you Mercy!”

Taako turns, wide eyed. Points to himself, innocently.

“Pretty wizard, won't you pardon me? Pretty wizard, I couldn't help but see Pretty wizard, that you look lovely as can be Are you lonely just like me? Rwar-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r”

Kravitz gives it beans with the roar, if there’s a bit, he will commit to it. Taako laughs delightedly, it’s worth it.

“Pretty wizard, stop a while Pretty wizard, talk a while Pretty wizard, give your smile to me..eeeeee Pretty wizard, hey hey hey Pretty wizard, saw you look my way Pretty wizard, say you'll stay with me 'Cause I need you, I'll treat you right Will you maybe, dance with me tonight?”

Kravitz wiggles his eyebrows alluringly. Taako laughs, not unkindly, eyes soft, the corners crinkled with mirth. Lydia’s aggressively trying to catch Kravitz’s eye but he resolutely refuses to look away from Taako.

“Pretty wizard, can we go for coffee? Pretty wizard, just you and me? Pretty wizard, I’ll even spring for the whipped cre-eeeaaam”

Taako’s laughing so hard that he’s dabbing his eyes with a handkerchief, trying desperately not to smudge his eye make up.

“Okay I see you’re dairy free, okay I guess I’ll get the coconut cream, but wait I could get you some lactaaaaaaaaaid A scone, or two, or three? I can do that for you, you’ll see! If you’ll just go out with me, Oh, oh, pretty wizard”

Kravitz plunks out the last notes and laughs at Taako lounging dramatically on the front of the piano.

“Here’s Taako’s number, handsome, cha’boy can do dairy and he’s absolutely going to need those three scones tomorrow.”

“Kravitz!” Lydia yells.

He starts playing a jazzy version of Ace of Spades.

“Kravitz! I know you can hear me. We didn’t discuss any deviations from the playlist or the lyrics.” Kravitz nods as if he’s listening to everything she’s saying, and not staring at Taako.

“If you like to eat scones, I tell you I’m your man. Plain, fruit, cherry, they’re not all the same to me. The pleasure is to spread, jam, butter, or cream instead, If a scone is what you need, the only place you should be’s, Paloma’s Bakes, (Paloma’s Bakes)”

[miyagi-hokarate]

(Shows up late with boba tea) WHAT A SEASON AMIRITE FELLAS?

Random assortment of season 6 part 1 thoughts:

(tl;dr: not a lot of satisfaction with this season for me. Lots of spoilers and sarcasm under the cut ahfksjfjdkg. )

we still haven't gotten that goddamn fun Lawrusso spar 😩

Okay jokes aside, I'm...not a fan of this season :/

A lot of things felt off, like the characters (more on that specifically later) to the plot progression

Of the things I liked, Sam and Tory's developing relationship — especially them having a dialogue together — was incredibly refreshing and felt good to see grow!

Tory's character in general surprised me and it felt much stronger than in previous seasons!!! Of all the potential flashbacks, a Tory-centered one was serendipitous

I also liked that Robby won the role of being team leader!! Much of his character had been centered on guidance, both receiving and giving it, and it makes the most sense narratively to give him that ultimate chance to prove himself as a leader, being one who is meant to be one half to represent the skill and prowess of his dojo

As FRUSTRATING as some things were; Daniel and Johnny butting heads, Devon doing everything in her power to earn her spot in the Sekai Taikai (even resorting to cheating), Tory lashing out after the loss of her mother; these were all to me understandable conflicts that didn't feel forced or like pulling teeth (especially Tory. I'm so sorry girl 🫂)

RETURN OF SHAWWWWN

DUTCH MENTION!!!!!!

AISHA MENTION!!!!!!

Okay...hater moment fr now...

A lot of everything else I have some problem with or feel strongly indifferent to; the Sekai Taikai (but there's no stopping that, so I'm just :/ whatever), Mr. Miyagi's secret, Daniel and Johnny butting heads (yes, I know, repeating myself...), Johnny in general, everything about the fucking baby, everything about Sensei Kim and her students. Arhagrggagrggfhgh

AS I FEARED, I'm not a fan of the contents and fallout of Mr. Miyagi's secret box. Oh great, Mr. Miyagi's dark secret was that he committed crimes and was involved with the Sekai Taikai or something. What shock. I can't believe Mr. Miyagi hurt people and hide that from Daniel. Can you hear my thick and heavy sarcasm.

I don't know if the rest of the fandom had learned to love the Big Twist or whatever, but I still don't see that box as anything more than a cheap plot twist. Its existence is practically pointless with what we, the audience, and Daniel know about Mr. Miyagi; we KNOW he's already hurt people in his dark and mysterious past, even people who may not have deserved it. He was drafted into war by the US army because the country would rather Mr. Miyagi would die as a soldier than live as an American for god's sake. Mr. Miyagi is already weighed by the horrors of his actions — actions Daniel himself had learned that didn't make Mr. Miyagi a villain, or a hero, or a tale of woe; they were all done by a man who was human, who made mistakes and who felt regret in his actions. Am I shocked that Mr. Miyagi could have committed crimes in the interim years between internment and The Karate Kid? No, but it feels transparent that the purpose of Mr. Miyagi's box has more to do with the twist of him participating in the Sekai Taikai than anything as profound as what has already been Mr. Miyagi's backstory introduced in The Karate Kid

What is there to say about Daniel and Johnny that hasn't been said already. This is like their hundredth karate divorce. Pick another method of foreplay it's getting old

There were parts that I actually commend Johnny for reacting maturely for; cooperating with Daniel and Chozen about the dojo name; keeping his temper in check when the realtor insults him; but MAN does no one fumble the ball as hard as Johnny does otherwise. Not all of it is painfully incomprehensible, but Jesus what was up with him this season. You have a baby (💀) coming your way. Act like it

Speaking of the baby 😒 I still don't like it. It just...it's still such a disappointing way to try and progress the characters of Johnny, Carmen, Miguel, Robby, etc. That opening shot of that fucking onesie was despicable. It's watching Miguel and Robby smile and laugh through this wackass development still. It's watching Johnny seemingly preparing for a growing family in spite of the countless evidence to everything that would make him ill-prepared. It's the fact Carmen is stuck being Mom of Miguel, Love Interest of Johnny, and now Mom of this new kid. Carmen ESPECIALLY gets the short end of the goddamn stick in terms of characterization regarding this, because she barely has any 😩😩 I know it's too late to be complaining about this baby but AUGH. I hate this

Another thing I hate is how WEIRD Cobra Kai is with its Asian characters — with Sensei Kim, Master Kim, their students, and (I can't believe I'm saying this) Kyler in particular. The show has always had this problem, with the double standards of Kyler stuck as a static bully character while others are allowed to grow nuance and development and abusive Dragon Lady Sensei Kim, but the introduction of Korean Fu Manchu in the form of Master Kim and a mass of intimidating and equally nameless karate students training ruthlessly in the blue-tinted woods of South Korea really hammer in the odd racial subtext

In a similar topic, did anyone else find it incredibly weird how Kyler was made to eat off the floor by those frat bros? I don't know if I'm reading too much into it, but it felt uncomfortable on such a different level than any other method of bullying shown in the show. It's never said why the frat bros target Kyler so much, and the only difference I could really make of is how Kyler easily defers to follow if in the face of aggressive leadership. And that he's Asian

I fucking hate that US flag mohawk and I am so mad that Eli is allowed to represent Miyagi-Do Karate in that goddawful thing I am being so serious right now

I'm sure I have other thoughts floating in my head that I can't recall, but here these are ahfjakdhjajd. I wish I could say I'm excited for part 2 arriving this November, but in much of the same way, the strongest emotion I feel is Dread

[pesterloglog]

Cronus Ampora, Mituna Captor, Meenah Peixes

Act 6, page 5308

CRONUS: HEY! i thought i told you to stay put.

MITUNA: W7HF7F?

CRONUS: i told you to stay here in exactly this spot.

MITUNA: 1 D1

#D

CRONUS: vwell, she vwas gone. SOMEONE must havwe frightened her avway.

CRONUS: you must havwe spaced out and vwandered into vwiewv briefly. she probably got one look at you and couldnt split fast enough.

MITUNA: N0 1 S7H4Y3D H3R3 L1K3 Y0U 7H41D

CRONUS: vwonderful. this is just exactly vwhat i needed, vwhat vwith all my frayed emotions lately. thanks a lot, "buddy."

MITUNA: 1M 50RRY

CRONUS: no youre not. youre lying.

CRONUS: your vwhole bifurcated demeanor is such an act. half the time you are noxious and incomprehensible, and the other half you are mild and contrite? sure, "PAL."

CRONUS: as if im not SO on to you. you only pretend to say youre sorry to get girls to like you more. sure seems like pyropes a sucker for the ruse. like im not familiar vwith THOSE tactics. vwho do you think vwrote the book on that??

MITUNA: 1 D0N7 NK0W W0W WR073 7H3 800K

CRONUS: be quiet. i really dislike the sound of you.

CRONUS: do you realize because of you, it may be EPOCHS before i get another shot vwith her? you just had to crawvl out of the bushes and shit your space suit in plain sight.

MITUNA: 1M 50RRY

CRONUS: i said shut up. do you havwe any idea vwhat a man of my class vwould do if a mustard blood like you spoke to me this vway on alternia? honestly, sometimes i think i vwas hatched in the vwrong univwerse, let ALONE the vwrong body.

CRONUS: i am so sick of havwing to pretend to treat you vwith the dignity you vwouldnt deservwe evwen if you COULD count the scars on my forehead. you couldnt tell me the ansvwer if i asked vwhat your favworite number vwas.

MITUNA: 7W0!!11!!!!111!!!!!1111111

CRONUS: dont interrupt. youre a horrible friend and a horrible person.

MITUNA:

CRONUS: latula is only vwith you out of pity. she doesnt havwe real feelings for you. no one could.

MITUNA:

CRONUS: you are a brain damaged reject on a team full of rejects. a rejects reject. i vwould havwe culled you myself if that vword meant vwhat it should havwe on our planet.

MEENAH: A)(-EM

CRONUS: vwhoah uh

CRONUS: meenah!

CRONUS: vwowv... hmm.

CRONUS: VWOWV

CRONUS: howv long uh...

CRONUS: vwere you standing there?

MEENAH: douche

[alarrytale]

Hello Marte! So I´m reading the review from Sziget festival from our local music site and the editor wrote quite nice words about Louis´ performance. It´s short because it´s the review of the whole day but I am very suprised and want to share. Okay, first of all the headline for the review says "LT could go to see 1D revival" so I was expecting some disaster but the review itself doesn´t actually mention 1D at all so idk what was the thought of the headline when there´s nothing about Louis singing 1D songs during his set lol. Secondly, editor mentions Niall as he performed there last year but only compares Louis with Niall that Niall had more fans in the crowd but in the same sentence continues that it´s because Louis has choosen the indie rock path and that´s "exotic and maybe incomprehensible for 1D fan-girls." And he actually praises the indie rock path Louis has choosen. And then he sums Louis performance as nice and enjoyable eventho there wasn´t anything new what fans haven´t seen last autumn when he was on tour. He also mentions L*am G*ll*gher (who played there previous day) but only that Louis should be more bold when it comes to the composition of his songs because most songs from both Louis and LG sounded quite same. And he highlights Saturdays as his best song when it comes to the composition because "the beautiful work with guitars slowly escalates the song to it´s climax". But the end of the review says that it actually doesn´t matter what music editors say and write because fans were screaming after every word Louis said. Honestly I am pleased and happy with this review. Everytime I read shows reviews from this editor I know it will be honest, without prejudice and likely finds some info what to expect from the performance and if there´s some storytelling behind it (like f.e. S*m Sm*th), he always mentions it. P.S.: I truly hope Louis´ sunglasses will be brought back to him because those squared he wore at the airport are the worst. They are probably worse than those grandprix sunglasses H wears. Please Louis, get new ones and destroy those because they are absolutely terrible.

Hi, anon!

Sorry this reply is late! That's not a bad review, perhaps because it doesn’t really mention anything about his performance. That's usually the point of critisim from most reviewers. Going the indie route will draw less crowds, so that's just honest. Whether that's the right road to take i think it's down to personal preference. It's true that louies will support him and show up for him almost regardless. Saturdays is his best performance song, because he actually makes an effort, because it seems to mean something to him. He knows the lyrics and seems to emotionally project a lot through that song. I still don't get it, but i've given up trying to understand.

Louis' taste in sunglasses is atrocious, these ones are worse than the last, but that doesn’t mean the last ones were good... Some people look good in all types of sunglasses and some people only look good in a few types of sunglasses. Louis belongs to the last category. Just bring back the rayban wayfarers and call it a day.

[justanotherpersonsuniverse]

barking barking, ok so i am rereading a bit of the last chapter and the things i had noted last time so that i remember everything that happened but after that i am loose

having an awful idea to listen to the guitar solo of freebird on repeat as i read this.... i am going to do it there is a rotating rat on the 10 hours version i found, wonderful

SO UH THIS IS MASSIVE SORRY ALSO SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T READ CAPS LOVELY NEWEST CHAPTER SCROLL PAST THIS VERY FAST IT MAY TAKE A WHILE. THE READ MORE BUTTON DOESN'T WORK IN ASKS SO SORRY

(i refuse to edit it this time, it took me like. a while last time and this is even longer, so you also get the incomprehensible pieces and no added notes to explain what i meant <3 (also a lot more '<3' this time. not sure why))

MORE CROWS rrr, they are important i know it

the way panthera is surrounded by cats and crows is interesting... like its an amusing visual but also really kick ass if you frame it in your mind right

yes, i enjoy that juleka is confronting ladybug on how she leads, especially considering that we know for sure they are inexperienced, yes i like this conversation

ooo, this is interesting, dust all kicked up focussing on different senses...very fun, always interesting to see how they can rely on things other than sight

woahhh, the staff lets off green sparks?? its made of copper <3 wait i looked it up and... aluminium makes green fire too? huh? this isn't important <33

awesome visual tho

YEAH BEAT HIS ASS BRO roger cop my beloathed <3

massive baby guy would be scary...

yay! teamwork! carapace and panthera woohoo

gonna be honest free birds outro on loop is really setting the mood for fighting for me

stop making me google things cap... t-rexes were apparently in the "late cretaceous" like ok thanks movie franchise for lying to me ig

Rena- this is amazing- she would record that. wonderful descriptors <33

No <3 i do not need the heartbreak of juleka v akumatised rose again <3 stop it <3 you hurt me <3

oh thank god-

this mantra of "calm yourself" is intriguing, i think its not going to work <3 let her go ape shit please

YOO PRINCE SHINING?? NOO

THIS IS BAD ASS THO

HA AND DOWN HE GOES

she's gonna turn this car around road trip with them when?? it can be a well deserved break <3 i am pitching this idea cap <3 this is what i would like and i would like it very much (i kid, its just amusing to me)

no because. because. alya nino and chloe are still able to have fun in a fight and. and- juleka is over here like a war veteran while marinette is trying to corral them all and- upset now

oh no juleka blacked out?? oh dear...

chlolix crumbs... wonderful... (to be honest with you, searching through the chlolix ship tag years ago was why i found these fics, so i love to see them but i am so attached to the story now <33)

OO? violence in your heart juleka?? maim and kill him you say?? good idea <3

“Miss me?” He grinned maliciously. “No, whore.” Queen Bee scowled at her side. i am actually losing it this is the funniest thing i have seen today-

ooo dark cupid being used to farm akumas... this is reminding me of minecraft and zombie villager farming to get the best trades, i can see the video titles now "this hack will TRIPLE your akuma production in just three EASY steps" <- unsure what this is but it happened in my brain, so there you go <3

i do like the idea of dark cupids powers being used tactically like this, i enjoy how its thought out critically when an akuma has an obviously helpful / game changing power

</3 "ma, i'm so exhausted" you are so cruel

AUGH WHAT NO ough rena got got by kim...

marinette kiss her quick

ough emotional

imma be honest for a hot second i thought juleka got hit by dark cupids arrow which i was fascinated by the idea of, however i think if she is to lose self control it would be more interesting if it was due to circumstances than mind altering magic

??? interesting, "there was- for a flash- a blackness that seemed to writhe like a bubbling mass of ink up her fingers—!" curious...

D: chloe... :(

augh my heart... they all got got protecting each other...

YOUR EVIL THIS IS UPSETTING ME

um hello?? who is speaking to her in bold?? am i dumb for not knowing?? girly is hearing voices

kill him!

gigantitan baby cult...

alternate universe where neither of them remember any of the old akumas names and at one point one of the akumas is so offended by the idea of being forgettable its enough of a distraction to get them

not me trying to think about whether a wish could actually be beneficial in any overall capacity using the rules we were given because hawkmoth is saying it would be...

no but why is the fact that akumatised queen bee is just sad making me so upset-

this is such a fucking big chapter jesus christ-

"nicking her ear and taking out one of her piercings" make her design look like gargamels cat azrael 2k18

(thats the wrong year. uh. shhh thats just the auto fill in my head when i say 2k)

hawky boy has gone off the edge of sanity hasn't 'e...

WOAH ONE ON ONE?? OWHUWO

OH NO ITS GOING BADLY

ohno that guy in bold is back at it again being ominous as fuck ohh i am dumb its plagg. yeah that tracks i am but a silly guy

ooo is it happening? is she doing the thing??

YOO THAT WAS BETTER THAN WHAT I THOUGHT OF THAT WAS BADASS YOO??

OUHTFHEDW

really did a bilbo catching the one ring on his finger and turning invisible right when gollum was boutta catch him tense vibes moment i would describe this better but i must get back to reading this was awesome

OOO SHE DID END UP BEING CALM IT WORKED WOHDANW4FIBBDE

THIS IS BAD COMMENTARY I AM EXCITED OK??

augjh=gtfreinig4fgrninib4frnedw

the way that i'm insane for the idea that someone recorded this fight and everyone ends up seeing panthera being a fucking badass has me insane...

mmmm switching the music to metallica

oh that was the right decision perfect base drop timing for what i was reading

ough awoog wibnefr, insane for the way that she is not referring to herself as human rn

awwybgfwei bgyrfned insane for all of this actually

THIS WAS SO FUCKING COOL JESUS CHRIST OH MY GOD ABHWEBHUUNERI I WISH I COULD SHAKE YOU BY THE SHOULDERS AND EXPLAIN ARTICULATELY EVERY DETAIL I LOVED BUT ALAS ALL I CAN DO IS KEYBOARD SMASH AT YOU ACROSS THE INTERNET

love carapce actually <3

“You suck bro. Take an L dude, take an L.” “HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT TO ME– THIS IS MY MOMENT-” “IT’S A RANDOM FUCKING FRIDAY DUDE IT IS JUST A FRIDAY!” Carapace shouted, so frustrated, pinching his fingers together at the man. “YOU’VE WASTED SO MUCH TIME! GET A JOB!” love this so much actually

YO I FORGOT ABOUT MAYURA AND YOU FUCKING NAMED THE CHAPTER AFTER HER BRO

What a wonderful power, she thought. To protect, instead of hurt. stab in the heart why don't you

“HEY LADYBUG WE FOUND A BROKEN STICK!” “I FOUND IT FIRST ACTUALLY!” “I FOUND A FEATHER!” The two simply sighed love them all so dearly actually <3

awoog wiubfrne, whub?? juleka babe girly darling why are you still injured???? ough it was because of the metallica moment (<3 i have my own name for it, the songs i listened to while that was happening was Battery and Master of puppets btw)

well course it didn't heal from the cure, they are exact opposites so their direct effects would cancel out. like a plus and a minus, idiot

Apparently Rose might’ve fought Adam in a random parking lot that they had ended up in because she thought he might’ve hurt her during the attack so.. HWJB4IFE HA she would do that wouldn't she?

“Meh, it happens.” alix??? this is such a hilariously chill response??

nriew more chlolix crumbs...

Alix defended herself passionately, throwing up her hands as icing laid smeared on her lips. She paused for a moment, as Chloe half-heartedly wiped a bit off before continuing THATS GAY GAYY THEY ARE GAY A3WDWEUI sorry i got a bit excited there.

“Don’t worry, I won’t disappear.” “…Sometimes I–” “Yes?” Juleka pepped up. Rose paused and seemingly waved her thoughts away, smiling. “It’s nothing, don’t keep your big bro waiting!” RRRR REVEAL YOUR IDENTITY PLEASE OIGUHER RRRR

no because you somehow manage to keep it being a slow burn after they got together and i'm insane for that

actually they are the most adorable creatures in the universe i love them

I just didn’t think you’d start hearing them now.. huhwuh?? she is supposed to hear voices?????? weird wack ass side effects

ruhroh looks like thats the consequences of your actions nathalie

RUHROH THE CONSEQUENCES OF JULEKAS ACTIONS?? ough she has made herself an extra high value target

Her boy– no. Their boy shut up your in a queerplatonic relationship with gabriel and you both dated emilie in my head. he is your child to me <3 (i will write that damn 200k slowburn unhappy ending prequel i joked about if you fucking force my hand (ie. continue to make reference teeny tiny things like that (or maybe it will just start planning itself in my head right now curse you my brain)))

WAIT THE REST OF THIS PARAGRAPH IS SO SAD SHUT UP YOUR A CRUEL BEAST CAP

Emelie and Gabriel’s boy. He was not her’s. He would never be her’s. She was just– the assistant. The distant guardian. This was all for him though, if she could help– she could just. Maybe.. Nathalie shook her head at herself. What mattered was this family. UPSET NOW

TEARING YOU APART RIPPING YOU APART WITH MY TEETH CAP THIS WAS INCREDIBLE AND THIS TOOK ME OVER 2 HOURS

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I 4yrheiwjnow

you may receive asks in your future about me writing that thing i keep joking about. i am spinning it in my mind like this damn rat

i muted it at times but wanted a timer and uh

this is nearly 1800 words wrong what is wrong with me- yknow what no this is your fault for the monster size of this chapter, anyway, time to slap this beast into your inbox <33

THIS IS MADE ME SO SO SO SOSOSOSOSO SOS O HAPPY.,,,,,,,

THANK YOU SO SO MUCH,, IM GLAD YOU ENJOYED,,,

[dervampireprince]

Hiii again 😅 (I've uh. I've been relistening to a lot of your audios lately sorry for how many asks I've sent lmao)

I just wanted to say that I adore the way you put so much research & care into portraying mental illnesses/coping mechanisms and stuff like that, it makes me feel so warm inside when I hear something that I've experienced explained and cared for so succinctly. Like the Ambrose puppy comfort audio where he just... Accepts that the listener/Arden might be regressing or in a different headspace and he's so calm and sweet and respectful and aaaaaa it's so so so nice

Also with all your Moon Knight audios, those ones hit me in particular. I mean, I bawled my eyes out when I watched the show proper so I probably shouldn't have been so shocked to do the same with your audios, but by gosh did I cry like a baby when I first listened to that "we've got you" audio because wow. It's so realistic it made me feel so insanely warm. It's so easy to mess up representation of DID and with moon knight being one of the few medias that does it really well I'm so sensitive about it and it felt so good to have that validated. Steven dissociating or talking about switching or them switching in audios or being cocon is just so well done and it's obvious that you care about making people like me with DID and OSDD feel seen and it's working and I appreciate it so so so much. I know you've said that other people's audios have helped you feel seen in similar ways, so I guess I just wanna say thank you so so so much for doing that for other people as well 💖

(Also tangentially related, that scene in the marc confession audio where Steven is co-con and he's just chanting "kiss them! Kiss them! Kiss them!" And Marc has to tell him to shut the hell up is SO REAL the amount of times I've done that is incomprehensible atp and I got a good chuckle out of it haha)

- Dahlia 💖💖

thank youuu.

the way ambrose is in that audio and similar things is just basically how i would want to be treated in those situations.

season 2 of moon knight wheeennnnnn. :( but no i'm really glad people are okay with my portrayal of them, i've had requests sometimes that ask for certain things with them and i turn them down because i really want to do a good job at portraying them and their DID as accurately as i can. when i get requests to have marc and steven switching during nsfw audios i always turn them down, switching's not some fun thing, it's tiring and stressful and draining and doesn't feel appropriate to portray it as some sort of threesome when if eg steven and the listener are having sex and marc switches in... he'd have no idea where he was or what was happening and would not have had the ability to consent to the sex before he's suddenly in it, you know? i hope that makes sense. i try my best to do right with the representation as someone who doesn't have DID nor OSDD.

[treeba-rk]

Yh i agree about people s obsession with new duos. And don t get me wrong, sometimes new and unexpected duos are great, i m talking to the treebark burner account! Ranchers were also great, and totally out of nowhere. But i think people are a bit too obsessed with 1 creating new duos and names in order to portray new narratives and theories and 2 making every close relationship romantic or familiar, as if close friendships, qprs or just good ol' rivalries did not exist 3 ignoring female ccs, even more so when it gets in the middle of a ship (this happens with women in every single piece of media btw).

Male-female friendships (or ships) are often ignored bc i feel a lot of fans feel as if these fanon relationships are somehow more "real" and not roleplay bc they are a "straight couple" (c'mon people, most of us are queer what are you doing with this mentality?), and are more likely to assume you ship the creators and not the characters, or worst, to actually assume the ccs are together irl (which was the reason some female ccs were against shipping in the 1st place). Re: this point, I will give an special mention to bee duo though, the fans really assumed they liked each other irl, which was very creepy considering they were underage at the time.

F/F ships are also often snubbed, although lately i ve seen them become a lot more popular, such as nature wives and more recently Gem & Pearl (ik the ship has a name, but i ve decided to ignore it bc we are better than that), which has been satisfactory to see. Still a long way to go though.

Hope i have explained myself correctly 👉👈 english s not my 1st language so i m kind of nervous about dping such a long post about such a complex issue. Feel free to correct me

no you're all good! thanks for the ask 🫶

also sorry to anyone who's here for tree bark only bc this acc is basically my alt now lmaoo (due to me keeping anon off on main)

you're right that ppl want to create new duos and narratives but sometimes... those ppl aren't that close. or had three interactions in a series. that isn't to say they're not friends or friends can't become close in a short amount of time. but the fandomisation and trying to come up with an incomprehensible name instead of saying their names is kinda ?? to me personally. not that's bad, it's just... i don't really get why you won't use their names. especially when it's not a long established group that frequently collabs.

you're so right about male-female friendships and especially in this fandom. i feel like m/f shipping in this sphere (outside of the obvious lizzie/joel) is seen as taboo bc it could leak into m/f irl shipping. at least that's why i was squicked out for like two years. esp bc m/f irl shipping was / is a problem (for example, i still see ppl asking in their public yt comments if stress and iskall are together. during hc2 people thought mumbo and false were dating when he was like 17 and she was in her early twenties and it's just fucking weird to truth in people's comments).

(unrelated to this discussion but i will always be salty that the antihcshippers never bring up the point of REAL AND ANNOYING M/F IRL SHIPPING IN COMMENTS and instead bully scar/grian shippers on twitter or whatever. really shows that they never cared about cc's "boundaries" or feelings and just want that fandom moral superiority. quick have you been to comment sections of eps posted by the women in like 2017. have you seen the random twitch chatters.)

the fanon side of m-f friendships/ships in hc is interesting bc pre gem and pearl, the three women had their "designated guy bestie that they always collab with" and it's quite obvious who: stress-iskall, cleo-joe, false-ren (to a lesser extent cub). former two are basically the only prominent m/f ships (iskall in particular plays into it). i had talked to ppl in dms about why false/ren isn't prominent and my main theory is what i call the yaoi shield bc ren is shipped with a lot of men LMFAO (also something something about ren/iskall and false/stress being complements to avoid the "boring" m/f shipping).

but i still wish m-f friendships get more recognition 😔 like if you're not shipping them in the character sense, there's no risk of being seen as irl shipping, so technically it's no different from same gender friendships, right? 🤡 and i do not like the instant "siblingification" to create a fanon familiar bond to avoid shipping. like sometimes it works. a lot of the time it doesn't. people can just be friends. and they all are actually friends.

ok, more of a tangent here, but dug up an old ass convo from 2021 in which there was a point like "sometimes romantic relationships can happen between ccs and it is definitely more feasible than ccs becoming family via marriage/adoption" and i said "so technically 'shipping hcs' are less weird than 'same family hcs'. hm". soooo 🤡🤡🤡 it's totally fine if you don't wanna ship, but it is also TOTALLY fine to keep them as friends instead of siblings / family hcs. i think this fandom has enough awareness now to know you mean friends when you portray them as friends.

i'm happy to see more yuri bc yuri is almost always the least popular in fandoms. but i think m/m and f/f also has the vibes of "less likely to be perceived as irl shipping so we can go wild" while m/f character shipping is still treated with caution? and people really don't want ccs to misinterpret it as irl shipping? tbh i feel like the modern day fandom has gone into "god forbid a man and a woman are friends" that m/f is seen as the "boring" "cop-out" and it goes all the way around. like yeah sometimes it's boring. but not the point of it being nonexistent lmfao like m/f could be funnnnn!!!!!! and they can be queer too!! bi4bi, t4t!!!! or they can just be hetero idk!!

anyways. as a m&f / m/f main i have Thoughts. but yeah 👍

[gayforjuza]

If I can add to the sex discussion, especially since you mentioned the US in your first post, I think how things like sex and nudity are perceived are very cultural. Personally, the way USamericans talk about sex and nudity freaks me out sometimes. Especially the way all nudity is seen as inherently sexual because it's not! I've been to mixed gender nudist saunas (the default type of sauna in Germany) as young as 8 and I'm pretty sure it's what helped me develop a healthy body image and often mitigates my gender dysphoria because bodies sure come in all different shapes and size. On the other hand I saw an american on reddit say that sharing a bathroom with your own child is creepy?? Or the whole thing about schools mandating that bra straps can't be visible??? Incomprehensible to me.

And it's the same with talking/knowing about sex. The first time I had sex ed in school I was nine, and at age 14 the school invited external educators who taught us how to use condoms so if the time came we be able to do it right. But some years ago I learned that some schools and parents in America think that 15/16 is too early for sex ed. And for me that was like ooohhh okay that explains why American movies always feel so weirdly hypersexual sometimes.

Like tbf my only frame of reference for how Americans are about sex is movies etc and how they talk online, and my own upbringing is on the liberal end compared to other Germans but it makes sense to me that if sex is treated as something forbidden while growing up, people end up treating it as this super special thing once they are adults rather than just a thing some humans do.

(Sorry for the wall of text I just find the cultural differences in that area super fascinating)

Yes 100% thats why i specifically mentioned the US cus i know a ton of countries arent as fucking weird as we are, that being said i still think sex should be more casual/normalized than even the more chill countries but again idk a lot cus ive only lived here

personally i got lucky and also had sex ed at 9 and then a couple times more in depth after that but a LOT of states either dont do it at all or like u said do it very late, plus the sex ed i did get was absolutely ass but it was something at least

i think a lot of it comes from this weird puritanical christian basis our country seems to b running on? so the views of sex and nudity are based on that so its the very like Save Yourself For Marriage thing , dont show anyone ur naked body cus that means u suck or something idk

its gotten a lot better w the waiting til marriage specifically, and i think socially its getting a bit better in general but legally, with things like bathrooms and like u said w the school dress codes, it is absolutely not improving, maybe one day 😭

[bonesandthebees]

okay so like i was gonna just start on this tonight and get the general ideas down and finish this when i was Awake and Functioning but then i started rambling so uhhh jazz handss

take me describing the diff energies ur fics give off, i am sorry if this is uncomprehensible fjwaewf (is that even a word?? incomprehensible? ye-)

through a glass divine: DEFFFF rainy day vibes, the au feels very Elegant to me even though glass!wilbur himself is very much not, when I read glass I get the same vibes as being in a car /pos, it's comforting but can get intense at times, sometimes with no warning. like one minute your head is against the glass (heh, pun unintended lol), and ur looking out at the streetlamps, the next the breaks are SLAMMED and u get whacked against the seatbelt lmfaoooo (this is all /pos !! i love the angst lol)

world forgetting: FOGGG, that's the first thought that pops into my head, things are unclear first and it's a little eerie but there's also something comforting about it (i will use this word a lot bc . well ur writing is comforting hehehe), the first half of wf was very exciting, it reminded me of when i used to have my mcu marathons, edge of my seat, shoving popcorn into my face, and just glee, the first few chapters with wf especially with the combat made me so fucking giddy lmfaooo i had so much fun reading it, the second half was a lot more calm and melancholy, it was defff sitting on the couch while it rains outside vibes, like MM the hurt comfort?? give me a blanket and a pillow to squeeze bc hot damnn

stars and their children: stars man . hooweeee, this fic was binging a 12 season show vibes, you invest a lot into it and wow the emotional damage?? for real. this fic was late night rants at sleepovers, theorizing n coming up with silly conspiracy theories (i think this was when i really started reading the asks, so for me it has a lot of those vibes tied to it), when i read stars… i feel a lot of Awe. it feels big, it feels important, it also feels like im reading a very fancy novel from a very big library, like i feel like i've stepped into a massive multi-tiered library and plucked my favourite book from its shelf, i can imagine the hardcover being absolutely gorgeous, it gives me the same vibes as getting assigned a book to read in class and having your mind blown /pos from it, like "damn i understand why they make us read this bc wow"

(fun fact i have ur ao3 page bookmarked on my toolbar lmaoooo)

honey and tangerines: well . this one just gives me island and coastal vibes lolll u described them very well, but okay from a reading perspective? besides indie movie lmao. i'd say… hanging out with a friend you haven't seen in a while. it's familiar, it's bittersweet, it's thrilling. honey and tangerines gives me the vibes of doing something youve been wanting to for awhile but were always too scared to. pushing your boundaries. it's all those classic "finally living life vibes", staying out till 3 am, finally getting around to decorating your room, going on a roadtrip. when i read honey and tangerines, it feels like i'm experiencing life. all the prev fics either feel like novels or movies, but hats feels like life

what the water gave me: ngl when i read this i just feel such pure emotion that i cry like idek how to explain it man. it's so all encompassing /pos it does give me staying up late in my room with fairy lights vibes though, dunno why. just gives off that same warm energy

A DUSTY TOMB OMGGOJEAWE i need to reread that anyways

a dusty tomb: straight off the bat, playing dnd. dnd is so much fun and i have so many happy memories from it and a dusty tomb defff gives off those vibes, chaos, freeing, family. it also gives off the vibe of finding a piece of old writing in a buried notebook and reading it and going "wtf?? when did i write this this is amazing" maybe that's just bc it feels like u read my mind writing it lmao it's perfect i adore it so much and i have reread it an unholy amount of times, i just get the vibes of sitting criss cross on the floor and reading it, it's not necessarily a comfy position but it's enjoyable nonetheless, just a happy moment for oneself, it feels like giving yourself a treat, self care, all of that good stufff

no time confounds me: def feels like watching a tv show /pos, it def feels like smth i'd put on w my stepmom or my birth mom and just absolutely fucking Vibe to it bro, that fic is suchhh a vibe, i'd sink into my couch and get HOOKED, it also ofc brings w it all the vibes of just where i live LMAO, and the motorcycling reminds me of my dad <333 i miss motorcycling with him dawggg it's so much fun, but yeahhh. all the vibes described in the fic just make me want to go out for a hike in a forest lmao, i love it. also hot chocolate. this fic is defff drinking hot chocolate vibes

nocturnal animals: ooohh this one is defff late night vibes, working late on hw and looking out ur window and just taking a moment to appreciate the stars n stuff, also windy day vibes, this def feels like a novel my friend would shove at me to read and i'd be like "brooo i dont even LIKE vampires" and theyd be like "no bro just trust me" and then i'd be really bored one day so i'd pick it up and then get addicted . and then in this hypothetical series that has like a billion books i'd go to the library and borrow them all and binge them in a week lmfao, i love this fic sm ngl, i would proudly display this fic on my bookshelf (well i mean, i would literally display all of ur fics on my bookshelf KING i would have a shelf dedicated to ur fics 100%)

okay… i think those are all the main fics, there're a couple more that i've read but i am . getting really really reallyyy tired and idek if any of this is comphrensible lmfaooo 😭 😭 😭

i hope u enjoyed bee <333 tldr: i love ur writing and i have core memories attached to all of these fics and they are all special to me in their own way <33

ohhhh these are so cool to read icy (sorry it took me so long to respond I've been so busy lately)

lmao love all the drama in glass being compared to a car braking super suddenly. rainy car drives is definitely not the vibe I think it has in my head but that's super sweet to imagine :)

comparing stars to a Big Fancy Book makes me so happy thank you so much. I have this absolutely gorgeous fancy version of Dune with a stunning cover and I always imagine something kind of similar as the 'cover' for stars in my head so i love that you imagine that too

in contrast you and i feel the exact same about honey and tangerines. it's definitely that kind of bittersweet reconciling friendship vibe. saying it feels like life means so much thank you <33 thats exactly what I was going for

to me what the water gave me feels like swimming in a warm tropical ocean at night which might be a bit on the nose but yeah that's what I think of. but fairy lights in a room sounds so nice I love that

awww I love that idea for dusty tomb. just rereading something nostalgic and wonderful and feeling so comforted by it. that makes me smile a lot to imagine :)

hot chocolate and watching a tv show YEAHHHH you get it that's exactly what i was going for from no time confounds me. also that's so funny that you mention motorcycling with your dad bc that's where my descriptions of riding motorcycles comes from. my dad always used to pick me up from school on his motorcycle when I was a little kid, it was so much fun

oooo windy day for nocturnal animals is interesting but I love it. also god you saying it feels like a series with dozens of books reminds me of this vampire series i read in middle school that had like 10 books it's absolutely nothing like nocturnal animals but now I'm having a nostalgia trip thinking about it lol

thank you icy this was so sweet to read :)

[maddiviner]

Hi I was wondering if you could help me? I'm trying to get more into scrying but I feel like I'm not getting anywhere. I made a mirror and tried to use it but nothing ever seems conclusive. Do you have any tips for how to get better at it?

Hey. Thanks for writing to me. Sorry for the very late reply. It’s been almost three weeks? I had taken a hiatus from this blog (and most social media, for that matter).

I’m back (I think), and I hope you’re still around to read this. Sorry if it’s a little wordy. This is the best advice (from my own perspective) that I can offer, but it's just my perspective, and I don't know how helpful it'll be!

Scrying Tips and Troubleshooting

Switch up your medium.

If you’re not seeing anything at all, I would suggest switching up your medium of scrying. You mentioned making a scrying mirror. That's my current, personal favorite method, but there's others.

I do think mirror scrying is a great way for most people to start, but it’s not for everyone. Some people might have better results with a bowl of water, a candle flame, the open sky, or other options.

I’d try either a candle flame or a bowl of water (or dark liquid, I’ve used coffee). It can help to use plain water, but put a few drops of black ink or another substance into it and swirl.

In both of those cases (candle flame, black ink in water), the scrying medium itself isn’t a blank field. It has shapes and colors in it.

For some scryers, this might be distracting. If you’re having trouble beginning, though, it can actually be helpful.

Interpreting ink spilled in water or the sparks of a candle itself isn’t in itself scrying. It would be considered a different sort of divination. But it can be a good jumping-off place for scrying. It can help you sink into a state of mind where you’re receptive to communicating in symbols.

You’ll start to notice shapes in the ink or the flame. A blob of ink floats one way, another swirls outwards, etc. The flame arcs and sparks. Smoke trails might resemble things. An amorphous trail of ink (or smoke) might become a forest path at the start of a vision. Then, your mind can use what you’re seeing in the physical world as a jumping-off point for a vision.

Examine your expectations

A lot of what you see while scrying will operate based on dream logic. Meanings get transmitted through symbols rather than literal imagery. You usually won't see a direct representation of physical events. If a vision tells you you're going to get into grad school, you're unlikely to see the school itself.

Instead, you might see yourself having climbed a mountain or crossed a finish line. In short, it's almost always metaphor. If by “no conclusive results,” you mean nothing literal and plain, it’s normal not to experience that.

Sometimes, if you go in with that kind of expectation, it can interfere with getting any results at all. You'll get better results if you go into the sessions prepared to receive symbols. Expecting the literal can block things, in my experience.

Consider your symbol set.

What you’ll see will have meaning to you as an individual. Visions may be incomprehensible when you tell other people. They might be incomprehensible to you at first, too. This is why it’s important to incubate these things after the session.

You've got to sort out what associations you have for the different symbols you see. Some of these correspondences will be personal. Others might be societal or cultural. The meanings won’t always be intuitive, and it’s the kind of thing that requires a lot of pondering afterwards.

Lets say you see a black horse galloping across a bridge over a ravine. You’ll need to ask yourself what horses symbolize to you, as well as other parts of the scene. This won’t always be some arcane idea from a book (Epona, horse legends, etc). It might relate to your personal experience with horses instead.

It could also draw books or movies you've seen involving horses. Diving deeper, the color, gait, etc of the horse might be significant, too. Of course, the bridge/ravine itself where it takes place would also have a meaning.

Clean up beforehand.

When you say “non-conclusive,” do you mean that it doesn’t make sense, regardless?

In that case, your mind might be wandering? When this happens with me, I don't always notice until afterwards. I try to clear my mind as much as possible before scrying. Things get complicated from there, though.

"Clearing your mind” takes a different form for each person, so it’s hard to give more concrete advice for that. You can find a lot of different exercises in print and online. You might want to make sure you’ve got one that works well for you before you attempt scrying at all.

This requires experimentation, of course, and observing how your mind reacts. It doesn’t have to be a deeply-ritualized way of “clearing the mind,” either - for some people, a hot shower can be enough.

Consider your goals.

Do you know what you’re scrying for? You can scry to “see what comes up,” a bit like a general Tarot reading. Sometimes it can be easier and yield stronger results if you have a target in mind, though. It can help to know what information you’d like to receive or even who you’d like to communicate with in the spirit world.

I’m going to be honest. For the past few months, I usually scry to “see what comes up,” with the help of my spirit companions. Some friends (and frenemies) of mine say this isn’t effective. They say that you need to seek something specific each time you scry.

I've done it both ways in the past. I think both methods can work in some situations depending on the person.

If you’re not having luck with freeform scrying, try something more targeted, or call on an entity as a guide. If you’re struggling with more structured, guided scrying, try something freeform.

Switch things up a bit until you find something that works.

Keep some kind of record if at all possible.

Cliche advice for any kind of occult undertaking, I know. But don't knock it. This whole process gets a thousand times easier when you're able to look back on things after the fact.

Some witches, wizards, mages (etc) keep elaborate daily diaries, but that isn't necessary. For this, you only need to record impressions right after each scrying session. You can be as elaborate or as simple as you want, but something is objectively better than nothing here.

Some people write in a scrying journal while scrying. This usually involves pausing every few minutes to jot things down, and it's kind of stressful. I've done it before and I don't like it. Might work for you, though, so I mention it.

I know a lot of people don't like writing by hand. There's nothing wrong with typing your notes. I've never typed notes during a session, so I don't know how well that would go, though.

You could also consider audio recording during scrying. If you've got privacy, start recording and narrate what you're seeing out loud. Then, at the end of it, you'll have a complete audio record of the session.

I've done that once or twice, but I prefer my notebook. As with most of this, you've got to try different methods until you find one that works well for you.

Try automatic writing.

It's not the kind of tip most people want, but consider it! I knew people who weren't getting results with Enochian scrying in particular. A couple picked up automatic writing as an alternative and had great success. I haven't written much on automatic writing, so you'll need to look elsewhere for that.

There are guides floating around online, and plenty of traditionally-published material as well. I don't exactly know why automatic writing in particular works so well as a surrogate to scrying. I just noticed that it often works for people who don't get good scrying results.

If anyone has any theories as to why, let me know.

These are the best tips I can offer. I hope they were helpful. My scrying practice is very ad hoc, casual, and nontraditional. Lately, I rely a lot on spirits helping when I'm scrying, but that wasn't always the case. Everything above is my own perspective, which is all I can offer. In any case, thanks for this ask, and I hope you find a way that works for you!

[lilacpaperbird]

hiiiii first of all thank you for saying they're pretty <33 !! I tried my best afskhgsk (this is the post anon is referring to)

How I made my ao3 wrapped:

I'm not saying this is the best or even the most convenient way to do any of this, I'm just going to share the system I came up with, hopefully something here is useful or helpful!

There are 3 parts to this system:

1. Bookmarks

3. The spreadsheet

3. The charts

- Bookmarks:

I use bookmarks for everything (and they're always private). I bookmark every fic I read with the tag "Read" and the tag of the year I'm in, like "2024". This is incredibly useful since you can filter through your bookmarks and it keeps everything neat and tidy

- The Spreadsheet:

I'm scared of Excel, I'm sorry. So I use Notion, because I already use it for everything else in my life and to me it's much easier to handle (and it looks cuter)

I tried to make my spreadsheet in the least complicated way possible because I'm not tech savvy at all

It's just a basic table, without any manual formulas. Sadly this will sound kinda incomprehensible if you aren't familiar with Notion, but it's really simple once you look into it

The spreadsheet has 9 columns (between brackets I'll put the type of column they are):

- Date I finished it [Date]

- Title [Name]

- Fandom [Select]

- Ship [Multi-Select]

- Words [Number]

- Tags [Multi-Select]

- Rating [Select]

- Year of publication [Select]

- Month I finished it in [Select]

It ends up looking something like this:

These are the parameters I chose to track, but you may be interested in tracking other things!

Most of these columns are [Select] or [Multi-Select], and in Notion that means they function with tags. For example inside the column "Rating" I can choose between the tags "Gen", "Teen", "Mature", or "Explicit". In the column "Year of Publication" I have a tag for every year. In the column "Fandom" I have a tag for every fandom I read about. And so on and so forth!

In the "Tags" column I have a selection of tags I personally want to track/I know I read a lot about. So I don't have a tag for every tag the fic had in AO3. For example, since I mainly read Spn fics, I have tags like "Weechesters", "Early Seasons", "Late Seasons", "Post-Finale", etc, because that's something I was interested in keeping organized. I also have kink-specific tags, and in this column I have the "FAV" tag as well

At the bottom of the table it will tell you the number of rows it has, which in this table means the number of fics. And the "Words" column, since it's a [Number] type of column, will let you do all kinds of automatic calculations with all the existing fics (like Sum, Average, Max, etc) - that's how I get stuff like the words I read in total, the words I read every month, the longest fic, etc

I can then filter the table through the different aspects of the columns in any way I want to get the different data I need to make the charts. In a way, it functions similarly to how filtering through tags works in AO3

Another great thing about Notion tables is that each entry is a page in itself, meaning you can click on it and it will open a page where you can write stuff. I use that to add: 1) the name of the author, 2) a link to the fic, 3) a downloaded epub of the fic, 4) any thoughts or review

I usually add a fic to the spreadsheet right after I finish it, but sometimes I wait until I've accumulated a couple of fics in my "Read" Bookmarks, and then I do them all together in a batch

- The Charts:

I make them with Canva - it has a feature where you can add and edit graphs and charts (all the info, the colors, etc). So first I collect the data I want by filtering the spreadsheet in different ways, and then I manually make the charts on Canva (if you're not familiar with the app don't worry it's kinda intuitive, and there are tutorials about everything)

And that's all! I came up with this system completely by myself and if you're reading this and you also track your fics but you use Excel or something maybe you're thinking what the hell is this girl even doing, but it works really well for me and I'm really happy with it afdhsafskh

English is not my first language so I apologize if there are any mistakes, I hope I made sense <3