#story posted with permission

[abeautifulblog]

Story time with Sam!

(transcript below the cut)

A discord conversation between gremble and gemlord:

gremble: tell me again the story of the time you didn’t get laid because the guy noticed you had a tupperware full of human remains on your kitchen counter

gemlord: alright so

I was working for a cultural resource management firm in [redacted]

me and my buddy colleague were excavating a native american grave that someone had found on their property.

to be excavated and repatriated to the tribe in the area for reburial, right

so [redacted] and I get back to the lab and find it completely shuttered

nobody there, lights off

so we both kind of shrug and just take a skeleton apiece

which I bring into my house and leave on the counter in a big plastic bin

and then, you know, forget about

gremble: as you do

gemlord: Later, I have a gentleman over for netflix and chill and the Chill part is like, in progress, when he suddenly goes "... sam, what the FUCK is on your kitchen counter?!"

and like, the skull was front and center.

there was no way I could pass it off as anything other than human remains

and because I am a goblin, the FIRST THING OUT OF MY MOUTH is "the last man who did me wrong. 🤨"

i tried to explain but the magic was uh

gone

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Danse Macabre

[Commission]

[divorcedfiddleford]

and you may say to yourself: "my god! what have i done?" and you may tell yourself: "this is not my beautiful wife!" and you may tell yourself: "this is not my beautiful house!" and you may ask yourself: "well, how did i get here?"

time isn't holding up, time isn't after us, time is a pony ride! (images described in alt text)

[loufuckers]

oh, wait, i've had another thought, hear me out:

AU where tommy never left the 118 and buck never joined the LAFD but maddie still joined dispatch and met chimney during a call, and started hanging out with him like back in S2.

fast forward to maddie bringing buck to a 118 family barbecue and buck instantly clicking with everyone and making friends left and right. he's drinking beers and talking with eddie and tommy when he notices maddie and chim doing their little flirting but not flirting dance and tommy's like "they're always doing that. howie will not stop talking about her but he won't ask her out" and buck starts sharing stories about them dancing around each other and their buffridays and karaoke duets and because they're both hopeless romantics living vicariously through madney they come up with a plan to get them together

cue tommy and buck coming up with ways to set up chim and maddie on date like activities with them as wingmen. they go to the movies and dinner, have an entire day at the santa monica pier, hangout during trivia night at tommy's favourite bar, buck books all four of them a tour and farm-to-table lunch at a vineyard and winery, tommy even flies them all out to vegas for a weekend. and obviously through it all tommy and buck start to know each other more and more and start liking hanging out with each other

they keep coming up with these romantic ideas to finally get chimney and maddie to realise they've been dating this whole time and don't realise (or pretend they don't) that it's looking more and more like double dates and that they're the ones using madney as wingmen because they're too nervous to actually admit they're doing it more for them than for maddie and chim at this point

until one day maddie and chimney go on an actual date of their own without meddling little brothers and best friends and start dating for real and now buck and tommy realise that oh, actually they started catching feelings for each other and don't know what they're supposed to do now that they don't have an excuse to go on elaborate double dates and now it's maddie and chim's turn to get them to accept they had been dating the whole time and they have feelings for each other

[genericdragon]

New art fight refs yaaaaaaaayyyy

[susurru]

大哥 Da Ge

[shunin-gumis]

Designs of Happiness - Track A14

L4mps Main Story Translation

Title: Imposed Blessings

Characters: Nagi

Summary: Nagi is working alone at his shop after abruptly leaving the Friday Film viewing. The protagonist chases after him, and he finally explains his unique predisposition.

Thank you aca @463ce6, jes @arcanecrayonn myun @/myuntachis and Niri for helping me with proofing!

Also a gentle request from me, please do listen to the chapter in-game alongside the translation if you don't do so already, the voice acting is very precious 🥺🥺

Location: Flower Laundry

Sonia: Nagi-shan, here ish all the flowers you can use! 

Nagi: …Oh no. This isn’t nearly enough.

Sonia: You came back all of a sudden from HAMA House, sho you have no right to complain! 

Nagi: Sorry. Please get whatever’s left in the storehouse too.

Sonia: Aye aye, Shir! Geez, I’ll bring back as much as I can!

*bell jingles*

Customer A: ‘Scuse me! Sorry for popping in last minute—

Nagi: Oh, that’s alright. What can I do for you?

Customer A: Just a quick question– Does the laundromat here accept IzuPay? 

Nagi: IzuPay… Ah, we don’t use that here yet. There were plans to add it as an option but it was delayed… Sorry about that.

Customer B: Darn… out of luck, huh. I guess it makes sense, not everyone would bother getting the ward’s special payment method.

Nagi: Other digital payment options are still available, and we accept cash too.

Customer A: Huh? Can’t believe there’s a laundromat that still takes cash… 

Customer A: I thought they’d all be gone with the ‘Valley of the Sky’ or somethin’. POTHARU! and all that. 

Customer B: Hey, don’t be rude… He’s standing right there, and that scene is long since over. Um, sorry about that. 

Nagi: …It’s fine. 

Nagi: (Right. I guess the film viewing would be over by now, too.)

Nagi: (...Why did I have to think about that now?)

Nagi: (I wouldn’t have lasted much longer in that situation… Just thinking about it gives me chills. I’m sorry I didn’t stick with Toi till the end, but I had no choice, I had to leave for everyone’s sake—)

Sonia: I’ve prepared the flowers for you!

Nagi: Thanks. —Let’s go, we need to leave right now.

??: Um, excuse me… 

Nagi: Oh, yes, welcome—

Momiji: Good evening… again.

Nagi: …… 

Momiji: Do you mind if we talk for a bit, Nagi-kun?

Momiji: …… 

Momiji: (I can’t believe he ran out of HAMA House during the viewing… I guess he must’ve hated it that much, huh…)

Momiji: (Maybe I was being too naive in thinking that he’d open up with enough time…) 

Nagi: …… 

Nagi: (I can’t believe she noticed I’d left… I might have messed this up worse than I’d thought. She must be annoyed with me…)

Nagi: (No, I shouldn’t jump to conclusions, maybe she’s just here to check up on me. I clearly suck at communicating with others, so that might have gotten her worried…)

Nagi: (Still, it doesn’t change the fact that I troubled the Chief… I’m worth less than a plant louse that preys on flowers. I mean, even plant lice are useful to ants, yet I’m…)

Nagi: (No one would want a Ward Mayor that’s worth less than a louse.)

Nagi: (I wanted to take responsibility and see this job through to the end, but…)

Momiji: …You see, Yodaka-san just informed me earlier. 

Nagi: Yes?

Momiji: That you haven’t slept at HAMA House even once, Nagi-kun.

Nagi: …… 

Nagi: (So he knew. He’s too sharp to slip past, huh.)

Momiji: …… 

Momiji: (Ah… He’s tensed up.)

Momiji: (I wonder if I should’ve approached it more delicately…)

Momiji: (I’d readily help him if he’d just let me know what he’s having trouble with, or if there’s something he’d like changed… But what if he says that he never wanted to be a Ward Mayor in the first place? Hrm… What should I say…)

Nagi: …… 

Nagi: (She looks really troubled… I feel guilty that she’s worried over someone like me.)

Nagi: (I should just explain everything, even if it makes me uneasy. I know it’s the right thing to do, but… If I really just blurt everything out, she’d probably think I’m some kind of weirdo.)

Nagi: (But if I keep quiet any longer, she might feel hurt instead. What should I do…)

Nagi: (...The cyclamen at the storefront just caught my eye… In flower language, they mean “resignation” and “words of parting”...)

Nagi: (And next to it are the anemone, meaning “abandonment,” and the calendula, “sorrow of parting.”)

Nagi: (I see… I get it now.)

Momiji: Um… 

Nagi: (I should… brace myself.) 

Nagi: …… 

Nagi: …If I don’t hand out flowers, it rebounds. 

Momiji: Huh?

Nagi: The other side of the Yajirobe*. 

Momiji: Uh?

Nagi: This is just a theory of mine.

Momiji: O-Okay… 

Nagi: I believe that, just like with human emotions, if a person experiences great fortune or misfortune, then they will eventually have to return to a neutral state.

Momiji: Uh huh...?

Nagi: In my case, the rebound is especially strong. If I experience any fortune, then misfortune is sure to follow soon after. 

Nagi: That’s what happened when I got caught in that bee trap before; I’m sure it’s because I’d won a set of tissue boxes the day before, at a raffle in the shopping district.

Nagi: This is my theory on the phenomenon I call “The Yajirobe of Fortune and Misfortune.”

Momiji: I-I see... It’s like when people say bad luck doesn’t last forever, or how something good is bound to follow after something bad… Is it like that?

Nagi: …Are you a genius? I feel embarrassed for making up a whole theory now. I’ll just use your explanation next time.

Momiji: No, no, I understood what you were trying to say with your Yajirobe theory.

Nagi: …To avoid having the Yajirobe go crazy, I need to avoid any situation that might make me happy, intentionally or not. 

Nagi: Even a single slice of cake is too much for me. That sort of kindness… is too much happiness for me to bear. 

Momiji: (So he’s saying the cake made him so happy that he had to avoid accepting it, and even ran out of the dorm just so he could avoid inviting misfortune…)

Nagi: But sometimes, no matter how careful I am, the happiness just piles up anyways.

Nagi: That’s when I bring these out.

Momiji: Flowers…?

Nagi: My special ability– Flower Power: Imposed Blessings*.

Momiji: …Um?

Nagi: By imbuing flowers with the energy from my accumulated happiness, I can impose the excess onto others. There's no limit to how many flowers can be handed out. The only debuff I have to suffer is embarrassment.

Momiji: (Oh…)

Momiji: (Is that why he was handing out flowers in the middle of the street the first time I met him…?)

Momiji: (Honestly, I’m not sure how much of this I’m supposed to believe… But at the very least, I can tell Nagi-kun is being serious about this.)

Momiji: I…see. So if you give away your flowers—

Nagi: The misfortune’s rebound gets weaker. 

Momiji: –The misfortune’s rebound gets weaker…… Right. 

Nagi: (As expected, she looks really confused.)

Momiji: Um, let’s see if I got this right– You felt that joining HAMA Tours, and living at HAMA House would—

Nagi: Accumulate a debt of happiness.

Momiji: Which is why you left.

Nagi: Yes. Something like–

Nagi: Something like working together, and living alongside others, just like a ‘family’... There’s no way to predict the amount of happiness I’d receive from just being there.

Momiji: (The amount of happiness…)

Nagi: Being surrounded by happiness like that… Holding hands, and shouting POTHARU together with everyone—

Nagi: It wouldn’t surprise me if an earthquake hit right after, and HAMA House ended up as a pile of rubble…! 

Momiji: …… 

Nagi: (She looks stunned. I guess that’s expected.)

Nagi: (It was just impossible for someone like me, who’s always avoided other people, to suddenly work with others and live alongside them.)

Nagi: (She probably thinks I’m a weirdo. It’s not something you can wrap your head around. It’s a natural reaction.)

Nagi: (I’ll just get myself fired right here and now, so I can return to my old lifestyle. A life with no big waves, just the mundane everyday.)

Momiji: I understand your situation now.

Nagi: …… 

Momiji: Can I have all your flowers, then? 

Nagi: …… 

Nagi: —Huh?

Momiji: You just have to reduce that, um, debt of happiness, by giving away your flowers, right?

Momiji: But it’s probably difficult for you to find people to give flowers to on a daily basis, huh?

Nagi: …Is that… where this conversation is supposed to go?

Momiji: I think so?

Momiji: Then um, maybe your costs increase because you have to give out more flowers?

Nagi: No, that’s not really a problem. I can get a good discount if I buy it in bulk, so… 

Momiji: I see. Then, it’s just a problem of who you can give your flowers to. Accosting strangers to give them flowers is probably taxing for you, and confusing for the other person too.

Momiji: But, since I know what’s going on, I can take as many flowers as you want to give away.

Nagi: I… I guess that makes sense. 

Nagi: Wouldn’t it be a bother to you…?

Momiji: Of course not. You can never have too many flowers! I mean, flowers give a feeling of a fresh beginning, you know? They’re always nice to have.

Nagi: …… 

Nagi: Here.

Momiji: Oh! A flower! Thank you very much. You popped that out like some kinda magician!

Nagi: …Flowers have always been a part of my life, before I’d even realized it. That’s why, it’s always there, right beside me, where I can reach for it whenever I want.

Momiji: Still, what a large flower! What’s it called?

Nagi: Peony.

Momiji: Aw, it’s so pretty! And it smells so good too!

Nagi: —......

Nagi: Next, this one.

Momiji: It has such a unique shape… What’s its name? 

Nagi: Serruria.

Momiji: It’s so peculiar and cute! I wonder what I should decorate with it… 

Nagi: Here.

Momiji: This is a crazy amount! It’s starting to look like a huge bouquet at this point!

Nagi: Here.

Momiji: Oh dear, the colors are clashing…!

Nagi: Here.

Momiji: I can’t see in front of me anymore…! *giggles* But—

Momiji: Thank you, Nagi-kun!

Nagi: I should be the one saying that.

Nagi: Thank you for taking on my happiness, Chief. 

Notes:

Yajirobe is a term used for Japanese balancing toys. The mechanism involves balancing the main body at a fulcrum and making sure it doesn’t tilt too far in either direction before it’s balanced again, swinging back like a pendulum.

The name of Nagi’s ‘special ability’ literally translates to “imposing happiness/good fortune onto others through giving away flowers” which is super long hence why it got changed. He’s the type to make up silly names anyways.

Flower Language:

Peony Bashfulness, Shyness

Serruria Yearning, Beautiful heart

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Masterlist

[ladylynse]

I was gifted with yet more beautiful fanart for my Huntsclan!Jake AU fic Unbound (FFN/AO3). This one represents scenes from earlier in the fic, but the parallels and the imagery that our fantastic anonymous artist captured has had me staring at this for entirely too long. Repeatedly. Please admire it with me.

(If the artist ever consents to be known, I will update this post with their information.)

More from this artist here and here

[pics-pizza-peace]

David Powers & Michael Emerson Pony Cosplays ft. Custom Matching Toys

[ddarker-dreams]

“And so it was that the daughter was taken to a dark, isolated tower where the sun never shone. The warlock quickly fell in love with the woman, for she was very beautiful and kind. He did everything he could to make the young woman love him too. He gave her the finest jewelry and clothes in the land. Still, she wept bitterly at the sight of him, no matter what he tried. The warlock then thought to use his magic. One night, when he approached her, he created a pretty bundle of the reddest roses from nothing. She—” 

“He made a flower? Like what big brother can do?” 

…

An audible snap can be heard behind you. 

You look over your shoulder to see Albedo holding his paintbrush, which has splintered into two. 

-

a most blessed anon has graced our eyes with art depicting the scene from apologue where albedo snaps his paintbrush,, everyone, gaze upon the beauty. i love it dearly. the pretty fluffy hair. miffed expression. dead eye stare. dark somber colors and composition . it's just so GOOD AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[wonder-worker]

Here’s the thing I need people to understand:

Even if we believe that the (entirely unproven and far too politically convenient) pre-contract story between Edward IV and Eleanor Talbot was true, it doesn’t actually matter. Even if it was hypothetically true, there was still no reason why Edward V – who was already King at that point and was referred to as such – couldn’t have been able to succeed his father regardless.

David Horspool (Richard's own historian) summarizes it better than I could, so I’m just quoting him here:

"[Richard also made] no allowance for any potential solution to the problem that might have re-legitimized Edward V and his siblings. These included securing a retrospective canonical or papal judgement of the invalidity of the pre-contract; an Act of Parliament legitimizing the children of Edward and Elizabeth Woodville’s marriage, as happened to Henry VIII’s variously tainted offspring; or even ignoring the issue and proceeding to the coronation of Edward V, which would legitimize him by making him the Lord’s anointed, and render allegations of his bastardy as newer versions of the old tittle-tattle about his father."

In short, even if Edward IV truly had a pre-contract with Eleanor Talbot, and even if all of his children with Elizabeth Woodville were supposedly illegitimate, it should by no means prevent Edward V from succeeding his father to the throne. If Richard truly wanted to support his nephew, he had a variety of useful and entirely workeable options to choose from. Instead, he officially declared his nieces and nephews (including a literal 3-year-old) illegitimate, kept Edward V and his even younger brother confined in the Tower of London, and declared himself King.

Why didn't Richard take these actions, all of which he would have been well aware of? As Horspool says simply: "that Richard took none of these courses was because he had no interest in doing so."

The ONLY conclusion we can come to based on Richard's actions is summarized most succinctly by A.J Pollard:

"The truth of the matter is that Richard III did not want Edward V to be legitimate because he did not want him to be king."

[n0bluev]

@fushiglow hmm….wonder who i’d draw this for all of a sudden and why… 🤔🤔

[seariii]

i know everyone is really mad at kotoko, but i’ve been thinking a bit about why she ended up like this

I have a friend who has a really similar mindset to kotoko, so i'm kinda familiarized with how it works. as i've said before, she really sees everything in black and white, and while she originally said she would forgive those who did the same as her (basically amane, and fuuta to some extent), after her t1 inno verdict, her ideals got reinforced, well, more like radicalized and pushed them a step further, losing her original self/mindset in the process

every time i talk to this friend about kotoko, they really do see themselves in kotoko, and with everything currently going on (and them going to therapy and trying to be a better person, and just getting bad looks from others when they talk) has made them notice how some stuff isn't that good or how it's frowned upon. my friend has a black and white sense of justice, and when i told them about how kotoko would’ve harm amane, they went “it's good to know she wouldn't spare the child” (i know, messed up). their context to that is, we all know how children can be some of the most horrible people in earth, innocence can be seen as beautiful, but it can also be terrifying. their argument is that when children commit a crime, they're not trial respectively to what they committed, a child who killed someone doesn't get the same repercussions as an adult who killed someone. 

having said that, that mindset comes from a place of black and white morals, of difficulties during childhood, of seeing how people arent brought to justice and of how one suffers so much but no one cares. this friend struggles with empathy and struggles to understand others in general. the main difference they have with kotoko is that they try, that they were put in situations where they had to face reality and other people 

i believe kotoko must’ve went through something that in the end pushed her to this belief system. “it doesnt excuse what she did” i know, but i still think if she have had someone to guide her towards the right path, someone who she actually connected with and showed her why her actions and beliefs were harmful, this wouldn't have ended like this… 

now here, im not asking people to forgive her, i actually think that a guilty verdict this trial would be really good for her and hopefully would force her to face reality in some way

[echoarts03]

Oh I am SO EXCITED to show you guys what I have in store with Exuberant!

PLEASE go follow me at @itzyecho if you wanna see this series progress. I am not sane atm - this series is all I think about.

Please consider giving this a repost as it is highly appreciated and will greatly contribute to exposure. Any support received will be wonderful!

For context, I showed an online friend of mine the upcoming character sheets for Bri, Gracie and Eliad, and we kind of started gushing over his bitchass, LMAO!

[seaside-writings]

Prompt #1,153

"I want to suck the calcium from someone's bones,"

[owldart]

Epic Mickey irks me a little because while it's canon that Walt Disney existed in-universe, we get nothing about how he felt about Oswald getting stolen, which isn't nice because he was vocal about it in interviews even though he never mentioned Mintz by name.

The implication from Epic Mickey is that he and Yen Sid abandoned Oswald and other stuff in "Defunctland" for years and years and did nothing about the blot despite Mickey's success. Which I hate the implication of. Also, Walter Lantz is never mentioned at all, or even seem to exist in-universe, which doesn't feel good because Walter Lantz and Walt Disney were happy about him being the new writer for Oswald. You know that famous image where Mickey is waving to a grumpy Oswald while smiling and walking towards him? That was from a letter from Walt to Walt(er) praising him. Also, that song about Oswald that some Disney parades sometimes sing? That was from Walter's show.

I've heard that the real reason why Oswald suddenly vanished from print, animation, comics and all was because he shared a name with the assassinator of JF Kennedy, in 1963. Since then, he wouldn't appear in anything until a few unnamed cameos in early Woody Woodpecker video games.

I think that being associated with a murderer despite having done nothing wrong, and then having your entire existence seemingly vanish into nothing is significantly worse than the "tHe cReAtOrS aBaNdOnEd hIm" thing that Epic Mickey went for, which is grossly oversimplified. If you're going to write metafiction, at least don't make erase a bunch of important irl people from existence?

Maybe we could have mention about something terrible happening in 1963, that made him vanish like that? Not even being under Disney's care would protect him from that. There could be a bit of metafictional commentary about how cartoons are seen as representations rather than people, and they need to please an audience who has the predisposition to associate them with things they had nothing to do with, and sheer coincidences can utterly break a career, and how maybe if you're not famous enough, you'll be hit way harder than someone popular. Maybe all the characters are aspiring hard for fame because they're afraid of how quickly public opinion of them can change, and how little control over they have over it.

IDK, I just like Lantz cartoons. I don't like how Epic Mickey treated him.

i genuinely did not know about walter lanz so this is very interesting to me but also how did you not hit tumblr's character ask limit