#sweetpollyolliver

[doyouknowthischaracter]

RANDOM ASKS GRAB BAG

Putting a bunch of answered asks in one post so I don't spam your dashes too much. Under the cut because it's a very long post. If your ask isn't here, don't worry! The ask box is far from empty, and I'm sorta trying to group them by topic. Enjoy?

Anonymous asked: you mentioned in another ask that there were a few things you were probably going to check out from doing these polls and I was just curious which ones those are, if you don't mind sharing fjdjsj

I don't mind sharing! I had to go through the archive to remember which ones I wanted to check out, but a few of them would be The Walten Files, Red vs. Blue, The Murderbot Diaries, I Am In Eskew, and The Mistholme Museum of Mystery, Morbidity, and Mortality. Many of the characters posted here look interesting, but I'm such a slow watcher/player/reader/etc. that it'd take me decades to go through everything lol

Anonymous asked: Have you considered doing like uhhh idk how to explain properly, but statistics/data from loads of polls in a summary every so often? I've seen some poll blogs do a most known/least known type bar graph every so often. And I would be super interested in seeing this sort of thing for this blog!! It's fair enough if not though, obviously this would create a lot of extra work for you. Anyway, thanks for running this blog :-) Anonymous asked: I just asked a question about seeing the data statistics/ bar graphs - please ignore it! Just reread your pinned and realised I'd missed that bit :'). BUT, last point remains, thank you for running this blog and putting up with repetitive anons I bet aksjskdjsk

I haven't put the data in a graph yet, but if I figure out how to organize that in a way that's both comprehensible and actually tells us something new, I'll give it a try for sure. Until then, we do have the spreadsheet. And no worries, I'm glad you're enjoying the blog! :)

Anonymous asked: *sees a poll blog* "I must answer each and every poll I can"

Godspeed on your journey and remember to stay hydrated! 🫡

Anonymous asked: this is my favorite blog! Every morning I wake up and check the polls like they're the paper, just to say "I don't know them" Truely a humbling experience!

Happy to be your neighborhood paperboy!

@iceice-baeby asked: Are olyou fearing the day someone submits Solid Snake from MGS and you will choose the wrong picture Because everyone always seems to choose the wrong picture

The only difficulty will be in not using this one:

Anonymous asked: Just scrolled back through your blog up to posts from Dec 3rd and I know why those polls are closed now but I cannot describe the genuine anguish I felt seeing Mr Orange and going NO I KNOW HIM - I KNOW HIM!!!! Anyway I found this blog like ten minutes ago and I love it

Don't worry, he's A-OK! 👍

(Also, thanks! I appreciate your dedication.)

Anonymous asked: scrolling through to catch up on the characters and knowing a whole three of them was so bizarre. im not supposed to press the yes i know them button, im supposed to do my sworn duty and vote no with unending confusion. the world has been flipped on its head 😵‍💫

I bet the next 30 were characters you've never heard of, just for balance to be restored.

Anonymous asked: Whenever i misclick I feel sooooo bad like im sorry my dear friend for not recognizing you I apologize for my rudeness

No polls so far ended with only one vote difference between answers, so you don't have to feel too bad. For now. 👀

Anonymous asked: this is fun cause i’ve definitely submitted some characters but i’ve immediately forgotten who. so i’ll also be pleasantly surprised to see my beloveds on the blog.

A gift from you to you, courtesy of unreliable memory! Sweet!

Anonymous asked: Devastating. I keep missing the voting for the only characters I know.

You'll do it one day, I believe in you!!

@iceice-baeby asked: Would you consider writing in the tags if YOU know a character or not You have done it sometimes before, but I'd be curious if you do recognise some of those random niche as all hell blorbos Also I can't wait for my Blorbos turn. Because either He-and-she is gonna take most obscure place, OR I will actually find maybe more than two people, myself included, who know him-and-her and who I can ramble at for hours until they block me

Oh yeah, for sure. I didn't think anyone would be interested to know, but I can do that when I remember to!

Did your blorbo show up already?

Anonymous asked: I have been having the opposite problem of everyone else, apparently. I'll see a name and be like, "I don't know who that is". But then I see the picture and realize… Yes I do!

That's why I take the time to include fitting pictures, helps jog the memory!

Anonymous asked: I feel very superior every time I know a character most people don't

Hey, nobody likes a show-off. (<- Joking)

Anonymous asked: Wait, has Beetlejuice not been submitted?? I could've sworn I submitted the musical version! Anonymous asked: Oh wait no I didn't submit musical Beetlejuice to you, got you mixed up with @/every-character-ever-poll lol my bad

Indeed he hasn't been submitted yet, maybe next time!

@thetisming asked: sorry for saying something negative in the replies to a post someone was being a dick about jukebox musicals

No worries, but don't let it get to you. People are allowed to dislike your favorite things even without any good reason. It's a matter of taste, which is highly subjective. It's more constructive to focus your attention on people who do enjoy the same things as you!

@autism-criminal asked: What is your favorite color of the rainbow (red orange yellow green blue indigo purple) ?

Orange! 🍊 What's yours? :)

Anonymous asked: "data is not accurate" bro if ur going to a tumblr poll blog for accurate data you NEED to reassess some things asdfghjkl; anyway this blog is great thank you for running it it's a lot of fun and has resulted in some very funny interactions between me and my fiance. notably "what the fuck do you MEAN 6% of the sans undertale website doesn't know who sans undertale is" and "i'm sorry i simply don't believe that ANYONE doesn't know who DRACULA is"

Different people come here with different expectations, I suppose. Which is fine, I don't mind, but they're bound to be disappointed if they expect 100% accuracy all the time. But anyway! I'm happy to hear I can provide a new form of enrichment for you and your fiancé!

@sweetpollyolliver asked: So many manga and anime characters and I know like 1% of them 😭

I'm ngl, I'm not a big manga/anime connoisseur either, so I'm just as lost as you most of the time lol 🤝 (<- shaking hands in solidarity)

@cringelordofchaos asked: If I go insane one day I am going to try to make an English translation for Mesec Boje Purpura so everyone can know who veštica Noks is

I'm fully behind you! Keep us updated if you do.

Anonymous asked: I scroll through your blog. I don’t recognise any of these characters. ‘No,’ I click, ‘no,’ ‘no,’ ‘no.’ I am content in the darkness of the rock I live under. But, alas, all things must end. I continue my scroll, the glee of the irrelevant rampant in my veins. But what’s this? It can’t be… My shelter is cruelly ripped away and the brutal light of knowledge seeks me out like a bloodhound, it gives me no place to hide. ‘Yes,’ I sob, defeated, ‘Yes, I do know the jjba character.’

A modern-day Greek tragedy, truly 💔

Anonymous asked: was really surprised to vote and see that a character was 100% know them. then I noticed I got there early enough to be the only vote

For one shining, brilliant moment they were 100% known and surely that counts for something.

Anonymous asked: You should make up a character and make a poll for them and see how many people lie or misclick

Well....... I'm not going to comment on that. 🐰

Anonymous asked: I follow this blog and another blog that does smash or pass and occassionally I will come to one of your posts and examine the images to decide and then remember this blog's gimmick before trying to hit smash

Imagine voting smash there and then coming here to vote "I don't know them at all" on the same character. Brutal.

@ink7blot asked: *sees big naturals* I hate that. *reblogs*

A job well done, then 😌

[veliseraptor]

🌩️ please :)

That was when an arrow whizzed out of a copse of trees and embedded itself in the ground in front of the mage’s feet. The mage jumped back with a startled yelp and Fenris drew his sword.

“Stop right there!” a voice rang out. “And sheath your weapon, or you’ll be a pincushion before you can blink.”

[make me write ✍🏻]

[gabzilla-z]

Gabzy!!!!!!! Are you still reading the Spy x Family manga? Have you read the latest chapter?? 😱😱😱

Yes and yes.

Need less Yuri and more Yor tbh.

[yexie]

Congrats to the Divorce Poll Winners: Nieyao!!

tfw you get divorced so hard it kickstarts the whole plot

In second place we have: Chengyao!

nothing like amicably co-parenting a child and then having a messy divorce right in front of said child

And in third place: Xiyao!

a divorce so harrowing you need to go into seclusion about it

That‘s a wrap, folks!

at this point special shoutout to xuexiao though, incredible effort there, xiyao beat y‘all by only 1%!! y‘all love pain huh

i‘m considering making a „who should‘ve gotten divorced“ poll based on the incredible suggestions by @sweetpollyolliver 👀 but we shall see

For now, congrats to Jin Guangyao for being The Most Divorced Character Ever, Probably!! oh boy.

[winepresswrath]

(1) I have to admit, I don't understand what it is that a lot of people have against Xichen - I am honestly very confused about it. As someone who has a lot of responsibility at work and someone who is in a central role in a large and conflicted family, I kind of relate to him a lot. The most effective way of making peace is often talking people round by semi-agreeing with them while also not agreeing with them. It's pragmatism. I don't know, I don't mean to defend him but he also, you know,

(2) isn't cruel - is kind in fact! And I get the impression he tries to do the right thing, as he sees it. He does not kill lots of people. Is it that he /could/have achieved so much if he took a side at some point? 

Xichen emphatically is not cruel! He’s consistently kind, and he has very good opinions, relative to his peers, on things like second chances and beating teenagers until they can barely walk and whether you should murder your enemies en masse without trial. He’s also much less inclined than many people with substantially shittier ideas to defend and stand by his (correct!) moral assessments. Xichen is, to me, one of those narratively satisfying cases where his greatest strength is also his greatest weakness. Giving people the benefit of the doubt, valuing different perspectives, and trying to find compromise and common ground are all genuinely good and admirable things right up until one of those perspectives is “I declare a blood feud” and you’re in a position of power accidentally lending your stellar reputation for righteousness to endorse atrocities because your boyfriend has a very convincing mustache and you didn’t want to fight with him about collective punishment in front of your other boyfriend’s shitty dad.  It’s not like there’s no upside to his approach! There’s a post that went around awhile ago about how his willingness to hear Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji out and try to investigate and gather evidence rather than just defaulting to assuming that his beloved boy/friend who helped him rebuild his home was innocent and the necromancer who killed a bunch of his friends is up to some shady shit is good, actually, and I agree! That’s Xichen at his best, and his best is very good! Had an alternate universe Jin Guangyao been coming back from the dead to expose Wei Wuxian’s crimes I think Lan Wangji would have handled that comparatively badly.

However, I also think taking the middle road is not a morally neutral choice and he compromises on a bunch of stuff I think a) you shouldn’t compromise on and b) he could have fought  harder about, and sometimes I am left being like “Xichen. Xichen come on you KNOW this is wrong. Xichen! If you’re going to endorse work camps run by JIN GUANGSHAN shortly after he declared a blood feud you’ve gotta station some of your own people in those camps  so they can see what’s going on! Xichen!  Mingjue listens to you! He loves and trusts you! Together you can make things unpleasant and annoying enough for Jin Guangshan that he’ll be less shit for pragmatic reasons! Xichen I know you love Jiggy and have mommy issues that are directly on point here, but once he’s Chief Cultivator and you’re one of the leaders of the three other remaining great sects ‘I assumed you had your reasons’ is not enough you’ve gotta look directly at the thing so you have the best idea possible about what you’re choosing to let happen.”

All my favourites do terrible things except Yanli, so it’s not like I think he’s in bad company. Most of the cast spends most of the story fucking up horribly in lots of fun and terrible ways! That’s a big part of what I personally find compelling about this story.

[drwcn]

For the meme: Jiang Cheng, Nie Huaisang and Wei Wuxian and 10, 7 and 3

Sorry I meant or not and! You choose which you like most :)

put three names & a number in my ask

3. fight aliens with, fight zombies with, fight capitalism with

Fight Aliens with Nie Huaisang NHS is surprisingly intuitive and very intelligent. We probably don’t even have to fight. He’ll just try to communicate with the aliens and we’ll all be friends. 

Fight Zombies with Jiang Cheng Is that...not what already happens? LOL. Jiang Cheng and his unreleting rage are all I need in this zombie apocalypse. 

Fight Capitalism with Wei Wuxian  Wei Wuxian’s go-to colour is red, how convenient, just like the communist manifesto. We’ll seize the day like capitalists seized the means of production.  

XD thanks friend! 

[samyazaz]

Top 5 songs to listen to in the morning.

I don’t know that I tend to have songs specifically categorized that way in my head — I do a fair amount of listening to songs first thing in the morning, but it’s to trick my probably-ADD brain so that it will actually let me get up out of bed and start getting ready, so my listening choice tends to be more defined by that than by the time of day. So, barring that, here’s some frequent choices from my Spotify likes:

1. For weekdays, because it’s the ringtone I use for the alarms on my phone: Loreley, by Blackmore’s Night

2. For when I want to start the day with a cheery bop I can belt along to but also I want to yell about bullshit gender roles: Like A Boy, by Nick Pitera

3. For when I want a nice mellow folksy start to the day with bonus morning imagery: Thus Always to Tyrants, by The Oh Hellos

4. For when I want something peppy enough to dance to to get me moving in the morning but also want to get my brain primed for my current writing project: Never Look Away, by Vienna Teng

5. For when the only force powerful enough to get my ass out of bed is the narrative pull of a five-minute-long ballad about space ghost ships: Dawson’s Christian, by Vixy & Tony

[fiona-widdershins]

Chris Evans

send me your favorite average, white man and i’ll rate him

Yikes, I Don’t See The Appeal || Not My Type || He’s Alright || I See The Appeal But I’m Different™ || Cute But On Alternating Wednesdays || He Has A Kind Face And That’s Good Enough || Pretty || Gorgeous || I— I Love? We Don’t Deserve Him.

[pilferingapples]

@sweetpollyolliver replied to your post “I want. Jewel tones. I want vivid colors and really loud patterns and...”

Yes tell me about it! Occasionally they go really out there and do an ugly shade of red potentially in an ugly pattern but that’s the best you will get

WHY IS IT ALWAYS UGLY RED ,I mean it IS you are so right but WHYYY

[relatablepicturesof-kuroo]

sweetpollyolliver replied to your post “Wow all my old posts had so many notes I really let you guys down when...”

I mean Kuroo hasn't been in the manga for a while as well - don't beat yourself up

that is true but i wasn’t there keeping you guys entertained while he’s mia...

[aporeticelenchus]

sweetpollyolliver replied to your post: [[MOR] I’m…not doing great. I can’t concentrate....

have you let work know you are feeling this?

No; to be honest, it’s not a conversation I want to have with the instructor I’m working with this quarter. She’s been pretty outwardly...unsympathetic about both student and TA struggles these past few months. And since she’s also a big part of the program, I’d like to stay in her good books for future hiring.

I’ll be ok, I just needed to scream into the internet to see if that helped. It did, a bit. There’s only a week left of teaching, then final exams, which means a hellish grading schedule in the next two weeks but then this class is done.

I’m teaching in July too, but I’ll have a break and also it’ll be a new instructor. And for now, I will pet my cat and try to remember to meditate before bed.

[nottonyharrison]

1 and 3!

Oooh yay!

1. if you could hit any character without repercussions, who would it be?

BOOOMMERRRRRR absolutely. Like for fuck’s sake why is he even still alive. David Hornsby is not an excuse.

3. characters you would marry in an instant?

I’m going to stray away from Good Girls for a moment here and go MCU because I have a lot of feelings about MARIA HILL okay? Maria Hill deserves her own TV show and her own gay-ass storyline and her own opportunity to be at total badass and I would marry her in a heartbeat.

[veliseraptor]

🌩️ 🌩️ 🌩️

I am so excited about the thought of this fic!

Get out get out get out, he kept thinking, but of course it didn’t make any difference.

Was this really how it ended? It was probably too much to hope that they’d just kill him for the crime of murdering a magister.

[make me write ✍🏻]

[fanforthefics]

Okay okay so for the prompt meme how about blackout for either Ovi/Nicke OR Colin/Tyson (I dare you)

Colin wakes up to the sound of the door to his apartment closing. 

Given that he lives alone, this would be pretty disconcerting, but his head is also pounding and he’s not fully awake, so he can’t quite manage to be properly worried by it. 

Instead, he lies there in bed, his eyes still closed. He feels--drained. It’s unusual, usually he tries to make sure his sleep schedule is such that he always gets the necessary seven hours that’s optimal for his body, and he’s really been working on techniques for making sure that sleep is all good, deep sleep. Of course, his head doesn’t usually feel like this--he hasn’t had a hangover this bad since he was in college probably, since he really figured out the rhythms of water and hangover cures to preemptively make sure this doesn’t happen. 

Except it definitely did last night. Apparently. Although he can’t remember it. 

Colin takes a deep breath, counting in and out, so that he stays even. Then he takes another. Then he opens his eyes. 

He’s in his bed, which is comforting. Nothing appears to be out of order, and he’s even in the sweatpants he likes to sleep in. He can see the outfit from last night draped over the chair, which is odd--Colin when drunk isn’t usually tidy. 

He turns his head, and--the bed next to him was clearly slept in. There’s an indent on the pillow still, and the blankets are mussed, and the door had closed. 

Colin takes another breath. He takes stock of his body--he feels fine, not sore, which means something but not that much. He didn’t--he’d taken someone home? What had he--he couldn’t remember, what if they couldn’t either, what if he--what if they--

The breaths aren’t working. He fumbles for his phone. There’s a text on it, from Nemo, asking him if he got home okay. Colin could call him back, but instinct’s carrying him somewhere else, and he follows that energy until the phone is ringing and then--

“Hey,” Tyson says, and his voice is warm and fond and Colin can hear that he’s smiling. 

It’s calming. Colin does know that generally, Tyson is not what people would call a calming presence, given that he’s causing chaos 75% of the time, but Colin thinks that those people just don’t know Tyson very well. Nemo says that Tyson’s just different around Colin, but Colin has been putting that thought aside until he has the bandwidth to really consider it. “Didn’t think you’d be up yet.” 

“Yeah.” Colin takes another breath. It’s easier. On the other side of the call, he hears a horn; Tyson must be outside. That’s odd too; Colin’s usually the one who gets up with the sun to take advantage of the body’s natural rhythms and Tyson’s the one who sleeps in as long as he can. “I. Um.” 

“Are you okay?” Tyson asks, and his voice has changed--now he sounds like he does when he talks to the rookies sometimes, when they don’t need Cool Uncle Tyson but Tyson who’ll help without judging. 

Tyson won’t judge. Colin takes another breath. Tyson’s probably been in this situation before, he’ll know what the best procedure is. Another breath. 

“I, um. I think I slept with someone last night, and I can’t remember what happened for most of the night, and I am not handling it ideally,” Colin says, trying to make it calm. 

There’s a long pause. Colin expected some ribbing immediately, because it is Tyson, and Tyson’s help always comes with mockery even if it’s not judging and half pointed at himself anyway. But there’s a long second where the only sound is whatever’s happening on the street next to Tyson. 

Then, “Oh.” Something has changed in Tyson’s voice. “Oh, right, um. Okay. You, um, slept with someone. And you don’t remember who.” 

“That’s what I said,” Colin agrees. It doesn’t sound better repeated back at him. 

“So is this just bragging, or...” 

“I don’t know what to do,” Colin admits. It’s never easy to say, but admitting it is the first step to fixing it. “What if they took something? What if I did something they didn’t want? What if they did something I wouldn’t want? What if they have pictures or something? Shouldn’t I make sure they’re okay as well?” 

“Hey, you can’t freak out, that’s my job, I’m not equipped to be the not freaking out one,” Tyson interrupts. Colin snorts. “I’ll be there in like five minutes, we’ll--figure it out.”

The frantic energy settles in Colin, at that. He trusts he and Tyson together can figure it out. At the very least Tyson’s dad probably has someone who handles this sort of thing. “Why only five minutes?” he asks, though. Tyson lives at least fifteen minutes away. “Don’t speed, I’ll be fine for ten more minutes.” 

“I, um. Was in the area already,” Tyson mumbles, fast enough it takes Colin’s hungover brain a second to pick the words apart, and by the time he does, Tyson’s already telling him good-bye and he’ll be right there. 

Colin puts his phone down, and drags himself out of bed to brush his teeth and down as much water as his body could handle. He runs a hand through his hair while he’s at the mirror. Tyson’s definitely seen him looking worse than this, but he’ll feel better if he doesn’t feel like Tyson is really seeing him at his worst. 

He’s just finishing more water when there’s a knock on the door and a call of, “Willy, it’s your new husband and official owner of all your worldly possessions!” 

Colin chuckles, and opens the door. “We aren’t in Vegas, i think I’m okay.” 

“You think,” Tyson snorts, as he breezes past Colin. He hands Colin a cup of coffee from Colin’s favorite coffee place a few blocks away, then wraps both his hands around his own cup. “Shows what you know. A lot can happen in a night.” 

“Why did you have two coffees?” Colin asks. He doesn’t think Tyson had enough time to get here and get him coffee. But when he takes a sip, it tastes exactly like he likes it, down to the soy milk. 

It hits him then. “Were you going back to someone?” he asks, because the two coffees, the way, now that he looks at Tyson, he’s wearing the pants he wore last night and a nondescript Avs t-shirt that looks like the sort of thing that lives in Colin’s and probably the rest of the team���s cars. 

“So let’s go through this,” Tyson says loudly, which basically answers that. “You don’t remember anything from last night?” 

“I remember...” Colin thinks back. “Going to the club, and we were dancing.” He definitely remembers that, the way neither of them could dance at all but Tyson threw himself into it because that was what he did, what he always did, and how that made Colin want to too. How Tyson had grinned up at Colin, the lights playing over his face, and Colin had been already drunk and falling falling falling and full of love, for the moment, for the fate that brought him there, for Tyson. 

That last one wasn’t unusual. Colin was maybe a little in love with Tyson, but so was everyone who met him, and Colin got more of him than most of them did, so Colin was lucky enough. 

“Anything after that?” Tyson asks. Colin thinks, but--there’s nothing there. Flashes, maybe, of the lights and laughter and leaning on someone as they opened his door, but--nothing more. 

“No.” 

“Tsk tsk, Colin Wilson. Getting blackout drunk. Who even are you, me?” Tyson grins, then he turns to head to the bedroom. Colin follows after him, willing to let Tyson’s energy carry him through. “Okay,” Tyson goes on, when he gets into Colin’s bedroom. “We can do this. We can solve the mystery. Ooh, hey, maybe you had a whole adventure and we’ll have to track down the clues!” He sounds energetic about it, but--the energy isn’t quite enthusiasm. 

“I don’t think there are any clues,” Colin tells him. “Or, I don’t--” 

“Hey.” Tyson grabs his shoulders. The touch is grounding. “It’ll be okay, promise. Does it look like anything was taken?”

Colin looks around. He doesn’t see anything, and tells Tyson so. 

“And your underwear’s all there?” Colin raises his eyebrows. Tyson shrugs. “Look, it happens to you once, you start checking.” 

Colin shakes his head--he can never quite tell where the causality is, with Tyson and the stuff that just seems to happen to him--and goes to check. Tyson keeps flitting around his room, never settling anywhere. 

“I don’t think anything’s missing,” he reports.  

“Okay, good,” Tyson nods. “That’s, yeah, good.” He nods again. “We can--we go to the bar now, see if they know anything.” He starts to sit down on the bed, then bounces up again immediately. 

“Will they?”

“They do sometimes.” Colin considers asking how many times Tyson has been in this situation, then decides that it’s probably not worth it and he doesn’t particularly want to know. “You just need to, um, get dressed, and then we can go.” 

“Yeah, I can--” Colin opens the drawer with his t-shirts in it. He just did laundry, so he knows that the drawer should be full. 

Except it’s not, and there’s a few inches left in the drawer. 

“I think they took a t-shirt, actually,” Colin says, turning to look at Tyson, who’s now having a staring contest with the bed, his back to Colin. Colin can see the breadth of his shoulders under the Avs shirt. 

Tyson didn’t drive last night, Colin remembers, suddenly. They’d ubered because Tyson refused to DD and refused to let Colin DD either. 

Tyson looks over at him, and Colin’s hungover, but he can put the pieces together when they land in his lap. 

“Tyson,” he says, and there must be something in his voice because Tyson’s eyes go wide and panicked like they do when the cameras on him and he can’t stop himself from talking. “Did we sleep together last night?” 

Tyson’s cheeks go instantly bright red, which is an answer in itself. “Well it depends on what you mean by sleep? We didn’t have sex, so, in that definition no.”

“But you slept here last night.” 

“Would you believe me if I said no?” Tyson asks, sounding hopeful. He won’t meet Colin’s eyes. 

“Not really, no.” Colin’s heartbeat sounds loudly in his ears. 

“Then, yeah.” Tyson glances away, at the bed, then quickly in the other direction. “Um. Yeah.” 

“Why didn’t you just say that?” Colin takes another breath. He doesn’t like being angry, especially at Tyson. He would like to avoid it. “Instead of letting me--” 

“You didn’t remember!” Tyson cuts him off, sounding harsher than usual. “If you didn’t remember, I figured you didn’t want to remember, so I was just going to let it go.” 

“That’s not how blackouts work!” 

“Which one of us has the experience here?” Tyson snaps back, his arms crossed over his chest. It’s--Colin had assumed Tyson had just crashed in his bed, which wouldn’t have been out of the ordinary for hockey players. But Tyson’s not reacting like he crashed in Colin’s bed and then played a prank. 

Calm. He can figure things out when he’s in equilibrium. 

“Tys, what happened?” he asks. “You said we didn’t have sex.” 

“We didn’t!” Tyson repeats, emphatic. “We were both way too drunk and it would have been a shitty first time and you decided you didn’t want that, so we definitely didn’t hook up.” 

“Tys--”

“I was going to let it go!” Tyson repeats, throwing up his hands. “I was--I didn’t realize you were blackout, I’m sorry, but if you were that drunk then you were too drunk to mean what you said so I was going to give you an out because that’s what friends do!” 

“What did I say?” Colin asks. He’s not sure he wants to know. But he won’t be able to settle until he does. Tyson glances down at his feet. “Tys, please?” 

“Just that you were into me, I guess,” Tyson mumbles, still not looking at Colin. “And like, would have hooked up with me if we hadn’t been drunk, and also that maybe it would have meant something to you more than just a hook up and that’s why you wouldn’t do it.” 

“Oh.” Colin blinks, trying to process that. 

“But like I said, you were drunk, I’m not going to like, hold you to it,” Tyson goes on, his voice speeding up like it does when he’s trying to fill space. “I’ll just, um, go. And we don’t have to talk about it ever again, I mean, you don’t even remember it, so--” 

“You were going to come back?” Colin cuts him off, because sometimes Tyson needs to be cut off.

“Well, yeah, I mean, you made a lot of promises about the morning, but--” 

Colin takes a step forward. “Tys, I meant it.” 

“What?” Tyson’s head jerks up. “Seriously, we’re cool. Drunk confessions of love don’t count, if they did Mac and I would be married like a hundred times.” 

“I’m not Nate.” 

“Somehow I noticed.” Tyson’s biting his lip. “You don’t have to.” 

“I want to.” Colin has to smile. “Were you seriously going to go through a Hangover shenanigans thing instead of telling me it was you?” 

“The Hangover thing sounded kind of fun,” Tyson admits, but he’s smiling now, and Colin doesn’t know exactly what made him brave last night, what got him to say it, but--he leans down as Tyson slides a hand behind his neck, and when he kisses Tyson it’s like everything goes still. 

[penshachi]

sweetpollyolliver replied to your post “omgcp hcs based on irl hockeys pt. 1”

I don't know 90% of these please tell us who they are about

the receipts are right here and if you have any additional questions please feel free to message me

[sovinly]

Hello :) could you recommend any good books involving court politics/intrigue?

Hello! :) Sorry for the delay, I was out of town and then recovering from that! Thank you as well for the question! :D

Unfortunately, there are only a couple books I can whole-heartedly recommend? I know I read more of them, but it was enough years ago that I can’t honestly say whether or not they’re any good. I did get my hands on some of the fantasy court intrigue staples I’ve never read before, so I will hopefully have an UPDATED LIST in a few months?

For now... I am sure you have heard my enthusiastic yelling about Kathrine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor but it is honestly just so fucking delightful and I need to tell you that again. Good politics, good intrigue, very hopeful and kind, and quickly and unexpectedly on my favorite’s list.

Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Curse of Chalion is ALSO GOOD. I love her work anyway, but there’s some delicious maneuvering and many secrets. Worth a read, I’d say. It’s still pretty actiony in places, but y’know what? I can live with that.

I’ve only read one of Ellen Kushner’s Swords of Riverpoint series, and the one I read was much heavier on the coming-of-age/fish-out-of-water elements than strictly political, but it scratched some of the same itch! Aristocracy politics! So I will offer a tentative recommendation/suggestion on that part. One of the books I picked up recently was her collaboration with Delia Sherman, The Fall of the Kings, since I am a heathen who sometimes has a bad habit of reading out of order, but I will follow up once I read that and actually get my hands on the first book.

Everything else that really comes to mind isn’t quite court politics, I’m sorry to say. And a lot of stuff I’ve seen on rec lists for the genre is... not my cup of tea. I’ve also gotten pretty picky over the years. But! Let me include a few more similar-but-not-exact recs!

Once again, Nirvana in Fire is some beautifully done court manners, intrigue, and politics with (admittedly relatively minor) fantasy elements if you have the patience for time investment and also subtitles.

I was going to suggest an LJ-hosted short story, but it has since been published as an actual book? Sarah Rees Brennan’s In Other Lands isssssss not court intrigue, but has a LOT of fantasy politics and some similar negotiation of different political parties to court fantasy, so you may give it a try.

Sorry, friend, I was hoping I would have more of these! But apparently I am either forgetting a lot of things or have gotten too picky, because I know I have read some of the more dense court intrigue and it is just... not coming to mind.

Friends, anyone wanna help us out with some more court intrigue recs?