#thanks for introducing my new blorbo to me

[janisjoy]

"Herr Forehead"

[efernity]

So i watched the first two existing episodes of Murder Drones and i think my dna has been altered and im turning inside out and reverting into monkey running on treadmil chasing a banana on a fishingrod thats taped to my back.

[radiance1]

"Okay, so." Danny began slowly, very, very slowly. Testing the rope that bound his arms behind his back. "This is new... Ish."

"Sorry, sorry." The kid Danny had, unfortunately (but also fortunately), saved from multiple kidnappings from cultists. Said, hands raised in his direction but also not going any further and instead fidgeting in place. "Are they too tight? Do you want me to loosen them?"

"No, no. They're fine." Danny shrugged, silently hoping the Infinite Realms isn't going to smite the unfortunate boy across from him for, you know, kidnapping Danny and all that. "I would say this is one of the more comfortable kidnappings, to be honest."

"Oh, okay. That's good." The kid nodded slowly, though a bit hesitant before deciding not to follow that line of conversation. "Alright, so, my name's Billy." Billy introduced him, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand as he gave an awkward smile. "Y'know, the guy you saved from multiple kidnappings and, uh, kidnapped you too."

"Cool, cool." Danny hummed lightly, leaning back against the wall. "Name's Danny, nice to meet you Billy."

"I thought your name was Phantom?" Billy asked, understandably confused.

"It is." Danny confirmed.

"But your name is also, Danny?" Billy tilted his head a bit.

"Yes." Danny said, unhelpfully.

"Is Danny your secret identity?" Billy asked.

"Nope."

"Is Phantom your secret identity?"

"Yes but no."

A beat.

"That makes no sense." Billy said flatly.

"What can I say," Danny shrugged. "Not a lot of things in my life make sense."

"Right, yea." Billy nodded politely, drumming his fingers against his leg. "Interdimensional prince and stuff."

"Yea."

A moment of silence.

"So-" Billy began.

"No, the Ghost King isn't going to hunt you down. No, every other ghost in existence isn't going to hunt you down either and, no. This isn't going to start a war."

Billy blinked.

"Not what I was going to ask, but okay. That's nice to know." He nodded, a certain amount of relief unknotting unknown pressure in his chest he only knew till now.

"Oh." Danny blinked, then tilted his head. "Soooo, what did you want to ask then?"

"Do you want to be my boyfriend-"

"Yes."

===

"Let's fucking GOOOOOO!" Zeus roared, throwing his fists into the air. "Haha! Take that Solomon! I told you it would work!"

Solomon pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed in exasperation, reaching into his robe and pulling out 5 gold coins.

"Thank-a you!" Mercury swiped the money right out of his hands then hid them... Somewhere, on his body. Then gave Solomon a wink. "Pleasure doing business with ya!"

===

"Oh, it finally happened." Clockwork remarked calmly, barely pausing as he continued to run the comb through hair.

"The Realms seem out of sorts." Pariah Dark said slowly, twisting his head to try to look back at Clockwork only to turn it right back from the gentle whack of Clockwork's staff. "Should I be concerned?"

"No," Clockwork said casually, running the comb through his king's hair. Honestly, it amazed him that Eons of Eternal Slumber, yet his hair wasn't a rat's nest. "Let it sort itself out, it shall be done in the next century, or the next two millennium, either or."

"You're unsure?" Pariah tilted his head forwards the slightest amount, doing so very carefully as to not disturb the Master of Time's work.

"A rough estimate, though I can give a more accurate statement," Clockwork hummed lightly as he combed through the few knots left. "It is unimportant."

"Ah," Pariah Dark, both trusting and not knowing enough about said subject seeing as he does not have dominion over time, nodded slightly. "I see."

===

The Infinite Realms was very, very happy to see one of its blorbos gain a lover.

It knew interrupting various kidnappings and marking the boy as a good Realms token so they could meet would work out eventually!

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 8/20/2024

a little light this week bc i had a fairly wretched week, medically speaking

listening

hozier's nobody's soldier would have been on every 8tracks mix for every character. THEEEEE blorbo song of all time to the point i am already annoyed at the thought of seeing it on every spotify mix. fuckin owns tho. very fun mod sixties heist taste to the horn arrangement

-

reading

thank you philip.

polished off the Marauders (2019-2022) comics. i liked the first volume way more than these three-- they didn't quite deliver the same quality of art or swashbuckles-per-minute. also this was probably not a great choice for someone who has forgotten what little she once knew about the xmen, even though they came at the beginning of a reboot.

why did i read these? mostly bc they were readily available or with short wait times at my library and my bestie is making me watch all the xmen movies. a girl gets curious about comic books sometimes

surprisingly, i came across this one from the Pocket integration on the firefox new tabs

McDonald likens the functions of Spotify to Google Maps. “Google Maps doesn’t do the exploration for me, but it’s helpful if I go somewhere,” he says. Rather than taking us on guided tours, it provides the tools for us to navigate somewhere new. Much as it shows us what’s nearby and how to get there, and flags notable landmarks others have visited, Spotify helps us access most music, lists global listening trends, and introduces us to artists similar to those we already know. But it’s communities that help us home in on a destination Spotify can help us explore.

part two of breaking down infamous academic paper mill Hindawi and why it was bought by Wiley anyway bc they did seemingly no due diligence, bc as a whole they do very little actual work in the publishing process.

i have included a very long quote bc it is one of only two things that made me genuinely laugh out loud this week (the other was phil unsticking a claw from the couch by backflipping herself out)

One issue of Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing from 2022, edited mostly by Hamurabi Gamboa Rosales, took an average of about 20 days to go from initial submission to revision submission. This is not unlikely, it’s impossible. The easiest way to explain this is with an analogy. Say there’s a pothole outside your house, and you call the council. You tell them ‘there’s a big hole in the road outside my house!’ The person at the other end, rather than tiredly telling you to fill out a form - which is what councils do all over the world, in my experience - instead yells ‘MOTHER OF GOD! WE’RE RIGHT ON IT!’ Twenty minutes later, a bitumen truck comes HURTLING around the corner of your street at full send, with the road workers hanging out the back of it, the driver leaning on the horn and yelling ‘GET OUT OF THE WAY! POTHOLE!’ They pull up outside your house, and you see the brakes go hot. But the guys don’t even wait for it to stop, they jump off while it’s slowing down, and they grab pry bars and a burner and a kettle of bitumen, and they start hammering out the edges, pour the bitumen and start slamming it with hammers almost at the same time. In about six minutes, the hole is filled and flattened, and they admire their work for about four hundred milliseconds and SCREAM off the way they came. No sooner has the truck disappeared, then your phone rings - and it’s the council worker from before. ‘POTHOLE! *pant* *pant* FIXED! Happy to be of service!’ *click* That’s how likely the entire editorial process taking 20 days is.

-

watching

i don't understand why the third xmen movie isn't named x cubed. it extremely is not their last stand there are like a dozen more movies to go. gun to my head i could not tell you what happened in this one. whatsherface did look good as hell though

and now for the movie i actually want to talk about, Monkey Man (2024, dir. Patel). imdb says:

An anonymous young man unleashes a campaign of vengeance against the corrupt leaders who murdered his mother and continue to systematically victimize the poor and powerless.

i am so so so lucky that my favorite kind of fight scene — fast, brutal, right spaces with improvised weapons-- is fashionable. pour it DIRECTLY into my open mouth

i think i generally agree with a broad sweep of reviewers here when i tell you that this movie is gorgeous and grossnasty at the same time, there are a lot of ideas that aren't all quite resolved, and i am much more interested in why it has a hell of a lot of ideas (part of why they don't all get resolved).

patel's first movie, it feels very much like a movie of someone who isn't sure they'll be able to do another one, so throw everything you've got in here. a sort of famously rocky production and shoestring budget, but you would not know it. the club scenes are especially dripping in glitz and, like many stage productions, have a lot of clever editing and strategic deployment of mirrors and repeats. there's a fight scene with hanging mirrors near the end where the mirrors can't have been more than fifty bucks each but it looks SO fucking sick.

i am much more willing to go to bat for this movie and ignore some of the rough edges bc it is so refreshingly earnest, and despite the style references, is very focused on being its own thing. at some points it's going to feel like The Matrix (1999, dir. the Wachowskis) bc every movie made in a post- The Matrix (1999, dir. the Wachowskis) world is going to feel a little bit like The Matrix (1999, dir. the Wachowskis). or like when the above gif happened in the movie it did not make me want to turn it off and go watch the first john wick.

people who live in india or are part of the diaspora are a little cranky about the political parties of the film, which had to be neutered for release. while i don't think i would have grasped all the nuances even if we did have the original cut, i think it's likely some of the characters would have resolved a little cleaner if that original intent was still there.

why did i watch this? i think patel is easily as hot as tumblr darling mifune. while drafting this post i got distracted sooooooo many times trying to pick the perfect gif. some of them are too hot!!!

-

playing

fallow week

-

making

just stayin alive! just livin the fuckin dream!!!

[rongzhi]

*has never watched oz* "it's time for my 2nd daily watch of wawamouse's acclaimed short film/music video 'i want you to stab me' on youtube.com through newpipe. for my health and mental wellbeing" <- this is me at the moment. thank you for uploading this masterpiece, it's introduced me to a new song and possibly a new tv show :D

Oh god, well. I'm not sure what vibes/impressions that must have given gave you, but Oz is certainly A Show, An Experience to watch if you've never seen it before... (it's basically a soap opera)

...And I'm definitely laughing that my fanedit is your introduction to it (glad you like the video tho???) (also that this was your introduction to this song?? LOL). I only have the one youtube channel so yes, my random fandom stuff goes on there as well as the douyin comps.

For the curious:

look at my blorbos boy

[thatartiststudios]

K, lil' rant below

Seriously, this fandom has changed me so much. I used to not really be super into romance, like not opposed to it by any means. And now, well, Rayllum is my bread and butter.

I used to not like poetry or musicals at all. And now, well, I just finished listening to Hadestown (again) and I'm currently reading Romeo and Juliet.

And I never really thought about writing fanfiction. And we'll... Now I'm hosting a fandom event literally for fanart and fanfic.

I've also been listening to a lot of new music in general (including Taylor Swift, which I never thought would happen), either because certain songs now have new meanings because of my beloved blorbos or because of a fan suggestion.

So incredibly thankful for all the new types of art I've been introduced to because of the TDP fandom, and of course for all the friends I've made so far. This has been an amazing journey so far, and I can't wait to see where it goes. Even after the saga is over.

If the fans are alive, if the fandom is alive, then TDP is still alive.

[proxylynn]

Blorbo: John Doe

It's okay if you can't answer this one

{Oh no, I'll gladly answer this. It's my sweet hairball baby!}

[Doe, John Doe, where for art thou dearest RegularGuy? While I haven't been as deep into the Uncanny Valley community as I once was, my admiration for this love-sick critter in a body made from regurgitated trash is still strong. He's just a silly little non-human who loves you and is learning to do his best. He's still getting love and new art by mortisfox, so thank god his fandom hasn't been tainted. And despite all the info I have dug up on him since he was introduced, there's still so much more I don't know or have had yet revealed to me. I still don't know what his job is! What I do know...I should reopen my Uncanny Catalog service again and get back to helping these hairballs integrate into humanoid society before the exterminators get to them. I must protect the RG babies!]

[strawberrystepmom]

Ken, darling I haven't been online for a pretty long time and wanted to ask you about your blorbos. Can you tell me something? Anything? I just wanna know (if you feel like sharing) maybe a sweet headcanon or a new character I should know about or just anything?

Love you!

i hope you can feel me grabbing your face and kissing your pretty cheeks 293939494 consecutive times bc im just so happy you’re here :(((( thank u for asking and thank u for coming back to me <3333

let me introduce you to the new boys since you’re here actually bc we’ve added a few to the rotation…

yami sukehiro from black clover. this au has been so fun because I love anything where I get to be a syrupy socialite being lovingly tutted at by a big strong man!!!!

narumi gen from kaiju no 8!!!! like 5 people told me id fall in love with him upon reading the manga and like the little fool I am - i did fnfjdjdjdkd he’s all too on the nose My Type i fear 😔 we start as an online relationship and it blossoms from there

also I don’t know if you’ve met hyoga yet? he’s another new initiate god bless him he’s mean and I love him and he’s mean to me specifically in bed and it makes me love him even more

[brucequeensteen]

the problem with doctor who is that i think very early on the writers began to take way too many liberties with quality and consistency because they could hide behind a) popularity of the show, b) star power + popularity of the actors, and c) nostalgia. and i think that really came through with the most recent specials because on the one hand yes it was fan service and im the fan and i do feel served, but on the other hand there's a level of quality you expect from these people especially for a 60th anniversary special that just wasn't there. and before you think "oh that's just the doctor who charm its always a bit badly written", that's my point exactly thats the excuse they hide behind, because people say that but they also always come back (im one of these people. that always comes back) when actually theres proof that the show CAN be really good. Not just silly and campy and nostalgic but actually good and interesting and intelligent.

and my issue with the specials is that they introduce all these new ideas like bigeneration or solving the metacrisis but in what feels like such a rushed and underhanded way, in favour of nostalgia-inducing lines and callbacks to older lore and cameos. and thats not to say that the specials were devoid of any meaning or emotion, and the nostalgia worked for me and overall my reaction to all 3 episodes was positive. but these themes and plot points that get revisited and quote unquote "resolved" are not given the gravitas that they SHOULD have been given, or hypothetically WOULD have been given by a writer who actually cares and can be bothered enough to get into the details and the grit. bigeneration was a total curveball that simply MUST be explored in depth in fifteen's series cos otherwise what was the point? and the metacrisis solution was very clearly shoehorned in and also a little bit cringe and not in the classic doctor who acceptable cringe way. all 3 episodes felt like they'd dug this great wide hole called "plot" and this hole is grand and impressive and draws people into it with the promise of being filled with something interesting.. and then u get to the hole and its just filled with a scattering of pebbles and a few nice shiny rocks. the good bits were the shiny rocks. i could list every good thing about the specials but it would just be a list of aspects or individual moments or lines. when in combination the whole thing is underwhelming and underdeveloped. and to be honest it felt like russell t davies got sidetracked writing fanfiction for his favourite blorbo and forgot to focus on writing the Actual TV Show he's Actually writing.

all that being said: Ncuti Gatwa stole the show and i am really excited and the specials were good enough that i have hopes for his series and i DID have fun and i believe i will CONTINUE to have fun. but i have to say that overall I was disappointed. these episodes definitely planted the seeds for some wonderful storytelling. but. it was the 60th anniversary, the return of DT and Catherine Tate, and the transition into the next series that is on so many levels radical and exciting. it should have been more than just seeds. it should have been the whole tree. also Martha should have been there. thank you for listening

[tagedeszorns]

First off, I LOVE your art. I’m only tangentially in the Warhammer 40k fandom (my partner loves it, but I haven’t ever read any source material or played the game), but your passion for the characters and your amazing art makes all your posts enjoyable anyway.

Also, Marine Meat Mondays are my favorite! 😏🥵

Where would you recommend I start if I want more context for what you post?

Oh, thank you so much for your words! It's especially flattering when you can even reach people who have nothing to do with the hobby and the huge background universe (yet)!

I think the best place to start if you don't know what to expect is the first Horus Heresy book, "Horus Rising". The first few books in the series introduce you to some of the players who are still important ten thousand years later (albeit in a different form) and give you a chance to find out what interests you. And once you've found the Legion or the faction you find absolutely fascinating, you can check out the Black Library page for short stories about it. They don't cost much and you can go into even more detail and find out whether this Blorbo choice was the right one.

That's what I do when I come across a new faction that interests me. Doesn't always work, as not all parties have the same amount of reading material (as I painfully realised with my new fixation on Haemonculi! Nothing, nada! Well, almost). But it's often a good way to slowly read your way in and work your way up from the short stories to the novels. Works well with Fabius, Eidolon, the new guy Xantine or Lucius and also with the Ultramarines and to some extent the Word Bearers.

But, as I said, starting with "Horus Rising" is probably the best idea. Firstly, see if it catches you at all.

Have fun and welcome to the worst possible future!

[bluehairedspidey]

hey king thank you for introducing me to my new blorbo in law (=character i love whos from a show/game/etc ive never actually experienced first hand) havik i love that guy so much

YES havik my beloved i love him so much!!!!! <33333

here's a little compilation i made of scenes of him from Mortal Kombat: Deception, the first game he was in :)

and a uh. little comparison of how he acts in deception vs how he acts in mk1 (:

[melis-writes]

Celebrating a milestone 2,000 followers!! 🥺❤️ All in less than a year after I hit 1k! Thank you guys so, so much! 😍

I can't express how forever grateful and appreciative I am to have such amazing mutuals, followers and readers. 🥰 It's almost been two years since I've had this blog and I still meet and make new friends and mutuals, discover new fandoms, add another blorbo to my collection and write even more fics! 😂❤️

From my last follow forever/follower milestone post, a lot has changed in the best way possible. 😌 Moth to Flame: Part II is now a thing (🥰), I'm writing a Tony Montana x Reader smut multi-chapter fic, The Other Woman is my newest Michael Corleone x Reader smut multi-chapter fic that we all can't get enough of, I wrote a Francis Lionel Delbuchi x Reader fic and a Carlito Brigante x Reader smut oneshot. 🤩 Victonny is now a full blown thing 👀 and I'm working on writing through every prompt you guys send me. 🥰❤️ That's just scratching the surface too. I have a lot more fics to write and introduce all 2023! I am here for good!! 😂

GIF making has become a passion of mine I continue to find myself improving on and just like fic writing, I can't wait to do more and post more for you guys. 💞 To all my fellow Pacino girlies and Godfather fans, I have so much love for all of you and I never want any new blogs or anyone new to the fandom to feel intimidated or shy away from interacting with my blog. 🥺❤️ I'm always excited to interact and welcome new blogs/people to our little fandom and hope to continue to spread positivity, love and encouragement to everyone in it. ❤️❤️❤️

This is my forever follow list with all of my favourite blogs and mutuals, from fandom to fandom and various blorbos altogether! 🥰

❤️ @pacinostalgia / @jasonvanhalen / @irishcorleone / @thatpacinochick / @jokerownsmysoul / @woman-with-no-name / @rosesloveletters / @pradapacino / @loveilovetoo / @lovefoxgoddess / @the-godfather-1972 / @chronically-fangirls / @thenightowl22 / @averagecinemaenjoyer / @castanierprosper / @ronniekayy / @panic-in-needle-park / @alpacacino / @chaosfae-writes / @sempiternal-waiting / @idle-teen28 / @fruitysalamander1398 / @succsessions / @stardancerluv / @allthosedarlings / @purelypacino / @mariluci / @dinalovesalpacino ❤️

[eqt-95]

20 Questions More

A deeper and more detailed version of the 20 questions for AO3 fanfic writers. Thanks @fabulousglitch for the tag!!

1) How do you keep getting ideas for your ship/fandom?

The blorbos won't leave me alone.

2) Which authors inspire you in your fandom, and why are they so freakishly good?

There are too many to count. I was introduced to Supergirl through fanfic and the canon I know to be true has been built on the backs of hundreds of contributors. It wouldn't do anyone justice if I started a list because 1. it would become a monolith of names and 2. I would definitely miss one(s). If you're in this fandom, you've likely inspired me, and that counts both for written, gif-ed, and drawn works.

3) Aside from the characters of your main ship, who are the characters you love to write?

Alex, but I don't always get it right.

4) Are there pairings or tropes you know for sure you'd never write about? Which ones?

There is a lot I probably wouldn't do, but I also for sure never expected to write an F1 au, so...

5) What is your writing process and why is it cursed?

I can either sit down and crush 1-3k words or sit down and tweak the same seven sentences for two hours. There is rarely an in between.

6) What is your favorite part of your writing process?

Editing. Oh boy do I LOVE editing. Those opportunities for finessing and fine-tuning and tweaking are *mwah*

7) What’s the weirdest thing you’ve had to research for a fic?

This isn't weird but is more recent: I did a deep dive into star constellations for a throwaway line in 'new kind of romance'

8) Is there a particular writing rule you struggle with (grammar, spelling, tense, reality in general)?

This is a nonanswer, but I would love to expand my vocabulary. The thesaurus is my writing buddy, but there are very real moments where I pout and scowl and glare at the ceiling because I can't think of the word that I'm feeling.

9) What was your hardest scene to write so far and why?

Any sort of conflict/confession/confrontation is always really hard for me, but they're also maybe my favorite things to write. I want the characters to hash things out and be honest and vulnerable, and I think tackling big emotions is a delicate balance. I never want to sound too forceful, but I don't want to leave things unsaid, but I don't want anyone to do anything out of character, but i don't want to yadda yadda...

10) Have your characters ever done something you didn’t expect, changing your plot completely?

see: 'crisis of indulgence'

11) If you could converse with any of the characters, who would it be and why?

Lena; I think she'd be a lot of fun to debate/argue with (respectfully).

12) What are some of the tropes or themes that you find yourself returning to in your writing?

(so far) always a happy ending. the readers and these characters deserve it.

13) What's your most important resource as a writer?

Living experiences (which takes time!). I don't think I could write heartbreak without having experienced that guttural feeling of loss in the same way I don't think I could write about failure or anger or insecurity or love or laughter. I think reading and the act of writing every day are incredibly resourceful, but the act of my lived experiences and those feelings is something I draw from in everything I write.

14) Can you share some of your strategies for editing and revising your work?

I edit as I go which doesn't work for everyone; however, a super fun thing I've picked up in recent works is this: when going to do a final edit of a <insert: chapter, one-shot, etc>, I read the last few paragraphs first. That sets me up to know exactly what the chapter is aiming for: feelings, motivations, plot, etc. I then use that as the anchor for how I tweak/edit/add small details to the rest of the chapter during my final read-through. I find it helps flesh out the larger story with smaller details.

15) Which is worse: making the summary, picking the tags, or the anxiety when you post your fic?

none of the above really since nothing about posting is carved in stone. tags and summaries can always be tweaked.

16) How do you define success for your fanfic - hits? Kudos? Comments? Bookmarks? Or just if you like it?

If it's finished. Bonus points if people get something out of it, but the act of having written something feels like the biggest success.

17) Do you have a playlist for your favorite character/ship?

Not really. I have go-to soundtracks for 'writing vibes' but nothing project/ship dedicated. (though 'like we're made of glass' was definitely inspired by very specific songs)

18) If fan art was going to be made from your work, which fic would you pick and which fan artist would you like to create it?

Again there are too many jaw-droppingly talented artists in this fandom to choose just one. It would of course be a wild crazy honor to see a work inspired by one of my fics, but there's already so much in this fandom to be inspired by that it doesn't feel like a loss.

19) How many WIPs do you currently have?

*sighs* for supercorp? there are a few (five). but the one that has most of my creative down time is a supercorp wicked au i have wanted to write for years but only have the faintest wisps of an outline for.

20) What's your advice to new fanfic writers?

Do it, do it, do it!

But also, one of my favorite pieces of advice for ANY creative venture is from Marc Dalessio who made this super cool 'creative process' graph in 2010 and included this line to summarize it: The ability to see improves before technical skill, and we often have difficulty assessing honestly exactly how our work looks.

It helps during those ruts when I look at everything I've recently written/drawn/created and scrunch up my nose in snobbish disgust because it just means I'm growing in some new way and not that anything I'm doing is inherently bad.

- - - - -

tagging (respectfully and without pressure) @sideguitars @fazedlight @inkedroplets if you want some rapid-fire q's thrown your way. but also anyone who wants to take a swing, i'd be jazzed to read the different answers

[saunne]

You know what I'm gonna ask, I know what I'm gonna ask, it was never going to be anything else, give me xingren. There is an agenda to spread!

I just did my nails so you can't believe how careful I am while typing this in order to not smudge anything lmao. ALSO I KNEW IT ! It was obvious that you were going to ask XingRen but still, thanks to do so 😌. There is indeed an agenda to spread.

Let's face the fact, this ship being a selfcest, it doesn't make ANY FUCKING SENSE. However, I'm good at living in my little dream bubble and my first job as a writer was to erase the word "impossible" from my dictionary. If I want it, it will happen one way or another. And happily for me, there is a LOT OF WAYS to fuck around in HSR that I can use to make sense lmao.

First of, it's actually the first time I ship a selfcest so hard. But beside Yingxing making me feral in a way almost no other character made me (and my big bro @kanraandchrome can attest, I did have some really loose screw with some of my blorbos and he had to listen to me yap about it), the thing that really sold me to this ship is the whole work around their dynamics that I can do.

I like XingRen where Yingxing sees Ren, this shadow of himself, this broken Blade who thinks of himself as a tool for Elio's goal before thinking of himself as a person. I like the idea of Yingxing, a Furnace Master, a craftsman going like "well, look at me try and succeed fixing him". For this type of dynamic, as you know, I like to dehumanize Blade, make a separation between a it/its Blade seiing itself only as a weapon, where the coping mechanism and trauma became the mask, the personality in its entirety.... and a he/his or they/them Ren, softer, clinging to shreds of humanity, still hopeful for salvation, still aching because of feelings letft to rot on themselves.

I like RenXing where Ren goes back in time or jump through dimensions and is so feral to protect Yingxing's humanity, to be sure Yingxing never ever becomes like Blade. Where Blade is all "I will see you die", but not in a threatening way but in a caring, a "you were born a short life specie and I will ASSURE you'll die as one and never become me". Where Ren is the strange stalker, the interested customer, the shadow knight until revealing himself or Yingxing giving the chase.

I love XingRen in the more crackside of the dynamic (I have WIPs about that), where Yingxing was recognize in the HCQ as "the person who would fuck his clone if given the opportunity" to the point there were bets on it (and Baiheng won when Yingxing introduced him his new boyfriend looking like a carbon copy of himself with inverted colors and a scowl bad enough to put Yinyue's Preceptors to shame). Where Ren existence and "how the fuck did this happen" is burried under the "I KNEW IT YOU WOULD FUCK YOU, AH ! PAY UP MORONS" global reaction and Ren would be just 🤨.

I love RenXing where Ren hates, despise, loathes Yingxing. Where Ren's memories are fragmentary and if he has the general idea, he doesn't possess the whole picture. I love RenXing where Ren's idea of salvation is turning back time to go murder Yingxing before the Sedition in order to erase himself... only to be unable to do so in the end, faced with the whole truth of what it was, of what happened.

I love all the philosophical bullshit this ship imposed on me, all the reflections about identity, permanence of identity, identity crisis and trauma, permanence of memory. All the angst I can produce, all the fluff I can produce, all the crack I can produce.

Also, I'm sorry, but you saw @aratribow XingRen art she made for me (Unne is so well fed, Unne is a happy writer) and I'M SORRY, THEY'RE REALLY AESTHETICALLY PLEASING TO THE EYE. I'm looking everything but respectfully and none of my thought belong anywhere near any type of divine scripture and there must be a special place like a super-horny hell somewhere in the afterlife with my name on it at this point lmao.

But anygays, XingRen is a 100% YES ABSOLUTELY YES PLEASE DEAR LORDS YES- from me.

[zaras22]

BESTIE!!!! ty for being one my first mutuals on this site and for sticking by me through genshin and star rail and introducing me to bsd (horrible decision btw i'm obsessed w it now so thanks ig :/) but anyway you're like my fav mutual on this site. we've been through sm together and it's been so nice watching you grow as an artist and just talking for hours overall abt your story or fictional blorbos. wishing you a very happy new year, i'm so glad i met you and i hope we can make a lot of good memories next year too <33

BESTIE!! you are so welcome (ehe~) and i also have to thank you for introducing me to genshin- wanna know a fun fact btw? my initial thought was “i wanna get closer to lotus so i should play the game she talks abt all the time” hehe ^^

it’s been so nice watching your blog grow so much recently and seeing all the support and all your convos over asks and such makes me so happy. yet even so, you’ve stayed by my side, talking and being there for me and i can’t thank you enough for it. so, thank you, for being so so cool and the best of the best and you are so beloved <33

happy new year and here’s to all the amazing memories we’ll surely make!!

[hartshorn-and-isinglass]

Doing A Great Job at Being Normal at Concerts

(Hi! I AM A GIANT DORK.)

Okay, so first of all... that concert was amazeballs. Keyboard Blorbo always selects music for these recitals so thoughtfully, and this selection of French music swung on a pendulum from refined courtly delight to thrilling dynamism. Keyboard Blorbo also gave themselves an entire chunk of solo pieces in the middle, which I ain't mad about at all. You wouldn't expect dance-based numbers to have you holding your breath in suspense but they enjoy letting the notes sizzle for a bit sometimes, just long enough to fuck with your mind. And I love listening to their resident soprano every time she has an opportunity to perform; she absolutely brought down the freakin' house with the last number.

Senpai brought a helluva fiery edge to this concert. Holy dang. (If I was ever hoping to be more normal about going to see them play, that definitely wasn't in the cards this time. Hnnnnnngggg.) They almost sounded like they had a different instrument under their chin. I think the acoustics in the space were just different enough from the last two venues to enhance the darker and more energetic sound they were putting out there.

Speaking of which, the venue this time was a very cool and very spacious art gallery; I was so mad I dropped the ball on my prep time again and we arrived with only ten minutes to spare (at least we got excellent seats this time, but we had to find them immediately once we arrived). I was so pumped to check out the artwork after the concert, but then at the very end Spouse pulled out his phone and showed me that the program had run over and we were going to have only the thinnest sliver of time to talk to Les Blorbeaux so we had to start stalking Keyboard Blorbo now, LOL.

And if you were wondering what the "Revolutionary treat" was... it was cake (shoulda seen that coming, honestly... was massively overthinking this one). With gilded roses on one side, and a guillotine on the other. I love Keyboard Blorbo's sense of humor.

Which is why it just kills me a little...

Whether it was just bad timing given *gestures vaguely* or just that they are an even more hardcore introvert than I was anticipating, they uh... did not let me get too many words in when I finally managed to flag them down post-concert. Soooo, yeah, didn't really get a chance to tell them, y'know, that their music left an impression on me when I was young and has helped save my sanity for the past two years. I-

I'll be fine.

I'm just a little disappointed.

Not every artist is going to be as gracious or indulgent as J. or Senpai. I know, I know. I've been extraordinarily lucky twice, and it wasn't going to happen every time. I'll get over it.

The other members of the ensemble definitely recognize me now, LOL. I did get to say hi to and thank a bunch of them, which I am glad for, while we were working our way through the crowd towards Senpai--who had made a beeline for the dessert table but was currently engaged in a lively and extensive conversation with someone else. I know this is fucking New York and you're expected to just kinda Kool-Aid Man your way into a conversation if it's urgent but I am not wired to do that, I just can't bear it. So with like four minutes to spare we swooped in the moment they were done, I said hello, got to squeeze in one question, and finally--finally!--introduced myself by name. They were confused--I think they really had assumed that I must have introduced myself before and they had simply forgotten my name. They then warned me that they were terrible at names and I'm thinking to myself--ayo, no offense but even if you're like, super-faceblind, how many alt-girl groupies have you accumulated over the years that I have no hope of sticking out in your memory sdfghjks. To be fair, I know I'm definitely not the only one, but still...

Their hand was so soft and warm. Mine was cold as ice and still pretty beat-up from all that lapidary work. I... uh... if I think about that contrast for too long my limbic system kicks my prefrontal cortex out of the driver's seat and takes the wheel. But uh... they apparently do not shake people's hands very often. They looked so confused by the gesture and they held my hand so gently, rotating it from its side-facing orientation to back-of-hand-facing-up, like they were taking my hand to dance and I'm like... uh... what...? ??? What just happened here? God bless this awkward mess.

The question I had, incidentally, led to a tangent about how their E string was being unreliable during the performance, and if someone were to write a concert review, they would probably complain that they sounded scratchy on the high notes. (Cue my cute-aggression activated.) Honestly, it wasn't that bad and the worst of it just kinda added to the vibes in that last piece. I wasn't gonna complain here about it, LOL.

It killed me that we couldn't linger, but they shooed us off telling us to enjoy our dinner, and we had to gay-walk our asses to the other side of downtown to make our reservation at the nice restaurant. It was a very nice meal. Few Italian restaurants in the US do Northern Italian cuisine, so when we do find one it brings back fond memories of our honeymoon in Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna.

So really, overall a grand time, just with some awkwardness and also-

I promise I'll get over it soon. Just give me a moment.