#that last tag wasn't relevant but here we are

[markrosewater]

Not to belabor the discussion, but there's 2 parts to the nadu discussion that I feel are being overlooked/misinterpreted. One. The card was already in a fine playable state and was largely unnecessary to change, but it was changed specifically to make it play better in commander, which ended up completely breaking it because it was a major change after testing was done. Two. It was proven to be ban worthy at the PT, maybe before. If you had banned it then nobody would have cared nearly as much

I'm not going to address the banning issues as that is outside the scope of design and far from my area. There are plenty of lessons to learn there, but not my areas of expertise.

Here's what happened. Set design is making the set. They, along with (competitive) play design, choose the cards that they think have any potential being relevant to Modern. Play design does a lot of playtesting on that group of cards. This includes a group of pros brought in specifically for this set.

The cards that aren't considered to be relevant to to competitive play are tagged as casual. The set design lead then has the casual play design team look at those cards just as the competitive play design team looks at the Modern relative ones.

The casual play design team is looking at many factors. They want the cards to be as fun as possible for the more casual crowd. Part of that search is influenced by the Commander format, as its the tabletop format that sees the most casual play. (Note "cards you own" is not an actual format.)

There's a version of Nadu doing something that has proven unfun in Commander (and thus assumed would probably be unfun in other casual games), so the casual play design team gives a note on it, much like the competitive play design team gives notes on tournament cards. The set designer, trying to do their due diligence, changes the card to avoid the problem at hand. The change is to move the card away from a state that wasn't fun.

Yes, the change ended up causing problems, but the core of what was happening was a last minute change to address a known issue. It was us trying to not repeat a mistake we had made before. The place that mistake had been noticed was from Commander, but we don't limit fixing mistakes based on where the mistake came from. Design X caused an issue last time we made it, let's not use design X again. We don't say "This set's main focus is Modern so let's only fix the mistake if it was previously witnessed in a Modern game."

So, the card wasn't in a "playable state". It was marked as doing something that had proven problematic in past games. The fix itself proved problematic, but whether or not you fix something can't be determined by the end quality of the fix, because that's not something you completely know at the time of fixing it.

[whirlybirbs]

I DIDNT ASK YOU TO CARE ABOUT ME 😭😭 YOU KNOW WHO

;   —   webs && whispers    |    miguel o'hara

summary: set pre-atsv. he's the hero. you're the villain. but, that's been changing, hasn't it? pairing: miguel o'hara / villain!reader (gender neutral) tags: pre-established 'situationship' aka hero v. villain, enemies to lovers, sexual tension thick enough you can cut it with a butter knife, established reader pseudonym a/n: ... the people asked, so the people got *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

EARTH-928B. NUEVA YORK. MANHATTAN. WEST & 13TH. 11:56 PM.

"You're a hard spider to find these days."

Miguel feels irritation slip up his spine long before the phantom shift of your voice meets his ears. It's a hazy sound, like a chorus of susurrations converging into one. 

In the last few months, he's grown accustomed to it. 

Miquel, however, isn't sure he'll get used to the way you slip in and out of space like the flea on the tightrope. Here nor there, always lurching between the frames in reality, always ephemerally present. And the sound — voices of past, present, and future all overlapping at once, then: silence.

In a disjointed stutter, you're suddenly close — encroaching on his personal space in a way that makes his lip curl. A flash of fangs emerges beneath his mask. 

His back is still to you.

"I'm not in the mood, Whisper."

Beneath your mask, your face twitches. He sounds exhausted — though that isn't entirely new for Nueva York's un-friendly borough-stalking Spider-man. 

"Are you ever?" you quietly chirp as you stalk up beside him; you cross your arms, "I'm inclined to think you're avoiding me."

Up here, on a penthouse roof backlit by the nightlife above and below, you watch tension ripple into his shoulders as he rolls his posture back. That black mask hasn't left the horizon. Tar-black eyes stare out over the city, only narrowing slightly at your accusation. 

"We aren't friends."

He turns to walk away.

In a rush of hushes, you appear directly before him.

"Mierda—!"

"Sorry."

"We talked about that, Whisper," Miguel leans his weight onto one leg, reaches up, and pinches his brow through his mask, "It's called personal sp—"

You roll your eyes. You straighten up and move to step back, but — instead — shift a meter backward. You talk over him.

"Personal space, right, sure, Spidey," you slip towards the edge of the building, planting a boot on the lip of the ledge. You wind your arms tighter around yourself, "You're ignoring my question."

"You never asked one," he grits; against his better judgment, he moves to your side at the ledge.

"It was implied."

"I've been busy."

"Too busy for your nemesis?" you tsk and click your tongue. 

He's looking at you now. 

"Please. 'Nemesis' is hardly the correct title."

You scoff. Your shoulders bob. "Oh? C'mon then, Spider-bite, what is?"

It's a fair question — one that Miguel wasn't sure he has the answer for. 

In the beginning, this little tango was rife with explosive violence, scalding anger, bloodied knuckles, and sworn endings. You were a terrorist, fated to exploit and destroy the people whose mistakes made you: Alchemax. He was the hero, destined to protect and serve the people of Nueva York. Good and bad. 

Constant. Like the rise of the sun and the fall of the moon. Spider-man versus Whisper. Frontpage headlines. Time and time and time again.

Then, something shifted. Miguel can't remember when it began, or why... But, the collisions of fists became a tandem of fists. A team-up brought on by — was it Mysterio, maybe? You never liked the guy. 

Lyla remembers. She remembers everything. The footage from the incident is shaky — blame the multiple CCTV views all meshed together in a hot tangle of the canon-relevant plot. 

Spider-man is down on his luck. On his knees. Mysterio: laughing. Vitals: dropping. Three ribs: broken. Mask: compromised. Lyla's footage swivels inward, the sight of Miguel's one eye. A rageful carnelian smithed hard into a pained gaze. 

Then, you. Standing: tall. Voice: rageful. Fists: lit with power and already cracking across the opalescent globe of Mysterio's helmet.

SPIDER-MAN IS MINE. 

Yours. 

When did that happen? When did you begin to see his side, when did you begin to admire the safe consistency he built in this city? When did you envy it? When did the rage fade at the thought of him? When did something more tepid, more comfortable crawl in?

You turn your face upwards; there's a when moment your masked gazes connect. For a moment, things are still. Slow. There isn't danger here, nor hatred nor anger. The tension is different. Palpable still, but it feels like swallowing roses more than blood.

He looks away first.

"Try 'Number One Annoyance'."

His voice is distant.

You hum. "Care to enlighten your 'Number One Annoyance', then? You've been gone. People have noticed."

He was afraid of that.

Miguel exhales tightly. "Get out of here, Whisper."

He can feel your scowl. Then, your physical form flickers for a moment. A wash of emotions is present — a tell. In the past, that was how he knew you were going to snap. Now, in this context, he isn't quite sure what to make of it. There's a rush of voices, smothered quickly by a grounding inhale. 

You're quiet for a long moment then. Miguel's chest is tight — it's guilt.

"I'm only asking because I care," you finally say; it's like it's been wrenched out of your chest by his own clawed fist. It's an admission as quiet as the shadowed hushes that follow your every warp through space. 

He reacts coldly. The only way he knows how to these days. "I didn't ask you to care."

The claws twist. 

Another fast crackle, transparency pulsing quickly through your spine and nerves. Here nor there. Ephemerally calm. Like the ocean before a storm. Your face twists fast to his. Mask be damned. Miguel can see anger. 

Guilt. And the dawning realization this was a mistake. 

"It's better if I do this alone," comes the follow-up. It's... gentler. Still cold. Harsh. 

You look away. "Do what?"

Your eyes stay affixed to the horizon. Spider-man doesn't move. The stirring in your chest hurts. Hurts worse when you realize he's right. After all, he's the hero and you're the villain. You both have roles to play. Parts to act. The show must go on. 

"...A part of you knows I can't tell you that."

You sigh, rolling your neck, "You're right."

"...And a part of me wants to tell you."

It's quiet. Nearly inaudible. But you hear it. And you can't help the loose grin that flashes across your face at the admission. Your scoff is more like a huff. Gloved palms slip to your hips as you step back from the ledge. 

Suddenly, the tension is different. Lighter. Like it was a handful of weeks ago before he disappeared into the woven stream of time. 

Miguel follows suit. Beneath his own mask, his expression has lightened. 

"Yea?" you ask, stepping back like a prey recognizing the hunt. 

Miguel steps forward, shrugging easily. His voice is almost playful. "Yea. But, y'know, last I checked you're wanted on a new charge of grand larceny—"

"Oops. Sticky fingers," you chitter with a waggle of your hands. He watches you slip downward and through the fabric of space. You emerge behind him in a whisper of wind. 

Miguel is quick, he catches your hand with a web and tugs. You let yourself land in his grip — his black-gloved hand wraps around your wrist. He knows you're allowing this. You could easily wash away through the air, manifest around him in any three-meter radius. 

The closeness is tight.

"While the Spider's away..." he tsks.

Your glove slips around the web and tangles it tightly in your fist. You push back and move around him. He's allowing this. His arm crosses behind his back. You absently admire the ripple of muscle there. 

Then, you unceremoniously kick the back of his left knee and he crumples. The grip on his hand is tight. Miguel grits his fangs. 

"Play nice," he warns.

"I've known you long enough to tell when you're stalling, you know," you let slip the chirp with a sly look at the black and red Spider-man. 

On cue, there's the hum of a patrol copter over your shoulder. A few blocks away, still, but it's coming. Somewhere, in the bowels of the city, sirens begin. 

[ BOLO ALERT, MOST WANTED. ALIAS: WHISPER. ]

"If you leave now, you'll beat them by a minute," he says slowly, "Sixty-five floors is quite the trek."

You loosen your grip and gently shake the web from your hand. Miguel rolls his shoulder. You slip through time, landing before him in a low squat.

Your voice is sincere. 

"Try not to be a stranger."

"No promises."

"I'd never ask for one," you call over your shoulder as you stand and move towards the far ledge. Your costume, as pitch-black as the darkest night, is light in red and blue from the arriving patrols.

Just like that, in a haze of voices and a whisper of time, you're gone. 

And Miguel is left to himself on that rooftop, again.

[thisisourlovestory]

Safe and Sound

Finnick Odair x reader soulmate AU

Summary: you are a victor from district 4. The Quarter Quell has just been announced. How will you cope with the turn of events coming your way.

Wordcount- 3.9k

Notes- okay so this has taken a lot longer than I thought it would but it’s here now finally. And I have changed my url so I’m sorry if you thought this was some random person tagging you

Chapter 6

I woke up the next morning sprawled across my bed and tangled in the sheets. I stumbled up and made my way into the dining area, only bothering to wrap a dressing gown around myself so as to not expose my arms. Unfortunately Lysander greeted me much too cheerfully the second I stepped foot in the room, with a wide grin and loud words.

“Good morning!” He trilled. “Sit, sit and eat. You have an important day ahead of you.” I slumped down into a seat and grabbed an apple, biting into the crisp red skin and sinking my teeth deep into its flesh.

“So what did you get up to with the lovely Megara last night?” He inquired as an avox served him a plate of toast piled with eggs and cheese and ham. I judged his choice in food for a moment and then almost snorted as his words registered in my mind. He certainly wasn't being subtle at all I thought as Finnick and Mags entered and seated themselves. I took another bite out of my apple and grinned.

I stepped out of the bathroom in a pair of silk pyjama shorts and a loose top. Megara was sprawled across my bed, shovelling ice cream into her mouth as fast as physically possible. She noticed me and smacked the bed.

“Sit.” I sat. “Now spill. You and Finnick flipping Odair.” I sighed.

“Pass me a cupcake. No, not that one. No, no, yes. Thanks.” I peeled the case off and bit into it, the rich chocolate and caramel spreading across my tongue. “I found out when I first got it.” I showed her my wrist and she inspected it closely. “We were, well we were friends I suppose. After I won that is. I saw his once, it was an accident. I don’t think anyone else really knows he even had one.” I took another bite of my cupcake. “We kinda stuck together for a couple of years. He helped me through the aftermath and the nightmares and everything.” She looked at me curiously.

“So what happened?”

“Annie Cresta happened. When she won everything changed. You know how the boy she went in with that year was decapitated and she lost it?”

“Everyone knows, though the Capitol tries to brush over it.” I laughed quietly.

“Well when she came back she was absolutely broken. She couldn’t function by herself. So Finnick helped her. At first I knew it was necessary, she probably would have offed herself otherwise, but the days passed to weeks and weeks to months. He had just,” I breathed, “He had just left me and gone to her.”

Megara's mouth opened in a shocked expression.

“You would’ve been fifteen?”

“Almost sixteen.”

“And he just, what, abandoned you?” I shrugged.

“Love is weird. It comes and goes at the most unexpected of times and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.” She placed a hand on her forehead.

“Okay, sorry for interrupting. Please continue.”

“The nightmares came back, I spiralled, I spent I think two months here. Doing shows, staying as far away from them as I could. I mainly talked to Effie and Haymitch.” I smiled fondly. “They were really something. Always bickering and picking at each other like an old married couple. They made me laugh a lot, the only thing I laughed at really. Then it all changed again. But that’s not relevant.” I ignored her look and powered ahead. “I stopped talking to anyone, unless I had to, I wouldn’t say a word. I sang at shows but nothing more. And that was my life I guess. Not happy, not sad. It just was.”

Megara unexpectedly leapt across the bed and engulfed me in a hug.

“I'm sorry. I'm sorry you had to go through that.” She pulled away. “I can't imagine if I met my soulmate and then had to pretend like they meant nothing to me.” I smiled back at her sadly.

“Like I said, love is weird. And why would he want me when he has her.” With that I flopped down in bed and curled up in a ball. “Goodnight.”

“We didn't do anything interesting. I ate a bit then fell asleep. I was tired.” I smiled tightly at Lysander, a glint of challenge in my eyes before my gaze slipped to my plate and I took a second bite out of my apple. It tasted like ash in my mouth. “What's on the agenda today?” With that his eyes lit up and he beamed.

“Training.”

As it turned out, training was in fact the only thing on the agenda. I walked into the room and was greeted by the sight of the majority of the other tributes already showing off. My eyes flicked around the room for a second, Finnick was already bothering Katniss, the girl looked extremely unimpressed at him showing her how to tie a knot in the rope and didn't even try to hide her disgusted expression as he pretended to hang himself. I made my own way over to the survival skills section, I immediately picked up two pieces of wood and began to rub them together to little effect. Just as I was about to give up a shadow appeared above me.

“You have to rub quicker, and lower down.” Katniss took the sticks from me and demonstrated. “See.” I nodded slowly.

“Thanks.”

“No problem.” With that she turned and made her way to one of the compartmentalised training rooms, grabbing a bow and a sheaf of arrows along the way. I watched from a distance as she put an arrow through each glowing hologram that appeared. I started as I saw one holding an axe and it immediately disintegrated, a small bolt of fear shooting through me. Were they supposed to represent us? My question was answered as another showed up holding a trident and resulted in the same fate. The closer I watched, I could see more similarities between the holograms and all the people stood watching. Johanna and Finnick were obvious, two appearing next to each other and reacting in sync, Cashmere and Gloss, one with long, sharp nails that none of the others had, Enobaria. A really burly one, Brutus and a couple of spindly ones, the morphlings.

Bile rose in my throat as Katniss annihilated them all. Then just as everyone thought the simulation had ended, a final hologram appeared. Smaller and thinner than all the others and it threw a golden blaze at her which she ducked and suddenly an arrow was lodged in it and it dissolved like all the others. It was clear that it was supposed to be. All the movements of the other holograms had been techniques the corresponding victors used in their games, the weapons they were most famed for using. And the Capitol had simply taken those moves and projected them into the simulation. But for me, the only moves I had back then were throwing that one knife and then my shoes. So that was what they had to use. I stayed frozen in my spot as the others stared at Katniss, contemplating looks in their eyes. I could see the cogs turning in their brains, they wanted her as their ally, who wouldn't to be honest. She was the favourite to win at the moment- perhaps also Finnick- and she would get sponsors upon sponsors. I watched her gaze pass over all of them to settle on me; I stared back at her blankly for a moment before she looked over to Peeta who stood watching her from the camouflage station, his arm covered in detailed paintings of rocks and tree bark. He smiled slightly and turned back to his work.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around to see a grinning Finnick.

“Quite the spectacle she's put on wouldn't you say?” He asked and I hummed in response. “She'd be a good ally.” I shrugged.

“I guess.”

“You guess?” He scoffed. “With an aim like that she could take out all of us in a matter of seconds.” My lip quirked upwards at his words. He didn't know just how true they were.

“I suppose, but if she was your ally, one wrong move and you'd be six feet under. But by all means, ally with the girl on fire; when she decides to kill you- don't say I didn't warn you.” I spun on my heel and strode away from him, my shoulder tingled where he had touched me and I felt a tug in my chest at the growing distance. It was as if the more time we spent around each other the more the- well I suppose the word that the Capitol used to describe it was a bond- the more the bond seemed to recognise us as soulmates and tried to drag us together. It was the only reasonable explanation for why he was talking to me.

I walked with my head down, stepping to the side to avoid bumping into other people. I made my way to a station where the two from district 3 had settled themselves at after struggling to light a fire and were fiddling around with wires and bolts. I sat myself down and picked up a few thin pieces of bronze metal. I twisted them together, intricately weaving them in a complicated pattern so they formed a pin of sorts. I twisted my hair up and stuck it through, the metal scraping along my scalp as I shook my head to make sure it was secure.

“The gamemakers won't be too impressed with that.” Beetee spoke quietly from beside me and I made a face.

“I don't really care. They're the ones hiding behind a forcefield.” His gaze sharpened.

“How do you know that?” I shrugged in response.

“The shimmer in the corners. Makes it look a bit like glass but they don't want us to know they're afraid of us and glass is too noticeable. Next best thing is a forcefield, I mean it uses a lot of the energy in this place. Zaps it like,” I snapped my fingers, “that, but most people won't know how to recognise it at all so they can keep up their pretences without worrying about one of us trying to murder them where they stand.”

Beetee stared at you for a second before a small smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

“A scholar I see.”

“Just curious.”

“Not even some adults back home would be able to tell me that.” Beetee murmured. “You've done your research.” I looked up to the gamemakers.

“Well,” I spoke softly, scratching at my wrist absently,”you never know what they'll throw at you and it's always good to be prepared.” He hummed in assent as Wiress tugged on a loose strand of my hair, babbling nonsense under her breath. I gently extracted myself from her fingers and wished them a pleasant day, a hint of sarcasm in my voice, before I left them to fiddle with their little toys.

I found myself wandering through the huge building, mindlessly gazing around. My eyes flitting over the white surfaces, shining brightly in the even whiter light from the ceilings. All of a sudden I heard voices. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion, was that Finnick and Haymitch? Talking to Plutarch Heavensbee? I listened intently, pressing myself against the wall next to the tiny crack in the door to hear better. My eyes gradually widened with each sentence that left their mouths, I couldn't believe it myself, I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't been hearing it directly from the source. They stopped talking and I ran. I sprinted down the corridors and to the lifts, frantically pressing the buttons as I entered and running out just as quickly. I didn't slow down until I slammed the door to my room shut and launched myself onto my bed, clutching a pillow so hard my knuckles started to turn white. They were planning to get Katniss out of the games and start a revolution. A revolution. My mind repeated those words for minutes, my mouth moving to spell it out in disbelief. Slowly the disbelief I felt faded into determination. They clearly hadn’t been about to tell me anything about it, I wouldn’t be included in their alliance. But I could sure as hell help.

Throughout the next couple of days, I woke up as early as possible to train without anyone watching me. I would take my ballet shoes down with me and wear them as I threw knives at the holograms, rise onto my toes and dance around them in circles until my feet were bleeding and bruised. The pain only made me work harder, if I could fight with my feet broken beneath me then I could run forever and wouldn’t feel a thing. On the last day before the games would begin I did the same as I had been. But when I had destroyed the holograms a hundred times over I didn’t stop, I dropped the daggers in my hands and closed my eyes as I spun and leapt. For the first time in years no one was watching me and I could just dance. Even on the train there had been cameras pointed at me but in the interest of not wanting anyone to get mad and try to kill them the gamemakers had left the training room cameraless. So I danced as if I was a child again and my mother was watching me from the door of the house cheering me on. And then I fell. My ankle gave out beneath me and I crashed to the floor. I landed on my side, my arms crossed to hold my head off the floor. I pushed myself up and undid my shoes; pulled them off my feet and stood up. When I fell I had accidentally pressed a button and holograms had appeared again. I reached down to grab the daggers again as they advanced towards me.

“You wanna play?” One of them threw the knife they were holding at me. It skimmed my cheek; I lifted a hand up to touch it. My fingers came away red and I laughed quietly. “Fine, I’ll play.” With that something inside me cracked and I leapt forward. I was like a hurricane as they all rushed at me and I weaved through the gaps leaving bloody footprints wherever I stepped. I rained down blow after blow on them, if holograms could bleed I would have been covered. But they couldn’t bleed and they couldn’t die, they just disintegrated into orange sparks whenever my blade hit home in their rib cages only for more to take their place. I dodged and threw and stabbed until I thought the simulation ended and I stood in the centre of the room. The air moved and in the blink of an eye I spun and struck, the last thing I saw of the hologram was the trident in it's hand. Then I heard the clapping.

I turned around quickly to see Johanna watching me. I quickly stepped outside.

“What do you want?” She grinned.

“Who knew you could fight princess. I’d actually be quite impressed if I didn’t think you’d payed for some poor Capitol bastard to teach you.” A hysterical giggle forced itself out of my throat and for a second an unreadable expression passed over her face like a cloud. I picked up my shoes by the ribbons and let them dangle by my legs as her eyes went to my feet. “Aww did standing up by herself for a moment make the princesses feet hurt?” I swallowed.

“You don’t know me Johanna Mason.” I spat. “You don’t know anything about me so do not make assumptions about things that you do not understand.” She watched me walk away, yelling after me.

“See you later princess.” I ignored her, focusing on not leaving a trail of blood back to the room.

A few hours later, after I had bandaged up my feet, I headed back down for the evaluations. The others were already there and I sat down at the end of a bench. Feeling eyes on me I looked up and locked eyes with Katniss, she stood up and made her way over to me. She sat down silently and I looked at the pin she had on her top.

“A mockingjay.” She looked up at me surprised.

“Yeah. How did you know?” I laughed.

“Some members of the Capitol have them as pets. Ones they managed to catch after the jabberjays bred with mockingbirds. They domesticated them and have them sing all day every day.” My voice turned sharp. “They don’t like being reminded of their failures so they turn them into spectacles.” My head turned as the robotic voice spoke ‘Y/N L/N report for evaluation.’ I stood up slowly and walked past Finnick who was exiting and into the training room. I was greeted by the sight of the gamemakers laughing and talking with each other, completely ignoring my presence as I made my way over to the weapons stand. One of them spared me a glance before dismissing me. They knew who I was and they didn’t think I was a threat. I took a step forward, narrowing my eyes and realised something. The force field was strong if it was concentrated, but it was only being held together by four balls that it was projected out of, one in each corner creating a screen. So it was strong at the outside but where it all met in the centre would be weaker. I grinned at my revelation and practically skipped back to the table with the knives on. I picked one up and balanced it on my finger, I quickly looked around and grabbed a long piece of rope, tying it around the handle. I twisted the end of the rope around one hand and pirouetted, as my head whipped to the front I let the knife fly through the air, right through the centre of the forcefield. It embedded itself in a piece of watermelon and then the wall. I gripped the rope harder and yanked towards me, I caught the knife and raised the dripping red fruit up to my mouth to take a bite as I curtseyed deeply, dipping my head and letting my foot slide as far behind as possible. I smiled sweetly at their horrified expressions. You can almost see the thoughts running through their heads I mused as I walked calmly out of the room, head held high.

I was waylaid by Lysander who dragged me back to the room and made Finnick and I sit until the scoring was announced hours later, I was almost falling asleep in my chair. Yawning widely and eyes drooping until the music sounded and I bolted up. The second Gloss’ photo appeared on screen with a score of 10 flashing under him my heart sank. My little outburst would probably not have gained me anything other than a low score. The rest of the careers had predicatably high scores, Brutus an 11 and Finnick the same. Lysander screeched happily at his score, patting him on the back furiously and I murmured my congratulations. Then it was my turn. My face appeared on the screen and a bright bold number 12 flashed underneath it. I spat out my water in shock and blinked rapidly as Lysander gaped at the screen. Mags patted me gently on the shoulder, giving me a small smile; Finnick leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees.

“Congratulations angel.” The nickname shook me out of my trance.

“Angel?” He shrugged and gave me an easy smile.

“Yeah, you looked like an angel on the chariots and you certainly act like an angel, especially with that little girl.” His voice turned serious. “But something tells me you aren’t such an angel as everyone thinks you are.” My lip twitched and I forced it to stay in a straight line.

“Maybe you’re right.” I turned around, my back to him, his eyes searing into my skin as I whispered. “But some things cannot be determined with a passing glance.”

The next day was the day of the interviews. I was slumped in a chair, clad in a silk robe, as my prep team scoured my body. They perfected every imperfection they could find until my skin was like a blank canvas. All the while they chattered, asking me not so subtly about my evaluation score and even less subtly if I had a soulmate- thankfully they didn’t question my insistency that I covered my wrist while they ‘cleaned me up’. I ignored them for the most part until Priscilla began to waffle on about Finnick. I clenched my fists and tried to block her out, waiting for her to finish. But she wouldn't stop, she went on and on about him, his… relationships with Capitol women and then what a shame it was that he might die. My fingernails dug crescent moons into my palms until I felt pinpricks of pain and saw tiny specks of blood beading on my skin. I settled for fiddling with the robe until they left. The girls walked through the door giggling with each other as Quintus turned around to me.

“I understand how you feel.”

“What?” I asked confused.

“You have a soulmate yes?” I nodded slowly. “But he either doesn’t want you or doesn’t know about you.” I nodded again.

“The second.”

“I had a soulmate once.”

“You did?” I mumbled.

“It was about 15 years ago. I had just started working here for the games and she was a tribute.” He laughed slightly and ran his hand through his hair. “She hated me, I tried to get her to run away with me before the games could start but she wouldn’t let the kid from her district die even if it meant she lived. They only lasted 5 days in the arena.” He smiled sadly. “But those last couple of days she was alive and I got to see her were the best couple of days in my life.”

“What are you saying?” I whispered.

“Don’t waste time. Every second with the ones we love is precious.” Just as suddenly as he had begun the conversation he left the doorway, leaving me in silence.

Soon enough Megara came in, laden with bags upon bags containing god knows what. She dragged a chair over and sat down opposite me. She pulled out a teapot and two cups before setting them down on the table ignoring my incredulous look. She poured tea into the two cups added a splash of milk and sugar to one and gave me an inquisitive look. I shook my head, clearing my thoughts as I poured milk into the cup and spooned 3 teaspoons of sugar into the cup.

“So honey, how are you feeling about the interviews?”

“Honey? Aren’t you younger than me.”

“Nope,” she popped the p,” I’m 24.” I sighed.

“They can only go so badly right.” She grinned; took a sip of her tea, placed it down, stood up and walked over to a huge bag hung up on the door.

“I suppose we’ll see then.” She unzipped the bag and I gasped.

Taglist:

@nekee-lilac02 @hinata7346 @bambikitten @the-lonely-abyss @mxacegrey @m-maxie-ie @not-aya @camatchoum @maw1dk @avoxrising @meri-soni-meri-tamanna @somdreamy @thehairington86 @millzluvrs @val-writesstuff @erindiggory @reader-bookling123 @elisa20beth @maxinehufflepuffprincess @mariaelizabeth21-blog1 @mystargirl-interlude @ponkaniee @missunicorn @thatonegayloser616 @livibbu @cherrsnut @honethatty12 @miserablebl00d @yourmumstoy @wonderland2425 @fairy-alix @purplelavin @user123453226780536 @littleanubis21 @abbersreads @tenshis-cake

[keelt9]

Chapter 3

Masterlist

After 5 minutes watching people come and go, I lost track of time. The steps I take forward are the half I walk back; the entrance was already further than the first time I stopped. I’ve told Liam I spent the weekend in the apartment, he needed to make a quick trip home to set a few things with the team, this is the kind of meetings he didn’t want to do in the distance.

“Come on dad! We are already late!” A small kid keeps pulling his father's hand as they run to the entrance. The noise inside confirms that everything is set for the opening ceremony. 

My hands tremble, as I hold the name tag, tapping the floor waiting for someone to answer the phone. “Y/N you better have a good reason.” I called a half-sleep Mia; she knows absolutely nothing about this, and I bet she will forgive me with the promise I tell her everything when I feel ready.

“Fuck! Are you really in Silverstone? Like right now?!” She is fully awake now, so she can easily distinguish the sounds she can hear in the background. “Wow, what are you waiting for?”

“What do you mean?” I hear her bluffs.

“Go, have fun. Go, watch the race when it finishes, go to a nice place, have lunch by the night you’ll be at the apartment, safe and sound.” Mia clearly thinks my problem is having fun, and she is right but not totally in this case.

“Y/N that shoulder won't get worse if you have fun, actually it could be helpful, you know relaxing the muscles, the br…” 

I laughed at her tendency of speaking without thinking first. “Mia you beat around the bush.”

“Yes, right, now go, and don't call me unless you are inside your apartment late at night, ok? Love you, bye.” 

So disrespectful to her older sister.

I take a deep breath and walk with the last persons arriving to the track, I show my name tag and one of the boys with a neon yellow jacket conducts me through hallways, rooms where a bunch of people are coming and go; someones with casual clothes another with clothes of each team; I startle for the screaming of people and the sound of the cars.

“Strident, right?” The boy smiles with fascination coming from his eyes. 

The last room we passed made me realize, it wasn't a simple pass like Max told me, I started to see the navy blue color, red and white all over the place.

“Here.” The boy gives me a quick tour around the room full of unknown people. “And here is where you can watch the race without problems, have fun!” Those were the last words he told me, until he apparently remembered something.

“Here.” He gives me the cap is been carrying all this time in his hand. “It should be illegal, you won't have anything on the team.” That makes me giggle, I take some air and start to calm.

The race passed without changes, Max won with 7 seconds ahead the second place; it's totally different to hear the commotion outside, the screams while you  see him jumping to his team, raising his hands in victory.

“Let's go, for the award ceremony.” A woman smiles at me and walks with me; as we get close to the track the noises become stronger. We reached a place where a lot of people were waiting at the other side of the fence, clearly people of the team and relevant people. Slowly the pilots enter to the higher platform where the ceremony will take place, Max enters at least, smiling big.

He looks out of this world with his race suit on, his blue eyes shining bright and that soft shade of pink in his face.

He listens carefully to his national anthem, celebrating getting wet in chapmange clearly loving every moment. After taking some photos he seemed to be looking for something on the ground but he was called one more time and conducted to the back of the stage.

Slowly people start dispersing all over the place. It’s time to leave, the phase two of Mia’s plan concluded, I start to thinking where I could go and have a nice lunch-dinner meal when I heard someone shouting my name

A blond girl clearly has a sight of what I look like, because when I slightly turn around her expression is a total relief.

“Oh thank god, you're still here.” The girl extends her hand and smiles at me. “Oh, I’m Violet, part of the team Red Bull. This way please.” 

Violet didn’t give me the chance to answer, just walked beside me explaining they looked for me before the race for I could be in the garage but they couldn’t find me. I told her what actually happened and smiled when she heard I actually watched all the post race ceremony. 

“Max will be relieved he almost went and looked for you by himself.” Violet dropped those words so casually that I almost let it pass. She guided me to different places until I reached the garage where cameramen, photographers and reporters came out, just people from each team there. 

“Have you seen Max?” Violet asks as we enter the garage. I felt out of place, maybe it was my anxiety running through my body but I feel the multiple eyes on me, doesn’t bring me good memories lately. “Thanks.”

Violet smiles at me apparently realizing my uncomfortably. “Don’t worry, no one of us bite.” I laughed, making me feel a little bit at ease. We start to walk one more time as she keeps me closer. “One more room and we’ll b…”

“THERE YOU ARE!” Max appears almost crashing with us, his suit stuck at the level of his waist, his hair tossed in different directions, dripping in what I bet is a mixture between Red Bull and champagne, still with a warm smile on his face. “Thanks Violet.” 

She nods and puts her hand over my arm. “A pleasure, nice to meet you Y/N, anything you need.” Leaving us in a less crowded room.

“You get a cap, nice.” Max lifts the visor a little bit. Probably he didn’t know but he makes me feel happier, more than I wish. “Still, wrong number.” 

I adjusted the cap one more time, still feeling shy. “What? 11 it’s a nice number.” He rolls his eyes.

“I can mend that.” He points with his head to the hallway behind him, as a sign that I should go after him; I choke my head, still he didn’t give me time to react because he grabs my left wrist and pulls me so I can follow him.

When Max left my wrist, we arrived at a more private room, no one inside, there were a couple of small couches, a small center table, on top a black bag. 

I grab my wrist feeling the comfy sensation he left. 

“Open it.” Max gives me the bag. First, the only thing I could see was a blue navy clothing, after pulling out I see, a T-shirt. However it wasn’t a Red Bull shirt, I actually recognized it when I lifted it in front of me.

“Is this?” My scoff didn’t leave me ending the sentence, smiling big at him. “You remember!” 

Two weeks ago we were talking about “uniforms” and the fact I don’t feel comfortable with the thousand of logos around and how lucky I feel when we used one, just three of them were all over our T- shirts, as the talked evolve I mention in a joking way I didn’t mind wearing one of his merchandising with the lion in the center, especially the blue one.

“That’s not all, see right sleeve.” I don’t know who is more excited, me or him. 

A target, with all right the colors, yellow, red, blue, black and white, a cute and small target. 

“NO WAY!” I scream and jump to hug him, a natural impulse from me but apparently leaving him frozen. “Sorry, sorry.” I split, grabbing the shirt tightly in my hands. “It’s amazing, thank you so much.” 

After I lift my face one more time, that shade of pink turns softly into a red one. 

A soft knock on the wall distracts us. “Max, last one, please.” A young woman appears and leaves as she comes with an apologetic smile. 

“Hey, give a couple of minutes and we leave all right?” Max starts to walk but stops when I open my mouth to ask what he means with “we.”

“What? Do you actually think I will invite you and then let you leave like that?” He giggles and shakes his head after my plain <Yes> “The brochures are for you to pick a restaurant, so we can go eat. I’m starving.” He rubs his belly a little bit.

“Max, wait…” I pursued him but already a couple of people were waiting for him.

“I’ll be with you, don’t worry.” Max just smirks softly and points at the shirt I’m squeezing tightly in my left hand. “You have a small me.” He refers to the Lion in the shirt.

The reference makes a slight smile on my face. After he left, I reached one of the couches; I lay down quickly, causing piddling pain in my shoulder, but my hand goes to my chest at the level of my heart.

<Boom, boom, boom> A crazy heart rate, surely not for the eccentric day. 

Leaving the paddock was easier than getting in; I waited for 25 minutes, then Max entered the room one more time fully changed, dry with casual clothes; as we walked to the exit he received the last instructions and I suspect he was barely listening because just nodded with a serious face. 

I chose “The Nook.” A cozy restaurant in a quiet street on the outskirts of the city, far away from the spotlights, hustle and prying eyes. We enjoy a calm dinner talking about our news in the weeks we haven't seen each other; he keeps bother me about how hard it is to get a message from me, the reason why he used rustic methods for inviting me. 

My wherefore is simple, I don’t want to bother him when he is probably on the other side of the world and it’s late at night.

“You never bother me, the opposite, you make me feel at ease.” A proud smile appears on my face as I take a bite of the brownie I order.

The buzzing in my purse interrupts us. <Liam> reads in the call ID. I apologize to him and stand for picking up, almost choking with my food.

“Hello, is everything all right?” Liam asked but his voice sounded uncertain, almost like he didn’t want to speak to me.

“That went wrong, huh?” I ask him, leaning my back against the wall. I hear him taking a deep breath and clearing his throat.

“It’s not bad, they are just as nervous as all of us.” I low my head.

After the competition where I came out with the injury, all the people who are responsible for me and the team I conformed talked to me. They met me when I was 9 years old and took me under his wings; but the first impressions after the injury didn’t promise good things. They sent me with Anton with the hopes I fully recovered, but their eyes told us a different thing.

“Liam…” I whisper, feeling a knot in my throat. 

“They will go in one month, want to see in person how you are, after that we will deliberate if you are still in or…” 

“Take me off another year.” I can perfectly picture the meeting, my team, the coaches and the tension that could surrender the office.

“We won’t let that happen, ok? We are advanced in your rehabilitation. Anton told us that, at this pace, big things will happen in one month.” This time Liam's voice is cheerful and optimistic. “Y/N we don’t surrender, we fight and we hit the ten, remember that.” 

I don’t realize a tear slips off my cheek; the truth is I’m afraid, I’m frightening actually.

“We’ll do it.” If I start to feel down I won't get anything so I clean my face and take a deep breath. 

“That’s the Y/N I know.” I can imagine his proud smile. “Are you all right?”

I turn around and see Max eating his fruit pie, and giggle. “I am, right now I am.”

“Great, I’ll be back tomorrow night and I’ll see you for the session on Tuesday, ok?” I laughed seeing Max stain his jacket with a grape that fell from his spoon.

“Say hi to my family, please.” Max turned around, looking side to side and caught me observing him with a wide open smile on my face, he hid his face between his hands, laughing.

“Oh count with that. Y/N, I don’t know what you are doing but whatever it’s lovely hear you like this.”

After I got back to the table we talked until the night started to fall over us. I'd better leave or Anton will kill me if I miss my session tomorrow.

“I’ll have to go.” I say to Max playing with the napkin between my fingers. “I had an incredible day Max, thank you.”

Max looks at me with those mischievous blue eyes. “Hm, what about if I drive you home?” He has gone crazy, even Milton Keynes, it's not that far, is still a long drive.

“No, I mean… You have to rest, it’s ok, I know how to get home.” Max stretches his arms.

“I have more than a day for that, I’ll promise, I will take my time to get you safe and sound.” 

[brucebocchi]

Winter 2024 anime roundup, Pt. 1: Ongoing/returning shows and the trash heap

hey y'all, this is also up on my ko-fi! it's free to read both here and there, but i'm struggling financially rn so i could appreciate if you'd throw a few bucks my way if you liked it!

I wasn't expecting to watch nearly this much anime in just the past three months, but life completely failed at getting in the way. So here's everything I either watched or tried​ to watch for the Winter 2024 season, and a short review for each.

I'm not going to bother with trying to rank them, so instead they're sorted by category, as follows:

Continuing series from Fall 2023

Returning series

What I dropped

Mixed reactions

On hold

New series that are actually good

With this first entry, I'll be covering the first three, with the back half arriving in another couple of days. As with the 2023 rankings, the OP for each show is linked in the corresponding title.

Here we go.

Ongoing shows:

The Apothecary Diaries

Looking back at my 2023 rankings, I think my placement of The Apothecary Diaries’ first cour at #11 may have belied how much I love this show and believe it to truly be one of last year’s greats. If anything, it was hampered by its status as an ongoing show making it incomplete by nature, and I worried myself over the possibility of recency bias taking over my top ten (Frieren is in the same boat, so its top overall ranking should really highlight how damn good it is). Make no mistake, though: The Apothecary Diaries fucking rocks, and it continues to fucking rock. 

It’s largely more of the same, and that’s what you would want from another cour of this show. At the same time, though, more and more is uncovered about Maomao’s background and Jinshi’s status as the proverbial camera continues to pull back and the mysteries adorning the edges of the frame become clearer. I got a sense at the end of the Fall 2023 cour that the show was moving on from its episodic nature into something more serial and plot-driven, and I was mostly right: While several episodes of the Winter cour still revolve around various mysteries of the week, they all start to converge before you even realize it. It’s the same flywheel-effect approach to plot development that Kaguya-sama did so well: While so many of the events seem like one-off curiosities in the moment, these almost-imperceptible movements eventually barrel forward into an unexpected but perfectly logical momentum. The show teases out several plot threads that may not seem relevant at first, and it trusts you to be patient enough to see them play out.

I’m not at all exaggerating when I say that, along with the next entry on this list, The Apothecary Diaries is one of the best anime of the past five years. I had a feeling that this could end up being the case as 2023 came to a close, but I’m sure of it now. Watch this show.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End

Last year’s best anime continues apace into 2024 as we get an honest-to-goodness story arc: Frieren, who has been around too long to bother taking any magical governing bodies seriously, needs a certified mage in her party order to continue on the journey north. She decides to take the necessary exam to be certified as a First-Class Mage, a rarefied status in this world, and has Fern tag along to do the same in order to double their chances. 

And it’s still incredible! Great action, brilliant animation, wonderful character moments, and a beautiful score. It is still the top-rated anime ever on MyAnimeList, and by a significant margin. I’m not sure I agree, necessarily, but I can say with all sincerity that this has been a perfect season of television and my Fridays now feel empty without it. 

That’s all I’ve got on this one. What else do you want from me? I’ve already written nearly 2000 words about this show alone since it premiered. You’re asking me for more? I’ll kill you.

Shangri-La Frontier

If the low placement on my 2023 list was any indication, I was pretty fed up with Shangri-La Frontier by the end of its first cour, and the first couple episodes of 2024 being little more than plot set-up had me teetering on the edge of dropping it entirely. But I’ll be damned if it didn’t reel me back in once shit actually started happening and the plot really began to move forward.

Well, for a bit, at least. The height of the series so far has been the Wethermon arc, in which Sunraku teams up with his fellow shit-gamers, Pencilgon and Katzo, as they vie to be the first to take down a notoriously difficult unique boss. As the fight plays out, we get to see the feeling-out process of a tough action-RPG boss, rife with attack pattern memorization, skill timing, and buff stacking as the margin for error grows ever thinner. As always, the animation is on point, the soundtrack rules, and the action sequences are exhilarating.

But my major gripe with the series remains: There’s hardly any actual story here, even after 25 episodes. There are broad gestures towards a larger plot (“the truth of this world,” as the NPCs call it), but they are too vague to even resemble anything enticing. Everything in between the major fights is just set dressing, and there’s a lot of in between. There’s decent stuff in there, to be fair; the adorable rabbit NPCs are always a delight, and I love the commitment to depicting our top-level gamers as smug, preening shitheels. These are long walks for short drinks of water, though, and much of the main cast isn’t likable enough to make the downtime tolerable, to the point where watching the many set-up episodes feels like more of a grind than the actual grinding in the show. Even in the best fight sequences I still had moments where I found myself yelling “STOP TALKING ALREADY” at the screen. Internal monologues are a constant in battle shonen, I know, but if there’s any demographic whose internal monologues I want to hear the least, it’s gamers.

I kept watching this show despite myself, and six months later I’m still not sure how much I actually enjoy it. I haven’t seen any of the lousy VRMMO anime that people favorably compare it to, so at least it isn’t Sword Art Online. Yay, I guess? Yet here I am, still plugging away at a show I can’t strongly recommend to a lot of people. Shangri-La Frontier has turned me into a Steam reviewer.

Undead Unluck

The stakes continue to rise exponentially in one of last year’s more underrated shonen hits (or it would’ve been a hit if Disney gave a fuck about marketing the anime on its own platforms). The Union neutralizes a threat, gains a new Roundtable member, and then shit hits the fan.

The scope of this series goes into absolutely buckwild directions, and all I will say is that “Kimi no Todoke predicting the future” was not a piece of worldbuilding I would have ever expected. But at the same time, it never loses focus on the human element, which only gets more poignant as it goes on. There’s a really beautiful message in the last arc about how people can live on through the memories of others, well past their bodies dying, which hits nice and hard considering this season aired at the same time as Frieren.

This is a show that I tended to watch sporadically (because I just plain forget to open Hulu just to watch one show every week), and I would say that it was the ideal way to watch it, except the pacing issues from the first cour only got worse during a monumentally consequential sequence in the middle of the second. There was an episode that had, I shit you not, 90 seconds of new content in the first seven minutes of runtime, and at the exact point in the series where you’re salivating for something, anything new. In a season where so much goes on in just 24 episodes, I’m baffled that they felt the need to pad the runtime so much.

That’s the worst of it, though, and the momentum fortunately builds up from there and barrels downhill until the end. The story becomes incredibly meta, which was a very ballsy move for a Shonen Jump series that was still relatively early into its run. The gamble pays off, though, and the debut season ends on several incredibly strong episodes, and now I want more. I’ll be hopping on the manga soon.

It also struck me towards the end of the season just how goddamn cute everyone looks. For all of the spraying blood and grim marching towards Armageddon, it says a lot that I still wanna pinch everyone’s fat little cheeks.

Returning shows:

The Dangers in My Heart, season 2

The first season was absent in my 2023 rankings but I decided to pick it up while the second was still airing, and I’m so glad I did: The Dangers in My Heart is an almost-too-precious middle school romance that is endlessly endearing and bluntly honest (if a little exploitative) about what middle schoolers are actually like, warts and all. Insecurities are amplified, they struggle to figure out their identities, and mental and physical development run on different schedules from one kid to the next. And amidst all this raging hormonal nonsense, we have ourselves a lovely little romance story.

Kyotaro has (mostly) kicked his chuuni tendencies and realized that he’s madly in love with the beautiful, cheery Anna. He’s as aware as anyone of what a mismatched couple they’d be, though, and continues to self-sabotage any progress in the name of maintaining her good social standing. To pile onto his loner’s perspective of middle school politics, Kyotaro also gets a front-row seat to Anna’s part-time work as a model-slash-actress and he wonders if an underdeveloped shrimp like him should be seen anywhere near someone so obviously more mature. At the same time, though, he’s a growing boy, and we see lovely moments of progress as Kyotaro takes initiative both for her sake and to achieve what he wants. To both ameliorate and complicate these situations, Anna reciprocates his feelings towards her, and we creep ever closer towards what we want to see, in increasingly awkward and precious fashion.

So much of this anime is just gorgeous. Even setting aside the visuals and music (which are on point at all times), there are really lovely themes in here about insecurity, teenage perceptions of maturity, and self acceptance. On top of all of that, though, this is just a delightful slice-of-life romance story. You can probably guess where we’ve ended up by the end of the second season, but it’s the getting there that makes it all worth it. The manga is still running (and I plan to pick it up), so there’s clearly plenty more of the story to tell, but if this is where the anime ends, it ended perfectly.

Holy shit, though, did the first season really air at the same time as Skip and Loafer and Insomniacs After School? Dentists must have made a mint that season because every single one of these shows is so unrelentingly sweet that my teeth start to itch. Not that I’m complaining.

Mashle: Magic and Muscles, season 2

I honestly think I might’ve been too hard on Mashle in my 2023 rankings. I gave up on it a few episodes in when it’d initially aired, but I eventually came back to finish out the season and ended up having a pretty good time. I’ll cop to having forgotten that latter part when I mapped out those rankings, but that enjoyment quickly came back to me when I picked up season 2... even if the season begins with a ton of table setting.

Plenty of battle shonen take time to find their voice, both in manga and anime, and Mashle really seemed to hit its stride fairly quickly into the second season. Mash Burnedead’s lack of magical quality is no longer a secret, and now magical society has to find a way to deal with it, so the series’ initial stakes are raised and Mash HAS to become a top-level sorcerer lest he lose his life. Also, the bad guys are back. Unfortunately, just as I started to genuinely appreciate the ensemble cast, most of Mash’s friends took a backseat to the larger plot (Lemon is nowhere to be seen almost all season) as the villains raise the stakes with increasingly JoJo-esque magic abilities. There’s still plenty to like, though, and some of the new characters help. Props for having an openly nonbinary character play a major role.

The music is a real highlight here; a surprising amount of hip-hop paints the backdrops during dialogue, and any show with an OP by Creepy Nuts will immediately grab my attention. "Bling-Bang-Bang-Born" actually turned into a bona fide hit single, much like Oshi no Ko's "Idol" and Jujutsu Kaisen's "SPECIALZ," and I'd say it's well earned (seriously, it fucks, please click the link above). The animation has also started to really pick up where it felt like it kept falling short in the first season as well, and I found myself looking forward to action sequences more as the season went on.

And hey, it might’ve taken 21 episodes to get there, but I finally laughed at a cream puff gag!

Urusei Yatsura (2022), season 2

I really don’t have much to say other than it’s more Urusei Yatsura, and that’s just swell. We continue the modern adaptation of the classic gag manga as the OG anime babe and her piece-of-shit “darling” get caught up in yet more bizarre hijinks. Despite the 48-episode run being touted as an “Urusei Yatsura all-stars” cherry-pick from Rumiko Takahashi’s 34-volume opus, not all of the segments hit on the same level, but the stories that last entire or even multiple episodes have been killer. Lum and Ataru, despite their myriad flaws, genuinely do care for one another, and this series is at its best when those feelings get to shine through. Takahashi remains a legend for her expert balancing of comedy and heart, and while this particular adaptation doesn’t have the built-in benefit of 300+ chapters of familiarity, those moments still feel earned.

It’s Urusei Yatsura. It’s a classic for a reason. Watch it.

Dropped:

Gushing Over Magical Girls (dropped after one episode)

For the TL;DR version, consult the image above.

All I’d heard about this show going in was that the manga it’s based on was good and that there would be boobs. I wish I’d known more than that before watching, though, because if I’d known that said boobs would belong to middle schoolers, I wouldn’t have bothered with even the one episode I did end up watching.

I was drawn in by the initial premise, too: The protagonist, the conspicuously-named Utena (who looks enough like Bernadetta from Fire Emblem that I was immediately endeared to her), is an enormous fan of the magical girls who keep her city safe, so when an adorable maho shoujo mascot approaches her with an offer, she immediately takes him up on it. As her sinister-looking (and unnecessarily revealing) costume suggests, though, Utena doesn’t get to live out her magical girl dreams; she actually got roped into—and blackmailed into keeping—a role as a villainess. The magical girl team she idolizes quickly finds her, and to stave off their assault, Utena is forced to summon a monster to bind them. As they continue to struggle and squeal, Utena goes further with it by ripping their clothes and spanking their bare bottoms red, because it turns out that she’s actually into this stuff, sexually. The title, it turns out, is a double entendre.

Credit where it’s due for a clever concept: On paper, this is really goddamn funny! My issue is with the execution: I don’t really care to see someone’s sexual awakening if it involves repeated violations of consent, and much less so if I have to see nudity of ostensible middle schoolers (Japanese middle schools are the equivalent of seventh through ninth grade, meaning these girls are 15 at most). After 100 Girlfriends, I thought I could handle whatever trashy bullshit any anime could throw my way, but the longer I chewed on Gushing’s premiere, the worse it sat with me. I have no intentions of playing morality police here, but I can’t bring myself to watch any more of this than I already have. 

Early teenage sexuality is a very difficult subject matter to handle delicately, especially in a comedy milieu, and I can levy plenty of criticisms on that matter towards series I otherwise enjoyed, like Call of the Night and the aforementioned Dangers in My Heart. And although there appear to be some coming-of-age elements here, Gushing doesn’t seem interested in handling it without being exploitative. Maybe it gets better, but I don’t plan to find out for myself. 

I just feel like it’s a shame that in a season with some actual halfway decent LGBT representation, the breakout yuri hit is about middle schoolers performing dubiously-consensual BDSM on each other. And maybe that speaks to something for some sapphic viewers, and I have no intention of speaking over them, but I do know that this isn’t for me. I would’ve gone fucking feral over this show when I was like 13, but I haven’t been a 13-year-old boy for a long, long time. 

I may not have a leg to stand on here as someone who watches Mushoku Tensei (and frankly, that one’s on strike two with me), but I have to put my foot down somewhere. For me, that “somewhere” is borderline pornography involving 13-15 year olds. I try to meet media where it is, even the squicky stuff, but I cannot put myself at the level Gushing Over Magical Girls sets for itself. 

Sasaki and Peeps (dropped after eight episodes)

This show is frustrating to even process postmortem. After a mildly intriguing hour-long premiere that introduced a whole lot of concurrent concepts, Sasaki and Peeps somehow managed to not only continue heaping new ideas onto the pile, but also fumble every single one of them in a way that wasn’t even entertaining to watch.

Sasaki, a lonely 40-something salaryman of modest means, decides that instead of living vicariously through adorable animal photos on social media, he should pull the trigger and get a pet of his own. He settles on a reasonably-priced and suitably adorable fat little Java sparrow, who as it turns out speaks human language and is actually named Piercarlo the Starsage (Sasaki settles on calling him Pii-chan, or Peeps in English). The bird was reincarnated from another world, where he is able to take Sasaki at will, and the man realizes he can use the other world’s relative dearth of technology to his advantage and sets up an interdimensional trade full time so he can make coin on his own watch and help Peeps try the delicious beef he heard is the best food in Sasaki’s world. To the latter end, he also invests in a restaurant. Peeps also helps teach him magic, which Sasaki is forced to use in a pinch in the real world. He is quickly found out and gets roped into a secret government bureau of psychics, because the agent who caught him using ice magic decides he’d be a perfect complement to her water powers (think Kanne and Lawine from Frieren, but stupider). Sasaki now has to balance these multiple lives, which hardly ever interact with one another, as the stakes rise in Peeps’ world in the form of palace intrigue and in Sasaki’s world in the form of a growing threat of evil psychics or something. Also, there’s magical girls, because why the fuck not at this point.

If you actually managed to process all that and went “wow, that’s a lot, I wonder how they can tie all that together,” it brings me no pleasure to report that Sasaki and Peeps completely fails at that task. This is a work of fiction with entirely too many ideas, to the point where it feels like it has no ideas. There’s a saying in football that a team with two quarterbacks is a team with no quarterback, and Sasaki and Peeps has, like, six on its depth chart. You ever hear a band that managed to cram multiple genres in the same song and you get whiplash every time it switches up? Those are bands with a lot of influences, but no identity or vision to call their own, and that is Sasaki and Peeps to me: It is the Twenty One Pilots of anime. A lot of shit got thrown at the wall, and none of it stuck: This show, conceptually, is shit-stained drywall with a pile of turds adorning the moulding. 

For a show about a 40-year-old man, it gave me serious pause that there was not a single named adult woman in any of the episodes I watched, and I grew even more frustrated waiting for one to show up. Sasaki’s partner, Hoshizaki, seems to be a driven, professional young woman, but it turns out she’s a 16 year old high school student, for some reason. The daughter of the viscount doing business with Sasaki is a young girl who likes to tag along with him, and Sasaki’s neighbor is a latchkey high school girl who may or may not have a yandere-ish fixation on him. The magical girl we meet is also definitely a kid. The female psychics they face off against don’t appear to be older than teenagers, though the one who appears to grow fond of him turns out to be several hundred years old, which especially gave me pause because we all know that unfortunate trope and the type of person who hides behind it. Before progressing any further, I found out that the light novel series upon which this show is based was written by someone with the pen name “Buncololi,” which told me the rest of what I needed to know.

That part made me increasingly uncomfortable, and I became less and less convinced that this show was capable of sticking the landing as it continued to pile on new, contrived ideas. This was a waste of an excellent voice cast, but more than that, a waste of time.

Tales of Wedding Rings (dropped after nine episodes)

I can’t believe how much goddamn isekai I ended up watching this season. That Tales of Wedding Rings wasn’t the worst one (see above) was a minor miracle, because boy howdy was this one a dud.

Satou is just a normal high school boy, blah blah blah, his childhood friend he’s in love with is actually a princess from another world and she has to go back to fulfill a political marriage, he follows her into the portal to pull a Benjamin Braddock. But then, gasp, the palace is under attack, so the princess (her native name is Krystal, but growing up in Japan she was known as Hime, which means… princess) instead decides to marry Satou, bestowing upon him her kingdom’s ring, which gives him powers that he uses to fight back the demons. It turns out that her ring enables him to use one elemental affinity out of five, so of course now Satou has to collect the rings held by the other four kingdoms in order to become the Ring King and save the world, and to do so he has to also marry each corresponding princess.

This is basically Tolkien’s Rings of Power but as a harem isekai with bonus nudity. What I saw of the season was basically a MacGuffin hunt that had waifus of various fantasy races attached. Fine character designs for each, to be fair, but it wasn’t enough to keep me interested.  It’s funny on paper that (to paraphrase Geoff Thew) our protagonist’s power level scales with the size of his harem, but Tales didn’t do enough to make me actually care what was happening. And I wanted to! There were elf titties and I didn’t care. That’s criminal.

What makes Tales especially difficult to watch is that this show is fuck ugly. The color palette is muddy and unappealing, everyone looks uncannily shiny, and there’s a smudgy Vaseline filter over everything. The action sequences are uninspiring, the animation is lousy, and every character looks terribly off-model unless they’re naked. Watch the OP I linked if you don't believe me; that's the best of it. The aural element isn’t much better; ecchi scenes are punctuated by a Cinemax-caliber smooth jazz score that I pray was chosen ironically, and most of the show’s humor consists of “an old guy is screeching.” And if you’re wasting Shigeru Chiba’s talents on that one lousy joke, you’ve fucked up catastrophically.

What completely pushed me out of wanting to see any more of this show, though, was how hard it doubled down on the worst elements of harem anime by having Protag-kun be a wishy-washy little ninny even though he’s openly declared his love for and is literally married to Hime/Krystal. And I wanted to care about her; the narrative made me want to care about her, and her jealousy of the other princesses is warranted, but alas, the harem demands bodies. To his credit, Satou recognizes her mixed emotions and makes extra time for her to make it clear that she’s forever number one in his heart, but every single time their shared romance and emotions actually push them towards consummating their (all caps for emphasis) MARRIAGE, the show goes Rent-a-Girlfriend on us and finds a cheap excuse to ruin the moment. No thanks, I’m out. Nothing else about this show is good enough to make me wade through that shit.

Honestly, the only thing that had me coming back after my Persona 3-induced hiatus was that I wanted to see the dragon girl, and that alone was almost worth it, but there really isn’t much of a draw otherwise. There were better isekai, better romances, better fantasy settings, and even better uncensored harem shenanigans this season. I might pick this back up as the second season approaches, but I’m not in any hurry.

[cecilysass]

Saw your Three Words tags! :DDD

I always read that scene as a sort of joke between them (which I covered in this post, but it's not necessary to read over.)

The play-by-play, according to my theory:

Langly makes his statement.

Mulder hears Langly and becomes suspicious of Scully's involvement, wondering if she'd "set him up" in a One Son do-over.

Scully keeps her face relaxed and neutral, seeking eye contact rather than breaking it-- a sign of her innocence. (Scully can't maintain eye contact if she has something to hide... which she proves, later, after Mulder calls her out for "campaigning.")

We see Mulder's face a second before he registers her uninvolvement (a little bit of panic, a little bit of betrayal)--

--but when he does, his eyes become twinkly as he tilts his head and mockingly squints at her (an unspoken tease over the baby's paternity-- the same as his expression in Empedocles.)

Scully teases him back-- raising her eyebrows and lightly quipping, "So much for playing a hunch, Mulder"-- before transitioning them to TLG's research.

I'm quite passionate about this subject; but, then again, my speculations rest on the fact Mulder already knew the baby was his but wasn't ready to face impending fatherhood. Not a rejection of the baby so much as a protective measure for them... and himself (wracked, as he was, with hidden PTSD.)

I’m with you that Mulder knew he was the father. I mean, I admit I like fanfic where he’s so out of it and confused that it takes him a moment to put it together, and I can go with some “he becomes jealous and suspicious” fanfic if he is characterized as traumatized enough to not be thinking straight.

But in my actual interpretation of the show, he knows and is just in too much numb trauma to act like we think he would right away. I have read your takes on this before, and I think you and I agree.

Now my beef with this little moment (and a few others in this arc) is that it seems written just to string along audiences, to keep them wondering if Mulder is the father, not for coherent storytelling in its own right, to stand on its own and make sense. Everything season 8 until the last possible minute had to be able to be interpreted as either (a) Mulder isn’t the father, and Scully doesn’t think he is; or (b) Mulder is the father, and Scully does think he is.

(I think this was a goofy writing decision because it meant they couldn’t fully push the plot or character implications of either interpretation. Like: If Mulder isn’t the father and Scully doesn’t think so, who tf is the father? We have no info on that. Shouldn’t Scully be worried about that all season long if she doesn’t know? Wouldn’t that be a major plot point? I would sure be worried. Or… if Scully believes Mulder IS the father and starts to have alien baby doubts, did she have an amnio and run DNA or no? Seems like she sure as fuck would have. And it turns out that was relevant. But this is all a side quibble.)

I’m trying to understand what you mean by Mulder could be suspecting Scully has discussed this with the Gunmen in advance, One Son style. You mean that he’s worried she’s trying to pin him down about his role with the baby? Like he’s a little anxious about this? It’s hard for me to get that in DD’s expression there, but maybe?

I can definitely see that maybe he is checking with her because he doesn’t know what she’s told people, or because he’s specifically surprised she hasn’t told the Gunmen. That makes sense, but I don’t know if I think that reads very clearly here. It would have more if Scully had given him a more intentional look back—she almost seems to just cast her eyes his direction—but of course they couldn’t do that, because that would confirm too much.

It sure looks like he’s confused about what Langly means, or even that he’s like, “heavens, why would I be involved in my co-worker’s pregnancy!” And of course I think they wanted it to look like that, so that they could continue the frustrating season 8 plan of making sure people could also possibly interpret this scene as Mulder not being the father. And I think this is why this scene sends people in all kinds of directions on what Mulder’s thinking is.

I do like your take, though. I can headcanon that. I probably would have written him more obviously spacey and traumatized in all of these scenes. I think you have written about wanting to see more of him dealing with this, and I agree. (I wrote a fic about this actually lol.) If Mulder had been having a more visibly difficult time, they could have had him absent-mindedly change the subject or look off in the distance or something. But I know they also wanted him to get to have the jokey, playful dynamic with the Gunmen and that the show hadn’t had that for a long time. And it is fun to see. So I get it.

If I haven’t said it before, though, I looooove these photo by photo interpretations of scenes.

[simplegenius042]

Music Monday & Last Song I Listened Too

Tagged by @skoll-sun-eater

Tagging @socially-awkward-skeleton @noodlecupcakes @voidika @imogenkol @josephseedismyfather @aceghosts @inafieldofdaisies @icecutioner @derelictheretic @shallow-gravy @shellibisshe @direwombat @strangefable @rhettsabbott @josephslittledeputy @cloudofbutterflies92 @cassietrn @carlosoliveiraa @adelaidedrubman @g0dspeeed @wrathfulrook @afarcryfrommymain @strafethesesinners @turbo-virgins @raresvtm @softtidesworld @starsandskies @ladyoriza @la-grosse-patate @florbelles @titiagls @minilev @yokobai @thewanderer-000 @omen-speaker @justasmolbard @alypink @thesingularityseries @nightwingshero and @lulu2992 (for the Last Song You've Listened To mostly) + anyone else who'd like to join.

Three songs for A Radioactive Calamity Of Love, Bombs & Gore, The UnTitledverse and The Silver Chronicles. You can listen to them under the cut:

You know... with the amount of similarities in trauma and certain points in their worldviews... I think Silva and the Seeds would have gotten along if the Voice wasn't fucking with everyone. Hell, after experiencing violence, confronting her traumas and having really confusing and mixed feelings with them, at the mid point of the story, Silva just wants to stop the war because she no longer wants to kill the Seeds (which may or may not have something to do with bonding with a captive John and whatever she and Faith got going on). Yes, Silva goes from "I'm putting all of you into the ground" to "actually you guys are too relatable to kill I need to stop this violence". That's pretty much how the first half of the fic goes. Anyway here's a song that describes it best:

"Wish we could laugh, play, joke all day Like good friends do But we can't get along, no (yea man) We can't get along, no." "We just fight, fight it just ain't right What we put ourselves through We can't get along, no We just can't get along, no (ohh, ohh)!"

"We can't stay the same and let this battle just go on We can make a change and prove everybody wrong

Why can't we be friends? Why can't we be friends? Why can't we be friends? Why can't we be friends?"

SPECIALS is a fun little not-plot-relevant-at-all future roleplay designed to celebrate all those holidays and seasons and is purely fun crack. Calvin Dearing being present does not mean it's relevant to his story or mental health. (But please someone get him out he's too hungover for this song...). Anyway when I imagine this is the song that makes the most sense for this WIP because it is pure chaos. Enjoy!

"This song's gonna get stuck inside yo' This song's gonna get stuck inside yo' This song's gonna get stuck inside your head

'Cause it's so catchy, catchy It's such a catchy song Gonna make you happy, happy Don't try to fight it, sing along

This song's gonna get stuck inside yo' (Head!) This song's gonna get stuck inside yo' (Head!) This song's gonna get stuck inside your head!"

Marissa "Ress" Bishop is one of the most optimistic characters who manages to build an upbeat worldview in spite of the suffering and pains she'll be going through (e.g. the death of her brother, outliving her mother despite seeming to be in her late twenties, the fact she'll outlive most of everyone she knows because of her long lifespan, etc). Her whole goal in the Commonwealth is to kill her father and just take time to live afterwards, just like Ore would want her to. Once the Commonwealth is liberated (from Maxson's Chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel), there's a night of celebration before Ress, Nate and their companions go on to deal with the Institute and Arcane Urias. And yes, Ress is definitely taking Piper onto the dance floor. Besides this song definitely fits Ress:

"'Cause I got a feeling (woohoo!) That tonight's gonna be a good night That tonight's gonna be a good night That tonight's gonna be a good, good night A feeling (woohoo!) That tonight's gonna be a good night That tonight's gonna be a good night That tonight's gonna be a good, good night (I feel)

Tonight's that night (hey!) Let's live it up (Let's live it up!) I got my money (My pay) Let's spend it up (Let's spend it up) Go out and smash it (Smash it!) Like, "Oh my God!" (Like, "Oh my God!") Jump out that sofa (Come on!) Let's kick it off (I feel)

Fill up my cup (Drank!) Mazel tov (L'chaim!) Look at her dancing (Move it, move it) Just take it off! Let's paint the town (Paint the town) We'll shut it down (Let's shut it down!) Let's burn the roof (Woo!) And then we'll do it again Let's do it, let's do it, let's do it (Let's do it! Let's do it, and do it (do it!), and do it (Let's live it up!) And do it (Do it!), and do it (Do it!), and do it, do it, do it (And, and, and do it!) Let's do it (And do it!), let's do it (And do it!), let's do it, do it, do it, do it (Hey, hey, hey!)

Here we come, here we go, we gotta rock (Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock!) Easy come, easy go, now we on top (Top, top, top, top, top!) Fill the shot, body rock, rock it don't stop (Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!) 'Round and 'round, up and down, around the clock (Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, I feel!)

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (Do it!) Friday, Saturday, Saturday to Sunday (Do it!) Get, get, get, get, get with us, you know what we say Party every day, p-p-p-party every day

And I'm feeling (Woohoo!) That tonight's gonna be a good night That tonight's gonna be a good night That tonight's gonna be a good, good night A feeling (woohoo!) That tonight's gonna be a good night That tonight's gonna be a good night That tonight's gonna be a good, good night Woohoo!"

And the last song that I've listened to (recently) would have been:

Fiend Like Me - The Stupendium

[hyacinthsdiamonds]

The reason why they don't follow each other lmao, I still cackle thinking of Charles - literally on Max's freaking plane going home to Monaco after Austria 2019 - looking over at Max to see if he noticed that he'd unfollowed him.

(this point from a post of yours btw)

is there any proof to that point? i'm genuinely asking

Hi Anon,

So I don't have any screenshotted proof from this pre & post Austria 2019 era myself, but maybe another blog does (I've only been active myself in f1 tumblr since 2021, despite following the sport my entire life and looking over the tags every so often before setting up my blog here) so I'll throw this in the tags so if someone does have that type of evidence, they can add it here.

Here's what we do know and have evidence for;

We do know that Max and Charles did follow each other on their various social media platforms until circa 2019, as - (if you scroll back far enough) - you can see different interactions between them pre 2019, pre Austria specifically. [Unrelated note: the unhingedness of them and the rest of the then teenaged members of the grid at this point of time is beyond hilarious. Genuinely, if you have the time it's worth the scrolling because they're such teenage boys tm it's ridiculous, and we kinda forget how long their lives have been interconnected, and it's before they got proper pr training and before certain drivers - most recognisably Max - gave their socials to a media team to run. There was a good period of time around 2017/18 when Victoria, his sister, ran his accounts as well as he wanted to include her in his team, before a proper media team took over. Objectively, the idea of Victoria noticing Charles unfollowed Max and then being the one to unfollow Charles in response, while Max remains oblivious to the entire situation is killing me lmao].

Now we do definitely know that they shared the flight home from Austria as during press after the race, Max was asked if things were going to be awkward with Charles now and he was essentially like "??? We're literally sharing a flight home???" This was Max's "It was just an inchident" ngl. Meanwhile, this was Charles on the podium:

... so he certainly did not share the same sentiment. It was his "it's just unfair" era. You can see a clear difference in Charles' driving post Austria, he started taking more risks and was more aggressive afterwards, because he felt if max was allowed to take risks and be aggressive, so was he. In the story of Charles' racing career, Austria 2019 is a significant race in his journey, even though it wasn't the win he wanted it to be. He would win his first two races in the aftermath of it.

It would not be the first or last time Charles would pettily unfollow someone on the grid after feeling he had been dirty by them and/or the FIA. In 2021, he followed every driver on the grid bar Max and would unfollow Valterri after what Charles dubbed the bowling incident in Hungary. While Bottas caused the main chaos of that opening lap, Stroll was the one who actually took Charles out of the race, but Lance has Charles following him as of 2024. Bottas also may have been unfollowed because of his preference of being as little clothed as possible in his insta posts lmao, but Charles did follow him before Hungary 2021 and quickly unfollowed afterwards.

I hope this provides some help, anon. And I'm sorry that I don't have the relevant screenshots to validate and accurately fact check this section of lestappen lore.

[angelsandemons]

𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐖𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐌𝐘 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐄!

whether it be melodies that give you inspiration for your muse or songs that get you into the writing mood — pick 10 songs you find to give you the urge, the drive, or the creativity to write for your muse!

tagged by: @hells-greatestdad

I probably did this before but I just saw you do it with explanations for each song and I love that so...of course I'm doing this for Bill. He's probably the only one I have 10+ songs for atm, and I have at least one new one since I last did this sort of thing for him.

Am I Wrong? by Nico & Vinz

This song has made me think of Bill's younger years for a while. However, my feelings and thoughts about it have changed a bit since The Book of Bill came out and gave us some more information about his early life in Eucylida. For one thing, it would be more appropriate if the song said "trying to reach the things that I can see" instead of "can't see." But since Bill was the only one who could see them, the same sentiment kind of still applies. Another cool change is around the lines "Am I trippin' for having a vision? My prediction, I'ma be on top of the world." With what we know now, combined with my headcaons around this new canon, we have a whole new new literal layer of meaning on top of the earlier figurative one. Because he truly did want to find a way to be "on top" of his world in a way that defied all logic and reason.

2. ECHO by Crusher P and Gumi English

This song has been near and dear to me in relation to Bill for years too, but like the previous one, it's changed meaning since the revelations The Book of Bill gave us. It's role in Bill's narrative still stays largely the same in that it speaks to the fall of Euclydia. The song starts out with saying "The clock's stopped ticking forever ago, how long have I been up? I don't know." Time and space completely unraveled in the aftermath of the incident in his home dimension, and being the sole survivor, Bill was left in a very strange place psychologically. This leads directly into "I can't get a grip but I can't let go" and "there wasn't anything to hold onto, though." Bill was in a space that was no longer quite space, a time that was no longer quite time, and no means to process any of it. The next few lines about not being able to see colors and wanting to be "colorful and free," still hold true to me, since I refuse to believe that Euclydia had color the same way we do. The main difference is that Bill could see more colors than others from the very start (though certainly not as many as he saw later on in life). So he didn't want to see it so much as be it, become a star in the sky that he spent so much time looking at. This comes into play later with "No I just can't let go, born to be colorful." Anyway, as the lyrics continue, they go right back into Bill's experience with the incident, from "What the hell's going on? Can someone tell me please!" to "I'm gonna burn my house down into an ugly black" and "I'm gonna run away now and never look back." Here again, the main difference from before is that Bill did not intentionally destroy his dimension, so it all...feels a bit different. No less relevant to me, just different. Finally, "my enemy's invisible, I don't know how to fight" is more about the psychological damage he took from this event and how ill-equipped he was to "fight" it or process it. Especially when he's up against his own self, his own past, the "echo in the mirror."

3. Raise Your Glass by P!nk

Once Bill left the remains of his home dimension behind, he began collecting misfits from across interdimensional space to be part of his crew. Life became one big party, all day every day. It was as much a celebration of freedom as it was a way for Bill to reframe his outlook and start to see himself as a liberator of fellow "freaks."

4. Blow by Kesha

This song is covers the other main aspect of this stage in Bill's life, and that's the inherent destructiveness of the parties and the darker side of Bill's specific brand of "liberation." The start of the song, "back door's cracked, we don't need a key" is also very reminiscent of how Weirdmageddon started in the show too, which is fitting since I think Weirdmageddon was very much the final party of his liberator era.

5. Comfort Zone by Jorge Rivera-Herrans

Pretty much the entire second half of this song is relevant to Bill (though I'm sure he too would yeet a baby off a tower if given the chance). I believe that pretty much every sentiment Perimedes' expresses here largely his way of coping with the horrors of war. Bill has a similar way of coping that originates from his role in the fall of Euclydia. It's also why the break up with Ford was so devastating to him; he did let himself care, he let himself get attached. And he had no defenses for rejection on that level. The silly little filters Jay put over this reel actually made it more Billcore than it was already.

6. Dark Horse by Katy Perry

This has always been a very Bill song, not just in relation to BillFord (though it's most relevant to that), but any of his partners across the ages, romantic or not (more often NOT romantic). Because Bill very much as an MO when it comes to his "trying to get someone on Earth to build him a portal." He finds someone who is in a vulnerable place, tries to "woo" them, so to speak, get them to agree to help him. Of course, Bill himself doesn't give his would-be partners anywhere close to the warning Katy Perry gives in this song. In fact, part of his whole game is that they don't know what they're falling for.

7. Blank Space by Taylor Swift

While this one is more overtly a "Crazy ex seeks new relationship" song, I once again thing this applies just as much to Bill's platonic relationships with humans throughout the ages. Bill has an ever growing track record of people recording warnings about him, from the prophecy in the early times to the entire society built around preventing amassing more victims.

8. Immortals by Fall Out Boy

This one is like, crazy appropriate for Gravity Falls as a whole, to the point that someone made an AMV for it years ago. But I think most of the song could actually be applied to Bill specifically. The biggest Bill line is probably the very first though, "They say we are what we are, but we don't have to be."

9. Primadonna Girl by Marina

This whole song, both in lyrics and vibe, is wildly applicable to Bill. It's so applicable, in fact, that Primadonna Bill was made as a parody of it. And some of the lyrics just flat out remain unchanged even in that version. Interestingly, one of the lyrics the parody did change is what I believe to be the most relevant to Bill in the original: "you say that I'm kinda difficult, but it's always someone else's fault." Because that really does sum up a lot of his more maladaptive coping.

10. Look What You Made Me Do by Taylor Swift

This song has been associated with Bill and Ford for years now, but it usually paints it as coming from the perspective of Ford. This is fine, but I actually think the song is equally as applicable when flipped, because from Bill's perspective, he was betrayed just as much. Heck, it might even be MORE applicable if we focus on the second verse of the song, particularly the part about being "locked out." The refrain too, comes back to the "it's someone else's fault" mindset that is so prevalent with Bill. And of course, there is the "I don't trust nobody and nobody trusts me" line that just sums up Bill so nicely.

Tagging: @pine-dexter, @wintersovereign, @doublejango, @nebula-gaster, @lettherebemonsters, @crimsonsharked, @botanikos, @heavensxgates, @yellingmetatron, @widdlestwucifer, and literally ANYONE else who wants to, please tag me I want to see it.

[mikuchan]

more thoughts on the Aylin and Isobel tag data :)

as a reminder, here's how I broke the categories down

Main character: the work focuses primarily on this character, or a ship involving the character. in the case of ensemble works without a strict main character, they have a major role and consistent appearances. in the case of collections, they are the main character of at least one chapter/vignette/poem/etc.

Side character: the fic focuses primarily on another character or ship, but the character plays a significant role throughout the fic. in the case of ensemble works, they have a major role or consistent appearances that diverge at least slightly from their canon actions.

Background character: the character has an insignificant role, barely appears, and/or is literally only present in the background.

Mistag / Nonappearance: the character does not appear in the fic OR they appear once with no speaking lines or significance, and never again.

for transparency, another note on this subject:

In general, I tried to assess and consider the spirit of the fic, not just flat number of times mentioned -- did the character have an emotional impact on the actual main character? were her lines identical to her in-game lines? was she treated as a character, or as a narrative prop? With this in mind: if the role was strictly canon without any additional characterization, screentime, or unique dialogue/actions, I tended to count it as background. IE Aylin killing Loroakan in a fic centered around a Tav/Rolan romance was almost always considered background. My reasoning for this was that it's essentially window dressing: it doesn't matter that it's Aylin in this situation, she's just a pre-plotted vehicle.

This definitely makes my calling it 'data' a little fuzzier because I can't claim firm thresholds like "if Isobel's name is mentioned x amount of times, she's moved from background appearance to side character." But I DO hope that making these judgement calls allowed me to create a more authentic representation of what is within the tags.

For those interested: some unpretty pie charts to compare Aylin and Isobel appearances versus Minthara's:

Aylin & Isobel:

Minthara:

Pretty similar rates. Those do change for Aylin and Isobel individually - higher rates of background appearances versus prominent roles.

Also pretty similar were the top ships and tags that were appearing in the Aylin and Isobel. I didn't do a formal count, but it was a lot of Astarion/Tav, Astarion/Gale, Shadowheart/Lae'zel, and Tav-forward stories again. Because of Aylin and her scene with Loroakan, there were a good amount of Rolan-heavy fics as well, and quite a few Ketheric fics tagging either or both.

I tallied the Ketheric fics like I did with Shadowheart, btw, but it turns out he had less crossover than it seemed. There are 63 total works with Ketheric, Aylin, and Isobel all tagged... BUT after going through them, only 17 had relevant crossover for my purposes (Aylin/Isobel main character, Ketheric main or side character). Add +2 without Isobel and +3 without Aylin, so 22 total related Ketheric fics.

That's actually still pretty close to Shadowheart if we look at nonromantic fics only (22 for Shadowheart, 20 for Ketheric) but ultimately it wasn't impactful enough to add into my graphic.

Jaheira also popped up enough for me to take notice....but ultimately she's another victim of overzealous tagging. Out of 102 works tagged with Jaheira, Isobel, and Aylin (character tags only, no ship tag) only 5 have relevant crossover (same criteria as Ketheric). Add the 3 Isobel/Jaheira fics and that gives us 8 total relevant works. Sidenote, I did not comb through Aylin + Jaheira, Isobel + Jaheira beyond the initial ship count, or Aylin/Isobel + Jaheira -- so it's possible there's some I missed. This was a quick tally to get a sense of things.

Predictably, Isobel was often tagged for background appearances or nonappearances in Last Light-based fics; Aylin was similarly tagged in fics dealing with Loroakan's Tower and the Shadowfell. Ditto for both with Moonrise Towers-centric fics.

Something random was that the Minthara tag has more overall but is currently moving slower. Currently there are 703 works tagged Minthara Baenre, and was 691 when I did my count on July 9th -- so that's +12 works in 6 days. I started tallying the Aylin/Isobel combined tag July 11th? and came back to it yesterday (July 15th) and a good 20-odd fics had been added -- so +20 works in ~4 days. Not really anything to do with this info because it's so devoid of any context, but interesting to note now and see how those numbers continue to change and compare (if at all).

[thescholarlystrumpet]

Tagged by @tawnyontumblr Thank you, luv! This is fun!

How many works do you have on ao3?

166 formatting is being weird without a sentence here

What's your total ao3 word count?

910,348 - ahhh approaching 1M!!

What fandoms do you write for?

Good Omens and (to a lesser extent) Hazbin Hotel right now. Past fandoms included Rumbelle, Whouffaldi, Buffy, and Avenue 5

Top five fics by kudos:

To Tell the Truth (Doctor Who) Whouffaldi moments woven between episodes. Mostly canon-compliant.

Lending a Hand (Good Omens) In his heavenly form he wouldn’t have had this dilemma at all because there was no corporeality with which to struggle. And on the other, much less ephemeral and much more literal hand, he currently had a very noticeable (and increasingly painful) erection.

Personal Assistance (The Thick of It/Doctor Who) Clara Oswald leaves behind teaching to enter the world of British politics. What better way to make a splash than by working for the infamous Malcolm Tucker? And if discovering a (mutual) attraction happens to catch them both off-guard.... well, that's just life, right?

The Babysitter (Once Upon a Time) Tumblr prompt: Mr. Gold forgets something at his house & goes back to go get it. When he arrives he hears his son's babysitter moaning and thinks she has a boy over. When he goes into his bedroom he finds her touching herself on his bed alone moaning his name.

None of Your Business (Once Upon a Time) “Well, it’s very nice to meet you at last, Angus.” She rolled his name around in her mouth as though she hadn’t been screaming it the night before. Mr. Gold tries to balance lust and trust with less finesse than he'd like to admit. Luckily, Belle can give as good as she gets.

Do you respond to comments?

I've made it a goal to try and reply to almost every comment. I'm grateful someone took the time!

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Oh undoubtedly Silence is Golden. I made my self tear up writing that one...

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Almost all of them? But I will take this chance to pimp my Canon-based Buffy Season Six Fix-it! (Everyone lives!): Making the Pieces Fit

Only totally non-shippy fic in my repertoire and one of my proudest achievements.

Do you get hate on fics?

rarely if ever?

Do you write smut?

Bwahahahahahaha. Oh. Yes.

Craziest crossover:

Not Just Watching Anymore - Buffy/Good Omens excuse to write an M/M/M threesome between Aziraphale, Crowley, and Giles :D

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yes, back in the rumbelle days, someone linked me to a site trying to sell my fic as theirs and we reported it.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

If they did, no one ever linked back to me :(

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Working on one with @hakunahistata tho we've both been sidetracked by Bang fics, hehe. It's gonna be great to get back!

All time favorite ship?

Oof. I love all my OTPs but I'm definitely *deep* in Aziracrow right now and hope not to emerge any time soon.

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

SO. MANY.

What are your writing strengths?

I get good feedback on my dialogue and characterization. I think I write pretty kickass smut most the time.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Background. What color are the walls? Where is the furniture? I have no fucking clue unless its relevant to the story. That table only existed when I needed the character to lean against it. It wasn't raining until that helped set the mood. Some people write exquisite scene setting and I am envious but writing it bores me to tears.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

One of my IRL besties can read a bunch of ancient languages and WILL side eye improper grammatical structure in fiction so I picture them giving me that look unless I do the really proper research (or ask them directly).

First fandom you wrote in?

unofficially HP but per my AO3, Once Upon a Time

Favorite fic you've written?

Ask me to cut my baby in half while you're at it, geez! But right now, I am proudest of For Loving One 

No pressure tagging: @voluptatiscausa, @naromoreau, @fishey-me @ineffabildaddy @she-makes-things @hakunahistata @nosferatini @zin-lynn-c and anyone from the @goodomensafterdark crew!

[aengelren]

hi, in the tags of the post about others ignoring eren's depression you said that you feel like in ch 125 he cried out for help a lot--i wonder if you meant a different chapter? 125 is the one with annie's backstory and eren isn't in it.

i'm super curious about this part of aot, to me it seems about equally as likely that someone did try to talk with him, and eren just wasn't honest, and that noone did

talking about this post

hey! you’re right, it’s chapter 123. excuse me for the long reply but here we go

I think Eren’s depression was emphasized in this chapter and how far along the line he was to the point of not being able to enjoy the sights they previously dreamt of

at this point, Eren knew the people he would kill people, innocent people, like he once was. said himself that he’s no be better than Reiner. an absolute hypocrite, which is proven when he saves Ramzi from the bullies, knowing he’d kill him later. he’s a walking contradiction, and hates himself for it. the feeling when you’re doing something wrong, while being aware of your wrongdoings yet you can’t stop, he self destructs and is unable to deal with the guilt that follows

nobody hates Eren more than himself, there’s no reason to love a monster like him, so why does she never leave his side?

he believed he couldn’t be loved, because he doesn’t love himself. The concept of somcone loving him was unfathomable. We see it throughout the series, he's constantly refered to as a monster, hits deep depression in season 3 where he thinks the world would be in a better place if he was dead, felt like a burden because everyone kept blaming the scouts deaths on him. Even in s4 when he's universally referred to as a devil but no longer fights to prove otherwise. so the fact that Mikasa always wants to be close to him isn't something he understands. He needs confirmation, why does she protect him all the time? Is it because she lost her family? Since Eren himself felt undeserving

Eren wasn’t being honest with them, but what depressed person is?

that doesn’t mean anyone else is to blame, Eren is fully responsible for his actions and we don’t know if talking out the mess in his head would help. personally, I don’t think it would. Eren craved an empty world(that’s up for another discussion) but i still feel emphasize with his self hatred, and the fact that he self destructed to the point of (rightfully) losing the life he could’ve lived and even regretting it in his final moments. (i can go into specifics if anyone feels confused)

so, did his friends ignore the visible changes in him after kissing Historias hand? yes. it’s like Hanji said, they were too naive and Eren felt he had to act on his own, (but then again, he chose to start hiding the truth from them even before kissing her hand, in court when he realized Dina was of royal blood.) HOWEVER, i don’t think that’s relevant to the eventual outcome as i believe Eren would do the rumbling regardless, but i do think it made his sendoff a lot more heartbreaking, knowing he spent his last years, trapped in a bundle of past and ‘future’ memories, a load on his shoulders that he never burdened anyone else with and no one bothered to do something about (Mikasa tried) and yes, i am fully aware they all had their own stuff to think about. i’m not trying to blame the rumbling on them

Mikasa reflected on the outcome if she had given him another answer that day, and we saw that they would’ve ran away from it all. in the cabin Eren says he couldn’t bring himself to commit genocide, that’s how we know it’s an impossible future. a desire he has but Eren wasn’t born to live a normal life. “because Eren and death, are inextricably inbound” -lost girls

he’s generally a very tragic character, which makes it hard not to feel for his humanity but there’s no ignoring the destructive part of him. sorry for reeling off but to get back to the point, i think he was very lost and that his friends ignored it until it blew he became someone that couldn’t be saved, but in the end it might’ve not mattered. “you can’t save someone who doesn’t want to be saved”

thanks for reading!

(since i can’t add any more panels i’ll reblog with the ones i want to share)

[alatismeni-theitsa]

hi, I have a question 'cause I saw it in your tags about the "Persephone lied" post you reblogged.

You mentioned how the tale symbolizes arranged marriages and the separation mother/daughter had to go through.

The more I thought about it the more it makes sense 'cause I’ve heard this is how mothers reacted to marriage in the Ancient World,' cause they would lose their own daughters, with little hope of seeing them again, so that death and marraige seem like almost the same thing from the mother’s perspective. (not to mention Zeus agreed to let Hades to his thing and only "warned" him about Demeter’s reaction. <-I think that can be interpretated as two men agreeing on a marriage without the consent of the mother or the daughter).

On the other hand, I used to think the myth was only relevant to the lives of the worshippers due to Demeter’s grief; it explained the seasons, and it also explained the need for agriculture, which Demeter then taught to mortals to help them survive her periods of sorrow.

Then again I’ve seen ppl theorizing Persephone’s disappearance to be a metaphor for death, (Y'know, how it snatches people away suddenly and leaves grief in its wake) but I think that's a stretch.

Anyways, is there an actual answer or is the myth up to the interpretation when it comes to what it symbolizes/stands for?

thank you in advance! 💕

Hello! Just a small disclaimer: When dealing with a foreign religious tale it doesn't make sense to project our own experiences there since the locals have certain things in place to symbolise specific meanings, and express a certain message. So really, what one "thinks" of the myth is irrelevant. I mean, sure we can all think stuff, don't get me wrong! But I mean, we cannot just base our thoughts on vibes. We should look at the history and tradition of that country first. I'm happy to see people reading examinations of myths more carefully 😄

For example, arranged marriages in Greece were a regular phenomenon 3-4 generations back, and even today that they are not, we still have mournful songs for when her mother grieves losing her daughter in marriage. Our two most famous traditional songs speak of that. One is so bleak that it's downright depressing for a marriage ("Σήμερα μαύρος ουρανός, σήμερα μαύρη μέρα"). @wordsmithic has an extensive video series about the relationship of marriage and death in Greek folklore through the ages. I suggest this for starters (But better see the whole series if you can! It's short!):

Greeks see the tale of Persephone as an explanation for why winter exists, and we also recognise the parallels between Demeter and Persephone's situation with what our mothers and daughters have been going through for thousands of years. The abduction of Persephone is also part of a long-lasting motif of the Greek "Death and the Maiden" stories, so it wouldn't be a stretch to consider it in the broader imagery of "a Death force taking a young woman".

The abduction of Persephone wasn't a story that people related to death and death rituals, so it's probably not a metaphor in the sense you mean, but the story kinda connects death and marriage, again, by being a part of a bigger cultural viewpoint. In Greek tradition since antiquity, young unmarried people (usually teens, not kids) are buried with their (woud be) wedding clothes and sometimes their graves had/have wedding symbols and offerings. Today this is done to give "happiness" to the dead and simulate the marriage rite they never got to have. Also some consider these dead "marry Christ". Before Christianity there was also a motif the dead young women marrying Death (?) but I can't find the info now. I distinctly remember reading many posts about it with sources but I am very sorry I can't procure them now. As soon as I find it, I'll add it here! But you can consider Antigone, how she describes her tomb as a wedding bed, for starters.

Another video of @wordsmithic talks about that motif! (I watched all the videos as you can tell and although I knew most of the stuff, wordsmithic made very good connections there!)

Hopefully, now my initial disclaimer makes sense. There are telling signs of what each myth means, and we take the signs from the culture these myths came from. It's very cool when you can observe the culture's evolution and see hints of that in the present to make more connections.

[plusultraetc]

Saw the tags on the Toshinori post and do you have more to share?? Any insights? If so I’d welcome hearing them 😭 He really is so self-sacrificial and it hurts but it’s truly at the core of who he is

This has been sitting in my inbox for almost a week because I needed to make a futile effort at organizing my thoughts into something coherent--but this is as organized as they're going to get for now! Thank you so so much for the ask though bc I do love to yell about MHA <3

(Obligatory reminder that I'm watching this show in such a confusing order so if what I'm about to rant about has been addressed before and I'm harping on it unnecessarily I Am Sorry.)

(For anyone curious, this is the post btw)

SO. It feels relevant to mention that my sister and I were talking about All Might in the first place because we were talking about MHA Moments That Haunt Us. For me, it's the 'I am not here' sign hanging around the neck of the All Might statue in Kamino Ward after the Paranormal Liberation War. It literally lives in my brain rent-free 24/7 365 days a year, especially with the AM vs AFO fight being relatively fresh in my mind. The reversal of All Might's catchphrase and all it represents hurts, but to display it at the site of his 'last stand' in Kamino? That's brutal.

All Might vs All For One and how that rematch plays out is so so important to the story for so many reasons, but one of them is that the fight itself is a sacrifice. Toshinori gives everything he has, short of his life, to defeat All For One. He gives up his physical strength, his public image as the unbeatable Symbol of Peace, and, effectively his Quirk ("Goodbye, All For One. Goodbye, One For All" haunts my every waking moment, still!)

This battle is also the culmination of years of All Might's life and heroic philosophy (because Toshinori has been both practicing AND preaching self-sacrifice in the name of the greater good since we met him. It's what he thinks a hero does). Kamino is the sacrifice to end all sacrifices, if you will. Yes, he does get to walk away from the fight with AFO, but he walks away irrevocably different, almost unrecognizable. He's forced to totally change his focus and his mindset and his life. Everything he has given up is made literally visible in the deterioration of his body.

But most most importantly, All Might's sacrifice at Kamino was... all for nothing. Even if AM defeated him in that moment, All For One is free less than a year later. The world is in shambles. People are afraid, and their faith in heroes is crumbling. Heroes are afraid, and this time, they have no idealized symbol to rally behind. When Dostoevsky wrote "Your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing," he was talking about All Might btw.

Toshinori gave this fight (and his career, and being All Might) everything he had, and it still wasn't enough. He sacrificed so much of himself, and so much of how he perceived himself and his purpose, and he didn't even save the world. He just bought them time--and not much of it. I think that's why he's so desperate to keep fighting, no matter the cost, no matter what condition he's in--even 'quite literally half-dead.' He can't let Kamino be the Symbol of Peace's final stand, because Kamino was ultimately for nothing. Instead of saving the world, it has been reframed through the sign on the statue as All Might abandoning the world. And ever since then, he's been scrambling to prove that he is still here.

(There's also probably something here about Sir Nighteye telling him that he was going to die. Since Nighteye used his Quirk on him, Toshinori has been anticipating sacrificing his life for good. Knowing that his entire hero career is effectively a fight to the death has probably maximized his self-sacrificial tendencies.)

[thegothicviking]

TW: Mention of suicidal thoughts

__________

Lost another friend due to me being "high "maintenance"...although I don't feel like I am?

I guess I nagged too much on her and she didn't think that not wishing me "happy birthday" was a big deal, when I personally think birthdays are important. Clash in personalities I guess.

I'm just glad that we didn't have that much in common (although she told me she was Asperger too and she was the only physical friend in a long while that I had a mutual fave band with, Bauhaus,) but we weren't even friends for a whole year so it's not that much of a loss I guess. I might have ONE "in real life" friend left now. ONE that I can still visit. But I feel like she is gradually withdrawing herself too. She is never the first to contact me to ask to hang out...

To be honest, I feel empty and tired of trying. I feel I need to "keep a lid on myself"/wear a mask now as I always end up being too enthuastic about a new friendship right from the start. This enthusiasm is scaring them away. So I'll try to keep it more "low profile" but this last physical friend, but it's hard when you have endured so many years of bullying and finally get to talk to someone face to face. Of course I get excited! It's like a starving man finally get access to food for the first time in a long time! He ends up eating too much and too fast. Just like I end up nagging and pushing...

I guess I just haven't found my type of people yet. And I honestly don't think I will, at least not here in Norway...

It has only been a week since I returned from Dresden and Leipzig..and my suicidal thoughts are already back. I returned from being surrounded by likeminded people..being able to express themselves and dress how they wanted to!

And then returning to..."normal people"...everyone looks the same..everyone is talking about the same mundane things.. It's eating me from the inside!

I wanted to be honest with anyone who is willing to read this: the mental health care system in Norway is a joke. They will straight up tell you that "because you are suicidal/have suicidal thoughts...this and this program won't work for you" and then they let you leave without even trying to recommend or place you into some other option of therapy or help. It's like they literally want you to just... die.

Here at home: I honestly feel like that person that stinks..or have some sinister mark on them. As if I have the plague and everyone avoids me..and I am blissfully unaware that I stink..or have the plague..and so I try to run towards the pretty people and I always have to try and chase them because they keep on running away from me. And I am blissfully unaware that I am meant to be shunned/shooed away. That I don't belong.

Ever since I was 6-7 years old and wrote in a stupid "friendship book" (which I now honestly believe is cursed)..all of my then friends who have ever written in it, are no longer my friends and in the beginning of the book I was supposed to write or draw whatever I wanted in life (as an introduction to the owner of the book/me).

As a 6-7 year old I could have written or drawn the most insane of things! Ask a child what they want and they can answer anything from a pony to a million in cash or a whole mountain made of candy..

And what did I write/draw? What was I wishing for? From anything in the world what did I want?

"Friends." ("Venner").

I draw two girls chasing each other in a tag-game. And I wrote "Venner" ("Friends").

And now, over 20 years later...that wish is sadly still relevant.

I really want to go on..but I am so tired.

If I didn't have my fic series...something I feel like I HAVE TO complete (out of spite or because hate to have any project unfullfilled). If I didn't have that... I'm sure I would have been 6 feet under now...or have had my ashed tossed into the sea.

I have no therapist...I wasn't allowed to keep him..and besides my family I don't have anyone to vent too. This is why I make this long post now. As to make you all my followers/mutuals aware that.. I might give up one day. I don't believe suicide is selfish. I believe you should be allowed to end it all if everything seems hopeless. I just wanted to vent. I just wanted you all to know...

I am grasping the last strands here. I am trying my best to keep on...but please don't be mad/angry if I decide to give up. I have fought these thoughts for 21 years now... Don't be mad at me if I'm too tired to keep on fighting. But I will give you a sign. I will let you know..if I decide to give up.

[cosmica-galaxy]

Just a mini-rant.

I just want to say that some of those blog-to-blog donation scams are going around again. I have gotten THREE in the last 2 weeks and it's starting to piss me off. They are SCAMS and I will never donate to some rando hitting up my inbox with some made up sob story about a cat, cancer, ect. Whoever is making those types of scambots is the SCUM OF THE FUCKING EARTH. FUCK YOU FOR TRYING TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF PEOPLE'S GENEROSITY ABOUT REAL ISSUES, ESPECIALLY STUFF LIKE CANCER. SHAME ON YOU.

Now. Here's a brief how-to on detecting and protecting yourself and preventing spreading misinformation from these so-called """people""" wanting you to donate to their bogus cause.

How to check if they are a legit blogger is to make sure that the blog wasn't made in the last few months. Best way to check is to click on the blog and look for the archive or have post timestamps turned on.

The one that hit me up just now was just 14 HOURS OLD. They also have a lot of random 'liked' jargon in their archive. Usually popular posts or nonsensical gifsets or images with no fandoms, art, posts, or anything else of the sort. There are NO connections or interests. Just randomly selected posts.

Plus, people who actually need help DON'T EVER hit up random people in their inboxes. They usually make a personal post about their issues and place them in donation tags or other relevant tags. BUT ALWAYS BE WARY FOR BUZZARDS LIKE THESE SCAMMERS WHO ALSO USE THE TAGS FOR THEIR OWN GAIN. CHECK BEFORE YOU DONATE.

It's a sad world that we now have to be skeptical of charitable pleas for help or charity campaigns BECAUSE of shitheads like scammers taking advantage of people's kindness and generosity.

Report them for spam/bot and block them. Don't interact with them and DON'T click on ANY links they provide. They are scams and they are awful bots run by equally horrible humans.

Stay wary, my lovelies!