#the last few chapters have been fully hype hype hype

[fivekrystalpetals]

TFW your rival/friend's underrated, almost invisible sidekick was the Main Villain TM all along lmao

[pikapeppa]

Year-End Writer's Roundup: 2024 edition

It’s that time of year, writer friends: time to take stock of what we’ve been up to this year! Tagging to literally ANY AND ALL WRITERS who would like to participate — seriously, if you write and you see this, please take this as an invitation to fill it out! — but I’ll throw down some tags from the top of my head: @contrivedchaos @iamcayc @midnightacrobat @elveny @johaerys-writes @crackinglamb @alyssalenko @vorchagirl @auntie-coagulant @sweetorangepoptart @himluv @mwasaw @varric-tethras-editor and GENUINELY anyone else who wants to join in!

Words written (published or not, WIPs totally count too!!): 882 674. A decrease compared to previous years, but there is a good reason for this (even though I need to keep reminding myself that it’s a good thing) — more details below.

Smut scenes: 44 — similar to the past few years.

New things I tried:

I wrote a fully-fledged poly ship for the first time with Halsin, Astarion and my Tav, complete with feelings and all! I’ve written sexual-only threesomes/moresomes before, but this is the first time I’ve had there be actual romance as well as sex. 

Significant M/M sexy time, including anal sex. I probably won’t write anal sex again for personal reasons, but I’m glad I dabbled at least.

I wrote something that I do not intend to post publicly, purely just for me. More on this later.

Fic I spent the most time on: 

My Astarion/Tav fic, just based on sheer number of words alone.

Fic I spent the least time on:

My Zoro/Reader fic, Relentless. These three chapters came together (HUEHUE) so quickly based on the sheer force of Zoro thirst. NOTHING LIKE THAT THREE-SWORD STYLE TO GET US WANTING HIS FOURTH SWORD 🤣

Favourite thing I wrote: 

This is tough this year aaaaaaaa. The Teia/Viago fic was one that I’d been wanting to write since 2020, and I’m grateful to the Veilguard hype for resparking that flame and making it happen. I LOVED writing all of my Halsin smut because Halsin just makes me SO CRAZY (I genuinely think he might be the one singular videogame boyfriend I’ve felt the most feral about). My Rolan/Tav fic felt like it was born from a very bright spark of inspiration, and I had a fun few weeks just blasting through writing that. 

But my #1 fave thing to write might have been the One Piece Sanji/OC fic that I am not planning to publish. Not publishing means there’s been no pressure to “make it good” or to figure out every detail of timelines/lore/OC backstory etc, so I can just do whatever I want. And that freedom to just make the fic mine, for me, has been really valuable this year. 

Favourite thing I read: 

Oh fuck, I read basically nothing this year HAHAHA. But I did read this one Sanji/Nico Robin smutfic that I REALLY loved. And I absolutely devoured a novel by one of my fave authors (Grown Ups by Marian Keyes) during our mini-vacay to Florida in February.

Writing goals for next year: 

My only goal for the coming year is this: to write only what I really WANT to write.

This probably sounds obvious, but it’s a whole thing that’s tied up with expectations of myself and self-worth and blah blah blah, so the rest of this post will be a bit of a personal essay that you can feel free to pass on HAHA.

I started therapy last year, and I’m in the part of my “therapy journey” now where one of the things I’m working through is the fact that I hold unhealthily high expectations of myself in basically every realm of my life. I force myself to suppress/compartmentalize/ignore my own feelings because I prioritize other people’s feelings over my own, and I spend a lot of my time focusing on things that I think I “should” be doing, at the expense of my own comfort levels/needs/physical or mental health etc. (ELDEST SISTER SYNDROME ANYONE?) And unfortunately, over the years, this way of operating has insidiously snuck its way into my writing.

When I first started writing fanfic in 2017, the writing was entirely born from an overwhelming desire to just get out this story in my head and make it a reality. I started writing for no other reason than because I wanted to. But as time went on and I gained a lovely following of readers, I started prioritizing my readers’ desires over my own. In particular, I’ve gotten too caught up by the idea of being That Writer™ who posts frequently and who finishes her fics: two qualities that I have often been praised for. This led to a habit of sticking to very strict schedules of always posting at least one chapter of something every single week — and if I was working on more than one fic, I would pressure myself to post a chapter of each fic every week. I would pressure myself to do this even when my back pain and migraines started flaring up in 2020, because I did not want to disappoint my readers.

To be clear: all of this was pressure coming from myself. Nobody was telling me I need to post every week or that I need to finish everything I write; I was the one holding myself to these insane standards. But for years, I’ve been able to meet these standards, and it hasn’t been a problem — or so I thought.

Then this year happened. Therapy stuff happened and health stuff got worse, and for the first time ever, I started having days where I just could not make myself write. I would sit at the computer for hours, unable to conjure any words. For some of my fics, this meant weeks or even months between updates. Sometimes when the words finally came, the writing felt like a struggle or a chore rather than an act of love, because I was doing something that I felt like I had to do rather than something I really wanted.

This has been absolute fucking torture for me. I felt so shitty about myself for not being able to do the one thing that I legitimately love doing the most in the world. This was especially distressing because I have given writing advice before stating that when you’re writing a long fic, you sometimes have to write shit you don’t want to write before you can get to the good stuff. And the fact that I’m struggling to do this now has left me feeling like a hypocrite and a failure for not being able to follow my own advice. 

To make things worse, some of the fandoms I’ve been writing for have been… unresponsive. The ratio of hits to actual comments has been pretty abysmal. The lack of engagement and encouragement just added onto the feelings of shittiness and inadequacy, as though I was failing to meet readers’ expectations somehow, and I can’t lie: it was part of why I stopped writing for one fandom this year, and I’ve never felt so bitter about finishing any fics as I did with a couple of the fics I wrapped up this year.

With time, a lot of tears and self-castigation, and ongoing therapy sessions, I’ve slowwwwwly realized that I am being unkind to myself by holding myself to such high expectations, and that I need to actively combat these expectations by refocusing on writing things that I want to write rather than worrying about disappointing my readers. I’m also working on writing only when I want to and when I feel good, i.e. not forcing myself to write when my head is throbbing or when I’m in too much pain to sit in my office chair. 

To this end, I have been writing some One Piece fic that I have no plans to post publicly: fic that is entirely self-indulgent fun. And it’s actually been the best exercise in returning to the hedonistic selfish joy of writing what I want, which is why I started doing this in the first place. Moving forward, I’m going to keep working on writing for myself first and foremost. I’ll strive to write what only what really sparks joy for me, and if that means my word count keep dropping year after year, I will try to remind myself that this is a good and healthy thing, since any words that I write should be a gift to myself first and foremost. 

[elisysd]

19. And in a blink of a crinkling eye I'm sinking, our fingers entwined

Masterlist - Previously - Next

Chapter soundtrack : So High School - Taylor Swift

Charles let out a scream as his engineer announced the P1 after crossing the checkered flag. Pole position. Finally,  And in front of you, he cockily thought. He was so excited to see your face, to hear your words and your analysis. That was his favorite part after a race. Listening to you commenting on his moves, praising him and calling him stupid when he deserved it. He went through his duties with a smile on his face but was already fully focused on the sprint shootout the next day and the sprint race. When Silvia told him he had a little time to relax before the team meeting, he jumped out of the media pen and ran towards the hospitality. 

You were there, talking to Joris and Antoine, a smile beaming on your face. Joris was the first one to notice him and to tell the group he was coming. You turned around and Charles took a second to appreciate how you looked in your blue jeans overall and cowboy boots. Casual but very on-brand with the GP atmosphere. On his way to you he picked up a cowboy hat left there for decoration, and put it on your head when he got closer. Now, you were perfect. 

“The one-lap king has arrived,” you greeted him, putting both hands on his shoulders to pull him into you. 

“King? Where is my crown, then?” he joked around as he shook his best friends’ hands. 

You left his embrace to take your hat away and place it on his head.

“Here. You look good, now. All sweaty and red with a sparkling cowboy hat.” 

He didn’t notice straight away Antoine snapping a picture of him. 

“Hey! I swear if you upload that picture, you’re fired.”

“And who would make you look good on Instagram?” Antoine shrugged. 

“I can find a new photographer.”

“Maybe but you’re too lazy to actually search for one.”

Charles tried to hit his friend’s shoulder but missed it, making everyone laugh. This day felt good to Charles. He was happy and confident about the weekend, for the first time in months. 

And he was right to be, despite being a bit salty from missing another pole, for the sprint race this time, for a few tenths. But it didn’t last long as your smile and your support were everything he needed to have before the sprint race. He ended up P3, a good result for him, confirming the pace and how he felt driving the car for a few GPs now. But now that the sprint race was over, his eyes were on the trophy and the pole position he wouldn’t easily give up the next day. 

That’s why it hurt him so bad to learn about the disqualification a few minutes after the race. Your smile wasn’t as happy and bright as the day before, replaced by a pitying look and a consolation hug. Austin was a race to forget, like most of them since the beginning of the season. 

The next two races were like a rollercoaster with some highs and some lows. A podium in Mexico and a DNS in Interlagos that had Charles crying in your arms, defeated and frustrated. It had taken a while to make him forget his worries and you were relieved to have a break before Vegas. He needed it. As for you, you had worked tirelessly on your podcast, managing to make a few interviews. The editing for the one with Silvia was almost done and you had managed to talk to Ruth Buscombe who knew Charles very well. It had been an enlightening hour for you and you couldn’t wait for people to hear her words. You also were on your way to book an interview with Claire Williams after Abu Dhabi, you only needed to go over the details. The visuals for your media was also ready and the announcement had been shared online. It had only taken an Instagram’s story from Charles where he had reposted the poster of your podcast, for your media to gain a few thousands followers in a few minutes. Now, you just needed to build up the hype around it before launching the first episode. 

“Still working?” Charles asked, appearing in the kitchen of the villa rented a little outside of Los Angeles, in his swimming trunks.

“I’m almost done. I need this to be perfect, I want it to be interesting for people, I want them to learn stuff…”

“You’re putting too much pressure on yourself.”

“You’re one to talk mister ‘I’m blaming myself for every little fuck ups that are out of my control’.”

“Okay, you won. But you are missing out on something great out there,” Charles shrugged. 

“Is the pool that good?”

“The pool is and the view as well,” he said, pointing at himself to make you chuckle. 

“Give me five more minutes and then I’m all yours.”

Five minutes turned into a whole hour before you finally closed your laptop, happy and relieved to be done with the editing. It was becoming more and more real, now, and you were half excited and half anxious to upload the first episode. You already had a date. It would be the first Monday following Abu Dhabi. You still had a lot of things to prepare before the release date. 

Walking outside you took a little moment to look at the view in front of you. Your boyfriend was playing with Joris in the pool, like two kids, while Andrea was trying his best to make sure they wouldn’t hurt themselves and Antoine was filming the whole scene. You smiled blissfully. If life was always like this with Charles, you would sign up for a lifetime in the blink of an eye. 

You didn’t know how much you needed holidays until you were actually on holiday. Charles had convinced you to leave your laptop on the side for a few days and since then, you had spent every single day, sunbathing with a book in your hand while Charles was making sure you were properly fed. It had even turned into a joke at some point, Joris saying he acted like your personal slave. You  had fun. And you couldn’t remember when was the last time you had felt this carefree. You were walking hand in hand with Charles in the streets, sharing ice cream and fighting over which flavor was the best. For you nothing could beat strawberry when Charles was deeply attached to his good old vanilla. You even went to the Universal Studios where Charles had dragged you and Andrea on the scariest rides. 

But soon, it was time for you to leave for Las Vegas for the penultimate race of the season. You were excited and curious to see what it would look like and you also knew Charles was eager to perform there. He was in a winning mindset and you would lie if you were saying you didn’t find that very sexy. Everything in Vegas was made for tourists and F1 fans, from goodies, to extravagant posters, to people stopping you in the streets to tell you all about the opening ceremony and how grandiloquent it was going to be. It wasn’t hyping you in the slightest, instead it was starting to annoy you. F1 was not a circus, it was first and foremost a sport. But Charles was excited and you didn’t want to kill his mood, so you kept your mouth shut. 

“It’s fun, it’s different! And if it can bring a new audience to the sport, who am I to criticize it?” he told you when you first started to emit some doubts. 

“Max sure has a different opinion than you.”

“But you know Max. I’m not him, I’m more optimistic.”

“You’re an idealist, Charles. It’s both of your biggest strength and your biggest flaws,” you gently smiled at him, while you were adjusting your dress, all dolled up for the ceremony. He sent you an appreciative look when you made your way into the room. 

“Now, seeing you in that red dress might be a good reason to stay there and to skip the ceremony.”

He got up from the bed and took you in his arms, trying to kiss your mouth but you deflected at the very last moment resulting in a simple kiss on the cheek. 

“I spent almost an hour on my make up, I won’t let you ruin it.”

“Fine. If you don’t let me ruin it now, maybe you’ll let me later, right?”

“Behave and you’ll find out,” you winked at him before taking your purse and his hand as you both made your way out of the hotel room. 

Arriving at the track, you were blinded by the lights and the crowd. Soon enough, you found yourself being separated from Charles as he had duties to attend. You wander along the different activities and sponsor stands trying to get yourself into the mood of the weekend. But the noise, the crows, the lights soon left you lightheaded and you decided to isolate yourself. You had almost made it out of the paddock when you bumped into a hard chest that made you look up to apologize. What, or more like who, stood up in front of you made your heart miss a beat and your mouth turned dry. 

“Y/N… fancy, seeing you here.”

“Stan? What the hell are you doing in Vegas?”

“I’m accompanying my girlfriend. Her work brought her here. I thought you could be around but I didn’t think I would see you this soon.”

You didn’t know what to say. He was the last person you expected to come across. He looked the same as before but everything in him was disgusting to you, to the point you wondered how you could have ever thought about dating him. 

“Your girlfriend?” you managed to stutter. 

“Yeah. She is right there, by the way. Roxanne ? Please, come here,” he waved at someone behind you. And when Roxanne stood up in front of you, a cold smile on her face, you felt your stomach drop. 

Because Roxanne was looking exactly like you, despite a few differences. So much that it was uncanny and unnerving. 

Author's note: So this is not my best work and I'm sorry about that. It's a filler chapter. I just hope you still liked it!

Don't hesitate to leave a comment or an ask, as well as reblogging and leaving a like. Besides the fact that I absolutely love to read you, it helps a lot for the story to find its audience. I also have a taglist for this story, so if you want to be added so you never miss a chapter, let me know.

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[auspicioustidings]

Chapter 3. Sudden Rut

Masterlist (inc Content Warnings)

April

If she had any energy to spare, maybe Charu would have felt vindicated. The others had thought she was an idiot for stretching out her scent blockers given that they risked getting chewed out if any of their scent started leaking through. Other branches of the military left scent blocking up to personal preference, but it had been made clear to them the SAS did not.

Evasion had been going on for two days and the last time they had been given scent blockers was over a fortnight ago. The others would be easier for the dogs to find now with the blockers almost sure to have worn off. She probably had a few days left at least.

It was miserable to be constantly running on adrenaline, trying to snatch minutes of sleep at a time where she could. She’d never felt quite so much like a doe under the scope of a hunter before.

There was no concept on if she was doing well or not. They’d not given them any goal other than to not get caught for three days. She wasn’t sure what happened if she made it without being caught. The only thing she felt certain of was who was hunting her, not because they had said so, but because pack 141 seemed to have developed a taste for her misery.

Every gust of wind sent her on high alert, every disturbance by a creature skittering across the soil, every stray ache of her muscles. It was exhausting to have to be this paranoid for this long. Every nerve had been frayed to thread within the first 12 hours, now she barely felt she was a person anymore, just a machine with the sole function of keeping moving.

Hiding would not work, not with these hunters and their hounds.

Were they around a map angrily making plans because they could not find her or were they in the trees watching her right now and wondering how she could be so arrogant as to think they had not?

Didn’t matter, her next moves were the same regardless.

Rest, hydrate, move.

And try to keep her head squarely on her shoulders because tactical questioning was up after this.

--

“That little bitch!”

Oh the Captain was in fine form, not that Soap could blame him. Three fucking days she’d evaded them after escaping in an amount of time that was uncomfortably close to his. Poor Riley was laid in the corner looking dejected about his failure to track her down while Ghost snuck him treats.

Three days.

It was one thing to have an omega in trials, it was another entirely that she was really fucking good.

It would almost be a shame to lose her.

--

This had went tits up in no short order.

Charu was slow to figure out exactly what was happening, but then she had spent an unknown number of hours that felt like it must be days being ‘tactically interrogated’. Not the first time she had been tortured, but there were plenty of firsts for methods.

She’d always thought waterboarding was probably over-hyped, but now she fully got it. And while she had certainly been tasered before, whatever one they had was so much worse. For a few seconds she thought they might actually have stopped her heart.

Theoretically she knew there were arguments for psychological torture being worse than physical. She hadn’t really considered that would be the case for her, but she would have taken more waterboarding over them hacking off her hair. It was the first time they had gotten a reaction from her, she’d growled and hissed and screamed at them, but she hadn’t told them her name, her rank or her unit when they asked again.

After that they wouldn’t drop it. Soap kept commenting on how ugly she was now, how no alpha would want her now that there wasn’t anything left to yank on to get her to take a dick in her throat properly.

They’d said so many awful things to her: racist, misogynistic, alpha supremacist, fatphobic, homophobic. It was cruelty and even if she kept telling herself it was torture, they just wanted to get her to break, it didn’t stop it from hurting. At some point though, it became just noise.

All of it was just noise. The pain, the fear, the panic, the hurt. Just noise. That fucking Kipling poem that kept repeating again and again was just noise. She didn’t have a name, didn’t even know what the word rank meant, had never met another soldier in her life so how could she have a unit?

And then the noise was gone because Price was running a hand up her leg. She had the stray thought that he was going to get his hand dirty because she’d lost control of her bladder sometime around the shock torture.

“It’d be a damn shame to kill an omega, even one as dirty and ugly as this one. Always wanted one I could keep handy to dump my load into. How about it boys? I put a bite in that pretty neck and she can be a dumb little pet since she doesn’t seem to be able to speak like a person.”

Her attempt to shift her face away from his other hand that was going for her bite collar was pretty pathetic, but she wasn’t sure she cared what they did to her anymore. She wasn’t going to give them anything and as soon as they left her she’d get out. Did she trust that they wouldn’t rape her to prove a point? That they wouldn’t force a bite?

Legality meant fuck all out here and her experience with alphas in the military did not fill her with hope that these ones would be different, but despite how awful they were she hadn’t ever felt unsafe around them. Her omega trusted them well enough, a rarity.

Military bite collars weren’t easy to get off, but he was an SAS Captain so he knew how to get it undone.

Someone swore, Gaz she thought. There was a growl as well in the room. She might have whined when a thumb pressed into her scarred over scent gland, she wasn’t sure.

The next sequence of events was blurry to her because she was half out of it, but it felt like an explosion went off. Later she found out Ghost had went into a sudden rut. It should not have happened, not with the suppressants they were on, but given she only knew he had went into rut because she’d overheard people gossiping about it, she doubted she’d ever know how it happened.

There wasn’t any big ceremony when they landed back on base in the UK a few days later. She was just called into Price’s office, told she was in and given orders to deploy the next day half way around the world for an op. No congratulations, no more time to recover.

But she’d fucking made it. Charu Hale was SAS.

--

“We gonna talk about it Simon?” Price asked, hoping like hell that maybe Simon Riley felt like telling him what the fuck had happened.

He had to give Hale confirmation she had made it this morning and he was still in a foul mood over it. He couldn’t fucking believe she had taken so much punishment, because they hadn’t went easy on her. He was pretty sure he’d given her a harder time than he ever had any other recruits, but then he wasn’t involved with trials that often anyway. Maybe he should have left it to the people who usually did these.

Not a fucking chance. He had hoped the threat of him biting her, the way he leered at her to make her head jump to rape, would have gotten her to talk. He knew for some alphas in the SAS, it wouldn’t have been an empty threat. It made him even angrier because what the fuck was he supposed to do with her now?

Tomorrow morning she’d go out on mission with another task force, not as a permanent member but as an extra body. He trusted less than half of the men in that team, so Soap was going with her even though there was no good reason for him to be there. He’d had to go to Kate to get it cleared and she’d used some diplomatic nonsense to get him say over where Hale ultimately went. It wasn’t full control, but he could at least try and make sure she didn’t get sent anywhere that had a good chance of her ending up force bonded and chained up in a basement somewhere as a breeding bitch.

Now to the more immediate problem. Ghost was sat in his office, mask off, looking half dead. The rut had taken a lot out of him.

It was a difficult thing to fight your way out of a rut, and Ghost had done it. By rights he should still be in the throws of it, should be sniffing out an omega on base to knot or tracking down the biggest alpha and starting a fist fight. It was sheer luck really, an omega flight lieutenant had been a few miles out for some meeting about an SAS and RAF joint op. He had no idea why the fuck they would fly RAF soldiers all the way out there for a meeting, but it had saved their arses so he was he to complain.

Price suspected that this situation had not been the first of it’s kind flight lieutenant Olivier had come across, because the boy had approached slowly and calmly and purred up a storm until he could get close enough for Ghost to put his head on his chest and just have that purr rattle through his thick skull.

Comfort from an omega was a way to get out of a rut, it was just the hardest to get to work because it required a lot of effort on the part of the alpha to break free.

By that time Hale was long gone of course. Ghost had went straight for her when he’d lost himself and while him and Soap had fought to get him on the ground and keep him there, Gaz had gotten her the hell out of there. She’d been dumped with medical and Gaz had sprinted back to try and help.

He’d hated having to pin Simon down like that, having to treat him like a damn dog. He owed that pilot a fucking fruit basket.

Having to take a call from Keegan fucking Russ had been yet another delightful thing to deal with. Price had told him in no uncertain terms to mind his fucking business. He was Ghost’s alpha, and he was keeping him safe.

All in all, the last week had been an absolute shitemare.

“I’m sorry sir, it won’t happen again.”

Price sighed.

“It’s going to be harder to get rid of her now and you know we’re going to have to keep her close enough to keep an eye on. Laswell’s managed to wrangle some info on comms happening, the Rook and Silver task forces have already been sniffing around seeing if they can get her assigned to them.”

Task Force Rook had, in his estimation, one decent alpha on it. The rest? They got the job done, but he was under no illusion of the kind of alphas they were. He couldn’t say for sure if they’d hurt her because she was a fellow soldier and not some civilian in a shelled out town that wouldn’t leave any record.

Task Force Silver he could say for sure. If she joined them she’d be bitten in whether she liked it or not and her life would become taking knots for them and whoever they dictated she needed to in order to make alliances. They were alphas who made his team look like kittens. They took the missions that nobody else would because they were ruthless, power hungry and void of empathy to the extent that they would actually come back alive where his team would not.

Price wasn’t going to pretend his lines weren’t movable or that they were drawn in a place that anyone would find anything but monstrous, but TF-S didn’t have any lines at all. That made them an asset to the military, so it wasn’t easy getting anything to stick whenever his team tried to get them out.

Farah and Alex had been working for over a year now on trying to figure out who was supplying weapons to Al-Qatala, because they were sure it was someone in the SAS smuggling UK weapons for a tidy profit. He’d put his money on TF-S and with any luck one day soon they’d finally find the proof needed to make it impossible for the government not to take action against them.

The idea of those alphas having an omega reporting into them, even one as frustrating as Hale, was horrific.

“How long can you hold them off?” Ghost asked.

“As long as it takes for her to see bloody sense and quit. I’ll make the argument to keep a few of the new lot unassigned to a team, keep them flexible to send to whatever team needs them at the time.”

“That still means she could be sent out to them.”

“She’s getting on a transport tomorrow to help Rook. I’m sending Soap with her.”

It was Ghost’s turn to sigh. What a mess.

“He’ll keep an eye on things” Price added.

“We’re SAS, we can’t keep being babysitters forever. There’s a job to do.”

Price knew Simon Riley well enough to understand what he was suggesting. He did not think that they should stop keeping an eye on her, he thought she needed to quit. That was all well and good, but they’d already tried to get her to quit and it hadn’t fucking worked.

He looked at Simon with some open suspicion. He knew something. But then if he wasn’t set on telling anyone then nothing would get it out of him. And if he had some way to get Hale to quit? Well that was just for the greater good.

[skylarmoon71]

Miguel O'Hara (Across The Spiderverse) - Chapter 1

As the leader of this superhero organization, he was aware that the personalities tended to range. 

Essentially they were all somewhat the same.

That’s why he was a little lost. He’d seen others fumble, but this was next level. Peter insisted that you possessed the same skills. Apparently you’d stopped a car from crushing him. So he was grateful. That’s when he introduced you to the building of superheroes.

What Peter failed to mention was that you had recently gotten your gifts or you were possibly the clumsiest person in the universe.

“This is (Y/N).”

Gwen, Jessica and Peter stood with smiles and Miguel jumped down.

You held out your hand approaching him.

“Nice to meet you I’m-”

Your words were interrupted when you fell face first, right into the ground. Miguel blinked and Peter just laughed awkwardly, moving to your side to help you up. Now that you were upright, you tried to fix yourself. Gwen panicked when she saw your bloody nose.

“You’re bleeding!”

You just laughed it off, wiping your sleeve under your nose to clear the blood.

“It’s fine, this happens all the time.”

At the time he thought you were joking, but further inspection on your character proved otherwise.

In the span of three hours of being in Nueva York you successfully fell off one of the many platforms, lost your interdimensional watch that you were just recently assigned and webbed yourself in the face. He never met a spider person with such terrible depth of perception or coordination.

After you left, Peter was pleading his case.

“Come on, she’s a bit clumsy but she has the right spirit. We just need to train her.”

“I think we’d need a safe room to train her. How did she manage to get herself stuck to the wall with her own webs?” Jessica asked.

Gwen shook her head with a smile.

“So she’s a bit uncoordinated so what? It could be worse, at least this spider woman isn’t evil.” Gwen inputted.

They all winced internally at that.

The last trip was a bit of a headache. Seeing as spider people in that universe were public enemy number one. 

Not a place any of them were looking to go back to.

“She’s a good person. She was scared out of her mind but she jumped onto that bridge and saved half a dozen people, including me. I would have been sore for days if she didn’t grab that car. Just give her a chance.” Peter urged.

Miguel still wasn’t fully convinced, but the last thing he needed was to hear Peter nagging him until he relented.

“Fine, but you’re responsible for training her. “

“Yes boss!!”

That’s how it started.

They decided to recruit you into their little club. You were still getting the hang of everything and when you came back, this time you had a pretty impressive suit. Miguel figured despite your obvious lack of spatial awareness, you were still very much a genius like many of the others. So your training began.

Week 1

“All you have to do is dodge all the beams.”

The training room was the obvious place to start. Miguel stood at the side with a few others as they watched you mentally hype yourself up.

“I’m ready.” You called.

So he clicked the button, starting the program. There were about a couple dozen beams in the room in just about every direction. The first test was honing your senses. An easy enough task since they were basically built into every spider enhanced hero.

It took all of ten seconds for you to get hit by the first circular beam. Then it just went downhill from there.

Each time the wooden poles connected with a body part they would flinch.

“I-I’m okay!”

Another struck you right in the face and you were down for the count. Miguel turned the switch off, looking at Peter with a glare.

“I-I’m sure she’s just testing out how much her body can take.”

A lame defense.

Miguel let out a sigh of annoyance as he went over and heaved your body over his shoulder as he headed to the infirmary.

Week 2

“Hand to hand combat is hero 101. Regardless of any abilities it’s nice to know how to fight. Training improves that. Today we’ll be doing the basics, just block my attacks.” Peter instructed.

Jessica agreed to supervise, just in case.

“Okay.”

You lifted both fists, ready for whatever he was about to dish out. The first blow he delivered hit your arm, and you meant to take a step back to brace and counter, but your legs got caught in each other and you tumbled to the floor. Peter stared owlishly, watching your groaning form on the ground.

“You okay?”

“Peachy.”

You picked yourself up off the ground, rubbing your back as you focused again.

“Ready.”

He looked a little less sure this time.

“You sure there?”

“I’m positive, hit me with the best you got.” 

He wasn’t sure that was such a good idea.

“Alright, how about I just show you how to kick?” He lowered his hands, already heading to the punching bags, but you stumbled after him.

“I-I can fight!!”

Your unsteady steps made you stagger and before you knew what was happening you were falling. Peter moved on instinct to block it, but his haste to assist made you crash right into him, more specifically, your forehead rammed right into his. Just like that you were both knocked out at the force.

Jessica ended up dragging both your bodies to the infirmary.

Week 3

“Just focus on strengthening your core. Push ups, sit ups, hip thrusts, seated rows.”

Gwen’s instruction seems easy enough. They figured there was no way you could hurt yourself.

At least they hoped.

“Got it.”

Gwen smiled, content that he had a solution. She turned to Miguel with a triumphant smile, only to hear the sound of something crash. When she looked back, the shelf of workout items a few inches above your head had broken and all its contents crashed on you.

“W-What! I turned around for like three seconds!”

Miguel merely walked away and Gwen was the one taking you to get medical attention this time,

By week four they’d somewhat given up. 

The plan was to regroup and come up with another plan of action. Looking over the team of superheroes present, you let out a sigh of defeat. Peter, Gwen and Jessica looked a bit worn out. Either from taking hits or trying to ensure you didn’t receive any. Miguel looked as unimpressed as usual.

“I’ll be heading back for now.”

There wasn’t much more you could do. The second the doors closed, they all looked a bit sympathetic.

“She’s really trying, I feel bad.” Gwen commented.

“Maybe we should start fresh next week. “ Peter suggested. 

Miguel frowned.

“Leave her alone for the time being.” He instructed.

They didn’t like it, but at the moment they had the anomaly situation to worry about, so they relented.

Miguel went about the next few days as usual. Assigning missions, tracking activity. He was focused, yet that look on your face refused to leave his mind. He grumbled, and Lyla smiled as her holographic figure sat right above his shoulder.

“Feeling a little guilty there, boss man.”

“Why would I feel guilty, she’s the one who almost took out a half dozen of my members as well as my technology. “

“Maybe she’s just stressed. Not everyone can do the whole brooding spiderman bit.”

“What exactly would you suggest I do?”

“Jump on over to her universe and give her a little pep talk.”

“I don’t give pep talks.”

His eyes moved back to the pad as he continued to organize data.

“She saved Peter.”

Miguel’s hand stopped in place and Lyla hovered right in front of him.

“She could have just walked away or become some super villain, but she chose to risk her life for strangers. That has to count for something.” 

It wasn’t often that Lyla got sentimental like this. Her nature was more playful, easy going, that’s why he knew that this must have meant a lot.

“One trip.” He grumbled.

She was already smiling.

“Alright let’s go!!” 

[crazycatfaery]

Gooood afternoon dearest @somenamewithepineapple,

✨🌟❄️I am here to wish you a happy HEX and tell you: SURPRISE!!! ｔＨเѕ ίⓢ Ĥเ𝓛𝓛เ𝐄, your HEXee! ❄️🌟✨

I hope I fooled you well! I had a terrific time working on your gift and picking your brain by bombarding you with questions (I’m now absolutely hooked on Fire on Fire by Sam Smith ever since you recommended that song). Your replies definitely helped shape my first ever Silrah enemies to lovers fic, and the trope has absolutely grown on me. 💖

So lo and behold, not one, not two, not three, but ✨four✨ (!!) chapters emerged! Some screaming-at-my-own-brain occurred a few times, mostly because more ideas just kept popping up, but I thoroughly enjoyed getting to turn all of it into a proper gift for you.

I also love that I got to create something for a server member I’ve met in real life, and I’ve been snickering so much these past two weeks in anticipation of revealing everything to you. I hope I ended up doing a good job fulfilling your requests, and that you’ll fully enjoy every chapter as I release them to you over the following days.

Last but not least, I want to thank the ever patient, helpful and supportive @myalchod for being my beta-reader once again (and for fooling me so well as my own HEX anon). Without her, I would have long lost my sanity. So thank you for listening to and joining in with my squeals, hyping me up and occasionally virtually whacking me on the head with a stick 💚.

Now, without further ado, here is the first chapter of your gift!

[lulumilkshake]

oh my gawwd that chapter was so underwhelming so here’s my analysis on some parts lol

lowkey just felt like a filler chapter idk if that’s just me since it was extremely short, it just pretty much explained things we already knew or could infer.

two things that stick out to me during the chapter though were:

1. gojo and yuuta trained swapping souls?? hello?😭 the point of it was for yuuta to improve his barrier techniques and preform that hit on sukuna (hence why sukuna was impressed)

but one thing I’m confused about with this piece of information is: shouldn’t he(yuuta) have Gojo’s memories? during the domain clash, he didn’t know that Sukuna could bypass Gojo’s infinity because Mei-Mei’s crows weren’t inside the domain at that time, but since he also has Gojo’s memories now, shouldn’t he know this piece of info?😭

I’m guessing it was just because he’s only been in his body for a few moments, but whatever. In my opinion it’s just writing inconsistency because Kenjaku was fully able to access Geto’s memories and since Yuta copied Kenjaku’s technique, it should’ve been the same for him.

2. Poor rika ☹️

+ The hype of this chapter was large because of the “yuuji going crazy” allegations—but let’s be honest, bro got sidelined after the culling game ended and got sidelined in this chapter too. That was never gonna happen.

Gojo didn’t mind that his body was used for this too (the “practicing” with Yuuta confirming that further), so him going “feral” would look stupid asf without a valid reason 💀 He cares about Gojo as much as the next but right now the main goal is to finish off Sukuna just as it was for the last 30 something chapters.

Yuuta feels more like the main character than Yuuji right now obviously but I feel like Yuuta will most likely loose against Sukuna but then weaken Sukuna enough so that Yuuji will gain some massive plot-armour and defeat Sukuna. It’s a simple-minded explanation but seeing how Gege literally makes things up as he goes it’s my best conclusion😭

Gege got some kink for people switching bodies cuz this shit ridiculous and

(also gojo fans were definitely manifesting for gege to get sick. speedy recovery to him🙏)

[kitscodingblog]

Coding Update 6

I think its been a while since I've updated. I fell behind a little on my learning cause life has been really difficult lately.

Hope y'all had a good Thanksgiving and having a good start into the holiday season!! Yadda yadda more under the cut.

So I just finished Part 1 of my book. This mostly contained the introduction to Python, obviously, while learning a lot of the major functions of the program. I think it took me a bit to get into the swing of coding, especially cause it felt like I've had to rewire my own brain doing this haha.

The good news is I feel a LOT more comfortable with Python now. Not like "i can do anything!" yet but enough that it's actually super fun and I'm excited to work on projects!

The last part of the chapter taught me to use the "pytest" ability. I.E: writing test code so that I can make sure my programs are working properly and as intended. That part was really interesting, mostly because it was super duper busted at first for me.

That ended up being because where my "default folder" is set is like my main python hub, so i have to use the uh. What's it called? True access link? Where I write the entire string to the code's location.

Which also taught me that in the Terminal I have to use quotes for the location cause before I learned proper coding practices, I used spaces in some of the initial folders.

We're good now though.

The next part, Part II, is all about learning to build fully functional projects!! I'm so HYPED. There's four projects, of which it was like choose whatever you want! But I'm gonna start with an Alien Invasion remake. You know, the game where you're the little ship at the bottom shooting at aliens as they slowly decend on the screen. I should learn a lot from this one.

The other project I'm looking forward to is a simple online blog database. It'll have users create accounts, be accessible online, and you can make little journal posts! That should actually teach me a lot of stuff that I want to do.

There's another for data visualization, which I think I'll send to my cousin. He works in a lab at MIT and I know they use python for their programs. Maybe I can work my way into his work by doing that lmao.

Anyway, I'm really excited for all of this. It should teach me a ton of usable skills, and then i can add these projects to my portfolio to show off. Also I can spin off and make my own stuff.

Also also, if anyone wants to help me test my projects, feel free to let me know! I already know a few who are more than willing, but I'd appreciate any and all feedback as I go.

Oh! It also recommended learning version control, which I know almost nothing about. So I'll learn how to use GitHUB to store projects and recall old ones as I go if things break horribly. Which will be fun! Cause I know that for sure is going to be an important skill to have.

For a last fun fact, did you know places are like "requirements: typing 30 words per second." Do you know how fast I can type? At my peak I'm like over 110. I baseline at like 95. I don't know if that's actually fast but it makes me feel like the specialist little guy.

I hope you all have a good holiday season. Sorry no code in this post, I'm writing it so I can give you all an update, and I'm dog tired today. But but I promise to snip actual code for you as I go forward. And It'll be fun, especially cause this alien project will teach me about making VISUAL things!

Seasons Greasons Tumblr! -Kit

[waitingforsecretsouls]

Sorry for being a bit of a hater again but. I really think fandom has kind of blown the whole Edahn statement about V out of proportion by a good mile at this point. And while that's obviously perfectly fine for fandom stuff, as a serious view on what little we have so far on these characters it does not really hold up. Edahn was not going around campaigning for V as true leader of the group or even king: aside from the fact that he thinks the whole king business is stupid in the first place (see just about everything about his treatment of data Zahard who has fully embraced it), his statement also really only amounted to a "well I guess if I HAD to pick someone out of the group to eventually become king, I would have chosen V. On account of being the only one to openly give the semblance of a care about the Tower's primary inhabitants and all." Which is. Not. This ringing endorsement of "wow, V is such a role model and the bestest and strongest member of the group" certain corners (*cough* Zahard haters *cough*) have turned it into.

I also think there's a conversation to be had about how recent chapters reveal the more negative aspects to the whole "V and Zahard were total opposites" statement that's so far mostly been used to hype V for everything Zahard was not. V gets thoughtlessly involved in others disputes with a "let's just get along" and no concrete plan for an approach beyond that, he follows his own curiosity while the rest of his teammates were engaged in a legiitmately dangerous battle, he goes to the numerous times described as shady and unsettling Master of the Workshop for a short - term item based solution rather than hashing things out more interpersonally and then offloads the responsibility for, well, responsibly and justly using those items on someone else as well.

Whereas we can already see with his various statements about what it means to be a king and changing fate that Zahard tends to take all of these massive responsibilities entirely onto his own cap, arguably to the detriment of his own well - being, him and Gustang were the ones down in the trenches actually trying to help out the other guys caught up in the test (and I've talked at length about how even if he didn't care for them on a personal level, Zahard had a wholeass shonen protag dream about making life in the Tower better for everyone), he can be presumed to have been the one settling the disputes among the group before Gustang got his magic items, he's the one who formulated a maybe overly optimistic but certainly long - term dream of changing the Tower, thouroughly realized in its construction of a durable and intricate Regular, administrative and military system, regardless of how high or low your opinion on its moral conduct (if Zahard disappeared, that would be business as usual for the Empire of the last few thousand years. F.U.G....Well).

[empressofdiamonds]

Desiring love from someone that [negative emotion] you, aka HOW TO NOT BE A MOPEY P*CKME

You want to be loved. But it shouldn't go at the sacrifice of dignity. Your dignity.

3 chapters: Lack of Interest, What To Do, How to Avoid Next Time

Signs of lack of interest (aka "he's not that into you")

Doesn't asks questions to you, even well into the relationship.

Lacks observance of you. Isn't proactive. He won't try to ancitipate difficulties and try to make your life easier.

You feel your life is now a bit harder than it used to be.

Doesn't do services, care. You don't feel pampered.

You tend to lead the conversations. (it should be the opposite)

You try to fill in the awkward uncomfortable silences.

You try to "win back" the initial sparkling feeling you had at the beginning, in any ways. You go out of the way to win that back (unbalanced efforts, you put in way more effort, much more than you would normally do).

You tend to become self-conscious ("What if it's my looks/weight/teeth/manners/what if I'm boring?"), assuming it's your doing. Don't worry I'm sure you're fine as you are bestie <3

You don't meet his friends, his family.

And if you do, he doesn't hypes you up facing them (p.ex."Here is my beautiful girlfriend Moira").

RED FLAG: His friends/family aren't that interested in knowing you (Sign you're "yet another girl").

He doesn't listens to your needs or desires. If you say you don't like gold jewelry, and he buys you gold.... Or if you say you don't like mushrooms at all and he brings a huge mushroom bechamel pizza home.... Run.

You feel he answers more to his own desires than yours.

You feel alone in the relationship.

You aren't sure he will have your back in extreme situations. (If you do, GIRLIE WAKE UP)

You feel some shame at the thought of showing him to your family or friends.

He doesn't do the "good morning/good night" texts. And if he does, you don't feel giggly.

After encounters with him you don't feel energized or happy, but rather depressive, down, sad, guilty, regretful, etc.

You find yourself engaging in abnormal behavior patterns. Stress induced behavior, your behavior towards other other than him changes.

You tend to neglect your own personal life, because you want to loop him back into "what it once was".

You find yourself disappointed in the relationship, expecting a GREAT thing, but find yourself with.... this. You feel disappointed.

What to do!? I find myself checking off a few things in the list above!?

You STEP BACK. Retract yourself from this dynamic. Wellness day, but from this relationship.

Take a few deep breaths. When was the last time you FULLY focused on YOU and just YOU? if it has been more than a few weeks, it's an emergency girlie.

What did you leave behind? Did you neglect duties, hobbies, personal projects? It is time to clean up your schedule and focus on YOU. Go, girlie. You need to be an individual, not his Siamese twin.

Make a thorough pros-cons to your relationship with him. Be honest and don't put in "fake pros". It's for you and you, and if you don't write it all, you're lying to yourself... Clown stuff you know. Include emotional, material, financial, social aspects of it all. Everything. If you checked off a few things, odds are incredibly high you might have way more cons than pros. Be HONEST towards yourself.

Then, if you went through all those steps, I'm sure you deduced what to do now. (If you haven't... read more of my posts) You only deserve net additions to your life. You better off single. Yeah.

Okay so.... what must I do to avoid them NEXT TIME?

Trust yourself: If you feel some negative emotion regarding a relationship you're in... LISTEN to this! You have HAVE to listen to this inner queen screaming you the answers. You need a life worth living, a life in which you're happy and comfortable in.

RUN when the inner queen screams to RUN. "Politeness" or "societal standards" go in the compost bin. If you're feeling uncomfortable, get UP. Simple.

Surround yourself with queen besties and only tolerate queen behavior. Pickmes can encourage one to ignore the gut instinct. They can tell you "oh he's actually fantastic", and the guy's breathing dust and mites. They create UNNECESSARY inner conflict. You need inner PEACE AND QUIET, aka, you know what is correct, what's not, you got it all streamlined up. Decisions should never be complicated. If you need one thick 40 lines paragraph at font size 11, or a 5 minutes monologue to explain yourself in your rationale, it's too much.

PRIORITIZE YOURSELF above everything. A great partner will be SO glad you're doing that because he won't have a decomposing mess in his hands at some point. Don't worry, he should be able to handle his own stuff. And this will naturally repulse those that want you all for themselves, those types that run women to the ground.

If you find yourself a great guy... STEPPING BACK and REEVALUATING regularly will be so useful, you throw a fresh, more objective eye to things. Reevaluation is KEY.

[dailyanarchistposts]

E.5 Can ethical consumerism stop the ecological crisis?

No. At best, it can have a limited impact in reducing environmental degradation and so postpone the ecological crisis. At worse, it could accelerate that crisis by creating new markets and thus increasing growth.

Before discussing why and just so there is no misunderstanding, we must stress that anarchists fully recognise that using recycled or renewable raw materials, reducing consumption and buying “ecologically friendly” products and technologies are very important. As such, we would be the last to denounce such a thing. But such measures are of very limited use as solutions to the ecological problems we face. At best they can only delay, not prevent, capitalism’s ultimate destruction of the planet’s ecological base.

Green consumerism is often the only thing capitalism has to offer in the face of mounting ecological destruction. Usually it boils down to nothing more than slick advertising campaigns by big corporate polluters to hype band-aid measures such as using a few recycled materials or contributing money to a wildlife fund, which are showcased as “concern for the environment” while off camera the pollution and devouring of non-renewable resources goes on. They also engage in “greenwashing”, in which companies lavishly fund PR campaigns to paint themselves “green” without altering their current polluting practices!

This means that apparently “green” companies and products actually are not. Many firms hire expensive Public Relations firms and produce advertisements to paint a false image of themselves as being ecologically friendly (i.e. perform “greenwashing”). This indicates a weakness of market economies — they hinder (even distort) the flow of information required for consumers to make informed decisions. The market does not provide enough information for consumers to determine whether a product is actually green or not — it just gives them a price supplemented by (often deliberately misleading) advertising designed to manipulate the consumer and present an appropriate corporate image. Consumers have to rely on other sources, many of which are minority journals and organisations and so difficult to find, to provide them with the accurate information required to countermand the power and persuasion of advertising and the work of PR experts. This helps explain why, for example, “large agribusiness firms are now attempting, like Soviet commissars, to stifle criticism of their policies” by means of “veggie libel laws.” These laws, which in 2001 had been passed in 13 American states (“backed by agribusiness”) “make it illegal to criticise agricultural commodities in a manner inconsistent with ‘reasonable’ scientific evidence. The whole concept of ‘veggie libel’ laws is probably unconstitutional; nevertheless, these laws remain on the books.” [Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation, p. 266]

We should not discount the impact of PR experts in shaping the way people see the world or decide to consume. A lot of resources are poured into corporate Public Relations in order to present a green image. “In the perverse world of corporate public relations,” note critics John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, “propagandising and lobbying against environmental protection is called ‘environmental’ or ‘green’ PR. ‘Greenwashing’ is a more accurate pejorative now commonly used to describe the ways that polluters employ deceptive PR to falsely paint themselves an environmentally responsible public image … Today a virulent, pro-industry, anti-environmentalism is on the rise … PR experts … are waging and winning a war against environmentalists on behalf of corporate clients in the chemical, energy, food, automobile, forestry and mining industries.” A significant amount of cash is spent (an estimated $1 billion a year by the mid-1990s) “on the services of anti-environmental PR professionals and on ‘greenwashing’ their corporate image.” [Toxic Sludge is Good for You!, p. 125] See the chapter called “Silencing Spring” in Stauber’s and Rampton’s book Toxic Sludge is Good for You! for a good summary of this use of PR firms.

Even apparently ecologically friendly firms like “The Body Shop” can present a false image of what they do. For example, journalist Jon Entine investigated that company in 1994 and discovered that only a minuscule fraction of its ingredients came from Trade Not Aid (a program claimed to aid developing countries). Entine also discovered that the company also used many outdated, off-the-shelf product formulas filled with non-renewable petrochemicals as well as animal tested ingredients. When Entine contacted the company he received libel threats and it hired a PR company to combat his story. [Stauber and Rampton, Op. Cit., pp. 74–5] This highlights the dangers of looking to consumerism to solve ecological problems. As Entine argued:

“The Body Shop is a corporation with the privileges and power in society as all others. Like other corporations it makes products that are unsustainable, encourages consumerism, uses non-renewable materials, hires giant PR and law firms, and exaggerates its environment policies. If we are to become a sustainable society, it is crucial that we have institutions … that are truly sustainable. The Body Shop has deceived the public by trying to make us think that they are a lot further down the road to sustainability than they really are. We should … no longer … lionise the Body Shop and others who claim to be something they are not.” [quoted by Stauber and Rampton, Op. Cit., p. 76]

Even ignoring the distorting influence of advertising and corporate-paid PR, the fundamental issue remains of whether consumerism can actually fundamentally influence how business works. One environmental journalist puts the arguments well in his excellent book on “Fast Food” (from the industrialisation of farming, to the monopolisation of food processing, to the standardisation of food consumption it). As he puts corporations will “sell free-range, organic, grass-fed hamburgers if you demand it. They will sell whatever sells at a profit.” [Eric Schlosser, Op. Cit., p. 269] He complements this position by suggesting various regulations and some role for trade unions.

Which, of course, is true. It is equally true that we are not forced to buy any specific product, which is why companies spend so much in convincing us to buy their products. Yet even ignoring the influence of advertising, it is unlikely that using the market will make capitalism nicer. Sadly, the market rewards the anti-social activities that Schlosser and other environmentalists chronicle. As he himself notes, the “low price of a fast food hamburger does not reflect its real cost … The profits of the fast food chains have been made possible by the losses imposed on the rest of society.” [Op. Cit., p. 261] This means that the idea that by using the market we can “reform” capitalism is flawed simply because even “good” companies have to make a profit and so will be tempted to cut costs, inflict them on third parties (such as workers, consumers and the planet). The most obvious form of such externalities is pollution. Such anti-social and anti-ecological behaviour makes perfect business sense as prices fall when costs are passed on to others in the form of externalities. Thus firms which employ debt-slaves in sweatshops while polluting the atmosphere in a third-world dictatorship will have lower costs and so prices than those employing unionised workers under eco-friendly regulations.

The amazing thing is that being concerned about such issues is considered as a flaw in economics. In fact, seeking the lowest price and ignoring the social and ecological impact of a product is “considered virtuousness” by the market and by economists for, as green economist E. F. Schumacher, pointed out ”[i]f a buyer refused a good bargain because he suspected that the cheapness of the goods in question stemmed from exploitation or other despicable practices (except theft), he would be open to criticism of behaving ‘uneconomically’ which is viewed as nothing less than a fall from grace. Economists and others are wont to treat such eccentric behaviour with derision if not indignation. The religion of economics has its own code of ethics, and the First Commandment is to behave ‘economically.’” [Small is Beautiful, p. 30] And, of course, such a consumer would face numerous competitors who will happily take advantage of such activities.

Then there is the issue of how the market system hides much more information than it gives (a factor we will return to in section I.1.2). Under the price system, customers have no way of knowing the ecological (or social) impact of the products they buy. All they have is a price and that simply does not indicate how the product was produced and what costs were internalised in the final price and which were externalised. Such information, unsurprisingly, is usually supplied outside the market by ecological activists, unions, customer groups and so on. Then there is the misinformation provided by the companies themselves in their adverts and PR campaigns. The skilfully created media images of advertising can easily swamp the efforts of these voluntary groups to inform the public of the facts of the social and environmental costs of certain products. Besides, any company has the threat of court action to silence their critics as the cost in money, resources, energy and time to fight for free speech in court is an effective means to keep the public ignorant about the dark side of capitalism.

This works the other way too. Simply put, a company has no idea whether you not buying a product is based on ethical consumption decisions or whether it is due to simple dislike of the product. Unless there is an organised consumer boycott, i.e. a collective campaign, then the company really has no idea that it is being penalised for its anti-ecological and/or anti-social actions. Equally, corporations are so interlinked that it can make boycotts ineffective. For example, unless you happened to read the business section on the day McDonalds bought a sizeable share in Pret-a-Manger you would have no idea that going there instead of McDonalds would be swelling the formers profits.

Ultimately, the price mechanism does not provide enough information for the customer to make an informed decision about the impact of their purchase and, by reducing prices, actively rewards the behaviour Schlosser condemns. After all, what is now “organic” production was just the normal means of doing it. The pressures of the market, the price mechanism so often suggested as a tool for change, ensured the industrialisation of farming which so many now rightly condemn. By reducing costs, market demand increased for the cheaper products and these drove the other, more ecologically and socially sound, practices out of business.

Which feeds into the issue of effective demand and income limitations. The most obvious problem is that the market is not a consumer democracy as some people have more votes than others (in fact, the world’s richest people have more “votes” than the poorest billions, combined!). Those with the most “votes” (i.e. money) will hardly be interested in changing the economic system which placed them in that position. Similarly, those with the least “votes” will be more willing to buy ecologically destructive products simply to make ends meet rather than any real desire to do so. In addition, one individual’s decision not to buy something will easily be swamped by others seeking the best deal, i.e. the lowest prices, due to economic necessity or ignorance. Money (quantity) counts in the market, not values (quality).

Then there is the matter of sourcing of secondary products. After all, most products we consume are made up of a multitude of other goods and it is difficult, if not impossible, to know where these component parts come from. Thus we have no real way of knowing whether your latest computer has parts produced in sweatshops in third-world countries nor would a decision not to buy it be communicated that far back down the market chain (in fact, the company would not even know that you were even thinking about buying a product unless you used non-market means to inform them and then they may simply dismiss an individual as a crank).

So the notion that consumerism can be turned to pressurising companies is deeply flawed. This is not to suggest that we become unconcerned about how we spend our money. Far from it. Buying greener products rather than the standard one does have an impact. It just means being aware of the limitations of green consumerism, particularly as a means of changing the world. Rather, we must look to changing how goods are produced. This applies, of course, to shareholder democracy as well. Buying shares in a firm rarely results in an majority at the annual meetings nor, even if it did, does it allow an effective say in the day-to-day decisions management makes.

Thus green consumerism is hindered by the nature of the market — how the market reduces everything to price and so hides the information required to make truly informed decisions on what to consume. Moreover, it is capable of being used to further ecological damage by the use of PR to paint a false picture of the companies and their environmental activities. In this way, the general public think things are improving while the underlying problems remain (and, perhaps, get worse). Even assuming companies are honest and do minimise their environmental damage they cannot face the fundamental cause of the ecological crisis in the “grow-or-die” principle of capitalism (“green” firms need to make profits, accumulate capital and grow bigger), nor do they address the pernicious role of advertising or the lack of public control over production and investment under capitalism. Hence it is a totally inadequate solution.

As green Sharon Beder notes, green marketing aims at “increasing consumption, not reducing it. Many firms [seek] to capitalise on new markets created by rising environmental consciousness” with such trends prompting “a surge of advertisements and labels claiming environmental benefits. Green imagery was used to sell products, and caring for the environment became a marketing strategy” and was a “way of redirecting a willingness to spend less into a willingness to buy green products.” This means that firms can “expand their market share to include consumers that want green products. Since manufacturers still make environmentally damaging products and retailers still sell non-green products on shelves next to green ones, it is evident that green marketing is merely a way of expanding sales. If they were genuinely concerned to protect the environment they would replace the unsound products with sound ones, not just augment their existing lines.” Moreover, green marketing “does not necessarily mean green products, but false and misleading claims can be hard for consumers to detect” while the “most cynical marketers simply use environmental imagery to conjure up the impression that a product is good for the environment without making any real claims at all.” Ultimately, green consumerism “reduces people to consumers. Their power to influence society is reduced to their purchasing power.” It “does not deal with issues such as economic growth on a finite planet, the power of transnational corporations, and the way power is structured in our society.” [Global Spin, pp. 176–80]

Andrew Watson sums up green consumerism very eloquently as follows:

“green consumerism, which is largely a cynical attempt to maintain profit margins, does not challenge capital’s eco-cidal accumulation, but actually facilitates it by opening a new market. All products, no matter how ‘green’, cause some pollution, use some resources and energy, and cause some ecological disturbance. This would not matter in a society in which production was rationally planned, but in an exponentially expanding economy, production, however ‘green’, would eventually destroy the Earth’s environment. Ozone-friendly aerosols, for example, still use other harmful chemicals; create pollution in their manufacture, use and disposal; and use large amounts of resources and energy. Of course, up to now, the green pretensions of most companies have been exposed largely as presenting an acceptably green image, with little or no substance. The market is presented as the saviour of the environment. Environmental concern is commodified and transformed into ideological support for capitalism. Instead of raising awareness of the causes of the ecological crisis, green consumerism mystifies them. The solution is presented as an individual act rather than as the collective action of individuals struggling for social change. The corporations laugh all the way to the bank.” [From Green to Red, pp. 9–10]

“Ethical” consumerism, like “ethical” investment, is still based on profit making, the extraction of surplus value from others. This is hardly “ethical,” as it cannot challenge the inequality in exchange and power that lies at the heart of capitalism nor the authoritarian social relationships it creates. Therefore it cannot really undermine the ecologically destructive nature of capitalism.

In addition, since capitalism is a world system, companies can produce and sell their non-green and dangerous goods elsewhere. Many of the products and practices banned or boycotted in developed countries are sold and used in developing ones. For example, Agent Orange (used as to defoliate forests during the Vietnam War by the US) is used as an herbicide in the Third World, as is DDT. Agent Orange contains one of the most toxic compounds known to humanity and was responsible for thousands of deformed children in Vietnam. Ciba-Geigy continued to sell Enterovioform (a drug which caused blindness and paralysis in at least 10,000 Japanese users of it) in those countries that permitted it to do so. Many companies have moved to developing countries to escape the stricter pollution and labour laws in the developed countries.

Neither does green consumerism question why it should be the ruling elites within capitalism that decide what to produce and how to produce it. Since these elites are driven by profit considerations, if it is profitable to pollute, pollution will occur. Moreover, green consumerism does not challenge the (essential) capitalist principle of consumption for the sake of consumption, nor can it come to terms with the fact that “demand” is created, to a large degree, by “suppliers,” specifically by advertising agencies that use a host of techniques to manipulate public tastes, as well as using their financial clout to ensure that “negative” (i.e. truthful) stories about companies’ environmental records do not surface in the mainstream media.

Because ethical consumerism is based wholly on market solutions to the ecological crisis, it is incapable even of recognising a key root cause of that crisis, namely the atomising nature of capitalism and the social relationships it creates. Atomised individuals (“soloists”) cannot change the world, and “voting” on the market hardly reduces their atomisation. As Murray Bookchin argues, ”[t]ragically, these millions [of “soloists”] have surrendered their social power, indeed, their very personalities, to politicians and bureaucrats who live in a nexus of obedience and command in which they are normally expected to play subordinate roles. Yet this is precisely the immediate cause of the ecological crisis of our time — a cause that has its historic roots in the market society that engulfs us.” [Toward an Ecological Society, p. 81] This means that fighting ecological destruction today must be a social movement rather than one of individual consumption decisions or personalistic transformation. These can go on without questioning the ecocidal drive of capitalism which “will insidiously simplify the biosphere (making due allowances for ‘wilderness’ reserves and theme parks), steadily reduce the organic to the inorganic and the complex to the simple, and convert soil into sand — all at the expense of the biosphere’s integrity and viability. The state will still be an ever-present means for keeping oppressed people at bay and will ‘manage’ whatever crises emerge as best it can. Ultimately, society will tend to become more and more authoritarian, public life will atrophy.” [Bookchin, “The Future of the Ecology Movement,” pp. 1–20, Which Way for the Ecology Movement?, p. 14]

All this is not to suggest that individual decisions on what to consume are irrelevant, far from it. Nor are consumer boycotts a waste of time. If organised into mass movements and linked to workplace struggle they can be very effective. It is simply to point out that individual actions, important as they are, are no solution to social problems. Thus Bookchin:

“The fact is that we are confronted by a thoroughly irrational social system, not simply by predatory individuals who can be won over to ecological ideas by moral arguments, psychotherapy, or even the challenges of a troubled public to their products and behaviour … One can only commend the individuals who by virtue of their consumption habits, recycling activities. and appeals for a new sensibility undertake public activities to stop ecological degradation. Each surely does his or her part. But it will require a much greater effort — and organised, clearly conscious, and forward-looking political movement — to meet the basic challenges posed by our aggressively anti-ecological society. “Yes, we as individuals should change our lifestyles as much as possible, but it is the utmost short-sightedness to believe that that is all or even primarily what we have to do. We need to restructure the entire society, even as we engage in lifestyle changes and single-issue struggles against pollution, nuclear power plants, the excessive use of fossil fuels, the destruction of soil, and so forth. We must have a coherent analysis of the deep-seated hierarchical relationships and systems of domination, as well as class relationships and economic exploitation, that degrade people as well as the environment.” [“The Ecological Crisis, Socialism, and the need to remake society,” pp. 1–10, Society and Nature, vol. 2, no. 3, p. 4]

Using the capitalist market to combat the effects produced by that same market is no alternative. Until capitalism and the state are dismantled, solutions like ethical consumerism will be about as effective as fighting a forest fire with a water pistol. Such solutions are doomed to failure because they promote individual responses to social problems, problems that by their very nature require collective action, and deal only with the symptoms, rather than focusing on the cause of the problem in the first place. Real change comes from collective struggle, not individual decisions within the market place which cannot combat the cancerous growth principle of the capitalist economy. As such, ethical consumerism does not break from the logic of capitalism and so is doomed to failure.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

The event was so weird.

I guess we were expecting something akin to Glorious Masquerade with a more extensive story, more meaningful character interactions and more impactful situations. From the way they framed it, that’s kinda what it looked like?

I wasn’t expecting it to be like GM at all, but like you said, it just feels like it was supposed to be much bigger than it actually was but they had to reduce/take out a lot of stuff from the event for unknown reasons. Like we’ve been hearing about Falena all this time and when we get an event that is centered around Leona and his homeland we don’t even get to meet him? We get a random Zazu-inspired character instead? We get crumbs of family drama and it’s not even the brothers directly interacting? They imply the fight is gonna be this huge thing, we’ll see the importance and strength of the lioness beastwomen with them implying Cheka’s guards are gonna fight?? And then???

And then Catch the Tail wasn’t even…. A cathartic moment. No hype. Nothing exciting or meaningful. This event was basically tourism. As interesting it as it is to hear about Sunset Savanna’s culture and culinary, I feel like the entire event was just that and it got a bit boring for me. Not even many fun interactions between characters, most of the time they are talking about souvenirs and food – we got that in Jamil and Kalim’s event and it wasn’t even boring then. We also got that in Glorious Masquerade but there was so much more to it than that.

Honestly this event was a let down :/ at least we got to see Leona look in his card. Maybe they couldn’t do both this event and the chapter 7 part 2 release, who knows.

[Referencing this post!]

While I’m disappointed with how little the Sunset Savanna event did, I’m not too surprised because I understand that this is ultimately the same as other hometown events. The bulk of the story will inevitably be dedicated to learning about this new location and its traditions, tasting local delicacies, and souvenir shopping. This was also somewhat true of Glorious Masquerade, but that was on an entirely different scale (basically the same as the Halloween events) so it was allowed to have a grander story and bigger stakes.

I would say the degree of “fun” to the interactions is a really subjective thing? Some people won’t like certain character combinations over others. For example, this event was a lot of bickering due to Leona not getting along with like… anyone, whether that’s his classmates or those from his homeland. (I actually really liked those interactions 😂 but I get why someone would think they’re annoying or even repetitive after a while.)

I feel like the Scalding Sands event was only “fun” to me in that it was novel (it was the first of the hometown events). I was pretty bored with it outside of seeing the food and Najma; it was a lot of Jamil being saddled with more work which… just made me feel bad for him, not entertained (especially knowing his history with being overworked). The character interactions from that particular event weren’t for me, and it didn’t help that nothing of much significance happened?? The only notable conflicts were that Malleus vanished for five seconds and a monkey stole a flash drive, both of which were resolved in like a few chapters altogether. At least Scalding Sands didn’t make any big promises that it failed to deliver on?? Which is sort of the opposite of the Sunset Savanna event…

I think if TWST wanted to make this event bigger than it actually was, they should have saved it for a special occasion. The last part of it was so short (like 4 parts???? And only one part was for Leona showing up and winning) ;u; so it seemed like there was definitely more space in even the current version to expand on the ideas. Again, it really feels incomplete or like… not fully realized due to all the missed opportunities and unfulfilled hype surrounding the tournament (which feels weird given that the event was apparently in the works for 2 years??).

It is what it is though, we’ll have to accept it and move on. There’s still the Groovies to come on the 27th, along with the next part of episode 7 and Lilia’s Dorm Uniform card!

[bearsinpotatosacks]

Something that Does Right by You - Chapter 3

Prev chapter

Next Chapter

Goose gets officially introduced to the Aviators, and the daggersquad have a debate about Carole.

Words: 2673

“Attention on deck!” 

Goose heard someone call. Cyclone was to his left, as he and Warlock walked into the hangar and met eyes. They were the same rank. He’d wondered why he’d even been sent here and not carted back to wherever to train fresh faced aviators like he had been before the Darkstar mission. That answer came from Maverick’s guardian angel, Iceman. He’d gotten rank on him just like everyone expected him too, and being the Commander of the entire Pacific Fleet, if he wanted Goose with Maverick to oversee this mission, Goose was going to oversee this mission. It was also to keep Cyclone from fully combusting, Goose and Hondo were two of the only people who could successfully wrangle Maverick at times. And Cyclone didn’t seen to like Mav very much, anyway. 

Before he stepped out to talk to them, he took a look at the aviators. They all had a cocky look on their faces. They’d been chosen for a special mission, they were the most skilled of their generation of pilots and had been the sole choice to train for this detachment. It was like watching his younger self at Top Gun. All of them thought they were the shit, it made him a little sick. You needed that confidence to be a pilot, but you also couldn’t be too infallible as to not see your own shortcomings. If you were so big headed, you’d make big mistakes and get your team killed. 

Once all the aviators were standing at attention, he and Warlock stepped out to greet them. 

“Morning,” Goose said, he’d somewhat mastered the art of being the tough faced Admiral. 

“Morning,” Warlock said after him. 

He didn’t know a lot about the guy. He’d heard of him though, apparently he and Merlin used to play Dungeons and Dragons together, they’d been pilot and RIO after Cougar left. Maybe they’d also wanted two perspectives from their Rear Admirals. One of a pilot, that being Warlock, and one of a RIO, that being Goose. 

“Welcome to your special training detachment, be seated.” Warlock said. He waited until they’d all settled again to continue. “I’m Admiral Bates, Nautic Commander, this is Admiral Bradshaw.”

Goose nodded at them. “You’re all Top Gun graduates, all the best in your fields and trained for precision.”

“That was yesterday,” their faces dropped at Warlock spoke. “The enemy’s new fifth generation fighter has levelled the playing field, details are few but you can be sure that we no longer possess the technological advantage.”

“Succeededing, in this mission especially, will come down to you, your performance and who is in the box on the day. Half of you will make the cut, the other half will stay in reverse and only one of you will be named mission leader.”

One aviator, Hangman he thought, turned around and grinned at someone behind him. Rooster. There was that history he mentioned. He cleared his throat and he turned back around, that snark still on his face. 

Warlock spoke again.“Your instructor is a Top Gun graduate, with experience in every aspect of this mission, aspects you will all be expected to master.

“His exploits are legendary, he’s considered one of the best pilots this program’s ever produced, if not one of the best in the fleet.” Goose winked at Mav as he walked down the row of pilots. He tried not to hype Maverick up too much as his friend. He let himself a little bit, but he still had to do his job properly. “What he has to teach you may mean the difference between life and death, between going home to your families or having an empty grave.”

His last touch was something he thought they needed to hear. Sure, they were the best, but he doubted it was just them in their lives. They had parents, siblings, maybe spouses and children at home waiting. No one was an island. 

“I give you Captain Pete Mitchell, callsign Maverick.”

Maverick nodded at him with a smirk as he walked and let him give him speech. He held up the F-18 NATOPS and greeted the group.

“The F-18 NATOPS, contains everything they want you to know about your aircraft, I assume you know the book, inside and out?”

Various voices agreed with him. It was a simple question, like something beneath them. So cocky.

He threw the NATOPS in the bin next to him. Goose gulped. Cyclone closed his eyes, probably praying for patience or damming Mav to hell.

“So does your enemy.” He lent forward. “But what they don’t know is your limits, I intend to find them, push beyond.”

Nodding at Goose didn’t make him feel any better about how the situation was going. “Today, we'll start with what you only think you know.”

This was going to be an interesting day.

One thing Goose was known for among the Brass was getting to know his Aviators well. Whether it was thoroughly reading their files, or trying to keep a friendly-ish head on his shoulders amongst his commands, he was known to be a goofy guy. This was why he was approaching Rooster after they'd had their brief on the Hop, because he had to compliment him on his piano playing ability.

“Lieutenant Commander?” He called after him. 

The kid, well not really a kid, he was in his mid thirties for sure but that was certainly younger than him, turned and stood at attention. 

“At ease, Lieutenant.” He said. “I just wanted to compliment you on your skill with the piano.”

He blushed bright red, “Excuse me, sir?”

“I saw you playing the piano last night and you seemed very proficient.”

“Thank you?” He could tell this wasn’t what he was expecting him to say. “I'm sorry you saw me in such an unprofessional situation, sir.”

“It's nothing I wasn’t doing just that at your age,” he said. “I mean, my grandfather taught me, so if there's someone out there, your grandfather or your dad, they certainly knew their stuff.”

Rooster shrugged. “You won't be able to thank him for it, he didn’t teach me, I don't even know who he is, sir, so I taught myself.”

Goose felt a little ashamed of being so interested. This wasn’t what he should be doing. Yet, there was something about the kid, maybe it was how similar they looked or acted that struck a chord with him. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it. 

“Sorry to hear that Lieutenant,” he settled on. “Now, back to work.”

Rooster felt a trickle of water roll down his neck as he walked from the shower to the locker rooms. He could tell by the grout inbetween the tiles and the smell that this place hadn’t been updated since the seventies. That was the Navy all over. They’d update their offices and hangers as much as they liked but when it came to anything that made their aviators or sailors quality of life better, the money suddenly ran out. They didn’t seem to care about water pressure in the slightest, or consistently hot water. 

He got back into his uniform and collected his phone from his locker. It was the same one he’d claimed when he’d got here the first time. It even had his name on it, how sweet. There was a picture of him, his mum and Charlie from the time they visited the UK together stuck on the inside, she looked thin, still recovering from the brain tumour that had cropped up a little while back. 

To say he’d been terrified was an understatement. Last time she’d barely gotten out alive, hospitals still freaked him the fuck out whenever he had to go, which was as fewer times as he could conceivably get away with, and seeing her go through hell again made him want to punch something. The Navy hadn’t given him anywhere near enough time off to be with her. That’s why he was glad that she had Charlie with her too, and all those friends she’d made, she made them everywhere she went so he knew that she’d be okay. It was just that it had always been them, that as soon as he grew taller than her, which hadn’t take that long, he’d made it his responsibility to take care of her, made himself the man of the house. 

A rogue towel thrown at his head broke him from his daze. It was Payback. 

“We’re having a cookout on the beach, wanna join?” He asked, buttoning up his shirt. 

He shrugged. There wasn’t much planned with his evening. Now they were done for the day, and with the egos all suitably deflated, he had a good few hours to enjoy the California rays while they still lasted. 

“Cool, we’ve gotta call past the store and get some things first but give us an hour and meet us near the Hard Deck.”

As they left the lockers, he raised an eyebrow. “Penny trusts us with fire?”

“Why would she not? We’re in the Navy.” Fanboy somehow was at his side despite not being there before. 

“Exactly.” He said. “Do you not know how Phoenix got her callsign?”

“What about my callsign?”

He jumped as Phoenix smacked a hand on his shoulder. She must have gotten a few pointers from that new RIO of her’s. 

“Wow, I really made you jump,” she said with a sly smile. “And you’re a fighter pilot?”

“Do I need to mention our stint on the USS Harry S Truman in 2013?”

She squinted at him. “You know we don’t speak of that time.”

He rolled his eyes as they moved toward the entrance to the base and his bright blue bronco. His phone wrang in his pocket and by the picture on the screen, it was time for his mother’s daily update on his status. Sometimes he thought it was overkill, then he’d think of how close to death she’d come when she’d been sick and knew he shouldn’t take her overbearing considerate nature for granted. 

“Mom, hey.”

“See, I didn’t call when you were busy this time!”

He thought back to all the times when he’d been either rudely awakened by her in the middle of the night, with her forgetting the time difference, or when he’d go back to his phone and see five missed calls from her. She was sweet but even Charlie knew that she could get a bit too worried if he didn’t pick up straight away. 

“No, you didn’t.”

“Unless I’ve caught you when you’re off to destress,” she said it with a tone of voice that she meant something more dirty. 

“I mean, we are gonna have a cookout tonight.”

He heard her clap over the phone and pulled it away from his ear. “You should make my potato salad recipe.”

“I don’t think there’s time for that mom.”

“It doesn’t take that long, just boil the potatoes, let them cool then add mayo and-”

He sighed. “It’s not that kind of a cookout mom.”

“You are a fighter pilot, sweetie, you cannot survive on a diet of beer and hot dogs, you need to look after yourself.”

Phoenix mouthed her words back to him with a snear. He just gave her his middle finger and turned his back. 

“I will, Mom, I promise.”

“You’re always talking about how bad Navy food is-”

“I know-”

“So you can’t blame me if I want my baby boy to eat well now he’s on dry land and has a chance to eat better-”

“Mom, listen, if I promise to bring a salad, will it give you peace of mind?”

She paused for a moment, then said. “Fine, but when you’re home you’re living off my cooking, young man, alright?”

“Yes, now Mom, I have to go.”

“Already? I haven’t even asked you about your day yet.”

He looked at the tarmac. “You know it’s all classified, Momma.”

He didn’t tend to call her that around other aviators. Any embarrassing information about you and they were like vultures ripping you to shreds. But he missed her and really wanted to tell her about this amazing new opportunity for his career, but just couldn’t. And he hated it. 

“Fine, I’ll just get Charlie to do some snooping for me.”

“Mom-”

“She has security clearance you know, sweetie, she can let it slip by accident if needs be.”

He laughed. “You know that’s not how that works, right?”

“It could be?” She left a gap then said with less of a laugh. “Alright then, I’ll let you get back to your life, I love you.”

“Love you, Momma. Say hi to Charlie for me.”

“Will do.”

The line went dead and he turned to face snickering from Phoenix and Hangman. His stomach dropped. It was very rare for them to be in agreement about something. He knew exactly what it was. 

“How’s the MILF, I mean, Mom, Rooster?”

“She’s fine.” He deadpanned. “And don’t call my mom a MILF.”

“Can’t deny the truth.”

“It’s not true.”

Hangman placed a hand on his chest. “You’d insult your own mother like that?”

“It’s not an insult if I’m saying I don’t think my mom is fuckable, she’s my mom, right Phoenix?”

Phoenix did not reply. 

“Oh, come on, not you too?”

“You know my type, Roo.”

He put his hand on his hip. “And my mom is your type?”

“She’s a MILF Bradley, a mom I’d like to fuck, and I wouldn’t mind, given the opportunity?”

He huffed and carried on walking to his car. “What opportunity? She’s getting married.”

“A shame.” Hangman said, following him. 

“For you, not me.”

They stopped. Hangman’s familiar grin shone in the sun. He could see it reflected in Phoenix’s aviators. 

“And why’s that?”

“Charlie’s a lesbian, so why you may not a chance, I, as a woman, do.”

Rooster couldn’t help but drop his head into his hands. “No one is going to fuck my moms, okay?” He then looked up to see Payback and Fanboy seeming very confused. “Please back me up here.”

“Can’t do that without seeing them.”

“You can, you can definitely back me up because they’re talking about fucking my mom and her fiancee.”

Phoenix had already whipped out her phone and gotten his mum’s instagram up. A picture of her and Charlie was at the top. It was of them at one of the wedding venues they were looking at, a rather picturesque old church in Baltimore. 

“Oh, no, man I’m with them.” Payback said. 

“No!”

“It’s not our fault your mothers are very attractive,” Fanboy added. 

In the chaos, none of them noticed Admiral Bradshaw approaching from the other end of the parking lot. As soon as they spotted him they broke out of it and stood to look a lot more professional. 

“Who’s mother’s are attractive?” He said. 

“Rooster’s, sir.” Hangman told him, of fucking course he would. 

He didn’t reply, which wasn’t good, but the fact that they weren’t being reprimanded was a good sign too. “If this is going to cause such disparity on base then I think I, as an Admiral, should have the final say.”

This was not fucking happening. Where had this Admiral come from? How had he even made it to Admiral if this was the shit he pulled? 

Hangman got his phone out and found a picture of Carole. He was loving this, Bradley could tell. 

After a moment of stroking his moustache, and scanning it like it was a wanted poster, he stood back and said. “She is, as much as a married man can say, attractive. Although she looks quite familiar, so maybe she just has one of those faces.”

No. Fucking. Way. 

“Now, back to work.” He said and carried on to his car. 

Hangman turned to him, his grin wider than the cheshire cat’s. “So it’s official, your mom’s a MILF, even Admiral Bradshaw agrees.”

This day could not get any weirder. 

Thanks for being patient with this chapter, things are taking me longer to write because I keep waiting for motivation that doesn't come but I saw a tiktok about "dedication over motivation" or something like that and it did help me. If I can consistently write then it will become easier, also I can always edit stuff but like the famous phrase goes "you can't edit a blank page".

Anyway, I never thought that a debate over Carole being a MILF would be integral to the plot but here we are. There was originally a bit more to this but that's going in the next chapter.

[groovemaster10000]

I finished tallstar's revenge last night and I gotta say that definitely lived up to the hype. I kinda dropped out of the series in 2010 and only really picked it up again in 2020 and that was one of the ones I'd been looking forward to reading the most ever since getting back into warriors. That was a really good outsider in the clan story, and very different from other outsiders in the clan stories we've had, so I loved that about it. Tallstar and Jake are absolutely precious. I completely get why everyone loves them. I've also always just eaten up stories about the emptiness of revenge. Also they really had me going for a sec, when Sparrow started to fall off the cliff at the end of the chapter I put the book down in shock, I thought he just died there and I had to sit there processing that for a few minutes before I kept reading and saw he was alive.

But like, I was fully convinced the book was gonna go the direction of Tallstar learning to forgive only for Sparrow to still die and for him to have to live with that. Tallstar having to face the visitors and tell them what happened. Having to convince Jake it really was an accident. I liked the way it went fine, and honestly it might've been a bit too heavy if Sparrow did die, but also I think the fact that I saw that as a serious possibility is a testament to the writing.

There were also a few things in the book that just really hit close to home for me. Having moved across the country a few years ago and being on my own the first time, the way they describe the feeling of homesickness really resonated with me. Also just the whole experience of he and Jake having to say goodbye to each other.

[that-weird-skeleton-bastard]

Rushing things: Chapter one

(since the vast majority of you voted for it, here's the first + second episodes of my smut/domestic fluff papyton fanfic! the rest of it is on Ao3 if you wanna read ahead ^^)

The 3-part movie saga

A year... It has already been a year since Frisk freed the monsters from the underground.

It has been a year that Frisk has been going left and right (with the help of their friends), signing papers and going to meetings, so that a peace treaty could be put in place.

so that monsters could live with humans in harmony.

Of course, there's still some jackasses around that doesn't like the fact that times are changing, but a surprising amount of humans accepted monsters as their own.

Toriel and Undyne became teachers at the local elementary school, Toriel teaching science and Undyne being the PE coach. Meanwhile Grillby, Muffet, Temmie, and all the other merchants set up shop around the city, being more or less successful. Asgore and Alphys had time to reconnect and hang out. Sans, well, didn't changed much, still getting caught slacking all the time, but at least he's supposed to have a job at Grillby's. And Frisk, despite being the ambassador of monsters, still went to school, and was generally a normal kid.

So, here we are, in a warm beach city, in the middle of March, and a trying-to-be-silent hype was rumbling throughout the city: a three-part movie saga featuring loved human actors and the newest star from the underground, Mettaton, was rumoured to come out in a few weeks. Humans never heard of this man, but according to the few dozen monsters that had seen his movies, he was really good at it. And Papyrus, being his number 1 fan was stoked, having already pre-ordered tickets to all three movies and waiting impatiently for the release.

Well, the actor, meanwhile... WAS SHAKING IN HIS HIGH HEEL BOOTS. OMG, BEING A HUMAN STAR IS SO MUCH MORE STRESSFUL THAN HE HAD THOUGHT! Of course, he still had fun, y'know? He got to travel to wonderful places and meet renowned actors, but it wasn't done in an instant. He thought he was so shiny, but human stars shone 100 times as bright, so he had to fight for his career. And Well... it did pay off, with the whole 3-part saga and all that, but.... The part he was given was humiliating, the plot was based on an overused trope, and in the long run, said plot didn't even make sense anymore. And the "main character" was an asshole, who you were supposed to simply forgive because "TrAgIc BaCkStOrY". In the very few scenes where Mettaton actually showed up, it simply was the worst: because, of course, it happened in a fuCKING STRIP CLUB. THAT'S RIGHT, METTATON'S PART WAS BEING A ✨ROBOT STRIPPER✨ GREAT. AWESOME. AMAZING METTATON'S FIRST BIG ROLE IN A HUMAN MOVIE AND HE ALREADY RUINED HIS WHOLE IMAGE. So, here he was, watching the final cuts of the filming with the other actors before it was sent out to the editor, and he was on the verge of tears. THIS is how humans are gonna remember him: as the actor who played that stupid blocky robot exotic dancer that turns against the MC and gets killed off like nothing just to show how strong the MC was. At least, the good part of all this is that Napstablook worked on the soundtrack, and they fully agree with Mettaton: This whole saga is a trash heap.

He only stayed for filming for a few weeks but it felt like it was years since he last saw Alphys, so, as soon as he wasn't needed anymore, he immediately took the first train back to that little beach city on the western coast, to see his friend.

When Mettaton showed up to her door, Alphys nearly choked on her soda and apologised profusely for not wearing anything other that a loose t-shirt and pink boxers. When MTT came inside the apartment, she was now apologising for the mess, but he didn't mind in the slightest: after spending so much time cooped up in a 5 stars hotel on the other side of the country, Alphys and Undyne's place was a very welcome mess, and he knows she'll never judge him for unwinding.

So he did just that: he took off his heels and made himself comfy on the large couch in the main room. Seeing the robot sigh dramatically as he spread himself on the sofa, Alphys asked: 《- R-rough filming session, buddy? - It's not that, Alphys darling, it's just that I might as well quit the movie-making business right now after THAT FIASCO! - H-HUH? W-what happened?? - Oh I don't wanna bore you with it... (please insist on hearing it Alphy.) - *sigh* Mettaton, can you please tell me what happen- - IT WAS HORRIBLE, HONEY, HORRIBLE ! THAT MOVIE IS GARBAGE, AND I'M NOT EVEN ON THE COVER ART OR EVEN THE TRAILER ! yelled Mettaton while wildly shaking Alphys. - WhOoAAAH METTA CALM DOWN !! Pleaded the reptile as she felt the motion sickness kicking in. I'm sure it's not THAT bad!!》 All it needed was Mettaton showing her the early release version of the first movie (that the producer oh-so-kindly gifted him with a weird flirty wink) for Alphys to look at MTT with pity in her eyes. 《- damn. It IS that bad. - I KNOOOOW!!! He cried out, while dark oily tears were streaming down his midi-pad-shaped face. - I'm s-sorry man, i-i can't do anything about that, I don't have the power to just, delete a movie from existence (because if I did, I already would've done it the moment the main character stole that precious locket without feeling any kind of remorse, and not giving it back, and not having any kind of redemption for it.) - I know. Said Mettaton between two sobs. My career in the human has barely took off, and it's already going down in flames... - Metta, said Alphys, picking her words carefully, that movie may be absolute trash but not only is it your very first movie on the surface but just because you had one bad performance d-doesn't mean you're not gonna have more chances later.》 And she got up to fetch tissues for him.

While she was gone, Mettaton reflected on those words, but they didn't sooth his worries, because he KNOWS he will be disappointing his long-term fans AND painting a very ugly image of monsters for all humans to see.

Half an hour later, the floor was already littered in crumpled oily tissues as MTT was venting to Alphys. Seeing him like this, made Alphys think about the ghost inside the robot. A dissatisfied little ghost who's biggest dream was to be a star. "No, it WILL NOT end like that, Alphys thought to herself, I'll tell that producer to cancel that movie!.. or w-well ask someone to do it... it's so crazy it might just work!.. or it's just straight up crazy and it will end in a disaster- NO stop thinking like that Alphys!" 《-Metta! - hmm?! Yes? Asked MTT slightly startled by the sudden raise of volume. - I'll get that movie cancelled!! I-if you want it to be... - Alphys, darling, I appreciate the gesture but there's no way in hell that you have enough influence to pull this off. - Well, I'll try anyway! M-maybe if I show how bad this movie is to our friends, they would back us up! She added, trying her best to sound confident. - mmm... perhaps... Replied the robot. But I'm still sceptical about this plan, honey. - D-don't worry! I know exactly who to text! Your number 1 fan!》 And Alphys bolted to her room to get her phone.

"Huh, my number 1 fan? MTT said in the back of his mind. And Alphys knows them close enough to have their number? Who could that possibly be??" When Alphys came back, her phone texting app was open to a chat titled "Papyrus"

Papyrus... The name alone didn't mean anything to Mettaton. However, when he saw the profile picture of the person Alphys was texting ("pretty awkwardly and overly apologetic" he thought) it finally clicked: That wacky skeleton he saw a year prior, just before they exited the underground... He was his biggest fan..? Seriously?

《- Hey, Alphys dear, how do you know this guy? - O-oh, he's Undyne best friend. He sometimes comes here. They both like to "cook" together. And by "cook" I mean that they like to destroy ingredients with their fists and almost burn down the apartment complex. - Sounds like my kind of cooking~♡ - why do you think you've never been in the same room as them-

A-anyways, he's still a pretty cool dude, he has a heart of gold under all his goofiness... I actually think you two could be friends. - Yeah yeah yeah right, gimme that phone Alphys, you're taking ages. Stated Mettaton impatiently as he snatched the cute pink phone from her chubby clawed hands.》

Stood fully upright with his new legs, Mettaton was a good few feet taller than Alphys and he fully used that to keep the phone out of her reach as he texted Papyrus himself:

Mettaton here, hello darling, I have a problem with the upcoming movie saga, would you like to help me?

ALPHYS ARE PRANKING ME? =_=

...Well, it's true that in a situation like that, where you're chatting with your friend and all of a second, your favourite celebrity texts you via the same chat, it's understandable to think they're messing with you, but Mettaton was too impatient to care, and instead went into face-time.

Papyrus's reaction to seeing him face to face surely was something: He was whisper-screaming as quiet as he could while wildly shaking and waving the hand he wasn't using to hold his phone. His excitement was barely contained, and, honestly, that was the cutest reaction Mettaton had ever seen.

As soon as Papyrus managed to calm down a bit, the robot started to explain the situation to him. The skeleton was eagerly listening to Mettaton, until his face fell when MTT told him how awful the upcoming saga was. 《- WAIT, IS IT REALLY THAT BAD? - Yes, darling, so if I were you, I'd ask for a refund on my ticket preorder. - BUT I WANTED TO SEE HOW GREAT YOUR NEXT MOVIE WAS GONNA BE... said Papyrus sadly. For some reason, seeing this man sad was unbearable for MTT, so he quickly added - W-well how about, you get a refund, and I'll simply come to see you in person to cheer you up? His face instantly lit up again at the suggestion. -REALLY?? Papyrus said, his voice rising a few octaves. Y-YOU'D DO THAT? FOR ME?? - Of course, honey, I'm very generous! (Meanwhile in his mind, Mettaton was screaming and melting over this cutie before him.) - OK, SO IS TOMORROW AROUND 11:00 AM ALRIGHT? I HAVE TO DROP OFF FRISK TO SCHOOL AT 8:30, BUT AFTER THAT I'M COMPLETELY FREE! AND IF YOU WANT YOU COULD ALSO STICK AROUND FOR LUNCH! Suggested Papyrus without catching his breath. - Oh uhhh... T-that sounds perfect! And, since I don't have anything else to do, I'll gladly stay for lunch! - GREAT! I'LL BE EXPECTING YOU AT 11:00! OH BOY I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU IN PERSON! SEE YOU, METTATON! - oh, see you too darling!》 And he hung up.

Chapter two:

The first hangout.

Whu- What just happened?

They called Mettaton's biggest fan to tell him to back him up to get the movie saga cancelled... and then... he managed to plan to hang out with a guy he met only once..?

Mettaton had completely forgotten about the plan when talking to Papyrus, and only remembered it when Alphys pointed it out.

Welp, at least they could ask other fans and friends to help them get the movies cancelled, and that's what they did: the two friends spent the rest of the evening calling and texting friends and family to tell them about the issue. Of course it still wasn't nearly enough, and Mettaton was aware of that, but... he had trouble focusing on the task at hand when he had that meeting with that skeleton tomorrow. And then, tomorrow came.

Mettaton woke up to the official poster of the saga literally EVERYWHERE: on billboards, as paper posters glued on the street, as side ads on every websites he checked... it was a nightmare. But thankfully his friends responded to the texts saying that will be backing him up 100%! What a relief- wait.

What time is it? 10:47 AM, motherfucker~ <3 F u c k

Mettaton ran to his wardrobe to take the outfit he prepared, flipped his switch in a hurry and dressed up as quickly as he could (while also trying to not wrinkle the pretty red suit he picked)

Mmm... should he take the prerelease movie CD with him?... Probably... since he still needs to get Papyrus on board with the plan, and showing just how God awful this movie is would be a great way to convince him (in theory).

As soon as he was fully dressed, MTT took the CD case and ran to his car, when it hit him that he didn't know where Papyrus lived, so he had to call Alphys to ask her, which took longer than he wanted because Alphys refused to pick up, so he had to TEXT her, which got an answer much quicker but now Mettaton only had 6 minutes to get there on time. (When I tell you that MTT's car FLEW over the highway-)

At least he wasn't TOO late, only a few minutes but he still got there around the time he was asked to come. After parking his car not too far from the building Papyrus lived in, Mettaton walked toward the front door before noticing that the skeleton was standing there, waiting. When their eyes met, Papyrus's whole face lit up and he ran up to Mettaton.

Before he knew it, the robot was tackled in a tight hug, so earnest and warm, as if they've known each other since childhood, then Papyrus pulled back his head and looked up at Mettaton with his eyes sparkling with excitement, before letting go. That passionate welcome was unexpected (and it wrinkled Mettaton's suit a bit) but he didn't mind, it made his cheeks and chest feel so warm... Why was he here again?.. Oh right, the plan! The plan to ask the director to cancel the movie! MTT was about to bring it up, when Papyrus spoke up: 《- SO, METTATON, DO YOU WANNA COME IN? - Oh yes, we should probably get inside to... do whatever to pass the time I guess... - WELL I PREPARED A LITTLE SOMETHING, I HOPE YOU'LL LIKE IT!》

Papyrus and Sans's apartment was pretty humble, but it had a certain coziness to it, and, unlike Undyne and Alphys's, it was tidy. As soon as they entered, Papyrus dashed to his room, telling Mettaton to make himself at home. So he sat down on the couch and waited for the homeowner to come back, while using that time to fix his suit.

But when Papyrus came back, that nice red suit was clearly overkill, as he was in a comfy bunny onesie, carrying a few fluffy blankets and pillows over his shoulder, and holding dvd cases in his free hand.

....a sleepover??...

This man had the unique opportunity to spend time with his favourite celebrity... and he planed a SLEEPOVER??? IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY??

...Mettaton had to admit to himself that it was a pretty ballsy move, and Papyrus was clearly fully confident doing it, so he had to appreciate his boldness.

Anyway, Papyrus was setting down the blankets and pillows on the couch (that he deployed in bed mode) while his guest was watching, feeling overdressed for this whole charade. However, the skeleton did not appear to mind in the slightest that Mettaton was dressed so formal for such a casual occasion, instead he asked him to choose what movie he wanted to watch while he went in the kitchen to grab some snacks.

The movie selection was... original: "Peekaboo with a fluffy bunny: the movie", "little kitty discovers the world", "Dr funkenstein", "the upside-down river"... Yup, all of these were children's movies.

In the end, Mettaton chose the last one, as it seemed to be the least childish, and as Papyrus came back with multiple bags of chips and a bottle of unnaturally purple soda, he confessed that "THAT MOVIE ALWAYS MAKES ME CRY..."

Curtains were drawn and blinds were closed, the skeleton made himself comfy on the couch, and finally pressed "play" on the remote. Actually, that movie was much more enticing than MTT had first thought, and soon enough, he understood why it made Papyrus cry every time, as he was tearing up himself. During a particularly heartbreaking scene, Mettaton swore he felt the skeleton, who was also crying heavily, getting closer to him and resting his head on his shoulder.

"Oh. Oh my..." He thought, as he felt the heat rising to his cheeks and his mechanical heart pounding in his chest.

At first, Mettaton was unsure about it, but right at that moment, it was... nice. Watching this bittersweet children's movie, gorging on chips and soda, while laying on a comfy couch filled with pillows and blankets... and with such good company too... And the end of the movie came, and the curtains and blinds were opened once more, letting the blinding midday light in. (Now that they could see eachothers faces, both of them had puffy, red eyes and humid cheeks from crying so much.)

Well it was now 13:30, guess Mettaton did stay until lunch.

《- HEY METTATON, DO YOU WANT TO HELP ME COOK? Asked Papyrus while cleaning up the chips packets. - Gladly! Answered the robot, chipper.》

After Papyrus went in his room to change back to his main outfit, the two started cooking spaghetti, the skeleton's self-proclaimed specialty, however it quickly dawned on MTT that he wasn't... that great of a chef. Lots of rookie mistakes that made him cringe inside. Every time the host made a mistake, Mettaton tried his best to gently tell him he was messing up, to Papyrus's surprise.

After an hour of trial and error (and wasted spaghetti, r.i.p) they managed to make the best spaghetti both of them ever made, and, much to Mettaton's shock, the only spaghetti that Papyrus ACTUALLY ATE IN HIS LIFE.

Afterwards, Mettaton realised he stayed for over 3 hours, and didn't even bring up the plan, so, he mentioned it -more awkwardly than he would've wanted- and added that he brought the first movie of the saga.

《- WOWIE,BUT I THOUGHT YOU DIDN'T WANT ME TO WATCH IT? - W-well it is trash. But would you like to see just HOW TRASH that movie is? Asked Mettaton with a tone of challenge. - ...I'LL GO GET MY ONESIE. responded Papyrus with determined smirk.》

Back on the couch, back his bunny onesie, and this time, Mettaton also being in a onesie (a grey tabby cat one that Papyrus lended him), they started the film... and the skeleton immediately fell asleep once it was clear that Mettaton wouldn't appear in the rest of the movie, and, of course, he fell asleep on the robot himself, who's body temp rose like Jesus on the third day.

It was hard focusing on the movie when this lovable dork was snoozing so cutely in the crook of his armpit.

But Mettaton came to a realisation while watching this movie for the god-knows-what time: Maybe Alphys was right, this movie is pretty bad, and the other two are no better, but they are just that... bad, boring movies. Maybe Mettaton was overreacting...

He looked at his phone, and at all his friends, family and fans who are willing to back him up... And at the trailer ads for the saga on his socials...

Maybe he should just let this movie come out and let people see how bad it is... And before he knew it, he fell asleep as well, holding Papyrus close...

(what even is pacing lmao)

anyway, tell me if you want to see more, or simply if you liked it! seeing nice little things being said about my creations always makes me happy ^^

[moss-reads]

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

Rating: 4.5 ⭐️

"Sorcery of Thorns is a fantasy standalone about Elisabeth, an orphan who was raised in a library that mistrusts sorcerers, and houses magical grimoires that sometimes turn into horrific monsters, but when she is accused of a crime she didnt commit, she must turn to her enemy, a sorcerer named Nathanial Thorn and his strange servant, in order for them to save the great libraries and the world with them" (paraphrased description from the back of the book)

This has been on my tbr since about maybe march of last year when i got back into reading, and picked it up as a birthday present for myself and i think it lived up to the hype!

I found the characters compelling and fully realized, and i loved that it was a high fantasy plot With a romance but wasnt purely a romance and isnt part of a 5 book series i have to devote too much of my time to,and i can see myself coming back to it again later for a reread

I saw a few booktubers i like on youtube recommend it and give it 5 stars, but for me since i was unable to finish it until i downloaded the audiobook, and i wasnt fully invested until almost 20 chapters in, it sits pretty well at 4.5

Also as far as the audiobook goes, Emily Ellet is a FANTASTIC narrator and really brings Rogerson's writing to life and it overall felt cozy at times

Overall i really enjoyed this, and i'm interested in reading more from Margaret Rogerson's catalog! I'm definitely going to pick up the sequel novel as soon as i can

spoilery thoughts under the cut!

I will say that i didnt feel much interested in the story until chapter 20 even with the action and the plot brewing, cause thats when Elisabeth stepped into a library again and also around the same time Nathaniel's manor because the descriptions the author writes are just so incredibly magical and feel like you're in the story, and i loved when it became a mini heist moment, and i am glad that they did introduce the big bad early on so that we could sit with the rest of the world and characters more!

The romance also could have been fleshed out a bit more, it was a bit insta-lovey and i felt more drawn to the character of Silas more than anything so it fell to the side for me, and i think the end was the only thing that made me wish it was maybe a duology cause i wanted more of him! I also loved that Elisabeth was smart yet didnt have all the answers, but wasnt so clueless that every plot point you predict she just absolutely doesnt see coming, which i think was refreshing for stories like this

I did find the explanation of her powers and how she was basically a human booklouse a bit brushed over and confusing, but again its a standalone and i'm glad they addressed it at all

I do think the same about it being confusing or not fully explained can be said for some other elements though i do stand by that the characters were very realized! The pacing also could be a bit too fast or too slow at times, but it definitely didnt make it less enjoyable once i was more invested in the story!

tldr: i love this story about a librarian and a sorcerer and their emotional support demon saving the world