#then tumblr came along :P but i don't think that's the same it's not an algorithm

[irritablepoe]

Honestly, tiktok is real fucking boring. I don't care.

[elvenisms]

drunk on you —; s.h.

pairing: steve harrington x fem!reader [2.4k]

summary: Steve is a needy, needy drunk, and you just can't get enough of it. 18+ MDNI

cw: smut, fluff, established relationship, no use of y/n, sub!steve, dubcon (they are both drunk), unprotected p in v (don't try this at home), mention of oral (male receiving)

author's note: always need more sub!steve in my life, so i got a little carried away. my first piece of writing on tumblr in, like, 5 years. enjoy!

masterlist

Tonight was one of your favorite kinds of nights. 

Eddie’s trailer was littered with empty bags of snacks, beer bottles, and nearly bursting at the seams with how loud the music was playing. In the middle of the room, Robin and Nancy were holding hands, jumping around in a circle, screaming out the lyrics to I Wanna Dance With Somebody; they were just drunk enough to go full slumber party mode, which was highly typical. Coincidentally, Eddie was just drunk enough to sing along, sat back on the couch with a huge grin on his face.

You would’ve joined the pair, had Steve’s arms not been so cozy around you. You were sitting in his lap, hips between his thighs, his arms snugly around your waist. Now and then, he’d drunkenly rest his head on your shoulder, nuzzle his nose into the side of your face, or press a kiss to your neck. God, he’s adorable, you thought. You thought that every day, but when you were drunk, it turned into every minute or so.

During one of his nuzzles, Steve’s lips ghosted over the shell of your ear. “Take me home.” His voice was breathy, higher in pitch.

There were lots of reasons tonight was one of your favorite kinds of nights, but one in particular: Steve was a needy drunk. Needed to kiss you, needed to touch you, and needed you to take care of him. It was a special, wonderful change of pace from being constantly cared for by him—one that sent a warm, jittery feeling down your spine.

You could feel his arms around your waist tightening as he began to pepper soft kisses behind your ear, down your neck. It made thinking through the logistics of getting your drunk selves back to his house harder, to say the least. And speaking of hard…

You turned your head towards him, trying to keep it together. “We’ll have to walk. There’s no way either of us are driving.”

“I don’t care.” He replied immediately, his lips coming off of your neck just long enough to say it. 

Unsure if you could last another minute without taking him on Eddie’s couch, you redirected your attention to the group; a lull in the music made for perfect timing. “I think we’re gonna head out.” You bit back a smile, trying to be discreet. Oh, who were you kidding, Steve was still mouthing at your neck, he’d just moved to the other side now. 

Eddie laughed out loud when he noticed the spectacle, kicking his feet like a little kid. Robin did much the same. “No driving!” Nancy, as motherly as she could in her state, wagged a finger at you. “Why don’t—” She hiccuped. “Why don’t you just use Eddie’s room?”

“Absolutely the fuck not!” Came from Eddie, causing Robin to drop to the ground in an even bigger fit of giggles. Even Steve was laughing now, all five of you trying to catch your breath.

“We’re walking!” You managed to get out, patting Steve’s leg to signal you were getting up. “And I would not be caught dead banging in your room, Eds, no offense. I don’t think you’ve cleaned in… like… seven years.”

“Eight, actually.” He held back more laughter, the stupidest things hitting everyone’s funny bones at this point. Within a few moments, you and Steve were saying your sheepish goodbyes, the rest of them poking fun until the door was closed behind you.

Absolute idiots, you thought, and I love them to death.

The walk to Steve’s was cold, but the promise of what was to come paired with the alcohol in your systems made it bearable. He was all smiles and gentle touches; at one point you said you’d race him, but you both nearly fell flat on your face, so that stopped pretty quickly.

By the time you reached his door, he could hardly keep his hands off of you—clinging to you anyway he could, kissing any spot he could reach. His silly grin had been replaced with a furrowed brow and a desperate look in his eyes. He had no idea how crazy it drove you to see him like this, needing you so deliberately, hair messy, nose red from the outside air. So, as soon as you were inside the house, you kissed him with a ferocity you’d been holding back since Eddie’s. 

It was enough to make him stumble backward, but he immediately adjusted, gripping you like you might float away any moment. It was messy, a little rough, not how you’d usually handle him in this state, but you needed to get it out. Your hands slid into his hair, grabbing the strands with your fingers, and he practically whined. “Need you, baby, please.”

“I’ve got you, Stevie.” Your voice was warm and low as you thumbed across his pouting lips. “Gonna take care of you, babe. Let’s go upstairs.”

He nodded, entwining your fingers with his and leading the way to his bedroom. He immediately flopped onto the bed, causing you to giggle as you fumbled with your shoes, tossing each one aside. Soon enough, you were crawling into the bed as well, lowering yourself so that you were lying on top of him.

You put your lips on his gently, and he brought a hand up to cup your face, deepening it. “You’re so pretty like this,” You whispered between kisses, feeling him harden against your abdomen. “Needy for me.” You needed to tell him now, instead of sober, when he’d get all shy and embarrassed about it. One of these days, you’d convince him it was the sexiest thing ever. 

His hips softly bucked up against you, unintentionally, and he made a beautiful noise. “Couldn’t stop thinking…” He pushed some of your hair aside to kiss your jaw. “...At the party.”

“What were you thinking about?” You asked sweetly, hand traveling down to palm him through his jeans. “About—oh—about you r-riding me,” His hips began moving to meet your hand, fingers squeezing your hips. “Cumming in you.” God, help me, you thought. 

“I can make that happen.” You bit your lip, resisting the urge to absolutely ravish him right now. It’s always better when you wait. “Need some of these clothes off, though.”

Steve nodded, already completely lost in you, and pushed himself upright, allowing you to grab the edge of his t-shirt. You pulled it over his head, and quickly did the same to yourself, his hands immediately finding your chest as he laid back again. His eyes were open wider than they had been the past three hours, and it made you chuckle. 

“I love this one,” His fingertips traced over the red lace on your bra. “S’my favorite one.”

“I know it is.” You preened, consistently amazed at how you’d bagged the sexiest dork in history. 

His fingers traveled around your back, and it took a bit more effort than usual to undo the clasp. Once he did, though, he was kneading at your breasts, his hips beginning to cant up again. “Fuck, baby, so gorgeous,” His eyes squeezed shut, and the combination of his hands, hard-on, and praise made your breath hitch. “Need you so bad, so, so bad.”

Your head fell back, enjoying the sensation for a few more seconds, until you started toying with the button on his jeans. You were trying with all of your might to go slowly, to fight against the way your brain was going fuzzy, but Jesus Christ, you just wanted him mewling beneath you—and you knew he would be soon enough. The role reversal was intoxicating.

Both of you were nearly nude within a few moments, Steve straining even harder against his briefs as he felt the warmth pooling in your underwear. You leaned down to kiss him, lifting your hips to keep him from grinding against you, though everything in you screamed to let it continue. 

“Want you in my mouth, Stevie,” You breathed against his neck, kissing the moles there. “You want that?”

He whimpered then, at both the loss of contact and the proposition. “I do, but, don’t think I’d last,” His hands ran down you wildly, your neck, stomach, thighs, as if they wanted to be everywhere at once. “Close just from this.”

Embarrassingly, a small noise left your lips just from hearing that; it almost sounded like a beg. You quickly decided that you couldn’t deny him anything else. “That’s okay, baby.” You cooed, brushing some stray hairs away from his forehead. “Want you so bad, gonna take care of you, okay?”

He was all uh huhs and pleases now, and you moved down to slowly remove what was left between the two of you, chests heaving in anticipation. Steve was achingly hard, which made him look even larger than usual—you wanted to take a photo of him like this, a sheen of sweat on his skin, hair mussed, lips kiss-bitten and pink. A piece of heaven. 

“D’you need me to,” He panted, far too gone to form a full sentence. “Don’t want it to hurt.”

On a normal day, he was insistent about getting you ready for him, opening you up with his fingers; he refused to let you experience any kind of discomfort, unless, of course, you asked for it. You found it highly endearing that he considered it now, as desperate as he was.

“No, baby.” You laced your fingers with his, a small smile on your face. “I’m ready for you, promise. Sit up for me, yeah?”

He nodded quickly, removing his hand from yours to push up from his palms, his back now against the headboard. You moved forward to straddle him, and his hands found your waist, squeezing the skin there. “Love you so much,” You cooed, drunkenly, pressing more kisses to his jaw. “My boy.”

“My girl.” Was all Steve could manage, though you knew that meant I love you, too.

You reached between the two of you, rubbing the head of his cock between your soaked folds, and it made him keen beautifully, jaw slack, eyes closed. Finally, you began to sink down on him, elliciting a long, low moan from both of you.

“Baby, baby,” He whined, his face finding the crook of your neck, and your hand slid up the back of his neck. “I know, Stevie, feels so—” A groan broke through your lips, feeling yourself filled to the hilt. “—so good, you feel so good.”

You moved your hips, beginning to slowly grind against him. His fingers immediately dug into your back, pulling you as close as possible. His skin against yours was warm, safe, perfect. The small, choked noises he made caused you to clench around him, making his cock twitch in return. You were both completely adrift in each other, sure that the house could be burning down around you without notice. 

His hands began to wander again, searching for purchase, and you could feel his breathing grow more labored against your neck. “What do you need, baby?” You whispered softly, hips still moving at an agonizing pace. When his head tilted back, you had to choke back a sound at the way he looked. A complete and utter mess.

“Need—just,” Words failing him, his fingers gripped at your hips, pushing you down on him even harder with each grind. It hit you right where you needed him, and a filfthy sound fell from his lips, the combination making you wonder how longer you’d last. 

“Shit, baby,” You breathed, your fingers coming up to card through his hair. “Need it harder, yeah?” Steve nodded furiously, nosing against your cheek. There was no way you could deny him this way, pupils blown, jaw slack.

Your fingers wrapped themselves in his locks, like an anchor, before picking up the pace with your hips. He cried out immediately, pressing himself even deeper in you, making that familiar warm feeling spread through your abdomen. “Sh-shit, fuck, thank you, thankyouthankyou,” He babbled, fingertips certainly leaving bruises on your hips, and you relished in the feeling, your mind an endless stream of Steve Steve Steve.

“M’gonna, fuck,” He sounded almost pitiful, and it made staving off your release difficult.

“Let go, Stevie, c’mon,” You coaxed, giving his hair another tug, and that was all he needed to turn white-hot.

The noise he made was obscene, hips stuttering up into you, face pressed to your chest. It sent you straight over the edge with him, your walls squeezing him desperately, amplifying the near-pornographic sounds between the two of you. You clung to each other through it, coming down slowly, entirely blissed out. Your grip on each other subsided, but you stayed where you were, chests heaving, tangled together sweatily.

“Thank you.” Steve kissed your collarbone, coming to rest his forehead against your own. He was smiling sweetly, eyes hooded from drunkenness and exhaustion. 

“Thank you.” You emphasized, probably looking much the same. “You’re… God, you’re something else.”

He chuckled at that, and you slowly rose from his lap, careful not to overstimulate either of you. You grabbed one of his t-shirts from the dresser, sliding it on, and padded your way to the bathroom for your responsible, post-sex pee. Once you’d returned, Steve was tucked beneath the comforter, already asleep.

You took a moment to admire him from the doorway, shaking your head softly, before climbing in beside him, drifting off just as fast. 

“Last night was amazing.” You smirked, seated at Steve’s kitchen table the next morning, tucking into some breakfast. “Love it when you get like that.”

“Like what?” He asked from the kitchen, feigning innocence. He rounded the corner, holding his own plate, and took a seat next to you. You gave him a look. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

The smug look in his eyes said he definitely did know what you were talking about, and he had enjoyed every second. You decided two could play at this game.

You shrugged, taking another bite. “Maybe you should ask Eddie, Robin and Nance.” He choked a little on his food, making you grin. “You started pretty early.”

He groaned, bringing his hands to his face. “No I did not.”

“Oh yes,” You stifled laughter, “But, it’s alright, I’m sure they’ll have no idea what you’re talking about.”

His fingers parted over his face, one eye peeking through. Your smile was enough to break him, both of you dissolving into a fit of giggles, his face slightly redder than it was before.

[noxiatoxia]

Sorry for the jankiness in this, I had to control both my Vita and PC at the same time, but here is a comparison! On the left, my fantranslation, and on the right, the official translation.

If you're wondering what this is all about, I'm working on a patch (at least of the prologue, I cannot promise the whole game) of SDR2, that aims to provide a more accurate experience than the official English translation.

More accurate how? Danganronpa not only suffers from a lot of mistranslations, but a handful of clunky dialogue and very literal translation choices that sacrifice nuance and an accurate experience for the sake of keeping the literal text. I want this patch to:

Fix all the mistranslations.

Add back in character accents, speech pattern quirks, and more accurately represent how they talk.

Fix the dialogue to sound more natural in English, as if these could be actual words spoken aloud (for the most part).

Give English players a version of the came that focuses more on capturing the spirit, energy, and emotion of the original dialogue than heavily focusing on providing the most literally accurate translation.

More on all these points under the cut.

What about other fantranslations? (orenronen, etc) I have not seen every conceivable English fan translation for SDR2, but a big one is orenronen's on SomethingAwful. It was never finished past chapter 3, but still stands as probably the most popular fan translation. Orenronen's work is extremely impressive given the speed and quality of the translations. That said, it is not without its mistakes, and I think suffers from perhaps taking too many liberties. I'm hoping my patch can strike a good balance between his and the official translation to deliver the most authentic experience possible.

So is this SDR2 "definitive" edition? Not exactly, I'll explain under the cut.

Big changes in this clip:

Added back in Souda's accent along with changing his name back. Tanaka's talent was also changed.

There is a joke that both I and the original English translation had to change as no English player would get it. You can read more about it in this post I made. (along with Jum-P being changed from Golden Hawk to Golden Eagle)

Komaeda speaks of Tanaka's time in the breeding/animal club, but as far as I'm aware, this is not a thing in many Western schools. The main gist of the text is Tanaka is amazing with breeding animals. The fact it was a club is irrelevant to the meaning, other than providing that he is a high schooler (which we already knew), so I cut it out to be more understandable to most English players.

Tanaka adds the part on about his hamsters not going easy on their enemies himself, the hamster doesn't say that. Kept the Hulk reference as it's a pretty apt translation and makes up for the missed reference from earlier. However I'm thinking of maybe changing the line afterwards to "they are not used to holding back" as that would be more accurate.

If you're interested in the details of this patch, please read below! I want this to be made for the fans by the fans, so any input is welcomed. If you have suggestions for how to improve text to flow better in English, or wish to correct/inquire about translation choices of mine, I more than welcome it. No matter how big or small, I want everyone to give their feedback and opinions and suggestions.

If you are interested in helping in the translation, be it from the perspective of a Japanese speaker, a play tester, or want to offer general writing/wording advice and feedback, please DM me. While I don't plan to form a team (I prefer to work alone), projects like this benefit greatly from opinions and feedback. Especially if you are familiar with both the official English and orenronen's version, I would appreciate your help. If a good number of people seem interested in helping, I may form a Discord or Tumblr community to facilitate discussion easier.

Welcome to under the cut. So, let's talk about that earlier point about definitive edition.

The thing is, save mistranslations, NISA (the official translation) and orenronen's versions of SDR2 are equally correct in some manner. NISA took a more literal approach to each sentence, while orenronen took more liberal approaches, instead going off what would sound best/fitting. Neither of these are incorrect. There is no "definitive" translation for any media in any language, but speaking from the perspective of Japanese -> English, there is rarely ever an exact way to be 1:1.

Let's take an example. The word "usagi" means "rabbit"...but it also means "bunny" and "hare". These are all relatively the same thing to the layman, but they impart different nuances. A character who chooses to only say "rabbit" instead of "bunny" may sound more intelligent or old-timey. So, how do you know which one to choose when it could be any 3? That's a very simplified version of the kind of choices you have to make in translation. When it comes to sentences that get longer and have more nuance even in the original Japanese language, you suddenly have a whole new beast to deal with.

You may have heard the common joke of "inexperienced translators" who translate the phrase "しょうがない" as "it can't be helped". Most English dictionaries will tell you this is what the phrase means, and yes, it is used in such a manner, but the fact is, most people do not say "it can't be helped". "I can't help but [...]" is much more common, but the standalone phrase is usually "it is what it is" or "that's just how things are", etc.

The phrase itself literally translates as "there is no method".

So, we have three versions of this phrase. The literal translation, the widely-posited English dictionary translation, and a naturalized version that is not literal to the actual Japanese word, but is an "equivalent" to what people would say in English. Which of these is more correct? Really...none of them. There is no more correct answer, just what sounds better or fits better.

This is all to say, my translation is going to be me doing the very, upmost best I can do to capture the meaning and nuance in all the words said, but also making it sound good and natural in English. This will inevitably include changing very cultural-specific things that English players wouldn't get, e.g. the Mutsugorou Kingdom joke Komaeda makes. As an English translation, I feel it is most important to naturalize it for an English audience. That is the whole point of translating from one language into another.

Above all, I will be honoring the feeling and meaning of the text rather than the literal words like NISA did. In other words, I would personally go with "it is what it is".

Keep in mind I am also one guy. I am not perfect in either language. Even people who speak English or Japanese as their first language make mistakes in them still, and translation only increases that chance. That's why extra eyes on this project helps. I do feel like I am a little out of my league, but at the end of the day, I'm doing this out of passion and fun. The official translation will still exist even if I make my own, so if anything, I'm hoping it provides a different experience that can help people grasp a closer meaning to the Japanese text.

Okay, let's get to the game stuff. Firstly, as you've seen, changes will be made to Character names/talents.

Ultimate Breeder -> Ultimate Animal Breeder. As funny as the implications are, his title was never meant to be confusing or ambiguous in the Japanese version.

Ultimate Musician -> Ultimate Pop Rock Musician. Mioda's title in the Japanese version is actually "Ultimate K-On Club Member", but was changed since most English players don't know what K-On is. It is most comparable to Pop Rock in terms of sound.

Soda Kazuichi -> Souda Kazuichi.

Kuzuryu Fuyuhiko -> Kuzuryuu Fuyuhiko.

Kirigiri Kyoko -> Kirigiri Kyouko.

A vote was held to keep Tanaka Gundham instead of Gundam or Gandamu (but this is subject to change depending on opinions I hear from others. His name is supposed to be a Gundam reference). A vote was also held to keep Hinata Hajime instead of Hazime.

Character Accents: As is with these types of games, the point is to have zany, eccentric characters who talk in zany, eccentric ways. Danganronpa is extremely hit or miss when it comes to carrying over these quirks. For the rest of this post I'll just be talking about SDR2 of course, but basically everything I say applies to the other Dangan games as well.

Some characters have their accents kept, at least in part, while others are just ignored. For example, Souda and Owari's accents were only sometimes kept, or watered down, while Usami's accent was removed entirely.

Speech quirks: This is largely context based. A cutesy girl using ね excessively comes off differently than a typical teenage boy using ね excessively, and will be translated differently...at least, that's how I view it. For the girl, I may make her speech more bubbly, cute, and appealing. For the boy, I would akin it more to going "like" or "um" a lot. Of course, if the boy is going for a cutesy image, or the girl is supposed to be mature, then I would flip this around. Like I said, this part depends 100% on context for each line.

Accurate representation: This one is a lot...but I'll try to boil it down. Japanese has several was to say "I" and "You"; different words and different ways to write those words. In fiction, this is usually a vehicle to tell you about the character's personality.

For example, among boys, it is common they will either use "boku" or "ore". "boku" is generally more polite than "ore".

However, there's multiple ways to write "ore". Hiragana, Katakana, or Kanji. The way it is written imparts a different impression. Hinata, for example, uses ore, kanji (俺) to refer to himself. Souda uses ore, katakana (オレ) to refer to himself. While this gives them both the impression of being masculine & impolite, Hinata using kanji gives the added impression of him being more intelligent and calm, while for Souda, katakana gives the impression of him being more abrasive and eccentric.

The meaning of what script is used also changes depending on context.

For example, for "you", both Hanamura and Komaeda use "kimi", which is a soft, friendly way to say "you" among friends. (Although, this is speaking strictly from the standpoint of fiction. You rarely use "you" in real Japanese. Anime characters do it all the time though, so it doesn't really count as "rude" by itself.)

However, Hanamura uses kimi, kanji (君) while Komaeda uses kimi, katakana (キミ). This both gives them the impression of being open and friendly, but for Hanamura, speaking with kanji makes it seem like he's being more proper and refined, and with Komaeda, speaking in katakana makes it seems like he's being more casual and laid back.

And then there are very unique "I" and "You" pronouns. Tanaka uses "ore-sama" (俺様) which sounds like he is saying "the great and amazing me", basically.

Ibuki says her own name, but this got translated poorly. Saying your own name as a first person pronoun, while not common, is more common in Japanese than English. Especially by kids and teen girls, it's seen as a cutesy thing. But it doesn't really come across like that in English. I will likely get rid of Mioda speaking in third person altogether, instead trying to incorporate this manner of speech into other forms, as it comes down to Mioda simply acting cute and eccentric. I think a good alternative is for her to occasionally speak of herself by saying "we" or "us", as that is not uncommon in English.

Similarly, Usami/Monomi talk with a cutesy ending. -desu becomes dechu, -masu becomes machu... "chu" is a very cute sound in Japanese, and it's supposed to drive home Usami's personality. I see this get translated as UwU speak a lot, which isn't incorrect, and in fact is a better translation than doing nothing like NISA did, but she does not speak with a speech impediment. It is only her endings that are modified. Me, personally, I will reword Usami to speak in a more simple, cute manner like a child show's protagonist, like Dora. I will also change some words to be cuter, like everybody -> everybunny, and you -> chu, but she will still speak normally.

And sometimes, pronouns change. Hinata uses omae (お前) to refer to other people, but for Monokuma, he's used omae (オマエ) before, changing the script to reflect his animosity.

This isn't even getting into honorifics or keigo. Honorifics (like -san, -kun, or no honorifics at all) reflect how respectful a character is of other characters. Similarly, "keigo", being often referred to as "polite speech", is commonly denoted by if a sentence ends in "-desu or -masu". Not speaking keigo in the situation these characters are in is a bit of a toss up. I wouldn't say it's automatically rude given they are all of the same age and status, and classmates don't always speak that way to each other either, but I would personally think most would approach this situation being polite when they're strangers.

There are also particles, some of which are more rude/masculine than other equivalent particles, or imperative speech, which is extremely rude (and not really ever used in real life).

On a politeness scale, for example...

Tsumiki uses keigo and uses -san for everyone, boys and girls. In the context of the rest of the cast, this sounds like she's speaking extremely politely and formally.

Komaeda does not use keigo but uses -san for girls and -kun for boys. He also uses "regular" particles. In context, this seems like he is speaking casually. Not rude, but not formal.

Hinata does not use keigo and does not use honorifics. He uses very masculine particles and is prone to using imperative form. In context, this seems like he is speaking extremely rudely.

Of course, NISA's version of SDR2 translates everything the same mostly since they go for a very literal approach, meaning these things that can't be translated into English all get translated the same, which is a shame. A lot is lost about how these characters speak and interact with the world. Specifically, Hinata suffers the most. Not just from stiff dialogue, but from getting his rude speech cut down immensely. The official art book for SDR2 claims that part of the design philosophy for Hinata was wanting to make a protagonist who was very masculine and direct. I want to keep that spirit in this patch, factoring in Hinata's choice in speech to influence how things get worded in English. While a sentence like なんだそれ！？Literally translates as "What is that!?", I would write it differently depending on the character after factoring in accent and everything we just talked about. "What the heck is that!?" for Souda, and "What the hell is that!?" (or even replacing hell with fuck in a tense situation) for Hinata, for example. For Komaeda, "What on earth is that!?" etc...

I think those are all the big points...if you've read this far, thank you :]

[aggold15hi01]

Paula's Tumblr Fan Fiction- The Australian Grand Prix 2024- A Lolex Fan fiction- Chapter 1

Author's note; I did this originally on my Blogspot and I am feeling truthfully infuriated with how does Blogspot has issues with me today obviously.

Anyway; enjoy this Lolex Fan Fiction I did wrote this 'toughest' fan fiction I ever done in my very own life.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the respective pictures and none of them are mine.

Credits goes to Alex Albon, Logan Sargeant; P*ntr*st and also the people whom they worked their magic behind the scenes both in person and online too as well.

Written's from Logan's P.O.V

Trigger Warning: Mentions of Alex Albon's intense accident from Australian GP 2024 and also mentions of D*pr*ss**n(?) [I'm not so sure]

Logan's P.O.V

While I am truthfully minding my own business as usual by having to truly listen to V-Cha's 'Girls of the year' through my pair of Space Grey Airpod Max Headphones: I am also singing along to the song very quietly just as I am now watching the Free Practice session on the screen as well; then all of the sudden; when Alex had gotten into a very heavy crash, I did ended up turning my head away from seeing that crash from Alex ever since not only it does looks truthfully super intense for a crash but also at the same time by the when I take look up at the screen after I shield myself from looking at the screen: I did remembered there are commotions of how the first free practice session had to be cancelled with a red flag session while the commentators had mentioned that the car had been severely damaged plus this really makes me turn to the thought of Alex who is my current team mate as although he is five years older than me and yet he also had experience as well during his time in F1; my heart suddenly plummet out of nowhere just as I am now feeling worried about my current team mate whom he and I--we both are the opposite attracts personality wise.

While Alex is very outspoken with his wicked sense of humor; meanwhile I am more of the soft-spoken and reserved type of person: knowing that sometimes I'd think I did truthfully ended up overthinking too much about the little things that I shouldn't be worrying about as well; I felt as if sometimes I kept having the thoughts of the performance which I did truthfully have on me: myself and I plus yet, I didn't truthfully realize that there are certain times when I had placed too much high expectations on myself to the point where I had became a people pleaser thus  . . . this is where music does came into the picture and usually it does truthfully helps me to truthfully focus on whatever I can truthfully control in my very own life instead of focusing on what I couldn't even control in my very own life obviously.

As I am about to walk out of the garage; I did bumped into Gaetan Jego who is my race engineer and the first thing I did spoke to him are those words:

"Hey, is he okay? Is Alex okay?" I asked him breathlessly while I press the button on the right side of my Air pod Max to go from 'noise cancellation' mode to 'transparent' mode while I am asking him the question about Alex's status of his health condition.

"Yes, he seems to be okay; no serious injuries on him despite how he had survive a heavy crash; Logan." He replied to me he looks at me ominously just as I am feeling truthfully worried about my outspoken team mate.

I let out a gasp before I replied to my race engineer with a set of distressing words which I did truthfully said it all in one sentence just before I take off into a sprint: "No, I got to check up on him."  

"Wait, are you sure: Logan? Don't you think you should be preparing for the second practice session?" He ask me before I can response to Gaetan's question while running into a sprint where I went to Alex's garage where now his car does looks as if it does looks more like pieces of debris you could truthfully find it either under the sea with countless shipwrecks and also sometimes they could wash ashore on the edge of the beach.

As I frantically search for Alex; I did finally found him at one of the motorhomes where he is now sitting down on a couch with his pair of long sleeve blue fireproof shirts which create a contrast between the outer layer of the white racing suits which we are now sporting as part of our 2024 Livery as he had his head down with a dejected look on his face.

"Alex, are you okay?" I asked him while I enter the motorhome without even knocking on the door but because of what had happened earlier on how intense the crash is earlier that Alex had experienced it earlier and oh boy, it was so scary to the point where I did felt as if I wanted to truthfully check on him despite how I did have to truly go out later on the second free practice session.

"Huh? What? Logan?" He ask me while he is feeling truly dazed from what had happened earlier.

"Yeah; it's me, what on earth had happened to you?!" I ask; sounding both shock and surprised while I place my headphone around my neck after I paused the song.

"I am feeling okay but I truly don't know if I can probably race again; bud."

"What do you mean you don't know if you can truthfully race any more; bud?" I ask, now feeling truthfully confused.

"I really don't know, man: it is just way too much for me to handle especially how intense it was earlier despite how I am feeling thankful that it is a miracle I did managed to both survive and escape from that harmful crash unscathed."

"I know but you can't let that discourage you." I protest, now sounding equally both genuinely distressed and scared at the same time just as I am feeling stressed out all because of a crash must had given him a scare and yet; when I spoke to him in this way: I did felt as there is a waves of protection washes over me mentally and spiritually just if someone tries to hurt Alex in every step of the way just as the same as how Alex would do as an older brother if they did the same with me.

Although I may be younger than either Alex or my older brother Dalton but I am not letting anyone or anybody simply just speak about them especially in a very toxic way.

"I know but . . ."

"Listen to me, Alex: i know you may not have a car to drive and I knew you experience a scary accident but it doesn't mean you can truly let it deter you from having to continue on with Formula 1 career and you knew how far you had made it obviously and I'm serious; man." I said while placing both pair of my hands onto Alex's shoulder as I felt as if I did truly wanted to shake him so hard to give him a well-deserved wake up call from having to truly criticize himself just as when he did went into an unexpected downward spiral from both the self hate and self harm by having to simply destruct him as a form of self abuse.

"Logan; I don't think I truly can do this and all and  . . ."

"Just listen to me, would you; Alex?!" I protested; now sounding equally distressed; shocked, hurt: angered and scared about what exactly he is truthfully experiencing now in his very own life.

I know I maybe years younger than him however I am not going to let him became deterred by the waves of both the self destruction and the self abuse to simply destroy him out of nowhere.

"Logan?" He ask me after waking up from the hazy feeling of the numbness he had to truthfully experience in his very own life.

"Alex . . ." I moan while I had mentioned his name out of instant concern plus my pair of Pacific eyes sparkles with nothing but concern and sadness.

"Look man, I know it is too much to ask however . . . can you give the space? I mean . . . right now; i do need the space to truthfully take the time to think." He ask me tiredly while heaving a deep and an equally heavy sigh just as when he tries to wake up very early in the morning,

"Wait; what?" I ask him softly to match his current voice which my present team mate is talking towards me despite how he is now staring down on the floor; wishing the floor can open up a huge hole where it could swallow him out of nowhere then he would instantly disappear out of nowhere.

"I mean I would like to truly get the space and time I do truthfully needed, Logan." He replied to me very softly.

[jmtorres]

re all these recs-- I'm going thru them significantly for my own record-keeping. THANK YOU to everyone who made suggestions & if I marked yours "I already own it" please know that just means we share great taste

@mindyfromohio NK Jemisin, The City We Became (I own it), The World We Make (wishlisted on libro.fm)

@ravingrevolution: Martha Wells, the Murderbot Diaries series, yes I own all of these

@lnich: Inherit the Stars by James P Hogan --ooh, good call, there's some classic sf Audible carries (but hasn't stamped as audible original) that can't be found elsewhere. I already have the three of this series that have been recorded but this reminds me to check other classic sf authors like Pamela Sargent

@shhdontlook Bloody Summer by Carmen Maria Machado--ooh, it's in a short story collection called "Trespass" that features a lot of authors I like!

@steampotter tell me what you mean by "new" Discworld? I haven't read any, but I've been slowly collecting Pratchett titles whenever they're on sale on Libro.fm. ( @mosylu is this what you're referring to? it would appear that three of the 12 Pratchett I've picked up this way have Bill Nighy listed as an narrator.)( @shamelesslymkp also. can one of you tell me how I identify "new" Discworld? What year did they start rerecording?). i'm not familiar with Rob J Hayes, I have dropped Along the Razor's Edge into my cart to try him out. Leech by Hiron Ennes looks like it might be a bit much for me right now, but I have wishlisted it for later. (I already own Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi, Murderbot, Andy Weir's The Martian, and The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty)

@adventures-in-mangaland ooh, snagging Trevor Noah's Born A Crime. I think I've got enough recs in my chosen genres that I'm gonna skip Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid and What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo but those were very interesting recs, thank you. I already own the Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, and its sequel. Are you recommending Bleak Expectations the BBC Radio 4 series or Bleak Expectations the novel? they both list Mark Evans as the author so I suppose they're two different adaptations of the same? I have heard Cabin pressure on YouTube back in the early days of Sherlock.

@mari13606 yes I have Murderbot lol. i'm gonna need an author for Touchstone, that's a fairly common title, and I didn't find any audiobooks for Stained Glass Monsters.

@ladyegwene I think I own most of the expanse books though I'm trying to figure out how far I've gotten in the series, maybe three books in? I also nabbed Hugh Howie's silo books after the TV adaptation.

@renninflight I'm up on Katherine Addison and Martha Wells, but I apparently can't keep up with Leigh Bardugo's output so I've added the Familiar to my libro.fm wish list

@katofrafters Lindsay Ellis is already on my Libro.fm wishlist. I own Mira Grant's Newsflesh, Rolling in the Deep and Parasitology series, but let me just snag everything else. I've got Murderbot and Tamsyn Muir and Leigh Bardugo already, and the Expanse books. Let me look into this Stephen Graham Jones.

@drverstehen1 I have the Theodora Goss, Junkyard Cats, Hench, Son of Trickster, Dread Nation, Andrea Vernon and the very long title (which I didn't recognize, but is in fact in my library, it's narrated by Bahni Turpin and I tend to grab all her stuff). "Orconomics" sounds like either I would enjoy it very much or it would drive me crazy (I'm an accountant) so I'm marking that series down as a maybe. I don't know Drew Hayes or Secondhand Curses, I'll add that to my cart.

@katemonkeyville I feel like I know the name Barbara Hambley is she – ah, she wrote a couple of Star Wars books. The sci-fi nerd is strong in this one. OK, I'll give Benjamin January a try.

@arrows-for-pens I've got the Queen thief, the whole series went on sale when the last one came out, I've got Alexandra Rowland. (I follow her on the tumblrs lol). Garth Nix is on my wish list (they're just cheap enough. It's not worth using credits on). I don't know Rae Carson, I'll check her out. These Broken Stars is actually on Libro.fm as well. thank you for warning me about the sequel, I am usually quite a completionist.

@gaymergirl @bisexualbaker I own the first of Effie Calvin's books. I think I'll pick up a couple more, they seem to be an unmarked audible exclusive.

@bisexualbaker i not only own, but recently listened to When the angels left the old country! <3 And I've got Andy Weir too. and to my surprise How to Defeat the Demon King--I think Audible must have featured it for a couple of bucks at some point. I'll give Beware of Chicken a try, sounds wild.

@shamelesslymkp Second Hand Curses by Drew Hayes added, Sean Maguire have, Patricia C Wrede have (childhood fave), How to Defeat the Demon King have, Scalzi have, Andy Weir have. Murderbot have, Locked Tomb have, Mira Grant have, can you point me at a title for the villains code series? Drew Hayes has a lot of series. Naomi Novik, have, hadn't heard of Tess Sharpe wishlisting those.

@athenadark I have RF Kuang and Djeli P Clarke. Fall of the Gaslit Empire does not appear to have an audiobook version, do you recommend Rod Duncan's other books? there is so much Tad Williams that I am daunted by where to start, can you tell me a specific title?

(I don't know why everyone's names wouldn't link. Sorry if I fucked up your spelling.)

apparently Audible credits expire after a year?

so I have 21 to spend this month (and I'm considering reducing next year's subscription)

Please recommend me books to buy on Audible!

preferably: scifi/fantasy or like interesting histories (nonfiction), "audible original" aka not available elsewhere

(feel free to reblog)

[the-silver-peahen-residence]

May you write a Spicy Short/Medium Drabble where Mateo and Blanche both fucks Ethan but has no idea they're being watched by Chris and his team, as his team wanted to learn more of Ethan's biology(since Ethan's half mold), please? -If that's alright.

(don't know if Tumblr ate my ask ><

((Hello dear, hope your doing well. I think I can write something for you so just a moment. Second, I did get the first post of this same one. I was just stuck on what to write but I got something now.))

Silver butterfly mun/peahen mom

"Ummm Chris? Are you sure this is the right way to test the biology of Ethan's half mold? What if they get infected by it?" he looks to Leon who was hearing this but some on his team was flushed hearing the noises trying not to be too nervous towards.

"Well, we have to understand more of the mold that he's infected on or the bio structure that changed it. Besides, we gotta know something." he said but looks ahead. "Besides, Mateo and Blanche said they would help." he said but his face was flushed to sigh.

"Even if it's doing this.." he mutters. In the testing chamber, Ethan was twitched gripping the sheets with black hands that shows talon nails but it's from the mold in him. Ethan was looking dazed, looking up shaking from Mateo roughly pounding into his tight hold while his skin showed some darker spots along with his feet and lower legs showing the same color with a mold like tail forming. He was whimpering taking in the thrusts, feeling his body burning that he was crying.

"Haaaaa..fuck he's so tight when he's in heat. Ethan is so cute...Un gatita traviesa. Una cosita tan traviesa .." he hissed with eyes glowing from this with Blanche moans feeling Ethan was taking his cock in his mouth sucking him.

"Haaaaa hhaaa E..ethan t..take it easy..hhaaa your sucking t..too much..please e.nuuggnn...." He shook when Ethan was pushing his head down only to suck harder when Blanche came in his mouth with Ethan was gulping his cum down to pull back shaking heavily. He was panting feeling some cum hit his face but he whimpers tightening around Mateo that he was bucking his hips back hearing the vampire hissing and snarls loving the heat.

"Ahhhhhh p..please more...f..feed me more...mmmmmm..please..please it burns so much.." He begs with tears of pleasure in his eyes that Blanche gulps only to shake when seeing how precious he was even if Ethan was licking his cock again.

[misscrawfords]

One thing that interests me about the response to the Netflix Persuasion is that it is by no means the only objectively bad Austen adaptation but it seems to be singled out more than others for both excessive hate, excessive defence, and just general discussion. I'm not sure I've ever seen so many reviews in mainstream newspapers for a streaming service Austen adaptation.

I'm not a fan of the 2005 P&P myself but it still has merits and is worthy of being considered seriously as an adaptation. It's the only one I can think of that has received this amount of vitriol. (And yes, some of that came from me, but I'm allowed personally to dislike a film!) Mansfield Park 2007 - does anyone bother with that? Did anyone bother with it when it came out except to say "lol that was a bad movie that totally failed to understand the novel, shame Hayley Atwell got caught up in it" and then move on and focus on the delightful Northanger Abbey that came out the same year or Persuasion which got some fans but otherwise did not leave a massive mark in the Austen adaptations world (mainly due to the legacy of the 1995 film). Nobody apart from a few devotees remembers the 1986 Northanger Abbey and the adaptation of Emma with Kate Beckinsale has largely disappeared. (Unfortunately IMO as I quite like it.)

All this to say that there have been lots of adaptations of Austen that just quietly disappeared or received criticism but ultimately nobody really cared. Why is Netflix Persuasion so different? Why is it so hard to just ignore it or laugh about how bad it is for a bit and then forget about it? Why do people seem to care SO MUCH?

A few suggestions:

the colour blind casting - this has had a big effect on the response, especially in certain corners of twitter and FB. Thankfully tumblr seems relatively free both of bad faith racist responses to the film and the irritatingly two dimensional response which is to accuse anyone who criticises the film of racism and gatekeeping. This is a shame as the casting is one of the film's biggest strengths. They all deserve a better movie but as soon as people can bring racism into a discussion, it gets blown up and becomes "important".

Netflix producing this film now makes it difficult for another adaptation to come along any time soon and people are angry about this, though that has always really been an issue when a new adaptation comes out.

Social media just wasn't as much a thing in the 2005-07 period and it is so much easier now for people to find other people to be enraged with or attack about a piece of media online so as soon as something gains traction even more people will talk about it and it snowballs.

People care a lot more about Persuasion than about Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey.

It's been a loooooong time since we've had a "straight" historical adaptation of an Austen novel. It feels like we're saturated in Austen adaptations, but that isn't actually true. We've had Death Comes to Pemberley, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Fire Island but apart from Emma 2020 the last movie/TV adaptation of an actual novel were the 2008 and 2009 adaptations of Sense and Sensibility and Emma respectively. It's over 10 years. We're due for a new spate of adapting the novels, it seems to happen every 10 years, so people actually want more content to digest. (Not counting Sanditon here for so many reasons.)

Austen adaptations tend to reflect the society they're made in so a lot of the analysis is going into what this adaptation - and, arguably Emma 2020 - is saying about us. And if we don't like the adaptation, well, maybe that is telling us something uncomfortable about the state of the media and storytelling right now.

The screenwriter has said some pretty egregious things about not thinking racism was a thing in Austen's time (at least I'm sure he wasn't trying to say that, but it sure came out like that) and that he wrote this script so his teen daughter wouldn't be bored. That's enough to thoroughly dunk on it.

Honestly though I'm hoping that it will quietly die the death of bad adaptations but unfortunately so many people are talking about it and hate watching it (guilty as charged tbh on both counts) that this seems unlikely.

I'm actually not against Austen adaptations that play with convention and focus on satirical humour more than sweeping romance (Love and Friendship was brilliant in that respect) and Emma did a good shot at it and breaking the fourth wall could be a brilliant device if done well, which seems to be the trend in this decade's adaptations. But I hope the inevitable forthcoming adaptations of the other novels are, well, better.

[musette22]

Hey Minnie, when and how did you get into fandom? I'm 18, right, so interacting online was something I fell into, but I know that some of the people here are older and are married/have kids, particularly in this fandom. And I always wondered like, was this type of interaction something they did at my age? Were you talking to friends about interests the way we do on here before the apps came around? Was fanfiction or shipping something you engaged in before, or was it introduced alongside the internet?

I don't mean any offense btw! I think it's great that everybody of all ages is into fandom. I'm just curious about whether or not this was something you could "grow up with" or if it was mainly an option later on

Hi honey! Absolutely no offense taken, these are valid things to wonder about and I appreciate that you're curious and want to understand what fandom is like for people who are a bit older than you are. 

First of all, let me say that while I'm 33 with an apartment and a job and a dog and all that, I do still feel very young most of the time. Growing older is a weird one, most people I know would agree that yeah, we do age and mature, but also we hardly change at all in some respects! Anyways, I just wanted to tell you that, because asks like this one make me realize that younger people often consider people who are older than them as very different from them, whereas a lot of people my age don't actually feel so different from people a lot younger than them, if that makes sense?

I'll put the rest of my reply under the cut because it's long and probably boring to most people. There’s a tl;dr at the end, just in case :p If anyone else wants to chime in with their own experiences, please feel free! <3

So, I only really got into fandom about four years ago, when I was 29. And by that I mean that at that point, I started actively participating in fandom, i.e. writing fic and using my Tumblr blog. Before that time, I did ship and I did read fic and lurk here on Tumblr a bit, but I didn't participate (personally I grew up with internet access and early social media for much of my later teens, but people who are a bit older than me will have had a different experience).

However, I have always had a tendency to 'obsess' over stuff (that's probably not the right term, but I'm sure you know what I mean). When I was a teen, my room was covered in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and boyband posters 😅 My friends went along with my intense interest in things to an extent because they enjoyed a lot of the things I enjoyed too, only maybe not as much as I did lol. So I mostly talked to them about it in real life and via e-mail and text, but I didn't really know anyone outside my circle of friends who had the same interests I did in the same way I did. Which is probably just as well because if I'd been part of fandom when I was in my teens and early twenties, I don't know if I'd have ever graduated 😂

When I got a bit older, early/mid-twenties, I got really into certain bands and went to lots of gigs. One of those bands was Arctic Monkeys, and one guy in that band has another band with another guy, and they're just really cute together, so somehow, I ended up reading some fic about them - which is how I discovered AO3, slash fic and a basic understanding of 'shipping'.

Then when I was living with my best friend, a couple of years after we finished uni (I think I was 26?) we started watching Merlin because it was on TV and we just kind of got sucked into it, and then obviously I started shipping Merthur. That's when I started reading a ton of Merthur fic on AO3, and also made a Tumblr blog (but didn't use it to post) just to passively scroll through some Merthur content sometimes. I kind of did that for a year or two, and then inevitably, I started seeing Stucky posts sometimes (this was in late 2016, so they were everywhere), even though I didn't really get what any of it was about because I'd only ever seen the first Iron Man and Spider-Man lol.

And then the night after I handed in my thesis for my second MA (I'd worked for a while in between), I was like 'Right, I need some mindless entertainment and hot guys, I'm gonna watch a Captain America movie.' So I watched TFA and fell in love with Steve and Bucky (and Chris and Seb) so hard, and I haven't looked back since. It still took me a over a year to decide to try my hand at writing fic myself, and then once I'd posted my first (65k, lol) fic to AO3, someone left me a comment there saying "Are you on Tumblr?? We should be friends!" so I decided to actively start using my Tumblr blog, and it kinda grew from there over the past three years.

So it all happened really organically, but like you, I also kind of 'fell into it', just at a later age. And while I was late to the party, I'm not at all surprised that I ended up here eventually. It definitely fits my MO from when I was younger and obsessing over other things - discovering 'fandom' and participating here on Tumblr just took it up a notch (and made it even more enjoyable!).

But I do wonder about the younger generations sometimes too, and how it must be for you guys to grow up with apps like Twitter and Instagram and TikTok, and being able to find people and talk to people with similar interests so easily. On the one hand, it's obviously kind of amazing, and on the other hand, it must be a lot to deal with sometimes. I remember being much more sensitive and influenceable when I was younger (not saying you are of course, everyone is different! but that's how it was for me), so I don't think engaging in fandom as heavily as I do now would've been good for me at your age. I don't think I would have travelled as much and partied as much and read as many books and worked as hard if I had, so I'm personally glad I only discovered fandom when I'd already lived a bit, and feel more at ease with who I am and able to balance real life and my interests. But again, I have absolutely no doubt a lot of current teens/young adults are way more adaptable and able to balance real life with online hobbies than I was! I notice that here on tumblr all the time, actually, and I admire that ability a lot 💗

Sorry, that's much more information that you asked for! 😅 But I hope it still answers your question.

Tl;dr: I only got into 'fandom' in my late twenties, but before that time I did ship a little and enjoyed things intensely, and later on read some fic, just more on my own than in a community. So fandom wasn't something I grew up with, but rather something I found a bit later in life, and apps/social media definitely facilitated that!

[ninja-knox-ur-sox-off]

Alright, I need to ask: What's the deal with the FileName 2 and 3 and what happened to number 1?

Filename was actually what I called my squidinknoodleshipping fic document while I was working on it sl;kdmf;aogwe. So! Filename 2 and 3 are are instalments 2 and 3 that I'm currently working on (which I know you know about but the rest of tumblr sure don't lol >:P) There's an arc 4 that I want to have, but that one hasn't been started yet.

Arc two is basically just a sick fic with some drama cause Macaque's delirious and lashes out and >:3

Filename 3 is a Tang and Macaque arc which is real good, can't wait to write it all KFM;AOWEF

Anyway, here's some excerpts from em!

Filename 2

When Macaque woke up with a scratchy throat and a pounding headache, his first thought was that he needed to get somewhere safe.

Somewhere he could wait out the rattle in his chest and the uncomfortable ache that clung to his bones; a concealed spot, alone, in the cold, where no one could find him or see him, somewhere no one could hurt him.

He got about halfway off the bed before he slipped and face-planted directly onto the floor, crumpling beside the bed in a heap of limbs and blankets that had been pulled off the bed with him.

Part of the blanket flopped down over his head, covering his face and muffling any small sounds from around him, which was actually kinda nice, given the fact that every sound seemed slightly louder than usual, like when he spent days somewhere loud and things started to become too much, that aching buzzing coming back and making it hard to think. He forgot he was trying to get away for a moment, relaxing until the slightly uncomfortable crumpled position and letting his eyes close.

Footsteps snapped him back awake and he flailed wildly attempting to untangle himself from the sheets unsuccessfully.

“Macaque, you aight?”

The tension fled, draining out of him almost completely and Macaque was confused for a moment as to why, before he remembered, right, yes, Pigsy. He slumped back, body relaxing almost immediately upon hearing the sound of his voice. He let his eyes drift shut again and exhaled slowly until he was nothing but a limp tangle of limbs.

Filename 3

(A huge chunk because I have no self control and wanna share or i'ma explode skSDFKMAOWE)

“Get out, leave me alone.”

“I didn’t do anything!” Macaque bristled, real anger rising up. “It’s not my fault you were too much of a coward to take the chance when you had it!” Because Macaque had been terrified and done it anyways. Through his fear Pigsy had opened himself up to him and Macaque had opened himself up in return even though he’d felt vulnerable and afraid. He had worked to build this relationship with Pigsy. And he was working to keep it. Tang had no right to be angry at him over that when he’d had years to do the same thing but didn’t.

Tang’s look of outrage just fueled him. “I didn’t need to! Things were perfect until you came along! We were happy and things were fine and now you took him, and I don’t have ANYONE!”

And Macaque feels rage at that, righteous defensive rage on Pigsy’s behalf and on his own behalf. “I didn’t take him. He gave himself to me and I gave myself to him. If you’ve really cared for so long you know the type of person he is. He waits until you’re ready, he gives you all the room you ended but you have to take that final step. You only took things from him and gave nothing back. You never took that final step. This is your fault.”

And he didn’t need to say that. He didn’t need to say any of that, but Tang’s bitter, petty attitude, while fun at first, was starting to really anger him, and he wanted to say things that would make him stop, that would make him snap his stupid mouth shut and leave him and Pigsy alone, and not make him feel guilty for finally feeling safe. He was not doing that.

“And now? Now you’re just mad that he likes me better.”

Tang snapped his mouth shut.

The clack was like music to his ears.

The tears were not.

Tang’s voice was low and livid and shaky. His hands were clenched at his sides and the tears that dripped off his chin onto the ground made little plip-plop sounds. “I know that.”

Wip ask game: ASK ME ABOUT MY WIPS (list of wips)

[nix-writes-mcyt]

Nix beloved, I've got something to say. Too nervous to say it upfront so I'm anon.

You were the first person in the Hermitcraft writing community I ever read. I read all the stories you had at the time, and you were the first Tumblr page I bookmarked. I got to know you and more people in the community, and it felt good to have people who understood me in a way my friends and family didn't. Every morning before school, during classes, and about one an hour or so I'd refresh the page to see if there was anything else. It always made my day. Your fics were also what got me into Third Life, so that's another thing!

Now, I've grown to know you as a friend, and talking to you is often one of the best parts of my day. I often hear people referring to their Tumblr community as "their family", and I never understood that until recently. You offer me support and appreciation in a way I wish I could get from my real family. I feel at home when we interact, because I could never be so understood by my parents nor my sister, and they would never support me in little side projects that I want to do, like writing. All they think my future could be is what they want it as, and they always make me put others and my education in front of what I want to do and my own wellbeing. But then I have you telling me to take care, that I come first, not to be pressured by deadlines, to be more open. I've found a friend in you I never could have imagined I would in someone I met online, and it's so precious to me--I wouldn't change it for the world.

Take care, and much love ❤️ /p

Nearly 5 am and I'm about to cry (/pos, I'm also about to sleep so shh, I know I know, it's late, I've been having issues lately)

I relate to a lot of that, especially the stuff about family. What they want for you isn't always what you want for you. That can create a lot of bad situations and it's never easy. But it's your life, it's our own lives. Not theirs

Outside of the internet I really have no one. Even my partner and I met online and are still long distance after 2 years (we're working on it)

The truth is I don't get along with people well, it's hard to find people that share the same interests as me, hard to find people that will accept me as I am. I'm a very blunt, say it as it is person and people don't like that, another reason my family an I don't get along as they're not good people

It's sort of surreal to me when people say that I'm the reason they came here on tumblr or encouraged them to get to know people or I inspired them to start writing. I'm someone who struggles massively with self worth for a number of reasons and it often just feels detached from me, but like, it's happened. I have influenced people in positive ways.

The part of me that holds and deals with my struggles is the same part that makes sure to remind others of their self worth, to look after themselves. I often wish I had someone to tell me and so I tell others in case others feel how I do. That's often the case with things I do, I offer support or an environment I wish I had in the past (and now really..)

I'm not a very big blog, I don't have many people I interact with. I'm glad to have the few I do have, yourself included, and I'm happy to be able to call you my friend as you're a wonderful person.

I hope we can continue to speak and get to know each other, but even without that I'm glad I could be here and I could brighten up at least a few days

Because really that's all that I want to do, provide a safe, positive space where people can enjoy fandom things and just.. make friends, with me or others.

Much love Anon /p (who I definitely don't know who it might be /sarcasm which I can't remember the short indicator for)

[athena-is-a-chaotic-lil-shit]

Of Ice and Blood

Part 4

Welcome back! Hope you enjoy✨

Pairing: Tai'chi Kashharzol (Orc) x Pearl Blackbell (Human OC/Reader)

Warnings: Violence, cursing, shouting, and fighting. No blood mention. Just broken bones and stuff.

2.1k+ words [originally 1.6k but I revised it and added more details!]

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 5 Part 6

Sensing another one behind me, I went low and struck his leg with mine, using his fall to punch his chin with my right fist this time, being careful to use a controlled amount of force or else the nerve I hit will result to permanent brain injury and can be fatal.

I got up, swift in my actions as I saw the guy with a raised baseball bat heading towards me from my left flank, and the other one from the right, fast.

On reflex, I leaned back, the bat that was aimed at me hitting his comrade on the shoulder instead. Guy's lucky, actually. He would have suffered internal bleeding if it bashed the side of his skull.

Four down, two to go.

I took my stance once again to ready myself. This dude was a foot taller than me, with muscles packed with raw strength, but even so, pale in comparison to Tai'chi's p—

Stop thinking that! Focus!

"Smash her head Dan!" The man behind him yelled.

This 'Dan' went straight to me with his bat raised with intent once more.

Breathe in.

Everything slowed down. I let my heart rate decelerate, my hearing sharpened, my sense of smell heightening even further.

I closed my eyes, letting the rest of my senses take over. Years of practice, days of pain from training, each motion engraved to my entire body with purpose. To defend not only myself, but also those who are looked down upon, discriminated and stepped on like dirt. My parents had always taught me to defend myself. Me. Don't get me wrong, my parents are good people, albeit wary of the other races in our community. But the moment I left the roof of my home, I knew it was time for me to defend someone other than myself. I don't give a damn about where we come from or what kind of blood flows within our veins. I will protect those who need protecting, and set anyone straight and down to the ground when they deserve it.

Breathe out.

At the last few moments, with my eyes still shut, I changed my form. I followed his aura and pictured out the shape that was drawing up to land a serious blow to my head. Dan is solid and heavy, but everyone has at least one weakness. And this guy is not spared from that.

The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

I opened my right fist, right foot forward and relaxed my arms, my legs serving as a firm foundation for my upper body. With the bat inches away from me, I smoothly dodged to the side, using my palm to push away the hand holding the weapon and punched a vital pressure point right under his bicep.

I bent my legs even lower and struck the center of his ribs with my thumb, closing my hands as I jabbed his sciatic nerve on each side at the same time, both located in the middle line of the thigh between the groin and the knee. A solid blow to those nerve points will cause intense pain and shock to the person, along with a temporary immobility of the feet.

a/n: Self defense 101! Remember that dear readers♥

With the support of my left leg, I went behind the man, standing straight and proud. Calm, I opened my eyes when I heard his fall, staring right into the fearful ones of the moron that started all of this.

"Y-You- You killed them!"

Is he that dumb?

"Correction, I didn't. I knocked them unconscious is all. And the fellow that attacked me first? Well, he passed out from the pain of his now funny-looking arm." I stated flatly as I trudged to where he was standing.

"S-Stay away from me! Monster! Freak!" He stumbled, his ass on the ground and away from me until he felt a tree trunk on his back.

I scoffed and withdrew my knuckle dusters back under my baggy sleeve.

"You wanna know who the real monster is?" I stopped and held him in place with my scrutinizing gaze. He was trembling like a wimp at this point.

"It's you.

"You and your disgusting racist friends.

"You, along with all the people who view and treats anyone other than humankind as lowlifes and pests that are meant to be squished and eradicated from the society.

"No, it's you, and the ones who have the same mentality as you, who are monsters under the guise of a human."

I paused, not even blinking as I bore holes into his skull.

"I am human, down to every inch of my being. But unlike you, I respect and treat everyone, regardless of kind or gender, and to those who deserve it, fair and right."

Before I could continue, I scented new people coming into the scene. It was the teaching staff, along with the uni's guard.

Shocked of what they have seen, they turned towards me, angry, surprised, confused expressions on different faces.

"What have you done?!" A female, human instructor, looking to be around her late 20s shouted.

"Ma'am, if you would just let me explain—"

"You are hereby expelled from this institution, young lady!"

All the color of my skin left me as I heard the words I have dreaded even before I set foot in the campus grounds.

"Now let's not go straight to conclusions. We need to deal with this professionally AND properly Miss Holson. You are also not in authority to suspend this student." A heavily bearded dwarven professor, clad in a brown suit and Oxfords, told her off firmly.

"What are you saying Mr. Dulrik? Look at her! Look at this! She murdered students and oh my God, is that the dean's son?!"

For the love of— she blind? Why does everybody think I killed someone???

"Ma'am they are—" I was about to tell her but got cut off, again!

"Helpmehelpmehelpme!" He scrambled away from me and ran to the group of teachers and hugged the young instructor. "I don't know what came over her! She just attacked us out of nowhere!"

The audacity of this fucking bitch!

"Pardon me? Attacked you? YOU were the one who followed me out here! You and your" —I gestured to the bodies laying flat on the ground— " buddies over there!"

"She is lying! The orc was with her and and and—"

It dawned on me that I almost forgot about Tai'chi. My eyes widened, and I frantically scanned the area around for him. And there he was, standing by the oak tree, right where I told him not to move.

He seemed...irritated?

Oh no. At me?

"I have not moved an inch from where I am standing ever since I planted my feet here." He said with his deep baritone voice, turning to confront the staff. "What she's speaking is the truth. They were the ones who followed her here and attacked her, first."

"And how can we be sure you are telling the truth, orc?" Miss Holson replied spitefully.

Even the teacher, huh? Her odor smells like vomit. I mean, I knew she was...foul, but I thought it was because of the situation. Guess not.

Tai'chi did not respond. Instead, he moved to look at me in the eyes. His gaze, searching, but not in an awful way. Was he asking me what I'll do?

"How about we discuss this in the office, shall we?" An elderly professor spoke. She was wearing the university's formal teaching uniform together with black, flat, closed toe sandals. "And Miss Holson, please quiet down. As Mr. Dulrik said, we should not jump into baseless conclusions."

Miss Holson fumed and shut her mouth, holding the coward in her arms.

"Now then, Miss...?"

"Blackbell."

The woman paused. I caught a smell of surprise and... astonishment?

She cleared her throat "Well, then Miss Blackbell, please follow us to the Dean's office, along with your, companion."

Weird.

"Oh and Mr. Smith, kindly call for assistance and take the unconscious students to the infirmary to be treated and looked unto. Thank you." She told the guard. With that, she and the rest of the faculty started walking back.

I glanced at Tai'chi once more to find him, again, staring. I approached him warily, expecting him to be mad at me.

"Uh. Hi?"

I let out a long exhale when he replied, with a slight tug of his lips, his tusk jutting out. "Hi."

I fidgeted, trying to come up with words to explain myself.

"I uh, uhm. Are you mad?"

With his brow raised, "Why would I be?"

Yeah why would he be?

"I-I never told why I keep wearing my mask." I stuttered, "You see I—"

"You two! Start moving before I force you to." A teacher yelled at us from a distance.

"We'll talk later, Pearl. For now let's get this resolved first. I know for a fact that they won't expel you unless they ignore the ill intentions of the ones who attempted to harm you first. But better be safe than sorry, he was the dean's son afterall."

"Yeah... Thanks. We should.. go." I turned and started walking along his side.

******pov shift for a bit*******

Little did Pearl know, he was thinking about how...nice, yeah that's the word, definitely not sexy, you were when he witnessed your skills in combat. It awakened something in him that it took a lot of control not to get aroused there and then, which was the real reason why he stood there, unmoving from his place. Not once did he leave his eyes from you, almost jumping to help you when the guy with the baseball bat was closer than we would have liked. But oh no, he was not surprised, he was astonished and shookt , amazed when you pulled that last technique, sending the human plummeting to the ground almost soundlessly. And the way you stood right after, he knew he was smitten. That proud and intense aura you gave off was enough to make him bow down at your feet. He could feel it. He could smell it. That was his secret, he can scent people and catch any mood shift they make. Even though he told her that her eyes and brows gave it away, it was not entirely true as he could smell, literally, you and the changes on your scent.

Oh but little did he know you could to. Just not as observant as he is.

:>

*******************************

Wow— when I copy pasted the original thing from my notes to my drafts in Tumblr I was like "okay, so. I should read it AGAIN before I post it if I wanna avoid more unnoticed mistakes and keep editing it again and again even though I posted it already! " And I never though it would lead me to adding almost a half thousand words and a pov shift— which i found interesting and really nice! Should I do it more often? Like little inserts of what Tai'chi or another characters thoughts in second pov in between fics if necessary? It's just, nice, to put them in and write all out about what they were thinking outside of Pearl's pov! Let me know what you think and I hope you enjoyed reading❤

Tags: @kokokatsworld @crackinanutshell

[maivalkov]

I have seen not long ago a post about "spain's dark side" so...your opinion about that? (I kinda have a feeling of knowing why himaruya came up with that and, if I am right, I am not sure if I like it. It's not that I don't like the dark side thing, but if the reason is what I think, then I don't fancy it)

Great question! Please excuse the length of this response in advance, and if I go off on any tangents. To directly answer your question: I have a horrible feeling that Dark Spain is inspired by the Spanish Black Legend/La leyenda negra, and I don't like that at all. You've really hit on an important topic here, so I'm going to extend this discussion. I call this upcoming piece: Why I don't like Dark Spain and why we, as fans and creators, need to be mindful of how we enjoy our beloved series.

Side note before we begin: I'm going to be talking from a writer's perspective, since this is what I mostly do. My opinion is just that, nothing more. Some will agree with me, others won't, and that's okay. If you're happy with the terms, let's crack on.

Part 1: "Dark" characters I'm not against 2P or "dark" versions of a character if it's required for a particular setting. Let me show you what I mean, using some fic plots I just pulled from my head: Example one: You've got this gritty, fantasy gangster city plot. You use a real city as your location, but the characters are human. Antonio's the leader of a huge criminal organisation and therefore he will do incredibly bad things. It's trigger warnings ahoy. Is this portrayal okay? Sure. (read on before you hit that reply button) Example two: You're writing a horror fic. Antonio's a sexy merman who's more likely to decorate his cave with your entrails, than serenade you on a beach. Is this plot fine? Absolutely. It's dark af, but you're writing sexy merman horror. It kinda’ comes with the territory. Did you see how I wrote "fantasy" and "human" in bold? And did you see that I used Antonio, not Spain? There's a reason. I personally believe in this: When your story uses Hetalia characters in their human form (i.e: Antonio is just Antonio, he does not represent Spain), there's much more freedom and flexibility. I've read many excellent works with darker themes who use real locations alongside human versions of the characters, and do so brilliantly. They're wonderful stories, and they don't cause harm. They're fiction. Fantasy. Fiction. Did I mention fiction? On the flip side: When we are writing the characters as country personifications, who represent the people and the history, we must take proper precaution. The same applies to writing about historical events. (To be continued down below.)

Part 2: Dark Spain

As someone who's been in fandom 10+ years now, my problem with Dark Spain is this: a number of creators back in the old days seemed to agree with my Black Legend theory/concerns, and yet they willingly made content for it. Not everybody did this, but I certainly saw some who thought "wow dark crazy Spain because Inquisition", applied it to certain ships because "ohh angst leads to romance, what a plot" and that is wrong on so many levels. If you know the Spanish Black Legend, then you know how bad this is. It's an incredibly difficult topic because it is, in the simplest sense, massive propaganda designed to seriously damage a country's image. I welcome Spanish input on this, but personally I think using this as some edgy portrayal of Antonio in your fics is insulting. Don't bloody well do it.

(Please note that the fandom is MUCH better now, but it doesn't change the fact it has, and could still happen. I used past tense for a reason, as I do think things are improving.)

Russia is another character which suffers this treatment, and I do think we have a responsibility to be considerate. Many countries have done awful things, mine (the UK) included, and yet our characters have escaped receiving this Dark persona. It's not fair, it really isn't. It's a poor judgment call on Himaruya's behalf if my theory is true. If I'm wrong, then this argument is void. Either way I feel like Himaruya should've specified how and why Dark Spain came about. Part 3: Historical writing

Here's where it gets interesting. I'm not saying "don't write historical hetalia fanfiction", and I never will say it because historical fiction exists. You can go in your local bookshop and boom, people are making real money off it.

I'm not one of those lucky sorts, but I am contributing to that genre myself. Despite lots of magic, fantasy and general artistic license, my story Gatito can be considered historicaI.

It's set in England, 1569. Spain and the Netherlands are two of the main characters, and yes, their conflict is referenced. It coincides with the timeline, and all the while I write them as personifications, I can't pretend that tension between them doesn't exist. If I did, that'd probably be even more insulting to their history, and no doubt confusing for the reader.

The main plot is a daft mash of Arthur misusing his magic, a vile fictional man from Antonio's court who wants his head, and poor Netherlands and Portugal get wrapped up in the drama along the way.

The Dutch conflict is featured, but not the plot. The event is occurring right in the middle of a fictional disaster which Antonio is trying to overcome. It's acknowledged, but it's on the side, to put it simply.

I use human names (Antonio and Abel) and explore that situation from an emotional, human perspective. I do not claim that Abel is a victim, and no one thinks he is either. Personal HC time here: I don't think any of the characters look back at their history and think "wow, poor me". Everyone's made mistakes, and they've all played a role in hurting someone else. My history teacher once told me this: The more you look, the more you see. There's many sides to a story, and even to this day, I doubt historians have truly, faithfully documented events so that it's fair on every nation involved. That's why we need to try and learn history from multiple perspectives, and why when writing hetalia characters during a historical event, we should show the reader as many viewpoints as possible. If you don't, then... well. I frown at you. More on this in part 4.

Part 4: Conclusion/advice

I won't pretend to be a saintly figure in the fandom, and this rant is a bit of a mess, but I hope you get what I'm on about. Thank you if you're still reading.

I'm going to finish with a bit of advice that has helped me have a positive time, and allowed me to create works for a series I really love:

1- If your story is historical, and you purposely want to paint a country in a bad light, think before you do. Don't slander another country for the sake of your comfort character or ship. If your story is set during a battle then yes, they can moan about the opposition, but don’t go hardcore. You know what I mean.

2- Research, research, research.

3- You want to write a particular character. Their human name is unconfirmed, or you don't know a part of their history, but you want to write about it. What should you do? Talk. I had this very dilemma regarding Portugal's surnames, and I just asked Portuguese mutuals on Tumblr for help. I received numerous valid responses in under an hour, and I felt better for it. 10/10 highly recommend.

4- If you've gotta' write Dark Spain: Keep. It. Fictional. If you don't believe my theory behind it, cool, crack on. But if you agree with me, then yeah, I've said it enough. Respect the country.

5- DO explore history. It's fascinating.

6- If you write historical hetalia and you feel that something might be misunderstood: PLEASE USE DISCLAIMERS, END NOTES ETC. I write number 6 from experience. There is a scene in Gatito where a significantly stressed Antonio attempts to summarise the Dutch conflict. He's being blamed for countless fictional issues, and rather than think things through, he blames himself for Abel's pain as well. He does it on a purely emotional basis. Have you ever had that really bad day, and things keep getting worse? Someone comes along and says "you did x y z and I'm mad", and rather than argue your side, you accept it?

That's Antonio in that scene. I know it is, because that's how I intended it to be read. His answer is flawed, to say the least, but in his human heart, he can't help it. I used the end notes as a warning/apology/explanation for this scene. I don't want it to be misinterpreted, and I don't want to disrespect Spanish history.

7- If someone does comment/ask about a sensitive, historical part of your work: don't rant. And don't get offended. I believe we all need to talk more. Have conversations about HCs, how we would write/imagine different scenes, and use it to improve your work.

8- Have fun, and be sensible. Thank you again for reading, I hope this helps to some extent. I know I've thrown my opinion out here, but if you strongly disagree with me, don't @. Move on, embrace what you believe, and everyone's a winner. (This really should've been number 9 on the list haha.)

[sarenhale]

Honestly, relating to your WoW/FFXIV post, I wonder if the 'great community, by the way' thing only has become what it has because the influx of WoW players? I hope it stops because acting like everyone in XIV is a perfect saint is only going to upset people even more if someone is even slightly less positive in game. I don't know I hope the whole WoW vs FFXIV stuff dies down, even Yoshi-P had to basically say 'shut up, WoW is what we want XIV to be, and we'll never even touch the heights WotLK had.' I just think if Blizzard hadn't been ousted as a bunch of sexual abusers it wouldn't be this extreme, like trashing WoW is kind of 'slacktivism' in a way. Sorry this is so long you're just the only person I've followed that did the WoW -> XIV jump and you haven't really done the extreme 180 everyone else has, and I think you have good opinions on things. Also I hope you have a good day :)

Thanks for the kind words! I'm flattered to hear that you like my opinions and attitude. I do try my best to not be grating over things like games.

I will put a 'read more' because I do get into a bit in detail for this ask.

I personally do get a bit tired of the costant ffxiv and wow comparison and debate too. That's why I sometimes make fun of it in a light way, and make jokes or memes about it, but also keep to myself when debates come out and people start complaining or piling up discourse over discourse. I'm just glad to enjoy my game and see people enjoying it too, that's enough for me. I honestly don't have the patience or age to withstand game discourse anymore lmao.

I completely understand why people would want to switch games because of the recent Blizz horrifying actions, the fact that the game apparently hasn't been fun or well curated in a long time, or just for funsies and switching things up. I'm absolutely not complaining about the switch in games, if anything, I'm glad people are giving other games a chance. But I am a bit tired about the costant comparison, discourse, and millions of videos essays where people try to defend wow (as if you needed to defend a game you like... you can enjoy that game, period, and not create wars over it), or people making huge ffxiv against wow essays. Like I said some months ago, I studied the whole 'wow effect' for my thesis years ago for my Uni degree and I don't plan to go back at studying the phenomenon cause I just don't care about it anymore, to be honest.

I think sometimes people are just way too over protective of things they care about, like games, and when change occurs they react with panic and overprotection over something they can't control - people migrating over games, new influx of players, etc - instead of seeing the whole thing as something of a natural process all games and popular media are subject to. Like, imagine how bad things would be for every game or media if stuff NEVER changed. Especially for MMOS, that's a death sentence. And you don't want that for your favourite game. Even WOW suffering player loss might be a good thing in the end, it might force the companies to rethink their approach to games and community, since a lot of problems laid in there.

I played my fair share of WOW during my Uni years. I played for around 3 years or something, on and off with friends irl and online, and enjoyed my experience. Overall, I still have very good memories of fun and friendship in WOW, and it's a game I still like aesthetically a lot, along with its story and fantasy races. Hell, sometimes I think about how much I miss my WOW ocs, and drawing WOW related stuff.

But I don't think my relationship to WOW was as intense as some people's - I did transition from WOW to FFXIV, but I spent something like 2 years when I stopped playing WOW (I started in mists of pandaria, stopped around the beginning of battle for azeroth times) playing almost no videogames. So it wasn't like I switched from a game to the other immediately, I think mine was more of a timed and organic switch, I didn't start playing FFXIV until quarantine hit and I had nothing to do (and was feeling really bad and needed a distraction from the imminent doom), and I also got my new desktop computer knowing I could start playing a new game comfortably, and not on a toaster-like computer like I was doing during the WOW days. (computer shutting down due to overheating mid-raid, it was fun)

So maybe the fact that I didn't do the 180 turnaround switch like some other WOW players is what makes the difference in attitude and thinking. When I started playing FFXIV, I didn't have WOW fresh in my mind so I could do costant comparisons between the two games, or my affection towards WOW kinda like... influencing my taste, or opinion of the new game in any way.

WOW was a good memory but nothing more. I never forged a huge relationship with the game anyway, so it's probably what's different between me and other players that maybe (understandably) have more history with it. I engaged with it, liked it for a game I could spend some free time on, and then moved on when I got bored with it. That's kinda it. I understand that some people who have been playing for way more years than me might have a more affectionate memory or relationship with WOW, and that might be something that influences their reasoning sometimes. But it's also a bit of a common thing withing some communities like WOW- something that people could definitely abandon and move on, change attitude. Time and game change. There's no point in getting stuck in the past with the old WOW glory days, and that kind of sentiment- we're not getting back in time, and change should always be something to be embraced, especially in games and MMOS. Changing views, games and opinions is the base of not getting stuck in the same state of mind and I highly encourage people to do it.

As for the ‘critiquing WOW has become super extreme and almost like it’s a rule’... I mean... yeah? That’s the effect that often times ‘problematic’ things have on large crowds of people online. It’s to be expected, but it doesn’t come from nothing- a lot of bad things piled up in the game, the company, the community and their attitude- and it just so happened some things tipped the waters over and everything came out in a costant flow during the past year or so. But it doesn’t come from nothing- it’s just a result of people being genuinely critic of the game they engaged with, which is something good to do. 

So yeah, I appreciate the ask! I like hearing from people that follow other games too and may have experiences similar to mine, and I'm also grateful that you've been following me from so many years since I was playing WOW, to now.

That said... I would like to keep asks like these to a minimum. I enjoyed this ask because it gave me a point of inspiration to think about my journey from games, and the chance of talking about something I care about (and I would like to think I know something about too, degree and experience and all...), but I don't plan to respond to more comments or asks that might move towards a more 'discoursy' tone of this same "ffxiv and wow" topic. I do enjoy asks like these but you can't count on everyone making a good and civil argument when asking questions, so I do have to keep a firm hand on asks and topics sometimes, or people get rowdy and think my tumblr blog is the new reddit. It has already happened with some people coming to my askbox to complain about shit I genuinely couldn't care less about. That will just get your question deleted, go to reddit if you want to complain or fuel the flames. I'm just here to vibe.

[canmom]

canmom: why are you all discoursing so hard on a 'because of woke' pun centrally-unplanned: we are bored on ! friday on tumblr dot com what else are we gonna do!! canmom lmao fair ok centrally-unplanned post your star wars prequels takes likes it 2010 you know want to :p

lol fine i'll take that bait

I think the most interesting analysis of the Star Wars sequels I've seen comes from a channel called Empire Wreckers on youtube. The guy works in the VFX industry and knows all about the technical ins and outs of how one of these films actually gets made, he's got a downright encyclopedic knowledge of production history, and he's got a good analytical eye as well.

so here for example he tells a very convincing story of how Rise of Skywalker went off the rails:

here's a very good technical VFX look at what was 'off' about the CGI in Attack of the Clones:

and here's a fascinating design analysis of all the various alien designs from across the entire span of the movies, really showing how the different eras of alien design in Star Wars came about:

But, three or four hours of video essay recs aside, what do I think of Star Wars? well here, the requested canmom takes, just for you ash :p

The 'prequels are at least interesting despite their flaws' view is pretty much the frame that works best imo, but what makes the prequels interesting is not their story (completely pants, a cartoon of a rise of fascism that attributes it to the overcomplicated machinations of evil wizards), but all the setpieces and designs they travel around along the way.

...I mean mostly, some of them are rubbish, who the fuck cares about 'lava planet'! But the prequels have a bunch of images that are both memorable and novel. The 'space chariot race' of podracing (even if people disliked that sequence), the watery palaces of the planet Naboo in the first film, the endless shiny towers of Coruscant, the general design language of the Republic's white-armoured soldiers (stormtrooper like but not quite) and their enemies the strange insectoid Battle Droids, the watery rainy planet where the clones are cloned, etc. etc.

The biggest strength of the original Star Wars was always its imagery, so this is crucial. The original films pulled on the visuals of French comics like L'incal (Jodorowsky and Moebius) - I'm not really sure if Jodo's Dune was really that much of an influence on it (Alien has a better case for the influence), but it definitely has that same kind of vibe. Star Wars lived on the work of really great set/prop designers and matte painters (Ralph McQuarrie in particular). Lots of creativity with limited resources, repurposing random monster masks from around the film studio. Nearly every location and spaceship design and even costume in the film ends up a memorable symbol (which will get reiterated over and over again across the hundreds of spinoffs, and also funded a very lucrative toy line lmao).

They managed to hit on a really strong aesthetic current! That 'used future' look, the strength of the mechanical design in general, a really memorable score: it all came together into something that felt a lot more 'substantial' than the Republic serials that inspired it.

The prequels came at a weird time in filmmaking history where they were basically the prototypes of a modern VFX-driven film which is mostly created in post. A lot of what they were attempting, the bluescreen sets and so on, rapidly became standard across the industry for all kinds of economic reasons. These days it is basically unthinkable to have a film without VFX - though there's plenty of incentive to lie about it because 'practical effects' are marketable (c.f. this series) - and Star Wars kind of kicked that door open (alongside Jackson's Lord of the Rings). Is that a good thing? I don't know lmao, it probably would have have happened anyway.

They also have the merit of being endlessly memeable - mostly because yes they're bad, but they're somehow bad in a memorable way. Even today you can get someone using AI voices to riff on 'the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise'...

...which has spun into an entire series, it's pretty funny. By comparison, the sequels have... what, 'live slug reaction', 'the sacred texts', that weird milk alien, not much else?

So the prequels are kind of weird movies - like any movie they're a cluster of elements and here they definitely don't work synergistically, the interesting settings are undermined by the bad direction etc. etc., but it feels particularly hard to assess them 'as a whole'. On some fronts they added to the series, expanding the range of things that you can see in Star Wars, or expanding on the characterisation of characters like Obi Wan (though more so in the animated series). On some fronts they detracted from it: in the original trilogy, Obi Wan portentiously mentions 'the Clone Wars' without explanation, leaving the audience to imagine whatever the hell they might think 'the Clone Wars' might entail - but the final canonical Clone Wars that we get are kind of stupid as hell and don't live up to Alec Guiness's delivery there.

The movies bring in interesting concepts (what if the good guys use an army of brainwashed clones, fucked up amirite) and then don't really do anything to explore the implications of that concept (which is left to late episodes of The Clone Wars, mostly due to Filoni). It tries to give Darth Vader, the iconic one-dimensional pantomime villain, a sympathetic backstory... and completely flubs it, but at the same time there is something endearing about the awkward story it tells. It's got some great soundtrack pieces like Duel of the Fates. It's just a big pile of stuff that could have been iconic in a better movie and just doesn't quite land as well as it could have.

Clone Wars (Tartakovsky) is fun in most of the same ways Samurai Jack was fun, and flawed in some of the same ones (long ass spirit quest - at least it largely avoids the classic Tartakovsky Racism lmao). It's good at episodic stories and Tartakovsky can definitely put over some memorable villains. The Clone Wars (Filoni) takes forever to get going so it's more miss than hit but it eventually manages to make some 'better than you'd expect for an American cartoon' stories - and also has a lot of entertainingly weird shit like whatever was going on with Jabba's son - but it's kind of like Avatar: The Last Airbender in that it's still fundamentally an American cartoon, with all the limitations that entails. Broadly the same goes for Rebels. There's a lot of better anime you could watch instead.

As for the sequels, what hasn't been said already? They're a haphazard mess, with different directors undercutting each other at every turn. Rian Johnson at least had some ambition to do anything but retread the original trilogy, but also John Boyega is completely thrown away from deuteragonist status to irrelevant sidequest for no fucking reason, Kelly Marie Tran is not even given a chance to be anything; the characterisation Poe, Rey and Kylo seems to change in every movie (Poe suffers particularly badly from this), they try to play around with whether they'd reprise the 'I am your father' moment and it's just exhausting, etc. etc.

The Last Jedi had the most potential, but its structure seems to have gotten lost in editing, so you get lines that call back to lines that were cut and so on. And then whatever it was that Johnson was trying to set up gets immediately discarded in one of the most hilariously badly structured movies I've ever seen in Rise. Overall it just seems like they muddled through the whole trilogy, and the result is a kludge. Abrams lacks ambition and undermines the 'substance' of the setting constantly; Johnson I respect a bit more, but he doesn't seem to have any idea of how to make his ideas fit into the overall arc of a trilogy, and a lot of the time the execution is more 'well I see what you were going for but...' than actually compelling.

But 'interesting visual ideas, flubbed execution' is kind of the Star Wars experience really!

And visually, returning to the design language of the original trilogy was refreshing at first, since we hadn't had much of that 70s/80s look in the Marvel era - but the lack of anything new and the boxy design of the new things they added kind of wore out their interest pretty fast, and a lot of what the sequels do ended up undermining the sense of 'substance' of the setting.

What ruins Abrams's films for me is that there is almost nothing particularly interesting to look at after they leave the 'destroyed Star Destroyers' desert planet Jakku. Johnson at least goes for some proper Images: the weird milk alien is some proper creature workshop shit, the Scottish Irish monastery with its space puffins is a fun location for Zizek!Luke to live in, the spaceship blasting through another spaceship at hyperspeed looks cool even if it raises way too many questions about how space wars work, but that's whatever this was never particularly well thought out lmao. The white-and-red sand planet with the skimmer ships comes way too late in a long film to really land as hard as it could, but it is a legit really cool spin on the Hoth setpiece in Empire.

So if you were to try and salvage something from one of these films, I feel like The Last Jedi gives you the most to work with. But it's not a good movie in its own right, it's more an arrow pointing at a better movie that could exist lmao

Weirdly the only successful offshoots seem to be ones which insert themselves into cracks in the original, something that you'd expect to lead to total banality - Rogue One is kind of entirely superfluous as a story, and yet somehow its inevitable tragedy kinda works really well, and then there's Andor which I haven't seen, but apparently it's basically The Battle of Algiers and everyone says it is way better than it has any right to be. So maybe Jedi are completely played out but there still seems to be some life in the 'space imperialism' facet of the franchise. I should probably watch Andor, I'm just pretty tired of Star Wars at this point.

OK that's my Star Wars takes, thanks for listening!!

It used to be that Star Wars villains made at least some modicum of sense, but not anymore. Because of Snoke.

[thatspaceace]

⚠Warning, latest Sanders sides episode spoilers⚠

My friend @onelongboy and I rewatched the latest Sanders Sides episode a few days ago and decided to think about it. We started by looking at what people have said on tumblr and came across a post by @metatoshi about the code. But I will get to that later.

We had started with Janus' name. We looked up the meaning and got that Janus is a Roman god of two faces and transitions. We looked up the meaning of the other sides and their orgins too.

Virgil was a very famous poet. He had twin descendents that were named Romolus and Remus, the creativity twins.

In the twins story, Romulus and Remus had a fight because they were trying to see who could find the most birds. Remus said he found 6 and Romolus said he found 12. Remus accused Romulus of cheating since Remus said he had seen 6 first. Romulus was upset and built a wall between the two. Remus went over the wall and was them killed by his brother.

This is where Janus comes in. When Romulus and kis men were kidnapping the Sabine woman, Janus had made a volcanic spring erupt, killing many of Romulus's men. Romulus then started to respect Janus and worshiped him.

This is where things change. Patton and Logan are not Roman names.

Patton comes from the name Pattrick. Saint Pattrick was famous for the comi ng of Christianity. This could also be seen as change. Logan is also of Irish origin. Logan means mountain, hinting that he may be needed for other to build off of.

From the understanding of their names we started to see how they are connected. Virgil is the start of everything. His descendants founded Rome. One of those descendents had a run in with the god Janus. Many years later, Pattrick came in and changed everything to Christianity. Sometime after the change Logan became a name meaning mountain to hold everything up.

After connecting everything, we figured maybe the sides appeared in the same order as they did in history. The sides were not a huge deal until anxiety became to much to handle. Thomas needed somewhere to channel his anxiety, creating the creativity twins. They might have gotten along well until an argument and the twins built a metaphorical wall separating them. When Roman caused a problem, Janus did what he could to make it right by taking care of Remus. When this eventually became top much for Thomas Patton appeared, making a huge change in Thomas' life. Patton needed someone to rely on so he created Logan, his mountain or his rock.

Once we had gotten here, we started looking deeper into the names.

These are some pictures of the paper we used for a visual.

First we started with a color wheel. We looked at the opposites. Roman and Remus are the obvious opposites. But then you have Virgil and Janus. We figured mayby Virgil isn't comfortable with lying in case someone figures out that Thomas is lying. But then we have blue and orange. The would mean that Logan and Patton are the opposite of the possible new side. We didnt really know where to go from this so this is where we got into the names.

We noticed that Patton and Virgil are the only sides that have 6 letters. Their males also dont have the same ending as anyone else. IL and ON not US or AN. We thought maybe these two sides are more important and possibly closser to Thomas than the rest.

Rather than it being just Virgil being the first side, maybe it was Patton and Virgil. Once Patton couldn't help Virgil with his anxiety as effectively, Virgil created the twins. From there the same as mentioned before with the twins story and Janus coming in. With all of the other sides becoming a lot for Patton, he made Logan as his metaphorical rock.

Then we wanted to see if there was more to Virgil and Patton that we were missing. This is where the code comes in.

I read a book recently where you make an alphabet revolving around your name. You get each letter of your name without repeats and write it down. When you finish your name, you continue the alphabet from the last letter and don't repeat any of the letters.

We decided to use an alphabet for both Patton and Virgil. We used the regular alphabet and found a corresponding number for Virgil's name. We had gotten 22, 9, 18, 7, 9, 12. We put these numbers into Virgil's alphabet and got e, p, a, n, p, t. From here we used those letters and went to see what the matching number would be in Patton's alphabet, getting 16, 1, 2, 5, 1, 3. We put these numbers into the regular alphabet and ended up with p, a, b, e, a, c. We didn't know where to go with this so we stopped with that there.

But that's not where we stopped with the importance of names. We then used another page to write the regular alphabet and Thomas' alphabet. We wrote the name of every side twice so that We would be able to use both alphabets.

We used the regular alphabet to get Virgil's numbers. His numbers were 22, 9, 18, 7, 9, 12. When we plugged his numbers into Thomas' alphabet getting l, w, g, u, w, z. We did the same thing but starting with Thomas' alphabet.

Here is a list of the results:

Virgil 1- 22, 9, 18, 7, 9, 12 and l, w, g, u, w, z.

Virgil 2- 8, 19, 26, 18, 19, 22 and i, s, z, r, s, v.

Roman 1- 18, 15, 13, 1, 14 and g, d, b, t, c.

Roman 2- 26, 3, 4, 5, 23 and z, c, d, e, w.

Patton 1- 16, 1, 20, 20, 15, 14 and e, t, j, j, d, c.

Patton 2- 23, 5, 1, 1, 3, 2 and x, e, a, a, c, b.

Logan 1- 12, 15, 7, 1, 14 and z, d, u, t, c.

Logan 2- 22, 3, 18, 5, 23 and v, c, r, e, w.

Remus 1- 18, 5, 13, 21, 19 and g, a, b, k, i.

Remus 2- 26, 16, 4, 7, 6 and z, p, d, g, f.

Janus 1- 10, 1, 14, 21, 19 and x, t, c, k, i.

Janus 2- 20, 5, 23, 7, 6 and t, e, w, g, f.

Thomas 1- 20, 8, 15, 13, 1, 19 and j, v, d, b, t, i.

Thomas 2- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and a, b, c, d, e, f.

We wanted to see if there was something that all the sides had in common but there was nothing that EVERY side shared. There were some letters that a few of the sides had in common. s, t, e, c, and a. We couldn't think of anything significant about those numbers so we left that there.

Here we started to pay more attention to Thomas' name. In Thomas 1 (as seen above) he had the letters j, v, d, b, t, and i. In Thomas 2 we had the letters a, b, c, d, e, f. We decided to see what letters we could connect to the sides and came up with:

J- Janus

V- Virgil

D- Duke

T- Thomas

I- Intelligence (Logan)

A- Anxiety

C- Creativity

F- Father-figure (Patton)

We noticed that there were only 3 actual names: Janus, Virgil, and Thomas. So we decided to look into their names again:

Janus 1- 10, 1, 14, 21, 19 and x, t, c, k, i.

Janus 2- 20, 5, 23, 7, 6 and t, e, w, g, f.

Virgil 1- 22, 9, 18, 7, 9, 12 and l, w, g, u, w, z.

Virgil 2- 8, 19, 26, 18, 19, 22 and i, s, z, r, s, v.

Thomas 1- 20, 8, 15, 13, 1, 19 and j, v, d, b, t, i.

Thomas 2- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and a, b, c, d, e, f.

We looked through all of the names to see what they had in common and only found similarities in Janus and Thomas. e, f, t, and i. We used the corresponding numbers in the regular alphabet and got the new letters e, f, a, and s. When you put those numbers backwards it spells 'safe'

So going back to what we had thought earlier, we had thought that Virgil was an origional side, the cause of the rest of the sides.

We thought that Virgil might be an evil side and maybe Janus is trying to protect Thomas from Virgil. Virgil is associated with spiders, meaning that he has six arms to use. And spiders have string and can have a 'web of lies'. Virgil had just enough arms to control everyone. If there is a 7th side, Virgil has exactally enough arms for everyone.

So going back to the names. Patton and Roman are the only sides that don't have a letter of Virgil's name in their 'first new name'. Throughout the series Roman doesn't like Virgil, meaning that Virgil isn't able to keep him undwe control very well. Roman might have been trying to get rid of Virgil because Roman knows what Virgil is doing to Thomas. Patton on the other hand is trying to reason with all of the sides including Virgil.

From here we thought that the new side would be able to stop Virgil from doing something bad. Janus might have been the only side that could get Thomas to feel 'safe' around the new side.

But then we went back to the names. We noticed that h was the only letter of Thomas' name that wasn't in anyone's 'new names'.

We decided we would try to find the h. We used Thomas' house and found the corresponding number in the regular alphabet getting 8 Which is v in Thomas' alphabet. We had gone back and fourth between the alphabets for a while before we had gotten h.

We then used those letters and translated them I to Thomas' alphabet. We ended up with only 2 numbers that didn't appear in both. h and w. We found the corresponding letters. In both alphabets adding them together, getting 11 and 31. We decided to add these and subtract them ending up with 42 and 20. We simplified 42 into 16. From here we found each letter in both alphabets and ended up with j, t, p, and e.

Three of those letters were similar to some names. Janus, Thomas, and Janus.

At this point we thought maybe we were wrong about Virgil being bad. He may be trying to protect Thomas from something (or someone). Janus might still be the only side that can make Thomas feel safe but where does that leave Patton?

That led us to thinking that maybe Virgil /and/ Patton were the first sides. Thomas needed somewhere to channel his anxiety, causing the Creative twins. And Patton needed someone to rely on, making Logan, his 'rock'. Roman betrayed Remus, causing Janus to show up.

This just leaves the new side and their origin. We think that the name might start with an e because that is the only letter that we don't have a corresponding name for.

Thanks for reading,

- Nova 💜🖤🤍

[cloudydays69]

Ty for the tag!!! :∆

Tag game with no name game!!!

1. why did you choose your url? I literally have no idea LMAO- It was something I randomly came up with a while back and just rolled with it tbh

2. any sideblogs? if you have them name them and why you have them. Nope, none at the moment! Though, I do plan on making some random ones, haven't thought that far yet :p

3. how long have you been on tumblr? I think i joined it about 10 months ago!

4. do you have a queue tag? Nope

5. why did you start your blog in the first place? UHHH ok sooo, I wanted to finally experience it for myself because I wasn't able to when I was younger? (thank FUCK I didn't LMAO) I mainly joined for fandom reasons tho :3

6. why did you choose your icon/pfp? I choose my pfps based on the next BIG thing I'm currently into!! I chose this Connor icon bc.... Pretty...

7. why did you choose your header? Same thing as before, usually to go along with the theme/vibe of the pfp

8. what’s your post with the most notes? That FUCKASS smug jug post with 198 notes. The other one is a re-animator anniversary thingy!!

9. how many mutuals do you have? IDEK HOW MANY I HAVE- THERE'S A LOT! (/pos) I love y'all tho, even if I don't rlly know how to express it sometimes /p

10. how many followers do you have? 70!

11. how many people do you follow? 187 :3

12. have you ever made a shitpost? Absolutely LMAO

13. how often do you use tumblr each day? It changes a lot- Like, one day I won't go on here at all, and another I'll be there almost all day

14. did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? Nope, luckily ^^"

15. how do you feel about ‘you need to reblog this’ posts? I really don't have an opinion on them, I don't mind posts like that. If I reblog it, I do, and if I don't, I dont

16. do you like tag games? YESSSS PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!! it's a really fun way to interact with people and I love it :D

17. do you like ask games? SAME AS 16!!!

18. which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous? ....@twyz , @bugsb1te and @my-autism-adhd-blog (big blogs with cool art and other stuff intimidate me :<)

19. do you have a crush on a mutual? uhm (it's complicated. I don't know what this feeling is :[ )

20. what is the last song you listened to? Blasphemous Rumors by Depeche Mode :]

21. what are you currently watching? Shows or movies? None atm, on anything else? Just a bunch of tiktok stuff, basically whatever comes on my FYP LMAO

22. sweet/ savoury/ spicy? SAVORY AND SPICY!!! (not a fan of sweet stuff.)

23. what is your current relationship status? Single and fucking confused man

24. what is your current obsession? OKOKOK SO RN, ITS THE ROBLOX GAME "PRESSURE" AND ELECTRIC DREAMS

25. what are nine albums/songs you've been listening to lately? ALRIGHT BET (I'm going off of my recently played songs... Yea it's all Dm)

Blasphemous Rumors - Depeche Mode

Condemnation - Depeche mode

The Things You Said - Depeche Mode

World In My Eyes - Depeche Mode

Walking In My Shoes - Depeche Mode

Rush - Depeche Mode

It Doesn't Matter - Depeche Mode

If You Want - Depeche Mode

Master and Servant - Depeche Mode

26. Tagging!! @gayfraggle @dandelions-arent-weeds @cervus-canadensi @twyz @just-a-living-meat-thing and anyone else, no pressure :3

nine albums or songs I've been listening to lately x nine people I’d like to get to know better x tag game with no name

(thank you for the tag @lianhuajing !!)

1. why did you choose your url? uh. it was a play on "rose tinted glasses"

2. any sideblogs? if you have them name them and why you have them. nope!

3. how long have you been on tumblr? I think 2022? i knew about it before, just never bothered to make a blog

4. do you have a queue tag? don't kill me, what's a queue tag?

5. why did you start your blog in the first place? I had some Thoughts about Blue Lock and wanted to post meta for it

6. why did you choose your icon/pfp? uhh Flora.

7. why did you choose your header? Reo is one of my Blorbos and I just really liked that panel of him

8. what’s your post with the most notes? probably the "do you download fics" poll

9. how many mutuals do you have? about 20? i don't remember

10. how many followers do you have? 120?

11. how many people do you follow? 91

12. have you ever made a shitpost? yes. i think.

13. how often do you use tumblr each day? an hour?

14. did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? nope

15. how do you feel about ‘you need to reblog this’ posts meh. some of them are funny i guess

16. do you like tag games? yep! it's nice interaction

17. do you like ask games? i do! but uh. it's a silent empty void here. an echo chamber, if you will.

18. which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous? i have no idea but i see @kingsandbastardz a lot in the mlc community

19. do you have a crush on a mutual? nope

20. what is the last song you listened to? 若梦 by 周深

21. what are you currently watching? i just finished The Double! probably starting on Dashing Youth next

22. sweet/ savoury/ spicy? savoury!

23. what is your current relationship status? single

24. what is your current obsession? The Double,,,,

25. what are nine albums/ songs you've been listening to lately?

若梦 by 周深

如故 by 张碧晨

如初 by 张碧晨

借过一下 by 周深

万物不如你 by 张杰

Our dawn is hotter than day by Seventeen

Hitorijana by Seventeen

my music taste is kinda...i tend to stick to a few artists...

26. tagging (no obligation to do this!) @randomingoftherandomness @good-vs-evo @chrysofightme @bbcphile