#they said you cannot submit that without a comment

[nickbutnodick]

i saw so many mockingbirds today my bird app was like, "what the fuck there is no way you saw that many mockingbirds. explain."

[seelestia]

「 # REVERIES IN CUPS! 」

ANNOUNCING the arrival of a new section on the bakery's menu: drinks! gone are the days where you leave through our front door without something to soothe your parched throat. feel free to stop by and take a look at our new additions! { sfw alphabet event }

[ 📫 . . . orders closed! ] from May 14 (GMT+8) till May 20 (GMT+8). The end date may be subject to change depending on circumstances.

⟡ ─ ・・“TELL US MORE!” (info)

Welcome to Reveries In Cups! — a SFW alphabet event where you pick an alphabet letter and pair it with a character! But to play along with the theme, there are tiny changes. . .

Each alphabet letter has its own assigned drink in the event menu and one letter = 1 drink. For the characters, one character = 1 pastry and you can choose from either: genshin or hsr.

There is a limit for how many drinks and seats you can order! So, I've prepared three packages you can choose: [ 1 or 2 drinks with 1 pastry ], [ 2 drinks with 2 pastries ] and [ 1 drink with 3 pastries ]. These are the only packages applicable.

Completed orders will be posted after the bakery's mailbox has been closed (or in other words, after the end date passes). There might be exceptions if the baker changes their mind!

⟡ ─ ・・“HOW TO ORDER?” (order etiquette)

Before proceeding, please check whether we’re still receiving orders! Orders that are sent after the closing date will be ignored.

To place an order: state the package you desire out of the three mentioned earlier, the names of your drinks, and the characters you bought pastries for.

It doesn't have to be in order as long as your ask is complete with the details. If it helps, an example would be: “can i get 1 drink with 1 pastry? i'd like a cup of lost twilight and one pastry for neuvillette, please. thank you!”

( EXTRA: If you can include a thank you in your order, it will make my day! )

You may find the event menu here and a full list of characters I write for here if you're unsure. With that said, I'm looking forward to your orders!

⟡ ─ ・・“ANYTHING ELSE?” (reminders)

Only orders placed through my askbox will be accepted. If you place an order through a reblog or a comment, it is considered invalid.

Separate the characters accordingly based on what fandom they're from! I prefer keeping my fandoms in separate posts, so only one fandom per order, thank you.

Please use an applicable package. Other types of packages like [ 3 drinks with 2 pastries ] or [ 2 drinks with 3 pastries ] will not be accepted. This is to prevent me from getting writing burnout, so I hope you understand.

Do not rush or pressure me. Be mindful that your order’s size works in tandem with the time it'll take for me to write it. For example, an order with the [ 1 with 3 ] package might take longer than a [ 1 with 1 ].

Do not submit more than one order per person. I cannot dictate this so this is solely dependent on your moral compass - but I'd like to give everyone a fair chance at requesting.

Lastly, if you're familiar with how I like to do my events . . . please include the keyword: macaron in your ask somewhere. This helps me differentiate between those who've read this far and those who haven't! Orders without this keyword will be promptly declined.

— thank you for reading! all matters related to this event will be tagged as [ #reveriesincups ]. boosts will be greatly appreciated! ‹3

[heliza24]

This fic is finally complete! An excerpt of the final chapter:

 “Make it stop then,” Daniel said, looking down at their joined hands. Armand was holding Daniel's hand loosely, so that he could hold it steady and absorb Daniel's movement without causing pain. “Use the mind gift and make it stop.” Armand felt his heart shatter, felt the all-consuming void where Daniel's mind had once been. “You know I cannot,” Armand said gently. He tried to keep the pain out of his voice, but he did not know if he succeeded. “I'm sorry Daniel.” They stayed like that for a few minutes, collapsed together on the path, holding onto each other's hands and attempting to hold back the sadness. After a little while the shaking in Daniel's hand diminished and then disappeared. Daniel took a breath. “You know I never would have taken it from anyone but you. Your blood could have turned me into a bat for all I care. If I get to be yours it's enough.” Armand could feel the warmth in Daniel as he said those words. He wondered how they could possibly be true.  Daniel deserved so much more than he could possibly give him. “Come here,” Armand said and pulled Daniel's face close so that he could lick the smeared blood off his chin. “Messy child.” Daniel sighed even as he submitted to Armand’s attention. “I'm not a child. You waited until I was an old man with a degenerative brain disease to turn me.” “You're my child now,” Armand said, and then they were kissing.

It was always my goal with this fic to fill in the space between when Louis walks out of the penthouse and the last scene of season 2 when Daniel and Armand are separated. I wanted to make an argument for how that intervening time could be filled with love, and how Armand might leave anyway. Because of that, angst has entered the tags. I also wanted to make a case for that intervening time being used to really explore Daniel's disability, especially since I'm not sure the show will do that. It's been a joy to write about disability in that way and talk about it with people in the comments.

I can't promise a follow up fic, but health stuff allowing, I do have an idea for a sequel reunion. So follow me here or sub on AO3 if you want to know when that arrives. <3

[shellofhappiness]

Eric Harris psychoanalysation OP here.. I am not sure what else I'd call it to refer to myself, lol.

Thank you for the nice words, you are a very kind person.. I would have left this as a comment, but you said what you did under a reblog and I am not commenting under my own post, hahah.

Just know your words are appreciated by me

OMG!! That's quite the title, but I recognize you because of it nonetheless! No need to thank me either, you really do deserve the praise. ^.^

I get to geek out now ... There was so much more I wanted to say, but couldn't because I didn't want to directly add to the post nor didn't want to clog the tags. We indirectly found ourselves under the same dilemma ... but we're here now, so it's okay!

The most I've ever seen people discuss directly relating to Eric's depression stems from the court-mandated diversion papers both he and his mother filled out, also acting as the confirmation for its existence outside of psychological analyzation.

( I think the juxtaposition of Katherine's neat check-marks in contrast to Eric's chaotic X's is so interesting to point out ... don't mind me. )

You noted how true to himself Eric was when filling out this document, something that a lot of people, even when they do want help, avoid to stray away from more "serious" intervention. I didn't mention it in my own post on the topic of EH's own personal struggles outside of anger, but I thought it was very interesting how his mother noted that he would only lash out in school or work, but never at home. Originally, I thought it was because he might have viewed his home as a safe-space, where he didn't feel the urge to hide from himself like he did in public, thus avoiding situations where he would be pushed to snap. But, it could also be that he had attempted acting out at home before as a cry for professional help, but his parents didn't see the point in it ( tying in with men's mental health and the time period; seriously such a good inclusion for your post!! ), so he gave up. Personally, I think the prior is still more likely, but who knows?

You really did such a great job seeing from his perspective with the turmoil that came from the instability of how he grew up ... I feel that's something a lot of people overlook, even denounce in significance, but no one can stress enough how important it is to be in one place where you feel right as a child. In the basement tape's, it was a series of stringed events he came back to reflect on frequently, more often than the average person would think. The lack of contact with past bonds ate him up inside ... I think that's why he clung so abundantly to Dylan.

Now, this is very much me reaching, but do you ever think he found a sense of completion ending his life alongside him, even before he knew their initial plans for NBK would tank? He was planning to die with his best friend ... Did he think their bond was realer than any other friendship he had to grieve in the past because instead of Dylan leaving, it would be them, together? Do you think that's why he shot himself first when it finally came down to it, either subconsciously or purposefully before Dylan so he wouldn't see him leave too? ... All rhetorical (I wouldn't put the weight that is answering those questions on you LOL), but still very entrancing to contemplate.

Somewhat related to what I just say, an anecdote that particularly sticks with me is when a student at Columbine ( cannot remember who for the life of me! ) told their experiences with EH, the two of them sharing a class together where students could anonymously submit their dreams. Paraphrasing, "everyone knew when Eric wrote something because it would always be "me and Dylan," "me and Dylan." The influence they had on each other was worth a lifetime. I appreciated how you let aloud the fact that it's difficult to discuss the mental health of one of them without mentioning the other because of how they lost touch between everything & everyone together with their plans.

Another pile of information that really helps to humanize Eric are the accounts from his female friend who knew him from work, and the letter she wrote to him post-mortem. It's the closest thing we have to any friend or family coming out about who "he" was instead of what Columbine made him. Something, as you mentioned, Klebold has an profusion of in comparison.

This article is also a very good read ... It's an excerpt from a book written about the effects gun violence can have on teenagers by proxy. The part taken is an interview from a girl Eric knew from sixth grade when he was staying in New York. It's bittersweet to think on how much effort the two of them put into remaining in contact up until his death. I think that's why EH and the general concept of "love" ( at least what I define love to be ... ) in his life really fascinates me compared to other ideas that can be focused on outside of April 20th. From the way his more positive romantic encounters described and cared for him, it really is shell-shocking to think that's the same guy.

... I'm sure you weren't expecting this elaborate of a response! I just wanted an excuse to ramble at someone indirectly, hope you don't mind. >.< Anyway, I seriously can't wait to read more of your psychoanalysis, let alone any of your more enlightening posts in the future!! I am your #1 cheerleader and I sincerely believe what you think needs to be said because no one else is! Waving my pompoms at yoouuu.

[lorynna]

Please understand I am writing this from a position of genuine curiosity and not one of malice.

I saw your response to the anon talking about their aroace friend and you both agreed that asexuality is being “muddied” by people who identify as asexual since there’s so much variation between them.

I am honestly quite confused as to why you are dictating the definitions of lived experiences you don’t share. Why do you have to decide how people feel and perceive their feelings if those are completely separate people than you?

Is it truly your business to decide how labels should be applied if you aren’t the one using them? As an asexual, the way you discuss my identity dismisses me and other asexuals as people, because you make assumptions about what and how we should be feeling. It feels dehumanizing.

Again…I write this with no malice, I just don’t understand your position on this matter.

Hello anon.

My response to the other anonymous person submitting an ask involved both of us agreeing about the fact that those labels are hard to get taken seriously due to a lot of people either trying to weaken the definition of asexuality/aromanticism by widening it until cinderella's unique custom-designed shoe is a one-size-fits-all, (in other words:) it completely looses it's meaning and can be applied to the average person or a person who simply has a low sex drive and/or are following a trend, where it "seems cool and quirky" to pick out a label and make it your entire personality until you get tired of it and need to get something new.

Touching on your comment implying that I am calling this term (who in my opinion has become useless due to the above mentioned reasons) as me not rejecting the label therefore but because "there is so much variation between asexual/aromantic people". Which is just...sigh.

I don't think I have to point out that the reasons (again, listed above), that I have also stated in multiple of my takes about this subject, don't indicate any sort of valid variation but the broadening of a simple term until it is applicable to the average person who "sometimes does not feel like having sex" or "feels like not having a relationship for some time in their lives".

Now a counter question. Am I really dictating the definitions of lived experiences I don't share (like you claim) or am I simply talking about my opinion? What power do I have to truly dictate how someone can/has to label themselves? Suprise: I don't! People can continue to pick labels how they please and I can give my opinion accordingly, how I please.

I am challenging you to try and analyze if I am truly trying to be malicious towards actual asexuals/aromantics or if I am just fed up by everything getting used as a trendy label or people pretending to "be cool". I am challenging you to form an opinion on wether or not I am truly coming from a place of hate or rather constructive criticism. And I am challenging you to not see everything that defies your worldview as hate. Opinions are like assholes, everyone has them and sometimes they stink!

My favorite saying : You cannot define something, without actually excluding anyone from said definition. To defines means to limit and that's okay, that is essential. Otherwise words, labels, definitions, it all means nothing. To open the doors to everyone means to protect no one.

I would encourage you (if you are really interested in my take on the topic) to take a look into my pinned post, where I am talking about this more intrinsically. I'll link it here down below.

Also linking here now below the question of another anon that THIS anon is referring to.

[sneasedtosneaseyou]

anonymousunovan -> sneasedtosneaseyou

Hi hello! You've likely seen me around before in some capacity. I used to go by Arsène if you knew me by that name, but now I prefer most people call me Reese! Use he/they pronouns for me only please! Friends closer to me may use other pronouns that I don't publicly advertise as much. I'm 24 as of writing this post, dunno if I will remember to regularly update this.

I'm not sure what hub blogs are actually used for. Figure I can share some of the posts from my various blogs with artwork either from me or my friends so that I have a quick archive of them. Might also include some general discussion about my muses and the canon I situate them in—headcanons and such. Some of my longer form writing will go up on my AO3 with links to them also included here. Went ahead and tossed my animation channel in too, though who knows when I'll be using that sucker again.

Disclaimer: I'm an adult and my time is limited for various reasons including my health. PKMNIRL is a hobby of mine, but it is not by any means my entire life. I am selective with who I write with and where I invest my time and effort, it's nothing personal. That said, there are people in this community who have harassed me or people I care about and if I see you publicly interacting with those individuals I will likely just block or ignore you to maintain separation from those individuals. Not interested in making call out posts or stupid drama, but I won't tolerate their presence anywhere near me, thanks.

I also don't plan on posting much about current events unless they are directly relevant to me. Posts regarding things like crowdfunding or current events should be directed to my actual main blog. Do not contact me there about roleplay stuff.

Do not use me or my roleplay blogs as replacements for real life advice, counseling, or factual sources as the topics I am writing about are fictitious in nature. Do not assume my muses share my personally held beliefs in regards to any topic. Do not assume my muses are always being truthful, some of them lie and lie often.

I do research for portraying certain topics, but I don't always get things right. If I mess up something, particularly a sensitive topic, you are welcome to correct me. I only request you try to be civil and constructive in that criticism and I will do my best to approach it in the same way. That said, I do intentionally exaggerate real life science to fit game mechanics and intentionally avoid certain topics that I am personally sensitive to so sometimes these alterations are intentional. My goal is not always realism, but to maintain a reasonable amount of believability in what I write. Some suspension of disbelief required.

Current Roleplay Blogs:

@sneasedtomeetyou - ACTIVE. Main muse. Sinnohan researcher who is reintroducing Hisuian Sneasel to their natural habitat in a manner similar to species reintroduction efforts, with notable inspirations such as that of the Yellowstone wolves or blackfooted ferrets.

@rotomblrheritageposts - ACTIVE. In universe gimmick blog meant to reblog iconic posts from the community. Run by a Johtonian trainer named Cyn who cannot stop breaking character to complain about supposed "Team Rocket sympathizers" and discourse online about celebrities. Low stakes but commentates on higher stakes posts sometimes. You can actually submit whatever posts you want to him and I'll probably reblog it. Please do actually, it helps me maintain his gimmick.

@militarygradebeast - ACTIVE. Grill OP at a 24 hour diner in Fula City, Johto who managed to somehow befriend a Zeraora without even knowing what it is. Posts his day to day life with Cat. Internet liar and shitposter. Low stakes. Girlfriend will have a blog later.

@carchacrok - ACTIVE. Canon divergent Augustine. Former Team Flare Scientist (Admin), father of Jaycé, romantically involved with Valentin. His involvement with Flare was never made public, to the outside perspective Augustine is the same as typical canon, with all divergent traits and backstory only being known by those close enough to poke holes in his version of events.

@bloomingsolarflare - HIATUS. Former Team Flare grunt in hiding. Art museum thief with a fondness for Impressionist paintings in particular. Rewrites in progress.

@basculegionswake - INDEFINITE. Casi's ancestor in Hisui, Celeste. Faller blog, Post-Canon PLA, married to Volo. Originally from Nacrene City, Unova. Amputated left arm after a particularly nasty run in with an Alpha Gabite.

@venoshocked - HIATUS. Unovan teenager who one day gained the ability to use poison type moves. Descendent and spitting image of Melli. Originally part of a sub-community dedicated to magical girls based on the plates of Arceus, current revival planned, but not written. She's based on the trope of spiteful rival secretly jealous of the protagonist for having friends that later joins the main group. I love her so much she's one of my favorite blogs.

@blunderpolicy - HIATUS. Zoroark pretending to be a regular person. The one behind my accidental misinfo spreading post about an official Professor Wild Days video game. They're just for fun. Probably gonna get a rewrite soon.

@sh1nyd3x - NEW! Blueberry Academy exchange student from the Orange Islands. Collector of shiny and rare Pokémon. Still a bit of a WIP, but the blog is technically up and running. Just trying to build a "believable" backlog of posts.

Other Blogs I Run:

@pkmnirlevents - ACTIVE. OOC resource blog for pokemon irl as a wider community.

...And several more I don't have listed here as they're either incomplete, abandoned, or part of closed communities! If you have questions please feel free to ask me!

Links:

My Animation Channel

My AO3

My Toyhouse

[arcane-vagabond]

Hello, I just wanted to say hi and say I love your work and I’ve been kinda shadow following you under the Jake x reader search page and finally got the courage to officially follow you today because of the boops and seeing all your posts about what really supports you as a writer on here will make me more involved in amplifying your work because it’s always brought me joy seeing your chapters pop up under latest posts.

Also I once anonymously submitted an ask to your plea for Glen to work with the muppets and it was nice to see 1. The muppets on the timeline outside of Christmas and 2. People suggesting Glen should do some lighthearted stuff where if any cheating rumors were to emerge, it would be breaking up Kermit and Piggy.

Thank you for coming (being forced to read) to my Ted talk.

Hi!!

First and foremost, thank you for following!! It means a lot, and I’m so glad you decided to come say hi!! I’m gonna use this ask to say a few things, so just know that I’m not lecturing or yelling at you, okay?

Writing is work. Like a LOT of work. For a lot of these fics, there’s a shit Tom of research that goes into some of the background of them because we want to make them as accurate as possible. I once spent four hours researching the history of railroads in the United States (specifically during the 1870s and 80s) for Don’t Hang’em Til Noon. Planning a fic takes time even without the added research. Fool’s Fare took a while to plan, and Fortune & Glory is taking even longer because of the amount of lore that’s going to have to go into it as an Indiana Jones knock off.

People have lives outside of here. We have families, jobs, pets, friends, etc. So the fact that we dedicate so much time to this hobby is a testament to how much we love doing it.

However,

It becomes discouraging when we post our hobby for others to see, step away for a little bit and come back to find no meaningful interactions with the works. I said this in a different post, but likes do nothing on Tumblr. They don’t boost it to other people or an algorithm or whatever. Likes are used as bookmarks on here and nothing more. If you like a fic, you NEED to reblog it.

The fact of the matter is that we don’t make works for you all for free. The price you pay to read the fics is genuine interactions. Could be a reblog with a comment, a reply to the post, a DM to the author, or an ask (anonymous or not). I cannot tell you how many authors on here that you all read (myself included) that have thought about leaving in recent months and just giving the fics to our friends because of the lack of interactions within the fandom. We are a small fandom, yes, but that means you should be supporting your artists even more actually. We WANT you guys to interact with us! You aren’t a burden!

Anyway, yes! Petition for Glen to do something with the Muppets. Maybe like a western romance or something? Let the cheating rumors fly with Miss Piggy!!

I’m a SLUT for the Muppets!

[eretzyisrael]

by Isaac Schorr

Much of the overtly antisemitic rhetoric and action across the West has been situated on the left, and conservatives have rightly pointed out as much, chalking up the deluge of hatred and wickedness on display to fallacious progressive theory.

But there is a cohort on the right complicit in this great reawakening of an ancient evil.

And that brings us back to Owens and Carlson.

The past few weeks have seen Owens repeat a series of blood libels.

In one breath, she’s implied the Israeli government is committing a genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

In the next, she’s submitted that Jerusalem’s historic Muslim Quarter (population: 22,000) is a ghetto where the city’s Muslims (population: 350,000) are forced to live.

After being called out on her ignorant smears by her Daily Wire colleague Ben Shapiro, Owens responded on X.

“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake,” wrote Owens, quoting the Book of Matthew’s fifth chapter.

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other,” she added.

“You cannot serve both God and money. Christ is King.”

And just like that, the mask clinging to her face by a thread fell off.

Shapiro, she argued without evidence and hardly any plausible deniability, had forsaken righteousness for wealth; is there a more textbook example of an antisemitic charge?

When Shapiro responded by reminding Owens she’s welcome to stop taking a paycheck from their company if it’s threatening her soul, Owens hid behind her Bible verse.

“You are utterly out of line for suggesting that I cannot quote biblical scripture,” she cried, affixing another performative “Christ is King” to her digital flop. 

Then on Wednesday night, Carlson released a fawning interview of Owens in which both professed not to know why Shapiro had criticized her in the first place. 

Carlson brought up the feud by playing the video of Shapiro “attacking” Owens stripped of all context.

When he asked Owens what might have inspired it, she insisted that “there isn’t much of a background” to it.

Later, Carlson said that while he was “horrified” by Hamas’ attack, he thought that “the emotional response” to it from “some commentators” was “disproportionate.”

[mitchipedia]

Attempting to talk about the movie “American Fiction” without using the word “woke.”

We watched “American Fiction,” a 2023 movie which opens with a blank screen and the unmistakable squeaking of a marker on a whiteboard. We pull back to see a college professor addressing a class, but we cannot see what’s written on the whiteboard behind him. A student says the word on the whiteboard is wrong. The teacher says he’s pretty sure he spelled it right. The student says the word is offensive. The camera pulls back to show what’s written on the whiteboard: It’s a title of a story by Flannery O’Conner. The includes the N-word.

The professor says, “This is a class on the literature of the American South. We’re going to encounter some archaic thoughts and coarse language, but we’re all adults here and I think we can understand it within the context in which it’s written.”

“Well, I just find that word really offensive,” says the student.

“With all due respect, Brittany, I got over it. I’m pretty sure you can too,” says the professor, who is Black. The student, who is white, exits the classroom upset.

I am going to avoid using the word “woke” in this review because I hate that stupid word. But it’s hard to avoid because “American Fiction” is in part a movie about wokeness.

The professor, we learn, is Thelonious Ellison. Most people call him “Monk.” He’s not doing well. He’s unpopular with students and colleagues; following the N-word incident, he’s suspended from teaching at the school. He’s bitter and angry, and turns that anger inward, expressing it outwardly by witty insults aimed at the people who bother him, which seems to be most people. The comments are funny and entertaining to us, the audience, but you can see how being around a person like that would be toxic in real life. Nonetheless, as a fictional character, he’s likable and fun. And when he turns off the nastiness, he’s a warm and loving person.

He’s a novelist, and his books aren’t selling. He blames it on a kind of racism. He’s a literary writer. His agent explains to him that publishers don’t want that from someone like Monk. They want a Black novel. “This IS a Black novel.” Monk says. “I’m Black. This is my novel.”

Monk spontaneously decides to write the kind of novel publishers want. Violent, semi-literate, about angry Black people living in the ghetto and shooting each other and being murdered by police. He calls it “My Pathology,” and then changes the title to “My Pafology.” To show his contempt for the publishing system, Monk has his agent submit he novel under a ghostname, “Stagg R. Leigh,” with a persona that “Leigh” is a fugitive from prison. Monk does interviews and meetings as Leigh, affecting a deep-voiced terse grunting speech. “My Pafology” and Leigh are cheap ripoffs of “The Wire.”

And Leigh’s book, unlike Monk’s literary fiction, sells. It becomes a bestseller. Monk was trying to ridicule white guilt and wokeness (ugh, that word), and instead he’s feeding it.

Monk lives and teaches in L.A.,but he returns home to Boston for a literary conference and to visit his family, from whom he is estranged. Monk’s mother is advancing into Azheimer’s and Monk finds himself with the duty of becoming primary caregiver. His family is affluent—both his late father and two siblings are medical doctors, and they have a live-in maid—but not as well off as they once were. What’s shown and not quite said explicitly is that Monk is appalled at the ruse he’s perpetrating as Stagg R. Leigh, but he needs the money to get his mother the best possible care.

We also see Monk’s attempts to overcome his emotional isolation and connect with his family and a pretty neighbor.

The whole thing reminds me of a Richard Russo novel, and I love a Richard Russo novel.

What ties the two plots together is a comment by Monk about Stagg R. Leigh’s novel, and books like it, “My life is a disaster, but not in the way you’d think reading this shit.”

The movie stars Jeffrey Wright as Monk and a solid cast of names and faces that I didn’t recognize, although I did recognize Leslie Uggams as Monk’s mother. I remember her turning up a lot in the 70s on game shows and second-tier talk shows like Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin. Then she surprised me with a starring role on “Roots,” paired up with Sandy Duncan—I remember thinking, holy shit those two can actually act. Then she fell off my radar until she reappeared as Blind Al, Ryan Reynolds’ roommate in the “Deadpool” movies.

Also featured is Sterling Brown, from “This Is Us,” as Monk’s brother, Cliff.

The screenwriter and director is Cord Jefferson, who previously worked as a writer on “The Good Place” and “Watchmen,” making his directorial debut. [imdb.com]

Jefferson talked in an Esquire interview about a scene where Monk is writing a sequence from Stagg R. Leigh’s novel. [esquire.com]

The scene in the novel features a young criminal confronting an older criminal. The younger criminal is brandishing a gun. Jefferson chose to cast two first-rated actors to play the two characters—Keith David, known to me as Childs, one of two characters who lives to the end of John Carpenter’s “The Thing” (1982) and Okieriete Onaodowan, known to me as Hercules Mulligan in “Hamilton.”

Jefferson said:

We’ve all seen that scene of the writer pounding the keyboard frantically, then taking a big sip of coffee and getting back to it. That’s how you depict somebody intensely writing. But I thought, ‘We can’t have that. It’s tropey and silly, and it doesn’t get the audience’s minds going.’ So why not have these characters manifest in front of him? When I wrote that scene, I wrote the language to be very silly. It had to be ridiculous so that everybody could see how stupid this book is and what a sham it is. Then we got Keith David and Okieriete Onaodowan, who are both such tremendous actors. All of the sudden, it wasn’t silly anymore. They made it seem like the book might be good. I love what the scene became in their hands: suddenly you’re questioning whether or not the book is good, which is evidence that something as ridiculous as this book could become a hit.

A character named Sintara Golden is both Monk’s nemesis and inspiration. At the outset of the movie we see she is already fabulously successful playing the same game Monk plays: She went to Oberlin, got a job in publishing, and then made a success for herself writing a book affecting illiterate victimized Black voices. Her book is titled “We’s Lives in Da Ghetto.” But unlike Monk, she’s doing everything in the open. Despite this, Monk thinks she’s just as cynical and pandering as he is. We come to see more of her, and learn that she’s playing a more sophisticated and sincere game than she first appears to be.

In an Esquire interview, Jefferson says he sometimes agrees with Monk and sometimes agrees with Golden.

The actor who plays Sindara Golden is Issa Rae, who apparently first become prominent on YouTube. [imdb.com]

About that first scene: Monk is right to push back against banning the N-word even in discussions of racism—even when used by Black people. But he didn’t have to be such a jerk about it to his student, “Brittany.” She’s just a kid. He’s being a bully.

Monk’s punishment for using the N-word has a parallel in real life: Black writer Walter Mosley, author of the Easy Rawlins novels, quit a job as a writer on “Star Trek: Discovery” in 2019 after he was chastised by the studio human resources department for using the n-word in the show’s writer’s room. Mosley was quoting someone else’s use of the word; he was making a point about racism. [hollywoodreporter.com]

Additional reading:

Cord Jefferson Wants You to Argue About American Fiction [esquire.com] That’s the Esquire article I mentioned earlier.

Did You Catch the Meta Nod of Sintara Golden’s Current Read in ‘American Fiction’? [themarysue.com]

Director Cord Jefferson was formerly a jouranlist, who often wrote articles about race and racism. Here’s his 2014 essay: “The Racism Beat.” [medium.com]

[dangraccoon]

Oyuba'din - Epilogue

Summary: A familiar scene plays out...almost

Warnings: canon typical violence, Big Ouchie type feelings

Author's Note: *gonzo voice* this looks familiar, vaguely familiar No but for real, if it hadn't been for the love and support y'all have sent my way, I don't think I would've had the inspiration to finish this, let alone start a sequel! This fic will be going up on AO3 sometime in the near future, and I will be writing and posting the sequel fic Jari'eyc in a couple weeks!

Make sure you leave me a comment or reblog in the notes below, or submit an update to your taglist request here if you want to be added to the taglist for Jari'eyc! The taglist will be resetting, so make sure you let me know if you want to see more!

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The group stalked quietly through the labyrinth of hallways, narrowly avoiding other troopers. 

“We’re not going to get very far without our gear,” Tech sighed.

“They started moving all your things to the hangar,” Omega told Hunter. “Your gear might be there, too.”

Hunter nodded. “This way.”

The squad ran into the hangar as Tech opened the door, searching through the rows of crates for their gear.

“Alright, boys, suit up,” Hunter ordered, finding a crate filled with his own armor. “Let’s make this quick.”

The squad dug into the cargo, pulling out various pieces of equipment.

Wrecker groaned, mumbling softly to himself.

“Tech, Echo, power up the ship,” Hunter said. “The rest of us will go after-”

“I don’t think we’ll have to go far,” Omega whispered. 

Wrecker’s mouth fell open. “Is that-”

“Jaine?” Crosshair breathed. He could feel his heart shattering as Jaine entered with a whole squad, herself clad in new, darkly colored armor. She removed her helmet, crimson hair falling to her shoulders, now streaked with stark white. 

Time seemed to stand still, even as the rain pounded against the hangar, punctuated by thunder and flashes of lightning. 

Hunter swallowed and stood, catching Jaine’s eye. 

“Stand down, Sergeant. Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.” 

A chill ran down Crosshair’s spine. Her melodic voice sounded eerily robotic now. Was this really their Jaine or a just very convincing droid?

“Jaine,” Hunter pleaded. “What are you doing? It’s us.”

“I read the report of your mission on Kaller. I also read the report from the captain of that battalion, who doubts your report. You should have killed that Jedi kid,” she said, sounding almost bored. 

“Jaine, this isn’t you,” Hunter pleaded. “You’ve got to snap out of it. We’re your family!”

“I have no family,” Jaine roared, anger already receding as she winced, hand almost rising to touch her head. “You went against orders. That cannot be tolerated.”

“I did what I thought was right.”

Jaine scoffed, unimpressed. “What a shame it is that you’ve never been able to see the bigger picture. Surrender. Now.”

Hunter’s eyes darted away from Jaine to the rest of his squad, reluctantly pulling themselves into ready positions, and Omega, hunkered down behind a crate. 

“Is that an order, Lieutenant?”

Jaine bristled. “It is now.”

With one last glance at his squad - his family - Hunter smirked ever so slightly. 

“Guess I’m disobeying that one, too.”

Hunter could hear the crackles of electricity sparking at Jaine’s fingertips. He kept his eyes on her, waiting for her to make the move, but praying she wouldn’t. 

With a sharp grunt from Jaine, a streak of lightning flew out towards Hunter, who barely dodged it.

As the troopers with her began firing on the squad, Hunter dove behind the crate as his brothers fired back.

Jaine growled, forcing her hands out in front of her, red smoke pouring from her palms, filling the space between her and her old squadmates. Pressing a button on her new helmet, she could see the heat signatures of each of them. Wrecker and Crosshair behind one set of crates, Hunter and the girl behind another. She hurled a few more bursts of lightning towards them, hitting their cover hard.

“Tech, we gotta move,” Hunter growled through the comms. “Now.”

“We’re working on it,” Tech answered, hands flying across the control panels.

“Wrecker, clear the smoke on three,” he ordered.

“You got it, boss,” Wrecker nodded, grabbing a few lids from the crates.

“Omega, stay low,” he said. “One…two-”

“Three!” Wrecker shouted, jumping up from the cover to use the lids as fans, before sending one of them flying towards the regs. Jaine barely dodged the second one as it kareened towards her.

Wrecker reached for the blaster strapped to his back, but Jaine was faster, sending a fast shot from her blaster towards him, clipping his shoulder. 

He shouted in pain as he fell, his helmet flying off and landing next to him.

Omega stood up, starting to jog towards the large heap Wrecker lay in.

“Omega! Don’t!” Hunter shouted, grabbing her arm and pulling her back, the shot Jaine intended for her missing by a few short inches. “She’s using him as bait.”

“But he needs help!” Omega protested.

“Tech,” he growled. “We’re out of time!”

“Almost got it,” came Tech’s reply as the thrusters came to life, catching Jaine’s eye.

“What are you waiting for?” she shouted at the reg closest to her. “Seal the bay door!”

The reg nodded, rushing to the control panel to hit the appropriate button. 

Hunter watched, a deep dread forming at the pit of his stomach as the doors to their exit began to close. But then they stopped, despite the alarms still blaring.

Jaine’s head whipped around to the reg at the panel.

“Sir, someone’s overriding the controls!”

She growled. Watching the heat map of the squad.

Hunter kneeled next to Omega. “When I say ‘go’, you head for that ramp, and don’t stop, got it?” She nodded and he turned to face Crosshair. “Cross, we go for Wrecker.”

Jaine watched across the hangar. “Only one way out, Hunter. Your move.”

“Go!” Hunter shouted, popping up to lay down cover fire as Omega and Crosshair ran behind him. 

Jaine came out from behind her cover, energy surging at her fingertips. 

She raised her hands, vision locked on to Crosshair, Wrecker, and Hunter.

A single shot sounded; a stun round hitting Jaine’s hand, knocking her to the ground.

Omega lifted her head from the rifle, steam flowing from the barrel. As the others got up, so did Jaine, pulling her blaster from her waist as Omega began to fire off more shots until her brothers were on board, the shots from Jaine merely hitting the surface of the hull. The Marauder rose and exited the hangar as Jaine wrenched her bucket off, scowling up as the ship escaped.

Thanks for reading! - River

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[lya-dustin]

All is bliss

Chapter 24

Gif by @takenbythestarcatchers

Cw:mentions of cunnilingus, orgasm denial, attempted murder, death, slutshaming, misogyny and wait for it, Criston making a sexist but good point.

Taglist: @mercedesdecorazon @aemondx @sweethoneyblossom1 @darylandbethfanforever9 @ewanmitchellcrumbs

Aegon had not liked Aemma’s rejection nor her words one bit.

Why did she have to be that way?

He had had been good to her, for fuck’s sake, he let her fuck his brother!

Why should I submit to a man with a weaker claim than I?

If you go now you will catch him before he goes to his brothels.

Her words had been very hurtful.

Now she called him a useless drunk and lecher, worse she said he had no heart nor brain.

What happened to the girl who tried so hard for him to like her during the wedding progress?

“Ser Arryk will not fail his mission, your grace. You will have your lady wife and your brother here within the day.” Cole assured him as they pretend they did not send him out to kidnap his wife and bring her here.

If she is here and made queen consort, it all ends.

The whore of Harrenhal claims she is with child, so there is no use for Aemond anymore.

Aemond will wed Tyland’s bitchy niece and take care of their ironborn problem.

That should occupy him for a while.

“Then why do we have to march to Rook’s Rest, then?” he asked as they left the burning pile of rubble left of the Dun fort.

His first battles, and both victories.

Had they sent Cole to the Stepstones, he would’ve won them within the month.

“To draw them out. And if Ser Erryk fails, we can always take Dragonstone.” He answered looking ahead.

“She has a soft womanly heart, just kill some smallfolk and she will come begging for their lives. Its one of the things I like about her, so stupidly caring about her inferiors.” Aegon comments, Cole hardly ever spoke to Aemma. Not since that time when she was ten she ratted Aegon out and called him a murderer for killing Laenor’s lover to his face.

Aegon had only meant to scare her after she was rude to mother and mother left in a huff because of it.

Aegon ended up with father sighing in disappointment and grounding him for a week saying he didn’t know where he had gone wrong with him.

At least father never hit him, mother did when she lost her patience.

Grandfather was worse, he struck all three boys whenever it took his fancy.

Had Lyonel Strong never left he would’ve never come back.

“Lord Staunton will send ravens to her, she will come here if what you say is true, my king.” Cole said focusing on the ravens in the air already.

“Of course, she will. Especially now that Daemon returned to Harrenhal.

The only one who could take me is Rhaenys, but Meleys barely even hunts let alone fight. Her glory days are long gone.” Aegon continues talking, to fill the silence mostly. Hates silence and anger and people not liking him.

And when Cole does that nodding and sound he makes when he ignores him, he decides to get his attention again.

“Where did I go wrong with her? She wasn’t like that until Harrenhal when she just gave up in trying to get me to like her.” he sounds fucking pathetic when he says it, but it isn’t like he can go for relationship advice to his friends or his brother.

His friends told him it was her loss she didn’t like him as he has never done anything wrong ever and Aemond has been in love with her since they were ten and both were dragonless, so he cannot go to him with this.

Besides he was likely fucking her stupid as they speak.

If he wanted to leave he would have left with or without Vhagar.

Cole was neutral territory even if he blabbed to mother about everything.

Gods, he still remembers the lecture he got from the both of them when he took Cole to a brothel and paid for a girl that looked like mother for his seven and thirtieth nameday this year.

“You call her a whore to her face and to those who hear you, no woman ---even those of such profession--- like being insulted like that.” His new office made him bolder. More honest.

“Every woman is an image of the Mother, to be spoken of with reverence.” Aegon imitates the knight not hiding his annoyance. “Yes, yes, you have told me a million times.”

“Then you remember the next part, Lord of the Straw, every bride is the image of the Maiden, to be wooed with acts of chivalry.”

“See, this is why you deserve to be my Hand. Do not let others tell you the contrary, my good ser.”

Better than grandfather by a mile even if he liked reforms just as Aemma did.

Reforms will cause the smallfolk to know they do not need them to rule, education makes them just as learned as a lord or a king, give them the freedom to speak and to write knowing their words will be heard and you have a rebellion if not anarchy.

A dog will bite their master’s hand even if he has food, in that grandfather was right.

Criston’s loyalty would end the longer mother doesn’t fuck him.

Maybe Jena knows a woman for him, a chestnut-haired woman who eats, breaths and shits the Seven Who Are One.

Or one who looks like Rhaenyra, maybe Cole has such a stick up his arse because he never got to fuck Nyra when she was a young nubile virgin.

“Besides, how can I woo her or respect her, for fuck’s sake, she fucks my brother!” Aegon said in his defense, regretting wanting his attention while they ride out to Staunton’s lands.

“Because your grace and your lady mother asked her to, and may I add, you chose your brother for the task knowing he had an infatuation with her when they were younger. Her Septa mentioned the princess had felt you were indifferent to her and took especial delight in humiliating her by seeking out whores.

She likely sought comfort in the only man she could go to.

Once she returns to you, you must woo her away from your brother.

With luck, she will bear a son and you will have no need for his, er, services.”

The knight is embarrassed to even say it.

You wouldn’t have believed he had been quite the lady-killer before swearing a vow of chastity.

“Why are you taking her side, didn’t you loathe my sister?” Aegon knows he may be right, but it is annoying and perhaps it’s best they just stop talking about his failed marriage.

Why was it that people gave her their sympathies because their marriage failed? He was disappointed by her too!

Had Criston feel guilt over the part he played in Rhaenyra’s untimely death and gotten over his dislike of Aemma?

Where was the man that killed old Beesbury in cold blood?

There is the sound of steel and shouting in the hidden corridors below her.

At first she thought Erryk or one of her Kingsguard had tripped and fallen again, but then Aemond stopped, face still between her legs causing her to whine pathetically because it just had to happen before Aemond had given her that well-deserved release.

“Are you expecting any visitors, my queen?” he asks against her pussy making her forget how to even speak.

She had been so close to her peak, her toes had curled and her heart felt like it was going to burst and then that godsforsaken fight had to break out.

It was like being about to dive from a cliff, feeling the wind push you down as you feel the rush of adrenaline and instead of breaking through the surface of the water, someone fucking stops you and puts you on your feet on the shore instead.

“We’re not done here.” She says trying to gather her bearings as Aemond wiped his face on his sleeve and grabbed Aemma’s dagger as well as tossing a fire poker onto the bed beside her.

“Someone could be trying to kill you, Aemee.” He rolls his eye. “Now is not the time.”

Erryk shouts again, or is it Arryk, as the fighting takes them closer to her suite of rooms.

There is more shouting as more guards join in and her attacker inches closer to her door.

“Protect the queen!” Daemon shouts to Ser Steffon and Ser Lorent as they move her to safety.

Aemond is forgotten by them and yet stands protectively before her, as if daring them to come any closer.

One of the Cargyll twins breaks open through the servant’s door clutching his stomach.

“King Aegon sends his regards.” Ser Erryk manages to say before Daemon finished what Ser Arryk started.

[artezavisions]

Need help with our current and future legal fees

I am reaching out to you today to humbly ask for your support in our fight against the dishonest and frankly totally unfit executor of my wife's mother's will.

He has bombarded our family with many insults, lies, and totally untrue accusations. Some are extremely personal, obscene, and completely unfounded. All these messages were sent via WhatsApp and Messenger. On one occasion he said to my wife after she questioned what he was doing 'It's nothing to do with you and anyway you will be dead soon' Copies of all these messages are held by our legal representatives.

We desperately need to remove him as an executor but this is proving to be beyond our means.

Our solicitor needs 1500 pounds to prepare the case and then a further 2000 pounds to submit it to the court. After that, if there is a hearing, costs will spiral.

Sadly, this individual (My wife's brother) has failed badly to carry out his responsibilities with honesty and integrity, causing undue hardship, mental anguish, and many legal challenges for my wife. He has resisted every attempt we have made to negotiate an end to this matter. His replies to requests made by our legal representatives were met with the same vitriolic comments we have been receiving. Once even accusing them of Fraud and threatening them with being reported to HMRC.

We also suspect that at or around the time of my wife's Mother's death he took amounts of money from her bank and savings accounts though we cannot prove this as we have not got access yet to her banking records. We have written to the relevant banks and building societies in order to investigate this further.

He has withheld the information from my wife for almost four years that she was named as a co-executor of the estate. We only got sight of the will he holds in early 2023. This happened after he had taken legal advice which he seems to have now abandoned.

Without her knowledge or permission rented out her mother's property in September 2019 some 8 weeks after her death.

This rental was not registered with the proper authorities and as far as we know no contract was signed. He has since registered himself as the landlord and owner of the property with the rental authorities(2022). He has taken the rent from that property for his own personal income Est 40,000 pounds to date. This money belongs to the estate.

We are asking for donations in light of our mounting legal fees as we have all but exhausted our savings and are unable to continue. We plan to have him removed as an executor so we can finally close off the estate. This can be a very expensive and lengthy process.

To date, he has not applied for probate for the estate but rather used the assets of that estate for his own financial benefit. He had the house valued even before the funeral had taken place and rented out the property only a few weeks after. He did not register the rental of the property with the appropriate authorities. The house was not insured and no contract was in place with the tenant. He did not remove any of my wife's parent's belongings or furniture. These were left for the tenant to package up and store outside the house in a lean-to garage. Anything my wife would have wanted to keep as a memento has now gone. We imagine photographs, letters etc are all destroyed.

He continues to attempt to insult our family via social media and any other means at his disposal, though we have blocked him wherever we can.

He has made no attempt to instigate a probate application himself nor is he showing any signs of cooperating with us. My wife's mother had always insisted that there was enough money in her accounts to pay for the funeral expenses. This proved not to be the case and we made up the difference.

To ensure that justice is served and the wishes of the deceased are respected, we are in need of financial assistance to cover the mounting legal fees. Every donation, no matter the size, will bring us one step closer to holding this person accountable and ensuring a just resolution. We kindly request your generosity in helping us fight for what is rightfully ours and stand against dishonesty. Any contribution will make a significant difference in our pursuit of justice. Thank you in advance for your support and belief in our case.

[i-did-not-mean-to]

Sugar and spice

My dear friend @lordoftherazzles has been good enough to submit a prompt.

As Razzy is a known and very skilled Bagginshielder, I have done my best to write a small treat for her with her blorbos.

I love you and I hope this makes you smile!

Words: 1,4 k

Warnings: Cursing and slight sexual innuendo

Characters: Bagginshield

Bilbo stared at his reflection in the mirror and decided that his cream-coloured button-down and the matching tan formal trousers were good enough for the ominous blind date he had been browbeaten into by his dear cousin Primula.

As far as he had understood the good woman – he had to admit that he had not entirely paid attention to her lengthy explanation – she and an unnamed friend of hers had organised what Primula was sure would turn out to be a very successful date.

With a deep sigh, Bilbo admitted that he loved his cousin more than he had ever told her and thus, he finally had agreed – not without putting up a little bit of a fight to keep things interesting, of course – to attend the proposed dinner in a shockingly expensive downtown restaurant that would be entirely financed by her magnanimous generosity.

Naturally, he found it incredibly insulting that she seemed so offended by his single status that she’d rope in not one but two other people to amend said circumstance, but he also knew that she meant well; moreover, he trusted her not to have chosen a complete dud. How bad could it be?

As soon as – upon arriving at the excessively upscale eatery – he informed the stuffy headwaiter of his arrival though and was consequently led to a secluded table – candles, cloth napkins, and the whole spiel in glaring evidence – he had to bite back a guffaw.

“Good evening Thorin,” he greeted casually and stretched out a jovial hand for the other man to shake.

“I should have known,” Thorin grinned with a boyish grimace that made his handsome face light up with mischief.

“I take it that the mysterious friend is Knitting-circle-Ori then,” Bilbo commented as he handed over his coat to the waiting server who did his best not to betray any kind of emotion.

Rifling through his hazy memories, Bilbo tried to recall the exact words Primula had used upon explaining how she had set up this romantic farce.

“You know him?” Thorin asked as he tapped his finger against his empty glass to signal his wish for another beer.

“We are in the same book club, yes,” Bilbo acquiesced without looking up from the wine menu; a dry white wine might do the trick, he thought, and promptly ordered a glass of crisp Pinot Gris from his favourite vineyard.

“He’s distant kin,” Thorin explained glumly. “Who is his co-conspirator?”

“My cousin Primula; she’s very close kin to me.” Bilbo couldn’t suppress his grin when Thorin’s face froze into a mask of shocked betrayal; apparently, Primula was known to him and he – like many a man before him – had been duped by her rosy complexion and her easy smiles.

“We met at a dart championship,” Thorin muttered morosely. “I’d never have thought her capable of such duplicity.”

He seemed visibly impressed with the devious machinations of two of the most placid and easy-going people in their lives, but Bilbo realised just as clearly that Primula and Ori had overlooked one crucial point: if they knew one another as well as their chosen victims, how on earth had they expected Bilbo and Thorin never to have met one another?

It was true that they had never spoken much, but – as two men past their prime who were interested in other men – they had necessarily crossed paths before.

“Well, you strike me as the kind of man who’d frequent this kind of establishment more often than me,” Thorin then said amiably, “so I defer to your wisdom. I cannot make head nor tail of half the things on the menu.”

As an avid foodie, Bilbo was in his element right away and they spent the next minutes sipping their drinks and philosophising about the truly awful names the wanna-be-trendy restaurant had slapped upon the most mundane of dishes.

When the much put-upon waiter finally had secured their orders, Bilbo leaned back in his chair and eyed Thorin with unabashed interest. He had believed himself past the age where bad boys in black shirts made his heart beat faster, but the quick wit and sparkling humour the man sitting across from him hid so masterfully under a thick layer of blasé pugnaciousness made his stomach clench with another kind of hunger.

Despite the silver streaks adorning that raven hair, Thorin could boast cheekbones one could cut cheese with and bright blue eyes that glinted with every word he spoke; he was a handsome man and moreover, surprisingly good company.

Indeed, the dinner ended up being – as predicted by a smug Primula – truly delightful. In truth, Bilbo generally dreaded overly formal settings and Thorin’s outspoken impatience with the pomp chased away much of the breathless, muted tension these establishments cultivated like precious fungi.

“Do you think they’ll check on us?” Thorin drawled, letting his eyes wander across the tastefully decorated room. Mindful of the potential scrutiny of the orchestrators of this date, they had decided to share a platter of miniature desserts – all of them delicious and disgracefully tiny – and were presently fighting discreetly for the last bite of mousse au chocolat.

He might have been an expert at throwing pointy things at cork boards, but Thorin was no match for Bilbo with a spoon and so he had to admit his defeat and withdraw, watching that gooey treasure disappear behind soft, plush lips.

The sound of sensual pleasure escaping Bilbo as he truly savoured his victory made Thorin’s skin tingle and he almost ordered another mousse just to hear it again; it had been some time since he had heard such bone-melting sounds fall like summer berries from the inviting, shapely mouth of another man who was neither an idiot nor a cold-blooded player.

“I guess that Primula will not be able to resist,” Bilbo finally replied, the tip of his tongue tracing his bottom lip slowly to make sure that he had not missed a single crumb of the sugary goodness they had just indulged in.

“Should we…” Thorin fell silent again, but he saw the echo of his own devious plan flare in those vivid, hazel eyes. A ferocious grin stretched across Bilbo’s soft, gentle face as he nodded ponderously.

“Yes,” he said, “yes, indeed, I think we should make them pay for their ill-advised idiocy!”

The restaurant sat at the end of a cul-de-sac like a plump housecat, but there were plenty of pubs and bars further up the street; it did not take long for the improbable couple to catch a glimpse of their respective tormentors, huddled by the front window of a cosy ice-cream parlour.

“What do you propose?” Bilbo asked, tilting up his face adoringly at Thorin while making sure that the yellowish light from the nearby streetlamp fell squarely on his soft features to make sure that his persiflage of an enamoured expression could easily be caught by the two knitting-needle-wielding fiends across the street.

“I don’t know,” Thorin replied without moving his mouth overmuch for fear that either one of their spectators would be able to read his lips. “How far are you willing to go?”

A small twitch of that button nose as Bilbo was pondering the question furiously made him lift his massive paw to cup Bilbo’s soft, beardless cheek and caress it with a lazy swirl of his cool thumb.

“Kiss me,” Bilbo then breathed, getting increasingly caught-up in a fantasy of his own making. “Do it as if you meant it!”

His eyes fluttered shut dramatically as Thorin bent down in slow-motion.

“Easy peasy lemon squeezy,” Thorin muttered into the steadily diminishing space between his own lips and Bilbo’s. “I’ll get back that last bit of mousse yet!”

Before Bilbo could either laugh or protest, firm lips – warm and surprisingly tender – were pressed against his own; his fingers flew up to card through that unexpectedly soft beard while his other hand clawed itself into a solid, strong shoulder.

Who would have thought that playing darts against Primula gave one that kind of body?

As Thorin deepened the kiss, his own hands coming to rest possessively on the small of Bilbo’s back, every rational thought of retribution and vengeful pretence flew apart.

Suddenly, the very same indecently tremulous sound slipped out of Bilbo’s mouth and melted in a cloud of chocolate and sugar on Thorin’s tongue.

“Fuck them,” Thorin groaned, tightening his hold on Bilbo’s soft body. “They might well have been right, damn them!”

“Thorin?” Bilbo looked up almost shyly, his tongue darting out once more to check his lips for overlooked delicacies. “You’ll never guess what is sitting in my fridge.”

“Please say it’s a mousse,” Thorin begged; in truth, he didn’t care one bit. All he really wanted was for this fake date not to end just yet.

“It’s a blueberry one,” Bilbo, pulling himself up by slinging his arms around Thorin’s neck, purred seductively into his ear. “Interested?”

So, @fellowshipofthefics, this was the third for today. @sunnyrosewritesstuff, I'll get onto yours as soon as I'm up and about again tomorrow.

Lots of love from me <3

[graciousdragon]

The time I wrote gay fanfiction for an English project and got an A

I saw a video earlier today that reminded me of something that happened to me a few years ago, and I figured now was as good a time as any to share it. I know this is the fake story website but please trust me when I say that this is an entirely true story. This title is also 100% accurate, surprisingly, so let me elaborate

This happened when I was in 8th grade, which for context was about 4 years ago when I’m writing this. One of the books we were assigned to read in my English class that year was The Call of the Wild by Jack London. For a brief summary if you weren’t forced to read it (or you were and you forgot what it was about, which is understandable), the book is about this Saint Bernard named Buck who lives a cushy life with his wealthy owner until he is kidnapped and sold off to be a sled dog during the gold rush, where he learns to obey the humans and follow his primal instincts, eventually becoming the leader of the sled dog pack and then becoming fully wild. From what I remember, our class was assigned three projects pertaining to the book; one somewhere in the middle of the book where we had to design a poster for the fight between Buck and Spitz, one at the very end that was just your standard essay about the theme of the book or something like that, and one in-between those that I will be talking about here.

The Call of the Wild is a relatively short book at only 7 chapters. Leading up to this project, we read through every chapter except for the last one. Instead of reading the last chapter right away, we were given a project where we all had to individually write our own conclusion to the book without reading the actual last chapter. I was mildly peeved, because I just wanted to finish the book, but I figured it might be fun. If i remember correctly, there weren’t really any restrictions for what we could or couldn’t do, aside from it obviously needing to be a continuation of the book using the same characters. In the document we were given that explained the project there were some suggestions for things we could include in our chapter, one of which was bringing back previous characters who had died. My favorite character in the book was Sol-leks, a husky on Buck’s sled team with only one eye, and he got killed at the end of chapter 5 when his new incompetent owners lead him over frozen water that breaks under them and causes them to drown. I decided to bring back Sol-leks for my chapter.

Now is where that title comes in. I truly wish I could go back to my 8th grade self and figure out what the hell caused me to take this route with my chapter, because on reflection I cannot figure it out. For whatever reason, likely just for shits and giggles, I decided it would be fun to imply romantic feelings between Buck and Sol-leks. That’s right everyone, in 8th grade I wrote a gay romance subplot between two of the dogs in The Call of the Wild for a graded English assignment. It wasn’t a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it thing either, I had an entire paragraph in there dedicated to how the two spent a lot of time together and got to know each other well and had a special bond that I flat-out said was more than friendship. And I submitted it like that. Where I live, its kind of a roulette of guessing whether someone is homophobic or not, so I wasn’t sure if I might get in trouble for my gay dog story, but I knew if any teacher or faculty member tried to give me shit for it then I would 100% be going to bat for my little Buck x Sol-leks fanfic. Fortunately, I never got in any trouble, and my teacher gave me an A. (if i remember correctly it was a 96 or 97% out of 100) I believe the teacher may have also left comments on it when she graded it, but I don’t remember what they were if there were any. Which leads me to the sad part of this story.

I can’t find the original writing.

I don’t have it saved anywhere, and my school email account I wrote it with is long gone now. Even when I still had access to it, for some reason I was unable to find it in my Google Drive. I couldn’t even find the instruction document or the grading rubric. Not having access to this writing piece is truly one of the worst regrets of my life. I would give almost anything to have it back. I’m genuinely sad I don’t have it anymore. Fortunately, I still remember how it went, so I’ll give you all an abridged version of it here.

For context, in the chapter before this, Buck’s new owner John Thornton had made a bet with a man named Matthewson in a bar that Buck could pull a 1,000 pound sled for 100 yards. Buck succeeded and Thornton won the bet, but Matthewson offered a large sum to buy Buck that Thornton refused.

My chapter began with Buck, Thornton, and Thornton’s other dogs traveling through a wooded area when Buck heard a familiar whimpering. Buck followed the sound to find Sol-leks, cold and alone in the forest. My explanation for how he survived was that he was able to get out of the water and got lost in the woods. Thornton took Sol-leks in to nurse him back to health like he had with Buck, noticing that Sol-leks was one of the other dogs on Buck’s team when Thornton first found him. Over this time when Sol-leks was recovering he and Buck became very close, which is where that previously mentioned paragraph insinuating that they were falling in love comes in. When Sol-leks was healthy again, he joined Thornton’s sled dog team and they continued traveling. However, one night while they were camped outside, Matthewson tracked them down and, still bitter about losing the bet and not being able to buy Buck, planned to steal Buck instead. Buck was captured by Matthewson, but before he could get away, Sol-leks realized he was there trying to steal Buck and attacked him. Buck got free and watched for a moment, thankful that Sol-leks cared so much for him that he would put himself in harm’s way to save him, before Buck joined in on the fight. I don’t remember if they killed Matthewson or just drove him away, but they were able to continue their journey together.

And that’s how it ended. For the most part this story really only exists in my memories, but there are fortunately two things to prove this thing was real and not just a weird fever dream I had that got confused with reality. First is the memories from my friends who also went to middle school with me and remember doing the project themselves. The other one is this page in my sketchbook from 8th grade, in which I drew my own designs of Buck and Sol-leks. The drawing on the bottom was directly based on a scene in my story.

(For some reason its not letting me put the picture in this post, I’m going to post this as-is and reblog it with the picture)

Will I ever revisit this idea again? Maybe. If I have the time someday and the urge strikes me I won’t rule out the potential of me doing something with it. Do I think Buck x Sol-leks is a good ship? I don’t know. I haven’t read the original book in years, so maybe if I went back and read it with fresh eyes I would think differently. Sorry if there are any die-hard The Call of the Wild fans out there who were just scarred by my potentially horrid misinterpretations of these characters.

Also, the song I associated with the ship was The Sharpest Lives by My Chemical Romance.

[causemufins]

I'm a smaller blog so this might not go far, but I figured I could add in some more info that's more in depth. (mainly bc i have adhd and cannot be succinct no matter how hard i try)

when changing your icon, please don't make it a real person unless it is some fun image of a very recognizable celebrity. most people see the default icon or an icon of an irl person and block and report on sight

you may see this elsewhere, but please turn off/snooze tumblr live and don't use it. you can do that in settings>dashboard>preferences>snooze tumblr live. it only lasts for 7 days and you have to go back in every week and turn it off and on again.

While you're technically fine to use it, it steals a lot of data to the point that isn't present in certain countries due to their privacy laws

@.Staff is of course the staff's tumblr blog where they will mention big things to tumblr. From what I've seen, it's mainly for show and getting upset and mentioning them in a post won't do much.

they also have @.support as well as @.changes as other blogs. I recommend at the very least following the latter as they post every tuesday and friday with what changes and bugfixes have been made as well as what they are aware of and are trying to fix or stuff that may be upcoming.

people are most likely to reblog and put stuff in their tags as their comments on the post, but reblogging and actually adding a piece to the post is fine too. Usually that's done when you want to add content to the post that will hopefully be used going forward as tags only exist on your reblog and disappear when someone reblogs from you.

As said, Likes are similar to saving a post. Think of them as bookmarks in a way. One way I've found they work best is for people's compilation posts as likes will change along with any edits made to the post (or the specific reblog you're looking at) while reblogging saves the specific version you see and will not change even if the OP changes it or even deletes it.

I believe while there's technically no karma limits for reblogging as you can reblog anything you see, whether from being posted a minute ago or from years and years ago, there is a post/reblog limit. But I think it's like, 250 a day and I've never personally managed to reach that.

You don't *need* to make a second account or anything as you can make sideblogs. sideblogs are connected to your account but are otherwise just like every other blog. You can make one to reblog all the fun stuff you see with no regard for theme while having another that's a fandom specific blog, and another where you just post original content.

The only big difference between main and sideblogs is that if you like, reply, or send an ask, it will always show up as your main blog. You can reblog to any of your sideblogs, and you have messaging for each individual blog, but those first three are always linked to your main blog

along with your account and dashboard settings, you also have settings for each individual blog. Your main blog will have options to show off the posts you have liked and the blogs you follow

all the blogs will have options for people to send asks, submit posts, messaging, visibility, etc etc. these are unique to each blog so you can allow asks in one, but none for another. Asks and submissions also have extra options for allowing people to send things anonymously so they could hide their account or send without having an account.

Also, please enable the custom theme for your blogs. If you want to actually customize your theme, you are free to, but there is a default 'custom' theme in place when you turn it on. There's still a few things that are sort of broken with the non-custom themes so it's helpful to have the custom theme. Plus, people can look at the default or the custom theme based on their preferences and aren't just limited to the dashboard styled default.

Because I see someone asking in the post's replies, to turn off the algorithm, the options are in settings>dashboard>preferences along with the tumblr live switch. the toggle itself is labeled 'Best Stuff First' and turning it off makes your dashboard appear in reverse chronological order (most recent stuff first, getting older as you scroll down)

Just because It might not be clear to new people (i've been on here for years, so don't know what tumblr tells you when you make you account) the icons you'll see in the top right on desktop are as follows:

- House icon is the dashboard. this is where you see all the posts of people you follow. If you have 'stuff in your orbit' 'based on your likes' and 'included followed tag posts' turned on, you will intermittently see some of those woven into your dashboard. these will be labeled as such and also won't be in chronological order like the rest

-Compass icon is the explore page. this is where you can see stuff from today (reblogged from @.todayontumblr), stuff the site thinks is for you, what is trending (which lists the top few trending tags, which i can only ever see 8 of), staff picks, and then 'more' is to see top posts based on type of post (ie: text post, photo post, videos, music/sounds, etc)

-the other house looking icon with the decorative roof is the tumblr shop 'tumblrmart', which is a drop down menu to buy things for your tumblr blog (mainly badges) or real life merch like tshirts, water bottles, stickers, etc

-Envelope is your ask box. this is where you will receive the asks people send you, and also responses to your own asks as long as you didn't enable asking anonymously. these can be divided based on your blog.

-Chat Bubble icon with the smiley face is your messages. You can see your messages with other users, and clicking on your own blog name will let you swap between your blogs.

-Lightning Bolt icon is your notification feed. this will tell you when someone reblogs or likes a post from you. you will get this if they are reblogging or liking a post you reblogged, but you will also get notifications for posts you make and when they are liked/reblogged from other people's blogs. This will also tell you when someone follows you, posts a reply on on of your posts, or mentions you by putting an @ before your blog name. (note the @ can appear in a post or in replies, but shouldn't work in tags). Click on the little spike graph to see more in detail

-The Person icon is a drop down menu for your account. this is where you can get to your likes, who you're following, your settings and your blogs. your blogs have their own sections to see their posts, followers, etc. The main drop down also has the logout button (if for some reason you want to use that (/joke)) but it also has dashboard themes(change palette) and keyboard shortcuts. if you see someone take a screenshot of a post and it is colored differently from what you see, that's probably because they use a different theme.

Theme 1 is the default, 2 is dark mode, 3 is low contrast blue. Those are the most basic ones and then the others are more fancy. 4 is Cement which is white background with light gray for everything else (essentially light mode). 5 Cybernetic is black with neon green text and accents. 6 Canary is essentially Cement, but in light yellows instead of bright whites and very light grays. 7 Ghost is even brighter than cement, going for a pure white other than black text, and any colored things being red. 8 Vampire is similar to dark, but with red accents and also a serif font. 9 Pumpkin also has a serif font that gives you dark oranges and purple accents on a black background as well as orange text. 10 Snow Bright is ghost without the red accents instead making those a light gray. 11 Goth Rave is dark purple on a black background with purple and blue accents with most text being purple but some as blue. and finally 12 Pride a bright neon pink background, white backed posts with purple text, other text being a bright yellow for a pink lemonade vibe on the pink background, and 0 0 255 blue for buttons. All of 12 is super super saturated.

With all the shortcuts, the ones to use most are J and K to scroll down and up 1 post at a time. Very helpful with long posts, but these only really work on desktop. Sorry to users on the app or on mobile browser.

A tumblr users suggest switching to Firefox. You don't have to, but just be aware you might see that here and there, like for certain extensions. They can be found on other browsers, but tend to work best on Firefox for Tumblr. Mainly since most other browsers actually still track you when you're incognito and are breaking ad blocker. Either way, check out the aforementioned XKit Rewritten.

No one cares about follower count. No one can see your follower count unless you take a screenshot and post it. And Honestly, sometimes less followers is better. You could make 1 post that gets thousands of notes, but still get few followers from it while your other posts are getting at most ten notes.

And also I'm going to say it again, treat Likes like they are saves or bookmarks. People can hide their likes so the only person who knows you liked it is the people who made the post and whose specific reblog you liked. It is you taking a thing you like and putting it in a chest of things you like for only you to see. It gets the post notes, but not much else. Reblogs are what you should do. If you have a blog theme and it doesn't fit, make a side blog for all your reblogs.

While Likes get notes on a post, it only goes so far. A person can make a post and then 3 of their followers like it, and then that's it. But if one of their followers reblog, then their followers see it, and then theirs see it. so on and so forth. You are most likely to see reblogs and most content people follow you for is going to be reblogs. Reblogs are the lifeblood of Tumblr and it is how the site functions, so it won't work as well without them.

Also, while you can post just pure original content, Tumblr leans into fandoms and also sort of absurdist humor. A lot of posts will reference other posts that got reblogged so much that it's a site wide inside joke (color of the sky, spiders georg, color theory, shoelaces, jpegs like dolls, etc etc.

Also I know it's unfortunately become recent tumblr culture, but please please please do not tag a reblog as 'prev tags' unless you are adding a screenshot of the tags to the post in your reblog or quote the tags in your own tags. When you reblog a post, your reblog can keep existing even if the one you reblogged gets deleted, so if that happens, people can go to look at prev tags and find tumblr saying 'there's nothing here. the post they reblogged or the tumblr they reblogged from no longer exists, so those prev tags also no longer exist'

That's all I can think of, but others can add on as well. Some people may not like new users, but that's only because new users don't know how tumblr works and it becomes obvious if you try to treat it like other sites (mainly like twitter, so you guys have a leg up coming from not there).

obligatory welcome guide for redditors

A lot of the guides I've seen don't actually seem to understand how reddit works in comparison to tumblr so

your blog is basically your own small subreddit. some people curate this heavily to fit a theme, like a sub, most people don't

reblogs are culturally equivilant to upvotes but functionally equvilant to crossposting

there is an algorithm. it sucks and nobody uses it. turn it off in settings. everything is generally chronological

likes are functionally equivilant to saving a post

you've probably already seen this but change your icon and put something in your bio or people WILL assume you're a bot. personal info not required

generally, anything you would put as a comment on a thread should go in the tags or the replies of a post. only add comments in reblogs if you want it to become part of the base post

tags are mostly equivilant to flairs, used for organization and commentary

your dashboard is an aggregation of everyone you follow

there is an r/all equivilant(trending page) but it sucks and nobody uses it

our search also sucks. your best bet is using tumblr.com/tagged/[TAG] and not /search

there are no mods

by extension, reporting something doesn't put it in front of the mods, it sends it to staff, who may or may not do anything(usually they don't)

there is no karma, there are no karma limits. anyone can reblog anything, comment/reply to anything, or post in any tag

"reposting"(reblogging) old content doesn't matter. people can and will reblog the same post multiple times, including in a row

CAVEAT. reposting someones art(NOT reblogging, making a new post) is a dick move. i know this is commonplace on fandom subs but its not necessary here. everything you post should be [OC] unless you are reblogging. or posting shitty memes

we have our own sitelore, you'll pick it up

(though im not opposed to bringing some over from reddit)

our app also sucks. we do not have third party apps and any that claim to be are scams. sorry

for desktop, most people use the XKit Rewritten extension for QoL improvements and to revert shitty aesthetic updates, much like old.reddit

we have no idea where the porn rules are at either. add a mature content flag to anything you'd get fired for looking at at work, that's about it

finally, from the bottom of my heart, fuck u/spez

[maximuswolf]

Music Tiktok makes me sad

Music Tiktok makes me sad Tiktok is actually a horrifying app.I went on there today for the first time in a while and in like 20 seconds the algorithm figured out that I really like music so it adjusted my entire fyp to only music tiktok.And even though the app brings fans of all genres of music together so they can share with each other which is really cool, it is also destroying zoomers ability to just enjoy music. Of all the posts I saw, you literally cannot listen to ANY genre of music on this app without getting shat on by someone annoying. Its worse than reddit its worse than you can imagine. Ive never seen elitism like this in my life. Any and all subgenres of rap, metal, pop, indie, emo, dance, electronic, hardcore, none of it is safe. Its this insane phenomenon where entire genres will become super trendy and popular, which is great I think, but then once "everyone" (tiktok users) discover it, it's not obscure anymore, so they make fun of the fans and then these people who actually like the music will be afraid to listen to it because they dont want to be associated with "tiktok music". And the funny thing is, the music is never actually that popular. Like lots of the genres I saw literally nobody irl will know what any of it is, but in their tiktok echo chamber algorithm nightmare realm, it seems like EVERYONE likes X genre, making it seem more popular than it is. Once an artist gets 100k listeners, its over. It's "mainstream" and the fans will get made fun of and not listen to the music anymore. The best and most well known example of this is deftones. I saw so many posts of "deftones this, deftones fans ___, "deftones phase". Comments of people saying how they used to like "X" band, but now that its popular they dont listen for fear of being associated with a certain crowd. But I guarantee you deftones isnt even that popular irl, its literally all tiktok zoomers.I dont care that artists get popular I think its great and good to help smaller artists blow up. I am the #1 hater of gatekeeping i think gatekeeping is for spineless losers with no sense of identity. Thats not why im sad. Im sad that tiktok is really just emphasizing how afraid people are to just do things they like and be themselves and not care what anyone else thinks. But with this "tiktokification" of music, it seems like its turning it into a massive competition of being more cool than everyone else. Like do these people even like the music they listen to? idk I just had to rant and see if anyone else noticed this. Also will admit that maybe this isnt even that big of a problem and it just seems like it is to me because of this brainrot app that feeds me this algorithm. Like i said, tiktok is horrifying (to me). Submitted July 01, 2024 at 12:29AM by Nuggetmaster0512 https://ift.tt/rJCpgLo via /r/Music