#thinking about either the last week of august or first week of september

[agentcaboose]

RVB RarePair Event stuff:

Ok so I was thinking of hosting an appreciation week, something relaxed and fun

Each day would have a theme like aus or sapphic ships. I would love some theme suggestions!

All fanarts, fanfics, memes, and general discussion posts will be welcome!

Please comment or reblog your thoughts, and my inbox is always open for questions and rarepair talk!

[fullcoffeemoon-nem]

Timeline Theory

New upgrade here!!

First post: 09-21-23

Second update: 11-14-23

Third update: 05-01-24 (+ S2 Theory link)

Fourth update: 06-03-24 (+ S2 Theory upload)

Last update: 04-12-24

——————————————

Hi there!

After another re-watch and the head to pay attention to the small details, perhaps I have reconstructed a possible

Timeline of Helluva Boss

It would be better to define them as hypotheses. First of all, here is an outline of the episodes and their release dates.

I also included the one whose title we know, just for the sake of general overview. The theory for the moment covers 2 seasons out of 4 announced.

Here the synthetic timeline. From the estimate version I have removed the year here, we'll get to the reason.

Here I also report some of my thoughts:

Already from the first episodes there's a strong focus on clocks and time, it is much more striking in Oops, where Asmodeus' clock marks the whole day.

I'm not sure about the year, but also from the analyzes carried out later, 2021 could be the year of the narrative arc that goes from Murder Family to Ozzie's for sure.

(*) The Verosika's tour t-shirt was official and linked to the episode, at the moment I'm undecided on its validity at the year level, althought the date could be very possible.

However, my research started with Seeing Stars because it's the first episode to feature an almost specific date: the 20th of a 30-day month.

In my opinion it could be April chronologically and it's agreed with the information in the subsequent episodes.

The only problem is that the full moon would't coincide with what was marked by Blitz.

Noteworthy:

Blitz's calendar suggests that the full moon in that month is the 14th.

Stolas wrote in the Western Energy chat that Blitz was supposed to come that evening and that therefore the full moon was the 20th.

We are certainly either in 2021 or beyond given Moxxie's coin in Seeing Stars.

From the chat we can understand that:

About a month passes between the trio Ozzie's - Queen Bee - The Circus (1 moon)

About 3 months pass between Seeing Stars and Western Energy (3 moons)

Western Energy is placed a week before Oops and among these there's Unhappy Campers

From Millie's flyer we know that her and Moxxie's mission ends on Friday July 17th. We know from Blitz that this lasted a week, so it started on Monday 13th July.

According to what Striker says to Crisom, Western Energy should be set around July 11th and Oops around July 18th.

We should be in 2022 though, but in that case July 17th was a Sunday.

In Mammon's magnificent concert Blitz says on the call with Ozzie that it's a weekend.

There are two options:

It could be set on the week parallel (July 21-22th or 28-29th) to the events of Western-Unhappy-Oops.

It could be set on the following month (August).

Here we come to the gap:

(*) The Mammon's official t-shirt is clearly linked to the episode, but the date (2023) and month (October) cause the information to conflict.

So, at this point we have this options:

The official t-shirts are tied exclusively to the release date of the episode.

They are official only at the date level.

They're official and we're actually 2 years removed from Murder Family.

I think it is more canonical to consider a connection with the month of July shown in the episode and maintain the hypothesis.

Seeing Stars -> April

Wester Energy to Oops -> July

Full Moon → September or October 29th

In Apology Tour we have confirmation from multiple characters (and from the visit to Earth) that it is October 31th.

From the argument between Blitz and Stolas, it seems that it was 1 or 2 days after Full Moon. This creates some contradictions with the canonical month of the previous episode.

There are three options:

Full Moon Calendar has an "error"

It's been longer than it seems

Earth and Hell don't have the same chronological flow

I don't know which option to prefer.

From Ghost fu**ers the only information obtained is at the beginning of the episode:

Millie claims to Loona at the beginning of the episode that Blitz's crisis has been going on for over a month.

The client says that her murder occurred the day before, a Wednesday. So the current date is a Thursday.

We should be in November, if we consider that before this episode the 3 Shorts are placed probably at the end of the month.

(link Viv post about the Shors click here)

I was hoping Mastermind would give us some more details, but it seems either we're happy with the episode or we find different lines. Incredible, an episode with so many media, chats, newspapers, live broadcasts, posts and articles and not even a shred of date. We only have the usual clock that marks everything between the afternoon and the evening.

We have to wait for Sinsmas (obviously set in December) and hope that something more will be mentioned.

So that's what we now:

——————————————

As for the analysis with the theories on the trailer shown to us at the LVL UP on April 29th, for now I'll leave the post as it is. I don't think it makes sense to correct the opinions (only Sinsmas is missing), at most I'll modify it in terms of the relationship between Blitz and Stolas.

You can read it here.

I will let you now if I change it.

——————————————

In the end, I deleted Sinstagram post analytics for two reasons:

They hadn't reached this point in the serie

The Spindlehorse she disconnected from those accounts, making everything "useless"

( @timkontheunsure thanks anyway for the suggestion)

——————————————

What a mess...

What do you think about it?

Have you noticed any other details that could clarify the mystery? Make me know it and let's solve the mystery together :}

From Nem is all,

Bye~

[wrathofresistantx]

Bastian Bosse’s LiveJournal Activity (Part One)

On September 2nd, 2004, Bastian Bosse created his LiveJournal account. He posted to this account between September 2004 and August 2005, with his first entry being on September 2nd, 2004, and his last being on August 15th, 2005.

He posted his first entry on September 2nd, writing:

“So first, I have to try out how this works ...”

His entries during this time were about his airsoft guns and problems he was having at school, with him writing on September 8th:

“Well first of all, I got to class late, and they wrote me up. That’s especially good, when it happens on the first class with a new teacher! Well, it was only Religion ... the subject where they tell you such garbage that you like to go to class because it is so funny ... Our new topic: (for the third time) “Satanism / Occultism.” Oh man!

Then I rushed home after school and had to find out that my mom snooped around my stuff again a little ... Well, maybe they are just worried ...”

On March 7th 2005, he began posting again on his LiveJournal account, which he hadn’t posted to since September 15th, 2004. His post on this day mentioned being teased by his classmates, as he wrote:

“Other than that, really nothing spectacular happened during the week. I had to listen to the usual crap, like “Hey look! There is the Matrix-Man!” Looooooool, nitwits!”

On April 3rd, he wrote about ordering an MP5-SD6 airsoft machine gun online and not receiving the money on time:

“Then I ordered an MP5-SD6 AEG during break and told them that I would transfer the money on April 2nd . .. and what’s happening? The guy who is supposed to buy my old G36c is not coming, and now I don’t have the money .. . great!”

On May 15th, he wrote two entries, with one talking about his attitude to life:

“The longer I think about life, the more I realize how senseless it actually is ... Somebody is born, has a good life for 6 years, but then gets enrolled in school. Then unconsciously, he has to make a decision; do I stay the way I am or do I conform to the others? To be more precise, do I remain strong or do I become my own traitor?”

And the other mentioned a girl called Nadine:

“There is no progress with Nadine . . . I blame this sick HipHop Music that all the kids listen to . . . you have to go crazy and only talk shit. I HATE EVERYTHING!!! What’s up with all that shit??? Did I come to this damn world to be the idiot next door, my whole life? What should I do here? What are all of us supposed to do here?”

He wrote on May 16th:

“I am thinking about just dropping out of school next year, so I don’t have to see their faces anymore, so I don’t have to hear their voices anymore. No idea, if I should do that . . .”

He also responded to an online friend of his that commented:

“is it really that bad at your school? mhm, yeah, I was also glad when I was allowed to leave...”

“Indirectly. The fact that I am older than those in my class makes things significantly easier, in other words, it is not like it was in my old class, in which I was humiliated. But those people are all such complete morons; either over the top clowns or blowhard potheads, who consider themselves the greatest.”

His entries throughout May discussed his growing collection of airsoft guns. However in this period he also bought a Colt pistol, which he was able to test on May 18th:

"Then I was finally able to test my Colt, was a little lame, but nice ;) Other than that, nothing happened."

On May 23rd he wrote:

“Tomorrow is the 24th, Tuesday .. . and what will happen? NOTHING!!! I hate it, I hate to always be everybody’s dimwit. I hate to always be portrayed as a dork. I hate to always be the individual who seems unnecessary, but I hate it even more when people try to betray me . .. LH !!! Who do you think you are? What do you think you can get away with? Who gives you the right to breathe my air?”

“I am done with the world, I feel outcasted by it and hope for change. But how do we define such change? Or even more important: What am I doing here?”

His entries from this point forward would become a lot longer and discussed his thoughts on life, his guns, and his views on people at his school.

[End of Part One]

I'm doing this in two parts, otherwise this post would get stupidly long and a bit boring, both for me to write and for everyone else to read.

[boundforfreedomsonsal]

ANNOUNCING…”BOUND FOR FREEDOM WEEK”, YEAR 6!

(Artwork by @starlitskvader​)

WELCOME BACK ONCE AGAIN, EVERYBODY!

Apologies for the delay on our announcement this year; Real Life has been especially busy for your friendly neighborhood Mod, so I haven't had my usual time/energy to prepare. But I'm ready now, so let's all begin preparing for...

BOUND FOR FREEDOM: SONIC x SALLY WEEK, YEAR SIX!

To make up for the late announcement, this year our week-long event will run from SATURDAY, AUGUST 31st TO SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7th!  You can participate either by submitting directly to this blog, or else by tagging your post with any of these tags: #boundforfreedom, #sonally week, and/or #sonsal week (make sure to include at least one of these tags within the first five tags of the post so that they will show up in Tumblr’s Search).  If your submission is not reblogged here within 24 hours, please message either this blog directly, or the blog runner, @gojira007​

As has become tradition, our usual daily prompts will be unified this time around by a THEME!  You’re free to make of that theme what you like; maybe you use it to supplement your piece or link your contributions together, or maybe you use the Theme itself as your inspiration if the daily prompt isn’t really doing it for you, or maybe you just ignore it all together!  But whatever you want to do with it, the theme is there to help really bring this year’s event to life.  

And as to what that theme is? Well, last year was a Big Anniversary, the 30th anniversary of the SatAM cartoon that introduced us to this Ship in the first place! After a big event like that, things can't just go back to normal; it often means you have to reflect on things, to look forward and see what lies ahead. So in keeping with that?

THIS YEAR’S THEME IS…“CHANGES”!

As always, All mediums are welcome!  Fan art, fanfiction, headcanons, whatever you can think of…as long as it’s about showing some love for Sonic x Sally, it’s welcome here, so long as it follows our rules, which you can read here: https://boundforfreedomsonsal.tumblr.com/aboutrules

In addition to this year’s new prompts listed below, you are also free to use the prompts from previous years as well, which you can find in our Prompts archive here: https://boundforfreedomsonsal.tumblr.com/prompts

If you aren’t able to submit in time for a day’s prompt, don’t worry about it!  We’ll continue to accept submissions for all prompts starting from the day the new prompt is introduced onward (and yes, that does include promots from past years).

If you want to begin preparing in advance, our new prompts are listed below the cut.

I look forward to seeing what everybody has to offer, and I’m very eager to share my own SonSal Love too. ^_^  

2024 Theme: CHANGES

Day One (Satujrday, August 31st): “AGE”

Day Two (Sunday, September 1st): “SCENERY”

Day Three (Monday, September 2nd): “FASHION” 

Day Four (Wednesday, September 3rd): “DIRECTION”

Day Five (Thursday, September 4th): “MIND”

Day Six (Friday, September 5th): “REFLECTION”

Day Seven (Saturday, September 6th): “TRANSFORMATION”

Day Eight (Sunday, September 7th):  “FATE”

[vickyvicarious]

Letters van Helsing has now read:

9 May - "I am longing to be with you, and by the sea, where we can talk together freely [...] I shall try to do what I see lady journalists do: interviewing and writing descriptions and trying to remember conversations. I am told that, with a little practice, one can remember all that goes on or that one hears said during a day. [...] I have just had a few hurried lines from Jonathan from Transylvania. He is well, and will be returning in about a week."

24 August - "I found my dear one, oh, so thin and pale and weak-looking. All the resolution has gone out of his dear eyes, and that quiet dignity which I told you was in his face has vanished. He is only a wreck of himself, and he does not remember anything that has happened to him for a long time past. [...] ...after saying that she could never mention what my poor dear raved about, added: 'I can tell you this much, my dear: that it was not about anything which he has done wrong himself; and you, as his wife to be, have no cause to be concerned. He has not forgotten you or what he owes to you. His fear was of great and terrible things, which no mortal can treat of.' [...] I have had a great shock, and when I try to think of what it is I feel my head spin round, and I do not know if it was all real or the dreaming of a madman. You know I have had brain fever, and that is to be mad. The secret is here, and I do not want to know it. [...] I took the book from under his pillow, and wrapped it up in white paper, and tied it with a little bit of pale blue ribbon which was round my neck, and sealed it over the knot with sealing-wax, and for my seal I used my wedding ring. Then I kissed it and showed it to my husband, and told him that I would keep it so, and then it would be an outward and visible sign for us all our lives that we trusted each other; that I would never open it unless it were for his own dear sake or for the sake of some stern duty."

17 September - "Jonathan wants looking after still. He is beginning to put some flesh on his bones again, but he was terribly weakened by the long illness; even now he sometimes starts out of his sleep in a sudden way and awakes all trembling until I can coax him back to his usual placidity."

18 September - "But it is here that the grave shock that he experienced tells upon him the most. Oh, it is too hard that a sweet, simple, noble, strong nature such as his—a nature which enabled him by our dear, good friend's aid to rise from clerk to master in a few years—should be so injured that the very essence of its strength is gone."

He has also read Lucy's diary, the first entry of which (24 August) contains these lines: "I must imitate Mina, and keep writing things down. [...] Last night I seemed to be dreaming again just as I was at Whitby."

So, the impression he will have of the facts, upon writing his letter to Mina today, goes something like this:

Mina's then-fiance went to Transylvania and was supposed to return by around 16 May.

Instead, Mina found him terribly ill in a hospital in Budapest on 24 August, about three months later. He had been raving about great and terrible things, but could no longer recall them.

He had written a record of these things.

No one knows what is inside his record, but Mina has possession of it.

He is still fragile/slowly recovering.

Mina was with Lucy on Whitby, where Lucy was likely first attacked.

Mina kept a thorough record of those days.

So his goal in asking to speak to Mina is likely to try and get access to her journal from Whitby, and Jonathan's journal as well if he can manage it (less directly linked but suspicious). Not knowing that she has already read Jonathan's journal, it probably feels like a huge ask (since she sealed it up with great deliberacy) and he probably expects her to have no knowledge of the significance of anything she remembers from Whitby either. No wonder he is so polite and apologetic in his letter.

[likeadevils]

what are the dates for each of the first songs taylor wrote for each album? (aka which date did she write the first song for debut, fearless, etc etc?)

debut:

first song: a perfectly good heart, written sometime in 2003

last song: should’ve said no, written on august 10, 2006

fearless

first song on taylor’s version: you all over me, written summer 2005

first song on the platinum edition: either superstar, written sometime in 2006, or come in with the rain, written in september 2006

first song on the standard edition: white horse, written in december 2006

last song: forever and always, written september 22 2008

EDIT: totally completely forgot about mr perfectly fine, written sometime in 2009 (i’m pretty sure on march 11, 2009, but that’s a whole other rant)

speak now

first song: sparks fly, written fall 2006

the first song written purely for the album will probably be one of the vault tracks, but if this was a movie (~april 2009) is the first one we’ve heard, or maybe haunted/never grow up, which were written sometime in 2009

last song: the story of us, written and recorded between june 9-16 2010

red

first song: stay stay stay, written sometime in summer 2010

first song written purely for the album: all too well, written between december 2010-march 2011

last song (kinda): i knew you were trouble (the chorus was written as a piano ballad ~january 2012, but the verses and bridge and general sound wasn’t put together until june 2-7, 2012)

1989

first song: this love, written october 17 2012

last song: style, written february 19, 2014

reputation

first song: gorgeous, written september 2-19 2016

last song: so it goes, written september 2017 (both lwymmd AND ready for it were already released as singles this woman is INSANE)

lover (this is the one i’m shakiest on)

first song: daylight, written summer 2018

last song: i think death by a thousand cuts, which had to have been written after april 20, 2019 (for context, 6 days before me! was set to release), but i’ve seen some people say london boy, since the sample at the beginning wasn’t approved until very late (sometime in july iirc)

folklore

first song: my tears ricochet, likely written fall 2019 (taylor has said it’s the first song she wrote for folklore, we just don’t know when)

last song: hoax, written sometime in july 2020, days before the album was released

evermore

first song: dorthea, written “around folklore”, likely sometime in july 2020

last song: happiness, written in the first week of december 2020, once again days before the album was released

midnights

i straight up don’t know, but it was mostly written and recorded in november 2021

if you want to listen to the albums in order, check out my playlist!

[multifandomfanficss]

Home Is Wherever You Are P3

Adrian Chase/Vigilante x Reader

With a very heavy emphasis on platonic!Christopher Smith/Peacemaker

Part 1, Part 2, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

Adrian Chase Masterlist

Prompt: While Gut and Chris are at school you spend the day alone with Adrian. You also think you might have a plan to get home. You think you’re finally starting to get a hang of things… or are you?

Warnings: mentions of child abuse, panic, meltdown, crying, divorce, mentions of August Smith, cannon typical Peacemaker violence and language, homophobia, ableism against autistic people (people being Adrian)

A/N: Thank you so much for the feedback you guys have been giving me here and on AO3! I love seeing your guys’ comments! I really appreciate all of you!!!

You woke up quickly, jolting up from your bed in a cold sweat. You felt like you couldn’t breathe and you don’t even know when you started crying. Suddenly, you feel hands on your shoulders, applying pressure to your body.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. I’m here. It’s just me. It’s just Adrian. It was just a dream. You’re okay.” Your boyfriend comforts you.

“It was so fucking awful.” You choke on your tears, clinging to him.

“Do you wanna talk about it?” He asks, rubbing your back.

“You- you died and then I- I think I was next- a butterfly killed you and then I- I felt one going down my throat- I- I couldn’t breathe-“ You try to get out your words between sobs, finding it difficult to breathe even now. He shushes you, pulling you into his lap.

“I’m okay. You’re okay. We’re both safe. I promise.” He kisses you on the forehead. “Can you try to breathe with me?” He asks.

“I- I can’t” You cry out.

“Sure you can.” He says with love and patients. He places your hand on his chest so you can feel his chest rise a bit easier as he breathes. You place your head over his heart so you can listen to it beat. “I’m gonna count, okay? In for 4, out for 4, okay?” You nod. He counts for you. “1, 2, 3, 4. Now out, 2, 3, 4. You’re doing so good. We’re gonna go for 8 now, okay?” He makes sure you understand. You nod and he begins to count.

“1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8…”

September 7th, 1994

“…8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! Ready or not here I come, Adrian!” You yelled as you started to seek during your turn in hide and seek.

So it’s been about a week since you first got here and things haven’t gone exactly to plan, but they haven’t been completely awful either. You were currently playing with Adrian while Gut got ready for his first day of school. Chris has stayed at his dad’s last night. No matter how much you didn’t like it, Auggie was his legal guardian and he had to stay there at least some of the time. This week would be a lot of alone time with Adrian since Gut and Chris’ school started a week before Adrian’s preschool. Usually your alone time consisted of cuddling, watching movies, getting drunk, and doing…other adult things. Being alone with baby Adrian was just…weird…but you were going to make the most of it! Diane had decided earlier in the week to start giving you an allowance. It was less than a pay check, but it was enough to be able to take the boys out or just do something for yourself when you wanted to, or to even save up a little bit. She couldn’t afford to give you a steady paycheck, but throwing some extra tip money your way was something she could handle. At first you objected, but she wouldn’t let you, reminding you that you essentially work for her for free and that you’ll probably just end up spending it on the boys instead anyway. You couldn’t argue with that logic. She wasn’t wrong after all. Today you were using it to take Adrian out. It was in part to distract him from missing Gut and Chris and being nervous about his first day of preschool coming up, but in reality you had a bigger plan.

After Diane left for work, dropping Gut off at school, you got Adrian ready for the day and brought him out. You carried a tote bag slung over your shoulder as you and Adrian hopped over all the cracks on the sidewalk. “Step on cack bweak mobver’s back!” Adrian sang.

“You step on a crack, you break your mother’s back!” You sing with him. You watch Adrian bend down.

“Woah!” Adrian yells. He comes back up and turns around to run back to you. “Found a rock!” He yells.

“A rock?!” You say, as if it’s the most exciting thing in the world.

“A rock!” He parrots back, giving it to you to look at. You inspect the composition of the rock with the different colors.

“Adrian, what color is this?” You ask.

“Green!” He giggles.

“Good job! What about here?” You ask pointing to a purple area.

“Red?” He seems less sure.

“You’re very close. I suppose it’s looks a little red, but that’s purple.” You smile, saying the color slower so he has a chance to hear the sounds your mouth is making.

“P-purple” He parrots back, really hitting his p sounds hard.

“Good job! You’re so smart, Adrian!” You smile, giving him a high five. “I’m gonna put this in the bag, so we don’t lose it and we can put it in your collection when we get home.”

“Okay!” He says. It’s not long before he finds another rock…and another…and another…by the fourth rock, you didn’t really want to carry anymore. It was starting to weigh down the bag.

“Ugh!” You pretend to almost drop the bag. “This is getting so heavy!” You pretend to struggle.

“No, it’s not!” He giggles.

“You must be a lot stronger than me then! I’ll tell ya what. You pick out one more rock before the bag gets too heavy. The bag will only hold one more.” You told him.

“One more?!” He asks.

“One more, so pick something really special.” You smile at him. He races off to find the perfect rock. You looked down, shifting the contents in your bag. You didn’t want any of the rocks to get dirt on the paper and envelopes you had inside. They would need to last a long time. He found the fifth rock and excitedly handed it to you. “Good choice.” You smile, putting it in the bag.

First stop was the arcade. “What game’s first?” You ask as you put the money in the machine for tokens.

“Space!” Adrian said in a dramatic voice. Luckily you knew what he meant. The alien invasion game was one of his favorites, even in your current time period.

“Okay, let’s go play space.” You smile. Before putting in money you took a second to look at the high scores. You felt sadness wash over you. The top score wasn’t filled with Adrian’s initials like it was in your time period. Your initials weren’t in the second slot either. It was full of names you didn’t know. You put in the tokens and set Adrian up before you took out your supplies and started writing your first letter.

‘Adrian,

The date is September 7th, 1994. The time is 11:23am.

Come find me.

Love,

(Y/N)’

The plan was simple enough. You would write letters like this and put them in the areas he frequented most. You slipped it in an envelope, wrote ‘Don’t open until’ with your current year and stuck it to the back of the machine. You knew if most people found it, they probably wouldn’t touch it. They would just think it was a time capsule. The idea came to you when you realized your team may not even know where in time you are…or if you’re even alive… You really hoped Adrian didn’t think you were dead, but you couldn’t think about that right now. If you wanted to see him again, you needed to carry out the current task at hand.

After finishing the game, Adrian wanted to climb through the big children’s maze. It was just one of those giant plastic tube systems like Chuck E. Cheese or McDonald’s PlayLand.

“Adrian, I’m a grownup, so I can’t go up, but if you wanna go up I’ll stay right here. I promise.” You smile at him.

“Okay!” He says as he heads into the maze. You weren’t worried about losing him. There was only one way in and out. You sat in front of the tubes, waiting. By the time he came out, he didn’t look as happy before. He ran right up to you and gave you a hug, sniffling.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” You ask him.

“No, they are mean!” He says. You feel a lump in your throat.

“Who’s mean, buddy? Was it other kids?” You ask. He nods.

“They yelled at me and told me I pwayed wrong!” He cried. It took every ounce of your being to not walk up into that maze and scream at them. They were all just kids. They didn’t realize the complexities of ableism in society. They didn’t know Adrian was autistic. They just knew he was different. Adrian didn’t even know and being the youngest by such a large gap, he rarely had kids his age to talk to, let alone tell him so. You watched as he tried to cover his ears. He was clearly overstimulated. You scoop him up in your arms and carry him out of the packed area of screaming children. When you’re away from the crowd you put him down and get on your knees so you’re at his level.

“Adrian, you didn’t play wrong. You just played different. It’s not you fault.” You were trying to think. You didn’t know how to explain this to a 3 year old. If this was adult Adrian, you’d know exactly what to say…toddler Adrian, not so much. You sigh. “You’re so special, Adrian. I don’t think you play wrong. I think you do it differently. I think they’re just jealous because they CAN’T play like you.” You smile, trying to hold in your own emotions. This is a moment that could completely change his life.

“Jeawous?” He asks sniffling. You forgot a 3 year old probably wouldn’t understand the concept.

“Jealousy is when you get upset because somebody else has something you want. It’s like when there’s only two game controllers and Dor and Chris won’t let you play. When you get sad or mad, that’s jealousy and those other kids are just jealous because they can’t be as cool or as smart as you.” You tell him.

“I am cool and smart?” He asks, sniffling.

“You are so cool and so smart.” You smile, embracing him and giving him a kiss on top of the head. Your stomach begins to rumble. You laugh. “Oh man! I’m so hungry. Are you hungry too?” You ask.

“Yeah!” He says. You wipe his remaining tears.

“Let’s go get lunch.” You smile, picking him up and heading to Fennel Fields. Diane is at her other job right now, but that’s in your favor. You wanted to use the time to slip another letter somewhere.

By the end of your outing you were able to put five letters across town in Adrian’s favorite stores, restaurants, and the arcade. Hopefully he’d see at least one of them. Now you were on the couch watching a show with Adrian when you decided you needed to go to the bathroom. You wouldn’t be gone for that long it’d be fine. Plus Adrian was glued to the screen anyway. He was in deep focus as the Land Before Time played on the screen. “If I go to the bathroom are you gonna stay here?” You ask. He nods absentmindedly and you figure he probably won’t move. When you get into the bathroom, you notice Gut left it a mess this morning, so after using it, you clean up after him.

When you come out of the bathroom, the credits for the movie are rolling and Adrian is nowhere to be found. “Adrian?” You call out. You hear him upstairs. He probably went to his room. You were gone for all of about ten minutes. He couldn’t have gotten into that much trouble. You walk up the stairs to find his bedroom door closed. That’s odd. Then you realize the sound is coming from your room, not his. You turn the corner and see him with the drawer open. Things are all over the place and he has your phone in his hands. “Adrian, can I have that back please?” You ask, anxiously. “It’s not nice to go through other people’s stuff.” You remind him. He passes you the phone and your worst nightmare has come true. It won’t turn on. He killed the last of the battery. “Adrian!” You yell at him as you begin to panic.

“I sowy” he says.

“No! You can’t fix this problem by being cute!” You yell. You don’t mean to yell, but everything you had left of your Adrian was on your phone. You don’t even hear the door open downstairs. “That was all I had left of him!” You say as you begin to cry. Adrian starts to cry too, frozen, unsure what to do. You looked at him. He was scared. You yelled at him. Adrian. Your Adrian, just not quite as you know him yet. This is still him and he’s just a baby and you yelled at him. “I’m sorry- oh god- I’m so sorry.” You continue to cry.

“I sowy.” He repeats.

“I know you’re sorry.” You cry. “I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have yelled at you.” As you continue to cry, you hear a voice from the doorway.

“Uh…we’re home from school…” Gut’s voice breaks through your sobs. “Ade, wanna go play video games?” He asks. He never lets his brother play with him.

“Gonna go play with Dor!” Adrian says, giving you a hug and then running after his older brother. Chris stands frozen in the door.

“What happened?” He asks. You look at him. His lip is busted, no doubt from sleeping at his dad’s last night.

“There’s nothing we can do. It doesn’t matter.” You tell him.

“It does matter. You look like shit.” He says. You’re currently crying on the floor while a 13 year old Christopher Smith tells you that you look like shit. What has your life come to?

“He broke your thing, didn’t he?” Chris asks. You nod, taking a shakey breath.

“I didn’t mean to yell at him. I just had important stuff on my thing…” Your voice is broken and quiet. He walks away and quickly comes back with a tape in his hands. He tosses it to you silently. “What’s this?” You ask.

“Play it and find out.” He tells you, handing you the tape recorder to play it back. You place the tape in the slot and hit play.

“Hey babe, it’s me. I’m just calling because I know you had a bad day today and I was thinking…” The voicemail rings through. You let out a sigh of relief.

“You recorded it?!” You ask in shock.

“I don’t really know what that thing is, but it looked like it ran on batteries and I knew they wouldn’t last forever. I figured if I could hear that message on repeat through the walls every night while I’m trying to go to sleep, it was probably something important.” He tells you.

“Chris, you have no idea how much this means to me-“

“Don’t mention it.” He cuts you off, walking out of the room. You think Chris might actually like you.

Later on in the night while everyone was asleep you played the voicemail again. You sighed in relief. You may have lost the pictures, but at least you could still hear his voice. After the tape ended you decided you should probably get some sleep. It was getting late. You started heading down the hall to the bathroom when you heard crying coming from Adrian’s room. You opened the door slowly, popping your head inside.

“What’s going on, Ade? Everything okay?” You ask.

“No! The witch is gonna get me!” He cried. He had another nightmare. You flicked on the light to show him there were no monsters in his room. You made a point of checking his closet and checking under his bed.

“There’s no witches here. You’re safe. I promise.” You sit next to him on the bed. “Do you wanna know what I think about when I’m scared?” You ask him. He nods. “Where I’m from, when I’m scared at night, I know there’s a very brave hero to protect me.” You weave your fingers through his curls in a calming manner.

“A hero?” He asks.

“Yeah.” You smile, trying not to become emotional. “He’s strong and he smart and he’s funny.” You laugh to yourself. “He’s so funny, but he’s also caring and brave. He goes out every night to make sure everyone’s safe in their beds and nobody is alone, scared in the dark.” You smile. “He even helped saved the entire world from aliens once!” You add.

“Aliens?!” Adrian’s face changes from one of fear to one of amazement. “What is his name?” He asks.

“His name is Vigilante” You smile. “and he’s gonna come all the way from where I live to make sure we’re safe in our beds too.” You smile. You try to cover up how broken you are by how badly you miss your boyfriend and the rest of your life back home.

“Where do you live?” He asks.

“Somewhere far away. It’s not perfect, but my boyfriend’s there and I love him very much.” You smile.

“Is your boyfriend Vigiante?” Adrian asks. He can’t quite pronounce the L yet. You laugh as you quickly wipe a fallen tear.

“How did you get to be so smart?” You ask him.

“I want to be just like Vigiante when I grow up!” He tells you. You laugh again.

“I’m sure you will be. Now, get some rest.” You kiss him on the forehead, tucking him in again. You turn out the light and continue your original mission to the bathroom to brush your teeth.

[popcornforone]

September

From the Marcus Pike Fan Fic Diary

Master list

August

Thank god for a friend sending me a Pike edit. I almost forgot to post this today. Mainly because I’m going away next week & I have a mini plan in place. So let’s see where they are this month.

Synopsis:- It’s your anniversary & you report back to the diary on your special day.

Work count:- 1100

Warnings:- DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE UNDER 18! PIV sex, pleasure, stimulation, alcohol. This is much shorter & less smuttier than the other chapters but I don’t think it needed to be long. Creepy guy who doesn’t accept no consent, but consent is used for the rest of it.Remember this is in a diary format.

Thanks as always for the read & feedback peoples I hope you enjoy.

I know Marcus spoils me but then there was yesterday. It was our anniversary.

I tell you the story every year diary. How there was a creep who wouldn’t take no for an answer, who was drunk & tried to grope me. I said I’d had a boyfriend as I walked past a table of guys & this red flag man almost followed me into the ladies. Next thing I knew Marcus was standing behind me rubbing my hand saying baby, it’s our anniversary come dance with me. He had a message on his phone so only I could read it, saying he worked for the government & would keep me safe. To make it look real to the creep, we kissed tenderly (with consent of course) & made sure we danced close or were near each other all night & I thought I would never see the hero man again. I didn’t get his number or his surname all I knew was he was called Marcus. But 3 days later, red roses arrived at my apartment, that I shared at the time with 3 friends, asking if I wanted to meet up in a week or a years time for our anniversary. & the rest is history.

We didn’t need to book the day off either of us. It was a Saturday, means we can chill today too. I woke up to his kisses as he was my big spoon, his erection pressing into my lower back & his hand once he knew I was awake, strumming my clit. I moaned away, feeling his affection & love as he pleasured me. I moan was low as he plundered me. Every inch feeling exquisite, he likes me when I completely give into him in bed & when he came the beguiled look on his face was wonderful.

Then I made breakfast. His favourite avocado on toast. I can’t stand it but he says I do something really good with the toast. I don’t, it’s just normal toast, but he ate that down, like a man who hadn’t eaten in months.

As he was in the shower the door bell rang & there was my bunch of red roses, with the same note as every year, dinner in a week or a year. I sniffed them before I felt his arms around me to sniff my air. Whispered words escaping his lips.

“I’ll always be here for you baby, I love you”

We then went for a walk, not to far. The park about 4 blacks away. It wasn’t too cold or breezy. A jumper or light jacket was fine for us. I tried to listen to our conversation but my mind was busy thinking how many times he was stroking my knuckles, that fat flat thumb gliding across. Me thinking of all the other places his fingers & thumbs go when he wants me at his mercy.

We got a coffee & cake by the cafe, which was when I decided to give him his anniversary gift… he cried… he cried a lot. I cried too. The way he held me & then kissed me looking down at the gift diary, it would make even the darkest hearts melt. I know he loves me but I’ve never seen a man look quite so happy & filled with love in all of my life. I told you last week diary about this, it’s now a secret for you me & Marcus.

Then we went home & had decided this year to not go out for fancy dinner for our anniversary but to go to the new cinema down the road. They do dinner before hand, simple food & you eat & drink in your seats & then once the food is cleared away the first half of the film starts & then at the interval you get desert & snack & then you watch the second half. All classic films. As we do both love movies we thought this would be a cool way to spend our evening.

Marcus salivated over every mouthful of his burger & chips. I sat there eating my macaroni cheese with bacon. He used that large thumb to get the mess off my face as it dripped.

“Always making a mess my love ”

“I just like you taking care of me” I replied as I sipped my drink. His beer is almost empty, but we were topped up as our food was cleared. We had the best seat in the cinema

3 rows from the back in a little sofa bang splat in the middle. Room for me to scooch up into the sofa once I had taken my shoes off & rest my head in Marcus shoulder as the film started.

“I’m guessing you’re comfortable baby” he said as he moved the stray hair off my face.

“More than comfortable” I giggle, my hand stroking his thigh as the Shawshank redemption started. The way he held me as we watched. Other than the noise in the screen I could hear his heart beat softly thudding. Each touch from his hand stroking down my bare arms was magical. Like we were just starting to date all over again. This was my perfect moment nothing could beat this. When the interval did come we decided on no deserts just extra popcorn for us both, always a spare bucket so we can mix our sweet & salted.

The film was fantastic, I mean it’s Shawshank, when isn’t it. We then got into a taxi & he peppered my neck with kisses.

“Only you, my Angel, only you” he moaned into my ear.

“Oooh Marcus”

We got back home & went straight to bed. Marcus delicately taking off every item of my clothing, humming before his mouth latched on to my nipple. My body still trembles for him, & as he laid me down & slowly edged his way inside me as I gasp his eyes softened.

“This is the most perfect moment of my life baby” Marcus said as he started to find his rhythm. He was extra slow patient & seductive tonight. “I never want things to change”

“They won’t Marcus, I love you too much to even want to think about anything else”

“Me & you forever”

“No, even longer”

I don’t know what time it was we fell asleep, but the sweat on his chest tasted good as I snuggled into him. He might have been calm & slow but that just meant more pleasure from my man.

Oooh diary, I wonder if this time next year if Marcus & I will celebrate our anniversary in the same magical way. Only time will tell.

October

[4th-make-quail]

Big Bang anon here! I was just looking for some challenging event to participate this winter, and wanted to know your opinion because you have a lot of fandom experience! And YES I also noticed that a lot of Big Bang challenges currently are like "minimum word count is 5k words", and no shade to mods but that's not a challenge skdjdhdjl

Do you have a favorite fandom event type? Care to share your best fandom event experience?

Good morning nonny! Ahhh I see, okay I getcha!! There are quite a few longer word count fandom exchanges if you're into those, but the winter ones are already well in progress iirc!

One good place to check for events like this is fandom calendar on dreamwidth - people advertise their stuff on there regularly (no need to make a dw account to look at it either).

If you want a longer event, I have a few friends who do the three longer minimum word count exchanges and they have fun, so here they are;

- Fic in a Box (fiab): a fanwork exchange with a large minimum gifting requirement and several unique features - this one is complicated, so check out the comm link! Unfortunately this one is well and truly over now, but it's there for next year - schedule is around August to September!

- Five Figure Fandom Exchange (fffx or fandom 5k): a multifandom gift exchange for fanfic of 10,000+ words, and for comics of least 10 pages or at least 40 panels. Currently ongoing, but there are pinch hits in need of picking up! Deadline is January 18th, so if you can write a pinch hit fandom, you could try that!

- High Adrenaline (previously Heart Attack): two weeks to write 10k (or draw a 25-panel, 10-page comic) and one week to edit. Noms open in January!

Completing all three of these makes you eligible for Triple Crown, which is a prize raffle for all three of these 10k exchanges.

For the next few months, most people will be doing Yuletide which I've talked about a bit here before, but it has a 1000 word minimum so might be of less interest to you if you wanted a challenge. Pinch hits for yuletide are being posted here this year, but there aren't any available rn, and as yuletide is for rare fandoms, ymmv as to how possible this is for you anyway.

The next thing I will personally be participating in is Candy Hearts, which is a valentines day themed low word count (300 words) exchange, schedule usually starting with noms in December. This replaces chocolate box which used to run at the same time, and it's really fun!

Others I usually do regularly:

- Seasons of Drabbles: new to me but very fun, has a new round every season! For strict drabbles specifically, currently in its autumn round so there will be a winter one to come I imagine!

- Goreswap: an exchange for gore etc, with genre type tags to pick. Schedule starts with noms in January usually! Not one I've done, but I have friends who love it and do it every year.

- Phoenix Down Exchange: my own full Final Fantasy franchise exchange, set to start noms in Feb as last year

- Rarepair Exchange: as it sounds, for rarepairs! Check the comm for definition of minimum fics required to be eligible. Usually starts around April

- Rare Male Slash Exchange: as rarepair ex above, but for m/m ships only and again with specific minimum fic number eligibility. This is older than rpe, but as it tends to run on a similar schedule (noms in May last year) I've not done it for the last two years

- Relationshipping: for incest ships! The last round was July to August, but it conflicted with other fan stuff for me so I didn't do this for a bit as well. Run by some very good people

Some others I know about from my exchange crew participing but have never personally done: kids come first (underage themed), consent issues (dub/noncon themed), trauma exchange (as the name suggests), trick or treat (complicated, I think halloween theme?? Unsure), nonconathon (dub/noncon, but with very fun freeform tags to pick and nominate), and then there are usually a hell of a lot of flash exchanges around as well, which run on quick turnarounds - you could try joining the Exchanges After Dark discord server, which is an 18+ nsfw server for exchanges. It's very big and has a channel for every exchange, so the best thing to do is mute them all apart from what ur interested in ime! It also has a fandomcalendar rss feed channel which could be relevant if u wanna see what's coming up!

As for your second question, my favourite fandom event experience is probably Unconventional Fanworks Exchange, which is unfortunately didn't run last year and I'm not sure if it will again 😭😭 its an exchange for, well, unconventional fanwork mediums, and I've had so much fun challenging myself in the two rounds I've participated in! They had things like newspaper articles, in universe academic documents, blueprints, paper dolls, all sorts! I'm hoping someone might take it over tbh, if the mod can't run it again.

Also, this year I did Small Web September for the first time and had sooo much fun! It's for working on any smallweb projects you might have; personal sites, neocities, coding etc. and it had a really great vibe, plus it was super fun seeing everyone's smallweb projects! Very inspiring!!

This ended up very long, but as u can see I am very passionate about these things! I run my entire fannish calendar around exchanges mixed with event weeks and I find it very rewarding - I'm always happy to introduce anyone to exchanges and talk through how to participate etc. so anyone can ask me about this at any time!

[billyharringson]

My 2023 in fics

Thank you @lorifragolina for tagging me. I know you tagged my main account @jad3w1ngs but as all my fics were Stranger Things this year I'm going to do it here.

I'm going to only talk about fics that I either started or finished during the month as I've written an awful lot this year and it was very hard to pick faves.

January

I'm choosing my current ongoing Byergrove fic 'Take a picture, it'll last longer' that I started on New Year's day last year. I've loved writing such an angst heavy fic and exploring the trauma that might occur from what Billy went through at the beginning of this fic. Also Jon is the best boy in this and he's so soft (which is quite a departure to how I seem to normally write him).

February

For Feb I have possibly my favourite Mungrove one-shot that I've ever written. 'It means to lie beneath' was a Billy Hargrove Bingo fill and definitely something that is on my list to expand into a full fic (just as soon as I finish some of my other series). It was really fun writing a Succubus/Incubus fic and I can't wait to further explore the world I built.

March

Considering that this is my biggest fic and also the one that really got me into this fandom I have to shout out my Harringrove fic 'To submit is such sweet pleasure'. My first foray into A/B/O and I just love these boys together in this fic.

April

This is possibly my least read fic but one that definitely holds a special place in my heart. My first submission for Mungrove week, 'Ghost' was my chance to try a good old fashioned song fic and practice some more poetic writing.

May

'Swapping more than clothes' was the Stoner Polycule fic that I finished in May and was also a Billy Hargrove Bingo fill. Really enjoyed writing each of the boys dynamics in this and of course having some straight up smut where Billy gets railed by multiple partners is always good.

June

I can't believe I only started 'Forged' in June. I love, love, love this fic and can't wait to actually get to the point where I introduce Eddie (or Edeval as he is in this) as a character. For a Mungrove fic of mine it is quite funny that we're nearly on chapter 6 and he's still not appeared.

July

Another fic I'm obsessed with writing, 'Chokehold' is my darker Stoner Polycule fic. We're still early days with this one (considering it's chapter 5 on what is at least a 19 chapter fic) but I think about this fic almost daily.

August

Wow, I finished 'The Stolen Sapphire' all the way back in August? That feels so long ago. My pirate Harringroveson fic that was such a pleasure to write and so many people seemed to love, I can't not put it here.

September

I was struggling between 2 of the Mungrove fics I wrote in September but considering the sheer number of times I've re-read 'Knock Once' that's got to be the one I go for. Pure smut with my best two boys, and also the beginning of my realisation that this might just be my ride or die ship for ST.

October

I just have to include one of my Harringrove kinktober fics for this month so I'm going with 'Wanna see what's under that attitude' because it's chock full of all the kinks, and Billy in lingerie is always a pleasure.

November

Another fic that I personally feel went a little under the radar but one that I love nonetheless is 'little and broken, but still good'. My first attempt at writing one of the boys as a dad and I just adore Eddie's daughter Chrissy. Also kindergarten teacher Billy is something I need to write more of. Needless to say this is another Mungrove fic and was one of my last fills for the Billy Hargrove Bingo.

December

I've only just started this one, and I had planned on it being a short fic but I've gone a bit ham with the world building so we're in for a longer ride. Anyway, 'To keep good company' my historical A/B/O Harringrove fic is actually going to be my first attempt at some proper slow burn (although is it slow burn if they're already mated?)

This was a lot of fun, and very nice to look back at all that I've accomplished in 2023.

My absolutely no pressure tags are for @shieldofiron @weird-an @ihni and anyone else who wants to join in 😄

[bestofsophieturner]

Now, the rumors about Sophie and Joe's divorce are slowly changing. Sources now say they already had problems back in April, or that they had "schedules problems with Joe touring and Sophie filming all the time".

While the rumors are less about "Sophie is a bad mom" and more about "they're both at fault", I still find it annoying. The thing is, you can't paint Sophie as a partying girl, doing nothing first, then say she's a very working girl, focusing on her career.

And as a fan of Sophie, I have a hard time buying this narrative. It may sound more reasonable but still... it doesn't align well with what she said and her career. What I'm going to say on this post are all speculations based on she said and did in the public eye. So maybe I'm wrong, but I wanted to express my thoughts.

First look at her projects :

- The Staircase

- A cameo of five minutes in Do Revenge

- An episode for a children program Storybots

I exclude Survive since she filmed it from September to November 2019, before they had their children.

I'll include the fact she was supposed to film a movie last year Wardriver with Dane Dehaan. It has been abandoned or at least Sophie left the project. It's not on her imdb page and we didn't hear about it from a long time ago. There was also this project Come as you are hyped back in 2022 but never really announced. Both projects don't appear on her imdb anymore.

And obsviouly Joan, she's filming it right now since May.

And now what... ?

- The Staircase has been filmed in 2021 for a few months in Atlanta. At least from June to August. I don't think we know exactly how many months, but we know at least one thing. Sophie got a house in Atlanta so she would have her daughter with her. I have no reason to doubt it. To me, it sounds like Sophie was trying to find a balance between her work and family, she apparently did it.

- Do revenge... so it was a cameo. I'm no expert, but I don't think it took a whole month to shoot it, maybe a few days. Especially she did while filming the staircase. So it couldn't take much. And from what I remember, the shooting of the movie itself had been one month or two. So well, not too much.

- Storybots, I have no idea when they filmed it. Since she has red hair, I'd say between summer 2021 and summer 2022. And like the cameo, I don't think it took much time either. Maybe a few days, or a week or two.

Yes she has been working. And actually, I believe The Staircase and Do Revenge have been good choices. So I'm not saying she stopped her career. But to me at least, she doesn't sound like someone who focused more on her career than her family. I might even add that between her two big projects (so the staircase and Joan) there is a gap of almost two years.

Other things...

- During the staircase promo, she said many things... first, that she had a house in Atlanta to have her daughter with her during the shooting.

- Then, that she chooses her projects very carefully because she doesn't want to be away from her daughters.

- I'll add another thing... Joe has been spotted many times with Sophie in UK from April/May to July. So it's a bit hard, to me at least, to believe the absent mother rumor.

So in my opinion, from her interviews and career, she was trying to balance her professional life and personal life.

More, I'd say... pick a struggle, she either focus more on her acting projects than her family or either chooses to spend her time partying.

If you're still there... women are allowed to be more than one thing : mother or wife or working woman. And a woman can be all the things at the same time. I'm tired of those medias trying to paint Sophie as an absent mother.

[libra-stellium]

Personal Zodiacal Releasing - My coming of age???

ZR story from when I was 18 which I think literally shows me “growing up.” Based on my lot of courage and lot of necessity, which are both in Leo.

I started a new L1 on June 17, 2014 and I feel like that started the time in my life where I was facing my first serious situations and making my own decisions and being like okay I need to take my independence.

All this revolves around me getting run over by a car (that my aunt was driving) that summer!! I survived with a small fracture on my leg so it’s all good LOL

L4♋️ May 22 2014 (Cool down period) - I found an email from the IB program director at my high school and the attachment was a profile/testimonial thing for the IB program just saying that I got my diploma and how it helped me in college. I graduated high school June 2013. I’m also pretty sure this is the last thing high school related that happened to me

L4♋️ June 11 2014 (LB) (Cool down period) - my aunt runs me over bc her car hydroplanes as she’s picking me up in front of my driving school in the rain lol to set the scene the driving school has a glass wall and glass door in the front so my whole class, the instructor and the front desk in the lobby area watched this happen 😭 The driving school instructor didn’t know what to say when I came to class the next week 😂

L1♍️ June 17 2014 (Peak period) - I can’t find anything specific to this day but since my driving class was from 6/9-6/20 I think that’s probably the day I went back. I remember having to make up a couple missed classes

From 6/26 to 8/7 I traveled to Haiti while my leg was recovering.

L4♓️ July 11 2014 (Major peak period)- I found an email where I was saying that I could bend my leg and cross it and I was going to carnival later in the month

L4♓️ July 31 2014 (LB) (Major peak period) - I didn’t find anything for this date but I posted on Instagram on 7/30 saying I had fun at carnival on 7/29 and I remember not wearing by leg brace for it because I felt better

L4♓️ August 25 2014 (Major peak period) - Two days before this I have an email from Geico asking for documents relating to my claim bc at that point I think I had already been cleared by the doctor and I moved back on campus 3 days after to start my sophomore year

L4♉️ September 18 2014 - I called geico because they needed to ask me questions and I ended up arguing with them bc they were about to not pay me anything bc it was my aunt driving the car and I had to say how I’m 18 and she’s no longer my legal guardian and what they’re saying isn’t even in her policy. Which I think took a lot of courage!!

L4♋️ September 24 2014 (Cool down period) - they send me the settlement offer and it’s 3x what they tried to make me take before the phone call and I accept that! There was another L4♋️ on July 22 2014 which idk if it's the completion of the LB period I started with since it got cut off by me starting a new L1 period. Either way I have no idea what happened that day.

September 25 2014 - I turn 19!

L4♈️ October 20 2014 - I open my first bank account! Not part of an LB cycle but Aries is my 2H!

What I realized about the L1 sign change is that it was necessary for me to separate myself from my aunt and “become an adult” basically! I’m a pisces rising with 8H libra placements and my family has used money and favors a lot as a form of control. I found an email from May 2014 where I was asking her for permission to go to a concert and 28yr old me is like why??? You’re 18!! And I went to the concert in August 2014 after the L1 change and me and my friend I went with still talk about it because my aunt gave us a ride and it was sooooo stressful to coordinate and she was yelling during the ride. I remember thinking this is the last time I ask for anything! Even during the phone call with Geico I was asserting myself as an adult! And when I got the settlement money my family took 50% of it (after medical expenses) and used it for family costs including a funeral. My aunt even said the accident was necessary because the money was a gift from god lollll I’ve been managing my own money since I opened that bank account! No one in my family knows how much I have or how much I make and I'm gonna keep it that way!

Also the fact that I received the settlement check right after starting an 8H year 🤯 I love astrology lol

I'm still trying to figure out how to interpret ZR things that are coming up instead of using it to reflect on the past! Idk why but I feel like for me the peak periods are not peaking??? Wym I got run over by a car during a cool down period??? But my major peak period is my leg healing?? loll I feel like it should be the other way around.

[intersexbookclub]

August book pick: The Left Hand of Darkness

Our book pick for August is science fiction classic The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K LeGuin. This book is famous for its exploration of a fictional society where everybody can reproduce as either female or male.

We will be meeting online to discuss The Deep on Friday August 25 at: - 11:30am Pacific (Vancouver, San Francisco, etc) - 2:30pm Eastern (Toronto, New York, etc) - 8:30pm Central European (Paris, Berlin, etc)

The meeting will be held on our discord, which you can join here: https://discord.gg/wmMQUQxEK4 (See our code of conduct)

We chose the Left Hand of Darkness because: - It's a classic. Whether you think of it as an intersex book or not this book has had reach, and is probably the first book that your average sci-fi fan will think of when it comes to exploring (inter)sex through sci-fi - It it isn't fetishy. So much work by (at least presumed) perisex authors can be very fetishy but at least in my (@ipsogender) opinion this one isn't! Indeed it's a book that I personally have warm feelings about. (You don't have to like it!) - Because it's a classic it should be easy for people to get access to the book via libraries and/or used book stores - @scifimagpie hasn't read it and we wanted an excuse to get her to read it and talk about it :)

How much of the book do you need to read? You don't need to finish the book to participate! Getting a quarter into the book is plenty to get a sense of the world and be able to participate in the discussion.

Discussion questions: 1. What did you like about it? 2. What did you struggle with? 3. What other works did it make you think of? Why? 4. What connections do you see between this book and our previous picks? 5. Is this an "intersex book"? 6. What relevance (if any) do you see this book as having today in getting people to contemplate sex and gender?

We hope to see you at the meeting! If you have thoughts on the book feel free to share them as reblogs/replies! Future book picks

If The Left Hand of Darkness isn’t in the cards for you, we meet on the last Friday of every month at the aforementioned time. (We're meeting next week to talk about The Deep by Rivers Solomon!) Our September pick is Chapters 1, 4 and 5 of Horlacher, S. (2016). Transgender and intersex: Theoretical, practical, and artistic perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan US. (see Discord for a copy!)

[musigenic]

2013: top 10 albums and the year i learned too much

i turned 16 in 2013. it was the year everything started feeling too big and too small all at once. i kissed my first girl and smoked my first joint in the same week. my grandmother died, and the world kept spinning like nothing happened. here are the albums that got me through.

top 10 albums of 2013:

"Pure Heroine" - Lorde this album was my bible. lorde made being an outsider feel cool, like it was a superpower.

diary, september 4, 2013 i kissed her. i kissed her, and she kissed me back. it wasn’t fireworks. it was quiet, like slipping into a pool at night. i think she’s scared of what it means. so am i. ‘buzzcut season’ played on her speakers after. it was perfect.

"The Bones of What You Believe" - CHVRCHES this album was neon lights and late-night drives.

diary, november 16, 2013 smoked too much. the room spun, and i told sara about grandma. she hugged me so tight i thought i’d break.

"Modern Vampires of the City" - Vampire Weekend they made sadness sound so clean. diane young was my anthem for pretending to have my shit together.

diary, may 22, 2013 sat on the roof with a bottle of something cheap. we laughed about nothing. the stars were bright, but it still felt like the world might end.

"Hesitation Marks" - Nine Inch Nails this was for the nights i needed to scream but couldn’t.

diary, august 8, 2013 grandma’s funeral was today. i wore black lipstick, even though mom said it was inappropriate. fuck appropriate.

"Days Are Gone" - Haim haim was the sound of late summer, when everything felt like it might fall apart but hadn’t yet.

diary, july 12, 2013 party at ethan’s. danced with a boy just to see if it felt different. it didn’t.

"Paramore" - Paramore this album was my angry-girl therapy.

diary, april 30, 2013 math test sucked. life sucked. i locked my door, put on paramore, and let myself feel everything all at once. it was messy, but it helped. hayley williams is my religion.

"If You Leave" - Daughter haunting, beautiful, sad. “youth” felt like a ghost whispering in my ear, reminding me that pain could be pretty.

diary, february 19, 2013 valentine’s day was a joke. love is a joke. except maybe it’s not.

"The 1975" - The 1975 “sex” was everything my mom didn’t want me to hear but couldn’t stop me from loving.

diary, october 9, 2013 he called me ‘mature for my age.’ fuck that.

"Trouble Will Find Me" - The National this was for the nights i felt too much.

diary, june 2, 2013 i miss her. it’s stupid to miss someone who’s not even dead. but i do. maybe one day, she’ll miss me too.

"Reflektor" - Arcade Fire this album was a whole mood.

diary, december 28, 2013 another year almost over. thank god. maybe next year will be easier. maybe it won’t. either way, i’ll survive. i always do!

2013 was a year of firsts and lasts. it broke me, but it also made me. these albums were the soundtrack to my chaos, my heartbreak, my growing pains. here’s to the music that carried me when i couldn’t carry myself.

[daily-rayless]

10 Years of Hakuno

By whatever unexpected alignment of the stars, 2023 is a significant anniversary year for a lot of my favorite games/characters. So, continuing my series, it's time to celebrate Hakuno Kishinami, specifically the female protagonist of Fate/Extra, a less known entry in the Fate franchise, a last dying gasp from the Playstation Portable generation, and a game whose remake, Fate/Extra Record, goes for literal years without any updates.

But the heroine is great, so let's talk about her.

September 2013. I liked Fate/Extra so much I played it twice back to back, first with Nero, then Emiya. This was drawn during the Emiya run, and I think it's the first picture I did of her.

Like some other female options in JRPGs, female Hakuno gets less official emphasis than her male counterpart. Some people argue, and I see their point, that it shouldn't matter which version is talked about, as in most ways their writing is identical. To a large degree, the difference in gender is only a matter of aesthetics.

March 2014. Evil Hakuno gets to pose with an evil shirtless Emiya.

For me, that only rings true in a perfect world, where male and female characters have a long and equal history of being main characters written with similar depth and attention. But most often, boys get to be the protagonists, and very often the main girl in a game is largely written as his love interest. (Or, worse, all of the girls are his love interests.)

November 2014. Her Command Seal never gets easier to draw.

So just the act of putting a girl at the helm makes her more unique – and more interesting to me. Even if she's only doing what the male protagonist could also do, the fact that she gets to sets her apart. It's a low bar, I know, but it matters to me whenever it's cleared.

June 2015. Tragedy strikes when Hakuno gets blood in her hair.

People might further argue, and I also see their point, that Hakuno, whatever their gender, is a silent protagonist with barely any personality to start with, so how can either version be interesting? And it's true that a lot of Hakuno's personality is just the Basic JRPG Hero Personality. Oh, she has a strong sense of justice? You don't say.

August 2015. Hakuno shares a moment with Julius Harway before he dies. That is, when she kills him. For the second time.

But all character personalities are clich�� to some degree, and whether a character succeeds has to do less with tropes and more to do with how those tropes are handled. And something I love about Fate/Extra is Hakuno's running inner monologue as she fumbles, then attempts to finesse, her way through this seven-week death tournament she had no business joining.

? 2015. She deserves more breaks.

Given how much commentary we get from her, I would argue Hakuno is actually very much not a silent protagonist.

November? 2015. Hakuno deploys Unlimited Swiss Rolls Works and her enemies flee before her.

She's funny, sassy, snarky. She's also very relatable. She's kind of a wimp, especially early on. We've built up this idea of antiheroes being badasses like Batman, who feel more like traditional heroes with bad attitudes.

January 2016. I've said it before, but one of the best excuses for drawing Hakuno is all the pretty hair.

Hakuno can't aspire to that. She can't fight, she's not genius-level smart, she's not rich, she has no secret powers or hidden destiny to discover. What she has, and I love this so much, is endless grit. She will keep pushing through until she faceplants in exhaustion, and it's this inner strength, not any magical heritage or secret weapons, that sees her through, wins the admiration of her loved ones, and ultimately makes her heroic.

? 2016. Probably my favorite Hakuno hair art. Also my favorite Hakuno + disembodied hand art.

Another thing I've always liked about her is that she seems so humane – very down to earth and resolved to do the right thing. Which sounds basic, I know. Like all JRPG heroes.

April 2017. I was going through a real art slump during this period, but I still got a lot of joy from drawing Hakuno. Sometimes when things aren't working, it's good to have that one character you can keep falling back on.

But in the original game, and all the way through Fate/Extra CCC and Extella, Hakuno is paired with Servants who are among the most immoral, evil symbols in history. Nero, Tamamo-no-Mae, Attila the Hun. For Gilgamesh and Emiya, they're two of the most immoral/morally questionable figures in the franchise, definitely not known for always doing the right thing. Assuming (as I do) that Hakuno resonated with these Servants through some innate compatibility, I think it's interesting that this small, quiet, humane person is consistently paired with these gray, or darker than gray, Servants. The games themselves don't dig into it too deeply, but I enjoy speculating what their hidden commonalities could be, what the connections and compensations are.

January 2018. More Extella art. If you had told me, back in 2013, there would be four Hakuno titles, I would not have believed you.

(As much as I enjoy Charlie in Fate/Extella: Link, I was disappointed that his arrival broke the streak and gave Hakuno a fairly straightforward “good” Servant.)

December 2020. My favorite of Hakuno's looks is Extella: Link. I like the silly dress and the shoelessness of the original Extella, but putting Hakuno in a vaguely action hero-y outfit hits a good note of cute and silly but still determined.

While Fate/Extra was never a perfect game in my book, it shouldn't be any surprise that Fate/Extra Record has a lot to live up to, and how they choose to depict Hakuno – what they emphasize, what they change – will play a very large role in how much I enjoy it. Of course, just having a release date at this point would be a great start.

June 2023. The first Hakuno I've drawn in a while. It still comes very naturally.

But even if the remake disappoints me, or never materializes, I'll still have the Hakuno of the original game. She's a little nobody with no special skills, but she keeps hacking her way into my brain.

[manonamora-if]

February Check-In

From here on out, we should be back on track - IRL be damned (crossing fingers with that). Unless someone throws another wrench...

Anyway, let's not think about the bummer stuff...

Here's to a hopefully "normal" month with stuff actually being checked off a list!

Onto the usual index:

Recap of last month’s progress

IF Events in the Next Month

Plan for the next month

Still long post under the break. If you want a mini version, head over to itch.io!

January Progress

Welp... there wasn't much of a list in the January Check-in, since it was the retrospective, which included the yearly plan. Still, I did make a mini one on itch. Put together we'd get:

Still play more IF and maybe review. ✅

Finish the edits of Harcourt Ch5 ✅ and coding ❌

Fix one of the semi-completed games: ❌either the Egg parser or TRNT (and make it a proper parser)

Complete the Seed/Shuffle-Comp entry✅

Honestly, not bad... The first one, obviously is done and dusted. IFDB says I posted 60+ reviews in January - covering the Short Game Showcase, the ShuffleComp, and the Recipe Jam helped quite a bit. And that also meant... I'm 3rd in the Reviewer ranking! Only 100 more to second place...

MelS and I finally stopped playing ping-pong with the editing of Harcourt (later than we wanted...), and I'm currently sitting down to edit the whole maze. I had hoped to be done by the end of this month, but it wasn't feasible... It was close - I only have half a dozen passages to code, to check it works, and do the formatting. I used to laugh at his complaining of working all the rooms for this maze (because he chose to do that many), but now I'm the one suffering... Don't do mazes... Or don't do 30+-room mazes... (I'm not joking here) Also: If all goes well, March/April should be editing of Chapter 6, June/July coding of Chapter 6 (+ re-edits of previous chapters), August/September beta/edits, October? completed game.

As for the ShuffleComp, I made it realllll close to the deadline. But (not so) strangers in the night was completed just in time! Aaaannnddd, got 1st place in the Use of Songs category! Yay me :D Also submitted to the SeedComp! and the Zach Jam.

As for fixing the parsers.... whomp whomp, didn't manage that.

Buuuutt:

I made another parser! Not Another Sad Meal is a slice-of-life cooking sim of easy difficulty (and clickable elements for help!)

Also made a Zine! CTRL+SHIFT+ZUT+ALORS Lost content meets weird technology. I probably will never make this game, but you can use it as inspiration if you want!

And spent a few days working on a collaborative virtual card for a friend. While that will never be made public (for obvious reasons), You can find the basic interface [here].

Also won kuddos of best puzzle for An Eggcellent Preparation (even though it kinda broken)!

So yeah... not huge updates for projects, but some good progress and a few mini-new games. I'm not expecting people to check those out... But it would be neat if you did!

What’s happening in February?

There's always something happening in the IF world. I don't think I ever find all that happens anyway... but. Here's the ones I know!

The Queer Vampire Game Jam ends in about three weeks. Got a vampire/human story with a LGBT+ cast? Then this is the event for you! (unranked) Also they are doing a fundraising/matching donation with submissions!

Obviously @neointeractives got you covered for Valentine’s with the Smoochie Jam: it’s all about kisses, love and romance (unranked) - Be also on the look out for the next Neo-Interactives mini-jam which is happening mid-March.

The SeedComp! (Sprouting) ends at the end of February. Come transform someone’s idea or asset into a new IF game! See @seedcomp-if for more info ;) (ranked)

Concours de Fiction Interactive Francophone 2024 se termine dans un mois! Viendez faire des histoires en français!! <3 (ranked, duh)

The Spring Thing is waiting for your intent to participate until March 1st! After that, the submissions are due in April (also ranked)

Got a cool talk idea regarding Interactive Fiction, narration, or gameplay? Consider submitting a proposal for this year’s Narrascope! They are still looking for people!!!!

Note: @neointeractives will have jams all year long. One a month/or so. And the next Planting Round of @seedcomp-if will start as soon as the results are dropped.

The PLANtm for February

Shortest month, and one busy months in events (I'm at the head of two... what am I DOING WITH MY LIFE....)... So much to do, so little time. But also, ONE EXTRA DAY THIS MONTH! :D

What are we hoping to do this month?

Play more games! Because there are a bunch of jams happening and a backlog of games I'm trying to clear. Also I want to get to that second IFDB spot! (1st won't ever be attainable...)

Finish the Code Ch5 of Harcourt. This is attainable. This is doable. I will finish... because I am already 80% done. MelS is working on Chapter 6 for this month - hoping to have a rough draft for me to check too by the end of the month...

Finish fixing The Roads Not Taken. This is your month. I swear I am manifesting it hard. This is happening. I will finish you. I'm sorry I've been avoiding you....

Jam Entry number 685470w8698... probably. Maybe do a Queer Vampire/Smoochie Combo. Maybe even a French Comp game?

ALSO: I will probably do an another AMA mid-Feb.

~

The 2024 To-Do List:

New year, new list. A more feasible one, according to January-Me.

The hopefully maybe easy to handle To-Do:

fix the bugs in EDOC + overall the French version to match

fix the bugs of TRNT + find a way to add the missing pieces (giving up on the translation)

fixing the interface of LPM and the popups + check animal interactions

figure out the One-Button JavaScrip/jQuery issue...

edit the loading screens of the completed tiny games to include the program/format logo at least.

The 'Need a Bunch of Content to update but it's planned!' To-Do:

Update my website (bunch new title - also I don't think the logo clicky thing work...) + redo my itch page

Finish TTATEH (MelS dependent - this year should be it - for real)

Finish Exquisite Cadaver (half-way mark by this summer - manif)

Finish P-Rix - Space Trucker (main path at least)

Update CRWL (it's been almost two years... I'm getting ashamed)

The Unlikely But it Would be Dope To-Do

Finish The Dinner as it was planned (and translate)

Finish In the Blink of an Eye as it was planned (and retranslate)

Finish The Rye in the Dark City

Fixing TTTT (at least fixing, maybe try adding some storylets)

And finally The 'It's impossible, but one can wish' TO-DO:

Remaster SPS IH (if I managed to start this after completing the rest... I'm going to eat a whole sheet cake).

Start the IFComp project (2025? Might end up being a ST?)