#this is not even a promotion or anything btw it's like. me doing extra work

[the-tenth-arcanum]

okay I MIGHT be changing manager, which I was tentatively optimistic about because maybe I could escape the hellscape that is my current team, but I mentioned to my (maybe) new boss that our current boss is okay with us logging off early on fridays if there's nothing urgent and she immediately fixated on this and went on about how we need to stick to our working hours so now I'm like "hmmmm"

[a-library-of-old]

Howdy! Do you think you could do some headcanons for a reader who’s basically Jacks personal butler/maid? I imagine that they were originally a baker or a magical artifact hunter, but were “promoted” so Jack could have a reason to be around them more often. Maybe Jack noticed the readers attraction towards him first, and “promoted” them so he could tease them even more. Love your work btw. 💜🥧

Oh that's so something he would do! Plus as much as I talk about this in-between stage I never go in depth so thanky for giving me that access anon! Also thanky I'm glad you do^^

Jack isn't subtle, he's never been known to be and even when he's tried it just doesn't work. So when he had a guard take you off the assembly line and come to his office for a suprise meeting? Lord only knows what his plans where

With that said when you get in the room he's acting almost...nice? Sickeningly so as he smiles as talks about aaaaaall the good work you've been putting in lately. It all feels wrong. Only he doubles down and that's how you get promoted

By the next day? Your Jack Horners assistant of course! With a brand new uniform to, even if it is much more revealing then your one from before

Now with this new job comes new duties of course, such as sticking next to Jack like glue and occasionally playing errand boy if he's extra busy

You do have legitimate things you have to do but some of the other things are more....for personal enjoyment, Jack being that personal.

Such as pulling you close to 'review' some papers for him only really your standing between his legs as he sits at his chair, breath hot on your neck

Do know, he bites so stay there to long and weeeeeeell he gets tempted

Another way he keeps you in your toes is the age old trope of under the table touches! It's the worse when he's speaking and acting normal, attention so close to you and you have to act as natural as he is

Soon though? Your looking at becoming Horners permeate assistant, in and out of the factory

By the forst night of the promotion your expecting to be able to go home but nope! Cause what if he wakes up in the middle of the night and starts working? You'll have to be there to...ya know...assist him

This means your sleeping the same bed with him and he makes only tries to make things worse

Teasing and taunting you with barly innocent touches before you do anything and when you do? He'd make it seem like it was aaaall your idea and your being such a perv! Really trying to take advantage of your employer how could you

Really though he wants to see how long he can push you before finally confess

[cheerfulmelancholies]

@pluttskutt sorry I accidentally posted before I could paste what I was gonna share! And then I deleted it because I'm stupid. I need to stop being so ambitious on mobile, it never goes well. Anyway, thanks to a coin toss you got treat! 🍬 So have a piece from an old wip of mine I really need to start back working on. It's a little long btw.

Diana returned home from another visit with Ethan to find her father whistling a joyful tune in the basement. Eyebrows rising, she checked the time on her watch before trotting down the stairs. Her dad was hunched over his workbench, tinkering with some odd or end of a device he'd probably never get around to finishing.

"Dad?"

Daniel dropped everything, let it fall against the wooden top with clinks and clangs, and whirled to meet his daughter's gaze. "Pumpkin! How's your day been?"

Diana forced herself not to flinch from the sudden shout. She blinked and averted her eyes from the stretched grin, opting instead to glance around him at the bench. "It's fine. What are you working on?" The tangle of wires and open plastic didn't look like something worth fixing.

He laughed, shoulders bouncing. "Nothing much. Just fiddlin' a bit with some gadgets I've been meaning to work on."

Silence fell as Diana and her father stood across from each other. He didn't look like like he was going to say anything anytime soon, so she cleared her throat to dispell some of the awkwardness. "Um, how was work today?"

"Fantastic! I'm actually being considered for a raise." His grin widened and he leaned against the workbench, palms resting on the surface.

"A raise? For what?" She didn't know how much he made there, just that it was substantial enough to support them and their lifestyle with ease. All this time, he'd never once mentioned any possibility of a raise or promotion.

Why now? What changed?

"For all my hard work, of course. My boss said he's been so impressed with my devotion. Said he felt I deserved something for it."

"...Ok?" She had no idea how she should respond to that. Her father continued to watch her, expression never faltering. "Are you feeling alright? You seem a little..."

"I'm great! This has been a fantastic day. You know what?" He pushed himself off the bench and stepped toward her. Pulling her into an excited hug, he felt his smile widen as he spoke. "How about you and I go out to eat? Have a little father-daughter bonding time?"

Diana didn't return the embrace as her father rocked them back and forth. This sudden change in mood was jarring. In any other circumstance she would be thrilled to have her father snap out of his obsession with work in order to spend time with her. But after the mishap in the garage and his unusual behavior as of late, this did nothing more than make her skin crawl. She pushed herself away.

"Where do you wanna go, pumpkin?"

"Um, this is coming out of nowhere, isn't it?"

"Well, I figured since I'm gonna get some extra cash to burn I might as well start using it. We haven't done anything together in ages." He gripped her shoulders and gave her a light shake. "C'mon, pumpkin, it'll be fun."

Diana watched in concern and slight horror as her father's unsettling smile-never once faltering-pulled his lips even wider. She looked at his eyes and, though not glassy and unfocused like they were in the garage, they seemed to hold an almost artificial light to them. There was no denying he was happy, but she had a problem with how sudden and random it was.

She spent a few more seconds regarding him before making a decision. "Yeah, sure. It has been a while since we've hung out together, hasn't it?" She grunted as he gave her another tight hug before letting go and heading up the stairs.

"Great! Let me just get outta my work clothes. You can pick the place."

Diana frowned at her father's back as he disappeared from view. This whole situation was unnerving but at least it would give her an opportunity to learn more about her father and MM. She couldn't recall the last time they'd hung out together let alone the last time he'd been in such a good mood. She was hoping that by saying yes he would be willing to discuss more about his work. After all, this was the first time he'd ever spoken so openly about it.

Several minutes later saw them in his car, going to a local diner they hadn't eaten at in a year or so. Daniel was rambling about how he hoped things hadn't changed and what he was thinking of getting while Diana stared out of the windshield with a troubled expression. She glanced sidelong at him as he went on and on, oblivious to the uncomfortable tension in the car. Her mind kept screaming that this wasn't right and by the time they pulled into the lot she'd already lost what little appetite she had.

Daniel stepped out and turned to find Diana staring at him from the passenger seat. He felt his expression falter. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said, climbing out and walking to the entrance. She watched his reflection approach and follow her inside.

A waitress seated them-the place wasn't all that crowded-and they began skimming through the menu.

"So," Diana started, glancing up from the words she wasn't reading, "how much is this raise of yours?"

Daniel's smile twitched. "I... What do you mean?"

"You said you were getting a raise before... You know, like more money?" She fiddled with the menu as she spoke, carefully selecting her words and tone. This was already spiraling downhill.

"I am."

"But, like, how much money? A dollar? Three? A five thousand dollar check?" She watched his eyes flicker between her and empty space. He seemed rather disoriented from such a simple question.

"They didn't say," he said after two straight minutes of silence. "I guess it'll just be a surprise." The smile returned tenfold.

Diana chewed her lip and was thankful for the waitress's timely arrival.

"What are you having?" her father asked, any hint of his prior confusion gone.

"A Caeser salad," she told the woman. She didn't think she could stomach much more at the moment. As her father placed his order for a burger she tried to process everything that was happening.

Medical Mechanical was giving her dad a raise but never said how much? What kind of a company hides that sort of info from their employees? With the way he was acting, she assumed they either told him and he forgot, or this was some elaborate scheme to manipulate him. Either way, it made her sick with worry. She needed more info.

"Hey, Dad?"

Daniel returned from staring at nothing to give her attention.

"So... Did they tell you anything about this raise? Is it part of a promotion maybe?" She thought back to Megan's comment about a new division and tried not to let it get to her.

"They've been very impressed with my work lately," he responded. "I'm rather proud myself."

Diana hummed and took a sip of water. She was never going to get anything out of him as long as he was like this. Whatever had been done to him didn't seem like it was going to wear off anytime soon. She thought about how to change the subject.

Thinking back to her failed attempts at getting him to open up about his past, she tried, "So, have you ever spoken recently to anyone you used to know before moving here?" She hoped he wouldn't remember how that discussion had went the last time she brought it up.

Daniel's smile decreased as he searched his mind for an answer. "Not recently, no," he said after a few moments. "I've been so busy with work that I haven't even thought about it."

"Do you miss anybody? Like, friends or family?"

The smile became strained. "No."

Diana observed his sudden discomfort with morbid curiosity. Was she getting somewhere? "You never wanna talk about your childhood, what am I supposed to tell my kids?" she joked, hoping to elicit a response.

He shrugged and stirred the ice melting in his cup.

"I'm guessing you don't have a lot of happy memories then. So what made you pick Lakewood of all places?"

"It's small and quiet," he said. "I liked that about it."

"And now that Medical Mechanical is here, do you still like it?"

"It's nice they're recognizing my work and giving me a raise," he said suddenly, derailing the conversation.

"That's... not what I asked. And you still never said how much they were paying you." Before she could get an answer, the waitress placed their meals on the table.

"Anything else?" she asked, eyeing Daniel's odd, listless expression.

"That'll be it, thanks," said Diana, also watching the way her father had abruptly zoned out. She frowned as she poked at her salad, nowhere near hungry.

Daniel came to and began eating as though nothing strange had happened. They sat in silence, and it wasn't until the waitress took their plates and offered dessert that Diana spoke up again.

"Are they gonna give you more time off again?" she asked the silence.

He gave her a blank look before seeming to process her words. "It's not like I mind working."

It cuts off suddenly because this is something that I haven't actually gotten to yet in the story, but it's getting there. I just like to write ahead sometimes. I hope you enjoyed it!

[weaselle]

I hope somebody from there saw this and is doing it. My whole family excels in this kind of rebellion, btw.

I spent one single year in a private high school, and they had a dress code, and the dress code said t-shirts must be a solid color and have a pocket.

Now i didn't mind solid color t-shirts, but i hated how the shirts with a pocket looked. So after failing to get away with wearing pocketless shirts... I borrowed a sewing machine and made a solid colored t-shirt with a pocket over the belly button like a silly little kangaroo. Facing the principle the next day, i pointed out that the student handbook clearly stated that all t-shirts must have a pocket. I asked him if my shirt had a pocket. I asked him to show me where the rules detailed the location on the shirt that a pocket must be. It was a private school so they simply suspended me for a day (which went on my record) and when i got back the student handbooks had all been reprinted with a sentence added to it specifying that t-shirts must have a breast pocket on the left side of the chest. Being the cause of a whole new student handbook edition gained me a small amount of notoriety, but i was so low on the social totem pole at that school that it didn't do much for me.

The next Monday, i showed up with a t-shirt entirely covered in pockets, front and back. In the principle's office again, I asked him if my shirt had a pocket on the left side of the chest. I asked him to show me where the rules said there must only be one pocket. I was suspended for a day and the next day there was ANOTHER student handbook reprint, and the school threatened to bill my parents the cost of reprinting all the student handbooks if they didn't get me in line. My parents basically laughed at them but asked me to not make them have to fight my school as they were already short on time and money. So i gave up on that and began amusing myself finding neck ties that met the letter of the dress code but pissed off the administration.

I could tell you a couple more things i've done, but i'd rather tell you what my brother did.

To promote recreational reading in The Youth, my younger brother's public high school instituted a 25 minute "free reading period" in the day. Every student had to spend that time reading. You could read anything, you could even read a magazine, but you had to be reading.

My brother thought the whole thing was a stupid way for the school to spend their time, and especially stupid to be applied to him. Our whole family reads excessively -- when i was in high school i was reading, on average, one entire book every day. My brother was more well adjusted than i, so i'd guess he was only reading 3 or four books a week, tho, while i was reading a lot of fiction with a little philosophy and history, he was reading a lot of, like, theoretical physics.

ANYway, he was like, this is stupid for many reasons, i'm going to sit quietly and use this time to catch up on some of my homework. But the teacher he had during that time period didn't like that and made a big deal out of insisting he actually spend the time reading. He was sent to the principles office, where he explained that he did not need extra reading time, cited studies that indicated the "free reading" time would accomplish nothing and was a waste of time for both the administration and the student body, and ended with a reminder that what he WANTED to do was sit quietly and do school work, which any school should be happy about.

The principle said he understood my brother's position, but that he couldn't make exceptions for a single student. As per the instructions to the whole school, it didn't matter what he read, it could even be unpublished writing, but he had to be reading. My brother, already veteran gamer both on a computer and around a table, immediately saw an exploit and seized this mistake (gods, my family really can be the worst lmao).

He asked the principle to put in writing the rules as stated AND that he would not make an exception for a single student. The principle, not understanding the kind of people we are, gave it to him in writing. At which point his fate was sealed.

So the next day my brother came in with a packet of paper he had printed at home. When the time came for "free reading" he took out his packet and began reading. When the teacher came over to make sure he was reading, she was enraged to discover he had a packet of about 25 pages completely full of the repeated letter "a".

"I'm reading it tho" was his response. "This meets the definition of reading" "No it's just a letter, you can't be reading it unless it's words."

The next day he showed up with pages completely filled with "words words words words." He was sent to the principles office "See, those are words," my brother said, "so i must be reading."

"no that's not reading, there's not a single sentence on these pages" The principle must have been stupid, anyone who ever met someone from our family could have seen what would happen the next day, when he showed up with pages full of "These are words in a sentence." over and over

He was again sent to the principles office. The principle discovered that, like a man with a monkey's paw, he could not define reading in a way that met the rules as stated but would prevent my brother's shenanigans. He tried to insist my brother read from a recognized publisher, but my brother pointed out that this was not the rules as given to the rest of the student body, and the principle could not make an exception for a single student. The principle tried to tell him that he was making an exception for him anyway, and my brother told him that unless he was given an exemption from "free reading" time entirely, he would not recognize any rules that violated the written agreement they had. The principle implied my brother would face consequences for this behavior, and my brother implied he would talk to the local paper about being repeatedly harassed for *checked actual notes* following the rules he had been given, all in an effort to prevent my brother from sitting quietly and doing actual schoolwork.

My brother returned to class shortly thereafter with a note from the principle explaining to the teacher that my brother was exempt from "free reading"

anyway, the moral of this story is, when a rule is ridiculous, you can often find a way to make the authority figures look ridiculous for trying to enforce it.

so again, i hope these kids just start using any and all words in a way that sounds like slang. Start using school-related words as slang "what's up, my exponent? You ready to get absolutely conjugated this weekend? it's gonna be sooo decimal!" Let them ban THAT. Make them pull their hair out trying to avoid admitting the rule they want to make is "don't be cooler than we can understand"

[nukafucker]

idk if anyone can relate but imma say it anyway-

I have loved drawing and art since I could hold a pencil, but as I've grown up the adults around me would always say things that would promote thoughts of monetization. "You're really talented! People pay lots of money for good art!" "You have a really good concept of shading, you could make good money as a tattoo artist!" And this was only made worse as I've been on social media since 13 (especially tumblr tbh) where people made commissions $5-15 a piece (please don't do that btw know you worth and don't u dare undervalue yourself) this influenced me a lot as a kid, a teen, and now that I'm an adult and I'm living on my own I can't bring myself to make art like I did anymore. I don't feel so free to create whatever tf I want as often anymore. Because this entire time, I've been encouraged to monetize and I can't sell what people don't like yknow? Which puts me in a creative corner. On the flip side of the same coin, if inspiration strikes and I do make whatever I want I feel terrible about it because if it's not making money then it's not worth my time. Anyway I'm tryin to break free from feeling the need to monetize my art. While I would love to make money doing what I love, I need to learn to do it for me first and foremost.

(Extra side note, I work a manufacturing job so it's a lot of hands on repetition which has made it even harder for me to draw or anything like I used to cus my wrists and hands just hurt so bad. Compression gloves have been a lifesaver tho)

[winxixia]

🌵 ⇢ share the link to a playlist you love

🪐 ⇢ name three good things going on in your life right now

🏜️ ⇢ what's your favourite type of comment to receive on your work?

Hi! Thank you for this ask! Here we go!!

🌵 Favourite playlist: I have several of them, that I listen to depending on my mood. I really like medieval fantasy ambiances like this one or this one that makes me feel like I’m in a tavern. It’s really chill. Other times, when I feel like turning into a villain, I listen to this kind of playlist haha!

🪐 Three good things happening in my life: I met with someone yesterday to apply to a new position I’m hoping I’ll be getting, and that someone was super nice and encouraging and they praised me a lot! It was super nice, especially since I’m not confident with my work (or anything I do oops). I have the most excellent friends who are always supporting me, guiding me and giving me advice, and it really helps to have such amazing people around me. Some of them are here, so I hope you know I deeply care about our friendship even though I’m not always the most vocal about it! <3 Also, I have a lot of projects I’m working on and making progress with, so I guess there’s that haha!

🏜️ Favourite type of comments: Honestly? All of them. I’m very grateful that my drawings get some attention, and I usually get comments under them. I like the Tumblr tags because it’s there that I get most reactions, for commenter would rather write their opinions/feelings there than directly under my posts. I’m so, so happy I can reach people this way! For my fics, it’s even more precious because way rarer (and not just because I’m writing for an extra rare ship almost nobody cares about these days… not that we were that many) but it’s to be expected. It takes time to read a story, and even my short stories can be quite long. I wrote a lot of them as a challenge with friends for the Luminary’s Library of Legends featuring Dragon Quest stories. You may find our issues for 2022 here, and there you have those of 2023. Please go and check my friends’ stories, they’re amazingly well written!! I’m sure you’ll find something you like! It features mostly DQ XI stories and Dai btw!! So yeah, it takes longer to read a fic than to look at a picture, and so I understand why less comments. I thought of writing for more popular things, as well as drawing for more popular fandoms, but I don’t want these precious interactions to just become stats/numbers. I want to cherish them all, though I’ll have to be honest, I’d love to get a bit more comments on my fics ^^; I’ll work hard to make my stories more enjoyable!! (Maybe I should also promote them more?! Haha)

[junkyarddook]

How has this news not ruined your enjoyment with CEC? (/gq)

Animatronics are a big SI for me and I regularly go to CEC, but after hearing this it makes me feel sick. It's completely ruined my enjoyment immediately and I've taken all the CEC stuff off my blog because I can't even bear to look at it.

This is just personal experience, if you don't want to I understand I just want to know how you can manage it because I really hate losing this part of me I've held since childhood...

tbh, working at chuck e, being severely mistreated by them, nd learning how horrible of a corporation they are rly has made me build up a lot of resentment toward them. but tht just makes me wanna speak up, cuz they r not gonna stop till they go bankrupt.

after i quit i had to take a long break. i quit with 0 notice bc they literally broke me. quitting with no notice is something i have never done before, i dont like 2 do that. i had to take 2 weeks off from work after tht because they put me in such a bad mental state

after they mistreated me, i also could barely look at cec stuff because it made me so upset remembering what they did 2 me.,.. and tht something that made me so insanely happy, was ruined by horrible management, ableism and corporate greed. i went from absolutely loving my job and having it b the best part of my day, to throwing up due 2 anxiety before/ during every shift cuz i waz so scared of my manager screaming in my face orr threatening my promotion again, (which i never got btw!! they held a promotion over me for months, had me doing all the responsibilities for it but refused to give me the pay raise they promised me for it.) as well as having multiple anxiety attacks/ having to step outside bc i was bawling cuz of the way they treated us. every. single. shift. the worst part about it was they just took advantage of us, the ones who actually cared about working there. they went easier on us if we didnt like the job, but if they see u will put in the effort, time, commitment, and they wwill use that passion u have to run u into the ground. thatz so wrong to me.

at the samee time, this iz smthn I was already kind of prepared for, i am aware of, having a large corporation as my special interest. all corporations are evil, they just try 2 hide it. this was sadly going on the whole time. small stuff, or big. the way they advertise things is purposely confusing to try and get more money out of u. stuff like tht is super fucked up 2 me. for example at my location they charge a $2 fee to activate playpasses, which i was encouraged to hide from the customer. i was literally only allowed to tell them if they asked why they are being charged $2 extra. chuck e has been supporting autism speaks for 2 years now. they just deleted our comments last year becausee they dont fucking care about us. all they care about is money.

what makez me happy about chuck e cheese is not going there, or supporting them,, for me itz the characters, music, videos, merch, animatronics and art. all of these things u can access without supprting CEC entertainment..,. theres so many ways to still engage in this interest without supporting chuck e cheese as a corporation. draw art of the characters. watch content through other YT channels, not the official cec one. theres so much fan-created content at this point, that we dont need corporate. the new stuff theyre putting out is mostly garbage in my opinion anyways. im not gonna miss seeing them use the same 2 renders of rockstar chuck over and over lol. i luvv rockstar, but evrrything coming out now just has this vibe of "we slapped this together to trick u and get ur money". theres no effort put into anything. its just whatever is quickest, cheapest and will make them the most money. barbara the barnyard barber? just a song they bought the rights 2 and slapped cec adlibs on top of.

i love chuck e cheese so much that i can never give it up, its my special interest, its one of the only things tht brings me true happiness. u dont have to give it up either. u can still love chuck e and not support the company. i even still go sometimes to film the bots, i just dont buy any games, merch or food. u can go to a chuck e cheese completely 4 free, which is definitely a huge "fuck u" to corporate imo, since all they want is ur money.

tl;dr : u can still lovr chuck e cheese without giving them money/ supporting them. imo its not morally wrong if u r speaking up about the bad they r doing, or at the least, not ignoring it and not pretending they did nothing wrong. u just gotta find alternative ways to engage with the content.

[yukina-otome]

Otome game MC’S

Hello everyone ! Today i am gonna tell you about my opinion on the mc’s of the otome games i played ! Again this is just my opinion so feel free to share yours or complete with your opinion on mc’s of otome games i didnt include !

This is not a ranking btw !

MLQC MC: Youran

Job: Producer | Queen

Age : 22 year old

Good points : 1-Brave and take risks 2-Never give up 3-Smoll bean (seriously she's so cute) 4-Really nice and helpfull (walk around the city for hours every week to help anyone in need) 5-Hardworking 6-Tell whats on her mind and doesnt hide her feelings 7-Can play piano

Bad points: 1-Bad decision making 2-Rely on the boys too much 3-Mary sue 4-Clumsy AF 5-Sneez\ stomach noises when boy is about to kiss her

Mystic messenger mc:

Age and Job: Depends

Depend on the route 1-Yoosung : Super patient and mature 2-Jaehee: Supportive 3-Jumin : God levels of patience but also kinda always have to agree with jumin which i hate 4-Seven : Happy go lucky and clueless about her whole situation (Seven : There is a BOMB | MC:LOL OK) 5-Another story : Guillible but also very patient. (i would take none of that s**t) Common to all routes : Have no eyes

My candy love MC: Lyn Darcy AKA Candy

Age : 17 during 1st season \ 23 during 2nd season \ 25 during 3rd season

Job : High schooler\ college student\ coffee owner

Good points: 1-Friendly 2-Helpful 3-Open minded 4-Pretty 5-Very strong mentally (during the highschool part) 6-Appearance can be customized 7-Energetic 8-Can get angry and speak her mind (depend on your choices)

Bad points: 1-Nosy AF 2-Mary sue 3-Play terapist with literally anyone she meet even if that mean getting herself in trouble and ignoring her own love life 4-Paranoid 5-Childish (even for a highschooler and even more in campus life)

7hotties MC AKA the worst mc (No pic for her cause tumblr says only 10 pic per post)

Job : Freelance designer  Age : middle 20′s

Good points :

1-None

2-Nothing

3-Absolutely nothing

Bad points: 1-Weak 2-Useless 3-Doormat 4-Almost jobless (never seen her work aside from keita's route because he is the one who gave her the job) 5-Bland AF 6-Forgive everything a guy do to her (even rape) 7-Never actually get mad (even after a guy sleep with her and dump her literally right after she's like "pls don't abandon me! Tell me if i did anything wrong ! I'll fix it")

SSS MC:

Job: Concierge at the royal shining

Age : Early 20′s

Good points: 1-Sassy 2-Have a goal in her life and a dream she will not abandon no matter what 3-Can solve mental illness with love (because otome game power) 4-Described as extra pretty (All the boys at her workplace like her) 5-Doesnt give up easily 6-Actually got some backstory 7-Thirsty AF 8-Relatable

Bad points: 1-Forgive too easily (Minami's route !!) 2-Always get caught when spying or listening on someone's conversation 3-Clumsy AF 4-Can't brew coffee even after two weeks of trying (toma's route) 5-Actually not so good at her job but she's trying really hard

Le secret d'henri\Henri's secret MC: Lyla (Actually not an otome game, more like a visual novel but i wanted to include it because i absolutely love the mc and also because it's getting a remake and i wanted to promote it a bit)

Job : Highschooler

Age: 17 then 18

Good points: 1-Strong 2-Naive in all the right ways (she know how naïve she is but still choose to be naïve because she'd rather get backstabbed because she trusted than miss the opportunity to know a good person because she didn't trust)

3-Very pretty (Said to be the prettiest girl in all the high school and literally every boy she met aside from her brother and clement her bestie want to date her.)

4-Very popular 5-She is so nice even Henri call her a saint 6-Have the best family 7-Have the best friends 8-Supportive 9-Likes to play detective and solve people's problem 10-You really get attached to her by the end of the story you are almost sad because you wont get to see her again

Bad points: 1-Overreact 2-Drama queen (I understand tho as she is still a highschooler so she get emotional and depressed quite easily specially when it comes to a certain someone)

3-A bit too perfect sometime : Pretty girl, nice , friendly, cool, like nailpolish and fashion but also manga and video games, smart etc etc 4-MARY SUE 5-Nosy but not in an annoying way

Ikevamp MC:

Job: Travel agent and blogger | Housemaid

Age: Early to middle twenties

Good points : 1-She's said to be very beautiful (leo's route) 2-Speak many languages and seem to have a wide board of interests 3-Adapt fast to her new environment (depend on the routes) 4-Mentally strong (specially in napoleon's route) 5-Kinda mature (sometimes and depend on the route) Bad points: 1-Inconsistent personality even in the same route 2-Mary sue 3-Can be very weak and submissive (depend on the route) 4-Have no reason to stay aside for the boy she loves (what I mean is that by the end of the route the only thing she have in 19th century France is her boyfriend, in some routes she doesn't even meet or talk to most of the other resident and she have no job aside from cleaning the mansion with Sebastian)

5-Also get kidnapped every route (don't know yet for Theo) 6-Always wear the same clothes

Ikerev MC : Alice

Job: Help at a bakery ?

Age: Early twenties (saw somewhere that she was the same age as ray, not sure tho)

Good points : 1-Like food 2-Foodie 3-Enjoy food 4-Food = Happiness 5-More seriously she's super positive and optimistic and adapt really fast to her environment 6-Friendly and happy go lucky 7-Have the power to repel magic and protect herself and sometime her suitor to some degrees

Bad points: 1-Clueless 2-Dumb AF 3-Bad decision making 4-Get kidnapped almost every route 5-Zero observation and deduction skills (Oliver's route) 6-Technically squat at the black\red army headquarter\Oliver and Blanc's house or Harr and Loki's house

Ikesen MC : Mai AKA the queen AKA the fireball AKA the little mouse AKA The godess AKA the wild boar

Job: Seamstress

Age: around 25

Good points : 1-Strong AF 2-Take no sh*t (Kenshin's route\ Nobunaga's route...) 3-Adapt quite fast to her new and very dangerous environement (if i was her i would not leave my room for the next 3 months) 4-Fireball 5-Saved her suitor in many routes (Kenshin, Ieyasu, Shingen...) 6-Sass Queen 7-Have a life in sengoku era aside from her suitor (kinda the opposite of ikevamp mc as i said in bad point 4) 8-Have a dream and a goal 9-Very beautiful (even kenshin said so outside of his route and he was not in love with her!) 10-A lot of chemistry with all of the boys even outside of their routes.

Bad points : 1-Mary Sue 2-In some routes she is weaker but it never really disturbed me as it suited the love interest of the route(Sasuke and mitsuhide's route) 3-Kidnapping

Midcin MC:

Job : Princess

Age: Heard somewhere that she is 19 but not sure about it

Good points : 1-Adapt fast to her new situation 2-Try her best to learn everything 3-Try to take responsibility as the new princess 4-Can't think of anything else for her...

Bad points : 1-Weak 2-Bland 3-Doesnt speak up when she actually need to (The dumpster fire that is Alyn's ever after) 4-Kidnapping sometime twice in the same route 5-Submissive depending on the suitor

Okko's games MC'S : Honestly they r all the same so reunited them all in one

Job and age : Depend on the game

Good points: 1-Hard working 2-Have goals and dreams 3-Usually have a backstory 4-Some of them are sassy 5-Pretty but doesn't take care of herself 6-Always have a very fashionable bestie with a lot of experience with dating that help her and listen to her problems

Bad points: 1-Emotional maturity of a middle school girl 2-Doesnt want to admit her feelings and keep denying them even when there is no reason to 3-Self sabotage 4-Blame herself for every bad thing that happens 5-Some of them are very weak and submissive

And that’s pretty much it ! Thank you for reading until the end ! Pls feel free to reblog and add on those with your opinion ! 

[aspenflower17]

Alright. I need to scream into the void because it is 5 AM and the anxiety is eating me alive.

So, in the tradition that is going on now, I am not happy at my job. My boss has done a lot of really messed up stuff, even before her staff all left. Here's some of them. Note: I am the assistant manager, with no manager above me.

1. When I started, we had monthly morning meetings to make sure everyone was on the same page (I started November 2019). Because of the pandemic, I understand why we stopped. So, 2021 rolls around and I was extremely excited to start those back up. Everytime I would tell her to schedule one (because I'm not in charge of the schedule), she would find some excuse not to do it. It is now September 2021, and we have had 1 (one) meeting, which she wouldn't really let me direct.

2. She won't come into her own store unless something huge is happening. She has told me on multiple occasions that she has to have employees to run the store because she can't always be there. Note, this is a small business. I can't tell you how many times I've been asked if I'm the owner because she. Does. Not. Come. In. She (hopefully) comes in once a week to bring us money and then bails.

3. Because of that, I have basically been running the store. I have had former co-workers tell people that stayed past them, "There's only so much responsibility [the owner] can put on [AspenFlower17] without just handing her the keys to the store." I have essentially gone gray enough at this point that people have suggested I just dye my hair gray. I'm going to be 26 next month... That's messed up.

4. I almost hit my breaking point a LONG time ago. After having a shift with her that left me in tears, I was ready to turn in my two weeks but then I found CBD for my anxiety. I stuck it out. When it got bad again, we hired a lovey, lovey girl who has turned into a friend for me. Because of her, I stayed a whole other year because I didn't hate work anymore. CBD doesn't help me anymore at work I'm so stressed. I no longer get to work with this coworker.

She also promoted me to assistant manager while we already had one and told me not to say anything to the current assistant manager because she would talk to her. A month or two later, we all had a meeting together, and THAT'S WHEN SHE TOLD HER!!! So, she left shortly thereafter because she felt like we were sneaking around behind her back, and I honestly don't blame her.

She also did not come in and work during covid even though we were open the whole time.

5. She has just, straight up lied about me to my staff. So, we had a lengthy discussion about what we could go for the staff to help combat burnout. I suggested we do a breakfast that wasn't a meeting just so everyone had time to hang out together. She agreed and when I mentioned going to a local restaurant, she then countered by essentially saying that we need to keep it cheap and to get stuff from the grocery store. So, I told her what day I was going to do it and then that we would have a meeting the next week. She said, "Okay. Well, mornings don't work well for me, so you just do it, and the store will just pay you back for it." Because she has a communication issue I had run into before, I verified the date and that I was okay to do it. She said yes, do it.

So day of the breakfast rolls around. It... Didn't go like I thought it would (partially because I was SUPER tired) but it happened. Whatever. The owner then spoke with one of the employees about how she was thinking about doing a breakfast for all of us. Said employee (who quit fairly soon there after) tells her we had already done it. The onelwer then tells her, "No... We had talked about it, but we never set anything up," and then proceeds to ask for details about it, and tells the employee we were all going to go to a restaurant and blah, blah, blah.

The staff then tells me, to which I obviously told them what actually happened, but it really kind of broke their trust with me and her because it wasn't a very good breakfast (we never had that nice one she told us about btw). I caught her in a point blank our again to me about another staff member later on, so I know they weren't lying (plus she seemed upset with me afterward for awhile). We did have the meeting though (the one we've had that I mentioned above, so... Obviously we decided on something... 👀

6. The back room is out of control and it's not my fault. So, we had a meeting with a higher up in the company (it's a franchise company, so no corporate but there is oversight) and he ran the numbers for us and told us that we need to buy more product to make our store a success (won't go into details, bit we buy products from people and then resale them). So I did. I pushed the staff to buy more stuff and low and behold, we had one of the best years we've EVER had, since the owner opened.

But, with more product comes more back stocking. And when I tell you our back room absolutely EXPLODED. It became a stressful place to be and I told the owner we needed more bins (which is what we put back stock in) when it started getting bad. She told me, "No. You need to make sure the bins we have are full and you need to stock more."

Well, about this time, we physically were not able to stock more because she didn't tell me it was clearance time and we were out if hangers, which I also communicated to her, and she brought us like 2 boxes (which doesn't do much). But I did everything I could to make that happen. I spent a ton of time combining bins and just trying to make it work in general and it wasn't working.

So, she comes into the back one day and just... Panics and reads me the right act for not telling her sooner that we needed bins... So I tell her, "But I did, back before it got this bad. You told me to just combine bins and put stuff out, but I can't do that because I can't because I'm out of hangers," and she says, "But I didn't know it was this bad..." But then later redacted that to say I never told her. So, she brings bins (BECAUSE SHE HAD SONE THE ENTIRE TIME), we... Kind of get the backroom manageable, and she tells me, "Now, if it ever gets bad again, you have to let me know. This is why communication is so important."

So, we use all the bins and are BARELY able to keep that okay. So, fast forward a couple months. The backroom is still messy and we've had... 4 people leave at this point (many because of the backroom). I have my lovely coworker come out of the back and tell me point blank, "[AspenFlower17], that backroom is stressing me out. I don't care if I have to buy them. We HAVE to get bins," so I go, "Cool. Let me text [the owner]," and so I text and tell her, "We need more bins. The staff is getting stressed out," and she texts back, "Well, I need a list if everything you have back there first," ... So I do. She then comes in and instead of working in the back, she's upfront BUYING MORE PRODUCT (she always buys a TON). Then, when I get there, she pulls me around the store, tells me everything that's wrong (note I haven't left behind the counter in we weeks because of buys), and then pulls me to the back, brings out a ton of bins for everyone to stock, and then leaves... That was the ultimate breaking point. I started enacting the exit plan I had come up with since I was already planning on leaving. We still don't have new bins btw.

7. Okay. So. I hired 3 new people. I knew one of them wasn't going to be great, bit figured the other two would be a good fit (this is around the time that everyone was leaving their jobs).

One girl, my favorite actually of the three, completely no showed on me and sent me a text quitting about it 40 mins before her shift though I didn't get it until 5 mins after she was supposed to show up because I DON'T CHECK MY PHONE AT WORK? I told the owner and said I could stay the extra two hours. She says, "Glad you're there."

Next day, I was able to spend some time in the back because, well, I needed to, and didn't get super far, but got some stuff done. I offered to stay longer but was told it was fine, even though one of my coworkers have herself dry socket and was in pain. We were short staffed because that girl quit.

So I go to my friend's house, glad the weeks over because I had the next day off. I then get a text from the coworker with dry socket asking was I actually did in the back. I tell her, getting really pissed at this point, and then she tells me something is leaking back there. So, I head BACK over after a 7 hour shift. She's freaking out and crying. My other coworker is trying to figure out the leak. In the meantime, product is getting wet. So, I stay back there and organize. We send the one with dry socket home and the other coworker is pretty pissed, says she's not staying past 8 and that I shouldn't either; the owner needs to if she wants the store to stay open. So, she texts the owner asking what to do, and doesn't get a reply. I text her, and get a reply 20 minutes later saying the earliest she can come in is 8...

So, this coworker tells me I need to leave because she's taking advantage of me and everything. I ended up staying another 4 hours. The owner was not there right at 8 (did I mention she's also late to almost EVERYTHING?) and seems put out because she had to scramble to find a baby sitter... Ummm... This is your store? And we could have closed early?

8. She's given me tons of shifts with BRAND new people and expected the store to run just fine. She won't even come into help with that.

9. So, I finally put in my two weeks on September 3rd. Work was so bad, I was starting to have suicidal thoughts. Everyone had just reached their breaking point and I was just done. I did not get a reply from her about it (I texted because of my anxiety). The next Tuesday she talked to me about it. I told her I was having suicidal thoughts and I wasn't happy. The next day we talk again, she and convinced me to stay if she made me the backstock manager, so I would only really deal with the back room and the stuff I actually enjoy (and no customers). She also told me she would handle staffing and front end stuff. I figured that would be a good thing, since that's what I've wanted since I started and it would be a full time position. The first week went fine. The second week I had time off, WHICH I REQUESTED BACK IN APRIL, and things just fell apart (partially because if another no show) and she did try to guikt trip me into coming in, which I refused.

It is the 22nd and I am not backstock manager. She has scheduled me 6 days this week and has scheduled it so she is only on the schedule twice. I still have to do staffing things. I'm still doing front end stuff, and she actually got snippy with me on Monday because she left for two hours and a new girl was whining about breaks and asking if she was coming back WHILE I WAS BUSY, so she asked if she could text the owner when she was coming back and I told her sure, whatever. The owner then calls me asking all these questions about why she had texted her and that she shouldn't have her phone on her and blah blah blah WHILE I AM LITERALLY TRYING TO HELP A CUSTOMER WHO DOESN'T SPEAK VERY GOOD ENGLISH!!! and then said, "Well, technically, I'm not on the schedule. I just came in to help you guys, so you're going to have to figure out breaks."

... What happened to you being in charge of the front?

She says I'll be in my new position in a matter of WEEKS, but won't show me anything new with it and with how this is going, I'm pretty sure, even if I do get in this new position, she's going to make me do shift leader stuff when she's short staffed again. She has had she entire staff quit on her before, so it's not like this is a new thing with her.

She doesn't complete all the tasks she's supposed to during the day and just leaves it for night crew, or if she's closing, for the next morning (because she does often open) but then doesn't get it done, again pushing it onto night crew. If we don't get done though, she'll reprimand us.

The problem is, I would just leave, but I feel really guilty about it. We are extremely short staffed and I feel like if I leave now, the store will fail and I've put so much into it, it just feels like a waste.

Everyone is telling me to get out and just leave... But... Anxiety... Plus I feel bad because I told her I'd stay.

Honestly, at this point I'm just looking for some validation that I should leave.

Oh, I also get paid $14... For an assistant manager position. Minimum wage in my state is $7.25 for reference. I also have a seasonal job that ends in October that doesn't pay well, but I enjoy.

Please... Thoughts?

[madmaenad]

Meta on Sun Xiang & Qiu Fei’s Relationship

So the other day, Wack from the TKA discord mentioned in passing how Qiu Fei and Sun Xiang are like two ships passing in the night. The image stuck with me because it’s both poetic and accurate: two people occupying the same space, but heading in opposite directions, and never managing to stand on the same ground.

It’s notable that in a novel the size of TKA, the two almost never interact. In fact, there are only two examples of SX & QF speaking to each other outside of Glory in the entire novel. BB just didn’t fill in the rest, as he does, but what we have is consistent. I think it’s worth looking closely at their connection, because the novel very obviously sets these two characters up as foils of one another: Sun Xiang as the light, and Qiu Fei as his shadow. QF and SX are teammates who have several things in common (young Battlemages connected to Ye Xiu who have been trained to work together) - things that should draw the two together - but end up serving as a backdrop to the ways they are opposites. 

Let’s start with QF and SX’s very first interaction on page. Context: SMC has just given EE a magnificent chewing out about how all their worrying about YX is pointless, because YX seeks nothing but victory and EE is just another opponent to him. 

“Su Mucheng got up and left the conference room.

The room was completely silent. Just when everyone was wondering how long this silence would last, someone finally broke it. Someone stood up.

"I’ll be going to practice."

Qiu Fei.

This rookie had only just been promoted from the training camp this season. To think he dared to speak out against the Club’s manager. "I’ll be going to practice." By saying that, it meant he agreed with Su Mucheng.　

Ignoring everyone else’s gaze towards him, Qiu Fei left the conference room. The remaining people looked at one another, occasionally sneaking a glance at Cui Li.

This time, their captain Sun Xiang spoke up: "Haha, that child. He’s really got a personality. How interesting."

F*ck! Everyone slapped their forehead. Bro, I think you’re misreading the issue here. (885)”

The dynamic established here of ‘SX misreading QF’ is consistent all the way to the end of the Challenger League. QF has just made an extremely symbolic gesture of support for SMC, YX, and YX’s ideals of pursuing victory without distraction. All of that meaning completely flies over SX’s head. His reading of the situation is pure, shallow surface meaning only. His reaction is an abrupt change of emotional tone, and helps draw a dividing line between the two characters from the very beginning. It also highlights the different maturity levels between the two characters (The very next line is the famous “It wasn’t Xiao Shiqin’s first time witnessing Sun Xiang’s stupidity,” btw XD).

Additionally, we can read the line about SX finding QF interesting as a suggestion that SX didn’t think QF was interesting before now. We don’t know when QF became his shadow, but this scene happens in December and QF has been on the team since August/September. The options I see here are either A. the two hadn’t interacted much B. They interacted but SX just didn’t know QF well. 

In our next interaction, QF has just lost his match to YX in the Challenger League group round:

"You played well." Sun Xiang actually acted like a captain for once and comforted Qiu Fei, who was returning to the bench. Qiu Fei smiled, but didn't say anything before returning to his seat, but his gaze was aimed at Excellent Era's competition booth. On the field, they didn't have any way to communicate with words. Everything was based on their mechanics, attacks, defense, movement, and dodges. In this match, Qiu Fei had given it his all, but still lost. However, there would always be defeat in competition. He might've lost this time, but next time he'd win for certain, no matter who he was up against.

After giving his encouragement to one of their players, he casually glanced towards Happy and suddenly raised his voice. "It's just a shame that you left a Ye Qiu with only half his health for me. Even if I win, there will be no honor in it! (1016)”

Again, SX completely misreads the situation. QF doesn’t need to be comforted. At all. The following narration makes that clear - QF is already looking toward his next match. The mismatched emotional tone here between QF’s state and SX’s reply even makes me cringe a little bit. Like his mentor YX (who SX has just disparaged), QF is thinking about victory, but SX is thinking about honor. Their priorities are completely different - QF & SX aren’t on the same wavelength at all. Even after SX has trained together with QF as his shadow for months, he doesn’t seem to know QF’s personality. Based on this interaction, I’d find it difficult to believe the two of them are close. 

Next, let’s take a look at their in-game exchanges during the Challenger League Finals and what they say about SX & QF’s partnership as light & shadow.

“It was easy to think of what Sun Xiang was feeling like after being played around like that. He had been preparing to show his superiority over Ye Xiu in this team competition. Not yelling at Qiu Fei to move to the side was already a huge improvement for him. (1039)”

I bring up this quote because it means that SX has previously yelled at QF...who’s supposed to be his shadow and whose entire job is to help him. And not doing so is a ‘huge’ improvement. 

I don’t intend this as ‘SX was mean to QF.’ Pre character development SX would probably yell at any of his teammates. It’s just especially ‘ouch’ because QF’s entire job is to stick by SX’s side and coordinate with OAL. 

Okay, next quote.

“In the end, Sun Xiang was forced to retreat and leapt backwards twice to just barely dodge the attack. However, Soft Mist wasn't done yet. She was just about to execute her next attack. However, Qiu Fei's Combat Style attacked from the flank, stopping Soft Mist from continuing her assault.

From an outsider's point of view, it was a very normal assistance from a teammate, but in Sun Xiang's eyes, it was disgraceful! Just Soft Mist alone had forced him to require Qiu Fei's assistance? (1040)

QF is supposed to be SX’s helper, but SX thinks being helped is disgraceful. The narrative even calls this out as unreasonable. When one half of a partnership rejects the other person’s help, that is not a strong or stable partnership. 

Here’s one more:

“Sun Xiang had originally planned on continuing to attack Soft Mist, but then saw Combat Form force her back. Annoyance flickered in his heart as he had One Autumn Leaf chase after her, but after the first step, he suddenly remembered that rescuing their healer should be their priority. He immediately turned around and headed towards Woven Shadow. As for Qiu Fei's Combat Form? He just quietly followed alongside One Autumn Leaf. Only a professional's eyes would have been able to see the significance of that Rising Dragon Soars the Sky. (1041)

Once again, QF acts exactly as a shadow ought to by covering SX’s mistakes, and it just makes SX annoyed with him. I’d like to pause here to remind you that QF’s dream was always to stand beside One Autumn Leaf and seek victory side by side with YX. As OAL’s shadow, technically he’s achieved a piece of that dream. But SX’s reactions here are a rejection of QF as his shadow. SX doesn’t want a partner, SX wants individual glory. 

How ironic, that QF should gain what he hoped for and be cruelly denied it at the same time.

If you’d like an extra bit of pain, I’ll remind you that QF is both perceptive and thoughtful. It isn’t unreasonable at all to believe that QF sensed SX’s attitude toward his help. :)

I’ll end with one last quote:

“Sun Xiang turned his view with this attack. What he saw caused him to charge over like he had gone crazy, trying to use his own body to block the three Anti-Tank Missiles.

But it was too late. Everything was too late. Lord Grim didn't just send out Anti-Tank Missiles. A grenade had also rolled over, across the ground.

Combat Form, Qiu Fei's Combat Form had run out of health.

The shadow that had been with him the whole way, helping him. In truth, Sun Xiang hadn't thought that he was very important, but in that moment, he truly wished to save Combat Form from death, willing, even, to use his own character, One Autumn Leaf, to shield his shadow from death.

But it was all too late. Engulfed by the light of the explosion, Combat Form could no longer escape and his health fell to zero. Combat Form, he had fallen.

AAAAAHHHHHH!

In the player booth, no one could hear how Sun Xiang had screamed. (1051)”

At the very end, SX realizes QF’s value. But it’s too late, both for the match and for his partnership with QF. SX transfers soon afterward and doesn’t get a chance to fix his mistakes.

I have to wonder - did SX’s belief that having a shadow wasn’t important transfer over into a belief that QF also wasn’t very important? Is this why SX doesn’t seem to know much about QF?

That’s the last we see of the two characters interacting, but I’ll point out that SX earns best partners with ZZK the very next season. Is that SX learning from his mistakes and throwing himself into becoming the best possible partner he could be? I’d like to think so. 

How does this dynamic play out when QF returns to the Alliance with EE? SX, older and wiser and aware how badly he failed QF...come on guys where’s the fic

[jalebi-weds-bluetooth]

Hey Soapy! Firstly I am absolutely thrilled at the podcasts. Congratulations to both of you on the wonderful work<3 I came across a not so nice news that Saath Nibhaana Saathiya is back with season 2. I am amazed how such shows run for years and make a comeback. My ask for you is some of the worst shows or ridiculous things you have seen in ITV and how IPK was pathbreaking and how it stuck to some of these stereotypical tracks. You can answer this when you are in a foul mood :P Love and Hugs-RDX

Hello dearest RDX, 

Ugh, why did you remind me that SNS is back?

Ah, you bet I have a BILLION things to crib about the current state of Indian television. So I’ll just stick to what is the WORST things on TV and how IPK worked with those tropes. Btw, I’m just addressing some of the MOST problematic things in TV.

Tropes IPK subverted

Trope: Post Hate Marriage 

- Shows like Yeh Hai Chaahatein, Naagin 5 highlighted that since marriage ‘happened’ a man has rights on a woman aka patnidharm *puke break* which results to threats of marital rape and/or sexual harassment but that’s termed as “passion”. 

But BECUZ it iz a Hindi TV show lead, he doesn’t “do it” *puke break again*

Quick note: There’s a WORLD of a difference saying “welcome to hell” in an office, and in a bedroom.

- IPK: One thing I genuinely respected about this show is that Arnav never implies any sort of sexual harassment (btw this is bare necessity, doesn’t make him a great or even a good guy) towards Khushi cause she’s his wife hence patnidharm. Sex, intimacy, all of it remain as a very meaningful act for both of them. If at ANY point Arnav was like “Khushi you are mine, fulfill patni dharm” bullshit, I would have exited the show ASAP. 

Trope: Angst leads to Passion, aka forcibly being close to a woman when she DOES NOT want it 

- Angst is different from passion, which is different from discomfort. From Naagin 5 to even some scenes in IPK 3, I cannot fathom why people find harassment sexy, angsty or passionate. I just watched a scene in Naagin 5 where the ML (male lead) dances ‘passionately’ with the FL (female lead), calls her a sweetheart and she is VISIBLY uncomfortable but because it is cued with Dil Ibaadat’s background scoring and sudden stares it is supposed to be... sexy?

- Also, my issues with IPK 3 was never the lack of Sanaya or anything. It’s just that the bg scorer plays Rabba Ve RIGHT AFTER Advay tells Chandni she looks prettier without her dupatta (Advay set her dupatta on fire, she doesn’t know it, drops it off, and she faints into his arms). He’s an anti-hero. Please... don’t play Rabba Ve when he’s being an anti hero. Ugh

- IPK: Apart from the dori break, weird hut consummation attempt, “main batata hoon characterless...”, and the stupid we-ain’t-married-so-let’s-bang-even-if-one-partner-is-uncomfortable; Arnav and Khushi DO NOT engage in any sort of physical contact that is undesirable. The dance on honeymoon, Arnav and Khushi lock their eyes and dance on tandem, at no point is Khushi attempting to run away from Arnav or Arnav continuing to feel up Khushi despite learning she’s uncomfortable. 

Trope: Women against women

- *takes a deep breath* Kasautii Zindagi Ki (1 and 2), IPK 3, Qubool Hai, Kumkum Bhagya, Yeh Rishtey Hai Pyaar Ke (mostly), Anupamaa, Yeh Hai Chaahatein, Lockdown Ki Lovestory, Saath Nibhana Saathiya - you get it? Literally all of them have women who also desire the ML or don’t want the FL to be the Bahu of the house. Also like I literally put mostly Star Plus shows. @tellywoodtrash is legit your go to person about more info. Her legendary liveblogs are a living insight. 

- IPK: (Not considering Sheetal cause that was barely a track and Dadi was brought by Shyam) I LOVED that Shyam was brought into the show. It was one of the few shows that allowed a villain to grow. Shyam had plans, motivations, and was actually quite the villain until he started monologuing his every plan. And apart from the ‘makeover’ given to Lavanya, I LOVED how Lavanya grew as a character was respected and that she got a dignified breakup. 

Tropes IPK followed

- Darcy & Lizzy - rich arrogant man meets peasant intelligent woman

- Orphaned leads. 

- Siblings are the beta pair. 

- Misunderstanding before/around love confession.

- Hate marriage. 

- Remarriage track. 

- Enemies to lovers / takraar se pyaar. 

- Samaaj waale. 

New things IPK promoted

- Consensual sex before marriage. 

- The in laws LOVE Khushi and basically are shipping the main leads. 

- Anjali’s divorce is never brought up, no one ever makes a big issue of it. They’re just happy for her - as it should be. 

- Lavanya and Arnav’s breakup. 

- Arnav’s PTSD of his parents’ death does not magically disappear with Khushi’s appearance in his life. Things get better when he has to deal with his past upon Dadi’s appearance. 

- Arnav is more than an extra in the bg. The show does stick to his and Khushi’s love story. 

- Adoption 

- NK and Khushi remain friends forever. A guy who had a crush on a woman, can be FRIENDS. In fact best friends, and the same applies to Khushi and Lavanya’s friendship. 

- Sustained intimacy (this one goes to @phati-sari, she excellently pointed that out here) . Khushi goes from shying away to smiling into a kiss. 

Phew!

Hope you liked this! Much love,

- Soapy

[redspiderling]

Hey there. Any ideas on why the writing fell apart for Natasha in subsequent movies, even from creators who did a lot better With the first time around? In the first Avengers Movie, Whedon made her a lead character and showcased Natasha in several notable scenes. He followed that up with an out-of-nowhere romance and a subplot based on her reproductive capability. The Russos made her a co-lead in The Winter Soldier. They later fridged her in Endgame, calling her a “cypher”. What gives?

Hey there,

Hope you’re still well anon! You sent this ages ago, I know, but I don’t think I was in the right mindset to reply at the time.

The writing for Natasha was never high end, or consistent, since the beginning. Let’s not forget that the first time we saw Natasha on screen she was a fake femme fatale working for Stark. 

There was definitely improvement in her appearance in the Avengers, and they worked a bit more on her character in the Winter Soldier, but before, and after that, it’s a wasteland.

Sometimes when I’m feeling extra bitter I do like to argue about Natasha’s role in Winter Soldier. I know it’s practically the best we got in the eyes of most fans, but I always felt her presence in the Avengers was much truer to character. Not just because we get to see her being a badass, but also because Natasha has her own agenda in the Avengers. In the Winter Soldier she does lose a bit of her identity to serve the plot (falling back on a double-agent role, even though she’s already defended the Earth and joined the Avengers).

Plus, now that I’ve let loose when criticizing the MCU’s treatment of Natasha, I’d also like to point out that the only reason Natasha was in the Winter Soldier at all, let alone promoted as much as she was, was Scarlett. 

If you look at the script the actual co-lead is Sam, not Natasha.

Sam is the one to whom Steve opens up to, and Sam is the one who gives him hope in becoming part of the modern world. The one who also gives him a lifeline into getting out of the superhero life, if that’s what he wants. 

Sam is also the one who willingly puts himself on the line to help Steve out, even though he didn’t have to. He’s the one who Steve wakes up to in the hospital, and the one who goes with him to find Bucky.

I’m not trying to diminish Natasha’s role in the film btw, nor am I trying to make her compete with Sam, I adore all those characters together on film. If anything, Sam and Natasha are two halves of the same sidekick to Steve. Neither is there to further their own agenda, they’re both there to help Steve find his way.

(not to mention Bucky is the love interest, script wise. Which is why it made more sense, again, script-wise, to keep Natasha as the buddy cop.)

Anyway, all I’m saying is that while we get more of Natasha in the Winter Soldier, comparatively to other MCU films, what we do get is neither top notch, nor exactly highlighted. Natasha in the MCU always ends up saving the day from the side-lines and she’s always the one fucked over in the process. TWS is no exception to that, all of the films suffer from the same sexist nonsense. That’s where the “cypher” shit comes from, and that’s where the fridging comes from, and it all makes me very tired.

[dark-academia-newsroom]

Advice for early career and student journalists

I’m making this post because students will often reach out to me for advice. I’m always happy to chat, but thought I would do a brain dump on tumblr as an easy-to-share resource. I’ll continue adding things as I think of them. 

First, who I am: Right now, I’m the audience engagement editor at the Center for Public Integrity, one of America’s oldest, Pulitzer-prize winning, nonprofit newsrooms. I handle digital strategy, social media, partnerships, crowdsourced investigations, newsletters, metrics, SEO and help with membership building. I also sometimes report when I can. -whew- Before that, I was doing audience engagement at POLITICO. I hope my experience can be useful to you! ✨

Low-hanging fruit: 

Network but IRL: I feel like I could have done this more when I was an undergraduate student. There are a ton of groups that regularly host events like the Online News Association, Society of Professional Journalists, the Asian American Journalists Association, National Association for Black Journalists, National Association for Hispanic Journalists and more. I personally like smaller events so that you can get to know people on a more intimate level. Conferences are sometimes intimidating but special tracts or scholarships for students are really great opportunities that you should take advantage of. 

Reach out to people you admire: First, they might actually end up being your colleague or superior one day. It’s also great to get advice from journalists you want to emulate. If you want a similar career, learn from the best! 

Have a portfolio: It doesn’t have to be fancy –– my first portfolio was on tumblr! It helps to have your work in one place so employers can have your information and experience on hand. 

Build your social presence: It doesn’t just help with clout. Employers can get a sense of who you are and based on what you tweet (since journalist Twitter is still a thing), it shows that you’re thinking critically about the conversations going on in the industry. 

Keep up with industry news: Read Nieman Lab, Poynter, Pew research etc. You’ll be remembered not just for reporting, but for executing journalism smartly. Plugging into tough conversations in the industry also helps build your news judgement. 

Be active at your campus paper: It’ll help you get experience and internships which lead to jobs!

P.S. A job interview starts the minute you walk through the door or pick up a phone, not when you’re sitting down across from the hiring manager. Use every minute you have with them to impress. 

For the workplace: 

Journalism is best when it’s collaborative: Aim to work with people who will elevate your journalism. They might be on a different team from yours entirely. 

Go the extra mile, but know your limits: This one is pretty self explanatory. If you can do something, say yes. But if your plate is full you should communicate that to your editor and they will help you reprioritize. They should work with you, especially if you’re still in school. 

Ask questions: I still sometimes hesitate to ask my director questions. But it’s important to make sure you have your ducks in a row. Depending on the story, asking questions might even be a matter of safety. 

Speak up: If you have an idea you want to spitball, share it with your editor or at the all staff meeting. It might be intimidating, but it’s better to be generous with your ideas. You can’t build from nothing. Btw, you might know something that other people don’t –– even if you feel you’re the least experienced because of your age. You have something to contribute and people should recognize that. 

Roll with the punches: Don’t beat yourself up too badly when you make a mistake. I sometimes think back on errors I’ve made, especially while covering breaking news. I learned from those mistakes and did better the next time. That’s what counts. 

Join your diversity committee: If you care about an equitable world, start with your newsroom. If you don’t have a diversity committee, start one! 

Join your coworkers for drinks or hangs: Camaraderie amongst coworkers builds a strong team. I'm not promoting alcoholism...but journalists do have strong livers for a reason.

Keep your receipts: If there’s ever an issue with senior management, write the incident down, export your emails and screenshot your messages. The first thing HR will ask for is proof. Also, don’t send anything you don’t want other people to see.

For reporting: 

Think outside the box: With interactives, video, graphics and social media, there’s a ton of ways to experiment with different forms of storytelling and soliciting feedback from audiences to help inform your work. You’ll be remembered for implementing something new. 

Don’t get attached: Editing is a bitch, no matter what the medium. You’re gonna see a lot of red lines or cuts. Don’t be discouraged. It’s normal! Unless you can make a case for why something is really strong or necessary to include, you might want to check yourself and see if you’re being too precious about your work. I found that my editors were wise enough to make decisions that strengthened my copy.

Listen humbly: Always consider the possibility that the story that you originally had in mind could be completely wrong. Journalists are not experts at everything. Be flexible and report on what you find. Treat people with dignity and compassion.

Journalism is a service: Before you report a story, ask yourself who you’re serving by reporting it. How are you contributing to the narrative? What impact do you hope this will make? Who are you holding accountable? How are you lifting people up? Who isn’t being heard? 

Diversify your sources: Make sure POC, women, LGBTQ+ are represented in your work, even if they’re not explicitly talking about their identities, you’re highlighting their voices and expertise. 

General advice: 

You are your best hype-man: No award or accomplishment is too small. Celebrate! And #humblebrag.  

Question everything: Even your editor and yourself! 

Know your worth: Don’t let anyone drag you down. And if you can’t afford it, don’t work for free. 

Objectivity isn’t real: “Both sides” journalism is not it. Why? It fails to acknowledge injustice and structural inequalities our country is built on. The role of media is to use it’s power and influence to inform and hold people accountable for upholding those structures. If something is wrong, call it out. 

Wellp, these are all the things that I can think of off the top of my head. Let me know if I missed anything! :’) 

[felsdumpsterfire]

Guess who’s opening commissions!!

Hey, everyone! I hope your all doing well! As you can guess from the title: I’ll be opening up commissions!

I’ll be taking a total of five at a time, so I’ll be keeping everyone updated on the number of commissions, so if you’d like to commission a drawing that would be wonderful and wouldn’t be able to thank you enough! (and who knows maybe we’ll become good friends that way! But only if you want!)

Anyway! More under the cut since this will be long!

What I Will Draw

Ocs 

D&D Characters

Fan Characters

Self Inserts

A note if you are going to be requesting this: please be ready to share some information about your character/insert with me so that I can get a feel for them and if you have  drawing/picture/visual references or even a color pallet (if you’re going to request color) your able to provide, that would be amazing, so that I can make them as accurate as possible! Also be ready to communicate pretty please if we’re doing this from scratch! I’d like your input to know that I’m doing your character justice!

Anime/Comic/Video Game Characters

Please no Mechas/robots though! I have a rather difficult time drawing very sharp lines and I can try my best but I don’t think it’ll come out all that great! (At least until I can figure out how to draw them!)

Animals

Furry/anthropomorphic characters

Ships

Both characters must be at least 18 years and consenting individuals in the relationship

Gore/blood 

Example right here! vv

Will Not Draw!!

INCEST

ABUSIVE THEMES 

I personally have bad memories with abuse and would appreciate if you respected that fact

SUICIDAL/SELF HARM THEMES 

Characters with self harm scars are acceptable, but nothing intense ie. threat of suicide or self harming in the act

NSFW/Fetish Content

PEDOPHILIA/MINOR X ADULT

I respect that people have their ships and use them to cope, but I, personally, am not comfortable drawing ships like that since I am above the legal age myself and would like to avoid drawing relationships with huge power dynamics like that

No Minors being Fetishised

This goes for “lollies”/”shotas” as well. I will not draw them in any sort of “lewd” or suggestive manner

Pieces promoting political/religious propaganda of any kind 

I’d prefer to be a neutral party thank you! Angel/Demon OCs/characters are perfectly fine btw!

Over the Top Gore (Can be discussed)

I say this only because I will draw a character covered in blood but I’m not too quick to draw one with cannibalism or anything super gross. That being said, you can convince me but it just has to be explained why me depicting this character eating guts is necessary. That’s all 

Realism

Not only are Mechas/sharp looking Robots my weakness, but so is realism! I am a very stylized artist and would like to keep the styles like that, thank you!

Prices (Note: all prices will be in United State’s Dollars)!

(Cleaned) Sketches- $10

Sketch & Black and White coloring- $15

Line Art- $20

Line Art & Flat Colors: $25

Flat Colors & Shading- $30

Shading & Simple Background- $35

Shading & Complex Background- $40

There will be an additional cost depending on how much of the character that I’m required to draw: 

Finally, each additional character (I will be taking a max of three characters in one piece) will cost an extra $5.  

Payment/Additional Information 

I will be using PayPal to charge

I ask that you pay half/full price up front, this is for my and your benefit as it means that you already have half/a full investment in the piece and that I won’t get bamboozled

NOTE: YOUR MONEY WILL NO BE TOUCHED UNTIL AFTER YOU RECEIVE YOUR DRAWING AND ARE SATISFIED WITH IT

Your picture will be delivered to you via email/DM

I HAVE THE RIGHT TO REFUSE A COMMISSION 

Please respect me as an artist and follow the rules and that I do have a life outside of commissions. Also please be polite otherwise I will refuse your commission

As stated in the will’s section of this list: References are greatly appreciated: this includes poses, pallets, physical looks, etc. This doesn’t just go for OCs! If you have a very specific pose/pallet you want for a character from a media, please send it to me along with your commission!

I ask that my signature stays ON THE PIECE ONCE YOU RECEIVE IT. I worked really hard on it and I’d be sad if you did me dirty like that :’(

I will possibly be giving you my Discord (if you have it) if we do end up drawing a character, as stated three different times, I want to get your image as close as possible to what you want so please keep that in mind! And if you don’t feel comfortable with that, please don’t feel bad about it!, I want you to have an enjoyable experience with this! So we can keep it a surprise if you’d prefer! 

Aaaah! Thank you for reading this! And I apologize for it being so long! I just wanted to make sure that it was informative enough to make the commission process as smooth as possible! Feel free to ask questions after/before you commission!

My business email is Wolfsign0016@gmail.com

I’ll be sure to get to you as soon as possible if you do commission! Again, thank you for reading and I hope all of you have a great day/night!

So far all slots are open!

Commission 1 [open]

Commission 2 [open]

Commission 3 [open]

Commission 4 [open]

Commission 5 [open]

(also much thanks to my friend @personalblood​ for allowing me to use their D&D NPC the Sketch-Complex Background example u3u)

[huanwanchens]

XiCheng Fic Recs

Fic recs featuring XiCheng with some side pairings. I decided to do this list so I can keep track. Basically, these fics are extra long coz the bitch in me doesn’t like to read short fics lol. All are complete works though. I hope this helps my fellow XiCheng shippers! I am a bitch for XiCheng and I am proud? LOL

Little Lotus by RennieOnIceCream (XiCheng mentions of WangXian)

Summary: If one asked Lan Xichen about having children a few years ago, he would’ve said the idea of a family was nice, but it was entirely impossible for him.

Having the leader of the Jiang Sect for a partner, he should’ve known -- impossibilities were always achievable.

Mpreg XiCheng fic that is light and fluffy! This is more like the journey of pregnancy featuring XiCheng.

Wish That You Were Here by Achromos (XiCheng, JingYi)

Summary: Ever since he was young, Jingyi knew that he was missing a parent. The thing that bothered him the most about this was that his a-die was clearly suffering and lonely. At first, he had to settle for stories of his fuqin - the First Jade of Lan, a beautiful and powerful cultivator. But then he was sent to study in the Cloud Recesses, where he met the other side of his family. He was determined to find out why his parents won't speak to each other; what happened fifteen years ago. How he can perhaps mend the rift between them.

A fic where Jingyi is XiCheng’s love child. So much angst and it hurts.

Broken Mirror by akanezora (XiCheng AU side WangXian)

Summary: When Jiang Cheng left Lan Xichen life, he brought a secret with him. Years later, Lan Xichen caught up with that secret. (Jingyi as Xicheng Lovechild)

A fic where Jingyi is XiCheng’s love child in Modern AU. This is just so cute with a little bit of angst on both sides also, WangXian is a side pair here.

Being An Uncle Is Anything But Easy by TheWildJoker (XiCheng)

Summary: Jiang Wanyin, Jiang Cheng, Sandu Shengshou, uncle of Jin Ling, brother of Jiang Yanli. He held many titles, and worked with many different hats, but the thing in his life that was missing most was someone to assist him in his struggle at raising a barely month old, orphaned child. Cue the entrance of the eldest jade of Lan, prim, proper, and loved by all. When first met with the worn out Jiang Cheng his inability to leave others alone while they're struggling most kicked in, and leads to a lot of confusion, bad decisions, and then finally a chance for the both of them to be healed from wounds of their past.

Aaah, I love this fic so much. Basically, it started when Jiang Cheng was landed with the responsibility of raising A-Ling because he just refused or rather, he just didn’t trust Jin Guangyao with the upbringing of Jin Ling. Also, some cute A-Yuan and A-Ling interaction for those who love ZhuiLing innocence.

Never Had I Ever by Kicchin (XiCheng side WangXian/NieYao)

Summary: Nie Mingjue is almost certain that Jin Guangyao has an ulterior motive for dating his best friend, Lan Xichen. However despite voicing his concerns, his best friend seems unconvinced and Lan Xichen continues to date the said man. Unable to give up just yet, Nie Mingjue tries a different tactic--convincing his best friend the man is not the right person for him by setting him up. Fortunately for him, Wei Wuxian's youngest brother is very much single and seems to be just the kind of person his best friend needs. Can Jiang Cheng truly change Lan Xichen's mind, or will Nie Mingjue's plan is a disaster from the beginning?

A Modern AU - University style fic wherein Jiang Cheng is a freshman and Xichen is just a dork who falls in love with unsuspecting Jiang Cheng lol. This is funny but it has that tooth-decaying element XD Also, drunk Xichen is always chaotic but can be so sweet.

The Beginner’s Guide to Moving On by messenger18 (XiCheng side WangXian)

Summary: Jiang Cheng is jaded, bitter and miserable. Lan Xichen isn't sure he can ever trust anyone again. They've always been at the periphery of each other's lives, perpetually visible but never touching, and it seems it's going to stay that way. Then Jin Ling and Lan Sizhui fall in love, and everything changes.

Thrown together as the only single men in a family full of couples, neither is exactly happy about their situation. But when two lonely people find each other, sometimes they can be a little less lonely together.

A slow burn fic that involves awkward meetings, building friendship, humor and fluff that you don’t have any choice but to read more lol. But I strongly recommend this one for XiCheng fans!

葬花/Zàng huā by CrystallizedPen (XiCheng Mpreg)

Summary: One day, Sect Leader Lan just disappeared, no one knew where he went, nor why he left, not even the people closest to him knew. He left behind his sword, his token, and his forehead ribbon. He left behind everything except the silver bell that was given to him by a person that he loved, and whom he thought would love him too. Their love was beautiful like a blooming flower. But, apparently he was wrong. He should have buried this love deep inside his heart, like burying a flower that was never meant to bloom.

Heavy angst XiCheng fic that expanded for 10 years of waiting coz of some intervention. I just love angsty elements in this and Xichen is well characterized in this fic! Strongly recommended!

Monotone by seredemia (WangXian and XiCheng)

Summary: Wei Wuxian died. Wei Wuxian died and he never came back, not after thirteen years, or a hundred, or a thousand. The year is 2019 and Lan Wangji is still here, having reached the highest point of cultivation that has gifted him with immortality. It's supposed to be a gift, an honour, yet to him it's nothing but a curse. Wei Wuxian is dead, and life is colourless. Lan Wangji ghosts through time, simply living each day in monotone.That is, until he meets a man who has the same face, same name, same smile as Wei Wuxian. Suddenly, there's colour and hope back in his life—but it's not long until he realises Wei Wuxian in this timeline has not escaped the sorrow that plagued his past self.Maybe history really does repeat itself after all.

THIS IS THE GREATEST. Immortal Xichen and Wangji in search of happiness. I certainly love the dynamics and interaction of XiCheng pair in here. Contains heavy angst, self-harm and hurt and you’d get a lot of emotional rollercoaster on this one! READ THIS GUYS, YOU WON’T REGRET IT! Unfortunately, the writer took down her work in A03 for personal reasons but she provided alternative links where you can read this. (Thank goodness for that.)

The Misadventures of Secretary Jiang by rollo (XiCheng mentions of WangXian)

Summary: When the competent Secretary Jiang gave his two weeks notice all of a sudden, CEO Lan XiChen is forced to switch up his long game.

Will Secretary Jiang ever notice that he’s not just the CEO’s Secretary?

This fic is hilarious as fuck. Full of humor and mishaps between XiCheng pair. Wanna see a different side of Xichen? Like the clingy, pouty ones - well this one is for you! I’ve just recently started the series called What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim and thank goodness, the author didn’t make Xichen as vain and narcissistic as the original character but all in all, if you want a light, honest to goodness fic, then I recommend this one for you!

I’ll Bind You To Me by yunkarin (XiCheng mentions of Married WangXian)

Summary: Jiang Cheng is the president of Yunmeng Cosmetics. Lan Xichen is the president of Gusu Pharmaceuticals. He and Lan Xichen have a complicated relationship, where they separate business and pleasure. How far are you willing to go to bind me to you?

A very sexy XiCheng fic with lots of sexy time. Insatiable Xichen is hot btw. If you want some kinks and smut filled read, well this one is for you!

The Form of Boneless Ice by TheWonderingHeart (XiCheng)

Summary: Mythical beasts have long ago been driven to extinction by the gentry — hunted for sport, but more importantly for their magical cores. Since then, there remains only one creature that has never been caught. The Jiang’s retreated a long time ago. Abandoning land altogether, they sought safety where the humans could not reach. It all comes to a head though, purely by chance. (Or is it by fate that a spontaneous decision allows for them to meet? If fate were a rock!) Jiang Cheng suddenly finds his whole life balanced on the head of a pin — on the flimsy promise of a human boy. In his opinion, things cannot possibly get worse!(But then they do when the Wens decide it’s finally time to search for the elusive merpeople, and suddenly nowhere is safe.)

Oh goodness, I love this one so much with innocent Jiang Cheng with the human world but still has a potty mouth lol. Mermaid AU wherein they met as children and continued their friendship until they turn into lovers. This is so sweet with angst, of course. Strongly-recommended!

My own fics (If you guys want lol shameless promotion)

Jin Ling’s Dating Guides for His Stupid Uncles (XiCheng/WangXian)

A work-in-progress wherein Jin Ling tries to matchmake his uncles to his best friend’s parents - the Lan brothers. However, danger is looming upon their family and they must solve it before it gets out of hand.

a way to his heart is through his stomach (XiCheng side WangXian)

A feisty cook joins the team by request. How far can he go without falling for the charm of the restaurant's assistant manager, Lan Xichen? And what’s this? They’re roommates too? Oh, fun.

Follow the journey of the gang as they go on with their lives as interns in the hospitality world for a year - the chaotic life of living

Another work-in-progress wherein the boys are in the hospitality industry.

I will add more works on this list as I go on reading. I better thank the quarantine that I can binge read yummy XiCheng fics. lol

[etraytin]

Directors cut for “Ourselves and Immortality” (I sobbed, btw, the whole way through it. SOBBED. Especially when Donna has to ID people. But I loved it.)

Ourselves and Immortality is by far the most depressing fic I have ever written, but thinking about it makes me happy because I FINALLY got it finished, woo-hoo! It started out as a one-shot (just like Such A Winter’s Day, in fact), at the beginning of my 100-Day-Fic-A-Day back in 2016. I was in a very creative mood back then and taking pretty much any prompt anybody threw at me. My husband, who is only a very casual TWW fan but gives good prompts, tossed me “Roger Tribbey’s first hour as President.” 

“Wow,” I mused, “Everybody’s going to hate that.” 

But the idea was too tantalizing to pass up; it was so completely unlike anything I had written so far. Even just doing the one-shot involved a fair amount of research, figuring out where Secretary of Agriculture falls in the order of succession and such. Turns out, basically everybody else has to die in order for Roger to land in the hot seat. And if President Bartlet, Vice President Hoynes, and the Cabinet were going down, it seemed obvious that most of the staff would be gone as well. This fic prompt came along just as Designated Survivor was getting started, so I didn't want to go the "terrorists blow up the State of the Union" route, because that felt too done. Unfortunately (or fortunately for real life) there's really not that many ways to take out the government that don't also take out Washington DC and that don't involve targeted building destruction. 

(This got kind of long and involved, so I’m tucking it behind a cut.)

I wound up reaching back into my sci-fi reading childhood, to an original series Star Trek novel called The Pandora Principle. In that novel, the crew discovers an alien artifact and takes it to Starfleet Headquarters for research, only for the artifact, secretly a weapon, to shatter when it is scanned and release a bioagent that eradicates all the oxygen in the air like a self-replicating virus. Everyone in the building dies except for Captain Kirk, who for shenanigan-related reasons is in a self-sealing bunker under the building, and the rest of the novel is devoted to trying to nullify the agent before it manages to escape the hermetically sealed building. It's a great book, evocative and claustrophobic, and I definitely recommend it, but for the purposes of what I thought was a quickie one-shot, I stole the idea of a weapon that could asphyxiate everyone in a building nearly faster than they could realize they were doomed. As the story developed I had to cobble together a little modern-Earth science to flesh it out, but I hoped that the story would hold without much in the way of explanation of how everything had happened. 

One thing that helped was that OaI was not, at its heart, an action adventure story. It was barely a mystery, really. Our main characters were not the ones charged with solving the mystery or catching the bad guy. For the most part, they were not even in direct danger (except for Syl's brief action turn at the end). We spent one chapter with Mike Casper as he investigated and one chapter with the bad guy to get some important creepy exposition, but by far the character we spend the most time with is Roger. It's not Roger's job to know what the Asphyxiant is made of or its exact biological effect, and it's not Roger's job to hunt the bad guys down like dogs in the street. Like pretty much every West Wing story, it's Roger's job to keep the country running, and it's the job of the people around him to help him. The story had to be about what was happening in The White House, with the action-adventure plot clicking along offscreen and occasionally cropping up in a phone call or Sit Room briefing. I had to avoid a lot of temptation, but in a way it made the job easier. West Wing stories are stories about relationships. 

Writing the canon characters was very hard, especially in the beginning. The thing that never caught for me about Designated Survivor was how quickly the survivors moved on after the disaster. Their friends and colleagues were murdered, and there was little indication that anybody even cared. But Margaret, Carol, Mrs. Landingham, Danny and especially Donna, these people were gutted. Every single one of them was utterly devastated, but from Roger's perspective it was hard to see because all of them are so good at their jobs and so dedicated, they'd keep carrying on as best they could until they collapsed. I decided pretty early on that I would start spreading the point of view around so we could see what the characters were going through in their own voices, but that only Roger would get more than one chapter. (I did break this rule right at the end; Donna gets the first and last non-Roger chapters in the story.) Roger's narrative ties the story together but being the President requires one to stay largely in one place while being told things, so spreading out the POV also gave the story a little more momentum.

Donna's first chapter was probably the hardest part of the story to write, both because I am a hardcore J/D shipper and I'd just shut the pairing down in the cruelest of ways, and also because it was through her eyes that I had to bring the scope of the horror home without fully traumatizing the readers. My first draft of the chapter included considerably more time in the refrigerated warehouse with the FBI team, and a lot more detail about the last minutes of the lives of the senior staffers. I ended up going through and cutting a lot of it out, leaving the audience to understand how terrible it was by the way it affected Donna, rather than by my descriptions of it. And yes, it is one of several chapters I cried while writing. There's a reason (several reasons, but my own feels especially) that I had to let Zoey and Charlie live!  And yes, Margaret was speaking for me when she admitted to temporarily forgetting about Annie and Gus, but we got around to them eventually. 

OaI wound up containing most of the material I wrote for it, but it has one deleted scene and one crackadelic alternate ending. The deleted scene occurs shortly before the state funeral and is from Bonnie's perspective; she and Ginger are trying to pack up Sam and Toby's offices to allow the new senior staffers to move in. I got it half-written, then thought I lost it in a computer-related accident. It was so damn sad to write the first time, and it was all character work and only smidgens of plot, and I was really mad about losing the work, so I decided to skip over it and go straight on to the next thing, which I believe may have been Zoey's chapter. It turned out that I did recover most of what I'd written for the chapter, but by the time I found it, the plot had moved on. I tried to make it up to Bonnie by giving her a nice little character bit and a job promotion at the end of the story. 

The crackadelic ending is sort of a long story. Most of the reason that OaI got finished despite all my life changes and busy years and general creative slump is that my parents both fell in love with it. You may ask, "Doesn't having your parents reading your fanfiction make things awkward sometimes?" and in answer I will point you to the number of real sex scenes in my published fanworks, which is zero. And then I will nod enthusiastically. But my dad, especially, loved this story and decided that he ought to be in it. And that he ought to be the Chief Justice. My dad is a retired judge, so he felt this should not be too much of a stretch for him, career-wise. I tried to explain the concept of self-insert to him, but then caved and created a thinly-veiled expy of him to be Chief Justice, then gave him a little ceremony in-story and a few extra mentions here and there. I gave him that chapter as a Christmas present, and he was happy! For awhile. Then he decided that he ought to be the President. I tried to explain to him that this is not how governmenting works, which he of course already knew, but he was firm. His Chief Justice character was great, and he ought to be President. He is nothing if not persistent, and also nothing if not hard to buy gifts for, so for Christmas the next year, I presented him with Chapter 28: The Surprise Noncanonical Epilogue, which has never before been published to the internet. It is very silly. 

This has gotten very long and I still need to write today's Quarantine Journal, so I guess I'll wrap it up there. If you have any specific questions about the story or any other stories, feel free to toss them my way!