#this eb was awesome

[nickpeppermint]

Hey everyone!!!

@beefycupcakes has finally made a Tumblr acc! There'll be lots if good stuff, so check it out now!!!

[tgcg]

tell your loved ones

-- turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering ectoBiologist [EB] at 12:01 --

TG: hey im on the john

JOHN: hey, dave is taking a dump.

TG: taking a shit just so were clear

JADE: jeez!!!!!!! even when im not online i have to hear about it

TG: i know you care so youre first to know

JOHN: i'm just giving you a heads up for the bajillion messages you will definitely have about this when you get home.

EB: god, thank you. that is awesome. dave fans everywhere are gonna go NUTS for this truth nugget.

EB: hey, i am at the store with jade!

TG: tell her the news

EB: i did as soon as you first pinged me, don't worry.

TG: hell yeah see you just fucking get it

JADE: well tell him i say congrats!

EB: she says congrats.

EB: also that you left your "yeah! woo!" machine at her place.

EB: and that you are gross and smell like a dog took a dump on a fart even when you aren't crapping during our conversations.

TG: goddamn

EB: jk that last bit was me heheh. but she nodded!

EB: so anyways, a yeah woo machine?

EB: what the hell even IS that?

JADE: its more or less a machine that yeahs and woos

TG: its basically a machine that yeahs and woos

EB: ok, yeah, that is pretty much exactly what jade said too. apparently this is supposed to be obvious.

JADE: its pretty self explanatory!

TG: pretty self explanatory stuff

TG: anyways im gonna tell karkat this time i think im ready for that

EB: oh shit (LOL), that's a pretty big deal, right? good luck dude.

--

-- turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering carcinoGeneticist [CG] at 12:03 --

TG: ok karkat can i be unbelievably candid with you is dj crabapple ready for this

TG: this is a really big deal for me but like no pressure

CG: SHIT, IS EVERYTHING OK?

CG: DO I NEED TO COME OVER THERE.

TG: no no its good i just really need to confess something

CG: WHATEVER IT IS, TELL ME. I'M HERE.

TG: alright

TG: deep breath strider

--

TG: im dropping mad logs like bars in the ablution block vantas

TG: shit is on fire

TG: downright heretical like a shat outta hell

TG: and since im feeling penitent i figure our pesterlogs are pretty much akin to a confessional booth right

CG:

--

-- tentacleTherapist [TT] began pestering turntechGodhead [TG] at 12:04 --

TT: Hey Dave.

TT: Are you, by any chance, taking a shit right now?

TG: damn word spreads fast on the information superhighway

TT: Yes, I have had the news forwarded to me via this bountiful virtual dimension of knowledge and culture we call the World Wide Web by a fellow enthusiast, one ectoBiologist.

TT: Frankly I'm heartbroken you didn't come to me about it first.

TT: Please, divulge to your loving sister the nature of your bowel movements, in exhaustive detail. Highlights in a notarized list, an overall ranking grade of your experience, whether you would recommend it to your friends, et cetera. These would be among my most pertinent avenues of inquiry.

TG: you were next on the mailing list rose im already on it

TG: boutta weave a verbal tapestry no holds barred just for you about my rambunctious foray down in brown town

TG: stay tubed

TT: Thank god. I don't know what I would do if I couldn't peruse your commodal follies like the morning gazette.

TG: dont act like this has educational value rose

TG: we all know my daily bullshit has got a laugh track

TG: like damn what kind of gazettes are you getting

TT: The best kind, Dave. Only the best kind.

TG: thanks for the vote of confidence

TG: wait gimme a sec karkat pinged

TT: Of course. I understand it's quite a big deal for you.

--

CG: OK.

CG: SINCE THIS APPARENTLY SKIRTS THE FRESHEST BUDS OF OUR BRO-DOM'S BURGEONING FROND NUB, I *ALSO* HAVE SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO SHARE.

CG: I HOPE YOUR REFLECTIVE ABLUTION VAULT IS STOCKED WITH FUCKING RUMBLESPHERE TRANQUILIZERS, BECAUSE THIS EXCHANGE IS ABOUT TO GET SHITHIVE MAGGOTS.

CG: LISTEN CAREFULLY.

TG: whats up

--

CG: I AM ALSO ON THE LOAD GAPER RIGHT NOW.

TG: oh shiiit

CG: DON'T UNCLENCH YOUR EXPLOSIVE FUCKING SEED FLAP JUST YET, BECAUSE THERE'S *MORE*!

CG: I AM *ALSO* TAKING A CRAP.

TG: oh shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit

CG: OH SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT

[lizleeships]

C a s u a l  I n t i m a c y  is my jam, I have no excuse

(Don’t repost)

--> Buy me a kofi? | Become a Patron to see the Mipple version 

Teeny contextual ficlet below the cut: 

“Cas, lay off already,” Dean huffs from the motel bed. 

He crosses his bruised arms behind his head and tries to force back a wince of pain as he slings a casual grin. 

“We’re in one piece, aren’t we?” 

The angel seems dangerously ruffled, and Dean really wants to focus on that like the awesome boyfriend he’s learned to be. The thing is though, Cas is stripped down to his boxers and an old black undershirt in preparation for his shower and it’s more distracting than a train crash. A sexy, sexy train crash. 

Okay yeah, he’s probably a bit concussed; maybe Cas is right for chewing him out. 

“You have to be more careful,” Cas insists, his voice doing that deliciously growly thing it does (which, again: not the time, Winchester), “I’m not what I used to be, and neither are you.”

“Wow, okay-”

“Whether you like it or not, you’re not getting any younger, and I’m not getting any more useful. On most days I barely have enough Grace to heal your razor nicks.”

A pang of irritation surges at that - because Dean is excellent at grooming, thank you- but instead of clapping back, Dean opts for a far more entertaining option. He reels the angel in by the towel ends draped around his shoulders, and plants a kiss right between his severely pinched eyebrows. 

“I’ll be more careful, okay?” is his murmured promise, “I swear on my Old Guy honour.”

“That’s not fair,” Cas complains, though he doesn’t move an inch. 

“What?” 

“You can’t just distract me when I’m trying to make a point. It’s extremely patronizing.” 

Dean chuckles and kisses the wrinkles which pleasantly frame Cas’ eyes, then the speckles of grey at his temples. 

“Yeah? Does that mean it’s working?” 

“Dean, this is serious.” 

The consternation on Cas’ face has only mildly ebbed through the affection, so Dean frames his features with his hands, bumps their foreheads together. 

“I know, sweetheart. I hear you.” 

Cas nods against him as he stands down, shoulders sinking on a deep exhalation. 

“Really. I didn’t mean to worry you.” 

“Alright.” 

“But next time, maybe try making your point when you’re not half-naked, speaking of distractions. That’s playing dirty and you know it.”

Finally, Cas’ grave  expression breaks into a grin while Dean pulls him all the way down onto the bed.

“You’re ridiculous; I’m wearing clothes,” Cas objects. 

He makes himself at home in Dean’s lap, his fingers trailing absently over warm freckled skin. Dean looks up at him with a smirk.

“Yeah well, we’ll see about that.”

[balioc]

Holiday Engineering: What Not to Do

We can learn a lot from Chanukah, because Chanukah is a garbage-tier holiday.

I mean this in a mostly-detached, mostly-analytic way. Like many people who were raised Jewish, I have some very fond and happy memories of Chanukah. Anything can accrue fond and happy memories, if you have a way of getting people to do it. But Chanukah is full of features that actively detract from its being resonant, impressive, memorable, or fun. It is an anti-advertisement for its community.

If you're a would-be designer-of-holidays, this is actually a really useful thing. Mimicking the good and successful holidays is quite hard; their quality tends to hinge on a lot of idiosyncratic hard-to-replicate factors, and "invent something as cool and punchy as the $WHATEVER" can be a tall order. But it's easy to look at a design failure and say, "I"m not going to do that."

With that, let's go into the details:

CHANUKAH: THE GOOD

Timing. It's a midwinter festival-of-lights. Solid start. Everyone loves those. Brightness and festival cheer, in the long cold winter nights, is practically a need for many. The holiday mostly skates by just on being the winter light festival for the Jews. A+. Or, really, we should knock that down to an A, because Chanukah usually comes too early to be ideal for this purpose, but -- still, quite good.

Traditional food (side dishes). Latkes are incredibly popular, and for excellent reason. If you're trying to settle on a food that everyone will love, "fried potatoes" is a damn good choice.

CHANUKAH: THE NEUTRAL

Symbols. There's really just one that matters: the chanukiyah (nine-branched menorah). Which is, on paper, a very cool and snappy symbol. Distinctive silhouette, ritual engagement, plus the allure of fire. But it loses a lot of points for the fact that you don't actually light the whole damn thing, and get the proper visual effect, until the very end of a long-ass holiday when everyone's enthusiasm and attention have ebbed. On the first night, in particular, you light just two candles in your chanukiyah, and it looks lopsided and sad.

Traditional food (sweets). Jelly donuts are fine, I guess, if uninspiring and uninspired. Chanukah gelt is pretty lame as candy goes...but from a holiday-design perspective, it's hard to go too far wrong with giving kids candy.

Music. "Maoz Tzur" is kinda pretty. "Oy Chanukah!" is kinda fun. That's pretty much it, barring some silly kids' music (and I guess that Adam Sandler thing). Nothing that will knock anyone's socks off. But, honestly, two decent songs is more than many good holidays have.

Gifts. Being the big annual gifting holiday is a double-edged sword. It's some super-powerful mojo, culturally speaking. People are obsessed with giving and receiving gifts, in a way that's very hard to excise or evade, no matter how often you trot out your utilitarian language about deadweight loss. Chanukah gets a lot of its traction out of the fact that it's the holiday where you get presents. But. (a) In the modern world, the gifting holiday is unavoidably a locus of stress and misery for many people, and Chanukah doesn't have nearly enough upside serving to support that burden. (b) Chanukah is bad at being a gifting holiday. The gifting is not well-integrated into the event, it's a tacked-on thing copied over from Christmas, and it shows. There's no real ritual surrounding it, no presents-under-the-Christmas-tree equivalent, certainly no Santa Claus. Worse yet, the eight-day-holiday thing means that either you need a set of gifts whose awesomeness is equally divisible by eight (mega-awkward), or else you have inconsistencies and disappointments.

CHANUKAH: THE BAD

Theme. What is the holiday about, when everything is said and done? What is our key takeaway message from all the shit we're doing. "God is great, God looks out for His people, God performs mighty miracles." Stop. Shut up. You fail. That's every holiday, if you're operating within a religious tradition. You need something more than that, something powerful and deep and important and special, to be even halfway-decent as a holiday. But for the vast majority of Jews (including Jews in the most orthodox and observant denominations), that's pretty much all you get. Because...

Mythology. The story of Chanukah, the holiday's narrative raison d'etre, is just unconscionably bad. In some extremely vague sense, it's a story about Jews overthrowing foreign oppressors and casting off foreign influences...which is already pretty bad from a modern liberal perspective, we don't like jingoistic ethnonationalism these days. But the actual events of the Chanukah story are less about Jews-against-foreigners than they are about Jews-against-other-Jews. It is a story about fanatics seizing power and murdering cosmopolitans. Virtually everyone hates that shit, up to and including the most tribal-minded Jews. The rabbis of the Talmud were pretty iffy about Chanukah for exactly this reason, and didn't talk about it much, with the result that the holiday doesn't have much in the way of supporting cultural infrastructure. And you really can't tell the Chanukah myth without that horrible stuff; it's so baked-in that it gets incorporated into even the most sanitized propagandistic Hebrew-school versions of the tale (with exactly the effects that you'd expect on Hebrew school students). The miracle of the oil feels like a tacked-on narrative coda, because it is, because without it the only possible moral of the story would be "kill your neighbor if he's not pious enough for you." But it's much too little, much too late. The miracle of the oil is super lame by miracle standards: no one is saved from danger, there are no memorable SFX, the whole thing is relevant only to the rituals of a long-vanished Temple.

[There are several lessons that can be learned from this particular problem, at multiple levels of abstraction.]

Structure. You can have a good eight-day holiday, but a festival of that length needs an arc. The days need to be distinct from each other. You need to be either building up to a climax, or -- more commonly, as with Passover and [the twelve days of] Christmas -- coming down from a main celebration at the beginning in a long pleasant haze of semi-special time. Chanukah is flat and internally undifferentiated, except for the addition of more candles to the chanukiyah. You can't sustain real holiday feeling that long, and there's no particular day on which you're supposed to do anything special, so it all just turns into a mush of "how much do we care right this moment?"

Activities. The traditional dreidel game is the worst, most boring, most unbalanced game in the history of games. Pushing it on children only makes those children hate Chanukah, and Judaism, and games, and you.

Traditional food (entrees). There's no classic Chanukah dish that can serve as a viable main course, unless you're one of those people who can happily eat fried potatoes as an entire meal. This is a glaring omission. It's particularly bad for Chanukah, because Chanukah has so little else going for it that it really needs to lean hard on the standard holiday "gather for a festive meal" thing.

Social role. As many people will eagerly tell you, Chanukah was a pretty minor holiday for most of Jewish history; it got big largely because of a marketing push in the 19th and 20th centuries, mostly because people got scared about the prospect of the younger generations assimilating, and wanted to give them a holiday to compete with Christmas. Which is maybe the worst idea that anyone has ever had. For more reasons that I can easily list here, modern Western Christmas is an absolute SSS-tier holiday, one of the very best of all time. Setting yourself up as a direct competitor to Christmas -- inviting your own people to make that comparison -- is tantamount to telling them that your traditions and your community are worthless and weak, and that they should join the ranks of the gentiles. And that would be true even if your own offering were something halfway decent. Trying to do it with Chanukah...it's like Estonia declaring war on the US. It's the ultimate "we have food at home." It is, if you'll pardon my saying so, Christian rock.

[dangermousie]

hello! i was wondering if you would mind me asking for period/wuxia cdrama recs - i have really appreciated your blogging on various shows and have run out of things to watch 😅 off the top of my head i've really enjoyed stuff like minglan, love like the galaxy, heroes, monarch industry, yanxi palace, eternal brotherhood, a journey to love. thanks in advance for considering this ask!

I love giving recs!!!!

You may have watched some of these already but hopefully some are new.

There are no xianxia on your list so I am not providing any xianxia or xianxia adjacent recs :)

Novoland Eagle Flag - in my top 3 cdramas. Recommending it because you mentioned Eternal Brotherhood and in a lot of ways, NEF is if EB had a bigger budget; it has the same "low fantasy" vibe and a main who is a gritted teeth idealist in a feudally dark world.

Vigilantes in Masks - because you mentioned AJTL. This one features Liu Shi Shi as an outlaw and is also a story of a group of down-and-out people coalescing together into a team on a mission. She and Wallace Huo have insane chemistry.

Battle of Changsha - from the writers of Minglan. It's set in 1930s so not sure if that is an issue, but it is a wonderful, nuanced story of a family with a great love story in the middle, but the family is as or more important in the narrative.

Love In Between - because you mentioned Heroes and AJTL. This one is a criminally underrated drama. It follows a group of people whose mission intersects now and then and they are sometimes a team and sometimes enemies. FL is on a quest to heal her master, ML is a physician with no martial ability, due to childhood events, there are seemingly favored daughter and son of a fancy sect, an information broker etc etc. There are causes, love, friendship, grudges, some fascinating gender reversal dynamics, the filming is beautiful. It's just genuinely amazing. Listening Snow Tower also has that vibe (FL and ML both fascinating, tons of cool secondaries) and is also a wuxia I love.

You seem to like female-centric narratives where women triumph and deal with harem or family or plots etc matters. The Sword and the Brocade is inferior to Minglan but has that same vibe. The Princess Weiyoung and Legend of Xiao Chuo are both "female protag rises to power and obtains love" that are fun.

I hesitate to recommend General and I even tho I adore because a lot of people don't like Angelababy, but to me this is a great entrant into "FL is strong and ruthless and with her own agenda and that is what ML falls for and they form a team eventually subgenre." The same is true for Twisted Fate of Love (so so so good and so so underrated!)

Everyone loves Nirvana in Fire but I prefer Nirvana in Fire 2 (different generation, no need to watch the first one) due to family dynamics and approach. It also has idealists against the court, politics vibes.

The Young Warriors is ooooold (over 20 years old) and looks it, but is one of the best family centric period narratives and a lot of concurrent great stories and dynamics and also confrontation between warrior protags and corrupt court (see shades of EB) and the same for Lan Ling Wang (it features an amazing love story to boot) tho that one is newer of course.

Oh, and if you haven't seen Joy of Life 1 and 2, it has everything you would love I imagine.

The Rise of Phoenixes is a great narrative about families, power struggles and a love story with two vvv smart protags.

Hope you find something you like and thank you for the awesome ask!

[mysteryshoptls]

SSR Floyd Leech - Beach Wear Vignette

"'Flying Jellyfish'"

[Uninhabited Island – Sea]

Floyd: WAHOOOO!! GOIN' FOR ANOTHER FLIP!

[waves CRAAASH down]

Floyd: YAAAY! THIS FEELS AWESOME～♪

[waves CRAAASH down]

Jack: That guy's pretty amazing. He's getting better and better at surfing every time I see him.

Azul: Pbbft augh! And here I am doing everything I can to just stand on my board…

Jack: You need to work on your posture. Push your center of gravity in the direction you want to go without overdoing it.

Azul: Your advice is very rational and helpful, Jack-san. Floyd's relies too much on feeling.

Jack: Hm… …It's starting to get dark. We should probably leave the waters.

Azul: Yes, I agree. Floyd! We'll be heading back to the cottage soon!

Floyd: Ehh ～～～ Already?

Azul: It will be difficult to discern anything in the ocean at night. It's far too dangerous for us, especially now that we cannot transform back into our original mer-form.

Floyd: Fiiiine… Tch. I'm not done havin' fun, though. I wonder if there's anything we can do for fun at night around here.

Jack: At night, hm… Well, this is an uninhabited island, so it's pitch black at night. We'd only have the moonlight to do anything by. It'd be pretty impossible to do stuff outside.

Azul: Then, shall we create some kind of simple board games or card games to play inside with?

Floyd: Ehh～ Board games and card games can be done during the day, and we can play them anytime back on campus, too. That's not what I'm talking about…

Floyd: I wanna do somethin' fun that I can only do at night on this island, somethin' that's all bam and wheew and awesome!

Azul: There you go again with trying to describe it irrationally…

Floyd: Hmmm～ …AH! I GOT IT!

Floyd: Hey, hey, Azul. There's something I want you to show me how to do…

[Uninhabited Island – Near Spaceship]

Floyd: Stitch～ you there?

Stitch: ?

Floyd: So hey, can I have some of the leftover parts that you're not usin' to fix up your spaceship with?

Stitch: Ye.

Floyd: Hmm, so I wanna grind up all this metal into dust… Can you do that for me, Stitch?

Stitch: Rock and roll!

[shaka, shaka, shaka, shaka, shaka!!]

Floyd: Woah, awesome! Man, you really can do anything. You reduced a bunch of different parts to dust lickety-split.

Floyd: Mmkay, then it's Dr. Floyd's Experimentation Time～

Floyd: First, I'll start with this powder… Oh, I got green sparks!

Floyd: From this powder, I got red sparks, and this one over here gets me purple.

Floyd: And then using that rotten smellin' mud from the hot springs… I'll put it on this stick I dried… Like this…

Floyd: Aha, it's lookin' good! I'm a genius ♪

Stitch: ???

Floyd: You curious what I'm making, Stitch? This is what we call a "Flying Jellyfish."

Floyd: Uhhh, what did they call 'em on land, again? Oh, right, fireworks! Do you know what fireworks are?

Stitch: Yeah!

Floyd: Oh, are you gonna help me make some fireworks? Thanks～

Floyd: Back when we were kids, me and Jade would go up to the coastline to check 'em out. Ah, and when I say Jade, I'm talking about my brother.

Stitch: Ohana!

Floyd: Hm? Jade's not whatever that is. He's the same moray eel merman like me.

Stitch: ???

Floyd: Didn't I tell you? I'm a merman. Before I came to school, I lived in the ocean my whole life.

Floyd: And like, back in elementary school, we'd sneak up to the surface and watch the fireworks.

Floyd: My pops and mama always told us that it was dangerous for us kids to go by ourselves, so we shouldn't go near it.

Stitch: Grrr, rargh!

Floyd: Hmm? Oh, it's nothing like that. That whole thing where the humans and merfolk were afraid of each other is stuff from a long, long time ago.

Floyd: Folks've been comin' and goin' between the land and sea for a while now, ever since the mermaid princess married that human prince.

Floyd: But the reason why us elvers were told to stay away from the beaches was 'cause of the dangers of high waves or ebbing tides leavin' us stranded on the shore.

Floyd: The adults can somewhat get back on their own, but it's not that easy for the kids, y'know.

Floyd: There'd be a buncha shop all up and down the coast, too.

Floyd: Kinda like how we did the cottage here, they'd set up shops along the shoreline selling food, or accessories, or whatever.

Floyd: My parents own a few stores like that…

Floyd: But like, those were all stores for adult merfolks. They didn't like us kids goin' in by ourselves.

Floyd: So yeah, me 'n Jade would often go hang out near the beaches without tellin' them.

Floyd: 'Cause, I mean, if someone tells you not to do something, doesn't it just make you want to do it more?

Stitch: Yahahahaha!

Floyd: There's a ton of cool things to find around the shoreline… And the flying jellyfish ―the fireworks― were our favorite thing.

Floyd: It's super amazing to watch fireworks from the ocean.

Floyd: The light from the fireworks light up the dark ocean surface, sparkling like stars…

Floyd: It made me feel like I was swimming in the starry night sky.

Floyd: Oh yeah, you're from space, right, Stitch? That's so cool, I'd love to swim in the starry sky for real someday.

Floyd: I remember when I first came on land, there were a ton of things that new to me, like, strange things and weird people…

Floyd: I bet if I went to space, I'd get to see so many more awesome stuff.

Floyd: 'Cause there's a ton of other aliens like you and Gantu out there, right?

Floyd: Maaan. I bet even if I told him that I met an alien on an uninhabited island, Jade'll never believe me.

Floyd: "Your dreams are overflowing with originality, Floyd," he'd probably say.

Floyd: I know! You should come hang with us at Night Raven College someday, Stitch.

Floyd: You should bring your friends next time, too. I wanna see some crazy weird alien dudes. Like…

Floyd: Maybe an evil genius mad scientist that was the one that made you, or maybe a one-eyed federal agent who likes to wear disguises. Got anyone like that?

Stitch: Yahahahaha!

Azul: Floyd, Stitch-san. There you are. It's almost time for dinner.

Floyd: Eh, already? I got so wrapped up that time flew by so fast.

Azul: How did you do in crafting the firewor… Oh, wow! You've put together quite a lot.

Floyd: All the sticks you see bunched over there are the ones that you showed me how to make, and all these disc-lookin' ones'll spin.

Floyd: And this box over here is my own original creation!

Azul: Fireworks that you yourself put together? It won't explode all of a sudden, right…?

Floyd: It'll be fiiine, don't worry. I pumped a bit of magic into it, too.

Azul: Goodness… Once Floyd decides he wants to do something, his focus shoots through the roof.

Azul: I wish he were more like this during work, as well.

Floyd: After all that excitement, now I'm hungry. Azul, Stitch, can you guys help me carry all the fireworks?

Floyd: We can hide them on the beach and surprise the others later.

Stitch: Yeah!

[Uninhabited Island – Cottage]

Lilia: Floyd, Stitch, what's going on? Why are you taking us outside after we all finished eating?

Ace: The further we get from the cottage, the more pitch black it is. Also, why're you makin' me carry this bucket?

Floyd: It's fine, just trust me. Hurry and follow us.

Jack/Riddle/Ace: ???

[Uninhabited Island – Beach]

Floyd: We have arrived～!

Jack: The beach…? No, you better not be thinking of surfing in this darkness.

Floyd: Wrong～ The correct answer is… This!

[Fweeeeeeee…BOOM!]

Everyone: WOOOAH…!

Lilia: What a spectacular fireworks display! Floyd, how did you prepare all this?

Floyd: Me 'n Stitch made them by grinding up the leftover junk parts into powder.

Grim/Ace/Jack: YOU MADE THESE!?

Floyd: Stitch, can you bring out the rest?

Stitch: Ooo!

[thud, thud]

Jack: Woah! All that stuff Stitch just carried out here on his back… Don't tell me those are all fireworks?

Floyd: Yuup～ I wanted to shoot some fireworks on the beach at night, so I spent all my free time today makin' these.

Grim: This is awesome! I bet we can go all night with how many we got here!

Lilia: The long, thin ones are sparklers, I see… But what's this box?

Floyd: That's my original creation.

Floyd: We'll put it over here a little bit away from us, and… Goldfish-chan, give me a light!

Riddle: Don't use people as you would a match, seriously. …Hah!

[Shwaaaaa…!]

Everyone: OOOOHH…!

Floyd: Whaddya think? Isn't it cool with the way it lights up the pitch-black ocean, makin' it all sparkly?

Ace: Floyd-senpai, this is crazy awesome～! You're a genius! Can I try one too?

Floyd: Go ahead. Do as much as you'd like.

Lilia: Ooh! This sparkler's spitting out green sparks. It's just like the Diasomnia colors ♪

Jack: This one's giving off yellow sparks. Amazing, how'd you get different colors?

Riddle: This is my first time playing with fireworks. I just have to hold this end and light the other end, yes?

Azul: We'll often have fireworks placed on top of cakes and parfaits at the Mostro Lounge for celebrations, but…

Azul: It's not a bad change of pace to do it outside like this.

Grim: Nyahaha! I wanna hold one in both hands and set 'em off!

1. I want to try the hand-held fireworks! 2. I want to try the ground fireworks!

[laughing and cheering]

Azul: You were so gung-ho in preparing these, but you haven't touched a single firework at all.

Floyd: Hmm, I just feelin' like watching right now, instead of doin' anything.

Azul: I never took you for one to become so sentimental while watching fireworks.

Azul: Perhaps you're thinking… "If only Jade could see this too?"

Floyd: Huh, why Jade?

Floyd: I mean, I guess I've thought about how he's probably running the Lounge all by himself right now, so when we get back, we're gonna get an earful of complaints, sure.

Floyd: But it's not like I thought anything like, "Wish he was here～"

Floyd: 'Cause I mean, isn't it more fun to do our own thing and then come back with stories to tell?

Floyd: And if we like what we hear, then next time we can go together, and if it sounds boring, then we don't gotta go.

Floyd: It's not like me 'n Jade are the same person, anyway. Like, he just up and got hooked on hiking in the mountains one day and started going off on his own.

Floyd: Doing stuff on our own is way more fun than always doing the same thing together.

Floyd: 'Sides… If we were together all the time 'round the clock, I bet we'd suuuper hate each other’s guts about now.

Floyd: Like, back when we were kids, we'd get into huge fights and beat each other senseless almost every day.

Azul: Your sibling quarrels are really quite dreadful… I was quite shocked the first time I observed it happen.

Floyd: C'mon, we don't fight as much anymore. But that's 'cause we know if we go all out, our lives would be on the line.

Floyd: Eh, but when we do, we still go at it pretty hard.

[multiple fireworks goes off at once]

Riddle: Hey, Stitch! Grim! Don't get so greedy and light all those fireworks at once!

Stitch/Grim: NYAHA～!

Floyd: Ooh, looks like Stitch 'n them are havin' a blast!

Floyd: I think I'm feelin' like joinin' in now ♪

Azul: Heh. “Something fun that can only be done at night on this island, something bam and wheew and awesome”… Right, I see.

Azul: Have you been sated enough with this, Floyd?

Floyd: Eh～? You think I'd be satisfied just doin' this?

Azul: That was foolish of me to ask. I'm certain by tomorrow, you'll be searching for a different stimulus.

Floyd: See, you know me. Wonder what I should do tomorrow?

Floyd: Not every day that we get tossed onto an uninhabited island like this, so.

Floyd: Just so I can make Jade say, "Please take me with you next time" after he hears my stories…

Floyd: I'm gonna play and go wild and do all the stuff I wanna do, and make sure I have so much fun I don't have time to get bored at all ♪

Requested by Anonymous.

[badlydrawndavekat]

what does john think of this blog and has he seen earlier posts? 🧌🧌

EB: ive seen a couple of the posts. EB: im just glad my two buds are such good friends! you wouldnt believe it, but a couple years ago they were basically at each others throats, lol. EB: and now they've moved in together? i mean how awesome is that? infinite sleepovers! EB: honestly i thought dave was too 'cool' for tumblr but i guess karkat convinced him to branch out. EB: really glad to be on the blog, anyway.

[thewertsearch]

EB: but karkat is cool, he is angry and funny. GG: D: GG: he is angry and a huge pain in the ass GG: have you ever talked to two of him at once???? EB: haha, no! GG: dont ever do it! you will get a headache EB: that sounds kind of awesome. GG: noooooooo, think again

After 500 pages of troll bickering, conversations like these are an excellent palate cleanser. There's no performative hostility here - these two are just having fun, even when discussing their bizarre situation.

GG: have you looked in the lab yet? [...] GG: could you do me a favor and not look in there? [...] GG: its nothing that secret or personal or anything…. GG: it is just something kind of sad and weird for you to see EB: what is it? GG: it is my dead dream self GG: it has been there for years, i always knew i would die but i did not realize it would go like this….

You did? But you were surprised when Tavros told you that dream selves could die!

...oh, right. That was Dream Jade, who is confused about everything.

So - Jade knew all along. She certainly held this fact close to her chest, didn't she? And not just because Hussie hadn't written it yet. Jade didn't want to acknowledge her future - although she did hint at it once, in a manner so subtle she probably didn't even notice.

Imagine being Jade, looking in the mirror every morning, watching herself grow older.

Watching herself slowly turn into the corpse in the attic.

EB: i have sort of already seen… that. EB: not in the lab, but on the battlefield. GG: oh no!!!!! GG: im sorry john :( EB: it's ok. EB: i was so confused and sad when i saw you lying there… EB: i'd rather not talk about it i guess.

Wow, John was really affected by this. He can't even talk about it with Jade, who serves as living proof that the death didn't stick.

I guess that's not really the point. Seeing your best friend's corpse will fuck you up, even if it 'doesn't count'.

[conceptofjoy]

youve been cooking tonight thisis awesome i love ur dirks and ur janes and ur hals and ur junes and like every character uve drawn genuinely 1 of the artists that i see and get motivated abt bc im like holy shit awesome and then want to also draw awesome shit . -user lesboygamzee . i need to eb able to send asks from sideblogs why am i signing my shit off

GUH... THANK U...... i hope u keep drawing forever <3333

[puhpandas]

Coolsville

(1,413 words)

At a Halloween party during college, Evan's friends ask him a question that gets him thinking. 🎃🕷🍫👻

Evan hadnt expected to enjoy the party. College parties in the movies were always so loud and rowdy, and everyone would always be drinking and being obnoxious and-- its almost like a buffet table of everything Evan doesn't like.

He almost hadnt even gone, but of course, Gregory had somehow wrangled him into going, even without him there by his side, having to stay home to finish his comic page before his deadline. "Come on, Evan, you have to take risks every once in a while. What's the worst that could happen?"

And Evan had truly tried his best to find the answer to that question on the way there. His friends from college, people he met in classes and activities around campus who invited him, were the ones to pick him up.

But it somehow didnt cross his mind that these are his friends, and they-- they know how he is, and they're good friends, so maybe the party wouldn't be as bad as in the movies.

It ended up not being, when he finally arrived and there werent even that many people. The music hadnt shaken the walls or hurt his ears, the place was covered head to toe in halloween decorations, jelly window clings on every glass surface, streamers and balloons and ghost and gravestone shaped cookies layed out, tropical punch food-colored radioactive green on the counters.

It hadnt been like the movies, which are like Evans worst nightmare-- it was fun.

He'd danced badly with his friends, the number of attendants small and not overwhelming. The music turned from techno to spooky quickly, as soon as people in costume started showing up. Evan himself is starting to run out of ideas (so many Halloween's going all out with Gregory is making his internal costume bank run on empty), so he'd had to settle on one half of his homemade duo costume with Gregory; two beanie baby bears, The Beginning and The End.

Any tightness he'd felt in his chest dreading every second he got closer to arriving at the party slowly but surely ebbed as time went on. He munched on the sweet treats, colored frosting turning his tongue orange, and talked with his friends. Norman, who he met joining a birdwatching club, talked about some drama with his ex-girlfriend back in high school, and Kenny, who he met simply after being partnered with him in a group assignment, told an elaborate story about when his dog went missing as a kid and how they brought her home.

Any uncomfortable-ness that could have lingered is nowhere to be seen by the time everything's said and done. Evan's shocked to see the time at 11:28pm when he'd arrived at six, so he shoots Gregory a quick text letting him know he'll be late home.

After reading Gregorys enthusiastic response, Evan heads back into the living room, where the TV is playing some cartoon on mute, Lo-Fi Halloween music is playing softly on the speakers, and everyone except Evan and his friends has cleared out. The cookie plates are empty, the punch bowl almost drained, and Evan's face hurts from how much hes been smiling all evening.

After he settles on the couch, they all get to talking again, Evan seamlessly re-entering the conversation feeling like he never left. He doesnt feel like a burden here, not like he did with his 'friends' in high school. He laughs boisterously as Kenny recounts an inside joke.

At some point, everyone tired and their batteries draining, they switch the topic to something that's just as childish as Evan likes it; Twenty Questions.

The questions are tame at first, like favorite foods and colors, but they get more personal and in depth as time goes on. They ask about first crushes, most embarrassing moments and history with friends.

One question gets Evan to pause, though.

"Okay, okay," Joshua, whos-- great, really, super great and awesome, starts after the giggling dies down enough to get any words out. "I've got one. Let's say you walk into a room, and everyone you've ever known is there-- who are you going to find first?"

Evan blinks, not even having to think. They go around the circle, like they have this whole time, until they reach him. "What about you, Evan?" Joshua asks.

"My brother." His mouth says so quickly he almost surprises himself.

"Really?" Joshua asks, smiling. He's met Gregory before and they got along great. "Why him, out of everyone?"

He only takes a second to respond, but he doesnt think anything he saying has any thought behind it. The words are already in his mouth, so sure when they spill out.

"Who else," Evan says. "if not him?"

Everyone seems to take that as answer enough, Joshua nodding before revealing his own answer. It's like background noise to Evan, who's still staring at the same crumb-riddled Frankenstein shaped paper plate that's been sitting on the coffee table this whole time.

Who else, if not him? Evan doesn't think theres one person in this world he would choose over Gregory. Not Cassidy, no matter how much he loves her, not Cassie, not his family, and certainly none of his blood family.

He tries to think of a scenario where he does. He can't.

It always circles back to Gregory, who found him almost ten years ago now and changed everything. Gregory, who is the sole reason hes here today. Gregory, who did more for him than anyone else. Gregory, who he cant imagine living without, who he wouldnt want to. Gregory, who's always been there for him. Gregory, who caused Evan to become the person he is today.

Gregory, whos the only reason Evan came to this party, met people he believes are real, true friends, had fun on his own, took a risk.

He took a risk over a year ago, when he ditched his family and hightailed it to the Fazbears when he was eighteen. He took a risk when Gregory convinced him he was capable of college, when theyd made plans when they were so young that college felt infinitely far away to Evan. He took a risk when he mumbled his name to Gregory that day, the chance of getting it spat back in his face a real possibility.

Who else, if not him? Evan cant think of a single one.

He gets the sudden urge to text Gregory, and the moment he sets a hand on his phone, it vibrates with a new text message.

Gregory: if u dont come home soon im gonna be asleep when u get here lol

"Evan?" Joshua asks suddenly. Evan jolts, glancing up to look at him. The chatter has stopped, and Josh is staring at him in a way where Evan can tell it's not the first look he's sent. "Are you okay?"

A smile creeps up on Evan's face, wobbly but enough to make his cheeks hurt. "Yeah," He says, rubbing at his thankfully dry eyes. "I just-- think I'm gonna head home soon, yknow?"

Joshua smiles ever so slightly. "Yeah."

Norman and Kenny start awwing, and it makes Evan smile even wider. Joshua grabs his keys after they're done hugging Evan, and they head outside and get in his car together.

Its quiet when they start driving, and Evan sends a text to Gregory before looking at Joshua. "I'm sorry if it seemed like I wanted to leave at the end, there..." He feels the need to say. "I just-- got to thinking."

"About what?" Josh asks.

Evan smiles instinctively. "My brother."

Joshua chuckles, shifting to just one hand on the steering wheel. "I get it. Yknow my parents had another kid when I was like, twelve?"

Evan's eyes widen. "Wow, really?"

"Yeah." Joshua says. "They were worried we wouldn't get along, but... even if it was hard at first, we got close." Evan looks at him from the passenger seat, and the smile on Josh's face is all genuine, pure love.

"Hes nine now." He says. "I think... I think nowadays, I'd do anything for him."

Evan smiles, it's a small, soft smile, and he thinks back to a twelve year old Gregory, a lightning bolt of a kid who struck Evan very suddenly and swept him up in a way he'd never forget.

"Yeah," Evan almost whispers, turning on his phone and looking at the photo of him and Gregory when they were fifteen as his lockscreen. "me too."

ao3

[badlydrawnjohn]

*eats ur glasses*

EB: glass and all?

EB: awesome- now I need a new pair.

GG: john!

GG: PLEASE- just alchemize a new pair!!

EB: heheh, sorry!

[olympeline]

FrUK FACE family Parent Trap AU, part 8! Part 1

Last time we left off, Tony had just returned and Matthew met “his” future stepdad. It was a shock to come face to face with Tony the way he did, but Mattie didn’t give himself away. He’s had plenty of practice dealing with curveballs by this point. So, they all sit down for breakfast and, afterwards, Matthew gets to witness Arthur and Antonio interact. Just ordinary domestic stuff. Mattie observes, and soon he can see what Alfred meant when he said that - although he likes Tony - he doesn’t think Tony and his dad are a good match. They get along, but there’s no passion. It’s almost like a business friendship, albeit an affectionate one. Tony is a nice guy and Mattie enjoys laughing at his jokes and chatting about ordinary, day-to-day things. So, no potential evil stepfather subplot here. But he still feels his stomach sink at the thought of what could happen in the future after he and Alfred swap back.

Can Matthew picture Arthur married to Tony? He can, but it’s not a picture that sits well with him.

What picture would sit well? Ah, isn’t that just the question. But one we’re not ready to answer. Yet

Meanwhile, Alfred is enjoying his time with Francis but Mattie’s jibe last time they talked is still niggling him. Alfred knows that he isn’t really a bad kid, but he does frustrate and exasperate Arthur. Lot’s of calls from teachers about talking in class and angry neighbours clutching baseballs and complaining about broken windows. Stuff like that. The thought of Arthur being happier with his more well behaved son? A son he won’t have to constantly excuse and apologise for? Yeah. Alfred no-likee. He’s well on his way to loving Matthew as a brother, but still. A little seed or resentment being planted? Maybe. Both twins have some complex feelings to deal with. I mean, on top of everything else going on with their situation, lol

Things go on as normal, until a few days later when Alfred comes home from school to find Uncle Gil waiting for him. Francis was called away last minute for work and so Gil is here to babysit. Alfred doesn’t mind. Gil is awesome! The two of them are ignoring Francis’s meticulously laid out instructions and making their own idea of food instead (“Hey, Uncle Gil, can we have a can of frosting for dinner?” “Sure, kid!”) when Gilbert casually brings up that his brother is getting married soon. In New York. Seems his fiance, an Italian expat, runs a restaurant there. Afterwards, Gil’s brother plans to move to New York permanently to live with his new spouse. Without thinking, Alfred starts enthusiastically talking about how great NYC is and how much Gilbert’s brother (Uncle Ludwig to Mattie) will love it there.

Alfred goes on and on about his home city for so long (homesickness nipping at the lad? Yep) that he doesn’t realise Gilbert has fallen silent and is just standing there, watching and listening. With an unreadable look on his face. Alfred trails off when Gilbert suddenly reaches out and tilts Alfred’s head, brushing his fingers behind his ear. Alfred is confused.

“Uncle Gil? What-?”

“You fell off the wall at the end of the garden when you were a kid,” Gilbert says. “Fell and cut yourself on a stone. Bled like a stuck pig and needed stitches. First time in hospital. Fran was having kittens. Think he cried more than you. Remember?”

Alfred feels his heart start to bang in his chest. Mattie never thought to tell him about that. It happened too long ago and they didn’t have time to go over everything. Alfred tries to sound confident when he replies:

“Yeah, yeah. I remember.”

“You do, huh? Like you remember New York?”

Alfred’s mouth is dry. The confidence is rapidly ebbing.

“I - y-yeah…”

“Weird, since you’ve never been.”

Alfred’s heart stops.

“I…I…”

Those red eyes bore into him.

“Or,” Gilbert says. “Should I say, Mattie’s never been. Or is that wrong now, too?”

Gilbert feels behind Alfred’s ear again, then takes his hand back. And stares Alfred down.

“No scar.”

Alfred can’t speak. He feels like he’s going to faint.

“Let me guess,” Gilbert says. “Alfred?”

(Dun dun dun! In the end, it was Gilbert who worked it out first. Whodathunkit? Anyway, that’s all I have for now. So, please enjoy and stay tuned for part 9! (´ε｀ )♡)

[kechichronicles]

First up on my list of things that need to be re-photographed, the Spinning display from EB games back in 2003!!

This awesome display is one of the jewels of my collection, and while the mechanical motor DOES still work, it's very fragile - so I won't be posting any videos of it at the moment until I can get a hold of a better motor. There is an old spinning video on my blog from over a decade ago if anyone is curious about how it looks in action! The motor was on its last legs back then too, so I definitely need to replace it before I can do new video of it.

[badlydrawnjune]

briska

EB: vriska is cool.

EB: plus she has got her whole pirate thing? awesome as hell.

[narcissistcookbook]

can i do a cover of a jam mechanics song, or since they arent released are the rules different or something? and unrelated what chords are you strumming in accident?

of course! that would be awesome

okay I haven't played Accident? since I recorded it, and I didn't write the chords anywhere, but I thiiink this is right. my guitar is tuned down a whole step, so I'm playing much more reasonable C F G etc chords than Bb Eb F etc, but I'll write it in Bb so you can play along if you want to

Verse 1:

Bb Gm

Bb Gm F# F

Bb Gm F Ebm F

Cm F Cm F

Verse 2: same as the first but there's an extra at the end Cm Ebm (I'm like 80% sure)

Chorus:

Bb Eb F Eb

Bb Eb Gm F

Eb F

Eb F

Bb Eb Gm F# F x2

Speaky Bit:

god i don't know haha, i jump improvised around the chord progression. i think it's most Bb and Gm

apologies for the vagueness, the quick turnaround on jam mechanics means there isn't time for it to stick in my brain properly. one day i'll sit down to actually figure out what i played

[goodlifewrites]

The Fic is Done...Now What

Any time you complete some sort of project, it's good to have a postgame assessment of things. The project is done and with that comes a sense of closure, except you still have all these thoughts and nowhere to put them. So I'm reactivating this blog just to get my thoughts on the end of this minor thing I did.

Writing the Potters and the Weasleys was difficult, not because of issues of writers block or anything like that. It was difficult because after the first few chapters, it simply became a chore to finish. I took nearly years long breaks at points just due to having little desire to open up the word document. Life was busy at times and slow at other points, but when it ebbed it wasn't as though I started banging out words. For me, it was all about the destination, not the journey. The journey sucked. It was like going antiquing in Maine with your parents when all you wanted was to get to the coast and see the whales finally.

I've noticed some of my favorite writers have similarly stopped updating fics they were working on or never bothering to start the long-awaited next installment. I wonder if its because life is getting in the way, they've run into a creative wall, or they've simply lost interest as I often have.

Outside approval certainly plays into it. We can all lie to ourselves that we write for just ourselves, but we also put it out to the public for consumption. There is indeed a little high you feel when someone praises something you created, warranted or not. But in my specific case, the kind reviews started at a high and then gradually slowed. By the time my fic concluded, it was a trickle. And that's on me for not consistently updating. If we go on the assumption that my story was good (which it might not be!), then it proves the point that quality alone does not lead to popularity. Consistent engagement is what drives views and the accolades that come with it. Surely if I was consistent here at least, I'd get more attention.

But we tell ourselves we don't write for attention, and that is probably true especially at the beginning. Yet we know its there and part of us wants it. Again, we publicly post these stories for a reason. So if I'm honest with myself, the ebbing of reviews must have played into my antipathy towards writing in some manner. I just want to be honest about that.

Writing fanfic is one of the least consequential things I've done in my life that still feels noteworthy and in need of reflection on. But it's not really a topic that has a natural avenue for spewing thoughts. This is the best we have.

Ideally, I'd like a conversation on my fic, where some people chime in with questions or comments like they often do for far more popular and accomplished writers. But absent that, I'll just post thoughts on different characters, themes, plotlines, etc as well as whether I plan on writing anything else (spoiler: likely no but i have ideas)

Lastly, I do want to thank everyone who stuck with the story and shared positive thoughts! I really was humbled (and sometimes the exact opposite) by people liking my writing. The best comments I got were people saying how well I got the characters, which was very important to me. Also, I must thank @thedistantdusk for being an awesome beta and soundboard. She's extremely busy yet still found the time to help me out. There are few fanfic authors who are genuinely strong writers who could carry a story without having the crutch of established characters and universes. Dusk is one of them.

So hope to chat more as I need continued validation!