#this is the only blog where i regularly post images

[forter-from-meteos]

not sure what possessed me to make these

[neechees]

hello, thanks so much for doing your scam busting, is the account @/shtunning another palestine scam? i can't find the images used on google anywhere, but the lack of a gofundme makes me wary

This one is looking veeeery suspicious & is pretty much most certainly a scam for the dollowing reasons:

El-shab-hussein, a Palestinian who's been helping us with vetting real Palestinian fundraisers from scams, says that the ONLY confirmed Palestinian fundraisers who claim to be in Gaza are on this list, and that blog is not one of them

That blog already has me preemptively blocked 🤨 🚩 I've never interacted with this person in my life, and its a big red flag to have scam busters blocked

Their donation post was made YESTERDAY, and their archive is turned off 🚩we see scammers do this to hide how old their blog actually is (that it's new and suddenly asking for money) and to make it harder to investigate them

Their donation post reblogs and replies have been turned off 🚩scammers do this usually after someone has called them out on their suspicious behavior, often with proof that they're scamming, and they do it to hide the evidence and prevent anyone from seeing or reblogging this evidence against them

They're asking for donations, but do not provide a paypal or gofundme attached 🚩 scammers nowadays also often try to hide their paypal because they like to reuse one account across multiple scams, and used them enough for those accounts to be recognizable bc scam busters keep track of them. Additionally, you can tell someone's actual location by a paypal link, so scammers often are trying to hide any discrepancies in their fake story (like say, pretending to be in Europe but are actually in Canada). Laura Deramas & co have been doing this a lot, so I wouldn't be surprised if this was her

They claim that the photos they provide are of their family in Gaza, but there's literally a watermark of these photos originally being from the website Gazanow 🚩 why you would use a seperate website's photos of your family & then blur out your family's faces from the photo (even though it's already on a public website & that's where you got it?), instead of any photos that THEY themselves took, makes no sense to me, & is extremely suspicious.

They claim their "entire family" is in Gaza and that they've been working & supporting their family abroad (presumably allegedly in Europe since theyre asking for money in Euros) since 2016, and that they are 24 years old. So according to them, They've been the single sole supporter of their entire family in Gaza & moved to & have been living in Europe ALONE since the age of 16? Idk that kinda doesn't seem that plausible to me.

They've backdated their blog, and tried to use posts with thousands of notes to make it harder to find that out lol 🚩🚩🚩according to the screenshots below, they backdated their blog (& in particular, this post) to look like it reblogged a post on February 17th, 2024. But once I looked in the notes, I very quickly found it in the most recent notes that it was ACTUALLY reblogged YESTERDAY

[Image description: two vertically stacked screenshots with a blue water filter over them. The first shows a screenshots of a reblog by the user shtunning, showing a falsified reblog date of February 17th 2024. The second shows the real date within the notes of this post that they had reblogged, dated to "1 day ago", April 17th, 2024. End image description.]

And as another thing, they're claiming to be Palestinian, but using language an actual Palestinian who has lived in Palestine would never use lol, such as "revive peace between us". There was no "peace" in Gaza before this, Gaza is an open air prison under a settler colonial occupation and has been bombed regularly for decades?

So yeah this is definitely a scammer lol

[endgamelukola]

do you believe everything the media and photographs tell you to believe?

if so, this is a post that isn't for you.

[also, I went with the autocomplete in the image, which is why Nicola's name is spelled incorrectly in the search, jsyk]

I wanted to call out that the first three top stories links on Google have Nicola Coughlan linked to Jake Dunn. Each link is to a news source that has no credible source to rely on. Terms such as "rumored"; "seem to confirm" and "believed to be" are used. One of the stories claims to have reached out to Nicola's and Jake's teams for comment, but there's no mention of any responses.

I think it's interesting to note that while the first paragraph or so of each of these articles summarize what's been photographed of Jake and Nicola – which I would argue are moments between friends, much like her interactions with Luke Thompson, Jack Rooke, and Mark Peacock – but aren't able to state anything more in the articles. The articles then diverge into information and previously quoted material from Coughlan about her relationship with who? Luke Newton. Because that's the only relationship she's ever openly spoken about to media sources.

We can continue to split microscopic hairs, but Nicola has never directly answered the question of whether she's solely friends with Luke Newton. She cleverly walks around the question, in the hopes that many will just assume she's friends and nothing more. Which is what a lot of people are doing. And that's their prerogative to do so.

In doing further reading about PR practices, I ran across a post from The Chi Group that discussed a couple of ways that public figures work to combat misinformation about them without making explicit statements:

"Pinning Corrective Posts: Pinning a correction or accurate update to the top of a social media profile can ensure that followers see the correct information first."

Okay, so what does Nicola have pinned to her Instagram post? Her own achievements in the media spheres as of late, where she noticeably mentions Luke Newton, even when it isn't within an ideal context to do so. And as always, the Bridgerton Season 3 promo post. Nothing about relationships or anything hinting to a connection with Jake Dunn.

"Search engine optimization (SEO) is a powerful tool in ensuring that accurate information surfaces in search results, rather than misleading or false content. PR professionals can optimize their content by:

Using Relevant Keywords: Including keywords that users might search when looking for information on a topic can help ensure that accurate content appears in search results.

Publishing on Authoritative Websites: Contributing articles or guest blogs to reputable sites can boost the visibility and credibility of the accurate narrative.

Regularly Updating Content: Keeping web pages updated with the latest information ensures that search engines recognize the content as current and relevant, helping it rank higher."

So the SEO is pushing Jake and Nicola together here in regards to relationship searching, and where Luke Newton has scrubbed SEO information linking him to Antonia, Nicola hasn't done that. I don't think she feels the need when, as stated above, the articles can't seem to gather much about her and Jake Dunn in the first place and revert back to talking about her 'gorgeous' relationship with Luke Newton.

Re: publishing on authoratative websites. The first three sources are from People Magazine, Yahoo reposting an article from Glamour, and The Sun. I certainly don't turn to these outlets for authoritative news, and I hope you don't either.

Re: regularly updating content. Can you point me in the direction of any content published by Nicola Coughlan's social media accounts that provides the latest information about her and Jake Dunn?

I rest my case.

[maxdibert]

Hello, I've been following you for some time and I love your posts and analyzes about Severus, I regularly update your blog hoping for more and I always wanted to send you something, but I never had the opportunity.

But recently I saw a video on TikTok, which I didn't pay much attention to, but I saw the comments and one of them talked about how if Harry was a woman and looked like Lily, Severus would be a pedophile and that that gave people the creeps. And I, personally, find this statement very funny, because as far as I remember, Snape never had inappropriate contact with any Hogwarts student, or with anyone, in fact. But people intentionally forget that the only person who had the opening to do this was Peter Pettigrew. Ron himself said that they slept together and, probably, Peter saw the boys, literal children, changing their clothes, but, obviously, it would be Snape who was the child predator.

Sorry if it wasn't very understandable, English isn't my first language and I'm using Google to help.

Hi! Thank you. I'm glad you like my rants and sometimes nonense lol

About your pint... Well, this is a very old story. If I had a penny for every time I’ve read someone spouting this nonsense, I wouldn’t be rich, but I’d have enough for a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant. It’s so absurd that I don’t even think it’s worth refuting, but just to clarify a few things:

Severus resents Harry for two main reasons, and neither of them has to do with being in love with Lily. It’s not something as childish as “uh, my crush married someone else.” No, there are several layers to it.

The first and most obvious is that, unfortunately, Harry is the spitting image of his father, who, unfortunately, was a jerk who spent his school years torturing people—specifically, and with great enthusiasm: Severus Snape. James spent seven years hunting him down and attacking him for sport, backed by his loyal ally Sirius Black and supported by his lackeys, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. While the latter two might not have physically assaulted Severus, they were there as enablers and complicit bystanders. Four against one, at the end of the day.

Severus never had the chance to heal from that abuse because, at 21, he was forced to return to the very place that had been hell for him. He had to teach students who were likely old enough to have witnessed some of those humiliations during his time as a student. A victim cannot heal in the place where they were consistently harmed.

Then Harry comes along, looking like an exact replica of James, and every time Severus sees him, it triggers him immensely. When he looks at Harry, he doesn’t see Lily’s son, nor does he see a child—he sees his abuser. And we all know Harry isn’t to blame for any of this, but the thing is, we can’t expect someone who isn’t acting rationally to be rational. Especially when we’re talking about someone who desperately needs therapy and probably medication, neither of which he’s ever had access to.

Then there’s another factor—a deeply emotional one—which is that Harry’s very existence is a painful reminder of Severus’s own role in Lily’s death. The fact that this kid is there, an orphan, is a constant reminder that Severus overheard a prophecy, reported it to Voldemort, and that Voldemort then chose to kill the most important person in Severus’s life because of it. It’s a perpetual mix of anger and guilt.

Looking at Harry forces Severus to relive his past as a victim, his most humiliating moments, as well as the terrible decisions he made because of them and their devastating consequences. This doesn’t excuse his behavior, but it does explain it quite well.

What I’m trying to say is that the reasons behind how he treats Harry are deeply tied to trauma. If Harry were a girl and resembled Lily, Severus would still feel deeply triggered every time he saw her. The only difference would be that instead of seeing James in her, he’d see Lily. I think, rather than anger, it would fill him with depression and guilt to such a degree that, instead of antagonizing her, he’d try to avoid her as much as possible. He wouldn’t want to get within ten miles of her because seeing her face would constantly remind him of the person he failed and indirectly condemned.

At no point do I imagine anything even remotely sexual crossing his mind. Especially when you consider that Severus never once confessed his feelings to Lily or behaved inappropriately toward her. I do think he’d act “softer,” but not because of her appearance specifically—more because Severus is always gentler toward women. I mentioned this in another post, but his more cordial relationships are almost always with female characters, and when he’s cruel, it’s typically far worse with men than with women.

People who lack even the most basic comprehension or analytical skills… Honestly, if they’re going to hate on him, the least they could do is come up with more convincing arguments. Sometimes it’s just exhausting to explain why their theories don’t make any sense.

[plurapony]

Regarding Astro (@/kingofantiendos)

So I was mutuals with Astro for a long while! And previously whilst I wasn't really a fan of his actions I just kind of ignored him and sent a private message that I didn't agree with his reply and went on about my day. Kay used to have a separate blog (now deleted) where she let out intrusive thoughts and it would have been hypocritical to call him out whilst one of our parts did a similar thing.

Note: At this point in time, he only really said "imma touch you" a few times which is kinda cringe in a middle school boy kind of way but not inherently harmful in my perspective. Also Kay's blog was deleted as we all agreed it was an unhealthy coping mechanism and it was harming both us and others.

But holy shit. This new stuff that he's been putting out makes me physically fucking cringe when I see it. I am nonbinary but our previous host is a transgender man and seeing Astro's posts feels like a direct blow to the stomach for us. I would have said I didn't think what Astro was doing constituted harassment before but, now? Absolutely undoubtedly harassment. Some of the people he has been regularly interacting with I'm not a fan of personally but I feel bad for their sake. It's gone past immature humour and into 4chan trolling territory and it's disgusting and not okay.

Astro would spam like my posts and reblog complimenting me and my blog which made it really fucking hard to block him because I genuinely felt super guilty (ocpd:[) even though I know I wanted to and I know it had to be done.

But as an anti-endo I wanted to make a statement that Astro does not speak for anti-endos as a whole and he uses it as a guise to get away with pure bigotry and harassment.

He doesn't just harass endogenics, he targets anyone who is even SLIGHTLY accepting of endogenics. Collectively we are anti-endogenic and we have our reasons but there are some of us who are endo-neutral and all of us agree that endogenics are still human and they are still deserving of basic human respect and kindness. This isn't okay, ever.

[IMAGE ID: ponyville is a (pro) endo free zone break dni and get blocked loser! END ID]

[jonathan-cranes-mistress-of-fear]

Things to note - from a "popular" fandom blogger

I absolutely memorize urls of people who are in my notes regularly

This wasn't always the case, but now tumblr tells you who is following or a mutual. I extra love those people

BUT I also have a special place in my heart for the lurkers or tumblr users who never follow, but regularly visit my blog

Yes please spam me with notes. This is not Instagram, note spamming only effects us positively.

Reblogs over likes yes, but I will be equally happy if you like 20 posts in a row even if you don't engage

Please engage though. Ask culture dying. We (usually) love when people ask us our favorite headcanon or for clarification on canon facts. If someone doesn't want asks, they usually say so. When in doubt, send in a comment. It's always welcome.

Just because I didn't respond within five seconds doesn't mean I'm ignoring you. I do have a life. But also, sometimes it's hard to respond for whatever reason (thanks autism) I do see your kind words and I love them. I'm not mad at you either. I'm just exhausted 24/7 However please understand that I do not owe you my presence all hours of the day. Yes, even if we are close friends.

Please treat me how you want to be treated.

I have almost 90,000 posts, mostly reblogs, but I have a lot of content and I do not mind you doom scrolling. In the same vain, do not assume I was the same person that posted one, two, five or ten years ago. Going through my blog to find "problematic" content only wastes time and tells me you think people are incapable of growth and change. Do better.

Keeping a schedule is tantamount to keeping people engaged and them building a following. Whether you post one a week or daily, or like me--almost hourly--people will come no matter your content if you give them a Reason to come.

No matter how unpopular the thing you are blogging about it's there is ALWAYS an audience. It's never a wasted effort to be creative and put your voice out there. Please, the fandom gets stale without new creators and ideas.

On that note, you are not stealing from another for making the same or similar content. That means you should gif that show that's already been gif'd dozens of times over. You should draw that comic of a popular headcanon/ship. You should write your story. As long as you are doing things in your own words/style and not outright copying word for word or sketch per sketch, you're fine. Two cakes are ALWAYS Better than one.

Being angry and spending your time hating/attacking/vague blogging about other creators only hurts you in the long run. jealously is a normal emotion, but when you let it take over your happiness you're only falling deeper into a pit that's already hard to get out of. (trust me)

Please, please, please do what makes you happy. Life should not be wasted on anger. You don't need popularity to be happy, sometimes it can be hella stressful. (take my word for it) Don't become the bully you wish you where in middle school. Spread kindness, support artist and creators. (this includes gif makers, image editors, amv makers, writers, OCs, etc)

Just. Have fun.

[palms-upturned]

Call me Meg, any pronouns.

I’m a white usamerican and do not speak Arabic, I do not verify fundraisers. A lot of folks in Gaza have reached out to me recently asking to share their campaigns, and so I’m trying my best to honor their requests and confirm the ones that have been vetted. My following isn’t exactly huge, but the friends I’ve made here have been extremely kind and generous in helping me when I’ve been in dire financial straits and I hope that they will extend the same generosity to the people of Gaza 💙

I’ve been talking daily with @lailashaqoura for a while and so it would especially mean a lot to me if my followers would follow her account and donate to/share her campaign:

If you’re a liberal who wants to send me an ask or respond to my posts about voting blue or Zionism or something to “debate” me, I’m not going to bother responding unless you attach a receipt for a donation to Laila’s campaign or I’m blocking you immediately. Add an image description to your receipt also. I’m not kidding.

Other fundraisers

Here’s a running list of verified users in Gaza who have reached out to me on my side blog, @vetted-gaza-funds!

Other tags on this blog where you can find fundraisers:

My general Palestine tag

My “asks” tag (this is where you’ll find the fundraisers of people who have reached out to me personally, I always try to link to verification from trusted users so that people won’t feel hesitant to reblog)

My donation match tag (this is where I post who I’m donating to every payday and encourage ppl to match my donations)

Palestinian users who are verifying campaigns (that I’m aware of):

el-shab-hussein

nabulsi

90-ghost

Other Palestinian users whose judgment I trust (but afaik they’re not personally verifying campaigns so do not ask them to do so):

fairuzfan

ibtisams

fallahifag

palipunk

Note: please interact respectfully with these users. They are doing these verifications and communicating with literally hundreds if not thousands of people in Gaza on a volunteer basis, in spite of literally deadly levels of stress. If you come from my blog and are even slightly disrespectful to anyone on this list I will hit you with a car.

Master lists of other vetted campaigns:

el-shab-hussein’s master list of master lists

fallahifag’s daily donation lists

google spreadsheet created by nabulsi/el-shab-hussein

Other sites where you can find verified funds:

gazafunds.com

Operation Olive Branch

Strawberry Seed Collective

Other:

A list of users who have reached out to me but who I could not find verification for. If anyone has any kind of link to a verification of these users please let me know so I can add them to my list!

If you want to send a campaign my way to add to my list on behalf of someone else, some things that would be helpful to me:

Please keep in mind that I cannot share fundraisers that have not been verified in some way. I am not Palestinian nor an Arabic speaker and have no way of verifying for myself what is or isn’t legitimate. If you send me an unvetted fundraiser, I will do my best to search regularly to see if anyone has vetted it in the future and share later if so, but that’s the best I can do.

If it has been verified but is not included in this spreadsheet, a link to the verification would be massively helpful.

If it’s a campaign that is on the Operation Olive Branch spreadsheet, please let me know where on the spreadsheet I can find it

If it’s from gazafunds.com, please show me a screenshot and/or a link where I can see the campaign featured on the website

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

first time anon but long time lurker and as always I find myself back to your blog(s). Was going through your masterposts (mainly hp but I look forward to diving once more in meta and fics about twilight too) and was wondering how come that nobody pieces together the clues and realises that lupin is a werewolf? (name aside, the bloke was disappearing and feeling poorly around every full moon and was for 7 years in a castle with the same people and nobody expect his dorm mates noticed??)

My question is, is wizardkind this oblivious/stupid/reliant on magic and looking things at surface level?

Would love to hear your thoughts about it bc I agree with many things in your meta posts and I'm kinda curious.

have a good day ✨

Because why would he be?

Why's There a Werewolf on Campus?

Why would Hogwarts be housing a werewolf? The idea, I imagine, would be untenable to anyone. And if they were unwittingly, surely, they would have noticed and done something about it? Lupin was able to remain hidden because he had extra support from Dumbledore as Headmaster. Dumbledore made it so Lupin had a place to hide during his transformations, so there was no wolf rampaging around the halls.

To suspect somebody's a werewolf, you have to say to yourself, "The staff knowingly is supporting a werewolf on campus" and that's if they suspect anything in the first place. Which they really don't have any reason to.

And even then, remember for most people that aren't Harry living in Harry canon, Hogwarts is supposed to be a safe and wonderful place. It's not supposed to be filled with horrible monsters/death around every corner. The idea of a werewolf being on campus would be something that would be as anathema to there being a troll on campus!

Remember that in canon, the HP parents were appalled when they found out that Lupin was a werewolf, and the man was immediately sacked.

He Ain't the Stereotype

Lupin, especially at a young age, would not look like what wizards and witches would think a werewolf would. While the whole point is that werewolves can be anybody, a young boy (even if he is scarred) who's still growing just isn't going to match the haunting image of Fenrir Greyback for people.

People are not going to look at his face and thing "WEREWOLF". In fact, given how sickly he acts (and unless these people are aware of how werewolves actually act around the full moon), they're probably going to think, well, sickly.

Who Notices Anyway?

Harry and the other students in canon notice that Lupin seems to be sickly/become regularly sick. Roughly once a month (but remember that the modern western calendar doesn't exactly line up with the lunar cycle) Lupin looks awful, and then he disappears for a few days and Snape comes to lecture them and says, "YOU LITTLE FUCKS EVER THINK ABOUT WEREWOLVES?!"

And even then, the HP students don't put it together (see above, why would their professor be a werewolf), even when they're looking up at the sky every night for astronomy (and either tracking the lunar cycle or else on non-overcast nights at least getting a chance to observe it).

And these are people in a position where they see and notice the man regularly. He is professor to all of these students; he is a person that everyone in the school will notice when he's absent and when he's not.

Lupin as a student would not be. First, the only people who would really notice him missing, consistently, are those he shares classes with, which is going to be mostly Gryffindor. Even then, most people are not going to be looking for him specifically, so you really narrow it down to a) people in Lupin's year and b) Lupin's friends who care.

Those who do know that Lupin is regularly sick--well, it's just that, the dude has magical tuberculosis or something. He's clearly only just healthy enough to attend Hogwarts, but every once in a while, he pushes it too hard and woops has to go on bedrest for a little while. If he's not seen in the dorms, people either assume he's in his dorm room (which people outside of the inhabitants don't have much reason to regularly enter) or he's in the Hospital Wing.

No one's going to notice that when Lupin disappears exactly coincides with the full moon plus or minus a few days.

Except, of course, his roommates who do see that whenever this happens--his bed is empty at night. Where exactly does he go? If he's going to St. Mungo's, why doesn't he say? James, Sirius, and Peter were in a unique position to notice far more about Remus's habits, the truth of where he is or isn't, than anyone else in the castle.

And if Anyone Did Think It, Which Why Would They...

Remus has his roommates and friends to cover for him, which I'm sure they did. They ensure anyone who thinks to ask that Remus is totally in their dorm room, sick as a dog (hur hur hur).

And why would they have reason to lie about this?

Similarly, this requires McGonagall and Dumbledore to be witting and lying, as if Remus was simply sickly, they would surely know and have made arrangements for him being in the hospital wing all the damn time/having to skip class so much.

And why would they have reason to lie about one of their students being a werewolf?

TL;DR

It's such a preposterous concept to most people, that they have no reason to ever even suspect that Remus Lupin was a werewolf.

They probably thought Lupin had wizard consumption.

[jellyfishsthings]

couldn't find any regulus black stuff on your blog, so maybe just some a fluffy fic with fem!reader?... feel free to ignore ❤️

I think I have posted a while back an angsty Regulus fic, this will possibly be my last marauders request. I have lost the spark you know... this is mostly fluff with an angsty twist because I am that girl, ya know...

WARNINGS: fem!reader, pureblood reader, messy sad thoughts, male pov but in a good way

Focus. Focus. Focus.

Don't look. She is here. Do not give away yourself. Not in front of mother. God they will eat me alive, if they could.

His thoughts were a cheerful bundle, a tangled mess that couldn't right itself. The news dropped on him like a bomb, his house a new battlefield, not that it wasn't regularly one, but this time it was horrendous and brutal. It has been approximately two months since Sirius left and got disowned, two months since he became the heir of the honorable house of Black. It was all rubbish.

Sirius had been a model of an heir. He was sociable, multilingual, could stand mother's cruel actions because deep down he was a mama's boy to the bone.

He desperately missed him.

When he was there, he had an ally, someone he looked up to, a friend, a protector, a brother. But apparently he wasn't enough for him to stay. His new Gryffindor friends were his new family.

Now he had to be the perfect son, to withstand Riddle's tortures and jabs, the constant criticism, his new engagement and above all else the constant loneliness.

A knock drew him out of his downward spiral and he opened his window looking up to the dangling figure that grinned at him.

"Are you coming or what?" Her voice was teasing and he felt himself become lighter, as if a huge burden lifted of his shoulders. His wife to be just happened to be his best friend, the only sliver of sunshine he could find in his grey clouded life. They loved each other, strictly plantonically, or maybe not on his part, but he knew that with her on his side his days would be slightly better.

They climbed up the jaded stones, just like they did when they were kids, heading for the roof where slowly but steadily they moved pillows and made their own secret fort.

In front of the others she was the proper image of a highborn lady, with her pureblooded, that was why they had chosen her to be his wife.

They couldn't be more wrong.

She was the most spirited person he had come to know, her radical opinions on several subjects and her thirst for knowledge and muggle invensions were like a breath of fresh air and they were going to be the death of him, if anyone found out. He was to be her lord husband and if she did something out of place, it was his fault. But there was no way controlling her and that was the reason he was so surprised when the announcement of his engagement echoed in the large breakfast table which was consisted just from him and his parents. He had stood gaping at them for the entirenty of two minutes gaping as a fish.

When he asked her about it, she just shrugged and said better you then anyone else, you I can love with time and I like you already, we shall be happy, and I know you too well to know that you will never deprive me of my freedom or try to control me like anyone else. Mother says it is the perfect match and she is right. I never expected a love match or anything such, but with you I can find love.

His heart had both clenged with sadness and fluttered with love. She had been right after all. It had merely been a month of them spending more time together romantically and he was already head over heels for her, his once time schoolboy crush was the being that consumed, his every waking moment and his every thought. People said marry your best friend and you shall find happiness, and Merlin were they right. He was happy already.

They could never kiss and he couldn't care. If he could hold her the way he did now and gaze at the stars, her head on his chest, his fingers woven in her hair. This was a piece of heaven reserved just for him.

He didn't need anything else, just this. The two of them a unit and close, together. Waking and sleeping in her arms, in their bed. If he were to die right this instant, he would die a happy man. Her light snores filled with ear as the air howled around them. Once he had done the mistake to tell her that she snores in her sleep and before he could claim that he found it endearing he had ended up with donkey ears and bright pink clothes, receiving a stink eye from her for five hours, until she come back to him and demanded they go to the Great Hall together for dinner because she didn't want to eat alone. He knew that the moment he found such a mundane thing so endearing he was a goner and fortunately for him there was no way back.

words: God knows not me, said I, not a religious person

[misc-obeyme]

unchained - epilogue

masterpost read the chapter on ao3

NSFW MDNI word count: 3893

GN!MC x Arsenios [demon OC] a/n: Here we are, at the very end of the story. The full thing ended up being 70,035 words. This scene does not take place at Cocytus Hall, but I used that image to indicate that it does take place in the past during the Nightbringer timeline.

I want to thank everyone who has read the story! Thank you for sticking with me all this time! I wouldn't have felt inspired to write it at all if not for all of you. There were times when I felt like just not posting the rest of it because it was so bad in my opinion. But your tags and comments kept me going! And I appreciate every single one of you.

I don't know what's next for Arrie. Only time will tell. I might explore some of the other OCs, too. I've been thinking about more Barbatos stories, though, because I miss writing about him. And I'm working on some original stuff as well, which you can find over on my new side blog @misc-chronicles if that's something you're at all interested in.

Thank you so much for loving my silly self indulgent guy. I'm so happy I got to share him and his story with all of you!

Anyway, enjoy this smut, but also be prepared for it to end on a cheesy note lol. Warnings: penetration and oral (reader receiving), pact control, biting, tail play (not fucking though lol), uhh I think that's it...

When you arrived in the Devildom's past, every pact mark you had faded. It was a simple matter of obscuring them even further with magic to make them invisible. The demons they connected you to couldn't know that such ties existed in their future. These versions of them didn't know you, hadn't fallen in love with you, hadn't accepted you as one of their own.

It was the same for the pact mark on the back of your dominant hand. You had been here for some time now. You had settled into your routine at Cocytus Hall, navigating the challenges of establishing relationships with demons who should already know you. But there was one demon you had yet to reunite with, here in the past.

You didn't know the timeline of his life well enough to be certain of his location. So soon after the Celestial War, you supposed he was still making pacts in the human world. He regularly traveled back and forth during that time. Where did he live? Where did he spend his time when he was in the Devildom?

Even if you saw him again, would it matter? He wouldn't recognize you.

And yet you couldn't stop thinking about it. You saw him everywhere you went, only to look closer and discover it wasn't him at all. You would hear his voice or a mysterious piano music on the wind, but there was never anything there. The knowledge of his existence was like a phantom, playing tricks on your weary mind.

There was no RAD for you to wander through, no dance hall to find him playing alone in the dark. The building you knew as his home didn't even exist here. Cafe Lament had no regular pianist. Angel's Temptation hadn't even begun to be an idea in a demon's mind.

For some time, you tried to focus your attention on other things. You had pacts to re-forge and a timeline to get back to. But even as you did this, the ache of missing him clutched itself like ice around your heart.

You had neglected to realize that there was another demon who might know where Arsenios was.

This timeline's version of Barbatos should not know about your relationship with Arsenios. He should be unaware of everything that would happen in your future. And maybe he was. You would probably never know for certain.

But it was very clear how he deliberately waited for you to follow him through the streets one day as you were on your way home to Cocytus Hall. He glanced over his shoulder, a brief wink and a swish of his tail somehow all you needed.

You could've been imagining things, but you followed him anyway. He pretended not to notice you.

Barbatos brought you to the most dilapidated ruin of a mansion you had ever seen. It took you some time to get there, following him on an overgrown path through the forest. The roof was mostly gone and the rooms were so full of plants and ivy that it was nearly impossible to tell what they had once been.

But there was an old piano in the broken remains of one room. And a demon played it.

It was a grand piano, made of wood that was clearly decaying, black paint fading away. Despite its condition, it wasn't out of tune. You supposed this was due to Arsenios's magical influence. He looked just as he always had. He was dressed casually, his hair obscuring most of his face as he played some melancholy song.

You hid in the trees while Barbatos made his way into the ruin. You watched Arsenios stop playing, stand up to meet him. They spoke to each other for a short time before Barbatos left. You wondered why he came all this way for so brief an exchange. And then you wondered if perhaps it was because it was only an excuse for him to show you the way to Arsenios.

You couldn't emerge right away. You waited. Arsenios started playing again.

When you felt like enough time had passed, you stumbled out of the trees, hoping you looked like you were lost.

Arsenios stopped playing abruptly and looked over at you.

You stood there in the path, the gaping holes of the empty windows and half rotten away walls giving you a clear view of him as he sat there. His eyes met yours and you had to suppress a shudder, even from this distance.

"You play beautifully," you said.

Arsenios stood up from the piano and came out of the ruin, walking easily across the path to stand before you.

"Who are you?" he asked.

There was an edginess to him that he didn't have in the present.

You told him your name.

"The devilsitter," he said. He looked you up and down, frowning. "They said you're a demon, but you aren't, are you? Your song…"

You hadn't expected that. He was onto you already?

"I-"

"Don't worry about it," he interrupted you. "I won't tell anyone. How did you get here and what do you want?"

"I'm sorry," you said. "I didn't mean to interrupt. I just got lost."

Arsenios tilted his head. "You just got lost? No. Your song is going crazy. It's far more than just getting lost in the woods."

There was a silence where he seemed to be listening to something. Of course, you couldn't hear it yourself.

And then his eyes narrowed and he took step closer to you. The aura around him had gotten dark and dangerous.

"Why do you sound like that?" His voice was low and ominous.

"I don't know what you're talking about," you said. "I don't hear anything."

Arsenios reached out a hand and placed it gently on your neck. Although his movement was soft, it felt like a threat. "You have the melody of someone who has a pact with me," he said. "But I've never met you before."

Of course. You still had the ability to control the brothers with their pacts. Some remnants of those old pacts remained, something that even these past versions could sense.

His reaction was not what you were expecting. You raised your eyebrows. "Does that scare you?"

Arsenios snorted. "No," he said. "But it should scare you. People who make pacts with me don't live long."

"Is that because they don't understand how pacts work?" you asked.

Arsenios's hand tightened just a little and the tension between you rose. "You're trying to provoke me, aren't you? You're bold for a human."

The desire that had begun to pool in your belly spiked for a moment. Then your eyes caught a glimpse of the back of his hands. There were no tattoos there. You thought perhaps you had even found him in a time before he had ever met Caligo. Should you take this opportunity to try and prevent that situation from happening at all? If you did, would it change the course of time so drastically that you would never meet him in the present?

All those thoughts that had begun to race screeched to a halt when Arsenios took a step even closer to you. "Your music is giving you away, little human. What are you so frantically trying to figure out beneath all that lust?"

Your heart hammered. He was more intrusive with the way he listened to your song. In the present, he was more contained. He didn't deliberately try to read what you were thinking or how you were feeling. But now it was clear he was using every advantage he had.

"I'm waiting to see what you'll do about it," you said.

Arsenios shook his head in amusement. "What do you want me to do about it?"

You summoned the power of your pact with him. "I want you to show yourself to me."

His eyes widened. He could feel the power of the command running through his veins. He backed away from you and immediately fell into his demon form, as suggested by what you said to him. He couldn't help it. He was compelled to show himself.

You didn't move as his tail unbraided itself, all the ends twitching in uncertainty before they braided themselves again.

Your eyes traveled over him, taking in the familiar harness of his demon form, noting the absence of both the pact mark and the scar on his chest from Caligo's scythe.

You were expecting Arsenios to be worried or afraid. He had been surprised, at the very least. But now he simply watched you, head tilted again as though listening. He was trying to read you, trying to figure out who you really were and what you really wanted.

"What is it about you?" he asked, almost to himself. "Any other human commanding me like that would be dead by now. But you…"

"What about me?" you asked.

Arsenios came close to you again, taking your hand, pulling you slightly toward him. "For some reason, all I want is to follow every command you give me. And I'm not the kind of demon to deny myself. So what do you want from me, MC? Just say it. You don't have to command me."

"Kiss me," you said.

You didn't use the power of your faded pact and just as he said, you didn't have to.

Arsenios gathered you into his arms and kissed you. It wasn't a soft gentle kiss. It reminded you of the first time he'd kissed you in his apartment - hot and heavy, but this time also full of some undercurrent of danger. Like Arsenios was barely suppressing his more demonic tendencies and he was only doing it because he wanted to. It was so thrilling, you responded to him without thinking, opening your lips, entwining your tongue with his. Your hands moved up to his chest, your fingers playing with the barbells in his nipples.

He broke away from you, breathing heavily. "You want much more than just a kiss," he said. He grinned at you. "I'll do whatever you want. Take me anywhere."

You looked past him at the ruins of the mansion. "Take you anywhere? What's wrong with here?"

"Hmm," he hummed thoughtfully before simply picking you up. You managed to hold onto his harness to steady yourself. "I didn't think you'd be interested in a dump like this, but if that's what you want, I don't mind."

You didn't protest, only let him carry you into the ruin, past the room with the piano until you found yourself in a room that was far more intact than the rest of the place. It might have even been a bedroom before it became a ruin. It was simple, but there was a door that closed and a roof overhead. The main attraction was an enormous four poster bed with surprisingly well kept bed curtains. The only light came from an ashy looking fireplace in the wall near the bed.

"It's cleaner than I expected," you said.

"I might live in a ruin, but I still keep it clean," Arsenios said before putting you down on the edge of the bed.

You forgot entirely about the state of the room as he stood between your knees and started leaving hot kisses down your neck. His hands tugged on your shirt for a bit before finally dislodging it and pulling it over your head. His kisses moved down to your shoulders and chest.

You needed him in a way that you couldn't describe. It was painful and full of memories from the story you shared with him back in the present. This version of him knew you but didn't know you. He was going along with the inexplicable pull of your song, the one that matched his magic just enough to let him know the pact was real. That you meant something to him.

You reached around and tugged on the base of one of his tails. It unbraided itself from the others to wrap around your waist.

"MC," Arsenios said, leaning over you, his face pressed to your neck, breath hot and voice muffled. "Are you doing this?"

"Doing what?" you asked, breathlessly.

"Making me need you," he said. "Making me want you so bad I can't think straight."

"I'm not doing anything," you said. "Not on purpose."

He pulled back for a moment, looking into your eyes. His own purple ones were almost magenta with the fire of lust burning inside of them. "Who are you?"

This was dangerous. What you said to him now could change the course of your story in the present. If you told him too much… but you had to tell him something. You wanted him to know how much he mattered to you.

You put your hands on his cheeks. "If I told you I was from another timeline, would you believe me?"

Arsenios stared blankly at you for a moment. Then something seemed to clear his confusion. "Yes," he said. "Barb talks about timelines a lot. It's a magic I'm not familiar with, but I know it exists."

You smiled softly. "That's all I can say about it. It's dangerous to manipulate the past. But I just want you to know… that I love you."

Arsenios looked like he might pull away at that. You could see it in his eyes, the sudden distrust. He could accept an unexplained lust, but love? If you did love him, you loved a version of him that he didn't know. A version of him that might as well not exist.

You felt the tears fall down your cheeks unbidden. He was processing the fact that it wasn't him that you loved. Right in front of your eyes, he was putting together the understanding that even if he believed you, it was a different version of him that you loved.

To your surprise, he reached out to wipe away your tears. "No," he said quietly. "Don't do that. It's okay. So you love me in another timeline. It hurts you to be here, doesn't it? It hurts that I don't know you. Maybe there's a you in this timeline that I'll meet one day. But if you need me like this now, if this will help you with whatever it is you've got going on here in this timeline, I won't deny you, okay?"

You blinked, which only caused fresh tears to fall. "You won't?"

Arsenios chuckled and kissed away the new tears, a sweet gesture that squeezed your heart. "Never," he said. "If I love you in one timeline, I love you in every timeline. I don't need to understand it. I can hear it in your song. I never question the truths that I can hear in music. Now tell me what you want. But command me, MC. Use your power over me. Let me feel it."

You shuddered. The gentleness had left his voice to be replaced with the heaviness of his lust. You could hear it so plainly in the way he asked you to command him. You wanted him so badly you thought you'd explode and he was offering himself up to you.

"I want you on your knees," you said.

Arsenios fell to his knees immediately. You didn't have to say anything else as his hands went to work on the rest of your clothes. You could see the edges of his back tattoo when he bent over you. As soon as your soft skin was fully exposed to him, he began to bite his way up your thigh. You sucked in a breath. His actions were harsh, like he was barely holding himself back. It was unlike the version of him in the present, always so soft and gentle. In the past, he was more wild, living out here in the woods in a ruined mansion, playing a decaying piano, making pacts with humans that died quickly. His demonic nature could not be denied.

When he finally put his mouth on you, it was like an explosion that ran through every limb. You gasped, your hands finding purchase on his horns. His hands held onto your hips, keeping you steady as he used his tongue in ways you didn't know were possible. One of his tails was still wrapped around your waist.

Arsenios lifted your legs over his shoulders and they clenched down on him as the pleasure built up inside you. The feeling was so exquisite, your mind blanked for a moment as you came on his tongue.

Arsenios didn't pull away, lapping up every drop of your cum before it could even make its way down your thighs. When he looked up at you, framed by your legs, the look on his face was ravenous. As though this was just the beginning. As though he was ready to eat you entirely.

You let go of his horns, reaching out to touch his face with your fingers. The glint of fire in his eyes sent shockwaves through you. "Do it," you said, the power of command in your voice.

You knew you likely didn't need to command him anymore. But he had asked you to. And there was something about having the magic control him, having him respond so compliantly to your words, that made you feel dizzy.

Arsenios's eyes seemed to be glowing with intensity. He lifted you again, putting you down on your feet in front of him, your back pressed against his chest. You could feel the chill of the harness's chain against your skin. It was a sharp contrast to the heat of his mouth, which was on your neck, his soft hair brushing against your shoulder. One hand was on your belly, the other on your chest, and he seemed to be humming deep in his throat, like he couldn't contain it.

The light of the fire danced across your bodies, the sweat that had already accumulated glistening brightly. His teeth grazed against you for a moment before he bit down on your neck and then your shoulder.

You moaned and pressed your body back against him. You could feel the state of his erection through the pants he was still wearing. You reached behind yourself to tug on them.

"Take them off," you said, your voice now just a hoarse whisper.

Despite the state of your voice, the command magic was still running through it. Arsenios responded instantly, compelled to take his hands off you long enough to remove the pants in question.

You turned around while he was slightly away from you and caught hold of the harness chain when he tried to step back toward you.

"This too," you said.

He might have hesitated if the magic wasn't controlling him. The slight confusion in his eyes indicated as much to you. But the pact ensured that he simply did as you asked, unclipping the chains from the choker, unbuckling it and letting it fall to the floor.

You had never seen him in demon form without the harness. There were light lines on his skin left behind and your fingers traced them, making him shiver. He was still, but his tails were out of control, all three of them whipping around behind him.

You let your hand travel down his chest, taking his erect cock into your hand. You met his eyes. "What are you waiting for?"

The tails stilled, one of them wrapped around your thigh while another one wrapped around your waist. The last one found its way into your mouth as his hands pushed you back onto the bed.

You wrapped your arms around his neck as he lifted you by your hips, pulling you closer to him. He was not careful as he finally entered you, the neediness and desperation of his movements making him careless. You didn't mind, you were ready for him. Your legs hooked around his waist as he leaned over you, pressing his forehead against yours as he began to thrust, the movements much slower than you had been anticipating.

Your mouth was still full of his tail, but you managed to moan around it, the vibrations of your voice traveling through it and making it twitch. The tails around your waist and thigh tightened as Arsenios sped up. He lifted himself just a bit, his hair draping around your face, his eyes half closed as he looked down at you. Even still, you could see the way they flared, that odd magenta color returned to indicate his state of lust.

Not that you needed such an indication, you could feel the power of it in his touch, his every movement. He was wild now, not holding back at all, his fingers curling into your hips so hard it would likely be leaving bruises.

Arsenios repositioned you slightly and the new angle caused his thrusts to become so deep, you couldn't think straight as he hit that perfect spot inside you over and over again. It was hard and it was fast and it was overwhelming, your mind going blank and your vision going white as you came hard on his cock.

He continued on through your orgasm, leaning back as he did, his hair half covering his face, puffing out with the heaviness of his breathing. And then he went still and you felt the heat of his cum inside you as a growl ripped itself from his throat.

It was a slow descent, the two of you panting for some time before finally things became soft in the afterglow. Although the fire inside him had died down, it wasn't gone completely. You could still sense the coals burning quietly within him. But Arsenios was gentle with you now, cleaning you up and taking care of you and making you comfortable. He even talked you into staying the night, though you were sure you would hear about it from Solomon the next day when you didn't come back to Cocytus Hall. Somehow, you didn't think you particularly cared.

Though even as you spent the night nestled in Arsenios's arms, you couldn't stop thinking about what this past version of him was like. And what he still had to go through. It was clear to you that he hadn't even met Caligo yet. This was Arsenios before he had been broken by betrayal. He was more dangerous, but he was also more free. He wasn't chained by old wounds that forced him to deny himself.

You knew this version of him had a story still to live through. And you also knew that he would inevitably find you in this timeline. And maybe, through this encounter, he would open up to this timeline's version of you just a little bit easier. But even if he didn't, you would love him either way.

Arsenios had not put out the fire and the orange glow of it still dimly highlighted the edge of his shoulder, the brown of his skin and the gleam of his hair. He was leaning into you, half on his stomach, and his back tattoo seemed to be on fire itself, the red roses gleaming. You knew that no matter where or when you found him, Arsenios was the demon that you would always give your heart to.

masterpost | chapter twenty-two

taglist: @avalordream @lonely-north-star @expressionless-fr @featheredcrowbones @pumpkinsareamazing

@szired @bagofwetmice @ashley675901 @silverrings-n-prettythings

as always, please comment or dm me if you'd like to be added or removed from the taglist!

masterlist | Thank you for reading!

[freyjas-musings]

Ok this brave soul created a dedicated side blog to tell me Gwyn and Az can't be mates because of the sparked in the chest reference.....

I am not hiding the blog name because the reblog is literally the only thing on there .

One - A spark in the chest most certainly is one of the things that SJM regularly uses for Mates ... Along with feeling settled ... A glow in the chest ... All of which have consistently been used by her for every single Mated couple. So, it is reasonable to assume they are Mates... Endgame or Not ... That's kind of obvious. The reason I only used the spark reference that was in the latest book as well ... How much more consistent can she be?

Romantic Interest- What Romantic Interest did Elriel have ? He didn't plan beyond the fantasies he pleasured himself to .... I am sorry if wanking is considered Romantic and endgame ... The teenagers around the world would be excited with the prospect of who their endgame is 🤣🤣

Sexual Attraction - Yea sure ... I mean it's not like Chaol and Aelin literally slept together several times or Bryce did or Feyre and Tam or even Az panting after Mor ... because Sexual Attraction automatically means end game ... I don't know how old or how lonely this person is ... but experience in life isn't their strong hold. Also, Gwyn and Az barely even know each other at that point if he had sexual thoughts about her I would throw up and hate Az forever.... 😒 ... How many times have we told you all Az and GWYN will most likely have a friends to lovers to Mates story?

Now for the wonderful example that they posted thinking they made fetch happen... but all they did was prove they lack reading comprehension

Raise your hand if you understand how a BLOOD OATH works and if you understand the fact that the Blood OATH is a bond of sorts but one that is forged with binding magic deliberately ... It takes blood and ancient words and deliberate acceptance on both ends ... But essentially it is still a bond 🙄... I am sure this genius isn't raising their hand

I don't remember Az ingesting Gwyn's blood and saying the ancient words and pledging his life to her in servitude?????

So, the obvious other explanation is Mates... Kindly present an example ... where two platonic characters have had all of the following used:

1. Spark in the chest

2. Feeling Calmer and more settled

3. An image of them glowing in their heart.

Feeling Calmer and settled is different to ancient magic settling into you ... I feel like crying over this level of dumb ...

I appreciate the attempt but that was a fail, try harder next time

[sometipsygnostalgic]

Something needs to be said for "dashboard curation".

When I was a kid I used to follow everyone who interacted with me regularly but that led to a situation where my dashboard was completely out of control. I'd spend hours doomscrolling through it, it'd be filled with news posts (which are something you should never, never trust without doing at least a bit of research) and often you'd have one or two problem bloggers who DON'T STOP posting, I'm talking 30 reblogs in twenty minutes, five times a day, who block you from viewing all the other "i post once a day" blogs you want to see.

Since remaking almost 10 years ago, I only follow specific blogs. I don't worry about being "mutuals" with people. I'll follow a blog if I like it, and that's it. If someone starts posting too much, starts posting content that makes me too unhappy or suspicious, I unfollow. There are some friends I repeatedly follow and unfollow depending on how their own blog changes.

I don't follow any news blogs. I like to look things up across many news sites at a slower pace. Sometimes I see my partner share news on my dash. I'm more aware than ever of my lack of information because the BBC - one of my most important news outlets - has proven to be conservative trash that demonizes the homeless and uses wishy washy language about human lives in Palestine. So now more than ever I want to find ten sources saying the same thing before believing it.

I unfollowed someone on Twitter yesterday that I've been following for years because they ceased to post any fandom content, they were reblogging nothing but fund-me posts of questionable origin and full of shocking images. And I respect your desire to spread the word, and your trust to not ask any questions. There is some honour there. But I don't want my feed to be full of shocking posts demanding cash I haven't got. So, unfollow.

[holycatsandrabbits]

When you stand at the center of a crossroads, that’s exactly where you are. Which road are you on? What direction are you going? There’s no path forward that doesn’t pass over some kind of border.

Crossroads are contradictory, and in folklore, that makes them very powerful. They’re “thin places,” meaning the border you cross may not only be physical, but metaphysical. It certainly makes dying or being buried at a crossroads quite a fearsome fate…

For one thing, it would be super noisy! Because you can meet all kinds of interesting characters at a crossroads: the dying, the dead, the dreaming, the demonologists, and yes, the Devil.

Check out my Weird Wednesday blog post for more on the crossroads and writing prompts, such as:

The Demonologists

It’s said that under certain circumstances, you can hear the names of those doomed to die being whispered at a crossroads. Halloween night is good for this, as is Christmas and New Year’s. Of course, it would be quite a risk to hang out at a crossroads at such powerful moments.

Unless, of course, you’re a professional. Necromancers regularly speak with spirits, both good and very, very evil. Necromancers often conduct their rituals at crossroads, because spirits congregate there, and they’re easily trapped in the intersection. Run-of-the-mill ghosts may foretell the future or spill secrets. Truly evil spirits, like demons, can grant wishes. If you’re brave enough to ask.

Some secretive prompts:

There’s a man going round taking names. People like to wonder what they’d do if they knew their own death was coming, especially if it was unexpected. Imagine a healthy young person hearing their name whispered at the crossroads on Halloween, and realizing it would likely be an accident that would kill them— or murder. How would they handle that knowledge? Would they stay in and avoid all risk? Run away and live as a hermit? What if they heard the name of a loved one along with their own?

The $64,000 question. What if, as a necromancer, you have what seems to be an unanswerable question? Maybe you have asked every spirit you can summon, good or evil, and have never gotten an answer. The question could be something huge like “What is the meaning of life?”, or smaller but important: “Where is my dad’s will?”. Or maybe the necromancer is looking for simple historical information. Imagine asking “What happened to D.B. Cooper?” and you just keep getting spirits who have no idea. Nobody was in the Pacific Northwest at the right time, nobody knows anything about skydiving except maybe Joe, who died in a skydiving accident, but that kinda disqualifies him as an expert. And as for asking demons, well— when they don’t know an answer they’re likely to say something like “Oh, yeah, I know Dan, he’s still in the woods ‘cause he married Bigfoot.”

DannyeChase.com ~ AO3 ~ Linktree ~ Weird Wednesday writing prompts blog ~ Resources for Writers

Image credit

[saintmeghanmarkle]

YouTube and Stuff by u/SecondhandCoke

YouTube and Stuff First, I'm trying to get my YouTube channel up in the next couple of weeks... just for those who care. If you have naming suggestions, I'm all ears. If there are things you like to regularly hear from me, let me know. I know y'all want "tea" when I've got it, and I will provide that from time to time, when appropriate. I plan to do a lot of debunking using the logical fallacies and an insider's look at PR strategies. I plan to do a lot of Markle Snarkle, but if you've enjoyed things I've done in the past like the Handwriting Analysis, I can do that once a week, I can do tarot spreads (for fun only, ovbs), I can critique in a constructive and friendly way other content creator's assertions (if y'all ask and direct my attention to it). Also, thanks to TRG for ALREADY giving me a lot of great advice. I also need advice on the easiest way to manage graphics, editing, etc. I'd LOVE to be able to animate my little Secondhand Coke avatar to say what I'm voicing over, but don't know how. Music is set. I'm a musician, and I've gotten my little instrumental zinger almost read to go... I really just have to figure out how to edit it together. Like using a macbook pro or iphone. Any helpful hints would be appreciated. Inexpensive or free editing software recs, places where I can get images and video that are free, even other music blurbs... I can use all the help I can get. Anyway, re: Prince Harry, the impression I am getting is that the people around Harry want to be worthy of Harry's trust. They won't leak his location, but if I'm reading between the lines accurately, he reportedly gave Meghan a fake locale that only she had, and she leaked it. So I think the scales continue to fall from his eyes. It's been weeks since we've seen Harry, at least 21 days since we've gotten a verified location. (I think). I get the feeling the people around him are looking after his best interests while he focuses on getting himself together. That's just my read based on what little bit of info I could get. But for those of you who've encouraged me to do a channel in the past, I'm pretty much ready to get her going and would love your advice and input. post link: https://ift.tt/x3bpoes author: SecondhandCoke submitted: October 21, 2024 at 05:25PM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit disclaimer: all views + opinions expressed by the author of this post, as well as any comments and reblogs, are solely the author's own; they do not necessarily reflect the views of the administrator of this Tumblr blog. For entertainment only.

[nohoperadio]

Who is the upside down woman in your icon

It's Emily Dickinson! Who I think seems cool based on the very few poems of hers I happen to have come across but I haven't read nearly enough to be able to call myself a fan. I have her collected poems on the shelf and I've genuinely had the thought more than once that I should do a deep dive into her stuff specifically so I can feel less of a poseur for having her as my tumblr icon, which I think we can all agree is the most embarrassing motivation for wanting to read a poet imaginable, but I haven't so far. In my defence it's a real brick of a book to the point of being hard to hold comfortably.

How this came about: when I first made this tumblr account (more than a decade ago! But it was only many years later I started really using it, and only this year I started making my own posts regularly) I would always get stressed out when I needed to supply an icon for online accounts, I got pointlessly neurotic about it (as I did about most things back then) and every possible option seemed too arbitrary or dumb or cringe. If I was smarter I might have done like your excellent self and just not bothered having one, but that didn't feel like an option somehow. At some point, for some reason, I thought of this solution: every time I make a new account somewhere I'll find an image of a different famous poet's face, flip it upside down, and that will be my icon. This didn't last long, I remember doing one of Baudelaire (can't remember where for) and obviously this one, I don't think there were any more.

I'm a bit curious what impression it makes on people. Objectively I don't think it's a great icon, when I see others with portraits of real people as theirs my prejudiced instinct is that they come across as not much fun, and being upside down does make it better but I still don't think it's super appealing? But it's fine, and it feels like upside down Dickinson has become the face of the blog enough that I'd feel weird swapping her out at this point.

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

In the last few days, I've made two long and rambling posts about Cowgate, a short incident from 2003 that haunts my nightmares. I think people should know that when I make posts like that - the ones that go way too long about something entirely niche - I am operating under the assumption that absolutely no one is reading this bullshit. Even the small handful of people who read this blog regularly, I assume you skip over those ones.

That's not just a hypothetical assumption, I make writing choices accordingly. I assume the only purpose of this post is to give me somewhere to put the hauntings besides my nightmares, and therefore, it doesn't matter if it's readable. I know that my whole blog is full of errors, but on posts like that, I get especially lax with things like editing. I go really deep on things where on a different post, I might think - okay, that's far enough. Because no one is reading this.

I have now been proven wrong several times about those couple of posts, which both mildly embarrasses and delights me. First of all, I got this great comment from @beastlyanachronism, which is now how I love to picture myself:

Then, the wonderful @lastweeksshirttonight proved that they'd read not only the posts but the comment, by immediately messaging me a corresponding picture. I replied that I love the image, I will definitely start my post with that image the next time a new Cowgate-based detail is found and I need to write about it. I didn't expect that to be soon, though. Breakthroughs are few and far between.

But then, I got another message, proving that at least three different people have read my post (actually four, if you count the very kind British man who read my post and then sent me a message to explain the nuances in the expression "bottle it"). And that last message is the reason for this post. Because, I can't believe I've been given cause to use this image so soon:

Further content behind the cut, because not everyone needs this content all over their feed.

This relates to the message I got last night, from the extremely helpful @linkeightvideo, who not only read my posts, but joined the cause and did his own research. And came up with this link:

The Metro cow is a thing!!! I knew the wording of that YouTube comment was weird (calling it "the Metro cow", rather than something like "a cow that said Metro on it"), suggesting that this was a specific and recognizable instillation. And I was right! But I cannot take credit for figuring that out, all credit goes to @linkeightvideo, who is the best.

The above link is to an archived version of an article from August 5, 2003, about three weeks before Cowgate occurred (which was August 26, 2003 - fun fact that has absolutely nothing to do with anything because to the best of my knowledge he wasn't there or anything, but that was also Nish Kumar's eighteenth birthday). The article is from the Edinburgh Fringe website. It's short enough so I'm just going to paste its text in full:

The Fringe was hit by a bunch of cotton-pickin', rootin-tootin' cattle ruslers in the early hours of Saturday night. The almost life-sized, bright blue and red Metro bull was stolen from outside the Metro Fringe Box Office. Metro newspapers are appealing for its safe return before the police are called and urge anyone with information to come forward. Metro Fringe Box Office Manager, Gillian O'Connor said: "We're distraught to have lost such a valuable member of the Box Office team! Please bring him back." The bull had just completed a secondment outside London's Victoria station, where he stood unmoved for a month. Yet after only a few days on duty with the Fringe he has gone missing leaving today's Festival Cavalcade a bull short of a procession.

That's it!!! That's the one! It was blue and red! I know it was blue and red, because Adam hills shouted "it's got red horns, it's all the rage". And it was almost life sized! And it said Metro on the side! Further research - also done by @linkeightvideo, he deserves all the credit in the world for this - finds that Metro sponsored the Edinburgh Fringe Festival that year, and also directly sponsored the Gilded Balloon venue.

So, the company called Metro had a large cow that was used in advertisements, and for one month in the summer of 2003, it was in London, outside Victoria Station. Then it was brought to Edinburgh, because they were sponsoring the festival and running a box office. They put it outside that box office, and it got stolen within "a few days" (which makes sense, as August 5th is a few days into the festival). It was meant to be part of the Festival Cavalcade, but couldn't be due to thieves.

Then, three weeks later, it spends all night on stage during a late-night comedy show in an Edinburgh venue that Metro sponsors, where it gets taken apart. How do we get from one state of affairs to the other? I don't know, but I'm a hell of a lot closer to understanding than I was yesterday. If the cow was somehow recovered, it would make sense from them to move it indoors, where it can be guarded better (again, credit for this idea goes to @linkeightvideo, and I think it makes sense). I mean, it can be guarded from drunk thieves in the middle of the night. Apparently the stage of the Gilded Balloon is not a good place to guard it from (shockingly) sober comedians in the middle of the night.

This made me try searching again for the specific words "Metro cow", and I found this article from December 12, 2003. It's a list of people who are involved with whatever organization this is, I'm not really clear on that. But it includes this one guy named Stephen Auckland. He's from the North of England, and as of when this was written, he was listened as the managing director of Metro. The bottom of his profile says:

An able sidekick to Associated Newspaper's Mike Anderson, even when it came to keeping up appearances following the disappearance of Mootro, Metro's cow mascot, from the Edinburgh festival. Auckland offered to dress up as a pantomime version. Luckily, they found the cow.

Guys! Guys! It has a fucking name! The Cowgate cow has a name! It's named Mootro! Now that I think about it, I actually can't believe I've never named the thing, given that I named the event (Cowgate), and giving the cow a name is the sort of thing I'd do. But I don't have to, because apparently it's named Mootro.

And the story has an update. It was stolen by August 5, and then it was found at some unknown point, and by August 26 it was in the Gilded Balloon. And then it got taken apart on stage.

I think this brings up one obvious question, which is: if this thing was important enough for its theft to be reported on the Edinburgh Fringe website, how come they were allowed to destroy it? The obvious answer would be that it was specifically made for just that one Edinburgh Festival, and was meant to be destroyed at the end of it anyway. But why did it spend a month in London right before that, then? And why would they do that anyway? Surely it's not efficient to make something like that for only a month, you'd think they'd plan to have it last a while and move it around based on where they're sponsoring things.

I can't believe this. This is the biggest revelation since I figured out who the fuck Karen Koren was, the woman referenced in Adam Hills' song, after after ages of Googling comedians named "Erin Coren" (finally worked out that she was the venue owner, which seems obvious now but it hadn't occurred to me at the time, when I was expecting it to be a reference to another performer). Actually, this is a much bigger revelation than that one, which just explained a couple of Adam Hills' lyrics. This is the biggest revelation in all the Cowgate research yet. The two main questions at the heart of the Cowgate mystery are: "Why did you do it?" and "Where did you get the cow?" And now one of those questions has been answered! It has a fucking name!

That second article referred to it specifically as the Metro "mascot". I guess a company is going to make more than one version of a mascot. But still, I don't think you're allowed to just destroy a sponsor's mascot. Maybe that mascot was at the end of its life anyway? Maybe Daniel Kitson just doesn't give a fuck? Maybe Daniel Kitson stole the cow in the first place. There's a whole new question. Who stole the cow? How did they get it back? How did it get from there to its whereabouts on August 26?

I know it wasn't on the Gilded Balloon stage every night of the 2003 Edinburgh Festival, because there's no sign of it in this montage, from Late 'n' Live on August 19, 2003 (also a fun video and great snippets of Chocolate Milk Gang history, if you can get past the second-hand embarrassment of Kitson trying his rap battle thing with an actual musician, and the presence of an actual musician makes the whole thing seem less ironic and therefore harder to watch - but you do get to see David O'Doherty beat up Jason Byrne and that's hilarious, also it's very funny to watch Daniel Kitson do something as out of character as brag about "nearly" winning a Barry Award and having a girlfriend from Australia, especially given how the latter turned out):

So it wasn't there on that night. Also, it just couldn't have been there every night. The Gilded Balloon is a proper venue that has proper shows during most of its time, it couldn't just have a large cow on stage for all of those. Also, in the beginning of that montage video from August 26, you see Kitson talking to the audience about the cow, and it sounds like he considers its presence as much of a novelty as they do. I mean, he's making fun of them for thinking it's a novelty, but he doesn't seem familiar with it, it seems like something he has to address:

This is the main reason for my theory that they didn't plan it beforehand, the montage shows the audience giving Kitson challenges for easy things to do with the cow, he asks them for more difficult challenges and then the video cuts, but I think the audience then asked him to tear it apart. It's a theory that makes sense based on some circumstantial evidence, but it does open up other questions. The main one being whether you can get permission to destroy a company's mascot between the beginning and the end of a comedy show, especially a comedy show that takes place entirely in the middle of the night. It doesn't seem likely. It also opens up some smaller questions, like what they were planning as the end of the show - the finale of the last night of Late 'n' Live, so you'd think they'd have something - that got bumped for this.

This reminds me that I had some further thoughts on the other mystery, of what actually went down on the night of August 26. I was thinking of the somewhat blue sky theory of there being two previous. Evidence for this: Adam Hills referred to "three chances", they were able to pick up chisels off the ground that seemed to just be lying around (possibly having been discarded after previous attempts), and Kitson in that video does have their air of someone who's already watched this go wrong and is really determined to make sure they get it fucking right this time. Evidence against: I'm not sure that works from a show planning perspective. What if it had worked on the first try, then what would the finale have been? If they'd watched it fail twice, would they really have made it the finale, knowing it may well fail a third time and that would be a shit ending? Though this could possibly be explained by the presence of the pipe that someone runs on stage, significantly increasing their chances compared to any attempt where that pipe was not in play.

I thought of something else today: the cow was already down when they started that video. Earlier in the night, we see comedians sitting on the cow, it's standing up. But at the end, when those guys run out to try to take it apart, they don't have to knock it down first. It's already lying on its side. They could have knock it down just before starting the song, but why would they do that? Surely knocking it down would be a fun dramatic moment, so if this were the first time they'd messed with the cow, they'd leave the knocking down to be part of the process. Unless this weren't the first time, and they had dramatically knocked it down before starting to try taking it apart, but this one done at some earlier point that the video didn't catch.

Anyway. That's the revelation. Along with some further thoughts on theories, but the main thing is the revelation. Massive breakthrough, and I need to thank @linkeightvideo one more time for research that he was under absolutely no obligation to do, but he came through anyway. What a legend. Am I using the British expressions right? What a solid gold legend.