#this post is not good enough to warrant that many tags

[ennard-is-near]

Headcanon that Michael’s twink suit that ppl draw him in for Pizzeria Simulator is his father’s suit. Like he went through William’s closet and assembled the worst outfit he could. Genuinely where else would he have gotten that.

Imagine you’re Scraptrap, harassing your son. You see him, and he’s wearing your clothes??? Getting them all gross??? I would be furious!

[zeb-z]

If I can add as well, the symbolism drives me crazy - not just the clear sign of trust, but what the knife represents.

To Cellbit, it’s as much a reassurance as it is a reminder of what he is capable of, both an option he can run his fingers over and comfort himself with, and a reminder that though he’s stressed and afraid, he can be better than that.

When Forever and Pac are on the pills, and he’s the only one left of Favela Five, he talks about keeping himself together. Even with his son missing and his family cracking, he calms himself and reminds himself that he has to stay level headed, as angry and as desperate as he is. And now, here comes Bad, who he knows from a far bloodier time, who he’s committed acts of extreme violence with, who seems to be going to the extremes he’s been keeping himself from.

Cellbit takes the knife out, as he does when he’s reminded of such times. And when he gets more of an understanding of what’s going on, he gives it to Bad with his blessing and advice. Its the ultimate sign of trust, of understanding, a go ahead with full support.

That knife represents any means necessary. It represents extremes and bad morals and bloody decisions. Cellbit is not going to use that knife, he might never use that knife, as much of a comfort as it is in his hands. He won’t use those methods. So he passes it on to the only man he knows will, the only one he trusts to do so.

TELL ME MORE ABOUT THE KNIFE 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

okay I'm not an expert but he keeps that knife in one of his backpacks at like all times. and there's probably more times but he took it out today when forever and bad were talking about prisons and he took it out when forever first revealed that he was planning a prison (seen here). which is why it's his emotional support knife, he's only ever taken it out when he's been triggered about prison

I think it might be implied that it's the same knife he had during prison but that also might be just a headcanon people have. either way! it's a huge deal that he gave that to bad, who is arguably his oldest friend, and then told him how to use it to get information

[agender-witchery]

On Project Moon

Hey, this is gonna be long, I'm putting most of it under the cut. This post is about the recent firing of VellMori from Project Moon, I know that it warrants some tags for triggers, but I have no idea what's commonly used, so if I miss something, please tell me.

Additionally, I have written this up in a way that if it escapes the target audience of Project Moon fans, it can still be understood, so with that in mind, there will be Library of Ruina spoilers.

The tl;dr for those who don't wanna read the full thing is that Project Moon was put in a very bad position with some violent extremists targeting them and that I'm not happy about any of what happened.

So, for those unaware, Project Moon has fired VellMori, the CG artist for Limbus Company. Now, a not inaccurate statement that can be made from this is "Project Moon fired a woman for being a feminist" but this is... somewhat reductive. Let's immediately get out of the way that VellMori did absolutely nothing wrong. Some people have said she is a TERF. I've seen no evidence of this. Some people have said she wished death on all men. I've seen no evidence of this.

What I HAVE seen is that VellMori thinks sexual abuse is bad. Now, why would this lead to a firing? The short answer is that a bunch of violent incels, one of which was literally dressed as a clown, came knocking at their office doors.

See, Limbus Company has a "beach" event coming up. In this event, we are getting a water themed outfit for two of the characters, one male and one female. For Sinclair, the guy, he has been given an EXTREMELY slutty mechanic's outfit. For Ishmael, the woman, she has been given a very skintight wet suit outfit. Now, I wanna take care to note that VellMori is the CG artist - she had no hand in these designs, a man made them. I would also like to mention that both outfit designs are amazing, and I will be including them at the end of this post for reference.

Now, upon revealing the wet suit design for Ishmael, a bunch of whiny incels on what is basically Korean 4chan got upset that Ishmael, instead of being in a bikini as is usual for gacha games, was wearing a wet suit. Nevermind that the designs in Limbus Company have always been conservative and that the Sinclair design is the most skin we've ever seen and it's just an open shirt. Again, the wet suit is still super revealing, it's skin tight and this is literally the first design of her that doesn't make her look flat chested. They're not rioting over the lack of sex appeal, they're specifically mad that it's not a bikini.

The incels come to the conclusion that the lack of any skin being shown on Ishmael's outfit is a result of evil feminism. No, I'm not exaggerating. They initially begin harassing the artist who is actually responsible for drawing the outfits, but upon learning that he is a man, set their sights on VellMori because she's a woman, and being an artist is good enough I guess. What they do from here is they start digging and digging and digging on VellMori's twitter, making use of archived pages because many of the "offensive" tweets had been deleted.

I'd like to take a moment to point out that VellMori never actually tweeted anything out here - it was all retweets from a 4-6 year old archive, and retweets that have been long deleted. These retweets contain such transgressive statements as "I'm sick of misogyny" and "If being against patriarchy makes me antisocial, then so be it" and just... mirroring back to men what those men were saying to women. Some people would like to have you think she was calling for death to all men. She wasn't. She ALSO retweeted all this stuff while she was a teenager and well before she worked for Project Moon.

Nonetheless, the incels had decided that feminism was the reason Ishmael had a wet suit and not a bikini and they had found a feminist working for Project Moon. It is at this point that we must take a brief detour and talk about Library of Ruina, Project Moon's previous game.

See, in Library of Ruina, one of the protagonists, Angela, has this whole arc about escaping her abuser and becoming a human. Yes, she is literally a robot, but Project Moon isn't exactly a stranger to symbolism in their stories and a feminist reading of Angela is ridiculously easy. The main antagonist in Library of Ruina is Argalia, the Blue Reverberation, and his crew is called the Reverberation Ensemble. Every member of the Reverberation Ensemble is a violent lunatic who each want to reinforce the status quo in their own unique shitty way. In addition to this, typically in order to reach the titular Library, you would need to be invited. The Reverb Ensemble are the "uninvited guests", the ones who managed to reach the Library and knock down the door without an invite.

Why am I talking about this? Well, the incels decided to start calling themselves the Reverb Ensemble, and referring to each other using names of the Reverb Ensemble members such as Pluto, Elena, and Oswald. Having taken on the moniker of the uninvited guests, they then showed up to Project Moon's office to protest. Over the lack of a bikini. Now, remember how I mentioned someone was dressed up as a clown? One of the Reverb Ensemble members, Oswald, is a clown with an extremely tenuous grip on reality. So much so, that his ideal world is one in which there is no meaning whatsoever. That is the character they chose to dress up as. This is either a case of extreme self awareness or extreme self unawareness.

Eventually, the incels were let into the office possibly as a form of damage mitigation to prevent the crowd of protestors from getting any bigger. This was a questionable decision, but they had a group of violent incels at their doorstep either way, and I don't exactly have full details on this. Regardless, Project Moon had on their hands a group of violent protesting incels, who they felt compelled to let into the building, and who had demands including the firing of their feminist employee. (7/28 update: a translation of the transcript posted to DCInside has surfaced. Please check the reblogs for it. Project Moon was verifiably threatened.)

So while "Project Moon fired a woman for being a feminist" isn't inaccurate it also isn't the full picture. More appropriately, it'd be "Project Moon fired a woman because a group of violent incels who weren't satisfied with a form fitting wet suit instead of a bikini showed up to their office demanding that an artist who did not make the wet suit design be fired because she retweeted some feminist stuff 5 years ago while she was a teenager".

I'm not happy with this. None of this is good. People are allowed to be feminists, and Project Moon stories have always presented progressive ideas to anyone with half a brain to do some basic literary analysis. I can understand why they would cave to the demands of people who were threatening them and showed up to their actual place of work, but at the same time, that's someone's livelihood gone and proof that in the future, the same sorts of people can use the same sorts of tactics to bully Project Moon into doing whatever they want. All of this sucks.

For those who would like to see the retweets in question alongside translations: https://twitter.com/danghwangs/status/1683884236888223744

And for people who would like reference as to what the artworks these incels were up in arms about, Ishmael in the wet suit and Sinclair in the mechanic's outfit.

[akkaweo-akkaweo]

Show of Strength

Oh Haewon x M!reader

Tags: competitive, post orgasm torture/overstimulation

WC: 1.4k

—————

Of the many unknowable things in the world, one that never ceases to baffle you is why girlfriends love to start random fights with boyfriends. You were not spared from this tonight, as your girlfriend Haewon suddenly pokes your ribcage hard in the middle of a reading session.

"Ow! What was that for?!," you exclaim.

"Nothing," she replied coyly.

Despite further attempts to continue reading, she wouldn't stop messing with you. It didn't help the poking actually hurt.

"Yah! What do you want?"

"Hey, don't get mad at me. It's not my fault if you're ticklish," she taunted, gesturing to poke you again.

You both play chicken for a few minutes on the bed, her trying to poke you more, you trying to catch her hands. When you actually managed to, you tickled her back, albeit less painfully (like the good boyfriend you thought you were). Thinking a dose of her own medicine would calm her down, you stop and settle — only to be poked yet again.

"Yah! You wanna die?," you challenge her.

"And what exactly are you gonna do, huh? You just don't want to admit I'm stronger than you," she rebutted.

"Really?," you retort, leaning closer to her. "You're just a baby. My baby. You think you can throw hands against me?"

She greets your challenge by leaning right up till your noses touch. "This baby won't need hands to make you squirm."

You're pretty sure you know exactly she's going with this, because the retort alone sent a twitch inside your underwear. But fisticuffs or otherwise, you weren't going to back down from a fight.

"Prove it," you challenge.

There's a second of dead air as both of you wait for the right moment to pounce on the other. And like two beasts grappling for dominance, you grab each other tightly and exchange sloppy kisses.

With such feral behavior, it's no surprise you both made light work of basically ripping the clothes off each other. But this was a competition, a race. Blocking access to your already hard member was key to making sure Haewon didn't catch you lacking. You distract her by kissing her where her jaw and neck meet — a sensitive spot for her — to take off her nightgown and play with her small but perky tits.

You're too engrossed in licking her nipples and savoring the sound of her moans to notice her hands have gone inside your briefs completely, forgoing the process of taking them off. Grabbing your length with frantic but delicate force sent jolts up your spine and out your mouth.

Haewon forces her way off your grasp and down your torso, and without a second of hesitation takes you into her mouth and all the way to her throat. The pleasure-driven profanities that come out of your mouth are enough to warrant a scrubbing, because Haewon was in love with your dick and knew how to suck you dry. She'd alternate between licking the slit of your tip, then around the head, before deepthroating you until she gagged — a sound and action she knew sent you over the edge.

Two can play at that game.

You use your bigger body to force Haewon's hips over your face, and pull her in hard to bury your nose and tongue into her pussy. The complete sensory overload — the smell, the taste, the feeling of squirt building up and caking your face — kept you going as you willingly suffocated yourself in her core.

Now comes the tricky part: who would yield first. As you feel her loosen up, you sacrifice a hand forcing her over you to start toying and circling her engorged clit. The sensation was enough to get Haewon to give you much needed relief from going over the edge, but all the slobber left your dick lubricated enough for her to jerk you from base to tip, and that made it harder to focus on her.

You could feel your climax coming, but you could also feel Haewon's high right beside yours. Her moans were enough motivation to get past the burning sensation in your arm and tongue, struggling to finger and lick her as fast as you could. But Haewon brought your dick back into her mouth, deep until her nose met your balls.

As the cum rushes out of you, you give one final thrust into Haewon, forcing her to swallow all you had to release. So too does Haewon squirt all over your face, the liquid nectar making you smile in satisfaction from your success. She dismounts you, and you both lie on the bed, wheezing for air, hearing each other's moans and sighs to catch your breath, just for a few minutes. Honestly, you were pretty winded already.

But before you could negotiate a ceasefire, Haewon suddenly mounts your still rock-hard but sensitive shaft, sending ripples of overstimulation through your hips and thighs. She also did not seem to have any intent of taking it slow, because she starts ramming herself onto you hard and fast.

"Ah, hah, shit Haewon, slow down, I'm still sensitive, holy shit..." you try to bargain, but Haewon's lust for victory and otherwise was unbeatable.

"You think... you're so... tough, huh?... Why don't you... push me off... Thought you were... stronger...," she taunts in between heavy breaths.

She continues to slam her pelvis into yours, fast enough to stimulate you past the point of being able to move. You gasp, giggle, and squirm for pause, but Haewon is relentless, until you feel more cum start rushing through your shaft.

"Fuck! Wait! I'm gonna cum!," you try to warn her, but it's too late. Your seed bursts inside her, somehow twice as much as before and leaking past her folds.

Haewon breathes heavily, trembling as she tries to ease herself off you and on to the bed, lying on her side. The whole ordeal of feeling her tight walls still clamp around your dick on its way out left your body trembling as well, and your dick twitching. You can't help but jam your eyes shut and lay in silence, trying to let the flurry of sensations pass.

But Haewon's body was also trembling and squirming, apparently having orgasmed as well.

Again, you try to muster the strength to beg for truce at a 2-2 tie. But in your blind stupor, she crept closer and started to slowly tease the length and tip of your throbbing member with her fingertips.

"I believe... this is the tiebreaker, baby," she mutters, with extra angst in your pet name. You groan and buck, trying to get her to stop, but she lays her entire torso over your abdomen, pinning you down.

You hiss with clenched teeth from the overstimulation. "Fuck! Okay! You win! Stop! Fuck!," you curse, wanting the torture to stop.

"Game's over when you cum, baby," Haewon growls. "All you have to do is...," she trails off, before suddenly jerking you fast, with all her remaining strength.

You yell and writhe underneath her, your body incapable of doing anything. It was torture, and while you wanted it to truly end, the deep-seated lust — maybe even the arousal — from being turned into Haewon's plaything clouded your thoughts with only her. Haewon thoroughly enjoyed it as well, giggling with every attempt of yours to get her to stop.

Your vision starts to black at the edges, your breath held as you reach your third climax of the night. You release nothing but spray, drained completely of cum, and Haewon weakly giggles in pyrrhic victory, herself gasping for air, limp over you.

You release the tension from your eyes, and you see stars before getting knocked out completely.

=====

You wake up in the same position, except Haewon is lying by your side, propped on an elbow, trying to shake you awake. You're still lightheaded, but you hear her groaning like a kid.

"Aigoo... I'm hungryyy... I want some McDonald's... Wake up already...," she whines with a pout.

Groggy annoyance aside, her whining was still cute as hell. How could you say no?

"Okay you big baby. You won, so it's my treat. Hand me my phone." Losers can't be choosers, I guess.

—————

A/N: i hate that theres not enough haewon content here, so ill do it myself *clenches gauntlet*

[double-vandammage]

Title: Stripped

Word count: 2,192

Rating: 18+

Ship: Bret Hart x Shawn Michaels

Tags/Warnings: Shawn POV, Jealous!Bret, Strip tease, Pet names, Biting, Anal sex, hand jobs, play fighting

Also posted to my a03: aa_beatrix

Oh my this took a lot out of me. 🫣 I spent many nights wrestling with my thoughts on how to write a sexy strip tease and this was the result. I listened to Cherry Pie by Warrant more times than I care to admit to help move this thing along. It turned out WAY smuttier than my first Hartbreak fic I was originally embarrassed to write. 🥴

I got inspiration from the In Your House: HBK vs. Goldust Dark Match for the WWF Title (10/20/1996). That gave me a mixed bag of emotions and I am still thinking about it. 😵‍💫

Shawn waited for Bret leaning against the side of the ring. The stadium seats were vacant and shrouded in darkness save the overhead lights illuminating the empty ring. The match he had with Goldust was sure to have ruffled a few feathers, including one Hitman. The two had been messing around for months on and off. They would meet in private before, after, and in between various matches or promos. Nothing got Shawn going faster than when Bret would berate him in front of a live audience. Surprisingly enough Bret had made the first move. What began as a fistfight ended with a kiss. Shawn found himself backed into a wall, preparing for a punch. Instead he was met with Bret’s lips on his. It was lust at first fight. 

“Quite the show you put on with Goldie.” came Bret’s low voice from out of the shadows. Shawn smiled, eyeing Bret’s delicious frame striding down the entrance aisle. “Aw, you know Goldie ain’t mean nothin’ by it.” he grinned. Bret placed his hands on either side of Shawn, bracing himself with the edge of the ring. “You kissed him.” Bret said, those dark eyes searching him. “All part of the act, sugar.” Shawn drawled, hooking his fingers into the belt loops of Bret’s jeans, and tugging him closer. He moved in for a kiss, but Bret was quick to grab a handful of hair to stop him. Shawn let out a sharp hiss in response. “Not so fast boytoy.” Bret commanded, swiftly twisting Shawn around to face the ring. “Someone needs to teach you a lesson…get in the ring.” he growled into Shawn’s ear, nipping at the skin.

Shawn hurriedly jumped up and rolled under the ropes, standing to lock eyes with the Hitman. Bret began to leisurely make his way around the ring, never breaking his focus with Shawn. “Take off your clothes.” he demanded cooly. Bret was never usually this forward and never asked him to strip. May have had something to do with his entrance. Maybe. “Really?” Shawn asked, eyebrows raised. Bret stopped, “Now.” he ordered. “Well okay darlin’.” Shawn beamed, moving center stage. He wasn’t used to a party of one and no music, but who was he to argue with Bret The Hitman Hart?

He watched as Bret pulled a chair from under the ring, setting it up in the aisle. He had strategically placed the chair just before the overhead lights, obscuring the older man from Shawn’s view. Shawn shrugged out of his jacket first, swinging it a few times before letting it fly. Slowly he undid his belt buckle, gliding the strap from his waist. He paraded around as he usually did, untucking his t-shirt and giving Bret just a peak of his chest and stomach before covering back up. He removed his hair tie, giving his head a few good shakes to show off his soft blonde hair. Shawn knew how much Bret secretly salivated over how his lengthy hair would cascade past his shoulders and down his back. 

He fell to his knees, bringing his t-shirt back up to expose his stomach and chest again, placing the hem of the t-shirt in his mouth. Unfastening the button and zipper of his jeans, he leaned back to then kick off his boots. Bret remained reserved, continuing to hide in the black. “You can join me anytime Bret baby.” he cooed, shedding his t-shirt and flinging it to the side. He lied down, stretching out on the mat, and began to sluggishly peel off his jeans. He slid his boxers down just enough for Bret to admire the cut of his hips. “Leave 'em on.” Bret said sharply, voice echoing. “Ya wanna take ‘em off cowboy?” Shawn teased, biting his lower lip. The chair Bret was sitting in, scraped across the floor as he stood up. Shawn’s heart began to race with anticipation as Bret approached him, his dick already hard.

Bret entered the ring in between the ropes, kneeling to crawl towards Shawn, and moving among his legs. He kissed his knee, beginning a careful ascent with his lips to his thigh and hip. Bret’s fingers dug into the waistband of his boxers, pulling them only to expose the heart tattoo above his ass. Shawn was well aware of Bret’s stance on his tattoos, he heard it regularly during the show but now he only seemed too pleased to see it. Bret licked at the tattoo, tenderly sucking at the skin. He shifted back to kiss his inner thighs, taunting Shawn’s erection. His breath caught as Bret bit down on his flesh. “Holy Jesus, don’t keep me waiting.” Shawn begged, his hands finding Bret’s mess of hair, trying to guide him towards his dick. Instead Bret rose to a standing position, holding Shawn’s legs in the air. “Oh shi-, oh come on!” he managed to squeak out before he was forced and curled into a sharpshooter. 

Shawn felt his back scream as Bret contorted his body and held fast with his most notorious move. “Fuckin’ ow.” he wheezed, scrabbling against the mat. Bret gritted his teeth, adamant in keeping Shawn stuck. “How you doin’ boytoy?” he asked, mocking. Shawn smiled, “Jokes on you mark man, I’m only getting more turned on.” Bret squeezed, tightening his hold. “Is that so?” he freed Shawn, allowing his legs to flop to the floor. Not wasting any time, Bret flipped him; his back smacking harshly into the mat. Bret pried off Shawn’s boxers, nearly tearing them to reveal his slick and pulsing member. “He sure is happy to see ya.” Shawn said, highly amused. Hastily in an effort to avoid another opening for Bret, he knocked Bret’s feet out from under him, and caught him in a headlock.

“Fuck.” Bret snarled. “Not much fun being on the receiving end huh?” he jabbed. Shawn knew he would much prefer for Bret to be inside him right about now, but holding him in a naked headlock was too good. He could practically feel Bret’s seething annoyance. “Are you ready to play nice?” he asked, continuing his solid grip on Bret’s neck. “Not quite.” he grunted, slithering out of his grasp to firmly wrench Shawn’s arm up and behind his back. Again he found himself face first into the mat, Bret letting his full weight rest on top of him. “Ah– god damn.” he panted into the ground. Bret leaned down, kissing the length of his shoulder and running his tongue up the side of his throat. He sank his teeth into his skin, biting him again. Shawn winced, a mix of pain and delight flooding his body. 

Bret fumbled around for his jacket pocket, withdrawing a condom and small tube of lubricant. “Such a boy scout.” Shawn groaned, as Bret began to work him open, inserting his fingers leisurely one by one. He could sense Bret’s impatience, wanting badly to punish him. He closed his eyes, listening to the shuffle of Bret undoing his pants and pushing them down. He inhaled sharply as he felt Bret enter him. Bret let his head fall onto Shawn’s back, his breath hot against his flesh. He kept one hand attached to Shawn’s hip while the other continued to contain his arm behind his back. Bret sank into him slowly at first with each thrust becoming more and more vigorous. “Bret baby…” he whined, reaching to touch his own leaking cock.

“I don’t think so.” Bret said, bending Shawn’s arm to join the other; preventing any further movement. “Oh fuck you.” Shawn moaned with agony. He squirmed under the weight of the Hitman driving his dick deeper, keeping his rhythm unrelenting. The side of his cheek rubbed into the mat as he turned to whip away his long hair clinging from his face. His body was already drenched with sweat. After what felt like an eternity of depriving the desperate ache between his legs, Bret began a rapid stroke to match the pace of his hips. Shawn’s body turned weak, unable to sustain the arch in his back. He had no more snarky remarks left, he was reduced to whimpering nonsense.

“Jesus, you feel so good.” Bret gasped. Shawn was in a haze, Bret’s motions becoming more erratic as he pounded into him. He felt Bret’s teeth rake at his shoulder, biting down harshly and grunting a string of obscenities as he came. Shawn yelped over the sudden sting at his shoulder, it was definitely going to leave a mark. The sensation would only fuel his pleasure, threatening to throw him off the edge. Bret licked at the fresh wound he inflicted, causing Shawn’s heart to stutter. “Motherfucker-…” he choked, his face still rigid against the mat. Bret remained inside of him, dick pulsing. Shawn’s arms were released, sore from being restrained. He steeled himself as Bret kept him propped on his knees. Bret continued to pump his cock, his cadence turning torturously slow.

Shawn thrashed around in a frenzy, his hips bucking into Bret’s fist. He knew as another form of punishment, Bret was only going to let Shawn cum on his terms. Bret lowered their bodies to relax onto the mat so he could nuzzle his face into the back of Shawn’s head. “You gonna behave?” Bret muttered, his words muffled through Shawn’s damp hair. “God no.” Shawn exhaled, ready to blow through his fervent euphoria. His answer to his amazement was well received as Bret quickened his strokes. He believed Bret inwardly relished his constant disobeyment, otherwise they wouldn’t be fucking around like they were.       

Bret held Shawn in place as he came, white strands coating his palm and dripping onto the ring. Shawn was instantly flipped over to face him, as if Bret wanted to admire his work. He knew his face was flushed, hair wet and wild. His body trembling as he tried to adjust from the convulsions of his orgasm. Shawn met Bret’s stare, his eyes conveying possibly something more than just lust. Bret ran his fingertips along the bite mark he had indented on his neck, “Shit…” he said concerned. They typically hid their bites and bruises well, but they weren’t always careful. Occasionally and usually Shawn had to be creative with his wardrobe to conceal their enthusiasm. “Don’t worry about it.” Shawn said, bringing his hand up to caress the skin of Bret’s forearm.

Bret rolled off of Shawn to lie flat on his back. They never spent much time together afterwards, it was always just sex and nothing more. Shawn moved to his side, propping a hand behind his head to rest on his elbow. He reached out to wipe the sticky hair from Bret’s forehead. He knew he was lingering too long as he began to trace the outline of his face, his fingers languidly smoothing Bret’s bottom lip. Bret shied away from his touch, “Stop Shawn…” he said, his voice horse. “Okay.” Shawn said as he watched Bret hoist his pants back up. He selfishly wondered if Bret was sleeping with anybody else backstage. Shawn reached for his discarded boxers and slipped them back on. Bret was usually the one to bounce as soon as his appetite was satisfied. Shawn found he was longing for some semblance of affection from the older man.

“I gotta go.” Bret stated, straightening his clothes. Shawn in a bleak attempt to keep Bret just minutes more, grabbed the lapels of Bret’s jacket to drag him forward. Shawn’s lips were starving for a kiss he was denied. To his surprise Bret returned the kiss, his hands on Shawn’s waist pulling him closer. They kissed until both of their lips were red and swollen. Bret broke away first, their breathing shallow. Shawn held fast to Bret’s jacket, urging him to stay. “Bret…I-” he stammered. Bret gently pushed his hands away, his mouth forming a hint of a smile. “Gotta go.” he repeated. Shawn sighed, his hands fidgeting. “Yeah. Yeah, I know.” He watched as Bret departed through the ropes, jumping to the floor. Shawn followed, but stopped short in front of the ropes. He leaned over, watching Bret’s shape disappear into the darkness of the arena. He foolishly hoped Bret would reconsider and choose to spend the rest of the night in his hotel room. 

He never expected their relationship to become more than just casual. If anything, he thought Bret would form an attachment first. The Heartbreak Kid with a broken heart. Total bullshit. He collected the rest of his clothing and got redressed outside the squared circle. The overhead lights were suddenly too bright and too hot. Time to go. He gave the ring one last glance, the remnants of their affair still drying on the mat. Shawn snickered quietly, shaking his head. It wasn’t the first time he had a sexual encounter in the ring and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. He was also never sure he and whomever he was with was completely alone either, but he didn’t care.

Shawn made his own way out of the arena, already scheming on how best to infuriate his Hitman in a match once again.               

[gentlebeardsbarngrill]

01/25/2024 OFMD Recap

TLDR; Cast & Crew Sightings; Queerties; How to Help; New Renewal Effort Resources; stats; gifs; petition status; morale boost ; self care pitstop; love notes; Rhys

== Cast & Crew Sightings ==

While not related to OFMD-- Leslie Jones has been nominated for Outstanding Performance Award from @naacp for "After the Cut" on The Daily Show! Just something to celebrate for our crew!

Nathan Foad, Samba Schutte, and Con O'Neill are obviously excited about OFMD coming to the UK! All seen on their instagram stories.

Next, Kristian Nairn answered some fans on the #WeeJohnDays Coming back. You can add to the thread here if you'd like.

== Queerties ==

If you're down, please vote for the Queerties each day! If you want to just vote for OFMD categories, feel free to visit: TV Comedy Best TV Performance

== How To Help ==

How To Help Save OFMD Task List - US How to Help Save OFMD Task List - Outside US

= New Renewal Campaign Resources =

Found some cool resources today if you're out campaigning on any of the platforms, feel free to use these, they're all tagged with sources. (These have been added to the Daily Recap Task Lists)

== Stats ==

Srcs (in order of appearance LTR): @lucyrosebutler , @bonnypitty @meowzawowza_ on Twitter

== Gif Resources ==

Our lovely @kiwistede made some gorgeous gifs that you can use on social media when you're @ing the networks.

==UK News==

@lamentus1 Gave us a brief update on the happenings in the UK:

Not much to report today, I’ve just been focused on promoting the show off the back of the UK talent, hoping to enlist new fans now that we have a date for season 2 on the BBC. The Guardian article was great, despite ending on a somewhat pessimistic note. It links to the petition though, which is amazing! The Guardian Article

==Articles==

We made it into the guardian! Holy Crap!

‘Unhinged – in a good way’: Our Flag Means Death was cancelled. Its fans are fighting back"

As @lamentus1 mentioned, yes, the last quote in it is very pessimistic, however I don't think that's the part we should focus on, instead we should focus on the fact the campaign got big enough to warrant getting picked up by The Guardian AND our petition was linked in it. Think of how many new folks will be clicking in?

The 20 best feel-good TV shows

Our Flag Means Death Season 2 Finally Confirms UK Release Date

‘Our Flag Means Death’ Season 2: Fans Petition To Save Beloved HBO Show (this last one has a weird date at the end, which @OFMDBingo42 on Twitter speculates coincides with the end of the Social Media Strike for Palestine, just fyi it was confusing many of us).

==Petition Status ==

Almost at 81K!

== Morale Boosts ==

Feeling low cause things have slowed down? A lot of crew have brought up some excellent points across the platforms as to why things aren't as down as they feel right now. Please check out: @PehmoKoira's Take on Tumblr

== Self Care Pitstop! ==

If you are feeling overwhelmed-- stop by @flowelineblog's post! It's quick, and efficient :)

== Love Notes ==

So while looking for cast and crew sightings I found this lovely message on @VicoOrtiz's IG Story, so I'm going to share it instead tonight by @thebehappyproject.

==========================================

Our Rhys picture tonight is courtesy of @rhysdarbinizedarby via a post about "The Jaquie Brown Diaries": Night on the Brown (2009)"

I couldn't get over the look, so now you have to see it. It's literally haunting my dreams and I haven't even fallen asleep yet.

Anyway, night lovelies, hope you all have a great day/night <3 Stay safe, hydrated, and keep being the ever wonderful yous <3

[lovemyromance]

What are your thoughts on the Valkyries ? ( I'm a new reader and I heard that it's a contreversial topic )

Idk what about the actual Valkyries would be controversial tbh. They are genuinely well-liked all around. I personally also like their friend group. Gwyn & Emerie were good friends to Nesta and she was able to form true friendships and heal from her trauma with their help. The way Nesta treated her sisters and everyone in general also improved once she began to bond with Emerie & Gwyn. Their experience in the BR was haunting and awe-inspiring and badass as hell. They humanized Nesta, almost.

I think the "issue" so to speak more comes from people disconnecting over their role in the greater plot of ACOTAR, post ACOSF.

I, and many other readers, really admired the Valkries - but we are able to see their entire existence, training, and healing arc was created to fit into Nesta's storyline. Gwyn & Emerie have no relevance to the plot of ACOTAR outside of being Nesta's friends. They, as they have been written thus far, do not have enough to suddenly be the main character of the next ACOTAR book.

Some people - Gwynriels - believe that Azriel & Gwyn could be mates (based on 2 ambiguous, non-confirming lines in a bonus chapter of ACOSF), and as such, have theorized and theorized multiple different plot lines that would loosely tie to Gwyn, in an effort to make her relevant enough to be the main character in the next book and serve as Azriel's love interest.

These are again - general theories not supported by canon text at best, and delusions / simple confirmation bias at worst. Gwynriels have taken 1-2 mentions of eyebrow raises and glows and created a romance about two characters who barely interact on page, nor care about each other outside of the few hours they spend training with everyone.

In order to make Gwyn relevant, the Gwynriels had to make the Valkyries relevant. That is her main role in ACOTAR. These theories never seem to include Emerie for some reason, but rather center around a Nesta-continuation novel where Azriel and Gwyn basically tag along as side kicks and Az/Gwyn fall in love on the side.

Because Gwyn does not have the powers, storyline, ongoing plot questions, really anything that would warrant a whole book that picks up right where ACOSF leaves off. She is in no way, a main character tied to the plotline outside of Nesta, and I don't think that anything in ACOSF hints she would get the next book.

So long story short, the Valkyries? great. Love them. 👍

The delusion that that Valkries will take up the next Acotar book so Nesta can take over the world with Azriel/Gwyn falling in love in the background ? Nope, that's crazy. 👎

[cringefail-hermitry]

I've been wanting to make a post like this for a while now, and well, having just finished a crucial stage of my life, I think this is a good a time as any.

It's gonna be a long one

Like, *LONG* long

Like, I Am Going To Mention Every Single One Of My Mutuals By Name long (if you'd rather not be tagged in the future, do warn me)

First of all, the primary purpose of this post is as a letter of thanks for the wonderful months you Tumblr peeps have provided me this year. I am not hesitant to say joining the hellsite was the single best decision I have made in the last 12 months, heck, I think about 2/3rds of the friends I mantain regular contact with nowadays came from here. But this wouldn't be a long post if it was just a brief "thanks y'all for improving my life". I'm gonna get into detail. And I'm gonna be sappy about it. You can't stop me. You're not my mother. And not even my mother could stop me from posting this.

I would've said "I thought long and hard about who I'd start with", if there was any question about it. There isn't. @tearychildren, where do I even fucking begin. I can't really say anything too specific because if I begin I don't think I'll stop and half this post is gonna be about you, and this is already a very long post, so I'm just going to leave it at this, you already know well enough just how much you matter to me.

Going onwards, another of the early spots goes to who I believe was my first mutual, definitely one of the first people I followed, @chlorohexidine, a long-time mutual and recent good friend, our daily chats, however short, never cease to be highlights of my days, your art is really cute (love me some rounded shapes) and brainstorming ideas for your TTRPG campaigns is always fun (I really like your worldbuilding, too). It's only fair to mention your (and my, just needed to make this segue well) good friend @xsenpi, infodumping touhou to you both genuinely got me through that month, and Undertale 2: Revenge of The Robots with Rei and TC has been a blast so far.

@soundsofastar is another that warrants special mention for actually changing my brain chemistry and making me appreciate the local wildlife even more than usual (if we ever meet in person, WE ARE GOING ON A NICE LONG WALK TO LOOK AT BIRDS TOGETHER, WHEREVER IT IS WE ARE WHEN THAT HAPPENS, MARK MY WORDS). Your art also makes me feel things. Not many things make me feel stuff a lot. That is impressive. I should be in a good spot to finish reading the Illuminae Files within the next few days, so please do pester me about it, otherwise the piece of media that the next person I'll talk about recommended to me will consume all the time I'd read it in.

So, the next person I'll talk about, @northwest-cryptid, thanks for letting me use our DMs as my Mabinotepad, and for getting me into Mabinogi in the first place, you've been both the direct and the indirect cause of many good times, and I gotta be honest I kinda admire you a lil' bit (and if you know anything about how I talk, I am horrible at expressing vulnerability, admiration and these sorts of emotions without a bunch of euphemisms unless I'm doing this sort of tangent where I attempt to talk about myself in a more depersonalized way, so what that sentence there essentially means is "I admire you a lot and you are an inspiration").

Another pivotal figure in how this year shaped out is @ratlesshonret, creator of The Bird Nest, site of many good times, who has exposed me and many others to some wonderful media (I AM GOING TO FINISH POCKET MIRROR SOMETIME, MARK MY WORDS), reading through all the chats in the server is usually a blast, too. Your contributions to my life cannot be understated. Seriously, thanks.

The next great friend I'll mention is @transgender-lea-crosscode, we've started talking more only recently, but have already bonded a fair bit, I reckon, damn you're good at Blazblue. You've dared to make me good at the game and for that, I commend you. You should say words about Zeroranger in my general direction sometime, I'd be happy to hear/read them.

Now for those mutuals that I don't really speak to, but are responsible for like, 75% of my total notes, like, everyone is more than welcome to jump into my DMs and start talking about anything whenever, but y'all specifically are folk I'd have started talking with regularly ages ago if I knew what to talk about. @hoshinoreika2004, @ward-leon, @edenplumreal, @tabnk2, @tapok-eve , @boofbv and @sorcerousbrick, thanks for all the lil' dopamine hits.

Shoutouts to @wretchedbirdthing for being normal about that bird, you're a blast to see on my dash and I wish you luck snapping those collarbones in twain to hear those gay little squawks.

@freiflies and @ottisbuns, alongside Tapok, Vic and Honret, y'all bring life into The Bird Nest, and although I haven't really shown up much there recently, I still read most of everything, the words are cool, keep up the good work!

@genericgirl420 and @mikusays-transrights, you two are the mutuals that suffer the least with The Distances, so let's do this in a more, well, local fashion. É genuinamente bom ver que a comunidade brasileira do tumblr está ativa e saudável, aumenta minhas esperanças de encontrar outras criaturinhas desse site maligno pelas ruas, sua presença, por si só, já melhora meus ânimos, por isso, agradeço profundamente.

Ok back to speaking in simplified Old German. This next section goes out to @lemocoffe and @teacup-of-doom, both of whom I haven't really interacted much, but what little there was was quite great, this is, in fact, an invite to do more of the interact-y thing. Y'all are cool.

Another shoutout to a frequent view on my dash, @lobotomise-me-please, whose "Boobs Girl Music" post still has 10k notes to me, I'll get back to mass reblogging it someday (if y'all wanna help, check out @boobsgirlmusic for the post, that's my Boobs Girl Music sideblog where I reblog Boobs Girl Music)

@aurora-veil, @limbuscompanyyuri and @thevanishedpeople-intothenight are up next, some of my first mutuals, y'all post good. And have been doing so consistently. For the past like, 9 months or so. That's impressive.

@meltingadoration, @holyitsquiverrflynn and @jestressofnihil, my more recent moots, there hasn't been much time to do the friendship-building and knowing each other thing, but all that means is that there's still many opportunities for that, which is cool.

Last but not least, the mutuals who I haven't quite gotten to know as well, but I'm inviting to chat anytime, @readysetgargoyle, @atlasmothss, @meeresengel, @flesh-borne, @b-kut, @aureatecenotaph, @risingdragonblade, @agender-witchery (your posts helped me immensely in figuring out gender, thanks for that) and @lich-of-lcorp. Y'all are cool, we should talk more.

And one last section for all those who I've been in touch with but aren't mutuals with, for any and all reasons (I do tend to reblog very, well, erratically), y'all deserve to be on this list, but I just didn't wanna bother you too much (I do have words of thanks to say though, if you want them, just ask).

This post is still too short to express how thankful I am for y'all existing. I don't think text could ever do it justice.

[press-f1-to-grieve]

yup here comes the yapping. considering my blog also includes both landoscar content and what one may consider anti lando content, especially during singapore gp, i feel that maybe this will double as a sort of clarification on where i stand with lando for those who came across my blog and might have seen this as mixed signal.

tl;dr: no i don't hate him. i don't even hate mclaren. i still can relate to lando and honestly, by hating him i'd be too massive of a hypocrite. there will still be landoscar and lando content on my blog. stuffs i reblogged, i didn't see them as anti because to me they were just fun jabs or for reference or what i think is valid criticism/concerns, but i'll try to tag more mindfully just in case you found me from my landoscar posts and reblogs and these posts upset you. we are just here for fun mostly after all, and i want to be mindful of how much hate lando has been getting lately, and how what i view is a fun jab might not be fun for you if you are a lando/mclaren fan, especially at the moment.

so the clip i saw on here that alerted me to what happened was from @/ef-1 (not tagging them properly because this is just a random rant but if they find my post and wishes to be tagged properly, i will gladly do so). i did track the stream down and watched the entire moment play out along with everything surrounding it just to make sure i didn’t miss anything. full disclaimer tho, that i did not watch the entirety of the nearly 5 hours long stream, but i did skip around and i didn’t encounter any more words regarding this.

unfortunately, after watching, it actually made lando look worse to me personally, and it pains me a lot because i actually like lando, but health and safety is kinda a line for me (i image it is for many too). for some context, if i say i’m a fan, or that i actively ship two people together, it is automatically a given that i like both parties to certain extent. there is, of course, bias and hierarchy taking place. fact is i do adore max slightly more than charles, both of them more than oscar, and oscar more than lando, but ultimately, i do in fact, adore them all. i watch f1 for fun (insert laugh track here), and i would just personally prefer that i don’t end up hating or disliking anybody for my own sake. i could and would dislike their actions if i think it’s a dick move, but i don’t want to dislike them, the person. there’s a big distinction there for me personally.

now, i don’t think what lando said in the stream has turned me into a hater, but it certainly is bumping my view of him a little lower. the fact he saw news about the health and safety of his fellow drivers, but instead of feeling concerned, he reacted in such way, even after his friend gently reminded him that he didn't have full context, is kinda a red flag to me. i would like to think that lando, with or without knowing about the merc drivers’ state after the race, would understand that george (apparently is supposed to be his friend?), lewis, and mercedes, like them or not, have more professionalism than a bunch of school children trying to get out of class. that maybe, if it’s warranted an update, then it was justifiably fucking bad, and that people saw enough evidence to be worried about the state of the drivers, hence needing official words from the team to put their minds at ease.

but, i can’t exactly sit here and lie to myself that i am "the best person” material. his insecurity and the defensive shield he seems to constantly hold is something i certainly can relate. this here might be pure projecting, but i think he wants to be good, however, because he still has plenty to work on, it’s a constant tug of war inside himself, hence the fragmented way his image is. anyway, i was there once. it’s not a fun place to be in, so i hope he finds his way out. and while i personally believe that there is no time limit for when a person can turn themselves around, i’d say the sooner the better it will be for him, simply because he is a public figure. i just don’t want him to get any more hate (which, tough luck, public figure), he’s no doubt receiving enough already, because it won’t help with anything (also doesn’t mean i’m saying he should be coddled either). i just feel there is a risk of pushing him toward lumping both hate and valid criticism together and disregarding them both in an attempt to protect himself, but where is the turning point, only those he is close with will know and can help him in time, i’m just some dumbass online. i think he’s a little more fragile mentally than most if not all on the grid (there is probably a percentage of me self projecting here but i feel it’s a valid belief), so the quicker the people around him realize that and get him the help he needs, the better. the quicker he can get himself in check, the more it’ll benefit both him and his image, especially with the shit that has been going down this season.

[theworldreturning]

So the Askapalooza is officially over, now what?

So the Askapalooza has ended, and I did say that the end result of what would happen to this blog would depend on what I thought about things by the end. So here's what I personally feel is going to happen.

I personally enjoyed being able to answer questions that people had about the characters in this specific version of the world, silly or not! It was fun to think about what they would get up to even if it was mundane or not super serious at all.

I do, however, feel that the idea for the blog was a bit too vague for most people to engage with, and that is my fault for not giving much to mull over. So what I'm going to be doing with this blog going forward is this:

- The blog is going to continue existing, and you'll still be very much able to ask questions! The experience was good enough that I'm more than happy to keep it going, even if responses won't be as quick as they were during the Askapalooza.

- Aside from answering asks, I'm also thinking of posting all things relating to this AU to this blog as well. (Character design sheets, character facts, silly headcanons, and events I feel would be "canon" to this AU) Hopefully it can add more intrigue and context and spark some questions for those interested!

- For the "Canon events" (basically story events): They won't at ALL be posted in any chronological order. Maybe in the future I'll make a master post showing the events as chronologically as possible, but for now I'm just showing things that happened as things that happened. Unless stated, don't assume it's all happening in the moment, in fact most canon events at first will probably be past events.

- I WILL help with putting what point in time these events happen for context on the post itself. A system I was thinking of using was something like this: [O.W., M1, Magicant, Visit 1] This would read as: "The events in this post happened in the Old World (O.W.), during the time of Mother 1 (M1), specifically the first magicant visit." Events set in the New World will start with N.W. and work the same way: World, "game", Place, Specifics (if any).

- Lore will DEFINITELY be more fleshed out than it was during the Askapalooza. I joined basically last minute, so I didn't have anything exciting to share. Sometimes I may just do text posts about some minor canon things that wouldn't warrant a whole drawn post.

- I'll probably work on this blog in short bursts as I get ideas. I'll basically be trying my best to queue up posts that I have as I make them, leave for a bit, and come back and do it again.

Aside from that, I'll also be slowly working on making the blog look more finished, instead of just using whatever images I had in store. Again, this was set up pretty last minute, so the presentation ain't the best.

Aside from still using the askapalooza tags, non-question posts will use the fandom tags as well to help more people find the blog. Question posts will just keep the AU tag and Askapalooza tags cause I don't want to flood the normal fanbase tags with them if they happen to get too many.

In any case, this is what's happening from now on.

TL;DR: Blog is staying up, you can still send asks. Anything relating to the Au will be posted here. There'll be more fleshed out lore and such as a result. Blog will be updated in short bursts as I see fit.

[sophieinwonderland]

this is gonna be a bit of a long and vent-y ask, so sorry, but... regarding all the shit with syspunk and whatnot-

man, this sucks.

all of this.

i have two options.

fight against hateful assholes, fight for our existence, fight to be heard, knowing that some of these people are just going to use this as a reason to hate me more, never knowing how many of these people are ones i managed to get to think, for even just a moment, about our existence maybe being a thing, and how many of these people i just provoked more. never knowing how much i "won," worrying that i may have just set us back instead of pushed us forward.

or stay silent. never calling people out, never trying to cite sources, always triple checking that i'm not breaking some random person's dni just in case, being careful about every little step i take in the hopes that i'll be "one of the good ones." i'll get to say that i didn't break a dni, i didn't break a boundary, i didn't invade a safe space. i'll get to have that as something to fall back on, i'll be able to say "see? i do respect you, i deserve a bit of respect too."

but the reality is neither of these are good options. both of these don't win. if i have the courage to speak out anyways, speak out in spite of that fear, then i can be one of those that people point to. i could be someone's example of "LOOK ANOTHER ONE, INVADING OUR TAGS!!!" i don't want to do that. plus i know that syscourse can genuinely be triggering for people. if i invade a space i deem to be hateful enough to warrant me entering anyways, and that ends up just hurting someone who just really wanted a space outside of syscourse, then that sucks. that sucks really bad. maybe i'm the bad guy in that situation. i don't wanna be the bad guy.

but it's not like i wanna just stop, you know? some of my posts i've tried to be vague because part of me wishes that an anti would read through it. part of me wants antis to see it and realize that i'm trying. realize that this cycle fucking sucks. part of me hopes that if i'm vague enough, they'll keep reading to see if i'm endo or anti or not, and if i prolong the point until i say that, they might give me a chance.

but i doubt it. the only people still reading are likely pro endos. the antis probably realized anyways, or the checked the tags, or whatever, but they stopped reading. or maybe once they knew who i was they stopped giving a shit and stopped taking what i write seriously.

i don't want to give in. i don't want to be quiet or tiny or respectful to these people that constantly, every single goddamn day, continue to deny science, continue to harass people, continue to break their own dnis, continue to send hate, continue to be horrid humans. i don't want to shut up and let them do that. in fact, i want to SCREAM. i want to be SO loud and angry about it, i want to kick and yell and never back down but it's so exhausting.

but all of it is exhausting. no matter what i do it's exhausting.

i'm so sick and tired of it. i'm so sick and tired of the constant invalidation. but most of all i'm sick and tired of being scared.

i'm so so scared about this. i'm scared i'm making the wrong decision. i'm scared i'm not helping our cause. i'm scared i'm making it worse. i'm scared i'll be a target. i'm scared that i'm saying the wrong things or using the wrong tags or invading the wrong space or even just- i guess i'm just scared to exist as an endo.

there is no guidebook for how to handle this. i'm pretty young, i'll likely be a part of the generation of people that gets to see at least some of this work pay off. but thinking about that future is scary. i want to be able to say i was on the side that fought for science, the side that fought for acceptance and love, the side that fought to be heard, i want to be able to say all that. but the idea that i might mess it up and further hinder our progress scares me.

everyone else seems so confident that they're on the right side. everywhere i go, it's "these people are bad, these are good," even within communities.

"yeah i'm anti endo but i fucking hate people who harass endos."

"yeah i'm pro endo but i don't think endos should be called systems."

"yeah i'm an endo and we should be invading these tags more."

"yeah i'm anti endo and i don't think they deserve any respect at all."

it's a lot to keep in mind how much i have to address everytime i speak. i have to keep in mind all my thoughts on anything, i have to make sure i seem credible and like i understand what i'm talking about. it's a fight for "how long can i get them to listen? how much of this do i have to water down for them to take me seriously?"

but none of it works anyway. sure, we get a couple people. and those couple people are so important to our cause, the few people we managed to convince, but for every person who decides to give us a shot, 10 more people just scrolled past, or got filled with even more rage, or worst case scenario, might have decided to harass me or another endo or pro endo.

it's a dilemma of "do i fight for this despite that because of the hope that in the long run, if we do this enough, people willl finally fucking listen, or do i quiet down and worry about it?" and even if i fight, thats a dilemma too! because, do i fight aggressively? respectfully? loudly? do i invade tags? do i break dnis? do i respect these people in hopes that they might accept me or just say "fuck it, they're never gonna respect me unless i get in their face?"

it's at times like these i remember that maybe i just gotta take a break from syscourse. gotta get off tumblr and draw for a bit or something.

but there's always the constant reminder that the future is relying partially on how many people stand up and riot. if i stand up and riot, maybe someone else will too. the more that we do stand up without fear, the more likely someone else will. and the more people that stand up the louder and harder to avoid we'll be. and if that happens, eventually people will realize that we're right.

i just wish that it was easier.

it's a nice reminder that there are people like you who do stand up, people that inspired me to be loud. it's nice to remember that i have a place that understands.

it's phrases like "the future is plural" and "punks protect endos" that make me so happy to exist and be part of this. we are here, and we are "plural, as in there are more of us than you think." (credit to @orange-orchard-system for the slogan)

stuff like that reminds me that this is part of the process. we are doing well.

the best way to win is to stay positive and be happy and be excited for the future rather than dread it.

so thanks for inspiring me! thanks for making me remember that this is all so worth it in the end!

(apologies if this is incoherent at all. i was kind of just rambling to ramble at the beginning)

I'm glad to have been able to inspire you. And yeah, trying to do the right thing is complicated. Knowing how and when to fight is difficult.

But can I tell you a secret?

Fighting for plural acceptance doesn't always look like literal fighting. Sometimes it's making Plegg culture blogs or plural-writing prompts.

You mention Orange Orchard System, and you should know that they rarely get directly involved in syscourse. And yet, through simply raising awareness and normalizing systems of all sorts, they're fighting bigotry in their own way every single day.

The way they're fighting back is just as important as what I do, if not more so.

All that is to say that you don't need to be involved in syscourse to make a difference. If you want to step away and focus on helping plurals in other ways, that's totally fine! I promise you won't be letting anyone down!

[puckish-rogue]

Main Verse Update #1

Note: So I had this idea of making occasional recap posts in order to let people know about what might be going on in Django's main verse, whether it's a significant event or just ongoing plot details. They'll be fairly short and to the point because I can't imagine myself writing out anything that extensively. Just seems kinda pointless, y'know?

Anyway, these will pop up every now and again when I feel like enough has happened that it warrants a post. Be sure to check out the Blog Event tag below in order to catch up on anything in the future if you're curious!

So without further ado, let's see what's been going on.

As of this moment the Saints are currently working on establishing themselves in several major American cities—seeing if they can attempt to form an alliance of sorts with any local gang/criminal organization given the current state of the world. Outside of the U.S. the Saints have also been toying around with the idea of setting up shop in different parts of the world. Aside from typical reconnaissance and discussions with prominent figures, nothing significant has happened yet.

In a surprising turn of events, the Saints (or at least their media division) have cut ties with the likes of Ultor and are now working under a corporation owned by Ozymanidas ( @ardenssolis ). Django had done prior work for the man and built up a rather good rapport, earning him an offer to be under Ozy's company in order to act as a safety net for the gang (along with helping the man in his many different endeavors). A news report-style post will be made eventually that further discusses this.

Speaking of partnerships, Django is currently in the midst of working out an agreement with notorious crime lord Mirage from the organization known as Illusione ( @killerhubby / @allmurder ). If all goes well, the Saints will have themselves a powerful ally, along with a pretty good in if they ever decide to establish themselves in Italy. Let us all pray for a wonderful and prosperous partnership between both organizations.

While nothing significant has yet occurred, nor even been written; please keep in mind that the Chairmen are in fact keeping tabs. They may just be closer than you think.

[jennablackmorebooks]

Maybe most ineffective no-nuance writing advice is susceptible to the problem of trying to find one or a few "problem items" and thinking like eliminating them in all possible circumstances is the objective forever key to objectively good writing.

Like, for a few examples:

Epithet overuse

No-nuance advice: You're saying your character's name too much. Call them by their hair colour or height so your prose doesn't suck bad forever. Cut out names to be good.

What might help people understand their writing better and what they're trying to accomplish: epithets draw attention to the trait you're pointing out, so if you're going to use one, it might be helpful to pick a relevant trait your narrator or protagonist might notice that means something instead of defaulting to their hair colour every time. Also, most people don't think of their friends through epithets all the time once they know their names, so consider what doing this does to the perceived level of familiarity we have with the cast.

"Mary Sues"

No-nuance advice: if your character is powerful and has weird coloured eyes and hair and is good at things and people like them, that's a Mary Sue and bad forever so don't ever give a character colourful design traits or talents. Cut out 'weird' designs and any skills to be good.

What might help: the trouble with "Mary Sues" is often their tendency to bend an established story, or the story they're in, to serve them when it's not realistic (or endearing to the audience, who might have liked the established world, actually!). Consider the worldbuilding you're using and if your new character fits that without having to sacrifice the characterization of every other character or the physical limits of what are possible in the world for this one extra character. There are ways to make a character Cool without also throwing away the foundations of enjoyable storytelling everywhere else, and it probably has very little to do with their eye colour, really.

(obligatory disclaimer that the term as it is used out of its Star Trek fanfiction context is not particularly helpful at also being meaningful 21st century writing advice especially since people's definitions of it range from "a character whose existence in the narrative bends the story in ways that don't make sense" to "a woman in a story that had a role" depending on which end of the sliding scale of credibility or lack thereof you ask :( obligatory disclaimer that I am using the term because you know what I'm trying to get at in general when I put the name in the post, and it's an effective catch-all term for the type of writing advice I'm trying to make fun of here even if it's not effective as general writing advice itself).

Said is dead

No-nuance advice: said is a bad plain boring word for bad plain boring writers. Use fancy synonyms all the time instead to prove your big vocabulary. Cut out 'said' to be good.

What might help: Too much unintended and prolonged repetition can be unpleasant to read for many, and too much 'said' can contribute to this. Use synonyms sometimes to enhance the meaning you're already trying to convey, but also vary your sentence structure so not every sentence is repetitive enough in form to warrant a dialogue tag, said or otherwise. Varied sentences of different lengths and styles can provide different effects, so using the ones that will get the intended point or pacing across better will make for more effective prose. There is no one magical dialogue tag to use or avoid that will fix the actual stylings of the prose.

Kill Your Darlings

No-nuance: everything you think is good is bad and you should take out the scenes you like. Cut out the parts you love for the sake of it.

What might help: Sometimes a scene you wrote that you thought is cool unfortunately, in retrospect, does not fit the tone, theme, worldbuilding, story, or something else of the book you intended to write. Please do not hesitate to edit or remove a piece just because you love it if it harms your vision for the rest of the book. A little utilitarianism might help you put the good of the whole book over the good of the one scene if the two cannot coexist peacefully.

I think a lot of advice that tries to be a 'life hack' for Objectively Good writing is reductive and lacks substance. If a piece of advice is suggesting you to remove something no matter what, and that's all you have to do to write well, it's no better than clickbait to me. The goal should be to try to understand what effect certain elements have on a story, so you can proceed knowing if the way you would like to utilise it is effective for the story you're trying to tell. But this requires nuance on the part of the advice provider, and maybe for them to concede that sometimes things they hate reading can be used effectively, and it requires the author to know what they're trying to do with the story they're telling. So it's a lot easier, perhaps, for a lot of people, to cut all exclamation points forever, cut all adverbs forever, so on and so forth, without learning how to use them effectively.

[hopetune]

#HOPETUNE: an affiliated robin rp blog, harmonizing with mik (20, they/them, gmt +8). singing about hope and fledgling wings. rules and portrayal notes may be found under the cut!

RULES

ON AFFILIATION: this blog is affiliated with gnostic hymns. as such, personal blogs and rp blogs not affiliated with gh will be softblocked or blocked.

ON OOC: i make a lot of jokes ooc, as well as post shitposts (tagged appropriately on this blog) please don't take them seriously!!! none of what i say ooc is canon here in gh. i try to be very clear about what i include in-character. that said, i understand that the line can get quite blurry at times, so don't be afraid to ask me to clarify stuff or to tell me to stop doing a bit. i'll also be doing the same.

ON SHIPPING: i have my personal preferences but i'm generally open to shipping with those i'm familiar with ooc + dynamics with good chemistry. especially with regards to romance, i would prefer to plot everything out just so we're clear on everything. do also note that i headcanon robin as a lesbian, so i won't do anything romantic with male-identifying muses, but anyone is free to feel what they feel about robin regardless of gender, she's just not going to reciprocate everyone's feelings. 

ON HEADCANONS: i have certain headcanons that do indirectly affect muses around robin. specifically, i headcanon her resonance to evoke a certain sensation within those affected. i'll go into further detaili won't force you to accept this if it's something you don't want to write, but i hope it's something that can be considered when it comes up in our writing. though i would like to reiterate that it's ultimately your choice whether or not to include it in your replies/interactions!!!

ON FORMATTING: i use small text with icons in my writing. if you have any issues with readability or would like me to change my format, please let me know! as for my personal preference: i would prefer it if my partners could use small text in their replies so i can read it more easily <3

ON CONTACT: as tumblr's IMs have been acting up recently (for me at least) i prefer discord dms. my username is emblian! i am part of gh's discord server so you may also ping me there.

ON REPLIES: my schedule has gotten considerably less free since i'm starting my semester so expect me to take anywhere from a week to a month to reply. i'll do my best to avoid having my partners wait for too long, of course, but i just want to be clear just in case you think i might be ghosting you or forgetting our thread. though that's not out of the question—i'm also a pretty forgetful person, so feel free to ping me if you feel that may be the case!

ON TRIGGER WARNINGS: i will use general trigger warnings for things such as gore, extreme violence, suicide, and other topics that i deem sensitive enough to warrant it. i will be using "tw // (word)" as a tag. if you have any triggers you'd like me to tag, please feel free to let me know through a dm. i also tag spoilers under "hsr spoilers"

ON HYV GAMES: i am not as familiar with genshin or honkai impact 3rd as i am with honkai star rail. i will defer to my partners for information but please be patient with me if i have lapses in the lore! i would also appreciate it if you could gently correct me on whatever i may get wrong. 

PORTRAYAL NOTES (SPOILER FREE)

robin is renown throughout the cosmos, so it's perfectly fine to assume any hsr muse knows her/knows of her regardless of whether or not they've interacted with her in canon.

robin will often disguise herself when appearing in public, especially in places where she knows she has many fans, so it depends on the situation whether or not your muse will recognize her. if your muse is a stranger to her, she will likely not blow her own cover.

related to the point above: she will probably not disguise herself when going to places in teyvat or remote planets like jarilo-iv, as no one would probably recognize her there.

as of right now, robin is on a journey for self-discovery. she has no tours, no concerts, no schedules, no nothing. encounters with her won't be within the context of her as a performer, but rather, her as a person. people who don't already know her as a songstress will likely see her as someone very ordinary.

[shadesofdeviant]

For the fanfic asks … all of them? 😁

HAHAHA Ginger! I mean...you said you'd ask for all of them XD So...I guess I'll answer them all XD.

🍄How do you come up with ideas for your stories?

A variety of ways, sometimes I get inspired to write an AU based on an episode of a show, or a novel etc. Or sometimes my brain just pops ideas into my head.

🍉Are you a pantser or a plotter?

I am very much a plotter. It's also why I don't often get much written because I need SO much to be planned before I can write.

🍒What genres/tropes do you find yourself using most often?

Fluff, 5+1, Domestic Slice of Life, AU's - I am an absolute sucker for AU's.

🥝Who are your literary influences, and have they shaped your own writing?

As much of a problematic person as they were, Anne Rice's first 3 vampire chronicles books were the books that got me thinking...oh I really wanna do this kind of thing. J R R Tolkien's descriptions very much shaped my own (i used to write horrifically long paragraphs). Neil Gaiman inspired my shorter style, quirky dialogue with inside jokes aimed at the reader.

🥕What's your favorite fic you've written, and why?

My favourite fic is a toss up between "Your Arms Are Like Corset Strings" (9-1-1, Buddie) and "Rainbow Coloured Monstrosity" (9-1-1: Lone Star, Tarlos).

The rest I'm gonna put under a cut haha or this post is gonna get SUPER long.

🥨How do you overcome writer's block?

When I work it out I'll tell you haha. I don't think I've ever managed beyond just pushing through and hate-smashing at the keyboard, or just waiting for the inspiration to come back by itself.

🍕What's your favorite comment you've received on a fic?

Honestly as cliche as it might sound, all comments I get are my favourites. I couldn't pick any specific ones, I enjoy comments so much.

🌭Do you have any writing rituals to help 'get in the zone'?

I use a lot of notebooks, I also get really sad and make powerpoint presentations of planning. Then I either listen to music, or put on some series that Ive seen enough times that it can be background noise.

🍔What's a headcanon that hasn't made it into a published fic yet?

I HC a few things for different people but they're not exactly huge things, but have a few examples. I headcanon that Alec Hardy is a huge fantasy novel fan. I headcanon that Eddie Diaz has chronic pain in his shoulders. I headcanon that Aziraphale hates the scent of pine.

🍭What's been your most challenging story to write, and why?

I'm writing a huge multi-part reincarnated soulmates AU, in which the soulmates meet each other throughout history and have different names etc. and it's...taking me soooo long. And honestly it's just because it so long and has so many historical points I need to research hahaha.

🍬What's a genre/trope you've never written, but might in future?

I'm...not sure tbh. Theres a lot of genre's/tropes I don't like or I'm not comfortable with so won't ever touch. But the ones I do like, I've attempted or I am in the process of attempting.

🍩What advice would you give to aspiring fic writers?

Just go for it. Find something you really, really want to see written and write it, because at the end of the day you write for yourself first and foremost. If you try to write to please everyone you'll stress yourself out too much.

🌶How dependent are you on feedback, good or bad?

Bad feedback is never warranted. I do not write for profit so therefore do not need amazon style reviews. Nor do I ask for constructive criticism. I appreciate if someone wants to tell me they like what I wrote though.

🥑What are you currently working on?

I am currently working on a bunch of things: Doctor Who x Good Omens crossover - The events of "The Giggle" with Crowley tagging along. Broadchurch Whump - 2 entries, poor Alec is getting tormented. Broadchurch x Good Omens x Rab C Nesbitt crossover - Alec, Crowley and Davina are identical triplets. Shenanigans ensue. Buddie birthday gift for someone dear to me. Buddie soulmates AU.

🍹How do you decide a story is ready to post?

I finish writing it haha. I let it come to a natural stopping point and then try not to over think it.

🍊What's a story that changed significantly from its initial idea to the final draft?

My reincarnated soulmates AU. I've changed so many historical points and condensed some and completely scrapped a whole half of it haha.

🥠What's your approach to world-building?

Powerpoints. Powerpoints and mind maps haha. If I'm going AU I will plan it like I'm Tolkien creating middle earth haha XD.

🍎How do you prioritize which stories to work on when you have multiple ideas?

I don't. My brain goes brrr and tries to plan all of them at once to the point I can't work on ANY of them haha.

🌮How do you balance the desire to write for yourself versus the desire to write for an audience?

I have been writing on and off since I was 13, and I used to write entirely for the audience and it stressed me out. Whilst I enjoy audience responses and like to receive comments confirming that they enjoyed what I wrote, if I don't like it, I won't post it, but if I enjoyed what I wrote I will love it regardless.

[divineerdrick]

Warhammer 40,000 Additional Faction Changes for June 20, 2024

There were a handful of factions that received so few changes that I didn't think they warranted their own post.

Agents of the Imperium

GW seems currently happy with these side choices. The Callidus may have taken a slight nerf from the Core Rules, though she can still do a lot of damage to your opponent's battle plans if you can get her close enough. For now though, these options get to slide through unchanged.

Blood Angels

The Sons of Sanguinius keep their boosted Strength on the charge from before. This change has helped them climb past their Templar brothers, though not quite to the level of the Space Wolves. Currently the army has very good stats, but I know many Blood Angels players would like to see their specialist units get some love.

The Sons of The Angel aren't getting any rules love though. They get to keep their boosted Detachment ability and that's it. In the FAQ, Wings of Sanguinius is our next ability to be defined as Repositioned Units, so it gets tagged by Omni-scramblers now. Strangely, despite their improved performance GW isn't giving them any love taps either. Blood Angels fans can keep working with whatever lists they prefer for now.

Deathwatch

Okay, I'm gonna call it now. They're not getting anything. Either they're the next Codex or they're getting rolled into some kind of Agents/Inquisition book. TBF, I'm looking at the Dataslate and seeing they got nothing. But they also weren't mentioned at all in the article. Considering how long they've been in the weeds, and the fact almost no one is playing them now, there's no excuse to pass them over this long. They're either getting cut or GW has something else planned.

At least they got an FAQ answer.

Hey! I was wrong! Veterans have gone down 2 pts a model, and Artemis and the Watch Master have gone down 10 pts.

It's not enough. No love for the Kill Teams, no love for Terminators. This is not even close to enough to bringing any players back, let alone change the faction's ranking. I hope the rumor that they're a part of Redacted is true.