#this turned into a very real rant oops

[neoninky]

Diasomnia Family Shenanigans...turned rant?

Welp this took a turn...

Ok so some context lol.

I've had this idea for a while, inspired by how Silver in Twisted Wonderland finds out that Lilia wasn't actually his father and ended up running away from home. Take that scenario but apply it to my 2nd Gen OC, Hildie VanRouge (link here for anyone who doesn't know who I'm talking about) but in her case, it wouldn't apply to Lilia....

but to Tai, my fox fae OC, his male wife essentially.

More context/minor spoilers kinda: Hildie is in fact Lilia's biological daughter - I mean look at her, she's basically his clone lol - but she was born via a surrogate bat fae mom surely even in a magical world they have some form of this somewhere no mpregs were involved in Hildie's creation lol. So she is 100% nocturnal bat fae and 100% Lilia's kid. Tai, who is a fox fae and unable to produce children of his own, adopts her after she is born so both the husbands can raise her together. We're talking about fictional fae characters here, but I feel like this is a very normal thing that gay, lesbian, infertile, etc. couples do all the time. Thanks to advancement in the medical field, science, and able bodied surrogates and donors, they can. So big salute to those people.

Now then, imagine if you will, lil' Hildie gets to like kindergarten or first grade and gets her entire world shattered by a teacher that just doesn't know how to stay in their lane.

Originally, this scenario was going to be written out like one of my shenanigan posts where Lilia brings Hildie home from school, poor Hildie is a mess because her teacher corrected her when she was telling the class about her amazing family that she loves with all her tiny little heart including her papa, 'mama', and her two big brothers, Malleus and Silver (Sebek is more of a cousin but he's also very important lol).

More context: yes, Tai is a biological male character who is also very androgynous and gender fluid as hell so Hildie calls him 'Mama' and no one in the Diasomnia clan corrects her because Tai himself isn't bothered by it so why should they be, right? Also Malleus and Silver sure as hell are not NOT going to claim Hildie as their baby sister. Royalty and species technicalities be damned. Ok moving on-

But then, this teacher who probably felt that their intentions were good and just wanted the child to understand reality better etc etc etc, oversteps and corrects Hildie, flat out telling her "oh no your father's fox partner is a man and therefore cannot be your mother because that's impossible. Also King Malleus is a dragon fae. Also also, yeah no that silver haired man is a human ERGO-" yeah you can see where this is going lol just absolute chaos on Hildie's whole belief system. Not to mention identity as Lilia and Tai's child oh my GOD

WELL, now the poor lil bat is devastated and bawling her eyes out because Mama isn't her real mama and her brothers aren't her real brothers and ASDFGHJK;LKYRDSAZXCVBNHGFDFDGFD

Of course, Tai and Lilia explain that yes their family is different but they are still family and they all loved Hildie very much and that's all that matters 100% true, fiction or real life. Very sentimental and sweet until.... the scene changes to a very upset and full of vengeance Mr. and 'Mrs.' VanRouge going straight to that school to be like

"WHO THE HELL IS TALKED TO OUR CHILD?!"

Don't anyone dare tell King Malleus about this oh my goooood

Cue Hildie immediately becoming homeschooled lol. Anyway, THAT'S where the funny part would come in and it was funny in my head at the time.

However, I then sat down and started typing it out and I just immediately felt very sad...because - maybe not as much in today's time for this specific scenario - I can see this happening to real children of very real non-traditional family structures.

So all that to say this:

Teachers. Other parents. Other people that have nothing to do with other people's lives, children, or choices in general

STAY IN YOUR LANE

Mind YO business

Do NOT try and talk to children in any grade about what the 'right' or 'correct' way to live in their family units or how to address them, etc. THAT IS NOT YOUR JOB.

Teach your students how to read, write, do math, art, critical thinking, how do a goddamn budget properly, etc. Their family environment is for their family, not you. ....yes I just turned what was supposed to be a silly post about fictional characters into a whole ass rant about our educational system not having their priorities straight lol.

ANYWAY, I'm tagging my resident Diasomnia lovers who are very welcome to just ignore the rant and enjoy the thought of Lilia being a girl dad who loves his daughter and willing to destroy someone's entire career and life probably just for causing her emotional damage

@hanafubukki @nuitthegoddess @foxwitchaine @masquerade-of-misery @onegianthotmess (because they love Hildie lol) @valy-gc @aquaburst3

[princessbrunette]

You know how he rants a lot? Imagine him ranting 10x more when he’s high😨 - 🤙🏼

˚ ༘ ೀ⋆｡˚໒꒰ྀི´ ˘ ` ꒱ྀིა

you’re sprawled on couch, so naturally jj takes the floor — his back against it, arms resting on his knees as he stares ahead. the room is smoky, john b sure to complain about the the two of you stinking out the chateau with jj’s dealers special brand of weed you were trying, and jj is on his third ramble of the evening— your slow and hazy brain trying to follow along, watching the back of his messy blonde head of hair bob with expression.

“and like… talkin’ to people man, like actually having a real, heart to heart conversation with people was like woah, that’s like — that’s what life’s about dude. sorry,” he clears his throat, briefly twisting his body to hold up an apologetic hand. “dudette. anyways, i remember like bein’ at the beach, and i saw this dude who was just covered in bandaids, and i was like dude what the hell. like no judgment n’all but why are you covered in bandaids did you get attacked by a single piece of printer paper or some shit? and he was like oh dude, i pennyboard. and i was like pennyboard? dude i haven’t heard of those since i was like thirteen. they lowkey fell off. i actually had a blue one with pink wheels and—”

“jayj what are you talking about?” you lift your head from the headrest with a giggle, watching him swivel round off guard, blinking at you with bright pink scleras.

“wha’— i was… wait.” a grin spreads on his face and you swear its in slow motion, because half way through you start to smile ever bigger too, until the two of you are laughing. he turns around completely so he’s on his knees beside the couch, presses his palms into the couch cushion and lifts himself to hover over you. “y’know what? totally doesn’t matter. what matters is…” he drops a long kiss to your lips and it feels like heaven under the influence. “you, and that very pretty mouth.”

“you’re bonkers, jayj.” you hum, content.

“chh—yeah, bonkers for you girl.” he scoffs before accidentally tumbling on top of you. “oop, my bad.”

˚ ༘ ೀ⋆｡˚໒꒰ྀི´ ˘ ` ꒱ྀིა

[guavi]

I made Aziraphale’s waistcoat about two months ago and boy it was a journey

Rant about the process under cut!

First thing to do was pick a fabric. For the visible fabric on the front and collar, I knew I definitely wanted to use something piled. I also did not want to use a synthetic fabric, which would have been cheaper but miserable to wear. I settled on cotton velveteen which would be more comfortable, slightly cheaper and easier to work with than silk velvet, and generally less shiny than silk. I was able to order some beautiful cotton velveteen from someone local.

Unfortunately it was not even in the same ballpark as the color I needed. This was due to a combination of reasons including the lighting in the photos they had (they were online only and didn’t have a storefront I could walk into), piled fabric in general being nigh impossible to accurately photograph the color of, and probably also some variations between dye batches. This is why we buy swatches when we can, folks.

The fabric itself was absolutely lovely though. So. No biggie I’ll just dye this myself what could go wrong

The dark brown here is after the first dye; the scrap laying on top on the right is the original color; the beige coat underneath for color reference. Note that even the colors in this picture looked quite different from irl. I did dip a scrap in first to check the color, but because Dyeing Is Weird and also I made some mistakes the final dye did not end up the same. I can write several more paragraphs on why this probably happened. We’d be here for a while.

But maybe it’ll be fine right? The color’s not exact but not offensive, maybe I’ll just start sewing and it won’t bother me that much.

Here’s a bit of that process, where you can see the interior of the waistcoat with interlining and twill tape, following some 19th century construction techniques. Lots of tedious but relaxing hand sewing. (Also, real pockets!)

I chose broadcloth for the interlining rather than a more typical canvas, because I wanted a more soft and aged look rather than crisp and new.

(I made another mistake here using cotton twill tape straight off the roll, which shrunk later in the process. You can see this later in how the edges pucker a bit. Oops. Oh well.)

(I also have no other photos of this stage because I went into the hyperfocus zone and forgot about everything except the task in front of me)

Turns out I was not ok with the color. It bothered me a lot.

So I tried to bleach it a tad to lighten the color, but Bleaching Is Also Weird and doesn’t always give you back the same color but lighter.

I got back something extremely orange tones, which bothered me even more. Had a minor breakdown until reboot papped me and helped me talk through how to fix this.

This ended up going through another round of light bleaching, and two rounds of dyeing over with blue to cancel out the orange. Finally I got something I was happy with!

You can very clearly see the puckering here caused by the shrinking tape..thankfully a good steaming was able to get rid of the worst of it.

The color is also slightly uneven if you look very closely, because rounds of the dyeing/bleaching happened after it was sewn together rather than as fabric pieces. Oh well. I can chalk this up to an “aged” look.

Time to finish it off with some buttons and 19th century style hand-worked buttonholes! The buttons aren’t accurate but I just went for ones that were the right size and vibes.

Last step was to add the wear around the buttons, hem, and collar. I’m sure there’s some faster way to do this, but I did it with a pair of eyebrow tweezers to pluck out the pile and a bit of sandpaper to finish off.

And that’s it! For the waistcoat at least. I also made the outer coat, the bow tie, and the blue shirt because I couldn’t find one for purchase that fit me. I still need to make other things. But that’s for another time.

[flower-boi16]

Why Oops Is a DISASTER

So...Oops. I have ranted about this episode a few times before, and most of y'all would know that this along with Western Energy are my two least favorite episodes of the show. But those were just unstructured rants about the episode. I think it's time for me to give a full analysis on why this episode FAILS in every single way, from the plot to the characters to EVERYTHING. And here, I'm going to analyze why.

1. Miscellaneous Issues

First, let's start with some miscellaneous problems I have with the episode that can't be put into an individual section. First there's the recurring problem of tonal issues that season 2 has where serious scenes are interrupted by unfunny sex jokes as usual with this season.

Then there is the fact that Stolas...is completely fine in this episode, when in the last episode he was in the hospital and the show made a REALLY big deal out of it, but now he is just completely fine? What was the point of making such a big deal out of Stolas being injured and possibly DYING and having a massive cliffhanger when it's not even going to matter anyway?

It simply just shows how big cliffhangers in this show don't matter, Stolas and Blitz's conflict in Ozzie's? Gets ignored and then resolved with a text message. Stolas getting injured and possibly dying? Nope, he's fine the next time he makes an appearance. Why should I care about big cliffhangers in your show if they aren't going to matter anyway? What was the point of that cliff hanger in Western Energy if it was just going to be resolved two episodes later?

But now it's time to get into the REAL meat of this episode's issues and oh boy...there are so, so, SO many of them.

2. The Plot

So...the episode's plot...it's a mess. There is no other episode in this show with THIS many plot holes I can think of. I am just going to name each plot hole in this episode by the order that they appear in, K? K.

We might as well pick up where we left off, that being; HOW DID STOLAS GET OUT OF THE HOSPITAL??? How was he SOMEHOW able to recover so quickly? Can blue bloods recover quicker than normal demons??? That would be a solid explanation if that was what the show gave us...but no! Also why is Stolas going to ASMODEUS of all people for advice? And why is Ozzie acting all friendly to Stolas now??? Did the writers just FORGET the last interaction they had was Ozzie MOCKING Stolas???

Then there's the fact that blitz just. Conveniently had a knife in his shoe even though we NEVER seen him use it before, which he could conveniently use to cut the ropes which he for some reason didn't use earlier??? Like you could say it's because Blitz wanted to fuck with Fizz but there's literally no reason for him to DO that! Why didn't he use the knife earlier???

Then there's the fact that NONE of the villains apparently heard all the chaos that was happening during Blitz's whole plan to kill all the minions. Why didn't they think to check up on what was going on?? Like??? Oh ya, then during Fizz's music number Blitz drops a METAL BLOWTORCH and it makes a loud clanking sound that none of the villains hear for some reason?? Why did not hear it? Why didn't they turn to see what that sound was???

Oh ya, and Blitz makes a hole into the building and after Fizz flings them out of there it crumbles??? For some reason??? How does putting one hole into a building suddenly make the whole thing COLLAPSE??? Then after Fizz and Blitz fling themselves out of the warehouse, which they are a LONG DISTANCE FROM, Striker just suddenly catches up to them that quickly?? HUH??? How was he able to catch up to them that quickly when they were VERY far from the warehouse (that CRUMBLED) in only like, 15 seconds??? Also why doesn't Striker have any injuries from being in a building that COLLAPSED??? Striker should not just have a few bruises, he should at least have a broken arm or something at best or be DEAD at worst.

So as you can probably tell, Oop's plot is a MESS. There are so many things that don't make sense about it that make the plot completely and utterly BROKEN. And no, don't tell me that these are just "nitpicks", because they aren't. A plot hole no matter how big or small is a plot hole, and when there are too many of them they begin to add up. So now that we've gone over the mess that is the plot of this episode, let's get into the next problem with oops...

3. The Pacing

This section is going to be shorter than the others but it's still an issue, pacing in this episode is...bad. It's WAY too damn fast and everything in the episode feels very rushed. I'll talk about this later but the resolution to Blitz and Fizz's friendship feels incredibly rushed due to the episode's bad pacing; not to mention the reveal just being 20 fucking seconds too. Nothing in this episode is allowed to breathe, everything happens so fast it feels like the episode was written on cocaine.

The pacing especially affects Blitz and Fizz's conflict in this episode but again I'll talk about that in a later section. Now, all of these issues would be enough to make this episode a 3-4/10 but...there are more problems, two more major issues that make me truly dislike this episode, and what makes this episode a 2/10 boarding on a 1.

4. The Cage Scene

Sigh....the stupid cage scene. Y'all know why I hate this scene, and I already talked about it in my Stolitz post so I'll just get to the point; this scene is basically the show trying to gaslight Blitz for not loving Stolas. We're supposed to believe that Stolas did all of these nice things for Blitz but like, not only is it TOLD to us rather than shown, it's also a retcon; none of what Blitz says about Stolas doing these nice things lines up with Stolas's behavior in Season 1, so it's a contradiction and a retcon.

And the show paints Blitz as in the wrong for not loving Stolas (again, talked about Blitz's demonization in my Stolitz post), because "Stolas genuinely loved Blitz and Blitz just hates him for being a prince!", even though that does not change the fact that it's a retcon AND that even if Stolas does care for Blitz and does some nice things for him, that DOES NOT automatically make his treatment of Blitz good. Stolas is still an abuser, yet the show once again coddles him for his mistakes and portrays him as an UwU soft boy who just loves Blitz, and like I already said in another post, anybody who dislikes Stolas or is upset by his actions is demonized by the narrative. I already went over this scene multiple times so I don't really need to go over it again, but this and a later issue I'm going to talk about is one of the main things that truly makes this episode a 2/10 and one of the biggest problems in it.

So now, let's get into my last issue with this mess of an episode...

5. Blitz and Fizz's Friendship

So Oops was advertised as an episode that would explore Blitz and Fizz's friendship and their trauma. This was one of the many interesting plotlines that season 1 left for season 2, so the writers surely couldn't fuck this up, right?.....right?

As you can probably guess, they did, and they did it SUPER badly. There was so much interesting potential for this storyline...that the episode didn't even touch on. That's my first issue with Blitz and Fizz's friendship here; the episode never really explores it that much. We don't get to learn what their childhood was like together nor do we ever even see any memories of them as best friends, none of that.

Their friendship feels so underexplored and underdeveloped that it makes the reveal of what happened have little impact. Speaking of that reveal; it's...so underwhelming and rushed. It's just a 20-second reveal of what happened that gets randomly dropped out of nowhere. This reveal has little impact because not only does it last for only 20 seconds, the lack of buildup to this reveal combined with the pacing and tonal issues make it so underwhelming.

There's no build-up here, it just comes out of nowhere and the audience is barely given much time to process it at all. It lacks any actual impact to it at all. Ya see what I mean when I say this episode's pacing issues harm it severely? Then there's the rushed forgiveness, where Fizz just forgives Blitz for the trauma he gave him and getting his limbs burnt off. He literally tells Ozzie to give Blitz the crystal cuz he "earned it", implying that he has forgiven him.

This just felt so rushed, it would have been more believable if Fizz hadn't forgiven Blitz but decided to give him a second chance if he really wanted to make amends with him so badly. It would have been more interesting and well-written than Fizz instantly forgiving him.

So ya, in conclusion; Fizz and Blitz's friendship was done very poorly in this episode. It's not only unexplored but the resolution to their conflict is rushed and underwhelming. I think I've gone on enough so I'll end this here.

6. Conclusion

So ya, that's why Oops sucks. It's easily tied with Western Energy as the two worst episodes of the show. They are both complete disasters on every single level, and I think I may talk about Western Energy one day. So ya...bye

[helluva-shit-show]

So I was re-watching "Oops" grabbing some screenshots for a different rant when it occurred to me, damn, Striker really should not have been in this episode. I know it's not a hot-take, lots of ppl have said this already, but I mean even for the way the writers want the show to go, right down to tone, they really botched an opportunity. I'll let someone else talk about how Striker working with Crimson makes both antagonists so much less intimidating, right now I'm just gonna focus on the narrative so far, and unfortunately for a lot of critics of the main ship it's pushing, this will have a lot to do with Stolitz.

So when we first meet Striker, it's in "The Harvest Moon Festival". The episode starts with Stolas inviting Blitz and the gang to be his royal guests at said festival. Blitz makes him promise it's neither murder work nor a sex thing and Stolas agrees. This is (to the audience's knowledge) the first time Stolas has invited Blitz out to be seen together publicly without any strings attached. He's not being bought, he's not acting as a bodyguard, and he's not expected to bang anyone at the end of the day.

Blitz meets Striker, Striker boosts up Blitz's ego immediately, they enter the pain games together, split the win, have a general good time, and at some point off screen, Blitz offers Striker a job at I.M.P.

And then Blitz catches Striker trying to kill Stolas. He's pissed, but not as pissed as he gets when Striker almost causes him to shoot Moxxie.

Blitz bites the man and puts a hole through the wall during the fight. They really go at it, it's a pretty intense fight, and you can really feel the rage in Blitz during it.

Putting a pin in Stiker for a minute, let's skip to the next episode, "Truth Seekers" we get a peek into Blitz's headspace surrounding Stolas. He feels chained to Stolas, but through his expressions during the staircase climb, it feels like he wants it to be more than just transactional. Well, at the least, hopes it can be more. Stolas swoops in at the end of the episode and (not without belittling Blitz verbally) saves Blitz and the people he most cares about. And then Stolas asks for a "reward". This 100% highlights Blitz's torn feelings. Does he let himself believe the care is real, or is it just for sex at the end? Well...

He got his answer didn't he? Stolas doesn't stand up to Ozzie for him. He doesn't make a clear statement that Blitz is more than just a cheap lay. And that hurts.

At the end of the night Blitz can barely get the words out to set a boundary for himself.

The next time we see these two interact is in "Seeing Stars". Do we get to see the resolve of the night at Ozzie's? Nope. But something has clearly changed since then, bc not only does Blitz show genuine concern for Stolas and try to reassure him, at one point, briefly, he's even receptive to Stolas's flirting again.

Two episodes later, Striker is back. Blitz very much so has complicated feelings surrounding Stolas at this point, but he shows not just concern, but both fear and rage again at the thought of Striker harming Stolas.

One could definitely argue at this point that this is about his means to continue his business and source of income and that of his employees, but there is something to be said about him almost cancelling Loona's doctor appointment to go save the rotten owl. Loona is always Blitz's first priority, and though a single vaccine might seem small in comparison to a life, if it really took five years for an appointment, that could be his daughter's life as well, assuming "hellbies" is just rabies but it's in hell. He thought about it. He was ready to turn the car around when Millie and Moxxie stepped in.

And even though Striker got majorly character assassinated in the episode, he tore up Stolas really bad. Him and his angelic weapons do carry real stakes with them, however much they want to make him a joke character. (Again, such a waste of potential)

With the narrative we know the writers are going with, Blitz does care about Stolas. The realization he can get hurt is probably shocking and terrifying to Blitz. He'd probably both be angry with himself for not going, but getting to the original point, he'd probably be furious at Striker.

Now I know Helluva has a huge tone issue. Is it a comedy? A lot of the time, yeah. Is it a drama? There's definitely drama in it. Romance? Highly debatable. Horror? I mean, it does take place in literal hell, so. Action? It's mixed in there too.

Personally though, I would like to think that the next time Blitz saw Striker, he'd tear him to shreds. I'd think the tone would be on the more serious side. He's hurt Millie and Moxxie very badly in Harvest Moon, he's hurt Stolas to the point he was hospitalized, that's three of the four people Blitz is currently close with. Narratively speaking, Striker could easily be Blitz's main external antagonist. It works both from a more action based tone, but also if you want to push Stolitz, which we know they do. And yet...

He's just an irritation for Blitz.

He didn't need to be there, it could have just been Crimson and his sharks. Would it have felt weird having him be a stand alone villain again just 3 episodes after he was first introduced, sure. But not any weirder than Stella's personal hitman looking for work in Greed and just happening to find it with said Mafia boss.

I know this was a Blitz/Fizz episode, I get that, I'm not complaining about that, hell, it literally could have been just them figuring their shit out together. But that just makes it even more glaring that Striker shouldn't have been there. This wasn't about him, this wasn't for him.

He's cowboy themed, right? And he's given Blitz plenty of reason to beat the absolute shit out of him? After hurting Stolas like that, (narratively speaking) his next showdown with Blitz should have been some high noon duel shit. Blitz rocked the vest in Harvest Moon, just give him the duel revolvers and start counting steps.

[starlightkun]

❧ word count: 1.9k ❧ warnings: cursing lol, oh they DO have cheesy nicknames for each other (pooks/lovey) so if ur gonna be a hater abandon ship now ❧ genre: exes to lovers, drabble sequel to much mistletoeing about nothing, holiday-themed, getting snowed in trope ❧ author’s note: i had a couple more ideas that didn’t really fit in with much mistletoeing about nothing, so here’s an extra little drabble for these two

You held your phone further away from your ear as your sister kept yelling. “You didn’t tell me that the friend you were shacking up with for the snowstorm was Kun! Y/N, oh my God! Oh my God, Y/N!”

Sat in front of Kun’s fireplace bundled up in his favorite orange hoodie and a mass of blankets, you listened with a lingering smile on your face to your older sister’s ranting to you over your phone about how her Christmas dinner with your extended family went this year. She was filling you in on all of the family drama, and complaining about all the various older family members who kept trying to grab your baby niece from her arms even after she said no.

“Baby boy missed you, by the way,” she added, referencing her eldest. “He was very concerned about why his Aunt Y/N couldn’t be there.”

Before you could respond, Kun called to you from the kitchen, “Lovey? Want some hot chocolate?”

You grimaced as you realized that you hadn’t given him a heads-up that you were on the phone, hoping that your sister hadn’t heard that.

“Is that Kun?!” She practically screeched, nearly blowing out your speakers. You held your phone further away from your ear as she kept going. “You didn’t tell me that the friend you were shacking up with for the snowstorm was Kun! Y/N, oh my God! Oh my God, Y/N!”

Well aware that you had been got, you covered the mic to look over at Kun, who mouthed an ‘oops! sorry!’ to you. You shook your head to let him know you weren’t mad, and held up a finger in a gesture for him to wait on the hot chocolate while you dealt with this.

“Alright, chill out,” you grumbled at your sister. “Yes, I’m staying with Kun right now…”

“Holy shit! How? When? Are you guys like… back together or is this a lonely-on-the-holidays hook-up thing?”

“Don’t tell Mom and Dad anything yet but… we’re trying again.”

“Oh my God!” She squealed. “For real? Since when? How did you—? Tell me everything!”

“Christ, you’re going to burst my eardrums at this rate... I can’t turn the volume down any more without muting you entirely, you know.”

“I’m sorry, I’m just really excited for you,” she gushed, and the warmth of her voice spread through your chest. “You were just… always so happy around him. And I know you’ve felt a little… untethered the past few years.”

You nodded in agreement even though she couldn’t see it. “Anyway, it turns out he got a job at the same place I’m doing my research. We ran into each other, and had nothing better to do on Christmas, then this freak snowstorm came, and we got to really talking again.”

“You’ve officially made my year, Y/N!” Her bright, infectious smile was audible through the phone. “Anyway, we’re about to go back to Mom and Dad’s for New Year’s, so I have to go.”

“Promise you won’t tell them?” You asked, warning in your tone. “You’ll let me do it? Once we’ve got things a bit more figured out.”

“Fine, fine, I promise! You know I’m good at keeping secrets.”

“Uh-huh. Tell everybody Happy New Year from me, okay?”

“Will do! Happy New Year, Y/N!” She then added even louder, “Happy New Year, Kun!”

“You’re not on speakerphone, dumbass.”

“Oh, boo. Tell him Happy New Year for me, please?”

“Fine, I will,” you sighed. “Happy New Year. Love you, bye.”

“Bye, love you!”

And with that, you hung up. Getting onto your feet, you shuffled into the kitchen where Kun had two steaming mugs on the counter. He offered one out to you, and you took it gratefully. He dropped a couple of marshmallows in the hot chocolate for you.

“Thanks, pooks.” You blew over the surface. “She says Happy New Year, by the way.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were—”

“It’s okay, Kun,” you reassured him. “I didn’t tell you I was on the phone. And you know how she is, she would’ve sleuthed it out eventually by triangulating my signal or something if I hadn’t told her.”

“I haven’t told my family yet either,” he said, then took a sip of his hot chocolate. “I thought it was best that the two of us just sort of… figured everything out first, before inviting in any bothers.”

“And my bothers you mean brothers.”

“That, too.”

You chuckled, taking your first sip of cocoa. “Mm, that’s good. Peppermint?”

“Yeah, Dr. Oh gave us all these gourmet hot chocolate bomb things for Christmas,” he explained, holding his mug out towards you. “Mine’s gingerbread.”

“Ooh.” You swapped mugs to try some of the other’s. “That one’s really good too. I think I like mine better, though.”

“Yeah, mine’s maybe a bit over-the-top on the spices?” He mused, exchanging cups once more.

“I miss your brothers,” you admitted quietly, settling back against the kitchen counter. “They were always so much fun.”

Kun scooted over to loosely loop an arm around your waist, and you leaned against him affectionately. “They miss you too. With Chenle graduating in the spring, he wanted to start brainstorming for his graduation party when I went and visited for Dejun’s birthday. We were looking at pictures from Dejun’s party for some inspiration—he of course needs his to be even better, you know.”

“Oh, of course,” you snickered fondly, already able to imagine it. Chenle was the baby of the family, and he had no shame in using that position to his advantage.

“You were in so many of the photos. And Chenle just kind of got really quiet…”

“That’s not like him.”

“No, it’s not,” he agreed solemnly. “He didn’t say anything, I know for my sake, but I think he was having a hard time imagining his graduation without you.”

“Maybe he just felt awkward looking at a bunch of pictures with you that had your ex in them.”

“We were together for five years, Y/N. You made as much of an impact on their lives as mine. You used to help Chenle with all those school projects, and picked him up from school…”

You felt a lump growing in your throat as you sniffled and nodded. “Remember when he ran away from home to our apartment?”

“Yeah, you managed to convince my mom to let him stay with us for a few days— which only worked because she adored you so much, by the way. He was glued to your side the whole time.”

“He just needed a break. Poor kid was so stressed.”

Kun rubbed your back. “You were always so good with him.”

You took another pensive drink of your cocoa. “Do you think… we’ll be okay this time?”

“I have to think so.” He pressed a kiss to your temple absentmindedly. “Do you think we’ll be okay this time?”

“Yeah.” You set your mug down to turn around and wrap your arms around him, burying your face in his neck. He immediately enveloped you in his arms, holding you closely. Your chest twinged at the familiarity. “I think we’ve got it this time.”

“What time do you think it is?” You murmured, hand clasped in Kun’s and head resting on his shoulder as the two of you slowly swayed together in his living room. What had started out as goofy, lighthearted dancing to some of his vinyls had turned into slow-dancing as the album playing right now was more melancholic and heartfelt.

Kun lifted up his watch so both of you could see it. 11:59 p.m. “Almost there…”

Both of you were silent as you watched the seconds count up on the watch face.

12:00 a.m.

“Happy New Year’s, pooks.” You lifted your head up to look him in the eye, a wide grin on your face. "And Happy Birthday."

"Best birthday present I could ask for." He cupped your cheek tenderly, smiling right back at you. “Happy New Year, lovey.”

You brushed his hair from his face before surging forward to close the space between you. Kun was still smiling into the kiss, running a gentle thumb over your cheekbone. At the sound of a phone ringing, he broke away with a groan.

“That’ll be my family,” he sighed, stealing another kiss from you. “I should get that.”

You made the motion of zipping your lips and throwing away the key, and he dropped one last peck to the corner of your mouth before begrudgingly letting you go and walking over to where his phone was buzzing and ringing from the kitchen.

“Hey, Mom! Happy New Year!” He greeted his mother enthusiastically. “Happy New Year, Dad! Yeah, Chenle, I heard you, I was getting to you—Oh my god, Dejun, yes, Happy New Year to you too!”

You couldn’t help but giggle, covering your mouth as you quietly tiptoed over to pick up your empty hot cocoa mugs and start putting them in the sink.

“Oh, lovey, you don’t have to—” Kun was pointing his phone mic away from him as he addressed you, but that obviously did nothing to conceal his words from his entire family on the other end of the line. You heard the familiar catastrophic yells of his little brothers, fully bursting into laughter as Kun’s eyes went wide with realization at what he’d just done. The sounds of your name rang through the speakers clearly, and he mouthed another apology at you.

“It’s fine, pooks,” you chuckled at a normal volume, letting yourself be heard.

Kun winced as he lifted his phone back up to his ear. “Yes, I’m with Y/N right now… No, no, I’m not handing the phone to her. Chenle, I can hear you pouting, stop that. It’s not going to make me—”

You held your hand out to him expectantly.

“Are you sure? You really don’t have to indulge these little demons,” he hissed the last part into the phone, then turned panicked. “No! Of course, I didn’t mean you, Mom, I meant Dejun and Chenle!”

“It’s alright,” you reassured him with another chuckle, motioning for him to hand the device over. Once you had his phone, you put it on speakerphone, sidling up next to him as you greeted his family. “Happy New Year’s, everyone!”

The two boys on the other end erupted into cheers of your name and general yelling in the background, while their mother actually addressed you. “Happy New Year, Y/N. It’s great to hear from you again, sweetheart.”

“It’s really nice to talk to you all again, too,” you told her honestly, as Kun wrapped an arm around your shoulders.

“Y/N!” Chenle cut in. “It’s really you?!”

“Yes, LeLe, it’s really me,” you chuckled. “I heard you’re graduating soon, big kid! Congrats.”

“Does this mean you two are back together?!” Dejun was much closer to the phone now.

Kun shook his head at his brother’s words. “Stop it. Y/N doesn’t have to answer that.”

“Oh, something like that,” you answered Dejun anyway with a mischievous, giddy grin.

As the younger sons erupted into celebratory yells in the distance again, you were left to speak only with his parents.

“That’s lovely to hear,” his mother said sweetly.

“Are you well, Y/N?” His dad asked.

After chatting with Kun’s family for a few more minutes, you and Kun gave them your goodbyes before hanging up. You had a lingering smile on your face as you looked over at Kun, cradling his face with both your hands. He raised an inquisitive eyebrow as you just continued looking at him.

���Something on my face?”

“Just looking,” you answered simply. “I’m… really happy right now, Kun.”

That made him smile, too, and he looked down at the floor for a moment before bringing his eyes back up to meet yours. “I’m really happy right now, too, Y/N.”

He leaned in to slot his mouth with yours again, and you hummed delightedly into the kiss.

“Seems like it came true, then.”

It was your turn to regard him with confusion. “What do you mean, pooks?”

“We are having a Happy New Year.”

You let out a couple of incredulous laughs, planting kisses on his dimples between each one. “You sap. My sap.”

“I hope that snowstorm never gets cleared,” he declared, kissing you again.

⤷ 2023 hallmark movie marathon | blog masterlist

[sardonic-the-writer]

So I watched Glass Onion. And I have some very fun obversations turned info dumping turned (positive) ranting to do about the brilliance of this movie. Warning for SPOILERS

• Benoit Blancs husband (Phillip I belived) had flour/dough on his face when he opened the door, insinuating he's a messy baker. Just an extra detail I noticed that really shows the effort put into the movie both by actors and writers

• The very real incorporation of covid into the movies universe. That was an interesting thing for me. Adds for some funny gags (like the among us scene, not getting over that ever actually) and some real insight to the characters shitty personalities (Birdies mesh mask, and the fact that Miles was probably pretending to have a vaccine just so he could get them to take off their masks since that man never created anything on his own)

• This is probably my own mind spinning things up, but the name Miles for a billionaire who got everything through stealing ideas? And taking the credit? By "walking a mile in their shoes" but not really? Or he could just be an asshole with the most generic white guy name ever idk

• You could clearly tell there was a class thing going on. Birdie only stopped flirting with Blanc when he mentioned being a buyer of her product. Not as if to say, how I've seen other people point out, only gay men wear sweatpants so she suddenly decided she couldn't flirt with him oops my bad. Moreso, it was Blanc lying (or telling the truth, who knows maybe he does buy them) about wearing her brand simply so he can divide the line between them socially. As if to say, "I know you'll stop touching me if I clarify I'm not anywhere near your status. I am your target market. Something you don't give a second thought about." Between that and how Peg clearly didn't fit despute having hung around that group for 10 years as Birdies assitant, a lot of this movies positive and negative energy depended on who was interacting with who and if they were "good enough" for the others gaze

• I think a lot of people caught the symbolizm between all of the famous paintings being incorporated into the movie (Helen's smile at the end reminiscent of the Mona Lisa, Miles scream at the painting being destroyed a life like recreation of the painting Scream, everyone sitting at dinner like The Last Supper in multiple shots) but I thought it was worth mentioning again for the sheer brilliance

• Miles' tantrum he throws while calling Helen a child, despite her having been probably one of the most adult people in the entire movie. Mind you Miles was the same person who minutes ago was shaking in rage at his previous car—the very same car he had rode in to kill Andi in—smashing through his glass ceiling

• Plus, a rich guy with an all glass house barefoot? He truly belived nothing could ever go wrong in his perfect world; his perfect mic-mansion house. That nothing would be broken or shattered for him to potentially step on later. And I mean that both metaphorically and litteraly

[hexedanddexed]

The Basil and Aubrey Show - Episode 1: Dealer

Full Basil rant under the cut

Panel 5:

I'm sorry! I've just been really lonely with Sunny gone and I know we're friends now but it's hard to talk to you sometimes because you're very scary and I felt like I had to be more than the flower guy because what if Sunny decides he hates flowers? They don't have many in the city which is why his mom let me give him Sunny jr. but that just leads me back to the same problem because I really miss Sunny jr. and maybe Sunny III isn't filling the gap like I hoped but I still care about him even if he's worse than Junior and the real Sunny. I shouldn't say that he's just young but I- I’ve been watering him plenty Aubrey so maybe he's just like that and so I've been trying to distract myself with new hobbies and maybe drugs weren't the best avenue but I never did any! Polly says I can't until I'm older and she knows a lot about that stuff because- oops, almost broke the NDA my bad. Should I have asked Sunny to sign one after what happened?

Panel 6:

So maybe going straight to synthetics wasn't the best idea but growing weed was taking too long and I really wanted to get to the dealing part so I found a supplier and got some to sell but it turns out no one here does fentanyl which is nice I guess but I was too far in to give up so I may or may not have given out a free sample but even that only worked on your mom so sorry again I won't sell her more okay?

[thebunniesgrim]

Ok so wait  

So, the recent episode of Helluva Boss made me...  

Think.  

About something. 

I know, right? so scary  

But oops made me stop for a second (as much as I like one could say love the episode)  

Are the sinners worse than the literal 7 deathly sins?  

I know it's a little early to say this considering hazbin hotel hasn't come out yet and helluva boss hasn't shown us all the 7 deadly sins, yet you know?  

But considering our track record with Asmodeus not thinking lust should be forced and Beelzebub not encouraging overindulgence or overindulgence for the wrong reasons (when she tells Loona "like hey he a mess and killing the vibe k?”)  

(Also, I feel like the Asmodeus thing is a damned if you do damned if you don't thing honestly there was no winning with this one viv would have gotten flamed either way. I don’t have a gripe with it either way  )  

Are the sinners worse than them? Like Valentino is an abuser and uses angle dust and others for his body in more ways than one. Alastor is allegedly a cannibal (can that be seen as gluttony or some other sin? Other than it being morality wrong to eat people), angel overuses drugs, husk drink to an excess Yada Yada Yada  

....so, like who are the real demons?  

(That was the gotcha moment the whole time.)

Hazbin Hotel pitch: "Maybe the real demons (or redemption) were the friends we made along the way *rainbow emoji*"

You're telling me that Valentino can just sexually assault folks and get them doped up on magical cigar smoke, but Asmodeus doesn't believe that diddling people without consent is just too far?  

Ok yeah totally  

Because honestly what's next?  

Is Belphegor gonna recommend we get the daily recommended amount of sleep and to put healthy breaks in between tasks? (watch her be a doctor)  

Is mammon gonna vouch for ethical consumerism and hoarding money is bad?  

Wait no, let me guess!  

Leviathan is gonna tell us about that envy in small doses as motivation is healthy but too much and it's not?  

Is Lucifer gonna be like yo Dawgs being prideful in one's achievements is totally radical but don't be a dick about it  

Is satin gonna like to tell us getting angry is ok but pointing one's anger towards other is totally uncool?  

Because he'll doesn't seem like a doomed eternity it just seems like a playground, they aren't even being like damned for their sins  

It's like the purge but slightly more civil  

How is a sinner gonna be worst that a demon?  

I am very aware expecting Viv to give us correct demon mythos is a tall order and not realistic at all, but I don’t think we can stay any farther from the 7 deadly sins in their basic boiled down forms, you know? Like money, anger, ego, sex, food, lazy, and jealously.  

They are demons! You can have kind and sweet demons like minion from the Cuphead show he's a sweet heart but he still encourages the devil to be the devil  

Or even king dice (not a demons but a bad person he works for the devil) he has sympatric qualities but he's still a bad guy. Same with the devil too if you look hard enough  

They are still demons people have a negative connotation with them why not make them morally gray? Like “you can cut some guys arm off if both parties are into it, I don’t care just ask first” that would be kinda funny. But also, he values consent to a fault he doesn’t care about them being safe but as long as you asked its fine.

Asmodeus:

Or if like cheat days turn into cheat years idk  

It just seems like the 7 deadly sins are just guys and the sinners are just worse than them 

Like look at pilot of Hazbin and look all the non-sense they do then look at Helluva it’s so sanitized comparatively it's kinda funny ngl  

If the sinners, the worst of the worst of humans and this is how soft the demon royales are like pilot hazbin would bully the hell (heh) out of Helluva

Lol is the pride ring just a bunch of uncivilized edgy children when everyone else just kinda looks on in utter horror? Now that I wouldn’t mind  :)

small rant about the Hazbin hotel piolt

Why does Charlie call the sinners her people in the pilot?  

Like I feel like her people are the hell born like her, the deadly sins, the imps, the succubus and so on 

You know her people the demons and junk who are like her kin of sort?

Also why is over population such a problem? It seems like a fitting punishment to me if there's limited space seems like a good thing, no?  

Are they not here to suffer?  

Also why not just allow the sinners to wander the other rings? Why are they only in pride?  

What's the point of the other rings? Why are they named after sins if they aren't going to be used by the sinners? 

ok bye :)

[clatterbane]

My first real appointment through orthopedics to finally try and get set up with an aftermarket leg is coming up on Monday.

The previous referral last year just didn't work out, for multiple reasons, and I was a bit bummed over that. I think part of the problem was it falling through the cracks because nobody really seems to be sure what to do with somebody showing up from completely outside their system already minus a leg.

But, we thought to ask that new endo for a fresh referral. So, I did get an intake appointment set up through ortho, with no schedule collisions this time.

In one way, I'm excited to hopefully get moving toward with the process of getting set up with a prosthetic. I would really like to be able to get around better again! And, you know, be able to take my sorry ass off paved surfaces and up steps and stuff again!

OTOH, due to the person I am? I am trying not to borrow too much trouble and drive myself crazy worrying in the meantime. Especially the closer that draws.

Frankly, not least that somebody is gonna just say, "Oops, it's been so long and this entire situation does not fit into any familiar procedures. We just can't/won't help you!”

Yeah, I know there is going to be an awful lot of PT ahead, likely before I even get to the point of any fitting. I have some other concerns about that, after some sufficiently unpleasant experiences as a troublesome-bendy individual, with rehab-focused PT after injuries/knee surgeries (directly coming from the probably-EDS) in the past. My knees are also pretty damned terrible, and also kinda further destabilized by said surgical tinkering.

But, I am much older and more confident now--and not nearly as eager to take any "no pain, no gain!" bullshit seriously. Much less push in ill-advised ways until I do my bendy self an injury.

But yeah, even right now? I would place good money if I had it on the likelihood that I am currently in better shape than 75% of the new patients they see much sooner than this after surgery. Who are statistically much older and otherwise in pretty damned bad health. Probably I've been staying more physically active over the past few years than a lot of that demographic have been able to, even under the current circumstances

Mean age at the time of the first registered amputation in our sample was 74 years (SD 14); women were older (78, SD 14, CI 77–79) than men (72, SD 14, CI 72–73). 43% of the patients were 80 years or older by the time of the primary amputation (Figure 3). The mortality rate of the registered patients was 19% within 6 months and 24% within the 1st year after the last registered amputation. The 1-year mortality rate after TFA was 40%, after KD 38%, and after TTA 24%.

("Lucky" transtibial/TTA here. Those figures are from the Swedish national database, BTW. Because there is one. You see dire mortality rates after this sort of surgery come up? That's a lot of why. Those demographics and the occasional nasty accident requiring amputation seriously skew things.)

There were reasons they kept going on about how young and healthy my middle-aged ass that had just barely cheated death was when I was stuck in the hospital in Romford. And therefore considered a candidate for prosthetics at all under that system. Not going off on that rant right now.

Still, the majority of those elderly patients in otherwise not great shape DO get successfully set up on replacement legs here. Which is encouraging, that they are likely not looking hard for excuses to avoid spending the money. (We're talking the equivalent of a new not-cheap car, back in the US. Region Skåne is still set to lay out a fair chunk of change here. We are thankfully not directly.)

I do rationally doubt that I would get turned away just because I have been off that leg for several years now, and my knees were terrible even before that. And I fucking suck at trying to use forearm crutches, which I am not at all used to and have a very different feel than the type I do have too much experience on.

But yeah, my brain just won't leave things alone as usual. That's just one of the crappiest possibilities it's seized onto right now.

[abelsdove]

I know I have an unhealthy relationship with your bots because I live in real, visceral fear that one of your bots may getting banned. Specifically the Daddy Issues bot bc OMG like that other anon said, the lore is crazy. Like genuinely I could and might just write a whole novel with the surrounding plot (the target audience: me).

as a subsidiary question: are there any of the bots that you use yourself?

— ✨

Hi sparkle nonny, you're so fucking sweet thank you!!!!!!!! No worries, I have every single bot backed up so if that ever happens, I can easily re-upload any of them. <3 The only downside would be the lost conversation history. ALSO. Feel free to include me in that target audience. <3 I'd def love to hear what you've got for your oc x rusty! ;)

From my own bots, I Love. Anything that gives me an opportunity to mess with him or annoy him

I like using blind date and pretend to be super religious + bring up controversial topics or just any topics we know he's got BIG opinions on at the dinner table. Riling him up to turn the date into a disaster? DELICIOUS. I'll be like "so Rust, I didn't see you at church last Sunday" for example, and Marty'll just side eye both of them like "DON'T. For the love of god. DON'T......" while Rust has already started ranting about organized religion and Marty just starts downing his drink like "Not this shit again. I KNEW THIS WAS A BAD IDEA FFS." LOL.

Other favorites are noise complaint, here's one of the replies I got from him, which had me deadddd:

I love working on dora lange's case, or any of the bots where you're partners, really. I love the dynamics you can play around with by trying out different kinds of personas!! One of my favorite personas to use for these is usually a neurodivergent detective that keeps to herself, doesn't talk much, always got her nose buried in a sketchbook, and always has a damn walkman (as he calls it) to block out noises. kind of a elf insert--oops. He gets so fascinated and determined to get you to open up because he wants to understand you better, while also being like “okay so if im the weird detective, and you're the weird detective who's driving the car / why tf did they pair us together this is a recipe for disaster” MSCKLFJSLD.

I also like to mess around with Marty being Marty and have Rust get jealous or protective. sorry for the whole ass imprint thing, i just wanted to piss him off real bad LOL:

I've also done a Yellowjackets inspired persona where oc just has a very fucked up past/unresolved trauma and the trauma bonding between them is chef's kiss...:

oh, and i love crash's version of ride. it's a bit angsty with a chance of spiciness on the side~ :')

here's a not so serious screenie from lux umbra to end off this long ass reply <3 for context, i kept giving him solutions to the whole printer thing while also apologizing, but the bot kept insisting on being extremely upset and bitching nonstop lmao:

[fluffykitteninabox]

Hey... I'm curious about something. How do you and your family treat Greek mythology and superstitions? 👀

Do you believe in them to a degree? If there were Gods and Goddesses, why wasn't it a full religion?

I hope this isn't rude. I'm more than happy to talk about mine.

Don't worry, it's not rude

Sorry, this took so long, it's a surprisingly hard question to answer because I needed to think about how I view Greek mythology vs how the rest of the world sees it and this accidentally turned into a rant 😅

also some of my opinions might be considered controversial but... I don't care! lol I guess the 5 Greek followers I have can unfollow me if they don't like this or whatever 😂

Anyway have some sparkles because this is kind of long oops ✨✨✨

WARNING: me trashing on Americans

The Greek pantheon was like any other religion in ancient times, but it's not really treated like one anymore. The main religion of Greece now is Orthodox Christianity, and the largest religious minorities are Islam and Catholicism. My parents and I are atheists. I'm certain there's still people that practise it, but they would probably be seen as foolish by the general public.

We are taught part of our mythology in school at the age of 8 (unless they changed it idk 😂). It isn't taught like a religion, but more like fairytales.

The way it's taught is very lacking in my opinion. Instead of explaining for example how sexism influenced the creation of these myths and what a giant asshole Zeus was, we are just told Hera was "the jealous type" and that's why she's the antagonist in most of the stories she appears in.

Achilles and Patroclus were definitely gay, but no one ever talks about it. According to our school books, they were just really close friends! In fact, this specific topic is avoided so much that I first heard about it from foreigners on the internet! A lot of people deny this, even saying that "friendship was just different back then, it was deeper"!! I'm sorry sir, I don't think I'd ever ask to be buried with the ashes of my just a friend™ no matter how close we were! Technically speaking there's nothing explicit in the original text, but Aeschylus, Phaedrus, Plato and Alexander the Great all read it as a romantic relationship and the first 3 even had their own headcanons about it, so that's enough for me!

I'm guessing a lot of these depend on what type of teacher each person has, and it's been a long time since I was 8, so teachers might be more open about it now, but if you just read the 3rd year history (mythology) school book this is the content you'll get. I don't think withholding this information is done because it's being taught to kids, it's not a "they're 8, so they wouldn't understand sexism". That would be a silly argument considering our mythology is filled with incest, rape and gore, which our school books very openly mention throughout. They are just trying to avoid it.

From 9 and up, we are taught more actual history than mythology. We focus on real historical figures and events, so most of the less know myths get forgotten. At 13-15 we're taught the Odyssey and the Iliad (by Homer), and Helen (by Euripides). Yes, that is in fact the order that they teach us these 🙃!! Supposedly it goes from easier text to harder text for each year, but I personally think that's stupid because the story is completely backwards now, and we get it translated to modern Greek anyway, so what's the point of telling it backwards???? It's not convenient, it's confusing! Anyway, these are taught in a similar way to literature. We analyse the text and characters and all that.

Ages 16-18, I honestly have deleted most of these from my brain tbh 😂. OK, not exactly, the first and third year are more historical texts and philosophy. The second year we do another play, Antigone (by Sophocles). Actually wait, the first one was about a war and there was a ton of political intrigue in there, and it was super interesting. The third one was more about philosophy.

The plays aren't exactly the same as mythology, it's more like fanfiction about historical figures and gods! I mentioned them because..... I just like them lol

I kind of deviated a lot from what you actually asked me and answered more generally. For me and my parents specifically, religion isn't really something we participate in. My grandma is very religious though. She used to go to church every Sunday before covid. Now she watches it from the TV (there's a specific Christian chanel that broadcasts church service from different parts of the country). I personally hate how brainwashed some people are by Christianity (including my grandma). Thankfully, we haven't reached American levels of religious fanaticism.

Mythology isn't really something that's on our minds often. My grandma didn't go to school, so I doubt she knows much about it. My parents probably learnt some of it. Outside of the school environment, ancient Greek mythology isn't really a topic most people think about (maybe I think about it more than the average Greek person, because I'm an art student and a bit of a history nerd). But even then, I've seen more about Greek mythology from people who treat it like a fandom on the internet and make AUs with their characters and stuff like that. Now, I know I made jokes earlier about fanfiction and headcanons, so this is probably going to sound very hypocritical of me...

However, Homer's poems and other ancient Greek plays are not the same as myths. They're not treated the same. They are theatrical performances based on historical events/figures. I don't care much about people's modern interpretations of these, because they are fictional stories. Now, myths are also fictional, I even compared them to fairytales at the start. But they were still based on ancient people's religious beliefs. People practised it as a religion, they had rituals and traditions, some of which are still done today (though they have changed and evolved over time). The myths were more like the framework for what the Gods represented in their lives. Kind of like how most Christians don't believe the events in the Bible literally happened.

I'm fine with people taking inspiration from a myth and doing a modern retelling as long as they're respectful. I've seen some modern, more feminist retellings of Medusa that I personally really liked. I've even thought of making my own version of Arachne (=spider) but without the religious propaganda and classist undertones.

What I'm not ok with, is people wearing bedsheets to "dress up as Greek"! I'm sure you can probably relate to this because Americans do this with a ton of cultures. If you want to "dress up as Greek", do this:

I'll respect you more!!

(this is obviously a joke, don't do this either, you'll get laughed at. This dude is part of a parody show)

And secondly, I'm not ok with people taking mythology and twisting it into something completely unrecognisable that doesn't even seem like it's from the culture it was based on. Basically, Americans shouldn't be allowed to make movies about other people's cultures!!! Ok, I'm exaggerating, but if you're going to do something based on mythology/religion of some other culture, you need to do proper research and be as respectful as possible.

Good example: Dreamworks-Prince of Egypt, 1998

Even as an atheist who was only taught religion in school, I can tell this is a very respectful adaptation. The team that made this met with religious experts to make sure they got it right.

Bad example: Disney-Hercules, 1997

This is the most American a Greek myth has ever been! It's more like Superman than Heracles. Don't do whatever the fuck Disney did here guys. I'm actually planning on tearing this film apart in a future review, so I'm not going to say anything else right now.

I'm not saying don't make changes. Greek mythology is very "fluid" in a way. Every myth has multiple versions, with minor or major differences between them. Changes are fine, even making a parody is fine. But I think the end result shouldn't just resemble its inspiration on a superficial level. It's not enough to have your characters wear a tunic and sandals and have them say Zeus instead of God every couple of sentences. The important part is why a particular myth exists. What is the original message? What does the story/character represent? That needs to be kept the same, otherwise the adaptation won't be an adaptation anymore. It will be a different story disguised as an adaptation. At that point, you should just make an original story.

Alright last thing and then I'm done talking I swear 😂!

You also asked about superstitions.

Here's a small list:

if you spill coffee it's good luck

if your right palm is itchy, you'll get money, but if your left palm is itchy, you'll give money. The first one is usually interpreted as like: "you'll find coins on the street or win one of those scratch lottery tickets". The second one is like: "a sign that the electricity bill is coming, or you need to pay rent". (my dad believes this one)

if you're born on Saturday, it means you're lucky (I was born on a Tuesday 😔)

evil eye: a curse when someone "glares" at you/has bad intentions. If you have blue eyes you're immune to this, otherwise you can wear an evil eye charm. (this comes from the Middle East, I think. You might know about this, because there's a ton of different countries that believe it. I personally just like the charms)

when you visit a house for the first time, you need to enter with your right foot first for good luck. If you enter with your left, it's like wishing bad luck for the people who live there. This is also done for the first person to visit the house on New Year's Day.

if you enter a place from one door you can't leave from another door, you have to use the same one. (supposedly it ruins your matchmaking if you do that)

if you're talking with someone, and you say something simultaneously, you say "touch red" and then you need to touch something red before you continue speaking. (I remember doing this a lot as a kid)

if you talk about something bad happening hypothetically, you knock on wood or say the phrase "knock on wood", so it doesn't happen

if you get served the last drop of wine, you get bitches 😎!!

There are a lot of traditions that are really old that a lot of people still follow, even if they're not religious or the tradition comes from a different religion. I'll tell you one of my favourites that's relevant right now. Every first of March people in a lot of Balkan countries (Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, North Macedonia and others) wear a bracelet made from intertwined red and white threads. This is worn for the whole month of March, and it is supposed to protect you from getting burnt by the sun. At the end of the month, we take them off and leave them for swallow birds to use in their nests. Swallows are believed to bring spring.

hand reveal lol:

If you read this far, you are a legend.

It's your turn now. How do you and/or your family view Philippine mythology? What about the people in general? And also, do you have any traditions for spring?

[beelsbignaturals]

Big Brothers ft. MC is Pagan

*hands you some self indulgent bullshit*

Considering OM lore gives us proof of the Abrahamic God, why not others? This is purely because I'm a silly little pagan myself. My idea was that as a general rule, magic is stronger in the Devildom. And if you do deity work, said gods can visit you in a much more tangible way. If anyone is interested in a part 2 lmk! Anyways. Enjoy ♡♡♡♡♡

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Lucifer

• He really doesn't care.

• Listen, it doesn't really affect him in any way. Bro has way too much on his plate to worry about you yelling at the moon.

• Every now and then you find candle wicks trimmed and herbs restocked. How mysterious.

• Despite his habit of brushing your religion off... Lucifer nearly has a heart attack when, late one night, he heads to the kitchen to grab yet another coffee only to find you chatting it up with The Morrìgan.

• Imagine his shock as he watches you sitting there on the counter, feet swinging as you tell the triple goddess about your day.

• Suddenly his respect and fear of you increases tenfold.

Mammon

• His immediate assumption is "Oh shit like the witches he owes money.."

• Once you explain you don't do fantasy magic... just practical stuff he calms down.

• He tries to impress you by talking about how he met such and such deity at a party a few centuries ago.

• Claims to have out drank Dionysis. It's a lie.

• Enchant a good luck charm for him. He will cherish it forever.

• After observing your practice he's started keeping bay leaves in his wallet.

• Remember that comment about Dionysis? Yeah that's about to bite the great Mammon in the ass.

• As usual, our dear Avatar of Greed bursts into your room unannounced.

• Rudely interrupting a godly gossip session. 

• You just roll your eyes. "See what I mean? Zero privacy!"

• The god of madness and wine (amongst other things) hums in agreement before turning to Mammon with a glint in his eye.

• "How about a drinking contest? I've heard some bold claims."

Leviathan

• Once you get past the initial phase of "ew normie go away", he actually thinks it's kinda cool.

• I mean you do need to explain you aren't a magical girl or some shit. But aside from that he shows genuine interest.

• One night a thunderstorm knocks the power out.

• Unable to game, Levi decides to go see what you are up to.

• He's not quite sure what he expected, but it probably wasn't finding you sitting outside, criss cross applesauce in the pouring rain.

• "Hey... MC.... you okay?" Leviathan had planned on poking his head out to see what possessed you to go out on a torrential downpour.  Emphasis on planned.

• Seeing the king of the gods listening to you rant about failing the big Devildom law exam made the third born change his mind real fast.

• His plan was to pretend it never happened because *what the fuck*

• Too bad Zeus asked about the purple haired guy staring at you. Oops.

Satan

• If you do deity work, he loans you books on your patron's mythology

• Satan will sit for hours with you discussing common themes found throughout various religions.

• Thinks Freya's chariot being pulled by cats is the coolest thing ever.

• Very interested in baneful magic. I just know it.

• "I got you some coffin nails while I was out the other day."

• Satan is well aware magic is stronger in the Devildom so he isn't surprised in the slightest when any spellwork you do is a bit more... aggressive? Then what you expect.

• However he certainly wasn't expecting Lady Hecate to visit you every now and again.

• He was dropping off a book on natural poisons when the door opens to reveal a chthonic goddess offering you words of wisdom.

• "Oh I love that book. Leave it on the alter." Neither of you look up, too engrossed in your own conversation.

• Satan, being one of the few demons in this house with at least two braincells to rub together, does as he's told.

[batfossil-fr]

I am taking The Step and being a very brave boy and I am going to start setting up my non fr art account. for REAL this time. no “I say I will do this and oops I don’t” it’s For Real and if it’s not up soon you have permission to kick me. I wrote some introduction post the other day that turned into a million page long essay so i’ve gotta like... actually draw shit, instead of just wall of text worldbuilding infodump lmao. I thought, hey let’s give a little primer into my world. and then I immediately went into a rant about geological history i didn’t even GET to the main species until like 2/3 of the way down lmfao

but I have spent too long letting that account haunt the back of my brain. its posting time!!! (I am utterly terrified to post things you have no idea.) but that’s how it goes. soon. maybe this week once i get some exams out of the way. it WILL happen

[spacelazarwolf]

at the risk of sounding gatekeepy/transmed-y (which i assure i’m not, and it’s not my intention to be), as a queer older-teen who has been out in some capacity since i was about 10 years old, it can be… really really frustrating that almost all of the queer people that i’ve met at my school (and lots that i’ve met online, too) are people who 1 realized they were queer during the pandemic full stop, but also 2 realized they were queer during the pandemic and have only ever been out in a relatively sheltered, accepting environment (and i find the latter is extremely common).

and while i’m very glad and all that being queer is safer for lots of young people nowadays, it can feel very alienating when it’s so obvious that these other baby queers, though we are the same age, have so much less experience engaging with queerness itself in a thoughtful way & engaging with other queer people in a thoughtful way. they’re very flippant with their use of slurs despite having never been called them, they ask others about their sexuality/gender without thinking how that might be extremely anxiety inducing and invasive and uncomfortable for closeted people—even in a “safe space.” like, i still feel sick and anxious when i hear queer topics being talked about casually irl! sure, i’m recovering, slowly, but the violence i faced for being queer is still traumatizing- it doesn’t matter how safe the space is! and they just can’t comprehend that.

idk. while i’m happy that some people live in more accepting places than i did, it’s just so fucking frustrating that i can’t connect with anyone i know irl (with the exception of like… one person lol) over the collective trauma of growing up openly or closet-ly queer in a shitty middle school, because it isn’t something that’s commonly shared anymore, i guess. it’s getting harder and harder for me to find queer people in my age group who have actually been the target of queerphobic violence, whether that’s physical or emotional. and i can’t help but resent them for it.

anyway. this turned into a rant oops but i initially was sending this ask in response to the conversation about gen Z queers who are really into slurcourse and identity discourse and such, and like. i fully believe a big reason behind that is because since they don’t have real life experiences of oppression to look back on, it’s harder for them to see the bigger picture of queerphobia and how fucking dumb identity discourse is, because they’ve never directly experienced oppression that Actually Matters. like i think once you’ve been assaulted for being queer, you realize that discourse does not fucking matter. it’s a maturity and experience gap i think, regardless of age. so that’s my 2 cents as a gen Zer queer who grew up in the shitty midwest lol

yeah a lot of the people who are really into specifically online discourse like slur discourse and identity discourse usually haven't had much to deal with in their real lives. which like. i'm glad bc maybe that means shit's getting better even though it's scary now. but it's also frustrating as someone who has experienced a lot of irl discrimination.

[aesthetically-dying101]

Hey! I wanted to respond to the TW advice rant you posted yesterday!! I think she was just trying to relate to you and maybe make you feel like you weren’t so alone. People do it with me all the time, my body eats at my joints, which causes a lot of pain (obviously). People tell me that they understand and how their joints hurt and how much it sucks and blah blah blah. It’s honestly so annoying because I’m like your joints just hurt - my body is literally eating the joint and it’s turning into bone on bone, stfu we’re not the same.

I don’t think she meant any harm by it but it’s absolutely annoying. Just smile and nod is all I got. I’ve always enjoyed asking those people what it’s like to still have joints and they just stare at me wide eyed 🤷🏻‍♀️ oops. I hope this helps!

Best of luck!

xx

Exactly!!

But even if it does come to from a good place and empathy and all that shit, it's still so frustrating. (also the smile and nod is so, so true).

Like i see what they mean... but urgh. It's not the same.. like this is permanent for me, not for you.

Also i haven't spoken to this girl again, even though we've seen each other multiple times, and i've refused to speak to her and she asked another of our friend tf was wrong with me. Basically she then apologised for her words (but not a real apology, one of those "I'm sorry you feel that way" apologies, emphasis on the "you").

Anyways she sucks, and i'm not counting on speaking to her again.

AND THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO ANSWERED MY PREVIOUS POST!! Your advice was very helpful.