#this will be a bit depressing tbh

[barbieaemond]

The Favourite (teaser)

Pairing: Aemond Targaryen x brothel employee!reader

Warnings: angst, mommy issues, mentions of SA, smut, reader is a bit older than Aemond, emotions?

Long Synopsis: On his thirteenth nameday, Aegon brings his little brother to the brothel, thinking it’s time for Aemond to become a man. He pays more than he usually does his whores to have the best one, Madame Sylvi no less. She serves young Prince Aemond as a Prince deserves, showing her well-crafted skills. When she leaves the room, the young boy feels like retching on the floor.

He’s unaware that someone is watching, has been watching all along. Because Madame has bought another girl and she has no time to teach her all the tricks. So, she tells her to watch and learn through a peephole, special feature of all the brothels. And she watches, feeling her skin crawl, but she doesn’t stay there. She gets closer, unexpectedly closer, more than anyone has dared or cared enough to.

A week later, he returns to the brothel and asks for her. He will for all the times to come, while he grows into a man. And the whores and the customers begin to whisper, to question, to guess, because there’s only a curtain separating the Prince and the woman from the hall, but above the music they hear no moans, lewd cries or sounds of flesh against flesh coming from there.

Occasionally, they only see a glass of milk being brought in. Sometimes, they steal a furtive look inside and see the Prince lying in her lap, both of them sprawled on soft cushions, candles all around. Sometimes, she takes him to her private room upstairs, holding his hand as they walk through the crowd, all dazed and whispering. They call her The Favourite.

[demaparbat-hp]

Zuko was a child when he met Agni. Then, the spirits started coming to him. Eyes hidden in the hallways, voices pleading for help, for recognition, for remembrance.

Zuko could see Agni. He could see the broken remains of a Great Spirit and the empty smiles of amnesiac ghosts.

And they could see him in return.

[reading-comp-posting]

Hey everyone.

I have no idea how this happened, but I'm feeling completely fine and this condition seems to be stable. So this is the end of my hiatus that lasted a whopping three days.

The day I made the announcement that I was going on hiatus was honestly one of, if not the worst, days I have had in the last 5 years at least. Nothing even happened except my own poor mental health, but I just woke up that morning like 75% of the way to tears. I was choking down sobs when I wrote that announcement and for a good hour or so afterwards. I just felt so awful that I knew I surely wouldn't be able to do anything here for a good long while.

That night I went to sleep, and I woke up the next morning feeling good, notably better than I was even before my depressive episode started. Maybe it was the catharsis of the previous day. Maybe the hbomberguy video on plagiarism was so good it cured my depression. I genuinely don't know what happened there.

I gave myself a couple of days to see if it was a temporary thing and it's lasted so far. I was going to wait an entire extra week or so before saying that I was definitely better, but honestly I wanted to start posting again earlier.

We now (hopefully) return to your regularly scheduled reading-comp-posting

[zerberosa]

I am not okay with this (2020)

[chibishortdeath]

Mspaint is really fun actually—

[mitsybubbles]

Sometimes I remember that when Mob was 3 Reigen was 17 and Reigen makes a lot more sense to me lol

[vvitchering]

I’m replaying act 1 (for the fifth time) and when Gale is explaining his condition to you he mentions he’s “never told another living soul” about it, except for Tara. You’re telling me this man shut himself up in his tower for an entire year and didn’t tell anyone why and no one ever bothered to find out? He has so few people who care about him in his life that he fell into a depression and disappeared for a year and NO ONE thought to go and check on him and find out what was wrong? He’s had no one but Tara providing help and support until he meets Tav???????

[s1ithers]

morrigan........

[laundrybiscuits]

7

let me out my head, let my mind run free / let me just pretend that I feel like me / need a flicker start ‘cause I’m ready / anything to spark a new beginning

That murky summer was the longest of Eddie’s life. It had started in rapid-fire panic and death like a blockbuster horror flick, and tapered off to a dull ache that seemed to stretch over his body and soul like a shaky meniscus. 

He moved slow, that summer. He’d never thought too much about his body except as something that had inconvenient wants and needs sometimes; it cleaned out the fridge and cupboards faster than Wayne could fill them, it kept shifting and fidgeting when he knew damn well that he had to sit still, it had strange hungers that he swallowed down again and again. 

In the spring, he’d opened his eyes to a pea-soup fog of pain, and for a little while it had felt like he didn’t have a body at all, just a useless collection of twitching flesh pieces strung together with chicken wire. 

It got better. The docs threw around words like “miracle,” but it didn’t feel much like one. Mostly it just felt like getting back to his old body, but with all the dials turned down. Slower, especially at first, and stiffer, and weaker. Everything took twice as long to do, and consequently the summer became longer and longer. It might’ve had the same number of minutes in it that all of Eddie’s summers always had, but every one of those minutes was soaked through with a grey kind of languor. 

Dustin didn’t really get it, but he kept coming around anyway. With him came Steve Harrington.

Steve didn’t talk to Eddie a lot. Not that summer. Not at first. He was just sort of there, flipping through a magazine in the corner of Eddie’s hospital room like a blurry apparition, then shepherding in Dustin and sometimes Mike and Lucas (and even Erica, once or twice) while Eddie held exhausted court from a recliner, handing them off like a pack of puppies for Eddie to watch for a couple hours.

Eventually, Eddie roused himself enough to ask: “Where do you even go while they’re here, man?”

“Just around, I don’t know,” said Steve. “I drive around. It’s nice out.”

“That’s really dumb. Just stay here,” Eddie told him. So after that, Steve stayed. 

It was easier when Steve could say hey dickheads, Eddie’s tired, let’s go. And then ten or fifteen or twenty minutes later it’d be quiet again, and most of the time Eddie wouldn’t even bother  moving, he’d just curl up and fall asleep on the recliner. 

He was just so worn-out all the time. There didn’t seem to be any such thing as rest for him. Even when he wasn’t actually sleepy, getting through the day felt like slogging through calf-deep sand. 

The first time Steve showed up by himself, Eddie wasn’t sure what to make of it. 

“I thought Henderson left for camp this week,” he said. Steve had a key by that point, to save Eddie having to get the door all the time, so he’d just walked in and started unloading groceries. 

“Yeah,” said Steve, like it was obvious. “That’s why he’s not here.”

Eddie didn’t ask the conspicuous follow-up question, but he thought it real hard as Steve shut the fridge. 

Maybe the bat bites had psychically linked them after all, because Steve huffed out a sigh and turned around. “I brought a couple of those movies you like—the werewolf one and the zombie one. Plus we just got Jewel of the Nile, so I figured if you wanted a change of pace…” Steve wiggled his eyebrows, and Eddie found himself laughing without really meaning to. 

“You thought I’d like Jewel of the Nile for a chance of pace?”

“No, I thought I’d like Jewel of the Nile and you’d put up with it because you’re such a good friend,” Steve said. “For a change of pace.”

So that’s how Eddie found out they were friends. 

After that, it was easier. That was about the time Eddie started being able to move around a lot better too, so it all got tangled up in his head: Steve, and movement. Freedom, and Steve. 

It was a lot to put on Steve’s shoulders, so mostly Eddie tried not to. But Steve kept coming around by himself sometimes even after Dustin got back from camp, and the back half of the summer passed a little smoother and a little sweeter like that. 

The kids started preparing to go back to school, and Eddie didn’t. Steve very blatantly tried not to ask about it until one evening, sitting on the porch, he finally said: “School.” 

He pressed his lips together like he hadn’t even meant to say that much. Eddie just shrugged.

“Got my pity diploma in the mail, dude.”

“What? When?”

“Like, uh. A month ago? Maybe two?”

“Shit, man. You shoulda told me, I’d have—we’d have—the kids’d go nuts, you know that.”

“Yeah, I know that.”

“What, uh. What’re you planning? Like, what’s next?”

Eddie rolled his shoulders. “I dunno. What’s next for you?”

Steve leaned back, bracing himself on his hands and looking up at the violet sky. After a moment, he said, “Guess I don’t know either. Maybe we both need, like…a fresh start. We could, I don’t know. Go somewhere.”

“Ste-eve Harrington.” Eddie smiled up at him. “Are you asking me to run away with you? Whatever will the society papers think?”

Steve didn’t take the bait, though. He just grinned back at Eddie and said, “Maybe I am. Whatcha gonna do about it, Munson?”

Eddie hesitated, but what did he have to lose? Or rather—what did he have to gain?

He reached out, slow and careful, and settled his hand over Steve’s. It felt like a circuit connecting. Like something was clicking back together inside of Eddie at last.

Steve didn’t say anything about it, but he didn’t move, either. They just sat there for a while in the twilight, watching the light change.

DVD extra:

“I’m going to see Eddie!” Lucas hollered, halfway out the door. “I’ll be back by dinner!”

“Uh-huh, and I’m not good enough for your stupid boys’ club?” Erica shrieked, tearing around the corner and skidding to a stop so she could plant her hands on her hips and glare at Lucas.

“What?” said Lucas. 

“It’s just a little suspicious how there’s no girls allowed when you go see that long-haired freak,” she sniffed. 

“Do you…want to come with me?” Lucas said slowly. 

“Of course I don’t, dumbass! Why would I want to go?” Erica pushed past Lucas, swinging her backpack over her shoulder. “But someone’s gotta make sure you stupid boys don’t burn the place down.”

“Hey, Lucas,” called Steve, leaning out of the car window. “Erica coming with us today?”

Lucas made frantic throat-cutting motions.

“Huh?” said Steve. “She’s…not coming with us?”

Lucas groaned and jogged up to the car. “She’s coming, just don’t talk about it,” he hissed. 

He thought for a second about trying to slide over the hood of the car like cool guys in the movies, but if he messed it up, Erica would never let him live it down. She’d be telling the story at his wedding and his funeral. So he just walked around to the passenger side like a normal person and got in.

“Seatbelts,” said Steve.

“I remember you being less of a nerd,” said Erica. “Now move it, the king of the nerds is waiting.”

[plantsjustwannahavefun]

I am once again begging Ed stans to understand that it's possible to love Ed and believe he deserves love AND also admit that he mistreated and tormented the crew during the Kraken era. Not only is this possible, this is the position the show wants you to have. You think Izzy deserved everything he got? Fine, whatever, forget about him for a minute. There's a whole crew in there you're supposed to empathise with and feel sympathy for, too. The six of them that Ed actively tried to kill or left for dead, for starters. Pay attention to the crew's experiences and reactions. They're shown to be traumatised, grieving, clinging to disassociation (Frenchie) and nihilism (Archie) as coping mechanisms and suffering from PTSD flashbacks. And, since this type of fans constantly go on about how it's racist to think Ed did anything wrong... what about the fact that a lot of the crew are PoC too? What then?

If you've watched the first 3 episodes of S2 and there was only one person on that ship you felt sorry for, then you're not a fan of OFMD, you're just a fan of Ed in isolation. And if the only way you can love Ed is by denying that he ever did anything wrong, then you're completely missing the point of the show. OFMD never said that people only deserve to be loved if they're morally perfect and flawless. The show doesn't subscribe to the dichotomy of Good vs Bad. Good people can do bad things. They can hurt the ones they love. Even if they didn't mean to, even if they themselves were suffering at the time, it doesn't mean they don't need to take responsibility for their actions or avoid the consequences. Stede didn't mean to hurt Mary and his kids when he left, but he still did. He had legitimate reasons for leaving, he didn't just do it for the lolz, but it was still wrong and Mary was right to be angry at him. And Stede needed to face up to this - not just for their sake but his too. Even though it turned out their lives were better off without him, reconciling with Mary was still crucial for his character development.

It was the same for Ed, it just didn't get handled quite as well due to lack of screentime, but the idea was the same. When Ed realises he'd been cruel to Fang and apologises, he isn't sinking into self-hatred and despair. Quite the contrary, this is a moment of growth for him. Because the fact is, just because you as a human being are inherently worthy of love doesn't mean you can go around hurting everyone and expecting them to put up with you. That's just not how it works. You don't need to be perfect, but you do need to listen to people when they tell you that you hurt them and apologise genuinely and try to be better. The show is very sympathetic to Ed but it does NOT excuse his actions. The crew aren't portrayed as villains or antagonists for being scared and angry at Ed for what he did to them. Even Stede was on their side with this one. If even Stede is able to see things from the crew's POV and have sympathy for them, then you should too. Stede doesn't love Ed because he sees Ed as a pure uwu angel. He loves Ed... because he just does. He loves being around him. They really click together. They have so much in common. That doesn't mean he approves of literally everything Ed has ever done. It just means he loves Ed despite that.

[silverskye13]

hi can i just say that while I haven't been there to read your HK fanfiction, seeing you update nailmaster's folly after so long makes me... hopeful? In the 'I also have wips I haven't touched in years but there might still be space for them one day if I get the gumption' sort of way? so, while I'm not really going to be reading it as I know nothing about HK: thanks for updating nailmaster's folly, so cool to see it.

Hey you're very welcome! I'm very stoked it's giving you hope for your future projects. That's a hope you deserve to have.

Honestly, one of the most important things about art that I wish everyone would, at some point, absorb into their creative process, is that everything is allowed to rest. Sometimes the only thing that will "fix" a problem piece is time and distance, and that time and distance is allowed to be long. You're allowed to drop something for 4 years and randomly decide it's worth your time again, and you should be able to have that process without guilt or judgement.

Not to get on the "internet culture is evil" soapbox, but, the idea of the "grind", that every project must be done at once, from start to finish, in a logical order that others can consume and follow from point A to point Z, is untenable for individual creators, especially creators that are doing it just for fun. You aren't a machine. You aren't a writing board churning out a podcast, movie, tv series, comic book set, etc. You're a person finding joy in making art about something you love. The process can be messy. It can make no sense. It can involve long breaks, or deciding you're done with something entirely. Without guilt or malice, you are allowed to wash your hands of something and then decide to get them dirty with it again when you can stand the texture.

I understand there's sadness in thinking you can't finish something, in not knowing how to fix it immediately, or not being able to conjure the motivation to put to physicality something that makes so much sense in your head. Be disappointed, and grieve it, if you must. But never think it was time wasted. No one has ever walked out of their house in the morning without, at some point or another, looking at the world to see what was there. You're allowed to start a project, walk down the road with it, and realize you'd rather look around.

You can always come back.

[b4kuch1n]

more sk8. I think the cindereki stuff is extremely stupid but I am not immune to trying to conceptualize a princess gown in any setting

[the-busy-ghost]

Minor throwaway sentence in a book on corruption I've just finished was talking about 1930s gangsters and about certain organisations in Chicago which the author stated were more ethnically diverse than the Italian mafia, and whose members were said to have included 'Irish, Welsh, Italian, and Jewish' gangsters.

Now call me sheltered but I've seen MANY Italian American gangsters immortalised in film, I've heard of the Jewish mob, and the police Irish American gangs but I have yet to see a movie about the Welsh mob. As a rule I don't go in for gangster movies but I feel there's an unfilled niche here and also I need more info.

[there-will-be-a-way]

So, I started working at a sheltered workplace on Monday and although I'm soooo exhausted, I'm actually enjoying it too. I feel like more of a normal person now. Get up early in the morning. Go to work. Have breaks. Wish everyone a Schönen Feierabend™️. Go home. Go grocery shopping. Chill until it's time to go to bed. Have a real weekend. Nice.

[pollen]

:|

[sweettsubaki]

I started re-watching Stargate SG1 and I'm on the 1st episode (well 1&2 technically) and as soon as I started my grandma started watching too ??????

Like it might not seem that weird but she only likes historical romances (at most she'll accept a soap opera) and thinks everything else is stupid.

She can't hear what's going on bc she's mostly deaf.

Also I downloaded it from your basic downloading website so it's in English which she does not speak.

The 1st episode is 1h32 minutes long and we're at about 1h10 I think. She's barely blinked. It seems to be riveting to her.

It's been very distracting.