#to coin a phrase “use YOUR words (not everyone else's)!”

[nostalgia-tblr]

tracking down whoever started fandoms on the phrases "use your words" and "sweet girl" and having them boiled alive in diet coke

[atlabeth]

pretty boy

pairing: spencer reid x reader

summary: spencer walks in one day with a new look. you handle it pretty well.

a/n: im in the opposite of a writing slump right now (will prob fall into a writing slump right after i say this) probably because im procrastinating on essays for school and i can only write when im meant to be doing work. but tiny little fluffy spencer one shots are very good for the soul right now. i think it's my way of healing from my hotch fic

wc: 1.8k

warning(s): one slightly sexual joke from emily. all fluff

You usually don’t get to the office this early, but you don’t exactly have a choice. The BAU’s last couple cases have all run one after another, barely leaving you any time in the office, and now you’re paying for it. 

You’ve got a mountain of paperwork to get through and not nearly enough time to do it all—if you’re lucky, you’ll be writing reports for a few days straight. If you’re not, you’ll be putting in some overtime.  

“This is the most focused I’ve ever seen you this early,” Derek comments. 

You shake your head with a sigh. “These reports are government mandated torture.” 

He chuckles, and he nods at Emily as she walks over to her desk. “Are you this busy?” 

She shakes her head. “I’ve still got a report to get through, but nothing that bad.” 

“I get it,” you say wryly. “You’re all more organized than me. Just don’t come to me asking to go out tonight—you know I can’t say no.” 

“But don’t shots taste better when you’re supposed to be doing work?” Derek asks, and you roll your eyes with a laugh. 

“Not when I’ve got this much work I’m supposed to be doing.” 

You hear the elevator ding and glance up—Spencer’s walking through and fixing his tie. You look back down at your report as you greet him. 

“Hey, Spence,” you call. “Why’re you late?” 

“I’m not late,” he says, and you can see him checking his watch out of your peripherals. “I’m two minutes and thirty-three seconds early.” 

“Really?” you muse. “I guess I’m just so used to you being here before me.” 

“You can’t judge my timeliness on yours when you’ve been here for an hour already,” Spencer says. 

You frown, tapping your pen against the paper. “How do you know?” 

“You’re settled in already. Your coat’s on your chair, your stack of unfinished files is smaller than it was last time we were in the office, your coffee isn’t steaming, and your mug has a chipped handle—when they were put away last night, that one was set in the front, so you’d have to be here early to get it.” 

“Touche,” you murmur. You’re not sure why you ever ask your team of profilers how they know something. 

“You also look like you don’t want to be here,” he comments. “That’s pretty typical of agents who have to be here before their regular hours.” 

You chuckle and tilt your head in admission. You don’t really want to be here, especially running on so few hours of sleep. 

“Why aren’t you as early as usual?” Emily asks. 

“My neighbor knocked on my door this morning to ask me for something,” Spencer says. “It threw off my whole routine. I picked the wrong tie, I couldn’t pack my bag properly, and I had to toast my bagel for two minutes instead of three and a half to make it out in time.” 

“How terrible,” Derek says with mock austerity. 

“It is terrible!” he exclaims. “It’s scientifically proven that a morning routine makes you happier, more energized, and ready to seize the day—carpe diem.” Spencer sets his bag on the floor next to his desk and looks at everyone else with a smile. “Did you know that phrase was actually coined by the Roman poet Horace in his Odes? It comes from the first book out of four in the eleventh poem—the full phrase in Latin is carpe diem, quam mini—”

“How was your bagel?” Emily asks to interrupt him, and he pauses. 

“It was good,” he says. “Could’ve been toastier.” 

You look up, a teasing remark on the edge of your tongue, but the words die in your throat when you actually see him. 

Spencer’s started combing a hand through his hair to fix it—must have been another part of his affected morning routine—his lips set in a pout as he tries to see his reflection in his dark monitor. He always looks good, even without trying, but now—

“You’re wearing glasses,” you say dumbly. 

“My contacts dried out,” he grumbles, still focused on his hair. “We got home so late last night I forgot to put them in their solution, and I had no time to fix them because my neighbor messed up my whole morning.” 

You nod, still unable to tear your eyes away from him. “Are you gonna keep wearing them?” 

“I don’t know. Contacts are better for cases because I’m not worried about them falling off or fogging up, but I usually sleep on the jet on the way back, and sleeping with contacts in isn’t good.” He smiles a bit as he fully turns to you, seemingly satisfied with his hair. “It reduces the amount of oxygen that gets to your cornea, which damages the cornea’s surface and makes it harder to regenerate new cells. Sleeping with contacts actually makes you six to eight times more likely to get an eye infection.”

You nod again, your brain still not quite working at full power. You always love listening to Spencer’s fact dumps—it gives you a lot of material to impress your non-BAU friends with on the side, and you’re eternally thankful for that—but right now, you seriously cannot focus. 

You’d never really thought about him in glasses, but that’s probably a good thing if this is how it makes you feel. 

You were valedictorian as an undergrad, and you received stellar feedback from your professors during your masters program. You’re an excellent profiler, a valued member of the BAU, and you’re a goddamn FBI agent. 

And yet you can’t find a single thought in your head because your coworker showed up to work wearing glasses. 

He’s still rambling about other common causes of eye infection and how nobody seems to take them as seriously as they should, when Derek, not even trying to hide his grin at your turmoil, speaks up.  

“Reid. Wanna cool it a bit?” 

Spencer’s eyes dart over to him for a moment before he stops. “Uh— sorry.” He frowns as he looks back at you. “Why do you ask? Do you not like them?” 

“No,” you blurt out, and you shake your head a multitude of times. “No. They look great. You look great. They’re—” You dig your nails hard into your palm as you try your hardest to smile like normal, and this time you nod. “They’re good, Spence.” 

“Thanks.” Spencer does that little smile-nod combo of his, and he pushes his glasses back into place with his thumb by the bottom of the frames. “That’s nice to know I’ve got another option.” 

You thank whatever god may be out there that Hotch and Penelope are busy in their offices and JJ is busy with some other case, because you think you would die if anyone else saw you like this. 

“Hey, Reid,” Emily says, also not doing a very good job of hiding her amusement. You hate your team sometimes. “They’re almost out of sugar in the breakroom. If you want coffee the way you like it this morning, you should probably get in there.” 

“What?” Spencer shoots up, his brows already furrowing into a frown. “That— that’s ridiculous. I can’t mess up my morning any more.” 

“You’d better get in there, then,” she remarks. 

“We’re an entire office of agents running on coffee,” Spencer complains as he starts walking. “How are we almost out of sugar?” 

“Because half of ‘em drink it black,” Derek says, and Spencer shakes his head with a sigh as he leaves. 

“That’s ridiculous.” 

You bury your head in your hands the moment he’s gone and Derek laughs. “I wish I could’ve gotten that on video.” 

“Don’t talk to me,” you groan. “It is not fair of him to walk in like that.” 

“And that is why I call him pretty boy.”

“He needs them to see,” Emily says with amusement as she leans against the side of your desk. “You just can’t control yourself.” 

“I need to transfer offices,” you say, shaking your head. “I can’t do this.” 

“You should ask him out!” Derek encourages. “He’d probably say yes.” 

“Absolutely not,” you insist. “I doubt he likes me like that. A— and even if he does, that’s the last thing either of us need right now.” 

“I don’t know,” Emily muses. “It looks like you clearly need something.” 

You let out a frustrated noise as you screw your eyes shut. “I’m doomed.” 

You hear Spencer say your name, and when you look over at him, one hand still pressed against your head, you see he’s got two cups of coffee in his hands. “Are you okay?” 

“Yeah,” you say weakly. “I’m great. Why?” 

“I got you one too,” he says, holding one of the mugs out to you. “The one you have is probably cold by now, and it looks like you need an extra kick to get through all those reports.” 

“Thanks, Spence. That’s sweet.” He nods as you take the proffered mug, and you swear your cheeks are as warm as the coffee. He is really testing your strength today. 

“You— you have a lot,” he says, and you huff a dry laugh and nod. “I’m not trying to be sarcastic. I could take half of them if you want?” 

Your grip tightens on the mug and you can feel Derek’s eyes on you. “I couldn’t make you do that, Spence.” 

“You’re not!” Spencer exclaims. “I can get through mine really quickly—we worked together for almost the whole last case so I can do all of that anyways.” 

“...You’re sure it wouldn’t be an imposition?” 

“I’m sure,” he nods. “Besides, I offered. I wouldn’t if I didn’t want to.” 

And god damn him, because he nudges his glasses back into place again, pushes a strand of loose hair back into place. You’re dying over here. 

You set the mug of coffee on your desk and pick up the top half of your pile. “All yours, Spence.” 

He takes the bottom half and smiles at you, and you smile back before he walks back to his desk. You are dying over here. 

“Let me know how I can pay you back,” you say, and he shakes his head. 

“You don’t need to pay me back.” 

“Really?” 

Spencer nods. “I mean, Morgan invited us all out on the jet last night, and I don’t think I can do it alone. If you can get out of the office in time, I don’t have to. I think that's enough of a payback.” 

“Yeah,” you say. “I’ll be there.” 

He smiles again and nods, then he picks up a pen and focuses in. You turn back to your desk, your face burning. 

“What was that about him not liking you like that?” Derek says. 

“Quiet!” you whisper-yell, swatting him with the pile of files in your hand. “He might hear you!” 

“He’s not hearing anything while he’s focused on that,” he says. “That just means you can ogle him more.” 

You groan again, letting your forehead fall into your palm. “I’m pathetic.” 

“I think you’re right.” Emily chuckles as she stands up. “You are doomed.” 

[dedalvs]

Hi David! Hope you’re having a nice day.

Do you have any tips for people who want to create a casual conlang, as in only for like a pen & paper game or a story they’re writing, where they want to coin some phrases and have a recognisable and somewhat realistic sound but can’t put in all of the background work that really goes into what you do?

Thanks for your time!

Yes I do! I recommend you read a short paper by Jeffrey Henning called "A Naming Language" (you can find it at Fiat Lingua). This will tell you how to create a small language sketch that will allow you to create just enough of a phonology and basic grammatical decisions to create names in your language. What it won't help you do is create complex syntax and inflection required for full scale translation. Now, when I say that, you might be thinking, like, to translate a novel or a political tract, or something like that, but frankly, translating something like, "Can you hand me that wrench over there?" is complex enough. Embedded in that one sentence is choices you have to make about:

Polar question formation

Abilitive/permissive modality

Potential subject/object concord

Demonstratives

Spatial location systems

Pronoun systems

Now this all works in a specific way in English, but it will work in a different specific way in every other language. Some things that English is sensitive too others may not be (for example, English changes word order when changing from a statement to a question; other languages don't do that), but other languages may be sensitive to things English isn't (for example, a language like Georgian has verbs that agree with both the subject, direct object, and indirect object. English doesn't do that). All of these are decisions you have to make (or make implicitly) when designing a language.

I mention all this so you understand what exactly you'll have when you create a language sketch—what you can do and what you can't. With a language sketch, you can create names, you can create single words, you can create derivations, even phrases that don't resolve to anything (like "Cool!" that is a word with one meaning but used to mean something else). You can't translate full sentences. If you do, what you'll either be doing is either (a) creating actual grammar, which is what you do when creating a full language, or (b) unconsciously recreating the grammar of another language (e.g. unconsciously copying the grammar of English).

It is within everyone's capabilities to create a language sketch in no more than a week—perhaps even an hour or two. As long as you know exactly what you can and can't do with it, you can plan accordingly for your fiction—and a sketch can always be expanded into a full conlang later!

[artificial-absinthe]

Very sorry if this is super long but no hate to you at all, you make a valid point with tags:

I think you can also block posts containing certain phrases?/gen but also I can understand that when hc's mix into/flood a certain tag without the additional tag to block you from seeing it, it can get frustrating and hard to create your own experience.

Note to everyone else that isn't the OP: To those who agree with OP's post (I know OP's intention isn't for this to happen, I can understand getting annoyed because they aren't able to see the content they want to usually) it's not okay to target/ harass certain creators that you think OP is talking about, it's just not on.

But overall OP does make a good point of tumblr etiquette: some of us want to be able to have our feed specific to what we want but it's hard to do so without the additional tag that we can't block so we don't have to see certain posts. You can still use the tags that you normally use but the additional tag is very useful for those of us who aren't so eager for the AU's and HC's.

Hello, it's not long at all, and long is not necessarily unsavory.

In regards of the first sentence, I actually didn't know that. It could indeed be useful for very specific sentences, but I can't filter very general words because I could miss posts on female characters that I like. Anyway, I still believe that a tag would be in order. Ive been told that one has already been coined, and I hope that people will use it, since apparently the blogs on that trend took it personal (for what I've been told, I don't go stalking them), then, perhaps many of them won't be willing to use it out of spite.

About the second topic, I did not made these posts for others to go harassing anyone. Again, it was not some petty callout thing, and I did not implied anything different from what I wrote. No, if you (general) out there agree with me, don't go harassing users, instead you could reblog my requests in a leveled manner so that it gets taken into account.

[spreadwardiard]

5, 6, 12, 14, and 30 please! I would love to hear what you have to say in response to those questions :)

What do you wish someone would ask you about Crossing the Line? Answer it now! I wish someone would ask about Megatronus' and Orion's flirting ohhh my goodness. It is one of my favorite aspects of that AU I haven't really gotten to write much about yet. Their primary means of flirting with one another is a silly game between them that starts after A New Kind of Word Sparring. It becomes like a game for them and many of their debates past this point devolve into a contest to see who can get the other's fans blowing first. Megatronus is surprised that Orion wins about half the time.

What’s one fact about the universe of Naught But a Ghost that you didn’t get a chance to mention in the fic itself?

I never got a chance to mention Megatron and Orion Pax's friendship with Soundwave, and I haven't really had a chance to explore that yet in the follow up pieces either. Soundwave is Megatron's amica and also a good friend of Orion's. I wanted to explore that in that fic but just could not make it fit right. which segues into another fact about Soundwave in that universe: he is the one who guides Orion on Kaoni courtship traditions and pushes Megatronus into accepting Orion's clumsy attempts at pursuing him romantically. two for one! Another thing though I never mentioned in that fic is that Orion actually cares a great deal for the whole of the Decepticon army as well as their sympathizers. He is their leader's Conjunx after all, and even after Megatron renounces that role at the end of the war, Orion never stops seeing the Decepticons as his people.

12. Are there any tropes you used to dislike but have grown on you?

This kinda depends how we are defining 'tropes'. If we go with the defintion : "something such as an idea, phrase, or image that is often used in a particular artist's work, in a particular type of art, in the media, etc." then the answer is mechpreg. When i first started reading Transformers fic I did not care for it at all, I was hypercritical of it because it felt too organic for me, but it kept showing up in fics I was reading and i enjoy it now as much as I enjoy the more asexual methods of mech reproduction. (Like, i know my first 2 fics mention it, but thats because this trope change happened BEFORE I started writing for Transformers. though... I started reading Transformers fics like... the week before I started writing for it so this change happened pretty quickly, but its the biggest trope I can think of really that I can think of that my mind changed on.)

14. Are there any tropes you would only read if written by a trusted friend or writer?

XDXD Yes. And it's actually YOU, my friend, who writes it! In The Many Lives of Optimus Prime one of the major tropes is reincarnation, and I am really uninterested in reading other's takes on this trope to be honest. (sorry everyone else, I am only being honest 😅😅😅)

30. Have you ever written something that was out of your comfort zone? If so, what was it, and how did it affect your approach to writing fic thereafter?

YES. Pretty much all of 2 Sides to a Coin is somewhat outside my comfort zone! The biggest thing is that I have almost always been an exclusively NSFW writer and this AU is SFW, This made me have to really think about other ways to express intimacy, emotional bonds and physical closeness, which has made my ability to write romance in general much better than it was before.

[kallmaker]

I Stand with The T - Public Thread

I Stand with The T - Public Thread preserved from the implosion of Bird Site. Trans people are part of this cis lesbian's queer family.

Why This Post

The post below captures a thread I released on eXTwitter on May 2, 2022.* It’s been roughly 18 months since and I wouldn’t change a word – except the misuse of “whose” in the second paragraph. My account there is dormant.

There are so many lies and intellectually dishonest “What Ifs” being told directly to us, by some of us, about our trans family. It’s their goal to make us feel as if someone else's rights come at the expense of ours. This is the antithesis of feminism and there is nothing radical about it. It's the same old same old same old.

As I've said for years, rights must be universal or they're not rights.

Sisters of the Pen who Shaped Me

My philosophy around these complicated issues comes from learning the words of Judy Grahn, Joan Nestle, Joanna Russ, Octavia Butler, and Dorothy Allison. And so many more. Their fortitude, brilliance, and ability to sit with complexity without being numbed or overwhelmed into inaction are beacons of unity and love in a fractured world.

I am also grateful to my younger kid, who says, "I had a wonderful girlhood and grew up to be a man." It's inspiring to see him pulling together threads of himself that weren't working well together and now increasingly are. His example speaks loudly to me, especially that when I ask what seems a simple question, his first response is, "Well, yes and no. A lot and only sometimes. I can't speak for everyone about that."

I can't speak for everyone about that. A reality that influencers on social media oft ignore when stirring up the coin of their realm: Anger and Fear.

I Miss the Sapphic Community of eXTwitter

Please follow me at any of these sites:

Facebook Threads Bluesky

  Over the past year, the sapphic community on the former Twitter became an oasis of normal in a vast morass of bigotry and "free speech" with the sole intent of bullying others into silence. The monkey-poo-barians were and are at the proverbial gates, which left me feeling anxious and unsafe though I was nearly always among friends.

Since the site has deleted accounts for mainstream journalists, non-partisan sources, and dissenting influencers who pointed out a business model now profiting off hate speech and violence, it's clear our presence there is merely tolerated, as if they simply haven't gotten to us yet. I'm not going back to living like that - it didn't feel good to be at or use the site anymore though I dearly care about the people there.

I posted my "Goodbye Twitter, it's not me, it's you" farewell in September of last year. I have copies of content posted there, and this is one thread that I simply didn't want to lose behind their paywall.

I Stand With the T Thread (unedited)

A thread about LESBIAN. It's long, sorry/not sorry. I #StandWithTheT, people.

I'm a 60+ cis woman whose been a lesbian for 90% of her life. It took me years to say lesbian without inwardly flinching. I fought to use the word and use it proudly. It's my power word.

It's because I have lived with my hard-won lesbian identity all these decades that I can't fathom NOT standing with trans and bi people now.

I didn't arrive at this understanding easily. It took work, help, and mistakes, all of which was worth it in every way.

In yesteryears, we had to make places to be safe. When you claim space, the world wants it back. So we put up walls for the safety of those on one side of them.

There is no wall that will keep out the future, especially a future you've helped bring about. And here we are.

To anyone trying to use LESBIAN as a brick in another wall: I have seen your kind before. You're descendants of the lesbians that told me how I *ought* to like sex or what I *ought* to read, and who I should shun and hate.

You're the same ilk as lesbians who coined phrases like "gold star" and waged forever tedious arguments about what a "real" lesbian is.

If you police other people's identities, you're saying it's okay for others to police you. I read that in the 80s, FFS.

I see you terrifying yourself with one-off examples of some dude who behaved badly to justify your malignant attacks on millions of people as well as your bad faith, intellectually dishonest hand wringing.

This peril you feel is not because a trans person wants to pee.

I get that it's easier to attack people - especially those who can't punch up - instead of ideas. It's easily monetized for one thing.

Fighting ideas means dealing with icky nuances and complexities, and I am right there with you wanting the world to go back to being SIMPLER.

Well, the world never was simpler.

Part of lesbian struggle and history has always been about ENDING gender limitations. Any way a woman can be is therefore the way women are, remember?

Marriage was withheld from same sex couples because of sex boxes on marriage license applications.

Jobs, education, credit, wages - all withheld from women because we were forced to mark F on forms, and that F was legally sanctioned way to police and enforce how we behaved.

The first person I heard argue that her sex did not belong on a job application was a butch lesbian.

Other feminists made this point too, but the emphasis on defying and breaking gender norms was all lesbian for me. I've been "refusing to state" whenever possible for decades.

The evolution of thinking around individual identity has grown exponentially with each subsequent generation. It confounds and blurs the ever-present rules about how any of us can be in the world. It is, in part, *OUR* doing. It. Was. The. Whole. Point.

I am completely aware of our struggles as lesbians, and I know how much heart, blood, sweat, tears, and loss went into creating a Lesbian Nation.

I honor that and was in the smallest way part of it. I am still L.A.B.I.A.: Lesbian Against Boys Invading Anything.

It takes nothing away from the extraordinary achievements of generations of activist lesbians to say our movement was not perfect.

We walled people out because of who they loved or because their journey to a queer life was different from ours. Also true: We changed the world with only our will and persistence because it wasn't like we had money. We fought for every scrap of space to breathe.

Other queer people need space to breathe.

Ask yourself who is making you feel as if it's YOUR air they are taking.

Spoiler: It's the same people it's always been. It's good for them if they pretend air is scarce and we fight over it.

This is an old lesson. Could all y'all hurry up with learning it?

Your attacks on the trans community in the name of lesbian solidarity and history betray both. Worse, they are attacks on yourself. The energy and anger you give to malice and lies about our trans family is coin in the pocket of the same people who WILL come for you next.

The same people who happily point you at the rest of us to make money and consolidate power are targeting trans people like they targeted "Adam & Steve" in the 00s, "Sluts" (women who refuse men) in the 90s, AIDS victims in the 80s, "Groomer" pedophiles in the 70s...

In the language of feminism, you are complicit in your own oppression. Your harm to yourself is harm to our entire community. It weakens all of us and makes it easier to send us back into closets to breathe the scarce air. Again, could y'all hurry up and learn this lesson?

For my trans and bi friends who are tl;dr, some lesbians use "lesbian" in an ugly way to be ugly to you. I know you can't afford to ignore them. You're not alone in having eyes on them.

It seems more true every day: we only have each other. You know you're a writer when, in spite of a boatload of compliments and reactions, all you can see is the misuse of "whose" in the very first tweet.

* Thread Info

URL: https://twitter.com/Kallmaker/status/1521311057544814592 You must be logged in to see it, otherwise the site will tell you the page doesn't even exist. Comments were generally positive though some not-feminists said some ugly things. If respectful discourse didn't work, I blocked them; you may see their comments if you view the thread.

[perpetual-stories]

Dive in Deeper: Motif

Hello everyone! Long time no post!

I must deeply and sincerely apologize for not posting. I won’t create excuses and there are none to be honest (well there are some good excuses but even then lol).

I want to thank all my loyal followers for staying with me despite my inactivity.

So, I will just dive right into it!

Just a reminder these posts are explanations and in-depth conversation to a previous post I had made.

So go check that out!! I am still going down the list of the 22 hehe.

Let’s begin!

What Is a Motif?

is a literary technique that consists of a repeated element that has symbolic significance to a literary work.

Sometimes, a motif is a recurring image. Other times, it’s a repeated word, phrase, or topic expressed in language.

A motif can be a recurring situation or action. It can be a sound or smell, a temperature, even a color.

The key aspect is that a motif repeats, and through this repetition helps to illuminate the dominant ideas, central themes, and deeper meaning of a story

How Motifs Work in Writing

Authors utilize motifs for multiple purposes. Motifs can:

Evoke a mood

Illuminate main themes

Engage the audience on an intuitive level

Create unique symbolic meanings through repetition

Establish a pattern of ideas

What Is the Difference Between Motifs and Themes?

The concepts of motif and theme have some overlap, and occasionally you will hear people use the two literary terms interchangeably. Recognizing the distinction between the two literary devices, however, can enhance your appreciation of the craft of storytelling.

Themes are the main ideas of a work of literature. They represent the meaning or question behind the series of events that make up the narrative.

Motifs are recurring elements that point to these themes. In other words, motif is a tool used to craft theme. While themes are abstract and conceptual, motifs are tangible and concrete.

If a story features repeated images of handwashing, mopping floors, and refreshing rain, then these images of cleansing water are a recurring literary motif. A theme of the story might be “the desire for purification.” The theme is a matter of interpretation, open to debate, but the motif is an indisputable pattern in the text.

What Is the Difference Between Motifs and Symbols?

Motifs frequently incorporate symbols, but a symbol is not always a motif.

A symbol is an object that represents something else. A red rose can represent romance. A crown may represent power. A gold coin represents wealth. A dove represents peace. And a snake, depending on its use, can represent either poison or fertility.

Motifs are often symbols. The famous green light across the water in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is both a symbol — representing what Gatsby desires but can never fully reach — and a motif, reappearing at multiple key moments in the novel.

A symbol can appear just a single time in a story.

To constitute a motif, by contrast, an element must appear repeatedly.

In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Yorick’s skull is an obvious symbol of death — or more specifically, as Hamlet discusses aloud, the inevitability of death. But since Yorick’s skull is the only skull to appear in the play, the skull is not a motif.

5 Famous Examples of Motifs

To help you get more familiar with motifs, are a few motif examples from famous works of film and literature:

The Godfather films: In Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather series, oranges are a visual motif. Oranges are repeatedly featured on screen just before a character dies. Outside of these movies, oranges have no established relationship with death—in fact, citrus fruits are more likely to be associated with warmth, sunshine, sweetness, and life. But by repeatedly placing oranges in close proximity to characters’ demises, the films establish oranges as a recurring motif related to the theme of death. This unique motif creates a compelling tension between death and the vitality and energy one ordinarily associates with fruit. The orange motif hints at one of the central ideas of Coppola’s films: that death is inevitable, and can come at any moment, no matter how eagerly one clings to life.

Hamlet: In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the language of decay is a verbal motif, expressed in recurring language. In Act V, while holding Yorick’s skull, Hamlet observes: “Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft.” Earlier in the play, he comments that both kings and beggars will be eaten by worms, and compares human conception to “breed[ing] maggots in a dead dog.” This repeated language of decay speaks to two of the play’s themes: the mystery of death, and the corruption of institutions.

Jane Eyre: In Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre, fire is a motif incorporated in the story’s imagery, language, and key plot incidents. Throughout the book, hearth fires evoke warmth and comfort; candlelight is described as dazzling and energizing; and passionate characters are described as “hot,” like “fire,” and “like Vulcan” (the Roman god of the forge). But fire is also presented as a dangerous force in the novel: fires cause two destructive events, while a major character’s pyromania embodies her mad, uncontrollable fervor. (Ice and coldness also constitute a contrasting motif in the novel, symbolizing the absence of emotion and tenderness.) Taken together, this fire motif represents strong emotion and love—feelings Jane requires for a full life, but which also have the potential for harm. Jane’s efforts to achieve the right balance of such powerful feelings is a major arc of her story.

A Tale of Two Cities: In his epic novel surrounding the French Revolution, Charles Dickens uses duality as a motif. Throughout the book, various characters, settings, and images have doubles or counterparts. For instance, the story takes place across two cities (London and Paris). Charles Darnay has his double in Sydney Carton, with whom he shares a physical resemblance. The two key female characters, Lucie and Madame Defarge, are opposites of one another. Indeed, the famous opening lines of the novel explore the idea of duality (“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”). This motif highlights the central themes of the book: the fragility of justice, and the possibility of redemption from the forces of darkness.

Slaughterhouse Five: Kurt Vonnegut’s novel employs a repeated phrase as a motif: “So it goes.” Vonnegut adds this phrase as a commentary on each death that occurs in the story, no matter how major or minor. This motif serves to reinforce one of the main themes of this and other works by Vonnegut: that regardless of our class, circumstances, or differences, death comes equally to all people. While this message may feel dark and depressing, Vonnegut interprets it differently, suggesting that by accepting the inevitability of death, we can live fuller lives and find common ground with others.

There you have it everyone! I hope you guys like this post and find it useful!

Please like, reblog and follow if you mind these posts useful!

[leiawritesstories]

No Swimsuits After Dark

Rowaelin Month, Day 14: Skinny dipping ;)))

Word count: 1264

Inspired by an actual sign on my relatives’ hot tub that says “No jumping, no diving, no swimsuits after dark.” Enjoy!

Warnings: language, implied sMuT, Fenrys Moonbeam

“Hell. No.”

“Hell yes!” Lysandra smirked. “Girl, you said you were up for anything. I repeat, truth or dare?”

Aelin sighed. “Remind me again why I got drunk enough to agree to this.”

Elide cocked her head at the red Solo cup in Aelin’s hand. “If that’s Lorcan’s punch…”

“Gods, you’re all horrible,” Aelin groaned. She took a long pull from the cup. “Fine, bitches. Dare.” 

An evil grin spread across Lysandra’s face. “You know the sign on the hot tub?”

“Yeah.”

“And you know how it’s like 1 am? Meaning it’s definitely dark?”

“No shit, I’m not drunk enough to be confusing night for…shit. NO.”

“YES. Hot tub, ten minutes, and since it’s after dark…no swimsuit.” She and Elide toasted each other and broke into an uncontrollable fit of giggles.

Aelin glared at her two best friends. “I hate both of you.”

“Nah, you loooooooove us,” snickered Elide. “Now strip and dip!” 

Lysandra spat out her drink. “Oh my gods, El, I’m stealing that phrase,” she wheezed. 

“Go ahead,” Elide grinned. “Ae, you gonna grow a pair and go skinny dipping or will we have to throw you into the hot tub?”

Aelin drained the rest of her drink and stood, pulling off her shirt. “I’m going, I’m going. Jesus, you think I wouldn’t take a dare? I am pretty damn drunk.” She tugged off her shorts when she got to the hot tub on the other side of the patio, leaving her underclothes with them. Quickly, not wanting anyone else to see her nude ass, she clambered into the tub, sighing as the hot water hit her skin. She closed her eyes, deciding to enjoy her impromptu soak in the hot tub rather than spend the whole ten minutes worrying another of her drunk idiot friends would stumble over and goggle at her. After all, the hot tub was gated off from the rest of the patio, and even though she’d left the gate slightly ajar, she didn’t think anyone currently at her house would be sober enough to remember it existed.

Not three minutes later, the gate squeaked open.

And a distinctly male, distinctly slurred voice, choked out a “Fuck.”

~

When Lorcan had asked Rowan if he wanted to go to Aelin’s house that night, he’d accepted like he always did, looking forward to another one of his best friend’s casual “family drinking nights,” as she’d coined them. 

Apparently this night was a joint girls’ and boys’ night, though, since Rowan had hardly got to say hello before Lorcan, Aedion, and Fenrys pulled him out to the fire pit for “bro time,” which meant shitloads of whiskey, too many shots, telling the stupidest jokes they knew until someone got hammered enough to laugh, and occasionally hearing drunk Lorcan moon over Elide. And, apparently, drunk dares.

He’d thought none of the wasted guys sitting around the fire pit could come up with anything worse than making Aedion steal the batteries from Aelin’s vibrator (a task that made Rowan blush red enough that he was glad for the cover of midnight darkness) until Fenrys aimed his empty bottle at him and slurred, “Go’shkin’dip.”

“The fuck, Moonbeam?”

“That translates to ‘Go skinny dipping in the hot tub,’ idiot,” Lorcan clarified. 

“Oh hell no!”

“Oh hell yes! What, don’t have the balls to do ten minutes alone in the hot tub? Might sober your drunk ass up, Whitethorn,” drawled Aedion. “After all, there is a sign posted on the gate saying that you can’t wear a swimsuit after dark.”

“Fine. I’ll go fucking skinny dipping. And then you, Salvaterre, can shove that bottle up your ass and see how long it takes for Elide to notice.”

Grumbling to himself, Rowan made it to the hot tub gate, barely noticing that it was ajar, dropped his shorts, and shoved the gate open. 

“Fuck.”

Already sitting in the hot tub, just as naked as him, was Aelin. 

His hands immediately covered himself, lest she see what his…reaction to seeing her nude in her hot tub was. 

Before he could back away, Aelin, her arms crossed over her chest, smirked at him. 

“You joining the party, Whitethorn?”

He was in the hot tub seconds later.

~

Sitting on the opposite side from her very drunk best friend, Aelin wondered if Rowan knew she’d seen exactly what he was trying to hide from her when he all but jumped into the hot tub. 

If she was maybe one shot drunker, she’d be the one jumping. But she had enough sobriety to tell herself that this was her best friend, no matter that she’s been madly in love with him for a long-ass time. Not to mention, she was drunk.

“Well…this is awkward.” Rowan finally broke the tense silence.

Aelin snorted. “Yeah. Part of me wonders if they set this up.”

“But everyone’s too wasted to have planned it.”

“Right.”

They were quiet for another moment, Rowan staring directly at her face, his eyes flickering with something Aelin didn’t want to name. 

“Ro, if you’re going to check out my rack, at least don’t try to hide it.”

His eyes jerked back to hers. “Your what?”

“My boobs, Rowan. Or are you too drunk to notice I have them?”

Those dark, green eyes dragged a path down her chest, stopping where the water hit her ribs. “I have never not noticed how hot your rack is. How gorgeous you are.”

Aelin’s breath caught. “You--”

“I’m drunk, Ae. You’re drunk. And drunk people tell the truest truths.”

“Then in the spirit of truth-telling, I am so fucking impossibly in love with you.”

It was his turn to go speechless. That emotion flickered through his eyes again, tinged with a darker flame. “You going to do something about it?”

Her lips were on his before he could smirk.

~

By the time Aelin strolled back over to the cluster of chairs on the patio, Lorcan, Aedion, and Fenrys had joined the girls. 

Elide, trying to hide that she was grinding in Lorcan’s lap, smirked at her. “That was a lot more than ten minutes, Ae.”

“Maybe I’m too drunk to tell time,” she grinned. “Much like you’re too drunk to be in public with your man.”

Rowan flopped down in one of the patio chairs. “Fuck, I need water. Ae, you got a water bottle?”

“Kitchen.”

“I can’t fucking remember where your kitchen is, Aelin.”

“And is that because you drank three whole bottles of shitty whiskey?”

“IT’S BECAUSE HE CAN’T REMEMBER ANYTHING EXCEPT YOUR--”

“Fen, if you finish that sentence, I will personally castrate and murder you, in that order,” Rowan growled. 

Aelin whacked Fenrys upside the head with a water bottle. “Get out of my house, Moonbeam. You’re not getting hungover on my couch again.”

He opened his mouth, probably to make another raunchy comment, saw everyone’s expression, and stood, weaving on his feet. “Lorky, will you drive me home?”

Lorcan and Elide stood on each side of him and headed for their car, calling out goodbyes. Aelin watched them go, shaking her head. 

Lysandra was smirking a smirk of pure evil delight. “Lorky.”

Aedion was wheezing. 

Rowan just grinned at Aelin. “Are you kicking them out, or am I?”

“Hey, hey, we’re leaving, no need to get territorial. I wouldn’t stay the night for all the money in the world, knowing that I’d hear you two on the other side of the house.”

She and Aedion were off before Aelin could swat her. 

Rowan tugged her into his lap. “Well, we’re alone now.”

“Mhmm.” And she fell asleep on his shoulder. 

Rowan chuckled as he walked her inside, telling little Whitethorn to calm down, they’d have plenty of time tomorrow. And the day after that. And the rest of their lives.

[caparrucia]

See, I don't disagree, necessarily. But you're responding to something I didn't say, per se.

I'm a writer too! I love feedback, all of it. My daily kudos mail is a great start to my day. Comments always make me smile.

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with wanting engagement or with participating in fandom primarily for the sake of engagement.

My point is specifically and explicitly that AO3 is a website founded on the gift economy principle. AO3 is an archive. It's there to ensure whatever you choose to put there STAYS there, until you decide to remove it. And if you choose to remove it, it even gives you the option to let it remain, just unassociated with your name.

AO3 is not a systemic failure or an enabler of a conspiracy to destroy fandom because it doesn't gatekeep content behind engagement.

That's what my post was about and what explicitly triggered it: someone coining the phrase "comment tax" in relation to AO3, where you only get to access fic if you comment on a certain ratio of the fic you read.

And the writers in that conversation unironicallu thought that was a wonderful idea that could help against the "no engagement culture of AO3".

I find that asinine and stupid and if you need me to break down why, I will, though I hope it's eminently obvious.

I also think there's a real generational gap in how writers engage with readers and what writers consider engagement: I'm from a generation where the "you share so others can enjoy" was predicated on the fact you couldn't know if those people existed or not. To me, hits are amazing, because it means those hypothetical readers are real, and my formative fandom experience was... Not that. So to me hits themselves are engagement. Hits are acknowledgement and validation. The concept of kudos is brilliant to me.

I know fans from later generations, that grew up with interactivity in the internet consider hits and kudos meaningless, because their threshold of engagement goes beyond reading, and wants the reader to interact back. To take time and set up a bookmark or write a comment.

I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting that or writing purely for clout/popularity/engagement. I know people demonize it because they equate it with popularity contests but. That too is a way of doing fandom. And that's valid. At the core, I think that's just another way of seeking community in fan spaces and there's nothing wrong with that.

The thing that makes me itchy is when people generalize their interaction with fandom as universal. That what you seek from fandom is what everyone does, and that anyone who doesn't, is wrong or needs to be "fixed".

If fandom isn't giving you what you want, you can either change to match what gets what you want, or you can go find something else that gives you what you want without jumping through so many hoops. But like, no one is entitled to anything. The way people build conspiracies in their head about how they're slighted and then go on to lash out and try to punish others for it? Yeah, it's concerning.

Again, unironic use of the words "comment tax" in a conversation that started whining about the gift economy. The point of the gift economy is that giving is what you're in for. If you're in it for what you can get in return, that's just general transactional economy.

Writers, I love you but you're not entitled to an audience.

People are not obligated to read your work just because you posted it. There's no malign, evil conspiracy destroying fandom at the seams because you didn't get engagement.

AO3 is an archive. It means you put stuff in it, so it will be preserved. It's not the systems fault that you decided it was the Validation Machine instead, and that you convinced yourself it's a transaction that's taking place: you put in words, you get validation. It's not. It's an archive. That's it. That's all it is.

Posting stuff and getting comments or kudos or bookmarks are two completely distinct and separate things. Stop listening to the monkey brain trying to force a correlation. You're smarter than that. You deserve to not live like that.

Writers, your audience owes you jackshit.

But hey, you owe them about the same, so take comfort in that.

[predictable-affairs]

I ✯A flip of the coin, but both sides are the same...✯

They would have never thought, never expected for something like this to happen. Never, especially from a bride...

Oh, but how beautiful the doomed bride was, falling into the hands of those sadistic boys... And she didn't even last a month, what an unlucky soul she was.

Yet nor her beauty, nor her grace shocked those boys to their core, it was what she left behind. Whilst cleaning, throwing and burning belongings of the deceased bride, the brothers found something rather unsual.

In the midst of a pile of clothes, that Reiji detested every time he saw it, going as far as to threatning the poor bride to clean it. "It's uterlly deplorable and unladylike!" he'd say in his usal stoic voice. "Alright, I'll clean it, thank you Reiji." agreed the deceased girl, always closing the door right in his face. Reiji did threaten to clean it himself, which always got the bride to insist not to, appereantly it didin't seem to bother the other boys. It seems that his threats weren't empty, since he did end up, after all, cleaning it himself.

Oh an what did he, what did they find in tha pile of clothes?

A small, chuby baby girl.

A child of the bride.

She was quite little, but still, perhaps could crawl? Nevertheless, she stared up, with dusty pink cheeks and innocence that only a child could hold,  right at the boys around her, who surrounded her like flies on a rotting fruit. No talking, no crying, no whining, no protesting. Silence and a simple baby stare.

"How did she manage this?", "How did we not notice?!" were the question spinning like pretty ballet dancers in the heads of the vampires, but the most important one - "What should we do?".

A simultaneous question that popped like a red ballon realeasing acusations, opinions and confusion in everyones heads.

What should they do?

"I say we keep it!"

Is the first harsh voice of the fiery Ayato, whose hair could compete with his attitudes ego.

"No way!" next protests Subaru.

"I don't know what you will do, but I will not let... it... grow up among, or become like any of us." continues reasioning the white haired boy.

"Oh, but it doesn't have to grow up a monster, dear brother." interjects another triplet - Laito.

" Yet sadly, I have to agree with you, we do not need to keep another mere human." shrugs the playful boy with an unusual statment, even shocking some of the brothers, but they'd never let their face betray them like that...  

He's usually the one who always wants more toys to play with, like a greedy child or an overworked bee.

"No! You are all wrong!" a fitty contradiction could be heard, almost from afar, or maybe right up close?

"We should keep it. I want to keep it!" the strict tone of voice comes from Kanato or perhaps his bear.

"Why? So you can torture it and turn it into another one of your dolls?" mocks Subaru, his pose getting a bit more uncomfortable.

The purple haired boy is in shock. Gripping his little brown bear, waiting to start a fight. How dare he say something like that?!

"If we are going to keep it, it will not be given to only one of us." interrupts a puzzeled, musing Reiji; like cold midnight water, extinguishing the growing new years flame, whose smoke was creating a violent atmosphere, so thick, that even honey would seem brethable enough to not drown in.

"So you agree, we should keep it?" harshly questions the flaming Ayato boy, his patience wearing thin; though insisde he was quite surprised. Does someone as stoic and stuck up as Reiji really agree to keeping a human and even a baby no less?

"No, of course not." offers no other words the mannered vampire, yet telling nothing new or surprising. Now with his gloved hand, which's white didin't differ too much from the pale of his hands, up to the chin, soothingly or maybe even camingly, carresing the face, helping to dose off deeper into his batteling thoughts of the situation he was put in just now.

"What about Shu?" continues questioning hopefully Ayato, for his prior hope just crumbled to calm ash.

Oh, the indifferent, lazy vampire Shu. The blond one of the group of brothers, the only one not in the circle, the only one peacefully resting on the pink covers of the many deceased brides bed, floating in a dream only accompanied by his music.

Or maybe it's something else, something more that he's listening to?  

Lazily opening one eye, hardly letting the piercing blue thats holds the whole of the ocean and it's destructive tides in it, peak through, quietly resting on the palms of his hands. Just as lazily as he opened his eye, just as slowly did he close it.

"I do not care." in an indefrent tone that rainly mirrors his mood, is the anwser that he bearly pushes out in a rusty, raspy voice, slowly qiueting down like an echo or a shadow in the back of a throat with every simple word. Indefrence - as predictable as Reijis opposition.

And so the question stands unanswered - what will they do?

Oh, the tension is growing thick, thicker than fog, thicker than otmeal.

Though the atmosphere of violence was quickly put out, a one of verbal fighting is about to break down.

Oh, and a fight did ensue.

So much yelling, from Subaru, opposing, not wanting to raise anything among them; from Kanato, wanting company for his bear - Teddy, and someone to dress up; from Ayato, emptily reasoning with Laito and Subaru on why they should keep them; and quiet giggles, yet as strong as others arguments; Reiji kept quiet, still deep in his thoughts.

The fight kept getting louder, like a shopping mall with big sales or a cafeteria with good food, yet it didn't seem to bother Shu, how unusual...

"We are not going to keep them!" like punches, harsh words are thrown around the room, a ball, bouncing off the soothing pink walls.

"So where do you suggest we leave them?!" more questions coming from blank faces with yeling mouths.

"Kill them!" another shout.

"We are not keeping them!" the final word, stern voice of Reiji, slowly quieting everyone down.

Was it confusion that suddenly struck the aura of the room or pure shock, nobody knew, but it did engrain a moment of peace, silence to the room. It's pink walls suddenly started to feel like matresses.

One, two, three... that's the count of a rich waltz, and that's how long silence ruled the room.

A waltz, a single waltz.

Yelling, again, crueller words and oppositions, it's good that the baby can't talk, or else their vocabulary would be that of a sailor.

So much commotion such a war between the brothers, it seemed that the rosy baby no longer exsisted.

And so through the yelling, through the war of unpieced words and calmless attitudes, for better or worse, for against or by Reijis last words - it was decided.

They will keep her. They will keep the rosy cheeked baby.

And so, her adventure began.

"What... is it?" comes a small, tiny question from a unknown asker in a quiet little voice.

Everyone is silent, no one seems to have considered that question.

,,It's... a girl..." comes an equally akward anwser also from an unknown source.

Well, now her adventure can definetly start.

And so she grew up amongst the six boys, each one slowly, but surely taking a liking to her.

Whether it was the messy baths that Reiji gave the baby girl (which infurated him to no end; "A bath is supposed to be clean! How does one manage to make it so messy!" - a frequent phrase circling his brain like a dark taxi), the calming naps, that Shu took with her (annoying him when she cried waking up, to the point where he gave her a nickname to soothe her that sticked to this day), or maybe the play sessions with Kanato (which always seemed to put a giggly smile on her face, except when he got angry, then they'd both have a screaming, crying fit), the reading lessons with Laito (effectivelly putting her to sleep, yet he woke her up everytime and even in the midst of tired crying - he'd continue teaching her to read), perhaps the physical fun with Ayato (not once letting her win any games, even the one where he tought her how to walk. But that doesn't mean that there weren't any, though who is he to ever admit that?) and possibly the gentle feeding of Subaru (who had more trouble with it than he'd like to admit), that made them slowly grow accustomed to her, they will never know.

It seemed that each brothers compliance helped the others in return, like a mirror or an open letter passed around in a circle, each one slowly grew a soft spot, and even, dare I say, some attachment to her.

Such unusual behavior for a vampire (was it something in her or just them growing weak? - no one pondered), maybe thats why they never said a word to their father?

There was one thing the boys forgot to do - give her a name.

When this point was made, another fight almost ensued. Who should get to name the baby and what will they name them - the two mischievous questions that almost started a fight as if it was a race. Yet, just before the whistle was blown for words and saliva to start flying, a name issued, suggested by Laito, caught the attention of many, especially, since Ayato got very insisting on it and with a hiding blush - Subaru quietly agreed on.

The decesion was made, and the vampires named her (y/n).

They watched her grow up, always keeping her company, playing games and teaching what they wanted to. But they weren't the only ones who watched her. She also observed them.

As she learned to walk and speak, as she started writing her name in better hand writing, getting older with each and every birthday, she saw all the brides come and go, the way they were treated and how they never lasted (yet she stayed obliviuos to that she too, was a child of a bride long lost).

Obviuosly not just one or two brides tried to make friends with the girl; sometimes in the hopes of escape or sometimes just in hopes of finding a friend, someone "normal", someone to vent to.

At first (y/n) felt sorry for the brides, consoled them even.

But as time went on, as she kept getting older the reoccurences started to anger her.

She began despising the brides, how dare they speak the most attrocious lies, talk such foul things about the boys?! They would never do things that they vent of! And insulting them that way, it made her want for them to leave faster.

She hated how with each bride she'd get less attention, than when she was alone with the boys. She hated the brides, their lies and pesuasion of escape. Where would she go? And more importantly - why would she go? They were kind to her, good, they took care of her why would she ever want to run. And after one particular incident, an escape in which she was dragged in and almost lost the mansion, her... family, forever! (Y/n) completely stopped interacting with the brides.

That was the childhood of a lost brides child, but her fate, history, was yet to be made.

                                                       ↢ What time is it? | II o’clock ↣

[my-darling-boy]

Right sorry I have to vent about something. I didn’t really want to post this but Oh Well it’s bothering me and I hope I’m not the only one who feels like this.

What I thought was me obsessing over a little mistake I made at work was actually the tip of the iceberg to this terror I feel internally realising as I get older, I’m required by society to mask my autism more and more because they see you as an inconvenience. But now that I’ve created this Highly Socially Convenient version of myself to fit into other people’s social standards, especially in the workplace, I can no longer make mistakes without people attributing them to laziness or carelessness or “stupidity”. It’s one of the many examples of people assuming “if I can’t see something, it doesn’t exist.” I’m constantly assessed with the “but you don’t LOOK autistic!” You shouldn’t have to know I’m autistic to start treating me with more care and respect.

If a customer is having trouble with the keypad, I don’t rip the thing around and jam their card in, annoyed. If a customer can’t hear me very well, I don’t roll my eyes when I have to repeat myself. If a coworker doesn’t understand how to use a register function, I don’t sigh heavily and shove them aside to fix it. Everyone is always apologising for making mistakes with their payment options or having to run back cos they forgot something or for “taking so long” or for doing this or that. People are sweating hurriedly counting out coins and notes and apologising but you don’t need to hurry! Take your time!! My line might be long but I know when I rush counting money, I get it wrong cos I can’t focus sometimes in chaotic, loud environments.

I’m so used to apologising for things I do as an autistic person and when I see others doing the same, I say they don’t have to be sorry. The checkstands are not easily accessible to understand or operate. People are rude and rushing. We’re wearing masks so it’s harder to hear/see facial expressions. Literally none of this is person’s fault, and yet they’re apologising like the checkstand or their communication style or even the angry customers behind them are their fault. And I do the same thing. The one thing I say ALL DAY LONG is “I’m sorry.” I say it so often that half the time I’m not even sure why I’m apologising, all I know is things that are out of my control are usually pinned as “my fault” somehow so I just say I’m sorry all the time. I’m apologising, the customer is apologising, my coworker is apologising, we’re all just so sorry for having to be in a building that isn’t meant to accommodate anyone.

Most of my interactions at work involve me making sure I’m being as accommodating as I can to who I’m speaking with because rarely are people accommodating towards me and I don’t want to make others feel like they’re an inconvenience the way I’ve been made to feel like one. I know by default that something that is easy for one person may not be easy for another person. And if an allistic person cares to think about this at all, it’s so bizarre to me that they assume it means a person is careless, lazy, or irresponsible.

I work retail and talking to people is literally my job, but it’s usually not an issue so long as they fit a social script in my head. Tasks are repetitive which means I learn them fast and perform them fast. When left alone, I resort to tasks I was shown how to do: clean, collect, etc. I follow instructions, ask questions. I’m always told I’m such a “competent, responsible employee” for this, even though 80% of my motivation for doing these things are out of constant fear of hidden consequences if I don’t do exactly as I’m told. And if someone starts saying I’m their favourite closer or the fastest cashier or the most helpful employee, I only get nervous about how disappointed this person would be in me if I showed any ounce of something different if one day I had a shutdown at work.

I wouldn’t know how to tell anyone why sometimes I’m a minute late to work for a few days, or why I lost track of time doing X, why X took me so long, why suddenly I don’t make a lot of conversation, why I suddenly lose ability to multitask, or why I keep making silly little mistakes when I “seem like such a good employee who can stay on top of things.” Sometimes I genuinely don’t know if I’ve done something wrong! There are grey areas of employment and social interaction that will always confuse me no matter what. Instead of taking just a moment to explain something I did incorrectly, or just take 10 seconds to show me how to do something, people right away are predisposed to snapping at you and being rude without so much as a little explaination to help you. And if they’re going to snap at me for a small question, how could I ever bring up something more? When? How? When a customer I’m not understanding is giving me a hard time, do I give into them and give them the discount they wanted and possibly get in trouble or do I call over a manager who is going to scold me for not understanding them?

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of space to discuss being autistic to anyone or time to dismantle stereotypes. I feel like I have to keep putting on a presentation and suppressing parts of myself or force myself to conform to allistic standards that make me uncomfortable while allistic people would never think about accommodating mine. I’ve heard so much offensive language towards autsitic people from basic team members, management, and customers at every job I’ve ever been at. And when something like that is THAT widespread and ingrained to how these people think, where and how do you even begin to address it? Who do you talk to? Who’s to say the person meant to handle these things at work isn’t making R word jokes minutes later?

Every job I get hired at assures me that I will be treated fairly, to the same standard as other employees. But to me, there seems to be something Off about fairness when it comes to performance. The problem is, the model of that standard is often a person who is not autsitic. I see it in the way supervisors walk up to me when I can’t get something to scan. I see it in the way they squint accusingly at me behind their mask if I need something explained more. I see it in the way coworkers have attributed their “stupid mistakes” to being “the r word”. They critisise lack of verbal communication or eye contact, they sigh when things need to be phrased differently, they stand impatiently while you’re trying to figure something out. In the break room, I hear people left and right laughing about or getting irritated over customers who are described as doing some of the things I do. I’ll always remember this one really nice customer who always came into the store and would put her items up on the counter slowly and would talk to you about her day, and I never had a problem with the speed at which she did anything because why would I? I don’t need to rush her, there’s no reason to. But a manager, after she had left one time, mimicked the way she spoke and said she was “the r word”. And I felt crushed.

No matter what a company says, in their eyes, we’re made to feel like the undesired. The inconvenience. The ones holding up lines or turning on the assistance blinkers at checkstands. There shouldn’t be people steaming behind us or snapping to go faster or shouting “Why don’t you understand?? Are you stupid??” I’ve found the discrimation against autsitic people in the workplace is a lot of times in subtlety, and to me it feels like what is being done to me isn’t noticable at first until I realise it’s eating away at me: the glares, the exaggerated sighs, the comments, the derogatory language. I always feel like someone standing outside a window while everyone else is on the inside. That’s what makes this type of treatment so insidious, because convenient for companies, they don’t have anything in their handbooks that protects me from their deeply imbedded practice of equating many traits of my autism with being an unsatisfactory employee. And usually by the time I’ve picked up on it, it’s too widespread for me to even sort out all that’s happened and I’m left feeling like I should just bear it. “Well then the job isn’t meant for you” someone might say. No, capitalist society doesn’t make room for people like me. In fact, I’ve never encountered a job that was meant for me. And I’m tired of having to say I’m sorry for myself and bend over backwards for capitalist “”””we’re a family”””” corporations and the society they’ve infected whom they’ve taught to not give two shits about people like me.

[natto-axolotl]

oh my god what are your brawlhalla hcs :star_struck:

OK (CRACKS KNUCKLES)

in general most of the legends SEEM to be doing Pretty Alright with the whole "being dead and in an afterlife for the foreseeable future" thing but like. listen this is a fighting game where the prerequisite for their backstories is dying in battle i do not think an eternity in the afterlife will help.

val is still actively trying to understand everything about her current predicament; how she, being a robot, is here in the first place, and when she was "born" so to speak

cross can do some mean coin tricks

half of artemis's face is being eaten away by a miniature black hole as a side effect of her powers

via Magical Afterlife Logic everyone can somehow understand each other but via osmosis they've all kind of absorbed phrases from other languages into their lexicon

aside from the notably Concerning legends, certain legends like scarlet, fait and vector valhalla also keeps tabs on because while not being malevolent, they are aware of things they shouldn't be (fait and Everything Ever) or Time Travel (scarlet and vector)

ada plays tech support to over 40 people while artemis, val, barraza, isaiah, sentinel and vector laugh on the sidelines

caspian has Daddy issues (and by that i mean he needs to fucking. go get some help your father was not supposed to treat you like that)

canon-ish but orion uses they/he!!!

hattori has two scars on her right arm that haven't healed, one is a knife scar from the initial demon blood transfusion and the other is a burn from using her powers. on a good day it's barely noticeable, but if she strains herself it gets worse

no one here is cishet. do you really expect these dead people who have been un the afterlife for around 100 years to be straight and cisgender

everyone who died to get in have scars of what killed them that come and go seemingly at random. some are fine (roland only has a fist-shaped welt on his chest, ada is missing some flesh from nanobots but is otherwise fine, val has not found any physical indication of how she "died" yet) while others are more grisly (diana has necrosis scars in the shape of handprints on her back and legs, yumiko and kaya have noticeably stiffer and discolored extremeties from frostbite, dusk has scars all over from the fangwild crumpling in on itself like a can with him in it)

nix and artemis are currently engaged in a legal battle with odin and co. due to the two of them wanting someone else in the tournament gone for good. this has been going on ever since they came here and is showing no sign of stopping

val is banned from game night due to Being A Robot and kicking everyone's ass at 200cc mario kart. however in luck based games she is allowed back.

val can run doom

semicanon but an ingame fanbase for the tournament is very real and active. alongside fantasy sports, sponsorships and merch they also have stan twitter communities and fancams. none of these words are in the bible

the legends get sent prototypes for their merch

transgender mordex. no i will not elaborate

[not-majestic-bluenicorn]

TXT Universe Theory: The Dream Chapter

Hello and welcome back to another one of my theories! This theory will be quite long and will take into account everything in the first chapter of TXT’s story. I won’t be doing Minisode 1 or either of the Chaos Chapters yet cause it will give us all a headache if I do, so yes, there will be things missing. Believe me, I know, I’m just pretending like I don’t know anything for the sake of my mind XD Let’s dive into the theory!

The Protagonists

Name: Choi Yeonjun

Keywords: Promise, guilty, sleepless, apricity 

Association: Paranoid Park

Metamorphosis: Horns

Songs: Crown, Magic Island

Yeonjun is, perhaps, more relevant than his character wishes he was. Paranoid Park, the book (and perhaps also movie) he’s associated with, talks about a 16-year-old boy who accidentally kills a policeman and tries to cope with it while simultaneously hiding what he did. Yeonjun’s guilt can be seen almost everywhere. His Dream-Self grows horns during Nap of a Star, which are generally associated with evil and destruction, and in Crown he expresses his fear of being evil.

In the teasers for Magic Island he says “I think there’s someone else aside from us #itsmyfault”. And in the teasers for The Dream Chapter: Eternity he adds the hashtags #imscared #itwasjustajoke when revealing his association. He did something that makes him feel guilty. He possibly didn’t kill anyone (I mean, if anyone did, it’s most likely Beomgyu, but that’s not here nor there), but it hasn’t been revealed yet what he did do.

I associate Magic Island with him because it talks about promises and about the Odd Eye Cat, which I will talk about more in detail later, but suffice to say the Odd Eye Cat might have something against Yeonjun. There is a small chance that Yeonjun feels guilty about having forgotten their promise with the Star, since his word is promise. Everyone forgot, but maybe he’s more emotionally aware of it.

Name: Choi Soobin

Keywords: Tomorrow, invisible, understanding, apricity

Association: Le Doulos

Metamorphosis: Elongated ears

Songs: Eternally

Soobin is on the opposite side of the coin with Yeonjun. He too is aware about the promise with the Star, but in a very different way. He is perhaps what we would define as a traditional protagonist, as he can hear the voice of the Star well before anyone else can, even if he can’t remember the promise. The first time we see him perceiving the voice is in Magic Island, that is when he starts to feel separated from the group. He’s still unaware of it, but he knows something that the others don’t and that puts a wall between them. In the Magic Island teaser he uses the hashtag “#IThinkImTheOnlyOneWhosDifferent”, and in the Eternity concept photos he says “Why am I the only one having a hard time?” and “Everything is your fault”. He is also tagged as invisible, which alludes to the fact that he feels distanced from the others, and is also the only one to get no interactions on his posts. The fact that he’s blaming someone might be that he’s aware of the voice or that he knows someone in the group messed up.

Name: Choi Beomgyu

Keywords: Hope, unfair, relief, serenity

Association: The Catcher in the Rye

Metamorphosis: Spines on the back

Songs: ???

Beomgyu is an interesting if confusing character. Based on how he acts in the MVs, he seems to be rather headstrong and confident, much like the main character, Holden, of Catcher in the Rye, a story strongly related to growing up and leaving the innocence of childhood behind. Holden considers adults (and his life) to be quite unfair, doesn’t trust them, and wants to become a protector of the innocence of other children. However, much like Beomgyu, he’s rather headstrong and careless, moving forward without much consideration, which often gets him in trouble. These aspects can be seen reflected on the Magic Island Teaser, where he writes “What’s the problem? Let’s just do it. #rewind #hope #CantTrustAnyone, as well as the Port teasers from Eternity where he says things like “Who saw me that day?”, “We were all together then, right?” and “I don’t think this is the world I used to know” (which is tagged with “unfair”), and uses the hashtags #NothingToHide, #IsItMyFault?”. We do see him start the fire in both the Magic Island Teaser and MV, which might hint to the fact that he feels it’s unfair to blame him when they were all there, and he doesn’t actually believe himself to be at fault. He was just taking care of them.

Name: Kang Taehyun

Keywords: Clue, suspicious, breathe, serenity

Association: Philip Marlowe

Metamorphosis: Star eye

Songs: ???

Taehyun’s character is observant and prefers to stay on the sidelines to catch every detail before casting his judgement. In the Magic Island Teaser he says “There’s got to be a way out” with the hashtag #LetsThinkAboutIt, plus, in the Port Teasers from Eternity, he keeps a reasonable suspicion on his team members about who’s truly at fault and uses the hashtags #EverybodyLies and #IWantToKnowTheTruth. This ties in well with his associated character, Philip Marlowe, the private detective. Both characters keep a distance and analyze everything carefully, never resorting to violence. It is worth noting that he keeps Yeonjun’s teddy bear at the end of Run Away, which in the teasers is labelled as “clue”. Taehyun is always observing.

Name: Huening Kai

Keywords: Secret, lonely, longing, apricity

Association: Stand by me

Metamorphosis: Wings

Songs: Nap of a star

Huening Kai is perhaps one of the most complicated and mysterious characters in the story, since his role isn’t as established as the others. He’s constantly out of the loop about the situation that is happening, which is demonstrated by phrases like “What the hell is happening?” (Magic Island Teaser) and “What happened?” (‘Port’ Teasers) as well as the hashtags #OnTheSidelines and #IKnowNothing, as well as two of his keywords being secret and lonely. His associated media is also interesting, as Stand by me talks about a man remembering the trip he did with three of his friends when they were 12 to find the body of a missing boy. At the end of the movie, the main character Gordie, recalls his friends and comments on how much he’ll always miss them and how he’s never had friendships like that again. This raises the question if perhaps one of the boys would be the dead kid the others are trying to find. Kai being kept out of the loop could point to him being it, as he’s always trying to reach for them but can’t quite do it, however it could also be argued that either Yeonjun or Soobin could fill that space as well.

The Setting: The Real World vs The Dream World

Back on the very early BTS theories, a lot of us didn’t think time travel or time loops were the answer, but it turned out we were wrong. At first, when working on this theory, I wasn’t sure where I should draw the distinction between reality and fantasy. In the end, I’ve decided that everything is real but in different ways, and I’ve decided to make the distinction between the Real World and the Dream World; after all, this is called the Dream Chapter.

The Real World is, you guessed it, pretty much just our normal world. Nothing magical or physics-law-breaking to be seen here. The Dream World is, well, a world made of dreams. But remember I said everything is real (I know the names I gave the two realities contradict this, hit me up if you have better suggestions). Whatever happens in the Dream World is just as real as whatever happens in the Real World, it’s just in a different plane of existence. It might also be of interest to note that sometimes these worlds blend. 

So, if everything is real in the Dream World, what is real in the Real World? This is a complicated question because even our characters struggle telling reality apart from the dreams, especially because the dreams aren’t just dreams. The fires that occur in Run Away and Can’t You See Me are very much symbolic, but them jumping into the Dream World through the subway in Magic Island is real. The visions they have in Eternally aren’t happening in the Real World either. It’s just a matter of what is supported through other clues and pieces of evidence, which I’ll try to provide.

The Story

So, you know, what is like… happening? Everything is extremely confusing and it took me a while to understand that pretty much all videos are happening like, at the same time? As in, it’s the same event but from different perspectives and slightly different intervals of time. So let’s try to lay down a cohesive timeline.

It all starts with the events narrated in Nap of a Star. When they were children, the five of them (or well, maybe I should say six) met through the Dream world and became such good friends that they promised to meet there again. However, as it happens, they grew up and forgot about it, meeting once again many years later through the school and the company without remembering each other. 

While growing up, they have gone through many different things that have hurt and changed them, which manifested in their dream bodies as the “imperfections” that they all have. I believe these imperfections are tied to each of their characters: horns tend to represent evil, which ties in with Yeonjun feeling guilty and blaming himself for everything. Kai’s wings look angel-like, which fits his sweet personality who helps the “demon” (Yeonjun) and is always believing the best about his friends. Beomgyu is very defensive, which translates into his porcupine-like spines. Soobin is a good listener (plus he’s literally the first one to hear the Star’s voice) and Taehyun is good at observing the others. So these are all manifestations of how life has shaped them to be who they are now.

They become very good friends once again and get along well, nice! However, we know things are not perfect, and they have to confront a series of personal conflicts. Especially Yeonjun, who’s so overcome by the negativity in his life that he starts a fire that can’t be put out in Run Away. This fire is metaphorical, and represents all the pain and stress he’s been dealing with. So what do they do? They try to find an escape from all their troubles.

There’s two ways this could’ve happened: the first one is that they stumble with the Dream World by accident on the Run Away MV when they go in through the pool. This seems fitting because of their reactions. After that they research it and Soobin discovers that there’s a secret magical entrance at a train station, as we can see in the Sanctuary Photo Teasers from the Magic comeback in the official BigHit website. The other option is that this accidental discovery didn’t happen and they simply researched. This would turn their visit in Run Away into a “summary” of sorts of their first impression of the place.

[Translation:

Soobin: I saw how to find the hidden magic platform?

Soobin: When you close and open your eyes there, your dream becomes reality

Taehyun: Woah, cool

Taehyun: (not sure about this one) for real?

Soobin: Should we go together?]

Either way, they get there. Of course, as shown by the door being set on fire at the end of Run Away when Yeonjun looks at it, his worries aren’t entirely gone, but at least they’re under control now, or so it seems. This part of the video also ties in with the end of Nap of a Star. All of the children come together to help the “monster” and they reunite at the Dream World once again, awakening the Star.

After this, though, weird things begin to happen. Someone or something is trying to reach out to them, and causes them to have really strange dreams. This entity, presumably the Star as marked by the pieces of dialogue, even follows them to their practice room, and keeps begging them to remember them. Yes, I think the Practice Room Ghost and the Star are the same character (and I also think they represent MOA, in a way). 

[Translation: Remember my name.]

Here’s where the visions in Eternally come into play. The individual vision each of them has is, physically speaking, nothing more than that: a vision or dream. So they start having these visions, and some of them, especially Soobin who keeps hearing the Star’s voice, start doubting their reality. Plus, weird things start happening in their practice room, so no doubt they end up hearing about the Practice Room Ghost.

They have a conversation about it on the subway, and Soobin goes to mention he had a weird dream but then he backtracks. Obviously, he’s talking about the vision we see in Eternally, because he even says he always wakes up crying from it. In a split second, they decide to stop at the Magic Island using the method that Soobin found previously, and they go have fun there.

[Translation:

Yeonjun: Did you hear about the practice room’s mirror ghost?

Beomgyu: *sland for shivering* A ghost? Wow

Taehyun: I heard about it. There’s no ghosts, you’re just tired and saw wrong.

Soobin: I’ve had weird dreams lately *cries* Maybe it was because I’m tired...

Kai: Did you have a scary dream again?

Soobin: (deleted message) In the dream we...

Yeonjun: Ah, I shouldn’t have said anything.

Beomgyu: What’s scary about this? If there’s a real ghost let’s go and check at night *laughs*

Kai: Hyungs, stop talking about scary things please *cries*

Taehyun: Beomgyu hyung is joking about this too??

Yeonjun: Should we just go to Ttukseom?]

Naturally, things go wrong, what else were we expecting? Their antics end up setting the magic forest on fire, until they end up destroying the whole Dream World, and it leads us to the start of Eternally. One thing I believe to be very interesting is how, when they’re trapped in the storm, Soobin keeps touching his ears, Kai touches his chest like in Nap of a Star, and Beomgyu touches his shoulder. Yeonjun and Taehyun aren’t properly shown but they probably also touch the affected places.

I would argue that Can’t You See Me? is also just a reinterpretation of the conflict they’re going through, both within themselves but also as a group, because they did just destroy their secret place. This is pretty much where the current timeline ends. I’m a bit uncertain if they’re trapped in the Dream World or outside of it without being able to go back, because Taehyun does mention wanting to go back in the Port teasers, but he doesn’t specify where. I want to bet that they’re trapped in the Dream World but I do need to analyze the Chaos Chapter better to decide that.

The Practice Room Star

Yes, this is a play on words, as I fully believe that the Practice Room Ghost and the Star are both the same entity. When they were kids, they made a promise with the Star, but they’ve forgotten it with time, and now that they have reunited and found their way into the Dream World again, the Star wants them back. The Star is probably a very powerful being, since they are able to interfere with the Real World to reach to them, enough to make them confused about their own reality. Their bond seems to be stronger with Soobin, who’s even able to hear them reach out on occasion. It’s uncertain what exactly it is that they want.

The Visions (Eternally MV)

The night of the last day & Song of a Star (Soobin’s visions)

Eternally starts at the end of Magic Island, with the Dream World completely in ruins. Eternally happens before Magic Island, so this dream Soobin has at the beginning is nothing but a prophecy. In the dream, he is holding a book, which we also see Beomgyu with. I think this book is the one they got the information about the Dream World during the Magic era, since the cover is very similar to the symbols we can see in Run Away. 

I believe Song of a Star is the Star reaching out to him. He’s the first one to be able to hear the Star, as shown in Magic Island, and he also references the Star’s song in teachers. The kid he sees is probably the version of himself that first entered the Dream World as a kid (or maybe Kai lol), which might be why he wants to cry everytime he has that dream: it’s the nostalgia for a time he left behind.

Room No. 17 (Beomgyu’s vision)

While I’m not sure what the number 17 means yet, and my research on numerology yielded no results, this vision is particularly interesting to me. Through it we get to see Beomgyu’s more ‘brash’ nature as he defends the book that Soobin was seen holding previously. If that book is their key to the Dream World, then it makes a lot of sense that he’s trying to protect it. I’m not sure who the other person trying to stop him is, but it does kinda look like things didn’t go well for them after Beomgyu transformed. 

Girl of Eternity (Huening Kai’s vision)

Perhaps the strangest of names for visions, this clearly represents how the rest of the members keep moving far away from Kai and become unreachable to him. He mentions several times how he’s clueless about what’s going on and wants to understand, but the rest of them continue to keep him in the dark, so he feels a distance growing between them, which might increase in the future.

Moratorium of Rest (Taehyun’s vision)

Taehyun’s vision is perhaps the most shocking of all, as it shows us Yeonjun sitting on a chair and covered in spines and purple “paint”. Yeonjun is sitting in the middle of a field of all sorts of violets, and Taehyun tries calling him before realizing the condition Yeonjun is in.

Promise (Yeonjun’s vision)

Yeonjun shares the misfortune with Taehyun of seeing his lifeless corpse, except his vision is much less artistic about it. After finding his body, he sees a fire from the corner of his eye, and right next to it, you guessed it, the odd-eyed cat. His vision in particular finishes with the phrase “I thought it was salvation, then.” And here is where things turn south.

Yeonjun’s promise and the Odd-Eye Cat

I have a very strong reason to believe that Yeonjun is in danger of dying an awful death, and it’s only partially because of the visions. Since Nap of a Star, Yeonjun has been followed by the vigilant eyes of the Odd-Eye Cat almost religiously, and it usually never brings good situations with it. It’s bad enough that the neck cut in Nap of a Star is replicated in Taehyun’s vision, that Soobin sees Yeonjun all bloody in Eternally, and that both Yeonjun and Taehyun see the former dead, but there might be some external clues that hint towards Yeonjun’s upcoming demise.

In the official BigHit website for TxT’s discography, where we found out that Soobin researched and figured out the way to go into the Dream World, we can find a picture of Yeonjun reading a book. In English, this book is called The Alchemaster’s Apprentice. This book narrates the story of a black cat who sells its soul to a sort of wizard in exchange for food, since he’s starving to death. The wizard agrees to fatten the cat for a month, after which it will kill it and use its fat for magical purposes.

The cat in this book doesn’t have heterochromia, however I found out some pagan groups in Eastern Europe believe that a different colored eye was a witch’s eye, meaning that the eye has literally been swapped out with a witch’s. I fully believe that Yeonjun made a deal he shouldn’t have, and the Odd-Eye Cat has been sent by whoever made the deal with him to check on him. It might just be that Yeonjun’s time is going to run out very soon, and the visions are trying to warn everyone of that.

Conclusion

Magic exists and TxT might have bitten more than they can chew because they wanted to run away from the problems of real life (relatable). Now, the Star that they made a promise with is trying to reach them, and maybe warn them about something that’s coming. The fact is that they’re not safe, especially Yeonjun, and things might turn south very quickly very soon.

I’ll try to come back soon with the Minisode 1 + Chaos Chapter Theory update, but for now, if you liked this, please interact with the post and check out my other theories here!

[hpalways]

Lyrical Mess || Venti

BARD Venti was someone you looked up to. Words would spill from his mouth like a waterfall, for he never ran out of lyrics and rhymes alike to sing about. You aspired to be like him, to one day have talent in bringing people together through music. Unfortunately, your mind was a little underwhelming in the creative department. Phrases and sentences jumbled up like a mess, trapping you in a sea ridden of any motivation whatsoever. 

"The distant lands, the people, the trees, they all truly resonate in me!" he sang, filling your ears of the melody. He was currently sitting on the huge tree in Windrise, rocking back and forth on the branch. Meanwhile, you were on the ground and leaning against the bark, trying to write down anything that could be worth mentioning. However, the page was as blank as it could be, an empty void of nothingness. The quill in your hand shook and squeezed, because the frustration was beginning to take its toll. 

"Venti, I can't think of anything! Don't you have any secrets that could help me?" you whined, pulling the ends of your [h/c] locks. Grabbing the lyre that was brought everywhere with you, you thrummed the strings of it, playing an ugly chord that halted his own singing. The golden instrument glimmered against the sunlight, nearly blinding your eyes. After spending almost all your savings on it one day, it easily became your most treasured item. 

The male leaned forward from the branch, his two aqua ombre braids waving along with the wind. Green eyes on you, they crinkled as he grinned in excitement. In his usual white top and teal shorts with stockings, his style was enough to make him recognizable. Not only that, but he was as adorable as when you first met him. To have him by your side... well, you certainly looked like a nobody. "Well, why are you sitting there on the ground? Come up here and you'll get loads of more inspiration." 

"Really?!" you exclaimed. Your gaze brightened as if you had met God and you quickly scrambled to your feet. He nodded, putting his hands on his hips in pride. "Okay. I'll go join you then." Rolling up the sleeves of your shirt, you knitted your brows together in perseverance. Readying for the climb ahead, you lifted your foot to take that first step. 

Goodbye. You were ready to die. Venti had made it look so easy with those fast and flexible limbs of his, but you were trembling to the core at this moment. The tree was much taller and wonky than you expected, gnarly and dangerous for someone with no balance like you. Panting heavily, you tightened your hold on your lyre as you heaved yourself upwards one last time. You crashed on the spot beside the bard and hit the hollow trunk in annoyance. Flinching at the pain inflicted more-so on you, you rubbed your hands as you tried to settle down. 

The view surely was nice. Mondstadt, the city of Freedom, could be seen from here. Meadows and small hills laid out across the board too, luscious and full of natural beauty. The color of it reminded you of Venti. 

"I can't do this," you groaned, rubbing your face in weariness. "I'm too tired to even think."

"You quit too easily," he said, frowning. Feeling all ashamed suddenly, you drooped your head and sighed. There was nothing worse than getting critiqued by someone you looked up to. "Oh, I know! I have a few other secret spots to show you. What do you say, my friend?"

"Alright. I'll give it another shot."

Before announcing to you what he was about to do, he scooped you up with those nimbly arms of his and jumped straight off from the branch. A scream threatened to leave you, but you kept quiet as you held onto him for dear life. He was crazy! But that might just be the reason why he was so popular in Mondstadt. 

With a thump! at the landing, Venti smoothly reached the ground with two legs still working. Carefully releasing you, he took out his own lyre from under his arm. It could not be said the same regarding you. Wobbly support below, you kneeled down and calmed your racing heart. 

Once you gained your grounding again, that was when it was time to set off. Following the bard on his tail, you watched as the dirt path turned into pavement and then into bricks. "Mondstadt...? Are you sure this will be helpful?" you questioned, squinting at the mundane scene in front of you. Living here your whole life, it was all too familiar for you to believe you'd find anything here. 

"Just trust me, [Y/N]!" he said, turning his head over his shoulder. Giggling softly, he returned to look ahead and marched onward.

You assumed it would be an unknown spot that could exhilarate you instantly. But of course, reality bit the dust. Standing in front of you was the local tavern, crowded of drunken adventurers. "You just wanted to stop by for a drink!" you said, whirling around to glare at the male. 

He stuck a tongue out and winked, leaving you more infuriated. This was the guy you idolized so much? He was such a sham. "Trust me... trust me..." he repeated, pulling your arm with him. The door opened up and he slipped in, with you stumbling after him. His grip never once loosening, he waltzed towards the bartender and dropped coins of mora. "The usual, please!" 

Securing a table to sit at, he set you down and sat directly from you. As you were about to spew words of insult, he beat the punch. 

"I'm serious. This is one of my secret spots," he explained. He nudged his head at the back of the tavern, where an empty space cleared of tables took place. "I sometimes perform here and so whenever I come here, I would get a good amount of ideas."

He had a point. You had been there too when he performed here, intrigued and immersed by a new world introduced by him. Slumping your shoulders slightly, you mutely nodded in agreement, tapping the quill against your chin. He grinned at your reaction, as if he was relieved to have escaped your wrath.

As he sipped his drink in peace, you began to write down some ideas. It was silent at the table, but it was not uncomfortable or awkward. You had known Venti for quite some time... and though you still admired him tons, he became a dear friend. Ink met the parchment and you scribbled them down quickly, as if your life was on the line. This proceeded for a while until he slammed his first empty glass down. When showing the notebook, you fidgeted in your seat as you waited for his thoughts.

"Whisking her away, he drowned the walls. She said he said to come to the dock..." he read it out loud. His features tightened and he let out a nervous laugh. "Um... er... it's not bad... How about this?! Why don't you perform a song from Teyvat! Singing a song always inspires me. You can use the stage over there! I'm sure the customers would love a lovely song sung by the beautiful maiden [Y/N]."

"So it's bad," you deadpanned.

"It's not!" he argued, panic shown in his eyes. "It could use some improvement, but anything can be improve, you know?"

"You don't need to lie to make me feel better," you sighed, pulling yourself up from the seat. Lumbering up to the stage, you strummed the strings of your lyre, catching the attention of a few customers. Breathing in deeply, you closed your eyes and started to sing a song. The song you heard Venti sing a few times. The song your parents sang as they lulled you to sleep. The song that wasn't yours, but everyone's. 

You were a fake. A lyrist who couldn't form her own words. A singer with no direction to turn to. 

When the song ended, a round of applause exploded from the audience who were smiling in approval. They all enjoyed it, except you. Giving them a quick bow with a smile plastered on your face, you then exited the stage and rushed through the tables, passing Venti and straight out the door. Running to the gates and not stopping once until you were out in the wilderness again, you slumped to the ground in shame. Angry tears blurred your vision and you crumpled the poor grass upon your hands. 

"You performed it perfectly..." he whispered, his small figure crouching down next to you. When did he get here? "What's upsetting you?"

"I messed up," you told him, glancing at the lyre in your hands. "I can't do a single thing right."

"No one noticed it."

"But... I did. It doesn't matter if no one else realized it, I know of my mistakes. And I'm so sorry Venti. I've been such a hindrance towards you today. You don't deserve listening to my complaints. Nor do you deserve cleaning after my mess." More tears slid out, slipping down your cheeks. "I just wish I was you."

A thumb swiped the droplets from your face, his skin warm to the touch. Startled, you watched him grow slightly sad. Why was he making that face? It looked so... empty... hopeless. He knew of something you didn't. "You don't want to be me, [Y/N], trust me. And I like you the way you are... so please, don't say that ever again." He straightened up and all traces of any misery was erased from his expression. "Let me cheer you up a bit! I can go sing a tune for you! I think that should do the trick for some inspiration."

[backslashdelta]

I’ve got a question since you like board games (if you don’t mind answering). I’m doing a game for Christmas (not super important) but the prizes are board games or table top games. And I need to buy one more but I don’t know which one to get. Do you have any recommendations (that aren’t massively expensive, preferably under £20-30)? Everyone playing will be an adult, but they are my family so it can be mature but not that kind of mature.

I don't mind answering at all, this is such a fun question thank you for asking! What a good idea.

So I googled conversion rates since I'm in Canada, and I think your price range is like $35-50 CAD so that's pretty reasonable. Hopefully that's right! But most of these are closer to the lower end anyway I think, so we should be good.

1. Concept

I think it's a little more money than you're looking to spend, but there's a chance I'm wrong about pricing so I'm mentioning it just in case. Either way, it's totally worth the money and it's one of the games that gets played most often at my house. It's sort like pictionary and charades where you're trying to get people to guess a word, but instead of drawing or acting you have a board full of icons, and you need to use those to get people to guess the word or phrase. It's good for some laughs!

2. Telestrations

This one is closer to the lower end of your price range, and it's a ton of fun! It's a mix of telephone and pictionary. Everybody starts with a flip book, and they draw a card and pick a word from that card, write it on the first page, and pass their book to the person beside them. That person has to draw the word, and then pass it along again. The next person can only look at the drawing and has to guess what the word was. The next person looks at the guessed word and has to draw it. Etc. etc. until it reaches the original person. And then you get to flip through everything and laugh very, very hard. I own the "After Dark" version, which is very much not PG, but I'm sure the original is lots of fun too!

3. Organ Attack

This game is the most ridiculous thing ever and I love it. Definitely one of my favourite games. Everybody has a set of organ cards that are laid on the table in front of them face up for everyone else to see. You also have a hand of cards that include different afflictions that hurt the organs. Some are specific to certain organs (for instance, you can't afflict someone's pancreas with a nosebleed) but some can be used on any organ. The object of the game is to remove everyone else's organs with these cards and be the last one remaining! It's kind of absurd, but actually is a bit strategic and it's a ton of fun. It's also based on the Heart and Brain Awkward Yeti comics, which are great and you should consider checking those out if you haven't heard of them!

4. Coup

This is definitely a strategy (and deception!) game. You have a couple roles which grant you specific abilities, but only you know your roles. You go around the table taking turns, and the actions you're allowed to take on your turn are determined by the roles that you have (although there are some actions that everyone can take). But since your roles are secret, you can pretend to have a role that you don't have to take actions you technically aren't allowed to. If you get caught, you lose a card, and if you falsely accuse someone you also lose a card (some roles are able to make you lose a card as well, and you can use coins that you earn in the game to make people lose a card). You want to be the last person left with a card in your hand! There's another game called Love Letter which is pretty much the same idea and is also a lot of fun.

5. Fluxx

Fluxx is another card game, and this one has constantly changing rules. I can't tell you how to win because that changes as you play, too. There are several different types of cards, but the ones that make it most interesting are a) the New Rule cards, which are exactly what they sound like, adding new rules to the game (like how many cards to draw or play per turn), and b) the Goal cards, which change the objective of the game and therefore tell you how to win. It's a very chaotic game because of the constant changes, but it's pretty cool! And a really fun thing about it is that there are so many themed versions; I personally own both Math Fluxx and Monty Python Fluxx. So chances are you could find a themed version that the people in your family would be really into, and that might make it extra special!

I'm going to stop here, because we're already at 5 and these are the ones that come to mind most when i recommend board games to anyone (except Catan, which is fairly expensive and so probably more than you want to play, and it's also pretty well known anyway). I hope this is helpful, and I'm happy to chat more if you have any questions! I'd also love to hear what games you already have picked out.

[alittledizzy]

29 Things I Love About Dan

1. That he came out to his family via email. Aspirational.

2. Dude really, really loves his grandma.

3. That one time at a book signing when the bookstore overpromised tickets and there was a dad that was really upset because his daughter had been waiting in line so long and didn't get to meet them. The dad was just shouting at Dan and Phil and everyone else was trying to just quickly walk on but Dan stopped, turned around, and talked to the dad.

4. That he's the first person to defend someone he loves in any situation where he even perceives they're being shit upon, but in the same breath will make fun of them himself. He's the epitome of older brother attitude.

5. He spends a lot of money on clothes but then he wears what he buys every single day for a span of at least a year so he does at least get his money's worth.

6. That time on vyou when someone asked him what he looks for in a girl and his answer was the ring that fell off his hand last time that he really wants back.

7. His reaction to the Phil's wife story. I still laugh thinking about Sabrina and Lola. In the process of answering that he made a remark about how Phil leaves to go with his 'real' family and sometimes that just latches itself onto my brain. There was a similar comment during the blue/gold dress debate where Phil referenced Dan in with family and it's just... like, yeah, they're in love, they're in a relationship. But they're not just partners, they are full on out and out family to each other and that Dan found that at a time when he was so scared and felt so isolated with his own family is worth everything.

8. The depth of feeling in his voice during that one "Katie, Katie, Katie... Katie, Katie, Katie. No." liveshow answer. You know the one. He was having none of that and if Katie got verbally incinerated in the process of his answering, so be it.

9. When he'd be doing a liveshow and get on a tangent and end up talking about condiments or dips for like four minutes straight.

10. The way he never minded putting someone on blast that pissed him off but knew that it bothered Phil so he would consult with Phil first sometimes but then if the situation actually involved Phil being hurt in some way all bets were off he Was naming that trainer that made Phil puke he did not Care if Phil gave him an alias for the video Kai deserved what he got for pushing Phil too far.

11. That after a decade he still wants to impress Phil's family by doing things like cleaning before they come and making them all coffee.

12. And yet still made a cake to give to Phil in front of them that talked about wanting to see Phil's ass. The duality of man is real, indeed.

13. Nicer Internet. Young Minds. Make-a-Wish. Mermaids. He only just came into his own with being charity-minded in the last few years and I don't for a second doubt he does more privately than publicly and probably has some mental spirals about using his platform vs being accused of virtue signaling. But this is just one way I love watching him find his footing in the world as an adult with privilege.

14. He introduced an important word to my personal lexicon with Haru and I'd like the rest of the world to catch on because it's just a very specific action of lying while obviously lying and pretending you aren't lying and I love it.

15. When he was fifteen he was so in his emo kid feelings that he wanted black angel wings tattooed on his back.

16. That little tune he'd hum when he was trying to space out thoughts during liveshows.

17. That somehow he beat all the odds and is best friends with the first person he subscribed to (Bryony) and in a relationship with his teenage self's favorite youtuber (Phil, obviously). Teenage Dan had a really shit time of almost everything but in that one specific 'meet your idols' area he was truly blessed with all of the luck.

18. "All I can taste is cherry, all I can smell is cherry, all I can hear is cherry and all I can feel is cherry. Can't really see much though."

19. The fact that he owned up to previous bad takes and opinions and deleted old videos and tweets.

20. Litralee.

21. They originally wanted Phil to run the board at the radio show but he did such a bad job of it after the first episode that they gave it to Dan instead, and I think for someone with zero radio work experience or training Dan did an amazing job. He may spend a lot of time doubting himself but when a spotlight is on him he's clever and confident and adapts quickly.

22. The way when he says 'at all' he still sounds like his five year old self.

23.  That he tried to run the marathon last year, and didn't, and tried again this year. When you're someone that fears judgement for your failures and knows everything you do is scrutinized by a very large audience - not just fans but people waiting for you to fail so they can report on that, too - sharing in that way seems like it would be really hard. It was shit luck that he couldn't run it this year either but I have faith he's gonna cross that finish line because the man Dan Howell has turned into goes after what he wants and fuck what anyone else thinks or expects of him.

24. That one liveshow they did without pants. You know that was Dan's idea. Phil is a respectable young man who does not go live on the internet to thousands of people in just his underwear. But Dan? Dan would. Dan does. And Dan is a terrible blerson.

25. That in a video to ten million people he said with his whole chest that his relationship with Phil made him feel safe for the first time since he was a small child. And like, yeah, sure, I'm infatuated with their relationship so it made me happy on a personal level. But beyond that; putting words to things is clearly not easy for Dan. It took him decades to acknowledge he was gay to himself. It took decades plus a little to tell his family. Sometimes it doesn't matter how much people know things, giving it a label is fucking scary and I think his fear of labeling his relationship with Phil (to the public) felt like a different kind of exposure than just his sexuality and he still faced them both.

26. He clearly has a very complicated relationship with his parents and family in general but that one story he told about being young and on holiday to Disneyland Paris and his mum is terrified of roller coasters but went on one with him like six times because she didn't want him to be alone. I'm glad through all the badness and doubt and fear he's had at how conditional his parents' love might be, that he had those good memories as well.

27. It was Dan that coined the phrase 'post-baking universe.' He's very aware of the stages of their life and his growth and he shares that self-awareness with the viewers even if he doesn't share all the depth of reasoning behind them. (He also coined the term 'phan' but in that instance I think uhh he didn't know what he was doing so.)

28. That he's learned better coping mechanisms than lashing out online. That he's got therapy now and the option for medication when he needs it. That depression doesn't go away but he knows he has options and support now.

29. He's given us almost a decade of content to watch and rewatch and enjoy and view through the different lights of his growth and our own growth, and who knows what the future will hold.

Okay, last minute addition - we'll call it one to grow on:

30. That Starcourt selfie.