#very on-brand for miraculous i'd say

[miraculously-incorrect]

Alya, talking about Adrien: just go up to him and tell him that you like him, what's the worse that could happen?

Marinette: he could hear me

[storiumemporium]

Astarion As a Father

Fem!Tav/Reader

I FINALLY GOT A NEW KEYBOARD WITH FULLY FUNCTIONING KEYS LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I elected to write about something that's been giving me brainworms for ages, because I'd been talking about it with someone on here awhile ago and it just infested me. Astarion finding out you're pregnant and how he handles fatherhood. (Or, in this case, doesn't at first.) This isn't my best work but I blame it on the fact that I didn't intend for it to be THIS FUCKING LONG okay 😭

But without further ado, daddy Astarion:

Finding out:

When it comes to children, I think Astarion hasn't put much thought into it beyond 'me!? ABSOLUTELY NOT—'

He has no illusions about his state of mind and his faculties, you see. Astarion knows that he's fucked up, he knows that he's a problem, and he's only entirely too confident that any child unfortunately put under his care would likely end up just as damaged as he is, were they to miraculously make it to adulthood. He's just not equipped for it.

And, frankly, Astarion isn't even aware he can have children... That's just, not something he ever thought to question. He's undead, is he not? That should take care of the...fertility question.

Shouldn't it?

Truth be told, Cazador never told him of the possibilities because it was never meant to be a possibility. Astarion was too malnourished, his victims too short lived for anything to ever have come of it. He was supposed to die a sacrifice, not live to carry his own bloodline (hah) onward.

Were you to ever ask him about it, even jokingly over dinner one eve, he'd be very firm in the fact that it's a terrible idea and he'd be entirely unequipped. He would even go so far as to say he's the worst choice out of all of your past companions.

"Me? No. Absolutely not. I'm sure whatever little devil you managed to cook up would be the most charming child Baldur's Gate has ever seen... But even that magical explosive that fancied himself a God would be better suited to fatherhood, darling. I am built for luxury and adventure, nothing else." All bookended by typical Astarion preening.

So when the day comes and you inform him of the little life growing in your womb?

Nope. Not happening, not even a chance of happening.

The denial is strong with this one.

And when I say denial, I mean that Astarion well and truly blots out what you've said from his mind, as if it simply didn't happen at all. You never had the conversation, you never dropped the revelation, there is no child, he is not becoming a father.

It's not a lack of want— though he doesn't realize that yet— it's true, blinding terror. Before it was just a joke, just something for him to brush off with commentary about how terribly he'd do as a parent, better the uncle than anything else. But now it's a reality and to accept what you've said is to accept that he might well and truly destroy a child. But not just any, yours.

The traumas Astarion possesses heap onto his shoulders and slough off plentiful enough to make new oceans of it. Now, not only is he just beginning to regain his own autonomy, he's supposedly being given responsibility over a brand new life?

(It would only make sense for Astarion in retrospect, that the life you willingly sacrificed to nourish and nurture him would in turn allow him to grow a new life within you. The fool had just been too blind to consider it: The way, fresh off your blood, he could pull back from the delicate column of your throat and you would find his cheeks and ears and chest flushed with the loveliest shade of pink, eyes wide and soft and alive. The way his entire body would warm, going from corpse frigid to something just beneath normal. The way his once-still heart would slowly beat again.

He'd even asked you once- curled together on a familiar silken bed, foreheads touching and your hands clasped together between your chests- if you knew what it felt like to be so, so hungry that all you could even think about was about badly you wanted to eat? How food sounded so good that the desire became crossed and instead felt even more painful and nauseating? How it consumed your ability to make rational decisions, denied you the capacity to control your emotions?

He'd told you then, voice tender and timid and weak, that he'd felt like that every single day for two whole centuries, until the night you'd willingly laid down on that cot and put your life in his hands.

It was so simple really, of course you granted him the strength to create life. It was you.)

And of course it comes to a head before there is any chance at recovery. Your body begins to show the changes, you begin to swell, and Astarion only grows more avoidant and flighty. Because now he can't simply wipe the idea from his mind and continue on as if the child doesn't exist, the proof is there every single time he looks at you. He makes it very clear to you that he will not be returning to your side without a confrontation, a very potentially ugly one at that.

And ugly it is, explosive. Astarion hasn't truly had the time to recover from his life under Cazador, and all of those protective traits he grew remain sharp as ever, returning to the surface as if they'd never truly gone away to begin with. He sneers and hisses, tries his best to dig in and hurt you enough to stop poking his tender wounds. Enough to push you away so he can lick his wounds back open. He'll go so far as to accuse you of infidelity, though he regrets the words the moment they leave his lips, it's easier for him to imagine that you simply grew tired of him, that you were weary and longed for the daylight. That you wanted someone who could hold you beneath the sun, unlike him.

How you respond to this is entirely up to you, but just shy of throwing something truly despicable back into his face, such as Cazador, Astarion will apologize... eventually. If you remain stalwart and patient, if you have it in you to recognize that he doesn't mean his words, that he's barbing you with intent, Astarion will break down in that very same argument, his angry and accusatory rant will dissolve into an admission of deep insecurity and deeper terror.

But if you respond with anger? Justifiable, and Astarion knows that even in the moment as it's happening, but emotions rule him far more than he'd ever care to admit, and he will dig in and relish the reaction he's managed to draw from you. He will bristle and bite back until suspicion and bitterness fully claims his heart, and he aborts the conversation to hide in the shadows.

Astarion will wait until nightfall, until his freedom calls for him. The one thing that always manages to clear his head, even when you prove to be the cause of his muddying. It's a reminder, every time he steps into the cool and dark of Baldur's Gate, that Cazador is dead and he is a free man. That he can go where he chooses and when he chooses to, and not only that no one can stop him, but that you wouldn't even want to stop him.

And that truth is always what brings Astarion home.

Under the distant lonely stars and that cold moon, he has to remember that time and again you have let him. You have accepted him, you have not fought him on anything shy of a horrible mistake he wanted to make in a moment of weakness and hysteria. You have accepted all his deepest and ugliest wounds and kissed them like they were freckles to pour affection on. You fought Cazador for him, you defended him from your own friends. You even- at times- tested your own morals for him.

You wouldn't betray him, and Astarion knows he can't betray you.

Astarion would return to you late, curling into bed at your side, his eyes would not meet you, and his apology would come in the form of a simple confession. "I am... afraid. I am afraid."

Astarion wouldn't blame you if you don't forgive him immediately for his transgressions, he was cruel and you were vulnerable. But even then you'll find that your love doesn't abandon you again. He accepts- however frightened- that what you've said is true and is coming, and he must accept it. Mind you, it won't be perfect and it won't be romantic. Astarion doesn't know the intricacies of handling a pregnant woman, he's hardly tactful beyond his well honed and flirtatious lines. He genuinely loves you, but he's going to come pre-equipped as father material.

You need something? He'll get it with minimal complaint (but never none, you'd sooner get him to dye his hair black than cease complaining for the sake of it), he won't begrudge you your mood swings though he might be inclined to poke fun at you ever so often. And he will panic when you burst into tears for seemingly no reason, and no- time doesn't make him adjust, he will panic just as much the thousandth time as the first.

However, if it's any consolation. The moment your child enters the world, Astarion is a changed man.

When You Go Into Labor:

Astarion did the honors of informing all of your friends about your pregnancy, once he came to terms with it. And believe me when I say it is extravagant. The stationery and grandiose script that Astarion wields when informing everyone that you were expecting better fits a wedding invitation than it does... well. Very elegantly explaining that Astarion had accidentally knocked you up.

You can tell from the splotchy stains addressed to you from Wyll and Karlach that one of them had been crying when penning the message, Astarion has coin on Wyll, and you on Karlach. Lae'zel never responds to begin with and you know for a fact the Githyanki's response will likely come in the form of her simply showing up one of these days, unprompted. Jaheira personally and rather frequently visits as well, she becomes a sort of bastion as nerves take you over, confident and calm as she is. Halsin's "letter" arrives late, rather because alongside his letter is several little carved animals for the child's room, and mentions of a quilt he intends to bring along when next he visits. Shadowheart's letter, while congratulatory, contains an air of interrogation strung all about it, all aimed with pinpoint precision at the man responsible for your pregnancy and dripping with sarcasm.

Gale's letter is seven pages long, comes with a violet hued wax stamp, and multiple different inks in the most lavish hand he can manage. You daresay he's competing with Astarion. However, surprisingly, Gale's seems to be the most... helpful of them all? It wasn't your intent, you simply wanted your dear friend to join you in celebration, and yet Gale goes on to inform you that upon reading the letter he'd become a madman in pursuit of knowledge on pregnancy and giving birth. He admits that this wasn't a particularly fruitful endeavor, as he's rather confident that you're not a gnoll, troll, cambion, succubus, or any other variety of strange creature with strange metrics of procreation. Still, Gale directs the latter portion of his letter to Astarion quite pointedly, informing him of bookshops around Baldur's Gate where he might have more success.

Astarion scoffs, but you don't miss the way his fingers twitch and flex.

After the hilarity of this is resolved and you just begin to believe that peace might return to your soft little home in the city, the first of your companions begin to arrive.

This continues on for the next week or so, without you ever knowing that this had been planned- and without knowing that Astarion had been the one to plan it. It's a furthering of his apology, of his guilt over the way he'd treated you. Again, Astarion has no illusions of the kind of man he is, and the fact he's not nurturing in the sort of ways that you need- but he's not completely stupid and he knows you're scared. So... bring the cavalry, darling.

Eventually your entire home has become a crash pad for all of your dearest friends, your family, and you only grow suspicious of Astarion's hand in this chaos because he's surprisingly amicable to having his peace so thoroughly disturbed by 'everyone and their mother'. Truly, he manages to bite his tongue some of the time about them trampling his fine rugs and scratching the plates. He even seems... wistful about it. As nostalgic as you openly are at seeing all of these beloved people under one roof again.

Nights are filled with raucous laughter, clattering utensils, a table so thoroughly overcrowded that people are playfully shouldering each other out of the way for a chance to get at their own food. And Astarion stays faithful at your side, his hand perpetually clasped gently around yours, thumb rubbing over your knuckles. Days are never spent alone, no matter what it is you need to do, someone (if not everyone) is following you along. And though Astarion feels his heart ache that he can't join you, he'll be glad to know you're safe.

Besides, your companions are likely all taking turns tormenting, testing, and relentlessly teasing him about what is to come. He has his own hands full. He's starting to regret being such a generous lover.

And then your water breaks in the dead of night.

Remember how I said Astarion was far from perfect? This would be one of those moments that it really shines.

Not that he's particularly terrible, no. He's not actively cruel toward you, and certainly not dismissive, it's somewhat the opposite. Halsin and Jaheira end up the ones helping you, the only two with some iota of understanding on what was happening and what to do with and for you. The others, less experienced in "mundane" medical situations will take up the second most important role.

Prevent Astarion from catastrophizing any more than he already has been.

Karlach has been the sole force capable of keeping Astarion away from the wine, typically bear hugging him away from your cellar while Wyll tries his best to talk your lover down from a total nervous breakdown. Of which he nearly has, several times. It's not even the sight of you, specifically. He's okay with being at your side and holding your hand, in trying his best to provide comforting words that aren't laced with sarcasm for once. But the sounds you make, that's what breaks him. Astarion isn't good at hearing you scream from the pain, he isn't good at the choked sobs or your heavy breaths. The way you sound like you're struggling against death. It makes him want to crawl out of his own skin, fight assailants that aren't there.

And for a few hours there, in the midst of your labors and your exhausted, pained little cries, Astarion isn't sure how he can love the child causing you this much suffering. It's not as if Astarion was an altruistic man on his best days, as if he were particularly reasonable when it came to you. You've both come to a mutual understanding that were something to happen to you, no morals would be involved in the things Astarion would do to rectify it.

And now, here you are, suffering. Astarion isn't supposed to do a thing about it? He's supposed to be- what, overjoyed by it? It infuriates him, he's truly prepared to have a grudge match with an infant.

Until, as the sun is starting to creep up on a brand new day, it's no longer your screams that meet the air, but another's entirely. Tiny but powerful, high pitched little squeals of fury and distress. And your laughter, disbelieving, soft, adoring already.

Astarion has a daughter.

I go with the HC that Astarion had eyes like honey once, and that his daughter takes after that, along with the delicate points of his ears mirrored in her own. She's small, so small, but healthy and already feisty, wiggling as best as her tiny body can whilst still too heavy for her to lift and move.

You're the first to hold her of course, and Astarion will be at his knees beside the two of you. The expression he wears is something you've seen maybe two or three other times in the entire time you've known him- moments when you know he expected everything to fall apart, moments where he couldn't believe that the world was so good.

It's then that you can breathe for the first time, and know that both of your darlings will be just fine.

Once he does hold her, he's not inclined to let her go. Even once you ask to have her back, he'll simply move you into his lap, so that he can hold you both. It's better that way anyhow, having both of his girls in his arms. And Astarion will repeat again and again how stunned he is, he just can't believe it. Cannot fathom any of it. I think he's the type to say that he's speechless and then spend the next five minutes doing nothing but talking. It's nervous rambling, but still, speechless is not the term I would use to describe him here.

Astarion With Your Baby:

Once your little darling is actually in your lives, you get to see how hilariously unorthodox Astarion is with children. Especially his own. Astarion doesn't baby-talk like you or the rest of your companions, he speaks in the same exact tones as he would a grown woman. In fact, for the first few days you're adjusting to a child in your life, you sometimes mistake Astarion as speaking with an unexpected guest, only to round the corner and find him lightheartedly chastising his own daughter for her poor nappy conduct as he wrinkles his nose and changes her diaper.

He's disgusted by that, by the way. Absolutely hates it, complains loudly about having to do it. But if you so much as try to stand to help he'll force you back down onto your chair or the couch, something something not useless something something already up, darling. It's as if Astarion is simply allergic to admitting that while it makes him nauseous, he wants to care for his daughter. He wants you to rest.

And yes, Astarion is the type of father that thinks all other children are hideous little fecal beasts and his daughter is the only gorgeous little angel in the entire world. Perfect, can do no wrong. He tells her as such too, in the same deadpan voice he always uses, wiggling and stretching her legs.

"You know, darling. You should count your blessings, you're the only child I've ever seen that doesn't look like some sort of hideous, deformed bean. I can't be surprised though, with as gorgeous as your parents are." And though he rolls his eyes, he's unable to contain the grin that shows his teeth when she coos and squeaks at the sound of his voice.

And yes. Astarion dresses up with his child.

The older she gets the more he does it, little matching outfits and ribbons. Nothing that she would choke on, were she to get her mitts on it. (You had to be the one to tell him no, at first. He did throw a little fit about it, just a small one).

But it's not all lighthearted, good or bad.

There are times where Astarion won't touch your daughter, won't be alone with her in the same room. He fears it, he'll eventually tell you. His... affliction came with it's dangers, always. But he's always trusted that you could defend yourself, and you're big enough that he can't just kill you between one blink and the next. The same can't be said of your darling girl. She's so small and so fragile that, were he to lose even the slightest grip of himself around her, it could cost her her life. No doubt it would traumatize her for life, regardless.

You watch it, too. The way it pinches his brows and makes him wipe his palms against his pants as if he were sweating. Nervous habits creeping up his throat and causing him to pace about like a caged animal. It's during these times that you have to bring your daughter to him. Gently place her in his arms and remind him that he's loved her from the moment he saw her. And where once he held trepidation and queasiness at the prospect of fatherhood, you can see him care so much about this little bundle that he looks sick from it. A vulnerability he can't mask.

And of course, there are times he nearly weeps for other reasons.

Like when she takes her first steps, and immediately tries to run for him.

And Astarion knows he should let her tumble, that it's good to let her fall and get back up again, but the moment her unsteady feet cause her to careen she's safe in his arms. Little kisses peppered against her giggly face. And he'll tuck away against her to try and get his bearings back, but she'll pat his cheeks and tug his ears- and you'll have to distract her with a toy while he hiccups and sniffles down his need to cry. He wasn't ready for her to grow so fast, gone is the tiny bundle that could fit perfectly in one arm, now she's walking. How long before she's dating? Gods, should he be preparing for betrothal requests!?

"I want to be mortal." He whispers to you, one night. She's tucked between your bodies, sound asleep and wiggling from time to time. This is one of the rare moments you and your love can speak to each other uninterrupted, in the tranquility of the dark hugging around you.

It's strange that he brings this up now, you'd spoken about it several times since the Elder Brain had been taken down... But in the past few years since your daughter had been born, all of that had fallen to the wayside. "What brings this to mind, Starling?"

Your hand comes to cup his throat, as you watch and feel him work as if he were swallowing a stone. "I don't want to outlive this."

It's hard to blink the tears from your eyes, understanding the implications.

Were he actually two hundred years old, Astarion wouldn't survive well past the existence of his sweet little family.

He'd been more melancholy the past few weeks, after realizing that your daughter was beginning to function on her own. She was walking, grabbing things, talking in rudimentary sentences. She was even beginning to call him pa.

He'd cried, at that.

"I'll forget," his voice draws you out from that brief reverie. The distress is palpable, but runs low like the tide before a storm. "I'll forget all of this. I don't want to know what I'll become, then."

And when you run your hands up into his hair, to scratch lovingly along his scalp, he doesn't hide the shiver or the way his face presses against your palm, cold and smooth on your skin.

"We'll find a way, Astarion. I haven't given up yet... We just- she's too young."

It's both a strain and a relief, to know that. To be reminded that your daughter is still so small, that he won't be losing her- or you- any time soon. There's still time.

Astarion With Your Teen:

Arguably this is the best time between your daughter and him. It's simultaneously a surprise and yet- not at all? He's more like her confidante and best friend than strictly a father. He isn't one for harsh curfews and strict ways of dress- rather, he's the one she comes to when she's made some sort of mistake. Or when she's angry about something.

In general, Astarion withholds judgement of her, for better or worse. The unintended consequence is that you might become more of her enemy than Astarion, because he's less inclined to punish for questionable behaviors.

It's not that he's afraid of angering her or dealing with push back- rather that Astarion's frame of reference for what constitutes a mistake is ah... rather broken. Even in the beginnings of your relationship with Astarion, the mistakes that would anger him constituted dropping an entire building on his head or... risking being turned into a Mindflayer to help some old lady find her cat.

Not feeling up cute boys in alleyways.

As a result you'll likely need to have a few conversations with him about not being so lenient on her, because she needs to have structure in how to behave. Stealing things is in fact, not okay! And Astarion will listen, but he's always going to be a bit more of a friend than anything else.

A total gossip with her, too. You'll catch them huddled around the dinner table at night, both with a glass of wine (this was an argument that Astarion ended up winning, she's allowed one glass a week, but that's all!) in hand shittalking a storm together. Astarion has become the Baldur's Gate equivalent of a PTA mom, he shows up as stylishly as he can and beefs with the parents of whichever children have upset his daughter the most. And then when they get home they just toss it back and forth together.

But I want to stress, just because he doesn't punish her doesn't mean he isn't protective of her. Astarion is more protective than you are.

Once she begins dating you'll find yourself home alone semi-frequently, because Astarion will play the supportive, loving father part when she leaves- and immediately follow her out into the dark. He's had centuries to know what dangers lurk around every corner, and foggy memories of simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time before his nightmare began. He won't allow that to happen with his girl.

And it's funny, because Astarion will talk mad shit to himself while he does it. Logically he knows that she's with some teenage boy or girl, but it doesn't stop the petty, emotional side of him from rolling his eyes and sneering at the cheap one-liners and the dumb tactics that this would-be charmer utilizes. Really, taking her into dark alleys to get her to tuck into you? Going to a totally secret spot that Astarion has known about for at least a hundred and sixty years? Get real, kid.

And you have to try valiantly not to laugh when he comes home, huffing and puffing about it. Because you will hear every single petty thought he had the entire time, and you will know that he looks like a petulant child. It's very cute.

All in all, I think Astarion is a reckless, chaotic, petty father. And one that loves his child so, so much. To the point of ruin, to the point where suddenly staying in one place doesn't seem so bad, just so she can have friends. Helping people isn't the worst, just so she can know there are heroes in the world. Suddenly he's learning to bandage scrapes and kiss bruises, and having tears and snot on his clothes mean nothing compared to the grief of the one shedding them. He loves her in ways he didn't anticipate he ever could. Enough to know all of her ticks and secrets, to know when she's lying through her teeth and when she's being devastatingly obvious.

Learning to cook even when he can't eat, listening to her spin a story with a straight face and then- as she's stepping out the door- telling her to be careful with that boy and listening to her groan loudly as the door slams shut, a mischievous smile on his face.

Holding you and dancing you around, cradling you close with all the tenderness he has in the whole of his body and soul. Kissing you, calling you the mother of his child, thanking you for giving him something he didn't even know he'd wanted. A family.

Small and odd, but his.

[tactician]

as you probably know, the most recent pokemon games feature pretty significant pokedex cuts due to the sheer magnitude of pokemon that are now available to us. this means that some pokemon are simply not featured in certain mainline games, which adds a unique element to a lot of pokemon's ribbon master journeys. re: my experience with reides, working around unobtainable ribbons wasn't exactly a new experience - after all, there were no available shadow horseas/seadras/kingdras in pokemon colosseum or pokemon xd, so i knew that my kingdra wouldn't be able to get the national ribbon (granted to purified shadow pokemon) - but it still was something i had to consider and plot out carefully as i brought him up towards the more recent generations. for example, reides was unable to get the hisui ribbon (granted for taking a photo with your pokemon in the region's photo studio), as the horsea line was not featured in legends arceus... and, for a long time, i figured that he wouldn't be able to get any of the ribbons (and marks!) featured in scarlet and violet.

but then... the dlc happened. the glorious, glorious dlc.

the horsea line was re-introduced into the pokedex when indigo disk - the second batch of dlc for scarlet and violet - dropped. needless to say, i was EXTREMELY hype about this. in my previous post, i mentioned not being sure if reides would be able to join me in this current generation of pokemon. i wondered if i'd have to brave the long, long queues of pokemon shield in order to get the master rank ribbon on him and make him a true ribbon master... but fortune smiled down on me, and reides was miraculously granted access to generation 9 of the pokemon games.

before i get into reides' journey through paldea, kitakami and unova, here's a quick reminder you can find each part of reides' ribbon master journey here on my personal website, or here in my ribbon master tag on this tumblr! it spans from my childhood copy of emerald version to my... uh... adulthood (lmao) copy of scarlet version... so it's quite the sizeable read! to everyone who's stuck by me for this whole challenge and expressed support for my lovely kingdra: thank you so much! and for anyone new to the reides saga: welcome, and i hope you enjoy my posts about him!

with that handled... it's time to cover a brand new generation of ribbons and marks!

as a big pokemon fan, i tend to play new games and dlc the very moment that i can. in the current era of #gaming, that means obsessively checking for game updates on the night of dlc releases. as i mashed that + button on my pro controller to check for updates to my copy of scarlet, i felt especially nervous. thanks to people being mischievous and sneaking alleged leaks around on twitter, i knew that the horsea line was supposedly being introduced into the game... but i'm extremely skeptical by nature. (can you believe that some people go on the internet and lie?!?!) i didn't want to believe that reides' ribbon master journey would continue until i saw a little horsea (or seadra... or kingdra...) swimming around in a digital body of water myself. once my game finally updated, i sprinted over to blueberry academy as SOON as i could and began running around the terarium in search of a horsea. i found one swimming around in a lake almost immediately.

when i tell y'all... the scream i scrumpt... LMFAO. joking aside, it felt like i could finally breathe again. i was SO READY to plop reides into my file and get right to grabbing the ribbons and marks that were added for gen9. unfortunately, gamefreak had other plans for me, and pokemon home was under maintenance. after falling dramatically to my knees, i busied myself with getting the rest of my team for the dlc ready. this included grinding out the necessary bp to unlock wild starters in the terarium, then embarking on a shiny hunt for my fav starter pokemon of all time - totodile! after hours and hours of looking around, i managed to catch one successfully in a love ball and named him barge. along with the rest of my indigo disk team, barge would go on to be close friends with reides. anyway, after a lengthy maintenance, pokemon home was eventually ready to go. i leapt right in, retrieving reides and plopping him into my party. i'm a huge fan of the updated pokemon models in scarlet, so i was hype to see the one that they gave shiny kingdra. i was NOT disappointed in the slightest!

LOOK AT HOW GORGEOUS HE IS. the tiny scale details... the glossy shine... my god. as much as i liked the sleekness of the models in gen8, i like the more realistic ones that gen9 introduced a whole lot more. the devs did a phenomenal job; kingdra looks absolutely majestic. with my full indigo disk team now present in my copy of scarlet, i had to take a group shot and treat everyone to a sandwich!

reides met five new pals: bane the weezing, grunge the krookodile, bento the snorlax, axe the haxorus, and, of course, barge the feraligatr! i shiny hunted for all of them myself, as i really enjoyed doing the same for my kitakami team during my teal mask playthrough.

i wasn't quite ready to take on the indigo disk plotline, though. my first order of business was grabbing a ribbon for reides - namely, the paldea champion ribbon! i hopped on a plane and flew back to paldea, signing up for a spot in the academy ace tournament.

i really love the vibes of the academy ace tournament; everyone is so passionate about the battles, and the music is an absolute JAM. i was especially happy about reides' first experience as a competitor in it, too, because my fav character in the game just-so-happened to show up for it!

that's right: arven - the man, the myth, the legend - challenged me and reides to a battle.

shoutout to him holding his pokeball upside down. just one more reason as to why he's truly one of the best pokemon characters. (btw, as happy was i was to see arven, i always feel so bad to fight his mabosstiff. that's my FRIEND!!!!!!)

anyway, after sweeping his way through everyone in the academy ace tournament, reides was granted the paldea champion ribbon for his efforts.

after nabbing that ribbon, i decided that i should really get a move on with the indigo disk's actual plot, as i wanted to avoid spoilers and also REALLY wanted to know what happened next in the plot. i was pretty invested in the hooks that teal mask introduced and was especially worried about kieran. (just why did teal mask's plot force us to lie to that poor kid, btw?! just thinking about it gets me so annoyed. i'd go through an 'evil' arc too if i was in his shoes, i'll tell you that.) even though it's not really relevant to reides' ribbon master quest, i figured i'd share some photos of his storyline adventure, too.

(btw, i'm writing this post in feb 2024, which means that indigo disk has been Around for around 2 months and thus the spoiler embargo is pretty much lifted - but, still: be warned that there are some spoilers for indigo disk beyond this point!)

the battles in indigo disk ended up being pretty tough; i was glad that i put time aside to train up my team properly. we managed to take on the blueberry elite four and kieran and ultimately Prevailed - even if the battles were quite close, at times! i was kinda sad that there was no ribbon associated with beating all of them - it would've been nice to finally get some form of an unovan ribbon on my ribbon master - and i was also pretty shocked that the dlc didn't introduce a battle tower. regardless, even if reides didn't get a ribbon for his performance in the battles, it was still awesome to include him in them, and i had a whole lot of fun.

i also brought reides along for the Shenanigans following the blueberry academy plotline.

luckily for me, briar, carmine and kieran were chill with waiting in the underdepths of area zero while i took reides on a bit of a photoshoot. it was just so pretty down there!! how could i resist!!

anyway, silly little wanderings aside, it was really cool to have reides involved in the big showdown against terapagos. i was especially happy when kieran snapped out of his funk and i got to battle alongside him. his hydrapple even used dragon cheer, powering reides up during the battle. it made the whole experience feel all the more significant.

with everything all sorted out, i ended up being really happy with the indigo disk's overall plot. i definitely liked it a lot more than teal mask's narrative and was really pleased that we could become proper friends with kieran once more. (i still wish that we could've apologized for lying to him, though.)

now that i was safe from indigo disk spoilers and emboldened with love for pokemon as a whole, i decided to pick up my ribbon-collecting in earnest once more... though the next ribbon on my list was not actually a ribbon. it was a mark! introduced in gen8, marks are basically the same as ribbons. i think of them as little stickers on pokemon, haha. the first one that i set my sights on was the gourmand mark, which has a chance of being randomly given to your pokemon after eating a meal with them! these meals can be the store-bought ones or the ones that you make yourself via the picnic system.

frankly, i have no idea WHEN reides got this mark, as i went sort of crazy with buying lots of different meals. (i really like the food art in this game, okay!!) it definitely didn't take long for one of these meals to really strike his fancy, though. he got the gourmand mark very quickly and also got the title 'reides the gourmet' along with it!

i then decided that i'd try to get the other two marks on reides in one fell swoop. the first of these marks was the itemfinder mark, which your pokemon has a chance of getting when they pick up an item in the overworld. to get this mark, you have to make use of the let's go feature, which allows your pokemon to walk alongside you. the second of these marks was the partner mark, which... can be quite the ordeal. your pokemon basically has a 1/100 chance to get this mark with every 10k steps that you take. additionally, your pokemon also has to be friendly towards you in order for them to have a chance at getting this mark. since both of these marks rely on random chance, i knew that i could get really unlucky and end up going off on one hell of a grind for them... but i decided to just take it one step at a time. instead of focusing on getting the marks to trigger, i wanted to wander around and enjoy the sights around the various regions of the game. after all, i was lucky to even HAVE reides in this generation - and these marks gave me the perfect excuse to take lots of photos with him, too!

i was especially happy to take some photos of him with aske, my shiny gallade who joined me for my teal mask journey. as you guys know, reides the kingdra is named after a character that i play in a dnd campaign. similarly, aske is named after another character in that campaign; he's reides' boyfriend!

i also enjoyed roaming around *as* reides while using the new synchro machine, too! i'm not sure if items that you pick up count towards the itemfinder mark in this mode, but i'd like to think that they do.

thanks to my casual approach to getting these marks, i actually have no idea how long they took for me to get on reides. one day, i just happened to check and they were BOTH there, so i guess the 'grind' truly ended up being completely painless. in the following screenshot, i'm hovering over the partner mark, but you can see the itemfinder one at the end of the row above it, too.

with the marks now handled, i had one more ribbon to get on reides before he could become a true ribbon master. this ribbon was the one that i was the most nervous about by FAR. the master rank ribbon is granted to your pokemon once you emerge victorious in one (1) online battle against another player... but the catch here is that the battle has to be in the master rank. for me, it meant climbing from the beginner rank all the way up there.

naturally, i procrastinated with this ribbon a whole lot. i took reides along for the (amazing) epilogue when it dropped in january, taking more pictures with him and making more memories... all the while wondering just when i'd get around to tackling the Final Ribbon.

as it turns out, i didn't actually end up procrastinating on it all that long. my friend cody visited me a few days after the epilogue dropped, and my other friend blee stayed over at my house for his visit, too. both of them knew about reides the kingdra and we decided that we'd tackle operation: final ribbon acquisition together, with blee spearheading it as someone very well-versed in vgc. over the course of a few days, we managed to get up to master rank - running into a bunch of really interesting teams and occurences during the climb of legend. (special shoutout to a dedenne who kept trying to spam nuzzle on pokemon who were completely immune to it, but who successfully spread the glory of Cheek Pouch via entrainment onto us all.) i learnt a truly crazy amount of stuff about the competitive world of pokemon and really enjoyed all of the different rental teams that we tried out.

upon arriving in the master ball tier, we had to switch gears, though, as we couldn't use rental teams anymore and, instead, had to build one from scratch so that reides could be included in it. i ended up building this portland regional finals team as per blee's recommendation, though we swapped out raging bolt for reides, himself. since it was my own team and not a rental one, we gave nicknames to each team member.

my entei is one that i got in an event years and years ago (they're shiny and in a cherish ball), so i couldn't nickname them... but just know that they are 'flamberge' in spirit. o7 reides also got an electric tera type (and tera blast as part of his moveset) for fun, as his namesake is associated with storms.

it was a lot of fun making this team!!! the very specific ev-spreads that some of the pokemon required gave me a newfound appreciation for all of the feathers that i happened to pick up while wandering the terarium... not to mention all of the mochi that i collected while oustin' ogres in kitakami.

once the team was all built, it was time to get the final W in order to secure the ribbon at long last. we could all breathe a whole lot easier, as when you rank up to another ball tier, you can't "demote" to a lower one - so falling back into the ultra ball tier wasn't a concern. victory didn't evade us for long, either!

after a REALLY fun battle against someone named alex, operation: final ribbon was finally complete.

reides - along with the rest of the team who helped clutch out the victory - got the much-coveted master rank ribbon.

upon getting this ribbon, it finally happened.

reides the kingdra officially became a ribbon master.

a journey that began back in october 2023 finally came to a close. with his 91 total ribbons (since his two golden memory ribbons have 48 ribbons in total within them), reides now has each and every single ribbon that he can possibly attain from his origin game of emerald version to the current pokemon generation.

i'm sure that all of my posts speak for themselves in terms of the sheer amount of effort that i put into this challenge. there were many times that i thought i hit a "roadblock," be it in the form of a gruelling grind or worries over not being able to access something due to hardware restrictions. in the end, however, reides was able to rise above all of the challenges. i got sooo much help and support from friends over the course of this whole challenge, so i have to give a BIG shoutout to every single one of y'all! and, of course, i have to extend thanks to all of the people who posted about their ribbon mastery experiences online, as i definitely couldn't have guided reides to this point without them. i'm hoping that the posts that i made about reides' journey can serve as a guide of sorts to anyone who wants to pick up the challenge for their pokemon, too!

at any rate, reides is my very first ribbon master and i definitely plan on keeping his ribbon collection up-to-date in future generations of pokemon. i say it time and time again, but the ribbon master challenge is amazing because it gets you interacting with aspects of the pokemon games that you may have never even thought of trying out. you form a true emotional bond with your pokemon, and it's just... so very fantastic. you make so many memories!!! so while there might not be an update to the reides saga until those generations are out and about, i'm already excited to keep on hunting for ribbons and am hoping that the horsea line is included in every single game going forward! because, quite frankly... it's what reides deserves. >:)

before i Sign Off on this post, however, i wanted to share something i bought to celebrate reides; namely, a custom shiny kingdra diorama from nerdidecor on etsy.

ISN'T IT SO CUTE!!!!! i put it right on my desk next to my pc so that i can always have a little reminder of my amazing ribbon master with me. i'm hoping to get more shiny kingdra stuff in the future, too!

either way, thank you all so much again for keeping up with me and my beloved kingdra! i'm already looking forward to being able to write up another one of these posts in the future! until then, reides is definitely going to enjoy a nice vacation from ribbon hunting. rest assured that i will be taking the very best care of him!!! :D

[princess-of-the-corner]

Wait a second what are we doing with Lu Ten in Miraculous Gaang?

Is he alive? I know he got like really sick at one point, but are we letting him live? If so, how old is he and what is his relationship to the Gaang? Because I imagine him being quite a bit older and seeing the Gaang as his much younger siblings that he has to mentor. He's probably away at university during most of the events of this, but Zuko and Azula call him in to save their hides for some of their civilian problems. Assuming he's alive

And how did he get sick? Did he like use the peacock or did he just get really ill and it woke Iroh up to the fact that he was being kind of a neglectful parent?

Also, other named kids you can use for miraculous if you want:

Song, the chick that saved Iroh from poisoning, tried to bond with Zuko over being hurt by the fire nation, and then he stole her ostrich horse

June, but she's probably a bit older than the rest of the crowd, maybe even Lu Ten's age.

On Ji, the girl that Aang talks to when he goes to Fire Nation school and consequently gets into a fight with her boyfriend Hide.

Shoji, another kid from the fire nation school, very nervous type.

Chan, the guy that Azula tries to flirt with in The Beach, and then they burn his house down.

Meng, Aunt Wu's assistant who keeps trying to flirt with Aang in The Fortuneteller, and who gets utterly blown off, only to eventually tell Aang at the end of the episode that Katara is really pretty and they deserve each other, and also gives them the cloud-reading book for their plot (because she's been stalking Aang, and HEY that's on brand for ML).

Of this selection, the only ones I have any particular attachments to are Meng and Song. I think I'd give Meng the goat if we keep your usual Dreamwalking powers, due to her fortune teller associations. Song could honestly have any of them, but I'm leaning Dog. But yeah, it's interesting that most of the Gaang's allies seem to be adults. Between the white lotus, various world leaders, and assorted other Randos, the significant adults in this show probably outnumber the significant children.

Yes! So!

We decided that since this is taking place in a Miraculous-esque Universe, a chunk of people get to live. Like, there's no war fucking up the world and we're axing the Bending (like if they had Bending on top of the Miraculous then OOF.) and also this is a modern world with better healthcare capabilities.

So yeah some people live. Lu Ten was never on the frontlines of a war. Kya never had to protect Katara from raiders looking for a Waterbender. Yue won't have to sacrifice herself to save the Moon Spirit, etc.

Not to say everything's perfect because there's going to be injuries and close calls and some of these fuckers can get killed off.

So since I can change things and let characters live, I am!

Anyway. Lu Ten!

So we're going with some kind of car accident type deal for him. He was in a coma for a few months. (During this we had the drama of Iroh falling apart with worry, Azulon 'dying', Ozai taking over the family company, and Ursa disappearing).

He's alive but has some medical problems. Mostly mobility issues. Usually in a wheelchair, though he can use a cane for short distances if needed. His hands are bad too, but he can still get stuff done.

He's a good decade older than the Gaang. Like in his mid-to-late 20s.

Between the age and mobility thing he's probably not getting a Miraculous himself (I mean the mobility isn't stopping Teo but he's the 'I'm gonna use the Miraculous Transformation to give my wheelchair jet rockets and fly' type of guy).

He's very much the older brother figure! Especially once Zuko gets kicked out.

As for the other character suggestions!

June is too old for the group, as much as I love her. Ji, Shoji and Chan never vibed with me. Song vibed with me more but we're also getting to the 'wow huh there's not a lot of kid characters that consistently appear huh?'.

Meng is actually a great idea and I love the Dreamwalker thing I'm keeping that.

[desertdollranch]

Doll brands I never thought I'd own, part 6(?): WeGirls

WeGirls of the World is another rare and obscure brand of 18 inch dolls that I finally managed to track down. This was a European brand that only made dolls for (at most) four years, so I hadn't counted on actually, miraculously, randomly, stumbling across one of them for sale. But I did, and here she is!

This is Lidia Kozikowska. She recently immigrated here from Poland, which is where WeGirls is based. Check out the Polish text on her original box, which translates to "Girls like you! Have fun and change yourself and the world for the better! Beauty is within you!"

The dolls themselves were manufactured in Germany by Schildkröt, a renowned doll company. Because of that, I'm not surprised at the high quality. This doll is sturdy, her joints move smoothly, and she has eyes that open and close. Her hair is rooted, but it's dense and definitely not the cheap kind.

Overall I'm super impressed.

Lidia has an all-vinyl body. She can fit in American Girl (left) and Maplelea (right) clothes and shoes, although she is slightly slimmer than dolls of those brands. I'd say she's closer to the size of a Journey Girls doll. Her feet, though, are ever so slightly larger than most American Girl feet.

Her vinyl is very soft and squishy with a peachy tone.

It's so soft that her fingers bend easily, so they can hold this adorable pose.

Her face mold reminds me of some Maplelea dolls.

The two brands aren't affiliated, so it's just a fun little coincidence.

I took Lidia out to my favorite doll photography spot in the mountains and let her have a closer look at her new homeland.

I also let her test her equestrian skills, since she'll need them around here. She handled Horsefina very well!

She didn't come with a name, so the name I gave her was one I chose. I was looking at the most popular names given to babies in Poland last year, and was surprised at how many of them were also equally popular in North America. Lidia was #68 on Poland's most used names for babies born in 2023.

[noblechaton]

gonna ramble a bit about the ml art style change bc ig I have more thoughts about it than I knew. tagging this as leaks but no like story stuff is gonna be mentioned bc I don't really know any lol

so going off what little we've seen of it (and in arguably the lowest possible quality at that) I think it's gonna make the show very visually pretty which isn't to say it couldn't be or wasn't in the older style(s) but that was def more inconsistent between studios and such so if this new style is the standard then like. yeah it's gonna look great

buuuuuuuut I also think it looks kinda. generic? like what's happened to a lotta brand logos that used to have personality but now all look super flat and simplified. like the Pepsi logo or whatever. it's a similar situation to the movie (I'll get into this in a bit) where like yes it looks pretty but it doesn't really look like Miraculous to me? like ik the style kinda varied somewhat between the studios but it was largely consistent enough and felt much more unique. like I could see a screencap from any timestamp of any episode and place it as Miraculous just bc of the visual style

now tho it looks less unique to me and more....like a mobile game ad? some kinda un-marketed direct to streaming movie? not trying to sound mean or anything but it just doesn't strike that same feeling the old style did for me as of yet. it feels more like an attempt to ape off a generic Pixar/Disney sorta style which the movie's style did too - and that ig is a good excuse for me to kinda dive into my thoughts there bc like. it looks way more like that movie now right? the y'know completely non-canon movie that to my knowledge wasn't received too terribly well lmao. I feel like this is on some level purposeful tho

I made a post the other day about how someone (especially the youngins) might go into season 6 thinking it's actually more of a season 1 only to presumably find that very much isn't the case pretty quick lmao - but that's still a new viewer, which makes number go up, which is a Good Thing. that s6 looks to be something of a fresh start given the whole Gabe in da Ground situation makes me believe this more since I'm pretty sure he got got in the movie too (<- does not remember the movie she saw twice) albeit in a different way. very real chance they view s6 as something of a soft launch pad with the hope of ppl who only saw the movie just jumping in without looking first. I also have an even more insane conspiracy theory that they're using movie assets at lower res for the sake of cost management but again. nutso hunch

regardless I'm kinda surprised they're changing it so drastically this deep into the series and I have no idea how the quality of animation is gonna hold up from episode to episode, season to season. presumably this is part'a why we haven't had s6 drop yet, that they've been working on it thoroughly, but it's been a good minute since s5 ended and I feel like the drought in content isn't really worth it?

like it's been so long that to me sometimes it's felt like the show straight up ended and while I don't mind a wait like this, the show then coming back looking entirely different to how it used to is gonna be jarring. I'm giving it a chance bc we haven't really seen it yet and that footage is very likely a wip of some sort but all the same I'm not terribly impressed? the emotions seem more stilted and flat, there's a few sorta redesigns that look....off (namely Adrichat, imo), and it feels too much like an attempt at cashing in on whatever success the movie might have had by bringing the look of the show more in line with it

think what gets me the most is that the style and animation of the show was one of the biggest things that drew me in beyond the bugcat of it all. it was the first CG animated show I'd seen where I felt as if the animation really worked; the world felt alive and vibrant, the city lived in and populated, but it didn't feel uncanny or like realistic in any sense, and there were plenty of gaffs and flaws throughout but I feel that only endeared the look of the show to me more - it had its own style that stood out for better or worse and I think that played more a role in the show's success than most have given credit for, and now that it's being entirely dropped in favor of a style that feels much more like some generic CG animation style I can't help but feel a bit disheartened and even nervous about the future of the series tbh

want to say that I'm not looking to hate it - I'm gonna give it a chance, and again I think it does visually look pretty, but I feel like it loses a lot of what made the show stand out to me and changes things I don't think really needed changed. time will tell but as of now I'm really not sold on it

also think having a special (or two? maybe?) in the old style just to drop us into the newer one presumably shortly after is kinda weird. wonder what happened there. bad timing? tbh using a special to introduce it mighta helped a bit but idk for sure

[iolaussharpe-24]

This reminds me of something....

On YouTube, I saw a Cartier ad with Lily Collins and she reminded me of something that had made me think of her in the past. But more so this time.

In the past, this exact same doll made me think of a certain Netflix series Lily stars in.

I can't stop making comparisons.

When I say that I want a Lily Collins Barbie doll, it's because Integrity Toys made me connect those dots and I can't afford a Poppy Parker.

If I could, I'd have this and the Miraculous Eiffel Tower playset to display her in.

But don't think that Lily Collins/Emily Cooper doesn't remind of Barbie too. She does. I'll prove it.

Also, Mini Brands Netflix has Emily in Paris minis.

I almost forgot the G1 Monster High Scaris Cafe playset. And the car.

Found a BarbieStyle fashion pack that's very reminiscent of an Emily in Paris outfit.

[a-queenoffairys]

Ok so there's been some confusion around the new Mini Brands Fashion (series 3) and I'm here to share my discoveries. The videos and photos I've seen from American collectors show a collection with 60+ minis to collect, whereas the ones I bought yesterday here in Australia have 80+ to collect. The thing the American ones are missing? Shoes. One pair in every capsule.

Honestly the shoes really make this set for me, they all look really nice. Some are made of plastic (similar to most Barbie shoes) with real laces, some are a leather-like material with plastic soles, and the strappy heels have different materials like fuzzy fabric, ribbon or tulle added to them.

And they're pretty suitable for Barbie dolls. I tried them on an original MTM body and a curvy MTM, and they're a bit loose on the original but fit quite well on the curvy! Which is cool, since curvy-sized shoes are kinda hard to come by where I live. Here are some comparison photos, the leg on the left is original body, the one on the right is curvy.

Out of all the shoes I got, the exception to that was the red leather boots (pictured further below with the red bag), which have thicker fabric around the top. I found it hard to get them on and off an original body, and couldn't get the curvy foot in there without risking damaging the shoe.

Some of the shoes balance well enough for the doll to stand alone, particularly the flat shoes or ones with shorter heels. I tried some on Rainbow High and Monster High G3 and they were too small. They fit the newer Miraculous Ladybug dolls but they're a bit loose.

Another thing is how the sets are sometimes colour co-ordinated. Like with previous series, the accessories aren't random; depending on the bag you get, there are different set combinations of accessories that will go with it. And in the capsules I opened, a lot of the accessories were picked to match the colour of the bag. That made them a lot of fun to open up.

I got 16 capsules and 1 was a duplicate. Here are the photos!

So if you're looking to collect series 3 and you want the shoes, keep an eye out for the capsules that say 80+ instead of 60+ to collect.

More information and observations under the cut.

I didn't get a photo of the capsule before I opened them all, but I got mine for $10 each from Kmart, which is the same price as the previous series (usually $12 at other stores but I've only seen series 3 at Kmart so far). They were displayed in boxes of 12 which didn't have a sample collectable displayed in a little window.

The American ones I've seen seem to have a sheet of press-on nails in every capsule, and I assumed that was how they were going to replace the stickers from series 1 and 2 but still keep the price down. But for the capsules I opened, the thing you got in every one was a pair of shoes. A single shoe seems to count for one of the five surprises, so each capsule contains one bag, two shoes and two other accessories (a pair of earrings counts as one).

I guess my main issue with some of them is that the leg part is on a bit of an angle instead of pointing straight up, so you get a bit of stretching/wrinkling if you try to stand the doll straight.

Oh and some of them don't have as much detail as they do in the photos from the collector's guide (like the thigh-highs and short tan boots) but I'm not too bothered by it.

I'm also not game to try and thread the straps on the blue fuzzy heels through the buckle, the hole looks very small and I feel like I'd strip off some of the fluff trying to squeeze it through. So I'm not sure how that one would go, even as a collectable for display instead of as a doll accessory.

The pink flats in the last photo aren't a great fit on Barbie, they're very long compared to the doll's foot. The strap is supposed to fold up and wrap around the ankle, which was a bit awkward to try and do right.

[jasper-pagan-witch]

Jasper Reviews: The Magical Girl's Guide to Life

The Magical Girl's Guide to Life: Find Your Inner Power, Fight Everyday Evil & Save the Day With Self-Care is a 192 page book by Jacque Aye and published by Ulysses Press.

The author is a first generation Nigerian-American who is, among other things, the founder of the Adorned by Chi lifestyle brand, a therapist-in-training, and manga writer. She is a vocal supporter of mental health awareness and self-care among Black women, an advocate for those suffering from social anxiety, and strives to show the world that Black women can be just as feminine and beautiful as anyone else. (All of this has been derived from the author's own words throughout the book and in the About the Author section.)

Despite being categorized as a manga on Amazon, it's more accurate to describe this as a creative guide to early adult life. Despite the aesthetics, the book is very much written for its target demographic: Young people from the age of 16 to...I'd say probably around 24 who struggle with connecting to other people and struggle with their mental health or self-worth. It's a very easy read.

Sprinkled in around the author's advice on topics are related stories from her own life. These stories add to the overall advice (even the intermission sections) and help to explain more of who our author is and why she's writing this book.

Different magical girl or magical girl-like series are used as comparison points throughout the book, either to compare to the author's advice or to starkly contrast it. Miraculous Ladybug, Seven Universe, and Winx Club are some of the non-anime magical girl series mentioned, and come up a few times each throughout the book. Even if you don't know anything about the series the author is using, she contextualizes it enough for you to be able to follow along easily.

It's also queer-inclusive. The author uses the term "magical being" and the emphasis on embracing femininity is never some creepy "vagina period power" message, but rather one about being more comfortable just being yourself and playing around with feminine expressions. Any indication of potential romantic partners or friends is completely ungendered or uses they/them pronouns. It's fantastic and doing so much better than most witchcraft books.

There were very few sections that made me raise a brow (only two thus far based on phrasing) and I find this book to be a fascinating look into a potential pop culture paradigm based on the concept of magical girls. It's obviously not meant to be such a thing, but it's very easy to adapt it.

Official Jasper Review: 8/10, for the right demographic

If you're not interested in magical girl-based things or you're an established adult, this book may not be as helpful to you as it is to me, but I wholeheartedly believe that this book is just one degree removed from being a pop culture paradigm of its own.

[justajsworkshop]

ohhhmygod do i adore your account!! i wish i had found it years ago, when tumblr loa was a cesspool of complicated rigid rules, or just outright misinformation. after briefly reading some of your posts, i’ve started to realize how many of my problems materialize out of awareness— however thinly veiled.

just now, i started fixating on how my pen would run dry despite being brand new. this continued, even worsening the quality of ink and how it printed. anyways, i asked myself: what am i aware of right now? i redirected my awareness to having a functioning pen, and wallah! it works again, writing better than ever. this even happened with my skin!

each time i washed my hands they’d dry out so, so terribly that i’d have to apply moisturizer after every trip to a sink. miraculously, this faded out of my awareness and now even after harsh soaps and scalding water, my skin remains fine. this all seems to work out for me in the present moment, meaning anything i manifest for “later” seemingly fails (ex. lucid dreaming).

not sure if you’ve spoken of time, but i believe time to be an illusion, that only the now exists and will exist. i seem to blunder things for the “future” despite knowing they are now. i would like to ask if this is only seeming? i take it to be, as i’ve only confronted this type of remonstrance after shifting my perspective on time— also because how everything results from awareness.

would love and greatly appreciate your thoughts!! i do apologize for my rambling, i was just so excited to share how easily changes weave in and out of reality through awareness! here’s to a wonderful weekend<3

hey! omg, first off, i'm so happy to hear this practice helped you experience yourself in more desirable ways! it's really made an impact on me and how conscious i am of my awareness and where i'm placing it (myself), so to see someone actually apply what i've been talking about (eeee) and to experience such change is very exciting for me personally! congratulations. and thank you!

okay, so for your second aspect here on time. there are a few things i'm going to dissect, and i'm hoping that i can get this across as clear as i feel it in my being, so here goes nothing:

firstly, i'd like to reframe your language around how manifesting for "later" fails. my invitation for you and for anyone reading this is to remove the terms "fail/failure" and "does/didn't work" from your language and how you conceptualize yourself and manifesting.

there is no failing or failure. it's not that it didn't work; this implies a force outside of you was more powerful and overcame your intention, and it also opens you to the possibility that "failure/it not working" is something you can experience.

this mentality also invites the "what did i do wrong?" line of questioning. so, i'll answer it now very plainly: you didn't fail. you simply took your awareness off your desired outcome (i'll explain more what this means next). that's it. there's not work or didn't work. there's just awareness. there's just you.

so, it's really nbd because you've already shown how masterful you are at shifting your awareness! this puts you back at the center of your experience as the one source and one cause.

as for time, i have spoken about time quite a bit, but i don't think i have as much recently. i hear you when you say that you see time isn't linear, but the application of simultaneity isn't fully translating into your experiencing of self (based on what you're telling me). so, i'll try to break it down as best as i can.

when you say that you can manifest for the "present moment" by shifting your awareness, you're identifying the present moment as what you're currently perceiving with your physical senses, e.g., writing, washing your hands, reading this post, etc.

however, to your I AM awareness, all moments are the present. the example i always give is close your eyes, picture where you are right now exactly as is without opening your eyes. then picture a beach in front of you. notice how these moments instantly shifted according to your awareness, and neither of them was dependent on the physical. to your I AM awareness, you are lucid dreaming right now. you are also not lucid dreaming right now. there are infinite possibilities where either is true.

to say you're manifesting something for "later" means you're bringing that "later moment" into the now of your awareness whenever you think about it because you're aware of that "later" moment here and now. so, that moment is happening in the present to your awareness in the eternal now even if your linear self is designating it as "the future," and what you're also doing is attaching the narrative that anything you're not currently perceiving with your physical senses (what the linear self defines as the present) doesn't manifest.

do you follow? i hope this makes sense. i'll be glad to expand on anything specific if not, btw.

to your I AM awareness, it's all happening now in the eternal now. it's the linear, physical self who's divvying up things according to what it currently perceives vs. isn't currently perceiving as present vs. past/future, and therefore, they open up the possibility of "failure" for what they're not currently perceiving because the linear self is dependent on physical perception to say "it worked/manifested."

but your I AM awareness is operating outside of horizontal linear time in the vertical now. so, when i say i notice what i am aware of, and if it is something i don't desire, i shift to something i desire, in this case, it would be something like:

i notice myself being aware of the narrative that "future manifestations fail."

i shift my awareness to the truth that i am actually lucid dreaming perfectly right now, i always lucid dream whenever i want, all my manifestations are mine right now because there's no other time to have them: it's all just here and now—the eternal now (not the "now" according to the physical self who perceives this moment only through the physical senses and as a moment that's dependent on the moment prior and the moment after).

anytime you think about lucid dreaming or any other future manifestation, your I AM awareness is experiencing it here and now according to your narrative of being. so, "my future manifestations are failing, like for lucid dreaming" is happening now to your awareness, and this is ultimately what is mirrored back to you since you're only experiencing yourself.

let me know if this helped/cleared things up at all! and if there's anything you'd like me to try to tease out more, i'd be more than happy to. this was a really enjoyable ask to chew on. thank you for that. <3

[greentrickster]

i have not actually watched ml since season 3. but i've kept up with it through exactly 1 ml blog that i follow. they're funny and they make amazing fanart and fanfic and their gushing about ml is infectious. them gushing about the show's writing (all of it. seasons 1-5) in and of itself has endeared me to the show. i like positivity on my feed and i love their specific brand of positivity centered around ml. so then. and i need to preface this by saying this isn't a criticism of either blog. the situation itself is just funny to me. imagine the whiplash when half of the ml coverage on my feed is one fandom writer i really look up to talking about how much they genuinely love season 5 and then the other half of the ml coverage on my feed is the other fandom writer i really look up to talking about how the show sucks so bad but what if it didn't. the whiplash is killing me.

Here's the thing: In many ways, we're both right. Me and that other person. Because, at the end of the day, Miraculous Ladybug is a story, and whether a person thinks a story is good or not is highly subjective.

Is the overall writing of ML good? No. No it is not, overall it tends to average out as pretty mid for its demographic. (This is accounting for the presence of examples of both extremely good writing and extremely bad writing, thus averaging out to something a bit more middle ground.)

Is the high concept of ML S-tier? Yeeeeeesssssssssss~!!!

Is the story of ML good? Now that one's more complicated. To me, it has a lot of potential, but just... flaws. So, so many flaws. A painful number of flaws. However, I'm also not the target demographic - I'm an adult in my 30s with an English degree in literary analysis. Moments of weakness in character writing and plot tend to stick out at me light big ol' glaring lights.

To someone more in the age range the show's meant for, or who's better at turning off their inner critic and just focusing on the good, they're probably getting a lot more out of the show's good moments, like the fun powers, creative enemies and fights, the slowburn agony, a really good cast of characters, and the times the storytelling works well.

I don't like the overall writing of Miraculous Ladybug, how it handles character growth/development, and many other things. I'll fully admit, I'm probably closer to being an anti-fan than a regular fan. I'll also admit that I'd be willing to let a lot more slide if it weren't for a few key details that are very real mistakes that shouldn't have been included as they are (ex: Marinette's stalking being normalized as cute, Chloe being established as a victim of severe emotional abuse at the hands of a parent and then written off as irredeemable, those were seriously not okay writing choices). Most of the rest of the issues I take with it are, in truth, subjective things that other people obviously enjoy (ex: the list I just made adjusting the powers and abilities of some of the Miraculous, which was SUPER subjective). At the end of the day, though, I wouldn't care at all if I didn't think there were elements of this show that are truly fantastic.

TL;DR: The majority of my reasons for disliking this show are super subjective, bar a key few that are serious problems that the writers should have addressed ages ago.

Thanks for the ask!

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Ten stolen classified documents says Public Access Caligula sees no jail time while preteens are forced to deliver their rapists’ babies.

[The Daily Don]

* * * *

Before switching to the NBA Finals tonight, I watched the Chris Christie town hall on CNN. I guess I'd forgotten what a talented politician he is. At present, he's being written off by the groupthink punditocracy, but spare a moment for the former Governor of New Jersey. If we're very, very unlucky, we might see him take the GOP nomination in 2024.

Christie is being written off early for two reasons. First because he's bashing the cult leader, and second, he isn't hard-hard-right on social issues. And, sure, those are tremendous obstacles now, and I don't expect to see him near the top of the polls any time soon, but he's running a different campaign than the rest of the non-Trump contenders, all of whom are running for second place with the hope of a catastrophe that will somehow break in their direction.

Imagine it this way: All the other candidates - DeSantis, Haley, Scott, Sam the Eagle from South Dakota, Vivek Crazypants Ramaswamy - are packed into a car being driven like a madman by Donald Trump. None of them are wearing seatbelts, and all of them are rooting for the vehicle to barrel off a cliff and then crash, tumble, and rip itself apart in a way that will somehow miraculously hurl them free unscathed.

They all think that tying their fate to a career-ending accident for Trump will somehow redound to their benefit, blessing them with the imprimatur of "his political heir." They all think that, once the chief bully is gone, the next logical choice will be the one who most dutifully and slavishly licked his balls - and that's just dumb.

If we've learned anything about Trump voters, it is that they gravitate to strongmen, and NONE of the Republican candidates outside of Trump and Christie give off that vibe at all.

Mike Pence on his motorcycle? Gimme a break.

Meatball Ron? C'mon.

As noted, I don't expect to see Christie anywhere near the center podium for a long time, but he's quite intentionally running as a dark horse. He WANTS to be back in the polls for now. He WANTS to be discounted. He WANTS the second-tier candidates to chew one another up while embarrassing themselves in acts of public servitude to their master that would shame a scatporner. He WANTS to stand alone, independent, and proud while the rest of them play by the rules of cowardice and Hippocratic distance from anything that might cause harm, anything that might draw blood.

He wants to win this thing, in the end, as the warrior who was never afraid to fight - and THAT is a solid closing argument in any campaign.

Mind you, to win Christie needs the crazy car crash, too. He needs Donald to go up in flames and twisted metal. He needs the same catastrophe as the rest of them to pull this thing out, but if and when it happens, he will be the only one with any reasonable claim to a soul. He'll be the only one left with anything close to his dignity, and once the old king dies, a new one will need to rise.

Two things draw voters to Trump. The first is his Fuck-You Attitude, his sense of personal surety, his "only I can fix it" bravado. The second is the hate he channels. The question is which of those two attributes is stronger.

Chris Christie is betting that his personal brand will be there, in the end, to gather up, magnetically, the wreckage the Trump disaster leaves behind while DeSantis, Haley, and the rest of the losers sing encomiums to the exalted one's chilling bones.

It's a long way to go from here to then, but don't count Christie out yet. He's on a mission to take out Trump and, by so doing, to reclaim the Republican Party from the feral assholes currently in command.

I wish him just enough success to lose the nomination in the end. Of all the candidates on the Republican side, he's the last one I wanna face in November of 2024. He is heads and shoulders better at this than anyone else in the Republican field.

Love to you all.

[Michael J. Tallon]

[kieransyphe]

kieran did not hesitate to take the cigarette in between his fingers as soon as it was offered , clearly enraptured by the taste of that first drag and the feeling of smoke in his lungs after a few days without it. if only he showed as much enthusiasm in socializing than he did smoking , a hand clad in a thin leather glove dangling the cigarette back in the space between them. " you probably are. i'm what most people would call as a very boring individual. " if people actually said that about him , kieran didn't know or cared enough. but it was just better to lower expectations , especially when he tried not show his true colors right off the bat — preferred to build some foundations before letting himself be comfortable. though , he could already tell jay and him might just get along. " already trying to sleep with me ? " he asked half - jokingly , couldn't ignore the flirtatious edge in the other demigod's tone. " but as much as i like the dark , i don't really hookup with people i barely know anything about. " and not many people interested him enough to actually want to know more about them , but jay was certainly intriguing with all his curiosities so far. " i guess it's not as straightforward in a way that it's difficult to imagine the god of death begetting life and yet , here i am ... " kieran would say it was a miracle , but everything was miraculous in this brand new world. " but i come just as you'd expect ... i see dead people. " among other things , but kieran didn't want to bore with the humdrum of discussing the oh so inexplicable forces of life and death. " though , i think i'd rather see what you are all about. "

jay smiled, sliding the cigarette out of his lips with a contained smirk, letting it hang in the air between them, offered up to the other demigod. his response made him lean his head sideways, wondering if he should trust it. it seemed pretty interesting to him... "so you think i'm more interesting than you?" he asks, teasing tone with some familiarity they did not yet have, "flatterer." whatever the reasons for his answer, and his notice of jay and his parentage, that just made him more interessed. "it's true, a lot can happen in the dark," it was impossible for him not to say those words in a flirting tone, even if he really wanted to, "maybe i'll show you one of these nights..." he laughed, relaxing his posture as he paused for another drag of his cigarette, "death is not that straightforward though, surely? i mean i would have believed so before maybe, but now..." he motioned around them, it all seemed surreal still, "well, seems like there might be more to it." there were certainly immortals, and an afterlife, and things that would love to taste their blood... though perhaps talking of death, or their parents was not the most relaxing topics.

[sturchling]

I think you will like this request. It would be like a different take on the usual Miraculous-Batman crossovers. Only instead of Marinette meeting Damian and the two falling in love, it's Adrien and Damian.

Marinette could have transferred to a different school, so Adrien is alone in class with only Juleka, Kim, and Nathaniel as his real friends. So during a field trip to Gotham, he manages to get Lila off of his arm by saying he needs to go to the bathroom. But he really just wants away from her. And during this alone time, he meets Damian. The two of them hit it off.

They start dating during the trip, Adrien instantly becoming loved by the rest of the Bat family. And they only love him more when they hear about his horrible father.

The field trip can end with Damian exposing Lila as a liar as a present for his boyfriend, also surprising him with the proper paperwork to transfer him to Gotham Academy.

Thanks for being patient. Hope you like how it turned out.

Adrien was so tired of this. Of being Lila's fake trophy boyfriend. He hated this so much. He only did it cause his dad was forcing him, for the brand. He didn't even like girls like that. He now sincerely regretted ever taking the high road. Marinette had been right, they should have cut this off at the root and revealed her on day one. But he hadn't listened, too scared of Lila being akumatized or his father deciding to pull him out of school. Now it was too late.

Marinette was long gone. She transferred out of Dupont to a fancy arts academy somewhere else in the city and was very happy there with all her new friends. Meanwhile, Adrien was facing Lila alone. Well, almost alone. A few members of the class had woken up and realized that Lila was nothing but a liar after Marinette left. Juleka, Kim, and Nathaniel knew Marinette well enough that they knew she wouldn't go so far as to transfer schools over a little jealousy. Then they looked into Lila's stories and figured it out. Since then, they have tried to help Adrien as much as possible. Try to get him some time away from Lila.

Now they were in Gotham for a class trip and Adrien was miserable. Lila had been glued to his side all day, her nails sinking into his arm any time he tried to pull away. Finally when they were all at dinner that night, Adrien was able to pry himself free with an excuse that he needed to use the restroom. He escaped to the restroom and took a deep breath, desperate to make his reprieve last as long as possible.

Just as he was leaving the restroom when he ran head first into a man heading into the restroom. They crashed to the floor, and Adrien scrambled to get off of him, incredibly embarrassed. "Oh, I am so sorry! Are you ok?" Adrien helped the mystery man up and he dusted himself off. "Yes, I am quite alright. Thank you for the hand." Adrien smiled awkwardly, "Of course, I still feel bad for knocking you over and getting your clothes dirty. is there any way I can repay you?" The mystery man smirked. "Well, how about you let me take you out of here and somewhere better for dinner? It is alright if you would prefer not to." Adrien smiled, both because he saw a way out of this hellish dinner with Lila and the class, and because this handsome guy just asked him out. "I'd like that a lot. I'm Adrien Agreste, what's your name?" The boy smiled at him, and started to lead Adrien out, "Damian. Damian Wayne."

Adrien and Damian had a fantastic time that night. And every night after that for the remainder of the trip. They would hand out every night once the mandatory tours for the class were done. Adrien would stay far away from Lila, with his group of friends during the tour, and vanish to go meet Damian as soon as they were given free time. He had even visited the manor the other night and the whole Wayne family already loved him, seeing how much of a good influence he was on Damian.

But this had Lila fuming. How was she supposed to be the envy of Gotham with Adrien on her arm, if Adrien kept disappearing to God knows where every night. She had seen him leaving with some man every night, but she didn't know who he was. But she was determined to nip this in the bud. So on the final night of the trip, she set her plan in motion.

As expected, once the tours were done, and they had freshened up at the hotel, Lila waited in the lobby and sure enough Adrien came down soon after. Lila saw the mystery man at the door, smiling and waving at Adrien. The class was also nearby, wondering where Adrien was going. This hadn't escaped anyone's notice which made it all the more important for Lila to stop this. If she didn't it wouldn't be long before other people started wondering why Adrien was going with this stranger every night instead of on romantic dates with her. So when he was almost to the mystery man, Lila leaped into action. She grabbed Adrien's arm and dug her nails in until he winced. "Adrien, where are you going? You skipped out on all our dates this week and keep leaving with this stranger. I've been all alone, you should spend time with your girlfriend."

Adrien grimaced and Lila smirked, sure her plan would work. Guilt and peer pressure always worked on Adrien. But before Adrien said anything, the stranger interrupted. "Excuse me, but who do you think you are to touch my boyfriend. You are nothing but a manipulative liar that he has been trying to placate. You are not his girlfriend. Now get your hands off him, you are hurting him." Lila was stunned, and the class was now looking at her funny, especially after he said she was hurting him. Not wanting to risk anything, Lila released his arm, and started crying. "Adrien, what is going on? Why would he say that. Were you cheating on me?" Just as the class seemed ready to turn on Adrien, Adrien looked at Damian who nodded encouragingly at him. Adrien had enough and the only way this would end is if he did something.

"That is enough Lila! You and I both know we aren't actually dating. My father just forced me to hang out with you for the brand. But I'm done. You hurt my friends and are constantly lying and rude to anyone who tries to reveal you. Damian is my significant other, not you. Now leave me alone, we have a date." With that, Adrien and Damian linked arms and left the class standing there stunned as they went to dinner. And then the best part of the night was Damian revealing that he had filed the appropriate paperwork to get Adrien away from his father and Lila and transfer him here to Gotham Academy. Adrien was thrilled that he finally stood up for himself against Lila and in a way his father. And he wouldn't have felt confident enough to do that if not for Damian.

[percivex]

For the plant prompt: 12 + Team Rancher?

[Send me DL characters with a plant]

Billardiera - Hope for better days

_

They've moved their bed into the empty goat shack for the night, both of them too tired to patch up their little house now. It doesn't do much to make them feel better, the space a constant reminder of the poor goats they've lost, but at least it has a roof.

They cram into the bed together, a tangle of clumsy limbs, and there's never been quite enough space but they make it work. Tango still runs hot, even hotter than his usual warmth despite having had hours to calm down, but Jimmy doesn't mind when Tango wraps an arm around him and presses his face into his shoulder. He just holds him back, and tries to wrap his small wings around the both of them.

Miraculously, Jimmy escaped the burning of their home with only one burn of his own making - a wide, bubbled beast that stretches across the back of his right forearm, when he lingered too long as he tried to swat out the flames.

The rest are from Tango, a sprawl of faint red in patches across his leg, his back, his shoulder. They're smooth and framed with plant imagery against Jimmy's skin, marking them as soulmate injuries, but they're not very important now that the pain has subsided. Jimmy is far more interested in Tango's soulmate injury, his faint red brand across his right forearm that matches Jimmy's own.

Jimmy shifts, gently grabbing Tango's forearm and running his thumb along the picture of stark green leaves lining Jimmy's burn. Bell-shaped flowers poke their heads through the foliage, a gentle yellowish-green against the phantom irritated skin, and purple fruit bloom proudly in between, shiny and looking vaguely like some kind of pepper. Or an apple, maybe.

They match the flowers and fruits that line the burns Jimmy has from Tango. They also mirror the plants that spread across his chest and legs from their first death, even if those look less pretty, wilted and rotting as they are.

"What are you doing with my arm?" Tango mumbles, somewhat amused as he glances up from his shoulder when Jimmy continues to trace each leaf and petal.

"Admiring your plants." Jimmy replies lightly, and it isn't even a lie. He's always found a strange beauty in them. "It's a shame you can only get them when I get us hurt."

"You're one to talk." Tango snorts, bringing his free hand up to trace at the leaves tentatively curling past the collar of Jimmy's shirt, branching off another one of their burns. "At this rate, you'll be a whole garden in no time."

Jimmy smiles, squeezing Tango's forearm encouragingly. "Maybe, but we're still yellow. That's a win, in my opinion."

Tango sighs, the corners of his lips quirking upwards. "It sure is."

He pushed closer, and Jimmy let him, letting go of his forearm to be able to hug him close. "And some of the cows survived." Jimmy adds, as an afterthought. "And the chickens probably did too, since they're underground. And we still have our horns."

"And I'm gonna kill Scar." Tango muses, pressing a grin into his shoulder. "Yeah, it'll all work out, I know."

"Well-" Jimmy breaks into a giggle, and he can feel Tango's grin widen. "Okay, I don't know if you should kill him, but we'll get back at him, for sure. And we'll make the ranch even better than before!"

Tango is quiet for a moment, his grin dimming, and for a moment, Jimmy worries he's said something wrong.

"We'll have cows," Tango says eventually, tail wrapping languidly around Jimmy's leg, "and chickens, and goats, and horses. Sheep and pigs too, the whole nine yards. We'll be proper ranchers."

"And a pet dog?" Jimmy asks, quietly, suddenly feeling fragile in the face of their possible future. "For herding the animals."

"Obviously a pet dog! We wouldn't be a proper ranch without one." Tango laughs, grin returning full force, his presence warm and familiar.

Jimmy smiles, and decides to believe it's possible. "Yeah. Yeah, I'd like that."

[taketwoinink]

what do you write??? which fandom is the fanfiction for? and what are your original works???

HONEY THIS IS A BIG QUESTION TO ANSWER

So I write fanfiction almost exclusively for Miraculous. It is my eternal brainrot.

As far as original works, most of them have very little actual written content and then just pages and pages of plans and characterization and backstory

I won't list them all because *cough* i have hundreds *cough* but here are a few of my favorites!

Mystify - the story with Wraith and Angel!

My unnamed story with Ava and Silver

Witch & Warrior

The Crimson Tree - the one with Mandevilla I still gotta tell you about

One I haven't touched in a while but like is Aria and Ballad

Branded

hmm unnamed one with the demon girl and the immortal being and the gal with the wings that is Very Gay

A fun one I haven't done much with yet but it's called "Regifting Souls May Be A Bad Idea"

The oldest story I can remember is Elosia

A story I want to revisit but uh, Bad Experiences™ keep me from touching is Today Is The Day A Nation Dies

...yeah I could go on.

I'd say my stories all fall under fantasy in some way. Well, most of them. They're all fiction, most have a small side of romance but that's not the entire plot.