#what a surprise! I was not expecting this at alllll :D

[baileyboo2016]

Something for you :)

Lanayru yawned. He was getting more tired these days, but work still needed to be done out in the mines. Though it seemed he could procrastinate a bit longer, as he heard very familiar voices echo in the distance. “Ah, we’ve made it!” Link’s voice sounded ever closer and Lanayru saw both Link and the little one, Hyrule standing near.

“ZINGA-DINGDING! You’re back!” Lanayru called, chuckling deeply. “Come closer, we have much to talk about.”

Hyrule’s face visibly lit up and he rushed over, before he stopped. The size difference between the two was almost laughable but it didn’t matter to either of them. “Lanayru! It’s been awhile!” 

“Indeed it has, tiny one. Time passes by me, but not much has changed other than the tiny Hylians’ progress here on the Surface.” 

“How have you been though?” 

“Hmm…” Lanayru thought for a moment, trying to come up with a supple answer. “Well, I suppose. Ever since Link here—or Sky I think you call him—rescued me from a mighty bout of illness, I’ve never felt better.” 

Link beamed with the heart that could only belong to a kind, selfless hero. Hyrule sent a grateful and happy look to his friend before turning back to the old dragon. “And the mining and robots?” 

“All is well and good, tiny hero. You mustn’t worry about us. Now, tell me how you are faring. Is your quest being fulfilled?” 

“We’re still trying to chase down the Shadow. It  keeps fleeing from us when we get close to defeating it…but all of us are alive so, that has to count for something,”

“This Shadow you keep mentioning…” Lanayru brushed his large white beard. “How much do you know about it?” 

“It can take more than one form, it can be rather cowardly and its blade has some sort of effect that causes potions and fairies to have no effect on the victim.”

“Hmm…If I hear anything that could be of use to you I will tell you. Ah, but I have something rather unrelated.” 

“And that is?” 

“A gift, tiny one,” Lanayru laughed, the sound boisterous enough to shake the ground. “After all you’ve done I figured it would only be necessary. I cannot let your great deeds go unrewarded, hm?” 

Hyrule’s eyes widened and he shook his head vigorously. “No, I can’t accept anything…My great deeds aren’t as great as you make them out to be.”

“Nonsense. Can’t you let a dragon have his fun? You should at least be rewarded for your kindness. You have given me company that I could never have hoped for, and I want to properly thank you. So please, do not refuse my gift,” Lanayru hummed softly.

“…Alright.” 

Lanayru smiled and hurried off, scouring the desert for his gift and he found it. The device glowed as it touched his scaly hand and he hummed to himself, satisfied. Flying back in a rush he stooped down to the tiny hero and held out the device. “What is it?” Hyrule asked timidly.

“It’s a device I created for you, with the help of my robots of course. The device is imbued with a Time-shift Stone, and if you hold it up to something, it sends the area back in time to whatever state it was in originally. I figured since, you liked exploring, this was a way for you to find more entertainment out of such a task. 

But that is not its only purpose!! It can also act as a weapon if you’re in a pinch. If you press a certain button, it can act as a laser! Truly one of my best works I must say. Now, take it please.”

Hyrule took the device gingerly, an awed look in his brown eyes and he seemed quite grateful as he examined the small device. “I-thank you, Lanayru. Truly.”

“It is my pleasure. Now, I do believe that I should not be keeping you from your current mission. Though…if you have any spare time…”

Link smirked knowingly and Hyrule shook his head. “I have plenty of time! We’re taking a break before we start looking for black-blooded monsters to defeat and if there’s no time left to spare, Sky would tell us.”

“Well, then I will not encourage you to leave, tiny hero. In fact, I have something to show both of you.”

The two heroes climbed onto the palm of his hand and he flew slowly to a specific spot in the desert. There, a foundation had been built for a building. A project the dragon had commandeered. “What? What’s this?” Link asked.

“This is something I’ve been working on well you’ve been gone, with the guidance of the tiny girl one—Zelda I think she was named, though LD-568-09 would’ve suited her greatly.  She had the brilliant idea to make shelter for those who are brave enough to venture through the desert. The Hylian creatures have been ever so curious, wanting to explore the vast land and if they’re anything like you guys, I am happy to provide them any assistance they seek.”

“…Lanayru that’s amazing,” Link beamed as Hyrule gasped with awe and wonder lighting up his eyes.

“Ah, this wouldn’t have been possible without the tiny girl. She had the idea.”

“If we can help let us know!” Hyrule hummed. 

It amazed the old dragon how selfless these Hylian creatures are. It made the project feel all the more special. He grinned at the creatures on his palm and flew back to the entrance of the Lanayru Mining Facility. “Now, please, I have shared enough of myself and my doings. Inform me of yours, ZINGA-DINGDING!” 

He listened to the little Hylians chatter, describing their chase through dungeons and time to find the shapeshifting Shadow, and a close-encounter with death. He was content, even though the other dragons would probably tease him for it. 

I-

……

EEEEEEEEE OMG OMG OMG ITS LANAYRU AND RULIE OMG IM SCREAMING CRYING KICKIMG MY FEET RN THANK YOU SO MUCH SISJSJSJSJSJSSS 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 I THINK….*MALFUNCTION*…I THINK YOU BROKE BAILEY UM-

[heeee-hoooo]

SAGAU: 4 More or Less Pt 3

Warning: swear words, two trucks by lemon demon is mentioned

Reverse isekai time yall!!!!

Characters: Fischl, Bennett, Noelle

• ================================== •

to be honest, you’re a lot less surprised than you were expecting

‘characters from your favorite franchise pop out of the game/show/movie and into the real world, hijinks ensue’…

.. you feel like you’ve read this before

your friends? unsurprisingly not as chill as you

“SOMEONE SLAP ME I MUST BE DREAMING” “gladly—” “____ don’t.”

Fischl

depending on who’s the most into roleplay or dnd, they’d be the closest to Fischl

ya’ll this girl would absolutely love larping and cosplay

I imagine she’d first find out about it when you and your friends get ready for a cosplay and dnd convention (which I plan on writing properly)

“Oh great creators, I request thou may give thy Prinzessin more of this bubble te- Uhm.. am I interrupting something?”

they’d, of course, bring her along and tell her alllll about it

and lemme tell you, first day of the con, she’s already hooked

and within days, lo and behold! she becomes a regular cosplayer and the resident tumblr girl

you might wanna save up a bit more for tickets

Bennett

right off the bat, you hear a plate break in the kitchen

most of you rush to see what happened

aaand Bennett is frantically trying to sweep all of it out of the way while apologizing

ofc, you can’t be m a d at him

so u just help him bring the bowls to Noelle so she can make her pancakes :D

he’d be a bit bummed out bcuz of the lack of adventuring areas

I imagine he’d like korean bbq tho

whether you decide you all go out to eat, or you decide to make the food at home, he’d absolutely love how easy it was to cook it himself!

even with a few burns here or there, he’d still rate it at least 8/10

don’t give him any soy sauces with chilis tho

his absolute favorite thing though? online rpgs ofc

adventuring entirely other worlds??? without any hurt????? sign this precious boy up!

all in moderation ofc, he still loves exploring irl

I imagine he’d think of it as a break from the hurt

he always runs out of stamina tho :(

Noelle

SWEET BABY NOELLE—

she would try to do everything for you

laundry, cooking, cleaning, you name it

“as a token of gratitude for letting them stay” she’d say

she’d be amazed by the washing machine, lets be honest (aren’t we all to an extent??)

I feel like she’d always cook breakfast and some snacks, but that’s about it

anything else and she’d give ya’ll food poisoning /lh

but like, make sure to let her rest every once in a while, y’know?

bby needs her R&R

• ================================== •

Tags

@simpagettits (sadly it wouldnt load ur user 😔) @shizunxie

[aelaer]

☕ I AM totally cooking you up in this ask on how much you know about the Accords and the way they relate to the US's federal law 👀👀👀

Ahhh, yeah, I was due an ask like this. It took a while to get to, so hopefully you eventually see it, md. Note that all regulations are directly from the Wiki, which drew from the canon of Agents of SHIELD, which had huge plot points around the Accords. Possibly the other old Marvel TV shows too, I’m not sure. And without this expansion, we’d know literally nothing about them, but they fit a lot of what was in the comics so I’m cool as accepting them as canon. Your Mileage May Vary.

This is super long so I put it under a cut.

Any enhanced individuals who agree to sign must register with the United Nations and provide biometric data such as fingerprints and DNA samples.

Nothing breaking current US law. You’re expected to get fingerprinted if you do certain things for the state in certain states in the US. For instance, when I took a tutoring job for underprivileged children in my early college years, I was fingerprinted. I wouldn’t be surprised if higher-security jobs also require something similar.

However, to my knowledge these are all state or nationwide databases, not international. There may be some argument to be made about which officials from which country have access to your fingerprints, as it is with the Accords.

In this fictional universe, DNA samples may be more of an issue due to how meta-humans may have altered DNA and we alllll know that of those 117 countries that signed, at least a dozen of them would try to weaponize it in some capacity. If I were a meta-human in the MCU, this would be my largest concern.

Any enhanced individuals who sign are prohibited from taking action in any country other than their own unless they are first given clearance by either that country's government or by a United Nations subcommittee.

This makes complete sense and should have been established long ago. If it wasn’t already established, then the world governments of the MCU are... well, just as slow and dumb as the real world’s.

Any enhanced individuals who do not sign will not be allowed to take part in any police, military, or espionage activities, or to otherwise participate in any national or international conflict, even in their own country.

The UN does not have the authority to dictate what an individual country does or does not allow their population to do, for better or worse. The atrocities carried out across the world by various world governments against their people is the best evidence of that.

That said, in this case, I don’t think it’s any of their business to dictate this. If France wants meta-humans in their police force regardless as to whether they’ve signed the Accords or not, that’s France’s business. If Japan wants to bolster their army with meta-humans who didn’t sign, that’s Japan’s business. The rest of the world may not be happy with that, but the UN is not an elected ruling body and just doesn’t have the authority to make regulations like that. A lot of countries will play nice with sweeping calls such as that and go along with them, but they’re under no obligation to follow them (and certainly not with US law - the UN’s rulings have zero legal ramifications here until they’re passed in state or federal legislatures).

Any enhanced individuals who use their powers to break the law (including those who take part in extralegal vigilante activities), or are otherwise deemed to be a threat to the safety of the general public, may be detained indefinitely without trial.

Hahaahahhahahahahah. No. Breaks the Fifth Amendment in the Bill of Rights, which is a part of the Constitution (which equals the backbone of American law -- things that go to the Supreme Court are there to basically see if something is constitutional or not. It’s a lot more complicated than it sounds, though).

Unfortunately this is a real situation that’s being dealt with now with specific people of the “aiding terrorists” category throughout the last 20 or so years of presidency (both the left and right with politicians signing it, and both the left and right with American activists opposing it, according to my brief study on the issue - you can look up indefinite detention if you want to read more).

Regardless, super super breaks the Fifth Amendment. While the amendments were written for specifically American citizens or folks on American soil, I personally think it’s important it’s a value that is upheld with everyone, no matter what they’ve been accused of. But that’s all I’ll say on that real world topic. This UN mandate hits very close to home - kudos to the writer who put that in for that touch of reality.

The use of technology to bestow individuals with innate superhuman capabilities is strictly regulated, as is the use and distribution of highly advanced technology (such as Asgardian and Chitauri weaponry).

Doesn’t break any known laws to my knowledge. Regulation of dangerous things is pretty common.

The Avengers will no longer be a private organization and will operate under the supervision of the United Nations.

I don’t think the UN has the legal ability to do that. The US government would need to do this as this is a private organization operating within the US on US soil. The US government has acquired private organizations in real life (like GM during the financial crisis of 2008), but they quickly find how much that sucks and sell them off as soon as they can, lol.

Again, the UN is operating under the supposition that they actually have the legal wherewithal to do this when, in reality, they don’t. There is no such thing as international law in the real world and I sincerely doubt in the MCU verse.

What would very likely happen, should Thanos not have ruined this exciting political drama, is that the US totally agrees to do this. Then a new administration or legislature comes in and reverses it 2-6 years later, assuming that all of the lawsuits from various countries didn’t cripple the Accords sooner.

Those with secret identities must reveal their legal names and true identities to the United Nations.

Hahahahaha. Under whose authority? We’ve established there’s no international law. It’d be up to every single individual country to agree to not only do this, but *share* this list with every other country. If I was the decision maker in the US or China, there’s no way in fucking hell I’d do that. Israel or Iran? Fuck no! Do I *want* all my meta humans to be assassinated by other countries?

The MCU has this little fairy tale (that sometimes the real UN carries on with) that everyone gets along just great when, in reality, that’s really, really, really unlikely.

Those with innate powers must submit to a power analysis, which will categorize their threat level and determine potential health risks.

I could make an argument that this breaks the Fourth Amendment (unreasonable searches and seizures). You cannot forcefully take DNA from someone unless they’ve been convicted of a crime (and in, I think 20 states I just read, if you’ve been arrested, but even that’s been challenged under the Fourth Amendment in those various states the past decade).

If they’re already having a legal argument about this for DNA of people who were arrested, they’re going to have a hell of an argument for this requirement just for *existing*.

Those with innate powers must also wear tracking bracelets at all times.

Oh that’s nice, the UN thinks meta-humans are animals! Likely breaks the Fourth Amendment. Found an interesting article about Amazon and their little tracking bracelets from two years ago that is semi-relevant, and those are employees. Imagine if you required everyone of some minority race or nationality to wear a tracking device because they’re statistically more dangerous due to the prevalence of crime amongst them, or something inane like that.

Yeah, it’s something like that bad. Definitely breaks the privacy protection that previous rulings regarding the Fourth Amendment have established.

Governments are forbidden from deploying enhanced individuals outside of their own national borders unless those individuals are given clearance as described above. The same rule also applies to non-government organizations that operate on a global scale (including S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers).

International law doesn’t exist. This is done via treaties and agreements, but again, the UN has no legal leg to stand on (and countries -- US included -- often just ignore them). If China wants to take over Nepal with meta humans, who the fuck is really gonna stop them? I mean, really? If the US wanted to take over Baja California from Mexico, same question. The UN just doesn’t have the authority (or frankly put, the manpower). Countries often play nice, but there’s plenty of times where they don’t, either.

(But you know who would try to prevent the US/China from taking over Baja/Nepal? Meta humans. That likely aren’t allowed to fight under Accords mandates but do so anyway, all the while flipping the bird towards their nearest UN building :D)

As a corollary, they will not be allowed to participate in any active missions undertaken by private or governmental law enforcement/military/intelligence organizations (such as S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers).

See “international law doesn’t exist and it’s up to each individual country to determine this for themselves” as explained in previous sections.

If an enhanced individual violates the Accords, or obstructs the actions of those enforcing the Accords, they may likewise be arrested and detained indefinitely without trial.

As established, breaks the Fifth Amendment of the US. And fuck, we saw this in action in Civil War-- or so it seemed. Ross definitely looked like he was leaning that way. I wouldn’t put it past Ross. He’s been bad news ever since he was hunting the Hulk.

The creation of self-aware artificial intelligence is completely prohibited.

Heh, not really applicable to the current world, but not necessarily something I’d like to see in the real world either. I’m afraid we’re gonna get a Skynet or HAL rather than a JARVIS or WALL-E.

This was fun, in a weird way.

[summonerscenarios]

Hello! Could I get a matchup, please? I'm a trans male with a preference for males, and I'm an INTP. I try to act more with my head than my heart, and I overthink a lot, so I come off as cold and mean at first glance. After you get to know me, I'm really just an easily flustered dork with a big heart who can be a bit excitable. I do have explosive hotheaded moments, but they're very rare. I'm a big fan of anything vintage, and I love to draw, bake, and write. Thank you so much in advance!

Got a lot of bakers in these match-ups ya’ll need to teach me your ways  ‧⁺✧(˶´⚰︎`˵✿)⁺‧/ I know exactly who to match you with hun~!

I match you with Shiro!

I think Shiro is a perfect fit for you! The two of you bounce off of each other's personalities well and he definitely understands wanting to follow your head more than your heart as he often follows that principle himself with his own decisions. Though he may initially mistake your apparently cold demeanor as you taking a dislike to him it doesn’t really take him long at all to clue into the fact that you’re far warmer than you let on, and that’s only confirmed once the two of you get closer and the true warmth of your personality starts to really shine through. Shiro gets flustered reeeeally easily, like ridiculously fast, so if one of you ends up getting flustered over something ESPECIALLY if it’s anything to do with affection or sweet gestures then BOTH of you end up as flustered messes as a result. Speaking of sweet gestures you can expect them from Shiro - he’s really awkward about it at first if only for lack of experience but the more he learns about the kind of things that you like the more comfortable he is surprising you with these little things whether it’s thoughtful gifts or just some alone time for the two of you to recharge and focus on doing the things that you love. 

And boyyy don’t even get me started on the overthinking. May as well call Shiro the CEO of overthinking because . Whilst this may occasionally cause some issues between the two of you, with some good communication and time the two of you will find a good rhythm to help bounce back a lot of those thoughts and hopefully find a healthy way to cool down those thoughts as it’s easy to become overwhelmed when overthinking just gets too much. Honestly he’s so used to dealing with hotheads all the time *coughcoughKengocoughcough* that he knows just how to step in and defuse those situations. It doesn’t bother him too much as he’s more worried about what set you off and the best way to calm you down than the fact that you’ve gotten so angry and if it’s a situation that’s caused it he’ll definitely prioritize getting you out of there so that you have the chance to cool off and properly explain what’s happened. He’s thankful that these moments are rare (tho it will get you in Kengo’s good books knowing that you aren’t as passive as Shiro can be) but depending on the situation you might get a bit of a lecture - old habits die hard after all, but he really can’t stay mad at you for long.

Shiro appreciates your passions too! He finds your interest in vintage things fascinating and will be more than happy to question you all about it if you let him. Just be sure you’re sat down somewhere comfortable when he starts because he will quite easily keep you entertained with questions, facts and inquiries about the things that you like for the rest of the day, though he’ll get flustered once he realizes that he’s kept you stuck for so long with his curiosity that the sun’s already starting to set. He does write from time to time, though it’s mostly delegated to ideas and little notes that he wants to keep close so when he starts seeing that you enjoy drawing and writing he’s understandably intrigued. He doesn’t want to push you showing them if you aren’t comfortable with it, but will try to be nonchalant (and failing) in asking what you’re doing when he notices you working - if you are okay with showing him though be prepared for the compliments. They aren’t just offhanded compliments about them being good, Shiro will focus on various aspects of what you’re doing and point them out to you and explain just why they’re so captivating; he tends to borderline analyse a lot of you drawings and writings without even realizing it but it’s definitely in a way that would make any artist or writer glow at the praise. The baking is definitely something the two of you can do together, his friends and his lil D-evils can attest to the fact that the things this man can make are divine. The first time he makes something for you he worries himself silly over all the little details trying to make it as perfect as possible, probably so much so that he doesn’t even notice if you decide to pluck up one of the ‘prototypes’ for a taste test - if you tell him how much you like his food though? He absolutely melts. Also baking dates? Baking dates. He enjoys watching you go through the baking process, I mean the focus that you zone in on while you work and the way that you genuinely seem to enjoy making these baked goods? It makes the finished result alllll the more sweeter.

[the-blue-sandglass]

A SophBot’s Thoughts: Kingdom Hearts III

SPOILERS UP AHEAD! DON’T READ IF YOU HAVEN’T FINISHED THE GAME-

Here’s me summing up best I can my thoughts on a ten-hour game I’ve been pumped about for several years!

Two characters in particular will get their own post(s), as I have...things to say.

I love this game to death. The gameplay is smooth, there’s so much potential in battle, the graphics and soundtrack are beautiful, and beating the snot out of creepy hooded people has never been so much fun, at least in my eyes.

However, while I did enjoy the story overall, several things bring it down and can put quite a damper on the experience of the Dark Seekers’ finale. But first, I’ll start off with what I enjoyed story-wise.

Sora

Ah, Sora. Our good boi. One of the best bois.

Sora is arguably the character who’s written the best in the game - perhaps it’s a matter of screen time and being playable, but he ended up doing the most out of everyone (a problem on its own, but we’ll get to that when we get to it) - all while veering on the edge of despair.

Maybe I’m rather biased, as he’s always been one of my favourite characters in these games, but seeing him get up and fight again after that crap he went through at the end of DDD, and not only get back the strength he had initially lost but prove victorious was more than a prideful moment for me. His interactions with Donald and Goofy (for the most part, we’ll get to that bit when we get to it) were great and felt pretty natural and friendly, you feel the connection there. The idea that this lad’s also just barely holding on puts things into an interesting perspective...and makes that goddamn moment (you know the one) all the more heartbreaking.

You did wonderful, my good boi. You’ll be back. But that’s a matter that proves...problematic.

Worlds

Admittedly, the lack of Final Fantasy was disappointing. But the way most of the worlds were handled in the overall plot has a clear improvement that makes the story of each one a lot more investing. Holy hot damn, the villains have an actual reason to be there-

THE DAY IS G O L D-

Also...seeing these dramatic, edgy villains get torn to shreds by Disney characters is bloody glorious.

Never would one expect ‘Woody roasts Xehanort’ to be such a goddamn awesome search-

Skididdle, skadoodle, Xehanort. You are loved less than a noodle-

The Whole Rest

Since I don’t want this to be overtly long, here’s a list of other scenes I thought were-

-The reunion between the Wayfinder Trio (top notch, lads, tears all around)

-Most of the Roxas story (a bit more attention would have been nice, but still pretty good as far as I could tell)

-YEETUS VANITAS

-Luxord Overboard

-San Fransokyo in general (yes, I cried at BH6)

-Corona in general (those interactions! The dance in the middle of the square, YESSS-)

-CHOO CHOO, MOTHERF-

-Most of the Org XIII’s death scenes were handled well

-WHERE’S THE LAMB SAUCE, SORA- 

-I’M ON A BOAT-

-THAT BIT IN THE KEYBLADE GRAVEYARD WITH EPHEMER AND THE KEYS OF THE FALLEN

-Eraqus and the Wayfinder Trio (brief as it was)

-Those bits with Kid!Xehanort (where did you go wrong, kid-) and Kid!Eraqus

-Most bits of the credits (the final cutscene will be discussed separately) were goddamn adorable

-That cliffhanger could lead us to...interesting places.

-And that shot when Sora’s saying how Xehanort’s caught up in the shadows, as it won’t save for some reason and I feel it’s underappreciated-

And then it alllll went WRONG.

Okay, maybe I'm pushing it a bit. But the story’s hardly perfect. Where to start...oh yeah, the beginning and problems that peek their heads out.

No bulli Sora!

I’ve mentioned before my...distaste for Yen Sid’s actions in passing, but let’s get into the start of things, and this doesn’t apply just to him in particular. But it starts with him - and arguably ends with him too, but it’s one of the things I'm gonna talk about in the next post.

I won’t discuss it too much but - wow, there’s a startling lack of tact for this traumatic event Sora went through, how long ago? I doubt it’s been long enough for the boy to be completely over it, as he’s clearly still hurt and affected by the lack of strength he has; even Pete pointing it out clearly stings!

Yet, literally everyone treats it as a joke. Which, I wouldn’t be so bothered by if Sora’s chill with it (like maybe a ‘Hey!’ and then a laugh)...but he’s not.

He’s almost always folding his arms or frowning and not saying anything while everyone just laughs at what’s basically him being stuck with a crappy position. For most of the game, Donald and Goofy are pretty good - but when this pops up, it puts a damper on it, at least for me.

Which leads me into...

DDD’s climax? What’s that?

Did everyone besides Sora, Donald, Goofy, Yen Sid and Young Xehanort forget about DDD’s ending? The fact that Sora nearly got turned into a bloody vessel?

Well, apparently! 

As far as I remember, the only time the event’s really discussed as it is (not just ‘Sora lost his strength’) is near the start when Yen Sid’s reminding him of it even though Sora is literally the last person who should have to be reminded about it, LITERALLY OLD MAN HE WAS THE VICTIM OF IT-

Anyway, there’s that bit, and that one scene I joked about in Toy Box-

Well, no shit he remembers you. You only stalked him and tried to possess him. And then after that, it’s never really mentioned again? There’s not even a line like, ‘You’re no longer of use to us’ of any kind which makes the climax of DDD feel...well, empty. Hell, it kinda makes those parts where something bad happens to Sora (like when the asshat above yeets him into Verum Rex just to troll or when Marluxia uses ‘Sleep’ and never uses it again) feel like they’re cheap tactics to make the player go ‘Oh no!’. But yeah, story-wise, how does that impact the rest of III aside from Sora losing his strength?

Wow, as if it was just an excuse to have Sora be at LVL 1 at the start of the game!

OH WAIT.

THERE’S SO MANY GOOD CHARACTERS, USE THEM-

One that’s not as big to me anyway, but still worth noting. A lot of characters in KH3 don’t really get the screentime they should. They just sorta show up, and do what they have to. It works fine...! It just...feels kinda underwhelming not to see more of them.

Looking at the way Terra was handled, as I leave you with a question; after he gets brought back into his own body...what is he allowed to do?

Granted, I won’t complain that characters from Twilight Town and the Disney worlds get more to them - it makes you believe that Sora and his squad are friends with them now, but it would still have been nice to have seen more of characters like Aqua, Ven, TERRA, Roxas and Xion...though those last two might be helped in the new DLC.

I hope.

But, I doubt the DLC could help the next two cases out much...oh yes, I refer to Kairi and Yen Sid. And surprise - Xehanort will be getting his own in regards to his actions and how...our heroes respond.

Down the rabbit hole we go!

(sorry if this was structured a bit weirdly, my first time doing a post of this type-)

[forkanna]

[AO3 LINK] [WATTPAD] [QUOTEV]

Characters © Frederator/Cartoon Network and so forth. Story ©2020 to me! All rights reserved.

This little fic was commissioned by MorbidHero. Enjoy! I'm not a superfan but I hope I still did the fandom justice, more or less. Even though there are no bacon pancakes or appearances from Billy.

Orono Or DIE.

The sign was unique enough to attract attention. That was probably the idea. Still, the girl with the long, black hair and the red-and-blue striped sweater seemed a little surprised when a car pulled over on the long, lonely stretch of Highway 95. Her eyes narrowed to slits as headlights attempted to blast the pupils wide, and she shadowed them with a pale hand.

"Hello!" cried a voice that sounded like a music box. "Are you in need of aid?"

"Uhhhh…" The squinting eyes shifted. "There a person in there?"

"Of course! I am a person! Please, it's too cold to be out here alone!"

The stranger approached the passenger window, bending down to look inside. By the light of the dash screen, she saw a rosy complexion and bright pink hair to match. The girl's round face held the sweetest, most angelic smile she had ever seen.

"I… whoa."

"Yes?"

"N-nothing. You're really gonna give me a lift? I could be an axe murderer."

The driver's eyebrows raised. "Are you an axe murderer?"

"Sorta." She opened her black guitar case, covered in stickers from all manner of bands and destinations, to display a red bass that actually was shaped like an axe, a snarky half-smile displaying some prominent canines. "I slay on this thing alllll the time."

"Oooh! A wandering minstrel! Prithee, do not tarry thither, but let us away in mine chariot!"

"I… huh?"

Cheeks turning a bit rosier, she whispered, "Just get in the car."

With her bass, cardboard sign, and knapsack stashed in the cramped back seat, the two pulled away from the shoulder and back onto the near-deserted highway. There reigned silence for a moment or two until the driver decided to attempt pleasant conversation.

"What's your name, minstrel?"

"Not Minstrel. Marcy. Or Marce, Marceline, Nightmarce… Elvira, if you're everybody in my high school."

"That sounds very unkind, and I am not from your high school so I will not do that." She smiled over at her. "I'm Bonnibel, or Bonnie."

"Cool. This, uh… this car seems weird."

"Oh!" she piped up animatedly. "It is a hybrid, but I have converted the combustion engine to run on used peanut oil."

"Is that why I have a craving for a PB&J out of nowhere?!"

Bonnie laughed, and Marcy wore a smile of her own. That was bizarre; why would she smile at some stranger who just picked her up to give her a lift? "Perhaps! It is also why I will eventually have to visit a Five Guys restaurant to refuel."

Chuckling quietly, Marcy fought down a groan as she struggled out of her black leather boots and propped her feet up on the dash. "Sorry, but I've been walking for hours. Nobody else would pick me up, except for this creepy trucker who would probably have murdered me. With my own axe."

"It is alright! I can't blame you, that sounds like a terrible day. How did you end up out here all by yourself? With no car?"

"Ash, ugh."

"Gesundheit?"

Rolling her eyes, Marcy explained, "No, Ash is my ex. Also the lead guitarist of our band, Vampire Queen. But like, he's been impossible since we broke up, and he threw his guitar at my head during our last show. I told him I wasn't riding in the van with him anymore and they took off without me. Jerkfaces."

Bonnie's expression was completely thunderstruck. She reached over to pat Marceline's thigh. "That is just unacceptable, you could have been hurt!"

"Uh… yeah?" She thought that was obvious. And the sudden physical contact made her squirm.

"No, I mean you should remove him from the band. He is clearly dangerous and you have every right to feel safe on the stage."

"Oh. Well… it's not that easy. He writes half our songs, and he's no great singer but he does know all the guitar parts already. But… I guess he's more replaceable than Fionna or Jake."

"You should send him to prison. Or castrate him," she added, tapping her chin thoughtfully.

Which is what finally made Marceline realize neither of her hands were on the wheel. She sat up quick and shouted, "HEY, we're gonna crash! Are you insane?!"

"Hm?" Glancing ahead, she calmly stated, "No we aren't, we're driving perfectly straight. And there are no other cars."

"Well… yeah, but…" She watched their course correct very slightly, still glancing at Bonnie's hands. "Oh, is this one of those self-driving things?"

"Yes! Oh, I see; you thought I was neglecting the wheel." The pink-haired oddity giggled as if Marcy were the weird one.

"Do you just pick up random strangers and scare them to death? Messed up hobby, girl. I can respect it though."

At that, Bonnie's smile lessened as she stared ahead again. "I'm sorry. Sometimes I forget that not everyone has access to the technology I do. I didn't mean to cause you any undue strife."

"Not everybody swallows a dictionary for breakfast, either." When that wiped the smile away entirely, the rocker turned to look out the passenger window as she tightened her arms around her stomach. "Nah… I'm sorry, I'm a bitch."

The car was silent for a few seconds. "You aren't. I just don't spend a lot of time with other people. When I do, they tell me I am awkward."

"Yeah? Agoraphobic or something?" She paused. "Yeah, I know some big words, too."

"I never said you didn't. But no, that isn't the problem. I'm a workaholic. Even when I'm not in my lab, I'm still focused on inventing or revising previous inventions. I like speaking with people, but there never seems to be any time…"

"Dude, nerdslut. Got it."

"WHAT?!"

The outburst was harsher than Marce expected. "Sorry," she muttered, head ducking lower. "I didn't-"

"I'm not a slut! I'm…" Her cheeks began to glow. "I've never even been on a date."

"I was kidding, man. I didn't really mean…" Her fingers ran through her fringe. "Look, you told me you don't get out much. So I'll do my best not to tease you like I normally would, but no promises. I'm pretty edgy." She even threw up devil horns to add to the effect.

"You're teasing. Yes, I understand." The bubbly girl sighed and relaxed, smiling again. Apparently, it was that easy.

"What do you do for a living, anyway? All the inventing…"

"Oh! Have you heard of PeebleCo?"

A brief pause. "If I say 'no', does that mean I'm dumb?"

"It's alright. I am the president and CEO. Though the board members make most of the day-to-day decisions, they consult with me before making any large changes. And I am also the head of the R&D department."

"Whoa. And you're what, like, eighteen?"

"Nineteen."

"Excuse me," she snickered. "But yeah, that's pretty young to have your whole future figured out. I'm still kind of drifting through life in the shadows."

Bonnie shrugged as she pulled off the highway. "It is okay. I know I am strange, and that most people have to take some time to find their true destiny."

"Where… are we going?"

"To this hotel! I have been driving all day."

"Oh. Guess this is where I get off, then."

"It is if you want. Or you are welcome to share my hotel room and I will continue to ferry you to your destination in the morning."

Marceline raised an eyebrow as she watched Bonnie smoothly guide the car into a parking spot — having to use her hands this time, of course. "Are you totally insane, or just the nicest person on the planet?"

"Does it have to be one or the other?" she asked with a huge grin. And yet again, Marcy found she was grinning back.

                                                      ~ o ~

Once they had brought their bags inside, the hitchhiker plopped herself on the bed and kicked off her boots again. Then she started tuning her bass. Bonnie started unpacking her little pink rolling suitcase immediately, though she cast a casual glance over at her guest now and then.

"What? Am I bugging you?"

"Not at all. I have just never seen someone play a guitar in person before."

"Never?!" When the inventor shook her head, Marceline chuckled softly. "Damn, you really don't ever crawl out from under that rock to see what the sun looks like. Not that I do, either."

"It's because I'm working," she protested with a slight pout. "Not because I don't want to meet people. I love people!"

"Oh yeah, me too. They're delicious."

Bonnie cackled as she plugged her BMO's charger into the wall. At least she got that joke. "You're so funny and cool! I wish I was like you."

"No you don't, trust me. I'm kind of a cunt."

"Are you? Well, I think that's still preferable to being boring. I might have an important job but as a person, I am… vanilla pudding."

"Yeah? Well I mean, vanilla pudding can be pretty good. Add a little red food coloring to make people think you're eating ketchup? I like red things, they look more badass."

"Vanilla is not interesting," she sighed as she seated herself on the other twin bed, pulling off her Uggs. Marceline tried not to pay too much attention to how her white leggings hugged her shapely calves and thighs. "Being a vanilla pudding when there are so many chocolate puddings around me… that is why I focus on my work."

The hitchhiker thought that over as she played a couple of notes, a few chords she used in their sets. The hook from "Smoke On The Water", then the bassline from "The Chain".

"I think you're cool, Bonbon."

"You do?" she asked in pure shock. Marcy looked up — and immediately averted her eyes when she saw her company was wearing only her underwear.

"WHOA, hey, warn a girl or something!"

"Oh, I'm sorry!" she hissed, arms trying to hide parts of her body pointlessly. "The other girls in gym class never cared!"

Pale cheeks flooding with color, the rocker cleared her throat and studied the carpet, watching pale pink toes curl nervously into the fibers. "Gym, yeah. Um… I'm sorry, that was stupid. Me flipping out. If you're cool with stripping down in front of me, like… it's your hotel room…"

"No, you are right, it was my mistake. We have only just met today. And I am decent." When Marceline chanced another glance, she saw a long pink nightgown covering Bonnie from neck to ankle. She was also wearing an embarrassed little smile that was more adorable than it had any right to be.

"You're definitely decent."

"Jingo-jango!"

"Gesundheit?" she re-joked with a slight smirk.

"Free candy!" She practically pounced on the little mint laying on her pillow, unwrapping it and devouring it in mere seconds. "Mmmmhhh… oh, divine!"

The moans of pleasure definitely made Marcy have to clear her throat again. Desire was stirring within her in a way that blindsided her; Bonnie was a girl. One she had met literally that day! Was she losing it?! Sure, she had always known she liked girls as much as boys, but she had never really been serious about one.

"Marcy?"

"SHIT!" she gasped out when she saw those beautiful features only a couple of inches away from her own. It seemed Bonnie's concern had brought her over to the other bed. "I… what? I'm fine, you can go back to getting ready for bed or whatever."

"You are flushed. What if you have a fever, from being out in the cold too long?"

Then the bouncy inventor touched their foreheads together, to check her temperature. Marceline knew that was the reason… yet she still felt her heart speed up, her sweat glands stirring to life.

But she was no shrinking violet. Anti-social, sure, and inexperienced hitting on girls versus guys. But she figured she might as well give it a shot and see what happened.

"You give me fever," she began to sing in a smoky voice. Bonnie's concerned eyes shot wide. "Fever when you kiss me, fever when you hold me tight."

A tiny whispered "What?" fell from small pink lips. And not even the oblivious shut-in could miss the rock star's meaning. "Me?"

After they held each other's gaze for a few more seconds, Marceline burst out with a chuckle and looked away, strumming her bass. "Couldn't resist. You're such a cute little marshmallow, it's too easy."

And that was that. Or so she thought. After she had played a few more notes and glanced up again, expecting that Bonnie would have rushed off to the bathroom by now, she saw she was being studied carefully.

"Sorry. Told you I'm a bitch."

"Why are you sorry? If you meant it… which you did…"

"Who says I did?" she grunted. "Hey-"

"I do," Bonnie told her in even tones as she finished pulling the guitar strap from around Marceline's neck. How could this awkward bean be so bold all of a sudden?! "You are blushing like I am blushing. That means you meant it, doesn't it?"

"No. It means… maybe I was out in the cold too long. Whatever."

Sighing like a patient teacher facing an obstinate student, Bonnie leaned over and took her lips gently. And poor Marcy felt her brain short-circuiting. This girl was going for it! How?! This girl?! Even more shameful was that it took three or four seconds for her to pull back from the kiss, panting and clutching at the bedspread.

"WHAT THE WHAT?!"

"Oh wow," Bonnibel whispered, reaching up to touch her own bottom lip with delicate fingers. "I did that."

"Yeah? Like, what, you're surprised you kissed somebody? That's fucking weird!"

"I am. I have never done it before, I didn't think it would be so easy. But I wasn't afraid like I expected to be, and I enjoyed the feeling."

One single fact kept Marcy from harping on about how bold of an assumption it was to kiss her out of nowhere. "Whoa, hold up. I'm really your first?"

"Yes," she breathed, cheeks warming to match Marceline's as she fidgeted with her fingers.

"That… amazing one you just planted on me was your first kiss?!"

Bonnie raised her eyebrows at her. "Oh, it was good?"

"Dude, I'm practically at full sail down here already!" When the hapless girl didn't seem to have any idea what she meant by that, she clarified, "Yes, it was good!"

"Oh. Then it was a successful experiment! Hooray!" Marceline just gaped at her open-mouthed. "We should do more experiments, I think."

"Yeah? What, you think I'm that easy?" she scoffed, trying to focus on reaching for her bass instead of blushing scarlet. But she barely touched the neck before firm hands were pinning her to the bed. "HEY!"

"You will assist me," the girl she had once mistaken for a marshmallow ordered her with a sly smirk.

Marceline finally understood that she had been hoodwinked. Well, not really; she believed this girl had no experience, but she had made the erroneous assumption that also meant she would be timid. Nope.

"I will? That's pretty interesting, I thought I got to decide that part."

"You do. But I already know you will decide to help me." Her hips started shifting on top of Marceline's, eyes briefly falling shut. "Mmm… mm?"

The rocker looked away, waiting for the backlash. Bracing to be shouted at, or called any number of names. She had been down that road before — most recently with Ash, who had no problem doing that to her but only when he was angry.

"You're a transgender person."

Stunned by the bluntness of the phrasing, she finally looked up to see nothing but surprise in Bonnie's features. No judgment, no disgust. "Um… yeah. Well, we prefer just 'trans'."

"Oh! 'Justrans' then." She shifted a few more times, prompting a little groan from both of them. "This will certainly make the experiment easier; I already know how to work with one of these from anatomy class."

Marcy knew she wasn't trying to be cruel. She could tell. But she still hissed up at her, "Can you like, not act like I'm some kind of sex slave robot? There's a real person with a real blackened soul down here."

With a little gasp, she covered her mouth. "Bloobalooby! I'm sorry, you're right." Her hips rolled again, sending a wave of heat down into the rocker from their point of contact, blinding her with pleasure. "Do you consent to experimenting with me sexually, and taking my virginity?"

Marceline could only sputter. And she almost told her 'no' simply because she was so shocked at the entire situation. But it was beginning to feel way too good. Why? Why did she want to?

"Sure. If you really don't care that I'm some problem you picked up off the side of the road."

"You are perfect." For just a second, Marcy felt a flutter in her stomach from such praise. Then Bonnie elaborated, "I'm comfortable with you, and I can tell that you are an adequate size to give me a wonderful first experience."

"Oh. That kind of 'perfect'. Right."

Genuinely puzzled, she tilted her head and asked, "What other kind is there?"

Instead of answering, Marceline pulled her down for a heated kiss. They kept that up while rolling around on the bed, running their fingers through each other's hair, humming into the contact. By the time they came up for air, she realized her sweater had disappeared.

"Can I see you?"

"Oh, is that going to help with the experiment?" Bonnie lowered her voice. "Am I… sexy?"

"Well, duh," she laughed as she dropped her jeans. But she fell speechless when she saw the shapely pink body coming into view. "I'm… yep. Definitely stand by my statement."

"I think you are sexy as well." But she was saying it shyly, as if stating a secret, rather than in a flirty way. This girl really didn't understand human sexuality but she was trying her best.

Weird but cute. And her face was glowing red like a stoplight… and Marceline liked red things.

They fell into each other with eagerness, kissing all over faces and necks as their bodies combined. Bonnibel was so soft inside, and her skin smelled like flowers. The little gasps and mewlings at the foreign sensations only made Marcy throb harder, willed her hips to begin moving.

Minutes later, she broke yet another kiss to whisper urgently, "I'm… I'm gonna finish, I d-don't have… a condom…"

"I'm on birth control, to regulate my cycle. I will not become pregnant." But she was biting her lip. The sensations had changed how she reacted. "Will you…? Please?"

She would. Moans fell freely from both of them as their bodies shifted faster and faster, until the dam burst and Marceline felt both their bodies convulsing with the proof of their pleasure. It was an instant, it was an eternity. It was everything.

As they lay curled up together, silence reigned for a few minutes. Experiment complete. Neither of the new quite what to say. Until finally Bonnie whispered, "You sang."

"Huh?"

"When you ejaculated. It was like singing." She closed her eyes, a small smile on her lips as her hand drifted up to cover her own heart. "It was so sweet…"

Marceline scoffed, resisting the temptation to roll over and away to protect her own feelings. "N-no way. I don't do 'sweet', you're loopy. Literally fucked your brains out."

"No, my brains are still intact," she teased with a light chuckle as she began to draw little circles on Marcy's pale shoulder. "And you sang. And I am very, very satisfied with your 'axe'."

That prompted a gleeful giggle from both women. "Told you. I slay all day, Bonnie-bae."

                                                      THE END

[verumace]

💋 surprise me :U

First 5 Kisses Meme

@maenadian

–––––––‘I'm tellin' ya man, I don't think you've got what it takes to do it,’ there was an obvious bait in that sly tone. Whether or not Axel truly believed him incapable of performing the task of which they spoke was incalculable for that moment. What mattered, however, was the challenge presented to him. It was universally known amongst the Organization that he never passed up on an opportunity for sport or the thrill therein, so it was no surprise that the fire wielder was exploiting that angle.–––––An angle Luxord was making no move to shy from.––From their side, Demyx chimed in, ‘Dunno about that. Remember when you bet him he couldn't get away with hiding Saïx's reports? He still thinks that poor Dusk was behind it!’–Ah, yes. He could recall that particular time with a measure of pride. It was rare to pull something on Xemnas' mouthpiece and chief, && get away with it.––––‘Gentlemen, it would appear that there is no option but to solve the matter this instant,’ seeing that he had there attention with that, he continued, ‘Which leaves us to determine our spoils if we should win,’ the sentence had barely finished before the sitar player threw his hands up, ‘Nope. No thanks, this one is alllll yours, guys,’––‘Chicken,’ came the quick accusation from Number VIII, who did not give the other man a chance to refute it. The moment he turned toward him, the Gambler knew his proposed prize was one he had already thought over. ‘Alright, then. If I win, you gotta take over my missions for the next week.’–––Demyx's " Ooohh !! " was ignored by both men as the one briefly considered what was put forth. In truth, it was far more tame than he expected. It mattered little though, as he had every intention of seeing things through. So it was with a single nod he accepted, ‘As you say, but if I win. . .’ azure eyes slitted by a fraction, && he sensed unease spark in the FIRESTARTER. ‘I'd like to know where it is you tend to disappear to after finishing whatever you've been assigned for the day.’––Something appeared to be strangled before it could slip out, adding to his curiosity. && though Axel adopted an air of nonchalance, such small glimpses made the mask obvious. It said much, as he knew the other man to be far better at playing the game than that.–––‘Eh,’ a shrug of narrow shoulders, arms going to fold as hands cupped the back of head, ‘Sure. Why not?’–So quick to agree. . . that was unexpected. Not to mention suspicious. Yet he did not give voice to these things, instead he held out his hand and allowed a single blond eyebrow to rise in question, ‘Then let's shake on it, that the contract might be invoked,’–––This time he was not met with hesitation, for which he had to privately applaud. It was a quick recovery. Their hands clasped for three firm shakes before letting go.‘Deal. So, how are y--huh?’ as he had set off immediately afterward, he was unable to see the bewilderment on Axel's face, though he did hear the other two Neophytes scramble to follow him. Neither made inquiries, so it seemed they were at least able to cotton on. He heard their whispers behind him, knew they were weighing the odds on his making good with going for it.––&& Go for it he certainly did when he finally spotted HER.–––Where they halted to remain back and out of the way, he closed in on her to catch up. It was not until he was within reach that she turned to see who else was in the corridor, something he used to his advantage. Momentum holding, he whirled her around in full by the shoulder. She tensed up under his touch, but he moved swiftly before she could use her element or words. Her chin was caught between forefinger and thumb, tipped up as he ducked down to compensate for the height difference.––––––&& then his mouth was on hers ( and he found out that, though she was all sharp edges and jagged planes, her mouth certainly was not. ) with a kiss that was neither passionate or rough, but searching, gentle. The contact did not last long before he was breaking it, and from somewhere behind him he was CERTAIN he heard an " Aw damn. "

[kingofterrors]

At the Drowned Nest

A little fic for you to cover the aftermath of Jester’s sending conversation with her mom. Our favourite blue tiefling really looked like she needed a bit of comforting, so I had Beau do it for me. In an awkward way. Because this is Beau.

Read on AO3: At the Drowned Nest

“This is more fuckin’ like it.” Beau threw her pack down and sprawled full length on the bed. One of two beds. Two whole beds! Not that the cuddle pile in the Keystone Pub hadn’t been, y’know, fine, but this was streets ahead.

She sighed as she laced her fingers behind her head. “I mean, look at this. Beds plural. A window. Not half an inch of stagnant water on the floor. It’s fuckin’ luxury, man.”

Jester gazed around. “It’s not bad, I guess.”

Kiri pushed through the door after Jester, and squeezed past to run straight to the second bed. The little Kenku jumped up and nestled into the covers without a word. Almost immediately her bright eyes began to close, and within half a minute she was asleep.

Jester perched on the edge of the bed and tucked her in. The tiefling’s gaze was fond as she gently stroked the Kiri’s head, fingers sliding over smooth black feathers. “She looks so peaceful.” Her voice was soft.

“Looks can be deceiving,” Beau said. “That little demon must have kicked me twenty times last night.”

The use of the ‘d’ word earned her a sharp glance from Jester, and she immediately tried to backpedal. “That is… I mean…”

Jester just shrugged, making a ‘forget it’ motion with her hand. “You probably deserved it.”

“I mean… you’re not wrong. But tonight things’re going to be different. She’ll only have you to kick. This space is alllll miiiiine.”

Jester smiled. “She can kick me all she wants. I don’t care.” She undid the brooch at her throat and let her cloak slide free, deftly folding it ready for the morning.

“Sleep well, Beau.”

“You too.” Beau pulled her own coat off, leaving it in an untidy heap on the floor, and climbed into the bed and under the covers.

She had been expecting Jester to do the same, so a couple of minutes later when the oil lamp was still merrily burning, Beau rolled over ready to protest.

“Look Jester, you might…”

She stopped. Jester wasn’t tucked up with Kiri. Instead, she was sitting on the edge of the bed, a shining pearl clasped between her hands, staring intently at it. Beau shut up and watched with interest.

The tiefling’s head jerked abruptly, and her eyes refocused as she tucked the pearl away into a pocket and pulled a fine piece of copper wire out of her belt pouch. She held it between finger and thumb, whispering under her breath as her free hand moved in some kind of sinuous gesture. Still staring at the wire, Jester began to speak.

“Hi Mom!” Her voice was quiet, clearly pitched to try to avoid disturbing Kiri, but her excitement was clear. The next words poured out of her like a dam bursting. “I got this new spell! I want to say thank you for that package you sent me I know that it was really hard for you to do that and I love you so much and I hope everything’s ok with you and I got your letter and the ink and I think it’s so…”

Beau grimaced. She didn’t know much about Jester’s magic, but she was pretty sure there was a word limit in there somewhere. That was a lot of words.

It seemed to have occurred to Jester too, as she trailed off, listening intently. Suddenly her eyes widened, and her mouth opened in a silent ‘O’ of surprise. Beau couldn’t hear anything, but Jester was clearly listening to something.

“I…” Jester frowned, her hands clasping and unclasping involuntarily. “Oh no! I can’t…”

But then she fell silent again, listening. The expressions that crossed her face made Beau’s heart clench. Looks of pure delight, bittersweet chagrin, disappointment and frustrated defeat chased across Jester’s features, culminating in the wire falling from Jester’s fingers as she stared into the distance, brows furrowed in longing and sadness.

Beau pushed herself up onto her elbow, trying to find the words to comfort her friend. Was it that fucking word limit that had defeated her? Start with that… “Maybe next time if you write down… the… the words?”

Jester glanced over at her, and the recognition in her eyes gave Beau renewed confidence. Yeah, that must be it. “So you can like, know which are the most important words,” she continued. “Yeah.”

Jester nodded. “Okay, I need to tell her I got her package…” She dug through her bag, dragged out pencil and notebook and started writing furiously.

“O… okay.”

“Okay, yeah.” The writing continued. “Okay okay okay.”

Beau watched as the frantic scribbling slowed by degrees over the next few minutes until Jester was still again, just sitting hunched over her notebook.

“That was your mom, huh.”

Jester didn’t move.

“Yeah… I know… I know how much you wanted to talk to her.”

Slowly, Beau slid out of the bed and padded over to where Jester was perched. She sat down beside her, and hesitantly reached out. She had tried this as a shit pick up effort, but never with a friend, and it felt weird. Screwing up her courage she pushed through the weirdness and put her arm gently around Jester’s shoulders.

“Guess it kinda sucks. Not bein’ able to say what you wanna say.”

Jester still didn’t say anything, but Beau felt her relax minutely and lean into the side hug a little more. They stayed like that for a minute or so.

“Um…” Beau looked down at the top of Jester’s head against her shoulder, dark blue waves of hair swept around curled horns. The tip of one of the horns was just in the wrong place, digging into Beau’s collarbone. “So… I better get to bed…”

“Can you…” Jester still didn’t look up. “Could you stay? In this one?”

“Like the other night?”

The smallest nod.

When the morning came, the first sunlight fell on a guttering oil lamp, still unextinguished, and a muddled pile of two humans and a baby kenku, sheets entwined around them, all gently snoring.

[aurorawest]

⭐️Can you please also do a director's commentary for "Foundations" chapter 3? Thank you for your commentary on ch. 2, that was fantastic btw, :D I love that chapter!!

Yes! Thanks for asking! Link to AO3.

I used to write such short chapters, haha. This one is under 2500 words! I talked a bit when I did chapter 2 about why I wrote Foundations. Chapter 3 was actually the first chapter I wrote. It was The Scene (you know, the one you see in your head that’s the whole reason for writing the thing in the first place) for this fic, but when I write, I usually write The Scene first, haha.

Loki shifted in his camp bed, reaching up to pull the orb of light floating next to him closer before he turned the page of his book. Wind rattled the walls of the tent, but the storm outside wasn’t enough to drown out the rising and falling swells of sound from the impromptu feast that had sprung up several tent rows over. 

I remember really struggling to get the atmosphere of the setting of this chapter...mainly because I didn’t really care that much, haha. I wanted to write a fraught conversation between Loki and Thor and what to you mean I need to describe where they are? Though I actually think it turned out well in the end.

He paused for a moment, listening, knowing the right thing to do—the expected thing to do—was to be there himself. Eating, drinking, bragging and inflating whatever deeds he’d accomplished in battle that day. And singing, apparently, if the sound he could hear was any indication—and if one was extremely generous with their definition of ‘singing.’

I don’t think I’d come up with my head canon yet that Loki hates to sing at this point.

They were on Alfheim, one of the Nine Realms, which was facing a minor insurrection; nothing that Asgard’s forces couldn’t put down in a week or two. 

Sneak peek! Alfheim features prominently in the sequel to The Real Asgardians of the Galaxy.

They’d been there three days and the tide of the war was already turning in their favor. Still, it had been a shock when the Bifrost had brought them there. Years ago, Mother had taken Loki and Thor to visit, and Loki had found the planet breathtaking. Asgard was beautiful, of course, the pinnacle of the Nine Realms, but the lacy architecture of Ljosalfgard and the forests twinkling with lights was captivating. Thor had wanted to capture a unicorn and ride it; 

I draw a lot of inspiration from the comics when I write about Alfheim, since we’ve only seen one very brief shot of it in the MCU. Ljosalfgard is the capital (Ljósálfar is Old Norse for Light Elves). Unicorns are native to Alfheim in the comics.

Mother had forbidden it, and added for good measure that if he was gored, he’d have to sit in bed for the duration of the trip and wouldn’t be allowed to have any fun.

The forests were nowhere to be seen now, though. Or the unicorns, for that matter, though during that long ago visit, neither Thor nor Loki had gotten anywhere near one, anyway. The rebel army was moving towards Ljosalfgard, burning everything as it went, and the tall, graceful trees that had fascinated Loki as a child were nothing but smoldering stumps now. Whole towns had been reduced to rubble, with the bodies of those who had been unable to flee lying amid the wreckage.

In the last such ruin they’d passed through, Loki had stopped to stare down into the face of a dead elf. Her legs were pinned under the collapsed wall of a building, crushed beyond repair, but what had killed her was the discharge weapon that had been fired into her stomach. Tarry blood, turning black as it dried, was spread around her. Not a quick death, or a painless one. He’d knelt down and closed her eyes, but he couldn’t do anything about the howl of pain that twisted the rest of her face.

I added this paragraph about the dead elf during editing, feeling that my description of war was too impersonal and sanitized. Since writing this, my body count in my fics has multiplied. Now I kind of look for excuses to describe corpses.

A crack of thunder brought him back to the present with a jolt. He realized he’d been staring at the same sentence on the page, reading it over and over again. 

Mood, Loki.

With a yawn, he closed the book and set it aside on the small, ornate table he’d carted to Alfheim from Asgard. 

My pocket dimension head canon wasn’t as well developed at this point. I was imagining the table physically being carried. I’ve actually always intended for this table to make an appearance in my fic again, like Loki chucked it in his pocket dimension and sort of forgot about it, but I try to limit the amount of Asgardian stuff he’s got in there for angst value, so I’ve never had it show up again.

The book was a treatise on astral projection, wherein the author theorized that with the proper source of power, the range of the projection could be amplified infinitely. 

I still think this is clever, haha. This is a reference to Infinity Stones! Specifically the scene in Avengers where Loki astral projects and talks to the Other. I head canon that Loki really can’t astral project very far (maybe, maybe, a mile or two), but that the Mind Stone allowed him to do so in that scene.

Interesting, but not the lightest reading after a day of battle. He’d brought other books—and been roundly mocked for it

Whether Loki was being mocked or teased is open to interpretation. He can’t see it as anything other than mocking, though.

—but his focus was shot to hel. Whatever he picked up, he’d only end up sitting with it open on his lap while his mind wandered.

At that moment, the tent flap burst open, letting in a spray of wind and rain. “It’s pissing down out there,” 

The fact that Loki and Thor both have English accents makes me desperately want to make them speak British English, but I don’t because they don’t in the movies. Sometimes, sometimes, I allow myself to throw something in.

Thor said, apparently to no one in particular, because when his eyes fell on Loki, he added, “Ah. I thought I’d find you hiding here.”

“I’m hardly hiding,” Loki said. “Anyway, I was tired.” He flicked his light orb higher and expanded it with a twist of his hand so that it illuminated more of the space. 

This is the first time I wrote about this spell of Loki’s, which I now use alllll the time. It’s one of my go-to spells for him. If you’ve followed me for any length of time you’ve probably seen me talk about this fic I have where Strange goes into Loki’s mind (still unposted)—this spell is actually a major part of one section of that fic.

Thor looked at it, shook his head a little, and switched on the lights on his side of their shared tent. “What?” Loki asked, raising an eyebrow.

Generator? Asgardian tech? Who knows!

Glancing at him, Thor replied, “Tricks.”

Uh oh.

With a slight smile, Loki said, “Correct me if I’m wrong, brother, but one of my tricks prevented an axe from lodging in that thick skull of yours earlier.”

Thor snorted. “Not so tired that your wit’s dulled, I see.”

“Well, no. Never.”

Obviously, I try to capture the characters’ voices when I write, especially their dialogue, but I do it to the point where if there’s a kind of really distinctive delivery of a line, I’ll take that and turn it into almost like, a verbal tic? You know how you’ll catch yourself saying certain things a certain way, little phrases, that sort of thing? This is an intentional echo of Loki’s line in Avengers, where Thor says, “You think yourself above them,” and Loki responds, “Well yes.” I use this one all the time.

Removing the vambraces from his forearms, 

The amount of time that I have spent looking up what different pieces of armor are called, UGH. And I never remember. When I edit, I always have to double check. The only one I know for sure now is demi-gaunts because I use it so often, haha. Those are the things Loki wears on his hands in Ragnarok.

Thor chuckled, then said, “You should have joined us. No party is complete without your troublemaking.”

Loki put a hand over his heart, a grin twitching at his mouth. “I’m touched. I had no idea I was so appreciated.”

“That,” Thor said, “and the fact that Fandral couldn’t stop bragging about how many more rebels he slew than the both of us combined. I could’ve used your help knocking him down a peg or two.”

I wanted to show a few things here. One: Loki is used to Thor being dismissive about his magic, and he doesn’t actually dwell on it too much in conversation. Two: Thor’s attitude about Loki’s magic isn’t actually awful. He could certainly be nicer about it and have more respect for something that Loki is really good at it, but this isn’t something that Thor feels really affects their relationship. He’s mildly contemptuous, and he forgets immediately. And three: Thor enjoys Loki’s mischievous side. The two of them still have a decent relationship, though the cracks are showing.

“Mm. Sorry to disappoint you,” Loki said.

Thor snorted. Removing his cape and slinging it over a chair back, he asked, “What are you reading, anyway?”

With a glance at the book, Loki said, “I don’t think it would interest you.”

“I don’t think so either.” Thor smirked at him. “I’m just trying to show some interest in the things my little brother’s interested in.”

Rolling his eyes good-naturedly, Loki said, “Ah, I see. Mockery, then patronization. What a day.”

Thor chuckled and came over to pick up the book. “Astral projection,” he said, then looked at Loki. “You already know how to do this.”

Really trying to hammer (haha, pun intended) home the point that Loki is an extremely unreliable narrator. Thor asks Loki what he’s reading, then shows that he knows what Loki can do. And then:

Loki raised an eyebrow. It was always a surprise when Thor demonstrated that he knew what Loki was capable of. 

Yeah but, is it, Loki? Is it?

“You already know how to swing a sword, but you still train.”

“Hm.” Thor put the book down. “Once Father gives me Mjølnir, I won’t have to.”

Still pre-Mjølnir.

Right. Mjølnir. It had been heavily implied, when Father had sent them to quell the uprising on Alfheim, that the reward for success would be Mjølnir. For Thor, of course. For Loki, well, he supposed the reward was the satisfaction of a job well done. Once, when they’d been children, the two of them had snuck down to the weapons vault to see if they could lift the hammer. Thor hadn’t hesitated; he’d strutted up to it and yanked on its handle. It had come off its stone pedestal easily, and Thor had crowed and brandished it while Loki had stood there grinning.

Then, Thor had set it down and said, his face flushed with happiness, “You try it!”

Loki had reached for the handle. But he’d stopped, his arm outstretched, and closed his fingers around nothing but air before withdrawing his hand. What if he couldn’t? What if he wasn’t worthy? 

To this day, this bit hurts me. I find it so relatable. If you try, you might fail, so maybe it’s better to not even try? At least you won’t feel like a worthless failure that way. And on a broader character note, this is Loki as a child already feeling that he isn’t living up to expectations.

So he shook his head and had said, “Father will be angry if he finds out we came down here.”

This was a thin excuse to put off learning something about himself that he didn’t want to learn, but even at a young age, Loki had been all-too-cognizant of his own failings. Thor had looked crestfallen, which almost made him feel guilty enough to try lifting Mjølnir, despite his misgivings.

HE’S NOT THOR. This is something that I definitely address in my fic series, this idea that he’s not Thor, so he’ll never be good enough. And yes...it is something that he gets over. He stops worrying about the fact that he can’t lift Mjølnir. He begins to see the value in his way of doing things, and not in a defensive way, but in a way he’s actually proud of. He realizes he doesn’t need to be Thor because he’s Loki.

But this is waaaaaay before that, haha.

Almost.

Rain beat on the tent, which luckily was imbued with enough Asgardian technology to keep all of it outside. Winter on Alfheim, at least in this hemisphere. If the blood didn’t turn the battlefields to mud, the rain would. Loki glanced up, his brow furrowed, as thunder rumbled and a gust of wind made the canvas billow like a sail. “The weather could be better.”

“If it doesn’t stop, it will just make the battle more glorious,” Thor said.

Smirking, Loki said, “I think I find dry clothing more glorious than battle.”

Thor shook his head at Loki, looking like someone had just told a wonderful joke, but only he was in on it. “You enjoy it, admit it. You can pretend you’re above it all you like, but I see it in your eyes.” He paused, clearly wanting his punchline, or thesis, or whatever this was, to really land. “That’s the rage of battle, brother.”

This was the first bit of dialogue I thought of for this fic. I remember it coming to me while I was sitting in bed one night.

Loki somehow hadn’t expected that. Taken aback and hoping it wasn’t showing, he said, “You’re mistaken.”

[...] Thor chuckled and laid down, his hands laced under his head, but Loki remained sitting, staring at the opposite wall of the tent and fidgeting with his hands. The rage of battle. Ridiculous. If there was one thing that Loki was good at, it was not letting his emotions get away from him. 

OOF. If you thought to yourself while reading this, That doesn’t sound like the Loki I know, then you are correct! Frigga has that line in TDW where she says, “So perceptive about everyone but yourself,” and that line is one of my guiding stars for writing Loki. He’s very, very good at reading other people...but terrible at knowing his own mind. And then his read of what other people think of him gets filtered through his skewed perception of himself.

Anyway, I very much believe that Loki is horrible about keeping his emotions in check. He absolutely, when agitated, thinks entirely with his heart and not at all with his head. Here’s the thing...

He was as collected in battle as he was any other time. 

He wants to be a Good Asgardian. So in his mind, it’s controlling your emotions in battle that’s important. Other times? Not so much. As long as he does it in battle, nothing else matters. And Loki is very good about keeping his head in battle. He’s an amazing warrior, just as good as any other Asgardian.

To lose your head was to invite costly mistakes. Absently, he ran his thumbnail over his other fingernails. He feared losing himself, anyway. Sometimes he thought it would be all too easy, when he wasn’t always sure who he was to begin with.

This is one of the core elements of Loki’s character to me. He doesn’t know who he is. He fears a loss of control. I absolutely keep these things in my head at all times when writing him. These things affect everything in his life and hold him back from things he wants. Love? That’s a loss of control.

“You’re quiet, brother,” Thor said.

Loki glanced over at him. “Just thinking.”

“You think too much.”

“Possibly.”

Another intentional movie dialogue echo. “Are you mad?” “Possibly.”

Propping himself up on his elbow and facing Loki, Thor said, “This is war, Loki. You get up, you slay the enemy, you drink, you feast, and then you go to bed so you can do it all over again the next day. There’s nothing to think about.”

Life was definitely simpler for Thor back in the day.

With a slight smile and a mirthless exhalation of laughter, Loki said, “I’m not like you, Thor.”

“Really? That’s so shocking, whatever could you be talking about?”

Loki gave his brother a sidelong look. Once in a while, Thor displayed a snideness that came directly from Mother. While Loki was truly their mother’s son, some of it was bound to rub off on Thor, too. 

I’ve never liked the idea that Thor is stupid, and I do like those moments where he’s sarcastic and clever. “I thought you liked tricks,” from TDW comes to mind, and obviously a lot in Ragnarok. Loki has a tendency to think in binaries. Father=Thor, Mother=Loki (in the sense that they take after their parents, not like, Loki is maternal). He has trouble seeing that Thor also takes after their mother...and he has even more trouble seeing how much like Odin he himself is.

“I don’t mind battle,” he said. “I’m perfectly happy fighting to protect Asgard and the Nine Realms. 

It’s really important to me to show that Loki isn’t squeamish about killing people, but also that he sees it as a duty.

But you know I’d rather be sitting by the water, reading a book.”

“The water” is what I’ve come to call the body of water that surrounds Asgard’s land mass. It’s not an ocean, it’s not a lake. Here, I’m literally just saying ‘sitting by the water’ the way you’d say that if you were like, sitting on a dock or on the beach or whatever, but since then it’s become my official name for it. I like the idea that Asgardians really do see themselves as superior, and this body of water sitting around their planet is The Water, like there’s no other water.

“Or causing mischief,” Thor said without missing a beat, which made Loki shrug in acknowledgment of this point. Thor stared at Loki for a minute, and then he said, “Perhaps you should…” But then he trailed off and shook his head. “Never mind.”

“Perhaps I should what?” Loki asked, a sharp edge to his tone that he knew would put Thor on the defensive.

A flicker of irritation crossed Thor’s face. “Perhaps you should take greater pains to be more like a warrior. We’re Asgardians, Loki. We don’t hide in bushes and cast spells. We face the enemy head on.”

Aaaand there it is. Thor definitely feels this way, but he’s also more of a dick than he has to be, because Loki purposefully needled him—and Thor’s quickness to anger is one of his flaws.

Loki’s eyes narrowed. “A dead rebel is a dead rebel. It doesn’t matter if I stood in front of him and ran him through with a sword or if I distracted him with an illusion while I threw a dagger through his windpipe.” Tilting his chin up, he said, “And I hardly ‘hide in the bushes.’ Don’t be insulting.”

“The men talk,” Thor said, still sounding prickly.

Loki is the one we think of as being the one who feels like he doesn’t fit in and as though he has to maintain an image of someone he isn’t...but I’m really partial to the idea that Thor feels the exact same way. The two of them have actually had this in common their entire lives, but they never talk about it or see this basic fact about each other. They’re both trying to live up to something, and it isn’t who either of them are.

Ah. So that was the issue. There Thor had been, just trying to get drunk with the Warriors Three and the Lady Sif while they compared body counts, and it had been interrupted by the troops questioning Loki’s prowess on the battlefield. Or perhaps even his commitment to the battle itself. What an inconvenience. How embarrassing. “Do they,” Loki said, his tone flat. “And do you defend me, brother? Or do you let them talk?”

Thor rolled his eyes. “Don’t start this.”

Does Thor not really answer the question because obviously he defends Loki, or because he doesn’t, and it embarrasses him? I left this purposefully ambiguous here. Loki certainly knows what he thinks.

Loki held up his hands, his eyes widening a little in an expression of sarcastic innocence. “I thought you started it. Didn’t you just tell me to stop hiding in the bushes?”

With a frustrated sigh, Thor said, “You take everything the wrong way.”

“Perhaps you should choose your words more carefully,” Loki shot back.

Their whole relationship, summed up in two lines.

For a long moment, Thor glared. Loki tried to return it with a look of cool haughtiness. Finally, Thor said, “Of course I defend you. But when even Hogun and Sif—”

At this, Loki’s mask dropped, he knew it did, and he knew that for a split second, the hurt showed on his face. Thor’s glare slipped as well and guilt flashed across his features. 

They’re so good at hurting each other. It’s exactly what they’re trying to do, and then they instantly regret it. But it doesn’t stop them from doing it again.

Well, Loki had just told him to choose his words more carefully. It would do his brother good to listen. Otherwise you ended up saying things that other people didn’t need to hear.

Loki snorted derisively, a hard twist of a smile on his face. “I see.” The fact that Sif was bad-mouthing him stung more than he cared to admit. His feelings towards her toed the line between platonic and something more on and off for years, though he knew he’d never stand a chance with her. 

Loki definitely had a thing for Sif for a long time. He’s being wishy-washy here.

Thor was her type. Blond, muscle-y, typical Asgardian male. 

Loki’s type, when it comes to men, certainly involves muscles, just not the like, bulging bodybuilder muscles.

Which made her just like everyone else. Loki held out his hand and snapped his fingers shut, and the orb of light hovering over him snuffed out.

“Loki—”

“Good-night, Thor,” he said, his voice tight. Anger and resentment coiled in the pit of his stomach like a viper, slithering up his spine to the base of his skull so that it sat there, an intrusive otherness scratching at his mind. 

Some purposeful snake imagery; and the use of ‘viper,’ which has connotations of treachery, was also deliberate.

As he laid down, he knew it would keep him awake, and that Thor probably wouldn’t be fooled by his stillness. He could cast an illusion, so that it looked like he was sleeping, and then leave his slumbering form here and roam the dark encampment, if he wanted to.

But he didn’t want to. He wanted to not feel like an outsider amongst his family and friends. He wanted ‘Asgardian’ to encompass his particular gifts too.

Loki is definitely arrogant about his abilities, which is an interesting thing to balance, since he’s also so deeply insecure. A lot of his bitterness comes from the fact that he knows he’s good at things, but they aren’t the right things. And even when they are the right things—like being great in battle—he doesn’t do it the ‘right’ way.

“Loki,” Thor said again.

He ignored his brother and closed his eyes. Tomorrow, Thor would have forgotten about this. Thor never had any trouble forgetting the things he said and did that wounded Loki. 

This is true. Thor thinks before he speaks, but he also puts more stock in actions than words. Loki is the opposite.

That was a gift, he supposed, his face twisting in the dark. A very particular gift to be able to let go of words that hurt, one which he both hated and longed to have. Of course, Thor didn’t need to remember hurtful words, because the only person who ever flung any of them at him were Loki himself, and very little that Loki said was worth remembering in the eyes of his family and friends.

This is not true. Loki is being an unreliable narrator.

Fine. Thor would forget. Loki would try to, as well.

Thank you so much for asking!! 😄 

Fanfic Writers: Director’s Cut

[hagiographically]

Could you talk more about Stanford stereotypes regarding literally anything (idk majors?) bc they way how you explain them is literally so funny/good

lmao aw ily, you can always come to me if u want my opinion related to anything stanford (stereotypes about dorms, sports teams, greek life, a cappella ??) because i have A Lot Of It - i only wish i was more integrated with the school cuz most of my opinions are hearsay instead of personal experience

major stereotypes….hmm thats hard cuz there are So Many majors but i can just go with the most common ones and group some together, etc

engineering:

aero/astro - small department full of space nerds, most of them are in SSI, drones, i personally consider them very brainy and if i were better at engineering i would be aero/astro cuz i think it’s the next frontier. there should definitely be more women in it for sure

bioe - my ex was bioe, they’re a bunch of nerds but they have good enough hearts. they care about curing diseases and shit

CS - oh boy. ohhhhhh boy. here we fuckin go. honestly CS is barely even a sterotype at stanford cuz its such a dominant culture…..the people who decide what stereotypes even are, are probably CS. it’s gotten to the point where if i meet someone and they aren’t CS it’s worth noting. it’s gotten to the point where, in my psych/literature/communications/education classes, i expect the other people to be CS. i have so many Opinions on CS Boys because CS Boys are such!!!!a!!!type!!!! (and different from just, a boy who does CS). they worship the trinity of google, facebook, and microsoft. their junior summer internship is at least one of these. they buy into all silicon valley startup culture and they love elon musk and talk about venture capital when its really not welcome. they love talking about how much work they have and how little they sleep. all INTJs. probably virgos. there is also a subgenre of CS boy who didnt come into stanford wanting to do CS and ended up switching because its easier to be a CS Boy at stanford. they criticize the culture all the time. to this you can say, “it’s all right, craig, i know you just want to make money.”

CME - people major in this when they dont love themselves

design - i personally think this major is fuckin cool and considered it before i realized physics was a pre-req. the d school is thought to be d for douchey though because their whole shtick is so ~ideate~ ~prototype~ ~We Are Quirky and Put Post-Its On Walls~ but i dug it as a frosh. they can be kinda condescending, but theyre by far the most interdisciplinary dept in the engineering major (although its also full of white men who think theyre hot shit cuz they can use photoshop)

EE - again for people who lack self love, its supposed to be so fuckin hard

MS&E - white frat boys who glorify jordan belfort

ME - similar to design. live at the PRL. stay up till ungodly hours carving wood. somehow this is enjoyable. also white male heavy

who knows how the f to categorize this:

education - if i could do stanford over i would major in this. usually very diverse, woke, often come from underprivileged backgrounds so they want to make it better for other people and reach communities that arent currently benefited (unlike silicon valley or wall street :) ) i respect them because they do what they love and not to make $ although if educational engineering were a thing im certain people would jump ship. it’s also not in the humanities dept so i feel like theyre Above the stanford hegemony and i love that

earthsys - i considered a minor in this. usually sweet, earth-friendly people. white but woke. possibly queer. granola loving hippies and maybe some frathletes who want an “easy” major but not sure (im not shitting on easy majors. i have one. love ‘em)

generally i like girls in any of the engineering depts because they are dealing with sexism and doing it. the boys are oftentimes extremely self-congratulatory and will usually say something dumb about the humanities. even the girls will hit you with the “oh i wish i could study that!” about any non-engineering discipline, and it’s implied that what they’re really saying is “but i care about my future too much!” 

humanities/sciences:

AAAS/chicanx studies/asian-american studies/CSRE - woke poc who use lots of buzzwords and say things like folx

art - the people who major in art are usually more quiet than you’d think. we have an Artsy Type at stanf that are kind of extra (theta chi/EBF types, also very woke QPOC) but i dont think theyre art majors for the most part. i barely know any actual art Majors. lots of engineers just do art on the side

bio - i love bio majors because they are sciency but also get shit on by engineers so we’re in solidarity. they are sweet and study all the time and just wanna make the world a better place. there’s also the pre-med kind of bio who i would hate if i were also pre med but since im not i just kind of admire and fear them

chem - i like chem people much more than i thought i would. again a very small major and they just live in lab and have varied non chem interests. this year i accidentally became friends with like 6 people from the chem fraternity and i was surprised how much i liked them

complit/english - i was this major! english in creative writing are usually chill, interesting people. complit and english in literature…….it’s a shakespeare circlejerk and they hit you with the Discourse. overly educated white people. avoid the boys specifically but the girls can also be incredibly self-satisfied. maybe 50/50. but if you take a creative writing class instead of a lit class, the CW kids are usually awesome

taps - our drama department. they’re nice, but extra and intimidating. (also stanford theater is…..okay….not really as good as they seem to think it is yikes that was mean but) however, like with english, take an introductory class and you’ll meet very cool non-taps majors.

econ - oftentimes wonderful people! outside of class that is

femgen - same people as the AAAS/CSRE crowd except whiter. queer girls with undercuts. upperclassmen are intimidating to many. everyone shares their opinion even when its not warranted. my honors is in this

film studies - this was almost my minor and if i werent CW i might have doubled in film and comm! i dont know any film majors but if they arent a cole sprouse im sure theyre fine (they are probably a cole sprouse)

german/italian/french/spanish language or studies - spot the person who studied abroad!

history - like english, can be cool, more likely pretentious

humbio - the other premeds! actually humbio gets shit on alllll the time for being easy or having a fluff major, bio majors think they’re soft. thus, i like them. their course catalog is awesome and its a huge major but all the scary pre meds are straight up bio and humbios are softer but in a good way its a lot of sweet girls

intl relations - one of my favorite majors. usually very down to earth, the best of the IR/poli-sci/pub-po trinity. however, they can also be self-congratulatory for being So Woke and also they love to educate you when You Didn’t Ask

linguistics - weird, diverse people. very small major. similar to anthro, my old major. i love small majors they always have cute dinners together

MCS - a hard fuckin major. not as “Look How Smart I Am” as a bad CS. mostly quiet and stay in and study their ass off

math - love to wax poetic about the beauty of math. fun when drunk. not when sober

philosophy/MTL/classics - avoid. classics can be okay if it overlaps with archaeology because theyre just a bunch of nerds and they get really excited and its cute. phil majors would rather just educate you about how free will is fake and youre like tim can you please just get out of the way we’re in the dining hall and you’re blocking the cornbread

physics - Avoid. they think all other sciences are lesser. women and POC are ok

poli-sci - hit or miss. generally pretty friendly. very talkative. fun to talk to about Not Politics

psych - the best major hehe. generally liberal and woke and often queer. however, non-psych people in psych classes can be a nightmare (unlike english, taps, etc) and problematic as fuck. also sometimes psych majors are extra (exhibit a: me)

pub policy - probably in student government. im biased against it, but go in with hesitation. student government is by and large not as effective as they seem to think (however, a “woke” person in pub po might be cool because they will campaign for sexual assault awareness and economic diversity and good stuff)

STS - ohhhhh man. probably the major that gets most shit on at stanford. i think engineers think it’s fake. (humbio, design, and STS get shit on the most i’d say, because they are interdisciplinary STEM majors, so engineers think that they’re for people who arent smart enough to do hard majors. whereas with english or IR, engineers know they couldnt do it because they havent written an essay since 2009, so they offer grudging respect) a frathlete major. i personally like it because i dig interdisciplinary shit, but i don’t dig frat boys or athletes so i avoid. some of their courses are great but it does seem kind of scrapped together as a major and i dont know how people outside of stan see it

sociology - a small major, seems cool. stigmatized but not by stanford because stanford students dont know it exists. “dont you mean psychology?” no

urban studies - skaters? who knows. i respect them tho. i think they care about….like….architecture? and city development? its a very niche thing and i feel like it’s pretty hip n happening

[thelustinlimbo]

Okayyy so this is my review of my favorite morphe brushes I just got and tried! Tbh I really wasn’t sure what to expect with morphe, I looked through countless reviews and videos, looked up pictures and negative rants. So I was kinda expecting the worst but hoping for the best? I picked out a bunch of brushes that were reviewed countless times through youtubers, and then some that just caught my eye and felt like I needed to try them out. I was super worried that the negative reviews were right and I just wasted a bunch of money on a bunch of garbage, I’m always skeptical with “YouTube” brands because of past bad experiences. So for a while I just put myself in the mindset of “if I don’t see and try it in a store or in person I don’t want to waste money on it”. I’ve kinda been bored with makeup and not into for the past year or so, like it became not fun for me and I just stopped buying and trying new products as much as I had before bc what was the point? I just restocked what I needed, mainly bought skin care, and sometimes tried new things but they didn’t excite me. I missed the joy makeup gave me before so I felt like I needed to “redo” my collection to hopefully fall back in love with my favorite hobby, the brushes I had were all old and idk I just felt like my makeup was blah bc of it, so I finally decided to give morphe a try since they have a huge selection of inexpensive raved about brushes!! I’m honestly SO surprised with the quality!!! I thought out of the almost 60 brushes that I purchased I would really like and use maybe 10 tops, I thought I would be disappointed in a bunch of them and just use the ones I really like, but oh my god!! I swear I haven’t been this excited about a purchase in soooo long! Every brush I bought had a purpose I can think of and use for, even the ones that I initially was like eh or what the hell can I use this for?? Ended up my favorites!! (Mainly eye and brow brushes which I will show in the review) the brushes are all super soft and just great quality over all, idk if they just improved over the years or people were just being negative but I don’t know why anyone would trash talk these inexpensive high quality brushes.. Anywayssss.. So here is a round up of my favorites so far!!

E43 - is just basically a smaller E3 but today I used it for my cleaning up my under eye setting powder and then I grabbed it again to apply my highlighter very soft, and just feels like a high end brush.

E3 - I used it for a slight contour, I don’t like harsh contours on cheeks but this picked up the product just enough and the shape of it reallyyyyy just added the right amount of product in the right places!

E4 - a simple blush brush, but it’s so soft and picked up a small amount of product and applied the blush flawlessly to my face so it got a rank in fave face brushes so far!

E8 - I looooove small chubby round brushes, they are perfect for creating an “airbrush effect” in larger pore areas, I don’t really have large pores but when I use brushes like this to blend out foundation and powder around my nose/cheek area it creates just a smooth flawless finish and I have been needing a replacement for a Sephora brush I had for years that started losing its density and amazingness. This is a great cheaper alternative that is just as good!!

E41 - I have never applied my bronzer to my face so perfectly and quickly as I did with this brush, it picked up just the right amount of bronzer without creating the orange face look, applied it without scratching my face or leaving behind a bunch of fall out like a sorta similar sigma brush I have does!! Looove it!!!

M439 - I feel like every youtuber/reviewer/Mua and their mother has this brush and raved about it so I had to pick it up and try it out for myself. It really does live up to its expectations!! It gives a super full coverage even with a medium/light coverage foundation, I don’t always like to have fullllll coverage but when I do this brush will do the job! It does kinda suck up a lot of product, but not as bad as some other similar brushes I have. It’s super soft and you will have a even full coverage on in like 10 seconds with this brush.

M528 - I think I applied my Laura mercier secret brightening powder with this one, I can’t remember what I did with this brush but I threw it into my love pile and it doesn’t have any colored product on it so I think I just applied the powder with it. It’s super soft and can my used as a highlighter, or setting brush! E - 18 if you have smaller almond shaped eyes like me YOU NEED THIS BRUSH and also the M501, and E36 but I’ll get into those in a bit, the E18 is absolutely perfect for applying a crease color into small spaces, it picks up as little or as much product as you need and is just a must have brush.

M250-0 - OHHHH myyyyy godddd!!! The eyeliner brush I have been searching for but never found, I always came close but it was either to thick, had stray little hairs, was too long, or too stiff, something was always slightly justttt off with other liner brushes. They were good, they did the job, but they didn’t make it as easy as this one did!!! I haven’t had this even winged liner in like two years I swear lmao. I always have one eye perfect and the other one is it’s less perfect twin, or they both just looked like shit and I eventually came to except the fact that a super amazing winged eyeliner was just not gonna be in my life, untillllll this beauty came in the mail today😭 it’s. Just. Perfect. I completed a winged simple cat eye that was as even as humanly possible for me in the shortest amount of time it ever took me to do it, idk if I was just running on adrenaline from finding a perfect liner brush or bc my eyeliner looked amaze on the one eye I did first lol.

M213 - You also need this in your life, trust me. If you are sloppy in your eye makeup technique or just want something to really tightly apply shadow to your lower lash line effortlessly, then you need this brush. Don’t even doubt it just buy it. Also for some reason it looks really big in the picture above but it’s a super tiny little smudger with soft bristles but it isn’t flimsy. Just try it, you will see.

M575 - when I first saw this brush I felt indifferent about it, it kinda looked too long to be a good blending brush, I usually liked “fluffier” blending brushes and this one looked to long and slender, but wow.. for my eye shape it was the perfect “precision” blender! You know how with fluffy blending brushes shadow tends to kinda go all over your eye? And if you have smaller eyes like me it starts looking sloppy really quick, but this really helped blend and diffuse color ONLY where I wanted it! Surprisingly amazing!

M501 - okay… This brush is the brush out of alllll the brushes I kinda took one look at and was like?? “What the hell am I going to use this for?? Maybe highlight?? Idk?” It’s really oddly shaped, tapered, slim, slender, weird… Looks like a useless little highlight brush if your really particular about where you want to place high light or if you’re gonna be doing an infants highlight lol. For some reason I grabbed this weird little brush and started using it as an eye blender and was SHOCKED it’s like this brush was made for my eyes, it diffused my crease color so perfectly, the tapered part went into my crease and just idk, it was magical. I blended carelessly throughout my eye and it just created the perfect eye look!! The problem I always have with blending my shadow is that I get a dark color too far into my inner eye, creating like a Natalie Portman from the swan lake ballerina movie effect if that makes sense, I hate the way that looks on me and this brush just effortlessly blended without dragging color into my inner eye corner. I feel like I have a difficult eye shape and I hate doing shadow bc of it. But not anymore 😍 M432 - this is a basic flat square brush, it's great for the waterline but I used it to shape up my brows and it did a great job! It's the perfect density and size to sculpt brows without adding a crazy amount of product to the area, it's a must have in a makeup collection especially if brows are your least favorite makeup application like mine, my brows annoy me and a good brow day for me is rare because I have a giant scar through one which always makes the shape of it different then the other one. But today I'm having an amazing brow day and it took me half the time it normally would to do my brows with my new brushes :D M224 - another staple!! I had a Mac one that I used for years but it was starting to look raggedy, I use these brushes on days I have a blemish I need to cover and apply a bit more product, to sometimes apply foundation to my face before going in with a beauty blender, to shape brows, to apply a concealer from a pot to my under eye. I use these types of brushes as like product picker uppers and packers, it's like a forgotten brush that is very useful but not as talked about by me because it's boring but very much needed in a makeup lovers collection! This one has synthetic bristles and is overall really well made, I was expecting this one to be a super cheapie garbage brush, but it's up to par with my Mac one when it was in its prime days lol. M160-1/16 - another brush I saw and was like this kinda looks terrible.. The bristles seemed to long and soft to use for brows, but I tried it today and it's wonderful for creating a softer brow look!!! Like wow, it picks up a little bit of product so if you're heavy handed with brows like me it's a MUSTTTTT it applied my favorite brow powder to my brows and I swear it made my powder work and look better then ever, I used it in the front part of my brows and it's just gonna be an everyday staple for brows. M413 - I feel like I judged all the brow brushes to harshly when I first opened my package, I thought these were gonna be the crappy brushes of my entire order which was fine with me because they were the cheapest so not too much lost I thought. This brushes bristles are FIRM like super firm.. And kinda long. Immediately I thought that it was gonna scratch my skin and pick up way too much product.. I tried it gently, and applied my powder to my scar and wow this brush is def a favorite, I just have to be light handed when applying! But it picked up product and applied it right where you put it, I then brushed and diffused the color with the spoolie. My brows look so refined but natural in combination with the M160-1/16 brush, I used the M413 towards the ends and middle. I think this brush is also great for people who like bolder brows bc of how easy it is to shape and apply product with it. Andddd lastly, for not at least! G20 - this brush is great for packing on shadow! It works great for my eye shape. I mean there's not much to really say about it other then it does its job! I also like the gunmetal color, I got a few brushes from gunmetal collection but haven't tried them out yet. The bristles are soft, the shape is perfect, the size is great. It can also be used as a concealer brush for blemishes. Overall I'm super happy with my order and I think it's money well spent!! Sorry about the longgg post but I tried to sum up my favorites so far as best as I can. I haven't washed these brushes yet so I don't know how they shed or how they are after washing but I'll keep all you updated!:)

[lil-mad364-blog]

Day 11

September 17, 2018

YAY I’m halfway done with these 21 days! Go me!!! :D

Okay, so I got a crap ton of homework I still need to finish tonight (it’s already almost 1am...), so I’m gonna make this relatively quick.

Today was a pretty productive day! Although I’ve had a lot going on lately with school work and extracurriculars and my job and etc, I surprisingly haven’t felt “stressed” per se, which is pretty awesome. However, I have been procrastinating a lot, which is why I’m going to end up staying up until the wee hours of the night trying to get all my crap done that I have due tomorrow. Somehow I’m still not stressed about it, more like motivated to actually be productive tonight and just knock it out, which is a big change to how I’d react to the same situation last semester! I’m sure there are a lot of reasons to why that is, but overall I’m very happy with the person I’m becoming. 

So anyway, I went to class, and then actually stayed on campus for the first time this semester so that I could a) work on my homework and b) save on gas since I’ve been using up a lot recently driving back and forth. I got a lot done between my classes so I felt really great. However, I obviously still have a lot more to do! But I just wanted to get this post in tonight because this is really important to me now. 

I got invited to a party! Well, I did eventually, lol. A friend of mine was invited to a party hosted by that one guy who’s in the same organization as me and his friends, but he never told me about this party! So I playfully called him out, and I was then invited. But when I mentioned it, he sent me a winky face, so I’m not sure what his plan or intention was for not telling me right away. I think I’m gonna ask tomorrow or something just out of curiosity haha. But I guess I’m going to his party on Saturday, and I’m actually really excited for it! We gon’ get lit, so I’m sure the flirting will be turned alllll the way up between us. Should get fun ;)

I worked today, and luckily my GM wasn’t there. Even though things are okay between us, I just needed one shift without him breathing over my shoulder. Without that pressure, I actually had a really great shift. I felt myself being a lot more productive, and I was having a good time! It was interesting though because as soon as I clocked in, the assistant manager that was working tonight asked me about what happened the other day... Supposedly just out of curiosity and just wanted to hear my side of things. I was getting a little emotional recounting the events, so he didn’t press me anymore. But I asked how he even knew about it, and he said loverboy told him! Gee whiz. I’m definitely not mad, but I was actually a bit surprised that he had mentioned anything about it to another manager. Honestly not a big deal though.

Then at the end of my shift, the owner of the store (who was actually there the night my GM talked to me) called me outside to talk to me. Oh great, everyone wants to freaking talk to Lilly about this! But it was actually something I wasn’t expecting. Long story short, the owner was basically telling me about how highly he and even my GM think of me. He said, “He and I completely believe that you are someone who can run this store. This store is like my baby, and I would 100% trust you with it.” He wanted me to know just how special I am to this company, and how much of a natural leader I am, and how everyone looks up to me, and how I’m like the face of the company. I cried as he was telling me all of this lol, but it was the best kind of cry. And he was like, “It’s okay if you cry, I know you’re an emotional kind of person so I’d expect you to cry. But I love that you cry when I say this all to you because I can see how much you really care about this and how passionate you are.” Ugh, I really needed that. It gave me an entirely new sense of purpose, and it really meant the world to me to have him go out of his way just to take the time to make sure I knew all of this. Wow, I really am lucky with this job. 

Alrighty, so that was honestly about it for today. I’m continuing to have no contact with Jordan at all, not even looking up his profile or liking anything of his. I can do this. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have a whole new confidence.

Wish me luck on all of my homework tonight!

Hopefully I can stay awake..

See ya, babes.

Lil Mad out.