#when I saw that on the Wiki page for the self-titled I was like 'WHAT. GET OUT. WHO WAS HIGH WHEN THEY EDITED THIS PAGE'

[musicrunsthroughmysoul]

Turns out I can still learn something new about my favorite band: Ron Blair played the fucking cello on "The Wild One, Forever"?!

It was confirmed by Tom Petty who said: "He doesn’t play the cello," Petty said of Blair. "He just fashioned out enough that he could play the chorus."

[strange-anni]

So let's talk about Nancys room shall we?

In this scene in S1E3 Eleven explores the Wheelers house and then walks into Nancys room. So let us look at some of the things we find there and draw some tentative conclusions.

The first thing we see is a poster with what appears to be a big animal printed on it on Nancys door. At first glance it is not entirely clear what it is exactly but looking closer it seems to be a cat. It's rather abstract though. Like it's a not fully formed cat. Just the image of it. Plus they seem to have three colors. Red, orange and white (and possibly black). This makes it likely that this is a female cat. Male calicos do exist but are extremely rare (1 in 3000).

Next we see a small pin board on Nancys desk with with what reads like “Nemo”? Can this be right? Surely it's “Memo” isn't it?

More cat symbolism here. There is porcelain figure of a kitten directly next to the bed.

Plus there are two pillows. A pink one and blue one with the latter being slightly more in the front. This can have several meanings. First it could represent heterosexuality or heteronormativity if we go with traditional gender color coding. A pink one and a blue one belong together in bed. As far as we can tell this seems to be true for Nancy as she seems to be straight. It could also represent her having s*x with Steve. It was the first time for her. I will come back to this later.

Even more kitten symbolism here. This time it's two kittens on the side a of a musical box.

The song that is played is called “Wiegenlied” (“Cradle song”) and is also known as “Guten Abend, gut' Nacht” (“Good evening, good night”) It's very popular song to be used in music boxes.

Listen to it here

Johannes Brahms wrote the composition in 1868 but it is based on a poem first published in 1808 which itself was based on an old german poem from the Middle Ages. Nowadays it is one of the if not the most well known lullabys in Germany. When Brahms wrote the song he dedicated it to his friend Bertha Faber to celebrate the birth of her second son.

However the poem the first verse is based on was originally not meant to be a children's lullaby although that is what it's now known for. It's a general love poem not specifically meant for children. (It only got that association with children songs because of it's title and because it was placed into a collection with other children songs in “Des Knaben Wunderhorn” (“The boy's magical horn”) in 1808)

A quote by Brahms himself supports this as he wrote in a letter to the Fabers.

“Mrs. Bertha will understand that I wrote the song only for her little one; however she will also agree with me that as she sings Hans to sleep, her husband will sing to her, mumbling a love song.”

The first verse reads as follows:

In this case the roses are meant to be a protective cover. The cloves (And I want you to know that the word “Näglein” although in this case meant as cloves also holds kind of a double meaning as Näglein is also a diminutive of the word “Nagel” which translates to “nail”) are meant to be second protective layer as their essential oils are supposed to keep vermin and germs away. The last two lines are also often misunderstood especially by children as they would think that it is god will alone whether they wake up the next morning or not. That's not what it means though as it's supposed to be a more broadly believe that the future is in gods hands.

Later on Brahms also wrote a composition for the second verse which was published in 1849 by Georg Scherer. I don't have much to say about this other than the fact that his verse gives the whole song a much more Christmassy feel to it. The lines are pretty self-explanatory

Sources: German and English Wiki pages

That is the whole pinboard above her desk and there is much to discover. First we get a confirmation that that the “Nemo” we saw in the beginning is indeed “Memo” instead although it still looks like Nemo due to the “e” covering part of the “M”.

Next the pin board is covered with lots of photos and other things but there are also white and pink ribbons. They are placed in such a manner that it almost looks like a grid or possibly bars? Like prison bars? I will also go a step further and assume that the white/pink color combination could represent femininity like I assume the two pillows on her bed could stand for masculinity and femininity (or a man and a woman). However in the way that these ribbons are placed (like bars) it almost makes it look like they are caging something inside. Something that's desperate to come out as I don't think it's a coincidence that the photos which catch your eye the most and which are placed above the white/pink ribbons are the ones in which Nancy's wearing blue. In one of them she even almost looks like a boy.

I also want to give some attention to the photo in to left corner. It's showing us young Barb dressed as a clown and young Nancy dressed like a bunny. There are many characters in the series associated with bunnies. Holly for example, little Janes room in Terrys house has lots of bunny imagery or later on Henry Creel. Jonathan too but for him this is a bad memory as he was forced to kill a rabbit by his father on his 10th birthday. Nancy in this case is not just associated with bunnies. She literally is one although that seems to be a thing from the past. In S4 when her mother shows her Mr. Rabbit one of her old plushies she decides against keeping it as he will be loved more in another home.

Oh and of cause, she does seem to think the blue and yellow should get together. I know what ya'll are thinking but I don't think this is about byler only. More likely is that it is meant in a broader manner such as both ends of the spectrum should come together.

I've already marked this in the picture above but I do find the saying interesting. From what we can see here it reads “You are part of the problem” but that's not what it says in it's entirety. It is really hard to see but I think in it's entirety it reads “If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem” That of cause raises the question, what solution for what problem exactly?

This one is eerie. As my screenshot is not the best please look at this post from bobokhan. What we see here is a cake which reads “Happy birthday Virgina We love you” at least as far as I can tell. This of cause is reminiscent of another person called Virgina who we've only seen much later in the fourth season. If and what these two have in common I do not know.

Tentative Conclusions

It is interesting to see that Nancy seems to surrounded by cat imagery. None of these seem to be a fully grown though, if you don't count the more abstract one which I won't since this is also in instance of a cat that is not a full image of one. What I think this means is that there is a potential there for Nancy to either become one or acquire some cat characteristics. This however has not yet come to pass (from a standpoint of season 1) although it may come to pass later. At this point in time she is a “Nemo” (Nobody.) A bit of a blank slate in this regard.

Furthermore there is the imagery of the blue and pink pillows on the bed as well as the white and pink ribbons on the pin board. I think these images refer mostly to sexuality and gender. Like the pink and white ribbons are reminiscent of (prison) bars trying to hold back a more masculine version or attitude behind them. Although this prison of femininity (white and pink) is not fully capable of holding it back. In regards to the pillows I still think it may depict Nancy being straight but as she is more associated with blue she is the one that blue pillow represents which in turn means she does have more dominant tendencies as the blue pillow is slightly in the front.

Last but not least there is the lullaby in the music box which in reference to Nancy alone does not make a whole lot of sense. This imagery does not reflect her at all. However it is still important as we see El listening to it for bit while seeming to get a bit distressed as if the song were about to trigger a memory but then doesn't. It's almost like it still means something to her which she is not comfortable with.

Interestingly enough at the end of season 4 we see El in the exact colors which are seemingly holding Nancy back here. El's wearing a white shirt with a pink border on the sleeves. Apparently these colors are not a prison to El. Instead she seems to embrace them.

[totiredtowrite]

Wolf In Sheeps Clothing

Warnings - Cursing because angry boy, reader being a cold mf, reader's clothes are described (but kind of vaguely so dw)

Note: I feel like I can hear the gif for some reason :D? Kind of self indulgent so reader is shorter than kyotani. Poor mad dog, always being put in his place by pretty boys. I'll have you know that I consult the wiki everytime I write something for character details by the way. (bragging shamelessly). Reader is also a second year and the student council president because this is fiction and I'm not sure if you have to be a third year hehe

this turned out longer than I thought it would, really popped off with this one

Male Reader

Kyotani Kentarou has a new enemy.

Whether or not you knew he though of you as an enemy didn't matter to him.

Suprisingly, it doesn't happen as often as some might think. His awful attitude and uncooperative nature ensures that he makes more enemies than friends, but most people are too afraid to approach him in order to become one of the two.

His new enemy?

You. (L/n) (y/n), Student Council President.

Kyotani never really though much of you. Not when you campaigned for the spot, (despite being in the second year), and not when you got the position. He's seen you, sure, you made that whole speech when you got the part and you oversaw detention sometimes.

Kyotani, (surprisingly), didn't get detention much. On the one time you oversaw the detention class when he was supposed to be there, he decided not to go.

So, overall, he hardly saw you at all. You were nothing but a passing thought in his mind when he heard people talking about you. He never expected to talk to you, much less consider you his worst enemy.

~~~

It really was a normal day for Kyotani. He woke up, took a shower, ate on his way to school, and slipped into class with his usual "fuck with me and you die" look on.

Practice was cancelled that day as the coach was out sick, so he didn't really have anything to do. Everything was all normal for him, right up until the end of the day. Kyotani was stalking through the hallways, the other second years moving out of his way and giving hushed whispers to their friends as they got ready to leave.

He was used to that, and even liked the feeling it gave him, knowing that these people were actually afraid of him. He was close to his locker when it happened.

He ran right into you, almost knocking you back. He glowered down at you, an angry spark in his eye that would have any other student running far away. You however, just stepped back to be clear of his general bubble, and looked up at him with a frown.

Truth be told, he had never really seen you up close. True he'd overheard some of his classmates talking about how 'intimidating' and 'handsome' you were, but Kentarou didn't expect to actually feel it coming off of you. He didn't expect to point out how attractive you were right off the bat.

The hard glisten in your eye faded as you scanned his face. You know this guy. Your expression changed from 'stone cold dictator' to 'unbothered student council president.'

Somehow feeling the tension, most of the students cleared out before either of you said a word.

"Kyotani Kentarou," you said, "Number 16 on our schools volleyball team. Infamous for your out of control aggression and prowess in your sport." You smirked at him quickly, straightening your blazer and standing up straight.

"The hell," he lifted his head to look down his nose at you, "why do you know me?"

You shrug. "I keep tabs on all the students I think are troublesome. Or interesting." He watched as you casually turned to your bag and pulled out a large binder. "You're on the first page, marked in red." you had a somewhat mocking tone in your voice, that coy smirk returning.

Kyotani growled, the noise sounding surprisingly like an animal. You were much more cocky up close. Cocky and aggravating. He moved closer to you so that your chests were almost touching while you put the binder away, and looked straight down at your face. "I can be much more troublesome," he said lowly.

You barked out a laugh. "Careful there Mad Dog." You advanced, causing Kyotani to step back. "Or I might just think you're threatening me," you continued to move forward. Kyotani took more steps back. The only way he could describe the feeling was like he was being herded like a sheep.

Another animalistic growl left his throat when his back hit the lockers. By now everyone had left, leaving just the two of you. "You aren't leaving a very good first impression on your president," you say dangerously, almost mocking your own title.

"Why do I need to leave a good impression on you," he muttered out. You didn't say anything and instead lifted your arm above his shoulder to slam it by his head. He recognized this feeling. Yet somehow, it felt all different.

Not once had the rumors spoken about the affect you had on people. You scanned his face again, those intimidating (e/c) eyes holding him steady in place. His breath hitched in his throat softly when you pulled your hand back to straighten his tie. "You don't," you said referring to his earlier question, eyes focused on his tie. "And you haven't."

You pulled away from him and stepped back, patting him on the shoulder before turning on your heel to head towards the doors. You turned your head just as you were about to leave, the blue grey light from the cloudy sky making you seem more threatening. "Take care, Mad Dog." You left the school building, leaving Kentarou breathing heavily and on guard at the lockers.

~~~

He really didn't expect that from you.

He had had a similar feeling, when Yahaba threw him into a wall and scolded him during the spring preliminary game against Karasuno. Similar, but not quite the same. It felt like you had him trapped. He still had your words replaying on repeat in his mind.

Those rumors he heard about you didn't do you any justice. He never heard anything about how easily you could make people feel... things. For once, he felt like he was the one being hunted. And oh boy did he not like that. All those times he'd seen you, he thought you looked like a regular goody two shoes who would report even the smallest wrongdoing to the teachers. He didn't expect a calculated, threatening boy who had a binder of 'troublemakers' and a heavy presence.

He didn't sleep more than 2 hours that night.

Maybe it was your eyes that were etched into his mind. Maybe it was your smooth voice, that look that made it seem like there was so much more under your surface.

So naturally he came to the conclusion that you were his rival.

He managed to avoid you all till the end of the week, Sunday rolling around like a saving grace. He didn't see you once for the rest of the week, but it still felt like you were watching him with those calculated eyes of yours. His shoulder still felt all weird and tingly from where you had touched him.

The weekend felt like an asylum to him, a feeling of safety and control returning to him when his older sister sent him out to go pick up some things from the store.

Kyotani had decided to cut through the park on his way back, but now he was quickly regretting his decision. It's not like he was afraid of you, he just thought that avoiding you would be the best option.

The last place he expected you to be was sitting in the park, staring out at the little man-made pond with a few birds at your feet. You had an overcoat on to compensate for the slightly chilly weather, a sweater visible underneath it. Your shoes were tapping the ground rhythmically.

You looked much less intimidating out of uniform. You had a neutral, content look on your face, cheek squished against your palm with your elbow resting on your knee. It was almost cute, he thought, if that was the right word for it.

"Are you just going to stand there forever," you turned your face towards him and regarded him with lidded eyes. "You can sit down you know."

He jumped, standing still for a second before slowly moving towards you. His guard up like a wall as memories of your last interaction replayed through his mind. His breath quickened ever so slightly, and his ears turned pink.

He slid into place on the bench next to you. You turned towards him again and smiled. He went bright red.

It was an actual smile. Not that cocky smirk, but a soft clad cute smile. You focused your attention back on to the pond.

"You live around here," Kyotani inquired gruffly.

You nodded. "I don't go out much. Usually cooped up in my room working on god knows what." You leaned back, draping your arms gracefully across the back of the bench. "Sorry about our little encounter, by the way. I must have come off way scary, right?" You gave him that soft smile again.

He looked away and hid his cheeks with his hand. "Like I'd be afraid of you," he muttered.

You hummed softly. A thought struck him. He regained his composure before speaking again. "You must have known that I live around here, right?"

You nodded wordlessly. "It was in your file."

Kyotani decided not to comment on how creepy that was, and instead muttered out a small "oh."

Neither of you said a word for a few moments.

"We really got off on the wrong foot, huh?" You turned your whole body towards him, watching his movements like a cat.

He just grunted.

You laughed a little bit, and extended your hand. "Why don't we start over. I'm (l/n) (y/n)."

Kyotani eyed your hand suspiciously before taking it. The tingly feeling returned, but this time it felt stronger as both your hands were bare. Your slightly smaller hand gripped his firmly, the slight size difference making Kyotani blush a bit.

You really weren't what he thought, were you? Even so, you were still his enemy. His cute, scary, calculated, calm enemy.

He doesn't even know what hit him.

[baya-ni]

SHADOW’s Queer Coding

I first started exploring this idea of Sk8′s implicit queer rep (as in stuff other than explicit same sex intimacy) in this post.

I know we like to joke that Hiromi is the Token Straight of the protag gang, but I argue that he’s as much an example of queer rep as any of our main characters, albeit in a less conventional and fanservicey way.

So that’s what this post is gonna be, an analysis of Hiromi/SHADOW as a queer figure, how his character fits the Jekyll/Hyde archetype as a metaphor for queerness and The Closet, the similarities between SHADOW as a skatesona and early drag, and how his character represents a larger problem of exclusion within queer fandom spaces.

The 1886 Gothic novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson is the origin of the phrase “Jekyll and Hyde”. What I’m calling the Jekyll/Hyde archetype, refers to the same thing; it refers to duality, to a character who is “outwardly good but sometimes shockingly evil” (as described from the novella’s wiki page).

And the Jekyll/Hyde dynamic has also long been associated with Queerness. The antagonism between Jekyll and Hyde as two sides of the same person resonates with many people as similar to the experience being in the closet, and many many scholars have written about this queer reading of Jekyll and Hyde. Do a quick google search if you don’t believe me.

Hiromi experiences his own Jekyll/Hyde duality through his SHADOW persona, which seems to entirely contradict with Hiromi’s day to day personality.

Whilst Hiromi is sweet, romantic, and generally very cutesy, SHADOW is mean-spirited, sadistic, described as “the anti-hero of the S community.”  And though these two personalities seem entirely at odds, SHADOW doesn’t exist in a vacuum, he’s very much a part of Hiromi. In the show, this manifests as SHADOW’s sabotage moves being all flower themed, as Hiromi works in a flower shop, and how he’ll “step out” of character when playing babysitter to the kids.

Below is passage from an essay titled, “The Homoerotic Architectures of Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” which reminds me a lot of Hiromi’s character, such that I think his character arc can be read as an allegory for coming out and self acceptance.

The closet, here, is a space not only for secrecy and repression, but also for becoming; it is the space in which queer identities build themselves up from “disused pieces” and attempt to discover the strength needed for presentation to the world. The closet is both a space of profound fear and profound courage—of potentiality and actualization. (Prologue)

Unlike the kid/teen characters, the show’s adult characters all lead double lives. When they aren’t skating, they have day jobs. Kaoru is a calligrapher, Kojiro is a restaurant owner, Ainosuke is a politician/businessman (but tbh his job is just being some rich dude), and Hiromi works in a flower shop.

But of the adult protagonists (so not Ainosuke), Hiromi compartmentalizes the most.

Kojiro leaves his face totally exposed such that he can be recognized both on and off the skate scene. Kaoru at least covers his face, but his trademark pink hair and constant use of Carla doesn’t make it very hard to connect the dots between him and CHERRY. He’s also always with Kojiro in the evenings, so if you don’t recognize him as CHERRY when he’s on his own, you certainly will when you see him interacting with Kojiro/JOE.

Next to these two, Hiromi seems the more adamant at separating his Work from Play.

Even when he’s been clearly found it, he still tries to deny that he and SHADOW are the same person. Miya even uses this to coerce Hiromi into helping him and the boys:

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that the separation between Hiromi and SHADOW can be interpreted as a metaphor for being in The Closet. As SHADOW, he leads a secret life, one characterized by an tight-knit underground community with a vibrant night scene, where he behaves in ways typically frowned upon by larger society. He worries about being found out and judged by the people close to him.

But in Ep 4, the walls of his Closet begins to come down, or in this case is literally imposed upon by other members of his community, by its younger members, who don’t feel the same need to hide their passion for skateboarding or lead the same kind of double life.

We then see the line between Hiromi and SHADOW begin to blur.

He becomes less of an antagonist, and instead the audience sees him become a mentor and “mother hen” figure for the younger skaters. Later on in Ep 4, we see him casually interacting with the other protags in full SHADOW mode, not as an “anti-hero” but as a friend.  In Ep 6, he acts as a babysitter for the kids, and we see him totally comfortable appearing both in an out of his SHADOW persona throughout their vacation.

And I think that this gradual convergence of Hiromi and SHADOW will culminate in this tournament arc.

There’s something more personal that’s driving SHADOW to do well in this tournament. It’s not just for bragging rights or his pride as a skater, but the results of this tournament is going to have some kind of greater impact on Hiromi’s personal life. Personally, my theory is that Hiromi is using this tournament to prove to himself that he’s worthy enough to ask his manager out on a date.

Hiromi is no longer compartmentalizing, his two lives are overlapping and influencing each other. Recall the essay quote I cited earlier:

The closet... is the space in which queer identities build themselves up from “disused pieces” and attempt to discover the strength needed for presentation to the world... of potentiality and actualization.

This is exactly the case for Hiromi. Through skating, he is piecing together the disparate parts of him such that he can present himself to the world as a more unified and confident being.

And the show presents the very skating community that Hiromi has been working so hard to keep separated from his personal life- Reki, Langa, Miya, Kaoru, and Kojiro- as the catalyst for that becoming.

That, my dear readers, is queer coding if I ever saw it.

But there’s probably gonna be people claiming something along the lines of “But SHADOW can’t be queer rep because he’s Straight!” And I assume that’s because he shows romantic interest in his female manager.

First of all, Bisexuality. Also Ace/aro-spec people. And second of all, SHADOW is Hiromi’s drag persona.

And before anyone can say anything about how Hiromi can’t do drag because he’s straight (assumption) and cis (also an assumption) uhhhh no, fuck you.

Drag didn’t start with RuPaul’s Drag Race, that’s just how it got mainstream. And it’s also how it got so gentrified and transphobic. You heard me. But anyway.

Drag is, and has always been, first and foremost about exaggerated, and oftentimes satirical, gender presentation and performance. It’s about playing with gender norms through artistic dress and theater, not so much to do with sexuality or gender identity.

Literally, what’s the difference here?

SHADOW is a persona of exaggerated masculinity with a punk aesthetic. Regardless of his sexuality or gender identity, Hiromi’s gender performance as SHADOW is drag- that makes him queer representation, change my fucking mind.

Queerness is more than same-sex romance, and by extension, good queer representation is not limited to canonized gay ships. The very word Queer, in it’s ambiguity, is meant to encompass the richly unique experiences of everyone within the LGBTQ+ community.

In my opinion, Queer =/= Gay. I mean, they’re colloquially the same yes and even I use them interchangeably. But for the purpose of this post, they’re not the same, and that’s to argue that Hiromi/SHADOW’s lack of acknowledgement as queer rep illustrates a larger issue of exclusion within fandom.

I mean, this is something we all kinda been knew, but in the case of Sk8 specifically, there are a two main reasons why I think Hiromi is rarely acknowledged as queer rep.

1. He’s not shippable with another male character

Fandom favors mlm ships when it comes to what’s considered good queer rep. And the ultimate mark of good queer rep is explicit acts of romance or intimacy between two male characters. Unlike with any of the other characters in the show, we can’t point to Hiromi and automatically clock him as gay, especially because he expresses romantic interest in a woman.

So by default, he’s less popular, because “Ew Straight People” amirite /s.

2. He’s not attractive

This is really interesting, because like JOE, Hiromi is a beefcake.

But fans don’t thirst over him the same way they do over JOE. Granted, the show really plays up JOE’s muscles in a very strip-teasey way that literally encourages viewers to find him attractive. By contrast, Hiromi is pretty much covered head to toe and he paints his face in theatrical makeup- the point is to look scary, not attractive.

In essence, even though Hiromi engages in “queer behavior” through his SHADOW persona, his queerness isn’t palatable.

But I also think there’s some pretty insidious undercurrents of fetishization going on here, of both Asian people AND gay men. Which is... a whole other thing I really don’t have the capacity to unpack completely.

But basically, Hiromi doesn’t fit into any of the popular BL archetypes so he’s less likely to recognized as Queer. Relatedly, he’s also less often subjected to a fetishistic gaze as other characters. I mean...

So again, fans just don’t find him as appealing. Attractive characters are always more popular than ugly ones.

And I’m sure there are a lot of people who just don’t care for Hiromi’s personality, that’s fine, he does act like an asshole sometimes. But this post is meant to illustrate that queer rep takes multiple forms, and unfortunately I think a lot of media just tends to fall back on stereotypical portrayals of queer people for the sake of broader appeal. And by consequence, the fandom’s idea of what constitutes queer rep narrows to same-sex romance, usually between two cis gay men.

With the release of Ep 9, I know a lot of people queer people are going to find representation in the Kojiro’s whole “unrequited love” thing. But personally, I feel more represented by Hiromi, his journey of self-acceptance and subversive relationship with gender- that’s what resonates with me as a trans person.

And I think it’s important to see that kind of less palatable type of queer representation more acknowledged in fandom, and in Sk8′s fandom especially, because I know the demographics of this fandom lean heavily queer.

But that’s all for now, lemme know what you guys think :)

[naferty]

Tony Stark lives a very promiscuous life. Often the first thought that comes to mind at the mention of his name is his sluttish behavior. It’s no secret he has sex. It’s in his title, under his resume, and listed on the very top of his wiki page.

Bottom line, he has sex, and a lot of it. He knows it. The public knows it. The avengers know it. The problem lies with the people who speak out against it. Against him. 

The public. His rep. Pepper. Rhodey when he’s having a bad day. Good ol’ one-eyed Nick when Tony so much as looks at an agent. Steven fucking Grant Rogers. 

It’s no secret he has sex. It’s also no secret the Avengers live with him. It’s also-also no secret when Tony returns after an impromptu night out. Back to his home. Where the Avengers are also residing. Using the same living space. 

This leads to many interactions with his teammates after doing the dirty with whoever caught his fancy. Natasha and Clint don’t give a damn. They’ve probably seen and heard worse and this doesn’t even scratch the surface for them. Bruce is way above something so trivial. To get offended at the idea of someone doing the reproductive tango is beneath him. He has more important things to do, like curing diseases and changing the world. 

Sam is kind of like Natasha and Clint. He doesn’t care but he is thoughtful enough to remind Tony that “it’s not love without a glove, man,” and makes sure he didn’t go off and created the next generation of Stark. Rhodey is awesome and offers him a glass of water, asks him if his wallet and keys are on him and reminds him to eat up for the next bout while also reminding him to enjoy it while it lasts because age is catching up and erectile dysfunction is a bitch. The asshole. 

Thor pats him on the back and congratulates him on another job well done. Then goes off to ramble about how if Tony had Asgardian years on him he’d nearly rival Zeus himself. Not a great thought when you considered how the greek lightning god sired nearly half of the pantheon over there. The thought of Tony being the father to half of the Avengers is something he never wants to imagine ever again. 

Then there’s Steve Rogers. Captain America himself. America’s golden boy. Mister sensibility and preacher of ‘self-respect’ and ‘have you no shame, Tony?’ and no, Rogers, Tony has no shame and plenty of self-respect, otherwise he wouldn’t be going out in the first place.

Tony has heard the ‘Captain America is disappointed in you’ spiel so many times that he’s learned to easily tune it out, but on one particular night, after what should’ve been a satisfying and enjoyable night out with this handsome blond and legs that went on as far as the eye could see was ended with him walking out unfinished and frustrated he wasn’t in the mood for a scolding. 

Tony retaliated. He argued back every point, made sure to give as much as he took and gave no room for Rogers to corner him. It lasted for sometime. Tony recalls catching some of the Avengers in the corner of his eye coming into the room, standing by the door a few seconds and turning right back around to leave. If Tony was in their place, he’d to the same, too. 

The argument went on what felt like forever until Tony finally shouted, “Why do you care? You want to fuck me yourself or something, Rogers?!” 

The silence that follows was near deafening. Rogers had no words for that. He glared at Tony with a look that could kill a man, but miraculously Tony was still standing and Tony could clearly see a strike of red across Rogers’ face that didn’t come from their earlier shouting. 

Tony got closer. “Is that it? You want to fuck me, Rogers?” 

Rogers didn’t say anything but didn’t back away either as Tony took another step closer. Then another and then another. Their noses were nearly touching now. 

“Fuck me, then,” Tony said, expecting Rogers to push him away and walk out of the room in a huff. He never saw Rogers pushing him against the wall and kissing him so roughly his bottom lip tore from the impact coming.

He also never saw Rogers taking him on his word and fucking their frustration out all through the night. Rough and fast with no regards of condoms. They clearly didn’t think it through and obviously one of them woke up with regrets the following morning. 

Rogers got up long before Tony and cleared the room of any evidence of his presence. The message was loud and clear. ‘Never talk about this.’ 

Not a problem. One-night stands are Tony’s specialties. Granted, he’s usually the one to leave before the other wakes up, but he guesses that’s his karma for the year. If anyone could leave Iron Man on the receiving end, it’s Captain America. 

Tony never mentions it. Never shows an inkling of it. They act like nothing ever happened. No difference in behavior, whether the Avengers figured it out or not. However, Tony can’t help but smirk when he does catch Rogers eye and feels vindicated when Rogers glares right back. 

The days go on. Tony does what he does best. Makes money, flies Iron Man and sweet talks the curvy brunette who’s caught his eye and he knows he’ll be joining her tonight. 

It goes as planned. She takes him to her place. Small, a little messy, but all that matters is the bed. His blood has been pumping since before they reached her door. Tony is ready and the moment the door locks he’s on her. 

He pins her against the wall and leans down to kiss her. The moment his lips touch hers he pauses. His stomach rolls. Nausea hits him. 

He pushes himself away, worried he’s going to throw up on her. She asks him what’s wrong but he shakes his head. 

“Nothing, I-” 

The nausea goes away. Strange. Perhaps he drank a little too much? Impossible, he only had his usual three glasses. He’s taken more without so much as a spinning room. 

He clears his throat. “Where were we?” 

She comes close and runs her fingers over his neck. He shivers. It’s not a good shiver. It’s a shiver of disgust. There’s a prickling sensation where her fingers run over his skin. 

Does he have a rash? 

He touches the spot and feels nothing out of the ordinary. He shakes it off. Must not be his day then. He tries to kiss her again, manages to make contact and even feels her lips part, but just as before his stomach rolls and this time it’s with a vengeance. He twists away and heaves. Nothing comes out but damn does his stomach make an attempt. 

He heaves again and is not helped when she puts a hand on his shoulders and rubs. The prickling sensation burns on his back. He pulls away and take deep breaths. 

“Sorry, Darling,” he says, “I guess tonight is not my night.” 

She doesn’t look happy. Tony isn’t either. He had been looking forward to it, but his body has other ideas. 

“Perhaps another night, then?” she suggests. “I just so happen to be free tomorrow.” She runs her fingers on his neck once more. He shivers in disgust on cue. 

“I’ll call you,” he’s out the door before she can finish telling him he doesn’t have her number. He makes it halfway down the street before his suit comes flying down and takes him home. 

Rogers is there to meet him, already frowning, already glaring at all his life choices. 

“Don’t bother,” Tony tells him as he passes by. Spitting, more like. “I couldn’t even get to first base.” 

“They came to their senses?” Rogers taunts. 

“More like my body decided to catch a bug.” Tony grits his teeth. “I’m open to try a lot of things in bed, but throwing up on someone is not one of them.” 

“You need to take something?” If Tony didn’t know any better, he’d say Rogers sounded worried for him. 

“No, it went away. I just need to lie down.” 

Rogers is suspiciously quiet after that. No, ‘you should look after yourself,’ or ‘go to medic and get looked over.’ Tony rolls his eyes at Rogers’ dismissive attitude and leaves. He’s not in the mood for it. 

[sarunohadaki]

DQXI/Great British Bake-Off Crossover

Crossover week: Home | 1 | 2 | 3| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |

This story idea in particular is very near and dear to my heart because when I first arrived in the SOS discord server, I mentioned it, and I got to talk with a lot of cool people for a long time about it. A lot of people seemed to love the idea, and Cicada even made art for it! 😭

It’s my favorite crossover idea and would be the most intricate to write. More under the cut because it’s another long post. (very long. With graphics. What is this, an essay?)

Spoilers for a potential future Saru fic.

Funny-but-I’m-not-using-these fic title ideas: Baking Bananaza, Fluff — and not just Meringue

Relationships: Gen or M/M (depending on how heavy the luminerik will come out)

Premise: Erik is a graduate student studying biogeochemistry with a particular interest in peat bogs in the UK. He interviews and gets on the show after Mia nags him to do it in the hopes that it’ll have a monetary reward, but as they soon find out, there’s no money involved. Erik participates anyway, figuring it’ll be a fun thing to do and help him hone his skills for the next time his sister randomly begs him to make éclairs at two in the afternoon.

He doesn’t really know what to expect, having never watched the show before, and is initially a little overwhelmed when he meets other amateur bakers from all over the country.

Twelve contestants enter the tent, but only one will come out on top. Who will it be?

Initial plan is to have none of the characters be related or know each other aside from the twins and Hendrik/Jasper. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to have Rab related to El and so on and so forth, but I think it would be funner to have all the characters meet for the first time and develop friendships from there.

Everyone’s occupations are picked directly from my self-indulgent wants, haha.

And then here are some epithets, since the show uses things like this sometimes:

The structure of the fic

I initially thought it would be fun to do it sort of like a screenplay, but I am most comfortable writing in third person limited. BUT when you do it that way, you lose out on all the other disasters that are happening around the tent because you are only seeing what Erik’s seeing. And it would get boring after one episode to tell the reader, “I am now making this cake and following these directions.”

To combat this, I think it would be cool to do the omniscient POV for most of it, with the intention of writing it like an episode on TV. This would be interspersed with Erik’s director cut of events because he and Mia are watching the events play out while watching TV on the couch.

This would give us a chance to have Erik say, “Huh I didn’t realize the workstation behind me was almost literally on fire because I was too distracted trying to not over-mix my batter.” (Or staring distractedly into the back of ur crush’s head in front of you)

Plot

The short of it is you get to see a bunch of characters hang out and bake stuff semi-competitively! The long of it is, well… let me show you.

Each chapter is an episode

The Great British Bake Off usually has about 10 episodes, each with three challenges: the signature, technical, and showstopper. Whoever performs the worst holistically in each episode is eliminated. I have already roughly determined how that will play out based on some things I saw on a wiki. So, here’s the progression as it stands (don’t worry if it looks complicated at first — I can explain!):

To read this chart, each number refers to the episode. So, to see how people performed in episode 1, go to 1 and read down the column. From episode 1, you can see Erik, El, and Hendrik did well, while Ronnie and Faris did not. Vince got booted. Doing things this way, you can see Sylv had a few rough patches before they were eliminated, while El — the sweet boy — was never on the judges’ “least favourite bakers” list (alongside Jade, Rab, or Serena!)

This isn’t the final thing, and maybe there are patches that don’t make sense, but for a skeleton, it’s pretty useful for thinking up interesting plot points.

For example, Vince gets eliminated after baking an unchewable cake, and Sylv keeps pushing the envelope on how flamboyant their bakes can be in showstopper challenges, which lands them in trouble. Veronica really messes up in one episode and makes the food way too spicy.

Recipes

Okay. So you thought that chart was complicated, then behold this! Charts detailing any and every challenge from the Great British Bake Off from series 1-10, including signature, technical, and showstopper challenges with hour constraints where I could find them. Compiled from various wiki pages into one Google doc.

Potential problem: I don’t know if it would be plagiarizing to take various challenges and put them in a fic, and even more worrisome, if I could include recipes or just rip off what former contestants made. To create everything from scratch (pun intended) would take a lot of work. Based on the elimination chart, there are 225 instances of something being baked. Do you know how much work that is. (It goes down to 160 unique dishes when you take into account technical challenges all being the same recipe.)

In recent series (the gbbo say “series” and not “season”), they have had a few episodes such as “the ’80s,” “vegan,” and “forgotten bakes,” along with such classics as cakes, biscuits, etc. Pretty much every season includes the following episodes: Cakes (episode 1), biscuits (2), bread (3), desserts (~4), pastry (~6), patisserie (9), and a final challenge (episode 10). That leaves you with about 3 or 4 unique challenges each series unless you cut out one of those staple weeks, such as pastry. (Also, for anyone wondering the difference between pastry and patisserie: Pastry is a type of dough with fat and patisserie is a style of baking.)

This is where I said things were going to get intricate. Sometimes the details are what really sell a fic for me. Remember the five senses or that random thing that no one cares about but helps fill in the setting or make the story feel more alive. Having a masterful grasp of which characters are cooking what without overwhelming the reader would be difficult. Unlike TV, the reader is keeping track of all of this in their head!

I am no stranger to plopping some HTML into my fics from time to time and maybe that could help? To include graphics of what each person is baking, kind of like those… idk, “recipe blueprints” the narrator talks over where they tell you what the contestant is making and then they give you an illustrated piece of what the dish is supposed to look like.

Anyway, that’s a lot of work and I think just telling the reader, “he’s making this and I’m making this” would prolly suffice.

Why does any of this matter?

Because it’s fun. Because all of the characters will exchange jokes and poke at each other and I had plans to make Jasper and Hendrik have past beef and maybe Jasper throws food at Hennie or something. And also the pining for Elian would be very persistent. Erik and El have some stuff in common and their stations are right next to each other, maximizing the potential for banter and small talk about trying to manage school and this baking show thing at the same time.

In my heart, Erik wins because he’s the one who gets to date El at the end, but El is the hero so I know he’s the one who wins the show. And Hendrik has a secret baking sweet tooth so of course he comes in close third. (That is to prepare Hendrik for baking cakes for Jasper later.)

Unlike 80% of my fic ideas that are fusions, I think this one might be a legitimate crossover with people like Paul Hollywood, Merry Berry, and Noel Fielding. Sylv might slot into being a host, too.

[missbrightsky]

I didn’t know where else to go

Fics Masterlist

Previous Chapter

Chapter 11: Feyre

Prick: Meeting at the compound tonight, 8pm

Darling: I’ll be there. Any particular way you want me to arrive?

Prick: Well I’d never say no to you wearing a coat and nothing else

My vision turned red for a second, ready to tell him to go fuck himself and defeat Amarantha alone. Only my desire to protect my city from her had me texting instead

Darling: No smartass, I mean how do you want me to get there? I can’t exactly walk right in the front door.

A verbal lashing can come later, hopefully somewhere semipublic where I can berate him but not be too tempted to also make out with him again.

Prick: Oh

Prick: I can come pick you up

Darling: Fine, but only because it’s too cold to walk

A cold front had swept in the past few days, causing more leaves to turn brown and fall. The crunched underneath my shoes, a small satisfaction on my daily commute to work.

I gave him my address, cringing slightly that he now knew where I lived. Granted, he could find out on his own by tailing me. Azriel probably already had and passed the information along to him and he was only asking out of politeness.

Prick:  See you then, darling

A string of curse words streamed from my mouth, taking a slight edge off my frustration with him. Lucien looked up from his report, a worried look on his face.

Shit, I held up my phone, “Landlord problems,” I lied. A believable lie at least. Lucien knew where I lived and the landlord I had to deal with on a regular basis. You’d think being a cop would deter the man and force him into action, but Gabe cut from a gelatinous cloth of indifference and alcohol.

Lucien gave me a sympathetic look and went back to his work. The past two days, he had been in and out of the precinct tracking down his CI’s to see if they knew anything about the shooting at the docks. Anytime he brought it up, I forced my face to be carefully blank or vaguely lost in thought, as though I was perplexed too by who could have been behind it. Thankfully, most of the time Lucien was looking at a report or his computer when he talked about it. Even though it was my case too, I hadn’t done any real investigating on it yet. I would need to soon so that people didn’t start asking questions.

Throwing my phone back into my bag, I turned to my screen again, pulling up a search bar. My fingers hovered over the keyboard, poised to type in Amarantha. It would hardly be the first time I had Googled her name, but the precinct was a too public place to risk it.

The first time had been on the subway home from Rhys’s after I slept with him. All it took was her first name.

Search results: 502,000 for Amarantha Bast

The first link was a Wiki page (thank you internet). Clicking on it, I held my breath as it loaded (service was slow underground). The first thing I saw was her picture. Red hair pinned back in an elegant twist. Sensuous red lips twisted up in a small smile. But her eyes, it was her eyes that sent a shudder down my spine. Blacker than night, they absorbed all light, all joy, everything. Scrolling down, I scanned over the basic information, my eyes catching on her age.

Born October 14th, 1982

I counted backwards from the information Rhys gave me. She had been twenty-one years old when she took over Rhys’s country, holy fucking Caldron. What little warmth was left in my body disappeared. If she was capable of staging a coup at that age, what could she do now?

I continued down.

Queen of Hybern

Assumed Office February 3rd, 2000

Over twenty years ago, she wasn’t even eighteen yet. How the hell did she manage that? I skipped the rest of the basic information, wanting to read her bio.

Amarantha Bast was born to King Malcolm Bast and Princess Mara Bast on October 14th, 1982. Her mother died soon after the birth of her only child. Bast assumed her father’s title on February 3rd, 2000 following his death the month before. She was born in Hybern’s capital city of Zensa and continues to reside there to this day.

From birth, she was given the title of Princess Regent, poised to inherit the country on her father’s death. As such, from childhood she was educated in the laws of her country and how to lead upon his death. After assuming the title of Queen, she shut down the borders of her country citing that the Green Death, a variation of the Black Death, had broken out must be contained. It was the same disease that took her father’s life and a third of her citizens.

In a press release at that time, she is quoted saying “The loss of my father and my people have been a devasting blow for me and my country. It is in our best interests to close the borders until the disease is contained. When we have it [the disease] under control, we will consider reopening our borders for travel and trade.”

A few months after Bast closed Hybern’s borders, she also assumed control of a neighboring country, Illyria. In another press release, she stated “Due to the carelessness of some Hybern citizens, the disease had spread beyond our borders into Illyria. In the unsuspecting country, the disease spread like wildfire and has taken out the majority of government officials and a quarter of Illyrians. The prevent the collapse of their economy, I have annexed Illyria into Hybern so that we may share resources in these hard times.” Bast was hailed a public hero in Hybern, Illyria and other nearby countries for her swift and compassionate actions.

From what Rhys had told me, I knew the majority of what she said was bullshit. I had clicked on the link for Illyria, but its page was barebones. Since it had gotten annexed into Hybern, it seemed that most of its history had been erased or forgotten about.

I made mental notes to ask Rhys about his country when I next got the chance. I could do it over text, but the pain in his voice from his lost country and family made me think it was an in-person conversation. Maybe tonight after the meeting.

I closed down the web browser, instead, pulling up the report from the shooting. The file had barely grown in the last few days. Ballistics came back from the site. Your basic 9mm and handguns, fragments from a sniper bullet (that would be Az’s) and… blood. I had forgotten about that. Az had shot one of Amarantha’s men so that Rhys could getaway.

I pulled up the medical report. There had been no body, at least at the scene. DNA tests were still being run, if the guy was in the system, we would know by the end of today. Odds are that he was just some common criminal that got hired for the job. Another dead end.

I stood from my desk stretching and willing blood flow back to my legs. Lucien barely glanced up from whatever had him so entranced. I strode into the briefing room, scanning the board with the Veritas case on it. It was information I had gone over a thousand times in my head, with Lucien and the captain, with half the precinct but before, we were no closer to any answers. Now, I could look over everything with different eyes.

The kidnapping of doctors to find a way to stop the horrible disease that she could release on our country.

The raiding of warehouses to find where Amarantha was storing supplies and weapons.

Last night’s shooting wasn’t supposed to happen and then it was only in self-defense.

I heaved a massive sigh, feeling tired in my bones, in my soul. I was hiding things from my captain, from my partner. I was breaking the law every second of every day for an attack that might not even happen. Yes, Rhys and the others have found weapons they think might belong to Amarantha, but she could just be supplying local gangs. There has been no evidence, no sign of an imminent bioattack with that disease. I had also looked into the Green Death more, but little was known about it since Amarantha had shut down Hybern and Illyria borders so tightly, saying that it was too risky to release to the world’s doctors eager to study it.

More questions than I had mental capacity swirled around giving me a headache. I decided to let Lucien take point on this, staying in the background for as possible. I refused to destroy or alter any police documents but maybe I could give a heads up to the Veritas if anything pops up.

With one last look at the board, I walked out of the briefing room to mentally prepare myself for being in the same car as Rhys, even if it was for twenty minutes.

Next Chapter

[loulougoingsolo]

Spot the big bird

I woke up this morning around 6 a.m. to the sound of a pheasant rooster screaming toot-toot under my window. After that, there was wing flapping, as the bird hopped to another spot. He kept making noise all morning, making it impossible for me to sleep. I don’t normally wake up at 6 a.m. on a Saturday, so the rest of my day has been more or less foggy. But I think I get 50 points for spotting a big bird, right?

In this week’s vlog, Rhett and Link go biking by the L.A. river. I know we are currently mostly making jokes about Rhett’s hair going wild, but can I just say that Link looks a bit like an older lady who has just removed the curlers from their hair after the night and forgot to do the final swoop through the curls, in the beginning of the video? (I admit I occasionally have that hair-do, too, even without the curlers. But I feel I had to mention his hair.)

I’m a simple girl living in the country side, and for me, the idea of a river turned into a concrete ditch is a bit odd - even though I know my brother living in a more urban environment, often goes biking by a similar “constructed” river. Not knowing anything about the L.A., I went on to google the bicycle route the guys are taking in this video, and was glad to find out it has its own Wiki page, in case you’re interested!

It seems there is a bit of a power play going on between the guys, as the drive to the start of their path. Rhett is driving this time, but Link is more familiar with the biking route, so who is in charge? I don’t quite know how a bike trip could be turned into a commune living arrangement type of a situation, or how a commune could suddenly turn into a sex cult, but evidently, whoever tells the others they can only have sex with the one in charge, but not with each other, is the leader. So...how does this apply to biking? Also which is it, if there is always a leader? And how the heck did we get to sex cults this early in the video?

I just love how self-concious Rhett is feeling about wearing the bicycle helmet. And, he actually asked for Link’s opinion about which helmet he should wear. I think it’s very adorable, really, and I just love how Link always finds new, innovative ways to compliment Rhett’s mane. This is the first time I’ve heard the word asinine, but Link says it in the most loving way possible, and to be quite honest, he isn’t wrong. But thankfully, Rhett fixes his lopsided hair, and everything works out just fine.

I have to say, bicycle helmets make me feel very self-concious, too. I actually have a helmet that is almost identical to the one Link has - solid black and practical. Why do we need to feel stupid when wearing something that can literally save our lives? (But since helmets do look kinda stupid, at least solid black goes with everything.) And here’s a Grandson of Anarchy, Rhett McLaughlin, for y’all to enjoy, in his full glory:

We have more lakes than rivers around where I live, and most bicycle routes here are basically dirt roads surrounded by rural landscape, but I think I prefer it that way. The scenery around the L.A. river is too open, too loud and way too constructed for my liking, but there is something very grandiose about the river. Rhett also looks pretty grandiose next to Link. I should be used to their size difference by now, but Link looks so tiny, again. He’s small enough to fit in Rhett’s pocket.

I wasn’t getting at all bored by watching the guys on their bikes, but I admit, the idea of a scavenger hunt is pretty appealing, even if the guys probably won’t find people with old money in the river. But there might have been someone rich there, since who in their right mind throws away a fairly functional looking stroller? Don’t they cost a fortune?

I don’t think the river cleaning crew was joking about finding dead bodies in the river. I know in the nearest bigger city in my area, which has a rapid with dams running across the centre, they empty the river of all water every now and then (usually in the spring), and bodies have been found more than once. (Which reminds me, one time I was on a bicycle ride with my mom, and we took a short cut through the woods, and found a dead goat there. It was horrible. It smelled so bad. There were flies everywhere. And now I’ve given everyone reading this nightmares. Sorry.)

I just realized that the L.A. river was probably where they filmed that one chase scene in Terminator 2. Am I right? I knew those concrete slopes looked somehow familiar. No wonder I had an unpleasant feeling about that river. I saw T2 way too young - they should never have allowed me into the theater at the age of 12. But never mind about that.

There is a lot of junk in that river, and it does make me kinda mad, too, just like Rhett. I once found a whole VCR  in the place I like to go pick mushrooms, so a VHS tape in a river isn’t surprising. One thing good about the digital age is that there aren’t quite that many old VHS or mix tapes lying around. The mix tape of 2020 is a Spotify playlist, I guess.

Since I clearly have nothing better to do, I ended up doing an internet search on different cross symbols, to find the one carved in the tree stump Rhett and Link find. It appears to be a cross potent. No idea why one would be in L.A. river, unless it’s just a very complicated way to make the tree stump rot quicker.

I think my new favourite thing is seeing Link just give up and start laughing, after trying to get Rhett talk about littering without threatening to kill someone. I think it’s only fair to talk trash about people who throw their trash in nature, and a message coming from an angry biker is probably a good idea. But I just love hearing Link snort and giggle.

After the rat chase vlog, and today’s episode, I think there soon is enough material for a full Rhett and Link horror movie. I would love to hear what the people, who asked if everything was okay with the guys, were thinking. One day, the title of these vlogs is going to be “The One Where They Get Arrested”.

I’m not a qualified gif maker, so I can’t capture all the pelvic thrusts of this vlog in their full glory. As enjoyable as it was to see the guys do their solo acts, some things just are more fun when done together. My only excuse for the edit below is that if they have the audacity to film something like this without even moving the camera between takes, they are asking to be edited together. It took me less than 5 minutes to do the edit, which, yes, is pretty crappy, but I just couldn’t miss the opportunity, when it was served to me on a silver platter.

[tales-of-isolation]

Self-Isolation Day 36

With all my new found time, I’ve started watching all the anime that I’ve been meaning to watch, but didn’t get to. I just finished watching Fate/Grand Order - Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia (I can’t deal with how long this title is), and I have to admit

the feels really hit me.

I always liked Gilgamesh (esp. in Fate/CCC), but Babylonia had me tearing up almost the whole way through the season. 

As someone who doesn’t usually get touched by shows to the point of crying I laughed at the end of Anohana, sorry not sorry, I’m still trying to figure out if I was sad because the writing was genuinely just that good or if self-isolation is just making me weak.  

(I want to take this time to formally apologize to all the friends I’ve teased endlessly for crying during movies-- oop, my b)

It seems to be a trend recently to turn formerly antagonistic characters into sympathetic characters (don’t quote me on this), but I was still very impressed with the way that Gilgamesh was convincingly portrayed as a reformed tyrant who truly cares about his citizens and just lost his closest friend. They do a good job of depicting his strong leadership and how much he cares for his citizens, and 

SPOILERS AHEAD(???)  honestly, if you still haven’t watched it by now, idk why you’re reading this and not watching it. Go, leave, cry, then come back

the the scenes depicting an empty Uruk made me unbelievably sad. Not to mention the deaths of side characters like Ushiwaka, Leonidas, Ana, and Siduri. 

(Side note: I was pleasantly surprised with the depiction of Leonidas. I thought there was a chance that he would have trust issues because irl Leonidas was betrayed during the Battle of Thermopylae, which ultimately led to his loss and subsequent death during the battle, but no!) 

I’m very tempted to fall into a wiki-black hole (when you fall into an endless pit of related wiki pages) to see what the exact situation with Ushiwaka and Benkei was, because the only context I have is what was given in the anime, but I have work that I’m supposed to be doing, oops. 

Also I can’t stop listening to milet’s “Tell me” and “Prover”  They make me feel unusually sad, but milet’s voice is particularly powerful, and I have no regrets.

(Another side note: I saw some comment in one of the Prover videos that basically said that the song fits into the context of the the epic where Gilgamesh is searching for the herb that grants eternal life, not just out of fear for his own mortality, but also out of fear that his death would mean Enkidu's story also dying off with him. It also mentioned that Gil basically cries all the way through the epic and even manages to piss Siduri off with his crying, so I’m also very tempted to read the epic with this mindset)

As you can see, I tend to get lost in stuff like this, so passing time during social distancing is kinda way too easy. Little did I know, I’ve been training for this my whole life

[miomediator]

Pesterquest -And the music stopped, and plenty of new things!!

Oh right, didn’t pay much attention, eh.

Oh? Wha? What? Did he woke up in is Hive? But but! That doesn’t work like this? I mean, I think. I’m confused, I thought it was only when you finally WAKE UP that your Dream Self could disappear when your original self wake. I hope you got all that, cause if not I don’t really have time to explain.

Uh. Or maybe, according to some theories, you are Heart-bound. So your teleportations aren’t related to Space (places) or direction (Breath), but rather self and souls (Heart)? My guess would that you followed our troll buddy’s soul.

So before jumping right into the narrative, let’s take a look at this place. (As always, press the H key to hide the user interface)

So:

A traditional troll window, nothing out of the ordinary.

All the walls are grey, a pipe can be seen poppin’ on the upper left corner. A modest hive.

Some movies posters with the usual overlong titles. A promotional poster of the brand new Trollian messenger program. The crab doorknob!!! So cute :3

Three sickles, two hanging on the wall, one one the bookshelf. Never saw them before uuuuuhhhh.

But the most interesting detail : the predominant purple color! Uh um~ Along with some bright red, naturally.

In a moment of smartness, I opened the wiki’s troll terminology page.

If you have troubles with Alternian/Beforus lingo, click here.

Yeah, the sopor still weird me out, ew. I just noticed! Just looking at the pics, there a nice purple/gold duality here, like with Prospit and Derse! :)

OH SHIT! You kinda startled me a bit dude. Yay~ the interface is different, I mean, duh~ Pretty neat :) Hahahaha the music is awesome! Very grumpy and dramatic :DD Here [Next =>]

[jinwoowoohoo]

I've been thinking a lot about the beginning of my story with Astro.

November 10th, 2016, 3 days before my 24th birthday, youtube suggested me a video. A rookie group I hadn't heard of before covering Replay, the debut song from my at-the-time favorite boy group. I gave it a watch, and while the original is always the best I thought they did pretty well! Worth checking out their music for sure. So I did. I watched all 3 music videos out at the time, and thought, while they aren't necessarily my jam, I feel a ton of potential from them.

I didn't stan.

I just said that I would "keep an eye" on them in the future (i even commented such on the cover video)

But after I left the mvs and went on my merry way, I kept thinking about them. Just a little, just in the back of my mind. Then like a sign, the universe telling me to go back, to give them a second chance, I saw a post on here. Just an ask, something not really meant for me at all. The asker saying that you should stan Sanha because he is "soft like mash potato", and the askee replying "they all are tbh". It was such a silly, innocuous statement, but it piqued my interest. It was enough to make me look them up again. And what I found the second time were 1) the dance practices and 2) Puss in Boots.

Literally as soon as I saw their choreography, my response was "why did nobody tell me they could dance like that????" I was honestly a little miffed I hadn't seen/noticed their choreo more in the videos, it was so creative and energetic and such a pleasure to watch, not like any other choreo I had seen. I became obsessed with those two practice videos (seriously I'm sure I watched them approx. 1 Billion times)

I also became obsessed with the song Puss in Boots. While I had thought their other title tracks were fine on first listen, this was absolutely my jam right away, and changed my whole view on them.

From there I was interested enough to read through their whole wiki page, where I found out about To Be Continued and OK!Ready. I decided to jump into the latter right away (rip dramafever... you did a lot for my baby roha self). I didnt know anything about the members. I didnt know a single person's name. I didnt understand a lot of the jokes. But, I fell in love anyway. Immediately after finishing OkR I marathoned TBC, which I also loved a whole lot (and still do). From there I started watching any video I could find, and once I got into their Weekly Idol vids, I knew I'd be here a while. (my first post about them ever was their heights on weekly idol haha)

I remember, somewhere in between all of that, days at my previous apartment, the first one I ever lived in (with my very best friend) sitting in our living room watching  Breathless on repeat on our big tv. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize they were the bottles - I was just so mesmerized by the colors! And the cute and happy! The best friend i mentioned had already gone though my dive into f(x), and then a month later Shinee. And now here I was yet again, a few months more, with the third loves of my life (though I had no idea how deep it would go just yet).

I dont know why I remember this, but I remember very clearly watching the Breathless video for the umpteenth time, and that friend coming in, and my saying to her "this is a group called Astro". It was, yet again, just an innocuous thing. Something small, inconsequential. But I knew as I was saying it that it wasnt inconsequential. That it was another turning point for me, in my realizing how much they were creeping into the open spaces in my heart.

Now, 2 years and 3 months later, I am so grateful for every little thing that fell into place to bring these 6 boys into my life. For the youtube algorithm, to show me their cover the day it released. For the Aroha who sent that ask, and the one who replied. For fantagio, who scouted these stars and brought them together in the first place.

While they may not have helped me through the darkest points of my life like some other Aroha, they have brought more brightness than I ever thought possible. They are a constant reminder that there is good in this world. That there is kindness, and softness, and hope for the future. Even when everything looks desolate and terrible, Astro are always there, trucking on, continuing to push forward. And I am so, so very thankful for that.

Happy 3 years to our 6 shining stars, and to all the shining Aroha who welcomed me with open arms and helped give me a home, to be openly excited about things and have someone to be excited with. You all keep me sane 💖

[u2-gibeyourselfahue]

Who The Fuck Is This?

(If you want to skip the BS, my best guess as to his identity is at the bottom)

While reading The Renaissance At War by Thomas Arnold, I came across a nice piece of artwork depicting part of The Battle of Pavia (1525). Image attribution seems to suggest it came from AKG Endpaper.

Sounds good, let’s have a gander.

Found this after navigating a shit load of redirects. The description is a bit misleading, as one may be led to believe this armored gentleman to be Francis I. The full image (which is apparently part of a multi-piece tapestry set by an artist named Bernard Van Orley) is actually included in Arnold’s book and identifies another as the French king. It’s possible that the individual above (henceforth known as WHOAREYOU) is someone else. Perhaps the ‘Neapolitan Viceroy’?  Okay, so who the fuck is that?

Here is another picture from the book, which is a snapshot of the battle. The style reminds me of some of Martin Dougherty’s stuff, which is pretty cool. (Also, please excuse the shitty camera quality)

It’s difficult to see, but all named figures are supposed to be shown in blue, with the exception of ‘De Vasto’ in the middle, who is part of the Imperial forces in red. It seems as though this fellow must be pretty important to be singled out this way.

I’ve another book here, Paolo Giovio by T.C. Price Zimmermann which suggests that De Vasto is a man by the name of Alfonso (whose wife spent time with the eponymous Giovio). Alfonso is related to Francisco Fernando, Marquis of Pescara. This is relevant, because in Michael Edward Mallett and Christine Shaw’s book, The Italian Wars, 1494–1559: War, State and Society in Early Modern Europe, the following is given regarding the Battle of Pavia:

“This has often been presented as a battle commanded by Pescara, and much of the credit for the victory has been given to his planning and his deployment of the arquebusiers. He claimed it was his idea to attack through the park. The contemporary historian Giovio said that Pescara had been given overall command of the army but imperial sources made no mention of this, although Pescara was singled out for praise for his valour and energy. In the field, Bourbon and Lannoy had taken the most honourable positions in command of the cavalry.“ (Mallett and Shaw, 152)

Note that line about Giovio. Zimmermann says something relevant about this:

“Giovio personally interviewed many of the surviving participants, including Francis I, but achieved vividness and clarity by holding for the most part to Pescara’s contemporary account of the battle to Charles V.“ (Zimmermann, 74)

There’s an annotation attached to this:

“On the interviews with Francis I (at Marseilles in 1533 and again at Nice in 1538) see Vita del Pescara (1931), 435. Sir Charles Oman called Giovio’s account of Pavia the most detailed (The Art of War in the Sixteenth Century, 186–206). For Pescara’s letter to Charles V see M. F. Navarrete, M. Salvá, and P. S. deBaranda, eds., Collección de documentos inéditos para la historia España 38 (1861), 408–12?

It’s possible that Pescara held principle command. This link I found (couldn’t find the book it’s based off of, but I like De Re Militari, so I’m willing to believe them) seems to corroborate this somewhat, as it calls Pescara the ‘chief of the emperor's host’

(http://www.deremilitari.org/RESOURCES/SOURCES/pavia.htm

Last part of the annotation:

“For eyewitness sources Giovio also had del Vasto and Giambattista Castaldo, who took Francis I prisoner.”

So, all this to say that De Vasto -might- be WHOAREYOU, while Pescara is running overall command...

...until you get to this:

“Although the d’Avalos were in origin a Spanish family, Pescara himself had been born in Italy, and his title was a Neapolitan one.” (Zimmermann, 76)

Great, does that mean that Pescara is the Neapolitan viceroy (and therefore WHOAREYOU) or is this ‘title’ not necessarily related.

Moreover, there’s also the idea that just because AKG says that the viceroy accepted the surrender, that does not mean it has any bearing to the actual scene of what was going on with Francis. It may have been a broad and not strictly related summary. Hell, who knows what kind of biases and reformats went into the original accounts to begin with. This is starting to feel like an Ouroboros of bullshit.

“The large number of conflicting and often self-serving contemporary accounts makes the battle of Pavia difficult to reconstruct in congruent detail.“ (Zimmermann, 84)

You’re fucking telling me.

Let’s take a break and see if Wikipedia is going to be of any help in the matter.

Where the hell did all these people come from?

Okay, we know some of these people already (mostly Fernando and Alfonso). I took another crappy photo of Arnold’s book which elaborates a bit on Bourbon.

I already mentioned Bourbon in the quote about the cavalry, along with Lannoy. More about the latter is contained here:

“The imperial army was strengthened by the arrival in late December of the new viceroy of Naples, Charles de Lannoy, and Pescara, bringing troops from Naples.” (Mallett and Shaw, 147)

Aha, ‘Viceroy of Naples’. So perhaps Lannoy is our mysterious WHOAREYOU (let’s just assume the AKG image is portraying the viceroy, for my own sanity)

What does his wiki page say?

We’re off to a good start.

Fortunately, we actually do have some sources. Here’s a bit in Correspondence of the Emperor Charles V. and his ambassadors at the courts of England and France : from the original letters in the imperial family archives at Vienna; with a connecting narrative and biographical notices of the Emperor and of some of the most distinguished officers of his army and household; together with the Emperor's itinerary from 1519-1551, the title of which is going to be longer than the actual content:

“CHARLES DE LANNOY VICEROY OF NAPLES TO THE EMPEROR Villa Franca 10th of June 1525? (118)

I think we can do a little better than that.

There’s a reference to this in La corte de Carlos V by José Martínez Millán. I found an archive of it (https://repositorio.uam.es/xmlui/handle/10486/742) so let’s check it out.

Nice, it’s partitioned into a bunch of different pdfs, that’s just fucking wonderful.

The part we care about comes from CAPITULO6, pages 233-234 :

“Por su parte, Charles de Lannoy enviado a Ñapóles, había  dejado  su lugar  al frente  de la  caballeriza  a Cesare Ferramosca.”

Yeah, I don’t really speak Spanish. Let’s just run it through an online translator:

“For his part, Charles de Lannoy sent to Naples, had left his place in front of the stable to Cesare Ferramosca.”

Sent to Naples, eh? I’m pretty sure we can make an argument that Lannoy is indeed the viceroy we’re looking for.

The wiki page of the battle proper also has this to say: “The exact nature of Francis's surrender—in particular, who exactly had taken him prisoner—is uncertain, with a variety of candidates ranging from Alonso Pita da Veiga, Juan de Urbieta and Diego Dávila to Lannoy himself being put forward by various historians.“

WHOAREYOU could be any of these people as well, though Lannoy so far has the best argument for it (Again, for my sanity, let’s just assume the artwork is depicting the viceroy). Unrelatedly, Diego there doesn’t even have a wikipedia page. Here’s a reference to him in Colección de documentos inéditos para la historia de España, Volume 38, page 391, which talks a bit about events that took place after Francis was unhorsed:

The text becomes corrupted when I try to copy this, but the rough translation looks like:

“Then he came to where the king was another Darmas man from Granada called Diego de Avila, who, as the king saw on the ground with such trappings, went to him to surrender the king told him who he was and that he was surrendered to the emperor and asking him If he had given Gaje M, he told him that Diego de Avil was not asked and he gave him the rapier that he had brought with him, and a mitten and decked Diego de Avila worked to get him under the horse And in this there came another man from Galicia. called Pita which helped him to raise and took to the king the badge that of Saut Miguel to the neck it brought in a chain that is the order of the cavalry of France and tie it as those of the emperor the Tuson For this the king offered him to give him six mili duked but he did not want them but bring it to the emperor While the King of France was standing, some arcabuceros soldiers came to the party, who, not conning him, wanted to kill him because they did not believe the They told him that he was the king and without them they could not save his life if Monsignor de la Mota, a great and great friend of the Duke of Borbon, who had walked with him and disarmed him, had not come to that place. saw the contest that there they had...“

More importantly, on page 394 and 395, mention is made of a number of key imperial figures and their interaction with Francis:

It names the Marquis of Pescara, Monsignor de la Mota, the Duke of Bourbon, the Marquis of Vasto, and the Viceroy of Naples.

Now, since the text is FUBAR, it’s difficult for me to pinpoint when this event took place. It’s possible that this took place far later than the initial capture of Francis. That said, it does at least support the idea that Lannoy, at some point, did have an interaction with the king.

Here is another excerpt from page 411-412. If I’m understanding this correctly, this one comes to us courtesy of Pescara himself:

He seems to be talking about specific maneuvers. Of worth to us is the reference to the ‘Viceroy’ and his participation.

The wiki page makes a fuckton of references to Angus Konstam’s Pavia 1525: The Climax of the Italian Wars. Let’s take a quick look.

Of immediate note is this image (as illustrated by Graham Turner):

Aha MK2. This looks familiar. It seems that Konstam and Arnold may have been working off the same sources (probably Oman as the main one, or whatever he was working off of). This would explain why the initial image only contained De Vasto’s name. Here, we see one of the earlier manuevers where De Vasto played a key part in securing Castello Mirabello with his detachment of arquebusiers. Since Arnold’s book was probably providing a broader overview, it only used one moment from the battle.

Later on, we see this unfold:

Bourbon, Pescara, and Georg von Frundsberg (and De Vasto, though he’s not explicitly named) seem to have caught Francis in a bit of a trap. More important than that, however, it that we actually have a map that names all of them. Note Frundsberg’s position. The text states that he was engaging the ‘Black Band’.

The book also goes on to say this:

“In the middle of this carnage the king apparently fought well, until his horse was brought down and he was surrounded by arquebusiers armed with daggers. Lannoy, who by then had returned to the scene, is reputed to have ridden into the fray and rescued the king, defending him at sword point from his own men. French sources disagree, and a number of people claimed the glory of capturing the king.  Whatever the situation, Lannoy was on hand to extricate the king and accompany him to the rear, escorted by files of Neapolitan arquebusiers (probably part of De Vasto’s force).” (Konstam, 73)

Even though there’s some dispute here, it’s likely that Lannoy was at least somewhat near the proceedings.

Thus far, I’ve been avoiding the most obvious piece of this puzzle, which is the tapestry itself. After all, despite what may or may not have happened, in some ways, the tapestry tells its own story, as Van Orley may have had specific people in mind when he created it. Or he may have even elevated certain key figures above others, depending on his own preferences.

RIHA journal gives a superb treatment of the tapestry and it’s associated events here: (https://www.riha-journal.org/articles/2014/2014-oct-dec/paredes-battle-of-pavia)

Down at the bottom, we have this tidbit:

“Most of these commanders are portrayed and identified by inscriptions in the tapestries “

I don’t have these inscriptions, but Thomas Campbell talks a bit about the art in Tapestry and the Renaissance Art and Magnificence

“Description of the Drawing: The preparatory drawing for the Surrender of King Francis...illustrates the key episode in the battle and closely anticipates the structure and appearance of the tapestry (fig. 147). The strongly centralized composition, with the three horsemen looking directly out of the scene, is unique within the series, indicating that it was probably the centerpiece of the whole set. Many of the figures are portraits and some can be identified from the woven inscriptions on the tapestry itself. To the left, King Francis I is helped from his dying horse by Count Nicolas von Salm, commander of the German cavalry.  He is assisted by La Motte de Noyers, captain of the Bourbon cavalry, who fought on the imperial side, and the count of Monmartin. Farther to the left, under the imperial banner...the imperial commander Charles de Lannoy climbs from his horse” (Campbell, 322)

There we have it.

Given how I cannot seem to locate the inscriptions myself, I’m willing to accept the idea that Lannoy is indeed the one we’re looking for. Later on, Campbell adds this:

“Artist: The tapestries were designed by Bernaert van Orley, court painter to Margaret of Austria and later to Mary of Hungary” (Campbell, 328)

If Van Orley is in the employ of the Hapsburg house, I think it’s safe to assume that, barring some strange circumstances I’m not aware of, he wouldn’t have too much reason to intentionally change events as they had unfolded.

I think by this point, we can make a fairly strong argument that Lannoy was the Neapolitan viceroy, was involved in the battle, and is the figure depicted in Van Orley’s tapestry, meaning he is WHOAREYOU. I’d like to cross reference Oman’s book and also check on Frundberg’s accounts to be safe, which I might do if I revisit this post again.

tl;dr I’m pretty sure it’s Charles de Lannoy

(As an interesting tidbit, Campbell mentions that the tapestry set eventually found its way into Pescara’s possesion, which is a pleasant way of tying everything back to where it started, from my point of view at least)

[goblinselfshippr]

Flower themed asks (pls Idk whos blog I collected this from lmk if you do!!)

UPDATE YALL I FOUND THE OP 💜 rose - how many brain cells would you estimate there are between you and your f/o?

One. Maybe two if its a shared interest and we aren’t in public

anemone - in ten words or less, describe the dynamic between you and your f/o.

Wait hold up. Are anemones flowers?? Im googlin… Aw they’re windflowers and buttercups!! I did a learn!

Um ten words or less? -counting fingers- Don’t touch my bean, and no one gets hurt.

dahlia - what song and/or song lyric do you most associate with your f/o?

Okokokokok so I saw somewhere a playlist for Leviathan and the song Match to Water by Pierce the Veil was on there. And I was like Levi would never?? SO I MADE MY OWN AND THAT SONG GOT SUGGESTED FOR MY PLAYLIST OF HIM. And they were right. It is v him. I’m so fucking MAD about it lmfao. So for him ‘Love like a tidal wave’ 💯💯💯

tulip - go to your f/o's wiki page and quote your favorite part of it.

‘Despite being shown to have defined abs, Levi is very out of shape. He can't jump rope and run one lap around the House of Lamentation’ i do not know why this is so funny to me

buttercup - give an incorrect quote of you and your f/o.

I am literally so bad at this, I had to go look up templates rip-

Levi: why are you like this?

Me: mostly for attention.

marigold - what is your favorite picture, video, and/or moment of your f/o?

THE OBEY ME ANIME EPISODE 2 : let that baby wear pretty dresses in PEACE

orchid - is your f/o also your favorite character from their respective media, or is it someone else?

I started the intro and immediately wanted Asmo to adopt me. I just want him to french braid my hair and spill tea w/ me

sunflower - do you make fun of or tease your f/o a lot, or can you not bring yourself to be lovingly mean to them?

I don’t think I’m being lovingly mean to him, but apparently calling your friends bitches, fuckers, and weebs counts as teasing. But other than that I don’t think I am?

zinnia - how often do you think about your f/o? do they live in your head rent free or do you not think about them for months on end before suddenly hyperfixating on them nonstop for a week?

I got pissed off at the game for not giving him enough screen time, and when he did show up he was an asshole to me, and I just wanted to play on the home screen until he loved me. So I went like a year with out thinking about him and then I was like?? Remember weeb boye?? I love him?? And then got mad that all my data was lost, and watched the anime. Now he lives in my head rent free.

lily - what would you say is the color scheme of you and your f/o?

Neon blue, purple and pink, like a tropical or neon love story.

hydrangea - list your full playlist for your f/o.

Its called “me n my fish boyfriend bein cringe”

Fish in the sea

Ba Mhaith Liom Bruion le D‘Athair (which is the gaelic ver of I wanna fight ur father)

Buleria

Cirice

Dance Macabre (carpenter brut remix)

Decode

I’m Not A Vampire (revamped)

Nothing Else Matters

Tír na nÓg

Trooper and the Maid

Yandere

Your Love Is My Drug (bimbo jones remix)

Dúlaman

Scarborough Fair

Streets

Baby Im Jealous

Admiral Benbow

High School Sweethearts

Cyber Sex

Cannibal

Burn the Witch

Lowlands Away

A Match to Water

Can You Feel My Heart

Soap

Animal I Have Become

Dirty Thoughts

SIMP

iris - does your self insert for your f/os source material have a detailed and complex story and character arc, or are they just kinda vibing?

when I first started playing it I didn’t think there was much content for him and his interactions with the other characters, but I think now with the anime and the audio dramas he's a lot more fleshed out. Idk Im still too big mad about my data being gone to replay lol

peony - how many images, gifs, and videos of your f/o do you have saved to your gallery?

Hang on I really need to reorganize my gallery. 120, album is also Titled Fishboyfriend

[ihaterika]

[1]Yes, I was talking about Kyotosomo. Another youtuber is melizbeauty. She is basically a leader of V hating Rika apologists. Her believers even created page for V in villains wiki(it got deleted,of course). She used to be popular in mysme fandom, but now she is considered to be a buffoon by many.

Oh Melizbeauty! I remember when she first started making videos at the begining. I never really watched any of her videos tho because they were all like 40 minutes and I lowkey thought her voice was annoying so I never really watched her and sometimes I get her videos in my recomendations and they usually have titles that sound like crack theories like “Jumin and V BROTHERS?” or something like that so I never saw any reason to watch her.

But to each of the things she has said separately. "We cannot be sure if Rika blinded V". Him and Rika talked multiple times about how V would be fine with Rika blinded him if that would make her happy and unlike other times when he doesn’t want Rika to take the blame for something he does tell Jumin that Rika blinded him (even tho when telling Jumin he claims it was an accident). 

“V never saw Rika as a person, more so like a pretty object he has” I think he saw Rika more as his muse and defiantly went overboard but he still ultimately cared about her enough to get her some help for awhile while they were dating.

“V brainwashed Rika” I can’t even say anything about this one this sounds like a joke to me.

“V is a pedophile and sold child porn of Rika” Rika wasn’t a child and the only dirty pictures he might have taken of her are implied to have never been seen by anyone except V and Rika (and maybe Ray since he sent the flash drive with the photos to V’s house)

“If Rika raped someone, it would be interesting study of mental illness” If anybody raped anybody it would not be an interesting study of mental illness it would be sick.

“Seven is a wizard” I’ve heard that theory is popular and since I don’t know much about the other cheritz’s games I can’t comment on this.

“Rika didn’t abuse Saeran” I mean she didn’t physically abuse him I don’t think but she defiantly mentally abused him and drugged him a lot to keep his mental state fucked up soooooo yeah that’s abuse.

Yeah I’m glad I never watched her than she sound’s a little… I know this is mean and I try not to be mean but she sounds stupid and crazy and with that guest comment she is probably self absorbed. But I’ve only ever watched her Angels of Death comic dubs so I can’t really say much this is just my opinion off of what you just told me. 

Oh and was the guest she referring to the hairdresser? I assume because of the hair.

If she was talking about this guest than that’s even more stupid and self absorbed to assume that is her because this is a very popular hairstyle. She doesn’t own a trademark over this hair. 

Sorry this was long this came to me at a time where I’m not in a good mood. I think I should log off for tonight. 

~Mod Carbink

[pakseoexpert01]

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Keeping your site's substance refreshed and crisp isn't a simple activity to do, it costs both time and cash.

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The crucial every site is extraordinary as is the refreshing prerequisites. You can't anticipate that a corporate blog should be refreshed as frequently as a customary blog or an ordinary blog as regularly as news or sports blog.

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Sports/Fashion/Celebrity/Tech/Lifestyle/Financial/Newspaper/Magazines

In this classification, I included sites or online journals that manage inclining points.

For these sites refreshing with new data a few times each day is essential for their prosperity.

There is no restriction on the number of updates and for the most part the more the better. The vast majority of their visits are originating from rehashing guests, online networking and Google news.

Postings are typically short and to the point and contain a great deal of pictures.

Typical Websites/Blogs

This class incorporates online journals like the one you are understanding at this point. As such sites that give evergreen substance (content that stays important for an extensive stretch of time).

In this class, you hope to discover self-improvement online journals, how-to-style sites, educational sites, wiki, advertising, weight reduction, ponders, examination, travel tips, surveys and some more.

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Corporate Website/Blog

These are business sites that feature an organization and the items/administrations it is advertising.

They are among the most troublesome sorts of sites to refresh much of the time in light of the fact that once the underlying arrangement has been made and data about the organization is distributed, you don't have anything helpful to distribute.

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• Investment organization – Articles on everything identified with the budgetary part, from economy news to speculation counsel.  

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These are only a couple of models that exhibit that a blog can fit in practically any specialty and industry.

What you need is out of the case thoughts and assets to execute blogging accurately.

A similar distributing 'rules' apply like ordinary sites, for example refreshing can be 2-3 times each week.

Why most corporate websites fizzle: I have blogged ordinarily about corporate web journals and why they come up short and in spite of the fact that this isn't the center point of this article, I will make reference to in outline the most widely recognized disappointment reasons:

• Not apportioning enough assets to make it work (both cash and time).

• Lack of valuable, extraordinary and instructive substance.

• A wrong decision of the blogging stage.

• Not estimating the adequacy and ROI from blogging.

• Not giving it sufficient opportunity.

• The bad decision of article titles.

• Not doing what's needed watchword look into.

Internet business Store

Content showcasing is one of the most proficient approaches to advance your online store and it isn't surprisingly troublesome.

Let me diagram a few models on how substance refreshing can function for an internet business site.

Envision that you have your web-based business site completely stacked with your items.

For every item, you have a portrayal, surveys, and pictures. What would you be able to distribute in your web-based business blog?

• Articles/Videos on the most proficient method to utilize your items

• Detailed item audits

• Reviews looking at comparative items

• Articles that are in a roundabout way identified with your specialty. For instance, on the off chance that you are selling wedding bands, you can give blog entries identified with weddings, how to propose and so forth

• Announcement about new items, changes to existing items

• Announcements about unique offers and up and coming occasions

How frequently would it be advisable for you to refresh your internet business blog? The appropriate response is straightforward when you have new HIGH QUALITY substance to distribute.

For a web-based business site, you should be mindful so as not to drive potential clients away yet to give them the content that they need.

In the event that you can do this on a successive premise that is far better however I know for a fact this is difficult to do.

The most effective method to refresh your site all the more regularly.

Build up a consistent everyday practice – It is imperative to set up a distributing methodology and stick to it. Having a reasonable system with respect to when you should post will assist you with building your timetable, your activity plan and cutoff times. In the event that you leave it open, at that point most likely you will defer it with the main trouble.

What do your perusers need? – Put yourself in the situation of your perusers and think in the event that you might want to get content all the more much of the time. On the off chance that you are distributing long, educational articles regularly do you feel this is something your perusers might want to peruse for a long time?

Check your measurements – Test various situations of two or three weeks and look at your insights to discover if increasingly visit distributing is advantageous.

Compose your posts ahead of time – As similarly significant as building up a distributing system is the arrangement of your posts ahead of time. What I for the most part do is have 2-3 presents in front of the timetable on the guarantee that I won't miss my objectives.

Remember about the 80/20 principle – Do not overlook that 80% of your substance online will never get the consideration it merits. This is the means by which the Internet works because of the tremendous challenge so think well how you need to invest your energy.

[jerepars]

The Con Extended Chapter Notes

Hyperlinks appear in blue (underlined on mobile). The story is posted here. Direct link to this chapter is here.

> “Look, it’s not like you’d really be dating me or be with me or whatever,” he began. “It’s just…see, you’re trying too hard.”

> “I’m offended,” I mumbled, already full of regret for even granting him a minute to waste. “Trying too hard at what?”

> “To impress Jughead,” Archie said it like it should’ve already been obvious to me. “Basic human instinct is that we’re attracted to the people who don’t try too hard.”

When I began writing this chapter, I looked for scenes that are dialogue heavy for Archie because that’s what I’ve gotten used to doing for Jughead. Even if it’s the same dialogue over and over again from the 13 episodes we’ve currently got. I feel like the way Jughead speaks is very distinct so his dialogue is always the toughest to write. If I can’t hear it in his (Cole’s) voice in my head, then I don’t think it’s the right dialogue.

Turns out that’s pretty much a Jughead-only problem.

I kept watching clips of Archie/KJ speaking and the parameters are...wide open. It’s easier. So bless Archie Andrews for that.

I have my own ideas about the persona I want Archie to take on in this story. In the second part of the chapter, Archie is described as clueless, unreliable, a fuckboy, a jock, a frat guy. I don’t think that’s anything new, and yes, those things will hold true in the story. But that’s just Archie on the surface. Because he is very involved in this story, I want to be able to look beyond the conceit that he projects and see his depth.

So with that in mind, it made me think of Beaver, a minor character from the ABC Family show Greek. He’s portrayed as this big dumb frat guy. But when it comes to explaining to Casey why Cappie and Evan can’t be friends in 4x04 (1:40 to 2:48), he acts as if it should be obvious. He says, "this is some pretty basic stuff". So in that scene, in that episode, it’s revealed that there is more to Beaver than meets the eye, there’s something beneath the surface.

I’m not sure if any of this makes sense without knowing the context of the episode or the plot of the show. But this is what inspired Archie’s persona at this point in my story, when he is presenting the plan to Betty, like it’s simple matter of fact.

> “It wouldn’t be as much a game as much as it would be a…a…a con,” Archie found the right word and then added, “and besides, can’t I just be a nice guy trying to help?”

> “No,” I said blatantly. “A proposition such as yours has to have some quid pro quo laced in it somewhere.”

> “Quid what now? I don’t know even know what that means.” Archie let go of my arm and put both his palms against the couch cushion and leaned back in place, against the empty air. The playful expression left his face. “Look, Betty, I really do want to help. My girlfriend and I broke up this summer and I’m still processing it. I feel like I need to be doing more than just writing breakup songs. I could use a project.”

> I had no idea that Archie Andrews had such a heavy heart.

I was thinking about how on the show, especially in the early episodes, Betty and Jughead both consider Archie to be their best friend. Even when this kid hurts them, wrongs them, they give him chances to get back in their good graces again. That begs the question of why to me.

The answer to that question didn't come to me immediately as I thought back on all of the rewatching of season 1 that I've done. It did become clearer when I went through the Archie clips. I think it's pretty subtle, buried in the shuffle of all the blatantly difficult things that happen to everyone else. In 1x02, Jughead confronts Archie about Ms. Grundy and talks about the Archie that he used to know (1:35 to 1:48), who always tried to do the right thing. And that's it--that's who Archie is, he's a nice guy that tries hard (even though he falls short sometimes...a lot of the time). He wants to do the right thing and be helpful.

I think Archie gets typecast as a "bad" guy in a lot of stories because of the way he breaks Betty's heart or because of how oblivious he is or how he loves girls, loves being in love with these girls, and/or goes from girl to girl. I guess I want to get away from him being the "bad" guy. I want to highlight why he is actually a good friend to these characters. I'm always cheering for Betty and Jughead. Of course I am. In this story, I'm cheering for Archie, too.

...this is probably another one of those things that might not make sense or seem important until much later in the story.

Possibly worth mentioning: the part where Archie says "Quid what now?" is my version of Archie saying "wait, the what now?" from the diner scene in 1x07 (2:30 to 2:45).

> Three eggs were yellowed and lightly simmering on the frying pan when I heard the knock at the door. It was just past seven in the morning, a few hours before I had to be at the dance studio. There were two parts to each dance production during the ballet season: rehearsal weeks and performance weeks. During rehearsal weeks, all the dancers in the company—principals, soloists, corps members, and apprentices alike—participated in about an hour of ballet class before a break for lunch and then rehearsal. Rehearsal times were staggered and divided up according to dance scene. But class was always at the same time every morning.

I don't know what time the Joffrey Ballet's company class is during their rehearsal weeks, but there's this series about the New York City Ballet, and in this clip about the corps de ballet (6:00 to 6:10), one of the dancers mentions that he has to be at work at 10:30 every morning. If you watch the video, I should warn you that he seems kind of entitled and whiny (I'd love to not be at work until 10:30; and when he says that he's working his body, what exactly does he think people who do manual labor do every day?), but it's the only video I found that mentions a time, and that was helpful to writing the details of the daily routine as Betty describes in the paragraph.

> For the autumn program, Giselle, a very popular classical romantic ballet, would be staged by the Joffrey for the very first time, and I had made the first cast. I would be in one scene—the Peasant pas de deux, a common interpolation piece for big companies that did productions of Giselle. I would be dancing with my pas de deux partner, Trev Brown, for the better part of nine minutes, but we also had two variations each within that time frame. Since it would be my first time in a soloist’s role for the company, I had a lot to perfect over the next several weeks.

Using Giselle as the production for the autumn program is carry over from Shell Games. It took me so long to figure out what ballet and what pas de deux would be reasonable to use for that story. What Betty says here is true--this season, the Joffrey Ballet is premiering Giselle. I already knew that I wanted this story to be set in Chicago and when I saw that, it was solidified. There is more about pas de deux and the Peasant pas de deux past this chapter. This is just scratching the surface so that the dance part of her life is dispersed throughout the story instead of hitting you over the head with it all at once.

There is a great in-depth background and synopsis of Giselle right here.You can also check the Wikipedia page if you're interested.

The Peasant pas de deux is an interpolation piece between scene 13 and 14 during Act I of Giselle. Interpolations are additional dances inserted into a ballet that were not part of the original composition. As Betty says, big ballet companies (Joffrey is big) include interpolations.

Variations are small solo dances, usually between 1-2 minutes. Betty mentions that she and Trev have two variations each. There is technically only one female variation in the Peasant pas de deux, but some productions have an interpolation within the Peasant pas de deux interpolation, adding a second female variation.

For Betty, I went with the Peasant pas de deux that includes the second female variation. If you want to know what Betty and Trev's dance might look like, you can check out this excerpt from Giselle done by the Bolshoi Ballet here.

> “Betty, stop. Eat.” Jughead stressed the last verb. “I don’t want to be held responsible for any sort of injury if you miss the count on your pirouettes because you didn’t get enough breakfast, just so that you could be polite. Don’t worry about me. I’m meeting up with JB soon. She said something about breakfast burritos.”

I've been listening to I Am the Avalanche's self-titled album a lot while writing this story. Part of "New Disaster" goes: Don't play that game 'cause I can't be held responsible / For any sort of injuries / I don't wanna hear it. I almost named the story New Disaster because in pulling a con, there is a game being played. Possibly injurious to something other than the physical body? I didn't go with that as the title, but here is my ode to it anyway. Snippets from other songs on this album might work their way into the story as well.

> As a member of the Joffrey Ballet, there were certain things afforded to me (and my fellow company members) as per the terms negotiated by the American Guild of Musical Artists, the labor union I belonged to. A supply of custom pointe shoes to my specifications, twice-weekly physical therapy, paid vacation and sick days, a 401K, that sort of thing. But maybe the most important thing I had access to was counseling. Joffrey had a resident psychologist and every Friday I made it downtown early before class for my standing appointment.

From that same series as the video about the corps de ballet, here is one about custom pointe shoes for company members of NYCB. I don't know exactly what being a member of AGMA covers for ballet dancers (obviously, how could I know, right?). I would imagine that it varies from company to company depending on the negotiations with that company. I know that for most big ballet companies in the US, the dancers are unionized by AGMA. I know that the dancers at Joffrey are part of AGMA. The fact that I took it upon myself to figure this out is like a reminder of how stupidly obsessive my research is. All I really wanted to do was make it feasible for the company to have a resident psychologist.

> Ballet would never just be a normal, steady job that could be turned off after 5 PM. What we did wasn’t ‘normal’ and it was all encompassing of our lives. I thought that ballet lent itself to a lot of mental barriers to get stuck on: whether or not we had the right body type, if we were on the right diet, if we were going to get promoted, if an injury was going to end everything for us, if we could even have healthy relationships—healthy anything—when we were so focused on the pursuit of perfection for our art.

There are a lot of articles about the psychological effects of ballet. I thought it only right to mention some of those issues. It was reading about the resident psychologist at Atlanta Ballet that made me feel like I even could.

> I wouldn’t have changed anything about my experience on the way to making the corps de ballet, on the way to where I thought I was still headed onwards and upwards in the company, because it had shaped me to have thick skin and become mentally tough. I just wished I’d been counseled even before I’d gotten my apprenticeship. I wished I’d talked to Dr. Donahue earlier and heard her encouraging words and integrated the coping skills that she promoted, back in the days of my adolescence. Dr. Donahue had been a ballet dancer herself, a former corps member with Boston Ballet. So she got it, what it was like for us, where the psychological blocks were, and how our lives were affected by ballet beyond the studios of Joffrey Tower and the stage of the Auditorium Theatre.

I mentioned Joffrey Tower in the notes for the previous chapter when talking about Betty's commute, but this is the first time it is actually mentioned in the story.

Joffrey Tower houses the rehearsal space for the Joffrey Ballet.

I think there's some misconception that Joffrey Ballet performances take place at the Chicago Theater because of its close proximity:

But the resident home of the Joffrey Ballet is actually the Auditorium Theatre. I got to go to an event there once and the architecture is absolutely beautiful.

> Friday mornings were an important maintenance day for me so that I didn’t capsize before the weekend. I didn’t elaborate why to Jughead as he stood in my kitchen. I continued preparing my food so I could stick to my schedule and get out of the apartment on time to walk to the bus stop at a casual pace rather than sprinting my way there. I liked to be early.

After reading this chapter, I think it's pretty clear why the story is called The Con. One thing that hasn't been made clear yet is the song it's named after, "The Con" by Tegan and Sara, the title track of their 2007 album. One of the lines in the song goes I'm capsized, staring on the edge of safe. That's why there is mention of capsizing in this paragraph. In the video chapter for the recording of this song, Tegan and Sara talk about how there can be different interpretations to the word itself, con (4:00 to 5:27).

And that's what I like about it. That's why I think it was the right title to go with, because it has a bunch of different meanings, not solely because of the con that Betty and Archie are working.

con (verb): persuade (someone) to do or believe something, typically by use of a deception.

con (noun): an instance of deceiving or tricking someone.

con (noun): a disadvantage.

con (noun): a convict.

con (verb): study attentively or learn by heart (a piece of writing).

> “He’s pretty much a clueless frat boy with fuckboy tendencies.” Jughead’s exact words were a little funny, but calculated and deliberate. I knew he didn’t describe Archie that way to be mean, but rather, for what he thought was my benefit. “I don’t know if you can trust him to not let you down. His lack of a poker face is endearing but…he’s kind of oblivious. Not the most reliable.”

Speaking of different kinds of cons...this piece of Jughead's dialogue is inspired by the Comic Con trailer for season 2 where Jughead tells Archie that his utter lack of a poker face is what makes him so endearing.

> Jughead took off his beanie to run a hand through his dark hair. An unruly lock curled over his forehead. A sigh came as he repositioned the hat on his head and spoke again, “Look, you and I are…we’re friends, right? Obviously because you’re Chic’s little sister but not only because of that. We’ve been around each other, sort of, for practically our whole lives. I should care about what happens to you. I think I should be looking out for you.”

Before I wrote in Jughead wearing the beanie in the first chapter, I thought about whether it was still appropriate for him to be wearing it in this AU. All the pictures and scenes from the show without "this stupid hat" suggest that, no, non-canon Jughead does not ever need to be wearing the hat so that the curl can attack us at all times.

And then I found the perfect instance in the story for him to be without it. So it stayed. And it's going to be so good when he has to take it off.

I can't stop laughing at the writing decisions I find myself conflicted over these days.