#why yes i'm normal why do you ask?

[fictionallyinparadise]

Cute date idea: Scout teaching me how to take a man's kneecaps with a baseball bat

[mortalfaerie]

i can flesh this out with a longer post later but watching gravity falls as an adult, with the knowledge of ford and stan's history from the get go, it just hits different.

like, i'm jewish. i also come from a immigrant, slavic, ashkenazi family with plenty of just-below-the-surface inter generational conflict. you can really read ford and stan's stories as being different ways children (and especially, in immigrant families) react to that conflict and pressure. ford is a compulsive overachiever meant to be his family's "ticket out" of poverty. stan can't live up to his family's expectations and becomes estranged, perpetually running to and from something. bill is the promise of something better that ends up being too good to be true and ruining ford's relationships with everyone. (read that as alcohol, drugs, what have you) he is the literal manifestation of that trauma.

dipper and mabel are several generations removed but still wary of that conflict that looms over them like a specter. but they break the cycle of trauma by learning to trust in eachother, and help their family to heal. the literal manifestation of inter generational trauma is defeated when the family is reconciled and works together. they are stronger together than they are apart.

and in the end it's not too late for stan and ford. it's not too late to heal, to grow, to start again. it's never too late. there's still time.

[apollos-boyfriend]

if the dsmp had a ost slime's theme would start by taking fragments from quackity's leitmotif but eventually develop into his own individual piece to represent his growth and taking back his own autonomy. btw. and purpled's theme would start as its own individual piece but slowly assimilate parts of quackity's leitmotif to represent how, in the end, he was quackity's perfect student and how they are two sides of the same coin. btw.

[buthappysoverrated]

[writedreamlie]

You've heard of

Now get ready for

AND GUESS WHAT ELSE IT DOES

Happy 20th Dannyversary!!

[if-we-are-free-tell-me-why]

every time I hear someone say "oh you have to listen to Dear Evan Hansen it has such good mental health representation" I cry in Next to Normal

[eri-pl]

My dear mutuals, I just realized something.

So, there's been talk recently about breaking Papita out of Mandos and I suppose more of us may need help at some point... but we need one fundamental thing if we are to be able to save one another from some terrible prison (or, idk, recognize each other in a supermarket...):

we need to have a song in common

Like, seriously, the default scheme for breaking someone out from somewhere is: character A start singing, character joins them, character A finds character B and gets them out. Except...

I'm not sure there's any song I could sing together with any of you.

We need to make a list of songs that we all know well enough. Seriously.

[nomnomroko]

more legacy things

[nostalgia-tblr]

I feel like anyone who's about to embark on attempting to type out a character's accent phoentically (at least as well as one can with English) should probably stop for a moment before they get going and ask themselves, "How would I, myself, feel about a fic where the one character who sounds like me had their speech written out like this and every other character just got their dialogue left in standard spelling?" I feel like a lot of people would tone it down a bit, at least, if they'd done that thought experiment first.

(Anyone who answered "but I don't have an accent!" isn't allowed to write out anyone else's accent, ever. This rule may seem harsh but you need it. Really, you do. Because you've never had anyone treat your accent as abnormal or comical or wrong, so you really don't know what you're inflicting on others here.)

[smolghostbot]

Unlucky Clover

... Yeah I wasn't getting to sleep until I posted this. It's been a rough two days, so enjoy the combination of my two Normal brain cells, size scenarios and vampires.

Word Count: 2.1k

CWs: pretty heavy fearplay, and it’s a sizey story with a vampire, obviously mouthplay/vore energy

=====

The snow began to fall, and Clover quickly ran towards the nearby human house. Luckily, she had plenty of provisions, but she needed to escape the cold quickly or she’d freeze in this weather. As she entered the house through a hole in the siding, she was pleased to discover that it appeared to be heated, and even the space between the walls was warmed thanks to the insulation. As she sat down and curled up for warmth, waiting for her body to recover, she came to a decision that this house would be the perfect new base until the spring.

-

It was early in the evening when Nix noticed that they weren’t alone in their house. It was easy for them to smell the scent of fresh blood, but this was no pack of mice… this blood was human. Following the scent lead to a random wall, against the outside of the house. Perhaps somebody was laying against the siding? thought Nix, but it was far too cold for them to bother checking. Besides, they could wait a few more days before their next meal.

-

It took three days for Nix to finally spot the little intruder. They hardly believed their eyes as they saw her running behind their furniture. At first, they thought it was some kind of hallucination, but the scent confirmed that it was definitely real. It seemed like they had a borrower setting up shop in their house.

-

It had been two weeks, but Nix had finally spotted the little nuisance again. For the last two weeks, small objects had been disappearing around their house, which they could only conclude was due to their little “housemate”. When they saw her, the little intruder was scurrying towards a hole in the wall, holding a few hair clips in her arms as she ran.

“You know, you’re not very good at sneaking,” said Nix, a playful tone in their voice. They saw the borrower’s spine tingle, before she ran even faster into the hole in the wall.

-

It took Clover a few days to work up the nerve to leave again after that incident. This human seemed to be… more nocturnal than most humans, waking up at sunset and going to sleep before the sunrise. Clover had heard of a “night shift” job, and figured this human must have one.

There were a few other oddities as well, including the human’s distinct lack of food in their pantry, but that wasn’t enough to deter Clover. After all, she was an outdoor borrower, she was able to go out and forage for enough food to last her.

It was almost sunrise, and Clover knew the human was probably on their way to sleep. She just needed some fabric, and she knew the human had dropped a sock behind the dryer a few days ago. All she had to do was get to the laundry room and grab it and she’d have the material for a perfect winter coat.

Making sure that the human was out of the room, she began her trek, moving along the walls of the dark house. She got most of the way through the hallway, in an area with nowhere to hide, before the worst possible thing happened.

There was a moment as Clover stared fearfully at the human, taking in their appearance. This human was pale, that was the first thing she noticed. Their eyes were a bright red, almost seeming to glow, but surely that was just a trick of the light. They wore casual pajamas, just a baggy shirt and short pants, a far cry from the nice suits or dresses the human would normally wear before going out. After what felt like both seconds and years, the human spoke again, the second time they had spoken to the borrower.

“You.”

Clover was thrown off-guard as the human seemed to move at a superhuman speed, wrapping both of their giant hands around the borrower. Cold, was the first thought Clover had. Perhaps the human had been outside recently? No, that wasn’t right. Nothing was right here. Clover stared at the human fearfully as they began to speak.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here? If it isn’t the little thief who’s been running around my house.”

As they spoke, Clover stared, wide-eyed, as she finally noticed the gigantic canine teeth of their captor. It was all starting to click… this wasn’t the house of a human at all…

“What’s wrong, little thief? Cat got your tongue? Or are you incapable of speaking?”

Clover blinked back to attention. Speaking to humans was expressly forbidden… but Clover was never one for rules.

“I… can speak…” hesitantly murmured the borrower, almost too quiet for a human to hear. However, at this point she knew she was talking to no ordinary human.

“Ah!” exclaimed Nix, a clear teasing tone in their voice, “It’s intelligent after all. Well, as intelligent as somebody can be when they break into the home of a vampire.”

Vampire. Clover had known it to be true, but to hear it out loud made her skin crawl. She had heard legends of vampires, humans given a thirst for blood in exchange for immortality. It was said that vampires needed to kill dozens of humans a year to quench their thirst… and humans had a lot more blood than borrowers did.

Nix quickly interrupted the borrower's thoughts as they continued to speak. “Please, I know I’m quite attractive, but surely you know it’s rude to stare,” teased Nix, as they moved the borrower to a single hand, holding the borrower ever closer to their mouth, grinning wide with their fangs out.

“I… I… I…” was all Clover could stutter, as she stared in fear as the gigantic fangs, each one half the size of the small borrower.

“Oh? It seems like the little thief found her voice again. What were you saying?” said Nix, as they moved the borrower even closer.

“I… d-didn’t know…” spoke Clover, who was starting to tremble from fear. From this close, she could smell the faint metallic scent coming from the vampire’s mouth.

“You didn’t know? Didn’t know what, little thief?”

“I didn’t know… you were… a v-v-v…” Clover stammered fearfully.

“Oh! A vampire! Is that what you’re trying to say? It’s so hard to understand you with that stutter of yours,” spoke Nix, playfully poking Clover’s nose (or rather, her whole face) with the index finger of their free hand.

Clover could only nod, her voice caught in her throat. As Nix began to laugh, Clover recoiled back, pressing her body against the far side of the vampire’s tight grip.

“I… I d-didn’t know…” repeated Clover, as if in shock. “A-are you… g-going to kill me?"

“Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter what you knew or didn’t, because now you’re here, in the hands of a vampire,” said Nix, a devious smile still plastered on their face.

“Y-you didn’t an-” Clover went to speak again, but was swiftly interrupted by the vampire as they continued mocking the borrower.

“I’ll be honest with you… you smell absolutely delicious, you little thief,” continued Nix, their tone playful yet predatory. “You know, it’s been a week or so since I’ve fed… and while you certainly aren’t a meal, you’d surely be a good little snack…” said Nix, as Clover trembled in fear, staring at the fangs which may soon rip her apart.

This is it, thought Clover. I’m going to die.

“Maybe if I had enough of you… tell me, little one, you wouldn't have any friends nearby, would you?” asked the vampire. They knew the answer, but wanted to hear this intruder admit it. As Clover fearfully shook her head, Nix continued, “Ah, a shame then. I guess you really are all alone, huh? Just you and me, here in this house… far from anyone who could hear you…”

Finally, Clover regained her composure just enough to speak just one simple statement, voice soft and weak as tears welled in her eyes. “I… d-don’t want to die…”

At this, Nix stared at Clover, continuing to grin that sharp grin as their glowing red eyes looked at their captive. They adjusted their grip on the borrower, holding her between their index finger and thumb, which was still enough to keep her completely unable to escape.

“Don’t worry, my dear, it will only hurt for a moment” cooed the vampire, as if soothing a child about to get a needle. They slowly, deliberately raised the now-sobbing borrower to their mouth, bringing her right up to their fang, close enough that the borrower could reach out and touch it. As Clover cowered, she heard the vampire vocalize, a sound which shook their entire mouth, including the borrower now inside it.

“Hmmmm…”

And then, before she knew it, Clover was brought out of the vampire’s mouth, and dangled in front of their eyes by her leg. She would shout in pain, if she had any fight left in her. Instead, she could only stare at the giant red eye in front of her, waiting to see what was happening.

“You know, I was hoping for a little more fight out of you. No yelling, screaming, not even kicking? Just going to lie back and accept your fate, huh?”, said the vampire, in an almost casual tone, a far cry from their tone only seconds ago.

Clover could only continue to wordlessly stare at the vampire’s eye, unsure what they wanted her to say.

“You know, I’ve seen a lot of different reactions to my little games. Begging, pleading, fighting. But you? One weak little ‘I d-don’t want to die’”, Nix said, imitating the borrower’s voice with extreme precision, “and then you just cower. Is that just how you little things are? Ready to accept death at the slightest threat?”

“N-n-no…” was all Clover could say, forcing the word out of her mouth.

“N-n-no” mimicked the vampire, again perfectly mirroring the little borrower’s voice before rolling their eyes and speaking again in their own voice, “Seriously, you have to work on that stutter, my dear, it makes you sound even more pathetic than you already are.”

Dangling by her leg, tears stinging her eyes, and face-to-face with a monster that was now mocking her, the little borrower became almost completely unresponsive. Nix shook their little captive around, before continuing. “You know, if you’re going to be this boring, it makes me wonder if you’re even worth the effort to kill. I was expecting a little more of a thrill than this, weren’t you?”

Clover didn’t respond, until Nix shook her again, their voice growing more firm, “I asked you a question. Weren’t you expecting a little more of a thrill?”

“Y-yes… I mean, n-no…” said Clover, reignited with fear after hearing the change in the vampire’s tone.

“Well, that answer tells me nothing. You know what? You’re officially no fun. Do you know what that means?” asked Nix, that familiar devious grin on their face. Clover desperately tried to hide her face from the vampire, only to be shocked when she found herself being lowered to the ground. After being released, roughly landing on her shoulder blades before flipping around, Clover could only stare up at the vampire, wondering what her fate would be, before Nix spoke again.

“It means that I want you out of my sight. Now.” spoke Nix, though there was still a hint of playfulness in their voice. “Well? Are you waiting for me to pick you back up, or are you going to go scurry away somewhere?”

Clover was... confused. She had just accepted her death at the hands, or rather mouth, of a vampire, and now she was being set free? Despite her better judgment, she fearfully asked a question, taking a moment to compose herself so as not to stutter.

“You’re… not going to kill me?”

Nix leaned down and grinned before replying, “Hm? Did you want me to?”

“N-no, no, I just…”

Nix waved their hand dismissively before replying, “You have until I wake up to get the hell out of my house. After that, you’re fair game. Now scram, and think twice before stealing people’s things again, you pest!”

Clover wasted no time scrambling to her feet and starting to back away fearfully. “Y-yes sir, uh, ma’am, uh…”

“The more you stutter on, the more I’m regretting letting you go,” Nix said, as they turned around and began walking towards their bedroom. “And you don’t want me to regret this.”

Clover understood the message loud and clear, as she ran to her little hidey-hole and quickly packed only the essentials for her expedition to find a new place to live. The outdoors would prove challenging this time of year, but surely it was better than staying with a vampire.

-

Nix chuckled as they entered their bedroom. By now, the little pest was probably down the block. To think, she thought they would eat her. While Nix was a vampire, they’d never drain somebody dry, even a little thief like that. What kind of mindless beast did she take them for? Regardless, hopefully they had given her a good scare, and a lesson on being more sneaky when borrowing. After all, not everybody would be as kind as they were…

[risingshards]

Spring 2024 anime review!

It's time for my annual anime season review! I had a lot more shows to watch this season than last, which at times got a bit hectic! It's not quite done yet but it's done enough that I think I can put this up. Warning: Long post incoming where I ramble about the many anime shows I watched and personal reflection about how Going Through It™ affected my watching.

Laid Back Camp Season 3: My fav of the season, I'm obsessed with these camping girlies and any more time with them is always a treat. The combo of the suspension bridge arc with the wacky over the top arc is a fun jarring one, and the last trip was so sweet. Rin and Nadeshiko felt even gayer this season which is impressive, they're the most girlfriends to me, Chiaki and Aoi too (or maybe I should just ship full camping polycule???) It was only a few second scenes too but I love that they added Aya into the later arcs as well. I've been in a rough place mentally for a while and it kicked into a new gear this summer, so the comfort vibes of the show hit differently. I'm a super anxious person so chill times where everything is OK is such a nice escape from the world. Shout out to the OP/ED for being my favs this season! Also highly recommend both sub and dub, because the dub cast is SOOOO good once more. Celeste Perez is so fantastic as Rin, and Morgan Laure Garrett does an incredible performance as Nadeshiko. The whole cast is so great I could ramble on and on about them.

Whisper Me a Love Song: Not technically done yet as eps 11 and 12 are delayed, but in spite of the production woes this one has my heart this season in that "I love the manga and am happy to see this animated, I am hyperfixated, and warts and all I love watching it and get way way WAYYYY too sensitive about it seriously chiral go touch grass instead of having anxiety attacks about an anime" kind of way. The voice cast is SO perfect and everyone fits their characters so well and it's a treat to see the manga adapted. Himari and Yori's fluffy relationship was so sweet and I teared up a lot at their big moments. My beloved Aki got so many delicious angsty scenes while also showing her as not a bad person, just someone who's caught up in a crush while heartbroken about her true love leaving her (a true love that she didn't even realize was true love). Speaking about that true love, Shiho getting to be a feral cat storming into the proceedings is a treat, and I love that we get to see her earlier in the anime than in the manga.

The downsides ofc are the production that delayed two of the episodes, and now has the last two pushed to a later date, and my big qualm is the festival getting skipped over (well still kinda animated in the visual comic they released with the voice actors doing great on it), that's a bummer. I can see structurally what they were going for, 6 eps for Himari/Yori and 6 eps for the very popular Aki/Shiho storyline, and having the 'lost' ep voice acted helps a bit. But ughghggh even with all that...IDK it's still my babg and they're my babygorls so I'm rooting for 11 and 12 to be really great and for me to not engage with any fandom discussion about it LOL. Like I said this one had my heart this season, and when something latches onto your heart like that, I think it's good to cherish that a bit.

Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night: I heard the buzz a few episodes in about this and was hooked pretty quickly. The animation quality was great, I adored the characters, and I loved the queerness in it with the nonbinary talks, trans yakuza ladie, the kiss, and while I wish they went more in on the romance, we still got a lot of queerness that I don't want to count out. It's another case where I really need to disengage with what people think about something when it's special to me (that might be the moral of the season, honestly). My big downside for this is it got a little too stressful for me, the big fight towards the end of the show kept me up at night. I might be going through it pretty bad if watching anime does that to me BUT we stay silly.

Train to the End of the World: I didn't realize until I saw a post about it like yesterday that this had the same director as Kill la Kill and Gurren Lagann and in hindsight yeah that tracks. This was such a wild ride, I love a good journey story and this scratched that itch well. A group of girls go on a weird, hilarious, and heartfelt journey via train through a bizarre world? It made me really want to write a journey story. Funniest show of the season by far, crazy visuals, fun action, each episode being a strange little journey on its own helped the vibe.

The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio: This was a really cute one, bubbly gyaru x stoic girlie is a fun dynamic. Going by the structure, I assume this was the first 3 light novels adapted, since each arc was 4 eps IIRC. I hope the light novels get translated here because I'd love to see where the story goes next. My downside to this is this one also got STRESSFUL stressful in that like social kind of way as the main duo deals with stalkers, assholes online, shitty voice directors (I hope that voice director that was giving Yasumi a hard time gets super fired in season 2) and that took away from the fluff at times. Still was a definite highlight of the season.

Nijiyon Animation 2: Maybe even weirder than the first season, I was really glad to get more of this one, weekly 3 minute adventures of a wacky gay harem really is good for the soul. I love the vibe of like "yeah we're doing this premise this week let's just go with it" that a lot of the episodes had. Do Season 3 cmon!

Vexations of a Shut in Vampire Princess dub: I am a big stan for Vexations, and this dub has not disappointed so far (I think just one or two episodes to go for it), VERY well cast with Brittney Karbowski (of Railgun fame) putting in a STELLAR performance as Komari, showcasing all the facets of Komari's personality, like her spoiled bratty princess side, her anxious about being plopped into a dire situation side, the theater kid performance that helps her through this, and many other sides, it's really fantastic work by her. Vill, Sakuna, and Millicent are standouts as well (every Millicent scene I needed to pause afterwards because wow 🥵).

I also watched the back half of Dungeon Meshi (which is so big rn that I feel like I don't know what to add? It's great!), the new Spice and Wolf which was nice, Bartender: Glass of God which was VERY chill, and a coworker friend rec'd Condition Called Love, but I did not really enjoy that one.

All in all despite the bumpy road, I was really happy with this season and got SO much yuri. I do still need to watch Girls Band Cry and will rectify that soon, I just had way too many shows to watch at once.

Next season I am mainly looking forward to My Deer Friend Nokotan, and started watching Suicide Squad Isekai mainly for the ED lol. Next season big goal also: Chiral touches grass and her hypersensitive ass stops getting so worried about what other people think of the anime she watches and to just enjoy the anime hyperfixation while it's in full swing like this.

[name-less-things]

I've recently returned to reading Eleceed and rediscovered why I like the characters I like.

Specifically a certain wet cat named Sucheon.

Like look at this precious boy. (blood under the cut)

Isn't he cute and very much mentally okay?

Totally not in dire need of therapy and healing?

Because you are too damn short to be acting the way you do

Seems the abuse did more than shorten your temper, lil man💀

It's been several chapters why are you still a hating ass bitch.

[eightyfours]

YOU'RE ALRIGHT, LARUSSO! GOOD MATCH.

The Karate Kid, dir. John G. Avildsen (1984)

[coolboxofcandy]

Reading OP and ED lyrics for the 50th time: understanding Japanese language is a blessing and a curse.

Like, I'm maybe not really that good with language, but I get it, I get what they're saying, but how do I properly explain it?...

I'm also probably overthinking this and I'm completely wrong, so I'll just wait for the episode, but if I got it right I'll be yelling

[goldnhourwrites]

yall i really, really was not expecting to become a kayn stan. when heartsteel first dropped i was like "ok. yone and k'sante. that's what i'm here for i've picked my faves" NOPE. shieda kayn has hit me like a bus.

[3dprintcess]

The mystery of the TM House peephole.

Seems to have been added at some time between recording s18's tasks at the house, and September 2024 (when Al Murray took a photo at the house). Today's taskmastereducation video from Alex drew our attention to it!

Wonder why they've added a peephole so late.