#worst possible time for posting but it is what it is

[rackmount-official-my-ass]

Heyo, I feel you. I'm a boots-on-the-ground server tech for a hyperscaler and I had a breakdown a couple years back while working Possibly The Worst new region deployment we've ever done, worse than the time we hired randos off the street to run fiber (or so I'm told). I learned a lot on that project, but with some company culture caveats. I think you know a lot of this post already, please forgive me for writing out everything I'm thinking for the benefit of other readers :-)

At my employer, the first thing I had to adjust to was using the phrase "not my job". I was fresh out of school and very used to ten years of doing group projects by myself. The idea that I should let someone else be responsible for part of a task was just preposterous. But that's the hard reality:

if it's not in my job description (these are laid out formally for performance evaluations), then it's not my task

if it's not a part of my role, I likely won't have the ACL permissions to complete part of it

I should escalate to any managers who are responsible for the project

There's multiple styles of escalation too:

Chat outside of ticket: very informal, only do with low-urgency tasks and with people you trust to get back to you in a timely fashion

Email: We don't really escalate via email very often here, mostly with external partners. Decent paper trail but still less reliable than a ticket log

Ping inside ticket: Moderately formal, but still only appropriate for low-urgency questions imo

Reassign the ticket: Formal, hard documentation of shift in responsibility along with timeline, use in urgent situations and/or when you don't have much faith in the new assignee responding any time soon. You can then hit the ticket with requests for updates, demonstrating that you are focused and the ball is not in your court

Open a new ticket and block this against that: Also formal, backed by documentation of timeline and ownership, good for situations where there's a major change in the type of work to be done (e.g. creating a blocking ticket for a tech to get the PN was the right move imo)

It sounds like maybe your ticketing system doesn't have a "reassign" feature though, you have to generate a new one? That kinda blows. But in a situation like this, yeah, I would reassign (however that looks) as soon as you know that there is nothing you can actually do to move the case forward. If that's assigning to a tech, great; if it's assigning to a manager as an escalation path because you can't find an available tech, that works too.

Actually---if managing work assignments isn't part of your role, you shouldn't be tracking down people to do things anyways. Here, we generally assign to a team, and the manager of the team or the techs themselves will sort out who can take it. But the bottom line is, when the ask is "put this drive in that box" and you don't have arms long enough to do it yourself (or it's not what you're trained for), the ball is not in your court and the work log should reflect that.

What I learned on that deployment trip was, the way to play the game is Cover Your Ass, which means documentation of escalation. If it's not your job, escalate to a manager who can send it to a manager who can send it to one of their people, but make sure that "I handed this off to my manager because my work here is complete" is written down and timestamped. If the client's hardware fails and you can show where you said "I have been telling these multiple managers with these names since this date every four fucking hours that this server is about to die unless we take this specific action that I physically cannot do myself", your Ass is Covered and you are golden.

In an ideal workplace, anyways. Real companies suck, and I'm grateful that my place is very good about root cause analysis and the blame game and such, and Cover Your Ass actually works here—and if everyone plays the game well, the work gets done! And if they don't, the mission fails at the weakest link, and as long as it wasn't you, you're in a better position. But you can't be the entire chain anymore, and you shouldn't be.

Sometimes—sometimes—when a manager is waffling about a decision, you can just...suggest an answer, and they might just go along with it.

The other thing I learned was to emotionally detach myself from the work. I decided early on that I wasn't going to let my career be my life, I would not tie my self esteem to how useful a company thinks I am, but this is a different thing. If a project fails, and I have covered my ass, then it didn't fail because of me, because I did my part. Maybe a teammate failed, more likely a partner team failed, maybe a manager failed to mitigate risks effectively. At the end of the day, do I really care if this data center goes up? No, not really. It's not going to improve my life. It's not going to make anyone less homeless. Business is business, it does not care about you, and you should not care about it. And if a business cares about a project, then that business will take steps to ensure its success. And if they don't take those steps, well, that's Not Your Problem (unless they fire you for no good reason).

Key company aspects that you might not have the luxury of:

Formally defined roles & responsibilities

Clear escalation paths

Ease of reassigning tickets

Reasonable decisions made by those above you in the wake of an outage

Key takeaways:

Not My Job

Modes of escalation

Cover Your Ass

Don't worry about it

Anyways, I hope someone enjoys this post or finds it enlightening :3 I'm so sorry you went through all that. Incompetence is...yeah. I just can't even.

I wonder at what point the salary-time spent by you and the techs and the managers on this ticket outweighed the cost of replacing the server from eBay with something newer and better and just attempting to copy everything out. Never mind that at RAID 5 there'd be a solid chance of another disk toasting during the rebuild and then you're SOL anyways... I also like the implicit "what are backups" vibes here. I don't like that hardware RAID tends to hide information about the downstream drives, I get it and I like the abstraction, but I also want the details, yknow?

One of the problems that came up this week is actually a problem that came up in December.

On December 15th we got a warning about disk health in a server; there is a drive that is at risk of failure.

A ticket was created for me to create a quote to replace the drive.

There was no part number associated with the ticket, and because of the type of server, there was no easy way to access configuration information online and our hardware documentation is a disaster (I have thought it was a disaster since the acquisition; I set up hardware documentation at the old job specifically to avoid issues like this and now all that documentation is gone because we didn't keep any licenses of the old job's CRM). This was not a situation where I could find a part number.

I contacted Tech Alice and asked her to check the part number on the server. Alice reported back that because the drive was part of a RAID array, she couldn't get the part number. She recommended asking Bob, and put her time entry on the ticket.

I contacted Tech Bob and asked him if he could find the part number for the drive on the server; Bob also reported back that he could not find a way to get the part number from the server, he recommended that Charlie collect the part number when he went onsite. Bob added his time to the ticket (still my ticket) and added the status "onsite needed."

Now it is December 23rd. I have messaged Charlie and asked him to check the part number when he is onsite and have added him to the ticket. I'm out of the office today, Charlie is out of the office next week. Charlie does not remember to look at the part number when he is onsite. It is the end of the year.

Now it is January 15th. We lost the first week of the year to assessments, and the second week of the year to the state and our clients being on fire - people were unable to go onsite because of all of that. Charlie is going onsite. I remind him to get the part number when he is at the client site. When he is at the client site he alerts me that actually he is at their other location, not the location with the server.

Now it is January 27th. Charlie is going back onsite, he is on my ticket, the ticket is set to onsite needed. I remind Charlie that we need the part number. Charlie does not remember.

Now it is February 6th. We have created a whole new ticket for Charlie with the *EXPRESS STATED PURPOSE* of going onsite to collect a part number for the failing drive in the server. Charlie marks the ticket as "waiting materials" and makes a note that he can't replace the drive until we order the part.

Now it is February 7th. We have explained, in writing, in Charlie's ticket that we can't order the part until he goes onsite and collects the part number, because we cannot get it because the server won't report the part number if it's in a raid array for reasons that I'll be honest I do not understand.

Now it is February 14th. Charlie closes his ticket and he and Bob pull me into a meeting. The server at the client site is so old they're not sure it's a good idea to replace the drive. Charlie has recommended that the project team quote a migration to sharepoint, which the client has expressed interest in in the past. Bob makes a note of this in my ticket. But I do not close my ticket. I do not close my ticket because I know there must be some fuckery coming. So I put my ticket to "on hold" and set it to reactivate on March 10th so that I can follow up with the project team and see if the migration project is making any progress or if we still need to replace this drive because the server drive is still failing.

It is March 13th. I have a bad week. A very bad week. My manager looks at my open tickets and asks why on earth I still have a server drive failure ticket open from December. I explain that I only have it open to follow up on the migration because the technician suggested server replacement but if there wasn't progress we should still quote a drive, but I still didn't have the part number.

My manager puts me in a chat with me, Charlie, the Project team lead, my manager, and the service team lead and asks what the fuck is going on. I paste Charlie's last update on my ticket and say that I'll be happy to quote a hard drive but I still don't have the part number.

Charlie says "Oh, I put the part number in the ticket" and pastes a photo of a drive (low light, low contrast, and blurry but with a visible part number) in the chat.

"Great!" I say, and immediately assemble a quote and find stock. Then i look back at my ticket. "But I'm actually not seeing the part number on this [my] ticket. Where was that again?"

Charlie has put the part number on his ticket, which I was never on, which he closed.

"Ah, okay. I see."

And here's where the different standards that all of us are used to using work against us.

My old job built RAID servers all the fucking time. It was totally standard, totally easy, totally sensible, and I always knew to double the number of drives we needed for the storage we got because we'd be mirroring. Because we'd be using RAID 10. Because it's robust and can take a lot of failure. A drive failing in a server configured with RAID 10 is not ideal, but it's also not a drop-everything and panic emergency. I *still* wouldn't want to leave it two months in an ideal world but I can't drive up to San Francisco and get a part number, and sometimes the world literally catches on fire.

However, these new folks use RAID 5.

A drive failing in a server configured with RAID 5 *IS* a drop everything emergency, because if one drive goes down the whole system goes down until you can replace the drive and rebuild the array, and because RAID 5 is slower than 10, this can take a very, very long time depending on how much data there is. And if *two* drives fail the data is *gone*

So.

Whose job is it to get the part number, and whose job is it to know that the server is at imminent risk of failure?

Well, now I have properly reconfigured my internal alarms about any failing server drive, but I don't understand why none of the three technicians who worked on this ticket with me didn't at any point say "hey this is an emergency" (Alice is from my old team and used to RAID 10 also, I'm willing to give her a pass) and I'm *really* confused why Bob and Charlie would recommend *not* replacing a drive in a server that is that close to failure.

(And again, I just didn't know. Believe me, I am never, ever going to shut up about drive warning tickets in the future)

And, the thing that scares the shit out of me and my manager and part of the reason why this has been a bad week and I'm having stressful conversations: What if I had just closed that ticket instead of letting it reactivate to follow up on? What if I had just marked it as done when Charlie gave me the update? It wouldn't have been an old-ass ticket in my queue that my manager flagged, it would have been a note in an after-action report when the client's server crashed.

(The client has the quote now with the statement "this failing drive puts your server at risk of failure and we strongly recommend replacing" but they haven't approved it yet because they're really cheap so I'm going to have to send it again and say "this is a mission critical part that you need to replace; your server is at risk as long as the drive is not replaced.")

So. The boss is asking "why is procurement taking so long" and really, now that I'm thinking about it - because he brought it up - how much of this really IS supposed to be my job?

[archivingkal]

last updated: 25/03/2025

note: unless otherwise stated everything on this list is completed

BANG CHAN

LOVER OF MINE BY @sulfurcosmos (SMAU)

she doesn’t hate him, she just... doesn’t want anything to do with him anymore. “it’s bad for my heart”, she claims. and she succeeds for a whole year until her clown of a friend felix, decides to take up music production as a summer extra credit unit knowing absolutely nothing about writing lyrics or composing. now who else to ask for help other than a creative writing major who specialises in poetry, and the best music production student on campus?

FACE THE MUSIC BY @0x1lovebot (SMAU)

y/n runs an anonymous twitter fan account for the famous rap trio that goes to her school, 3racha and one day she professes her love and appreciation for bang chan on said account. now chan is on a mission to find out who it is.

SORRY, RIGHT NUMBER BY @feelbokkie (SMAU)

Being an idol can be lonely and isolating. After one fun and adventurous night at a bar, Chan decides to text the girl he met the night before. Except, she gave him the the wrong number?

IF WE COULD TURN BACK TIME BY @lieslab

After a Dispatch article leaks, your betrayed boyfriend kicks you out of your shared apartment and you're silenced in the worst way possible.

NIGHT AGAIN BY @chahnniesroom

in hindsight, visiting chan's studio right before a comeback isn't one of your best ideas. what was supposed to be a pleasant surprise leaves you spiraling into self-doubt, wondering if chan even wants to be in a relationship with you at all.

FATE BROUGHT US TOGETHER AGAIN BY @beautifulchris (SMAU)

after spending two years abroad, you come back to the only college that accepted you; the same chris goes to

the prequel: LOVE DIE YOUNG

CURE BY @gamerwoo (HANAHAKI AU)

Chan was in love with a girl that didn’t return his feelings, and as his best friend, you wanted to help him through it. But his options were either to make her fall in love with him, make him fall out of love with her, or for him to get the disease removed, and he was dead set on avoiding the latter.

LEE MINHO

FELINE APPROVAL BY @ivyues

How Soonie and Lee Know agreed you were the one. (the definition of short and sweet)

THE JOURNAL BY @theright-sideofme (SMAU)

When y/n loses her most prize possession, what are the chances of her high school ex finding it? Apparently, suprisingly high.

SEO CHANGBIN

PUSH + PULL BY @yoongisleftearring (SMAU)

in which you are trying to survive college life but seem to have a thorn in your side in the form of Seo Changbin. After years of hating each other can you decide to remain civil with the handsome rapper? (let’s just hope he doesn’t come across that private thirst account you have for him)

THE ALTERNATIVE BY @astraystayyh

You've diligently chased the idea of being with Changbin out of your mind. That is until he picks you up from a bad date, making your steadfast resolve unravel all around you.

HWANG HYUNJIN

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT BY @soobnny

hyunjin stresses how important it is that you help him practice for his role in your university’s upcoming play, especially the kissing scene.

THE WAY WE STOPPED BEING ALMOST AND BECAME ALWAYS BY @mykoreanlove

(the title for this one is pretty self explanatory and it's just as easily a wonderful read)

HAN JISUNG

NUMBER NEIGHBOUR BY @softyn (SMAU)

Jisung has been a fan of y/n since he can remember, what will happen when y/n posts her new youtube video texting her number neighbor who turned out to be Jisung?

SUNSHINE BY @svngbins (SMAU)

y/n’s only secret is that she’s in love with her childhood best friend, jisung. the only problem? y/n’s other best friend, aerin, has a not-so-secret crush on jisung.

LEE FELIX

THE MIXTAPES BY @cookielixie (SMAU)

y/n is in love with her bestfriend. what other way to express yourself than posting mixtapes about your love on twitter?

SO NOT WORTH IT BY @lemon-boy-stan (SMAU)

felix joins the popular kids after becoming bang chan's roommate. when he and y/n collide, the twitter world goes beserk. (loosely based on the k-drama so not worth it).

KIM SEUNGMIN

MY VALENTINE KIM SEUNGMIN BY @pixiefelixie

your 17-year-old dog, who had survived chocolate poisoning, a bicycle accident, and a raccoon fight, finally passed away peacefully—proving that even the most legendary warriors must one day retire. in your grief, you completely fell apart, only to realize your usually sarcastic boyfriend might actually be capable of being soft and supportive—something even more shocking than your dog’s immortality finally running out.

YELLOW STICKER BY @/soobnny

kim seungmin, resident fuckboy turned soft boy, is on a mission to quit smoking

YANG JEONGIN

IT'S NOT THE END OF THE WORLD BY @staysuki (SMAU)

it was either you're a coward who couldn't confess your hidden feelings towards your crush who you've been best friends with since high school OR perhaps fate is just conspiring against you to make your timing with yang jeongin to never be quite right— it's definitely the second one, right? oh well, at least it's not the end of the world.

MY GIRL BY @/soobnny

the boys find out their youngest has a gf

OT8

CLUELESS BY @hanniebaeee

Just eight boys and their very chaotic group chat.

TRUE SOULMATE SERIES BY @imagine-a-life-like-this

(eight stories about different soulmate 'marks'/'systems' in a completely unconnected universe so you can read in whatever order your heart desires or just read the one that interests you the most but they're all very fun to read)

SOOBNNY'S MASTERLIST BY SUE

(as you can probably see I'm a little bit of a sue truther so please head on over to her masterlist and read her works - please and thanks)

more to come...

[3-aem]

ive had enough of dating bring me back to my yaoi-dom

[sgiandubh]

Life and death of Anon

It's literally only hours after I stopped Anons from being pesky and nasty, that the number of sock accounts who suddenly wish to follow this page is over the roof.

It's literally only seconds after I wrote I will not allow any coward bullying in here anymore, that Anons started to pick on friendly shipper pages. Surely in the hope they will be given the oxygen they so sorely crave to reward a petty ego. Anons don't even make any cloak & dagger effort, anymore. Some righteous petticoats are showing aplenty: mannerisms, schmannerisms, heh. I could name names, even go ahead and prove that they almost copy and paste their own comments written elsewhere, but I won't. That would make them look important and possibly even brave, whereas I would look like the Bad Cop, something that never really interested me.

Come to think of it, there are roughly three main types of Anons who feel the urge to troll our pages:

The Simpleton: that particular Anon is almost always 'new in here' and seems to ask nonsensical questions, just for the sake of annoying the shite out of their hosts. They never see anything, never understand anything, but somehow their comments are always oriented towards a certain agenda. Makes you wonder, really.

The Weeping Statue: she has been a shipper since forever. She has patiently endured rough waters without capsizing and bravely weathered any storm. But right now, you see, ever since Orange Xena/Tennis Babe/German Athlete/Czech Young Woman came along, she just doesn't know anymore. She doesn't know what to think, she doesn't know what to say and she definitely has not the courage to post her rants on her own page. However, she still wants everyone to know she is petrified with grief and discombobulated. For one thing, she probably ceased to be a shipper (if ever) a very long time ago and this is just her indulging in her favorite pastime: being that fly in your ointment. I suggest you ignore: you are nobody's shrink, nor anyone's fool.

The Pennywise Clown: probably the worst type you could ever come across while in here and the unhinged variant of The Simpleton. But perfectly able and willing to send you violent bullshit like this one, with a noted propensity for long, verbose comments:

Received by me in December 2024, never answered. Would make a nice subpoena argument, anytime, anywhere. My crime? Refusing to bitch about the main cast and also being consistent and persistent about what are not just 'beliefs', but what I do consider as facts.

Mrs. It Pennywise went on and on and on with it for months, with very little variation in her nastiness and always at the ready to slap-a-shipper. I don't have the slightest wish to deal with Mrs. It Pennywise in court, because it would probably involve the Interpol, an international rogatory commission and lots of money I could use in more pleasantly creative ways. Only to probably uncover a provincial freak, with no sizable property to seize.

These idiots will always try too hard. Not only to make you seriously second guess your own deductive and even cognitive abilities, but even more so to curb your enthusiasm and anything positive about you being a shipper. For there are, overall, many positives in here, mark me: nice people, intelligent conversations, real empathy and kindness. If you feel you can take it, even when the heat hits too close to home, then you are certainly stronger and wiser than me. If not, my unsolicited advice is to make a very liberal use of the Block Anon button and ultimately get rid of this Tumblr setting altogether. Life will be calmer, for they are just a bunch of cowards hiding under a blade of grass. You don't have to answer every single idiocy that drops in your inbox. Also, you are the only one who has got the power to stop such in(s)anity. Tips and useful deductions almost never come that way, not anymore.

Let this be a cautionary tale. It's not because OL is slowly fading off, that the trolls suddenly deactivated. Far from it.

[lsunstreakerl]

rereading famiglia today to heal myself after lewis' comments about max and gp ❤️‍🩹

aaaarrrrgggggg not to get like genuine on main or anything, but.

lewis has a point. not about the max and gp thing, but about how he and other poc/not british drivers get criticized on their radio usage. yuki especially. where other drivers being firm over the radio are treated as setting boundaries and putting their engineers in their place or whatever they're saying these days, if lewis does it (like he's been doing the last two races, because they're learning to work together), suddenly he's being rude and not appreciating what his engineer does for him.

at the same time. taking a shot at max and gp is the worst possible example to prove his point. if he wanted to discuss dysfunctional driver/race engineer dynamics... lando and will are right there. max and gp are one of the best duos because the system they have is one that works for them, and they've both spoken somewhat at length before that they're on the same page about heat of the moment and what they need- and they clearly respect each other both on and off track. it'd be like if someone started taking potshots at lewis and bono, when they'd been working together so long that implying they were dysfunctional is just ridiculous.

so yes, an extremely fair and valid point from lewis, but taking a shot at max and gp devalues that point because that's obviously what people were going to focus on from that conversation. now the discussion has become about max and gp instead of the rightful criticism of the expectations the media places on certain drivers.

...and to imply that max doesn't get insane media flack for his radio messages is just outright wrong.

my final point- this whole post is a criticism of the wording lewis used, but I'm certainly not blaming or hating on him for it. he's held to impossibly high standards both inside and outside of the sport, and he's allowed to be just as upset about things as other drivers are. he's allowed to word things in a way that doesn't come across kindly, he's allowed to take potshots at other drivers on the grid, he's allowed to say the media can be bullshit- but he's been somewhat shoehorned into this perfect socially aware and respectful paddock icon.

he deserves just as much grace as the other drivers get, he just doesn't receive it.

[mxtxfanatic]

It's been a while since I've read the novel, and I think I may have been corrupted by the fandom a bit, I just wanna ask you to be sure. Does Madam Yu's abuse of Jiang Cheng equate to Madam Yu's abuse of Wei Wuxian? I feel like she treated Wei Wuxian worse, but again, I don't remember much from the novel, and I keep on seeing posts that keep comparing Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian’s treatment in Lotus Pier. It's basically a picture of them together with the words "Nothing like childhood trauma from a dysfunctional family." I'm sure Jiang Cheng mistreated by Madam Yu, but I don't know, saying that he was treated the same way as Wei Wuxian was treated by Madam Yu seems like a stretch.

Before I get into it, I would like to say that you can be traumatized by witnessing abuse as well as experiencing it. Those two aren’t mutually exclusive. With that said, however, I, too, have seen people conflate the abuse that Wei Wuxian experiences under Madam Yu with the abuse that Jiang Cheng experiences under her. I'll answer with quotes though to show that while Madam Yu is abusive towards all the kids—particularly but not exclusively verbally—her abuse of Wei Wuxian is above and beyond what she is seen to do to her kids. The worst she has been shown to do physically towards her kids is smack Jiang Cheng’s shoulder while calling him weak and pinching Jiang Yanli’s cheek to the point of pain (while also insulting her) because she wanted to vent her anger and her daughter was conveniently close:

Madam Yu gave Jiang Cheng a sideways glance, “Fiddling about again? Come, let me see you.” Jiang Cheng went to her side. Madam Yu squeezed his arm with her slender fingers, then slapped his shoulder loudly, scolding, “There’s isn’t any improvement in your cultivation at all. You’re seventeen already, yet you’re still like an ignorant child, fooling around with others all the time. Are you the same as others? Who knows which sewers other people will be splashing in, but you’re going to be the leader of the Jiang Sect!” Jiang Cheng stumbled from the slap, head lowered, not daring to protest.

—Chapt. 51: Courage, exr

Yet, all of a sudden, someone’s quiet voice drifted by Madam Yu’s ear, “Mom, do you want to eat some watermelon...” Madam Yu was startled by Jiang YanLi, who seemingly appeared out of nowhere. With the delay, all of the boys had vanished into thin air. She was so infuriated that she turned to Jiang YanLi and pinched her cheek, “Eat, eat, eat—all you do is eat!” Jiang YanLi almost cried from her mother’s pinching, mumbling, “Mom, A-Xian and the others were hiding here to relieve the heat and I came here on my own. Don’t blame them... Do... Do you want some watermelon... I don’t know who gave them to us, but it’s really sweet. Eating watermelon in the summer is great for cooling down and quenching thirst. I’ll cut them for you...” The more Madam Yu thought about it, the angrier she became, and with the summer heat on top of all that, she really began to crave watermelon. With all that... she grew even angrier.

—Chapt. 125: Lotus Seed Pod Extra, exr

Meanwhile, the average punishment she made Wei Wuxian endure was being whipped by her electrified whip before possibly being locked away in the ancestral hall for the day until Jiang Fengmian returned to the sect (meaning she was locking him away when she knew that the only other person who could challenge her authority and reign her in was gone to do this):

In the past, although Madam Yu had always come at him with harsh words, she had never truly been cruel to him. The most that he’d been through were two or three strikes and being grounded. He’d also be let out by Jiang FengMian soon later.

—Chapt. 57: Poisons, exr

Wei WuXian mused, “How did you know? That’s right. Madam Yu punished me almost every day.” Lan WangJi nodded, “I have heard of a few things.” Wei WuXian, “It’s so famous that even people outside Yunmeng, even you Gusu people know—how could it be ‘a few things’? But, to be honest, in all these years, I’ve never seen a second woman whose temper was as bad as Madam Yu’s. She told me to go to the ancestral hall and kneel no matter how small the matter was. Hahaha...”

—Chapt. 87: Loyalty, exr

Wei WuXian yelled, “Sorry! I didn’t know Shijie would come! I’ll go look for my clothes right now!” Madam Yu was even angrier, “How dare you run! Come back right now and kneel!” As she spoke, she let loose her whip with a flip of her wrist. Wei WuXian felt a searing pain slash across his back. He loudly exclaimed, “Ow!” And almost tripped on the ground.

—Chapt. 125: Lotus Seed Pod Extra, exr

These abuses are categorically not the same. Now, given the fact that Jiang Cheng treats Jin Ling like Madam Yu treated him (in some cases, worse) and then goes on to treat Wei Wuxian just like his mother before him, I’d hardly say the man thinks on his mother’s behavior as the negative influence it was, let alone enough to reflect on it as a source of trauma.

[hedwig221b]

Hi, If it's not a bother, could you recommend me some sterel fics with void stiles at some point in the fic? Please and thank you ❤️

Hello! Hope you like these ones!

Shadow and Flame by pixieblade

"Get. Away. From. Him.” The teen said harshly. Derek watched bemusedly as Stiles stalked across the loft. His wooden bat dragging along behind him. It made a scratchthumpscrape sound that was almost mesmerizing. Alternative nogitsune/darach meeting. Pre-slash Sterek.

Unexpected Results by pixieblade

What do you do when the people you are supposed to trust, betray you in the worst possible way? What would you do if someone offered you a way out?

Full and Void

Stiles could be meek, sure. In Derek’s arms, softened under the touch, pinned under his weight. He allowed himself to relax only in Derek’s sole presence. Stiles could also look meek. Small, scared. Let the enemies think he was hiding in his mate’s shadow. After all, no one would stop to think that the shadow could ever be dangerous.

Emerald Eyed Mystery by QueenOfAngst21

It's been two months but the Void won't go away. With his brother turning against him and with no where else to turn, Stiles looks to the place he least expected. If Beacon Hills is destroying him then when better to run away then at 1am on a Thursday. Three years later, with the fate of Supernatural world on their shoulders they must return but Stiles isn't defenceless anymore. He's an Alpha Mate and his eyes aren't normal; they are emerald.

Words Alone by SnowshadowAO3

Derek gets the first text message two months after he leaves Beacon Hills. He stares at it for a long time without actually opening it up, trying to figure out why Stiles would be texting him at all. Things start fitting together in Derek’s mind: his dreams, the door he sees Stiles enter, the loss of memory. Stiles’ body, his mind, are no longer just his. Something is sharing it, controlling him. Derek doesn’t know what it is yet, but he’s damn well going to find out. In which the Nogitsune ordeal brings Derek running back to Beacon Hills and, in the end, to Stiles.

Voice of Rage and Ruin by Qayin

Derek is hired as a bodyguard to this kid, Stiles. And the thing is, Stiles seems completely harmless, but everyone keeps telling Derek how he needs to be careful. Stiles is a nogitsune, a human possessed by a powerful deity of chaos and void, and not only does other people want him for his power, but he could potentially hurt others; and then it’s Derek’s job to protect those people — from his client.

Echo of the Void by MissAnnThropic

Post season 3B. After defeating the nogitsune, Stiles takes steps to ensure the demon fox can never possess him again. When things don’t go according to plan, Scott calls Derek to come try and calm Stiles down.

Ready or Not by spaceprincessem

Ready or not here I come “Is it him?” The man whispered to the woman standing next to him, a gleeful smile on his face. “Is that-” “Void?” Stiles asked. Derek took a shuddering breath. Stiles no longer sounded broken or pleading. His tone was cold, cruel, calculating. “Void.” The woman repeated with a small nod of her head. Stiles' smirk widened now, “That’s what you wanted, right?”

i'm here in search of your glory by EvanesDust, spaceprincessem

And standing there, in the dim light of the office was the all powerful emissary whose name had been whispered across the country. The one who could move mountains and part oceans. The one they all called Void. Standing there was Stiles fucking Stilinski. There were so many things Derek wanted to say - needed to say - and Stiles arched an eyebrow, like he was waiting, like he fucking knew. Derek opened his mouth, but the only thing that came out was, “Are you fucking kidding me.”

Together Again by Firebull

When Scott pushed Stiles out of the pack, he unwittingly unleashes the Nogitsune once more. Not that it lets him live long enough to tell anyone about it. Too bad really, because it has plans for a certain werewolf currently living in Mexico.

We are the greatest pretenders by heyshalina, marshmallowfluff

(How am I gonna get myself back home?) Derek wishes Scott wasn't such a failure of an alpha, that he had noticed the aura of darkness around Stiles before Derek had. Maybe then, it would be Scott now, staring into Stiles' empty eyes, at his twisted smile, faced with the prospect of killing him. "You know, I never wanted to be anything other than human."

Other fic recs: angsty fics | possessive Derek | historical AU | baby/mpreg | outsider POV | smut | mafia | hurt/comfort | magical!Stiles | Stiles gets kicked out of the pack | BAMF!Stiles + pt2 | omegaverse | witch!Stiles | creature!Stiles + pt2 | oblivious!Stiles | bad friend Scott | pack mom!Stiles | unrequited love | werewolf!Stiles | dark sterek | single parent!Stiles | feral Derek | arranged marriage | Stiles is underestimated | mpreg w/o abo | accidental knotting | jock!Derek | jock!Stiles | alive Hales | spanking | royal abo au | longfic

[everdreamtheseclowns]

INTRO ──★ ˙♦️ ̟ !!

“Salutations, dudes, dudettes, and every single solidarity pixel of the world wide web! Time-traveler Chester Titor here! Ever wanted to see what happens when you give a demonic killer clown that lurks from the depths of your nightmares and his most devoted mortal follower, both of which are currently stuck in the ancient year 1955, access to modern day social media? Well, You’ve come to the right place!” -🛸

CONT’D BELOW CUT!! (Including character intros, basic etiquette, boundaries, etc.)

.★⋅.──────.˳★˳.──────.⋅★.

CHARACTERS ──★ ˙♦️ ̟ !!

Unlikely (Nightmare Clown) ♠️🃏

“Anon” (Mask Clown) ♥️🤡

Chester Titor 🛸👽

.★⋅.──────.˳★˳.──────.⋅★.

“Now that you’re here, let’s talk about the two circus freaks that this account is reallly about! (I mean…sure, i’m apart of this whole thing too, but…c’mon, read the room!)”-🛸

“Let’s start off with the big man himself—The night hag, The primordial chucklenuts from the void, The grin reaper! The-“-🛸

“The clown that’ll be the reason you end up in a horrifically overdue grave?” -🃏

“…well dang, i was just hamming you up! No need to get your taco in a twist, man!” -🛸

“Mmmmhmm~ that’s what i thought, Titor. Now make like an egg n’ beat it for me. Lest i end up scramblin’ you like one!”-🃏

“SO not cool, dude… but i’ll dip.”-🛸

“Good, good…now…”-🃏

♠️🃏”What say you to a little GAME?”🃏♦️

MEET UNLIKELY! (AKA The Nightmare Clown)

Voice Headcanon: DJ Grooves (AHiT)

Speech indicator: signed with 🃏, ♠️/♦️ + RED text!

He isn’t the sweetest ball of sunshine around, feel free to expect the worst from him. He’s just peachy when he wants to be though

He likes human contact! Go ahead, approach the clown! he won’t bite! (Reverse psychology woooooo)

A sore winner and a sore loser. A sore player even. Every last ounce of him is sore. Yeah.

The only thing bigger than himself is his ego. Followed by his appetite, greed, and sportsmanship (or rather the lack thereof). All of which are at an unrecordable size.

Despite his knack for bloodshed, and all things carnage, he has a strong sweet tooth! He favors the more sugary cuisines (Cotton candy, cake, ice cream, anything that stands out to him)

Totally doesn’t secretly run an underground society of mortals wearing clown masks that devote their entire existence to him

.★⋅.──────.˳★˳.──────.⋅★.

“…What’s the fun in playing all these games if you know you’re going to win? It’s kind of anticlimactic methinks”-🛸

“What isn’t the fun ‘bout it? It’s definitely funner when you don’t got a pathetic lil’ morsel in your ear screamin’ about some “YoUr gAmE iS rIgGeD!!””-🃏

“Heyyyy!!! I don’t scream like that :c”-🛸

“I don’t mind it one bit though! After all, it ain’t like they’re gonna be screamin’ their heads off any longer—once they’re CUT CLEAN OFF!”-🃏

“True, however, there’s a possibility that they’d still be alive for a short duration of time afterward, considering that bodiless heads can still function semi-properly, albeit for only a few seconds. But yes, they physically be incapable of screaming post-decapitation.”-🤡

“Hey! Where’d you come from?”-🛸

“…”-🤡

“Ya see? I even got my own second in command to back me up! Where’s yours, Titor? Scared her off or somethin?”-🃏

“…moving on.”-🛸

“It’s…!”-🛸

♣️🤡”ANON!”🤡♥️

MEET “ANON”!

⚠️NOTE: “Anon” is a PLACEHOLDER NAME for the Clown Mask man in TNMN. This character has no official name as of the moment this is all being typed. This section is subject to change in the future, if any more information regarding this guy’s identity is revealed in the tnmn canon.⚠️

Voice Headcanon, in the cases where he rarely speaks out: L Lawliet (Death Note)

Speech indicators: signed with 🤡, ♥️/♣️, BLUE text + small letters

Small text will be used for his speech, since i headcanon him to speak in a very soft tone, by default. Only ever raising his voice when experiencing intense, overwhelming emotions

Isn’t good with presenting himself, and social cues. Has trouble communicating his thoughts, and feelings properly—considering how many would assume, upon initial meeting, that he lacks them.

Unlikely’s right hand man. Does errands and chores for the Big Top, all the while luring pedestrians into playing his boss’s inevitable games.

Rarely speaks, unless talking in regards to his boss (Unlikely), or to add onto a conversation

Knows too much. The government fears him.

Is neighbors with Chester, knew him before the incident occurred (2/9/1955), but didn’t become proper friends with him until then.

When he isn’t talking, he’d normally either write his thoughts out, draw, or reply with simple gestures.

.★⋅.──────.˳★˳.──────.⋅★.

“Alright, Chestnut. You’re up…”-🃏

“Oh? Already?? Cool beans!”-🛸

“Yea, yea…don’t go all grandiose, grandpa. This ain’t about you, y’hear?…”-🃏

“Ughh,, fiiine…”-🛸

“But lemme just…ahem…”-🛸

“ohh boy.”-🃏

“Salutations, dudes, dudettes, and every single solidarity pixel of the world wide web! It’s (as seen on the news) Time-Traveler…

🐄🛸CHESTER TITOR, HERE!!🛸👽

Voice Headcanon: Fiddleford McGucket (Gravity Falls)

Speech Indicators: Occasional typing quirks/modern “slang”, 👽/🛸/🐄, PURPLE text

He was on the daily newspaper. Twice! Such an achievement, i know.

Rots the brains of civilians nationwide with his obscure 21st century Pop/Internet culture references

Has an exact 42% chance of popping up during asks, even if they don’t have anything to do with him.

May or may not be friends with Aliens

.★⋅.──────.˳★˳.──────.⋅★.

“Well, that’s just about enough out of us! Next stop: basic rules and etiquette! Bye-byeonara!”-🛸

BLOG RULES ──★ ˙♣️ ̟ !!

Basic blog rules:

The blog will open and close every so often to prevent influxes of asks. I’m thinking to close up the askbox every Wednesday, and then post responses to the asks on the following days, until Saturday, in which the account will be askbox back up. (I made this up on spot </3)

However, this doesn’t apply to opening week of this blog. For it opens up Wednesday (3/26), and closes Saturday (3/29). It will stay closed for the following week, until 4/5, in which the blog will function as aforementioned. ^^^^^^

No Anonymous asks, for now. This fandom (TNMN) has a bad problem with anons and askboxes, as one who’s been in the Tumblr community for a while now should know. As per the beginning of this askblog’s existence, I’ll be keeping Anonymous asks off, for safety reasons.

Though i accept and often play into suggestive jokes about the three (🛸,🃏,🤡), borderline N$F₩ asks will be discarded. The person running this askblog (@gabbbyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy ) is a MINOR!!

If i end up discarding or never answering your ask, it’s possibly because I was uncomfortable with it. I hate to do it, but. Yeah.

I may be on/off with this blog due to real life issues (in this specific case, School and other projects.) BUT i will make time for it though!

Please note that most of the stuff i make these characters say and do are based around HEADCANONS!! Their actions and thoughts aren’t entirely correct, unless proven otherwise by canon (or by Nachosamagames himself). However, i attempt to stay as close to whatever goes on in said canon as possible, aside from throwing in my theories and personal twists in there.

[cloversnstrawberries]

oc intro post ! ! parental!1970s!mad scientist & reanimated!reader

masterlist | requests open !

warnings; Dehumanization(?), god complex, medical malpractice out the wazoo, extensive talks of death and corpses (not extremely graphic), mentions of euthanizing, loss of identity/amnesia, manipulation, possessive behavior, McKinley is selfish as hell (as expected of a rich person), and talks of future/possible imprisonment! if there's anything i missed, please let me know!!

additional notes; hello yes!! this is the concept that won the first poll rematch!!! i wanted to be different i 'spose, and made him from the 70s because. uh. i don't know!!! i like the vibes!!! and before you ask, yes, i do love the Re-Animator movie series with my whole heart. what makes you think that.

! ! introduction blurb & moodboard below the cut ! !

In all honesty, Jeremy McKinley only reanimated you just to see if he could. You were an unidentified body given to the University he worked at-- all in all, you were extremely intact. It almost looked like you were just in a deep sleep.

...Not accounting for the Y incision spanning your torso, which McKinley delicately sewed back together before trying anything further in regards to animating your corpse. There were some spots of discoloration in your flesh as well, but still, good condition compared to what other resources he had on hand.

And at first, that's really all he saw you as. A resource, an opportunity to further his own prowess and to pioneer something that could change the world. Not for the good of humanity-- it was entirely selfish, his reasonings behind reanimating you. Wanting to reanimate anyone/anything in the first place.

He didn't know what the outcome would be-- that was one of the major driving forces behind it, as well. Plain old curiosity, along with the idea that he could play God.

McKinley came from a very affluent background-- he hated the idea of being a nepo baby, though; because he does actually have the intelligence and skill to be where he is. He finds it insulting that people thinks he's only where he is now due to his parents money (which had a hand in it, sure-- with his private lessons as a child, and getting into one of the most expensive and prestigious science programs for higher education).

In recent times, he's gotten bored with it all. The worst thing you can have is a bored rich person-- it becomes twice as dangerous when they're obscenely intelligent, like McKinley is.

No one really cares when your body goes missing from the morgue, and by God nobody suspects McKinley of all people. There was a mostly performative search for the missing body, but the cops did little more than take a peek around, before tossing their hands up in the air and going "Well, what harm will it really do to lose one unidentified body?"

While McKinley was working on ways to animate the nameless corpse he kept in his basement's icebox, his mind wandered once or twice. What would he do with you, if he did manage to revive you? If you did manage to keep your mind, your personality-- he didn't have any measure to compare your behavior to. Again, your identity was completely unknown.

He'd brush the thoughts away-- that you might wake up with an unsavory kind of personality, violent and wanting only to spill blood. Being incapable of complex thought, little more than a fancy, moving doll-- was another concerning outcome he'd considered at first.

But really, you exceeded his expectations ten-times over-- cocky as he was, his ego the size of Texas if it was a tangible thing; he never doubted that he could do it in the first place,

Though, he was a little surprised that he got such amazing results on the first go-around. When you first 'woke up from the coma' (he never did tell you that you'd died, that'd only cause you distress), you had problems speaking.

The way you acted was more akin to being in shock then anything long-lasting, though. And McKinley luckily realized this, before he 'terminated' you with the needle he held in his left hand. At the time, McKinley had no problem with the possibility of having to put you down like a dog if he had to.

But now? Oh, he wouldn't trade you for the world. There wasn't anything for you to do at first, since he was anticipating to 'put you back to sleep' directly after 'waking you up'-- but you two quickly got into the groove of things.

You fit well into his life, believe it or not. You were a good assistant-- at home, and eventually, he started bringing you with him to work. Not without precautions, of course!

He'd claim you had some form of Lupus, along with a couple other medical conditions-- that'd explain your need to be covered head-to-toe. Literally. You were never outside without a hat, sunglasses, and a surgical mask; your clothing covered everything they possibly could.

Luckily, you never overheated due to this. Your body didn't regulate heat very well, if at all. You were always kind of cold, unless you were leeching off of McKinley's body heat (which you did more and more often as you got more comfortable with him, framing it as just affectionately hugging him at random-- he knew what you were really doing, but never said anything about it.).

You'd keep him company while he spent late nights grading, or doing experiments, among other things. You helped clean up, and you hardly complained.

There was always the possibility that you'd remember your actual life, and maybe you already did-- you didn't show it. When McKinley first started this whole experiment, he would've been fine with terminating you if that was the case. Surely, you'd become unruly if you found that you weren't just his amnestic child with a slew of medical problems;

God forbid if you remembered your death, especially. If (when) you realize you're an affront to God, and shouldn't be up and running like you were.

But on top of it all, McKinley is the most put off by the idea that you'd remember your family, or whatever equivalent you may have had in your first life. That's what should've tipped him off that he'd gotten too deep in this, that he was getting attached.

And by the point he had to confront this fact, he really wasn't willing to let you go. He'd much rather confine you to the guest bedroom in the basement (which has quickly become your bedroom, not just a guest bedroom you were staying in) then resort to his original fail-safe of euthanizing you.

[rxkuyo]

Horizon Forbidden West ⤐ Scenery｛2/∞｝

[bluuscreen]

on being made to heal and not quite knowing how to [somehow it works out anyway] — part 2/2

part 1 | headcanon/au being referenced

[llitchilitchi]

i am unwell about them

[fist-of-vengeance]

hey. can people please stop parroting "stan only regained his memory because it's a disney show" like it's an objective fact and somehow a storytelling flaw? because that's reductionist and straight up untrue. stan regaining his memory is not a random deus ex machina, it's clearly established earlier in the season that the memory gun isn't permanent via mcgucket's storyline. as soon as mcgucket watches the tapes in society of the blind eye, he begins to gradually heal and regain his memories. it makes perfect sense that mabel's scrapbook (and in journal three, stan and ford's old home movies) would function the same way for stan.

realistically, stan probably wouldn't have remembered his entire life in the span of a week, but his recovery is obviously being condensed for the sake of pacing. there's a ton of awesome fanworks based on the idea that he's still recovering new memories long after the end of the show, particularly from the darkest period of his life when he was homeless and estranged from his family. but that's not relevant to the finale. what matters for the show's purposes is that stan remembers the events of the past summer, so that his goodbye with dipper and mabel at the end of the episode holds dramatic weight. because THAT'S HOW YOU WRITE A STORY.

[waywardwhispersblaze]

I'll be forever mad that Jayce ruined the moment right there, but not because I think this would've been a perfect ending for them (I don't). I'm mad because if Jayce had just waited five fucking minutes, the resulting scene would've been so juicy.

Look at the way Vi and Cait look at each other here:

Caitlyn: shocked, betrayed, hurt

Vi just looks sad:

We know from their dialogue in ep 8 that while Vi and Caitlyn were making the plan to distract Ambessa, Vi had another one, to bring in Jinx as a contingency in case Caitlyn couldn't be trusted or failed. She had to know Caitlyn wouldn't take it well once she found out. Vi's priority n°1 was saving Vander though, and they likely didn't have much time to think this through. Basically, she had to know that from Caitlyn's POV, it would look like "Vi chooses Jinx over Cait", edition number 2.

And she was likely right! We know Caitlyn lets go of her anger towards Jinx in the next episode, and accepts that Vi has the right to choose her family, but in my opinion, she wasn't there yet in ep 6. Having a broken Jinx locked up in a cell (her single goal for the last few months) while Vi was lying unconscious on her bed for days very likely helped Caitlyn reassess her priorities in life. But here in this scene she literally doesn't have time to think!

Let's look at Caitlyn a bit more here. During their reunion, She probably expected Vi to hate her guts, but instead, Vi looks grumpy, calls her a mongoose and a cupcake in two sentences, and drops the "my dad needs help" bomb after hesitating for a hot, single second. Moments after that, Caitlyn reevaluates her life choices and decides to make a big career change. Plenty of great posts have already been made about Caitlyn's motivations there, but to sum it up, I'd say it was a combination of: her being already wary of Ambessa and not wanting to let a Noxian warlord get her hands on a dangerous weapon / innocent man, being tired of hating herself, and, yes, her feelings for Vi coming back to her in full force.

For a few, glorious moments, she was working with Vi again! Probably feeling more like herself than she had in months. Maybe she started to hope they could reconcile after all. Maybe, she hoped it could be a "do over" for their failed mission with the strike team, where she'd be helping a member of Vi's family, instead of being torn apart by one of them.

... only to find that Vi didn't actually trust her (which was deserved, but still, ouch), and to come face to face with the source of her seething hatred, the single object of her obsession in the last few months. Right after being saved by said source of seething hatred. It's a lot to take in. She had to be simultaneously disappointed and shocked

So, what was she gonna do? There was probably nothing Vi could have said that wouldn't have pissed Caitlyn off right then (no, Vi, saying "she's changed" probably wouldn't have helped), Jinx opening her mouth would have likely made it worse, but at the same time they still had to run away asap. Caitlyn had already betrayed Ambessa, she couldn't go back. Vi pretty much put her in a position where she'd have no choice but to follow along, no matter how angry she was, at least for a little while...

and I made this post just to say, that the resulting bickering would have been hilarious to see :S

(forget about Jayce waiting five minutes, though, what if it they had an hour? what would Caitlyn had done once they were far enough from the Noxian army? point her gun at Jinx? attempt an arrest? (right in front of Vander? gulp) she might have simply ended up separating from them, and that would have been heartbreaking enough, but a completely different story)

((and that's assuming cult member!vander would have just agreed to leave the commune without acting weird))

[jerys]

saw someone say 'wish he'd tried a little harder' under harry's post.................what if i started shooting people in the head

[hana-bobo-finch]

chat how we feelin bout the bum biddy biddy biddy bum bum