#you dont gotta be super refreshed on it

[tactician]

OCS + Associations

thank you bree @sangre for the tag :3 hugging hugging hugging

im gonna do this for reides, my dnd oc!

animal

seahorses! symbolically, they are linked to balance and adaptability, which i see a lot with reides in regards to how he navigates both the lands and seas. they're also associated with freedom and creativity, which are major themes to reides' character as a whole. plus they're so cute and reides is cute, too. teehee.

colors

blues, silvers, light purples! and, of course, green... his older brother calls him seaweed-head, so there's gotta be a green association in there... DFJKDJG

month

january! the first month of the year; cold, but in a renewing and refreshing sort of way. a new beginning!!! a new experience!!! and so many new possibilities existing in front of you!!! the level of expectations placed on january also aligns with the sort of burdens that reides had placed on him as well.

songs

chasing kites - ​iamamiwhoami! over the ocean outcast, with nowhere to go / a brighter forecast, new winds will blow / the storm that's drawing near / it calms and the air is cleared. i have a huge playlist for reides which can be found here too.

number

16! he was born on firstlight 16 so that might be where i get that association from lmao.

plants

lotus flowers! i think lotus flowers really suit reides. even the way that they grow - rising out of water to bloom; existing in that beautiful margin between the aquatic and the earthen - is so... him. they also symbolize rebirth, which i think is very much aligned with the sort of stuff that reides went through when he initially ventured to the surface world (and kind of ties into the stuff i talked about for the month portion of this too!)

smells

i'm aware that it's a slight cop-out to say the ocean, but, like, heres the thing: the ocean! LMAO. that salty sort of kick is super reides; the scent of the sea at dawn, that crispness, not dainty or elegant but effortlessly evocative... yeah. that's reides. he usually smells like that naturally. like the sea, plain soap, and ink.

gemstones

larimar, pietersite and pearls as well! also, i know they're not gems per se, but i also associate sea glass with reides a whole lot. they're gems to ME!!!

time of day

dawn! the very moment that the sun starts rising; when stars and maybe even the moon are still visible in the sky. as you can see, i really like associating reides with existing in between or on the border of various things fdkjdljg. i also think reides stays up really late typically so he's no stranger to being awake at this time LMAO

season

winter! ok im a little weird with this one so bear with me...... i really enjoy associating reides with coldness since he's such a sweet, passionate person and i like the idea of his optimism existing alongside the cold; i like the idea of the cold being a comfort instead of depressing or stoic or serious. bc for reides, the cold IS a comfort!!!! it gives him clarity and energizes him. it reminds him of his home seas and it empowers him.

places

on the beach, skipping alongside the waves; laughing, with a book clutched to his side; fingers stained with ink and hair windswept from the briny breeze!

foods

oysters, mussels, all of that sort of thing - juicy seafood that tastes best when you eat it with your bare hands. salty, rich flavours!

drinks

a nice rum with lime mixed in... that's reides right there. blue daiquiris are these things and also, as the name suggests, blue - and that's fun and would delight reides, so i think if he was a cocktail he'd be that. as for his taste in drinks... reides loves sweet ones the very most - rip currant wine from his home seas is his fav - but he has a soft spot for firewhiskey, too!

element

WATER, BABY!!!!!!! i dont think lightning technically counts as an element but that as well!

seasoning

SEA SALT, BABY!!!!!!!

sky

i think this ties into the time of day prompty really well so i'm pointing up there again hehe.

weather

stormy weather! >:) he is the storm prince, after all... for all his kindness, he is tumultuous and brings change. there's a lot of power to be found in storms, and that power is something that reides is learning to embrace. when he hatched, it was during a crazy storm that really wracked his home seas - and, sometimes, the people there maintain a superstition that baby-reides actually absorbed that storm's power. it's simply wack poetry stuff (that, frankly, used to freak reides out as a kid lmao) but what if they're right. what then.

magical powers

reides is a wizard who specializes in evocation magic, so you know he loves to harness da power of da elements... he especially loves ice and lightning magic. again, if something sounds stormy, he is probably tapping into that power and trying his best to let it surge through him.

weapons

reides' weapon is... the power he extracts from the weave teehee. he has a purple conch shell from home that serves as his arcane focus for all that! but, his magic aside, reides also has a dagger that was fashioned from the pelagic ore of his home seas and a crossbow that he named 'harpoon.'

candy

it's gotta be salt water taffy! reides' fav candy as well as the candy that embodies his nature the absolute best :3

methods of long-distance travel

reides loves boats so much. big ships fascinate him endlessly. he wants to go on them all the time. he fantasizes about being at sea with aske (his boyfriend who is also a sailor / fisherman) all the time.

fear

to let down his people and be an outcast amongst them; to prove that all the people who pelted him with insults were right; to lose his home; to lose his freedom

mythological creature

merfolk is a laughably easy answer I KNOWWW so i will choose something else even if they're by far the first thing my mind leaps to for reidesy DFLDKGDKFH i think selkies are cool too given the nature of their shapechanging o: reides' identity both above and below the seas is something that is fun with me thematically and i think selkies kind of offer a physical representation of that

piece of stationary

a page of a sturdy tome that has notes written all over it!!! and doodles!!! and some of the ink on it has been smudged too!!! yay research!!!

three emojis

🌊⛈️✨

celestial body

reides is definitely a star! shining resolutely through the darkness of night... ✰ i also associate him with the star tarot, so that ties in nicely.

[pendraegon]

ELLIAN im gonna be in chicago from june 25th-28th!!! im gonna be staying with my brother. what are some fun things to do 👀

ooohhhh hello iris!! im glad i could catch you/respond to this before your trip passed lol anyways here's my two cents from known chicago tumblrina ellian pendraegon. here are theeee chicago sights and sounds and places to be and see:

okay im gonna split this upon into attractions and then food. attractions wise:

obvi there's the riverwalk and that's always fun just to see what people are milling around and there's food and open bars and what not but i really really like taking people on the architectural boat tour! it's about an hour or so on the river and then briefly goes out into lake michigan (chilly so make sure you bring a sweater bc lake michigan winds are no fucking joke but it might be 90 million degrees by late june so it'll probably be refreshing lol) and then back. ive taken lots of people on this one and all the commentators always do a fabulous job and also you get really really good pics from the water lol.

i think a classic one is going to the observation deck of the sears tower! there's a ton of museums here: the art institute (my personal fave, went there recently with tori and there's an awesome van gogh exhibit right now), the field museum, the museum of science and industry, the museum of contemporary art, the planetarium, the aquarium — they're kinda expensive bc they keep hiking their prices (even for in state residents like ????? why is it so fucking much). but i would def recommend getting a day pass or a week pass that already includes the cost of admission to one of these (WAY cheaper) or you should check if one of their free admission days lines up with when you're here bc im pretty sure all of them do a couple free admission days per month... all of these museums are situated around the same area so if you want to have a giant day of museum hopping you might as well lol

you know what's free though? the ZOO. well there's two zoos, lincoln park and brookfield. the lincoln park zoo is the free one and it's personally my favorite (still think you gotta pay for parking though but i dont remember). make sure to go see the okapis they're totallyyyy cute if you go!

these two are not free but they have some days of free admission or days where the admission price is less than the usual fare: the botanic gardens and the arboretum. both are technically not in chicago, the botanic gardens are in glencoe and the arboretum is in lisle (the gardens are closer tho) so you'll need a car to get there!

also like. i guess you can hang around millenium park? see the bean? make fun of it? OH. and a walk along lake michigan/drive through lake shore drive<3

here’s some food places i’d rec:

there’s noooo way you’re gonna be in chicago without having deep dish pizza 🍕🍕my personal favorite place is lou malnati’s (the lou’s is my FAVORITE with the house salad? Chef’s fucking kiss, taste of chicago BABEYYY) although giordano’s is also really good. I personally don’t care for uno’s 🤷🏻🤷🏻

in terms of hot dog places, my fave is gene and jude’s but that one’s a bit out of chicago. Portillo’s is kinda everywhere and what i’d recommend rather than like superdawg or charcoal delight’s lol

if you’re in uptown and looking for a good korean place: chosunok. Ask for their chadolbaegi and mulnaengmyeon. It’s supppeeeeerrrr busy and make sure to wear slightly dirty clothes bc your clothes WILL smell bc there’s not much air circulation lol likewise if you’re in uptown and want some kabobs i’d say go for kabobi or noon-o-kabab. a coffeeshop i really like around here is oromo cafe (turkish coffee, if you like rose flavored things and vegan drinks this is ur spot lol) not really a restaurant but you can drop by joong boo market and get the best giant wang dumplings on this side of the earth so 👍

umm if youre hanging around millenium park and the museums, i really like goddess and the baker! SUPER delicious drinks and food although there’s not much seating. there’s a small cafe by the art institute called hero coffee that’s nice but there’s not any seating lol

im missing a lot but if there's anything specific you're thinking about lemme know lol

[alreadyundermygenjutsu]

SOOOO i FINALLY downloaded the current, modern day, free-trial version of CoffeeCup Site Designer.. and i gotta say, it's a LOT more powerful and complex, but not unintuitively so.

just like the previous iterations, the program gives you instruction as you go clicking on things, which is super helpful given the amount of menus in this thing

there are menus upon menus inside menus! this is the sacrifice of all the features of the modern-day web, it's simply unacceptable to render everything as an image, therefore there are a million menus for you to enter all your specifications into. but honestly after clicking around for like 30 minutes everything made sense and this came together pretty easily!

i was able to give the snowflakes a float:right property and line it up neatly with the header element. i wasn't able to create the table (containing the buttons) from within the program, but eh no big deal, rapidtables.com my friend. oh AND gifs are able to be played in the preview instead of being still JPGs with white backgrounds so that's nice too

honestly i dont know if i need something THIS fancy to make my site, but it is still fun to use.......the downside would be it costing money (99 fukin americans!!!!!) unless someone by some miracle can DM me Some Kind Of Solution. [HINT: I AM NOT ASKING FOR MONEY]

i am a very visual person so even though i understand CSS, this makes website creation a breeze!!! plus i dont have to spam my neocities with updates while im hitting save&refresh every 20 seconds ^_^""

[tonberry-yoda]

For the writer ask game:

❤️ What is your favorite line that you’ve written in a fic?

✨️ Out of the comments you’ve received on your fics, what are two or three of your favorites?

👻 What is your wildest headcanon?

🦈 Which character is the toughest to write?

💕 What is your favorite fic that you’ve written?

📚 Is there a fanfic or fanfic writer you recommend? (on tumblr, AO3, Wattpad, FF.net seperatly or just all time favourite) (you can tell me more if you can't decide, I know how that feels 😅)

🔮 Any advice for writers working through burnout or writer’s block?

hi love <3

based on this post

❤️ What is your favorite line that you’ve written in a fic?

oh god, you're making me think. i write so much fanfic this is so hard oh man. gimme a sec, i really gotta dig. okay. this one was a hard question actually. so, this was from an older fic of mine from the arcana. here's the link to that fic but there's a line at the bottom that Asra says:

“I thought you were to investigate him… not… investigate him!!”

It's a stupid innuendo but I thought it was funny.

✨️ Out of the comments you’ve received on your fics, what are two or three of your favorites?

I love getting comments where people say that they never read fics like this and also ones that say that i provided them with the fluff they needed. I remember before I got tumblr digging for fluffy fics was sometimes a journey, so i wanted to provide the fluff and getting comments that compliment me on that make me so happy omg i also got a hilarious reblog this morning of one of my Junkrat pieces and they said "Oh no, I think I have a crush. I dont think we can live laugh love out of this one folks" and it made me laugh really hard

👻 What is your wildest headcanon?

I have this ridiculously long list of headcanons for Skeptic from mha. like this man gets 7 minutes of screen time and I made his whole backstory. In my head he has a twin sister. Cool ass parents. Went to college. I just have like a 20 year long list for him. Fav character unfortunately.

🦈 Which character is the toughest to write?

💕 What is your favorite fic that you’ve written?

I just answered these to, which you can read here but I failed to mention one of my fav fics which is this one and this one

📚 Is there a fanfic or fanfic writer you recommend? (on tumblr, AO3, Wattpad, FF.net seperatly or just all time favourite) (you can tell me more if you can't decide, I know how that feels 😅)

oh i have a list omfg. so if you dont mind, im gonna tag a few folks. @overwatchfics @auroravictorium @enforcermoss @some-piece @mvrtaiswriting @tender-rosiey @soupbabe @moonbeamwritings @meepmoopmaap @strawmariee @lovolee3 and uhhhhhhhh gosh, i think that's all. i have a lot of lovely writer friends on here, so i highly recommend all of them. I acutally started writing on here because of @some-piece @moonbeamwritings and @mvrtaiswriting fun fact lol. i love all of these talented people and really recommend checking out their writing. There's a little bit of every fandom around, so please check them out. im sending them all lots of love <3333

🔮 Any advice for writers working through burnout or writer’s block?

I really know how this feels. I am a writer full time. Like not even kidding. I am majoring in creative writing so I need to write ALL THE TIME. So I really know what burnout feels like. That and feeling insecure about writing. For me, if I really know that I need to keep writing, I pump out headcanons. They are easy and simple. Also matchups. But not everyone does those. When I get in a block I really let myself take the break I need. I will refresh my brain by doing something else. You don't want to hate writing, so just put it off for a little bit. You never want something fun to feel like a chore. If you feel burnt out, get some food, drink some water. That's why I'm always telling others to stay hydrated. It is a super important part of my routine and really should be in yours too. lol. Sometimes you can't control your feelings either, so let them come and go. If you feel insecure, just stop comparing and definitely stop writing for a little bit. I hope it helps, it's really hard to explain lol, but overall, just make sure to never overwhelm yourself, keep it soft and simple :)

thanks for these! I loved these questions <3333

[nicholaes]

buffy!!

sorry i put off answering this for so long bc i was super busy suddenly and then i was overthinking about rambling too much about my answers asjfkdj but thanks for asking i love an excuse to talk about characters

Favourite character: At the moment Tara from my rewatch (im in the middle of s5 currently) but in general Spike but also Buffy bc shes Buffy you know

Funniest character: I think it has to be Buffy when considering who's funny on purpose. But Spike is also funny on accident by just being a little idiot sometimes

Best-looking character: Gotta say Spike

3 favourite ships: Kinda hard to answer bc I actually dont like most of the relationships on this show that much 1. Obviously Spuffy, I had seen spuffy posts on tumblr ages ago and I was like thinking oh this is probably not gonna be fully canon and then I screamed when s5 and 6 happened. 2. Spike and Drusilla I just think theyre very fun to watch together 3. conflicted between Jenny Calender and Giles, bc it was kinda brief and Tara and Willow, bc I just didnt like Willow as much in later seasons so Im just not fully invested in either I guess

Least favourite character: hmm i dont know when I first rewatched I really disliked Glory and not in a this is the villain way but in a this character is really annoying me way but during rewatching my feelings on lots of characters have changed and theres a lot of characters that have moments or arcs where they annoy me a lot but none really stands out as a least favourite

Least favourite ship: I dont really hate any ship but I guess Xander and Anya I just didnt get why they got together besides wanting to have sex (shoutout to bangel just for constantly being brought up again like it was fine it made sense for the story but he left after s3 pls let him just leave)

Reason why I watch it: Its felt very just fun and different from what I had been watching before in a refreshing way. Really liked how things would be unexpected but it wasnt being over the top just kinda a genuine fun time. Then Spike was introduced and I got Spike brain worms lmao

Why I started watching it: Basically bc of Spuffy and I saw gifsets ages ago probably around 2013 and I was like seems like a cool show and then I saw Spuffy gif sets and I was like oooh and I remember seeing a video of him having to sing to Buffy in Once More With Feeling and being sold on the ship and then on top of that I found out he's a vampire so I was so in. I didnt really see much of it later but I think I just heard things about it being influential and just good in general so I was like ok I need to watch it sometime and then I started watching it as a chill show while working on my bachelor thesis (ended up only getting to it like 10 years but shh)

[sxaymz217]

And you see, this is one of the things I've always felt really shitty about. I swam in high school and we had to get up super early at around four to swim before school, because our school didn't have a pool, so we had to "borrow" the local one. I am a natural morning person and always arrived for practice awake alert and refreshed, but all of my friends were miserable. I always felt so bad, because then they had to do 8 hours of school afterwards. It just didn't seem fair that just because their bodies worked on a different time table, that they had to suffer for it. I've felt like this is a simple matter of logistics, I mean it seems so simple in theory. If a portion of the population are night people, another day people and yet another morning people, it seems like we can just build our schedules accordingly.

If there are night customers, then it stands to reason there can also be night workers. Night police? Aid workers? Government? Nonprofits? It just seems to me like we should have a 4 day, work week, 4 to 6 to 8 hours a shift(optional depending on employee's needs and desires), enough of a paycheck to live off of comfortably regardless of time spent working (not paid by the hour, just paid) or status within the organization(janitor or CEO). If you have enough workers and you will already have diverse natural circadian rhythms, just build a schedule that accommodates each individual worker. Think about it, humans(plural) are already awake 24/7, building our systems around that along with the knowledge that people dont want to be working 24/7, it seems very possible to make everyone happy, and well rested. I mean the logistics will be hilariously complex compared to our current system, but its definitely doable. I think its just a matter of having a tremendous amount of employees.

I believe its possible to build a scheduling system that can be used by anyone comfortably. I see NO GOOD reason why a night person HAS to wake up at dawn with me.

This is kind of an unfinished thought, without a lot of details, but I swear I'm on to something. It should be possible to build a society wide work system, that any human can function in happily, I just gotta find the right balance.

Ok wait let her speak

[deercharm]

Having finished dawntrail, I wanted to write down some of my eclectic thoughts on it

- I love wuk Lamat. I love her journey over the story to learn about her people to better serve them. I love the "the absence of war is not peace". She was a phenomenal protagonist that we passed down the mantle of hear feel think to. She is incredibly darling to me and I would hold her hand on a dirigible to ease her nerves any day 10/10

- this game does not have a great track record of letting primary female characters be anything but white, petite (I'll never forgive them for white midlander lyse) and conventionally pretty in a feminine way, so I find Lamatyi sooo refreshing in that way. That makes the hate against her all the more enraging

- I love erenville. Why does his mom have an american accent

- I hated the mamook arc. They did not give eugenics and forced breeding the time and energy it deserved. Dead babies (stillborn) is maybe not the main take away you know? I liked the concept of "maybe some cultures do fucked up things, but instead of just grimacing at them in judgment we should understand the variables which drove them to that" but it fell short for me

- bakool Ja ja 180d too quickly, it felt so rushed and undeserved

- his dad sucked we gotta stop redeeming shitty abusive dads

- overall it was slow but I thoroughly enjoyed the first half. It gave great development to wuk Lamat, and I genuinely loved learning about the different cultures and doing their feats. (Felt weird that they were all """"beast tribes"""" though, same issue withe Oliphants in radz)

- I loved koana and wuk Lamat relationship. I love that he surrended for her and she in turn shared dawn servant with him. Beautiful

- cowboy arc was weird but I liked the hesparro and liked the acknowledgement that technological progress hurts the environment. Eager to see where they go with that as erenville seems interested in it

- I am a grandma and generally dont like my scifi in fantasy, but I overall enjoyed the second half of the story for it's THEMES

- I have extremely mixed feelings on sphene. I hate her physical design. I'm so tired of 16 yr old looking uncanny cutesy child women (I love u metieon but I don't love ur design). I found her SUPER GENTLE LOVING PERFECT EMBODIMENT OF FEMININE AUTHORITY tiring and uninspired. I liked that she was a fucked up robot though. But also like, when she's like "I gotta tell you guys something... Actually jk" was that meant to imply she doesn't want genocide deep down actually and just big brother is watching?? I was confused by that and kinda hope that's not the case bc her being convinced of her path is so much more compelling. I'm scared Abt them showing her crown with the ending credits... Pls don't bring her back

- Zoraal ja resolution was good. His son was weird (who is ur mom?????) but it felt like a Chekhov's gun so they could have control of Alexandria feasibly fall to someone on the Good Side at the end. I kinda wish they made gulool ja ja more morally grey, he was a little too perfect wise king for me idk

- I rlly liked erenville mom. I wanna know how she died!!!!

- Alexandria's fucked up soul culture is so interesting. I laughed so hard when they said THE CLOUD.

- the final map was maybe my favorite part of the game. I love the incredibly bold choice to disable it and make it bleak and depressing. I love that we didn't Find Another Way with the endless

- I am extremely not immune to graha tia gondola date or ice cream throat goat

- environments, dungeons, and trials were stunning

- raid is stupid in a great way I love the fights and music

- I love the scions as much as anyone but have found that they feel a bit stagnant and solved. There's never any friction between them and they're all just Good Guys and often feel interchangeable in cutscenes, but I feel like the limiting of them, splitting them up, and having such a new cast remedied that

- I love to criticism but fundamentally dawntrail good!!!!!!

[yegas]

ughhhh me too. in the past I said I wouldn't mind watching a slice of life about knb, and it's still true now ;-; I tried getting into fujimaki-sensei's other manga about baseball....but eh.. it just didn't hook me.. if it were to become an anime though, I think I'd be interested

I think I need to have a listening spree of the new album hahahaha SAME I feel like with their self-titled, they really found their sound.. for me, it's THAT album that got me into them. I still remember the first time I ever saw Afterlife on MTV and what I was doing and how I reacted (and how I fell in love with Synyster Gates hahahaha) did you have a *favourite* member? ngl, I was a total fangirl for Syn (if my previous statement didn't give it away yet 😂) and I still have a reaaalllyyyyy soft spot for him when I look back at my teenage self, but in its entirety I've definitely grown out of it and just respect each band member as a musician and artist

I wouldn't say it's amazing, but more of a convenience. so if you're on your phone most of the time, it's handy to have. although I preferred it in the past where the customization was minimal lmao just so there are fewer things to fuss about.. now you gotta make a theme for a desktop version AND mobile version.. yeah.. and I think most of the users now prefer to just like stuff or passively scroll through the app.. oh true.. before, a mutual's mutual would more often be in the same fandom as you and it was THAT easy. now, it's hard to even begin where to look.. it's nice to see those old posts from time to time. like it's still alive after all these years 😂 (lol yeah on other social media, a post either dies out or is reposted—which I find really annoying. I see the same post 10 times but from different usernames..like talk about originality) I was on twitter for a while until it became X which sucked 🫤

awww hahaha gotta thank that stray cat 😂

thank you so much, I appreciate it 🥺 I've been doing some journaling.. I guess it's helping.. and just trying to ground myself with things I used to enjoy and surrounding myself with good company. though I really wish there was a fast forward button for recovery

really i didn't know he had a baseball manga! now that you mention baseball, have you seen diamond no ace? i remember watching quite a few episodes but i don't think i finished it, i think it was ongoing back then when i was watching. i wonder if i should get back to it...

DONT TELL ME YOU ALSO DISCOVERED THEM ON MTV LMAOOOO i saw the nightmare video there for the 1st time and got hooked !!! that's so funny, mtv used to be pretty good, found a bunch of bands on there back in the day. and yea i totally get you, syn was definitely the coolest!! i don't think i had a fav member but i found matt the most attractive back when he had super short hair >.> but when i saw them live in 2013 he had long hair so that was unfortunate hahahaha. what other bands are you into?? i've been obsessed with dir en grey lately if you don't know them you gotta check em out trust me on this one :p

wtf a theme for the mobile version, that sounds like a hassle. yep definitely ends up being like the more new features they introduce on social media, the more cumbersome everything gets, cause it seems like they don't even think em through more often than not..

you know what, another thing i find refreshing about tumblr nowadays is the lack of reels/shorts/tiktoks whatever they call short form videos lmao idk abt you but i never really got into them (unless they include some cute animals lol)

it seems like you're handling it in a healthy manner, i'm rly happy to hear that! 🌸 i know what you mean, but you really gotta take it a day at a time, it's gonna be much better for you in the long run than if you were to bottle up everything and "force" healing. you'll see, soon enough you'll be surprised to find yourself not even thinking about the person for several days. it happens naturally somehow, and you'll be an even stronger person mentally for having dealt with everything this way

[cielospeaks]

b6 temp tri thoughts

bc hoo boy for me who hated b3 there is a lot to unpack.

firstoff b3 itself thoughts. gosh what a fucking disappointment of a story. for me this was where heroes story started to go downhill. initially gacha was kinda lame but the story was nice or at least bland and unoffensive (aka b1), and from b3 on the gacha was better but the story was much much worse.

before b3 i actually liked the starter trio bc sure, they were boring, but they seemed responsible enough. just like super generic standins for the usual lords/ect. after b3 their personalities developed. () was a fucking control freak and jerk, the sort of person who lectures you on your own customs and tells you why your beliefs are wrong, and also guilt trips you into complimenting them. () is a fucking stalker who has shit taste in relationships and people, thinks abuse is romantic, and is like the embodiment of being positive in a nasty way. () is a horrible leader, a kissass, and has none of the original characters likeable traits (defender of the weak, funny, ect) and instead is just ‘i love money’ memes.

the other characters introduced arent much better. gosh dang eir i was rooting for you to be a pamina character when you were first introduced. now i just feel like. the tired man with his cigarette looking done with everything. like i havent liked eir since b3 so i dont hate her now or anything but like. ok good for you youre a piece of shit.

honestly this is just gonna be me ripping b3 a new one so ill skip to the temptri story. as a premise its not bad, def better than b2s story: hel is left rulerless so the person who’s taken over needs to get rid of the other heir for like. competition. something something i think its like addressed in game of thrones or something idk medieval royalty politics. its like why macbeth sent assassins after duncan’s sons even tho they were out of the country. so the god/dragon of eir’s birthplace, who was also apparently her nanny, saves her life by merging with her and they go on a quest to retrieve the souls of eir’s dead subjects. like ok yea thats vaguely interesting sure go off.

the good: a little more development on hel/ymir. i also do like ymir! shes like the mom whos kinda a pushover, like if her kid (friend’s kid) wants to eat candy late at night she’ll do it bc she feels bad she wasnt in the kid’s life enough sorta thing. having the magic dragon being kind to the protagonist is such a fucking refresher after b2 of n ifl just threatening and demeaning fj orm (and laegy) for like five chapters (until they decided shes redeemable at the fucking last minute despite her being awful. but anyways i digress). i dont have a problem with her. cool good for you.

im having a separate section for ganglot bc i really liked her. like esp seeing the fan reaction against her and how badly shes written in the story makes me like her infinitely more! oh my gosh!

-shes actually dutiful at her job. like shes a really cool i think the word is anti villain? a character who actually has noble and good motivations but does it in a chaotic way/that is destructive to the protagonist. or something like that. theres a mess left over bc of the order’s swaggering and someones gotta clean it up and shes gonna be that someone bc her guardian is dead now, killed by her guardian’s adopted daughter. like her motivations are understandable, she’s after eir for medieval politics plus you killed/helped kill my role model slash mother figure who i thought was also your mother how fucking could you.

-shes that trope of “guy has a bitter animosity toward their presumed rival but said rival is just a dude. who acts normal abt it”. and gosh i love that trope. (herb, sal (from f g o and amadeus the movie version too), randall monsters inc, the list goes on i bet) its a good trope and i always love to see girl characters written with beloved traits of guy characters (gosh i wish there were more characters that arent guys written with wholesome kind jock kronk type characteristics. high school au feng is basically that. but again off topic). i feel bad for ganglot bc she just had to choose the person to have a vendetta against who would actually fuck her up out of proportion but. -doctor idv mourn emote-

-her design is nice and her backstory makes her personality/character more sympathetic. i like the classy formal look, it fits as her being a handmaiden and very dutiful, kinda like the maids/butlers in 14. im so grateful they didnt make her an au version of the main characters like the fan theories were saying. she was abandoned as a child and is older than eir/adopted presumably before eir was, which means she couldnt be those characters even if they wanted her to be. fuck you eat shit fall off your horse. anyways. she basically had nothing and was taken in by someone who not only provided for her needs but offered herself as an example. im willing to bet that seeing hel gave ganglot a purpose/something to look up to, and that hel, while providing for her needs, probably treated their relationship more as a business/apprenticeship sorta thing. in fact theres even stuff that said that ganglot loved looking after eir, which makes it seem like she was kind to eir (which makes what happened even more sad/pisses me off) and only hated her after she killed hel. and considering ganglot didnt know abt what hel did to eir, she wouldnt know why eir rebelled against her. and eir never fucking explains it to her. to ganglot it must look like eir just was like “oh woops looks like im a princess to a pretty lively fairyland happily ever after kingdom im ditching your goth busy realm of the dead to go fuck off and escape from my responsibilities and also imma help some pet self insert of a kill-happy spoiled ass prince and his friends kill your boss slash role model byeeeee -nail polish emoji-”. like idk. its totally relatable and understandable why ganglot would want to kill eir.

-her fatal flaw that leads to her demise is her kindness/mercy. which is something you almost never see with villains, esp ones that are supposed to be unsympathetic. like maybe in a series with an antihero who takes advantage of them falling for a trick or something. or like joseph joestar outwitting the pillar men, but then its less kindness and more like “honor/chivalry” being outwitted by wiliness, which imo is completely different. this is like if the hero is pleading for their life before fighting the villain, the villain decides to give them this out of mercy, and the hero, without explaining anything to the villain who presumably was their friend before, just fucking sacrifices their friend’s life to murder the villain from within in order to kiss up to their longtime abusers who have a sad backstory uwu and that makes it ok. gosh i fucking hate some aspects of this game. anyways i think a villain who has a point whose mercifulness leads to them being killed by a dirty trick is kinda interesting and at least new.

the bad:

-gosh i hate the u b w ripoff in the plot. like please just get a better plot point dont rip off a fucking boring f ate story. their appearances were played up but ultimately did basically nothing but motivate eir, potentially to do worse things but then again thats up in the air (no pun intended) how much of what she chose to do was “for my friends!” and how much was her own idea.

-the jokes abt eirs new design. i dont have a problem with her new design, or even her decisions. it makes sense, seeing shes spent the last however long around these assholes that maybe she’s changed for the worse (or rather from a blank slate to something worse than that). but what i do have a problem is w the “jokes”. no assholes you cant just “cure” depression for one what these characters have is more akin to life altering trauma and just bc theyre wearing brighter colors and smiling more doesnt mean their “depression is gone/cured”. i dont like the in game explanation for idunn but i have my version which is (imo) more meaningful and in character. i think for eir technically it makes more sense with the lore given, as besides askr, which treats her like a pet or a trophy, ymir is the first person in her life whose treated her decently, and in a parental way at that. so yea, not really w the design but definitely with the fans jokes. shut the fuck up.

-the writing. like as a sort of tragedy of people not fucking communicating a la spi derman 1 (2002) or an episode of conan its fine, in fact its pretty good. like for those reasons (+ the sort of medieval drama aspects) i like it or rather dont have a problem. its that those aspects are basically just glossed over for a generic and not really morally substantial “good wins evil loses” angle that this series likes to take. its not as bad as b2 where “sure this person basically kept your life as a carrot on a string to get you to fight your mutual respected former dead enemy who that person dehumanizes, and also they constantly belittle and threaten you but hey they had a crush on your ancestor so that makes them a good person uwu in the end”, but its still not great. like i said ganglot is a really cool character and very multi faceted and sympathetic, but the series just treats her like “hels evil successor who hates eir for no reason” and the fandom calls her incompetent so im just like. i will bite you but im also too tired. idk. i like ganglot. she seems like kind of a workaholic young lady who both is the “i serve someone and am super faithful but they really dont deserve me” trope i unfortunately like (i say unfortunately bc its fucking annoying bc i always end up hating the person theyre faithful to unless its beet and schooby and in that case beet is just too lovable to hate, and also he never asked to be idolized also so him being greedy is something you cant blame him for).

-i think if the story was done better? or like a version id actually like? theres not much id want to change. i think to make eir actually sympathetic she should actually try to communicate what she learned abt hel/what hel did to her to ganglot, and ganglot either ignores her or shuts down eir, or ganglot still cant forgive her even knowing the truth. something like that. a quick fix and that makes everything better. have a flashback to when they were younger and ganglot being kind to eir, and make it more of a moral conflict eir has against fighting and killing her former friend. kinda like the scene in spi derman 3 (2007). ok enough spiderman references id also address what happens to hel after the story. either eir kills ganglot and resumes the responsibility for both the realm of life and the realm of death. or she is able to defeat but not kill ganglot, while recognizing her as an enemy also has the strength of character to recognize she’d be a good ruler of the dead, and gives her blessing/relinquishes her claim to the throne while leaving, never to see her again or something. idk.

id also personally just eradicate all mention of (u b w characters) from the story and make the ending not that eir goes back to her “friends in askr” but that she goes back to set things right, not as their tool and pawn but as the leader her people in the realm of life (and depending on which the realm of death) need, acknowledging her responsibility to her people and her independence. but nooooOOOoo she goes back to the people who treat her as a toy like all happy to be that way. this years story and the protagonists happily sacrificing others for their schemes and then having the gall to act sad abt it afterwards as if tehy werent the one who twisted the damn knife istg

[moonbinscirera]

I feel like you would be the perfect passenger for me then because I always get lost even with a GPS when it doesn't work...

Omg taste... I would love to pick up more books with a woman of color centric character and YES bonus points for good gay rep pls 🤌🏼 I really do love fantasies as well 😩 omg an angst lover 💪🏼 honestly haven't read a lot of angst lately but >:) when authors aren't afraid to kill off a character I have got to say that's super refreshing 🍿

Ahahaha fake dating got that good spice to it...will never tire of that trope but I'm giggling at the kid fics... I can definitely see why you would not want to touch those with a 10ft pole 😂 👍🏼

I'm loving your ao3 search so much!! That's so detailed slay I'm just lucky if anything I like pops up for real - at this point I think I will just read anything out of desperation when I'm bored 😅

Slayyyy I think I'll continue looking into them maybe as a potential Christmas gift!! I'll also have to loon up ToonrificTariq then 👁 I'm loving the name already 😂

Screaming at how cool you are... Honestly watched GoT off and on only for the dragons 😩 - I'm cackling at how you can do it without looking although I'm sure you didn't miss *too* much 😂

I... am a fic writer 😩🫣 I don't think my stories are all that cool unfortunately... Most of the attention/notes have gone towards nsfw content rather than the sfw I used to labor over 💔 such is the woes of writeblr 😔

Thank you for thinking I'm studious 😂 I'm studying IT 🤓 I'm pretty sure I'll be graduating right before the gift giving starts off for this event hehe.. I cannot wait to be done for now 😭 homework and lectures are sooo boring at this point but the 24/7 working life... Ew! What about you (if you don't mind me asking hehe) 😳

xhxydhddhd at least if the gps breaks well be lost together shsbsshd

sometimes it feels like its a lil hard to find books with woc protags that arent realistic fiction and i hate that 😭 cuz alot of time the "realistic" setting they pick is one i cant relate to cuz i didnt grow up in the city or i wasnt the only black family in a whyte suburbs u know? so it takes like triple the digging to find something to connect to and it feel fun and not like racism porn 😭

anyway! angst is so good like its so satisfying and isnt there just something so so so like brain itching good about a homie being like please play pretend with me and then going oh shit wait its not pretend anymore actually?

im generally a rarepair shipper??? like in most fandoms i get into so its like i gotta be methodical and double back alot or else ill run outta content 😭 like even my favorite dynamic in svt is wonhao which barely anyone is checkin for 😭 (but quite honestly any less talked about hao dynamic imma jump thru hoops for like any of 95 line with him?????)

can u tell hao is my ult like is it obvious? i prommi i like him a normal amount like an absolutely normal amount like i swear on go- [gunshot]

do it do it do it doit³

im telling u i was in s2-3 and kept being like who tf is that??? by s4 i was like if this unknown person is here its no worries theyll prolly die soon anyway dont stress dont stress

ah creative ppl are always hard on their own work tho! (i am too) i bet its cooler than u think! that sucks tho when attn doesnt go to the works u really want them too 😔 like nsfw is fun but sfw should still get some love 😔

ooo and luckily! u caught me in this month because i just applied to an online school to study health IT so i can actually say imma be studying something! starting in January im nervous 👉🏾👈🏾 BUT CONGRATULATIONS ON UR GRADUATION

[elephant-in-the-pride-parade]

My hand slipped:

Amelia was the first one to find the nest. She slept lighter than her brother and sister. They could sleep even through the red alert sometimes, where she was up at just the sound of a door opening.

That was the case tonight. she dismissed the door swish at first - mama was often up later than papa doing important admiral things. Doubly so now that the baby often kept her up.

But then the door swished again, back and forth and she could hear Mama pacing, and oddly the sound of the clothes refresher opening and closing.

She rolled out of bed, curiousity piqued.

The baby must be awake again, Amelia thought. Mama always paced when the baby was keeping her up. She was always super sleepy on these nights; when Peppa and Ed were up, they had fun getting her to say silly things.

Amelia joined Mama as she took a big handful of clothes out of the clothes refresher and watched her carry them into her bedroom and begin arranging them on the far side of the bed.

Some of them were the ones Papa left on the Vesta for when he got to stay over. Amelia leaned her elbows on the bed, watching curiously as the shirts, pants, and jackets all were added to a haphazard circle.

"Wheres... the big jacket" Mama murmured in her sleepy voice.

Amelia looked around. the big jacket, one of Papas, had fallen on the floor. She grabbed it. "You mean this."

Mama chirped a thank you at her. Amelia watched her shake out the big jacket, turn it soft inner side up, and lay it over the other clothes, tucking the sleeves under the rolled up circle of garments that lined the outside of the configuration.

"What are you doing?" Amelia asked curious.

"Mhmm making a nest for the baby" Mama answered.

"Why?"

Mama yawned. "They need a nest." She rubbed her belly. "The baby will roll around a lot. nnn dont want them to roll away."

Amelia wondered why there was not one of these in Papa's quarters. Then realized Papa probably just reminded Mama to go back to sleep. She looked up at Kathryns blurry eyes and the tired wrinkles gathering around them. "Tell the baby you'll make them a nest tomorrow" Amelia said. "You gotta sleep."

"Really?" Kathryn yawned. "Mhmmm. need pants."

There were extra pants hiding behind the nest. Amelia climbed up and grabbed a pair, helping Mama roll them up to pad the side. "You gotta sleep Mama" Amelia said. "I'm gonna make you the tea that Papa makes so you can sleep better. We can finish the nest tomorrow."

Mama yawned again. "Mh don't have time. Too busy." But she sat down when Amelia nudged her and her head drooped a little. Amelia wondered if someone could fall asleep sitting up.

"Did we keep you awake like this?" Amelia asked as she fetched a tea and presented it to Mama.

"Hm no. I don't remember." She sipped the drink and sighed contently. "You were easier. you were eggs."

Amelia grinned, tail wagging rapidly. Mama never talked about when they were babies. "Were we cute?"

Mama hummed as she drank her tea. her eyebrows furrowed. "Adorable" she declared.

Amelia patted her hand on Mama's belly. The baby didnt hit back with their tail anymore. Maybe they'd figured out it was sleep time now. Mama yawned, setting the tea aside. "Thank you sweetheart" She said to Mia. and she frowned. "It's past your bedtime."

Amelia crossed her arms. "You go to sleep and I'll go to sleep" she said. "Deal"

Mama rubbed her eyes. No longer distracted by the baby moving about she was quickly succumbing to her tiredness. She shuffled under the covers. Curled towards the nest. "Need to finish it" she murmured.

"Go to sleep!" Amelia insisted. "I can help you with the baby's nest later."

"Smart girl," Mama yawned again. She "You go back to bed too Missy." she mamaged to say before falling asleep.

After that, every time she heard Mama wake up - whether it was on the weekends when they slept over on the Vesta, or nights when Mama snuck over to Voyager to stay with Papa, she tried to help mama with the nest, making sure it was big and secure enough for the baby when he came. There was even one in Papa's quarters as it turned out. It was shoved in his closet and Mama seemed rather embarrassed when Mia found it there.

Papa was just amused when Amelia showed it to him. "Maybe he will like a nest." he said. Papa was sure the baby was a boy. "The triplets were already swimming around by the time we arrived. i dont know what they needed as newborns."

Mama groaned. She still did not like thinking about the time she'd got turned fully salamander. "No. the baby's not going to need a nest alright i dont know why i want to build one."

"Is this where all my spare jackets have got to?" Chakotay asked with a chuckle.

Kathryn sighed. "I can put them back." but she looked stressed by the thought.

"No I don't mind." Chakotay had comforted her with a warm hug and a kiss on her forehead. "Make him a nest if it helps. Whatever you feel like."

As it turned out though. The baby, who was really a boy, needed an incubator in sickbay for weeks before he needed anything else. And mama spent so many nights there sleeping on a cot beside him that she didnt have any time for finishing the nest.

Kathryn had nearly forgotten about it by the time Liam was big enough and strong enough to bring home. But her family as it turned out had not forgotten.

"We wanted to do something to help" Amelia said as she and her siblings huddled close to Kathryn and Liam when they came home from Sickbay. "Come see"

Mia dragged them to the bedroom. Where a large pile of clothes previously hidden in Chakotay's closet had wound up in the middle of the bed. "We finished it!"

They had indeed. it was the nest Kathryn had started on her sleepless nights, now added onto with some of the triplets clothes and blankets so it was even bigger and comfier. She blushed and looked at Chakotay. "You finished the ridiculous thing"

Chakotay shrugged, smiling softly at she and Liam. "You thought he needed one. I wasnt going to get rid of it."

"We finished the one on the Vesta too!" Peppa piped up.

Kathryn shook her head at them, but she was smiling. And the dancing of her tail clearly indicated how pleased she was by the notion.

Edward climbed up next to the nest, leaning over it expectantly. "Can we see if he likes it?"

Kathryn was loathe to put Liam down now that she finally could hold him but three sets of pleading eyes was hard to ignore. And they had clearly put a lot of thought into it.

"We can try it out later" Chakotay murmured. his comforting hand wrapped around her.

"No we can try it out..." She bit her lip. "I do have to put him down sometime..."

she settled down next to the nest, which still looked too big for Liam's tiny self. Carefully she laid him down in the middle.

Liam was instantly squirming, tail flicking curiously. His wide eyes looking all around.

"He still can't do much yet," Kathryn cautioned as her three older children peered at the baby expectantly.

"He does look cozy" Chakotay said. he kissed her temple. "and i bet he can sleep there between us, nice and secure, without any trouble."

Kathryn purred, nuzzling against him as they watched their new baby meet his older siblings, safe and warm in the cozy nest theyd helped make for him.

Some more cringe baby stuff as I emerge from my tiny little hiatus lmao.

Top one was just a silly little hypothetical of like,,,,, the idea being that Kathryn and Chakotay would hold off on wanting to know what their baby is gonna be and look like. I think it’d be slightly more exciting for them to wait ‘cause of the blend of normal and hyper-evolved human DNA and all that haha. But I think because Kathryn would so frequently have to be in sickbay because of the weird gestational issues that they’d eventually find out before the baby’s born. I think Kathryn would be in denial of the tail lol like SURELY the weird and constant fluttering she’s feeling is just baby kicks riiiiiiiiiiiight.

And then I was just having fun with the nesting instincts idea again hahaha. Lowkey-delirious sleepy tired Kathryn making her baby a lil nest to lay in when he’s born so he’s all situated and comfortable like a lizard baby. :3 Is she fully aware that she’s doing it and that it’s kinda weird for her to be making a nest out of her and Chakotay’s clothes? Prooobably not haha. Actually drawing Liam in it though hehe. He’d just flop and roll around in there he’s SECURE so the nest does what she made it to do and I’m sure a part of her (while embarrassed) is proud of it. :)

[sportsannouncer]

((i like xenoz i still wanna do the alien tl. that could potentially be my next rp project since not dealing with my solo blogs could let me focus my attention ?? (???) some people seemed interested before but i only got a couple in the (dead) server so hmu if you want to be involved !!!

[atlabeth]

transferred part 20 - atla smau

part 19 | masterlist | epilogue

summary: trying to run from your past is hard, but falling for your brother’s roommate is even harder. little do you know that he’s falling for you as well.

a/n: me when i have to write more than 5 words in a series thats supposed to be a smau

anywho! basically the last chapter?? which is crazy?? filled with heartfelt emotions and the moment that you've all been waiting for, it's a wild ride. so strap in and enjoy. the epilogue will be posted later today so i can finally wrap this series up!! and dont worry theres a super long sappy authors note on the epilogue. LETS GET INTO IT

wc: 2.3k

warning(s): cursing, mentions of alcohol, hurt/comfort, one suggestive comment, mentions of toxic relationships, reader talking about her self sabotaging behavior and burnout, Bad Coping Methods (dont disappear kids)

-

“You haven’t seen her?” Zuko sighed as the same words he had heard on repeat for the past hour played through his ears again. “It’s alright, thank you. Have a good night.”

He shook his head at his friends, their defeated expressions mirroring his own as he leaned against the kitchen island. He ran an exhausted hand through his hair, and he couldn’t help but think of the countless times you had done it for him.

“Your sister doesn’t play when it comes to theatrics,” Aang lamented as he plopped on the couch next to Sokka.

“Tell me about it,” he muttered. “I mean, she doesn’t pull stuff like this. Sometimes she went over the top when she was younger, staying out a little too late or doing something stupid, but she never just… she never just tried to disappear like this. I.. I guess she was too worried about Katara and me to do anything like that, but still.” He knocked back the rest of the seltzer and tossed the can on the table — alcohol was tempting, but none of them wanted to be any less than completely aware tonight.

“We all knew she was hurting,” Sokka continued. “Not even she could be fine after everything that happened with Hahn, especially the day after, but I— I guess I thought that she would open up before just dropping off the radar completely!

“No news from the girls,” Aang announced, prompting a collective sigh from the other two boys. “I gotta give it to her, she’s been very thorough with this.”

“Of course she has. It’s classic Y/N — she can disappear without a trace, sure, but she can’t put enough effort into picking up some supplies for my project on her way home.” It was a lame attempt to lighten the mood, and though he got a weak chuckle out of Aang, it was radio silence on Zuko’s part.

“Hey, buddy.” It didn’t snap him out of his reverie, and Sokka seriously contemplated throwing his empty soda can at him. “You okay?”

“She didn’t even say anything to me,” he finally murmured, eyes trained on his phone screen. “She said she would tell me if she was having a hard time, but she didn’t say anything to me. Just suffered in silence until it got so bad she just up and left. She just… left. Without a single word to anyone. To me.”

Aang’s eyes softened and he let out a loose exhale. “Zuko, she didn’t mean to hurt you — I know that much. She’s just been under a lot of stress lately, and… I guess it didn’t manifest in the best way.”

“Stress...” he muttered, trying to piece it together. There was something nagging at the back of his skull, something on the tip of his tongue, but he just couldn’t get it. “And you guys are sure she hasn’t put anything anywhere? No texts that you missed, nothing?”

“Believe me,” Sokka said. “I’ve refreshed her pages a thousand times by now. It’s radio silence on her side. God, I wish I was more invasive and put like, a tracking device on her car or something! For all we know, she could be back to Kyoshi.”

Kyoshi. Stress. This whole thing, your disappearing act.

And suddenly, it clicked.

Zuko stood up abruptly, nearly knocking over the stool in the process and warranting puzzled looks from both of his friends as he grabbed his keys off the table and practically ran to the door.

“Zuko, where are you going?” Aang questioned.

He tugged the door open and shot a glance back at them, tension having noticeably dissolved from his shoulders.

“I know where she is.”

-

Zuko tapped idly against the steering wheel, once again glancing down at his phone screen but to no avail. His relationship with you had become infinitely more complicated since the kiss through fault of both of them — he supposed that was what happened when two people who didn’t know how to talk about their emotions caught feelings for each other. Zuko was very skilled at sticking his foot in his mouth whenever he tried to talk about anything like this, and

But you had accepted his offer to talk on the way home, so that meant something.

He had originally suggested just talking on the way home like he had proposed earlier, but you had a different idea. ‘Trust me,’ you had told him. ‘It has a good track record with making people feel better.’

Your proposition was a wildflower field on the outskirts of the city, just out of the way that someone would go en route to the university. Far enough from the city to emanate an aura of peace, but close enough to be a feasible trip.

“I found this place when I was missing home,” you smiled as he parked the car. “I love it here, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes I just feel homesick for Kyoshi. You passed a field like this on the way into town, and when I stumbled here, it just kinda felt like fate. So now whenever I’m stressed, or overwhelmed, or just need a break, I come out here. And I think this is the perfect place to talk about… well, whatever’s going on with us.”

“Sounds good.” He returned the sentiment then cleared his throat. “As long as we don’t go in there. I can admire it from afar, but just looking at that field is making my skin itch.”

You laughed and nodded amiably. “Deal.”

-

One hand was splayed against your chest, the other trailing lazy circles with the pads of your fingers against the metal as you gazed up at the sky. You had the best and only seat of the view, the flora drifting softly in the night breeze as the stars twinkled from above.

You didn’t know what you were thinking, being here. The past couple of weeks had just been… crushing you. It was like your heart was stuck in a vice and no matter what you did, it just got tighter and tighter.

You had been treating everyone you knew horribly, but you couldn’t stop. It felt like a game — how terribly could you act towards them until they snapped too? Until your friends, your siblings, Zuko, recognized that they had made a mistake by trying to help you?

And you didn’t know what it was about today, but… something inside of you just broke after that morning with your roommates. So you did what you were best at, and you ran. Skipped class, skipped work, just drove around aimlessly until even that was starting to feel like too much of a trap.

And then you ended up here.

It would’ve been laughable if you weren’t on the verge of breaking down.

You had been here, just laying on the hood of your car parked a few feet away from the field on an off road path, for the better part of an hour. If you were going to drown underneath the weight of your thoughts, it was better to do it alone.

But as you heard the crunching of gravel underneath car tires, your eyes instinctively shot towards the noise — so much for being alone — and you sat up. Your brows furrowed in recognition, you knew that car, and it felt like your heart was going to beat out of your chest when Zuko stepped out.

“You remembered,” you breathed after a moment of silence. “You’re here.”

“Always.” He said it so obviously, so easily — why wouldn’t he remember? Why wouldn’t he be here?

You scooted over to make space on the hood and patted the space next to you softly, pulling your knees up to your chest in a moment of shame as he walked around to the front and pushed himself up next to you. What were you going to say to him? What could you say?

“I’m sorry,” you said out of the blue, your words pouring out of you like an emotional waterfall. “I’m sorry for just— for just leaving, I know it was stupid and I know they’re all probably worried out of their minds, but I couldn’t do it, Zuko. I-it was like I was trapped, and I know it was irrational, but I had to get out of there—”

“You didn’t have to,” he said quietly, effectively stopping your rant. “If you really had to get out, you could’ve at least said something to one of us. I don’t know what things were like back at Kyoshi, but here— here, you can’t throw yourself back onto the knife every time something goes wrong, because— you just can’t do that anymore.”

“I’m not mad, believe me, I’m relieved that you’re okay. I just..” he sighed and glanced up at the night sky, the light of the moon illuminating his features as he faced you once more. “I know you’ve felt alone before, but you’re not. You have Katara, and Sokka, Suki, Toph— you have me, Y/N! And I’m not going anywhere, trust me, but— but you can’t keep doing this to yourself, because they care about you, and I care about you.”

You swallowed the lump in your throat and chose to concentrate on the hood of the car, tapping your fingers against the metal as a way to use up your nervous energy. “You’re… you’re right,” you said after a long moment of silence, the beginnings of a mirthless smile on your lips.

“After that night at the party, I just— I couldn’t stop thinking about what happened. There was a part of me that just wanted to lock myself in my room and never come out, but I— I told myself I was better than that, and I refused to let myself fall back onto any of it. So I worked. I took extra shifts, I helped out my professors, I did anything and everything I could to try and keep my mind off of Hahn. But I wasn’t helping anything, I was just… I was destroying myself. It was just like you said. I was a candle burning at both ends but still convinced that I was doing the right thing, and eventually.. I just couldn’t take it anymore. So I ran.”

“And— there’s always been this… this voice in my head that pops up after things in my life are going good, and it tells me that something is going to go wrong. A-and it tells me that if I’m the one that ruins it, then I don’t have to ask myself what I did wrong, if I could’ve stopped it from happening— if it’s inevitable, then I should be the one to ruin it. It’s how most of my relationships ended, and— well, the only thing it’s succeeded in is making me miserable.”

You don’t even notice your hands are shaking until you feel Zuko placing his own over yours — a simple gesture asking an unsaid question, one you answer by intertwining his fingers with your own.

“That same voice popped up again once I started getting close to you,” you admitted quietly. “And this whole time, I’ve been so terrified of falling that I never considered you would catch me. But I’m tired, Zuko. I’m tired of constantly looking over the edge.”

As you turned your head to meet his eyes again, your breath caught in your throat at his close proximity. You were sure that no matter how much time you spent with him, your heart would never stop beating out of your chest for Zuko.

“I will always be there to catch you,” he affirmed softly. “And I’m not going anywhere.”

And just like before, he brought his hand to the side of your face and tenderly brushed a loose strand of hair behind your ear. His hand, slightly calloused but emanating comfort all the same, lingered on your cheek for a moment before he posed the question.

“Can I kiss you?”

You nodded, and his lips captured your own immediately. You reciprocated with an almost desperate fervor and— and it just felt so right. You had grown so accustomed to the constant warmth he carried with him that it had become a part of you, he had become a part of you, and now a life without Zuko was just unimaginable.

He was right — he already was there to catch you, each and every time. Giving you endless rides when your car broke down, sitting through the world’s most boring anthro projects, letting you bare your soul to him, telling you it was all going to be okay when nothing felt okay, and managing to find you when you had gone out of your way to not be found. And all of it— it all made you realize.

You didn’t want to keep running. And you didn’t have to. Not anymore.

Zuko pulled away and pressed his forehead to yours, breathing slightly labored as the two of you sat in comfortable silence. That is, until you broke it.

“So,” you started, a nervous chuckle following. “Are we… are we a thing now?”

You could tell that caught him by surprise by the laugh that escaped him, a sound of unfiltered joy. “I’d say that we are.”

You could feel the heat rushing to your cheeks once more as he slid off of the hood of the car and held out his hand, an offering you took happily. “We should get home,” he said, somewhat reluctantly. “It’s past midnight, and—” Zuko glanced at his phone and grimaced. “They’re all still worried out of their minds.”

“Right,” you muttered. “I’m gonna get the lecture of my life from Sokka and Katara.”

“Probably,” he chuckled. “But they’re just doing their job as concerned siblings.” He pressed a chaste kiss to your forehead and glanced back at his own car. “I’ll see you back at the apartment?”

You nodded, an uncontrollable smile pulling at your lips. “Thank you, Zuko. For this, and— for everything.”

He returned the sentiment, golden eyes filled with adoration.

“Always.”

-

if your name is crossed out it means i can’t tag you!

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atla: @marianne1806

[moonlightchn]

~WHOLESOME WEDNESDAY~

Hello this is (not) JYPe and guess who's feeling soft again? this mf 💞 heh I just thought hey it's been a while and I kinda am seeing how a lot of us are falling back on activity and posting less and stuff and I kinda feel like the general activity of the community has come DOWN a lot which I mean it's OK!!!! because we all have lives!!!! right? but also I do kinda WORRY LIKE WHERE YALL AT i guess I just kinda wanna make sure we're all doing good? yall holding on? taking care? sleeping and stuff? I've seen also many bots pop up again recently (STARES AT THAT ONE ADMIN THAT MADE LIKE 3 BOTS IN 2 MONTHS WITH LIKE 10 PPLZ EACH YES YOU PLEASE TAKE CARE) and I know bot can sometimes feel like a job more than a fun relaxing place for some so just take it easy on that too just making sure we all remember that things around here aren't that deep and you can take it at your own pace. this has always been supposed to be a safe, fun place where we make friends and have a blast, so if it doesnt feel like that anymore step back, take a deep breath and then come back if you want but like dont feel like you gotta be here and keep putting stuff out for others

I know school work, uni, real work, family, responsibilities, it can all be too much sometimes and drive us a little bit insane. I personally have a 🤩🤩 fun few days coming 🤩🤩 I hope I don't die 🤩🤩 so yeah maybe I'm PROJECTING RN but yknow how it be, I think its important sometimes to remind ourselves that, yknow, stepping back and taking some time for ourselves it's also ok. I sometimes just log out and not having my phone vibrating and notifs popping up for just a few hours feels refreshing. it's ok. you wont miss out on anything important for treating yourself to one internet free day

we take so many things seriously sometimes dont we? like, sure theres things that ARE important like keeping connections and friends and staying healthy and safe, but also theres so many things that are important for ??? no valid reason ??? or that maybe we wrongly prioritize over other things like for example dont prioritize your bot development over your sleep plz don't do that it's not worth it rip, or dont feel like you need to be around 24/7 when you have other things to do or just don't want to. dont feel like you're neglecting bot because you have to study or feel like going out with friends is pushing you back here. dont feel like being behind in notifs is such a big deal. youre a great admin and you're doing well!

but also like,,,, dont prioritize work and uni over sleep and eating and taking breaks and going out and getting fresh air either. really just prioritize yourself first. sometimes being here just as admin and sharing and talking to friends is good enough. you dont always need to be your character, you don't always need to keep an image or a clean neat blog. you can just enjoy and go around shitposting that's really ok! (bunnies for the soul)

yknow it's really cliche to think about it but sometimes you just gotta sit back and be like what am i doing? why am i doing this? what am I taking from this? is this meaningful or beneficial for my life and my growth and my wellbeing? like tumblr as any social media can be TOXIC it rlly still is just because we don't see shit it doesnt mean it's not going on and just because we don't go through something anymore it doesn't mean it hasnt hurt us or leave us super fucking paranoid around.

I JUST AM SAYING that I know many of us maybe feel safe and welcomed and at home here or like we won't get this thing we have here anywhere else but I think we make our own safety and comfort yknow? itd be really sad to see some of you go and the community poof but I also think that for us to keep carrying this thing we have and for us to protect it and for more people to feel welcome and safe we first need to look at ourselves and be sure we can actually keep doing this. I see posts pop here and there about admins feeling sad they get no interactions or how people they talked to has left or how they simply have things going on that makes them sad and unable to be around and I think often we forget, even though we say it ALL the time, that we're all just people behind these. dont forget you're just a person too. I've personally been having quite a hard time coming around with the boys on dms, anyone who talks to me knows that, but as admin? I'm always here. and sure none of us HAS to feel responsible of others, we're not /individually/ responsible of someone's fun or popularity or how long they stick around, but as a whole community we are all responsible somehow of this place's safety and to look ALL after each other. don't forget we're all just people and don't push each other to get things

anyway what im trying to say is that I do fucking love all of you so much and like I worry yknow??? I worry a lot when I see someone upset or I feel like an admin is in a kinda place. it's been just a bit over a year since I've joined this and ive been lucky enough to meet some amazing people that will always live in my heart no matter what and some others maybe I do not really know you or talk to you but I do appreciate your existence yknow you're not invisible and I notice when some of yall delete or when someone I see around makes a new bot and I 👀 or when yall change @s without telling and I have to go through my lists to fix them. maybe it's not enough but I do notice you and I hope you know that. and so because I love all of you I do think that I am a bit responsible of putting at least one smile on your faces throughout the day too be it with a post or a rb or an ask and so I do hope all of you feel a little responsible about someone else's happiness too. I know dash can be hard, I know dms can be hard, and I'm.not saying hey go befriend each other RN but maybe just stopping by someone's bot and "hey this is v cool!", I'm sure that would mean a lot for many people

maybe I just ate too much sugar today. whatever it be, have bunnies I love this kind of art

[yunfeiz]

my fav red velvet songs

for some clarification, in every rv ep, mini album, or album i'll tell you which song is my favourite (jokes on you all of them are my favourite, these ones are just to my tastes more)

let's begin!

something kinda crazy - ice cream cake the melody gets super addicting after a bit and i really love the song. like whoever made it knew what they were doing cuz it's literally making me go crazy

day 1 - the red this song makes me so happy. like it always manages to put a smile on my face. idk the lyrics but this is the song that makes me feel like im slowly falling in love

cool hot sweet love - the velvet i feel like this is the kind of song that makes me feel so relaxed. the way all of their voices blend together is so addicting. it's like their harmonizing but im 50% sure they arent. love this song

sunny afternoon - russian roulette it's the same thing that i said above. their voices blend together in the chorus so well because of their different tones. SM is so lucky to have red velvet cuz their voices are out of the world.

happily ever after - rookie people don't talk about this song enough. its so addicting. wendy's adlibs make it even better. the song is cute and it's so cheerful and it's just really beautiful. one of my fav rv songs

hear the sea - the red summer i feel like this song is so calming and refreshing. it's almost like an entirely different vibe from the album. it's like drinking a cup of water after eating a hearty meal.

kingdom come - the perfect velvet + the perfect red velvet red velvet repackage albums make me cry sometimes tbh BUT kingdom come is the best thing that came out of this. this song is slept on. their vocal tones make the song sound even better.

blue lemonade - summer magic tbh i dont' have much to say on this song other than IT'S SO GOOD. summer magic is such a good summer album i would highly reccomend listening to this when it's hot out

rbb - RBB this is one of the few red velvet albums where im like the tt is better than the b sides (cuz red velvet are b side queens). rbb is just THAT song. i love it so much (for b side sassy me is my fav)

milkshake - the reve festival day 1 milkshake is one of those really surprisngly fun songs cuz it sounds almost minor (idk if it is my music theory is a little shabby rn), but the song and the way it's written is super fun. super cool

ladies night - the reve festival day 2 i had a horrible time choosing between ladies night and love is the way but i decided on ladies night. once again im a sucker for city pop like influences in songs and ladies night just fulfills that. (i adore love is the way though)

in & out - the reve festival finale i love this repackage album tbh. i listen to this before debate tourneys so i don't cry. in and out is just amazing. idk how to express why exactly i love it but i do

pushin & pullin - queendom i think i follow the person who produced this song on tiktok? but they produced it wonderfully. it fits the timbres and the tones of the rv girls so well. i enjoy this song so much

bamboleo - the reve festival 2022 in terms of general music theory and production feel my rhythm would take the cake BUT i can make a post about that another time (lemme know if you want it). however, AGAIN city pop is my thing and any song with city pop influences so bamboleo is literally amazing

i haven't been posting very consistently lately and i'd like to apologize. i have exams in a couple of weeks so i gotta start preparing. i will try and make some layout posts this week and keep updating you guys about songs im obsessed with but i don't have any guarantees. have a great day!

[shugokairifatewin]

I need to rant about Code Lyoko.

I watched this show as a kid, a little ten year old if recall correctly, and I was OBSESSED with it. I loved the characters, I loved the music, I loved the story and the concept and it really shaped my life in a lot of ways but I never got to finish it as a kid.

Fast-forward fifteen years and here we are, Netflix comes out of left field with my favorite childhood TV show and I'm stoked - LIKE I'M REALLY STOKED, this is what I've been waiting for, this is it! I can finally see what happens after all the sectors are deleted (I had watched on and off up until about Season 3 and I had seen some of season 4 with William being possessed / on Lyoko - what's that saying about kinks coming from your favorite Villains?)

Anyway, putting my favorite Good-Character-Possessed-Against-Their-Will-And-Forced-To-Fight-For-Evil Trope 👀

So I rewatch the whole thing, I want to refresh everything and enjoy the experience and relive my childhood. And I'm chugging through season 4, eating UP That William Angst, gotta save William, gonna save William, William isn't himself, he doesn't mean to hurt us - LIVING FOR IT - and then I start to get a little nervous because I finish episode 26 and I'm like alright we have 3 episodes don't be playing with me Code Lyoko I need some William Redemption in here, that's what I live for after this angst fest, we love angst with a happy ending-

Except that's not what we get at ALL. We get the Lyoko Warriors - whom I love very dearly, each and every one of them with my soul and heart - celebrating for like 10 seconds - MAYBE and then we see these little shits BLOWING WILLIAM OFF IN THE NEXT EPISODE LIKE HES STILL HALF-POSSESSED, LIKE XANA ABOUT TO COME IN AND STRANGLE AELITA - and don't get me wrong because I get it, it's all about paranoia, think about the lasting effects Xana has probably already given these poor kiddos and now we're going to add the fact that William was literally forged into a Xana Warrior to further tip the scales in Xana's favor - I've considered that it wouldn't be easy for them to just pretend like that didn't happen - but to completely drop him? To literally just refuse to let him be a part of the gang? First of all, not even looking at how morally FUCKED that decision is, but Bro he knows your secret, he remembers when you Return to the Past, you guys fucking decided to bring him into your group, you can't just undecide that he's in it. He could really mess y'all up - BUT HE DOESN'T HE INSTEAD HELPS YOU GUYS WHEN YOU NEED HIM EVEN THOUGH Y'ALL TREATING HIM LIKE A TRASH CAN AND THEN WHEN YOU FUCKS REFUSE TO LET HIM GO TO LYOKO TO REDEEM HIMSELF AND GET A LITTLE ANGER AT XANA FOR OH I DONT KNOW RUINING HIS FUCKING LIFE - HE 👏 GETS 👏 POSSESSED 👏 AGAIN 👏 WHICH WOULDNT HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU GUYS HAD LET HIM COME WITH YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE INSTEAD OF DISTRUSTING AND ASSUMING

Can you even fathom the amount of PTSD, the amount of guilt that William has? Let's just pretend for a second that it isn't all sunflowers and rainbows because it's a kid show and William's memory of his time possessed by Xana isn't magically blank, let's talk realistically here for a second. William would be so fucking wrecked afterwards, he literally would feel so guilty, he'd have some crazy bad anxiety. And to top it the fuck off, all his friends are literally estranging him. my heart literally WEEPS for William. THEY DIDNT EVEN INVITE HIM TO THE SUPER COMPUTER SHUT DOWN PARTY. WHAT THE ACTUAL-

I'm going to watch Code Lyoko Evolution ONLY SO THAT I CAN SEE IF THEY REDEEM THIS ENDING BECAUSE WILLIAM FUCKING DESERVED MORE! The last three episodes of Code Lyoko could've been a whole season on its own. Could've spent a whole season getting William back into the group, helping him mo e past his anxiety and his guilt, could've had him redeem himself on Lyoko and let the group rely on him, let him come through for them so that everything's RIGHT IN THE END. Convince me otherwise.