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daincrediblegg · 27 days

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no you know what I'm going to scream about the stuff I talked about in the tags of this post publicly

I'm tired of the well-meaning "don't feel bad if your work only gets 20 notes your genius is what counts and do it for you!" bullshit. I've had a good handful of friends who have straight up DEACTIVATED in recent months because their work was not getting reblogged AT ALL. No, it wasn't from lack of not being well-liked, no it wasn't from lack of trying to make sure it was getting out there to the people they knew would engage with it. It was because no matter how much they were praised privately for their work, when push came to shove, absolutely NOBODY reblogged it and gave it the audience that it was due, and I'm tired of people shoving the "unsung genius" narrative as an excuse for it. Nothing excuses that. And the boop event really proved that.

because I know given the opportunity, indiscriminately pressing a button (sometimes 10 thousand times, as I did) is not beyond this website's capability. y'all loved doing that. and look at what it wrought. nothing but love and affection and happiness. just from a couple of quick clicks of a little paw button. sure. nobody knew who you booped but the other person (which is how likes used to work on this website, btw). there was an element of anonymity to it. but that is kind of the core of this website that no other social media platform still has: the ability to be anonymous. and hyper-curating a blog on here like you might on twitter or instagram to project an image is simply not viable. and hey. you wanna know a secret: literally nobody cares what you post or whether it goes with the "theme" of your blog or not. yeah. I know. CRAZY concept in this day and age. but literally. I myself have reblogged things that have had nothing to do with whatever I am currently fixated by and you know what happened to my follower count? not a damn thing. in fact, I actively try to reblog things specifically BECAUSE it's my friends who made them (even though I'm not always good at KEEPING UP WITH HOW MUCH THEY POST @prismatica-the-strange will NEVER GO UNRECOGNIZED by me).

And you know what fucking sucks? I have to deal with this too. surprise right? you ever wonder why I reblog fics or art I post like 20 times the day that I post them? do you ever wonder why I ask about tag lists and beg for asks all the time? IT'S BECAUSE EVEN I GET LIKE. 5 LIKES ON THE THINGS I POST. AND THE REST OF THE REBLOGS ARE MINE SO I CAN MAKE SURE THAT PEOPLE WHO WANT TO SEE WHAT I MAKE GET TO SEE IT. and I say that knowing that I'm certainly not an unpopular blog, or an unpopular writer. I know that people love the stories that I create. Hell, half of the people that I've talked to about lady terror have told me that they consider her to be canon (AND EVEN SOME!! THOUGHT SHE WAS!!! WITHOUT EVEN HAVING WATCHED THE SHOW! WHICH IS STILL SO SO WILD TO ME!!!) But especially in the last 4 years (which really dates this phenomenon), my posts, no matter how well received they've been amongst people I've talked to about them directly, I still go into the notes and at least half (often more than half) are MY reblogs to make sure people saw what I posted. and it happens every single time, and I can't tell you how much it crushes me considering that it used to be that I would be able to post it only once, and people would reblog it sometimes even HUNDREDS of times.

It's not about popularity. it never has been. it's not about anxiety. or shifting website cultures. even if you lurk, the simple fact is, that if you want people to keep making what you love. you have to reblog. your theme won't suffer because you reblogged a fanfiction that you really admire. your posting won't be ruined because you reblogged some fanart from someone in a different fandom. really. I promise. and if people do unfollow you for that? who needs em. followers come and go but you should NEVER have to cater to them. on this website it has ALWAYS been the other way around. lean into it. make it yours. put stuff you ACTUALLY WANT to be seen and that you love and appreciate on your blog. no matter how old it is, how new it is, no matter how niche or off-theme it is.

so please. if you really want to show your appreciation for someone's work? you reblog. it's really as easy as that. check the tags. add some when you reblog if you like. but please for the love of god reblog. it's as easy as booping and even more rewarding for the people who you reblog from. if you want to let someone know that their work is genius and appreciate it? show it. reblog. then DM them if you're too nervous to say what you want to say but not in a public forum. but for christ's sake. REBLOG.

#fanfiction #fanart #reblogging #boop

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heartbreakgrill · 8 months

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stiles stilinksi: breakable heaven; part 5, “i don't wanna keep secrets just to keep you.”

a/n: enjoy this bc it’s gonna be sad boi hours in the next part ;)

tagging: @ariianelle

the world shifted, just a little bit.

stiles and y/n found themselves spending a lot more time together. granted, that time was often under the sheets, in a locked car, or- just once- in the locker room after a game. nonetheless, the skin on skin contact always led to conversations, conversations that were deepening in content. they were getting to know each other, forming an attachment both swore would never even exist.

as the time passed, they each found solace in one another, a comfort, a sort of destressor that neither was able to substitute with anyone or anything else. neither were aware of this, but it was as present as the air.

y/n's parents were always out of town, and, while she didn’t have any doubts that they loved and supported her, they were absentee. they missed out on the everyday moments in her life. so, she was usually all by herself through it all. sure, danny came over every once and while, but there were still those periods of time where she was left, literally in the middle of nowhere, all alone. stiles was a warm body to sit next to, an attentive ear to listen to her troubles or woes, without judgement or expectations. he was just there. whenever she needed or wanted.

and, for stiles, y/n was just a human being. she didn't have claws, fangs, premonitions about his friends' deaths, or any other intense, supernatural features. this fact he was positive of since he’d had both scott and derek invade and smell her locker to ensure she was really a living, breathing, human girl.

with all he had to deal with, every single day, he was grateful to get to act like a normal teenage boy some days out of the week. laughing instead of fighting for his life, watching movies instead of drawing up investigation boards.

today was one of those bad days, for the both of them. a bad day where they just needed each other.

the number of killings in beacon hills was rising, rapidly, day by grueling day. and there wasn’t much stiles could do to help. he could ramble, on and on, about the mindless theories rattling around inside his head. he could tag along to random warehouses and parking lots, only to hide away once the real conflict began.

but, he was overall useless to the entire process.

it made his shoulders a little heavier some days, to know he had no control over anything anymore. scott could take away pain, lydia could help save somebody before they died, allison could shoot down three different wolves with the same arrow.

stiles could only talk.

today was one of those days where he just felt kind of shitty about it all.

dr. deaton was missing. and there wasn’t much of anything stiles could do to help. he felt like he always just got in the way.

y/n was in a similar boat.

her parents were out of town for the third week now. they’d promised to be home this past weekend, and had talked y/n up with a week full of dinners, family outings, a visit to her school, normal things that parents normally did with their normal children. of course, they’d cancelled on her last minute because of some conference across the world. she’d asked danny to come stay for the week, but he said he couldn’t. he was going out of town with ethan.

she felt abandoned.

usually, y/n would sulk, by herself, with take out, a round of depressing movies, and homework she didn’t really feel like doing. sometimes, she’d even beg her boss to let her come in for a shift.

but, it was saturday evening, so the staffing was already full for the rest of the night.

so, she texted stiles.

y/n: pls tell me ur bored

stiles: what time?

y/n: anytime :)

stiles: omw gorgeous

–

“alright, i’ve got it.”

stiles plopped down onto the couch beside y/n, bowl of popcorn in left hand, a can of dr. pepper in the right. he crossed his ankles and stretched his legs onto the coffee table. y/n sat criss-cross beside him and extended part of the blanket she wore onto his lap. stiles set the bowl down atop his covered thighs.

“oh, yeah, what’s that?” he asked, taking a sip of his drink.

y/n pointed to the television, and he followed her gaze. netflix was open on the bright screen, with a movie queued up. “the first scream.”

stiles nodded appreciatively, until she added, “aka, the best slasher film of all time.”

he squinted his face and shook his head rapidly, “i cannot believe you just said that!”

y/n giggled at his expression, “don’t even argue with me right now!”

“it’s hard not to argue with someone who is so blatantly wrong!” he replied.

y/n stole the popcorn from his lap, “thats not even a good counter. at least make a decent rebuttal!”

“okay,” he peered over at her with a matter-of-fact look, “halloween is the best slasher because;” he counted each point off on his fingers, it has a cooler villain, better kill sequences, and the hottest final girl.”

y/n rolled her eyes, and shoved his shoulder with her own, “you just like it cause of jamie lee curtis’ boob scene.”

stiles pursed his lips, “they are pretty great.”

“but they didn’t need to add nudity to that movie! that’s so sexist and gross to support that idea, you pig.”

stiles stole a handful of popcorn, shoveling it into his mouth. “what can i say, im a boob guy.”

if she didn’t know him so well, she’d think stiles, in this moment, was kinda gross. but, she recognized his humor better than most. she appreciated that it was sarcasm. and, he kinda looked cute with his cheeks full of popcorn.

y/n blushed at the comment, looking down slightly, “oh, i know.” boy, did she.

he tapped the edge of the bowl, garnering her attention again, “don’t do that.”

her brows furrowed, meeting his eyes, “do what?”

“don’t be dirty. i don’t think we’ll make it through the movie if you start acting up.” as his words drifted out, stiles’ tone of voice lowered. he leaned his head closer to hers and the corner of his lips turned up in a devilish smirk.

y/n grinned in response. she grabbed the back of his neck, smashing her lips into his, drawing a sharp breath off his tongue. stiles moaned into her, barely catching the popcorn before it could spill. his other hand clutched his dr. pepper, so he didn’t have much leverage against her advances.

stiles clambered around until he found the coffee table, shoving the popcorn bowl atop it. “wait, wait, wait-“ stiles gently grabbed her biceps, tugging her off of him delicately.

y/n’s face fell instantly. she cowered away, hugging herself with her arms. she thought that was what he wanted, but now it seemed he was mad. “i’m sorry. i’m so sorry- i didn’t-“

“no, no, no,” stiles set a wary hand between them. “you didn’t do anything wrong. you’re okay, it’s okay.”

“i’m sorry,” she slouched, frowning. she relaxed a little bit, but the moment still worried her. “i thought that’s what you wanted?”

stiles shook his head and grabbed her hand, holding it between his like a prayer. “no, no- i mean- yes. i want you, i always- want you. but, i don’t- i don’t want you to feel pressured to do that all the time. i want to watch a movie with you. i like just hanging out, too. i don’t just expect sex out of you. that’s not all this is-“

stiles pressed his lips together. he always said too much.

always said too much.

y/n let out a breath she had been holding at the top of her chest. her mind raced with a thousand words she didn’t how to say.

this changed everything. the rules were blurred. the lines were crossed.

and it now seemed that, maybe, just maybe, he wanted her like she wanted him.

all she could say was, “okay.”

she didn’t want to rush things. she didn’t want to force him to label it. she didn’t want to get in over her head, throw her hopes up, and get let down again.

stiles’ worried expression fell into a gentle smile, “okay, hey, i’ll even let you think scream is the best slasher film, just for the night.”

an easy giggle fell out of her. “deal.”

stiles fixed the blanket across their laps that had fallen off slightly, while y/n tucked her legs up onto the seat, cozy against the back of the couch.

he stretched an arm across the back of her seat, inching over to her slyly. y/n bit back a smile and leaned into his side. stiles choked back a cough, a strangled attempt to clear his throat. he set his arm around her, fingers lingering over her shoulder.

the movie started.

it took them a few minutes to loosen after that moment. but, eventually, they fell back into their same routine- stiles made lame jokes, y/n nearly fell over laughing at all of them. he compared scream to halloween, calling out which parts would probably be better with a michael myers killer instead of ghost face. she argued back that he was a sore loser.

eventually, the movie was drawing to a close. the credit scene was just about to roll across the television screen when y/n’s phone started ringing from the coffee table. she jumped slightly, a little spooked from the movie, though she’d seen it a million times.

stiles tossed his head back, laughing over her fright. she shot him a dirty look as she reached for her phone. he took his arm off of her, but patted her thigh in a mocking manner. “don’t worry, i’ll protect you.”

y/n shoved his arm playfully, but her attention was drawn away by the contact showing up on her screen. ethan was calling her.

“give me a second,” she mumbled, leaving the room with confusion written all over face.

stiles watched her go, sitting forward on the couch. her distant tone worried him a moment. he pulled out his own phone, hoping for something from scott. updates, suspects, something. hoping the plague wasn’t going to reach her, too.

his screen was black.

stiles wanted to tell her about everything. maybe he should. it would explain his erratic, anxious, flakey behavior.

but, telling her would bring her into it.

and he didn’t know how well he could protect her.

so, the secret was just his for now.

stiles opened scott’s contact, ready to give him a quick call, just in case, when y/n reentered the room. “hey, everything okay?” he barely glanced up at her, but had to do a double take when he noticed how she looked.

y/n was shaking, visibly, clutching her phone in her right hand, which was still held up near her ear as though she was about to answer the phone again. a few tears escaped her eyes, and her pupils were dilated with fear and sadness.

“y/n?” stiles stood up, slowly, tone rattled.

had his troubles finally plagued her, too? was the one sacred, peaceful thing he had finally tainted by the cruelty of his reality? a million worried, terrified thoughts sped through his mind.

y/n met his eye, “danny’s in the hospital. he-he almost died. hi-his l-lung collapsed.”

stiles moved quickly. he carefully took her by the waist, guided her into a pair of shoes, into his jeep. he stayed attentive to her the entire car ride. he played her taylor swift, nearly sat at a 180° angle while he drove, kept a firm hand on her thigh, and spoke to her in a soothing tone. y/n was nearly mute. she didn’t know what to say or what to do. she was just too stunned.

it was always shocking to discover that death could just come knocking on the door whenever it felt like it.

when they finally reached the hospital, stiles opened the car door for her. she grabbed onto his hand, following him into the building.

no one was allowed to visit with danny, at least not until the morning. unfortunately, his parents were out of town, like y/n’s, and couldn’t get back until monday. so y/n and ethan were all danny had until then.

“so, he’s gonna be okay?” stiles scratched the back of his neck nervously, knee bouncing.

y/n sat beside him in a waiting room chair, clutching his other hand till her knuckles were white. they stared up at melissa, awaiting her answer.

melissa returned their stare them with a kind smile, “he’s gonna be just fine. we’re gonna keep him overnight, just to monitor him. but, he’ll be alright.”

y/n took a deep breath. her head fell back against the wall, eyes squeezing shut in relief. melissa nodded once, reassuring them again, before turning to leave. she squeezed stiles’ shoulder as she went.

stiles turned his body to y/n, taking her hand in both of his. she finally met his eye. he was glad to see hers, the storm within them more weathered now, calmer like the water right after a wave. he smiled slightly.

“hey,” he whispered.

y/n finally smiled back. “hey. i’m…sorry if i freaked you out. i don’t do well with near-death experiences. i’m kind of a pussy.”

she laughed at herself, head dropping down in shane. stiles disagreed quickly, “no, no, hey,” he pushed the hair from y/n’s cheek, cupped her face, guided her eyes back to his, “you’re not a pussy. you’re a human being. you were scared and worried for your friend. i’m not judging for how you reacted. i just want to know you’re okay.”

she nodded, “i’m okay. just- tired, now. that was overwhelming. sitting here for an hour, waiting to hear if my best friend was dead or not.”

stiles brushed his thumb over her cheek, “i know, baby, i know.”

the word slipped so easily off his tongue, that he didn’t notice. y/n did, but she wouldn’t allow herself to get bent out shape over it. there was no time for that right now.

“i’m gonna stay here with him tonight.”

stiles moved his hand back to their entwined ones, “i’ll wait with you.”

y/n shook her head in disagreement, “i can’t ask that-“

“you didn’t ask,” he interrupted her, pointedly.

y/n went to say something else when scott disrupted their moment. he came out of danny’s room, nearly appearing out of thin air. stiles could tell he was on edge.

“stiles, hey, i was just about to call you,” he said, glancing between the both of them. “sorry about danny, y/n.”

“thanks,” she smiled slightly, though she was confused. “how did you get in to see-“

“stiles,” scott pretended to not hear her, turning his attention to his friend, “we need to talk.”

stiles patted y/n’s hand gently, “i’ll be right back, okay?”

he stood to leave her, but she didn’t let go of his hand. she held on until he was too far to reach. before he followed scott down the hall, however, he turned back, shrugging off his jacket.

“i know you’re gonna need this,” he murmured, tucking it around her shoulders.

y/n watched him walk away with scott, a dazed smile on her face.

things might be working out.

–

stiles had to leave. at least, scott needed stiles to leave. derek, isaac, boyd, and cora were planning a trap or something of the sort, and they needed to go help them. stiles needed to go help his friends.

but he didn’t want to.

for the first time in his life, he didn’t want to help. he wanted to stay here, in the hospital, with her. he wanted to hold her hand, sleep in the uncomfortable waiting room chairs, until the second they could visit danny. until the sun shone on her beautiful face.

stiles didn’t want to stand on the sidelines while his friends blood splattered across the walls around him. he especially didn’t want to watch somebody die tonight.

but, he didn’t protest when scott ushered him out of the building.

he had to do what he always had to do. it was expected. necessary.

like a sacrifice.

–

y/n tucked danny’s sheets around his chin like a mother would, before standing back to look at her work, proudly.

“you’re clinically insane,” he glared at her. the eye bags drearing his face were more prominent in the lighting coming from the lamp on his bedside table. y/n frowned deeply at the sight of him, so tired, nearly lifeless before her.

“you’re my little baby,” she cooed, sitting down beside him on the bed. it took everything in her not to squeeze his cheeks.

“i am a man,” he denied her.

y/n waved him off, “whatever helps you sleep. listen-“ she stood up, collecting her phone and keys off his bedside table, “i will be right down the hall. do not even hesitate to ask me for anything. water, a hug, maybe some cuddles-“

“go to sleep. you look like a walking corpse.”

y/n felt like one. they’d just gotten home the hospital, and it was 8pm on sunday. the waiting room chair had been uncomfortable, and she had felt a little off with the absence of stiles’ warm hands and soft words. so, she didn’t sleep very well. plus, sitting beside danny’s bed all day while they ran tests just added to the tired stress she was feeling.

but, the solace of his smell on his hoodie, and his sporadic text messages, got her through it all. he checked in once an hour, every hour. his phrasing was short, though, and he didn’t reply very quickly. but, stiles was still there. he was there for her.

now, y/n felt like she was going to collapse. so, she softly shut danny’s door behind her and headed for the guest room. it was right next door. she was too scared to leave him alone, so she was going to stay until his parents got home tomorrow night. she was even skipping school to look after him. ethan was going to stop by in the morning, today, he, apparently, had been caught up with something.

she didn’t really trust him. but that was a problem for another day.

y/n slipped out of her fresh pajama bottoms to get ready for bed because it was usually pretty warm in danny’s house. though she kept stiles’ hoodie on.

that morning, at the hospital, nurse mccall had delivered y/n’s book bag, packed neatly with a few essentials, like pjs, her toothbrush, her phone charger, to danny’s room.

stiles had gone out of his way to ensure she had her things how he’d gotten into her house? she didn’t know, and she didn’t really want to question it. she was just grateful he thought of her at all.

y/n shut the light off and got comfy under the covers. just as she went to shut off her phone, a phone call came through.

stiles.

“hello?” she whispered, voice too tired to speak too loud. y/n lay her head upon the pillow, shoving the phone between her ear and it. she felt her eyes closing.

“hey.”

the sound of his voice brought her so much comfort. the exhaustion was takning over now.

“how are you doing?” was the first thing he asked.

y/n smiled, which was visible through her words as she spoke, “better now.”

“oh, yeah?” stiles teased gently. “i was just checking in. was worried about you.”

“i was worried about you,” she emphasized, “is everything okay? nurse mccall said you had to handle something.”

everything was no okay. stiles had watched derek kill boyd just hours ago. luckily, they’d saved dr. deaton, and found a few more clues that would surely lead them to the serial killer rampaging their town.

but his classmate- his friend- was dead. and he watched it all happen. he couldn’t do anything to stop it.

but, e couldn’t tell her that.

though, she noticed a shift in his voice, “yeah, just something stupid. scott was having girl problems.”

y/n didn’t believe him.

she was noticing more and more that he was always disappearing, running off to do stuff that he wouldn’t tell her about. his cover stories never made much sense, either.

the thought that he was keeping secrets from her made y/n feel wary, made her want to pull away.

but, then he’d say something like, “i’m more worried about you, baby.”

and she was easily pulled back in.

“don’t,” she murmured. her eyes fell all the way shut. she was drifting off to sleep, the sound of his voice a sweet lullaby to her ears.

stiles smiled to himself. he imagined holding her in his arms, brushing the hair from her face as he watched her fall into a beautiful slumber. it comforted him.

but, when he focused his mind again, he was back in the cold, dark animal shelter, which was barren of any good feelings like the ones he could only day dream of for now.

he thought about telling her, again. but after what happened today, he wasn’t feeling very confident about it. he really, really could not lose her.

he just couldn’t.

“you should get to sleep,” stiles spoke.

scott motioned for him. so, stiles added, “i have to get going.”

“i miss you.” y/n was half asleep, completely unconscious to any words falling off her tongue.

stiles’ smiled again. “i miss you, too. hey, i’ll come see you tomorrow, okay? maybe we can watch the next scream.”

she didn’t have the energy to respond.

“you there, y/n?”

no response.

stiles figured she was asleep. “well, since you’re not there, i guess i can say…i really like you.”

y/n heard.

and she’d never tell.

she liked him, too.

but, what secrets was he keeping from her?

#derek x stiles #stiles stilinksi fanfiction #stiles stilinksi imagine #stiles stilinksi x reader #stiles stilinski #stiles x lydia #stiles x reader #teen wolf #teen wolf stiles #teen wolf x reader

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bg-brainrot · 7 months

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Hello, I am writing Astarion fanfic with no signs of stopping 👋

Note: All Astarion x Tav, all written with gender-neutral pronouns and from second-person POV. Will continue to update this! This blog is all BG3 + Astarion

Love at First Knife

Rogue!Tav and Spawn!Astarion

This series is based on my double-rogue playthrough. Tav is an assassin rogue, chaotic neutral, chooses mostly good options but a ton of options just for the laughs or the money. Astarion remains unascended. Everyone shows up sooner or later, though main group includes Karlach and Shadowheart.

The Trap is Set: Two 8 strength rogues get stuck and need to wait for rescue; one of those rogues doesn't like being trapped underground

Failed a Dex Save and Fell for You: the gang plays Truth or Dare and Tav starts to realize their feelings

Healing Threads: Astarion is an expert at embroidery -- Tav finds this out through an injury. They later find out *why* he’s such an expert

NEW! The Night They Slept Together: Tav pines, and their relationship with Astarion shifts ever so slightly. (They literally do just sleep) [Tumblr]

One Small Bedroll, Two Confused Hearts: oh no, one bed! But both Astarion and Tav are scared to admit they're catching real feelings

Failed Every Insight Check and Fell all the Harder: Astarion POV, he begins feeling some new feelings. It's only after Moonrise Towers that he can put a name to them. [Tumblr]

Stolen Hearts: Tav "picks" Astarion over Karlach (Tav and Karlach were never really together but oh well, semantics)

A Stolen Moment: Tav and Astarion are on a thief date

The Rogues that Slay Together Stay Together: Tav goes down protecting Astarion, Astarion has never been this worried

A Pair of Penguin Pebblers: Both Astarion and Tav love stealing, they steal through a shopping episode and go on a date afterward

The Smut Peddlers of Sharess' Caress: the group finds smut written about Astarion and Tav [Tumblr]

A Bad Counterfeit: Tav is replaced by a doppelganger and Astarion immediately notices something's wrong, some angst as he comes to term with being a "hero"

Hugs for a Vampire: Rogue!Tav and Astarion's romance as told through hugs [Tumblr Masterlist]

More than Vampiric Charms: After some banter between Jaheira and Astarion goes too far, Rogue!Tav reassures Astarion [Tumblr]

Would You Still Love Me?: Rogue!Tav asks the question everyone wants to know the answer to "would you still love me if I was a worm?" [Tumblr]

Of Bets, Bluffs, and Briefs: The gang plays strip poker, though it seems like not everyone (Astarion) is playing by the rules [Tumblr]

Brawls Fair in Love and War: What starts out as a scuffle turns into a full out tavern brawl for the gang [Tumblr]

Alone in a Crowded Camp: Astarion reflects and realizes that company isn't so bad. [Tumblr]

Their First Winter Together: Astarion and Rogue!Tav enjoy a lot of winter firsts in this fluff-filled extravaganza [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]

Unraveling Plan Meet Immeasurable Insecurity: Tav tries their damnedest to propose, only to be rebuffed by Astarion at every single turn. [Tumblr]

(smut) The Thousandth Time: Astarion and Rogue!Tav make love for the thousandth time. In a bathtub. [Tumblr]

Random post-game rogue!Tav headcanons

A Star in the Dark

Evil!Dark Urge and Ascended!Astarion

Evil!Dark Urge and Astarion have a tumultuous relationship, make dubious choices, and become a power couple. *This playthrough scares me so I'll update this sporadically hah

(smut) In My Head: Dark Urge has an all new kind of daydream after Astarion approaches them

(smut) A Bloody Sacrament: Astarion licks Dark Urge clean after they bathe in a pool of blood [Tumblr]

Other

Tav x Astarion fics that don't belong to a series

IN PROGRESS When He's all but Forgotten How to Love Again: Elf-Tav reincarnation story, they dream of him in their reverie, and go out to find him once they reach maturity [Tumblr Masterlist]

IN PROGRESS The Consequences of Convenience: Tav enters a marriage of convenience with their unromanced, best friend Astarion-- feelings ensue.

Spicy Astarion Headcanons (both A!A and Spawn!A)

If you're looking for some more fics, check out my fic recs here!

If you're wondering which Hozier songs fit which pairings, check them here!

#baldur's gate 3 #astarion #fanfic #astarion x tav #astarion x reader #bg3 #bg3 astarion #baldurs gate astarion #baldurs gate 3

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barneswinterraven · 2 years

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a small fluff piece about bucky based on a text my husband sent me (if you have the time!) : "i dont have the capacity to love anyone but you" it can have some angst, because the situation in which it was sent to me involved some, but it was a happy ending for us lol <3

Only You

Pairing — Avenger!Bucky Barnes x Avenger!Reader Summary — bucky loves someone, but maybe it's not her A/N — my first request!!! i apologize for only getting to this now, my academics have been making me tired all day :') thank you @kingfleury for this prompt. it may have become longer than i intended to

It has been several days since Y/N had any kind of interaction at all with Bucky Barnes. Actually, it's been 5 days and 4 hours.

It wouldn't bother Y/N much if they weren't practically joined at the hip before he started ignoring her. She keeps thinking back to their last interaction and if she had said or done anything wrong to deserve this silent treatment.

"Hey Buckybear, are we still on for movie night later" Bucky only frowns at her question and sighs. "Maybe we could take a rain check on that? I'm still pretty beat from our last mission and maybe you should take a rest first, considering that you were almost shot to death." Y/N gives him a smile and nods as they both walked back to their own rooms.

Nothing. From that last memory, Y/N can think of nothing that may have offended him. It was normal for them to have a movie night and it was normal for Bucky to take a sabbatical from everyone after a hell-bent mission.

But ever since that day, Bucky would take extra measures to not be in the same room as her, to not even at the slightest bit acknowledge her presence. If anyone has noticed this weird interaction between the two, nobody said anything.

The first few days, Y/N thought nothing of it. She thought that maybe Bucky was having some personal days considering everything that he has been through. So she left him alone to give him the space she thought he was silently asking for.

But now, Y/N was frustrated, stressed, anxious, and even annoyed. All these emotions bottled up made her walk up to Bucky's room and demand he explain what the fuck is wrong.

Taking a deep breath, she put up her fist to knock on his door when she noticed that it was left slightly ajar. "Hey, Bu-"

"Look, I love you. Ever since that day I met you, my heart was already beating for you. And that moment on the train, I felt like my heart was literally gonna stop at thought of losing you. I can't even bear to think of another day without you in my life."

Y/N heard every single word come out of Bucky's mouth and shifted her eyes. Steve. He's sitting right beside Bucky on his bed.

With a slow intake of breath, Y/N now understands. How could she have not noticed. Best friends since birth, of course someone was bound to fall in love.

But this discovery and realization only shattered her heart in pieces. Because she has already fallen in love with James Buchanan Barnes, her best friend.

Not wanting to ruin the moment inside the room, Y/N decided to leave. And just when it cannot get worse, her hip accidentally knocks on the door, further opening it.

Both men looked in her direction, her face going red. "Y/N, what are you doing here?" Bucky utters out.

Y/N can only gape her mouth open like a fish, no word falling out of her mouth.

"I'll leave you guys to talk" Steve stands and immediately leaves the room while giving Y/N a slight smile and a friendly wink.

"Look Buck, I heard your confession to Steve. And don't worry about it, I won't tell anyone. I'm just happy that you guys can now be open about your relationship." Y/N meekly tells Bucky, shifting her eyes to not look at him.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Realization sets on Bucky's face after thinking back to the words he said before he saw Y/N at his door.

"Doll, honey, you got it all wrong. Yes, I do love Steve but definitely not like that" Bucky can only laugh at how ridiculous this situation is.

"Bucky, it's 2022. You don't need to hide your sexuality. There's no need to be asha–"

"I'm gonna stop you right there. Look, I didn't want you to find out this way but, everything I said that you heard, all of that was meant to be for you. I know I have been a jerk these past few days, ignoring you and shit. But my head has just been a mess ever since our mission on the train. Back there, you almost died. And all I could think was that I was gonna lose you when I haven't even had you."

Tears were welling up on Y/N's face at Bucky's sudden confession. "But why were telling Steve all that stuff?"

Bucky shyly chuckles, his hand rubbing the nape of his neck. "He was trying to help me out what and how I was gonna confess to you. And now I may have ruined everything."

"You're lucky that I love your dorkiness and that I do also love you." Y/N steps closer to him smiling so wide, her cheeks started to hurt but she does not care. No pain can undermine this happiness and love that is blooming from her chest.

"So you love me? Not Steve? Well, at least not in that way?" she jokingly asks.

"Doll, I don't have the capacity to love anyone but you and only you." Bucky whispers as he gently cups her cheeks and leans his forehead against hers.

#my writing #ask replies #bucky barnes fluff #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes #bucky barnes smut #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes angst #bucky barnes fic #bucky barnes imagines #bucky barnes x female reader #bucky barnes one shot #bucky barnes fanfic

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tachimichishrine · 4 months

Text

"barista"

⫭◦⨝◦⫬

hunting dogs x gn!barista!reader hcs

warnings: none!!

jouno saigiku

oh dear

harasses everyone

harasses his partner

harasses his mf FOOD

by this, I mean he sends things back, not bc he isn't satisfied but bc he can

ESPECIALLY if his partner is on their shift, he'll be extra nasty

"what can I get you today, Jouno?"

"an iced coffee, with specifically 5 cubes of ice 2cm by 2cm, 1 pack sweetener, a drizzle of chocolate and 25ml of 3% milk and, oh, do you have chocolate sprinkles? yeah, I want some of that on top, add some whipped cream too and-"

orders the longest thing and then sends it back because "there were incomplete sprinkles" while staring down the barista with a huge grin

his partner is literally on the verge of breaking up with him for this

however, sometimes he gets bored of toying with them and just orders a coffee

he likes to observe people

it's kinda creepy but he'll pick a seat in the corner and listen as his partner writes down orders and smiles at other people, and then gets somewhat internally offended when they laugh at the random customer's dumb jokes

he narrows his eyes (even more, if that's possible?) at them at wonders why he doesn't make them laugh as loudly as that

takes it as a challenge

now you've got a clingy af jouno who sticks around the desk and seduces his way into the kitchen by flirting with the manager (his partner's boss)

his partner wants to YELL at him that they have to work, but he just places his hands on their hips and kisses their forehead and gives them the slightest hug and tells them how much he loves them, so their partner reluctantly tolerates his presence around their work

he may not know how to cook but he smells every single ingredient and is a surprisingly fast learner so the manager is lowkey trying to recruit him bc of his undeniable talent 👹

overall, he does help in the end, but his partner has to put up with a lot of teasing and nastiness. occasional jokes and cute little pranks where jouno would place a heavily powdered donut under their nose to make them sneeze and eventually messing up the ENTIRE place

but damn, those perfect milkshakes he made are worth it all

tecchou suehiro

he is easily distracted

asks his partner all sorts of things

"hey, how do they make coffee?"

"well, you put the beans in the machine-"

"beans???"

"yes??? coffee beans???"

"coffee???comes???from??beans???"

"yes, tecch, it does u adorable idiot 🙄"

"does that mean you can make coffee out of the beans they put in burritos and stuff?"

"no- wait I don't think so- actually, maybe-"

other customers overhear the discussion and chip in and the entire thing escalates to the WEIRDEST topics

the manager is pretty impartial as to his presence, given that he doesn't disturb anyone and usually just orders and silently observes his partner with a faint smile on his lips

his partner turns, notices his gaze and bites the inside of their cheek to prevent themselves from blushing/grinning at him, then get back to work

they do, however, like to blow him little kisses while on their shift, or to leave a small note on Tecchou's orders like "ily <3" or "you're so cute 💕"

he is a gentleman omg

he once spent the entire time his partner was on their shift holding the door for the people who entered

gets asked if he works there, and he automatically replies yes and helps everyone with their stuff, whether it's a broken glass or spill or if they need sweetener in their drink

nvm the manager now loves him

he makes it a point to visit his s/o as often as possible when they're working, even if they live together or have a date planned for later that day. he might not say much, but he loves to be in their presence as often as possible

a literal GOD at taking care of angry customers

whereas jouno would probably subtly threaten them, Tecchou is just gonna walk up to their face and be rly straight-forward about it

"sir, what's your problem?"

"I placed my order for coffee, a SINGLE COFFEE OVER HALF AN HOUR AGO AND I STILL HAVEN'T RECEIVED IT??? THIS SERVICE IS TERRIBLE-"

"sir, just take a breath. the employee over here is going to make it for you right away, and free of charge, right?"

ofc, they'd nod and do as he said bc the person is no longer fuming

the biggest issue with having tecchou in the café is his orders

he asks for the oddest things, including, but not limited to, sugar on rice and a hard-boiled egg with the shell still on

his partner makes sure to explain to their boss that this isn't anything abnormal for him, and that they'll make sure to take care of the order themselves

after all, putting together a weird food combo in order to get a chubby-cheeked tecchou stuffing his face with sugary rice is very worthwhile

teruko okura (aged up?? ig??? bc children running around a café is odd i think?? wtf is her real age-)

she is NOT made to be in a café with a serene vibe

no bc she picks up fights with everyone who breathes

"hey, idiot, stop breathing so loudly or else i'll come over there and shut you up myself-"

her partner thus keeps a stall in the very corner specifically for her that's far away from the other people 😐

teruko loves sugary and spicy flavors all in one, like a strong cinnamon or ginger, any type of warm drink that smells strongly rly

her partner does that mystical thing with the milk that creates a heart on the surface of the drink that looks so cute

teruko chugs down the drink without even looking at it 💀

she isn't one for those kinds of gestures, and would much rather physically cling to her partner's side instead

sneaks up from under the counter and then pops up like a weasel with a HUGE smile on her face, the kind of cute smile that is like, showing all of her teeth and SUPER contagious and makes you wanna pat her on the head and hug her

the manager DOES NOT agree with this tho and kicks her out repeatedly. teruko is so close to snapping the manager's neck but her partner intervenes and reminds her that they still need their job

the entire café, teruko concludes, is against her

the powdered sugar gets thrown into her face by an unknown force

salt gets dumped on her hair

she slips on a puddle in the corner

the milkshake machine explodes in her face

it's just NOT her scene

that is the last time she visited her partner while at work, telling them that she's going to be waiting outside once their shift is over bc the pain is NOT worth it

fukuchi ochi

fukuchi barely has time to spend with his s/o, given how much of a busy man he is

so, he'll support them by financing the café itself and making sure they get high-quality ingredients and that the working conditions are acceptable

he does make it a point to ONLY get his coffee from there, tho, but doesn't use it as an excuse to talk to his partner. he's in he gets the coffee, then he's out

for this reason, his partner - who is not an idiot and needs human affection just like the rest of the planet - "suddenly and mysteriously" becomes a klutz

"accidentally" drops the coffee on him as they're serving his order, which leads him to freak out, and then rush to the bathroom to wash it off

apologizing profusely, his partner will follow him to the bathroom and help him out, using this as an opportunity to 1) get him to take off his shirt 😌 2) talk to him

this happens for about 3 weeks before his dense ass realizes that they just want some love

tries this out, showing up and ordering his usual coffee, and then asks them how their day has been

they BEAM at him, and gush about the tiniest things

he won't admit to himself that he loves seeing them so happy like that and that it makes his heart flutter a bit, instead telling himself the next time he stays that he's doing it "out of convenience" or some bs like that

eventually finds himself spending hours in the café just talking to his partner about random things, whether that is during their break or while the s/o is supposed to be working

the manager doesn't have the balls to tell him that they're supposed to be working bc fukuchi supplies like half the financial funds for the place 😍

he might start to be showing up late to hunting dogs' meetings for the next while, but spending the time with his partner has been shown to be more than worth.

tachihara michizou

It's very likely that the café is the place he met his partner, or at least has some kind of emotional value to him

either it's where they first asked him out (bc there's no way he'd make the first move) or maybe he was caught in the rain and his future partner, walking out of the café while holding an umbrella, offered it to him with a bright smile

for this reason, he likes to meet them here as much as possible

HOWEVER, there's an issue with dating tachihara, a big one at that

mid-way through the relationship, he had to go undercover and work for the mafia

since his partner had met him and knew only of his work as being "dangerous" and "top-secret", they understood a bit when he said that he had to go on a business trip of sorts and things would get complicated

tachihara lowkey went into a full-on breakdown bc he had never been loved like that before and felt sick at the idea of leaving, but his partner assured him that they'll be waiting for the day he comes back, and held him in their arms for the entire night, murmuring sweet nothings into his ear and gently kissing his forehead

eventually, he did have to leave. in the beginning, he teared up every night while in the port mafia thinking of his love

so, once he got the mafia's trust and moved along in the ranks, he got more freedom to move around and stuff. eventually, he got so heartsick he found himself subconsciously wandering right in front of the café out of habit

before he could snap out of his trance and get tf out of there, his partner noticed him and pulled him into the tightest hug in existence while sobbing their heart out

tachihara couldn't imagine the pain of saying goodbye for good again

so, he made it a rule to come and visit them on his shifts as often as possible, discreetly for their safety

they a b a n d o n their job and run over to hug him every single time he appears bc they never know if it'll be the last time they'll see him

the manager doesn't really follow the story, but tachihara's partner is one of the harder workers in the café, and the café itself isn't that popular anyways, so there's no point in yelling at them

tachihara isn't picky about what food he eats or what drinks he sips, so long as he gets to hear his partner's voice and be near them (I strongly hc that he has attachment issues)

he orders hot chocolate, even in the summer, and still hasn't shaken off that child-like tendency of chugging it down aggressively and ending up with a chocolate milk mustache, which his partner teases him about every single time

one time, he wasn't vigilant enough and gin - who was supposed to deliver a message from the boss about one thing or another - followed tachihara all the way to the café

saw tachihara kissing some stranger 👩‍🦯👩‍🦯👩‍🦯

she walked up to him, and his eyes went WIDE. his partner didn't recognize gin for obvious reasons, and thus got embarrassed, climbed off of tachihara and stood back at the counter, and asked her what her order was, since technically the shop was still operating

gin was confused af

she creased her brows at them, shook her head then turned towards tachihara

oh boy tachihara is screwed

at first, his partner thought he'd been cheating on them or something, then thought about it twice and realized that he wasn't the type to cheat on people. so they (not-so-)gently shoved gin out of the way and told tachihara that they "needed a smoke", a codeword for "outside. now. we need to talk"

he told gin that he'd received the message, and to tell the boss that he'll deal with it tomorrow, and then the mafiosa went on her way.

his s/o demanded an explanation as to who tf that was, and tachihara reluctantly explained that it was someone he worked with

his partner isn't an idiot, they knew that his work was dangerous and that "someone he worked with" would be equally so, and thus they realized by the way he was perspirating with cold sweat and seemed pretty shocked that the girl had shown up

eventually, things were sorted out and no harm was done. tachihara made gin swear she wouldn't tell anyone about his dating situation, and like the frikkin amazing person she is, she agreed.

even though he slipped up that time, he couldn't stop himself from heading back to the café and meeting up with his partner as often as possible

in the end, the risk was clearly worth it

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angelicguy · 1 year

Text

Hey dude. Dude. I just saw. I just saw the craziest shit I've ever seen in my life. You gotta believe me... ok so this guy. He used to work at the WaWa I'd go to for lunch. Because they have those sandwiches... well I'd get a wrap. But that's besides the point. Anyways he had this wife that was really really hot. Like completely banging. And I knew because every time I'd come in he would show me a photo of her that he kept in his wallet. So I'd come in every day at like 5:30 (My shift started at about 1) to get my sandwic- wrap I mean and he would be like hey man check this out and he'd show me the photo of his wife. And every time I'd be like yeap man she's still hot. And he'd go yep god I'm lucky.

So one day I came in (hungover, and single at the time) so I was already kind of pissed off. Just generally angry, couldn't do anything about it. And this guy before he even SAYS anything tries to show me the photo of his wife. And I don't know if it was a combination the hangover or the fact that I had already been dealing with him showing me this photo near daily for about a year, but fuck I got so mad I said dude I just don't want to see the photo today. I get it. You have a hot wife. I don't care. And he looks really hurt after I say this and kind of gets quiet while he prepares my wrap. I leave I feel kind of bad but it's like whatever honestly he was just straight bragging every time he'd see me so he kind of deserved a reality check. I come in the NEXT day and I'm already kind of nervous because it'll be awkward but it's not enough of a big deal that I care THAT much but he's not there. It's some other kid. I ask him about the usual guy and he said he quit yesterday. I was like what? The guy with the hot wife? And he tells me Brandon? and I say yeah Brandon because I knew his name and he says that he doesn't know what I'm talking about w/ the wife and I say he literally showed me a picture of his wife every day, yes he's married and he's like what photo and I'm like of the hot dark haired girl? and this kid kind of stares at me blankly like he has NO clue what I'm talking about before going oOOohh dude that's so funny. Yeah what's funny. Apparently for a year that guy was just showing me a picture of kat dennings

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ppoppokari · 2 months

Text

💜💜…idol life ship…💜💜

@niohoon

well i'm so excited to say this is finally done! i had so much fun doing this ship. i speed wrote this like heck since i was so looking forward to having this one done for you!

also side note i didn't proofread this and i'm definitely forgetting how to english after studying chinese 😀

~your company~ cube entertainment 💜💜

~group name~ nixve

~members~ 5

~debut date~ 9th of September, 2019

~pre debut days~

in many ways you were the wildcard who turned out to be the ace. yet you don't really perceive it that way at all. unlike yeonjun who loves to have playful, smug jab at how perfect he was back as a trainee, you seem to have some kind of disconnect.

at the time you never felt like an idol, you were just a teen going through life, while simultaneously trying to be one of the top trainees.

you never liked to admit just how competitive you were, yet you couldn't prevent the way it seemed to leak out of you. you didn't have to express your true intentions for it to be apparent that you had a dangerous side to you. while most trainees were intimidated by you there was a soft part in the hearts of the staff members. even so there was this sense of tough love where the knew you would absolutely thrive in an environment where you were really put to work.

all things considered there was extremely soft side that came through where your peers could tell that you meant well, though you seemed so far removed from them you actually did appreciate and admire a few of the other trainees. once you let that be known you were actually pleased to find that the admiration was mutual.

once your cold demeanour shifted it was easier for them to see your intentions and just how brilliant your mind was when it came to performing, you just knew how to be an idol.

this was why you were chosen as the first member of nixve, which was quite surprising considering you were the 2nd youngest trainee at the time. in any other circumstance this would have inflated ones ego, however, you were just relieved that you managed to take a step in the right direction.

the idol life was more of a sentiment rather than a victory. back then you didn't see yourself as more than a girl with dream, an idea that you still kept to this day. fame or money was worthless in comparison to having the opportunity to truly express yourself.

~about you~

nixve's concept is quite unique, it was quite literally an amalgamation of the most abstract modern concepts. nixve stands for many things as a group, the groups lore is actually very complex but thanks to overall talent that nixve possesses you're able to create music that always feels like it's from another plane of existence.

as you can probably guess this group was supposed to be the experimental alternative to blackpink though this wasn't explicitly pushed. it's more that they wanted to combine the blatant girlboss badassery with something extra, which actually relates to your very specific debut date. 999 as an angel number signifies completion and new beginnings, so the 9/9/19 tends to refer to the time when nixve met their one true loves- their fans.

additionally, nixve also leans into a modern, grunge, cyberpunk, type of genre while still maintaining the charm of a cool girl crush group.

moving on from all that lore, you are actually one of the members who suits this concept the best and while you aren't the official face of the group, you are still one of the members who is at the forefront over everyone's minds when they hear the word 'nixve'.

to this day you presume the role of the enigma, forget 4d or 5d personalities you have at least a 17d. just when people thought they truly understood you a vlog comes out where you pull out some new interest or personality trait. this results in a phenomenon completely unique to you where fans feel like they are meeting you for the first time every single day.

even though you a primarily reserved nature you're still the much beloved golden false leader of the group. your silence when the other girls are the definition of chaos is what leads people to believe that you are the most mature member.

this is random but you're also just known to be the most fashionable or visually aesthetic member. your preference for street/grunge clothing as well as your natural visuals results in you being a refreshing sight for kpop stans who wish to bias a new member.

despite your habit of being quite organised and mature you're also kind of dangerous... your hot temper is known to burn the other members. for the most part fans see this as a playful gag, however, your members know all too well how volatile you can be. in short the calmer they can keep you the better.

regardless of that you're also one of the more precious members as in, they truly came to love each and every part of your personality, some of this is directed at your passion for music and how talented you are as a rapper but the rest of that love is because of your sweet attitude. they actually feel so honoured that they know you well enough to receive such kindness from you.

~your position/s~ maknae, visual & main rapper

~debut song~ chorus (rising) in the style of slay- everglow

~other songs include~

that girl is trouble in the style of wannabe- hyoyeon ft. san e

my temptation in the style of unpredictable- victon

system breakdown in the style of soñar (breaker)- nmixx

~debut album~ with all your ♡

~stage outfits~

~relationships~

~best friend~ sinb (viviz) 💜💜

you know that feeling where the universe and the stars seem to align and you meet that one person who you can't seem to get out of your mind? you were drowning in it when you met sinb.

even though your friendship with her is very platonic people ship you so so sooooo hard, i mean yeah it can get annoying but you have to understand they only ship you because it is clear that you make each other so happy. both of you like to put a healthy wall in front of your true emotions, it's so rare that your fans even see what's truly going on. and you know what? the rare moments where they see you messing up and seeming like smiling teens only happen when you're together.

behind the scenes your friendship happened so naturally, neither of you ever had to over exert yourself. it's not like the communication dropped out or you held extremely high standards for one another. you are actually very similar in style, personality and attitude which gave you a valuable insight into each other, so there was never any judgement between the two of you, even if you started saying the most random shit.

did someone say siren friends? like both of you have such an alluring nature and visuals, everyone seems to stop and stare in awe when they see you two together, even other idols are guilty of this.

adding to the concept of you being two ethereal beings ruling this entire universe, nothing ever seems to top your collaborations with each other. during the span of your friendship you have collaborated so many times. music is your love language, you always take the time to communicate your deepest feelings with each other through the songs you write. but you don't even stop at just composing songs together, you would gladly delay any of your comebacks if it meant you could release a song together. you really are a perfect pair, her amazing dancing and vocals combined with your powerful stage presence= art.

~friends~ yeji (itzy), wonbin (riize), ningning (aespa), lisa (blackpink), hongjoong (ateez), renjun (nct), changmin (the boyz) and chani (sf9)

~boyfriend~ minghao (svt) 💜💜

this was so unexpected, but it felt right. though you had been in the idol game for a while you honestly weren't counting on, or knew that you would even end up dating someone. you had a one track mind that was fully set on performing, you didn't think you would ever be swayed and thrown off by cupid. but then you met minghao.

you had known of seventeen but you never really had anything to do with them. they were just another group in the grand scheme of things, even when you met them you felt very reserved. it's not like a specific person ever caught your eye until one fateful day.

it was like any other day, besides the fact that you nixve had made it to the mama stage and were set to perform that night. once you had arrived it was hectic, the hallways bustling with what was practically multiple conga lines of idols trying to get god knows where. that's probably why you didn't notice the most extreme sign of flirting coming from minghao of all people.

to your credit you weren't paying attention to seventeen or minghao, but you had seen his hand in a cast on some of their recent performances so it was safe to assume he still had a hand injury. you were already in a rush and you were starting to overthink the performance you had ahead of you. you were so self-absorbed at this moment that you didn't realise anything odd about what happened.

you looked down for a split second, which was enough time for you to collide with someone. looking up you were eye to eye with minghao. muttering a quick sorry you were about to walk away before you were stopped again "ah, i was looking for you could you please help me?" expecting joshua or jun to magically pop up behind you you waited.

it took about a minute or so to realise that minghao was speaking to you. "pardon?" "i was wondering if you could help me out, i can't tie my robe." one of his hands was still nestled in the satin pocket of the robe so you couldn't see that his hand was actually fine. again acting on the knowledge that he had hurt his hand you gripped the robe, pulling him closer as you tied it for him. you intended to say goodbye and part for the night, that was until you looked up and were met with minghao looking down at you, an odd look plastered onto his face, you couldn't believe it, he couldn't be admiring you right?

once you finally pulled away you awkwardly said goodbye and scurried off. later that night you were backstage staring at the lcd screen murmuring something like "that asshole" as you saw him pull his hand, his perfectly healed hand out of his pocket when it was his line.

maybe it was deceit, but despite being embarrassed you were also enamoured by this strange guy who finessed you into giving him the time of day. ever since then whenever you saw him around you always spoke to him, this silent mastermind won your heart over, made you go absolutely crazy for him. so much so that you were the one to ask him out after a few months.

with a knowing grin minghao looked down at you, with that look of admiration that he wore during mama, his melodious voice charming you even more "I've been waiting for you to ask me out, I just thought you were too scared to do it." ~crushing on you~ beomgyu (txt) 💜💜

okay strap in for this one, would you believe this wasn't just a senseless crush? your relationship with beomgyu is complex and there are still blurred lines between you so you can't blame him for still harbouring a huge crush on you despite you dating minghao.

the chaos that ensued started with something so incredibly simple: a dance challenge. in the more recent days of nixve's career nixve had become quite popular, their concepts were great and their dances were perfect for dance challenges. now, you didn't really like the idea of pumping out dance challenges like your other members so you never had a long list of idols you would regularly dance with. and since the content including you was sparse your company organised a dance challenge video with a member from a group who had a comeback a couple of weeks after yours. as you can guess that member was beomgyu.

it was supposed to be an easy in and out job, you dance to his song, he dances to your song and you all go home. what you didn't know was that while you were focused on meeting your content quota you had caught the attention of the cheeky guy.

now lets be completely honest, that first day he was checking you out, you looked so good in a crop top and baggy jeans. he really was out here appreciating how good you looked, but ever since your first dance challenge both cube and big hit seemed to shove the two of you together whenever comeback season came.

each comeback you were hotter, he really thought you were the sexiest person he had ever seen. he was a slave to the fantasy of having a grunge girlfriend, his inner emo boy was screaming for this to happen. but it didn't. while he had the confidence he also didn't know how to ask you on a date, somehow his attempt at getting you to both hangout morphed into a very eventful fwb relationship.

this arrangement was actually very long-lived until the circumstances started to change, you both became way more busy due to the success of both groups and before he knew it you stopped meeting up with him which was followed by him discovering that you were in a happy relationship with minghao.

this obviously stung like hell since he knew minghao quite well, but what's done is done. even though what happened between you was messy, confusing and a moment of pure sexual passion he still has a real crush on you. he just wishes he would have expressed himself better when he asked for you two to hang out.

~other idols crushing on you~ taeyong (nct), baekseung (epex), riwoo (boynextdoor), seoho (oneus), wonjun (e'last) and sanha (astro).

~extra info~

you were the first member of nixve to have a solo debut where you were able to fully show just how immaculate your rap verses were.

despite the public not knowing that you are dating minghao, you're often credited with co-writing some of seventeens songs.

~scandals~

you received huge backlash after people dug up proof of you and beomgyu being very close in the past which included photos and videos of you two hanging out and supposed text messages between the two of you where you were alluding to a sexual relationship of sorts.

this one didn't turn into full blown scandal but you were accused of putting an act on for the camera and the reality of it was that you were a huge conceited bitch and difficult to work with- side note you definitely weren't.

#kpop ships #kpop matchups #idol life ships #cyber aesthetic #purple heart edition

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bi-kisses · 11 months

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“Imagine thinking that "bone density" of a twelve year old boy vs girl is going to be significantly different enough for an unfair sporting advantage,”

It… literally is. The difference between male and female bones isn’t slight and 12 year olds are actually right at the point where that difference becomes even more pronounced. Beyond having much stronger bones, natal males also have more muscle mass (which HRT can only reduce by up to 5%), larger hearts, larger lungs, and more efficient oxygen transport during exercise—All of these are pretty relevant to athletic performance.

This transwomen-in-women’s-sports hill that so many of you are willing to die on is beyond unscientific and it comes across as both deluded and incredibly selfish to anyone with a functional understanding of sexual dimorphism. Women losing the right to relatively fair competition is not acceptable collateral for making trans people feel more affirmed.

I know exactly who is sending this and dude I'm embarrassed for you because you're so obsessed with this bullshit. Like it's children playing sports. For fuck's sake can YOU choose another hill to die on? Am I the one actually digging through blogs to cry about the slightly denser hip bones of prepubescent boys and how it's unfair to let them play soccer with the girls? I post on this blog, like, every other day. Usually just to reblog something I thought was interesting. I am of the opinion that sports as a whole shouldn't be such a big fucking deal and YOU deciding to read more into that isn't my problem.

Don't tell me, a woman, how you, a man who loves to shit on trans people, how women are "losing the right to (relatively*) fair competition". You had to add that little caveat because it's already a well known fact that sports aren't actually "fair" at all, hence the banning of (mostly black) women who have more testosterone than others through no fault of their own. Christ.

But forget all that! Since I genuinely wanted to learn more on the subject, mostly out of spite for you specifically, I decided to do some digging. Here are the actual facts about muscle mass and bone density between the sexes, as well as the effects of HRT.

Here's a quote from a Canadian study on bone density, which I hope you find particularly interesting: (source)

There was no gender difference in TB BMC until age 14 or in TB BMD until age 16, when male values were significantly greater. Females had significantly greater LS BMC at ages 12 and 13, but by age 17 the male values were significantly greater.

It's not a "boys strong girls weak" situation, actually, because bodies are complicated and full of moving bits. Girls have stronger spines in their preteens (on average) whereas boys have tougher hips. This shifts and changes. At age 12, specifically, it's not AT ALL significant enough to impact playing at a preteen-capacity sporting event, especially a team-based one. You think having one kid with slightly stronger bones on one of the teams is ruining the playing field??? K

In some countries, the disparities are different between sexes, and there's a growing issue with girls entering puberty far earlier than boys (probably microplastics, who knows). To try and paint it as this black-and-white "boys play with boys, girls play with girls" as if that actually makes things significantly fairer when I, a girl who stood a good half foot taller than my male classmates at age twelve and did martial arts since I was able to walk, was considered weaker competition than the two-heart-transplants boy who was at serious risk of death if someone came to school with a cough? No one ACTUALLY gives a single flying fuck about these sports being balanced.

Alright, muscle mass time.

Here's a Danish study (source) that actually bothered to distinguish between levels and variations in physical activity. And, unsurprisingly, from ages 10-12 there aren't significant differences muscle-wise between girls and boys who engage in the same sports.

For the specifics, check table 3 and the averages it gives for each sex, especially with the standard deviation being much higher than the difference between those averages.

That was all well and good, and again, you WILL find significant differences between different cultures because bones and muscles are heavily reliant on what you eat, your genetics BESIDES sex, and the activities you're participating in. So to reiterate, why is sex the thing we're using as a mark of "fairness" given the variables that ACTUALLY make a notable difference at these younger ages?

I think I've made my stance pretty fucking clear at this point, which is "this whole idea that sex is the arbiter of balanced competition is stupid". But we're not done with the original ask, which also claims that HRT can only reduce muscle mass by up to 5%.

God, okay, so this one was fucking annoying to look into because it's not as simple as a flat muscle-mass-change-percentage. There are different muscle groups that are affected differently by hormones and whatnot, but I couldn't find any evidence that it was a maximum of 5% change?? Here's a review of the last twenty years of studies in the area of trans women undergoing HRT (source). If you're trying to find a conclusive range of possible change in muscle mass, you're going to come up short, because that's not what people are studying here.

Let me explain a few things. The average reported change in muscle mass after about a year of HRT was ~3-6%. There's no accounting for how much of an actual change that was in relation to their lifestyles, because trans women don't actually tend to be professional athletes. These are just girlies who go about their lives.

What am I getting at here? Well, let's say, sure, that average muscle mass decrease was 5% ish. That's from that individual's initial muscle mass to their current. The difference between cis men and trans women, however, could be anywhere from 6% to 20%. The data you're comparing actually matters and the variables at play matter, too. Trans women who hadn't undergone ANY HRT still tended to have ~10% less muscle mass than cis men!

There are a lot of theories surrounding what makes someone trans to begin with, and several studies have confirmed androgen insensitivity to be prevalent in trans women, so you can imagine how that would change their physical development. Just food for thought.

I kinda rambled and got pissy here but honestly I'm so sick of the nitpicking bullshit because no one pretending to give a shit about trans women in sports actually cares about the numbers or the balance or whatever have you, they just obsess over this idea that "failed men" are stealing from "poor, weak women", which I shouldn't have to explain is a stupid and sexist position.

In conclusion: professional-level sports aren't fucking fair no matter how strictly sexed they are, this whole argument is meaningless because transphobic assholes don't actually care about any of these talking points, and general exercise is good for you.

#long post #source post #anonymous #trans sports

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chirpsythismorning · 1 year

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I've been on Reddit for a while and, god, Mike/Mlvn stans there are soooo weird. They put Mike on a pedestal, whitewash all the flaws that make him interesting, praise him for doing the bare minimum, and treat Will AND EL as tools useful to make Mike look better.

As a Mike stan, it's so unpleasant to read those stupid ass takes...

Mike is so complex and flawed and that's what makes him one of the best characters.

All of them are complex!! We're supposed to question them and their actions so we can figure out what it means for them and the overall story.

But the thing about Mike is that, the story is directly avoiding explaining everything that's actually going on with him, ie. Mike apparently noticing Will's every move at Rink-O-Mania, but the story not letting us see that... And so people watching casually are understandably just very prone to disliking Mike, because they have so little to go off of.

Post s4 a lot of bylers were coming for Mike, but that started to shift when we realized his POV was largely missing compared to previous seasons, and that there's a reason for that.

But it wasn't just bylers, plenty of casual fans will go on Reddit even still over a year later, and bring up their distaste for Mike and/or Mike and El's relationship, and how it's stemming from the fact that they don't know the truth about what is actually going on. They are confused. And they don't like what they are seeing based on the conclusion they have come to.

And instead of being met with actual evidence that explains Mike's behavior beyond the superficial, they get chastised by active fans in the sub. UGH it's so obvious. It's not that difficult to understand! That's the kind of stuff they say to casual fans every single day coming on there for answers after watching the show and sensing something off. Like, it must not be that obvious if not only bylers are acknowledging the elephant in the room, but even random casual fans are out here simply looking for some clarity, consistently.

And the way they talk about Mike, they talk about him in a way where it's obvious they don't actually know what he's genuinely going through. They conflate him to being in love with El and insecure because she's better than him. And their biggest defense is that all teenage boys go through that? Like, what are we even talking about right now?

On a show as complex as Stranger Things, they go from giving us the protagonist's POV in the first two seasons, to almost removing it entirely, causing the bulk of their audience to be confused bc there are pieces missing... You'd think that was probably intentional? Probably to keep a secret going, seeing as explaining exactly what Mike was thinking throughout s3-4 would sort of give the surprise away?

Every season has to get better than the previous. The stakes for season 5 are MASSIVE. And many are going into it completely misunderstanding what Mike is thinking and feeling. All it would literally take is informing them to change that and make the show come full circle perfectly.

I think they intend for the show to be rewatched and rewatched again and again. And you're not going to be able to rewatch ST from the beginning if you don't like Mike Wheeler. And that includes him and all his flaws that go beyond just the palatable that they've been willing to reveal up to this point, but also the truth behind it the Duffers have been so tight lipped about, with intentions to save it for the end.

If they're keeping us in the dark about Mike's true feelings and most of the audience hates him rn based on misunderstandings, then yeah, there's a really good chance they'll do what they can to clear up that confusion. There's a good chance they'll want to do what they can to make all of those moments in previous seasons easier to appreciate Mike's complexities and what he was going through more, and while most had no idea or even denied it as being a possibility in the first place when confronted with it back then.

If you're conflating Mike to he's a teenager give him a break and you're not actually down for discussions about what makes him very intentionally complex and why he is deserving of actually being able to say his piece for everyone that's misunderstood him over the years, then idk what to tell you. You're expectations for the Duffer's are obscenely low...

#byler #ask #mike wheeler #reddit rambles #i saw them once do a whole shitpost on el and explain why mike was right at every point and el was wrong...#it was weird...#like all of the characters have their reasons for why they do what they do #will has his reasons #el has her reasons #and mike has his reasons #the problem is we are mostly in the dark about what those reasons are in mike's case #if we weren't and they kept us as clued in as they did in s1-2 #there would be no debate rn #and we'd all being going into s5 confident that byler was the route they were going #but that's not what they wanted #normalize straight-baiting for your audience with proof all along the way so they can't try to say it came out of nowhere #normalize subverting tropes #normalize saving the best and most surprising for last

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minimooberry · 15 days

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List 5 facts about a favorite sim of yours, and send this to 10 simblrs whose sims you adore ✌️💗💗

ELIJAH RAI DEVI.*

Elijah is the epitome of daddy issues, but honestly he's got every single possible issue by the time he's old enough to drink. This poor man is going through it constantly 😭

Elijah almost got kidnapped when he was a week old and his mom Anya was so out of it she lowkey stabbed the guy and was so guilty that she just called his dad Asher and told them not to bother coming back home, that she was gonna start moving everything they needed into the house they were planning to move into anyway and to just drive there after his shift.

Elijah was born when Anya was 17 and Asher was 21. She had just barely finished high school by the time he was born and only started college when he was around 3 years old. Since his dad worked much longer shifts than his mom, he was always closer to Anya and Asher.

He met his best friend Roxy on the first day of kindergarten when they were paired together for an art project. They stayed friends until she was killed when they were 16 years old by her father.

Elijah is 8 years older than his sister Aathira and 12 years older than his brother JJ. He actually named Aathira lol

his addiction is like lowkey one of the only things he really remembers from being a teenager. most of elijah's memories are being high, hanging out with roxy, arguing with his dad, and being appointed the third parent to his little siblings.

and roxy dying, but he honestly considers that the end of his teenage years because he runs away and joins the military the second he can

and for like a while anya and asher don't notice because they have a one year old and a five year old at home that constantly need attention and elijah's always been like. independent

elijah looks older too. by the time he's like 14 that guy can grow a beard, so no one really looks at him weird when he buys stuff. it doesn't really start affecting his entire life until he's 15 and he does heroine for the first time, but that just spirals. he's always mad at his dad and that he talks so much shit but doesn't even blink when he's gone for hours, he's mad at roxy's dad for being fucking creepy and making her feel uncomfortable in her own house, he's mad at the town because nothing good ever fucking happens in it, and he's mad at himself for being so dependent on something he can't handle a few days without losing it. he hates being sober because he's literally just the embodiment of anger.

he runs away at 16 and the second he turns 18 he joins the military because he thinks that if he dies in battle it would be a 'good' way to die. better than overdosing.

OOKAY HAPPY STUFF NOW

he meets nilaani when he's 23 while he's drunkenly venting to him while he's serving her at tha bar and they eventually have a marriage of convenience (fake marriage) to appease her family

the tattoo on his hand in the henna that nilaani had on their wedding day. she admitted to him that she felt that he viewed her more as a burden than anything because it was her family that was the driving factor behind their marriage. elijah's like 'wtf, you're the coolest, smartest girl i've ever met dummy' and the next day he shows her the tattoo. that's when they have their first actual kiss 😋😋

when they find out that nilaani was having twins, she names their daughet lakshmi after the goddess lakshmi, and since at that point they didn't know that jj was still alive, he names their son jayden. their nicknames are lucky and jj 😓😓

#elijah.*#gamma saga #ty for the ask i need to yell about my man more #ts4 #the sims 4 #the sims #sims #sims 4 #cas #ocs #oc #cas screenshots #asks

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autolenaphilia · 1 year

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I finished listening to The Magnus Archives many months ago. It is a horror audio drama podcast that was very popular here on tumblr. Yet i felt underwhelmed. It was okay, I guess? I felt that the statements were actually scary in the first two seasons, and by season 5 I was not scared at all, despite horrific things happening regularly.

Like there was nothing outstandingly bad in the writing. The characters were fine, nice representation of cis gays I suppose. Although the only trans woman being a single statement giver who doesn’t actually appear in the show is a bit disappointing. For me, perhaps the most important point of media representation is to get creative people from marginalized communities employed. I get it's a single-writer thing, Jonathan Sims writes every episode, but employing a trans woman actor to give the statement (something that happens with plenty of other statements) for the only transfem statement giver would be nice.

Well the only trans woman if you don’t count Nikola Orsinov. Oh Nikola, she is literally a man turned into an evil fake plastic mannequin/doll woman who hides her malevolence under an exaggerated cutesy performance of femininity and like Jame Gumb, steals skin to appear like a human woman. Giving potentially another meaning to the acronym TMA there, but I’ll give the writer the benefit of the doubt and say that’s probably not intentional. even if it does express some anxieties about gender. Besides, she’s my favourite villain by a long shot, Nikola Orsinov is a lot of fun.

I also disliked one of the canonical lesbian couples, Basira Hussain and Daisy Tonner. It's a typical example of the trope where the butch lesbian character is a cop, and on top of that, the series does a police brutality arc with them. It's not like women can't be violent cops, but like come on, Magnus Archives. When police brutality happens and a non-white lesbian like Basira is involved, they don't tend to be the perpetrator in the incident.

Anyway, the show was entertaining but felt underwhelming.

And I think I finally figured out why. It’s because the basic idea of the series is that it starts out seeming like a horror anthology series. It’s seemingly disconnected stories of people being menaced by the supernatural, with no explanation of what the supernatural actually is, as in most horror stories. The statements in Magnus can be good, solid horror fiction, if a bit derivative.

And then it reveals its true face: it’s actually a horror serial. The series actually has extensive worldbuilding which connects together and explains all those seemingly disparate stories.

The shift from horror anthology to serialized drama is frankly just awkward in general, it's such a radical shift in story structure. The show sticks with the statement structure for continuity reasons long after it makes any dramatic sense, when the story is carried forward by dialogue rather than any information gained from the various statements..They interrupt the story by the final seasons rather than develop them. In season 5, characters are literally annoyed with the statements because they interrupt the plot progression.

Yet the problem with this storytelling shift I think is far more deeper. That’s because I think horror is kinda antithetical to worldbuilding. I think horror needs some mystery to it, a sense of the unknown, of humanity being menaced by inexplicable forces. When you can explain the supernatural, as extensive worldbuilding tends to do, it ceases to be really scary. And The Magnus Archives has macabre and dark worldbuilding, but it also explains far too much. It tries to be a metafictional commentary on horror fiction, but it ends up showing how bad it is at understanding the genre

It presents these very genre-typical horror stories, with all their unexplained supernatural events and it seems writer Jonathan Sims saw their unexplained nature as a promise of a future solution instead of actually standing on their own. And that’s not how mystery works in the horror genre for the most part, and for good reason.

I’ve sometimes heard The Magnus Archives described as Lovecraftian, but looking at what Lovecraft said about horror in the classic Supernatural Horror in Literature, I think he would agree with me. “The oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” And in what he claimed in the true weird tale “A certain atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread of outer, unknown forces must be present; and there must be a hint...of that most terrible conception of the human brain—a malign and particular suspension or defeat of those fixed laws of Nature which are our only safeguard against the assaults of chaos and the daemons of unplumbed space.“

This is a kind of horror ethos that is antithetical to worldbuilding. Worldbuilding maps out and explains a setting’s fantastical elements, which works best for a kind of Tolkienian fantasy, whereas horror relies on the unknown. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos is often seen as the kind of explanatory worldbuilding Magnus engages in, but that’s something his lesser imitators such as August Derleth engaged in far more than Creepy Howie himself. It’s an impression created more by the Call of Cthulhu RPG than Lovecraft’s stories.

M. John Harrison’s criticism of worldbuilding is also relevant to The Magnus Archives:

“When I use the term “worldbuilding fiction” I refer to immersive fiction, in any medium, in which an attempt is made to rationalise the fiction by exhaustive grounding, or by making it “logical in its own terms”, so that it becomes less an act of imagination than the literalisation of one. Representational techniques are used to validate the invention, with the idea of providing a secondary creation for the reader to “inhabit”; but also, in a sense, as an excuse or alibi for the act of making things up, as if to legitimise an otherwise questionable activity. This kind of worldbuilding actually undercuts the best and most exciting aspects of fantastic fiction, subordinating the uncontrolled, the intuitive & the authentically imaginative to the explicable; and replacing psychological, poetic & emotional logic with the rationality of the fake. “

This is harsh, but describes the problem of The Magnus Archives quite accurately. I would add that in horror this kind of worldbuilding also undercuts any genuine horror. The “rationality of the fake” is no substitute for fear of the unknown. Supernatural horror without any mystery regarding the supernatural things just becomes a depiction of fantastical torture.

In season 1, the Archivist tries to deliver "rational" explanations for the supernatural events described, and they deliberately ring hollow. It reads as a man trying desperate to shore up his worldview against events that defy them, showing a "malign and particular suspension or defeat of those fixed laws of Nature" It's a classic horror writing trick. But by season 3, the archivist knows the basics of the story's worldbuilding, and starts explaining the statements with a new supernatural logic, which is shown to be correct.

And Sims doesn't seem to realize that he has simply replaced a naturalistic rationality with a supernatural "rationality of the fake." The stories in the first two seasons show the supernatural disrupting the laws of normal existence, and are therefore scary. Yet then the story creates a new "safeguard against the assaults of chaos" in the form of worldbuilding explanations of these events. Its fantasy with a lot of suffering, rather than horror.

The Magnus Archives might seem like a story that is very certain of itself. It has built this extensive worldbuilding construction to explain its every fantastical flourish, and even its genre and medium. We get explanations for genre staples such as "why are people able to give such articulate and clear statements of horrific and traumatic events?" And because it's yet another audio drama that has a "found footage" or rather a "found recordings" gimmick, we even get an explanation for why everything plot relevant is recorded.

Yet this is to mask a deep uncertainty, as it clearly feels a need to deeply justify its fantasy. A story that was more genuinely certain of itself would allow things to remain unexplained and not need to justify its own flights of imagination.

I don’t care much about spoilers, but I have some further more specific thoughts under the cut. I won’t summarize and explain concepts and plots from the series because it’s boring to write, so think of this as supplementary criticism for those who have listened to Magnus.

The problem with The Fears as explanations is that they are so boringly anthropomorphic. In fact they are explicitly explained in the final episode as arising from the human emotion of fear, a final bit of worldbuilding that adds explanation at the cost of actual horror.

And their motivation is so boring, in that they are basically sadists, whose goal with everything they do is to create fear in humans. It’s such a mundane motivation for interdimensional amorphous powers. That’s about as scary as the serial killers in the most boring kind of mystery and horror fiction, which is not much.

And it sucks all the actual surrealism and imagination out of the setting. Anytime Magnus borrows from surreal horror fiction, it’s not actually surreal, because everything is explainable. Things are surreal because surreal supernatural events scares humans and the supernatural entities want to scare humans. So things that are meant to be surreal horror like the Stranger ritual in the season three finale or most of the hellscapes in season five aren’t actually surreal.

Speaking of season five. For all my criticisms of the series overall, I have to praise the season four finale. It ends on a revelation that the supposed hero’s effort were all meaningless and that actually he has been manipulated into bringing out the apocalypse he hoped to prevent. This revelation is really effective tragedy, especially as it comes after what seems to be a happy ending for him and his partner Martin. Good shit, the series could very well have ended there. It would be a bleak ending, but that fits a horror series.

Yet then the series continues with another season. And by this time the transformation into Tolkienian worldbuilding fantasy is complete. The story of season five is how Frodo and Sam must journey through Mordor to defeat the eye of Sauron by destroying the source of his power. Sorry, I meant that Jon and Martin must journey through hellscape Britain in order to defeat the rule of the Eye and destroy the source of its power. The parallels are obvious.

This season feels so unnecessary, a fantasy quest to undo the tragedy of the fourth season finale. And they largely do, Jon and Martin are gone, but the fears leave the world. It is all justified with the worldbuilding, but again ending on this note of world-saving heroic sacrifice has barely anything to do with horror.

The hellscapes of season five are dark, but they are not effective horror. It’s the final confirmation that Jonathan Sims did not truly understand why his horror stories in the earlier seasons were so effective. And that was because they were set in a largely realistic and contemporary world. People living mundane lives before they are menaced by the supernatural. Most horror fiction does this, not only because it gives a “it can happen to you” quality but because horror most easily comes from taking a safe, mundane and explicable world and subverting that with unexplained and frightening supernatural events.

The Magnus Archives does have stories like that and they work, but then it undermines it by explaining the supernatural in rationalistic terms. And in season 5, it even takes away the mundane setting. Now almost everyone except the servants of the entities live in hellscapes literally designed to make them suffer over and over again. There is no longer any normal world to provide contrast, just entire landscapes of torture. It may sometimes present bitter parodies of realistic situations, but so removed from real life that is hard to connect with or regain the sense of horror from those early stories.

And again, because the rationalistic worldbuilding of The Magnus Archives there is no real surrealism to these hellscapes, because why they exist is explained. There is just torture and no mystery or wonder to the fantasy of season 5. It’s just suffering for the sake of suffering, the worst and least interesting kind of horror. And it’s a deep-seated problem within the show, developed to its utmost extreme.

It's fiction that feels the need to justify itself at literally every turn. It doesn't dare have something happen without explaining why. So we get this fake surrealism, where if anything weird happens it's because supernatural powers want to scare people with the weirdness.

Apparently there will be a sequel, a Magnus Archives 2, despite earlier promises there would not be. And considering the original show went on for far too long and explained its world too much to be truly scary, I don’t think there is much fruitful to be gained there, but we’ll see.

#my writings #the magnus archives

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fuck-customers · 2 years

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UGGH It's been over 6 months, you'd think theee dumb bitches would get the hint now!! (actually it's not even a hint, I told them flat out to stop)

Every single week, I get scheduled for damn near bare minimum hours, typically 4-20, usually on the lower end, and then the management will attempt to call/text me in to work on my days off Every. Single. Week.

I've explained over and over that I do not drive/don't have my own car, so I have to rely on getting rides or public transportation and because of that, I cannot just go to work at the drop of a hat, which they almost always ask me to come in "right now". I also explained that I have open availability and I am cross-trained in every department in the store and I am one of the only (probably the ONLY) employee who is, SO they should be using me to fill in the gaps on the schedule when they're making the schedule. (ex: if they want me to cover a shift from 9-5 on Wednesday, instead of leaving it blank, which they have literally done many times- I've been stuck at my register waiting for my relief that didn't exist-just put ME down for the full shift and I will stay that long, plus I can accurately prepare for the long shift by bringing a lunch) I've even tried just straight up being a bitch about it and saying "no I will never come in when you try to call me in on my days off with no notice. It's not happening, stop bothering me."

Do they ever fucking listen? No!! So I've finally had it and blocked all my management's numbers on my phone. 🖕

(I would've done it beforehand, but my anxiety brain made me paranoid that I would get in trouble somehow, plus I'm pretty sure it doesn't block voicemails, but we'll see)

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crystalelemental · 8 months

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I never actually did this. Ranking the villain arcs.

#8: Alola The only VA that I'm willing to say what entirely bad on every front. Just an absolute garbage event. Literally no stakes, no significance, not even a real conflict. Instead of just whipping Lusamine around to being good, now we also have to drag Faba into this kicking and screaming. The worst part is the alts weren't even that good. Sure, SS Acerola wound up being fantastic, but the other three are fairly unimpressive, with Mina being borderline bad. Also I'm just saying, it's not my favorite on aesthetics either. And to think we got all of this...instead of a good Lusamine alt. Or hell, somehow without a Lillie alt. Or Gladion. Or anyone I think people were clamoring for. I'm usually in favor of lesser favorites getting alts but this one stings a bit.

#7: Kalos Kalos felt similarly nothing, because the main event was Giovanni stealing some data from Team Flare, by...having some Rocket grunts pose as their grunts? And threaten to fire a big weapon they had? Lysandre is toothless at this point, mostly just grousing about his ideals or whatever while refusing to act for vague reasons. At least he gets to kill people. Also the alt game was strong. SS Diantha was a great Rock Zone option, Emma and Anabel finally got in, and I do like SS Lysandre even if I'm not a fan of Volcanion.

#6: Hoenn Hoenn feels like it's just treading old ground with little in the way of innovation. It tells a story where things happen, so it's better than the last two, but that story is mostly Maxie and Archie continuing to wax philosophical while Giovanni riles up their beasts as distraction to steal a bunch of Pokemon. Which on its own is okay. But then it shifts kinda out of nowhere into the same old "there is a meteor" thing. Also Deoxys just shows up with no significance or fanfare, the protagonists don't really accomplish shit, and more emphasis is placed on Zinnia getting her mega evolution than anything. The alts for the event were fun, but nothing in this event felt important. You could've just not done this one and not a single thing would've changed for any future story.

#5: Unova Comparable to Hoenn. Ghetsis tries to do stuff, and at the very least this isn't a Giovanni plot in disguise, but it amounts to nothing. Ghetsis is completely useless when he's not able to scheme, and events just don't carry much weight. Hilda just shows up with Victini, while Hilbert getting Genesect is...fairly mundane. Even N's Kyurem is wildly out of nowhere. The alts were good, don't get me wrong. But Hilda's just damage, and N's fairly awkward, so it's a little messy.

#4: Galar Galar...went well, actually. I think it's actually a good story. The alts were reasonable though I hate the Gloria alt on Cinderace-themed principle. I like how the story actually incorporates Giovanni without making him the center of attention. I like that it ends in failure for him like all of these actually did even if we never acknowledge it. There's just one teeny tiny thing that makes this hard to accept. Rose is an alternate reality Rose. And so is Oleana. For...no reason. Sincerely, why? Because you couldn't come up with a way for him to bounce back from the Darkest Day? Lysandre fired the ultimate weapon and nearly killed everyone, and we just kinda treat him as some surly guy that lives in the woods, this is absolute cowardice. If it weren't for this, Galar would be #3, but as it stands...

#3: Sinnoh SOMEHOW, Sinnoh gets to be #3. Look, I won't pretend like Sinnoh's events were important in the grand scheme. It's very much a side story to Giovanni's stuff. Which is why it's good. It is the only one completely removed from Giovanni. Instead, we focus on Cyrus, whose perfect world was found in Darkrai. The instant he got the opportunity, he just retreated into his own dark world and refused to come out until people made him. Which is funnier than it is serious. More to the point, though, this story had consequences. Team Galactic still operates, but his grunts openly acknowledge they're on a different track and focused on scientific development more than destruction of spirit. And I'm willing to bet Renegade Cynthia will have some significance when Volo shows up. Events from this VA endure, and had more of an impact.

#2: Kanto But of course, Pokemon is just Kanto. Literally just Kanto, if it's not about Kanto stuff we don't care and won't try for you. The quality between Kanto/Johto and literally everything else is so stark that I legitimately think this entire VA thing was a fucking waste of time. Which is sad because it started so fucking well. Giovanni steals some data that lets him unlock the power of mega evolution in his Mewtwo, and becomes strong enough to fight off Red and Blue, then escapes to become a massive threat hiding in the shadows. All of this around a great little narrative about how Mewtwo enjoys causing problems on purpose, and they do have a true bond in that desire. And on the heroes' side, we get Paulo starting to act up, Blue being a leader and champion, and I admit even Red gets to be a bit of a chaos gremlin about things with the whole Dynamaxing in a contained space and nearly crushing everyone. There's great stuff! But of course, just like actual Kanto, we can do better.

#1: Johto There's always the sequel. Johto is easily the best VA. Not only do we have more of an emotional hook with Silver's connection to Giovanni and attempt to put a stop to all this, we also have everyone in Johto working in tandem to fight back as Team Rocket temporarily assumes control of Pasio. We get direct continuity from the last event as Giovanni learns about Dynamax/Gigantamax, and learns to apply that to his Nidoking. And unlike Kanto's fairly limited sync pair choices, Johto rules. A bunch of first time alts (and Lyra), all of which are fantastic, including what remains one of the best supports, and the strongest disruptive effect in the game even now. Sure, SS Giovanni wound up being a dud in the grand scheme, but he's Kantonian, failure comes naturally to him. It was the only other time that they legitimately tried to make something interesting.

I think the big problem here is DeNA's refusal to actually engage with its villains. That's probably because some villains are too good to really do much with, but like...if you can do it with Cyrus, the guy trying to unmake reality, you can do it with the others. Lysandre, Lusamine, even Rose are all just ignored as threats. Maxie and Archie are sidelined so hard they effectively don't do anything at all. Ghetsis tries but is completely ineffectual without scheming in his corner. All of them could have had more to do. Lysandre's willing to kill, but let his clash with Team Rocket mean something rather than just be petty nonsense. Lusamine still cares for her children but never confronted what her flaw actually way; let her go villain mode on Giovanni for threatening her kids. Actually engage with the fact Rose is an extremist and that maybe he could be talked down or brought to other solutions, without just hand-waving events. It's just such a mess, seeing how many of these antagonists went to complete waste. Whatever the next story arc is, I hope it's lower stakes. DeNA does better when they go with just heartfelt or lighthearted. I don't think they're legally allowed to get serious.

#pokemon masters #villain arc

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