More queer media that doesn't focus on being bullied and harrassed. More queer media that doesn't centre around cis gay men. More queer media that features aros and aces. More queer media that isn't about suffering. More queer media that has genderqueer people. More queer media with characters who use multiple sets of pronouns. More queer media that has supportive parents (especially fathers). More queer media that isn't about wanting to be 'normal'. More queer media that represents all the facets of drag. More queer media that represents the whole queer community

billy and steve being the same character originally is so compelling to me because they really are just two sides of the same coin

Wouldn't it be so much easier if Jiang Cheng were just... two separate characters?

The one who begged for Madam Yu not to hurt Wei Wuxian in a way that would have definitely lost face for the sect and the one who whipped him himself?

The one who was offended that Wei Wuxian would consider marrying a servant (solidifying his classism as well as recognizing that he classified Wei Wuxian, at the very least, as 'not servant') and the one who sneered down Wei Wuxian's connection with Lan Wangji?

The one who told his sister that Wei Wuxian should be the one to give Jin Ling his courtesy name and the one who told Jin Ling consistently that Wei Wuxian was the reason both of his parents were gone?

The one who held onto Chenqing for so long and kept it in good condition (as per Wei Wuxian's own observations) and the one who helped lead the siege on the Burial Mounds?

The one who gave up his life and core for Wei Wuxian and the one who had an entire breakdown over Wei Wuxian's core reveal (including the gist of "why do you have to keep one upping me?")?

The one who keeps his silence at the end of the novel and lets Wei Wuxian go and the one who says "after all my family's done for you?!"

Wouldn't it be nice and easy if they were two different characters? A "Good Jiang Cheng" and a "Bad Jiang Cheng"?

But, you know... that would ruin both, I think. I am, in fact, someone who loves this character, but I don't think I can if it were just the good bits. The bad bits make him so deliciously tragic.

it would be easy if they were two different characters, but I personally don't think it'd be nice. I like my sour grape just as he is.

Regret and jack kelly for the prompts if you're up for it? If not then I'd love to hear any and all of your thoughts on racetrack tbh. Also I've been enjoying reading your religious guilt for the delancy brother's a lot! Hope you are having a good day

Jack Kelly knows regret like he knows the streets of Manhattan. It sticks to him like smoke. And it only gets worse once the fight is over and he has to stand there and watch Crutchie get dragged away, calling for him. In the aftermath, Jack Kelly has to come to terms with the fact that he is not a brave man. As hard as he tries to be, he is nothing like those Western heroes he reads about. He has to process, that when it really mattered? his brain flipped a switch, made his knees weak and unresponsive, leaving him still and useless.

Jack Kelly knows regret in a way that makes him sick to his stomach with guilt and something like the burden of responsibility. Knows regret that feels like a wad of money shoved into his hand and the weight of Davey’s blue-eyed stare, frozen amongst the chaos around him, jaw tight and eyes wide and hurt. Knows regret that feels like the way Les ran away from him when he raised his hand.

Captain Jack. Cowboy. Content to lead this ‘brave battalion’ like he was some goddamn war hero and not an angry seventeen year old who thought he could face the kingmakers of New York city. ‘Brave kid. Tough kid,’ who got too arrogant and now people are hurt, because of him.

Sante fe is a life-line, Sante fe is all he has left.

Jack Kelly and regret go hand in hand. Always have done, always will do- he knows he should get used to feeling.

(Thank you for the prompt!! I have many thoughts about Jack Kelly and the themes of regret which are still in the process of being written for like a newsies essay critical analysis English lit student kinda vibe if anyone’s ever interested?)

(And thank you!! I love writing the delancey religious guilt stuff?? Like it kinda came out of a single line of dialogue but I have fallen down a hole)

Curse of Reincarnation 3

@itsyourgirlria who is continuously hyping me up with this by being very excited about it. Enjoy.

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Two weeks. It was only two weeks before you’d get to see them again. It’d be two weeks until she had to deal with demons in her house. You were so excited at the agreement to have them over and she was simply furious that you told her there’d be a total of 12 demons in the house. Especially since devildom food was different and the food that would be made was going to be made there and brought to the house by the demons. Human realm food doesn’t have enough substance for most demons for any real length of time, and you mentioned gluttony eating more than anyone else you’d ever seen. It was to be expected, but the most annoying part was the ‘surprise’ you mentioned would happen that day and not only did you refuse to explain anything to that note, you wouldn’t even tell her who exactly was coming. That part was infuriating more than it was annoying. Obviously her six brothers would be there, but who were the other 6? Why were you so close to six demons in the first place? Simply knowing that one of those demons you were so excited to see was him only made her feelings five times worse.

“For them. Just one more time.” she whispered to herself as you two were shopping, taking a deep calming breath. She could handle one night around him for their sake. She’d handled plenty of things through her many lives, this was- it was nothing compared to some of the other things she’d suffered through. 

“Hey, Leigh, what kind of cake should we make?” she found herself turning to you as you came to the aisle she was in, honestly asking the question.

“Well what kind of cake do they like?”

“Well that’s the thing, we tried so many different sweets over the years and none of them seem to have a favorite type of cake. They all like different things.” an idea washes over her and she gives you an honest smile, finally happy about something concerning this wretched dinner. And, well, she had every right to be petty.

“Well, we could also go with our favorite and make a classic angel’s food cake.” you blink for a moment before you snort, trying and failing, to hide your laughter.

“You’re awful!”

“But it’s our favorite so if they don’t have a preference, go with what you like!” she chirps back, quite proud of the subtle slight.

“Oh my gosh, fine! We’ll make an angel’s food cake!” you finally let your laughter out, bright and happy. “But you need to be nice, I know you get protective but don’t think I don't know what you’re like when you get petty!” shit, you really do know her too well.

“I don’t know what you mean.” she huffs, turning away as you snicker behind her, not believing a word of it. It feels good though, normal even. Nothing’s quite felt normal since you left and she’d missed it.

That thought catches her off guard, she can’t get it out of her head now. It bubbles and then, suddenly, in the car, she suddenly blurts it out. “Why does nothing feel normal anymore?” you freeze as dread fills her, but then she sighs and explands, resting her forehead on the steering wheel. “Ever since you left and then suddenly came back, nothing’s felt normal. But especially between us. You get phone calls and talk to people you won’t tell me about every week. You won’t tell me who’s coming but expect me to be ok with letting them into our house despite our rule. You get so excited when you talk about them and it feels like you’re trying to act like nothing’s changed. . . But we’ve drifted apart since you left and I’m hurt that you never tried to reach out to me while you were gone. I just- there are so many things and I’m trying to be understanding, but-” she lifts her head up and looks at you, tears pricking her eyes and already welled in your concerned and hurt ones. “What’s going to happen with us? I wouldn’t mind much if our normal changed, but it hurts that despite both of us trying to make it seem like nothing’s changed, everything has, and your tendency to avoid things that you don’t like to deal with isn’t helping.”

It’s silent for a few beats before she pulls her emotions in and takes a breath, sighing. “Let’s go home, I’m sorry for dropping all of that on you suddenly.”

“No, I-I’m sorry. I didn’t realize that’s what I was doing. I had a normal with you and a normal in the Devildom and I guess I came back and had this expectation that our normal wouldn’t change.” you’re voice is quiet, ashamed, and thankfully she hasn't moved yet since her hands are shaking. “Let’s go home, I’ll tell you all about them and then we can redecide if you want to let them in for dinner.” All she can do is nod and turn the car on, hope curling through her for the first time in a while. Maybe, despite all of this that’s happened, you two can still be ok.

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To Be Continued

Part 1 | Part 2

I dunno if i’ll ever finish this but it feels a shame to let it sit in my wips forever

so have biblically(sort of) accurate Alfred.

Dragonball Z: Abridged Episode 3 Review

Originally posted August 10th, 2015

When god is a dick, things can be pretty fun.

“Happily Ever Afterlife” is one of the unfortunate “intermediate” episodes of Dragonball Z: Abridged, which is to say, it’s an episode that is required to exist, so that there are no gaps in the story, but beyond filling in the details between plot point A and plot point B, it doesn’t actually advance the story by any significant degree. As a result, the pace of the story in this episode is very slow and meandering, which would be fine, if Team Four Star were good at telling slower stories. But, at this time, Team Four Star’s strengths lay in frenetic pacing and joke-a-second comedy; they are at their weakest when the story demands to be told at a slower pace, and unfortunately, “Afterlife” requires them to slow down.

That’s not to say this episode is without its strengths. King Yemma, in fact, is the strongest part of this episode; his devil-may-care attitude and lack of respect for Goku and Kami lead to this episode’s funniest moments, as Kami is forced to invoke his status as Guardian of Earth in order to get Yemma to allow Goku to travel to King Kai (while simultaneously serving as effective exposition for who this other Namekian is and why he’s important). Of course, Goku must travel along the apparently ominous Snake Way to get there, so even in his concession, Yemma refuses to be actively helpful.

Back on earth, Krillin is responsible for delivering the news of Goku’s death and Gohan’s kidnapping to Chi Chi, who responds with appropriate rage. This is where the episode is at its most inconsequential, as it doesn’t feel like it serves much more of a purpose than to delay Krillin from gathering the “Z Warriors” (a name that is thankfully never mentioned again), and to feed into the harmful characterization of Chi Chi as a “crazy bitch.” This is a common interpretation of Chi Chi that even Toriyama feeds into most of the time, but it’s incredibly harmful, because Chi Chi not wanting Gohan to be in danger (or kidnapped) is entirely reasonable. He’s only five years old, after all, and any mother would be completely within her right to not want her five-year-old son to be involved in deadly battles for the fate of the world.

Gohan and Piccolo also get some time together in this episode, and their relationship is developed for the first time. While we only get a brief scene with the two of them, it’s the part of the episode with the most substance; Piccolo wants to train Gohan for entirely selfish reasons, but he quickly discovers that Gohan is actively suppressing his natural talent for fighting in favor of focusing on more intellectual pursuits. It also leads to a pretty hilarious moment where Gohan calls out Piccolo for wanting to train a five-year-old to fight, since doing so would (according to science) cause his body irreparable harm. It doesn’t hurt that MasakoX (Gohan) and Lanipator (Piccolo) have both already sunk very comfortably into their characters, leaving this short scene as the best acted and written scene of the episode.

Rating: 3.5/5

If you liked this review, please consider supporting me on Patreon.

Stray Observations

1We know Snake Way is ominous because ominous music is played after it is mentioned, a type of joke that is thankfully retired soon.

Yemma: “I do have a desk though. It’s made of mahogany. Mahogany.”

Gohan: “Actually that looks more like a plateau!”

Yemma: “And not just any mahogany, but mahogany from the planet Malchior 7, where the trees are over three hundred feet tall and breathe fire!”

sorry but jack off jill’s cover of lovesong by the cure is better. sorry i dont make the rules.

poppy’s cover of fear of dying is better than the jack off jill song though.

I’m in Istanbul for the night. We didn’t have a lot of time bc we got here at like 8 pm but we walked around the streets. We had some food at a local restaurant and bought some sweets at a few shops. The ppl there were very generous.

The driver-to-driver and driver-to-pedestrian communication seems to be so much better than in both the us and georgia lol.

Also made me realize I’ve never really been somewhere where ppl don’t speak my language. People’s ability to communicate even if they don’t know other’s languages is so insane to me, gonna make me cry lol

'The USA has a tendency to comically exaggerate the threat of China as an extant legacy of the Cold War, which leads to undue persecution overseas' and 'the PRC is still actively committing genocide, constraining basic liberties and suppressing human rights as a function of its statehood and is not worthy of support' are two statements that are very much not mutually exclusive but get treated like it pretty fucking often

I looked at my hands today and I thought about heat. Heat and love.

I looked at my hands today and I saw the burns on my knuckles and my fingers and my wrist. All the places where I have been hurt and marked from heat.

And isn’t that beautiful?

Here’s one from the oven when I moved too fast to get the cookies out so they wouldn’t burn.

Here’s one from the edge of the pan where I sautéed asparagus and green beans with pecans and bacon.

Here’s one from grabbing the pot the wrong way when draining the pasta water.

There’s more that I can’t remember. That one might be from my curling iron when I was rushing doing my hair so I could go back to the kitchen.

They all hurt when it happened. But they don’t hurt now.

We could say that they are physical proof of perhaps my clumsiness or lack of patience or frantic speed and disorganization.

I prefer to think of them as evidence of love. Love and heat. I got burned from cooking things for people I love. I got burned from cooking which is an act in itself that I love. I got burned from the heat, something humanity has harnessed in so many ways just for the purpose of cooking. I got burned because I had the privilege of getting to cook delicious food.

I looked at my hands today and I smiled.

I'm going to be busy this weekend so I've posted the next chapter early!

Wes and Wes(t) have a late night conversation.

First Chapter

Find the Word Tag

I've been tagged by @junypr-camus to find a specific set of words in my WIPs. Thank you for the tag and the challenge! I found some of these in old fanfic WIPs I haven't paid enough attention to in awhile, and they were fun to revisit!

My Words: bold, chaos, silence, freeze, and spark.

These excerpts ended up being mostly fanfics from various fandoms (YoI, Sk8, DP, Given) with only one original (To Be Honest), so for those who want to skip reading them I'll put my tags and words here. I'm tagging @houndsofcorduff, @eternally-lame, @the-inkwell-variable, @starlightscribe, @crossroadcrow, and anyone else who wants to participate can use these words and say I tagged them!

Your Words: process, essential, effort, flat, and return.

I found bold(ness) in an old rough draft for a multi-chapter Yuri on Ice Soulmate AU fic titled "Worthy":

This is the moment Victor falls in love. He doesn't even register that hearing Yuri's voice means they're Soulmates until a little bit later. He falls for Yuri's boldness and passion. He falls for someone who wants to improve so much and feels so confident deep down, that he just assumes he can make it to a Pro's level if he has the right teacher. Victor falls for the man who grips him tight and says they'll sing together one day.

I found chaos in the rough draft of a Sk8 the Infinity CherryxJoe smut fic titled "Flipping a Switch", although the passage I found it in is just a little suggestive, rather than explicit:

Now, getting back to work seems more like an idle hope than an actual plan. Just a text. Just a few words, and his entire day is thrown into chaos. Like always. The suggestion of watching movies is new, but Kaoru knows this man well enough to read between the lines. A specific brand of vintage Parisian wine. Parler D'amour. Kojiro isn't asking him to taste test some alcohol or spend a casual night in front of the TV at all.

I found silence in an original work, one of my current novel WIPs, titled "To Be Honest":

He knows that Asher had transformed because of him. He remembers the sight of Asher's face and the sound of his bedroom window shattering whenever he's alone. The whip of David's scarf around his neck as he'd recklessly jumped out the window after Asher is still as clear to him as the day it had happened. He hears their footsteps in the dirt and asks himself why he hadn't moved even as they'd disappeared, running as fast as either of them could, vanishing into the forest until Micah had been left with nothing but silence and the horrible awareness of his own blood in his skull and limbs.

I found freeze in my current Danny Phantom fic "Lingering Scars":

Both intruders freeze once they notice him. He tilts his head to see if he can get a clearer angle now that they've stopped moving, puzzle together a picture that makes some kind of sense, but it doesn't work. It's still just Danielle standing firmly on his laundry pile to try and get the high ground, while Jazz digs her feet into the carpet for all the leverage it will give her. His clone who's basically a little sister and his biological older sister. The only family members who know the exact reason why he needs this specific time for sleep. Standing as still as if he'd actually pressed pause on a TV show. Staring at him in a mix of surprise and half-hearted remorse, with one of Danny's shirts stretched out almost comically between them.

I found spark(les) in my soon-to-be-rewritten Given fic "Present Tense" – the excerpt is a bit long, but it felt necessary:

As the rest of their fingers curl to cup the air, something starts to flow into the empty space. It's something he's never seen before. Not with his eyes, at least. The way it sparkles feels like a million things at once. Like stage lights. Guitar pegs. Effect pedals. Trees. Swings. Park benches. School gyms. Bicycles. The inside of Yuki's apartment. He almost forgets to breathe, but the flow of the glittering thing in their hands pulls his breath along as it shows him more and more things. Things like music. White noise made visual. Suddenly, he can see all the little pieces that go into the whole. The song materialized and liquified into something he's seen in his own chest before, at a time he can't remember because it spans so much of his own life. Colors. Shapes. Textures. Grains of sand on a beach. Golden and silver and blue and green and white and red and black. The colors of Yuki. The colors of Ritsuka. The colors of Mafuyu. The colors of a Gibson Hollow-Body guitar. He leans forward, his whole body falling toward the bottomless pool of things.

Friends and mutuals are encouraged to join in, but there's no pressure!

❣️💘💙 - For Nyra 😘❤️

<33

❣️When do they first say I love you? - She's very quick to say it, always has been, and 10 years of loss and constant warfare have taught her to say it if she means it. She's never really been afraid of rejection (though rejection still sucks.)

💘What was one of the first things that attracted them to their partner? - Answered here!

💙How do they say/show that they miss their partner? - Answered here!

the funniest meltdown ive ever had was in college when i got so overstimulated that i could Not speak, including over text. one of my friends was trying to talk me through it but i was solely using emojis because they were easier than trying to come up with words so he started using primarily emojis as well just to make things feel balanced. this was not the Most effective strategy... until. he tried to ask me "you okay?" but the way he chose to do that was by sending "👉🏼👌🏼❓" and i was so shocked by suddenly being asked if i was dtf that i was like WHAT???? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?????????? and thus was verbal again

the way people online talk about autism is getting really weird, like do they know that neurotypicals still have interests? that someone being passionate about a hobby doesn't mean they're autistic? you guys know that right