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non-plutonian-druid · 2 years

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hi taking my opportunity to ask you about your snicket five au

I don't know anything about that universe bc I never got around to reading it but I am very interested

Hello!!! i am glad i mentioned it in that one ask i got bc i got a few people asking me about it!! and i am so happy for the interest, thanks yall so much

TBH i debated how much i wanted to give away since not everything is decided and i kind of wanted to reveal it alongside art i make for it? but that's been slow going, so i shall reveal some of my cards now

first. the posts that exist: five invades elliott's shop and ben gets experimented on (cw for medical horror). Those posts, this post, and any future posts will be under my snicket five au tag

Most of the time I've been assuming people are at least aware of A Series of Unfortunate Events' whole deal, but given that you said you don't have any, I'll explain the relevant bit quickly: Lemony Snicket is the pseudonym of the author, but is also a character within the narrative, researching and telling us the story of the Baudelaire children after their parents are killed by the "villainous" section of a secret society called VFD. He's a very unreliable narrator, and is a part of the "good" side of VFD, kind of. My au is of the prequel series, All the Wrong Questions, which stars Lemony Snicket as a snarky asshole child instead of a snarky asshole adult

A collection of other relevant bits:

VFD, at this point in Lemony's childhood, is divided and the cracks are showing, but has not yet actually Schismed. That happens later.

Daniel Handler (the author) is Jewish, and I know just enough about that to know that it has a huge influence on the themes and texture of both atwq and asoue (things like "the eldritch monster is a metaphor for death, but specifically a very jewish concept of death"), but nowhere near enough to then take those themes and play with them in an interesting and informed way. I wanted to mention it because, lacking the ability to do that part of the series justice, i wanted to at least inform you all about it bc I think the au would be more interesting if i could

VFD is a cult. yes, all of it. yes, even the side that puts out fires.

I actually need to go through and do a ton of work revamping the premise and making events shake out differently, because at the moment it follows ATWQ really closely and I'm not fond of that. Things need to be different! But for the moment, the following is what I have.

Five is an actual 13 year old who has just completed his training with the Commission (a mysterious organization with mysterious purposes but which, in this case, probably doesn't involve teaching a child to murder) and is now an apprentice! He has to pick a chaperone, a word which here means "someone like a mentor except without the obligation to actually teach him anything or really to take care of him in any meaningful way". He picks the Handler, hoping she will leave him to his own devices enough that he can carry out a heist he has planned with his associate and not at all his friend, Delores (who gets to be a real person! good for her).

Unfortunately, the Handler immediately drags him out to a dying town that has the interim name DS, to leave him to his own devices enough that he could carry out a heist in that location instead. Too bad that's not where the heist is planned.

(Delores proceeds to try to do the heist on her own anyway, and spends the rest of the series arrested)

DS are the initials that i will be using to refer to the small town of the au. It is replacing a town in the series by the name of Stain'd By the Sea (you'll notice that is a parody of a naming convention in New England, because This Noir Flick Has Lovecraft In It, Baby). I haven't decided what D.S stands for because TUA has unhelpfully not given me anything to work with, but the town is a dying company town that used to manufacture umbrellas. In it, there is a now-defunct school that used to teach the children of the workers/citizens. Like some kind of.... umbrella academy.

(The school is plot relevant in ATWQ too! I'm not just having fun.)

Nowadays, DS is dying and most of the inhabitants have left to set up lives in The City, leaving their children behind to close up shop until things are more stable, which results in Just So Many undersupervised children. Meanwhile, a mysterious villain called the Monocle is doing mysterious villain things.

'Mysterious villain things', at the moment, means committing a series of seemingly unconnected crimes across DS and also reopening the school, saying that tuition is free for citizens of DS! The kids that go there don't come out.

That is our setup; now what are our beloved characters up to?

Luther in this au is an adult (barely). He was a boxer in the city but had to retire after an injury and left to DS where it was quiet. Since then he’s made friends with Allison Hargreeves, an up-and-coming actress who has returned to DS because she feels obligated to help her parents get ready to leave.. Luther lives in a refurbished observatory on the outskirts of town, and spends many of his mornings at the local diner, Griddy’s, where he frequently sees and occasionally chats with Five. He gets first embroiled in the plot when Five asks him to come along to look intimidating while he solves a mystery. He gets worried about this little guy!

Diego and Patch are approximately 15. Patch’s dad used to be a police officer before he retired, and she and Diego are very unimpressed with the current state of the police department, which is made of two mean and unhelpful people named Hazel and Cha Cha. So they’ve taken matters into their own hands! They’ve set up a detective agency-slash-vigilante-justice and are Determined to solve crime in DS. Diego is VERY suspicious of Five. He definitely knows more than he’s letting on! Why won’t he tell us! Diego does NOT want to be his friend shut up Patch!!

Allison’s parents want to shut down the company they run, but to Allison that’s quitting! She wants to revive it. This, combined with the fact that her plan actually has a chance of succeeding, means that she is a threat to the Monocle’s plan. He needs the town to be dead and full of children that nobody cares about! The Monocle is trying to get rid of her, but with the help of Five and Luther in particular, she’s been thwarting him thus far.

Klaus and Ben are a pair of unsupervised children, but unlike most children in DS they’ve been unsupervised for a very long time. Klaus takes an assortment of odd jobs at different times, and Ben likes to read in the library (and has a giant and obvious crush on the librarian). Normally they're inseparable, but the school recently opened! and its free! Ben has always wanted to go to school. He promises he'll write Klaus every single day.

Klaus hasn't heard from Ben in months. At first he was angry, but now he's getting worried

Viktor's parents run an instrument store. Well. Used to. Now they have left to set up their life in the city, leaving behind what they think is their dutiful daughter to close the store. Viktor's real passion is writing, and he's never seen without his typewriter. I'm not decided on how many people Viktor is out to. Everybody? Only Five because this is a new person to introduce himself to with his chosen name? To Be Determined.

Lila is searching for her father. She will do anything to find him. The Monocle kidnapped him, she’s certain of it. He was a professor of quantum mechanics at a university outside the city and he’s been gone for almost a year. She’s tracked him to DS, and she’s certain he has to be here somewhere. Has Five seen or heard anything about him? His name is Reginald Hargreeves and she misses him so much.

Elliott is a nervous 20-something who runs a nearly-closed television store in town. The character he’s a replacement for is actually a librarian, but I like the aesthetic of the television store, so someone else is the librarian. He has conspiracy-theoried his way into figuring out that the Commission exists, but is wrong in some key way. Five breaks into his house and forcibly adopts him and now the store is Five’s hideout, and Elliott is kind of his adult supervision and kind of thinks Five is an alien. Elliott makes good coffee, is very mousy but likes Five a lot,

Since the librarian man is now a television salesman, we need a new librarian. I nominate Jill! Shes a college student working at the library as part of her internship, except she doesnt have any supervisors on location so shes just… running the place. Five is trying to recruit her for the Commission.

Griddy’s was once run by a woman named Agnes, who has since retired. Now it’s being run by a woman named Grace, who is her… sister? Daughter? Sister in law or niece? Five can't figure it out; everyone seems to have a different idea of who she is. She’s very pretty, and at first seems perfectly normal, but at some point, something about her seems… off. Is she okay? If Five didn’t know any better, he’d say it's like she’s malfunctioning.

While Five is running around solving mysteries and meeting all these people, the Monocle is enacting his evil plan. He’s trying to grow a tentacled eldritch monster called the Horror, and he’s been using kids as dirt to grow little tentacle monster sprouts in. He’s based his operations in DS because it’s a dying little town that no one cares about, full of kids left on their own while their parents move out. He reopens the old school, and promises to educate any of the kids in the town for free (and also inject them with baby horror growing particles). Despite his many experiments, all of his attempts to grow the horror so far have eventually failed and the Horror died before it was big enough to use for world domination or whatever (or even before it was big enough to kill one measly human). But Ben…. Ben has been promising...

#tua #the umbrella academy #five hargreeves #lemony snicket #i COULD list all the characters i talk about but i dont feel like it so i'm not going to #for the void #i am truly SO happy that my mention of this au piqued people's interest in it #its niche but i love it!!!#i need to do work on the setup bc rn it follows ATWQ too closely which i dont like #i need to twist around the premise enough that the dominos all fall differently #but this is where its at right now #sorry about the delay on replying! and same to the other people who were looking for more #i had to wait for a period of time where i'd have time and energy to write this out bc i knew it would take me a while #and then after i reached a period of time to write it out.... it did in fact take a while to write #snicket five au

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p3rry-pi3 · 7 months

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Pin pooooost!

Updated: 5/7/2024 :3

I cannot believe I didn’t bother making a proper one sooner

Anyways, info under the cut cause this thing is long as heck, and I didn’t mean to make it that way.

Uh. I shall give a gold star to whoever reads the whole thing, but DO NOT SKIP the DNI part.

I also want to clarify that I have a section with Palestine content, I know people aren’t willing to always look under the cut to actually look for that kind of stuff (I’m saying this as, most people not generally, but sometimes I do the same thing, as shitty as our attention spans are, I think it’s still important that you check these posts out and reblog them. I have been DEATHLY terrified to reblog and post on this account but that shouldn’t stop anyone from at least reblogging this stuff seeing as this stuff is 1000x more important.)

I’ve copy linked posts where you can find: journalists to support and follow, how you can help Palestine donations or not, what you can do to prevent the voting for more weapons in Israel (or the more scientific term, isntreal), and what to boycott.

Do not, and I mean DO NOT skip that part. I can’t control your actions but YOU can control YOUR OWN. I trust you to reblog, like, and share the posts I link.

Let me know if I should make this a separate post for you to reblog, but I hope this makes it GLARINGLY CLEAR on where I stand.

TW; teeth as header in the start and end :]

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Main info

Hey! I’m Perry! Short for Peregrine :)!

I’m a minor (above 10+, I wanna keep this a 13+ space cause of the cussing and my interests in horror art and other scary games. You kind of have to be 13+ to be on here anyway.)

I’m pretty spiritual

I study the Paranormal and psychology

I like making headcanons and theories :]

I genuinely enjoy character analyses and overall enjoy video essays on media like indie horror and video games

I love hardcore horror and gore arts of all sorts. So beware of some of that. Ofc I’ll put warnings, just lemme know if I missed something. I also cuss a lot on here! So beware of that :)!

It’s come to my attention people have been posting real life gore of stuff like hyenas and actual victims so…That’s not the gore I meant. Fictional gore; FICTIONAL!

I’m new to the tagging system even now, so figuring stuff out is hard, but I’m equipped with enough knowledge on it and will put warnings in tags and captions since I recently learned you can block tags. Which helps loads.

Please be patient with me!^^

I’m trans, transmasc, and genderfluid. My pronouns are he/they.

I’m also working on getting a career or two in film :)!

💫🧇💫🧇💫🧇💫🧇💫🧇💫

Extra info

My favorite colors are purple, red, black, white, and neon pink.

I’m multifandom

Reblogs are much more appreciated but I’m grateful for likes.

I like mixed media.

Pls use tone tags :]

Please reblog artwork! Shitposts are fine for just likes. Text posts to.

I usually stick to canon ships because certain fandoms make it weird, but I haven’t seen anything in the main fandom I’m in, so I like to ship some.

I’m a multishipper. (Again, this applies to certain fandoms.)

I’m generally inactive here and there, but I like posting most of my fanart here when I can or remember I also post stuff on here.

I cuss on here so beware of that ig

I have social anxiety and anxiety so posts can sometimes be slower than usual since I’m almost always on my own toes. And because I have anxiety, if I’m being awkward, it’s nothing you did or said, I’m just like that in general.

I have horrible memory so if I post twice on the same day or hour it’s prolly because I forgot about it.

I reference lots of lemon demon and jack stauber.

I blame the jack stauber fanbase for my lemon demon obsession.

I’m the oldest of two brothers so you might hear about them here and there but rarely so.

I’m kind of an idiot, so please be patient if I ask you a third time to repeat what you said.

I have ADHD took a lot out of me to confirm I do. So posts may come later or at the same time due to this.

Biiiggggg undertale and fnaf nerd.

I’m an over analyzer who loves theories. Did you know I’m also an overthinker? (<- sarcasm.)

I don’t dream. I have nightmares instead. That’s where I get most of my OCs.

None of my stuff has age ratings unless it’s like tough topics to touch on or something horrifying.

I ramble lots and ramble even more in tags, so there’ll be lots of tags of just me rambling

‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️

Free Palestine! 🇵🇸🍉

DO NOT SKIP THIS PART!!!!!!!!!

It’s a genocide not a war!!! Z//onists FUCK OFF!!!!!!

I tried to make little watermelon emoji borders so they wouldn’t be confusing, but idk lmk if the borders help section it

I will also continuously update it if needed, and I take constructive criticism if I need to change anything, and no, ‘the only criticism I have is the fact you support Palestine’, or something, isn’t valid criticism. I’ll block you, and it’s not even a funny thing to joke about.

Links I have so far (I wanna remind ppl that if you don’t like seeing your link here just lmk and I’ll take it down, I’m just tryna share the word and I’ll soon make a post on its own abt this cause I think it’d be really important to make a separate post on this)

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Miscellaneous.

(This one is sort of just based off someone else answering an ask but I wanted to copy link this one anyways since by the looks of it, they have a lot of pro-Palestine posts)

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How YOU can help Palestine.

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Palestinian journalists.

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No more weapons for isntreal, ceasefire now.

🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉

What to boycott.

🎮🎬🎮🎬🎮🎬🎮🎬🎮🎬🎮

Pfp creds:

None.

💤🌟💤🌟💤🌟💤🌟💤🌟💤

Tags I think u should check out on here!^^ /nf

Some doodles :) (doodles that are 9 times out of ten fandom related)

Bugsnax ramblings (I ramble about headcanons, theories, characters, in game stuff, etc.)

Mind rambles (theories, it’s a new tag I’m working on updating soon.)

Rambling about shit (shits and giggles at 3 AM)

Bugsnax shitpost (mother load of idiocy from yours truly)

Some doodles (not aware this existed prolly isn’t even from this blog, not used as much. At least I don’t think I dunno.)

🎸💤🎸💤🎸💤🎸💤🎸💤🎸

Hyperfixations

Bugsnax

Lemon demon

Jack stauber

Mother Mother

Indie horror art

Analog horror

Spiderverse ITSV & ATSV

Franbow

Sallyface

Undertale

Undertale AUs

DHMIS

Mr. Plant (from Ashur Gharavi)

CoD MW2, Cold War Black ops (18+ content CoD blogs DNI)

Venom (Mostly the movies, but I also enjoy the comics.)

TF2/Team Fortress 2

Death Note (pray for me…)

🦷🍓🦷🍓🦷🍓🦷🍓🦷🍓🦷

DNI!!!

LGBTphobes

Furry haters/anti-furrys

Proshippers/comshippers.

Ableists

MAP (not the art collab meaning, but the other meaning)

Anti-antis

Racists

Z00ph1les

Zi0nists

If you’re anything of the above, please get off my page/blog.

I don’t have much of a DNI, just be respectful and mindful.

Might expand if needed.

🎭🩰🎭🩰🎭🩰🎭🩰🎭🩰🎭

Did you read it?

Did you read the whole thing or at least the “DNI” parts?

Here’s a gold star, as promised: ⭐️

Alright. Go nuts. Be respectful.

#pin post <3

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loumauve · 2 years

Text

alright, lou's (fountain) pen collection:

under a cut, so I don't annoy everyone on my dash. still gonna tag @aimofdestiny since you requested I yell a little more about them, so yell I shall

let's start at the very beginning:

top left was my very first fountain pen. the one I learned writing with in elementary school, and it has a little slidey plastic thing that you could put little pictures or bits of colourful paper behind so you could look at something cute. I definitely used that a lot.

top right was my next beloved fountain pen bc the old one was starting to be fragile and sometimes it would leak a little (though I haven't used it enough since to tell if it's still the case. just don't have the heart to throw away things that are still functional if a little messy. I don't mind messy when I art at home, so most of these are perfectly fine still.

on the right are all the ones I mostly used for writing in school and later uni (the one that looks a bit like a whale - the one I found in school - was already pretty broken when I found it. but I never minded ink getting on my hands so I kept it anyway. it writes really well, and super smoothly, so it more than makes up for the mess)

next up, all the LAMY pens:

LAMY is my next big thing, I think mostly because they have exchangeable nibs of varying sizes and uses and they also have converters available, meaning you don't have to rely on standard ink cartridges and can get more creative with ink colours (or even mix some yourself if you read up a little on what works and what doesn't work)

plus, as you can tell they come in a variety of different colours. the ones on the left are more shiny and smooth, the ones bottom left are metallic and therefore heavier and cool in your hand at first, but sometimes I like that. the ones top right are matte and have a less smooth texture which I prefer for the most part, and of course the Vista is just transparent which can be fun if you like fun inks.

I think my next thing, as I was first getting into transparent pens was just looking for whatever was cheap and looked nice and had nice reviews, which led me here:

The WingSung 3008, which they sold in sets of four for barely anything at all. They don't use ink cartridges which I like, but instead you have the piston filler mechanism (I think it's called) where you twist the end one way to empty it and the other way for filling.

They worked pretty well for a bit, some of the nibs wrote smoother than the others, but they were exchangeable with each other so it worked out okay, but some leak into the cap causing rust.. so not perfect, but for the money I paid for them - more than worth it.

I think after that I got into more transparent pens and watched a ton of pen review videos and kinda fell down the rabbit hole, but landed here:

In part with the TWSBI bc the cap has such nice angles and I liked the looks of it, and it writes SUPER well, so nice. Plus it fits a LOT of ink. My favourite writing fountain pen atm.

And the Moonman I originally bought because I saw someone had converted it into using Zebra G Nibs and I thought I might try that as well, but I ended up liking it too much as is to wreck it in the process of converting it. The overall shortest pen, so I tend to post it when I write, but for drawing I tend to leave the cap off. Also fits a TON of ink, and I have a shimmery ink in that one at the moment and I haven't had any issues with it clogging up the feed.

A little more messy during the filling up process but not bad. Very much like it. I bet it would make for a great pocket fountain pen.

Next up.. a mixed bag of mostly pens I use for drawing:

The Noodler's Ahab takes a lot of fiddling with the nib to get the flow right, which is why I rarely take them outside of the flat.. sometimes they end up leaking instead which would suck on the go. Plus your fingers get ink all over them if you adjust it without gloves (which.. I hate gloves so I never use them). And they smell a little strange at first, but now I've gotten used to them so it's a little comforting. But they have a flex nib which works really well once you manage to get the flow right, so definitely great if you like drawing or calligraphy I guess.

The Jinhao x750 takes a little less fiddling I think, or at least it never felt as annoying as with the Ahab. Writes/draws smoothly but uses up a bit more ink than most of my other pens so it's better for titles or drawing than writing small text. But if you don't write super small and super quickly it should still work well. I really like this one a lot (and no it's not just because of the glitter) it has some heft to it but in a good way in my opinion. It feels like it writes, a little on the heavier side of things.

And the IndiGraph is from a kickstarter project and supposedly the cap holding water prevents the nib from drying out which means you can use other inks with it, like Indian/Chinese inks that usually dry to be waterproof. I think the kickstarter models all came with a few issues and mine is no different, meaning I can't speak for the quality of the product they sell now, but for a while it worked for me and it was pretty cool.

And for the last ones, my relatively new obsession with Kaweco pens:

The one up top is a Brass rollerball pen, which I got with my kickstarter rewards from Gametee's Wallet of Holding campaign, and I was a little disappointed that it's a rollerball and not a fountain pen, but then I saw that they also make regular fountain pens, so I bought the black one next, which is an extra-fine, which usually works best for my writing.. at least if I have the time to write slowly. (I have a lot of black pens tbh, idk why.)

And then some time last year I bought the other three which all came with medium nibs which works a lot better for drawing since it goes more smoothly and the angles aren't as important.

But all in all I really like the Kaweco Sport. smol, like me, which means I can put four of them into my lil pencil case and have four different colours of ink if I want to (bc Kaweco also makes converters for their pens) and just.. pocket-sized fun.

I think that's all of it, tho I have a glass pen and a few nib pens, too. And a whole bunch of different inks.

#lou loves fountain pens #lou loves ink #lou has a problem and needs to stop #fountain pens

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minisoysquares · 3 years

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As fun as the events and ideas you posted about 19days would be, wouldn’t it also just bring in more negative stuff - like fandom in general has become a field of land mines and I fear that something that’s supposed to fun will turn into some sort of battle. Like how some people get extremely heated over any other ships outside of their fave ship and they cannot possibly have other ships except theirs, etc. The last thing anyone wants is for content creators to be targeted simply for making something they thought would be fun

(This ask and answer is about this post.)

First of all thank you so much for addressing such a big and valid concern. I agree that that has indeed happened in certain fandoms - I can say I've been in the thick of it and witnessed quite the warfare - but in others it has also brought fans and readers and content creators together even closer and tighter in a wonderful thriving community.

I have the feeling this'll get quite long so please proceed under the cut with that in mind.

I believe all things are potential harbingers of both discord and harmony. There will always be people who feel entitled and who want - even demand! the audacity! - authors and artists to create for their ships and their ships alone. And there will also always be people who can appreciate the writing and the art without judgemental treatment regarding the pairings/characters depicted, no matter their preferences.

All of that happens and will continue to happen, whether we go forward with these events or not. And yet authors will still write what they want to write, artists will still draw what they want to draw, graphic designers will still make the edits they want to make as well. What we could do, in this small and close knit fandom, is take in our hands this powerful rich opportunity and try our best to make a model of positivity out of it.

In these events, there would be no bashing or shaming allowed. The content created would be to be enjoyed by those who are attracted to it, and those who do not have a taste for that fanwork in particular would be asked to remain respectful. (As it should always be.) There would be no ship wars in these spaces. Discourse, hate-speech or anti-behaviour would not be tolerated by the moderators of the event.

Creators who indulged in it would be immediately disqualified. Any unnecessary commentary or complaints from the audience would be deleted and reported as spam. Anyone instigating conflict would be only painting a target on their back, really. Because most of us - I dare say - are only here to appreciate the brilliant artwork and fanfiction woven and crafted by the talented people who share it with us.

If it came to it and it escalated, this hellsite has several tools that can be put to use to that regard. Accounts could be blocked and/or even reported. They wouldn't be able to interact with the blogs created to run these events from then on. We would be able to create a black list and post it publicly so everyone else who wished to could simply block those unruly pesky accounts and remain at peace and free to enjoy themselves to their utmost.

Let us not forget that this is all fiction and it's all for fun. Everyone's allowed to have their own opinion, likes and dislikes. There simply is no need to step on anyone else and their interests to elevate them.

Let's exemplify, for the sake of clarity:

Do I personally ship A with B? Imagine I do not. I do not search for it. If I come across it? I scroll past it. Once or twice, I may even like - and even reblog - if it happens to catch my attention and it's well written/drawn! (I have tags along the lines of 'I don't ship it but' and 'look at this beautiful art' or 'drown in the power of these words.')

It's so easy to interact amongst ourselves without coming with pitchforks at one another. Know what actually needs effort? Being a meanie and a party popper! Who in their right mind wastes their time on things they don't care for? Dum dums, that's who! Of course, we're all dummies at times... and that's okay! Let's just not harass people or crash their fun while we're at it!

If nothing else: you wouldn't like if others did this or that to you, therefore don't do it to others. It's a simple concept to grasp.

Very important: in these events, every single piece would be explicitly and properly tagged and warned for right at the very top of each post, so there would be absolutely no excuses for anyone being nasty.

We would just have to be open to the experience. Enjoy our ships and let other enjoy theirs. We do not have to all like the same thing. That would be just boring. But we can cohabitate devoid of trouble in fandom. Each one of us just has to be respectful. No need to even be nice. No one has to compliment something they don't like. They also don't have to step on what others do.

Don't like a ship/character/theme? Don't read stories focused on it. Don't put down authors who write it or readers who enjoy it. Same for art. No need to shout about how awful it is just for the simple reason that it does not fit into your personal shipping preferences. It can still be still be a tasty and wonderfully baked cake, it's just that you're not fond of vanilla or strawberries. It's okay. There are all kinds of cake for everyone's tastes!

Further examples: If a ship happens to be a NOTP for me or I don't care for the character(s)? I filter the tags. All of them. Any and every tag I can think of. It's very easy to protect ourselves on Tumblr from content we do not wish to see. (My own list is huge and just as effective.) Filtering is incredibly important.

So go ahead and filter out the ships you can do without! Filter out porte-manteaux like Tianshan, Zhanyi, Qiucheng, Tianxi, Tianyi, Lishan, Litian, Liyi, Shantou, Polydays, (...) Filter out any ship tag that doesn't strike your fancy like Q x MGS, HC x JY's mom, (...) Filter out characters that aren't your cuppa tea like HT, HT's dad, SL, JY's mom, XH, (...)

Make it safe for yourself and for others. That way you won't rage at the sight of your NOTP, won't feel the compulsive need to trash the people who ship it, no one is hurt and everyone is happy!

There are many steps we could follow to prevent rotten eggs in our coop. And many more actions we could take to throw them out if need be. I firmly believe, however, that if we're all of the same mind everything would go well and with very few bumps along the way.

If we only ever feared the possible negative consequences of our actions, never taking the risk for the possible positive ones, we'd never get anything done. I say let's not let our beloved fandom stagnate or dry out. Let's incentivate and motivate and inspire! Let's share! Let's have fun!

Think of it in these terms: it wouldn't be a competition at all but rather a charity event. Performers and spectators coming together for a common good, raising content and spreading joy! There would be no winners or losers or prizes. What would matter would be good old-fashioned participation, both by providing content and/or consuming it.

It could also a good way to get people to express themselves more. Many content consumers tend to lurk or keep to themselves even if they like the content posts. (I used to be one myself and only a couple months ago started to come out of my shell.) I myself advocate for reblogging instead of liking - if you have to choose one or the other, I mean, why not do both? - and leaving a word on every single post I like and/or reblog. Sometimes I go nuts commenting, sometimes I leave a small note in the tags.

It doesn't matter how. Even if you're shy or introverted (*raises hand*) or don't know what to say I guarantee a single emoticon or a string of disordered letters symbolising incoherence will make the creator's day all the same. Getting feedback is so important and motivational for creators and also a great way for fandom members to keep in touch and support each other.

Additionally, if a person would like more of a certain type of content here are some healthy actions they could take: a) commission a creator and pay for it if they can; b) politely make a suggestion to a creator with an open ask box; c) post a prompt publicly for possible interested creators to use; d) do it yourself and share it with others!

This turned out into more of a "behavioural guidelines" thing than I'd have liked. I am not in any way whatsoever telling anyone what to do. This is what I do, and it works wonders for me. I stay completely out of toxic arguments and in on all the goodies. I'm able to fully enjoy my fandoms. And isn't that what we all want?

Thank you again for sharing your thoughts with me. And I apologise for the long rant!

Of course, this is only my personal stance on the issue. I did go for a survey first exactly for this end, to get their opinions on the subject and see if it would be worth a shot. I shall hope many other people will think as I do, but I will wholly respect those who don't.

#answered asks #19 tian #19天 #19 days #old先 #old xian #zhanyi #qiucheng #tianshan #jian yi #zhan zheng xi #he cheng #qiu #brother qiu #he tian #mo guan shan #she li #cun tou #xiao hui

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aspenflower17 · 3 years

Text

Finding You (Part Fifteen of ??)

Goodness gracious, I’m back, and excited to be here. I just had the weirdest two weeks, so I apologize about not updating last week. Luckily, I just stayed home today and was able to write most of this chapter. Here is a link for anyone who’s new and wants to start over at the beginning: Part One.

A couple notes: I totally forgot I wanted to add a dream sequence to part fourteen, so I added it first thing in this update. It is a rewrite of part of Satan’s “The Search of Self” Devilgram so there might be some spoilers. I also missed you all so much! Honestly, I’ve been feeling kinda down lately and haven’t even had much motivation to play Obey Me (or do much of anything), so being able to hang out on Tumblr today and see all the posts has helped me get some of my inspiration back! I also bought a Chromebook and I'm still getting used to it. If the formatting goes weird, please let me know so I can fix it.

Tags for the beauties: @simpingforsatan @naimena @hachimochi @wrathandgreed @magi-minminxiii @rensphilia @a-dream-at-night @chloelikesobeyme @getbehindme-satan @theuglypugling @oofthelazyweeb @mammonismyfirstman

Word Count: 3293

Warnings: Possible spoilers for the first season (though I think I’ve had some before so...), spoilers for Satan’s “The Search for Self” Devilgram story (it’s not the full story and I added a lot)

Mc followed Satan to a fairly large building. Satan, still so weird to say, had asked her if she wanted to go around the Devildom with him. The letters above the door were illegible, seeing as how the Devildom had their own language and alphabet, but she instantly knew where they were when they walked in, “You took me to an art gallery?!”

“Oh, seems like I made a good choice,” Satan looked a tad shocked, but then smiled, “I like to come here to get away from stuff and clear my head.”

“So, are these like human art galleries?” Mc asked.

“I think so? Naturally, they have older, historically significant paintings, but they also exhibit pieces created by young, up-and-coming artists. And they’re always holding interesting events. It’s a lot of fun… Are you interested in art, Mc?”

“Yeah, I am,” Mc answered.

“Ah, is that so? I’ve got a feeling you and I might get along, then. I really love art.”

Mc felt her heart thill at his words. She’d been interested in the blonde fourth-born the second she’d seen him, and her interest seemed to be well founded.

Satan continued on about why he loved art, and though there was brand new art for her to look at, all she could do was hang watch Satan and hang onto his every word. He wasn’t saying anything she herself didn’t think, but just being here with him was giving her butterflies.

“... If you’re nervous about coming here alone, then say the word, and I’ll join you anytime.”

“Ah, that’s so nice of you. Now that I know this place exists, I’m definitely going to need to visit often.”

“You’re really excited about this, aren’t you?” he was watching her, eyebrow quirked, but with a soft smile.

“Of course! Not only do I have a whole new history to learn about, but there’s even new art!”

Satan chuckled, “Well, I’m glad you’re actually interested in art. It really is important not to focus only on your outward appearance like Asmo, because the person you are on the inside has a way of showing through on the outside as well.”

“I agree. Too many people’s beauty is only skin deep.”

“Exactly. Incidentally, it looks like they’re having a contemporary art exhibit here today. Shall we go check it out?”

“Definitely. I hope demon modern art is better than, “Four Blue Squares on Canvas”.”

“Wait… Really?”

“Yup. It’s a real art piece I saw in my University’s art museum.”

“So, was it really…”

“Just four blue squares on a white canvas, all equidistant from each other.”

Satan blinked a couple times, “Well, I hope ours is better too.”

They entered an exhibit space. Mc found herself a little disappointed, as she saw some of the same stange, abstract, postmodern art she would’ve seen at a human art gallery. Satan noticed the change and hurried to explain, “This is the human art wing. Many of the “lost” art pieces you’ve heard about can be found in collections here in the Devildom or in some of our galleries. This gallery is curated by Lord Diavolo, as advised by Barabatos, Lucifer and myself. Right now I believe this collection was put together by Lucifer.”

“Ah. That makes sense,” Mc stated, lips pursed as she looked around, making Satan laugh.

The duo continued through the gallery, Mc stopping every-so-often to examine a piece that caught her eye. Satan knew the artist’s name and the medium of almost every piece, though there were a few that were new to him too.

“Check out this work here. The use of color is so novel, so original. It’s very eye catching.”

Mc leaned down to read the museum label, “You know, that reddish color really reminds me of… Oh…”

“Human blood? Yeah, I thought as much. Though the smell had been dampened, probably diluted with water, it’s still unmistakable,” Satan answered absentmindedly. Finally seeing Mc’s discomfort, he quickly tried to backpedal, “I’m sorry. I forgot human noses aren’t as... sensitive as demons. This artist makes pieces that stimulate multiple senses. She’s an acquaintance of mine. This piece in particular incorporates the blood of… Seven distinct creatures, demons included.”

“Oh… Which one is the demon blood?”

“The black. If I’m not mistaken, she used her own blood for this piece,” Mc nodded, the art more macabre than she’d originally thought, “Well, there’s a lot more to see than just this. Let’s see, what’s over here in this space?” They walked through an archway into a room that held a huge installation. A lot of strange items filled the room, some on pedestals, or the ground, while others hung from near translucent strings from the ceiling. The lighting in the room was generally low, specific spotlights or illumination obviously very strategically placed. A low glow on the floor marked a pathway that allowed the viewer to wander around the room.

“Wow! Now this is very interesting,” Satan breathed, eyes glittering, “See? Check it out. At first glance it looks like a bunch of random stuff scattered all over the place, doesn’t it? But actually, every piece of rope, string and crumpled paper has been arranged very meticulously. It actually depicts a war between a dragon and an army of angels. If you want proof, look at it from the side. It looks as if the dragon is over powering the army. Buuuut,” Satan continued excitedly rushing over to the other side of the room, “When you look from this other angel here, it seems the angels have the upper hand.”

“Interesting, because, from where I’m standing, I can see Earth.”

“Wait, really?” Satan moved to where Mc was and bent down so he could view it from her height, “Would you look at that. I don’t think I ever would’ve seen that. How interesting… Very nice find,” he complimented, his smile, words and proximity making Mc’s cheeks heat up.

They spent some more time in the room, though they didn’t find any other secrets. They both vowed to come back however to search some more. They then spent more time in the gallery before Satan suggested they head out to get some refreshments at a new cafe in the Devildom.

“Thank you for that Satan,” Mc grinned, “That was some much needed mental refreshment.”

“No, thank you Mc. It can be difficult to get any of my brothers to spend time with me in a manner that I enjoy, and even harder still for them not to annoy me in the process, so I usually end up going around on my own. It was invigorating having someone with me who also appreciates art,” He grinned at her again, making her heart flutter. She could definitely get used to spending time with the Avatar of Wrath.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mc blinked awake. That was the second dream she’d had that seemed more than just a dream. She could still remember the first in clear detail, though her dreams usually started fading once she woke up. The only other time she’d experienced something like this was her memory of being a Wanderer. But… This couldn’t possibly be like that. That was a memory, and these were just the result of finally being able to talk to and spend time with the demon she’d admired for so long… Right? She shook her head, the large questions the dreams brought up already giving her a headache. She grabbed her DDD blinking at the light it gave off. After her eyes adjusted she saw a new message alert. Opening it she smiled. Seems like he'd finally opened up her letter

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Dude, just read it.”

“Easy for you to say.”

Belphie sighed and got up, grabbing the letter off of the kitchen counter.

“What are you doing?” Satan asked.

“Well, if you’re not going to open it, I will. I can’t believe you didn’t read and respond to it that night. Honestly, you’re one of the most powerful demons in the Devildom and you can’t even-” he was cut off by Satan grabbing the letter from him, the seal already halfway broken.

“I will open it myself, thank you.”

“Then do it,” Belphie said, unaffected by Satan’s anger.

Satan narrowed his eyes, and turned back to the letter in his hands. Logically, he understood why he was nervous, and usually knowing the why behind a feeling would help him get it under control, but that had never worked with any feelings toward Mc. He had hoped this time around would be different, and he was almost more nervous than before. There seemed to be so much more riding on her returned affection than before. Cautiously, he broke the rest of the seal on the envelope, and pulled the letter out/

Dear Satan,

I would love to get coffee with you sometime! If I can be even half as engaging as last time, I’ll consider it a job well done. To help us plan that and talk more easily in the future, I included my number ;) Once you text me, I have a secret to share with you.

Satan blinked a couple times. He turned the letter over to see if she’d written anything on the back. No such luck. Was that really all she’d written?

“Forever the tease I see.”

“... Did you just read that over my shoulder?”

“Well, when you delay as much as you did, and then have that kind of reaction, who wouldn’t? Anyway, you should text her.”

“I… Yes, you’re right. I definitely should,” Satan said grabbing his DDD. He opened the messaging app, typed in her number and… just sat there.

“You good?”

“Hmmm? Oh, yeah. I’m just not sure how to start the-”

He was cut off by Belphie grabbing his DDD, typing something, and then tossing it back to him, “There you go. I’m going to go sleep now. It’s way past my bedtime.”

“Wait, what did you even-”

“Night,” Belphie called from the doorway before walking out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Satan was reading when his DDD meowed that he had a message. He almost threw the book he was reading into the air as he lunged for his DDD which was on the table next to him. He didn’t even have time to be embarrassed at his over-the-top-reaction.

Satan: A secret?

Mc: Yes :D

My name is not Jane Doe, though

I’m sure you’ve already

surmised that much

Satan: I thought as much, though it really isan ingenious alias.

Mc: Thank you! I thought so too

Satan: So… Do I get to know what you’re

real name is?

Mc: Hmmm… What if I want to go get

that coffee with you before

I divulge that information?

Satan: We’ll just have to go get that coffee then.

Mc:

When?

Satan: Whenever you’d like. I am free today.

Only if you want though.

Mc: Okay! Shall we say… 16:00?

Satan: As long as there’s no last minute RAD Student Council meetings called, that should be perfect

Mc: Well, if there is, I’ll just have to come

tell everyone you already made plans.

I’ve been meaning to visit RAD anyway.

Satan:

Oh how I’d love to see Lucifer’s reaction

to that.

Mc:

Satan: Wait… Shouldn’t you be asleep right now?

It’s rather late.

Mc: I was asleep, but…

Satan: Bad dream?

Mc: No actually. Quite the opposite.

I just can’t stop thinking now.

Satan: Ah. I understand that.

Anything I can do to help?

Mc: Would you talk to me a bit longer? Maybe tell me about thelatest book you’ve been reading?

Satan: Of course.

Though he wished Mc would talk to him about what was bothering her, he figured this was probably the better option. They hadn’t met many times, and prying might upset her. So, he simply started telling her the basic plot of the new novel he’d picked up. Eventually, she stopped responding, and the messages stopped being shown as read. Satan smiled at that, texted her good night, and snuggled down into bed himself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I’m sorry!” Mc’s voice brought Satan out of the book of poetry he’d been reading, “Not only did I fall asleep while texting you last night, but then I was late today and I set the meetup time? Ugh, I feel so bad and I’m so sorry!”

“You’re alright,” Satan smiled, not wanting to acknowledge how much anxiety had been eased up by her appearing.

“I woke up late, and I dropped my DDD bad enough that we have to get a new one all together, and then Michael was asking me about native Devildom fabrics and if he should get a new outfit made in one… It’s just been a day so far.”

“Like, I said, it’s all okay. I’m sure you would’ve messaged me if you could.”

“I would’ve. I still feel bad… But thank you for being okay with it,” the look of anxiety to joy that she gave him made every second he’d spent waiting worth it.

“O-Of course,” he got out.

“So, what were you reading?”

“A collection of Arabic love poems.”

“Ah, “... When I love, / I become liquid light,” and “... If the devil was to ever see you, he’d kiss your eyes and repent,” Mc sighed, resting her chin on her hand. Then, as if remembering her current company and current residence, she shot up, “Sorry! I just really love that line.”

Satan laughed, and then said a quote of his own, “My lips and fingers were pens on her flesh. / I memorized her in every alphabet and memorized my memories until they multiplied…”

“I look at you and I dream of snow, I look at you and I await autumn…”

“My temptations in your eyes, And the cities of your grief,” Satan quoted just then realizing they were both leaning in towards each other. He leaned back a bit abruptly and cleared his throat, “Anyway, I really enjoy Adonis’ work.”

“Me too,” Mc answered, leaning back as well. Fortunately, a waiter came up to them to take their order, helping resolve the awkward air his sudden retreat had created. He tried to collect his thoughts as she ordered. He could only think of one thing to talk about though.

“So… Your name is not Jane Doe.”

“Nope.”

“So... What is it?” Didn’t they have this conversation last night?

Mc looked disappointed for a second, but then she was back to normal, “It’s Mc.”

“Really? That’s a lovely name.”

She looked up, eyes measuring him, “You think so?”

“Of course! It suits you really well,” Satan said.

“Well, there’s actually an interesting story behind that. Usually when an angel becomes an angel, they receive a new name. Back in the past, they used to allow them the choice between their new name and their old one. This resulted in too many angels remembering their human life, so they stopped allowing it. I’m the first angel in quite some time to keep the same name as I had in life.”

“Really?”

“Yup. Apparently Sim and Luke were insistent on it. Luke didn’t have a ton of clout upstairs at the time, but Sim does. I promised I wouldn’t question them too much about my human life.”

“They were huh? That’s interesting…”

“Why?”

“Oh, uhhh… Just general curiosity. I’ve been trying to pin down what kind of person Simeon is since the first exchange program,” Satan scrambled, actually managing to sound convincing.

Mc just hesitated and then nodded, not keeping eye contact with him.

“I’m sorry. I’m just nervous that I’ll make a fool of myself and ruin this time like I have the other times we’ve talked,” Satan confessed in Latin, his brain still on the last language he had been reading. Saying the things that had been bothering him started when he became more comfortable around Mc the first time around. He found saying the things on his mind out loud usually released much of his nervous energy, helped him understand what and how he was feeling without doing things to make Mc uncomfortable, even if she hadn’t understood most of what he’d said. It had become something they had shared, causing her to work hard to learn other languages so she could catch the little embarrassing things he said.

Mc gave him a look before replying, “Well, you didn’t mess up last time.”

“Well, I-” Satan cut off when his brain caught up to his mouth. She had just responded. In perfect Latin. His brain flipped back to their discussion on Arabic poetry and he realized she had been quoting that in Arabic too, “I hadn’t realized… Of course you speak other languages.”

“I have to read it in its original tongue. Translations generally don’t do the original justice,” Satan was still trying to think of an appropriate response when Mc spoke again, “Question though: Why did you say that in Arabic?”

“I… I fell into that habit awhile ago.”

“I thought a lot of demons knew different languages.”

“Well, I don’t do this around other demons. I don’t care what most of them think of me…” Satan cut off as the waiter came back with their drinks.

Mc sat in thought for a second before realization dawned on her, “Oh, was it because of…” her face fell before she could continue her thought.

“Hmmm? Did you say something?”

“No, just a stray thought that slipped out.”

“Hmmm… Well, do you want to tell me more about yourself?”

“Only if you tell me more about yourself.”

“Sounds fair to me. We can trade off asking questions.”

“Okay,” Mc seemed very excited by the prospect, and Satan found it infectious. The questions were a bit stilted at first, but they slowly fell into a comfortable space. Though the answers Mc gave, it seemed she was the same person essentially, but a lot more educated, even more opinionated, and with a different upbringing. He found the fact her personality had remained intact very interesting as well as relieving. He found the fact she was now an angel not as terrible as he thought it’d be. Sure, she spoke about saving souls and bringing people to the light, but with what she’d done for him and his brothers, it seemed a perfect fit. He’d always known she was a really good person. At times it had almost made him try to give up on their relationship, not wanting to corrupt her, but also feeling it in his very nature too. Now however, he didn’t necessarily feel that for her. She was an angel and it took a lot to corrupt an angel. He didn’t feel any animosity towards her and found her to be a lot like Simeon in her regard to demons. He found himself thanking Simeon for keeping her intact. If they couldn’t give her back to me, this is probably the next best thing.

They were both surprised when Mc’s DDD rang, a call from Luke asking if she’d be back in time for dinner. While she was on the phone, Satan received a similar call from an annoyed Beel telling him it was time to come home. Lucifer wouldn’t let him eat until he’d gotten home. They both got off the phone at the same time.

“I… actually have to go. I hadn’t realized how late it’s gotten.”

“I didn’t either. I have to go as well. There’s a hungry Avatar of Gluttony at home and a stupid Avatar of Pride that won’t let him eat until I get back.”

“Well, I really had a good time tonight. We should do this again sometime.”

“I agree,” Satan smiled, “Today was amazing.”

Mc smiled and blushed a bit, “I’ll text you later then?”

“Definitely. Bye!”

Mc waved cutely and then started running off in the direction of the castle. Satan watched her until she was out of sight, smiling softly the whole time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, yeah. Arabic love poems make me live. I apologize if the translations are weird. I literally found them on a twitter post someone had posted on Tumblr. Here’s the link: https://twitter.com/rosewatwr/status/1292487129793208320?lang=en

Can we also take a moment to talk about how absurd it is that Satan, of all people, was having trouble eating properly with a knife and fork?! Are you kidding me?

Part Sixteen

#obey me #obey me!#obey me satan #obey me! swd #obey me belphie #aspenflower17 #finding you #obey me fluff #obey me angst #obey me mc #obey me satan/mc #obey me satan x mc #obey me long fic #obey me swd #can you guys believe it's part 15?!#also #there was a part I was going to add on that was pretty angsty and Read My Heart came on shuffle when I was writing it

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bengallemon · 2 years

Text

I posted 736 times in 2021

202 posts created (27%)

534 posts reblogged (73%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 2.6 posts.

I added 566 tags in 2021

#lemon time - 189 posts

#art - 76 posts

#my art - 76 posts

#digital art - 66 posts

#reblog - 60 posts

#undertale - 28 posts

#undertale au - 27 posts

#deltarune - 22 posts

#others art - 12 posts

#ocs - 10 posts

Longest Tag: 116 characters

#i actually dont know what they look like ingame because i haven't been able to play chap 2 so i'm just guessing here

My Top Posts in 2021

Desperately wanted to draw the boy, so take humanization.

Gotta say, I think this my best one yet. I'm experimenting with colours and shadows/highlights and it made this look so much better than with just flat colouring. Imma do more of this, but for now take the precious golden child!

Aim (the precious golden bean who we can never let anything bad happen to) belongs to @zu-is-here

41 notes • Posted 2021-01-18 04:31:22 GMT

NOBODY TOLD ME IT WAS HIS BIRTHDAY SO I HAD TO BE VERY QUICK

Anyway happy birthday Aim! Our smol little bean who's done nothing wrong. And happy anniversary to the end of the Dark Cream comic!

Aim belongs to @zu-is-here

This human design (which has changed a little) is by me

42 notes • Posted 2021-12-13 01:19:33 GMT

Am I betraying the Cream and Fluffynightkiller ships? Yes. Do I regret it? Absolutely not, my multishipper's heart won't let me regret it. Presenting to you:

Studio AU Crossmare!

Idk why I wrote that in fancy text also hi I'm bored and have several other AU ideas SEND HELP PLEASE

I do have some ideas on how this would work, so I'll just throw them here while I suffer under blooming AU ideas.

This would probably have to be a timeline without Cream or Nightkiller/Fluffynightkiller, but everyone can still vibe together.

Cross and Nightmare wouldn't stand being around each other for too long but in secret really want to spend all the time in the world with each other. It gets to the point where it's very obvious to basically everyone but them, and a few other people (probably Dream and Killer, maybe Ink as well) decide to try and bring them together somehow, despite constant glaring and just the inability to not annoy the hell out of each other.

They end up sorta understanding each other and their personalities and slowly connect until they can be left alone together for an extended period of time without attempting to kill each other.

Idk who'd confess first or what would happen and all that, I'm just spitting words out here and hoping sense can be made of them.

I shall now desperately wipe words off my whiteboard to make space for a whole idea that's forming that I know won't leave me unless I do something about it and maybe draft some designs and concepts and all that.

Studio au belongs to @zu-is-here

The designs belong to @help-im-a-gay-fish

I'm going to look up references and write and just exist now bai

46 notes • Posted 2021-01-17 08:04:23 GMT

holy fck two art posts in one day what cocaine have i found??

anyways: OBSERVE A B E A N

friend said to draw a papyrus so i drew this boiiiiii! i liked doing the pose and the clothing was nice. didn't shade because this is a reference image in case i do some more art with Broopie at some point.

This humanized version of the design belongs to me

Broomie!Papyrus itself belongs to @zu-is-here

This particular design of Broopie belongs to @manosaldibujo

Reblogs are more valued than likes, spreading artwork is very poggers, do so now.

54 notes • Posted 2021-08-22 12:24:07 GMT

Thought: Deltarune AU where the school has to put up with a very anti-LGBT teacher who holds semi-weekly "talks" about how they should all be anti-LGBT as well. Kris decides to p*ss off that teacher as much as they can while obtaining a relationship at the same time. Susie, Noelle and Berdly all randomly join them in detention and they all bond over being part of the community and just vibing.

It switches between angst, problems and dealing with toxicity to just fluff and vibing together.

66 notes • Posted 2021-01-21 10:46:49 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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thejustmaiden · 4 years

Note

It's rather amusing that you claim to want dialogue yet you either call us offensive things yourself, or you engage with posts calling us offensive things. What kind of dialogue do you really expect on those grounds I wonder. Call it what it is, what you want is clout, not dialogue... well, matters naught. And investing all that time writing so much just to say nothing, makes me wonder if you people really even find joy in anything. Aside from trying to pretend you're better than others that is.

Hey, anon!

So I actually got a few other asks waiting for a response from me, but I'm gonna be kind and let you skip ahead this once.

You have clearly already made up your mind that you got me all figured out. But allow me to try and change it, won't you?

So first thing's first, I went back and read over my most recent 5 or 6 blogs BEFORE you sent me this and tried to find these so-called offensive remarks you're referring to. Instead I found the latter- feel free to look them over again yourself if you doubt me! Here's some direct quotes from them that I would like to share with you:

"We shall see, nonnie! Whatever happens, I hope we're both satisfied. Take care of yourself. ✌" ~my geuninely nice reply to an anon ask from who I'm assuming is a Sessrin shipper

"If I were a Sessrin shipper, I'd probably jump to a similar if not the same conclusion ngl. It would be hard not to 'read between the lines' and take these small potential clues as proof, but fans must be wary. I totally get the temptation, alright, but wishful thinking may be getting the best of us if we allow ourselves to mistake potential fanbait for legitimate assurance something will guaranteed happen." ~Here I'm relating to Sessrin shippers and finding common ground. You could say that I'm even trying to look out for them.

"It can be disappointing when we allow ourselves to get our hopes up high, but it happens all the same. The baiting/trolling stops for no one, ha! Of course I'm directing this at all Inuyasha fans, not only Sessrin fans. Gods know I've been guilty of being let down, I just pray this time ain't one of them. 😉" ~I'm showing how it isn't just Sessrin shippers who are capable of being wrong, we all are.

"It would be hypocritical in many ways, yes, but at the same time many Sessrin shippers say they would never condone acts like child grooming and the such in real life. I really believe them for the most part, too." ~I defend Sessrin shippers by stating that I truly believe the vast majority of them are against real life child grooming if they say they are.

So please tell me, when have I ever been offensive? I can't control it if you're offended or triggered by things I say, just as I cannot blame pro-Sessrin posts for getting the same reaction out of me. The difference here is that I have never been downright ugly and disrespectful towards Sessrin shippers. Not once! Don't believe me? Then maybe you'll listen to a fellow shipper- read this!

Although I try my utmost to refrain from name-calling, I can admit that there are times I get a little snarky or snippy in my blogs. Hey, I won't pretend that I'm by any means perfect, but nowhere in any of my own blogs have I put any of you Sessrin fans down as people. It's your attitude I put down, not your opinions. You have a right to your opinions, and I have not on one occasion said you didn't. This may not apply to all of you shippers, but it applies to enough of you.

Time and time again I have told you all that I would love to participate in healthy discourse with you, but what do y'all do? Most of you who have decided to interact either come onto my blogs and make rude condescending remarks OR you just flag my blogs when I've kindly asked countless times to please keep them in the tags. There's never been anything inflammatory about them. So forgive me if I'm a little confused by your ask as nothing that I've addressed so far is really adding up to what you're saying.

If I like or comment on other anti-sessrin blogs that you find offensive, that's really not my issue. What the real offense here should be is Sessrin shippers posting fan art of Sesshomaru with young Rin and then tagging it under Sessrin. Pardon me if I'm disgusted by pedophilia and want to express it, and sorry to break it to you but that's a totally healthy reaction. What you guys need to do is post fan art with adult Rin and then we should be good. I thought older Rin was who you shipped Sesshomaru with anyhow, so maybe the art you post from now on should reflect that and only that for a change.

Last but not least, it's okay if you want to send an anon ask, nonnie, but how do you expect me to prove that I mean what I say if you don't come out and legitimately engage in real discourse with me? This isn't a very effective way to have a proper discussion, pro to anti, if you ask me. It's different when I get them from other antis, but it's always been you guys whose attention I most wanted to grab and whose interaction I most craved. Talking in this manner will achieve close to nothing, and I'm also not sure why you'd make assumptions about me when you have yet (as far as I'm aware) to interact.

Put your money where your mouth is and comment on a blog of mine and let's have that dialogue someday. That's not so much a challenge as it is an invitation, but take it however you want. Let me prove to you that my blogs aren't just clout as you say, since I already have with others before you and will surely for others after. I've encountered and dealt with my fair share of nasty shippers on your side- just calling it how it is- but never once did I insult them or mock them. At the top of my head, I can already think of four Sessrin shippers who have told me that they respect and appreciate the way I approach my blogs. Not to brag or anything, but I'm not sure there are a lot of other anti-sessrin blogs out there that could boast the same. I assure you that's exactly how I'd treat you too, just as long as you show me the same courtesy.

Keep that in mind and until next time (if there's a next time). All the best, nonnie!

#inuyasha #hanyo no yashahime #anti sessrin #anonymous asks #answered ask

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askthewidowstar · 3 years

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Info & Rules

First off hey welcome to the ask blog, this is going to be 18+ due to there’s going to be mentions related to Alcohol, Drugs , Death etc. It’ll be tagged and if any post with the mentioned hasn’t been tagged, don’t feel uncomfortable to send me a message about it! ^^

I apologize if I seem hesitant with answering things, I’m trying to use this as a way to make friends without pushing limits ❤

I’d like to also bring up that this ask blog is a side blog as the main is just for stuff I enjoy

Muse =/= Mun

❤ Both the muse & mod are 18+. Any N/S/F/W content shall be tagged and put under 'readmore'.

❤ As mentioned this is a Dead By Daylight blog, there’s going to be a lot of blood & violence either mentioned or drawn!

❤ Any art that's posted on this account is by me unless it has been stated otherwise so kindly don't repost nor use any of my art from here please.

❤ Don't send anything relating to Sexism, racism, discrimination, homophobic and transphobic whether it's an ask or submission as it makes me uncomfortable.

❤ This askblog's open to multiverse & Multiship, it'll be based depending how much interaction and/or chemistry.

❤ N/S/F/W asks won't be answered or interacted if you're under the age of 18, if you lie about your age, you will be blocked without any exceptions.

❤ OCS, Canons & Crossovers are happily welcomed!

#Rules #Info

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ship-trek · 3 years

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S/I introduction!

(This is an introduction to my new Genshin Impact s/i! They’re a bit more of an oc than most of my s/is, but I’m still really excited to share them. I’ll update this as soon as I finish their art but I have bad impulse control so I’m posting this now anyway!)

(Apologies for the length, I got carried away. That’s probably not really a surprise at this point, but still.)

Meet Cat!

“Oh, hello there. Welcome to Mondstadt’s library! I’m afraid Lisa’s out at the moment, but if there’s anything I can help you with, just let me know!”

Name: Cat*

Age: 19

Pronouns: They/them

Vision: Anemo*

*these may be subject to change

“You want me to introduce myself? Well, alright… Hi, I’m Cat, and I’m Lisa’s personal assistant. I help keep things clean, make sure everything’s organized, track down overdue books, that sort of thing. Basically any work that Lisa finds too tedious, she gives to me… as you can probably imagine, I end up pretty busy. But I don’t mind! It’s an honor to work with Lisa, and I don’t find the work too bad. Plus, I learn a lot. You wouldn’t believe some of the things they have in the restricted section!"

“Hobbies? I suppose I have a few of those… why do you ask?"

“You’re curious what the knights do in their spare time? Well, I’m not a knight, so you’d have to ask someone else, sorry. I can see if we have any books on that, but…"

“You misunderstand me. I’m sure if I spoke to Acting Grand Master Jean, I could work towards becoming a knight, but honestly, I don’t have any interest in that. Too many rules and guard shifts, not enough library time. Not my thing."

“Ok, to tell you the truth, that’s not the only reason I don’t want to join the knights, but my other reasons are… less officially acceptable, shall we say. You don’t look like you’re from around here, or like you’re staying long, so I’ll tell you if you promise to keep it a secret. While she’s plenty smart and I wouldn’t be surprised if she had a guess, Acting Grand Master Jean can’t officially know about this or she’d have to take action. Even rumors might start an investigation, and that would be an… unfortunate use of the knights’ resources, shall we say. So, no telling a soul, ok?"

“The truth is, I don’t want to join the knights because I’m working with the Darknight Hero on the side. Don’t get me wrong, I love the knights and I love what they stand for, but the amount of bureaucratic nonsense they have to go through just to get anything done is outright ridiculous. The line between thinking things through and making excuses for inaction is very thin, and sometimes I don’t think they know what side of that line they’re on…"

“The Darknight Hero, though? He doesn’t think things through nearly enough sometimes. He doesn’t want to admit it, but his precious intelligence network has a few holes… Let’s just say I’ve done him enough favors that he doesn’t have much of a choice but to tolerate my interference in his precious plans. Points to him, though. He does get things done."

“Of course, I have other hobbies beyond research and moonlighting as a vigilante’s assistant! I’m no bard, but I love to write and sing, and I have a couple adventures under my belt. Hopefully soon I’ll be strong enough to get all the way to Liyue on my own! It’s not hard to convince Lisa to let me go exploring in place of official work, usually under the guise of bringing some new book or research back to the library, though I’m still not sure how I’m going to talk her into letting me go all the way to Liyue… ah well, no sense in worrying about that now, I suppose. I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it."

“Why do I want to go to Liyue? To see my… well, we haven’t really put a label on our relationship, now that I think about it. I guess vaguely queerplatonic might be the best way to describe it? We only met recently, so we’re still exploring what our feelings are for each other. But she’s really nice and super cute and I want to go see her!”

“What’s her name? Oh! Right! I’m so sorry. Her name is Xiangling! She runs a restaurant in Liyue Harbor, maybe you’ve heard of her? Anyway, I’m so sorry, but I should really get back to work. If you have any more specific questions about the library or about me, just get my attention at any time and I’ll be happy to answer them!”

So yeah! That's Cat, and the character I referenced earlier is Xiangling. I'm still working on their ship tag, but it will be "my secret ingredient" for now! The tag for content about Cat (not ship content) will be “lisa’s little helper” and that may serve as a catchall for a while until I figure out who’s making the platonic f/o list and who isn’t.

In terms of starting a media to creating a s/i, this is really fast for me, so any feedback or additional questions are welcomed. Constructive criticism is welcome too! You can be mean to them, just don’t be mean to me in the process, that’s all I ask :)

Also, because this is so fast, I’m not that far along in the game. I just finished the Stormterror arc and the first Darknight Hero quest set, so please don’t spoil anything for me!

#welcome to mondstadt's library #my secret ingredient #lisa’s little helper #new s/i dropped!#long post

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cescalr · 4 years

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Why Is Draco Malfoy So Underrated?

A repost of a Quora answer because Quora hates me for some reason

@vivithefolle i take little convincing here I go -

SO!

You. Yeah, you. You, nebulous quora questioner, you think Malfoy is underrated, do you? Well I, CescaLR, am here to set the record straight. The following is the answer I posted to Quora, that was flagged with ‘answer may need improvement’, which means some asshole was trawling the answers to the question posted and didn’t like mine so they had the moderators hide it because said person doesn’t like differing opinions. This post is thereby an archive, so if my answer is never again allowed to see the light of day on Quora, at least my maths is visible elsewhere.

Hopefully, this entertains you, tumblr user reading this post. Also, as fair warning, if you do like Draco Malfoy and somehow stumbled across this post, I recommend skipping it.

Why is Draco Malfoy so underrated?

Fleur Lee-Ranger

Author of 857406 words of fanfiction and counting.

ANSWER:

HAHAHAHA.

Ha.

hah…..

For god’s sake, I hope you’re not serious.

Let’s look at YouTube, first:

Does 2.2 million f*cking views on a woobie Draco edit seem like he’s underrated to you? Any character that gets 2.2 million views on an edit that interprets the character in a sympathetic, caring light…. Jesus Christ. They’re not underrated.

You could make a clear argument for them being overrated, by matter of fact!

The first result is his entire life story, and a redemption of the Malfoy family as a whole, and it’s… super popular!

look at that! 70k likes versus 1.7k dislikes. Let’s use my favourite maths thing once again: Ratios!!

(I hate ratios. The things I do to prove a point, eh?)

This video has 5201431 million views. It has around 70k likes, 1.1k dislikes. We’ll round 5201431, as 70k and 1.1k are both rounded numbers and I can’t be bothered to deal with numbers that are too complicated right now, it’s nearly nine pm. 5201431 -> 5.2 million. It’s the rounded number YouTube itself uses on the search page - check the first image if you don’t believe me, and since YouTube thinks that’s good enough, so will we.

5200000 : 70000 : 1100

52000 : 700 : 11

Divide all by 11 (and round awkward numbers, because we’re already dealing in rounded numbers anyway, which is kind of bad practice, but it’ll do for this context):

4,727 : 64 : 1

As I’ve proven before (not on Quora, you can probably find it in the comments of one of my fanfictions, I’ll end up moving it over here one day when I find the right question), fandom content engagement rates are always pretty bad. But honestly? every four thousand or so views, you get 64 likes, compared to just one dislike. That’s great! That’s incredible! I’d kill for those kinds of ratings!!

(Draco’d probably wimp out, though. hehe. Jokes, jokes.)

As for his woobie video:

2.3m : 152k : 715

2300000 : 153000 : 715

Nice, don’t need to remove any superfluous zeroes. Bad, for… well, your hypothesis, to put it nicely, since that means there are only seven hundred and fifteen goddamn dislikes on this video, what the f*ck, why do so many people like this b*stard child.

Ahem. Sorry, that’s rude to illegitimate children like myself. There is nothing wrong with having unmarried parents.

…Anyway, lets slim down that ratio:

3217 : 214 : 1

Holy sh*t. I would do more than kill for this ratio. Oh my god.

That’s some great engagement there. So many likes! Clearly, Draco dearie is a very popular boy! He’d love that. I hate this on principle. God am I glad 13 year old me didn’t really use YouTube (I watched gaming content and little else, didn’t even find fandom content until 2015) or I’d have contributed one of those likes, probably.

Oh wait, no! Never mind! I can’t have contributed one of those likes, because this f*cking video was posted last year!!!!!

LAST GODDAMN YEAR!!!!

Do you understand that? Do you - do you have any idea how - just how difficult it is to get that many views that quickly and with that good an engagement???? Do you???????? It has been, get this, seven, seven whole f*cking months, Less time than it takes to make a baby, and this f*cking video has 2,265,900!!! million!!!! views!!!! With a ratio of 214 likes to one goddamn dislike.

oh my god.

oh my god

I’m having a minor mental breakdown. Jesus f*cking H Christ on a goddamn bike.

Look at these comments! Look at how many likes they have!! Oh my god!!!! Draco Malfoy might just be one of the most beloved characters ever to get this sort of reaction, for hell’s sake!

I don’t know what kind of dunderhead you are to not notice how f*cking popular this jackass little b*stard boy is, but god, the whiny little sh*t has more fans than oh, I don’t know. Someone really popular. Tom Holland? I don’t know celebrities. Sorry.

But my point is, for god’s sake, Malfoy isn’t underrated. I don’t know what rock you’ve been living under, my friend, but that sheer idolisation you so crave of your wimpy f*cking husband is right there in front of you! Just search his name, and you’ll see it front and goddamn centre. Those of us that don’t worship the ground he walks on are generally much more background.

For god’s sake, he’s a trope namer.

Draco In Leather Pants.

How much more evidence do you need than that?

Of course, I could be jumping the gun. You could be a fan of his that is frustrated by the fanon interpretation of his character. ‘Why is he reduced to a bad boy with a heart of gold when actually he’s a more complicated asshole with sh*tty morality and no backbone that gives a whole ass damn about his family but not much else?’ Good question! Blame Cassie Claire, though I suppose that’s my go-to for most things.

Seriously though; Draco Malfoy is not even remotely overrated. He’s a whiny, terrible, useless waste of space in the books; and in fandom, he’s transformed into a cool, collected, redeemable or outright good person who’s smart and talented and like, super hot you guys, doesn’t he look cute with Hermione/Harry/Insert Author’s Projected Character Here?!!!!

Also: Y’all are f*cking creeps for this shit:

THAT’S A SCENE FROM WHEN THE KID IS TWELVE, FOR GOD’S SAKE. I’m not even joking, half of you are nonces and I want nothing to do with you! ‘hot draco malfoy edits’ HE’S TWELVE

HE’S TWELVE

HE’S TWELVE.

Hot take time:

Draco Malfoy is overhyped, overrated, and oversexualised and I want all of this to stop, because you’re doing it to Tom Felton, when he was a child. A child! That’s creepy! Please do not make hot edits of children, thank you!!!!!

Someone call the police. I’m done with this f*cking fandom, oh my god.

(Also, if you think I edited that in like some sick weirdo might do, just go find that video and give it a watch. I wouldn’t if I were you, I’d believe me, because watching that video probably puts you on a watchlist somewhere.

It should.)

Okay. Deep breaths. It’s been a few months, this answer was flagged with the wonderfully opaque ‘this answer may need improvement’, and I’m back to refine this. I’m not taking anything out, but I’m adding some extra investigation. For posterity’s sake; the original answer only contained YouTube analysis. Let’s look through Archive Of Our Own, shall we?

As I showed in my answer re: the well-liked-ness of Lilly and Hermione, this is the number of total fics within the HP tag.

This is the number of tags when ‘Draco Malfoy’ is added to the ‘included characters’ filter.

So, in terms of ‘fandom work presence’ (AO3 is mostly fanfic, but it is not all fanfic, there are a few vids and some art on there, too) Malfoy’s ratio is thus:

254603:65469

3.8889… : 1

4 : 1

So, rounding up, for every four works on AO3, there is one that includes Draco dearie. Good lord, he’s pervasive, isn’t he? Can’t turn a corner in the fandom without seeing his pasty ferret face plastered all over the walls… lovely.

Now, once again - that wasn’t the best ratio. I didn’t remove bashing, for example, so not all those works will be positive (as in, since you think he’s underrated, that means - I assume - you think people don’t like him enough) so let’s go the long mile:

I will find a ratio for Mr Malfoy Jr’s fans, versus his haters, in terms of - how many fics bash Malfoy, and how many greatly enjoy his existence?

Add the bashing tag, and now let’s see how many fics there are with a) Draco in it, and b) Draco Bashing:

hahahhahagag;k;asdkf

Oh no!

Oh my god I dodn’t…. one second… give me just one second….

Right. Laughing fit over, okay. 17.

So, 65469 works with Draco present, 17 of which don’t like him overmuch, and 65452 like him just fine/present him as he appears in canon! Awesome. Of course, people who present him as he is in canon may not like him the way you want him to, so, not awesome? Hmm. I’m not sure how to filter for that. I suppose you wouldn’t want people who write him OOC, though, because that’s not rating him properly, is it? Should we add OOC to the bashing, to get people who don’t appreciate his… many positive character traits… to the extent that you would like?

Yes, I think we should.

Now, there’s no tag for ‘OOC Draco Malfoy’, because that would make my life too easy. And, I’m not going through 151 works to figure out which ones have Draco being the one OOC. If they’ve written one person OOC, and they’re self-aware enough to tag it, then I’m going to meanly assume they’ve written Draco OOC as well. When one person’s out of whack, I’ve found everyone else is, too, so I’m not just doing this to be a dick, I promise, it’s for a real, good, understandable reason, one that is not only because I really don’t want to have to do any maths more complicated than basic ratios.

So. 151 OOC works, 17 bashing works. 168 works of not properly appreciated Draco Malfoy, coming up, which takes our 65469 Draco works down to… 65301.

Well, that’s a lot, still.

So, there’s still some tags to remove, like Evil, and Abusive, and all that lark. I’ll go do that quickly, and come back with the maths.

(okay, but I do have to show this:)

(fourteen works in the ‘Evil’ draco tag?? are you serious???)

(oh and you can’t filter by Abusive Draco Malfoy, like that’s not a tag, so I can’t exclude it, but it really adds to the general atmosphere of ‘Draco Malfoy? Yeah he’s cool I like him’ that this fandom has going on, doesn’t it?)

Alright so! We really only could take away those 14 works. Okay.

By the way, just so you know - I didn’t exclude tags like ‘Death Eater Draco Malfoy’ and ‘Bully Draco Malfoy’ (if the latter even exists), because those are things that happen in canon, and when I think of a character as being ‘underrated’ I include not acknowledging their canon actions, the bad and the good. A character is only as good as their complexities run deep.

So.

For the ratio, I guess;

65469 : 151 : 17 : 14

4,676.3571… : 10.7857… : 1.2142… : 1

4,676 : 11 : 1 : 1

…

Hmm.

For every 4 thousand 6 hundred fics Draco appears in, 11 of them have OOC tagged, 1 of them has Draco Bashing tagged, and 1 of them has Evil Draco tagged. That is…

That is unfathomably good. I’m really, genuinely having a hard time picturing it. I really, honestly, don’t think there’s been a character as unquestionably overrated as Draco Malfoy in all of fandom, because, good lord, look at that ratio! People love the guy!

Let’s see the good draco malfoy tag, shall we?

Now, to be fair, most people don’t bother tagging any of this sort of thing, usually, so that’s a minor flaw in my ratio-ing. We can’t actually know exactly how many works laud Malfoy, or hate him, or feel ambivalent, because people don’t tag their shit properly. But I’m hoping this helps, at least a little. Anyway, 905! That’s a few. Not many, but certainly more than Evil or Bashing or even OOC.

65469 : 905 : 151 : 17 : 14

4,676.3571… : 64.6428 : 10.7857… : 1.2142… : 1

4,676 : 65 : 11 : 1 : 1

Yep. That’s not bad, not bad at all.

So. Most people seem to like him, if we’re honest. As I pointed out above, he’s a trope namer. If you didn’t click on the link for Draco In Leather Pants, here’s a brief summary from the TV Tropes page:

[ Transcription:

Sometimes, a fanwork will portray a villainous character in a more positive light. It can be done out of sympathy for the character, for shipping reasons, as a part of a role-reversal story, several of the aforementioned or for the variety of other reasons.

The common subjects of this treatment are characters who are wicked in a classy or cool way. A physically attractive villain is much more likely to be subject to this trope than a physically ugly one; Beauty = Goodness, after all, and shallow as it may be, it seems that, for some fans, this is the case even when the character's beauty only extends to their appearance. All Girls Want Bad Boys may be a factor with male villains getting a female fandom that views them through this lens. A badass villain will naturally be preferred by many of these over meeker heroic characters at times, as well. Ugly Cute villains also get this pretty easily. ]

So! There’s that. He named a trope all about appreciating a character perhaps (usually definitely) more than they deserve, so I wouldn’t call him ‘underrated’ by most general definitions of the word:

People seem to mostly believe him to be quite good, actually! Certainly enough to write about him a lot, to draw him a lot, to edit him a lot, to theorise about him a lot, to ship him with the main character so much that the 99th filter ever on AO3 was Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter.

Hey, actually, that’s a good idea! Which filter id is Draco Malfoy?

Now, if I’m not mistaken, it’s been a while since I had to do this -

Draco Malfoy was the 1589th tag canonised in the tag system of AO3. Let’s check the Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter tag (which I know for certain was 99) to make sure:

And lo and behold, I was right. That’s mad. That’s mad!!!!

Ooh, I’ve found a fun trick

To change which rss feed you’re looking at, copy the https:// link up to .atom in the speech marks, and change the highlighted number. That shows you what uses that tag_ids: - in this case, 93 is Draco himself. The 93rd tag, dedicated to Draco Malfoy. Good lord, that’s insane! I guess there really weren’t many other things to prioritize at the time, but that’s still silly to me.

Fluff and Angst appears to be the fiftieth tag canonised, for comparison. Sometimes when you replace the rss feed’s ‘tag’ in the address bar it takes you to the tag’s page instead of the feed, because that tag doesn’t have an rss feed. The more you know!

Anyway, back on track: I think all of that, rss feeds, youtube analytics, fandom presence, all kind of proves my point:

Draco Malfoy is not underrated. He is, arguably, overrated as a character, but unarguably very popular within the greater Harry Potter fandom. Unpopular characters don’t tend to get paired with the lead, at the very least - and you can’t turn around in the Harry Potter fandom without seeing Drarry somewhere, can you?

#anyway #anti draco malfoy #hp #hp fandom #harry potter #meta #fandom meta #quora #fandom bullshit #long post #sorry mobile users!! very sorry

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love-and-anarchy-au · 3 years

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Love & Anarchy: Chapter 28

well, this is the last chapter i’ll post of this au. i’m going through the roughest time in my life and i just feel like it would be for the best that i stop posting this. thats it. i’ve got nothing else to say.

REMEMBER THIS AU HAPPENS IN THE SAME UNIVERSE THAT THIS ONE

Find out what this AU is about here

Masterlist

Tag list: @healing-winston-pratt @honey-hippie-harper @obsidianfr3sk @nodrianbcyes @everyone-has-a-nightmare @redassassin @magykaldealings @cerenoya @cassin-the-assasin @cindersnightmare

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Words

12,873

Part 3: A man named Ace Anarchy

18 years old Ace - Age of Anarchy Year 1

Boom.

BOOM.

Margot and Honey grumbled in tandem.

One year without sleep.

One. Year.

They deserved that, he guessed.

“Why? Why can't they do this at noon?” Honey complained, as she sat up.

Carrie, who was already awake, handed her a cup of tea.

“It wouldn’t be as annoying as it is at this hour,” she replied and went down on of the side aisles of the cathedral.

Ace sighed and sat up. Every day, every morning, it was the same: civilians demanding their blood, police thirsty for justice and even prodigies who wanted to help them and were there only to annoy those who annoyed them. It was a vicious cycle that did not seem to end and only generated lazy fights from the Anarchists’ part, who had not slept well for a year.

One. Year.

They must have seen it coming, of course. The government's duty was to oppose them, imprison them, fight them. While all of its first acts of destruction, the assassination of the mayor and the invasion of the cathedral had created enough chaos for the next ten years, Gatlon’s government remained vigilant and resisting. Every day there were more deaths, more chaos, and more anarchy. The spark that the Anarchists had generated was turning into a fire, and that generated the most pleasant sensation of pride in Ace's chest.

But that did not imply that he did not want to sleep one night on a mattress and not a mass bench, surrounded by his fellow Anarchists who slept just like him: terrible.

They had tried to sleep in the catacombs, found by Ace the first week they spent there, while he was sniffing one of the side aisles. Running his fingers over the walls, it all started when he perceived a void in them, so he formed a ‘door’ and found himself with narrow stairs and descents. Without hesitation, Ace went down the stairs and found the most beautiful and creepy place he had ever witnessed: the catacombs. Dark, so full of bones that it was practically the only thing visible, and calm. Very, very calm. Within a minute, he told the others about his discovery, and they tried to sleep there however, all but Margot (and Ace, of course) were overwhelmed by the coldness of the place and preferred to return to the noisy quality of the main nave.

Ace and Margot followed them, as they had all agreed to sleep in the same place; in case they smashed the barrier that Carrie, Bruce and Ace had built (with the houses of the old cathedral’s neighbors and a couple of Carrie's plants) to prevent anyone from entering the cathedral except them (Carrie, Margot and Ace, the only Anarchists whose true identity still remained unknown for the public), who went out once a week to buy food and other supplies.

It was a hard life.

But at least they had a roof over their heads and the ability to steal food without making a fuss.

Honey stood up and started walking in circles, searching for something while she muttered under her breath. She had a corner all to herself, since no one wanted to sleep next to ten combs of ten different varieties of bees and wasps. Her corner was draped over because she considered privacy was a 'right' and not a 'privilege'; luckily, she did, since the mess in that place made Ace want to tidy everything up in one blink.

For his part, Ace slept on the very chancel, next to Mary (not to say under her). He had his bed-bench (it had been a cathedral bench once, but he and Bruce had rebuilt it so they could lie down ‘comfortably’) and his belongings, all carefully stored in wooden boxes (which had been part of a bench once, too). His corner was simple, but clean and pleasant.

Well, as nice as a Gothic chancel could be.

The rest of them also had the corners of it. Carrie, Bruce and Leroy slept one on each side of the aisles and Henry and Margot slept in the center of the main nave, as they had the fewest belongings (Henry had his clothes and art supplies and Margot had a couple of books and quite high fashion clothes). Carrie had personalized her corner by filling it with bright colors and mostly green; it was a small biome. Bruce and Leroy's (because they slept in the same area) was practically a laboratory and competed with Honey's place for the top spot for ‘messiest corner.’ Ace stayed away from those areas, since he did not need to circulate through them, nor did he want to; from the very moment they had moved there, he started rebuilding parts of the cathedral to turn it into a house (the first thing was a shower, because they needed to wash the blood from their clothes and skin; the second was to install gas for heating and cooking, which had a cost, but it was worth it in order to be able to eat things that did not come out of a package).

It wasn't easy, but it was better than dying in the streets for being themselves.

Ace stood up and put on his helmet. It was the first thing he did every morning: put on his helmet. It was his armor, his sword, his second heart. Without that helmet, he would be nothing at all, and he owed it all to his brother, David. That thought made him want to laugh at how ironic that was, as he knew that his brother didn't totally agree with what Ace had done (and did every day) for prodigies and his release.

A faint smile crept across his face as another boom echoed throughout the nave and it made him tremble a little. He slipped on his leather shoes (stolen shortly before the Gatlon Bridge was destroyed) and cracked his knuckles, rousing himself.

“Good morning, Anarchists,” Ace greeted as he walked down the nave and donned his black blazer with gold details. “Shall we end this for once and for all?”

Margot, who was lying on her 'bed' with a frown, stood up abruptly and with her hand, she threatened to grab her hat that wasn't there. The girl snorted.

“Where’s my hat?” Margot demanded, furious, because she needed her hat to be able to go outside and fight the military and the police without revealing her identity (although it made no sense, since her entire family was dead and she was already exposed every day anyway). She said it was to ‘keep up the appearances.’ Ace bit back a laugh, snapped his fingers and with his hands he handed Margot her hat. He had seen it the day before at Honey's mess.

“Thanks,” she murmured and put it on. She was ready now, since she never changed her clothes except when she washed them in her morning showers (like everyone except Honey to tell the truth, she had ten dresses in the same colors). Henry suddenly roused himself, and ran a hand over his face to reactivate its blood circulation. Ace continued to parade down the nave.

“Leroy, Bruce, wake up,” Ace asked, in a slightly singsong voice and he ducked into the boys' corner against his will. They were the only ones who slept well, either because they were heavy sleepers or because they used sleeping substances. Both were likely to be true.

Ace resisted the urge to hold his nose because of the smells that place was emitting, and clapped his hands to wake them up. boys, who slept soundly in their beds. The applause didn't work out, so Ace decided to go rough mode and directly split their beds in half. Leroy and Bruce woke up to splinters and dust, startled, as expected.

“Come on, we have work to do,” Ace encouraged them, and walked away from that stinking corner. He did not go to wake Carrie up since she was always the first to wake up, she put the ‘early’ in ‘the early bird catches the worm.’

And yet, she was already waiting for him at the doors of the cathedral, with all her disguise on her. They nodded at each other, as a greeting. They had a respectful relationship, period, nothing more. While Honey and Margot were a tornado and a fire, Carrie was just the sound of leaves falling to the ground; minimal, indistinguishable. she gave her opinion only every now and then, and even so, she was the most helpful of the group: she prepared breakfast with Ace every morning, and she was ready for anything, as long as it was in silence (except for the battles of course, that was too much to ask).

Carrie Harper was undoubtedly indecipherable.

“Morning, Miss Harper,” Ace greeted and smiled behind his helmet.

“Morning, Mr Anarchy,” Carrie replied and handed him a blood-red flower.

Ace arched an eyebrow.

“It’s for our victory. I know you know what will happen today,” Carrie explained as she pulled on her garden gloves, like she needed them.

“I do, but how do you?” Ace questioned, as he put the flower on the top lapel of his blazer. It gave it a tragic, romantic touch.

Carrie sighed.

“I have investigated the government's resources and they’re almost run out of them. Most of the soldiers have died, weapons have been stolen and functionaries have quit. They have no chance against us.”

Ace smiled, pleased that his analysis had been perfect.

“And why will we win today?”

“We will win today because the soldiers, tanks and helicopters that are here now aren't from them but from outside the government. They have reached out to them for help and they listened, thinking we'd be easy peasy. But we are not, so they will be surprised when they see what we can do.”

Ace nodded.

“That’s correct. They don’t know we are prodigies, and we’ll use that advantage against them. Once they see what we can do, they will never come back,” he explained, very happy to know that he was not the only one who understood strategy.

Honey and Margot made it to the door in two runs. Margot applied mascara to Honey while the other applied red lipstick on the other’s lips. That image gave Ace a sense of familiarity that he hadn't felt in a long time. Not that kind of familiarity.

Bruce, Leroy and Henry came after them, only in a messier way (although it was true that they were always like this).

“Ready, Anarchists?” Ace roared and his roar echoed throughout the cathedral.

“Always,” Margot replied, and Ace kicked the doors open with an invisible kick. They all came out after her, followed by their battle cry.

“At all costs!”

Ace undid a fraction of the wall so they could get out; Bruce and Carrie did the same. Thunder and lightning invaded the sky in seconds, and millions of bees generated deafening hums as they exited the same place as them. Through the corner of his eye, Ace saw how Henry melted on a policeman, until he turned to charred meat, and also how Leroy threw acid bombs from the top of his lungs. Everything was screaming, explosions, buzzing.

Ace rose from the ground one, two, ten meters, until he was skimming the top of the bell tower. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to feel the show without seeing it. Time slowed down for a couple of seconds, and that was enough for him to feel everything around him, moldable like a mass. This is how, when they shot him in the chest, he was able to turn the bullets against whoever had shot them. When bombs were thrown at him, he threw his own tanks at them, then blew them up. When his companions needed help, he shielded them with walls or cars, or attacked back for them. He ripped off roofs from nearby houses, underground pipes, buses, wheels, even firearms. Everything served as a weapon to destroy the enemy, you just had to use it in such a way.

The best thing was that nothing supposed a superhuman effort.

Not at all, he was having a better time than ever.

He felt… powerful. Yes, very powerful. Almost invincible.

An unstoppable laugh rose up his throat and manifested itself in his acts, as each laugh was synchronized with an act. Hahaha, a tank crushed over ten soldiers. Hahaha, a helicopter turned to ashes. Hahaha, metal pipes shot like arrows. Hahaha, walls crashing into flesh, and bones breaking. Hahaha, skulls cracking from blows to the back of necks. Hahaha, blood on the ground. Hahaha, airplanes compacting like cans. Hahaha, Anarchists laughing. Hahaha, hahaha.

All the prodigies were laughing at those who had laughed at them, while going through the same act of violence.

They shouldn't have laughed at us, Ace and James thought.

And they were right.

The battle lasted two hours. Only that. Nothing and no one was left, only the Anarchists and their beloved cathedral. The battle ended gradually, like everything else; they practically realized it was over when they had almost killed each other. They never stopped laughing or smiling; Ace descended gently from the sky and entered the cathedral with his companions, who were covered in dust, blood and other fluids. They all had a triumphant and empowered smile drawn on their lips. They were proud of each other and of themselves.

Who wouldn't be, after such a historic victory?

Well done, Ace, James whispered in approval. Well done.

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syms-things-5 · 4 years

Text

Clear The Area - Chapter Fifteen (Part One)

Previous Chapter Here

Tags: @jennmurawski13 @kelbabyblue

Warnings: Some mild language

Notes: This is the first of a 3-part chapter. It moves the story along quite a bit (finally) and I am about 80% complete on the second and third parts, too. Shouldn’t be too long ‘til they get posted, fingers crossed. Thanks again for stopping by. Let me know if you have any comments or advice; all greatly appreciated, good and bad!

Chapter Fifteen: Part One

“So, what you’re saying is if I don’t put out a statement, they’re going to roll this all over me? And there is nothing we can do to stop this?” Chris yelled into his phone, his hand coming down hard on the white marble counter in front of him. “What do I even pay you for?!”

“Listen to me, will you?!” Matt was on the end of the line attempting to diffuse his client’s growing anger from 3,000 miles away. “There isn’t anything in this that harms you, OK? I’ve read the copy and honestly, you come across as a really sweet guy. She paints you out to be a lovely person, someone who was helping her come to terms with the end of her marriage.”

Matt was getting no response from the other end of the phone but could picture the look on Chris’ face as it he was standing in front of him. “I know it’s not ideal. It’s not great timing but it could be so much worse. You’re not being painted as a homewrecker. We can absolutely deal with this when it happens, put out a couple of cute pictures of you and your nephews or something and all will be forgotten.”

Chris sighed in exasperation. Or was it desperation? He didn’t even know. “...who the fuck ever writes this trash? None of it is remotely true.”

“I know, I know, we’ve pushed back on a lot of the smaller details, dates and things like that, but I honestly think if we put out this statement it’ll clear up a lot of the ambiguity they’ve left in theirs. They’re just trying to get some clicks, that’s all.”

“It’s not ambiguous, Matt, it’s downright bullshit. I mean, the whole thing about the hotel is not even close to being true. I booked it ‘cos I was feeling unwell and needed a break. She just turned up. I didn’t invite her.” He was losing his cool again and becoming more upset. “And what have they said about my mom?”

“Ummm...” Matt scanned the pages scattered over his desk. He quickly located the offending quotes and just as quickly sugar-coated it to avoid one of his biggest stars passing out from stress. “Just that they’d met and got along. I actually don’t think that’s a problem for us. If anything, it shows you are close to your family and they visit you on set from time to time.”

It had been a long morning and Chris was already feeling like he wad done for the day. No, the entire week. He needed a beer. He needed beers plural and he needed to get wasted for a night and forget everything arising around him again. Better yet, he needed Sarah. She’d know what to say and when she’d finished saying it, she’d help his mind feel quieter again.

Oh fuck. Sarah.

She’ll think he’s a dickhead when she reads this. It almost goes against everything he’d explained to her and his family so far.

“When is it coming out?” Chris asked after a few moments had passed.

“They’re pushing for late August and I actually think that is out best chance. September is a busy time for magazines across the board and everyone will be talking about the big ones, Vogue and Vanity Fair etcetera. There’s no competition.” Matt was talking in a calmer tone mirroring Chris’ own change of pace. “We can slip out a quiet rebuttal and end it before it’s even began.”

“Yeh, yeh, OK. I understand.” Chris took a deep breath wearily and leaned his whole body onto the counter. He ran his free hand down his face and rested it on the beard underneath his chin, tugging slightly on the hairs in a bid to feel something else that would hopefully bring him back into the room.

“You need to trust me, Chris. That’s what you pay me for.” Matt reassured him. They exchanged as polite a goodbye as possible before hanging up. Matt threw himself back onto his desk chair, swinging it around to take in the view of a bustling downtown Los Angeles outside his office window. stuff like this was child’s play for a pro like him but Chris wasn’t a typical client. He was normal for one thing, whatever “normal” meant these days. He’d been representing him for close to nine years, one of his longest relationships now he thought about it, and one that meant a great deal to him.

Professionally, the work helped pay for his mother’s retirement home and his own holiday apartment in Aspen, Colorado, but it ran deeper than that. Chris was also a very good friend. If Chris had stuck to low-budget Indie dramas like he originally planned, Matt wouldn’t have minded even though he had worked with and had experience of dealing with mega-studios like Marvel and stars who actively sought to cover themselves in PR glory any chance they got. That sort of thing was strangely easier to handle but Chris remained quiet and adamant about sticking to his guns when it came to his private life and Matt held a very high respect for that. So, when stuff like this came along, well, Matt knew exactly what to do and was all too happy to hold a light up to the hypocrisy of the Hollywood press machine.

Thousands of miles away in a small kitchen in Boston, Chris remained holding on to the edge of the countertop as he brought his breathing back under control. Lisa, had ventured in and out at times only to fall back when she felt Chris’ bristling, nervous energy. It was rare that he got angry at Matt so something was clearly going on to cause him to lose his cool but she knew now wasn’t the right time to ask him.

“Shall I make us some lunch, sweetheart?” she finally plucked up the courage to take a few steps into her kitchen. She ran her hand lightly across his broad shoulders causing Chris to look up and take stock of his surroundings again.

“Yeh, that’d be nice, thanks.” He pulled a stool out and sat down. “Sorry if you could hear me shouting. It’s just some stuff with work but it’s fine now.” it was sweet that he was trying to make her feel better as though he himself had done something wrong.

“I didn’t hear you so don’t worry. Glad it’s fine now, though. Ham and cheese OK?” she asked, a broad smile now painted across her face that only grew wider when he nodded back at her. “Also, Scott and Shanna were going to cook some dinner later on tonight so we could pop over if you like? Save us cooking here again.”

He would very much like to head over to his sister’s apartment. That way lied harmony and he could relax in calmer surroundings and spend time with the people he loved the most. This press nonsense could wait another day. If it was going to happen regardless of his intervention, why even bother stressing about it in the first place?

It wasn’t much of a surprise to find Shanna’s kitchen a total mess when they arrived later that afternoon. Despite the comforting smell of fried onions and garlic that greeted them from the hallway, the physical view of her kitchen provided an altogether different experience. A stack of unwashed pans and remnants of chopped tomatoes and leeks spread out across the counter surface and what Scott had actually meant when he said he was also going to be helping with the cooking was that he would stir the bolognese for half an hour and check the garlic bread hadn’t burned. Other than that, Shanna appeared to have built some kind of living art installation.

The four were seated around the table, a second bottle of wine down, and gabbing about sport and nothing in particular. Chris’ quietness had not gone completely unnoticed with Scott and his mother sharing a few glances as the evening wore on.

“Is Sarah staying at work for a while, then?” asked Lisa, picking at the final slice of garlic bread after her children had decimated the rest of it.

“Yeh, I think so. It’s been a bit up and down lately after the crash and I know she’s keen to muck in as much as she can now before she goes away.” offered Shanna.

Chris’s ears perked up. “Away? What do you mean?”

“Oh crap.” Shanna banged her hand on her forehead. “Um, OK, this isn’t common knowledge and I didn’t tell you guys this but she’s possibly heading back to college to train to become a doctor.”

“Really?” Scott dropped his fork on his plate causing a loud clang that reverberated around the kitchen. “Well, good for her. She’d be an ace doctor. She looks great in scrubs and I know for a fact she handles drunk people exceptionally well.”

Shanna rolled her eyes at Scott. “She actually has the exam in New York next week and if she passes that, who knows? I can’t really tell if she’s excited or not but her parents don’t know so please don’t mention anything to them...” Shanna looked across the table at her mother whose eyes widened in response to the insinuation.

“If she gets back into college, will she stay here to train or move or what?” asked Chris trying his hardest to keep a rising level of confusion at this new information to a minimum.

Shanna merely shrugged non-committedly and he felt his frustration with his sister boil close to the surface. “I can’t see her moving or if she does then it’d be more of a commute. Like, a couple of days there and here or whatever.”

“She likes living in Boston, doesn’t she? And I imagine it would be harder for her folks to visit if she lived in New York full time.” Scott offered, some logic that Chris was grateful for. “Jocelyn hates busy cities. She would hate New York for sure.”

“Lincoln is a teach hospital, right?” Chris asked, his tone more urgent than he’d intended. “I mean, she could train here? There’d be no problem with that. I’m sure they wouldn’t wanna lose her.”

“Well, selfishly I hope she doesn’t move ‘cos who’s gonna look after your sorry ass?” Scott needled his sister with his elbow and was rewarded with a slap on his shoulder. “Or if she does move full time it means we have a party base in the city again!”

“Oh yeh I’m sure she would love you rocking up at her home at all hours of the goddamn morning.” Lisa remarked. “When is her exam, honey?”

“Thursday. She’s staying at a hotel in town a few days before to swot up on some notes Greg lent her. He rocked up with a frickin’ suitcase the other night. Just books and books of the stuff.”

“What’s he getting out of this?” Chris asked. It was not the first time talk of Greg had ruined his day and now on top of that he was starting to feel distrusting of the interest he appeared to show in her future. He especially didn’t like the knowing look he caught his family give to each other either. “Oh c’mon. He’s not her type, really. She’s said as much herself.”

“Yehhh but he’s super cute and have you seen his car?” Scott asked, pouring another glass of wine for himself. “He reminds me of, fuck, what’s that actor’s name again? The guy from Sons of Anarchy but with darker hair...”

Chris threw him a puzzled look before dismissing his comments with a wave of his hand. “Sarah’s not like that. She’s not into trivial stuff.”

“No, I know, but he’s also stable. I mean, he’s ambitious to a fault, sure, but he knows exactly what he wants and where he’s going.” Scott reasoned. “That could be good for her. I think we can all agree that this stuff with Charlotte left its mark and maybe she’s wanting to try something different? Find a bit of stability? Y’know, settle down a bit or whatever.”

“Since when did you become an expert?” Shanna spoke up. Chris was glad somebody else said it but was less glad when she laughed a second later. She nodded, evidently in agreement with his rationale.

The room fell quiet again as they finished what was left of their dinner. Chris was feeling the dread borne from this morning’s conversations now manifesting itself in the very bottom of his stomach. He regretted coming now. He should have stayed at home and gotten drunk by himself. It would have felt a whole lot nicer than what he was experiencing now.

He swirled what was left of his wine around his glass before downing it and reaching for the bottle. Just as he poured, the front door went and in and walked Sarah surprisingly fresh-faced and smiling upon catching the clan sat peacefully around the kitchen table.

“Hey!” she exclaimed, happy to see them all. She walked over to the hob to smell what was left in the pan before catching sight of them staring at her. “Why are you all looking at me like that?”

“Nothing honey. Ignore them. How was your day?” Lisa started, breaking the silence.

“The usual. I did, however, manage to separate a grown man from a Tonka truck he had glued to his hand.”

“The fuck?” Scott quizzed almost choking on his food and turning around in his chair to face her. “I swear, you have the best job I have ever heard of.”

“Hmm true story. He was making some kind of art display and held on to it for too long. Took us an hour and a tonne of olive oil from the cafeteria to free him.”

Sarah glanced between Scott and his mother laughing before clocking Chris, stony-faced and not quite making eye-contact. She left her eyes on him a little longer than she was usually comfortable with in these settings but he didn’t budge. Shanna eventually grabbed her attention by handing her a bowl of pasta that she gratefully accepted with a “yummy” and grabbed a seat at the table.

Lisa left a little over an hour later but Chris and Scott remained loitering around the kitchen and the lounge. Scott was helping to wash up alongside Sarah when she excused herself to go to the bathroom. When she emerged, she nearly ran full-on into Chris.

“Sorry.” he said, shifting to the side so she could move by him.

“It’s OK.” she moved further out of the way so he could walk in behind her. “Are you OK? You’ve barely said a word all evening.”

He glanced back to her, trying to play down his obvious discomfort. “Yeh, fine. I’ll be out in a minute.”

He closed the door behind him leaving her in the hallway at a loss as to the reason for his agitation. She could hear Shanna and Scott making a mess of what was left of the washing up, the TV volume a little louder now in anticipation for Drag Race, and she retreated into her bedroom to fold away some of her clothes that Shanna had left on her bed from their washing that day.

Chris lingered in the hallway wanting to avoid the loud shrieking now coming from the kitchen before heading towards Sarah’s bedroom. She hadn’t noticed he was there so he allowed himself to watch her, smiling to himself when he heard her hum a tune under her breath. It sounded like ‘Beat It’ only slower. He never figured her as a Michael Jackson fan. Truth be told, he didn’t know all that much about her musical tastes other than making fun of the fact that she cried at a Pixies concert some years earlier.

He viewed the couple of photographs adorning the wall, one of a family gathering, one of her Shanna graduating, before resting on the Steve McCurry print she’d bought at the exhibition. That felt like a lifetime ago now. So much had happened since but he still clearly remembered the shit he had given her at the time. All she was trying to do, he now realised, was get some answers for herself. She wanted to put to bed all of the questions she had had since she was young, questions that might offer answers for who she was as a person. Isn’t that what everyone wants?

He liked Jocelyn and Noah, they all did, they were great people. but she wasn’t a part of them physically. There was something growing somewhere in the back of her mind and as she grew older and wiser, as time moved on, she increasingly felt the differences between them. She had once tried explaining it to him, that it was like a tree and an acorn; no matter what beautiful and wonderful branches and leaves grow from it, it always comes from something small at the very beginning. The acorn directs everything that follows. He couldn’t properly understand it at the time - why would he, he had had an easy life thus far - but as he watched her shuffled around in the closet, humming to herself quietly and in her own little world, he understood that what she longed for, that all anyone ever longer for, was to feel like she belonged somewhere.

He could hear Scott and Shanna joking around in the kitchen, no cares in the world, and knew he had it lucky. Despite the crap this morning still ruminating in the back of his mind, a slight unease at what might find its way into the press over the next few weeks, it was small-fry compared to the real, honest problems normal people experience in their lives. You never know what goes on behind closed doors. Maybe Scott was right. Maybe she just wanted some stability after all, and that realisation was stirring something uncomfortable that he couldn’t name inside him.

“Hey, you OK?” she asked and he realised she had been staring at him for god knows how long. All sorts of thoughts flew through his mind in quick succession but he didn’t immediately know how to respond to such an apparently straight-forward question.

“Yeh,” he responded, clocking how unsure he sounded. “I mean, I’m good. You?”

“Yeh, I’m OK.” She smiled at him and he instantly felt better, waves of stress just ebbing away. He wanted to reach out to her and give her a hug but he knew she wouldn’t feel comfortable with his family so close by and liable to walk in at any moment so he settled instead for smiling warmly back at her and handing over some folded towels from off her bed.

A couple of moments dragged by before she decided to break the awkward silence. “I know I said I would make it up to you but work’s been busier than usual and I’ve had to cover shifts for a couple of guys as well. Michael’s ill so Audrey’s been playing nurse at home.”

He leaned back on the side of her chest of drawers and nodded slowly. He was biting the inside of his cheek and she recognised his face from when he’d shown irritation towards Shanna. He was clearly contemplating something.

“Well, you can make it up to me now if you want?” He offered, arms folded, posing an interesting predicament. He noticed the confusion cross her face and chuckled to himself. “No, not that, not with... I just meant you could do me a favour now. If you wanted to.”

Sarah looked perplexed but Chris didn’t move. He didn’t immediately offer any answer to his question so she didn’t know what he was aiming for. She left the closet and re-entered her bedroom, taking up a stance a couple of feet in front of him. Even leaning back against her cabinet, he remained a good couple of inches taller than her.

“Shanna said something earlier and we promised not to bring it up with you ‘cos apparently it’s supposed to be some big secret,” he started, noting the hint of verbal aggression and thinking better of it, “but are you leaving Boston?”

“What?” She asked, stunned. She never anticipated that this was where he was going.

“She said you’re heading back to the college and that you might consider starting up your doctoral training again, and...I don’t know.” He was losing confidence with every passing word. “It just sounded like it was a done deal is all.”

She oscillated between feeling annoyed that Shanna had revealed her plan to re-take her MD exam, and concern that they all assumed she was suddenly wanting to leave town. As if it would be that easy to do so.

“No, I’m not leaving Boston. My God.” she rubbed her hand across her forehead in frustration. “I am taking the exam, yes, but I haven’t figured anything else out beyond that. Honest.”

He didn’t seem altogether convinced of her response but time was passing by and the noise had died down from the kitchen so it looked like it he would just have to accept whatever she was giving him. He had hundreds of questions, many far away from being appropriate, but the sincere look on her face did some of the work for him.

“It was only an idea. I tried it before and maybe, if it works out again, it could be something different for me to focus on.” she continued. Scott has been right about one thing at least.

“If you pass, you could always train at Lincoln, though, right?” he asked quietly. He sounded like a child asking his parents if they were still going to be friends once they divorced and he hated himself for it.

She shrugged, not having immediate answers that might make him relax a little more. He was clearly struggled with something. “I guess. I mean, I honestly have not thought about it beyond the exam. I have a lot of studying to do as well so I might not even pass it.”

“Yeh, she said Greg gave you some magazines or something.”

“Oh, good, so you’ve got the whole story, then.” Her tone validated the sarcasm behind her words. “Look, this is all so far into the future now and really, who the fuck knows what’s going to happen? But I promise that I will tell you guys everything once I know whatever the fuck it is I am thinking about.”

Selfishly, he wasn’t thinking of his family, or her family, or even her colleagues for that matter. He just wanted to know where she was going to be one month from now. Or, hell, even a year, and whether or not she would be open to him visiting her. Visiting her new apartment in Brooklyn. Or Greenwich. He could imagine her in Greenwich. It was greener and she could go for a run in the park every morning and they could grab a coffee on their way back home. He could walk her to work and wave her off and then spend all day lounging around her apartment reading the newspapers, waiting for her to come home again. One thing he had gotten used to was enjoying his quiet time a lot more when she was around. He wasn’t quite ready to give that up.

“Guys?” shouted Scott from the lounge. “It’s starting!”

“What’s starting?” he asked Sarah.

“Drag Race, I think.” she responded biting her lower lip and knowing exactly how he was going to feel about that.

“Oh fucking hell.” He threw his head back and laughed before resting his eyes back on her. “Alright. Let’s get this over with.”

#chris evans #chris evans fic #evans fic #chris fic #fan fiction #Clear The Area #Sarah Bernette #chris evans x original female character

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