#this is like 20 of my theories mixed into one
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Introduction
By now, we all have our opinions of The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology. It has received mixed reviews from critics to fans alike.
In the Gaylor community, many have dubbed it her “straightest album,” which I am inclined to agree with. BUT.
If you do not like Gaylor or Swiftgron content, feel free to block and/or keep scrolling!
I’ve seen and read theories for years. In this post I will be referencing the Swiftgron Masterpost. I’m also an avid listener of the What I Will Say podcast. (No one affiliated with the podcast is involved with this post, and for all I know might disagree with it entirely. However, I will be referencing the masterpost at points, and it is only fair to give credit where credit is due.)
This is celebrity gossip, and everything is alleged. I do not know Taylor or Dianna. This is alleged (don't sue me, tysm!)
Peter is…Dianna?
Halfway through my first listen of “Peter,” I was fully convinced this song was about Dianna. That Peter was Dianna.
First, I will go through the lyrics that most pointedly seem Dianna-coded to me.
Forgive me, Peter
My lost fearless leader
In closets like cedar
Preserved from when we were just kids
Is it somethin' I did?
Taylor references closets in “seven” on folklore:
And I've been meaning to tell you
I think your house is haunted
Your dad is always mad and that must be why
And I think you should come live with
Me and we can be pirates
Then you won't have to cry
Or hide in the closet
Cedar closets are used as a "safe haven" to put valuable items in. The closet has preserved everything from when Taylor and the muse were "just kids" (likely meaning their early twenties.) Shoutout to Kristin in the WIWS Discord for mentioning this!
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Another interpretation I found on Genius mentioned that the closet line in “Peter” could also be a reference to another fantasy story, The Chronicles of Narnia, wherein stepping into a closet revealed a new fantasy world. This fantasy narrative ties in with “Peter”/Peter Pan and “Wonderland”/Alice in Wonderland, which we’ll get to in a second.
The line “And I think you should come live with/Me and we can be pirates” can also be connected to Peter Pan. Peter Pan and the Lost Boys often have to fight off Captain Hook and his pirates. There are also theories that pirates/Captain Hook are old Lost Boys. TL/DR: Old lost boys are either killed by Peter Pan or can choose to become Lost Boys…at least by these fans’ interpretations. A weak link I know, but still an interesting one.
“We can be pirates” because you’ve been forced to grow up too quickly…? Hm.
Further connecting “seven” to “Peter” is the idea of being just kids, although in “seven” it seems to be more literal, while in “Peter” she might be referring to when she and Dianna actually met: Taylor was ~20 years old, and Dianna was ~24.
From “Peter”:
Are you still a mind reader?
A natural scene stealer?
I've heard great things, Peter
But life was always easier on you
Than it was on me
Dianna is stunning, and has often been referred to as a scene stealer.
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“When we cast Dianna as Quinn, she ruined the part for me,” Murphy says. “She was supposed to be the Cybill Shepherd, Last Picture Show cunt, so to speak, but she humanized it. She can cry at the drop of a hat. So now her character has a conscience, a soul and great vulnerability.” Ryan Murphy, Rolling Stone. Credit
Credit (Shoutout to ellie from the WIWS Discord server for bringing the TCA nominations for "Female Scene Stealer" to my attention!)
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More from “Peter”:
And I won't confess that I waited, but I let the lamp burn
As the men masqueraded, I hoped you'd return
I viewed this through a queer lens upon first listen; the definition of masqueraded (verb) is “to go about disguised/to assume the appearance of something one is not.”
When Taylor sings “as the men masqueraded, I hope you’d return,” the you is implied to not be a man.
We’ll circle back to lamps burning/lights in Part 2.
And you said you'd come and get me, but you were twenty-five
And the shelf life of those fantasies has expired
Lost to the "Lost Boys" chapter of your life
Dianna was twenty-five when she and Taylor allegedly began dating.
Dianna, through multiple interviews and her old tumblr blog (that often mentioned children’s fantasies and stories), seems to cherish her inner child and not be in any rush to “grow up.”
From an interview for Galore Magazine in 2014:
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There are also Dianna’s frequent posts on Tumblr about fairytales and children’s stories - this could lend itself to the idea she was living a “Lost Boy’s life.” More on that later.
But the woman who sits by the window
Has turned out the light
Again, there is a reference to light, which is a theme (amongst many) we will visit in Part 2 of this analysis.
These lyrics draw natural parallels to Disney’s animated Peter Pan film, wherein Peter Pan visits the Darling children through their window. Wendy is seen sitting by the window, yearning for something more.
In another TTPD track about windows, “I Look in People’s Windows,” there are obvious parallels to “Peter.” These parallels are so strong that I believe these songs are almost certainly about the same person.
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In “cardigan” from folklore, Taylor seems to categorize herself as Wendy and an unknown muse as Peter.
I knew you
Tried to change the ending
Peter losing Wendy
More “cardigan” parallels will be drawn in Part 2. Part 1 is focusing on “Peter” itself as well as its tie ins to another TTPD song, “I Look in People’s Windows.”
I Peter Looks in People’s Windows
Connecting “Peter” and “I Look in People’s Windows” is almost too easy, yet I didn’t catch it on my first few listens. Let’s break it down.
The images referenced above show that windows are a central plot point to Peter Pan. Waiting by the window symbolizes yearning for something more, something magical. Wendy is waiting for something more: for Peter’s return. We can draw parallels between Wendy’s window and the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland: a portal to something whimsical and dangerous.
If you’re new here, “Wonderland” from 1989 is known to many as one of Taylor’s most blatant songs about a woman: Dianna Agron. I encourage you to read this portion of the Swiftgron masterpost if you’re new or need a refresher!
Sit and Wait, Sit and Wait
The first theme we’ll discuss is longing/yearning. Both in “Peter” and “I Look in People’s Windows,” Taylor conveys a strong sense of yearning for a person with whom a relationship has permanently died, despite her hopes.
From “Peter”:
The goddess of timing
Once found us beguiling
She said she was trying
Peter, was she lying?
My ribs get the feelin' she did
And I didn't want to come down
I thought it was just goodbye for now
/
Said you were gonna grow up
Then you were gonna come find me
Words from the mouths of babes
Promises oceans deep
But never to keep
/
Forgive me, Peter, please know that I tried
To hold onto the days when you were mine (Hold onto the days)
But the woman who sits by the window has turned out the light
The woman (Taylor) who sat by the window has given up hope (turned out the light.)
Also, fun fact about "my ribs get the feeling she did": Dianna Agron removed a Wonderland tattoo after the song "Wonderland" was released. Guess where the tattoo was?
On. Her. RIBS.
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"We're all mad here."
Also, "What will we become? We become ourselves," is a quote from poet Patti Smith. Yes, the same Patti Smith referenced in the title track for The Tortured Poets Department. (Thanks to thea from the WIWS discord for pointing out the Patti Smith connection to me!)
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(Shoutout to reddit user aztraps for pointing out the rib lyric to me!)
The themes of yearning continue on “I Look in People’s Windows” during essentially the entire song, but here are some highlights:
A feather taken by the wind blowing
I'm afflicted by the not knowing so
I'd be remiss not to mention that Peter Pan, throughout many adaptations, is known for his feather in his cap.
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The Paradise of Peter Pan by Edward Mason Eggleston, 1934
You might notice in this painting that Peter looks like...well, a woman (stereotypically and historically!) The character of Peter Pan is normally played by a woman on stage and is often depicted with female features. This makes Dianna being Peter even more...suspicious.
More from “I Look in People’s Windows”:
I look in people's windows
In case you're at their table
What if your eyes looked up and met mine
One more time
This is a love that is ended, yet Taylor can’t help but wonder what might happen if flames rekindled.
I know what you’re thinking – Taylor Swift isn’t walking around random neighborhoods peering into neighbor’s windows. You’d be right (hopefully.) This song is a metaphor, in my view, for “insta-stalking” or social media “stalking” an ex, constantly checking up on them to see what they’re up to, who they’re with. She checks mutual friends’ pages, looking to see if she sees her love (Dianna) “at their table” (with them.)
The real question is - why use windows as the metaphor for internet stalking your ex? Perhaps to tie it into another song about that same ex?
More "ILIPW" lyrics:
I tried searching faces on streets
What are the chances you'd be
Downtown, downtown, downtown
Does it feel alright to not know me?
I'm addicted to the "if only"
Taylor is YEARNING for this person. She also seems to be unable to believe this person has been able to seemingly move on without her (just like Peter has.)
In “Peter,” Taylor’s relationship didn’t turn out as she hoped. She hoped this person would come back, and they didn’t. (“Come Back…Be Here” anyone??? PART TWO)
“I Look in People’s Windows” highlights the fact that Taylor has not completely moved on. As she goes about her daily life, she still “peers in people’s windows” (checks instagram/twitter/etc.) for this person. IT’S THE SAME MUSE!!! (Allegedly.)
In addition, the line: “I'm addicted to the "if only"” is especially interesting given Dianna’s interesting response to rumors of dating Taylor in a May 2023 (!!!) Rolling Stone article:
The theme of waiting is also important to discuss. In “Peter,” Taylor is waiting for someone who said they would grow up and find her; she’s sitting by the window waiting for them. In “ILIPW,” Taylor is looking through windows waiting for this person’s eyes to meet “mine one more time.” Both songs have this sense of sit and wait, sit and wait, sit and wait.
Taylor looking into people's windows and obsessing over gatherings where the muse might be in attendance reflects a sense of longing and yearning, reminiscent of Wendy's yearning in Peter Pan to reconnect with Peter despite being unable to bridge the gap between their realities:
Lyrics from “Peter”:
We both did the best we could do underneath the same moon
In different galaxies
Eternal Youth
More from “I Look in People’s Windows”:
I look in people's windows
Transfixed by rose golden glows
To view something in rose colored glasses is to see something in “favorably disposed opinions : optimistic eyes.”
One could compare this to the rose colored glasses Wendy takes on when visiting Neverland, or when Alice visits Wonderland. (Again, we will be reviewing Wonderland’s connection amongst many other songs in connection to “Peter”/“ILIPW” in Part 2.) Both of these fairytales cater to the inner child and youth.
The theme of eternal youth in “Peter”, based on the fairytale of Peter Pan, is self explanatory, and I don’t feel the need to go into detail in this already MASSIVE post.
For this example, we’re going with the theory that “Peter” and “ILIPW” are inspired by the same muse/relationship. “ ILIPW’s” theme of yearning can be interpreted through the lens of Wendy's relationship with Peter—a story that encapsulates the longing for eternal youth (which Taylor writes about in “22” on Red, a song that is DEDICATED TO DIANNA, the pain of growing up, and the poignant realization that some connections are meant to remain in the realm of dreams and memories.
Rediscover Your Sense of Wonder
Peter appears unexpectedly and at random to seemingly bring a sense of magic and wonder to those around him, including Wendy and her siblings. Peter visiting the Darling children through their window symbolizes the allure of escapism, especially for someone like Taylor who cannot lead a normal life, and the desire to remain forever young.
“ILIPW,” if you allow the interpretation that it is intrinsically connected to “Peter,” indicates a longing to recapture, if anything, the innocence and adventure embodied by Peter/the muse. Taylor’s fixation on windows is a search for moments of enchantment and wonder that the Peter muse gave her.
If we follow this line of thinking and allow Dianna to be the muse of “Peter” and “I Look in People’s Windows,” it’s very interesting that the song canonically dedicated to Dianna centers around the very idea of youth and wonder: “22” from Red, as seen in the Rolling Stone piece mentioned above.
From “22”:
We're happy, free, confused, and lonely at the same time
It's miserable and magical
/
It seems like one of those nights
We ditch the whole scene and end up dreaming
Instead of sleeping
/
Everything will be alright
If we just keep dancing like we're
22
Tumblr / felldowntherabbithole
Dianna once had a tumblr with the url felldowntherabbithole. While I searched what archives I could find, it was quite overwhelming, and I didn’t get through many of her posts throughout the years she was active. However, I will mention posts I did find that showcased her interest in fairytales, and why Taylor might choose one (or two…“Wonderland,” anyone?) as inspiration for songs she has written about Dianna.
FIRST: This old post was found by Cam from whatiwillsay. She is not affiliated with this post and did not endorse it. However, I was unable to find this screenshot myself on the Wayback Machine, so I want to give her credit for finding this post on Dianna’s blog:
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Now, onto some screenshots I found myself of Dianna’s love of fairytales, all courtesy of the Wayback Machine:
References from bottom to top: Goodnight Moon, Dr. Suess, Alice in Wonderland, Little Red Riding Hood, Underland (a retelling of Alice in Wonderland)
Part Two Coming Soon
PART TWO will be linked here when finished. If you have any comments, suggestions, or questions, I’m more than ready to hear your thoughts!
Part Two will cover "Peter" and "ILIPW's" connections to other songs associated with Dianna.
Part 3 will cover anything I missed that I didn't feel I could edit into Part 1 or 2, as well as some more reach-y theories that I still feel deserve an honorable mention!
This post will be edited for grammatical and factual errors as necessary, as well as adding more evidence I feel needs to be included in this post.
#gaylor#swiftgron#gaylor swift#peter#i look in people's windows#gaylor theory#gaylor lyric analysis#swiftgron lyric analysis
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Me explaining that we technically haven’t seen anyone make a deal with god and swap places for someone they love yet and how it perfectly fits into the theory that Mike is gonna be targeted at the start of s5, after they open the season re-contextualizing Will’s connection to vecna from the beginning, leading up to now where Will is going to sacrifice himself to save Mike, essentially giving Vecna what he wants aka Will, with him going back to his Zombie Boy era (kinda like what happens in the comics with Will the Wise) and his sacrifice initiating the time jump we see, with a year passed and them still trying to find him, living the s1 era all over again, with the town convinced Will’s disappearance in 83’ started this towns curse and how full circle it will feel compared to s1 and with everything that’s happened over the seasons that is going to be addressed.
#byler#don’t take me seriously#this is a crack theory#I only feel confident about like 8% of it#this is like 20 of my theories mixed into one#it’ll keep changing every day depending on how I’m feeling 😙✌️#just trying to conceptualize how they would initiate a time jump#and I’m coming up blank#all I can think is#Will did something…#something is going on with the UD being stuck on the day he went missing#he made himself invisible fr this time 🥺#i could see Will either being presumed missing or dead#like that William tombstone in dear billy was foreshadowing…#we did get letter to Willy in that scene and the byler scene in the junkyard…#they definitely set s4 up in a way where Will is MISERABLE at at his lowest point yet#I don’t even want to think about it#anyways… fic recs for ppl that are thinking about it#I’m sat
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Room 77 | J.M.
ꨄ Pairing: dbf!Joel Miller x f!reader
ꨄ Summary: It was a great plan at first to carpool with Joel & have him drive to your dad’s vacation house, until it wasn’t.
ꨄ CW: SMUT ! 18+ MINORS DNI! one bed trope!, age gap (readers like mid 20s Joel’s like early 50s idk) mean Joel at first, sloppy sleepy sex, reader be havin those daydreams about Joel, spitting, choking, unprotected sex, slight fingering, cream pie, cockwarming, dirty talkkk, slight use of the name daddy, pet names.
ꨄ WC: 3K
(No outbreak!au, no Sarah!au )
Read part two here
“Please say something..” you muttered and sniffled softly. Your dads best friend, Joel, sat in utter disbelief and annoyance. “I fuckin’ told you we should’ve taken your damn car, but you don’t listen. Here we are, having to find a cheap motel for the night because my truck can’t handle the rain.” He threw the truck in reverse and backtracked until he found the motel he noticed hours ago when he flew by. The idea of carpooling with him sounded good in theory up until this happened.
“I’m sorry, okay? You don’t have to make me feel bad about it. Can you just calm down, please?” You questioned and looked at him with your beautiful eyes that were just oh so hard to say no to. It took a few seconds of Joel staring at them for him to shrug you off slightly and shake his head.
“Well, better head inside and get some sleep, rain’ll be over soon and we’ll head back out.” Joel muttered and looked your way momentarily before clearing his throat. “Fine. I’ll pay you back when we get to town, promise.” You grabbed your purse off the middle of the seat and opened the door, the rain instantly coating the inside of the door panel. Joel grumbled as he made his way into the rain, covering his head with his coat as best as he could with one hand as he reached his other hand towards you to help walk you to the sidewalk. “I got it, s’fine” you brushed passed his invitation and stood under the awning to shake off as much water as you could from your coat. The wind mixed with the rain sent a shiver down your spine, your hair dripping water across your face. Joel shook off his jacket and ran a hand through his hair and slicked it back. “Jus’ wait here, I’ll get us sorted” he handed over his jacket for you to hold onto so it didn’t drip all over the floor inside as he talked to the lady at the front desk.
You watched from the front window of the shabby building, Joel’s arms at his side going in the air. His head was shaking from side to side and the lady had an apologetic look in her face, you knew something wasn’t going his way. Suddenly Joel was walking to the door and pushing it open to you, sighing loudly. “They’ve only got one room left for tonight.” You looked at him in confusion, “That’s fine? Two beds, it’ll be fine.” He stared at you with a blank look on his face, almost masking the annoyance completely. “One bed.” Joel looked away and rubbed his coarse beard in frustration. Part of him was hoping you’d freak out and barge in there to demand a separate room or one with two beds, but the other part was secretly hoping you wouldn’t. Your eyebrows raised as you stared at the bushes behind Joel, nodding slowly, “Oh…okay. Well um…we can make that work, can’t we?” your eyes met his as you snapped out of it. His face softened as if all of his stress and frustration washed away, seeing how you weren’t angry at him anymore. That was only because the anger was replaced with nervousness. Joel had a way of making you feel nervous with his intimidating yet beautiful face, his demeanor, the way he spoke. You didn’t want him to know though and somehow think you were a prude, so a brave face was the only way out of this. He ran back to the truck to grab his duffle bag and your smaller bag, hoping there were clothes in it and not in the big one in the bed of the truck under the tarp.
Joel started to walk under the awnings looking for room number 77, quickly realizing it’s up the stairs. “God dammit” he muttered as he made his way to the second floor, his knees cracking almost every step he took. He reached his hand out behind him for you to grab so you could cover your head from the rain and let him guide you to your destination. As you glanced down you could feel your heart racing and you reluctantly took his pinky and ring finger in your palm, closing your hand slowly. “I think it’s all the way down towards the end Joel, go left” you pointed out and he turned, leading you under the neon sign poorly hung on the wall. You fixed his jacket to rest on your shoulders, Joel finally getting to your room. He jingled the keys in his hand before unlocking the door and letting you go inside first.
There it was. Your bed in the middle of the room with a small chair in the corner and an old tv on a worn out dresser. This was starting to become real to you, you were sharing a room with your dads best friend for the night. Joel locked the door behind him and shook his head quickly, water flying everywhere. “Hope this one has some fresh clothes for you, bunny.” He handed over your bag and your hand brushed against his, your face feeling hot. “Y-yeah, this one does. Thanks, I would’ve never thought to grab these. I’m gonna go shower and warm up a little.” Joel nodded and tossed his soaking jacket across the back of the small wooden chair by the window. There was a small part of your mind that wondered what he’d look like in the shower, pinning you against the wall with his hand around your throat as he tells you to look at him before he kisses you deeply. He stood in front of the tv and messed around with the remote to turn it on so you didn’t feel like he was listening in on you.
Just as you were going to shut the door, you looked into the mirror and threw the space of the door, you watched Joel peel his shirt off his wet body, tossing it god knows where. His torso glistened in the tv light and he started to unbutton his jeans, still blissfully unaware you were watching. You closed the door as quiet as you could and locked it, immediately getting out of your clothes. If your panties weren’t wet before, they definitely were after watching him strip. A little fantasizing never hurt anybody and he was never going to find out about said fantasies. The warm water beat down over your back and you closed your eyes in relaxation, taking as much as you could get before the shitty water heater quit. God were you nervous to go to sleep, what if your snoring keeps him awake all night? Would he leave you here in the morning because technically this all happened because of you. You insisted Joel drive his truck instead of taking your car because it was bigger. He tried telling you it wasn’t all that reliable but you had already thrown your stuff in the bed of the truck by that point.
Your hand wrapped around the knob to shut the water off after you had enough and you were practically falling asleep standing up. Until now you had completely forgotten the only pajamas you packed were a little too skimpy for this situation, but what other choice did you have? You rummaged through the bag on the counter trying to find the least revealing combo you packed. You could’ve died from embarrassment as you didn’t find one pair of panties in this mess of pajamas. How could you sleep in the same bed with Joel just full commando under your shorts? There was zero chance of him going to get your other bag, so you had to do what you had to do and put your shorts on over your bare ass.
“Thought you were gonna sleep in there” Joel chuckled as you made your way out into the rest of the room. While you were in the bathroom having a wardrobe malfunction, he managed to make a wall of two pillows in the middle of the bed so you could ease your mind. You laughed softly and tried not to stare at his arms that were folded behind his head while he watched whatever he could find on the tv. Joel had no business looking so good just relaxing, how on earth were you going to be able to sleep tonight with him like that? “What’re we watchin?” your voice clearly indicating you were nervous while you climbed into bed, tugging the blanket over your body quickly so he couldn’t see much. His jaw clenched slightly and he looked over at you and made your breath hitch. “I don’t even know, to be honest, sweet pea. I’m tired though, I just didn’t wanna sit in silence while you showered.” and just like that there you were in the pitch black with Joel Miller.
You both shimmied down into bed, your back facing Joel’s pillow wall and his face just on the other side. He was dreaming if he thought you could fall asleep quickly, especially here. The thunder boomed above you and lightning followed behind it, lighting up behind the drawn curtains. Joel must’ve heard your teeth chattering because you suddenly felt a hand cross the pillow wall, his fingers tracing up and down gently to soothe you. “S’okay bunny, nothin’s gonna get ya.” You tried to not focus so much on his kind gesture but damn was he sending your head straight for the gutter. If only his hand would creep around just a little more and grab your boob, just a small squeeze..god.
“Joel, can you play with my hair please? Just five minutes, that’s all and then I swear I’ll go to sleep? It just helps me relax” you questioned and sat up a little to look at him. There wasn’t much he could say to that and he was already half asleep anyway so it didn’t really matter. “Mmmyeah, cmon. Lay down for me” his groggy tone made your excitement rush your shorts and you felt so silly for getting turned on by that. You subconsciously scooted back against the pillows so he didn’t have to reach far when his hand found its way into your damp hair. Finally, you didn't feel so nervous being so close to him. This was innocent, it was just something he was doing to make you feel better to go to sleep. Your eyes closed as he started to scratch along your scalp slowly, melting all the stress away from your body. Joel gave the back of your neck a firm squeeze and you whimpered softly in relief, your eyes flying open in hopes he didn’t hear that.
“Didja like that, hunny?” his thick accent was in full effect the more tired he got and he laughed as he squeezed your neck once more. “Shut up, I just have a lot of stress there, that’s all” you were scrambling for any kind of plausible excuse you could think of. His fingers went from the back of your neck to the crook of your neck and just barely brushed over your soft skin. It felt like he was teasing you almost, like he wanted to hear you whimper again. What a sick freak. Maybe you were even sicker for wanting to do it again for him. Your body was backing up against the pillow wall even more and you could feel Joels legs with yours. His fingers stopped for a few seconds as he was processing what was happening and he started up again, this time slowly making his way to your chest. He rubbed his palm over your heart softly, almost afraid to move down the valley between your breasts.
“You can feel them i-if you want, I don’t mind.” Your voice shook and he cupped your breast, pinching the nipple between his fingers softly and you heard a faint gasp come from behind the pillows. Without a second thought you grabbed both pillows and tossed them to the floor, backing up all the way against Joel. You didn’t care at this point, you needed him and you wanted him to do far more than play with your nipples. “Kiss me, please.” you turned your head to the side and he leaned in slowly to kiss you, his soft lips pressed against yours. In seconds he was growing hungry for more, his hands traveling all over your body and his kisses getting sloppy. The both of you were a little delirious from driving all night but man did it make it feel ten times better. Joels hand almost went under the band of your shorts and he pulled away slightly, “May I?”
A whimper came out of your mouth as an answer and his hand traveled down your shorts and he groaned as he realized you weren’t wearing panties. “Oh baby doll, no panties, huh? Naughty lil thing.” Joel tutted and plunged a finger between your soaking folds. His low groans vibrated on the shell of your ear and sent your head in the clouds, spinning in pleasure. You reached your arm back and placed your hand on his head while he worked his finger delicately over your entrance. He was soon knuckle deep and you moaned out his name.
“Fuck, Joel yes like that, just like that.”
You crashed your lips onto his, your tongue wanting to find his. Joel’s growing boner pressed against your ass as you grinded against him. The mix between him fingering you and pushing his hard cock against you was driving you nuts, you wanted him badly. He shoved down your shorts to your ankles and soon followed his underwear and pajama pants. “Spit in my hand for me, yeah?” He asked and held out his hand in front of you. Your lustful eyes met his and locked in as you spit exactly where he told you. His hand quickly went to his cock as he thrusted into his palm, coating himself with your saliva.
“Fuuuuck I need this pretty wet pussy wrapped around me right now. Hold your leg for me so I can get inside, baby. Stay still.” His muffled words were spoken against your hair as he buried his cock in your dripping hole.
The two of you went silent for a few seconds while you got adjusted, when finally you were able to get a squeak out. “Jesus- fuck, you’re so big inside me I can’t-“ his arm that was under your head wrapped around your neck and pulled you against him, shushing you while he bit your ear subtly. “Mmm you can handle it baby, you got it. Stay with me.” His headlock was firm, he needed you right where you were. Joel gripped your waist with his other hand and began thrusting deep inside you, his soft whimpers turning into throaty groans in no time.
It felt as if he was going to split you open from the inside out, but you didn’t care. You were absolutely fucked out of your right mind, you were his. Joel was so vocal with you it was almost shocking. You never expected him to be so loud and dirty talk to you the way he was but wow did he do it well. You drank in each other's moans as your tongues danced together, his cock thrusting into you so fast he was making your pussy squelch.
Your stomach caved with every deep breath you took, the tip of his cock hitting just the right spot and causing you to forget to breathe. “Yes, right there baby fuck, don’t stop. You feel so good inside me, don’t ever stop.” You were begging at this point, the desperation taking over you. Joel groaned your name louder as his headlock around you got tighter. “You’re such a naughty girl for me sweetheart, begging me not to leave this soaking wet pussy.”
Joel reached around from your waist and circled your clit, moving his middle finger vigorously on the sensitive bud. Your knees began to shake and you knew you wouldn’t last long if he kept that up. “Cum for me baby, coat daddy’s cock with your cum, let me feel it. Let me feel you absolutely shut down on my big cock.” His lips pressed kisses all over your head and ear, sending you over the edge. Eyes screwed shut, you shouted out his name and cuss words following, bucking your hips to ride out your orgasm that was hitting you hard.
That still wasn’t enough for you. One orgasm wasn’t enough. “Joel-fuck..keep fucking me, make me cry from cumming so hard.” He grunted and thrusted into you once more like he never stopped.
“Yeah, I knew you had it in you to go one more. You love the way I make your pussy feel, don’t you, filthy girl.” You nodded and whimpered yes, but he could hardly hear it over the slapping of his skin on yours. Joel’s thrusts were getting sloppy and he began panting. “Gonna let me cum inside you, princess? Fuucck, I don’t have much left in me. Let me fill you up please.” He begged and you clenched around his cock, earning a moan from him.
“Sh-ii-it baby f-fuck I’m c-coming I'm comin-“ he panted as he began shooting his hot load, thrusting every pump of cum further inside you. Joel’s grip around your head loosened as he drained himself, his sweaty chest sticking to your back. Neither one of you moved as you laid there barely covered by the thin sheet now, his cock growing soft in you. As you both tried to catch your breath, somehow even in the dark you managed to look at his eyes. “I don’t think the rain has stopped yet, might need to stay an extra day just to be safe.”
#joel miller smut#joel miller x reader#pedro pascal#joel miller#joel miller x you#the last of us#dbf!joel#dbf!joel miller#dbf joel miller x f reader#dbf joel miller#joel miller fic#joel miller fanfiction#pedro pascal joel miller#TLOU#hbo tlou
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TS3: Better Greet
Here’s a brand new script mod for you! I got sick of seeing all Sims greet each other with handshakes, so I made this mod to fix and expand upon one of EA’s most annoying oversights in my opinion.
Better Greet overhauls the visual aspect of the Greet social interaction and allows Sims to play diverse greeting animations under different circumstances. See more details on all its features under the cut! 👋
Overview
In the vanilla game, greetings are limited almost exclusively to handshakes, with the only exceptions being the cultural greetings from World Adventures and the Proper greetings from Supernatural, as well as a rare ‘wave’ greeting that takes place when one of the involved Sims is carrying a baby or an object.
This behavior seems to be an oversight by the developers, as the Social Data for the Greet interaction includes some rules that in theory would allow Sims to use different animations when greeting friends, romantic partners and so on, but the actual script that handles greetings completely disregards these rules.
This mod aims to solve that and expand upon the possibilities by making Sims’ greetings also take into account things like personality traits, social group and relationship status.
Features
There are a host of new conditions under which Sims can perform the new greeting styles. Some aspects of these conditions can be edited in the mod’s Tuning resource, such as the relationship level or social group level required for a greeting to be performed. By default, the mod is tuned in a way that strangers, acquaintances, friends and romantic partners all greet each other differently.
Though there are no hard requirements, many of the greeting styles rely on expansion packs for their animations or to fulfill certain requirements, such as: World Adventures, Showtime, University Life, Island Paradise, Into The Future. The mod can still be used without any of these packs, the corresponding greeting types will simply not be available.
If UL is installed, Socially Awkward Sims have a chance of performing some greetings awkwardly. The reaction to these greetings depends on the target Sim's traits; friendlier Sims won't mind and will turn an awkward greeting into a successful one.
There are two optional alternate modes available that modify the greeting rules, which can be enabled in the Tuning XML file:
Euro Mode: Adjusts the rules of the Double Cheek Kiss greeting in order to mimic the customs of parts of the world where giving a kiss on each cheek is a common greeting. This can be mixed and matched with the Check Gender tuning, which can restrict this greeting to be performed only with female Sims if enabled.
Historical Mode: Makes Proper Bow and Curtsey the default greetings (SN required) and disables some greetings that might not fit in a historical gameplay setting, such as High Five or Shaka Bra. Players who use the LN Celebrity system to simulate social ranks can take advantage of the Celeb Check tuning, which makes Sims greet with Proper Bow or Curtsey with Sims of a higher celebrity level, and Handshake with Sims of a lower celebrity level.
Acquaintance Greetings
Wave: By default, Sims will introduce themselves with a Wave instead of a Handshake. If their LTR is -20 or below, they will always use this greeting, with special animations if LN is installed.
Handshake: Sims will greet with a Handshake if at least one of the Sims is an adult, or if one of the Sims is a Workaholic. If WA is installed, two Workaholic Sims will greet with a Fast Handshake.
Double Cheek Kiss: If WA is installed and Euro Mode is enabled, Friendly Sims can greet with a Double Cheek Kiss as long as the target is not a Loner.
Friendly Greetings
Friendly Hug: Sims will greet with a Friendly Hug if their LTR is at least 40. If one of the Sims is a Loner, their LTR must be at least 60.
Shaka Bra: If IP is installed, Sims who share the Loves to Swim trait and have a LTR of at least 15 will perform this greeting.
What's Up: If SHT is installed and the actor has the Social Butterfly trait, they will perform this greeting with other Sims if their LTR is at least 10. Uses the Trait Bonding animation. If SHT is not installed, the required trait is Schmoozer.
Double Cheek Kiss: If WA is installed, Sims who share either the Snob or Diva (SHT) traits will perform this greeting if their LTR is at least 25. If Euro Mode is enabled, the trait requirement is skipped.
High Five: If UL and ITF are installed, Sims who share a Social Group can greet with a High Five as long as their influence level is at least 1, and they have a LTR value of at least 20.
Old Friend Hug: If ITF is installed, Old Friends can perform this greeting. Uses the Hug Long Lost Descendant animation.
Romantic Greetings
Amorous Hug: Romantically involved Sims will perform this greeting if their LTR value is at least 60.
Shy Kiss: Romantically involved Sims will perform this greeting if they have had their first kiss before and the actor is Shy and their LTR is at least 70.
Amorous Kiss: Romantically involved Sims will perform this greeting if they have had their first kiss before and their LTR is at least 80. Shy Sims can perform this greeting if their LTR is at least 90.
Dip Kiss: If ITF is installed, Romantically Involved Sims will perform this greeting if the actor isn't Shy, is a Hopeless Romantic, has had their first kiss before and their LTR is at least 90.
Gestures
In addition to the improved Greet rules, I’ve added a new Gesture… pie menu category full of custom interactions equivalent to most of the new greeting styles, giving you options to greet Sims however you prefer.
By default, many gestures have the same LTR requirements as they do in Greet, but most of them have no trait requirements (exceptions being Bow, Proper Bow and Curtsey.) Some gestures also have a chance of failing if the initiator has the Socially Awkward trait. These can all be modified in the Tuning XML file, so you can disable the Socially Awkward outcomes for gestures or get rid of all LTR/trait restrictions altogether.
To avoid redundancy, some gestures are essentially clones of the socials they share animations with and are only available when the target Sim hasn’t been greeted yet, such as Friendly Hug and all the romantic greetings. High Five and Shaka Bra have been hidden from the Friendly category and made available in the Gesture category instead.
Strings & Language Support
The new Gesture pie menu interactions are translated in the following languages:
English
Chinese — zh-TW (by Little Duck Liu)
Czech (by ProtectusCZ)
German (by McNero)
Portuguese — pt-BR (by Aeri)
Russian (by @hydro1st)
Spanish — es-ES and es-MX
In addition to the brand new strings for gestures, I’ve replaced the strings of some tangentially related interactions:
In the Spanish versions of the game, the Invite Over phone interaction was incorrectly translated to “Invitar a casa” (Invite Home), despite actually inviting the Sim to whichever lot the active Sim is currently in, not just their home lot. Corrected to “Invitar a solar actual” (Invite to Current Lot.) Other languages this mod is translated in may include their own correction of the string if necessary. All other languages will continue to use the original interaction name.
It’s possible the same mistake occurs in other localizations of the game, so as always, I appreciate any submissions of STBLs in other languages!
The Ask to Leave interaction is renamed to Goodbye across all supported languages. A little less crass sounding if you want to send a visiting friend home. 🙂
Ask Everyone to Leave is renamed to Goodbye to Everyone. Since I couldn’t find the exact string in the game files like I could with “Goodbye”, I've only made this change in English and Spanish (es-ES & es-MX). Other languages this mod is translated in may or may not include their own adjustment for this string. All other languages will continue to use the original interaction name.
Tuning
To edit the mod’s tuning, open the .package file with s3pe and edit the Tuning XML resource in a text editor of your choice.
There are lots of different tunables as I've tried to make the mod as customizable as possible, but adding them all in here would make the post even longer than it already is 😅. I've tried to organize them as neatly as I could in the XML so hopefully you'll be able to make changes easily!
Compatibility
Conflicts with any other mod that replaces the social_greet jazz script in JazzData.
Conflicts with any other mod that replaces the SocialActionAvailability XML resource in GameplayData.
Download: SFS / MTS
Place the .package file in your Packages or Overrides folder.
Credits & Thanks
Battery’s Script Mod Template Creator: Getting started with scripting quickly.
nraas: I studied their code and used parts of it to work out how to replace the Action Data of a social interaction, as well as inject the tuning of one interaction into another.
dnSpy: Peeking into the game’s files.
Visual Studio 2022: Writing the script.
s3pe: Exporting/Importing resources, creating the package file.
Adobe Photoshop: Creating and editing the preview image.
Thanks to @lazyduchess for helping me with scripting!
Thanks to @misspats3 and @probablyzora for testing and giving feedback!
Thanks to the lovely community at TS3 Creators Cave!
Hey bb girl mwah!
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band of brothers officers: dating hcs
a/n: hello! this is my first post but ive been lurking in the bob fandom for a while & i'm soooo excited to finally join... i have a bunch of other ideas and drafts i want to post soon :)
this includes the officers: winters, nixon, speirs, lipton, + buck, please lmk if anyone would be interested in more of the boys! i made it vague but the reader is implied to be a part of easy company in some capacity
[dick winters]
he is a very private person and shy... like his ears go bright red at the mere mention of your name which easy company takes full advantage of
you think it's incredibly sweet
it takes a while for him to have confidence when interacting with you in the beginning... he feels inexperienced and that you couldn’t possibly be interested in him
it's a slow burn for sureee
like men getting out of the hospital that come back to the company are immediately like "so are they finally together??"
there are bets on when and where it will finally happen
luz's theory is one of you has to confess when you all jump into berlin at the end of the war... the perfect hollywood ending
it ofc doesn't happen like that; it's a slow process of building trust, it's a mix of quality time and acts of service
the quality time can be hard to come by during the war but dick is determined to check in with you: small, reassuring smiles and touches, finding each other in crowded rooms
it's very private, he doesn't want to jeopardize either of your careers or reputations, but ofc lew knows the details (but the entire company basically knows?)
and lew is good at keeping secrets.. he's the intelligence officer ofc (as he constantly reminds the two of you)
a lot of wrapping his arms around you pulling your back to his chest, resting his chin on your head or shoulder
maybe even a quick smooch
kisses as rewards for him finishing all the action reports he has to do
omg then in austria... things definitely change... and it's easier to label what you have.. dick can finally relax (to some extent), and it starts to feel like more of a normal relationship
all the men are so happy for you like he's had 20+ wingmen this entire time <3
[lewis nixon]
another one that i think is definitely slow burn... but once he finds out he's getting divorced...
even before that, lew's humor always made you feel more comfortable and at ease
he has always gravitated towards you
definitely gets clingy
lovessss sleeping with you like insists that sleep is extremely important for a solider and he sleeps sooo well with you
it's literally impossible to escape his arms when you're sleeping... leg thrown over you, arms wrapped around you
the most comfortable you've ever been fr
the ungodly amount of sexual tension before you get together... oh god.. one time the officers are all playing poker; welsh and lipton just look at each other when lew's leg kicks yours under the table or you lean against his shoulder
like oh god... not again... they're telepathically planning their escape
all the tension, stares, touches, long talks you've had reach a boiling point as lew becomes more jaded by the war and he finds out abt the divorce
you instinctively want to take care of him and you're definitely worried about him... you have a lot of convos with dick trying to figure out the best way to approach and help lew
words of affirmation are very important to him... i think his initial instinct is gift giving but that's difficult with the war.. and he doesn't feel connected to that, it's just what he's always known
if he gets too drunk, you stay up monitoring him and you really don't mind and just knowing you're there for him makes him v emotional:
like you make him feel like there's hope and a future after the war... and he's been thinking that for a long time but finally says it laying on your chest with your hand running through his hair
you help him shave which eventually ends in making out (a lot of things you guys do devolve into that)
he's your poor little meow meow but in the best possible way
[ron speirs]
ngl the attraction was strong from the start and it didn't take long for you to fall for him... by england before your first drop you both already fell hard
everyone is in disbelief that the rumor is it's YOU that he's seeing
everyone thinks you're a total angel and then... speirs.. it's just tht absolutely none of the men can imagine him being soft or romantic
wants you all to himself... is very good about making free time to be with you
unintentionally hovers
and very subconsciously touchy
has to fight himself from grabbing your hand instinctively
like he can know where your platoon is, where you're dug in but still will make rounds just to have peace of mind and know you're okay
just like all the other rumors, ron doesn't really care about clarifying his relationship with you
oh but if he ever heard a man talking disparagingly about you... just one silent stare and the soldier wouldn't even look at you again
omg def the type to carry around a collection pictures.... those are his prized possessions fr
like a pocket in his uniform just full of very pretty (and private) pictures <3
there's a few wholesome ones too.. like when the two of you had a 48 hour pass to scotland... but others (most of them) not so much
and ofc if you ever need anything... like you need a new watch? he has one for you in a few hours
he truly does love gift giving...
i also think physical touch is a huge love language for him
+ i think like pillow talk, just late night talking with you letting him rant and get everything off of his mind is so cathartic for him
and he really appreciates feeling like you understand him and you want and are willing to listen
[carwood lipton]
definitely the wholesome mom and dad couple
usually, most definitely, attached at the hip
always has a hand on the small of your back, or shoulder, arm, etc, he likes the reassurance of small touches and knowing definitively that you're next to him
i have a very self indulgent headcanon that he likes whenever you kiss and thumb over the scar on his cheek <3 makes him feel less self conscious
okay so lip takes care of everyone else but who's taking care of him?!
guys will come to you bc they know carwood will listen to you if you're the one who tells him he has to rest and take it easy
omg.. and if you're married... he's always twisting and playing with his ring just to remind him of you
has multiple letters from you stuffed in one of his uniform's pocket
he has all of the words memorized by now but just physically holding them is so comforting
quality time and acts of service are HUGE for him
and alone time can be so hard to come by... but anything he can do to make your job and tasks easier... he will do
and vice versa ofc
everyone else watching like wow .. relationship goals fr
anytime he leaves and you're split up for a few days... you always have a dramatic reunion jumping into his arms
a lot of fantasizing about your future together... because it feels so close.. but also so far away
[buck compton]
fraternization rules?? what rules?
has absolutely no shame to be at the bar playing darts, hands all over your waist
and showing you off, dancinggg
just feeling a little silly and goofy... making out at the bar
and everyone is hyping you up
i think at the beginning of the war, your relationship is newer and fun... neither of you are really thinking about something serious
i think physical touch and words of affirmation are huge for him
as the war progresses, the thought and fear of losing you grows, especially after he saw so many of his men suffer/die
and he realizes how much he cares about you...
you comfort him after bastogne... a lot and even though it can be extremely melancholy, hearing you talking about your life pre war, and your life together in the future keeps him going
insisting to him that he'll have to show you california and ucla
writing to him constantly after he's taken off the line.. giving him updates on all the men
in austria, when he returns, watching him play baseball with the boys feels absolutely perfect
#band of brothers x reader#band of brothers imagine#dick winters x reader#lewis nixon x reader#ron speirs x reader#buck compton x reader#carwood lipton x reader#hbowar imagine#band of brothers headcanon
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bunny can i beg for daddy izu crumbs if you have any ? whatever you’re feeling (totally can ignore this <3)
hi starr! no need to beg; i always intend to write some daddy!izu but never get around to it. you’re giving me a valid excuse to indulge that desire and avoid updating my masterlist yet again. gonna go with daddy dom izu & little reader bc that’s where i’m at rn. hope that’s okay. 🖤
here’s a brain dump based loosely off of this drabble. bc i know you’re okay with it: age play themes ahead, mention of caregiver/little (dd/lg), fluff ig?
i hc daddy izu as one that’s pretty soft; like i could definitely see him being as mean as they come, won’t put up with bratting of any kind, etc., but i could also see him being content with being soft and loving almost all of the time.
that doesn’t mean he’s not rough in bed tho; i think with him it’s a 50/50 mix, and he’ll usually adapt to what you need and enjoy it just as much.
he likes to plan his scenes out well ahead of time, but he can also do things on the fly with enough experience under his belt.
daddy izu enjoys orgasm control - delay, denial, overstim, ruined orgasms, the whole bit. he doesn’t do it all the time bc it’s not his top favorite thing to do with you, but he likes the variety it allows. he can be as nice or as mean as he wants at any given point without having to be harsh, and he knows harsh can be very overwhelming when you’re not expecting it. and more importantly, it’s all based around pleasure, which i believe a softer version of izu would be all for.
not much of a sadist outside of spanking and maybe some impact play. he really only does it if he knows you want (or need) it. he’s a fan of maintenance spankings bc they can be used for a variety of purposes - to keep his sweet thing in check, but also give you regular times to enjoy being a bit of a masochist if that’s important to you to name two.
he’s the kind of dom that’s not like… a jack of all trades? but he can adapt to what you want or need pretty easily with a little research, and he doesn’t have a specific area of interest outside of ddlg in this context? if that makes sense? anyway.
daddy izu has always known he likes to take care of people. he’s a hero, after all. it takes him a while to accept how far that actually goes. he struggles with it. it’s only thanks to the internet that he figures himself out while he’s young (early 20s).
by the time you meet him he understands dd/lg dynamics in theory, but he’s never been in one. heck, he’s not even sure if he wants that or can give that to someone with his status as a pro hero.
but that doesn’t stop him from slipping here and there and showing that side of him, especially when he sees how you melt under his care. he’s pretty sure he’s picking up hints that you might indeed be a little, but he’s way too embarrassed to ask.
izuku the kind of person that pulls the little side out of you when you’re too ashamed to show it. he showers you with sweet encouragement and doesn’t mind how needy you get. tells you, “it’s okay, sweetie. i love how much you need me. don’t ever be sorry for it.”
he feels his heart get warm and fluttery the first time he gets a real taste that his inkling might be right. maybe it’s the way you swing your feet so cutely when he “pampers” you by putting on your socks and shoes, or how you sort of melted into him and got shy that one time he carried you from the car to the bed because you were too tired.
or perhaps it was the most obvious moment, when he caught you watching a kids show, coloring on your own to de-stress. izuku had mixed feelings, ones of warm confirmation and others of pain watching you fold into yourself so quickly. he hated the way you immediately turned the tv off, snapped your coloring book shut, and tried to hide it like you had something to be ashamed of.
so izuku did the only thing he could think to do. he sat down next to you, gave you a kiss, and said, “hey, princess. whatcha got there?”
his smile was bright and kind as ever; he was trying to show curiosity rather than overwhelming excitement. but the look on your face told him you were hesitant.
“nothing, i’m just drawing,” you said. “sorry.”
his heart fell as he gave you a curious look. “no need to be sorry. can i see your drawings? i bet they’re very pretty.”
you tucked your head as heat prickled the apples of your cheeks; his tone of voice had shifted, but you couldn’t quite place it. “izuku, it’s dumb, really. don’t worry about it.”
“none of that. show me how well my girl draws, hmm? i want to see what you made,” izuku replied.
you considered it for a moment. then without looking up, you pulled the book of sanrio characters from your chest and opened to the page you had been working on. heat flooded your face. tears pricked the corners of your eyes.
“baby, that’s beautiful! i love it,” he said.
“thanks,” you said softly.
izuku’s enthusiastic response was far from surprising, but what caught you was his tone once again. and it clicked - you’d heard that tone of voice before plenty of times. it was the same one he used when he bent down to talk to small children who ran up to see him. you weren’t sure if you should feel humiliated or if -
“you’re doing such a good job, little one,” he said. “i’m proud of you.”
you froze. you looked to him. though you were on the brink of tears, his smile was still bright, albeit nervous.
“really?” you said.
“yeah! of course i am. do you have another coloring book, sweet pea? i’d love to draw with you.”
you pointed to the black backpack at your feet. izuku pulled out the only hero themed coloring book you had.
“i think this one’s perfect, don’t you?” he asked.
you pulled him in for a tight hug and nodded.
#not sure i like it#but i rly tried#also i will always and forever love the ‘first discovery of something abt your partner’ trope bc it’s soft like me 😤#hope this wasn’t too redundant#bakubunny#midoriya izuku#tw age play#tw daddy kink#💖#🧸
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MOTORCITY SEASON 2 MASTERPOST
once upon a time, over 10 years ago, just a few months after the announcement that Motorcity was officially canceled...the creators of the show took pity on their heartbroken fandom and gave us several glimpses of what season 2 might have been like. they saw how much we loved Motorcity and gave us every scrap of info they could at the time, so that we could use those scraps to imagine our own personal "Season 2" - whether it continue on in our fics, our fanart, or simply our own heads.
I'm making this masterpost so that none of this material will be lost or forgotten, and so any fanartists/fic writers still hanging around today can use it for inspiration. if there's any related material I've missed, PLEASE feel free to add it in a reblog or let me know in my inbox! I want this list to be as complete as we can make it! :)
--
The Season 2 That Never Was: A Comprehensive List
Motorcity Season 2 Rough Intro
"Scratch audio by our very own Chris P." (x)
youtube
-> backup download
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Season 2 Writer's Wall
posted (and later deleted) by @chrisprynoski on twitter, and shared on tumblr by @peopleofmotorcity, these pictures of the writer's wall showed us a "rough sketch" of what could have been, and gave our imaginations SO many fun theories and possibilities to play with. every blurry sticky note was a treasure to us. :')
-> original tumblr posts: x x x x x x x x x x x x
-> image masterpost
-> google drive folder
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Chris Prynoski's Fan Interview + Tumblr Q&A's
this whole interview on youtube is a delight to listen to, and Part 2 in particular has some interesting bits about season 2. (skip to 17:10 for some good stuff about Texas and Chuck's backgrounds!)
youtube
-> Part 1
-> Part 2
Chris P also answered several juicy season 2 questions on tumblr. sadly his blog is deactivated now, but you can still read through all of them at the links below!
-> image masterpost
-> google drive folder
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Capri Chilton - Mike Chilton's long lost big sister!
I can't remember where or when it was first revealed that they were considering giving Mike a secret older sister, and I haven't been able to track down the origin. that being said, when it was revealed, the fandom loved the idea so much that they begged the creators to make it canon. Chris P busted out the "magical canon stick", gave us this delightful concept sketch, and "Capri Chilton" was born!
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The Motorcity Series Bible
"To help you all understand what it is you are reading, this is the material that Titmouse used to help pitch Motorcity, and it was also a tool for writers to use when coming up with episodes to help understand who the characters were before there was any other reference. That being said, this was one of the very first documents about Motorcity, so many things have changed or evolved from these early concepts." (x)
-> original tumblr posts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
-> image backups
-> PDF download
EDIT: the COMPLETE series bible has now been leaked by Lost Media Busters on X (Twitter) and helpfully shared by @waksworldrebooted!!
--> here is a google drive download for the full PDF file!
--
Motorcity Series Bible - Redacted Version (Pages 1, 2, 17, 19, 20)
funfact: @peopleofmotorcity was the official? unofficial? tumblr blog for Motorcity, and it was run by a guy named Mac - an animator for the show who loved to tease and joke around with the fandom. before revealing the actual first 13 pages of the series bible, he posted this censored version as a prank - a mix of truth and trolling! it's up to the fandom to decide which is which. ;)
-> original tumblr posts: 1 2 17 19 20
-> image backups
-> PDF download
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MTV Era Motorcity Masterpost
a fantastic collection of glimpses into the original pilot/pitch trailer that would evolve into the show we know and love today, found and compiled by @waksworldrebooted. "In 2000, Chris Prynoski pitched a cartoon called Motorcity. He made a card and a website promoting the show, which wouldn't see the light of day until the Walt Disney Company got their hands on it."
youtube
--> tumblr masterpost (including wayback links to the old website)
--> twitter sources from Chris P himself :)
--
Motorcity Unaired Pilot - Disney Version
Originally aired during Comic Con 2012, the pilot was recorded and then posted on YouTube by Allison Simmons in July of 2012, later being privatized in 2022. The video was re uploaded onto VKVideo 22 days after its original posting to YouTube and is still currently available to watch online. (x)
--> viewable here!
--
if I find more material, I will add it here! :)
#motorcity#motorcity season 2#mike chilton#capri chilton#julie kane#chris prynoski#peopleofmotorcity#Youtube
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So I was up from 12am to 5am reading ACFTL and I honestly can't believe that it's over now. Like my brain can genuinely not wrap my head around it. The book I have been waiting for months. The series I've been reading since it was only ouabh. I honestly can't believe it's done now.
So these are just my thoughts on acftl: (SPOILERS BTW)
So I want to start with things I didn't like because I like to end things on a more positive note:
● There was a lot of potential for other things that Stephanie has hinted to in the past (just basically a lot of unanswered questions) that I can't simply believe isn't anything bigger:
> "too familiar nickname" when Jacks called her Little Fox for the first time. This had the potential to be something really big, but the fact that Eva has no connection to the fox is just leaving me confused (as in being the first fox or a reincarnation). Like how. Especially when it was heavily hinted to in the past.
> "heavier than an apple should've been" when Jacks threw an apple at Eva in ouabh. I don't understand what this was supposed to mean if it just ended up being nothing. Like why did it have to be mentioned
> An Evajacks wedding was heavily hinted to in ouabh (even the reverse dust jacket for bn acftl). I just would have liked to see that.
● For me, some of the plot points just felt very disconnected and not linked, to the point where it felt like just random things being stringed together. Like it felt like things were just happening, as if I was reading different books at the same time.
● Acftl kinda feels like after tbona, Stephanie went online and saw everyone's theories and aimed to do the exact opposite. Sometimes I felt so confused because it felt like random facts and points were just thrown at me. Or this felt like this was the original version that Stephanie wrote.
●Why was time personified constantly?
●Where was my boy, Luc? I love him and I missed him so much. I was waiting for him to pop up on the page or make a creepy/funny appearance ("Hello, Eva" - I always laughed when he pulled stuff like this).
●Even though she's not relevant, where was Marisol? You can't tell me she just disappeared. I would have just liked to know what happened to her.
●Aurora's role felt so random.
●The whole thing about Jacks's curse felt to simple and barely touched on.
●I would have liked a better answer on Jacks’s obsession with apples. Like I understand it was left like that on purpose but it would have been nice.
*
●I would have liked the return of Scarlet and Tella. They were the ones who sent Evangeline to the Magnificent North. It would have been nice to see them after all of that and Jacks and Tella could have gotten some sort of closure.
●I love how everyone was hell-bent on the fact that apollo is lysander. The fact that everyone believed Apollo was Lysander started to make me doubt it. When Lysander appeared on the page, I was surprised tbh.
● Tbona established their clear feelings for each other and acftl was them just accepting it.
●Anyways I need domestic evajacks. Like 20 chapters. The bonus epilogues healed me.
My theories that were actually right: ●Tiberius slashing Apollo’s back
●Aurora having some type of magic and being the true villain. I was so sure that she was obsessed with Jacks and placed the Archer's curse.
~"My turn" if you know, you know. Something I never knew I needed. And I need more. There is never such thing as too much Evajacks.
Me having mixed feelings about acftl hurts so much because I've been waiting for this book for so long (I've been reading this series since it was only ouabh). I haven't been able to wrap my head around the fact that this is the official book. Ouabh and Tbona were soo amazing. They were so magical and fairytale like and I cried after I finished acftl, not just because the series was over (because I did) but because it didn't live up to the expectations I had and the high standards that ouabh and tbona set.
This series will always and forever be the series I go back to when I'm sad. Regardless of how it ended, I loved it because Stephanie created a new definition of magic and fairytale for me.
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So like, Poppy Playtime is one of those things that I enjoy watching whenever a new section drops, but don't usually get particularly invested in, but if there's one thing guaranteed to give me brainrot, it's a codependent friendship between a deeply damaged, morally questionable killer and a lonely, mixed-up kid who idolises him. So naturally Chapter 3 has me in my feelings about the Prototype and Theodore Grambell.
And that got me thinking in general, which gave me a theory.
The Prototype - or, at least, whoever became the Prototype - had a military background.
If you think about it, the Prototype's skillset - while horrifying in an escaped monster on the rampage - would be an asset in a soldier, and more than once we see him use abilities that would probably be best explained by military training.
We know he's tech-savvy, mechanically skilled and good at improvising under pressure and time limits: he strips down an alarm clock in his cell - which he'd have to do quickly, because he's under constant surveillance - and makes a laser pointer from its parts to disable the cameras. These seem like skills that would benefit a soldier, who would be familiar with stripping his equipment - his gun, for example - down to parts to clean and reassemble them, and who might need to know how to fix a vehicle or a radio or use improvised parts in an escape from hostile territory.
Based on the fact that he's appeared unexpectedly multiple times now to claim the bodies of dead and dying mascots at exactly the right time, it's likely that he's been tracking the Player - silently and without being seen - since they entered the facility. He's doing recon, watching to see what the Player does, what their goals are, whether he needs to worry about them, and whether or how he can use them to his own benefit.
He can stay silent under torture. The tapes confirm that Sawyer continued experimenting on him even post-transformation, and the Prototype's description of these sessions makes it clear that there is nothing ethical or humane about them: "You stick us...beat us...tear at flesh." But Sawyer himself confirms that - other than snarking at him on that one tape we see - the Prototype has been silent, stubborn and uncooperative throughout. Soldiers can undergo Resistance to Interrogation training to teach them to cope with torture tactics; the only thing they're allowed to reveal is their name, rank and ID number. If the Prototype has already had this kind of training, it would make a lot more sense why he's able to keep silent when most people, adult or no, would be desperately cooperating and begging for mercy.
He's fiercely intelligent, excels at manipulating situations to his advantage, and is shown in Project Playtime to be capable of marshalling and directing the other fight-capable mascots. He's also a creative, ruthless tactician who seems to favour surprise attacks - the Hour of Joy works because it takes the entire facility unawares. The escape attempt where he hides from the camera relies on the security specialists panicking at his having vanished in a matter of seconds and rushing to do damage control, forgetting the camera has a blind spot. This thing is a strategist, and he's good at it.
Now, from what I've seen, it seems to be a popular theory that the Prototype was created from Elliot Ludwig. I'm not sure whether I really buy into that, but if it were true, it would actually work well with this little theory of mine.
We know that Ludwig was a young adult - probably in his 20s and 30s - in the 1930s and 1940s. He's old enough to have gotten married and to get divorced, and to have started his own company.
And where were all the 20- and 30-something men of America during the 1930s and 40s?
Conscripted. Fighting World War II.
So if he was created from Ludwig, or from any adult in Ludwig's age bracket, it is very likely that this is not the Prototype's first ugly war. Playtime Co are not the first monsters he's ever seen doing horrific human experimentation on captives and trying to cover it up. He'd have seen it all before, and he'd know there would be no stopping any of it without collateral damage. So when he gets his opportunity - the Hour of Joy - he's ruthless about it. He wipes out every human in the Playtime factory. If he fought in one of the major wars of the 20th century - WWII, Vietnam, etc, depending on the age of whoever was used - that would also explain why he goes to that extreme. Plenty of guilty, awful people escaped justice after those major conflicts, and he doesn't want that for the Playtime scientists. He'd rather massacre every employee, whether or not they knew about the experiments, than risk one who deserves death getting away.
idk I just think that whole idea makes his behaviour and motivations make a lot more sense
#poppy playtime#vidya gaems#the prototype#experiment 1006#poppy playtime meta#poppy playtime headcanons
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Procreate Dreams
I've been playing around in Procreate Dreams for about a week or so now, and I think I've got enough of a handle on the software to offer a fair review! If you're interested in hearing my thoughts, click the read-more below.
A little context before we get started; I have two degrees in animation, but they're both in 3D. My personal specialty is tech and articulation/rigging, but I think my background puts me in a unique position with Procreate Dreams; I know all of the theory behind animation, but I'm not going into Procreate Dreams and comparing it to a professional-grade software I generally prefer to use (like Toon Boom Harmony, for example).
So, let's get into it!
First Impressions
I hated it. I opened the software, it crashed. I couldn't figure out how to enable onion skins. I couldn't increase or decrease the exposure of my frames. I couldn't figure out how to swap to the eraser. I was confused, I was frustrated, and then I realized that I was expecting to jump in and animate without taking the time to learn the software first.
Once I stopped trying to strong-arm it and started looking up documentation, things got a little easier.
Re-Thinking My Approach
Procreate Dreams isn't comparable to any other animation software I've used before. The UI is different, there's a focus on gesture over buttons, and everything about it is meant to be minimalistic. None of this reflects poorly on the program, in my opinion. It's different. You can't go to Procreate Dreams and get mad at it for not being like the other software out there in terms of how it's used. In fact, I think one area of Dreams that should be applauded is the sheer ambition on display. It's a hybrid of traditional frame-by-frame animation and offers a slimmed down version of some of After Effects' most useful compositing & motion graphics tools. That's just plain cool.
The Good
For those of you who've used Procreate Dreams, you may find it's a little... difficult to see all the good it has to offer through the muddied waters it's launch-day bugs kicked up, but under all the grime, there's a little bit of gold.
Dreams is a one time, $20 USD purchase. That's huge in terms of affordability and accessibility in the software market right now.
The "Perform" option is great, and I think we'll see the longer that it's out, the more creative people are going to get in using it. I've already seen people create gorgeous parallax on their illustrations.
Simple compatibility with Procreate is a huge win. I'm finding my pipeline uses both software together.
The UI is a mixed bag overall, but I find the ability to move between flipnote mode and timeline mode to be great. It keeps the screen free, but I can still access the features I need while doing frame-by-frame.
The move/filters option is a great way to add a little compositing magic to your work.
The Bad
The "bad" here exclusively covers issues with the software as intended. Bugs will be covered under "The Ugly" below.
The lack of a lasso tool is a huge setback. I've seen people saying that it doesn't make sense not to have that feature at launch, especially when it's part of Procreate, but I understand why it may have been difficult to implement in conjunction with the move/perform/warp options. If you save a warp on top of an illustration, then cut and move part of the drawing, how is the warp/local translation data applied to that image? Does the pixel remember it's movement, or is it applied on top of the drawing? There's a lot to consider.
Similarly, the "reference" tool in Procreate would be an excellent tool to add color to layers beneath current layers. "Add Reference Track" would be great! That said, I think this conflicts with the move/warp tools like the above.
The timeline is a time sink. I should be able to adjust the exposure of my frames easily and consistently. As of right now, I have an 80-20 shot of selecting my layer or grabbing the handle for exposure. A small button on the edge of each frame (like a dot) would improve this considerably.
As far as I can tell, you can't mask a group onto another group.
No double-tap on the Apple Pencil 2 to swap to the eraser. This one I'm not sure about; it runs in Procreate, it seems simple to implement here... though it'd be great to see it customizable.
The Ugly
This includes bugs and other issues that are separate from the features (or lack thereof) of Procreate Dreams.
Crashes are frequent. I haven't used the software reliably during any of my sessions so far, but Dreams' autosave feature is extremely strong and very forgiving, so I have lost no work.
My pen pressure become erratic at times, necessitating a restart of the software.
Sometimes my pen will stop working, though other features in the app will continue to run.
The good news is, I think that Dreams is overall a huge win for artists and animators worldwide. Everything that's not working about Dreams will hopefully be resolved in future updates. I'd encourage anyone who wants to try animating for the first time to pick it up-- with the understanding it might take some time to get used to/master.
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Alex Garland's Civil War is my perfect movie. I'm not sure who else's, though.
There's a thing I've said about lots of art: if you have to read the artist's statement to get the point, the artist's statement is the art. I read multiple interviews with Garland, went in prepared for the movie he was trying to make, and I loved it, a lot. I don't know if I can say that I enjoyed it, because it's super-emotional, especially super-tense. But I'm very very glad I saw it, and if somebody invited me to go with them, I'd probably watch it again, and I may well buy the blu-ray when it comes out. That being said? I'm not sure who else, other than a few weirdos like me and a few academic cinephiles this movie is for.
Remember the movie Pleasantville, if you even saw it? The trailer mislead a lot of people into expecting a jokey comedy about how dumb "Return to Normalcy" era sitcoms were, and nearly everybody who went in with those expectations hated Pleasantville, because what they got was a deep philosophical meditation on how you can't actually solve a social problem without losing your innocence, and loss of innocence, no matter how necessary, hurts. So almost nobody loved Pleasantville but a few people like me, who wanted it injected straight into our veins.
So let me lay this straight out before you buy your ticket to Civil War:
First of all, at no point in Garland's Civil War do they tell you the politics of any of the three sides in the near-future second American Civil War. Nor are you expected to figure them out. The war started four or five years before the first scene of the movie, and none of the people in this movie are still interested in debating why the war. There are three sides, and while there are people who say that the Western Forces are Democrats and the Florida Alliance are Republicans and the Federal Army are Trumpist, they are reading their own prejudices into way too few background clues and ignoring the other background clues that contradict that theory.
I know that every American who sees this movie is watching to find out which army is "on my side," which one they're supposed to be rooting for, and that is not a movie that Alex Garland wanted to make. You are supposed to be rooting for the war to just be over and elections to resume. Because that's what every civilian and every soldier wants, and nearly all the unlawful combatants. And also ...
This is not a war movie. If you want the (somehow, to you anyway) relaxing catharsis of cheering while lots of military hardware gets used? You are going to hate Civil War because this movie is, to borrow an older metaphor, Tomorrowland to your Mad Max: Glory Road. Garland made this movie to shame you particularly if you like war movies. The total amount of combat footage in this movie probably doesn't reach 20 minutes, and our main viewpoint character for the final battle sequence is a traumatized civilian.
One last thing I can say before diving behind a spoiler warning, though: it is an amazing technical movie, this thing should win all the technical Oscars next year. In particular, the principal photography is the best I've ever seen and the way it mixes (and sometimes un-mixes!) the separate audio tracks perfectly manipulates the tension level. And all four lead actors put their whole selves into these parts and held nothing back.
So what is this movie if it's not a political movie or a war movie? I can't tell you that without diving at least partway into spoiler territory, so ...
Alex Garland wants to prove two things in this movie:
Life in a failed state sucks ass. Yes, even if you're nowhere near the combat zone. And ...
War correspondents and combat photographers themselves wonder if what they're doing is making any difference, but they're heroes for trying.
The journalists themselves can't point to a single time what they do prevented or stopped a war, and they very much wonder if they're just adrenaline-addicted glory-hogs. But even not even knowing if what they're doing will ever save a single life, they are absolute fucking heroes. They put themselves at insane risk because this is the only thing that they know how to do and if it has any chance of saving lives, of preventing or stopping war, it has to be tried.
Our main cast are four journalists: an elderly war correspondent, a middle aged war correspondent, a middle aged combat photographer, and a (too) young combat photographer on a mission:
They start in Federally occupied NYC, reporting on anti-regime protests and terrorist attacks. They've heard rumors about the actual war. Right now the front line is a three-way battle for control of Charleston, South Carolina. They've heard that the Westerners and the Floridians are going to fight each other to the death as soon as they push the Federals out of the Carolinas, and then on July 4th, just a week away or so, the likely winners, the Westerners, are nearly certain to seize the capitol. They think the 5 year war is almost over, and are trying to figure out how to cover the end. This is, like, literally the whole of the first two scenes.
The old guy wants to cover the battle of Charleston "for whatever is left of the New York Times" and then retire. The three younger journalists have an even crazier idea: skip the battle of Charleston and use the last remaining highway into/out of DC to outrun the Western Forces and cover the fall of the White House.
So the overwhelming majority of the movie is a several day, many hundred mile road trip in an armored car marked PRESS. This involves driving west to Pittsburgh and then back east to Charleston, to get around the combat zone, which results in the real main part of the movie:
The road trip is intended to show you how much the combination of anarchy, localized paranoia, and fear of looters is driving various levels of savagery far from the war zone, which the reporters and photographers keep stopping to document.
It ends with the race to keep up with the Western forces so they can cover the fall of the White House, which is the only long combat scene in the movie, and it is incredibly intense, and very loud and scary, and nobody except maybe the kid photographer covers themselves in glory.
And every scene of it tells the same didactic message, told in about a dozen different ways: when the war is over, whether or not you were "on the right side" is going to matter a lot less than the horror you lived through, and wartime journalists put themselves through hell to try to prove that to you before it's too late.
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Shufflemancy 101: A Brief History & Analysis
Hey! If you like my work and want to support me in my quest for divination theory, digital tools, algorithmic quandries, and research into niche divination tools, consider throwing dollars at my Ko-Fi tip jar! Every contribution helps me keep making posts like this one. (You can also read this post over on Ko-Fi!)
The difficulty with researching something like shufflemancy is that it's a relatively modern phenomenon. I haven't yet found anyone (online or in a book) specifically talking about the origins of shufflemancy as a term or where it might've come from.
So, we start from square one.
What is Shufflemancy?
According to Wikipedia, shufflemancy is divination "by the use of an electronic media player such as an electronic playlist, iPod, or other medium wherein one skips a certain number of songs and the lyrics and/or tune of the song is the answer to the divinatory question."
Simple enough. Use an electronic collection of music that's been shuffled to divine.
This did lead me to the question: What counts as shufflemancy? Does tuning into a radio station count?
It's my opinion that radio divination does not count. There's no shuffle function. Yes, it has an element of chance, and that's what makes it divination. It certainly falls under the wider umbrella of divination via music, too. But it isn't shufflemancy if it doesn't make use of a shuffle function.
So, to make things simple, for something to be shufflemancy, it must:
Use an electronic medium
Involve a randomized shuffle function
Be something the shufflemancer can interpret to answer a question (pretty much anything)
Early Shufflemancy
The earliest form of shufflemancy as we understand it today, using the above requirements, would probably be tape players capable of shuffling music. With the nature of tape, it would take a while for the thing to wind and rewind to find the cue on the tape which signaled the start or end of a song, but it'd work.
With that said, shuffling as we understand and recognize it today would've started with CDs in the 1980s. There were CD players that could hold three to five disks at a time. They could shuffle songs between all disks held in the player, creating a random mix of tunes for listeners to enjoy.
Using either of these methods for divination would work, technically. The results would be somewhat limited, but that doesn't mean it's a bad method to use. Especially if your CD player could hold 5 disks, you could easily put in 5 albums from different artists with all different vibes for a wider variety of outputs.
I certainly remember using my little blue radio that held two CDs at once like this. I'd put in two albums and hit shuffle, and the first song that played would be my vibe and advice for the day. It was divination -- some of the earliest I'd ever done consciously, at the young age of nine. And when I got the bigger one that held three CDs? Game changer.
So this puts shufflemancy's origins somewhere around the mid-to-late 1980s, when Sony put out the first CD player with shuffle. As we moved into the 1990s, CDs became more popular and cassettes faced obsolescence.
The Shuffle Revolution & Early Modern Shufflemancy
In 2005, Apple changed the game again. It had already debuted the iPod in 2001, providing an easy, pocket-sized music experience as a direct challenge to the CD's cultural domination. On January 11, 2005, nearly 20 years ago, Apple announced the iPod Shuffle.
And oh, boy, did it change everything.
I could talk forever about the iPod's impact on the music industry, the death of the in-order album, and the eventual rise of music streaming services. But others have done that to death, so I'll focus in on our topic of shufflemancy.
This is where we start seeing shuffling music as it is now, in the modern day. In my digging, I found mentions of the term "shufflemancy" as early as 2007 -- just two years after the iPod Shuffle was announced. Someone proposed the concept and terminology of "shufflemancy" as we understand it today on a Halfbakery Forum "Idea" post on October 3, 2007.
It's difficult to say whether this is the first instance of the term. In reality, shufflemancy seems to have emerged as a natural by-product of the evolution of music technology. Where there is innovation, witches and diviners will mold it to their purposes. We're a resourceful bunch like that. It grew organically as we moved from buying albums to buying singles to streaming music without buying at all.
People were offering public shufflemancy readings as early as 2009 in places like TarotForum.net. It's spoken about during this era as a "silly" and "new" form of divination that people were trying out. There aren't any dates in that link, but according to the website's data, the first post in the thread was published on June 16, 2009.
From there, shufflemancy saw a gradual rise in popularity. It evolved from using iPods to iTunes, Napster, and eventually Spotify as these new applications emerged.
Shufflemancy Now
If you look up "shufflemancy" using Spotify's search function, you'll receive dozens of results. Many of the top playlists are public ones curated by shufflemancers for themselves and others to use. Options range from general playlists to "mega mixes" containing upwards of 200 hours of music from all different genres, artists, and eras. There are some with a paltry five hours of music, while one that I've seen goes up over the 600 hour mark. (If I can find that one again, I'll reblog it, because... damn.)
Select a "messages from your guides" option from the search or curate your own -- the choice is yours. For one-time shufflemancers, using a pre-made option may be the best, most economical choice. But dedicated shufflemancers sometimes boast multiple hundred-hour playlists for different purposes, all personally curated.
Clearly, it's popular. There are shufflemancers on Tumblr and Etsy offering free and paid services using their specially curated playlists. A quick search is all you need to find someone receiving a divinatory reading via song lyrics, meanings, and vibes. And it seems to work -- sellers on Etsy boast hundreds of positive reviews. Some even offer playlist curation services for personal shufflemancy or messages from deities and/or spirits.
It all begs the question, how does shufflemancy work?
Shufflemancy Methodology
Finding this is significantly easier than pinning down the history of shufflemancy. This post from Tumblr user orriculum, sums it up fairly well. So does this one by the-daily-diviner.
To do shufflemancy, the basic steps are:
Create or find a playlist of songs. A large collection seems to be the most favorable option for a wide spread of possibilities.
Ask a question. Divination 101 -- figure out what you want to know and ask it. Simple enough.
Pick a number. Choose any number and shuffle that many times or skip that many songs.
Listen to the song. Write down lyrics that stick out, messages that come through, and anything else that seems relevant (genre, tempo, vibe, etc.)
Interpret. Take the information gathered during the song and use it to draw conclusions, just like any other form of divination.
Simple enough. Shufflemancy is the sort of method that requires a high level of intuitive thinking. It's very mutable and suits a good amount of personalization.
This is both good and bad, I think. It would be incredibly easy to create a bias in your shufflemancy playlists by selecting songs with primarily one genre, artist, album, emotion, or through-line. The ideal playlist really does have a wide variety of music, and this means selecting songs that the shufflemancer doesn't necessarily like. We all have a genre or artist we hate; excluding an entire genre skews results. Impartial selections of music are critical to the success of good divination. Otherwise, we risk interfering with the outcome.
And speaking of interfering...
The Algorithm Problem
(Note: I'm focusing in on Spotify since it's very commonly used and because it's accessible to me. Shufflemancy can be (and is!) done with plenty of other apps like Apple Music.)
When Spotify was originally launched, it used a version of the Fisher-Yates Shuffle to perform its shuffling of music. In essence, this algorithm takes a finite sequence of data, picks an option from that selection of data, and removes it from the pool. Then, it picks another and another until no more options remain.
At first glance, this seems great! It creates a fairly random output. But as is the nature of randomness, there were clusters. The same artist would play four or five times in a row from a large playlist, and Spotify users complained. It was random, but it didn't feel that way.
The human brain is wired to find connections and patterns. When the same artist plays over and over again despite a playlist being on shuffle mode, it creates a pattern that the brain recognizes. Therefore, the "true" randomness of clustering outputs was unsatisfactory.
So, in 2014, Spotify updated it. Their new algorithm would detect and remember the song it just played and, in shuffling, account for the artist and album to provide a more random-feeling result. The new algorithm detects what's already played and selects accordingly to prevent the same artist from playing twice in a row, just as it prevents the same song from playing twice. It spreads artists out evenly (though not perfectly, to maintain the illusion of randomness) to provide an enhanced listening experience.
What does this mean for shufflemancy, then? If Spotify's algorithm is interfering in the output provided from a playlist, does that mean it's not a reliable form of divination?
At first, I wasn't so sure. I adjusted my thinking -- if a tarot app was preventing certain cards from being drawn (or from being drawn in a particular order) because I'd already drawn them that day or week, would that render the app unreliable? And the answer was yes. It would! It removes the random element from the method, therefore making it not true divination by my definition.
So shufflemancy with Spotify isn't (good) divination, then. Right?
My Opinion & Theory
In thinking about this further, I think it comes down to personal opinion. People certainly have success with shufflemancy via Spotify, or else they wouldn't do it. They definitely wouldn't offer their services (free or otherwise) if they weren't confident in the results it provides.
Thinking that way, I believe there's a way to off-set the algorithm's interference. With enough songs in a playlist, the random element is enhanced despite the algorithm. Not by having the same song multiple times (Spotify would surely detect this and prevent it from playing), but perhaps the same song covered by different artists. Songs with the same vibe, the same meaning, similar lyrics... AND songs from a wide variety of artists and genres, regardless of whether the shufflemancer likes the songs or not.
The person with that 600+ hour playlist for shufflemancy has it right, I think. That's the key. Variety and volume to make up for Spotify's algorithmic shuffler.
Additionally, in listening to my many, many Spotify playlists, I noticed something. If I'm listening to a playlist on shuffle and decide I want a specific song, I can choose to play it immediately. Afterwards, songs I've already heard might play. It seems as though doing this resets the shuffling algorithm in some way. Doing this in combination with a large and varied playlist might be the key to making shufflemancy in Spotify truly, fully reliable.
My Next Steps
Obviously, scholarly research only goes so far in situations like this. In order to properly gauge the accuracy of shufflemancy, I'll have to do it myself.
First, I'll need a playlist. I have a handful of playlists that sit in the hundred-hour range, but they're curated with friends for specific vibes. They're not really suitable for shufflemancy. So making one for myself is step one. I'll use premade playlists as a springboard for ideas, but the end result will be my own. For transparency, I'll make the playlist public and share it as part of the next edition in this series of posts.
The next step is to just... do it. Do the divinations, and do them regularly. Instead of a daily tarot card, I'll do a daily shuffle. I'll form "spreads" and put together a more in-depth methodology that fits my style as it develops.
Then, finally, maybe public ones? For reviews and feedback, obviously. It's one thing to do divination for myself -- confirmation bias and all -- but to do it for others and to be open for immediate feedback is entirely different.
Last, it's a matter of compiling my findings into a coherent document. Easier said than done, but done it must be.
Resources
I pulled from a lot of places for this one. Massive thanks to the Crossroads Discord for listening to me yell about divination for the last several weeks. It will continue.
In any case, here are all the resources I referenced for this leg of research:
Wikipedia - The Fisher-Yates Shuffle
Wikipedia - Methods of Divination
Wikipedia - The iPod Shuffle
PopSci - History of Shuffling Music
Engineering at Spotify - How to Shuffle?
The Verge - The Mixed-Up History of the Shuffle Button
Auntie PanPan (YouTube) - Shufflemancy - What IS It?!?
Halfbakery - Shufflemancy Idea Post
Fox and Faith Wordpress - Radio Divination and Intentional Living in Your Day to Day
Scientific American - How Randomness Rules Our World and Why We Cannot See It
PC World - The CD Player Turns 30
Make Use Of - How Spotify's Shuffle Feature Really Works
Orriculum on Tumblr - Post on shufflemancy technique
The-Daily-Divinre on Tumblr - Post on shufflemancy technique
Empirical Zeal - What Does Randomness Look Like?
#aese speaks#digital divination#divination#divination algorithms#shufflemancy#shufflemancy 101#witchcraft#research#history of magic#history of divination#history of shufflemancy#witchblr#witch#divination witch#witchcraft community#divination community#discussion#witchy discussion#divination resources#shufflemancy readings#divination 101#ok im done tagging. for fucks sakes this is a beast of a thing.#please reblog this & add your thoughts#i crave feedback
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Bazubands part 1: A LESSON IN HUMILITY 🤣
So one of my projects for the winter break was to make a set of bazubands made for myself -- a middle eastern armor piece that provides all-in-one wrist/forearm/elbow protection, and the easiest way to get the coverage required for SCA fighting. (My garb is viking, but such are the exigencies of modern safety standards, that fighters usually wind up with a mix of armor types.)
Anyway, I packed up the necessary tools and materials and took them with me when I went to visit my parents, which is why the backdrop for these pictures isn't my usual workshop.
Found a pattern on google, cut it out of 10-12 oz veg tan, traced/carved/tooled it:
(You can see why this is the easiest way to get elbow protection, it's WAY less fiddly than trying to do articulated plates around the joint.)
Soaked the elbow cop again (because it was starting to dry out by the time I was done tooling), rounded it out and stitched it up:
Dyed it black, in my parents' backyard:
(And if you use Angelus dyes, that's how you keep from spilling it -- the box has little perforations so that it can hold the bottle safely upright.)
WAX THAT MOTHERFUCKER:
It doesn't show in that picture, but I have a metal bowl of wax (jeweler's casting wax) melting on the stovetop. I alternate between brushing it onto the leather, which looks like the picture above, and then putting the leather in the oven at ~200F, at 10-20 minute intervals, until the wax soaks in. Repeat until the leather is fully saturated and does not absorb more wax. (This often takes hours, so find something else to multitask with.)
But when you're done -- ta da!
Your project will be thoroughly waterproof, very strong and hard, with a low lustre. It's functionally ABS plastic at this point.
The next step was padding, so I got some sheepskin and and fitted it to the inside:
(idk why it's so fucking orange, but the alternative was kind of a mint-mucus green. I think the orange is growing on me though.)
Time to pattern the other, simpler piece of the bazuband, because they're hinged to enclose your full arm:
(I couldn't do this earlier, and therefore do both pieces concurrently, because I had no idea how much bulk the padding was going to add to my arm. I suppose you could wrap your arm in padding when you're measuring at the start.)
Slapped a quick design on it:
(And carved & tooled it too, though I neglected to get pictures of that.)
And then--
DISASTER, MY FRIENDS.
I put it in the oven, and it lost its gd mind.
WHAT.
Seriously, just -- words do not do this abomination justice. o_O
LOOK AT IT.
Coming so close on the heels of the Khorasan pouch, which had turned out absolutely perfect and has been more widely shared and lauded than anything else I've posted, this was a humbling experience. 🤣 Like, yes you're good, Gabriel, but you're not immune to fucking up.
So what happened here? Why did the same leather as the bazubands, undergoing the exact same steps and processes, turn out like THIS?
I'd have to repeat the experiment to 100% confirm my theory, but I'm pretty sure the critical difference is that I was speed-running this one, and I didn't wait for the dye to fully dry before I started waxing it. It wound up with, essentially, wet leather hermetically encased in wax, and since the water didn't have anywhere to go, it did weird things to the structure of the leather fibers when it started heating up. And because I don't often work with wax, I had somehow never run into this situation before, and thus already learned that lesson.
Ah well.
It wasn't a huge amount of leather, and it was only like two hours of work, so I'm not that fussed about it. (More embarrassed than anything else, at what feels like a very rookie mistake -- and conscious that it could have been SO MUCH WORSE if that had happened to the larger bazuband pieces, which had a lot more time and materials sunk into them.)
Anyway, I'm going to tweak the pattern a bit, make it narrower at the wrist and a bit longer, and change the design to something that matches the dragon better -- and let it fully dry this time. 😂
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⭑*•̩̩͙⊱••••Just a Taste?••••̩̩͙⊰•*⭑
Christmas Week day 3
Yoongi and Y/N are baking cookies for Christmas together for the other members! What could possibly go wrong? ;)
My first Yoongi fic!!! I have another in the works for a bit so expect more of him to come!!!! This one is a bit shorter, but I actually really liked how it turned out!
Tags: dom Min Yoongi x sub male reader, smut
Warnings: 18+, food play, edging
The sound of pots and pans rustling catches your ear, ringing out through the house and causing you to turn in your bed. It's not early in the morning, but it isn't late either, only being 11:20 AM. You decide to investigate and sit up. You don't bother changing out of your silky pajamas (Jin had gifted them to you before and you actually really liked it). You thought it was just you at home today, since the other members had been talking about going Christmas shopping all day, and you weren't that interested, so you volunteered to stay home. If any of them stayed home however, you have a pretty good guess at who it is. Once you make your way to the kitchen, your theory proves correct and you are greeted with the one and only Min Yoongi still in his sleep clothes busy getting together ingredients and bowls.
"Whatcha doin?" You ask, leaning on the counter.
"I didn't feel like going out. It's probably busy." Yoongi replies without looking up. "Thought I would surprise you guys with some cookies. Plus, I didn't want you to be alone..." His voice falls off quieter at the last part. You smile. Yoongi cares for you all so much, but still gets shy about it.
Such a tsundere.
"Awe, you do care!" You laugh and go over to stand next to him. "Can I help?"
Yoongi looks up to your face, an unreadable expression on his face. "I don't need help, but you can if you want to."
"Perfect!" You roll up your sleeves and wash your hands. Yoongi brings over a bowl and a few measured out portions of flour, sugar and other ingredients.
"Here, blend the dry ingredients while I measure the vanilla and stuff."
You blend the ingredients and get together a nice mixture as Yoongi pours in the milk, eggs and vanilla. You start to mix it together, but it quickly gets thick and difficult to mix with one hand. You struggle for a moment before realizing Yoongi is standing watching you, smiling and laughing silently at your pain.
"Ah hyung, don't just laugh!" You pout.
"Okay okay, here." Still grinning Yoongi reaches over and helps adjust your grip on the bowl and spoon, placing his hands over yours. Your heart flutters for a moment, but you brush it off. "We can do it with our combined strength!" Yoongi laughs as he helps you mix the cookie dough, standing behind you with both hands on top of yours. You love hearing him laugh, love seeing him smile. It's not that Yoongi isn't a happy person, it's just that he tends to hide his expressions and feelings around other people, so hearing him laugh so freely like this is...
"Now we have to roll them out and cut them, like this." Yoongi interrupts your thoughts by forming the dough into a blob and setting it on a mat. He then rolls up his sleeves and starts rolling and kneading the dough. You can't help but stare as his beautiful hands as he works, his long fingers so delicate yet strong, doing the work.
"Y/N?"
"Ah, what? Sorry, I must still be tired." You snap out of your daydream. "Now we cut them from the roll, right?" Yoongi nods, and the two of you shape and cut out the cookie shapes from the dough and place them on the baking sheets, then place them in the oven.
"How long do they bake for?" You ask.
"Twenty five minutes, or until they don't look doughy in the center."
"So do we just wait then?"
Yoongi points to more ingredients on the counter. "Perfect amount of time to start making the frostings."
"Damn, cooking sure is a lot of work!" You go over to inspect the food coloring and ingredients.
Yoongi chuffs. "Yeah, that's why you all make Jin and I cook for you." He starts gathering the ingredients, instructing you on measurements, letting you try doing it on your own.
"Oh, geez!" You exclaim as powdered sugar goes everywhere. Yoongi laughs.
"You have to add it slowly or else it goes everywhere like flour." He rustles your hair, releasing a cloud of powdered sugar in the air. "Cute," he says under his breath. You blush.
Eventually you get some decent frosting out of the whole debacle, ending up with separate bowls with different colors for decorating. The timing couldn't have been more perfect, because the timer to the oven goes off and Yoongi pulls the cookies out of the oven.
"Wow, they look perfect!" You exclaim, admiring the golden cookies.
"They did come out pretty great! We just have to wait for them to cool." Yoongi looks satisfied and sets down the oven mitts. He turns to look at you. "Ah, you have some frosting on your face."
"Oh really? Where?" You bring your hand to brush your face. "Did I get it?"
"Not in the slightest." Yoongi smiles, and you swear you catch his face turning pink. "Here, let me get it." He takes his finger and swipes your cheek, then to your surprise he puts his finger in his mouth. "Mmm, You did good." He looks away, as if embarrassed.
You stand there for a moment in shock, then muster up enough courage to respond.
"Actually Yoongi, you have some on your face too." He turns to look at you. You take one of the spoons and smear white frosting on his cheek and mouth.
"Ack, Y/N!" He laughs and retaliates, grabbing another spoon and smudging frosting on you, getting it on your forehead and lips. After a moment of giggling, you look into Yoongi's eyes. His expression is deeper, his smile falling into something more thoughtful and his cheeks turning a dark shade of pink. You find that your faces are much closer than they were moments ago. Before you can process what is happening, your lips collide and you kiss Yoongi, a quick kiss at first, but upon separating Yoongi goes back into it, deepening the kiss. You feel your stomach do a backflip and savor the taste of frosting on Yoongi's soft lips, whimpering slightly as he bites your bottom lip. Finally you separate, Yoongi hovering for a moment before licking his lips.
"...tastes good..." You can't tell if he is referring to the frosting or you. Then Yoongi presses your back against the counter and looks you up and down with hungry eyes.
"Y-Yoongi, I..." You stutter. You can feel your face burning up. Yoongi runs a hand along your side and looks you in the eyes.
"Is this okay?" He asks in a low voice. "Tell me if you want me to stop."
You are surprised, sure, but you definitely like what is happening. You swallow and nod. "Yes, Yoongi."
He bites his lip and starts undoing the buttons on your sleepshirt. He takes the spoon with frosting on it and examines it for a moment, thinking, before he smears frosting on your chest and uses his fingers to run it down your stomach and below your belly button. He then starts kissing and licking the frosting off your chest. You have never felt anything like this before. The feeling of his tongue on your skin drives you wild, and you moan softly under his mercy.
"Ah, Yoon... That feels good..." You squirm slightly as Yoongi continues licking you clean, trailing lower and lower until he reaches your boxers, holding back your very aroused member. He looks up at you one more time, checking to see if you stop him or not, before he gets on his knees and pulls down your underwear. You hiss slightly at the sudden cold air and blush. Yoongi takes his finger and ever so lightly traces along from your center along your shaft and stops at your tip. He then looks you in the eyes and pumps your cock a few times, getting you harder.
"Y/N, I want to taste you..." He eyes your cock and throws you a serious look. "I won't do it until I have your permission."
You smile, loving how polite he is. "Please do." You huff the words, already extremely aroused and a bit impatient. At your consent, Yoongi licks his lips and grips your thighs as he kisses the tip of your cock first, sending chills down your spine, then putting it in his mouth.
Oh fuck, he's good.
Yoongi uses his tongue to stimulate you while also moving his head, making your mind draw blanks and giving you goosebumps.
"Aw fuck Yoongi, you're really fucking good, hnnn..." You try to keep your voice as composed as possible, which is hard to do considering you are currently getting the best head you have ever had. Yoongi quickens his pace, going harder and deeper while you slightly buck your hips into him. You can't believe how stunningly beautiful he is when you look down at him, his long black hair and perfect skin and beautiful mouth taking your cock. "You're gonna make me come soon, fuck!" As a response, Yoongi goes even faster and harder, trying to get you to your edge. You can't take it anymore.
"Ah, fuck, coming soon, ah, aah, fuck, oh fuck, oh fuCK-" Just as you felt your pleasure peak, Yoongi stops and pulls away, then grabs your dick and puts his thumb on your tip, preventing you from ejaculating. You cry out from the ruined orgasm. "Ohhhhhh fuck, come on, why? Ohhhhh fuck, please." You look down at Yoongi desperately. He gets off his knees and stands up to your level once again.
"Don't panic baby, I just want you to see how good you taste." Yoongi then pushes up against you ad kisses you again, this time snaking in his tongue to explore you. While the two of you make out, his hand goes to your abused cock and starts to pump.
"Hng, hwah, haah..." You moan into Yoongi's mouth at the sensation, still sensitive from how close you got moments ago.
"Don't worry, I won't be mean this time." Yoongi breathes into your mouth as he speeds up the pace of his hand.
"Aw fuck, Yoongi you're killing meeee..." You let out high pitched whimpers as Yoongi brings you closer and closer to your peak for a second time that morning.
"You close baby? You feel good?" Yoongi smirks and attacks your neck with kisses. It's obvious how much he is enjoying watching you at his mercy and disposal.
"Mhm, fuck yes, your hands feel so good round my cock, fuck, I'm gonna come soon..." You tilt your head back, staring at the ceiling before Yoongi uses his other chin to redirect your attention to him, planting another sloppy, open-mouth kiss. You do your best to warn him while you make out.
"Hnng, gonna come, gonna come, coming, coming, ah fuck, oohohhhhhhh!" You moan as you come into Yoongi's hand. You stand there, riding out your high and admiring oongi in front of you, steely gaze and eyes locked on yours as he takes his hand to his face and puts a finger in his mouth.
"I knew you'd taste good."
Send me suggestions on what to write next! ~ <3
--Masterlist--
#min yoongi x male reader#min yoongi x reader#min yoongi#yoongi x male reader#yoongi x reader#yoongi#bts yoongi#suga x reader#suga x male reader#min suga#bts min suga#bts min yoongi#bts x male reader#bts x reader#bts fanfic#min yoongi smut#yoongi smut#suga smut
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pilot!Max x backpacker!Daniel 👨✈️✈️💼
Part 5!
Part 1: Part 4
"Well, when I'm not being hunted by interpol," he says after a beat, the laughter still playing on his lips. "I'm a tattoo artist."
Max's gaze darts down, taking in the lengths of tanned, tattoo skin; dark ink woven onto Daniel.
"Ah," he says after a beat. "Possibly slightly more likely than a teacher."
"Hey, I'm a teacher of life," Daniel says, and then flushes, no doubt hearing how presumption he sounds. Max laughs, cheeks warming.
"A teacher of life? Go on?"
"Well," he shrugs modestly, a mix between proud and bashful. "It is my Instagram username."
"Is it now?" Max asks dryly, watching as Daniel takes out his phone and unlocks it to reveal a wallpaper of bright, blue ocean.
"Yeah, well, something like that," he says, tapping on the screen and then twisting the device around so Max can see. Rows of neat squares great him, patterned in alternative art and lifestyle themes.
Max gaze flickers to the top.
Tattooed.teacher.of.lyf
1747 posts, 915k followers, 1,324 following
"Impressive," Max says, taking the figures in.
Daniel laughs. "What, my misspelling of life? 20 year old me thought he was a genius. Here," he taps on the most recent post, a black and white tattoo. A whale jumping through stars, it's body detailed with feather- like strokes of ink.
"This is the one I did last week," he says, note of pride clear. "Cool, right?"
"Very," Max replies, earnestly clicking to the next photo of a cartoon racecar inked into someone's ankle.
"Maybe one day I could give you a tat," Daniel says. Max's head jerks up, and then he lets out a surprised laugh when he realises Daniel is teasing him.
"I don't think so," he says smoothly. Sebastian would kill him before F1 Wings had a chance to fire him. Professionalism is the first article in the code of conduct they all have to sign. No tattoos is the third article.
"Why?" Daniel cocks his head. "You don't like them?"
"Not on me," Max replies. He's always known his appearance is more akin to an office worker than anything remotely exciting. If people were colours, he'd be a fine beige hue. Tattoos are cool and dynamic and interesting, all things Max is most certainly not.
"I think you'd suit a few tattoos," Daniel continues, gaze turned critical as it runs up and down Max's body. He shivers, trying to resist the urge to cross his arms across his chest.
"You have a wonderfully cool colouring; tattoos would really take to you I think."
"You mean pallor," Max says dryly, but Daniel shakes his head.
"No, I meant what I said. Cool colouring. Opposite of warm. Tattooing you would be like painting on a canvas, the colours would be so beautiful and bright, I can just tell. I mean, look at me," he rolls up his sleeve, revealing tanned skin adorned with ink. "I'm a bitch to tattoo with colours because you constantly have to work out colour theory, and how the inks will show up against my darker complexion. You wouldn't have any of that worry - your colouring is perfect, a tattooist's wet dream."
"Am I really?" Max says with a grin, delighted in the way Daniel's cheeks instantly darken.
"I didn't mean," he blurts out, and then shakes his head. "Well, I mean, I idn't not not mean - The flight."
"The flight, " Max repeats, smiling at how flustered Daniel is.
"How'd you find it?" He asks, clearly desperate to move the conversation on and to ease the burning in his cheeks.
"Good," Max says with a shrug, taking pity on him and letting the topic change. "What about you?"
"Er good, yes, very good. I mean, I pretty much slept the whole time, so that helped. How about you?"
"How about me what?" Max asks, piercing a lump of chicken. It's beyond stupid, but he takes a sprig of pride in the fact the flight was smooth enough for Daniel to sleep, despite the turbulence they went through.
"Did you catch some Zs?" Daniel asks. He tilts his head slightly, as if searching Max's expression for evidence of exhaustion.
Max huffs a soft laugh. "No, not really. I can't really sleep on planes. I think I got about forty-five minutes? But not a lot. It's fine, I'm used to it." Forty-five minutes in the cramped chair as Lando took his seat, listening to Sebastian carefully instructing Lando and knowing it was advice Lando would promptly forgot.
Daniel's eyebrows draw together. "You must be wrecked then, right? As you didn't sleep on the bus either."
Max shrugs. It feels nice to have someone fuss over him, even a stranger like Daniel.
"Not really," he says, piercing another lump of amorphous chicken in the sea of mayo. "Like I said, I'm used to it."
Daniel just scoffs, as if Max has done something particularly impressive. "Wow, if I had gone over 24 hours without sleep, I think I'd be fit to kill."
"Good thing for me you slept on the plane then, right?" Max quips.
Daniel looks at him, and then grins. "Yeah, I suppose it is."
-
When they've moved onto their second coffee, Max can't resist any longer. He has to ask about Lando's overhead announcement.
"So," he broaches the subject. "Had you fallen asleep yet when the first pilot came on the comms?"
Daniel snorts, and Max feels his lips turn upwards reflexively.
"No, and thank fuck I did not get to miss that. The most entertaining thing I've ever witnessed on the plane, and that includes watching the Fast and Furious films in one sitting and watching a toddler drawing with a Sharpie on her sleeping dad's face. I don't think I've ever heard a pilot be more enthusiastic while being so undeprepared. How did he manage to get every detail wrong?"
Max smirks at the memory. The first comms announcement typically fell under his responsibilities as Second Officer. This time, ostensibly as a reward for officially being promoted to Cadet, but in reality simply to prevent Daniel from hearing his voice, he had convinced Sebastian to let Lando do the welcome comms for the first time.
"Come on Seb," he'd said as they all belted. "It's three sentences, how bad can he fuck them up?
Clearly, Max had vastly underestimated Lando's talented for fucking things up.
"He sounded like he was 12 or something," Daniel says, not unkindly. "The woman sitting beside me looked like she was checking whether it was too late to bolt for it when his voice cracked for like the tenth time."
Max laughs. "Considering he also got his am and pm mixed up, the date wrong, and mispronounced about five words, I can't really fault her logic."
Max had been sitting beside him in the cockpit, hissing corrections, which in turn only made Lando panic more and somehow mess up even further. When he'd finally switched off the comms, successfully turning the simple, routine welcoming address Max does on each flight into about ten rambling sentences, Sebastian had looked up from his final checks.
"Let's not do that again, okay?" He had said mildly, and for once Lando had just meekly nodded in agreement, and Max had had to turn to the window to hide his grin.
"Speaking of ages," Daniel says, drawing Max from the memory. "How old are you?"
"Me?" He replies stupidly, as if Daniel could mean anyone else. "Twenty-three."
Daniel's eyebrows shoot up. "No shit. I had you figured to be at least in your mid, if not late, twenties."
Max tries for a teasing smile. "Do I already have so many wrinkles?"
Daniel huffs a laugh, and gratification spools in Max's chest, tighter and tighter.
"Fuck you, you full on know you look like an extra in, like, Baywatch."
"Oh yes, because I am clearly so tanned, " Max deadpans, and Daniel laughs again, his cheeks warming.
"Well, okay, but -"
He's interrupted by a shrill alarm and swears as he taps at his phone.
"Sorry," he mutters, leaving over to rummage through his bag. "Normally I'm fine, but when I'm traveling I have to set alarms to remember to take my meds, or else the jet lag would completely ruin it."
Max watches as Daniel sits up again, a neat medicine box in his hands, the same one Max can remember his grandmother using.
"Health is wealth, as they say," Daniel clips open the section labelled Monday, revealing one circular white pill and one blue tablet.
"Do they?" Max asks, and Daniel shrugs as he scoops them into his palm.
"I keep forgetting English isn't your native language. So this one," he holds up the blue tablet, "is keratin, to ensure these lovely, luscious curls continue being just that while evading the male baldness gene which haunts my paternal line." He pops in his mouth, swallowing it dry. "And this one," he continues, holding up the remaining pill, "is a wonderful combination of various vitamins and minerals to keep me looking young, vibrant and ridiculously attractive."
"And humble as well?" Max asks as Daniel swallows that one dry too.
"Of course," Daniel gives him a grin, finally reaching for his water. "Naturally, Maxy."
Part 6
#im really sorry i feel like this is not very good#the cafe scene just wasnt doing it for me🙃#next update will be much better i promise haha#my fic#maxiel#pilot au
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Here’s something interesting! Read back to Marineford arc and consider what Whitebeard might have meant to Crocodile. It was only after the witnessing WB getting stabbed and talking to his adopted son that Croco did a 180 to protect Luffy. I try to read WB’s dialogue to guess what he said affected Croco so much. My favorite theory is that WB is Croco’s bio dad and thus Luffy’s other grandpa! The family tree would be so entangled lol
This is one of those things which makes me feel insane because, I swear to god, around like 2011 I remember Oda saying in an interview that he based Whitebeard on a gay friend he had, which was like part of the reason why Whitebeard's crew WAS his family, instead of him having like a wife and bio-kids. That Whitebeard was gay. But like, no matter how I try looking that up I can't actually find any information to confirm this?? Like no interview or as much as a mention of an interview like that ever existing??? DID I IMAGINE THAT??? IT'S SUCH AN OLD, CORE MEMORY, I CAN'T IMAGINE HOW I WOULD'VE IMAGINED IT UP??? OR WAS IT JUST AN EARLY 2010S TUMBLR HOAX?????? I FEEL DERANGED
Honestly, considdering the way Marco of all people found it unimaginable WB had kids, let alone that Weevil was the son of Whitebeard and Stussy (the current running theory being that Weevil is actually like a clone of WB with Stussy's DNA mixed in), I do personally find it unlikely Whitebeard has any bio-kids at all. Like, that felt like the implication there to me, that Marco doesn't believe WB had bio-kids with anyone, and I would be inclined to believe Marco there as he's kind of meant to be seen as an authority figure in a way (at least on this subject)
At most, if the "Xebec is Croc's dad" theory did turn out to be true, it would actually make sense if Whitebeard had adopted Crocodile after the God Valley incident-- whether the kid stayed is debatable, since WB did still betray his dad so he might've ran away, but regardless, at most I could see WB being Croc's adoptive father. At most. (Alternatively, as Oda has stated in an SBS, Whitebeard didn't believe women belong on a battlefield so it could be plausible he didn't want to keep a 9 year old child on his ship either. So he could've picked up Baby Croc until he found a safe place to ditch him in, kinda like how Franky ended up)
I have been feeling tempted to do a re-analysis of Croc in Marineford because, when I did my first analysis, I was too Lost In The Sauce and far too excited about the mere idea of Crocodad to form coherent, even semi-objective thoughts. But now that it's been a few months, I feel like I could really look at it with a more fresh perspective
But let's just look this exchange Crocodile and Whitebeard had really quick
As far as we know, the only person Crocodile has ever lost to (aside from Luffy) was Whitebeard, and that loss was the thing that crushed his spirit and dreams. Whitebeard, the most powerful man in the world. He who humbled Crocodile and taught him his place in the powerscaling of the world, that Crocodile was at best a silver medalist and could never catch up to him.
That must've been Crocodile's entire worldview, for so many decades. That WB was #1, an absolute fact nothing could change.
But time comes for all.
Whitebeard has become old. He is no longer in his prime.
"I can't remain the strongest forever"
Even if Whitebeard didn't say that outloud, I'm sure in this moment Crocodile understood that deep inside. That the absolute he had believed in wasn't an absolute after all, that a new era is approaching and the kids (Luffy and Ace) on this battlefield are going to take their places (his and WB's) sooner or later, whether they like it or not.
And of course; this isn't the same Whitebeard who beat Crocodile's ass over 20 years ago. Taking his head would not give him the satisfaction and catharsis he wanted.
Trying to get past Jozu and Marco and the rest of WB's crew, some of whom might be more dangerous than WB himself at this point, would not give Crocodile the revenge he wanted. It wouldn't even be worth the effort. If anything, taking WB's head here and now would just give the World Government exactly what they'd want.
Like, putting aside all the theories, your Crocodads and Whitebeard's bio-kids aside. ('Cause sometimes you need to look past the rose-tinted theory glasses even if you don't want to) (And I need to remind myself to do that more often tbh)
I do think the main reason Crocodile ends up assisting Luffy, is simply because of that. Whitebeard isn't worth it anymore. He's just an old man. Crocodile could kill him, without a doubt, it just wouldn't change anything.
So he just moves onto the next thing on his list of priorities; not letting the Government get what they want, out of spite.
#Moon posting#Asks#OP Meta#Sir Crocodile#Or maybe the next thing on Crocodile's list of priorities really was protecting his estranged long lost son who hates his guts#Hard to tell until Oda spills Croc's beans#But on a surface level. What Oda wants us to believe is that Croc is just trying to be a nuisance to the WG#It is at least a partial truth#There is so much to be said about Marineford though like in so many ways it feels like a window to what was happening in Croc's head#But like seen through analogies and other characters and their relationships instead ('cause the arc is about Ace and not Croc)#IDK I'm so tempted to re-analyze Marineford it's. Such an interesting arc
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