#I don't want to continue doing less than the bare minimum

[neo-percs]

OVERSTIMULATION:: ( day 6 )

WARNING:: one night stand, fingering, oral (f!receiving), overstimulation, unprotected sex, drinking.

SUMMARY:: in which you sit at a bar drinking when the guy next to you begins to ask you questions about yourself instantly clicking. By midnight he's escorting you to his apartment.

WORD COUNT:: 3.5K

The club was buzzing, everyone gathered under clouds of smoke and dancing as sweat gathered on their skin. The walls and floors were vibrating from the hard base booming through the gigantic speakers propped up on the DJ booth. Ignoring all of the drunk women and men stumbling to the bar asking for bottles and shots with chasers. You play with the straw jammed in between the melting ice at the bottom of your drink and occasionally sipping from it. Being left by your friends in exchange to mingle with whoever they could dig their nails into a bitter feeling swirled in the pit of your stomach.

Your eyes attached themselves to the screen of your phone as you scroll mindlessly as you feel a pair of eyes burn right through your side profile, you choose not to look in case the person happens to be some random or worse. "What kind of drink is that" the person besides you finally speaks making you look up in his direction instantly taken aback. He was fitted into a black button up the sleeves rolled to the elbow, his hair a pale shade of blonde and his sharp features make you blink thinking the alcohol was finally taking its toll.

He was looking at you, he was speaking to you and yet you hadn't uttered a single word back only glancing at the glass with a clear drink and lime wedged onto the rim of the glass. "It's a margarita, I'm not very wide range with my drinks" you shrug as you finally let the words ripple through your throat, speaking loud enough over the music for him to hear you. He nods as he waves down the bartender who was cleaning off cups with a white towel. "What can I get for you?" The man asks his eyes are round and his bright magenta hair makes you eye him more at the interesting choice in hair color.

"Can I get the same margarita as her please?" He asks only getting a firm nod and smile from the worker who's name tag had been blurred out due to the bright flashing lights. "Nice manners" you laugh, he seemed to be in your age range and for him to have manners was almost like being the tallest dwarf. "It's the bare minimum, I don't want him to spit in my drink or anything for being rude" he shrugs which makes you bite back a smile. As a minute of sheer silence between the both of you.

"Why are you here by yourself? Shouldn't you be with friends at a place like this?" He asks, although he doesn't mean for it come off in weird way and you knew that and wouldn't take it as anything less than a sheer question of curiosity. "I am here with friends, but I'm pretty sure their off wondering around trying to get laid by some random girls in the corner over there" you wave off to the back right corner where you assumed Mark and Taeyong had wondered off to without even a second glance. He hums "what about you?" You ask delivering with a curious glance at him as he takes a sip out of his drink.

"I came here with a friend to look out for him on his date but he left to get laid too" he shakes his head with a smile thinking of Jaemin stumbling out with his date on his arm and a warm smile. And as time went on you and Jeno learn each others names, ask each other about hobbies, and what you do for a living. It was almost as if you were on a first date over drinks in one of the weirdest circumstances as to why you're both alone.

But as you continue the both of you grew to have a flirty banter going, and when you finally see people are starting to leave you both not end the night. Walking around the empty streets talking your arms brush against each other, you could feel the ache in your feet as you both walk down one of the still bustling streets when Jeno pitches the idea to walk to his place as it's closer. By the time you had both reached the front doors your stumbling and giggling holding onto each other's hands in case the other falls. Pulling the door open for you, you both walk to the elevator with dopey smiles resting on your lips without even realizing you had yet to let go of his hand.

Your breathing gets heavier as you realize that you were now alone, holding hands with an attractive guy you met at a bar. "You okay?" Jeno mumbles as he looks over at you with concerned eyes "you look like your burning up" he says as his free hand reaches to cup your cheek feeling how warm your face is his eyes flickers to yours not realizing how close he had gotten and how intimate his actions were. You look up at him nodding without a single word closing the gap between you both.

As your lips collide the both of your press into each other eagerly, not breaking until you could hear the elevator door open, both of you pulling away shyly as you meet the gaze of an elderly couple. You both apologize and scurry out of the doors lighting speed. Jeno guides you to his door embarrassed at the last encounter until he opens the front door. The both of you topple inside smiling as you once again latch onto each other. The room is dark yet the feeling of each other is all you need.

The both of you shedding clothes throughout the halls until you make it into his bedroom with nothing but your underwear on. Your both messily kissing each other until your back is pressed against the bedsheets and your head rests against the pillow.

pulling your panties down and sliding them off your ankle he discards them. The view of your pussy practically shining in all its wet glory. Jeno was desperate. To touch, taste and fill you up in so many ways he couldn't even think straight.

His hands unclip your bra watching your breasts spill out of the fabric and padding. Discarding it his hands palm your chest as leans down to lick your sensitive nipples making you let out a small moan.

Nobody had ever made you feel so good just by barely touching. Until Jeno had decided to drag his face down your stomach, littering small kisses on your sweet supple skin until he stopped at the place you needed him most.

Kissing down your inner thigh sucking hickeys into your skin you shiver at the feeling of his warm tongue giving your puffy lips a small lick. Whispering a curse under his breath he licks again this time he is much more confident.

he holds your thighs when the pleasure starts seizing your limbs, as the feeling of his warm tongue licking from your hole to your clit and sucking needly. You moan as your hand reaches for the back of his head pushing him against your pussy.

Groaning against you sent vibrations all over as you let out a small giggle that broke into a moan feeling the harsh pad of his thumb rub against your clit while his tongue worked to push inside you.

The sounds you make are music to his ears. He presses his nose on your clit, inhaling your scent deeply before his tongue dives inside your waiting pussy. You pull onto his hair, writhing against his face. "Feels so good" you moan as you roll your hips against his face.

You could feel his lips curve against your pussy sending shivers down your spine. The wet muscle repetitively enters you, eager to gather your nectar. It feels like heaven, stomach tightening with each second.

Pulling away his thumb Jeno flattens his tongue against you licking from your entrance to your clit again, kissing it he sucks harshly on the bud with no regard as you moan his name mindlessly.

"Oh fuck" you manage to whimper out you tug at his hair as he groaned, your eyes shut as you "please use your fingers" you moan neediness dripping from your tone.

His hand moving from your plush thigh, his thumb rubbing harsh circles on your clit  he pulled away licking your clit once more his middle and ring fingers make way to your entrance.

Pushing in slowly you groan at the penetration, easing your tight walls around his thick fingers as he pushes them deeper you feel the cool metal on his rings all the way at the knuckles of his fingers as it grounds you from the euphoric feeling.

Pulling his head he looks up at you with your juices on his swollen lips and on his chin his fingers begin to move opening your eyes. You look down at him feeling his gaze as he watches you react gasping as the feeling you grind down against his fingers "you like that? Hm?" He says as he licks your essence off of his lips.

His hair now disheveled  as his cheeks were blooming with a soft blush, you nod eagerly "yeah? You want me to go faster for you?" He coos feeling you clench around him at the sound of his lewd words, you clench harder "yes please" you say losing your mind on his fingers as you absentmindedly grind down on them.

Without a single falter in his movements his fingers began to rub against the gummy part of your walls at a faster rate as the sound of your sopping pussy getting pounded by his fingers made you squeal.

"Oh my god" you cry out hoping to god he wouldn't stop the rewarding pace he had set. Your hips involuntarily buck against his fingers as his assault of pleasure on your pussy consumed you whole.

"I'm close" you whine as the sloshing sound and the sound of you and Jeno's mixed heavy breathing had been the only thing you could hear "yeah, you gonna cum all over my fingers?" He asks teasingly as his tongue licks a long stripe against your clit that had the feeling in the pit of your stomach churning in anticipation for your orgasm.

"Yes, wanna cum just for you" you whine under your breath as he pushes and pulls his fingers in and out of you faster watching you come closer and closer to the edge waiting for him to catch you. He sucks and licks your clit harshly making you let out a loud moan as you cum all over his fingers.

Not stopping his actions he presses his fingers into your thighs pulling you against his face as you try to wiggle away whimpering. The feeling of pleasure had become overwhelming his tongue and fingers making your legs shake around his head as your fingers found the roots of his platinum hair tugging harshly wishing he'd let up. "It's too much" you moan as your thighs tightly wrap around his head. His fingers moving faster earns a loud moan as your back arches off bed sheets.

You could feel another orgasm building up as you hiccup out babbles and pleas from pleasure. The sloppy sounds make your head spin. one of your hands moves to grip the hair on the back of his head and you push his face into yourself even more.

you breathily moaned his name and that made him piston his fingers in and out of you faster and curling them to hit your g-spot your jaw drops as you let out a silent scream as the knot in your stomach is finally released once again yet more intense than the first one.

"So good" he hummed as he fucks you through your high slowing down as he kisses your clit that's now sensitive making you writhed under him. "Doing so good for me" he smiles as he pulls away from you kissing your thighs as if he was rewarding you.

You let out a small huff that turned into a choked moan when his long fingers pulled out of you. With no hesitation he sucked on his fingers licking off any essence and cum you had left on his digits.

Pulling them away he leans in to kiss you letting his tongue brush over yours to taste yourself. Pulling him closer, the kiss becoming more intense and rough, your hand cupping his jaw as the other rests against his naked back you drag your nails against his skin leaving behind red rails of irritation, groaning against your lips Jeno strips out of his remaining clothes. "Do you want to keep going?" He asks sincerity dripping from his tone, you bite your lip nodding as you take this chance as a poor attempt to catch your breath.

"I do, really badly" you huff. Smiling Jeno presses his forehead against yours as his hand falls between his legs he stroked himself before pressing his tip against your clit teasingly he grinds against you moaning at the slick sounds coming from between you both. Your warmth against his shaft has him eager and twitching in his palm yet he's just addicted to the feeling of how warm and wet you feel.

pressing a chaste kiss to his lips and rubbing his tip against your entrance makes his head spin.

Pressing his hips against yours he watches as your soaked and tight walls envelope him with a choked moan "you feel so good" he says as he presses forehead against yours which makes you giggle. As he pushes into you deeper and slowly you whine your legs without a second thought push his hips into you deeper earning a gasp at your own actions "fuck" you moan at the feeling.

"Such a slut, can't even wait for me to be inside you all the way huh?" He says rhetorically as he begins to thrust into your sharply, your moans are the only thing egging him on to keep going while your hands rest against his shoulders; nails begging to drag against his skin.

Your warm puffs of breath against his face has him in a trance. You smelled of cigarettes and cherries and it was so intoxicating for Jeno who's hands greedily need your hips as he drags them against his. The sound of skin against skin in the air made Jeno's eyes roll back. "So good" you babble as your head falls back against the pillow. Your hair was scattered against the leaning space for Jeno to kiss and mark your neck with purple and red splotches.

"Yeah? I fuck you good right?" He says as he pulls your legs over his shoulders and hits a new spot that makes your jaw slack and mind go blank. "Tell me. Tell me how good I fuck you y/n" he demands making you moan even louder "you fuck me so good Jeno I swear" you whine as your nails drag against his skin leaving behind red trails in their wake.

The bed thumps against the dry wall as your moans cover the sound. The sight of Jeno over top of you with a clench jaw and your legs on his shoulders as you clench around him tighter. The sight of his hair falling over his face as sweat begins to trickle against his skin under the red and blue hues from the window.

"You're so big" you slur seeing how good he filled you up to the brim your arms wrap around his neck your foreheads pressed together as you watch him begin to slowly move. Jeno couldn't get enough of the sight as his cock disappeared inside your Pussy.

His cock buried deep inside you that you moan and dig crescent shaped dents into his skin. set a pace for grinding against his lap. The feeling of your velvety walls tightening around making him choke back a moan.

"Oh- god" you whisper shakily. His hands holding onto your hips guiding a pace, the sound of skin slapping with your small moans could be heard throughout the room.

You looked so good with your chest bouncing and your hair all messy. You looked good with a small sheen of sweat on your skin and your makeup smeared, he was addicted to the sight.

Stopping his hips completely and pulling out you whine at the feeling of emptiness "lay on your stomach" he says his tone low and raspy making you not miss a step as you roll over onto your stomach and propping your knees into the mattress.

Arching your back gives Jeno the perfect sight of your ass. You could feel his palm caressing and needing your skin before giving it repeated harsh slaps that had you quivering. Nothing compared to the beautiful stinging feeling on your skin given by him.

"Want you inside me so bad" you mumbled as your fingers grip the sheets, you were so needy that you were dripping down your thighs and it didn't take much for Jeno to run his tongue over his lips and grab onto your hips pushing his tip against you again letting him bottom out fully.

The sharp grip he had on your hips kept you grounded as he set a steady pace that had you panting and moaning. Hearing yourself made your face heat up, dropping your head into the sheets hoping to muffle the pleasure falling from your lips.

"Don't get all shy on me now" Jeno says as his hand pulls your hair into a makeshift ponytail, pulling your head away from the sheets "I wanna hear you. Don't hide from me" he says breathily as his thrusts become more sharp and the sound of him pounding into you was hard not to hear.

"I can't help it. It's too good" you slur your words as you begin to bounce and grind against him to meet his hips. It felt like he was in your stomach and you didn't mind at all, your hands clutching the sheets tighter as he used his other hand to wrap around your throat.

"Aw look at you, all fucked out." He asks as his grip around your throat tightens, you couldn't even gather your words as he hits a spot that has you breathing shakily and your moans are even more louder.

"Right here? Does it feel good here?" He asks as he drags his cock against that same spot again and again "yeah, it feels so fucking good Jeno" you moan as your eyes roll back. The feeling of his sweet lips on your skin as you feel like you're in heaven.

Your thighs are practically shaking at the feeling, pleasure practically taking over your body as Jeno pounds you into his mattress without a single care in the world. Pushing your face against sheets while he becomes sloppy and rougher with every passing second you could feel the pressure in the pit of your stomach growing and waiting to be released.

"I can't take it" you moan as you shake your head "I'm gonna cum" you whimper as you feel warm tears slide down your cheeks. "I think you can baby, you wanna cum so bad right? So take what I give you" he orders sweetly in a faux tone. His thrusts are non stop and you can't help but let the pleasure envelope you.

"Oh fuck" you gasp as the feeling of release comes closer "cum on my cock. I know you can" he coos at you while pulling your hips into his harder than before tipping you over the edge as your walls clench around him sporadically earning a guttural moan ripping through Jeno's throat.

"I'm close, where do you want it?" He asks as he continues to fuck into you "inside. Please cum inside me Jeno" you whimper before you feel the pressure in your stomach let loose "I got you, you're okay" he praised as his fingers rubbed down your spine leaving goosebumps up and down your body.

A few more thrusts slow and deep have your toes curling and sending Jeno into an orgasm struck daze. "Fuck you feel so good" he groans as his hands rub against the red warm skin of your ass. Leaning of you and kissing up your spine as you both bask in your pre orgasm clarity.

Pulling out you turn over and lay on your back Jeno following suit on the other side of the bed still wracking his brain he lazily turns to look at you "please tell me you'll stay the night" he whispers and it makes your heart soar in your chest "I'll stay however long you want" you mumbled as you move closer towards him basking in his warmth.

#𖦹—( neo percs ) #nct smut #mark smut #nct dream smut #haechan smut #nct 127 smut #jaemin smut #nct x reader #jeno smut #jeno x reader #jeno imagines

[markantonys]

the good thing about the slog is that because such little of true import happens over such a long chunk of the series, the show is quite well-positioned to be able to tell the whole story cohesively in any number of seasons after 4. only 4 seasons would be tricky, but 5 or 6 would be just as doable as 7 or 8. (disclaimer that there has not been any news or speculation about potentially getting less than 8 seasons so don't panic haha it's just a topic i was randomly thinking about today! that being said, i do think 8 seasons is pretty ambitious in today's television landscape, especially if it continues to take 2 years to make each season, so while we're all hoping for the full 8, it's worth imagining how they could do it in fewer.)

i expect s4 to roughly coincide with the end of LOC, so, dumai's wells for rand and being raised amyrlin for egwene. perrin, mat, nynaeve, and elayne have more wiggle room in what they might be getting up to during s4 (it seems possible the ebou dar trip might be absorbed into tanchico in s3, and perrin may have to get an invented plotline or have a later plotline brought forward for s4 since he has so little in TFOH-LOC), so i won't guess at the endpoint for them beyond that it will likely leave them ready to kick into a fresh new storyline for s5. and nynaeve frankly doesn't have a book storyline after ebou dar (she's just supporting rand's & lan's storylines), so i'll ignore her in this post and just focus on the other 5 mains. fingers crossed the show will come up with more for nynaeve to do during this part of the story, but that's a separate topic.

after LOC, as far as i can recall, each of them only has 1-2 main things they strictly Must do before the last battle (obviously i've left out a bunch of stuff, but i'm thinking of just the absolute bare minimum essentials here):

rand: cleanse saidin (only requires 1 episode); reach his lowest point, then pull himself back up again, all the while simultaneously working to get as many nations under his banner as possible

egwene: unite the tower as uncontested amyrlin

perrin: finish wolf training; fold the whitecloaks into his army

mat: rescue moiraine (only requires 1 episode); get himself in charge of the seanchan forces

elayne: become uncontested queen of andor

so if s4 ends where i speculate, they'd all be perfectly positioned to spend 4-6 episodes of s5 doing these things, then the last battle for the remaining 2-4 episodes, and boom, we've fit all the most crucial things into only 5 seasons.

i know the instinct is to gasp and insist that they all have so much else to do, but.........do they really? everybody agrees that egwene & elayne & perrin only have 1 plotline during books 7-11 which is dragged out for more books than is needed to tell it, so mat and rand are really the sticking points. but if you think about it, mat spends this time repeatedly starting one plotline but then getting yanked out of it partway through to start a new one, so he doesn't actually accomplish that much story-wise. rand, meanwhile, is on a bunch of little 1-book quests (taking illian, seanchan campaign, hunting traitor asha'man, trying to meet with DOTNM) that could be cut for time or merged into his Darth Rand emotional arc from TGS. honestly, he's so emotionally stagnant for most of books 7-11 (he's either not present, dicking around doing nothing, or repeating emotional beats he already did in TSR-LOC) that i don't think going from dumai's wells straight to Darth Rand would be a bad idea at all, if the show had to; in fact, dumai's wells is kind of a perfect launchpoint for that arc, emotions-wise, and plot-wise, if they wanted to replace some of the arad doman events with some slog events, but just put the Darth Rand emotional spin on those slog events, they could easily do so (for example, him being reckless/arrogant with callandor against the seanchan and getting his own people killed could sub in for natrin's barrow in showing how ruthlessly Ends Justify Means he's becoming).

but anyway, these are imo the absolute most crucial pre-TLB plot points of the second half of the series (at least for these main characters, i'm not taking ALL characters into account in this post) and they could be fit into only 5 seasons without much trouble. now if you've got 6, 7, or 8 seasons, that gives extra room to expand these plot points and also add in some additional, not-strictly-required-but-nice-to-have plot points like more Little Rand Quests, elayne taking the throne of cairhien, egwene & gawyn hunting assassins in the tower, and the faile kidnapping plotline. (while making this post i actually had a wild thought of the faile kidnapping being perrin's s4 plotline followed by wolves & whitecloak stuff in s5 then into TLB, or alternately the whitecloaks being part of the kidnapping plotline as perrin's unlikely allies rather than the seanchan; could be a great structure for a 5-6 season scenario, but for 7-8 it would cause perrin to run out of content too quickly haha)

#i know we don't even want to Think about getting less than 8 seasons #but it does bring me such peace to mull over how well the story could be told in as few as 5! #wot #wot on prime #the wheel of time #wot book spoilers

[theliteraryarchitect]

Hi! I wanted to say, I read that you are a professional editor, and think it's amazing! You also give very logical and well explained advice. I was wondering; would you say being an editor is a job you can support yourself with? I actually aspire to become one someday, but I'm not exactly sure if it's a good plan.

Thank you for your time, and I hope you have a good day/night

Hey there. Great question. It's totally possible to support yourself as an editor. I've done it, and so have other editors I know. However there are a few important things to consider before choosing editing as a career path.

Your chances of being a self-employed freelancer are extremely high. The number of in-house editing jobs in publishing are low and getting lower. While being self employed can give you a certain amount of flexibility, it also comes along with a lot of hustle and hassle, namely fluctuating income, a stupid amount of confusing tax paperwork, and the need to constantly promote yourself to clients in order to maintain steady work.

You probably won't make as much money as you'd think. Editing is one of the many skilled jobs that suffers from market saturation, which has sadly driven down the price the average client is willing to pay for editing services. I can't tell you the number of overqualified editors I know charging barely more than minimum wage for their work. Personally I've stuck to my guns about charging what I'm worth, but I've sometimes suffered by not having as much work as my colleagues who charge less.

Robots have already chipped away at the future of editing as a human occupation, and will continue to do so at exponential speed in the years ahead. They will never obliterate the job completely, as there will always be humans who prefer to work with humans instead of machines. But the outlook will become ever bleaker as more humans compete for fewer gigs, which in turn will drive down prices even further.

If you are also a writer, editing may adversely affect your writing. I don't mean that you'll become a worse writer, quite the opposite. My editing work has brought new depths to my writing, and I'm grateful for all I've learned by working with my clients. However, editing takes time, uses creative energy, and requires staring at a screen (or paper), and personally the more I edit, the less time/creativity/screen-staring capabilities I have left for my own writing.

If you mention you're an editor, someone will troll your post for a typo, grammatical error, or misused word, and then triumphantly point it out to you in the comments. This is mostly a joke. But it does happen every single time.

I hope this hasn't been too discouraging. If you feel a true passion for editing and really enjoy the work, none of the above should dissuade you. However, if you think you might be happy in any number of occupations, I'd honestly advise you to explore other options. Choosing a career path at this point in history is a gamble no matter what, but the outlook for editors is especially grim.

If you'd like to work with writers and aren't attached to being an editor, there are a few jobs (still freelance) that I believe will survive the coming robot apocalypse. Do a little Google research about "book coaches," "writing coaches," or "book doulas." These are people who act primarily as emotional supporters and logistical helpers for writers who are trying to get their book published or self published. Some of them do actual editing, but many do not, and due to the therapeutic nature of their work I believe they will flourish longer than editors in the coming robot apocalypse.

If you do explore editing as a path, the further away you can lean from spelling and grammar (e.g. proofreader or copyeditor), the longer your skills will be useful when competing with robots. AI still struggles to offer the same kind of nuanced, story-level feedback that a human can give. (Speaking from experience here--I'm a developmental editor and have yet to see a dent in my workload because of robots.) They'll catch up eventually, but it could be a while, and as long as there are human readers, there will always be humans who are willing to pay for a human perspective on their writing. Human spell checkers maybe not so much.

Hope this helps!

#writeblr #asks #op #editing

[kseung]

Wednesday Addams x Reader

Coffeen't

Requested.

Warnings: Coffee addiction :(, none more tho

Words: HC-126~, Drabble-844~, Both: 970~

I didn't know whether to write the HC or the Drabble, so I did both.

HC:

•You love coffee

•You love coffee

•Yet, you love Wednesday more

•It's an addiction, honestly

•At first, Wednesday was glad you weren't being soul-sucked by the abyss that social media is

•But that was NOT better than finding out you, at most, get 3 hours of sleep

•And why? Coffee!

•She tries to get you to sleep at less-demonic hours

•Shes is not able to

•Hardest challenge ever

•Hyde? Trainer boss. You? Final boss.

•She tried to get you decaf coffee once. Never again.

•Bit by bit, you started drinking less coffee

•But you still weren't having 5 hours minimum, so she created a plan. Once you knew you wouldn't reject

•"Cuddle me."

•"What?"

•"Cuddle. Me. Don't make me repeat it."

•So you did.

•Best sleep ever.

Drabble:

You love coffee. You really love coffee. Everyone knew. Even those who weren't your friends. It was evident. Every day you are seen drinking at least 2 coffees. Americano, you say, but with the number of extra shots in there maybe it doesn't count as an Americano anymore.

—You should stop drinking that much coffee.

You looked at Wednesday, almost offended. Enid and Ajax eyed you for a while before returning to whatever lovey-dovey stuff they were doing. She stared, trying to intimidate you. As a challenge, she took your coffee so it could be safely away from you.

—I will not. You drink quads, little hypocrite. You're not so good yourself.

—Say that again and I'll break your hands.

—I mean, you sure love it when I-

She elbowed your side with force, making your grin become bigger. She knows how to kick ass. And it showed. You tried not to make it so obvious that you were in a bit of pain.

—No need to be so violent in public, Wednesday. We can leave that to your room if you-

She gave you your stupid coffee so you could shut up.

•••••

—I'm relieved you are not being indoctrinated by the endless pit of darkness social media is, but, please, stop drinking so much coffee! I can't tell now what I'd dislike more.

—It's not that bad!

—"It's not that bad", you say? You barely sleep 3 hours.

—I wouldn't sleep much anyway, you know.

—You still shouldn't drink that much coffee. It only gives you anxiety.

—At least it gives me mild anxiety. I wouldn't be able to live your life. It'd stress me out too much. Maybe I'd end up drinking double the coffee I do now.

—Don't be difficult.

—I'm just tryna defend my habit.

—Stupidly so—, Wednesday said. You agreed, smiling. It made her annoyed, which made you want to laugh.

—I won't drink more coffee today, don't worry about it.

She eyed you, and nodded. Classes were just continuing, so you went your separate ways.

•••••

You tried. You really tried. But "you really liked the taste," that's what you said. Perhaps it was only the chemical effect of caffeine on your body, or the addiction you were quite sure you had developed.

—I made this one with milk, and just one espresso. It's barely coffee—, you sulked. Wednesday wasn't as annoyed.

—At least you considered your health this time.

You hadn't...

—Yeah... well. As much as I like coffee, I know I should drink more water—.You shrugged and continued drinking. Wednesday sighed.

•••••

After some days of trying to drink less coffee, sleeping earlier, and having decaf, nothing changed. Your sleep schedule was that bad. It made you laugh in pity.

—I swear that if you don't sleep anytime soon I'll be the one putting you to sleep. Permanently.

You jumped in surprise. You hadn't expected Wednesday to wake up. Your head was too busy buried down in a book to check if she was asleep. You closed the book, placing it softly on your desk. When you turned around Wednesday was already glaring at you while sitting up.

—Sorry. I couldn't sleep.

You got up, slowly pushing your chair so it'd be put away. You toned down your lamp until it barely illuminated. It was nice having something other than darkness once in a while.

—It's 2:47 a.m. Lie down. Here—. She moved to her left a bit, then placing her right hand on top of your bedding.

That was an odd invitation, but maybe it was just because; it was your dorm, not hers, which meant no Enid; you had no roommate, so it was peaceful there. It meant she could be the tiniest bit more emotional when she was there.

—Right up.

You weren't complaining about that. Usually, when Wednesday stayed the night, she'd sleep on your bed and not question when and where you slept. You just had some naps here and there, on the desk chair. But she had no business knowing that.

You laid down next to her, stiff like a corpse next to another corpse.

—Loosen up. You won't ever sleep if you stay like that—, she said. Weird. It's odd seeing her be caring. —Else, I'd have no option but to hold you until you sleep.

—Are you saying you will cuddle with me, Wednesday?—, you asked playfully.

She responded with silence, as usual when you tease her. You kept silent too, staring at what you could, barely, make out of the ceiling. You heard a faint "hmm" before you felt an arm wrap itself around you, as light as a feather. You saw Wednesday staring back at you, clearly embarrassed. It was lovely.

You turned to your side, making her see your back. But of course, only to have her hug you tighter. You held her hand in yours as she embraced you. You beat her to her own game despite being tired now.

—No words. Night.

—Sleep well.

That you did, thanks to your very sweet girlfriend.

#wednesday addams x reader #wednesday adams x reader #wednesday x reader #wednesday addams #wednesday adams #wednesday #wednesday addams imagine #wednesday imagine #wednesday imagines #fanfic

[iamadequate1]

OK, people are still being jerks

It's just a stupid show! Why do you care or give money to this when Bad Thing is happening in the world?? Omg, you are so embarrassing!

I tell you, a Bad Thing has been happening every day of my life on this earth, and I still want some enjoyment out of my squishy mortal existence.

There is an emotional burden to living. We can't live our lives stressed and in anxiety all of our waking moments. We need entertainment, leisure, and play. This helps our brains rest.

But if we're going to Go There because of these "activists", let's talk about fascism a bit, shall we? So many of us read 1984 in school, right? With the Newspeak and novel-writing machines? It's a dystopia that cuts language down and prints out its entertainment without a creative process behind it. Fascism is anti-intellectual and has a disdain for the arts, only wanting to recycle the past. Fascism marginalizes those with less power. Fascism wants to control all of the mass media. Fascism reveres corporations. ... fascism is bad, btw.

Representation in media is important. Stories are a big part of how we pass down history, share culture, and build community in a society. No, the shows that people are upset about losing may not be Shakespeare, but most things aren't. I was going to go on a longer rant here, but you know what? You Get It or you Don't. The arts and telling inclusive stories are Important, even if it's not Life-or-Death. People can care about more than one thing at once.

If we're looking at what's happening with Max right now, they're cutting out queer shows, shows with large BIPOC casts, and shows with female leads. We're watching these streamers and companies dissolve into one another (WBD/Max wants to merge with Paramount, remember). We're watching shows that aren't led by cishet white males disappear and shows that aren't cookie cutter, strictly-by-the-numbers IPs or procedurals or cheap reality shows disappear. Maybe we'd be allowed to get bare minimum tokenism if we're lucky, and if we're extra lucky, get some marketing! There are some exceptions in streamers... now. Two years ago, HBO Max was the place where new stories could be told safely, and nothing is stepping in to take its place now. Sure, some bad shows may have been canceled back in the day, but that isn't what's happening right now, is it?

People creating these stories deserve a living wage, even if they don't pump out Record Profits, and storytellers (and the audience!) should have some safety in being able to finish the story in some manner. Almost all of the financial difficulties facing Max now are due to mismanagement at the executive level, not quality of products. Any show that does something new or tells a different perspective does not last. It's not even about "numbers." Our Flag Means Death outperformed everything, but here we are. OFMD is a rarity now that it has the loud and passionate fanbase to make waves.

So, here are some petitions for three shows canceled this week on Max. (Remember Max is planning to throw over $125M at a season of TERFy wizards) Fandoms should support each other!

Our Flag Means Death

Rap Sh!t

Julia

#our flag means death #ofmd #renew as a crew #save ofmd #rap sh!t #julia hbo #hbo max #max #david zaslav

[sinner-sunflower]

P.2 HH Lucifer-centric AU 10/?

STORY 1, PART 1, PART 2, PART 3, PART 4, PART 5, PART 6, PART 7, PART 8, PART 9, PART 11, PART 12, PART 13

Notes at the end!

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

Lucifer should've known that even in his sleep, his torment would not stop.

He should have been wiser, but exhaustion dulled his senses, making him lower his guard.

He thought that maybe, maybe, the universe would give me just this little moment. And at the beginning he really thought that. He felt weightless. Like he's not the Morningstar, the fallen angel, the King of Hell, the Sin of Pride, a father or a lover. Like for the first time in a millennia, he simply existed.

So forgive him for his surprise when darkness swallowed his dreams before he could savor them fully.

Roo: Hello, fallen. Been a while, hasn't it?

Lucifer: Roo.

Roo: Don't look at me like that. Our deal is still in effect, you know. I can't do anything more than this even if I wanted to.

Lucifer: You saying you want to do more then? Like harm me?

Roo: Ugh, you silly creatures, always so pessimistic. Can't someone just chill and have fun?

Lucifer: I highly doubt the root of all evil and chaos embodiment just wants to 'chill'.

Roo: Believe what you will, fallen. I am many things, but I am no liar.

Lucifer: Your sister surely is.

Roo had to laugh at that. 

Roo: Yin in every Yang or so they say.

Lucifer: What? You're telling me you have good in you?

Roo: I would think the fact that you get to keep your soul was a sign in and of itself.

Lucifer: That's less than the bare minimum.

Roo smirked and rested her head on her hand, a gesture that grated Lucifer's nerves. He couldn't help but think he should take a page from Adam's book and wipe that shit-eating grin off her face.

Roo: Had the old man never told you to not look at a gifted horse's mouth? 

Lucifer: Enough. Why are you really here?

Roo: If you must know, I merely wanted to ask how you are doing! After all, meeting The Fates must have been quite the experience.

Lucifer: You were looking?

Roo: I wanted to see if my vessel works well. It's not my fault I can see everything you see, hear every thought you think, feel every pain you wish never happened but also desire to inflict onto yourself. I wanna ask, does your pity party ever stop?

Realistically, Lucifer knows that Roo is messing with him; she was deliberately provoking him, reveling in his inner turmoil. She's luring him in, and he's taking the bait.

There's a creeping cold that's getting worse the longer they talk. He thought nothing of it at first but he's now starting to feel it under his skin.

He's well aware of the threat in front of him but doesn't mean he's not going to bite back with force.

Lucifer: I think you're forgetting who delivered the final blow in the first war. You know, the blow that led to your defeat?

Roo's nonchalant and playful facade cracked just a bit that Lucifer knows he struck a nerve.

Lucifer: Hell, shouldn't you be more thankful to me? Without my actions in offering the fruit to humanity, you wouldn't have gained the power you so desperately craved to rise again. And now, here you are, benefiting from my influence once more.

The Sin of Pride couldn't fathom where this sudden surge of confidence came from, but he refused to cower any longer. Roo had expected him to tremble in fear, to bow before her as if she were someone superior to be revered on.

He's sick and tired of everyone assuming he should be the one on his knees, begging for mercy.

Lucifer: How are you the root of all evil when I'm the one who started sin. You should be worshipping me! Now that I think about it, in some twisted way, I was your creator-

His mockery was short lived when the dreamscape glitched and suddenly it wasn't Roo in front of him; it's The Root of All Evil.

Laughter erupted from the shadowy figure, a grotesque sound reminiscent of a rabid hyena's. Refusing to be intimidated, Lucifer continues to put oil in the fire.

Lucifer: Bringing out the big guns for a little comment? Insecure much?

He's bullshitting at this point but damn him if he's going down without an ounce of victory. He also thinks he's lucky to have said as much at all.

The abrupt stop of laughter sent an involuntary shiver down his spine, and then gravity seemed to solidify around him, pressing down with an oppressive force.

Push.

Michael: All you had to do was listen.

Push.

Lilith: You're exhausting, Lucifer.

Push.

Charlie: He's defending this hotel! How come he could have faith in me but my own father can't.

Push.

Y̵̛̞̝̳̥͍̏͛͊ö̴̼̭̜̖́͗̒͝ü̴̩͚͆͑ ̵͎̉̒̄̄ả̶̭͈͍̟̳ṙ̵̡̲͙̼͎è̸̮̳̲̊͂̔̍ ̴̠͔̯̘̬̑͝s̵̜̪̗̯̚è̴͇͌̇ṅ̷̘̝̀t̶̛̹̝̄͘ẻ̶͓̱̬͔̅̉ͅn̵̥̽̋̌̓ĉ̴͜e̶̯͇̤̺̤̅̀̅d̵̝̰̬̗̋ͅ ̶̝͕̩͇̱̎̋͝͝ẗ̶̢̊͠õ̶̡̦͖͒̈́̍̍ ̸̧̏F̸̧̬̪̂̋a̸̞͈͍͇̔̓͘͜l̶̬͙̤͈̝̑̕l̵̼͂.̴̱̘̣̽̏̕͜

Lucifer screams. But instead of despair, he feels anger bubbling within him. What the hell is happening to him? He's been snapping more. Why did he snap at Michael? Why did he tell him that he can't wait for Heaven to be destroyed? He never wanted that. All he wanted was to give Eve free will. All he wanted was to love Lilith. All he wanted was for Charlie to be safe. All he wanted was for everything to STOP!

Roo: What's the matter, little devil? Never seen real evil before?

The cold is becoming unbearable now. The lake is frozen and all the greenery had been turned into crystals, consumed by the creeping frost that made them look like solid darkness.

Lucifer gritted his teeth, feeling the chill seeping into his bones, threatening to overwhelm him. He refused to give Roo the satisfaction of witnessing the King of Hell tremble; regardless if it's in fear or not.

Roo: Let me show you just how good of a person I can be. 

Then she's suddenly up on his face and brings a finger to his forehead.

Lucifer can feel Roo's corruption going further inside him and at the same time, a lot of somethings are coming out. It must be his remaining divinity because that's the only reason he can think of on why his Father's tether is screaming and clawing at him. 

He feels himself choke from everything happening all at once but he can't move. Roo has him locked in place and he never felt so helpless.

'Am I going to die here?'

No. Roo said that she won't be the one to deliver him to his demise. Nevertheless, he thinks that this is it.

Roo: Remember these words, fallen. A message from The Fates that you did not get to hear.

Charlie. He wants Charlie.

Roo: With the first soul's ascend, all began to unfold.

Tears begin to form in The King of Hell's eyes. Be it from the pain or fear, he doesn't know. 

Roo: It will end at a star's fall, as the threads have foretold.

Michael! Where is he?! He promised Samael he'll always protect him!

Roo: Trumpets will sing, as the sky recites a prayer.

'Father. Help me.'

Roo: An instrument of Heaven shall come down and be the devil's slayer.

He struggled to remain conscious; he fights to stay awake but he can't even move a finger but his efforts were in vain as he collapsed to the frozen ground, utterly drained. Through hazy vision, he can see Roo staring down at him with a gleeful smile.

Roo: See you soon, my fallen~

He wakes up to the smell of Marigolds.

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

In Nifty's voice: How was that?!!

You have no idea how long I spent making that rhyme prophecy thingy.

As always, your kind words and actions are greatly appreciated!

My DM's are always open for theories and introspections <3

#hazbin lucifer #hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel lucifer #hazbin alastor #hazbin charlie #hazbin hotel alastor #hazbin angel dust #hazbin lilith #hazbin husk #hazbin vaggie #hazbin roo #root of all evil #hazbin hotel roo #hazbin cherri bomb #hazbin sir pentious #hazbin emily #hazbin nifty #hazbin sera #hazbin michael #hazbin hotel charlie #hazbin hotel angel oc #hazbin hotel oc #hazbin original character #hazbin oc #hazbin hotel angel dust #hazbin hotel husk #hazbin hotel niffty #hazbin hotel cherri bomb #hazbin hotel vaggie #hazbin hotel sir pentious

[lesbian-forte]

Criticisms of Vocaloid and why I like SynthV

I'm not trying to change anyone's mind here, but I would like to say my piece after certain takes seem to miss the point entirely. This might be a bit of a rant.

Vocaloid has gone stagnant in recent years. Yamaha doesn't care. Yamaha doesn't need Vocaloid and is a large corporation that gets much more money off of their DAW software and actual instruments as opposed to something as niche as vocal synths that are both only big in Japan and also only if they're in the top ten or so.

Yamaha stopped putting effort into Vocaloid during the V4-V5 transition. There is a reason V4 has so many cancelled voicebanks. Several developers were working on V4 and Yamaha rendered their devkit suddenly worthless. Devs would have to purchase a V5 devkit and start work over, or quit Vocaloid. And as vocal synth companies are generally very small, few of them would want to continue or even be able to afford it.

So they moved. Miku splitting off for Piapro gave them an opening, and others started looking for alternatives. Then IA went to CeVIO. And more and more. And by the time V5's sun was setting, all the third parties that worked on that were gone too.

But for a while, you didn't hear much from most of them. If a company released a V4 at the tailend of its lifespan or a V5, they had to wait for exclusivity to expire. And Yamaha's exclusivity deals are harsh (ending distribution of existing song voicebanks in the case of utaus with the same VP) and long, borderline predatory. So voices that companies wanted to update couldn't receive them until those expired, or else refresh that deal and stay constrained by a company that didn't even want to bother with them.

So, come V6, Yamaha was desperate. Internet Co had made an ultimatum that if a Vocaloid 6 didn't come out soon, then they'd be going too. That was their last, and after Crypton packed their bags, most important third party. So they accelerated their plans and looked at what the new guys were doing to be so successful.

They took the wrong lesson.

AI is not inherently better. Sample-based voicebanks will always have their place. Traditional samples can allow an unnaturally large range and harsher voice acting than would be possible to maintain. AI is more accurate to the voice provider, and you have a greater degree of freedom with its tone, plus updates and additional features are so much easier- but Yamaha took 'AI' at face value and made a low-quality copy that sounds significantly worse than prior Vocaloid versions and pushed it with Gumi. They could have stuck to improving their concatenative synthesis render quality further- that's what SynthV started as, R1 was just a very well-rendered sample-based program that is probably just a fancy utau under the hood.

But Vocaloid jumped on the bandwagon by doing the absolute bare minimum and claiming the ear-grating engine noise that can cause actual nausea is remaining faithful to the 'Vocaloid sound' even though styrofoam on the mic and a sometimes pleasant metallic twang sound nothing alike. They didn't improve accessibility, V6 has the same stability issues as V5, and the shiny new feature Vocalochanger is just RVC but worse.

Then, less than a year after product launch, they start up VxB and don't do anything to improve the software they're actively selling. Internet Co themselves called this out in the form of a Gumi tweet. Then Internet Co got in talks with Tokyo6 and saw a possible out, so they gave it a go. They're still under contract by Yamaha so what they can do is limited, but we saw them stray as well. And the result is a much better quality version (though arguably still worse than her V4) despite being an exact port.

We're still getting a Gumi Solid V6 because V6 can't do emotions and they still have to be separate banks, and VxB still got a major update even though it's dying in April with radio silence for V6 development, while CeVIO/VoiSona is releasing 2.0s that get major acclaim like Ci Flower's reputation totally getting turned around, and SynthV is sitting pretty with several voicebanks announced and several coming out in December alone, and the most recent in-progress update including both voice-to-midi (which is what vocalochanger should've been) and Spanish.

I do not like V6, V5, or Yamaha. It could've been amazing for Gumi or Una to get updates so they'd have crosslang (or better crosslang) capabilities, as I work in English. But the result was extremely poorly implemented and Yamaha has made no effort to fix that.

I use SynthV all the time, I'd do the same for CeVIO if it offered crosslang as well rather than just dictionaries and a couple English banks. I'm not against trying new things. But I either want the other programs to have the things to suit my needs in a quality manner that's intuitive to use or for the voicebanks I love to get versions on programs that already do. It's not that complicated.

The jokes and the yammering from rabid SynthV fans dissing Vocaloid can get to be too much sometimes. But you have to consider where that actually comes from. It's in response to suddenly being spoiled with a cheap, accessible, high-quality program when the expensive, poorly constructed, difficult one has been dominating the market with anti-consumer, anti-third party practices for years.

P.S.: Also you can do robotic tuning and mixing on realistic vocal synths, it's called doing the same thing as before and then adding it in post. You think utaites swallow vocoders or something? No, they just use different tools to get the same result as engine noise. Not fighting the voice when you're trying to go for realistic vs manual tuning and adding some very easy effects on when doing it the other way around is better, actually.

#synth v #synthesizer v #vocaloid #rant #vocal synths #i still like the old vocaloids but 5 and 6 just aint it

[joesalw]

First of all I just wanted to commend you for becoming a TS hate blog despite the annoying fangirl swarm you're probably going to face. You're truly doing the lord's work.

I saw that you said you were her a fan of hers but then realised who she was after her breakup with Joe. I was curious about how long you'd been a fan and how involved were you in the fandom and what was it that caused this 180? Was it one thing that just shook you out or was it little things added up?

For me, I had always considered myself more of a casual fan of her music but never got into the fandom side of it because I always thought of swifties as pretty fucking annoying. However, I've had mutuals through the years who were more in the fandom so I sort of observed from the outside. As for her as a person, I never went to bat for her but I always felt like I gave her a sense of grace and understanding despite her being 7 years older than me and far more privileged. For example, when people accused her of always playing the victim I always thought it was understandable because when you're young you often only see things from your own pov, but with age and maturity you start seeing the bigger picture.

My issues with her started in 2020, the year after she made a documentary where she shed her white women tears and proclaimed she wanted to be politically active and use her voice for good. But when the opportunity came with covid, BLM and the election she did less than the bare minimum, a couple of tweets and some cookies iirc. After that her shitty allyship continued to annoy me especially after that Ginny and Georgia tweet, but what was really grating on my nerves was the way her fanbase and the media were hailing her an artistic genius for the littlest things. She's always been one of the poster girls for white mediocrity in the entertainment industry but it was taken to whole new level with her directing her "short film". I don't know what makes good music, but I do know little more about movies and directors and all too well was just so meh and bland and basic and the fact that Sadie and Dylan are both brilliant actors yet their performances in that "film" were so lackluster tells me she does not have what it takes to be a director. Yet she was invited to one of those variety talks and was campaigning for a Oscar nomination? And will apparently direct a movie sometime in the future? Has the world lost it's fucking mind?

Anyways come 2023 to her dating a bigot and I realised just how much of a performance her "activism" has been and her going back to the same tricks of playing victim that made me realise it wasn't immaturity and age this is just who she is.

Sorry if this is tmi but I thought since I was asking for you story I'd tell you mine in a sense. I also have some completely unqualified armchair psychology takes on miss t if you're interested in hearing them. They're probably not "hot takes" or something someone somewhere hasn't already said about her but this was already too long for me to dump them on you unasked.

Hope you have a great day! X

I started fangirling her in 2016 when the whole snakegate thing happened. With reputation especially, when she wrote those monologues about her being comfortable being her ownself at the end of her 20s and wanting a normal life and privacy outside media scrutiny. Her talking about how she used her "taylor swift sqaud" to heal her past insecurities not knowing how it could affect someone who still doesn’t have that type of friendgroup, her deciding to keep her relationship private instead of making it a circus for the media. You know, you could see the personality growth in her at that time. To me she really felt like a very matured person.

Even though there were still lots of things (that you talked about) used to make me very uncomfortable, like that ginny and georgia tweet and her posting that black image of blm trend with THIRTEEN HEART EMOJIS (so embarrassing and weird?)

Moreover, I never liked any of her self directed music videos. Like those were so bland and boring and never fit with the music. But people still praising her and giving her vmas and shits was just a confirmation that nobody cares about art these days, they only want the clout from her name. Her music is also very boring. She writes about the same events in thousand different songs to milk the shit out of it. Like girl please move on!

But what made me actually unstan her was the whole shitshow she put up after her breakup with Joe. The person she talked so highly about in her whole discography was now a villain too. She went on a brought up a whole hate trend on Joe by making her friends unfollow him publicly.

SHE IS THE ONE WHO INSTIGATED THE WHOLE JOE ALWYN HATRED TREND.

You know no matter whatever someone does (his only fault was not wanting to marry her lol), nobody deserves to go through this type of media harassment. But Joe did. Joe is the person who saved her when she was having this kind of media treatment but later on SHE instigated the same type of hatred for him. That just proves how terrible she is as a human being. And not to forget she immediately started dating a vile, racist, islamophobe, bigot, piece of shit and said that was the best time of her life. She didn’t even acknowledge her wrong in the relationship on her breakup announcement (she acted unbrothered). She used Ice Spice to cover up her mess. I mean how many more reasons did i need after that?

Now in her travis era, she switched completely 180° saying being public is her real personality. She also brought back her squad pap walks. She is really feeding into the narrative that Joe kept her in basement. So like the MAIN thing that made me fall in love with her in the first place was all along a lie? She never matured? She never wanted to have privacy? She never valued a normal life? Her personality growth really went downhill to a shithole.

But after being so invested in her for 7 years, I can tell you that a breakdown is coming very soon and I will not feel bad for it at all!

#anti taylor swift #anti swifties #swifties dni

[letstrythisout4]

Chapter 7: Blaise and Mrs. Reyes

WARNING WARNING WARNING: Dursley adjacent behaviors and Isabella starts…i don’t want to say having a mental breakdown but um…she’s tweaking out…yea let's’ put it like that- its nothing too major but i'd feel like a shitty person if i don't at least warn yall our girl is going through it, basically

Series Masterlist

Christmas at Zabini Manor was intense, primarily because Elizabeth Zabini adored Christmas and wouldn’t have anything less than the perfect decorations. Which led to hours of decorating for the entire house. Elizabeth, Blaise and the house elves would spend at minimum three days decorating the entire estate with the help of magic. The elves' pay was tripled and Elizabeth always gave them the option to opt out if the weather was too aggressive (they always refused). It was this kind of treatment that led to the elves loving the Zabini family and vice versa, expanding the Christmas dinner from just the two of them to them plus the 15 house elves who worked on various tasks for the family.

But apparently, they still didn’t have enough decorations hence why the Zabini’s found themselves roaming Diagon Alley looking for white tinsel and bulbs and a thousand other things that Blaise couldn’t even remember. But what he did remember was all that he had to fill his mother in on. 

“And so then out of where I see Anthony Goldstein punch Michael Corner like it was nothing I mean it really was something-”, Blaise recalled as his mother stacked boxes and boxes of white garland so high he could barely see over them.

“Yes that’s nice love, but can you tell me more about that girl you mentioned earlier? What was her name, Isabella?” his mother asked with false curiosity.

Blaise knew what his mother was doing -and she knew he knew- but figured it would be worse to not respond then to answer. “Yes, her name is Isabella Reyes. The Hufflepuff, remember?”

“Ahhhh, yes. Isabella tell me a bit about her, would you?” Blaise side-eyed his mother before he could control himself. “Don’t look at me like that.”

How she knew the face Blaise made, was lost on him considering she had her back to him looking for more lights (white of course). “Um she’s muggleborn, afrolatino, the shortest in year -though she’ll argue is taller than Finch-Fletchley-, she-”

“She’s the friend you want to invite, correct?”

All these leading questions.

“Yes, Ma. She looked…upset when she went to meet her family and well she wants to meet you so I figured now would be a good time. Especially since the Christmas decorations will still be up and the snow won’t have melted by then, she loves Christmas, and while she can’t come on Christmas. I think she’ll appreciate the atmosphere…” Blaise trailed off weakly, realizing he was rambling a bit.

His mother was quiet, the only noise on the other side of the boxes was the sound of lights being shuffled around. “That’s very kind of you Blaise.” she finally said, placing yet another box in his arms, officially obstructing his view.

“Thanks, Ma.” Blaise said, muffled as the boxes mushed against his face. 

The day continued like that, by the time they had finished and Blaise retired to his room his arms were heavy and his finger numb from all the bulbs he placed. Despite it all he picked up a quill, found some parchment and wrote in his neat cursive.

Reyes,

…Now what? Blaise asked himself, when he couldn’t figure out an answer he sat and stared at the ceiling waiting for the words to come to him. How about…

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

Reyes, 

How are you? We’re doing well over here. Mother has gone crazy with the decorations like always. I was thinking and I don’t quite think it’s fair for me to rant to you about how much snow we get here, and not invite you to come see for yourself. (Plus my mother wants to meet you.) So, if you’d like, my mother will apparate to your house, pick you and your things up and you’d spend New Year’s and the last week of holidays here. She’d drop us off at the train the first day of school so no worry there. 

Let me know what you think, 

B. Zabini

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

B. Zabini is a little formal isn’t it?

So is still calling her Reyes after being friends for months but you're not going to change that are you?

…fair enough.

He folded the letter, wrote her name on the front, sealed it with gray wax and a “Z” symbol, and tied it to his owl Geoffrey,“Bring this to Isabella Reyes and don’t leave without a response.”

He didn’t have to wait long as he expected as Lila, a house elf who watched him all throughout his life, brought him an envelope, while he ate breakfast with his mother the next day. “ A letter just arrived for you Mr. Blaise, from a Ms. Isabella Reyes.” she told him far louder than necessary, allowing for her voice to carry, no doubt alerting all the staff.

“Thank you so much Lila.” he thanked all but snatching the letter from her (his mother raised him better than to actually snatch it). Satisfied, Lila apparated away with a quiet pop.

Blaise glanced warily at his mother, but she just sipped her tea and kept reading the paper as if she were oblivious. He opened the letter to read…

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

Blaise,

I’m okay, glad to hear your mom’s putting you to work over there. While I would love to go, my parents are…reluctant to let me stay over at a friend's house that they've never met. Especially a friend that is a wizard. Even more so a friend that is a boy. At first it was a flat out no, my mother hitting me with a “Uno nunca sabe.” Which like fair, valid, but I know you're not like that. So we argued a bit and they said that they would consider it if they could meet your mom. And even then they reserve the right to say no. So yeah. I know that’s way more work than yall signed up for so I totally get it if you and your mom say no. But yeah, that’s their conditions.

Thanks for the offer tho,

Isabella

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

Blaise grimace, “Ma, what does “Uno nunca sabe” mean? Like I know that the literal translation is “One never knows” but…”

His mothers eyebrows rose, “Can I see the context?” Blaise reluctantly handed over the letter and watched as his mother read. “Basically it's a Latino saying of “One never knows” mothers usually tell their daughters this when they won’t let them leave the house for sleepovers, parties etc , especially with boys, because “ One never knows’’ what can happen. The implication is…well you can assume.” Blaises’ grimace only deepened and he put his head on the table. “Don’t worry, owl her asking if I can get her parents phone number. Then I’ll speak to them directly and set up when we can go meet them.” she reassured him, handing him the letter, as if the matter was already settled.

“Now seems like a good time to mention her parents don’t seem to like magic, they wouldn’t even step through the barrier to get her at the end of term.” Blaise confessed.

The right side of his mothers mouth briefly lifted at this, “Well like wizards, muggles tend to fear the unknown. No matter how much Isabella may try to explain and demonstrate magic to them there’s a possibility that they’ll never understand it.”

Blaise considered for a moment telling his mother how Isabella seemed ready to cry as she crossed the barrier, Isabella who never cried preferring to yell, scream or punch whenever something or someone deeply upset her. He chose to keep it to himself.

Isabella didn’t want me to see she was upset, I asked her in the letter if she was okay and she said she was. 

Do you really believe that?

…No. But it's not my place to say something.

At least not now.

Christmas passed with many gifts from his mother (he wasn’t quite on the level of warranting gifts from Hufflepuffs yet). Blaise always recruited help from the elves to get his a few gifts that she would love varying from dress robes to new painting supplies for her to use for her next piece. This year he gave her a beautiful silver necklace and a giant canvas that she had been looking for. The dinner was delicious and he managed to enjoy it despite the many taunts and questions from the elves concerning “Ms. Isabella Reyes”, miraculously his mother took pity on him and didn’t let them know there was a chance they’d get to meet her very soon.

Only a day later Blaise and his mother were standing on the doorstep of the Reyes’ home. He wore a blue crewneck, dark blue jeans and white Nike shoes with a simple gold band; he also carried a bouquet of flowers to present to Mrs. Reyes. Blaise complained that it was too formal, his mother said it was only right to bring a gift, which Blaise agreed with but…

It looks like I’m asking if I can date Isabella. Is the thought that ran through Blaises’ head as he waited for someone to answer the door. His mother beside him wore black dress pants with a white blouse and the necklace he gifted her. A little formal but who is Elizabeth Zabini if not the best dressed in the room. A moment later Isabella ripped open the door wearing simple light blue jeans, black t-shirt and black Under Armour sneakers that looked a little too worn out in Blaises’ professional opinion.

“You're so judgy. Stop eyeing my shoes, I love them.” Isabella proclaimed in defense of the sneakers.

Blaise raised his hands in defense and just as he was about to introduce his mother she stepped forward, “Hello love, I’m Elizabeth, Blaises’ mother. I apologize if it's too forward but can I hug you, Blaise doesn't have many friends.” she whispered to Isabella as if Blaise wasn’t right next to her.

“Oh I know and I would love a hug.” Isabella told her all but jumping in his mothers arms.

Something is wrong here…

“Alright, let's head in.” Isabella announced letting go and taking a step back into the house, before spinning back around to add “my parents are paranoid. My mom can be a bit…much so, just a fair warning.” 

On that positive note, the three entered the house greeted by the sweet smell of what Blaise could recognize as Nestle Abuelita, a brand of muggle hot chocolate he tried it for the first time in Mexico with his mother on a trip for an art auction. “You must be Mrs. Zabini.” A short woman asked with an accent as she came to shake his mothers hand.

“Please call me Elizabeth.” his mother responded smoothly.

“Then you must call me Estefanía.” the woman responded quickly, “Isabella tells me you speak Spanish?” -when his mother nodded, she continued “Perfect because my english is not so good.” She quickly transitioned to Spanish and invited them out to the porch. Blaise knew he was going to send a letter to his old Spanish tutor if he was going to continue being friends with Isabella. Isabella walked ahead, turning around once she was behind mothers back and shot him a flat smile. 

Mrs. Reyes led them to the porch and now in the natural light, Blaise fully took in the woman's appearance as she sat and spoke with his mother on a couch. She was short, barely taller than Isabella, ever so slightly tan, light wrinkles adorned her face that told Blaise she was older than his mother and had dark brown hair. “You’ll have to forgive us but my husband is running late, he is caught in traffic.” he heard her mention it to his mother, who told her not to worry. Realizing he was still holding the flowers he quickly handed them to Mrs. Reyes with a simple “These are for you, Mrs. Reyes.” with a sweet smile, allowing the Argentinian accent he perfected to shine through. One look at his mother told him that he was laying the act on a bit thick but Mrs. Reyes still cooed at him, pointing out to Isabella how nice his Spanish was. Blaise could see Isabellas’ face change to the one she typically had before starting a fight in a corridor, before she shrugged and said “That’s what happens when you have a private tutor.” in English. Nobody had spoken English since they walked in as a sign of respect for her mothers silent request to only speak her native language. Mrs. Reyes, unamused with her daughter's flippant response, asked her to go get drinks for them all (in Spanish). Isabella went to do just that and Blaise immediately offered his help and went after her.

“Am I crazy for assuming that your Spanish is a sensitive subject?” Blaise questioned, bringing the conversation back to English now that they were away from their mothers.

“Nope. By the way you have the exact same accent as your mom, it's kind of crazy. Which I like obviously, but the more time I spend around you Brits the more I can distinguish yalls' accents and I don’t know its just more clear to me how different yall talk compared to the others. It’s nice.” She explained all but dismissing his earlier questions. “Though I will say, hearing her speak highlights how much my lingo has rubbed off on you and I won’t lie; I’m a bit proud.”

“I’m not letting you dodge my question.”

She glared at him before reaching into a cupboard to grab a tray, “I grew up around my mom and siblings speaking Spanish back when we lived in America since it was their first language. My dad and I were the only non-native speakers in the house but because I was born into a bilingual house I picked up on it enough for little me to hold conversations. As I got older, though, I was around them less and less and in turn my Spanish went downhill. I can understand everything, write a good bit but my speaking-” she winced “- my speaking sucks. Everyone on my mom's side of the family judges me like crazy for it.” She started loading the tray with two waters and two mugs of hot chocolate, placing them down with more force than necessary. “So when you waltz in here with your perfect Spanish - despite having no hispanic family - she just had to comment.” 

“I didn’t mean to-”

“You didn’t do anything, she just always has something to say. If it's not about my Spanish, it's about my hair, if it's not about my hair, it's about my clothes -” she began to pace “- if it's not my clothes its my skin, if it's not my skin it's my weight, if it's not my weight its the fact that I don’t smile enough. If its not that its the fact that I’m a fucking witch! Oh, that’s her new favorite one! She drives me insane!” She slammed her hand down on the counter and was breathing heavily. She stormed up to him, grabbing his arms. “We can’t let them keep me here, I’ve already had three bursts of accidental magic and I cannot have another, Blaise.” She gasped, her eyes wide with clarity, “We can use that!” Blaise was starting to get really really concerned.

Not your place, huh? His mind taunted him.

Isabella seemed to not notice, “At some point we'll bring up accidental magic and tell them that it's less likely to happen in wizarding households.”

“That’s not true.”

“They don’t need to know that!” Isabella all but screamed at him.

“Reyes, I’m going to ask you this, and I’m being genuine when I say this…are you okay?” He gently removed her hands from where they were leaving indents through his clothes.

“Blaise, I haven’t had bursts of magic this bad since I was like five.” she whispered, leaning even further into his space, “They’re getting scared again, Blaise.”

At that moment Blaise realized how much the girl before him had impacted his personality. Before Blaise would have taken a step back and removed his hands from her now bruising grip, even though he knew it was a bit cruel, he would have done it. Now Blaise squeezed her hands and said, “Okay, we'll figure it out. I’m not leaving you here. I’ll pull my mom to the side and tell her, she’ll finesse something, she always does and we’ll bring you home.” he rubbed his thumb across the back of her hand, like his mother did to calm him.

“But like…don’t tell her everything. Just that…I’m having bursts of accidental magic from stress and my parents’ are getting worried.” seeing Blaises’ hesitancy she soften her eyes and rested her face, “Please.”

“...alright.”

She hugged him tightly and Blaise found himself wrapping his arms around her easily.

I’ve never seen her so rattled.

Not your place huh? His mind contributed.

Shut up.

The sound of keys rattling and the front door opening reached them and Isabella pushed Blaise away so hard and fast he stumbled a bit. She hurried down the hallway hugging the man who had just walked through the door, who carried a bottle of wine. “Hi, Dad. Blaise and his mom just arrived a little bit ago.”, she pushed up to the tip of her toes to whisper something into her fathers ears. “We’re out on the patio.” she informed him, leaning back and into the kitchen, picking up the tray of drinks, nodded towards the door and as Blaise opened it for her she muttered to him, “He’s the one we really have to convince.”

Authors’ notes: this chapter feels like a hot mess but we have a lot to cover before we make it back to school. I really wanted to touch upon something that always confused me whenever I read the original series, which is like how the hell did hermiones’ parents agree to her always staying over her guy friend's house like my parents could never. A boys house *raises eyebrows* fuck no. so i wanted it to be a bit more realistic. Isabella's mom is a piece of work… She loves her daughter but she's a bit…much. But lemme know what yall think, there is alot in his chapter, and like if you enjoyed it. And as always, thank you for reading

#blaise zabini #isabella reyes #harry potter #slytherin #slytherin boys #draco malfoy #pansy parkinson #theodore nott #blaise zabini x reader #blaise zabini x oc

[make-me-imagine]

Let's talk about this blog

Out of the last 8 fics I've released, I've only gotten 64 reblogs, with the average being 8 per fic, and the most having 18 out of 178 notes.

No wonder my blog is dying.

One of my most popular fics recently hit 4k notes. Out of those notes, 224 are reblogs. Which is only 5.5% of the total notes.

For some fandoms I would release fics that used to get 100+ notes in less than 24 hours, its now taking them 3 days at minimum to reach that. Fandoms that used to get 200 notes in a week now barely reach 60 in two. And most of the notes are likes anyways.

My average notes per month on my blog at one point was 2k+, then dropped to be around, or just over 1k and now I barely hit 400 notes in a month and over 70% are always likes.

My followers are continuing to grow, but my blog is continuing to die.

And people really wonder why writers suddenly or slowly disappear off of tumblr.

Now, I HATE being one to complain. I get annoyed at myself. I try to resist reblogging every writers rant about reblogs and interaction. Because I'm the one who decided to start writing, I'm the one who decided to start releasing content.

But, I loved the community of writers on here, so when I started writing I became a lot happier than I was. And I often used tumblr as a place to escape my life, and I still do. I would and still do relish in the comments, reblogs, asks, messages etc, that I would get from followers and readers.

I used to be able to log on and spend a long time reading reblogs, comments, messages, etc. Now I log on each morning and have almost none.

And now I practically have to beg for any at all, and that almost never works now anyways.

Tumblr is becoming less of a place to escape and find motivation, and more of a place to just kill my boredom.

I'm not going to stop writing, at least I hope not. I still have over a dozen requests I would love to write and release, even if barely anyone reads them. Because even though people don't seem to care about my writing, I do, so I will continue to write as long as I still get joy out of it.

But if you really want writers on tumblr to keep creating things you apparently love so much. At least give back a little.

xx

#i try to not let this bother me as much as I can but my blog is slowly getting less and less notes and interaction #and I've been having a rough couple days so I'm not feeling very peppy #rant #writing on tumblr #dying blogs #writers of tumblr #delete later #<probably

[veliseraptor]

October Reading Recap

The Husky and His White Cat Shizun: vol. 3 by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou. Still in the territory of a part of this book I remember fairly well, and while the whole underworld arc is good it's not my favorite part of the book and mostly I come away from it going "Rong Jiu has rights." which is true! and I do think Meatbun knows it actually but it still hurts how his arc goes here. Me: continually getting too wound up in the fates of side characters and distracted from what's going on with the mains.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to moving into the next parts of the book, which I don't remember as well. Though I know it's a while before it gets really painful, aka what I'm most excited to reread.

Dark Carnivals: Modern Horrors and the Origins of American Empire by W. Scott Poole. I was so frustrated by this book. I wanted it to be an analysis of horror films and their relationship to American imperialism; what I got was a lot of overwrought prose and repetition of the titular metaphor that was very light on the analysis of the actual texts and heavy on the scathing opinions about what is "good" (politically) horror and what is "bad" (politically) horror. Which, fine, my politics are technically the same as his politics, but it was annoying to read in a book that I thought was going to be more analytical. I had high hopes for this book and it failed them; makes me more hesitant to read his other book about horror and World War I, which I have had on my list for a while. But I liked his book on Lovecraft, funnily enough, so not totally sure what went wrong here.

Paradise-1 by David Wellington. I did not realize that this book was first in a series and I'm a little bit annoyed about it. It was decent horror but it doesn't need to be a series and the lack of resolution bugs me, because now if I want resolution I have to read the next book and I don't think I really want to read the next book. Space horror seems like it would be such a rich land full of possibility and yet I keep being disappointed by space horror. (If, in this case, less disappointed than I was by Dead Silence.)

Remnants of Filth: vol. 1 by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou. She's done it again! It's a differently fucked up relationship, to be sure, but boy am I already here for it, despite feeling like I know very little about what's going on. Gu Mang is my jam as far as character type, and I really like the dynamic as its laid out as having been previously between him and Mo Xi, and also how it is now. Dedicated friends/lovers turned to bitter enemies turned to one of them fractured to a shadow of himself leaving the other bereft of resolution...mm, good stuff. Can't wait to find out more about what's going on under Gu Mang's surface. Looking forward to reading more of this one and glad that I already have the second volume to go to. (And the rest, technically, but I do like reading cnovels in print when I can more than reading on a computer.)

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. Look at me! Reading classic sci-fi knowing only the bare minimum about it. I liked it more than I expected to, and was less bothered by the way the women were written than I expected to. I didn't realize that it was more a string of short stories tied together by a frame narrative than a novel, but it was really fine that I didn't know that going in - didn't affect my enjoyment, I don't think. And I did enjoy it! I might not have read it on my own, but I read it for a sci-fi book club and ended up liking both it and the book club. Not sure I'd give it, like, a strong recommendation, but I'm glad I finally read it. It'll be interesting seeing what echoes/traces of it I can now pick up in other robot/AI-related writing.

Monstress: vol. 5-7 by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda. This comic is so good you guys. So. Good. I don't really know what else to say here, except that she continues to step up her game even more with every volume, and I don't know how she's keeping all the balls in the air that she is with this story as deftly as she is. I have no idea where this story is going, either, and I can't wait to find out. I don't know. Themes of monstrosity and agency and lack of agency and how to be a good person (or try) in a terrible world. With a whole lot more than that. Also there's gay betrayal, if you're into that.

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint. Why do I continue to read Greek Mythology retellings when at best they end up making me go "eh, it was okay I guess"? Not sure. But this was okay, I guess. I liked the same author's Electra better.

Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues by Jonathan Kennedy. More of a "history of the western world categorized by periods of time in which there were various diseases" which...was not quite what I was hoping for, but it was still a good, solid book about epidemiology and the impact of disease on history. A lot of it was familiar to me (how disease enabled the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs and Incas, for instance, but also British colonization in North America), but I did learn some new things, particularly in the sections about Paleolithic/Neolithic diseases. All in all a book I read because I'm particularly interested in the subject but not probably one I'd recommend as the one book that they'd have to read about it.

The Hollow Kind by Andy Davidson. I made it a goal in October to read some spooky books and ended up only reading three, but this was easily my favorite of those - and my favorite non-Darcy Coates horror I've read in a while, too. I wasn't totally sure what to expect from this one, and the slow reveal in the first two thirds particularly was very well done. I found myself slightly more compelled by the portions set in the past than by the present storyline, but not so much as to ding the whole book for it. And I liked that the monster was left pretty vague and undefined, too; that's always my preference. Some very gross descriptions and body horror, as a caveat for those who might be interested but are sensitive about such things.

Die: vol. 1-3 by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans. I'm finally rereading (and finishing) this series and...I forgot how much I like it. Not only because the art is gorgeous (and the art is gorgeous) but Kieron Gillen's writing remains as sharp as ever, and the way he is playing with fantasy as a genre is very fun for me as a fantasy nerd. My favorite issue remains the one about The Lord of the Rings, though. I don't know that this one is quite as good as The Wicked and the Divine as a whole, but I'll have to reread that one taken as a whole, too, before making that determination.

And the art really is gorgeous. Stephanie Hans remains a fave.

Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism by Jeffrey Toobin. A decent narrative about the Oklahoma City bombing, certainly competently written, but he interrupted himself a little too often drawing parallels to January 6th, in my opinion, and I don't feel like I took anything particularly new or fresh away from this. Which is maybe an artifact of the fact that I've read a number of better books about the rise of right-wing extremism in the 90s, and this one wasn't one of them, but I'm going to go ahead and damn with faint praise when I say "it was fine."

currently I'm rereading Banewreaker by Jacqueline Carey which is a fascinating text in ways that I'm going to need to chew on for a bit, so that I can finally read the sequel. but then a bunch of stuff came in for me at the library, so I'm next probably going to be reading Silver Nitrate by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia, and then Godslayer by Jacqueline Carey, and then The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu, and then Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and then Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez. or that's the plan, anyway. we'll see how fast it gets derailed.

also somewhere in there planning on reading more Female General and Eldest Princess and most likely the second volume of Remnants of Filth. I'm trying to spend less time on the internet in general (you absolutely could not tell I am sure) so let's make it a busy reading month instead.

#reading recaps #sometimes i read things

[princess-of-the-corner]

Honestly, the more you talk about it, the more I want to hear about Endeavour's PR. Who's on it, like, number of people? What is their main stance before Enji starts turning his life around? What do they fight him on? Which specific thing finally gets him to fire them? Plus, which poor sap finds himself suddenly going from note-taker to head of PR (you know there had to be at least 1 decent person in there that never got promoted, but actually supports what Enji's trying to do).

HONESTLY LIEK

it's fuckin.

Enji kinda has just. Hired PR people in general and gave bare-minimum instructions and trusted them to know what they're doing. So it's a combo of letting them have free rein on things he doesn't feel he has time for (like letting them handle every time the media accuses him of having an affair or having a bastard child, overall management of his twitter page), or taking their advice on ways to improve his image in the eyes of the public(this can range from 'covering gray hairs' to 'fielding which charity events he attends as he can't go to all of them').

But ofc this has kinda swung into the PR team kinda.... either assuming his wants/viewpoints to make statements, and/or them telling him what's 'right' based on their own feelings vs. what he wants. And Enji is just dealing with so much else and the whole point of hiring them was 'handle this so I don't have to' that he rarely checks in to keep an eye on things. (which is how he doesn't know gay people exist even though the last like 4 years have been spent with the media accusing him of having an affair with Hawks lmao).

And I have two thoughts on things where the PR team acts without Enji's permission that leads to a complete 'scrap the fuckers and start over with more checks in place'. Like there's /more/ on the whole, but these are the only two I have specific thoughts on

One is- I have a specific scene planned out for this where it's Enji gets dragged out with Midnight and Snipe's drinking night, and this is post-finding out about gay people which those two are aware of him being queer. So they're suddenly getting notifications of his twitter posting something even though he's right there and not on his phone so they're like 'uh you might wanna check this out'.

Enji's kinda surprised because usually the PR team does get /some/ permission before speaking for him, did kinda say 'yeah just handle certain things without notifying me'. And it takes him a minute to even realize what they posted as, having only known gay people exist for like a month, isn't up to date on subtle homophobic phrases like 'traditional family values'.

ofc he immediately borrows Midnight's phone to use her twitter and post a response video of 'fuck off, my PR team posted that and I will be talking to them because I am here for the lgbt community'.

Which yeah opens up him investigating into that and finding subtle and less-than-subtle things that they've been doing for his image. And while it might have /technically/ helped keep his popularity up, it does against things he thinks are right.

And the second incident is bigger which is. Idk if he finds out through investigation or if Natsuo says it after Enji has worked to gain back some trust but like.

A little bit after Toya first 'died', Natsuo did try to go for exposing the fact that Enji is a bad parent and trying to get that info out to the media and like get cps involved and such. But the PR team caught wind of it and shut it down HARD. Very guilt-tripping, threatening, and even bringing the Commission into this situation to prove to the kid that nothing would be done, and if he continued to try then, well. The middle child isn't usually missed all that much.

Enji is. Very. Very pissed at this. The not telling him, the fact that they threatened his kid to preserve his image. The fact that this contributed to some of the family drama because Natsuo assumed Enji knew and had them cover for him when, again, he had no idea at all and would've taken Natsuo's grievances a hell of a lot more seriously if he did.

It's. It's a LOT.

#endeavor fires his pr team

[hypergamiss]

Hi! It's Daisy again. I get what you say, and I have been trying to let this feelings pass and just ignore. But then he comes and does something like carrying me because it's raining and my shoes are new, or giving me his sweater, or cancelling all his appointments at work because I said I wanted to see him, or going to the other side of the city and spend all day helping me search for a costume and buying me ice cream. And THEN he just kinda ignores me for days. Like wtf. Make it make sense. I also thought about suggesting like a no-strings-attached thing but I don't know if that would work

All of those things he is doing for you are cute but I’m going to be honest with you, it’s the bare minimum. A man should be doing all of that for you because that’s how a gentleman acts. He’s not doing anything particularly crazy that would indicate that he struggled to get your attention or time. A lot of my guy friends have done all of that for me (and much, much more) because I asked and because I am a lady they did it, but there was never a point in time where they thought I liked them enough to date them or owe them anything because of their nice gestures. So yeah, it’s easy for him to ignore you for days because his time with you was ordinary, just another day in his life as a guy. Everything he’s doing for you, he’s doing for other women to some capacity. No strings attached only benefits men and I strongly advise against it as a woman. You should try raising your standards and confidence before continuing to date. The bare minimum is getting you excited, you need to not be impressed so easily by men. And the fact that you’re willing to offer a less than ideal no strings attached situation just to get his attention is a huge red flag. You should never lower your standards for a guy. He should be fighting blood sweat and tears to meet your standards. You have it all backwards at the moment.

#hypergamous lifestyle #heaux advice #heaux tips #heauxheauxheaux #heauxlife #hypergamy #level up #spoiled heaux #spoiled gf #high maintenance

[wearevillaneve]

What we don't talk about in the KE fandom.

Easily one of the best deconstructions of the repulsive way Killing Eve destroyed the four seasons of goodwill it built up was written by Vulture essayist Angelica Jade-Bastien's "Killing Eve Chose Cruelty". In four words, Jade-Bastien captured why weeks after the last gruesome minutes of the show flickered away from the eyes of horrified viewers it continues to burn and sear into their minds.

The fourth installment to the series, but particularly its last two episodes, demonstrates how far the show has fallen from the dizzying heights of its premiere. Gone is the delicious fashion pivoting on moments of transformation in the manner of fairy tales. Gone is the supremely precise characterization, replaced with a confused internal logic that jockeys the characters according to the needs of its threadbare espionage plotting. Gone is the spry presentation, achieved through blocking, editing, and costume and production design. But most important, gone is the tense cat-and-mouse game between Villanelle (Comer) and Eve (Oh) that acted as the engine. Killing Eve is a study in how jumping from different showrunners each season can leave a series without a profound singular voice — and it is evidence that a shallow understanding of representation and the female gaze isn’t enough to create a memorably good, cohesive story that gives a damn about the women onscreen. It amounted to a finale that gave once perpetually ravenous viewers a paltry version of what they wanted before snatching even that away.

Read the entire essay and it makes you feel better about the nonsensical trash Laura Neal dreamed up one night over too much cheap beer. Jade-Bastien brings up the one problem that predates Neal and the KE fandom hasn't talked about nearly enough.

This is a topic that many in Killing Eve's non-White fandom are well aware of, yet many of their White peers are oblivious to. Racism? In my favorite show? How could that be? Real easy.

The obvious and overt racism of Donald Trump or Kanye West is in your face and it can't be easily ignored. The soft, but pernicious bigotry practiced by the KE writers' room was manifested by keeping Eve an enigma from beginning to end. She was never given a family or life outside of her job, marriage, and the obsession with Villanelle that cost her everything. It's an irritation to know less about Eve than we do about Gemma, Geraldine, or Pam, but that's where we are. Eve was an enigma because she was never written to be anything else. A decision was made by someone to ensure nothing more than the bare minimum would ever be known about Eve. She was given a name and the bare bones of a backstory, and that's all.

For many in the KE fandom the Villanelle solo episode is their absolute favorite. It's one of my least favorites because it made erasing Eve official as Villanelle forgets all about her and so much so in "End of Game" even her name isn't uttered.

KONSTANTIN: I don't think you really want this.

VILLANELLE: I want it!

KONSTANTIN: You know what it means? It means you have to leave everything, the clothes, apartment… and her.

VILLANELLE: I know.

"...and her." "Her" has a name and it is Eve, but to Heathcote that wasn't important. That was a disservice to Sandra Oh, the actress who brought Eve Polastri to life even though she was not allowed to be more than a one-dimensional cut-out of a character. Remember Oh was one of the two stars of the show. This was one of those rare occasions where the titular lead character gets less fleshed out than multiple supporting ones.

That's not accidental. It was deliberate and it robbed Eve of her agency and autonomy. She really was little more than "an Asian woman with amazing hair." Eve was the lone woman of color constantly reacting in a world of Whiteness. Phoebe Waller-Bridge boldly chose to be colorblind in casting Sandra Oh as the very British and very White Eve Polastri and deserves all the credit in the world for it. Unfortunately, when she left she didn't leave any instructions to her successors on what to do with Eve, so they all chose to do nothing. After the show ended some sought to scapegoat Sandra Oh for the lousy last season stating as an executive producer she must have approved the direction the show went when Suzanne Heathcote and Laura Neal became the lead writers. Nobody knows how much input Oh had into the writer's room, but if she did that means she went along with a noticeable drop in screen time and the complete absence of a backstory for Eve. It's hard to believe any actor would deliberately reduce their own role in just the third season of a show, but that's exactly what some KE fans believe Oh did. They're the same ones who say Villanelle needed a stand-alone episode to explore her history, but have no issue with Eve being devoid of a past. This isn't racism in the Killing Eve fandom. Most of the fans don't show up that way. What they do instead is fail to notice how little Eve there frequently is in Killing Eve. It's not necessarily racism, which is bad, but it is erasure, which isn't good.

#killing eve #eve polastri #killing eve analysis #where is eve? #yeah that happened #sandra oh #villanelle #phoebe waller bridge #suzanne heathcote #emerald fennell #laura neal #new york magazine #ke s4 #supporting characters #i don't want to call it racism #but it’s there #sandra oh is my eve polastri

[br1ghtestlight]

my angsty bob's burgers au that's like a character study for bob and louise (specifically how they enable each other's worst traits as linda pointed out) <3

when louise is three years old, gene is five and tina is seven linda goes to pick up gene and tina from school and gets into a car accident where all three of them are killed. bob was working at the restaurant and louise was w/ him

obviously they both take it pretty hard, since bob lost two of his kids and louise lost her mom and her siblings :( bob tries to keep it together for louise & continues running the restaurant and taking care of her while struggling with grief. he doesn't want to be like his dad and emotionally shut out louise or avoid all discussion of her dead family so he really TRIES to be there for her and vunerable and talk about her siblings and mom but it's hard and louise was already not a very social kid. they end up being pretty isolated from their community and mostly keep to themselves without having any friends or family to rely on. outcast type vibes </3 very similar to norman bates and his mom in bates motel (but less incest and murder-y). but louise is DEFINITELY a daddy's girl and has a very strong connection to him (and fear of losing him)

linda's family (and especially gayle) are obviously devastated without her and don't really talk to louise or bob anymore bcuz they're just a living reminder of what they lost. gayle didn't get along super well with louise to begin with

big bob tries to be there to support bob and louise bcuz he's been where they are, but it's hard on him too, losing two of his grandkids after he already lost his wife. and without linda there to repair their relationship and keep things friendly they eventually fall out of touch w/ each other

bob doesn't really talk to people or socialize outside of the bare minimum with his customers, and louise doesn't have her older siblings to push her outside her comfort zone or anybody to look up to and emulate other than bob so she becomes a social outcast herself & the kids at her school are scared of her and think she's weird and creepy (she def leans into the personality of s1 and s2 louise a little more with the voodoo/horror type stuff. she's got serial killer vibes tbh)

louise is creepy and generally keeps to herself but she's also just mean and pushy and rude to other people. she becomes a bit of a bully esp to the weirder kids like andy and ollie without her siblings around to morally guide her and remind her to be kind. bob definitely tries his hardest but parenting and grief is Hard especially with being a single parent and there's only so much he can do..... there's a little bit of disconnect between them. so when teachers from school call bob and tell him that louise is being kinda pushy and rude to kids on the playground he's just like "well she's louise. thats how she is" and doesn't challenge her as much as he probably should esp w/ the grief and trauma in her life, he feels like he has to go easy on her and let her get away with things she otherwise wouldn't have

teddy still eats regularly at bob's burgers of course but he doesn't exactly. make conversation with bob and without linda around he doesn't feel welcomed as a friend, he's more of just a regular customer who comes around a few times a week for a burger. definitely not bob's best friend

louise was so young when linda, gene and tina died that she doesn't remember them at all by the time she's her canon age in the show. she knows she HAD siblings and she's seen pictures of them but she can't remember what they sounded like or their personalities, sometimes it freaks her out and she imagines what they would say to her if they were still around. it's just hard for her :( and especially without her relationship with linda to show her the complexity of womanhood i think she has some more internalized misogyny. a lot of mental health issues and trips to mr frond's office (which she HATES)

because linda died after louise was already in preschool she did sew louise's ears for her before she died and they're her last keepsake from her mom, so of course she wears them all the time and has an even stronger emotional attachment to them. bob's pretty good at sewing and knitting so he fixes them up for her whenever they're torn

louise got tina's bedroom (previously their shared bedroom) all to herself after they died while bob stayed in his and linda's old bedroom. gene's bedroom becomes like a weird office/storage space that they dont really use for anything they just keep some of tina and gene's old things in there like his keyboard etc. louise's closet bedroom remains a closet lmao but louise does end up with a pretty cool bedroom when she's older

louise would eventually become friends with rudy in this au because he's like the first person to show her the kindness and empathy that her siblings would have if they'd been alive, and he's not scared of her. this au would mostly be about their developing relationship and louise trying to become a more social and less.... aggresive person??

bob could probably learn something from her too. it's so hard to lose your family and losing children is the hardest thing ever but you can't stay in that grief for the rest of your life. especially when you DO have a surviving child to take care of and love as hard as that might be sometimes (he's not neglecting her or anything but neither of them really..... moved on emotionally after the accident. bob probably doesn't drive bcuz he's scared of hurting her, and he's definitely overprotective of louise because he doesnt want to lose the only person in the world he's still alive for)

probably not gonna do anything serious with this au but it's something I do think about from time to time. also on a lighter note these messages w/ @goldendoodlerlockerlove

#txt #bob's burgers #tw character death #it's like a fucked up its a wonderful life type story except nobody really learns anything and everyone is worse <3

[olderthannetfic]

Ghosting anon. Someone in the comments said: " Agreed. Jealousy when ppl see their friends interacting with other friends is not a good look."

How about you do me the bare minimum of charity and consider that there might be more to the situation than someone so entitled who literally can't bear to share their friend with anyone else?

And maybe read the original message, which was about weeks spent without so much as a how-do-you-do while happily chatting with other people, not "wahhhh my friend is talking to someone else they don't care anymore". No, I'm not a shithead who'll take issue with my friend interacting with others, but you all realize that this will only stretch so far, right? If it looks like your friend is the only one you can't find time/energy for (but you can find it for gaming, Tumblr, Twitter, groupchats and so on), that shit hurts. Maybe your friend is not the only one you're semi-ghosting, maybe all your DMs look like this, but without communication, said friend has absolutely no way of knowing that. And it is up to you to communicate that shit, especially if the two of you have already discussed this problem and you resolved to do better, and your friend resolved to not bring it up again and be happy with what interaction they get specifically because they don't want to be the jealous clingy friend, oh my god.

Christ, you people are exactly what I'm talking about. "We don't owe anyone our time and attention" is well and good, but it also follows that if you act like a stranger, you will eventually be treated like a stranger - usually after the point where you've hurt your friend so much through neglect that they've mentally reshuffled you to the "I no longer care about this person" bin as a form of self-protection and ceased all attempts at maintaining the friendship from their end. If that happens to your friends, you need to accept that you hurt people, and take that as a lesson for the future.

The kicker is that I know for an absolute fact that this person is not trying to ghost me on purpose or give me a hint. They really do have problems maintaining relationships when IRL gets stressful for them, which is nearly always. But I'm sick of being made to feel like our relationship is just an acceptable casualty of that and I shouldn't get upset because "jealousy is a bad look", and I'm sick of being told that it's "not mistreatment lol" (thank you for the flippancy there, truly). It can have good reasons behind it or be an unavoidable lesser evil, that doesn't mean it's not also mistreatment.

Losing the friendship hurts, the ambiguity of non-communication and having to play the guessing-game and wondering if they still care hurts, the lack of closure hurts double, considering I'm in here venting to a stranger instead of dumping a rant into my friend's DMs.

Being decent here and not acting like the possessive clingy friend is so goddamn painful, and it won't be appreciated or even noticed. So if you find yourself ghosting your friends, and they express concern about being ghosted before eventually going silent, the least you can do is appreciate what kind of turmoil is likely going on behind the scenes purely to avoid adding more drama to your already-full plate. And maybe take the next friend for granted a little less. That's all I ask.

--

"We don't owe anyone time and attention" extends to you, the abandoned friend, not owing the abandoner your continuing patience.