#What you’re referring to is usually Middle English

[rahabs]

current mood: eternally annoyed by people who refer to the variation of English spoken in the medieval era as “Old English.”

#That’s not Old English #Old English would be completely unrecognizable as English to those who don’t know it. #What you’re referring to is usually Middle English #Or Early Modern English. #Old English again would be completely unrecognizable as English to the vast majority of people today. #It was very very very different #There were entirely different letters and sounds that no longer exist #E.g. wynn; eth; thorn; æ #Sorry I’m on mobile and don’t have my Old English keyboard installed on here #You also had diphthongs and different monophthongs and! I could go on #history #Old English

[bucky-barnes-diaries]

Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned

Pairing || Beefy!CatholicPriest!Bucky x Inexperienced!Innocent!Virgin!Female!Reader

Summary || It’s time for you to confess and repent for your recent sins to Father James. He wants to know every single detail about when you had impure thoughts and touched yourself late at night…

Word Count || 2097

Contents & Warnings || Smut, Dark/Taboo Themes — NSFW, 18+ Only, Minors DNI, dub-con/non-con, religious themes, blasphemy of religion, sacrilegious acts, catholic confessional, biblical references, sexual content involving a catholic priest, strict/religious parents, explicit content/language, age-gap (reader is early 20’s, Bucky is early/mid 30’s), sexual thoughts and acts, Father kink, size kink, corruption kink, authority kink, exhibition kink, mention of handjobs, mention of fingering, dirty talk, masturbation (male & female), mention of bodily fluids.

Authors Note || I feel like I need to go to confessional myself after writing this ;P

Disclaimer || English is not my first language so I apologise for any mistakes or misunderstandings!

Priest!Bucky Masterlist

I don’t do taglists anymore so please follow @bucky-barnes-diaries-library and turn on notifications to never miss out on my writing!

Since you and your parents were highly religious, you usually went to confession weekly to repent for your sins and receive God’s love. Today, you wanted to go by yourself, as you needed a moment alone with your thoughts and to examine your conscience. You tried to reflect on your sins and actions as best as possible while taking the 15-minute walk to the church, so when you entered the confessional booth, you had a straightforward story on what to tell Father James. This would be your first confessional with him, and you hoped he would be more kind and understanding than your previous priest, Father Jacob.

You knew you had to be honest with Father James about your sinful feelings, your sexual and unholy thoughts and desires, and what they led you to do a few nights ago. But you knew you could never mention his name, that these feelings were about him, despite knowing you had to be truthful and vulnerable in the confession. His name would not be mentioned. You would only say it's an older man, which was technically the truth.

When you reach the white church, you stand outside to look at the building for a few minutes, trying to muster up the courage to go inside. Now that you’re standing in the front alone, peering up at the church, it feels much bigger and more intimidating than on Sundays when the whole town is present. You feel small and judged as the structure towers over you with its grand greatness and holiness.

Finally, once you feel comfortable, you step into the church. As you open the wooden door, the echo of the wood creaks throughout the vast and holy room. It's the middle of the weekday, so the place is empty, except for Father James.

He mustn't have heard you come in, despite the noise, since he was turned with his back to the door while seeming to tidy up the altar. You took some time to examine him from behind now that he didn't have on his sacred vestment. He wore the same black shirt as he did on Sunday's mass. The material clung to his muscular and broad back. It looked like he would rip out of it with each movement he made. The pants he wore were tight and showed off the curve of his behind. God, how much you wanted to feel his naked skin against yo…

No, stop it! You're in the house of the Lord! You couldn't bring these unholy thoughts back into your mind when you came here for the sole reason to repent for them.

You cleared your throat, “excuse me? Father James?” You called for him in your sweetest voice.

“Ah,” he turned around at being called upon, his face displaying a slight smirk when he saw that it was you. He started going towards you with his arms slightly open. “Welcome. I reckon you're here to repent for your sins, young lady?”

You tried to calm your beating heart as he approached you with confidence and power in his steps; you had to stifle a whimper at how gorgeous he was. He stopped at a respectable distance from you. You wanted him closer.

“Uh, y-yes, Father.”

“Please,” he gestured to the booth by the wall, “be my guest.”

Father James entered the confessional on one side, while you entered the other, both of you taking your seats. The screen divider between the two spaces in the booth gave a sense of privacy, which always made it a little easier to confess.

You make the sign of the cross and say; “Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.”

“How long since your last confession…?”

“It's been six days since my last confession, Father.”

“... and what have you come to confess, my child?”

You close your eyes as you take a deep breath in… and then a deep breath out before you start laying out the truth to him.

“Father, I've been having impure thoughts and impulses the last couple of days. There has been this,” you stop for a split second to try and get your story together before continuing, “older man that I've had unholy fantasies about late at night while I've been… touching myself,” the last bit you utter shamefully.

“Tell me, are you a virgin?”

His questions caught you off guard; not entirely sure what this had to do with the confession you had come to tell, but you answered truthfully anyway.

“Y-yes, Father.”

“But… have you ever done anything sexual that wasn’t sex with… other people?”

You had done a few things, yes, but you weren't sure why he asked you this. In new confessions, you usually didn't confess to something you'd already repented for.

“Forgive me, Father, but I-I'm not sure what this has to do with my current confession.”

“I'm just trying to understand you, trying to learn more about you, sweet thing. Go on, don't be shy. Your secrets are safe with me.”

You might as well tell him what you'd told your old priest, Father Jacob, previously. You wanted Father James to have as much information as possible so he could help you to be forgiven.

“I-I've only done a few things, Father.”

“Tell me.”

“Well, I kissed a few guys and a girl at summer camp some years back….”

You could hear a low chuckle come from him as you mentioned kissing. Panic overcame you as you thought you had said something wrong and stupid.

“F-Father?”

“I'm sorry, sweet one. Go on.”

“O-ok, well, I-I've given handjobs to two different guys that same year at camp, and I've been fingered once.”

“And that's all?”

“Y-yes, Father James.”

“Did you make any of the guys come when you touched them?”

“Ehm… n-no, no, I don't think so.”

“Did you come while you were touched?”

“No.”

“Good, good… this is all good to know for later use.”

Later?

You were about to ask him what he meant by that, but he was already moving on from that conversation onto another.

“So tell me how you touch yourself at night and what you think about while doing so; spare no details, sweetheart.”

You swallowed hard as it was time to confess to your recent sins.

“W-well, it's usually late at night when I know my parents are fast asleep. I can't find the peace to sleep because the thoughts and urges are so strong that I can't help but act upon them, Father, and I-”

You pause for a bit, but Father James encourages you to continue.

“Go on. It's ok. You’re safe here. No one is judging you.”

“O-ok… well, I usually start by touching and palming my breasts through my shirt as I let my mind fill up with fantasies that it's a strong and powerful man touching me all over, and I can feel myself get wet down there and I-”

You pause again when you notice through the holes in the screen divider that he's palming his crotch through his black pants. An inaudible gasp leaves you at the sight of him.

“Please, continue.”

Any sane person would most likely get out of here as quickly as possible, but something is holding you back, a greater force, maybe? You don't know, but what you do know is that you want to tell him more, and you want to see more of him as you go on with your sin.

“After… playing with my breasts for a while, I travel my hand, slowly, down my stomach, and I spread my legs so my hand can find a comfortable position where I need and crave attention. I-I don't start touching myself immediately. I kind of tease the idea while toying with the little bow in front of my panties….”

A groggy groan could be heard on the other side of the screen, and when you look through the holes once more, you can see that he's taken his penis out and holding it in his hand.

“Holy shi…,” you almost curse.

You'd seen some penises before, as you had just told Father James moments ago, but never something as large and… might you say beautiful as his one. It was mesmerising to look at, and you forgot entirely where you were for a second as you watched him circle his thumb on the tip, smearing some form of slickness on the head.

You moaned a quiet mewl as your bundle of pleasure pulsated in desperation, and your panties dampened with arousal. You closed your thighs tight to try and ease some of the excitement. A primal urge inside of you wants to take hold of him and caress his length. To take him in your mouth and taste hi…

No! This couldn't happen; you couldn't be getting these unholy thoughts, not again, not in the house of the Lord of all things. But somehow, the Devil had managed to penetrate itself into this holy church and take over Father James’ mind and yours… and you gladly let it consume you entirely, despite it being so wrong.

“Keep going, sweetheart; tell me more.” His voice was rougher and more demanding than usual, making you tingle all over.

“A-after battling between the good and evil in my mind, the Devil wins, and I snake my hand into the panties, and I'm so… wet down there as I start playing with myself. I-I know it's wrong, but it feels so good, Father, that I can't help myself.”

“Do you imagine that it’s someone else touching you?”

“Yes.”

Father James has now taken a tight grip around himself and is moving his hand up and down the length of him. Although it's a little dark in the booth, you can still see his chest contract and expand with each deep breath he takes. Without realising it, you start to slowly rock back and forth in your seat to create some friction between your legs. You bite your bottom lip as you get some desired attention down there.

“How many fingers do you insert in yourself?”

“Only one, Father. I can’t do more than one, but I-I've never really enjoyed it; but I find circling the bundle of nerves to be the most enjoyable. That's what makes me feel good.”

“Yeah? You like it when it feels good?”

“Y-yes, Father, s-so much.”

He's now picked up the pace on his red and swollen penis. “Fuck, baby, keep going.” His voice is laced with a dark and sinister tone, like he was possessed by Satan himself. It terrified and exhilarated you at the same.

“W-well, it builds up, and it feels so good that I never want it to stop, but I can't really hold it in for long until I need to have my release….”

“And?”

“It builds and builds and builds… until it gets to a point where this delicious and tingling feeling explodes inside of me, and the only way I can describe it is that this must be what heaven feels like, Father, pure and beautiful heaven, and I can't stop touching myself until I've let it consume my whole body….”

A loud groan, followed by curse words, emits from him as a white substance shoots out from his tip, coating his entire hand. You gasp as you take in the sight. That never happened when you touched those guys some years ago. Your mouth starts to water as sudden thoughts and desires of having that in your mouth and all over your body cloud your mind. Father James continues pleasuring and touching himself until it seems he's come down from heaven.

There is a long pause between you as you both process the event that just unfolded. Father James is the one to break the silence.

“Go in peace, my child.”

That's it? Father Jacob usually assigns you an Act of Penance to do and makes you Pray the Act of Contrition and loads of other work so that God may forgive you.

“B-but am I forgiven, Father?”

“All is forgiven, sweet one. God loves you; now go in peace.”

You can't be sure that you've cleared yourself of any sin. It only seems like you've created more of them. But if Father James says that all is forgiven, then you have to trust him… right?

With shaking legs, you stand up and leave the booth without saying anything else. What happened there leaves you confused and with more questions about Father James and his intentions for you. Hopefully, you'll have all the answers soon…

Thank you for reading 🖤 Feedback through a comment is highly appreciated! Or let me know through an anonymous ask if that feels more comfortable. As well as a reblog to share my work with other people!

#priest!bucky #beefy!bucky #bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x y/n #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes x f!reader #bucky barnes x female reader #bucky barnes smut #bucky barnes one shot #bucky barnes imagine #sebastian stan #sebastian stan smut #marvel #marvel x reader #marvel x y/n #marvel x you #marvel smut #marvel one shot #marvel imagine

[ladykailitha]

Can Anybody See Me? Part 16

Hello, darlings! I am back with this wonderful story. I figure there will be about 20 chapters provided more drama doesn’t crop up for our lovely duo.

The Cinderella thing is mostly true. Not the throw up part but the English teacher part. And she did swear off drama.

Also I used real lines from the play 1776 all credit goes to the writer Peter Stone.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15

*

Eddie always got tired of hearing the music by the time the last week before the performance came around. But he never got tired of watching Steve learn the dance moves or say his lines.

What was impressive was the fact that Steve picked up his lines faster then the kids that had been doing this for years. The actor playing John Adams kept stumbling over the line “Does anybody see what I see?” He kept saying “Does anyone see what I see?”

Eddie could tell even from the light booth that Steve was about to leap from the sidelines and strangle him.

Miss Lucy called out the correct line for the tenth time and the kid threw his arms in the air and walked off the stage in frustration.

Miss Lucy sighed. “All right, I guess we take a short break before getting back to it.” Marty patted her shoulder and went to go talk to him.

Steve turned to Janice. “You want to strangle Vince or shall I?”

Janice laughed. “How about we take turns?”

By then Eddie had made his way to them, the boring way. As in he actually used the stairs.

“Now, now, Stevie,” he growled low. “Threatening John Adams is a completely different part of the play!”

Steve and Janice laughed. Eddie loved this laugh. It wasn’t the dark chuckle or sneering smirk from his King Steve years. It was an actual laugh, open mouthed and loud.

“You ready for your first performance in front of a live audience?” Janice asked.

Steve gulped. “No?”

“There’s always someone who throws up,” she said with a grin. “So if you feel like up chucking, just do it in the designated garbage can with the lid to keep the smell from getting to everyone else.”

Eddie winced. “Yeah, we really don’t need a repeat of Cinderella.”

Steve’s face drained of color. “What happened with Cinderella?”

Marty came up from behind Janice and said, “The kid playing the King threw up on the girl playing the fairy godmother. Like all over her dress. And apparently she had a weak stomach, so she threw up too. And then the girl playing one of the step-sisters threw up because of the smell...and it just spiraled from there.”

“They had to cancel that performance,” Janice finished with a grimace.

“That performance?” Eddie said. “Hell they had to push back all of the performances until the following week so that they had time to get all the costumes dry cleaned.”

“It was a mess,” Marty said.

Steve frowned. “When was this?”

“Oh this was in middle school,” Marty said. “Um...our seventh grade I believe if Eddie was there for that.”

Eddie nodded. “The English teacher wanted to direct that year and she was a way better teacher than the actual drama teacher. But after the puking incident she swore off drama forever.”

It was Steve’s turned to wince. “I can’t say I blame her.”

“So yeah,” Janice said. “Please use the designated receptacles if you decide you need to throw up.”

Steve grimaced. “I don’t usually throw up when I’m nervous or scared, so I think I should be fine.”

Eddie frowned at the edition of scared to that statement. When the hell would Steve have been frightened? He supposed he could be referring to his dad, but this felt like it was something else.

“All right, everyone!” Miss Lucy called out. “Places!”

Steve got back out there and stood on his mark. Vince and Martin, the kid who was playing Hancock got to theirs.

“I’m still from Massachusetts, John;” Martin said, “you know where I stand. I’ll do whatever you say.”

“No, you’re the President of Congress,” Vince said. “You’re a fair man, Hancock—stay that way.”  

The messenger boy came in and handed Steve the dispatch.

“Tell me Mr Thomson, out of curiosity, do you stand with Mr Dickinson or do you stand with me?

Steve held up the dispatch. “I stand with the General. Lately–I’ve had the oddest feeling that he’s been–writing to me,” he said.

And this time the scene went off without a hitch.

“Cut!” Miss Lucy called. “Well done everyone!”

“Steve just a little more emotion in the ‘me’ bit, okay?” she said. “Your voice is supposed to crack with the despair of it all.”

Steve nodded.

“Kenny,” she said, “The way you uttered you line sent chills down my spine. Keep that up.”

Steve privately thought that Kenny should have been Adams instead of Lyman Hall. He was the much better actor. The only thing Steve could figure is that Kenny wanted the Georgia representative role.

It was one Steve had originally thought to try out for, but after reading the script a couple times decided that between Hall and Thomson, Thomson was a better fit for him.

They managed to get through the entire play that day.

Steve met up with Janice, Marty, and Eddie afterwards.

Eddie rubbed his hands together. “I can’t wait for next week.”

Marty laughed. “Yeah, yeah, Mr High School Delinquent wanting a valid reason to skip class...”

Steve frowned. “Why would we get to skip class?”

All three heads turned to him in shock.

“How do you not know?” Janice asked, her eyes wide.

“Know what?” Steve asked even further confused.

Marty smacked his head. “Shit! We’ve never actually said it out loud.”

Janice and Eddie turned to him.

“Wait, seriously?” Eddie asked eyes wide as he tilted his head forward in shock.

“We assumed everyone would know because we do it every year,” Marty explained.

“Steve,” Janice began, “did you not go to the high school productions of the school play in elementary?”

Steve frowned. “I vaguely remember that, I guess. I don’t think I ever went to the assembly. I think me and Tommy would cut out and then show up for the last few minutes.”

Eddie rolled his eyes. “Of course you did.”

Steve pursed his lips. “So we preform for the elementary kids all next week?”

Marty nodded. “Just the first act. Just enough to whet their appetite for the full thing so they drag their parents to the show so that we get the money.”

Steve nodded. “Okay. Do you guys do it for the middle school as well? Because I vaguely remember watching some musical about pirates my eighth grade year I think it was.”

Marty sighed. “We used to according Miss Lucy, but they stopped that year. The middle school principal hates the arts and discontinued it. Combine that with a drama teacher that didn’t care and you get the mess that is middle school preforming arts.”

Steve’s frown deepened. “I have a friend in the drama club at the middle school, I don’t think he’s every said anything bad about it. And he complains about everything.”

Eddie looked over at him and cocked his head. “Which one?”

Steve hummed. “Oh? Um, Dustin. The curly haired one without the front teeth.”

Eddie chuckled. “Yeah, I can see him being a drama kid.”

Marty chose that moment to cut in. “The problem is because they don’t have anything to compare it to most middle school kids don’t know it’s shit. And by the time they do figure it out, they’re already in high school and have moved on.”

Steve nodded. “Make sense I guess. And with the year almost over it wouldn’t make sense to try and change the system now.”

Janice sighed. “Sad but true.” She looked at her watch. “Look, I’ve got to go, I’m going to be late for work. I’ll see you guys later.”

Marty looked at his own watched and nodded. “That’s my cue as well. I need to talk to Mrs Thompson about one of the wigs. Apparently James is allergic to the power in his Franklin wig and we need to find a replacement that won’t scalp our actor.”

Steve grimaced. “Ouch. Yeah, I hear that. See around, man.”

Marty said goodbye and dashed off.

Eddie turned to Steve. “You coming to my place to study tonight?”

Steve hummed in the positive. “I just have to stop by my place to pick up a couple of things. Do you want me to grab some pizza on my way?”

Eddie grinned. “Sounds great. I love all meat.”

“You would,” Steve said rolling his eyes.

Eddie pushed him playfully. “I eat veggies, dude. Just not on pizza. It makes the dough all soggy.”

Steve frowned. “Huh. I don’t think I ever noticed that. I like a good supreme. But I’ll forgo today and just get a pepperoni and an all meat.”

Eddie smiled softly. “You do that, then. And I’ll see you at seven?”

Steve gave Eddie’s shoulder a squeeze and let his hand linger for a moment. “See you at seven.”

And then he walked away.

Eddie practically skipped backwards before he turned and ran out of the auditorium.

There in the back, shrouded in darkness, Kyle Carver sneered.

*

Steve arrived at the Munson trailer seven o’clock on the dot. His backpack was slung over one shoulder and the hot pizza perfectly balanced in one hand as he knocked on the door.

Eddie threw open the door and smiled. “Right on time.”

Steve grinned back. “I try.”

Eddie stepped back and let Steve in. Wayne smiled at the sight of the pizza.

“I like your boy, Eddie,” he said with a chuckle, rising to his knees. “Anyone who brings pizza from D'Onofrio’s is okay in my book.”

Steve laughed. “Like I’m going to get it from that new chain store that just opened up. My Italian grandmother would haunt me in my sleep.”

“I didn’t know you were Italian,” Eddie said, taking the boxes from him to set on the counter.

“Quarter,” Steve said, tossing his backpack on the floor next to coffee table. “My mom’s half Italian, half French, all American as my dad would say.”

“And your dad is what? All asshole?” Eddie asked getting down three plates from the cupboard.

Steve smirked. “Something like that.”

Wayne grabbed a slice of the pepperoni and set it on his plate. “I’m going to watch the game, you two boys okay with doing your homework on the counter in the kitchen?”

Steve nodded and Eddie said, “Yeah, that’s fine.”

Wayne nodded back and went to go eat his pizza in front of the TV.

The boys bent over their English homework cursing every British author under the sun for foisting their very unamerican style of writing on poor American high school students. In particular William Golding. Eddie still had a soft spot for Tolkien.  

“If this goes on for much longer,” Steve said after they were working on it for an hour, “we might have to call in big guns.”

Eddie sighed. “Why are we being made to care about some bratty teenagers trying to kill each other on an island?” He buried his head in hands and screamed.

“Fuck if I know,” Steve admitted. “Why don’t we take a smoke break? Sit out on the porch for a minute?”

Eddie lifted his head. “Yeah.”

They grabbed their jackets and went out to sit on the porch stairs. Steve pulled out his pack of cigarettes and handed one to Eddie.

“Camels?” Eddie asked, pulling out his Bic lighter.

“Got a problem with Camels?” Steve asked, flicking open his Zippo lighter and lighting Eddie’s cigarette when his Bic refused to strike.

Eddie shrugged. “I would have pegged you for one of those fancier brands. Clove or whatever.”

Steve shook his head. “My dad smokes ‘em and they were my first smoke.” He shrugged. “Can’t imagine smoking anything else.”

Eddie bumped his shoulder into Steve’s. “Yeah, same. Only for me, it’s Wayne’s brand.”

Steve smiled. “Makes it easier to share.”

Eddie smiled back. “Sure does, big boy.”

They finished their cigarettes and went back inside, finally able to finish their assignments.

Steve and Eddie lingered at the door, pressed together, Steve playing with the pins on Eddie’s denim vest.

“I wish there wasn’t school tomorrow so I could stay,” he murmured.

Eddie lifted Steve’s face by his chin. “I know, sweetheart. But we do and I would really like to graduate this year.”

Steve chuckled. “Yeah, me too.”

Eddie pressed his lips to Steve’s. “Good night, Stevie.”

Steve gave him a quick peck. “Night, Eds.” He waved goodbye and drove off.

Eddie watched him go and then slipped back into the trailer where Wayne was cleaning up in the kitchen.

“Eddie what did I tell you about leaving your comic books on the counter?” he asked with a sigh, holding up the comic in question.

He frowned. “That’s not one of mine.”

Wayne looked at it again. “I didn’t figure it was Steve’s. He doesn’t strike me as the type to read comic books.”

Eddie crossed the trailer and took the book from him. The cover showed a young man holding a bat filled with nails in front of a tentacled monster in a dark hallway.

The title read: The Monsters on Maple Street.

“Hey,” Wayne said. “That’s the name of one of my favorite ‘Twilight Zone’ episodes. It’s a real good one.”

Eddie nodded. Wayne was right. Steve didn’t read comic books. But he did write and draw one.

Or rather: two.

Holy shit.

Part 17  Part 18  Part 19  Part 20  Part 21

Tag List: @shrimply-a-menace @strangersteddierthings @throwbackthrowaway @novelnovella @cursedfoxteeth @babyblender @lifeisnotsobadonceyoustopcaring @swimmingbirdrunningrock @steve-the-hairrington @winterbuckwild @spectrum-spectre @matchingbatbites @garden-of-gay @anaibis @thing-a-ling @fandemonium-takes-its-toll @artiststarme @sundead  @nelotegreitic @gregre369 @butterflysandpeppermint @thedragonsaunt @kodaik97 @messrs-weasley @scarletzgo @deadlydodos @renaissan-vvitch @evix-syne666 @emly03 @justforthedead89 @ashwinmeird @huniibee @phantypurple @stevesbipanic @shucks-yuckyuck @awkwardgravity1 @bookbinderbitch @reportinglivefromsoda @chasinggeese @be-the-spark-bitch @jinxjinn @kohlraedirectioner @cr0w-culture @xjessicafaithx @whimsicalwitchm @jaywhohasthegay @dangdirtydemons @lovelyscot  @howincrediblysapphicofyou @the-redthread @estrellami-1

#My writing #stranger things #steddie #canon divergence #the boy with the bat #ladykailtiha writes

[iris0-0]

I promise I’m here.

Mom!Tess Servopoulos x sh!daughter reader

Synopsis: Tess, your mother has always given you tough love. Trying to raise you to be respectful and grateful. Though when hard times fall upon you, you cannot seem to tell your mother as you feel she will see you as weak and pathetic.

Warnings: Tess being soft, reader is referred to in more female pronouns, blood, mentions of depression, mentions and descriptions of self harm, I do not encourage this behavior and am here for anyone <3 this is definitely not personal

✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿

Familiar sounding music invaded the current deep sleep you were in. Eyes fluttering open, before quickly closing them due to the early morning light invading through the blinds.

The door opens and you feel a harsh pat on your back, “Cmon kid, gotta catch the bus.” Tess says, making sure you’re awake before leaving the room.

Getting up you looked at the old digital clock on the nightstand that read 6:40 a.m. Fuck. If you didn’t pick up the pace there would be another tardy slip with your name on it, and with that a scold from your mother.

Grabbing whatever pants were on the desk chair and a shirt you grab the same black zip-up jacket you took everyday…to hide the scars. Thankfully your mother Tess wasn’t very noisy as long as you didn’t give any “teenage attitude” was what she liked to call it. So she never really picked up on your habits

Self-harm wasn’t something you were proud of. It started 3 years ago when you were 13. Middle school was an absolute bitch, not to mention the other struggles that have happened in the meantime. You tried to get clean….but it never lasted long, it was a tough battle.

Slipping on the jacket and grabbing your book bag you go down the stairs to grab a banana or some shit to say you ate breakfast. Tess was brewing a cup of coffee before she herself was off to work. She eyed you up and down a bit before smirking to herself. Annoyed you give her a look that basically said ‘what?’.

“When’s the last time you washed that jacket?” She asked. “You were it practically everyday.” Walking towards you she tried to get closer to at least make sure it smelled clean, as teenagers could be lazy or dirty sometimes.

Not wanting her to move the jacket in case of any risk of exposing what was below you responded in a bantering manner to try and keep up your cool act. “Mom! Stop it! I washed it this week.” You smile dodging her grasp and walking to the door to catch the bus.

“If you say so.” She shrugs. “Go learn and shit.”

✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿

School. Highschool sophomore to be specific. Grades weren’t that much of a problem, you were told you were ‘a smart kid’. Having average level classes and a work ethic (sometimes) helped. It wasn’t the work, it was the people.

Once again for English there was a project. Why do English teachers have a project nobody likes every week? Everyone got up and looked around to choose partners…nobody chose you. Shocker. ‘Okay, who cares? I’ll do it myself as usual.’ You thought.

But of course it wasn’t okay. Depression shuffled your mind again replaying old scenarios and listing reasons why none of the other kids wanted to work with you.

Putting headphones on and shuffling random shit, mainly tv girl you got to work and try to forget but to no avail. Taking a break in the middle to go to the bathroom.

Always keeping a blade handy you sit in the bathroom stall. ‘Why am I doing this again? Don’t really know don’t really care.’ You think.

Taking the jacket off halfway the view of the old and fresh marks come into place. It was never enough. Addicted was the word, but it’s perfectly fine isn’t it?

‘Doing what I do best.’ Sliding the blade like it was a damn hobby. Did it sting? Maybe a little but the relief was too strong, it overpowered any pain. That was, until you zoned out. Going deeper, was it intentional? Who knows.

Hitting a vein blood trickled down, quicker than the cuts before that would stop bleeding soon. There was too much. And of course depression comes with anxiety. How come you were fine mutilating yourself but the moment you got dizzy all hell broke loose. I need to get out.

Quickly thinking of an excuse out of habit you called the only person you had, your mom. Were you dying of blood loss? Hell no. But you were on the verge of passing out and eating shit on the schools bathroom floor.

The phone rang a few times.

“Please..please..please.” You mutter.

T: “Hello? Im in a meeting did you butt dial me again?” Your mom Tess says, a bit confused.

“I need you to pick me up, please.”

T: “Kid, I’m in the middle of a meeting.” She sighs, though she hears the panic in your voice. “If it means that much to ya I’ll getchu right after, in maybe half an hour?”

“Okay.” You respond swallowing your tears.

T: “You cryin kid?” She asks suddenly concerned.

“No.” You deny, and you can hear her sigh from the other end.

T: “I’ll get you in a bit.” She said sternly.

✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿

About a half an hour passed. The bleeding was under control but you were weak as hell. Loosing blood was no joke, dizzy and nauseating to say the least. ‘I think I just lost more blood than a period.’ You thought.

A text from your mom saying she’s here and you signed out at the front office, slightly swaying in your steps as you walk the short walk from the front of the school to the car.

Tess was sitting, hand on the steering wheel. The glint from the sun shining just over the scar under her eye. You couldn’t read her face. Was she pissed about picking you up two hours into the school day and about you interrupting her meeting. Regardless you opened the car door.

“Thank you.” Was the only thing spoken and Tess nodded to the action keeping her eyes forward as she drove the two of you home.

Walking in the house Tess put up her keys. You tried to sneak upstairs. “Nope. Come back.” Tess said sternly before pointing to the couch. “Sit.”

Annoyed but not trying to test your mother, you sat your ass back down. “Tell me why I picked you up.” She asked and you just shrugged looking at the floor.

“That’s not an answer and you know it. I love you and I’m trying not to be upset with you but kid, I need to know. You called me in the middle of a meeting you knew I was in crying.” Tess said, a bit stern.

“It doesn’t even matter.” You say a bit annoyed at the persistence and not having an answer to the question that you wanted to tell her.

“Look at me.” She says, as you look straight at the ground. “I just didn’t feel good.” You say looking her in the eye, it was hard. She had the type of eyes that made you spill everything.

Staring felt like forever her eyes narrowing, until your left eye twitched. “You’re lying.” She says crossing her arms over her chest. “No I’m not.” Your eye twitches again, betraying you.

“Yes you are! Your eye is twitching like Nemo’s fucking special fin.” Tess responded. “How the hell would you even know if I was lying? You’re always gone!”

“Language! I’m gone providing for you!” The two of you yelled back and forth for ages. Slowly but surely you were growing enraged. Having bipolar disorder and anger issues Tess knew you needed to calm down before you passed out.

“Okay come on you need to calm down.” She says strictly but assuringly. Even though she was upset with the argument as well she didn’t want it to get worse with you passing out for continuing to dig your nails into your arms.

She took ahold of your shoulders and began to guide you to your room. And shortly after being alone you’d calm down and she’d come back and the two of you would talk it out.

But…that did not happen this time. As she tried to move you, you resisted. “Hey stop. Calm down.” She said trying to grab your arms as you tried to get out her reach. With the fresh cuts and the excessive deep one a whine of pain was let out.

Tess paused momentarily and debated on backing off, but she didn’t. You had been acting different and were on the verge of a panic attack.

With harsh short breaths through go your nose you knew there was nothing else you could do to hide anymore, you were too weak. “What’s hurtin’ hm?” Tess states touching your hands, shoulders, and head gently.

But when she glides over your arms you bit your lip. Razor burn was hitting hard. “Okay let’s get this off..” she mumbles slowly taking the jacket off after she sat you down on the couch.

“Oh honey…” was all Tess could say, staring at the cuts, scars, deep, and shallow. She tries to comfort you but too shaked up and overstimulated. “Okay okay.” Tess backs off, leaving for a short moment to grab the random first aid crap in the bathroom.

She comes back and cleans very carefully, trying not to upset or overstimulate you. As well as to not hurt you. “Breath baby.” She holds your face softly trying to calm you down.

After awhile the cleaning and wrapping is done. It was safe to say Tess could understand why. You had bad bipolar disorder and meltdowns. “Why didn’t you tell me hm?” She asks sitting next to you.

“Cause I didn’t want to worry you and give you more trouble cause it started when dad left and-“ You couldn’t finish beginning to sob.

She pulls you into her tightly and holds you. Quietly shh’ing you, cradling you like a baby. “I’m here I’m not going anywhere. I’m not him.”

Tess holds onto you as you fall asleep. And she’ll always be there for you.

✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿

THIS TOOK FOREVER OVER A WEEK I GOT STUCK. Anyways happy birthday to me <3 Love you stay safe.

#imagine #tlou #tlou2 #the last of us #the last of us part 2 #comfort #depressing shit #tw sh related #tess tlou #tess servopoulos #tlou tess #scenarios #oneshot

[steddiejudas]

Tell me you love me (even if you’re lying)

Eddie doesn’t want to remember a time before Chrissy Cunningham. He knows that time exists, has nightmares about the crippling loneliness, but in his opinion, his life started on the day of the middle school talent show. The day a small framed blonde girl with pom poms the size of her head watched in awe as he bounced around the stage with a buzzcut and Wayne’s beat up old guitar. Afterwards, Chrissy told Eddie how much she loved the show and how badly she wished she could perform like that. Eddie in turn told her how incredible her routine was with a mock of how her tiny hands managed to shake around the giant pom poms. She laughed, he smiled, and they had been best friends ever since.

They don’t always do everything together, now that they’re in high school. Chrissy is a cheerleader, so naturally she spends a lot of time with the rest of the cheer squad while Eddie is busy herding his little lost sheep. It’s no secret they’re friends, though. Chrissy co founded Hellfire and one is rarely seen walking into school for the day without the other. Eddie even sits in the bleachers during cheer practice so he can drive her home most days.

When Chrissy starts dating Jason, things get more complicated. She does her best to keep the jocks off Hellfire’s back, but with the rise of satanic panic it’s getting harder and harder to make him sit down and shut up when Eddie rants atop lunch tables. And if Eddie acts up a little more than usual as a form of disapproval for her choice of partner, well that’s between him and his gods. Which is not to say he’s passive aggressive about it. He’s voiced his opinions on Jason very clearly, many times, but Chrissy’s in a tough spot and he knows that. See, one too many longing glances towards a certain lanky soccer player with unruly shoulder length waves and a penchant for long ramblings had landed her in the hot waters of some scandalous, but not untrue rumors and it was only a matter of time before they got back to her parents. Her extremely religious parents. Eddie had offered to be her beard, naturally, but Chrissy wasn’t sure what would be worse in her parents eyes: their daughter being attracted to women, or attracted to the person they had referred to as “that no good Munson kid” for as long as they’d known each other.

They’re forced apart by Jason, in some ways. They see each other less in the halls, Chrissy stops coming to Hellfire meets, Eddie can’t even set foot in the gym during practice without jeering and insults flying his way. He never blames Chrissy, though. She still finds ways to spend time with him. They still drive to school together, they sneak off to their table in the woods after practice before Jason has had a chance to clean up and whisk her away. Any moment the two of them can spare is given to each other.

About two months into Chrissy and Jason’s relationship they steal away to their spot, but Chrissy seems off. She’s sullen and quiet, no trace of the girl who killed an entire adventuring party in three rounds of combat with a smile on her face to be found. Her silence speaks volumes, so Eddie fills the space between them by telling her about his day. He had a test in math that he’s almost certain he failed. All of second period he spent planning a one shot he’s sure Chrissy will love. Oh and he skipped English again, pretty sure he’s going to fail the semester.

That works to get her attention for a moment. She looks worried, says “again?” and her eyes drop back down to the carving of their initials in a little heart on the table. Eddie watches her as he rolls a joint. She traces the carving with the tip of her finger with that look on her face that means she’s deep in thought. Eddie lights the joint and passes it to Chrissy straight away. He can see some of the tension in her shoulders unwind from just one hit. A moment later and he knows she’s ready to talk.

“So, you’re awfully quiet today, Chris. What’s going on?”

She sighs and barely looks up at him. “I don’t know, Eds. Do you ever feel like you’re losing your mind?”

“Come on, you know I do. Are you okay? You know you can talk to me.”

“I know. I just-“ She sighs again and takes another hit before passing the joint back to Eddie. “I don’t know how much longer I can do this.”

“Do what?”

“This! All this lying, pretending to be someone I’m not. I’m just so tired and no matter how hard I try, I'm still not the person everyone thinks I am.”

“Chris,” Eddie hops up and over the table to sit next to Chrissy, wrapping her up in an embrace. “Tell me what’s going on.”

“He told me he loves me,” she says. It’s not joyous. They don’t celebrate. Her voice sounds deflated with a sense of doom. Eddie doesn’t speak, just lets her ride out her emotions. “He told me he loves me and I obviously don’t love him. I have to be a completely different person just to be around him.”

“Jesus H. Christ after two months? How good of an actor are you?”

“Too good, apparently,” she mumbles. “He tried to have sex with me, Eddie.”

“What?” Eddie shouts, springing to his feet. “I’ll fucking kill him.”

“No, Eddie, stop. I said he tried. Look, as big of an ass as he is, he is technically a gentleman. I told him I wanted to wait until marriage and he respects that.” Eddie seethes and paces around the table. “It’s just… what if he thinks that means I want to marry him?”

Eddie stops dead in his tracks when he sees the look on Chrissy’s face. It’s like he can see a full life lived in the creases between her brows. A life full of lies and disappointment. “Chris,” he starts gently, “if this is too much for you, there’s no reason you have to stay with him. Haven’t you proven your point?”

“No, Eds. Even now I hear the rest of the squad whispering about me. They think because I haven’t sealed the deal that none of it means anything. And I mean, they’re right. Even if I pretend it’s about ‘purity’ or whatever bullshit, I can’t even tell him I love him.”

Eddie settles back next to her on the bench. “What about me?”

“What about you?” she asks.

“Do you love me?”

“Of course I do, what kind of question is that?”

“Just- listen, hear me out. So he’s a douche and telling him you love him feels like drowning-“

“How did you know?”

“I know you, Chrissy. I’ve known you for years and I actually love you. Just like you actually love me. So just pretend when he says he loves you, that he’s me, or at least pretend it’s me you’re saying it back to, not Jason fucking Carver.”

“I don’t know, Eddie. You two couldn’t be more different. How am I supposed to imagine Jason is you?”

Eddie hums his agreement. Silence washes over them again as he holds her trembling frame. He offers her his ringed hand, knowing she takes comfort in twisting the costume jewelry around his fingers. In turn he plays with the green scrunchie she wears on her wrist when her hair isn’t up in her signature high pony. He takes it off her wrist without a word, grabs his bandana from his back pocket, and rips a piece of it off.

“What are you doing?” Chrissy asks, eyes wide. Eddie doesn’t say anything as he takes the strip of black fabric and ties it around the scrunchie in a little bow and puts it back on Chrissy's wrist.

“There. Now you’ve always got a little piece of me to say ‘i love you’ to.”

Chrissy looks at her wrist and laughs. The sound is like sunlight, a golden melody that brightens her eyes and fills Eddie’s chest with warmth. It’s so wholeheartedly Chrissy that Eddie can’t help but smile.

“I love you, Eddie Munson,” she says, catching her breath.

“I love you too, Chrissy Cunningham.” Eddie places a kiss to the top of her head and hugs her a little tighter.

A year later, when Chrissy dies, she’s still wearing the scrunchie with Eddie’s little bow. Eddie watches, unable to move as she’s suspended in midair and mutilated before his eyes. As much as he hates leaving her there, he doesn’t know what else to do but run. But first, he delicately removes the scrunchie from her hair and puts it on his wrist. He whispers “I love you” over and over, like a prayer as his van peels out of the driveway.

Eddie spends the next week on the run, his only contact being a 15 year old, the man Chrissy had spent years trying to convince him to just speak a single sentence to, and the girl Chrissy couldn’t manage to speak to herself. He isn’t sure if this is reality anymore. The world before Chrissy is a vague template for his nightmares. He never thought he’d have to see the after. It seems fitting that it’s the literal end of the world. And yet, somehow he survives. He not only survives, but now he has Robin, Steve, Nancy, and the kids that come with them. Eddie has a life he never thought possible without Chrissy.

When Corroded Coffin finally performs again, Chrissy’s scrunchie finds its way onto the fretboard of his guitar. The guitar Chrissy gifted him before their first ever show, his pride and joy, a little piece of her he’ll never give up. He dedicates every show to her, and whenever he looks at the little green scrunchie, he can hear her words clear as a melody.

“I love you, Eddie Munson.”

#eddie munson #chrissy cunningham #stranger things #platonic eddie and chrissy #they should have been besties #the friendship they deserved #steddie #buckingham #i was thinking about this all day and wrote it in one sitting okay pls be nice #no beta we die like chrissy #oh god i hurt my own feelings #hellcheer #platonic hellcheer #did anyone else always lose scrunchies to their dads guitars or was that just a weird thing from my childhood??

[noisynaia]

Dreaming of You - Chapter one

Chapter title: Downtown

summary: An otherwise depressing night takes a turn when a pair of warm brown eyes belonging to a charming stranger lock with yours. Years later, at a different time of your life, a certain pair of eyes find their way back into your life.

word count: 1.5k 

rating: E

pairing: Javier Peña x afab!reader 

note: Drinking and smoking. No use of (y/n). The reader uses she/her pronouns and is shorter than Javier, but no other physical descriptions are used. Future chapters will include smut, extramarital affairs and references to depression, PTSD and identity crises. This has not been beta-read and English is not my native language.

Can also be read on ao3.

(18+ minors, please don't interact)

next￨series masterlist￨playlist

…When you're alone and life is making you lonely

You can always go downtown

When you've got worries, all the noise and the hurry

Seems to help, I know, downtown…

San Antonio, Texas. May 1992.

“For fuck’s sake, Darlene…” You murmur under your breath. You’re not sure what you had expected, tired and annoyed as you hang the receiver of the payphone back on the hook with a sigh. You are glad that Darlene is okay, you had been worried when she had not shown up after waiting outside the bar for a while. She was supposed to meet up with you, the two of you would have a couple of drinks, find a nightclub and go dancing. It had supposed to be to take her mind off her recent breakup, but Darlene’s deadbeat ex had, apparently, come around her apartment while she was getting ready and now they’re back together and are planning on having makeup sex the rest of the night, so she ain’t coming. 

You consider just going back home, wiping your makeup off and getting out of these damn shoes. This is the only night this week you’re not working and you’re wearing fucking heels, not the usual 7-inch pleasers you wear to work, but still…      

The prospect of the 30-minute journey back to your apartment is suddenly very exhausting. You feel chilly in your short dress, a breeze of night air sweeping over your bare arms and legs and you make a decision. A quick drink or two will probably help your mood and warm you up, you would still be able to get home and enjoy the rest of your night off with some tv and a bowl of ice cream.  

The bar is dimly lit, but the little light that hits the exposed brick walls is a warm inviting orange and the place is not too crowded. It’s not the first time you’ve ever sat alone for a drink, but you can’t help but feel a little pathetic. You take a seat by the bar at the far end of the entry as you order yourself a paloma. You light a cigarette when your drink is placed before you, so absorbed in the words of Etta James that are coming from the speakers that you don’t notice that someone is approaching you.   

“'Scuse me.” A smooth man’s voice is speaking to you. “Can I borrow a light?” 

The voice comes from your left, it is a warm baritone. You turn towards the source. A dark-haired man, broad and tall with sharp, strong features is standing next to your stool. He is giving you a small charming smile, holding an unlit cigarette in his hand. 

“Sure.” You answer.   

You have to admit that he is quite handsome, if not downright sexy. He is wearing a pair of tight-fitting jeans that are hugging his figure nicely and a leather jacket in a warm burnt umber, that looks very good on him, over his button-down. You decide that you deserve a little flirt, and if he is as nice as he is attractive, maybe also a one-night stand. 

Your lighter is back in your purse, but you don’t grab it. Instead, you lean forward, just a little, to get closer to him you bring your hand to the cigarette in your mouth, your elbow has not left the counter. Letting the smoke escape through your nose, you pluck it from your lips with your middle and index finger, holding it only a few centimetres from your mouth. He takes a look at the cigarette you’re holding before locking eyes with you. His eyes are a warm brown colour, you already love those eyes. He leans in and pulls life into his own cigarette, strings of smoke rising into the air. 

“If I’m intruding, just send me on my way, but I couldn’t help but see you sitting alone and thought you might want some company.” He says, and damn, his voice really is nice. 

You can’t help but smile at his advances, sure that he has a lighter of his own in the pocket of those nice jeans of his. But you don’t mind the company, he is very attractive and you could use a little pick-me-up, so you accept the invitation of his company and his offer of buying you another drink.            

You introduce yourself and offer him your hand to shake, which he takes in his with a charming smile. 

“I’m Javier.” He tells you, and you can’t help but notice how small your hand looks in his.   

He is easy to talk to and you’re soon engaged in a nice conversation. You learn that he is working in South America, only back in The States for another week. When he asks you what you do for a living you tell him you’re a dancer, which technically isn’t a lie, but decide not to specify further. You are not ashamed of your profession, actually quite the opposite, but you have learned that some people can have very certain opinions about it. Javier has, however, not given you any indication of having any such opinions.   

He asks you why you happen to be at a bar alone and you tell him how you were supposed to meet with your friend and had plans about going dancing, but had been stood up. 

This makes him give you a mischievous, almost boyish, smile. His warm eyes lighting up.

“Do you still want to go?” 

He asks with such charm that you can’t help but tell him that you do and the two of you are on your way out of the bar not long after.    

You cross your arms over your torso when you step outside in the cool night air, feeling stupid for not having brought a jacket. You only get to resent your stupidity for a few seconds before Javier is draping his jacket over your shoulders, you look up at him and he is looking straight ahead. The gallant gesture from him seems to be something he didn’t even think twice about, but you can’t help but smile, as you pull the jacket tighter around yourself. The leather is well worn making it nice and soft and it smells nicely of his cologne under the characteristic smell of cigarette smoke. 

You let Javier guide you to a club he informs you isn’t that far away and the route leads you down to the river walk, the lights from the windows and street lamps are reflecting on the water surface, making the river seem to sparkle. You can’t help but notice how the light also reflects in Javier's eyes, giving their brown colour a golden hue. 

You continue the conversation from the bar as you walk and you arrive at your destination much quicker than you had expected. The club is dark, the bass from the music pounding through the speakers is vibrating through your body. Javier leads you, in a beeline to the bar, slipping through the crowd with his hand in yours. After some banter and some laughs, Javier has finished his whiskey and you have finished your daiquiri, he takes your hand back in his and leads you out on the floor. 

You can’t help but appreciate the attentiveness he is showing you. You do not need to sway away any unwelcome suitors as if you had been here with Darlene, as it is certain to anyone that you are here with him.  

You’re moving with the music, hips rolling and grinding, your body swaying to the beat. Javier’s broad hands are softly gripping your waist. He is a good dancer, his hips moving with a smoothness and ease, that only makes the fire of desire you’re feeling for him, burn even brighter. The blinking lights catch his handsome features in glimpses, the way his pelvis is moving against your ass sends a convulsion through your cunt. The bulge you can feel through his tight jeans as you dance against him and the way he circles his thumbs against your hips encourages your feelings even more.     

His lips are finally on yours, he kisses with the same passion and smoothness that he dances with. The feeling is like a shot of adrenaline to your heart, your entire body aflame.

Suddenly the smell of sweat and spilt drinks and all the different colognes and perfumes mixing in the stale air is getting too much, the strobe lights too harsh for your eyes. It all feels too much like work.

“Let’s get out of here…” You whisper into his ear, your voice low and husky from the lust you’re feeling.

Javier grunts, his grip on your hips tightening. He is kissing your neck before whispering back to you.

“Lead the way, Hermosa.”

…Just listen to the rhythm of the music that they're playing

Making conversation while you're on the dance floor swaying

Happy again, the lights are much brighter there

You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares…

Downtown, Petula Clarkly

#javier peña #javier peña x reader #javier peña x you #javier peña x y/n #javier pena #javier pena x reader #javier pena x y/n #pedro pascal characters #narcos fanfiction #javier peña narcos #javier peña fanfiction #javier peña angst #javier peña fluff #javier peña fic #narcos #javier pena smut #javier peña smut

[wordwings]

Writeblr Intro ✨

Greetings! I am Elias, also known as Isa (they/he). I’m a disabled, neuroqueer writer of disabled, neuroqueer stories. I’d love to meet more writers, and I’m always happy to join tag games and receive asks.

Fantasy is my first and favourite genre, but I have also written contemporary fiction, sci-fi, and romance—and who knows what genres I will feel inspired to write next. I’m not picky about age groups either and write MG, YA and adult stories. I write in both Dutch (my native language) and English, depending on how the story comes to me.

Published work

Wandering Stars, in Changelings: An Autistic Trans Anthology. A hopeful YA sci-fi/dystopian short story.

More about my WIPs under the cut!

WIPs

All of these titles are mostly unserious working titles because I usually only come up with an actually good title near the end of the story (and I also like keeping that a secret 🤫).

Currently working on:

Enby Witch Kid, a middle grade portal fantasy about a 12 year old kid who uses a spell to travel to a different world; drawing from my experience of being autistic and queer but only understanding it as ‘not fitting in’, and dreaming of escaping to a magical world

Nameless Romance, a t4t, autistic 4 autistic, ace 4 ace new adult romance novella about finding your own identity outside of society’s (and specifically parents’) expectations

Wankele machten (Unstable Powers), a fantasy adventure full of morally questionable characters I’m co-writing with my brother, in Dutch; it’s based on backstory for our DnD campaign

On pause:

Labyrinth, a multi-POV YA portal fantasy set in the same universe as Enby Witch Kid; I finished a first draft of this a few years ago, but I’ve since changed my mind about a lot of things and basically need to re-write the whole thing; and it makes more sense to publish my middle grade in this setting first, anyway

Ik wil alleen maar zwemmen/Ik ben Kikker (I only want to swim/I am Frog), a YA contemporary with a nonbinary autistic protagonist about friendship, romance, figuring out your whole life when you’re 17/18, and swimming; these working titles are a song reference and a children’s book reference, respectively

I also have a lot more story ideas that are mostly just collections of notes or random scenes—a sapphic vampire story, genderqueer beauty & the beast, a darker fantasy story set in the Enby Witch Kid/Labyrinth universe, a sequel to Labyrinth… And that’s not even all of them! My brain is a whirlpool of unfinished stories.

#writeblr intro #writeblr #writers on tumblr #disabled writer #queer writer #txt #about.txt

[yifftwiceplz]

[ Years in the future, but not many… ]

[ +10 to be precise]

“Is it really that crazy to think I don’t want to lose you?”

“I don’t know what you expect Dave,” Karkat sighs, and pinches the bridge of his nose, “it’s not like I can go down to the hospital and get mortality reassignment surgery.”

“We still have access to the rest of the omniverse. You know I don’t ask the council for jack shit, and you know they love you. We could find a blood quest bed if we just looked around.”

Karkat throws his head back and groans. “You seriously want to risk infecting the universe we worked so hard to protect with another Jack Noir or Lord English? Or some other unknowable horror? Just for this?”

“Just for this?” Dave raises his voice slightly, despite the shakiness permeating his body. “Our marriage, which you so fuckin' casually gesture and refer to as ‘this’, is everything to me, just in case that wasn’t extremely god damn obvious.”

Karkat narrows his eyes at Dave in a cold glare. “Don’t twist my words. Don’t try to make it sound like I don’t care about our marriage, Dave. That’s not fucking fair and you know it.” He spits, making an effort to bite back tears.

Dave remains silent.

Karkat continues. “Has it not occurred to you, even once, just once, that I don’t want to live forever?”

“Has it not occurred to you that I also don’t want to live forever? Especially if it’s without you?” Dave retorts.

“Oh!” Karkat throws his hands up. “So I’m the lucky one, because I get to die early!”

“Kinda, yeah!” Dave shouts, hands visibly shaking. “You fucking asshole. How do you expect me to take it knowing every day I get a little closer to watching your health decline?? To watching you fade away. Going to your corpse party. And then coming back to our house, alone.” His voice cracks.

Karkat remains silent.

After a long, pregnant pause in the conversation, Dave wordlessly puts on houseslippers and a hoodie.

“Where the hell are you going.” Questions a deflated Karkat.

“I gotta get some air.” Dave mutters to himself. He exits, restraining himself from slamming the door when he hears Karkat call his name. He turns his phone off and shoves it in his back pocket.

Dave stops at a cornerstore for some cigarettes and a cappuccino. Normally he’d mix all the flavors. He barely has the heart to push the buttons and talk to the cashier. He notes Karkat is usually one to facilitate transactions.

He chooses to walk. Kind of annoying to smoke and have coffee while you’re flying around like Superman. Not that he has a solid plan for where he’s walking. The urge to get out of the house provided enough fuel to walk to the gas station, and beyond that, he’s acting on pure impulse. He naturally finds himself wandering through the park to Dirk’s apartment.

Dirk answers the light rapping on the door almost instantly; does this dude ever sleep? Dave makes a note to hound him about that when he’s not in the middle of a fight with Karkat.

“Sup.” He says flatly.

“Sup.” Dave responds flatly. “Wanna go to Vegas?”

There’s barely a moment of pause before Dirk points out the obvious.

“Are you and Karkat fighting?”

Dave sulks, somehow expecting Dirk to not put 2 and 2 together. Or at least not comment.

 “Do you want to talk about it on the way to Vegas or not.”

“... Yeah, ok. Do you want clothes?”

Dave looks down to check his fit. He admits to himself it’s a bit dumpy. It’s then he notices the grey symbol on the chest - he’d grabbed Karkat’s hoodie. His heart sinks in his chest and he flinches. Anyone other than his family wouldn’t have noticed. “No,” Dave voicecracks. After a moment he adds, “It’s Vegas right? Who cares.”

Dirk, equally dumpy looking, blinks owlishly behind his shades and gives a light shrug. “Are we taking the car or flying?”

Dave dumps his empty coffee cup in the apartment dumpster. “I know it’s a pain in the ass but can we take the car? I like the rumbling. And I don’t want my eyes to be dry as shit when I get there.”

“Yeah, of course.” Thank fuck for Dirk always being down to clown.

Within ten minutes, the Striders are loaded up in Dirk’s car with an itinerary, westbound and down.

#editor's art #fics go in the art tag

[thepringlesofblood]

Dimension 20′s Neverafter FPE (Fairytales Per Episode)

im going out of my fuckin gourd on this neverafter shit, and i have decided to make a list of what and how many fairytales/nursery rhymes are introduced in each episode. will update as time goes on but i make no promises as to how frequently. theories are not included in totals. allusions/references are.

disclaimer: i am coming at this from a primarily american, english-speaking, culturally christian background, though I have studied a lot of ancient mediterranean myth and religion, a little bit of norse myth and religion, and a little bit of arthurian legend.

please let me know if there’s a reference to something I missed or if you know shit I don’t. i’ve decided that for our purposes, whether a reference/allusion is intentional or not doesn’t factor into our final count - unintentional/ambiguously intentional allusions/references count too, not just obvious ones.

(especially about mythical middle eastern spiders. I only know anansi & arachne, and have a passing familiarity with jorogumo & ye xian, and none of those are middle eastern or fit the situation.)

update: the show is finished! I won’t be taking my various theories off, i think it adds flavor. just remember as you’re going down that I was updating this weekly-ish. I’m going to do another post in the future that is Just The Numbers, but for now, enjoy my rambling! [updatier update: here’s the Just The Numbers post]

Ep. 1

The PCs (and their backstories)

 Mother Goose (+1)

Hubbard (old mother Hubbard who lived in a cupboard) (+1)

Jack

jumped over the Candlestick (+1)

(implied) and the Beanstalk (bc of the giants everywhere) (+1)

theory: Sprat? (the rhyme goes “Jack sprat could eat no fat his wife could eat no lean/and so between them both, you see they licked the platter clean.” not directly mentioned but that was my first thought upon the whole turning to bones thing that like all the fat was removed from his body or smthin)

Ylfa (Little Red Riding Hood) (+1)

there are 2 wolves inside you. you are 12.

the big bad wolf is mentioned in the context of 2 stories, the 3 little pigs and little red riding hood, so (+1) for the pigs

Pib (Puss in Boots) (+1)

Pinocchio (+1)

Cinderella (stepmother’s official art says “Cinderella...” at the bottom) (+1)

theory: “The second fairy you have met in your life” so also a character in smthin else probably since cindy’s stepmom isnt usually magical

update: maybe the whole cannibalism thing made her magical? who’s to say

updatier update (post ep 7): so it turns out that the evil fairy =/= the stepmother, but is the evil fairy from sleeping beauty. i was right about the stepmother being in multiple different stories but boy howdy do i wish I wasn’t. 

Rosamund (sleeping beauty/briar rose) (+1)

Gerard (the princess and the frog) (+1)

Snow queen (mentioned by Elody) (+1)

the rest of the episode

the little red hen (+1)

i fuckin love this one.

the story’s basic but good - she’s makin some bread and at every step asks for help from the other barnyard creatures and they’re all like hmm nahhhhh and then when it comes time to eat the bread they’re all like yes please lemme help w that and she’s like uh no, where was this energy when i was making the damn thing? and eats it ‘without any help at all’

so brennan doing her as like ‘u gotta help or you don’t eat’ is fantastic. 10/10

Ol king Cole (+1)

The little old lady who lived in a shoe (+1)

(alluded to) Alice n Wonderland (rabbit and teapot) (+1)

theory: “the chandling caravan” sounds like it should be something, but I don’t know what it is, and google has not been helpful. same w boffit, lord bandlebridge, and cressida lumley.

total tale count: 16

Ep. 2

The nutcracker (+1) (herr drosselmeyer is the weird uncle who gives clara the nutcracker. also in every ballet his drip is consistently immaculate)

Snow White (+1) (mirror mirror…..leaned up against the wall)

(alluded to) Beauty n the beast (furniture coming alive) (+1)

theory: Eidelgrin means something, but I don’t know what it is.

total tale count: 3

Ep. 3

.........nothing new to report

Ep 4

the fairy with the turquoise hair (aka the blue fairy) is actually not exclusive to Pinocchio - she has her own book n everything. (+1)

(alluded to) the little mermaid (+1)

“a dancing princess who either cannot or will not speak near a beach.”

the little mermaid trades her voice for legs and in the OG grimm story it feels like stepping on swords whenever she walks so she kind of “dances” (rip)

there’s. So many rabbit and fox tricksters. And other clever cats. I don’t think any were directly mentioned (except that Pinocchio has some in his many adventures, which isn’t a new tale) so I’m gonna say (+1) for rabbit and (+1) for fox.

Update: a reply to this post mentioned a character named Reynard the Fox from medieval French literature that might be the reason that the Fox speaks with a French accent. I found more support for this theory below!

“Isengrim”

this is the name of the daggers Pib gets. Rabbit mentions that it’s a name that Fox called the Wolf.

In fact, there’s a tale called Ysengrimus from 1152 CE where Reynard the Fox tricks the titular character, a wolf! So, there’s one Fox story confirmed. No additional points since Fox already had 1 point, this is more confirming the specific story he was inspired by.

theory: also, if we know the accents Mean Something, then Rabbit having a British accent might point to Peter Rabbit.

update: i have noticed several posts calling Rabbit’s accent Australian. it can be hard for me to tell the difference and idk if the general European bent of these tales means that brennan’s British just sounds kind of Australian or if it Means Something. I’m sure there’s Australian trickster rabbits too i just don’t know them

no fuckin clue where the ring came from tho :/

the golden goose (another Jack/Mother Goose tale not specifically mentioned before) (+1)

plus the beanstalk thing is talked about more (not new info though)

total tale count: 5

Ep. 5

hey diddle diddle (+1) (the dish ran away with the spoon + the cow jumping over the moon are from this same rhyme)

also anyone catch brennan mentioning fiddle music as tim was healing pib? ik it was king cole related music, but also...hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle.

itsy bitsy spider (+1)

(alluded to) little miss muffet (+1) (tuffeton)

(alluded to) goldilocks (+1) (”just enough” oats)

1001 nights (+1) (scheherazade is the author of these tales, as well as a myth in her own right. I have not read 1001 nights. please tell me things if you know them)

“spider queen” (+1) idk what it is but its fuckin something

identifying information: guardian of a cave/maze. supposedly has a throne. 1001 nights-adjacent.

theories:

“the spider and the wind” tale 909 of 1001, spider isn’t in this one that much actually

not all folktales in the neverafter are in mother goose’ book, so it stands to reason that not all folktales in the Endless Nights are in 1001 nights.

however, all the folktales in the neverafter are European in origin (mostly medieval), so it would make sense that the folktales in the endless nights would be middle eastern or adjacent

ye xian - chinese folktale where there’s a spider queen

“that’s east asia not arabia” fair but consider: in the older translations, aladdin is a chinese peasant. the world of 1001 nights is already bigger than arabia, and stories travel much more easily than the goods being traded across asia and the mediterranean on the silk road at the time the stories were written.

jorogumo - japanese yokai. a spider that turns into a woman. again, extremely far away from arabia, but girl i am looking.

cave of thawr - islamic oral tradition of muhammed hiding in a cave and a spider protects him. there’s a similar jewish tale w david hiding in a cave.

unlikely, but if there’s beautiful tapestries and the mother of all spiders i have to mention my girl Arachne (greek myth)

all time famous mythical spider anansi (west africa) still doesn’t really fit the bill, and is farther away from arabia than arachne (greece, which had colonies in the middle east (along the mediterranean shore but still. water = trade = exchange of goods = exchange of ideas/stories)) but still possible

yes i got a degree in ancient mediterranean studies and am using it to ruthlessly analyze a comedy show instead of sleeping, what about it?

sinbad (+1) “Sinbad the Sailor” (the roc is part of this as far as i can tell)

magical palace w the tapestries of starlight (+1) there’s a fuckload of magic palaces in 1001 nights. idk which one this refers to but it’s Something. am currently combing the stories more closely to specify at least one.

theories

the bartender with the icy wound is definitely someone. my gut says someone from the snow queen - people get icy mirrors in their eyes n shit in there and oftentimes straight up don’t get better

the peddler of wares in the corner has to be someone

the name of the tavern being “the cock and toad” has to mean something. i did some googling. there’s lots of fairytales w toads and lots of fairytales w cocks (lol) but none I could find where it’s just the two of them together. it’s weird, w a lot of fairytales/fables/nursery rhymes its like rolling 2d8 on a table of 8 animals and then just making the title out of the two animals you get. statistically its likely that there’s a story out there called that but I can’t find it.

the fucking spidersilk ring. i will solve this riddle one day.

they say the name “Aesop” as in “Aesop’s fables” (like the tortoise and the hare) but no tales mentioned yet. worth looking into if you’re the curious sort tho. Pib is going to fuck this guy up, his stories are very animal-centric and definitely have some trickster cats.

total tale count: 8

Ep. 6

No new tales - expands on ones already mentioned.

It’s just Muffet and whoever Scheherazade’s spider is

at least we find out that the “spider queen” referred to the monstrous form of muffet and Scheherazade’s spider combined, and not some new wholly separate myth.

Scheherazade’s spider seemed a little...riddly? for lack of a better term? like the whole “something that does not breathe” thing was weird, and if it’s supposed to be a guardian or guide of some sort, riddles make sense.

honorable mention: In the adventuring party episode, brennan tells the fable of the scorpion and the frog.

total tale count: 0

Ep 7

many theories with little knowledge.

In the adventuring party, brennan straight up says that the sword of truth is a general archetype, not from any specific tale. didn’t know that was an option! so no points for the sword of truth, dope as it is.

p.s. anyone else get flashbacks to fhsy with the whole truth mirror thing? it’s a good concept I’m glad brennan’s bringing it back

I am assuming each artifact found in the spider’s lair either comes from a separate tale, or is an archetype. I’m only counting it if I can pin down a specific tale that it is from.

the gillesuit/haystack cloak (+1)

update: As of Ep. 9, we now know that this is called “the cloak of rushes” and grants advantage on stealth checks. it is almost certainly from the English fairy tale “Cap-o’-Rushes” which, confusingly, features not just a cap but a whole outfit made of rushes!

my first thought was little boy blue, which does come from the tales of mother goose. this makes more sense tho lol

the golden bridle (+1)

some cursory googling indicates that this is from the celtic tale of Guleesh. one night, upon hearing the Fair Folk partying in some ruins (had to look up what a “rath” was lol) and saying “My horse, my bridle, my saddle!”, he repeats what they’re saying and is suddenly on a horse with a golden bridle. the story isn’t about the bridle itself, but the horses feature prominently, and can fly and stuff. When Guleesh kind of breaks the magic, the horse turns into a wooden beam, so maybe putting the bridle on a wooden beam summons a horse?

update: in ep 13 & 14 (& the adventuring parties) they mention that a. it does not summon a steed - you need to already have a steed there, and b. it would only work on a beast, not a monstrosity.

so.......maybe it’s not the one from the tale of Guleesh. I remain optimistic.

the golden chair (+1)

an obscure one, to be sure. from a grimm fairytale with a weirdly christian bent, where a tailor convinces st peter to let him into heaven but then sits in a big golden chair which as it turns out is the chair god sits in, and fucks up by throwing the footstool at some lady on earth washing veils (?) and gets kicked out again.

it is very possible that this was not an intentional allusion, but rather meant to evoke a fairytale-like atmosphere. either way, mission accomplished!

honorable mention: mayor harold hopps, while not a fairytale character himself, looks exactly like and was apparently inspired by the guy on the Pringles can, who is 100% a modern-day folkloric character.

theories:

the black velvet cloak with stars on it

idk where this is from. the only story I could find w a cursory google that had star clothing was Allerleirauh aka Thousandfurs, about a princess whose dad who wants to marry her (gross) so she asks for a bunch of impossible stuff to be made before the wedding can happen to try and stop it, including a dress made of stars (and one made of every kind of fur in the world hence the title). but it’s not a cloak so no points.

i s2g i have heard of something called ‘the cloak of stars’ before but I can’t fucking find it. pls lmk if you can think of something

update: ep 9 - they ALMOST told us what it was fuck, they mentioned wearing it to escape from the stepmother but we have no name. also the ‘cap-o’-rushes’ tale is extremely similar to thousandfurs minus the incest, so I don’t think it’s from that.

the stick skeletons w/ flesh on them were minions of the evil fairy from sleeping beauty - not a new tale

total tale count: 3

Ep 8

correction: brennan mentioned in the adventuring party for this one that aesop himself may also be fictional, and that many fables contain him telling the fable as part of it, so we’ll officially count him as his own fable like we did with Scheherazade (+1)

the lion and the mouse (+1)

the boy who cried wolf (+1)

they did finally mention the scorpion and the frog (+1)

alphonse is there but “the mule” isn’t actually referenced as being part of any of aesop’s fables in the show (like, there’s plenty of mules in aesop’s fables but no specific one was referenced in the show)

total tale count: 4

Ep 9

BABA YAGA BABA YAGA BABA YAGA BABAYAGABABAYAGA!!!!!! (+1)

i love her so much. i truly understood emily’s excitement this episode. 

(alluded to) the princess and the pea (+1)

first time around I didn’t hear siobhan ask if anyone sees any stacks of mattresses without peas under them to sleep on lol

(alluded to) this little piggy went to market (+1)

idk if that’s the name of the rhyme or not, or if it has a name

it’s not in the captions but emily axford saying ‘well there has to be a market, right? cause this little piggy went to market’ is iconic

some sources say this rhyme is from Mother Goose lol

total tale count: 3

Ep 10

(alluded to) peter and the wolf (+1)

the baron’s named peter and there’s a wolf. that cant be a coincidence, the 3 little pigs don’t have set names

mostly retreading 3 little pigs territory. awesome battle set!

theories:

the soup could be an allusion to something but i think its just playing into this season’s theme of consumption and the end of the 3 little pigs

the council of kings might be from something

total tale count: 1

Ep 11

we get 5 kings from 5 tales on the Council of Kings (which seems diegetic and not a reference to anything), 3 of which we already knew, 2 which are new.

the little mermaid (the mer-king)

the snow queen (the tsar of snowhold)

the nutcracker (the mouse king)

the emperor’s new clothes (the naked emperor) (+1)

rumpelstiltskin (FINALLY) (the king of apogee) (+1)

Koschei the deathless (+1)

i had no fucking clue who this guy was until emily axford recognized him, thank you emily

at first I was scared the sealskin would be a selkie thing. it may still be, but that doesn’t appear to be the case in this specific situation

(alluded to) the binding of Fenrir, the wolf at the end of the world (+1)

there’s a norse myth where tyr (a god) puts his hand in fenrir’s mouth to show good faith. the gods want to put this magical leash/collar on fenrir, and since he’s not an idiot he says that he’ll consent to it only if tyr puts a hand in his mouth while they do it, to show that what they’re doing will not hurt or bind him in any way. the gods agree, but oops they lied, the chains are very much to bind him, and tyr loses his hand but the wolf is still bound.

but ylfa and mother goose are telling the truth! happy ending (for once lol) ^v^

I didn’t catch this one at first - thank you to the many posts about it in the #neverafter tag!

honorable mention

sheldon from ‘garfield and friends’

theories

the tavern-keeper (Natalia) doesn’t stand out to me as anyone specific so far, though her daughter is the second “snow-touched” person we’ve met (the bartender at the cock and toad had an icy wound over one eye) so im thinkin snow queen

there’s dwarves in other stories than snow white I’m sure, but these ones specifically say “snow white” on their intro card.

also, their names, Mürrisch, Schläfrig, & Arzt, mean grumpy, sleepy, and doctor in German. Grumpy, Sleepy, and Doc are all disney snow white dwarf names. nice.

another infuriating mention of the cloak of stars without any indication of what it does. I’m going to spontaneously combust.

one thing i do appreciate is the amount of taverns they run into. this is the third and i am very pro

total tale count: 4

Ep. 12

so many princesses!!!!! most of them already counted but still!!!

Rapunzel!!!!! (+1)

The North Wind (+1)

my classics major ass immediately assumed they were talking about Boreas, the Greek god of the northern wind lol

from what I can tell, this is from "East of the Sun and West of the Moon"

i’m sure The North Wind is from other things too, everybody loves personifying the wind

honorable mentions

Beast!!!!! i already counted the tale early on as a reference but it’s here fr now!!!!

Finally meeting the little mermaid!!! Also counted early on but this is her first appearance!

“the beast beyond no name” that Mira mentions in combination w the taut string that Pinocchio feels that means part of his story is happening soon whether he likes it or not makes me think it’s Terrible Dogfish time. But. I also think that it could be the literal Kraken.

there’s so many monsters in folklore that are just “really big scary fish thing that lives at the bottom of the ocean yet somehow also wrecks ships on the surface” i just don’t know which one brennan’s going for. my money’s on either Pinocchio’s Dogfish or The Kraken

Candlewick! jesus fucking christ! every time a bit of Pinocchio lore shows up, it’s already horrifying just from the whole story of Pinocchio being horrifying, but then Brennan leans into it in just the right way for it to be so much worse!

in the adventuring party, they mention several other tales, including the tortoise and the hare and the little matchgirl. they also (rightfully) dunk on Hans Christian Andersen for writing ludicrously depressing children’s stories.

total tale count: 2

Ep. 13

no new tales, dogfish, mer-king, & sea witch are from existing tales, but

CLOAK OF STARS LORE CONFIRMED

WE NOW KNOW THE CLOAK OF STARS IS CAPABLE OF CASTING 5TH LEVEL MAGIC MISSILE

THIS DOES NOTHING TO NARROW THINGS DOWN! BUT IT’S SOMETHING!!!!

also MANY tantalizing mentions of the golden bridle with 0 hints as to its capabilities.

total tale count: 0

Ep. 14

the sea witch is named Alba Mac Lír

several allusions here!

thank you @twoeelsforsupper for this observation!

“there is a legend called "the children of Lír" where a witch/stepmother turns King Lír's children into swans but does not take their voices, which ends up getting her found out. like the threads about voices and witches and stepmothers and transformations???”

“Alba” can mean several things

it’s the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland (this is probably what was being referenced)

in Latin, it’s the feminine nominative singular of the adjective albus, meaning “white”

in Spanish and Italian, it means “sunrise”

In Scottish Gaelic, “Mac” means “son of” so we have “Scotland, son of Lír”

good for her

also, if she’s one of the children of Lír, does that mean she’s one of the ones that got turned into swans?? much to consider.

so, plus one for the legend of the children of Lír! (+1)

FINALLY (finally) we get full cloak of stars lore.

its a fucking dnd 5e item. all this time and it’s legit just a reskin of Robe of Stars

it can take them to the lines between and shoot magic missile

i don’t know why i’m mad

total: 1

Ep. 15

yikes

no new tales, unless you count Clara The Horse Princess (she is not from anything as far as I can tell but I love her. also like Clara is the name of the nutcracker main character but we already counted the nutcracker so it wouldn’t be anything either)

total: 0

Ep. 16

thumbelina! (+1)

tom thumb! (+1)

I thought they were from the same thing but it turns out they have different origins, though there was a 2002 movie that had them be in the same movie.

tom thumb - English folklore, there was a 1621 book called The History of Tom Thumb

thumbelina - hans christian anderson tale from 1835, in the second volume of his Fairy Tales Told For Children series.

turns out he was actually inspired by Tom Thumb a bit, so it’s not convergent evolution or anything.

ngl - I mostly know the story of thumbelina from hearing julia from drawfee rant about how shitty of a movie it is in various streams/videos lol

all the jack stuff is stuff we’ve seen before - golden goose, giantslayer, nimble

UPDATE: in ep 17 adventuring party, brennan talks a bit about the multiplicity of jacks, and clarifies that there are TWO separate giantslayer myths.

Jack the Giant Killer - a Welsh fairytale about a warrior named Jack who fights a bunch of giants with a huge club and wins

Jack and the Beanstalk - an English fairytale about a young boy who accidentally grows a beanstalk to the Giant World and only “kills” the giant at the end by cutting the beanstalk down, leaving the giant to fall to his (their?) death.

So, while we’ve already counted Jack and the Beanstalk, this episode does introduce a new variation on Jack - Jack the Giant Killer. (+1)

henry hubbard is BACK!!!!! yes!!!!!

and tomás!!! and A L P H O N S E

I am v psyched for what comes next.

honorable mentions:

these aren’t explicitly Liliputians, but they do talk about gulliver in the adventuring party. I don’t think they talk about him in the actual show though.

total: 3

Ep. 17

holy shit. so many right off the bat, with brennan and siobhan going through a list of c-list folktales!

Fear Not (+1)

another grimm fairytale - not their finest work i see why this guy would be c-list lol

the brave little tailor (+1)

aka “the guy who kills a bunch of flies with his belt”

this is a for-real grimm fairytale about a guy who kills 7 flies at once, is very proud of it, makes a belt that says “Seven at One Blow” on it, and then goes out into the world and has his shit wrecked from various people misinterpreting what “Seven at One Blow” means

it’s hilarious

another jack tale!! Jack and Jill! (+1)

three blind mice (+1)

honorable mentions:

Henry talks about reuniting a clockwork man with a man in an eyepatch

this is all consistent with the Herr Drosselmeyer lore from all the way back in the first episodes of the show! We already counted him, so no new points, but still very cool!

also cool how brennan combined shoeberg w giant-slaying bc i mean how did they get all those ludicrously big shoes?

the golden goose shows Timothy all the versions of his story where they are one and the same. I’m not counting this as her showing him a new, separate fairytale, since it just overlaps two tales that we already have counted. also, I cried, that was a really intense part of the episode.

in the adventuring party they talk a lot about Narnia and “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.”

ik those aren’t exactly ye olde english fairytales, since they came out in 1950, but if Aslan wandered into the neverafter I’d count him for sure

we learn what the harp does!

the harp’s power is consistent with the jack and the beanstalk myth, but it also reminded me of several other myths about lulling beasts to sleep

e.g. Hermes of Greek mythology fame (and supposedly the inventor of the lyre) also killed the giant Argus after lulling half of his eyes to sleep with the lyre and boring the other half to sleep with various tales of his exploits. (Argus’ big thing was having a bunch of eyes all over his body)

lulling a beast to sleep is a common theme across cultures, makes sense that it’s the kind of archetype useful for the gang.

it’s very possible that some aspect of how baba yaga’s cottage was described alludes to some other Slavic folklore that I didn’t pick up on

total: 4

Ep 18

“The Wishing Star” (+1)

fuck disney for making it impossible to find real fairytales about wishing stars on google

there are many tales/nursery rhymes about wishing on stars. “star light, star bright” is the first that comes to mind, but I’m sure there’s others. we’ll count this as a multi-tale figure and give it +1

honorable mentions

so. The Trials of Baba Yaga could refer to several things.

The Tale about Baba-Yaga is a 18th c. folk story where Baba Yaga has one normal human son (???) who marries a normal human woman, who then has to prove herself by doing seemingly normal chores (milk the cows, shear the sheep) that she then finds out from her husband are secretly meant to kill her (the cows are bears, the sheep are wolves).

(aka a fucked up slavic version of the tale of eros and psyche.)

(not that eros and psyche isn’t fucked up, just in a different way)

There is a 2017 book called “Winston and Baum and the Trials of the Baba Yaga” I do not think this is what was being referenced, and as it is modern and not a folk story, I’m not counting it.

other stuff I can find about Baba Yaga also includes stepdaughters having to do chores with secret meanings - it’s a part of her Thing

I’m including this under the general Baba Yaga mythos, not as its own thing, but still cool stuff to know about.

Prince Johnathan of Apogee (that’s how the subtitles spell it)

so. wayyyy back in episode 11 we find out that the kingdom of apogee is where Rumplestiltskin happened.

I think that’s all the Apogee info we have, and with a name as vague as Johnathan I don’t think we can call it a reference to anything.

We got Mother Goose’s OG rhyme!!!

not a new story but very cool!!!

there’s more but I think they stopped at a good place

fun fact: I found an extra verse that isn’t in the one linked above

“Then old Mother Goose/that instant came in/and turned her son Jack/into famed Harlequin/She then with her wand/touched the lady so fine/and turned her at once/into sweet Columbine”

and then they go on with the rest of the book like that bit never happened

other fun mother goose shit

i thought that littlefinger and “chaos is a ladder” were fairytale quotes but they’re from game of thrones it turns out. ._.

total: 1

Ep 19

no new tales (it’s the finale pt 1) but several honorable mentions

“As you wish”

cinderella girl you are KILLING ME

for those not in the know, this is an allusion to The Princess Bride

in the context of the book & movie, it means “I love you”

could be unintentional but i highly doubt it.

the book is too recent to count as fairytale for our purposes (1973) but it is very much in that genre. god damn.

la bête saying “be our guest” alludes to the disney beauty and the beast movie obvs

“Something wicked this way comes”

quote from Macbeth, by Shakespeare

I don’t think Shakespeare counts as fairytales. idk the vibes are just off. ik it’s an Old Story but it isn’t a fairytale.

total: 0

Ep 20

this is it gang!

The Fairies

so in the 1880s, Andrew Lang wrote a series of fairytale books named after fairies of various colors. I’m counting each fairy who has a book named after them as a new tale.

EXCEPT: the Blue Fairy

ok look i fucked up yall. The Fairy With Turquoise Hair is re-named “The Blue Fairy” in a lot of adaptations, so when I previously counted her separately from Pinocchio bc she had her own book, I was referring to “The Blue Fairy Book”

so we’re not counting it here bc that would be counting it twice. apologies to the actual Blue Fairy.

The Red Fairy Book (+1)

The Green Fairy Book (+1)

The Orange Fairy Book (+1)

The Yellow Fairy Book (+1)

this is by no means all of Lang’s color fairy books. he’s got crimson, violet, grey, pink, you name it.

honorable mentions

Calvin & Hobbes is modern day folklore

I looked up to see if there’s any actual Aesop fables with a shark in em, closest I could find was a dolphin. Rip.

Beaky’s stint in the TAA lines up with Pinocchio’s story, so not a new tale. thank you for your service beaky o7

total: 4

total series tale count: 62

alas, the only mystery remaining is Scheherazade’s spider. someday I may come back to this post with new information about her, but today is not that day. If you know any middle eastern myths/fairytales/folklore/nursery rhymes that prominently feature a spider that guards a maze or guides people through caves, please feel free to reply/reblog with your knowledge.

this show has been a fun and wild ride. Here’s a shortened version of this post with just the numbers

thank you for coming on this journey with me - see you in the stories!

#d20 spoilers #d20 #dimension 20 #dimension 20 spoilers #neverafter spoilers #neverafter #original post #ongoing #dnd #folktales #folklore #myth #stories #fairytale

[linoguy]

dream time~

in my dream, I traveled back in time and I was in the middle of this quad where it was raining really hard, and there were groups of Mexican people dancing along to songs, showing their fortitude to preserve culture even when the white people were being thrown back by the rain and wind. I joined in dancing and idk exactly who but I was with people I knew but they were distinctly younger than me and so my usual relationship with them was thrown off. The dancing was being wrapped up and in the distance I heard “cooking up a storm piece of cake cake cake.. oh this shits so bussin!” and it stood out because, again, I traveled back in time and in the dream, it was probably around noeasy time. I spot changbin, and I think we had somewhat known each other, if only met once kinda thing. I go up to him and ask “hey what’s this song called?” cause I didn’t know if it was like a leak type of thing where they slyly reference it in the past like skz have done. But changbin goes silent and I say “this is gonna sound crazy, it’s gonna sound like a movie line but you have to believe me because it’s true. I’m from the future and I can tell you some things that will really make you believe me” and I could tell changbin didn’t necessarily believe me but was also a little nervous about what I might say. And so I said quietly “do you know anything about …Super Bowl… 5 star….” and he was instantly like fuck…. Because I’m an outsider who knows info that could really ruin things for skz yknow, so I said “don’t worry I won’t tell anyone. But if I could say, it would be cool if you did more hip hop type songs, if that’s something you’re still interested in.” And he kinda laughed but he was definitely still nervous about the whole thing. We continued to walk and talk a little w the intention of walking to where we were staying in this town but this person I knew told me that he was staying in the opposite direction, and so I was like “oh shit! Sorry I’ll let you go and I promise I won’t say anything!” But before I could leave, changbin stopped me from leaving and I was like ?? and he told me to follow him. He went down these stairs and at the bottom was chan and they were talking and instantly I was like …..oh I’m in trouble. chan looked pissed but I followed down the stairs and chan told me to follow him but my friend had tagged along right behind me. I told them that they should probably go back now, because chan was probably wanting to discuss what I knew etc etc. but she still followed, even when chan looked upset that she was following too. we go down these stairs, and what you have to know is that all of this was happening near a sea. Down the stairs is a kind of a dock? one that has a boat waiting to be boarded on but below the ground. Chan had some kind of power there because it was nighttime at this point so the dock was closing but he told the guy to prepare the boat to go and the guy did it. The boat started to drift and at this point I turned to my friend, hoping to ask them to leave because I really didn’t wanna be in any more trouble but she jumped onto the boat. Chan told me to get in but he called me hyung AHDNDH I just have to mention that cause at first I thought he called the boat guy hyung but he was definitely calling me hyung, even though he was speaking English the whole time + I would’ve been younger than him at the time too but yknow man, take it where you can get it. And so I get on the boat sooo nervously, I’m about to be killed or lectured to death, and I’m having to sit right next to him. I sit down and am strapping myself in and everything, cause this “boat” is closer to a motor powered peddle boat so we’re right on the edge of water. I’m adjusting stuff and I tell him “hey just so you know, I get motion sickness on water so you have about an hour until I throw up” and then I woke up so I never got the lecture and honestly I couldn’t be more grateful

#I didn’t expect it to be so lengthy so 🫡 #dreams

[mutantninjamidlifecrisis]

Your 23!!!!!???? I’m also 23??!!!!!

Dude; how the hell did you get so good at writing/pos/affectionate

What are your secrets and tips??

Oh wow this got longer than I thought it would be but anyway lets kick this off by saying age is no number! Don’t ever feel like you’re too young/old to start/improve. Also take any advice I give here with a grain of salt! I’m a stem major, I specialise in Zoology, not English. I’ve never taken a writing class, this is just what I've found works from my own experience and also from talking with other people that write fics.

I think first up, have a concept that you deeply, deeply love - an idea that you want to see so bad you’re willing to remove it from your brain and write it down onto a page. This is harder than it sounds.

There are two types of writers, I think. Type One – the people that want everything structured and figured out before they begin, and then there’s Type Two - the others that go: Fuck it, we ball, and type out the story without a plan and let it fly by the seat of their pants. Both styles have their pros and cons. Sometimes when your story is too structured and you’re trying to drive through plot points the story can feel very stiff and rail-roady, like you’re trying to play out certain beats rather than letting the narrative go where it would naturally flow. But sometimes letting the story flow without a plan for long enough means you get lost in it, and it never actually come to an overarching message or end point (i.e., it can get very wish-washy, and parts you want to really hit are less likely to because you haven’t had a pre-established plan leading up to it). You’ll probably naturally lean one way or the other, but I think both these styles can and should be interchangeable when you’re in the process of writing a story. I think having a good structure is particularly important the longer your fic is. The way I usually do things is to have a loose structure set out (typing out dotpoints of what I want to achieve from a chapter and the sequence of events that will play out, and keeping this as a reference during the writing process), and then let myself go wild with everything else in between (probably how I end up with 10k+ chapters. Which. Is not advisable, I think 2-7k is a much more reasonable number).

You might also want to have in mind how long your story is going to be and how much time you’re willing to put into writing it before you start <- (CJ has many sadly abandoned wips because they lost sight of where the story was going and didn’t plan out their time schedule appropriately) I try to plan ahead and have some vague idea of where I want the story to end. This helps a lot with motivation when writing.

If you’re able to write out a one-shot, I would highly recommend it. I tend to really like writing multi-chapter fics because the brainrot gets to me and I have no impulse control.

Once you have your concept and your loose structure (start, middle, climax, end), you’re going to want to expand on things. i.e. what are you trying to say with your story. What are the themes that really hit for you. What scenes are going to make you go absolutely feral (you can write these first, if you want). I’ve got a scene a chapter or two ahead that I already have in mind that’s going to make me go insane, and that’s the carrot at the end of the stick that’s pulling me through areas that I don’t want to write so much.

I also have like, sheets for each character with a list of dotpoints relating to their background, motivations, feelings towards other characters and how these dynamics may evolve over time etc. This is a really useful resource to flip back to when I’m writing.

Research, research, research. Google, read, watch videos. Expand on the stuff that you do not know, or stuff that you do know and want to expand upon (for example, I have had a panic attack before. I can write from experience of what that is like, however I do not know what it’s like from other’s perspectives, and they may have completely different symptoms to my own). The more information you’re able to gather, the more believable and interesting the story is going to be to the reader.

Do Not. I repeat. Do NOT write that you are a new writer/sorry im bad at summaries <- that kind of stuff in your fic description if you’re going post to ao3. I know it is tempting. I have imposter syndrome and the urge to lower people’s expectations before they jump in is very strong, but you gotta at least pretend to be confident. The summary is for marketing yourself and convincing people to give you a chance. You can add that stuff to the author’s notes if you’d really like. People will usually be willing to give you a shot even if you think you’re summary is bad. And often your writing is a lot better than you think it is (after having stared at it for hours). Also, the more you write and post, the better you will get.

I guess the only other advice is uh… Read! Read a lot. I don’t read nearly as much non-fanfiction as I should, but I am constantly reading, and I do believe that there's some non-published stuff out there that's a lot better than "official" books or whatever. There’s so many amazing authors out there – fic writers or no, and there's always going to be someone (probably a lot of someones) better than you. Don't be discouraged by that! Keep in mind the kind of stuff that really affects you, and how the writer got you to that point.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten/left stuff out here so if you ever have more questions feel free to ask. Also google is your friend! There’s so many incredible resources out there that can teach you how to write/structure/improve your story.

Most importantly, have fun with it. You’re not getting paid; you don’t owe anyone anything. If you’re not enjoying yourself, what’s the point?

#Good luck! #also thank you #writing #ask

[autodiscipline]

Guniw Tools Q-it! Question & Profile (Eng. translation)

This is a Q&A style interview with Guniw Tools from 1997, when the band consisted of Full, Jake, & Asaki. There's 37 questions in total. The internet doesn't see much translated Guniw Tools content so I wanted to post my own!! Part 1 is under the cut..

Part 2

Before you read: everything in (parentheses) is there because they wrote it, any footnotes are *asterisked & italicized

1. The name, make, & model of the instrument you primarily use? Full: Synths, EMU Proteus and AKAI S950 Jake: Gibson – E-335, Ovation – Deacon Asaki: ESP “Mr. Batsu-ichi”¹, Rickenbacker 625, concert “Asakichi no. 1”², and many many more ¹Mr. Batsu-ichi is a nickname for his guitar, batsuichi roughly translates to : ‘strike one’, a slang term used to refer to divorcées, especially of the first marriage. The actual guitar model is a ESP SA-100 ²Another nickname I think, unsure which equipment it refers to 2.   Things you must always bring as tour necessities? Full: Rubber cement (liquid rubber silicone), bird feathers, rubber snakes, slime, sweets (300 yen worth) Jake: Tupperware (for takeout), Game Boy Asaki: There’s so many things-! 3.   Things that are essential to ensure a live show goes smoothly?

Full: Get to the venue earlier on Jake: Pushups, alcohol. Asaki: Smoke!! and drink!* *the way this is written could interchangeably mean drinking in place of smoking/vice versa, so he could also be saying “drink!! & then drink!” 4.   Things that must be done to ensure the recording process go smoothly? Full: Regular life.* *following a steady routine every day. Jake: Don’t worry. Don’t give anyone a hard time. Asaki: Even if you’re drunk, drink! 5:   Typical time spent rehearsing during a tour? Full: 7 days Jake: It’s usually a mixed bag Asaki: I don’t care about every little thing like that 6.    Do you have perfect pitch? Full: Ought to not be* *like saying “Absolutely! not.” Jake: I don’t have it Asaki: Hm, what if.. what would that would be like?! 7.   Music grades throughout elementary, middle, and high school? Full: 3* *Schools in Japan have a numerical grading system with 5 being the highest grade and 1 being the lowest Jake: Teachers took one look at me, man.. Asaki: √2 8.  Your best subject through elementary, middle, and high school? Full: Math and art Jake: English Asaki: Online classes 9.  Your worst subject through elementary, middle, and high school? Full: Physical Education Jake: Math Asaki: Health & physical education (definitely a lie) 10.  The most frequent way you got in touch with music when you were young? (1) In what form? Full: I’d say probably records (LP).. Jake: △ (triangle) Asaki: I would say it was kind of a round experience...but sharp around the edges... (2) From what age? Full: Age 5 Jake: –––––– Asaki: If you're talking about sugar, a cup and a half. 11.   Were you exposed to music from an early age as part of your development? Full: I don’t recall Jake: I wonder.. Asaki: Ahh yes, I was. 12.   What is your ideal TV appearance? Full: Studio jacking.* *He probably means hijacking a TV stations broadcast signal (Max Headroom) Jake: Today’s Doggie* *A morning news segment that essentially showcases a ‘daily doggie’ acting in cute & interesting ways lolol Asaki: I’ll let you know by tomorrow. 13.   What is your ideal magazine appearance? Full: Appearance on the front cover only. Interview on page 4. Jake: –––––– Asaki: I want to be featured in Kenzo Kitakata's life advice column*!! *Kenzo Kitakata is a Japanese novelist who had a column in ‘Hot Dog Press’ magazine where he gave answers to the various problems of troubled youth

14.   If you were to compare yourself to someone like Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu*, which? *In simplest terms, these three are historical figures often used like a personality test. Nobunaga – Strong leader type Hideyoshi – Teamwork type Ieyasu - Coach type Full: Hiraga Gennai* *Eccentric ‘jack of all trades’ type. Pharmacologist, author, painter, & inventor who composed works on homosexual desire as well as satirical pieces & poetry. Jake: Tamori.* *Comedian known for hosting a weekly music television program Asaki: Charles Bronson* *Western actor, handsome & manly type 15.   Part time jobs you’ve had? Full: Drawing signboards and inscribing names into jewelry Jake: The Guardsman.* *A TV drama, he’s saying security guard in a jokey way Asaki: Effects pedal shop “I don’t need the strain~”* *I think it's a joke that only works in Japanese, the word he used has a double meaning ‘effects pedal’ & ‘strain’ (as in it strains the sound), so when he literally says “I don’t need effects pedal” it's actually like a pun saying “I don't need to be strained!” E.g. kind of like “We nailed it!” 16.    Alcoholic journeys? Full: None Jake: Methyl→Nitroglycerin Asaki: I’ll never drink ethanol again.. 17.   Gambling journeys? Full: None. I spend around 3,000 yen on horse betting (yearly) Jake: Life's a gamble Asaki: 5,000 points to Hara Taira* *A pop culture reference to a quiz show where contestants & celebrities would be asked a question, the contestant bets points on whichever celebrity they think knew the answer. If you both had the correct answer you would win the points amount. A reliable respondent was manga artist Hara Taira, so many people would bet on his correct answer that it became a popular saying “5,000 points to Hara Taira!” 18.   History with women? Full: Just a few (all refreshing/simple types) Jake: ––––– Asaki: Eventually I hooked up with Madonna (enough said)

You can see the rest of the photoshoot here & here

Feel free to share/repost as you wish, I'd like for their work to be as accessible as possible!

#guniw tools #translation #tomo furukawa

[trikis-turntables]

Dislyte Chinese Names

alright strap in i made an entire informational post just for a thing that made me laugh and im gonna explain it

fun fact time: chinese naming convention is usually [surname-given name]

an overwhelming majority of surnames are single character surnames, with about less than 5% of surnames being compound surnames (the surname is a compound word usually associated with noble rank or is non-Han Chinese e.g Mongolian/Bhutanese surnames) or double-barelled surnames (when you mash two existing surnames together) How can you tell what's a surname or not? idk man, if it is, it is. You can check wikipedia for the top 100 chinese surnames but otherwise you're on your own. Note: common chinese surnames are a lot more common than anglophone surnames relative to population (there's gonna be a lot more Lee, Wang & Zhangs relative to population than Smith, Jones & Taylors).

Chinese Given Names depend on region:

Anecdotally Single Given Names are more common in Mainland China/Taiwan/Shanghai while most of the South East Asian diaspora usually go for double given names. It's kind of reflected in how the Dislyte team (who are based in Shanghai) name the espers, with a majority having only single surname-given name combos.

Single [surname-given name] convention Espers: Jiang Man 姜蔓 Li Ling 李灵 Tang Xuan 唐轩 Tang Yun 唐云 Luo Yan 罗焰 Lu Yi 陆羿 Lin Xiao 林啸 Li Ao 李傲 Xiao Yin 萧隐 Long Mian* 龙勉 (Long Mian is a bit of an interesting case because Long can be a surname but also it's a pretty common given name component as well, so it is Possible that Long Mian is his given name and he has an entirely different surname; however, given the convention of the chinese espers all displaying their full name, i'm inclined to believe Long is his surname) Ren Si* 壬巳 (I really cant tell if Ren Si's name is a proper name or is just a callsign cause i've personally never seen this Ren as a surname) Heng Yue* 姮月(Same with Ren Si, never seen this Heng used as a surname) Chang Pu* 菖蒲 （Never seen this Chang as a surname)

Double Given Names usually have similar middle or last characters for siblings or cousins to identify generation, though it's not always the case, this is usually in reference to their Jia Pu (Note: Jia Pu 家谱 or Chinese Geneaological Record, a lot of families still have theirs in one form or another). It depends on personal preference/local culture how double given names are written in English, rule of thumb is clarity so Xie Chuyi, Xie Chu-Yi etc are perfectly acceptable.

Jin Yu Yao 金玉瑶 Xie Chu Yi 谢楚翊 Xie Yu Zhi 谢喻之 Ye Su Hua 叶素华 Bai Liu Li 白琉璃 (Liu Li's name is interesting cause her name is very…codenamey(?) it follows chinese naming convention but it's also very literally translated to White Glass; like calling someone Hammer Smith) Unky Chai* 柴老爹 chái lǎo diē (Chai is absolutely a surname, but Lao Die is just lit. Old Man, so Old Man Chai basically; or according to Google Translate: Daddy Chai lmao)

that being said, the whole reason i wrote this post is cause amongst the non-chinese Espers, some of their sino-nized names are perfectly serviceable chinese names that follows chinese naming conventions, like Biondina 翁迪娜， Djoser左塞尔 and Lewis 刘易斯. It's funny cause Liu 刘 (unlike 翁 and 左) is the 4th most common chinese surname.

TL;DR so im proposing that Tang Xuan and Li Ling take Lewis' surname when they get married to become Liu-Tang Xuan and Liu-Li Ling

thank you for coming to my TED talk LMAO

#dislyte lore #LewLiXuan #dislyte #i dont believe in taking your partner's surname unless you want to lol #but still it tickles me sO MUCH that lewis has a Chinese name already

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

This clip is from early in Bugle episode 4220, which I listened to for the first time today. Nish Kumar is referring to a table that existed on Wikipedia until recently, keeping track of every episode done by all the co-hosts on The Bugle. I referred to this frequently as I listened to the first 200 episodes of the Bugle 4000-series last year, to see who would have appearances coming up.

I just went back to this last week, and was very annoyed to find the table has been taken off of Wikipedia. I was also annoyed with myself for not copying it into Excel when I had the chance, or at the very least taking a screenshot. That’s a good lesson to remember and something on which I normally do better than this: if you like something that’s on the internet, download it and save it on a hard drive. Because the internet can take things away at any time.

I found this table so helpful that last week, I decided to recreate it in Excel, putting each person’s name with the list of episode numbers in which they’d appeared, and then tallying their total number of appearance. Today, I decided to take the recreated table and make other tabs with it. Sorting the list of Bugle co-hosts by total number of episodes, and by their first appearance.

I also sorted by nationality, which was surprisingly difficult, due to many people having more than one nationality. I tended to categorize them more often by where they live now than by where they used to live, though with some exceptions - I labeled Lloyd Langford as Welsh rather than Australian because obviously he’s Welsh, Lloyd Langford’s whole thing is being Welsh. I also created a separate category for English/Americans, because I didn’t know what else to do with Desiree Burch and John Oliver. I made one tab for this, colour-coded by nationality, and that let me calculate the total number of appearances by all the guests of each nationality, and rank it by what nationality has appeared the most often.

I kept this national colour-coding in another tab, in which made a row for each episode, and added the date, title, and co-host names to each row. Doing that took me several hours this afternoon, and I was in the process of filling in those rows when I heard the clip I uploaded above.

I am not technically the person Nish Kumar was talking about, because I have never put anything on Wikipedia. But I was recreating, and then expanding and improving the exact Wikipedia table he was talking about, and I was doing it as I listened to him talk about what sort of person does this. And I would like to say: you’re wrong, Nish. You’re not usually wrong, but you’re wrong this time, particularly the bit about no one doing this if they moonlight as a jock. Because I did stop updating that spreadsheet when I had to leave and go teach a bunch of people between the ages of 13-ish and 27-ish, some of whom compete at a very high level, how to do a sport. And I wouldn’t call it one of the nerdier sports. I mean, it’s not one of the popular sports, it’s not like American football that has all the jock movies made about it. But it’s not, like, badminton. Or, and no offense to anyone who’s appeared on that podcast, cricket.

I quite like that phrase, “moonlights as a jock”. It’s not a bad description for my position of always being the most sports-obsessed person in a group of nerds or the nerdiest person in a group of athletes. I might start referring to myself as a person who moonlights as a jock. I found it very amusing to be told that stats like this are never tracked by people who moonlight as jocks, while I was literally in the middle of tracking those stats and checking the time to make sure all that Bugle stat tracking didn’t make me late for my jock moonlighting.

Anyway, here’s the spreadsheet as it stands now, if anyone’s interested, updated to the most recent Bugle episode, which at the moment is 4263. I still want to add other stuff to it, like marking what episodes were recorded live and where they were recorded, and maybe even when a non-live Bugle was recorded in an unusual place if Andy was traveling. But for the moment, it’s certainly got enough information for me to be able to easily check it and see what’s happening in upcoming episodes, which is all I really wanted when I started it.

[barbruhkwin]

“Land of the Rising Sun”

"Shiawasena Dokusho" means happy reading

JAPAN

Japan is often called “the land of the rising sun”.  Many people from around the world wonder why Japan is called the land of the rising sun. Is this because Japan is the first country to see the sun?  In Japanese, the country is called Nihon (Nippon). Both Nihon and Japan originate from the same words; they literally mean “where the sun rises”. The English term for Japan's national flag is "the rising sun flag." The Japanese flag with the sun in the middle was first flown at the start of the seventh century. It is said, nevertheless, that the flag's color scheme was altered from what it is today. A red background with a golden sun was the initial color scheme. Ships used this flag to display their nationality near the end of the Edo Period. It was then applied in numerous other locations (Japan luggage,2023).

One of the best place to visit in Japan is Tokyo. It is Japan's capital and the world's most populous metropolis. It is located at the head of Tokyo Bay on the Pacific coast of central Honshu. It is the focus of the vast metropolitan area often called Greater Tokyo, the largest urban and industrial agglomeration in Japan (The editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica ,2023).

If you would visit Japan you should be ready to the expenses because The major costs of a trip to Japan are flights, accommodation, transportation, food, and activities. Flights to Japan can cost anywhere from $600 to $1,200 for a round-trip ticket (trip.com, 2023). So if you’re from the Philippines we convert dollars into Philippine peso it would cost ₱33,732.60 to ₱67,465.80.

Japanese people always display modesty and humility. People often bow to convey the message: “I am not above you. I respect you.” Bowing longer with a higher degree of angle means more respect. The Japanese people are simultaneously followers of Buddhism and Shintoism. In Japan, a Buddhist temple serves as the site of funeral rites for deceased people and a Shinto shrine serves as the location for birth ceremonies. In Japan, individuals take off their shoes when they enter a house and bathe nearly every day because they are so concerned about hygiene. The fact that there are no garbage cans in public spaces and everything is still clean surprises a lot of visitors (Acar, 2023).

Compared to other countries, Japan has relatively more festivals because Japanese religions are related to  the harvest  and the change of the seasons. Each of Japan's 47  prefectures has a different festival, usually held in the summer. Locals usually wear yukata and sandals to participate in the festival. One of the biggest parade in Japan is the Gion Festival in Kyoto that started in the 8th century when there was an epidemic like the corona virus (Acar, 2023).

In Japan you should know some of the rules before visiting the place. Some of the rules are when taking public transportation in Japan, it is important to know a couple of things. Talking loudly to friends on the train, chatting on the phone and blasting music through headphones are all very much frowned upon in Japan. Using chopsticks properly is very important in Japan, it is not expected of you to be able to use chopsticks as a tourist in Japan but the Japanese will be super impressed if you do. Most restaurants will have forks on hand if you need one (Ciara, 2023).

Resources

Reference:

Why is Japan called the “land of the rising sun”? (2023). Japan luggage express.jluggage.com/blog/Japan/why-is-japan-called-the-land-of-the-rising-sun/

Acar, A. (2023). Japanese culture and traditions. kimino tea ceremony maikoya

Ciara (2023). Dos and Don’ts. In Japan-what to know before you go in 2023. A view outside. Aviewoutside.com/dos-and-don’ts-japan-tourist-etiquette-guide/

Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopedia (2023). Tokyo. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.Britannica.com/place/tokyo

Trip.com (2023). Japan travel on a budget tricks for a memorable trip. trip.com/guide/info/trip-to-japan-cost.httml#26n3s

[ebaeschnbliah]

POT ... KETTLE ... CAULDRON

Impressions - and a little bit more - from Sherlock BBC, The Blind Banker, The Reichenbach Fall, The Sign of Three, The Six Thatchers

‘The pots were her obsession. They need urgent work. If they dry out, then the clay can start to crumble. Apparently you have to just keep making tea in them.’ TBB

‘Caught in five minutes. “Oh, hi, we just thought we’d come and have a wander round your top secret weapons base.” “Really? Great! Come in – kettle’s just boiled.” That’s if we don’t get shot.’  THOB

‘Most people knock. But then you’re not most people, I suppose. Kettle’s just boiled.’  TFR

‘If Moriarty has risen from the REICHENBACH CAULDRON, he will seek you out.’  TAB

‘Cauldron was a careful choice of words’ 

This wrote longsnowsmoon5 in her post about that topic back in 2016. I couldn’t agree more, then and now. There is indeed no definition of that word that links it to a ‘swirling pool of water found at the base of a waterfall’. The term ‘cauldron’ isn’t even canon. It occurs neither in The Final Problem nor in The Empty House. Doyle always used the word ‘chasm’ when he refered to the Reichenbach Falls. So, why decided the creators of Sherlock BBC to choose this particular and rather archaic word in their story? 

Time to play again with names, synonyms and translations:

CAULDRON (Middle English: caudron, from Anglo-French cauderon, from calidus ‘warm’, from calēre ‘to be warm’): 

a large kettle, boiler or metal pot with a lid and handle, used for cooking over an open fire  

a situation characterized by instability and strong emotions.

Synonyms for Cauldron (x):

POT:  usually a rounded metal or earthen container used for domestic purposes like cooking or for holding liquids

KETTLE:  a covered container with a handle and a spout, used for boiling water

BOILER:  a vessel or arrangement of vessels and tubes, together with a heat source, in which steam is generated from water to drive turbines or engines

‘Rich Brook in German is Reichen Bach ...

... the case that made my name’. (Sherlock about Jim Moriarty’s alias name Richard Brook in TRF)

Maelstrom inside a cauldron .....

‘It’s nearly all about the wallpaper’ (X) and the wallpaper in Magnussen’s bedroom, the place where Sherlock gets shot, is called ‘Vortex Spirals’ (X). A vortex is a powerful spinning current of air or water that pulls everything down. Synonyms for ‘vortex’ are ... whirlewind, whirlepool, maelstrom.

‘Oh, what a night! … I was never gonna be the same … I felt a rush like a rollin’ ball of thunder spinnin’ my head around n’ takin’ my body under’ ... The song that plays at the end of TSOT

‘Sometimes, to solve a case, one must first solve another ... An old one. Very old. I shall have to go deep.’ ....... ‘These are deep waters, Watson. Deep waters. And I shall have to go deeper still.’ ....... ‘You’re in deep, Sherlock, deeper than you ever intended to be.’ ....... ‘Too deep, Sherlock. Way too deep.’  TAB

‘When does the path we walk on lock around our feet? When does the road become a river with only one destination? ...’  TST

‘I’m burning up. I’m at the bottom of a pit (or a pot/kettle/cauldron?) and I’m still falling and ... I’m never climbing out.’ ... TLD

Each story consists of words. Some words may have been chosen with more meaning than others and some authors put maybe more emphasis on words and names than others, when they are telling their story. And maybe Jim’s statement in TGG ... ‘the clue’s in the name’ ... is indeed meant to be read verbatim. Maybe ... :)

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Reichenbach on Scarlet Chinoiserie   Vortex Spirals - Smileys hiding in plain sight

Thanks @callie-ariane​ for the scripts

June, 2022

#sherlock bbc #pott kettle cauldron #meaning of names #jim moriarty #rich brook #reichenbach