#and they do both technically fit the themes

[magicaleggplant]

extremely belated montreal worlds impressions, part 2

part 1 (pairs and women recap)

finally finishing this a whole month after worlds... i'm traveling again over the next couple of weeks and i've barely recovered from montreal! anyways, here's the (very rushed) ice dance and men recap.

———————————–

ICE DANCE

...is a fake sport, but i enjoy the vibes? i don't know a lot about the technicalities of ice dance despite having watched it for many years, so it mostly comes down to whether i like a team or not. overall i enjoyed the event, the free dance more than the rhythm dance (there are only so many 80s RDs i can take...) there were a lot of enjoyable free dances, even in the early groups! i actually enjoyed them more than the final group, in a way. the podium in ice dance tends to be too predictable.

chock/bates: i've never had much of an opinion on this team. i liked them best when they were doing character pieces like the snake charmer fd, but i also found myself enjoying their rhythm dance at worlds. they skated it very well and it was fun and engaging. the free was a bit of a question mark... i thought they had a lot of interesting positions throughout, especially in the lifts and choreographic elements, but the whole program felt a bit disjointed to me. it was fine, it didn't leave much of an impression. the whole did not feel like more than the sum of the parts... their speed was also not the best.

gilles/poirier: i can't remember much from their rd except that piper's costume was amazing, i loved her holographic leggings. their free was a MOMENT, though. wuthering heights has been one of my favorite free dances all season, and it was so good to see it live in front of a home crowd. they are such good storytellers, and when their choreo hits, it really hits. i love when they do something unusual like this program - it doesn't always work, but in this case, it did. the placement of that curve lift was perfect. i will note, however, that they are also not particularly fast.

guignard/fabbri: nearly swore out loud when her dress caught on her skate right in front of me. that was a nerve-wracking few seconds until the end. their free dance was beautiful and suited them really well, i especially loved the choreo assisted jumps near the beginning. their skating skills are clean and precise. i just wish their rhythm dance didn't have such a godawful music cut. none of their RDs have suited them well in the last few seasons.

fear/gibson: no thoughts, head empty, vibes only. in all seriousness, i enjoyed their rhythm dance, it's fun and it's a great fit for them. i did not enjoy rocky. i would have loved it as an exhibition, but not as a competitive program. i can see how it's a crowd-pleaser, though. they were definitely popular with the audience.

lajoie/lagha: probably one of, if not the most popular team with the audience! they are one of the teams i'm most looking forward to seeing in the coming years. i became a fan when i saw them live at last season's skate canada. they skate big and fast, they have good skating skills and both programs were well-choreographed. their rd is a lot of fun - that's how you incorporate a theme and commit to it! i love how most of the dance moves are choreographed into the step sequences instead of stopping and posing. the fd music is a little one-note and i still prefer last season's white crow fd, but their skating quality makes up for it. i'm so glad they were still able to skate at worlds after marjorie's concussion earlier in the season.

carreira/ponomarenko: loved both of their programs, especially their fd. i never knew they could pull off drama so well. their growth in the last two seasons has been phenomenal. it was hilarious that the audience kept getting faked out by the music in the end and clapping before the program ended. i probably would've had them a place higher in the standings.

other notes:

i came out of worlds with an unexpected appreciation for lopareva/brissaud. i never paid much attention to them before, but their skating skills were impressive. i don't think the audience really "got" their rd, but props to them for choosing to do something different. the fd was a snooze, though.

i also enjoyed demougeot/le mercier's free dance. some really interesting choreo moments.

turkkila/versluis: enjoyed their free dance as well, it's a nice look on them.

lim/quan's fd was another Moment! i am super excited for this team and how far they've come in their first senior season. hannah's acting and expressions are god-tier... they need to work on speed and SS, but their fd was gorgeous and one of my favorites of the event.

felt so bad for the taschlers' fall in the rd. i think they were the fastest team in the whole ice dance event, it's so impressive how powerful their skating is. i have questions about their packaging sometimes but i really like this team, and i hope next season goes better for them.

orihara/pirinen's fd was another favorite of the event. they are both SO expressive and fun. in any other team, yuka would outshine her partner, but juho not only keeps up with her but complements her perfectly!

———————————–

MEN

this was the event i was most looking forward to at worlds, and it did not disappoint. as chaotic as i was expecting it to be, i did not anticipate that it would be quite that chaotic. men be menning, as always.

ilia: i wish it were otherwise, but his competitive performances were just not doing it for me. his weaker skating skills were very obvious live when compared to many other top men. i like his sp choreo but i feel like he's put less performance into it with every competition. it was disappointing to see how much he slowed down during the step sequence. (granted, he did have an undisclosed injury at worlds, so that could have been an exacerbating factor.) the free was...historic. i genuinely wish i felt something while watching it, because the audience was losing their shit with every jumping pass lol. and why shouldn't they! like...what the fuck! this is the most incredible jump drill the world has ever seen! who knows when or if he can replicate it again! ...but it's still a jump drill. (side note about how irrationally annoyed the choreo sequence makes me. it's just randomly tacked on the end, the music cut is so abrupt, it has nothing to do with the rest of the program, shae lynn why.) and then i watched him in the gala and he was like a completely different skater. complete 180. the difference was so stark, i could hardly believe it. he can perform! he was giving more in that teenage-angst-ridden exhibition than i've seen in all his competitive programs combined. i can only hope that he brings more of that energy to competition someday, because that's the kind of skating i want to see, that's a skater really connecting with the music and the audience.

yuma: i'm about to heap an embarrassing amount of superlatives on this kid. it was my first time seeing him live, and he was everything i'd hoped for. jumps light as a feather, running edges for days. (you should have heard my ungodly shriek when he landed his 4F in front of me! it looked so easy.) skating skills - sublime, every stroke effortless, excellent speed. but what i'm most impressed with is his artistic improvement this season. he's always been an incredible technician (and i have a lot of thoughts about how ilia is being branded as The Technician and yuma The Artist now, when in fact yuma's technique is just as good, only with lower base value, and his SS are far superior, but i digress) but he has really put in the work to become a better performer and fine-tune everything from his body movements to his interpretation of music. jokes about making me like imagine dragons aside, i think his sp helped him explore music and sharp movements that were out of his comfort zone. loved that step sequence. (the only criticism i have is that he needed more swagger. he needed some more of what adam was serving in his sp, a certain cockiness and suaveness. but yuma has always been a more introverted skater. i think that kind of expression is still difficult for him.) the free was simply glorious. i didn't think i would like yet another rain in your black eyes program, and i was side-eyeing lori nichol for giving yuma this music after she used it for sui/han. but yuma made it his own. there were so many beautiful moments perfectly timed to the music. (ina bauer! spiral! and the step sequence, ahhh) he was so close to being clean, there was an audible groan in the audience when he fell on the 3A, but then they cheered him on until the end, which was heartwarming. what an incredible comeback season from yuma. i'm so excited for his future, i think he has so much potential and many bright moments ahead. now i've written a goddamn novel already, but i haven't even mentioned werther yet. i'll just say that his exhibition is one of the most beautiful programs i've ever seen, competitive or otherwise, and it shows off everything good about yuma's skating. perfect. no notes.

adam: where the fuck do i even start. honestly...if i could only remember one moment from all of montreal worlds, it would be his free skate. it was THE skate of the event. the mounting excitement as he landed all his jumps. the way i said "oh my god" out loud as he set up for the backflip, then landed it in front of me. the audience in complete hysterics. i can't even describe what the arena was like after his free skate. it was. insane. it genuinely felt like there was electricity in the air. the screams were deafening. my heart was pounding. it took me an entire group of skaters to come down from that adrenaline high, lmao. meanwhile, adam sat there in the green room...for hours and hours...and then ended up getting bronze because why the fuck not lmao. it was kind of the perfect conclusion of a chaotic season and a chaotic worlds. yeah, that free skate was THE moment. on another note, i don't actually like his free that much from a choreo standpoint. i think he's one of the most expressive and unique skaters in the field today, and he can pull off a lot of benoit's weirdness, but this free just isn't one of my favorites. it's extremely memorable though, for sure. his sp, on the other hand, was a disaster, but i really appreciated how he kept performing despite the messy jumps. he skated the step sequence like the jump mistakes didn't even happen. that's the sign of a committed performer. i'm very excited to see what else adam has to bring in the future, though i hope he doesn't start throwing in backflips too often - they're only fun when they're infrequent and unexpected.

shoma: shoma has a particular way of moving that is so unique to him. where yuma's skating is springy and light, shoma's skating has weight. it's very difficult to describe, but i mean it in a good way. it's the way everything he does feels so deliberate. he has excellent upper body carriage and his movements really project out into the audience. his sp step sequence was a highlight. he has an innate musicality that is natural to him. truth be told, i haven't liked his programs as much since he moved to stephane, but it was good to see his skating live again. i don't know if shoma will retire soon or keep competing, but if that was his last competition, i'm glad to have seen it, jump issues aside. i first heard of him as a novice skater back when i was first becoming a skating fan. i've been through quite a few generations of skaters' retirements, at this point. still an odd feeling when it might be someone you first saw as a tiny child, though. i also enjoyed his exhibition, it was a different style for him.

i wrote way too much about the top 4, so i'm going to try to keep the rest of this short:

jason: i'm just glad he's still skating. the world needs more of him, for as long as he's willing to give it.

lukas: very fun, i enjoyed him quite a bit.

deniss: finally! a clean short! more of that and fewer quad attempts, please.

kao: ugh. the collective wince in the arena on those falls... i wanted him to skate a clean attack on titan so badly, i love that program for him. he's very talented and INSANELY fast (cannot stress this enough, his speed is mind-blowing) but still lacking in control, and his performance skills need work as well. i hope this worlds was a good learning experience for him.

nikolaj: he's...so tall lmao. amazing lines. good musicality. terrible spins. looking forward to his improvement.

junhwan: the way i put my hands to my face as he fell on the 3A right in front of me... i just hope next season is healthier for him. he's a very, very quality skater and he deserves better.

don't talk to me about boyang

last but not least, shoutout to donovan for those incredible personal best skates! he still needs a lot of work on his SS and speed, but i really hope his jump consistency keeps improving.

———————————–

all in all, worlds was just...a tornado of emotions. some bad, most good. it was my first time seeing the world championships live, and i'm really glad i had the experience. for anyone thinking of going to worlds in the future, please be aware that the days are LONG. i skipped all the practices and some earlier groups of the short programs in order to explore the city, and i was still completely wiped out after every day of competition. it took me several weeks to recover, lol. thanks montreal! i definitely won't forget that week.

#worlds 2024 #report #this is an unedited mess but whatever

[sysig]

I have just realized a problem if [baby] turns out to be male;

I already have a Scriabin tag

#Spider #And I can't just delete it there's still a lot of backlog over here! #How would I differentiate them uhhhhh #Scriarachne?? I'll workshop it lol #I don't think I've mentioned that I also picked out a name if they're female :D It's still a Vargas reference but it's less obvious lol #And it still fits the spider theme! #Technically it could be a gender-neutral name but I just jdslafd I'd want to name them Scriabin if they're male okay lol #It's Yarn ✨ It's just such a cute name <3 #Plus the thought of introducing little Yarn like ''This is Yarn :)'' ''Oh 'cause of web-spinning! I get it'' ''Yeah :) Just that :)'' lol #I really love both ahhh I don't know which one I want more! #As long as baby keeps living healthfully that's the important thing ♥ #They're so fat right now haha #I feel a little bad since while I was sick I wasn't able to go out and get them crickets ouq #Mealworms aren't bad but they're very fatty and I want to make sure they're getting a good mixed diet #Plus my darklings don't seem particularly keen on having a second generation hmm :| Hopefully soon I haven't actually looked it up #I'm definitely gonna have to go around looking at feeders at the next creepy crawly convetion #I wanna go so baaaaad I wanna tell the tarantula people how baby's doing ahhhhhh #Hopefully soon

[felixandresims]

KICHEN 2Point0 :)

It’s been well over a year since the last Harlix collaboration, but we are happy to finally be able to announce the KICHEN 2Point0! It all started way back in 2019 with the original KICHEN, so we decided we wanted to bring it back full circle and finally focus back on our much-loved room of the home. A lot has changed over the past 4.5 years, not only in our own personal work but the multitude of custom content creators that also now create kitchens for your Sims. In 2019, there were slim pickings for your homes. Now, there is such a vibrant array of content to choose from, and it really is an excellent thing for all.

In the years that followed, we have really focused on improving our technical skills and artistry, which we hope you can see with this latest set. The stand-out item for us both in the original KICHEN was the wishbone chair. We have personally both tried to find another dining chair that tops it and failed miserably! It is just the perfect chair for use in so many different settings, whether it be modern or even a rustic setting; it’s just so versatile. It deserved an update to our latest techniques and colours & it’s the only item from the original KICHEN set that has been reworked for this newest iteration. Also, back in 2019 we were a little too scared to use our internal name for that item, but in 2024 we are happy to share the appropriately named WISHBONER chair with you 😆

The KICHEN 2Point0 is also designed to fit perfectly into our current Klean & Soho sets to fulfill the kitchen part. For some reason, we always seem to be in sync with our set themes, and no more so than with Klean & Soho. The overlap was very scary tbh, with many Pinterest pins selected independently but shared in common, so we decided to do this 2 part collaboration to create a kitchen to fit both of our current sets, with the hope of creating a much more in-depth set which includes all elements required to make your dream kitchen. This first part focuses on the foundations of that dream kitchen.

All items are Base Game compatible and can be found by searching the b/b catalogue using the keyword 2Point0. As the items are designed for both of our current sets, they will also appear when you search using the keywords KLEAN or SOHO.

Set Items include:

- Counter (raised with legs) - Counter (standard) - Island (raised with legs) - Island trolley (3 pieces) - Cabinets (short) - Cabinets (tall) - Appliance Cabinet - Fridge Nooks (high & low) - Built-in Sink (wide & standard) - Dining Table (1, 2 & 3 tile) - Wishboner Dining Chair - Shelving (multiple height endings, middle & standard end pieces) - Hanging Feature Pendant Lights (multiple variants)

Now on Patreon Early Access

Public release on the 7th of May

The collaboration will continue next month and focus on appliances and clutter for your kitchens.

#ts4cc #ts4 cc mm #ts4 cc finds #ts4cc download #ts4 maxis match #new york #townhouse #house of harlix #felixandresims #harrie cc #ts4 kitchen #kitchen

[harrie-cc]

Kichen 2Point0

It’s been well over a year since the last Harlix collaboration, but we are happy to finally be able to announce the KICHEN 2Point0! It all started way back in 2019 with the original KICHEN, so we decided we wanted to bring it back full circle and finally focus back onto our much loved room of the home. A lot has changed over the past 4.5 years, not only in our own personal work, but the multitude of custom content creators that also now create kitchens for your Sims. In 2019 it was slim pickings for your homes, now there is such a vibrant array of content to choose from and it really is a great thing for all.

In the years that followed we have really focused on improving our technical skills and artistry, which we hope you can see with this latest set. The stand out item for us both in original KICHEN was the wishbone chair. We have personally both tried to find another dining chair that tops it and fail miserably! It is just the perfect chair for use in so many different settings, whether it be modern or even a rustic setting, it’s just so versatile. It deserved an update to our latest techniques and colours & it’s the only item from the original KICHEN set that has been reworked for this latest iteration. Also back in 2019 we were a little too scared to use our internal name for that item, but in 2024 we are happy to share the appropriately named WISHBONER chair with you! 😆

The KICHEN 2Point0 is also designed to fit perfectly into our current Klean & Soho sets to fulfil the kitchen part. For some reason we always seem to be in sync with our set themes and no more so than with Klean & Soho. The overlap was very scary tbh with many Pinterest pins selected independently, but shared in common, so we decided to do this 2 part collaboration to create a kitchen to fit both of our current sets, with the hope of creating a much more in depth set which includes all elements required to make your dream kitchen. This first part focuses on the foundations of that dream kitchen.

All items are Base Game compatible and can be found by searching the b/b catalogue using the keyword 2Point0. As the items are designed for both of our current sets they will also show up when you search using the keywords KLEAN or SOHO

Set Items include:

Counter (raised with legs)

Counter (standard)

Island (raised with legs)

Island trolley (3 pieces)

Cabinets (short)

Cabinets (tall)

Appliance Cabinet

Fridge Nooks (high & low)

Built in Sink (wide & standard)

Dining Table (1, 2 & 3 tile)

Wishboner Dining Chair

Shelving (multiple height endings, middle & standard end pieces)

Hanging Feature Pendant Lights (multiple variants)

Now available on Patreon Early Access

Public Release: 7th May

#ts4cc download #ts4ccfinds #ts4mm #heyharrie #ts4 maxis match #harriecc #felixandre #felixandresims #ts4mmcc #ts4 cc #ts4 cc finds

[gender-trash]

(i am seriously late in posting about this due to The Problems BUT whatever! its here now!!)

somewhere around late november 2022, i asked my dad "hey are there any out of print technical books you'd like a reprint of for christmas?"

he linked me to a dubious black-and-white pdf of Foundations of Mechanical Accuracy. now, i wound up checking out a copy through link+, and the original edition is a really nicely put together book! the chapters are themed around various types of measurements (length, angle, etc), and they all have these cute little diagrams which the endpapers reuse in a lil repeating pattern... the image captions are done in this really lovely dark red that did not scan for SHIT... tons and tons of diagrams and illustrations and images (both color and b&w)... just, all around, a fucking nice book!! (see also @morrak's post about it here.)

and that made me feel kind of bad about the crappiness of the pdf, which is where the Problems began. i used my phone to take pictures of all the photos and color diagrams in the original and went about replacing them in the pdf, using what turned out to be the world's worst pdf editing software (i also got through replacing all the image captions in chapter 1 of 5 before my dad convinced me to give up). i did NOT finish the pdf editing before christmas 2022 (i was going somewhat off the deep end, because both my housemates were away visiting family and i had zero external structure in my life so it was just me and my cat and this stupid FUCKING pdf wrecking my sleep schedule together); i poked away at it for most of the rest of my time off and then got so goddamn sick of it i put the project away for months. "it'll be a birthday gift instead", i said optimistically (my dad's birthday is in april! it should have been enough time!)

gentle readers, i did not finish the pdf editing by april. mostly because it was such a miserable slog that i put it off until the last possible moment and then tried to make up for it with another death march.

hating both myself and the project again, i decided i was Not going to let myself typeset Anything Else before it was done, and then took a break to bind my immortal (using the renegade publishing typeset! i didn't do any typesetting!!). SURELY, i said, i can finish this in time for christmas 2023.

i'm sure you know where this is going.

in my defense i DID finish the pdf editing by christmas, despite first doing every other possible procrastination project (including a second edition of the little second century warlord book), because by this point my dad had managed to convince me to lower my standards. on the evening of the 22nd i kicked off the print job and said to myself "this will finish printing overnight and then tomorrow i can work on sewing the textblock!"

late on the 23rd, after lots of babysitting and using at least one cartridge of every color ink in my printer, the print job was finally done. (my sweet and lovely cat wants SO BADLY to hunt and stalk the printer while it is printing -- more specifically, the printed pages, i think because they tend to make noise and move and then STOP moving. for this reason, the printer is kept in the craft room, because the cat can be shut out of the craft room and thus prevented from chewing on the pages when i have an all-day book printing job going. unfortunately the craft room was also being pressed into service as a guest room at the time so 80% of the floor space was consumed by an air mattress which i had to repeatedly trip over in order to reach the printer and replace the ink cartridges.)

then i went to my parents' house on the 24th and 25th and apologized to my dad (again) for not having the book finished. but this worked out well because we finished putting together my awesome new book clamp:

(the feet still aren't done being painted so they're just dry-fit on for now but you can still clamp books in it and that's what matters!!)

i came home, sewed the textblock (french link stitch over four linen tapes, with sewn endbands made of variegated embroidery floss over linen cord, and kozo paper glued over the spine)

... and promptly realized i SHOULD HAVE PUT IN MORE OF A GUTTER because some of the text was getting reeeeeeal close to the spine. "it's fine!" i said. "i just have to make sure it lays flat!! what better time than to try out K118 binding, a technique i have literally never done before and which people on the bookbinding discord notoriously have a hard time pulling off first try! i even have tyvek tape for it!"

so it turns out that tyvek tape isn't actually tyvek with glue on it, it's tape FOR attaching pieces of tyvek TO EACH OTHER, which maybe i could have guessed if i'd done even the slightest amount of research or planning. at this point i think it was the 27th and i was still angling to get this thing done by new year's, so no time to order Actual Tyvek.

fortunately, i had ALSO received An Package in the mail with yarn for a totally unrelated knitting project... shipped in a tyvek envelope.

i peeled all the shipping labels and stickers off my tyvek envelope, cut that shit up, and glued it on there.

and THEN it was time for gluing on covers, which i thought was going to be easy because i had actually thought ahead and ordered materials (specifically acid-free museum board), except when i cracked open the box of museum board i decided i Didn't Like It because the surface was too soft and easily dented, so i glued onto it the too-thin board material i'd previously been using (so that the cardboard goes on the outside of the book). this worked super well (the cardboard stuff has a tendency to curl up from the glue moisture, but the museum board doesn't!) and i'll probably use it on other stuff in the future.

i thought the blue bookcloth i used was kind of boring but i showed my dad the available cloth options and he really liked it, so... what do you know? i cut the piece i used on the back cover very slightly too short but it wound up being covered by the leather, so you can barely tell.

and the leather... a scrap just baaaaarely big enough from my bag of leather scraps from discount fabrics... and this the first time i'd ever attempted to put leather on a book... AND YET the only complaint i have is that i didn't manage to put an even amount on the front and back. it's reasonably square and straight!! amazing!!

i am super super happy with how this project came out (especially given the number of problems i encountered) and oh my god check out how much the spine bends

AND, AS A NEW YEAR'S PRESENT, I FINALLY MANAGED TO GIVE IT TO MY DAD

#and promptly got sick after i got home from my parents' house. #which is part of why this post was so long delayed #the trashcan speaks #devil venerable also wants to exploit the memoir class for evil purposes #bookbinding

[queerfables]

The Rules of the Twist

Given the themes of deception and sleight of hand in Good Omens season 2, I think most of us agree it's at least possible there's some kind of twist waiting to be revealed in season 3. We're bouncing around a lot of theories, but I wanted to take a step back and look at the general shape of what we might expect.

The big twist we've seen before in Good Omens is Crowley and Aziraphale's body swap. (Okay, technically it was an appearance swap. But that just doesn't sound as pithy.) Rather than anticipate an exact repeat of this trick, I'm considering the swap as a sort of model. What does it tell us about the rules Neil plays by when he pulls a twist in this story? What clues can we expect, and what can we not count on? Sure, there's no guarantee that a season 2 twist is going to map exactly onto what we've seen in the past, but I think it's a reasonable place to start. Take these as guidelines and take them with a grain of salt, but if you're sorting through all our fascinating Good Omens theories and trying to decide what you think, you might find them helpful.

So then, what are the rules?

Broadly speaking, Neil plays fair with twists. He foreshadows and includes enough hints for the audience to make a reasonable guess at what's going on, or at least to look back after the reveal and go, "oh, of course". But he still keeps some cards close to the chest.

During the body swap, there are two big gaps in the information we're given:

Key events happen off screen The swap happened between scenes, during a time that it was only suggested, not confirmed, that Crowley and Aziraphale would be together. The transition between these scenes also used film and tv conventions to make that passage of time "invisible" - we see Crowley and Aziraphale get on the bus, and then we see them in the morning going about their days separately, and we're conditioned to think nothing important could have happened in between.

Key tools (eg abilities, items, information) haven't been shown before The swap was not something we'd ever seen Crowley and Aziraphale do, and it wasn't something they'd ever talked about either. It fit comfortably into the established world building but it hadn't been specifically signposted as a possibility.

The other big twist that Good Omens pulled was the romance between Gabriel and Beelzebub as the explanation for Gabriel's disappearance from heaven. Both of these information gaps are involved here too. The offscreen event is obviously the meetings between Gabriel and Beelzebub that lead to them falling in love - up until Gabriel's flashback sequence, the only indication they'd ever met each other was a brief conversation at the airbase during Armageddon. The tool that we haven't seen before is Beelzebub's ability to create a fly vessel for Gabriel's memories (protecting him in much the same way that Crowley and Aziraphale protected each other with their body swap, in fact).

These are pretty big gaps, really. And given that Neil knew there'd be years between seasons 2 and 3, I expect he would have leaned pretty heavily into them if he wanted to hide something. So how do we predict a twist if we can't know where it is and haven't seen what it might involve?

Unanswered questions

This is the big one. Looking at where the furniture isn't, you might say.

What's interesting is that the questions that point to a twist aren't usually subtle or ambiguous. For the body swap, the two converging questions were: what did Agnes' last prophecy mean, and how could Crowley and Aziraphale survive their executions? In season two, some of the unanswered questions signposting Gabriel/Beelzebub were: how did Gabriel lose his memory, why was he carrying a box, what was the significance of the song he kept singing, who was he at the Resurrectionist with...

I think guesses about upcoming twists are most convincing when they seek to tie up loose threads from the show. For this reason, I'm a little skeptical of theories proposing the kiss between Crowley and Aziraphale involved some kind of twist. It isn't impossible, I just don't see any unanswered questions there. (Savvy readers may note that I too have speculated about a twist hidden in the kiss. I do find the possibility fun, but it's not a theory I'm seriously committed to). If I was going to really buy into one of these theories, I'd want it to explain one of my big unanswered questions other than "but how could they get into a fight that hurts me so deep in my soul?" That's definitely a question I have, but not technically a mystery.

It's worth noting that in the case of the body swap, we were initially given a false answer to the question "how did they survive their executions?" The angels and demons watching attribute it to Crowley and Aziraphale having "gone native", believing that their natures had fundamentally changed, making them immune to holy water and hellfire. It might be the case, then, that some of the apparently resolved questions this season warrant further investigation. Is there more to the story of Gabriel's disappearance than we know, for example?

2. Unexplained details

If examining an unanswered question is looking at where the furniture isn't, then this is where we take all the pieces of furniture piled up in storage and see if we've got anything that fits. Everything is fair game here: script, acting, music, props, sets, costumes, editing, camera angles, audio effects, visual effects, everything. If it's on the screen or coming through the speakers, it was put there on purpose by multiple teams of highly skilled and attentive creators all working together to create the final product.

I think you could probably do an entire meta on all the little details pointing towards the season 1 body swap, but here are some of the big ones:

"Crowley" sees the restored Bentley, but takes a taxi instead of driving it

"Aziraphale" circles "Crowley" when they order their ice creams, the way Crowley more typically moves around Aziraphale

"Crowley" says "tickety boo", an extraordinarily Aziraphalean phrase

The collar on "Crowley's" jacket is a beige tartan rather than its usual red

There are general differences in the ways David Tennant and Michael Sheen embody the characters throughout the swap

Similarly, Gabriel and Beelzebub's romance has lots of small details pointing to it. The big one that keeps showing up is the connection between Gabriel and flies. He mentions them and interacts with them repeatedly, and although it isn't obvious at first glance, there's a fly in the box that he carries to the bookshop. This all culminates in the reveal that it's the same fly, Beelzebub's gift to him.

Here's the problem, of course: if everything in the show is intentional and crafted with meticulous attention to detail, how do we know what actually matters? This is why I think it's so important to look at the unanswered questions first. There's a joy in seeking out Easter eggs and connecting all the dots, and sometimes you might strike gold this way, but there's also a lot of noise in the signal. It's helpful to know the general shape of what you're looking for, so you'll know when you've found it.

You can reverse engineer this. Start with details that jump out at you and then look for a puzzle they might explain. This works, but it's a little easier to get lost in the weeds, struggling to sort out what's significant and what's a fun reference to another piece of media or a hint to a question that's already been resolved. Going back to the twists we've already seen on this show, the unanswered questions around them were really big and obvious, so I think it's a good idea to ask: if I hadn't noticed this detail, would I have thought this was a mystery that needed solving?

Okay, but what do we do with this?

Well, maybe nothing. These criteria can't confirm or rule out any theories, after all. I'm laying it out like a rubric but it isn't really, I'm just describing a few storytelling patterns we've seen before and making some rough guesses about how they might show up again. If I were really serious about this I'd probably take a look at other examples of Neil's work and see how well my model holds up there, but the truth is I'm not really familiar with enough of his other works to do this. (Confession time: I was always more of a Pratchett fan).

The main reason that I've laid everything out like this is it informs my thinking when I stress test my own theories, and I figured other people might be interested in it. I'm also hoping it will help me to be able to refer back to this when I write meta in the future. For my own purposes, I find a breakdown like this helpful because it gives me a sense of how a writer approaches their story, where they'll tip their hand and where they'll hold things close. It's no guarantee and it wouldn't be any fun if it was, but in a lot of cases we're not aware of our own patterns, so it can be surprisingly illuminating.

#good omens #good omens meta #fable talks good omens

[let-us-cultivate-our-garden]

The reason why the toh fandom can have such wildly diverging interpretations of the Wittebane story is because the show did not do its job. How old was Philip when Caleb left? Did Caleb truly believe in witch hunting or was he just playing along to what the town expected? Did Caleb ever tell Philip anything? Did he ever talk to his brother and try to change his mind? How long was Philip searching for Caleb? How did he get cursed? How exactly did the knife fight start? Did Philip kill Caleb accidentally or on purpose? Did he kill him only because he married a witch or because he left him? Or both?

The fact is, we don't have definitive answers to any of these. We only have educated guesses based on portraits barely glimpsed in the show that lack any context, Masha's barebones version of events, and Belos' self-justifications. Casual fans shouldn't have to be knee-deep in fandom just to get the main villain's backstory, especially when said story is the literal basis of the whole plot.

Plus, if you're going to spend the final half of your last season barely exploring the villain's origins, only to completely ignore it in the series finale, then you've written a bad ending.

Update: This is getting some notes so I'm including additional thoughts to the original post. The rest will be under the read more:

Just to add onto this because some folks argue that we don’t need his backstory because we already have the essentials or it’s not really important to the plot. The thing is though is that Belos’ story launches the entire plot of the show, his character and motivation are the direct result of actions that happened centuries before the main characters were born. It needs to be depicted and not largely inferred. 

His story is important to creating a more fleshed out character and can strengthen the themes of the show (the rivalry between Eda and Lilith and Luz struggling to fit in at home are parallels to Belos). Instead the show gives little kernels of his story and character that make him more interesting than just Evil Emperor (the fact that the brothers became witch hunters to fit in, the fact that Belos worst memories are of killing Caleb and making grimwalkers are never touched on again). The first (and last) time we see Caleb in a full scene is in For the Future and it has huge implications for the dynamic between the two brothers. But again, nothing is done with it. It seemed like the show was building up that Belos’ lies and self-justifications would lead to his undoing but it doesn’t. So him dying with his ideology and self-delusions intact feels empty.

The worst part of how the Wittebane story is handled is that since it’s largely inferred and you have to be pretty involved in fandom to have a more nuanced take of it, a casual fan can easily just accept other characters’ views on the matter. Masha says “looks like little bro was jealous of big bro” and it undercuts the story of the Wittebanes (to say nothing of the tonal whiplash). The Titan dismisses Belos as only caring for himself and to be the hero, which while technically true, misses a lot of context and makes it easy to dismiss Belos as a whole as simply being evil and crazy instead of a more layered villain. And it can’t be argued that these are just the characters’ perspectives and we shouldn’t take it at face value because there’s nothing really in the show to pushback against that. 

Now, yes, it is fun to imagine how the Wittebane story played out and in hindsight, it’s probably better that the show didn’t depict the entire story because they probably would have botched it. But the point remains that the handling of this storyline was a mess (and don’t give me the cancellation excuse, the show learned early on about this and wrote all of 2B with it in mind). The Wittebane story and Belos as a whole showcase why setup and payoff matter. You show the villain feels guilt about their worst deeds? What’s the payoff to that? The villain was originally an outsider who tried to fit in and conformed to a town’s toxic ideologies? What’s the payoff? The villain continually lies to himself and commits atrocities to justify his actions? What’s the payoff? 

If you’re going to raise interesting and thought-provoking questions then don’t give the audience a simplistic answer.

#toh critical #toh criticism #the owl house #emperor belos #philip wittebane #caleb wittebane #I don't want to hear any nonsense about belos not “deserving” a proper ending #if you spend two episodes adding new information and context #then that needs to pay off for the audience somehow #long post #post update

[pedropascallme]

Let Your Mind Go Wild

Pairing: Professor!Damien x f!Reader

Summary: “‘Just…’ You brought your hand out from under his shirt, wrapping it loosely around his neck, thumb brushing over his Adam’s apple, ‘You’re a lot…bigger than me…’ You squeezed his arm.”

Warnings: SMUT (18+ MINORS DNI) implied age gap (Damien is his actual current age, reader is 20-22), student/teacher relationship, mild sadism/masochism themes, dom/sub dynamics, brattamer!Damien, p in v sex, fingering, oral sex (f receiving), biting, spanking (not where you would think!), size kink, daddy kink, If I missed anything please let me know!

Damien prided himself on a lack of shame in regard to his relationship with you.

It wouldn’t shock him if people thought of it as taboo—maybe, to them, him being with someone younger, someone who was technically his subordinate, made him perverted; a deviant in the eyes of onlookers. But he couldn’t bring himself to care.

The only thing he cared about was you, and if you didn’t mind the unconventional nature of your relationship with him, why should he?

This is what he repeated to himself while he watched you get dressed in his clothes; boxers that fit you too loose around the hips and a button down that swallowed you whole.

The difference in size between the two of you wasn’t something he had put much thought into before. He had noticed the basics, the way your fingers were slenderer than his, your smaller shoes next to his larger ones when you kicked them off in the entry way of the house, and the way you curled into him so gracefully at night.

But with you in his clothes, fabric bunched around your waist, sleeves covering your hands despite repeated attempts to roll them up, he felt something weirdly primal—and it wouldn’t go away.

He didn’t want to draw attention to it, fearing that it would make you uncomfortable somehow. He knew he was being too in his head, but there was a vague worry that an admission of your smaller stature doing it for him would make you think he was using you for the fulfillment of some depraved desire.

You both knew that at this point your relationship was beyond these worries. There was an unconditional, unspoken respect between the two of you; an undying appreciation that made itself obvious in silent (and spoken) ways. Still, he couldn’t help but feel that his urges were misplaced somehow.

He tried to push the thought from his mind and focus on the grading he had been putting off rather than the desire to grab you by the hips and show you how your frame contrasted his.

~~~

“More papers?” You walked into his office, holding a bowl of cereal, the shirt you had stolen from his closet billowed around you.

“Mm,” Damien watched you take a spoonful of cereal to your mouth, a small bead of milk trickling from between your lips and over your chin; you wiped it with the sleeve of his shirt. “I just washed that, baby.” He sighed, amused.

“Oops,” You smiled, still chewing. “Are you going to be busy all day?”

“I hope not.” Damien swiveled his chair back toward his desk and looked at the pile of ungraded assignments stacked high in front of him.

“Well,” you held the bowl in one hand now, dropping your spoon into it and approaching the back of his chair, “I’ll be here." You squeezed at his bicep, kissing his cheek and taking in the rough feel of his stubble on your lips, before turning to leave. "Have fun, Professor.”

He swallowed. The ache he was experiencing to push you down onto any available surface was only heightened by the way you struggled to fit your hand around his arm.

You’d be the death of him.

He could tell you were bored; you began to mark every half hour on the dot by padding into his office—offering a chaste kiss on his neck, or squeezing his arm—and then running out before he had the chance to respond in any way to your antics.

He began to enjoy your game, before growing irritated by his inability to take an active role in it. You’d come in, wrap your arms around his abdomen from behind his chair, soft hums would travel to his ears as you trailed your lips over his skin, small hands running over his chest and arms, and then you’d be gone a moment later. What's more, he'd lose his place, too preoccupied with the feeling of your mouth and hands against him, and have to restart whatever assignment he'd been grading.

“You’re being a brat.” He called to you down the hallway, and the only response you offered was a lighthearted giggle.

He wanted to fuck you stupid, but he knew he should prioritize his occupational responsibilities—however dull they may be, and however tempting you were.

He knew you knew that, too, and you were using his rationality to your advantage in order to act out.

When he reached the last page of the last paper, marked up with pen and read over so many times the words had started blurring together, Damien let out a deep sigh of relief.

The clock read 4:26. He leaned back in his chair, waiting out the next four minutes so that he could finally participate in the game you’d roped him into.

When he heard you coming down the hall, he picked up a stray paper, pretending to be deeply immersed in the reading. You walked up behind him, giggling quietly to yourself, certain you’d continue to get away with pestering him; you reached out once more to squeeze at him, and he swiveled in his chair, grabbing you by the waist and pulling you into him in a messy show of affection. You weren’t properly on his lap, and his arms were wrapped around you lazily, but he couldn’t help but smile at the way you leaned into him when you settled with your hands firm on his shoulders, laughing up at him.

“You having fun?” He watched one of your hands sweep over his chest, the warmth of your palm permeating the thin material of the shirt he had on.

“Maybe.” You smiled, unwilling to concede. “Professor?” You undid the top button of his shirt, taking your time before pulling his collar open gently. “Did you ever notice…” You continued to undo a few more buttons, hand reaching under the newly unfastened opening of his shirt to enjoy skin-to-skin contact. Your other hand came to rest on his arm.

“Notice what?” He grabbed your chin gently between his fingers, forcing eye contact.

“Just…” You brought your hand out from under his shirt, wrapping it loosely around his neck, thumb brushing over his Adam’s apple, “You’re a lot…bigger than me…” You squeezed his arm.

Damien clenched his jaw, grateful that you were practically begging for him to act on the thoughts he’d been trying to push down all day; the burning desire to dominate you, show you how much bigger he was than you—and to put you in your place for sidetracking him from his work.

He couldn’t decide which he was more excited about.

“Have you noticed that you’re always a brat when I’m grading?” He hoisted you up, throwing you over his shoulder, one arm wrapped around your thighs, his opposite hand coming up to support your legs while you playfully kicked and squirmed above him. “Because I certainly have.”

“Hey!” You feigned outrage. The blood rushing to your head made you even giddier than you had been. He dropped you down onto the bed and you scrambled to sit up, shoving his chest.

You were already in trouble, what was a little more rebellion?

Damien grabbed your wrists and all but threw you onto your back, crawling over you and kissing down your throat.

“All fucking day,” He murmured against you, “All fucking day, baby—why are you so needy, hm? Cause you’re not getting all of my attention? Cause daddy’s busy with work and can’t give you what you want?” He didn’t know where the new title had come from, pulled from the back of his mind in the heat of the moment, but he was fine now with throwing caution to the wind, seeing as you’d already matched one of his impulses.

You didn’t confirm or deny his taunts, offering a huffed moan in place of any real response. You were distracted, intrigued by the title he had given himself, hips wiggling against him. “You said you wouldn’t be busy all day.” You continued to defy him.

“Is that why you were trying to distract me?” He sucked a deep purple mark on your collar bone, “Just wanted to get fucked? Jealous that my focus wasn't on you?" He bit the mark he had made. "Wanted to show me how you could take this big cock in that sweet little pussy?”

“Yeah—” You gasped at the way his teeth skimmed over your skin, “Yes, sir—yes, daddy.”

“You need to learn some fucking patience,” he groaned, rubbing against your thigh to find some relief. “In my clothes, walking around like you own the place.” His voice got lower, spurred on by your whines. “You look so beautiful like this." He brought his attention to the shirt you wore; sitting up on his knees to straddle your thighs, he tore the few buttons you had bothered to fasten apart.

“Damien!” You smiled, shocked that he would ruin his own clothes. “Thought you just washed this?” You lifted your head, watching his hands to the best of your ability, and he pulled the fabric off your shoulders hastily.

“I’ll get a new one.” He decided, pulling you up towards him to better enable his removal of the shirt from your body. “Little girl in my fucking clothes—you know what you’ve been doing to me all day?” He pushed you back down, dipping his head down to suck on your breasts, interchanging which side he licked over and which side he squeezed. "Distracting me—clothes don't even fit you." His mutterings were general, not directed towards you, but you picked up on them nonetheless.

“You like that I’m sm—aller than you, daddy?” Your breath caught in your throat when his teeth grazed your nipple. You pulled on his hair, earning a growl from him. “Like seeing your little girl in your clothes?”

Damien brought his face up to smother you in a heated kiss; it was sloppy and rash, but you couldn’t bring yourself to care about the logistics, too immersed in feeling him against you.

“Coming into my office,” he breathed against you, “in this fucking outfit, acting like a brat, trying to get a rise out of me—it worked.” He continued to attack your lips; both of you rutted against each other desperately, neither of you daring to break away from the other to properly undress and do anything about it. “Tell me you need me.”

“Need you—please, need you now, needed you all day.” You moaned when he bit down hard on your neck, leaving a bright red mark behind.

“Oh, baby,” he cooed, hips stilling, “you can do better than that.”

“Please—fuck, please, daddy, I’ll do anything, need you to fuck me.” You tugged at the hair on the nape of his neck, twisting short strands in your fingers.

“Yeah?” He moaned, your use of the new title not going unnoticed. “Need daddy’s cock?”

You whined, scraping your nails up his back while you nodded.

“Use your fucking words.”

“Need daddy’s cock,” you whimpered the words back to him, lids feeling heavy over your eyes when you dragged your still-clothed cunt just right against his thigh positioned above you. “Please.”

He stood up wordlessly, removing his shirt; you couldn’t hide the way your eyes raked over his arms, the way the fabric clung to him while he stripped himself bare, soft muscle pulling taught under his skin when he leaned down to undo his fly and rid himself of his jeans.

Christ, had his hands always been that big?

Damien pulled you by your ankles towards the edge of the bed, and you went limp under his touch, making yourself malleable and allowing him to remove the pair of boxers you still had on. He positioned you with your legs spread, hooking one knee over his shoulder and letting the other one hang from the mattress.

“Pretty little pussy.” He brought his hand down onto your cunt, spanking your clit hard.

You jumped at the contact, yelping a moan, and he did it again just to watch you squirm. He put his fingers in his mouth, releasing them after a moment and trailing them from the bottom of your entrance up to your clit.

“Gonna let daddy be in control now, right?” He circled his fingers over your clit, wet with his spit and the slick he'd gathered from his brief sweep up your pussy, “Since you’ve been doing whatever you want all day—my turn, right?”

You nodded, and he spanked your cunt again, coaxing a verbal answer from you. “Yes, sir—daddy’s in charge.”

“Cause this is my pussy to play with…” It wasn’t a question, more of a statement that cemented his authority and the way he planned to worship you, but you answered enthusiastically anyway.

“Yes—belongs to daddy.” You grasped at his wrist, fingers still teasing your clit.

“Good girl.” He moved his hand, effectively blocking your attempts to grab onto him, and pushed one finger into your hole; you arched your back, giving him the opportunity to push into you deeper. “God, you’re so tight,” he groaned, watching his finger pump in and out of you slowly, twisting his wrist and allowing himself to feel all of you around him. “Tight little pussy, squeezing one of my fingers—how are you gonna take my cock, baby? How’s it gonna fit?”

“Make it—make it fit,” you begged, “Make it fit, daddy.”

Damien growled, turning to the leg you had propped up on his shoulder and biting the inside of your thigh harshly before peppering kisses over the mark he'd left behind. “You want me to force my cock into you, baby?” He felt you shudder around him, walls clenching his finger. He added another. “Get you nice and ready for me so I can ruin this little pussy?”

“Please—fuck, Damien, please.”

He pulled his fingers from your dripping hole, licking them off. “Try again.”

“Daddy! Please, daddy, force it. Make me take it.” You bounced your hips gently on the mattress, and he relented, pushing his fingers back into you and curling them upwards to pet the spongy spot inside of you. You cried out for him, and he added another finger.

“That’s three, princess. You feel good?” He watched in awe as your cunt stretched around the intrusion, slick coating his fingers and dripping down the curve of your ass.

“Feels so good.” You breathed.

“Look at that little pussy taking it so good.” He felt like he could drool over the sight in front of him.

“Want your—cock. Please.” You struggled to focus on your breathing, entranced by the way his thick fingers stretched you.

“Thought we said it was my turn to be in charge,” he smiled, devious and unrelenting as he drove his fingers into you. “Cum for me like this, baby. Show me this little pussy can take what I give it.”

He leaned forward, taking your clit in his mouth and sucking; his tongue flicked over you, fingers buried knuckle deep in your cunt, and you clapped your hand over your mouth to keep your screams muffled.

You came like that, dampening your cries for him with your palm and bucking your hips against his mouth. Even with your eyes screwed shut, blinded by pleasure, you could tell he was smiling, proud of himself and the ways in which he could make you come undone.

He removed his fingers from you, and you clenched around the emptiness, whining at the loss of him inside of you. He frowned at you, mockingly.

“What’s wrong?” He stood, leaning over you, “You feel empty?”

“Yes.” You whined, squeezing your thighs together.

“Don’t worry—gonna give you what you need.” He dropped a hand down over your cunt, and you flinched at the attention he gave your sensitive clit, moving his hand back and forth with reckless abandon. You moaned, head falling back further against the bed. “Look at me.” He coaxed your gaze up, and you watched him take his cock in his hand, rubbing it through your folds and then leaning forward, resting it on your stomach. “See that?” He questioned, and you nodded, “See how deep I’m gonna fuck you?”

You let out a quiet moan, staring down at the length of his cock and the space it took up on your body.

“My little girl, I’ll make it fit so nice, baby, I promise. What do you say?”

“Thank you, daddy.” You looked up at him, his lust-blown eyes reflecting your own.

“That’s right.” He pulled his hips back and lined himself up with your entrance. “You want all of it?”

“Please.”

He smirked, smug and eager. Upon hearing your words he immediately pushed his hips forward, spearing you on his cock and watching the way your lower stomach bulged full of him.

You screamed, not even bothering to hide it behind your hand this time, back arching again in satisfaction at being filled to the brim by him. He took one of your hands in his and placed it on your stomach.

“So full, baby.” He looked feral, eyes dark, lips curling up at the sides, top teeth barely peeking through them, his hair falling in messy bangs over his face.

He’d never looked better.

“So fucking big, daddy—so deep.” You whined, pressing on your stomach to feel the swell of him.

“You gonna let daddy fuck this little pussy open?” He growled, watching your hand sweep over your stomach, “Gonna let me wreck you?”

“Yes,” you let out a stuttered breath when he dragged his hips back; maybe it was the conversation, the dirty talk getting to your head, but you could’ve sworn he felt bigger now than he had previously. “Yes, daddy.”

When he pushed back in, you felt yourself jolt up the bed slightly; he was rough, frustrated with your disruptions all day, but more so lost to his own impulses, obsessed with how small you looked spread out on the bed for him, how your legs trembled, wrapped slack around his hips and pulling him in deeper with every thrust.

Any sense of restraint was lost when you looked up at him through your lashes, lips parted and swollen from his kisses. “Want you to cum right there, daddy—deep like that.”

Damien made a sound he had never heard himself make before, lifting your hips and ramming into you with fervor. You cried out for him, and he bent down, caging you between his arms; just another way for him to stress how much bigger he was than you. His lips brushed against your chest, and he could feel the sweat on your skin. He poked his tongue out to lick a stripe between your breasts, savoring it while he continued to use you passionately. “You want me to cum in you, princess?” He trailed open-mouthed kisses on your breasts, leaving marks in his wake, “Want me to fill you up so you can feel me all night?”

You recited your response, continually shouting enthusiastic "yes"s, certain you could feel his cock in your ribs. He hit the tender spot inside you repeatedly, drawing mangled cries.

“Fuck, daddy, it hurts!” You whined, and Damien paused his movements, pulling out slightly and repositioning himself above you to meet your gaze.

“Good hurt or bad hurt?” He dropped the dominant front, concerned that he had gone too far. His fingers combed through your hair.

“Good,” you whispered, “So good. So deep—so big it hurts.” Your cheeks were flushed, “Don’t stop, daddy, please.”

Damien groaned, pushing his cock back into you, fully sheathed in your cunt and delighting in the way you squeezed him.

“You like when it hurts?” He grunted out between harsh thrusts, straightening up to hold your hips steady once again, “Like having this big cock stretch you out so good that it hurts, baby?”

“Fuck,” you cried, grabbing at his forearm and squeezing like you'd been doing all day, unable to get enough of him, “Yes! Fucking love it!”

“That’s right,” he brought his fingers to your cunt, spreading your folds to get a proper look at how you swallowed him. “Wish you could see how pretty you look, baby—little pussy so full of me.”

You whined, keening at his words, pulling on his arm until he yielded, letting you bring his hand to your face. You licked at his fingers, slipping them beyond your lips and sucking hard to the rhythm of his thrusts.

“God, yes,” he moaned, “Good girl.”

You moaned against his fingers, spit collecting at the corners of your mouth. You felt so full—so complete.

“Can I have my fingers back, princess?” His voice was sultry. You hummed, vibrations traveling through his hand. You kept sucking, unwilling to release them.

Maybe you were still set on acting like a brat.

“No?” He squeezed your hip with his free hand. “You don’t want me to touch you, baby? Don’t wanna cum on my cock?” He stilled his hips, and you squirmed under him, still not backing down. He spanked your cunt with his free hand, and you yelped, giving him the opportunity to take his fingers back from you. A strand of saliva maintained your mouth's connection to his hand. “That’s what I thought.”

He used his spit drenched fingers to knead your clit, still fucking you as deep as he could manage. “You still want me to cum nice and deep in this little pussy?” He asked, and you nodded. “Use your words—c’mon, use your manners.”

“Yes, ple—ase, daddy.”

“You think you deserve it? Acting out all morning—still not listening to what I tell you. You still think you deserve to get filled up?” His fingers moved slow over your clit, ghosting over you and providing friction without the necessary pressure he knew you required. You tried to buck your hips up to get him closer to you, but to no avail.

“I’ll be so good from now on,” You promised, “Won’t ever bother you again, sir.”

Damien bit his bottom lip, growling as he pressed the pad of his finger to your clit, offering more of what you needed while he thrust deep.

“Want you to cum first, baby,” he knit his brow in focus, “You want my cum, need to feel you first, alright?”

You nodded to the best of your ability, concentrated solely on the way he fucked you. One of your hands once again flying to grasp at his arm, the other fisting the sheets underneath you. You threw your head back, eyes closed and mouth open.

“Good girl, cum for me—squeeze me nice and tight.” He was driving into you wildly; deep, fast thrusts that knocked the wind from your lungs, fingers still working your clit. He felt you flutter around him. “Look at me when you cum, princess.” You looked up, eyes meeting his.

You came, crying his name, legs trembling, heat engulfing your stomach before jolts of electricity spread over your muscles. You kept your hand on his arm, squeezing intermittently between gasps and moans.

He kept fucking you, spurred on by your sounds and the feeling of your walls tightening around him. “Fuck,” he grit his teeth, eyes closing and throwing his head back. “God, fuck, that’s my good girl—fuck, I’m gonna cum—gonna cum in this little pussy, just like this, baby.” His thrusts faltered, and he dealt one last deep shove of his hips, cock pressed against your cervix when he came in you, moaning.

He watched you bite your lip, eyes glossed over and hazy with delight as you felt the warm welling of his cum inside of you.

Damien pulled out of you slowly, and you both shuddered; you whined at the sudden loss of contact, unfilled and feeling bare. “I know, baby. I’m sorry.” He lay down next to you, pulling you into his chest and lying quietly with you while you both tried your best to catch your breath.

“Messy.” You muttered after a few minutes of quiet cuddling, finding comfort in the crook of his neck. His heartbeat thrummed in your ear. “Sore.”

“I know,” he ran a hand over your hair, smoothing the frizz he had caused by fucking you on your back. “Bath?”

“Yeah, in a second.” You moved to look up at him, dopey smile on your face. “Should I still call you Professor at school?”

“Why—I mean, in class, yeah, but y—" He looked lost, "...why do you ask?”

“You just seem to prefer daddy lately.” You watched his face turn from curious to a combination of shy and entertained.

“Christ.” He grinned, moving his hand down your back, tracing shapes over your skin.

You sighed at the feeling, falling silent again for a moment. Then: “Didn’t know you were so into size differences.”

“I wouldn’t say it’s just general size differences that do it for me…”

“So not every small thing is going to make you horny?” You pressed your cheek to his chest, “Like, when we go grocery shopping, should I be worried about leaving you in the pasta aisle next to those boxes of tiny star-shaped pasta?”

“Yeah, but not because they’ll turn me on—I used to date tiny star-shaped pasta, and there’s no love lost between us…” He managed to deadpan the delivery before making himself laugh, spirits further heightened by the amused smile you shot up at him before you turned to trail kisses over his shoulder.

“No, I...I don’t know if it’s just the fact that you’re smaller than me.” Damien thought out loud, “I think it’s just the fact that it’s you.”

“Yeah?” You looked up at him, catching his gaze and basking in the warmth of his eyes.

“Yeah.” He concluded, kissing you on the forehead, and your smile widened.

There it was again, the unspoken respect; the quiet tenderness and devotion that you two shared.

“I think I’m ready for that bath now.” You reminded him, arms wrapping around his neck. “But only if you come with me.”

“I was hoping you’d say that.”

#damien haas #damien haas fanfiction #damien haas smut #damien haas x reader #damien haas x you #smosh #smosh fanfiction #smosh fic #smosh smut #smosh games #smosh pit #smoshblr

[bklily]

I find it both hilarious and disturbing that Adrien's ultimate repressed persona is the one in charge. He's (mostly) keeping all of the Chats under control... 👀

Yeeees that's what I was going for haha. Granted some of them do help to keep the order (mainly Mister Bug)

But Cat Walker being sort of the current leader in the mind palace is also related to the fact that, in Adrien's life, an always present theme is: control.

He was created in a controlled way, unlike a "messy and chaotic" natural pregnancy. He was created under the control of his parents, literally through the amok and emotionally through the fact he always became what they wanted to be. And even past Season 5 there's still an aspect of "control" that the reality itself has over him, where his father's ideal wish is now controlling the people's perception around him.

So while personas like Chat Noir and Mister Bug could technically be in charge, I don't think it would be so fitting as cat walker- because he embodies Adrien's control over himself in a neatly trained way :,,)

The Adrien brainrot never stops I am losing my mind!!!

#ask #heartfulselkie #miraculous ladybug #ml spoilers #mister bug #aspik #Mind Palace AU #ml analysis

[destinysbounty]

This is by no means an original take but I shall say it all the same: the majority of Cryatalized's issues could be easily resolved by having both halves be separate seasons - or at the very least getting the s11 treatment where they are both distinct arcs that are connected yet not necessarily the same plot.

Hear me out. Plot threads from part 1 that never got resolved, like the new ninja thing orHounddog McBrag's arc or Nya's reunion being unsatisfying, and the ninja still technically being wanted criminals? Have that be its own separate, contained story. Even if they save Nya in the first few eps, they dont get to see her properly until the very end due to them being on the run, which makes that eventual reunion much more cathartic as well as giving them an emotional motive that still carries over from the season's beginning energy involving the ninjas' grief. We'd get more time to explore everyone's grieving processes in greater depth, and actually give Nya a satisfying arc of coping with her newfound powerlessness and feelings of guilt. Maybe it can be a more grounded storyline - corruption within Ninjago's justice system, or the prisons were planning to do something awful to them, or they realized the judge had no intention of ever letting Nya visit them again so they break out of jail just to reunite with her one last time. Or, yeah, maybe some villain shows up and they have to try and stop them. Either way, if Pt1 had been its own season then that would allow all the storylines and arcs for that part to be resolved much more satisfyingly.

Then, with the Nya and ninja crimonal situation resolved in one way or another, Part 2 as a separate season could have much more effectively dived into stuff like Overlord lore, Harumi's redemption arc, Lloyd's oni form, and general Garmafam drama.

On top of that, thia new two-season system would also fit into the Wildbrain season theme in a fun way. We had Fire and Ice, Electricity, Earth, Green, and then Water. The Pt1 season could then be Creation, with the Pt2 season being Destructuon.

Ultimately, the biggest problem with Crystalized was that it tried to bite off more than it could chew, and tried to juggle too many ideas at once without affording enough time for each of those individual storylines enough time to be effectively resolved. By splitting them into two distinct storylines with their own antagonists, climaxes, and resolutions, the plot threads introduced in both halves would have much more space to get the conclusions they needed.

#500 notes and i rewrite - *gets shot* #ninjago #destiny post

[ruiniel]

I noticed in two of your works you wrote of a 'bond' between Alucard and his s/o, could I make a request between him and a female s/o about that specifically? Like perhaps how it came to be between them?

Thank you and no pressure ♥

Vampire-human bonding is a theme I like exploring in fiction! When a deep connection is formed with mutual consent, transcending the usual predator-prey relationship.

Alucard's character is technically not a full-fledged vampire but I'll take a creative license here.

Will incorporate this in the next few parts of 'Hidden'. Speaking of which, here's part IV (mostly fluff).

Hidden

Fandom: Castlevania series (2017-2021)

Pairing: Alucard x fem!reader

Rating: T

Count: 1.4k

Tags & Warnings: fluff

Part I - Part II - Part III

IV. Stay

You make it up the stairway in a rush. There’s an urgency to your step, because all you had was a moment and it was not enough.

Adrian opens the doors to his chambers and enters, then turns around to gaze at you. 

You close the doors behind you, leaning with your back against the hard wood. The surrounding silence, compared to the earlier commotion, gives the impression of landing in a faraway place, removed from the daily storms and weathering of humanity. Your heart thumps in your chest, your torso rises and falls from the brief but intense exertion.

There is a small, unsteady smile on his lips, one that seems to ask ‘well… what now?’

Wordless, you spring from your place and throw yourself in his arms even as Adrian’s tighten around your waist, and he spins you around a few turns, laughing softly. 

He nears a couch and sits you both on it, ensuring you remain draped over him (not something you'll complain about).

You have so many things to tell him, so many questions and so many fears—the latter of which you refuse to allow purchase in your mind, but you will have to settle them at some point, you know this.

And what of him? You nuzzle his cheek, breaths slowing, enjoying the tension radiating through his muscles, the way your body fits so snugly against him. This space is removed from the direct all-encompassing light of the sun and as such your surroundings feel even more remote, even more of an escape.

“Are you… sure about this?”

Adrian’s hand stops its repeated motion of running up and down your thigh. “Considering I’d wanted to ask you to be with me weeks ago, yes. I’m quite sure, my sweet silly one.”

You scoff, but bury your nose against his neck, inhale a scent of skin that unleashes a restless heat within. 

“... are you?” His question is spoken slowly, carefully, and you feel the way his throat bobs against your forehead when he swallows. 

“I…”  your feelings of strangeness, of inadequacy rise to the fore as you clutch at him, feeling his clothing between your fingers in a repeated, uncontrollable stim. “When I realized my changing feelings for you, I worried. I tried to smother them. When it didn’t work, I despaired—after all, who was I to you? Sure, we’d become close, and our time together was always pleasant, both intellectually and emotionally. It enriches my days.”

“But?...” His hand resumes the slow glide along your thigh and the simple intimacy of it combined with the unexpected turn of this day—you, here, in his space and in his arms—makes you so very weak. 

“But… I mean…” You’re glad you don’t have to look at him. “You’re so… your family brought you up to be this wonderful, beautiful person.”

Adrian breathes through his nose, a soft blush tinting his cheekbones. “Oh, really, now…”

“You can’t deny it, Adrian. You’re quite… striking to the average eyes. And knowing you, the extent of your capabilities, well… who was I, but a fleeting soul in your path? I thought that you’d never share my feelings, and wanted—tried—to remove myself from your proximity, from your life.”

He tips your chin up then, all bashfulness gone. “It hurts to hear you speak this way.”

“But do you understand?”

He smiles no longer, his gaze saddened, lowered lashes shadowing his eyes. “I’m trying. But… it’s not as though I ever accounted for my feelings to spread like wildfire either. I never thought I’d come to a point where the mere sight of you brought so much joy, such feverish yearning. I want to be in your life.” He pauses. “If you wish it.”

Emotion grows and spreads like flowered vines inside you, spilling through your chest. “My fears got the better of me. Please…” You know what you want to say, but the words struggle to leave your mouth. “Stay in my life.”

Adrian smiles winningly, sucking on your bottom lip with a velvety ‘mmm’ that leaves you dizzy. He hoists you up in his lap with a tighter grip. “How about this? We take it slow.”

“Slow,” you repeat, palm pressed to his fast-beating heart.

Ripe light washes the valley in a warm glow as you climb, following Adrian on a barely beaten path uphill. As you’d agreed, you left your studies and daily chores for this short escape, to take some time for yourselves.

You can’t but stare as he walks ahead, a bag slung over one shoulder containing a few basic necessities and tools for your trek through nature. Your own bag is significantly smaller, but there’s not much you needed to bring. You’re on the second day of your trip, and Adrian guided you through landscapes of such beauty they left you yearning for faraway places you’ve never been. The air is breezy, balmy to your heated body.

“We’ll be there soon,” Adrian says, half turning with a smile. 

“There? There… where?” 

“You’ll see,” he adds, tone conspiratorial enough to make you wonder. 

To your right, the lands are garbed in nature’s colors of evening, a long river with fast waters throwing itself in a long sweep at the horizon. Mountains lie sleepily beneath a westering sun, its disc glowing reddish gold. 

Being here, with him, is all you need at the moment. Since your tense confession, things have changed, but it all felt so natural: the shift in the way he glances at you, the way he takes your hand or caresses you when you fall asleep tucked against him. 

Your gaze moves from the scenery to Adrian’s figure, his booted feet soundless as he walks ahead with a determined grace you always found devastatingly attractive. You’re grinning stupidly, probably, but couldn’t care if the gods themselves saw it. For a few sparse times in your life you’ve taken decisions that you knew, deep down, were right for you, whether scary or complicated seeming—and this is one of those times.

It’s not a treacherous path at all, you think as you take another step. Your right foot slips just slightly over a rounded stone, and you catch yourself, hand reaching for the earthed wall to your left for leverage. You grab hold of a root, breathe in relief, and go your way. 

“How are we doing?”

He keeps checking on you, and by ‘we’ of course he means ‘you’, but you can’t fault him his concern. Adrian tends to fuss over people he cares about, in that adorable, unobtrusive way of his. “We’re doing well,” you say, eyes on the harmony that is the line of his shoulders, “Very well, I’d say.”

“Hmm.”

You climb up, and up and up, and before you spreads another valley: an emerald green view, the clear eye of a lake staring back at you from below. “Is that where we’re heading? I could use a bath.” 

“So could I. We’ll have the opportunity soon.” He says the last word softly, a shiver on the wind.

Certain images take their place in your imagination, much less metaphysical than before: such as, what he looks like without that shirt. 

Slow, he’d said. Need pools to your core at the many meanings of that one word, and lost as you are, the ground loses your focus—you slip again, this time finding no purchase as you reach out to right yourself but tilting your body just so, evading a precarious fall.

You glance ahead at Adrian, hoping he hasn’t heard. The last thing you want is to lengthen any worries he might have, because you want to be here.

“I beg you to watch your step.” 

You freeze, stopping your climb. “You… you heard?”

Adrian looks over his shoulder at you. “I'd like to avoid a repeat of that time in the library… might you want to walk in front?”

“I…” The look in his eyes is strange; something tells you he would’ve been at your side in the blink of an eye, but went to some lengths to keep to himself and not be overbearing. You appreciate it. “Sure.”

As you walk past him you’re drawn into his side with a fluid but firm grip, followed by a hasty, hot press of lips. “Not helpful,” you murmur, knees turned to mush as you fall into him. 

His smile is both dangerous and beatific. “I’ll be sure to remember that.”

Part V

#alucard castlevania x reader #adrian tepes x reader #castlevania x reader #alucard x you #castlevania imagine #castlevania x you #x reader #character x reader #alucard x reader #ruiniel:fanfiction #canon x reader #canon x oc #castlevania alucard x reader #fem reader

[lovingtetsurou]

-`｡ cosplay — kuroo tetsurou. ˚ˎ-

cw : smut 1K. established relationship. somewhat pwp. self-indulgent. cosplaying. reader is shorter than kuroo. mentions reader has a slightly foul mouth lol. petnames (sweetheart, sweet girl, doll, princess). a/n : kuroo brainrot. word dump. not proofread. i'm just thinking with my pus– idk how or why but this idea just came to me, popped out of nowhere when i saw this cute elf-ish, cottage-core, fairy-core, outfit in a game that i was playing so... enjoy ig bcs i sure did ;) p.s. reader's not cosplaying a particular anime character!

after losing a bet, you now find yourself changing into an elf costume. it was kuroo's idea. it's a cosplay of a character, but you didn't know who it was since you weren't that much familiar with anime like kuroo was. (ironic, isn't it?)

'hmm, not bad.' you thought to yourself as you looked at the mirror and scanned the outfit.

a lilac themed palette. cinderella-like shoes. a short, ruffled dress that emphasized your waist and long, puffy, loose, chiffon sleeves that are fitted on the wrist. an off shoulder top that showed off the collarbones. daisy flowers tightly wrapped around the neck. crystal-like jewelry hung by the ears. and the cherry on top: a ferronnières.

“knock knock. you alright there, baby? you're not chickening out, are you?” your lover spoke at the other side of the door, the smirk evident in his tone. after rolling your eyes and holding back a smile, you took one last look at yourself and decided to show him what he's been waiting for. “hold your horses, will ya? i'm comin' out. and don't you dare laugh or you'll get kicked in the nuts.”

kuroo always found your vulgar language amusing as it contrasted your demure demeanor. he felt nice knowing you could be honest around him without holding back.

you opened the door and took a step back, letting the man in front of you get a better look at you.

beautiful. ethereal. pristine. elegant. pure. chaste. innocent. divine. heavenly. there were countless words to describe you, yet he could only stare. his mind had gone blank at the sight of an angel. his angel.

well, technically, his elf, right now,

“how is it?” you slowly asked, not knowing why you did. maybe it's because you initially thought that this was a dumb idea, but now that you've tried it, it might not be so bad. maybe it's because at the start, you wanted to just play and get a good laugh out of this, but now you actually wanted him to like it.

your fingers started fidgeting with the hem of the dress, avoiding eye contact at all costs, not wanting to feel more embarrassed than you already were.

“this might not be bad y'know. the dress is kinda nice. though i don't know much about the character so i don't know whether it would've been better if i had put on some makeup or not– mmph” before you could even finish your sentence, he snatched your lips with his, delicately cupping your cheek as he kissed you with much fervor, but at the same time, he was gentle and careful.

after he was satisfied, he pulled himself back to admire you once more since the first time, he got carried away and didn't have much time to take you all in. you normally take him all in.

“did you know–” he paused, eyes finally landing back on yours after engraving this image in his memory. “it's my favorite character because it reminded me of you.” he smiled that adoring smile of his that always got you so down bad.

“and why's that?” you tried to hold back a grin as you got ahead of yourself. kuroo chuckled, pinching both of your cheeks with a goofy look on his face. “because they look so innocent but they have the nastiest mouth.” he kids which earns him a playful (but strong, nevertheless) slap on his arm.

“i do not. i just curse, a lot.” you defensively retort.

“oh yeah? we'll see about that. i'd love to watch you eat your words, or in your case, spit it all up.”

kuroo is a man of his words, and he sure doesn't like to back down.

after the hazy happenings, you're now the one getting slapped on your ass. only this time around, it's kuroo's thighs that are smacking your backside with his length sliding in and out of your gaping hole.

your wrists were pinned above your head by tetsurou who's only using one arm to tie you down as his other is busy toying with your mounds, pinching and pulling. his mouth would alternate between sucking on your areolas, making out with you, and leaving bites on your collarbones, neck, earlobe, everywhere his lips could reach.

it felt hotter because he was fucking you with your clothes still on. your bare skin before was now decorated with blooming red and purple love marks.

despite getting all down and dirty, in kuroo's eyes, you still managed to look so magnificent, so angelic. the sounds you make were another case, however. spewing curses, lewd moans, salacious whines, lustful begging; it's a succubus speaking.

“yes? feels so good that you're finally showing your true colors, sweetheart?”

“ohh fuck me— yesyes right there that's the spot! your cock's going so deep inside me it's like your fucking me to heaven— hnng don't stop please, breed me, wreck my insides and reshape it, fill me up with your cum will you? please please—!”

he twitches inside of you from how horny you get that your rambles get so debaucherous.

“fuck. my sweet girl. every damn time, you still take my breath away.” he chuckles, amused, so turned on, and close to his high which was evident from his sloppy movements.

“shit, so close, doll. come with me, yeah? i'll give you all that i have. gonna fill you up to the brim and breed your dirty, little, hole. you'd like that, won't you, princess?”

“oh my god, yesyes i'd like that a lot— hnngah fuck 'm gonna cum so hard on your dick!” your walls pulsated around him, getting tighter and tighter from the pleasure that was threatening to spill. and after just a single flick, everything crumbles apart.

the aftermath was just as fun, especially for kuroo.

“curse a lot my ass.” he weakly laughs, giving you a kiss on your temple as he tries to catch his breath.

you lightly smack his shoulder, body slumping against tetsurou who instinctively pulls you to lay down on his chest, hands automatically brushing your hair to soothe you and calm you down, all the while giving you loving kisses here and there.

“but it's one of the things i love about you, so don't go holding back on me and just curse me endlessly. knew it was your love language from the start.” he chuckles, giving you a longer kiss to shut you up. not that you're complaining.

© lovingtetsurou  — do not steal, plagiarize, translate, and/or repost my posts anywhere

#๑. ꒰ kuroo tetsurō 𝐱.files ꒱ #mdni & support banners by @/cafekitsune #haikyuu!! #kuroo tetsurou #kuroo testuro #tetsurou kuroo x reader #kuroo tetsurou x reader #kuroo tetsuro x reader #kuroo smut #kuroo tetsurou smut #kuroo tetsuro smut #kuroo x reader #haikyuu smut #haikyuu #hq smut #hq x reader

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Moonlight Chicken is For the Queers

Ok I started my rewatch of episode 8 and figured out what I want to talk about for this series' finale: intentions and resolutions. This post will be about intention, and how I truly feel that Moonlight Chicken is a gift for queer people. Why? Well, there are many reasons, but for the purposes of this post, I will simply present the following title card.

Moonlight Chicken, Chapter 8: The Self-made House and Home

(if you are expecting this post to be anything other than a jumbled mess of my personal experiences with no clear through-lines or relevant transitions between sentences, thoughts, etc. then turn back now)

Whatever we want to say boy loves started as, fetish or otherwise, queer people are still able to see themselves or get comfort and representation. But coming from watching literally 25 boy loves in the last four months, this show feels different from most (not all) of them, to me, because of how strongly this show centers around built community, rather than romance, as it's central theme.

And yeah while any standard friend group in BL could be considered community in the abstract, the idea that they are a community is never quite presented. It's Team taking food from Pharm and all three of the gang teasing each other, it's Kuea and Diao spending most of their time talking about their relationships, it's Porsche forgetting Pete exists because he's so caught up in Kinn. More often than not we are building towards and hoping for declarations of love between two characters. And do not get me wrong, that is all well and good, and always what I'm rooting for in those shows. And we get something akin to that in Moonlight Chicken too, which is when you finally have Li Ming and Jim calling Heart and Wen (respectively) their boyfriends.

But the "I love you" we get in Moonlight Chicken? That isn't between the couples, it's between Li Ming and Jim.

Because the thing that makes Moonlight Chicken different from other BLs is the emphasis it puts on queer elders raising queer youth. It's about queer youth learning from queer elders and queer elders learning from queer youth. It's about how home and birth families don't always fit quite right, and how you build families and homes despite. And it's applicable to many people, children in abusive homes, disabled people, etc. too. Which is why P'Aof adds strained parental relationships and deafness in to this piece. But because this is fundamentally a BL show, I'm viewing this more through a queer lens.

So naturally, this also means I am informing my analysis of this show through my feelings as the only (known/out/visible) queer person on either side of my family. When I was little, a decade or more before I realized I was queer, I asked my mother one night if I was adopted. I'm not, and I know that, but why did I ask? Because I never really felt like I fit. Not the way I was supposed to fit, not the way family was supposed to fit together. My house never felt like a home.

And it's why I love this exchange between Wen and Jim at the end of episode 2

"I want home," "Don't you already have one?" "I don't." "A person like me doesn't fit to be anyone's home,"

And technically we know this isn't true. Wen does have a home, he has a condo, he has a place to sleep. But emotionally is where the problem lies. Wen is living with his ex, the apartment is cold, he has work colleagues and a friend that he and his ex both know and that's it. And as he tells Jim in episode 7, all his friends are straight. And then he meets Jim, and there is a spark, and maybe it's possible for home to grow there.

Literally, physically, I have a home. I have a family. But the more I embrace my queerness, the more I understand and am comfortable with myself, the more isolating and cold that house and family feel. I'm such a different person now than I was, and there are homophobes and transphobes on both sides of my family, and that makes it hard for me to feel like I am loved. Even when logically I know I am. But it's hard, when your mother says she accepts you and has yet to use my pronouns properly despite me being out to her for over a year and having three separate conversations about it. When your uncle spends twenty minutes or more complaining about trans people, when your cousins don't think trans people should exist. That's my family...technically. That's my home...technically. But it hasn't felt like that in years. So I understand what Wen means here, Wen's definition of home is not a place it is a feeling.

And Jim? We know Jim is already everyone's home. He is home for Li Ming, he is the closest thing to a parent that Leng has in his life, he makes sure the community not only has food, but has as much as food as they could possibly eat. He is first and foremost a community caretaker. But he is so wrapped up in his grief about Beam, his self-hatred, his stubbornness, his exhaustion that he is not able to believe that about himself. Home is a place and not a feeling for Jim, because he can't allow it to be.

The key to Wen and Jim's relationship is finding and building that home.

Home, Family, Community. These are incredibly important themes to Moonlight Chicken and those themes are incredibly important aspects of being queer.

I don't know how Thailand is re: homophobia and transphobia, if kids risk the same chance of getting kicked out of their homes for being queer, etc. But that is a very real possibility for many queer people in the States. But I'm thinking of homelessness in queer youth, how 28% of queer youth have reported experiencing homelessness in their lives. I'm thinking of ballroom and ball culture and how participants in the Ballroom scene were parts of Houses with mothers and fathers at the head of them who acted as mentors to their queer children. When I think about queerness and what it means, I think about ballroom. I think about connection, I think about community.

But that community is often forged from necessity borne out of isolation. What do I mean by isolation? I mean the isolation that Li Ming feels in school, around his school friends. I mean the faces Li Ming makes when his friends are talking about girls:

I mean the physical barriers the show places between Li Ming and his school friends.

It is the isolation that comes with queerness, with poverty, with everything about Li Ming. Beyond the fact Wen is a little younger than Jim and thus better able to understand and see Li Ming's desires to be seen as an adult. I think it is this state of listlessness in Li Ming is also something Wen recognizes. I think at this point Li Ming is so desperate to get away, to go to America, to be listened to and respected by Jim.

Jim who is too caught up in constant stress to see the home he has built for himself, Li Ming who is too caught up in wanting to be understood to appreciate that he has a home to run from. Wen who is working as a go between for Li Ming and Jim because he wants them to be his home. Heart who has been trapped at home and found his freedom because Li Ming understands the frustration of misunderstanding, and the importance of community.

I'm thinking about how so much of the final episodes are dedicated to showing community, showing family, showing the audience that home lies in the collective.

We see it in how many people rush to help Mrs. Hong:

We see it in the people who help you carry your grief:

We see it in how deeply and broadly the pain is felt when community pillars are lost:

We see it in the end of and era:

We see it in the olive branches:

And in new beginnings:

Very few people in these shots are connected through blood, but they are a family. And when I look at these shots the only thing I can think about is how I felt the night I threw a party for all my trans friends. All I can think about when I see these shots of everyone sitting and eating together is how many times I would look over to my friends and see them beaming. How many times someone came up to me to excitedly say this is the first time they felt like they could fully be themselves. How everyone kept asking to do an event like this again. How everyone kept asking to be added to a group chat at the end of the night so they could keep in contact.

And I remember how it felt for me to realize that I had built a community for myself in a place that I have really been struggling to feel was home. Because I had spent so much time in school and work, barley able to scrape together enough money to cover expenses, exhausted and stressed and unable to see what I had sitting right in front of me.

And I think about other queer people I have met, who light up when they see someone else who is gay, who talk about how lonely they feel because they only have one other queer friend. How immediately the need to invite them out, to introduce them to people, to make sure they have community strikes.

I think about how I worked at a summer camp out of state, and got to try out my pronouns, and figure out who I was, and then a few months later, I had to return home. Where I wasn't out yet, where I was going to get misgendered, and how quickly I came out to all of my close friends about my gender identity to try to mitigate how much my mental health tanked when I had to be someone my parents thought I still was. How at the same camp, the queer kids flocked to all the queer staff, how desperate they were to bond. How much lighter they got to be when they were away from their parents and allowed to be themselves around people who also understood not only them as people with the identities they held, but also their struggles existing in a household that didn't see who they were.

I think about how, in the States at least, "are you family?" is/was used as code for "are you gay?"

It's why it is so important to me that Moonlight Chicken ends with the line: "I just built a home. I don't want to move anywhere."

Because Wen has finally built his home. Because he has found his family, his queer community, his home. And yeah, we get the romance, yeah we get Li Ming and Heart holding hands, and Jim and Wen making out, but the emphasis of the final episode is moving forward, being brave, allowing yourself to love, and allowing yourself to stop, look around, and realize that you've made a home for yourself that is built of the people you love who love you in return.

Community building is a huge part of life for literally everyone, but it vital to the survival of marginalized communities. And when I think about my own relationship to queerness, one of the most sacred and important aspects of being queer is building the family you need.

#moonlight chicken #moonlight chicken the series #moonlight chicken episode 8 #moonlight chicken ep 8 #gmmtv #p'aof #aof noppharnach #aof noppharnach chaiwimol #wenjim #jimwen #earthmix #jim x wen #wen x jim #heartming #heartliming #heart x li ming #fourthgemini #geminifourth #gemini fourth #fourth gemini #fourth nattawat #gemini norawit #mix sahaphap #earth pirapat #mark pakin #mlc #mlcts #mlc ep 8 #moonlight chicken analysis #moonlight chicken discussion

[raydays-swap-au]

Rayday's Swap AU ~ Alastor

Second design of today! I probably won't make/post more for a bit as I made most of my Angel Dust design- and this entire one pretty much in one sitting.

More information about the design + "sprites" under the cut

No staff - I thought that the staff microphone wouldn't fit a futuristic Alastor, so instead I gave him a headset with a microphone

Symbol on headset - While it might just look like an R, I actually took inspiration from the Bluetooth logo, taking 2 runes and combining them. In this case it was A and R. Why those letters? Cuz Alastor and radio/red.

Wiring/radio on his chest - I thought he needed more technology attached to him as Vox had his TV head to drive home the tech theme.

FM 96 - FM is a type of radio frequency ( the other being AM, and FM apparently being the better one. ) I chose the number 96 cuz it's a frequency it can pick up, and also cuz it's quite literally the opposite of 96 in terms of the sex position. ( Fits well with Alastor being asexual )

On that note: Ace swap Alastor? I decided to keep him as asexual, although specifically demisexual ( sex repulsed until sexual attraction for him is gained for a specific person. ) Why? Cuz I personally am a one-sided RadioStatic enjoyer. Will Alastor know he's ace in this AU? It's still a no. He just assumes it's the norm.

Why not make him TV based - TV is technically already going out of style. Now it's more about social medias, podcasts, and/or streaming services. Which is why I decided to just keep his radio themes, rather than switch to a TV themed one. A TV themed swap would be valid too imo, just not my personal take. Also, I got car repair ads on YT right after looking up car radio references on Google. We really live in a dystopia smh.

Hairstyle - It's sort of hard to see, but he has a ponytail now cuz I said so. After I decided on that I realized it also kinda helps with keeping his hair somewhat out of the wiring on the back of his neck, so that's neat.

Horn antennae - I simply thought it'd be a great way to take the antennae thing on Vox's hat and ad it into Alastor.

How futuristic is Alastor in terms of his tech? - I know his design gives sort of mixed signals, but part of it is also just so he looks cool. Coolness is sometimes a valid excuse.

Coat - The coat is sort of a mix between Alastor's and Vox's in terms of shape. It both has the V cut ( which realistically helps with movement/walking, ) but also maintains Alastor's coat-shape rather than giving him a penguin tail tuxedo like Vox sort of has.

Star buttons(?) on his coat sleeves - I just thought it'd be cute. Also cuz he's a media/radio star ofc.

No visible tail - I thought about it and ultimately decided against it. He still has one, don't get me wrong, but if Alastor has a personality similar to Vox, that'd mean he would want to ( try and ) keep his image in check. A cute lil' deer tail would probably make it hard(er) to be taken seriously.

Height - Vox and Alastor has the same height which is about 7 ft, but even then Alastor retains his height as all my swaps do.

Color scheme - Alastor's color scheme is more noticeably influenced by Vox's. I tried my best to swap the red and blue though, with some exceptions ( like the bowtie ) in order to make it more coherent in my opinion.

Here's his design without the background

#hazbin hotel swap au #hazbin hotel #hazbin alastor #hazbin hotel fanart #rayday's swap au #hazbin hotel swap alastor

[gale-gentlepenguin]

So I have been seeing interesting discussion on the endings of Gabriel. The miraculous movie vs The season 5 finale ending.

-And the criticisms for the movie ending are valid, Marinette/Ladybug’s conflict is a lot less personal (cause time constraints)

-Gabriel technically defeated himself

-There wasn’t enough build up for the climax to feel satisfying unless you knew the show.

-Marinette’s personal involvement felt minimal to nonexistent. (She never met Gabriel)

-The powers are inconsistent

The wrap up was too quick

And these are legitimate criticism, especially because we never have Marinette interact with Gabriel once. Something that should have happened.

I can understand how that ending could feel unsatisfying.

Then we have the season 5 finale, which has the opposite problem

-It involves Marinette so much that Adrien is completely sidelined as a response.

-Gabriel ‘Wins’ but according to the writers he lost. (I saw the commentary. I vehemently disagree with there interpretation)

-Adrien never finds out about any of this

-Lila feels shoehorned in as the season 6 badguy

So I thought about both sides more, rewatched the S5 finale and the ending with these new perspectives and… I still prefer the movie ending more than the finale.

But why is that? Objectively speaking The movie is much more flawed and has very littler personal investment of Ladybug vs Hawkmoth. Something that movies don’t often do.

While The show has built up this personal conflict between Gabriel/monarch and Marinette/ladybug

By all logic I Should prefer the show ending.

But I don’t, and it’s precisely BECAUSE of the reasons I listed.

Movie! Marinette’s lack of personal connection to fighting Gabriel allowed me to focus on Gabriel’s motive and his interaction with his son. His genuine care of his son being his downfall MADE sense. Marinette was focused on saving her partner than fighting a villain, which the movie showed to be more of the core of the movie. Even foreshadowing the “Save one Life, save the world” line. And it even fits the fairy tale theme ML tries to go for.

Meanwhile the Show’s ending had a really good fight at the core with Marinette and Gabriel clashing. The fight between Monarch and Bug noire is one of the best in the series… BUT it’s because of this conflict that the ending feels so GUT WRENCHINGLY awful. Because it’s just another case of Marinette failing to stop Gabriel from doing what he wanted. Gabriel may have changed his initial wish, but he still basically did what he always did, cease power and leave Marinette to clean up the mess.

Even taking Adrien out of the equation doesn’t help fix the ending. Because Gabriel still did what he wanted. Gabriel gets a statue, he gets to die seen as a hero that he never was. He is seen as a good man. And it leaves Marinette having to let Paris think that. We don’t see Marinette doubting this, we don’t see opposition or even a question on it. It’s Marinette once again doing what she always does, taking on the burden.

Ah but the difference is that ML still has more seasons. This could all be subject to change. People could find out the truth. The wish has consequences.

And that is correct. There are consequences. And do you know who will face those consequences? Marinette. Because she always does. That’s what the show Always does.

The movie ending also has a potential sequel, but at least there, Marinette and Adrien don’t have secrets, Fu is still there, and the weight of reality doesn’t hang on Movie Marinette’s shoulders only.

And I think that’s what it comes down to.

It’s because I love Marinette that I hate how she has to fail after all her efforts and would rather have an ending that has less personal stakes for her if it means she can be better off as opposed to this drama bomb that basically left her back as the one with the weight of reality on her shoulders.

#miraculous ladybug #ml #ml spoilers #ml critical #ml movie #ml show #miraculous movie #marinette dupain cheng

[useless-prophet]

Mapping Radiant Orders (Stormlight Archive) to the Fears (Magnus Archives)

Because I really like categories, and some of the orders/fears just work together so nicely! And also, both end in archives, which just makes me happy for no real reason. Yes, I know there are 14ish fears and only 10 orders, so some fears will just have to sit out :(

Windrunners: The Vast. Endless sky to fall through... forever... especially since the use of Lashings is not technically "flying", but "falling" towards a different direction.

Skybreakers: Though the Vast does fit the flying part of their powers, the Hunt better embodies the determination of Skybreakers to hunt down whoever breaks the law, to any end necessary. I mean, just look at Nale and what happened in Edgedancer.

Dustbringers: Dustbringers want to break things, and have the handy dandy surge of Division to do so. Desolation is the first fear that comes to mind, given the common themes of destruction, but I could also see a pretty strong relation to the Stranger. Dustbringers don't break things for the mindless purpose of breaking things, but to find out how they work. The inside. Sounds a little like the mechanical contraptions and the changelings of the Stranger? Except the Stranger usually breaks people, and the Dustbringers... well, actually, they probably could as well.

Edgedancers: A tricky one at first, because the edgedancers are so darn good all the time. But given that their oath is "I will remember the forgotten", the step to Lonely, while a little paradoxical, is not a large one - most Edgedancers (like Lift), were once the people who were forgotten by society.

Truthwatchers: Ah, what could make a better match than the Truthwatchers and the Eye. Both committed to seeking truth and knowledge, while the Eye represents the ideals of a Truthwatcher taken too far, such seeking truth is not merely a tool to create positive change in the world, but an end within itself.

Lightweavers: Again, Stranger is vaguely tempting because of the Lightweavers' capacity for disguise, but I think that Spiral better represents the illusory aspects of their powers in tricking the mind, as well as the deep lies that Lightweavers often have to confront within themselves.

Elsecallers: As an order whose oaths deal with reaching one's self-potential, Elsecallers are... difficult to lump into a fear. The surge of Transportation matches the Spiral's connection with doors, but Elsecallers are anything but unsure of one's own mind. But Elsecallers do make excellent strategists and scholars because of their rational nature, meaning that the Web is not a bad fit.

Willshapers: Willshapers are all about freedom, self-determination, and the capacity to choose whatever route you want to walk. The Vast and the Lonely fit into the idea of exploration and freedom against being bound by society or a greater power, but we've already used those. The Buried is the opposite of the Willshapers, but unlike the Edgedancers, I think that there's such a difference in ideals between the two that they can't be reconciled in the same way. If you have a solid argument for a better fear, I'd love to hear it.

Stonewards: You know what's always there for you? A Stoneward. You know what's also always there for you? The ground, if only because you're trapped inside a cave that's slowly crushing the air out of your lungs and will never let you go. The rocky resemblance is just too good of a fit.

Bondsmith: Another hard one. Unity is not really a big theme among any of the powers, except maybe Corruption in the sense of a hive and some of its twisted feelings of love. But there is something that all living things are united in - death, aka the End. Is this crazy to map them to? I don't know, it's the best I've got.

Some of the orders just don't work that well with the fears, but I gave it my best shot. Opinions? Arguments? I'd be glad to hear them :)

#magnus archives #rusty quill #stormlight archive #brandon sanderson #cosmere