#except maybe blue I had a ton of blue for some reason but that was one of the things I lost! I tried to find this one lipstick the other day

[babygirldabi]

Runaway Part 2

CW: MDNI, 18+ themes, porn without much of a plot, f!reader, mentions of domestic abuse, oral sex, hard sex, degradation, praise, Daddy kink, creampie, This took a minute so you better like it, fair warning that I didn’t do a ton of editing, might do a part 3, who knows 

Your first couple of days with the League are awful. Shigaraki and Dabi interrogate you until you’re blue in the face. Shigaraki goes into a deep dive on the internet, reading every detail of your life that the media has had any inkling of. After you’ve had to recount every bit of your abusive marriage, again, hear yourself explain how you’re basically a total failure to Hero society, again, Shigaraki puts you on what he kindly refers to as “bitch duty.” You cook, you clean, you keep your mouth shut- you assume that this is a hazing of some sort and just go along with it. The league members come and go as they please, all without a word to you except to give you another order (Though Toga throws you winks and secret smiles at least three times a day), all except Dabi, who you know Shigaraki has put on “bitch babysitting duty”. As you scrub the floors, wash dishes, dust and mop, Dabi lounges around headquarters, trying to pretend he’s not watching your every move. After his coldness following the hookup, you two don’t speak much, which only makes this more awkward. It’s better than being dead, you reason, and it’s better than being stuck in your marriage, worried for your life. At least here, the rules are clear and concise; follow orders, prove yourself, and you can live. Maybe you can even help, eventually. 

Dabi mostly stays on the couch or putters around his room, smoking, flipping through magazines, watching tv, glancing at you whenever your downcast eyes are focused on something other than him. He’s not thrilled with the babysitting duty, but keeps telling himself that it’s only temporary. He misses being out on the streets, causing mayhem, chasing pussy. This is a temporary annoyance, he tells himself, heaving a sigh as he flips a page in whatever bullshit magazine he’s reading now. Think of it like a vacation.

The thing is, Dabi cannot stop fucking thinking about you. 

He would never admit it out loud; it sounds pathetic even when he’s just thinking it. He’s used to hook-ups and then kick-outs, never worrying about any girl he might fuck by the time he’s done cumming in her. But you, you can’t leave. You live here now. And you’re so different from any other girl he’s fucked, you’re not some villain-chaser from the street. You’re educated, you’re smart, you’re strong- he can see all that and he’s known you for about five seconds. He can’t stop thinking about the sounds you make when you come unglued, how tight you were, how you bounced on his cock. In fact, he’s had to take several trips to the bathroom over the last few days to fuck his fist in private over it. He’s a fucking mess, and it’s embarrassing, but he can’t stop thinking about the next time he can work his way into your cunt, make you say his name. 

 Your first couple of nights, you slept in his bed alone, and he chose to sleep against the door to ensure you weren’t going to bolt. But his fucking back hurts, and the floor isn’t getting any softer. That’s why, around 11 pm, when Shigaraki finally dismisses you for the night and you come into the room, he has himself situated very carefully on one side of the bed. 

You pause in the doorway, hand freezing in the spot where it was rubbing the back of your neck, and take him in, shirtless, smoking a cigarette and reading a book as though this is a normal bedtime routine for the two of you. You don’t say anything until he offers you a wry smile and pats the empty side of the bed. 

“Bedtime, dear,” he drawls. “Turn off the light.”

Slowly, you reach over and flip the switch, flooding the room in darkness, and shut the door behind you. “I thought you were gonna be on the floor again,” you mumble. Clumsily, feeling him watch you, you begin to undress, turning away from him towards the door and shedding the clothes that Toga has lent you. 

“I was going to, but my back is killing me from the floor, and not for nothing, I don’t think you’re gonna try and leave, considering you have absolutely nowhere to go.” He smiles as you throw a glare at him, but keep your mouth shut, because, after all, he’s right. He continues, “and i don’t want to be hobbling tomorrow for your first mission.” He waits for you to process this, watching as you step into Toga’s sweatpants and yank a thin tank top over your head. 

You spin to face him. “My first…?”

“Surprise.” he flashes you a blindingly white smile that you can see even in the dimness. “Shig decided that your third day will be a test. He wants to see how you do out on the streets.”

“Wow,” you mutter, undoing your bun to fix your hair and put it up more securely. 

“Of course, you know that if you try to run, or otherwise fuck us, we have to kill you,” he adds, conversationally, but there’s an edge to his voice that makes you shiver. 

“I know.” 

“Good. Well,” his voice suddenly brightens. “Bedtime. You need your rest.” He’s half-mocking you, and you roll your eyes as you gingerly climb into your half of the narrow bed and pull the covers around your shoulders. 

“Nice and cozy,” he chuckles, then turns on his side so that your backs are facing one another. “I can’t wait for you to get your own fucking room.”

Same here, you try to say, but the day has worn you out, and you’re asleep before you can actually formulate a response. 

An indiscriminate amount of time later, you wake up suddenly. It’s still nighttime; the streetlights flood the room, and you can’t figure out why you’re filled with anxiety before you realize that Dabi has wrapped himself around you in his sleep, and something is wrong. 

His face, the little bit that you can see, is tucked against your chest and contorted; his body twitches against you, fingers squeezing at your waist; his chest heaves. 

“Dabi- Dabi? Wake up-” gingerly, you reach down to shake his shoulder softly. “Dabi, I think you’re having a nightmare, wake up-”

“No,” he moans, turning his face up to yours, you can see how desperately he’s trying to pull himself out of the dream. “Stop-”

His arms wrap around you tighter, cutting off your breathing, making you gasp. The wind is knocked out of you, and you shake his shoulder again, a little harder. “Dabi, please- I can’t breathe-”

His eyes fly open to meet yours, and he lets you go immediately, swearing as he sits up and swings his legs over the side of the bed so that his back is to you. His shoulders heave as he catches his breath, wiping sweat from his forehead. 

You sit up, leaning on your elbow, wanting to reach out to touch him and check in, but fully aware that it would be a dangerous move to make. You both sit in silence for a couple minutes in the dark, listening as his breathing slows to normal. 

“Are you okay?” you finally whisper. You can’t bring yourself to touch him.

Still facing away from you, one long arm snakes out to the bedside table and grabs an open pack of cigarettes. The blue flame from his index finger briefly throws shadows around the room as he lights up, taking a long drag. 

He’s silent for so long, you’re beginning to think he didn’t hear you. Finally, he mutters, “yeah.”

“You’re okay?”

“I said yeah.” 

“Do you need anything…?”

“I need my own room back.” It comes out harsher than he wants it to, and he feels you cringe away from him, sitting up and grabbing your pillow. 

“‘M sorry. I can sleep on the floor,” you offer, as he turns to face you and grabs your wrist, preventing you from actually getting up.

“You’re not sleeping on the floor.”

“Well, you shouldn’t have to either, this is your room-”

“Neither of us are sleeping on the floor,” he says firmly, still avoiding your eyes as he takes another drag of his cigarette. He’s embarrassed, you realize, trying to take some control of the situation. You fall silent, letting him take charge.

“Lay down,” he mutters, stubbing his cigarette into the ashtray. “Go back to sleep.” You comply, laying down against the worn sheets, resuming your position on your side, but your heart is still pounding from the scare, adrenaline coursing through you. He stands and heads for the front room, making a beeline for the bar and downing a glass of whiskey in the dark before getting back into bed. 

 The bed creaks as he lays back down, the room silent except for the sounds of breathing. Dabi lays on his back, staring at the ceiling, trying to ground himself back to reality after whatever happened in his nightmare. Afraid to move at all, you stay on your side, hugging a pillow to your chest and staring out the window for what feels like forever. 

Finally, you feel Dabi shift in the bed and feel a wave of relief; he’s asleep again, you can relax.

And then you feel Dabi’s fingers ghosting over your hip. You freeze as they dance over your hip, down your side, spreading warm across your ass, cupping each cheek before moving back up to caress your thigh. Even though you’re still overcoming the fear from before, you can’t help but enjoy his touch. It’s soft, so soft that it’s dangerous. Warmth pools between your legs. 

Before you can ask, Dabi pushes on your shoulder, pressing your back into the mattress and rolling on top of you to crush his mouth to yours. 

“Wha-” you mumble, cut off as his tongue sweeps across your lips. 

“Can’t sleep,” he mutters, tugging your sweatpants down insistently. You hesitate, lips frozen against his as he pulls on the soft fabric, feel the cold drafts of the room coming up around your ankles, between your thighs. Dabi feels you debating with yourself and pulls back, putting one hand to your chin and guiding you up to meet his eyes. 

“Tell me to stop, and I’ll stop,” he breathes.

The thing is, despite the last few days, the tension, trying to adjust to a whole new life, you can’t stop thinking about Dabi’s hands, his mouth, his cock. It’s actually humiliating how much you’ve thought of it, of letting him fuck you again. You’ve been chiding yourself for days now, reminding you that Dabi is a literal villain and is not looking for something- what’s the word? Ugh, ongoing. Guys like Dabi don’t go for more than a one night stand. You’ve been telling yourself over and over again that this was a one time thing, but now Dabi is on top of you, frantically tugging at your clothes, trying to get closer to you. The swell of his cock is pressing through his own sweatpants and you sigh your permission as he grinds against you, brushing against your clit. 

“Good girl,” Dabi chuckles, eyes alight as he slips out of his pants and bites into your neck, making you whine. You expect him to settle between your thighs, but instead he seizes you by the hips, pulling you to the edge of the bed in one swift movement, ignoring your squeak of surprise. Kneeling on the floor, he parts your thighs and dives between them, giving soft bites and kisses intermittently as he works his way towards your cunt. 

“Wanna taste you,” he mutters, one hand parting your folds to admire you. You pant in anticipation as he takes his time, eyes lingering on your clit, before circling it once with his thumb. Your body responds unabashedly, your back arching as you press into his touch, nipples hardening, and all you can think is more, more, more. With a smug laugh, Dabi leans in and licks a stripe all the way up your cunt, body humming in approval. 

“So good. Such a mess for me,” he whispers, spreading your thighs further apart as he begins to lap at your cunt. His tongue is long, mind-blowingly strong as he inserts it inside you and begins to tongue-fuck you. You try your hardest to stay sitting up, trying to watch as his mouth begins to unravel you, but it’s too much. You let yourself fall back against the mattress, throwing your head back as your legs open wider for him, fingers carding through his hair as he takes your swollen clit into his mouth and sucks.

“Dabi- Christ- I-hah,” you can’t even speak, giving in to his ministrations and thrusting yourself against his face, openly begging for more. When you peek back between your legs, you see Dabi watching you, his eyes dark and hooded, and you know what he wants.  

And aren’t you a sight to see. Your cheeks are rosy, a flush that has spread not only across your face but down to your collarbone, mouth open, chest heaving as you pant, grinding against his mouth shamelessly as he makes a mess of you. Dabi rarely offers this service to anyone, but he’s been dreaming about what you taste like for days. He can’t wait for you to fall apart, to feel you clench and shake against his tongue.

You can feel yourself inching closer to your orgasm, and it makes you reckless, greedy. You grind harder against him, listen to him moan against your clit in approval. 

“Please- please, Dabi, ‘m gonna cum, don’t stop-”

He reaches up in response to cup your breasts, pinching the nipples between his fingers, making you mewl piteously. 

“Come on, baby. Give it to me,” he murmurs, and you explode, gushing against his mouth as you cry out, twitching as he hums his approval against your slit, rubbing your clit gently as you tremble against him. 

“So good, baby. So fucking good,” he coos, snaking his way back onto the bed and settling in next to you, running his hands up and down your body. “I need you to help me, now.”

Of course, you think vaguely, that’s only fair. Before you can respond out loud, Dabi is pulling you up by your shoulders, gently pushing you off the bed. “Your turn to kneel,” he whispers, and you comply, settling against your heels on the cold floor, looking up to him for guidance. At this point, you’re so compliant that you will do anything for him- anything. You look up at him with wide eyes as he pumps his cock in front of you, take in his slightly parted lips, the way his chest is rising and falling rapidly in anticipation. “Open your mouth, baby. Open it wide. Stick your tongue out for me.”

You do, and are rewarded by a loud groan as he taps your tongue with his cock a few times- it’s so thick and heavy and warm- this is something you’ve only seen in porn, but always thought was kinda hot. You whimper as his dick seems to get even harder, and he lets out a deep sigh. “Suck my cock like a good girl,” he orders, and you comply, tucking your teeth behind your lips and taking as much of him into your mouth as you can. 

“Oh, fuck…” he breathes, chest hitching as he watches you bob your head against him, sucking gently as you take him to the back of your throat. “That’s a good girl. Didn’t know you could give head like a whore.” Without warning, he pushes your head down so that you can feel him in your throat, automatically gagging against him. “Take it, baby. I know you can,” he groans, and begins to fuck your throat mercilessly. 

You let him take charge, trying to keep your throat relaxed for him, relieved when he lifts you off of him a few times to let you breathe before going back to face fucking you. You’re rewarded by the absolutely fucking sinful sounds that come out of his mouth; nothing you’ve heard yet, his usual cool demeanor going up in smoke as he plunges himself into your throat again and again. 

“Look at me,” he hisses, and you do, eyes shooting to his obediently as he slams against your lips, spit puddling at the corners of your mouth, your cunt getting wetter by the second. He notices as you twitch from your place on the floor, pressing your thighs together to relieve the ache in your lower belly. “Touch yourself,” he groans, still pumping against your lips. “Touch your slutty little pussy for me while you take this cock.”

 Almost crying in relief, your hand darts to your cunt and begins to rub, circling your clit before you shove two fingers inside yourself and curl them, looking for that sweet spot. You already want to cum again, so wrapped up in the sounds ripping their way out of Dabi’s throat, intoxicated by the fact that you’re the one unraveling him. 

When he slides his dick out of your mouth so you can take a breath, you choke out your plea; “please fuck me. Need it so bad-”

“Yeah? You want met to fuck you, baby?” Dabi seizes your arms, hauling you upright and tossing you onto the bed as though you’re a rag doll. “Want to get pounded like a good little fucking whore, huh?”

You whimper a soft little “yes, please,” and Dabi thinks he might bust right then and there. He climbs on top of you, hips already bucking. When his dick begins to rub against your cunt, you whine, letting your hands settle on his shoulders as he teases you, your legs spreading wide beneath him. 

 “This pussy is so fucking good, baby. Can’t stop thinking about it,” he groans, fucking his way into you with shallow thrusts that bring pretty noises tripping from your lips. 

“Ye-e-e-sss,” he snarls, pushing himself further until he bottoms out and you whine into his neck.  “Fuck.”

“Fuck- Dabi,” you whine, grinding against him as he pauses, rock hard inside you. As soon as his name falls from your lips, he snatches your face between his fingers, causing your eyes to shoot towards his. 

His eyes are glowing coals. “What’s my name?” He snaps.

“Daddy,” you whimper, still rocking in search of friction. “Daddy.”

“That’s my good little cumslut.” Dabi begins to thrust, pounding into you like his life depends on it, his fingers digging into the plush of your hips, nipping at your neck, your breasts. He begins to suck on your skin, leaving a little trail of deep purple marks trailing from your ear to your chest, a constellation of bruises that sting and make you wetter at the same time. You whine as he fucks you deep, choking on moans and stuttering breaths as your hips begin to match his pace. “Oh, jesus-fuck, Daddy,” you cry out, feeling yourself tighten around him. “Gonna-’m gonna cum, gonna fuckin-”

“I know, baby, let it out,” He gasps into your ear, knowing he won’t last another thirty seconds. Your body twitches as you explode around him, wrapping your legs around his waist as your second orgasm takes you, babbling nonsense into his neck. 

Dabi follows your high quickly, biting down on your shoulder hard enough to make you cry out as he gushes inside you, painting your walls with thick, creamy cum. 

“Mmmmfff. Fuck,” he groans, panting against your neck as his cock twitches inside you. You are exhausted, your two orgasms catching up to you as he pulls himself out of you, parting your folds to admire your swollen, dripping cunt. 

“Good girl,” he says softly, but you don’t have the energy to answer him. “You okay?” he asks huskily, waiting for you to nod, then picks you up easily, returning you to your side of the bed. 

This is nothing like the cold Dabi you experienced last time, you think sleepily, as he lays you against the sheets and covers you with a blanket. You don’t know what this is, but you’re not complaining. You can barely keep your eyes open, and allow him to tuck you in. 

“Now we’ll both sleep,” you hear him say, as if from far, far away. You fall asleep before you can think of an answer.  

When you next open your eyes, sunlight is streaming in through the window, blindingly bright. You wince and turn over, hoping to get a few more minutes of sleep before a League member needs you to shine their shoes, or whatever other bullshit tasks that they may have for you today. 

Then you remember what Dabi said. Today is your first mission. 

Your eyes fly open and find themselves staring into Dabi’s blue ones, inches from your own. You swallow a gasp of surprise and watch as a slow, easy smile quirks up at the corners of his lips. 

“Morning, sunshine. Hope you’re ready for today.”

#touya #touya x you #touya x reader #dabi #dabi smut #MHA smut #league of villains x reader

[indefenseofkara]

MWII Operator Headcanons: Kortac edition

Hello! It’s time for my Kortac headcanons! I’m doing the base operators that came with the game (except Oni because he’s a playstation exclusive so I can’t play him.) Like before, all images are screenshots from my game.

“Fender” Takacs

momma's boy, in the positive sense

can be loud and rambunctious, easy to view as a "mans man"

but very respectful of women and doesn't tolerate any of that "locker room talk"

the whole "mystery dad" thing has maybe gotten out of control

and when he's drunk he might let slip that he thinks his dad is someone like Reagan or maybe Elvis

or a time traveler. Seriously

“König”

I like the cleft pallet head canon

definitely a guy who crafts

there's already a ton of fan ideas about him, I don't really have anything to add

“Calisto” Allard

thinks she's better than you, but she's right

honestly one of those people who is good at everything and it's just not fair

refuses to look unkempt. No messy buns, no old t-shirts. Even her lounging around or doing chores clothes are high quality and well coordinated

still coming to terms with the fact that she isn’t straight

Darnell “Hutch” Hutchinson

competitive to a fault

seriously, just say "bet I can (blank) better than you" and he's ready to go

really good singing voice, a deep baritone

I think he has sisters. idk why, it just feels right

he’s actually the most meta character because he worked with the Call of Duty Endowment, which implies CoD exists within the world of CoD

Kim “Horangi” Hong-jin

has attempted to bet on the fact that he's a terrible gambler

it did not work

because he is a terrible gambler

can really hold a grudge

dyed his hair blue one time and kinda wants to do it again

likes to paint his nails

Rozlin “Roze” Helms

I like to think that she put Graves in his place a couple times when in Shadow company

like can you even imagine? He'd say some sexist remark and then say "not you/you're different/you don't count" or some "boys will be boys" nonsense

as if Roze isn't ready to throw down on behalf of any and all women in the fucking world

has been the "only woman" or the "first woman" in organizations for so long, and she's sick of it

maybe that’s one reason why she split from shadow company?

Sami “Zero” Zakaria

his call sign is the answer to the question "how much sexual attraction do you feel?"

(I'm trying to say he's ace)

yeah he had his rich party boy days, but that was more of a performance; a persona molded by societal expectations

when not in the battle field he's surprisingly chill

cannot stand low quality alcohol

Declan “Conor” MacConor

this mf-er blinked in my first screenshot of him

will play up the accent to get laid. No shame

if people get annoyed by his filthy mouth he talks about how cursing is a part of his ~culture~

guilty pleasure: reality tv

Tor “Aksel” Eriksen

serious about sunscreen. He's Scandinavian and has scars and tattoos. Gotta protect that skin

definitely owns a motorcycle

probably part of a heavy metal band at some point

he’s one of those guys who will wear shorts and sandals when it’s snowing and tell everyone “it’s not even that cold!”

Salvatrice “Stiletto” Muselli

biggest issue with her scar is that it makes it hard to do covert/undercover work

due to working on anti-drug task forces, she always carries narcan

has definitely threatened to castrate someone. Like holding a knife to their sack and everything

pretty good at giving herself manicures

she’s my fave, tbh

Thanks for reading! You can find my Specgru headcanons here. 

#call of duty #mw2 #MWII #COD #Kortac #modern warfare #modern warfare ii #operators #headcanon #my COD posts

[shimamitsu]

if u ever wanna complain abt blue flag id be all ears. ive had it recommended a ton but never got around to hear abt it

ah, the old blue flag. every few months i remember this manga and i feel pure anger deep in my heart. long post incoming! i know a lot of people like it so i'll preface this by saying that this is my opinion, you can still like it, let's hold hands and read manga together. anyway, blue flag. my main problem is that it feels like something that was written for heterocis people to sympathize with lgbt's people's existence instead of something that actually included lgbt's people's experiences and opinions. all you have to know is that there's this scene where a character makes a list of lgbt songs or smth like that and one of them is shake it off by taylor swift. yeah. i said this yesterday but it's not like i think it's bad for lgbt manga to be educational, that's totally ok. there are works like 'i think our son is gay' that are very good at that. the whole plot of the manga is that a mom finds out her son is gay and it follows how she learns about sexuality, lgbt issues, etc etc (it's also told from her pov). its purpose clearly is to be educational for a non-lgbt audience. with blue flag... it felt like they were trying to explain lgbt 101 to me and failing. it raised a lot of questions about sexuality that in the best of cases the author couldn't give an answer to (and sometimes it's ok not to, but we weren't dealing with queer theory here, the question was like. do gay ppl deserve rights), and in the worst of cases just fumbled the resolution completely. the best example for that is how a character's outing got handled. spoilers here ‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️ but man. the mc gets outed by his homophobic friend, later it is revealed that this friend is homophobic bc he got assaulted by a man (wow gay predator trope, never seen that before), and the manga could've taken 10000 different directions to deal with that but what did the author decide to do? yeah -> homophobia is just a different opinion! we have to understand where both sides are coming from <3 hell no. die. (it was awful and heartbreaking to read btw). more big spoilers ‼️ another thing that made me violent (and i mean it), was how the manga handled another character's sexuality. one of the main characters, a girl whose name i can't remember, spent the entire manga rightfully struggling with coming to terms with the fact that she liked women. she explicitly said she couldn't like men if i remember correctly. well. here comes a time skip. she's married to a man. how. what. and ofc i'm not saying she can't be bi, but she was clearly written as a lesbian. why on earth is she married to a man then i wanna KILLLLLLLLL. anyway the ending also sucked. in the time skip it's implied the main boys were dating (idek how we got there, ig we skipped the entire sexuality journey of one of them) but it was told from a 1st person pov for some reason so we literally don't see them together (i wonder if it was too gay for shonen jump). when this manga was ongoing, even when it ended, people were promoting it to hell and back, saying how good the "representation" was. i assure you i never saw a manga that centered lgbt characters be talked about THAT much, except maybe shimanami tasogare. it seriously was huge. it was a lot of people's first approach to lgbt manga as well. why people think lgbt manga peaked with ao no flag is beyond me. last year a mutual made a post talking about it and they made a great point which was that blue flag would've never gotten that popular if it wasn't a shonen jump manga and i totally agree. and i'll be bitter about it being licensed where i live while shimanami tasogare isn't until the day i die. but yeah that's a summary of my issues with it. obviously i don't recommend it lol

[theghostinthekitchen2]

I wanna do a jrwi eps 97 breakdown because damnnnn the build up and irony that happened before the reveal was crazy so that being said

Major jrwi eps 97 spoilers!

and also a bunch of tidbits I noticed Just stuff I wa thinking about while listening to it again. A lot of other people already made pretty good observations so there isn't gonna be a ton

there were lots of tiny coincidences like Ollie getting put in a hole and Chip referencing Gill creating problems for people

Chip is gonna protect Ollie from the physical creatures of the night and Gill from the mental ones

To add Chips character development is incredible the other have them great but Chips is so significant he went from lying for his own benefit, tricking people and caring for himself only to putting his sanity at risk for a chance to help Gill his entire mindset during the dream and outsid of it was entirely focused on helping and caring for Gillion. My dude wa sitting there sympathizing and trying to get Gillion to sleep better and I think that is worth mentioning

It's amazing Gillion said "honestly I feel like the nightmares tonight are gonna be so emotionally worse then all the ones ever had" before he went to bed. Plus the "maybe seeing you there will make it more ok" holy shit man

Wonder why the wound burned when the water touched it

Gryphon was the instigator in the dream. His presence and intel is what led them to the thieves den and started the domino's that led to Jay and Chip's deaths because it was his intel that lead them over there So the lack of Gryphons presence already changes the entire day because he isn't there to lead then to the den which also provokes the question if the ship is getting repaired and what changed like if everything is the same except Gryphon couldn't find where they were staying and if the route to the theives den is the same as in the dream so if Gillion remembered he could lead them there and if so I wonder if Gillion will finally lie and not let them go to the den because he saw them die there.

After this eps my new headcanon is Gill is aroace

Wonder if Gillions entire view on theives was the elders basically telling him horror stories to make him more hostile towards them as well as scar him into staying within reach. Basically the elders pulling a mother Gothel

Gillion doing terribly because of all the natural ones, Charlie wondering if he's cursed and everyone saying no no it's fine like seriously

Gillion describing his perception of theives with red eyes and the theives they fight coincidentally have red eyes

the theives being strangely very weak

Thinking about how bad it would be if Chip was still poisoned when he faceoffed against Price

The it's not lying it's acting it's not lying it's acting Hes getting so close to that break where he finally lies

Gillion pulling the blue tab and then teleporting Chip and Jay was perfect on accident

Condi and Bizly playing along perfectly

It's interesting that the dream was so realistic and real like Gill being restrained and having magic taken away in a way that was explainable contrary to just not being able to move like being frozen in place for no reason that a dream like this might have tried but for some reason the dream was decided to be made as real as possible

The hints that we have that this entire eps was made to be Gill centered were so clear when you look at it now because Jay was barely there she was unconscious during most of the Price encounter until Chip died and it was her turn and most of the time during the eps was decided by Gillions choices with Jay and Chip just goingkng with it. Another thing that was made clear revisiting the eps is that Chip is very very important to Gillion because besides himself Chip was mentioned and acted a lot more then Jay he was going along with Gill's plans and ideas and he was doing everything he could to protect and Gill Of course Jay was there and she was and is still very important to Gill but Chip is simply more so

The entire ordeal is a mirror of his nightmares and biggest fears but taken so real that even Charlie didn't even know the whole watching your family die right in front of you and not doing anything to stop it and having to sit in the guilt of causing this and not saving them

Gill in denial of both of their deaths

Jay being the badass she is and escaping and being a powerful figure that doesn't break crumbling to dust right in front of Gill

The amount of Price and cost references is absurd

Waking up and not excepting that anything is real anymore like he is never gonna know whats real again dude

I love Charlie's acting and making the reaction feel real. Gillion straight up having a form of a panic attack/ breakdown

Him lashing out at everyone around him before stabbing himself after hearing the knocking. he wants to wake up so bad

Him hearing Gryphon knocking Even though he isn't there makes me think that he going to start Hallucinating and his dreams are going to start meshing into his reality

I really wonder if Grizzly is gonna start making Charlie roll for madness or insanity because I would love to see that

sorry for the absolute lack of grammar and punctuation I just wanted to type all my thoughts out this was a amazing episode

#jrwi gillion #jrwi jay #jrwi riptide #jrwi spoilers #jrwi eps 97 #charlie slimecicle #grizly #Bizly #condifiction #nightmares #panic attacks #tw #The kitchen speaks

[sixteen-juniper]

banned from fun writing

Banned myself from any kind of fun writing until I've revised this entire manuscript. Once I'm on grammar and line-edits I can have fun again, but that is not today. I'm trying to do a chapter a day and since I'm in fifth draft territory here it's actually doable. Book structure is in place (or well enough I can send it out and feel relatively good about myself) and I can focus on making changes that enhance relationships between characters, build the world and improve a lot of little details. I have some notes I need to make tomorrow, but I'm feeling like 'maybe I can actually finish this'.

For reference - I write and revise in Scrivener and don't move things into word until they're in a much later stage. The black blurs are my first draft, red is second, blue is third, green is fourth and orange is fifth. I have gone all the way to ten colors before on my most intense projects, but I think this one will only go to one more color before it's all good, and that draft will be even more spare and surgical than this one.

The reason I'm not writing anything fun this month (except for R&R edits, I promise I will never abandon it and I have so much prewritten) is because of the nature of these revisions. They're focused on tone and voice and character and I can't have that corrupted by switching into my fanfic voice. My MC is her own girl and I really need that to shine through. For my second and third drafts it was fine because I was still plotting. Fourth draft had a ton of developmental stuff still happening. But here it's all voice, and it's all world, and I really need to focus. Please, if I can do a chapter a day and two on weekends I'll be done in 3 weeks, please send good vibes I need them, I miss writing my fanfics.

#writing #my writing #writing process

[haze-of-hyperfixations]

Thanks for the tag, @foxymc!

1. Named after anyone? Technically? My parents mashed together the names of two religious figures to get my name.

2. Last time you cried? ...yesterday. I cry very easily, and I was sad that my plans to go to the mall today had fallen through, and also I was anxious about the concept of emotional vulnerability (separate from the mall thing).

3. Do you have kids? Nope. I do have a dog, though. He's a grumpy old man but he's also my baby son child whom I adore.

4. What sports do you play/have played? I played soccer when I was a lot younger, which was the only sport I ever really liked. I also played basketball in fifth grade, but I didn't like it very much. Haven't played any sports since.

5. do you use sarcasm? Mostly just to tell my family members that they are "so funny. hilarious. a comedian." when they make short jokes about me. I also say things along the lines of "this is a fantastic idea that can only end well for everyone involved." about my obviously bad ideas. Other than that, not a lot.

6. First thing you notice about people? Hair. There are people in my classes who I know nothing about other than the fact that I think they have very cool hair, and it makes them stick in my mind.

7. Eye colour? Blue.

8. scary movie or happy ending? Happy ending.

9. any talents? I get a lot of compliments on my writing. I also think I'm good at climbing, but only things that aren't strictly meant to be climbed. Oh, and I have a talent for naming things. (Plants, stuffed animals, figurines, drawings, etc. The exception to this is my ocs. For some reason, I can never give my ocs cool names. All of their names are boring.)

10. where were you born? USA.

11. hobbies? Writing! Almost any form of it! I love writing, and I don't really have a ton of other hobbies that I can remember.

12. any pets? The previously mentioned dog. He's a mix of several small and scruffy dog breeds, probably has some dachshund and yorkie, maybe schnauzer as well. He's a very good boy who has a lot of audacity sometimes. (He climbed onto my lap during dinner, sat there, waited until I was distracted, and calmly ate a slice of pizza.)

13. How tall are you? Not sure, but I have only one friend who is shorter than me that I know of. Also my siblings are on track to outgrow me, a dilemma which is the bane of my entire existence.

14. favourite subject? English/Composition. I love writing, and it's a class I'm good at.

15. dream job? Currently, some kind of library worker/assistant. I love the idea of helping people and being a part of all the resources that libraries offer, but I also don't really want all the pressure and time-consuming stuff that goes into a higher-level librarian job. I guess the actual dream would be working as a library volunteer, I've done that and absolutely loved it but that's not a paying job. I'd also like a job that allows me to write in my free time.

I'll tag @ashclouds366 :)

#tag game

[headingalaxys-spicy]

🌟⭐️Banged this one out at a Bar!⭐️🌟

Brain Dump Time!

Title: There Are Reasons Why I Don’t Like Winter Nights

Demon! Russia x Reader

In the quiet hills you lived. Your closest neighbors were maybe a mile nearby. You had a peaceful life free of strife and you never sought out the ire of others. You simply existed in your small little world alone and happy. Except for when Winter came. That’s when your fears reigned true. You were unable to hush the incessant nagging that something was stalking your home. When all you wanted was to be left alone. You wondered if there were others that shared your issues but never approached anyone considering you were a bit of a recluse. The feeling of prying eyes that were starved for the likes of you didn’t fade away when the golden yellow leaves faded away. The leaves signaled to the sky for the sun to wave goodbye. It was replaced by small diamonds in the sky, with a dark navy blue backdrop. By 5 it looked as if you could take a dive into the sky just by stepping outside. Your eyes graded the glass barrier that kept you separated from the darkness.

‘Breathe, Breathe.’ is what you silently told yourself. You gripped your weighted blanket closer to your chest. Jaw was clenched and back was stiff. Grabbing your phone hoping that the sun was just on the verge of daybreak. The tiny screen read 17:35. Far from the safety from the sun. You grimace. You really didn’t enjoy winter nights. You sprung to your feet and muttered out: “Fuck.” It was the worst part of the day. You sprung to your feet and roamed around your tiny home. You wanted to distract yourself from the burn of eyes that you felt whenever you turned your back. You reached for your solution to that which was your velvet black out curtains. They provided you with some semblance of safety. As the thick inky and opaque fabric sweeps your white carpeted floor.

“See no evil, there won’t be no evil.” You mumble somewhat confidently to yourself. As long as you stayed in your comfy fortress. You drew a deep breath of oxygen into your lungs, paused, and breathed out slowly. You were going to survive another night. Just like you always had. Even though you were still on edge and your stomach was in knots…You at least wanted to try to be peaceful tonight. Although that would be difficult when it felt like there were a ton of mosquitos in your ear. Your jaw suddenly clenched and your hands were shaken with salty sea water. Tiny spiders had crept inside your headspace to spin together terrible tales of what could happen to you.

‘What if I hear thumping again?’

‘What if it has only gotten closer outside?’

‘It’s going to devour you!’

‘ESCAPE NOW!’

These were some of the worries that echoed through your mind like hundreds of bouncing balls attempting to shatter your sanity. But it was too late, the catastrophizing had begun. You stared at the curtains, hoping that not taking your eyes off them would prevent the figure you’d seen days before from reappearing. You tried not to think of all the ways that it’d hunt you down. You took in another breath, held it in, then exhaled.

‘No, I can do this. I can do this. I can do this. Nothing is out there.’ Are the lies that you would tell yourself. You tried your best to continue on and ignore it. You wash the negative away with comfort food and shows. You let your mind wander through the internet but to no avail. You wind back up thinking about the ominous hulking figure with glowing violet orbs. They peered at you from 20ft away. Another tumultuous brawl of thoughts barraged your way, with the worst possible scenarios. Fear was beginning to frost over your soul.

The thing you loathed most switched its tail back and forth. Like a grandfather clock that was biding its time, until the haunting hour. The sky was moonless and had been eaten by the lurking beast. Outside is a cold eternal dark chasm.

Outside there was a lurking beast. One with heavy black boots and a sweet iron glare.

It slammed against your roof causing a ripple effect throughout the entire house. Immediately he heard shrinking from his poor victim. A smug smile formed on his pale face, that has been kissed by the frozen over part of hell.

You scampered to your bedroom and locked the door. You longed for sunrise. With your heart beating fast and your mind muddled with stress. You were under great duress. You grabbed your duvet and covered yourself. The thick heavy fabric felt comforting like a hug. If only for a few moments you felt safe. But that was short lived when you heard another thumb against your roof. It sounded like a heavy hoof. You should know better than to trust a lifeless thing to save you from a terrible king.

King Ivan was his name.

He began to rap his large hands on the outside windows and walls. Taunting you. He encircled your small cottage like house and sauntered around with glee. Every so often pounding your wall with his trusted pipe. When he heard you yelp it was like music to his ears.

“Time to play up my hand.” He had cheer in his voice. He cut the power. You would succumb to absolute darkness.

All you could do was cower in your room.

Paradoxical breaths erratically escaped your lips. It fell silent for a few long moments, before Ivan barrelled down hard that was right behind you. It left a large dent. You sprung from your knees. You wanted to fly out of there like a bat trying to escape the depths of hell. In your haste you paid no heed to how loud you’d be.

Ivan’s violet eyes lit up to seek where you were. To him your walls were like glass. Your heat signature was identified swiftly. Your fear was palpable. His fun was going to continue though playful schadenfreude.

“Playtime is over. Time for real fun.” With his rusted pipe raised high above his head he makes a gaping hole in your bedroom wall. The crashing of rubble made you bellow out in terror as if you were decending into the seven circles. Petrified and in full flight mode you raced for the front door and took off into the frigid night. The ice began to munch away at you.

The cruel demon stayed behind and cast a fireball at your home. To safety which you’ll never know.

The stars and the moon had vanished into the jet black chasm that thrived off your fresh terror that was leaking from your soul. Feet pounded on the thick slushy snow that rose up to your calves and eventually began to swallow your knees. The adrenaline in your body was running low and your body was not able to keep burning on high.

You had to slow down.

But, he was on your heels.

‘Keep going, keep going!’ was all your mind could say on repeat.

But your nervous system and muscles froze. Your heartstrings one edge. Muscles constricting.

‘When did the ground come so close to me? Why are there small dots in my vision?’

From above your trembling figure continued to amuse Ivan. He watched from the treeline. You were covered in frost and losing body heat fast.

“You go home with me, Sunflower.”

#hetalia #hetalia fandom #hws #headingalaxys writes stuff #headingalaxys #yandere hetalia #hetalia demon au #hetalia fanfiction writer #aph russia #hws russia #hetalia russia #demon russia #headingalaxys spicy #hetalia x reader #x reader #ivan braginsky

[walkingtalkingsomething]

✨Taylor Swift Makes Everything Better Lyric Prompts - Pt. 2✨

It's exactly what the title says. I find song lyrics in general very inspiring and have a notebook of ones that strike me for one reason or another but don't have the 'whatever' that's needed to write them. And I unapologetically stan the hell out of Ms. Swift and am so often struck by her word choices. So this is my collection of the TS lyrics that conjure up the most thoughts - minus a ton of sad ones because I am just too soft to be putting that much angst into the world 😊

Lover

•Your name on my lips tongue tied, Free rent living in my mind - I Forgot That You Existed

•Fever dream high in the quiet of the night, You know that I caught it - Cruel Summer

•And I screamed for whatever it's worth, 'I love you,' Ain't that the worst thing you ever heard? - Cruel Summer

•There's a dazzling haze, A mysterious way about you dear, Have I've known 20 seconds or 20 years? - Lover

•I think he knows his hands around a cold glass make me wanna know that body like it's mine - I Think He Knows

•He got that boyish look that I like in a man - I Think He Knows

•Got that, Ah, I mean, Wanna see what's under that attitude - I Think He Knows

•I think he knows when we get all alone I'll make myself at home and he'll want me to stay - I Think He Knows

•Lyrical smile, Indigo eyes, Hand on my thigh we could follow the sparks, I'll drive - I Think He Knows

•We're so sad we paint the town blue, Voted most likely to run away with you - Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince

•Kiss me once cause you know I had a long night, Kiss me twice cause it's gonna be alright, Three times cause I've waited my whole life - Paper Rings

•I like shiny things but I'd marry you with paper rings, Uh huh, That's right, Darling, You're the one I want, And I hate accidents except when we went from friends to this, Uh huh, That's right, Darling, You're the one I want in paper rings, In picture frames, In dirty dreams - Paper Rings

•Barefoot in the kitchen, Sacred new beginnings that became my religion - Cornelia Street

•My heart, My hips, My body, My love, Trying to find a part of me that you didn't touch - Death By a Thousand Cuts

•Something gave you the nerve to touch my hand, It's nice to have a friend - It's Nice To Have a Friend

Folklore

•We were something, don't you think so? Rosé flowing with your chosen family, And it would've been sweet if it could've been me - The One

•And when I felt like I was an old cardigan under someone's bed, You put me on and said I was your favorite - Cardigan

•You drew stars around my scars - Cardigan

•I knew you tried to change the ending, Peter losing Wendy - Cardigan

•I knew you'd linger like a tattoo kiss, I knew you'd haunt all of my what ifs, The smell of smoke would hang around this long - Cardigan

•I think I've seen this film before and I didn't like the ending - Exile

•I can see you staring, Honey, Like he's just your understudy, Like you'd get your knuckles bloodied for me - Exile

•And I've been meaning to tell you I think your house is haunted, Your dad is always mad and that must be why - Seven

•I can see us lost in the memory/And I can see us twisted in bedsheets - August

•I didn't know if you'd care if I came back, I have a lot of regrets about that - This Is Me Trying

•And maybe I don't quite know what to say, But I'm here in your doorway - This Is Me Trying

•You showed me colors you know I can't see with anyone else/You taught me a secret language I can't speak with anyone else - Illicit Affairs

•And isn't it just so pretty to think all along there was some invisible string tying you to me? - Invisible String

•Right now is the last time I can dream about what happens when you see my face again - Betty

•But I'm a fire and I'll keep your brittle heart warm If your cascade ocean wave blues come - Peace

•And you know that I'd swing with you for the fences, Sit with you in the trenches, Give you my wild, Give you a child, Give you the silence that only comes when two people understand each other, Family that I chose now that I see your brother as my brother - Peace

•Don't want no other shade of blue but you, No other sadness in the world would do - Hoax

•You knew the password so I let you in the door - Hoax

•Take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die, I don't belong and my beloved neither do you - The Lakes

Evermore

•Wherever you stray, I follow - Willow

•Head on the pillow, I could feel you creeping in as if you were a mythical thing, Like you were a trophy or a champion ring, But there was one prize I'd cheat to win - Willow

•Your Midas touch on the Chevy door, November flush and your flannel cure - Champagne Problems

•There's an ache in you put there by the ache in me - 'Tis The Damn Season

•And the heart I know I'm breaking is my own, To leave the warmest bed I've ever known - 'Tis The Damn Season

•Gain the weight, Then lose it - Tolerate It

•No one teaches you what to do when a good man hurts you, And you know you hurt him too - Happiness

But are you still the same soul I met under the bleachers? - Dorothea

•And do you miss the rogue who coaxed you into paradise and left you there? Will you forgive my soul when you're too wise to trust me and too old to care? - Coney Island

•Oh, Goddamn, My pain fits in the palm of your freezing hand - Ivy

•My house of stone, Your ivy grows and now I'm covered in you - Ivy

•Your opal eyes are all I wish to see, He wants what's only yours - Ivy

•So yeah, It's a fire, It's a goddamn blaze in the dark and you started it - Ivy

• You're a bandit like me, Eyes full of stars, Hustlin' for the good life, Never thought I'd meet you here - Cowboy Like Me

•And the skeletons in both our closets plotted hard to fuck this up - Cowboy Like Me

•Now you hang from my lips like the gardens of Babylon, With your boots beneath my bed, Forever is the sweetest con - Cowboy Like Me

•And it's been so long but if you ever think you got it wrong, I'm right where you left me - Right Where You Left Me

Midnights

•And I wake with your memory over me, That's a real fucking legacy to leave - Maroon

•I wake up screaming from dreaming one day I'll watch as your leaving and life will lose all its meaning for the last time  - Anti Hero

•And time can't stop me quite like you did - Snow on the Beach

•I wait patiently, He's gonna notice me, It's ok we're the best of friends...anyways - You're on Your Own, Kid

•They said the end coming, Everyone's up to something, I find myself running home to your sweet nothings, Outside they're push and shoving, You're in the kitchen humming, All that you ever wanted from me was sweet nothing - Sweet Nothing

•To you I can admit that I'm just too soft for all of it - Sweet Nothing

Misc.

•Seen you fall, Seen you crawl on your knees, Seen you lost in a crowd, Seen your colors fade, Wish I could make it better, Someday you won't remember this pain you thought would last forever and ever - Sweeter Than Fiction

•What a sight when the light came on, Proved me right when you proved them wrong - Sweeter Than Fiction

•Follow me home if you dare to, I wouldn't know where to lead you - Beautiful Ghosts

Part. 1

#writing prompts #lyrics prompts #song lyrics prompts #taylor swift prompts

[ran-orimoto]

You're an only on many who talks about J.P on this site. I can ask you what you think on Junpei becoming a singer for Izumi? Doesn't it make you angry?

Hi, Anon. Thank you for the ask. You kinda… Touched a delicate topic here, because I have got mixed feelings about this Serena from Pokemon situation, but, surprisingly, I’m not totally condemning this choice from the writers like some have. I…Can look at it more brightly than people expect me to and I can also say I don’t think the opera singer thing came out of blue.

For starters, there’s a part of me who wants to believe he was embarassed about Izumi teasing him. It’s an audio drama and we have no idea about his expression there. If you ask me, Izumi mentioning the ice skater and Tourin Olympics is way too specific to be a random anecdote that hasn’t had an impact on Junpei’s past self. I think that “Junpei, you’re really a fanboy” kinda made him awkward on the spot. On another hand, it’s obvious his crush is still there and his “I’m studying opera to be closer to you” hasn’t been thrown there for a nonsense reason, either, which means there might be a pinch of truth in what he says.

It…Sucks? It…Disgusts you because it shows Junpei is stuck at the same point, which is also something he was aware about in the original series? Remember the library scene with Tomoki, where he admits he hasn’t changed at all? It makes you wince because Junpei was supposed to be an engineer or a magician? I understand these feelings very well, but I also want to see, indeed, try seeing a sense in whatever they have done in that drama (which is my favourite one from Frontier, mind you).

Taking in consideration the job choice, I believe there have been two reasons behind it:

• Junpei’s skill at entertaining people that has been shown in the whole anime.

• The necessity of connecting characters with Italy.

Listen, as an opera fan, I want to underline sometimes I find myself wishing he had taken on some other kind of career as well. Junpei is a very colourful character, showing to be good at the most disparate activities: he is good with kids and you think he would be a great teacher like Juri and Hikari (Digimon, we need a man teacher among your characters, just saying); he likes drawing on freaking blue prints and you think he could give engineering or architecture a chance; there are some scenes in which he seems to interact with Trailmon so often and you think he could turn driving trains in a future job; he’s interested in magical tricks and, like many would have liked, you can imagine him going professional in the field.

All of these observations are valid and true but the point in his character is that Junpei is just interested in so much different stuff. Profiles describe him as a “kid who is bad at school but has got an academic knowledge thanks to his interest in miscellaneous stuff”. And you can notice this trait of his scattered in the show in the smallest and silliest frames too, like, for example, when he mentions elephants’ graves, or when he raises his hands up to the Sun and mentions UV rays, or when he quotes horror tropes. In the most recent drama he also reveals himself to be a fan of detective stories??🤣 He has got a lot of interests and I can kinda see this as something he does to deal with loneliness. Always staying alone, maybe he reads a lot or watches ton of documentaries.

Headcanons aside, Junpei could have been all these things but their attention ended up falling on his most entertaining side, pushing them to pick the opera singing career.

Now. Unlike Takuya, Junpei has always had an interest in Italy thanks to Izumi. In the anime it’s never shown except when he joins her while she’s yelling “Buono! Buono!” before eating at the island restaurant. Yet, it’s a characteristic of his that surfaces in “Izumi’s Love letters”, or whatever it is called. It’s basically the part of the 2002 drama where she sends imaginary letters to the boys, Junpei included. In the one she addresses him, she talks about the fact Junpei makes her happy when he seems interested in her tales about Italy, especially when it comes to food, and she proposes him (+ the others, she specifies at the end XD) to visit Italy together.

It has always been there and even if that curiosity was born in him thanks to Izumi, I’m so sure he is cultivating his interest on his own as well. You…Can’t absolutely take on opera if you don’t feel it in your heart🤣. It’s a suicide, okay, and ,most of all, you have to own that gift to pursue that dream. It’s not like you will start studying opera and you just need to study to go forward. It’s not enough at all. Thus, Izumi saying Junpei has entered an honour university after some opera exam makes you understand he’s seriously giving his best in what he’s doing and is also rather great at it.

“But he’s doing it to get closer to Izumi whwhwhwhwhhwhwhwwwwwweewe”

Not only ,in my opinion. He’s also taken that path thanks to Izumi, because that’s how their relationship has always worked, -excluding times in which the writing was trash-.

It’s not like I want to say the others have got no role in Junpei’s and Izumi’s growth, but looking back at Frontier for a nth time with a dear friend is making me realize how their friendship was based on improving thanks to the other’s presence. Izumi faced her issues for the first time in a serious way thanks to Junpei in the Tsunomon episode. Her collaboration with him and her opening herself to him without prejudices helped her move forward and take a first step towards her improvement. Junpei learnt how to be more genuine around her, starting from being such a spoiled a$$ to understanding he could build a good relationship with her if he was himself. Compare the Floramon ep with the Tsunomon ep to notice how he became a totally different person in her regards after having got the spirit, whereas he keeps on being tough to Takuya and Co. If we exclude the sexist philosophy behind the Bolgmon episode, we can take in consideration that the affection he had towards Izumi also pushed him to go over his limits even when he felt so unsure about doing it. He wanted to get her spirit back and it was enough for him to give a glance at her sadness to get courage, get his beast spirit and maintain a partial control on it: actually, Bolgmon managed to hit Grottemon only when he remembered he was attacking him for Izumi’s sake.

There’s…Nothing wrong in getting inspired from a person and letting that person shape us; in seeing them as a sort Muse of light in a world that’s probably too dark to allow us to see where we should put our feet. What matters, though, is to go over that phase eventually and build our person on the precious lessons our Muse has given us. “Train of Hope”introduces us to a still immature Junpei who has got a lot to learn, a very flawed Junpei who can both be himself around his crush but can also make the mistakes he used to make as a kid, and, again, guys, it’s fine??? Digiworld doesn’t mark the end of these kids’ development. Every kid seems to still be flawed at its worst in that drama, not only Junpei.

Still, we are talking about him now, and what I can tell you is that the infamous tenor role they have given him has got a lot of potential behind its frivolous appearance. It could give Junpei the opportunity to live new experiences outside Japan, grow further, plunge in a world of entertainment aiming at making people both laugh and cry, and that’s also perfect for a character like him. A grey one who could hold both comedy and tragedy in himself; a lightning that can both bring but also rob the world of light. In a nutshell, he wouldn’t only be a perfect tenor because of his knight fantasies and his unrequited crush XD.

And if these experiences will help him grow out of his crush on Izumi, may it happen. Somehow, even if I could spend ages talking about Junzumi and spreading love for them, I would find it a very good ending for him: him eventually finding happiness first of all in himself and, possibly, in another person as well. By then, he will have become a much better person and ,you never know, sometimes he might remember how everything started and might thank Digiworld and Izumi for everything.

PSA Just a question: do you use J.P as a nickname for him?🤣💕

#junzumi #junpei shibayama #digimon frontier #izumi orimoto #these essays would be much more interesting and polished if Joseph was here and you asked him about this stuff #I love Junzumi and I hope this didn’t send the wrong message #it’s like when it comes to loving Amourshipping #you love them but you also want to see Serena grow up like it happened #IF YOU ASK ME best kinds of shippings #Junzumi has got too much potential from Junpei’s perspective but the writers prefer making him an object of comparison with Tk and KJ #it’s not like they can be themselves and Junpei can be himself #no he always has to be compared with them because they are cooler stronger more clever more intelligent #PSA Takuya in an italian football team in D series has got no sense but whatever #in defence of my boy #asks

[zorciarkrildrush]

I think maybe the most visibly autistic I've ever done is very recent - for the past couple of years I knew being enthusiastic about flags is a thing (r/vexillology and of course, maybe more importantly r/vexillologycirclejerk) and I found it nice in passing but not more than that.

However, since I am determined to waste a significant portion of my workdays, a couple of weeks ago while browsing a news site I encountered a silly little 5-question flag quiz. Can I recognize flags like Venezuela at a glance, or at least know it's not Djibouti? Generally speaking I know the African flag color scheme, but if it's not an easy multiple-choice question, apparently I'm kind of lost.

Things happened rather quickly and I became very determined to just, always succeed. I need to know all of them. Finally I landed on this quiz: https://flagpedia.net/quiz

Which is rather inclusive (i.e, some flags are of territories controlled by other countries, but still have their own significantly used flag) and is apparently regularly updated with the designs from Wikipedia. I experienced this first hand when the flag for Afghanistan was the old one one day, and the new, Taliban one the next.

Most flag quiz sites will still, in fact, use the 2013-2021 version.

So, 254 flags on the list, an inordinate amount of them sporting the union jack with some random coat of arms like so:

(This is Fiji specifically but I promise you there's a lot of these fuckers)

And every quiz I finished was with several dozen mistakes, due to territories like these, and random islands in the Carribean or Polynesia or off the coast of Africa, or just small countries in Africa and South America and so on where their flags are just not really common knowledge.

But as I said, I became both determined to always succeed and determined to waste company time. So, doing it once or twice every work day, I've started narrowing my incompetence, remembering new and interesting designs (and also looking up what's up with those places - who knew the Comoros even exist, that they have less than 1 million people in population, and that their government bureaucracy is so wildly inefficient it harms the economy in large, tangible percentages?) and developing little ways of memorizing them. If you see a Union Jack design with waves on the coat of arms, it's either the Falkland Islands:

Recognized by the "Desire the right" wording, and I guess there's a sheep too, or it's the Cayman Islands:

With some thing or other that isn't "Desire the right".

Ireland has this widely recognized flag:

But don't mix it up with the Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire):

Ireland is known for being green, and "starts" with green. If it looks like Ireland but doesn't start with green, you know what it is instead.

Just tons and tons of these little tricks, dubbed ezelsbruggetje by the Dutch (Little donkey bridges! Random little tricks of memorization!), so that I can tell places at a glance, confusing or no.

No, don't ask about Monaco and Indonesia or Chad and Romania, I have no answers for you except sometimes I can tell Chad by the shade of blue.

So a week ago my mistakes have been lowered to about 3-5, slightly ambiguous flags like Gabon and Bolivia being responsible for it mainly (and like one last pesky Union Jack island or something), and last week it was lowered to one (fucking Bolivia still), and now it's at 0. I can repeat it and I have a very good chance at doing it completely open ended (provided I have tolerance for spelling mistakes and lack of accents, e.g with Sao Tome).

And there is no point, this is just A Thing I Know Now and it will be Stuck In My Head Forever. I always had reasons to suspect I'm somewhere on the spectrum, with special interests and social maladjustment and so on, but this is maybe the most egregious, forefront example.

Also trains are cool but like, everybody knows that, right?

Oh and if you reached this far, here are some of my favorite flags in no particular order, with no significance attached to the country itself:

Seychelles, the one, the only, the legend.

Morrocco, clean, set apart from the rest of Africa and/or Arabic countries, can be interpreted as occult by those so inclined, has insane harmony with the flag of Israel.

Iran, easily set apart from the somewhat similar but simpler Tajikistani flag by the repeating Takbir along the bands.

New Caledonia, recognized by whatever this thing is (it's a traditional Kanak totem-like structure placed on roofs?)

And honestly there's maybe a few dozen more worth mentioning but I've been putting off my housechores for long enough.

#selfpost #vexillology #long post #very rambly #autism

[sojourner-between-worlds]

The Dragons Don't Matter

(And why you shouldn't get hung up about Black Feather Dragon especially.)

Before I dive into this, I want to make one thing clear: yes, I know this isn't what the writers intended. I also don't care. Because when it comes to Yugioh world-building, sometimes you just have to take your idea or theory and run away from the writers really, really fast, okay? Okay. This is purely about world-building, not show-writing, so don't come at me from a writing standpoint. Now that that's settled, we can move on.

First, I'd like to introduce you to a theory that isn't wholly mine but is based in what I've seen other Yugioh fans posit about world-building and time lines. (I can't entirely credit any of them because I've watched so many yugitubers in the last year that I just. don't remember who said what, but if you're into Yugioh and on YT, you'll probably already know what I'm talking about, haha.) At one point, someone mentioned that all of the "past events" across the franchise probably take place about the same time, two of the "past events" in question being things like the Crimson Dragon battling the Earthbounds happening at the same time as some battle in Egypt that's referenced in the original DM. I am not well enough versed in any series outside of 5Ds to make any comment on this, so I'm taking that at face value here.

Why does that even matter, you might be asking? I'm getting there, but first I need to introduce another theory, and it's this: duel spirits have existed since the beginning of time, and because of this, it is the spirits that create the cards rather than the cards creating the spirits. This is supported by the fact that duel monsters is an ancient game (I don't remember much from watching DM as a kid, but I do remember this much, lol) which means that spirits like Dark Magician and Blue Eyes existed far before Pegasus turned them into cards. In other words, all monsters that will ever become cards already exist in the spirit world. This idea is also not wholly mine; it has come from some yugituber as well, and I piggy-backed off of that, wherein said person posits that summoning types are discovered rather than created -- meaning they already existed and someone just had to figure them out. While this was solely on summoning methods, I feel like this applies to monsters, as well.

To sum up: duel spirits have always existed and the creation of cards was a discovery of those spirits rather than an actual creation of the spirit.

(Now is a good time to add that I realize there are exceptions to this rule, such as Red Nova Dragon, but it is just that: an exception, rather than the rule.)

So now we can get into why the dragons themselves don't actually matter.

We have to start by asking ourselves what is so special about the original five dragons in particular? Stardust, Red Demons/Archfiend, Ancient Fairy, Black Rose, and Life Stream. Why them? If all duel spirits already exist (with the noted few exceptions), then there are tons of dragons available! Not only dragons that had already appeared in a previous series (like Red Eyes and Blue Eyes), but ones that wouldn't appear until later (like Firewall)! (Even if you only take past cards [for that writing standpoint that I will not argue on], there are still so many dragons! Red Eyes and Blue Eyes and Chaos Emperor and Judgement!) So if we go with the above proposed theory, then there is no reason at all that these five were necessary in and of themselves. In fact, there would have been other dragons that would have better suited since their effects...really don't matter here. If we're going on pure strength, Blue Eyes would have been far better suited than Black Rose or Stardust, or example.

So, then, why those five? No idea. Maybe because of other conflicts going on, they were the only ones available (Blue Eyes off fighting in Egypt? all of them dealing with other world-ending catastrophes?). Maybe they were personal friends. Maybe they just happened to be in the right place at the right time. But the fact of the matter of is, there is no relevance. The Crimson Dragon could have chosen any five dragons it wanted. It could have chosen spirits that weren't even dragons if it had wanted to. For that matter, it kind of did when it also chose five humans. But the humans and the dragons? They weren't actually connected at the time. They weren't even technically fighting together because the humans were channeling the Crimson Dragon's power, not the other dragons' powers.

Also consider: if those specific dragons were vital, then only four of the marks would have ever shown up in the first place because they only had four of the dragons -- technically, they only had three, actually, since Ancient Fairy was stolen away. Yes, Ancient Fairy was "fated" to land with Luna/Ruka, but the fact remains that she had her mark long before she had her dragon, meanwhile Yusei had his dragon long before he had his mark. The two things simply are not connected in a way that actually means anything.

Additionally, they did not have five dragons fighting the god of the underworld anyway. Only two faced off against Godwin, and only ONE actually attacked the god of the underworld, and it wasn't ANY of the original signer dragons at all. It was Yusei's Majestic Star Dragon.

This is why I just kind of have to chuckle when I hear the argument "but Black Feather Dragon wasn't one of them that fought in the past!" because yeah, man, neither was Majestic Star but here we are.

Those who were bestowed the mark of the Dragon were first and foremost just servants of the Crimson Dragon. Which is why it makes perfect sense for Crow to end up with a mark (even excluding later when he gets a dragon) because he chose to stand up and fight without having to be chosen first. It doesn't matter that his dragon wasn't at the fight 5000 years earlier. It doesn't even matter that he has a dragon at all. It's irrelevant because that's not how the Crimson Dragon choses its servants -- not in the past, and not in the present.

This also makes sense of how a sixth mark manifested later for Leo/Rua at the conclusion of the series. Because it didn't matter that Life Stream was "hiding" in Power Tool because the dragon itself is irrelevant. What mattered was that Rua kept choosing to fight when everything was against him. The Crimson Dragon honored that. (The original number of five was always arbitrary, too. The number never mattered. It was just a number.)

This is also why their marks disappear at the finale. They aren't needed anymore. They don't need to serve the Dragon anymore, so the Dragon took back its power from them, but guess what? They all still have their Dragons. Why? Because the dragons never mattered -- not really.

The Dragons were chosen, but so were the people to bear those marks. And, just like how the people change, so can the dragons.

#yugioh 5ds #ygo 5ds #yugioh world building #i have been feeling a certain way about this topic for a long while so heres the essay no one asked for lol #fr feel free to point out any holes and i'll see if i can fill them lol #world building for yugioh is wonky at the best of times #all we can do is try to make sense of it and heres the sense i make out of the dragon mess lol

[violetlunette]

How did it go poor Dabi though? It was literally just him telling us how he survived and the rest of how he came to be? I mean I don’t get why people are against the heroes actually trying to understand the villains now instead of just beating them with their fists? As it could help them maybe better society so they don’t get anymore peeps like Shiggy, Toga and Dabi! Obviously they do need to pay for their crimes, but what’s so bad about trying to understand them?

If I gave the impression that I didn’t want to understand the villains or explore their backstories, then that was an unfortunate side effect of me venting rather than critiquing. I apologize if it seemed I was insinuating that neither mattered.

*Some anti LOV elements below

I don’t mind understanding the LoV and in fact, that’s what I’m very much trying to do. The reason I may be coming off harsh is that in past works I’ve watched and read as of late, whenever they bring up a tragic backstory they don’t use it to help us understand the villain and why they did it, they use it to justify the horrible things they did and completely wave off the people they hurt. So, yeah I may be being gun shy. A pet peeve that is really harshly affecting my judgment is that all the people the villains hurt are used as props to make the villains sympathetic instead of being shown as actual people. (This I can actually say for sure and intend to prove in the future.)

But also—look, in the story, they are responsible for a shit ton of deaths and people getting hurt, and those things happened from choices the league made knowing the consequences of what would happen. (The only exception is Shigaraki who was brainwashed from childhood by AFO, and therefore has a blue and orange mentality.) You can give whatever reason you want, but at the end of the day, they are TERRORISTS. As I have said in nearly every post with the league

And I don’t want them beat up, I want them in prison where they can be held accountable for their choices.

You’re right, let’s have understanding and depending on the situation, mercy as well. But let’s also have them held accountable and have them face justice. Let’s not wave off the lives they destroyed, especially when the people they hurt had no part in their pain. If Dabe just went after Endeavor, I would be fine with him. Personality wise we’d go up and down, but as far as endeavor goes yeah. He abused you and your family, making his life hell. Make his ass miserable, just don't drag others into this.

I guess what I want is for villains to be treated like Bojack was in Bojack Horseman. Yes, Bojack had a shitty past and the story shows that what happened to him wasn’t right. However, it also stated that it didn’t make what Bojack did okay either and showed us the people he hurt, then held him accountable.

The LoV should have their stories told to prevent others from ending up like them. However, they should still be held accountable for their crimes.

As said though, I don’t have all the proper information as during the Overhaul arc my interest waned so I didn’t give it the in-depth attention I did before. As of now I am going through the manga and grabbing information and studying them so I can be fair as it’s easier to call myself out with proof before my eyes. For all I know, I may be eating some serious crow soon.

As I said in another post, during the Dabe vs Shoto fight I didn’t give it my full attention at the moment, so I was most likely wrong in my assessment. Again, this my the first read-through with recent chapters. As such, I don’t pay that close attention to parts with characters I don’t like. That’s why I haven’t made that many posts about the latest chapters, as I know that I won’t be able to be fair. 

So, in summary; I may have misspoke in the past and I apologize if so, yes we should try to understand the villains to prevent others from ending up like them, but they should still go to prison since they’re murderers and terrorists.

#to all my followers pls take my vents with a huge heap of salt #in critiques I will either have proof or reference a specific chapter #or scene #everything else I am pulling out of the air from vague memories #plus venting usually isn't known to be fair #it's mostly to get stuff out of your head so you came calm down and approach the topicrationally later #* Topic rationally #:p #dumb typo #hopefully it doesn't seem like I'm attack you anon #I'm just trying my best to explain my meaning but I have trouble properly conveying my emotions while doing so #But I do agree with you believe it or not #bnha #mha #bnha venting #anti lov #anti league of villains

[kindly-regular3860]

Tea time, honeys.

So, once upon a time in America, my adopted aunt got me a job with the government program she worked at. I wasn't doing anything crazy, just some phone work and a couple projects. My aunt was the program manager, so not the boss, but pretty high up on the chain of command.

I'm convinced that my aunt's manager was from Hell. If not, she's going to fit in pretty well.

This manager- we'll call her Cherry- didn't raise any red flags on first glance. She was just a woman in her late forties with bobbed black hair and a paper white round face. Her lips were thin and she wore bright red lipstick every day. Everything about her seemed intentional, bordering on calculated. I could never tell if she was going for Snow-White like innocence or a more rotund Other Mother (maybe that was the point?). There was a point where I actually admired Cherry's aesthetic. Looking back though, it was more cartoonish than girl boss. As I became more familiar with the job, I learned that Cherry had made up a ton of policies that made it close to impossible for anyone to do their jobs and do them well without her. If any decision was made, it had to be cleared with her first, and half the time she would reject those proposals for arbitrary reasons. Because we didn't interact much, she was nothing more than a walking, talking glass ceiling to me.

I only ever remember one interaction with her. I was talking with my aunt in her office, and Cherry came sweeping in asking if my aunt had placed an order for her. My aunt said not yet, and Cherry demanded that my aunt drop everything she was doing and complete the order because it took priority... which made no sense because at that moment, we were kind of in an emergency situation with some of our clients. It was very her-way-or-the-highway.

I didn't learn hardly any of the rest of this tea until after the fact. In terms of my experience, all I knew was that my aunt was stressed out of her head. Like, working-twelve hour days, crying at home, and doing it all again the next day. I was watching her burn out like steel wool on a d-battery- slowly, quietly, without a lot of show or noise unless you looked closely. There was nothing I could really do to help, and my aunt didn't want me to get caught up in the drama.

My mom knew more than I did at that point because hey, they adopted each other as sisters. My dad knew too and was pissed about it (which was cause for suspicion- my dad doesn't get pissed with people unless they're actively hurting others, especially in mental health settings [he's a therapist]), but neither of them told me anything except that Cherry had something to do with it.

And then, out of the blue sometime after Christmas, I got an email saying that Cherry was on administrative leave and that "allegations were being investigated" so please cooperate if you're contacted. Everything blew wide open after that.

Here's what happened. My coworker (we'll call her Stacey) was being actively groomed by Cherry while she worked there. It was at a point where Cherry could ask Stacey to do anything and Stacey would comply. Cherry told sob stories about breaking up with her boyfriend, Stacey was there to comfort her. Cherry told Stacey things in private, and Stacey never spoke up about the red flags.

That was, until Stacey was on her way to Grad School and was leaving the office. Cherry asked to do an exit interview (which was really weird.) In the first half of the interview, Cherry asked about the regular things- where Stacey wants to go career-wise after this, what she's doing for school, letters of recommendation, all that jazz.

But then, Cherry started asking Stacey about my aunt. She asked about how my aunt's marriage was going, her personal life, what she was stressed about, losses she'd experienced, financial stress and trauma, along with a multitude of other personal details. Stacey had been asked a few of these questions before, but usually deflected. When asked why she was asking, Cherry happily answered that evaluations were coming up, and she was so. excited. to give my aunt a bad review. She mentioned how she wanted to give my aunt all these unattainable goals, really increase the pressure on the position, and make my aunt feel "hunted".

Flashback real quick- about four years ago or so, there was a different guy who had my aunt's job. One day, without any notice, he quit the job. Two days later, he committed suicide. My aunt was given his position.

The common denominator? Cherry was his boss.

I know you listen to true crime, so you can connect the dots.

I get the feeling that Cherry only told Stacey this because Stacey was leaving, and Cherry thought that she wouldn't say anything. I have no idea if Cherry admitted to trying to get my aunt to commit suicide, but it was definitely implied. I also don't know if Cherry ever admitted to successfully pushing the last guy to suicide, but given the lengths she's gone to, I wouldn't put it past her.

After this interview, Stacey (bless her heart) took the next day off and cried until she threw up. She told my aunt everything. My aunt (bless her heart) was so stressed she didn't realize exactly what this meant until she was driving to an appointment in another city and the realization hit her.

So my aunt, emotionally breaking down on the highway, called her husband and told him everything. She told him not to tell anyone yet while she figured things out. She had something she had to do for the meeting, and said she'd call him back in like, ten minutes.

Over those next ten minutes, my uncle called everyone he could think of. He called his HR and explained the situation-he works under the City and was hoping they'd report to the same chain of command. Unfortunately, city and government are different, so they couldn't help. They directed him to the attorney general. Attorney General said that the situation was messed up, and suggested he go to HR for his wife's work.

By this point, my uncle was fed up with the bureaucracy and went off a little bit on the secretary when he got a hold of our office (but can you blame him, his wife was being actively pushed to suicide for the last who knows how long and they just found out!). The president of our company was out, and so was the HR representative, so he settled for telling the assistant Vice President. She immediately got a hold of HR and the president from their personal lines and they began the process of intervening.

I have no idea how he managed to do this all within ten minutes, but he did, and he told his wife everything when she finished up doing what she was doing. They filed a police report later that day.

When the president and HR guy got back in the office, they scheduled a meeting with Cherry immediately. I hate that Cherry had time to figure out her next move, but she walked into that meeting and resigned on the spot without further discussion. She was escorted from the building though, and they did take her keys, so that was a win.

What pisses me off was that there was no justice for my aunt, and there was no justice for the guy who committed suicide. I don't think his family knows that Cherry was involved in pushing him to kill himself. There's no proper evidence, so the police can't do much. I don't think the news would pick up this story either.

Cherry is probably still wandering around out there, finding a job and finessing someone else into hiring her. She's still got connections. I have no idea if she'll try and do this to another person placed under her jurisdiction. My aunt, her husband, and most of the people I know just want her to realize how psychotic she is and get help. I'd like that too. That could be good justice.

I just feel terrible for whoever she tries to screw over next, because even though we never knew each other and never talked, she managed to screw me over too.

As I said earlier, Cherry was involved in pretty much every decision in regards to our department. She was also in charge of the budget, and she did NOT make wise decisions for it. She had one guy whose position wasn't approved with HR, and she treated him like her personal slave and dangled benefits over his head (Think "Oh, your kids need dental? Better do __________ for me" type stuff). He knew a lot of this was going on but had too much at stake to come forward until after everything happened.

But I digress. My position was grant funded, and she gave a fair amount of the grant money to other departments within the office. Those departments can't give the money back, so I got let go before my contract ended. I knew my position wasn't permanent, and to their credit they gave me a lot of time to get everything figured out and offered me an on-call position to help the transition. The only rough bit was that I was set up to keep growing in the company if the budget allowed, and I would be doing some good, career-growing stuff. It's a stability hit, you know?

So this is my small revenge, my small claim at justice. I figure there might be someone out there that reads this, even if they don't know names or locations. People now know what you did, Cherry.

This is probably a better story for Reddit, but I feel more comfortable knowing that Cherry, Stacey, and most other people involved on this story probably aren't on Tumblr.

Screw you, Cherry. Tell Satan I want his number.

TLDR: Manager from hell tried to push my aunt to suicide (and was successful doing it to someone else).

[unhingedhearties]

CSI Hearties

Time to go back to 9th grade English class where your teacher insists that every word or image is symbolic of something deeper.

“Did we get that for Lucas?”

You got told he would have a major story arc, so yes you did get told that. We just saw people in my previous posts say that Lucas should have had his own poster to represent that major story arc.

“That would be a No, not really.”

…so that would be a yes.

“And no announcement that NEITHER was leaving the show.”

That has to suck for the writers. You write this big story about Lucas being governor and ending the season with a mysterious confrontation and ambiguity about what happened to him. All so that you can build excitement for the next season and you can’t even let it be a mystery because a ton of the fanbase will send you vile, hateful messages if you don’t spoil the next season for them. They were the kids that had to snoop around for their Christmas presents and then wondered why Christmas morning wasn’t fun.

“Writers had no say in promotional content.”

Hey, someone who pays attention and thinks logically. I’m sure that’ll be ignored.

“No respect!”

Oh my God, the red serge nonsense. Plenty of people have already pointed it out, I’ll just be one more.

What if… they didn’t have him in the red serge because the color would clash with the pink of her clothes and the sky? Do you notice how (except for maybe the second poster) in the earlier seasons Jack’s not front and center in the red serge? It really grabs your attention when it shouldn’t and clashes with everyone else’s color pallet. I’m sure that’s also the reason why Rosemary is wearing blue 4 out of 5 times. Color theory and what not. All those things you need to keep in mind when doing graphic design.

No, there must be a deeper, symbolic reason for it.

“it makes no sense since we were told Jack was/is the love of her life…”

Ever notice they only bring up Jack being Elizabeth’s true love when talking about Nathan? I never saw them bring it up when she was with Lucas. Where were all the discussions about how Lucas is awesome, but don’t forget Jack’s her true love when they thought they were getting a wedding?

Salt in the wound. Mark your bingo card.

Way to gloss over the season 10 poster. I guess because then you’d have to admit no one besides Elizabeth was on it and yet none of you said anything back then. Where were the cries of “muh ensemble cast!”?

“this poster is a huge difference from the poster they put out for S9”

Oh, you mean the one that has Elizabeth, Lucas, Nathan, Mei… and none of the other 50 cast members? 4 people isn’t really an ensemble. In fact, if you look at that collage of all the posters, it was a major downgrade in terms of featuring the characters. It went from showing 10 to just 4. 

WHERE’S MY ENSEMBLE BRIAN!?

“Lucas is looking at her and she isn’t at him.”

Uggghhh, it’s not that deep. Seriously. They’re doing the same thing on the Season 5 poster. Every poster except for the last 2 have Elizabeth staring at the audience. I’d sooner believe there’s some subconscious marketing nonsense for it (“people are more likely to buy a DVD if the lead character is looking at them. It helps the audience develop a parasocial relationship” or whatever) then believe a bunch of people in Hallmark’s marketing department are working long hours to fit the most symbolism on their poster.

“then where are some other top characters like Bill, Rosemary, Lee and Henry?” Insensitive!”

Where were they on Season 10? Where were they on Season 9? Where were you when those posters came out? How come you weren’t advocating for them to be included years ago? Truly a mystery.

Insensitive. Mark your cards, that was a corner square.

“Can marketing for such a huge company really be that bad?”

They said as they repeatedly shared the poster, commenting on it, commenting on other people sharing it, hashtagging it, drawing attention to it, GETTING IT TRENDING ON TWITTER.

I know a lot of you Hearties think you should be in charge of how When Calls The Heart is written and marketed, but you’re not as smart as you think you are. You’re really, really not as smart as you think you are. And that right there is a perfect example why Hallmark and TPTB should put a lot of you on the pay no mind list.

#when calls the heart #wcth #hallmark #fandom drama #hearties #lucabeth

[activate-shadow-of-the-window]

Hermittober Day 8: Blossom

-

Cub is pretty indifferent to most flowers.

Sure, they’re pretty, but most don’t have use beyond decoration or dye making, and he definitely doesn’t understand the attachment to them the other rulers have. Blue orchids? Ren’s weird pop of color in the Tangle. Rose bushes? The only red things in Evergreen besides the berries and Queen Gem’s hair. Lilacs? Pinkish-purple affairs that Grian gets oddly sentimental about. But the Sovereign does have a soft spot for exactly two flowering plants, but he daren’t tell anyone that he even knows of their existence.

With one exception.

“So… due to the ungodly hour, can I assume that you’re not here to talk about trade negotiations?”

Impulse nodded with a sigh. “Of course I’m not here about trade, Cub. It takes days to ride here, and Pearl would have my hide if I didn’t have a suitably serious reason to borrow her endurance horses. If I told her I was riding here for *gardening*, she might just cut a few inches from my hair out of pure disbelief. It’s also a great excuse to be carrying a massive pack of delicate things.”

He proceeded to open said pack and place its contents on the table: two small pouches of seeds, two small wooden boxes, and two large bundles of paper and twine. Cub eyed the latter items especially keenly.

“It was hell keeping these hydrated on the ride over, but they’re alive.”

The two rulers proceeded to carefully unwrap the bundles, revealing two odd plants from within yards of thorough protection. One was tall, around the length of Cub’s arm, with a bulbous blue growth at the top of a spiny green stem, and smelled like sickly sweet fruit. The other was far shorter, perhaps the size of a hand, with a bright orange-yellow bud surrounded by sharp green leaves tinged with purple. To Cub’s eyes, the didn’t look real in the light of the redstone lamps.

“So they’re real. A real living torchflower, and a real living pitcher plant. I know you won’t tell me, but how did you get these?”

“Lots and lots of trial and error, and some connections. These are some of the hardiest ones yet, but I’m still surprise they survived the journey. I’ve got enough of each back in the Labyrinth to fill a garden, but they’re delicate as hell. These—“ the emperor pointed to the boxes and pouches “—are cuttings and seeds. Maybe they’ll take to an arid climate better than they did to the humidity of the jungle.”

“Thank you so much, Impulse. You don’t want to know how long I’ve waited to get my hands on these things…”

“No problem, man. Goodness knows you’re better at this stuff than I am.”

After carefully transporting the plants to the greenhouse Cub had specially built for them, the two rulers were startled by the sudden rapping at the nearest window. Looking over, Impulse caught sight of a red-and-yellow-and-blue something in the night dashing towards the nearest entrance.

Cub just sighed. “What is he doing here now? I told him I’d be busy.”

Less than two seconds later, Grian promptly burst through the door that opened into thin air, tumbling a bit before coming to a standstill before Cub and Impulse. The parrot ruler of Sunset Coast was even more ruffled than usual, which was a very bad sign.

“Hi Cub! Oh, and hi, Impulse! Uh, really sorry for bursting in, but, well, there’s a problem. And a rather large one at that. B-But I swear it isn’t my fault this time!”

Impulse looked between the somewhat annoyed half-vex and extreme nervous parrot a few times before speaking. “There’s a problem? What kind of problem?”

“Well, uh, Tango called, and, uh, well, someone’s trying to do something with a whole lot of sculk. ‘Literal tons’ is what he said.”

At the mention of sculk, Cub blanched and went slightly translucent. “Sculk. Sculk?! How long have you known about this?!”

“Uh, around twelve minutes. I flew here from Flare Tower as quickly as I could, I swear.”

Cub’s eyes stayed wide as the color and opacity drained from his skin. “Oh no. Oh crap. Oh stars above. Stay here, I gotta check something. And I mean it! Stay here!”

The last two sentences were shouted from down the hallway as the sovereign dashed out of the room, wings beating the air in a desperate attempt to move faster. His transparent body was barely visible as he streamed past bookcases and terrified night-shift workers clutching brooms and dustpans. He was in such a hurry that he nearly dropped the precious key to his vault upon reaching the fortified room’s locked door.

“No no no nononono…”

Grian landed, puffing hard from flying fast and narrow, to see Cub wringing his hands in a mostly empty room of iron and obsidian. “…sovereign? You alright?”

Cub’s head jerked up, pure white eyes clouded with something starry and teal colored that was spinning like some tiny galaxy. “No. No, I am not alright. Not at all. Apologies for my current state, but something has gone terribly wrong… and it hurts…”

Impulse promptly ran into the room, huffing from climbing the multiple flights of stairs that lead to the vault. “What hurts? Cub, what hurts?”

“My… head hurts. A lot. Usually I’ve got enough that I can’t feel a thing, but with so much gone, no, so much stolen, it hurts a lot.”

Grian’s hands flew to his pockets and belt, deft fingers finding the healing potions in both quickly. “Here, instant health, regen, a-and gold carrots. Take them!”

But as he offered the remedies, Cub just pushed them away, still clutching at his eyes. “No, no! Those won’t help! Experience, enchanting books, bottles-o, anything like those! They’ll stave off the sculk, if only for a little while!”

As Grian fumbled in bafflement, Impulse quickly retrieved a shining bottle from his own sleeve and crushed it over the sovereign’s head. Cub looked straight up into the shower of sparks, the light flying into his eyes, nose, mouth, and even ears. After they had all been taken in, he rubbed at his face with a newly clawed hand, careful to not scratch himself.

“Thank you so much, Impulse. I-I’ve forgotten what it feels like to be… hungry like that.”

Grian nervously approached the two, one hand twitching towards his cutlass. “Hungry like what..?”

“Hungry like sculk, parrot. Hungry for experience, for the very essence of existence. I guess I never told you the story, but to make it short, sculk is why I got exiled from my mansion. Didn’t help that I’m only half vex, but the illagers don’t approve of messing with the Plant that Eats Life.”

Cub dropped his hand from his face, revealing eyes with nearly black irises and slit pupils. “This is what happens if there isn’t enough sculk around me. The stuff inside me starts getting lonely, and hungry to make more of itself. That’s why we need to find whoever stole my supply fast. Is sculk the only thing Tango talked about?”

Grian was silent for a few moments as his brain processed the massive load of info he had just been given. “Uh… no. He also said that the fugitives messing with sculk were messing with bottles-o and totems, too. Not a whole lot, but—”

At the mention of totems and bottles-o, Impulse suddenly gasped. “Bottles-o-enchanting and totems? Oh no. I think I may have been robbed too.”

#horizon to horizon au #hermitcraft au #fanfic #fanfiction #microfiction #hermittober #hermitcraft

[sshbpodcast]

Vessel detected: Alien ships in Star Trek: Part 6

By Ames

Finally, A Star to Steer Her By is reaching the end of the parade of ships in this blog series, and the big finale is going to feature just a ton of ships from Enterprise! The CGI has come a long way and using models has started taking a backseat, so it’s way easier to show off a much wider variety of ships from all our new, old friends and new, old enemies. The prequel series gets to really fill in a lot of gaps that were left wide open in the franchise, especially concerning all our ally races in the Federation, some familiar foes, and even a ton of new baddies (and that’s just the Xindi plotline alone!).

Settle in for the last leg of our ride spotting as many alien ships as we can stand. You can see all the ships we’re covering below and also listen to the banter at the tail of this week’s podcast episode (discussion starts at 57:25). It’s been a long road, but at least we’ve had some fun ships to test drive along the way.

[images © CBS/Paramount, Ex Astris Scientia, Eaglemoss Ltd., Star Trek Shipyards, Star Trek Timelines, probably others]

Vulcan Surak class

Despite the fact that they’re our closest allies throughout the whole franchise, we don’t actually get to see much Vulcan technology in Star Trek. So when we finally get to see the Ni’Var, its design is just perfectly logical. This ship is so typically Vulcan in its geometric design: what other race would build a big circle into their pointy-ass ship except for our pointy-eared friends?

Andorian battlecruiser

Speaking of allies we never got to see a ton of before this: Andorians! Enterprise gives us all the blue-skinned aliens we’ve been asking for and then some! The “then some” is their battlecruiser, the Kumari, which looks kinda like the natural progression that fighter jets would follow if they evolved for space travel. They’re just stealthy and good at killing with their tons of weaponry, as Andorians are wont to do.

Tellarite cruiser

The other Federation-founding member race is the Tellarites, and though we only catch glimpses of their ships in the show, that’s not going to stop the merchanising of toys and video games. The Tellarites get an almost Romulan green to their ships, which are heavily weighted to the rear where they have what look like almost conventional rocket boosters strapped to their butts!

Orion scout ship

Okay, so I probably should have covered this ship when we covered TOS, but we only get a decent look at it in the remaster. Before that, the Orion scout ship that torments the Enterprise in “Journey to Babel” just looks like a smudgy light. The remaster gave us this spinny octagon of light balls which is quite distinct from anything else. And even more than the Species 8472 ships we discussed last week, this one gives us big space anus vibes.

Orion Syndicate interceptor

The reason I bring up the Orion scout ship from TOS is so that we can be caught up when we look at the Orion Syndicate interceptor from Enterprise. The forward-swooping wings remind us of a big ram’s head or a weird green uterus flying around in space. We don’t usually see the wings of a ship pointing forward this way, and it’s actually a pretty nice design.

Suliban cruiser

Another race we meet in Enterprise is the Suliban and they have a clutch of ships for us to look at. Their cruiser just looks like a cockroach ship. All the Suliban ships we’ll see have that same kind of ruddy brown color palette and hard metal look like they just skittered (like a cockroach!) out of a mineshaft.

Suliban long cell ship

Another Suliban ship, this one has a little piggy face on what’s essentially a long LEGO brick body. We find it interesting that it seems to be symmetrical front-to-back, which we don’t see much in ship design. We know they can hook up together, so maybe this one is designed to go both forward and backwards like an Amtrak train!

Suliban short cell ship

One more Suliban ship, clearly from that same red-brown family of dense-looking ships. Like their cylindrical counterparts above, these little spherical beads can cloak and also can link together to make a larger mass... like monkey bread perhaps. And now we’re all thinking about monkey bread and won’t be able to get anything else done until we have some.

Xindi Reptilian ship

And we’re back! Say what you will about the Xindi arc in Enterprise (and Chris is already preparing to when we get there on the podcast!), but their ships are all absolutely beautiful. We get some shades of the Son’a ships that we liked so much from Insurrection in the fanciful swooping designs in the Reptilians’ ships, but even longer and sleeker, like a needlessly elaborate butterfly. They look like they have a texture and finesse and we’re all about them.

Xindi Insectoid ship

Somehow the Reptilians’ ships look more like insects than the Insectoids’ ships, but you know what, we still like them! These ships look kinda like a grappling hook. We also don’t see a lot of ships with threeway symmetry like this ship more or less has, so that’s another point in their favor, as is their pretty bluey color. Overall, they just look like a lot of knives pointing at you, which we can respect.

Xindi Aquatic ship

Another very beautiful ship from the Xindi! Very fittingly, the Aquatics’ ships look almost liquidy, with more organic-looking lines that swoop and curve. We could list a whole bunch of aquatic creatures it reminds us of, but suffice it to say that these turquoise beauties are clearly inspired by the ocean. They also have an almost pointless hole in their design for some reason, but we can forgive that.

Xindi Primate ship

Speaking of pointless holes, the Primates’ ships have even more cutouts for some reason. We’re reminded of the speeder bikes from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi just from their long, sledlike design. When we look close, we start to spy what looks like a little Voyager spoon shape embedded in its top. Neat! 

Xindi Arboreal ship

You’re saying, “Wait, didn’t we already see this ship up above when we talked Tellarites?” And well, you’re half right since both the Arboreals’ and the Tellarites’ ships were sneaky reuses of the Arkonian warship design that we also see in Enterprise, but we’ll allow it because there have been a number of good ships already. This one has less green and more brown than the Tellarite ship and a little more texture to it, as far as I can tell.

Tholian ship

Lastly, I wanted to do a quick side-by-side comparison of the Tholian ships from The Original Series and from Enterprise. Originally, they just look like little arrowheads and it was good that they kept it simple, stupid. Now we have more CGI so there’s more texture and detailing, but it overall keeps the essence of that same simplicity, stupid. Like the new USS Enterprise from Discovery and Strange New Worlds, we find this to be a good reinterpretation of TOS design without badly overhauling it.

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That’s it for alien starships until we get a new crop in from any of the currently airing series, but that’s a journey for another day. Until then, we’re still making our way through Voyager and you can keep up with us over on SoundCloud or wherever you listen to podcasts, friend us on Facebook and Twitter, and have yourself some monkey bread, on us!

#star trek #star trek podcast #podcast #alien ships #enterprise #vulcan #andorian #tellarite #orion #suliban #xindi #tholian #monkey bread