#the common denominator between my interests

[v-toast]

dog club

#the common denominator between my interests #kid icarus uprising #sth #sonic the hedgehog #twilight princess #art #loz

[meowonhao]

bias check !

ty for the tags @chwedout + @wonboos ♡

tagging @scuopsie @fairyhaos @kwonhochi @nootcoups @jeonwon-wonwoo @woozification @scoups if you want!!◡̈

#svt is really the only group i’m into enough to have biases lol #i used to really like weeekly but they kept my girlies in the basement too long and i kinda lost interest :/ #but my ult was soeun if anyone cares! #loved doing this bc it reminded me how much i love that wonu ig post. it really changed me #also sorry if i tagged you and you’ve already done this! #btw the common denominator between these specific pics is (variations of) my fav color 💚

[bitchlessdino]

hello perhaps morning after sex with mingyu + wonwoo ?? like you wake up in bed with both of them after a drunken threesome and go again… maybe one of the boys wakes up first and you start hooking up with him right there only for the other to wake up and get pouty before joining in

Pairing: (Mingyu x afab!reader x Wonwoo)

Genre: smut

Word count: 1.8k

tags: Tags: poly, established friendship, brief enemies to lovers, unprotected sex, spanking, double penetration, degradation, brief hole slapping?, mean wonwoo, sweet mingyu

Summary: Mingyu being the common denominator for the strained acquaintanceship of both you and Wonwoo, he's determined to make this friendship work.

author note: can yall believe this is my first minwon fic, i mean theres a million ones out there that arent mine, but its interesting it took this long. thank you kaili my love for the request, i hope you like it

Mingyu and Wonwoo were and have been inseparable, that is until you came into the picture. You met Mingyu first and clicked immediately with him, taking him everywhere you went like schoolmates. You were self-claiming that he was your best friend, despite how many people telling you he’d be a better boyfriend (he is insanely hot), and that Wonwoo was second best to you.

Wonwoo didn’t like that about you. You just popped out of nowhere with your pretty face and can-do attitude, attaching yourself to Mingyu’s hip like a clingy fanny pack. He was there first and clearly had a stronger connection with Mingyu and he wasn’t going to let some ‘nobody’ steal his friend away from him, no matter how cute that smile was or how nice you smelled.

Mingyu being the ‘empath’ he is, starting to use the word unironically at this point, he could sense the hostility between the two and how things never seemed to align when you were together. It was like a dark cloud peering over everyone when they were in the same room. It made social gatherings suffocating at times and that was unfortunate since he enjoyed both their companies equally, so he set off a plan in motion.

The next gathering would just be the three of them, close and intimate. Drinks would be involved, maybe some food, have it all set up in his apartment, and before you know it, they’d all be besties. This was going to go great.

“Mmh, Wonwoo…”

Mingyu realized things went too well when he found out what he was waking up to the following morning. His eyes couldn’t process it initially, but through his strained eyes he can make out you grinding your wet entrance up against his best friend’s raging boner, moaning obscenities that he hardly ever imagined coming out of your lips.

Wonwoo’s deep chuckles were as dark as chocolate, running his hands all over your body in delight, looking up in amazement to see how needy you already were. “So whiny, you’re so annoying. You want me that bad?”

You nod back at him incessantly, tweaking your stuff buds between your fingers, “I…want…you in me…”

A corner of his lips quirks up, he forces your hips to ride his torso harder, “Yeah? You want my cock inside you?”

Your lips contort anxiously, dragging your hands over his toned, muscular build, “Mm, yes, I want it…”

“I’m gonna need to hear you beg for it. Beg for me, whore,” He taps his length on your stomach, having you mewl over him desperately.

Your core throb, practically hearing the echo from its vacancy, screaming at you to be filled, “Wonwoo please…”

He arches a brow, “Please what? Be specific.”

You’re clenching over nothing, whining in his ear as you leaned towards him, “Please put your cock in me…I need you…”

Mingyu was half asleep when this was all occurring. Tossing and turning, he was wondering what was happening in the background, and why the hell was he so tired for. He soon notices the instability of the bed slightly rocking in its spot, the pure stench of sex that coated the inside of his nostrils, and then your breathy moan, rhythmically dancing in the air. The images then all rush back to him, blood flowing to his lower half, finding enough for his shaft to stand on, and the feeling of neglect wash over him.

“Seriously? You guys couldn’t wait?”

You immediately collect the sounds of Mingyu's pretty whines and turn your head to his side of the bed. “Baby, you’re—ah—up.”

“Hey Gyu.” Wonwoo nods at the younger man.

Mingyu juts out his bottom lip childishly, lightly throwing a pillow back at his friends, and sees it make no effect on the situation. He shifts from the bed, the blanket falling from his body and exposing stiff length, rubbing his eyes in slight frustration. “I can’t believe you two. Without me.”

Your eyes latch on his size, pulling him by his shaft, giggling. “It’s not too late for you to join in.”

“Well, now I gotta catch up,” his hand catches the back of your head and claims your lips.

Your hips moved more slowly this time, focusing on savoring the taste of his lips while entertaining, but the man underneath you wasn’t so patient. Distracted with Mingyu, Wonwoo grips your hips and ruts you faster, bouncing you in his lap. As the sounds of skin slapping together in perfect harmony, you moan in soft, staccato breaths in Mingyu's mouth, allowing your lips to part and have his tongue explore. His hands start playing a part when they fell to your chest, teasing your nipples lightly.

With the endearing way you feel apart to his touch, he can’t help but pull away from the kiss to just have them in his mouth, sucking your tender skin and mouthing flesh around it. “You’re so fucking beautiful...”

His eyes gaze back at you like he was in heat, his hips, and cock twitching to be inside you, your eyes telling him the same. He embraces you as you ride Wonwoo, drawing circles with his tongue, clenching your flesh in his hands, drunk on your pretty voice calling out to him. He could do this all day if he could, but there was one thing he wanted to do a smidge more.

“Come on, Gyu, you know you want to,” Wonwoo takes his hand to your ass cheeks, have you whimper upon impact.

Mingyu knew all too well what his best friend meant and pushed you down to reunite your lips with Wonwoo’s in a frenzy. Mingyu made himself comfortable behind you, legs bordering Wonwoo and parallel to yours. He runs a slick finger over your moisture, and squeezes it between the older man’s cock and your walls, testing your limits.

“So fucking tight…has Wonwoo treating you well?”

You hardly mumble a yes as Wonwoo thrusts deep inside you, feeling the tension up your body and ramming repeatedly inside you, his hands clapping over your ass every few seconds or so. 

“We’re gonna stretch you nice and wide for us okay?” Mingyu warns with a playful tinge.

You moan against Wonwoo’s lips, feeling the heat of his cocky chuckle on your neck. “I think that means yes, Gyu.”

Mingyu held your hips in place, rubbing the tip at the edge of your entry before gradually pushing his length in. With blown-out eyes, you try to quickly adjust to the strain of two cocks plunged inside you, feeling their slick griths rub against each other and fill up your vacancy past its limit, “Oh, fuck…”

It's when Mingyu finds his place that you realize it's only begun. Your hips stationary and nails digging into a pillow, they moved on polar pacing, but fucking you with a similar depth. The euphoria of fullness had overcome you and you try backtracking to the moment when you felt a sensation similar, but none comes in mind. You felt used in the most heavenly way possible.

“So…tight…Fuck, you feel good…” Wonwoo growls out between his grunts, “Stupid slut, perfect fucking body, perfect fucking hole, you’re just perfect everything, aren’t you?”

“So good for us…you’re taking us so good, baby.” Mingyu agrees.

Your eyes keep rolling back in your skull, taking deep breaths, restraining your own orgasm, and at some point the sweat of you three fuse together, becoming one living and breathing system, hot to the touch and unstoppable. Wonwoo eventually encourages you to sit up, pressing your back against Mingyu’s chest, having the image of you being spoiled giving him a sense of purpose and bliss.

“That’s a pretty picture,” he comments, watching as Mingyu grabs your chest again, rolling your nipples and abusing them to his liking.

“I’m c-c-cumming…” you stutter.

Mingyu smugly grins against your skin. “But we’ve only started, baby.”

“I-I know I’m…try–fuck–shit, Mingyu!” You react to the love tap he makes to your hole, his laughter flooding your ears.

Wonwoo laughs along with him, his nails running over your chest and stomach. “Listen to him, slut. Don’t make us have to make you wait…”

“Y-yes, sir…”

Wonwoo was pleased to see your chest heave up and down breathlessly, sweat beading down your body, and the helplessness on your face while Mingyu took advantage. The power running through his veins was immaculate; he made you grind faster, Mingyu pound you harder, all of his present senses were being fulfilled to their maximum. Despite being underneath you, Wonwoo clearly had the upper hand. 

There was a point you couldn’t help yourself anyway, your arousal seeps out of you like oozing honey, dripping the side of your legs and down Wonwoo’s lap, clutching the man behind you desperately for reassurance. “S-shit…I’m sorry.”

“You better be. Mingyu, get on top of them.”

Mingyu follows orders well, your body flat on the mattress in mere seconds with him toppled over you, his smile staring back at you, “Hey, there.”

You get no chance to greet him back as he smothers you with his lips, his full length pushing back in you, and your body aches from the sensitivity. Wonwoo is just a step behind, pulling your legs just slightly more in his direction, he steps off the bed. He plants his feet on the ground and fills up your core to its brim, not caring about the mess you make, only thinking of the bigger mess he plans to make.

“S-so full…”

“You should’ve listened to Wonwoo, baby.” Mingyu strokes the side of your head, pressing his lips against your skin and sucking them until he sees the pigment rise to the surface. 

The room could hardly contain any of the sounds happening, no doubt interrupting a fourth party’s day, and none of you had a care in the world. You were a sweating mess beneath the both of them, used up like their personal toy, and being bruised left and right, all worth it to meet another climax, this time both men joining you.

Mingyu was still kissing your flushed skin when it was happening and Wonwoo, having already poured thick ribbons of his nectar inside you, was pushing it back inside of you, a trail of his and Mingyu’s essence seeping out of you into the sheets. Doing it once, twice, and three times before, you’d do it again and again until your hunger presents itself.

Although both men knew how to make you full, they couldn’t distract or fulfill you from the absence of food. Knowing how exhausted you’ve become, Mingyu laid your body to rest, cleaning out any and all the remnants from your body, while Wonwoo called ahead for some breakfast.

“Anything specific you both want?”

Mingyu cuddles up next to you when he’s finished, throwing a blanket over bare bodies, “Yeah maybe a breakfast sandwich? How about you, baby?”

“That sounds perfect,” you grin, kissing the top of his nose.

Wonwoo smiles to himself, reciting it over the phone before joining them back in bed. He holds you from behind nuzzling to the crook of your neck, and you laugh, wondering why he ever bothered you in the first place. It felt complete with you three together, like a breakfast sandwich.

#svthub #mingyu smut #wonwoo smut #seventeen smut #seventeen wonwoo #seventeen mingyu #seventeen #wonwoo #mingyu #jeon wonwoo #Kim Mingyu #Kim Mingyu smut #jeon wonwoo smut #seventeen x you #mingyu x you #wonwoo x you #wonwoo x reader #mingyu x reader #seventeen x reader

[writefightandflightclub]

Blurb request?

What if you stole Santiago's favorite hat, and he caught you wearing it, very casual, nothing to see here, nothing at all.

Make you mine: Santiago “Pope” Garcia x GN!reader

Thanks so much for sending this, Rally! 🧡☺️ I wrote a hat-based thing with Frankie x reader, but I gave this a bash too as I love the concept with Santiago (my beloved) too! I hope you like it!

Warnings: fluff, steam, lots of mentions of erections, cum kink sorta (brief), light-hearted. 🧢 🍆

A hard swallow trails down Santiago’s neck as he clocks you. Wearing his hat.

He’s arrested by the sight of you, an instant flare of heat blooming across his skin as he realises, in no time at all, that he likes it. Likes seeing you in something of his. Or more so, looking like you’re his by association.

The attached and very intrusive thought is powerful and sudden on the heels of that realisation.

He’d love to see how you’d look wearing his hat and nothing else.

He quirks a brow in interest. He didn’t know that, specifically, would do it for him, but in fairness, he’s pretty sure you are the common denominator here. With you, he’s always discovering new ways that you turn him on.

Shame he can’t act on it though. You and he have been flirting back and forth, sure. But, you’d told him, not long after you’d met that… things were complicated for you. You and him? Maybe there was an instant spark, but you’d been clear the two of you would be nothing outside of friends.

So, he tries to compose himself as you walk over to him. A glass in each hand - one for him. “Thank you,” he smiles smoothly, clinking his glass with yours in a “cheers”.

The other boys have retired inside, after a poker night out on the deck. But you and he have lingered. For some air.

He lets his gaze linger on you, confident enough to drink you in for a stretched moment, your coy gaze even more alluring than usual from beneath the brim of his hat. He tries his best to ignore the blood thudding to his crotch. But you make that difficult to do - no-one else could ever.

“I’m cosplaying you.” You tease, brazenly acknowledging your blatant and unforgivable theft. “Pass me a stick of Wrigleys, Santi? It’ll really up my authenticity.”

He chuckles. Unable to take his eyes off of your bright smile. Your gaze flits gently over his face in return. Lingers on the creases radiating out around his eyes. Dips to his mouth. It makes him self-conscious - which he isn’t used to. Then again, he’s never met anyone who has quite the effect on him that you do.

He perches himself on top of the wooden porch rail. Gestures for you to join him and you seat yourself there too, body angled in towards him.

He can’t help it now. Looks up at his cap perched on your pretty head. He spreads his thighs a little to accommodate his growing bulge between his legs. “-You know. If any of the boys touched my hat…”

“Oh, I know,” you pout comically, shaking your head side-to-side. “Dead to you.” So you know his hat is famously off-limits then? In that case, either you must have put together that he’s a soft-touch for you; or, you’re trying to provoke him. But hey. He doesn’t exactly mind either option. “So.” You take a casual sip of your drink, your eyes flashing with mischief from over the brim. “The boys would be in for it. But what will my punishment be?”

Santiago takes a deep, steadying breath he dearly hopes is subtle as the bulge between his legs grows uncomfortably swollen, pressing up against the seam of his jeans in a way that makes his eyes prick with tears.

Fuck, he doesn’t normally have this much trouble controlling himself; but there’s something about you. Lord knows, he’s trying to keep his internal monologue clean but all he can think is: mine.

Mine. Mine. Mine.

Undoubtedly, he can think of a few (hundred) ways he could “discipline” you, if that’s what you’re into. His palm itches where it rests against his thigh, becoming suddenly tacky.

“Well. First of all. Here,” he offers, pulling a pack of gum from his pocket. “You’re not really nailing ‘me’ yet. Needs more work.”

Nailing him? Fuck, that’s an unfortunate choice of words when he’s trying to take his mind off of ravaging you.

“No?”

“Not seeing the resemblance, cariño.”

“Well. That checks out.” You tug performatively on the brim of his cap as though you know exactly what you’re doing to him, actually. “I am a hell of a lot cuter.”

Fuck, you’re not wrong. You’re fucking adorable.

You take a piece of the offered gum, beginning to chew rather obnoxiously on it. “How about now?”

An easy laugh bobs in his neck. “Holy shit. Now it’s like looking in a mirror.”

You slide closer to him, shimmying yourself along the porch rail. An urgent heat prickles at his skin. Your proximity slips a warm snake down his spine.

“So, you approve, Santi?” Santiago could swear your voice has taken on a lusty quality. Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking on his part. “You like me wearing your hat?”

He almost chokes on his masking swig of his drink. Christ, if you only knew how much he approves. If you could see the sordid images playing on a loop in his head right now? Well, you’d probably throw your drink in his face, to be honest. Actually - he could do with it, to cool off. Maybe he can pour his own drink over himself if things get really dire.

“You think Frankie’s cap would suit me too? Or do I look better in yours?”

Mine. Mine. Mine.

Even the drum of his heartbeat feels like it’s trying to claim you. Trying to bust out of his chest to reach out for you.

Fuck. Are you trying to kill him? He doesn’t have a gasket, but he’s pretty sure he’s about to blow one all the same. “You know you look good,” he assures huskily, voice hollowed out by want, though still trying his damn best to toe the line.

Friends. You don’t want him to do the things he’s doing to you in his head right now. Right?

You smirk, looking all too pleased with yourself before taking a swig of your drink. His gaze is fixated on you as you wrap your plush lips around the mouth of the bottle, your fleet of pink tongue poking into the rim. The image certainly is… inspiring.

Fuck, he’s sweating. Swipes the back off his hand across his forehead, catching the moisture gathering inexplicably at his temples.

Then, to his horror, you stand, slinking towards him and slotting your hips in between his spread thighs. You crane around his form, careful that the brim of his own hat doesn’t poke his eyes out, and you dip your plush mouth towards this shell of his ear. Your whisper beds down right under his skin. “How do you think I’d look wearing this and nothing else, Santi? Would I look like I was…yours?”

Wearing my hat. Wearing my hat. Wearing my cum.

Mine. Mine. Mine.

Santiago’s brain fully short circuits. He blinks dumbly at you, mouth slightly agape, as you simply look on in amusement, biting down on your lip.

It’s not like he doesn’t want to jump at the chance to find out, but…

He sniffs. Shoots for non-chalant and doesn’t pull it off. “I thought we… I thought. Just friends?”

“Santiago,” you purr. “I stole your hat. Catch-up.”

Catch-up? Holy shit. Maybe he’d have a clue what you were up to if he could think straight. His erection is straining against his pants so hard now he has to shift his hands to cover it. Has to bite back a strangled whimper at the painful pinch.

Your mouth twitches around a delicious self-satisfied smirk as you clock the state he’s in. You giggle, brazenly eyeing his bulge with interest. “Benny told me this might do the trick.”

Santiago’s eyes tighten then. He pouts up at you, eyes twinkling, almost wistful. “Honey.” He lifts the hat from off of your head, setting it down on his own instead. “You? You don’t need any tricks.”

“No?”

Fuck, the way you’re both so devious and so shy at the same time is killing him. “Nuh uh. I’ve wanted you for a long time. You’re gorgeous.”

He boxes you in a little more tightly with his sturdy thighs. Slips his hands on to your waist. Your breath hitches, and he likes the fact he’s finally managing to turn the tables. He dips his mouth towards you, and you manoeuvre around the brim of his cap until your mouth is a whisper away from his kiss. “Wait,” you urge. “I have gum.”

He can’t help but laugh - a resonant chuckle shucking in his throat- as you take a moment to toss it aside, and then he’s just looking at you again. Gaze flitting softly over your face. Arms drawing you close to him once more until his lips brush yours. The contact sends tingles all the way down to his toes; he’s waited so long for this.

He deepens the kiss, soft and more tentative than he’d usually pitch it, his tongue probing into your mouth, but you return his growing fervour. Your palms brace against his sturdy thighs, and he swallows the smooth moan which blooms from your mouth as he clasps you to him.

You pull back for air, looking slightly giddy, and you survey him, a cheeky, devilish glint in your eyes. “You know. You look really fucking good in my hat, Santiago.” Your dark, teasing voice is like honey poured into his middle.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. You look like you’re mine.”

He shucks air from between his teeth in surprise, his face splitting into a lopsided, awed smile. His eyes turn dark with hunger, pupils eating away at warm umber.

He is. He is yours, if you want him.

He decides then, that he can push this a little further. You seem keen - and Lord knows he is. And so, with a knowing, playful smirk, he dips his lips forward towards the shell of your ear. Whispers to you. “So, how about I wear this and nothing else for you?”

You visibly shiver as his words wind their way into you, your smooth facade cracking apart. “Santiago. Fuck. Are you trying to kill me?”

With his erection continuing to throb against the seam of his pants, he really thinks it’s the other way around.

“No,” he promises. “Only trying to make you mine.”

Mine. Mine. Mine.

That’s all he’s wanted since he met you.

He devours your mouth in another hungry kiss, tongue shoving against yours, opening you up. Stubble raking over your skin.

And, before your delicious kiss knocks every other thought - and word and concept - right out of his head, he logs the fact he definitely owes Benny a favour.

Mine. Mine. Mine.

He always wanted to be more than friends.

#santiago pope garcia x reader #Santiago Garcia x reader #triple frontier #Oscar Isaac

[socialist-microwave-laser]

excerpts from a conversation between bassam aramin and rami elhanan, moderated by marina cantacuzino, as a collaboration between the parents' circle family forum and the forgiveness project. for context, aramin is a palestinian man whose 10 year old daughter was killed by an israeli border police officer, and elhanan is an israeli man whose teenage daughter was killed in a suicide bomb attack by palestinians

"we had to meet for one year and then we learned we are the same... we both cared about palestinians and israelis as human beings" aramin

"our common enemy is the israeli occupation. both of us are victims of the israeli occupation" aramin

"one israeli soldier shot and killed my daughter, but more than 100 israeli soldiers came together and built [a playground as a memorial] for my daughter" aramin

“i think this world is sitting on the balcony, clapping their hands and cheering on the murder. it’s like a soccer team; you have the colors of your team and you have the slogans of your team” elhanan

"we don’t want you to import this conflict into your own society. we don’t want you to be pro-israeli or pro-palestinian, we want you to be pro-peace" elhanan

“when you discover your own humanity, you discover the humanity of your enemy. and you discover the nobility of your enemy, and you learn that your enemy is exactly like you. you both want to live and have children. and it’s very difficult, but it’s also difficult to be human” aramin

“how do people move on? how will they try to move on? they need hope. at the end, we need hope” aramin

“we didn’t meet as friends, no, we meet as enemies. but now we are family. and we had to start by talking to each other” aramin

“the palestinians didn’t kill six million israelis, and the israelis didn’t kill six million palestinians. but there is german ambassador in tel aviv, and there is an israeli ambassador in berlin. so we know we can do it” aramin

“it’s okay to disagree. it’s the human nature to disagree. it’s very acceptable that not everyone thinks alike… you have the common demoninator … one thing is common. the common denominator is we accept each other. we accept each other’s pain” elhanan

“you need to be pro peace and justice. justice means for the israelis and the palestinians” aramin

“we will not remember the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends” aramin

“how will you get respect if you don’t give respect? once you are able to listen to the pain of the other, you can expect the other to listen to your pain” elhanan

“don’t claim that you own the truth always. people’s stories are their truth. you need to listen, respect, then the other side will listen to you and your pain” aramin

“the competition of victimhood is such that people get crazy. they start to argue about the numbers of dead children, the numbers of beheaded heads. things that are pornography… is it important to know if there are 20 women that are killed, or if it was 19?” elhanan

“end the israeli occupation. then and only then can the israelis and palestinians live without fears, and sleep without fears” aramin

“i don’t believe that any god can promise anything to anyone, can want anyone to kill. i think this is a whole invention to serve political interests. and i think the evangelicals are no different than the right wing jews who say that god gave them this country. god did not give anything to anyone” aramin

“i consider myself to be a very proud jew and a very committed one. patrolling and oppressing and massacring and occupying is not jewish. and opposing that is not antisemitism. and if you are in an argument, then you can call me” elhanan

“it’s not hope, it faith. i do not reckon that we will go on killing each other forever… we know eventually there will be peace. we don’t know how much blood we need for the politicians to sign this same treaty, but it will be done” aramin

“i am calling the usa to release the israelis and the palestinians together, because we are both victims of its agenda” aramin

#jumblr #anarchist #i/p #parents circle families forum #the forgiveness project #rami elhanan #bassam aramin #islam #radical love

[macdennisofficial]

A trend I noticed last season (which I absolutely loved last season by the way) is that RCG seem to be focusing the finale on an emotional arc for one character. Last season's was Charlie, and before that was Mac. We know this season's finale is about Dennis. If I recall correctly (and I may actually be wrong because for the past few years I have intentionally been avoiding any kind of behind the scenes and fore-knowledge of any of my fandoms, simply because I prefer going in blind) Always Sunny has been renewed until season eighteen. So, if I am correct, that gives us enough for each main character to have an arc. I had been hoping that season eighteen would be Dennis personally, but that was purely preference and not based on anything else. Seventeen and eighteen would leave room for Frank and Dee to have their emotional finale.

Given that Dennis will be sixteen's finale, let's focus on him. With Mac, it was his sexuality (and also about trying to find his father's acceptance, which he didn't get - but he did, however, get Frank's, for the time being anyway.) Charlie was about his absent biological father . . . but also his found family returning to help him, and admitting that he wished Frank really had been his dad (which Frank also wished.)

Mac's sexuality and Charlie's desire to know who his father is were both brought up and discussed multiple times throughout the show, building so that the "ends" of their respective arcs were meaningful. They weren't just pulled out of thin air and contained to their character-specific finale episodes. So it's safe to say that Dennis' (and Frank's, and Dee's) will also relate to something that's been following them throughout the series.

What could Dennis' be? The only common denominator between Mac's and Charlie's episodes were wanting something from a familial person, and receiving it from Frank. Is that coincidence, or intentional? Will Dennis need something and eventually return to Frank as his father? Will everyone accept Frank as their parental figure by the end, leaving Frank for last, to accept them all as his children? Regardless, coincidental or intentional, Frank taking that role is a secondary, and more general, arc. I am interested in the more targeted one.

What about Dennis' specific story? Mac had his sexuality and Charlie had his abandonment - so what will Dennis have?

Mac's sexuality makes sense, as for years coming to terms with it had been his character's primary focus. Charlie's desire to know, once and for all, who his father was does too, as that had been toyed with since the season two finale. What has been following Dennis repeatedly that could be possibly concluded when he takes his mental health day?

Emotions and identity.

We will see Dennis come to terms with what he feels, and who he is, away from the Gang, which he has tried to do before (The Gang Misses the Boat, Dennis' Double Life) for years . . . but this time, he will succeed.

That or he's gonna rage-kill Jack. I'm excited either way.

#dennis reynolds #iasip #meta #more like rambling tbh #den den revolution

[laineystein]

I am genuinely curious - what is your opinion on practicing streams of Judaism? (Orthodox vs conservative vs reform vs Reconstructionist). I’m aware there are Israelis have the opinion that diaspora Jews- especially Americans, are Jew(ish), and not necessarily Jewish, if that makes sense? I know there are asshats that get quite nasty towards Israelis and I find that to be disgusting.

Me personally, I always found that to be very hurtful. I’m American, grew up Reform. In the sanctuary part of the Temple, we had two flags positioned on each corner of the sanctuary in the front: one was American, one was Israeli. My Rabbi, my Cantor, and my Sunday school teachers raised us to believe Israelis are distant cousins. Different but similar ideas, customs etc, but all part of the same family. So when 10/07 happened I (like many diaspora Jewish people), were shaken to the core.

And no matter what my personal issues are about the process of the military operation, and Bibi and his govt, I wish and hope everyone stays as safe as they can be while trying to get the hostages out and destroy Hamas.

So I was just wondering what your thoughts are about the clashes between the different streams of practice. I always feel that now is not the time to argue about who is or isn’t more Jewish. We are all feeling the after effects of what Hamas did, and the anti semitism that it has sparked. Once we have peace, then people can debate and bicker if they wish (but I really hope less of us do that). ♥️

So I contemplated how (or if) I’d answer this because I really think Am Yisrael needs ahavas chinam right now and I don’t want to do anything to promote sinas chinam. But I think you can disagree with something and still respect it and show love for your fellow Jews who may practice differently than you do and I think that *is* Ahavas chinam.

So I’d just ask that just as I’m affording respect to others who are different that people respect my view points as well.

So here we go…

A Jew is a Jew is a Jew. Even antizionist Jews, those are still Jews. Even atheist Jews, those are still Jews. I do believe in matrilineal inheritance of Judaism but I’m not going to treat someone differently if their father is their only Jewish parent and they were raised Jewish. It is not my place to say who is Jewish and who is not; I can have my viewpoints but ultimately I am not a Rav.

I was raised orthodox. I didn’t meet a “reform” Jew until med school (which was the first time I ever went to school with goyim) — the denominations you’re referring to are mostly western constructs. There are a few reform shuls in Israel but they’re not as common as they are in America. I am going to be very honest with you and share that many reform practices make me incredibly uncomfortable. Do I think that people that practice them are any less Jewish? Absolutely not.

As someone who spent half of their life in the diaspora (albeit in very Jewish communities with little contact with goyim) I absolutely do not subscribe to any belief that diaspora Jews are any less Jewish. That’s abhorrent. I don’t personally know any Israelis that believe that but I’m sure they exist. All Jews, regardless of their location, are valid.

I will say that it is interesting to me to hear that your teachers referred to Israelis as “distant cousins” - all of am Yisrael is a single tribe. I would only ever refer to a fellow Jew as a brother or sister regardless of whether or not they lived in Israel or the diaspora. It seems there might be some anti-Israel bias in that teaching, which is unfortunate. And it’s amusing because your question insinuates that Orthodox Jews and Israelis are less accepting of reform Jews and diasporic Jews and that’s interesting to hear because my experience has always been the exact opposite.

But in Israel we have similar issues where our religious communities spar with our less observant communities. It was very apparent in our most recent elections and the protests that followed. I find myself existing in both communities and it can be challenging sometimes. Some of my secular friends do have negative attitudes toward more frum communities. Those same frum communities may look down on my more secular friends. Because I do and always have existed in both groups I see both sides. I think both of these black and white attitudes are a chillul hashem and will get us nowhere.

But bottom line, how a Jew lives their life and their relationship with Hashem is none of my business. You do you; Jew do Jew.

(This was kind of all over the place and there’s a lot of tangents I actually *didn’t* go down believe it or not so if you want some clarification, feel free to ask. Or you can DM me and I’m happy to chat about it that way too.)

#lainey things #ask things #Jew things #this was a doozy

[macleod]

I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...

The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance

Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995)

#Carl Sagan #quotes #America #mine

[ladykinrannoch]

I’m sorry I know you have an interest in tarot yourself but I’ve realized the tarot readers may be where all the nasty rumors are starting. There’s also one astrologer blog here saying there’s an upcoming storm for the Wales fandom, and the way this blog says it, it’s like something really ominous. I tend to be a pessimistic person who always thinks things are going to go badly, which is why I find it hard to brush it off when some random person on the internet is saying stuff like that as much as I just want to ignore it or brush it off as nonsense. I have to say I am not very good with differentiating between anxiety and intuition. I tend to be a bit paranoid. Idk if this is just paranoia, but I am scared for the coming days because of this particular blog’s warnings.

So this is an interesting observation and reminds me of a discussion we had at our Church of Wiccan Culture last week about living a spiritual life in the mundane world and one in which there are lots of muggles, and one of the most common tools we discussed was employing discernment. So this answer is not about tarot, it is about living in the divine light and how to do that! But this post also led me rather nicely into a Saturday Morning Tarot by Lady Kinrannoch. (skip to the end if you don't want to read the preamble)

As I foresaw and said to my then husband back in 2007 that it seemed to me that social media had the potential to become evil, in fact I asked him whether social media was possibly an aspect of Satan. This is long before I turned from institutional religion to embrace the Old Ways and Old Gods. Satan is a construct of organised religion, it is meant to keep you in line through fear and guilt. My journey to enlightenment started then as I began to embrace the aspects of me that always meant I felt like I did not fit in, and did not get answers in the bible or from religion. I started reading the Gnostic texts, explored Kabbalah, esoterism, hermeticism etc. and more and more I was drawn to Paganism or what we call The Wiccan Way. (please note that Paganism is an umbrella term and that not all Pagans are Wiccans, there are many denominations of earth-based religions that identify as Pagans)

Now Pagan's are naturally drawn to nature and all that was created by the Divine Mother. Not man-made interventions. We believe that Mother Nature/Earth (Gaia) has provided everything we need to survive and that with the assistance of the Old Gods, we can awaken the Divine inside us and manifest love and light. It is why we are often referred to as light workers. We do not believe in Satan, but we do believe in "good and evil", in the aspects of light and dark (in Eastern religion Ying/Yang). No one is all light, everyone has some dark or shadow aspect. The Old Gods across multiple pantheons have light and dark aspects and represent the various Archetypes in the same way that the Tarot Major Arcana represent the 22 main Archetypes. So the discussion was about how to identify when you move off the path of the light and begin to become overcome by the darkness. When people are overcome by the darkness, they tend to become toxic, cultist and abusive; or depressed, anxious and stuck in victim energy, sort of fatalistic, giving up and giving in to Fate. There are many dark cults that frequently get incorrectly associated with Paganism and it is important to use discernment to avoid dark cults. True Paganism is about celebrating nature and following the light, which is why we have many fire festivals among the Sabbats in the Wheel of the Year.

Now I think we see this dark aspect of social media manifesting more and more where various groups of people are pushing their various agenda's. Back in the days with no social media platforms, there is no way you would have managed to get 70 to 80% of a population vaccinated with a trial vaccines with numerous early-on discovered side effects. I am not a denialist, I know there was risk with Covid which it now seems was indeed bio-engineered as part of a global plan to seize totalitarian control. I decided early on that I would not comply, I searched the Old Ways and naturopathy for solutions. I started a regime of supplements that made sense to me. and was also recommended by the FLCCC in the US by Dr Kory and Dr Malik. I have never had Covid despite meeting up with people with Covid to give them IvermectIn (ivm) for themselves or sick relatives. I have access to IVM because I have a breeding and show kennel and so I could order it via veterinary dispensers. Through the pandemic, my staff and I took it every week. None of us got sick. We stopped taking it weekly when Omicron started (Mother Nature, Gaia's intervention). Now we use it whenever one of us is coming down with something. Just this week I felt I was coming down with the flu that is doing the rounds, I took one dose and the next day I was 100% fine again. I take my supplements every day and spend time in the Sun, at least 15 minutes with no sunscreen and visualise filling my body with healing vitamin D.

As you can imagine, I was called a conspiracy theorist. But I like asking the big What if questions. And I use discernment, scepticism and intuition in equal measure daily. I believe that despite none of my staff or I taking the vaccine, we never got sick. I see vaccinated colleagues every day, with all sorts of maladies, ranging from messed up menstrual cycles, all the way through to late term still birth, high blood pressure, blood clots, high blood pressure, septicaemia, heart attacks, auto immune diseases and turbo cancers. I have lost many dear friends over the last four years, all of them vaccinated and it absolutely breaks my heart.

The point to this long preamble ramble is presenting an example in how discernment, scepticism and intuition can play a role in your life if you tune into it and employ it. If you are feeling anxious and depressed by all that you are consuming on social media, perhaps it is time to question yourself about who you are following, what are you consuming, why you are giving your divine manifestation over to the control of others. For we as Pagans believe that the Divine is not out there in nebulous outer space, but that we are part of the Divine and the Divine lives in each one of us. We just need to awaken the Divine inside and listen in the stillness to that spark and that voice.

Anon, I suggest that your intuition is telling to you not to trust what you are consuming, use discernment, scepticism and intuition to decide who to unfollow and what to allow into your divine consciousness. Follow only those that are clearly on a path of spiritual enlightenment with no specific personal and/or dark agenda. Be sceptical. If you feel like something is rubbish, discard it. Don't allow unnecessary darkness into your soul. It is a choice to stand in the light and defeat darkness.

Reading - For Anon and for the Wales Family - Intuition, Commanding all Resources, Healing and Hope

For your benefit, I have done a short tarot spread for you. Just three cards for you to contemplate.

This is what I got:

Situation: The High Priestess, this is confirmation to me that you need to start trusting your intuition. This is also a card typically representing secrets. Not many tarot readers explore that meaning nearly deeply enough. This card's message is Explore your Spiritual Side.

Tarot is a pagan divination tool. For me, this card is also a message of guidance to seek out the secrets of the universe in the quest To Know, which is the first step in the Witches Pyramid. (To Know, To Dare, To Will, To be Silent and To Go). The pentacle is one of the suits in Tarot for a reason. It's five points also represents the four elements associated with tarot, Earth, Air, Fire and Water, with the pinnacle of the pentacle representing Spirit/Divine. I will put a link to an article at the end for those that want to read more.

What happens next: The Emperor, this is commanding and utilising all your talents and resources to bring order from chaos. It is telling me that you have tools to take command of your life and employ discernment. This links beautiful to To Will (manifest through commitment) and To Dare (to develop skills, to make courageous choices). This card's message is Take Control You Are Protected.

The Outcome: The Star, which in RW its core meaning is healing and hope. It is also for me about achieving balance in your life, turning to nature and the elements. Listening to the Divine and links quite beautifully to To be Silent (Introspection), for in the stillness of meditation you find answers. And also links to To Go (wisdom/higher self), to go within in search of the light and the dark, which increases your Knowing, and so repeatedly following this cycle increases intuition, healing and hope as well as growing your inner peace. You cannot know the Divine, until you Know Thyself. This card's message is Be Inspired Dreams Come True.

Underlying energy: Four of Swords, retreat and rest, take yourself away from social media for a while, avoid negativity, focus on goodness and follow the light until you feel better and stronger.

Other observations:

Three major arcana cards, this is absolutely beautiful energy and I don't think it is meant only for you. Three major arcana cards, means this is for everyone who is feeling just like you, anxious, depressed and paranoid.

Royal Reading - The Wales's

High Priestess: There is a reason there is a certain amount of secrecy currently, it doesn't mean we should feed into the dark speculation, but should rather trust our intuition and the divine mother who Knows All. We are being told that there are some people who cannot be trusted right now to know everything. I think this is Catherine, giving us a message. She is in a higher energy right now and following her intuition. Only she is in the Know, as it should be. This is the also the all knowing, wise mother archetype.

Emperor: William is in Emperor energy, he is giving us a message that he is very much in charge right now. So I feel this is him saying to us all "don't worry". Remember also this is King of Kings energy (The Emperor is higher than the four court Kings), and let us remember that William is the Summer Solstice King, brought to us to show us the light, and give us hope.

Star: There is a lot of hope for the future and healing for the family and I believe it will result in good news. I genuinely feel that we have nothing to fear. There is no ominous energy here. As I said it all beautiful and powerful energy.

Middle of the Deck: The Queen of Wands RX - that is who we should watch out for. The dark agenda. This truly is a fight between darkness and light. Wands is also media and PR. Discern the agenda around every piece of speculation in the media for it is all only speculation. This tells me the Wales's know more than we do about the agendas and it is a cautionary message from them, to do exactly what my preamble was about, practice discernment.

Four of Swords: Retreating to find strength and healing. We do not know all of what they are battling, just what we see in the dark media agenda and the attacks from the unenlightened. Remember that light always triumphs over darkness. This tells me that the Wales's withdrawal is for a very strategic reason. The Art of War reminds us that we "should not interrupt our enemies when they are making mistakes". Stand back and allow them to defeat themselves. Also find the light and strengthen yourself in order to overcome the darkness. So the Stand Back strategy as I am calling it is very deliberate.

https://exemplore.com/wicca-witchcraft/Witchcraft-for-Beginners-What-Is-The-Witches-Pyramid

#british royal family #royal reading #tarot #tarot by ladykinrannoch #prince william #princess of wales

[annabelle--cane]

Smirke's system kinda looks like a system that was specifically made for beholding avatars to get a better idea of the entities and categorize them. Since besides specifically that task, it's sort of useless? It's a strong foundation type of thing but not very relevant if you're interested in countering certain entities among other stuff like that. Since all entities can be linked together and overlap in one way or another, which makes assigning certain objects or things to an entity arbitrary. Do you think they'll introduce more system in TMP that'll delve deeper into the entities which does more than just label them and point out common denominations between entities? Have you ever thought about a different systems with different uses?

from the number of co-writers being brought on for the magnus protocol I might wager that they're angling to get different perspectives on how the fears work, but that is pure guessing on my part. the only alternate system I've really spent much time considering is no system, which is how I imagine it mostly comes across to average people who have significant contact with the fears and only use a taxonomy as far as they label things either "paranormal" or "not paranormal."

#tma #answered #anons

[purpleajisai]

Madara Week Day 2 - Christ/Antichrist

The Saviour of this World and the Christ: A comparative analysis of Madara Uchiha and Jesus Christ

It’s Christmas time. Christians all over the world are preparing themselves for what they consider one of the most joyful holidays in the year: the birth of the Messiah, He who came to redeem the world. Meanwhile, the Madara enthusiasts are making a countdown for the birthday of the man who tried to save the ninja world by sacrificing his very self. In this meta, I intend to explain the connections, similarities and differences between Madara Uchiha and Jesus Christ that I’ve found over the years. I would also recommend to read “Is Madara our Lord and Saviour?” by @al-hekima-madara-blog for another very interesting meta on the topic. This is my contribution to day 2 of Madara Week, hosted by @uchiha-event.

A quick note before I start my rambling: I will be using the Douay-Rheims translation of the Bible (Roman Catholic translation), but there shouldn’t be any problem for readers of Protestant background as the difference between the Bibles used by both denominations are in the Old Testament and our focus will be the New Testament.

“I am here to save the world”

Naruto Shippuden, chapter 677

For God sent not his Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by him.

John 3:17

What is the purpose of Madara in this story? One would be tempted to say “because every shonen needs a villain”, but I think his purpose as a character was to expose the flaws within the shinobi system that ultimately corrupted a man who desired peace into someone whose sense of reality became so warped by the situations in his life that he started a war to achieve said peace. Madara didn’t make the Eye of the Moon plan to be evil and act dramatic, he made it with the final objective of launching an eternal dream that would guarantee no more conflict and the ideal life for anyone within it. He’s already been past judging the world, he wants to save it at the expense of himself. This is similar to how God is presented in the Old Testament compared to the New Testament: we first see a God who insists that his law is followed and that chastises those who trespass and disobey in several ocassions. But once we reach the New Testament, he becomes a loving figure that intends to save people from eternal doom in hell (”reality is hell”, anyone?). The point is that we have a man whose purpose in the world is to cleanse all forms of evil thorugh his being and who wants to bring salvation to anyone, regardless if the world agrees or not.

“I come here to bring you light and joy in a life that’s beyond this reality”

Naruto Shippuden, chapter 626

Jesus said to her: I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, although he be dead, shall live.

John 11:25

What does Madara mean when he says that “you can’t see it”? After following the storyline we conclude that he’s talking about the Eye of the Moon plan. Let’s add some tangents here, the people who were directly involved in the plan and helped Madara one way or another. They had no clue about what would happen exactly but they were convinced by the prospect of a peaceful life free of their struggles. In a certain way, they believed in Madara. The exact same thing can be seen with Jesus, who promises eternal life beyond the death of the physical body. Nobody knows how Heaven looks like but the believers trust him on that promise.

“I bring peace”

Naruto Shippuden, chapter 661

These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you shall have distress: but have confidence, I have overcome the world

John 16:33

Notice how Madara refers to the current state of the shinobi world as “Hashirama’s world”? In Christianity and the Bible, it is a common practice to separate “the world” and “the believers” as entities with entirely different mindsets and values. Madara sees the world as direct consequence of his nemesis, Hashirama, just as Christians see the evil in the world as the direct consequence of the sins of Lucifer. To “overcome the world”, when applied to Madara, refers to how he intends to use a power whose source is unknown (the power of the Sage of Six Paths) in order to end the paradox of Hashirama’s world. He is going to achieve peace to overwrite the current world and install his own world where the paradox is solved.

“I intend for you to acquire new identity within me”

Naruto Shippuden, chapter 665

If then any be in Christ a new creature, the old things are passed away, behold all things are made new.

2 Corinthians 5:17

And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me. And that I live now in the flesh: I live in the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered himself for me.

Galatians 2:20

I picked two of the letters in the New Testament in purpose, you may have noticed that the previous quotes come from the Gospel of John. Because the Gospel of John is a retelling of what Jesus did and said, whereas the letters (mostly from the apostle Paul) are reflections of the lives of the apostles after Jesus was gone. Similarly, Obito becomes Madara once Madara dies in the cave and walks in his shoes. Yesterday, I wrote a bit more about how Madara decomposed his humanity for the sake of his dream of peace. Here, we have Madara giving up his identity to anyone who embraces his goal, similarly to how Jesus signifies a brotherhood of believers. Madara also never writes down his autobiography or gets a space to present his POV, just as how all of what we know from Jesus is from the people close to him, not by his own word. In a sense, both become an entity for like-minded people to work towards a certain goal.

Thank you for reading this far, if you have any questions please use the ask box. It’s always a pleasure to have discussions and to talk about my favourite anime emo man.

#madara #madara uchiha #uchiha madara #naruto meta #purple's meta #madara week 2023 #madaraweek2023

[karamazovanon]

Do you have any thoughts about Alyosha's momentary crisis of faith? Because I understood why he had one, but not so much why he was immediately ready to drink and go see Grushenka. Interested to see if you've any opinions on the matter, either regarding Grushenka or just in general.

OOOOOO this is an interesting question and my answer is going to get kinda long, warning you now LOL

i think alcohol & drinking in general is often a big part of "the karamazovian nature"—fyodor pavlovich and mitya are open alcoholics & hedonists, and ivan's heavily implied to be an alcoholic as well by his delirium tremens at the end—and more generally as one of the wordly temptations that human nature as a whole is susceptible to (tangent, but this is also really interesting when you keep in mind ivan's cup analogy!! drinking & cups are tied to living & life so often; mitya chooses to "fill" his cup/life with alcohol, ivan drinks in secret until he throws the cup/life to the ground at 30 in rebellion, and alyosha instead chooses to fill his cup/life with god. one of the schiller verses mitya quotes in the ardent confession chapter even says "To the soul of God’s creation / Joy eternal brings her draught, / In strong secret fermentation / Flames the cup of life aloft")

and the common denominator is that they don't believe enough to overcome the natural urge to indulge. mitya does believe, but he can't stop himself and reproaches himself for it; ivan doesn't believe despite wanting to and that contributes too imo. but alyosha doesn't drink and is an ascetic for the most part bc everything for him is based off of his unwavering faith—and so when his entire worldview and moral system is shaken by both ivan and father zosima, he questions EVERYTHING and begins feeling detached from reality when it doesn't match up. without his bulletproof faith intact, he no longer has the external ruleset to dictate his behavior, and the karamazovian desire to ease pain with alcohol wins for a moment without being able to trust his prior moral compass

(on rereading for this post, i don't have a formulated thought on it but it's interesting that he agrees to rakitin's initial offer of vodka even though they end up having champagne instead—there's probably some connection there between vodka and worldly/russian baseness vs champagne, which while not communion wine is still wine LMAO)

this quote from the onion chapter is what stands out the most to me, bold mine:

"Alyosha cried out with a wail in his voice. ‘I speak to you not as a judge, but as the least of the judged. What am I before her? I came here in order to be destroyed, saying: “Go on, go on!” – and that was because of my cowardice, while she, after five years of suffering, no sooner did someone come and say a sincere word to her, forgave everything, forgot everything and cried! The assailant of her honour has returned, is summoning her, and yet she forgives him everything and hurries to him in joy and she will not take the knife, she will not take it! Oh, I am not like that! I do not know whether you are like that, Misha, but I am not like that! Today, the moment I received this lesson, I … She loves in a way that is loftier than yours or mine … Have you heard her say this earlier, what she said just now? No, you have not; if you had, you would have understood everything long ago … And let the other woman, whom she offended the other day, let her, too, forgive her! And she will forgive her, if she learns of this … and she shall learn of it … This soul has not yet been reconciled, we must spare it … This soul may contain a treasure …" (tr. mcduff)

when he loses his infallible external/divine guidance, he has to turn inward/to the world around him instead, where he finds guilt and the human urge to self-destroy (as well as the influence of rakitin & his schadenfreude) and as a karamazov, it naturally comes first in the form of alcohol (women, too, but alyosha never really shows any desire on that front) when he sees grushenka's kindness and forgiveness, he snaps out of it and his faith is reinforced (while he believes he's a sinner and unworthy, he sees in her christlike forgiveness and is reminded that although he has these karamazovian urges, giving in to them entirely isn't the answer etc etc im not a theologian and have been writing too long anyway)

this has been such a long ramble with so little structure but this is SUCH an interesting plot point, thank you for asking my thoughts on it!! :D

#lmk what yall think!!! i only skimmed so its not impossible for me to be misremembering or misinterpreting something LOL #his Temptation is so so interesting #i think its bc seeing his doubt result in even stronger faith is so opposite to my personal experience that it FASCINATES me in literature #anonasks #the brothers karamazov #also i originally wrote “the karamazovian need to get white girl wasted” but decided to be serious for once instead #Also the fucking whiplash from the last ask to this one icb. #to me its like. he loses the spiritual morality so all he has left is to turn to the worldly morality and everyone around him drinks and #is a bad influence lol #and changing your faith is a HUGE paradigm shift too bc its a TON of beliefs rolled into one #for the devout like alyosha its the basis of EVERYTHING. your epistemology morality your perception of reality and people etc #so once the first domino falls you get a novice drinking champagne LMAO #i hope this was clear!! i keep ruminating and adding thoughts but i feel like my attempts to articulate them just make it more confusing LO #anonpost

[visualtaehyun]

Rules: List 10 of your comfort shows, then tag 10 people

Thanks for tagging me y'all @sorry-bonebag @twig-tea @rocketturtle4 ✨

My criteria for a comfort show are gonna be 1) any piece of media 2) that I've watched more than once and 3) that I will keep reaching for. That's it. I can't even explain what the common denominator is tbh?? It's just- the kinda movie or show that I need on DVD to easily put on again and quell the brain worms (yes, I physically own all but #4-#6).

1. My School President: What can I say, this show took me entirely by surprise! I started watching a few days before episode 4 aired - aka the pinky touch ✨ the conversation in the stairwell ✨ and the origin of Gem4th's fanclub name being Khun Nuu ✨ - and fell right in love with it. I love musical storytelling, I love coming of age stories, I love a good romance, and I love found family/friend group dynamics so this really hit the spot for me. I guess these apply to a bunch of my choices for this tag though haha

2. Cutie Pie: I've talked about this show in another tag game (as "A show people find bad but you will defend") and all of that still holds true so I won't repeat it here. I'll just add that this show introduced me to Nunew who's my favorite artist these days. :)

3. Love In The Air (Love Storm): Yup! The show that most people on here seem to recall as that extra horny one lol It's one of the first Thai QLs I watched along with as it aired, maybe even the first one. I started watching when episode 2 came out, I think? And I just loved the D/s-dynamic, lovable brat Rain, and these rookie actors so much that I not only went looking for the bts, cast reactions, and interviews but I even started following Twitter translators for the show and cast. This show (and ZeeNunew lol) was basically my introduction to how the Y industry works, what Thai fanclubs are like, and got me well and truly interested in learning Thai. I think I've seen it enough times to speak along by now cause I also used my familiarity with it to study Thai. And now that BossNoeul are finally getting a new show, I'm really looking forward to seeing them in new roles!

4. Not Me: It's simply brilliant. And it's so grounded! You know how lots of tops in Thai QLs are rich, a CEO, drive a supercar, and live in a gorgeous modern home with huge windows (and death stairs lmao)? I love that Not Me starts in a place of privilege but has White leave that behind pretty early on. Bangkok really is a city where you can constantly see the divide between rich and poor. So I appreciate this show even more after having been to Bangkok. Not Me's characters look unfiltered and real and that's how the entire show feels as well. I just love what P'Nuchy has given us here! Oh and +1 for White narrating his entire story, I just kinda love that in general (also enjoyed Kawi narrating Be My Favorite). The next two kinda fall into one category: shows I loved as a kid, remembered - found - rewatched as a teen, and still fondly remember.

5. Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne: This is a magical girl anime that I first would have seen on TV in 2001. In hindsight, this show's religious themes may have influenced me in my love for fictional faith and devotion. Just a thought, haha, totally don't have more than one dnd character who is majorly connected to divinity, faith, and devotion, even though I personally am agnostic...

6. The Weekenders: I routinely cite this as my favorite cartoon (and I watched- just- So Many as a kid omg). Since I watched this on German TV, I only know the German dub which was honestly really fun. If any Germans read this and have seen that show: Wirsing! The rest is movies all the way down!

7. Timeline: A 2003 movie with a bunch of well-known actors that arguably qualifies as a B movie because it flopped so hard at the box office. It's my trash though. I chose it at the video store, brought it home, loved it, and then proceeded to rent it like once a year lol! It's basically a bunch of archeologists and history nerds travelling back in time to the Hundred Years War to save their professor. It has my preferred time travel dynamic of Everything is fixed and whatever traces in time you leave were already there to begin with.

8. Inception: There's several Christopher Nolan movies I love but this one is just so grand and fun and maybe I also had a bit of a crush on Elliott Page back then 👉👈 I'm a born nerd so naturally teen-me used "Non je ne regrette rien" as my alarm for years lmao This category is basically just Disney & co. musicals lol

9. Mulan (1998): If you asked me to choose my favorite from the entire classic Disney musical line-up, it would always be this one. It's the queerest, of course I'd always choose it!

10. Anastasia: You know, I looked at my shelf full of cartoon musicals- no wait, High School Musical and Pitch Perfect are next to them, hm, wELL- at my movie musicals shelf and it came down to choosing between this one and The Swan Princess (1994). And this one just kinda won out because "Once Upon A December" is impeccable! And now I've got it stuck in my head 👍

Since it took me a few days to get back to it, this has clearly made the rounds already. Who to tag?? Uh-- @pharawee @airenyah @telomeke and whoever sees this and wants to do it of course!

#tag game #msp #cutie pie the series #lita #not me the series #ql musings #thai bl #bella and the blorbos

[metalforhands]

Character Preferences Survey: RESULTS

Last week, I made a survey for Fallout 4, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age fans to fill out. I asked who people romanced, and I asked for their favorite characters. I kept the questions vague as to avoid complications and caveats. Using these results, I managed to find several interesting trends, as well as instances of overlap between character preferences in fans.

I made a Google document detailing all of my findings. However, I will also include the very same findings below to make the results easier to access.

Finally, I will be attaching a link to this post in the original post. Happy reading! Thank you to all who participated!

Before I begin, I would like to include a few disclaimers. 

I received 240 survey responses. It’s impossible to have every single person who has played these games fill out this survey. Consequently, the results will never be truly indicative of actual popularity. This survey is merely for fun, and so long as we all remember the results are heavily skewed towards the Tumblr userbase’s preferences, this document should make for an interesting read! If your favorite didn’t perform too well, don’t feel bad. Out of the 240 people who filled out this survey, there are thousands more who didn’t, and who like your favorite as well.

Also worth noting, I did not include Morinth because I assumed her numbers would be too low to draw any similarities. However, I want to take this moment to give a shout out to the Morinth romancers. Thank you to Tumblr user @fivekoboldsinacoat for speaking up for everyone who loves their serial killer girlfriend! Genuinely, nothing but respect from me.

If you are curious about anything not mentioned on this document, please feel free to reply here. I will either reblog with a batch of replies, or reply using my main account, @prezs. Thank you!

-

NOTABLE ROMANCE TRENDS

FALLOUT 4

Hancock: Stealing the title of most popular Fallout 4 romance! People who romanced Hancock have massive overlap with people who used the Nick Valentine romance mod. There was also significant overlap with people who romanced Garrus, Zevran, Anders, and Fenris. Dragon Age: Inquisition, however, is a complete wildcard for most Hancock romancers.

Danse: Runner up for most popular Fallout 4 romance! Significant overlap with people who romanced Kaidan, Alistair (we’ll get to the specifics of this one), and Cullen. Twenty of the sixty people who romanced Danse did not romance Alistair… and out of these twenty, nine of them have not played a single game in the Dragon Age series. Keeping this in mind, that means approximately 83% of people who romanced Danse, and also played Dragon Age, romanced Alistair. Kaidan and Cullen also have similar overlap, but not to the degree of Alistair.

MacCready: A strong performance from our resident single dad! I was curious to see if MacCready had any overlap with other widowed companions, like Thane, but I couldn’t find anything. MacCready romancers were most likely to romance Garrus in Mass Effect, however. It’s okay! I get it! You guys love snipers! I completely understand. Do you think MacCready should get a sexy face scar too? Let’s discuss.

Preston Garvey: Similarly to Danse, most people who romanced Preston also romanced Alistair. Again, not to the same degree, but enough to be notable.

MASS EFFECT

Garrus: Our second sweeper. Similarly to Alistair, he was a common denominator among several people. However, there was a notable trend between people who romanced Hancock and people who romanced Garrus. Likewise, it seems there were several people who romanced both Kaidan and Garrus. This can either be attributed to separate playthroughs, or breaking up with Kaidan after the first Mass Effect.

Kaidan: Aside from the similarities with Danse romancers mentioned above, for those who have not played Fallout 4, the overlap between people who romanced Kaidan and those who romanced Alistair and Cullen was also incredibly strong. Likewise, several people who did not romance anyone in Fallout 4 also romanced Kaidan, Alistair, and Cullen.

Jack: While lacking in votes, the most overlap Jack romancers had was with Cait romancers! This… makes a lot of sense, the more I think about it. In fact, even with Jack’s lower numbers, this makes the overlap with Cait romancers even more notable.

DRAGON AGE

Alistair: He swept! What more can I say? Alistair was probably the one common denominator among most people taking the poll, which is a compliment to his popularity with so many different people. Because of this, he showed up SO often to the point where it was hard to pinpoint too many trends. Anything with unusual overlap will be mentioned in other character sections (see Kaidan, Danse, and Preston).

Fenris: Runner up for most popular Dragon Age romance. Something, something, joke about who swept who off the other’s feet here. While most Fenris romancers are wildcards in other games, the only character with notable overlap was Hancock.

Zevran: Ah, our favorite Antivan assassin! Aside from Hancock, Zevran was extremely popular with people who have never played Fallout 4 and people who have romanced several characters per game, more than likely due to different playthroughs.

Cullen: Several of his trends (primarily with Kaidan, Danse, and Alistair) have been mentioned above.

Anders: Hilariously, Anders was the only character who managed to have several people who romanced him, but did not include him on their favorite characters list. A testament to his divisive nature. I see you guys! You made me laugh! The only notable overlap I noticed was with Hancock romancers. That, and Anders appeared on a lot of lists where the voter romanced several characters instead of just sticking to one or two.

FINAL ROMANCE COMMENTARY

Of course, exceptions exist! Several do! I know I’m one of them, as my main romances were Danse, Liara, Alistair, Fenris, and Dorian. Well, I’m not an exception to the Danse and Alistair hive-mind. But, uh. Join us?

Regardless, I may or may not have missed more subtle trends. If you’re curious about the overlap between specific characters, PLEASE let me know in the comments! I’ll be happy to update this post and answer your question.

GENERAL POPULARITY

I feel the poll results speak for themselves here. Most voters included their romanced characters in this section, along with other non-romanceable favorites. While there were exceptions to this, anything truly notable was mentioned above.

The results were also not too surprising. Nick Valentine absolutely demolished the Fallout 4 polls. Mass Effect and Dragon Age, while with more variety in their leads, also brought in unsurprising results.

For Mass Effect, Tali, despite not polling too well in the romance section, took the lead in general popularity! Following her is Garrus, Wrex, Legion, and Mordin, with an honorable mention to Jack, Grunt, and Thane. Non-romanceable companions polling so well over several of the romanceable ones goes to show how skilled Mass Effect is at making you care about Shepard’s platonic relationships.

For Dragon Age, Alistair initially demolished the poll, but Dorian crept behind him right into first place! Also popular was Morrigan (who, like Tali, scored well in the popularity section but not the romance one), Zevran, Merrill, Fenris, Varric, and Josephine. Special note goes out to Varric, the only one who cannot be romanced and managed to give Dorian and Alistair a run for their money!

Tali, Morrigan, Leliana, Merrill, Cassandra, and several of the other romanceable women performed well in the popularity section, but not in the romance section. Tali, Morrigan, and Cassandra are only able to be romanced by male Shepards, male Wardens, and male Inquisitors respectively. Leliana, all of the Dragon Age 2 women, and all of the Fallout 4 women can be romanced by anyone. Romantic unpopularity for these characters can probably be attributed to the Tumblr user base, who not only tend to play as female characters, but also tend to be drawn to male characters. I believe our results would be different on, say, Reddit, where the votes of heterosexual men playing as male protagonists would be more common.

#fallout 4 #mass effect #mass effect 2 #mass effect 3 #dragon age #dragon age 2 #dragon age origins #dragon age inquisition

[loving-n0t-heyting]

Re: Reddit automod discourse, it’s strange to see the question framed entirely in terms of gatekeeping vs n00b inclusivity since my experience of automods was instead of rampant goodharting and the overt strangling of free expression

My principal interaction with automods was from one of the, ah, cooperative creative writing subreddits, where ppl would post prompts to attract co-writers. Which feels, in theory, like the exact sort of thing a subreddit would be good for: it creates a sort of natural market for writing partners, with the prompts acting as listings for applicants among whose proposals the op can select

It fell to the bot mod to carry out at least two central tasks: weeding out repetitive shit-tier prompts and implementing reddits larger censorship policies. These are, tbc, both important: if the mods didn’t have an automated way to enforce account age requirements and mandatory posting gaps and word limits, the place would be immediately overrun with day-old randos posting “asl?”; without clamping down at all on censored content, the entire sub would make itself a sitting duck for the stasi in the site administration. (Whether there should be stasi in the first place is a separate question, but I think once they exist you have some obligation to yr members to placate them if you want your sub to continue existing at all.)

The trouble is that, ofc, this automated mechanism is going to let in a lot of crap regardless. And so the reaction was… more onerous automated restrictions. For effortposting, this took the form of heightened minimum word counts; for pearl clutching, it took the form of increasingly paranoid prohibitions on words that might indicate conceptual adjacency to Unmentionables. In both cases the result (from my side as a prompt writer, at least) was ever increasing tedium with no real (positive) effect on quality: finding ways to distend the prompt artificially, scrupulously avoiding whatever trigger words the bot had decided were off limits. It wasn’t hard to see this was a red Queens race on both fronts, which contributed to my easing off of the platform

The censorship side of it was exacerbated by the increasingly vague, moralistic, and draconian site wide rules the bot was tasked with enforcing, which both seem to have encouraged more hedging and anxiety as a defensive measure from the mods as well as emboldening their own repressive impulses, culminating in a particularly ludicrous ban on content involving certain geopolitical affairs the mods evidently found distasteful to feature on the sub, for which they appealed as justification to the nebulous and politically self-absorbed stated principles of site governance by then in place

And the kicker? The sub still fucking sucks at its job!! The listing/applicant structure plus the personality of the median redditor (not to mention the censors) means a clear incentive to produce a consistent run of samey, not-especially-daring prompts suited for generating accordingly dull material. No amount of autodeletions will prevent that. I had many more interesting sessions and longer projects from my time in college spent trawling Omegle, a “community” with barriers to entry buried in full deep within the earths crust. Yea, there were more absolute shit tier “f?”-level users there, but I ultimately don’t care that much about the distinction between absolute shit tier and mediocre shit tier given I’ll refuse both, and with Omegle you could just repeatedly disconnect from partners until you found someone to yr taste, however esoteric and unseemly and curt that might be, instead of having to simultaneously compete with other prompt writers in a struggle for the attention of the subs lowest common denominator

And there weren’t any fucking picrew-ass alien pfp’s either

[mllekurtz]

shadowgast wip rec list part 4

(part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - part 3.5 - part 4 - part 4.5)

It's been a while since I've done a rec list of work-in-progress shadowgast fics, so here's a curated selection from my Subscriptions page (under a cut because there's a lot of 'em).

All of these works, listed in no particular order, are wips that have been updated recently or semi-recently, and have the only common denominator of being liked by yours truly. Feel free to reblog and add your recs (or better yet, make a rec list of your own! They're fun and make the day of everyone involved).

It goes without saying that these works are active wips at the moment of posting this list. Past lists may contain works that have been completed or abandoned since.

Lastly, a shoutout to @aeor-is-for-reccing and their weekly rec lists, which inspired me to put together a new one ♥ check them out for more recs!

zwiefacher (15/20 chapters, E, warnings: CNTW & Rape/Noncon) by VillainIHaveDoneThyMother/@villainihavedonethymotheronao3 - this fic juggles so many plates (t4t shadowgast, memory loss, extreme trauma, kidnapping, gaslighting, even more trauma, systemic racism, and lots of other fun things I'm forgetting) and does it incredibly well. Not a light reading, but if you want something substantial to sink your teeth in, I can't recommend this enough.

You Be You, And I’ll Be Busy (3/10 chapters, T, warnings: CNTW) by theprophetlemonade/@the-prophet-lemonade - top notch characterisation of both of them (but I'm especially in love with Essek's). The sexual, romantic and just plain tension are well executed, and while all the fics listed here are outstanding for their style and prose, this one is truly no exception.

Unfinished (5/? chapters, E, warnings: CNTW) by road_rhythm/@road-rhythm - read this with a notebook, some red string and a cork board. Roadie is so good at taking a premise and building a life-like, in-depth story around (under, over, beside, inside) it; both the prose and the content are sharp and unforgiving. And I know we're here for shadowgast, but this fic's Beau is the best.

Love Letters to Toss Into the Fire (10/? chapters, T, no warnings) by Anonymous - props to this fic not only for the excellent premise (Caleb and Essek secretly write letters to each other) but for keeping it up for so long while always making it interesting. The ciphers, spells, devices and tricks they use to send each other letters are always different, interesting and believable, and the relationship between the wizards grows in a delicate, emotional way.

The Chosen AU (18/? chapters, E, warnings: CNTW) by Anonymous - not a purely shadowgast fic since it starts as Verin/Essek, as in sibling incest, with Caleb joining their relationship later, so if that's not for you be warned (but honestly the relationship between the Thelyss brothers is wholesome and well-handled, so if you're on the fence because of that, you should definitely give this fic a try). When this fic goes dark, it goes dark; when it's lighthearted, it's deeply funny and sweet. Come for the blorbos, stay for the lovely OCs, the engaging subplots, the fleshed-out world-building, the very effective non-linear narrative and just an all-around riveting story that kept me glued to my kindle for a whole weekend as I was catching up with it.

all this, heaven never could describe (10/28 chapters, M, no warnings) by kaeda/@the-kaedageist - a sequel to the delightful More Things in Heaven and Earth, which you should definitely read (to understand this fic but also because, as I said, it's a joy to read), it follows the adventures of Alternate!Bren and Essek as they try to put their own version of the Mighty Nein together. The shadowgast dynamic in this one is juicy and fun and unlike anything you've ever read: they're competitive, they sleep together, they annoy each other, they're so obviously in love.

if you must live, darling one (3/11 chapters, M, no warnings) by essektheylyss (midnightindigo)/@essektheylyss - Megs is one of the (many!) writers in this fandom who are really good at conveying demisexual feelings in a way that's believable both for Essek's character and the demi audience, at least in my experience. This fic is very interesting in that regard.

Kintsugi (15/? chapters, M, warnings: Major Character Death) by Chekhov/@thechekhov - first of all, the major character death is temporary and integral to the foundational concept of the fic, which is brilliant; yes, there is a lot of heartache in this one, but the payoff is entirely worth it. You'll find Chekhov's trademark brilliant, clever, polished style in a story that doesn't pull any punches and will make you cry and crave for more after each update.

the fugitive's version of shelter (5/6 chapters, E, no warnings) by hanap/@callingvoicemail - the latest instalment in the here is a world where you love your executioner series, which is partly a retelling of the second half of campaign 2, partly set post-canon, with the variable of Essek being pregnant with Ludinus' child. The whole series is recommended, as well as necessary reading to appreciate this one; it's an original take on a will-they/won't-they dynamic that makes for some deliciously complicated shadowgast.

Hold Me Close, Cut Me Deep (1/4 chapters, M, no warnings) by CatgirlTheCrazy/@catgirlthecrazy - this fic is effectively summarised as "Essek has his own light 'em up, pretty moment." Do I need to say anything else?

presque vu (13/?, T, no warnings) by element78 - (also known as the fic that kept me sane while I was in work hell last summer) Caleb suffers from memory loss for mysterious reasons and doesn't remember being friends with the Nein or being in a relationship with Essek; the fic starts with an amnesiac Bren waking up and then proceeds with a slow, painstaking rebuilding of trust and relationships. The memory loss plot device coupled with Bren/Caleb's pov is great for narrative irony, the shadowgast dynamic is heart-rending, and everyone cares about each other so much (well, maybe not Kingsley, but he has his reasons).

The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings (8/?, M, warnings: CNTW) by Sethrial/@rockshitty - I always love a good modern AU, and this is an excellent one with a supernatural twist. Seth is really good at including heavy plot points with the right dose of dark humour, and at writing realistic banter (the chats between Caleb's colleagues are a highlight). Being the demon that haunts night-shift worker Caleb, Molly features heavily in this fic, and he's an obnoxious, mephistophelian delight.

#watch me forget about THAT fic and only remember once i hit the post button #anyway! hope you find something to your tastes in this list and subscribe to new wonderful stories #i do also have a wip but we don't talk about that #i am still working on bop i'm just old and tired #critical role #critical role fics #critical role fic recs #shadowgast wip recs #shadowgast #writers: as always let me know if you'd like me to add/remove tags as needed no questions asked