#to watching four seasons in less like 3 weeks.

[hopeymchope]

No hardcore fandom has ever died so quickly and so completely as Veronica Mars. This is the story of its murder.

They should study Veronica Mars in Hollywood. I'm serious. It's an incredible story of how to go from "loud, passionate fanbase with its own fandom name that campaigns and advocates constantly for it" to "absolutely zero fucking interest" damn near OVERNIGHT with just ONE epically terri-bad decision.

If you weren't there, you don't understand: From 2007 to 2014, the fandom — the "Marshmallows," as they called themselves — were everywhere in the Internet's geek spaces, my friends. They routinely beat the drum about the series' three seasons and its excellence, lamented its cancellation, pushed others to give the show a try, and always - ALWAYS - proudly and loudly called for the series to be revived.

FULL DISCLOSURE/CONFESSION: I've not even watched that much Veronica Mars, frankly... ? Yeah, I'm sorry! it does seem pretty good from like the four-or-five hours I've experienced firsthand. I just never took the time to sit down with it. Regardless, I find fandoms and their dynamics — both how they operate internally and how they display to others externally — deeply fascinating. And I honestly find them easier to study from the outside than the inside. Like, if I'm IN a fandom, I'm more likely to stay in my corner and ignore places that seem negative. But being on the outside lets me just... absorb what's out there, looking into every forum without judgment. It's like studying pop-culture sociology or something? And it helps that I'm very close to some serious(-ly burnt) Marshmallows. It makes it so much easier to find and absorb the gamut of the fandom.

Besides: There is NO fandom story I've ever seen that's anything like what happened to Veronica Mars and the Marshmallows.

(Time to insert a brief explainer for the uninitiated: Veronica Mars was a TV series that aired from 2004-2007 on the now-deceased UPN network wherein Kristen Bell played the titular character, a high school girl whose single dad was a private detective in the fictional community of Neptune, California. She grew up working "unofficially" as his assistant, which meant that she herself was effectively a teenage private detective.

The three core elements of the series were: 1) Veronica investigating each week's big mystery with plenty of quips and snark, 2) Watching Veronica's various relationships develop and shift, with most of the focus given to a) her relationship to her father and b) Her romantic pursuits (which began as the Veronica/Duncan/Logan triangle before eventually becoming focused on the slow-burn, off-on Veronica/Logan love story), and 3) The gradual development of that season's "mytharc" — the overarching BIG MYSTERY that doesn't get resolved or wrapped until the season finale. So it went over the course of two seasons that took place in high school and the third, shorter season that was at the start of Veronica's collegiate career.)

Just how big and how passionate were the Marshmallows? WELL! When series creator Rob Thomas (not the Matchbox 20 guy) and star Kristen Bell announced the Kickstarter campaign for the Veronica Mars movie in March 2013, it achieved its heretofore-unprecedented goal of TWO MILLION GODDAMN DOLLARS within less than 12 hours. At that time, it was the biggest Kickstarter goal to ever succeed — and certainly the fastest to reach that kind of height. Fans fell OVER themselves to pay out for it. Hell, my own significant other was DEEP in the tank for VM at the time and invested enough to get multiple t-shirts as backer rewards as well as a disk copy of the movie when it eventually came home.

And AFTER the movie hit in 2014? It was thankfully beloved and embraced! The once-teenage characters were adults who were actually out living on their own and working for a living, but the fandom had grown up with them, so it wasn't like they were begging for them to stay young students. They embraced Adult Veronica and her new adventure. The fandom rejoiced loudly and continued to be all over the geek side of the Internet... where they, of course, still wanted more. Sure, there were new novels in the aftermath (which were written by the creator of the series), but most of the Marshmallows were calling for more movies or a streaming revival.

And then, at long last... season four was actually announced. And there was much (premature) rejoicing yet again.

Yes, Veronica Mars returned for a fourth season on Hulu in 2019. It was just eight episodes, and it was heavily centered on one season-long mystery instead of sprinkling that amongst a bunch of smaller ones, but it would still feature the same ol' Veronica. They promised a new, more "adult" mystery/investigation plus a strong focus on Veronica and Logan's love story.

New Hulu purchased the rights to the first three seasons and hyped up its presence on the platform while marketing the return for the new run. The marketing team played up the most popular quips from the show's history plus put out TONS of stuff centered on the Logan/Veronica ship to pump up the fans.

The season was dropped all at once using the classic Netflix "binge" model in July 2019. And then... afterwards?

There was a brief explosion of LOUD RAGE from the Marshmallows at what series creator Rob Thomas had to done to burn and spite the fandom and ruin his own goodwill.

SPOILERS FOR SEASON 4: See, at the end of the movie, Veronica and Logan finally entered into a long-term relationship. In season four, they've been dating for years, and Logan proposes marriage. But of course there has to be drama/obstacles: In this case, Veronica isn't sure she's ready to marry... or capable of being in a marriage. Ah, but of course she eventually realizes how much Logan means to her. The two are married, and, in the season finale... Logan is killed by a car bomb in the penultimate scene. The final scene is a flashfoward to a year later, where Veronica leaves Neptune alone.

For most fandoms, that'd be a memorable point of pain. A big ol' speed bump that ultimately throws some people off the bus, leaving only the die-hards. But the fact that fans had been invested in this relationship for literally 15 years and that Hulu (and creator Rob Thomas) had heavily marketed the new season as being a big romantic event for the ship... it was too much. Unlike the aftermath of the Star Wars sequels, there was no lingering group of die-hard fans who were open to whatever was next — at least no significant one. I did some Googling and could only find TWO people who still wanted another season.

Funnily enough? Critics LOVED this. Hell, Vanity Fair infamously penned an editorial about how Veronica Mars had "finally grown up" with this finale. I suppose all the other murders and deaths and drug overdoses and r*pe weren't "mature" enough before now for... some... reason. (The same editorial also featured the author openly hating on Veronica ever being in a relationship because it causes "arrested development" and declaring that the movie -- which was acclaimed by both critics AND fans alike, I remind you -- was a lame dud. So. The writer must be a reeeaaaal fun person.)

But a series doesn't live based on critical acclaim, as it turns out. The fandom was murdered overnight. "Marshmallows" stopped appearing in geek spaces online entirely. No one expressed interest in seeing the next season or the next movie. The constant flow of fan AMVs on YouTube and fanfics on AO3 dried up to nothing or damn nearly so.

Since 2019 ? Nothing. Chirping crickets. An intensely dedicated fandom of 12 years was just... vaporized.

I've never seen anything like it before OR since.

That's why it's so fucking fascinating.

So what went wrong?

Creator Rob Thomas was adamant about two things: ONE, the series was intended to be a noir show, which meant there couldn't be any happiness for its protagonist. And TWO, the death of Logan was necessary to evolve and grow the series.

Thomas thought that having Veronica in a relationship would be holding her back, and that a marriage would absolutely kill the series and leave her stagnant. It never even occurred to him that marriage isn't the end of a character's life and growth. It never occurred to him that plenty of drama can be had AFTER someone is married, or that development/growth could be that the characters mature enough to be capable of maintaining a committed relationship. Thomas' view of his own universe was so myopic that he couldn't conceive of any possible way that Veronica could still be a private detective involved in life-threatening investigations AND be married at the same time. Futhermore, he felt that fans just wanted Veronica to become a pregnant housewife, which is about as far from what Marshmallows were after as you can get without straight-up killing Veronica and/or Logan. He managed to do the only thing wronger than what he wrongly thought was their insistence.

On top of the above, Rob Thomas only viewed "noir" as a vehicle for total fatalism... despite the fact that many of the most famous noir stories are cynical and full of moral ambiguity, but they still feature a positive outcome. The Big Sleep still has the protagonist get the girl. The Set-Up arguably ends with the happiest possible ending in spite of the beating the hero receives.

Perhaps most importantly? Despite Thomas own insistence that Veronica Mars was always "noir," the majority of both TV critics and fans did not think that designation ever truly applied. I suspect that's the reason why Thomas decided to go as dark and fatalistic as possible: He wanted to be noir, and he was being told that he wasn't. So he went so far into noir that he killed his own most popular property.

He was adamant that it was the only way for the series to grow. But as it turns out, it was instead the only way for the series to permanently end. Without that season four finale, a passionate group of fans would still be begging for more. With it? It's over. Nobody fucking cares now.

That's kind of amazing.

#veronica mars #rob thomas #fandom #dead fandom #marshmallows #burnt marshmallows #fandom histories #the death of veronica mars #the day veronica mars died #gifs #television gifs #tv gifs #veronica mars gifs #vmars

[yaut-jaknowit]

Mating Season Ends

Pairing: We'ar-ow (Female Yautja) x GN!Reader

Word Count: 3359

Summary: After lasting about 2 weeks, mating season ends and the ship returns to normal. Dwainet didn't get a single female. You begin to learn the life that We'ar-ow leads and all that consists within in it.

Author Note: Slowly working at this while getting to requests, promise! I had to think about how I was going to go along with this story. I think I have it down, we'll see it. Also, I haven't forgotten about the 1k drawing. I'm only four away currently so we'll seeeee

Masterlist

Ao3

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11

There’s a smirk among We’ar-ow’s face. Said Yautja is sat upon a single seat chair in her living room, tablet in her grasp. Though, she hadn’t forced you to be out here with her, your room was starting to get beyond boring of just standing there and doing nothing. Instead, you’ve ventured out and explored what was available to you.

A watchful eye was kept on her as you moved around, like a fearful animal ensuring you didn’t anger her. You knew, despite her gaze on the device, she also observed you. Always. You stopped and peered over at the pink Yautja, head slightly tilted. She doesn’t often let loose any expressions but the fact she had a full grin peeked your interest. Yet, you didn’t dare raise a question.

Right as you were about to continue exploring, We’ar-ow grunted. “Do not be afraid to ask a question, pet,” she said, eyes still on the tablet. You tensed up and worried at your bottom lip. “Speak.”

You groaned lowly. “Why are you smirking?” you brought up the question rolling around your mind. Her upper mandibles twitched, clicking against the bottoms ones. You stayed in the same spot by a room you’ve never been in before.

“That male you mated with.” Dwainet. You slightly flinch as his words rang in your mind. “The mating season ends today. Not a single female reported mating with him.” Reported? They listed that shit?! By god’s grace… all of this was so strange and kind of disgusting to be honest. Why would you want someone to know who you… ehm, had sex with?

Disgust fell over your face. “Why do you know this?” you asked another question, feeling uncomfortable about the conversation.

We’ar-ow raised her device slightly. “We have everything charted. It’s a way to ensure inbreeding does not occur or any diseases appear, we are able to track it down to whom.” Okay… now that made more sense. Still though, you didn’t want your dirty laundry to be aired. “I expected no one to mate with his disloyal ass. I like to know if it was true.”

Her words from when she bested Dwainet rung inside of her head. Right. Since he committed a low crime, not a single female would let them mate with her. Something you also took joy in, just less noticeable. You cleared your throat and softly nodded your head. “That’s… that’s good to know,” you spoke and leaned against the wall close by.

A hum filled the tense air. “Yes. Are you pleased?” Now, your brows furrowed at her words. Why would she care? You just shrugged your shoulders nonchalantly to answer her question. “You still care,” it was more of a statement than a question.

Deep down, you do. You still do. Your heart continuously ached at the heartbreak but he was your first love, true love at first sight. As stupid as the whole situation was, you still cared about the person who smashed your heart without any remorse. Look at you now: a pet to the Monarch of an alien clan. How your world had turned upside down.

“Yes,” you hissed out and stared down at the ground. “I do, okay?”

The couch groaned underneath her as she got up. Instantly, your head whipped up and watched as she made her way over to you. Everything just froze in your mind again, unable to think of way to escape or anything of the sort.

As she stopped before you, she reached out with her hand cupped your chin. Your first reaction was to flinch, but her touch was soft. “Why?” she demanded and tilted your head up to look her in the eye.

A defensive streak rose inside of you. Why did she have to question everything you did? “He was my first love. It felt like true love at first sight,” I said and tried to keep a neutral expression on my face. I didn’t need her to be anger at anything I said.

She hummed once more. A few muscles on your face twitched. Her thumbed swiped along your cheek and drew your attention to something shining on the finger. A tear. You were crying. Why? To save what left over dignity, you tore your head from her grasp. There wasn’t anywhere else to go though so you just stayed against the wall, arms crossed.

“Oomans are so foolish.” You curled more in on yourself. “Love at first sight? There’s no such thing. It is something to nurture and help flourish.” If you had it in you, you would’ve barked out a laugh. As if she or her kind knew of care and kindness.

Rough around the edges. The inside, worse. Just a cactus where their hearts should be. Ugly, heartless, and homewrecker. You kept a heady stare on the floor and grumbled out inaudible words. Not that she would care.

All you wanted was to go home! Fresh, hot tears steered down the lengths of your cheeks and darkened the cloth of your shirt. You bit your tongue; silence was the best answer to any argument. Because it stopped them. She can keep stating her case, breaking your already shattered heart. Here you are, staying quiet and knowing everything she said was the truth. You were foolish and stupid. Look where it got you.

A warm hand tipped your head back up to be face to face with We’ar-ow once more. Your gaze still cast downwards, no matter what she did. The Yautja sighed, a rough sound on your ears, and dropped her head. Then picked her massive head back up to look at you. Her pupils boring an unnecessary hole into you. “I see you have come to realize the truth.”

And the truth hurt. Your bottom lip wobbled.

“That male never cared about you. Not truly. Not the way you wanted. You were something new to his young mind, a new toy if you must. The novelty worn off when realized a ooman mate will diminish his chances of producing a strong bloodline.” Every single word of hers was a gut wrenching, heart tearing, punch to where it hurts most.

Your shoulders trembling at the first sob. Once the damn broke, it was hard to stop. The stress of it all was caving in on you after one beam fell. Your knees gave out and forcing you to drop to the ground. From there, you sobbed your heart out in front of someone you didn’t trust. You backed yourself against the wall and curled as tightly into a ball that was possible.

We’ar-ow stood tall above you, unsure on what to do, arms limp at her sides. Slowly, as if she was hunting, she lowered herself to her haunches, still towering in height and size.

“I wa-was nothing more, more than a play, plaything to him!” you cried into your thighs, body shaking with each pathetic weep. That year with him meant nothing! Nothing to him. While it was thought to be the best time of your life… you were only blinded by the lies and façade.

Coarse, rough skin petted the top of your head and ran down to the base of your neck. You were shocked out of your cryfest as the pain of the mark being touched and hissed. In reaction, you snapped your head up and pinned the limb against the wall. But, that caused it to hurt worse. You jerked away from the wall and reached back to gentle poke at the now blazing mark.

In a whirlwind of emotions and unstable mindset, you snapped at We’ar-ow. “Why did you fucking touch it?!” The mark had scabbed over during the healing process but the skin around it was still sensitive and sore. “You don’t know shit!”

She just sat there, on her haunches, only raising a singular brow at you. “I do not?” she questioned lowly, face revealing nothing of her emotions. You didn’t know what to be more scared after the raging emotions died. Unable to know what she was feeling or how calm those three words came out. You swallowed thickly and curled back into a frightful ball. Maybe she’ll just get this over with and kill you.

Something warm rested under your jaw and forced it up once more. But you don’t look the predator in the eye. That. That is a death sentence. “Pet, I asked you a question.” Again!? Seriously? You could just feel the need to sob your heart out all over again. Why does she keep calling you that? Why not your name? Or something more human than ‘pet’?

For all the energy you had left, you simply just nodded your head. We’ar-ow did not understand your feelings for Dwainet. She never will.

The Yautja simply made a ‘hmpf’ sound and barely nodded her head in thought. “Why do you think that?” she asked. Another question to force you to respond, in any way. Your eyes clenched shut and pushed out any leftover tears. Then, you gulped and took a deep breath.

“I’ve been around your kind long enough. You are a rude, inconceivable species with not a single centimeter of space for love. You, out of everyone, don’t know a single thing about my situation!” Your voice grew in volume the longer you talked. Not that you meant for that to happen.

With her long tongue, the pink Yautja was able to click her tongue and shook her head. The hand under your chin slid against your skin to rest upon your cheek this time. “When I had first found you, my dear ooman, you were a mess of emotions and sorrow. That tells me enough. My age comes into play next. I’m older than you think, gaining experience through my years. I do understand, ooman.”

You snorted through your nose and glared from underneath your brows up at her. We’ar-ow leaned in close, enough for her breath to fan across your wet face. “Why do you think I’ve taken you in as my pet?” Your body tensed, frozen in thought before your shoulders shrugged.

One of her upper mandibles lifted. Her long, pink tongue slithered out and licked up a stripe of your salty tears. “You’ll find out in time.” You jerked your head back only to smack it against the wall behind you, upper lip curling up. We’ar-ow chuckled.

Without a word, you silently pouted and stayed on the ground. We’ar-ow stood back up and offered a hand to you. “Come along, pet.” You scowled at the name but took up on her offer. Just using a sliver of her strength, she pulls you up to your feet. You were yanked up, not expecting the sudden strength or move. The action caused you to bump into her.

One of her arms settled between your shoulder blades and held you steady against the warmth of her body. Blazing heat flashed across your cheeks and raced up to the tips of your ears. You swallowed thickly, entirely form tense and unwilling to move. Neither did she.

The entire time, her gaze was tilted down at you. An alien grin growing on her mandibles, minute. In the state of shock, you didn’t even have time to see it on her features. It was gone as you took all the space you could away from her, back against the wall once more. You took a deep breath in, cleared your throat, and finally looked the predator in the eye. “Where are we going?” you spoke, voice different than before.

We’ar-ow let her arm fall limp to at her side, her eyes still trained on your meek, nervous form. “Out. I have more things to finish before the end of the cycle,” she explained, observed you for a few extra seconds before turning about face and heading towards the door. A scowl fell upon your features at the notion of going out there once more. Paraded as her damn pet.

From the safety of being behind her, you glared fiery daggers at the Yautja and wished you could throttle her. Then, you took the needed steps to catch up to We’ar-ow. The two of you were out the door and shortly on your way to wherever.

The halls weren’t overflowing with the aliens. Today seemed to have calmed down after the season had ended officially. Everyone tired out after the last two weeks had everyone’s hormones thrown into a whirlwind. One that got you caught up in this mess of trouble and rage.

During the entirety of her strutting, you promptly stayed at her six and used her shadows to hide. Pathetic, even with how little Yautjas there were roaming. After everything that has occurred, staying as safe as possible was a necessity to your survival. You don’t know who will challenge the Monarch, as stupid as they would be, for your head. Oomans aren’t well liked upon the predatory species as you’ve come to learn. But here you were, in the lions den with the leader of tribe as your protector. All it takes is one person…

A familiar color caught your eye, feet faulting for a couple of seconds. You accidentally trip over air, barely saving yourself an embarrassing face plant in front of everyone… including Dwainet. Without truly thinking about it, you rushed to catch up once more to the pink Yautja. Your eyes prompt finding the dark metal grey floors far more interesting than the burning rage glare pinned on you.

Cliché enough but if looks could kill, the heat from his gaze would burn hotter than a sun. Death, instantaneously.

One look couldn’t be helped. Eyes flickering for just a millisecond, one too long. You took note that his eyes weren’t on your own. Instead… a little lower, towards your neck. Instinctively, you reached up to touch at the warm leather wrapped peacefully there. A constant reminder to who owned you. If looks could kill… We’ar-ow would be thrown out an airlock and forgotten about.

After that shorter, hair-raising encounter, you stuck to We’ar-ow’s backside like glue. The Yautja didn’t need a leash to keep you this close to her. Just straight terror of what your ex-lover might do to you. Especially learn what had happened to him. He had to be seething from the limited knowledge you had about his species.

The hallway you were taking seemed familiar. Somewhat at least. You scrapped through your mind to remember where this was leading you. Before you had a chance, We’ar-ow stopped in front of a door and imputed a code. Your eyes snapped to her movement, only catching the last three pushes. Three, not bad out of the six you believed was the length of her code.

It opened up to reveal the grand throne room. We’ar-ow marched into the room at her normal strutting pace. Once more, you were left to scramble after her. The Monarch took each step up to the throne chair with pride. You watched as the calm, relaxed Yautja morphed into the leader of her clan. Her face no longer as causal, eyes slightly hooded over as she looked down on the empty space before her.

On the other hand, you went to the spot you had sat at before. Only to notice a soft, plush cushion in place. Despite her gaze on the purple carpet before her, you looked over at her. You were hesitant to sit down on the pillow, unsure if this was the purpose of it. Or something to taunt you with.

A subtle nod came from the Yautja. You released the breath you were holding and thanked to whatever god could hear you for this offering before sitting down.

Instead of the harsh, back breaking metal that once met your bottom, the cushion offered support and relief. You sat easily on the large pillow and crossed your legs, knees bent to sit comfortably. It was definitely an upgrade compared to last time. All you had to do now was somehow find a way to entertain yourself for the time being. Unfortunately.

Yet, something was thrusted into your vision. Your head jerked back, nearly falling backwards and stared at what looked to be a tablet. We’ar-ow held it out, bright iris peering at you from the corner of her eye.

When you didn’t grab it in a reasonable amount of time, she moved it closer to while wiggling it as well. Timidly, you reached out and took the device from her. “Thanks,” you mumbled and inspected the tablet. It wasn’t anything fancy or spectacular but tapping the screen caused it to light up.

From there, you dove more into finding what the item could do in your favor. Plowing through time without even noticing.

It wasn’t until a foot was nudging against your numb legs you uncurled from your shrimp position. We’ar-ow stood before you, regel as ever. You blinked a few times before catching onto what she wants from you. Shutting off the screen and holding the tablet to your chest, you unsteadily got up, legs barely listening to your command.

Like clockwork, the duo had returned back to We’ar-ow’s room. The Yautja walked into the kitchen and sifted through things to gather a couple of items. The entire time, you observed her movements, taking notice how she carries herself while in the privacy of her quarters. Different, relax, causal.

“Are you hungry?” We’ar-ow’s words break you from your thoughts. You shook your head to clear any lingering thoughts.

“Y-yeah, a little,” you voiced and stepped into the living room. Just enough space for We’ar-ow and limited guests if she invites any over. That made you question internally if the Yautja had anything close to a friend. The society of her species highly varies from your own. Was there friendship? Was there relationships? Was there love?

No. There couldn’t be. Not after Dwainet. He taught you his kind was built for love. Just a species morphed to kill. Kill everything in their path, even those who cared about them.

You found yourself settling down on a single person seat that easily engulfed your human body. The tablet was laid comfortably in your lap as you continued to play, mess with it if you must. The things you learned currently were far more helpful than ever.

A map, cameras. All that was needed to show you where their ships were docked, where there was airlocks, emergency escape pods. Everything. From the months you projected to surviving on this ship suddenly turned to days, weeks at most. Freedom was in sight. You could see the light at the end of the tunnel. And it was beautiful.

A plate of assorted fruits/vegetables was placed on the side tablet next to you. We’ar-ow posted her frame to lean against the armrest and peered over you. “Does this give enrichment?” The translator struggled for a moment to find the right word for last part of her sentence.

Nonverbally, you dipped your head as you used an app of sorts to access the internet. Their internet. Strings of Yautja covered the screen, nothing legible. The implant translator only worked with speech, not text. You haven’t found a way to change the language. If there was a way to switch to English…

The Yautja hummed before leaning, showering you in her body heat and pressing a couple of buttons on the screen. Then, voila! Magic. Yautja changed to English in a blink of an eye. “I swear… that male failed you more ways than just the five I count.”

“I have the translator implanted,” you retorted mindlessly and explored the new mode revealed to you. We’ar-ow scoffed once more and used a sharp nail to tap at mentioned device.

“My point still stands.” How much you believe that? Zero. As you’ve come to learn quickly, there was no arguing with her. Instead, you just stayed glued to the tablet and partially ignoring the huge Yautja next to you.

Said predator finally stalked off after a few minutes of watching you. Thankfully. Now, it was time to see what their internet consisted of.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11

#yautja #predator #yautja x reader #yautja x you #alien vs predator #predator x reader #yautja x human #predator x you #predator x human #x reader #We'ar-ow

[silaswritesthings]

“All those stories about ghosts are really true…”

Summary: You were a wanderer at heart and the confines of your future marriage collided with the adventurous life you wished to lead. But all hope was not lost, you realised, when you met the wandering ghost of Kadaehara Kazuha on one fateful night.

Starring: Kaedahara Kazuha

Genre: Romance

Warnings: none

Author’s note: I was supposed to post this ages ago but I got stuck on trying to make it better (I failed), so- I decided to just post it as it is. I wrote it for one of my best friends' birthday (She loves Kazuha) so I hope she enjoys it and I hope you enjoy it too!! This is part of the Valentines special (yes, i really was supposed to share this a long time ago). Comments, reblogs and new followers are always welcome <3

Word count: 1.5K words

Closing your book, you stood up to draw the curtains and paused to gaze at the few stars that scattered themselves across the darkening sky. The life of a Princess was unremarkable, all you did were the things expected of you.

What was expected of you? To be beautiful, popular and married.

You sighed at the stars but they didn’t grant you any wishes, all they did was twinkle back. They have always filled you with a sense of wonder, and you did wonder about a lot of things; however, wondering did nothing to quench your curiosity of the world.

The man chosen to be your betrothed was… well, at least he was wealthy. It’s a half hearted compliment, in all honesty. You did want love, but not the love of someone who could only love you with money, objects and castles. You wanted someone who had the soul of a wanderer, a soul that would match with yours perfectly. Oh, you’d dream about this person so often that your heart broke when your parents announced that they had chosen someone who was not quite what you dreamed of.

Watching the castle attendants return to their quarters from the window, you decided it was time to sleep. You turned to your bedroom, soft candlelight brightened the four corners of your room and your bed was bathed in moonlight from the window. However, what really caught your attention was the small bundle of lilies tied together by a red ribbon on your bed. They looked freshly picked, their petals moist and twinkling like stars underneath the moonlight.

The next morning, you had asked one of your attendants if your betrothed had left any flowers for you but they only looked at you in surprise.

“My Lord has yet to return from the trip he left for a few days ago.”

“Oh.”

Upon further inquiry concerning the inspiration behind your questions, you simply laughed them off and changed the subject to the beautiful flower garden that you often gazed at from your window. The flower garden where there was not a single lily in sight.

——

You stared at the gardens being tended to, various people scurrying around and others watering or planting something. In your hands was a bottle of perfume you had received as a gift from your ‘lover’ but the gift felt less authentic compared to the lilies you had received a week earlier. You sprayed the perfume in the air, it was said to smell like spring and you wanted to test that.

“Ah, it does smell like spring.” You said thoughtfully, the scent slowly spreading around you.

Another voice chimed in, “What an odd thing it is to capture an entire season within a bottle of perfume.”

You jumped in surprise before turning to search your room, looking for the source of the voice. There was nobody there- did one of your attendants enter your room without you hearing it? Then where did they go? In the bathroom? With that thought, you walked with caution toward the door that led to your bathroom and opened it. The room was empty.

You turned to the windowsill, the sun peeked at you from the horizon as orange light filtered into your room. You could still hear the sound of people tending to the garden, and when your heart settled you realised you no longer had the bottle of perfume on your person.

You walked to the window to check if you had dropped it outside by accident, but there was no bottle in sight. You decided to check your room; but that thought was discarded by the gentle tug on your garments from behind you.

Heart racing, you turned slowly to the sight of your perfume bottle placed on the windowsill. Either someone (or something) placed it there or you’ve begun to lose your mind, because you were completely sure that it wasn’t there before.

Before you could fully wrap your mind around the situation, a knock sounded at your door causing your heart to skip. Heading toward the open window, planning to close it for the sun had already settled underneath the horizon, you gave the person on the other side of your door permission to enter.

It was an attendant with news of your fiance returning the following day, and how there would be a special dinner where you would dine with him. You acknowledged the news with an absent mind, your attention had been diverted to your mysterious occurrence and after a few days of no odd occurrences you had begun to forget what had happened.

This did not last very long.

It was a moonless night and you lay wide awake in your bed, staring at your ceiling that was lit by the reading light by your bedside.

The longer you spent in this castle, the more homesick you felt. Closing your eyes, you began to think of endless fields that surrounded your home. As nobles, your parents had owned various properties and land, to them it was a showcase of their extravagant financial background but for you? Those various places you would visit with them gave you leeway to explore your curiosities. Back with your parents, you did not spend more than a fortnight within the same four walls and there was always something new to explore.

At your fiance’s castle, everything had been dimmed down to a dull responsibility. Could you say you loved him? No, even the small spark of interest you had felt before coming here had all but been snuffed out along with the wonder that came from this castle when it was new to you. Now, you knew every room and every corner inside the castle, every single flower and every single weed outside of it. But, just outside the premises was a forest that you would have liked to explore if it wasn’t expected of you to remain as you are. You were basically a prisoner!! And now your nights grew longer and longer as sleep escaped you because of your homesickness and need for adventure.

You sighed and closed your eyes, once again forcing sleep upon yourself but your eyes snapped open at the sound of melodic, soft humming coming from the window that faced the garden.

You sat up slowly, eyes focused on the faint sliver-like glowing by the window which was different from the orange of your candle-light and that glowing light hummed into the dark of the night. The longer you listened, the more the humming sounded like distinguishable words.

“Sun and moon rejoice,” the light by the window begun to take the form of a person, he had pale blonde hair that shone like moonlight, “birds of dawn sing songs anew,” His eyes were a bold crimson and shimmered like stars, “far from home, with you.”

The humming came to a close and the ‘light’ at your window now looked like a person who seemed almost transparent. It was as if a gentle wind could blow him away into a million shiny particles.

“Did you enjoy the haiku?” He spoke, still facing the gardens from your window.

Gathering some courage, you answered, “I’ve never heard anything like it.”

Your answer seemed to please him for he turned to you with a gentle smile. “My name is Kaedehara Kazuha, and I am glad to officially introduce myself to you.”

His manners and polite nature had drowned a majority of your inhibitions, so you introduced yourself to him

and spent the rest of the night reciting poetry and exchanging stories about yourselves till the sun rose again.

You spent every night for the next few weeks in the presence of the ghost in your room until a particular night when you mentioned your desire to see what was beyond the gates of the castle you resided in.

“I have left many times and I can assure you, words cannot describe the wonders of it.” Kazuha said. You were both seated by the COUCHES in your room.  “Would you like to see it for yourself?”

Your heart fluttered at the possibility, “How?”

And that is how you found yourself standing hand in hand with Kazuha in front of a lake in the forest. The surface of the water rippled around where lillies drifted slowly across it. The moon’s reflection danced over the lake, and a think layer of fog lingered around the water.

“You were right,” you began quietly, “words cannot describe this.” You wiggled your bare toes over the soft damp grass on the ground, you held your shoes in the hand that wasn’t locked with Kazuha’s.

The man in question spoke with a smile, “If I had known you would share my sentiments so much, I would’ve brought you here earlier.” You hummed in agreement, knowing a lifetime long of a wait was worth a few seconds of living this moment and every other moment you would spend with Kazuha from then on.

#silaswritesthings #silas #genshin impact #anemo supremacy #genshin fluff #please don’t flop #kaedehara kazuha x reader #kazuha x reader #kazuha #kaedahara kazuha

[matthewtkachuk]

you are the artist and i am the paint - quinn hughes

One week with Quinn in the offseason reveals several truths (aka best friends to lovers with a dash of mutual idiocy)

pairing: quinn hughes x reader

warnings: the ush (drinking, angst, etc. etc.), could be an artist au if you squint

words: 4.6k

a/n: this is the canucks thanksgiving video's fault. also @hotanddistraught's fault. big ups to @antoineroussel for making me a custom gif and also proofreading the hell out of this thing love you. currently stuck in a calgary airport hotel because canadian airlines suck, but the canucks nabbed a win so ya'll get a treat <3

Summer is bittersweet.

For every positive feeling you have over taking a break from your schooling and having the opportunity to make some cash at your summer internship, there are ten more negative ones that revolve around the end of the hockey season taking your best friend away from you. 

It’s silly, likely, to let one person’s presence, or lack thereof, dictate the general tone of your four month break from school. A bit ridiculous, really, to miss someone terribly when you saw them just last week when you dropped him off at the airport and leaned into the hug at departures for a minute too long. And pathetic, most definitely, to watch his private instagram story more than once for the brief glimpse of a real, genuine smile.

Passing on the opportunity to go out for drinks in Yaletown—on a Wednesday in May for no reason other than the majority of your friend group was free of academia for the next few months—was not at all typical behavior for you. Your friends liked to joke that there wasn’t a happy hour in the metro Vancouver area that you hadn’t personally shut down. 

The teasing didn’t really bother you; what was so bad about mixing your frugal nature with yummy cocktails and appetizers? That blasé attitude was likely at least 90% responsible for the confusion in the group chat. The other 10% related to your friend Daniel’s confirmation that he would be showing up and using his ‘family credit card’ to get the first round. If there was nary a happy hour you met that you didn’t like, there wasn’t a free round of drinks you didn’t love.

Regardless, they finally leave you alone almost 45 minutes after arriving at the first club, other than the occasional shaky photo of someone’s drink every now and then. 

The silence is kind of nice without your loud mouthed roommate and the rest of your friend group who had spent the better part of the late afternoon pregaming. Nice, but lonely, and it only reminds you that your best friend is on the other side of the continent. Luckily for you, the true reason behind your uncharacteristic skipping of girls’ (+ Daniel) night out makes itself known by the erratic vibration of your phone somewhere in your duvet cover. 

Less luckily for you, you can’t find the damn thing until you grab the bottom corners and shake out the heavy blanket and send your phone flying onto the floor. It’s a struggle to grab it before the phone call ends and flop back onto your now half-made bed, and it’s obvious by the way you struggle to catch your breath while also muttering a greeting into the phone. 

“Were you working out?” 

The question has you doing some strange combination of a laugh, wheeze and choke that takes a solid minute to pull yourself out of before you reply, “Nope.”

You can almost picture the exasperated yet fond smile that might be taking over Quinn’s face as he asks, “You doin’ alright without me?”

“Never,” is your answer before you quickly shift gears into recapping the latest roommate boy drama and how much you hate your manager. 

It’s a long conversation, the kind you have with a friend you only catch up with once a year despite only being away from each other for a week. You love hearing about the shenanigans Quinn’s getting up to with his brothers; love the feeling of relaxation and relief that practically radiates through the phone and his tone as he speaks about home. When he tells you about thinking about maybe taking a class at UMich this summer, you only encourage him—which is a far cry from the taunt Jack threw at him when he had first brought it up. The skin of your cheeks grows warm when you overhear his mom asking who is on the phone followed up by a sweet “My mom wants me to tell you she says hi.”

At some point throughout the night you turn off the big light and turn on your salt lamp, jump into your pajamas and tuck yourself deep under the covers. It’s easy then, in the warmth and comfort of your duvet and with Quinn’s voice lulling you to sleep to close your eyes. 

“So, uh, I was wondering if you maybe wanted to come stay here for a week or two in July...?” You think you maybe hear him ask.

Unfortunately for Quinn, your only answer is the rustling of sheets and a soft snore. 

-

The beginning of summer passes a lot like it began, although with you partaking in more after work drinks with friends than not. You work and you don’t study and you certainly don’t mope around downtown Vancouver counting down the days until September. 

Quinn starts taking a class that fits in with his schedule of spending as much time as he can with his family and friends back home while also keeping up his offseason training regimen. He’s pretty tight lipped about it all, secretive and reserved in a way you’re not quite used to from your friend of several years, answering in half truths and changing the subject when he can. It’s not really your business anyway, and so you let him get away with terrible segues that you would normally tease him for. 

He does ask you again a few weeks later if you want to come down to Michigan for a week or two, turning your protests about not being able to afford it into not wanting to intrude or let him pay your way into conceding that you can give him a week in mid July. 

That’s about the time Jack grabs the phone from his older brother’s grasp, turning the regular phone call into a Facetime that gives you the gift of watching Quinn chase after him, his awkward little run having no right to be as endearing as it is. 

“I’m glad you’re coming,” he says later, having locked himself in the master bedroom of the house he shares with Jack (and sometimes Luke). His hair’s a mess and his cheeks are flushed 

“I’m really glad, too,” you smile. “Now tell me what class you’re taking.” 

“Would you look at the time, sorry we gotta head to my parent’s house.” 

You roll your eyes, but let him go with the explicit promise that he’ll call later. 

-

Somehow May and June simultaneously fly by and drag all at the same time. Each eight hour shift takes a hundred hours to pass, while your days off come and go in the blink of an eye. Every day you get closer to the date circled in red ink on your calendar; no indication of what the date means other than the word Michigan written in bold, capital letters. 

When July hits, it really hits you that you’re getting to see Quinn 

There’s a giddy sort of feeling in your stomach, the kind that usually pops up right before Quinn comes home in September. You’ve never been to Michigan before, it didn’t work with the mix of your serving job and classes you’d regretfully chosen to take the last couple of summers in an attempt to get ahead in your degree, and the first year you hadn’t really known Quinn well enough for him to take you home to meet the parents. 

Not that that was what this was, of course. You weren’t Quinn’s girlfriend or anything, nervous to earn his mom and dad’s approval, gain the acceptance of his brothers. It wasn’t like that at all with you and Quinn. Besides, you already had it from the times the family had flown to Vancouver—it was just a fact of life, parents loved you. And Jack and Luke loved to team up with you to embarrass Quinn.

You were just excited to see a friend two months earlier than you would normally see him, that’s all. 

Super casual, super platonic, super friendly. Super. 

Which is why you’ve had your bags packed since you flipped over the Canucks calendar Quinn had jokingly gifted you for Christmas to a picture of Thatcher.

Kimmy graciously offers to drive you to the airport, even if you could totally take the skytrain if you had to. “Just remember I’m your favorite roommate,” is the only explanation she gives, ignoring the fact that she’s your only roommate.

“You know you’re only going for a week,” she says bright and early Monday morning, eyebrows raising high above the line of her sunglasses. 

“Shut up,” is all you can manage, tossing your luggage in her trunk and skulking over to the front seat where you buckle in and immediately make a grab for her coffee mug.

“Thought you’d be more excited,” she mutters, pulling out of the parking garage.

“I am excited,” you reply, downing half of the mug even if it isn’t made exactly the way you like it. It’s black and bitter and doesn’t have an ounce of sweetener or cream in it, but it’s caffeine and you feel like the human embodiment of Quinn’s eye bags right now.

Kimmy has the grace to keep her mouth shut for the entire car ride, only turning up the radio a little when a Taylor Swift song comes on. She keeps quiet even as she pulls into the departures lane and hops out to help you with your luggage and wrap you up in a big hug. 

Quiet, until she opens her mouth at the last minute that is. “Bye babe, say hi to your boyfriend for me!”

It makes you want to toss your personal item at her, but you refrain from making too large of a scene in the last place you want to be making a large scene, settling for scratching your nose with your middle finger and offering a rebuttal of “he’s not my boyfriend!”

“Sure babe, see you in a week.” 

Rolling your eyes you walk into the airport. Security and customs are an uncharacteristic breeze, leaving you time to grab another coffee and try to become more of a human before the six hour flight to Michigan. Quinn’s blowing up your phone, the consequence of a three hour time difference and his career requiring many early mornings that yours did not.      

“Quinn’s lucky I love him,” you grumble angrily later, attempting to shove your overstuffed carryon into the overhead bin. The thought gives you pause and you freeze with your hands against the piece of luggage. It’s true, you really do love him. 

Luckily a flight attendant pops up behind you and one well timed shove gets the bag into place and you’re able to continue your moment of crisis in your seat. It’s not like you didn’t know you loved him—he’s your best friend, of course you love him. You love all your friends, freely and openly and purposefully. But you love him love him. Like, wanna wake up with your head on his chest love him, want to plan your future around him love him, want to wear a hideous jean jacket with his name and number on a patch love him. 

Crisis is probably too harsh a word, it’s more of a gentle realization, the slow pulling of a train into a station after a long journey. 

“You love him.”

Startled, you turn to the older woman in the window seat you weren’t willing to pay $50 to switch to. “What?”

“I know that look on your face,” Chatty Cathy continues. “Same one I had on my wedding day.”

Just because you’ve had the realization on your own doesn’t mean you’re ready to have the conversation with someone else. Not Quinn, not Kimmy, not your mom, and definitely not someone else’s grandmother. “I’m just visiting a friend.”

She gives you a knowing look. “No one visits just a friend in Michigan.”

It’s enough to have you putting in your headphones and turning the volume up on your favorite playlist. 

You don’t escape Chatty Cathy after you deplane, she’s right behind you all the way through the terminal. 

There’s a message from Quinn when your phone finally connects to the wifi at  Wayne County Airport that simply states “Here” which leads you to believe he’s probably waiting in his car at the pick up area just outside and so you’re not looking for him as you walk. 

The woman finds who you presume to be her husband first, sinking into an embrace that makes even your cold heart melt a little. 

And then you hear your name being called and Quinn’s standing right in front of you. Realistically it’s been a couple months but it kind of feels like you’re a military wife and your husband has finally returned from war. Abandoning all pretenses, you drop your bags and fling yourself at him. 

He catches you easily with a chuckle in your ear. “Missed you too.”

After what you know is an inappropriate amount of time, you finally disentangle yourself, dragging your hands down from his shoulders to his chest. “You look good, Q.”

Before you can grab your bags, Quinn’s grabbing them with an “I got it.” You follow along like a lost puppy, passing by the woman who raises her eyebrows and smiles. “Who’s that?”

“No one, I just sat by her on the flight.”

He shrugs. “C’mon let’s drop off your bags at home and then my mom really wants to see you.”

-

“You don’t have to help with dishes,” Ellen tells you after supper as she washes a large pot in the sink. 

“My mom raised me better than that,” you laugh, drying the dishes she’s already cleaned. 

“She certainly did.” A pleased smile takes over your face and your stomach warms at her words. “You know, I used to worry about Quinn the most. Jack’s never had issues making his feelings known, and Luke’s still close to home. Plus Jack’s got Dani in Jersey. But my Quinn has always been such a quiet boy with his heart on his sleeve and I worried about him being all alone in another country.” 

“You don’t worry anymore?” you ask, thanking her for handing you the pot. 

“No,” she stops and looks at you. “He has you.”

You don’t quite know how to respond to that, or to tell her that you have him too, so you don’t. 

Quinn enters the kitchen a minute or two later and shoos his mother out. “Let me finish those, mom. You go sit.”

It’s oddly domestic, doing the dishes side by side in his family home. Almost like it was the home you shared together as part of a joint life you’d built. 

Except not, because you can hear his brothers arguing in the next room until their mom shushes them both. 

When you’re finally done with the dishes, there’s a movie set up in the living room, with the only option of seating the small loveseat. 

The look on both Jack and Luke’s faces tells you it was on purpose.

-

Quinn and Jack are both too tired after supper to drive home, and so everyone stays the night in the Hughes’ home. Quinn’s old bedroom became the spare room, and the spare room became a sewing-storage-office room hybrid, and so you find yourself in the same bed as your best friend. 

It’s no big deal, really, you’ve done it before. Just, not before finally giving into the realization that you were in love with him. 

You try to sleep, but your mind and heart are racing. 

“Are you sleeping?” you ask into the darkness. Quinn’s close enough that you could conceivably reach over and touch him, but you keep your hands to yourself. 

“Trying to,” he grumpily grumbles back, bringing a smile to your face. 

Your flip onto your side so that you’re facing him in the dark is far less graceful than you’d planned it to be in your head, but you manage. “Why did you decide to take a class this summer? I’m sure you could have found a million other ways to fill the time.”

It’s quiet for so long that you wonder if he really did fall asleep, until his far more dignified roll over signifies that he’s as awake as you are. “I’m only a couple semesters away from my degree,” he says like it explains everything, and maybe if you were someone else it would. But this is your best friend and you kind of want to know everything about him. 

“I mean, same, but if I was making several mill a year I can’t say that I’d be rushing to finish my degree.”

He’s quiet again and you wonder if you’ve said the wrong thing again, shoved your whole foot in your mouth when you should have left well enough alone. “I know, but it could all go away in a second. One bad hit, or an accident, or something else outside of my control.”

His tone of voice nearly breaks your heart at the same time as the words he speaks plunges your heart into ice cold water. The thought of Quinn hurt, of him losing everything scares you. “Don’t say that, you’re going to be like Jagr, still playing at 50 years old.”

“I hope not,” he laughs, and it settles the feeling in your chest. When he yanks you closer, it all but dissipates. Tentatively, you sling an arm over his abdomen and rest your head on his chest. 

You mull it all over in your head, distracted by the way he plays with the ends of your hair until you speak up again. “You’re more than hockey, Quinn.” He hums out a non-committal answer and you figure humor is the way to move forward. “Besides, you can always just bum off Jack and Luke.”

He tugs on your hair in response, but doesn’t say anything else. 

-

“Ta-da!” 

Jack’s a real smart ass from the backseat that he’d insisted on sitting in as Quinn pulls into the driveway of a very nice house. House might be putting it lightly, as a kid you’d called this kind of residence a McMansion. 

“Shit this is nice,” is your initial reaction. 

It makes Quinn smile, which is exactly what you were going for. “It’s alright.”

You shove him and then unbuckle your seatbelt. “Shut up.”

The grand tour Jack promised is pretty lackluster, a handful of guest rooms that mean you won’t have a bed buddy tonight, a kitchen you’re certain neither of them have used on their own and enough bathrooms that you don’t have to worry about how long Jack takes to do his hair in the morning. 

There is one door that catches your attention. It’s one of the only ones that is shut, and when Jack shakes the handle it doesn’t budge. “This is where Quinn keeps dead bodies.” 

Quinn’s somewhere else in the house but he hears all the same and shouts back, “I don’t keep dead bodies!”

Jack nods solemnly and stage whispers, “That’s actually true, they’re buried in the backyard under the pool.”

Super human hearing Quinn shouts again, “there are no dead bodies!”

You roll your eyes but continue the tour until you end up in the living room where Quinn’s reclined in the lazy boy, texting. It’s too tempting to pass up, and so you plop on the arm of the chair and peer over his shoulder. “What’s Petey up to?”

He drops his phone quickly, a blush beginning to form at the top of his ears. “Wasn’t Petey.” It’s a strange reaction, one that has you suspicious—not that you have a reason to be. But if it wasn’t Elias then who? Was it a girl? The thought makes your stomach hurt. 

Shoving down the conflicted feelings, you ruffle his hair a little to be a nuisance until he slaps your hand away. “What’s in the locked room Quinn?”

“Nothing.”

You poke him hard in the upper arm once, then twice. “Don’t make me poke it out of you.” 

It institutes a little poking war that has you giggling until Jack breaks it up. “Get a room, you two.”

It’s a little awkward then, and so you slide off the chair’s arm. “I’m gonna go change and then lounge by the pool if anyone wants to join.”

As you walk away, you hear the unmistakable sound of a slap and then Quinn’s voice muttering “Idiot.”

-

The week flies by way too fast. Between meeting all Quinn’s friends and drinking them under the table, spending time with his family, and being shown around the places that meant so much to him. It has you wishing you’d found a way to make two weeks work, but it had been hard enough getting your shifts covered for the time you were here. 

“Quit your job and stay here,” Quinn tells you when you say as much. 

Huffing, you move from laying on the deck chair to lean on your elbows so that you can glare at him. It’s a moot point, since your sunglasses are covering your eyes anyway. “Quit being stupid. Some of us have tuition and bills to pay.”

“I could pay your bills,” he says quietly. Sincerely, even. 

His gentle disposition is no match for your sarcasm, however. “Oh yeah? And what would I have to do in return? Be your kept woman? Do your laundry? No thanks.” Although, the thought of returning to school in the fall while balancing your jobs means the idea isn’t as horrific as it could be. Plus you’re pretty sure Quinn’s one of the least disgusting people you know…

“Nah, we can hire out someone to do the cleaning.”

You relax back into your chair because frankly your upper arms were getting sore. “Okay so in this hypothetical scenario, you’re gonna share your vast fortune with me with nothing expected in return?”

“Yep pretty much.”

“You’re an idiot.”

“Maybe.”

Lounging around doing nothing gets boring as the sun beats down on you both. It’s your last day in Michigan and you kind of don’t want it to ever end. 

“Let’s go for a drive?” you blurt out impulsively. 

“Okay.”

Quinn takes you for the highlight reel, showing you around various places that mean something to him, including a stop at his parents so you can say your proper goodbye to them and Luke. 

And then you end up at a cozy little diner where you order a large fry to share and two milkshakes. 

“You’ve got a little something right there,” he says, pointing to the corner of his mouth. “Nope, you missed it. Still missing it.” 

It takes you a full minute to realize he’s messing with you. “Shut up!” you laugh and kick him under the table. He captures your leg, pinning it between his own, nonchalantly picking at the fries on the table while you visibly struggle to free yourself. “Jerk!”

“I like having you here,” Quinn admits a beat or two later. 

The dramatic indignation leaves your body at his admission and you slump a little in the booth. “I like being here… jerk.”

He smiles, but doesn’t let your leg go and for some reason you don’t seem to mind. 

When the bill comes, he’s a lot faster to slap down his credit card than you are. Probably because you were expecting them to bring a machine that you could use your card at rather than let a random stranger take your credit card to the back for whatever nefarious purposes they so chose. 

The debate of the security of tap versus having your credit card taken from you carries over from the table into the car, and by the time you get back to Quinn’s, you’re satisfied you’ve won this round. 

“I don’t want to go to bed yet, if I go to sleep the morning will come quick,” you say softly when Quinn asks if you’re headed to bed when you get back. 

“Yeah, I know.” He’s quiet again, an inner conflict raging across his face until, “Come on, I wanna show you something.”

It’s like you know before he’s even led you towards the stairs that you’re finally going to see what’s going on in the locked room. “Are you about to show me your dead bodies, Quintin?”

His exasperated sigh is more fond than annoyed, “There are no dead bodies!” When he pushes the door open, you quickly come to realize it’s a makeshift painting room, with various colored paints scattered around the room and a sheet covering the floor. At the far end of the room lies an easel with a finished painting set on it. 

“She’s beautiful, Quinn,” you say, taking a step closer to admire the artwork in front of you. You barely manage to stop yourself from trailing the delicate lines of her face with your fingers. 

“She’s you,” he admits shyly, head ducked down and rose flush spreading across his cheeks and down his neck. “You’re beautiful.”

“I didn’t know you saw me that way,” you whisper, eyes locked on the physical representation of Quinn’s vision of you. 

“You never asked.”

Finally you tear your eyes away from the canvas, spinning around to face him. “Quinn—“

“It’s not—I don’t expect anything from you or anything. It’s the final project for my class. I didn’t tell you I was taking an art class at first because I was worried it wouldn’t work out, but then we were given our assignments and the final project was to paint something you, well, something you love.”

You say his name again but he keeps talking, almost a man possessed as if he can’t stop the words from falling from his tongue. 

“I love you, like, Capital L love you. I have for a long time. Maybe since the night we met, I don’t know. One conversation and I knew you were it for me. But, like I said before, I don’t expect any—“

You can’t take it anymore, you’re impossibly endeared to this man and his awkward rambling and his slightest hint of a lisp, and you press your lips to his. 

Quinn doesn’t reciprocate at first, frozen in place and so you wait, counting the seconds until he finally moves, gripping your face in his hands and kissing you like he means it. 

-

You don’t stop kissing. 

You kiss and you kiss and you kiss; that night you kiss as you strip each other of your clothes, the next morning you kiss morning breath and all when you wake up together. You kiss over breakfast and you kiss at red lights on the way to the airport and at departures. 

“Stay,” he says, kissing you again much to the displeasure of the pretty college coed who’d asked for a photo and his autograph not five minutes ago. You lean into it, tilting your head and sliding your hand through the hair at the base of his neck. 

“Can’t,” you reply when you pull back. “Bills to pay, remember?”

“Let me take care of it for you.”

“As if.” You laugh and pat his cheek. “I gotta go, I’ll see you in a couple weeks. Love you.”

The words are enough to have him let you go, but not before reciprocating and one last, lingering kiss. He stands to the side with his hands in his pockets, determined to watch you leave until he can’t see you anymore. 

“Told you so,” a voice sounds from behind you in the security line. 

Spinning around you see Chatty-although-not-incorrect Cathy. There’s no mistaking the look on your face this time, no amount of deflecting would ever be seen as anything less than extreme deception and so you shrug. “Guess you did.”

#nhl fic #nhl fanfic #nhl imagine #nhl imagines #nhl x reader #quinn hughes fic #quinn hughes fanfic #quinn hughes imagine #quinn hughes imagines #quinn hughes x reader #shelb writes

[clean-bands-dirty-stories]

XX ~ S.S.

Part Four: Rush (Final)

A/n: This is a separate request but I combined them (This prompt list). This has been sitting in my drafts for AGES so very close to completion and I got a final boost from @mmmalakai so this one’s for you bestie <3

Request: “22 for Seb? 👀”

Word Count: 3800+

MASTERLIST

~ Kiss in a rush of adrenaline ~

The Warblers ran into a problem when competition season rolled around. They had essentially been cut in half, and that meant they were working with significantly less people than normal. Adding on top of that the rivalry he was brewing with New Directions and... well, it wasn't ideal.

Y/n got an earful every evening after glee rehearsals. Blaine was apparently up Sebastian's ass, playing some form of protective older brother for Y/n. He had made it clear time and time again that he didn't approve of Sebastian, and his boyfriend Kurt was only too happy to support this endeavor. Predictably, Kurt had been most on board for it when Blaine had told him of Sebastian's initial flirting and move making. It made Y/n wonder if Kurt was in it to protect Y/n like Blaine was, or if he was in it for his own personal revenge.

Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be where the struggles ended. They had enough people to compete and so did Noteworthies - but only one team could compete from one school. Which meant that on top of push back from Blaine and Kurt, and the dance they'd been having with all of New Directions, there needed to be a pre-competition face off to see which Dalton Glee club was going to compete.

Which was strange to talk about, when they were technically opposed team captains, but also had been spending as much time as they could together again. They'd wanted to perform together again and neither could come up with a reason to. They were busy practicing for all the face offs and performances they had coming up, which meant they didn't have much free time. With the stress increasing, the need for peace and quiet got worse until their routine became shit talking everyone else in the car and then going back to Sebastian's, cleaning up and changing, and then just doing homework in absolute silence for hours and hours, cuddled up until dinner. Dinner was the best part of the day because they would be recharged from everything else and would put the homework away and just talk. Or watch something. They didn't talk about school during dinner, or Glee. They'd talk about music or the thing they watched or anything else. Sometimes Blaine and Kurt, but never New Directions.

It was so strange to find themselves on opposing sides when school came around at the beginning of every new day, especially when their mornings were spent getting coffee where Y/n and Blaine used to and tormenting the New Directions people who were there if they happened to run into each other.

Y/n didn't even feel bad about it. He had tried to stop Sebastian at first, but then Blaine had ruined that.

The day had started cool, which was nice because the Dalton blazers were always a little warm on the body. Adding coffee to that usually meant feeling a little warmer than one was usually comfortable with. But not that morning. Instead, Y/n and Sebastian were in line to get their coffees, Sebastian going on and on about a wild encounter he'd had in Paris when he was still living there. Y/n had been sent into a fit of laughter, face turning red and wrapping his arms around his stomach. "You did not get that drunk at 11 years old," Y/n accused.

Sebastian was grinning. "I absolutely did. My parents were mad, but it wasn't as big of a deal as you'd think. The problem was that I had stolen all the cream puffs. There were three heaping plates made for everyone at that party and I had eaten them all by myself. I was sick for two whole days, and still couldn't eat chocolate without feeling sick for another week." Y/n peeled into giggles again and the room seemed to get brighter, warmer. Sebastian watched him with so much adoration on his face that the people around them all smiled.

Well, almost everyone.

"If it isn't my favorite Dalton boy." An arm looped around Y/n's shoulder, and he looked over to see Blaine. Immediately, the joy started to seep out of him and Sebastian watched in irritation as he put on the mask that he always did. The calm and the patient and the gentle. Not that Y/n wasn't all of those things, but more that he only ever allowed himself to be those things specifically when certain people - like Blaine - were around. The more time he spent around Sebastian, the more he allowed himself to express all of the different sides of him, but it was slow coming. It was easier with the Warblers and most of the Noteworthies, but harder with Lyran and anyone from McKinley. It bothered Sebastian immensely.

"Hey," Y/n greeted with a soft smile.

Blaine positioned himself to cut Sebastian off from the conversation and immediately Sebastian's jaw locked. He tried to play as nice as possible with Blaine - he meant a lot to Y/n. And even if Sebastian didn't get the appeal (he had flirted with the man once before actually getting to know Y/n, and now he just about laughed out loud at the thought. How could be have gone for stick-in-the-mud, goody two shoes Blaine when Y/n was right there?) it wasn't about him, so. Whatever. The move from Blaine was an affront though, and he barely managed.

"I haven't seen you in a while. How have you been?"

Kurt shot him a look and Sebastian purposefully ignored it. His eyes were on Y/n, who suddenly seemed uncomfortable. It seemed he has picked up on Blaine's actions - and Sebastian's reaction to it as well.

"Fine," the boy eased, sliding fluidly from Blaine's hold to pick up something off of a nearby shelf, tilting it as if considering if he was going to get it. He put it down and turned back to the other three. It was a well masked attempt to include Sebastian again, and a well appreciated one. Well, appreciated by Sebastian. Blaine's smile got a little tighter.

"I heard you started a new acapella group at Dalton," Blaine picked up again. There was something very awkward about him trying to start small talk, and Y/n shutting it down with one word responses instead of expanding in the least. An awkwardness that was showing in Blaine's tone.

"Yeah," Y/n nodded, and the tension grew.

Sebastian swallowed a smile when he saw a hint of his Y/n. The hidden shade he was masking so well with innocence and softness. It wasn't cruel, more unsure. Y/n didn't know how to show Blaine that finally, he had changed too. In the way that Blaine had become more a team player, flourishing with a bunch of people who challenged him and treated him like a normal person instead of some music sex god, that Y/n had bloomed in the same way.

Under Sebastian's pressure and fire, he had grown to something infinitely more beautiful: Himself. Not filtered to be more palpable, or fit the vibe someone else was setting. He was himself - both soft and hot to the touch. Soothing at one point, and agitating the next, depending on what he had to rise to the top to meet. And there was a whole new side to him too - one that didn't just react, but set expectations and then kept them going. Who established a mood and then continued it. One who knew control and patience and could balance firm grips and gentle nudges.

Blaine missed it all. He hummed in such false amusement that it was so obviously just irritation.

"Seems you're spending a lot of time with Mr. Competition over here then." It was light and airy, easily dismissed unless you already knew he was trying to shove a wedge between Y/n and Sebastian. Which they all did know.

Y/n seemed to consider that. "Competition drama and interpersonal relationships are different things. At Dalton we try to keep it clean - nothing personal, no dirty play." He shot a pointed look at Sebastian. "These days at the very least."

Sebastian felt himself warm, flaring under Y/n's attention. "The whole point of a game is there are always rules. I set some, you set some. They must all be followed or people stop playing."

Y/n snorted. "Very good job Bas, you're learning so well."

Blaine seemed uncomfortable with the easy banter between the two, and he tended when Y/n used a nickname. "Y/n-"

"Listen," Y/n cut off. "I've tried to tell you before but you refuse to listen so I'll be very blunt with you. I'm a different person now - a better person. This is a good thing, and if you can't see that and accept that people change I don't want to be friends with you anymore. I know you have beef with Sebastian. It's a good thing you're not the one who has a relationship with him." He turned without another word and made his order, filling in Sebastian's as well without thinking. He had been correct to the T so Sebastian let it slide. He relished Y/n stepping in to stop Blaine, and he especially loved that Y/n was so easily showing how well they knew each other and how much they meant to each other. It was delicious.

Blaine stumbled over his words for a moment at the display from the boy who used to be so close to him. "What happened to you?"

Y/n's irritation slipped. "What happened to me is that I finally got a life outside of you. I'm in a glee club that isn't revolving around you. I have other friends. I developed a personality based on myself and not you and your standards and expectations, and found people who like what I have to offer. If the only way you want me is folded nicely so that you can have me at your disposable for you and your irritating ass boyfriend then you don't want me." He slapped money on the counter and grabbed the two drinks before walking away. "See you around Blaine."

As they left, Sebastian's face twisted with a smirk. Not the teasing or biting one he usually donned, but one filled with admiration and adoration.

Something bubbled under the surface of his skin and he shivered. Then decided to ignore it for now. Y/n started a conversation about how bagels sounded good for breakfast and that was the end of it.

For now.

-

It was decided that a face off would be held to decide who was going to competition of the Dalton glee clubs.

It wasn't a shocking conclusion, but still needed an official announcement.

When the day came, Sebastian thought the Warblers had it in the bag.

Then the Noteworthies went.

Whatever the group had accomplished in the past, they had surpassed themselves several times. They were completely in sync, switching out and weaving through each other like it was second nature. They kept a certain energy between them that truly was contagious, like before, but also tangible. An energy that flowed through the air. Not a performance, or a show of any specific person. No call to attention or vie for spotlight, but a conversation between them that became increasingly interesting to follow.

They sang songs and it seemed like words. Banter between friends, or inside jokes. Stories that weren't all the way told yet. Secrets on the cusp of being spoken into the world. It was a sleep over or a camp out, telling stories in the dark and trying to scare each other. It was a safety net that if anyone crosses a line, you could stop and it would be okay. It was a breath of relief, or the first day of Summer vacation. Full of possibilities and mischief and energy and wonderment with all the stability of not having quite lost your sense of time. Youthful. Bright. Fun. But also accepting and gentle and understanding.

Of course the Warblers lost.

Y/n had been right - a group that worked as a unit far surpassed a ring leader surrounded by people to make them look better. And after the challenge, Sebastian lost even more Warblers.

He was losing the game, and he realized he had been for a long time.

Fascinating.

He swallowed his smile when Y/n met him at the car. Y/n rose an eyebrow. "What is it? You're not mad we won are you? And I swear I'm not trying to steal anymore of your Warblers-"

Sebastian shook his head. "Please. It's like you said - we've far surpassed taking things personally and lashing out."

Y/n rose an eyebrow. "So you're not going to be petty?" Sebastian was surprised to realize Y/n was being sarcastic when he asked the question.

Y/n knew him so well...

Sebastian's smile finally made it through as they got into the car. "Perhaps just a little." Y/n laughed and suddenly Sebastian didn't feel bad at all anymore.

-

"Oh I love this song!" Y/n shot to his feet, pushing homework aside for a moment to grab Sebastian's hand and force him to follow. They were dancing together before Sebastian could even complain.

He did it while they were up instead, despite the fact that he didn't sit back down even when Y/n let go of his hands. "You promised you wouldn't get distracted if we played music today. We need to study."

Y/n rolled his eyes. "We do homework all the time - my grades are better than they've been in ages. It can wait for a single song." Y/n stepped close, something mischievous in his eyes. "Or two."

Something bubbled in Sebastian's stomach, worming it's way up to his chest. Words were on the tip of his tongue but he couldn't quite pull them out or place what they were so for now he let them be.

And the two danced.

The second song was slower, and Y/n tried to do a funny bit by using choreography slowed to half speed, his facial expressions even changing at a snail's pace, which did get Sebastian to laugh. But then he reached out and pulled Y/n against him, chest to chest, and grabbed his hand and waist. "Slow dance properly or skip the song," he chided.

Y/n snorted but didn't pull away. "Of course the rich boy is particular about slow dancing," he teased. "You know how to waltz I assume?"

Sebastian's eyes shone. "Would you like me to teach you?"

Y/n grinned. "Fuck yes." So Sebastian did. It was the first time they'd danced that it wasn't competitive or teasing. There was fire here too but it was quieter, calmer - familiar. Sebastian grabbed his hand, then his waist, and stepped closer. He spoke softly, giving directions and telling him when and where he was stepping and the directions he was going.

It was easy to follow him. Sebastian was excellent at leading, both with his steps and his words. At one point he spun Y/n, slowly to allow for him learning, and Y/n giggled. When they were face to face again they were both grinning.

"This is fun," Sebastian noted. He didn't speak as loudly as he usually did, keeping that soft directional tone he'd been using up to this point.

Y/n felt his face warm up. "It is. Maybe we should make this a regular thing. You can teach me everything you know."

Sebastian's smile grew a little teasing, and seeing that peek out now only made Y/n blush worse. "Je crois que je t'aime."

Y/n's eyebrows came together when Sebastian spoke in French. "No fair! I don't know French."

"If I teach you everything I know," Sebastian reasoned. "You will one day."

Y/n narrowed his eyes. "Okay," he eased slowly. "What did you say though?"

The deviousness crescendo'd as Sebastian chuckled. "I'll tell you one day." He slowed them to a stop, spinning Y/n outward and catching his wrist. He brought the back of Y/n's hands to his lips, leaving a kiss. "You're a wonderful dance partner."

Y/n raised an eyebrow. "You need to be dubbed an official Disney Prince with all this charm you're using on me."

There seemed to be something Sebastian wanted to say, but he chose not to.

A new side to him.

Instead he cleared his throat, covering up a laugh. "Let's get back to homework." Unsure of how to get him to divulge information when he was so often readily offering it and not hiding it away as he was now, Y/n was forced to let the interaction go.

For now.

-

Noteworthies killed it at competition, putting Dalton in first place for the first time since Sebastian had started coming to school here. When they were announced as first, Sebastian's eyes went wide and he couldn't stop smiling. He was in the audience, but he was quickly out of his seat and rushing backstage. When Y/n was off of that stage, he was quick to close the distance. Y/n was surprised, but laughed as they met in the middle, getting caught up in the kiss immediately.

It was the first time they'd been explicitly affectionate in public, and it was wonderful. Especially as Lyran smiled to themself, watching the two.

"Finally, am I right?" they whispered to one of the other boys who laughed, all of them heading to the changing room to leave the pair alone.

When the two boys separated from their embrace, Y/n was blushing. "What was that?" he asked.

Sebastian shrugged. "Probably... adrenaline." He chuckled, finding himself a little breathless. No one had ever made him this soft before, taken him so completely. He felt a little silly and completely ridiculous and stripped entirely of his power-

And he loved it.

-

“Hey I have a question.” Things had changed since the kiss back stage. They weren’t playing this maybe-friends-maybe-not thing, they were definitely more than friends. Things had gotten as casual as Y/n ending up in Sebastian’s bed for no other reason than better cuddling positions as they watched Netflix all day. That was their Saturday routine. They only got out of bed to make food, and then they’d play music and dance together or tease or kiss…

It was domestic.

But they’d never made anything official.

Sebastian had waited for Y/n to give him that staple look people always did when things got a little too serious. Usually that was when he’d run away, but with Y/n he was sure he’d have drifted into a relationship blissfully. No one could keep up with him and change the game like Y/n could - who could ever even keep his attention after this boy?

But Y/n had never asked. It had never come up. And once again the rules were different than Sebastian had expected. It wasn’t Y/n asking about their relationship that day. It was Sebastian. His hair was soft, dried post shower, and he had only bothered with the bare minimum necessary to be comfortable. Y/n had lost his shirt at some point, stealing one of Sebastian’s even though there were clothes just here that were Y/n’s at this point. It felt intimate in a weird way. Different than sex, but maybe on the same level as it.

Y/n looked at the boy, smiling. “Ask away.”

“Are we together?” Sebastian asked. “Like, boyfriends.”

Y/n’s face light up. “I thought you didn’t do labels, Hot Shot.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes. “If you don’t want to-“

Even if Y/n could throw him off, Sebastian was good at catching up. The dynamic shifted as Y/n gently caressed his cheek, leaning in to kiss him to get him to stop. “No, it’s okay. I’d love to be your boyfriend. And to have yours as mine. Please.”

Sebastian grew warm. “Okay.” There was that thing… that thing just under the surface…. But he let it go.

Not yet. He couldn’t handle two huge leaps in character in one day. Something told him that Y/n wouldn’t want him to anyway.

-

It happened, ironically, after they decided to hang out because Y/n’s parents were getting a divorce. Maybe that was actually what made it perfect timing. They were tangled together on the couch, Sebastian soothingly running his hands up and down Y/n’s back. They hadn’t spoken in a while but Y/n’s mood seemed to slowly, steadily, improving. Sebastian could feel that feeling that was growing more and more impossible to ignore. The words that were getting closer and closer to slipping between his lips. They were getting less and less scary - easier to say. Easier to accept. He knew that they would escape any second now.

“I love you.” It was Y/n who’d spoken.

Immediately Sebastian sighed. “Of course you managed it before I did.” He sounded only amused.

Y/n laughed. “To be fair, you were the one who made the relationship official. You started all of this. I think I can get one thing on you. If that’s okay.”

“No. It’s not. Take it back.” At Sebastian’s words, Y/n laughed again. Sebastian left a kiss on his boyfriend’s forehead. Lingering. Then his lips parted and-

“Don’t say it just because I did,” Y/n interrupted.

Sebastian sighed. “I wouldn’t say anything I didn’t mean. If I didn’t love you, I’d run. I always do.” He scoffed. “But… I do love you. And I can even say that foul word. You’ve completely ruined me. I’m so young how could you do this to me?”

Y/n shrugged, and his smugness was so gorgeous Sebastian had to kiss him. When they parted, Y/n whispered, “Can we be different than everyone else? Can we just… not deal with all the bullshit? And work together and communicate and not fall apart? Or even worse - stay together forever even though the relationship is cannabilizing itself. Can you promise me we’ll never stop talking?”

Sebastian hummed, sighing. “I can promise I’ll always try.”

Y/n nodded. “That’s enough.” And it was. Everything else could fall apart. Their family, their relationship with Blaine. School could end. The Warblers could get usurped. It was all temporary. And maybe this was too, but it was also worth it in a way. Especially because it was temporary. Even if all they had was this week, or if it was for the rest of their lives… they had each other. What more could one person ask for than that?

-

Story tag list: @romanthesleepylizardking @taintedmaroon @shydinosaurcandy @clawzzz

Male readers tag: @ravenpuff-oli @sortzz @fadedver

#glee #glee imagine #glee x reader #grant gustin #grant gustin imagine #grant gustin x reader #sebastian smythe imagine #Sebastian smythe #gender neutral reader #warblers #warblers imagine #warblers x reader

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 12/01/2024

9​来​4s

Season 2

Featured on: THE SILVAGUNNER CHRISTMAS COMEBACK CRISIS ORIGINAL SOUNDTRAXX: vol. 1

Ripped by dante

Uh, so, hi, everyone. I'm going to apologize ahead of time if this post reads a bit more shakily, a bit less structured than what it maybe usually does. I always have a timeline of rips to cover over the week laid out ahead of time, and was really not expecting to cover 9​来​4s as part of it - I thought, naively, that today would just be a day like any other, one more on the pile. I wake up, get dressed, check the SiIvaGunner YouTube feed - and almost collapse onto the floor in shock.

The Christmas Comeback Crisis is back. Ten hours from the point of writing this sentence, the eleventh episode of the main SiIvaGunner storyline will premiere on YouTube.

I don't think I've ever done an effective job of conveying to people just how much the Christmas Comeback Crisis means to me. Sure, rips that I love are one thing, with those you can understand what I'm talking about with just a listen yourself. But the Christmas Comeback Crisis series is so difficult to truly appreciate without the knowledge, the memories and attachment to the channel from having been with it the whole time. To me, it marked the point where all of SiivaGunner's potential as a narrative, all of the loose threads of lore and jokes, all of those feelings of joy and sadness and comradery that flew like sparks throughout Season 1s 9-month run, were distilled into a streamlined narrative. It felt as if a bunch of stray thoughts were finally put to paper, a world envisioned by all of SiIva's viewers finally envisioned with an engrossing conflict and beautiful art. And it felt to me like the team themselves knew just how golden the idea they'd landed on was, as the scope of the storyline quickly expanded from just Christmas of 2016 to eventually enveloping the entirety of Season 2's run.

The final core episode of the Christmas Comeback Crisis released at the tail end of Season 2, on Christmas Day. That is to say, December 25th, 2017. It is currently January 12th 2024 - six years, two weeks, and four days have passed, as the main story of the channel has remained in limbo. When I watched that episode, live on the date of upload, I was still a teenager. I've followed the channel since, still immensely invested, still closely following and paying attention to the lore introduced since - the Side Stories and Haltmann's Archives of Season 3 and Season 4: Episode 1, the King for Another Day Tournament and its fallout across both episodes of Season 4, the many misadventures of Wood Man across Season 5, having seemingly left the Christmas Comeback Crisis canon altogether to explore different worlds where he could have fun with little consequence - only for it all to come crashing down on him in Season 6. After all of that time, all of that buildup, after Season 7 has already been one of the channel's all-around, best-ever years - the cherry on top has landed. Episode 11.

Beyond the lore, the world, the artwork, the storyline, the characters, and the community that's supported it all, what has held the Christmas Comeback Crisis together for me and many others has been the sheer passion present in all those aspects - including, of course, its outstanding soundtrack. I've talked about it before with voiceless, with 時の回廊 ＜ver. CCC＞, with vlEP, and now here - but dante is, genuinely, an *exceptionally* talented musician, possibly my favorite amidst the entire SiIvaGunner team, and he has been completely outdoing himself on the Christmas Comeback Crisis' soundtrack since the day it first began - his music, remixes, arrangement, and overall sound direction has breathed a kind of energy and life into the story that's immersed me in ways I could never have expected.

9​来​4s plays during Episode 8 of the Christmas Comeback Crisis, An Acrimonious Assault - which sort of marked a point of no return for the series. After the 6th episode, Advent of Hell, just barely managed to release during Christmas of 2016, and the 7th episode, Loves the Ladies, released four entire months later due to expressed production issues, it felt like the team had officially realized just how big the project was getting. Yet, despite the woes that the 7th episode had presented, the team pushed on - and the series continued until the end of the year. That energy, that hype and love for the channel, is echoed all throughout 9​来​4s, and it's a feeling I haven't truly felt since that Season that the series once ended during.

At least, that's what I once said. Because now, *we are so fucking back.*

#todays siivagunner #season 2 #siivagunner #siiva #dante #soundcirclet #christmas comeback crisis #siivagunner ccc #siivagunner lore #lore #hiroyuki sawano #guilty crown #Youtube #Bandcamp

[raayllum]

I know you love The dragon prince and that’s great. I binged the show after season three released. I listened to podcasts about the show . I listened to yours and felt really happy when I found people who also liked the show. Unfortunately I fell of during the hiatus between season three and four. I am patient person but three years was long. Also I watched the show for rallylum and through the moon just kind killed my love for them.Then I found your blog and was really happy. Then I saw how you felt about the owl house and it bothered me. As a neurodivergent person the show made me feel really seen. I know it’s stupid to be upset about an opinion. As a person who wants to be an English major how do find parallels between relationships and characters. You talk about certain ones and I don’t see them at all. Your probably more seasoned as a writer than I am so

Ps : sorry this is long and hope tdp ends well in your opinion

Few things:

1) I'm also neurodivergent (hi!) - specifically Autistic - and I have also largely wanted to be understood my whole life, much like Luz (according to S3). While a show making you feel seen can certainly be wonderful, meaningful, and sometimes even life changing, to me that's not enough to make it a Good (per my subjective tastes) Show. That's not to say TOH is a bad show - far from it - but it's one that didn't appeal to my particular tastes due to 1) too many characters and not enough screentime, 2) a lack of theme (which many kids shows don't have a ton of because they're, y'know, for kids), and 3) all of the characters have very black and white morality, and that's just less interesting to me.

Being upset about opinions is very natural, and it's not stupid, but it is also important to acknowledge that 1) you can't control how anyone else feels or interprets things and 2) no one else can control how you feel or interpret things.

2) I adored Through the Moon. Rayla's tendency to leave (and why) is always a hurdle I expected them to have to tackle at one point, and given that it's her main character flaw, I'm really excited and happy with the way it's been handled so far and how TTM kicked it off. The graphic novel also really resonated with me in Callum's place, as I too have loved many of my loved ones through incredibly difficult periods regarding their mental health, and the graphic novel felt very honest about the toll that can take on both parties in different ways, and how love/support can help, but ultimately isn't enough if the person isn't ready (or willing) to start trying to get better. It's not an easy pill to swallow, but it is a realistic and important one and I've enjoyed how the show has continued that storyline with Rayla (and Callum) into S4 and S5

3) Being an English major is not for everyone! I know many people who love to read and who are very good writers where an English degree would not suit them at all. It's a lot of reading (by my final year, there were some weeks where I was reading an entire 400 page book roughly every week, if not multiple at the same time). It is also a lot of writing (and my professors regularly chewed me out for my grammar). You also tend to kind of double being a history major as depending on what you're reading, you learn a lot of the religious/historical/cultural context in order to understand the language, references, and messaging intended by the author (and then whether or how much to disregard it, lmao). Being able to analyze — to see connections between characters and themes in particular, but other forms of symbolism and messaging — quickly is probably the main thing that saved my ass and let me stay on Honour Roll throughout my undergrad.

I have also been writing pretty seriously for a long time (I 'started' at age 10 but only really count age 12 onwards, cause that's when I first started writing 70k+ drafts every 1-2 years for original WIP stuff). A lot of what makes a good writer is being a good reader, taking your favourite stories (books or otherwise — movies, musicals, tv shows, etc can be gold mines) and figuring out what works in them and why, or why you like them (or don't like them), etc.

For example: The Owl House is a primarily character driven > plot driven story. In book form, it'd likely be Middle Grade to early YA. It's interested in character relationships among the main cast (any of the more villainous characters like Belos are never given the same amount of development or screentime) and some mild worldbuilding. It has some social commentary (mostly on the school systems through Luz and mental health through Eda) and an overall theme of "being different is good," breaking away from abusive systems/dynamics, and the importance of solidarity.

If I compare and contrast this to TDP, The Dragon Prince is far driven in equal parts by the plot (because it's wholly serialized) and by character. It is also very thematically driven — most notably how to break intergenerational cycles of trauma and violence, but also self-destructive tendencies, abuse, responsibility, power, grief, and concepts of justice and punishment. This is also reflected in the fact numerous villainous characters (Viren, Claudia, etc.) share close to equal screentime with the 'good guy' protagonists and heavily explores morality across a decently wide spectrum. It thereby has a more mature tone in its subject matter and would easily be YA in book form.

Which is to say: the best way to get better at analyzing is to break characters down to their basic plot structures (Character A does this, they want that, Character B does this, they want that, etc.) and see what pops up (for example, in Avatar The Last Airbender, Aang and Zuko both cannot go home, and duel Ozai when they're 13 years old, ultimately refusing to be violent against their opponent). You can also look at similar personality traits (curiosity, selflessness, carelessness, etc). Practice looking at the stories you love and figuring out what works and doesn't work for you personally — and then go beyond relatability to look more at subtext and symbols. Some of the best things I've ever read were books that had nothing relatable to my personal experiences in them (like The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini), and that was why I loved them because they got to broaden my horizons.

#thanks for asking #non tdp #forbidden op lore #long post #anonymous #requests

[leftduck9986]

Magic From The Beyond

The Big Jazz Band version of the main theme played at the end of Good Omens 2 episode 4 is my favourite. I'll only remember to be quick enough with the clicker some of the time, to hear all of it, but even less than that would I be paying attention to actually watching the credits.

So occasionally when I wasn't completely in my head enjoying the music, and my eyes were open, the closing credits would arrive on this screen and I would make a mental note to learn about Anthony Owen.

In Season One Episode One of Good Omens, Anthony Owen is listed as 'Magician' in the closing credits at 50m10-12s.

After an attempt to find out more in the usual places - IMDb and Youtube (Full performance of Oil and Water by Anthony Owen) - the best source was this podcast episode by Vanishing Inc Magic dot com, recorded weeks before his death in 2019:

Excerpt from the transcript:

"

The Insider: Recently, I don't know how recently actually, but you worked on the mini-series of Good Omens. How did that come about and what did you do for the production? Did you love the book before you started doing it? I can't wait to see it because I've loved the book for ages. That was 14 questions in one, pick any of them and answer it.

Anthony Owen: The answer is, yes I worked on Good Omens.

The Insider: Okay.

Anthony Owen: No, I still haven't read the book. What did I do? I taught Michael Sheen sleight of hand magic.

The Insider: How was he?

Anthony Owen: He's a great fan of magic. He loves magic, he loves going to The Magic Castle, he's a good friend of Derren's. He was a brilliant student of magic and sleight of hand and really got into it and loved the idea of it. The character he plays is quite a fun thing because he's playing a sort of bumbling, not very good magician at a children's party. Teaching someone how to be a bad magician actually was well within my comfort zone and abilities. What was interesting for Michael was because he's a Welsh boy from the valleys he was able to tap into the ... Tommy Cooper [ wikipedia | youtube: Ed Sullivan show | youtube: the best of Tommy Cooper, including the "Indian Rope Trick" ] was a sleight inspiration for him in playing that role. Yeah. It'll be interesting to see how it is in the final cut and what they've done with it, I'll look forward to seeing it.

The Insider: Go and read the book, it's great.

Anthony Owen: I have it on my shelf. I read the relevant pieces that I needed to read to do the job that I did.

"

Sadly, Anthony's untimely death meant that he didn't get to see Good Omens when it was released on the 31st of May, 2019.

He is honoured here in Good Omens 2, in more ways than one.

Firstly, as there doesn't appear to be another 'Magician' in the credits for this episode, approximately four years later, can it be assumed that Anthony Owen taught Michael Sheen enough sleight of hand to be used across the entire three seasons of the series (and Michael Sheen has kept up his skills with regular practice)? That the skills performed in this episode are Anthony Owen's teachings remembered, and credited with a memorial?

Then, there's this:

If you search 'Anthony Owen' on Prime Video, here's what you will find...

... a treasure trove!

Apart from there being a few "Anthony"s and "Owen"s, it's quite a specific selection for a bunch of titles that don't seem to have any connection to Anthony Owen himself. (edit, Sunday 17th March 2024: and here I was, expecting to see some of the titles listed on IMDb, but no.)

17 titles, presented in the same order every single time (Update, Wednesday 20th March, 2024: the order has changed)

- not alphabetical, nor chronological by release date. Might they be readable in some kind of order though? Also, it kind of feels like there should be an 18th title, for a nice neat 3 x 6, right?

(Update, Saturday 23rd March 2024: well well well, an 18th title has been added. Note the title name, Snapped, and the two items shown in the thumbnail image - a Polaroid and a derringer! specific to S2E4, nice!)

Update, Saturday 30th March 2024: a 19th title added this week - Survivor season 43. If at the end of next week, this playlist maxes out at 20 and does not continue to grow in the weeks afterward, might it be that 6,6,8 is happening; that season three will contain 8 episodes after all?

Update, Thursday 4th April 2024: IF this is the end of the campaign, then they've ended early, adding not one, but two more titles - three, if counting "You Can Go Now" twice as it is shown; the correct year of release, 2022, then the second entry for "2023" with a separate thumbnail image and its description including the title in all-caps as if being shouted at and dismissed, ouch.

Still, a brilliant move, to end "unpredictably" (just as a certain group of two 'sides' had been working together all along, but acting predictably, in order to check-mate their real opponent, for a game of Chess lasting for most of their existence).

Hints, clues, themes and references galore - given in the titles of films or episodes, descriptions (sometimes of a particular season), images or symbols seen and/or lines spoken in the trailers (some have two trailers, for example I highly recommend watching the full trailer for You Hurt My Feelings) - even "special spoilers" star Sadie is in here!

You don't even need to watch any of these titles either. Just do what Anthony did :)

Coincidental that Good Omens 2 was released on Anthony Owen's Birthday?

It's lovely to have included Anthony Owen in what feels like a mentalist-style trick from The Beyond.

#Good Omens #In Memory of Anthony Owen #Magician #Mentalist #good omens clues #Good Omens 2 #Good Omens 3 #Amazon Prime Video

[woomycritiques543]

As a lackadaisy fan who dropped helluva 5 episodes in, I think you’re overestimating the effect of the fandom has on things outside of itself because you are inmeshed in it. You don’t have the outside view. Don’t get me wrong, it sounds like a toxic shit show, but it doesn’t have a ‘monopoly’. If all it took to gain a monopoly in entertainment was to have a horribly rabid fanbase that won’t take the smallest bit of criticism, the history of indie entertainment would be very different.

(TW: LONG POST, mentions of Vivziepop's behavior, also if you're another lackadaisy fan that's curious about what's been happening over at the Hazbin fandom PLEASE DONT SKIP THIS POST!)

"If all it took to gain a monopoly in entertainment was to have a horribly rabid fanbase that won’t take the smallest bit of criticism, the history of indie entertainment would be very different."

Hm...

As a Helluva Boss fan who's seen how many views most indie projects have nowdays, plus what Vivziepop did here, especially since this wasnt just about the fanbase to begin with:

(Psst. Vivienne, these people got bills and families to pay for, so maybe dont try to push them away from other projects just because you like Hazbin Hotel? You can hire other people, you've done it millions of times before- let other projects thrive, and let them have different projects so they can be successful too! Far-Fetched barely has as any workers compared to you, so maybe stop being selfish and share the load so other projects can get all the help they can get? Especially when you rush out 5+ episodes a year and treat your staff like shit? So maybe... I dont know... treat them better so "A BUNCH!" of people from Spindlehorse wont think of even having to do so much extra work, day jobs and all, when there's 40+ million bucks sitting from your shows RIGHT THERE?! There's a reason why "a bunch" of people would be brought to do other projects at the same time. -and it's not because of all the red...)

I think it's pretty safe to say that theres an obvious monopoly going on. Why else would these episodes be getting 20+ million at a time, for years, while other just as good projects get next to none in comparison. Honestly, look at how much views, how many trends the shows follow, how much mainstream appeal, how much merchandising fills the "shelves" of Sharkrobot, how many episodes were shilled out in 2021 alone, how much it dominates the indie industry, and try to tell me that Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel are " not a monopoly!" Shilling out multiple Helluva Boss episodes full of softcore porn and bright colors a year to keep Spindlehorse's shows on top of the trending tag on Youtube EVERY YEAR SINCE 2019! -and end being what millions end up being reccomended. Though many people dont know that HB exists, many others do, and it's almost constantly being mentioned with indie animation while equally beautiful looking, or much better written projects get only 50,000+ views. Even in spite of Exxes and Oohs situation:

Season Two's premiere got 4+ million views in 15 hours.

While when I was watching the premiere of Exxes and Oohs with my freinds a couple of weeks ago after it premiered:

I noticed that it only had 1 million views in 5 hours, and then pretty much stayed that way throughout the entire week with only about 3 million for several days after Ep 1 had 4+ mil in only 15 hours.

While the premeire of Season Two passed 4+ million in LESS THEN TWENTY FOUR HOURS! -and the last episode is barely over it's despite being over 5 months apart. It's been a whole month, yet Seeing Star's views are still similar to when it was released and Exxes and Oohs is barely surpassing Seeing Stars despite a whole month having passed, while for Season One, in 5 months there would be 20+ million views and at times... more!

-and just to make this worse...

Hazbin Hotel.. a show with a pilot with over 70+ million views:

It's anniversary/sneak peak into the official show got only-

Get this...

THREE MILLION VIEWS!

-when FIVE WHOLE MONTHS have already passed and the fandom's still popular! While most of the previews for the pilot got OVER 3.5 million and the most popular being 20+ mil!

So it's really just people not caring to see the literal anniversary of the show since most were turned off by Helluva Boss or moved on because they grew out of all the stereotypes. It's got only about 0.8% of the views Hazbin's pilot has gotten despite the fact that people have been waiting for this show for THREE YEARS now and the fandom is bigger than ever. So even for that monopoly, it's slowly falling, and people barely cared about Hazbin's anniversary and release date reveal despite having waited for 3+ years.

So "Seeing Stars's" views has barely budged since release, Season Two's premiere has 20+ mil, but has also been that way since over three months ago, Exxes and Oohs only had 1 mil after even 5+ hours and onward, and Hazbin Hotel, a show with billions of fans, it's anniversary got only 3 mil- while the past season made OVER A YEAR AGO continues to receive views regularly. Meanwhile, Lackadaisy, had 6+ million in only TWO WEEKS while Exxes and Oohs barely got passed that in that time period (I remember it having maybe 5+ mil in about two weeks last time I checked, or even less that that.) and has been stagnant in views for 3+ weeks while Lackadaisy got over half of that in only 2+ weeks.

Which now makes it Helluva Boss's very first competitor.

While Murder Drones has Seeing Star's level of views after an ENTIRE YEAR so this is really saying something about the quality of Helluva Boss's latest episodes as Season One still skyrockets, the latest episodes stay stagnant even after 3+ weeks, and Helluva Boss now has a direct competitior due to this lowering in quality and just how many reviews are now criticizing it while Lackadaisy's reviews are majority positive with little to no hiccups in between.

Not joking, the first thing you get when you search "Seeing Stars Review" is thousands of negative reviews because of Vivienne, Adam, and Brandon Rodger's refusing to improve in their WRITING- you know... WHAT THEY WROTE ON A DOCUMENT?! The thing people have been CRITIQUEING?! Not "a personal, useless preference" but ACTUAL CRITICISM that they keep ignoring to look "near perfect" and to keep the monopoly going while other indie shows continue to get mediocure level views in comparison to Helluva Boss.

The views have been stagnant since near release. I remember seeing 17 million 3 weeks after it came out- and now it wont budge!

Yeah, im sure those statistics and thousands of people getting upset for actual reasons are "bad faith!" too. Adam- FUCK OFF! People aren't "bad faith" for telling you that using anti-black and fatphobic stereotypes in your show is awful! Also- you're show is now getting genuine competition so I suggest not being an egotistical jerk to your own fans and to actually listen to them for once before shit hits the fan and you have to further get hit by your own karma!

While look at all of the positive reviews Lackadaisy's getting!

Lackadaisy has almost all positive reviews, is catching up with Helluva Boss's latest episodes, all the other episodes in Season Two are also still static in views and Season One continues to get thousands on a daily basis, and yet is still- and I mean- still, Barely scratching Daisy's success! In comparison to how you'd think these "still being rewatched a lot" last episodes would be doing since this is HB, the monopoly of indie animation, that we're talking about!

So i'd say that Helluva Boss Season Two has been getting it really rough for the past 8 months in comparison to the success Season One still has, and even then, the first episode still has 54+ mil and yet most of the episodes continued to decrease by the millions each release. So even in Season One, the signs that people were losing interest were already there. -and Ozzies and Truth Seekers have just now caught up with Season Two's first episode (You know... the one people got hyped as all hell by but then lost interest once the episode started getting slammed for how terrible it was?) despite being the ones that are praised often, while Season Two's premiere has barely budged for the past year- making this a receipe for MILLIONS of lost views in total, and this is a fandom that constantly says "I binge watch the episodes a ton!" and yet Season One has barely budged in one and a half years. Its been in 30+ mil I think since last year... it's April now. -and they're now all catching up to each other and are about the same views, which would mean that they're barely going up by the thousands for ENTIRE MONTHS and Season Two, is getting even less because of the negative reviews from not a "useless personal opinion" but OBJECTIVELY BAD WRITING!

Season Two stays stagnant in views even after 5+ weeks and onward since the difference in views is that small.

THEY NOW HAVE A COMPETITOR! So Vivienne really needs to start giving a shit or WOOAH boy things are going to get intense!

So though Helluva Boss is still on top, it's falling over, and now has competition to worry about after only two weeks.

-and even then, it's still on top, because of Vivienne manipulating both her audience and staff into meeting constant demands and giving it constant praise regardless of quality under the threat of being seen as a "bad person" for not doing so.

Helluva Boss having almost billions of dollars in merch, 40+ million views with many of their episodes, a majority celebrity cast with little to no indie actors, Vivziepop having basically tried to put down Far Fetch from having any actual success by trying to not get her team with a show of BILLIONS of views to not work on it just because Hazbin is her "favorite project!" when these people have BILLS TO PAY and a FAMILY that can't be held up just by one project- which is why people like Erin had to work extra jobs, overnight, despite this show getting millions of dollars each day, in the first place! Yet to Vivienne, what mattered the most was her project, and not their lives. Which is the reason why she overworks her staff, and according to people who worked there, aren't even actually allowed to work on other projects, including Far-Fetched, either. While Far Fetched has not nearly as many people working on it and everything we see there has with has 100,000+ or less while Helluva Boss continues to monopolize the industry. (in case you're asking: Yes, it was also her supervisor's fault, but she's a million dollar creator, can't she just hire someone else instead of getting in the way of other people's lives other a cartoon show? Most freelancers do multiple projects, how else are they going to pay the bills?)

Yeah, Erin was lifted from a few things- but did they still have to work an extra job just to support themselves despite working for a 40+ million dollar show, did most people in Spindlehorse end up having to suffer even worse to meet those kinds of demands?

YES!

So does that make all the "Erin's not a real victim" or "Erin Frost's mistakes, as a human being, makes everything people say about Vivienne's behavior "not true" just because we beleive people who bootlick Vivienne but not people that she's hurt despite both people "only" using word of mouth. Except no, because no the ex-staff have evidence and yet the current staff who threatened to punch the people who spoke out about Vivziepop's behavior have nothing but word of mouth but we'll still beleive them just because they give us softcore porn! :D" comments now complete bullshit?

YES!

-and with Ashley Nichols in particular:

You'd think that Vivziepop would try to help Ashley... A LOT!

-since Ashley gave her projects millions of views in publicity and support with Hunicast and having actually worked on Hazbin!

But instead, Viv prioritized herself in the situation, fired all of her indie voice actors and replaced most of them with celebrities when she could have easily found other indie vcs but choose to use her status to get an actor from Grey's Anatomy and NORMAN REEDUS- and most likely will get more celeberties for Hazbin just because "famous = don't accociate with indie actors." appparently despite her main thing being "Support indie creators guys! :("

Vivziepop, again, pulling herself up while she's already been the top of the indie industry for the past 4+ years, while other projects continue to be pushed into the mud of a "cult classic" grave.

So in reality- Helluva Boss isnt "helping" the indie industry grow stronger, it's causing a monopoly which gets in the way of people's shows, their careers, their jobs, and even their mental health.

-and many people having little to no mentions of other projects outside of "Look at this pretty cool project I found- Ok, BACK TO HELLUVA BOSS AND HAZBIN HOTEL WOOOOAH LOOK THIS IS THE BEST INDIE SHOW EVAR!1!" is a literal monopoly in it's most capitalistic, trend serving, overproduced form.

Ashley even saw Vivienne trying to blacklist yet another staff member just because that staff member was upset about how much they were being rushed and overworked in order to meet even near the same demands, even with a few things being lifted since they have ADHD, they were still overworked, and for the rest of the staff it was even worse since they were overworked and bullied in order to meet the demands of said monopoly and stay in Spindlehorse.

Far Fetched got announced years ago- yet Vivziepop hasnt even mentioned it once as far as ive seen, she fired Ashley's partner and seeing how HB is, is likely going to replace him with an non-indie voice actor when apparently she could have easily kept them if she just paid a fee, when she has MILLIONS of dollars in support for her show now, lives in LA, and could easily use her platform to support THOUSANDS of indie projects. But as usual, she pulls herself up, bullies her own fandom by saying that they're "NOT A WRITER!" and "CANT UNDERSTAND WRITING!" for giving her any feedback and has basically manipulated her audience into seeing her and her shows as "NEAR PERFECT!" to continue said monopoly with HB's continous trending and high reviews regardless of quality. While other projects are only "secondairy". -and despite having worked on Hazbin Hotel, Far Fetched has gotten the average amount of acknowledgement for indie animation- Which, isnt much... at all.

Compared to that of mainstream shows, and especially Hazbin Hotel!

Yet as usual, Vivziepop manipulates her followers into contuining to put her on top regardless of her channel's ever reducing quality, and even views since it's lost millions since debut. With people constantly making excuses such as "ITS JUST BEEN UP LONGER!" and "ITS NOT LOSING VIEWS THE PANDEMIC HAS JUST ENDED AND PEOPLE ARE OFFLINE MORE NOW!"

Yeah-

Say that to how Lackadaisy has 6+ million in only two weeks despite being another show altogether, despite the show also having been produced in the pandemic since 2019.

It's been only two weeks yet it already has almost just as many views, and if this keeps up, will likely even have more than HB's latest episode while "EXXES AND OOHS!" has been only at 13+ since it was released. It barely has moved on inch in a entire month while Lackadaisy keeps going... and going... and going...

While Helluva Boss's latest episode has barely scratched the surface despite being just as new with only a month difference.

It's honestly messed up how Ashley was shafted after supporting Vivziepop and working for her after all this time. Same for all the other artists who worked for her. -and as Erin said:

-and seeing how Far Fetched is doing right now, this couldnt be any more evident of just how much of a capitalistic, worker mistreating, monopoly that Vivziepop's channel has become to the point where people who worked with her FOR YEARS still end up getting the short end of the stick or even outright harassed by her and her fandom, and she doesnt even defend them, she just... let's the bullying happen, let's her ex staff get slandered, let's her staff threaten to HIT THEM while only caring about shippings involving literal FICTIONAL CHARACTERS! -and last time I checked... going to the levels of not just trying to manipulate people into thinking that Vivienne is a "perfect little lamb" to gaslight people into not looking into how she treats her staff- but also THREATENING VIOLENCE over the fact that someone was actually honest about what was happening in Spindlehorse- Isnt exactly what i'd like to call "good treatment" of your staff since Vivienne let you do this to people. Hell- is- IS THIS EVEN ALLOWED ON TWITTER?! Is it even allowed for people on the platform to threaten to hurt someone on Twitter in their guidelines, hell, is it even legal to threaten to hurt someone like this at all?! Especially if it's being used to threaten people into not speaking out about actual workplace mistreatment?!

HOLY SHIT! Just let these people tell you that you need to do better, and going to the levels of threatening to hit someone for critiqueing Vivienne for her behavior even once and then going out of your way to call them "GLASS JAWED MOTHER FUCKERS!" is genuine hostility and honestly, I dont even think it's even legal to verbally harass and threaten people to this extent. WHAT THE FUCK?!

I looked into this and... yeah! What Monica did was against Twitter guidelines by threatening to hit people who were in the studio that said anything about how Viv was actually acting.

I also checked to make sure, but.... yeah, she actually wanted to hit people for saying that Vivienne was overworking her own staff by rushing and also having to work full day jobs despite Helluva Boss continuisly ranking in millions of dollars. Which means that they were getting a small percentage of pay compared to what ends up being used for Vivziepop's "spectacle!" animation. So this isn't just acephobia, but also threatening genuine violence towards people for saying that they don't deserve to be mistreated. This is vile.

Hell, even without those guidelines- it's disgusting that Vivienne let her staff talk to people this way and then also mistreated Spindlehose for all these years too. NO ONE deserves to be treat this way for speaking out, especially if all they're doing is saying what happened to them in a studio that they worked in, and the fact that everyone demonizes Erin Frost for a few mistakes but then lets Vivziepop's "favorites" threaten to HIT SOMEONE is actually horrifying.

Honestly.

Helluva Boss isnt even "INDIE" anymore, it just fills up space in the indie community while clearly being a million dollar, mainstream show that has Norman Reedus and other celebrities in it to give the "We're indie so we can do what we want just because we're smaller than Disney!" excuse to be assholes to other people for even saying something as simple as "tone down the saturation a bit."

It's a monopoly. A monopoly built on years of breaking trust, threats, more bullying, betrayal, prioritizing in fame over indie creators, worker mistreatment, rushed projects, fanbase manipulation, and it's why I have so much faith in Lackadaisy. It gives me hope, it gives me hope that one day Vivienne will finally get told to "WAKE UP!" through all that's been happening. That the monopoly will end, that the indie industry will become more balanced again, that freelance artists will be treated better and receive more respect for their craft instead of just being used to meet corperate demands. That hope... is why, that though I like Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss, that I also wish for other creators to get the spotlight and that one day... maybe... just maybe... that a new franchise will take Helluva Boss's place.

So to answer your question:

Yes. By defintion Helluva Boss has become a monopoly. It's taking a large chunk of the indie animation industry, and the creators overworked their staff to meet high demands for it to get trending almost every year through high amounts of demand and episodes in 2021 alone. It's taken a large amount of control over the industry and it's come to a point where creators have to rely on supporting Vivziepop to even get a piece of what HB has. Honestly, how is that fair? How is it "fair" to overwork her staff and appeal to even the bottom of the barrels of trends to keep her show trending while most of the other indie shows on Youtube suffer for it?!

It's making the indie animation community almost as corperate as the very companies that caused these people to steer towards indie animation in the first place. Which is such a shame, because there's so many good projects out there- yet to be discovered by most people. -and yet HB gets the trending almost every time because it appeals to as many mainstream trends and porn accounts as possible through all it's fetish and ship bait content and mass amounts of merchandising, and from mass amounts I mean HUNDREDS OF PIECES OF MERCHANDISING every year, even after the show already has 40+ million dollars in it's budget so it's just capitalism and mainstream pandering at this point. The indie community went from going against corperations and capitalism to BECOMING corperate and capitalistic.

It makes me miss back when all we had mostly were just fun short films and play dough animations. It's like people in the indie community have forgotten why we even make all these animations in the first place.. Not just for money and sucess....

But for fun, to animate away from corperations... for fun.

#helluva boss season two #helluva boss criticism #lackadaisy #helluva boss critical #not putting this in helluva bosses tag since im not in the mood to be harassed and sent racial slurs by hazbin fans today.

[wanderlust-in-my-soul]

Currently watching - January

Because I love a good little list - with an alphabetical order this time! 😊

Regularly updated during the month, latest update 31.01.2023

This may contain spoilers!

1. Ameiro Paradox (6/8 on Viki and Gaga)

An enemies to lovers story with journalists and cute smiles. I am a little bit confused by Kaburagi, just like Onoe is. It is not bad, the acting is quite nice.

2. Bokura no Micro na Shuumatsu aka The End Of the World With You (1/8 on Gaga or Viki)

This feels depressing and heartbreaking and I love it! Done right this can become a little sad gem.

3. Cutie Pie 2 You (1/4 on Youtube)

Well, I haven't been waiting for this and the first season left without a deeper impact on me. So right now I am very much unimpressed with this one.

4. HIStory 5: Love in the future (5/20 on Viki)

It is starting to grow on me. Both storylines. Seeing Hai Yi being nice, caring and less arrogant is kind of sweet. And all the flirting between Liang and Wynn is very much entertaining. Besides that, the main story is kind of confusing and I can't stop myself from asking, why doesn't He Bo Wei search himself in the internet?

5. Individual Circumstances (4/8 on Viki)

After years spending their lives apart from each other an almost worn out movie director and a famous writer meet again. The past has to be processed and the writer deals with their history and present in one of his stories. I like this one a lot. Can it be please next week, so I know what they were talking about in the preview?

6. My School President (8/12 on Youtube)

I loooove this one so much!!!! It is my favorite watch of the week! Set in highschool we meet Tinn (the school president) and Gun (head of the music club). Tinn has a huge crush on Gun and Gun sees in Tinn the enemy who is standing between the success of his music club and the win of the Hot Wave Music Contest. Sometimes you just need a good old high school bl to be happy. I enjoyed this series so much. And the music is so good!!!

7. Never Let Me Go (7/12 on Youtube)

The tension and chemistry between the two mains is definitely there and noticeable. I am hooked with the story and at this point really anxious about what's to come. There are so many layers to unfold and I love reading all those metas here on tumblr! So well written analyses.

8. Physical: 100 (2/10 on Netflix)

Okay, listen...my best friend told me, I should watch this and after 15 minutes we were on the phone with each other and for the next 1,5 hours we had the time of our lifes! This show is insane and so much fun to watch!

9. The New Employee (6/8 on Viki)

I love the manhwa and I really enjoy this adaptation. It is funny and cute and not so far from the original material. The two mains have a wonderful chemistry.

Finished in January

Series

1. 2 Moons the Ambassador (12/12 on Youtube)

It was just bad. The acting was not good. The plot was...lame and there was too much going on with the amount of couples to deal witj. And there was just too much dull drama without reason and so many plotholes and logical errors... 2 out of 10 for the sweetness sometimes

2. Till the world ends (10/10 on Youtube)

This one was such a pleasant surprise for me. A story about the end of the world with explicit and brutal scenes, decent acting and a kind of good story! The chemistry was there and with episode eight they said, well lets show world what we can do. I won't talk about physics nor the ending. Well the latter would explain the first issues, but I don't care. I liked it! 8,5 out of 10 dystopian ideas

3. Remember Me (14/14 on Gaga)

Okay, this one is so complicated for me. First I found it boring. With episode three I was hooked and totally into it. Around episode 10/11 I just got bored again and the story became...difficult to like anymore and the last one was just meh...I really liked the storytelling, but some parts could have been cut short and others needed more story time. I felt like they have forgotten that there were like four other stories beside Champ's in the last episode so everything felt rushed. And yes, the big problem with Name's decision to speak. Like as it is just so easy to overcome your fear and barrier and mental health problem and just speak. One day, after you notice it would be better for others if you speak, you just do it...well, that is not how it works. And yes, thinking about it, this is a really big problem of the show in general. Just presenting mental health problems as something you can overcome with enough selfcontrol and some words of encouragement...or the sight of others who feel unwell in your depressed presence...damn...It could have been such a nice 7, but thinking about those flaws really hurts...there is no real working with the problems. Champ just decides to forgive his family and his depression is healed...Name speaks because he just decided to do so...Gun and Golf broke up and just a few days later Golf says sorry and pulls out a ring and everything is fine again...Well no...that is not how life works. 4 out of 10 stories to tell

4. Zettai BL ni Naru Sekai VS Zettai BL ni Naritakunai Otoko Season 1 (4/4 on Gaga)

A man who tries to avoid the world of BL, by reading Yaoi mangas to get to know all the tropes he has to avoid in order to not get involved with the world as a main character. It is hilarious. I had a really good time watching it. 8 out of 10 tropes to avoid

5. Love Bill (10/10 on Youtube)

A vietnamese drama about a young man falling in love with a screenwriter. Well, of course there are some other things happening in between, but this is the heart of the story. Our boy Nguyễn Bá Vinh is doing a great job! I really enjoyed this drama. And the ending is so perfectly fitting for this drama. Thien is a screenwriter and known as the king od sad endings. So yeah, the ending is sad, but at the same time perfect and bittersweet. 7 out of 10 rainwater barrel showers

6. The director who buys me dinner (10/10 on iQiyi)

Okay, I read the Webseries, so I do know what Dennis was up to and what his story was. I liked the story between Yudam and Dongbaek. The ending? I wish they would have stick more to the original, but I am not mad about it. They had a fresh start and it is not that open of an ending for me. Yudam agreed to have dinner with Dongbaek and I believe that those two will be happy in the end. 7,5 out of 10 pills to swallow

7. Island (6/6 non bl)

I have never thought I would say I like a horror series, but here I am. I hate horror besides Vampires, Aliens and Witches, so this was a surprise, especially when I think about my despise and horror for The Exorcist. But this one is really good! And now I can't wait for season 2!! There is so much to unpack and I am hooked! 9,5 out of 10 lust demons

8. War of Y (20/20 on Gaga)

I finally watched it. I don't know. It was good imo, without a doubt. But it is a little bit paradox. The series tries to go against the industry and the fanservice and the working conditions, but in the end it is just another bl. Most of the stories have their happy ending and are kind of unrealistic. I enjoyed my time watching it, even though it was tough at some times. 7 out of 10 two-faced media

9. Gaya Sa Pelikula aka Like in the Movies (8/8 on Youtube)

What a perfect little series! I loved every second of this and I wish it had more episodes. But they managed to tell the story in the time they had without cutting something short or anything. It is a deep story with a light storytelling that fits the tone perfectly. The story is about Karl and Vlad who become fake boyfriends to help each other and who happen to fall in love with each other for real. But nothing is that easy in this world and the process of coming out and coming to terms with who you are needs time. Absolutely love this one! 10 out of 10 dishes to wash

10. Ingredients (21/21 on Gaga)

This was the perfect thing to watch while laying down with a cold. It warms your heart and makes you smile. It is such a cute and wholesome story and I believe they will manage to overcome all obstacles in their relationship. I am very grateful for this recommendation! 9,5 out of 10 desserts

11. My Engineer (14/14 on Youtube)

Well this one was a ride. I liked the beginning, but my patience died at some point. So Bohn and Duen became a couple, but they didn't touch each other, no hand holding, no kind of showing affection and the only one who does shows them through words is Bohn, but he becomes so jealous I wanted to slap his face. He is sulking the whole second part of this series! That was so annoying. The only bright spot were RamKing. I get it, they are cute and the only ones with at least two brain cells! 5,5 out of 10 sulking faces...

12. The Tuxedo (8/8 on Gaga)

This was not good. I think it is cringy and there was no chemistry between the mains or a plot I could really follow. I mean there are short films out there, which can transport a better story with a better feeling for time and substance than this series. The amount of times I cried noooo...Not good... 3,5 out 10 what the hell was this blue tuxedo?!?!

13. History 4: Close to you (10/10 on Viki)

Yeah, close to you...what a perfect titel. Best friends to lovers, stepbrothers to lovers. And I liked it. I don't know what else to say. I know there are some scenes that are just bad. There is no excuse for that, but you know what? I watched KinnPorsche, I watched Dangerous Drugs Of Sex...And besides those scenes I really enjoyed the stories. Yes, also the stepbrothers. 8 out of 10 Cardigans

14. Between Us (12/12 on Youtube)

Well, in the end it was boring and I couldn't care less about WinTeams relationship or their traumas, which is really sad, because it plays such a big role in the series. I liked them in UWMA, but here, in their own series, they were blank and boring. 4,5 out of 10 swimming pools

15. The Devil Judge (16/16 on Viki)

Why so good? I couldn't stop watching in the end. You know the feeling when you are so tense, you just want to spoiler yourself the ending, but you don't want to, but you want to and in the end you are sitting there in tears, because the drama is so sad and you're so tense. And still, since the beginnen of the show, you question yourself if you want to hate Jung Sun Ah, feel pity for her, fuck her or let her fuck you. In the end I let her fuck me out of pity while I hate her with all my guts. But the drama is just so fucking good. So thrilling and with some really good (and some not so good) plot twists. And in the end, every meme is true, gay sex would be less gay than what ever was going on between Kang Yo Han and Kim Ga On and I respect them for that. 10 out of 10 intense eye contacts

16. Zettai BL ni Naru Sekai VS Zettai BL ni Naritakunai Otoko 2 (3/3 on Gaga)

A man who tries to avoid the world of BL, by reading Yaoi mangas to get to know all the tropes he has to avoid in order to not get involved with the world as a main character - Part II (yes, I copy paste this one...). It is hilarious. I had a really good time watching it. 7,5 out of 10 tropes to still avoid

New Category: Dropped/On Hold

1. I will knock you (1/12 on Gaga)

Well, I don't like it. It brings me no joy so far. So for now it is on hold until I have nothing more to watch...

2. To Sir, with love (2/17 on Youtube)

I know that it is good, but I don't know. I just can't find the energy to watch it. Perhaps some day in the future.

3. Something in my room (3/10 on Youtube)

I saw people talking about this one and how good it is. Well, it is quite okay. I guess it will get a little bit deeper with more episodes, but I haven’t had the time to watch more or the motivation to watch it...so for now it is on hold

4. Hit Bite Love (on Youtube)

I couldn't get over the first half of the first epsiode. It just made me uncomfortable. So this was a dropped for me...

Short films

1. Invitation (on Gaga)

A short film about a jobless person who finds binoculars and breaks in a stranger's home. There is a good twist in the end. The acting was okay, the story was okay...the ending was good. 6,5 out of 10 binoculars

2. Fragile Souls (on Gaga)

I like this one a lot. It has depth and a really deep story for a movie under 10 minutes. The acting is good, too. It is a story about opening your heart to someone and not keeping you inner demons all to yourself. You are allowed to be vulnerable and it gets better. 8,5 out of 10 grainy metaphores

3. Jay (on Gaga)

Jay is a 13 years old boy who is fascinated by his older brother's physique what somewho change into attraction. He is discovering his own sexual orientation while his brother doesn't keep his own a secret from the younger brother (he has sex with his girlfriend while the door to his room was open). It is a complicated film which ewokes complicated emotions. Jay is in an early stage of puberty and his hormones and emotions are going crazy. He can't bring himself to like the girl who has a crush on him. Instead he fantasises about his brother, or his brother's body, a male body to whom he has easy access. The acting is not bad, the subject difficult, but all in all not a bad short film. 7 out of 10 pants

4. Going South (on Gaga)

What a ride. This movie was tense and uncomfortable to watch. I guess you can start a discourse about the question wether the sexual encounter is consensual, dub con or just simply r*pe...With all I have seen it is r*pe for me. There was so much aggression between those two and I understand both sides, which doesn't mean that ones actions were justified. 5,5 out of 10 chasing scenes

5. Suddenly Last Summer (on Gaga)

It is the story about a student, who stalks his teacher after he discovered the latter is gay. The student goes so far that he blackmails the teacher to do everything he wants for a day in return he would keep his secret safe. Well it was a slow and quiet movie. The acting was good. The story itself was okay. I liked it. Did I liek the student? Nope...But his behavior fits his character and his role in the movie. 8 out of 10 headphones

6. Kiss Of The Rabbit God (on Gaga)

This is such a beautiful and good short film! I loved every second of it and I was hooked to the very last scene. The following is all you need to know. Oh I love some good stories! A long time ago in the Qing Dynasty a young soldier fell in love with a handsome official and was sentenced to death for confessing his longing. When his spirit travelled to the Underworld the soldier’s crime was forgiven as one of passion and he was ordained The Rabbit God, the god of secret lovers. The god now travels through eternity answering prayers of forbidden love. 10 out of 10 crimson-hair

7. Langit Budak Biru (on Gaga)

It is not easy to watch, it is not easy to think about, but it is important to think about, to talk about. A movie about two boarding school students in a very religious and very homophobic country trying to understand why they are here and how to survive. My highest resprect for this movie. 10 out of 10 !

Movies

1. Gameboys: The Movie (on Gaga)

Well I haven't seen the first season, but you can indeed watch this without knowledge of the things that happen before (imo). I thought it was a decent movie. The acting was good, the stroy was there and I liked it. But I can't with "Baby" as a term of endearment. At some point all I could hear and concentrate on was this term and I am honest, I hated it. 7 out of 10 ... baby ...

What I’m looking forward to in January:

Beautiful Scars (2nd)

Stoma (4th)

Cutie Pie 2 You (6th)

Utsukushii Kare: Special Edit Version (16th)

Individual Circumstances (19th)

Hit Bite Love (21st)

Kare ga Boku ni Koishita Wake (23rd)

Bokura no Micro na Shuumatsu (30th)

Langit Budak Biru (30th)

Future

The Luminous Solution

#currently watching #josi watching bl #ameiro paradox #between us #history 5 #island #love bill #my school president #never let me go #remember me the series #the director who buys me dinner #the new employee #till the world ends #thai bl #korean bl #japanese bl #bl drama #bl series #invitation #Gameboys: The Movie #a man who defies the world of bl #the devil judge #gaya sa pelikula #like in the movies #individual circumstances #ingredients #my engineer #the tuxedo #physical: 100 #kiss of the rabbit god

[laylainalaska]

I watched Foundation S1-2 this week and really enjoyed it, for certain values of enjoyed, copying over my write-up from DW, now with corrected character names since I've looked them up rather than spelling them from vague osmosis from the show.

(Blacklist the Foundation tag if you don't want to be spoiled from gifs, as I plan to promptly go seek out the least hinged gifs from this entirely unhinged show and bombard everyone with them.)

This show is a bonkers SF soap opera with gorgeous production values, Lee Pace hamming it up in crop tops, and a series of increasingly off the rails holographic versions of a dead chessmaster mathematician deploying his 9999-step plan to save the galaxy. I've literally seen nothing about this at all in my social circles, to the extent that I didn't even really know about it until the spouse started watching it. I was kind of halfway glancing at the screen now and then, if I happened to be in the room, for the first half of season one (and have only the vaguest idea what happened in the first few episodes, based on later events), then got invested and eventually completely hooked in season two, which also picks up after a 100-year timeskip so the cast has changed a lot anyway. Although between stasis pods, cloning, and holograms, it's mostly the same actors. (We have a running joke that by season 3 the cast will be at least 50% Cleons and Hari Seldons by volume.)

Anyway, so it is good? Hard to say! It's sort of like if Expanse and Game of Thrones had a (somewhat more optimistic) baby, in which the budgets are huge, the planets are beautiful, the spaceships are shiny, and lots of Big Feelings happen. The Evil Empire is run by an endless series of clone emperors played by Lee Pace in Romanesque armor and capes with massive amounts of scenery-chewing and an immortal robot bodyguard he occasionally has sex with. They have All The Clones in storage, so if he gets killed, they'll just transfer his memories and activate another one! Meanwhile the rebellion is being orchestrated as a 4000-step multi-century Xanatos gambit by a guy who started by having himself killed and activating a digital copy. Interestingly though, there is so much going on, and it's taking so much time for his plan to come to fruition, that it never really feels like the two of them directly pitted against each other (at least not that much), it's more like all of the stuff that happens along the way, the planets and the pretty spaceships and the people we meet who struggle and fight and save each other along the way.

I have to say that while I'm occasionally reminded by certain plot points and tropes that this is a series based on books from the 1970s, they did a good enough job with racebending, presumable genderbending, and so forth that it rarely feels like it. (Also, though I only know the books from general osmosis, I'm fairly confident the plot has gone way off-book anyway.) In season two there are no less than four young female characters of color in major plot-defining roles, there's a central gay couple whose loyalty to each other in the face of the Empire is a major plot point, and in general it's just a pretty, pretty show full of pretty people and pretty planets (and occasionally some really dazzling space-operatic SF stuff). It is definitely the most OTT and operatic thing I've watched since probably the MCU, and I'm really enjoying it.

Under the cut, out-of-order and largely out-of-context comments on various things I had a reaction to (mostly season 2 since that's where I got invested).

This show is an emotional roller coaster of the highest order. How many different instances of presumed dead and identity-switching can we pack into a single episode?

CONSTANT MY BELOVED. Season 2 in general gives great female characters, I already loved Salvo (;__;) and I also really enjoyed the ladies from the Cloud Dominion, but Constant!! She's just so funny and fun and so absolutely deadpan about everything from conning randos on some backwater alien planet to kidnapping a guy. I was so glad she lived through all of the half-dozen times she almost certainly should have died.

I was surprisingly upset about formerly-trapped-in-the-Radiant half-crazy Hari's death, "surprisingly" because, well, Hari being Hari, and also, it wasn't like this leaves us entirely without Hari Seldons, there's still Creepy Monolith Hari and who knows how many other copies out there. But that one had been through enough with Gaal and Salvor that he really felt like a different person. He's still a manipulative sack of dicks but I liked him! I was sad, but at least hoping he was backed up somewhere! And then two episodes later the most excellent reveal that he and Gaal faked the whole thing! I thoroughly loved all of that. Gaal hugging him! <333

"Don't trust the planet of the creepy utopian space psychics!" Orion and I were chanting at the screen, while they proceeded to not listen to us and it was, predictably, a bad idea. Seriously, when in all of sci-fi was trusting the creepy psychic utopia a good idea?

I had guessed/hoped that the guy with the whispership (can't remember his name) was going to warp into the plaza and save Constant from execution, but I really wasn't sure, and even with an inkling it was going to happen, that was an AMAZING entrance, A+++, no notes. Especially after Constant gave her speech and everything seemed to be setting her up to be a martyr to the Foundation, I was less and less hopeful she was going to get out of it alive somehow. Excellent rescue, very pleased.

I really enjoyed the entire subplot with the Evil Empire Honorable Space Admiral (can't remember anyone's names here either) and the scene in which he justifies his continued loyalty to the Empire is really a good scene. I mean, it's awful. But you can see his reasoning. He can't overthrow the Empire, if he refuses orders it won't change anything, he and everyone he loves will die, and someone else will be put in his place and follow the orders anyway. But then the whole thing with Constant's rescue points out that it may not be possible to change the entire Evil Empire, but you can make a lot of difference for just one person.

But I still wanted him to make better or at least different choices on the blowing up the planet sequence! I guess it all worked out according to Hari's 9999-step plan (my death is only the beginning! the death of my planet is only the beginning!) but that hurted.

Between Honorable Space Admiral and his fighter pilot husband, I was absolutely *not* expecting the husband to be the one of the two of them that survived. However, Honorable Space Admiral and whispership guy got a dynamite final episode (the fistfight with Cleon! never has a man deserved so much punching! the airlock switch!) and they both got to go out in an excellent death scene.

The entire thing with Terminus getting blown up! And then Deus Ex Monolith! And Constant's dads and Space Admiral's Space Husband are alive after the whole exploding planet fell on them! (I was SO happy Constant's family got reunited, I was so afraid she and Space Dads were going to go down each thinking the other one had died.) I think this episode gave me emotional whiplash.

SALVOR NO. WHAT WAS THAT EVEN. She just randomly died at the end there?? Come onnnnn. We already got like 12 death fake-outs in the last couple of episodes! Why'd that one have to be real?!

If time passes differently in the monolith, does that mean the entire rescued Terminus population are still going to be around after the second 150-year timeskip? I have questions!

Speaking of time passing differently in the monolith, best dialogue: Whispership guy: Whoa, it's dark. How long was I in there, anyway? Constant: Three years. Paulie: More like three hours. Constant: We agreed we weren't going to tell him! I love them. <3333

That sure was A Lot with the Cleons. And now I guess there's an entire Cleon/Cloud Dominion dynasty out there somewhere just waiting to cause trouble.

So yeah, I'm really enjoying my bombastic sci-fi soap opera! Season 3 when pls.

#foundation #foundation tv

[seedlessmuffins]

aren’t you a new football fan? celebrating like you’ve won the fucking world cup after one arsenal win lmfao. i’m not a city fan but don’t get used to assna wins when you lot lose the league to city again. embarrassing behaviour

hi anon! let's clear the air, yeah?

first of all, yes! i am a new football fan, i just started watching seriously after the world cup, and i am also a new arsenal fan. however, i still care very deeply about the sport and my team's successes in said sport! that is what being a fan is all about <3 just because i didn't grow up watching european football doesn't mean that i have less of a right to enjoy it then you do! also, it is the most popular sport in the world with billions and billions of fans globally, and out of the entire sport, the english premier league is the most viewed league in the world. of football, but also of any sport. so you can't really gatekeep it, sorry!

second of all, i'm aware that this was only a regular matchweek, not the world cup. but there are two important caveats to that those being:

who we were playing

and

the fashion in which we won

for who we were playing, it's not a secret that outside of the spurs and the north london derby, manchester united is one of arsenal's biggest rivals and has been since the start of the premier league when they were competing against each other for titles and trophies. i won't go into premier league history with you, i am just a new fan who knows nothing after all, but you should know that beating a rival is always exciting, especially when you are competing against them for points and jockeying for the title to compete with man city. every win is important, and winning is better when it is against a historical rival team.

for the fashion in which we won, it was a close game until the very end. rashford scoring in the 27th minute, and odegaard answering back 35 seconds later. the teams were trading chances and possession, there were good chances and var calls that went either way, it was a close game where the teams were fighting hard. and then, in the 95th minute, rice scores an absolute screamer and it was truly scenes at the emirates. gabi jesus caps it off with a 101st minute beaut, and arsenal win the game. winning in the last 3 minutes of regulation time, with a bonus goal over 100 minutes into the game is exciting! it was thrilling to watch, and seeing a team that i support win that emphatically in that dramatic of a manner was so much fun. its an exciting thing to watch and its ok to be excited when there's a win like that!

it also isn't just one win, this has just been our best win this season (imo)! we have only played four games, and we have won three and drawn one. so that is three wins actually, i am just celebrating this one the most, again, because of who we won against, how we won, and how we played to secure the win.

if the bit about "not getting used to arsenal wins" (i don't think you can call them assna when they came second in the premier league last season, and this season they haven't lost and they're in the champions league, right? but what do i know i'm just a new footy fan <3) is about the post where i said i forgot how good it feels to watch my team win, i don't think you understand what i have been through in the past 12 years as a sports fan. my hockey team has been on a losing streak almost this whole time, and we have been one of the flops of the league for awhile. just take a look at these gorgeous statistics from my favourite hockey team (that i have been a fan of since i was two, thank you very much)

do you want to talk losing? i know about losing. i know about losing for a long time, in an embarrassing manner. if you want more examples from football, from january to april 2023 i watched psg play every week. that was embarrassing losing in football for real. i might be new to football but i'm not new to sports, and i have to be perfectly honest: coming second is not losing. and what happened today wasn't a loss at all! in fact, it was the opposite! it was a win!

idk about losing the league to manchester city, it seems to me that arsenal has a good system with talented players that can ball out. we will see what comes, as the season is long and there are many other competitions for arsenal to compete in, but i have faith in the gunners and i believe that they can win! (and ill let you in on a little secret: that's what being a fan is all about <3)

i'm not sure if the embarrassing behaviour at the end is for my behaviour or arsenal's behaviour, however i am not being embarrassing, i am just being a fan, and arsenal certainly wasn't embarrassing with their performance today. idk what you're seeing, but bestie i think you might be blind <3

thanks for coming into my inbox anon, hope this cleared everything up for you! next time, let's let people enjoy things yeah? i try my best to be positive on here, i'm hardly ever a hater and i like to spread joy. why don't you take some of that energy alright? alright. hope you enjoyed your stay <3

ps: arsenal definitely are winning the world cup :)

#anon asks #well this wasn't what i was expecting but here we are #truly don't understand hate anons like let people enjoy things damn. #also idk why you're so defensive of it you're definitely a city fan lmao

[souryogurt64]

nine people you'd like to know better

tagged by @avatarthelastairgender (thank u for tagging me!!)

last song: last liked is “I can’t help myself” by the Four Tops but my last listened is Bleed American by Jimmy Eat World 

favorite color: purple or pink!!! my room is pink and my bathroom is purple

currently watching: hmmm i dont really watch TV… i went to a screening of Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo+Juliet today and i love that movie, but earlier last week I attempted to start Bridgerton Season 2 and I was …. less than impressed but will probably continue to watch 

sweet/savory/spicy: savory!!!! i <3 salty foods/snacks especially goldfish and goldfish adjacent foods like cheez its lol but i mostly like to cook 

relationship status: single forever!! and thats ok lol 

current obsession: My fob/panic obsession waxes and wanes and I definitely think its waning right now but I feel like lately I’ve mostly been thinking about work and also recently I hurt my foot and I was stuck in bed and obsessed with playing a bunch of computer games like the oregon trail, an island game, an aquarium game, and a cooking game lol but I burnt out on that so……. whomst knows what’s next 

last thing you googled: I was reading about the Franklin expedition wikipedia page because of a post on r/unresolvedmysteries and it was all very scary 😭 but apart from that a bunch of searches for r/amitheasshole because I love to rot my brain with garbage 

tagging: @thenimyourprince @bunnypatty @possumsociety @cryptophasiac @theblackparadeisdead @billiemania @unethicalexperiments @gebtoons @angerofangels

[starwalker42]

human credentials

A realisation, a car ride, and a question.

“Scully… do you think there’s a chance you might be autistic?”

Autistic!Scully fic, because my brain wouldn't shut up until I wrote it. I've pictured it taking place in season 2, but it could probably fit anywhere between season 1-6. Many thanks to @i-want-those-files for the autistic Scully meta that started this whole thing, and for the Discord loaves who have put up with me talking about this for weeks <3

Read on AO3 | @today-in-fic

It's been a long morning.

A phone call at 3am; Skinner’s voice, still thick with sleep, apologising for the early hour. Some weapons bust at a warehouse in northern Virginia – intel was fresh, perps were in place, and all hands were needed on deck for go time in two hours. A car would be outside his apartment in ten minutes. Mulder had rolled off his couch, turned off Space Odyssey, and was waiting by the kerb within two.

Scully was already in the back of the sedan, but they’d maybe exchanged ten words on the way – she’d dozed as Mulder had watched the pitch-black countryside roll past the window, feeling a familiar itch buzz through him. If he was back at his apartment, he’d be heading out for a run to shake it off. He guessed an armed raid would be a suitable replacement.

They got to the rendezvous late, barely twenty minutes before it was time to go – just enough time to get kitted out and receive a rundown on the plan. He sat next to Scully in the SWAT van, elbows bumping in the close quarters, and waited for the signal to go.

It was loud, messy, but over in less than ten minutes – the gang had been caught unaware, with barely a chance to react. All the same, there were casualties: two agents and four suspects wounded in the crossfire, and one suspect dead from a hand grenade he’d detonated accidentally. Mulder’s ears were still ringing, four hours later.

Four hours later, when he’s still at the warehouse, because a big raid like this means one thing: paperwork.

His rifle has been checked three separate times, and he’s been asked the same questions twice, by separate senior officers: How many times did you fire your weapon? Do you feel you reacted with proportionate force? Who provided your orders? Did you voice any concerns prior to engagement? Were these listened to by your task force leader?

And he’s answered the questions as they want him to, playing the good little FBI agent and biting back any sarcastic response that threatens to raise its head. They’ve shut the X-Files before. He doesn’t need to give them encouragement to do it again.

Once the seniors are satisfied, he’s allowed to go, so long as he promises to keep his cell phone close by and not to speak to any press until the official statement is released. They give him permission to turn in his vest and helmet, and after leaving the debrief area he’s finally allowed to talk to the other agents milling around the scene, looking just as drained and bored as he feels.

There’s only one agent he wants to talk to, but she’s nowhere to be found.

He feels his heart twist in something that feels like disappointment as he realises she’s probably long gone, on her way back home after her own debrief. There’s an understanding that they won’t be in the office until later, now, but part of him had been hoping they’d drive back to Washington together, sharing common grievances and singing to the radio. He swallows the familiar feeling of abandonment and asks another agent how to get out of here.

“There are cars out the back.” Mulder nods and turns to leave, until the agent adds, “Good luck out there.”

He doesn’t bother asking why, but the comment is explained soon enough.

Someone must have tipped off the press, because the moment he steps out of the warehouse he’s blinded by camera flashes. There are microphones being thrust towards him, and he can’t respond even if he’d wanted to, because all the questions are flowing together, too loud for him to hear. For a long moment he just stands there, blinking away the sunspots in his vision.

Then he remembers – he’s got to be a good little FBI agent, and standing mute and dumb in front of the press is not a good look.

“Excuse me.” He squeezes past the cameras, keeping his head down.

He isn’t wearing his windbreaker, and he hopes that with nothing to formally identify him as FBI the journalists will soon lose interest. A few keep trying as he edges through the crowd, but after a few ‘no comment’s they leave him alone.

As he leaves them behind, the first drops of rain start to fall. He hurries around the side of the warehouse to the cars, flashing his ID to the agent monitoring them as he ducks under the ticker tape.

It’s a standard fleet, government-issue black sedans, and Mulder knows each one has the keys waiting for him in the ignition, ready for him to head back to Alexandria with the understanding that he’ll return it to the Hoover Building at his convenience.

He doesn’t like being a good little FBI agent, but it does have its perks.

He’s surveying the cars, reading to take his pick, when he sees a flash of red hair out of the corner of his eye.

It’s Scully. She’s sat in a car – in the passenger seat, he realises with a grin.

She waited. Of course she did.

He practically bounds over, throwing open the driver’s door, and leans in. “To Georgetown, ma’am?”

She doesn’t acknowledge him. At first, he thinks nothing of it, just climbs into the seat and starts to buckle his seatbelt, but then he notices her hands. She’s got both of them resting on her thighs, and she’s clenching and releasing her fists, over and over, so fast it seems an almost unintentional movement, a spasm of muscles.

He looks up at her face, and realises her eyes are squeezed shut. Her shoulders are tight, pulled up towards her ears, and her hands keep going. In, out, in, out.

He’s never seen her like this. He’s not sure what to make of it.

“Scully?”

There’s a noise, then, a whine almost, quiet but continuous, and it takes him a moment to realise that it’s coming from his partner.

“Scully?”

It doesn’t stop. To his distress, her movements start to get more frantic, her fists clenching faster and faster, until suddenly something changes. Before he can stop her, her hands have come up and she’s hitting herself, slapping her open palms against the side of her head hard enough that it must be hurting, but she doesn’t stop.

Mulder doesn’t think, just moves – he gets out of the car, indifferent to the steady downpour that’s now started, and heads to her side, opening the passenger door. He reaches in and grabs her wrists, so tight he can see the skin there turning red as he pulls her arms away, back into her lap.

“Scully, stop.”

His touch seems to freeze her, and she stops, not fighting him – but as soon as her hands still, her feet start to move, her knees bouncing up and down, and she’s still making that noise, a soft keening in the back of her throat. Frantic, he runs his eyes over her, searching for an injury, blood, anything that would explain… oh.

Some part of his brain finally kicks into gear, and as he watches her, watches the tension in her body and the need to move, it all slowly starts to make sense in a way he hadn’t been expecting but now seems entirely logical.

“Scully,” he says quietly, kneeling down next to the car. “Scully, I think I know what’s going on. I know you need to help yourself calm down, but I can’t let you do something that’ll hurt you. Okay?”

She doesn’t stop moving, doesn’t open her eyes or relax, but she acknowledges him, gives him a quick, jerky nod of the head.

“So if I let go of you, I need you to do something that won’t hurt. Promise me?”

Scully nods again, and he releases her wrists.

As he’s expected, her legs slow their bouncing as she laces her fingers together, squeezing them against each other. Little by little, her shoulders start to relax.

Mulder stays kneeling by her side, and keeps his voice quiet, his tone even.

“Can you tell me what happened back there?”

For a long moment, Scully doesn’t reply, just sits there, clenching her hands. Then, just as quietly as he had, she speaks. “It was too much. It was just… too loud, and too bright, and there were too many people, and it wouldn’t stop.”

Her hands start to move faster, and he fights the urge to grab onto her again. Instead, he exaggerates his breathing, gently prompting Scully to do the same, helping her breaths come slow and deep. He waits until her hands slow down, and then asks her another question.

“How can I help?”

“Uh…” She gives a shaky smile at that. “Honestly, just keep doing what you’re doing.”

That eases the grip of fear from around his heart, just a little. He’s doing something right, at least. Realising he’s still crouched next to her open door, he starts to straighten, giving her space.

“Should I get back in the car?”

For the first time, Scully’s eyes open, seeking his.

“No,” she pleas. “Stay there?”

Her desperation makes him pause; he relaxes back onto his haunches as her eyes slide shut again, and stays in place by her side, feeling the rain drip off his hair. “Okay. I’m here for as long as you need me.”

Gradually, her hands start to slow, moving from a regular rhythm of clenching and releasing to an occasional squeeze together, until they’re resting on her lap, entwined but still. Her breathing has steadied, too, and with a final deep inhale Scully lifts her head and opens her eyes again to look at him.

“Okay. I think I’m okay.”

There's a moment where he wants to say something, wants to take her hand and squeeze it, but he stops himself, aware they’re not completely alone.

Instead, he suggests the only thing that he can. "Do you want to get out of here?"

She breaks eye contact, something under the surface that he can’t quite place. "Yeah. Let's do that."

He gets back in the car and they drive.

xXx

It’s been almost an hour of driving before Scully speaks.

“I’m sorry about that.”

They’ve made good progress through the near-empty roads on the way to DC, but now, as they near the capital, the traffic has started to pile up; Mulder watches the rain bounce off the trunk of the car ahead as he tries to think of a way to reply.

Finally, he settles for an easy response, a non-answer, really. “How are you feeling now?”

“Better. Calmer. I think it was bad because I hadn’t slept - my nerves were a little frayed.”

“Has it happened before?”

“A few times. I normally deal with it before it gets that bad.”

What she doesn’t say doesn’t escape his attention. This has happened before. Multiple times.

He tries not to think about that – about her struggling, panicking, feeling overwhelmed and not feeling able to tell anyone. Has it happened when he’s been close by? After she’s left the office, or in the adjoining motel room? Have there been times where he’s missed it, or mistaken it for tiredness or irritation, when actually it was something deeper, something far more difficult for her to explain?

He remembers what crossed his mind, standing in the rain next to the car.

“Scully…” He starts, immediately trailing off as the words escape him.

How do you ask something like this? And not just to a stranger, but to a friend, his partner, who knows him better than anyone? Who he knows better than anyone?

Someone he should know better than anyone. There’s a voice at the back of his head asking why it took him so long to notice, why he never asked the right questions or picked up on certain things, why it took him until now to join the dots together. He can’t indulge that voice right now - there’ll be time for blame and rumination later. He needs to finish his question, get it out before he loses the confidence to do so. So, before he can overthink it any further, he sets his jaw and bites the bullet.

“Do you think there’s a chance you might be autistic?”

He can’t look at her as he says it, but there’s a pause, and he feels her eyes on him. He keeps his fixed on the headlights of the car in front, giving her time. She can shout at him if she wants to – he thinks he might deserve it.

She doesn’t shout. After a moment, she asks him a question in response. “You’re the psychologist, right?”

He knows what she’s asking, and he doesn’t want to lie to her.

“I think… I think what happened earlier, what you described, was sensory overload. And what you were doing with your hands looked a lot like stimming.”

“And that’s related to autism?”

“It can be.” She’s not going to let him drop it, not that easily, so he fishes for the right words for a moment. “Scully, I can’t diagnose you, and even if I could I wouldn’t want to. A diagnostic label is so definite, and people can find it so harmful if they’re not ready, and the last thing I want to do is to make you feel uncomfortable - I know it’s not easy to hear, not if you’re still processing the idea.”

He stops himself, aware the words are coming out faster than he can control them.

“I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t want to upset you.”

“You’re not.” He turns to look at her. She’s looking right back, endless blue shining with a resolute certainty. “Mulder, back there… that’s the first time anyone has ever understood what’s going on, or said something helpful. When I used to – what did you call it?”

“Stimming. Self-stimulating.”

“I used to do it sometimes, in grade school, when it got loud, or everything was too much. I’d just… click my fingers, or clench my fist over and over. But then the teachers told me off for fidgeting, and the other kids laughed at me, so I forced myself to stop.”

He forces himself to wait, to let her fill the silence.

She takes a long, deep breath.

“I remember thinking ‘what’s wrong with me?’. It felt like there was some big joke, something everyone else was in on, but that I couldn’t work out.

 “I still feel it now, sometimes, this sense of…” she gestures vaguely. “Of something being wrong. Something’s wrong with me, and everyone else knows, but I can never pinpoint what it is.”

She runs her tongue over her lip, and her next words shake a little. "Mulder, are there… are there other things? About me?"

He knows what she means. And she wants it from him straight, so that's how he gives it to her.

"I know that when people make small talk with you, you get uncomfortable. You prefer it when people say and act how they think, and you find fitting in with people, especially other women, difficult. You don't like change. You have a very rigid belief system, and you don't like anything challenging that. Expressing emotion doesn't come easily to you, but when you feel you feel a lot. You like numbers and science and the certainty of the laws of nature." 

And there's nothing wrong with you, he thinks, but doesn't say. There's nothing wrong with you at all.

Scully's quiet for a long moment. He knows her well enough to know that this means she's thinking, probably too much.

“Okay. I probably, to some degree, fit the profile. But I can do all those things. I can make small talk and act interested in those conversations, and I can tolerate uncertainty and change. And I can deal with too much noise and movement, most of the time.”

“Isn’t that the problem?”

She looks at him.

“The words you’re using, Scully. ‘Act’, and ‘tolerate’ and ‘deal with’. You don’t do those things because you find them easy, or because you enjoy them. It’s because you have to.

"A lot of autistic people - autistic women, especially - talk about pretending. Masking how they actually are or feel, because they want to blend in. It's like… like constantly wearing a disguise you don't feel safe enough to take off."

She falls silent again. The cars ahead start to move, and he puts the car into drive, almost missing her next words under the noise of the engine.

“I thought that was how everyone felt.”

Mulder doesn’t know how to respond to that, or if she even needs a response, so he just waits.

“Sometimes I feel like I don’t even know myself. So much of who I am is for other people, to fit in, and I don’t even know why I bother because it doesn’t make me feel better. Instead I feel like I’m hiding, and I’m terrified of being found out. I’m waiting for someone to realise I’m not who I pretend to be.

“You know, I get so excited about science. About the beauty and the mystery of it, and its absurdity and incredibility, about how I’ll never know everything about how the world works, and how the laws of nature and physics are older than the Earth, and will keep the universe moving even after I’m gone. But I can’t explain that to anyone in a way that makes sense, so I pretend I’m interested in science and medicine in the same way everyone else is.

“But it’s not just that, it’s everything else. I mean, at work I wear certain clothes and style my hair in a certain way, not because I want to but because that’s how I’m expected to, and I look in the mirror and don’t recognise myself because that’s not me. I feel like you’re one of the only people who’s ever seen past that, who even gets close to knowing who I actually am. To everyone else, I’m completely different. I’m some person who doesn’t even exist, it’s just a lie.”

She pauses.

"It's… it’s exhausting.” Saying that seems to help some of the tension leave her body.

“That’s how I feel. I don’t know if I can explain how… how tiring it is, having to be normal, for other people.”

“What if you didn’t have to be?”

She gives him a look. "Mulder."

"No, just bear with me for a minute. I know you won't be able to with everyone, but with me, at least. What if you could completely let go of that need to be normal?"

Another pause. Then, so quiet he almost doesn’t hear: "I'm afraid."

He's only heard her say that once before, sat at his bedside discussing belief and life after death, and her father who passed away only a few short days before.

"I think I'm afraid of what happens if I let go of the mask."

Something twinges in his chest at the idea that Scully – Scully, who can stand in front of a team of seasoned agents and give orders with the best of them, who will stare death in the face without blinking, who is the kindest, most compassionate, most amazing person he’s ever known, is scared of the judgement of other people.

The words come to the front of his mind again, and this time he feels them almost slip from his lips: There is nothing wrong with you. Everything you think is weird, or wrong, or unacceptable, makes you perfect. You’re incredible, Scully.

But he can’t say that. Can’t allow himself to say it, not like this, because he’s a little bit scared of what it signifies. So instead, he says something that he hopes is close enough to what he means, what he wishes he could say.

"Scully, I am the last person on earth who would judge you." It comes out softer than he'd intended it to.

Slowly, they edge forward with the traffic, the rain starting to slow. He doesn’t take his eyes of the car ahead, but he can feel her thinking all the same. This time he finds himself filling the silence.

“I want you to know that if the office is ever too loud, or we’ve just come out of a busy meeting, and you need time to yourself or you need to stim, you can do. I know it might be hard if you’re used to hiding it, but I don’t want you to feel like you can’t.”

“I wouldn’t want to distract you.”

He glances across at her. “Scully, I do it around you all the time. It doesn’t bother me.”

They stop again. There’s a moment of silence, and when he turns to face her, Scully’s looking at him, forehead creasing in confusion. Mulder suddenly realises that he’s always just assumed Scully knew.

“I stim.” He answers her unasked question. “When I tap pencils, or chew seeds? It’s different to you, I do it to concentrate, but it’s the same thing.”

“But you’re not…”

“Autistic? No, I’m not.” Now he has to explain, he’s not actually sure how to. He’s never said the words out loud before. “In 1983, ten years after Samantha went missing, there was a police inquiry into her disappearance. I had to have a psychiatrist assess me, to check how reliable my testimony was, and if there was a chance I had a psychotic disorder that would explain what I saw.

“When he finished the assessment, he asked why no one had ever assessed me for attention deficit disorder before.”

Scully smiles at that, her lips twisting into a half-grin.

“I know,” Mulder jokes. “You’d think I would have worked that out sooner, given the 21 years I’d spent with my brain and the three-year psychology degree.”

The traffic starts to move again – the roads are clearing now as rush hour comes to an end and they move further towards the centre of the city. They both fall quiet once more, Mulder’s attention on the roads ahead and Scully back to gazing out of the window. It’s a peaceful silence, though, one that Mulder hopes is a good sign rather than an indicator that Scully’s lost in her own thoughts again. Neither talk until he pulls up outside of her apartment building, which is when Scully turns to look at him, one hand on the door handle.

“Mulder?”

“Mm?”

“Thank you.”

He hears the gratitude in her voice, deeper than he’d expected. He can’t quite acknowledge it; he wants to tell her she has nothing to thank him for - that all he’s done, really, is the bare minimum, and probably far too late, at that.

He doesn’t say any of that – just nods a little, in understanding, and offers her a small smile.

“Any time.”

She opens the door, saying over her shoulder almost as a second thought, “I’ll see you later?”

“Wouldn’t miss it.” Scully glances back at him properly, and he gives her a full-blown grin. “I’ve got a case about hydrokinesis that’s got your name on it.”

She rolls her eyes at him as she gets out of the car, and he laughs.

#xf fanfic #txf fic #msr #my writing #please someone validate my headcanons lol

[sevenswansmp3]

tagged by @hauntedwoman to talk about 5 things i’m obsessed with <33333 thank you!!!

1. succession surprise, surprise. i’ve finally gotten around to starting a full succession rewatch and i’ve been taking notes. first and foremost, one of my missions for this rewatch was to really focus in on shiv as a character because the first time i watched it and then rewatched it, i was a huge tom and kendall girl and honestly really did not like shiv :( but i recognize now that my dislike for her was mostly a result of my own internalized misogyny and also because she is a woman written by men and they really do their best to make her one of the less sympathetic characters in the show. i also think that a big chunk of fans online (esp twitter) are quick to label her an evil woman and, when defending their pov, they tend to bring up her behavior towards tom and kendall while also ignoring how both tom and kendall have treated her. i’m really enjoying this rewatch and have really grown to love shivvy. her relationship with tom also reminds me a lot of macbeth and lady macbeth and i think that their relationships have a lot of parallels and i find it very very interesting!!! i’m hoping to compile enough evidence to write something comprehensible about it. also, ROMAN. i literally did not give a shit about roman until the last few episodes of season four which is crazy but something has come over me. i think it’s his issues with intimacy and refusal to let anyone like actually see him and love him that has really bonded me to him <3 additionally there is something about kieran culkin (and rory…) that has bewitched me this summer. i think it’s kieran’s little fangs. i’m obsessed

2. the enormity of my desire disgusting me <3 welcome to truelovewaitsmp3 on tumblr dot com. this summer, i don’t think i’ve opened my journal without writing about how bad i want someone to love me, to look at the mess of my insides and all of this gross desire and love me anyways. to quote something i said to katy alpacinolover in an email, “I DON’T WANT SOMETHING CASUAL. I WANT TO BE THE PREY IMPALED ON YOUR SHRIKE’S THORN.” there’s something to be said about shame here and probably a million other things but i’ve written it so many times already that i don’t care to repeat it here.

3. ??? (stone fruits) two weeks ago, i bought a carton of nine plums from a local produce market. i had been rotting on the couch all day and decided that if i didn’t get up and put on real clothes and go buy a plum i was going to die. the most erotic experience i’ve ever had was eating a plum over newly washed cream sheets, plum viscera under my nails and between my teeth, wine colored juice dripping down my chin and onto my sheets. when the plums were gone, i found two forgotten nectarines in the fridge. i have been assigned “the love song of j alfred prufrock” for three different classes over the last four years (high school english, western humanities and then british lit in college) and each time, the line “do i dare eat a peach” was said to refer to prufrock’s acid reflux. in my american lit class, my professor brought it up one day and told us that it referred to oral sex. anyways. a nectarine is not a peach but i find the experience just as enjoyable.

4. wasteland, baby (2019) for whatever reason, i’ve always gravitated more towards hozier’s first album. however, over the past two months, i have listened through wasteland, baby an insane amount of times. something about the world ending and having someone there to hold through it. this album is also so incredibly sexy and is home to the horniest and sweetest hozier songs (TALK, be, dinner & diatribes, movement, etc). at the end of the title track, hozier whispers “that’s it” and i lose my mind. nfwmb is an honorary wasteland baby track, to me, and also a song that makes me insane and that i have had on repeat lately. i’m scared and excited to see what unreal unearth is going to do to me.

5. a past that i cannot go back to !!!! my hometown is filled with too many ghosts. summer digs them back up. i drive past her mom’s house and have to see her stupid car. someone else comes into work and i have to be reminded of everything i’ve missed out on. i have written about the same thing so many times i’m afraid that my story is metamorphosing.

hiiii ok i’m tagging @alpacinolover (i know you’ve already been tagged by someone else but i really need you to do this) @motherofvinegar @kenromshiv and anyone else who wants to do it! im tagging u.

[yeastinfectionvale]

adora. bites you. i think im finally gonna stick my paw in the water. how would u suggest. getting into f1 and associated stuff.

COYOTE!!!! BITES YOU BITES YOU BITES YOU

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH YAY!!

Okay so this will be a long one

Streaming Website

Formula One:

We have had 2 out of the 24 races planned in for the season. We have a week break until racing continues in Australia. My top three previous races to watch are Singapore 2023 (the year's only non-red bull winner), USA 2005 (tyre drama, only 6 cars on the grid) and Spa 1998 (its a miracle anyone finished the race).

Formula One also has four 'support series' that have drivers feed into each other until they join F1; Formula 2, Formula 3, Formula E (the electric car series) and Formula One Academy (the all women's series!).

The lovely @lina-touro has made a f1 primer that can help you get into the series!

F1 also has a netflix series called Drive to Survive, which is not accurate but has it's moments.

Indycar:

Another 'single seater' racing series like f1, it is America based, with less races, more drivers and its own charm. IndyCar liveries are bright and colourful (cough cough F1, no more carbon fibre please.), but can be confusing as sometimes drivers don't share liveries in the same team. The IndyCar season has just started with one race passed, the next race is also less than two weeks away.

IndyCar has a feeder series called IndyNXT, a bunch of new and upcoming talent competing including Jamie Chadwick.

I don't really have many races for IndyCar to recommend as i got into the series only last year, but each race is memorable with something going on.

The wonderful @mcpodium has an indycar primer if you are interested.

Indycar does have a series called the 100 days to Indy which is a good watch.

MotoGP:

MotoGP, the beloved, has just started it's series with one race passed and around 9 days until we race in Portugal. MotoGP is different to the other series on this list as it is motorcycle based and fundamentally more dangerous (or adrenaline pumping, your choice).

MotoGP has it's own feeder series, MotoE (Electric bikes) Moto2 and Moto3 (actual children), there is so much happening in all three series, it's crazy.

I recommend races like Sepang 2015 (DIVORCE RACE), India 2023 (Bez Podium heheheh), Argentina 2018 (BATSHIT) and Phillip Island (always gives interesting races.)

Also the brilliant @dressfortheslide-nottheride has made this intro primer for motogp and the amazing @moonshynecybin has made this primer about Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez.

MotoGP does have a series called There can only be one if you want to have a watch.

WRC:

You know when you have the urge to put on 'white girl music™' and driver at high speeds? Yeah that is what Rally feels like. We've had two rallys, and are going to Kenya in two weeks. For Rally i just recommend putting it on whenever, no need for past races. Just put the onboard on and listen.

Unfortunately there is no primer for WRC (yet) and I don't think it has a tv series like the others do (yet).

#asks??? in this economy??? #coyote tag #oof this is long #anyone else wants to add on please do #formula one #formula 1 #motogp #indycar #wrc