#why do you want an audience that pities you anyway

[spencerreidsbookfairy]

apologize

yallllllllllllll if you want this to be a series pls lmk and alsooo should she forgive them and not write songs about them or should she??/

I just sat there.  Listening to them but i wasn't gonna bitch out and change my set, my set was awesome my 3 grammys tell me that 

Stage time

The crowd is filled with famous faces im more nervous about the team then the other celebs im surrounded me as i walk on stage they give a kind clap i decide to shake the team a little bit as i remember they have no idea i heard them 

‘’ ahh guys im so grateful to be here ’ as you guys know i made the song what was i made for, for the barbie movie which was amazing and i can talk about it for hours  

but i will try and make this quick i don’t wanna have you guys fall asleep mid song.’’

The team is in my direct eye of sight i see each and every one of their faces drop especially spencers 

The instrumental starts playing

I used to float, now I just fall down

I used to know but I'm not sure now

What I was made for

What was I made for?  

I take a short  pause during that pause i look at the team who still looks uneasy after my comment

Good

Takin' a drive, I was an ideal

Looked so alive, turns out I'm not real

Just something you paid for

What was I made for?

I think in my head “the songs almost over three more songs and you'll never have to see those assholes again.’’

Think I forgot how to be happy

Something I'm not, but something I can be

Something I wait for

Something I'm made for

Something I'm made for.

The audience claps, genuine claps the faces of happy celebs that enjoyed my performance buried the insecurity that my songs, my career wasn't good enough the team also claps i assume its because they don’t wanna look bitter.

“Today has been such a blessing thank you guys so much.’’

I leave the stage leaving to my dressing room

I knew Spencer would try to come and find me but i didn't think he'd bring the team too.

‘’Hey.’’ spencer says his team practically hiding behind him

“ hey’’ i say back what else can i say my mind i all over the place

‘’ you were outstanding out there everyone loved you, im proud’’

Hm. proud.

‘’Proud? Proud of me? Or your team for not falling asleep mid song.”

The room was so quiet you could hear a strand of hair drop.

‘’I would say it isn't what it sounded like but that wouldn't be true.”

His team is looking at each other figuring out if they should say something

The peppy girl garcia says something first, well she tries to

“ we owe you such-”

“No.”

“No?” she says voice shaky

“You didn't say anything wrong matter of fact you were the only one who defended me, not even he did” I say as I point a finger at Spencer who just looks down in shame and guilt.

“Listen y/n you gotta understand we just want  what's best for reid-”

“Exactly’’ jj chimes in “it's nothing personal were just overprotective” she says with a nervous giggle

“Obviously we were immature and went way too far to attack your profession’’ emily says breaking her silence

Now, i'm a sensitive person i can’t help but choke up while trying to stick up for myself against 5 people 

“i..’ ‘ you can hear me about to cry i look down so i don’t have to see their pity faces 

Where did my confidence go why can’t i talk without crying

“I just wanted to impress you guys with this performance you guys were so cool and nice in my eyes”

They all look so guilty when they can literally hear the cry in my throat.

‘’And you” i say while looking at spencer ‘’ you made me feel like you understood me, understood my music, why i make music.’’ 

“I do!” spencer tries to defend 

‘’ no, or else you would have DEFENDED me instead of bitching out and agreeing with your friends’’

I have never been in a room this quiet

“Anyway i wanna get home and shower its been a long day’’

I get up to walk away and spencer tries to stop me but i pull away and grab my stuff and leave

Prove them right. Make a song about them.

#spencer reid fluff #spencer reid smut #spencer reid x fem!reader #spencer reid x y/n #spencer reid x you #criminal minds incorrect quotes #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid x famous!reader #spencer reid x singer!reader #spencer reid angst

[mrtequilasunset]

Listen as someone who's been posting art on the internet for a long time, genuinely do not add things like "reblogs > likes" or "likes do nothing" "if you don't reblog and just like I'll block you" because genuinely it is so offputting. People are gonna share it if they want to share it and you can't force that, trying will only have the opposite effect and if you're really that concerned about reaching an audience then the best thing to do is probably not alienate most of them by making them feel obligated to share your work.

#why do you want an audience that pities you anyway #most people will decide not to even like it if you say shit like that either so really its only gonna make things worse for you #i get that wanting the attention is normal. even if you're making art for yourself you're still sharing it for a reason #but you're shooting yourself in the foot

[sixosix]

wc 900, guys i’m still a 4.0 lore player so forgive me if lyney’s getting ooc now 🙁 but anw ENJOY THIS MESS OF A GUY!! requested by anon

or, lyney can't stop staring at your lips

Lyney is beginning to think he might be obsessed with you. Or that you’re bad for him.

He’s stumbling over his lines when he sees you in the audience, his fingers catch on each other when he catches you smiling knowingly, and he gets nervous—the most absurd tell. It’s unlike him to feel his heart pounding in his ears when he’s already started the show. None of this feels natural.

It gets to the point where Lynette has to drag him off after a scene, worry evident on her usually-passive features.  “What’s happening to you?”

“I think I might be going insane,” Lyney admits, running his hand across his face. “I can feel it, Lynette. I’ve gone mad.”

All because you kissed him and he damn near exploded on the spot.

It wasn’t a special kiss. There wasn’t even tongue involved. He didn’t even see it coming. Hell, it was half a second and only on the side of his lips. Can it even be counted as a kiss?

If kisses could drive Lyney to a point where he can’t stop thinking about your lips, it might.

Lyney makes a pitiful noise, like a wounded animal. Lynette sighs heavily, as in relief that it’s not anything serious. But it is something serious. How is he supposed to move on in his life when you’re the only thing running through his head?

“Lynette,” Lyney cries, “this isn’t normal. I’ve caught something. Check my temperature.”

“You’re lovesick,” she replies simply, batting the hand that’s trying to get her to place her palm on his forehead. “and you have a show to finish. Get it together, brother.”

Get it together. Yeah, he can do that—if the object of his desires isn’t seated in the front row. But for now, Lynette is glaring daggers, stern like a mother, and Lyney sucks it up and makes a point of avoiding your eyes later on.

Avoiding your eyes usually means staring at other parts of your face.

Lyney feels the last bit of his sanity chip away when you decided it would be a splendid idea to wear something glossy over your lips, as if he wasn’t already distracted enough as is. You have got to be doing this on purpose.

Your tongue swipes over your bottom lip. He feels lightheaded.

“You look desperate,” Lynette tells him, which is frankly enough to make him want the ground to swallow him whole.

This also gets to a point where Freminet pulls him aside and asks him if he’s feeling sick. He feels like it. Lovesick and desperate, as Lynette so elegantly put it.

How embarrassing. Is this what you’ve reduced him to? Freminet looked at him with all wide, worried eyes, and Lyney can’t outright say the reason for his predicament. He excuses that he feels tired, and he doesn’t mention that his lips are feeling incredibly lonely.

Freminet, precious and understanding and thankfully unaware, nods and says, “I hope you feel better soon.” Lyney finds that unlikely, but he thanks him anyway. “Oh, and you should look behind you.”

Lyney turns and finds you waving at him, gesturing for him.Your fingers curl and it almost looks like you’re calling for a pet. And Lyney, weak and obsessed Lyney, follows without a second thought. Try as he might, he can never stay too long away from you, because as much as you’re driving him crazy, seeing you, hearing you, is enough to brighten his entire day and momentarily forget you’re the reason why he almost messed up with his lines.

He stands before you with a bit of distance. You want him gone so you pull him by the collar until his head is dipped down.

“You look feverish,” you say. Feverish, desperate, the list could go on and on.

I feel like it, Lyney wants to say; instead, his words are caught on the tip of his tongue as your eyes trace over his entire face. He feels as if he’s laying himself bare for you, but he finds that he doesn’t mind it at all, not when he’s soaking up your attention like he doesn’t know how to do anything else.

“Hey,” you whisper, a testament to your proximity, a smirk on your face, “my eyes are up here, Lyney.”

Lyney frowns, feeling petulant now that he’s aware of your schemes. “I’m not being indecent; please don’t phrase it like that.” Or is it worse that he’s ogling your mouth?

You laugh brightly, and he melts just a little. “You’re too obvious, Lyney.” He loves it when you say his name. He’s addicted to how your mouth carves his name. A poke on his cheek startles him enough to look up to your eyes, shame crawling in his cheeks. “See? You’re doing it again.”

“I don’t know what you’re on about.”

“Lyney.” You have got to stop doing that. Then again, he’s starting to think you’re doing it on purpose seeing how it affects him terribly. “If you want something, take it. Don’t stand around and do nothing about it.”

Lyney’s breath hitches, his blush climbing higher from his neck to his entire face. “Don’t just say that.” He can’t handle your crooked grin. He pulls you to his chest and buries his face on your neck—if it’s to keep your face away or to hide his expression, no one would be able to tell. “You can’t just say that.”

“I know what I’m saying. Don’t take me for a fool.”

Your lips brush his. His mind blanks. You’re bad for him—you have to be, but everything that comes after feels natural, at least.

#genshin impact #genshin x reader #genshin impact x reader #genshin impact x you #lyney x reader #lyney x you #lyney x y/n #genshin x you #x reader

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Cater, Ruggie: The Secret in a Smile

Caycay, bestie… I am so sorry that SSR Crowley stole your spotlight 😭 (Is that why Cater looks so Mean Girls in his groovy... He's seeking petty revenge against Crowley/j)

Some cute stuff from the vignettes that I wasn't able to include in this fic: Cater makes a reference to TsumTsums! He mentions being into this mobile game with cute round creatures. Cater also tells a story about a 5-year old girl giving him a flower after his club's performance at a cultural festival (omg, do they mean the one in book 5?!). Ruggie teases him and says Cater must have been that little girl's first crush 😂

A Tale as Old as Time.

“Ne, ne, Ruggie-kun! Check this one out~ It's all the way from the Queendom of Roses!"

Cater jabbed a thumb at a painting of a young blonde girl dressed in a modest sky blue frock and apron, a small black bow in her hair. She couldn’t have been older than 10 years of age, still petite enough to squish inside a glass bottle with a narrow neck. The bottled child was adrift in a sudsy sea, her face frozen in an expression of slight worry.

Ruggie took one look at the artwork, then wrinkled his nose. “Sure sucks to be in her shoes. What’s this even supposed to show us, anyway? Doesn’t make a whole lotta sense to me.”

"Not a lot from the Queendom does if you aren't already familiar with its topsy-turvy stories~" Cater placed a hand on his hip and leaned forward, grinning. "This one is pretty popular! It's about a girl that wants an audience with the Queen of Hearts. She gets lost on the journey there, meets strange people and experiences even stranger things on the way. This is just one leg of that trip!"

"Wouldn’t the castle be further inland? How'd she end up in the middle of the ocean?"

“It’s about the perspective of the shot.” Cater formed a frame with his hands, catching his underclassman in it. He pulled back, creating the illusion of sizing Ruggie down. “She drank this bottled liquid she found and that shrank her down—so really, the ocean isn’t that big.”

A grimace.

“Man, talk about no sense of self preservation. She just chugged an unlabeled bottle without a second thought. Must’ve been real desperate.” Ruggie paused. “Weeeell, not like I’m one to talk about being desperate. You really can’t afford to be picky sometimes. If it fills your stomach, it fills your stomach.”

“You’d drink it too, huh… I don’t think I could do that. I’d at least want to see how the menu describes it before I order—though I guess it also depends on how ‘cammable the drink is! And hey, think about all the cool pics I could grab from a worm's eye point of view!”

"Heh, you don't seem too pressed about living life as an ant."

"Cay-kun likes to look on the bright side of things!" he declared with a wink and a peace sign. "The lost girl... she worried so much about finding her destination, she forgets to stop and smell the roses. She overlooks a lot of the fun people she could have spent time with."

Hopping from place to place, missed people—familiar elements, resurfacing a childhood of being uprooted and dragged about. Never to fully settle.

A tea party here, a brief convo there. Just enough to keep him placated, but not enough to see beyond the surface of the looking glass.

His curiosity still left wanting.

She got into so much trouble, but didn't have any real friends to come and help her.

Sadness tugged at his heartstrings, but Cater's smile didn’t waver.

"... I can’t help but kinda pity the poor thing," he said quietly. Then, brightening in the next moment, "All her issues could've been avoided if she just looked before she leapt and made some connections."

“Yeah, she definitely should’ve played smarter, not harder. Maybe if she kissed up to the locals, they’d have come to her rescue." Ruggie shrugged. "It works for me and Leona-san."

“Right? A smile goes a long way to getting what you want!” Cater poked the corners of his mouth. “You totes get me.”

“Cuz it takes a trickster to know another one on sight.”

"Wow, it sounds so mean when you put it like that. We're not tricksters, we just know how to use our smiles to problem-solve~"

"Giving a word a fresh coat of paint doesn't make it any less shady. At least be honest with yourself," the hyena smirked.

“Eeeh, I’m always honest!”

They shared a laugh—Ruggie, a snicker. Cater, lighter, more bubbly, like a carbonated mystery drink. When the effervescence died down, he cast another glance at the painting.

Too big for her small world of the sea, too small for the big world that loomed beyond it. Trapped within glass walls. Curled into herself in her delicate chambers.

Her perspective and his, one and the same.

Poor thing, poor thing, poor thing.

Cater summoned his strength and bore the full brunt of his smile.

“I’m sure she’ll find what she’s looking for… one day.”

#twst #twisted wonderland #Cater Diamond #twst imagines #twst scenarios #twisted wonderland imagines #disney twisted wonderland #disney twst #Cater birthday takeover #something no one asked for #spoilers #twisted wonderland scenarios #Ruggie Bucchi

[karalynlovescake]

He would NOT say that

“My darling,” said Dream, leaning forward to brush his lips against Hob’s, “I have wanted to jump your bones since 1389.”

Hob pulled away and put his hands on the lovely thin shoulders in front of him.

“No,” he said. “Absolutely not.”

“But-” said Dream.

“He would not say that. This is ridiculous.”

The shape in front of Hob shifted, melting into something different, glittering and shimmering with pastel colors. The face was now feminine, impish and close to tears.

“But that line works on all the dreamers!”

Hob sighed, and looking around to find that a sofa had manifested itself in the background. He sat down on it while the dream creature in front of him sat on the floor miserably.

“Yeah and if you’d been trying to be almost anyone else it would have worked on me too. I don’t know why you’d try to be Dream.”

The dream on the floor muttered something.

“I’m sorry, what?” said Hob.

“We’re under orders not to be anyone else,” she said.

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Hob sighed. He rubbed his hands on his face. “Ok, well let’s see if your boss managed to teach me how to do this correctly.”

Hob stood up and concentrated.

“This dream is over.”

***

Hob didn’t see Dream in the waking world until almost a week later. It had been busy for both of them, Hob dealing with midterms and grad students changing topics at the last moment, the requests for office hours never seeming to end. And Morpheus had been inundated with requests for audiences from realms Hob had never even heard of and had stopped trying to keep track of. They met up at the New Inn on a Thursday evening, sitting at Hob’s usual table.

“Dream,” Hob said, after their second glass of wine. “Would you mind explaining to me why you have instructed your subjects to impersonate you in my sex dreams?”

Morpheus scowled slightly.

“Which one of them told you?”

“I’m not going to tell you, you’ll just have to look it up in my book yourself, which I know you’d do anyway. That’s not the point.”

“What is the point, then?” Dream said casually, stroking Hob’s wrist in a way that made his pulse race.  “You know I am a jealous lover. And I have not always been able to attend to you myself as of late.”

Hob sputtered.

“What, and it can’t wait a few days or weeks until you’ve got an opening in your extremely busy schedule? Make it a quickie or something if it’s that big of a deal.”

“There is a very particular schedule for those dreams.”

“Then don’t send them at all, I don’t care if I have fewer sex dreams for pity’s sake.”

“Hob Gadling, erotic dreams are an important part of a healthy psychological profile in most humans. Will you tell me my own business?”

“I will tell you that it’s really fucking weird that you apparently have such a strict schedule for these things that if you’re busy you send in one of your employees to fuck your boyfriend for you.” He paused. “Is there a porn film with that plotline yet?”

Dream sighed theatrically. “There are currently at least seventeen pornographic films with that plotline in the Library archives.”

“Fantastic you pick the best one for our next Library date night.”

#Dreamling #Read one too many excellent He Would Not Say That posts and this happened #There's a bit more than this but I can't tell if it's funny or if it's just me #I have a weird sense of humor

[ravenalla]

Please correct me if I’m wrong but from what I know Helluva Boss is written by only three people right? That being Viv, Brandon, and Adam. And while I’m sure ideas are bounced around here and there with the team, the way this season is going is begging for an actual writers room with more experienced people. Not saying those three don’t have any experience, but it’s clear they don’t know how to mesh the comedy and serious moments together well at this point. Part of writing is knowing when you need to omit stuff because it doesn’t fit the tone or story progession that you have established, even if you very badly want to include it. The writing for Helluva Boss in contrast feels they are forgoing any sense of coherence so they can stuff in whatever they like even if it goes against previously established plot points and try desperately to get to you pity these awful characters instead of letting them learn from their mistakes and grow as people naturally. Again, if this had stayed a dark comedy, that would have been passable, but now they are trying to tell a serialized dramatic story with arcs and emotion, and it’s just failing because that is not these writers expertise. This is complete speculation, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Viv’s aversion to any form of criticism is affecting it.

How many times must we see something terrible happen to Stolas because the show wants you to keep crying and pitying over without having these characters actually navigating it themselves? How many times will Blitz acknowledge he’s an awful person but not actively try to change his behavior in anyway and revert to the exact same character the next episode? How many times will Moxxie have to learn confidence because it’s the only arc they can think to do with him while Millie is a walking prop and Loona flip flops between liking her dad and physically abusing him for no reason? To the people who keep saying “just wait the shows not over yet!” we are basically halfway through season 2, there is no damn reason why Millie shouldn’t have had ANYTHING on her own yet or why Blitz and Stolas should be repeating the same “uwu he doesn’t love me” scene over and over again. If you give us what should be moments of character development but never actual show it through their actions or behaviors after the fact, it’s not character development at all, it’s cheap scenes you threw in cause you wanted the guise of something serious without actually taking the screentime to commit to it. And yes, the Stolas Blitzo stuff is probably going to pay off eventually, but it’s annoying for the audience to watch this will they won’t they game in almost every single episode just waiting for when the characters will finally change or have at least SOME type of acknowledgement of all they’ve been through instead of just keeping the status quo of another “Stolas looks sadly at his phone,” “Blitzo doesn’t really care about him until there’s one millisecond showing maybe he does 🥺.” Unless your a hardcore shipper, people won’t stick around with that forever.

The show wants to have world-building, quirky characters who are bad people, tons of villains, funny sex jokes, emotional investment, and a complicated romance, but there’s a reason lots of media fails when it tries to be everything at once. The Stolitz plot behind every episode now is sabotaging parts of the show that promised wacky demon assassin adventures, and the less serious moments like the Loona doctor B plot in turn ruins the atmosphere of the dramatic scenes associated with the Stolitz plot. They wanted to show a serious abusive arranged relationship through Stella, but they also wanted her to have be a campy bad guy so Stolas could have a reason to cheat on her so he wouldn’t look like the bad guy. This leaves us with confusing contradictions like Stella written as being legit mad about him cheating and wanting him dead while hinting at them having at least a positive public image as a family once through the background paintings, to suddenly her not having ever cared about him and seeking him out “cause she likes tormenting him” while she also now didn’t want him killed I guess because she’s opposed to the divorce because the Goetia want them together??, but then wanting him killed AGAIN after even though the Goetia probably always wanted that guy alive and her brother has to come in for no reason to make her look like an absolute dumbass.

Same with Loona. They try to give her development with Blitz, but they never do anything with it and by the next episode she’ll be beating the shit out of him again. “She’s a moody teenager!” She’s a woman in her twenties and I don’t care about her sometimes finding appreciation for her dad when she’ll just kick him in the nuts right after because physical abuse against a spouse is serious but with a daughter it’s funny I guess. And again, the entire argument fans have to justify this constant loop of creating and forgetting about character development is “just wait they probably have a plan.” Nah bro I’m pretty sure they just still wanted to throw edgy dark comedy in there and to do that they had to ignore any positive character changes it seemed like happened until a future episode specifically is written to continue that arc. Also the world building and class system in general is just bad when they actually choose to acknowledge it, which is rarely. It’s still so unclear whether hellhounds are seen as actually sentient autonomous people or pets, and it just makes scenes with Loona super weird sometimes. Same with imps, for an apparent underclass they sure seem to be able to go wherever they want and do whatever they want without too much trouble, and until the latest episode we’ve never seen any imp discrimination be a major factor besides comments from Stolas (which we are now choosing to ignore because Stolas can’t be a bigot that has to learn to be a better person, Stolas is perfect 🙃)

Yikes this got longer than I meant it to but overall Helluva Boss just could really benefit from some more inputs in the writing, not just ideas for story or jokes but someone who actually knows how to properly balance and structure this kind of stuff into an episode. As is it feels very disjointed, especially this season. I don’t think this show would ever be perfectly for me, just because I don’t find the humor at all funny and that’s kind of what makes the show, but at the very least it’d be nice if the actual plots and world these characters navigate was fun to watch, but most of the time it’s just not anymore, because you don’t get to actually see most characters interact or what their relationships are, and if you do they hardly ever change from what they were until suddenly it’s relevant for the plot. Blitz is uncomfortable around Stolas and is tired about being treated like a play thing, wait no now he’s turned on by Stolas’s flirting even though we’ve never seen that before and this is right after they literally had a huge fight, wait nevermind now Blitz doesn’t care again. Moxxie is always weak and sensitive when an episode is about him but suddenly super strong and has no problems killing in any other episode (“We’re not going up there just to massacre we need clients! -S1E3, exactly what he and Millie do to an entire audience of innocent bystanders in the Cherub episode and they don’t care). Stolas is super perverted and sees Blitz as an object, wait nevermind we’re just gonna change his entire fucking backstory so his behavior will look justified even though that man would literally have to be a the dumbest person in Hell to not see Blitz did not care and was actively repulsed by him all throughout season 1, yet continued to act that way to his supposed “first friend” because..he thought it was a sexy game or something they were playing? Even as a retcon for an excuse it’s still bad. Helluva Boss has no rules it sticks to, no jokes or character behaviors it refrains from even if it harms the quality, it’s just a badly written fanfic with pretty animation.

#helluva boss critical #helluva boss criticism #helluva boss critique #long post #rant

[markantonys]

historically jordancon has been a venue for casting announcements - we got aviendha in 2022 and several s2 secondary characters in 2023. do you think we'll get any s3 casting announcements this year (april)? if so, who? my money is on faile, galad*, and GAWYN PLEASE GOD TELL ME WHO'S PLAYING HIM IN APRIL I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE

ahem anyway. my reasoning is that those 3 are in the same bucket as aviendha was in 2022. it's too far away from the new season's release to discuss anything substantial about the season's content or to formally announce the casting of older/better-known actors whose announcements could be saved to help marketing closer to the season's release (i'd put elaida & morgase in this bucket for s3, with the equivalent being verin for s2; and then forsaken castings i'd bet they want to keep secret as long as they can), but the castings of younger/lesser-known actors as major book characters would be a great New Season Treat to drop this early and in this book-fan venue. general audiences wouldn't care much about a few 27-year-old actors they've never heard of being cast as characters whose names don't yet mean anything to them, but book fans would be very excited about it! and that is why i'm putting on my clown shoes and hoping for gawyn casting news in april (or sooner if the leakers take pity on me).

*we do already know faile & galad casting from leaks, but i'm talking official announcements here!

#me: oh god but what if gawyn isn't even in s3 and that's why we've heard nothing??? what if galad absorbed him after all???? #my brain: emily they literally namedropped gawyn in s2 #me: ................oh right #the fact that i've had this convo with myself at LEAST 10 times 😭 i'm so used to gawyn getting screwed over that my instinct is to Worry! #ANYWAY based on past patterns i do feel pretty confident in expecting at least 1 casting announcement at jordancon #and faile galad and gawyn genuinely do feel like the most likely to me! but i'm curious to hear other people's predictions #wot #wot on prime #the wheel of time #wot book spoilers

[androgynousblackbox]

Okay, since Jamesy is still out there embarassing himself, now we can all admit that his first video was nothing else but manipulative control damage to try to make people feel bad enough for him that they stop reminding him of the shit he pulled? I hope, I really, really, hope that this time we all learned a little bit better than to be "aww, but don't you feel sorry for him??? he had epilepsy and a injury as a child, and had people threatening on his house, don't you think he had enough??" because I swear to fucking god. I don't know in what language do people need to speak off to get this through to some of you, but here it goes: This fucker want to take you for a dumbass. He is trusting you in not being smart enough to not give him the views. He is playing you and counting on you being sweet enough to not stop keeping up with his every word. He. Is. Playing. YOU. You are not the bigger person in the room, you are the most easy to trick and he knows that, that is why he targeted you with all that pity party bullshit and you will be falling straight into his pocket if you come out of any of this thinking to feel sorry for this guy. This is a seasoned thief that for years had threatened, manipulated and lied to all of his audience to keep the plagiarism in the dark. I should know, because I was one of the VERY few blogs that was talking about it before anything went down. I saw with my own two fucking eyes this fucker bringing up personal tragedies for people to feel bad about calling him out for plagiariazing HANNIGRAM FANART for thumbnails. That is what he has always done and it has resulted mighty fine for him only up until someone bigger than him came along, so of course he is going to try again because, hey, before it was taken down that first "apology" didn't do so bad anyway!

I don't care to theorize in how much of his new shit is true and how much is made up. It DOESN'T MATTER. Because even if it was true everything, it wouldn't make the harm that this man caused any less real. It wouldn't meant that the ONLY PERSON who truly benefits from watching his bullshit is him and it will always be him. Look for alternative ways to watch his bullshit if you have to, but DON'T give him what he wants. He had enough already of everyone's good will.

#andro is talking #james somerton

[tsudelune]

For the event, could I please request Rui with prompt 6?

'' so if this is how it feels , tell me if our love is real ,,

''wait, don't go, please..." - rui kamishiro

a/n : first event request, thank you! i'm honored to write a fic for you, because you were one of the authors that gave me motivation to write again after god knows how long. well anyway, onto the fic! hopefully, this was done justice.

after the curtains closed, most of the audience left after watching wonderlands x showtime's last show for the night. you loitered to walk home back home with rui.

"oya? if it isn't y/n."

you could hear his chesire-like grin, turning around to see rui.

"rui, that show was magnificent; great job again."

"heh, thank you." rui chuckled. "to be honest, we went through an issue backstage."

"again? last time, emu got a nosebleed due to one of the props. thankfully i was there and it wasn't her turn on stage yet." you recollected, taking a sigh. "what happened this time?"

the curve of rui's lips drooped, "tsukasa almost got knocked out, again." rui sat down on the bench behind him, clasping his hands and putting his elbows on his knees. "...it's because of me."

you couldn't help but pity rui. you looked at his averted golden eyes that held guilt. you knew that this had happened previously.

"...rui, it's not your fault. we make mistakes."

"but, we can't afford to make mistakes anymore."

"you have a point."

it seemed pointless. you really didn't want to pick a fight with rui, but you thought that he didn't have to blame himself for it. the more this goes on, the more he decides to keep his creative ideas of his inside, worsening the product of the shows.

"i'll be honest with you," you announce out the blue, getting rui's attention. "don't push yourself back due to minor setbacks. that's what's going to fail the next upcoming shows."

"y/n, you don't understand," rui got up from the bench, narrowing his eyes. "if i execute my dangerous ideas, the troupe will only get further injured-"

"rui." you cut him off, with a stern tone. "this is stupid for us to start fighting over. so, i'll leave for now. we can talk tomorrow." you turn around, feeling bitter about your decision. however, it was for the best.

all of a sudden, someone's hand grabbed your wrist almost instinctively. you turn your head immediately, focusing on rui.

"wait, don't go, please..." rui muttered quietly, his eyebrows creased. "...let's talk a little longer. the sun hasn't set yet."

meeting his golden eyes, you helplessly smiled, nodding your head. "mm, let's."

afterwards, you convinced rui to do what he loves most-- which is creating eccentric ideas thanks to his imagination. anybody should be allowed to do what they want, as long as they like what they're doing.

"thank you, y/n." rui smiled, holding your hand.

"thank you first. my actions earlier were short-tempered." you laughed sheepishly, a bit embarassed. you couldn't lie, you couldn't understand why you did that in the first place.

all's well that ends well for the two of you.

#project sekai #project sekai colorful stage #proseka #pjsk #project sekai fluff #proseka fluff #pjsk fluff #project sekai x reader #proseka x reader #pjsk x reader #rui kamishiro #kamishiro rui #rui kamishiro x reader #kamishiro rui x reader #headcanons #ask #hastune miku colorful stage #@tsudelune-post

[epickiya722]

Something I realized is that gege akutami doesn't create many punishments for ''bad'' characters other than death. I think an interesting punishment for the geto character was to create a binding vow in which he was obliged to save humans and never harm them I would have liked to have seen him save those he hates and abhors most.

You know what, I actually would have liked to see that with Geto, just see how that goes.

I think when it comes to the villains of JJK, I don't think Akutami had the intention to write them as capable of redemption, want to use redemption as a way to end their character arcs and even so... death is their redemption.

I'll use Toji for an example. His second death felt like a redemption, but not in a way the audience would go "oh, he's been a good guy after all" or something along those lines. It was more like a closing to his story with Megumi, but also kind of an unfair one. He was redeemed as in a "he wasn't a good father, not in the slightest, but he still cared for his son".

I think with Toji, not to excuse his actions, was he knew that he wasn't capable of being that father Megumi needed, let alone the person Megumi needed without his wife around. Remember, she was like his moral compass. Without her, Toji was unstable. But it wasn't like he was just like that. The Zenin clan mistreated him since he had been a child.

However, Toji knew that Megumi would be well taken care of because of the possibility of him having the Ten Shadows Technique, which he does have. Yet, it would have sucked if he didn't.

Toji went on in his life just wandering and doing as he pleases because he didn't have Mamaguro. It wasn't until his first death that I think it really hit for him just how wrong he did Megumi with selling him to the Zenin. It's why he tells Satoru about Megumi. I doubt Toji wanted him to pity him, but to give Megumi to live a life he couldn't give him. Especially, if what Megumi didn't have that technique.

It was as if Toji was self-aware, but not so self-aware because he does forget who Megumi is.

With his second death, once he realized who Megumi was, it was like relief for him and at the same time, he didn't want to kill his son.

Megumi told him his last time and Toji went out like "That's my boy".

So again, Toji wasn't like completely redeemed for his actions, but his relationship with Megumi. Of course, it still wasn't the best, but compared to other fiction dads, Toji wasn't that bad.

Humanize! That's the word, I'm looking for. Not redeem but humanize!

Now, compare him with someone like Sukuna.

When it comes to Sukuna, Akutami makes it clear that he is not a good guy. Human, but not s good guy. Take the last few chapters.

Sukuna wasn't shown in a different light. He was just given a little more depth. He always been a "do what I want" kind of guy. Even when Sukuna takes note of him being an unwanted child, he doesn't go " my parents hated me, so now I'm terrible". No, he brushes it off like "Anyways so".

If he does something evil, he won't make excuses about it. He laughs about it. He's entertained by others. He's human like the others because the guy is still aware of feelings. He knows what love is, he just doesn't give a damn about it. He makes terrible decisions because he can.

For him, a death would make sense to end his story. I say this because if Sukuna doesn't die, he's just going to keep going. If anything, he wouldn't care about dying because he just has this endless routine of doing whatever to please himself. Remember, he tells Yuji that even if he dies, there's other fingers out there. And that would repeat the cycle of Sukuna's destruction.

Death for Sukuna wouldn't be, like, the easy way out. It's more of a reasonable decision. Think about it for someone like Sukuna. Trapping him wouldn't work because he will find a way out. He wouldn't want to stay trapped because he needs something to do. It's part of the reason why he hates Yuji so much when he was trapped. He couldn't do what he wanted. Once he is free, then he can. Sukuna doesn't like boredom.

#kiya answers #jjk #jujutsu kaisen #jjk manga spoilers #jjk spoilers #sukuna #ryomen sukuna #sukuna ryomen #fushiguro toji #toji fushiguro #geto suguru #suguru geto

[reloha]

Penelope Featherington and the Quality of Friendship

If Penelope used her wit, even her cruel wit, but any wit, more, out loud in front of the ton, she would have suitors. Philippa found a suitor over cheese, for pity’s sake. “Lady Whistledown’s“ plant puns received praise from her sister’s suitor. Prudence is having trouble because she has neither wit nor wits, not because she is too mean (and they’re all sabotaged by their mother’s “cutting edge” fashion taste). The man Eloise danced with, whom she called out for trying to “not-like-other-girls" her, would probably have gone crazy for mean Penelope. If Penelope were as vocally, publicly mean as Cressida, she would either be in her group or smashing that group. (I am not saying that being mean in public would have been the best of Penelope's available choices, but it would be more honest and, ironically, do less damage.)

Her mother pays only the most cursory lip service to Penelope’s getting married and has probably already begun to think of her as the daughter who will stay with her through her old age. But if Penelope allowed herself to speak and let either her nice or sharp sides (or both) be seen by more people, there would be suitors.

Alas, then she would have to consider other possibilities besides her long-time crush (or love, look at it how you will), and that is what she is most afraid of doing. She cannot let go of the dream of Colin, and so she embraces Whistledown, at first perhaps as a one-time lark (she tries to get out of debuting, remember, but her ability to obtain content for her “blog,” her “great” life’s work, becomes intrinsically tied to being in society). This (possible) lark becomes an identity, perhaps her truest identity, one that allows her wicked thoughts a free rein. Yet Cressida Cowper, the person outside of her family who has the best claim to be Penelope's nemesis, is rarely seen in the Whistledown papers as far as the audience can divine, except for the occasional knock on her fashion choices (with bonus slut shaming). The one time that springs to mind is aimed at running a modiste out of business to curry favor with another modiste, Mme. Delacroix, all in order to eliminate a perceived threat to Whistledown and gain leverage over Delacroix to obtain her assistance with—you guessed it—errands for Whistledown.

At first, Penelope uses Whistledown to lift the Bridgertons up. They are a family of “perfectly handsome sons and perfectly beautiful daughters.” If the audience never finds out who Whistledown is, it scarcely seems to matter at this point; she could just be one of any number of anonymous people in the ton and not part of the story at all. Whistledown uplifts Daphne at her debut. It is Whistledown, not the Queen, who names Daphne “a diamond of the first water” (something apparently forgotten in season two).

But then Anthony gets in the way of Daphne’s suitors, and perhaps Eloise offhandedly mentions it to Penelope (“I can’t think why she wants to deal with them anyway but Anthony is being overbearing” or similar), and Penelope realizes she can criticize Daphne, the pretty Bridgerton who apparently never thought of being friends with her or guiding her. Or the sister Eloise is kind of annoyed with (but would never really want to see hurt, which one would think Penelope has to realize). According to Daphne, Lady Whistledown all but declares her “unmarriageable,” a devastating fate for most Regency ladies and something Penelope fears herself to be. Lady Whistledown is powerful, and Penelope has gotten a taste for that power.

Penelope has crossed over into Whistledown’s dark side as early as this, striking out at someone she perceives as being above her and cutting her down to size. (In the books, nothing on this level occurs, although one cannot go so far as to say Lady Whistledown is a benign force there.) Yes, on the show, she is willing to “help out” by printing the Berbrooke gossip, but is she helping out? It makes good copy for her. It’s actually something of a scoop. But what if it were a lie? Has Lady Whistledown ever fact checked any of the things she has heard people talk about? How, even, could she?

For some reason, she begins to take shots at the Queen, a reckless and nonsensical thing to do. The Queen may have some input with the Prince Regent (this is never clear in Bridgerton but in the prequel-sequel-spinoff series, Queen Charlotte, we see it played out at least on a personal level), but her domain is the social season, and she has the time at least to set others on Whistledown’s trail. And what has Charlotte done to Penelope? Someone posted that the Queen looked at her with disgust (she wasn’t impressed with the three Featheringtons’ joint debut, perhaps, but that was hardly directed at Penelope personally).

While in her first season, Penelope tries to be a little discreet about her secret identity, in her second season, she becomes more obvious. When someone in a group of girls says that Whistledown will not write anything because they are all in the country, Penelope asks if she thinks so and smiles a secretive smile that could not be more blatant.

Lady Bridgerton puts Eloise and Penelope into that group of girls hoping Eloise, and perhaps Penelope too, will make more friends. Eloise asks why the girls can’t say no to their mothers’ edicts regarding suitors and is met with shocked looks. (Eloise is criticized online for this as well, for this apparently means she is inconsiderate of these girls who cannot on any account question anything, but it is entirely possible that one or two of them thought about this later and their lives were changed in even small ways by it. The idea that every woman in the Regency era never questioned anything or did anything is not true anyway, and, if it were, this is still Regency fantasy, even without dragons.)

Neither Eloise nor Penelope makes a new friend. For Penelope, who secretly longs to be part of the social life of the ton, not on the outskirts, this is a huge missed opportunity, if only she would realize it. In addition to friendship to offer, some of these girls probably have brothers or cousins or even a young uncle whom they could introduce to Penelope or even to her annoying sister, Prudence. Perhaps more importantly, Penelope might begin to see the other girls as people, not just fodder for her society pages, and she might come out into the light instead of remaining in the shadows with Lady Whistledown. But she might have to let go of the dream of Colin, the thing she most dreads doing, the thing she cannot bear to do.

When Edwina exchanges a few pleasantries with Penelope, Penelope could also use that as a springboard for a friendship, but she instead walks off to talk with Colin and never sends a note to Edwina or makes any attempt at friendship, even when Edwina is spending a great deal of time with the Bridgertons. Eloise appears to have the beginning of a friendship, or at least a mutual admiration society, with Edwina’s sister, Kate. The only friends Penelope appears to want are Eloise and Colin, and she gets annoyed when the former interrupts her while she is talking with the latter, but she never takes the step of sharing her feelings for Colin with Eloise. Although Eloise might have been puzzled by those feelings had she done so, it is difficult to believe she would be anything other than supportive of her friend, as she was when she divined that Penelope enjoyed all the parties and social whirl—the opposite of what Penelope does for Eloise when she confides her burgeoning feelings to Theo.

There may be several issues of her paper that only reveal engagements prior to the official announcements or critique fashion choices, including the Featheringtons’ (which would work to her benefit if her mother would pay attention—unfortunately, she can’t just write “Penelope Featherington looks better in pink, Lady Featherington”), and maybe she doesn’t write about couples sneaking off to the coat closet, but she is not kind. She does not wield her considerable power to help anyone unless it is in Whistledown’s best interest and will sell more papers or in line with Penelope’s current agenda, the things she believes will achieve what she wants. Breaking up Marina and Colin, getting Eloise away from the print shop and her trail, not letting Eloise do a mock version of Whistledown because Whistledown is hers—these are Penelope’s goals at different points. Penelope could tell Eloise the truth about Marina (at least Marina would not have been publicly shamed and maybe the Bridgertons would have even helped her in some way) before writing about her, the truth about Whistledown before writing about Eloise, but she does not. Before writing about Eloise, she could go to the Queen and confess. She does not.

Penelope claims, rather disingenuously and conveniently, that the Queen will never believe her. It is absurd to think Penelope has left no trail, no evidence that she is Whistledown. Even if she has burned all her drafts after sending the final to the printer’s, the printer will remember her as the person who came to make arrangements in the guise of an Irish servant (particularly as she spoke quite insultingly to him). The Queen can’t execute anyone. She could hire an assassin, in theory, but this isn’t Game of Thrones and Charlotte isn’t a monster. Penelope could go to the Queen and offer to work with her. She could confess to Eloise before Eloise figures it out, and they could come up with a plan together. She could just take the consequences of what she has done and live with them. She had other choices besides throwing her friend under the omnibus (which didn’t exist yet, but, oh, well) to “save” her.

Penelope could confess to the Queen and offer to prove she is Whistledown by having the Queen give her a false piece of gossip and allowing herself to be placed in a room in the palace while she writes it up as a mock Whistledown column. Surely Penelope is clever enough to do that, isn’t she?

Penelope tells Mme. Delacroix that the Queen wants to be flattered, so Penelope knows this. She knows the Queen isn’t out to destroy Whistledown. She could write an issue with something flattering the Queen, but she doesn’t. She writes a post that will separate Eloise from someone she has come to care for and from the people who are not rich but want to do something in the world.

For Eloise to have a cross-class love interest is not madness, although unusual in the world of the story. Theo is a printer’s apprentice and a writer who could very well own his own business someday, and Eloise is working on a novel, or at least was in season one. Both of them could be published someday beyond political pamphlets, although those are fine too. (And, yes, Penelope and Colin both write too.)

Of course, this wouldn’t make Theo a “gentleman” by the definition of the time, but Lady Mary wed a man who was not in the ton, and, although she hoped her daughters would not have to choose between love and security, it is doubtful that she regretted her choice. Her husband also wound up with a very good job in India as secretary to a royal family, and, had he died later, their financial circumstances might have been better. It seems as if Lady Mary's parents refused to put a brave face on things and instead hid away, but the Queen’s only rebuke for Lady Mary is that she did not say goodbye to her, not that she married “down” or against her family’s wishes. Eloise’s family would probably not refuse to see her as the Sheffields did with Lady Mary if she were to marry "down" (Daphne could remind Violet that she said she wished for Daphne to have the very best, not in rank but in love), and not being invited to society parties would hardly be a loss to Eloise.

Many of the people who say this would ruin her younger sisters' chances also argue that every scandal the Bridgertons go through is short-lived (which is somewhat the case) and they can never be truly ruined. (Although it’s unlikely the show will go the Theo route, more's the pity, if it were to do so, one would expect this to be a long enough road that Francesca's first marriage would already have happened, and we know her second husband wouldn't care about her sister's so-called scandal anyway. And Hyacinth, well, Hyacinth is rather similar to Eloise in many ways.)

Theo was an important friendship to Eloise and going to those meetings an important part of her growth, facts Penelope would realize about her friend if she would listen to her instead of gaslighting her.

But Eloise is not Penelope’s best friend. Penelope’s best friend is Lady Whistledown. It is Lady Whistledown whom Penelope protects, and she is the one to whom Penelope always turns when she has a problem. She scarcely shares a problem with Eloise outside of her confusion about where babies come from. She never comes to Eloise about her father’s death (which, to be fair, scarcely seems to faze her, and that is probably understandable); about Marina, the only other person who is close to being Penelope’s friend (and it can’t be because she respects Marina’s secret); about her feelings for Colin; about how to get her mother off this yellow kick. When Eloise asks her about herself, Penelope almost invariably changes the subject. There is one memorable and revealing conversation while they lie on the grass in which Penelope extols the joys and power of not being seen, of being invisible, of being a wallflower. It’s a fascinating speech, and she has every opportunity to tell Eloise about Whistledown after it, for good or ill, to ‘fess up, but she doesn't. Instead, she continues down her dark path.

By the end of the season, Penelope has destroyed her friendship with Eloise, and she has had her illusions of Colin destroyed by overheard words (not staying long enough to hear what follows, whether it’s “Penelope deserves better than me” or “Penelope is like a sister to me” or "Who would want to court Penelope?"). Her bridges are effectively burned and to rebuild them would take meticulous care, diligent work, and more than a little self-reflection, as well as attempts at apology and amends.

Lady Whistledown is the only friend Penelope has left.

Special thanks to @dollypopup and @torchwood-99, who have written so many thoughtful posts.

#anti Penelope Featherington #not really but close enough #Bridgerton spoilers #Bridgerton opinions #this got long #Bridgerton #Bridgeverse #Eloise Bridgerton but kind of incidentally #Penelope villain arc

[silviakundera]

The Spirealm episode 7 reaction

fair warning: in these episode reactions I'm not gonna pretend I haven't read the novel. in fact, I purposely finished the novel before viewing, to get The Full Experience. thus novel spoilers, including twist end, included.

-

I feel like the drama has made LQ much more empathetic and also a bit more clever & assertive (vs reactive) than in the novel.

I think there are 2 reasons for this:

One has to do with theories on the ultimate narrative thread, so I won't dive into this yet, other than to note that repeatedly we see LQ connecting to the emotions of NPCs and inspiring the group to solving situations by treating NPCs as people.

The other is that in a live drama you miss the humor and subversion of expectations in the protagonist's inner thoughts. The cold distance and lack of curiosity (and how that all perversely ends up making him better at the game) is very difficult to effectively portray in a drama without a frequent VO (voice over). So they decided to go a different way, while still trying to stay true to the heart of the character.

Anyway, we get our proof that LQ never believed RN's excuses in the last episode that he didn't show up to this door just for LQ. When there are minutes left and he thinks they might be done for, LQ's move is to turn to the man who wants to be his partner and simply says, "I'm sorry."

"Why?"

"This is my door. It has nothing to do with you. You came because of me."

RN's silent pause speaks for itself, though he offers comfort with, "...Not entirely because of you."

"What a pity I haven't joined Obsidian yet" is like code for SO MUCH" (too bad we didn't get more time to know each other)(i regret not getting a chance to truly start a friendship)(unexplored gay longing)

lol while they're having A Moment, miss Best Actress leverages her single status to rise above the moment and actually throw out a solution!

(this whole bit reminded me of how in the novel, other characters would often be like wtf we're all gonna die, I'm in hell, so why am I having to eat all this dog food asdfghjk just disgusted at all these touching couple-ish moments RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEIR SALAD during mortal peril)

Ruan Nanzhu stepping up to get dangerous 🔥

More pathos, as the drama lays the groundwork of seeing the NPCs as deserving of compassion and having feelings 🤔

The necklace again, this time without protest.

"It looks good on you."

"See you at Obsidian."

(we get a scene after they leave that is VERY INTERESTING to me, in context of the novel's ending - in the climax, LQ is presented with a version of reality where everyone he'd seen suffer in the doors is there and all of the dead resurrected... and here is a vision where the tragedy has been wiped clean) (just makes me think again of the ultimate question, is this is indeed a virtual existence of personified data, true AI, or the supernatural 12th Door)

Another quick glimpse into the door exploring competitor X. Blah blah we think we are very important.

LMAO RN still tempts him into moving in with Chestnut's affections 😂😭

To be fair, that is an incredibly fluffy and cute cat. I too WANT TO PET.

Ok so now they establish that the doors can be months and years apart. I liked this bit in the novel, as the doors allow you to cheat or at least delay death. So as you pass them, the more difficulty the bigger the reward - reward being TIME. (the most precious item of all)

"My cat is quite close to you."

"What's yours is mine. What's mine.... is still mine." 😏

Can we stop the tyranny of iqiyi subs not displaying "Ge", especially when it literally is a discussion point?! He's saying don't call me Ruan-Ge, not don't call me Ruan!!!! 😤

Then the first moment of Lin Quishi seeing that RN is Can Be Hurt and being confronted with the difficulty level of the 6+ doors. RN declined LQ's offer to accompany him and now his door companion is dead.

Ah, competitors X are at it again. The drama really feels like audience needs an external antagonist. Not sure I agree but whatever.

Now LQ, like in the novel, is feeling protective and doesn't want a recovering RN coming with him to the next door.

lmao they've become Those People who gravitate to each other. Whole house of people and LQ is the one hanging out at his bedside and helping him down the stairs.

Cheng Yixie to Cheng Qianli: "If I cared about other people's lives, yours would already be over." (This hits different for novel readers.)

#the spirealm #the spirealm spoilers #silvia watches the spirealm #cdrama

[flower-seeks-the-moon]

BaxterMC Week: Day One

The First Meeting: White Makes Her Move

There was someone watching her.

She twirled the wine glass stem between her fingers, watching the fairy lights reflect off of the crystalline surface. A part of her wondered if this stranger found her interesting, found amusement at the girl who simply stared at the back of her supposed soiree partner as he left. It was her fault that she brought her neighbor to a party he clearly found no comfort in, she knew that much. They stood out like a pair of odd ducks amidst a bevy of graceful swans, a colorless girl against a boy of seafoam green and ocean blue: so unlike each other, and out of sync to top it off.

It likely would have been much less awkward if she had come to this soiree alone. And it wouldn’t have been anything new to her - she preferred doing things by herself, found more comfort in her own company, didn’t she? 

When did the knowledge that she had no friendships aside from Derek Suarez - and whatever she had with Cove Holden, born out of years of scheduled play dates and their parents’ hopes, put on the shoulders of two children who had no choice but to be around each other - begin to bother her? 

Was she normal? Her teachers had left comments on her report card about her lack of social groups… The worried looks on her mothers’ faces, she didn’t want to see. There had been a time where she thought she had a friend. A flash of dark grey eyes framed by soft brown curls, a freckled smile, a soft voice claiming they were friends, before he seamlessly dropped her the moment a certain girl entered the vicinity; the memory surfaced before she quashed it down.

No use thinking about the past.

Wisteria exhaled, slow and measured; she took care when she set her glass down on the table. She cast a surreptitious look about her, though she did not allow her eyes to linger on her audience.

It was time to lay down her opening and wait for this person to respond. To begin on the offensive, one had to put themselves out there. She had no intention of going easy on the person who watched that entire awkward exchange.

———

“Would you care for a dance?”

Black made its move; now was the time for White to respond.

The other side was possibly the sharpest-dressed kid she had ever seen. 

And everything about him — spare the red that, oddly enough, swept across his cheeks, and his brown eyes — felt so carefully-put together that Wisteria wondered if his smile was of similar artifice. There was not a wrinkle in his grey suit, not a jet-black strand out of place, despite how soft his hair looked. She had watched Ma at the boutique before, and noticed the attention given to making sure that the mannequins were posed just so, clad in clothes that had been arranged to look good. It felt rather like that.

Wisteria felt her own lips curve up; she hoped that it was adequate. “Why not? My partner’s not available, anyway.” She caught his gaze, and decided not to let the gears turn for him to speculate. “You were looking at me earlier. If this is out of pity, you don’t have to.”

She took in the way the red spread across his face with growing interest; her heart threatened to speed up from its even rhythm at the edge his smile gained. Was it wise to start with such an offensive opening? Not that she could take back when she had already moved a piece on the board.

“No reason to waste the night while it is young.” He was good. Despite the flush on his face, the cadence of his voice conveyed someone who couldn’t be less bothered. “Come, a new song is about to start.”

Her next move prepared, the beginnings of an overarching plan in mind, she spoke as he held out his arm for her to take. “Gotta warn you, I’m not so good at this.” His hand was warm around hers. She focused on that, so it didn’t escape her when his grip tightened.

———

He had the scent of flowers on him, though she wasn’t well-versed enough to know which ones.

It stood out from the Axe body spray that her classmates had started wearing, those heavyhanded and sharp scents that made her head hurt when the teacher asked them to group closer during PE. Those same unknown flowers made their home inside her memory long after he had left her to disappear into the crowd, stunned at the way he flipped the entire game on her.

Wisteria wasn’t sure who exactly won.

Was it her, when she had seen him nearly stop short — what had she done, when she called his true smile cuter? — and she had to take over the dance for the both of them?

Or was it this nameless boy? When he called her adorable in very nearly the same breath he called her out, accurately observing that this is her first soiree?

———

These were the words that lingered on in her for years after that one dance:

“You know, you should ask with a smile like that if you plan on inviting a girl to dance. It’s… Cuter when it’s genuine.” Wisteria, years later, would very much like to smack herself for the way she spoke to Baxter. He recalled that moment much more fondly than she did, a smile on his face that she could not for the life of her decide if she wanted to kiss off of him or shove her hand on to hide.

And his promise, to be fulfilled half a decade later:

“What is there to be sorry about? Your critique is duly noted, should we meet each other again and I must win your favor for a second dance.”

But this is what stood out most of all.

“And you’re adorable yourself, though you try a tad too hard for your first soiree.”

Baxter Alexander Ward had called her adorable, and Wisteria had yearned to do something about it in the years that followed.

———

Author's Note: For BaxterMC Week, hosted by @minthe-drawings. This was an attempt at Wisteria's POV for the prologue chapter of my fic, which showed Baxter's perspective.

#our life: beginnings & always #olba #baxter ward #baxtermcweek #baxter ward x mc #luna's fics

[leviathans-watching]

(tech) support

day 3: hugs

includes: levi & the brothers

wc: .7k | rated g | m.list

a/n: deals with levi's anxiety, so if tha'ts sensative for you beware! and for @ombrotherlylove2023 week day 3!

Levi’s hands shake as he looks at the stage. Why did he have to be the one to give this speech? In front of the entire student body, no less. Sure, it was his app that had gained traction and been published in articles and everything, but would the school even care about it? What if they laugh him off the stage, or worse, only clap out of pity? 

He should just quit now. Turn around. There’s an episode of an anime he’s watching airing today anyway, and he’d really hate to miss it. 

A hand on his shoulder stops him. Levi nearly jumps out of his skin. 

“You’re going to do great,” Lucifer says, voice so confident it doesn't leave any room for argument. “Seriously. You’ve got this.” 

“Yeah,” Satan says from his other side. “Your app is cool, so be proud of it. Go show them what you’ve made.” 

Levi’s hands tense and his notes crumple slightly in his grip. Beel whacks him on the back in what’s probably supposed to be a supportive gesture but really just winds him slightly. 

“But what if I don’t? What if I mess up, or what if nobody cares?” he asks, shoulders slumping. “Or what if I trip and fall in front of everyone? I can’t do this.”

“Levi,” Mammon says, uncharacteristically sincere. “You’ve got this, you hear? Now,” he says with a shove forward, “get up there and crush it.” 

Already moving, Levi lets his feet carry him up to the mic dazedly. It takes him a moment to adjust the stand and organize his notes, but, to his surprise and relief, the lights directed towards the stage are bright enough to hide most of the audience, save his brothers, who are huddled off to the side. He looks at them, swallowing, and Belphie gives him a nod while Asmo does a double thumbs up. Okay, the sooner he starts talking, the sooner it can be over. 

Moving on autopilot, Levi somehow gets through his speech without any major mishaps. The demons all clap, and he wobbles off stage, legs like jello. 

“Hey, you did it!” Asmo cheers, wrapping him up in a big hug when he reaches them. Levi just stands there, kind of boneless. “That was so good!” 

“Really?” he asks. “I don’t remember most of it.”

“You killed it,” Mammon says, pulling him into a side hug once Asmo lets go. “And you faced your fears on top of that. Congrats, bro.” 

“Thanks,” Levi mutters, cheeks heating. He leans into Mammon, trying not to be obvious about it. Mammon, of course, notices, but for once isn’t annoying and only tightens his grip. “I’m just glad it’s over.” 

Lucifer smiles at him. “Was it really so bad?” 

“Well,” Levi ducks his head, “yes. But you guys helped, so thanks for that I guess. But I don’t want to go anywhere near that stage any time in the foreseeable future, got that?” 

Everyone laughs, and Levi smiles. Now that he’s over most of the nerves and stuff, he has to admit, it did feel pretty cool to talk about his creation. One that was deemed cool enough to be talked about like this. 

“Alright, alright,” Mammon says, extracting himself from Levi with a slap on the back–in the same spot as Beel’s had been, ouch!–“Let’s go get something to eat. Levi, you can pick.” 

Levi pales. What if he picks a bad place, and no one’s in the mood for it? Or what if a group as big as them is a burden upon the restaurant staff? Or–

“Stop overthinking it,” Satan says bluntly. “We’ll be fine with whatever you choose. And the restaurant will be lucky to get our business. So where do you want to go?” 

A small smile spreading on his lips, Levi asks, “Really? Anywhere I want? Even if it’s the cat cafe downtown?” 

“Yes!” Satan exclaims at the same time Lucifer says “No!”, and Levi laughs. 

“I’m kidding. How does pork barbeque sound?” 

leviathans-watching's work - please do not copy, repost, or claim as your own

#ombrotherlylove2023 #obey me #obey me game #obey me shall we date #leviathan obey me #obey me leviathan #obey me levi #levi obey me #lucifer obey me #mammon obey me #satan obey me #asmo obey me #beel obey me #belphie obey me #leviswriting #leviswriting-obeyme

[toon-bunny]

Cathal head canons!!! I'm crazy about this guy so please be warned that there is a LOTTTTT under the cut

voice: Andrew VanWyngarden. soft tone, high pitch, speaks kinda slowly, little bit of vocal fry. breathy/hiccup-y laugh. definitely has that muffled synthetic sound like the in-game voice too

speaking sample (please ignore the weird title, this is just a good compilation)

singing sample (I don't imagine them singing, but I do like the voice effect here and the cadence)

personality: extremely perceptive and smart. friendly, light-heartedly sarcastic guy with a metric ton of non-emotive autism. it's kind of deceiving? because when u think of non-emotive autism u think of a guy who never smiles or changes pitch but Cathal is passively very smiley and has a laid back demeanor. very interesting guy to me. he is VERY passionate about his interests, they just aren't indulged/taken seriously by others so it's believed he just doesn't give a fuck about anything. that and they're still not very animated when infodumping

background…

very alienated from living kind of outside of the cogs lifestyle. not that he should be pitied for not having to work, but how do you live and socialize in a culture completely dedicated to work when you don't Do That. but I think he would have odd friendships with other sellbot managers and probably some others

they have a good relationship with dad of course. I like to think that Allan Gets him and doesn't give him a hard time for his perceived lack of passion or anything like that. but giving him a very cushy job and continuing to encourage him w/ said job that doesn't interest him is just how Allan thinks is the best way to support him. I don't remember where I read this but I love the idea that Allan isn't emotionally getting anything out of his job either BUT he's better at masking that and believes he will if he keeps doing his best - it's "supposed" to feel good. sorry wait this is just me thinking about Allan

I do like the idea that, in addition to this job not really aligning with Cathal's interest, they also dgaf because no one would take them seriously in this position anyway even if they DID try. not only do they look silly and non-serious, they'd still be resented for having this position even if they proved they were qualified for it. so it becomes a feedback loop. I'm basically making a ton of reasons as to why he acts the way he does in canon which might seem excessive when ONE trait would explain it alone, but I really like when there are a bunch of experiences/symptoms/etc that foster a particular behavior/outlook and can't be untangled from each other

I think he likes TV shows because they kind of fill the void of connection with others… cartoons kind of endear them to toons but also whenever a character that represents someone like him shows up, they're 1) malicious and greedy, fat as shorthand for capitalist monster or 2) a selfish, stuffy nerd who's meant to be ridiculed by the audience. so no, liking cartoons doesn't necessarily make him more sympathetic to the toons' cause or push him to help, bc he's led to believe he also doesn't have a place in their society

all of the above points also make them a little intimidated by activism and seeking a better life. I think he got cornered into a particular brand of quiet nihilism. I am definitely inspired by this song

in terms of disabilities and conditions…..chronic insomnia from snoozing and lazing about all day, not getting any energy out when it's appropriate. CFS like crazzzzy. autism of course. and also ADHD's brother, cognitive disengagement syndrome

hobbies/interests…

expanding on their canon interest in TV shows, I'm handing my luv of animation to them, but I also think this is the type of guy who could watch scarier stuff and just enjoy the artistry of it. as in "oh wow those practical effects are so well done" (guy who's unfazed by the horrors). (I'm so jealous of this I want to have this ability)

I think they'd like retro games more than I do, he seems like they'd enjoy a good GBA title. maybe roguelikes and metroidvanias, stuff that could be considered tedious and punishing to some but a really fun and rewarding way to waste time to others. he's got a lot of time on his hands to metaphorically bash his head against the wall with more difficult titles ykwim?

this bit's inspired by my friend's AU Toon After Time, I can't undo the association between them and tech knowledge/know-how LOL. I knowwww he collects VHS tapes and other old equipment and can also troubleshoot anything to do with old TVs, VCRs, etc

other details…

I KNOWWWWW it's so cliche to give the cogs tails but I can't help it I LOVE ROBOT TAILS. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. plus I love the idea that if cogs have tails, they are prehensile, but Cathal can't even be arsed and just lets it drag everywhere so it's all worn out and torn up from getting stepped on/caught in stuff. I also like the idea of it flopping VERY slowly once or twice if they're happy. like a very old dog wagging its tail

inspired by this post by bunglefication, I love the idea that Gizmo is treated well by Cathal and is more like a service animal to them :D so awesomes

bc my friend suggested "closet femme Cathal" once I am now 100% sold on Cathal dressing at least a little more femme at home 🌈 likes to get cutes with it for funsies. other than that, I like the idea of 90s tech guy/TTRPG guy type clothing for them. like imagine a Best Buy employee or Blockbusters employee in the 90s do you see my vision

#bunny posting #ttcc #multislacker #I'm CRAZY #I'm a MADMAN

[inevitableinfinity]

oikage week day 4: canon compliant | 500 words | crossposted here

a terrible temptation to rush to you and hold you close Franz Kafka

He sees the King of the Court sink onto the bench, dethroned and utterly pathetic, anger sharp and baring its teeth like a captured animal that is bleeding out but too proud to accept help. Tooru understands. He doesn’t want to help this King anyway, a dictator who chose to run his team into the ground and bark orders to the very end.

Still, Tooru understands lonely pride, which is why he pauses for a breath, gaze lingering on the figure whose memory has been growing exponentially in his absence, whose shadow has become as familiar as his own—before exhaling and turning to leave. 

-

He sees a cheeky little first year bowing before him, feigning politeness after yelling and chasing after Tooru (who does he think he’s kidding?). He’s confused and upset and pathetic in a different way than before, which Tooru finds concerning. Only a few months ago, this boy had no desire whatsoever to change and yet, here he is, begging Tooru for advice like he’s any other kouhai. (Seriously, who does he think he’s kidding?)

Tooru tamps down the desire to stretch a hand out and see if this is real, if the King is actually human after all. Instead, he asks Takeru to take a picture, to immortalize the moment and still keep him just out of reach.

-

He sees his rival from across the court. Their eyes lock, solemn; there is no pity in the blue eyes that haunt both his waking dreams and nightmares which is good because Tooru would loathe for this memory to be tinted in pity. This is—was—his last high school tournament. And while it has resulted in a defeat that burns going down, this is not the end. They will meet again. He knows it. 

Who will they be, the next time the net stands between them? Constantly growing, constantly evolving as teenagers do, he no longer resembles that kid Tooru had first met, now all lanky with long limbs and Tooru knows he will only continue to change. He stares, trying to memorize who and what they are in this sip of time they can never return to once they walk away. “Don’t get cocky,” he sneers before turning on his heel.

-

He sees Tobio. He sees Tobio, tall and proud, insolent as ever, reeking of confidence that he used to only boast but has now earned. (He wears it well, Tooru begrudgingly admits.) And then—Tobio sees him and sprints toward him, luggage be damned, wrapping him in the tightest embrace he can muster, audience of an entire airport terminal be damned.

And while Tooru has never held any other version of Tobio, he thinks that is okay. This Tobio fits into his arms snugly, the same way their fingers interlace, the way the final puzzle piece glides into place, the way they have woven in and out of each other’s lives, not in a twisted knot of fate as Tooru had once thought but into a rich tapestry of their feelings. 

Every previous version of Tobio has been important to Tooru, but this one is his.

#help i wrote this in an hour at 1 am #i simply?? love them #oikage #oikawa tooru #kageyama tobio #my writing #oikageweek