#I thought it would be interesting to see an average of the number of total side blogs each user has.

[general-illyrin]

#I thought it would be interesting to see an average of the number of total side blogs each user has. #(And am I the only one who uses private side blogs to organize my likes or posts I want to save by topic?)

[handwrittenhello]

i think its kind of ridiculous to think that homestucks are seriously using bots in this poll because why the hell would they bot this poll instead of the tumblrwoman poll which was the poll EVERYBODY in the hs fandom was actually making a big deal out of . also because im going to be real but i dont think anyone cares about polls enough to rig one? even the bayonetta/miku poll turned out to actually not be vriska voter fraud (most people in the homestuck fandom voted miku anyway) i think people are just unable to comprehend that a lot of people are still dormantly into homestuck & probably just saw vriska serket at the front of the trending disco elysium tag and thought it was funny. like oh my godddd no one cares enough about the outcome of this poll to bot it . somebody with a lot of followers probably just posted about it on twitter or something mundane like that its not that deep . a lot of people on tumblr have read homestuck its not extraordinary that a lot of vriska voters exist. disco elysium fans im sorry your blorbo is losing you’ll probably be back in the lead in a couple hours anyway all of you need to chill out‼️‼️‼️

answering only this ask about the cheating/botting, and no others, because i'm getting a lot of asks about it. congratulations, this contest has officially had all the fun sucked out of it.

here's data i've been collecting for every poll i've run. it's organized by votes the character received per round, then the total number of votes on that poll, for all five rounds. then there are two columns for totals.

the next five columns, Notes 1-5, are the number of notes on each poll. i've highlighted two posts that were circulated with a greater-than-average frequency even after the poll ended (the loki/JC one because people were memeing on JC, and then HDB/Howl one because it gained popularity following a popular blogger reblogging it.)

V/N is the votes to notes ratio for each poll. it was taken by dividing the number of votes when the poll ended by the number of notes on each post. one limitation is that this was not taken at the same time each day, and so older posts will have slightly higher notes. however, i believe this uncertainty isn't enough to discount the conclusions i'll come to.

i've highlighted vriska's V:N ratio in red at the top. as you can see, round vriska's V:N ratio wasn't even the highest; she beat kaeya alberich easily, and the comments in the notes reflected that.

in round 2, things started to get interesting. this is where i and other people noticed a sudden flip, but i didn't think much of it. she was up against izzy hands. izzy was leading all day, and when i queued the next day's poll and went to bed, izzy was leading by 60%. when i woke up, it had flipped to 53/47 in vriska's favor. it's not a HUGEamount, but it is a NOTICEABLE amount.

keep in mind that every single day, there have been other, closer polls, that hovered around 49-50-51 all day, and which also flipped at the end of the day, or remained 50/50 and could only be determined by tumblr. in these cases, the notes also reflect the split. these polls also never swayed more than one or two percent.

in round 3, when vriska faced zuko, there was a clear and immediate lead for zuko, with him leading by 80%. keep in mind that by this point, all 28 other polls i ran, besides vriska's the day before, never swayed more than 1 or 2% once a clear lead had been established.

this poll went from 80/20 zuko to 59/41 vriska. that's RIDICULOUS. the only way that's possible is if an OVERWHELMING amount of people voted vriska and NO people voted zuko. for such a thing to happen, this post would need to spread really rapidly, right? surely this post had tens of thousands of notes and comments!

the V:N ratio for round 3 is TWENTY-SEVEN to one. that's the most out of any poll. the standard deviation for the round 3 polls is 9.0, compared to 4.8 and 4.9 the days before. not to mention reading those notes also does not get us an overwhelming amount of comments rooting for vriska.

today has also been highly suspicious. it started out with an 85/15 lead for harry. i wouldn't necessarily expect it to hold exactly at that percentage, but the flip was immediate and drastic. you can see the trend being tracked on this post. not at all suspicious, right? also note that the comments all day have been 95% rooting for harry and maybe 5% for vriska.

please also look at the GRAND TOTAL column, which has reliably predicted the winners of future polls each day. vriska has received 49,064 votes over the course of the whole contest. harry has received 64,644. that's 24% more votes. and yet the poll is locked at 50/50?

and if this isn't enough evidence for you, then remember the tumblr sexywoman poll. it is a FLAT FUCKING FACT that those polls were spammed by bots. out of respect for their privacy i won't go into detail, but they outright admitted it.

TO CONCLUDE,

it's pretty fucking obvious that something is up, and although i admit that there's simply no concrete way of proving it, there would have to be a really standout explanation for this.

and besides this being super lame, it's also removed all the fun from this contest. it's a stupid tumblr poll that wins literally nothing, congratulations!

also, to everyone making death threats in the notes, BOTH SIDES, you've failed my secret challenge of not being rude which means i'm judging you personally. be fucking nice.

#tumblr's plmm contest #to people campaigning lightheartedly: this post isn't about you you're great and fun #to people actually fighting and taking this way too seriously: what positive impact did you have? #and to people spamming bot votes: get fucked and get a life you're not funny #director's commentary #anon #yeah now i'm fucking mad #long post

[officiallymyself]

I have a thought and I want to get some input on it:

What is the correct formula needed to reach “The Ren-Faire Ratio” a.k.a. the number of people relative to the total number of people present doing one thing in a given place and at a given time (i.e. being in costume at a Ren Faire) to the point that NOT doing that thing is considered to be unusual?

Basically, if there are 100 people in a room and only 1 of them is dressed like a pirate, that person is doing something unusual. HOWEVER, if 99 people are dressed like a pirate, then the 1 person who is not is now the unusual one.

I do think there are multiple parts to this, such as “The Establishing Barrier” a.k.a. the point at which enough people are doing the thing that it’s no longer unusual, it’s just INTERESTING. So, clearly, there is a reason for these people to be pirates, which is fine, but I don’t know what that reason is and it’s not terribly pressing for me to find out or to join them. I think this would be about 10%-15% of the population doing the weird thing. A high enough number that the average person not included would see at least 3 separate people doing the thing.

Another part is that I think “The Setting Slider” could for 25%-30% of where the Ren-Faire Ratio is being set because being dressed up as pirates on a pirate ship is much more explainable than being dressed up as pirates in an office building. However, being on a pirate ship with a handful of people dressed as pirates does not compel you to join unless the number of people dressed up is high enough. But, the more convincing the location, the more of an impact it could have.

I also want to make mention that “The Perception Push” would maybe be a 10%-15% impact on the overall ratio. This is what comes into play if it seems that all (or most) of the people doing the thing are only doing it because they have to. If all the people who happen to be dressed up on the pirate ship are tour guides, the impulse to also dress up as a pirate drops. This Push can be affected by “The Dedication Decider.”

“The Dedication Decider” is maybe a 5%-10% push based on how much fun the people involved seem to be having being dressed up as pirates. If they put a lot of work in to go all out and they are in character the whole time with a smile on their face, it can be contagious and make others want to join in.

All these considered, I feel like “The Ren-Faire Ratio” should be set somewhere around 70% of a given population, but again, I want more input on this.

The floor is open to discussion.

#discussion #ren faire #ren fest #renaissance faire #renaissance festival #debate #I am now realizing that this is an exploration into how peer pressure works

[jtl07]

jtl07 fics, spring 2024

We interrupt the posting about various water animals with my first fic recap of 2024!

An admission: I’m still in a rollercoaster of a headspace (also still open to song recs so I can make noises on the guitar btw) - I was, gently, reminded that it’s not even been a year since life upended itself and there’s been a lot that's happened in the past couple months, even more in the past couple weeks, so. We’ll take it one step - one water animal, one guitar riff, one fic recap - at a time.

General stats

Total on this pseud: 5

Fics posted (in chronological order):

Cat’s Cradle security checkpoint logs - Just a snapshot in the form of the contents of folks' bags

tell me all the things you believe - or: one year later

even though you're not mine - or: Ava comes back, but not hers; or or: Princington's artwork strikes again

i see you clearly now (i hold you dearly now) - or: on touch and waiting and wanting; or or: Ava comes back invisible

nineteen, again - or: Ava at thirty-eight

(Per usual, more numbers and thoughts under the cut)

More numbers

(As of last night; some of the numbers seem to have changed but only slightly)

Total words: 26,369

Shortest fic: 813 - Cat’s Cradle security checkpoint logs

Longest fic: 19,010 - i see you clearly now (i hold you dearly now)

Average/Median word count: 5,274 / 1,676

Most hits: 2,128 - i see you clearly now (i hold you dearly now)

Least hits: 555 - Cat’s Cradle security checkpoint logs

Average/Median percent of *interactions to hits: 21.3% / 22.0%

Highest percent of interactions to hits: 23.1% - nineteen, again

Least percent of interactions to hits: 18.7% - i see you clearly now (i hold you dearly now)

*where “interaction” = kudos, comment threads, bookmarks

General thoughts

None of the regular stats (all the word count stuff) were a surprise to me, so I added some new stats looking at interactions and hits. Interaction totals seem to correspond with hit counts (hence why I didn't note those above) but what was interesting was the percentages. Yeah, it's a difference of only a couple percentage points but the nerd in me is intrigued. As in: I wonder if the length and premise of "i see you clearly" was both draw (hits) and deterrent (interaction)? Also several comments mentioned liking the setting age-wise of "nineteen, again" so that plus the fact that there were a lot of familiar faces was perhaps folks knowing what they were getting into? idk, really can't draw any conclusions - it can also just be simple reader behavior.

Actually, speaking of which, another interesting thing I observed: I did an initial pull using the bookmarklet on the 25th, then updated the numbers last night. The numbers that changed the most were hits and, surprisingly, bookmarks (kudos were next, and comments hardly changed). I hadn't realized that bookmarks were utilized so much.

Fic that surprised you:

Technically "i see you clearly now" fits this prompt - but then again, it fits every prompt in this recap lol - but the fic I want to talk about here is "even though you're not mine. I had fully expected not to post anything for February (context: I have a soft personal goal to complete something every month) but then @princington had to go and be amazing lol. I distinctly remember seeing their art (linked above) and immediately being beset by two different ideas. I then went for a walk and during said walk, lines starting coming for the shorter idea. Near the end of the walk, the ending for the fic came to me as well, and by that time I was speedwalking to get back home and write it all down! It had been a while since I'd felt an idea take hold of me that quickly and completely - it's such a rush and was fun to write. That one definitely would not have happened without Prince's fantastic work <3

Fic that you're proud of:

Okay now I'll talk about "i see you clearly now" lol - everything about it was terrifying, from the length, the content, the style. It really was unexpected because the opening came fully fleshed out early on, which usually points to a quick little fic. But I remember hitting 3k and looking over what I had so far, and thinking very clearly: ohshit, this is going to be long. But I think what won out over the fear was this curiosity - I wanted to see where this fic was going to lead me. There was something in it that kept drawing me back, even though I didn't know at all where the story was going, something in me felt surprisingly, idk safe exploring what was, for me, uncharted territory.

Fun fact #1: I think it was around the 5k~6k mark - before I'd gotten anywhere near the ending, mind - I'd had this thought (which I'd fully written down in my notes lol) of having a fun spicy one-shot as a follow up. And then shortly thereafter, I realized how crucial physical intimacy was to the story and how it there wouldn't be a follow up - it had to be integrated into the fic. A lot of internal screaming ensued lol

Fun fact #2: I surprisingly didn't do a lot in terms of editing. The biggest was a rewrite of the phone conversation between Beatrice and Mother Superion. I remember feeling a bit iffy about it and @gohandinhand (best beta ever seriously!) gently highlighted it as well. I guess it was one of those scenes where I needed to know what the story was before I could really write that scene in a way that fit everything else. It was interesting because I felt that's how it was writing the fic as a whole - it wasn't very linear, it was more like I'd write one scene near the beginning, which gave some inspiration for a scene near the ending, which then brought me to a scene near the middle. It felt quite intricate, seeing how adjusting one area affected another, affected the whole.

Fun fact #3: Before I wrote the reunion, I sat down and studied a bunch of fics because I'm a nerd lol - there's that one post, which I of course can't find now, about how there's nothing more embarrassing than writing smut that doesn't turn anyone on, which I felt very keenly lol - I was like, jt, if you're going to do this, you better damn do this well. So I went through some other fics and studied structure, word choice, pacing - it was quite enlightening actually, and something I think I'll do more of this year. (Studying, I mean. Not the - well, I shouldn't promise anything about what I will or will not write lol)

Fic that was the hardest to write:

Much as "i see you clearly now" terrified me, it actually wasn't hard to write. Similar to Beatrice's arc in the story itself, I as the writer had to just be patient and allow it take form in the time it took. I mean, even that rewrite that I mentioned came on fairly easily.

Now that I think about it, I do remember "tell me all the things you believe" being difficult to write. Yeah, quite a number of afternoons sitting at a nearby Starbucks pulling at my hair lol The main prompt for that was simply to mark the occasion (that being my own 1 year of writing Warrior Nun/Avatrice). I think what I'm learning is that things are much easier when an idea is couched firmly in a character or an emotion. (For example, I mentioned a while ago having a hard time with i walked with you once, which could have also been due to not having formed a good grasp of JC's character)

Oh I also had not a difficulty writing, but a difficulty posting Cat’s Cradle security checkpoint logs - I'd thought it was too simple yknow? But ultimately I thought hey, this is all just for fun, not everything needs to be complex and worldchanging so why the heck not.

What's next?

Gosh that's a question I've been carefully avoiding what with being in the midst of so much transition. I've been doing a lot of resting and found myself being drawn to studying structure again - kishoutenketsu in particular (I recently found some studies I'd done a couple years ago, I might clean those up and post them here), and how to layer complexity onto that. Which is timely because there's a couple ideas that came to me late last year that I immediately knew were going to be complex and kinda put them on the shelf because I didn't think I was ready to write them. Writing "i see you clearly now" has made me question that thought so hopefully the studying will help bring up my confidence to at least try.

In any case, there are still plenty of ideas (Beatrice voice: "there's always more") it's just a matter of figuring out which ones feel right to write. I'll likely continue to be a little quiet here - save for the posts of the water animals lol - but I'll be around.

Anyway, huh, apparently I had much more to say than I thought I would for this recap. If you made it this far, wow, a virtual cookie for you! Hope the end of March brings some rest and comfort <3

#jt writes fic #words about my words #jt's fic recap

[wot-tidbits]

Curse Words Analysis Part 1: Blood and Bloody Ashes! by JaimTorfinn

The whole article can be read here.

The curse word “bloody” (by itself) is one of the most common curses in the series with 1,284 total occurrences. It’s used like its real life counterpart, and unlike its associated phrases, “bloody” is almost always followed by a word that it intensifies, such as “bloody fool”, or “bloody dice”. A recent comment by u/wjbc offers some additional insight on the word:

"Bloody" is a real world curse that Jordan uses because it's considered mild by modern standards. But in Victorian times it was considered very profane, short for "God's blood." It was also very lower class. George Bernard Shaw created a sensation when his character Eliza said "bloody" in the play Pygmalion (later turned into My Fair Lady).

Jordan started off slowly, and then went a bit wild in The Dragon Reborn, which is mostly due to the introduction of Mat POVs. In fact, all the numbers are very affected by how much screen time Mat gets in that book, with The Path of Daggers having the lowest occurrences due to Mat being absent.

When Sanderson took over, he was conservative at first, but then set new records with the final two books. As you can see from the authors’ average per 100k words chart, Sanderson used the curse almost twice as much as Jordan.

When it comes to total occurrences, Mat Cauthon is the bloody king! With 767 uses, he says or thinks “bloody” almost 7 times more than Uno, who is in second place with 115. It’s interesting to note that he thinks the word more than he says it, with 440 instances thought, and 327 spoken. Uno, on the other hand, speaks almost all of his (101 instances) since he only has one PoV section, in A Memory of Light.

With 110 occurrences, “Blood and Bloody Ashes” is the most common of the “bloody” phrase variations. It is often used as a standalone sentence, usually with an exclamation mark. Considered a fairly strong curse, it has been known to raise the eyebrows of the prim and proper.

With 101 occurrences, “Blood and Ashes” is the second most common of the “bloody” phrases. It’s very similar to “blood and bloody ashes”, but is perhaps a bit milder. It was also Jordan’s curse of choice when he first started.

With 68 occurrences, “Bloody Ashes” is the third most common “bloody” phrase, and functions pretty much the same as “blood and ashes”. “Bloody Ashes” is a Sanderson invention, with no occurrences in Jordan’s books.

Some fans assumed the use of “Bloody Ashes” in Sanderson’s books was a mistake, but when questioned about it, Sanderson claimed that it was on purpose.

SANDERSON: I've done this intentionally. It's a personal quirk of mine from my linguistic background. I feel that many constructions like this, over time, will simplify. As the world of the WoT has been modernizing, I feel that slowly "Bloody and bloody ashes" would shorten. I've used the longer version in the books, but have begun pushing the oaths toward their more clipped versions as part of a subtle linguistic shift to accompany the birth of things like gunpowder and steam power. Our world's own oaths have done this quite aggressively.

#wheel of time #curses #blood and bloody ashes #robert jordan #brandon sanderson

[asimplearchivist]

(This has been sitting in my drafts long enough…my fear of mischaracterizing Astarion is lesser than the agitation of seeing this beast among my WIPs. @fangswbenefits I’m affectionately blaming you for giving me pale elf brain rot🫣)

Okay guys this may be a very niche concept that will appeal to maybe like two people total but it hasn’t left my mind since I mentioned the idea to a buddy of mine who convinced me to play bg3…(Cullen and Astarion have a lot of similarities, which I would love to elaborate on later, but…) hear me out—it could be a very interesting dynamic to play with in a crossover.

Headcanons under the cut:

I’m not usually one for crossovers unless they’re in self-contained within a fandom (like Pokémon or Dragon Age, for example—there’s a phenomenal fic called The Half-Life of Element Zero by @unhealthynpcobsession which is a DAI/MEA crossover and safely one of the only “cross-fandom” crossovers I genuinely enjoy and adore bc the story and concepts are contextually sound and professionally orchestrated), but I feel like the sheer numbers of DAI fanfiction that explore the concept of the Breach opening up portals into other worlds (namely our modern Earth, thus the Modern Girl in Thedas trope, my beloved) could include adjacent worlds. I believe I have seen Skyrim before, so why not Baldur’s Gate 3? (Now keep in mind I know next to nothing about BG3 bc I am newly introduced to its lore and everything but) I think one could easily get away with having Astarion somehow slip through the Breach, along with the Sole Survivor at the Conclave.

(Holy shit why did this turn out so fucking long?)

The Survivor wakes—chained, cold, and aching—in the cells beneath the chantry, interrogated by Cassandra and Leliana, and denies her involvement with the Temple’s destruction. Forced to cooperate with the Survivor due to their dire need for the Mark and its potential use related to the Rifts, Cassandra casts a scowl at Leliana. “I will escort the prisoner if you will deal with the pale elf.”

Leliana only responds mildly, “I will continue to deal with him as I have been for the last three days—as well as nurse the migraine that he has caused.”

The Survivor doesn’t meet this esteemed “pale elf” until the battle at the Temple, and she only sees him from afar—he accompanied Leliana’s men to deal with the array of Shades and Wraiths that speckled the cratered grounds while the rest picked away at gargantuan Pride. She notices he is masterfully skilled with his weapons, perhaps even peculiarly so—she also notices that he has far greater strength, agility, and stamina than the average elf, easily surpassing the abilities of his peers.

She doesn’t see him again until well after the dust has settled—the Breach has been patched, Haven is able to reassess themselves, and the new Inquisition begins to construct their foundation. The newly named Herald of Andraste attempts to escape it all, fleeing into the grounds beyond Haven’s gates under the guise of fulfilling favors and errands for the various supervisors in the village, and stumbles across an abandoned cabin in the forest—at least she thought it was abandoned, at first.

She’s rummaging through the things there, finds the passed healer’s notes, but the lightest creak of displaced wood behind her tips her off to the presence of another. She whirls, hand already flying to her weapon, and backs up against the table, sending things clattering to the floor. The pale elf stands there, smirking at her startle.

“Act all the victim when you intrude on my space,” he croons, tilting his head and tutting at her, “my, how manners seem hard to come by around here.”

“You’re that—” She stops, hesitates, starts again. “Sister Leliana mentioned you. You’re the only other one who survived the blast.”

“That is comparatively the least of my problems and only the beginning of my present predicament, yes.” His eyes—as brilliant a crimson as the blood that still crusts the wounds that litter her bruised, battered, borderline broken body—scan her form from top to bottom, pause on her bandaged hand, and return to meet her uneasy gaze with a considerate one of his own. “Although I’m afraid I can confidently say that I ended up with the better of the lots drawn between the two of us.” His expression relaxes, just a little, a thready furrow forming between his silverite brows. “Does that hurt?”

She clenches her fist and clenches her teeth. “It’s dismissible.”

“Considering I heard tell that it is in the process of consuming you, I would disagree—but, I digress!” He flashes her a toothy smirk. “I am just grateful that there are no longer demons spewing out of that torn arsehole in the sky.”

She stares at him for a long moment, uncertain what to say in response. She’s exhausted, sore, and reeling from the last week of utter unfortunate bullshit that had befallen her.

“You’re…rather tall, for an elf,” she finally says lamely.

His brows arch into his forehead in clear surprise before he tips his head back and laughs. It exposes his teeth, and…no, those were not fangs. It must have been a trick of the firelight.

“It does seem that my kindred, however distantly related they are, do not possess as generous of traits as I,” he chuckles, shaking his head. “All so thin and lithe and…well, diminutive…it’s truly a marvel how they’re able to get anything done without breaking their hollow little bones. It’s little wonder that they seem so afraid of everyone else around here.”

She frowns, echoing, “‘Distantly related’?” with some dubiousness.

“Oh, your lovely spymaster didn’t tell you? I’m shocked.” The stranger gestures to himself with his arms extended to either side. “You have my sincerest apologies, my dear, I haven’t even introduced myself—I complain of lack of manners, yet fail to offer them in due turn.” He dips at the waist briefly, eyes glittering through his frosty lashes. “My name is Astarion, and…to put it simply, I am not supposed to be here.”

“I imagine anyone is fortunate to have walked away from all that destruction unscathed,” she responds mildly, narrowing her eyes.

“How cute,” he simpers, straightening and bracing his hands on his hips. “I fail to possess sufficient enough knowledge of magic in order to explain how in the hells this happened, exactly, but I originate from a place called Faerûn—not your delightfully archaic ‘Thedas’.”

He goes on to ramble about his companions, at least two of whom would have been far better suited to hypothesize how to rectify this particular ‘magical’ predicament. He tells her about their unusual circumstances of being thrust together, forced to cooperate and work towards fixing their looming health issues and the threat that faces their world.

She studies him for a long moment after he finishes. “…It sounds as if you and I are trapped in similar problems,” she sighs, rubbing her face. “As incredible as this all sounds, I sincerely doubt such a story could be easily invented on the spot…so you have my sympathies. Do you think that you’ll be able to return home?”

“Sister Leliana introduced me to that lovely gentleman who dresses like a vagrant. Supposedly, he’s the resident authority on this…‘Fade magic’, as it were?” he surmises.

“So I’ve heard,” she responds.

“Yes, well, our conversation was cut rather short at the time due to him being rather persistent in keeping his eye on that little souvenir.”

She flexes her hand and glances away. She’s been doing her damnedest not to dwell on the burning in her palm, thank you very much, and she didn’t particularly want to discuss it, either.

“Nevertheless,” he continues lightly, although his tone tempers into something more neutral, “he promised that he would look into the issue.”

“That’s…that’s good,” she replies quietly. “I hope he finds a way to send you back.”

The pale elf tilts his head at her then, eyes contemplative when she looks back up. He offers her a thin-lipped smile—this one actually reaches his eyes, softening his angular features. “As much as I am grateful not to be in your position, I do apologize. It would seem that the weight of your new moniker is not one to be taken lightly.”

“It is what it is,” she grits out. “They will believe what they wish regardless of my input.”

“That doesn’t make it any easier.” He leans in, holding her stare. “…I think it best to remain nearby, for the time being. Sole survivors of a devastating explosion still under scrutiny by those newly in power ought to stick together, yes?”

She relaxes, just slightly. “As long as you’re not the one who caused all of this.”

His expression sobers enough that it jars her. “I am the least inclined to cause spontaneous combustion among my compatriots,” he tells her, attempting humor, but there’s something in his eyes that contrasts his words entirely—a lingering fear, apprehension, borderline horror, if she has to place a name on it. “But no. I did not. And I think I have a few choice words—and daggers—on reserve for whoever did cause all of this devastation. I never asked to be thrown into the middle of this refuse burn.”

“Neither did I.” She offers him a bow in return and gives him her name. “I would say it’s been pleasant to make your acquaintance, but…I think we both are allowed to say that we would rather not have met at all.”

“Agreed.” He stoops to pick up the papers Adan had sent her to find and hands them to her. “I trust I will see you again soon?”

“You do intend to stay?” she asks, brow furrowing as she tucks them into her pocket.

“I’ve nowhere else to go,” he begins, “and fleeing from an investigation would provide rather damning evidence for the prosecution, even if misused. For now I’ll lend my particular set of skills and…services to this delightful little collection of vagabonds. I think you need all the help you can get, given that poor, overworked general of yours is relying on farmers and pilgrims to become your armed force.”

“I don’t speak on behalf of the others,” she says, “but I thank you. You’re greatly appreciated.”

“It’s my pleasure,” he purrs. “Now…do go get some rest, my dear. You look positively horrible for someone who has slept for nearly six days.”

His nonchalant sincerity startles a laugh out of her—the first in what felt like an age. He seems pleased to have done so. She departs the cabin feeling slightly less isolated than before.

#astarion ancunin #astarion #dragon age #dai #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #headcanons #mine #reader insert #astarion/reader #astarion ancunin/reader #astarion x reader #astarion ancunin x reader #dragon age inquisition #fisara’s scrawlings #fisara’s codices

[gaitwae]

Out of the Blue || Sherlock Holmes x F!Reader

Warnings: Fem!Reader, cold open, a small argument? There's (1) kiss.

Summary: Sherlock watches you from his chair, trying to woo you in the best way he can think of.

Request: Not really a request, but I would like to say this is especially for @goldencherriess!

“Sherlock, stop staring at me,” Y/N asked kindly. She turned the next page of her book with little notice of him. “I’m not that exciting. I just got a new shirt.”

Sherlock was sitting in his chair, studying his friend. She had always been an interesting roommate. She had always confused him, ever since she had joined the living space John had once occupied. She never did anything how she was supposed to. True, all the things she did were technically traditional and average, but she did it with so much charisma that he couldn’t stop watching. 

“Those who say such things rarely ever know how exciting they truly are,” he murmured, sitting forward. Her nose shaped itself so interestingly; her eyes were such a lovely shade. She was aesthetically pleasing. Quite beautiful, in his opinion. Second only to Irene Adler in looks; most average men would appreciate a plainer beauty simply for the fact that they were less intimidating than a dominatrix.

“Why am I so exciting, then?” she mused, hardly paying attention. She ran a hand over her forehead in concentration of her story. It was probably another mystery romance — the kind where the detective falls for the last person on earth he’d expected to. 

The kind Sherlock was starting to feel an affinity for.

He had been borrowing Y/N’s books lately. Reading them well into the small hours of the morning and hiding them under his mattress when she went looking for them. He wanted to see how her mind worked, how she thought. It was all he could think about on their off days. It kept his boredom at bay, but it also drove him insane with curiosity. 

“You’re a marvel. I can’t understand what makes you linger for so long in my mind — it’s never happened before.” He tilted his head as he ran the numbers, scenarios, calculations in his mind. It made no sense. His heartbeat picked up. His palms felt clammy. He kept wanting to watch her, and he had an inkling of why, but he knew it was silly. He had never felt that way for anyone, before, and it certainly wouldn’t be now. 

Still, he continued. 

“You’re totally average, and yet I can’t stop thinking about you. Your hair, your choice of makeup, your reading choices… It isn’t as if you’re particularly brilliant or special,” he mused, squinted his eyes as he thought deeper about the subject.  “Somehow, you’ve tricked my brain into thinking so.”

She finally snapped her face up. “Sherlock, enough,” she chided. “It isn’t funny.”

“I don’t joke.” He sat back. 

Y/N rolled her eyes. “You don’t mean it, though. You do your silly little mind games to mess with people.”

Sherlock’s heart thumped once or twice but kept his face unchanging. He set his temple on his fist. “What would I gain by telling you I admire you? I already know I can seduce anyone I please — I’ve made the Woman fall for me.”

“Don’t be arrogant.” She closed her book, now, setting it onto the side table. “And stop this. It isn’t kind.” Things were escalating from amused to serious — she had changed her sitting position. Before, her legs had been tucked underneath her, and now they were on the floor in front of her. Her chest rose and fell higher and faster than before. He was trying to woo her, but instead he was just upsetting her. 

He wanted to ignore the accusation. His teeth ground together despite his best efforts. “You should trust me.”

“I know what happened with the Woman, that Janine, and Molly Hooper,” Y/N continued sharply. She turned her head away, seemingly unable to even keep eye contact. “You find out someone’s deeply in love with you, and then you mock them for it. I should have done better to hide it.” 

That sentence made no sense to him. It didn’t even have any backing evidence. You had never once shown him any signs. No warmth to your skin when he touched it. No quickening heart rate. Your eyes always looked the same — blown with wonder, but that had been since day one. 

“You’re not ‘deeply in love’ with me,” he said automatically. His breath caught in his throat, unsure if it should turn into more words or stay as a gasp. “You’ve got none of the symptoms of sentiment. You’ve never been in love with anyone since I’ve met you.”

Slowly, he stood. She couldn’t have been lying, but there was no possible way for her to be telling the truth. Seemingly, this had come out of the blue for him. Really, it was his own fault for letting sentiment creep into his life, but it wasn’t like he would miss the signs of someone falling for him. He had played the game before. He had played it exactly three times in his life before this:

Once, a girl named Dinah back in University. She was American, studying to be a psychiatrist. She was originally impressed with Sherlock’s ability to cold-read people. He had once taken her interest in his brain as an invitation to get closer, but they soon grew to hate each other. Whilst mutual feelings existed, they never became anything of importance. She was now married to a construction worker in New York.

Then, there was a woman named Rachel Kingsley. They had known each other for exactly six months, three weeks, two days, and one hour before their eventual chemistry had overtaken both of them. They didn’t fall apart, exactly, but Sherlock and Rachel wanted different things in life. At that point, he had refused to ever consider marriage and she wanted to be a bride. Instead of leading her on any further, he broke their connection after another year. That was why he was looking for a flat.

That was how he met John, the only love in his life he would freely admit. His brother, by choice rather than by blood.

The third time he had played the game was with the Woman. Everyone knew how that round went.

Sherlock still hadn’t won, yet. 

“You can’t be that stupid,” she shot back, slapping her hands over her mouth after she said that. The fear in her eyes could be felt in Sherlock’s own stomach. He felt nauseous. 

He wasn’t supposed to be weak in situations like this. He was supposed to be in control. 

“Stupidity and ignorance aren’t really my area,” he said, cocking his head as he tried to process everything. “And you wear your heart on your sleeve, so that declaration of yours can’t be true. I know you, Y/N, and I know that once you eliminate the impossible, whatever improbable remains, must be the truth. This is impossible.”

“William Sherlock Scott,” she said, rising out of her chair. They were parallel now. Only inches away from each other. He could touch her, if he wanted, close the mere centimeters between them, now. 

“Y/N,” he whispered, suddenly lost in the way her eyes blazed into him. He knew he was a fool, but he still hadn’t lost his capability. 

“You have no idea what I feel, do you?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him. “No idea. You’re so lost in that little palace in your head that you don’t know what it could possibly be like for someone to love you without fawning over you. I remember Irene; even she had to talk you up for you to really notice her.”

“That’s not true,” he said, unsure to which part he was protesting against. Either way, he knew it was half-hearted. He floated closer to her face — he could grab it, if he wanted, and let her know his affections were real. It was a logical step, in the emotional sense. But it was also logical to leave it alone. 

“Isn’t it?” she sighed. She tried to push past him, but he grabbed her by the arms and stopped her.

“I care,” he said sharply, pleadingly. 

“I know you, Sherlock,” she whispered, setting her hands on his chest. She looked ready to cry. “You don’t love people that way. You never have… and then you behave this way out of the blue and tell me lies.” She buried her face in his chest. “It’s not… It’s not nice.”

“I thought I told you already,” he said in a strained voice. He pulled her back just enough to see her face. “I’ve certainly not kept silent.”

“Have you told John?” She said as if he would be the catch-all. 

He shook his head, pulling back from her. “No; it isn’t his business. It wasn’t, anyway.”

Y/N hiccupped. “This is your last chance to admit you’re just playing a prank. Because you don’t play pranks like this, Sherlock!” 

He rolled his eyes. “Don’t get hysterical, darling,” he said, cupping her face. “It’s not becoming of a woman as fine as yourself.”

“Don’t get hysterical?” she squawked, trying to rip his hands off her face. “Don’t you tell me about being hysterical—”

He swiftly kissed her, making sure to cradle her head and guide her back down toward her chair. She clung to him immediately, hands threading themselves through his hair deliciously. When she was comfortable in the chair, he anchored his hands against the arms of the chair and kept kissing her deeper and deeper.

When they both ran out of breath, he was the first one to break the kiss. He opened his eyes, studying her expression as she sat, lost in what had just happened. They panted and then started laughing together. 

“That was awfully silly of us,” Sherlock admitted as she finally smiled and put her arms around his neck. “It won’t happen again.”

“Are you saying you’re in love with me?” she asked quietly, becoming nervous. “I know I said it, but…”

“I would say that would be the most accurate description,” he said, smirking at that. “It’s not too out of the blue for you, is it?”

She shook her head. “No,” she laughed. “It’s not.”

Tags: @make-me-imagine @bwemph @myraaaa17@wolfish-trickster @lucywrites02 @mostly-marvel-musings @winterfrostsarmy @superheroesandstardust @geekns @naterson @cozy-the-overlord @megthemewlingquim @whatafuckingdumbass @thebookbakery  @wrenhyperfixates @itscomplicatedx @sophlubbwriting @darkacademicfrom2021 @lilyofthesword @xlehukax @electroma89 @joucebox @high-functioning-lokipath @lokislittlesigyn @funsized-mimi @i-beg-your-pardon-laufeyson @kingix-the-confused-earthling @moonchildmp3 @mayday-dinluke @moumouton4 @marvelouslovely-barnes @thewindandthewolves @theaudacitytowrite @lostgreekgod @lokistoriesblog @cosplayingwitch @myriad501st @wolfsmom1 @lowkis  @queenjosielaufeyson @lokiprompts @vbecker10 @floweramongstthestars

#gaitwae writes #sherlock holmes #sherlock bbc #sherlock x reader #sherlock x y/n #sherlock holmes x reader #sherlock holmes x y/n #sherlock x you #sherlock holmes x you

[1rsoldiersince2012]

Bound by Law (Matt Murdock x reader)

Words: 4381 (chapter 1)

Summary:

You and Matt met in the courtroom. Now, you may think that Matt was a knight in shining armour and defended you in the name of all United States laws, but that was not the case.

Matt was totally destroying your client, and you wanted to tear him into pieces right then and right there, because with Murdock as your rival, your head is on the firm's plate with each case. Did Matt care? No, he only cared about bringing justice, he was a human-machine, driven by the need to bring righteousness no matter the cost. Or was he just that?

Find my other accounts on ao3 and wattpad under the same name <3  

ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1rSoldierSince2012

wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/user/1rsoldierSince2012

1. CLASH IN THE COURT

"Your Honor, objection." You shoot up from your seat, the heavy wooden chair painfully creaks against the floorboards of the courtroom. "Relevance. That has nothing to do with my client," you finish the sentence, holding your breath until the judge slowly nods once. 

Matthew Murdock, your rival of today and the two previous cases, blows an audible raspberry, which you would consider to be very unprofessional in the current situation.

"The judge just nodded. Ask about his relationship with his family better." You hear Foggy Nelson, Murdock's friend and courtroom partner, whispering to a quite pissed-off looking Murdock. You sit down and shuffle through papers for anything that might save your client's ass. And yours too. 

"May I continue my questioning, your Honor?" Murdock asks, fixing his red-tinted glasses. You eye him a little before rolling your eyes. All things that you managed to pull out about the case and your client point towards his innocence, you just can't lose this case. Murdock has beat you twice before, your pride won't simply allow the third time to happen.

"Yes, continue." The judge answers, looking quite bored about this whole thing. If it were not for the jury, you're sure he would've already made a decision. 

"Thank you, your Honor." Murdock stands up again, head tilted to your side a little. Weird, but what do you even know about blind people? Maybe that was his way of focusing on his environment or something.

"C'mon, focus," you mutter to yourself, and impatiently tap your pen on the papers, feeling how your heart beats in your chest.

"Mr Donovan, what was your relationship with your father after your parents divorced?" Murdock asks, walking away from his table, hand grasping his white cane so strong that his knuckles turn white as well. Although in a short moment you manage to see that his knuckles are clearly badly bruised. Blind lawyer got into a fist fight? Interesting. Maybe even more interesting than your own case.

"I saw him only a couple of times since then," your client began but didn't get a chance to finish as Matt interrupted -

"Interestingly enough, they divorced when you were in your 30s already, am I right? The average age of people who decide to get divorced is approximately 30, but your parents were already in their 50s. What actions might have influenced their decision?" 

"Objection hearsay, your Honor!" You shoot up from your chair again, looking at the three men in front of you with a somewhat wild expression. "That has nothing to do with the previously asked question."

"Overruled. Continue Mr Murdock."

You plop down on the chair again, tapping your pen even more aggressively than before. That bastard Murdock is just stalling. He didn't need to state this information about the age of people who divorce, and you were damn sure he just thought of the numbers. Besides, what does the fact that Donovan's parents got divorced when they were fifty-two has anything to do with what he's being accused of? You could feel how another hair on your head turned from brown to gray. It was probably a good idea to start dyeing your hair.

"Thank you, your Honor. Mr Donovan?" Murdock asks again, hinting at the fact that he is not going to repeat his question again. He moves a step closer toward stand where Donovan was sitting, desperately trying to make eye contact with his wife, who was sitting right behind you.

"I never really wanted to know the real reason behind their split, but I guess it was always clear to me that a day like this would come." Donovan answers, eyes following your opponent who was slowly pacing around the little space, sometimes coming closer to you, sometimes closer to him.

In the corner of your eye, you notice Foggy Nelson lean back in his chair and making himself comfortable. Are these two men really that confident in winning the case?

"Why? Or should I ask how? How was it visible that your parents were going to get divorced?" Matt asks, stopping for a mere second before continuing his little walk.

"Well, since I was a kid, I never saw them doing any parent activities together like other parents did. When the circumstances forced them to act like happy spouses, they did it. But I saw - there was no love between them, and it was just a matter of time until the papers were signed." Donovan answers and you clap to him. Internally, obviously.

"And it was no surprise to you when they, people at this solid age of fifty-two, announced their divorce?"

"No. " Donovan answers, not giving an explanation. Smart move. If Murdock wants an explanation, he'll have to ask for it. 

"Mr Donovan, your lawyer has stated that you were visiting the nursing home quite often in the past three months. I have information that after your parents divorced those ten years ago, you continued to be in contact with both of them for a while, until the contact with your father suddenly stopped only months before he was put in the nursing home. Your mother, however, you were visiting regularly. Is that all right?" Matt spills so quickly that your client has to take a moment to fully understand what he just said.

"Uh... Yes." Donovan answers, slightly doubting.

"Isn't that a little weird that after not seeing or speaking to your father for years, you suddenly remembered his existence three months ago, right before he died?"

"Uh..." Donovan was still thinking of an answer, when you stood up again. 

"Objection, your Honor. This is an accusation." You let out a desperate breath, unprofessionally leaning on your table.

"Overruled. Continue." Judge says with the calmest expression, the one that you would be more than glad to use right now. You sit down again. That is already a humiliation. Glancing at your opponent's table, you see a woman wiping her eyes with a little handkerchief. Most likely pretending to cry. If you had a case like this for the huge sum of money, you'd be fake-crying too. Nelson turns to look at you as well, shooting a polite smile. You do the same. Although this is a war zone, you were always polite, especially with Mr Nelson. Murdock, on the other hand, decided to choose you as his next target.

"Miss y/l/n, might I ask whether you knew anything about Mr Donovan's illegitimate child, Miss Darcy Donovan, who now might be considered as your client's step-sister?" Matt steps closer to your table, not looking at you, or the judge, but straight to the right side wall of the room.

"No, Mr Murdock, I didn't know anything about your client, who claims to be Mr Donovan's relative. As I was studying the family tree of my client, Miss Darcy has never appeared there." You answer, calmly, raising one eyebrow at the man in front of you. A shy grin appears on his lips for a moment before he puts on a serious expression again.

"So you're claiming, that your client had no idea that he had a sister somewhere out there, and that her existence was not a reason for the divorce of Mr Donovan's parents?" He asks, stilling for a moment, head tilted towards the judge.

"Yes, that is precisely what I am claiming, Mr Murdock. My client never knew the reason of his parent's divorce, let alone the existence of Miss Darcy."

"Miss, y/l/n, I'm sure there were records in hospitals and other resources that your firm uses, that Miss Darcy did exist, and in fact, shares the last name with your client." Murdock grins momentarily again, already pissing you off.

"Mr Murdock, in case you don't know, many people are sharing the same last names and in fact, are not even a bit related." You say, tightly grasping the pen in your hand, fake smile planted on your face. He's obviously playing around, repeating statements, trying to make you stumble. It worked once before.

"Objection, relevance, your Honor." Nelson stands up, looking a bit lost. You look at him surprised, usually partners were not the ones who dared to object their own case.

"Mr Murdock, get to the point." Judge answers, Nelson nods a couple of times and sits down. You steal a look at Donovan, who's intently watching Darcy. The latter pretends to flip through the pages of the case.

"Yes, your Honor. Miss y/l/n, I know that you spoke with your client's mother, did she say what was the reason of her divorce?" Matt asks, standing right in front of you, conveniently blocking your view of the judge. 

"No, Mr Murdock, she never revealed what you're calling "the real reason" of her split. She said that it was a mutual agreement - or to put it simply, the divorce was friendly. My client never questioned his parent's decision, as he respected it."

He says nothing for a moment. A moment too long. You look at Nelson, but he just shrugs at his partner's behavior.

"Mr Murdock, any more questions?" Judge asks loud enough for Murdock to snap out of whatever trance he was in.

"No, your Honor." He nods to the judge, turning to you upon the departure to his table, "Thank you, Miss y/l/n," and shoots a smile. Weird. But he didn't seem like a normal guy anyway.

"Miss y/l/n, any questions to Miss Donovan?" Judge asks. You quickly stand up, grabbing the pen for moral support, you must not fail.

"Yes, your Honor."

"Miss Donovan, please take the stand." 

A moment of shuffling and loud nose sniffling goes by as your client sits down at your table, and Darcy takes his place on judge's left. She briefly gives an oath on the Bible and gets comfortable. 

"Miss Donovan, might I ask, why did your mother give you this last name? Hers was Jones, if I'm not mistaken." You begin, watching the brown-haired woman intently. Even from the looks, the two Donovan 'siblings' couldn't be more different. 

"My mother, God rest her soul, told me that she wanted a better life for me... The one I couldn't possibly get under Jones name. When I reached adulthood, she told me that one day I'm going to meet my father, who was a good man. Good, but troubled." She sniffs quite loud again, and in the corner of your eye you notice how Murdock furrows his eyebrows.

"So from what I've heard, your mother simply gave you the last name of one of her latest flings?" You say, not wasting any time with politeness.

"Objection, your Honor, hearsay," Murdock stands up, leaning on the table.

"Overruled, continue, Miss y/l/n." Judge says, and you try to hide your grin as best as your can.

"Let me paraphrase that for you." You begin, "did your mother know for sure who was your biological father?"

"Um, no. I don't think so."

"And in the past she has had various, uh let me call them, relationships, right? Couple of them at the same time even?" You ask as politely as possible, this is your chance to catch her in a lie.

Matt stands up, but Foggy quickly brings him back to his seat by the sleeve of his jacket.

"Probably. I think so, yes." Darcy answers, looking for help at her lawyers.

"And she wasn't sure who was the father when she began to feel pregnant with you? Or was she absolutely certain that it was the late Mr Donovan?" You fix your loose tie with one hand, Matt audibly takes a deep breath.

"I'm... Not sure..."

"Miss, let me remind you that you swore an oath to tell the truth, so I think that's exactly what we all want to hear right now." You say, focused on the woman. Clearly the pressure of your words and the surprising silence from her own lawyers was doing its job, as she began playing with the hem of her dress.

"My mother told me that of all men she met throughout her life, Danny was the best one. But he was unfortunately married..." Darcy begins and you see an opportunity to strike again.

"But that didn't seem to stop her?"

Darcy furrows her eyebrows and thinks over your words for a moment. "My mother was a nice woman, and she...She made mistakes! Just like everybody else!" Darcy's face morphs into a crying grimmace and honestly, it was  a pity to watch her desperately trying to win the money.

"Objection, your Honor..." Murdock stands up again, visibly affected by the burst of emotions here, you're so close, you can practically touch the today's victory.

"Objection denied, continue Miss y/l/n." Judge calmly says, not wanting the breaking point of the case to be dropped now.

"Miss Darcy, now please answer to following statement, just by simply saying either "yes" or "no", okay?" You ask, slowly walking in front of Nelson and Murdock's table, already planning your journey in front of Darcy. Intimacy always seemed to work with opponent's clients. "Was your mother involved in a multiple relationships at the same time that were heavily based on sexual intimacy?"

Heartbeat. Another, after another, after another. Matt tilts his head to the side. Everything tunes out for a moment - Darcy's heartbeat picked up, she's either nervous, or is creating a lie.

"Yes. I believe so..." She begins, but you're quick to carry on with your next sentence.

"And when she had you, she had no idea who was the real father, yes?"

"Yes... But-"

"So she simply gave you the name of the last man who was involved in a close encounter with her before she noticed that she was expecting? And that happened to be Mr Donovan's father, right?" You ask, tightly holding the pen in your hand.

"Well...Yes." Darcy sighs, slightly lowering her head. 

"So you, not even sure that Mr Donovan is.. I'm sorry, was your father, hired a private investigator to find your father? All these years later?" You say, glancing at the stressed men on your right.

"Yes. But as you can see-" Darcy hopelessly begins.

"And when you got all the information about Mr Donovan, you found out that he was just buried, and his son, Mr Donovan, here, inherited a large sum of money and some property outside the city?"

"Yes, but I-"

"And then you decided that you want that money, that Mr Donovan rightfully inherited at any cost? Following my client to work and back to his house, creeping in the shadows but never brave enough to actually talk face to face?" You ask, feeling as if you're going to burst into million pieces at any moment. The courtroom is silent for a good moment, not even a fly dares to buzz around. The tension is thick, you glace back at your client and on your way to turning back your head to Darcy, your eyes fall upon Murdock, who seems to be deep in thought, perhaps ready to object your question at any given moment. It's a wonder that he wasn't doing that yet. "Yes or no, Miss Darcy?" you repeat your question again, hoping to get an answer now.

"Yes." She says just above the whisper and if any decibel lower, you wouldn't have heard it. Matt heard it loud and clear.

"Why?" you ask, now relaxed, the case was obviously an easy win, but you still had to work on it.

"I guess I was just nervous to approach him..."

"Well, I think couple of weeks are more than enough to collect the strength to approach your step-brother, Miss Darcy."

She says nothing, just silently cries into her handkerchief. You take a look at your client, he has an apologetic look on his face, but it's clear - he's not giving up the money.

"Your Honor, might I intervene?" Murdock asks, slowly standing up, Nelson fails to stop him this time.

"Go on, Mr Murdock." Judge says with a rather bored expression. You stay standing in front of Murdock's table.

"My client, Miss y/l/n, was, and still is in shock after she learned of her father's death. I do agree that stalking Mr Donovan was not the best idea but I think she went with the heart and-"

"Went with the heart to demand half of the inheritance?" You ask, taking a step closer to Murdock.

"I-" he begins.

"If I'm not mistaken, there's only one and only name written in Mr Donovan's will - and it's my client's, so Miss Darcy legaly has no rights for it. I'm sure you know it, Mr Murdock."

"What you don't know is that Mr Donovan had another will left, and it says that if no other heir is to appear until his death, all the money go to his son. But Miss Darcy did appear-" Murdock argues, nervously fixing his tie.

"Right after his death. Mr Donovan has spent the last moments with his father and surely, if he saw this woman in the hospital, he would've recognized her when she began stalking him."

"What exactly was your client doing there those last moments? If I'm not mistaken, after his parents split, he was close only with his mother." Matt says, taking a deep breath again.

"Mr Donovan?" You simply ask, feeling how your mouth became too dry to talk.

"I-um... My mamma called to say that paps was in hospital, something serious and he wanted to see me. I came there, we talk, a pretty heart to heart conversation actually, but he never even mentioned that he cheated on my mamma, or that he had a child somewhere. He just said that he regretted the time that he didn't spend with me. So in the last weeks, we were both fixing that mistake, I guess." Donovan says, and you notice how he tears up a little.

"Thank you" you say and turn to the judge, "That will be all."

"Thank you, Miss y/l/n, Mr Murdock." Judge says, Matt takes a seat. "I think we all should take a break, and the jury will be ready to make their decision, right?" he looks at the jury expectantly, and majority of them nod energetically. "Good. Let's return in 30 minutes."

You make your way towards the bathroom, which happens to be unisex one. Just as you step in front of a mirror to fix your hair, the door opens rather loudly, and no one other than Matt Murdock appears.

You stand up, dropping the pen on your table. "Go grab a coffee, I'm positive that everything is going to be okay for us, yeah?"

Donovan nods, getting up as well.

"Sorry, is this the bathroom?" He asks, smiling briefly.

"I'm sure you wouldn't be stepping in so confidently if it wasn't." You answer, following Murdock's path, which unfortunately leads to the neighboring sink.

"Ah, Miss y/l/n, pleasure to meet you somewhere outside the courtroom." he taps around the sink to find the source of water.

"You know, I honestly thought that I was going to run into you near the coffee machine but I guess life's a bitch." You turn on the water and wet your hands, the slowly tap the loose hair strands and for a while, they stick.

"What, not happy to see me?"

"I'd be more happy to see you lose today. We both know you have no chance of winning."

"Ah, never lost your confidence, Miss y/l/n, even after I beat you twice?" he smirks, and you feel the sudden urge to punch him in the face.

"Not exactly my style, I'm sure you should know that after two times. How's the business going? I overheard in the office that clients are paying you with food packets and uh, fruit bowls?" You ask, leaning on the sink with one hand.

Matt laughs, "I might share one if I win today."

"Oh, no, I would never use your kindness for selvish purposes, although I would gladly eat a donut right now. Any chance you carry one in your pocket?" You laugh as well, Matt grins.

"I don't think my pockets are big enough for that, but if I ever place one there, I'll be sure to give it to you, y/n." Matt dries his hands, leaning on the sink too.

"Oh, first name basis? Didn't think we were that far, Mr Murdock." You grin, shamelessly checking him out, it didn't hurt to know your opponent better, in and out.

"Never thought we were anything less." He smirks, offering you his elbow, clearly a sign for you to lead him out.

"So, you're so desperate for a case that you took this one? Is this how your business is going?" You ask nonchalantly, Matt furrows his eyebrows.

"Our business is going perfectly, thank you asking, y/l/N. How's -"

"You'd get much more if you worked at Hogarth, Chao and Benowitz." You simply say. "Good lawyers like you and Mr Nelson should not go to waste with cases like this.

"Is this a job offer or a piece of advice?" Murdock turns to the side, looking in your direction.

"Little bit of both, perhaps. Well," you tap his arm once, "we've reached the coffee machine. My treat? I believe you need to save money, considering today's loss."

"Miss y/l/n, aren't you too confident today? It's up to jury to decide, or have you already charmed one of them?" he leans on his cane, you put the money in machine and push the coffee button, discreetly taking a look at his knuckles, that are definitely bruised.

"The only charmer in the courtroom is you, Mr Murdock, I believe chances that you have already charmed that lady on the left are way higher." You smile, watching how the cup is filling up with hot drink.

"You think of me as a charmer?" Matt smirks.

"I think of you as a worthy opponent. Nothing more." You take the cup and hand it to Matt.

He takes the cup and smells it. "I'm forever in your debt now, y/l/n."

"Yeah, you and your partner." You click the button again, buying coffee for Nelson.

"My partner? Wait, so you, are buying drinks for me and Foggy?" Matt's smile is as big as his courtroom ego today.

"Well, I'm not a monster, you know." You roll your eyes.

"Didn't think of you as one." He says mysteriously and you feel the blush creeping on your cheeks. Not everyday you receive a compliment, especially with that attitude of yours.

"Here, I hope it's no trouble to hold another cup, or is Mr Nelson somewhere out there?" You crane your neck and look around the crowd of people, but Matt shakes his head.

"He's not here, I'll hold it." You put the cup in his hand, which is surprisingly warm.

"Friendship sixth sense?" You ask, but he just laughs the sentence away. "Well," you finally say after a moment, watching the coffee pour into the cup, "I'm good. Where to, Mr Murdock?"

"A place that is crowded? I assume you don't want anyone to see us together, as you know, as opponents, we're supposed to despise each other." He whispers devilishly.

"I like your thinking. Surely it would raise suspicions to anyone who knows us, they would probably think of us as best friends." You fake shudder and cross your hand with Matt's, taking Foggy's cup from him. His palm, that is touching your bare arm feels incredibly warm and heavy, and at this moment, you're just glad that the walk to the bench is not a long one.

"Coffee's nice." Matt finally says after a minute.

"Coffee's shit. Plus, we don't really need to talk, I don't want to lose the mood." You take another sip of the drink and lean on the bench.

Matt crosses his legs and turns to you, "What mood?"

"The mood of beating you." You simply say, downing the drink and tapping your pocket impatiently. You really needed a smoke but that would create even more distractions.

"We shall see about that beating. Maybe you were wrong all along."

"Listen, there's no way for Darcy to win. The will clearly states that Donovan gets everything-"

"If Darcy doesn't show up before his death." Matt argues, putting the cup on the bench, ready to wave his hands.

"But she showed up the day after he died." You press.

"Yes, after her father mysteriously died, and I believe that your client has something to do with it."

"What are you saying? Are you accusing Donovan of his father's death?" You say a little too loud. Couple of nearest people turn to look at the two of you, and Matt puts his hand on your arm again, leaning closer to you.

"Will you just keep your voice down? What I'm saying is that Donovan didn't even visit his father in years but suddenly shows up couple of weeks before his death? Right around the time when Darcy hired a PI? I know he's your client but doesn't that raise any suspicions?" Matt says lowly, almost whispering, his coffee breath hits your face.

"Murdock, I don't even know how to call what you're doing right now." You blow a raspberry but he squeezes your wrist a little.

"I'm not here to play sides, or to do you dirty, although I would really love it the other day, but I'm here to bring justice, and this whole thing smells shady as hell." He says and you lean forward, elbows on your knees, deep in thought.

"So if Donovan really had something to do with his father's death, although it's not possible. He died of a heart attack. Then what you're saying is that he did it on purpose when he found out of Darcy's existence?" You ask, raking your brain for any missing points, needing a smoke now more than ever.

"Yes, listen, I know it sounds crazy but it could be possible." Matt leans closer to you again.

"How would we know it? How did Donovan find out about Darcy if his mother didn't even know about the affair? And he claims to have never seen the will before his father's death. Also, that second will you brought up, doesn't make any sense. I've asked for the documents in the archive and never received it." You glance at the clock and stand up. "Whatever. It's up to jury now. They're gonna say their decision soon."

Matt stays silent, visibly lost in thought.

"You need help or can you manage through the crowd alone, Murdock?" You ask and he stands up, taking Foggy's cup and placing his palm on your elbow.

"Help would be nice, Miss y/l/n."

#matt murdock #matthew murdock #foggy nelson #marvel daredevil #netflix daredevil #matt murdock x reader #starts before the series but eventually will play into them #lawyers #matts superhearing complicates things for you #bound by law

[communist-ojou-sama]

This isn't meant to be an insult since I'm not either but I'm curious if you're even an anarchist anymore? Like, not because you dismiss 'authoritarian' as a useless idea, I know anarchists that thing it's a worthless distinction, but you seem to think that a transitional state is necessary to overthrow capitalism so I wanted to make sure I'm not misunderstanding your position.

At first I was gonna give this an unfocused, rambling answer, but I feel like it's worthy of a somewhat more focused answer so I'll try to wrangle my thoughts into concrete points. There's a reason why despite my url, which I've been using for like 7 years at this point, in my bio I merely describe myself as a "Marxist" and in short that is because after a lot of reading anarchist theory, lots of talking to other anarchists and looking at anarchist positions on things, I realized anarchism as a theory of revolution and change has really very little to offer anyone who isn't a white person in the imperial core relative to other left-wing ideologies. First of all, anarchism as a whole has a very bad habit of flattening injustice and taking the structuring of society as a purely moral exercise, often demonstrating blindness to the scarcity of resources that caused societies of the past to take the shapes that they do; if you have any knowledge of or interest in societies of the ancient near east then the truly laughable anarchist characterization of these societies puts that reality into sharp relief On another point of "flattening injustices", in order present the transhistorical entity of "the state" as the ultimate evil you will frequently see anarchists not directly, but as a rhetorical slight of hand imply that, for example, censorship on the one hand and starvation of the populace, or lynchings, are basically equal, never bothering to develop an understanding of why some societies maintain strong support form the populace while others quickly fall apart. On the point of the collapse of societies, the collapse of "oppressive" regimes is romanticized among white anarchists despite the fact that they have been some of the greatest humanitarian tragedies ever. Anarchist ethics often acts as the total triumph of the concept of the human over real human beings and their needs, and there is no substantive anarchist program for challenging existential challenges that inherently will require organization and coercion (e.g. green energy transition). Anticiv anarchists and their fellow travellers plainly admit that they have no intention to engage in any real political activity, so whatever they say can be safely ignored, but even putting that aside, ordinary anarchists base much of their view of world-wide geopolitics on a number of racist lies propagated by the countries in which they live, believing that asians or black people are simply enduring conditions that would cause revolts, and have before, as if their will to freedom is less than that of whites, and in general western anarchists exercise a total failure to appreciate US imperialism as a world system, and what that actually means, much less develop an understanding of things like color revolutions. As a result they constantly demonize non-white leftists for self-defense, and glorify compradors and counterrevolutionaries that masquerade as "progressive", as if any state founded on them would not be a US puppet state, and treat the very suggestion as some kind of tin-foil hat conspiracy, not much different than the average white liberal. There's plenty more I can elaborate in my problems with anarchism as it is practiced in the 2020s, but hopefully this is a decent starting articulation.

[orionsangel86]

I think part of the reason Morpheus is often headcanoned as asexual in this fandom is a combination of people projecting (which is totally valid) and that there's a significant portion of the fandom who hasn't read the comics and only has the show to go off of. In my opinion, in the show he does have strong ace vibes. Much less so in the comics, but it's a lot easier to headcanon a character as ace when your first introduction to them gives you strong ace vibes. So there's probably a good number of people who still headcanon him ace even after reading the comics.

Personally, I just headcanon him as queer. My reason being that if you have a being that is basically the subconsious of all humanity averaged together, the odds of that person being straight is probably low.

As for there being discourse on his sexuality in the fandom: if there is discourse, I've missed it. Though there very well could be discourse on a side of the fandom I'm not in.

This is an interesting viewpoint bearing in mind I have been discussing the exact opposite opinion in a separate post in which we theorised that the show has played up Morpheus' sexual allure...

Without wanting to overspeak here, as someone who is not asexual and therefore cannot speak for that community, I think it is part of a wider cultural thing within fandom that people who are queer and in particular asexual and/or aromantic, tend to relate and imprint rather heavily on characters who tend to be non-human. I think there is probably an interesting psychoanalytical reason for this but its probably a bit too deep of a topic for me to tackle on a Sunday evening.

Dream is just the latest in a whole batch of non-human characters that often get depicted as asexual in their fandoms. I'm thinking characters like Aziraphale and Crowley from Good Omens, Castiel from Supernatural, The Doctor from Doctor Who, Spock from Star Trek, to name a few.

I can therefore understand why fandom may view Dream this way, even though canonically it isn't technically the case. I don't think there is any harm in it persay, though I think fandoms need to be careful about constantly headcanoning non human characters as ace because what does that say about real asexual humans? Asexuality is a human characteristic at the end of the day, and I wonder if this is just the latest in the trend of queer people in general being made inhuman and "monstrous" which goes all the way back to old hollywood monster movies.

I personally don't pick up any ace vibes from Morpheus in the show. I'm not really sure what I would be looking for regarding "ace vibes" anyway because its just simply a lack of sexual attraction, and I think both episode 6 and episode 11 make it quite clear he experiences sexual attraction, at least in my opinion and interpretation. If its his inhuman element that makes him appear asexual I'll be honest I find that a bit problematic, and I would ask asexual fans to also look internally as to the reasons why they associate inhuman qualities as asexual qualities. Of course if there are qualities he is presenting that can be compared to a lived asexual experience which don't relate to his inhuman nature at all then that is different, and I would like to know more about that since it is an interpretation I do not see and would like to read about.

My viewpoint is that he is quite a sexual character even in the show, and I thought this before I threw myself into the comics and audiobook. Other than episode 1, in which the show does a wonderful job of not sexualising or objectifying him outside of maybe Alex's gay awakening, even though he is completely naked throughout, once he has his clothes back on the show leans into the sexual chemistry he has with every single cast member to the point that its basically an in-fandom joke that Dream is a bit of a slut (affectionate).

Even in the cast interviews, this "Dream is a slut" viewpoint was already known about and acknowledged (thank you Kirby and Mason) so its not exactly a secret that the show is playing up the sexual elements even if currently they remain in subtext. Personally I doubt they will remain in subtext for very long and I think future episodes will quite likely lean into Dream's sexual allure and bring it more into the forefront. I am very curious about how they will adapt Tales in the Sand for instance, which is the only time in the comics that Dream has sex within the panels rather than "off the page" and since that version of Dream won't be portrayed by Tom Sturridge, I do wonder if maybe the show will decide to give us more Dream sex scenes - there is certainly an opportunity to bring Calliopes praises to life in the "show don't tell" manner, and we have yet to discover what they are gonna do with the Thessaly situation, or whether the intense sexual chemistry he had with Johanna Constantine will come to fruition.

I also can't not bring up Dreamling fandom here, because if my experience in Dreamling fandom has taught me anything about the general fandom opinion of Dream, its that the show has clearly encouraged an interpretation of Dream where he wants to climb Hob Gadling like a tree. Fandom hasn't giffed that particular smoldering heated gaze from 1789 20million times for no reason. They giffed it 20million times because it is fucking HOT and sexual and arousing and is the first indication we have in the entire show that Dream himself experiences sexual arousal - because he sure as hell looks aroused in that scene.

As always YMMV and everyone is gonna have different opinions and interpretations and they are all valid in their own ways. I dunno if there is actual discourse I just saw a few comments and wondered if there was. If it helps I also headcanon him as queer, because I think heterosexual is a much smaller limited box to try to shove such a grand and unknowable concept into. I doubt a creature such as Dream would ever limit himself to only one specific type of being, even if that is all the comics were willing to show us of his sexual and romantic history.

#dream of the endless #the sandman #sandman meta #sandman analysis #my opinions #ymmv #asks

[sounds-of-some-day]

Yup. Fans need to pay for a subscription if they want to support these shows. I got an AMC+ subscription because I watch IWTV and Gangs of London.

I wanted to make a post in general about the overall advocacy of piracy, but I am a tiny blog and no one cares about what I think.

But, with respect to this specific show, I will share some thoughts.

I see a lot of people angsting about "What if AMC makes the series run too long, like they did with Walking Dead, and the quality declines?"

and like, y'all, seriously, this should not be your concern right now. TVC are not The Walking Dead, and they were never going to be. I know there's this rumor going around that AMC bought this property as a replacement for The Walking Dead, and I don't know where that comes from, if it's just wishful thinking, or if someone connected to the show or AMC somehow hinted at that, but I seriously hope that it's not the second option, and that AMC is not expecting Walking Dead numbers from IWTV, because that would be really naïve to say the least and I would hope the people in charge of these things have better sense.

During it's peak, The Walking Dead was pulling in 17 million viewers per episode. It was the number one show on cable television. Not just the number one show on AMC - the number one show out of all of the cable networks. Even at it's worst, it was getting 3 million viewers per episode.

The best I can tell for IWTV is that it is averaging less than 0.5 million viewers per episode.

To put this into perspective, Fear the Walking Dead averaged 0.8 million viewers in its last season and it's on cancellation watch.

Here's from cancellation watch after the premiere of IWTV:

"On Sunday, AMC’s heavily promoted Interview With The Vampire–based on the Anne Rice novels–had its premiere but only managed a 0.15 rating based on same-day viewing for the 18-49 demographic with 622K total viewers.  Those are not terrible numbers, but that is also not a great start for a shiny new franchise that received a notable marketing push prior to its debut.  It was also available on AMC+ the same day (along with the second episode), though, so the digital viewing should give it an additional push."

And the thing is, there was a 40% decline in viewership after the first episode. Why? Well....honestly, most likely because of the gay sex. IWTV was never going to be TWD because it is openly, unabashedly, LGBT. And that is going to turn off a lot of the general viewing public. I'm sorry, but it's true. I wish we lived in a world where that was not the case, but we don't.

So if you want more LGBT media like IWTV, you have to support it. And that means supporting it financially if you can. Look, AMC+ is what? $8.99/month? Ideally you'd continue your subscription, but even if you cancel it after the show airs, you still showed AMC that there is interest in this specific show that generates revenue, and it only cost you less than $20. Are you not willing to put $20 into getting more IWTV??

I know not everyone can, because they live where AMC+ isn't available, or maybe you are truly flat broke, but if you can support the show, man, you gotta do it. Because anything past season two is NOT guaranteed, and we all want to see Sam Reid as Lestat in his rock star era.

So, please, I'm begging you.

And also, the other show in this franchise? The Mayfair Witches? Man, that show is facing an uphill battle because there is zero hype about that show right now and it airs in a little over a month.

Anyway, this got long, so I'll leave it here. But please support this show. And as for how you can do that between now and season two? Keep the hype up. Create fan content. Talk to people about the show. Hype the ever loving shit out if. Cause the one thing IWTV has going for it right now is that the critical reviews have been incredible. That doesn't mean anything without ratings, but it definitely helps.

#interview with the vampire #iwtv #mayfair witches #asks answered

[olderthannetfic]

After talking about nostalgia, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at posting patterns. And since I can’t get at fandom’s posting patterns overall, I decided to look at mine. This is a product of jetblackcode and my archive pages on DW and Tumblr.

Both DW and LJ share some info about you on your profile page. It doesn’t precisely match what I found in my calendar view. Does it include posts to communities? One’s total comment count definitely does. And of course, plenty of people have left and aren’t showing on profile pages anymore, but I think there are still some instructive points of comparison.

Tumblr:

According to Jetblackcode, 96.60% of posts are reblogs and over 50% of blogs have >5k posts. They average 617 original posts on the blogs they look at.

My tumblr has:

1,094,647 notes

25080 posts including 13,687 original and11,393 reblogs

935 original photo posts

534 original text posts

12218 other original posts (i.e. ASKPOCALYPSE)

I follow around 700 people and am followed by 6k, 1k of whom have arrived in the last 4 months.

As you can see, askpocalypse only took off in the last couple of years. Before that, I had bumps of activity when I was reblogging the MFU movie or deadpool or some other then-current fandom every day and started to get a few followers who were there for topic-specific posting. I started going viral a bit more around the porn ban because I’d posted the prescient A History of Fandom Purges just before, but all of my viral meta from back then combined is nothing to now.

DW/LJ:

According to DW:

4,989 comments received

5,606 comments posted

792 journal entries

I have ~300 subscribers and follow similar numbers, but that’s not because DW is quieter than LJ. That’s in line with what I would ever have had on LJ.

According to LJ:

2,192 comments received

16,433 comments posted

713 journal entries

The actual number of journal entries I counted on my calendar on DW for the chart above is 680. Did I miss a bunch? Did I really have that many in communities? Possibly.

Anyway, you can see on the graph above that I was highly active on LJ from 2003 to 2011 with a dip in 05-06 for moving to Japan and then NYC and being busy with personal life stuff. After that point, I was still crossposting from DW to LJ and I was still in the journal world, but things were tapering off.

A big thing to notice is how many more comments I posted than received on LJ: that’s the product of me being active in other people’s comments sections and not being a BNF at all. I didn’t post much fic, and I didn’t have anything serialized in my journal in a way that would have brought in big crowds, nor was I making most of the popular top-level meta posts in those days.

Comment counts got more even on DW, but that’s not a good thing: it’s a symptom of people talking 1:1 but I don’t mean in private. A thread will be ABABAB, not the branching, multi-person conversations of the height of LJ.

The other big takeaway from my LJ/DW is that I have always been garbage at tagging. Heh.

Let’s look at a BNF:

Astolat’s LJ info page shows

28,969 comments received

11,703 comments posted

1,203 journal entries

262 friends

2,829 followers

And DW:

32,996 comments received

4,166 comments posted

1297 gives access to

2149 followers

Those are more BNFy numbers. IDK whether astolat used to follow a thousand people on LJ instead of a few hundred, but it’s possible the move away from calling them “friends” made her more open to following people back.

We can see the typical skew in more comments received than given, but we’re still looking at a very different kind of distribution than on Tumblr. These sorts of numbers are what you get on a platform where a higher percentage of interactions are contentful and meaningful.

(If you’re curious about astolat’s tumblr presence, you can put her blog into jetblack code. She apparently has 51,590 notes 395 original posts and 1669 reblogs.)

As we bemoan on modern platforms all the time, producing solid work of our own is slow and difficult and easily drowned out by viral sharing and repackaging activities. DW/LJ show a glimpse into what a slower, less viral site looks like.

[pan-de-queer]

20 Questions Game

Tagged by @jadedloverart! for once, i've finished work early and am free to write fic and answer tag games today hahaha thanks for the tag!!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

31 lmao, feeling a lil fandom old or whatever haha

2. Total AO3 word count

157,459 ??? wild considering i mostly post one-shots hahaha

3. Fandoms you write for

for the past few years it's been supercorp but you can also find bechloe, junksen/embry, some choices (the cyoa game), and les mis sprinkled in my ao3. all wlw too

4. Top 5 fics by kudos -

ruined nights make for perfect first dates (bechloe)

'cause you know all of my secrets (supercorp)

maybe i matter (because i knew you) (bechloe)

love tastes like spring and blood (bechloe)

kept my face to the sun (you drive away my shadows) (supercorp)

most interesting thing for me abt this is that ruined nights is the shortest one out of all five of these??? love that ppl liked it so much tho

5. Do you respond to comments?

as much as possible yeah! which reminds me that i haven't replied to @jadedloverart's comment on my fic. and other comments. i should do that hahaha

6. Fic w/ Angstiest Ending -

i don't end with angst haha i'm angst with a happy ending or bust lmao BUT the closest to angst would probably be love tastes bc the issue isn't solved until the very end

7. Happiest ending? -

all of them 💕 but if i had to choose then probabbbly cause you know

8. Do you get hate on fics?

not that i'm aware of!

9. Do you write smut/what kind?

nope! never been interested in writing it mostly bc my brain sees it as "action with even more emotions" and i have a hard enough time with action as it is lol

10. Do you write crossovers?

used to! and if you count the mcu+comics!marvel crossover i only posted a tidbit of, then yes, i still do

11. Ever had a fic stolen?

again, not that i know of

12. Ever had a fic translated?

yeah! can't remember for what tho but someone very kindly asked and i said ofc!! and then they sent the link but i can't remember where lmao

13. Ever cowritten a fic?

a long long time ago haha, wouldn't be opposed to doing it again though!

14. Favorite ship?

it's been supercorp since the pandemic! but who knows where the winds of my silly lil whims might take me?

15. A wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

all of them 💕 lmao jk jk but seriously i have a LOT of wips and i put them all under ONE file so it's like wading through a garbage dump trying to see what i'll do next and that's just for supercorp, i have separate untouched wips for allll my other old fandoms too lmao (some wips i doubt i'll ever finish for sc though are the undercover fake lovers one, the coastal cleanup one even though it SHOULD be easy in theory, the hanahaki au that's lena's version instead of kara's, and the one based off of emily the song by jeremy zucker)

16. Writing strengths?

anything descriptive! i can go in depth about shit forevveeerrrr

17. Writing weaknesses?

dialogue. like i can WRITE it and i can even write it WELL but that dialogue came from the bloodbath of thousands of drafts so

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in a different language?

many thoughts! number one being that if you don't know it, get someone who's above average fluent to help you if you feel like the language is needed in the story! and if the language is fake (like using kryptonian) then make the inclusion of it make sense! other thoughts are for my thinking only 💕 (and my unfortunate friends who have to listen to me lecture)

19. First Fandom you wrote for?

MAYBE ranger's apprentice or percy jackson

20. Favorite fic you've ever written?

i can't pick favorite for my babies but i'm hella proud of all my supercorp fics rn! it had been so long since i joined a new fandom that i felt suuupppeerrr awkward posting at first! but it's been a nice experience shifting fandoms ever since :)))

for the no pressure tags! @nostradamus0 @sssammich @ridiculously-over-obsessed @tiny-maus-boots and anyone else who wants to join!

#tag game #while i do genuinely mean 'and anyone else who wants to join' it ALSO means 'i don't remember y'alls usernames' #and i'm p sure i just flat out forGOT even if in my heart of hearts i know that username hasn't changed in a long while #i just can't REMEMBER

[chim-chim1310]

One thing that I've wondered since Jungkook's debut is if it would work if he was any other debuting asian soloist, not "Jungkook of BTS". Because it seems like Scooter has been trying very hard to sort of disassociate Jungkook with the rest of BTS, and BTS's brand. However, if you think just a little bit, it becomes clear that Jungkook has nothing else to hold onto except being a BTS member. I don't think Jungkook is totally talentless, but he is... average.

He is a good singer, but his latest releases don't favor his voice at all, I thought he actually sounded bad with that high-pitched nasal tone he went for. He can dance better than your average male pop singer, that's for sure... but he is not a dancer. He dances to the choreography, while if you compare him to Hoseok or Jimin, they are the choreography. I've always noticed that Jungkook sort of disappears in those 3J performances because Hoseok's dance is very captivating and he's extremely good at hip hop, and Jimin's dance is incredibly unique and alluring and delicate, while Jungkook's is... ok, i guess? There isn't any special touch or anything he adds to the choreography to make it his, unlike Jimin or Hoseok do. And I mean, seven and 3d choreograpies are so similar and underwhelmingly bad. At last, he doesn't have a strong performance. I never really thought about it because being in a group kind of hides who are the worst performances, but his performances of euphoria were entertaining only because the whole flying thing. I don't know if it's fair to compare euphoria to begin, since he was relatively young, but still, begin's performance is boring. I never really liked begin this much, but the performance always failed to interest me, even when I saw it live in the Wings Tour.

And aparently, he can't compose or write a song even if held at gunpoint, so there's that as well.

My point is, he isn't amazing. He is just Jungkook of BTS. And when he isn't anymore, then what? I doubt he will become Beyonce or Justin Timberlake like big to the point people don't even know he came from a musical group. There is so much investment and money being poured over him, and him alone, and for what? He won't become the next BTS or surpass BTS's success as a soloist. He can't even pull the same numbers seven did without that disgusting amount of payola, playlisting, promotion, ads, etc. He won't be an artist recognized for, well... his artistry, his craft, or his longevity. He will just be reminded as Jungkook of BTS, the dude who is also a soloist, I guess. There is nothing remarkable about his discography so far, and I doubt there ever will be.

I agree. He just doesn't have that IT factor to become better or more famous than bts. He's average at best. Its just that hybe and bts members overhype him.

But I honestly don't see it. It may sound harsh but Jk is forgettable. He had never blew my mind, be it his dancing or singing... He is just there. There's nothing extraordinary about him.

I feel like he doesn't even know who he is or what he wants.

He just doesn't have that extraordinary factor to be bigger than bts.

That's what I think.

[phdmama]

So apparently there’s some stirring of the top bottom stuff going on and since I... really like numbers, I thought I’d take a look (also because I’m so concrete it would literally never occur to me that someone would send me an ask that wasn’t... you know, genuine!).

Charts below break!

Data Collection:

AO3, searched within fics tagged as Harry Potter fandom and then tagged with Harry & Draco as a relationships, only fics tagged E. Four categories of search per year: 

Include Bottom Harry Potter, Exclude Bottom Draco Malfoy (HP !DM)

Include Bottom Draco Malfoy, Exclude Bottom Harry Potter (DM !HP)

Exclude Bottom Harry Potter, Exclude Bottom Draco Malfoy (!HP !DM)

Include Bottom Harry Potter, Include Bottom Draco Malfoy (HP DM)

I did not include 2022 numbers as the year is not over. As a check, I also noted total fics per year and total fics tagged explicit and made sure my four mutually exclusive groups added up to my total explicit count.

So the obvious take from this is that the majority of fics are not being tagged with who bottoms. In the cases where they are tagged, Bottom Draco fics are tagged more than Bottom Harry fics every year I looked at. The ratio gets smaller and smaller every year, but even in 2021 the ratio is 1.73, with over 100 more fics being tagged for Bottom Draco than Bottom Harry. The ratio droped substantionally in 2015, and I am not sure why (maybe a new archive was imported with different tagging conventions?).

To get a better sense of how it looks, this is the chart without the “neither” fic numbers included:

This chart gives a sense for each individual year, how the fics are labeled (not to be compared to each other, of course):

Also just because I think it’s sort of interesting, here’s a comparison of the proportions of of E/Non-E fics, definitely looks like there’s a downward trend in E fics there.

The one other thing I was interested in was the claim that there was a trolling incident that led to this reversal of dynamics (which, as we can see from the data, didn’t happen). I went back and looked and my own rage-written fic was posted on April 28, 2021). So I looked at the montly stats for Only Bottom HP/Only Bottom DM/Total E fic posted by month and then eyeballed the proporations. So, it is true that May of 2021 is the only month where Bottom HP fics were higher (both in absolute numbers and proportion of total E fics), but that’s the only month that happens (4/2020 to 4/2022). Over that timeframe, about 6.56% of E fics are exclusively Bottom HP, while on average, exclusively Bottom DM are ~14%. In the months following, in fact, in general the Bottom HP numbers are pretty low.

So, what (if anything) does this mean? For me, for one, it solidifies that I personally really dislike reducing fic to this particular dynamic. I think it would be really interesting to do some investigating into why authors do or do not tag their fics for this dynamic, since I’m guessing most of us are aware that it’s a hot button topic (and has been in every fandom I’ve ever been in or hung out near). I know why I don’t, but I wouldn’t want to assume. Maybe I’ll write a survey.

I find the downward trend of E fics in general vs the upward trend of proportionally more fics being tagged for Bottom HP interesting, but it’s definitely not the majority (May 2021 notwithstanding).  

Purely on a personal level, it was interesting to see the huge increase in sheer numbers of fics being written and posted to AO3, which is probably why I feel so overwhelmed haha.

caveat on the data: this is absolutely not a representative sample, nor is it random sample in any way. This does not account for all the fics that are not labeled but do have one dynamic or the other present but the idea of doing that data collection is absolutely fucking beyond me. So who knows what the actual numbers look like. This is simply an overview of how things are specifically tagged on AO3. In addition, this doesn’t take into any fics tagged solely by who tops.

#harry potter meta #ao3 meta #just a little tiny data thing #sort of interesting to me at least

[themidgardlibrary]

Something that peeves me off is how people will claim that gifted kids were 'privileged' because of how adults treated us. And like. Bitch. No! There's a reason why so many of us are burnt out disasters! It's not a privilege to be told your primary, if not sole worth is your ability to do good on tests.

I never got praise from any adults for my actual inherent traits. I didn't get praised for my interest in art by any adults until I BECAME an adult. I didn't get praised for my thoughtfulness. I didn't get praised for trying to be fair. I didn't get compliments on ANYTHING unless it was related to my school work. My personality did not exist unless it was in service to my school work. I was a trophy, a bragging right, not a PERSON.

Like, I get it, being considered 'dumb' is ALSO hell - and surprise surprise I know exactly how that feels because the moment I struggled with anything I was accused of purposefully being stupid, or pretending to be stupid. The MOMENT I was not performing I was clearly just being stubborn, not, you know, finally hitting a wall of what I could understand without an adult explaining it, not, you know, someone with untreated ADHD who was hitting the early stages of a total burnout because it turns out that when you excel at academics, PEOPLE PILE MORE ACADEMICS ON YOU without regard for whether or not you can handle all the extra work.

At least in general non-gifted kids were allowed to have FRIENDS. And do things OUTSIDE of what would get them good grades. They were allowed to build up some form of self-identity or self esteem that wasn't directly connected to their grades. I and many other gifted kids didn't do that!

And, I need to make it clear, I'm not saying that gifted kids have it worse than normal kids or kids who do poorly in school. WE WERE ALL FUCKED OVER. Every last one of us was hurt because of this. The kids who struggled with schoolwork were written off as hopeless, or not worth the time to teach, as well as being compared to people who excelled. AND THAT IS INCREDIBLY FUCKED UP. Average kids were always being compared to both their gifted counterparts ("Why aren't your grades like your sister's?") and told very clearly they would be less valuable as people if they had any REAL struggles with school. Which, AGAIN, IS PRETTY FUCKED UP.

We were all used against each other, every one of us. We were all made to see each other as enemies, or superiors, or inferiors, when in reality we were all fucking KIDS with our own needs and specialities. The adults in our lives FAILED ALL OF US, and blaming gifted kids only serves to ignore that fact, while further victimising people who in a LARGE number of cases got demoted to 'failure' the moment we were no longer worth bragging about.

Have gifted kids pulled the "Well I'm smarter than you and that makes me better :)" schick? Yeah. And those individuals were being douchebags, often times douchebags who had NOTHING other than the fact they were doing well in school as a sign they had ANY value. Non-gifted kids have pulled the "Yeah you're good at school but you're also a loser who has no practical skills and also you're boring, and you don't deserve friends", and again, those were INDIVIDUALS being assholes, individuals who were constantly being made to see themselves as somehow less valuable. None of the 'sides' was perfect, and none of the 'sides' deserved what they got from adults.

And some of us? Some of us were 'privileged' to get it from both ends - being told by other gifted kids that CLEARLY our failure was a sign we were never really valuable to begin with, all while the people who knew our background as 'gifted' treated us with contempt and often rubbed it in our faces that we were failures.

Again, this insisting any one of the 'sides' was privileged in this situation is fucked up and only goes to further support this shitty system that assigns value to *anyone* based off of academic success when they should be focusing on making sure their kids are happy, healthy, and prepared for the world!

#gifted kid trauma