#but I'm not wrong lol. also it was very brave so I do consider her a girlboss in a bad situation. maybe just not that word idk

[incorrect-web-novels]

It's making me slightly insane how some ppl are seemingly trying to "correct" the idea that Mianmian was discriminated against for being a woman when she questioned the prevailing narrative that Wei Wuxian was killing indiscriminately.

Suddenly, someone sneered, "You can stop arguing. We don't want to hear the comments of someone who has other motives."

The woman's face flushed. She raised her voice, "Explain things. What do you mean I have other motives?"

The person replied, "There's no need for me to say anything. You know, deep down, and we know too. You fell for him back in the cave of the Xuanwu just because he flirted with you? You're still arguing for him, calling white black no matter how irrational it is. Ha, women will always be women."

- Exiled Rebels, Recklessness (2)

"Who does she think she is... leaving as she pleases? Who cares? What's she doing this to prove?"

Soon, some began to agree, "Women will always be women. They quit just after you say a few harsh words. She'll definitely come back on her own, a couple of days later."

"There's no doubt. After all, she finally managed to turn from the daughter of a servant to a disciple, haha..."

- Exiled Rebels, Recklessness (2)

This is right after Lan Wangji directly contradicts Jin Guangshan's version of Wei Wuxian's confrontation at the banquet in search of Wen Ning & is awkwardly brushed off:

Suddenly, an indifferent voice spoke up, "No."

Jin GuangShan was in the middle of his fabrication. Hearing this, he paused in surprise, turning along with the crowd to see who it was.

Lan WangJi sat with his back straight, speaking in a tone of absolute tranquility, "I did not hear Wei Ying say this. I did not hear him express the slightest disrespect towards Sect Leader Jiang either."

Lan WangJi rarely spoke when he was outside. Even when they debated cultivation techniques during Discussion Conferences, he only answered when others questioned or challenged him. With utmost concision, he overcame, without fault, the lengthy arguments of others. Apart from this, he almost never spoke up. And thus, when Jin GuangShan was interrupted by him, he experienced a far greater shock than annoyance. But after all, his fabrication was exposed right in front of so many. He felt a bit awkward.

The good thing was that, not long after he felt awkward, Jin GuangYao came to save the day, exclaiming, "Really? That day, Young Master Wei busted into Koi Tower with such force. He said too many things, one more shocking than the next. Perhaps he said a few things that were along those lines. I can't remember them either."

His memory could only be equal to Lan WangJi's, if not better. As soon as he heard it, Nie MingJue knew that he was fibbing on purpose, frowning slightly

Jin GuangShan followed the transition, "That's right. Anyhow, his attitude has always been arrogant."

- Exiled Rebels, Recklessness (2)

The focus of this scene is the double standards between a male heir to a prominent sect and a female disciple born from a servant - gender and social class. It is more than clear that Wei Wuxian and Mianmian are being looked down upon for "stepping out of line" due to their lineage (as well as Mianmian for her gender).

Like, there are other factors at play in this scene, and I'm a big fan of alternative interpretations, but it's not wrong to say Mianmian is being a fucking badass in this scene by questioning and rebuking bigots, even if there's no real "reckoning" or retribution for said bigots. It was one of - if not the - most memorable scenes for me, and it’s driving me a little nuts seeing ppl trying to "Um, Actually" it

#not a quote #mdzs #mianmian #luo qingyang #meta #mdzs meta #I get characterization and scenes wrong all the time so no hate really meant #and I do see how this can be interpreted as a more tragic scene than a girlboss scene #but I'm not wrong lol. also it was very brave so I do consider her a girlboss in a bad situation. maybe just not that word idk #idk what the common consensus on this scene is tbh. but if I don't talk about it I might scream #my posts #sexism #misogyny #social classism #<-idk what the exact word is #discourse

[elviraaxen]

im new here, so im sorry if this is a question youve answered before but tumblr's search bar failed me in finding this to be previous answered but.. uhmmm

c... can we make ocs/personas for Felt World? or would you rather we not or we hold off until further in?? bc i would love to make a puppet give our cowboy a smooch before he is, i assume bc he is a fucking catch and a half, taken off the market in canon lol i assume he wont still be single by the end. im a tad bit too embarrassed to ever post such drawings, but i wanted to know in case i ever did become brave enough to make them public if such you would be welcome to be tagged in or if that would make you feel uncomfortable

and also, for that purpose: as someone with disabilities, im really curious how disabilities are translated into Felt World? obviously not all of them, that'd take forever. but i was curious if they use mobility aids just like ours or if they use ones we could not have (an example of what i mean could be like "seal-chairs" in "Witch Hat Atelier"? they are chairs with hooves that run and jump, as opposed to wheels). and i know you said music is really powerful in this world, in both singing and instruments, but i wanted to also ask how in a world with so much focus on sound are the deaf/hard of hearing accomadated? deaf/HoH people can still play instruments, obviously (the most famous example being Beethoven), but i meant other than that

(also, if i recall accurately you once said that "the puppets have to speak to be considered sentient beings"? i was wondering if in the future could that be amended to "have to be able to communicate"? because i assume nonverbal puppets would still exist, as well as puppets who just dont speak much (whether thats a facet of deafness or nonspeaking shutdown or just a quiet personality). or would that break Felt World's world-building's logic in some way? that's a genuine question. i wasnt sure how to word it in a way that would minimize the risk of one being put on their back-foot, but i tried my best, it really is a genuine question)

(also, because i never like to assume fluency in disability-knowledge: if you need a resource on media portrayals of disability at any point, i highly recommend the youtuber, Oakwyrm. they do a lot of really cool analysis videos on disability. i do apologize if i am overstepping, and you are already largely fluent in disabled portrayals in media and/or already aware of Oakwyrm's existence. i just like to shout at least one resource out because i know many people have no idea where to look to learn more about general disability representation advice and whatnot. you do not have to watch their videos if you do not want to ♡)

also a bit of a tangent, idk if this is just a "for now" aspect of Donna due to her adjusting or if this is a core pillar of her personality but... just, thank you for making a feminine character who cries a lot and is emotional with Big Feelings. ive always felt more connected to the Dorthy Gales, Cinderellas, Clarisse de Cagliostros kind of heroines who are a bit of a "damsel in distress" (tho i do think that term reduces a lot of their agency and bravery) and i feel a bit lonely that we dont see many emotional-vitality-driven heroines who need some help as much as badass heroines or sassy heroines, both of whom are fully capable of getting shit sone alone. makes my cry-baby disabled ass feel a little pathetic (im very physically weak because of my chronic health issues, and am the type of Autistic ADHDer who is very sensitive to getting big feelings), even tho i know those types of heroines are valid and needed. i resonate a lot with AJR's lyric about "But I'm weak. And what's wrong with that?" even though i know im taking it out of context

and im sure Donna will prove herself capable of being on her own and having her own agency, same as all the heroines ive listed, i dont assume she will be stagnant, but i just wanted to really thank you for making a character that i relate to. i dont get that often. it makes me feel a bit abnormal and strange, and i mean moreso than the "well youre neurodivergent and sickly" kind of abnormal that would be implied. like. Weird Kid sitting alone at lunch kind of strange. so its really cool to see Donna and feel less lonely, is what im saying. i wish there were more heroines like her for people like me nowadays, rather than the archetype being reduced to "archiac stereotypes" (which i both do and dont understand the logic of. it depends on context and the example given) and therefore shelving a type of heroine we dont see in a lot of contemporary media (in exchange for a heroine we didnt get to see often (if at all) in past media, the sassy and badass ones, i do get it, and im glad theyre being used more as they should have always been. there are a select few of both camps that feel like "women have to be as stereotypically masculine as possible to be worthy of being called 'a strong character'" when i think strong characters have less to do with personality and more to do with "do they direct the narrative's plot? do they have agency?". but i could be wrong about that and i am getting off-topic)

but yeah. just. overall: thank you for introducing Donna to be like she is. it means a lot to me to see a heroine like her in contemporary media. im really excited to see what youll do next ♡ but yeah, i know im babbling a lot here and you dont need to reply to this half, i just really wanted to stress my thanks and WHY you have my thanks ♡♡♡ i really appreciate having Donna sit at my metaphorical lunch-table with me, even if she has to go sit somewhere else later. its been really nice to be beside her

thank you ♡

ps. i wasnt sure how to format this Ask because i know some people like to have each section have their own Ask for compartmentalizing/tag-organization reasons, but others like it all to be together so they know its all from one person as opposed to the anxiety of "ahh why did i get so many Asks all at once, did i do something wrong, do people hate me-- oh. its fine. i went through that rollercoaster for nothing. dear lord, am i drained now". so i tend to rather assume the latter, just in case; but do feel free to screenshot and section these out into their own posts if you are the former, i wont mind if youd rather do that ♡ have a nice day!!

Oh my goodness what a long message!!! 0.0!!

I had to take a few hours to think about everything to make sure I answered everything. But I should start off by showing my gratitude for the amount of time and effort you put into formulating this! So thank you, this was a really cool ask to receive <3

As for OCs, absolutely you can! I've already had a few who've made theirs, and I have no rules at all when it comes to shipping or self inserts or anything, as long as everyone is being respectful towards each other ^^

As for the disability aspect, I have a few key points that I want to explore in regards to especially deafness and muteness (is it called that? muteness?), but that's further along the story and will be introduced later! Also how song vs instruments work in this world is a part of the lore itself that'll be explained further down the line too, so no need to worry about our fellow mute or deaf/hoh peeps!

I have of course thought about mobility aids and other disability accommodations (because they can be born with defect, illnesses, and be injured pretty much like us, their bodies are a bit more fantastical but there are still rules) but i must admit didn't think further other than to give them similar mobility aids that we use. But clearly it would make more sense to make something more fantastical! I'll give it a thought! That's probably gonna be a fun design exercise ^^

I'm not sure if I can answer the entire ask in a way that does it justice, it's quite frankly the coolest message I've gotten, I'm gonna try and not let it get to my head (lol),

but i'm so glad you and seemingly many others seem to like Donna and appreciate her specifically for being sensitive and reacting strongly. It shouldn't be but it's really daunting to write female leads because as we know people just don't like women in media generally, but I eventually just got over it because I realized I was starting to write a character that demanded the audience cared and respected, rather than showing a story that I had fun telling, in a world worth exploring.

And not to spoil but I've already decided I do not want Donna to go through an arc where she's forced to abandon her emotions or go through something physically traumatic in order to "become tough" to be respected, that's not only overdone but lame and harmful wish fulfillment. So no worries in that department!

But anyways, I don't think I can properly say how appreciative I am of this ask!!! It really warms my heart that you and other people are going out of your way to send me asks about my little story that I came up with on a whim!!! It's truly the best compliment as a creator.

<3

#long post #asks

[bubbles-for-all-of-us]

BUBBLES!!!! it's me again hiiiii 🥰 okay just going back to what I sent yesterday and develop the whole 'aftermath' of you getting hurt

before that I remembered something that I was going to write but didn't so: when Joel gets home to change, he takes Ellie with him and drops her off. But before leaving again, he goes to her, tells her she should stay at Maria and Tommy's because he doesn't want her to stay alone. Ellie doesn't feel like being around other people, she's so shaken she just...can't even fake functioning normally. She asks Joel if she can stay with him and with you and although he wants to say no (because she needs to sleep, etc...) he knows leaving her alone at home will do no good. They both put on some fresh clothes, go back to the 'hospital'. Tommy stays with them for a while until Joel's like "go home, we'll be alright" and leaves Joel and Ellie with you. They don't really talk, Joel holds your hand firmly and keeps it close to his lips and Ellie just sit next to him, watching your chest rise up and down. "She's going to be okay, right, Joel?" she finally asks Joel looks at her— poor girl is exhausted, her eyes are red and heavy and he can't ignore the tremor in her voice. He wants to tell her that all is well, you'll wake up and it will go back to normal but truth is, he doesn't know. A billion things could go wrong. But the protector—the father—inside of him puts on a brave face. He tells her that you'll be okay, you just need a lot of rest. Ellie watches for any sign showing he might lie to her and when she can't find any, she just lets her head fall on Joel's shoulder. Joel covers her small body with his own jacket and spends the rest of the night watching over his girls.

Okay that's what I wanted to change and now, the rest (I'll try to make this more concise lol) - ellie jumps in your arm as soon as you're awake and only lets go when you wince because she squeezed you too hard - Joel is also relieved but he kinda keeps his distance. I'm not saying he's cold or anything but he's just very careful because he doesn't want to hurt you - you get discharged quickly and you're forbidden from patrol, work, anything for the next few weeks - everything hurts btw, you can't walk, eat, shower, do anything alone and even breathing is incredibly difficult but don't worry, Joel isn't letting you - honestly if he could breathe for you, he would - he changes your bandage every single day after/before his patrol, makes you food (or kindly feed you the food Maria makes), helps you shower, helps you get dressed and does your hair - yes, he does your hair - i have a thing for that so allow me to discuss it a bit more: he takes the time to brush your hair and braid them so you don't wake up with messy hair like you hate - how does he know? well being a single father to a tiny little girl taught him a lot of things including braiding - so he takes the time at night, even if he's exhausted from the day he had and he always leaves little kisses on your cheek and shoulders - speaking of physical affection: the man will not let you go - he's either holding your hand when you take a small walk or he carries to bed or he has a hand on the small of your back or he's kissing you or, or ,or he just can't be more than a foot away from you - it's pretty normal considering he almost lost you but yeah, don't expect to have any form of personal space for a long time (and I'm not saying this as a bad thing) - he's also worried all. the. time. - the ptsd he has? skyrocketed to the freaking stars - he has nightmares almost all the time, his panic attacks gets even worse than before and it breaks your heart to see him worry over you like that - truth is, he can't help feeling guilty because again, you got hurt and he wasn't there to save you - of course, there was nothing he could have done and it was not his fault AT ALL but in Joel's mind you and Ellie can't be hurt in any way, he has to shield you from any sort of pain - sometimes after a nightmare, you don't wake up and he just starts panicking and he checking your injury, making sure you're not bleeding out or something, making sure you're still breathing - when you do wake up, you let him rest his head on your chest so he can listen to your heartbeat - he really has a hard time with 'failing to protect you' but you remind every day that it's not his fault and he did everything he could (which is far more than enough) - ellie is insanely worried about you as well - whenever Joel goes on patrol and she doesn't have school or anything to do in the morning, she crawls into your bed and lays with you for a few hours - you're really everything to her (with Joel) and she got so scared that she would lose you as well - she handled a lot of loss before but she knew she wouldn't be able to handle losing you all in all, they love you so much they would literally prefer get impaled themselves than see you in pain and you love them just as much and I have no idea how to end this so yeah, love <3

-🪷

No, because I love this. Because this is their worst nightmare. You are the glue that keeps everything together. You are there with them for a reason and they love you, love you so much. And it's so traumatic, so real, too real. Because if you die what will they do. Of course they would pick one another up but it would be so hard.

So they cherish every single of your breath now. It's a miracle you are here and that you are alive. So they are giving their all until they are breaking apart but then they just lay there with you and that's all it takes to keep them going.

I loved this! I loved everything about this! Perfection, baby!🥺🥺

#little lily 🪷 #come chit chat with bubbles 🫧 #joel miller x reader

[randomnameless]

Re: Almyra, yes! YES! After Nopes especially, I'm so baffled that Claude (and I guess his fiercest stans?) wants to change FODLAN so they welcome Almyra. Like, he really is looking at Fódlan's Locket, its history (all three nations coming together to build it), the very real situation of Almyra constantly attacking and trying to invade Fódlan, as well as (once he meets Cyril) the reality of the Almyran army leaving kids to fend off for themselves on the battlefield/after a loss

And he just shrugs and says it's the Church's fault?

If he ever wanted peace between the two, he'd need to work on Almyra's favorite pastime first. Which I suppose he can only do once he's king, which doesn't seem like a soon-to-come opportunity. Not that he looks interested in changing Almyra, anyway. I don't think he ever mentions changing the Almyrans' mentalities?

It's always "Fódlan needs to open its borders, Fódlan needs to keep an open mind, Fódlan needs, Fódlan needs". We know Fódlan HAS open borders with others, at least enough so that have actual regular trade. (I could buy the Alliance not knowing too much about Brigid, Dagda and all because they're at the other side of the map, but the Empire trades with countries on the east, too. How is Claude not aware of that? It has to leak into the Alliance too.)

Sorry, I have a lot feelings about Claude's obsession with opening up Fódlan to people who regularly attacks it. (Considering he uses Sreng in GW to attack the Kingdom, it looks like a pattern lmao.)

No worries anon, you can rant away!

If it's any indication, after playing two games and looking at the script with more hindsight/in a more neutral way, some other players also noticed how this obsession - even in FE16 lol - was ridiculous lol

Correct me if I'm wrong friends, but iirc, Claude in FE16 isn't the first in line for the throne, or something like this? And it's only after helping Fodlan, and then returning to Almyra, that he can become king?

So much like Dimitri, I'd understand if, during the course of the game, as a random who has no real power in Almyra, he cannot do a lot of things to change their mindsets - even if he is still able to ask for Nader's help, who's far from being a random nobody in Almyra!

Maybe we could have had some scenes where he asks Nader what he thinks of Fodlan, and if he doesn't think it'd be nice if they stop raiding and start to interact and trade under more amiable terms, with Nader accepting after some persuasion (idk, witnessing how the so called Fodlan cowards are brave enough to fight 1 to 10 against an Empire who could fold them in two and uses mutated humans) even if that'd include retconning the Nader the devs had in mind that was revealed in Nopes lol

And when Nader's finally on his side, he can try to convince the GD - maybe some members would straight out refuse to help or ditch him, and have to be recruited later on (or persuaded if they got an A support at least with Claude thus no ditch him), with a special subplot regarding Hilda because she's a member of House Goneril and her House has bled for many decades to fend off against "invasions for funsies" - ultimately bringing more to his friendship speech against Nemesis than, this speech just being a Wedon speech thought in the spur of the moment that sounds cool (Nemesis symbolising, after the infodump, the culmination of Fodlan's rejection of "others", in this case, Nabateans, who weren't considered sentient beings but just "things" to be looted").

But no, instead we have church BaD, Rhea BaD, then Church not so BaD but Rhea's doctrine BaD, to Rhea's not so BaD but she still dies conveniently offscreen, and Church was still kind of BaD since it's ultimately reformed (how?) by King/Queen Billy.

Yay!

In a way, I'm wondering that even if the devs said they re-wrote Claude to fit Nopes, if FE16!Claude's mindset wasn't already that closer to Supreme Leader's than we first thought, especially if they're both wondering, basically "why are those people unhappy that I/we are invading them and fighting to prevent us from getting in?".

Supreme Leader does it when she invades and laments the "useless" deaths from people who die defending their lands, and Claude basically does it when he wants to "open" Fodlan to people who want to invade them (but ultimately manages to convinced them to sign a treaty at the end of his route, off-screen).

Also, anon, acknowledging the Empire, the Kingdom and FFS the Alliance trades with other countries in this verse would remove a part of the Church BaD/Rhea BaD spiel - and we can't have that :(

idk if it was on purpose, and we still don't know what Varley is preaching in Nopes, but I love how Gilbert is the first one who says Varley's teachings are full of shit and is basically the one who tells the cast that Varley's words are nonsense, because if they are close to what Claude is telling us about "uwu isolationism uwu", Dominic, in Nopes, is revealed to trade a lot with Albinea lol

Of course Gustave can't say this loud, otherwise no Church BaD and characters who are supposed to be loved looking like asses wouldn't look that rad (even if Claude already has a moment like this with Barney lol) - but imagine Claude saying "uwu church enforces isolationism and forbids foreign trade" and Annette shuts him up "what are you talking about? We've been trading with Albinea since the days of Loog, and the Central Church never asked us to stop?".

#anon #replies #fodlan nonsense #fodlan AU #imagine though a new VW #while there is a war going on in BG it's mostly used as a proof Claude's actions are beneficial to the people of Fodlan despite his origins #which makes people who would sideeye him reconsider #or having done more with Nader and Shahid and show a real conflict between Almyrans who want peace and the ones who want to raid #but no instead we got a whole route of nothing #a lot of off screen stuff and never connecting Claude's plot and dreams to events happening #imagine instead of getting one of the worst infodumps ever #if Rhea told Claude how Agarthans turned against Sothis who only wanted to live with humans #and him kind of losing faith because maybe coexistence between two people who feel they are too different will never work #instead the game we got has him look like an idiot #to drink Hresvelg Grey while still being a reasonable person #at least in FE16 lol #in Nopes he ditches reason

[arziaisfrench]

▪︎ IPKKND Ep 7 recap : Arnav and Khushi's 2nd challenge

> challenges or flirting sessions? 😏

Everytime they have an encounter in public, it's as if the world disappear, they see and hear each other only lol.

"-Before doing anything, think at least once on how it'll affect that person ! -If that's the case, then stop interfering in my business!" Yes, I definitely think they are unconsciously very glad of meeting each other again haha! Did you notice how Arnav's taciturne attitude leaves everytime he meet Khushi ?! She made him so alive but for now, he still doesn't realize it.

"I think you're trying to take money out of me" Arnav doesn't believe in fate, and he also isn't incline to think they meet this often by coincidences. That's why he's already thinking she's trying to approach him with ulterior motives aka trying to seduce him to get a taste of his money and position, lmao sir you wish hahaha !

"that's why i admit i made a mistake because i'm not like you, who does wrong and walks away from the situation" Arnav's anger makes him do very awful mistakes as we already saw in the last episodes but Khushi selt righteous spirit also makes her do awful mistakes.

Do you see how his eyes are smiling when khushi is lecturing him (the last pic) about bringing up the money topic haha uugh so cute ! He begins to notice what annoys her, and now he's starting to love teasing her with it.

He doesn't do it here to insult her, he does it to engage with her.

He supposed to be busy, but look at him giving her his entire time hehe! He has only eyes for her too when they argue, he's drinking her liveness and that "extra" personality of hers. He doesn't want to miss anything cause he know they will get separate ways soon !

Arnav is smiling again because of her, not once this time but many and directly in front of her. He's openly flirting with her. She doesn't see it, too busy making him know that she isn't inferior to him!

He already holds such importance to her, she cares of what he thinks of her. She doesn't want to lose to him.

Arnav doesn't care about the money that she supposed to pay for his car, not only because he's a freaking multi millionnaire DUH but because he knows he went too far with the release of their "lucknow" moment in the media. He already considered it as a compensation for his misbavior. I think he never had any intention to get from her any money.

Challenging her was always a way for him to meet her again. He doesn't believe in fate but he also suspect her to purposely create occasion to meet. But it doesn't stop his own desire to see her again. Arnav Singh Razaida creates his fate and he wants to see her again. That's why, in my opinion, he always somehow lets his door open for her to meet him again by challenging her.

Khushi seems to only focus on winning against him but she's a clever girl, she knows. She knows it's a way to meet him again, she can sense he's letting his door open. The only thing that's is incertain to them now, is what their interactions will lead to.

Did Arnav just created an occasion to hold her hand? I think so, absolutely YES! 😏

He even holds her hand to give her money. He didn't have to hold her hand but he still did. And she lets him do it ! Khushi doesn't let anyone touch her or act this way with her, she is very much capable to throw away any dude that she doesn't want that close to her !

Arnav loves winning but he's starting to like her not giving up, not wanting to see him win over her. He enjoys her treating him as her equal disregarding his behavior, money and power.

"Annoying, self righteous and prideful. Beautiful, brave and cute " is probably what he thought about her since the 1st meeting until now.

" Arrogant, mean and pretentious. Handsome, sexy & mysterious" is probably her first impression of him.

When she stops him with a "wait", not only he obeyed and stopped but he also wasn't suprised that she didn't let him win easily.

He knew somehow. He knew she will react this way.

Look how not suprised at all he looks when Khushi promise him to pay him back. He knews she'll take the challenge. He's delighted! Because it means, he'll meet her again somehow.

What makes him also excited is the fact that meeting her is also out of his control, for once he doesn't have to be in control of everything, he can let things happen. Of course, at this stage, they aren't seing each other in a romantic way but they unconsciously like how their interactions made them feel and they can sense the attraction, and the adrenaline from it.

"You are here and me too. We'll see." See, he lets his door open, he lets it open for her and fate. This scene was so hot and cute at the same time haha !

Khushi promises to see him again (to pay him back) and he doesn't reject the idea of seing her again (he couldn't care less about the money), on the contrary, he's insinuating he will wait fo her.

" -I promise -We will see"

Fate or her own intention, he'll let the door open. "Let's see if fate really exist, coming from Lucknow to Delhi to banging directly to my car ! There must be some motive"

"-Even if I drive safely, the rest of people are careless. -Did you note down the vehicule number? Just one call is enough to sue them -No need for that." This is the first scene where we get to see Arnav hiding (his crush lol) his encounters with Khushi. Khushi is his secret, the person that can let him be a little bit like his real self (so of course, he won't let people around him know about it) ! "Don't tell sister about it".

"Who is that girl who put a dent on his mind more than dent in the car?" PERIOD Akash haha, he knows Arnav's mind is already too focus on Khushi !

"-The pace at which you are going in your life… at that pace everything goes blurry except for you. -I can see everything clearly -You're looking in the wrong direction. Don't just look ahead, have a look what's behind you." Oh don't worry grandma, Arnav is gonna soon always make a point to look back, but only for kushi hehe

"Only when the pace is slow, you can distinguish between right & wrong"

From ep 7 ▪︎ Khushi/Arnav similiarities : -Their are very competitive. -They are quite stubborn. Khushi's self righteous spirit & Arnav's impulsivity make them do terrible mistakes & blind them. -They want to see each other, each interaction make them feel more alive. -Them challenging each other is the way they flirt with one another.

#IPKKND #IPKKNDEP7 #IPKKNDRECAPS

[deviantartdramahub]

Damn last time I posted here I said I'd see you the next evening but now I'm here 3 days later. Sorry about that XD

Life really will screw you over like that.

Anyways, now to the points...

0 notes

"Also I agree with the user, show proof or shut your mouth you dumbass." Lol that sure is ironic, considering the fact you give no proof of any of the claims in your post, especially when I know the stuff about Club and Tri is wrong, and you're also supporting the Probium person when all they do is scream baseless slander and isn't even brave enough to fully admit they're against Club, when it's obvious they are. Probium, very much like you, doesn't want to hear anyone but themself and spouts whatever bullshit they want. (And I'm not sure what pronouns Probium uses, so I'm just gonna use they/them for them for now. If someone informed me what pronouns they use, that'd be helpful. Bc I'm not gonna unblock them just to check lol.)

 5 notes

Nah the reason he was banned is bc you petty losers mass-reported him, smh. "I wont mention they are for their safety" You only care about their safety when they're on your side, hm? "Cuz tri twat stalks this blog like the petty bitch she is." Uhh no??? You're the ones who harassed her and the reason why her and everyone else against you looks at your blog is bc we want to prove your shit wrong and stop you. Keep crying over people defending themselves, lol. " those rp journals have been deleted, alongside his ‘pushing his special needs agenda woa is me boo hoo’ journals." Special needs agenda?? HELPPP these people are making up the new "gAy AgEnDA" over their bigotry LMAOOO. "Dont bother coming back, we will always be watching," Honey you can't say that then tell me you aren't creepy, obsessive stalkers lol. "WE WON." Yeahhh no you didn't, Club's friends, such as me, will always support him and remember him fondly. I'm still on DA and contributing to his group and also speaking up for him here, and you can't do nothing about it. Club also has amazing friends who miss him and still want to talk to him. And despite how big you talk, there's nothing you can do about it. It's pathetic.

3 notes

Ain't no way DADramaNow expects Club to be able to identify every single one of Sam's THOUSANDS of alts lmao. How the Hell is someone ALWAYS supposed to know???

0 notes

Lol here's an instance of DADramaNow attacking a kid just bc he's friends with Club, and also calling him a "pedo in training"?? Ew. "hey robert, if ya hate pedos, why ya hanging with club pedoverse? " Hmm maybe bc he's not a pedophile?? And once again, if Club WAS a manipulator and groomer, that would be fucking horrible to blame and attack the kids for being manipulated. Face it DADramaNow, you aren't the good guy either way.

1 note

Proof, lol? And remember sweetie, screenshots don't count!! <3

1 note

Tbh I wouldn't want to be in those groups anyways if they believed your ableist bullshit.

Anyways that's enough for now, I'll HOPEFULLY be here again tomorrow evening, bye Tri!

Looks like those criticizing our existence just want leverage, as always.

[tekutiger]

FFXIV Patch 6.51 !!

Good Gods a lot has been happening. I finally have a moment to stop and post something 😅

I've been tending to my own personal island, traversing a new island, braving a crazy new event that Manderville added to the Gold Saucer with these hyperactive beans?

I'll be posting a lot of screenies below, some potentially spoiler-y so... unfold the cut if you're interested.

(I'm more or less posting these for sentimental/archival purposes but) Fall Guys Event!

Very anxiety inducing at first but once I got the hang of it, not so much, and rather fun 😎. Ngl though, I did stop queueing after getting all the glamour and pets I wanted, and reaching one win 👑

I need to hop back in for a couple more things but my router is literally dying and I'm waiting for my ISP to come out to fix the issue first. A lot of people, including myself, are learning from this event that the snapshotting sucks. So, I'd really prefer to have my net fixed before attempting to queue more.

Oh!! Something I wanted to throw out there for people who don't want to run this a whole lot but want to put the Fall Guys furniture to use. If you just buy ONE piece of each thing, you can place multiple of that furniture item on your island. Go crazy and make a "fun space". I've been considering doing it, lol. Just food for thought 😋

Island Sanctuary!

I'm not even remotely done here yet. I've hit Rank 20, got the Felicitous Furball glamour, and the 100k crowrie mount/bike, but there's a 200 Felicitous Voucher mount that is going to take agesssss to acquire. I've seen some people with it already. Likely bought the vouchers off the MB or traded with friends. The going rate for those vouchers on my server is 90k-95k each (atm). Buying all 200 of them would make the mount 19m (currently). I'll be patient and slowly earn them, lol 😋

Aloalo Island!

Okay, I'll just be transparent here. I love the Variant Dungeons 🥰. Maybe Zenos wasn't wrong when he was blabbing on about how I'm an adventurer looking for a challenge, or a test of skill. I feel like Variant Dungeons do that decently enough to keep me in a good place (don't get rusty), but don't push me too much to be annoyed (*cough*fliptables*cough*). I'm not a raider- I'm not OP. But I do like a little push or a challenge here and there.

So, for me, I see these as fun, with rewards that are worth the time and effort.

I cannot say the same for the Criterion version of them however. I haven't done them and I see a lot of people raging over the terrible rewards. If it's that many people, it's worth looking into and from what I have heard, they're right to be upset.

If you need raid gear to do Variant Dungeon and the reward gear is under or on par with the raid gear that's needed to do it- that's a huge no. I don't have all the facts or experience to know first hand how true that is though 🤷🏻‍♀️

Posting these 👆🏻 because this is my favorite path. I've always loved mimics and had this slight obsession with them since I played Ragnarok Online many years ago (my first MMO ever).

Silly little treasure chests, you're so evil and cute 💝

(Coulda sworn I got a screenie with the parasol but I cannot find it 🙃. Same with the new hair on my female bun... might edit it in later but probably not.)

Edit: (I'm editing one in at least 🙃)

❘✧༻༺༻༺‿︵‿༻༺✧*̥˚‿︵‿ °∘❉∘°‿︵‿*̥˚✧༻༺‿︵‿༻༺༻༺✧❘

World of Warcraft: Retail (The War Within, Worldsoul Saga)

So, totally unrelated to FFXIV, but also related in a way... my BFF's BF talked her into playing WoW again, and she talked me into playing WoW again, lol (with the help of the cinematic). It's been FOUR years since I've played.

The reason I say it's "related in a way" is because I want to still play FFXIV at the same time and upkeep my FFXIV 'muscle memory'. I started doing the Loporrit Dailies recently - need to continue doing that. I still need to hit Series Level 25 in PvP - so I'll continue doing those daily. I need to continue getting my Island Sanctuary Felicitous Vouchers. And lastly, I began doing the weekly Custom Deliveries for Anden and Margrat. I intend to finish those for the Glamour and Mount. (It boggles my mind how people can say "I'm bored" in FFXIV. There's SO MUCH to do, always. Just admit that you're not bored, you're lazy 😑.)

If the muscle memory thing doesn't make sense, here's an example: It's when you drop/neglect one game for so long (let's call it Game A) to start playing another (Game B), that you completely forget the controls or lose the reflexes you once had for Game A, because you're too consumed living in Game B. I do not want that.

Just thinking about returning to WoW, I feel a bit overwhelmed. All of us used to play Horde for the majority of our gametime (my BFF and her BF, & some of my other friends who've quit). But before I quit, I was trying to make the permanent swap to Alliance (played Alliance for about a year). She's still playing Horde with her BF so I won't be playing with her unless I continue to play Horde. I'll need to find an Alliance server. It'll be cool if I can find a guild that has people who play both WoW & FFXIV. I need to look up which addons I'll need. I fear for all the crap I left in my inventory LOL.

But mainly. When I saw that new cinematic with Thrall and Anduin my heart broke. Anduin has gone through so much trauma in the time I have been away. All I could think about was "Wtf did they do to my King?" And now I feel like I'm crawling my way back and I'm over my head on how to do it. I need to know what happened to him.

(In BfA,) Azeroth turned into a joke and I was isekai'd away Anduin, I'm so sorry 😭. I'll bring some of the light back with me and give it to you, from Eorzea 💖

(FFXIV x WoW collab, when?)

#teku.blog #teku.ffxiv #teku.ff14 #teku.wow #mentioning WoW a bit #ramble ramble ramble

[leafcabbage]

"you didnt ask for a whole essay on my feelings on who would be who in harry potter" no fuck you i'm asking for an essay. give me an essay, i will read it and enjoy it. /th

(i also had a very long hp hyperfixation so i would actually very much enjoy this hypothetical essay!)

(im also going to tag @polytrichumstrictum because they also said in a reblog that they would be interested)

ALRIGHT YOU GOT IT!! please excuse any inaccuracies it's been like a year and a half since my last listen through. this is also drdi specific!!

tommy as harry

brave and loyal are two of the automatic descriptors of harry. tommy is both of those things through and through. unfortunately a good portion of my opinion is shaped by his backstory so there will be missing pieces, but the short of it is he went through things that kids his age should not go through and he got to the other side and he kept pushing and kept going even at points where he genuinely questioning if he could survive. hence the brave part. he would also quite literally die for any one of his closest friends, he says over and over to ranboo that literally nothing would stop him from loving them, from being there for them, and he means every word. there is no universe where tommy leaves ranboo at all of his own accord (well... actually there is one and it is sad and i do not like it.) he's loved tubbo for the last 7-8 years and at no point considered ending that friendship or leaving tubbo in a rough spot- even when he was barely getting by, he still did everything he could to talk to tubbo, to tell tubbo he was still there and still alive and still wanted to get back to him. loyalty baybee!

the sorting hat says to harry in the first book that he's hard to place, he's courageous, he's smart, he's talented, and he wants to prove himself. (btw i hate the word talent, it implies that people get to where they are because they're naturally good rather than hard work and built skill but that's for another time). but all of that applies to tommy! he's absolutely desperate to prove that he's worth being at SPU, that he's smart, that he works hard, that he can be someone! he wants to prove that he's worth the love he's been shown! and he is smart, he's smart because he works hard and because he's figured out how to work with his neurodivergency rather than hate it, he spends a lot of time on the things that don't come naturally to him and those things interest him!! he isnt one to give up because he doesn't get it right away.

again and again and again harry puts his friends first. i already touched on this earlier, but tommy would put everything he's ever needed or wanted aside for his friends (you'll get some of that in sssd) harry on multiple occasions was violent because someone hurt his friends, he fought back because the people he loved were hurt, and tommy has obviously gotten into physical fights over people being rude to tubbo, and that wasn't anyone physically hurting tubbo. if someone were to genuinely cause pain to tubbo or ranboo, i think tommy would probably end up dealing with some minor legal repercussions.

stubborn and prideful. again, both traits of harry's and both traits of tommy's. i dont think i need to say too much on this? tommy doesn't do forgive and forget, he remembers the people who have wronged him and the people he loves, it takes a LOT to win back his tolerance, let alone his trust. he's too proud to get help with a lot of situations (especially in the past) unless it's from very specific people. he feels like he should be able to do nearly everything on his own.

other traits im not gonna get super in to because i think they're pretty clear: compassionate, selfless, independant, instinctual, loving

tubbo as ginny

obviously ignoring the crush lol

this one is harder because ginny is a side character AND there is far less about her, i was just so certain of it when thinking about who fit who, so-

independant and brave: ginny is another gryffindor, so we get more bravery, but i find hers a little different to harry's. she doesn't take anyone's shit and knows how to absolutely devastates people with her words. there's a pretty clear comparison here, ive made it clear that tubbo regularly ruins people's days with very specific observations and insults if they give him any reason to. he's pretty harsh when he chooses to be. he's also independant in many ways, or as much as he can be with the relationship he and tommy have always had. growing up he had to be, there was no one there for him, he learned really really young how to take care of himself. past that, he's taken a lot of responsibility in his healing, he actively works with his therapist and wants to get better. or at least he thinks he does. repressing feelings helps him be independant, right?

relationship: though obviously there are no romantic feels between tommy and tubbo, there is a level of comparison between ginny and harry's relationship and theirs. not a ton, but in later books, ginny understands and accepts a lot of harry's decisions that come with their relationship, she understands that she doesn't know everything that harry is going through and yet she supports him and will be there for him when he comes home. she wants him to come home. again, a whole part of tommy and tubbo's backstories i cant get in to are what makes me mention it. there was a time where tubbo didn't know what was happening with tommy, but he was there for him as much as he could be, he loved him throughout it.

funny: ginny and tubbo both can be very funny in difficult moments though you've seen less of that from tubbo in this fic. he tends to be more that way to tommy, less so ranboo at the moment. that will change as time goes on and as ranboo's struggles and health become something everyone adapts to and it becomes clear that ranboo welcomes those jokes. but just like he knows how to insult people until they cry, he knows what makes people laugh, he's good at games like CAH because of that.

absolute jock: ginny is incredible at quidditch, she's so cool and good at it. tubbo is fucking ripped. strong as hell.

loyal: again, shared trait with tommy but different. ginny takes a role of healer in situations where that's needed, and while you're not seeing tubbo performing field medicine for the most part, he volunteers himself as the one to take care of people when they're sick or upset or whatever. that was obvious after ranboo's seizure, that's seen throughout the fics: doctors appointment, cooking food ranboo could handle, etc. he gets overbearing at times. i feel that when ginny makes a friend they are friends. period. that's it. and tubbo is the same way. he makes friends and he keeps those friends because he doesnt even give people he's remotely unsure of a chance.

judgemental: ginny can be pretty fucking rude. tubbo can be pretty fucking rude. see: fleur and wilbur respectively. tubbo tends to keep it in his head though. both are willing to rethink when given enough evidence that their opinions may be incorrect though.

other traits: loving, comforting, smart, capable

ranboo as luna

i feel like i should first and foremost address the main difference: luna is sure of herself. ranboo is not. but they will be, they just aren't there yet, which is why i stand by this comparison

eccentric: luna is different (probably autistic), she sees the world quite a bit differently than a lot of the other characters. she's called things like "loony lovegood" "bizarre". she has unconventional interests and knows a lot about things other people would find strange. ranboo is called an unreliable narrator a lot (they are, wanna be clear) but there is an aspect of them just being aware of the world in a different way than i think is seen with other characters. (or at least i hope there is, i want there to be). their favorite place on campus is a patch of concrete because it's isolated and there's lizards. they think it's absolutely beautiful. it's really not, it's told from ranboo's POV for a reason. they are absolutely seen as weird by other people, they're different and odd to talk to, and it's just not as clear when the narrators are ranboo or tommy and tubbo, who are in love with ranboo. you only really get that in chapter 2 i think, where tubbo makes a comment about how ranboo seems sad so they should invite him to lunch. actually chapter 4 has some of that too, but tubbo's main focus is making ranboo comfortable, so i think the observations about them are a little less focused on how strange they are.

supportive and comforting: luna comforts harry several times throughout the series and she's endlessly supportive of things like DA, she believes harry, she'll face danger for her friends. she helps again and again. ranboo supports and comforts their friends in every way they can (chapter 8 with helping tubbo, chapter 12 with also helping tubbo, chapter 24 with comforting tommy). ranboo doesn't think they can be supportive or comforting, which i think is an interesting aspect of their character, because they genuinely don't see that as one of their abilities. but they can, will, and do believe in everything tommy and tubbo do, they want them to succeed, they want the two to be happy, they want to help and they want to be there for them, and they are even though they cant comprehend it.

creative: luna is just generally very creative with paintings and magic and weaving. ranboo is absolutely incredible at writing, though once again, you do not get to see that from their point of view. they're also creative, they just dont think they can do anything, let alone one of their passions. because of this they dont let other people read what they write unless its for school, so it'll be a while until that's at all seen in the actual fic. all we have to go on is phil and techno's comments. they also tend to be creative in other ways, because they've had to be creative with how they get around, how they help themself, how they survived so thoroughly isolated for so long. they had to figure those things out, which overlaps with the self-sufficiency that is another shared trait of the two.

brave: luna kept fairly calm in malfoy manor, during the battle of hogwarts, during everything with the DA. she's also brave in the sense of just being who she is and dealing with what comes from it. ranboo is also brave, similarly they've learned how to not panic at a lot of the things with their health that would probably be terrifying to other people, they deal with other people's judgement of them and keep going. ranboo decided to just move to the other end of the country on their own with no support and no certainty that things would work out because they wanted to. that would be scary for anyone, and they just did it.

trusting: luna trusts that people are telling the truth, that the things she reads are real, and she trusts the people she loves. ranboo is the same way, of course there are multiple times where it is said that they trust tommy and tubbo fully because they are tommy and tubbo. they would believe anything they said. but they also believed everything dream told them, they took his word as fact, they didn't think to question it beyond acknowledging that work was probably more stressful than it should be. they trusted that dream was telling them the truth about their role in the student government, that he wasn't giving them too much work, that he was just trying to get things done. there's also the moment where dr. walker says that ranboo just isnt trying hard enough and they immediately question their own work ethic. they're quick to blame themself because they take other's word as fact

other shared traits: loving, smart, nonjudgmental, animal-lover

OKAY thats enough for now :D id love to hear what you think!!!!

#this took like an hour #drdi #drdi asks #cabbage answers #nitpick7

[love-fireflysong]

yIt's done. It took me waaaay to long to write this piece out but between June and my computer apparently deciding to kick me in the teeth this month, the fact I made it to 5 full squares completed anyways I will gladly take as a victory! And, just fyi, this WILL be the last piece for this month. I know that there is still another four days left of June, but I am sick and tired of dealing with my keyboard so this is the last fic you're gonna see from me until I get a new laptop hopefully fairly soon. (Unless I decide that I'm desperate enough to try and write things out on my tablet of course...)

Anyways, the First Date trope was specifically requested by @jesus-hotsauce-christmas-cake when I let her know that the one she did guess (road trip) was going to be a second chapter of a twoshot. Which you still might get because I'm very likely going to be sharing the short little summary blurbs I had written down for each trope so people can very easily bully me into writing them anyways if people still wanted to read them. And even though it would be like months and months late, still post them under this bingo board because I can and I had a cool idea for what I was doing with the colours and layout before life decided to say 'NO!' in a very firm voice. (Unless of course the three lovely ladies that came up with this idea in the first place say no obviously)

Rambling over though now I promise. Chocolate Covered Confessions can be read over and AO3 of course, with the full fic also under the readmore as well.

Chocolate Covered Confessions

Trope: First Date Fandom: Until Dawn Characters: Ashley Brown, Chris Hartley Words: 8214 Rating: General (though reader beware there is some almost scandalous hand holding and a couple of scandalously public kisses. You have been warned...) Authors Notes: Oh look, more chrashley fluff. Who da thunk it? Pride month? What pride month? This is just me apparently figuring out how many different ways I can get Chris and Ash to confess their feelings. Because you only read like three of them, I still have another two waiting in the wings. Plus at least three others if you count climbing chrash lol.

Something was...weird. It wasn't something that Ashley could put her finger on just yet, but something was definitely off that was for sure. The problem of course was that she didn't even know where to start looking in the first place, because for the most part her day had been extraordinarily ordinary.

She, Chris, and Josh had planned to go and see a movie Saturday morning a few days back and then hang out the rest of the day. But seeing as they were, you know, best friends that certainly wasn't the issue. Not even close. They always made plans to do stuff like that together. And yeah, okay, so maybe Josh had 'coincidentally' texted them just before the movie started to let them know that something unavoidable had come up and he wasn't going to be able to meet up with them. And when her and Chris had brought up just waiting until a later showing when he was free, he had immediately been quick to affirm that nope, he was going to be busy the whole rest of the day actually. So the two of them could continue with their original plans and they could make it up to him another time.

While certainly suspicious, that wasn't what was wrong though. Josh had been flaking out on their plans more and more, especially when it was plans that took up an entire day. Ashley Brown wasn't stupid. No siree Bob she was not! She knew exactly what Josh was trying to do by leaving her to spend the day with Chris. Alone . And she appreciated it (she really did!), but if Chris was going to make a move then he would have done it ages and ages ago, because she sure as hell wasn't going to do it! Ashley Brown wasn't stupid, but she also wasn't exactly what you would call brave either.

Not that Chris had seemed to notice what Josh was pulling though, he had just sighed and rolled his eyes with a grumbled "fucking typical", and then the two of them had entered the theater to watch the movie. And as per their usual shtick when Josh wasn't there with them, Chris paid for the tickets while she paid for the food and drinks. Or, at least, that was how it normally went. Instead, when she had decided to take a run to the bathroom while he held their spot in the long concession line, she had come back to Chris waiting for her with the pop and popcorn already in hand. After brushing off her flustered apologies, he had explained that shortly after she had left, another cashier had popped on till so the line had gone down in half the time either had expected. And it seemed like a dick move to just wait there until she came back so he had just decided to get the food instead.

She still felt a little guilty about it honestly, even after swearing that she would get both the tickets and food next time.

And, to be completely fair to Josh, he hadn't exactly been missing out on a lot by skipping out on the movie. It wasn't a horror flick (he would never even think of skipping out on that after all) so it wasn't one that he would feel the need to make the two of them watch again with him. Which was more than fine honestly, because if she was to describe the movie in a single word, well, that word would definitely have been 'dreadful'. If she was given a few more words, then she would have easily elaborated and stated that it was 'a boring, plot-hole driven mess, with only extremely over-the-top action scenes and explosions every five minutes to carry any semblance of the extremely loosely written plot'. In other words, she had lost interest in the movie barely half an hour in, and considering that Chris had started scrolling through his phone bored, she wasn't alone in this boat either.

Still, Ashley had resolved herself to sit through this over-budgeted explosion fest if only because movie tickets were horribly expensive. Not to mention the fact that Chris had shelled out money for both the movie and the food. But then he had turned to her, asked if she was as bored to tears as he was, and once he got that confirmation, asked if she wanted to just ditch the movie entirely. And she did—she really, really did—but didn't want Chris to waste the money he had spent more. And then yet another explosion...exploded on screen, and she realized that she was wasting precious hours of her life that could be used to do something more fun and less mind-numbingly boring.

Like watching paint dry. That at least had a semi-cohesive plot.

And so the two of them had walked out, continuing to share the extra buttered popcorn between them (the movie may have been awful, but the popcorn certainly wasn't) as they left the movie theater behind and wandered into the nearby mall. That wasn't the strange thing either. The mall and subsequent window shopping had absolutely been part of their day plans after, even if those had been unexpectedly pushed forward a couple of hours.

Admittedly the art show that the mall was running in one of the empty storefronts was unexpected, but  it had been simply a nice surprise and a great way to kill time. So after paying the $2 entrance fee, the two of them had continued to share the popcorn as they looked at some of the paintings and sculptures that had been on display, giggling childishly at most of them. And okay, so one of the curators had been glaring at them( or rather, at their greasy, butter-covered fingers) the whole time, but that had just been a little rude and insulting. Not strange. And that had stopped almost the moment they had run out of popcorn, Ashley nudging him in the stomach with her elbow as she licked her fingers clean, and the two of them laughing under their breaths at the curator who had looked exceptionally much more at ease once Chris had crumpled the empty bag into a ball.

The rest of their day in the mall had just been spent following the rest of their day's plan, wandering from shop to shop and browsing at all the things that caught their eyes, and then taking a break after a few hours to have a late lunch in the food court. The two of them checked out another couple of stores, these ones to try and get some ideas for Josh's birthday in another month, before moving onto the small arcade on the top floor. As part of their deal and agreement since it had just been Josh and Chris (Ashey not joining the duo until five years later), Chris bought the tokens needed while she scouted out the various games for an empty console and claimed it until he could join her in another couple of minutes.

They spent the next hour in there, trying to beat each other or work together depending on the game in question. They almost never played a game twice before moving onto the next one, in hopes to both try as many games as possible before their self imposed hour ended and to see if they could beat their previous high scores or make it onto the leaderboard in only a single try. But as the hour came to a close, they both made their way over to their final game: one of the racing simulators scattered around the arcade. And as had been done for ten years now, played to determine which of them would be paying for the tokens next time they came.

And once the race ended, with Ashley winning by photo finish for the third time in a row (and celebrating her winning streak by maturely sticking out her tongue and doing an awkward little shimmy dance in the seat while Chris jokingly sulked and pouted), they had finally left the mall altogether and got into Chris's truck. There, he had surprised Ashley with the novel she had been eyeing in the bookstore (or at least, eyeing closer than all the rest she had picked up) and that he had somehow been able to buy without her noticing. And that certainly hadn't been weird, because it had been so exceptionally sweet of him, sweet enough that Ashley had so badly wished that she could thank him properly. But as mentioned before, Ashley Brown was a coward pure and simple, so she had just clutched the book to her chest and beamed at Chris in heartfelt thanks instead.

He may have said something in reply, but Ashley had already settled into the passenger seat and opened to the first page of the book, so she was already long gone. A fact that Chris had anticipated, if the light chuckle he had let out before starting the truck meant anything. And no, Ashley reading a book while Chris drove them to their usual game store across town was not the strange thing either. If Chris hadn't wanted her to read on the drive over and talk to him, then he never would have given her the book now of all times. He would have waited until he had dropped her off home, or not even bought the book in the first place. After over a half a decade of friendship, if anyone knew what would happen after giving Ashley Brown a new book, it was Chris Hartley.

The drive over is done quicker then she had expected, and even then Chris still hadn't let her know that they had arrived until she had finished her chapter. Yes he had certainly teased her about it the entire time, joking about how she would never find someone as understanding of her reading habits then him (he didn't know how right he was, that she didn't want to find anyone else), but the fact that he had just continued to let the music play in the truck and distracted himself on his phone was so unbearably sweet that she decided to let it lie.

The fact that Ashley and Chris hung around in the game shop comparing dice and looking at new books while wincing over the prices for nearly two hours wasn't what was off either. Hell, if anything the fact that they only spent a couple of hours there before leaving was weird! Her, Chris, and Josh could easily spend almost half a day in there flipping through comics and rolling dice to test them out, only leaving because a tired employee was forced to ask them to leave for making too much noise and taking up a table when they weren't playing anything, especially when there was a group that had been waiting for a table for close to an hour now.

Which brought Ashley to where she was right now, sitting at a sticky plastic table under the shade of a cheap umbrella while Chris had run off to get them some ice cream before dropping her off at home. Her new book was open in front of her, the pages crisp white even in the umbrella's shade, but her mind wasn't on the book anymore. A random line had a character mentioning that something had been feeling off all day ever since they woke up ('like everything had been moved three centimeters to the left, so while it all looked normal, nothing felt right anymore'), and Ashley had also realized that hey, wait a second, her day was also feeling just a little wonky too! But no matter how hard she thought about it, she couldn't put her finger on exactly what it was. Today had just been a normal day hanging out with Chris after all. They went to see (and bailed) a movie, spent hours hanging out in the mall and at the game store, and now they were each going back home. Nothing unusual had happened, so why did it feel like something hugely monumental had been going on all day?

"Oi. Earth to Ash, you okay in there?"

A light flick to the center of Ashley's forehead has her blink in surprise, and she finds herself back into the present once again. Chris is standing next to her, carefully balancing the two cones in his right hand and his left ready to flick again if needed, and a bemused smile on his face.

"Oh, uh, sorry Chris. Got a little too into the book I think." She closes the book, not wanting to get melting ice cream all over its crisp white pages (and she really hasn't absorbed a single word for nearly ten minutes now), but Chris doesn't hand her the cone just yet.

"Yeah, I'm not buying that," Chris says as he snorts in disbelief. "I know your 'praise be to books' look, and that was not it. That was your 'head full, too many thoughts' look."

"Excuse me? What? I do not have a reading look! Or a thinking look for that matter!"

"Oh you do. You really, really do. Trust me. You may have been staring at that book but there was no way that you were reading, I would bet my own ice cream here on it." Chris brandishes his double chocolate cone at her, then seems to reconsider and switches to show off her own dipped soft serve that he still has yet to actually let her eat. "Actually, you know what? I would eat your dipped monstrosity if I'm wrong."

Ashley sighs, but she can't keep the smile from her face. "It's not that bad this time, oh my god. It's chocolate ice cream dipped in blueberry syrup. This is actually a normal combination for people who go out of their way to order more exciting cones then two scoops of chocolate." She leans forward and places her elbows on the table to support her head in her hands. "But I wanna see you do it anyway, so tell me exactly why you're so convinced that I wasn't reading."

Chris opens his mouth, but immediately closes it a second later, as though he didn't realize exactly what he had signed himself up for here until now. Ashley of course takes it as a sign of victory. "I knew it. So let's see this Chris, I wanna see you eat something that isn't—"

"When you read you get, like, super attentive." Chris's face is pink, and not looking at her but at the book on the table as he bashfully continues. "You become so drawn in to whatever you're reading that you ignore everything going on around you, because all of your attention is now on that book. Pretty sure a bomb could go off right next to you and you wouldn't even notice sometimes. And it's always so easy to tell what's happening in the book when you're reading too, cause your face is always so expressive. Like your eyes get big when something exciting or surprising happens, and when you're really enjoying whatever it is you're reading, you start giggling like a loon."

Ashley is too stunned and, quite frankly, her heart is beating too fast for her to even think of a proper response to that . She manages to squeak out a quiet little "oh, um" but Chris doesn't notice. Not when he's still babbling and not looking at her at all.

"But when you get deep in thought, you're not like that at all. All of your attention goes inward, and everything around you disappears cause all the important stuff is going on inside your head right now. Your mouth falls open just a little, sort of like you're gaping at all the information in front of you. And-and sometimes you'll mouth out what's going on inside your head as you try to fit the pieces of everything together so it's neat and tidy like a puzzle. And even though you have the, like, blankest stare imaginable, it's not empty at all if that makes any sense. Cause your eyes narrow and your forehead scrunches just the tiniest amount so you have a small little wrinkle form like right here—" with his unoccupied hand Chris points at the bridge of his nose right between his eyes "—and it's weirdly, insanely cute? But when you finally figure out the puzzle in your head, your face lights up like a kid on christmas morning and...and..." He lets his words trail off and stops awkwardly there, as though finally realizing exactly what he's been saying this entire time.

His face is almost beet red now, and Ashley is pretty sure hers is too. "Oh, uh, wow. I-I didn't realize you paid any attention to me when I was like that..."

Somehow his face only gets redder, and though he mumbles the words under his breath, Ashley can still make them out. "I'm always paying attention to you."

But not close enough attention it seems, she thinks sadly. If you did then you would have noticed something way more obvious than that. But she doesn't want to embarrass him anymore than he already is (then she already is), and she isn't sure what else she could possibly say that wouldn't be her blurting out that she likes him, so instead she pretends that she hadn't heard a single thing and wordlessly accepts the ice cream that he hands to her, accepting her defeat as she takes a small bite of the blueberry covered chocolate soft serve.

...The blueberry covered chocolate soft serve that he had bought for her. Or, you know, the ice cream he had paid for himself. Just like he had paid for everything today. Kind of like it was almost a, uh, date. Like he had taken her on a date.

Oh .

"Oh boy, let me guess: I was right and your ice cream really is a crime against taste buds?"

Ashley comes crashing back down to reality to see Chris, his face still a little red but the playful smile back on his face as he teased her. And yet, that only makes it worse as she can't help but feel the usual gymnastics routine the butterflies in her stomach perform at that particular smile, only they're a thousand times worse now that's she's realized exactly why today had felt so strange. And she can't help thinking how much everyone else would classify what was just a day hanging out with her best friend as a date. And how much she really, really wished it was one.

"Nope," she unfortunately squeaks out, and clears her throat so she can continue in a more normal tone of voice. "Nope, sorry to disappoint Chris, but the ice cream tastes fine." She takes another bite for proof (and to her credit she's not lying, it tastes more than fine). "Just, uh, realized something funny that's all." And the moment the words leave her mouth she realizes just how badly she's screwed everything up, because there is no way in any world that Chris Hartley is just going to let that comment lie.

"Funny? Oho, well now I'm interested. You mind sharing your glorious epiphany with the rest of the class Miss Brown?"

Taking another small taste of her ice cream, Ashley averts her gaze as she gives what she is kicking herself for is obviously an extremely forced laugh. "Did I say funny? I meant boring, just super boring actually."

"Well now I just want to hear it more."

"No, you don't. Trust me, you really, really don't."

Chris's brows furrow in concern. "Ash? You okay?"

She isn't, of course she isn't. She's now realized exactly what a date with Chris would be like, and it would be exactly like this. With them going to all the same place and doing the same things but she's allowed to hold his hand and kiss him when he does stupid sweet things like buying her the book she's been eyeing and talking about all day. She's never wanted something to be so true so badly in her life. And it's likely this thought in her mind that causes her to blurt out "A date." before she even realizes what she's said.

That only makes the confusion on Chris's face go deeper, which is appropriate considering she's sinking deeper and deeper into her chair in a futile effort to hide or escape as well. "What? Are you saying that you just remember what date it is today? Or that you had something you were supposed to do today instead? I'm not really following you right now Ash..."

This is perfect. It's the perfect excuse, she could laugh and say that she totally forgot what day it was and that she had an essay due pretty soon, or that she was supposed to babysit for a neighbour tonight. Anything really, the sky was quite literally the limit. And instead she just bit her lip and stared at the ice cream melting in her hand before weakly admitting "No, a, uh, date. As in, the romantic kind. I realized that today probably looks like a date to anyone else. Funny, huh?"

She's not sure how Chris would react to that. Maybe a startled laugh, and hand wave as he brushes her off. A scoff as he assures her that this definitely isn't a date, cause they're just friends and that's all they'll ever be. Whatever the reaction she expected, it was certainly not the fumbling for his ice cream as he nearly drops it in his shock, and how absolutely flustered he sounds as he trips over his own tongue. "W-what? I-I-I, uh—I mean, th-this obviously isn't—Who would even—? Wh-what would even give you the idea that we could um, possibly be on a date?"

Ashley shrugs weakly. "Isn't it obvious Chris?" She ignores his even more flustered babbling that no, he absolutely did not see what was so obvious as she continued on, still too nervous to look him in the eyes. "You've kind of paid for everything today."

"I wha—? I mean, no I haven't!"

"You kind of have, Chris. The theater?"

"You know I always pay for the tickets, and it would have just been really rude to make the line even longer!"

"The art show?"

"It was just a couple of toonies! And you saw the face of the worker there, they would have kicked us right out if they'd had to break a twenty. It was just easier."

"Lunch?"

"They-they'd had a special on for a two-person meal at that stall in the food court, and they wouldn't let each of us pay half..." he neglected to point out that Ashley could have easily paid for their lunch, and probably should have, but before she had been able to offer he'd already been swiping his debit card.

"The arcade?"

"Okay, that was my turn to buy the tokens, you know that. That one doesn't even count."

Ashley lifted her eyes from the ice cream to the book that sat menacingly and innocently all at one at the center of the table, it's pristine cover mocking her. "The book?"

"T-that was just a gift! You seemed really into it at the store and friends buy each other gifts all the time—"

There was no describing how soft and nervous her voice got as she asked the question that would put the final nail in the coffin. "The ice cream?"

"I, uh, it was just—um..." Chris let out a breath in a weak chuckle. "Shit, I guess I kind of did, huh?"

Ashley doesn't say anything, and neither does Chris, as the table goes silent. She's bracing herself  for when Chris inevitably shoots her down and confirms that it doesn't matter. That the two of them will never be anything more then friends and that she never should have hoped for anything more and by revealing this she's ruined their friendship for good—

"Hey, uh, Ash?" He sounds so nervous that it immediately takes Ashley out of her anxiety driven thoughts of doom and gloom, but she can't do anything more than just shakily nod to let him continue. "It's, uh, probably like a really, really, really stupid question but—" he takes a nervous breath "—did you want this to be a date?"

Her head immediately shoots up as she stares at him with wide eyes, her breath caught somewhere in her throat where her heart is currently lodged. She frantically rakes her eyes over Chris's face looking for any hint that he's mocking her, or playing some cruel joke on her and her feelings, but all she sees is just nervousness all over a pale, shaking face with what she thinks ( prays ) is a glimmer of undisguised hope. But it's still too much uncertainty, and she's too scared to risk it all on a mere glimmer that she is likely only imagining because she wants it so badly to be real, so she throws the question back at him instead.

"...would you have been opposed if this was actually a date?"

"Nuh uh, I asked you first."

Ashley realizes that he's just as scared at what the answer might be as she is. She wants to tell him, has wanted to tell him for years and years and years. And maybe this is the chance she's been waiting for her whole life. The two of them sitting at a sticky plastic table under the early evening sun, long forgotten ice cream melting in their hands, and she can finally tell him that she's had such a huge crush on him since she was twelve.

"Yeah." The word is less choked out than it is released. Like it's a breath of fresh air and she feels simultaneously lighter and heavier for it. "I-I think I would have liked that. I would have liked that alot."

Chris snaps his gaze up to meet hers, and the glimmer of hope that she had seen earlier has now nearly taken over his face at the disbelieving smile that's threatening to crack his face in two. "Really? I-I mean, uh, I would have been alright with the idea too. More than alright actually."

She can feel her own smile start to nervously match his, and then the first giggle breaks out. His own ecstatic laughter quickly follows her own until the two of them are both giddily laughing at the table, but too embarrassed and bashful to even look at each other now. The giggling abruptly cuts off when Chris lets out a yelp of surprise when he realizes how much of his ice cream has melted onto his hand and Ashley joins him in trying to finish off their ice cream before it's melted entirely. But there's definitely a change in the atmosphere around them now. The contentness and laid back ease that always formed between them whenever they hung out was still there, but there is a charge that hadn't been there before either. An excited anticipation that only surges higher and higher whenever Ashley shyly glances in Chris's direction to find he's looking at her with the same disbelieving smile beaming on his face.

They never say anything more about it as they both finish off the ice cream, but Ashley knows. With that little agreement, the entire day had changed. This wasn't just them hanging out as friends anymore, this was an actual, factual date now, pure and simple. So when Chris hands her a couple of extra napkins to clean herself off, she may have let her fingers brush against his for just a moment. The resulting blush and dumbstruck smile on his face when he cautiously took his hand back so he could clean up the rest of the mess on the table was oh so worth it. And when he returned from his trip to the garbage can and held out his hand as an offer to help her up from the chair, she accepted it readily.

Once she's back on her feet, the two of them drop their eyes to stare at their still clasped hands, realizing that they could easily hold hands the entire short walk back to Chris's truck if they wanted. And she does want that—horribly in fact—but it seems it's still a little too early for either of them to make that teeny tiny but monumental jump to hand holding so they let go awkwardly and slowly, letting their fingers linger against the others before letting go completely. As though giving themselves a taste of what may yet actually come to pass in the (hopefully) very near future.

The short walk back to the truck is filled with both anticipation and dread alike, but unusually silent. Ashley knows it's because she's now a buzzing ball of nervous energy, terrified that saying anything at all will shatter this dream that's apparently coming true before her eyes, but Chris is different. He looks more like he's trying to work up the courage to say or ask something, and is spending all his energy on that alone. So when he reaches out to open up the passenger side door for her, Ashley can feel her heart pick up speed when he stops with his hand on the door handle and looks at her nervously. His mouth opens and shuts a couple of times as he tries to work up the courage to say whatever it is he wants to say, and all she can do is stare at him expectantly as she struggles to hold back an excited smile.

"Hey, Ash, ca—nevermind. It's, it's stupid. Don't worry about it." A second later, he has the door opened for her and the moment she can't see his face, she lets her smile fall crestfallen. But only for a second before a polite one replaces it as thanks when he closes the door for her and continues to his side of the truck. It's fine, she supposes as she buckles herself in, while the two of them have been hanging out all day, it's only been an actual date now for barely ten minutes. And once he drops her off home in just another few short minutes it's going to be over. The fact that she even managed to get this far is franky mind blowing, so expecting anything more from her dreams would just be extremely selfish. She can't have everything she wants all at once, no matter how long she's been waiting for it.

The drive back to her place is also quiet, filled with only the droning of the radio playing in the background. Ashley's returned back to her book, but she knows that Chris knows that she's not absorbing a single word, hasn't turned a single page even. She keeps glancing at him out of the corner of her eye as he nervously taps at the steering wheel, and then tightening his grasp when it looks like he's going to say something, only to return to the nervous tapping when he inevitably backs out at the last second and returns to the frantic pep talk he's likely giving himself. The air that fills the vehicle is heavy and thick with anticipation and it's taking almost everything in Ashley to not start shaking the question out of Chris at every red light they stop at.

But, eventually, they pull up in front of her place and Chris stops the truck. There's a moment where the two of them just sit there, not wanting to leave because leaving means the end, and Ashley schools her face into a cheery smile in an effort to hide as much of the disappointment as she can when she turns to face him and bid him farewell, only to have it fall to confusion when he starts fumbling at his own seatbelt.

"Chris? What are you doing?"

He struggles further at it, frustrated that the buckle's apparently decided that now is the perfect time for it to stick once again. "Trying to get this fucking thing off."

"Yeah, I figured that much. But why are you trying to take it off, you're just gonna leave right away again anyway."

He slows his fumbling as cheeks start darkening in embarrassment. "I, uh, I just thought that was something you were supposed to do after a date, walk them to their door to stay goodnight. I mean, at least I think this is a date now? And, and only if you're okay with it! I can stay in here instead if you don't want me to. I was just hoping..."

The once forced cheery smile on her face is certainly not being forced any longer, if anything she's trying not to show how much the idea of Chris walking her to her door thrills her. "N-no!" Well, so much for trying not to show how desperately she wants that. The startled look he gives her at the unexpected outburst had her trying to control her voice into something less desperate, but considering she doesn't think she's ever going tame the frantic butterflies that have been flapping around non-stop in her stomach ever since the ice cream realization, she's probably doing a terrible job of it. "I-I mean if you want to, it's completely up to you after all..."

"Cool. Cool cool cool. Just, just give me a second." He continues to struggle with his seatbelt buckle, letting out more and more agitated curses escape the longer the thing continues to stick, and Ashley is getting the feeling that if he was able, Chris would have ripped the entire thing straight out of the seat by now. Broken safety laws and ensuing repair costs be damned. The moment he finally manages to unstick the traitorous buckle it's with a cry of victory and relief so exuberant that Ashley finds herself laughing in disbelief and awe that he had wanted to walk her the short ten or so feet to her front door that badly. Thankfully, for both of them, her seatbelt unclicks easily and much more quickly in comparison, only taking another couple of seconds to grab her bag from the footwell and joining him.

The far too short walk up to her door is over before either of them realize it. One second the two of them had been standing awkwardly and nervously by the truck as she fought the urge to reach out and grab his hand, and the next they're standing just as awkwardly and nervously (if not moreso) in front of the front door. Both of them waiting for the other to say or do something to break the tension, but cleanly aware that doing so would signal the very final end of the day, and the date. In fact, just knowing that Chris doesn't want this to end just as badly as her, is what gives her the courage to look at him with a surprisingly heartfelt and soft smile.

"Today was fun."

Chris lifts his eyes from where they had been staring at the dried leaves on the doorstep to match her smile. "Yeah. It was."

"And thanks. For the movie, and everything else." Ashley raises her hand to give the new and still shiny paperback a small wave. "And, you know, the book too. Of course."

"Yeah, it was no problem. Anytime." There's something with how he says the last bit—not really emphasizing it but making it clear all the same that he means 'anytime'—that causes her face to flush giddily as she pulls her lower lip in between her teeth in a weak effort to fight back against the ecstatic smile that forms anyway. And when she sees his eyes lower just a smidge to follow the motion and the way his shoulders stiffen in reaction, Ashley very quickly also finds she's trying (much more successfully) to hold herself  back from just saying 'to hell with it' and throwing her arms around Chris so she can finally kiss him silly and until they're both breathless. But considering that she's too much of a coward to initiate something as innocent as hand holding apparently, there is absolutely no way that something as...as scandalous as kissing him on her doorstep is ever going to happen. Clearly.

And yet, she gives Chris another few seconds to try and work past that blockade in his throat, but when he still can't muster a single word, she decides to just put the both of them out of their misery. Or further into it. It's probably just the same thing really. "I guess I'll see you next time. I'll talk to you later, okay?" She turns away and puts her hand on the doorknob, and tucks the book under her arm so she can dig into her bag for keys, but is stopped when Chris's hand abruptly snakes out and wraps itself firmly around her wrist before she can reach into the bag. And it works—boy does it ever —turning back to him and the hand wrapped around her wrist as excitement just starts to bubble up inside of her.

A second later though, his brain has apparently caught up with the movement he clearly hadn't intended to make, because his face goes beet-red and he's dropped her hand so he can shove both into the pockets of his jeans. He averts his eyes so he's back to staring at the loose gravel and dried leaves under their feet.

"Oh, uh, sorry about that. I didn't mean to..."

"It's fine, Chris." Ashley tries to smile softly at him in reassurance, but it's considering she's gripping the doorknob in an almost vice-like grip in anticipation, it's likely far more eager than she would like. "What is it?"

Somehow, his face goes even redder and he blurts out the question so fast that it may as well have been one word. "CanIkissyou?!"

Immediately, Ashley's gaping at him wide-eyed and her mouth open in shock as her heart's beating so fast that she's pretty sure it's ready to burst out of her chest at any moment. "Wha—"

"I-I mean goodnight. Can I kiss you goodnight? That's what people are supposed to do on dates, right? A-a-a-and I think we agreed that this is a date now, or at least I really, really hope we did. Cause I've wanted to go on a date with you for the longest time and-and-and I didn't want Saundra or-or-or any of your neighbours to see cause I know that would just really embarrass you and me but I've been trying to ask you for the past thirty minutes now cause I've wanted to kiss you since forever but I was scared about how you would react cause I really, really, really like you Ash and I just wanna to kiss you so fucking bad right now you have no idea and—"

Ashley would like to believe that she's brave enough to throw her arms around Chris and drag him down into that searing kiss she's been dreaming about forever and ever, but she doesn't. Even with a confession that is everything she's ever wanted to hear and more. That's not to say that she doesn't want to do it—god does she want to do it—but she's so frozen in place from shock that she physically can't. So instead she just continues to gape at him as he (adorably) rambles on and on, and giggles out an elated little "okay".

His nervous rambling stops dead in its tracks, and he finally looks back up at her, nervous relief evident all over his face. "Really? I mean, are you sure? I'd understand if you didn't want to—"

" Chris ."

That immediately shifts the relief to a different kind of nervousness entirely, one of excited disbelief, but even then neither move to actually initiate this promised kiss for several seconds. Instead just staring at each other waiting for the other to be the first to move, Chris with his hands still in his jeans pockets and Ashley glued to the doorknob with her other hand frozen as it hovers over her bag. Finally, Chris is the first to slowly bend down to meet her awkwardly half turned body, and she unsteadily tries to rock herself onto the tips of her toes without losing her balance completely and falling over. And still, they both pause about an inch away from each other's faces, though whether to give the other an out if needed or just to work through the logistics of how to do this exactly without their foreheads or noses smashing into each other or Chris's glasses getting in the way is anyone's guess.

But finally, mainly due to the fact that Ashley can't lean forward anymore without falling completely on her face, Chris closes that final bit of distance and kisses her. It's a nervous brush of the lips really—a quick peck at best —but they jolt back from each other so quickly that the single action may as well have activated some hidden magnetic repel function that neither had been aware of until this moment. Both of them are staring at each other wide-eyed and breathless as the magnitude of what they had both finally managed to accomplish hit them. The kinda-sort confession and the almost hand holding meant absolutely nothing in comparison to this. Those she could have (and would most likely have) brushed off as her reading too much into innocent statements and gestures when she thought over everything that had happened today in the safety of her room later tonight. But this? This was physical proof .

Looking back, Ashley's not sure which of them moved first. One second they had been staring at each other in disbelief, stuck in the same awkward bent and leaning stature from before, and the next it's as if the magnetic attraction between them reverses its flow entirely. Chris is cupping her cheek with one hand as he kisses her in the way she always dreamed he would, his other hand slowly skating across the back of her neck so he can pull her up closer to him. The book that had once been clutched protectively under her arm was completely forgotten about—fallen to the ground with a sharp crunch as it crushed the dried leaves beneath their feet—as her arms wrapped possessively around his shoulders as she props herself as high as the tips her toes will allow her. She can still taste a hint of the chocolate from earlier on his lips, and the small part of her that isn't being blown away by all of this is wondering if he can taste the blueberry and chocolate on hers as well.

She's not sure how long the two of them stood there on her doorstep, kissing for all the world to see, but she does know that they still separate much, much too soon for her liking. Not that they fully separate of course. She may be back on the soles of her feet, but neither of them have removed themselves from the embrace itself. And with the way that Chris is lightly brushing his thumb over her cheekbone as he just stares at her with the same stupidly giddy grin she's got, Ashley would be perfectly fine if they could just stay standing like this forever.

"So..." she starts, and stops to take a moment to giggle when Chris bumps his nose into hers. "I think that was a perfectly acceptable first date if you ask me."

Chris doesn't let go of her when he leans back to consider her, the comically raised eyebrows in shock doing nothing to take away from the absolutely thrilled beam of his smile. " First date? Why Miss Brown, are you perhaps asking me out for a second one already?"

"I mean, if it's not too presumptuous of me, I suppose I am. I-if you're not opposed to it of course." She can't help the way her nervousness starts to bleed through with that last sentence, already panicking that she's somehow completely misread everything that's just happened and that maybe that kiss didn't mean as much to him as it did to her after all.

His next words completely derail those fears entirely. "Of course I'm not, I would love nothing more than to go on a second date with you. Followed by a third and fourth and even a fifth if you have the time for it."

"I mean, I'm a pretty busy girl but I think I can open up as many days in my schedule as it takes if I need to."

Before she knows it, the two of them are leaning in for another kiss when the sound of pot being dropped in the nearby kitchen through the open window jarringly brings them back to reality and the two of them let go of each other red faced and embarrassed. Oh no, how much of this had her mother heard? Or worse, saw? She wants to leave the doorstep (which is rapidly becoming her favourite place in the whole entire world) even less now, but the longer she takes the worse the excited interrogation from Saundra will be so she starts digging back into her bag to try and find her keys once again.

"I'll text you later, okay? And, maybe, we can talk some more about that second date...?"

The reply from Chris is flustered but eager. "Yeah, totally. I-I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Cool. And um, the next one's one me. The date that is. It's only fair after all."

"Yeah, right. Only fair. Totally. And, uh, your book..."

She finally finds her keys from where they had sunk to the bottom of her bag, and looks up at him and the paperback book that had fallen during their, uh, intimate embrace. "Oh! Uh, right. Thanks." She could easily leave it at that, but the last few minutes have made her bold so when she reaches out to take the book back from him, Ashley curls her fingers over his and bounces onto the balls of her feet so she can give him one last kiss on his cheek—almost the corner of his mouth really—before finally stepping back with the book and keys in her hand. "I mean it. Thanks . For everything."

"Yeah. No problem. It was my pleasure."

She lets herself have one last glimpse of the stupefied grin on his face just as he turns to walk just a little unsteadily down the path back to his truck. The only sounds being the leaves crushing underfoot and the jangle of metal as she sticks her keys into the door to finally unlock it. A sound that it quickly interrupted by not only the click of the door unlocking, but a muffled shout.

Alarmed, she turns quickly expecting to see Chris having accidentally shut his coat into the door as he is sometimes known to do when the weather gets colder, but instead watches in elated shock as he continues to keep energetically flapping his arms and fist pumping into the air and screaming what she can vaguely make out as 'yesyesyesyesYESYESYES' over and over again.

Suddenly it hits her. Despite the shy confession over ice cream, and then the much more rushed and rambled one only minutes ago, and followed by the kiss(es) that are still sending her heart into rapid fire, Ashley still hadn't believed what all the evidence had been saying. Chris liked her. He really, really liked her. Possibly as much as she liked him even! This wasn't just a one-off event that would now make things awkward between them for the rest of their lives. This was happening. They'd just had a first(!!!!) date and after Chris had kissed her goodbye, she had asked him out for a second one.

And he had accepted .

Ashley fumbled with the door and the moment she was in the house, slammed the door behind her, not even bothering to lock it. She let her bag fall from her shoulder to the floor with a soft thump and slowly slid down the door until she was sitting against it with her eyes wide and breathless. She ignored the surprised clatter coming from the kitchen as Saundra immediately dropped whatever it was she had been doing in and held up the book so she could stare at the once innocuous cover in amazement.

He had bought her this book and the ice cream because he liked her and he had gladly and excitedly accepted to go out on another date with her. And even more if he had been serious about that third date and beyond line.

And not that either would ever know it, Ashley mirrored Chris at that exact moment by placing her head into her hands and screaming as the built up joy and bliss finally exploded out of her.

#pride month prompt challenge #my writing #until dawn #chris hartley #ashley brown #chrashley #take two of trying post this stupid thing! #tumblr deleted the last one >:( #but this one actually copied over the italics so that saves me a shit ton of time if im being honest

[kuinliekkienroihu]

I (crysuzumushi, haha) am working on answering your ask game prompts, you picked two of my very favorites, thank you! I'm gonna ask you to do Kaname too! And Byakuya.

Okay, thanks for the ask!! Sorry it took so long to answer, i wrote a novel. Also sorry for all the spelling and grammar mistakes, English isn’t my first language

Kaname:

1. Favorite thing about them

How he always seeks to act according to his sense of justice. Also he's one of the best written characters in the entire series. He's very complex, which makes him feel kinda like an actual person with understandable actions caused by his past. There are a lot more things, but i'm not good at putting things to words so yeah.

2. Least favorite thing about them

How underutilized he was as a character. I'm really glad there's more of him in cfyow, even though i've only read the first part

3. Favorite line

" I follow the path least soaked in blood. The path I walk is justice."

4. BrOTP

I have many, mostly Shuhei, Aizen, Gin and Sajin

5. OTP

-

6. NOTP

hmm, i don't like him and Aizen romantically at all, same goes for Sajin

7. Random headcanon

He has a plant garden in Las Noches in which he grows, among many other things, the ingredients for Aizen's tea, which is Kaname's secret special mix of herbs. Aizen really misses the tea Kaname made for him.

8. Unpopular opinion

He did nothing wrong, or rather, all he did was (more or less) justified

9. Song i associate with them

-

10. Favorite picture of them

This is my favorite too

Byakuya:

1. Favorite thing about them

Yes. I love every single thing about him. Even the things others would consider as flaws are perfect. I really like how calm and collected he is regardless of the situation, he's intelligent and calculating.

A very well written character with, in my opinion, the best character development. Especially his relationship with Rukia from ignoring her out of pain (since she looks almost identical to Hisana), protecting her to keep a promise, letting her be executed to keep another promise to genuinely caring about her and saving her life in many occasions, clearly regretting what he did to her and trying to compensate for his actions.

Kubo wrote his development extremely well, in the end of the series he's objectively a better person than in the beginning, but his personality didn't change much. He's still the same overly serious, stuck up asshole we know and I love him for it.

Another thing I love the most about him is the fact that he's another walking contradiction. But somehow, these contradictions make a paradox or a perfect harmony without cancelling each other. Kubo did an amazing job making him have many layers in his character. There's this line from a book (had to look it up, the book is called "the chrysanthemum and the sword") that the author used to describe Japanese people, I think I read that in someone's ig story and it got stuck in my head since it reminded me of Byakuya so much, and in my honest opinion, describes him rather thoroughly, especially second, third and fourth ones. His zanpakuto, which is one of the infinite reasons I love him, being fully portrayed by the second one "both militaristic and aesthetic" being combined into the beautiful but deadly weapon Senbonzakura is.

"both aggressive and unaggressive, both militaristic and aesthetic, both insolent and polite, rigid and adaptable, submissive and resentful of being pushed around, loyal and treacherous, brave and timid, conservative and hospitable to new ways"

When you think about it, he has the most fitting zanpakuto for his personality compared to the other shinigami and the way he uses it is one of the tiny details which make him, him.

His spot as a captain and the head of the Kuchiki clan is in my opinion fully earned (rest of the nobles (except Yoruichi) can go fuck themselves) (sorry Tara, ignore this please lol). He is hardworking and precise, almost workaholic, has trained hard from a very young age and puts duty above everything. But he still has a hidden "work mode: off" -side which we see occasionally as cracking a dry joke or the wakame taishi fuckery in general. Latter being, in my honest thoughts, hilarious and adorable.

There is a lot more but i literally can't list everything. This is already a hell of an essay.

2. Least favorite thing about them.

My answer is probably as you can expect: none.

There is one thing i don't really like, but it's about the writing.

!!TYBW SPOILERS!!

In the beginning of the arc i think that immediately releasing bankai, especially when he knew it was gonna be sealed, was out of character and i would have been very upset if he stayed dead, since the action which resulted in that was not something he would do.

3. Favorite line

“If it’s for the sake of my pride there’s nothing I won’t destroy.”

I know it’s from a filler but this line just sums his whole character, personality and motivations up so well.

4. BrOTP

I have so many, i want him to have friends lol. But to point out the most significant ones i'd say Rukia, Renji, Kenpachi, Toshiro and Ichigo

5. OTP

The only one i really ship him with is Nanao. Hisana is kind of “it’s canon and i’m fine with it.” I haven’t seen enough of her to form an opinion about the ship, but it’s obvious how much Bya loved her and it’s so sweet.

6. NOTP

Okay, i have never mentioned this before since i know many of my followers/mutuals ship them. Renji. The only ship I. Can't. Stand.

Like, platonically? Yes, they're bros. But romantically or especially sexually? No. Fuck no.

I don't care if you ship them, good for you, but please tag the stuff so it gets filtered.

7. Random headcanon

He sleeptalks a lot. And it's not mumbling, he talks the same way as when he's awake but it's absolute nonsense.

Byakuya, asleep: Do not eat the drawer.

Hisana, awake: *watches him in utter confusion*

Byakuya, still asleep: Give him a pink tricycle.

Hisana: To whom?

Byakuya: Head captain Yamamoto

Hisana: *trying not to laugh*

Another hc that i have is that he is a closet metalhead and likes especially power- and symphonic metal (this might sound very weird if you know nothing about this kind of music lol)

8. Unpopular opinion

His actions in the soul society arc were understandable. He was put between the bark and the tree (i hope you get what i mean) and had to choose from just letting things happen and going against central 46 and all of soul society (or at least that’s what he thought). Also the line he said to Ukitake, which is still easily in top5 most asshole things he has said/done, in my opinion shows what he thought of Rukia’s execution and why he didn’t do anything to prevent it. “Once you’ve let one of your people die.. ...two or three more make no difference.” Both of his parents are dead, Hisana is dead, Ginrei is most likely dead and he thought for 100 years that Yoruichi was dead too. I think Byakuya thought losing one more person he cares about couldn’t hurt more than it already has and therefore didn’t think it was worth breaking the promise he made in his parents’ grave and trying to save her. And that fucking breaks my heart.

9. Song I associate with them

I have a 6h long playlist which I’m not gonna post. Can’t choose just one lol.

10. Favorite picture of them

*digs through nearly infinite pinterest board, tumblr and phone’s gallery*

This is (one of) my favorite manga panel(s) of him. I love how calm but powerful he looks. The lines representing the heavy spiritual pressure. Like an inescapable doom approaching (which indeed was the case). And for some reason i love it. 

My favorite fanart, which i obviously can’t post since you can’t post others art so here’s the link: https://www.deviantart.com/keelerleah/art/Bleach-Byakuya-Looking-Back-127254804

and then one which I think is official art or at least an edit of it, if I’m wrong please lmk

#long post #sorry this took 2 and half eternities to complete #bleach #kaname tosen #byakuya kuchiki #ask game

[indigobackfire]

Phoenix Lazar Nobleworth Silverwood

Below is a lengthy history of his parents, their involvement with dragons, and how he lost them.

Ps: I tried adding some Scottish dialect in the dialogue, but I'm not the best at it considering all I have as reference is my love for James McAvoy and Outlander. Forgive me in advance for any atrocities lol. Also, diverging from canon especially in relation to Veela powers and physical descriptions.

Phoenix's father, Emilian, was sorted into Gryffindor and with pride, he was a Gryffindor by the book, adventurous, brave, often reckless, fun, with a strong sense of protection over his friends, someone who valued courage and honor.

Emilian didn't know how he and Palmer Silverwood - Slytherin, pureblood, much more popular than him, and one of the best duelists in their year - became friends, he also didn't know how Palmer found an about to hatch dragon egg in the forbidden forest, or how he even got into the forbidden forest to begin with, but being who he was, Emilian wasn't much surprised.

The biggest surprise was that Palmer even knew who he was.

Emilian takes a peek into Palmer's robes where the egg is hidden. "So? You're the dragon laddie, Nobleworth."

"Yeah, it's a dragon egg. Common Welsh Green this one." He looks up. "And is that what people call me?"

"Are ye really surprised? You talk about them all the time, yer the best in Care of Magical Creatures, and ye have a dragon painted at the back of yer bloody robes."

"Only fair. McGonagall hates it."

Palmer laughs. "Will ye help me?"

"Aye. But what ye want me to do?"

"I dinna ken. I just don't want the wee dragon to die. The poor creature wasn't warm when I found it so it's probably motherless. I mean... they fire up their eggs, don't they?"

Emilian smiles. "You're not as unknowledgeable as you think, Silverwood. Let's go somewhere more private."

In the humid and dusty air of the artifact room, they hide. "Hand me the egg."

Palmer hands him the egg delicately as if the creature inside it wasn't one that could eat them both in a bite when grown. And for a moment Palmer wonders what he'll do, but Emilian just stands there holding the egg. And as he's about to question him, he sees Emilian's fingers get bright red.

"Mate? What's wrong with yer hands?"

Emilian snickers. "I have a secret, can you keep it?" Palmer nods eyes fixated on the egg whose cracks were very slowly growing. "I'm half Veela and whilst I can't throw balls of fire from my hands... I can heat it up to... oven temperature."

"Oven temperature?"

Emilian smirks. "Ah dinnae have exact numbers, but if ye want to give a touch."

Palmer looks at his hands again. "Nae. They're as bright as molten glass, lad."

Emilian raises his eyebrows. "Oh, I felt it move."

"Ooohh, it's gonna set this tiny room on fire."

"Let me hide it this time. I ken a place we can go. The person ye should've gone to in the first place."

Palmer widens his eyes. "Kettleburn, nae."

"Silverwood, ye cannae keep the dragon. It'll set you on fire before completing one year."

Palmer puffs as they walk out of the artifact room. "If the dragon enthusiast dinnae want to keep a real dragon, why would I?"

"A dragon lover is the same as a bee lover. You can appreciate the honey, the lovely stripes, but if ye hold it in yer hand, it'll sting you. Dragons were made to live outside, flying, spitting fire. A wee dragon is cute, but once is grown..."

"Yer a curious lad, Nobleworth." Emilian gives an awkward half smile. "I like you."

Their friendship was as unexpected to them as it was for the bystanders, but one that sustained for their last two years in Hogwarts - including Palmer's girlfriend, Clarin, an uptight but curious Ravenclaw, who despite her best instincts followed behind on the boys' adventures.

When Emilian announced he would be leaving England for the Dragon Sanctuary in Romania a couple of years later, as much as Palmer and Clarin expected that to happen, it still came with the bittersweetness of watching one of their best friends go.

Years go by, but still, their bond sustains time and distance. Every opportunity they had, the SIlverwoods would travel to Romania to visit their friend who in a lighting in a bottle chance found himself a wife of "his kind".

Full Veela, Antonia Lazar, practically raised herself as her father left her mother, a temperamental full Veela woman, to deal with Tonia herself, a task she delegated to her equally careless family members, closely involved with the Dragon Sanctuary in times the place was still informally managed.

When Emilian meets her, barely wearing rags over her body, barefoot on the grass, pearl blonde hair unruly, looking as if she was raised by wild house elves, he couldn't help his heart hammering in his chest. Female Veela beauty wasn't something he was unused to, considering his mother and aunts were ones as well, but when Antonia was before him he thought of himself before a goddess.

Emilian tries not to spill the water in the heavy buckets while Antonia doesn't seem to be struggling at all. He wouldn't have a need to even carry them if he hadn't forgotten his wand, but at least he got to be alone with her.

"Why is it that ye dinnae like us?"

"You English think you run the place just because you read about dragons in a book, think you know more than us who grew with hundreds of them." She shoots him firey eyes. "Know when I first rode a dragon? I was five years old!"

"I never say I doubted yer capacities. And I'm not English, I'm Scottish." She glares at him again. "I'm kidding."

"Don't get me angry, you won't like it me angry. Trust me."

"I would actually. I wonder what color yer feathers would be."

"I'm sorry?"

"I ken a Veela when I see one. Especially cause I'm half one."

Her expression soothes a little. She puts the bucket down and grips his hand. "Go, do your magic."

While his hand goes as hot as they can, his eyes slowly change hues to match her, never breaking eye contact. "It's nice touching a girl who doesn't mind a more... ardent touch."

She gives a small smile. "You're pathetic."

"I'd love to fly on a dragon's back with someone who understands about them. I promise I'm not here to mock or doubt you. I love those creatures more than anyone I know."

She lets go of his hand and with a smirk picks up the bucket. "Well, now you know me."

Their relationship quickly becomes stronger as they spend day after day together. The work at the Sanctuary is as rewarding as it is tiring, so at the end of long days, they would sit together and exchange stories, her of her buckwild childhood and him of his years in Hogwarts. In each other's company that they find an air of normality and peace.

After recognizing and accepting her strong feelings for Emilian - something hard considering how men had treated her before, seeking what she had to offer them more than considering her needs - and finding out he felt the same for the longest time, they decided to marry, her seeing in him a sense of stability for the first time in her life.

It doesn't take long until Antonia is pregnant with their first child, and in the pool of genes and possibilities, their first-born boy is a full Veela like his mother, something uncommon for boys. Not considering what would be 'formal' or well accepted, Antonia decides to name him Phoenix for encompassing what being a Veela means to her, a bird of elegance and fire and perseverance.

And as if it was pre-destined, just a couple months prior, Clarin and Palmer had given birth to a girl of name just as uncommon, little Indigo Silverwood, who is but three months old when they come to Romania to meet little Phoenix.

To this day, the Silverwoods wonder if their timing was the best or worst it could've been.

As in the same week they came to visit, an attack happens with the intent of capturing as many dragons as they could from the reserve, something that had happened times before but this time much better planned and heavily armed with the best wizards they could get.

They start picking up their wands in haste while seeking the fire protection potion they had brewed specially for this trip back at home. "What do they need dragons for? Can't they breed their own." Clarin asks.

"Is not like is legal or easy to do so." Antonia has her eyes soaked with tears. "They don't care about the creatures, they want money. Oh, they use their blood to make spot removers. Oven cleaners! How can you take a marvelous creature and turn it into such a pathetic thing? Then they use their hearts in you wizards stupid wands and their skin into gloves!"

"Somebody must have heard about the new Chinese Fireball," Emilian says, "People seek the gold in their horns and eggs, but if you pull them out, they die."

"Not to mention the baby Romanians. Put your goddamn boots on already, Emilian!"

"What 'bout the bairns?" Palmer asks anxiously.

"There's no time. They probably ain't getting all the way up here, but in all cases." Emilian grabs the potion from Clarin's hands turning over Jacob's and baby Indigo's mouth, knowing the fire wouldn't do harm to Phoenix. He places something in Jacob's little hand. "Jacob, if any mean person comes trying to hurt ye, throw this at their feet and run. Alright?" Jacob nods, eyes wide with fear and excitement of a five-year-old.

"What is it?" Palmer asks.

"A vial of Peruvian's Vipertooth venom, extremely deadly and volatile. Don't ask me why I have it."

Palmer looks at Jacob. "Stay quiet and protect the babies, right, love?"

Antonia kisses Phoenix on the forehead one last time then turns to the others. "Let's go, please!"

And if they knew, she would've held him a little longer, Emilian would've stopped time for a couple of seconds to look at their boy for a lingering moment more. But they didn't and time never reversed.

They weren't the only lives lost, but side by side they fought and won and lost and lost and lost. They managed to protect all but two of the dragons at the end, blood of dark wizards - and innocent ones - soaked the grounds. Dragons loose on the sky overhead, blood spilt from both sides, burnt buildings, scars that would never heal, the body of a friend devoided of life, a mother of dragons and children never to wake up again, children crying in a cabin kilometers away.

When Antonia's mother refused to watch over her own grandson, Clarin felt as if it was her own son the woman refused and it was that soon the decision to keep him came. She was still breastfeeding and no ordinary family would know how to raise him right, at least that's what both her and Palmer told themselves. Emilian's parents, both devastated by the news of their son's death were quick to agree with the Silverwoods' proposal.

And it's like this that Phoenix and Indigo are practically raised as twins, still young when he notices he doesn't look like the rest of them - a pale and blonde boy in a family of tanned brunettes - not only for his looks but by the fact that sinking his hand into a pot of boiling water doesn't hurt or the fact his anger makes his body react differently from the others or that people got mesmerized by his looks enough to do whatever he asked them to.

But the Silverwoods learn the painful way that raising a Veela child is not easy work. Not only easily irritable but also dangerous when transformed, not much to others while still young, but to himself due to painful and harmful transformation, taking hours until he could retain his human form. Meditating and thought exercises became pivotal from an early age. As not make their treatment towards him different from Indigo, they become tougher with both, demanding an altruistic, patient, and empathetic behavior from both.

This leads Phoenix to grown into a level-headed, sweet and compassionate boy who eventually got sorted into Hufflepuff without the sorting hat having to consider long.

As much as he wishes he had grown with his biological parents, he's grateful to have grown in the family he did and doesn't consider himself any less part of it, he loves his siblings dearly and considers and reslects his parents as if it was from their blood and cells he was made of.

---

This is my attempt at a concise history of Phoenix, mostly his parents who I dream of drawing someday. I'll make something in the future for his romantic life as it is its own ride. I ship him with Ismelda and boy oh boy I have some to say about that.

If you wanna more info on Phoenix, I made him an OC profile :)

#mi artita #phoenix nobleworth #fanfic? #oc backstory #hufflepuff #dragons are in it too #an attempt at scottish sounding dialogue #i cant draw clothes for sht #or poses #or hair #help #hphm #hogwarts mystery

[nothorses]

So I have a question/something I'd like your input on, since I feel like you'd have something interesting to say about this.

Anyways, some background: i'm in a child and youth care program in a rather left leaning, relatively progressive college, in a rather left leaning/progressive city.

It's actually been a very validating experience so far--I feel so much more accepted here then at my last school, which, while it was located relatively close to the city, had a rather more conservative student body and faculty. I had to fight for accomodation and acceptance, and I didn't end up going to my convocation since, when I had asked, they said they wouldn't call my prefered name when I'd get the certificate at the ceremony, or use the right name on it (they made it seem that their hands were completely tied, even though I know of other schools who've done this exact thing, incl the school I'm at now, without needing proof of a legal name change).

Anyways, at this school, i'm even having instructors I don't even know well going to bat for me and using their connections to get the help I needed when I was having trouble with my name being displayed wrong in the online classroom. Like, thank god for having CYC's as profs, right?

So, to my point: one of our classes is all about inclusion and anti oppressive practices. It's literally the name of the class. I actually enjoy the class a fair bit--despite classes being virtual, my class is sharing a lot and there's a lot of bonding and openness going on in the virtual lecture space. It's encouraged me to be open about my own troubles as a trans person, and people have been v supportive.

In a recent lecture, we start talking about the different terms of discrimination against various groups that face oppression (like, racism, albleism, etc). So she asks us: what is the term for discrimination against trans people? And I say Transphobia. Because that's the term I see most often, and the one I say myself. Apparently the Proper term now is cissexism (or cisgenderism?), and I got chided for saying transphobia.

I went and turned my mic on and basically said that I feel like transphobia is the term the general population is only Just started to take seriously, and the instructor argued that as we're in an academic circle, and as CYCs, it's our job to use the most progressive terms to move things forward, and that we shouldn't be conflating the discrimination trans people face with a phobia. Since, not only does it validate the fear of trans people, but it's not fair to those that have legitimate phobias.

I dropped it there, but I was brave and I asked to speak with the instructor after class.

During that talk, I pretty much said that it's hard being probably the only trans person in at least first year, and being visible and open as one, and having to be told the "right" term to use for my own experiences. She could relate, she said, as she's a black woman, and have faced probably similar experiences from white people correcting her on terms she uses for her own experiences. She did say though, as she's in the role of an instructor, it is her job to educate herself, think on what they're saying, and potentially make changes to her language.

But, she also said she can't speak for my experiences, and she won't make me change my language.

I was appreciative, and I talked about things I've personally faced, and how, even just 10 years ago, trans people were treated so frequently as a joke. Even on screen deaths were funny in media. I brought up that the trans panic defense was still considered a valid defense to use in court not long ago (and still probably is in some places), and someone won a case recently that way. Even just the term "transphobia" is only just recently been taken seriously, in my eyes, while before it was often brushed off as not a legitimate concern. Even when I was first coming out, I was told I was just confused, or trans people were just doing it for attention. I still face open glares sometimes, purposeful misgendering, fights with my sister about some of her transphobic views she refuses to question... And while it was hard to be that vulnerable, the conversation ended on a very good note.

I personally don't feel ready to change this language. But I don't really know if I was in the right to argue all of this. I'm only one trans person, I don't want to talk over those who've probably fought to switch the language away from "transphobia" as the valid term. But, i'm in an awkward position of being an unofficial spokesperson as the token trans guy in the class, talking to a lot of folks who've admitted I am the first trans person they've met. So, i dunno, i'm weird with conflict and I was wondering what you're thoughts were on all of this.

This is kind of a tricky one for a lot of reasons, tbh? And I have... a few thoughts. This is already super long, so under the cut it goes!

The first thing is that “transphobia” and “cissexism” aren’t actually interchangeable; they’re different concepts. “Transphobia” refers to bigotry against trans people or transness in general, while “cissexism” or “cisgenderism” is appealing to (or is) the wider system of oppression. (x)

That’s not to say those words are actually used that way in practice, because they’re not, and I certainly don’t use them that way every time either. Like you said, “transphobia” is the word people more often understand. When I’m writing for or talking to audiences that don’t already have a strong background in trans theory, I stick to “transphobia” for clarity’s sake.

But if you’re positioning yourself as an educational authority on the subject, and even going so far as to correct trans people on those terms- you should know that. If your question is “which term refers to discrimination against trans people?”, your answer is reliant upon how you choose to define “discrimination” in that context.

It’s also reasonable to assume people would answer with the first term if they don’t know both of them, and what she’s set up sounds like an unfair “gotcha!” meant to cow uninformed cis people.

And tbh, I take issue with that. There’s a great essay on this- The Cycle of Socialization by Bobbie Harro. The core of this cycle, which allows oppression to continue and encourages its perpetuation, includes confusion and insecurity: oppression is complex, and big, and people are afraid of taking a stand and doing it wrong. They are insecure in their knowledge and position, and afraid that if they try, they’ll get it wrong, and they’ll be punished. So they stay silent. What is that “gotcha!” moment doing except enforcing that fear and silence?

The other thing here are her reasons for using “cissexism” instead. She’s absolutely right that there is dialogue about what terms to use, and her listed reasons are informed and well-educated. I don’t know how I feel about the discussion myself, honestly, as I’ve seen it from the start and I’ve watched it play out for multiple years.

I don’t know if I agree that it’s ableist, part of that being that the “-phobic” thing was originally created as a “compassionate justification” for people’s bigotry against gay people (though there is the “-misic/misia” replacement for “-phobia” if you prefer). That’s still problematic for different reasons; like she said, it might validate bigotry as “fear”. “Cissexism” illustrates bigotry as enforcing a system rather than being honestly rooted in feelings, and that’s generally a good thing, imo.

But, y’know, “transphobia” is what people readily understand, and punishing people for using it is counterproductive. Using “transphobia” as a starting point for a discussion and an understanding is helpful, too; it connects these ideas back to what people already know. It meets them where they are. If you want to add “cissexism” to their vocabulary from there, please do! But that shouldn’t be rooted in shame.

I don’t know if any of this is helpful, but I thought I’d throw out what seemed to be the core of the issue to me, in case it resonated with you. If you still feel weird about the interaction, it might be worth it to address that with her again; she seems like she’s genuinely trying, and cares, and like she’s open to making changes. If nothing else, you might be able to sort out what’s still bugging you and address it as a feelings issue, rather than a language one, if that works better for you.

Good luck! And sorry for the super long answer, lol.

#long post #onejackalsguise #Ask

[kavkasia]

hey jade I know you said you're busy but 👉👈 could you tell us more about your georgia of? i love the vibes I get from him and I'm not very well versed in the history of the caucasus so I'd love to hear more about him 👀

You know the way to my heart... ❤️

I’m going to ramble, so if you want me to expand on anything don’t be afraid to send an ask about it! I’m just trying to compact my notes and not write one giant paper LOL.

NAME

Human Name: Giorgi (Ilias Dze / Ilyich) Davitashvili

Giorgi — His first name actually started as a joke (Georgia... Giorgi... very clever) but it also works well. The patron saint of Georgia is Saint George: a military saint which has been popular in Georgia for centuries (parts of Georgia post-Christianization are believed to have combined the cult of Saint George with the cult of the pre-Christian moon god Armazi). Giorgi is also the most common male name in Georgia and the name of many Georgian kings.

Ilias Dze / Ilyich — He doesn’t actually use his patronymic anymore, but during the USSR he did have one because Obligatory Russification Time™. It’s after Prince Ilia Chavchavadze, a major contributor to the revival of the Georgian national movement in the late nineteenth century and widely considered to be the “Father of the Nation”.

Davitashvili — A Georgian surname roughly meaning “David’s child”. It’s a reference to the Bagratoni King David IV of Georgia (also known as David the Builder) who is famous for keeping the Seljuk Turks out of Georgia at the Battle of Didgori. It was under his reign that Georgia began to experience its Golden Age and much of the Caucasus region fell into Georgian hands.

AGE

He is around 2500 years old (physically he is in his mid-late 40s).

He considers himself to be an ancient nation like Armenia and Iran. Not that he’s wrong! It’s just not often acknowledged by others who aren’t familiar with him.

PERSONALITY

[steals bits of this from my RP blog because I got tired from linking wikis in an upcoming section oops]

MBTI: ESFP

• hospitable • sociable • stubborn • prideful • short-tempered • charismatic • confident • passionate • brave • spontaneous • lazy • sincere • boisterous •

Ok, listen. He is a bit of an asshole I’m not going to lie LMAO.

He is the type of guy that argues a point even when he knows jack shit about it (he knows more than a professional!!).

He has an opinion on everything.

He is super prideful to the point where he genuinely believes his culture is superior and his language/food/people/etc. are the best.

He has a bit of a temper (the kind that just jumps out with some build up) and he is sensitive to feeling slighted.

He is a flirt but it is not cool at all. He is an attractive guy (I have a reason lol) but he uses the worst pick up lines.

At the same time:

He is very devoted and loves genuine relationships. If you gain his favour he will do almost anything for you (there is also the reverse of this though).

He is so hospitable he is famous for it.

He treats his guests with the utmost respect.

He can be very chivalrous towards women (but it can come from a sexist place oops).

He is very friendly once you break through his initial serious shell.

He loves jokes and anecdotal humour.

Miscellaneous:

He loves rugby, wrestling, football, singing, dancing, wine, this movie, and eating absurd amounts of (hopefully Pasanauri) khinkali.

He hates rules, not having enough money for cigarettes, if you put on a seat belt when he’s driving, criticism, refusal, and being called “Gruzia.”

He also plays the panduri.

TIMELINE

Before I start, I have to say Giorgi is not a collective personification of Georgia. Giorgi is actually the personification of the Kartlians! He just has the title of Georgia and so represents the nation on the international level (and also the domestic level depending on the situation).

Start (~5th century BC)

I pinpoint his “birth” to be around when several Anatolian tribes settled in Eastern Georgia and merged with the local tribes. He had a couple caretakers who were like siblings or sibling-parents.

Kingdom of Iberia (Kingdom of Kartli) (302 BC–580 AD)

In this period he gets baptized, starts loving God and Jesus (becoming the second nation in the world to adopt Christianity) and says no to paganism (but lowkey-highkey pagan practices were kept up for a long time).

Also, Iberia is the Greco-Roman name that is used for the area. When you see Iberia, know that it’s Kartli.

Principality of Iberia (588–888)

He is just trying to live his life but the Byzantine Empire and Sassanid Iran are ruining everything by fighting over the area. He also continues to love God and Jesus.

Kingdom of the Iberians (888–1008)

Lots of politics. Honestly, I hate it here.

Kingdom of Georgia (1008–1490)

The Battle of Didgori happens during this period and it was the best moment of his life. He has several amazing rulers including King Tamar. Lots of wars against the Byzantine Empire, various Turkic states and more. Eventually, the kingdom breaks up.

Kingdom of Kartli (1478–1762)

Here he gets fucked over by Safavid Iran multiple times and also works as a weird slave soldier too so life is great.

Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti (1762–1801)

He has a short marriage to Kakheti that ends after he gets completely fucked over by Russia and then forcibly annexed into the Russian Empire.

Georgia Governorate (apart of the Russian Empire) (1801–1917)

There were actually several governorates in this period but for the sake of simplicity I’m going to list it as that one.

I have a small write up about the time here.

Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic (1918)

The Caucasus splits off from Russia. Giorgi represents Georgia and the TDFR (Armenia and Azerbaijan are also there as co-representatives of the TDFR). The Entente will later say they need to stick together but they forget one crucial detail:

Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918–1921)

Georgia splits off from the TDFR. Time to create a republic with a socialist government! Amazing! Too bad he’s the wrong kind of socialist according to the Bolsheviks and gets brutally stomped by the Red Army in 1921! 

All his neighbours want to fight in this period as well. The Entente also won’t commit to helping Georgia until it’s too late because they were suspicious of him after he had been forced to ask the German Empire for protection in 1918.

Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (1921–1991)

Listen, the USSR was terrible, but at least Georgia was actually one of the nicer Soviet republics because he won the geographic lottery. He even got stereotyped as being the rich republic.

We just aren’t allowed to talk about Russification or the purges or the discrimination or the fact they would only print Georgia’s most iconic piece of literature in Russian.

(Oh, it’s also my headcanon that until 1936 he shared the title of USSR with the other republics.)

Georgia (1991–present)

1990s sucked. 2000s sucked. 2010s sucked. 2020 sucks.

Summary:

NOTABLE RELATIONS

Ukraine

Best friend. Best girl. His Suliko. He loves her.

(I also have way too many dumb AUs for them 😭)

Lithuania

Other best friend. They call each other by their proper names because fuck Russian names. Also, this video is them (Giorgi is the wrestler).

Kakheti

They were married at one point in time. He is closest to her out of all the other Kartvelian regions (it’s the Eastern Georgian solidarity).

Armenia

He is like a brother but they only really acknowledge that when they’re in a good mood or when one wants something from the other. It’s a love-hate relationship that has gone on for centuries.

Russia

Azerbaijan

They are... okay. They go from tolerating to disliking each other pretty quickly. He hates when he hangs out with her and Turkey and they only speak Turkish to each other so he ends up being a third wheel that didn’t want to be here in the first place but his economic situation means he has to show up.

Iran

They had major issues but things are fine now, I guess.

Okay, Giorgi actually still has some issues, but Iran just wants to come over for a vacation sometimes.

EU and NATO

BUT YEAH UM... that’s Giorgi. This is all mostly surface level stuff so again, if you want me to expand on anything just ask. Thank you for the ask and ily. ❤️

#YOU CAN SEE WHERE I BECAME A MEME I'M SORRY LOL #my headcanons #aph oc georgia #aph oc #jade replies #portu-cale-main

[teaplease1717]

I think Shouto is a hufflepuff(although i'm probably biased because i'm a hufflepuff LMAO).He's such a precious kind dork and judging by the fact that he and Izu became friends because Izu threw away the chance to win the sports festival to help him with his trauma,he values kindness.Him being hardworking goes without saying.And Momo is either a gryffindor with ravenclaw tendecies or a ravenclaw with gryffindor tendencies(hat stall definitely).Also one of my friend's from the Huwumi Haven server headcanons that Shouto's whole family are gryffindors except him and Endeavor is like

LMAO that cat.😂🤣

Lol. I actually had a really long conversation about BNHA and houses not too long ago with another friend. Haha. 😂 

Anyways, I always head canon that Shouto would be Slytherin or Gryffindor. Now, before I get into my reason, I want to define how I see the houses and stress that I don’t view any house as being better or worse than another. 

Gryffindor -  values daring, nerve, and chivalry. Members can have a tendency for pointless heroics. One thing I want to note is Gryffindors aren’t always kind. Remember James Potter (Harry’s dad) practically tortured Snape as teenagers. 

Ravenclaw -  values intelligence, knowledge, curiosity, creativity and wit. However, they are very competitive and some can be considered eccentric. 

Hufflepuff -  values hard work, patience, justice, and loyalty. They have a tendency to be social and are fairly inclusive of others. I don’t see them as being very competitive. They are more the happy, party house in my view. (full disclaimer I’m a Hufflepuff too 😊 Yay Hufflepuffs!)

Slytherin -  Slytherin values ambition, cunning, leadership, and resourcefulness, with a tendency to look after their own. Now, I know a lot of dark wizards have come out of Slytherin, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be brave and good people in there too. To be a Slytherin is to be complex, more so then in other houses imo. 

So now moving onto the sorting of BNHA. To me, Shouto is a complex character and not only because of his backstory. At his core he’s brave, smart, competitive and an introvert. He can be kind, but mostly that is to the people he likes. If the person isn’t part of his “circle” he doesn’t really put himself out there to help out. And if he doesn’t like someone he isn’t shy about letting them know to their face. To your point, he does have a strong ‘moral compass’ but I don’t feel it is necessarily in line with society’s moral compass. Shouto has decided in his own head what is right or wrong and if people don’t agree with him he tells them off.

With that said, based on my definition of the houses, I see him as a Slytherin with a slight tendency towards Gryffindor. Shouto doesn’t do pointless heroics, that’s Midoriya, Shouto just gets pulled into it sometimes because of him. Also, Shouto is competitive and ambitious, in his own way (he can’t strive to be a top hero without being ambitious). He’s also a silent leader, the definition of which is someone who commands their team through earned respect rather than force of character. Shouto will never be like Bakugo and Midoriya who are vocal and move people with their words. Shouto motivates people with his actions. 

All in all, Shouto has a lot of characteristics that could go in any house, but overall I feel he belongs to Slytherin.

As for Momo, I agree with you. I see her as probably Ravenclaw with Gryffindor tendencies because I see her as more strategical and not as openly daring. She rather follow the rules then break them.

Anyways, I could go on but I’ll stop there. Sorry for the long ramble, guess I had more to say then I thought I did. Haha

Thanks for the ask! 

#asked #answered

[serenagaywaterford]

what was that moment when you realized 'oh, they could actually work' moment for serena and june???? i was in the middle of binging season 2 when i just went 'oh my god june and serena.' then now i'm in this spiraling hole. by the way i'm so excited for more fanfiction from you

Hmm….. That’s tough. When I started shipping them is actually different than when I convinced myself they could actually work, I suppose.

2x04.

THAT moment.

And I am aware how awful this is. Very aware – thanks, any lurking Nick fangirls, no need to let me know! I know it’s a creepy fucking scene and it’s not meant to be loving or sexy in any way whatsoever.

TOO BAD.

It was when Serena crawled into June’s bed and did this shit. But I remember mostly it was when they focused on her hand slowly moving down and I turned to my wife and said, “OH MY GOD! They’re gonna go there! WHAT IS SHE DOING?! LOOK!!!” And she told me to shut the fuck up, why do you have to make everything gay. That’s when I knew I was a goner, lol. Like, bitch, watch closer and validate my lesbian fantasies okay. OUT OF CONTEXT especially this is scene is like, “Oh, they’re together.” Sorta.

(I would also like to point out that the wifey recently (as in during S3) said, “Why exactly aren’t they fucking already?” about June/Serena and she NEVER says shit like that. Her excuse is that the show is already ridiculous enough as it is now, there’s no reason why that would be out of the realm of possibility for such a stupid show. So, not the best reasoning, lol, but even the woman who adamantly refuses to “ship” anything ever and thinks I’m an idiot every time two women are on screen together and I go “But!!! Look!!! They should be together!” thinks June and Serena just just stop the games and start banging already. I consider that the final frontier. Dear THT, if you’ve managed to convince her–the woman who despises things like this, then it’s possible.)

SO, anyway, yeah. 2x04 was when I began hating myself and wondering what was wrong in my head that I thought June/Serena would be a healthy, fun idea to get involved with. Cos, trust me, I think every single June/Serena shipper has gone through that phase of, “Holy shit, no. This is so wrong, it’s so bad, it’s so sick, how dare I? What a traitorous brain I have! I know Serena is a horrible human being and their relationship is so fucked up, so toxic, so unbalanced……. but here I am. Flopping around in the trash.” Quietly. On the dl, cos if I said anything out loud, the internet (aka the rest of THT fandom) would kill me.

And they tried, of course. Once I got some courage to be like, I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU THINK. I SHIP THE MONSTER AND JUNE. They were very effective at first. Before I realised, I’m too old for this bullshit and it’s the fucking internet, who gives a shit what a bunch of other morons online say about me and my FICTIONAL SHIPPING PREFERENCES lmao.

But yeah

^^ my other blog, October 5, 2018. The first June/Serena post I reblogged. The next was The Creepy Scene from 2x04. So, that’s where it began.

Now, in terms of when I thought, “Hey… but, maybe… this could be an actual thing?”

Probably 2x08. I mean, in retrospect and rewatches, 2x06 is obvious. But I remember watching 2x08, especially the beginning (”we could be colleagues”/”she seems pretty fucking happy”), Serena giving June the rose, and then the end when June whispers “Serena” at the door, and going, “Hmm... This is... going in a good direction I like.” Like, of course, I didn’t want to say anything cos it seemed like it’s something fandom would crucify me for. Until I saw a few brave souls speak up. (Now every episode is gay af Serena to me.)

BUT...

I don’t think I fully embraced my trash panda reality until post-s2 however when i posted this gem.

hot take: serena joy is a big giant lesbian and just doesn’t realise it

18/07/18 | 4 NOTES

#I KNOW IT SEEMS REALLY FUCKING CRAZY BUT BEAR WITH ME #NO ACTUALLY. I DON’T FEEL LIKE EXPLAINING MYSELF. #NOBODY INTERACT LOL #NO SERIOUSLY I COULDN’T BE LESS INTERESTED IN STARTING ~~DISCOURSE~~ #INSERT THAT BUTTERFLY JPG. IS THIS A JOKE? #ONLY I KNOW.

So, nothing much has changed, heh. 

AND THEN I WENT TO AO3.

It was all over after that and I saw my tribe actually exist, in their tiny little corner of the world.

Now, am I actually convinced they could actually work as a couple? Like, in canon? Ehhhh... Not convinced tbh. Not with the way they insist on writing Serena, or June at this point. Only in headcanon for now, where Serena actually develops a spine and empathy and remorse. Like, for me, Serena MUST change, quite drastically for me to entertain it as anything but inherently fucking toxic and unhealthy (although, arguably, it could never, ever be healthy considering their past together). That’s all there is to it. So, fanfic it is since canon sucks.

#Anonymous #trash panda collective

[free--therapy]

thank you for answering again 💗

you mentioned that a psychopath could be someone who lies or doesn't accept upon confrontation but is it okay to assume that's in case of really bad crimes? because i know a lot of people (including me!) lie about stuff or try to hide stuff they aren't proud of sometimes in day to day life for whatever reasons

my image of a psychopath is mostly drawn from what we see in media so i used to think that someone who can do lots of really bad things like murder, kidnapping etc. for no reason or for fun and have no remorse for it is kinda what a psychopath is and that sort of people are very rare. is it safe to assume that's a suitable explanation?

honestly i got confused about it right from when i watched that video and i took it in a very different way than what i should've i guess. the person in the video (a scientist) was talking about how "the earth being round" is a objective truth and there's no point in believing anything else like the flat earth, etc. because it's a "fact" which led me to this thinking of whether things that i think are not that "wrong" are actually objectively wrong or if its just my opinion. as in if i'm seeing some wrong actions as justifiable?

TW

i remember reading this news article where a 17 y/o girl from some country was being forced to marry some guy but she didn't wanna so she ended up poisoning and killing almost 12 people from the families. i was very shocked but then when i saw the comment section of that article, people were praising her saying she did what she had to do and she's brave for it.

that was the first time i realised people have opinions about things like murder too. i never would've thought it's something subjective considering how sensitive the topic is. that's what led me to think if certain things that majority believe are wrong, but if i think are neither right/wrong but neutral, does that make me wrong or if i don't have sympathy in certain situations where other people do because i have a different opinion, does that make me a psychopathic person? that's what i was thinking so hard about.

i just came to a conclusion that comparing scientific facts like "the earth is round" to human nature and our opinions on things like actions, crime, etc. isn't exactly the same thing. i guess human nature in general is subjective?

which also made me realise that the subjective and objective truth that i am worrying about is actually just the difference between opinions/thoughts vs. facts. realizing that is really comforting because now i can just separate it as a opinion or a fact which is much more comfortable since I've been doing it for a while now with anxiety. so to know it's nothing "new" to worry about helps a lot to make me feel relaxed.

i was wondering if me deserving forgiveness and love despite my past actions are just my selfish opinions but thinking about it, i do know that while i cannot force other people to forgive or love me but i can and should totally show love and care towards myself either way. also to learn to believe in my opinions without doubting myself (aka thinking i'm a psychopath for having certain opinions) or without always seeking external validation to feel worthy or whole. and one way of doing it is not making myself overthink this anymore lol and instead learning to let these thoughts go without feeling the need to analyse them and be proud of myself everytime i take a step forward. I'm trying to do that and hopefully not have any panic attacks in the future from overthinking....

sorry for the detailed info....i just wanted to explain the situation correctly. big thank you as always 💗

Hey Again Anon,

With psychopathic behavior, there usually isn't any accountability for one's actions and they'll usually turn to manipulation tactics like denying, pointing the finger and blaming other people for the things they're being accused with, or finding any way to convince others of their innocence (infantile behavior, basically). It's not necessarily attributed to serial killers and murderers though, but I will say that psychopaths and sociopaths often don't feel like there's anything wrong with them and will carry out their behaviors like it's fine/normal. You don't exhibit these kinds of behaviors to me at all, so do not worry yourself over this :) You're right about people just lying about things or hiding things out of shame/guilt, but that is completely normal and doesn't mean it makes anyone a psychopath.

Even some things that seem like the objective truth may not even be the truth. I know that's confusing, but if you're a seeker of the truth, you'll come to find that what people think is the truth might not actually be true and it ends up being this rabbit hole and never-ending search for truth when we'll never really know (and even that is another thing we have to come to accept too!) That's why I believe you should seek as many perspectives about things as possible and find the common denominator between them all to form what you believe is the truth. I'm also a firm believer in not believing in certain things without seeing things for myself. So just because someone says something is a certain way, I always like to make sure I see the same thing for myself (because people either intentionally lie or may not actually know the truth themselves either). But yes, I do think science helps us to get definite truths, but even scientists have been wrong.

Yea, unfortunately no matter what's out there, no matter how bad or even "stupid" you think something is, there will always be people in support of it and those against it. I don't think anything in this world exists where 100% of people can agree on it. This is why there's the argument for a flat earth vs. a round one. Sometimes you have to be curious and be open to understanding why people think differently than you do and why they believe it so much, no matter how silly their way of thinking can seem. I've come to change my view on a lot of things because I had the courage to try and understand why people looked at things differently than me. I didn't become truly open-minded until I learned how to do this. Again, different perspectives are so important! Don't let the opinions of others sway you though. It's important to learn how to form your own opinions on things and to not be worried about whether or not most people think the same thing. The majority isn't always right ;)

Yes, human nature is going to be subjective. Like I said, you'll never get 100% of people to agree on anything. While some people and some cultures may interpret a saying or an action/behavior in one way, another person or culture will see it differently. It's definitely a confusing world to navigate!

"which also made me realise that the subjective and objective truth that i am worrying about is actually just the difference between opinions/thoughts vs. facts."

Yes! This is exactly what you have to learn to do to combat your anxiety. You gotta feed that irrational mind of yours with more logical (factual) thoughts. Doing so over time will help your body to relax as well because they're intended to comfort you.

You will always deserve forgiveness, Anon! And the only person that you really need it from is from yourself! You may not get it from other people, but if you can give it to yourself, then everyone else doesn't matter. Same goes for self-love and self-worth. When you can love yourself, you won't seek it from external sources because you're giving it to yourself already and no other love from other people can really fill that role as much as you can. When you learn to love yourself, then you'll be able to show others how to love you. You're on the right track!

#ask #answered #anon #psychopathic behavior #sociopathic behavior #truth #anxiety