#it would have taken less effort to take a screenshot

[katelynsimpsince2016]

Daniel, Louis and their “strange alliance”

this quote from eric from a pre-season 2 interview has been rattling inside my brain for far too long so i want to break down a scene from season 1 that has gained some newly-found importance.

in 1x02 daniel and louis sit down to have dinner as louis recounts an experience of attending the opera with lestat and its bloody end. what’s most interesting about this sequence is less so to do with what happened at loustat’s opera date but more so this surprisingly touching moment between louis and daniel.

it starts off with louis mentioning how the dessert served for him and daniel is taken from a off-handed remark in daniel’s memoir.

this suggests A LOT. it seems to imply that louis has attentively read daniel’s memoir and likely has a genuine vested interest in daniel as a person outside of what he can do for him in relation to rejigging his jumbled memories. you can’t tell from this screenshot but he almost seems embarrassed that he went to such lengths with making sure to serve up this exact dessert that daniel mentioned. and the fact that it was an “offhanded remark” also drives me insane. he either read through daniel’s memoir and specifically noted down this mention about the dessert or realised that he wanted to share a meal with daniel and proceeded to scour his memoir in order to find mentions of food he likes. there is also the possibility that he asked one of his servants to read through the book again but we know for sure that louis read daniel’s memoir himself at some point. whatever the case louis went to the effort of making sure daniel would get to eat something familiar and that he most definitely liked. he did that to make daniel feel comfortable.

this is especially significant as louis chooses to eat this dessert alongside daniel, despite the fact that it tastes like “paste” to him. he is actively choosing to eat something that tastes like gruel to him essentially and for what?? to appear less monstrous? to comfort daniel? maybe show that he still has some humanity left in him. it’s important to mention that this is in the aftermath of daniel confronting louis about how human readers likely won’t be sympathetic to louis and lestat’s need for blood to survive. however, it doesn’t come across as a calculated move to appear more appeasing to potential readers. this seems wholly for daniel’s sake.

louis - for whatever reason - is intentionally presenting himself as approachable and human to daniel.

this is followed up by daniel seemingly picking up on louis’s offer for connection and opening up about the woman that’s on everyone’s mind currently: alice.

daniel details how he proposed to alice in paris in a cafe (which lines up with the story he tells in 2x02) and names the street that it was located on. louis recognises this and verbalises it.

this is yet another grasp for connection, of understanding, between louis and daniel. louis wants to show daniel that he’s genuinely interested in his story, in him as a person by showing that’s he actively listening to him.

now, what we’ve all been waiting for.

this moment is the whole reason why i want to tear this scene apart!! this is probably up there with daniel offering louis a break in 2x01 as one of the most sincere and vulnerable moments we’ve gotten from daniel, a typically cold and sarcastic character. whatever you think about the alice-armand parallels and who exactly he is truly talking about here, daniel is fondly speaking of someone now estranged from him. he remembers the little details about her, an insecurity that she was ashamed of that he completely adored! he loved her for who she was, imperfections and all.

and to top this all off daniel closes his laptop! he ends the session! he likely does this out of a mixture of embarrassment that he’s rambled about his ex-wife live on tape but also maybe a sign to louis that he’s taking this seriously. that he’s appreciative of him trying to meet him on his level. that this moment was real. by stripping away the symbol of the supposedly strictly professional nature of this reunion he may be signalling that this conversation is indeed important to him.

and the fact that daniel is able to even have this vulnerable moment with louis at all, reminiscing over his lost love (whilst louis is doing something very similar with lestat) is so intriguing! obviously louis and daniel are most definitely not strangers to one another but they aren’t best friends either. they haven’t seen each other in decades and for daniel especially this has been a very abrupt reunion. whether he likes it not, daniel likely relates on some level to louis’s complex feelings towards lestat, his lover. like louis, daniel may not miss his relationship with alice in relation to the toxic dynamic they shared (slight guess here but the revelation that she initially rejected his proposal suggests to me that their relationship was a bit rocky at least) but he most definitely misses her as a person and the memory of their time together.

finally, what closes off this scene is this… odd expression from louis. not entirely sure if i’m being too optimistic when i say that louis may be sympathising with daniel here but admittedly he does seem a little confused as well. but if this truly is meant to be a look of contempt i feel like it would’ve been more akin to louis’s more obviously disgusted reaction to the coven’s play in 2x02. instead, in this scene, i think louis simply did not expect daniel to so openly accept his offer of connection and is just stunned to hear this bristly old man reflect his own feelings so accurately. he’s finally found someone who understands his situation with lestat. someone who understands this dichotomy of longing and anguish all at the same time. obviously, their situations are not a 1:1 but this scene has always stood out to me as a parallel between daniel and louis’s previous relationships.

a key part about this whole daniel and louis form a “strange alliance” thing is that it seems to stem from the two men realising that they have a lot more in common than they initially believed. that’s why it’s “strange”: because it’s unexpected.

although in recent episodes they’re definitely at odds with each other, this scene combined with other sprinklings of subtle moments of connection suggest to me that daniel might become a genuine friend to louis. it is a strange friendship but they both want to get to the bottom of louis’s memories. no one else in dubai is able to tell louis how it really is and is able to actually push him to question the lies he’s been fed (and that he’s fed himself). intentionally or not, daniel is looking out for louis and is indirectly helping him to accept his past mistakes. maybe he sometimes pushes him too hard or says some stuff he probably shouldn’t but ultimately daniel is the catalyst for louis actually remembering the truth. without him louis would not have come as far as he as over the course of the series

#first proper post in this fandom so pls don’t kill me #adding another tidbit here cuz im too unsure about it to put it in the proper post but #maybe the ‘life-changing’ event that occurred between louis and daniel in 1973 was that they understood each other #human and vampire were able to empathise and relate to one another #maybe rolin was more so referring to the physical altercation that they had #but we’ve been shown so much of that already that it seems unlikely to me #or maybe they just had flying sex who knows #ALSO THE MUSIC IN THIS SCENE IS INSANE #ITS SO SAD #interview with the vampire #amc iwtv #daniel molloy #louis de pointe du lac #louis iwtv #iwtv #iwtv meta

[sunglassesmish]

https://twitter.com/SpoilerTV/status/1678796305282334720?s=20

he won 🤩

Misha Collins took a commanding lead early in Reader voting and never looked back. He takes the title this month with an astonishing 87% of the votes. Like him, his Gotham Knights castmate, Keegan took firm control of 2nd early with Edebiri making a quick claim on 3rd. Exceptional acting is so much more than just saying the words on the page, and in "Night of the Owls" (Ep. 113) of Gotham Knights, Misha Collins gives a stellar performance in just a few short scenes.

As the captured Harvey Dent we see his vulnerable side as Collins' character tries to match wits with his captor, and later as he desperately tries to make amends to and reason with his also captured daughter. It's clear in his eyes and in his emotional pleas that the last thing he wants to do is bring the other side of himself out. He knows the consequences of what happens if he does. Finally, he realizes the only way to save his daughter and the city is to let his evil side out.

That is when a truly masterful transformation takes place, illustrated not just verbally by the deepening timbre of his voice, but physically as well as his whole poster and demeanor changes making him an imposing character despite him being tied to a chair. Harvey Dent sacrificed himself to save others, the other guy's motivation is pure self-preservation even after his face is marred by acid. At that moment Collins and Dent become the physical and emotional personification of the iconic DC villain Two-Face.

It is a genuine shame the show has been canceled before viewers could witness the additional depth he surely would have given this character. Misha Collins is Spoiler TV's June Reader's Choice Performer of the Month.

#anon #ask #gotham knights #i don’t know why i copied and pasted all of that #it would have taken less effort to take a screenshot #anyways olivia rose keegan came second!!!! #misha won the reader’s vote with 87% of votes…. when i doubt this fandom things like this make me believe in it again

[pileofmush]

warning: yes we're talking about taz skylar. yes i am opinionated.

i'm making this as a response to the posts i've seen floating around on my dash that are promoting neutrality, and, most annoyingly, whining about the backlash he's receiving.

you guys had your turn to speak so i guess i'll take mine!

no, this is not directed at any particular blog. yes, i am biased, and i'm not going to pretend that i'm not. and finally no, i’m not posting this to seem virtuous or some shit like that. glad we got that cleared up.

anywho. you guys are annoying me 😭

it's always #freepalestinetillit'sbackwards until your favorite british blorbo is questioned. questioned, rightfully so, mind you.

let's go over the facts:

this was posted by twitter user knsiara yesterday morning. apparently, people are also getting on taz about who he follows on social media, but that's none of my concern. i'm aware it takes effort to cull and monitor the values of those you follow. i don't hold that against him. moving on.

the real concern is the charity that he was directly promoting. as in, the charity that he's presumably donated to and encouraged his 1.9 million followers to donate to as well, seeing as it was linked right there in his instagram bio.

so! there is a bit of confusion about who the red cross supports. i've done some basic googling, and yeah it's pretty vague, so i do understand the confusion. it seems the red cross provides aid to both sides, which has already put me off (in no circumstance would i provide aid to the country enacting a genocide. because remember, it's less-so a conflict and more-so a genocide.) but that's beside the point. as you'll note in the right-most screenshot up above, it's the fundraising for the british red cross (BRC), in particular, that has raised some eyebrows.

so who does the BRC support, then?

there we have it. taken right from their site. i've even taken the liberty to highlight it for you: as it stands, the british red cross provides aid to "israel and occupied palestinian territory.”

what does that mean? well, i'm glad you asked. this leads to my next segment...

the assumptions:

does the BRC support palestine? no.

do they support israel? well, you read their words. it's not the clearest statement in the world, but it's to my understanding that the BRC supports israel, as it clearly subscribes to the zionist sentiment that palestinian land belongs to israel. hence, palestinian occupied territory. zionist rhetoric. now, that doesn't sound like an organization that has the people of palestine's best interests in mind, does it?

"but-but that doesn't make taz a zionist!"

oh, brother. he's donating to pro-israel organizations and encouraging his followers to do the same!! let's get serious here.

there is of course the possibility that he didn't research the charity. that he didn't know what he was promoting. and sure! it's possible. everyone's human. we all make mistakes.

but then he went and tweeted that vague as hell tweet implying that he sides with israel…

if it was an honest mistake; if he stood with palestine, he’d say so. morgan davies did, so let’s not pretend it’s a “protecting his job” move… (expanded on towards the end).

now, since i don't follow him, i don't have the timeline of things, such as when he added the BRC to his bio, or when people started asking him about it, but, i mean. the BRC was in his bio, now it's not. he posted the tweet two days ago, and has since deleted it. maybe it's bad timing, but, i'm not inclined to believe it is.

which leads me to my point that i'm highly suspicious of the taz-riders right now...

especially the ones outright complaining about him getting "canceled" and whatnot.

people use the word “cancel” so loosely now. it’s pretty much lost all meaning. choosing not to support taz skyler for his abysmal political opinions does not equate to him getting “canceled.”

dissing him on twitter does not equate to him getting “canceled.” girl no one is taking his netflix check away—he’s got a bag, he’s got a second season, he’s got his loyal stans: he‘ll come back from this. and honestly, throwing the term “cancel” around is ridiculous when we’re talking about matters like palestinian genocide.

yes, taz might have worded his response poorly under stress. but doesn't it still hold implications? what else can we assume if his response to people accusing him of promoting and funding israel is... we have different opinions, and that's okay 🤍

c'mon taz, you can do a little better than that, can't you?

so that's why i'm confused about why others are confused, regarding the backlash. we, the people, have such little control over the shit that’s happening in the world: of course we’ll exercise what little control that we have…

we’ll choose what we consume and who we monetarily support according to our own values.

people wanna talk about "parasocial relationships" and "putting him on a pedestal," but bae, i promise you, it's nothing personal. from me, at the very least. i was never a rider or a hater of taz, personally. but c'mon. he publicly promoted a pro-israel organization, and then made a vague nothing-tweet in response. backlash is warranted.

maybe you should reconsider why you’re so willing to ride for this man you don’t actually know… if we’re gonna bring up parasocial relationships, and all.

that doesn’t mean i support sending him death threats or doxxing him or anything like that, but i mean... if people have opinions, they're gonna talk 😭 getting called out on twitter is not the end of the world.

anywho. give him the benefit of the doubt if you want. but i think he's made his stance quite clear in his actions and inaction.

if you still want to simp over a man who thinks political neutrality toward genocide is acceptable, go ahead and take the watermelon outta your bio. there's no need for performative activism on this site. just admit to yourself that you're only willing to support palestine until it makes you uncomfortable.

as for support of the OPLA, that is, obviously, up to you. i, for one, won't be streaming it on netflix anytime soon. but, there are some actors in the OPLA who do support palestine, such as morgan davies, who publicly shot down the losers trying to angle that palestine is anti lgbtq+ and therefore does not deserve support (as if intersectionality and queer palestinians don't exist, lord) ...so, this is a nuanced convo and i may change my mind when season 2 rolls around if i feel the pros outweigh the cons. or i'll just follow morgan davies into their next project. whichever feels right.

what i won't do, however, is make this site comfortable for the taz-riders lmaoo, because there were a few too many posts advocating for him than i’m comfortable with from my fellow fans of one piece. one piece, of all fandoms, and we’re divided on the morals and ethics of supporting genocide—good lord— nor will i support anyone else on the OPLA cast who has a terrible take on what’s taking place in palestine. repeat after me, there's no such thing as neutrality when it comes to genocide.

free palestine, today. tomorrow, and the next. class dismissed.

posting this on 1/5/24, 7:00 pm EST. as of right now, taz hasn’t come out with a statement addressing the backlash. but hey! opinions can change and i hope he’ll change mine, for what it’s worth.

#mushy yaps .𖥔 ݁ ˖ #taz skylar #free palestine #this what i do when i have free time i guess #if u disagree with me… argue with the wall tbh

[thenerdykneazle]

Yule Ball

images of Garreth above from @dvinaamesca here and here

Summary: Sometimes our favourite gregarious Gryffindor can be a bit thick. Professor Black reinstates the Yule Ball in your seventh year, and you realise last-minute that your boyfriend isn't planning on taking you. Leander tries to help his best mate patch things up with you. Sometimes simple misunderstandings lead to hurt feelings, but talking it out (and makeup sex) is always worth it.

Garreth Weasley x Gryffindor F!MC

A/N: Did I write an almost 9k fic because I loved a screenshot so much? Yes. Yes, I did. At any rate, this blog was far overdue for some Garreth love.

Warnings: 18+, explicit sexual content, aged-up characters, Garreth being oblivious, failure to communicate, caught indisposed, talks of hypothetically pregnant MC

Word count: 8621

Seventh year was going surprisingly well for you. The stress of exams was nothing compared to quashing a goblin rebellion, and poaching was at an all-time low in the Highlands. If you were honest, it was a bit dull. You had tried, back at the end of sixth year, to get Black to reinstate the Triwizard Tournament. You argued that it was the perfect time, exactly a century after the last one had been held. He had refused outright, arguing that it was “too dangerous.” You suspected his concern was less directed at whatever students would be competing and more due to the fact that the heads of the participating schools had been injured during the last one in 1792. Bloody coward.

You had started a whole campaign, hoping to pressure him into it, but he wouldn’t relent. Poppy managed to convince him to at least host a Yule Ball the following Christmas. The vain headmaster leapt at the chance to bring out his dress robes. It was settled.

At least you had quidditch to keep you from being bored to death. Games and practices playing chaser alongside your boyfriend were the highlight of each week. You had worried it might cause friction between the two of you when you and Garreth joined the team last year. Quite the contrary, you both worked together flawlessly. You practised so much that you had an almost telepathic connection on the pitch. You had been so close to winning the Quidditch Cup last year, and you had high hopes for this season.

Still, quidditch only provided so much of a distraction given the level of adventure to which you were accustomed, and you had looked forward to the Yule Ball all of autumn term. Poppy – and, to your surprise, Imelda – led the planning effort. You were confident it was going to be spectacular. You had already gone shopping with Natty, and Mr. Hill insisted on making custom gowns for both of you. He had always been appreciative of you two saving his shop from the troll back in fifth year.

As you were studying in the library for end-of-term exams, Poppy updated you on the planning. The ball was to be an all-night, Regency-style affair complete with dancing, a late supper, and more dancing. You couldn’t wait for Christmas to arrive.

Over lunch, Garreth expressed a similar sentiment. “I cannot wait for exams to be over. I swear my aunt is lurking around every corner to make sure I’m revising properly,” he groused. “It’s like she has no faith in me.”

“She just wants you to do well,” you assured him, rubbing a soothing hand between his shoulder blades.

“At least we have the holidays to look forward to,” he said. “Your parents are letting you stay here in the castle, right?”

“Yes!” you replied eagerly. “It’s going to be splendid, isn’t it? Have you gotten dress robes?”

Garreth’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What for?”

You gaped at him. “For the Yule Ball.”

He looked caught off guard. “I wasn’t planning on attending,” he admitted.

“What? You–You’re not going?” you asked, taken aback. “Are you serious?”

Your conversation caught Leander’s attention, and he looked nervously between you two. His eyes widened with intent as he stared at Garreth.

“I’m not much of a dancer,” Garreth explained. “What’s the point?”

Leander hid his face in his hand, clearly embarrassed at his best mate’s lack of tact.

The bench scraped harshly on the stone floor as you got to your feet. “What’s the point?” you repeated, furious.

Garreth shrugged. “I mean, it’s not like I’m telling you that you can’t go,” he said.

“Garreth Weasley, you inconsiderate – you oblivious – you – Ugh!” you spluttered. You grabbed your bag off the ground before storming off, leaving Garreth sat stunned on the bench.

“What is her problem?” he asked Leander.

“Mate…” the tall redhead said in a pitying tone. He just shook his head at the boy.

You spent the rest of exams avoiding Garreth. Fortunately, there were no quidditch practices to force you to interact with him. You studied in the Undercroft instead of the library. When you weren’t studying, you holed up in your dorm room where he couldn’t reach you. He tried to get Natty or Cressida to convince you to talk to him, but you were still too mad. You had spent months looking forward to the Yule Ball. You’d gushed to him about your excitement for the event dozens of times. It had never crossed your mind that your boyfriend wouldn’t escort you.

He managed to corner you once, on your way out of the potions exam. You suspected he had finished well before you and lingered for the express purpose of trying to talk to you. He chased you out, pulling you into an alcove in the corridor. “MC, I’m sorry,” he said, looking devestated. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

You scowled, but you were listening.

“I just…I didn’t realise you cared so much about a silly little ball,” he continued, inserting his foot directly into his mouth.

You scoffed, shoving past him and starting down the corridor.

“Wait, that came out wrong,” Garreth said, rushing after you.

“Did it, now?” you replied, unconvinced.

You stopped abruptly, spinning back to face him as you crossed your arms over your chest. Garreth almost walked straight into you, but he caught himself just in time.

You arched an accusing brow at him. “Was this supposed apology going to involve you asking me to said ‘silly little ball’?”

“I…Well…” he stammered, his nervous eyes looking anywhere but at you.

You huffed as you whipped back around. Garreth called after you as you stormed away, but you didn’t stop that time.

Your anger continued to simmer through the end of exams on the 23rd. Normally, the Hogwarts Express would’ve been packed that evening as students headed home for the Christmas holidays. However, it was nearly empty that night. It seemed everyone else was as excited for the ball as you were – everyone except your boyfriend, that is.

You spent hours practising spells in the Undercroft that evening. Ominis found you down there. The smell of smouldering crates filled his nose immediately.

“Still upset with Garreth, I take it?” Ominis asked as he strode into the room.

“Yep,” you replied curtly.

“Are you going to stop talking to him forever over a dance?” he asked seriously, folding his arms as he leaned back against a blank stretch of stone wall.

You rolled your eyes. “It’s not the dance. It’s that he knew how excited I was for it and still had no plans to attend it with me. It’s like he doesn’t care about what’s important to me.”

Ominis cocked his head to the side as he considered your words. “Have you explained that to him?”

Your jaw tensed. “I shouldn’t have to.”

Ominis pursed his lips, shaking his head slightly. “That’s a healthy way to handle it,” he said sarcastically.

“I don’t want to hear it, Mr. My Relationship is Soooo Perfect,” you groused. “You and Poppy both love dancing. It’s not fair.”

You crossed your arms in a huff.

Ominis smirked at the mention of his girlfriend. “Well, we are fortunate in that,” he said. “I’ll save a dance for you, tough, shall I?”

“That’d be lovely. It’ll be the only one I get,” you replied – admittedly, being a bit melodramatic.

Ominis snorted. “Right. Because people can only dance at a ball if they already have a partner.”

“Will you just let me sulk?” you snapped.

Ominis rolled his eyes. “You’ve been sulking all week, MC,” he pointed out. “I won’t let you ruin the ball for yourself.”

You sighed. He had a point. Just because Garreth was being an arse didn’t mean you shouldn’t try to enjoy the event you’d been looking forward to since the end of spring term.

The door to the seventh-year boys’ dormitory shut with a soft click. Leander stared at his best mate, lying face-down in bed on top of his sheets.

“I take it the grovelling didn’t go well?” he asked as he crossed the room to sit on the edge of his own bed.

Garreth mumbled incoherently into his pillow.

“Come again?” Leander said.

Garreth turned his head to the side, still lying boneless otherwise. “There was no grovelling,” he said. “She still won’t speak to me. Or listen. Or do anything but bolt the other direction when I spot her in the halls.”

Leander hummed sympathetically. “Did you try having Natty pass along your apology?”

“She refused,” Garreth said dismally. “Said I should apologise to her myself, even though that’s literally impossible seeing as MC won’t be in the same wing of the castle as me for more than five seconds. I don’t know what to do, Lee.”

Leander clicked his tongue. “That is a tough spot,” he said. “I suppose you do know one place you can definitely find her.”

“She hasn’t used the Room of Requirement all week. I checked with Deek,” Garreth argued.

“I was talking about the Yule Ball,” Leander said, rolling his eyes at his hopelessly thick friend.

Garreth pushed himself up on his arms so he could turn to look at Leander. “And how is embarrassing myself at a ball going to help anything?” he demanded.

Leander let out an exasperated sigh. “It’s really not that complicated, mate. She’s mad at you because you wouldn’t take her to the ball. So, go there and dance with her. After the grovelling. That bit’s still essential, trust me.”

“But I can’t dance,” Garreth argued.

Leander shrugged. “I’ll teach you.”

Garreth chewed his lip as he considered the option. “Okay…But what if she bolts the second she sees me? Or, worse, takes someone else to the dance?”

Leander pursed his lips. He had to admit that they were both quite plausible outcomes. “I’ll handle it.”

“How?” Garreth inquired.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “You just focus on using the next 48 hours to make sure you won’t crush her toes when you finally dance with her.”

Garreth, still looking anxious, just nodded.

“Brilliant! Now, on your feet. I’m going to teach you to waltz,” Leander said.

Saturday morning, Leander caught you leaving your dorm for breakfast. “MC! Just the girl I wanted to see!” he said brightly as you descended the stairs into the Gryffindor common room.

You rolled your eyes. “Whatever Garreth wants to tell me, I don’t want to hear it,” you groused, brushing past him.

“Actually,” Leander said as he caught your hand to make you stop, “I wanted to ask a favour.”

Your brow furrowed. You crossed your arms sceptically, but you made no move to dart away. “A favour?” you asked, narrowing your eyes at him.

Leander gulped down his nerves as he nodded his head. “Well, I was…I was wondering if you’d go to the Yule Ball with me.”

You blinked rapidly as you processed his words. “Oh,” you said in surprise. “I would’ve thought you’d be going with Sebastian. You two have been dancing around each other for ages, after all.”

Leander sucked his teeth. “Yes, well, Violet beat me to asking him, evidently,” he explained with a rather sour expression. “So, I thought we might go together, since Garreth’s being a numpty. As friends, of course, but…also to make our boys a bit jealous, maybe.”

“You want to help me make Garreth jealous?” you asked in disbelief.

“Well, Garreth and Sebastian,” he replied. “Besides, I think he deserves it. He was a bit of a knob about the ball.”

You tilted your head, eyeing him for a long moment that had him starting to squirm. “Yeah, all right,” you agreed.

Leander beamed at you. “Brilliant! I’ll pick you up at 8 tomorrow night,” he said.

“See you then,” you replied.

Your Christmas morning was spent in the Gryffindor common room after Natty assured you that Garreth wasn’t down there. Almost the entire rest of your house was, though. There was a weight in your chest at not getting to celebrate with the man you loved – even if he was being a git. You also felt sorry for him that he was missing out on the festivities.

You didn’t see him the rest of the day, either. That night, you and Natty spent hours getting ready in your room. The mirror had nothing but compliments for the pair of you, and you were feeling quite good about yourself despite the recent tiff with Garreth. As such, you lingered in the common room early, hoping he’d catch a glimpse of you all dolled up. There might’ve been a part of you that wanted him to regret not spending that night with you.

He wasn’t there, though, and you began to wonder if he’d gone home for the rest of the holiday.

Your worrying was cut short when Leander emerged into the room. He smiled when he saw you. “You look beautiful, MC,” he said sweetly.

“Thank you. You look quite dashing yourself,” you replied.

He straightened the lapel of his dress robes proudly. They were black with deep green paisley accents.

“We’re quite a festive pair,” you said, looking down at your ruby red gown.

He laughed. “Yes, well, I had been planning on taking a Slytherin,” he said lightly.

“True,” you replied.

Leander held his arm out to you. “Shall we?”

You nodded and took hold of it, winding your own arm delicately around his.

The Great Hall had been totally transformed. It was almost unrecognisable. Instead of the usual floating candles, bright orbs of light hung in the air like shining stars. The edges of the room were lined with pine trees, full of twinkling lights and glittering ornaments. Each tree was decorated for one of the four houses. The dais was almost entirely taken over by a massive tree decorated in glass ornaments of all four houses’ mascots, crests, and other staples – like a glass rendition of the portrait of the fat lady and the mermaids from the fountain in the Slytherin common room.

The ceiling was enchanted to have snow falling softly, though it vanished before reaching any of you. It was truly magnificent. Your only regret was that Garreth wasn’t there to experience it with you. Before you could properly mope on the subject, Leander whisked you onto the dance floor. It was almost impossible to stay wistful when you were sweeping around the Great Hall in a two step to lively music. Leander led gracefully, his hold on you firm and his movements fluid and sure. You glided through the other couples, almost constantly spinning. It was a wonder you weren’t dizzy.

“You seem to have something on your mind,” Leander observed.

“I can’t help but wish Garreth were here,” you admitted.

“I see,” he replied.

“Sorry,” you said sincerely. “I don’t mean to insult you. You’re a wonderful dance partner.”

“Just not the one you planned on having,” he said knowingly.

You gave him an apologetic smile.

“I can hardly fault you for that,” he said.

As the song faded to its end, he released your back to spin you around once more, turning you rather quickly before suddenly releasing your hand, as well. You stumbled to get your footing until two strong hands steadied you at your hips, holding you still.

Your head spun a bit from the sudden stop, lashes fluttering as you looked up to find your boyfriend was the one who had caught you.

“Garreth,” you breathed, momentarily forgetting to be angry. You were too surprised. Too relieved. Too caught up in the sight of him with his softly styled curls and perfectly tailored dress robes. He wore a crisp black shirt under a white satin waistcoat and matching bowtie. A deep red robe topped the look. His satin lapels were embroidered with vines matching the ones on his waistcoat. The colour of the robe was exactly the same shade as your dress.

Your arms hung uselessly at your sides as you gaped at him. He gave you a meek smile as he gazed longingly into your eyes.

“You look stunning, darling,” he said. “I’m not as light-footed as Lee, but I’d be honoured to dance with you.”

You realised that, while time had seemed to stop, it had in fact pressed on, and the band was now playing a waltz. Garreth lifted one hand off your hips and held it out to you. You just looked down at it, still processing how you had gotten in this situation. You glanced around in search of Leander, but he had vanished.

“What are you doing here?” you asked dimly.

Garreth’s smile grew nervous. “Making up with my girlfriend, I hope.”

He shifted anxiously as his hand still hung empty in the air between you. You stepped back, his other hand slipping off your hip.

“You said you didn’t want to dance with me,” you said accusingly, finally remembering that you were cross with him.

“I know. I’m sorry, but you’re so good at it. And I…I have two left feet. I thought it’d be worse to have you realise how dreadful I am than for you to just go by yourself,” he said, his hands retreating into his pockets. “I…didn’t want to embarrass you.”

He chewed his lip, as he often did when anxious. Your own lips parted as you stared at him in shock.

Evidently, you took too long to reply, because he started speaking again. “I know Leander and I can be a bit ridiculous sometimes. And I’ve had more than a few mishaps with potions in class – and it’s the thing I’m best at. I just…didn’t want to give you another reason to be ashamed of me.”

His gaze dropped to his feet as his hands fidgeted in his pockets.

“I’d never be ashamed of you,” you assured him, a bit offended that he’d think you would be.

“Really?” he asked, seeming genuinely surprised by the idea as he looked up at you in shock.

“Garreth, I love you. Every bit of you,” you stated. “Why on earth would I be ashamed of you?”

His cheeks flushed. “I mean, my family is,” he admitted, seeming to shrink into himself as his eyes darted away again. “And the professors seem perpetually disappointed in me. It’s twice as bad with Aunt Matilda.”

He forced out a laugh, but you could tell he was quite hurt by the situation.

You brought a hand up to his jaw, gently tilting his head up so he’d look at you. “Well, I think you’re brilliant,” you said. “And they have every reason to be as proud of you as I am, Garreth. You’ve invented half a dozen potions just since I’ve known you – and improved even more. You’re incredibly kind, even when others are mean to you. And you constantly make me laugh, especially when you and Leander are ‘being ridiculous.’”

He gave you a shy, appreciative smile before pulling you into a hug. “I love you, MC. I’m sorry I hurt your feelings.”

You linked your arms around his back. “I’m sorry I didn’t just talk to you.”

He pressed a kiss into your pinned-up hair. “Me, too.”

You breathed out a laugh. “It was a pretty stupid fight when I think about it.”

“All our fights are stupid,” Garreth replied in an exasperated tone.

You pulled back to glare up at him. “Are you trying to start another one?” you asked in a low, warning voice.

Garreth smirked at you. “Maybe I like when you’re riled up,” he said cheekily. “You can’t wear a dress like this and expect me not to want to take it off of you, you know.”

“Garreth!” you hissed, smacking his chest as you glanced around to make sure no one had overheard him.

He pulled you back tight to him. “You really are especially gorgeous tonight,” he said in a low voice as his gaze roamed over you.

You could feel your cheeks heat under the fire in his eyes. “I…I think we should d-dance now,” you said, needing a distraction from the starved look in his eyes as they devoured you.

“Oh, um…” he said, suddenly nervous again. “I really only practised the waltz, so…maybe we could wait until they play another of those? I could get us some punch in the meantime.”

He had the most adorable hopeful smile on his face.

“Punch would be perfect,” you said sweetly.

“Done,” he said eagerly before darting off to fetch the drinks.

A blur of robes whirled over to you soon after. Leander had danced Sebastian over to where you stood. The latter’s black robes were a suspiciously similar style to the former’s – except his accents were red. Your fellow Gryffindor was looking exceptionally smug.

“Are my favourite lovebirds back in love?” Leander asked, waggling his eyebrows at you.

Your eyes narrowed into slits. “For a Gryffindor, you’re a snake, Leander Prewett.”

“I’m so proud,” Sebastian said, placing his hand on Leander’s cheek and gazing at him fondly. Then, he turned to look at you. “When he asked if he could pretend to take you to the ball, I said yes at once, of course.”

You crossed your arms over your chest. “And what if we hadn’t made up?” you asked them severely. “What would you have done, then?”

Leander’s eyes widened as his smirk fell. He clearly hadn’t considered the idea.

“You two are too hopelessly besotted with each other for that,” Sebastian said easily, waving you off.

Garreth reappeared at your side then. “Here you go, love,” he said, handing you a glass before kissing your cheek.

“Thank you,” you murmured, a fresh blush dusting your cheeks.

“My work here is clearly done,” Leander said haughtily.

“I think you’re right, darling,” Sebastian agreed.

“Care to dance the night away?” Leander asked him, holding out his hand.

Sebastian beamed at him as he took it. “That sounds lovely,” he replied before they sauntered back to the dance floor.

Garreth leaned in to whisper in your ear. “See, that’s how you’re supposed to respond when a man asks you to dance,” he said teasingly.

“Oh, shut up,” you groused, but the words lacked any real bite.

“Never,” he retorted, a mischievous glint in his eye as you turned your head to glare at him.

He laced his fingers with the hand unoccupied by your drink.

“I have something for you,” he said.

You turned to face him. He dropped your hand and pulled a long, narrow box out from his pocket. It was too broad to be a wand but about the right length, and it had a gold ribbon tied carefully around it.

“Merry Christmas, MC,” he said softly.

Garreth traded the box for your drink. He was fidgeting as you examined it in your hands, clearly excited for you to open it. You carefully slipped the ribbon off before taking off the lid. Inside was a vibrant pink feather with a metal pointed tip.

Garreth started speaking before you could even thank him. “It took me a while to get the charms right. I just finished it up this morning, actually. It’s self-inking, so you don’t have to worry about an open inkpot spilling on your assignments. It’s spell-checking, too. That was the tricky part. But I got it sorted out, eventually. Promise.”

He laughed nervously. You were speechless for a moment as you looked up at him, warmth spreading through your chest as your heart squeezed with affection. Garreth bounced on the balls of his feet, the movement threatening to spill the glasses of punch in his hands. His bottom lip was grasped between his teeth, and a few stray curls were falling into his eyes.

You looked back down at the fwooper feather quill. “Garreth, this is so sweet,” you gushed, wondering how you’d managed to be upset with such a sweet man only a few hours ago.

His eyes lit up. “You like it?” he asked hopefully.

“I love it!” you assured him. “I have a gift for you, too, I just…I don’t have it with me.”

You left off adding that it was because you hadn’t expected him to be there. You didn’t want him to think you were still cross.

“All I wanted tonight is your forgiveness, MC,” he said with such earnestness that you worried you might melt right to the floor.

You brushed his hair out of his face. “You have it,” you replied, not wanting him to doubt it for a second. “Do you…do you forgive me, too?”

He ditched his punch on a tray floating nearby. He cupped his newly free hand over your cheek as he leaned in towards you, pressing his lips to yours gently in reassurance. He pulled back far too soon for your liking, though. “Always,” he vowed.

Your heart felt swollen to bursting. “I want to go get your present,” you said more intensely than the words merited as you reverently replaced the lid on the box.

“You don’t have to leave the dance. I know how much you were looking forward to it,” he said with such sweet consideration. You almost winced as you recalled calling him “inconsiderate” the other day. “You can give it to me tomorrow.”

“It should be now, I think,” you stated.

“It’s really not–” he started.

“It’s in the Room of Requirement,” you added, cutting him off. His brows drew together. He could tell you were trying to communicate something, but he couldn’t tell what it was. Bless him, you thought. “You should come.”

A beat later his eyebrows shot up to his curls as realisation struck. You almost laughed when he just replied with a rather serious “yes” before quickly abandoning the other nearly-full punch glass on the tray.

He followed you out of the Great Hall. Once alone in the corridors, you clutched the box to your heart with one hand and laced the other with his. He lagged behind you as you tugged him along.

“Getting cold feet?” you joked, hoping to speed him up a bit.

“Just admiring the view,” he replied cheekily.

You glanced over your shoulder to find him staring down at your bum. He smirked at you when he saw that you’d caught him.

“You’ll have a much better one once you get this dress off me like you promised,” you said in a sultry tone.

In the flickering candlelight of the hallway, you could see Garreth’s eyes darken as he held your gaze. Then, he took off sprinting and called back impatiently, “Come on!”

You giggled as you chased after him. He slowed to a jog to let you catch up. You only paused briefly to take off your heels. When you reached the seventh floor of the Astronomy Tower, he was on you before the entrance had even fully materialised. He held your face in both hands as he kissed you hungrily, backing you into the forming door.

A needy ache started low in your stomach as he nipped at your bottom lip. You’d been without him for too long, stupidly holding a grudge over a simple misunderstanding about…something, surely. You couldn’t remember what now.

Garreth held you to him with a hand behind your back as his other felt blindly for the handle. His hold on you kept you upright as the door gave way behind you. Your heels slipped from your fingers and clattered to the floor as he backed you inside, and you tangled your now free hand in the base of his curls as you devoured his lips.

Your back smacked into the wall, and Garreth pressed himself against you. Your legs parted to allow him in closer, and you could feel the evidence of his arousal pressing against your centre. Your body tried to gasp and moan at the same time as he shifted his attention to your neck whilst his hips ground into yours. It was one of the most needy, pathetic sounds you’d ever made, but it seemed to spur him on even more.

“Fuck, MC,” he groaned into your neck before biting down on the skin where it met your shoulder.

Your legs almost gave out from the delicious sting of it. It hurt, but it brought a wave of pleasure, as well. You loved when Garreth was almost animalistic in his need for you.

Your head lolled to the side, opening up your neck to him further as you used your purchase in his hair to hold him close. You spotted the supply cabinet next to you, and you slipped the box containing your quill onto it before you lost yourself and dropped it.

You then slipped your hand between the two of you to palm the tent straining Garreth’s neatly pressed trousers. He shuddered at your touch and let out a breathy moan in your ear. You stroked your hand up and down the length of him until he suddenly grabbed your wrist and pinned it back against the wall.

“You’re going to ruin me early, you minx,” he growled.

You felt a jolt of excitement at the idea that just touching him over his trousers could have him so worked up. Before you could even contemplate how to get your hand free and back on him, he dropped your wrist in favour of grabbing a handful of your arse. At the same time, his lips rejoined yours in a dizzying kiss. You were pliant in his arms as he slid his tongue into your mouth.

Without breaking your kiss, Garreth rucked up your dress so his hand could slide under the fabric, skating up the outside of your bare thigh. He groaned as he hiked your leg up around him, pulling you even closer. His hips pressed forward into yours, seeking friction, and you gasped against his lips as his shaft pressed firmly at your centre. It put a delightful but maddening pressure on the bundle of nerves there.

“Garreth,” you moaned out. “Please.”

“Please what, love?” he replied breathily. His verdant eyes nearly burnt into you as he looked down at you with such love and earnest. “I’ll give you anything. Just name it.”

You groaned with need as your hips shifted against his, continuing to rub his shaft against your core in a way that sent sparks of pleasure through you. It wasn’t enough, though. “Please,” you repeated, feeling almost drunk with desire. “I need you.”

“Fuck,” Garreth muttered. The desperation in your voice was wearing away whatever self-control he had left – it was never much when it came to you anyway. “As you wish, love.”

His fingers danced over your skin and traced the edge of your knickers at the crease of your thigh. He dipped into them, stroking his long fingers between your folds and making you keen.

“Merlin,” he breathed out. “You’re drenched for me, darling.”

You moaned as the pads of his fingers came up and circled over your clit. Your head fell back against the wall with a dull thud, and you had to grip his shoulders for support as your legs began to tremble.

“You look really good in these dress robes,” you quipped, already panting from his ministrations. He knew your body well, and it never took long for him to work you into a right state.

Garreth smirked at you. “I’ll look even better in you, love.”

As he said the words, his finger slipped inside of you. He quickly found a spot that had a tension coiling low in your abdomen.

“Fuck, Garreth,” you keened. “Oh, gods! That f-feels so good!”

He took a handful of your skirts, pinning them against your stomach to leave your knickers exposed. Garreth dropped to his knees in front of you. You scrambled for new supports as you could no longer reach his shoulders. One hand scraped along the wall behind you while the other tangled into his curls.

“Evanesco,” Garreth said, his breath ghosting over your core. He watched his finger disappearing into you without the obstruction of your knickers. “So gorgeous.”

You could feel your face flushing at the praise. Garreth was quite keen on your intimate parts, and he always made sure you knew it.

He leaned forward and licked at your centre as his finger kept pumping into you. Garreth groaned even louder than you did. “Gods, you taste divine, darling,” he said before licking you again.

He kissed and sucked on your little nub, and you prayed your legs wouldn’t give out altogether. If they did, though, you were confident Garreth would catch you in time.

His tongue flicked over you eagerly, and the coil that had wound in your abdomen threatened to snap.

“Gar, I…I’m….” you tried, but then you couldn’t breathe let alone speak when your muscles tensed as you succumbed to utter euphoria.

You called out his name as waves of pleasure rocked through you, each sensation heightened as Garreth kept licking ravenously at you. You were practically convulsing from the intensity of your high. You might’ve felt embarrassed by your reaction if Garreth hadn’t looked so utterly enamoured with watching you fall apart so unreservedly.

About the same time, a loud crack rang out through the dimly lit room.

Garreth dropped your skirts and his head whipped around, his finger sliding out of you as he turned. You looked up blearily toward the noise, and your pleasure was immediately replaced with a shock of horror.

“Oh, dear!” Deek said, gaping at the two of you in such a compromising position.

Garreth blinked at the elf, whose eyes were wide and cheeks were reddening as he looked at the young wizard’s glistening face. You were too stunned and embarrassed to speak.

With a quick swish of his wand, Garreth calmed the erection that had been straining his outfit. He’d learned the spell early in your relationship, as you had a habit of riling him up at any number of inconvenient times – in class, during meals, before you left on some adventure. Essentially, any time he was around you, he was at risk, and the spell was easier than always donning oversized robes whose sleeves would dip into his cauldron when he tried to brew.

“Professor Weasley asked Deek to check on the students after they disappeared from the ball,” the elf said. He decided it was better to look at his feet than the pair of you. “She also asked Deek to remind Mr. Weasley that a child has not been born out of wedlock to your family in over a century and Mr. Weasley will not be changing that.”

Garreth, who has been furiously wiping off his mouth and chin, flushed crimson at that. “Right,” he said in a stilted tone, shifting nervously on his feet. “Is she expecting a…a report back?”

“Deek will not tell the professor what he, uh…stumbled in on,” the elf assured them. “But the students should return to the ball promptly. Deek does not want to have to come back.”

Another loud crack rang through the room as Deek left.

“Well, that was mortifying,” Garreth said as he rubbed at his temples.

“And you weren’t the one with your bits out,” you quipped as you fought the urge to bury your face in your hands. “At least Deek’s not going to tell your aunt.”

“Merlin, I half expect she’ll know anyway, to be honest,” he replied. He pulled you into a hug and pressed a kiss to your temple. “I’m sorry. I should’ve known we wouldn’t get away with slinking out of the ball like that.”

You chuckled as you wrapped your arms around him, as well. “I was the one who lured you up here,” you pointed out.

“I came quite willingly,” he argued.

You brought your hand down to palm him through his trousers again. “You didn’t come at all, unfortunately.”

Garreth moaned, dropping his forehead onto yours as you stroked him, rapidly undoing the work of his spell.

You bit your bottom lip as you locked eyes with him. “I don’t think we have time for you to make good on your promise to get me out of this dress, but…” You spun in his arms, pressing your arse back against him as you braced your hands against the wall. “I think we could still make it work.”

Garreth groaned. He grabbed your hips, pulling you tight against him. He smoothed one hand over your arse appreciatively before sliding it down to grip low on your skirts. He pulled the fabric up around your waist, so your lower half was completely bare to him. He immediately bent to place a lovebite on the curve of your cheek, while his hands kneaded into both of them. You moaned as his teeth grazed your skin.

“You ready for me, love?” he asked, his lips brushing the mark he’d just left.

“Gods, yes!” you replied eagerly, shifting your hips back a bit further in an attempt to entice him to get on with it already.

Garreth stood up straight again as he undid his trousers. He pulled himself free from the garments and wasted no time in dragging the head of his cock through your soaked slit. He anchored a hand on your hip as he slid into you.

He let out a ragged breath as he bottomed out. “You feel amazing!” he groaned. His other hand gripped your hips, as well, and he began thrusting in and out of you. “You’ve no idea how much I missed you, love!”

You wanted to argue – tell him you were sure you knew exactly how much, because you’d missed him, too – but you could only keen as he rocked you forward with each of his thrusts, filling you completely on every push inside. There was really nothing like it. He felt tailor-made for you.

You were so enraptured that you almost didn’t notice when a mirror appeared on the wall in front of you. You gasped in surprise as you looked up, catching sight of Garreth’s reflection. He winked at you.

“Fuck, I was right,” he panted, causing you to draw your brows together in confusion. “I do look even better inside you.”

You let out a laugh. He was utterly ridiculous, and it only made you love him that much more.

“Don’t worry, love,” he said with a cheeky smile, still pumping into you and also still holding your gaze through the mirror. “You look even better. I mean, gods, look at you! All done up.” He wrapped a hand gently around your throat, letting his thumb stroke up your jaw and across your painted lips. You parted them and sucked his thumb into your mouth, pressing your tongue flat against the pad of it like you would the underside of his cock. Garreth’s eyelids fluttered as he let out a low moan. “And in this dress…” He withdrew his thumb and fisted the same hand into the fabric pooled up near your ribs. “Your arse…” He gave it a squeeze, the tips of his nails just barely digging into your skin. “I fucking love your bloody gorgeous arse!”

His thrusts grew firmer, his hips slapping louder against your cheeks and thighs. You moaned as the force sent shocks of pleasure through you.

“Faster,” you begged, half because you knew it’d take a quicker pace to get him off and half (maybe more) because you wanted him to pound into you until your body held the memory of his cock inside you forever.

Garreth was keen to oblige. His grip on your hips was bruising as he slammed into you at a pace that had you barely able to keep your breath let alone even think about trying to keep up with his movements. All you could do was brace yourself on the wall as he took you.

“Ah, fuck!” Garreth groaned as you clenched hard around him. In the mirror, you could see that his head was thrown back in ecstasy. “So bloody perfect!”

His eyes snapped open, immediately locking with yours as his movements stuttered. He let out a strangled moan as he came, his cock pulsing deep inside you. You could feel the warmth dripping down as his semen started to leak out of you. Rather than pull out, Garreth leaned down over top of you to capture your lips. One arm wrapped around your stomach while the other hand tilted your chin toward him. You were both panting, unable to go without oxygen for long, but the brief kiss expressed the depth of your affections all the same.

“You’re never allowed to be cross with me again,” Garreth joked. “I can’t stand being apart from you for so long.”

You were inclined to vow he never would be as you stared into his bright green eyes, crinkling at the corners as he beamed at you.

“I can’t bear it, either,” you said.

Garreth pressed another chaste kiss to your lips. “I love you, MC. So much.”

You couldn’t help but smile. “I love you, too. Even more.”

He glared at you playfully. “Those are fighting words, witch.”

Your smile turned into a smirk. “Then I’m lucky I’m a much better duellist.”

Garreth rolled his eyes but couldn’t deny it. Finally, he moved to right himself, sliding out of you before he helped you upright, as well. You both made quick work of making yourselves presentable – smoothing out your clothes, fixing your hair, and ensuring neither of you retained the sweat or musk of your recent activities. Garreth pouted a bit when you conjured new knickers for yourself, as he rather liked the idea of having easy access should you get the opportunity to sneak off again.

Once you were both put together, Garreth started for the door.

“Wait! I haven’t given you your present!” you said, quickly moving to rummage in your cabinet.

He chuckled. “I assumed you were the present.”

You glanced back at him with a raised eyebrow. “That’d be rather selfish of me, wouldn’t it?”

Garreth grinned broadly. “Actually, I considered it quite generous.”

You rolled your eyes, but you did find it rather sweet. “Consider this a stocking stuffer, then,” you said as you handed him a small box.

Garreth opened it to reveal a stack of cardstock. His mouth fell open as he picked up one of the small, rectangular cards to get a closer look.

“I saw the logo in your notes, and I thought it was really good,” you explained. “I figured you’ll need these once we graduate.”

Garreth looked from the card to you and back down again. In golden, embossed lettering were the words Exquisite Elixirs in a large, curly font curved underneath a rendering of a cauldron whose whirls of steam were spiralling upwards off the paper. On the other side, there was a little portrait of Garreth and a description of his company.

He still hadn’t spoken, so you continued, “If you tap it with a wand, it turns into an order form. I know you plan on being able to fill orders by owl.”

He looked up at you again, and his eyes were misty now. He pulled you into a tight hug. “Thank you! These are perfect!”

Ever since he started the process to register the brand, his parents had seemed doubtful. They kept lecturing him on what a “serious business” it was to run a company. His older brother had a friend of his lecture him on the myriad permits and regulations involved in the brewing industry – all things Garreth had already learnt in his research and discussions with Mr. Pippin. His aunt had tried to convince him to take a year or two to apprentice at J. Pippin’s, but Garreth knew he didn’t need it. He’d spent ages at the shop picking the potioneer’s brain. He’d also hounded Sharp with his questions during his office hours – almost no one else went to them, anyway.

The business cards, aside from showing how closely you paid attention, indicated that you actually believed in him. That meant the world to Garreth, especially because he knew you weren’t scared to let him know when you thought an idea of his was foolish. You wouldn’t just go along with things to make him feel good. You truly thought that he could run a successful shop.

He slipped one of the cards into his pocket before tucking the box safely with the rest of his brewing supplies.

The two of you took the floo down to the Great Hall to save time. You slipped back into the ball and immediately noticed Professor Weasley’s scrutinising gaze on you. You resisted the urge to smooth your hair, as it would only incriminate you. Instead, you gave her a polite wave.

She waved back, but you didn’t like the knowing look her smile had. You flushed as you quickly pulled Garreth toward the drink table. You were practically dying of thirst. You ran into Natty and Poppy as Garreth poured you both drinks. They both looked stunning in their gowns. Poppy’s was yellow with cap sleeves and full skirts. Natty’s was a brilliant white with her sleeves to her elbows and a corset nipping in her waist before the flair of her bustle.

“I was glad to hear you and Garreth finally made up,” Natty said, smiling at you as you approached.

“Did Leander already tell you?” you asked.

“Ominis did,” Poppy said.

You raised an eyebrow. “How did Ominis know?”

“I know everything that happens in this castle,” the Slytherin said as he stepped up to Poppy’s side. He handed her a drink before wrapping his arm around her waist.

“So, Leander told you and you told them?” you said, rolling your eyes.

“I didn’t need to be told anything,” Ominis said arrogantly.

Garreth returned with your drink, and you gave him an appreciative smile.

“I’m quite observant on my own,” Ominis continued. “Which is how I know you two have been up to no good. Couldn’t wait for dinner to find something to eat, Garreth?”

The redhead choked on his punch. “W-what?” he spluttered, wiping his mouth with a serviette a house-elf had promptly provided.

Poppy and Natty went wide-eyed as they caught Ominis’s meaning. Your face was burning. How could he know? Had Deek told?

“Don’t be coy now,” Ominis teased. “It’s quite obvious. I could – ahem – smell her on you when we were getting drinks. I wouldn’t hug your aunt without cleaning up if you don’t want detentions until you graduate.”

Poppy clapped a hang over her mouth to keep from giggling. Natty looked horrified. You and Garreth both gaped at Ominis. You had checked before you left the Room of Requirement. You swore you couldn’t smell anything that would suggest what the two of you had been up to in there. But, then, Ominis often heard things you couldn’t. Maybe it was the same with his sense of smell? At any rate, you were never going to live this down.

“I think they’re playing a waltz,” Garreth said, turning to you. “How about that dance?”

You downed your drink and took hold of his outstretched hand. “That sounds like a great idea,” you replied.

“Leave room for the nargles!” Ominis called after you before snickering with Poppy.

You made it onto the dance floor and were quickly lost in the crowd of swirling couples. You hid your face in Garreth’s chest, but you couldn’t help laughing. “Oh, gods, I think this is officially the most mortifying night of my life,” you said light-heartedly once you’d composed yourself.

Garreth started to spin you as you danced now that you weren’t burying your face in his robes.

“I think we’d best get our own place once we’re out of this castle full of nosy gits,” he said resolutely.

You let out another laugh. “Yeah, living together unwed wouldn’t have people talking at all,” you said sarcastically.

Garreth lifted his hand, and you turned under it before stepping back into his arms. “It would, wouldn’t it?” he said, giving you a knowing smile.

You gave him a questioning look in return.

“I’m not about to propose on – as you put it – ‘the most mortifying night of your life’ if that’s what you’re thinking,” Garreth said severely as he continued to lead you around the dance floor. “But if I were to…?”

“Were to what?” you replied, playing thick, as he dipped you.

“Were to propose, obviously,” Garreth said, exasperated, before pulling you back up. “What would you think of it?”

As you did another turn, you suppressed a smile that threatened to break onto your lips. “Are you, then?” you asked before clarifying, “Proposing?”

“Not yet,” he replied with an easy smile as he stepped forward to take you back in his arms.

“Then I’m not telling,” you stated, a hint of a sly smile tugging at the corner of your mouth.

Garreth rolled his eyes at you. “You vex me, witch,” he said drily.

“I just know you like surprises,” you replied innocently.

“Good ones,” he clarified.

 “Exactly,” you said, winking at him.

A broad grin spread on his face, and he seemed lost in thought as he stared over your shoulder as the two of you spun slowly around the room.

You snapped him out of it when you said seriously, “This isn’t about that message from your aunt, is it? You haven’t been skipping your potions?”

“No, of course not. I take them every week,” he said. “You?”

“Every month,” you assured him.

“That’s so not fair,” he groused. “Why are the contraceptives for blokes four times as often?”

“We’ll see what’s ‘not fair’ when I’m the one carrying our babies for nine months each,” you retorted.

Garreth smirked at you. He looked insufferably smug.

“What?” you bit out, not seeing the humour in all the hardships that were sure to come with your future pregnancies.

“You said ‘when,’” he pointed out.

“Huh?” you replied, befuddled.

“You said, ‘when I’m the one carrying our babies,’” he said, doing a poor – and rather screechy – imitation of your voice.

You smacked him on the chest. “I do not sound like that,” you groused.

Garreth’s grin grew even wider. He looked utterly chuffed. “But you did say it. ‘When’ and ‘our.’ You want to have my babies.”

“Shut up,” you said tetchily, trying to pull out of his arms so you could go dig a hole to crawl into.

Garreth just held you tighter, laughing at your attempts to wriggle free. “You want to marry me and have my babies, and I’m happy to oblige, love. You just tell me when.”

You froze as you gaped at him. “Did you just–?”

“Officially? No. I’m still not letting you tell our children I proposed on the most mortifying night of your life,” he said seriously.

“There is very little about this night fit to tell any children, let alone our own,” you quipped.

Garreth gave you a lopsided smile. “Yeah,” he said wistfully. “It’s been a good one.”

You shook your head at him. “You’re incorrigible,” you said disapprovingly.

He stared at you like you were as luminous as one of the twinkling lights floating above you. “You’re incredible,” he said fondly before dipping his head to kiss you.

You melted in his arms as Garreth held you tight to his chest.

“Oi! Get a room, you degenerates!” Leander said, bumping Garreth’s shoulder as he twirled by with a sniggering Sebastian.

“That’s not as effective as you might think!” Garreth called back, making you laugh.

#garreth weasley #hogwarts legacy #garreth weasley x mc #garreth weasley x reader #garreth weasley x f!mc #hogwarts legacy fanfic #hogwarts legacy fanfiction #garreth weasley fanfic #garreth weasley fanfiction #garreth weasley being a sweet insecure little bean #ominis gaunt #leander prewett #sebastian sallow #sebastian sallow x leander prewett #because i must always include enemies to lovers somehow lol #but I actually love their dynamic #i lowkey ship it #yule ball

[hiddenwashington]

as the summer heat takes over dc, quite a few people have taken to lounging by the pool and scrolling through social medias, adding ideas to pinterest boards for every possible thing. fashion, tattoo ideas, potential dates and outings, and more! if any of those ideas will ever come to fruition, no one knows, but it's certainly fun to dream

mostly by member request, here is a fun new task for you guys! we've seen you guys working so hard on your pinboards for your characters, so we figured we'd make it into a task for you guys to get some credit for all your efforts! same format as most of our other tasks, but this time we're here to ask about your muses pinterest and aesthetics!

- as usual there will two aspects to this task, a written part as well as a graphic! of course we would love to see what you do for both, but feel free to put more of your focus on whichever part suits your muse!

- for the visual aspect we want to see your muses pinboards! whether that is through a simple screenshot of a section of the board or some form of graphic is entirely up to you! if you do decide to go the graphic route, there's some potential examples right here! x, x, x

- for the written aspect we’ve come up with a fun little questionnare based around the character's general vibes and aesthetics, found below. feel free to copy and paste the list directly into your post and answer it as is, or feel free to write a paragraph that covers all that info, whatever floats your boat! again, if there’s anything you have any concerns about don’t hesitate to reach out to us!

describe your character’s aesthetic in five words or less

what flower would you connect to your character? why?

pick a crystal that you feel fits your muse best and explain the connection

out of water, fire, earth, and air, which element do you think represents your character best?

what color do you most strongly associate with your muse?

is there an animal you feel fits your muse’s personality best?

are there any choices your character makes solely because it fits their aesthetic?

pick one quote that you think of when you think of your character and share it with us

list off the top three kinds of imagery that come to mind when you think of your muse

describe your muse using only ao3 tags

pick your top three favorite memes from your character’s pinboard and share them with us

as always tasks are encouraged but not mandatory and there is no time limit on when you finish them! you are welcome to do the task on any muses you want, or none at all but just keep in mind tasks will count as character activity, since we want to make sure everyone who wants to participate in the task feels like they have the time to. if there’s anything you have a question about or need any help with just shoot the main a message!

finally please make sure to tag your posts with hwtask13 so that everyone can see the great posts you make! please give this a like when you have read it all!! ♥

#hwtask13 #hwtask #hw: ooc #hw: admin

[eldritchships]

Olesborn

Olesborn is a custom F/O I was gifted in 2019, by a user who remade and now is no longer active. As such, the original posts with his information are deleted, although I still keep Olesborn as an F/O. Here is the original information, scavenged from old screenshots and reposted verbatim. (Disclaimer: If the aforementioned user ever returns, I will gladly take this post down if requested).

Name: Olesborn (pronounced All-es-born)

Age: Alien ages are weird and it's hard to pinpoint exactly the year but he's most definitely a matured adult, perhaps even middle aged to some.

Appearance: A tall, refined, bright red alien with two sets of narrow yellow eyes. His hair/tentacles on his head always look slicked back to make him look more...noble? I guess? A couple rows of teeth. VERY defined cheekbones if that's what you can even call them. They look like they could CUT. His other sets of teeth are retractable and come out when he's threatened (or just scared lmao). He wears a cape and the mf collar is POPPIN. Wears a black vest over a button up and his dark red boots, made of scaly creatures from another planet, have got HEELS.

Occupation: A conqueror in the Sennox empire. He's basically the one that rolls up like "Your planet and resources look pretty good. It would be a shame if someone were to........completely take over and use your resources for our cause without much care for the people."

Interests: Talk shows, the finer things in life, clean sheets!!! And wandering around admiring his work. He likes to walk around and take jabs at his prisoners just because he's feeling arrogant.

Info about him: Olesborn was born on a very insignificant planet with insignificant farmers that did only just enough to sustain the population on their cold little blip in space. A lord of the Sennox empire stopped to demand food and noticed the boy, and immediately took a liking to his curiousity about what the Empire was all about.

The lord, convinced he would be useful, gave his parents an ultimatum. Give me this boy and I will spare the planet. There were no qualms from Oles' parents, much to his horror. He knew he wasn't the most useful to those on the planet, because he often got sick from the climate, and he pled that he could do better from now on. One less mouth to feed, the colony agreed. His fascination with the Sennox empire faded immediately and he tried to fight. He was taken without much effort despite his protests, and he was enlisted as the low of the low in the military. He then rose in the ranks through devoted work, and became a high ranking commander with his own fleet of ships, which now raze colonies for all they can give. He is saving his home planet for last.

Olesborn is arrogant in every way of saying it. He gets bored if a hero tries to talk to him and he just has them shot mid-monologue because he is so tired of them TALKING. He speaks in a very formal tone and uses big words to seem more intelligent. For the most part his subordinates think he's really smart, but officers his rank or higher think he's just pretentious. He gets really giddy after a battle he wins, so don't be surprised if he bursts in to swing you around and dance with you while he hums his own little victory tune.

HE HAS TRIPPED ON HIS OWN CAPE MULTIPLE TIMES IN FRONT OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE. One soldier laughed and he had them executed with their own gun before pretending it never happened.

He's a stupid, affectionate man and would love to have you sit by his side while he holds you. If you pet his "hair" the little tentacles curl around your fingers because he's enjoying it. He purrs when he's being tended to affectionately, and will return the favour 10-fold.

HE LOVES [ELIJAH] A LOT AND WISHES FOR [ELIJAH] TO RULE THE EMPIRE WITH HIM SOMEDAY WHEN HE WORKS HIS WAY UP FURTHER

Misc:

His marriage ritual would be something similar to the one in Mass Effect where they partake in the bonding of the minds??? But instead of just becoming one for a short span of time, whenever your partner is in pain, you also feel phantom pains because of how closely you're bonded. It's really special!!! And probably comes from the same planet where he got his boots (Elvaron)

Sometimes Olesborn wears two sleeping masks for his two sets of eyes for bedtime. But he'll take them off if his partner's there, because he wants to be able to see them when he tries to sleep

He tries very hard to look smart and sophisticated, but toast popping out of the toaster would scare him so bad that all three rows of his teeth would come to the forefront out of momentary fear.

The man has this big glass dome in his throne room that has a door he can open. When it opens you can see out into space. He'll let his partner sit in his lap on his throne while he tells them about his plans, while the both of them look out at the beauty of space through the dome's roof.

He cannot cook.

#Starry Nights #I'm glad to have all this info somewhere easily accessible now! It was mostly in the mind bank

[ottspot]

Remasters Shouldn’t Be Lazy, Broken Ports! Why Have So Many Been Like This?

When a new video game console releases, one of the inevitable questions that will be asked is "how the hell are the older games gonna play on this thing?". It seems that backwards compatibility is becoming less and less of a thing these days, but at least PlayStation and Xbox still embrace it (the latter WAY better than the former). But if there's some cases like the Nintendo Switch where backwards compatibility just isn't possible, what do you do?

Port your game over and sell it at an inflated price, of course!

...No, that doesn't happen ALL the time. In reality, when companies are put in a position like this, they take the effort in to port the game to newer hardware. They can take this opportunity to make it prettier, implement quality-of-life fixes, bump the frame-rate up, or even include some extra story content!

What happens when just the bare minimum is done, though? Well, you end up with some sorry excuses that don't deserve the "remaster" title. These are their stories.

I think it's best that we just jump straight into this, with the first game I would like to talk about: Persona 3 Portable.

A modern, playable version of Persona 3 has been speculated about and rumored for years. Some thought it would be a port of Persona 3 FES, the enhanced version on PlayStation 2. Others thought (and still think) it will be completely remade in Persona 5's engine. But what happened in reality is that the PlayStation Portable version, released in 2009/10, was the version ported to modern consoles and PC.

This is a very competent version of Persona 3, mind you... for the PSP. What baffles me is that this is the version Atlus chose, when they have shown that they're already capable of remastering PlayStation 2 games like Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne. It may have a female main character and controllable party members in battle, but the game itself has been simplified to all hell to fit on the PSP. There's no FMV cutscenes or fully-explorable world, and all the cutscenes just play like a normal visual novel.

But something like this should be easy to port over, right? Well, they screwed a PSP game up, somehow. The audio is compressed incredibly hard, and backgrounds and character portraits look TERRIBLE. The latter in particular is especially unacceptable. It's like they put everything in an AI upscaler and called it a day.

This is a screenshot taken of one of the "explorable areas" in the game. You can see the poor job Atlus did at making the assets HD.

It's "playable" in a sense, but this should have been handled much better. A mod team is already working on remaking the assets in a true HD format, so I would definitely pick the game up once they are finished.

Next is a game I'm not as familiar with: Tales of Symphonia.

This game released for the GameCube in 2003 in Japan, and over the years has gotten ported over to the PlayStation 2 and 3, PC, and most recently- the Nintendo Switch, Xbox series, and PS4. There have been a few issues that popped up in the subsequent ports to newer systems, more notably the PS3 version. It seems that a lot of the bugs in this version carried over to the latest remaster.

It's currently rife with UI bugs, long loading times, jaggy character portraits, and skipping music. The remaster is even stuck at 30fps throughout the game, when the GameCube version had 60fps battles in comparison. Thankfully the remaster team has apologized for how poor the remaster has been, and promises to release patches in the future.

Something that our next game has done time and time again- and still ends up with a poor experience.

Life is Strange is a 2015 episodic story-driven game made by Dontnod that released for PC, Mac, PlayStation 3 and 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, along with mobile releases. It focuses on Max Caulfield as she tries to solve mysteries about a missing girl with her childhood best friend- and her new ability to rewind time. Its 2017 prequel, "Before the Storm", launched on all the platforms listed already, minus the PS3 and Xbox 360.

So when Deck Nine, who handled the prequel, decided to remaster the two games for those same exact platforms (minus Mac and adding the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series systems with the Switch coming later), this... confused me. It's not uncommon to see this kind of thing happen, of course. The Last Of Us Part I is available on a system that can already play the original PS4 remaster. But that's a remake with some enhanced controls, new options, retooled enemy AI, and an uncapped frame rate setting. These are quite literally the exact same games but just made buggier, on systems that can play the games in their original form just fine.

The remastered collection is full of animation bugs, freezing, missing subtitles, buggy audio, blurry visuals at certain points, file names being in place of subtitles, flickering textures, scenes that are way darker than the original game, and LOTS OF LOADING. ESPECIALLY on the Nintendo Switch.

Patches have been released many times ever since the launch of the PC, PlayStation and Xbox releases on February 1st, 2022- with the latest patch releasing today as of this writing: March 6th, 2023! It has been over a year since this collection released and it is still getting patches to try and fix this broken mess.

My question is- where in the world has the effort gone? What happened to developers taking their time with developing these remasters of beloved games, and not having their player base be their QA team? Atlus especially has had more than enough time to make their remaster good, and they just slapped everything in an upscaler and called it a day.

This isn't to just slander these poor jobs, this is a call to action- a call for developers and publishers to stop rushing things like this out the door for a quick buck. Don't promise to fix it later, have it already fixed by the time it releases! It disappoints the customer and does not give them hope for any future remasters being released.

I hope that part of the gaming industry will soon realize that, and put time into making sure that their products are in tip-top shape. A happy customer means more business yada yada yada capitalism bullcrap and whatever. We're all slaves to it. Go read a book or whatever.

Thanks for reading, everyone! I have hope that remasters will be good once more, but for now it seems not at all likely. Well, except for Metroid Prime. Good on Nintendo for that one.

Next up: Sonic Origins Plus Is Real!! Were My Predictions Correct?

#remaster #remasters #xbox #playstation #nintendo #persona #persona 3 #persona 3 portable #tales of #tales of series #tales of symphonia #life is strange #life is strange before the storm #before the storm

[bigbrotherwizard101]

IT'S TIME FOR THE POWER OF VETO COMPETITION!

PONYO, CHROMA, DAWIT, DRAGO, JINX AND HAYLEIGH WILL BE COMPETING IN THIS COMPETITION. Now that you have experienced the advantages of Storm magic, it is now time that you become aware of the burden that you must carry when thrown into the powerful madness of the school of storm. With the help of your Professor Mandos you will see just how easy it is for a storm magic user to get lost in a maze of their own thoughts which leaves them paralysed when the thing they are actually looking for may be just in reach after all. Today you will be playing HIDDEN ENCHANTMENT

HERES HOW IT WORKS:

The EBB hide and go veto server has been set up with 25 different channels. Each veto player has chosen one channel to hide their veto chip in, we asked you all to choose a channel as well as the message number you would like to hide it in, between 1-50. Each channel has since then been spammed with 50 images, one of those images will include your veto chip within it depending on the number you chose. Please note only the veto players will have their veto chips hidden.

Once the server is set up with everyones veto chips hidden, you will all be added to the server where you can start looking, one by one. (We will randomise the order that you will search in.)

You will not be able to see any of the channels at first other than a general channel and your own personal channel for correspondence regarding the challenge.

When it is your turn, you will be given a role to make all of the channels visible and one minute to search through them.

If you find someone else’s veto chip you may screenshot it and send it to your challenge chat. You may only find one person’s chip during your turn.

Once your minute is up the role will be taken away and you must wait until your turn comes around again.

Once someone’s veto chip has been found, they are eliminated from the competition and are not eligible to search anymore. It will be announced once someone’s chip has been found.

This challenge is originally aimed to be semi live so everyone takes turns one after the other and you don't have to keep looking once you're already eliminated BUT if the challenge is moving too slow or any of the players would prefer it, we have a ALTERNATIVE non live way to run this comp (it's just less fun). You do NOT all have to be constantly online for the semi live version but it does go faster that way!

YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DISCUSS THIS CHALLENGE IN ANY CAPACITY TO ANY OF YOUR FELLOW HOUSEGUESTS! If i suspect you have you will be immediately disqualified and will receive a strike!

THE LAST PLAYER WHO’S CHIP IS FOUND WILL WIN THE POWER OF VETO!

ALTERNATIVE HIDE AND GO VETO VERSION

When you are ready to run the comp ping a host in your player chat in the extra server and you will be given access to all the channels where you must find every single veto chip and send each, one by one the second you do.

Time will be calculated once everyone is done and based on the order of veto chips found and when they were found, an elimination order will be determined and the winner will be the person who's veto chip was found last by someone who wasn't already eliminated beforehand.

If you have any time restrictions that make you believe the non live version would be more optimal please ping comp hosts and let us know immediately! I do encourage you try to make the semi live version work if at all possible because it's a lot more fun and less effort for those who get eliminated before others!!

THIS COMP WILL BE CONCLUDED NO LATER THAN 8PM EST TOMORROW!

#school of storm #power of veto

[bigbrotherdeadbydaylight]

IT'S TIME FOR THE POWER OF VETO COMPETITION!

KATE, DOM, HAZEL, BETH, ELIANA AND DEVLIN will be competing in this competition! Today you will be playing BARBECUE & CHILLI! In DBD, Barbecue & chilli is a quirk known as any survivors biggest fear. Giving the killer the ability to see all survivors locations when hooking another, there is no amount of hiding that will ever be enough because inevitably with barbecue and chilli you will always be found. But how about you...Do you have what it takes to hide from the killer?

HERES HOW IT WORKS:

The EBB hide and go veto server has been set up with 25 different channels. Each veto player has chosen one channel to hide their veto chip in, we asked you all to choose a channel as well as the message number you would like to hide it in, between 1-50. Each channel has since then been spammed with 50 images, one of those images will include your veto chip within it depending on the number you chose. Please note only the veto players will have their veto chips hidden.

Once the server is set up with everyones veto chips hidden, you will all be added to the server where you can start looking, one by one. (We will randomise the order that you will search in.)

You will not be able to see any of the channels at first other than a general channel and your own personal channel for correspondence regarding the challenge.

When it is your turn, you will be given a role to make all of the channels visible and one minute to search through them.

If you find someone else’s veto chip you may screenshot it and send it to your challenge chat. You may only find one person’s chip during your turn.

Once your minute is up the role will be taken away and you must wait until your turn comes around again.

Once someone’s veto chip has been found, they are eliminated from the competition and are not eligible to search anymore. It will be announced once someone’s chip has been found.

This challenge is originally aimed to be semi live so everyone takes turns one after the other and you don't have to keep looking once you're already eliminated BUT if the challenge is moving too slow or any of the players would prefer it, we have a ALTERNATIVE non live way to run this comp (it's just less fun). You do NOT all have to be constantly online for the semi live version but it does go faster that way!

YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DISCUSS THIS CHALLENGE IN ANY CAPACITY TO ANY OF YOUR FELLOW HOUSEGUESTS! If i suspect you have you will be immediately disqualified and will receive a strike!

THE LAST PLAYER WHO’S CHIP IS FOUND WILL WIN THE POWER OF VETO!

ALTERNATIVE HIDE AND GO VETO VERSION

When you are ready to run the comp ping a host in your player chat in the extra server and you will be given access to all the channels where you must find every single veto chip and send each, one by one the second you do.

Time will be calculated once everyone is done and based on the order of veto chips found and when they were found, an elimination order will be determined and the winner will be the person who's veto chip was found last by someone who wasn't already eliminated beforehand.

If you have any time restrictions that make you believe the non live version would be more optimal please ping comp hosts and let us know immediately! I do encourage you try to make the semi live version work if at all possible because it's a lot more fun and less effort for those who get eliminated before others!!

THIS COMP WILL BE CONCLUDED NO LATER THAN 9PM EST TOMORROW!

#POV

[dragynkeep]

Katara’s fire nation outfit, in comparison to everyone else’s, feels too sexualized and it makes me uncomfortable (also the oogling from everyone was weird to me). Like she’s what, 14? They couldn’t design anything that looked like her old outfit?

while i do believe the show has an issue sexualizing katara for the benefit of her "love interest", which i'll get into in a minute, i don't think this outfit is really an example of it?

when you compare katara to the rest of the gaang, specifically the two girls toph & suki, she really isn't showing much more skin than suki & toph will obviously dress differently to both of them because she's not much of an outwardly feminine girl. she doesn't even seem to be wearing much less than sokka, only baring her midriff which we've seen katara do when she's also done things like surfing.

but as we can see from the beach episode & ty lee's general attire, the clothes both katara & suki are wearing seem to be in line with what fire nation girls would wear; something that allows the skin to breathe while being roomy enough to move. mai is covered up in the screenshot much like toph is because this is just who they are as people; there's probably also a class difference in how people are expected to dress which you can see with azula's main outfit versus the more revealing one she chose to wear to a party to "fit in", taking note from ty lee.

the reason they probably avoided something that looked like her old outfit is because the clothing of the two nations is very different; the swt has to be able to combat the extreme cold temperatures & be taken from the land & animals around them, whereas the fire nation seems to have an abundance of resources & "trade" routes, as well as a much hotter climate. katara would've been a sweaty mess if she tried to dress like she used to in a new climate she's not used to.

however; there are moments when katara is sexualized, even in this new outfit & her older ones alike ... whenever aang & by extension the male gaze audience is looking at her in order to reinforce the "romance."

these are all moments when katara is being framed in a more mature, sexual light to endear the audience that aang has a crush on her & that the writers want to reinforce that. & the outfit where she's sexualized the most, based on her original outfit, is in the ember island players episode where bryke didn't seem to have enough cognisance to allow valid criticism against a dark skinned indigenous girl having her body & culture sexualized by her in universe oppressors to mock her. instead all the outrage went to aang, not because of this sexualization by the way or because he saw katara was angry, but because the play was pushing katara as a love interest for zuko despite her being "the avatar's girl." the only outrage that mattered was his own.

tldr ; there is an issue of katara being sexualized in the show but it's always been in the effort of the grown male bryke trying to push her as a seductive love interest for their nice guy main, not just the existence of katara in clothes that are fitting for the environment & had been seen on other girls her age.

#atla #atla critical #katara #pro katara #katara deserved better #kataang critical #bryke critical #ais.txt #answered #q

[notcorrect-persona5]

In Defense of Yosuke’s Parents

I’ve seen so many posts about Yosuke having bad parents which really surprised me because I didn’t get that impression at all. I’ve been meaning to make a post in defense of his parents, but I’ve been working on a Yu analysis. After I saw @personuhh​’s post I thought I’d offer an alternative perspective. I’ll be addressing some of the things they brought up first, and then I’ll get into additional evidence. I have edited this post since I originally posted it because I I wanted to elaborate and reword some things.

My Response

You’re right, Yosuke does take on way more responsibility than a part-timer should. However, I don’t think that’s his parents doing. It seems like Junes is extremely understaffed. In his social link, Yosuke says his dad was “bugging him to find helpers.” I volunteer at a small location of a large church (much like the Inaba branch of Junes), and I have been asked to find more volunteers over and over again because they’re desperate for more help. It’s a lot of work and not enough people. Additionally, both Yu and Chie come in to help due to the lack of staff. I wouldn’t be surprised if Mrs. Hanamura helped out too as Teddie’s under the impression that Yosuke’s parents are always together (which I’ll talk about later). 

On top of that, Yosuke mentions part-timers ditching work and slacking off. When an employee doesn’t show up, Yosuke (and Teddie) are often called in because their managers know they’ll show up. People who are reliable are given more responsibility, period. It sucks, but if someone needs help they aren’t going to ask someone who they don’t see as dependable. I volunteer at church every week, and I have been asked countless times if that’s okay because they don’t want to overwork me. Every time I say I don’t mind, and I assume Yosuke would have the same reaction if asked. Not only is it Yosuke’s natural instinct to help people, but he was kind of a pushover before the events of (and at the start of) Persona 4. In his third awakening, Yosuke says he was overworked and taken for granted. That’s not okay, and it’s a huge problem, but Mr. Hanamura isn't the cause of that. Mr. Hanamura is the general manager; his job isn’t to create the part-timer’s schedules. 

It’s true that Yosuke tries to work out the problems of other employees and listens to their complaints. There is no indication that Yosuke was told to do this, and I don’t know why he would be. In his social link, there are two girls who act as if he has more power than he does. They demand a raise, ask him to give them the day off, and assume he has knowledge about another employee’s schedule. Yosuke says he doesn't have the power to help them, and in a manga page he says “I may be the manager’s son, but I’m still just an employee.” Yosuke is doing much more than the average part-timer, but he isn’t being given the responsibilities of a manager.

As for the Junes concert, Mr. Hanamura did not tell Yosuke he was going to be fired. Yosuke came to that conclusion himself. Mr. Hanumura did not ask Yosuke to find a solution or ask Rise for help. Yosuke only asked Rise for help because he was scared of moving again. I understand how the phrase “awfully nice for some reason” could come across as odd, but I don’t think he meant his dad isn’t usually nice. In the Persona 4 Manga that scene is translated as “My Dad’s been extra nice to me” meaning his dad is nice, he’s just being extra nice, and I’m not surprised. Yosuke was extremely unhappy when he moved to Inaba. Despite trying to hide his feelings, you can see in The Magician that he didn’t do a very good job of it. And now that Yosuke is finally happy, they might be forced to move again. Of course, Mr. Hanamura would feel guilty. Oftentimes, when people feel guilty, they start acting nicer - unnaturally so - to make themselves feel better. Chie (who is already very kind) even does it after she and Yukiko spend Yosuke’s money on clothes for Teddie. Yosuke notices the shift in her attitude and tells her that he’s worried. It’s the same reaction he had toward his dad’s behavior.

The only reason I bring up Chie is to show an in-game example of someone being overly nice due to guilt. What Chie did was wrong, that’s why she feels guilty. The reason Mr. Hanamura would feel guilty is his job may have to move his entire family again. The cause of their guilt is different, but they are responding the same way.

I don’t think Mrs. Hanamura not wanting her son to own porn is unreasonable. My mom doesn’t like magic, so I wasn’t allowed to read or watch Harry Potter growing up. Similarly, a friend of mine wasn’t allowed to watch iCarly. As for Mrs. Hanamura burning Yosuke’s porn in Arena, that’s the third time (that we know of) that she’s seen his porn. I assume she’s told him she doesn’t want him looking at pornography, but he continues to do so anyway. Burning his magazines may seem dramatic, but she was likely just frustrated that he kept disobeying her. 

I don’t think Yosuke’s parents are the reason why Yosuke wants to be seen as manly. I haven’t seen anything that implies that. I think Yosuke’s desperation to be seen as a man comes from Japanese society and his fears regarding his sexuality.

Mr. Hanamura came up with this slogan because they were selling jinbei's which are traditionally worn by men. It’s a play on words. This isn’t the first time Mr. Hanamura has come up with a cringey slogan.

It seems Mr. Hanamura has that stereotypically “dad humor” which is typically associated with positive father figures (it’s not always). Yosuke saying his dad is still saying the “MANsoon” slogan gave me reminds of kids being like “Dad, that’s a bad joke, stop”, but the dad continuing to make his bad jokes regardless. It’s very Disney Channel and sit-com like.

I don’t remember Teddie saying he watches violent war movies with Mr. Hanamura, but I don’t see how that connects to the idea of Mr. Hanamura pushing Yosuke to be a “more masculine, traditional, unshakable, unemotional man.” The idea that only those types of men watch war movies is the type of thinking Kanji’s and Naoto’s shadows were trying to address. I don’t think Mr. Hanamura cares about being that type of stereotypical/traditional man because of his relationship with Teddie. Teddie is not very masculine (he even says so in Persona Q, screenshot will be later), and he isn’t hiding it. 

This exchange is from Kanji’s Persona 4 Club Profile. Teddie went to the store to buy female clothing, and he asked Kanji to make him a dress (the one from the cross dressing pageant). He already owned his “Alice dress” before the cross dressing competition, and I assume he’s worn it. In Arena, you can see the dress is hung out in the open in their bedroom. He also wears hair clips. 

This is not “masculine behavior” yet the Hanamuras don’t seem to have a problem with it. If anything, I’d say they’re pretty open-minded. If they disliked that way Teddie behaved, Teddie would change himself to fit the way they want him to be. I mean, the kid literally grew two new bodies in effort to get people to like him. Due to Teddie’s low self-esteem and need to be loved, he takes any sort of criticism to heart and does his best to act the way others want him too. In Persona Q, Yukari says he’d be cute if he was quiet, so Teddie stops talking. 

In Persona Q, Teddie says he’s realized that to steal hearts he needs to be manly. He gets this realization from Koromaru. He did not think this prior. 

Teddie saying Koromaru gave him this realization means the Hanmuras never said anything to him about his less masculine behavior. 

As for the song lyrics you posted, I don’t really think that means anything. Yeah, people often relate to the music they listen to, but they don’t have to relate to every lyric or even song. My favorite artist is Taylor Swift, but I don’t really like romance. I don’t relate to most of her songs, but I still jam out to them. I could be super wrong about the song thing though because I’m not a huge music person.

My Own Additional Analysis (with some elements of response)

In this section I’m going to talk about Mr. and Mrs. Hanamura’s character and personality, their relationship with each other, Teddie, and Yosuke.

Let’s start off by talking about their personality. They seem to be very carefree people. Yosuke has less than average grades. In the Persona 4 Animation, he didn’t even show up to one of the exam days. Academics is extremely important in Japanese society, yet his parents don’t seem to be pushing him to get better grades. Considering how carefree Yosuke can be, it makes sense that he may have gotten that trait from his parents. 

Yosuke’s family is pretty wealthy. It’s mentioned more than once. They also live in a pretty big house (you can see it in The Magician), Yosuke’s cell phone seems to be a newer model, and he has a large, flatscreen TV in his bedroom which wouldn’t be very common when the game took place. Despite this, Yosuke works for his own money. He complains about being broke and needing save up. I think the reason why Yosuke has a job despite being well-off is because his parents want him to have work experience and grow up to be a hardworking person, so he can succeed in life. It makes me think that hardwork is important to them.

Due to this conversation, I think Mr. Hanamura is a very honest man. Yosuke says he was surprised his dad was against selling gas masks, likely because from a business standpoint, that’s a really big missed opportunity. I think it’s also worth noting that ATLUS talks a lot about how people naturally fit into the masses, including the main characters. That’s why it’s surprising that his father is going against the masses. Although he’s losing money and has faced many hardships running Junes, Mr. Hanamura refused to do something that was against his moral compass.

In Persona 4 Drama CD #1, Junes is closing down half of the electronics section due to a lack of sales. Despite this taking place in March, Teddie panics and hopes to sell a TV set in a month in exchange for keeping the TV they enter the TV World through where it is. 

Yosuke isn’t afraid to ask his dad two huge favors with a not very good reason (side note: Yosuke had to lie because the truth is that’s the TV he and his friends used to go into the TV world and fight shadows). Despite Yosuke’s best efforts, his father says no. He doesn’t really have any choice but to close part of the electronics floor. Junes is losing money by keeping it open. I think Mr. Hanamura gave him the vouchers because that’s the only other way he can help. Teddie made a deal that if he sells one TV set by the end of the month, they’ll keep the TV that leads to the TV world. He’s trying to advertise the TV set by promising other surprise items coming with it. These Junes vouchers are part of those surprise items. 

It’s no secret that many of the shopping district families despise Junes and the Hanamuras. Many horrible things have been said about their family, yet Junes still teams up with the shopping district in the YasoInaba Case File to help keep them afloat. Whether or not this was Mr. Hanamura’s idea, he’s the one who has to approve it, and he does. Despite being treated horribly by them, he still wants to help the shopping district. Junes teaming up with shopping district might be a good business move, but they didn’t really need to do that. The problem is that Junes is taking away the shopping district’s business. Junes doesn’t need to team up with the shopping district to do well. The two of the teaming up benefits the shopping district way more than Junes. It doesn’t do much for Junes other than the shopping district maybe not hating them. At the end of the day, the shopping district families would still shop at the shopping district to keep their businesses afloat, so Junes isn’t getting a lot more business.

When Teddie came to the real world, Yosuke offered to take Teddie home with no hesitation. He didn’t think it would be a problem with his parents or show any concern about how he would convince them. I think this goes along with them being pretty carefree as well as showing that they’re kind and generous people. Not everyone is willing to take others in like that. Yosuke’s also comfortable with asking his parents such a huge favor.

Teddie talks about Yosuke’s parents in a really positive light, and I would say they treat him like their own son. For example, on January second Teddie says, “I got New Year’s gifts! Yosuke’s mom and dad gave them to me!” (edit: Someone said “notice how Yosuke doesn’t say the same thing.” He doesn’t need to. It’s Japense culture to give younger family members gifts for new Year’s. Yosuke saying something would be the equivalent of, “omg my parents gave me a birthday present!!” It would have been weirder if he did say something then. Teddie is excited because because this is his first New Year’s. He’s never experienced this before. Also, Yosuke did get New Year’s money. He talks about saving it on 1/10 when walking to school).

I think I remember Teddie saying he watches movies with Mrs. Hanamura, but I have no idea where he says that. There’s a 50/50 chance I made that up and convinced myself it was canon, so don’t take my word on that one. 

Teddie breaks A LOT of rules at Junes. He steals topsicles, rode a handi mover through the store, slept on both a display bed and the floor of electronics department, been yelled at for eating samples, been chased by store security, and Yosuke had to monitor Teddie during his late night shift because they didn’t trust him to work alone. Teddie’s a terrible employee, yet he hasn’t been fired. I think the reason for this is he’s basically the manager’s son. I do want to say that just because they consider Teddie as their own child doesn’t mean they treat Yosuke as anything less. I haven’t seen a single thing that has implied that there is favoritism going on.

Yosuke and Teddie act a lot like brothers (Naoki even suspects that they're related), and Yosuke’s parents seem to treat Teddie like their own son. He even wears their family crest in offical art. I looks like ATLUS wnted the four of them to be a family. And If that’s the case, it wouldn’t make any sense for Mr. and Mrs. Hanamura to be bad parents.

Additionally, if Mr. and Mrs. Hanamura treated Yosuke badly, and Teddie noticed, I think Teddie would say something.

The second Yukari said something slightly mean about Yosuke, Teddie defended him. He doesn’t like when other people say mean things about Yosuke. Not to mention conflict really stresses him out. If Yosuke’s parents treated him badly, I there’s a chance Teddie might see the problem.

I think it’s also worth noting that Yosuke’s parents have a really healthy marriage.

This quote implies that they’re rarely apart and get along really well. A happy marriage doesn’t automatically equal a healthy household or good parents, but it really increases the likelihood. 

For context, Yosuke is talking about Teddie in this picture. I’m not from Japan, so I don’t know if most families there eat breakfast together, but my family - despite being very close - does not. We all eat and start our day at different times. In my mind, eating breakfast together is a very domestic thing to do. Even the phrase “Hanamura family breakfast” screams domestic to me.

This conversation gives me the sense that Mr. Hanamura has a great deal of trust and respect for Yosuke. I mean, I don’t think he would accept Yosuke’s idea if he didn’t. Adding a kid’s menu would be pretty exspensive. Not only do they have to print the kid’s menu, but they have to design them, create new menu items, and depedning on what’s on the menu buy more food or ingredients. That adds up, and if it isn’t successful then they’ll lose money. Mr. Hanamura has to approve that idea, and he’s putting in trust that it’s going to be successful. Also, Yosuke is comfortable enough to “push really hard” for his idea.

All in all, it is my personal opinion that the Hanamurs are a really close family. It would make sense for ATLUS to go in that direction to create a contrast to the Narukami’s, after all. That being said, neither headcanon is wrong. It just comes down to how we interpret the very little information we’re given.

#yosuke hanamura #teddie persona 4 #persona 4 teddie #teddie #not a quote #analysis #persona 4 #p4 #Hanamura bros

[engekihaikyuu]

Hyper Projection Engeki Haikyuu - The View from the Top 2

2.5D Interview Translation with Daigo Kotarou and Akana Ryuunosuke

=====

Please tell us something to look forward to for this last play in the series. Daigo: We started with “Fly High,” and then through our matches with Inarizaki and Nekoma, I feel like we ourselves have grown along with the story. This show will be our fourth in the Engeki Haikyuu series.   And of course, it will also be the last, but as in the story, it’s the part where we have to give it all of our effort, so we’re going to work as hard as we can on it.   Akana: I’m really very full of emotion over the fact that we are the ones entrusted to close out this long series of plays as Kageyama Tobio and Hinata Shouyou. We carry on our backs the thoughts and feelings of everyone who have been in the Engeki Haikyuu cast and all the fans, and I want to make sure that we create an appropriate production that is the culmination of all their efforts. In order to do that, we are giving it our all, simply working with everything we have.  

=====

Full interview and more photos under the Read More! Please do not repost my translations

The two of you have played Hinata and Kageyama respectively since the 2019 production of “Fly High.” Is there any difference between how you prepare for these roles compared to other productions? Daigo: For me it’s pretty different. It might even be the exact opposite to how I usually do things. I only realized it recently, but normally when I play a character, their personalities and their emotions come pretty naturally and there are times when the part influences my private life. But when it comes to Hinata, I feel like he’s a character that the people around me help build up for me.   No matter how many times I study the script, he’s not someone that I alone can make decisions about. I build him up based on all the interactions I have with others. And because I have a lot of trust in the cast members that I’ve spent the past two years with, I feel like I can depend on them to help me create this character.   Akana: I still feel like I’m not very experienced with acting, but for me it’s not different. I read the manga, I watch the anime, and then I go to rehearsals with the image of Kageyama I have in my head. I always want to be very respectful with how I play a character that originally comes from another work. Kageyama Tobio is called a “Genius Setter,” so first and foremost I think about how he moves. I have to make sure I move more neatly, more precisely, for example. Normally for other plays I don’t necessarily think that far about these things, but for this I do.  

Once you begin rehearsals, we start to see SNS updates from you like, "Yamamoto Ryousuke’s Muscle Club.” So I definitely get the sense that everyone gets along very well. Please tell us about what it’s like a rehearsals. Daigo: Well it’s just like being on a sports team. (laughs) Because we get along so well, I look forward to going to rehearsals. Of course there are days when physically we think, “Today was pretty rough,” but because you’re doing it with a collection of people you like, I don’t hate it. It really has the feeling of school classes and extracurriculars, so I spend the days just cherishing how fun it is.   Akana: We really are very chummy. I’m really sad that this will be our last time together. Everyone might normally have various other things to work on, but Engeki Haikyuu has become the place we go home to. We really are great friends. Even without having to say anything, we’ll just naturally get together and talk or go weight training. Lately Kotarou’s been working on shuttle runs. (laughs)

Once again, please remind us of your first impressions of one another. And through these shows, has that first impression changed? Akana: I don’t really remember my very first impression of him, but I did know before we met that we’re the same age. But being the same age means that you’re more likely to have conflicting egos, so I was worried about how well we’d get along all the way up until rehearsals. But I think it’s because we’re the same age that it was really easy for us to build Hinata and Kageyama’s relationship. And now I think of him as my partner.   Daigo: I think of him as a close friend. Nowadays we don’t have a lot of opportunities to do this because of the coronavirus, but I used to contact him quite a bit when I had free time to say, “Let’s hang out!” I really feel like this is a wall we overcame together. I didn’t think it was possible to make a close friend like this past the age of twenty. Because isn’t it easier to make friends when you’re in school? Now that I only have the opportunity to meet new people at work, I feel like meeting him was a really great thing.  

In this production, you will have your final match of Spring High. It’s a place where many formidable rivals emerge. How have you personally overcome your rivals or walls you’ve hit?   Daigo: I mean I don’t really think I have any rivals. As an actor, you don’t really think to yourself, “I’m the strongest!” It’s a job of ‘different strokes for different folks.’ Even if you play the same character, differences will occur, so if I’m forced to choose a rival, it would be myself.   I also don’t have very many moments where I feel like I’ve hit a wall... Of course, in the past I’ve had moments where I’ve gotten depressed after repeatedly failing auditions. But now I try to face them with the sense of, “No second chances, I’ve just got to go for it,” and I just give it my all. You take a chance, you reset, and then just rinse and repeat.   Akana: I don’t think I’ve ever met a rival. Whenever I hit a wall, I try to think, “I can do this, I have charisma!” and I just do everything with that attitude. (laughs) I actually used to be a really negative person. I’ve only been able to figure out how best to face obstacles within these past few years. So now I just try to do my best and think positive. Lately, I keep having to say to myself, “I’m charming!” (laughs) I’m a leader in the group VOYZ BOY, so if I get depressed, I sort of have my priorities backwards. As a leader, I think I should always be looking up and pull everyone up with me.  

And lastly, please give one last message for all the fans who are looking forward to this show. Akana: Please look forward to it! That’s more or less it. Worry-san (director) wrote a magnificent script for us, and we’re definitely going to make it into a great show! Like always, we hope to convey our passion to you in Engeki Haikyuu. I would love it if everyone could see our hard work and take in even a little bit of motivation for the next day. Please wait for us, and please give us your support.   Daigo: Despite these current circumstances, I would be so happy if you could take care of yourselves and then come see us at the theater. We will make a show that’ll make you think, “I’m glad I saw it.” Having all of you see it gives us strength as well. We’re going to do our absolute best to make you all happy!

=====

You can read the original Japanese interview here: (x)

Please do not repost my translations!  This includes screenshots of bits and pieces taken out of context, especially if they don’t link back to this full post. If you appreciate the work I do for this blog and want to support my translation efforts please consider donating a ko-fi! (x)

#Haisute #Engeki Haikyuu #Hyper Projection Engeki Haikyuu #Final Show #View from the Top 2 #interview translation #interview #daigo kotarou #akana ryuunosuke

[ecoamerica]

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

#ACLA24 #ACLA24Leaders #youtube #youtube video #climate leaders #climate solutions #climate action #climate and environment #climate #climate change #climate and health #climate blog #climate justice #climate news #weather and climate #environmental news #environment #environmental awareness #environment and health #environmental #environmental issues #environmental justice #environment protection #environmental health #Youtube

[avewritesmr]

hello hello, may i request prompt 37 (“is this some kind of joke?”) with jeonghan (seventeen) but,,, make it Angst?

Prompt: “Is this some kind of joke?”

Word Count: 1804 words

Pairing: Yoon Jeonghan x Male!Reader

Group: Seventeen

Genre: Angst

TW: there is mild cursing but nothing explicit

A/N: Sorry this took a while anonie, I am really happy to get back to writing though, if you want I might do a part 2 to this, hated leaving my baby so hurt in the end 💖

Jeonghan was scrolling through his camera role looking for a photo he had taken earlier of Joshua, he had complete control of the groups twitter that day and he was planning to use it to his full advantage in order to expose all his members.

His playful grin faded into a soft one when he found the picture he had been looking for right next to a picture of y/n pressing a kiss to his cheek.

He had yet to call y/n today and now that he saw the picture he wanted nothing more than to dial his boyfriends number and hear his voice.

Quickly selecting the picture with Joshua he clicks the tweet button without giving the action much second thought.

He waits a couple seconds before he reloads the app to see his tweet and his stomach drops, eyes widening.

That is the wrong photo, as quickly as his shaky fingers can move he works to delete the tweet, when he has it deleted he lets out a sigh of relief.

The dread is still ever present in his heart and his heart is still beating like he just ran a marathon, but that photo was not up for more than a minute and Jeonghan is going to pray that whoever saw it did not take a screenshot or save it.

His hands are shaking as he slides down on his bed, he squeezes his fingers tightly to try and stop the shaking, taking deep breaths to calm his heart beat.

Should he tell y/n? or a manager? maybe Seungcheol? Should he tell anyone at all?

It is almost as if God hears his questions and sends a reply because Seungcheol chooses this moment to walk into his room.

Seungcheol is about to say something but Jeonghan talks first, “I made a mistake.”

“Okay?” Seungcheol is looking at him in concern.

“I was going to post this silly picture of Joshua but I accidentally posted a picture with y/n and I deleted it in less than a minute but people must have already seen it.” Jeonghan feels the words tumble past his lips and his hands are shaking more than they were before, fingers cold and cramped.

He watches Seungcheol’s face change from concerned to shocked to slightly angry to concerned again.

“It is okay, you deleted it, so we just have to hope no one is going to re-post it right?”

Jeonghan hadn’t been expecting that response, in the few seconds of silence that passed he had expected Seungcheol to grab him and throw him out of the dorm telling him to leave the group as irrational as the thought was.

“What if they do?” Jeonghan asks, he feels nauseas and a little faint and the thought that he shouldn’t be this scared of people knowing he is in a relationship crosses his mind.

“We deal with it when it happens, right now I am gonna go talk to manager and you’ll go over to y/n’s dorm and give him a warning.” Seunghceol shoots him a reassuring smile but Jeonghan is anything but reassured.

Minutes ago he had been excited to call y/n, ease some of the stress the other was feeling from all the promotions he was doing for his album, but now just the idea of going to see the other makes Jeonghan wish the fan hanging from his ceiling would fall down and strike him dead.

Seungcheol can se the fear in his eyes and he moves forward to hug him, “It’ll be fine, you’ll be fine, there are worse things in the world than a boy who likes to kiss other boys.”

Jeonghan nods, he can’t agree more, but he worries that the general public doesn’t agree, he doesn’t know if the company agrees, and he doesn’t know if his career is standing on its last leg.

“I am sorry, all of you guys will get hurt by this.” The guilt trumps all emotions in that statement, the thought of his career coming to an end isn’t as scary as the thought that he might be dooming his friends careers as well. It isn’t fair.

“You don’t have to be, just go to y/n talk with him about it, I’ll work thigns out with management don’t worry.” Jeonghan nods hugging Seungcheol one more time before he grabs his coat and a face mask, he shoves his phone into his pocket unceremoniously, hell just go to y/n’s apartment, and try and figure out what to say on his way there.

He gets there too soon, the trip that usually feels like it drags on for way too long today feels like it finishes too quickly today despite Jeonghan making an effort to walk slower than he usually does.

He hesitates with his fingers hovering over the keypad  before he decides to knock instead, his hands are sweaty and shaking, his stomach is knotted and uncomfortable, and his heart is beating so fast it is almost painful. He shakes his head in hopes of clearing it and forming some form of coherent sentence in his head.

y/n opens the door with a smile on his face, he is wearing a pair of jeans and a hoodie, he must have been getting ready to head out.

“Jeonghan? Why didn’t you just let yourself in?” y/n’s smile fades a little when he sees Jeonghan’s hunched figure, “Is something wrong?”

“I made a mistake, I am sorry.” The words leave Jeonghan’s mouth before he can think them through.

y/n’s eyebrows furrow and he moves aside beckoning Jeonghan into the apartment.

“Come in, take of your jacket and get comfortable then you can tell me.”

y/n closes the door and leans against it watching Jeonghan slip of his shoes and face mask, he doesn’t take off his jacket because his entire body feels like its been dipped in ice cold water.

“What’s wrong?” y/n asks the question again guiding Jeonghan into the living room.

Jeonghan shakes his hands lightly and swallows a lump in his throat trying to decide how to approach the situation, he can skip around it a little or get right to the point.

He surveys the room they’re in and judging by the packed backpack and clothes y/n is wearing there isn’t much time to waffle around so he gets right to the point.

“I acciedntly posted a photo of us together, while trying to post a picture of Joshua.” opposed to the last time when he told Jeonghan the words don’t come asily this time the come out as a forced breath and they make the air in the room feel like it has gotten so much colder.

“Is this some kind of joke?” he flinches at y/n’s harsh tone and looks up at him wide eyed, “If it’s a joke it isn’t very funny.”

Jeonghan shakes his head taking a step towards y/n, “It isn’t a joke, it was an accident and I took it down really quickly, and I came to tell you because I was scared if someone saved it they would start spreading it around.”

y/n scoffs, “An accident? Jeonghan you are probably going to end both of our careers, that isn’t a fucking accident.”

Jeonghan looks up at y/n with tears in his eyes, “I know, I know, but it really was an accident, you’re talking as if I did it on purpose but I didn’t.”

“It doesn’t matter if it was an accident or not, it was stupid, you should have been more careful.” y/n is glaring at him so intensely Jeonghan feels like there is laser coming out of the others eye and burning a hole into his head.

“But I took it down and nothing seems to have reappeared about it yet, maybe no one saw it, or they didn’t recognize you, please don’t be angry.” Jeonghan can feel the tears in his eyes threatening to spill over.

y/n just sighs rubbing at his forehead, “I don’t have time for this, I have to go for a radio show right now, so lets hope nothing pops up online.” He turns to look at Jeonghan his eyes still cold.

“We’ll figure this out later, you can wait here if you want.” y/n walks past Jeonghan and grabs his bag, slipping on his shoes, Jeonghan stands in his place and watches the older leave without so much as a second glance his way.

When he hears the front door close he lets go of his tears and sobs silently into his hands, worse than losing his career he might lose his boyfriend over this mistake, he thinks again that it isn’t fair, he shouldn’t have to be so scared about having a boyfriend.

When he feels like he has no more tears to cry he slips of his coat and deposits it on the coach moving to y/n’s room, he grabs on of the others hoodies and slips it over his head snuggling into the smell.

He curls up on the couch and prays that when y/n gets back he’ll be less angry and more understanding about the situation.

#svt #seventeen #yoon jeonghna #seventeen x reader #seventeen x male reader #male reader #kpop #kpop x reader #kpop x male reader #jeonghan x male reader #male reader fic #kpop angst #seventeen x reader angst #svt yoon jeonghan #male reader insert

[thisdancingheart]

Remember YFIP?

My Year of Grief and Cancellation

What was I trying to accomplish with my anonymous Tumblr?

By Liat Kaplan Feb. 25, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/25/style/your-fave-is-problematic-tumblr.html

If you were on Tumblr in the early 2010s, you may remember a blog called Your Fave Is Problematic. If not, its content should still sound familiar to you. The posts contained long lists of celebrities’ regrettable (racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, ethnophobic, ableist and so on) statements and actions — the stuff that gets people canceled these days.

That blog was my blog. I spent hours researching each post; as you can probably imagine, my search history was pretty ugly.

Your Fave Is Problematic had around 50,000 followers at its peak, in 2014, when I was a high school senior, but its influence was outsized. I got in a feud with a prominent young adult fiction author over his inclusion. One actor submitted himself, perhaps as a dare (or a plea) to dig up his worst. “Problematic fave” became a well-worn meme; even after I stopped posting, my blog was cited in books, articles, podcasts and think pieces. Through it all, my identity stayed private.

The blog started, as so many anonymous online projects do, as vengeful public shaming masquerading as social criticism. I was fine-tuning my moral compass and coming into my own as a feminist. So when I noticed classmates making sexist jokes on Facebook, including some about me, I started taking screenshots to post on a Tumblr called Calling Out Sexists. My policy was that I would take down a post only if its author publicly apologized.

A group of students brought the blog to the attention of our school’s administrators, who threatened to take legal action if I continued to write about them. Meanwhile, other Tumblr users had begun submitting screenshots featuring statements from minor celebrities. With graduation hanging in the balance, I shifted my focus away from my peers and toward public figures. I rebranded. Money and fame had protected them since time immemorial. What harm could my little blog do?

So I posted photos of Lady Gaga in V magazine with her skin bronzed to an unnatural brown. I pulled out troubling quotes from an essay Lena Dunham had written about a trip to Japan. I noted Taylor Swift’s since-changed homophobic lyric in “Picture to Burn.” My most popular posts tended to be about women — which makes sense, because the celebrity press tends to be more critical of them.

As it turned out, I had bigger things to worry about than dissecting the careers of celebrities I’d never met. On a winter morning, I woke up to the news that my older sister, Tamar, who was studying in Bolivia, had been in a bus crash, and the outlook was not good. I pored over research to escape from what felt like an impossible situation: my sister slowly dying of treatable injuries in a rural area thousands of miles away.

We held a public memorial service for Tamar in our hometown. Some of my classmates showed up, including a few who had written nasty things about me online. I found their shows of kindness insulting now, during what was quickly becoming the worst year of my life.

I tried going back to school after a few weeks, but I found myself picking frequent arguments with classmates and teachers. The school made an arrangement with my parents: I would be placed on “medical leave” for the remainder of the semester. I would graduate on time, but I wouldn’t return to campus.

Stuck at home, I devoted myself to Tumblr. What was I trying to accomplish? Mostly, I was interested in knocking people off their pedestals. I also enjoyed being popular, controversial, discussed. When a comedian I had posted about name-checked my blog on Twitter, I was giddy.

Then I started receiving threats. Someone sent me a screenshot of a house from Google Maps, claiming to have found my IP address. It wasn’t my house, but still. I realized that for every person on Tumblr who looked up to my blog, there were many more, online and offline, who hated it — and me. I started posting less and, eventually, stopped posting at all.

In the years since, I’ve looked back on my blog with shame and regret — about my pettiness, my motivating rage, my hard-and-fast assumptions that people were either good or bad. Who was I to lump together known misogynists with people who got tattoos in languages they didn’t speak? I just wanted to see someone face consequences; no one who’d hurt me ever had.

There’s something almost quaint about it all now: teenage me, teaching myself about social justice on Tumblr while also posturing as an authority on that very subject, thinking I was making a difference while engaging in a bit of schadenfreude. Meanwhile, other movements — local, global, unified in their purposes and rooted in progressive philosophies — were organizing for actual justice. Looking back, I was more of a cop than a social justice warrior, as people on Tumblr had come to think of me.

These days, there’s no shortage of online accountability efforts, the large part of them anonymously run. Some accounts post typically anodyne but occasionally explosive celebrity gossip. Others are explicitly aimed at naming, shaming and punishing people for all kinds of actions and missteps. My own work fell somewhere in the middle, I think; the information I posted was out in the open, but I was cataloging it to make a case against the veneration of the rich and famous.

As many have noted, the coronavirus pandemic has pronounced the distance between celebrities and the rest of us. And their actions have been subject to greater scrutiny — the vacations they’ve gone on, the parties they’ve held, the access they’ve had to testing and care during a health crisis that has taken millions of lives.

But celebrity culture began to crumble long before Covid-19. Mounting accusations of many kinds, whispered between industry professionals, had become too loud to ignore. Social media, which gave celebrities more control over their images and influence over their fans, also opened them up to new kinds of criticism. People have lost jobs and entire careers because of the kinds of errors my blog cited. Others have apologized for work and behavior that, re-examined in a contemporary context, just doesn’t hold up.

For years, I’ve regretted the spotlight I put on other people’s mistakes, as if one day I wouldn’t make plenty of my own. There can be an unsparing purity to growing into one’s social conscience that is often overbroad.

My brain wasn’t ready for nuance. I was angered by hypocrisy and cruelty; what I did about it was apply a level of scrutiny that left no room for error. I’m not saying that I should be canceled for my teenage blog. (Please don't!) I just know what we all should know by now: that no one who has lived publicly, online or off, has a spotless record.

For these reasons, I’ve thought about deleting my Tumblr. But doing that would mean erasing my own errors of judgment. I almost feel like I need to leave it up to punish myself for having made it in the first place. That, and I know someone could (and probably would) just pull it up on Wayback Machine. The internet, after all, never forgets.

~~~~~~~

#YFIP #fuck her and her lack of real remorse #25Feb2021 #NYT

[keanureevesisbae]

Protection - Prologue

Summary: August Walker is assigned his newest mission named Mia Makaruku.

August Walker x Mia Makaruku (Asian ofc)

Wordcount: 1.1k

Warnings: Mentions of a car accident and death.

A/N: This is so different than the fluffy stuff I usually write and also my first time writing for August Walker 😬 I hope that this doesn’t disappoint and that you like this as much as I do 🥰

Masterlist // Next chapter

As raindrops are pattering lightly on the window, August Walker sits in the rented U-Haul outside of the apartment building in Chicago, Illinois. His new home.

He takes one more look at the thick file in his hands, his thumb running over her name and he starts shaking his head. He still cannot believe this is his newest mission and he was practically forced into taking it. This isn’t what he usually does. Everything about this operation is something he never did, even before he started working for the CIA.

However, the second he was clearly briefed by Erika Sloane and understood this particular job description, he came to the realization that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Not because the lady he had to watch, protect and befriend was something he really wants to do, but because this case is connected to the myth he had heard so much about.

The money and the files, all securely hidden in a safe no one knows where it’s located. He heard about it when he started working for the CIA and it intrigued him, but there were no connections to anyone or anything.

August opens the file again, taking in once more the picture of twenty five year old rising soccer star, Mia Makaruku. He has a hard time believing this Dutch-Indonesian player, who moved to the USA years ago to play professionally here, is connected to the legendary safe.

Mia is, however, a very interesting looking woman, the type that would make him strain is neck if she walked passed him. Her long wavy hair matches the color of her irises. Thick eyebrows and round cheeks, making her look youthful. Despite the serious expression, she has this twinkling in her light brown, nearly doll like eyes.

Mischievous.

Quite intriguing.

To prepare himself for this job, August watched some of her interviews and he must admit that it’s pretty admirable to see how she carries herself. Especially after going through the stuff she went through as a kid.

At the age of four, Mia was involved in a car accident, together with her parents and three brothers. The Dutch emergency number was called by an unknown woman (who has yet to be found till this day), telling the dispatcher where the accident had happened and that from the looks of it, a man, a woman, three boys between the ages fifteen and twenty and a very young girl were trapped in the vehicle.

By the time the paramedics arrived however, the very young girl was the only one left, sitting on the pavement next to the smashed up vehicle, holding her arm closely to her body as she stared at the trees. She didn’t respond to the efforts of the paramedics, who tried to figure out what happened. She kept repeating: ‘My name is Mia. Mia Makaruku. My name is Mia. Mia Makaruku.’

She went from one foster family to another, barely being able to settle there for more than a year. Not because she was a handful, quite the opposite really. According to the files, almost every family was smitten with her, because of her lovely personality. The reason she kept moving from one family to another, was because specialists spread over Western Europe desperately wanted to figure out Mia’s story.

Yet, nothing seemed to work. She never broke, never told anyone anything about her parents or her brothers. It almost seemed like her family simply vanished out of her memories and never existed.

Despite the disadvantages she has faced in her life, she managed to make a name for herself and she is a well loved player, known all over the world.

But there is one thing August has yet to understand and Erika did not explain it to him either, probably because she doesn’t know either. Why does the CIA think Mia is connected to the legendary safe that was deemed a hoax many years ago?

Mia maybe wasn’t in the system, which is indeed suspicious and no one knew anything about this family. No one recognized little Mia, which made it difficult to identify her family, whose bodies still haven’t been found to this day.

But how is there a connection between her and the safe?

While his job is to find out what happened, he has to keep in mind: Mia was only four years old when her family died. Even if they were connected to the safe and its belongings, how was a young girl suppose to know the fine details about it? While this can seem an impossible task, he figured out stuff during his CIA career with even less clues.

This will be a piece of cake. Besides, Erika did not give him a specific time slot to do this, meaning he can take all the time in the world.

He rummages through the file again, scanning the screenshots made of her Instagram account with his eyes. Mia barely shares pictures of herself. The only recognizable pictures available of her, are those shared on the accounts of her club, taken during her training sessions and competitions and screenshots made by fans during her games. She doesn’t share pictures of her own face on the account missmiamakaruku. It almost seems like a pretend account, however it is verified and the CIA established that the account indeed belongs to her.

But another question arises: why does she barely share pictures of herself online? Is there a specific reason she does this? Is it because deep down she is aware of her possible connection to this or to anything significant?

August doubts it, because even if she was aware of a possibility of the connection to the safe, she wouldn’t have become a the star soccer player she is today.

The center of attention.

August sighs deeply, as he closes the file, staring ahead of him. He must admit, this job is a nice change of scenery. He has done many missions for the CIA and this one almost feels a step closer to a normal life. Something he has craved for so long deep down.

The only thing not normal about this, is the fact he has to keep a close eye on this particular woman, who is an inspiration to girls all over to world.

Erika Sloane specifically told him to befriend her, so maybe he can actually force her into remembering something important by the time she completely trusts him.

August looks to the side at the apartment building. This place, right here in Chicago Illinois, is going to be his new home, for as long as it takes for Mia Makaruku to break.

And he can guarantee: she will.

◎ ◎ ◎

#henry cavill #henry cavill x ofc #henry cavill x oc #henry cavill fanfic #henry cavill fandom #henry cavill x asian ofc #henry cavill x soccer player #henry cavill x mia makaruku #august walker #august walker fanfic #august walker x ofc #august walker x oc #august walker x asian ofc #asian ofc #august walker soccer player #mia makaruku #august walker x mia makaruku #fic: protection

[mariaiscrafting]

i saw you talk about “blocking etiquette” in one of your posts and i was wondering if you could briefly explain that? my blog is a baby (i joined in march) so i really don’t know any of the unspoken social rules haha. i feel i should know this before i say anything ever thats dream critical lmao

also saw you have a ton of asks so feel free to answer or not there’s no obligation ! take care of urself it seems like a lot to handle rn

I'd like to preface this by disclaiming that I've been on Tumblr since 2014, so I think I have a good sense of blocking etiquette as it's evolved with Tumblr culture, but I might still be presumptuous/wrong about some things.

Anyways. So, on Tumblr, there's generally always been a "block first, ask questions later" mentality. No matter the fandom, people kinda just unfollow or block people at will because Tumblr's algorithm is so shit at recommending things for people that unfollowing/blocking are really the primary ways to tailor what you don't want to see. So, if you frequent a search term/tag search, like "dream smp," you'd likely block someone who posts things frequently to that tag, but whose content you dislike. Blocking is, obviously, still used as a means to stop interacting with just plain assholes, as it is on every social media site. But more times than not, Tumblr users block blogs for neutral reasons related to how they want to tailor their social media experience, rather than a personal vendetta against someone.

Frankly, from my perspective, this was the main use of block lists back in the day. They weren't so much ways to truly hate on anyone's blog since anyone deemed a true asshole would likely spur a reporting campaign against them, rather than an addition to a blocklist. No, Tumblr blocklists were almost always so people who frequented certain tags simply... didn't have to put up with some people. If there was a wave of problematic shippers inundating a fandom/character tag, of TERFs inundating trans/feminism tags, or something similar, they would likely be put on a blocklist simply because Tumblr users wanted a comprehensive list of people they might come across, but didn't want to have to see posts from. Along a similar vein, a lot of mcytblr blogs advocate simply blocking people who post imagines in the main mcyt/dream smp tags, rather than harrassing each and every one of them into fixing their tag habits. Like, they're just annoying, really, and this social media site is so big that just blocking the ones who frequent the tag is so much easier than anything else.

One notable difference about Tumblr blocking as compared to Twitter blocking is the malintent behind Twitter blocking. Twitter fandom subtwts will advocate for blocking someone particularly if they're being cancelled/a Twitter user simply dislikes them enough. In addition, I've seen more than one Twitter user unironically say that they block people who unfollow them, as if following/unfollowing them were a personal affront, and blocking people were some component of this social game that reeks of cliqueness and high school levels of maturity.

That isn't to say that Tumblr blocking etiquette doesn't have pitfalls, because it has many. The main one I've noticed is that, especially in smaller fandom spaces, someone who's considered problematic might be enmassed blocked by lots of users in that fandom, and effectively be shut out of that fandom. If they're put onto a blocklist, a problematic post is circulated enough, or they're blocked by enough "big blogs" in the fandom, these users can be kept from reblogging, liking, or sending asks to a large part of the fandom they participate in. Vague posting doesn't really get you anywhere on Tumblr because of how insular each blog is, as opposed to Twitter, where screenshotting someone's profile who's blocked you and/or complaining very obviously about someone blocking you without naming them is commonplace and can be easily spread throughout a subtwt. This means Tumblr blogs who were mass blocked end up reaching much less members of their fandom, cannot really stand up for themselves in the face of mass blocking unless they're infamous enough for people to recognize their name, or participate in the discourse that promoted their blocking in the first place. While I haven't really experienced this, all of this is taken from what I've observed mutuals and recognizable blogs going through over the years.

Another note is that this website is kinda fucked, coding-wise. We all know this. This means that there are a million holes in the blocking system that make it even more annoying to navigate when people have blocked you, and that ends up getting more people blocked than maybe should be.

First of all, those imagine blogs aren't just posting in the main tags for shits and giggles, or to be cumbersome and clutter the main tags. They're doing it because Tumblr is dying, and even in a fandom as big as mcytblr, it's almost impossible to boost/promote your original content. The Tumblr algorithm sucks at spreading awareness about popular posts, more and more Twitter refugees means less and less people who fucking reblog > liking posts, and basically the only way posts can blow up anymore is by being found through a tag that is trending or frequently browsed through the "most recent" setting. This includes dream smp and many smp character names, so obviously imagine blogs are going to take advantage of this and maintag. It's the reason mcytblr constantly tags "m*necraft" despite being told off, time and time again, for doing so by mineblr. And it's the reason I've likely been blocked by many people- because I had to make the decision between spreading awareness of a post that took a lot of effort and that I thought was important enough to main tag despite being critical/negative, or keeping mcytblr happy by not cluttering their bias's tag with a crit post. Sure, some of mcytblr likely blocked me because they thought I was annoying/disagree with me, and that's fine. But I'm sure many blocked me for the same reason I block imagine blogs and mineblr blocks dream smp stans- because they wanted to peruse their fave's tags, and they simply blocked a random blog that posted something they didn't like, without really thinking much of it.

Second of all, side blogs kinda fuck up how blocking works. It's annoying as hell to see a post you really like in the main tag/search, only to find that the person blocked you upon trying to reblog. Because of sideblogs, people will oftentimes block a sideblog because it's that user's fandom blog, without blocking their main, so the user is left kinda seeing their stuff time and time again, without being able to interact with it.

Speaking of how fucky the code is because of the blogging system, reblogs make it even worse. Most social media sites simply make it so a blocked user cannot see another user's profile, posts and all. But Tumblr not only allows this, it kinda fucks up the search function by sometimes allowing people you've blocked/who've blocked you to show up in main tag searches, it didn't take into account the fact that you can still see an OP's post when someone else reblogs it, and Tumblr didn't think to just fucking fix all these holes and just wholly omit someone's posts if they've blocked you, or you've blocked them. So, despite blocking people, you can still be logged in and see all their shit, and they can see yours. It's kind of annoying as fuck.

#a nyways this was so fucking long why did i do this #im so bored im gonna play minecraft bc fuck my life and responsibility or whatever #asks #tumblr meta #mcyt #dream smp #tumblr #blocking #also i didnt proofread this i apologize if its relatively incoherent

[ecoamerica]

Watch the 2024 American Climate Leadership Awards for High School Students now: https://youtu.be/5C-bb9PoRLc

The recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by student climate leaders! Join Aishah-Nyeta Brown & Jerome Foster II and be inspired by student climate leaders as we recognize the High School Student finalists. Watch now to find out which student received the $25,000 grand prize and top recognition!

#ACLA24 #ACLA24HighSchoolStudents #youtube #youtube video #climate leaders #climate solutions #climate action #climate and environment #climate #climate change #climate and health #climate blog #climate justice #climate news #weather and climate #environmental news #environment #environmental awareness #environment and health #environmental #environmental issues #environmental education #environmental justice #environmental protection #environmental health #high school students #high school #youth #youth of america #school