#man this got long

[cybertron-after-dark]

ok ok shockwave anon again here to be cringe... could I please request a tfp shockwave × reader oneshot or drabble, where reader is indulging a touched starved shockwave and petting his helm and he leans into it and just gets all the lovings. i need to nurture this man so bad it makes me ill that I can't 😭 YOUR WRITING IS SO SOLID ILY TYSM

Bestie we're all cringe here, we on the robot kisser blog. Also thank you for the lovely words, barking at you in tism solidarity 💖

You really couldn't have predicted the chain reaction you set off on accident, honest. Not the scale of it, at least.

All you really did was try to hold his hand. Not something you were entirely sure would be possible, strictly speaking. The size difference was vast, but you were determined to do something sweet and romantic. You wanted to be a good partner. So, while he was at the lab table, fiddling with the components to a new cloning pod, you reached over to his free servo from your seat next to his workspace, brushing your hand against his much bigger digits. You weren't even fully sure if he'd notice, but the reaction was immediate.

He completely froze, his one optic fixed on you. After a pause, he spoke.

"Do you require anything?"

For a second you were scared he was annoyed, but he just sounded... Unsure? Always a bit hard to tell with Shockwave.

"Not trying to get your attention or anything, just holding your hand. Or, you know, holding a little of it," you answered, sheepish.

"For what purpose?" He asked, tilting his head.

"Oh! I didn't really stop to think if Cybertronians, like... Do that normally," you explained. "For humans it's like an affectionate gesture. Like, a convenient point of contact you can maintain while you maneuver around."

"Simply illogical..." he huffed.

"Sorry!" You squeaked, retracting your hand. Shockwave's antennae quickly flicked down a notch at the loss of contact. "Probably should've asked first..."

"I... You do not have to... I didn't..." He fumbled, his antennae whirring and flicking every which way as he tried to piece the sentence together.

You tried to help him out.

"...Did you want me to stop?"

"...No."

You brought your hand to his again, and you saw his optics dim as you ran your hand over his digits, tracing all the lines and seams you could reach.

"I do not understand why, but... This is enjoyable. I still assert that is fully illogical, though," he said. You could hear a slight rumbling coming from his chest. Revving his engine? Was he... Purring?

"Contact is just a staple of social creatures, man. Feels nice because you need it, or you start to go kinda feral," you explained.

"Dubious. I have lived a long life without any such contact, and I have never exhibited any signs of such regression," he refuted. The weight of his words took a moment to sink in.

"...wait you've never been touched like this? Just... For affection's sake?" You asked, bewildered.

"Of course not."

He really just didn't see anything wrong with that statement...

"Dude... That's..." You stuffed down the urge to call it sad. No pity. You know he can't stand pity. "Well, that's a lot of lost time we'll have to make up for." You tightened your hold on his digits in a squeeze, and the purr grew louder. It seemed he was agreeable to that.

"...May I request a specific point of contact?" He queried. You nodded your head, and he leaned down over the table, resting his helm (sort of) on your lap, though shifting his weight awkwardly so you didn't get crushed. You couldn't look him in the optic, his gaze was pointed far to the side, but you could see the tentative shift of his audial fins well enough to know he wasn't sure how this would go. "I have seen this behavior exhibited in humans regardless of the species of the recipient. I believe the colloquial term is 'head pats.' I hypothesize it will be more... Normal, given the difference in our scale and physiology," he reasoned.

"Oh yeah, nothing weird about petting a giant robot like a puppy," you snarked. His audial fins flicked back, but quickly returned upwards when you started petting his helm. The purring deepened, a low, bassy sound that you felt more than you heard, especially with him so up close and personal. Odd as the setup was, it was nice, and you felt good knowing he was finally getting some much-deserved affection. You felt a little bad that he might get in trouble for slacking on his work, that cloning pod is long forgotten, but for the moment, it could wait. For the moment, you just wanted to love on your boyfriend as he melted into your touch, letting yourself melt into the soft sounds of his rumbling engine and the contented sighs he let out in your hold.

#you can take my purring cybertronian headcanons from my cold offline servos #tfp #transformers prime #shockwave #maccadam #man this got long #worth it tho #you will look at my shockwave catboy propaganda

[your-disobedient-servant]

I will admit, I am not very knowledgeable on the enlightenment era stuff, besides getting some giggles at the posts of my friends and was never really interested in it aside from the stuff with Catherine the Great that was going on around the time. But now after scrolling your blog and actually witnessing the sheer amount of DRAMA QUEENS, I've gotten somewhat curious 🤭

If you don't mind me asking, can you please describe the relationship of the "two toxic old men" to a person like me, who doesn't know much, but is willing to learn?

Fritz and Voltaire? With pleasure!

So, in 1736, Frederick, then the crown prince of Prussia, sent some fanmail to Voltaire. Being the attention whore he was, especially when it came to royalty, V responded with great enthusiasm and the two struck up a correspondence full of mutual flattery. At one point V enlisted his friend Thieriot to help send literary news (he was supposed to be paid: he wasn't, ever) and he...sent a lot of gossip about Voltaire. Another important thing is also that Émilie du Châtelet, V's long-term lover, and Fritz HATED each other. And it's also generally agreed that Fritz was gay.

1740 comes around, Fritz's awful dad finally croaks, and he becomes king and wants to, in his own words, possess Voltaire. He and Voltaire met in person for the first time in September, briefly, then again in November where V spends his birthday in Prussia. Party time. The correspondence from during that visit is amazing, V wants to leave, Fritz begs him to come back and says he'll kiss him on Friday, V tells Fritz he loves him more than Émilie, they call each other mistress, Fritz complains that V is expensive behind his back but he'll win over Émilie because he can pay him more, V says he's not interested in Greek affairs (read: gay stuff) despite the flirting but he is there for Fritz, Émilie begs V to come back saying she's sick and gets V's friend Cideville to send him a poem about how hot she is, etc etc.

At some point, Fritz tried to force Voltaire to come to Prussia by spreading gossip in France that'd force him out of the country and iirc succeeded, but I don't remember which visit was that off the top of my head.

They briefly meet again in 1742. In 1743, Voltaire was sent to Prussia as a spy, at which he was hilariously godawful (Fritz answered most of his diplomatic questionnaire with jokes). After Émilie died in 1749, V moved to Prussia in 1450, which went fine at first, but they slowly started to realise they really can't fucking stand to live with each other. Voltaire got involved in a financial scandal and also royally pissed off Maupertuis (Émilie's former lover, president of the Berlin Academy) and with that Fritz, culminating in Fritz burning all copies of Diatribe du docteur Akakia.

V resigned and left in early 1752, but he was (unlawfully, Fritz had no authority there) detained by an agent of Fritz's in Frankfurt because he took a book of poetry in which Fritz satirised other European leaders. What followed was a very entertaining mess of miscommunication (please do yourself a favour and read the correspondence from that time, google translate does the job fine) and theatrics on Voltaire's part, who kept insisting he was just a sick old man who only wanted to go take the waters. He writes to everyone, his niece and current lover writes to Wilhelmine, V at some point pulls a gun on someone, Freytag writes to Fritz like "he looks like a skeleton, is he really sick or does he always look like that?," eventually V's luggage in which the book was in gets delivered, he coughs it up, but he still isn't let go, eventually Fritz himself has to write to Freytag like "yo, wtf is going on." It's a disaster and it ruins their relationship for good.

Voltaire is so pissed off that he writes a memoir about his experiences in Prussia where he outs Fritz (...and also his brother Henri) as gay in no uncertain terms several times and also edits a few letters to his niece in the vein of Richardson's Pamela, painting himself as a poor victim of the seductive king. Which...lmao, really, V? Really? I translated the first one here, currently working on the second. Though those letters weren't discovered to be edited until 1991, so many older biographies just take them as fact.

Anyway, the two stopped writing to each other for a while. They reconnected at the urging of Fritz's sister Wilhelmine when the Seven Years War was going badly and Fritz was suicidal, and it went well on the surface, but Voltaire kept writing to his friends about how he's totally over Fritz, he hates him, he wishes he was hit by a cannonball, he ridicules his suicide letter behind his back, etc. Fritz also keeps shit-talking Voltaire behind his back the whole time, but is overjoyed when he gets a letter. As an example of later correspondence, here's a translation of an excerpt from the "it's good that you're such a colossal dick or your perfection would embarrass humanity" letter. Either way, they slowly reconciled and kept writing to each other until Voltaire's death.

I know I left a ton out and I wrote it pretty much all from memory so could be that I fucked up the details, but I hope it helps. Wish I could include some more letter excerpts because they're fantastic, but it's long as it is.

Sources

If you want a good intro on these two, read the bios by Nancy Mitford - she has the fatal flaw of not citing shit but they're short and fun and easy to find and she's one of the few who are able to see that both of them were a total mess. For more academic sources, there's Aldridge (pro: cites letter numbers in-text, very balanced when it comes to Fritz, con: impossible to find) or Besterman (pro: most comprehensive, dude compiled his letters so he knows his shit, con: big bias against Fritz) for Voltaire and...hm, I'm trying to think of a Fritz biographer that'd have any info on those two. Blanning hasn't much and I've yet to get around to MacDonogh, so I can't say where that one is good and bad.

There are also letters here and here that you can googletranslate and I really wish Electronic Enlightenment wasn't paywalled (if you know someone who has a NYPL card to lend you their login info…I recommend) cause it has like all of V's letters and an AMAZING search.

#man this got long #and i omitted a fuck ton of good stuff for brevity :( #Frederick the Great #Voltaire #q&a #two toxic old men #long post

[scaryarcade]

i really do think syscourse is so so stupid and i dont want my blog to be about it but it does make me SO cranky thinking about how much anti-endogenic sentiment used to influence my beliefs about MYSELF. thinking back especially to when we were a teenager and the pressure we felt to label our experiences in an acceptable way. the constant checking to make sure yes i actually do fit this clinical description, i do fit the DSM criteria for DID--because if i don't have DID, i can't have alters, i can't have a system, which means nothing i'm experiencing is real and i'm making it all up!! seeing people get "exposed" for "faking a system" based on having too many fictives, switching too much, not switching enough, having good communication, having bad communication; watching those people get dogpiled and harassed into apologizing and recanting their multiplicity. "i'm so sorry for the harm i caused by thinking i had alters." if i don't have this diagnosis, i'm not allowed to talk to my friends i share a brain with anymore, because i'd be hurting real survivors. i have to be a real survivor, so i have to label all my trauma responses, i have to know which alters are trauma holders. alters don't just form for no reason, that's endogenic nonsense, so i have to know the reasons my alters exist or they're not real. mislabeling, overlabeling my experiences, rushing to connect the faint dots of a foggy narrative and ending up painting the wrong picture entirely.

i can't emphasize enough the toll on my mental health from the constant fear that my peers would decide i was actually endogenic and that i would be ostracized from my social circles and met with violent harassment as a result. all while trying to navigate severe dissociative symptoms and ongoing trauma on top of that lol! if you think this pressure was never prevalent in online DID spaces you're, at best, wildly ignorant and/or very lucky. and though this isn't the only factor, it is--at least in the spaces i spent time in--directly tied to hatred of endogenic plurals (or, you know, anybody deemed endogenic because of their experiences, regardless of how they actually identify.)

#abyssposting #🛸 #ask to tag ig #MAN this got long #whatever #OH RIGHT. I SHOULD ADD #cw syscourse

[amidalashandmaidens]

I, L, and J for jotaro =3

Ah!! Thank you for the letters ❤️💗!! And for asking about my fav man too hngksksksjd

I - Intimacy (How romantic are they? Do they have problems with intimacy?)

This is actually a rather interesting question because, well, Jotaro can be romantic... He's just very quiet about it. He doesn't exactly mean to surprise anyone, it's just he's so casual about it.

He notices a thing I like and takes a little note, takes in my reaction to scenes in movies I like, or what makes me go "Aw!" and thinks 'Oh, they like this! They look so happy,' and then he starts preparing, whether it's a nice dinner in (Jotaro is fantastic in the kitchen), buying me a shirt I looked at, having the TV set to my favourite channel/show when I sit down, trying new things together, learning a little bit about a series I like. He's thoughtful in bursts - acts of kindness I suppose. He just needs a way to plan it out/make sense of it, or else it confuses him to high heavens.

Jotaro definitely appreciates a good hug, cuddle or kiss - as long as it's in private. Although, he does have exceptions! PDA is a thing he has to be asked about, not have it suddenly sprung on him. This doesn't necessarily have to be verbal - even a gesture of getting a bit closer, but not quite touching, in a 'this okay?' body language is good. When I get a 'no thanks' it's not a problem, sometimes sensations are weird!

Oh but poor Taro is pretty fickle about hand-holding. He can handle a good couple of minutes, but then his hands get sweaty and he doesn't want to get my hands sticky and ick (me internally: I don't mind!! Bby please 😩). It's always a delight when he initiates though! A small squeeze as an 'I got you'.

While I've been writing this, I just keep coming back to the line that basically says Jotaro thinks his emotions are super obvious, and really that's been grounding my speculation. If he thinks he's being obvious when everybody doesn't notice, I imagine that when an action/facial expression of his is easily discerned by others, Jotaro sees it as him overreacting/exaggerating. I think that's what would stunt most PDA things, he's a little embarrassed and exposed.

J - Jealous (Do they get jealous? How do they act when jealous?)

Oh Jotaro can absolutely get jealous (be still my heart). When he feels neglected he hovers really close, looking a bit sour about it. He does the same thing when he thinks somebody is getting a bit too friendly. Unfortunately, I'm awful at discerning when people are being friendly or flirty, so Taro suffers a little bit. Something which I absolutely love is when he indulges in a bit of overt PDA to get a point across.

L - Love (When do they say I love you? How often do they say it? Do they prefer to say or show it?)

Taro says "I love you" when I really need it. Usually in the quiet aftermath of a horrible day when he wraps me up in his arms. Mumbles it in my hair, then clears his throat and says it again, this time clear and assertive.

There is an odd time or two, when he thinks I'm asleep, that he says he loves me. There's this overwhelming affection in his tone, with a bit of incredulity, as if it's the first time all over again.

Taro's more of an action guy though, so it's a real treat to hear him say "I love you" aloud.

#man this got LONG #im gonna say this is #jotaro lore #because its a little insight to what i think of jotaros character! #answered #f/o ask game

[fallingtowers]

how would you improve buffy season 7

ah man anon don’t encourage me. alright fine. below the cut

ok, so, right off the bat let’s establish some ground rules for this exercise. first off, i’m doing s7 only, which means i’m working off the canon events of s6. as much as i might want to change certain things about s6, i won’t. also, this is going to be a look at the overarching structure of the entire season, rather than me trying to script-doctor any individual episodes.

with all that out of the way, let’s talk about buffy season 7. fundamentally, i think that s7 is conceptually and thematically sound, but that its ideas are, for the most part, poorly executed. you might say it’s a season with a lot of wasted potential (← joke). the first is a really effective villain, both in terms of sheer intimidation factor but also on a thematic level, and i really enjoy the season’s pervasive apocalyptic feel. really, the challenge here is not so much completely overhauling the season as it is just executing it more competently.

i think the biggest structural issue at hand is the haphazard pacing. season 7 starts out strong enough, devolves into a samey muddle during its middle third, and then has to rush to tie together all its loose ends in the last couple episodes. i think this would be relatively easy to fix by just introducing certain stuff (e.g. caleb, the scythe, the necklace macguffin angel shows up with, &c.) earlier. this has two benefits: one, we get more material to work with earlier, thus hopefully preventing meandering, and two, the pivotal climactic stuff will get more room to breathe and won’t feel quite so rushed.

certain character arcs and beats need to be shored up, clarified, or otherwise improved. for example, buffy should get the opportunity to process spike’s actions in seeing red. also, i’ve never liked how the wedge between buffy and giles post-lies my parents told me gets glossed over. robin’s whole arc should also get a bit of a touching up, just because robin deserved better.

(speaking of character beats, i’m not so sure about anya’s death. it’s possible that it could be cogent and satisfying if it were set up better and afforded the room to breathe. or maybe it would just suck anyway. what if buffy had killed anya during selfless? what would that have done to the gang’s dynamic? i’m not saying that would necessarily be a good creative decision, but it would certainly be an interesting one.)

the arc that needs the most tlc though imo is willow’s. poor, poor willow. she’s never been more interesting than she is, on paper, here: recovering from addiction, feared by her friends, with a human life on her conscience. and for what???

my season 7 would be very willow-centric. she is arguably on par with buffy in terms of importance here, so she deserves a commensurate arc. i would, in fact, like to focus on the relationship between buffy and willow—buffy, desperate to trust her friend while being cognizant of the fact that she may well end up having to kill her, and willow, desperate to regain buffy’s trust while being terrified that she will start backsliding.

and then they kiss.

yeah that’s right. buffy/willow endgame, mother fuckers.

i don’t think i’d cut the willow/kennedy stuff outright, but i’d nip it in the bud. kennedy makes a move; willow reciprocates only because she’s lonely and sad; kennedy realizes how messed up willow is, but is too immature and ignorant of the specifics to properly address it; kennedy pushes too hard and the whole thing falls apart.

(speaking of the potentials, i think i’d want to flesh out a couple of them more and leave the rest as background characters, just to avoid things getting too muddy. can’t remember exactly how it’s done in the show—this might actually be their tactic exactly lol.)

so the thing with kennedy falls apart, willow has hurt her and feels she has betrayed tara’s memory, she is at her wits’ end—and that’s when the first gets to her. it appears to her in the form of tara, because in this dream scenario we don’t have to worry about whether our actors will want to come back. it manipulates her and tries to get her to go dark again.

so, now we’ve got this fun scenario where willow is torn between buffy (representing the painful reality of waking up every day and continuing to fight, no matter how hard it is) and tara (representing the easy way out, the comfortable slip back into evil). not only would this make for a lot of tasty tension, there’s also a cool parallel here between what buffy wants to do for willow—to pull her back out of the abyss and into the harsh light of day—and what willow did for buffy at the start of s6.

and then they kiss. the end.

(also i’d cut the whole stupid fucking “is giles secretly dead” subplot)

this is all just off the top of my head. i’d probably have to rewatch s7 to get a proper feel for the intended themes and arcs, but i’m not going to do that, because i spent enough time as it is on this exercise. sorry for the wall of text, anon. love you

#buffy the vampire slayer #buffyposting #man this got long

[underrated-adversaries]

lilac and yellow!

lilac - Most of the submissions i got were super ernest so i didn't get any funny ones in like a meme way. but the funniest to me were the immense amount of Oz characters and when the nevermoor fandom decided to go ham and submit morrigan (i think thats right) a bunch of times. (honorable mention to the two people who thought jon from tma was underrated somehow.)

yellow - outside of the worry of characters not actually being underrated and me just being pop culture illiterate; probably trying to figure out how to make a readable bracket with the amount of characters i have. i've seen other people with huge brackets just list the characters out, and that's fine, but it's kinda hard to read (atleast for me) so i want an actual bracket but idk any good sites for it. (so if anyone wanted to know why the bracket still isn't done the official explanation is, im intimidated and therefore somewhat procrastinating) (also if y'all have any good sites for a bracket with 240 participants in a 1v1v1v1 format lemme know)

#askversaries #man this got long #apologies

[reginrokkr]

→ Study 𝐗𝐕𝐈: Colors of the rainbow —elements—. White light, Ether and Void.

Today while I was speed-running Lisa's event to get her outfit, I was reminded of an old thought of mine that I never elaborated upon. We know that the Elemental Sight can perceive the world in a different way so long as what it's being seen is touched by the elements, but thus far we only know of 7 of them which coincide with the current Heptatheon of Archons. However, there have been bits and pieces that let on the premise that there are more than 7 existing elements, and I'll start first with a namecard's description which I think it's pretty neat for this:

It's curious to see something that was released so early on in the story already alluded to this, but in truth we see this happening in more places. Do you know the portal to the Spiral Abyss? The portals of some events that lead to domains like Lisa's? The portals of the Theatrical Mechanicus? All of them share something in common: they can be perceived via the Elemental Sight, but while they're blue in color, they don't match with any of the 7 elements.

Before I continue with what I want to say, I want to direct your attention briefly at something that Tsumi, the Dragon / Vishap-person of the event the Three Realm Gateway that took place in Enkanomiya said:

It's known that before Phanes' arrival, there used to be 7 Sovereign Dragons one of each element, although Vishaps are described as creatures that break down raw, primitive elemental energy into milder elemental energy. This can call for some consideration that the elements we're used to are more than what they know of, or even that in breaking down this raw primitive elemental energy, new variations of elements could occur.

Now I want to mention two words that are used in the Bathysmal Vishap Experimental Records: Ether and Void.

Four of the elements here are the four primal elements that the universe is made from in Greek philosophy (which is the language after which Enkanomiya takes from as the original language, arguably used in other civilizations that existed at the same time as Enkanomiya in the big continent that used to be on the surface before the Second Who Came's arrival), but there is a fifth element which is (A)Ether, Void being most likely a new addition into the Genshin universe which refers directly to the Abyss.

At this point of the story we don't know yet what element is exactly this Ether (as in having a thorough confirmation), but we've seen Void or the Abyssal element being used in this same event and also by the Abyss Sibling and other places too.

For this I'm going to say I rely on hypothesis theory (as I don't have the means to check this myself because those missions were done a long time ago), but it's said directly by the Aranara that Marana and the "vanguards of the Abyss" which at the time were the Abyssal Wolves, Gold's creations, are one and the same. We know that Marana —and by extension, the Withering— is showed in red, as Marana's avatar mixes purple and red colors, which always made me wonder: what if the purple of the Abyss we currently know of, in truth, it's a mix of a red and blue energy? We know that the Abyss by itself looks like a galaxy area and in the Spiral Abyss there are traces of blue energy in the sky. If this same blue energy was what existed before the Second Who Arrived's arrival and this red energy belongs to them (as it was stated that it was them who brought all this chaos), then the namecard description about there being more colors than 7 as there could be more elements than 7 seems to stand true.

In regards of Ether as an element, my lead is to think that perhaps the blue that doesn't seem to equate to Hydro which we can observe in several portals I mentioned earlier could be an element directly related to Irminsul. By definition in the Greek philosophy, celestial spheres (made of aether) hold stars and planets. Stars are a common thematic that stems from the core of Irminsul, be it the very core itself or the space that it's in. Maybe other elements could be attributes to the sets of blues we see that are similar and follow a same pattern, maybe it's one. As a curiosity, Aether is also attributed as that which fills the void and it's thanks to it that light propagates and white light is made of 7 colors: the same colors that represent the elements we know of. Sounds familiar? It's through Ley Lines that all the elements are distributed to every corner of the world in order to sustain it. This is a hypothesis, of course, but there are various leads that make me consider that this unknown Ether element is the one that represents Irminsul.

Before wrapping this up, I want to make a special mention to a curiosity that happens in We Will Be Reunited, when Traveler wants to find the eye of the first Field Tiller at the top of Old Mondstadt's tower to no avail, to which Dain says "This requires another method. Using Elemental Sight on a Field Tiller is of no use because it is not powered by the elements" while at the same time, it's thanks to the "element" Dain uses that he's able to use something akin to psychokinesis to take it out of the Field Tiller. Just some food for thought.

Lastly, under cut I'll add some screens of my own gameplay for reference:

#◟༺✦༻◞ analysis within the ley lines ichor ┊study.┊ #man this got long #but it was worth it #what a nice exercise #to go through these again #something I forgot to mention is #that it's curious how Ether seems to be #the celestial-like element #it's so oddly fitting #that Ether and Void clash with one another #which we also see for instance in Requiem of the Echoing Depths #with Dain dissipating that abyss barrier #around the Nameless Ruins #with the thingy he uses #if this blue thingy in particular #is one and the same #I have to say that it's in so many more places #that I haven't mentioned #like them big mushrooms in Sumeru's forest #I forgot its name #there are some floating squares #that can be seen with the Elemental Sight too #it's also in King Deshret's mechanical thingies #but I'm not sure if I'd attribute it to the same #also if you've been in one of the Ruin Golems #the energy needed to do whatever inside is bright yellow/gold #which can be seen via Elemental Sight too #perhaps that's another element under a different name #who knows

[definitelynotshouting]

“Symphony” for the writer asks!! 💙

HELLO CLOUD THE BELOVED its good to see you in my inbox :] i dont see a specific fandom attached to this so im just gonna ramble about my dsmp fic all wayfaring hearts which is one of my favorite things ive ever written.

Despite still being a wip, ive had everything about this fic completely mapped out since day one, and some of the biggest themes i've wanted to explore with it were the concepts of impermanence and what i consider the most important aspects of humanity. all wayfaring hearts is, at its core, about a vast and inhuman universe learning about itself and the people who call it home, and being fundamentally changed by that experience. It's about learning what kindness is. Trust. Mercy. Compassion. Changing others with your presence and love and being changed in turn. Tommy is the universe compressed into a tiny shell, and his time with Wilbur, Phil, and Techno literally shifts how said universe functions in this story.

And at the same time, its about how everything is fleeting. From the beginning of the very first section, the narration reveals that Tommy's time is limited in this form-- the universe can't stay compressed for too long before returning to its original state. This is echoed by something Wilbur says later in the first chapter, disguised as some teasing dialogue: "All good things come to an end." And, although its not fully written yet, i plan to continue that theme throughout the rest of the story until its natural conclusion (which i won't actually spoil just yet, since the fic is still in progress).

I have a lot of love for this fic and its entire concept. Its very much inspired by The Little Prince and also my love for the cosmos, and the people living within it. And i think at the very end of the day, having a story centered around so much love and hope and the bittersweet knowledge of eventual parting is just. Its so important to me. And i hope i can get it finished sometime soon, so everyone else can experience the same shrimp emotions i feel whenever i think about it.

I'll leave you with a little snippet from chapter 2 under the cut, just to round it all out:

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

They’re looking up at the stars when Wilbur turns to him and says, “Did you know that the universe is kind, Tommy?”

Tommy frowns at him, shifting away from the stars to stare at Wilbur’s eyes instead. They’re dyed black in the moonlight, pupils lost to the darkness. Like a black hole, sucking in everything within its orbit. He’s forced to look away after a moment, something like embarrassment bubbling underneath his skin. “Don’t mess around, Wil.”

“I’m not,” Wilbur says, “I’m serious, Tommy. Look up there at the stars and tell me the universe doesn’t love us– you can’t. It’s made something beautiful, and it lets us look at it every single night. If that’s not an act of love, I don’t know what is.”

Tommy shifts uncomfortably. His voice comes out slightly harsh when he speaks, harsher than he intends: “The universe doesn’t– it’s not kind, Wilbur. It just is. Kindness, compassion– that’s all human stuff. I don’t– the universe doesn’t understand it. It can’t.”

Wilbur hums, an absent little tune with no real melody. “See, I don’t think that’s true. I think it loves us enough to give us a moon, and stars, and a sun when it’s daytime. I think it loves everything it makes– including us. And I think it’s– y’know, it’s got a, a purpose. Everything has a purpose. I really believe that, Tommy, I really do.”

A beat. Tommy shifts, no longer admiring the stars, unable to return to the peace of the previous moment.

“Why are you telling me this, Wilbur?”

“I’m just thinking about it,” Wilbur says honestly. He turns his head again, until only his profile is visible in the lamplight. “And I don’t– I think you haven’t seen a lot of kindness before. So it’s only fair I tell you, right?”

Tommy reluctantly tears his gaze away from Wilbur’s profile, turning back to the stars. Thinks about the spider Wilbur had crushed in the chicken coop, and how Tommy had watched, impassive at a life snuffed out so quickly. “You’re wrong,” he says bluntly, “but that’s okay. It’s a… nice sentiment, I guess.”

Wilbur hums again, this time a low, almost-tune that vibrates in the back of his throat. “Think about it,” he says, and they lapse back into silence.

Neither of them speak until their candle burns out, and then they go back inside. Tommy crawls into his attic bed, fingers clenched in the covers, and thinks of spiders until the sun comes up in the morning.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

#c!tommy #c!wilbur #c!phil #c!techno #dsmp #c!sbi #sbi #mcyt #crimeboys #tommyinnit #wilbur soot #technoblade #philza #man this got long #tbh i have so many more thoughts but i have to get back to work in two minutes so we'll all have to suffer #mss #ask game #asks #shouting speaks #txt

[ilumin]

I'm crying, they're so silly

#genshin impact #furina demo #Furina #Neuvillette #wriothesley #lyney #lynette #childe #HE'S THROWING HIMSELF ON THIS POOR MAN #i can't #I'll probably add more later #and i love the part where Neuvillette kicks someone in the balls #or when Lyney and Lynnette is kicking the shit out of some randon guy #and furina is there sitting like 😌☕ #wriothesley goes :DD YIPPE #I'm not planning on wishing for Furina but God dammit #her demo is one of my favorites now. #AND THE MUSIC #okay those tags got too long #imma stfu for now #thanks for listening (reading???)

[billiewena]

thinking about how the only time bobby and cas interact in season four is when he knocks him out cold to talk to dean alone. and the next time bobby sees him, cas is powerless and just comes to steal dean's necklace in a weird interaction that had to be filmed close-up because dean and cas are just inches from each other's face. the next time is an offscreen interaction where he just gets dean's address from bobby and probably left immediately after. combine this with the fact that bobby knew dean had a male siren the season before (and tried to be supportive) and let cas be in the family photo a few episodes later, there is a nonzero chance bobby singer was the first destiel shipper.

#when bobby comforts dean about the loss of cas in s7??? oh that old man knew something #just got to the 5x02 episode of babpod and am fighting off the urge to do a s5 rewatch we'll see how long I last #destiel #i need a text post tag

[paponela]

how long do you think he took to figure it out

#bumbleby #jaune arc #yang xiao long #rwby #rwby spoilers #who else saw him saying feels like i've waited forever and thought oh so you suddenly developed a gaydar!!!! #this man is not fooling me he did not know #also if you were waiting for the divorce comic and got jaune instead i am so sorry i have no excuses l #no winners in this situation except for me lol #my art #my stuff

[starwarjotta]

whether he has a gun or a knife (or a lightsaber) or is unarmed, Cody's always deadly

#commander cody #coday #cody day 2224 #KNIFE CODY #here you go I said I wanted to draw him with a knife so here you are #I got so many feelings about knife Cody #tw injury #tw blood #Cody my beloved #for me this is the last piece for coday #but I'll not stop drawing this lovely lovely man I love him so much #next up will most likely be more codywan because OFC I can't stay too long away from the two of them hahaha

[beif0ngs]

ONE PIECE ENDING 19 || Raise by Chilli Beans

#One Piece #opgraphics #Straw Hat Pirates #Trafalgar Law #Eustass Kid #Bepo #Killer #Nekomamushi #Carrot #Marco the Phoenix #etc. #*mine #man how LONG has it been since we got a new OP ending?! #anyway i loved the animation for the new ED~ #and it's so cute to see all these little interactions between the characters

[thethoriumreactor]

more radio demon cause why not (cause I love him)

Not very proud of this one, but I’m sick and I feel like absolute shit and I can’t really be bothered to work on it anymore so there u go

Bonus close ups with and without glitch effect

#Hopefully next post will be some nice radioapple #Praying for motivation #Once again this little man got me to open my drawing app for the first time in too long #thorium.art #hazbin hotel fanart #hazbin hotel #alastor #alastor hazbin hotel #alastor the radio demon #radio demon #the radio demon #hazbin hotel alastor #hazbin alastor #hazbin art

[dervampireprince]

something about being ruined. not just fucked or teased or even used, but ruined. someone making you unable to think, unable to speak, just moaning and twitching and leaving you unable to ever be satisfied for anyone else, anything else, always needing them, craving them, every hour of the day, being unable to control your arousal anymore, how wet you get, how hard you get, how flushed you become, all because they’ve ruined you.

#the vampire writes #iiiiiii hadnt been hypersexual in so long and then i got back into ann old fandom and look i just voices okay so like voices right voices #nsft #nsftumblr #nsft concept #nsft fantasy #nsft writing #ftm nsft #mlm nsft #nblm nsft #t4t nsft #trans nsft #trans man nsft #transmasc nsft #lgbt nsft #bi nsft

[eternallovers65]

Moments in Charles Leclerc that are so insane I wish I made it up but can't, because this stuff can only happen to him

- When his watch got stolen and he decided to CHASE the guy with his custom ferrari 488 pista

- When his former girlfriend got locked out of the apartment and he wasn't answering his phone so she had to subscribe to his Twitch channel to tell him to open the door (please watch his former streams I beg)

- When he crashed Niki Lauda's 1974 ferrari during the Monaco historic grand Prix (his luck I swear)

- Every Monaco Grand Prix ever (the infamous charles leclerc curse)

- When he went to dinner with a guy, posted the picture on Instagram and it turns out it was an international criminal wanted by the Interpol

- He went to a restaurant once, handed his car to the valet and the car was out of fuel

- When he went for a run, took some photos with fans and this couple started to fight in front of him

- When he didn't realized his tiktok likes were open to the public (it was mostly fan edits of himself, baby goats, babies but mostly fan videos about himself)

- Recently, he dropped his airpods in the airport floor and decided to use this gigantic clamp to get it back

- Or just his babygirl esque nature (i love him <3)

- He accepted a ride from two strangers just because he couldn't find a cab (Arthur was also in the car!!!)

(Also, feel free to add more, please, and every time he does something so charles, i will uptade the list)

#he's so dumb i love him #idk felt the need to tell you bitches how much i love this idiot of a man #also because i saw the video of him catching the airpods and said it out loud 'stuff that could only happen with charles' #anyway this man isnt real and i love this stories so much like its so unhinged #also guys if anyone knows who did this edit please let me know i got from twitter a long tkme ago and idk who made it #charles leclerc you will always be famous #f1 #charles leclerc #scuderia ferrari