#might write some more later

[delusionalbitchinthehouse]

Thought about Ghost pirate AU instead of sleeping last night, so here are some of said thoughts (I really wanna make that a fic but i'd need to research some specific vocabulary since english isn't my first language and even in french i don't know much about how to describe ships and things like that) :

Copia is the captain of the Impera ship (how original, I know).

Cirrus and Aether are his seconds in command.

Phantom has tons of eyepatches that he decorates with shells Swiss picks for him, pearls Rain brings back from the deepest parts of the sea, shiny things Aurora gifts him, etc...

Sunshine is constantly up in the sails, swinging from ropes and masts, keeping an eye on the sea and the sky, always on the lookout for danger or opportunities.

Dew is an incredible shot, and he's very proud of it - likes to show off, though he knows when to prioritize efficiency over elegancy.

Rain is some kind of siren, and lures whichever ship the crew has eyes on toward them by singing. He usually swims after the ghouls' ship, when the sea is calm and he isn't needed on the deck.

Swiss has a variant of Rain's capacity, but without singing. He just...sort of hypnotize people just by talking. Like...enhanced charm. It wears off the longer the person is exposed to it, though, so he has to use it wisely.

Their ship is the fastest on the sea, since Cumulus and Cirrus can manipulate wind and basically give it a speed boost whenever.

Mountain's sense of orientation is impecable. As long as you have him, you're never lost. He's like a living compass. (maybe he can "sense" the lands around them to a certain extend ?)

Aether ties and unties knots in loose ropes when he's anxious (kinda like Finnick in Hunger Games) and is the medic on board.

Cirrus is a sword master. Do not challenge her in a duel, she will win.

Aurora is an explosion enthousiast. Do not let her unsupervised around canons or powder. It does come in a handy when the goal is to blow up the enemy, though.

Cumulus is a frightenigly clever strategist. Whenever a plan needs to be made, she always come up with the best, most twisted ideas. She's also in charge of drawing the maps (she's the only one with a neat handwritting).

#brain is braining #I also have ideas for the era three ghouls but it's still a bit vague #might write some more later #pirate au #nameless ghouls #swiss ghoul #dewdrop ghoul #rain ghoul #phantom ghoul #aether ghoul #mountain ghoul #sunshine ghoulette #aurora ghoulette #cirrus ghoulette #cumulus ghoulette #copia #papa emeritus iv #the band ghost

[dk-wren]

Buddy Daddies Finale Theory

I can't say what I'm really basing these thoughts on. I also am not sure if this is an actual theory or just my hopes/musings. But here we go:

Kazuki, Rei, and Miri will all make it. Kazuki or Rei might get injured, but nobody in this sweet, little family is dying on me!

However, I do think there is going to be a loss and after the end of Ep. 8, my bet is on Kyutaro (though I hope I am wrong!)

For a variety of reasons, all of which are valid, Rei, and perhaps Kazuki too, are gonna go after Shigeki and Ogino. If not outright killing them (perhaps symbolizing that Rei and Kazuki have changed and are different from them), they will somehow be out of the picture, leaving Rei as the head of the Suwa family/organization

Rei and Kazuki will continue to stay in that world or business, possibly to try and change the practices of the Suwa organization or still feeling too tied to it. So, Rei will step up to become the head of the Suwa organization, except he's doing things a little differently from his father. Rei will be handling that during the day while Miri is at school. During the same time, Kazuki will somewhat retire from missions and instead take over Yadorigi from Kyutaro, maintaining the place as both a cafe and location to exchange/gather intel. (Just let this man cook and be appreciated for his food/drinks)

Like Rei said in Ep. 8, his home is the apartment where he, Kazuki, and Miri live. And that's gonna stay the same. Their apartment will continue to be their home. Nobody is going to move to the Suwa manor and that place will instead become like an office or workspace for Rei. While they may all somewhat spend their day apart from each other, this little family always comes together at night in the apartment for dinner and family time.

.

.

.

Not fully related to the above, but also just wanted to throw my two cents into the conversation about this: I don't think we've crossed over into the present yet (or, we're still in the flashback). I feel it would explicitly be said when the show jumps back to the present or there would be overlapping events that clearly allude to the merging of the two timelines. I haven't watched a whole lot of anime, so I do not know if this is a common story technique or not and if there is like a trope or narrative device used in these situations.

I do agree, given Rei's growth and development in the relationship he has with Miri, going back and rewatching that first scene, Rei's reaction seems a little out of character now (like he still does not really care about Miri). But, and I saw a post about this earlier (sorry I forgot your @), if it's not actually Miss Anna calling, and instead Kyutaro or someone else with the voice changer, this could explain Rei's response. If this call is being made to lure Kazuki and Rei into a trap, and Miri does not actually have a runny nose or fever (I kinda forgot the specifics), then Rei's seemingly unfazed or uncaring reaction could be him simply trying to appease Kazuki's overprotective papa dramatics. Rei's "I guess" could be he truly didn't notice anything wrong with Miri because nothing is, she's just being used as bait. Regardless of the how the organization gets its info on Kazuki and Miri, they will know how much she means to both of them and what they are willing to do for her. That is why calling them and saying Miri is not in outright trouble or danger, but simply needs the love and help of her papas will quickly draw them to wherever the organization wants them.

I could be completely wrong, but just some of my thoughts about how the rest of the season may play out. I think the wait for next week's episode is gonna be a lot harder for me than previous waits.

#buddy daddies #buddy daddies theory #buddy daddies potential spoilers? #kazuki kurusu #rei suwa #miri unasaka #too many incoherent thoughts #might write some more later #late night babblings #might delete later

[yuri-is-online]

Traditional fantasy isekai au where:

Yuu is isekaid to Twisted Wonderland as a child, in a setting that's hundreds of years before the main game, and is adopted by a family there. Maybe Grim is a normal cat that came with them and gained the ability to talk and do magic out of a desire to protect his best friend. They grow up and train as a soldier of some sort out of gratitude to their adoptive parents to protect them, eventually leaving their place with Grim in search of adventure depending on where they landed:

City of Flowers! Yuu who was raised by the people who lived in the Court of Miracles and wants to get a job with the city guard to help fight for the rights of their adoptive home. They're helped by a friend they made as a child, the son of well respected parents who came to heavily rely on Yuu after the loss of his younger brother. Now a well respected legal student with his eye on a judge's seat, Rollo is hiding a deadly secret: he is a powerful mage and you are one of the only people who knows. He's also desperately in love with you and at real risk of going insane if something bad happens to the one good thing he has left in his life.

Land of Dawning! Yuu who hunts monsters along the coast line and finds a badly beaten merfolk on the beach and patches him up without a single thought. The man scolds them when he wakes, wondering why Yuu is so unafraid of what he could do to them now that he's awake only to be met with a shrug and a warning that poachers much less kind than Yuu are in the area who see non typical mer such as himself as monsters. Yuu happens to have a bounty for them. Oya? Jade says he's quite aware of that and what's more, they have his brother and a dear friend. Won't you continue to assist this poor, unfortunate soul in rescuing the only family he has left in this world? He doesn't have anything to pay you with. Something about his attitude makes you roll your eyes but so long as you don't have to split the bounty four ways you say you'll help. Pleasure doing business with you he says, and you both go to sleep that night confident you won't get attached to the other at all by the time the job's done.

Clock Town! Yuu who used to be picked on for not having any magic by the delinquent gangs only to find themselves in a party with one of the worst of the worst torn between being hurt Deuce doesn't remember making fun of them or impressed with how determined he is to turn his life around vs Deuce who absolutely remembers but has no idea how to appropriately apologize so he just makes it his mission to bring you home from every mission unscathed, even if it's at the cost of his own health. He swears he'll say it eventually, he just needs to find a way to not make an ass of himself by saying something stupid like he loves you.

Farm Kid! Yuu who gets recruited by Ace for his party because he literally can't get anyone other than you and Deuce and ends up being the glue that holds it together. Ace is dumbfounded as he watches you successfully recruit Jack, Epel, Ortho, and even Sebek without much trouble and hates himself for ever thinking about abandoning you as soon as he got better party members. Yuu who knows that's what he wanted to do from the start and resigns themselves to him leaving when Riddle makes his offer only for Ace to stay with Ramshackle Party because he's "too busy looking after them" to be a card soldier, hiding the burns on his hands from when he punched the Arch Mage for insulting you. He can surpass Riddle's party on his own any day.

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #jade leech x reader #decue spade x reader #twst x reader #rollo flamme x reader #writing is slow have some thoughts to indulge with #meh might come up with more later #fantasy au #you can send asks about this if you wish ill just be a bit slow to answer them

[senblades]

OKAY OKAY OKAY SO HEAR ME OUT

Akechi as a Velvet Room attendant au- but he effectively replaces Caroline and Justine in Ren's Velvet Room.

So basically: During one of Wakaba's questionable experiments, Akechi dies, and Yaldabaoth is like "Fuck, I can work with this" and scoops up Akechi's soul into the Velvet Room to act as Ren's attendants when the time comes. The whole 'splitting in half' thing was barely even Yaldy's doing in this au- Akechi's personas were already Robin Hood and Loki, so when he was dragged into the Velvet Room post-death, he manifested as two seperate entities.

Back in the real world, Wakaba's reaction essentially boils down to "shit", since she just murdered a child by mistake. Shido would normally be very upset by this, but he instead decides to make it work, and instead of having Wakaba killed, he blackmails her into complete compliance by holding her ethical malpractice over her head. Somewhat unsure as to the state of the mental shutdowns- definitely no psychotic breakdowns, though.

Meanwhile, in regard to other canon divergences- Futaba doesn't have a palace, but is quite upset with her mother due to how obsessed she is with her research, especially since all the stuff with Akechi. (Futaba is unaware of all this, for the most part)

Wakaba, on the other hand, does have a palace. Perhaps focused on guilt +deflecting blame?

Sae's role in the story is fairly similar, but rather than being on the mental shutdowns case (She might still be on the case, but it isn't her focus/leads into what she's actually interested in) She's obsessed with Akechi's missing person's case, since she noticed it two years ago and how suspicious it is, and is furious that no one seems to care, a concequence of Shido's influence and the general poor treatment of orphans.

So, yeah. Brainworms. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#persona #persona 5 #goro akechi #sae niijima #wakaba isshiki #Velvet room attendant au #might write some stuff for this later honestly #Or draw some more stuff ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[cowboycatss]

the true lives of the fabulous umm.. um. catjoys.. kittyjoys… no the furbulous ??killjoys?? the mew lives of th

#danger days #ddttlotfk #my art #i feel like they Should have their own tag atp but we’ll figure her out later idk #i got too lazy to write out what everyone is i am a Phone and Finger artist it hurts to write too much 😞 #poison is a swirl tabby #kobra: flamepoint oriental shorthair #the girl: selkirk rex #cherri: somali #jet: laperm but I might also change to selkirk bc i think he’s got more of that vibe in the design #ghoul: seal point #the witch is some fucked up Cheshire Cat type nonsense /j #anyway. Behold the worlds worst danger days au #cat days

[becauseplot]

i think it could be really fun to write a crowmonster!philza and warrior!etoiles au for the soul purpose of writing their little "sparring" matches where instead of beating each other with sticks it's just etoiles wrestling his big ol dragon-esque monster friend. etoiles clinging onto phil's back/tail feathers as phil tries to buck him off. phil holding etoiles in his beak and shaking him around like a chew toy. etoiles hooking an arm/rope around phil's throat and phil doing this great big dramatic roaring cry as he stumbles and flops onto his back and "dies", talons in the air, twitching, also crushing etoiles in the process. everyone else looking on with bewildered concern as phil seems to be gnawing etoiles' arm off and etoiles is just lying there declaring deadpan, "ohhh no he is too strong, the monster has defeated me, he is killing me, it is so slow and painful, i am dying, ggs bro, ggs." (<-he is perfectly fine, phil is only play-mauling)

other fun points:

phil tossing etoiles around in the air like he weighs literally nothing

etoiles pinning one of phil's wing-arms behind his back like its no big deal

etoiles ripping out some of phil's feathers during one of their play fights and phil freezing mid-thrash just to shoot him the flattest, most offended look to ever come from a non-human creature

phil accidentally going too far and ripping up etoiles' shoulder and phil just becoming the biggest, most whimpery apologetic mass of feathers and spikes as etoiles pats his beak and tells him it's no problem, it doesn't even hurt that bad (and phil just wails louder)

both of them nudging/bugging/poking each other when they're bored to goad the other into a play fight, with varying degrees of success

#codebreakers #qsmp philza #qsmp etoiles #i would write a fic i just gotta figure out some more plot #and like a setting #and you know literally everything else you need to write a story #i might add more later for now i have to force myself away to go study #dont mind me im just rambling #i also take suggestions dont be shy pspspspps come brainrot with me #crowmonster phil au

[lord-squiggletits]

The reason this fandom hates IDW Optimus isn't because he's a cop (plenty of people are fine with Prowl) or because he's a bastard (most characters in IDW are) but because he commits the crime of being an actual person who's messy, flawed, and makes a shitload of high stakes mistakes fitting for the intense situations and pressure he's put under constantly.

But we can't have Optimus actually react to his situations by lashing out or being unpleasant, no, he has to have the personality of a cardboard cutout of G1 whose only defining personality traits are "dad, funny, nice," and if he ever vents negative emotions it can only ever be #relatable depression or him being sad on his own without ever letting it show during the important parts of the story. If Optimus dares do things like be angry or frustrated or bitter it's just a sign that he's a bastard and LITERALLY the worst Optimus ever. If Optimus ever makes mistakes or does wrong things in the heat of anger/frustration/stress it's because he's just an evil bastard with no redeeming traits.

God forbid Optimus go through an unending gauntlet of war, politics, atrocities, near-complete loneliness, and a seemingly endless cycle of violence for his entire life and come out of it kind of bitter, angry, and tired of dealing with people's shit. He's not allowed to be a realistic person, context doesn't matter, sympathy doesnt matter. IDW Optimus doesn't fulfill the fandom's fantasies of Father Figure or Perfect Cultural Icon or Twinky Fucktoy and since that's the only reason most people care about Optimus in general, the fandom collectively trashes on IDW OP.

All because he can't fit into the overly simplified and childlike double standard the fandom has where if any other character is messy and flawed, that's good writing and interesting and compelling, but if OPTIMUS is messy and flawed, he's Literally The Worst and he's an asshole for no other reason than He Sucks, context be damned

#squiggposting #ive been here too long and seen the same shit too many times #i'm tired of going 'maybe it's just a difference in taste' nope #the issue is literally just double standards and people not reading the text or taking things out of context #and the worst part is if this were just something OP haters did i would get it #after all if you just dont like OP then of course you arent gonna find anything interesting or compelling #but i see this shit from literally other MOP fans who supposedly love M and OP #but their OP takes are shit and i can count the no. of people who write IDW OP on one hand #i kind of thought that at least among other OP fans there would be deeper readings but if anything it's worse #fandom OP content is 50% haha funny dad jokes g1 knockoff OP and 50% yaoi uke twink sad baby OP #so unimaginative. so fucking boring. so immature #to style yourselves some sort of mature TF fans and then viciously reject the One OP who #dared to be written a little darker and more flawed than any others #it's literally just people refusing to give a chance to any nuanced take on OP #they just want him to be There and Nice and for his biggest flaw to be Being Annoying About Equality or something #might delete later might not

[coyoteclan]

Big TW for pet loss

Hey, clangen tumblr and those who just enjoy the silly cats on this blog. I know it's been a little bit of time since my last update, but unfortunately during the past few months, I have been caring for my closest friend, Comet.

She's been my best friend for 15 whole years, and on February 9th of 2024, I'm sad to say that she has passed. I won't lie when I say that this is one of the hardest posts I've ever made, but I want to continue this blog in her honor. Normally, I have a terrible habit of just letting projects like this slip by me and gather dust; however Comet was meant to play an integral part within the blog to immortalize her, and I refuse to let something meant just for her to go to waste.

I want to thank you all first of all for being such an amazing community. I've genuinely had so much joy come of this blog, and it pains me that I let it go stagnant for as long as I have. There are 568 of you now, which is so extremely wild to me; but I hope that from now on, you can all love Comet as much as I did, even if as a memory.

I hope to return to posting content both here and on my main, @mxssacre , but for now I still need time to grieve and come to terms with the loss of someone that was so incredibly intertwined with everything I've done since I was 9 years old.

Thank you for everything Comet, my heart, my soul, my love.

More of my favorite photos of her beneath the cut.

It's hard to choose favorites out of the thousands of photos I've taken of her over the years, but I hope these do her justice to show what an amazing being she was. I hope you're hunting your toy mice in the stars, Comet.

#Yeah this is a not so great post I'm sorry #I won't lie to y'all I've been sobbing my eyes out for the past week but it's helping me come to terms to write about her #I wanted to draw something for her in order to post this but ngl I just can't right now #I will be okay for the record. it's just an extremely difficult adjustment for me and I really do love this community #Seriously though. I've seen the hundreds of notifications I get from this blog weekly. I cannot thank you enough for the love I've felt #tw animal death #tw pet death #tw pet loss #I'm not sure exactly how to tag this but I hope the warning at the beginning helps #I literally finished writing a memorial for her before writing this post so clearly I'm a little in my feels lmao #I tried finding some of her sillier photos to add but there are so many. I might post more on my main later when I try figuring out- #-my memorial tattoo #hug your cats extra tight for me ❤

[domoz]

AU that’s been bouncing around in my head for a bit.

One day, at the end of fall, the Senju clan disappears.

Truth be told, they don't know long it's been before they realize. The Senju tend to go on the defensive when it's harvest season, and that usually extends into a quiet winter, at least for as long as Hashirama has been clan head. The lack of aggressive border patrols doesn't raise anyone's alarm.

No, the first word they get at something being wrong comes from a civilian woman, of all places. The kind that show up occasionally to beg the nearest shinobi clan for some charity.

Her village has been all but held hostage by bandits, she tells them, and she'd gone to the Senju who were closer, only --

Only no one had been there.

It seems like an obvious trap at first, and if not that, then perhaps the woman had just come across some abandoned place and mistaken it for the Senju village; Shinobi aren't so easy to find without a guide, after all, and the Senju especially keep themselves secreted away in the woods like animals.

Eventually they'd told her they'd look into it, just as soon as they'd figured out what had happened with the Senju.

Madara insisted on leading the scouting group himself, and he stopped in his tracks as soon as he stepped onto the other side of the river. Looked up and down the tree line with wild eyes, sharingan briefly spinning into a Mangekyo that set the rest of the squad on edge.

"There's…It's nothing. And that means something's wrong." Was all he explained before demanding they move onward.

Izuna didn't understand what he meant until they were much deeper into the forest. There is nothing wrong, no hairs on the back of his neck rising, no feeling of being watched -- and there always is, this deep in Senju territory. Related to the Mokuton, he thinks, so it was no wonder that Madara had noticed first.

So -- something happened to their clan head, Izuna reasons. Perhaps the Senju closed their compound in mourning and redirected the woman elsewhere. It's a reasonable enough explanation, but Madara won't settle until he knows for certain, so he stands by his brother's side and follows him deeper into the woods.

It wasn't as though he was wrong. Something had happened to Hashirama, and the rest of his clan with him.

The gates to the compound are closed, but there are no patrols on the walls, and no traps set on the perimeter to slow their approach. Izuna can't help the sick anxiety twisting up his throat. This has to be bait, something to lure them into a false sense of security and their eventual deaths. Nothing else makes sense.

But a glimpse over the wall show no signs of life inside. No people moving around, no laundry drying on the line, not even any noren fluttering in the wind -- for some reason they've all been taken down, leaving the compound dead and motionless.

The dread only mounts as they make their way over the wall and deeper inside. The houses are empty, stripped down to the floor mats. A few traps have been left behind, but not the dangerous ones Izuna had imagined. Just small scale things, meant to keep intruders out of the abandoned buildings. Easily disarmed, but that only adds to the unease.

They will go back and do a thorough search later, but the only clue, from out of every empty room, every cleared out cellar, every spot of turned dirt where it looked as though even some trees were taken, is in the main square. A circle of soot, smudged and stained deep into the stone. The remains of a seal that was used over and over again, already dissolved and unreadable.

The Senju must have used it. Or it must have done something to them. But what, no one has any idea. ---

The Uchiha never do quite manage to celebrate the disappearance of their enemy. Some do, and some are so clearly relived that the threat is gone, but as winter goes on the feeling that settles across the clan is one of dread. It is one part fear, not knowing what's happened to them, and one part worry about the future. Their entire lives and the lives of their ancestors are filled with memories of their war with the Senju. If they're gone, if it's over, what comes next?

Madara doesn't believe it is. Cannot accept that they are just -- gone. He gets more involved with their spy network than he ever has before hunting for a hint, and writes the daimyo informing him of the Senju's disappearance, hoping that he will get some answer when the thinly veiled request for dominion over those lands is inevitably rejected.

If your words and the rumors I have heard are true, the reply says, Then I see no reason not to accept the claim your clan has held on those lands.

Convenient, that he only acknowledges it now.

Izuna, for his part, settles on an anger that ebbs and flows between scalding rage and petty annoyance. How dare the Senju avoid the revenge that the Uchiha, that Izuna is owed.

He never lets himself slack off in training during the winter, and despite the circumstances this year is no exception. The Senju are tricky. If that mark was a seal, then Tobirama is no doubt responsible. They'll be back, probably at the most inopportune moment, but he'll be ready. ---

It hadn't been so bad, over the winter. There were normally less fights then, anyways, and they'd gotten by whole seasons without skirmishes before. But in the thaw of spring, somehow the anxiety only coils tighter.

Normally this was when they started finding Senju summons tracking their movements. When they'd inevitably get called into opposing sides under for some noble's border dispute and reignite conflict all over again.

Not this year. Somehow, the trees are quieter even on their side of the river. He shivers, when he realizes, but Izuna refuses to think about just how much of what he'd been used to had been the result of Hashirama's bloodline.

There are more missions than normal, true, but it hardly helps things. Their goal was the defeat the Senju, and denied that --

Some want to start picking new fights already, with old Senju allies. Izuna can't say he disagrees, though he knows it's unwise to do without good reason. Anyone who might have been easy to pick off has already scattered banded together with someone else.

Madara has started drinking more often. Izuna doesn't comment. He knows his brother is far from the only one.

(He's reviewed his memories, over and over, he tells Izuna, but the last time he'd seen them nothing had seemed different. It had been on a battlefield, and Hashirama had shouted for peace, had asked what he needed to do to convince him, and Madara had refused to answer, like always. If that had been an ultimatum, shouldn't there have been more?)

(Izuna has looked over his memories, too, but the only difference in Tobirama that day had been darker bags than usual under his eyes.)

Izuna can't stand the mood around the compound; half of his clan mates are acting more like their lover has died than their enemy. He takes those extra missions, and he goes. And keeps going, for days, for weeks,sometimes only staying home for hours at a time because as long as he's on a mission, he doesn't have to think about it. ---

It's a coastal town in Hot Water country, and Izuna spots a face that he attacks on instinct -- no care for the fact that they're in a public market -- his heart is busy singing not dead, not gone even as he lunges for the throat of the one who made him think it with a kunai.

It's a sloppy move, admittedly. One that Tobirama catches with an unimpressed glare.

"Must you?" He asks.

"Yes!" Izuna cries, dancing back from a returning blow that -- does not come. His breath is coming in heaves, though the fight is hardly started. He's too exited, and that means he'll get sloppy, but Tobirama isn't even in his armor right now, he's dressed down looking all the world like he's grocery shopping, so it might be even.

"You were fucking gone." Izuna accuses, "Don't think I'm about to let you get away without payback for all the lives you've taken."

Tobirama glances at the crowd that's started to form around them -- stupid move, but they haven't started pulling out flashy shinobi moves yet so they probably just think they're about to see a street fight.

"Figures." Tobirama mumbles. "It's been months already. Haven't you started to see the benefits of peace?"

Izuna sneers, draws his sword and lunges, but for some infuriating reason Tobirama is focused only on dodging, not fighting back. He seems -- disappointed, almost, which only makes it worse. How is he supposed to explain that he hasn't, that without the enemies they've all been born and raised to kill, his clan has started to stagnate into something hopeless and pathetic.

Tobirama catches sword against a sleeved kunai with a clang and holds it there.

"Consider that we've had to give up our vendettas against you, too, in doing this." He says, "Just… Move on. It'll be better for everyone."

An odd look passes over his face, one Izuna will replay in his memory over and over and still not understand.

"Goodbye, Izuna."

A crack of thunder breaks through the sunny afternoon air, and Tobirama Senju is gone, like the rest of his clan, without a trace.

As if Izuna intends on letting it stay that way.

#oops! no writing tag #naruto blog for naruto things #tobirama senju #izuna uchiha #basically the idea is just: how would the uchiha deal if their collective rivals just up and disappeared #My answer: not great! especially not at first #this idea might appear later in some other fic of mine idk. ive been toying with it but havent gotten the idea to mature more than this

[artist-rat]

grabbing my da ocs to give them an og story in an og setting. testing some new looks. barbie meme is the first thing i draw

this has been my announcement

#a bit late to the party but believe me i drew this like a day or two after the posters/screenshots dropped lol #ANYWAY memes aside #pleas believe me im taking this seriously<3 #probably will be posting more stuff abt this later when we get more worldbuilding and character designing done hehee #but the name of the setting and/or the work title is Parhelion :) #these are just my v first take on these two as well #just vibing #. also altering at least some character names to separate what stuff is da and what's not and to suit finnish better bc #my sister might plan to write it all into a story/stories one day (in finnish) :p #(i mean i wrote Hawk here but in finnish it would/will be Haukka) #they're kinda the same characters but also kinda not... YAKNOW? removed from their original setting and while we want to keep some things #a lot of stuff's obv bound to change #oc: telital #oc: rene/haukka #setting: parhelion

[astrobei]

happy birthday @andiwriteordie !! love you to the ends of the earth and back <3 here’s a ficlet for a fun little idea we were talking about: au where bob never dies and mike gets a part time job at the radio shack

Mike takes a deep breath, clutching tighter at the piece of paper in his hand. It’s a windy fall afternoon, and it would really suck if after all this– scrounging up a barebones résumé, sitting through one hundred and one interview questions with Nancy over the phone, gritting his teeth and listening to his dad give him the go-getter talk– said résumé blew away in the breeze and ruined all his chances at a halfway decent job before he even walked through the door.

It’s only a part-time position anyway, and Mike’s never really been one for nerves in situations like this– public speaking, parent-teacher conferences, so on. But this feels different, somehow. He glances up at the bright red letters above his head, large and cartoonish against the beige of the storefront, and exhales. Radio Shack. 

It’s just computers. He can do this. He knows computers. Kind of. He also knows–

The bell above the door jingles slightly as he walks in, and at first glance, the store looks empty. It makes sense– it’s three o’clock on a Wednesday, and anyone who isn’t at work is definitely too young to be perusing a Radio Shack in their downtime.

“Can I help you?”

Mike spins around. There’s a guy maybe his dad’s age in the corner, wearing a uniform vest and a wholly unimpressed look on his face. Mike straightens up and tries his hardest to not look like an overly suspicious teenager who’s up to no good, but the man’s expression does not change. 

“Um,” he says, “I’m looking for Bob Newby? If he’s here?”

The man– Daryl, Mike thinks, squinting at the name tag– frowns. “Bob’s in the back. Any reason you’re asking for him?”

“I’m here about the Help Wanted sign? Um. My friend’s mom is friends with him and said you guys were looking for a– well, I’m only sixteen so I can’t work here, like, nine to five, but– yeah,” he finishes, a bit lamely, and Daryl raises his eyebrows.

“Hm.”

“So,” Mike tries again. “If he’s around…”

If his dad could see him now, he’d probably have a heart attack at how Mike is being exactly the opposite of assertive and confident and all of that bull. “Yeah, I’ll go grab him,” Daryl sighs, then gives Mike a contemplative look. “You know anything about radios?”

“I know some,” Mike huffs, because he wasn’t the president of AV Club for nothing, okay, and he wouldn’t even be applying here if he didn’t. Who does this guy think he is?

“Sure,” Daryl says, then disappears into the back room.

There’s a minute of silence, where Mike studies the display up at the front of the store, listening to the faint sound of U2 playing from the store’s speakers, and then there’s the soft creaking of a door opening. 

“Hey!” someone calls, and Mike turns around.

He hasn’t seen Bob in a few years– not since he and Mrs. Byers broke it off– but they’re very obviously on good terms. According to Will, anyway. He looks mostly the same as he did back then, maybe a little more gray in his hair, but the same cheery smile. He’s got on the same uniform vest as Daryl, a nametag. Maybe a couple more lines by his eyes.

“Hi,” Mike starts, a bit uncertainly. “It’s me. Um. Mike Wheeler. Will’s friend. Will is– well, you know Will,” he finishes, all very fast and with none of the professional decorum that his dad and Nancy both pleaded with him to have. 

Bob just laughs. “I do. And of course I remember you, Mike,” he says, then gestures Mike over to the desk at the front of the store, near the register. “I heard you're here about the job?”

“Um, yes.” Mike looks down at the sheet of paper in his hand, a bit wrinkled from how tight he’d been gripping it outside, and frowns. Mike Wheeler, it reads up at the top, and not much else, because he’s sixteen, and AV Club probably counts as some sort of leadership thing, but– “Will told me that his, um. His mom said that I should– you know.”

“Okay,” Bob says simply. Then, not even glancing at Mike’s pathetic excuse for a résumé, “How soon can you start?”

Mike blinks. “Um. Technically tomorrow, I think,” he starts, “but don’t you need to, like, interview me? Or something?”

At this, Bob looks up and smiles gently. “Mike. You knew BASIC at thirteen. You’re a great kid, so the job’s yours if you want it.”

“Oh. Oh! Well, yeah, I’d love to– yeah!”

“Great! You have school until– two-thirty? Three?”

“Two.”

“I’ll see you here at three tomorrow,” Bob smiles. “We can get you oriented with things, start your training. Bread and butter, so it won’t be too exciting, I’m afraid, but–”

“No!” Mike interrupts, feeling a sudden rush of relief. “No, that’s okay, I’ll be here. Um. Thanks, Bob.”

For some reason, Bob’s smile softens. “Excited to have you here, Mike. I’m glad you came by.”

—

So Mike has a job now. Which is– you know,  nice, but it’s still a job, so it’s not like Mike would come in on a Saturday when he didn’t have to, or choose to be here instead of, like, hanging out with his friends or something. But as far as high school employment goes, Mike figures he probably got a pretty good deal out of it, compared to the poor souls from his history class working at the McDonald’s down the street. Here, there’s no grease and there are no fryer burns, and there’s no embarrassing uniform or visor hat. It’s just one blessedly simple vest and a name tag that says Mike, because the idea of people coming in and calling him Michael made him want to throw something.

Plus, it’s fun. Maybe Mike is a little biased, because he’s him, but it’s fun. It really is. Four hours a day, three days a week, Mike is surrounded by gadgets and gizmos and exactly the sort of stuff that would have made twelve-year-old him burst into happy tears. He can picture it now, if he’d gotten his hands on one of these radios back in middle school– he would have been really annoying about it, maybe, but it would’ve been awesome.

So it’s fun. He’s having a good time, and he’s also getting paid, which is a nice little bonus, and it’s a few extra hours each week that he doesn’t have to be in the house, which is an extra little bonus, so that’s cool.

“Check out these headphones,” Bob whispers to him on an especially slow Thursday afternoon. It’s late November, and Mike’s been working here maybe a month, maybe a little more. The store is quiet and he’s just clocked in when Bob rushes over with a plastic-sealed box and an ecstatic grin on his face.

Mike shrugs his backpack off and drops it onto the floor behind the register before leaning in. “Whoa. Those are headphones? They look so–”

Well, the first word that popped into his head was fancy, but that’s maybe not the most professional word to be using here. Whatever.

“New releases in stock tomorrow,” Bob announces, “just in time for Christmas sales. Now look,” he continues, peeling the box open, “this one’s for the display, but I thought you might want to check it out before I locked it up.”

“Please,” Mike grins, already bouncing back on his heels in excitement. The headphones are more sleek than the ones he has right now, a birthday gift from a few years ago, already battered from overuse. They’re all shiny black metal, the cushions around the ears softer and larger than his own. He looks over at Bob, who’s wrestling with the display stand. “Can I touch?”

“You break it, you buy it,” Bob calls back, and Mike laughs.

“Deal.” He lifts it up with one hand. They’re heavy, solid, cool. Mike has never wanted something more in his entire life. “Whoa.”

“Cool, right?”

“So do I, like, get a pair for free, or…”

“Nice try,” Bob laughs, adjusting the hinges on the display stand. “You get your regular paychecks and your employee discount, but that’s all I can swing you, I’m afraid.”

Mike blinks. “I get an employee discount?”

“Hm, maybe I shouldn’t have said that. Could’ve roped you into paying full price.”

“Stop,” Mike says, a smile breaking out over his face. “I get an employee discount? Seriously?”

Bob lifts the headphones up and out of his hands, setting them down carefully on the stand. “You seriously didn’t know? Of course you do, Mike, every employee gets a discount.”

“I didn’t think that counted for fancy stuff,” Mike admits. “I thought that only counted on, like, remote batteries and stuff like that.”

“You get fifteen off the whole store,” Bob tells him. “So, you know, if you wanted to get yourself a Christmas present–”

Mike does. Mike really, really wants to get himself a Christmas present. “Hey, so what are your overtime policies for minors again?”

“Nice try. I’m going to finish setting this up, but I think someone’s coming in,” Bob announces, flashing Mike a you got this smile before slinking away into the back room.

“Anything for the headphones,” Mike says under his breath, then looks over to the door. “Hi, welcome to Radio Shack, how can I– oh. It’s just you.”

“Just me?” Will gasps in mock affront, winding his way through shelves of spare parts and batteries until he’s standing in front of Mike, across the register. “Rude.”

“You know what I mean.” Mike rolls his eyes, but he’s smiling anyway. “You’re taking up all the time I could be using to woo customers and break big on my next paycheck.”

“Why the sudden interest in the paycheck?” Will inquires, swinging his backpack onto the floor so it’s bumping against Mike’s. “You never cared about that before.”

“Excuse you! I am a working man,” Mike says, even as he bumps bodily into one shelf with his hip, sending the radios on display rattling. “Shit– oh no, wait–”

“Very professional,” Will laughs, then he perches atop the chair behind the register and pulls out his physics textbook.

“Shut up,” Mike mutters, looking over the dials to make sure that everything is still plugged in and good to go. “You– get out of my chair, you don’t even work here!”

“Mike?” comes a voice from the back room, and then Bob’s poking his head back out with a small frown. “What was– oh, hi Will!”

“Hi Bob,” Will says with a cursory smile and wave. It’s polite, but a little bit awkward just like every time Will comes to visit Mike at work. Mike figures there’s no way around that awkwardness, because it’s probably a law of the universe that it’s going to be kind of awkward to see your ex-girlfriend’s son, who you saw in a mind-controlled fugue state before he released a bunch of monsters through an interdimensional portal and almost killed you.

But because Bob is Bob, and doesn’t have a resentful bone in his body, he seems to like Will just fine.

Everybody likes Will. Mike thinks it would be hard not to. In a completely unbiased way, of course.

“How are your classes going?” Bob asks, just like he does every time Will comes by.

“They’re okay,” Will replies, just like he always does whenever Bob asks. Mike bites his lip to hold back laughter, because every time they have this exchange, all he can think about is the time Will told him about Bob’s Dracula costume with the fake teeth and couldn’t finish describing it without bursting into laughter. Mike hadn’t thought the Dracula costume was too funny– more predictable and boring than anything, if you asked him– but he did like watching Will laugh like that, all red-faced and giggling until he teared up.

“Physics is really kicking my ass this year,” Will is saying, holding up the textbook he’s already started to splay open on the counter.

Mike raises an eyebrow. Their exchange usually doesn’t get this far. “Oh, I loved physics,” Bob says, a bit absentmindedly, as he brings out the display stand again, now complete with a fully decked-out set of headphones. “It was one of my favorite subjects in high school.”

“Lucky,” Will mutters, squinting down at the pages. “I hate it.”

“It’s not so bad,” Mike says without thinking, tinkering with one of the dials that had gotten messed up when he knocked the radio over. “It’s just math.”

“Yeah, and I don’t like math either,” Will laughs, “in case you forgot.”

“I think if I told you two I also liked math, then you’d shove me into a locker or something,” Bob remarks with a laugh. “Is that– do kids still do that? Shove each other into lockers?”

“Sometimes,” Mike and Will say simultaneously, then they glance at each other and immediately look away before they start laughing again.

“Sometimes,” Mike says, as Will stares resolutely down at his textbook again and bites back a grin. “We both got shoved into lockers so– I’d say yeah, kind of.”

He waits for– okay, he isn’t sure what he’s waiting for, but it feels like it should be pity, maybe, or a frown, or some generic adult response like Hey! That’s not cool! Bob doesn’t do any of those things, though. He pulls a face and says, “I know the feeling.”

“What– you?” Bob is an adult, which seems so far removed from petty teenage social hierarchies and hallway fistfights that it’s kind of funny, but also–

“Mike, I was the founder of AV Club. The founder. Meaning that I was such a big loser that I came up with a club that no one had even thought of before.”

“Hey!” Mike protests. “I was president of AV Club!”

Bob just smiles. “Don’t you have a job to be doing, Mike?”

—

So yeah. He’s got a job, and it’s nice, and it’s fun, and only part of the reason it’s nice and fun is because Will Byers comes to hang out with him after school while waiting for Joyce to finish up her shift at Melvald’s across the plaza.

Really, that’s only part of it! 

“I can’t believe thirteen-year-old me thought I’d be cool in high school,” Mike laughs one day. Cool is maybe a stretch, because he’s sure he knew, even then, that cool was something that would always be a little out of his reach. “I thought I’d grow out of my ham radio phase at least.”

“I did too,” Bob says thoughtfully, digging around for a new set of batteries. “And now I’m the general manager of a Radio Shack. I’d say I’m doing alright.”

“Maybe GM of a Radio Shack is in my future too,” Mike ponders aloud. It’s a thought he’s had before, of course, but not like this, exactly. In his mind, his future is daunting, claustrophobic in its proximity. His father’s wheedling about business school, law school– something, anything that could put food on the table. 

The thought terrifies him to his core in a way he can’t really place. Ted Wheeler hadn’t been like Mike in school– pushed over on the playground, tripped, threatened to jump off a cliff or see his best friend hurt in front of his eyes. He hadn’t been Steve Harrington either. Mostly, his father had been nobody. A nobody who married the most popular girl in her grade, a nobody who comes home to a family he barely knows, a nobody who works a job he doesn’t like and pretends like that’s something Mike should want too.

He doesn’t want that. Of course he doesn’t want that. But he’s not sure what the options are, for people like him. The nerdy guys, the losers, the ones sporting scabbed chins and broken arms all throughout middle school, the Bob Newbys of Hawkins, Indiana. The–

He chances a glance over to the corner. Will is sitting at a table there instead of up at the register for a change, because he’s got actual homework to do and Mike’s got a job to be slaving away at. He studies Will’s frown as he stares down his umpteenth physics problem of the day, the way he chews lightly on the eraser of his pencil.

People like him, Mike thinks, the nerds and the losers and the–

“Whoa,” Bob chuckles, and Mike glances back down to see that he’s been trying to screw in the back of the battery pack in way past the allotted tightness. “Someone’s a little distracted.”

“Sorry!” Mike puts the screwdriver down. “Sorry, sorry, I was just– thinking.”

“Must have been something interesting to get you all spaced out like that,” Bob points out, raising an eyebrow. “What’s on your mind?”

Mike glances up again. Will is looking at him already, this time, a bit inquisitively, and Mike feels his face turn ever-so-slightly warm at being caught. Will smiles, raises a teasing hand like hey.

“Oh, nothing,” Mike says, but it comes out distracted, a bit faint. Bob follows his gaze, and Will looks away immediately, out the window. “Just– eyes got tired. You know.”

Bob does not look convinced. “Right.” He pauses, then turns the radio onto its side. “You think you can handle it from here?”

Mike stares. “What, me? Fix this? On my own?”

“It’s ham radio, Mike,” Bob says, giving him a light pat on the shoulder. “You know ham radio like the back of your hand.”

“I– yeah, I guess,” he says, picking the screwdriver back up. It’s an old model that someone brought in for repair that morning. Bob had waited until Mike got there so they could take it apart together.

Bob watches him for a couple of minutes. It’s another slow day, no general-managerial duties to be attended to. Mike focuses all his attention on the plastic and wiring in front of him– sets the disassembled pieces down in a careful row, studies them. He can hear the store’s fan running overhead, the soft rustling of Will’s pages turning from the corner of the room. The wire– he can’t figure out where this wire connects to. Mike lets out a frustrated huff. 

“Nothing,” Bob scoffs. “Amateur radio and you’re still distracted. What’s up?”

“I just,” Mike starts, sighing. “Nothing. It’s dumb.”

General Manager of a Radio Shack. Mike likes it here. He does, seriously, it’s fun and it’s nerdy and it’s the sort of thing that he’d never be able to tell people he really enjoyed without getting so much shit for it. It’s a job made for guys like him and Bob–

But that’s the thing, right– is that guys like him and Bob make do. They end up happy out of coincidence, they don’t end up in love, they need people to need them and yet they never do. No one ever needs them. Not like they might need someone else, instead.

They get love and then they lose love and then they become the General Manager of a Radio Shack and maybe things will turn out alright, and maybe not. 

“Do you ever wish things worked out differently?” Mike blurts out, and then his eyes go wide. “I mean– shit, that’s totally unprofessional– shit, I probably shouldn’t swear while I’m on the clock– I mean–”

But Bob is laughing. “It’s okay,” he says, grinning. “I hear worse stuff from our customers on the daily.”

“Right,” Mike says, probably beet-red. It would suck if this was what he got fired for. “I just meant–”

“I know what you meant,” Bob reassures him, then leans over his shoulder. “And this part should go over here, by the way. They look really similar, so I don’t blame you.”

“Right,” Mike says.

He waits.

“And–” Bob takes in a soft breath. “Sometimes things don’t turn out the way you expect. Doesn’t mean that it’s bad.”

“Right,” Mike says again, vaguely embarrassed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean– right.”

One second goes by. Two. Mike twirls the screwdriver around between his fingers and looks back at Will, who’s got his face scrunched up in some complicated, twisted expression that makes Mike want to laugh, and simultaneously want to reach over and smooth out the creases from between his eyebrows. Bob watches him with one raised eyebrow.

“You know,” he starts, and Mike’s gaze snaps back to him. “You remind me of myself, Mike.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” Mike snorts. The nerdy guys, the AV guys, the almost-had-it-but-didn’t guys.

Bob shakes his head, chuckling. “I mean, you’re a smart kid. You really are. Not many kids your age would be this excited about taking apart a radio, or– or new headphones, or programming languages.”

The nerdy guys, Mike thinks again, and suppresses a laugh. “It must be an AV thing,” he says instead.

“Sure,” Bob nods. “But if you told me– younger me, AV Club me– about you, he would’ve thought you were the coolest guy in the world.

“I– what? Really?”

“Yes, really! Look, Mike, you’re a smart kid, but you’re also– you’re stubborn and you’re creative, and you don’t take crap from anyone. You fought monsters. And you won. I didn’t have that when I was younger, and I think if I did– maybe if I did, then things would’ve turned out differently for me. God knows I could have used some of that determination. God knows I should’ve stuck to my guns more.”

Mike knows he’s stubborn, but he’s never considered that to be a good thing. It’s always been a point of frustration for people he knows– refusing to cut his hair shorter, refusing to apply to business school, refusing to do shit he doesn’t want to do. He’s never heard it referred to as something to be admired. “I guess I’m a little stubborn,” he relents, in a moment of frankly hilarious irony. “Maybe just a little.”

Bob grins at him. “There you go! I admire you for that. It’s not easy to know what you want.”

“I don’t,” Mike laughs in disbelief. “I don’t know what I want.”

“But when you do, you don’t give up,” Bob presses. “You dig your heels in and you get it, one way or another. And that’s why we’re not so similar after all.”

Mike doesn’t say anything. Guys like him and Bob– they are similar, despite all this bull about him being brave and cool and– whatever else. Guys like him– they’re the AV guys, the losers, the somebodies but in a bad way, the somebodies that nobody wants.

I admire you for that.

“Let me tell you something else,” Bob says, dropping his voice into a whisper and leaning in closer. “Joyce? Mrs. Byers? She said Jim– Chief Hopper– offered to pick Will up from school so he wouldn’t have to wait or bike home.”

“Um,” Mike says, a little lost. “Okay?”

“But Will waits for her anyway,” Bob says. “Only he doesn’t wait there, at Melvald’s. He walks across the plaza to hang out with you. And the days you’re not here, Joyce says he goes straight home after school.”

“Oh.” Mike blinks. He feels like he’s on the verge of something, here, something close. Something important. “I– okay.”

The bell over the front door jingles sharply, and Mike jumps, startled. “I– uh, the radio–”

“This piece goes right there,” Bob points out, then claps him on the shoulder again. “You work on that, and I’ll get this guy. And– Mike?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re a smart kid. Brave. Stubborn. Don’t forget that. Sometimes things don’t go the way you expect,” Bob says, a twinkle in his eye. “But sometimes that’s a good thing.”

#wrote this instead of doing my biochem hw #sorry prof #andi's bday comes first #happy bday andi u are one of my bestest friends ever and i would literally do anything for u if u just ask #love u so much i hope u like this !! #this was already sm longer than i thought so i might write a pt 2 with some more byler later bc i didn't get to include as much as i wanted #without it getting so long #anyway #byler #a little #stranger things #mike wheeler #bob newby #fic #ficlet #fun sized fics #idk what to tag this w this should do for now

[moothecowgirl]

For the last few months I have been in and out of the hospital and had my ammi there each time with accompanying me. We’ve developed a routine of sorts which consists of seating ourselves in this two chaired bench in the waiting room each time and today we did so once again. We’ve grown quite fond of this bench for a multitude of reasons but one of them being there was no arm rest as a barrier between the two spots. I could easily lay my head on her shoulder or link my arm with hers. So yes this bench has been our spot. And so sitting across from us this morning was another mother and her two maybe three year old daughter and the daughter had been resting her head in her mother’s lap with her small body curled up on the seat while her mother soothed her hair. I couldn’t help but watch them in the least creepiest way possible because there was just something about the sight that warmed my heart.

I’ve been thinking about mothers a lot recently. Today had me thinking about the times where I would lay my head on my mothers lap when I was sleepy or when she would carry me inside from the car or when she would give up her chair for little me who was feeling tired or how she would give up the last sips of her water on a hot summer day if it meant she could quench my thirst, or putting aside her own entertainment and time alone to watch me go down the slide.

There is so much sacrifice from mother to child. Since the very moment of my conception my mother has continued to give and give and give and I continued to take and take and take. It’s such an interesting relationship I think, mother and daughter. And how no matter what I do; nothing will ever amount to the sacrifice my mother has given towards me.

#I don’t really have any sort of point behind this just simply some thoughts I’ve been having #im grateful I have my mom with me in these kind of moments #I might come back later once I’ve thought about this some more #I do a lot of writing in these waiting rooms it seems #ammi-ji #m’s mind #biography blogging

[stardust-falling]

No Time for Farewells

requested by @meowmeowed on ko-fi

Fandom: SVSSS Pairing: Yue Qingyuan & Shen Jiu Summary: After already giving up hope, and resigning himself to live out the rest of his days in torment, Shen Qingqiu receives a surprising visit in the water prison. Words: 1.4k

What use was hope for the damned?

No use at all— and so, as one condemned to die, Shen Qingqiu had abandoned it long ago. That monster he had personally raised had grown and grown until its power surpassed any other power in this world, and had decided that Shen Qingqiu would remain in its clutches until he met his end— so of course it would be so.

It was only a matter of time.

Shen Qingqiu waited for that final day to come from his dark, damp cell deep within Huan Hua Palace’s water prison, because there was nothing else left for him to do.

He’d adapted to the low light, his dismal surroundings clearly visible to his one remaining eye. He’d adapted to the pain— after having both legs torn off one after the other, anything else was hardly a tickle in comparison. He’d adapted to the intense hunger and thirst, even though his cultivation had long since been destroyed, and he realized that the beast’s blood parasites alone were keeping him alive.

At a certain point, he became quite bored of the pain and the torment, and his consciousness retreated to the recesses of his own mind, his only awareness of his surroundings being a constant half-watch on the door, just to make sure that the beast wouldn’t come in and catch him off guard.

Even though Shen Qingqiu knew he was going to die, he wasn’t about to give Luo Binghe the satisfaction of seeing him break. Even if all he could do was glare with one eye, he would do so for as long as he remained conscious.

Shen Qingqiu was nothing if not stubborn.

Besides, Luo Binghe meant to torture him anyway, so it was better to make him so angry that he beat Shen Qingqiu into unconsciousness sooner rather than later. He had nothing to lose, after all, and he’d rather get it over with.

Shen Qingqiu had never considered that he might be rescued. He’d done that once before— and look where that had gotten him. Of course, this time, he’d made sure to drive that person away properly. He… had already burdened Yue Qingyuan for too long. Shen Qingqiu’s eye began to ache, so he shut it for awhile, ignoring the flashes of red and white and the burning sensation that filled it before the darkness settled in. He breathed in once, then again, the air rasping through lungs that had been damaged by his repeatedly-broken ribs, then healed messily, only to be damaged once again before the scar tissue had fully formed.

This couldn’t keep going for much longer, right?

He released a short, bitter laugh— really, it was more of a wheeze. Of course it could.

Shen Qingqiu knew he would only have the luxury of dying when Luo Binghe grew tired of him, and that… didn’t seem like it would be happening any time soon.

Time passed by— how long had it been since he’d closed his eye? He wasn’t exactly sure. Maybe he’d dozed off for a bit, at this point he didn’t much care. There was a bit of a commotion beyond the walls of his cell. He grimaced. The beast must have returned, and one or another of his subordinates must have made him angry. No doubt the remaining vestiges of that anger would soon be taken out on Shen Qingqiu’s own battered body.

Best to brace himself now, so that he could seem as unaffected as possible later.

He was too busy preparing for the pain that he didn’t notice that instead of one steady set of footsteps approaching the cell door, there were several. The gait was familiar, yet not the same sound as Luo Binghe’s— Shen Qingqiu’s mind had just begun to process this information when the cell door rattled.

He startled, his eye opening wide as he jolted himself up into a slightly-raised position, reaching to shakily brush his matted, tangled hair away from his face.

A moment passed, just the space of a single breath, but to Shen Qingqiu it felt like hours.

Then, there was a flash of brilliant white light, a sharp, high-pitched sound ringing through the air.

The door was split in two.

All of Shen Qingqiu’s senses were shorted out at once. A great, oppressive power reverberated through the space, and he felt as though he were being pushed into the ground by the weight of a mountain. His shaky arms gave out and he collapsed. That white light flooded into the cell, filling every corner, blinding him, and the shrieking sound like a thousand winter winds drowned out any other sound.

For a moment, Shen Qingqiu blacked out.

When he came to again, someone was gently holding his wrist. The hand touching him didn’t belong to Luo Binghe, but it was familiar nonetheless. Shen Qingqiu was too dazed to pull away, and when a cool feeling like a refreshing mountain stream washed over him, he went limp once again and didn’t bother trying— what was this? Why was he getting some kind of relief now, after so long in constant torment?

Had he finally lost his mind? Was he in his death throes? Or… perhaps he was just hallucinating.

He opened his eye—

Oh… of course. It had to be a hallucination.

Why else would he be seeing Yue Qingyuan’s face before him now, with that stupid concerned-and-guilty expression on his face… why would he be here? He wouldn’t even show up when Shen Qingqiu wanted him to, why would he show up now after he’d already been driven away…

Shen Qingqiu’s cheek felt damp. His remaining eye must be bleeding now.

Had… had something new happened? He didn’t remember. He reached up, brushing away a few drops of liquid onto his hand… they were clear, he realized, as his vision distorted, watery and shimmery, and Yue Qingyuan’s features blurred in and out. His lips moved, but it was a moment before the words left them and reached Shen Qingqiu’s ears, soft yet crackling slightly, as if stepping on fallen leaves after a light rain.

“Xiao-Jiu… Qi-ge is here. Qi-ge came to get you, we’re leaving together now.”

What was this…

What was happening right now?

“Zhangmen-shixiong, we need to go. He’ll be back in no time once he realizes you’re not going to show up, and we’ll need time to prepare for the inevitable attack on Cang Qiong Mountain,” another voice cut through the haze of Shen Qingqiu’s mind… this one was familiar too. Qi Qingqi? What… what was she doing in this strange vision of his?

A soft silken robe, black as night rippling with the last shimmering of sunset, fluttered down to cover Shen Qingqiu’s body, wrapping him up in a soft, comforting scent that seemed to ease the pain of his wounds along with the cool spiritual qi flowing through his battered body. The heavy metal collar around his neck which fastened him to the wall was suddenly snapped off like it was nothing, and before he could even register what was happening he was lifted up off the ground.

Somehow, he decided that he didn’t need to struggle. Instead, he leaned his head up against a strong, well-muscled chest, his fingers involuntarily grasping at the white silk of Yue Qingyuan’s inner robe. This was all just a dream, after all, and he had nothing more to lose— why not make the most of it?

……

“Are you sure you’ll be alright? You don’t wish to go with us?” Qi Qingqi’s voice was barely above a whisper as she spoke to a figure concealed in the shadow of the walls of Luo Binghe’s back palace.

"If I were to go, he would only have more of a reason to attack,” the young woman in the shadows replied. “Besides… there’s no reason he would suspect me.”

Yue Qingyuan was nearby, already atop his sheathed sword, carrying a too-small figure bundled in his arms as he waited to leave. His face was pale, but Mu Qingfang had said that he was safe to fly— and even if he wasn’t they didn’t have much of a choice. He looked anxious, glancing back and forth for any sign of trouble.

Qi Qingqi nodded. They didn’t have any time to argue. “I understand, then. We’ll be going now. Be careful.”

“I will. Goodbye, Qi-shishu.” With that soft whisper, a small, bitter smile stretched across delicately-painted lips. “Take good care of Shizun.”

#svsss #shen jiu #yue qingyuan #pidw #svsss fanfic #zhuixing fics #zhuixing writes #posted requests #tbh at this point he's still in shock #later on he'll feel more emotions but for right now he barely even knows what's going on #anyway!! i really liked this idea!! might write more of it at some point

[ctl-yuejie]

ramblings on Li Ming (and Heart) and homosexuality

moonlight chicken has so many things to offer in terms of technical beauty and interesting themes but what i cannot stop thinking about is the different ways they approach homosexuality in the story.

we have Wen who has a rainbow flag on his desk and pictures of him and Alan on the wall. Wen, who openly flirts with Jim and has no qualms talking openly about his one night stand. Wen, whose step father knows about his sexuality and is close enough with him to discuss his love life.

Kaipa we don’t know too much about. But his mom knows and is supportive and some of the vendors and the chicken family seem to know. But if anyone was questioning in what reality this show is set with all the class discussion and corona featuring, his part of the story shows that homophobia exists and he is worried about how he fits in with his own family, the expectations of his mother and possible the awareness that he makes the family he has “different”.

Jim is arguably even more visibly gay than Wen in terms of what we see throughout the show. He opened the shop with his ex, they prayed at the temple together and even though he objected due to proprities sake eventually they loudly declared their love to each other and the whole neighbourhood knows. Wen somehow feels like he is living in the remnants of a bubble: his circle of friends seems very queer, his closest friend and the whole gym seem to be all part of that as well. This only might change now with him questioning his work and breaking up with Alan: some gatherings he won’t attend anymore apparently.

And finally, we have Li Ming. At school he doesn’t seem to open up to his classmates on most things and additionally is in the closet. While there wasn’t anything alluding to homophobic rethoric being spread at school we can see how the heteronormativity gets to him and feel that there must be good reason as to why no one knows. And it could just be how Li Ming is judging the situation based on vibes, we don’t know. His mother is or at least was homophobic but at the same time he is raised by his gay uncle who is surrounded by other gay people. And I love how it feels like this might have given him enough security to be comfortable with his own sexuality but how it also isn’t enough to shield him from the world at large.

With so many great shows coming out of Thailand and most of them getting more and more political it just feels so real and 2023 to me that Li Ming is part of a generation that knows who they are but still have to battle with the shadow that homophobia has cast way before they were born.

#moonlight chicken #i had this in my draft for a week now thinking if i'd get the time i could put this more leloquently but that was a lie as it turns out #might edit some stuff later #but for now i just have to write about how fantastic this show is for giving these varied realities of queer life #which are all influenced by their environment but also in the way the characters connect across generations #we don't know if him had a gay mentor who could've guided him #whereas li ming technically has him and his neighbourhood friends to reference #but li ming - understandibly so - seems more closeted than anyone else (minus Heart possigly) #in middle school everyone around me proclaimed how supportive they were of lgbt+ rights #but as soon as one guy came out he become the TALK of the school for weeks #he got reduced to his sexuality #and when he dated a girls some months after he got called attention seeking for coming out as gay before #and most people thought they were doing an open-minded thing #and despite knowing that i know that i am not the only queer kid who decided to not come out lest we'd become that talk of the whole school #and our dating lives scrutinized #even though all of us were super comfortable with who we are #and for me that was mostly the case because i had adult lesbian role models close to my family #so i knew i was good and that nothing strange was going on #but still - this othering made the school environment hostile enough to keep me in the closet #so yes - i am extremely delighted with how they depict this dynamic with li ming

[worldsunlikemyown]

KOTLC AND TOLKIEN'S LEGENDARIUM: READERSHIP OVERLAP

I've been feeling curious about how much overlap there is between the readership of these works, because I've seen several KOTLC people posting legendarium-related things recently (and I myself suspect that some elements of KOTLC were inspired by it, and thus find these elements interesting). So, if you could humour me and answer the question below:

Read the options CAREFULLY and vote whichever option FITS YOU BEST (I think I've covered most if not all). If you're confused about the options, the relevant information is below the poll. Also, I'd love it if you could tell me what you voted in the tags!

So without further ado:

REMINDER: If you have NOT read KOTLC (Keeper of the Lost Cities), then PLEASE do not vote.

Please REBLOG for larger sample size! Because I really am quite curious :)

If you are confused about any of these options, please read the explanations below:

If you've watched AND read some of these, please don't select the watch-only option :)

The definition of READ here (for everything but HoME where a dedicated skim or half the book counts) is if you've read the text IN ITS ENTIRETY or closely enough that it may as well be so (leaving this one up to your judgement but as a rule, let's say about 80% to 90% and with skipping only non-essential bits (LOTR prologue and appendices, geography chapter etc -- again, these may seem essential to you, but these are the ones most people seem to skip/skim)).

Also, although I doubt this will actually be a cause of debate, audiobooks count. They always count.

(rest of the explanation under cut if needed)

You do not have to have read all the Great Tales either; having read only one or a few counts.

The osmosis/pop culture option is for things like 'I mean I've watched 'They're taking the hobbits to Isengard' and/or 'I have an irl friend or beloved mutual or person I follow who's read the books/watched the movies and talks about them a lot'.

For ONLY WATCHED, fan-films and fan-adaptations (such as the many Silm-related rock operas) count.

Silm refers to The Silmarillion (1977), as in the published text only.

The Great Tales refers to The Children of Húrin (2007), Beren and Lúthien (2017) and The Fall of Gondolin (2018). For the purposes of this poll it also includes The Fall of Númenor (2022)

HoME refers to The Histories of Middle-earth (1983-1996). For the purposes of this poll, it also includes Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth (1980) and The Nature of Middle-earth (2021) and (though this one's iffy) The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (1981); if you've read Letters but not any of Silm/Great Tales/other HoME, just vote for the LOTR and/or Hobbit option.

#silmarillion keeper shenanigans #kotlc #keeper of the lost cities #keepblr #lotr #lord of the rings #the silmarillion #silm #i've seen some overlap certainly between kotlc and legendarium readers (beloved mutuals who know about LaCE you know who you are <3) #so i'm curious to see if there's as much overlap as i think there is or if there's less (or more!!!) #as for me i've read LOTR Silm some Great Tales and parts of HoME but only about half of the hobbit lol #watched only PJ LOTR and like two episodes of RoP #might do a version with more condensed options later: LOTR/hobbit only; extended writings only; both; other; none; adaptations only... #beowulf as in the translation btw. in case anyone's confused #anyway i've sat on this question for months so let's get it out (hopefully no mistakes). fly free my curious thought

[sunny12th]

"The Undying were all around her, blue and cold, whispering as they reached for her, pulling, stroking, tugging at her clothes, touching her with their dry cold hands, twining their fingers through her hair. All the strength had left her limbs. She could not move. Even her heart had ceased to beat. She felt a hand on her bare breast, twisting her nipple. Teeth found the soft skin of her throat. A mouth descended on one eye, licking, sucking, biting…"

The Warlocks attempted consumption of Dany is very sexual. They're stealing her life (her fire) and grrm has remarked that sex and passion are a part of life. In taking her fire, they're gaining passion and sexuality. Or, perhaps this is just how one steals another's life-force in this world. Or, they're just a bunch of horny and rapey old Warlocks.

It also reminds me of how Viserys would molest Dany and she was powerless to stop him. This is another moment when Dany is powerless to stop her assault and Drogon (fire made flesh, her child) saves her. Dany also found strength in her husband (for whom Drogon is named) and her unborn child and this pushed her to stand up to Viserys for the first time.

#might try to write some more on this later. im just on my phone rn getting some thoughts down #drogon being dany's strength and salvation from rapey guys but also being named for her first rapist. #drogon is not drogo - he's everything dany wanted drogo to be!! pulling up that post i wrote about the dragons and their names #daenerys targaryen #mine #asoiaf #sa mention #rape mention