#my brother in law finished the show and has *opinions*

[rebelcthulhu]

*pained voice* I j-just hate them so much.

#this morning has been a little rough #my brother in law finished the show and has *opinions* #I am in hell #eddie munson #eddie munson x reader #steddie #eddissy #stranger things

[zillasvilla]

Beyond the Lights

I. Chapter One: Rain on Me

Summary: Sariah is a RnB Artist in a rocky relationship with a trap artist by the name of Dame. The relationship goes downhill when she takes a family trip without him.

Warnings: Implied Domestic Violence. Drug use. Addiction

I. Montego Bay, Jamaica

Sariah coming around more often was a surprise to Joshua. Her presence on this trip triggered the sudden urge to talk to her. She just hasn’t put herself in a private space where he could. He knew she was avoiding him. Joshua has always been attracted to Sariah. From the moment he first met her at his twin’s engagement announcement, to her twenty-first birthday party. He watched the way she picked through the assortment of fruit provided by the Villa owners. He watched her fix herself a bowl, doing a little happy dance that made him smile. His eyes never left her until she was no longer in his sight line. A deep sigh leaves his lips. According to Jonathan she was off limits, or so he says. Jonathan looks at his twin brother with a smirk, He nudged his arm, breaking Joshua from his trance.

“What?” Joshua looks at him, stretching his legs out while sitting up. Roman and Montez soon joined them at the opposite-facing couch engaged in their own conversation on next week’s show.

“She has a dude.” He reminds him. Jey has a habit of getting with girls while they were in a relationship. He also knew that they were just placeholders for Sariah. Everyone knew they were destined to be together. She was just focused on a career, and current fling Dame.

“Who Dame?” The dude was a nuisance. Every time he was around them, the tension in the air was thick.                                                                                                                               

“Yeah Dame.” 

Jey kisses his teeth. “Psft, please.” He wasn’t a fan of that weak ass rapper. “That nigga a bum.”

“Aye” Montez looks at him.

“My bad bro.” Jey raises his hands in defense. Everyone knew she was with Dame. They just didn’t know who he was behind closed doors. A glimpse of that night plagued his mind daily. “He doesn’t deserve her.”

Jimmy looks at him. Jey was never shy when it came to voicing his opinions. To him it was a blessing and a curse. He was playing a dangerous game.

“Just be careful, uce.”

The mere presence of him had her stomach churning in ways it hadn’t before. It had been a while since she saw him and for good reason. Sariah focused on her makeup, erasing him from current thoughts while Trinity stood behind her, curling iron in her right hand and comb in the left. She was curling Sariah’s hair for her. something along the lines of Trinity was the best at doing her hair.

The silence was comfortable. It just the nagging voice in the back of her mind broke it. “ Why didn’t you tell me Joshua was going to be here.”

Trinity looks at her through the mirror, finishing up the last piece of hair that needed to be curled. She bites her lip, thrown off by the question. It was obvious why he was here. He was Jonathan’s twin brother and best-man.

“Will him being here, be an issue.?” Trinity unplugs her curlers, using some hairspray to set the freshly curled hair.

Sariah shakes her head, looking at herself in the mirror, running her fingers through the roots of her curled hair. By the time she got dressed and did her makeup, all of the curls would have fell, leaving .

“No issue.” She closes her makeup bag, touching up certain areas with a makeup wipe.

Trinity, amused by Sariah’s sudden interest in her brother-in-law gathers her things. “Don’t let me find out you got a crush.” She walks to the door, standing between the threshold of her room and the hallway. “And hurry up. We’re waiting on you.”

Sariah mutters to herself about what to wear. She never understood the meaning of packing lightly; her whole wardrobe was stuffed into this suitcase, and they were only going to be here for a week. She grabbed the first piece of clothing that caught her eye. It was a simple blue and white dress. It wasn’t much to show off, but it shows enough for wandering eyes.

It wasn’t long before she found herself ready, but she also knew it took her forever and her friends were probably waiting on her. They had all agreed to meet outside the villa as it provided a beautiful background for photos that didn’t include the hustle and bustle of the hotels and resorts they were normally accustomed to. She makes her way out, gaining the attention of the girls first.

“I need to borrow that dress one day.” Trinity tells her. “Also, them thighs girl” She smacks them, making her laugh and smack her hands a way.

Bianca had turned at the sound of the smacking and whistles. “Ooo pretty mamas.” One thing Sariah loved about her friend group was the way they hyped her up and made her forget any worries she had. 

“We gotta get a picture!” Bianca looks around for her phone, this gets the guys attention. Joshua bites his lip, one hand in his pocket and the other rubbing his chest while giving Sariah a once over. Trinity passes Jonathan her phone and he immediately starts snapping.

“Wait! I ain’t ready.” Bianca shouts, flipping her hair over her shoulders, grabbing Sariah and Trinity by the arms and pulling them in to the picture.

The girls immediately got closer. “Well damn, yank my arm.” Trinity groans through a smile.

“My bad.”

The girls would have a photoshoot all day if the guys let them. They limited them to a few pictures, and rushed them to the restaurant.

II. Lani Restaurant

It wasn’t often they got a press free vacation. They were easily recognizable despite the many different disguises they had. Eventually the just stopped wearing one. They loved their fans, but sometimes they just want to be left alone. 

“Alright, alright.” Some older local shooed people on the waiting on the street to get pictures, autographs, anything. “You annoyed enugh” His English was broken, but they understood what he meant. 

The restaurant was reservation Sariah picked was just now opening, which was great. They would get their privacy, but still able to enjoy the local's culture. The sounds of live drummers gained their attention as they gave the hostess their name. 

“We had a reservation for Fatu.” 

“Right this way” She grabs her cutlery sets, and lead them through a section of the tables, to one long wooden carved table. In the center, spelled out USO Bridal Party. In the middle was a cd. It was the soundtrack for her wedding.

“Granted, it’s only you and Jey in the bridal party. Good lookin cuz.” Jimmy gives Sariah a side hug, picking up the CD. No song titles, but he knew the songs were going to be a hit.

“Sariah!” Trinity whines, pulling her younger cousin into her arms, kissing her cheeks. “You did this?!” 

It was the first day of the trip. She wanted the first day to start off with a bang. 

“It’s just a little something.” She laughs, pushing Trinity back.

“We are playing this at home on the last day.” Trinity grabs the CD and puts it in her purse.

“Cool with me.” Montez sits.

“You just can’t play on your social media Tez.” Bianca points, sitting down. Montez was a big Sariah fan, long before he met her. Yeah she only had two albums and a couple of eps out. Her catalogue was still a hit, and since becoming friends he has become an even bigger fan.

“I would never.” He clutches the imaginary pearls around his neck, shocked that his friends thought he would purposefully leak her songs.

“Babe. I come home and you’re recording yourself working out with her unreleased music in the background.” Bianca smiles at him. She loved the support her husband gave her friends.

“It’s okay Montez.” Sariah sits down. “I know you mean well. Sometimes I send them to you on purpose so you can post it.”

The waitress brought out water and menus, interrupting their conversation as they sat down. She found herself next to Jey, thighs brushing against his. His arm rest behind her on the back of her chair.

Jey got lucky. He had thought she was going to sit on the opposite side of Trinity, yet here she was sitting between him and Jimmy. She looked good in that dress. He looks at her, a slow lick of his lips.

“You’ve been avoiding me.”

She looks at him. “What makes you think that.”

He shrugs, a small smile forming on his face. “Do I make you nervous?”

“Never that.” She leans back, forgetting that his arm is draped over the back of her seat. He twirls a piece of her hair around his finger.

“Mhm, the goosebumps on your thighs, say otherwise.” He pokes her thighs, she pops his finger, making him chuckle.

“Please, you think you’re all that.” Sariah was unsure where this sudden urge of confidence came from.   

“Add a bag of chips to that.” He moves his arm, leaning forward as a selection of food was placed on the table. Sariah, rolling her eyes at his cockiness turned her attention to Trinity who was watching a smirk on her face.

“What?”

“Nothing at all girl. Nothing at all.” She serves herself and Jimmy some food . Doing the same, a comfortable silence fell over the table, forks clinking and side conversations here and there.

“I need a nap after this.” Bianca says wiping her mouth. They had finished eating and were just enjoying the music being played lived.

“We do have time to kill before the rentals show up.” Of course, the guys rented out 4-wheelers for the week. A little gift from Jey to Jimmy. They grew up riding on them, so why not see if the island had rentals, and low and behold they did.

“Shit, let’s go.” Montez jumped quickly. 

Sariah stands up quickly, taking a deep breath. “Yeah, a nap sounds good.” She needed to put some distance between her and Jey. The constant buzzing of her phone pissed her off as she pulled it out of her purse. She had told her team, she was on vacation. Her eyes lock on the multiple notifications from Dame.

           Dame: You could’ve called when you got there.

           Dame: You better not drink either. 

           Dame: Did you finish my verses

Dame: I need that asap.

Dame: Text me back damn

Dame: Bet, don’t answer

           Dame: I got something for you when you get back

No apology. Which she knew was never coming. All he cared about was his next hit. She wasn’t in the mood, she put his notifications on mute and put on a fake smile. They took more pictures in the restaurant before heading back to the villa for a much needed nap.

Sariah maybe slept for an hour before she was roaming around the kitchen, making a fruit bowl to snack on. She occupied the couch in the shared living space, notebook in hand with her headphones on. Fruit bowl acquired, she sat on the couch, lost in deep thought.

Jey makes his way out, seeing Sariah sitting on couch, writing in her notebook while nodding her head. He makes his way to her, he stands in front of her, taking off her headphones. She looks up ready to cuss whoever interrupted her. Her breath gets caught in her throat seeing a shirtless Joshua in front of her. She blinks away the thoughts looking at his face.

“Not tired either?” He asks.

They were the only two up and knew why, hence why they were out here and not in their rooms. The walls are thin, and their friends aren’t

“Yeah. Just wanted to write this verse that was stuck in my head.” She motions to her notebook and headphones.

Jey sits on the couch next to her, thighs touching as he grabbed the notebook. “Can I see. I promise I won’t leak them.” He jokes.

“Sure, why not.” She hides a laugh at his joke towards Montez.

He’s flipping through the pages, several song titles catching his eye. Tucked in one of the pages he found a guitar pick wedged between them. It was a soft blue color with palm trees on them. 

“You still play?” He hands it to her so she can hold it while he looked through the slightly worn notebook, careful to not rip the pages.

“Sometimes.” She shrugs. “Usually when I’m performing.”

He nods, eyes scanning the lyrics. She places her headphones over his head, making sure they covered his ears. The music filled his ears, and he’s nodding. The soft melodies of a piano in the background and her voice harmonizing. 

“What’s it called?” He asks placing her headphones and notebook on the table in front them. 

“Not sure yet. It’s something different.” She loved that song. She just wasn’t sure on the fan reaction. 

“Flawless was different.” Jey had always been a Sariah fan, He found himself creating a playlist of all her songs to listen to during his workouts. He wasn’t a super fan; he just really enjoyed her music.

“Look at you, knowing my songs.”  She looks at him. The way he moved closer, had her stomach doing flips.

“Whatever title you come up with, will be a hit.” 

A moment silence washed over their conversation. He finds himself looking at her, wanting more from this conversation. They were finally alone, and he may not ever get this chance again. “You never texted me after that night.”

“That night was a mistake.”

The car comes to a rolling in stop in front of Trinity and Jonathan’s house. No one was home. He stops the car and looks at her. Her eyes never leaving their driveway. ”Where do you wanna go?” He asks. All of her other friends were on the road, they also didn’t know Dame was beating her.

“I can take you to your sister’s or your pare—.” “No.” She tries not to bite her lip. She was barely sober, and didn’t want to go to her parents or sister’s place looking like this. She wasn’t in the mood to talk. He starts the car. “My place it is then.”

Jey stands up with a nod. “Mhm. So, me coming back that night was a mistake.”

“That’s not what I meant.” She argues.

“Nah, you said what you meant. It’s all good though.” He turns, looking at her.

“You know I have a boyfriend.” She reminds him. He stands in front of her and leans down, hands planted on the couch, trapping her in his arms, his brown eyes never leaving hers.

“That didn’t stop us before.”

#black oc #main event jey uso #fanfic #black tumblr #ao3 #original character #wwe smackdown #friday night smackdown #music #romance #roman reigns #trinity fatu #dame #sariah

[madamegemknight]

I've finally watched the Muppets 2011 with my dad, and it was a blast!! I love its sense of humor (seriously, that Muppet man joke had me CACKLING), and it's so heart-warming in its simplicity and having a good time despite the trials the Muppets went through... I feel like I can't wipe this smile off my face (ehe)

Do you have any other Muppet or puppet media you'd recommend? I thought I'd ask you since you're the resident puppet expert, and I've been wanting to get into more puppet-related stuff :P

OH YAYYYY I’m so glad you liked it!!

And I do have other Muppet/puppet media I would recommend, thank you so much for asking (and gosh I am incredibly flattered you consider me the resident puppet expert). This is going to be LONG (sorry about that in advance), so under the cut it goes!

First off, I’d recommend the sequel to Muppets 2011, Muppets Most Wanted! It’s about the Muppets going on a world tour after getting back together in the previous movie, only for a criminal mastermind named Constantine (who looks exactly like Kermit) to hijack the tour, sending the real Kermit to prison and pretending to be Kermit so he can hide from the law and use the tour as a chance to steal the Crown Jewels. It’s a really great comedy heist that’s also an INCREDIBLE musical, and it has the same humor and sense of heart that Muppets 2011 has. I haven’t seen it in a while, but I have incredibly fond memories of watching it with my sibling when we were younger, and I think you would really enjoy it.

I would also recommend the original Muppet Show! I haven’t finished watching it yet (I’m on season 4 of 5 at the moment) but it’s a really fun show that serves as a love letter to old vaudeville theater and is just consistently entertaining. There’s no overarching plot and you can pretty much watch any episode in any order, though I would suggest that if you’re interested in checking it out, you watch the Harry Belafonte episode first - it’s regarded by a lot of fans (including me) as being the best episode of the series, and gives a very good idea of what the rest of the show is like.

(Also I HIGHLY recommend you watch the pitch reel for The Muppet Show, which you can find on YouTube here. It’s not essential viewing by any means, but it’s very funny and gives a bit of context for what the field of entertainment was like at the time the show was pitched)

The original trilogy of Muppet films are also absolutely stellar. The Muppet Movie is the story of how the Muppets got together, The Great Muppet Caper is essentially an AU where Fozzie and Kermit are brothers working for a newspaper and trying to prove Miss Piggy innocent of a jewel robbery, and Muppets Take Manhattan is essentially an AU where the Muppets were all friends in college and are trying to put on a show in New York. The original trilogy films are really fun in my opinion because they play fast and loose with what’s real and what’s fake; Kermit admits at the beginning of The Muppet Movie that it’s only an approximate retelling of how the Muppets actually got together, and the other two movies in the trilogy are telling completely separate stories than the main Muppet timeline, with The Great Muppet Caper even having an entire song devoted to telling the audience that it’s just a movie and that it isn’t actually canon. They all have INCREDIBLE soundtracks, too, the songs from these movies are some of my favorite Muppet songs ever.

Fraggle Rock isn’t really considered a piece of Muppet media anymore, since when Disney bought the rights to the Muppets they didn’t bother buying it as well, but it was originally a Muppet production and all of the stuff I watched as a kid referred to it as a Muppet production, so I’m counting it as a Muppet production still lol. Fraggle Rock is an absolutely amazing show on all levels; the puppetry is great, the songs are all stellar, the characters are so well-written, and despite being a show aimed at kids it never talks down to its audience, handling serious issues like death and prejudice with the respect they deserve. It’s probably best to go into Fraggle Rock as blind as possible (unlike The Muppet Show, there is an overarching story, though you don’t really find out that there is one until towards the end of Season 1) so all I’ll say is that it’s probably one of my favorite Muppet productions ever and that the finale, without exaggeration, made me cry for 30 minutes straight. There’s also a Fraggle Rock reboot called Fraggle Rock: Back to The Rock, and while I personally don’t think it’s as good as the original series, it’s still REALLY amazing and you can tell that the team working on it really cares about the og series. If you do end up watching Fraggle Rock, I’d recommend the reboot as well!

Getting into a bit more obscure territory here, but Tales From Muppetland: The Frog Prince is very near and dear to my heart. It’s a Muppet retelling of the Frog Prince fairytale, with the twist that the princess has been cursed by the same witch that the frog prince has been cursed by! The relationship between Prince Robin and Princess Melora is really cute, and it’s clear that the two of them really care for each other. I love the changes that it makes to the original fairytale, too; I mentioned the twist of Melora also being cursed, which gives her and Robin the chance to bond and leads to a very sweet song about finding someone who understands who you are and what you’ve gone through, but the story is also altered so that Robin explains why he needs Melora to kiss him instead of hiding the fact that he’s a prince from her - she doesn’t believe him, but I’m glad they made that change regardless. The witch is also a really fun villain! She’s reused from a previous Muppet production (Tales of The Tinkerdee) that was meant to be a pilot for a planned show but was never picked up, and I’m really glad she got a chance to shine in something that was actually officially released.

Sam and Friends is the first ever Muppet series, debuting in 1955, and while most of it is unfortunately lost media there are a couple episodes you can find online! I really like Sam and Friends (I have a book all about the making of the show), and I would recommend it both as a way to look at how far television puppetry has come and as just a genuinely very entertaining show in its own right - plus, the episodes are only 5 minutes long, so you can get through all the available episodes pretty quickly. My personal favorite episode is “Powder Burn,” a parody of the show Gunsmoke.

Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas is probably one of my favorite Christmas specials ever, despite me only watching it for the first time this past December. It’s a very earnest and emotional story about a family (Emmet Otter and his mother Alice Otter) living in poverty after the death of Emmet’s father. Both Emmet and Alice want to be able to give each other a good Christmas present, so they both enter the local talent contest on Christmas Eve in order to win the cash prize without telling each other. The soundtrack is done by the same man who did the soundtrack for The Muppet Movie (Paul Williams), and is just GORGEOUS - it manages to be silly and heartfelt at the same time, and does some really interesting stuff with the instrumentals, like having a kazoo solo during one of the more somber songs which somehow actually works! Like Fraggle Rock, it it isn’t afraid of tackling serious issues like death and poverty, and like Fraggle Rock, it made me bawl like a baby.

Finally, I would recommend both the documentary Of Muppets and Men and the Jim Henson Hour episode “Secrets of The Muppets” (I sadly haven’t watched enough of The Jim Henson Hour to give a proper recommendation, but from the little I’ve seen it’s very good). Both of these tackle the behind the scenes of working on the Muppets, with Of Muppets and Men being about the making of The Muppet Show specifically and “Secrets of The Muppets” being a general overview of the stuff the Muppets had done up to that point. I completely understand if you don’t want to see the behind the scenes workings of the Muppets (my mom doesn’t like seeing that kind of thing either and I get why), but if you do want to see it I can’t recommend these two enough. They do an excellent job at introducing and highlighting the skills of the troupe of Muppet performers, detailing specific tricks of puppeteering, and showing how everything comes together.

There’s definitely more Muppet media I want to recommend, but if I did so we’d be here FOREVER, and I still haven’t gotten to the puppet media recommendations! This list does serve as a pretty good starting point though - if you like Frog Prince and Jug-Band Christmas you’ll probably like the rest of the Tales From Muppetland specials, if you like one of the original trilogy of Muppet movies you’ll probably like the others in the trilogy, if you like Sam and Friends you’ll probably like the Muppets’ appearances on shows like the Ed Sullivan Show or the Jimmy Dean show that they made during that period, etc. Most of this stuff is on YouTube or the Internet Archive, but if you’re looking for something specific and can’t find it, let me know and I’ll do my best to locate it 👍

AND NOW AFTER 50 MILLION PARAGRAPHS WE ARE ON TO THE PUPPET MEDIA IN GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS

I have to start this list off with my favorite movie of all time, The Dark Crystal. It’s a fantasy epic done entirely with puppets, and it is utterly gorgeous. All of the puppets are so detailed (I had the absolute blessing to see some of them when a local museum held a puppetry exhibit and the sheer amount of tiny details you can’t even SEE in the film are incredible), the world is so richly developed, the soundtrack is absolutely top-tier, and the amount of innovations in puppetry that this film causes are mind-blowing. There are traditional puppets, people in suits, radio-controlled puppets…the list goes on! I cannot recommend The Dark Crystal enough, it means so much to me and is probably the reason I’m so obsessed with puppets in the first place. It also has a prequel on Netflix called Age of Resistance - like the Fraggle Rock reboot, I don’t think it’s as good as the og, but it’s still absolutely stunning and the team working on it clearly cares about the world of the original film. Sadly, the prequel was cancelled after only one season :( I still recommend it if you like the film, but just go into it knowing that it’s gonna end on a cliffhanger.

The Little Shop of Horrors movie has an absolutely AMAZING puppet in the form of Audrey II, the film’s main antagonist. There are multiple Audrey II puppets, as the character grows throughout the entire film, and the biggest one required over 50 puppeteers to operate. There are no opticals or blue screens used for Audrey II (except for one scene at the very end of the film that they had to reshoot), and the effect is mind blowing. Little Shop is an absolutely incredible film overall, too, and thankfully doesn’t use Audrey II as a selling point or a gimmick - the puppet is incorporated very naturally into the film, and you appreciate the puppetry much more as a result.

I haven’t watched Labyrinth, but my sibling has and they really like it! From what I’ve seen of the puppetry, it’s really well done, and the movie seems very fun. Sorry I can’t give a better recommendation than that lol.

If we’re counting stop-motion animation as a form of puppetry (which I personally do considering the models are typically referred to as puppets), then I absolutely recommend checking out the work of LAIKA, which includes productions such as Coraline and Kubo and The Two Strings. I also highly recommend Wendell and Wild, made by former LAIKA supervising director Henry Selick, as well as Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. All of these films are stunning, and they absolutely deserve the hype that surrounds them.

This one is a bit more preschool-centric, but when I was very little I was OBSESSED with Johnny and The Sprites, and having watched a bit of it again recently, I feel it still holds up somewhat for older audiences. It’s a show about a musician named Johnny who moves to a house in the woods in order to focus on his music only to find that the house is next to Grotto’s Grove, where a species of fairy-like beings called the Sprites live. The series is focused on Johnny teaching the Sprites about human stuff and the Sprites teaching Johnny about Sprite stuff in turn. It’s a very cute and charming show :3

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum is Mystery Science Theater 3000, a show about a man trapped in space with 4 robot companions and forced to watch bad movies as part of an evil science experiment. It’s very goofy and very immature at times, and 99% of the time you need a guide to understand the stuff they reference, but it’s great regardless, and despite being very simple the puppets are really well-designed. Unfortunately, one of the characters is named after the ethnic slur used against Romani people in the show’s original run; it wasn’t done out of any intentional malice and the creators changed her name when the show was revived and viewers expressed their concern, but if that sours your opinion on watching the original show I completely understand.

Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared is a classic, and for good reason - both the original webseries and the tv show riff off of and play with the stereotypes of traditional children’s puppet shows, while still clearly respecting the art of puppetry and giving it their own unique spin. It’s definitely on the spookier/gorier side of things, so MASSIVE content warning if you want to check it out, but DHMIS is very good and I adore it.

And with that, this very very very VERY long list comes to an end. I definitely didn’t mention everything that I wanted to - there are some excellent pieces of puppet media, like Starkid’s Starship, that I just haven’t gotten around to watching and thus can’t properly recommend - but like with the Muppet section, I’d suggest using this as a starting point. There’s a TON of puppet media out there, and this is just scratching the surface!

I hope this list helps, and that you find something on here that you enjoy :D

#I am SO SORRY for how long this got akabwkrnsalsk once you get me talking about puppets I cannot stop

[trillscienceofficer]

at the risk of bothering you too much about your ds9 fics, i have to say that i really adored "patience" with jadzia x lenara and would love to hear about how you decided the where/how/why of their reuniting and the inspiration for the things that lenara was missing on trill (with the festival and all) and also your work in fleshing out lenara, especially as a character now acting outside the boundaries of the published story? perhaps i just want to hear all your thoughts about lenara...

I will never, ever pass an opportunity to talk about Lenara Kahn, so thank you so much for this ask!

I'm very flattered to hear you liked “patience” because I confess I consider it a bit of an odd duck among the fic I posted. If I could go back I would probably spend some more time on it, and smooth some things out. Rereading it it's... very obvious to me that I was hashing out my mixed feelings about having left my country of origin, likely for good. Lenara and Jadzia are having the same talk I've been having with myself for the past ten years or so, though I'm far from exiled. The fic does still reflect a few things about Lenara and Jadzia that I think are foundational to my understanding of both characters, and I'm very glad if you found it interesting!

With “patience” I felt compelled to follow rather strictly the prompt I had but in reality... I find it kind of hard to imagine a different finale for “Rejoined” unless something, or better someone, happened to make Jadzia understand how Lenara is really feeling and the kind of obligations that compel her to follow tradition, family opinion, and the rule of Trill law. Most often I see this happening through Kira, like I laid out in “creative approach” (and the very long fic I'll likely never finish about the three of them); Kira, I think, would understand better than most Lenara's attachment to her homeworld and unwillingness to openly defy a taboo that seems so foundational to Trill society, and be able to mediate what I think it's the biggest conflict between Jadzia and Lenara.

Like I hinted in the fic, Jadzia to me has left Trill and her family behind by the time Lenara arrives on the station on “Rejoined”. “Equilibrium” made clear how little the Symbiosis Commission cared about her survival (or anyone else's) in the face of maintaining a status quo that is nothing but a bunch of lies; “Facets” made clear how little even her previous hosts cared about Jadzia's wellbeing, with the kind of power that the Commission leaves in the hands of Initiates supervisors. We never hear Jadzia airing explicitly her opinions on Trill governance and the rules (written and unwritten) that joined Trills have to follow, but I think “Rejoined” represents a watershed moment for her in this respect too. With the ultimate taboo for the joined in front of her, Jadzia's decision is ultimately that she doesn't care to toe the line anymore. She wants to live her life free from the strictures of Trill tradition, even if it means never setting foot on the planet again. She takes a big breath, and crosses that line.

Lenara can't do that, though, even if she's obviously torn. On one hand she recognizes that what she and Jadzia have is precious in its unlikeliness (how often do you get second chances like this one?), on the other the episode pretty explicitly suggests that Lenara is generally a rule-follower (there are several remarks to this effect in the script for “Rejoined”), she has a family that she's is very close to, almost uncomfortably so (her own brother works in the same field as she does and is with her on the station!!) and she finds Jadzia's eccentricity somewhat puzzling, and that's imho a hint that Jadzia is very far from the 'ideal' that joined Trills are encouraged to aspire to, and from the image Jadzia herself was trying to adhere to at the beginning of the show. An image that Lenara is very much still clinging to, likely because it's what she's been doing all her life.

There's this big chasm between Jadzia and Lenara and in “patience” I left a bit up in the air how they'd managed to maintain a long-distance relationship. I think in my head this was achieved, once again, by Kira intervening and suggesting to Jadzia that ultimatums weren't going to cut it in a situation like this, and that Jadzia would need to give some space to Lenara's point of view. My reasoning after that was that by the time Starfleet retakes DS9 in season 6, Lenara would be convinced that it's either now or never, and eventually choose exile over the regret of Dax dying on her for the second time. Still I don't think it would be easy for Lenara to leave, I consistently imagine her family being very much up in her business and scrutinizing her choices, and she would have to abandon the very successful academic career she's built on Trill (by the time of “In Purgatory's Shadow” she apparently gets tenure at the Trill Science Ministry). Lenara would still leave, but have plenty of regrets doing so, and I'm sure they would cyclically return even together with Jadzia, their differing points of view not making things easier when it comes to Trill and what it represents for both of them.

I think the the "End-of-Snow" festival I made up was heavily inspired by my own feelings about emigrating—a lot of events and occasions for social gathering that I took for granted or even disdained back when I lived in Italy make me now feel very nostalgic, even if ultimately I can visit fairly often and my partner is Italian as well. I also wanted to hint at Trill having a history and a geography, and my take on this is that Trill has had a greenhouse effect and climate change problem in centuries past that both Jadzia and Lenara remember through their past hosts, but context is easy to forget; even if Emony and Lenara both grew up in the same city, Mak'ala, their experience of it was quite different. It's likely that in Emony's time it snowed a lot less as well, and so the festival didn't quite have the same significance it has for Lenara, whose generation probably sees it as a tradition brought back from the brink of climate disaster.

There is a lot more I could say about Lenara! Over the years I came up with a version of her that maybe is idiosyncratic; she's both a bit anxious and prone to overrate her ability to approach situations rationally (ie she looks collected but she's very much not!). She's curious to see where things will lead to, only to regret the paths these will take her onto. She has this strange sense of humor where she mostly reacts to what people are saying to her, because of a lifelong habit of close scrutiny (from family, from the Initiate Program) which made her somewhat passive, although her personality and convictions definitely peek through when they have the chance. She often goes hiking in the mountains completely alone. Ultimately I think she's a romantic who wishes she weren't, a woman with strong desires that she's had to either channel through narrow paths (the joining, the academic career) or to stifle entirely, and it's the kind of combination that imho makes for explosive problems that tend to involve other people. I do love a repressed lesbian!

I think her family is rather traditional too—imho both Lenara and Bejal were expected to try to join, and this has driven a wedge between the two siblings once Lenara was accepted into the Program and he wasn't (or maybe he washed out—either way he isn't joined, and I believe 'Otner' is their family name). I think Bejal and Lenara have been in competition all their lives, and he's rarely managed to best her (quite frankly because I think she's smarter than him), but this also has put a lot of pressure on Lenara to behave and perform 'correctly' in every situation, no mistakes allowed. I think this is why she has such a hard time to even admit that what she wants is even possible, not to mention the extraordinary amount of grief she's inherited from Nilani (whom I think is Lenara's direct predecessor, and for whom I have a lot of thoughts as well!).

It's all very interesting and I could on forever but I think I'll stop here. Do let me know if you have further thoughts!! Again, always glad to talk about Lenara or any of the Kahn hosts.

#askbox #ep: rejoined #i apologize for my scattered approach... i really should put all of this in fic at some point #but i always found my longer ideas for jadzia/lenara quite difficult to put on paper #ds9 #lenara kahn #fic commentary

[josefavomjaaga]

Napoleonic daily soap, episode 1

Scene: Paris. A small, rather shabby room. Napoleon writing a letter to his brother Joseph. Voiceover.

"You would not believe how women behave here. Deciding about every goddamn thing, all preposterous and stuff. Reading and writing and becoming educated and having an opinion on everything, even politics. About time somebody puts them in their place. Good thing Desirée is not like that. By the way, had an encounter with a prostitute, went okay-ish, I guess. Love, Napoleon."

Marmont's voice from the next room:

"Hey, Naps - Junot, Bourrienne and I are off to the Palais Royal, watching the wenches. You coming?"

Napoleon [takes a new sheet of paper]

"Give me ten more minutes. Gotta write to my fiancée."

[writes]

"Dearest Désirée, I received your letter. It's very sweet and all. But you really ought to try and become a little more sophisticated. More like the Eugénie I was fantasizing about in that story I never finished. Maybe read more? And have somebody check your spelling. Thinking about you often. Love, your sweetheart Napoleon."

[puts quill down, grabs his uniform coat]

"Okay, guys, I'm coming!"

CUT to the Clary livingroom in Marseille. Aura of somewhat old-fashioned wealth.

Desirée [puts Napoleon's letter down]

"I can't help it, Julie. Sometimes Napoleon seems a bit weird. And annoying. Actually, he sometimes comes across like an arsehole. Do you have similar problems with his brother Joseph?"

Julie [shrugs]

"Oh, not at all. Joseph is a selfish, cheating bastard who finds about every woman in France more attractive than me. But other than that, he's the perfect husband."

Their brother Etienne François Clary [enters the room, exclaims already on the doorstep]

"Except that Joseph like his brother is a pennyless nobody and lives off our money. Really Desirée, I'm not sure we should go through with your engagement to Napoleon. One Bonaparte in our family seems expensive enough."

Desirée [pretends to cry silently into her handkerchief]

Maid [curtsies on the doorstep]

"Your brother-in-law Monsieur Joseph Bonaparte, sir."

Everybody rises, smiling and cheering. Joseph enters, beaming, hugs Etienne, kisses Julie on the cheek.

Etienne:

"So, how is my favourite brother-in-law today? Any news from your brother in Paris?"

Joseph:

"Indeed. Napoleon has just written to me how much he misses his little Desirée, and how happy he is she's not like those horrible, arrogant women in Paris."

Desirée [beaming]:

"Oh, he's such a sweetheart!"

CUT to new scene: A public festivity somewhere in Paris. Music, dancing. Napoleon, Marmont and Junot [watch as Madame Tallien and Josephine, in almost transparent dresses, walk by without noticing them]

Junot [whistles]

Napoleon [stares]: 

“What the ...”

Bourrienne [returns with drinks for all four]

“What’s up with you guys?”

Napoleon:

“You can see the legs of some of these women up to their armpits.”

CUT to new scene: Next morning. Josephine's bedroom, Josephine sleeping soundly. Small room, furniture rather ramshackle. A clock shows the time: 11.50 AM

Euphemie [enters with a small, darkened silver tray]

"Yeyette, time to get your lazy ass out of bed."

Josephine [muffled sounds]

"Why?"

Euphemie [puts the tray on the nightstand]

"Because your children have written from boarding school. Both of them. When have you written to them last? Or visited? It's only an hour's trip, Yeyette."

Josephine [sits up all of a sudden, hastily reaches for the letters on the tray]

"Oh, my Hortense, my Eugène! Such sweet children, always thinking of their mother ... [reads] Listen to this, Mimi, Hortense writes that she's taking piano lessons. And Eugène needs more books and thinks that the roads are very fine and that the weather today would be perfect for a trip to their schools in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. [sniffles] Oh, they are so sweet, and I'm such a bad mother for not taking better care of them!" [starts crying]

Euphémie [after watching Josephine cry for some time]

"So, shall I get a carriage, do you want to visit?"

Josephine [puts the letters back on the nightstand]

"Heck, no. You know I have to help out at Barras' party tonight; Teresa will be totally out of her depth if I'm not with her. We'll visit some other day. But do bring me some paper and quill so I can write to Teresa and ask if she's already decided what she's going to wear tonight. We want to have matching outfits."

#napoleon's family #shitpost #we really need a daily soap #and i just realized i'm focusing way too much on napoleon like everyone

[north-blue-hearts]

Family Practice

CisFem Reader x Trafalgar Law

CW: sex, language, violence

Summary: Modern Mafia-coded AU starts in last semester of College

Chapter 7: Twist

The next couple of days you returned to the manor with Law. He and Pops talked for hours at a time, and you were the only one that dared to interrupt them with drinks or reminders of the time. It left you with plenty of time to visit with your brothers, and while Luffy was sad that Law was busy every time he came over, even your selfish little brother knew better.

Ace, Sabo and Luffy were playing a racing game in the living room while you, Marco and Thatch were tidying up after lunch in the kitchen.

“Really seems like he really is, doesn’t it?” Thatch prompts and you and Marco nod.

“I saw the picture yesterday morning.” You admit drying a plat and handing it off to Thatch, “His dad certainly took after the mother instead of Pops, but the resemblance is uncanny.”

“I wonder what they’re talking about, yoi.”

You snort. “So even you get curious.” You grin, teasing him a little. “I imagine they’re talking about the past. There was a whole side to his dad he didn’t know about, and I’m sure Pops also wants to be able to do as much as he can. I doubt Law will join the Family though.”

“Oh?” Thatch’s brows raise. “Straight arrow then?”

“Eh, I wouldn’t go that far. But he wants to be a doctor, he’s almost there, and the next step is opening his own clinic. Doesn’t really line up, y’know?”

“Well, hopefully he’ll let us at least help get the clinic up and rolling, yoi.” Marco says, finishing up the dishes and draining the sink. “You like him, and that’s worth more’n the blood in my opinion.”

Thatch raises an eyebrow after a moment. “Hmm.”

You can feel his eyes on you as you turn your back to the sink and keep an eye on the boys in the living room. “I can smell the gears in your head overheating, Thatch.”

“I just expected you to smack Marco,” He imitates a higher voice, “Oh I don’t like him like that!”

Despite yourself you grunt a laugh. “I’m not a teenager anymore, give me some credit.”

“Then… you do? You know, like that.”

“I mean, I wouldn’t turn him down.”

“But?”

“He’s in the last year of his doctorate. His stress has stress. I dragged him off campus in the hopes he’d at least sleep. Instead, who knows what this has done. Nothing bad, as far as I can tell, but… I don’t know. I had a plan.” You laugh a little and shrug. “I don’t know, maybe I’ll…” Your laughter fades as you realize that Law will likely start his clinic wherever Rosinante is. Some city, or some nation, far from the Metro. “Maybe I won’t think about it for now.”

“… woof.” Thatch ruffles your hair, but there’s a comfort to it. “He’s not from the Metro.”

“He’s not.”

“Chances are his clinic won’t be here either.”

“…”

“It’s a hard call either way, but if you decide to leave us over some tattooed emo doctor, we’d forgive you, yoi.” Marco assures you, and his choice of words at least makes you laugh.

“You guys know I can’t leave the Metro.” You say as your laughter fades. “Think about what Pops went through just so I could attend college outside of it.”

“I think you’d be surprised how much the underground would move if you decided to leave the Metro.” Thatch admits. “I mean, we say it as a joke, but half of the guests that showed up for Christmas would go to war if something happened to you. It’s that damned aura of yours.”

“So, you say,” you grin.

“Traffy!” You heard Luffy yell and leap out of his seat on the couch, practically launching himself off of Ace. There was swearing from Ace, laughter from Sabo and a wrecking sound from the game that lifted your spirits before you walked out of the Kitchen.

Law had adapted to Luffy’s admiration of him quickly. He managed to side step the initial lunge at him and was holding the youth at a decent distance.

“Stay a little longer and play with us, there’s room for one more in the game!” Luffy offers excitedly. He’s already trying to stretch enough to get a better grip before Law can shake him off again.

Law looks over at you and you shrug with a small smile. “We have to head back tomorrow by lunch time, so there’s no rush for today.”

There’s a defeated sigh that comes from Law as he stops trying to hold Luffy at bay. “Alright, Mugiwara-ya.”

Luffy drags Law into the living room, and a small squabble breaks out between Luffy and Ace over the younger’s earlier use of Ace as a springboard. Law starts up a new race while they’re still squabbling and Sabo laughs before catching your gaze and giving you a thumbs up before going back to the race.

“For better or worse, seems he’s already been adopted.” Thatch admits.

“I haven’t seen Luffy latch onto anyone like except you,” Marco adds.

“Haa… yeah, I,” you thought you had a better hold on your feelings and suddenly were feeling overwhelmed. “I’m going to step outside for a bit.”

“Ah, (Y/N), I didn’t-.”

“S’alright, I’ll be back.” You wave dismissively as you cut Marco off and head outside.

The cold air felt good against your face and after you got far enough away from the front door you let yourself just bawl. You weren’t even entirely sure why you needed to cry, but there was a strange relief from doing so, so you just let it happen. You couldn’t pinpoint what was causing it, but your mind wandered over a lot of things that caused more tears to overflow.

You didn’t have anything against crying, so it wasn’t like you had been holding in tears for years or anything equally silly, but your heart hurt. Like someone had reached in and just squeezed it.

After Duval you hadn’t let anyone who wasn’t already a friend or family member get too close. That wall had probably prompted Brownie to spike your drink even though the two of you were barely even officially dating. That event caused you to have to take someone’s life to protect your own, and after that you had practically sworn off all manner of letting new people in, friend or otherwise.

You had only helped Law because you didn’t want Nutmeg to turn desperate like Brownie had.

And now, here you were. Neck-deep in feelings for a guy who you probably weren’t going to see again after graduating. Sure, you’d call and chat or text and keep in touch, but you already had odd jobs lined up, and he was going to be opening his own business. Daily texts would become weekly, then monthly, then eventually you’d get a new phone and decide to clean up your contacts and his name would slide off with a dozen other numbers you hadn’t heard from in over a year.

Your tears had stopped as your mind had wandered and chuckled at yourself. Cold and jaded and not even old yet.

With a final sigh you head back in, taking a minute to pat snow on your face and cover up the traces of your outburst a little before heading back in. Pops was waiting for you when you came back in and the hug he gave you almost made you cry again, but he didn’t say anything and neither did you.

The afternoon rolled into evening, and after dinner Marco took the two of you back to your hotel. The car ride was quiet. Marco didn’t prompt anything, and both you and Law seemed to have something on your minds, because you were both staring out a window watching the world go by as your thoughts swirled.

Going from the hotel to the morning, back to campus by evening, the last 24 hours almost seemed to have gotten away from you. It wasn’t until you were at your apartment door, having been escorted by Law, that his hand on your arm pulled you into being completely aware of the world around you.

His fingers were hot on your arm, which was unusual – the few times you and he had any contact he always felt cooler than he should feel. Right now the tips of his fingers seemed to burn into your skin, or at least they were warm enough to pull you back into reality, out the haze of your own scrambled thoughts.

“(Y/N)-ya.” Law’s voice snapped you out of your focus on the feel of his hand on your arm. “You’ve been out of it for hours, are you okay?”

“Huh? I… yeah. Yeah, I guess my mind just wandered off and I didn’t realize. Sorry.” You apologize, and then laugh a little. “It’s a good thing you were around, I could’ve wandered onto the plane. I… don’t really even remember the flight. Wow, I was really zoned out.” Realization sinks in and you feel fully embarrassed. “I… can’t think of the last time I spaced out that bad, I’m sorry I must’ve been a handful.”

There’s a slight smile on Law’s face and he shakes his head. “Not really.” He lets go of your arm and his fingers slip across yours as he steps back. “I was going to ask if I could come in to talk about some stuff, but you should probably get some rest.”

“Ah, no, I mean, come in. The least I can do is listen to what you need to talk about after you basically babysat me all day.” You assure him, unlocking the door and stepping in. You made a face, reminded that your apartment was still done up in reminder of your lost bet.

“Besides, I didn’t realize how hungry I was, so I can order something.” You add, nodding toward the hallway. “Come on, you know the hookah vibe’s drawing you in.”

You catch the slight smile and grunt of a chuckle as Law follows you in. You don’t get far from the door after taking your shoes off and stepping up into the apartment when Law grabs your arm again. Stepped up from the entryway you’re closer to being at eye level with him.

“I have to say something now, before I can stay, because what I say might cause you to ask me to leave.” He says, and his bright golden eyes are holding your gaze. You can feel the heat rising in your face, and you’re having enough of an off day that you can’t think of some sort of snappy retort to break the building emotion.

You didn’t know what he was going to say, but some small part of you was worried that after three days of being around a Mafia family he had realized it wasn’t something he could handle. Something he didn’t want. Something that would hold him back, and you didn’t have a defense against that.

Even the best of relationships had splintered for far less.

“(Y/N)-ya. I want to kiss you.”

What.

“… huh?” You were certain you had heard him incorrectly.

“Even if it’s just once,” He continues, his voice less sure than before, his hand tugging you closer just a little. “I can leave if I’ve made you uncomfortable.”

You step forward, you mind is spinning, but you’re keeping up. “You don’t have to leave, I mean, I’m not uncomfortable, and… y-you can… but,” you let him pull you closer, the small smile playing on his lips catching your attention before you look back into his eyes. “why?”

“Why do you think, (Y/N)-ya.” Law’s fingers slip along your cheek before his hand goes into your hair, just under your ear, tilting your head a little as he pulls you in. You can’t think of an answer in your boggled state, but he doesn’t give you time enough to answer even if you could.

His lips press against yours and your eyes close as the soft pressure spreads a gentle pleasure through you. His other hand is around your waist, pulling you closer as your hands mirror his. One threading through his hair, the other holding onto his side. The soft kiss was enough of a rush, little lines of electricity stealing your breath, and you both lean back to catch your breath.

Law’s face is flushed, and he looks rattled, covering his mouth for a moment. “Sorry, I didn’t expect such a rush.”

“Did I take your first kiss, Pre-Med?” You muse, trying to mask your own reaction with a smirk.

“First one that ever felt like that,” He admits, kicking off his boots, and stepping up into the hall. You step to the side to give him room but not wanting to step away and feel the wall behind you. The brief ratted look is gone, and bright yellow-gold eyes are holding you in a sharp gaze. “Again.”

It’s not a request, more of a warning as he pulls you into another kiss. There’s another electric rush, a pleasure that floods down to your chest as your lips part and his tongue pushes into your mouth. You barely realize the moan that’s filled your chest until his hands flex against you pulling you even closer.

The statement that had started this had caught you off guard, but the passion coming from the usually cool and stoic soon-to-be-doctor was even more surprising. He had never talked about any past relationships, but to be fair, you hadn’t ever asked either.

The heat and taste of the kiss are making your head spin, and there’s brief moments of air before the kisses resume, but you’re not sure who leans into who after a while. You can only think that you want more, that the delightful sensation that keeps skipping through your heart is addicting and kissing hadn’t ever felt quite so good. It was almost scary to realize that you’d follow this sensation out of the Metro and into the desert if those golden eyes asked you to.

By the time you both stop you’re breathing heavy, your face is hot and you’re barely keeping your feet under you. Law’s breath is heavy too, and even though he’s turned away a bit you can see the red in his ears.

“Holy shit,” you huff, walking by him and going into the kitchen. You get a glass of water and down it in one go. “You want something?”

“I mean -.”

“TO DRINK – To drink, Pre-Med.” You interrupt almost laughing.

“Water’s fine.” You can hear the smile in his voice and hand over the glass you had emptied and refilled.

“I’ll, uh, make some tea, after… after I order some food.” You explain. You can feel your face heating up all over again, so you turn to the sink to get another glass and have another drink. There’s a soft clink of glass against the countertop and you realize that Law’s standing behind you.

There’s a tug that prompts you to turn toward him, so you set your still empty glass down and turn around. You aren’t sure what he’s going to do for a moment, until he lifts the glass and takes a sip before leaning down and kissing you. The extra bit of water feels like a flood you’re barely able to contain, cool against the hot kiss, and the small squeak of surprise is replaced by a moan as you’re holding onto the kitchen counter behind you to keep your feet.

Law’s hands are on the counter, caging you in place. You can feel his eyes on you even if you can’t pull your gaze up from his lips. There’s a strange sensation as he swallows before breaking the kiss, wiping the back of his hand across his lips before taking a step back. You swallow as well, but it has almost nothing to do with the bits of water left in your mouth.

“I…”

“Sorry,” Law interrupts, running his thumb across your bottom lip lightly before taking a step or two back. “You were trying to cool off.”

“Was… yeah… am.” You manage the words, putting an arm out between the two of you. “We have to talk this out.”

“I agree.” The knowing grin on his face is almost too much. “I just needed to do that first.”

#Family Practice #trafalgar law #x reader #reader insert #mafia au

[theresawritesstuff]

photo prompt

"You know these things are terrible for you, right?" Esther chided lightly, plucking the cigarette from his hand as he turned her around the dance floor.

Lenny chuckled. "Your brother didn't seem to mind."

"He just got married. He's preoccupied." She glanced over at Ethan as he spun his bride around on his arm. "Besides, if Mama hadn't talked him out of it we'd be having this reception in that dingie club downtown."

He smirked.

Midge had certainly had opinions on the wedding plans.

"I can think of worse venues. Why the sudden interest in my health? Thinking of ditching the law degree for a scalpel?"

"I just want to make sure you're still around and kicking when it comes time to walk me down the aisle."

Lenny blinked at his stepdaughter. "I... Es, you know I'd love to. But what about your dad?"

"You are my dad," she insisted. "Have been more than Pop ever has since I was two."

It was true, but for the sake of peace Lenny tried not to disparage Joel too much in front of the kids. Out loud...

"Besides, you're still taller than I am so I can wear heals if I want," she added flippantly.

Lenny smiled softly, kissing her forehead.

"Just tell me when to show and what to wear and I'm there, kiddo."

He smirked, retrieving the his cigarette from her as the song finished. "I take it that date Grandma Rose set up for you last month went well."

"Not that well," Esther laughed. "...His name is Tom. I'm not rushing off to pick a dress or anything. But I like him."

Lenny smiled, hugging her around the shoulders.."That's what counts."

#Lenny and Esther #Photo prompt #Midgelenny

[sadi-simps]

Reaction to Harumi's "Death", Dareth's "Brown Powers", Lloyd becoming a leader, etc

Another Ninjago essay lmao

First off, I wanna point out that the season I'm at, called "Hunted", has been very thrilling for me so far. A lot of stuff has happened, I'm still not done. I left off after I finished the episode where Harumi "dies" and "redeems herself" by saving a kid from going through the same thing she did.

In this blog post, I'll talk a bit about that, but I'll save my opinion on Harumi for the end of the post. First, let me just point out something!

Dareth, oh my fucking god, I think he might be my favorite non powered character now! He has been such a genuinely good guy, trying his best! Yes, he fails sometimes, but the fact that he tries so hard, and his loyalty to the ninja hasn't faded, that he keeps trying to help, honestly, this season has done a good job making me like Dareth! He's been a fun character, and I regret hating his guts when I was younger! He's trying his best, and I will never slander him again. :c

Lloyd's speech on air, yeah it was cliche, but it got the point across, and it was a bit moment for him developing into a leader. I'm proud of him, I'm proud of all the ninja. Every time they get pushed down, they get back up with more determination. The kind I wish I had. Maybe I'm projecting on these characters a little bit, and maybe I'm not bringing anything new to the table in this blog post, but I like writing out my thoughts, it's become part of my new therapy. That being said, Ninjago is every bit as inspiring to me in my adulthood as it was when I was a young teenager being emotionally neglected by my family and physically attacked by my younger brother out of nowhere almost daily. I was in a bad situation, and this show helped me endure it all back then. As cliche as it sounds, it's true. This show was my comfort show back then, and it's starting to feel that way again. TuT

Now for the final bit, my feelings about Harumi... Honestly, it was pretty scummy of her to suggest becoming her replacement for Lloyd as Garmadon's child. No matter how hard you try, you can't replace your kids. If I were in her shoes, I wouldn't have even suggested such an idea, but then again, I'm not a terrible, vengeful, scummy, abusive peeson like her, and I would never find myself in her shoes to begin with. In her defense, I suppose it might have been a way for her to keep Garmadon from destroying her like he almost did when she "failed him", but it was still a very weird writing choice, and seems like it was intentionally setting groundwork for her to marry Lloyd in the future to be "the daughter-in-law" instead of "adopted". Honestly, it's a very poor writing choice in my opinion because even though they're trying to redeem her as a character, it's not very well done.

1. It only took a couple of episodes, a threat on her life, and a clearly emotionally vulnerable Garmadon for her to change her attitude.

2. Even with that attitude change, it still comes off as manipulative for her to have done that.

3. I don't care what the writers want her to be, they established her as a horrible person in Sons of Garmadon, a redemption arc just doesn't work for this character. Let her stay evil and die for her sins!

And of course, the elephant in the room... Her seeing the "error of her ways". That was such a copout, it was established in Sons of Garmadon that her pain made her WANT others to feel the same pain she felt, and that she DIDN'T CARE about the children. It was literally a "fuck them kids" attitude for her, and for it to change that quickly, that's not good writing, that's just out of character.

Like, yeah, it was a good way for her to die, realizing she was wrong all along, get what you deserve, blah blah blah. But if you wanted her to see the error of her ways in her dying moment, why are all these Twitter spoilers showing her she comes back anyway? It completely defeats the impact of her death.

Ugh... Here I am overanalyzing this show yet again, yes it's a show meant for kids, but Ninjago has been trying to have somewhat serious writing for a long time, and for the most part, it has been great! The writers are clearly capable of writing characters well, but they failed this villain character by trying to redeem her, and it doesn't work. Not only that, but if she and Lloyd get married, it spreads a terrible message to young kids about relationship dynamics and forgiveness.

Some things shouldn't be forgiven.

And this isn't even me being bitter about my "Senpai Lloydkins" finding a girl he likes, this is about me feeling sorry for this character, and maybe projecting my own emotional trauma onto him, but it comes from a place of experience.

I still love this show, and I'm not gonna let a bad pairing ruin it for me, but if I could do things differently, I would have her stay evil.

I know I'm probably being dramatic, but again, it comes from personal experience with both the show and real life situations that left me with severe anxiety and depression.

Thank you for reading this long winded post. I'd love to hear your thoughts about this show... No spoilers please!

#Ninjago #lego ninjago #ninjago lloyd #ninjago #lloyd garmadon #screw you harumi #ninjago hunted #ninjago spoilers #princess harumi #mental abuse #female manipulator #ninjago harumi #ninjago dareth #the brown ninja #brown ninja #cartoon #cartoon critic #blog essay #sadi essay #sadi bloodmoon #master of dreams reveal in the future???

[bepractical]

Daredevil Character List

Hello! Welcome to my rambling recaps for the show formerly known as Netflix’s Daredevil! Before I get this puppy off the ground I thought I’d do a little table setting for you. Context matters, in the world of recaps and life. 

These recaps are the byproduct of another set of recaps I just finished for the RTÉ/AMC+ show Kin. It stars Charlie Cox as a fuzzy hitman. If you like family melodrama and Irish accents, I highly recommend giving it a try.

Unlike Kin, a tiny show with a tiny fandom, Daredevil has an expansive audience and canon. Even as far as recaps are concerned, this is well trod ground. In an effort to simplify things and keep myself happy, I’ll be sticking to the Netflix/Disney+ universe and willfully ignoring everything else.

While I try not to editorialize too much it does happen, and I’m not shy about making my opinions known. I love everybody in this bar but I do have my favorites. What I’m trying to say here is, if you don’t love Matthew Murdock with the fire of a thousand suns, these may not be the recaps for you.

These recaps, and everything else in this post, may include spoilers for the entire Daredevil series, along with The Defenders and Matt’s appearance on She Hulk. Please don’t spoil yourself.  

Now, a brief introduction to some of the show’s key characters from season 1, as determined by me. I reserve the right to edit at will. 

Nelson & Murdock

Matthew Murdock/The Man in Black/Daredevil- Crime fighting catholic lawyer with anger issues; son of a boxer; blinded by accident, orphaned on purpose; earnest past the point of reason; believes in redemption; looks good bloody; looks like Charlie Cox

Franklin ‘Foggy’ Nelson- The practical half of Nelson & Murdock; Matt’s former college roommate, partner in law and life; good lawyer; anti-vigilante; snarky softy; he just wants to make some money honey

Karen Page- Nelson & Murdock client turned office manager; professional nosey parker;  does a good job getting into bad shit; pro-vigilante; mysterious past; looks like Jessica from True Blood but blonde

Other Good Guys

Claire Temple- Matt’s nurse on call; snarky and practical; pro-Daredevil, anti-Matt dying young; magnet for vigilante superheroes and/or hot dudes going through a bad time

Ben Urich- Seasoned old-school reporter; loves the truth, hates fluff pieces; knows where all the bodies are buried; good husband and mentor; pro-vigilante; strangled to death by Fisk

Brett Mahoney- The only honest cop in Hell’s Kitchen; Foggy’s childhood nemesis; loves his mama; re: vigilantes, it’s complicated

Father Lantom- Matt’s priest; loves a good latte; excellent secret keeper; unwittingly feeds Matt’s redemption kink; neutral on vigilantes but believes in God’s justice 

Bad guys

Wilson Fisk- My/your/our employer; here to save his city and do some crime; will beat you to death with his bare hands; loves his momma, Vanessa, Wesley, patricide and French omelettes; pro-loyalty and decorum, anti-anyone not doing exactly what he wants  

James Wesley- Fisk’s number one flunky; the face of the operation; killed by Karen/hubris

Vanessa Marianna- Art dealer with flexible morals; loves giant men with questionable business practices

Madame Gao- The Best; head of the Chinese criminal faction; immortal finger of The Hand (we’ll get to it); she’s just here to kick ass and mess folks around 

Leland Owlsley- The smarmy money guy; can’t resist a one-liner; killed by Fisk 

Nobu Yoshioka- Representative of The Hand; beats the snot out of Matt; accidentally burns himself to death (I said what I said)

Anatoly and Vladimir Ranskahov- Russian mob brothers; ‘I am the Demon Wolf!’; beaten and beheaded by Fisk and shot to death by dirty cops, respectively

Part 1 of the first recap is now available here! If you like long, rambling recaps full of spoilers for a show that was cancelled almost 5 years ago, check it out.

#daredevil #matt murdock #foggy nelson #karen page #wilson fisk #not sure who else to tag so I'm stopping while I'm ahead #character list #recaps

[werewolf-w1tch]

i’ve been sitting on this shit for like two weeks since starting rottmnt and watching the movie before realizing there was a whole other season i accidentally skipped so it’s time to combine the hyperfixations

this is probably gonna have to be at least a couple more posts cause i a.) haven’t finished rottmnt (so hush hush please and thank) and b.) i haven’t reached a solid conclusion for all the characters. these are just my opinions and i’m just another loser on the internet but you’re getting my opinion anyway

on that note...

what TMA entity i think each member of the rottmnt cast would serve/vibe with!

(spoilers for ROTTMNT and TMA obv)

just for those unaware, there are 15 TMA fear entities. they are the embodiment of the fears of humanity and were created as humanity learned to fear shit, as one does. they aren’t really physical things, more ideas that influence the “real” world.

starting off with a banger

ms. o’neil!

ngl, april was one i really wanted to hit hard but wasn’t sure where to start. while i do love her as a character, she isn’t quite my favorite, so initially i didn’t give her much thought. entities like the dark, corruption, flesh, buried, vast, end, desolation, extinction, web, lonely, spiral, and stranger were out the door pretty much immediately; none of them really fit her character (corruption maybe just a tiny bit cause of her interactions with mutants but like. that’s pretty much it). 

personally, i was leaning towards an eye-marked/avatar april with a hint of slaughter and a dash of the hunt. april is someone who very obviously LOVES learning given how often her schooling/assignments come up in the show and how often she geeks out over science stuff with donnie. the hunt mostly comes from her determination to get to the bottom of things regardless of the outcome. i threw the slaughter in there too bc i feel like april really wants to get into a fight with someone(s) at all times. 

raph!

(tiny boy. tiny. sobs loudly over him)

raph is one i didn’t want to go the obvious route for, but he kinda speaks for himself imo. he is very family-driven and cares deeply about his brothers; he serves as the leader (until leo takes his place anyway) and the powerhouse of the team and is very set on using his size and strength to protect his family. 

raph is a corruption avatar with a pretty sizable helping of slaughter (most of if not all of the mutants are gonna be corruption avatars or corruption aligned but it probably won’t be the only thing for all of them). savage raph was honestly a big influence on the slaughter, but i also headcanon that baby raph had issues with his temper and had to learn to reign himself in cause he was built bigger and tougher than his brothers. he doesn’t let himself rage out often, but it’s fucking terrifying when he does. 

mikey!

(holds gently)

gotta love mikey!! he is so web aligned. i wasn’t sure about him for a while but then it hit me like a freight train. web. web 1000%. MAYBE a lil spiral if you wanna get a bit spicy. oh and he’s eye-touched.

in all seriousness, i fucking adore mikey (he’s not my fave either but still). his creativity and positive energy bring a whole kind of lively to the team and his family. he’s fun and upbeat and holy shit who was gonna tell me he’s 13 in the show. on top of all that, mikey is defo smarter than he seems, which fuels my web opinion. he has DEFINITELY used his youngest sibling status and his adorable face to manipulate anyone and everyone he has ever met to get what he wants. maybe not intentionally, but he’s done it. the spiral is honestly the closest thing i could think of that could relate to his ties to his mystic power. his eye ties come from the fact that he probably hears everything and everyone cause they assume he either doesn’t understand or he doesn’t really care. he does. he can and will use anything you say in a court of law. be scared. 

splints!

splinter was an interesting one to think about. i wanted to take his history into account while also keeping in mind the kind of person he is in the show and how he interacts with the people around him. 

splinter is also a very family-oriented man after he picks up the tots, but i feel like he goes through major personality changes after his time in the battle nexus and his transformation. we can see hints of lou jitsu in splints every now and then, but it is painfully obvious that lou jitsu is gone and he’s not coming back. with that being said, i wanted to split splinter into two different avatars: lou jitsu and splinter (mostly cause i’m interested in exploring both of them). 

lou jitsu is a slaughter avatar that is eye marked with sprinkled in lonely (cause what actor as popular as he was has many real connections. esp when he’s trapped with big mama). i feel like despite being blinded by stardom, lou jitsu was still a very smart tactician who could handle himself very well in a fight (hc that leo gets his quick battle analyses from splints/lou). 

splinter is a lonely avatar with a healthy helping of corruption. splinter is less lonely in that he doesn’t have people around him and more that the toll that having his life falling apart in the span of like 10 minutes and being harshly cut off from everyone and everything he’s ever known is SO apparent. that kind of extreme isolation leaves its scars. i think that despite having his family around him, splinter still misses the people he used to know, even if he wasn’t as close with them as he thought. he misses the normalcy sometimes, even if he would never go back and lose his sons. 

fuck it im splitting this into multiple posts. expect more bullshit in the future!

#tma #the magnus archives #rottmnt #rise april #rise raph #rise mikey #rise splinter #i had roblox on in the background of writing this #send me your personal takes or headcanons! #love to see em

[thekatebridgerton]

I’ve just finished The Viscount Who Loved Me and omg how on earth did they completely alter edwina’s personality in the series. They completely ruined her character and for what??

I had watched the series first, and was utterly unimpressed with her (particularly the half sister comment”), but I assumed it must have been an exaggeration of the book, but they actually just tore her personality to shreds and I cannot understand what they intended to achieve by it?

The Edwina thing is sort of 50/50 in this fandom some people like her like this, some prefer the wholesome little sister in the books. And I guess it depends on what type of story you wanted to tell

When you look at it objectively the only reason Julia Quinn somehow managed to write a story about falling inlove with the man who's looking to date your younger sister and keep it out of the realm of emotional infidelity, was because Edwina herself wasn't interested in him

And realistically for the period, Edwina, the diamond of the season would definitely have been interested in a man like Anthony. Who was attractive, smart and titled.

So for the show purposes, Edwina had to be the obstacle in the Kanthony relationship. Because in the book the conflict is 80% much more internal and we get to look at Kate and Anthony from the inside. We get to know about Kate's insecurities from her pov and Anthony's near constant fear of death makes sense. For a reader. It does. For a viewer those things would be nonsense

The same way we don't sympathize with people who have trauma as soon as we meet them. But rather come to sympathize after getting to know them. A viwer isn't interested in the character inner world until after getting to know that character

But there's no way to translate those internal conflicts into screen without doing a voiceover describing what's going on inside the character's mind.

If you think about it, Kate and Anthony's main external conflict is easier to resolve than Saphne's. Because all Anthony needs to do is simply propose to Kate and there's nothing stopping him.

Kate doesn't have a brother who will challenge him to a duel for her honor, she's not lady Whistledown making lots of enemies if she married him, Kate is not a maid unsuitable to marry a noble, she doesn't even have a gay fiancee she needs to marry tomorrow

Quite literally the only external obstacle Anthony needs to overcome to be with Kate is letting Edwina down easy and in the books she's not even into him so it'd not much of a conflict since for a viwer it would make no sense for Anthony to pursue a diamond who sees him as a potential brother in law at best. Which automatically removes the reasons Kate has for hating him.

The main enemies to lovers plotline makes sense to us as readers because we get it from their pov. That they don't hate each other for an external reason rather it's internal. Kate doesn't like Anthony's stubborn pursuit of Edwina and Anthony doesn't like to lose to Kate so he pursues Edwina to mess with her head. And nowhere in this does Edwina herself get hurt

So I guess that the solution was to make Edwina a bigger part of the conflict and sacrifice her character in the altar of visual entertainment. And in the process of massacring Edwina's wholesome relationship with Kate the show got the nasty bit of conflict they wanted for their characters to have a reason to pull away from each other until the last possible second

And that's just my opinion with the tea

#bridgerton #the viscount who loved me #kate sharma #edwina sharma

[roadtogracelandx45]

Charming Town|6| Sons of Anarchy

@ohnoitsthebat @prettyinpayne

masterlist

Six 

“Hey, Big brother.” She grinned, thankful that the big sunglasses she was wearing didn’t show the anxiousness, hurt, and anger in them. Opie didn’t say anything as he peeled off the gloves and moved toward her. 

“What are you doing here?” He pulled her into a tight hug and she almost crumbled to the ground as the emotions rolled through her. 

“Ry? What’s wrong, why are you here?” The other men who had been working with Opie paused, they had never heard the other man talk that much before. “Jax forced me to come down.” Looking over her head, he held his hand up and steered her towards his beat-up truck.  

“Wendy, I guess died when she was having Abel and he wants me to become the baby’s mother.” She let out in a rush and pushed the sunglasses up to rub her hands against her eyes. “How can I do that, Ope? He cheated on me again with a friend?” 

“Because you love him.” He started as he lit a smoke and handed it to her silently.

 Smoking to them both was stress relieving and Ryder needed it.  

“Please don’t give me the rah-rah, he’s the mother's charters Vice President bullshit because I have already heard it from everyone in Tacoma.”  

“No, it’s not that.” He blew out a billow of smoke, “it’s because you two were made for each other. And god damn did I hate when you two got together.” Ryder was sitting on the tailgate next to him, moving her feet back and forth, “You did?” The older Winston nodded his head, “you are my baby sister, I didn’t give a damn if he was my best friend. No one was going to hurt my sister.” “You would beat up Jackson Teller?” when he didn’t answer she pushed his shoulder in annoyance. “Once or twice.” He finally returned, “he beat me to beating the shit out of Hale.”  

“How did I not know this?” She asked taking another smoke out of the pack, she had forgotten how much this helped. 

Opie shrugged his shoulders smirking, the fight between him and Jax was kept from her because after it was finished, it was done, and never talked about it again.  “We both saw how devastated you were when he dumped you and how much it hurt being around them.”  

Ryder blinked her eyes several times. “It’s not just because you love him. It’s because you provide stability. You are the only rock-solid thing he has other than the club. And you can give that to Abel too.”  “How,” she questioned, “how are you so goddamn smart?”  Opie shrugged his shoulders, “Come over later? Donna and the kids would love to see you.” “Yeah, go back to work, I have to meet Abel and save my daughter for Grandma Gemma.” 

“One day you are going to have to forgive her,” Opie commented. “And that would be a cold day in hell.” The younger Winston threw as she went back to her car. 

After finding out why Jax and Ryder were going through an extremely rough patch, Gemma got in her car and went to Tacoma and confront her daughter-in-law at her law firm. She had been of the opinion then and now that the club comes first and that their old men were able to do whatever they wanted.

 Including cheating. 

And that is the one thing that almost broke them up for good. Ryder disagreed though, cheating was a deal breaker for her and the club didn’t always have to come first. She came first, then Harley and her relationship with Jax. It has taken a lot of time and therapy to get to that point.

The confrontation on Gemma’s part hadn’t gone well, she was surprised that the quiet student of hers had become a fiercely independent woman who had no problem standing up for herself and telling the Queen how it was.  “This isn’t Charming, Gemma, this isn’t your kingdom it’s mine and your bullying won’t work here and on me.”  And not to mention the client and her coworkers who stood up from their places at the conference table ready to jump in, in Ryder’s defense. 

And then there was the constant meddling, and how she had to be involved in almost all aspects of Jax’s life and in turn Ryder’s.  

***

There was a series of bikes pulling in next to where Ryder parked her car and she grinned and slid out of her car pulling her purse, diaper bag, and a briefcase with her. Bobby Elvis, Chibs Telford, and Tig Trager were all undoing their helmets and exchanging light-hearted jabs. 

“Some things never change.” Ryder mused, “old stinky men on Harleys.” 

“Hey Doll!” Tig was the first one that found his wits, the insults would have gotten her a tongue lashing but still since it was Ryder, he refrained “Hey Tigger.” She returned as he and the other two Sons stepped up on the sidewalk and pressed kisses to her cheek, “Chibby, Elvis.” As much as she hated being home, she loved the sons she grew up around being there, it made her feel safe. Don’t get her wrong she loved the Tacoma Sons but there was nothing like the familiarity. 

“Did Jax tell you Tara was here?” Tig asked. 

“Tara?” She repeated confused, “As in Tara fucking Knowles. The bitch I broke my hand beating up after she had a thing with Jax behind my back?” 

Bobby smacked his shoulder and shook his head, judging by her reaction, Jax hadn’t told her that Tara was back. And Tig let the cat out of the bag. 

“Came back a few months ago, she is working on Abel’s case.” He informed reaching forward to touch her shoulder but withdrawing it quickly. The woman was already trembling in anger. None of them pitied their VP for the explosion that was going to happen.  

**

Tara had been thrilled when Ryder hadn’t shown up with Gemma and Jax’s daughter or did she show up with Jax. Maybe she was scared to face her face-to-face. Her conversation with herself was stopped when an excited mama came from the little girl followed by the bright return of the little girl’s name.

 Taking a deep breath, the doctor turned to the elevator and felt her heart drop to her stomach when she saw Ryder coming off the elevator followed by Bobby, Chibs, and Tig.  The woman hadn’t changed much, she was still wearing the same cut-off jean short shorts and an old distressed Marine t-shirt and her red hair still hung down her back in a high ponytail. It was like 11 years hadn’t passed and she had never left Charming. Ryder’s green eyes cut to her and she smirked, “Doctor Knowles.”  “Ms.” Ryder clicked her tongue as she shifted Harley to her other hip, “It’s Mrs. Teller.” 

Behind her, Tig and Chibs snickered anticipating a fight breaking out. From what they had heard through the grape view, Ryder was still in fighting shape.  

“Yeah, I am still his wife.” She held up her left hand. Sure enough, the wedding band that John Teller had given Gemma still rested on her finger underneath a diamond ring that she didn’t recognize. 

*Ryder, sweetheart, come on.” Gemma called from the doorway, ‘Leave Harley with Bobby.” The younger Mrs. Teller squeezed her daughter tightly causing her to whine, “Stay here with Uncle Bobby okay?’ “Come ‘ere pumpkin,” Bobby said holding his hands out to the little girl. “When Mommy gets done, we will go see Uncle Opie and Aunt Donna.” The tot’s eyes lit up and she leaned to go to Bobby. “Thank you.” The Elvis impersonator nodded his head taking the little girl into his arms.  

**

“Thanks, Gem.” She commented once she was next to her mother-in-law who hugged her. “We didn’t need you throwing fists until the boy is out of the woods.” “I am too old for catfights,” Gemma smirked, she knew just as well as Luanne, never say never, when crow eaters tried to pick up your old man. You inserted your place as his old lady, even if that meant throwing a couple of punches along the way then so be it.  “We need to talk.” She brushed the thoughts off, her eyes on her daughter-in-law who was now standing in front of the window at the little incubator that Abel was in. “Not right now, when Harley and I get settled and when he is out of the woods then we will talk.” Ryder’s voice sounded harder to her own ears than she meant, but this was a lot of change happening and she wasn’t sure if anything was going to work out in her favor. 

Jax saw her standing there and motioned her to join him in the room, taking a deep breath, she moved away from Gemma and stepped into the room.  

“Yeah, we will talk sweetheart.” Gemma muttered as Jax pulled Ryder into him holding her tightly. “There is no way in hell, my son is going to let you or Harley slip through his fingers again.” And Gemma Teller Morrow was going to make sure of it.

#ash writes #oc: ryder teller winston #oc: ryder teller #series: charming town #sons of anarchy fan fiction #sons of anarchy imgaines

[blighted-elf]

Had some time to finish Wrath of the Righteous in between clients and thought I’d give my Opinions, like I did for Kingmaker, but this time, with much kinder things to say!

May as well start off with the bad because there are so few:

- I preferred the map travel in the first game. They shortened the time it takes to get exhausted for no good reason omg. - The character backgrounds are quite literally useless as far as dialogue goes. Didn’t get to talk about being an Acolyte once, and only got to talk about being a Pharasma worshiper three times (incidentally, NOT when you actually meet her?). Such a wasted opportunity. Games like PoE incorporate backgrounds much more successfully imo.

Now for the good/great:

- Finally a game that lets you play as Anything-But-Lawful-Good successfully? A fantasy game that doesn’t try to force you to be the hero? Fuck yes. I had a great time being Chaotic Neutral - Chaotic Evil. There’s so many games where doing that will result in all your companions leaving you, being locked out of quests and any decent endings. But not this one!

- The story and antagonists were truly great. Getting banished to the Abyss the second you get some footing? Stressful but fun. The overall pacing was much better than in Kingmaker too. Areelu was so similar to my Commander (power hungry knowledge seeking creatures of chaos, let’s go), despite me not researching anything about her prior to the character creation. I almost considered saving her, but when she spoke about defying Pharasma, I had to stay in character. So, my commander sacrificed her but only out of duty, not necessarily out of personal want.

- The Mythic paths made the Commander feel very personalised. Trickster was a bit memey at some points, but generally a bit of fun. Like, I turned a powerful demon lord into a mirror instead of fighting her. Then slept with Socothbenoth, after pledging allegiance to his enemy... in front of all my companions and a bunch of other demon lords. Also, I still have each member of the council’s soul in a cauldron because I didn’t use it then skipped town, which may be the biggest prank of all. - The companions. Good god, I fell in love with so many of them. Woljif, my beloved rogue tiefling template. Arueshalae, the literal succubus, who just... stops being a demon as soon as Desna/the Commander shows her love and support (or you can make her evil again). Opposingly, Camellia, my “irredeemably evil” bestie, gets even worse when you show her love and support and I genuinely loved that because it’s such a rarity in this genre. And just... the entire Daeran romance. The hold that this fictional man currently has over me 😭 Like, I originally wanted to go for Arue but Count Sass started flirting while insulting me and my Commander was like ohh I’m going to ruin his life in the best way. Confession time part 1... Accidentally got the bad ending for Sosiel, but he married some guy and lived happily ever after still? He was just mourning his brother? Sorry to a fellow cleric. I’ll do better next playthrough and pay closer attention. Confession time part 2... I loved Wenduag but killed her in her last quest because In Character, and regretted it for the rest of the game. Definitely going to keep her alive next time. Soz Wendy.

But yeah, I highly recommend this game and desperately need multiple story DLCs to come out soon!

#Blighted posts

[olympianroyals]

Happy December! What were your favourite moments of 2022 on simblr? They can be from your blog or someone else’s <3

Hey You 0.o

Sorry for how long this took but below are my 10 top favorites moments of my story!!!

The last time the Family were together: this scene really showed how close the family were before…you know disaster stuck and I love that this is a memory the girls could fall back on.

The time Panda kicked the shit outta this guy: What happened here was the very definition of ‘fuck around and find out’ bruhhh she kicked this boy so hard LMFAOOOOO

This whole scene where everybody was gossiping about their Royals: This really gave an insight into how toxic Olympia society is and also gave a sneak peak of the dynamic as well 

When the girls finally arrived to Olympia: Panda girl was not with it at all, she did not want to be back in her home country and it showed. What happened next only proved her right.

This messy ass segment: Do I need to say more? Lmfaoo

Panda first engagement: Considering what the engagement was, Panda handled herself really well. Some people in Olympia would disagree but their opinion do not matter!!

When homeboy woke up from his coma only to get murdered later lol: When I think about it, this really is a kekee because I really did that to him lmfaooooo

When Panda stood up for herself: Abraxas really tried it, because why would you accuse a 16 year old of some shift like that? Pandora and Abraxas relationship has always been rocky but this right here really was some shit and I love that she was made it clear that was unacceptable.

When Nico was threatening to beat up Nik In front of her sisters grave lmfaooooo: and you know Savannah was all for it in the afterlife!!! Damn Daphne really looks like she been going though hell……which she has been and is entirely my fault but anywayssss the fact that Nico is causally threatening her brother in law makes this sad scene 1,000 times better.

Annnnd lastly

The funeral: When I tell you this scene, the set, the sims, even the fucking weather put my ass through it, it really did because there should have been no reason why creating this was as hard as it was but I’m glad because it really came out good. This was my number 1 favorite because I’ve actually finished a chapter in my story!!!!

Thanks for sending this ask ❤️❤️❤️

#tor asks

[theoldhempfarmer]

Preaching to the Choir…

Dateline 1-16-24

Winter finally came to Middle Tennessee and it arrived with a bad attitude. Presently it’s 10 degrees Fahrenheit with 8 inches of snow that’s not going anywhere for a couple days. Today, there will be no delivering of orders or picking up supplies, so this week’s Cannabis column will be written at a leisurely pace. Because of the cold, The Old Hemp Farmer is girding his loins with a rather large hot cup of organic Indonesian coffee and munching on a large chunk of Costa Rican Cacao fortified with Tennessee homegrown CBD/THC extract. As the three C’s (Caffeine Cacao and Cannabis) psychoactive properties start to dance in my brain, the keyboard beckons me to me to pontificate on this thought: What if the majority of the folks in America aren’t really into Cannabis? Stay with me on this, my dear brother and his lovely wife believe that Cannabis should be legal and easily purchased by any adult that wishes to do so but they don’t consume Recreational Cannabis of any type and there is good chance they never will. The Old Hemp Farmer is starting to believe that although most adults in the U.S. believe Recreational Cannabis should be legal they’re really not that much into Cannabis. I’ve been a part of Cannabis for over 50 years, growing, researching, making products and now legally selling CBD/THC products, Cannabis has consumed my life, probably way more than it should have but that's me. Once the Wife (L’Tanya Bell) became The Old Hemp Farmer’s Wife and started making her very popular hemp derived topicals, Cannabis totally took over our lives. Soon all of our business and social activities centered around growing, processing and selling Cannabis products. So our lives became more and more intertwined with the Cannabis Industry and the folks that live the same sort of life. In that Cannabis cocoon, you begin to see the whole World through the prism of Cannabis and whether you like it or not a “group think” starts to emerge. A case in point is in Tennessee, where the transition of Hemp Derived Cannabinoids from the guise of 2018 Farm bill (which is a Federal law) to state control, where the Tennessee Department of Agriculture will oversee how Hemp Derived Cannabinoids are manufactured and sold.

The Hemp Derived Cannabinoids Bill HB0403 was signed into law in May of 2023 and it’s stated quite clearly that starting July 1st of 2024 that testing for THC Delta 9 was going to be post decarboxylation. This is a fancy way of saying they were going convert THCa to THC Delta 9 during testing. This is where “group think” showed up because somehow Tennessee Wholesalers and Retailers convinced themselves that this only pertained to THC edibles and it had nothing to with THCa Flower or THCa products. So when in December, the Tennessee Department of Agriculture put the finishing touches on the Hemp Derived Cannabinoid Bill known as HB0403, it took all of the ambiguity out of how THCa products were to be tested post decarboxylation, the shock wave reverberated throughout the Cannabis industry in the state of Tennessee and it still continues. So now the Cannabis “group Think” has shifted from denial to a “call to arms” with the thinking it that if enough people voice their opinion that THCa flower and products are important to the state of Tennessee, the TDA will relent and keep the status quo. But are THCa flower and products really that important to the average person in Tennessee? So will enough people outside the Tennessee Cannabis industry show up and show out to save THCa flower and products at the TDA February 6th Cannabis Town Hall? Because if the general public doesn't voice a pro THCa flower opinion, it will appear that the Tennessee Cannabis Industry was only “Preaching to the Choir”. Anyway as always, Hemp Dawgs and Hemp Puppies keep one eye on the weather and the other eye on the market.

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[inkbutterflyuniverse]

Guess who got into another debate about LGBTQ+ people with her family?

Yes, it's me!!

How did it happen? Because of Heartstopper. Yes, really.

Context: Earlier I wanted to watch episode 7 of season 2, and Netflix said that two people were already using it (my father and my brother 1). I asked my brother 1 if he was on Netflix, he said yes and that he just begun and that he could stop to watch something else on another plateform.

Later, when we were at the table he asked me what I was watching on Netflix, I said Heartstopper, and he told me he didn't know about it. My father, at my right, heard and asked me what I was. I said that it was a TV show in the daily top of Netflix. He was like "oh I didn't see it when I went on Netflix earlier. What is it about?". I'm like "yeah it's not interesting, it about teens" (yk, trying to avoid the discussion because I know how it will go).

Unlucky am I, he took his phone, opened Netflix and looked at the summary. "Oh another thing with LGBTQ+ people. There're everywhere now, you can't see a show without them". And now, everyone at the table gets involved in the discussion. "Oh no, gays, again" (brother 2) ; "you watch only that now" (mother)...

I tried to explain that it was based on a comic book I've read and that I really liked, and the author just wrote about this because she's in the community too, etc. I'm like "no it's not about making it a norm and saying the heterosexual people aren't normal, it's just about teens discovering their identities, their sexualities... Like one is gay, another is bi, there's a trans character (really shouldn't have said that because then the discussion went from "too many gays" to "I can't understand the trans, I'm not okay with that, it's not right, it's just a mental illness" (brother 2, 17yo... 🙃).

Honestly, I'm not even surprised by them anymore, but what surprised me is my grandmother, she didn't understood everything that was going in, my brother was in another rant and she said "oh yeah my neighbor's brother-in-law comes often with a guy. They're a couple. The man is nice, he has a great conversation." SLAY GRANDMA. SAY IT LOUDER. I can't believe that she's the most reasonable person at this table. (Not that I thought she was against it, just didn't really knew her opinion about that since I don't saw her often and we never really talked about that, but glad to know that she's okay with that).

Her declaration literally stopped the discussion and my father was like "I have nothing about gay people it's just that I'm sick of seeing them everywhere. We just finished Good Omens season 2, and like there was nothing like that in season 1" (every shipper angry noise). And then the discussion continued about homosexuality and heterosexuality and the norm and the visibility in medias...

And then my friends asked me why I don't tell my parents that I'm ace. Because that. They're not totally against it, they won't totally dismissed it, but I'm sure it will be things like "but you didn't tried how do you know" and "yeah not a surprise you're LGBT" because of how you defend them. 🙃

#heartstopper #lgbtq #family #“lgbt are everywhere” #rant about my life