#through the books i've read in my youth

[the-busy-ghost]

Something comforting to think about today- there are lots of people in the world who hate, loathe, and despise my favourite books

That doesn’t sound like it should be comforting because of course at heart I want everyone to love them as much as I do. And it does annoy me when people hate books based on what I sincerely believe to be a complete misinterpretation of them (cough-cough, the recent “Wuthering Heights is just a silly problematic romance novel” issue). But if I’m being honest I also hate it just as much when people LOVE my favourite books based on a complete misinterpretation of them and for all the wrong reasons (”XXX did nothing wrong!”- what book were you reading???). And in either situation it isn’t really my business, though I reserve the right to be irritated.

But lots of people have valid criticisms of these books. Others simply didn’t vibe with the book on a given day and maybe never will- they don’t owe me or anyone else a reason. And I may not agree with them, but I do like it when I can completely understand why some people don’t like these books. For example, I think “Middlemarch” is one of the greatest novels I’ve ever read but for other people, it’s just not for them! They simply enjoy a very different kind of book, or they were disappointed that it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, or they couldn’t understand the characters, or it just wasn’t the right time for that book to come into their lives, or it was just too damn long for them.

And firstly I find that comforting because it shows that we’re all different souls. We all have different tastes and experiences, and that means that our favourite books actually MEAN something to us, rather than just being a Generic Important Book That Everyone Likes. And often the reasons why one book is my favourite, are very different to the reasons that they are someone else’s favourite- the best books are multi-faceted after all. It’s a wonderful testament to the diversity of human experience and creativity (because in my opinion, there’s a great deal of the reader’s own imaginative ability goes into engaging with a book). So all that is required is for people to be open-minded and assume that when someone says they love a book, they have their own reasons, and these might not even be the reasons you think. 

And secondly of course, is that if even the books that I think are the best thing to exist, a physical symbol of worldly greatness, aspiration embodied, don’t appeal to everyone- then the things I create in turn don’t need to either. If even the greatest authors have harsh critics who will simply NEVER like their work, why are we all worrying so much about the merest hint of rejection, in life as much as in art?

#I talk a good game of course rejection is still very painful for me #And note valid constructive criticism is a different thing from rejection but if people's books can survive completely dumbass rejection #Based on complete misreading of the situation I think I can survive someone not liking me #books #reading #booklr #Also constructive criticism of my favourite books is good because it means I get to go back think it over #Argue it through in my head; point out other passages of the book in defence of it #And STILL come out of it loving the book possibly even more because it's drawn my attention to things I didn't realise about it #And sometimes I can't answer them fully either and that's ok too #Sometimes I've had the same thought as a novel's detractors and they've drawn attention to it #For example I was wondering at the end of Wuthering Heights why Heathcliff bothered keeping Nellie around #Why didn't he just send her packing rather than continuing to employ her at Thrushcross Grange #And I have lots of ideas but none of them quite stick yet #One is that she's possibly an unreliable narrator so she may- against her better judgement- have helped him more than she likes to admit #Another is that he is labouring under the impression that he can control her and so keeps her around in case he needs to use her influence #A third is that he needs a witness- there's some element of performativity in his cruelty and SOMEONE needs to see him destroy things #But I also like the idea that the four of them are all siblings really #Nelly- though she has a mother and other family at home- spent much of her youth at Wuthering Heights #And describes herself as Hindley's foster sibling in the sense that her mother was his nurse (a powerful bond in the pre-modern era btw) #So really she's as much one of the Wuthering Heights Nest as the lot of them #Heathcliff doesn't have as much reason to despise her as Hindley nor does he have so much reason to love her as Cathy #But she's still a sibling of sorts and maybe Heathcliff- whether he recognises it or not- sense that she has a right to be there #He doesn't seem like someone who needs a family but then maybe he's not as in control of the Heights as he thinks he is #I really don't know yet I will have to reread it #But yeah I think Nelly is as much a part of that nest of trouble as the rest of them #I'm getting off topic though- but see what I mean about negative criticism being important and fascinating! #Ok so I keep finding my way back to Wuthering Heights a lot over the last few weeks but this applies to othe rbooks too #I had similar feelings about some of teh criticisms of Flemington #reading log

[kathaynesart]

The eye of the hurricane. I like to think Cassandra sometimes called the brothers by the nicknames their dad used, given they were probably pretty close before his passing.

BEGINNING || PREVIOUS || NEXT (SOON) MASTER POST

Man oh man, this one was way messier and off model than my last few updates but whatever, we got to keep this ball rolling! Life's been crazy so I've had to take some unwanted breaks in between updates. Thanks everyone for your patience as always!

One thing I wanted in this flashback was to really get a sense of how the brothers worked as an experienced team with Leo at the helm as a proper leader. It's something we never got to see much of in Rise and I felt it was important to include since half the team is already gone by the time of Replica. Team Dynamics Ted Talk under the cut!

We know from Casey Jr that Leo stressed the importance of listening to your team. A big part of that also means knowing how to communicate with them in general.

With Michelangelo, he keeps it short and succinct, trusting his brother to know what he's doing when in his element. This trust goes a long way with Mikey, having spent years of his youth as the baby striving for the respect he felt he deserved. Leo knows it's best to not bog Mikey down with details, allowing him to improvise as needed. This unspoken freedom has only grown over time as Mikey has dipped deeper into spiritual arts that, frankly, go completely over Leo's head.

The greatest sacrifice Leo has ever made was read Donnie's Big Book of Bad Guy Codes. While he doesn't remember ALL the numbers, he has memorized the ones that matter and it has helped tremendously in avoiding miscommunication with his genius brother. More importantly it silenced any of Donnie's usual belly-aching. As Leo's "twin"/"equal" the two still butt heads from time to time. Donnie respects his brother's authority (mostly) but will still push the boundaries of what he's allowed on a semi-regular basis. Give Donnie an inch and he will take the mile and then find a loop hole that allows him to go twenty miles more. This is partially due to him often being the one left behind at HQ, making the turtle just a TAD stir crazy. Leo does his best to keep him in line regardless.

Big brother Raph will forever and always be big brother to Leo. As such he holds a place of authority in Leo's heart and is someone he still regularly seeks counsel from in both the ways of leadership and more. Raph is always happy to support his younger brother and does a surprisingly good job (albeit after years of practice) of walking the line so as not to step on his brother's toes in the process. At least not since the secret of "the Key" blew up in their faces several years ago. They don't talk about that anymore. Leo is the leader now and he's done a great job in recent years as far as Raph is concerned. He trusts him to make the right call. The two have a close bond and regularly use mind meld to quickly communicate rather than speak ...this will be important to remember for the future.

Hope that overall feeling came through for this group!

#rottmnt replica #replica #rottmnt #save rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #kathaynesart #unpause rottmnt #pregnancy #labor pain #labor #birthing #tmnt #rise of the tmnt #rise leo #rise mikey #rise donnie #rise raph #profanity #is cooch profanity? #I don't know I just found it funny

[xiakyo]

﹒ꪆ୧﹒I want a love like I've seen in the movies.

── MALLEUS DRACONIA x M!READER.

DISCLAIMERS. Not proofread. Not edited. Male reader. Reader is taller and stronger than Malleus. Malleus is in love. Reader is referred as "Stranger" in the story, but "Son of Adam" by Malleus. Reader is a member of Diasomnia.

WORDS. 498 words.

---

MALLEUS DRACONIA.

Malleus, as many know, was quite isolated. Seeing as many were afraid of him, too afraid to strike up a conversation or approach him.

He would often read to ignore the loneliness he felt, sure he had Lilia, Sebek and Silver. But he craved for something more. Something different than platonic affection.

He would often read books in his spare time, his favorite, being about gargoyles and romance. Yes, romance.

Back in his youth, when he was much much younger, he would often hear tales of an alluring prince charming sweeping off the damsel in distress, the princess, off of their feet.

How Malleus hoped that one day he would be able to live out that tale.

But that would be but a mere dream.

──﹒ꪆ୧﹒

Or so he thought..

He was simply walking through diasomnia's halls, the halls being illuminated by the green fire that was burning brightly on the torches.

He looked out the tall windows, watching the trees outside the dorm sway along with the wind. The sky pitch black.

He turned to walk away, his gaze still fixated on the scenery outside.

He found himself bumping into someone, his eyes widening as he tripped and was about to fall onto the ground.

Until he felt a hand grip his waist and keep him up, he looked in front of it and his cheeks flushed red.

"Forgive me, housewarden. I hadn't meant to bump into you!"

The person in front of him let out a nervous laughter, his other hand rubbing the back of his neck.

Malleus would continue to stare at him, his eyes fixated on his eyes.

He would quickly snap out of it, clearing his throat.

"Th- That is fine."

Did he.. Stutter?

He closed his eyes and gave a small smile.

"It is my fault, son of Adam. For I wasn't looking where I was going."

Malleus apologized, he noticed how the man's hand was still on his waist, but he said nothing about it.

The stranger in front of him gave him a smile, and Malleus swore he felt his heartbeat beating quicker.

He felt himself lose his breath as he continued to stare at him. How.. Unusual for him. This was an unusual behavior that was coming from Malleus, but he couldn't help himself.

The person gave a small bow, grabbing his hand gently and placing a kiss on the back of his hand before excusing himself and leaving.

Malleus stood there, baffled and unable to speak. He was speechless.

He hoped to live the romantic tale he's always read about.. But he never expected that he would be the damsel in distress instead.

He hadn't even gotten the name of the stranger.. Malleus had a small smile on his face. And he continued to have that smile the entire day, nothing managed to make that smile go away, whenever someone asked about why he was smiling so much, he wouldn't respond, he would only let out a low chuckle.

How he hoped he would be able to meet the stranger, no, his prince charming, once again.

#﹒ꪆ୧﹒thy woes #malleus draconia x reader #malleus x reader #twisted wonderland malleus x reader #twisted wonderland x reader #twst malleus x reader #twst x reader #x male reader #x reader

[vanwritesfan-fiction]

I've Got A Crush On You

Part Two: Not Tonight

A WMCJ!Jeremy x Reader Fic

Soundtrack: Not Tonight- Lil' Kim (many features)

Jeremy gets to take Ms. Flexible out for a date, but he quickly realizes that he's in way over his head after his last relationship. Kamal is doing is best to keep his present and past separate, but when one of his players gets into some trouble, he finds that you really can't leave behind the place that made you.

Warnings: language, Jeremy being Jeremy, mentions of violence, kissing

A/N: not beta'd for time, I'll go back later and make edits if necessary

"PASS THE BALL!", Jeremy yelled above the sound of sneakers squeaking on the hardwood, his voice echoing off the gym walls. "Isaiah pass the b-", he groaned as Isaiah tried to shoot the ball, his off balance attempt ricocheting off the rim and careening across the bleachers.

The West LA Dragons youth basketball team had two weeks of practice under their belt, and they had nothing to show for it. There were only two players on the team who could even dribble or shoot the ball, and the others were like newborn giraffes on the court, stumbling over their feet, every shot coming up at least three feet short, and to the right. "I swear to-", Jeremy cried out, running his hands through his tight curls.

"No swearing!" Chris called out from the bleachers, his head down, looking at the stat sheet.. "Go get your friend, man." He gestured at Kamal to get Jeremy all the way together.

"Alright, water break", Kamal called out to the team with a clap of his hands, each player immediately collapsed on the ground, their chests heaving to try to catch a breath, no energy to even run and get some water. "Dude, what's the problem? They're kids, you've got 'em running drills like soldiers", Kamal said at a whisper.

"Have you seen this team? You know I don't believe in corporal punishment", Jeremy placed a peaceful hand on his chest to signify his love of pacification, making Kamal roll his eyes dramatically, "but some of these kids need the belt".

Kamal narrowed his eyes at Jeremy, "Nah, you're more annoying than usual. What's really going on?"

Jeremy let out a humorless chuckle, squeezing at his hips with his hands as he shuffled his weight nervously back and forth. "I'm nervous about tonight."

"What's tonight?", Kamal asked, his brow knitted together with confusion. "Dude, stop playing with me." Jeremy scoffed. He could barely focus on anything today but you, and his nerves were getting the best of him.

"I'm not fuckin' with you man. I have no idea what you're talking about." Kamal stifled a laugh, he loved to see Jeremy squirm under pressure. "Man, my date tonight!" He spoke louder than he intended, his voice carrying across the room.

"Woah! Mr. Tumnus has a date tonight!", Isaiah teased, the team breaking out in laughter at his joke. Jeremy quickly paced over to him in anger. "How do you even know that reference?! You weren't even born when that movie came out." He flexed his jaw at his pint size enemy.

"It was a book first, you moron, we read it in school", Isaiah shrugged, letting the ball roll off his fingertips. "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe?" Jeremy glanced back at Kamal with wide eyes to confirm, his friend giving him a nod. "Ok, well...shut up and shoot the ball." He didn't have a comeback, and he was honestly starting to wonder how this kid knew so many pop culture references that he didn't.

"Good comeback, Will Ferrell", Isaiah let out a humorless breath, looking around for confirmation that his joke landed. "Okay, you know what? That one was a reach!" Jeremy snatched the ball from him, holding it behind his back as the kid tried to get it back from him. He leaned forward, getting on Isaiah's level, his tone even. "I don't know if all the Fortnite you play is rotting your brain or something, but if you don't get in line and start showing me a little respect, you're gonna get laughed off the court at tomorrow's game."

Isaiah gave him an cocky grin. "I'm surprised you know what Fortnite is, I didn't know they had it when Jesus was around, ya old man."

"J, don't." Kamal warned, having heard their entire conversation. He could tell that Jeremy was starting to get pissed off, and if provoked, namaste could quickly turn into something nama-nasty. "Its' fine, its' fine." Jeremy waived him off; he wasn't about to let anyone ruin his day today. "Fine, you don't wanna be a team player, everyone's getting punished." The smile dropped from Isaiah's face as Jeremy stood up, blowing his whistle that hung around his neck. "Laps, everyone!" There was a collective groan heard in the room as everyone slowly stood up.

"That's not fair!", Isaiah called out. "Yeah, yeah, they call you "Swiffer, lets see you swiffer this court as you run around it." Jeremy blew his whistle again.

"Its Swisher", Isaiah mumbled under his breath as he started running, catching up with the group.

"Dude, I could have sworn I told you about my date tonight", Jeremy turned back to Kamal, palming the basketball as the two of them made their way to the bleachers. "You did", Kamal chuckled, taking a sip from his water bottle, "I just love fuckin' with you."

"I can't believe you actually did it", Kamal chuckled as he sat down on the couch opposite Jeremy. He begrudgingly agreed to come over to Jeremy's place after practice and help him pick out an outfit for his date tonight, only because he could tell Jeremy was more nervous than usual. He pushed aside the money tree and bottles of unidentifiable "health" liquids that occupied Jeremy's coffee table. His apartment always smelled like dirt and patchouli oil, and even though he'd been over many times, he never got used to the scent.

"Why do you have zero faith in me? After all that we've been through." Jeremy sucked his teeth at his best friend as he leaned back, pulling out his phone. He'd been scrolling through your Instagram all morning, trying to get a feel for the kind of person you were. He didn't want to take you to Malibu if you were more of a Beverly Hills kind of girl, and he felt the pressure to make a good impression on you because the crush he had only grew with each passing day.

"Because I know you", Kamal interjected, "and I know that your breakup with Tati broke you. To be honest, I didn't think you were ever gonna get back out there." He pointed at the bottle that looked the least disgusting. "Can I try this?" Jeremy nodded, ruffling his curls with his fingers.

Talking about his last girlfriend, their relationship ending after five good years together, was still a sensitive subject for him. The way things ended left a lot to be desired, and he was really nervous about starting to date again. Still, he couldn't let on how hurt he still was, especially to Kamal, because he would never let him live it down.

"Listen, I broke up with her. We were just moving in to different directions. I was focused on my business and she..."

"Was focused on some other guys dick?" Kamal grimaced as the green juice hit his taste buds. He put the bottle down, spitting what was left in his mouth in a napkin. "What the fuck is in here? It tastes like ass."

Jeremy perked up, taking the bottle from the table. "Wheatgrass. I've been working on a new formula. Its supposed to be really good for your digestive system."

"You know its not supposed to taste the way it would come out, going in right?" Jeremy ignored his dig, his gaze focused on your latest story post. You were posing with your sister and nephew in the booth of a restaurant, red pleather seats behind you and a very distinctive donkey with a sombrero on in the very back corner. Jeremy couldn't shake the feeling that he recognized the place, but couldn't quite put his finger on exactly where.

Just as he pressed the red heart emoji on the screen, a notification fell down from the top of the screen.

You: How does Las Anitas on Olvera Street sound tonight? Its my favorite restaurant

Jeremy couldn't help the smile that formed on your face at the cute emojis you overused in your text. He replied that he'd swing by your place to pick you up at 8pm before looking back up at Kamal.

"What?" Jeremy tipped his head at Kamal who was grinning ear to ear. "Nothing", he shook his head, taking another sip of the drink, and suppressing a gag at the taste once again, "its just nice to see you smiling. Good change of pace."

Jeremy could feel his face heat up with embarrassment, but he couldn't deny that Kamal was right. "See this is what I'm talking about. If we could just be open and vulnerable with each other, we could be even better f-". Kamal gave Jeremy a look of disgust as he pushed himself to his feet. "Fuck no, man, I told you about that "therapy" shit, I'm not tryna hear that."

"I feel like you're not giving it a chance!" Jeremy called out to him, his focus still on his phone, mindlessly scrolling through your feed.

"So, you're going out with a hippie?", your older sister, Nikki asked as she plopped herself down on your bed. You sighed as you stood in front of your bedroom mirror, putting your finishing touches on your outfit. Jeremy was supposed to arrive any minute, and you were growing increasingly nervous with each passing second. It'd been a while since you'd been on a date, and you weren't much for relationships, so you didn't have a lot of experience with flirting or carrying small talk.

"He's not a hippie", you giggled, leaning forward and touching up your lip-gloss. "He's just health conscious, and he seems sweet."

"Yeah, give it a couple months and you'll be moving to his commune and stop shaving your legs and wearing deodorant." You gave your sister a look through the mirror, a laugh escaping her lips when she noticed you. "That's not his vibe. He's from Beverly Hills." You were about to carry on when you heard a knock on the door. You might have been a little too eager when you ran past Mattias, who was playing video games on the couch.

Jeremy gave you a mega-watt smile when you opened the door, your stomach full of butterflies when you saw how good he looked outside of his gym clothes.

"Y-you look beautiful", Jeremy stuttered over his words as his eyes roamed your body. "Thanks", you felt your face heat up at his compliment. "Come in, I'm almost ready."

You left Jeremy at the entrance while you ran to your room to grab your purse and slip on your shoes. Jeremy felt uncomfortable, taking in the immaculately kept apartment, full of family mementos and vintage furniture pieces. "What's up Mattias?" Jeremy greeted the 12 year old, who only returned a nod, his focus on the TV.

"So, you're the hippie." Your sister strolled into the living room. She was a single mom, with a past of rough relationships and a bitter baby daddy of her own, so she was always skeptical of every man she came across. Jeremy opened his mouth to defend himself, but you interrupted just in time, pushing him through the door.

"Please ignore my sister, Nikki, she doesn't have any house training." Mattias pushed past the two of you out the front door and ran toward his bike hooked up to the rack out front of the building. "Where are you going?", you asked, confused as to why he'd be leaving after 8pm.

"I'm going to Isaiah's house, we're gonna play hoops.", he threw over his shoulder as he mounted his bike. "You better be back before 10!", you called after him as Jeremy guided you to the car.

Jeremy was still "automobile challenged" ever since he broke up with Tatiana, so he had to practically beg Kamal to use his car, finally breaking him down to borrow the Honda after Jeremy agreed to watch Drew three date nights in a row.

You stood at the passenger side while he struggled to open the rusted door, finally getting it open after a hard pull, stumbling back. "Sorry", he mumbled under his breath with a chuckle as he jogged over to the drivers side, and you slid into the passenger seat. The engine sputtered as Jeremy tried to turn the key, a hard metal scratching sound shook the car. "Sorry", he repeated, his face bright red. Finally the engine turned over-

You covered your ears as music blared through the speakers, lyrics flooding the car as Jeremy frantically tried to find the stereo volume button.

🎶I'm in love with the shape of you We push and pull like a magnet do Although my heart is falling too I'm in love with your body🎶

He punched the "off" button, making you jump. "Sorry." Third time was the charm, even with apologies.

"Ed Sheeran, huh?", you giggled, playfully pushing him in the shoulder. You could visibly see him relax, his shoulders falling down from his ears, as he realized that you were pretty chill and he didn't have to work so hard to impress you.

"Dude, I don't know about this." Mattias sized up the chain link fence in front of him, at least twice his height. It was pitch black, the only light source coming from the flashlight he had in his hand. He looked out to the bright neon sign of the gas station a couple feet away in front of him. Isaiah gave him a push, a few of his other teammates behind him cheering him on. "If you wanna be a part of the team, you've gotta do this."

Growing up, Mattias always had a hard time making friends. He was a really shy kid, and it didn't help that his mom had him moving around all of Southern California, never putting roots down for more than a couple months. By sixth grade, he'd been at his fifth school, and finally his mom promised that he'd be here for a long time. When you moved in to help pay some of the bills and help raise Mattias, he finally felt like he'd found a home, and this time, he was determined to make friends.

The basketball team was his saving grace, because he was spending a lot of time with kids his age, and for the most part they were pretty nice. Isaiah was definitely the leader of the crew, and Mattias felt he had to impress him, which was why he was currently about to jump a fence.

"C'mon, Matti, do it!", his friends edged him on. "C'mon, unless you're a pussy", Isaiah spit out. The was enough to get Mattias going, who jumped onto the chain link fence and hoisted himself over the metal bars, easily jumping down to the other side. "Aren't you guys coming?"

Isaiah and the rest of the group avoided eye contact, no one else working to make their way over the fence too. "No, this is part of the initiation. You have to go into that gas station and steal something without getting caught." Mattias could feel his stomach start to churn. "You do that, you're in the group."

"I don't wanna do that. I'll get in trouble." Mattias could only imagine the look on yours and his mom's face if he was brought home in a cop car. "We all had to do it, so you have to, too. Unless you're scared", Isaiah teased in a sing-song tone, letting out an evil chuckle. He was torn. He was desperate to make friends, but getting caught would for sure get him grounded for the next year and his mom would pull him from the team.

"Do it! Do it! Do it!" Mattias heard the chants behind him as he contemplated his next move. He got a running start, sprinting across the empty field until he reached the edge of the gas station lot. He looked to the right and left of him and made sure that no one saw him enter the convenience store.

He would just make sure he didn't get caught.

So far, the date was going pretty well. You actually enjoyed hearing Jeremy talk about his holistic smoothie business, and it definitely didn't hurt that he was really easy on the eyes.

"So this is your favorite restaurant?", Jeremy switched topics, noticing you staring at him. He was staring at you too, but how could he not, you were fucking gorgeous.

"Yeah, its the first place I came to when I moved here to live with my sister and nephew, and now we come here all the time. Mostly birthday's and celebrations, but its become our spot, ya know?" You gave him a soft smile.

"Are you not originally from LA?" Jeremy asked as he played with the plastic menu in his hands. He already knew the answer, that you were originally from Texas, having practically stalked your social media to prepare for this date, but he wasn't going to let on that he knew that. "No, I'm originally from Houston. Didn't think I'd ever live in LA, but its actually not that bad if you can get past the traffic."

As you continued to talk about your career as a nurse, and the closest thing to your heart, your family, you could see that Jeremy was a little distracted, constantly glancing over your right shoulder. It kind of hurt to think that maybe he thought you were boring and not worth listening to. After the third look past you, you interrupted his eye line, snapping your fingers at him. "Something wrong? Am I boring you?", you ended with a giggle, to soften the blow of your accusation.

Jeremy's throat went dry as he looked at the other side of the restaurant. He'd recognize her anywhere, even her side profile. He was 99% sure that Tatiana was in the same restaurant, on a date with another guy.

"Fuck", he shot out under his breath, but you heard him. "What's going on?", you looked around the room, trying to figure out what had him so upset.

Jeremy remembered where he recognized the red leather booths and the donkey with the sombrero now. This was where he and Tatiana had their first date. His face somehow simultaneously went white and red, his cheeks a bright pink.

"Jeremy, are you okay? You don't look so good." Your voice snapped him back to reality. What the hell was he doing? He was on a date with a gorgeous woman, someone he was lucky to get the attention of, and he was still hung up on on ex. He just needed to get it-

He ducked behind the menu, shielding his face as Tatiana and the mystery guy walked past toward the exit. You pulled up your menu as well, getting level with him. "Who are we hiding from? Do you have warrants out or something?" You were half joking, half hoping he'd tell you no. He ignored your line of questioning, peeking out the side of the shield.

"Jeremy, is that you?" Tatiana stopped at the table when she recognized the brunette. "Uh, no sorry. You must have me mixed up with someone else." Jeremy lowered his voice an octave, a terrible disguise of his voice.

"Jeremy, I know that's you. Why are you hiding?" Tatiana was dancing around the table trying to get a good look at him, but Jeremy was just as quick. After a few seconds she gave up.

"Sorry, I guess I had the wrong person", Tatiana murmured with frustration and kept walking to the exit.

"I think you're in the clear", you said as you watched the door close behind her. Jeremy sat up and adjusted his jacket and hair as if that scene didn't just happen. "So I was thinking of getting the enchiladas, no meat, just beans. What're you gonna get?"

You burst out laughing, garnering the attention of the tables around you. Jeremy looked at you with a deadpan face, his lips in a tight line.

"Ok. So we're just gonna pretend like you didn't do a "She's The Man" with that girl?"

"I don't know what you're talking about", Jeremy replied timidly, rubbing a hand on the back of his neck.

"Listen, its okay. If I saw my ex, I'd probably react the same way." You placed a sympathetic hand on top of his, gently brushing your fingers over his knuckles. "How did you know?". Jeremy was beyond embarrassed for his actions, but at no point did he think he'd run into Tatiana again, and the emotions from seeing her hit him like a ton of bricks.

"I guessed she was either a stalker or an ex, and she was way too pretty to be your stalker, no offense."

Jeremy chuckled, grabbing your hand and gently squeezing it a few times affectionately. You felt a warmth through out your body, and it was like the room was empty, except for the two of you. Suddenly, you were noticing things about him you hadn't seen before. How soft his blue eyes were, the creases that formed in the corner of his eyes whenever he smiled, how cute his freckles were, the dimple. He made you feel safe and beautiful in a way that no guy had in a very long time.

"Do you wanna get out of here?", you whispered. Jeremy's eyebrows rose at the suggestion, but you smirked at him, taming his excitement. "I know a taco stand close to my place. A lot less likely to run into any exes there." You rose and slipped your jacket on, Jeremy right behind you. As he rose from his seat, his back pocket buzzed. "I'll be right there", me motioned to you as you headed to the car.

A photo of him and Kamal together at the championship game illuminated the screen as he pressed answer.

"Hey Kamal, I'm pretty busy right now." Jeremy paused as he listened to a frenzied Kamal on the other line. "Hey, okay, don't worry. I'll be right there."

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@aga21

@iheartharlow

@neon-lights-and-glitter

@w1ldthoughts

@jackslilsecrett

@harlowcomehome

@fantasywritersstuff

@exoticr0ses

@iknowdatsrightbih

@itsyagirljaz

@hoodharlow

@bobthe-turmpetman29

@wittyjasontodd

@purecinnamonextract

@fluidsentiment

@jacksuberdriver

@hallecarey1

#jack harlow #jackman thomas harlow #jackharlow #jackman harlow #jack harlow concepts #jack harlow x reader #jack harlow imagine #wmcj #jeremy wmcj #jeremy!wmcj

[thattimdrakeguy]

Hey,

So if it's not too much to ask, can you give me a summary on the Core Four's personalities? I really wanna know for analysis reasons, I'm re reading all the core 4 young justice and teen titans books and trying to decipher my favorite one.

I can give you the personalities as intended by their creators no problem, Person Newtonote.

Now as you read you might think "Oh, hmm, that doesn't add up with what I've read" when it gets into the Young Justice and Teen Titans books, but that's 'cause different writers write different things, and some writers understand some characters better than others, and some of it is just plain character development, or in worse case writers doing what ever they please 'cause they don't care.

I'll let you judge when what happens.

Onto what you've asked though, I'll try to keep it simple as I can while still being detailed:

Tim Drake:

My personal favorite, that much is likely obvious.

As intended, he is an idealistic young boy, and dreamed of Robin as an even littler boy (he's pretty small for his age). He's clever, and resourceful, and thinks very very highly of the legacy of Robin. It's his heart though that got him his job as Robin, and his compassion and genuine passion for the role of Robin. And he displays what many may call boy scout tendencies. Even admitting to original Robin Dick Grayson that he enjoys helping old lady's cross the road (or something like that.)

Being raised in private schools, without a lot of friends (He's shown having no friends until he goes to public school to my knowledge), he's a pretty naive and oblivious, trusting person. And it's through out his journey's he has to learn how dark Gotham City can get. Though compared to the other Bat-Family members of this era (90s) he's very much the heart and light-hearted youthful energy to it.

His social ability is mostly perfectly fine, he's no complete weirdo. Kid can get friends easy peasy. Easily likable to folks. Endearing. But he has an oblivious side, and can get ahead of himself. Has a habit of getting spiritually adopted by people who instantly want to protect him. Anyone from Batman, to former CIA agents, and even villains. He's just got that babyface on him, and button nose.

He also deals with anxiety in terms of being Robin, being worried that he may be stripped of the job, or let people down, or mess something up. And sometimes that lends him having a lot of insecurities about himself. While having some prior training in martial artists, and implications of having taken gymnastics, also a former boy scout, he still doesn't naturally take to the role like all other Robins around him. Which means he has to try a lot harder to have his keep.

In the Bat-Family in this era (the 90s) he's the heart, and baby to everyone. They're uber protective of him, and take him out of the action when they deem it to be too much for someone like Tim. Within Young Justice he puts on a heavy Robin persona to hide what he's really like. Making himself out to be a more Batman-esque mysterious leader.

When really, he's a dorky, fanboy, who loves Kaijus, Crocky the ??? Crocodile I guess (Basically Barney the Dinosaur), super heroes, cars, Warlocks and Warriors (Dungeons and Dragons), sports, comics, Sci-Fi, fantasy, and cartoons. Self-admitted geek, with some popular interests in there.

Think of Tim as sort of Autistic kind of. He's never officially said to be. But when you read his origin, it's definitely a legitimate way to interpret him. Though I believe his uniqueness is intended to really be molded by Tim's passion, and obliviousness from a lack of parental figures in his very young life.

Tim is supposed to be an optimist, as told by his creator, but to be real a lot of writers seem to forget that, even when making jokes about how he's optimistic compared to others. I think sometimes the writer's own cynism leaks out into him. So remember that...despite a lot of writers forgetting it. Be better than them.

Cassie Sandsmark:

My personal second favorite member, but, please, make up your own mind here.

She's a rebellious teenage girl, and tomboy. She stays up pass curfew to party, but is at heart a good hearted individual who truly wants to help. This comes at odds with her stubborness and headfirst attitude. She hates being treated as a kid. And shows a great deal of intuition and cleverness. She's also a babysitter. Seemingly a good one too.

Her need to prove herself can put itself ahead of her own logic though. And she buts head with her very stuffy mother who doesn't appreciate Cassie's care-free nature. She means a lot to Cassie, and Cassie wants her approval. Cassie's natural being is...very much in contrast to what her mother would prefer though. It's fun.

A lot like Tim she's also shown to be a Super Hero fanboy. For her it's specifically Wonder Woman and the Flash, while with Tim it's basically anyone the writer decides he hasn't met offscreen yet.

Through her journey's she learns to contain herself though, and better use her powers.

Bart Allen:

The most teenager-y teenager you ever seen. He has ADHD, but not the uber-hyperactive, talkative, hugger you see in some more modern misunderstandings of him.

Originally he was pretty quiet. Super popular in his school. Girls loved him and considered him a pretty boy. But in reality he has no social knowledge, because he was raised in basically a video game for two years. He's essentially an alien learning to fit in with human civilization. So he's incredibly reckless without intention. It takes him awhile to truly process the concept of death and related repercussions. So he's sort of dangerous.

He can be quite surly, and mean spirited on occasion. But like most heroes, he has a good heart that comes out in the end. It's just simply the 90s and being Anti-Authority is the norm. His name is Bart after all. Underneath that is a young man who does sweet things when he has it in him.

Just don't think of him like a baby like how a lot of people make him out to be. He's a teen's teen.

Original Bart, like original Tim, and original Cassie, to me, is the best version of the character. The most nuanced, and interesting.

Oh, and minor violent streak on Bart too. Started a fight before, and stuff like that.

He cares inside. That has to count for something right?

Kon-El:

Hot-Headed pervert. Over-confident. Fame hungry. Lady magnet. Stubborn. Head first. Sort of a prick. But again good hearted.

I haven't read him as much as the others, because I don't personally care for him. Then in the early 00s with Teen Titans they decided just to make him an angsty young Clark, which is personally boring.

I don't have a lot of great things to say about him. His solo is very dated, and overtly sexual. Something I have no interest in reading.

He's at his best in Young Justice though, where he isn't written as jail bait by a writer who thought it'd be great if he dated grown women to fulfill teenage boys dreams. Instead you get to have fun with a very flawed character without the distracting perversion...mostly.

Punk styled. Loves dressing like a punk. Until he doesn't. Ruh-roh.

--

Again though, different writers write different things. They catch onto different things more than others, some are plain neglectful, others don't care, some want to change stuff for the sake of it. It's comics, you'll be lucky if it's consistent.

But on my years of studies, all that is what the character's where intended to be by their creators. So a lot of it is a starting pad, but it's also the purest form of them you're going to find.

#Tim Drake #Robin #Cassie Sandsmark #Wonder Girl #Bart Allen #Impulse #Kon-El #Conner Kent #Superboy #DC Comics #Young Justice #Young Just Us

[letteredlettered]

Hi Im sure you answered this already but i sadly cant find it: how did end up shipping or rather writing drarry fics?

I've actually been asked quite a few times why I ship H/D. I never answer, because it's complicated and long and I have an essay on the subject, so I'll answer the 'how' question without addressing the 'why'.

Once upon a time, the internet was becoming a thing that people used regularly. The news kept talking about how the youths of the day were "surfing the 'net" and this was going to be the new normal. As usual, I could not identify with the 'youths of the day,' even though I was one. What could possibly be of interest to me on the internet? Reading books was far better than talking to other people. Then one day in my senior year of high school it dawned on me that you could possibly talk to other people about books, something I had never done before, as I didn't know anyone but my parents and brothers who ever read for fun, and my parents and brothers did not like to read things like Jane Austen. What if there were people on the 'net who liked Jane Austen??? Seemed fake, but I gave it a try.

The first Jane Austen website I found was Republic of Pemberley, which hosted something they called "Bits of Ivory." Through the "Ramble" board on Republic of Pemberley, I found out that there were "Bits of Ivory" elsewhere. It was called fanfic and hosted on fanfic.net.

Almost all of it that I was introduced to was Harry Potter fic, as HP was the megafandom of the time, and my Sense and Sensibility friend was obsessed with Snape, mainly because of Alan Rickman. I was also obsessed with Snape, though I must say that even though I had been obsessed with Alan Rickman since 1995, I never did like his casting as Snape and still don't. Anyway, I ended up getting interested in Snape/Hermione fic, and continued to be interested on and off for over the next five years.

I should pause at this moment to say that I had been writing fanfic since the fourth grade. I didn't know it was called fic. I didn't know other people did it. It never occurred to me to share it. When I found "Bits of Ivory" it actually took me a while to process that the stories there were in a similar vein to the stories I had been writing all my life, stories based on fiction by other people. It was just so wild to me that anyone would share that stuff, as though other people would want to read the different endings that they came up with, the self-inserts and the cross-overs they came up with.

I should also take this moment to say that I didn't really have slash ships. I was aware that slash existed, and I thought it was great. Sirius/Remus was a background ship everywhere at the time, and even though I didn't really see it in canon and wasn't terribly interested in it, I thought it was a nice thing. And when I started getting into X-Men through Wolverine/Rogue, it seemed obvious to me that Professor X and Magneto had a past sexual relationship. I, in fact, had an original story that I'd started writing in eleventh grade that had similar tension between two male characters, and the idea that they were in love and unable to have sex about it explained so much. And I wrote more original stories in college that were gay.

I think my problem was that the canons I was consuming were quite straight, and while I wasn't obsessed with writing canon-compliant fics, I was (and still am, to some extent) obsessed with writing characters who were true to canon. At the time sexuality seemed some kind of immutable thing to me that was deeply a part of who a character was. Also, sex to me was very Other; it meant something really deep and serious about you that obliterated other things you were. For instance, I was frustrated with all the Frodo/Sam porn, because I felt it obliterated their beautiful friendship and made their relationship about sex and being gay rather than the deep pure bond of friendship. So I was maybe kind of homophobic and confused.

Then I fell in love with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and while that canon has a lot of heteronormativity, it not only has a character who thought she was straight who realizes she's gay, it also has vampires who have lived for centuries and who have broken every kind of social norm that exists. It seemed silly to me to assume that Spike or Angel were straight, which is how I began shipping Spike/Angel, which is how I got absolutely obsessed with slash. It was so liberating to write porn where the power dynamic wasn't influenced by centuries of patriarchy! It was so liberating to write porn where I didn't have to think about my own anatomy or gender or position in a sexual dynamic! It was so liberating to write porn with a bunch of dicks!

Having discovered slash, I turned back to ye olde faithful fandom, which had ten billion fics about everything. I'm not sure I even tried Sirius/Remus, because I was still so uninterested in it, but now I read all the Snape slash, the majority of which seemed to be Harry/Snape. The thing is, I don't ship Harry/Snape. It can be very hot! But while the porn is fine and some of the stories are fun, these are not two people that I want to live happily ever after. I just think that the power dynamic between them, the history they have, and the personalities they are do not make me want to imagine them as a couple with a happy marriage who occasionally have the friends over for games of Quidditch and Exploding Snap. And while I like queer complicated, angsty stories, I also like a happy ending in a semi-heteronormative sense, especially for Harry Potter, who really seems to want one. So, I started looking for other Harry Potter slash.

I knew that Harry/Draco was a juggernaut pairing, but I just hated Draco Malfoy so much. I honestly could not stand him. I used to go about saying that I hated him not only as a person (like, I also hated Snape as a person; he's a dick, and he's cruel to children! But he's a great character) but as a character. I just didn't like the function he played in the narrative. I like big, dramatic rivalries and evil vs good; meanwhile, Draco Malfoy is a little worm. So I kept thinking about reading HP slash, but resisting.

Then, one day, I was sleeping on the couch, and woke up suddenly with the idea that Draco Malfoy could be reformed. He could be sorry for all the shitty things he's done! He could be really apologetic! He could be really trying to make up for his past, and Harry could find this truly beautiful, and they could have sex about it!

Surprisingly, it was hard to find fic about this. For some reason, in most of the fic, it was Harry having to earn Malfoy's approval, instead of the other way around, which I found absolutely bonkers. But I eventually found Eclipse, by Mijan, which was just what I wanted. Then I was obsessed and was reading every Harry/Draco fic I could find.

Eventually, I even read the ones in which Harry was a cad and Draco Malfoy was a perfect snowflake who never did anything wrong. And then I started finding fics that really emphasized that Draco had a very different point of view of what happened, which showed that he really had no way to understand who Harry was, or what Harry had been through. In these fics, Harry had to do some work to understand Draco, which is what really sold me on the pairing. I still want fics in which Draco has to do a lot of heavy lifting to address his past and deal with the hurt he has caused and the violence of his previously genocidal outlook, but I love it when Harry, too, has to adjust. After saving the world and losing most people he loves and protecting the innocent and doing his exhausted little best to be honest and righteous and true, Harry Potter still has to do work, again, to overcome his past and find a peaceful life. And that's what made me start writing Harry/Draco, the end.

#harry potter #draco malfoy

[romanarose]

If You Wanna Be Wild: Chapter 4

Co-written with @my-secret-shame-but-fanfiction

Javier Peña x Latina!sex worker!informant!Reader x Santiago Garcia

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Summary: Javier confronts Santi, but Candy has Santi's back; we get a little insight into Santi's childhood and what makes him this way.

Content and warnings for whole fic, not chapter by chapter unless something is added: Sex work, drug trade, some drug use/pressured used, sex workers and the mistreatment/stigma surrounding them specifically in the 70’s (my blog is sex worker positive) but ima put potential dub con depending how you look at it as a sex worker who works with dangerous men, some action surrounding reader and the guys and the drug trade, SMUT HEAVY, corruption kink (were corrupting santi here, he’s young, 25), no loss of virginity tho, threesomes, some slight m/m smut but that’s not the focus here, but as you know this blog is an lgbt blog so I’m always open to gay shit. Talk of war and some PTSD but I won't be going a whole lot into it.

For the record, this is a fic that takes place in the drug trade and deals with the darker side of humanity, so anything from Narco's and Triple Frontier is liable to be discussed or mentioned here. This is your warning. This is not a dark fic nor is it centered around dark themes like Leather and Lace or Sunshine Starlight Sweetheart Brightside, but they are open to be talked about.

Reader has a nick name: Candy. Not her real name just what she goes by on her profession. Much of the inspo for this and for the title came from the Bruce Springsteen song “Candy’s room” so check it out for the vibes.

Reader speaks Spanish and had hair. I've decided Candy is just latina bc she's a sex worker in Colombia so this is what I'm doing. Reader also has curly hair and dark skin.

ADDITIONAL WARNING!: I'm adding implied covert incest to the warnings. If you don't know what it is, it's NOT the same as physical/sexual, its where the child has a relationship with a parent that is more like spouses than parent/child. I'll leave more to google. In the context of this fic, Santi's mom parentified Santi, made him the "man of the house", treated him like a husband and relied on him to help pay bills.

Thank you as always to my beloved Fen <3 I couldn't do this without your encouragement.

A short 1.8 words

Support writers! Reblog and comment!

**************

“GARCIA!” Javi chased after the young man, running down the stairs. Santi moved fast with his youth, but Javi’s longer legs gained an advantage, skipping stairs and eventually catching Santi and slamming him against the wall.

“I’m sorry!”

“You’re damn right you are! How did you get her number?”

“Your book!”

“You’re going through my shit, Garcia?”

Candy’s voice rang at the top of the stairs, her robe and wild curls flowing as she transcended down the stairs. “Let him go!” 

Javi backed up, letting go of Santi’s shirt with a shove. “You stay the hell away from her!” He said to Santiago.

“Excuse me?” Candy stood in front of Santi, crossing her arms over her robe to protect her modesty, for whatever that was worth. “He is my client, and if he wants to see me, he can see me! You don’t own me!”

Jaci sighed, pinching at the bridge of his nose with a huff. “That’s not what I meant. He’s a DEA agent-”

“And you aren’t?”

“He’s not going to be careful! Candy, you sleep with dangerous men, men we are after! If he’s not subtle, you both end up dead!”

“And screaming out his name in my stairwell is being subtle?” 

Javi didn’t have a response, chewing on his cheeks and Santi tried to excuse himself. “I’m just, I’m going to go.” But Candy caught his hand. 

“Santi, sweetheart, it’s okay, we can go back upstairs. You paid me, sweetie.”

He was still avoidant. “No, it’s okay, I reserved the time, I-I’ll just go… yeah- fuck,” he shook his head and tried to go.

Santi pulled away again, but Candy held on: tight but gentle. 

Javi tried to nudge him on. “Go on out of here-”

“I’m sorry-” Santi tried to apologize to the floor when the door opened, and an old woman in a black lace vale shuffled in.

Candy dropped Santi’s hand in favor of wrapping her robe better. “Hola, Señora Perez.”

The old woman eyes Santi and Javi, then looks at Candy. “You alright here, mija?”

With a soft smile, Candy assures her. “Si, Señora, gracias. El,” She nodded to Javi with a glare. “él se va.”

Señora Perez nodded, placing a withered hand on Candy’s shoulder and turning her away from the two boys. “Mija, have I ever told you about my grandson?”

Candy held back a laugh. “No, Señora.”

“He’s a nice young man, a church going boy.” She touched the cross around her neck. “If I may offer some advice, I would suggest you find some different company.” She glanced at Santi and Javi who both avoided her eyes, then back to Candy’s expensive, flowing robe. “And perhaps some more clothes.” Señora Perez patted Candy’s shoulder and moved on towards her door.

Candy muttered “Garcias, Senora” and everyone waited in silence until her apartment door was closed before Candy turned to Santi, as soothing as ever. “Would you like to come back upstairs with me?”

Santi seemed to be considering it when Javier butted in. “Garcia, don’t you fucking-”

“Enough! You are not in charge of him!” Candy shouted before grabbing Javi’s arm and pulling him out the front door and closing it behind her. “What are you doing?” She asked, unsure why Javi was acting this way. 

But Javi didn’t know himself. He wasn’t an idiot, he knew she saw other men. Hell, he saw plenty of other women himself. Was it that he saw Candy with another man? Was it that the man was Santi? Or was it what he was claiming, that Santiago couldn’t be careful, that he couldn’t protect her? Yeah that was it. It certainly wasn’t the bubbling jealous at the idea that Santi was fucking her, holding her, that she kissed his plush lips- uh, that he kissed her plush lips. No, Javier Peña was jealous. 

Instead of divulging all this, Javi diverted. “What are you doing with him? He’s just a kid.”

She scoffed at him. “He’s 25, plenty old enough.”

“Yeah, old enough to get sex from bars, or a nice girlfriend not-” Javi stopped, but it was too late.

She cocked an eyebrow at him. “A prostitute? You can say it, Javi. I’m aware of my job title.” 

“Candy, baby, that’s not what I meant-”

Candy rolled her eyes, her hand reaching for the door. “Call me whenever, Javi, but you leave that boy alone.”

She opened the door and Javi only got a peak at Santi, connecting eyes before the door shut in Javi’s face as he took a step forward.

*

Santi watched as Javi walked towards the door, and when it shut he was certain Javi would open it… but he didn’t, and eventually the sound of descending footsteps signaled he left.

“Santiago? Can I call you that now?” She asked as she approached him carefully, with that soft smile that always put Santi at ease. Santi kept looking at the door. “I knew that was your name, before. Knew you worked for the DEA, didn’t know you were Javi’s partner.”

Finally, Santi turned toward her. “Can we not talk about him?”

“Sure. Would you like to go back upstairs with me?” Candy extended her hand that Santi took. She smiled wider. “Let’s go, handsome.”

As they ascended the stairs, Santi’s nerves were through the roof. He felt guilt, like he’d been caught. Santi never got caught before, because he’s never done anything wrong. The pressure from such a young age to be good, to do right, to be the man of the house… it carried over. Santi got his first job at 8 with a paper route he held for years until he found a less than legal job at 13 in a kitchen. The job had so many health code violations and safety hazards, Santi’s arms and legs were burned and cut with scars he now passed off as from the military. He had wounds from there too, but that was primarily the scar down his neck from the bullet that almost killed him, and a few in the chest that went straight through. Frankie said the 4th bullet you don’t even really notice anymore. Santi’s fourth bullet he didn’t feel because he thought he was dead.

All his life he’d needed to do right. His older sister, she was the problem child, the one causing mami problems… Santi loved her too. Elena had her own troubles, their father leaving severely affected her and she sought out that healing from men way too old for her. By the time she entered college, she was a full blown feminist and was teaching Santi all she knew. For his sister’s part, Elena was insistent that Santi be a good man. He learned a lot of valuable lessons about consent and how to treat a woman, not that he had much opportunity to use it.

Santi had become the man of the house when their dad left, his mother treating him like a husband some days. She called him her esposito; her little husband. She’d stay up late at night with him on the couch talking, talking to him about how his father did her wrong, her troubles at work or church… Sometimes it made him feel special, but often it just made him feel worried. He felt like all the problems were his to fix. Elena got into college on scholarship. She’d been a part of a women’s group and had worked hard to save up… Every dime Santi made in his youth went to his mom, so when it came time for adulthood, he couldn’t afford the luxury of college. Santi enlisted in the army at 17, sending home chunks of his paycheck to his mom until the day she died.

The pressure to be good, to be right, to never mess up even the slightest… it manifested in anxiety that Santiago pushed down and down and down… it was bubbling up right now, gurgling in his stomach and in the bile at his throat.

Mami would not approve. She was violently against Elena’s premarital sex, and had told him he could not be like her. God forbid she knew he was seeing a prostitute. Did she know? Was she watching him? Did she know of all the meet ups they'd had this month? Elena wouldn’t approve either, she thought prostitution was degrading to women and that men that sought out prostitutes were objectifying them… this act with Candy was desecrating the two opinions he valued most.

But he didn’t want to stop.

“Do you want to have sex, or would you rather just talk?”

Santi turned to her, confused at that statement. “I thought… do you…”

Her smile changed from soft and assuring to bright and joyful. “Talk? Yes Santiago I can do more than suck dick.”

Panic swept through him. He didn’t want her to think of him like that. She was special to him. He wasn’t stupid, he knew they weren’t dating, but he didn’t just value her for her body. “No! Oh god no, Candy I don’t think of you like that, fuck- you’re- I”

“Santiago.” She placed her comforting hands on his shoulder, a hunt of worry in her eyes. “It’s okay, sweetheart. I’m just teasing you. Breathe, can you do that for me? In your nose, out your mouth…”

Santi did as she said, and slowly calmed down. “I’m sorry, I just…” When she cocked an eyebrow in concern again, Santi collected his thoughts better. “I enjoy your company. P-physical or not.”

Her reassuring smile was back. “Well I’m glad. I enjoy yours too.”

“You’re just saying that.”

“No I’m not.” She frowned ever-so slightly, but unlike his mother he didn’t automatically feel like the frown was his fault or his problem to fix. “Santiago…” Candy took his hand, leading him to the small loveseat and sitting down. “I have a lot of different kinds of men here. I hope that isn’t shocking to say, but I do.” With a gentle nudge to his shoulder, Santi smiled again. “You’d be surprised how many men just want to talk. It’s a lot of them. Before or after sex, but sometimes that’s all we do. I like talking to them, getting to know them. And Santi?” She kissed his cheek and giggled at the tickle of his mustache. “I like getting to know you.”

So Santi stayed there with Candy curled up and lying against his chest on the love seat, just talking. She calmed him. He liked being with her, just being. He knew it was an act, at least part of it. She was paid to be here… but Santi couldn’t help feeling for her, wanting to be with her… With Candy, Santi felt like he could actually be himself, he could be that version of himself he was with Frankie, Benny, Will, and slowly but surely Javi, even if today set him back. Fuck, what was Javi going to say at work tomorrow? Would he yell at him again, get him fired for soliciting prostitutes or for going through his things, would he request a new partner- Santi’s finger wrapped around one of Candy’s curls, carefully letting the lock slip through his fingers as to not to mess them up… he found himself grounded again. That could wait until tomorrow. Candy mattered now.

*******************

Check out the playlist!!! Lots of fleetwood mac and eagles!

Prescious baby Santi <3

Now tell me...

please tell me why in the comments and reblogs! I love to here your thoughts on who had better chemistry, who would work better, who needs to work on themselves etc bc they both got their issues, Javi is a sad slut and Santi is a sad baby.

Thank you so so much for reading!!!

And I want to add, to all my readers effect by the war, whether you or your family or friends, I'm praying for your safety. I don't know how much that means to you, but it's what I have <3

@runa-falls @lunar-ghoulie @campingwiththecharmings@whatthefishh @persephone-girl @criticalarchitecture @not-a-unique-snowflake-blog @beelzebeth87 @pimosworld @millerscoffee @heareball @thatwonderouswoman @poolboo @meveispunk @lovable-liar @millllenniawrites @read-and-wip @missdictatorme @the-fox-den @milkymoon2483 @k-ra @ramblers-lets-get-ramblin @rosellacwrites @legendary-pink-dot @dreamingofbucky @axshadows @englandsgray @starsthatwatch @fairlyang @alwaysmicado @theywhowriteandknowthings @casa-boiardi @lostfleur @ninebluehearts @puglover12 @sub-aro @laiisleitte @itspdameronthings @heareball @comfortlessjoy @csarab615 @calaveramangonda @bit-dodgy-innit @stevngrant @nanfafnan @kirsteng42

#javier peña x reader #javier peña #triple frontier #santiago garcia #santiago garcia reader #fem reader #santiago garcia x reader #santiago garcia x you #santiago garcia smut #santiago pope garcia #javier peña smut #narcos #pedro pascal #oscar isaac #romana writes #romana writes smut #narcos fanfiction #narcos smut #triple frontier smut #pedro pascal smut #latina reader

[curioushabitforarivergod]

dark(ish) academia books that I don't see recommended enough

I read a lot, both fiction and non-fiction, and a lot of the stuff I've read over the past 2-3 years has had underlying academic tones. I've tried to include books I've at least enjoyed, although there are a few 3 star ratings. All of these books are ones I haven't really seen mentioned in compiled dark academia lists (mainly because some of them fall outside the general scope and are more ✨vibes✨). Feel free to add more less well-known books. I've included my own blurbs of the books but I've got shit memory and some I read like 2 years ago so yeah

Fiction

"Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world." Voltaire

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

Takes place over 10 years and explores family and the destruction left behind after WWI. It discusses the feminine vs. masculine in art and while it can be a little slow to read (took me close to 3 weeks!) theres some really beautiful passages and also some funny ones as well — the characters spend several chapters at a dinner party convinced everyone hates them and constantly hating other people too.

The Dark is Rising (series) by Susan Cooper

Okay, yes this is a kids book series from the 70s/80s but it explores English, Cornish and Welsh mythology and has really good characters and world-building. Even though chronologically the series goes: Over Sea, Under Stone; The Dark is Rising; Greenwitch; The Grey King; Silver on the Tree, it's best to read The Dark is Rising first and return back to Over Sea, Under Stone. Anyway, I love this series and I read The Dark is Rising every Christmas because it corresponds pretty much with the days and is easy to place and that's kind of what makes it feel very cozy and academic. Also, theres some brief moments of time travel to the past.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

This is a beautiful written masterpiece set across the 20th century featuring plenty of train rides across Europe and vampires. It explores some of the history of Walachia and Dracula, as well as the Ottoman Empire and European politics of the time. It's a hefty read but I loved it because it combines history, dark academia, fantasy and vampires.

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

My favourite of Shakespeare that I've seen so far and honestly murder is so dark academia I don't need to talk any further. Strangely, I don't see this recommended enough.

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

This was quite popular a year or two ago, and honestly for good reason. I think it's only really academic because it's linked to Shakespeare and explores the less well-known lives of Shakespeare's family, but it's very good and I thought I'd include it anyway.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

This one feels really light academia to me, but I think it's mainly because of setting. It's set in this fantastical old and crumbling mansion that goes on forever. It's filled with statues and it floods and only two people live in the world. The story is told entirely through diary entries, but it's so well-written because it defamiliarises the reader entirely. It was a light and easy read for me, which is probably why I'm associating it with light academia rather than dark academia.

The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li

This book kinda mixes chaotic academia and cottagecore academia and is a reflection of girlhood and youth spent in the French countryside in the 50s. There's a toxic relationship between two friends who write a book together before one of them attends prestigious girls' school in England. Also the opening lines are amazing: "You cannot cut an apple with an apple. You cannot cut an orange with an orange. You can, if you have a knife, cut an apple or an orange. Or slice open the underbelly of a fish. Or, if your hands are steady enough and the blade is sharp enough, sever an umbilical cord."

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Another classic! I love Waugh, and Brideshead revisited is amazing and my favourite of what I've read of his. The book is quite homoerotic — explicitly so at times, which is fascinating for something published in 1945 — and deals with romanticisation. It nestles quite snugly between Picture of Dorian Grey and Secret History in terms of a dark academic literary canon.

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

This is more gothic than dark academia, but it's also a satire of the gothic genre so I feel like it counts. It's definetly not as well known as some of Austen's other works and feels much more raw, particularly because its her first work (although not published until after her death). It's not my favourite Austen, but I love it all the same, especially because of its commentary on warning the romanticisation of other peoples lives and the gothic/dark academia. Although dark academia wasn't a thing in Austen's day!

Possession by A. S. Byatt

I love the main story but because its so metafictive and explores the relationship between two made-up poets (one of whom is bi and cheats on her gf with the second) from the perspective of modern academics, it can get quite hard to read sometimes. It's also really long, but definitely worth reading.

Non-Fiction

I feel like non-fiction is pretty over-looked when it comes to the academia aesthetic which really says something, given that its… kinda the whole point of academia?? Anyway, I read a lot of history books, but I only put down the ones which I found interesting or easy to read, so they're more popular histories than academic histories. Also; essays.

The Year 1000: What Life Was Like At the Turn of the First Millennium by Robert Lacey

This explores early medieval life in England based on the Julius Work Calendar, an Anglo-Saxon manuscript believed to date to 1020BCE. It's honestly a really light and interesting read and it talks about what everyday life was like, which I think is important in history. It's in a narrative style so it's quite easy to read even if you don't consume history often.

Oh, to Be a Painter! by Virginia Woolf

This is actually a short, published collection of Virginia Woolf essays on art. I read the essays all in one sitting because they're quite short, but if you're into art and art academia, I'd highly recommend. There's also an essay on the cinema which provides some interesting insights into todays world particularly as Woolf was writing at the time when cinema was only just becoming widespread and an industry in its own right.

A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift

This is a satirical essay on attitudes towards the poor and it suggests that poor people might sell their children as food for the rich, highlighting the callousness of the upper classes. It's available free online and very much relevant today, despite being written close to 300 years ago.

The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England by Ian Mortimer

Very useful if you ever find yourself stuck in the Elizabethan period! It's read as a sort of travel guide but includes plenty on history as well, providing a picture of what England looked like in the late-Tudor period. Also people will think you're a time-traveller if you carry it around, which adds to your intrigue and mystery.

A Memoir of Jane Austen by James Edward Austen-Leigh

If you like Jane Austen and haven't read this memoir, you should. It's written by her nephew, so it's quite biased and it's not amazing in any way, but it provides a lot of context to her life and is a good light-read or coffee table book. Also my copy was pale pink so win.

Thats it folks. Feel free to include your own less well-known book recs that follow dark/light/chaotic, etc. aesthetics! I'd love to compile a huge list and read more outside my comfort zone.

#dark academia #light academia #chaotic academia #art academia #cottagecore academia #books and reading #book reccomendation #book reccs #books

[mydisenchantedeulogy]

Dying Light [Chapter One] Choking [Bi-Han/Sub-Zero]

A/n: this first chapter took a bit longer than intended. I'd like to thank those who voted, regarding the reader's magic. Thank you so much. Also, I added some aspects from previous games to fill out the plot for the first half a little. Please enjoy.

Tag List: @genesiswrld

Warning(s): arranged marriage au, female reader, cliches, fighting, blood, magic, and family drama.

No Minors Allowed!!

In your youth, new to the ways of the world, you were told about your inescapable fate; that when your clan began its new era, you alone would be the key to its tomorrow. 

The clan was dying off, a has-been of the past. It could not survive another century of change in a world that had no use for it or its teachings. There was no way to preserve them. To keep its lineage from fading into history, your family had no choice but to unite with another clan. 

This was where you would come in.  

When the time was right, you would be wedded to a clan head, and your clan, its strongest and most capable fighters, would merge with them, starting anew. However, this foretold life did not sit well with you. It was not fair. 

For years, you trained with a Grandmaster of martial arts, and then with your father’s consent you were given the Amulet of Damashi, an ancient heirloom passed down through your clan; one capable of substantial magic, enough so that you hoped to call off the merger. Yet, your longings and sacrifices were not enough.   

Your fate was set in stone. But still, you did all you could to draw attention to your clan, and for another year, all was well. 

Until one autumn afternoon. 

Sitting on a balcony at the far end of the main house, you occupy your time with a humorously erotic book brought from the city; it is cliche but you can not seem to put it down. 

As you are lost in the plot, a retainer wearing the clan’s insignia suddenly approaches you from the doorway and bows in respect. 

“Forgive my intrusion, honorable–”

You raise your hand and interrupt him; his immediate silence makes you hum in thanks. Whatever he has to say does not interest you, but you know that he is simply doing as someone ordered him to. Even so, you dislike being called away from your alone time. You continue to read in silence until you reach the end of the page, then you avert your eyes to him.

“It's unsettling when stories are left on cliffhangers,” you state. Resting the book in your lap, you motion for him to continue.  

 

The man bows again. 

“The Master sent me to retrieve you.”

You hum. 

“What reason does he need me for?”

If it is not urgent then he can wait until you have had your lesson with your master for the day. 

The retainer rests his arms at his sides and leans up.  

“To greet the honored guest who is waiting within the front courtyard. He came from Arctika to see you.” 

Honored guest. From the tundra region. 

Your eyes widen in realization. It can not be. 

Father brought him here.  

With a frustrated groan, you stand and rush past the retainer and through the main house to the inner courtyard.

I should have known. 

The servants had cleaned and prepared the main house the night before but you ignored the action, thinking your mother was just being choosy again. You had no idea that your parents were keeping secrets from you.

You manage to squeeze through the throng of clansmen in the inner courtyard until you are at the front, and then you rush to stand beside your father, giving him a heated look.   

“It is nice of you to join us,” he says with a serious tone. Taking the book from your hand, he grimaces at the title and hands it to your mother, who is beside him. 

“You gave me no other option,” you retort. 

Your mother sighs. 

“Had we, you would have found a way to vanish before your fiance arrived. It was the lesser of two evils, dear. Understand this.” 

You do, but it does not make it right.

I've never even seen him before.

“Send him away,” you implore. “We do not need to–”

“Your opinion is unneeded,” your father sneers. He gives you a look that warns you to keep your mouth shut.

An air of gloom and disappointment surrounds you. After what you have done, he and your mother do not seem to appreciate it. You take an uneasy breath and clutch the white and gold amulet attached to your side. Did achieving this mean nothing? 

It certainly feels so. Even after making an effort to master it, they pushed this merge in secret. 

Who is he? Your parents certainly trust in him. You want to know. 

Under your father’s orders, the guards open the doors to the southeastern entrance, and inside walks a group of what appears to you to be assassins dressed in similar attire, sporting a color scheme of blue and black. Some of them wear hoods over their heads, while all of them have their mouths covered, as well as the man in the lead.  

He must be their clan head.  

My fiance.

He is certainly handsome, with defined well-built curves and muscles that strain against the thin fabric of his twilight blue tabard. Even so, there is an air of bitterness that surrounds him as he measures your clan.

You share his sentiments. 

Watching your father bow, you quickly do the same. 

“It is an honor to have you grace us with your presence, Bi-Han of the Lin Kuei,” your father states. 

Bi-Han follows suit.

“It was the former Grandmaster - my father - who had hoped to see this merge.” He pauses to stand. “If your clan is as strong as promised, then I too share his sentiments.”

His tone is deep and high-handed, not promising in your opinion. While a part of you is thankful to him for taking in the clan, the other part is irritated that this is a recruitment visit. 

I am merely the weight that comes with the contract, nothing more.

“I too have been eager for this day. It is a shame, however, that your father passed on before his time. He was a respected man.”

Bi-Han knits his brows. 

“The Lin Kuei are in capable hands.”

No one said otherwise. 

You sigh in dread. 

“Yes…well, allow me to introduce my family,” Your father awkwardly states. He motions to your mother first, then to you. “My wife and my daughter, your bride-to-be.” 

You visibly frown. Must he refer to you as such? Like it is a title. So not to enrage or embarrass him, you smile at the stranger, then give him your name. 

“It is…an honor to meet you.”

Bi-Han remains silent. He looks you over and then turns his attention back to your father. 

“The terms of the marital contract come after.”

Your father hums in agreement. 

“Of course. A demonstration of might is of high priority. But should we not wait for your brothers? I was informed that they would be journeying with you.”  

“Their presence here is nonessential,” Bi-Han states.

You wonder why. If they are anything like him, you are thankful for their absence. 

Hearing your father order the servants to prepare the blocks for the test, you along with your mother stand back as your father gathers the six best fighters and has them line up in the center of the courtyard. 

In the meantime, Bi-Han stands at a distance in front of them with the Lin Kuei on his right. 

Once the six are ready, standing over seventeen 1-inch thick reinforced concrete pavers, your father joins Bi-Han and gives the word for them to begin. One by one, the fighters strike the blocks dead center, breaking them with ease.

You grin with pride. Yes, they can break more, but there is no need to push them, so long as Bi-Han is baited. In the end, it will be his guidance that shapes them to their full potential. 

With his mask on, it is frankly hard to tell. You lean just a bit to see his expression but you can not. He does however cross his arms and hum. 

“Are they competent fighters?”

Your father laughs. Of course, they are. He calls on a man with deep-set eyes - a good choice. The fighter steps forward and bows.  

“This is one of our strongest. If you wish to test–”

“Let us not be hasty, leader,” a familiar raspy voice interrupts.

Your master, an elderly woman with sunken features, saunters out from the throng and approaches your father.

“Excuse my interruption, but your daughter is a competent fighter. Should she not be tested instead?”

You frown. What is she doing? Proving yourself is no issue, but must you do it for your fiance? It is the fighters he came to test. Though you suppose you are not against showing off your techniques.

“If it’s what you wish, Father, I will fight,” you state in confidence. 

“Is this acceptable, Bi-Han?” Your father asks.

The man in question knits his brows in thought and then nods. He snaps his fingers and a member of the Lin Kuei without a hood steps forward and bows. 

“Do not pull your punches,” Bi-Han orders. His keen brown eyes turn to you, as though he wants to measure your expression. 

You remain stoic. If he is eager to see your strength, then that is fine. With confidence, you saunter to the center of the courtyard. Soon, the young man chosen to be your challenger joins you, striking a fighting pose. You do the same. 

A deathly silence consumes the stage.

You are not certain who calls the fight, but the moment it begins, the assassin rushes at you, attempting to strike you with a series of fast kicks. You step back, avoiding them, and manage to catch his leg against your side. Using his momentum to pivot him the opposite way, you strike him in the back with a front kick.  

The assassin staggers forward but catches himself. When he faces your direction, you can see the aggravation in his eyes. He rushes at you with a shout, throwing punch after punch. You can hardly match his speed, blocking what you can with your arms and hands. But then his stance changes and with a hard-hitting mountain punch simultaneously to the chest and face, you stagger back. 

For fuck’s sake.

An intense pain lights you up, but you push through it and rush at him. You do not want to continue this spar; you want to end it quickly before he puts you on your ass. Springing off your foot, you pull off a flying scissor kick, wrapping your legs around his head. Using your momentum against him, you toss the assassin off his feet and onto his back. Then with a shout of irritation, you raise your leg straight into the air and slam your heel into his face, breaking his nose with a wet crunch. You quickly roll back onto your feet and step away from him.

The Lin Kuei are no joke. 

You had hoped that he would not stand, but he does. The thin cloth over his face stains red as he bleeds profusely. All this seems to do is annoy him further. He comes at you a third time in anger, aiming at you with a straight punch. His mistake. You dodge it with ease and grab his wrist, yanking him forward and off balance. Turning in quickly, you elbow him in the stomach, then toss him over your back and onto the ground with a sharp smack. 

Your slip-up, however, is assuming that he is ready to submit. As you advance, the assassin flips back onto his feet and punches you in the face.

Instantly you taste blood in your teeth. Running your tongue on the inside of your lip, you wince in pain. He busted it. 

Your blood boils. 

Pointing your hand behind the assassin, you draw a circle with your finger, and then a swirling black portal materializes. One of the techniques of the amulet is portal creation via space and time magic. You do not want to use it in such a spar, but it is necessary.

Connecting it to one at your feet, you leap into the portal and appear behind the assassin, catching him off guard. He turns, but you pivot and roundhouse-kick him in the face. Your foot connects with his chin and he goes down like a rock, motionless. 

You do not even realize it is over until you hear a round of applause. You win. Stepping over the body, you bow, peeking up at Bi-Han. He seems almost surprised.

“I was not aware that she was capable of magic,” he states, turning his wide eyes to the man beside him. 

You raise a bow. They did not tell him. 

Your father hums. 

“Let us discuss it over some tea.”

He spares no words of gratitude and motions for Bi-Han to follow him. While hesitant, the high-handed man gives you one last look before he follows your father into the main house.

You sigh and saunter toward your mother, who appears elated. 

“Incredible work. I believe that you have impressed him.” 

“I should hope so,” you state with a snap, a bit annoyed that you were kicked around like a ball by his fighter. 

All it took was a few bruises and a busted lip. 

Your mother sighs and offers you back the book she took.

“Tame your anger. Go and rest. Tomorrow is a new day.” 

You give her a look of irritation before you saunter to the main house. Your master looks on at you with pride as you pass, but you are in too much of a foul mood to share your appreciation with her. The fight took too long, in your opinion. 

At least you are at last excused from this fiasco. A part of you, however, is curious about what Bi-Han has to say about you now.

It stays on your mind well into the night.

#mortal kombat fandom #bi han x reader #female reader insert #mortal kombat fanfiction #arranged marriage au #mortal kombat 1 fanfiction #Spotify

[cricketnationrise]

for the 500 followers fest

23:54

the brownstone

henry

melt by kehlani

are y'all tired of me being like "wow this song is a banger i can't believe i haven't listened to it before" ??? no?

wow this song is a banger i can't believe i haven't listened to it before!

anyway please enjoy possibly the sappiest, softest thing i've ever written

read the rest of the ficlets here

❤️🤍💙❤️🤍💙

11:54pm, the brownstone

Henry tries to enter quietly, on the off-chance that Alex is already asleep—doesn’t want David’s habitual greeting to pull Alex out of mutually much-needed slumber. The muffled strains of Alex’s elle woods my beloved playlist coming down the hall let him know he needn’t have bothered. So he lets his keys clang in the bowl, lets David jump on him with rattling tags, lets his voice carry more than he usually would at almost midnight as he greets his dog.

Henry loves the shelter, loves meeting all the kids, and giving them a space free from unreasonable and unrealistic and unsafe expectations, but even Pez would be running on fumes alone after hour sixteen of an eight hour shift. Unfortunately for Henry, housing emergencies are rarely so obliging as to occur in a respectable nine-to-five window. But Starr is safe now, settled into a room, and even tentatively bonding with her roommate, so Henry can be home.

He makes his way to the second floor den that Alex prefers to study in, huffing out a soft laugh when he hears heavy books closing and the abrupt change of playlists to soft boy hours (gender neutral). He slides open the pocket door and leans against the frame and can’t help the soft smile that takes over his face. At least sixty percent of his tension seems to vanish at the sight of Alex turning towards him, face lighting up with love.

“Weren’t you supposed to stop studying at nine tonight?”

“Well, I was going to stop, but then a certain someone texted to say they didn’t know when they were going to be home and so I had to take drastic measures,” Alex says, finishing packing away his things for class tomorrow.

“David has been spending an inordinate amount of time out on the town,” Henry teases, moving into the room properly, drawn like a magnet toward his boyfriend.

Alex chuckles. “He used to be such a fine, upstanding gentleman, too. Such a shame his behavior’s gone to the dogs.”

“Seems he’s had a bad influence, hanging around with you so often,” Henry says. He steps into Alex’s space and Alex’s arms come up without hesitation. “Hello, love.”

Alex kisses him softly, sweetly. “Glad you’re home, H.” He pulls Henry down onto the couch and Henry wastes no time laying on top of him and curling up on Alex’s chest. He smells like coffee and a hint of cinnamon and the rest of the tension Henry’s been carrying around fades away as Alex strokes along his back. 

Right here, surrounded by Alex on all sides, is Henry’s favorite place in the world. Right here, the public can’t get to him. Right here, he doesn’t have to be a prince, or even a youth shelter director. 

Right here, he can just be Henry.

People always think that Alex never stops talking, but that’s categorically untrue. He talks a lot, certainly, but only when he knows Henry is ready to hear it. The reality is that Alex cares so much and so deeply for Henry, that he’s learned to read Henry’s varied and ever-shifting moods with the smallest cues. Henry’s never been more grateful for Alex’s personalized superpower than tonight, when all he wants to do is rest here with Alex, listening to smooth voices over acoustic guitar and Alex’s heartbeat thudding in time with his own.

Henry sinks into the moment, letting his eyes fall shut in utter contentment. He cherishes every moment he gets with Alex; the novelty of just getting to be with him hasn’t even begun to wear off. Every brush of their fingers sends a spark down his spine. Every time Alex kisses the back of his neck before hip-checking him out of the way in the kitchen is thrilling. Every time he and Alex stroll through Brooklyn with David, hands entwined or around waists or even once in each other’s back pockets, Henry’s hit with a surge of pride. 

But he loves these moments the best—the ones where he can’t tell where he stops and Alex begins. The moments, during or outside of sex, where being this close isn’t close enough for Henry. He wants to invent new ways to be close to someone, just to do them with Alex; wants to be able to crawl inside of Alex and set his watch to the beat of Alex’s heart. Henry wants to share not only his space with Alex, but his breath, his very soul—wants to knit them together so tightly that nothing and no one can unravel the threads connecting their hearts.

Luckily, unbelievingly for Henry—Alex wants the same things.

#cricket writes #hyunwonns #ficlet fest 500 #rwrb #firstprince #warning sappiness ahoy #yall there's only 3 more ficlets after this #holy cow i'm almost done

[benkyoutobentou]

What I've Been Enjoying Lately - Japanese Media

This is way overdue! I've been consuming so much great media in Japanese, it's time to share the love and recommend some things for all of you lovely language learners

📚 Books:

旅猫リポート - 有川浩: This is a super adorable novel about a stray cat who is taken in by a young man. Five years later, the owner is suddenly unable to take care of this cat and the two embark on a road trip across Japan to find the perfect new owner. This one is definitely a tear jerker to any animal lover and will absolutely make you want to cuddle your own fluffy friends into oblivion.

キノの旅 - 時雨沢恵一: This is a light novel series that's extremely close to my heart! The 2003 anime adaption of this series also isn't just my favorite anime, but my favorite TV show ever. Because of the relatively simple vocabulary, I often see it recommended as a first read for Japanese learners just dipping their toes into novel reading, and I find myself agreeing. This series follows a teenager named Kino who travel from country to country with a motorrad named Hermes. There's not much of a continuous plot and very few recurring characters, making it even easier to follow if something confuses you. Despite the fluffy sounding description, this series has a good amount of content warnings accompanying it and can get pretty gory at times as well.

僕らの地球の歩き方 - ソライモネ: An adorable manga series in which two men travel the world together under the agreement that, upon returning to Japan, they'll get married. I feel like if someone looked into my brain to find what I like in a series in order to create a manga series perfectly suited to my tastes, it would be 僕らの地球の歩き方. It's gay, it's adorable, it's about traveling the world, it's about loving the people around you and human culture and delicious food, I'm already crying. Definitely one of my all time favorites.

薔薇王の葬列 - 菅野文: I went back and forth about putting this on my list, but it's not titled "What I've Been Enjoying Lately" for nothing and boy oh boy have I been enjoying this lately. Perhaps I've been enjoying it a bit too much. A while back, I actually banned myself from reading this series because I didn't have the full set and would instantly be put in an awful mood if I caught up with the volumes I had. This manga series follows Richard Plantagenet III, yes, that one, and his ascendance to the British throne. This series is chock full of treachery, murder, violence, and everything else nice. Due to the... everything about this series.... there's a lot of unusual vocabulary, but it has furigana on everything, which helps a lot for speedy look ups.

気になってる人が男じゃなかった - 新井すみこ: Bonus manga! Because this one is worth it, and also because everyone needs a little more GL on their shelves. This manga is so good that I've even been seeing people who don't speak Japanese buy this to have on their shelves. It follows a slightly awkward girl and a gyaru from her class as the two bond of their shared love of western rock music. Yeah, this is the manga that's doing a collab with Nirvana.

📺 Shows and Movies:

Old Fashion Cupcake - This is a BL office romance drama about a middle aged man and his subordinate who begin acting like teenage girls in an attempt to regain some of their youth. Through eating sweets together, taking selfies and food pictures, and talking "girls' talk," the two deepen their bond. I don't think I can say this enough, I love food romances. If their is food involved in a romance, I'm there, no need to tell me twice. This series is super sweet and a really enjoyable watch.

カルテット - Four musicians meet by chance and decide to form a quartet together. However, each one has secrets that they're hiding. Bonus points to Netflix for actually having a J-drama I like for once. This series has a warm and cozy found family vibe, while still managing to have some of the most wildest shenanigans imaginable. I also really appreciated that this series seems to take some stances that I've never seen before, especially regarding family and what you owe to your parents.

映像研には手を出すな！ - This anime follows three girls and their attempts to make anime. As an anime that is about the creation of anime, it's really no surprise that the art and animation is stand out in this series. I loved the ways that we as the viewer were able to see the imaginations of the characters. I also really enjoyed the characters, and the voice acting was phenomenal as well. This show is also home to one of the best intros ever.

赤髪の白雪姫 - This fantasy anime follows the titular character Shirayuki as she escapes from her home kingdom after being chosen as a royal concubine due to her unusual red hair. On her travels, she meets a prince from a neighboring kingdom and becomes a palace herbalist. It's not often that I watch or care about straight romances in media, but this romance is so adorable, and even beyond it, I truly love all the characters and their relationships in this series. Also, I think this is the only show I've watched where I found the soundtrack to actually be distracting- and not because I didn't like it, but because it was just that good.

🎤 Music:

オーガストの風 - THE BLACKBAND

夢伝説 - Stardust Revue

lemonade - Chili Beans.

Show - Ado

#this one is a juggernaut of recommendations in the books category #youre getting like all my favorites at once because i havent had a chance to talk about any of them separately yet #hoping to find a lot more favorites soon #but the shows and books that i watched a little while ago i was like hhhhhhhh brain broke while trying to write about them sob #langblr #studyblr #language learning #polyglot #languages #studyinspo #日本語 #benkyou posting #sorry i havent been watching youtube or listening to podcasts in japanese latelyyyy #i tried one podcast and wasnt really into it #but if anyone knows any good youtube channels or podcasts about books please let me know!!!

[txttletale]

bundletober #8: nasty, brutish, and long

welcome to bundletober, the txttletale dot tumblr dot com ttrpg blogging indulgence that absolutely everyone. is talking about? yes! today i read a slightly longer game than most of the ones i've been talking about here, because, frankly, it captivated me. nasty brutish, and long, by not writing, is a game about rebellion.

what instantly drew me into this game is that 'rebellion' isn't abstract and it doesn't happen for no reason. a lot of games like to style themselvs as being 'about rebellion' or 'about revolution', with no actual desire to engage in why revolutions happen--there's an evil empire and you're fighting it because it's evil. but nasty, brutish, and long is clearly deeply invested in questions of class and economics--part of the first session asks you to consider the economic state of the nation:

and yet another part gives you a 36-item table to roll on for an inciting incident for the revolution in question:

i love this shit--well, firstly, because i love games that give you strong plot hooks, games that tell you about their world, games that imply possibilities through options rather than grabbing your lapels and telling you what possibilities are on the table in tedious monologue. but second because this shows that the game wants to tell stories about the realities of revolution, that it is founding itself in history as more than just an aesthetic.

another really cool thing that happens before you even get out of character creation is 'backgrounds' -- as part of creating your character, you select four backgrounds (professions your character has worked), which are separated by social class (another choice you make at character creation). while you can always choose, the game encourages you to roll on yet more tables and make a story from that--i've done it a few times, and it's great fun.

for example, in the course of writing this post i created geoffrey--born a rural peasant class, he was taken in under the wing of a preacher after his family died. the preacher recognizes his potential and groomed him to be his successor--when the preacher eventually passed away, geoffrey, who'd always been a confident silvertongued lad, became his rural township's pastor. however, although he was convincing, he'd never been a true believer--so while when on a pilgrimage a merchant approached him with a simple scheme, using the legal immunity afforded to pilgrims to have him smuggle contraband into the country, he happily became a smuggler. this worked out great for a while, and saw geoffrey make a very tidy sum--but after a particularly close call he realized that he needed to get the hell out of this arrangement. with the sum of his ill-gotten gains, he travelled to a city and purchased a bookstore, becoming a middle class shop owner. he happily lived out the next few decades selling books--but at heart, he missed the fire of a sermon, having the ear of a crowd, so in his late years he passed his shop on to his son and became an elderly teacher, bringing literacy to the village of his youth.

this is exactly the kind of thing i fucking love about tabletop roleplaying games, the feeling that the game is chiming in with me as i try to tell a story, throwing me these weird curveballs i have to 'yes, and!' to create a backstory i'd never have thought of on a million years on my own. something else worth noting is that character creation is very open for a forged in the dark game -- you're unlkely to even have the same set of attributes as someone else, and you can pick backgrounds and abilities (mostly) totally independent of one another or any overarching playbook-type restriction.

the game itself diverges from blades in a lot of interesting ways. instead of blades' system of looking for the highest die, nasty, brutish, and long operates on a die pool system, which is what allows for it to add a large pile of levers for influencing rolls, including using multiple attributes for the same roll--there seems to be some OSR influence in here, with the open-endedness of the actual moment to moment gameplay and the vast amount of opportunities to use and exchange in-game resources. that said, unlike OSR stuff, there's a lot of effort being put in here to hand narrative control to players. instead of just saying 'you succeed' on a success, it says, 'the PC narrates what happens' which is a really cool spin on the usual success/mixed success/failure trifecta. players also get the ability to make up NPCs by expending resources, which is super cool.

other highlights include a take on burning wheel's drives system, a weird version of blades' resist mechanic that lets you change, rather than avert, the consequence your character faces, and a take on 'downtime' that frames it as more of a timeskip, during which years can pass. it's pretty cool stuff.

oh, and finally--the fucking style of this game is incredible. it does a lot with very little colour--a few splashes of dark red here and there is all it needs to complement its striking black and white, rich sense of texture, and

if there's one thing i don't like about nasty, brutish, and long, it's that it doesn't have any strong ideas about what the players need to be doing. the game establishes social turmoil and brewing revolution, makes a huge point of social class and class differences, but the verbs, the substance of what your player characters do, is deliberately left totally open. and that's cool for some people, some people like that openness a lot! but for me, who appreciates a tight and specific design, it doesn't do much. the tagline says its 'an game about class and revolution'--and i'm not sure i can fully agree with that. it'd be more accurate to call it a game 'containing class and revolution'. which is a step up from a lot of games that claim to be revolutionary, as i said before--but at the end of the day leaves me feeling like something's been left on the table.

still, there's a huge amount here worth checking out--even if you don't intend on playing it, it's a great look into the different directions you can take the forged in the dark framework, and a great tool for Making Up Guys. can't go wrong with making up a guy!

nasty, brutish, and long can be purchased as a digital download through itch.io

#tattletxt #ttrpg #bundletober 2023

[bomberqueen17]

WWII museum

So, New Orleans-ing proceeds apace. Tried to go to the Southern Food museum, the website said it was open, the door said it was closed. This was a rather crushing blow as I'd walked about as far as I could walk to get there, and then had to turn around and come back. Don't think I'll be able to try again.

My sciatic nerve has had it with me, and I'm able to get around during the days but it's just hurting so badly at night I sleep in five-minute increments, then have to wake and roll over, and if I'm lucky I can fall back asleep before it hurts too much for me to sleep through it, and if I'm unlucky I lie there until i can't stand it and get up and stretch and try a new position. So that's not great. Stretching stops it from hurting while I am actively stretching, but does not particularly help if i assume literally any other position. No, I cannot sleep in the stretching position. I've tried. I can't even sit in that position, so it's not a very useful method of relief.

Ibuprofen doesn't touch it and neither does Aleve. Those are the only options I have with me, so.

Anyway. I'm getting around fine but really not getting a lot of rest.

Last night we went to a show at Preservation Hall, and they charge literally double for your ticket if you want to sit on the hard wooden benches, and I weighed the odds and the bench was likely to give me sciatica anyway, so I stood and saved myself $25, but it was agony and I paid the price. So today we went to the National WWII Museum, and I asked at the admission desk if they had loaner wheelchairs, and they do.

I have learned that nobody cares why you're in the wheelchair. They have many, you are not snatching it away from someone who needs it more.

It is its own punishment, however. The pathways are marked at the stairs; if you go find the elevator, you then have to wander around trying to find where you're meant to go next. People don't get out of your way and you spend a lot of time staring at the asses of people who don't care that you're there and can't get through and can't see anything. One woman, we asked politely if we could get through, and she made no attempt to move, so we squeezed by, and clipped her foot with our wheel, and she got very angry with us. There was no one close to her, she easily could have shifted her foot, she could both see and hear us. We could not have gone any other route, she just didn't think we had a right to pass.

And some sections of the museum have artfully-designed floors that are rough, with chunks of fake-broken concrete. These are really punishing to try and roll over, and are wildly uncomfortable to bounce along over. Especially in a crowd of people. I understand the aesthetic choice but with the number of visitors with mobility impairments for whom that provides a tripping hazard, I super super wonder what the fuck they were thinking. I saw several elderly folks with rollators and I don't know how they got through those rooms. It was several of them.

One whole section, we could not get to unless we went back through the crowded exhibit to the halfway point to find the elevator again.

As far as the content.... I studied that era extensively in my youth, Dad was obsessed with military history and had a lot of books in the house, and I read several of them cover to cover and back and forwards. One in particular-- my sixth grade social studies teacher was obsessed with the Pacific war in specific, and during the year I was there, he was engaged in hand-painting a huge mural of the Pacific battles on a map on the classroom wall. I was allowed to help stencil on some of the letters. So I found that I knew most of the general conduct of that war, and the book I had obsessed over in specific was a compilation of primary sources, news articles, contemporary firsthand accounts, of many of the major actions of that war. I was astonished at how much I remembered. I also had read a very detailed account of D-Day, similarly, so I was able to rattle off an overview of the thing to Dude while we were staring at a line of people's asses who wouldn't let us through.

As we went through the Pacific wing, in the background there was this weird repeating bit of ambient music that I actually recognized as Brian Eno's An Ending (Ascent), and I was like fuck, I bet I know what that is, and I was horrifyingly correct: that's the room where there's a huge wall-sized enlargement of the devastation at ground zero of Nagasaki, a couple of little things along one wall explaining what happened, and nothing else, it's just this big huge space and the music.

I guess it's tasteful, I guess going into more detail wouldn't help, I guess that's not the place for it; leaving it a big bleak horror serves the purpose and tone. The museum was generally pretty good-- very, very American-centric, but acknowledging various issues of racism and misconduct and propaganda and such in sort of minimal but very present ways. There were repeated mentions of the segregated US armed forces, repeated discussions of what the Black soldiers still managed to achieve, and it especially hit because the group that was the most polite and considerate of my wheelchair was a school group of almost entirely Black high school kids from, clearly, a local-ish school, who were impeccably-behaved despite being kids and horsing around and such-- I timidly said "excuse me" to one and she leapt out of my way and tapped her friend's shoulder, who instantly stopped horsing around and said "oh excuse me!" and also got out of my way and told her friend and the children just all melted out of my path and reformed after me, unbothered, resuming their horseplay, poking at the interactive exhibits, paying surprisingly good attention and also roasting one another, as young teens do. And I thought, as I went on to read about Executive Order 8802, of these kids reading that placard, looking at that exhibit, thinking about what has changed and what, horribly, has not.

(Link is to the museum's website. There are a lot of resources there. There was meant to be a cool feature where you follow a specific veteran's story, but i was assigned Bob Hope and don't care about him so I didn't use that feature. Dude got Robert Capa, though, and I immediately was like "i know all about him" and from across the room was like "that photo on that wall is from your dude" and he was like "what" LOL. I know photographers ok.)

We lasted about five hours. We did not see as much of the museum as I would have on foot. But I also know even just the line to get in would have utterly destroyed me on foot. So we made it through to V-E day and then to V-J day and I sat in that room with the Brian Eno loop and was like You know what, I'm good. I'm good. I can't do any more.

So we went and got frozen margaritas at a fast food joint down the street and now I am recuperating. My sciatic nerve is not great, it won't let me nap either, but I will be able to walk and get dinner, which I wouldn't be if I'd done that museum on foot.

I highly recommend, even if you're mostly in good shape, if you have trouble making it through a museum and get footsore, just borrow a wheelchair, and then switch who's pushing halfway thru the museum. If it's that or cut the visit short.... We did not switch pushers, but Dude found a great deal of relief by leaning on the back of it, and I was able to carry the water bottles without much trouble.

Most museums don't have decoratively-uneven concrete floors.

I did realize, despite my obsessive reading on the topic as a kid, while I know the names of most of the German high command, i could not tell you the names of really any of the Japanese officers of similar rank. I recognized a few, from the placards, but generally I don't have the same level of knowledge there. On the one hand, I feel i should read more Japanese history of the war. On the other hand.... I think my days of being able to absorb that sort of thing might be over. Fourteen-year-old me would have loved this museum and read every placard, and would have been on foot to do it. Forty-whatever I am year old me was interested but horrified, even though I generally knew most of it already. But hearing about the estimated 100,000 Filipino civilians massacred in Manila during the battle for that city meant one thing when I was 14, and now means... well, rather a lot more, I have more context and I can really understand, now, what that means. It wasn't that i didn't understand as a kid. But I had no context.

Well, we'll see if I manage to scrape together enough brainpower to look into it any further. At any rate, the museum is worth a visit but is A Lot. Very American-Centric, but not as Patriotic as I was worrying. Not as obsessed with Big Machine Phallic Symbol as I was worried, either; it's not that there's none of that but it's largely in the context of discussing how US industrial capacity rapidly switched over to manufacturing war materiel. (Frank admissions in several cases that our stuff was inferior quality/design to both German and Japanese items, but was infinitely more numerous and in several cases it was simply that intelligent users worked out ways to use the items' defects to advantage, or to minimize their disadvantages anyway.)

And the website, linked to above, is pretty informative, with a wealth of images and citations. So there's that.

IDK, I have no like overarching message here, the bit of my sciatic nerve just inside my knee is fucking killing me and i can't think clearly about anything else for a bit, so. There's that, lol.

#about the author #wwii #history #museums

[thewertsearch]

Aw, there she is. All tuckered out. You wonder what she is dreaming about?

I've wondered before if Dream Selves might cause neurological issues for the Players. After all, if your brain is operating an entire secondary body while it's sleeping, how much actual rest is it getting?

On the other hand, Sburb Players are created by the game, and the game can make any changes it likes. A Player's brain chemistry might be different enough from a baseline human that the issue simply doesn't arise.

Unfortunately for Jade, her dreams are even less restful than they used to be - and I don't know if the game prepared them for this eventuality.

Anyway, guess it's time to get down to business and save her life! You prepare to initiate an uninterrupted sequence of life-saving events.

This, of course, is Authorspeak for: Shit's about to go so pear-shaped you'll think you're in the Fruity Rumpus Factory.

NANNASPRITE: John, you remind me so much of your father when he was your age. [...] JOHN: but nanna, did you know he is not really my dad? and also, i am not technically your grandson. JOHN: you are actually sort of my mother. NANNASPRITE: Of course I knew this, John! I have known for many years. NANNASPRITE: I have also known that in a sense, you are my father as well. You were the one to push all those buttons, after all!

Wait, that doesn't track at all.

The joke book that came down with John contained some information about Sburb, but it didn't say anything about the ectobiology. Plus, Nanna didn't even get to read the thing, since, well..

...she only coexisted with it for about half a second.

Did Grandpa clue her in, then? He does seem to inexplicably know everything - but I thought he and Nanna were estranged. Maybe they reconciled later on?

...wait, but then why didn't Dad know anything? He's been bemused by Sburb since the very beginning - and he was always destined to be involved, so I don't know why Nanna would hide it from him.

Man, I don't even know anymore. Guardians are so weird.

JOHN: so where have you been, nanna? i have been looking all over for you. NANNASPRITE: I have been looking for you too, dear! [...] NANNASPRITE: [...] It seems you have been rising through the rungs of your echeladder quite swiftly. [...] NANNASPRITE: [...] You have climbed so much faster than I did in my youth. I am so proud of you!

Son of a fuck.

A long time ago, I theorized that the Underling heads in Harley Mansion's foyer were evidence that Grandpa had participated in a Sburb session himself.

In a post-Hivebent world, we can see that theory is riddled with holes. Just for fun, let's poke a few.

If Grandpa was a Sburb Player, where and when did his Reckoning occur?

If he didn't have one - or if he lost the game some other way - how did he avoid dying in a null session?

If he won the game, why was he still around to raise Jade? Where is his universe?

Most obviously of all, how could he exist as a Player, when he was created for John's session as a Guardian?

Based on our current understanding of the lore, and that last point in particular, this theory is a complete non-starter. It makes no sense for a Guardian to have participated in a separate session to the kids.

So, given all of that, I hope you understand the full breadth of my confusion when I ask:

How the fuck did Nanna gain Sburb levels?

#homestuck liveblog #full liveblog #act 5.2 #s74 #2793 #plus we now know he got the heads from john's session but we don't even need to point that out kill the theory

[hesbuckcompton-baby]

Notes on historical context

A huge part of fic writing in the HBO War fandom lies in historical research - I'm sure my writer friends can all attest to this - and it's personally one of my favourite parts of the whole process! As a result, I've decided to compile a few notes on the history used in my two current MoTA fics; I'm Your Man and Better Off

I'm aware this probably isn't interesting to a lot of people, but to any kindred spirits I hope you enjoy 😂

I'm Your Man

Frankie's hometown - Stratford-upon-Avon

Stratford-upon-Avon is a market town in the county of Warwickshire in the English West Midlands, which has existed as a settlements since the Roman occupation, but is particularly notable for being the birthplace of famous playwright William Shakespeare. The house in which Shakespeare grew up in remains a popular tourist attraction, evidencing visits from several notable writers including Charles Dickens and Lord Byron.

The Coventry Blitz

In Chapter 4, Frankie references the Coventry Blitz - a series of bombing raids between 1940-42, most notably on the night of 14th November 1940. In a single night, two-thirds of the city's buildings were damaged or destroyed, making it the most concentrated bombing of an English city in the entire war. In the aftermath, the word 'Coventration' was coined by Joseph Goebells to refer to the act of completely destroying a city through aerial attacks. I have spoken to people who lived in the towns around Coventry during this time who recall large groups of displaced families walking from town to town in search of shelter, as the destruction of housing was so extensive that people could not remain within the city.

Rationing

In the first few chapters, Frankie makes several references to the state of food rationing in 1943. Throughout the Second World War, food supply in the UK was severely limited due to its reliance on imports, and the economic state was so dire following the war that Britain continued rationing until 1954. Huge campaigns were introduced encouraging people to grow and supply their own food, and many commodities became unavailable due to shortages in certain ingredients. One such example was the production of Cadbury's chocolate, which had to be altered to 'Ration chocolate' due to milk shortages.

The Young Visiters by Daisy Ashford

In Chapter 7, Frankie is seen reading The Young Visiters, a hugely popular book published in 1919. The book's charm and popularity came from its author, as Daisy Ashford was allegedly only nine years old at the time of publication, and her unconventional writing and youthful misunderstanding of Victorian high society lend to the book's rather bizarre sense of humour.

Education

In Chapter 6, Rosie learns to his surprise that Frankie has not attended school since she was 14 years old. Under the 1918 Education Act, the school leaving age was raised from 12 to 14 years old, with high drop-out rates due to the inaccessibility of many schools to the working class.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Better Off

The ATS

The Auxiliary Territorial Service was active from 1938, and operated as the women's branch of the British Army until it was absorbed into the Women's Royal Army Corps in 1949. The National Service Act of 1941 called for all unmarried women between the ages of 20 and 30 to join one of Britain's auxiliary services, and by 1943 nine of out every ten women were taking an active role in the war effort. Due to manpower shortages, many ATS women took on roles in radar and anti-aircraft defense, resulting over 700 casualties throughout the war. Most notable of the ATS volunteers was Princess Elizabeth Windsor (later Elizabeth II), who worked as a mechanic as well as driving lorries and ambulances.

The Manchester Blitz

The attack which killed Susie's sister Ellie was a part of a series of bombing raids known as the Manchester Blitz, which took place between 1940 and 1942. Manchester and its surrounding towns were key for war production, and as such targeted heavily by the Luftwaffe, resulting in approximately 1,000 deaths. The nights of the 22nd and 23rd of December 1940 were the most devastating attacks on Manchester during the war, with more than 450 tons of explosives dropped across the two consecutive nights.

Back-to-back houses

The home that Susie's family were raised in was part of a large wave of construction in the UK of so-called 'back-to-backs', designed to support the huge influx of working-class families moving into urban areas during the Industrial Revolution. Back-to-backs were built quickly and cheaply, and named due to their shared back walls, which saw one row of houses facing the street and another rear row facing either another road or an interior courtyard. These houses were often very cramped, with only one room per floor, and usually had two to three stories, occasionally with a cellar too.

It was rare for back-to-backs to accommodate indoor plumbing, with washhouses and toilets located outside in the yards. Due to poor living conditions, the construction of new back-to-backs was forbidden in 1909 after a report discovered mortality rates to be significantly higher than those of people living in other styles of housing. Waves of slum clearance before and after the Second World War saw the numbers of back-to-backs decline rapidly, and Leeds remains the only area of England that still contains large numbers of livable back-to-backs. The only surviving courtyard back-to-backs now exist in Birmingham, preserved as a museum.

#history #fic | i'm your man #fic | better off #british history #world war ii

[kittyball23]

SPOILERS for Trolls Band Together!!

I've spent about the past half hour reading snippets of the new Trolls Band Together books online, and boy, there sure are plenty of spoilers as I'd anticipated! They will be under the cut (I also might be adding onto it) DO NOT READ if you do not want spoilers for the movie!!

Despite being dashing, Spruce never got the spotlight in his youth, nor any acknowledgement from his brothers

Those sparkly underpants Clay wears as a teen were called "Funderdrawers" which his brothers made him wear for shows since they never took him seriously

Velvet is the leader of the plan to steal the talent, since it is stated that Veneer got "roped in" to them

Rhonda is able to track Clay down using his Funderdrawers (I guess through scent??)

Putt Putt Village is an old abandoned Bergen Mini-Golf course called "Hole N Fun"

Since they do not know that Trolls and Bergens are friends now, Putt Putt Village trains everyday in case the Bergens ever find them

Viva, as a result of the above, is very wary of ever leaving the safety of her town

Clay is Viva's "right-hand man" and a strong, respected leader who is well trained

The argument with his brothers happens as a result of Branch being bossed around and treated like a baby when they practice singing in their old outfits. Branch decides to go save Floyd by himself, with Poppy and Tiny coming with him

John Dory, Spruce, and Clay all get captured by Velvet and Veneer as well and are hidden on their costumes

There is some sort of chase scene where Poppy, Branch, and Tiny go after Velvet and Veneer inside of Rhonda. Branch jumps on Velvet, trying to free Floyd, but she smacks him off, and she and Veneer make an escape on a yacht

The climax takes place on that yacht, which also seems to have a tower on it. Velvet and Veneer want to climb to the top to give everyone an encore of their performance

Viva also overcomes her fear of leaving Putt Putt Village and meets up with Branch and Poppy to help with the final confrontation

At some point, Crimp gets locked in a supply closet by Velvet and Veneer after she finds out the truth of the plan, and is eventually freed by the Trolls

The brothers are eventually freed from the costume traps and get ready to do the Family Harmony again, but this time Branch reminds them that they do not need to sing perfectly, just all together

They sing successfully and shatter the diamond, freeing Floyd and knocking Velvet and Veneer into the river

At the end, the Main 7 (my shortcut nickname for BroZone and the Pop Sisters) perform together on Vacay Island

#trolls #trolls 3 #trolls band together #dreamworks #branch trolls #poppy trolls #brozone #spoilers #100+