Stuff I like :)

So I'm maybe just a liiiiiiittle obsessive, and I wanted to work out the timeline of the show, and figured I'd share it with you all. I can't quite figure out how to format this for tumblr, so I'm going to just c&p images of the tables and then dump all of it in unformatted text I guess under a read more? Please let me know if you can think of a better way for me to do this (without retyping it all!) and please let me know if you see any errors to be corrected.

ETA: I'm sorry, I added some info to ep 6 after rewatching and somehow deleted the table for ep 5? But it's back now!

Bonus: season calendar pics that are not accurate (since the

Boston/Montreal games don't line up)

Metros: 2015-2016:

Boston 2016-2017:

Hopefully some folks will find this interesting and/or a good fic resource!

The episode timelines in unformatted text:

AO3 SCAM

There's been a number of people reporting over on the AO3 subreddit that they're getting messages like this posted in the comments shortly after posting new fics.

The AO3 team are NEVER going to try and contact you about TOS violations via the comment section (or about anything else for that matter)

Don't click any links. Report the accounts involved (which might claim to be things like "LucySupport"), delete the message and move on.

Thanks for the tags @icemavman and @sunmontuewrites !

LAST SONG: You were mine- The Chicks

CURRENTLY WATCHING: TV wise I have started the new legally blonde series on Amazon. Haven’t gotten far because I really only watch when I’m working out and I’ve been too busy lately to do that much

CURRENT OBSESSION: very much still the Top Gun universe. I love them all 🥰

CURRENTLY READING: fanfic mostly. I was in omegaverse for a while, now working my way through some new stuff to catch up and some old comfort reads as well

CURRENTLY WORKING ON: work 🤦🏻‍♀️ i seriously need a break and don’t see one coming for a while. But i have several WIPs I bounce around to when I get the time and inspiration. I do enjoy the @topgundrabble challenge because drabbles have been my bread and butter since I first started writing fanfic. Several of my long Twilight stories were started by drabbles.

CURRENTLY WEARING: in bed so an oversized t shirt (so sexy, i know)

LAST GOOGLE SEARCH: Texas driving test requirements (my youngest has her test for her license tomorrow 😬)

FAVORITE FLOWER: lilies probably. They’re so pretty. I love getting flowers though, and I’m not super picky. I love how roses smell, and i love how carnations last a long time 🩷

Currently watching: Legends on Netflix

Current Obsession: Heated Rivalry

Currently Reading: bouncing between HR and Top Gun fanfiction.

Currently Wearing: Tee and shorts

Last Duck Search: World Cup info

Favorite Flower: Peruvian Lillies.

I’m not an editor man, leave me alone.

Because I want to double check if it's a real thing because it had a "prove your not a robot" thing and the thing... Is this

Now, I use mobile and legit can't do these instructions, which I feel like would be a huge oversight for the actual tumblr staff to do. But also because it is telling me to do a bunch of commands that I don't know what they do normally, so I feel like it's someone trying to scam me

This is an update to the Verify Your Account Scam.

DO NOT COPY AND PASTE ANYTHING FROM A WEBSITE "CAPCHA" INTO POWERSHELL/TERMINAL AND PRESS ENTER.

If the scammers are now trying to get you to copy and paste things into Terminal/powershell aka the command prompt, they're trying to get you to run code you copied that you cannot see!

This will force your computer to download a "payload" which will automatically install and run malware on your machine, stealing your passwords, credit card information, or potentially infecting it with Ransomware and in the worst case of all, installing a RAT (random access trojan) which would allow hackers full access to your machine and it's extermely difficult to get rid of!

Please see this video by NTTS (No Text To Speech) about the dangers of this:

One of the things I remember the most clearly is the oldest person in the group. Her name was Steelsong. She was a 40-something Dom with a sub whose name we knew even though we knew nothing else. She ran her own fanfic archive because the web was still handmade HTML and navigated in webrings and I’m pretty sure Google didn’t exist or was only barely, barely launched and not well known. She was kind and patient and we loved her. She treated everyone on the group with the respect given any adult, even though most of the rest of the world was still treating us like we were children. Not teenagers even, but children. She never once condescended to any of us, never made our youth a barrier to her respect, never treated us like we were incapable of being full people or like we were less than her because we were young.

I remember that she hosted our fanfiction, as absolutely terrible as it was (and I still have some of it, I am WELL aware of how cringingly terrible it is, just absolute nonsense garbage), right there alongside of other fic that was soul-achingly beautiful. Not a separate section for her friends or for kids, just right there like we were good enough to feature alongside other authors. I never once received crit from her that I didn’t ask for, only support. Only love. I am still writing today partly because Steel was so kind about our fic, fanfic and original.

I remember that when I started doing clay sculpture, she commissioned a tiny pair of dragons from me, to support me doing artwork. She sent a check my mom cashed for me, and my mom helped me mail it when it was finished. It broke in transit, and Steel assured me that she mended it and that it was still beautiful. It was a small gold dragon curled up with a small silver dragon.

I remember that her patience knew no bounds. I remember that she was there for us, regardless of reason. When we wanted to know silly things like what to do with a single AA battery, she answered. When we had serious questions about sex, she answered.  When we had questions about writing, she taught us. When one of our group members, a young gay teen in Australia, ended up in the hospital and then stopped making posts, and we all knew what had happened, she let us talk to her about it because we couldn’t go to our own parents, even though we had just lost a friend.

She was not a replacement to my parents, but she was an extra parent, in some ways. A friend, certainly, but someone that had been through more life than we had and was willing to pass on knowledge if we asked for it. Someone older that we trusted with things that were too uncomfortable to go to our parents or teachers or whatever about, because we already knew she wasn’t going to judge us or something, and that we would get an honest answer.

I don’t know why I’m remembering this so hard tonight, and I’m not sure if there’s a point to sharing this, except that I know she’s gone now. She was ill the last time we spoke, and her site went down a long time ago, and I miss her. She was a huge influence on my life, then and now. She was hope, for me, that life as an adult didn’t have to be boring, it wouldn’t have to mean giving up the things I loved and Becoming Only Responsible With No Fun. Her presence meant I had hope I could still write and play with friends even when I wasn’t ‘a kid’ anymore. And she’s gone, and I miss her, and I wanted to share her from the perspective of youth, and the perspective over twenty years later has provided me.

And I think of her, when people go off about older folks being in fandom with younger folks. I’m an older folks now, or at least middle aged folks because there are certainly folks older than me still, but I wasn’t always. I’ve been here since i was a younger folks, and I know how much Steel’s presence and support meant to me, how much she helped not just me but everyone on that group. And I think of the people saying older folks don’t belong in fandom, and that they shouldn’t interact with younger folks at all, and I just think… I can’t agree. I needed that kind of solid presence in my life back then and even at the age I am now, I need the folks older than me to stay. I want them here.

shades of blue

The question had been innocent. It always was.

“So,” the young Shadowhunter had asked, notebook balanced on his knee, “what was Alexander Lightwood-Bane like?”

Magnus smiled before he even realized he was doing it.

“My husband?” he asked, tasting the familiar words as though they had never grown old. the group nodded eagerly. History classes rarely had the privilege of interviewing someone who had lived through it all, Magnus leaned back in his chair.

“My husband…” he repeated, softer this time. “He was terribly stubborn. He believed every problem could be solved by throwing himself at it first and asking questions later.”

A few Shadowhunters laughed.

“He was painfully honest. Couldn’t lie to save his life. Well… he tried. It was adorable.”

More laughter.

“He loved his family with everything he had. Even before they deserved it.”

Magnus spoke for over an hour: about the Institute, their first kiss, their wedding… About how Alec still managed to make him blush after decades together simply by looking at him.

“and he had the most beautiful eyes,” Magnus said eventually and the room grew quiet.

“They were…”

He stopped. 

Blue. 

They were blue. Of course they were blue. But… what kind of blue? His smile faltered.

“They were…” he tried again.

Ocean blue? No. Sky blue? Probably not. Winter ice? Not that either.

He remembered every wrinkle around Alec’s eyes when he laughed,  the scar near his shoulder, the warmth of his hand, and weight of his head on Magnus’s shoulder during quiet evenings. He remembered exactly how his voice sounded when he whispered I love you.

“…they were blue,” Magnus finished with an apologetic smile. “and they were beautiful.”

No one seemed to notice. They thanked him and told him his stories should be archived. One young Shadowhunter even said, “you speak about him like he’s still here.”

Magnus smiled. “that’s because he is.”

After class, his apartment was silent, it always did after talking about Alec. The memories lingered like perfume after someone had left the room and Magnus wandered without purpose around his house. Until his feet naturally carried him somewhere they had carried him countless times before : the old study. 

Letters and photographs and boxes that hadn’t been moved in decades he knelt before one worn leather chest and his hands hesitated over the clasp.

“I forgot,” he whispered into the empty room.

The lid opened with a soft creak inside were photographs. The first picture he picked up was from their honeymoon. Alec was laughing at something Magnus had said, head tilted back, his eyes were almost closed. Magnus smiled despite himself.

“Not helpful.”

Another family portrait, Alec was too far away.

Then another one, it was when Max had stolen Alec’s bow. Rafael was hiding behind Magnus. Alec looked halfway between exasperated and amused.

But still too small.

Another. then another. and another.

Until finally…… there he was.

Just Alec standing on the balcony of their apartment while pretending not to notice Magnus taking his picture. The sunlight hit his face perfectly. Magnus’s breath caught, there they were: they were never one blue.

One day, Alec's eyes were like storm clouds over the sea, then the pale blue of winter mornings, deep sapphire at night. Grey when he was tired and almost silver when he cried, it was different every day, even every hour. Magnus eventually reached out with trembling fingers, tracing Alec’s face without touching the paper.

“Oh,” he whispered. His chest tightened so sharply he had to sit down.

“I remembered your smile.”

A watery laugh escaped him.

“I remembered the sound of your heartbeat.” Silence settled around him. “But I forgot your eyes.”

Centuries had worn away a single color. One detail among millions. Enough to remind him that even immortality had limits, Magnus pressed the photograph against his chest.

“I’m sorry.” His voice cracked on the words. “so, so sorry.”

Then, almost instinctively, he looked toward the empty armchair beside the fireplace. The chair no one had sat in for hundreds of years.

“I know,” Magnus murmured, smiling through tears. “You’d tell me it doesn’t matter.”

He could almost hear Alec’s laugh.

“Babe, seriously? out of everything we’ve been through, you’re upset about my eye color?”

Magnus laughed out loud.

“I am.”

“You’re impossible.”

“So were you.”

The silence returned but it was less lonely.

Magnus carefully placed the photograph on the bedside table where it had once lived centuries ago. He wanted the first thing he saw every morning to be the exact shade of blue that had changed his life. And every night after that, before sleep claimed him, Magnus would glance at the photograph and think the same thing.

There you are. I remember now.

SEBASTIAN STAN as T.J. HAMMOND

THIS was posted by the current President....

Presumably it was supposed to project an image of utter masculinity.... which would surely test even the most soulless of generative AI programs, but this... THIS?

This may simultaneously be amongst the most horrifying AND most gay things I've seen in my long life.

The closest thing I can think of is those old Sino/Soviet posters all about men striving together which just looks like they're a slightly adorable gay couple, sometimes bringing up their kids together.

The central image strives for manliness, though I can only hear Jabba the Hutt's theme playing in my head as I look at it.

SEBASTIAN STAN as JACK BENJAMIN

Americans:

From Wikipedia: A graham cracker is a sweet flavored cracker made with graham flour.

The next ingredient (which is also extremely traditionally American but slightly more variable) is typically Hershey's chocolate, but you could probably swap this out in the UK with any plain chocolate bar.

Last ingredient is big marshmallows, the kind you do the chubby bunny challenge with, like the size of your thumb and twice as thick.

A proper s'more, the most traditional possible variety, involves to graham cracker squares, two slab segments of Hershey's chocolate, and one to two marshmallows depending on your preference for filling and gooeyness. You put a slab of chocolate on one of the graham cracker squares. Your marshmallows should be toasted, usually over a campfire but if you're doing them at home over a gas stove burner is fine, but the fire part is critical. You can toast them to whatever degree you like, some people like them nice and golden brown but still kind of firm in the middle, me personally? I want that bitch to CATCH ON FIRE, I want it gooey and sticky as hell in the middle, crispy and burnt on the outside. Slap that motherfucker on your graham cracker and chocolate square, top with the other one so your marshmallow and chocolate are sandwiched together by graham cracker on the outside. You do this with your freshly toasted marshmallow because ideally it will be hot enough to start to melt the chocolate so it sticks to the marshmallow and the graham cracker and, combined with the gooey marshmallow, it keeps the whole thing together, and for that reason some people will let them sit for a hot second to let the melting process happen (especially if like me you have chocolate on BOTH graham cracker squares, not just one, because you're a sugar fiend), but if you are a young child you do not have that degree of patience and you eat that shit immediately, unmelted chocolate and all. Consume your summer camp delight like a tiny club sandwich, get gooey sticky marshmallow and chocolate all over your hands, and enjoy.

The first is that you don't pull the marshmallow off the roasting stick and somehow put it on the chocolate. Your staging area will look something like this, with the graham crackers and chocolate already set out (though not usually on the fire like this, for us it was always someone's lap or a picnic table or something)

And when your marshmallow has reached appropriate roasting perfection, you use the graham crackers to slide it off the stick.

and ideally, as a CHILD you are using a literal stick. Like you walked around and spent time looking for The Perfect Stick off the ground while the adults set up the fire. It has to be thin enough the marshmallow will fit, sturdy enough that it won't bow, long enough that you won't burn yourself roasting your marshmallow. And preferably doesn't have a lot of bark that's sloughing off, OR so much bar sloughing off you can peel it all back and get to the clean stick under it. If you're smart, you might stick the tip into the fire first to "wash" it/burn off anything that was still lingering, but. well, most kids don't.

When you bite in, the marshmallow and chocolate SHOULD ooze out all over you. If you don't kinda look like this eating it, you've probably done it wrong:

You find a spot, not above all the logs where everyone sticks their marshmallows by default, but at the heart of the fire. Ideally between a couple logs already glowing gold. Something like here:

Below the leaping flame. Near the logs. There's probably only one or two spots good enough for this on any given fire, but that's okay because everyone else is up above. They will get their marshmallows faster. They will be either firm or burned or both. That's not your goal.

Rotate the marshmallow slowly. Ideally come in at an angle so the part closest to the flame is the side, not the tip. The spot closest to the fire is the spot that turns a crispy golden brown, and you want that everywhere, on the tip and around the circle.

You keep going, slowly turning, for several minutes. Several people will rotate in and out of the higher sections, getting their fast delight. Eventually, your marshmallow will start sagging badly, risking falling. Maybe it does fall and got start over. But eventually it will be golden brown all over, and so liquid it no longer clings to the stick. It is ready, finally.

You say "who hasn't gotten one yet?" And deposit it onto their waiting graham crackers and chocolate. You've made an excellent marshmallow. It isn't for you. Get another while you're over by the bags and go back to the heart of the fire.

That's your evening. One, slow, perfect marshmallow at a time, given to whomever still wants s'more. You're making art for children to stuff into their mouths cheerfully. You're watching the movement of the fire and the heat of the logs, like you would if you were maintaining it — maybe you would be, maybe you were the one who built it — but right now that's not the goal. Let someone else put more logs on, while you take only the one stick and find the best spot for it to live.

You will, eventually, finish a marshmallow and find that nobody moves to accept it. Maybe they're all eating right now, or maybe they've gone through so many they're hesitating. Eat your masterpiece then. Enjoy it, the hardest and most perfect result from a fun and beautiful moment. Go back in for another, until you've run out of marshmallows and the fire is too low or until even you are done with s'mores, until you have made enough.

Live in the US?

Need to call your representative or senator, but nervous about making the phone call?

Do it at 2 am!

I'm not kidding. It will go to voice mail and you don't have to talk to a human person, and your call still counts!

Signed, someone with major phone anxiety who has pushed through it to do this several times now.