heyyyyyy if you are following me for the deadbeat Miyeong au, I am now also posting it on ao3, where you may find it easier to follow!
"Anything But Honest"
Cosmic Funnies
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@kittkatabasis
heyyyyyy if you are following me for the deadbeat Miyeong au, I am now also posting it on ao3, where you may find it easier to follow!
"Anything But Honest"

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Zoey and Mira stopped talking about Eomma in front of her. Things got easier afterward. They moved to safer subjects. Zoey loves turtles and talks about what life was like in America. Mira loves fashion and is always willing to show off her dancing. Rumi told them about Eomma's farm and shop, about the different plants that were in her own private garden that Eomma had cordoned off just for her.
It was good, Rumi was starting to like them. Was maybe even willing to call them her frie-
("God, Celine is such a whore.")
Rumi should have known better.
("I won't ever understand how Celine could betray them like this?)
It was so stupid of her, but she just really hoped.
("All for a fucking demon too!)
That when they stopped talking about Eomma in front of her that it might have meant that they stopped insulting her in general. That they were starting to understand, to give Eomma just a little grace.
Rumi stood in front of the closed door to Zoey's room and listened to the all too familiar vitriol spew from her... coworkers... mouth for a minute before silently walking away.
😭😭😭
(This is awful and amazing thank you for sharing it with the world)
(Rumi starts pulling away again. Mira and Zoey can't get her to tell them what's wrong.)
This is gonna blow up so soon I can feel it. They are gonna take it too far. Maybe they say she sould her soul too the demon. That she did it on purpose or something. Maybe something worse I cant think of. And Rumi fucking snaps.
I do think ince the truth comes out things will be a bit better for the girls. But MAN are Zoey and Mira gonna feel guilty as fuck. Especially Zoey. This is gonna be her first real lesson in not taking fandom rumors as gospel and its gonna be so personal too. Like it would be different if Celine and Rumi eventually came out into the spotlight for some reason and shared their side of things. But learn the 'forbidden love child' was 1) your friend/possible soulmate, 2) not even the child of the member you thought, and 3) the true parent wanted that child dead and has been actively lying too you for however long they have been there. It would be rough.
I think both girls are gonna have the hardest time reconciling with Miyeong and Third, if they ever do. Rumi, nothing really changes. She lowkey hates the two before and still does. But too have your heroes be shown too have the capability to be so awful? Yeah no. Mira is especially gonna hold a grudge.
If rumi leaves after the blow up I wouldn't be suprised if the girls try too follow her. Whether or not she let's them come is up in the air but it would be ironic if this ends in the girls being trained by Celine in the end because they cant stand the other two.
@kittkatabasis's post
sure, okay.
behind the fold because it's like 1.2k
Zoey deserves a little viewpoint narration, as a treat
Zoey's incomplete list of incomplete lists:
Things that make Mira laugh
Hair dye stains (maybe not a real laugh? maybe a spite laugh. triple check.)
Polar bears (SECRET CUTE THING ENJOYER, PRIVATE CONVO ONLY)
Bedazzlers/bedazzling (does Korea have ebay?)
Desert rain frog videos
Knowing a secret and not telling
Subjects Miyeong likes to hear about
Sunlight Sisters discography (POST 🔪💔)
Ingroup loyalty (hunters strong)
Kdramas (that she's been in, we stan a gossip queen)
America (the weirder the better)
Lyricism (blue journals 2-4, still can't understand me when I rap in korean 😭)
Girls or Boys?
Mira in Rogue cosplay
Tony Hawk, I guess? (gender envy??????????)
Short fluffy hair
Wristbands?
MILFs 🙏🏼 😭
Subjects Thirdlight likes to hear about
Books (fiction, no comics, light novels okay, NO SUPERNATURAL ROMANCE)
RPF (oh no oh no)
Drums, drumming, rhythm section NO STIMS
Bonguk geom (sword arts in general I guess, but let HER yap)
Geommu (safe topic to divert her & Mira onto, sleeves???)
Conversations Rumi has started
If I like perilla leaves (in gimbap, or in general?)
Cucumber or radish kimchi (our turn to prep)
Where I got my purple gel pens (DID SHE NOTICE)
Where the audio jack adapters are (my room, always my room, please help me find them)
If I need more water (OH NO SHE NOTICED)
Shower Songs
Fast Car (god Rumi is SO OLD)
Heartbreaker (yeah Miyeong, apparently)
ICONIC (damn, maybe Mira's a demon)
Show (whyyyyyy won't Thirdlight talk to me about vocaloid I hear u singing Ado in there)
Runaway (if I let one syllable of Kissing Lessons out of my mouth it's the end 4 me)
Evidence that…..
Zoey tapped her pen rhythmically against the ring on her index finger. Evidence that.
Mira had return from her conversation with Rumi looking faintly smug, and promptly picked a fight with Miyeong. Zoey had cringed back against the wall and resisted the urge to intervene. This was the plan. This was their plan. Zoey would create an opportunity, Mira would run recon for her, and she would pick a fight that got her sent to her room when she had something worth sharing. Mira loved picking fights; Miyeong loved being provoked; and Thirdlight loved that Zoey loved peacekeeping. The four of them had gotten along so well before Rumi had put everything out of balance. She just. She just needed to figure out where Rumi fit in this dynamic, and then it could stabilize again.
Evidence for. Zoey tapped her pen faster. Yes. Evidence for.
Evidence For A Conspiracy
Mira thinks so
Pic from her brother (either she has the best shapewear known to science OR Rumi was way way premature OR…hmm.)
Where was she hiding that baby bump, the honmoon?
Overheard conversation (I wasn't there, tho, so idk)
Celine's fully still alive, with no teen in residence (and ripped, goddamn)
Rumi's obviously pissed about SOMETHING, and uh, arrived at the hanok pretty locked in? She's way too scrappy for "farm chores", be so fr right now
She seems to maybe hate the duo? Like, she's polite to their faces but she gets mad as hell when Miyeong tries to mom her
And she's always got these angry little zingers that Mira loves? Like she's daring them to say something.
Official story is pretty odd
STILL no leads on a dad (it's been 15+ years and she's not impossible to find? unless he's a HUGE dirtbag he would have at least stopped by once and dispatch would be on that shit.)
Total Industry Disappearance (not even as a staff songwriter? not even under a pen name? no public legal action to recoup lost sales?)
Lots of passive aggressive songs, but no new gossip? (again, 15+ years. she hasn't done anything worth reporting on, or doing new fan exposés on, or for the duo to reveal?)
Why didn't the label pressure her to, you know, get an abortion? The SS were supposed to be recording that same summer, they had to have know.
Demon story is also pretty odd
She just dipped with a demon and everyone let her?
She dipped with a demon and a baby and everyone let her?
Like, okay. Say they didn't have the heart to like, kill Celine. But the demon would still be fair game, right?
She dipped with a soul-devouring demon and a baby and no one followed her to keep that demon from sending a bunch of other souls to Gwi-Ma?
And like, if she had made a demon pact, they'd have to kill her, right? A demon with hunter training would be so so so so so dangerous to let run around?
Could she still summon weapons from the honmoon with demon patterns? That's terrifying?
But Celine's super findable. And like, I guess the patterns might not have spread far, but those guns were out and I was not looking respectfully.
The duo are weird as hell about Celine
Thirdlight has nothing good to say about her, but gets mad when I have anything bad to say about her.
They have some kinda sad soju pity party once a year on the anniversary of the announcement?
Miyeong goes through these phases of weepy and angry about her? Sometimes she "misses her every day and wishes Celine had made better choices", sometimes she "wishes Celine had had the guts to just get rid of it" (the demon?? the baby?????)
To be fair, 11 albums is a lot of albums to have grudge songs on. Kendrick has less beef with Drake than these two have with Celine.
The duo are weird as hell about Rumi
Miyeong cries every time Rumi makes sweet potato hotteok, which not even Rumi seems to understand.
Thirdlight avoids being alone with Rumi. Like, often enough that it has to be intentional.
They both HATE her dye job. Want it to be natural like mine, but apparently it was her mom's favorite color and it's non-negotiable? (idk I think it's pretty which means nothing)
A floorboard creaked in the hallway and between one footfall and the next Zoey had torn out the page and crumpled it up to eat it before anyone could catch her with it. The footsteps passed and her heart gradually stopped hammering in her chest. It was fine, no one was listening at her door to make sure she was sleeping. No one was going to storm in and demand that she take their side. Maybe one or two people were telling lies, but they were lies about someone else, someone who wasn't even in their family anymore. The whole thing with Celine could be weird and none of her business, and if she could just get Rumi on her side too, everything would be fine.
But Mira thought she knew what Rumi needed. And as long as everyone needed her for something, Zoey was safe.
Oop. Forgot to post this before going camping for a week, so you get two chapters tonight.
Chapter 3: We Saw You From Across The Honmoon and We Loved Your Vibe
Chapter 4: Assigned Hater at Birth
The next morning wasn't any better. Rumi had packed quietly, then set her bag by the door as if waiting for the confrontation to come to her.
"I really think you should reconsider. I'm sure your friend will be fine! He's a grown man." Miyeong's laugh was probably aiming for friendly, but landed on nervous. "If he really didn't want to be alone he'd find a wife, not a…a…teenage orphan."
Her smile was so polished it almost looked genuinely affectionate. "He'll probably be expecting you to stay here, since you're making new friends your own age. Brought closer together by your rigorous studies."
Nothing about her face changed, but somehow her voice shifted into a completely different tone. "Besides, I'm not sure it's appropriate for you to be spending time alone with an unrelated man at your age. Especially now. You have to know that your…our behavior is always being scrutinized."
Zoey swallowed. Faults and fears must never been seen, right?
Rumi's laugh was dismissive. "Oh please, he's old enough to be my appa. No one is going to think we're lovers." She smiled coyly. "I think it'll play well, actually. An orphan girl being extra kind to lonely elder she's known since childhood? An 'alternative' girl, at that? Might even make me more popular with the aunties."
"We could forbid you from going." Thirdlight said, staring hard at Rumi in a way that always made Zoey a little uncomfortable. Like Thirdlight was waiting for Rumi to…I don't know, sprout horns or something. Like there was something dangerous about her.
"You could." Rumi agreed. "But I might leave anyway."
"We could kick you out of the program for being so disruptive. For impeding the education of your peers."
"You could." Rumi agreed. "You could kick me out, and maybe spread the word that I'm difficult to work with to make sure no one else will talent scout me. Then I would go back to a normal school. Maybe go to college. Maybe work for my friend in his flower shop." She paused, delicately balanced between provoking and solicitous. "Is that what you want? Do you think the Honmoon would find another candidate for you if you sent me away?"
She looked in the direction of Zoey and Mira, but through them rather than at them. Sketching a bow that was probably deep enough to be polite rather than rude? She would have to ask Mira. "I'm very sorry for disrupting your holiday celebration. And if they decide to expel me for visiting a dear friend, I wish you luck in your future debut." A small smile. "Hwaiting!"
Zoey twisted her rings off and on and off, one after another. Rumi and Mira and the actual Sunlight Sisters were supposed to be her family. She wasn't supposed to have to choose. They were supposed to be Happy Together, while they saved the world with the power of friendship for fuck's sake. If she wasn't allowed off-compound to see her actual mother, how was it fair for Kang Rumi to swan out to visit some man (instead of spending time with her and Mira)? Wasn't it bad enough that the Sunlight Sisters had been destroyed by a….wasn't it bad enough that the last generation of hunters was missing a member because of a mistake?
Miyeong looked at her levelly and said "Well I'm not going to take responsibility for repairing your reputation if anyone sees you."
Rumi's eyes were dancing with laughter. "I never thought you would. Saehae bok mani badeuseyo, Miyeong-seonsaengnim, Thirdlight-seonsaengnim. I'll be back in a few days."
Thirdlight stormed out into the training yard, door slamming behind her.
Then Miyeong "had a sudden headache" and had to go lie down.
Mira turned to look at Zoey. "Do you know what this means?"
"That Rumi's kindof a bitch, and we're going to be unsupervised for the next several hours?"
"That we could be unsupervised for a lot longer than the next several hours if we play our cards right."
"Normally I'm all about hijinks, but I think I'm kinda angry? Too angry to be any fun to be around."
Mira made a considering noise. "What if I told you that I think I know who Rumi is going to visit? And that I bought us plane tickets to Gwangju? "
"What, no. You did not buy plane tickets to Gwanju on the suspicion that Rumi might get her way." Zoey glared at Mira. "You did not! What in the spy kids 3d are you trying to do here?"
Mira smirked. "Oh it was way more than suspicion. Rumi was going to go no matter what they said. She practically choreographed that confrontation."
"If you knew she was going to win, you should have told me!" Zoey wasn't shouting. She didn't shout. She didn't shout because she didn't lose her temper. "I could have. My eomma actually has time off this time. I could have insisted. She wanted." Zoey didn't lose her temper because she couldn't lose her temper. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Mira looked confused. "Why didn't you ask them?"
"Because no one else was leaving!" Zoey swallowed. She was not shouting, and she was not being hysterical. "Because if I leave and no one else does you might not let me come back!"
"…..Zo. I'm." Mira paused, her jaw working silently. "I'm your friend. Right? We're friends?"
"…I think so? I want us to be friends? We're supposed to be, like, family. Closer than family." Zoey watched Mira dig her nails into the hem of her sweater, and whispered. "We're supposed to choose each other over anyone else."
"And she's supposed to be too, right? The three of us together, voices strong or whatever? But she won't let us all the way in." Mira looked away, her eyes drifting towards the door. "Don't you want to know, Zoey? Don't you want to know what she's hiding from us?"
Zoey wanted to argue, just for the sake of it. "…she would see us get on the plane, Mira. We can't spy on her from the same vehicle."
"Oh contraire, Zo." Mira said, tapping Zoey's cheek with a long finger. "She's taking the ferry. We're going to get there so many hours ahead of her we'll have time to do a stake-out."
Man, I am six chapters deep in this nonsense, I should probably compile this somewhere rather than just reblogging the same post and clogging up @fakelawyerbug's & @amjustanobserver's mentions.
Chapter 5: Ghost Stories
Oh, no! Please, clogg up my mentions some more, because THIS is amazing!
aw, thank you!
Chapter 6: Where There's Smoke
Chapter 7: Girls on The Run
Rumi was nearly awake. Awake enough to feel a change in the light as it filtered past the curtain that covered the little alcove of her room. To hear the soft creaks of footsteps on the stairs over her head, and imagine appa's little hiss when the cold hit his nose as he walked out onto the rooftop. To hear the murmuring of something bubbling on the hotplate, and to be torn between sneaking a taste of breakfast and snuggling deeper into bed. To smell instant coffee and the deep musky green of kelp stock and the tiniest hint of melon conditioner. To feel a tickle of loose hair across her nose.
A lock that stubbornly refused to drift out of the way no matter how she shifted her head. Dangerously close to being fully awake, Rumi attempted to blow the hair away with her breath. Nothing. Rumi's arms felt heavy with fatigue and stress, but she motioned towards her face to wave away the hair and smacked herself instead, jolting as something sharp grazed her lip.
And she shrieked, because there was someone laying half on top of her. Who woke, and also shrieked. Who woke a third person, who bolted upright from her position reclined against the person laying on Rumi, effectively headbutting them directly back into Rumi, who caught another flailing swipe to the face.
During her first weeks at Jeju Rumi had often laid awake at night, wondering if she might eventually come to blows with Zoey-ssi and Mira-ssi. Laying still, listening to the hanok breathing, imagining all the ways it could go wrong. Who would strike first, and how. Whether she'd burst into red dust when their weapons pierced her skin, or if ash would slowly ooze out of her like blood. If she would be banished to the demon realm, or simply die.
One night, too sick with fear to sleep, she snuck out into the woods and summoned her own saingeom. Just to look at it. To run a fingertip over the flat of the blade, tracing its constellation patterns from tip to guard and catch her breath. Appa had never wanted to spar with her with his own ssang-geom, only cheap training swords they both had to be careful not to break. "Just to be safe," he said. And there was so rarely time to practice with him at all (between day jobs and second jobs and arranging the agricultural loans they'd used to start the flower farm), that Rumi had never wanted to press the issue. So she watched online tutorials and practiced by herself in her thickest clothes, quietly dancing around potted plants on the roof so as not to disturb the neighbors or wake appa. And wondered with a kind of fearful fascination what would happen if they ever really trained. Which instinct would prevail?
She should. She should put her sword away. It was risky having it laying out like this.
A rustle of wind through the trees made her instinctively grab towards the blade, and she felt it bite into her thumb. Thirdlight-seonsaengnim was skimming across the grass toward Rumi, her axe swinging loosely in hand. Still some distance away, but closing fast.
Rumi's heart skipped a beat. She had been so careful. Her patterns were subtle; a dusting of purple streaks on her upper arm, a few jagged lines across her rib cage. Easy to cover with makeup. Easy to mistake for a bad bruise. Usually concealed by a sports bra. But unmistakable if you had seen the real thing. Could Thirdlight have spotted them? When? She resisted the urge to pat her clothes to make sure they were adjusted correctly. If they were exposed it was already too late anyway, and if they weren't it would just look suspicious.
Thirdlight slowed to a gentle walk a few feet away, and seemed to listen. "No one out here but foxes, Rumi-ssi." Rumi was torn between brazening it out as aimless disobedience, talking a walk just because she wasn't supposed to; and running like a demon in fear for her life.
Then she looked at Rumi disapprovingly. "Summoning a spiritual weapon is draining when you're not used to it. You shouldn't be practicing alone without telling someone where you'll be."
Rumi realized she was still gripping her saingeom and flinched. "I was just thinking. About. About it." She tried to shake the nervousness out of her voice. "About being able to summon weapons at all. About what they're made to do."
"Ah." Thirdlight nearly smiled. "It's a privilege, isn't it? To be trusted by the honmoon like this; given a share of its strength to protect others. And a burden too. It's good that you already grasp the responsibility you'll be shouldering."
Rumi let out a breath. Thirdlight patted Rumi's shoulder, drawing her slightly closer.
"Killing demons is dangerous, Rumi. Never forget that." Her grey eyes seemed to glow with the reflected light of her axe. "And you never really feel clean again once you've felt their ash on your skin. But there's a satisfaction to be found in the work, and hope for a golden future where we're free of demons forever."
She stepped away from Rumi again and started walking back towards the hanok. "If not in our generation, then in yours. And if not in yours, in the generation you girls train. Our weapons are forged out of great need, and if we're lucky one day we'll be able to lay them down."
Rumi looked down at the sword loosely held in her hand, smudged with a streak of blood. It had only cut her, and shallowly. She was alive, undusted, and if not safe then at least undetected. But the faint shimmering line it left behind didn't fade for weeks. Not demon enough to be destroyed by it, not human enough to go unmarked.
During her first weeks at Jeju Rumi had often laid awake at night, wondering if she might eventually come to blows with Zoey and Mira; but admittedly 'dealt a glancing blow by Mira's rhinestone nail appliqué, followed by a short slap fight as the three of us failed to untangle our limbs' was not a scenario Rumi had considered.
Zoey and Mira had crowded into her alcove, found her asleep, and rather than either wake her or wait for her elsewhere, piled on top of her like puppies. Zoey had sprawled along the length of Rumi's sleeping mats; her face curled against Rumi's shoulder. Mira had reclined against Zoey; her longer limbs tangling with both Zoey and Rumi's, pinning them closer together.
Zoey burst into tears and buried her face in Rumi's blankets. "I'M SORRY RUMI, I DIDN'T MEAN TO CALL YOUR MOM A WHORE."
Rumi flinched. Mira dropped her head onto Zoey's back. "Zo, please don't shout 'whore' at Rumi first thing when she wakes up, we talked about this."
Zoey curled even deeper into the blankets. "I didn't really think she was a person!"
An outraged wail emerged from somewhere inside Rumi. "You didn't think my mom WAS A PERSON?"
"No I didn't mean it like that!" Zoey was shaking. "I mean she wasn't real TO ME. She was like. Like an idea. She was a….a Top Ten Anime Betrayals supercut, but for girl groups. A character to talk about, not….not a real person who could get hurt." She sniffled. "And I wasn't thinking about you at all."
Mira was rubbing little circles on Zoey's back, which felt unspeakably unfair to Rumi. She had to listen to Zoey dehumanize her eomma again, and Zoey was the one getting comforted.
"I had to change apartments three times in the second grade. Because Sunlight Sisters fans kept finding our address and sending her hate mail." Rumi said quietly. "I missed so much school that I had to repeat the third grade. Because kids were repeating to me what their parents were saying to them, and I was getting into fights. Teachers told me I was bringing the harassment on myself. That eomma couldn't raise me right and I'd turn out like her. Like it would be bad to turn out like her." Rumi shook with building anger. "Like they weren't the ones who abandoned US."
Distantly, Rumi could tell that her eyes were watering, but she couldn't feel it over the roaring sound between her ears. "All my life people have been trying to make me feel ashamed of the only person who has ever loved me unconditionally. And I won't." She bit out. "I'm not ashamed of eomma."
Mira looked stricken. "Then why do you live here with that man instead of with her? What happened to Celine?"
Rumi tilted her head and blinked. "What do you mean? I do. I live with appa. He's Byeong-Ho."
Zoey sniffled quietly, digging the heels of her hands against her eyes. "The demon Celine ran away with?"
Rumi laughed awkwardly. "Appa's not a demon. He's a shopkeeper. Demons don't own flower shops."
Mira narrowed her eyes at Rumi. "What do you mean you do? You do still live with Celine? Where is she?"
"Byeong-Ho." Rumi said, patiently. "Celine is Byeong-Ho now. Appa."
"WAIT WHAT?" Zoey's head shot up, smashing against Mira's nose. "Is THAT why no one could figure out where Celine went?"
"Byeong-Ho." Rumi said, testily. "He's Byeong-Ho. He didn't go anywhere, they just never looked for us. And once he changed his name, the hate mail finally stopped following us around."
"So that's why you told Miyeong you were an orphan." Mira said, thoughtfully. "To keep her away from Byeong-Ho-nim."
"He deserves some peace after what they put him through. Aaaaand, I kindof panicked when Miyeong showed up in person. We hadn't figured out what our cover story would be, or even done any of the emancipation paperwork."
Mira laughed a little. "And I guess it is kinda true that your mother is dead."
"Ye-yes. Basically yes."
Zoey sighed. "I finally know what happened to the mystery lovechild and I'm not going to be able to tell anyone on the forums at all."
Mira pushed Zoey's face back into the bedclothes. "Which you shouldn't want to do, remember?"
"I know! I know! I know! I'm not going to! I won't tell the Duo, either. It's just anti-climactic is all. It turns out I've known the secret baby for months and Celine's not even missing, he's just a dude now. Masc Celine truthers stay winning, I guess." Zoey paused. "Wait, if Byeong-Ho-nim isn't your biological father, who is? Thirdlight-seonsaengnim and Miyeong-seonsaengnim always said Celine ran off with a demon, but like……he's still alive."
Chapter 8: Woman Sortof Curious What Her Last Straw Will Be
ao3 link to come! I just need to clean up the early chapters a bit before I post them.
Chapter 9: Portrait of a Man on Fire
cross-posted on AO3!
Chapter 10: Wishing I Was Perfect
cross-posted on AO3
Chapter 11: Just Like You
cross-posted on AO3
Chapter 12: The Lady, or the Tiger?
cross-posted on AO3
Chapter 13: Ma'am, What Were YOU Doing at the Devil's Sacrament?
cross-posted on AO3
Chapter 14: Darkness in Harmony, Part 1
cross-posted on AO3
Chapter 15: Darkness in Harmony, Part 2
cross-posted on AO3
Chapter 16: The Song We Couldn't Write
cross-posted on AO3
Chapter 17: Cloth Mother, Wire Mother
I'm gonna be so fr, I re-wrote this chapter from scratch like 5 times, and if I don't just post it I will keep rewriting it until the end of days. Time to kick this two headed baby bird out of the nest to see if it can fly.
cross-posted on A03
TW: child abuse, actual for real war crimes, mild body horror
Chapter 18: Some Day That Wall Is Gonna Fall
cross-posted on AO3
Signs of spring, ranked.
Preorder my new humorous birding dictionary and get an adorable button!
hello and welcome to another episode of Kill James Bond
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it's always "did you really need to burn down your workplace to prove a point" and never "how was the revenge arson? did you have fun doing revenge arson? were the flames pretty?"
🔥🔥🔥
Context for other users:
On the morning of April 7, 2026, a fire was started at the Kimberly-Clark Distribution Center in Ontario, California. It escalated to a six-alarm fire and took nearly twelve hours to extinguish. The facility was completely destroyed and declared a "total loss". There were no injuries or deaths. An employee who was working in the warehouse is accused of arson.
Authorities stated that the employee had shared videos of himself starting the fire on Facebook, saying "all you had to do was pay us enough to live" and "there goes your inventory" while lighting pallets of toilet paper ablaze.
ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS PAY US ENOUGH TO LIVE
No injuries. No deaths. This was a protest fire. This is why unions are important, to prevent frustrations like these, to ensure people are paid enough to live.
🔥🔥🔥🔥
Zoey and Mira stopped talking about Eomma in front of her. Things got easier afterward. They moved to safer subjects. Zoey loves turtles and talks about what life was like in America. Mira loves fashion and is always willing to show off her dancing. Rumi told them about Eomma's farm and shop, about the different plants that were in her own private garden that Eomma had cordoned off just for her.
It was good, Rumi was starting to like them. Was maybe even willing to call them her frie-
("God, Celine is such a whore.")
Rumi should have known better.
("I won't ever understand how Celine could betray them like this?)
It was so stupid of her, but she just really hoped.
("All for a fucking demon too!)
That when they stopped talking about Eomma in front of her that it might have meant that they stopped insulting her in general. That they were starting to understand, to give Eomma just a little grace.
Rumi stood in front of the closed door to Zoey's room and listened to the all too familiar vitriol spew from her... coworkers... mouth for a minute before silently walking away.
😭😭😭
(This is awful and amazing thank you for sharing it with the world)
(Rumi starts pulling away again. Mira and Zoey can't get her to tell them what's wrong.)
This is gonna blow up so soon I can feel it. They are gonna take it too far. Maybe they say she sould her soul too the demon. That she did it on purpose or something. Maybe something worse I cant think of. And Rumi fucking snaps.
I do think ince the truth comes out things will be a bit better for the girls. But MAN are Zoey and Mira gonna feel guilty as fuck. Especially Zoey. This is gonna be her first real lesson in not taking fandom rumors as gospel and its gonna be so personal too. Like it would be different if Celine and Rumi eventually came out into the spotlight for some reason and shared their side of things. But learn the 'forbidden love child' was 1) your friend/possible soulmate, 2) not even the child of the member you thought, and 3) the true parent wanted that child dead and has been actively lying too you for however long they have been there. It would be rough.
I think both girls are gonna have the hardest time reconciling with Miyeong and Third, if they ever do. Rumi, nothing really changes. She lowkey hates the two before and still does. But too have your heroes be shown too have the capability to be so awful? Yeah no. Mira is especially gonna hold a grudge.
If rumi leaves after the blow up I wouldn't be suprised if the girls try too follow her. Whether or not she let's them come is up in the air but it would be ironic if this ends in the girls being trained by Celine in the end because they cant stand the other two.
@kittkatabasis's post
sure, okay.
behind the fold because it's like 1.2k
Zoey deserves a little viewpoint narration, as a treat
Zoey's incomplete list of incomplete lists:
Things that make Mira laugh
Hair dye stains (maybe not a real laugh? maybe a spite laugh. triple check.)
Polar bears (SECRET CUTE THING ENJOYER, PRIVATE CONVO ONLY)
Bedazzlers/bedazzling (does Korea have ebay?)
Desert rain frog videos
Knowing a secret and not telling
Subjects Miyeong likes to hear about
Sunlight Sisters discography (POST 🔪💔)
Ingroup loyalty (hunters strong)
Kdramas (that she's been in, we stan a gossip queen)
America (the weirder the better)
Lyricism (blue journals 2-4, still can't understand me when I rap in korean 😭)
Girls or Boys?
Mira in Rogue cosplay
Tony Hawk, I guess? (gender envy??????????)
Short fluffy hair
Wristbands?
MILFs 🙏🏼 😭
Subjects Thirdlight likes to hear about
Books (fiction, no comics, light novels okay, NO SUPERNATURAL ROMANCE)
RPF (oh no oh no)
Drums, drumming, rhythm section NO STIMS
Bonguk geom (sword arts in general I guess, but let HER yap)
Geommu (safe topic to divert her & Mira onto, sleeves???)
Conversations Rumi has started
If I like perilla leaves (in gimbap, or in general?)
Cucumber or radish kimchi (our turn to prep)
Where I got my purple gel pens (DID SHE NOTICE)
Where the audio jack adapters are (my room, always my room, please help me find them)
If I need more water (OH NO SHE NOTICED)
Shower Songs
Fast Car (god Rumi is SO OLD)
Heartbreaker (yeah Miyeong, apparently)
ICONIC (damn, maybe Mira's a demon)
Show (whyyyyyy won't Thirdlight talk to me about vocaloid I hear u singing Ado in there)
Runaway (if I let one syllable of Kissing Lessons out of my mouth it's the end 4 me)
Evidence that…..
Zoey tapped her pen rhythmically against the ring on her index finger. Evidence that.
Mira had return from her conversation with Rumi looking faintly smug, and promptly picked a fight with Miyeong. Zoey had cringed back against the wall and resisted the urge to intervene. This was the plan. This was their plan. Zoey would create an opportunity, Mira would run recon for her, and she would pick a fight that got her sent to her room when she had something worth sharing. Mira loved picking fights; Miyeong loved being provoked; and Thirdlight loved that Zoey loved peacekeeping. The four of them had gotten along so well before Rumi had put everything out of balance. She just. She just needed to figure out where Rumi fit in this dynamic, and then it could stabilize again.
Evidence for. Zoey tapped her pen faster. Yes. Evidence for.
Evidence For A Conspiracy
Mira thinks so
Pic from her brother (either she has the best shapewear known to science OR Rumi was way way premature OR…hmm.)
Where was she hiding that baby bump, the honmoon?
Overheard conversation (I wasn't there, tho, so idk)
Celine's fully still alive, with no teen in residence (and ripped, goddamn)
Rumi's obviously pissed about SOMETHING, and uh, arrived at the hanok pretty locked in? She's way too scrappy for "farm chores", be so fr right now
She seems to maybe hate the duo? Like, she's polite to their faces but she gets mad as hell when Miyeong tries to mom her
And she's always got these angry little zingers that Mira loves? Like she's daring them to say something.
Official story is pretty odd
STILL no leads on a dad (it's been 15+ years and she's not impossible to find? unless he's a HUGE dirtbag he would have at least stopped by once and dispatch would be on that shit.)
Total Industry Disappearance (not even as a staff songwriter? not even under a pen name? no public legal action to recoup lost sales?)
Lots of passive aggressive songs, but no new gossip? (again, 15+ years. she hasn't done anything worth reporting on, or doing new fan exposés on, or for the duo to reveal?)
Why didn't the label pressure her to, you know, get an abortion? The SS were supposed to be recording that same summer, they had to have know.
Demon story is also pretty odd
She just dipped with a demon and everyone let her?
She dipped with a demon and a baby and everyone let her?
Like, okay. Say they didn't have the heart to like, kill Celine. But the demon would still be fair game, right?
She dipped with a soul-devouring demon and a baby and no one followed her to keep that demon from sending a bunch of other souls to Gwi-Ma?
And like, if she had made a demon pact, they'd have to kill her, right? A demon with hunter training would be so so so so so dangerous to let run around?
Could she still summon weapons from the honmoon with demon patterns? That's terrifying?
But Celine's super findable. And like, I guess the patterns might not have spread far, but those guns were out and I was not looking respectfully.
The duo are weird as hell about Celine
Thirdlight has nothing good to say about her, but gets mad when I have anything bad to say about her.
They have some kinda sad soju pity party once a year on the anniversary of the announcement?
Miyeong goes through these phases of weepy and angry about her? Sometimes she "misses her every day and wishes Celine had made better choices", sometimes she "wishes Celine had had the guts to just get rid of it" (the demon?? the baby?????)
To be fair, 11 albums is a lot of albums to have grudge songs on. Kendrick has less beef with Drake than these two have with Celine.
The duo are weird as hell about Rumi
Miyeong cries every time Rumi makes sweet potato hotteok, which not even Rumi seems to understand.
Thirdlight avoids being alone with Rumi. Like, often enough that it has to be intentional.
They both HATE her dye job. Want it to be natural like mine, but apparently it was her mom's favorite color and it's non-negotiable? (idk I think it's pretty which means nothing)
A floorboard creaked in the hallway and between one footfall and the next Zoey had torn out the page and crumpled it up to eat it before anyone could catch her with it. The footsteps passed and her heart gradually stopped hammering in her chest. It was fine, no one was listening at her door to make sure she was sleeping. No one was going to storm in and demand that she take their side. Maybe one or two people were telling lies, but they were lies about someone else, someone who wasn't even in their family anymore. The whole thing with Celine could be weird and none of her business, and if she could just get Rumi on her side too, everything would be fine.
But Mira thought she knew what Rumi needed. And as long as everyone needed her for something, Zoey was safe.
Oop. Forgot to post this before going camping for a week, so you get two chapters tonight.
Chapter 3: We Saw You From Across The Honmoon and We Loved Your Vibe
Chapter 4: Assigned Hater at Birth
The next morning wasn't any better. Rumi had packed quietly, then set her bag by the door as if waiting for the confrontation to come to her.
"I really think you should reconsider. I'm sure your friend will be fine! He's a grown man." Miyeong's laugh was probably aiming for friendly, but landed on nervous. "If he really didn't want to be alone he'd find a wife, not a…a…teenage orphan."
Her smile was so polished it almost looked genuinely affectionate. "He'll probably be expecting you to stay here, since you're making new friends your own age. Brought closer together by your rigorous studies."
Nothing about her face changed, but somehow her voice shifted into a completely different tone. "Besides, I'm not sure it's appropriate for you to be spending time alone with an unrelated man at your age. Especially now. You have to know that your…our behavior is always being scrutinized."
Zoey swallowed. Faults and fears must never been seen, right?
Rumi's laugh was dismissive. "Oh please, he's old enough to be my appa. No one is going to think we're lovers." She smiled coyly. "I think it'll play well, actually. An orphan girl being extra kind to lonely elder she's known since childhood? An 'alternative' girl, at that? Might even make me more popular with the aunties."
"We could forbid you from going." Thirdlight said, staring hard at Rumi in a way that always made Zoey a little uncomfortable. Like Thirdlight was waiting for Rumi to…I don't know, sprout horns or something. Like there was something dangerous about her.
"You could." Rumi agreed. "But I might leave anyway."
"We could kick you out of the program for being so disruptive. For impeding the education of your peers."
"You could." Rumi agreed. "You could kick me out, and maybe spread the word that I'm difficult to work with to make sure no one else will talent scout me. Then I would go back to a normal school. Maybe go to college. Maybe work for my friend in his flower shop." She paused, delicately balanced between provoking and solicitous. "Is that what you want? Do you think the Honmoon would find another candidate for you if you sent me away?"
She looked in the direction of Zoey and Mira, but through them rather than at them. Sketching a bow that was probably deep enough to be polite rather than rude? She would have to ask Mira. "I'm very sorry for disrupting your holiday celebration. And if they decide to expel me for visiting a dear friend, I wish you luck in your future debut." A small smile. "Hwaiting!"
Zoey twisted her rings off and on and off, one after another. Rumi and Mira and the actual Sunlight Sisters were supposed to be her family. She wasn't supposed to have to choose. They were supposed to be Happy Together, while they saved the world with the power of friendship for fuck's sake. If she wasn't allowed off-compound to see her actual mother, how was it fair for Kang Rumi to swan out to visit some man (instead of spending time with her and Mira)? Wasn't it bad enough that the Sunlight Sisters had been destroyed by a….wasn't it bad enough that the last generation of hunters was missing a member because of a mistake?
Miyeong looked at her levelly and said "Well I'm not going to take responsibility for repairing your reputation if anyone sees you."
Rumi's eyes were dancing with laughter. "I never thought you would. Saehae bok mani badeuseyo, Miyeong-seonsaengnim, Thirdlight-seonsaengnim. I'll be back in a few days."
Thirdlight stormed out into the training yard, door slamming behind her.
Then Miyeong "had a sudden headache" and had to go lie down.
Mira turned to look at Zoey. "Do you know what this means?"
"That Rumi's kindof a bitch, and we're going to be unsupervised for the next several hours?"
"That we could be unsupervised for a lot longer than the next several hours if we play our cards right."
"Normally I'm all about hijinks, but I think I'm kinda angry? Too angry to be any fun to be around."
Mira made a considering noise. "What if I told you that I think I know who Rumi is going to visit? And that I bought us plane tickets to Gwangju? "
"What, no. You did not buy plane tickets to Gwanju on the suspicion that Rumi might get her way." Zoey glared at Mira. "You did not! What in the spy kids 3d are you trying to do here?"
Mira smirked. "Oh it was way more than suspicion. Rumi was going to go no matter what they said. She practically choreographed that confrontation."
"If you knew she was going to win, you should have told me!" Zoey wasn't shouting. She didn't shout. She didn't shout because she didn't lose her temper. "I could have. My eomma actually has time off this time. I could have insisted. She wanted." Zoey didn't lose her temper because she couldn't lose her temper. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Mira looked confused. "Why didn't you ask them?"
"Because no one else was leaving!" Zoey swallowed. She was not shouting, and she was not being hysterical. "Because if I leave and no one else does you might not let me come back!"
"…..Zo. I'm." Mira paused, her jaw working silently. "I'm your friend. Right? We're friends?"
"…I think so? I want us to be friends? We're supposed to be, like, family. Closer than family." Zoey watched Mira dig her nails into the hem of her sweater, and whispered. "We're supposed to choose each other over anyone else."
"And she's supposed to be too, right? The three of us together, voices strong or whatever? But she won't let us all the way in." Mira looked away, her eyes drifting towards the door. "Don't you want to know, Zoey? Don't you want to know what she's hiding from us?"
Zoey wanted to argue, just for the sake of it. "…she would see us get on the plane, Mira. We can't spy on her from the same vehicle."
"Oh contraire, Zo." Mira said, tapping Zoey's cheek with a long finger. "She's taking the ferry. We're going to get there so many hours ahead of her we'll have time to do a stake-out."
Man, I am six chapters deep in this nonsense, I should probably compile this somewhere rather than just reblogging the same post and clogging up @fakelawyerbug's & @amjustanobserver's mentions.
Chapter 5: Ghost Stories
Oh, no! Please, clogg up my mentions some more, because THIS is amazing!
aw, thank you!
Chapter 6: Where There's Smoke
Chapter 7: Girls on The Run
Rumi was nearly awake. Awake enough to feel a change in the light as it filtered past the curtain that covered the little alcove of her room. To hear the soft creaks of footsteps on the stairs over her head, and imagine appa's little hiss when the cold hit his nose as he walked out onto the rooftop. To hear the murmuring of something bubbling on the hotplate, and to be torn between sneaking a taste of breakfast and snuggling deeper into bed. To smell instant coffee and the deep musky green of kelp stock and the tiniest hint of melon conditioner. To feel a tickle of loose hair across her nose.
A lock that stubbornly refused to drift out of the way no matter how she shifted her head. Dangerously close to being fully awake, Rumi attempted to blow the hair away with her breath. Nothing. Rumi's arms felt heavy with fatigue and stress, but she motioned towards her face to wave away the hair and smacked herself instead, jolting as something sharp grazed her lip.
And she shrieked, because there was someone laying half on top of her. Who woke, and also shrieked. Who woke a third person, who bolted upright from her position reclined against the person laying on Rumi, effectively headbutting them directly back into Rumi, who caught another flailing swipe to the face.
During her first weeks at Jeju Rumi had often laid awake at night, wondering if she might eventually come to blows with Zoey-ssi and Mira-ssi. Laying still, listening to the hanok breathing, imagining all the ways it could go wrong. Who would strike first, and how. Whether she'd burst into red dust when their weapons pierced her skin, or if ash would slowly ooze out of her like blood. If she would be banished to the demon realm, or simply die.
One night, too sick with fear to sleep, she snuck out into the woods and summoned her own saingeom. Just to look at it. To run a fingertip over the flat of the blade, tracing its constellation patterns from tip to guard and catch her breath. Appa had never wanted to spar with her with his own ssang-geom, only cheap training swords they both had to be careful not to break. "Just to be safe," he said. And there was so rarely time to practice with him at all (between day jobs and second jobs and arranging the agricultural loans they'd used to start the flower farm), that Rumi had never wanted to press the issue. So she watched online tutorials and practiced by herself in her thickest clothes, quietly dancing around potted plants on the roof so as not to disturb the neighbors or wake appa. And wondered with a kind of fearful fascination what would happen if they ever really trained. Which instinct would prevail?
She should. She should put her sword away. It was risky having it laying out like this.
A rustle of wind through the trees made her instinctively grab towards the blade, and she felt it bite into her thumb. Thirdlight-seonsaengnim was skimming across the grass toward Rumi, her axe swinging loosely in hand. Still some distance away, but closing fast.
Rumi's heart skipped a beat. She had been so careful. Her patterns were subtle; a dusting of purple streaks on her upper arm, a few jagged lines across her rib cage. Easy to cover with makeup. Easy to mistake for a bad bruise. Usually concealed by a sports bra. But unmistakable if you had seen the real thing. Could Thirdlight have spotted them? When? She resisted the urge to pat her clothes to make sure they were adjusted correctly. If they were exposed it was already too late anyway, and if they weren't it would just look suspicious.
Thirdlight slowed to a gentle walk a few feet away, and seemed to listen. "No one out here but foxes, Rumi-ssi." Rumi was torn between brazening it out as aimless disobedience, talking a walk just because she wasn't supposed to; and running like a demon in fear for her life.
Then she looked at Rumi disapprovingly. "Summoning a spiritual weapon is draining when you're not used to it. You shouldn't be practicing alone without telling someone where you'll be."
Rumi realized she was still gripping her saingeom and flinched. "I was just thinking. About. About it." She tried to shake the nervousness out of her voice. "About being able to summon weapons at all. About what they're made to do."
"Ah." Thirdlight nearly smiled. "It's a privilege, isn't it? To be trusted by the honmoon like this; given a share of its strength to protect others. And a burden too. It's good that you already grasp the responsibility you'll be shouldering."
Rumi let out a breath. Thirdlight patted Rumi's shoulder, drawing her slightly closer.
"Killing demons is dangerous, Rumi. Never forget that." Her grey eyes seemed to glow with the reflected light of her axe. "And you never really feel clean again once you've felt their ash on your skin. But there's a satisfaction to be found in the work, and hope for a golden future where we're free of demons forever."
She stepped away from Rumi again and started walking back towards the hanok. "If not in our generation, then in yours. And if not in yours, in the generation you girls train. Our weapons are forged out of great need, and if we're lucky one day we'll be able to lay them down."
Rumi looked down at the sword loosely held in her hand, smudged with a streak of blood. It had only cut her, and shallowly. She was alive, undusted, and if not safe then at least undetected. But the faint shimmering line it left behind didn't fade for weeks. Not demon enough to be destroyed by it, not human enough to go unmarked.
During her first weeks at Jeju Rumi had often laid awake at night, wondering if she might eventually come to blows with Zoey and Mira; but admittedly 'dealt a glancing blow by Mira's rhinestone nail appliqué, followed by a short slap fight as the three of us failed to untangle our limbs' was not a scenario Rumi had considered.
Zoey and Mira had crowded into her alcove, found her asleep, and rather than either wake her or wait for her elsewhere, piled on top of her like puppies. Zoey had sprawled along the length of Rumi's sleeping mats; her face curled against Rumi's shoulder. Mira had reclined against Zoey; her longer limbs tangling with both Zoey and Rumi's, pinning them closer together.
Zoey burst into tears and buried her face in Rumi's blankets. "I'M SORRY RUMI, I DIDN'T MEAN TO CALL YOUR MOM A WHORE."
Rumi flinched. Mira dropped her head onto Zoey's back. "Zo, please don't shout 'whore' at Rumi first thing when she wakes up, we talked about this."
Zoey curled even deeper into the blankets. "I didn't really think she was a person!"
An outraged wail emerged from somewhere inside Rumi. "You didn't think my mom WAS A PERSON?"
"No I didn't mean it like that!" Zoey was shaking. "I mean she wasn't real TO ME. She was like. Like an idea. She was a….a Top Ten Anime Betrayals supercut, but for girl groups. A character to talk about, not….not a real person who could get hurt." She sniffled. "And I wasn't thinking about you at all."
Mira was rubbing little circles on Zoey's back, which felt unspeakably unfair to Rumi. She had to listen to Zoey dehumanize her eomma again, and Zoey was the one getting comforted.
"I had to change apartments three times in the second grade. Because Sunlight Sisters fans kept finding our address and sending her hate mail." Rumi said quietly. "I missed so much school that I had to repeat the third grade. Because kids were repeating to me what their parents were saying to them, and I was getting into fights. Teachers told me I was bringing the harassment on myself. That eomma couldn't raise me right and I'd turn out like her. Like it would be bad to turn out like her." Rumi shook with building anger. "Like they weren't the ones who abandoned US."
Distantly, Rumi could tell that her eyes were watering, but she couldn't feel it over the roaring sound between her ears. "All my life people have been trying to make me feel ashamed of the only person who has ever loved me unconditionally. And I won't." She bit out. "I'm not ashamed of eomma."
Mira looked stricken. "Then why do you live here with that man instead of with her? What happened to Celine?"
Rumi tilted her head and blinked. "What do you mean? I do. I live with appa. He's Byeong-Ho."
Zoey sniffled quietly, digging the heels of her hands against her eyes. "The demon Celine ran away with?"
Rumi laughed awkwardly. "Appa's not a demon. He's a shopkeeper. Demons don't own flower shops."
Mira narrowed her eyes at Rumi. "What do you mean you do? You do still live with Celine? Where is she?"
"Byeong-Ho." Rumi said, patiently. "Celine is Byeong-Ho now. Appa."
"WAIT WHAT?" Zoey's head shot up, smashing against Mira's nose. "Is THAT why no one could figure out where Celine went?"
"Byeong-Ho." Rumi said, testily. "He's Byeong-Ho. He didn't go anywhere, they just never looked for us. And once he changed his name, the hate mail finally stopped following us around."
"So that's why you told Miyeong you were an orphan." Mira said, thoughtfully. "To keep her away from Byeong-Ho-nim."
"He deserves some peace after what they put him through. Aaaaand, I kindof panicked when Miyeong showed up in person. We hadn't figured out what our cover story would be, or even done any of the emancipation paperwork."
Mira laughed a little. "And I guess it is kinda true that your mother is dead."
"Ye-yes. Basically yes."
Zoey sighed. "I finally know what happened to the mystery lovechild and I'm not going to be able to tell anyone on the forums at all."
Mira pushed Zoey's face back into the bedclothes. "Which you shouldn't want to do, remember?"
"I know! I know! I know! I'm not going to! I won't tell the Duo, either. It's just anti-climactic is all. It turns out I've known the secret baby for months and Celine's not even missing, he's just a dude now. Masc Celine truthers stay winning, I guess." Zoey paused. "Wait, if Byeong-Ho-nim isn't your biological father, who is? Thirdlight-seonsaengnim and Miyeong-seonsaengnim always said Celine ran off with a demon, but like……he's still alive."
Chapter 8: Woman Sortof Curious What Her Last Straw Will Be
ao3 link to come! I just need to clean up the early chapters a bit before I post them.
Chapter 9: Portrait of a Man on Fire
cross-posted on AO3!
Chapter 10: Wishing I Was Perfect
cross-posted on AO3
Chapter 11: Just Like You
cross-posted on AO3
Chapter 12: The Lady, or the Tiger?
cross-posted on AO3
Chapter 13: Ma'am, What Were YOU Doing at the Devil's Sacrament?
cross-posted on AO3
Chapter 14: Darkness in Harmony, Part 1
cross-posted on AO3
Chapter 15: Darkness in Harmony, Part 2
cross-posted on AO3
Chapter 16: The Song We Couldn't Write
cross-posted on AO3
Chapter 17: Cloth Mother, Wire Mother
I'm gonna be so fr, I re-wrote this chapter from scratch like 5 times, and if I don't just post it I will keep rewriting it until the end of days. Time to kick this two headed baby bird out of the nest to see if it can fly.
cross-posted on A03
TW: child abuse, actual for real war crimes, mild body horror
I Saw The Money Grow
this is literally how i dance
This went from “wow that’s pretty neat” to “WTF ITS ALIVE” real quick
she did that
If I don’t reblog this Puerto Rican ass mouse assume that I’m dead.
i have a disease

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In my opinion, Bill Watterson deserves way more credit as one of the great paleoartists.
He did not need to go this hard, but he did, and he has my everlasting respect for that.
How could you leave out this???
Also I recall in the foreward of one of his big Calvin and Hobbes collection volumes, he wrote a bit about how his knowledge and portrayal of dinosaurs shifted over time as he wrote the comic. Watterson's early dinosaurs were very stereotypical reptilian monsters inspired by the dinosaurs he loved in his childhood:
As he continued work on the comic he researched further into modern dinosaur science of the time, which just so happened to be the height of the Dinosaur Renaissance in the 1980s and 90s. Dinosaurs were being reenvisioned as active, warm blooded, successful animals, and Watterson made an amazing effort to include accurate anatomy and scientific understanding where he absolutely could have just stuck to what he was familiar with. Instead, he created incredibly vivid and real-feeling depictions that absolutely belong alongside the works of other revolutionary palaeoartists of the 80s and 90s like Mark Hallett, Greg Paul and John Gurche.
i recently saw a tiktok where a woman asked "girlies: what are some things you do to be more whimsical? I love knowing cute little habbits"
and i've never loved a comment section more. some of my faves:
(˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶)
I talk to basically everything as if it's a person. I greet passing crows as my "cousins." I respond conversationally to my cats. I yell "same to you!" when inanimate objects make loud noises. I say good morning to plants. I thank my phone when an alarm goes off. When objects don't act the way I want them to I explain what I need them to do, or tell them they're being rude. I tell my car when we're stopping for gas.
I reassure credit card readers who are struggling that I know they are doing their best. Bless you, you funky lil machine, I'm sorry my dad is part of the reason people hate you. :(
If an object looks like it's about to roll away or fall over I'll put it in its place and then raise my index finger and one eyebrow at it like it's a naughty child or a cat about to push a glass of water over, like "Ah ah ah! Stay where you are!" I did this to my groceries last week and the checkout lady saw me and said "That was adorable."
1: I engage in active listening with my roommate's cat. When he mews, I ask follow up questions, and we keep going until he gets bored and wanders away or starts purring instead. "And then what happened?" "Hmm, yes. That sounds difficult." "And how did you feel about that?" "Yeah, what that scrub jay was saying was kindof out of line, but other people are allowed to have different boundaries than you." "I'm not really sure Kropotkin would say that, Pistachio." "That is a very fair question, I'm so glad you asked." 2: I have a small record collection, and when I am having a "Computers Were a Mistake" kind of day, I like to ask my record player what she would like to listen to. Then I'll make a pile of pillows and sit on the floor next to my studio monitors to read a library book, or write long-hand in a journal.
3: A lot more physical technology 'sings' than it used to. Little chimes and patterns of notes instead of just clicks or one-note beeps. So I do little recognition chirps back at them; either by replicating the pattern or transposing it or tracing it back to the root chord or something, like the way birds have response calls. Now both my partner and my roommate do it too, and we've developed a system of response/reply chimes that we use to communicate with one another when we are experiencing burnout and can't make words or faces anymore.
you are allowed to feel and choose
whenever folks talk about harry potter and separating artist from art they always have this indignant 'OH SO IM A BAD FOR BUYING THESE BOOKS?' but thats not the question. the reality is that many will BELIEVE you are bad, and that is VALID. its not your choice what others think of you
'AM I BAD?' is a grand and cosmic question that is well beyond our scope. fine. here on the ground, the DAY TO DAY effects are that your actions contribute to hurt and suffering in small or large ways, and those who hurt and suffer because of you are allowed to not like you because of it. SORRY BUD.
what is alternative? forcing folks to enjoy the art of those who hurt them? THEY DONT LIKE IT. someone saying 'your choices harm me so i dont like your creations and i dont like you' is not offensive, it is the most basic use of human autonomy and it is SO bizarre when folks argue otherwise
if you are a bigot or support bigotry or act in a movie built on the profits of hate, people are allowed to not like you 1. because bigotry is bad and 2. because people generally DONT LIKE THINGS THAT HURT THEM. like this is so obvious. it is not 'canceling' it is an exercise in basic human autonomy
i swear if we had social media in the past people would call the hippie and punk movements 'cancel culture' too. LARGE GROUPS OF PEOPLE MOBILIZING AGAINST THE THINGS THAT HURT THEM IS NOT NEW. SORRY BUD IT IS NOT SOME GEN Z FAD IF YOU SUPPORT HATEFUL THINGS AND FOLKS DONT WANT TO BUY YOUR STUFF ANYMORE
Did you watch KPDH, see Celine, and immediately start frantically grabbing blender parts or something? Leave her alonneeeeeeeee!
I actually didn’t! I didn’t have strong feelings about Celine either way initially, I watched the movie and went “ah Rumi’s flawed but loving mom who shows up for two minutes”
And then I entered the ao3 tag and 98% of what I found wanted her dead
So I got protective
Hurting her is an act of love <3
That’s just how it happened for me. I was so confused if I was watching the same movie as other people were.
Yeah, this tracks with how Celine became my combination blorbo and/or chew toy too lmao
I saw her go from smiling in that little 3 second sequence we get in the very beginning to, delicately, 'fucking going through it' by the climax; thought "girl what the heck happened to you?"; and immediately got flashbanged by memories of every depressed single parent in my extended immigrant family.
I have been rotating this milf in my head ever since. I want her to have terrible experiences; but to grow from them and find new ways to be happy. 😭

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It's That Time Again: Wildfire Season is Upon Us (It never really stopped being that time.)
I wanted to put together a post of resources and advice all collected into one spot, so here we go!
And remember, just because you think you live in an area where you are safe from wildfires because "it doesn't happen here" does not mean your risk is zero. Wildfires can happen anywhere in the United States, and their prevalence is increasing. Don't be afraid, just be aware and prepared.
Watch Duty
First and foremost, no matter where you live, I HIGHLY recommend getting the Watch Duty app and turning on alerts for the area you live. It is available on Apple, Android, and just as a website. It will allow you to get push notification updates for any wildfires that start in your area, what's happening with them, evacuation information, shelter information, and more all in one spot. It is now available in all fifty states.
The basic and important functions are all free, but you can also get a paid subscription to access some other neat stuff like a flight tracker to see what the firefighting aircraft are doing, fire progression prediction models, a list of links to local emergency services radio feeds you can listen to, etc.
Local Alerts
Signing up for local alerts is also something you need to do. EVEN IF YOU WERE SIGNED UP BEFORE 2026, RECHECK THAT YOU ARE SIGNED UP. Last year the Code Red system, which was one of the most popular local alert systems, was hacked and many places have since moved to other platforms. This means you may need to sign up again even if you were signed up before.
To find out what your local alert system is and how to sign up, search for your town's emergency management information, check government websites, check local fire department websites, or ask local officials.
Mitigate Mitigate Mitigate
Wildfires are going to happen. The best way to help protect your home and/or your business is to mitigate the impact when a fire starts. Things like defensible space, keeping your roof free of combustible debris, screening vents with metal mesh, and using fire safe plants can all be the difference between saving your home and losing it.
The FireWise program is a great place to get started with mitigation, especially if you are interested in community and neighborhood scale projects.
Another great resource if you want to look at mitigation on the community scale is the trainings offered by Coalitions & Collaboratives.
Be sure to also check what resources are available in your local community. You may be able to grants or other forms of support to help with your own mitigation projects.
Prevent the Fire Before it Starts
Put your campfire all the way out. Maintain your vehicle to prevent sparks. Don't park on or against dry plants. If you are towing, make sure your tow chains aren't dragging. If you have snow chains hung on the bottom of your vehicle anywhere, make sure those aren't dragging.
Obey Fire Restrictions
Fire restrictions are generally done on a city or county level, and can be found on the associated city or county websites. Some places are better about this than others. Most areas use the same general restrictions like no open burning, no fireworks, etc., but some may have more specific restrictions you should be familiar with.
And use common sense. If it is hot, dry, and/or windy, don't do things that could start a fire.
Know How to Report a Wildfire
Reporting a wildfire, or potential wildfire, can be tricky without an address. The BEST way is to provide a latitude/longitude, which can usually be obtained on your phone by opening a map app and dropping a pin where you think the fire is, or using other place finding apps like a compass.
If that's not an option, the closest cross streets and landmarks are good. Try to give the closest town as well, even if it is a good distance away, since there are many duplicate place names so having the closest town will help narrow things down considerably.
Understand Your Insurance
I wish I had a good link for this one, but it's going to vary heavily by state. Everyone is doing something different these days, pushing different legislation, enforcing different things. The best thing you can do for yourself is to read through your current policy(ies), talk to your insurance agent, and look up ongoing reforms in your state/area. But it is better to take the time to understand these things now, ahead of fire season.
Have an Evacuation Plan
Know multiple ways out of your neighborhood AND the area where you work AND anywhere else you spend an extensive amount of time. There is a very, very good chance that in a wildfire emergency your cellphone will lose signal and you will not be able to use a GPS app. Pre-planning your evacuation route--and actually driving it a few times--can be critical.
Keep up to date paper maps in your vehicle as well, and know how to read them, in case you lose cell signal for a more extensive amount of time.
Do not attempt to drive on roads that you and/or your vehicle is not capable of. If you get stuck, that creates a much bigger issue for you, other evacuees, and responders.
If you don't drive, for reasons of disability or otherwise, make a plan with friends or family for how you will get out. If you don't have a good support system, reach out to your local fire department to see if they know of any local services that can help, or if they can just take note of your address.
Have a Go Bag Ready
Last but not least, have a Go Bag ready along with your general preparedness measures. A Go Bag is something with JUST the basics. It is not meant to be everything you could ever need, or a full survival system. It is a backpack with the necessities to get you through the first 24-48 hours of an evacuation so you can get your feet under you and figure out the rest from there.
(Full alt text for this poster below the cut.)
Putting together (and then *maintaining*) a go-bag might seem excessive if you aren't accustomed to wildfire preparation. I grew up around a different set of natural disasters, so when I moved to a wildfire-prone region I initially prepped for wildfires the same way I had done for blizzards and mudslides. Until a wildfire got pretty close to where I lived, and I realized that my disaster stuff was literally scattered throughout my house. The cat carriers were in a closet in a different room than our documents, and neither were within reach of our backpacks, or necessary durable medical supplies (which were on a shelf too high for the person who was sent to grab them!). Gathering up some necessities as you leave doesn't sound like it'll take a lot of time, until you're actually doing it: four people bumping into each other as they rush around an apartment trying to corral the cats and also get everything they might need. (We ultimately did not need to evacuate, everything was fine; but it did put the fear of god into us.)
After, we sat down as a household and reviewed what had gone wrong, and rearranged our closets so that everything we would need to grab while running out of the house was along the path we'd need to run to get out of the house. And we each made a personal go bag that we keep in a closet by the door. Those of us who wear glasses keep a backup pair in theirs (scratched lenses or bent frames are better than no glasses; trade up your spare whenever you can afford a new pair), those who need durable medical supplies keep spares in theirs. If the fire is close enough that we need to keep an eye on our phones, we'll also take the papers we might need out of the filing cabinet whose drawers stick a little bit and leave the folder on the dining room table next to the cat carriers. Having consistent access to our respective medications is really important, and it was tricky to keep enough in reserve in our go bags, so instead we went with environmental adaptation: now we keep it all in a dedicated plastic bin that lives on the bookshelf next to my desk. Our last drill took us 6 minutes, 4 minutes of which was getting cats into their carriers because they're both angry little starfishes when they're picked up unexpectedly. Definitely not perfect, but *way* better than the nearly 25 minutes it took us the first time we tried.
The peace of mind in knowing that you *can* just get the fuck out in less than 10 minutes is really vital when there's ash raining on your back porch and the sky is so dark with smoke that you can barely see the poisonous orange haze. Not knowing if you'll have to book it and leave your whole home behind is stressful enough on its own, having solved part of the problem ahead of time makes it easier to tolerate that stress.
just found out I'm going to be reincarnated into a single sprig of grain. barley apparently. Not cool man. I didn't even know plants was an option on the table. this is bullshit
these tags make me so mad because you're right