kiwies

on one hand we have rook the poet, connoisseur of the beautiful, constantly singing praises to every pretty thing he sees (and he can find beauty in anything, really).

...and then on the other hand we have rook the hunter, the watcher, the analyst, who finds more contentment in studying people than being intimate with them, who keeps himself at a safe distance, even from his objects of admiration. he's very guarded, very private to the point of being unreadable, of making even his closest friends feel unsettled.

there's a line on his jp suitor suit card (God help me if I could find the post again...) where he says he's not particularly interested in romantically committing himself to anyone just yet. tsk tsk...

there's just... so much about him that's misread as romantic when it blatantly is not. rook is obsessive. he chases his interests because he wants to understand them from every angle, it's his whole thing with being a hunter. he keeps himself at a distance, at an advantage. to me, that's not quite love. it's... study. I get it because I do the same thing, in a way.

(not that he's heartless, of course. rook clearly values his friendships a lot. he's a highly emotional and caring and good person, and he follows his heart).

his passions are intense enough to be mischaracterized as romance, whereas I think rook falling in love with someone (really falling in love with someone) would be such a quiet and soft and slow process. it would be a soulmate situation, with someone he sees as tangible, someone real and present, who he doesn't have to put on a shelf in order to keep himself at a distance. someone who he can be comfortable and a little more open with. someone he can touch, you know? someone who grounds him a little more. the obsession is there but it's distinctly different.

I have an aromantic perspective on love

I need to know what the groovy card looks like. I NEED TO KNOW! MY BOY. MY MAN. MY PRECIOUS FRENCH COWBOY!

(Please let it show off his arms and chest. I need to see all of his scars and freckles. I need to map them out.)

Holy Fucking Shit

If you're not following any of AO3's social media accounts you might be in the dark as to what kind of "spam comments" have engendered this banner at the top of the site:

These spam comments have been posted about a great deal on the AO3 subreddit for the past couple of days. Initially they comprised a bunch of guest (logged out users) bot comments that insulted authors by suggesting they were using AI and not writing their own fics. Some examples, from the subreddit:

But it then escalated to outright graphic porn images and gifs being posted in comments, again by logged out 'Guest' accounts. Obviously, I'm not going to give examples of those, but between these two bot infestations, AO3 has clearly decided to act and has temporarily closed the ability to post comments for users who are not logged in with an AO3 account.

Unfortunately, this means that genuine readers who don't have an AO3 account won't be able to leave comments on fics that they enjoy.

If you are a genuine reader who doesn't yet have an AO3 account, I strongly suggest getting yourself on the waiting list for one. More and more AO3 authors are now locking their fics down to registered users only - either due to these bot comments or concerns about AI scraping their work - which means you're probably missing out on a lot of great stuff.

Hopefully guest commenting will be enabled again at some point soon, but I suggest not waiting until then. Get yourself on that list.

Wait times are going to be longer than usual at the moment, due to the current Wattpad purge [info on Fanlore | Wattpad subreddit thread], but if you're in line, then your invite will come through eventually.

do you love yourself? no? that's okay this character you love loves you back. are you kind? that is why they love you. are you patient? that is why they love you. are you a coward are you shy are you brave are you bold are you bratty? that is why they love you. you are loved and you will not be punished for seeking love. you are loved and you will find it here in these words.

do you love yourself yet? no? that's okay this character can love you until you do. this character will point out the few traits you can relate with yourself (your smile, your laugh, you brattiness, your whimsy, your strength, your sorrow) and tell you that they love that about you until one day you can love it, if not yourself, too.

Y'know how lions and other creatures like that pretend that they get hurt when playing with their cubs to make them feel powerful? I wonder if sometimes it's like that. He swallows a little bit of pride to watch them beam happily for the rest of the day.

Or even if he gets annoyed with their constant shenanigans, it gives him time with both Belphie and Satan, like playing a game with them.

And more than that, it gives Satan more of an opportunity to connect with his family. To have fun. To kind of act on the more immature and playful aspects he never really got to have since he pushed himself to mature so quickly so he wouldn't be looked down upon.

Plus, if I'm not mistaken, I believe it's canon that sometimes Satan and Belphie both do "sweet" things towards their eldest brother and call it a "clever prank" when it's really just them doing something nice or taking care of him.

If you guys MISSED my twst cake series...then you gonna love the Shirt series...Shirts your boyfriend/s wears that were a gift from you!

Riddle Rosehearts:

Yuu*Grins at others holding riddle hand*Its ME im the "Choices" he took!~

Trey Clover:

....Does he wear it just to make Ace get angry, cuz you(Ace's bestie) Hooked Heartslabyul's "Mom"..., plus that means you see him as marriage material-

Cater Diamond:

...Do you have to come in the room first put the song and open the door for his entrance every time with this shirt?...Yes...

Ace Trappola:

Did he call it ugly? Yes...is he giving it back to you NEVER-ITS HIS AND HE WILL WEAR IT EVERYDAY-

Deuce Spade:

Reblog to slap his stupid forehead.