you can call me Remy | they/them | aromantic/asexual/agender | I'm a linguist, that's what I do, that's my job | AO3 | icon by @anaart-stuff | formerly @gundamthey17
So I watched episode 5 of Heated Rivalry and I'm still not okay because the romance is SO MUCH for my poor little heart and so I had to get them two out of my system.
Under the soft light of the doorway, a mother finds moments to rest while never straying far from the two tiny lives she has brought into the world. Sometimes she watches from above, listening and keeping guard, and other times she curls around them, holding them close against her warmth. In these early days they sleep, stretch, and search for comfort, knowing only the safety of their mother and the small home that shelters them. It is a simple scene, but one filled with devotion, instinct, and the quiet beginning of two new little lives growing under her care.
OP, I hope you donāt mind me making an addition:
When I turned 17, we ordered a cake at the grocery store for my party, as weād done many times before. If you wanted something written on the cake youād write it into a section of the order form. We requested, very simply, āHappy Birthday Courtneyā. When we went to pick it up the day of the party, this is what we got.
The bakery employees had absolutely no explanation for this. The order form, attached to the box, very clearly did not contain any of those extra names. Whomever had done the writing was no longer in, so there was no one to ask how this had happened. The fact that the name āJuanā is misspelled bewilders me to this day. (Iāve never seen āMileyā without the E, either, but itās believable that someone might spell it that way.) Did this cake slip in from an alternate universe where Iām one quarter of a set of Hispanic quadruplets? Dyslexic Hispanic quadruplets, maybe?
This cake became the focal point of my party. At least two of my friends regularly called me āCourtney Mily Jaun Pabloā for years to come. My siblings and I still reference it sometimes, eleven years later. It is probably the funniest thing ever to occur at any birthday celebration of my life, and may well remain so for the rest of my days.
one time me and some pals spotted one of those big cookie cakes in a store. it was done up with red icing and little X's for kisses and in the middle it said
No One Like You
now, it took us a while to realise it meant "(there is) no one like you". at first, we all parsed it as a botched "no one like(s) you"
for ages after when we'd wind each other up we'd declare "NO ONE LIKE YOU ā¹ļøš"
......suddenly struck by the idea for a piece of worldbuilding of "fae don't like iron bc it is the most stable element*"
*as in elements higher you can extract energy via fission and lower you can extract energy via fusion but iron itself there is no excess binding energy to extract at all
Iām seeing a lot of people saying this post changed their brain chemistry, and as a neuroscientist I wanted to say yes!!! Yes it does!
Wanting something requires dopamine signaling, but liking something doesnāt.
If you have a mental illness/disorder that affects dopamine, you might feel that you donāt want to do the things that you like. You do still like them. You will appreciate having done them.
Let your likes guide you.
(If you want to read more, hereās one experimental paper about it. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5171207/ This theory called the incentive-sensitization theory was originally created to explain behaviors in addiction but can be applied elsewhere as well)
Rewards are both ālikedā and āwantedā, and those two words seem almost interchangeable. However, the brain circuitry that mediates the psych
i think it's really fun when a rly specific trope is super popular in one particular medium but in other ones it's just totally unheard of. it's the time knife. visual novel players are suuuuper used to death games but many others encountered them for the first time in squid games. the other day my mom showed me all excited the summary of a super original novel she found and it was about a girl who got reincarnated as the main character in her favorite fantasy book
It's hardly noticable to anyone who doesn't know him well, which is probably intentional on some level; not wanting to show weakness in Hell, and maybe even before that, not wanting to show weakness to classmates or teachers. (And Charles knows a thing or two about that feeling, doesn't he.)
Charles doesn't like to think about how long it took for him to see Edwin's pain for what it is. Sure, it's obvious to him now. The way Edwin holds himself stiffly, the way his movements are slightly slower than Charles would expect, slightly less precise. But they'd known each other for years before Charles saw Edwin take a hit, and saw him in the aftermath, and put two and two together.
And it doesn't help that there's not always an obvious cause. It's one thing if Edwin has a run-in with iron, or gets hit with a spell. Charles pays attention, and stuff like that is generally pretty noticable. (Except for that time Edwin hadn't admitted that the witch's torture hex was actually working until after Charles had goaded her into casting it two more times, what the fuck had he been thinking!) But sometimes it seems to come out of nowhere. Edwin will be sitting at his desk, or reading a book, or playing a game, and then suddenly he's moving wrong.
That's what's happening now. Edwin turns from their case board, and pauses, and blinks. He lets out a careful breath that has nothing to do with his emotional state. His fingers twitch, aborting an instinctive movement to press his hand to his ribs. He walks back to the desk and eases himself into his chair slowly, deliberately.
Charles stretches. "I could use a break," he says, giving Edwin an out.
Edwin pauses and considers him. "I... Yes, perhaps a break would be prudent." He moves to stand but stops, failing to entirely suppress a wince.
It's worse than Charles thought. "Want some help?" he asks gently, abandoning pretense.
For a moment, Edwin looks guilty, like he's been caught out. Then he sighs, and his mask falls away. He looks tired. There are pained lines at the corners of his eyes. He nods minutely.
Charles takes his arm and helps him to his feet. They walk slowly over to the couch and sit down. Edwin tips his head back and closes his eyes. He doesn't look relaxed; his expression is just shy of a grimace.
"Can I touch you?"
Edwin shakes his head no. "Sorry," he whispers.
"No, don't be. It's fine. Just wanna help if I can."
"You are. Helping."
"D'you wanna lay down?"
"I don't see what good it'll do."
"Can't hurt, can it?" Charles doesn't wait for an answer. He gets up and adjusts the pillows, then helps Edwin lie down.
He breathes. The tightness in his expression eases slightly. "What are you going to do?"
Charles hops to his feet and selects a Miss Marple book from the shelf, then sits cross legged on the floor with his back against the couch. "Figured it's my turn to read, innit. Unless you want quiet."
"No, please do. A distraction would be..." He sucks in a breath. "Most welcome."
"'kay. You just let me know if you change your mind. Or if there's anything else I can do."
"Thank you, Charles," Edwin says emphatically.
"You're welcome, mate. Sorry you're feelin' bad." He opens the book and begins to read.
This is your semi frequent reminder that there is no official AO3 app
All those are unofficial and available on the Google play store as of August 13th 2025. They mirror AO3's content and insert ads, for which the developer gets paid by page impression (that's every time the ad appears in the fic you're reading) not just clicks.
No money goes to AO3, nor to the fic writer. It goes to the person who did the bare minimum.
Many of these apps have poorly worded or non existent privacy policies, so they may also be mining as much data as possible and selling that on to unknown third parties.
Please, just use the official AO3 site and the browser.
As a guy who does Cyber IT as a living PLEASE USE THE MAIN SITE ON THE BROWSER! Do not use unofficial apps. You are opening yourselves up to a multitude of cyber threats, especially when there is no privacy policy or agreements.
The site is mobile optimized, and you can download the fics as PDFs or epubs if you need to read offline like on a plane, there is no reason to use a third party app.
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