#(i actually was hit with an intense motivation to do some writing for the series)

[the-rat-house]

✦ ━ Are there any muse(s) you miss roleplaying?   

So I did answer this here! But I want to talk about some more specific ones.

Those being muses from the Mega Man series! I'm falling head over heels in love with it all over again and have been thinking about those old muses, as well as ones I would love to write someday in the future.

This here is Jupiter, a fucked up robot from space who was involved in World Ending Shenanigans (in the Gigamix manga, at least, I don't recall the canon story of the game). He was a mean bird and I immediately knew I wanted to write him. I didn't get to write him nearly as much as I wanted, most of it actually being in a special event server, but I'd love to come back to him again someday.

I also had planned on potentially writing Needle Man, but things went downhill before I ever ended up doing so. I do want to try again someday though, as well as poke around with some others (looks at Ice Man specifically).

I just... am really missing them now that I am getting back into the series orz

[kjzlstuio]

Hello I saw your post, how about tsp headcanons or maybe anything about your au?

OH SHIT SOMEONE PERCIEVED MY AU

I feel like everyone that gets into tsp has an au for their own interpretation and story, so minee uhhhhh I had a plan to make a whole fic + illustration series for it, but I dont have the time or motivation so I'm cool with infodumping. Actually, getting it all down now would make it easier to release content for it, so win win !!

SUPER LONG INFODUMP INCOMING

My au is mostly a character exploration of Stanley and Narrator after years in isolation before it starts getting meta. From adjustment to their new lives, to the evolution of their relationship through insanity, and finally discovering the truth of their world to break free.

The first few chapters are dedicated to Stanley's adjustment from his real life to the game. Chapter 1 follows his daily routine, his commute, his entrance into the building, and suddenly, the silence of his branch. His job wasn't very interactive in the first place, inputting what he was told into spreadsheets or other, but simply pressing buttons is a gross simplification of it. The oddity of the situation hits him, and the narration begins. Truthfully, the Narrator's words align with his thoughts, so while he is uneasy, he does as told because he'd do the same. The Freedom Ending is full of revelations and emotions as he reflects on his life, corners of the office he hadn't seen. Stanley steps outside, the daylight grows brighter, and he resets. Following this is Stanley's spiral through emotions. He doubts the voice in his mind being his own, looks everywhere for clues about his situation, inputs into the pink screens and tests out the story slowly. From barely diverting to a room or two in anxious desperation, to completely opposing the Narrator in anger and spite, Stanley branches into every ending plus some. While it's true that his life had fallen into monotony, the Narrator mocks and berates him not only through dialogue, but through the contents of the world. The building became nothing but a maze of halls, his capabilities as a human limited to button-pressing, his ability to speak lost completely. It was as if The Stanley Parable was made solely to mock his existence. The Narrator and Stanley battle for control of the situation. Stanley reclaims his pride and autonomy through defiance and causing the Narrator suffering while the Narrator retaliates. However, the Narrator always seems to default to wanting a good ending for them both and fulfilling his goal of greatness and artistry. Stanley soon grows to realize this as their time loops progress, and with time, conflicted feelings for the Narrator give in to gratitude and solace in their isolation. (I remembered I had this RP with myself midway through writing, so this might be the best place to put it. Stanley's going through the wringer with his emotions, and at a point, you can get too exhausted to feel what once enveloped you so intensely. Between his anger and his gratitude, there was definitely points of exhaustion. Additionally, even as he "gave in" to the game, he was still exploring every inch, wondering about the true nature of their existence.)

Stanley never would have regained his ability to feel if not for the Narrator. If anything, he should be grateful that his lonely life was brought to someone's obsessive focus. He wouldn't have overcome his anxiety to adhere to instructions, wouldn't have dared explore outside what he was expressly given permission to. Wouldn't have felt so intensely with fear and wonder and anger and self-actualization. He had them to thank. And only them. For years. They only had each other. They couldn't help it that it naturally evolved into something more. Stanley's fear of the situation evolved to desperation once he realized the pattern. Desperation for an exit to insanity for what his life had suddenly become. Insanity to anger, focused onto the source of it all and the mockery of his life. Anger to understanding as the Narrator's intentions became clear to him. Understanding to gratitude. Gratitude to adoration. Adoration to obsession. So on. And the Narrator notices these changes. The Stanley Parable in their eyes isn't a mockery, but an artistic piece and aid dedicated to Stanley. For some reason, even unknown to them, they're very attached to Stanley from the start. While upset to see their piece ripped to shreds by Stanley's choices, in the end, Stanley grows bolder, more expressive, and the Narrator loves to see it. All of this development is slow and takes place within the decade before the next game installment. The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe is introduced to Stanley in the midst of their odd relationship. Not quite a thing, not quite hidden from each other. They've grown into this routine of cycles, and by now, their endings and interactions with each other far outnumber those in the game. When the new content is added, Stanley doesn't know how to feel. The Narrator had been developing it behind the scenes with unknown outside help for a while. Stanley had long given up on interacting with any other sentient beings ever again, so the new content is overwhelming and scary in that sense. The new stimulation is welcome, but new characters? Even hints of an outside presence, seeing the meeting room covered in notes and speculation over collectibles from unseen employees freaks him out. The need for connection leads him to attaching to these inanimate objects, much like his bond with The Adventure Line. The way humans find comfort in one another through touch and interaction is the same way Stanley feels over the Bucket. Stanley eventually comes to realize that the unknown and overexaggerated connection he felt to it was true. The Bucket is a person. In fact, the Adventure Line is a person too. The Wife mannequin is a person. The Settings is a person. That Cardboard Baby was probably a person too. Who knows. Stanley pieces this together from outside reviews of the game, the story of Employee 432, and the Curator. The company he worked for is the same developer of The Stanley Parable and it ran experiments on its workers and environments in plain sight. The Stanley Parable is an interactive recording of the pocket dimension created by these experiments with Stanley's own experiences being put onto store shelves.

There's a whole subplot with the Settings gradually forming a bond with Stanley as well, and it comes to a head when Stanley attempts to escape with the Narrator. Stanley and the Narrator have a heart to heart about everything. The Narrator feigned ignorance to the Escape Pod Ending, but now knowing everything, Stanley wants to escape more than ever. Without him, this fake world can't exist, and all these people will be freed with them. The Narrator gives in with some time, final reviews of their work together, but for some reason, Stanley remains. The Settings wants to make their time endless, but the world rots without the Narrator there, and the Settings eventually has to let go. Stanley wakes up again in his office. He fears that the game isn't over, but stepping foot outside his door, he hears the rustling of objects, the voices of people, and he stumbles through the office, now back to its original form, with all his coworkers within it. It's awkward knowing they've seen so much of him, and over a decade in isolation has destroyed his ability to interact, so Stanley avoids them all in a mad search for the Narrator. When they finally lock eyes, Stanley doesn't know what to feel, but he feels his voice come out for the first time in forever, and he cries. Everyone sets off to reclaim the lives they've lost, wishing Stanley and the Narrator well as the two awkwardly return the gesture. The Narrator, for once, is at a loss for words, and they part ways before exchanging contact information. Stanley stays with his parent for some time, lost and haunted with his experiences, and the Narrator reclaims what he can of his old life, spending many days waiting by the ruins of their company building for anyone who might return. It doesn't take long for Stanley to come back. Living in the real world again is overwhelming, and he took it a day at a time with the help of his family. Coming back to find the Narrator, Stanley shares everything. While it isn't their fault, he can't just forgive them for everything. His feelings are torn all sorts of ways, and they settle with staying friends, there to help each other acclimate to life again with everyone else, but mostly each other. They make it official after some time. Even though it isn't the best decision. They can't let go of everything or each other, so it's a very codependent type of relationship despite how it looks on the outside.

There's a lot of details I left out obviously. There's a whole Curator and Mariella plot, even more details about Stanley and the Setting's dynamic, all of the secrets in the game that Stanley experiences and their corresponding emotional developments, more character exploration for the Narrator and more of how the world worked (The Narrator was actually an invisible floating mass btw), I COMPLETELY FORGOT THEIR IRL RELATIONSHIP BEFORE THE GAME JESUS. But yeah, that's the gist of it. I'll definitely make more content of it soon.

Phew

MS Paint Concepts

[lord-squiggletits]

4, 13, 23, 26, 47, 65 :)

4. what is the plot bunny you’ve been carrying for the longest? optional bonus question: do you ever wonder why you haven’t written it yet and experience deep existential dread?

The first story idea I ever came up with for Transformers/IDW MegOP is a novel idea named "The Blade Called Trust", I literally thought it was going to be my first Transformers fic until the initial concept of Pay Unto Evil came to mind and supplanted it (as I had more/better plot ideas to make an outline).

The main reason I haven't worked on it is because TBCT is intended to be (even when I first conceived it) a magnum opus of IDW MegOP as well as possibly even IDW1 as a whole. It's not just gonna be megop-centric, but it's also going to be me picking and choosing my favorite parts of IDW1 and remixing them into my own fic that's basically an "alternate continuity" of sorts. Though not a fix-it fic so much as as it is a love letter to IDW1, making my own version of it but also paying homage to all of the coolest parts of it IMO.

As such, it's a super mega intense project that I need to do another read of IDW1 so that I can refresh myself on the lore, favorite characters, plotlines/themes I would've liked to see more of, etc. And THEN I can make a proper outline for it, and once that happens I'm home free to actually start writing.

13. talk about a writing experience that has pleasantly surprised you.

idk how to answer this one so I'm just gonna say N/A lkdsfklds

23. how do you deal with writers block?

Cry into my friends' DMs lamenting the limitations of my mortal form and why it is I can't be 100% creative and energized all of the time (not joking, my hubris is real bad). Suffer and wait for it to be over. Get really depressed about it. Usually focus on my other hobbies (gardening, sewing) while I wait for the writing juice to come back.

26. do you like to write one-shots or series, and why?

I don't have a preference. If an idea is meant to be a one-shot, I'm happy to write it as a one-shot. If it's meant to be a series/multichapter, likewise. I think being able to write a one-off piece that scratches some brain itch idea I had in my mind is just as good as an idea that takes multiple chapters/pieces to fully realize.

47. what story are you most proud of?

NOOOOO DON'T ASK ME TO BE PROUD OF MYSELF NOOOOO

Somewhat surprisingly I think it's actually An Endless Form Most Beautiful. I reread that fic somewhat recently trying to motivate myself to finish chapter 10, and holy absolute fuck. Past me was a genius writing it. The pacing is perfect. The slow tension and reveal of OP's backstory is also perfect. The romance between OP and Megatron feels natural and develops in a very deep way throughout the fic, centered on them developing trust and sharing their deepest thoughts/fears/goals/affirmations to each other. Impactor is an amazing secondary protagonist whose platonic love for Megatron hits just as hard as the main romantic plot between Orion and Megatron. The recurring themes of community, friendship, love, and collective support are CONSTANT and reinforced by basically everything that happens in the plot. Past me was a genius. I don't understand why I was so worried about the romance feeling unnatural/rushed or the themes being poorly represented.

I don't really like to compare my longfics to each other since I think each is different, but I think the entirety of AEFMB has thematic strength comparable to the epilogue chapters of Pay Unto Evil. Everything is so tightly knit together, but instead of PUE where the themes of mercy/restorative justice were basically an emotional payoff for a long story of suffering and hard choices, AEFMB's themes are a long, slow burn that keep the reader warm throughout the length of the fic, giving it a much more optimistic feeling.

That being said I'm also really proud of Pay Unto Evil for being the first novel-length story I've ever completed. And also for the fact that people keep leaving me comments saying how deeply the story impacted them or made them cry or gave them hope in happy endings.

65. what is your favourite title for a fic you’ve written? 

Pay Unto Evil is probably my favorite, given how succinctly it summarizes the theme of the entire fic. When you first pick it up, I imagine some readers might take "pay unto evil" to be phrased as a sort of declarative statement, an implication that this fic is going to be about karma and people getting what they deserve based on their past actions. But then you read on through the fic all the way to the end (or you already recognize/know the Bible verse the title is stolen from) and realize the actual plot/theme is quite the opposite.

It's a short, catchy, clever, deceptive (if you don't know the original quote it came from), insightful (if you do know the original quote) and meaningful title all in one. Technically a fic title only needs to make some kind of sense to be "good," but it's always nice as a writer when you find that title that's a real ZINGER, as clever and profound as something that would be published as an actual great work of literature.

But also, shout out to one of my Tarnma one-shots little death because even though it's quite a generic/cheesy title (everyone knows that "little death" is based on a French euphemism for orgasming sdlfdjlsk), it feels really fitting for how cheesy and romantic Pharma and Tarn are for each other in that fic, as well as the fact that Pharma having sparkplay done on him via Tarn's voice literally is flirting with death in a way. Thus, little death.

Other shout-outs: Love's Harvest, Of Tides Inevitable, and the joke titles of the one-shot Not According to Plan leading to a sequel fic called Exactly According to Plan. Besides that I literally get most of my fic titles from stealing song lyrics and/or lines of poetry so lmao 😂😂😂

[just-another-author-i-guess]

The unholy

Also posted on my wattpad account; diontanysus

Warnings: she/her pronounced reader, I think I accidentally gave Jungkook a choking kink ups, needles and stuff, don’t read if you don’t like needles, more making out, everyone’s still horny idk what to tell you, y/n is bi bc I make the rules, dry humping? Almost prison sex?? Also I did not edit it through bc I’m tired

Pairing: bts ot7 x reader, nun! reader, princess! reader, vampire! Jin x reader, hybrid! Namjoon x reader, hybrid! Yoongi x reader, vampire! Hoseok x reader, vampire! Jimin x reader, hybrid! Taehyung x reader, hybrid! Jungkook x reader

Parts: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 -

Author’s note: tw/mental health stuff: so after a long ass break (what has it been? Almost two years?) I sincerely apologize for not being active at all. My mental health has just continued to go downhill during the pandemic (I hope all of you are healthy and well!) but lately I’ve been gaining some motivation to write back. My mental illness has made me unable to actually enjoy any of my old hobbies so finally starting to enjoy writing again feels amazing. However, I’m really sorry to say that this series probably won’t be continued for that much longer bc tbh I have no idea where I’m going with it. I’ll try to update when I can, but don’t expect much haha. High school is extremely draining rn, I have sm homework I need to do. Also sorry for the short chapter- this has been in my drafts for like 2 years and I finally decided to finish it. Also I feel like I should apologize for not answering my dm’s. So to everyone who has sent me something I’ll start to look at it now that I’m back, I’m really sorry for the long waiting time <3 anyways, here’s the chapter I’ve been owing you guys for like forever. I hope you enjoy! (:

(Updates; very unreliable, I’ll try to write more when I have time!)

Taglist:

(please let me know if you want to be tagged!)

(i’m so sorry if I missed someone, it’s been such a long time since I’ve last updated this)

(Hi again I’m super sorry if I tagged someone twice, once again it’s been ages since I’ve done this so it’s a bit messy)

@joonsroses @boononx @i-am-supermerwholoked221b @karissassirak @bvblackarmy @queenbianca-7 @someslightobsessions @d-noona @oii-f-eli-x @dapppphhhhh @heranimesupermanopera @jkoojeon @iloverubberduckiez-blog @btsenchanting @tryintolive33 @multifandomgirl29 @kpopfictrash @serious-addiction @http-lovelyknow @hazeljrz @hauntedpeesha @heranimesupermanopera @manjirodni @softieforeveryone @creativecookiecrumb

The intensity in Jeongguk’s kiss was unreal, it was almost like he could swallow you whole through it. His hands had snaked out through the bars, wrapping around your smaller body and pulling you flush against them.

Strangely, Jeongguk was not cold like the rest of them, he seemed so warm and inviting, you couldn’t help but blindly obligate when he gently squeezed around your throat, positioning it how he wanted it.

Before long, his mouth started to slip from your mouth, parting with a sigh as he kissed down your cheek and neck, licking stripes as he went along.

When he found the spot he wanted, his grip around you neck tightened, cutting off enough air to have you slightly panting in his ear, as he began to encircle the spot with his tongue before sucking purple and blue bruises into your skin.

You couldn’t help but let out a small, shaky moan at the sensations Jeongguk’s mouth created on your skin, and it wasn’t long before you were desperately gripping his collar trying to pull him even closer, cursing the cool bars between you.

Jeongguk adjusted your head, a little more rough this time, his patience was running out and by now you could feel the two sharp fangs poking at your skin.

With a low whine, you turned your neck, blotting it even more for him, and you felt chills run through you as he deeply moaned into you neck.

“Shit,” he groaned, when your scent hit him, even stronger than before.

Without warning, he let his fangs sink into your skin, enjoying the small noises you made, as his one hand came down to grip at you hips, pressing them up against his own.

Blood flowed from your new wounds, painting his mouth, your clothes and your dress with crimson, as you felt him gulp it down, gripping you harder and harder with each gulp, as he began slowly rutting his hips forward and into yours.

The friction, made a shaky whine slip out of your lips, as he pressed you harder against the bars, thrusting harder forward as he drank, until his thrusts had become so violent that the whole cage he was trapped in began to rock along.

You felt his bulge grow harder and much larger than you would expect, as you felt yourself simultaneously grow hotter and fog began to clout your mind, as more and more blood left your body.

Your eyes slipped close, the warm feelings consuming you, as your lower half did it’s best to keep up with Jeongguk’s almost animalistic thrusts, when suddenly in the midsts of your euphoria the sound of a door being ripped open caught you ears, and Jeongguk tore his mouth from your neck, your body falling forwards and slumping against the bars.

“Jeongguk! Jeongguk, I swear if you just as much as touched her I will rip your fangs out a shove them up your ass-“ the gruff voice was cut off, as the person behind it came to a stop.

“Y-Yoongi hyung,” Jeongguk rasped, clutching your body, as you fought to stay awake just a little longer, blood leaking from your fresh bite wound in violent streams.

You were ripped from the warmth that was Jeongguk, colliding with a stone hard, cold chest. Even in your weak state, you struggled to get out of his grip, how his fingers tightened around your arms when the smell of blood and arousal hit his nose. His fingers were slender and his nails dug into your skin, carving out flesh and leaving moon-shaped nail prints behind.

He was cold and almost repellent, but he was still the one thing keeping you from tumbling to the floor, even when your legs gave out and you were just hanging loosely in his grip.

Once again your body had become that of a ragdoll, as your thought process slowed and you had to blink a couple of times to clear your head and vision, for the cloudiness creeping in the corners of it.

“As soon as we leave you alone! Unbelievable! Jin-hyung is gonna have a fucking aneurysm because of you!”

Jeongguk’s head bowed down, seemingly in false shame as his elder scolded him, becoming increasingly more worried as the situation got more time to sink in.

You know you should have been ashamed as well, throwing yourself at a man you barely met a couple hours ago, but still the only feeling you were able to dig up was annoyance.

Who was he, to stand there and scold Jeongguk? Acting so self righteous, like he wouldn’t do the same if he had the chance. It made you want to roll your eyes, like some spoiled teenager.

You noticed a chance in Yoongi’s grip, when he started to turn around, hoisting you up by holding you underneath your arms and legs, and even if you didn’t want to be picked up, you knew better than to struggle more in the cold vampires grip.

A chill shot through you, the feeling of being completely surrounded by his cold aura so much more different than the warm, almost sweet fragrance that Jeongguk carried around.

You looked back over his shoulder, as he started to walk, catching a glimpse of Jeongguk standing still pressed up against the cage. His head was hanging low, as if he was affected by the scolding, but his lips bore a smirk proving that he wasn’t. He was satiated. For now.

Your eyes locked with his, just as Yoongi slammed the door shut with the back of his foot, and continued up the stairs, carelessly holding you like you were a pillow, or something meant to toss around.

“I can walk,” Your mouth moved on it’s own accord, but you meant the words nonetheless.

To your surprise, Yoongi let out a snort. Apparently, your words were the funniest thing he had heard all day.

“The second I let you down, you’re gonna run right back down in that cellar,” he spoke calmly, but he had a way of pronouncing every word that made it clear he was angry with you still.

You furrowed your brows, angrily kicking your legs in the air, demanding to be let down.

“How could you possibly know that?” You huffed, as you struggled in his grip.

The corners of his mouth moved up, just the slightest, but enough for you to notice and question what exactly he found so funny about this whole situation.

He stopped walking, suddenly, making your head bump against his chest rather harshly.

“You have no idea how stupid you sound, do you?”

“What do you mean-“ your traitorous mouth, spoke up again, ignoring the fact that it was the sole reason you were landed in this mess to behind with.

He shot you a sharp glare, forcing you to stop mid sentence, as you looked up at him, expecting some kind of scolding, like the one he’d given Jeongguk.

“You have no idea how dangerous that situation was, stop thinking I just ruined your little romantic moment when I saved your life. If it weren’t for my interference, your head would be rolling around on the floor right now. Is that what you want, huh?”

Even though your mind actively fought against his words, you knew they were right.

What were you thinking?

If it weren’t for Jeongguk, and his stupidly enchanting voice you would never normally have gotten yourself into a situation like that. These creatures were so powerful, and yet you acted so carelessly around them.

“Are you going to stop fighting me now?” His voice was back to the tired, monotone state you had heard him speak in before.

It took you a minute or so, but finally you nodded and Yoongi let out a sigh, satisfied with his own doing.

He carried you through the halls of the castle, for what felt like forever. Your head lolled back into his chest as you let yourself relax, just taking in the magnificent interior of their home.

He finally stopped, when he was just outside the room you’d first met Jeongguk. Without lifting a single finger from you, he concentrated deeply on a little mark on the door. It looked to be scratched into the wood, probably by a knife, but the details in it was what really caught your attention.

It glowed a faint purple, letting you see all the small  intricate designs that adored it. You were surprised something so small could have so much detail, it would take someone with expert eyes to carve it. But then again, all the house residents seemed to inhabit some sort of magic. Their eyes probably worked a thousand times better than yours.

Suddenly the door flung open, making you jump a little in Yoongi’s grip. You looked up at him startled, noticing how his eyes glowed the same faint purple. You blinked to make sure what you saw was true, but as soon as your eyes opened again, the purple was gone and his irises was back to the same warm brown they had always been.

You looked at him intently, as he stepped into the room. You knew he could feel you looking at him but chose to ignore it, he probably knew you saw his eyes change color too. You wanted to ask into it more than anything, but your mouth was dry and you couldn’t find the right words. You opened your mouth to speak, but closed it again and decided to let the case rest until later.

You heard the door slam shut behind him as he gently dumped you on a hospital bed, standing in a corner of the room.

“And why exactly am I here?” You scoffed. “Am I going to take part in another messed up experiment?”

Yoongi shook his head. “Stop talking. It’s annoying.” He said, back turned to you as he fumbled with some glasses on a small table with wheels.

“Aw, Yoongi-hyung! Don’t be such a bore, tell this lovely little thing why she’s here. She’s just dying to know,” a voice came from behind you, you shrieked and swiftly turned around to face whoever was hiding in the shadows, almost falling off the side of the hospital bed in the process.

Yoongi hummed, still not turning around. “Oh. When did you get back, Jiminnie?” He said, trying to conceal how funny he found your scared shriek.

The so called Jiminnie, stepped out of the shadows, finally allowing you to see him in the industrial lights that was hanging in the ceiling.

Your mouth opened. He was absolutely gorgeous, they all were, but this one had an entirely new aura to him. His features were sharp, and slightly feline-like. He held his head high, making it seem like he was the most important person in the room (and he probably was) but also allowing you a good view of his sharp jawline. A jawline you could cut yourself on, you were sure. His hair, was what puzzled you the most. It fell just over his eyes, grazing his high cheekbones. It was longer in the front and shorter in the back, looking soft to the touch. If he shook his head, maybe you would be able to smell the hair rinse he used. But it was blonde l, unnaturally so. You could just barely see his dark roots. Never had you heard of extracting color from ones hair, not without magic at least. A flush rose to your cheeks, when you realized he must have been a very trained magician.

“Precisely an hour ago. The Darklands were nice, but when I heard about all the ruckus Jin-hyung had started I needed to see it for myself,” He stepped closer to you, you scooted back but he was quicker. With inhuman speed he grabbed your chin between his pointer and thumb, holding it with just enough force to let you know not to move.

He examined you closely, you stared back at him like a deer caught in headlights, taking mental notice of the blue and golden rings that swirled around inside his otherwise brown eyes. “He sure has taste, the old man. She’s pretty, but did she really cause such a big fuss? I can’t imagine something so fragile.. so cute, could do any harm? Hm?”

He looked at you as he spoke, but his words were directed at Yoongi. You furrowed your eyebrows, not quite fond of the way he treated you like some sort of animal.

You put your hand on his, noticing how it was cold like Yoongi’s. “Who even are you?” You said, eyeing him suspiciously. You tried to pry his hand off, but it didn’t budge. He watched you struggle for a bit, before chuckling and finally letting go.

“My apologies, darling. I’m Jimin, at your service,” he bowed deeply, almost mockingly, the wide grin never leaving his lips.

“U-uh, (y/n) at yours,” you said, not used to such formal greetings.

Jimin winked at you as he stood up, before walking over to Yoongi and slinging an arm around him.

Yoongi let out an irritated huff. “Watch it. I can’t get this stuff anywhere, it stains like crazy.”

Jimin tsk’d. “Yoongi-hyung. Always so serious,” he drawled, fake pouting. “

“Someone has to keep it together around here, Jin brings in one simple human and everyone loses their damn sanity. It’s like working with a bunch of children.. very stupid children,” you couldn’t help the pout that spread over your lips, when he referred to you as a “simple human”.

Jimin threw his head back in laughter, a rather lovely sound that made you think of strawberries and sweet tea on a hot summer day.

Yoongi turned around to face you, holding a vile of some strange looking purple-ish liquid. “It is actually good you’re here though, Jin-hyung asked me to conduct the experiment again when you came. And since you’re here, sit down, next to (y/n) and I’ll make this as quick as possible.”

Jimin hummed in agreement and sat down next to you, you felt the mattress dip slightly beneath him.

Yoongi reached behind him and grabbed a syringe, also filled with the purple liquid but something seemed slightly off about it. The syringe seemed to have a purple glow that the vile didn’t have, not to mention the blue ropes of whatever swirling around inside it.

You held your breath as he approached, eyes trained on the syringe. You closed your eyes tightly, as he approached you first, waiting to feel the pain of the syringe penetrating your skin.

When you felt the cold glass of the vile press against your lips, you let out a small relieved sigh. “Open.” Yoongi instructed, and you did as told.

The liquid inside was cold as well, it tasted a bit like candle wax but you swallowed it anyways, scrunching up your nose in the process.

You opened your eyes when you felt Yoongi move, removing the vile from you and moving on the Jimin. He was already holding his forearm out to Yoongi, having rolled up his white sleeve. You looked on curiously as Yoongi quickly stuck the needle into his skin, directly into a vein. Jimin tensed up, letting out a strained groan as the liquid filled his veins. He pressed a hand to his forearm, long nails digging into his own skin and leaving deep marks that would heal just a moment after.

“Don’t worry, doll-face. It doesn’t even hurt,” he grunted as Yoongi emptied the syringe and pulled it out.

Yoongi shook his head. “Don’t lie to yourself, Jiminnie. Here, drink this,” he said and handed Jimin your vile, barely any purple liquid left in it.

He quickly grabbed it and downed the rest, the unmistakeable clinking of sharp fangs against glass filled the room. He slurped loudly when the vile was empty and turned to you. His eyes were now almost consumed by the blue and gold, fangs protruding from his lip.

You felt a tingling sensation all around your body, your brain turned to static as you stared into the reflection of yourself in Jimin’s colorful eyes. You felt the hair on the back of your neck rise, you blinked a couple times but the world seemed to be in slow motion. You reached for Jimin, your hand feeling heavy just to lift.

“Do it. Now,” You faintly heard Yoongi in the background and suddenly Jimin was grabbing you by the waist and hoisting you up on his lap. He tilted you backwards and used one of his hands to move your head to get as much access to your neck as he could.

You whined, not really sure if it was out of disagreement or contentment. You felt his cold breath on your neck, his wet tongue licking a long, thick stripe up your neck before his fangs graced your skin. He didn’t hesitate further, letting his fangs sink into your putty-like skin with a content moan.

He held you closely to him as you laid spread out over his lap, you closed your eyes as your head lolled back. You felt the blood pumping in your veins and leaving your body, you felt his icy hands grasping your side and your jaw.

A new, cold feeling spread from his fangs and through your body and suddenly your consciousness was back. You sat up a bit more, grasping his shoulders with a gasp as you felt the familiar pleasure of being bitten but just as you started to enjoy yourself, he pulled away with a long moan. His eyes rolled to the back of his head as he dried the corners of his mouth with his sleeve.

“Hm, thank you, pretty one. You are absolutely exquisite,” he panted, looking down at you with doe eyes. They were back to their normal color, or what could be considered a normal color for a wizard-vampire creature you assumed.

You let out a disappointing huff, cheeks tinted red from the compliment. “Oh? Are you not satisfied, dear?” He asked smugly, a mischievous shine in his eyes.

“Oh no, she’s had more than enough already. You did well, Jimin.” Yoongi cut in, handing you a plate of clementines that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

You gingerly took the plate from him, immediately popping a slice of clementine in your mouth, smiling to yourself as the sweet juices filled your mouth.

Jimin hummed at Yoongi’s compliment and gently ushered you from his lap, onto the bed again.

“This is the first experiment that went genuinely well, or without our subject passing out,” Yoongi said, furiously writing down in a notebook.

“Oh?” Jimin said, quickly jumping off the bed and moving behind Yoongi to see his notes. He snorted, rather loudly. “Jeongguk almost ate her alive, I see. Rather bold of you to conduct an experiment with him in the first place,”

Yoongi elbowed him and swiftly closed the notebook. “Shut up.” He muttered.

You stared at the two as they bickered, Jimin catching your eyes and winking again. “Eat up, dearie. You need the strength,” he said in a singsong voice, fingers drumming on Yoongi’s shoulder.

You nodded, a little embarrassed at getting caught staring and went back to your clementines.

“So. Jimin is a warlock?”

“Mhm.” Namjoon nodded, eyes not leaving his book. The two of you were spread across a couch in front of the fireplace. You had been a bit weary about turning it on, fearing that it would somehow interfere wrongly with Namjoon’s icy body temperature but he assured you it made no different.

Your head was in his lap as you stared up at the backside of the book he was reading; Anatomicum: a guide to resurrection and the art of the human viscera.

“Actually, Jimin is older than a lot of us. On the inside at least, physically not so much,” Namjoon said, licking his finger as he turned a page. “He was one of Jin’s first experiments, of course with consent, he wanted to temper with warlock DNA and as you probably have noticed, Jimin is indeed also a creature of the night,” Namjoon smiled. “A vampire, as you put it.”

You snuggled further into his lap, your back completely turned to the hot fire. “Is Yoongi also one then? A warlock?” You mumbled tiredly, knowing Namjoon’s inhumanely good ears would pick up on it wether you spoke a bit quieter or not.

Namjoon opened his mouth, but closed it again. He let out a breath through his nose, before he spoke. “No. Yoongi is.. special in his own way.”

You huffed at his vague answer. “That certainly clears things up, thank you, Joon.” You said, voice dripping with sarcasm.

Namjoon chuckled. “He will tell you, if you survive long enough that is.” He said jokingly, closing his book.

You shut up, almost banging your head on his book. “I’m so tired!” You whined. “No one here tells me anything! First I get kidnapped, then I get almost killed on multiple occasions, the least I deserve is an answer, don’t you think?!” You raised your voice as you spoke, dramatically throwing yourself across the couch, away from Namjoon.

“I-I get pushed around, I have no idea what’s going on, I’m hungry, I’m scared and every time one of you do something to me it’s my fault?! I can’t- I won’t just sit by forever while you conduct your vile experiments on me!” You felt the tears well up in your eyes, the more you thought about it, until you were violently sobbing.

You sat up and pulled your knees to your chest, burying your face in them in the process. Hot, warm tears streamed down your face as the reality finally sunk in.

Surely, you were gonna die here. You couldn’t even go back home with everyone thinking you killed the high priestess, but right now you wanted nothing more than to bury yourself under the covers of your bed back at the monastery. You missed your roommates too, they had been kind to you even though you initially had expressed no interest in the church.

You even missed your parents who sent you away to that awful monastery to begin with.

The thoughts only made you cry harder, until your body was shaking and you struggled to breathe. Your cheeks were red in embarrassment, but you couldn’t stop the tears from flowing over, your loud wailing echoing in the room.

He calmly looked on as you threw your fit. “Curious things, humans, aren’t they?” He said, mostly to himself. “Alright, ask me a question and I will answer as truthfully as I’m allowed.”

You sniffled, lifting your tear stained face from your knees. A bit of snot was hanging from your nose and quickly you wiped it away, an embarrassed laughed leaving your lips once you finally stopped crying.

“Well..” you pretended to think deeply for a moment. “I wanna know what Yoongi did to me down in the lap, it seems to be the first time my life having been hanging by a thread.” You said, wiping your eyes with your sleeves.

Namjoon smiled, dimples wide on display. “This, I can answer!” He clapped his hands together, excited to talk about his favorite subject; potions.

“I’m guessing Yoongi gave you the purple colored liquid?” Namjoon asked, tilting his head as he scooted closer to you.

You nodded, looking up at him with big doe eyes.

“Alright, well, I told you about the poisons, yeah? Of course I did. So, the purple liquid was actually another sample of Jeongguk’s venom, you know the one that makes you really tired? Yoongi probably mixed it with herbs, since the raw stuff would be way too strong for you, and that’s why it’s purple. The injections he gave Jimin, was simply to boost is fangs and blood hunger to make the experiment quicker. If I know Yoongi well, and I do, he probably gave Jimin a sample of the venom too, to see if it has any affects on the process-“

You put a gently hand on his cheek, cutting off his rambling. He looked at you, confused. “But why? What was the point of this experiment?” You asked, voice a bit raw from crying.

“Oh,” Namjoon chuckled. “You see, Jimin’s poison has a cancelling effect on other poisons, without other poisons in your system it could be extremely dangerous as it will also cancel out your blood flow amongst other things, but as a cure for a larger number of other poisons it works quite well. The experiment was simply to test if he could drain Jeongguk’s poison from you. It seems the experiment was quite successful,” he tilted his head. “How are you feeling?”

You closed your eyes for a moment, leaning back on the couch as you tried to connect with your body. “Tired. But not in a poisonous way, I guess. Just tired as in its-late-and-I-should-sleep kinda way.”

“That’s good. Means Jin’s theory’s were right, they have never been wrong though. I mean, they are always mostly right,” he chuckled.

“Hm,” you hummed, leaning your head on his shoulder. You stayed like that, watching the fire with heavy eyelids, just enjoying the quiet.

You were almost asleep, when the door was swung open. Swift steps made their way over to the couch and you recognized a familiar smell of iron.

“Lady (y/n)!” Aera beamed, standing over you.

You sad up and looked around groggily, realizing that Namjoon was no longer with you but someone, you suspected him as the culprit, had placed a blanket over you.

“Ohh you look so cute when you’re tired! I could just about eat you whole!” She giggled and you looked at her startled, not quite sure if she was joking or not.

She pinched your red cheeks, running her other hand down your neck. “No time to sleep! The night is still young and you have a dinner to get ready for,” she said, tone slightly scolding.

In your tired state, you leaned your head on her hand, making her smile appear even wider. “Come now, plaything, we have much to do to get you looking presentable,” she teased and pulled you up by the hands, wrapping an arm around your waist.

“Dinner?” You asked as she guided you our the doors of the library and down the hall.

“A dinner, yes! Ohh! I’m just so excited to see the other lords react to you, little bunny!” She giggled, taking quickly off down the hall with you safely fastened in her arms.

To be continued..

[stevenrogered]

After this discussion about Charithra hate, I did some digging... This fandom is intense. There's actually quite a bit of hate for both Simone & Charithra (which I do NOT & will NOT understand except it seems rooted in racism. This is why we can't have nice things) & some pretty disgusting comments about Jonny & his sexual orientation... I just can't.

It's a FICTIONAL show. None of these character's the actors are role playing are real. Of course they have to defend their character's positions & motivations. They're not going to critique the writing unless they want to be unemployed. Please see what has happened to other actors that have pissed Shonda off in her other series like Grey's Anatomy.

CVD, Shonda & her writing team should be getting any & all the criticism that's being thrown around from fans. They made some really questionable editing and writing choices this season.

Also the book lover gatekeepers don't help. Sorry JQ isn't a great writer. Some of the changes were necessary & good, considering this is an ensemble show. Also Shonda/ CVD bought the rights to the books to be made into a show. JQ is an EP. She I'm sure has been fairly compensated to have her writings altered and interpreted as they see fit. It's like the 20 different versions of Austen movies we see.

Sorry for unloading and the rant, I feel like some of these things though need to be said.

no, don’t apologize! you hit the nail on the head for sure

i read the viscount who loved me and have been a fan of kate and anthony waaaaayyyy before the season came out, plus im of south asian descent so i obviously have a lot of feelings with the way simone and charithra are being treated by people and its not at all okay. same with jonny.

was i upset that some of the story was changed and we didn’t get all the book scenes i wanted? sure, but I’m not gonna harass everyone that has anything to do with the show over it. because like you said, its a television show. they got some things right and they got things wrong but at the end of the day it doesn’t affect my life in any way lol

i stay in my little corner of tumblr and make my gifs when i have the time to do them and love all the characters and the actors and im content with that being my fandom experience lol when i dont like a character i just...dont talk about them lmao or at the very least dont @ people about it. but unfortunately a lot of people don’t feel the same and are SUPER vocal about it. what makes things worse is its probably just a very small part of the fandom as a whole but since they’re so vocal and persistent, it looks a lot worse. and this isn’t just for bridgerton. its for ALL fandoms and its gotten progressively worse and worse lately

[universitypenguin]

hii i have no idea if you’ve answered this already but i’ve been following you for a year now and i absolutely love the kinktober series for steve rogers

i know the hiatus date has been changed from spring to fall but now that we’re in november i was wondering if it’s ever going to update?

absolutely no pressure cause we already have is amazing and there’s no need to feel forced to write more but i was wondering what that means for the ‘hiatus’ :)

Hi, I actually promised to do the letter “R” for this series in October. It was on my to do list but then I got busy and the story didn’t get done. My stress level is the reason writing has been hard for me lately.

I still love this series. The problem is that my work schedule has taken a hit because we’re going through a transition to a new boss. It was okay at first, but recently we’ve hit some snags… such as me realizing I’ve been assigned way too many things to do… no average human is capable of handling this kind of a workload…😤

I need a minute to vent about work. No one has to read this, but I need to type it out for catharsis. Here we go.

I sent an email to my boss today that outlined what I’m dealing with. He put a 1:1 on the calendar right afterwards, which is scheduled for Wednesday. Hopefully, my stress level will improve soon. I think we can resolve this stuff once he’s aware of how overwhelmed I’m feeling. Sometimes you have to manage upwards, you know? I concluded my email with: “of the tasks I’m working on, which ones should I put aside so that I have time to complete my other projects?” I feel better after telling him I needed help and clarified what kind of things I was having issues with.

Anyways! I want to write the Steve Rogers alphabet. It’s not that I’ve forgotten about the series. The motivation is still there but the energy isn’t. I think we should aim for “R is for Risk” to come out sometime in November. That’s enough time that I can work on it consistently and not stress out. This should help me get my priorities in line again and not freak out as much about work things that I can’t control.

Thank you for sitting through this melt down. It has been very cathartic to type this up. I feel calmer now. I’m not designed to be this emotional, especially not about work. If emotions were a scale of 1-10 I’m usually within the 3-8 range. I’m not made for highly intense feelings, and I don’t like them. 😅

[magnhild]

Nora Valkyrie, Identity, and Purpose

Hey everyone, Blaire here, and almost exactly a year ago, I made this mess of a post where I laid out all of my thoughts on Nora and what I thought the show could have in store for her.

And honestly, most of my ideas were way off, and not at all correct. Also, the post kind of flopped.

Thankfully, Volume 8 has given me a chance to redeem myself, and write another, more coherent, essay about my favourite RWBY character; where this Volume seems to be taking her character, and what it means to me, personally.

Buckle up.

To the vast majority of people in the RWBY fandom, Nora is the least-developed character, and the one most lacking in dimension. Most of her character seems to be defined by two things; her energy and love for fighting, and her relationship on Ren.

Volume 8 took note of these conceptions, and addressed them head-on.

Of course, any keen-eyed viewer will have noted Nora’s hidden depths even before this volume, which I noticed in last year’s post. She is perhaps the most perceptive of the main cast, at least, when it comes to people’s feelings and relaionships. She was the only one to really comment on Pyrrha’s crush on jaune, and the first to bring up Blake and Yang’s growing relationship. It was also her level-headedness that resolved RNJR’s argument in Volume 4, Chapter 9.

Volume 7 also showed us her innate desire to protect the weak, and her disdain to those who have the power to help, but refuse. I personally get the feeling that this was her driving motivation in becoming a Huntress; to protect people who cannot protect themselves, perhaps because she doesn’t want anyone to have to grow up as she did. Nora’s fury at Ironwood in V7C7 is esepcially signifigant, because it’s the angriest we’ve ever seen her before, even more so in that this anger is directed at someone with much more authority than her.

But these little details were only the tip of the iceberg. These were traits she already had, and while they help to add layers to her character, they’ve done very little in terms of her actual development. 

This is where Volume 8 came in stronger than any other.

Volume 7 hinted to us that Ren and Nora’s relationship was beginning to get more complicated, between their bickering, Ren’s dismissiveness at Nora, and their kiss in V7C6. By the end of the volume, it was clear that they were still struggling, despite their clear love for each other. Volume 8 carried this thread along, having them split into different parties, and Nora giving Ren a bit of attitude we’ve not really seen her direct at him before. 

She’s frustrated with him, and disappointed that he can’t see what she sees. But despite her tough front, V8C2 then hints that she’s sadder about the split than she’s letting on, after May brings up Nora’s ‘friends’. C3 then brings this to a head, where we get a conversation that sees Nora opening up to Blake and Yang, and revealing a deeply sad truth about herself- that she has no idea who she is without Ren, because she’s spent so much of her life with him and him alone, and her feelings for him have shaped so much of who she thinks she is. We’ve never seen her so hopeless and lost, especially after she reveals that, as far as she’s concerned, all she’s good for is hitting stuff.

Right in these few minutes, the show takes how the audience percieves Nora, and reveals to us that those two core traits are the gateways to a far deeper insight of her character. She’s known for her relationship with Ren, but wait- what about when he’s not there with her? She’s known for hitting stuff, but wait- that’s all she thinks she’s good for. 

It’s revealed to us that, not only is this how most of the audience percievs Nora, but it’s how she percieves herself. And for all her energy and upbeat attitude, deep down, she thinks incredibely lowly of herself. For all her confidence in her fighting abilities, she lacks confidence in herself as a person. 

Surprisingly enough, the ‘who am I?’ character arc is one that was hardly explored at all up until this point, despite it being one of the most common and signifgant character arcs in fictional media. And I don’t think many of us at all could have imagined that Nora would be the one to get that arc, when she’s always seemed so self-assured on the surface.

And then, when Penny is in need of help, Nora takes Weiss’ advice to heart, and does the one thing she believes she’s capable of- being strong, and hitting stuff.

Nora overcharging her Semblance to take down the wall is seen by a lot of the fandom as some kind of win for Nora; as her ‘big moment’. But while it’s certainly a really cool and badass scene, it was far from a triumph for her.

This was Nora at perhaps her lowest point so far in the series. This was Nora figuring ‘well, if this is all I’m good for, I’ll do it to the extreme’. This was Nora thinking her only purpose was to greatly endanger herself for the sake of others, because she figured she was the only one who could. And she almsot got herself killed for it. 

While certainly a defining moment, it was far from triumphant. It wasn’t a win. It was a self-destrcutive act that reflected how little she thinks of herself; that she’s not worth anything unless she’s pushing herself to the limit doing the one thing she thinks she’s good at.

And to drive the knife in harder, it backfires horribly. 

Because now she’s bedridden and critically injured, with scars that are probably permanent; a reminder of her lowest point, forever marked on her body. She can’t fight now, can’t help at all, and Salem has launched her attack on Atlas.

And in her half-unconsious state in V8C7, she realizes this, delivering an absolutely heartbreaking line:

As far as she’s concerned, her last attempt at doing what she thinks only she can do- what she thinks is all she can do- has prevented her from doing anything of worth at all. She lost one half of herself when she split from Ren, and now she’s lost the other half too. The two things that she defines herself by are gone. And the worst part is, we don’t know if she’s awar of the fact Salem has begun her attack. We could very well see her fully wake up, only to realize that the world has begun ending while she was unconsious, and she can’t do anything about it.

Now, this scene, and Nora’s struggle in this Volume as a whole, hit home for me in particular.

If you follow me on Twitter, you’re probably aware that Nora is only of my hightest- and only- kins. And I’ve only been able to relate to her more and more after what we’ve got of her in this Volume.

I am chronically disabled. I have a connective tissue disorder known as Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which fucks up my body in a multitude of different ways, but signifigantly affects the joints. For me, it hits worst in my back, ankles, and my fingers. The fingers are my main problem. To make matters worse, I’ve also been victim to intense pains in my shoulder, which came out of nowhere a couple of months ago and have only gotten worse since. The slightest movement aggrevates it. As any follower of mine would know, I am both an artist and a writer. I create both for fun, and I’ve studied writing as a profession. It is these things I’m known for being good at, and not much else. 

Thanks to my disability and my shoulder though, I have to do these things less. Even on perscription pain medication, it still hurts. It hurts to write this even now; my shoulder feels like it’s burning up from the inside. It will only get worse over time.

So, I’m finding myself in Nora’s position. I can’t do what I’m good at anymore, and I don’t know what to do with myself as a result. Not doing these things makes me feel lazy and unproductive, and makes me feel that the people around me will abandon me so long as i can’t keep providing them content. And I’ve gotta say, it hurts a lot, and I don’t just mean physically. 

Because of what I’m going through, it’s especially important to see my favourite RWBY character just so happening to be dealing with the same problem; the same loss of idenity and purpose. We don’t know who we are or what we’re good for without the things we think define us.

While I’m unsure of my own future though, I find comfort in knowing that Nora’s problem will be tackled and addressed; that her friends will help her to rediscover herself and find her true worth. And while we’ve got a while to go until we’ll be able to see the Volume continue, I’m incredibely excited to see where Nora’s arc goes, especially if we can get some backstory along the way. I find myself wondering if her life before Ren is part of why she thinks so little of herself without him- was it the way she was raised to think? Is this the fault of her childood circumstances? Or is this just something she developed on her own, after becoming too dependant on Ren for comfort?

Whatever answers we get, I have faith that Nora’s story will be told well, and I’m very sure that it’s only just beginning. Even if she finds her worth before the end of the volume, her story won’t be over yet, not when we’ve still likely got at least four more volumes to go after this one.

In just seven episodes, Nora Valkyrie has gone from one of the least developed characters, to one of the most interesting and relatable, at least, in my eyes. There is so much more depth to her character than having a crush on Ren, and being the strong girl who hits stuff. There’s a layer of tragedy to her character that we’re touching upon now, and I’m excited to dive into it.

Thank you all for reading!

[vampiregirl1797]

Hoodies & Lacrosse

Peter Kavinsky x Reader

 GIF Not Mine

 For my Masterlist, Click Here.

 Word Count: 1,566

 A/N: This one was requested by the awesome @mychemicalimagines​. I hope this is everything you imagined it to be, lovely! I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to get this done for you, but I’ve been so swamped with uni work and placement that I’ve just had no motivation for writing. But inspiration struck tonight and I decided to put it to good use.

A/N/Pt2: If you’re in to Friends and Twilight check out their imagines! The series’ are so good and addictive, I cannot recommend them enough! Leaving a link to the Masterlist HERE.

 I blinked owlishly, trying to make my eyes feel less exhausted, but it was to no avail—I’d been unable to sleep last night and I was unwilling to admit that it was because Peter had asked for his hoodie back. I’d taken it months ago, well not purposefully, he’d just left it behind one day after we’d been hanging out. I’d been chilly that night, and I figured I’d throw it on, only to discover it was the comfiest thing ever—it was huge on me and it smelled of him, and so I’d grown accustomed to how content and safe it made me feel. Obviously I hadn’t realised how much I’d grown to rely on it to sleep until last night at around three in the morning, when I realised it was the first time in months I’d gone to bed not wearing it.

 I yawned, pulled my cardigan tighter around me, and took a large gulp of the coffee I’d poured myself before leaving the house to head to school. I’d managed to drop off around five in the morning, which led to me sleeping through my first four alarms. By some grace of god, I’d made it to first period as the bell rang. I finished off my coffee, and threw the disposable cup into the recycling bin on my way out of the room—thank god I’d had the beverage as my first period had been math; I’d have definitely dozed off without it.

 ‘Hey, Y/N! Wait up!’ I paused at the sound of my best friend’s voice, mixed feelings erupting through me. Tiredness made me clingy, which Pete was used to, but I was also a little pissed being as in my mind it was his fault I was tired to begin with.

 ‘Hey, asshat’ I grumbled, wrapping my arm around his waist and melting into his comforting warmth.

 He chuckled, ‘such wonderful greetings from you, Y/N. It’s a wonder my head fits through the halls with how much you boost my ego.’

 I rolled my eyes, an involuntary smile forming on my face, ‘I’m tired, I think I got thirty minutes of sleep last night. I can’t to go home and sleep until Sunday.’

 ‘Why didn’t you sleep? Is there something on your mind?’ I felt my irrational irritation with him soften at the concern in his voice; he knew me well enough to know if I had trouble sleeping, it usually meant there was something on my mind causing my insomnia.

 ‘No, I just didn’t realise how much I’d come to rely on your hoodie until you took it away.’ I felt my lips form into a slight pout, and had I not been exhausted and as a result, needy, I would have been embarrassed.

 My head was tucked into his side, my face against his chest, and so I missed the soft, fond look that overtook his expression. I did notice the new girl giving us a look of longing and jealousy, but I ignored her. The other students would clue her in soon enough—we were friends, best, best friends. It may look like we were more due to how touchy we both were with each other, but our relationship didn’t extend beyond a deep, meaningful friendship. It had taken a while for everyone to understand it, and to stop giving us the same look the new girl was giving us now, but they learned eventually.

 ‘How about this…’ Peter’s voice bought me back to the conversation, ‘you come to my game tonight, and I’ll give you my hoodie to keep forever.’

 I bit my lip to hide my smile; it was typical Peter Kavinsky. He knew I wouldn’t miss one of his games—I was always there, rain or shine, wearing his jersey and cheering him on. But he was sweet enough to make it sound like I was doing him a favour when in reality, it was him who was doing something nice for me, by making sure I got his hoodie doing something I was planning on anyway.

 I looked up to him, ignoring how my heart fluttered when he tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear when it fell in front of my eyes, ‘you’d give up your favourite hoodie, for me to come to your game?’

 I felt my heart melt at the bashful expression that overtook his features, ‘of course I would. I mean it took me months to realise you had it anyway. Clearly it means more to you than it does to me.’

 ‘You make a good point.’ I teased, biting my lip as I thought and missing the way his eyes followed the movement, ‘okay, if you’re really okay with it, you have a deal.’

 ‘Awesome.’ He grinned, and I found myself subconsciously beaming back at him, powerless to not return his happiness.

 //

 ‘Come on, Peter!’ I mumbled under my breath, the tension in the air palpable and affecting everyone, it was as if we were all holding our breath in anticipation, ‘you’ve got this!’

 Peter ran forward, passed the defence and took his shot at the goalie. It was so quiet I could hear the puck hitting the back of the net and I was unable to hold back my cheer of happiness, which seemed to snap everyone else out of their shock and they joined me. Brown eyes found mine and I felt my heart skip a beat as he unclipped his helmet, tucked it under his arm and made his way over to me, easily bypassing the rest of the audience who’d flooded the pitch. I felt my heart beat pick up and by the time my best friend reached me, my heart was pounding against my ribs. He was watching me with such intensity, that it made my knees feel weak. His beautiful brown eyes were soft with an emotion that I couldn’t identify, as well as fondness, happiness and determination. I had no idea what to expect when he finally joined me on the stands, but when he tossed his helmet aside, and placed both of his hands on my cheeks, I knew that everything was about to change. And when his lips met mine in a tender, tentative kiss, I threw my arms around his neck and succumbed to it. It was meant to be, and I was powerless to fight the passion, and the intensity that moved between us. But more importantly, I didn’t want to.

 //

 Third Person POV

 Daisy Hank didn’t know what to think when she attended her second day of school. It seemed that there was a buzz in the air from the moment she walked through the doors, as if something had happened and everyone was talking about it. She felt a nervous knot form in her stomach, worried that it was somehow about her, but after a few deep breaths and reassurances it dissipated. There was no way it could be about her; she’d only started yesterday and she hadn’t spoken to anyone for long enough for her to accidentally reveal anything embarrassing.

 She frowned and walked to her locker, trying to focus her hearing to pick up what was going on from the group of girls that were gossiping next to her locker. She opened it up and pretended to search for something as she managed to get close enough to listen in.

 ‘Is it true? Peter and Y/N are actually together?’ one of the girls murmured, Daisy didn’t know any of their names, but she could easily hear the disappointment in her voice.

 ‘Yup, apparently it happened last night at the lacrosse game. He scored the winning game and ran on the stands to kiss her.’ This girl sounded dreamy, and Daisy felt herself instinctively relax a little at the absence of aggression in her tone.

 ‘It was like a Cinderella Story. So romantic.’ The third girl mirrored the second’s tone and even sighed.

 ‘So unfair. Kavinsky is the most attractive guy at this school, now what—‘ the first girls bitterness was cut off by an elbow to her abdomen.

  Daisy frowned, until she followed their gaze and saw the aforementioned couple walking down the hall. They were in the same position as yesterday; her arm around his waist, his over her shoulders and her face tucked against his chest. And yet, there was a definite change between them, Daisy noticed. Maybe it was because Y/N was wearing a hoodie that was obviously his, or because he now had her backpack slung over his shoulder along with his own, or maybe it was the soft, fond and loving way they looked at each other. But either way, a change was definitely there, and Daisy once again found herself wishing that she had someone who looked at her the way they were observing each other, just like she had yesterday when she’d first laid eyes on them. Except now, she only wanted it more, because unlike yesterday the love and affection they had for each other was radiating from them without restriction. It was as beautiful as it was mesmerising and Daisy released a dreamy sigh of her own as she slammed her locker shut at the sound of the school bell. As she made her way to English, she hoped one day, she would find someone who loved her like that.

[sprooknooky]

While the Alvarez Empire arc is definitely garbage, I’m probably the one person who doesn’t mind it too much. The unfortunate thing is, it feels more unfinished than anything. Like a rough outline that needs to be fleshed out and have five times the content. I’ve been reworking this arc in my head for around four years now, and I figured I should actually write something down at some point, so here goes.

God Serena is a character that has bothered me since his introduction. All of the Spriggans are bothersome because you’re expected to believe that these crazy strong scary people have just been chilling in a castle for years, but God Serena bothers me the most, though, because supposedly, he’s from Ishgar. Or at least has lived there long enough to be well known. However, there was no mention of him or the other emperors throughout the entire series, so there’s no real impact to hearing that Serena has joined the 12. Oh no, some guy we’ve never heard of, I’m so scared. And sure, that’s one of his flaws. But what makes him even worse is that he’s killed off so fast.

We see him completely wipe out the other emperors, and his power is wildly intense. I remember being so excited to see the power of four dragon slayers (apparently there are eight inside him but there’s only five dragon gods so...) inside one dude. It made his lack of background seem manageable because his powers were demonstrated to be terrifying! I was so hyped to see how Fairy Tail was going to ultimately defeat him.

And all of it was for nothing. He was one shot. He didn’t even go down with a fight. Talk about a disappointment.

I wanted desperately for Serena to still, somehow, be alive. But Neinhart summons his historia, confirming he’s dead. Bullshit. I want my money back.

Jumping forward a bit, another thing that disappointed me was the finale. That final fight against Acnologia was reduced to... a punch? A punch killed the so-called “strongest” character in the series. This is not One Punch Man. This is Fairy Tail. At least give me something.

So, to combine these two issues, I have devised a better fight. And while the details aren’t fully fleshed out, enjoy what floats around in my brain all day.

The fight starts out about the same way. Acnologia’s “spirit” (who I’ll just call Acnologia because it’s easier) pulls all the dragon slayers into the space between time to kill them all or something. I don’t remember the specifics and I’m not too interested in checking. They all break out of their crystal things and fight Acnologia, Wendy enhancing their strength and everyone engaging their dragon forces to be at max power. They fight for a while, but they don’t get many hits in, and Acnologia takes them down easily. The seven dragon slayers lay there in defeat, wishing they could get up and fight more, but the fights with Alvarez drained them, and they’re barely able to move, let alone fight. But then they notice there’s still a guy in a crystal that hasn’t been broken out. Acnologia too busy gloating to notice them, they manage to break Serena out of his crystal, and he staggers over to Acnologia.

The real fight begins.

Acnologia is shocked. He was positive he killed this guy 80 chapters ago, but here he is. Outraged, he exclaims, “How’re YOU here? I thought I killed you!”

God Serena laughs and says something cocky like, “It’ll take more than that to kill me. You merely caught me off guard!” And then he strikes a dumb pose or something.

They fight, and this time, it’s a close battle. After learning about the 100 Years Quest and the god dragons, I have a headcannon that Serena was raised by them and they acted as his parents or older siblings. He was raised by them, much like Natsu and the others, to eventually kill or “seal” them away. While fighting, Acnologia notices that Serena’s dragon slayer magic is different than he’s used to, and he asks him what exactly he is. Serena doesn’t do a good job of explaining, because, well, he’s Serena, and for 100YQ to exist there still needs to be mystery behind the god dragons. He does explain, though, that he is a god dragon slayer, and his dragon slayer magic is stronger than those raised by normal dragons. Then, just to flex on everybody, he shows off his six dragon forces, (yes, six, this man is practically a god himself and he needs to showcase it) one for each god dragon and their element, and then a final one combining all of his power. Acnologia doesn’t fall, but he takes a serious beating fighting back against Serena, and is severely injured. However, despite Serena’s power, Acnologia was able to land some serious blows on him as well. Serena eventually gets too cocky with his power and Acnologia takes advantage of this, dealing a harsh blow that will finally kill Serena.

While all of this is happening, the other dragon slayers are able to recover a little to continue the fight. They at first wonder who Serena is, before recognizing him as not only the strongest man on Ishgar, but as a member of the Alvarez Empire and therefore their enemy. When he finally falls, they ask him why he worked so hard to help them in the end. Serena explains that he never meant to betray Ishgar, far from it. He joined Alvarez for the opportunity to put an end to Acnologia, a threat to all dragons, and to grow stronger to finally defeat the dragon gods. He expresses regrets about how he would never see his family again, but then admits that he didn’t want to kill them in the first place, and entrusts the job to Natsu instead, hence why Natsu decides to go on the 100 years quest, because otherwise it seemed a little unprompted to me. Pledging to finish what Serena started, Natsu and the other dragon slayers stand up to put an end to Acnologia.

Acnologia continues to act cocky, but Serena hurt him more than he’d like to admit, and he struggles to even stand. Now, in my mind, finishing him off in a single shot makes sense, because there was actually a fight to weaken him. The slayers all send their energy to Natsu, he does a big punch, and Acnologia declares him king of the dragons before fading away.

I never watched the episodes on Acnologia’s backstory that they added to the anime because I’m always going to prefer the manga, so I don’t know if I screwed anything up there, but honestly, I don’t think Acnologia needed a backstory. He’s a threatening villain and I don’t think he necessarily needed a motive, especially right before he dies. Then it has no impact.

Hopefully this made sense... I don’t write any of my dumb fairy tail thoughts down that often, but this one made me actually like Serena a little because otherwise he’s very underdeveloped and wasted potential.

Thanks for reading until the end! I’m going to take a nap, now.

[rorykillmore]

i think one of my new years resolutions unironically has to be to watch more stuff bc i have yet to climb out of the slump i’ve been in this entire pandemic where i’ve been way more disinterested than usual in new media. and like. that in turn saps my motivation to write screenplays. i was sitting here trying to come up with a top 5 or 10 list for 2021 shows & movies i liked best and i’m rly like “man i’ve watched, like.... nothing.” especially for movies, i couldn’t even get 5.

i think my top 5 series of the year though are 5. ??? maybe chucky or loki (genuinely think chucky is an extremely impressive franchise revival in a lot of respects, while loki has some fucking incredible payoff but i do wonder how much less hard it hits if you don’t know much comics lore), 4. squid game, 3. wandavision, 2. yellowjackets, and 1. midnight mass.

i don’t know what i would rank as the best movie of the year. i think the movie i enjoyed myself the most with was actually no way home because of the intense nostalgia it activated and how enjoyable of an experience it was to be in the theatre feeling other people’s joy too. but idk. 

[siswritesyanderes]

This is a series of asks bc, while I do LIKE all the charas of Fantastic Beasts individually, much of the romantic pairings dont sit well with me. By that mean the messy love polygon w Newt & I think I finally figured out why & I'd like another's opinion on it. For starters, Newt's attraction with Tina is too fast for me considering he was friends w Leta, got expelled out of Hogwarts for Leta, carried Leta's photo in his case, & basically loved her for YEARS. But this is all undone by a [1]

jaunt in NY having met a woman, who he admittedly went on a huge adventure w, over the course of maybe a few weeks. He's so taken w her she replaces Leta's photo w her own &, after refusing to go to Paris for Dumbledore, leaves immediately once he finds out she's there. I just find this unbelievable. I can rationalize it from Newt's perspective where Tina is a fresh breeze sweeping into his life on (percieved) unrequited pining, but this is my conjecture based on my understanding of Newt. [2]

The audience shouldnt be left to rationalize endgame couple of the mc on their own. & the whole thing w Leta is so messily handled I dont think they can save it even if they bring her back in FB3. How she feels for Newt vs Theseus & unresolved lingering affection, etc. She & Newt were SO important to each other & we SEE that & they dont HAVE to get together, but they need proper resolution bc they have actual history between them. God Leta in general deserved so much better. [3]

But my main gripe is that this love polygon serves no purpose to what I believe is the main selling point of FB: the world. HP having love stories makes sense bc we're following the story of a boy as he goes through adolescence & his journey through that via school is part of that, which is why the romance feels fitting. It's a very personal story. FB on the otherhand is the best peak we have at the wider wizarding world beyond school. HP introduces the world of magic, but FB rlly expands it [4]

To that end Jakob & Queenie's relationship is the only one I find myself liking, bc it's deeply tied to the world setting, the series' biggest selling point (in my opinion, should have said this earlier). It underscores the attitudes of the period & the conflict they face feels suitably substantial & not like filler. There's a moral question between them of are they worth it? And how far should they go to be together?

Imma be real hear & say FB2 was rlly Queenie's movie & they should have been ballsy & just make Queenie the mc for FB2, bc her story was actually considerably more important to the overall development of the story than Newt's, which mostly came off as a rushed & a tad clichè soap drama. & making it about Queenie I think builds more room for good conflict & independent narrative for Tina that would serve her chara better. [5? 6?]

If I bad to be REAL ballsy, I'd say my big issue w/ the relationships in the FB series & how it enhances or impedes the main story & what I believe to be it's biggest attracter (the setting) could have been solved if they made Newt's romantic interest a muggle. It attaches a deeper meaning & relevance to them & the story so it felt more deeply that they truly moved WITH the narrative rather than beside it but I guess Im just picky. Thx for putting up w this! [Final]

(My response below the cut.)

Yeah, pretty much all of this is right.

Regarding the Tina thing, it was definitely rushed, especially since there was literally nothing romantic between them in the whole first movie, except maybe the end part where they're stumbling over their words. Despite knowing how movies work and knowing that they were the male and female lead, I still found that completely out of left field, because they don't really share any interests and I didn't feel like they felt anything in particular for each other before that. She really wants to be an auror and feels really intensely about it; he just wants to travel the world and write about magical creatures and take care of them. I don't see a lot of compatibility there, and the movie didn't really do anything to reconcile that gap.

Jacob and Queenie made sense, because they actually sowed some seeds for it. It's not even about the fact that they both like to cook; they showed an interest in each other throughout. They noticeably like each other. Newt and Tina never really had that, to me, so it was bizarre for her to become his primary motivation in the second movie.

Queenie's trajectory in movie 2 overall bothers me, so while I agree it would have been better if they'd centered it more around her, I definitely think they needed to drastically rewrite pretty much everything she did. Enchanting Jacob at the beginning never sat well with me; I usually only have to say this in the Descendants fandom, but if one half of the ship is magical and the other half isn't, we can't have the magical one enchanting the non-magical one for romantic reasons without addressing what a violation of trust that is. Like, Jacob would be justified for never trusting her again, over that. Also, the fact that she apparently holds it against people if they think bad things about her is not something I would expect from someone who has been a Legilimens as long as she has, and not a detail I like, at all. Especially since it was used to give her justification to be mad at Jacob after she enchanted him in the first place. I find it sad, because Queenie was definitely my favorite character in the first movie. (Also, joining Grindelwald was a nonsensical thing to do. I can only assume she's there to spy on him or something, because it makes literally no sense.)

As for Leta, I really don't like how that was approached. First of all, I don't like how their mention of her in the first movie was "She was a taker; you need a giver," because once we actually met the character, that only made me resent Queenie for representing her that way. Leta deserved better in pretty much every way, and they definitely shouldn't have killed her off like that. I find the whole situation really iffy from a racial standpoint. The first black character to be written three-dimensionally in all of HP lore, and they make sure to preemptively tell the audience that she's a "taker", kill her in the same movie we meet her, and manage to trivialize her death by turning it into a little "Who was she saying 'I love you' to?" mystery. I like her relationship with Newt and Theseus, and I'd definitely want to see more of it.

Yes, it definitely would have been better, thematically, if they'd made the love interest a Muggle. (I'd honestly say they should've paired Newt with Jacob, but I know they're unwilling to do that. That would be kind of cool, though, to see the movie shaping up with two male characters and two female characters and have the men end up with each other and the women just live their lives as humans.)

With the story they ended up telling, though, I don't think that is needed; since Queenie is already dealing with the wizard/Muggle storyline, Newt could have a different conflict. Maybe his love interest should be a werewolf or something, to tie in the wizarding world's unresolved dislike for "half-breeds". And if he were in a relationship with someone already regarded as a creature, the wider wizarding world might take a different view to his studies and look down on him a lot more. Idk, a thought.

And then, with Leta/Theseus and Grindelwald/Dumbledore (if they were willing to actually deal with that), they'd pretty much hit every controversial beat they've got: wizard/Muggle, wizard/"half-breed", interracial, homosexual. Credence and Nagini are both creatures, kind of, but I still like them together, so their relationship doesn't have to tie into any theme; it just has to be developed way more.

On the whole, Crimes of Grindelwald felt like they skipped a movie. It feels like they needed a middle installment to make these relationships happen, instead of jumping from "Do Newt and Tina maybe have feelings for each other?" to "Newt loves Tina and Tina is possessive enough of Newt to be outwardly upset with him when she thinks he's engaged to someone else," and creating a whole relationship between Credence and Nagini that we see none of.

The fact that Queenie and Jacob were done well in the first movie gives me a fair amount of goodwill for them, but that goodwill only offers enough cushioning from the botching that movie 2 did that I'm near-indifferent to the ship, now, instead of actively opposed. I'd like to see things improved, but as it currently stands, I'd be just as happy seeing them end up not together as together. The fact that Leta's relationships with Newt and Theseus were more interesting than any of the aforementioned makes it that much more ridiculous that they killed her. What ship am I supposed to care about how? If I can't go into the next movie delusionally hoping Newt and Leta will get some moments, or enjoying the Theseus and Leta content, then I'll just be sitting there waiting for Credence and Nagini to share a screen, and who knows when that'll happen?

[night-fallz]

Jason Todd x Avengers Crossover

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Ao3 // Wattpad

previous II next

Unexpected (part 2)

Two days have passed since Clint was saved by Jason. And for some reason, he still can't get the vigilante out of his mind.

Natasha teased him about it but he knows that if she sees Jason in action, she would be intrigued as well.

The way he fought was mesmerizing. Every bullet that was shot was so precisely aimed that the wounds weren't deadly.

Sure it knocked them out, but they weren't gonna die.

That form of marksmanship was only earned through years of hard work. And Clint's worked with Bucky enough times to know that Jason somehow predicted the next move of the attackers, aiming at the non-lethal body parts.

He has a feeling that Bucky and Jason would make an incredible duo.

Which is why he needs them to meet.

Clint doesn't usually do this but the more he thought about the bucket-wearing vigilante, the higher his list of questions got.

He took out his phone, leaning against the couch as he searched for the man that saved him.

vigilante wearing red bucket

He scrolled through google trying to find a decent article on the guy.

After thirty whole minutes of barely finding information, Clint wanted to throw his phone across the room. So far, all he's figured out was that Jason's territory was in Gotham and that his vigilante name is 'Red Hood'.

Which was... creative in a way?

At least it wasn't 'Red Bucket' or 'Bucket Head' or anything like that. It was definitely better than 'Green Arrow'.

After another failed search, he decided to finally give up. There was nothing about Red Hood. All the articles were mainly about Batman, Nightwing, a restaurant place, and a Robin!

He groaned and put his face in his hands. He doesn't care about those overrated heroes, he wants to find out more about Red Hood.

The guy was so cool... he wonders why there were barely any pieces written about him. The few sentences that he's read about the vigilante almost always depicted him in a bad light.

Which was honestly unfair.

He stared at his phone, contemplating on whether or not he should ask Natasha.

On the positive side, he knows that the assassin would have information on Red Hood. Natasha has information on everyone.

But...

Clint didn't want Natasha to tease him even more! If she keeps up with the sarcastic comments then the other Avengers would be curious. And curious Avengers meant nosy people.

He felt himself shiver, really nosy people.

He swears that if he had a sister— older or younger, they would act exactly like how Natasha was acting right now.

He could practically imagine the smirk she was wearing on her face when she picked up.

"Hey, Clint." she casually greeted, "How are you?"

He refrained from gritting his teeth, "I'm doing good." he paused, eyes closing as he took a breath in, this hurt to admit. "I need your help."

"I know."

"What do you know about the Red Hood?"

"The Red Hood?" she hummed under her breath, "Let's see."

Clint heard her moving things around, then he could distinctly hear the noise of paper being flipped. "Do you just have documents of random vigilantes lying around your room?" he couldn't help but ask. "Is this an assassin thing?"

Does Bucky do this too?

"I'm getting you the information you need." she reminded, "How I keep track of the data I have is none of your business."

"Okay, okay." he surrendered, a smile making its way onto his face. "But why don't you just keep it on a computer? Wouldn't that make things easier for you?"

She ignored his question, "Red Hood is an excellent marksman," she stated. "He made his debut as a crime lord by showing a bunch of people a duffel bag filled with the heads of notorious criminals."

Clint let out a whistle, "That is an intense introduction. He's even better than I thought he would be."

"Yeah," Natasha agreed. "He's easily one of the most dangerous and capable vigilantes in Gotham. In a matter of months, he's managed to bring crime down Crime Alley by at least fifty percent. Something that Batman himself, couldn't do. His methods were vicious, but they worked. Extremely well. He's killed a lot of child molesters, human traffickers, and rapists."

Even though Natasha couldn't see him, he tilted his head to the side, biting the inside of his cheek. Clint could care less about what methods Jason used. If they worked, they worked. And it's not like those criminals didn't deserve it. It's just-

Killing takes a lot out of you. Especially when you're young. Clint would know.

He had no doubt in his head that Jason was an incredible fighter. Not to mention that he was also huge— in both height and muscle.

He can see why he has a majority of Gotham fooled.

But, for about a minute, after they won against the ninjas, Jason removed his helmet in order to get a breath of fresh air.

A mask might've been covering his eyes, but Clint's been in the vigilante business for years now. He remembers clear as day, just how young the vigilante looked under the sun.

When Clint first started, he was thankful that he had Natasha to talk to whenever things got hard. Whenever he felt guilty for taking someone's life. No matter how much they deserved it.

Hell, he's still thankful for Natasha now. Without her, Clint would probably be dead. His body found bleeding out in an abandoned area, a neat row of scars on his thighs and arms.

He hopes that Jason has a friend like Natasha. Someone who'd be there for him no matter what. Someone who'd remind him that he was worth it. That he was loved.

Cause if not, then there is no way that the kid is okay.

Natasha's sharp voice interrupted his thoughts, "That was a few years ago. As far as I know, he doesn't kill anymore. The farthest that Hood would go now would be to permanently cripple someone. And even then, he would only do that when the person did something unforgivable."

After a few seconds of silence, Clint opened his mouth. "Is that it?" he couldn't help but question.

"Nope," Natasha admitted. "But it's all I'm willing to tell you."

"Fine then," he smirked. "Keep your assassiny secrets. I got more than I expected anyways."

"What did you get yourself into, Clint? Why all the sudden interest in him? Why all the sudden interest in a vigilante in Gotham?"

He knows that Natasha was just looking out for him. She was worried. "Do you remember a few days ago when I was saved by this Jason guy?" he asked.

"Yeah? You've been talking about him nonstop. He saved your ass and you gave him your number." she paused before adding, "Your private one."

He nodded, "Yeah. Well, he's the Red Hood."

"You're kidding."

"Nope. I searched him up and he had the same costume and everything."

"And he actually said that his name was Jason?"

"Yep." he tried to casually say, "It's probably cause Jason's a popular name and stuff."

"Maybe." Natasha hesitantly agreed, "But anyway, since you gave him your number, I think you should know that I've always wanted to meet him so if he texts you soon..."

Her voice trailed off and Clint couldn't hold in his sigh, "Yeah, yeah. I'll arrange a meet-up or whatever."

Her voice automatically brightened, "Actually?"

The corner of his mouth lifted, "Sure. But I wanted to introduce him to Bucky first."

Natasha made a shocked sound of betrayal, "Wha- but Clint!" she whined, "I'm the one who's asking. Not him."

"I know."

It took everything in him to stop the laugh from escaping his mouth.

Complaints about how unfair Clint was being made their way onto his ears and he relished each and every one of them. It wasn't often that he had something Natasha wanted.

Revenge was sweet.

After a few minutes, he let out an incredibly fake gasp. "Sorry, Natasha. I gotta go. I have a kitchen emergency."

"What the fuck, Clint." she demanded, "You don't even know how to cook. Remember the omelet incident? What emerg-"

He hung up.

Clint's definitely going to regret ending the call later. He knows it.

But right now, he could care less.

He has something Natasha wants, so she won't murder him.

... hopefully.

He hopes that he runs into the vigilante soon. Jason was cool and pretty fun to talk to. Clint definitely won't mind fighting at Red Hood's side once more.

They worked really well together.

While they were fighting, he knew that Jason was gonna have his back. He knew that Jason wasn't gonna let him get hurt. It was weird, considering that was the first encounter he's ever had with him.

He doesn't know when Jason is gonna decide to use his number, but he hopes that it'll be soon.

He has questions. And whenever Jason was ready, Clint hopes that he can answer.

Starting with the one that's been clouding his head; why did the Red Hood stop killing?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

notes:

okay, I didn’t expect to write a chapter this soon. but reading all the comments you guys left on the previous chapter motivated me. to be honest, I didn’t expect this fanfic to get as many hits as it did.

I don’t know when I’m planning on posting this chapter but right now, my goal is to write as much as I can.

I also don’t know exactly how busy my sophomore year of high school will be, but I feel like it’s better to be safe than sorry. Especially if I make the school volleyball team.

I finished writing this chapter on August 8th, and I have tryouts on the 9th through the 11th from 4-6 pm. (wish me luck!)

like always, please, please, please, leave a comment. i love reading them and they just motivate me so much! Whenever I get author’s block, I just re-read them and they help so, so much. If you don’t wanna leave a comment, that’s fine. If you liked this fanfic, please hit that kudos button though.

and if you just wanna chat or if you want to request any ideas or prompts, just message me here.

ooh, and if there’s anything specific you want to read in this series, please tell me. It never hurts to have any extra ideas. plus, I really want to make this fic more enjoyable for everyone.

[latteunwoo]

first love || l.mh

↪  in life, many have experienced what it’s like to have a first love. this is how lee minho became your first love. 

pairing: high school student!lee know x reader (feat. stray kids)

genre: fluff; humor; angst (??????? not too much, just the ending </3)

word count: 3.2k 

A/N: This is the first part of my Lee Know series. I’m still a bit rusty since it’s been a while since I’ve gotten the motivation to write again but I hope you guys still like it and can bear with me. In this series, Lee Know, the reader, and the other members of Stray Kids are not idols. Do note that most of the content are not real/accurate because this is an AU (Alternate Universe).

stray kids m.list || main m.list 

Everyone has had their first love; that special someone that makes us experience love in an intense and special way for the very first time. For you, that was Lee Minho. 

In fact, you were both each other’s first loves. The two of you had grown up together as you two just so happened to attend the same schools and as cliché as it sounds, one of you would’ve ended up developing feelings for the other one.

Funny enough, Minho was the one who started crushing on you first. He realized it in second grade that you were the girl of his dreams. Though at that age he didn’t realize it was love, he still was smart enough to know that he wanted to do everything in his power to impress you however he can. 

It wasn’t his intention to make it look like he was purposefully doing better than you to mock you or anything though that’s how some of your classmates had falsely assumed it was. He just genuinely wanted to do good so he could impress you, though you hardly ever noticed any of his signals; or at least you made it look that way as you didn’t want to assume anything.

Unlike Minho, you were pretty good at hiding your feelings. As you two started to go through puberty and Minho had started to look more different, you started noticing him more; especially when he started getting into dance. 

Other than all the things Minho was good at, dancing was his top expertise and something you could tell he was really passionate about. This was also something that made him more popular amongst the other girls.

You realized it in middle school that you may have a crush on him as your heart started racing even faster whenever he would call your name out loud when he saw you every morning and insisted that you two walk to class together and you couldn’t help but feel jealous whenever some of the other girls in your class would crowd around him after his dance performances. Though you managed to not make your feelings for him noticeable; at least for a while.

"Are the results out yet?” Your friend Mina asked as the whole classroom was currently filled with a lot of chatter during the first break because today was the day the results of each grade’s class presidents and vice presidents were going to be released.

“They’ll be out during lunch time,” you said as you pulled out your books for the next class.

“We all know who the president is gonna be,” Your other friend Soojin scoffed as you all looked over to where Minho was entertaining some of the girls in your grade in the hallway.

“Hey! Don’t say that, maybe this year it’ll be Y/N,” Mina said as she hit Soojin’s arm.

“What? It’s true. He always wins.”

“Well, you don’t know! Y/N has gotten really popular too.”

As the two of them started bickering with each other you softly laughed before going back to prepping for the next class. 

It was true. Minho always won because all the girls and a majority of the guys in your grade would vote for him. Not only was he the school’s ‘visual’ but he was extremely talented and smart which made his overall appearance even better in their eyes. 

You don’t despise him or anything for always being first and leaving you with second place however. You did have to admit that he wasn’t so bad and it wasn’t like he ever rubbed it directly in your face or said anything mean to you about it, so you didn’t really have a proper reason to hate him.

It wasn’t like everyone hated you either. Amongst the girls in your grade, you were first at least. You were really smart and humble; and you were Minho’s friend which gave you an advantage in everyone else’s eyes despite you not really showing your friendship with him off. 

Once lunchtime came around, everyone scurried out of the classroom as soon as the bell rang and ran to the first floor of the building to see the results. 

“Are you not coming?” Soojin asked as you shook your head and gave her the excuse that you were just going to stay in the classroom to study, “Suit yourself then. We’ll bring you some food when we come back!”

Not even ten minutes later, the two of them came rushing back into the room. They both started saying things at the same time it was hard to understand what they were trying to tell you at first since their voices overlapped with each other. 

“Calm down. What happened?” You asked as you tried to calm the two down a bit and have them speak one at a time. 

“You... You won for... for class president,” Mina said as she was still trying to catch her breath from running all the way up here from the first floor.

“What?” You asked as you grabbed each of them and looked at them directly in the eyes and searched for any sign that they were possibly joking but they looked genuinely as surprised as you were.

“Yeah, we overheard some of the students talking and apparently Minho had told Mr. Kim to give the spot to you instead.”

“Why would he do that? Is he trying to mock you or something?” Soojin asked as the two of them started talking about what could cause Minho to willingly give his spot as class president to you. 

You couldn’t really focus on what they were saying or even at all for that fact though as you were trying to figure out if Minho was doing this to help you or insult you. 

“Congrats Y/N,” your teacher as your classmates cheered you on and although you just smiled at them you couldn’t help but feel uneasy about the situation.

It was weird. Minho had given the class president spot to you but why was he suddenly acting so cold around you? Ever since the results got out, he’d only give you short responses and never really gave you any time outside of the time you spent together doing your class president and vice president tasks to talk.

“Minho,” you softly spoke as the two of you were currently working on a setting up your class’s booth for the school festival, “c-can we talk later?”

“We have to work the booth,” he simply replied as he moved past you to work on putting up the sign on your booth.

“Pft, whatever,” you snickered as you glared at his back before going back into the classroom to get the rest of the decorations. 

“You don’t think...” Mina wondered as she looked at Soojin to see if she had the same idea.

“No way,” they both gasped as they now looked at you who wasn’t really paying attention at first because you were busy making more paper flowers for the booth.

“What?” You asked, looking up at them after feeling their gazes burning into your skin.

“He likes you.”

“Huh?”

“Lee Minho likes you,” they both said as they started teasing you about the possibility of Minho acting this way because he likes you; though you couldn’t help but feel your cheeks burning at the thought of it.

“You’re both crazy,” you said as you threw one of the paper flowers at them before grabbing the box of them you had made back to the booth to start hanging them onto the booth, “They’re crazy. They don’t know what they’re talking about. I don’t even-”

Before you could even finished your question, you felt one of the legs on the chair you were standing on snapped. You had expected to land straight onto the concrete, however you were surprised when you opened your eyes to see Minho looking down at you as he had caught you before you landed straight on the ground, “Are you okay?” 

“H-huh?” you stuttered as you felt very flustered at how close the two of you were.

“Are you okay?” He asked again as you quickly snapped out of your thoughts.

“Oh. Y-yeah. I’m fine,” you said softly as you attempted to stand up on your own only to fall back down on the ground as you felt a shot of pain in your right ankle.

“Y/N!” Minho exclaimed as he crouched down to your level and pressed his hand gently on your swollen ankle, “You’re not okay. Here, hold onto my shoulder, I’ll take you to the nurse.”

Before you could even protest, he had swung your arm over his shoulder and carried you bridal style to the nurse’s office while you heard multiple ‘Oooohhhhh’s and whistling from the students who had witnessed the scene. 

As the nurse wrapped a bandage over your swollen ankle, you and Minho looked everywhere but each other. It’d be a lie if either of you said the situation didn’t feel awkward since you two weren’t really on talking terms; thanks to him of course.

“There,” the nurse grinned as she started cleaning up the wrappers from the bandages, “it’s not broken, but it has been sprained so it will take a few days to heal. For now you can ask your boyfriend to-”

Before she could even finish, you had instantly sat up from your spot and Minho had stood up from the chair he was sitting in and you two both started protesting that he wasn’t your boyfriend. The nurse simply just smirked at the two of you before leaving you to go take care of another student on the other side of the curtain.

“Here. Let me help you.” Minho said as he quickly went over to help you off the bed, not really knowing where to put his hands though somehow one of his arms ended up on your waist as you had supported yourself on him by wrapping an arm around his shoulder.

“Thank you,” you said as you reached for the crutch the nurse had given you and placed it under your right arm before releasing your arm off of his shoulder.

“Oh,” he said as he was still staring at you, his arm still around your waist, “No problem.”

“You can let go of me now, I got it,” you smiled at him as he instantly snapped out of it and let go of his grip around your waist.

“Sorry,” he muttered as you started walking back to the booth while he followed shortly after.

The rest of the afternoon was spent with you sitting on a chair at the booth finishing up the decorations there while Minho put them up for you. There was a silence between the two of you as you two worked, however this silence wasn’t awkward anymore. 

“Ah, what time is it now? I still need to change out of my uniform,” you said to yourself as you reached for your phone to check the time. 

“It’s almost five. Do you need help?” Minho asked as his eyes widened when he realized that what he had said might have been taken the wrong way, “I-I didn’t mean like- I just- I meant-”

You just laughed at his stuttering and stood up from the chair to head over to the locker rooms where you had told Mina to meet you at, “It’s fine. I know what you meant but I already told Mina to come help me. You can just take a break. I’ll be back!”

“Woah, Y/N is that you?” Chan teased as the other boys had turned their attention to you.

“Do I look that bad?” You asked as you fixed your skirt and pushed some of your hair behind your ear.

“Badass, for sure yeah,” Jisung exclaimed and you just let out a small laugh at the younger boy as he continued, “But really, you look really nice, Y/N!”

“Thank you, Han,” you smiled as the other boys had joined in on complimenting you while Minho felt like he couldn’t breathe. 

You were really pretty to begin with, Minho admitted that, however right now you just had a different glow radiating off of you and he couldn’t take his eyes off of you. You had noticed him staring and even looked over to try to catch him in the act, but before you could even say anything he either looked away or made himself busy by helping any of the other students who had come over to your booth.

Business at the booth started to slow down as most of the students were on the soccer field watching the performances. This gave you the perfect opportunity to count how much money you guys had made. Though you couldn’t really concentrate as you felt someone staring at you. 

You quickly turned your head toward the boy sitting next to you, surprised at how close you two actually were from each other, “D-do I have something on my face?” 

Minho didn’t even answer you, his eyes moved from your eyes to your lips as he leaned in closer before connecting your lips. Your eyes widened at the action. You could feel your heart racing out of your chest; which is something that has been happening a lot lately whenever you were around him.

As you were about to kiss him back, the boy quickly had snapped out of his trance and instantly pulled away to your dismay. It’d be an understatement if you said that you didn’t feel your heart fall to the floor when he pulled away from you.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered as he moved back in his seat and looked away from you, his cheeks and ears burning red. He didn’t know what was wrong with him. I must be insane, he thought to himself as his heart started racing once again as he thought about what he had just done. 

It was your turn to stare now. You looked at the boy as what the girls had said earlier started playing in your mind and you started wondering about what he could be feeling. Could he actually have feelings for you or?

He felt movement next to him and turned his head to see what you were doing only for you to catch him by surprise as you grabbed the collar of his shirt to pull him closer to you and press your lips on his this time. When you pulled away, you looked at the boy in front of you who was still currently in a state of shock.

“Do you like me?” You asked as his eyes widened even more.

“I-I can’t breathe,” he stuttered still trying to catch his breath as you raised an eyebrow at him, “I mean, yeah. I like you. So much that I can’t breathe.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” he confessed, “That’s why I told Mr. Kim to make you class president instead because I knew how much you wanted to be class president and I had thought that if I did that you’d like me more but I overheard you talking with the girls about how you didn’t feel comfortable that I did that so that’s why I distanced myself because I didn’t want you to be more upset with me, but Y/N I really do like you. I’m really sorry and I understand if you don’t-”

“It’s okay,” you interrupted, “but you could’ve just told me in the first place that you liked me.”

“I know. I’m sorry-”

“Also, I like you too,” you said as Minho felt his cheeks and ears burning even more. 

“You do?” He asked and you nodded. “Will you be my girlfriend then?”

Though part of you had expected the situation to turn this way, the way the word ‘girlfriend’ sounded coming from him caught you off guard.

“S-sure,” you stuttered as his smile grew wider and he engulfed you into a tight hug, “Now I can’t breathe.” 

He quickly loosened his grip on you before bowing his head down, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” you assured as you gave him a reassuring smile.

You’d be lying if you said the first few days, maybe even weeks, of your relationship wasn’t a bit awkward. Since it was both of your first times being in a relationship, neither of you knew what exactly to do or at least was appropriate enough to do.

“Can I hold your hand?” Minho had asked nervously the next school day after the festival with one hand hovering hesitantly next to yours while the other was behind his neck.

“Yeah,” you said trying not to seem too forward as you closed the distance between both of your hands and intertwined your fingers while you lead him the rest of the way to school.

As you two got closer to campus and you started seeing more of your classmates, you became more nervous about whether you should just let go of his hand or not. It wasn’t that you were embarrassed about being in a relationship with him but you were just worried about your classmates having negative thoughts about the relationship and you didn’t want him to get hate about it or anything. 

“If you feel uncomfortable about being public with our relationship, it’s fine they don’t have to know,” Minho assured you as if he had read your mind. 

“I just don’t want anyone to think I’m just using you or anything.”

“It’s okay. I’m fine if you want to keep it lowkey for now.” He gave you a reassuring smile as he slowly let go of your hand before the two of you started walking the rest of the way together. 

This became a daily routine for a few weeks. The two of you would walk to and from school together though you would stop holding hands when you were within view of your other classmates. And you would only have small dates at either of your houses. Minho didn’t mind though because he himself was also very worried that if you two showed off your relationship a bit more that the girls who were always fangirling over him at school would hurt you and though he knew he could protect you from them he still didn’t want you to end up feeling uncomfortable about the thought of them hating you for it.

Obviously with both of your friends being very nosy, it wasn’t too long until they started to find out that the two of you were actually in a relationship already. They knew you both had feelings for each other, though they didn’t know you two had already confessed at the school festival.

Seeing your friends being supportive about the relationship boosted your confidence about being public with your relationship with Minho. You two started holding hands all the way to class and sometimes even during school when you had breaks; him sometimes stealing a quick kiss too and earning cheers from your classmates.

Eventually the two of you became more comfortable with each other and practically became inseparable. As you two were each other’s first loves, your entire relationship was spent not only learning more about each other but also what it means to truly love someone. You two were so much in love with each other that you had thought it would last forever. However of course, the reality of it was that sometimes your first love wasn’t meant to be your last.

-

part two || skz m.list

[sarcasticfina]

Fic Writer Tag Game

How many works do you have on AO3? 263

What’s your total AO3 word count? 4,901,188

How many fandoms have you written for, and what are they? including the fandoms on FFnet, that haven't yet been moved over to ao3, that'd be a total of 37. separating the larger fandoms (marvel, dcu) into their individual parts: Thor; Arrow; Smallville; The Vampire Diaries; Glee; Captain America; Supernatural; Teen Wolf; Iron Man; Life with Derek; Firefly; Friday Night Lights; X-Men; Fantastic Four; Harry Potter; Sons of Anarchy; Girl Meets World; Batman; Daredevil; From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series; Transformers; Lost Girl; Game of Thrones; Banshee; High School Musical; The OC; One Tree Hill; CSI: New York; Degrassi; Gossip Girl; NCIS; The Unusuals; Criminal Minds; iCarly; Secret Life of the American Teenager; Twilight; and The Listener

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. and I wonder (if everything could ever feel this real forever) - darcy/bucky - Steve tells him that Darcy's harmless. Bucky imagines, on paper, Darcy is harmless. HYDRA wouldn't give her a second glance. But he does. He can barely keep his eyes off her. He's not sure he wants to. | Kudos: 5576

2. I Climbed The Tree To See The World (When The Gusts Came Around To Blow Me Down, I Held On As Tightly As You Held On To Me) - darcy centric | darcy/steve - The path to self-discovery, including becoming Coulson's assistant-slash-liaison-slash-bff, Captain America's lady love, and rating fourth on the SHIELD BAMF scale, was like the yellow brick road; it was chaos and confusion around every bend. | Kudos: 3973

3. Take a little piece of my heart (and keep it for yourself) - oliver/felicity - A collection of Olicity prompts on Tumblr posted here for easier access/reading. | Kudos: 3498

4. You put your arms around me (and I'm home) - darcy/bucky - A collection of Darcy/Bucky oneshots, drabbles, and prompt fills. | Kudos: 3293

5. you (anchor me back down) - darcy/bucky - "I'll be right back." Famous last words. | Kudos: 2747

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? not all of them. i do try to keep up on them, especially on longer stories when there's been significant wait times in between chapters, or when a reader is asking a question or is unclear on something. and especially when someone writes a really indepth comment/review, i like to respond to those and talk about motivations and character growth.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? I've written a number of fics that either had suicide or major character death, so i'm not sure if one outranks the other in terms of most angsty... hmm... i remember "be still and know that I'm with you (be still and know that I am here)" and "light a match, burn the world to ash (I will watch it die, and hold your hand as I fly)" both got some pretty intense reactions when they were posted. And "It's Your Song That Sets Me Free (I Sing It While I Feel I Can't Go On)" was basically just angst from beginning to end. buuuuut, i think i'll say "so you think you can tell (heaven from hell" was, only because there's a build up of everything going so right, only to pivot at the end, so it feels very bittersweet.

Do you write crossovers? If so what’s the craziest one you’ve written? i loooooove crossovers. i find writing in the marvel fandom makes things quite easy, but also smallville. as long as i can find a common thread, i enjoy finding a way to overlap two shows. i'll say the hardest one to write was "ruby red slippers (unavailable in her size)." I'm not sure why, but i found writing each personality together just felt strange. i liked the idea behind the story, but i definitely remember feeling like i was really forcing myself to keep going, like something just didn't fit right.

Have you ever received hate on a fic? oh, definitely. you cannot please everyone, it's impossible. for the most part, hate comes and i either argue back, take the criticism for what it's worth, or just ignore it when it's baseless. i think the hate that bothered me the most was a homophobic PM someone sent me re: "you know I will adore you ('til eternity)," on FFnet. i actually went and searched it up. they've since blocked me so i can't read our whole thread back and forth. but i did put part of it on tumblr so i could rant on it a bit, so you can see that here.

Do you write smut? If so what kind? ha. yes. depending on the story, it can be really detailed or really flowery. it depends on the ship, the plot, and how graphic i feel like being. i've definitely become more comfortable over the years with my writing. that said, i think everybody likes something different. i once had a reviewer tell me a sex scene was too much, just too intense. it was a stefan/caroline story and to be fair, that entire oneshot was just them fucking, lol, but it is what it is. to each their own.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Multiple times.

Have you ever had a fic translated? Yes! for the record, i am always happy to have my stories translated and shared. i just like having a link sent to me and to be credited.

What’s your all time favorite ship? i have a list of OTPs, because interests change and as shows come and go, my love for a ship can be shelved for a while before it pops back up at random. currently, i can't get enough of buck/eddie from 9-1-1. and, historically, chloe/oliver (smallville) and felicity/oliver (arrow) have been two of my top OTPs. but i think i'd have to go with bonnie/damon. they had all the potential and the show dropped the ball by not exploring it. at the same time, that's kind of a blessing, because i don't trust those writers to properly explore what they had without eventually destroying it for the likes of de/ena. it means a treasure trove for writing where it could have gone and all the what if's.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish, but don’t think you ever will? the intention is always to finish. but given how i feel about allison mack and how that impacts my feelings re: chloe sullivan, pretty much anything with her as a main character is not something i see myself returning to.

What are your writing strengths? What are your writing weaknesses? i'm putting these together because my strength is my weakness. i love to write. when i get an idea, i go all in and i will skip eating and sleeping to just write write write. but i also eventually hit a wall and i get so many ideas that i hyperfocus on one until the steam is gone and then i hyperfocus on the next one to maintain that need to keep writing, accidentally leaving the last story in the dust for entirely too long. i also have clinical depression that comes and goes, which hasn't been super great mixed with covid and isolation, so more often recently, i find myself overly exhausted and despite wanting to write, can rarely get motivated to do so. so, pre-covid, wrote so much i left entirely too many stories dangling. during covid, i've just been reading and struggling to get myself focused enough to do what i love.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? i appreciate the authenticity when possible, but i've recently been reading more about how native speakers of other languages feel when a) their language is butchered by google translate, or b) it's just not genuine in terms of how bilingual speakers act or speak.

What was the first fandom you’ve written for? it was smallville, but i remember adopting it out to someone else because i wasn't going to finish it. so if you look at my ffnet, the first fandom i wrote for appears to be x-men: the movie, but i remember writing a chloe/oliver story prior to that.

What’s your favorite fic that you’ve written? i have a lot. i mean, on ffnet, i have 576 stories, many of which were transferred over to ao3, with a lot of oneshots and drabbles getting joined together into collections. so there's a ton to pick from that span a 14-ish year timeline.

"you know I will adore you ('til eternity)" and "let me break (the walls that surround me)" hold a special place in my heart.

honestly, each story is important in its own way. there are bits and pieces of each that i love. every time i write something new it feels like my favorite. my best. and then a new idea comes along. there are scenes i've written that i loved more than the whole of what they became. lines that stand out that are almost too good to be a part of the larger picture.

one of my all time favorite passages i've written was bonnie's thoughts on damon and herself in 'if you love me (let me go)":

He is far from perfect. He is a novel of red, corrective ink. He is frayed pages and torn binding. His life, his choices, his mistakes leave lasting effects on everyone he meets.

She is a lifeboat with a hole in it. An anchor that drowns in the sea while everyone else remains steady above. She is both the calm and the storm, and while she screams that she will not be tamed, she cries. Bittersweet tears that go unnoticed and uncared about.

there are other stories, other pieces of dialogue, that i've been proud of. that make me laugh when i re-read them. that make me cry. and i love them. there are others that make me wilt and cringe and regret. it's a process. love and pride and growth, all bound together.

Tagging: @absentlyabbie, @anonymous033, and anyone else who'd like to fill this all out, haha

[dannyphantom-rewrite]

Character ref for; Jack, Maddie and Jazz,

Art by @gally-hin / @gally-hin-phantom

Okay so first off; in terms of Actual redesign, I didn't change a whole lot. I'm actually very fond of Jack and Maddie's design's, my only real issue was with their proportions. Like...look as a lady person who is also thiCC I do not have a fucking wasp thin waist and I'm sure I'm not the only one, lmao. As for Jack? Godamnit he looked like a brick on toothpicks. Just Let him be a fucking Bara man! Anyway of course I asked Gally to do this one bc they're fucking great at drawing different body types

I also cannot and will not take credit for Jazz's outfit. I didn't have any issue with her canon clothes aside from them being a bit plain, so what she's wearing here was literally pulled straight off of her original concept art, which I will link here.

Anyway, getting to the Actual character lore now, let's start with

Maddie Fenton

-Full name is Madeline (I haven't decided on a maiden name yet)

-Born and raised on a farm in Arkansas, had a southern accent that she trained herself out of in college bc it was just one more reason for people not to take her seriously. Still sometimes uses "y'all" completely unironically bc old habits die hard.

-She has a really big family, and they're proud of her accomplishments but feel like she's wasting her talent studying ghosts, because really, up until the Fenton portal was up and running there wasn't even any solid proof they existed. Her sister Alicia is the one outlier there, and even if she doesn't understand, it she completely supports her.

-She majored in engineering and minored in psychology at Wisconsin EDU. Her, Jack and Vlad were all in the same engineering class, and that's where they met.

-Maddie is particularly interested in how ghosts think, analysing their behavior, their motives. Not only that, but they aren't just dead people with unfinished business, they've built an entire culture in the Ghost Zone that is completely seperate from humanity, and she wants to understand all of it.

-skilled marksman and 9th degree black belt, (which is. The highest fucking level there is holy shit? I looked it up after I saw it on her wiki page.)

Jack Fenton

-He's from Minnesota (Amity park is in Illinois and him and Maddie didn't move there until after they got married) 

-okay, "but why minnesota specifically" you ask? Because. I crave. Foot ball discourse. 

-minnesota vikings vs green bay packers guys do you UNDERSTAND WHERE IM GOING WITH THIS 

-The funny thing is that Jack only watches football casually while Vlad is a fucking die hard so when these two got together to see a game it was like....

-Jack: Here to chill and have a good time.

-Vlad: Primed and ready to start a fist fight at any given moment.

-I am never not going to be salty about how Canon Jack was portrayed like a complete moron 99% percent of the time. Like no...theres a difference between Actual Stupid and ADHD induced dumbass-ery.

-Am I saying Jack Fenton has ADHD? Yes. why? Because I also have ADHD and I have always vibed So Hard with his Character.

-Jack is loud and easily excited about things that interest him. He's impulsive and fidgety and yeah, a bit absent minded. He has a mouth that clearly runs so much faster than his head. His train of thought doesn't get derailed so much as it stops and takes several different detours on the way to it's final destination.

-and that's only the tip of the iceberg, really, I'd need an entire essay to get into this completely, but I just really relate.

-Jacks skill-set / interests regarding ghosts vary a bit from Maddie's, most notably in the sense that he doesn't believe that they're static entities already set in their ways, completely incapable of change.

-Jack majored in engineering and minored in Biology at Wisconsin EDU.

-Jack's work with tech is a bit hit or miss. He definitely HAS the engineering skills, but the intrest isn't always there and he's constantly jumping back and forth between different projects. He tends to focus on the concept work and schematics and leave most of the assembly to Maddie as a result. It's an arrangement that works well for them, and has drastically decreased the number of unintentional explosions in the lab.

-A lot of Jack's work tends to revolve around ghostly biology and Ectoplasm, figuring out how ghosts are made, what makes them tick, what the hell Ectoplasm Actually Is, how it's used as an energy source, ect.

-and yes, that does also mean he handles the dissections.

-See that facial scar? Yeah, that's not actually there at the start of the series rewrite but it's very important for plot reasons so I had to include it. Can't say much more on the subject because SPOILERs owo.

Jasmine Fenton

-Jazz is a 18 years old, and a senior at Casper high.

-Which means she prepping to go away to college and won't be around to keep an eye on Danny.

-Obviously that doesn't mean I'm just writing her out of the story, oh no. Know why? Because she's also gonna go to Wisconsin EDU. ya know who else is in Wisconsin? Fuckin' Vlad.

-Jazz is autistic, Although she passes for neurotypical in part due to symptoms being completely over looked in girls due to gender stereotyping and also the fact that she doesn't have any special interests that are considered " "too weird.""

- Her hyperfixation with psychology started at a young age in an effort to better understand people, and social/emotional cues and all that.

-Jazz is well liked at school but she's not popular or apart of any specific group or clique. She's very kind and compassionate to people, and just about everyone knows her, but you'd be hard pressed to find someone who actually Considered her a friend. Except maybe Spike.

-I'm gonna have to give spike his own Character ref at some point, but he's this scary looking goth kid that's been held back twice. He's actually super sweet, just really fuckin' quiet and anxious. Him and jazz kinda ended up gravitating towards each other. She might do most of the talking, but they look out for each other.

-its not like jazz doesn't try to socialize, but it's difficult and she's found it much easier and less stressful to just. Keep to herself and let her interactions with her peers stay shallow and superficial. Sure, it's lonely sometimes but it's better than constantly worrying about saying the wrong thing or making some other misstep.

-One of Jazz's other special interests is football, and it's not so much the players or the game as it is the strategy of it? Started out as one of those things you do to bond with your dad, and she ended up getting really into it.

-She absolutley winds up getting into stupidly intense discussions with Vlad about it, too, lmao.

-Her and Danny probably bonded over SBNation bc that shit has both sentient satellites and ridiculously complex football mechanics.

-She's completely oblivious to the fact, but Dash has a massive crush on her bc holy shit this girl understands football (hey bud your toxic masculinity is showing put that shit away)

-I mentioned that Danny was in Cheer for a bit in middle school so it makes sense that she'd also be pushed into doing some kind of extracurricular activity.....so.....she was in a martial arts class for a bit thanks to Maddie and has a good grasp on self defense.

I think that's everything? I feel like I'm leaving things out tho? Idk if I did I'll come back and add on to this later and also pls don't hesitate to ask questions bc it really helps me flesh things out better.

[81scorp]

21 tips for writing humor

 This was not written by me. It was written and uploaded to deviantart  Jan 13, 2017 by DesdemonaDeBlake.

All credit goes to her. I just copied and pasted it here.

There are many theories as to the nature, science, and reason for humor. It's an element of human behavior that seems objective in the skill that is required to execute it successfully, and yet just as subjective for how unpredictably it can hit every individual audience member. Today, I'm going to talk about the various forms that humor takes, and give you some tips for making your humorous story a success. To start with, lets look at what I will call the “five scales of comedy”. (Please note that the following is not intended as definitive list of the only sources and scales of humor in the world, only the ones that I have been able to identify within my own life, time, limited understanding, and culture. Also note that I will use the word “Humor” instead of the word “Comedy,” simply because I do not want this discussion on genres to be confused for the type of story that is opposite of Tragedy.)

The Five Scales of Comedy

A story or other source of humor can usually be found along the lines of five different scales. These are: High Humor vs Low Humor, Sweet Humor vs Acidic Humor, Distanced Humor vs Close Humor, Predatory Humor vs Reflective Humor, and Clever vs Ridiculous Humor. These scales stand apart from the sub-genres of humor (dark, slapstick, dry, etc...), and have to do with how the humor affects the audience. Note that there is no “best” type of humor; there is only humor that works in different ways and which impacts different sorts of people. So wherever you find your story in the scales, know that there is no need to change it unless you want to. Also, the names of the scales are just that—names. Just because your story falls into the category of “low” humor, doesn't mean that it is any less valuable than “high” humor.

Range 1: High Humor

Within the range of High vs Low humor, what we are discussing is the how large an audience we are trying to reach. High humor involves jokes and comical situations that are only understood by a very select group of people. An example might be a comedy series that focuses its humor on the experience of working in a corporate office (like … The Office), or perhaps political commentary. These are only funny to those people who have shared the experience or the political knowledge of the person generating the humor. Basically, the higher the humor, the more the entire set-up begins to resemble an inside joke. This type of humor is excellent for gaining the interest of select demographics who you may want to address. For example, if you only want to talk to nerds (I say non-insultingly because I am one and am proud of it), you might have lots of references to science fiction and fantasy.

Range 1: Low Humor

On the opposite side of the range, you have Low Humor. Low Humor deals with topics, jokes, and situations that are more universal to the human experience. An easy example of this is a fart joke. Everyone in the world farts, and most people are in touch enough with their inner child to think that it is funny if the joke is skillfully set up. Again, there is nothing wrong with low humor; and in certain situations it is even preferable. The lower your humor, the larger your potential audience can be. Other examples of low humor might be family life, slapstick, and situational comedy based on everyday experience. Shows like Spongebob Squarepants, for example, involve such a low degree of comedy that people of all ages, demographics, and locations across the world are able to find delight in it.  

 Range 2: Sweet Humor

The next range of humor, Sweet vs Acidic, deals with the intensity of the humor itself. Sweet Humor involves jokes, situations, and characters that require less pain and cynicism to appreciate. For example, a story that involves simple characters bumbling around, making mistakes, overcoming, and becoming better people for it would generally fall into the range of Sweet. We don't laugh at their misfortune (or if we do, its lighthearted and with limited consequences, like slipping on a banana peel), we laugh because their situations are joyfully amusing.  

An example of this are the sort of jokes and humor found in Youtube “Lets Plays,” like those of Markiplier and Jacksepticeye. We don't laugh because of anything bad happening to these people (or the characters that they play); we laugh because they are eccentric, silly, and joyful in a way that also makes us feel joyful. This form of humor can be tremendously encouraging and uplifting to the types of readers who enjoy it.

Range 2: Acidic Humor

On the other hand, we have Acidic humor. Much like with food, most people have strong preferences and limits to how acidic (spicy, sour, or bitter) they like their humor. Acidic humor deals with laughing at topics that are increasingly serious or even tragic, such as death, illness, social injustice, etc... A popular example of acidic humor is South Park. Those of us who enjoy acidic humor will find ourselves laughing at topics that would otherwise likely bring us to tears. The power of acidic humor is that it helps its appreciators to cope with the difficult truths of life, and also to acknowledge problems that we are otherwise tempted to ignore because they are too hard to think about.  

An example of an issue addressed in South Park is the elderly, their treatment, and our fear that we will face the same. Sure, when we watch an episode we laugh when the younger characters mistreat and abuse the elderly in the community. However, a conscientious viewer will then begin the chew on the issue, once the episode is over. We'll look at our own actions, and begin to wonder if our treatment of the elderly is just as bad. Because of the acidic humor, these difficult truths come to the forefront of our minds, we gain the courage to actually think about them, and we can even bring them up in discussion with others. This discussion can then lead to people changing the world for the better.

Range 3: Distanced Humor  

This range has to deal with the necessary emotional distance we need in order to be able to appreciate a certain level of humor. Even with lighthearted humor like slapstick, which has very low acidity, the audience needs to be distanced in order to laugh. For example, if I watch Bugs Bunny wallop Elmer Fudd on the head with a mallet, it's generally pretty damn funny. I know that these characters are both flat cartoons with limited depth to their character, and that as non-beings they don't really feel pain. Therefore, I don't have empathy to Elmer's pain (because it is really non-existent), and I can laugh. However, if the show were to show me Elmer's life, how he's been a vegan but famine has caused him to need to find meat to feed his family, and how he struggles to even shoot at a rabbit because it makes him feel like he's betraying himself; then I'm not going to laugh if Bugs hit him with a hammer. I'm too close, and need emotional distance in order for my empathy to not get in the way of my humor.

Range 3: Close Humor

We do not need distance in order to find something funny. With close humor, the jokes and situations actually rely on how well we know the characters and how much we empathize with them. An example of Close Humor is Scrubs. In the show actually find ourselves within the mind of the protagonist, JD, and seeing the entire world through his eyes. He tells us about his insecurities, his genuine pain, his fears, and we actually really care about him as a character. Yet, we find humor in his minor misfortunes and even in his silly victories. The closeness of our perspective amplifies the events that happen in his life in a way that distanced humor cannot achieve. For example, when he stutters and says something embarrassing in front of someone he idolizes, we find ourselves giggling. If Elmer Fudd were to stutter in front of someone he idolized, we wouldn't laugh nearly so hard because we can't possibly understand the stakes of the moment or why meeting this person is so important to him. We need to be close to a character for Close Humor to work.

Range 4: Predatory Humor

With the range of Predatory Humor vs Reflective humor, we are discussing who will be the “butt” or target of the joke. (Note that a joke does not necessarily need a butt, as we will discuss later.) While often used in a negative way, in order to bully and shame others, predatory humor is not a bad thing in and of itself. Predatory humor can be used to tackle and harm negative constructs and ideas in our society. For example, Fairly Odd Parents used to frequently attack neglectful and abusive parenting. Note that the while Timmy's (the protagonist of the show) Parents were frequently the butt of jokes, they were also not the real target (just like parents in general were not the target). The targets were their selfish and non-reflective actions that had damaging effects on their son. We can use predatory humor to attack ideas, and point out the evils that are so often overlooked in society. The trick is to always keep vigilance of your own mind, actions, and motives to makes sure that you do not become a bully who targets the people themselves. Because even if someone acts in an evil way, bullying them will never cause that to change.

Range 4: Reflective Humor

On the other side of this range we have Reflective Humor, which serves to make fun of itself. Again using South Park as an example, the creators would often make their own beliefs and ideals the target of their ridicule. For example, it's fairly clear that the show speaks in favor of LGBT rights and for their being accepted as equals in society. However, they also go as far as to mock people who are so over-enthusiastic and pro-LGBT (to the point of hypocrisy). Another example is when the show begins to teach a moral lesson, the writers will often make fun of themselves through the character of Kyle for being so preachy. The effect of the show making fun of itself is two-fold. First, those of us whose beliefs South Park mocks feel like the show is being fair. Thus, we continue to listen to and respect the views of the creators, even if we don't always agree. Second, we trust the messages of a story more when it has the integrity to point out its own failings. Note that unlike with other scales, Reflective and Predatory Humor can actually be interwoven so that a joke or story makes fun of itself just as much as its target.

Range 5: Clever Humor

The last range of humor that we'll discuss is that of Clever vs Ridiculous. This range is fairly self-explanatory, but the core of its nature is what sort of punchline is delivered at the end of a humorous situation. Clever humor takes the audience expectation and amplifies or twists it to an unexpected place. You can see this in the work of comedians such as Louis CK and Demetri Martin. Martin, for example, has a humorous bit about doorways that say “Exit Only.” The joke then involves his compulsive desire to tell store workers that they underestimate the potential of those doors by about 50%. The delivery of the punchline is true and logical, but it such a way that it humorously exceeds audience expectation.

Range 5: Ridiculous Humor

Opposite of Clever Humor, we have ridiculous humor. This is when the punchline of a humorous situation is so absurd that we can't help but laugh. And example of this is the Spongebob Squarepants episode where he and Squidward get lost while delivering a pizza. They become lost in the wilderness and spend the episode becoming more and more so. Then, right at the end, Spongebob exclaims that they are saved because he's found a big beautiful boulder, the likes of which the pioneers used to ride for miles. And, to make matters even more ridiculous, the boulder works—driving just like a car. We find humor because the punchline is simply so grandiosely absurd that we can't help but enjoy it. Note that both Clever and Ridiculous humor require a great amount of skill and thought to pull off successfully, it's just a matter of your preference and your target audience.  

The Five Sources of Humor

Once we identify what type of humor we are employing by using the scales, the next thing to consider is what makes our stories funny. This is something of a challenge, because we don't generally put much thought into why humor makes us feel the way it does. The humor either hits or misses, and we laugh or we don't. Making matters even more complicated is that there are so many theories as to why and how humor works—with everyone from Aristotle to Freud interjecting an opinion. But if we look at the particular sorts of things that make people laugh, we can improve how we use humor in our stories.

Source 1: Misfortune  

Whether a cartoon character is slipping on a banana peel, or a character in a romantic comedy finds themselves in an embarrassing situation, the misfortune of others seems to be the most popular form of humor. This is why slapstick and funny home videos have been so prevalent in modern humor. Plato and Aristotle seemed to believe that this was because such humor made the audience feel superior to the characters being ridiculed (Superiority Theory). This seems especially true when we see unlikable characters (like the villain in a children's cartoon) experience misfortune in a comical way.  

Though Superiority Theory has its place, I would assert that there is an alternative way that people enjoy misfortune. Perhaps the experience of slipping on a banana peel or being in an embarrassing situation is funny because of our own memories of experiencing the same thing or something similar. Freud and others theorized that humor was a release of energy (Relief Theory). Maybe our camaraderie with the character, mixed with emotional distance from the scene we are watching, creates a safe space to release our own stored feelings of pain or embarrassment. Thus laughter really does become a healing force.

Source 2: Absurdity

In his essay “The Myth of Sisyphus”, Albert Camus defines and explains the absurd.

“It's absurd” means “It's impossible” but also “It's contradictory.” If I see a man armed with only a sword attack a group of machine guns, I shall consider his act to be absurd. But it is so solely by virtue of the disproportion between his interaction and the reality he will encounter. […] Likewise we shall deem a verdict absurd when we contrast it with the verdict the facts apparently dictated. (29)

Though Camus is not talking about humor (rather the existentialist question), I think that the absurd is a source of humor. Audiences are often entertained by the absurdity of a situation. And by looking at Camus' explanation, we can hypothesize that this form of humor comes from the disproportionate contrast of action and situation. An example of this might be one of the last battle-scenes in Braveheart. In this scene, victory looks unlikely, the dramatic tension is high, and it seems to be the most serious moment imaginable. Then, upon being signaled, the protagonist's soldiers pull up their kilts and reveal their bare asses to the enemy. It's so unexpected and so absurd, that many people cannot help but to keel over laughing.

This scene is completely disproportionate to what we would expect to see in this dramatic a moment. The action does not suit the situation, but in a strange way it also kind of does—with the action juxtaposing itself against the situation. Perhaps, just like with misfortune, absurd humor creates a needed release of energy, connected to our own sense of existentialist absurdism. The absurd could then serve to release our feelings of despair in a positive light. The show, Rick and Morty, seems to be built on this connection between absurd humor blended with existentialism and nihilism. Of course, this is just a theory. What you'll want to focus on when writing absurd humor is the relationship of your characters' actions to the situations that they find themselves in. Are they lost in the desert? Have them climb a boulder and ride it home. The stronger the contrast between action and situation, the higher you'll make the potential for absurdity.

Source 3: Wit

Wit is the essence of Clever Humor; its the pithy intelligence that makes us laugh because of all the thought put into a situation. When we hear a witty joke or are part of a witty situation, we find ourselves moving in a forward humorous momentum, instead of the backwards and diagonal momentum of the absurd. But we don't stop at the expected location. For example my mother called me a few months ago, asking me if I was going to wish my brother a happy birthday. The expected response for this sort of set-up/situation is to answer “Yes” or “No”. But I went forward and beyond “No” by asking why she wanted me to congratulate my brother for being one year closer to death (I have an acidic sense of humor sometimes). This reply was much more thoughtful than what my mother expected, and pointlessly taken beyond the realm of reason. Therefore, she found it funny.

Perhaps there is an element of the absurd in any given amount of witty humor. It's as if we are taking extra steps to be as intelligent and rational as possible—ending with us standing somewhere close to the absurd. Using Camus' illustration of absurdity, the soldier with a sword wouldn't necessarily attack the machine guns, but instead go home, refusing to sacrifice his life to be a metaphor. You can see this sort of humor in Youtube series such as How it Should Have Ended. In this series, animators take a closer look at popular movies and then make efforts to enforce logic in worlds and characters that didn't have them. This includes having Severus Snape use his time-travel gizmo to go back in time and kill Voldemort before he became a problem—an action that is so logical that it erases the need for any of the Harry Potter stories to even happen. So when you create witty humor, look to take things beyond the realm of expectation—aiming for the absurdly reasonable.

Source 4: Anti-humor  

Anti-humor is when something is so unfunny that it becomes funny, sort of like puns. As we find delight in the absurd and the unexpected, humor and jokes can begin to feel predictable. We begin to look for the solution in jokes, and we're usually smart enough to begin to be able to predict it. In this case, the expected becomes surprising. An example is the classic: “Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side.” If you haven't heard it before, this anti-humor joke is actually kind of funny. A great example of this are the great collection anti-jokes found online.  

You can take anti-jokes to the next level using extremely acidic humor. This is where you take serious, grievous, or tragic topics and use them as the punchline for your joke. For example, a joke about a fatal illness is not funny because the person making the joke finds that topic amusing (otherwise that person needs some counseling). A joke about fatal illness can be funny to some people for the exact opposite reason—because of how dark and unfunny it is. Again, I believe this ties into a release of negative energy while in a safe space, and the processing of difficult emotions. If you plan to use the extreme form of anti-humor, please note that many people have very legitimate reasons for not enjoying it. So be careful, and give your audience some sort of forewarning so that you do not spring something so emotionally charged on them without their consent.

Source 5: Familiarity and Value

When I was taking university writing classes, I had an extremely eccentric professor who had all sorts of mannerisms that were unique to him. In the moments when he was particularly eccentric and acting out of his true nature (which he was quite comfortable with), I would find myself laughing, even if the situation wasn't funny. I think others can relate to this, as we all love to talk about fun people that we used to know, and find ourselves laughing even when what we are remembering isn't particularly funny. We laugh because those people acting happily out of their own nature gave us joy, and so anything they do creates a laughter that feels akin to humor.  

This mirth through familiarity can be accomplished in stories as well. In Bob's Burgers, for example, we really don't even begin to understand the humor until we develop an attachment and feelings for each individual character. Sure the situations are mildly amusing, but true laughter and humor doesn't begin until we know the characters, their likes, their dislikes, and who they are deep down inside. Once we know that, we laugh as each character acts out of their nature. When we see Louise (one of the protagonists) act with mischievous intent, we laugh even before we know what she's doing because we are happy that she is about to act out of who she really is. Note that this is a rather difficult sort of humor to pull off because you have to create a relationship between the characters and the audience before the humor will be possible.

General Tips for Humor

Tip 1: Create a patterned and uniform blend of humor for your story.

When you choose what sort of humor you plan to use in your story, the best way of maintaining audience enjoyment is to keep it constant. Just like when we watch a stand-up comedian, we begin to develop a taste and sense of expectation for whatever we are watching or reading. Over time, your audience will begin to really appreciate the flavor of your humor, and that appreciation will make your jokes increasingly funny (so long as they are creative and continue to be intelligently crafted). The pattern will also make all of your jokes seem, feel, and become purposeful. Your audience will enjoy this much more than if you seem like you are desperately trying to milk the humor from anything you can get your hands on (you perv).  

I recommend you begin by analyzing the origins of humor in your story's world. Is the world simply absurd, with unseen gods of chaos just dropping coconuts on people's heads for pure amusement? Does the humor come from a specific character? A group of funny people living in a serious world that they must learn to cope with through humor? A funny narrator with a unique perspective on life? Once you figure out the origins, determine where your humor will fit on the scales (it doesn't have to be on any extreme, you can stay in the middle of the scales and still be hilarious); and then figure out the source.

Tip 2: Create a genuine story with genuine characters, in order for humor to gain the most power.

If we value stories in terms of how much people enjoy and remember them, the best humor stories are those with good plots and characters. This may seem counter-intuitive when your intent is to make your audience laugh, but think of it this way. If an audience wants just concentrated jokes, they will read a joke-book. Your audience is choosing to dredge through the murky waters of story in order to find the humor with more difficulty because they want a blend of story and humor.  

An example of this is the movie,“Austin Powers.” Many people, myself included, watched these movies before we ever watched the James Bond movies that they were making fun of. And we enjoyed them greatly, and laughed the entire way through. Why? Because the characters and story, ridiculous as they were, were good enough that we actually invested our interest and emotions into them. As an added bonus, the story has become timeless and respected in its own right. Even if we face a future where nobody knows who James Bond is, the Austin Powers movies will be able to stand on their own merit because they are more than just jokes.  

Tip 3: Be careful about dating yourself.

Speaking of parody and humor losing its ability to be funny, let's talk about references that date our stories. Humor at the expense of popular culture (movies, politicians, celebrities) is a fun ploy of high-humor. It's especially useful for nighttime comedy shows that will be lost to time anyways, within a couple years. When you are writing a novel, however, you are trying to create something that will last a bit longer than that. Additionally, novels take a lot longer to write than an episode of a late night comedy show. This means that by the time you publish and people begin to discover your book, they may not know who the vapid pop star you're making fun of is. Your humor will be lost to time, and your book quite possibly forgotten. Of course, I'm not telling you that you can't use this sort of humor, just that you should be aware of the risks it holds.

Tip 4: Mark every line that is supposed to be funny, and make sure that it is.

Nothing detracts from a story or from a spirit of jovial humor so much as an obvious joke that falls flat. It's like watching an acrobatics show. If the acrobat falls on their face too many times you'll either be embarrassed for them or you'll empathize and start worrying for their safety. Either way, you won't find the situation amusing. In your own personal copy of the manuscript, mark every joke for analysis of whether it actually succeeds and whether it serves to empower the story. Then, ask your editors, test-readers, and writing partner to circle every point that they genuinely found funny. Be sure to pick test-readers who fall into the niche you are writing for, as well as those who do not. If nobody but you marked a specific joke, then you need to either get feedback for how to make it funnier, or else cut it.

Tip 5: Write within your own expertise and authority.

This does not mean that you can't laugh at things, and poke fun at things that are outside your realm of expertise, so long as you have done your research. But consider the power of an insider making a joke about something that you are a part of vs an outsider doing the same. It would be like the difference between me calling most writers narcissists (as I am one, and know that it is pretty true in most instances) and a politician making a joke and calling writers narcissists. I mean, what right does that asshole have to judge us, even if it is true? The point is that your jokes gain power when you can tell them with the confidence of an insider. Not only that, but your audience who is a part of the group at the butt of the joke, will be much more gracious and feel far less attacked when the joke comes from one of their own.  

Tip 6: Humor is personal  

Humor is something that is highly individual to specific groups and people. For example, I do not understand, nor am I really able to appreciate most British or Spanish comedies. This is not because they aren't funny; they are just as valid and hilarious as every form of comedy that I do enjoy. The reason is simply that because of either how I was raised, my life experiences or because of who I am by nature, I can't enjoy them any more than I can enjoy olives on my pizza (seriously, I hate them). It doesn't matter how artfully these types of humor are composed, there is simply no effect akin to joy, amusement, or laughter when I come across them. In other words, the problem is me and not them.  

All this is to make three points. First, it may be more difficult to find test-readers and worthwhile criticism for humorous work. Even if I'm really good at critiquing stories, I will not be able to give you any helpful feedback if your humor doesn't match with mine. And that isn't your fault any more than it's my fault. It's just a difference in taste. Second, humor is as personal and close to the heart as any other story or craft. When you create a joke, you are channeling whatever emotions and mixes of experiences have led you to the type of humor you have. So recognize the emotional bond between yourself and your humor.  

The third piece of advice is for those on the other end of the spectrum, those experiencing the humor of others and perhaps trying to give advice. Please recognize that others' sense of humor is just as valid as yours. Whether their sense of humor is simple, complex, dry, witty, dark, acidic, sweet, or anything in between, it is their sense of humor and not yours. Be careful in how you voice any attempts at criticism, as there are few ways to break your friends' trust and confidence as completely as when you tell them, “That's not funny.” You might as well be telling them that their heart sucks, and they are a sucky person.  

Instead, acknowledge the differences in people's humor, value it even if that humor makes you uncomfortable, and voice your criticisms accordingly. Try: “This joke wasn't successful with me, and might be perceived as racist/bullying/insensitive to some readers; so seek other feedback to see if it's just me.” You will voicing just as honest an opinion, without formulating a direct attack against the person who has trusted you with something so delicate to them.  

Weekly Recommended Watching: Doraleous and Associates by Hank and Jed. (A free animated fantasy Youtube series that manages to successfully mesh several humor types with an over-arching plot. Examine how even there are plot elements that are serious and even sad, the series maintains its humor through well-balanced distance and wit. And if this form of humor does not amuse you, that is perfectly valid and your own unique sense of humor is still a valuable thing.)