#AND EVERYBODY ELSES BEAUTIFUL ART AND MUSIC AND WRITING

[spacedlexi]

i had the pleasure of working on the talanah path for focus on the heart 💗 youll have to give it a play if youd like to see the full res image for yourself :)

[hotcheetohatredwastaken]

July LU Write-a-Thon: 351,092 Words in One Day!

On July 1, we hosted our second monthly LU Write-a-thon (organized by @not-freyja and @hotcheetohatredwastaken and joined by their new mods @noorahqar, @a-manicured-lawn, and @winterfen). The purpose of this event was to write as many productive words—words that furthered yourself, the LU writing community at large, or your own stories—within 24 hours as humanly possible. 

We had a whopping 90+ participants as opposed to our previous 16 - none of us expected such a large turnout, and were suitably unprepared 😅 We’ll definitely be making a lot of changes to accommodate that many people during the next Write-a-Thon, occurring August 1st. Thank you all for your patience!

But, until next month, here’s the awards and titles earned by each participant, as voted upon by the Discord server through an anonymous survey. The mods read through all your hundreds of submissions (thank you guys so much!) and picked either the highest voted title or the funniest custom submission for each person, as we found appropriate. First up is the winner’s circle, then the clubs, and then everybody else in alphabetical order right below this readmore!

The Winner’s Circle (5 Most Wordiest)

20,037 “Writer of All Time” and “Most Likely to Make 1K become 100K” (As can be seen in all its glory in your Aspects AU) @tashacee: You took advantage of Freyja and Cheeto’s beefing about who would be first and snapped up the win right from under their noses. Well played! 

20,011 “Writer of Some of the Time” and “Pen and Paper (Scritch... Scratchy?)” @hotcheetohatredwastaken: Missed the mark by juuust a bit, for the second time in a row. Cheeto, you suck. (:3 –Cheeto) (Qar wrote this, for reference!). Also wrote for most of the marathon on pen and paper!

17,491 “Writer of Last Time” (for winning last month and then failing to defend their title) and “The FourShadow-er of all Time” (for the unholy amount of Chekov’s Guns they leave lying around loaded in their docs) @not-freyja: you are the most autistic about Legend. Nerd.

13,203 “Will Make You Cry” and “Captain of the Twilight Angst Tag on Ao3” @somer-writes: Boosting the Twilight economy, and we’re all happy about it. Also the second-funniest person in the server, with the second-most stars!

13,000 “AU Collector” and “Four Enjoyer” @zarvasace: Whether they're heroes with disabilities, space rangers, or vampires, if Mina wrote it, the boys will be written well.

Clubs

Now while everyone’s accomplishments as individuals were nothing to sneeze at, teamwork does in fact make the dream work. A few lovely people made a couple of equally lovely groups, either by their own choice or as assigned by peer review.

Aimed for the Funny Numbers Club

“Literally Satan” @allwayswildchild: with exactly 6666 words, you deserve every bit of this cursed title. 

“Lawn Blart Mall Cop” and “Qar's Mom in a Moment of Weakness Apparently (And Then Qar’s Sister in a Moment of Un-Weakness)” @a-manicured-lawn: The latter explains itself. Apparently, the vision of Lawn segwaying around is amusing. [Some people just can’t appreciate the beauty of a white shirt, tie, and glorious moped… ~Lawn]

“The Reincarnated” @defenestration13: Hadn't written in six months but then reappeared to write multiple thousand words. Good job.

“Multimedia Powerhouse” @passerinesoncaffeine: The art, the writing, Raven's got it all! Painting, analyzing music, commenting, whatever you touch it turns to gold.

“Dark Miette” goes to @rebornofstars: An inside joke that I don’t understand. Also thought you should know that you got [insert bee pun].

“The Memer” and “Literally Wind” @savimatteo2810: These are related.

“The Quoter” @whatvioletdoes-blog: For spending the event harvesting quotable quotes for their chat-fic.

(freyja overshot all potential funny numbers, but is a member at heart)

Most Likely to Get Fangirled (Gender Neutral) Over Club

“Literally Hyrule” @across-violet-skies: Also called the Spunky Sidekick and a calming jasmine tea type person. Hopefully your ghost pepper recovery goes well. 

“The Snippeter” @imperialkatwala: For sharing so many snippets to us hungry folk. Thank you kindly.

“Friend Shaped” @polynomialpandemic: A friend to all. Also a “Snippeter” - thank you for feeding the masses!

“Four Tormentor” @undertheopensky: For really obvious reasons. Also managed to make Freyja scream for 10 minutes with your mere presence alone!

Other Friend Groups

“Sad Wet Cat Club” @cinis0 and @lunaopus, you two seem to have nominated one another, so you get this club all to yourselves! However, I would love to know what the talk of forgetting that the Queen died was about…. (Qar has requested to be an honorary member of this club)

@awildsilver and @four-eyed-nerd, you two get to come together as “Four-Eyed-Nerd’s Rat” and “AWildSilver’s Cat,” which is I think our favorite group of all in this month’s running. I do have some additional questions for you two, however, about a mention of the bee movie as an original work (allowed as long as it’s not copy pasted and also hilarious) for you Wild and the title “Honey I shrunk the Links” for you, Four. 

The Community Support Team

“The Commentator of All Time” @1-renegade: To directly quote, “Ain't NOBODY give better feedback and comments than lawlessland.” 

“Will Make You Cry” @artsyanonymity: Anonymity is the sweetest and kindest commenter in existence! SHE. WILL. MAKE. YOU. CRy. Writes the nicest comments and they make me (and apparently several others) cry

“The Encouragement Itself” @cat-at-a-writing-desk: For encouraging others to reach their goals. We appreciate you!

“Drill Sergeant” @gintrinsic-writing: Made Qar get 5k and scared everyone else into writing. (You did it! I got 5k! The fear (with funny intonation) dragged me over the finish line -Qar)

“Drawer of A Thousand Words” @la-sera: Ruler of the Legend and Hyrule brotherhood, inspirer of writers, and the spreader of so much love with your art this Fan Joy July with the art you spent the marathon working on. Can’t wait to see it all as the month goes on.

“The Reader of all Time” @life-in-winter: Or as you all probably know her, passerine44, the writer of the best ao3 comments of all time. Thea, you walk into a digital room and every writer there makes heart eyes at you. Cannot wait to read the writing you’ve been working on (and leave a comment) to return the favor.

“The Respondent of All Time” @silvrash-797: Silvrash had over four months of unanswered ao3 comments that she caught up with, congrats!

“Lives up to the Screen Name” @sunny-porridge: To quote: “Sunny is 100% a ray of sunshine and anyone who says otherwise can FIGHT ME” and I think we all agree.

“The Wildest Supporter.” @twilightangel83: Supported people and sent a lot of Wild emojis, so much so that we started picturing you as Wild!

“Poet” and “Master of the Shrimp Check” @winterfen: Writes good poetry, and also made sure that everyone was appropriately fed, hydrated, and rested for this event. 

Transfer Students

“I don’t work here, Lady” goes to bArk who neither has a tumblr nor writes for this fandom, but showed up and had fun anyways. Thanks for joining us!

“He Who Finished His Book” goes to jr_for_potus44 (not on Tumblr). Congrats!

“Split Screen” goes to @straight-outta-hobbiton for writing two fics on two screens at the same time, neither of which were LU. Frightening.

The Silent Ones

@pelicanpig, @mmelete, @wayfayrr, @raeofsky, @summaryscar @sunkissedkales: You guys came, you wrote, you did not elaborate. How mysterious your aura is (positive, deeply positive.)

"The Almost Silent One" @the-au-collector: Talked before and after, but not during the event. Probably too busy writing, or busy in general - good job either way!

Everybody else!

“Frequent Flier (WPM)” @anime-obsessed: For participating in so many sprints. Also earned “vocaloid enjoyer.”

“Keyboard Warrior” @august-the-friend: You fought autocorrect and lost 3-0, but it was a valiant fight nonetheless. You did great.

“Artist turned Writer” @aurora-boreas-borealis: Took a break from streaming to write—a huge shout out for all your hard work and your help with colors! (~the actual pigments, not the Links ~Lawn) 

“Literally Sun” @beesandhoney1219: Warmer than sunlight, sweeter than sugar, and absolutely obsessed with Sky’s girlfriend.

“Most Likely to Include Raccoons in their Fic” @bittirsweeteer: They Who Has Given Legend Espresso (thank you for your service).

“Last Minute Vidow” @deleetrix: Something that should always be encouraged. Thank you for feeding us.

“Stargiver” @emberlylion: For starring in a lot of posts, especially cat pics. Thank you for your service.

Move over Time, @estelian-01 “Will Fight Majora and Win” and then go back to studying.

“Studious Student Who (has not) Studied” @gerudoevernight: Self nominated for “Studious Student who Studied” for hitting their goal while in school. The mod team disagreed with the accuracy of that title and affectionately chose this one instead. Good job hitting your goal!

“The Outliner” @gia-d: Accidentally wrote a first draft. Also think it should be noted that everyone is convinced you either could kill a god or that you carry one around in your pocket.

“Onomatopoeia Outrage” @haloburns: Who debated the word “ow” so hard they inflicted it on the people around them.

“The Scholar” @irenkaferalkitty: For her extensive collection of well-researched data, presented in charts, documents and yes, excel sheets. We appreciate you.

“Most Improved” @labyrinthdancer: Their writing has improved a lot since they started posting! also they write really dark twilight & the chain fics. Being a new writer is scary, but they kept at it and are doing so well!

“Writer of Most Cursed Victorian Child” aka their take on Ravio, is @lele5429 with their first ever fic, which is as gorgeous in words as your art is in ink.

“The Hype Man (gender neutral)/Moral Support” @lemoncatssss: For all the encouragement that you gave others. Also the cat photos. Especially the cat photos.

“The accidental friend acquirer” @lennsart: For somehow befriending literally every single person you talk to.

“Severe Case of Clacking” @lerikwrites: You know why. Pennies in a washing machine my friend.

“Hyrule Hurter” goes to @linkiscool333: We all have the blorbo we love to put in the blender, but no one blends Rulie like you do.

“Marcus Actually Writes!?” @marcusdoodlesalot: For a second month in a row, some of us are still befuddled that Marcus is actually a writer, and not just an artist. Hard to believe that someone can have that much talent in both fields.

“Soup Soup Soup Soup Soup (Soup Soup Soup Soup Soup)” @marsnoodlesoup: I... do not know what this means. Congrats, it seems you’re soup.

“The Veteran” @musical-chan: For sharing stories of the early days of fandom. Back in my day but the most positive way possible

“Artist Turned Writer” @mysticstars105: Came out and wrote a whopping 400 words, which is so many words especially when you’re new. Gold Star!

“Art Fight Pre-Gaming” @nebulapaws: For their talk of Art Fight. Hope you have fun participating this month!

“Resident Audiophile” @needfantasticstories: Not just for writing with speech-to-text all day, but for your constant enthusiastic screaming about Epic the musical.

“Most likely to fight God and Win” and “The Modderrrrrr” @noorahqar: Who is actually Sky. Not with the sleepy part though. She actually wrote so much about Sky that he stole all her sleepy. Number one on the starboard, with the proud title of MVM (Most Valuable Mod) for sticking the landing as midnight hit. Also the one with “The Most Sigmas to Grindset” whatever… whatever that means. (Please help what does that mean?) 

“Picture Perfect Exhaustion” @nyastri: Their PFP (Four Doubled Over, hands on knees) combined with the announcement they'd reached their writing goal at the end of the marathon really just sold the picture for me. Well done.

“The Sleepy One” @ocha-blue: who justifiably went to bed as soon as they finished. (Hope you're recovered by now.)

“First Time Fic Writer” @peepthatbish: for breaking into the fic scene and boosting morale for our mod team, especially Lawn. We appreciate you!

“Slow And Steady (WPM)” @pokegeek151: Who was chugging away all day long.

“Doomed by the Narrative” @ra-archives: Google docs acting up, cat sitting on lap, and yet you persisted. Good job.

“My Little Friend Who I Love (This Is Qar Btw) (This Is Part Of The Title)” and “Wordsmith” @rosehipandroots: This is a direct copy paste from your submissions, Rose. Hope you enjoy it. But your amazing descriptions really make you a wordsmith. “The SkyBoy Enjoyer of All Time” @sapphicseasapphire: for your lovely art and writing of the boy!

“Task Succeeded Successfully” @screaming-but-i-have-four-swords: was an artist turned writer that tried to write words, and did! Good job.

“Artist Turned… More Artist” @seaotter-17: We were told you write descriptions like a poet, but in this event, you were most recognizable by your drawings of Nina the cat. Thank you for sharing. 

The “Person with a Passion for Pudding” (which is definitely an inside joke I do not understand, so I hope it makes you laugh) @somanyfanficssolittletime: Thanks for participating!

“The Fic Reccer of all Time” @staring-at-a-blank-page: For recommending so many fics, their own and others, up to read. Thank you!

“The Drabbler” @tenderleavesbob: For their lovely drabbles, of which they wrote around 10k of. The title is appropriate - it seems your drabbles have taken Tumblr (and the participants in this survey) by storm!

“100% Bunny Accurate Fiction”  @toyouhellohowareyou: writer of the most rabbit-fact-checked fics of all time by our own Bunny Lord [Beloved Pet and Bunny Boy (Legend) Himself]

“The Podficcer of All Time” @unexpectedstormy: For podfic making, promoting, and educating. And if that wasn’t enough fae is also our very own “Dragon Tamer” who spent the event working on their HTTYD WIP!

“The Dashshunder” @vivalaplutothedachshund: For sharing your lovely menace of a dog Pluto with us all. We also appreciate you both in the chats and in our rampage to give PolynomialPandemic 109 hugs. 

“Mod Emotional Support. We love you” @wanderlustmagician: You know what you did, and Cheeto’s firstborn deservedly belongs to you.

“Word Weaver” and “Fanfiction Foul---was writing at work instead of working” @weavingstarlight: Your words sparkle as bright as you do, glitter jar.

“Literally First (also shared cat pics)” @witchdoctor39 : Even Hylia can’t hold a candle to how much you love that poor poor man!

Thank all of you for participating, we appreciate each and every one of you so so so much! Please note that we had 90+ participants, and as such, there is probably guaranteed to be some mistakes on the list above. If you find any typos or pronoun goofs or anyone that was put on the list twice or missing or under the wrong name or put under the wrong name or any error that comes with having different discord and tumblr names or if you were left off the list in error or if you want to request a different name than the one you received or you want to be put into or removed from one club or another or anything else that could have gone wrong—please feel free to contact @hotcheetohatredwastaken or @not-freyja with your concerns here on tumblr!

Again, a big thank you to everyone for coming to the event from all of us on the mod team! Can’t wait to see you guys next month! And stay tuned---there will be another post with more information about the next event within the next couple of weeks!

[sealinredshoes]

Big Four Month Day 1 : Origins

I'm late for the Big Four Month but here we go. Here are some of my headcanons for a Big Four first meeting because my life is a little shitty righ now and I don't have the time to write this as a one shot

Let's be honest, the time line for the RotBTD crossover is way too complicaded. So you know what ? May the RenFair setting be upon you.

Merida is in her best medieval dress but there is a viking boy staring at her from across the food stand like the autism creature so she leave toward the dance area

They are playing songs from ages long forgotten. Music that makes her feel alive, make her feel like if her body is bigger than her bones, spreading freely toward the sun and the sky like if she had already walked this Earth before and know all of its secrets.

Suddently, boom, she end up dancing with Hiccup kingdom dance style and even if they are weirded out, it feel so natural to keep dancing , because there are old souls in young bodies and an old soul know another

Hiccup eventually apologize for staring at her earlier because he is not a creep he just wanted to steal her Mor'du's pin.

"Dude you know Mord'u ?" "Of fucking course I know Mor'du, it's a classic tale !" "Bro, litteraly no one know Mor'du, there is like nothing made around this tale !" "Bro, I know, that's such a shame !" "My life is in shambles bro." "Mine is meaningless without this pathetic bear king !" "He is such a wet cat." "The stinky"

They keep infodumping over celtic tale and legends, Hiccup explaning why trolls are a matriarcal society, Merida making theories about King Arthur's return. They go buy crepes and keep talking with their mouth full, being use as a bad examples for the kids around them.

The Mor'du pin is actually just a wooden bear pin Merida customized. She agree to bring Hiccup back to the stand, because this old lady make such cool things.

There is mostly bears, but also some fantasy book pins, and because I like to think Hiccup would be a Terry Pratchett fan, and that selling Discword inspired art is now illegal, he is very happy to find a beautiful Librarian carving, the only one of his kind.

Wouldn't be a shame if some white haired sheperd just came out of nowhere wainting to buy it too ?

It's time for some roast battle with Merida as a back up (making weird faces behind him) (she is very bad at back up) until they suddently realise the pin isn't here anymore and that a girl in a purple princess dress is ready to pay for it and putting it on her bag.

"Okay, no, you have to fight for it like everyone else !" "*gasp*Is this some kind of mexican standoff situation ?" "What ? No ? I don't no shit about cinema theory ?" "Mexican standoff is a cinema stuff ?" "Anyway, when will you three gonna fight ?"

Of course they are not going to fight right here over the old lady stand so they just walk around the Ren fair for seven minutes to find some Hnefatall board to set it up.

The party is so long, everybody is screaming, Rapunzel is pulling the biggest cheating move without knowing it, Jack contemplate his life with horror and Merida is so frustrated some time that she just move the pieces herself.

At some point, they are not just playing anymore, they are making silly scenario about the pawns and pretending to be merciless gods and causing chaos. It's being hours. People hate them because they doesn't share the board. The old lady is gone.

They end up being forced to leave the board to other kids and go find some food, enjoy the fair, spend to much money over costume pieces. Laughing all the way.

Slowly the sun is getting down, they don't think in matter of time anymore, they watch the acrobatic spectacles from affar. Jack is showing of his backflips skills. They found one of those climbing polls at the children area where they can pretend to be knigh in training. There is no kids anymore, they have it all to themselves. Someway Rapunzel end up at the top of the poll.

"Okay, how do I get down, know ?" "How do you get on this on the first place ?" "I don't know okay ?" "I'm sure we can use her hair to help her down." " How exactly, like by knittting it ?" "Or braiding it, like this girl on tiktok, you know ?" "Okay but will this be enough to hold her weight ?" "Guys, can you shut up and just help me ?"

She fall down on them and they are screaming so loudly they end up being kicked out of the fair

The nigh is young, they souls are old, they feel bigger than their bodies, today is meant to never end, they get lost on the parking lot, drip down on the mud, fall all the way down a small hill.

They are tired, and messy, and covered in dirt. This is the best nigh of their lives, they feel like they were born again this night

I hope I will catch up on the list tomorrow, I didn't even have the time to check everyone else work.

[archipithecus]

Friends at the Table is a podcast focused on critical worldbuilding, smart characterization, fun interaction between good friends, and asking "what if X was Y? what if W could do Z?"

anyways here's a non-comprehensive selection of some times FatT asked good hypotheticals

(spoilers for Autumn in Heiron, Marielda, Winter in Heiron, COUNTER/Weight, Twilight Mirage, Sangfielle, and some Bluff City i think) (i know Spring, Partizan, and Palisade must also have good "what if X was Y?" but i'm still catching up) (this got way long so i'm putting it behind a readmore) (shoutout to Search at the Table at https://curiosity.cat-girl.gay/ for letting me do this) (also to Transcripts at the Table for writing this all down in the first place)

KEITH: What if I was a snow...hawk… ART: What if you're like, a Dr. Seuss animal? KEITH: Yeah! What if I was a star-bellied sneetch?

KEITH: (laughing) What if the bird was a can opener!

AUSTIN (as Zaktrak): It's like, what if a, what if a factory or train or a windmill could read a book?

AUSTIN (CONT.): And then he, he looks up, he actually has like a very… his build is kind of like, angular and… not thin in terms of like, weak? But he has a sort of… androgynous character about him, in terms of his like, what you would think of as like his body structure. And… very beautiful blue eyes. He’s sort of like, what if David Bowie was super black.

AUSTIN: And that's kind of like, the picture you get of her, is like, What if Fero was like, 30% less hyperactive? Still way more hyperactive than everybody else in-- the world? (laughter) but like, just a little more in tune, with the world.

AUSTIN: What if fire was matte?

ART: What if a—what if a 90s after school special needed some graffiti

AUSTIN: Yeah. He asks you, um... watching what unfolds, and there's, there's, it's--and this is the fuckin' nerdiest thing I'm ever gonna say; it's like what if A-ha's Take On Me was an AMV? Was an anime music video?

AUSTIN: Ali’s character, how did she describe her character, “what if Han Solo used to be Beyonce?”

AUSTIN: It’s like, what if the American government was just another American company?

AUSTIN: It’s like what if holograms did gifs, basically?

ART: You how like Han Solo’s always talking to the Millenium Falcon, but what if the Millenium Falcon-- AUSTIN: Could talk back? ART: Had a chance of, yeah, of deciding he was angry.

SYLVIA: For example. Like just p - yeah, what if they have psychic assassins there. Oh! What if this planet’s an alien? What if this planet is a psychic assassin? Which is a great sentence I just said.

AUSTIN: Yeah, I should note that this is also like "What if the Super Bowl was attended by high fashion models?", right?

AUSTIN: We don’t get a lot of elderly non-binary people. And so Saint Auger is like, what if someone you knew from Portland was 82?

AUSTIN: It’s almost like, what if a crown could be a dunce cap?

AUSTIN: It's like- what if there was a really enterprising twelve year old, who like, [laughs] made a physiology- uh, person- a physiology like, model, but with dirt and rocks and sticks. Also there's no face, the face is also just one of this solid black rock plates.

AUSTIN: And again, there’s just light streaming in through—I think this room is mostly, like, does not have a huge window, but it does have little eyelet windows at the top of the, towards the ceiling, that run horizontally along the room, and just like, bright—it’s almost like, what if colour could be shadow? Do you know what I mean? Like, what if instead of it being that a shadow crosses your face, it is this prismatic glow that moves across the group of you as this thing crawls around this space station.

AUSTIN: It’s like white and blue, there are stars, it- you know, I think that the- it’s, it looks like the way you might imagine like, what if the UN had spaceships?

AUSTIN: What if you mixed your- your selfhood, with the notion of wings. Or the notion of flight. Not just flying. That’s where we’re going.

AUSTIN: This giant battleship that’s like ‘what if a millipede instead of legs had guns and what if it was all around it’?

AUSTIN: This thing is like the size of like a major city. This thing is like, what if Manhattan was a battleship. And instead of buildings it had guns. Except now they’re made of weird black glass.

AUSTIN: The first time he showed up I described him as what if Canderous Ordo decided to have a robot body one day? And slowly began to replace it.

AUSTIN: There’s a little— Yes, it’s like what if a cow— what if Christian Slater was playing a cowboy from New Jersey, and also was Canderous Ordo. And also he eats through his hands.

AUSTIN: There is just this like… I think it’s just metal unfolding across space. Like, at some point Volition just kind of spat out a, a, almost, it looks like a cloud of ink but instead of ink, it’s metal. And it’s just unfolding indefinitely in space like a huge— like what if Akira, what if at the end of Akira when Tetsuo turns into a weird flesh monster? It was that but various types of metal, just like bubbling all over the place throughout space, and I don’t know how you deal with that! But suddenly in the middle of the Mirage there is just this, this ink splatter, this, this gaseous, you know, spread of metal.

AUSTIN: And it’s like — again, it’s like a pistol — it’s like what if a pistol was also like a curved sword, like almost like a scimitar or something?

JANINE: What if we do a live show, but the only live show we ever do is at Bakucon?

ART: Um, let me tell you, this is a nice coat, you guys. Um, I think it’s sort of like what if… What if a leather duster jacket was like an ephemeral idea.

AUSTIN: It’s like … I think the way I described it was, what if there was a Companion Cube that could have its corners pulled apart and in the middle is a weird glowing sphere?

AUSTIN: He has this dope, like, “What if the Millenium Falcon was a deep V?” Instead of just that little bit at the top, it goes really deep down. Or like, “What if Pacman was really long?” You know what I mean?

AUSTIN: Okay. You find him like, rolled under the bottom of his, uhh, or like on a, it’s not rolled under, he’s on like a little, like cart that has a pneumatic lift, or it’s like, it’s like a, it’s like a robot that walks around. It has like- it’s like a Boston Dynamics- like what if a Boston Dynamics, like four-legged robot was also a thing you laid on top of? Like one of those carts that goes underneath a car, to repair it. You know what I’m talking about?

AUSTIN (as Morning’s Observation): [exhales thoughtfully] Like what if milk was a solid.

AUSTIN: But it still has that ribbony-quality? [chuckles] It still has the sound of fabric rubbing on fabric? But is definitely amplified a great deal, probably? And also, we know it’s sharp, so there’s probably some… sharpness to it? You know… there’s probably, like… what if a ribbon could be a sword you pull out of a sheath?

AUSTIN: And also, Saint Sommer is a big lion man. Saint Sommer is, like… Skein. And is a big… a big… like, a big lion man. Not like Lion-o from Thundercats. Like… what if Scar could… had a big human body? Was, like… What if Scar was cut?

KEITH: And it sort of like, snap! Like, that, it's like… when we were talking about what the sound it makes, I was picturing… what if folding a blanket sounded like sheet metal?

AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah. I don’t know I think it’s like, I think this is very much like, what if the Venom symbiote was made of thread, right?

AUSTIN: So maybe it's like a- like imagine, what if a mop could just mop by itself.

AUSTIN: I won’t talk more about that stuff, but you already saw the big picture of “what if Connecticut was a space ocean,” so, you have at least some context there.

AUSTIN: It’s huge. It’s the size of a continent, right? It’s “What if South America was a big circle?” It’s “What if Europe and Eurasia was a big circle?”, constantly cast on this planet. And, you know, from space it kind of looks—not flat necessarily, right, because it’s a curved planet, it’s a sphere, or spherical, but, you know, it’s flat.

AUSTIN: It’s like what if Texas stood up.

AUSTIN (as Morning’s Observation): “What if cars brought things to you instead of bringing you to things?”

AUSTIN: It’s just like a very bright, colorful—like, what if Steven Universe did the Sailors of the Ark? What if that team did it? It’s very good.

AUSTIN: It’s like what if it’s a can opener that does that. Like a living can opener like. Grrrngaaah! I’m going fucking open holes in things! Grrngaah!

AUSTIN: Imagine that they're almost- in my mind they're like what if a martini shaker was a piston.

AUSTIN: It's like what if you could package a sunset, y'know? Into like a cube

AUSTIN: I can't believe we started this recording by looking at pies [KEITH and DRE laugh] that make me hurt and ended with ‘what if all foods could be jelly juice?’.

AUSTIN: I saw a big buffalo picture and I was like what if that was a person, that looks cool.

ART: But what if some of these skeletons are like, sick of this shit?

AUSTIN: I think I pitched this show as like: what if Ghost in the Shell but-but magic and witches instead of cyborgs and stuff?

JACK: So, out come this nascent organization who we’re calling Shapeknights. Who are -- I think the easiest way to say it is “cowboys for trains?” They are, like -- what if instead of the cowboy riding alongside the train on his horse, he was corralling the train? Or he was trying to understand the train, or was trying to --

ALI: I think Marn, herself is a little bit more like—like what if a capybara was a siamese cat?

KEITH: Yeah. So, I wholeheartedly recommend this movie, but if not, if you don't know what I'm talking about with the goggles, at least look at that. ‘Cause it's a good image. It's sort of like, what if you had a jeweler's loupe that had a jeweler's loupe that had a jeweler's loupe?

ART: It’s like, what if the antagonist won the Mummy movie right, this is what happens-

KEITH: What if instead of one, big, beautiful hat I have two small, beautiful hats?

KEITH: Like what if they made headphones just for being cool at a party?

KEITH: What if you make pizza by opening the box? That it was an empty box until you opened it.

AUSTIN: What if insects were made of teeth?

JACK: She’s the fuckin’ person of the train. She’s like what if a train could output a person.

KEITH: What if the train was a nice train?

ART: What if a Madame Tussauds came to life?

AUSTIN: What if fire could be a ghost?

AUSTIN: Looking through this here, sounds like what you wrote here was “What if a dolphin was like a velociraptor?”

AUSTIN: They’re hitched. Yeah, they've been hitched. Three of them have been hitched. And I said horse, but I want you to imagine is what if…what if a shrimp were a horse?

JACK: You sort of just like rise up the slope. It's a bit like what if a train was an escalator.

AUSTIN: What if Beyonce was Poison Ivy?

AUSTIN: All my cards on the table, Millennium Black is like what if Blade stopped being a vampire hunter and started being a casino owner.

AUSTIN: He's sort of like what if Alex Jones wasn't terrible

[sarnai4]

Let's Normalize It

Writers, artists, musicians, and everybody else who's involved in the arts, I want to normalize loving what we create. I hear people say that they're embarrassed by their work, hate what they write, and more. That should stop. We shouldn't feel ashamed of what we make as long as we make it the best that we can. If we put our all into our stories, artwork, music, etc. then we should feel nothing but proud. Now, we don't have to be arrogant, but I do think there's a healthy level of pride someone should have in their work.

Create work that you would love if you were the one consuming it, not even its creator. Create work that makes you so excited that you have to keep working on it more until your vision is out there for the world to see. Create work that can be a comfort to you after a long, stressful day. Create work that can inspire others to want to bring art to the world like you did.

So, please, let's normalize loving what we do. Writers can geek out over their own stories like they don't know what the twists will be. Painters/drawers can marvel at the beauty on the canvas. Musicians can get lost in the auditory world they've made. Loving work starts with the person who made it. That love can be felt on the other side of the screen, page, and more.

There's nothing wrong about having passion for art. There's also nothing wrong about being different, but I think this is something that should become a new norm.

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

Since some other anon went off about not feeling like a Fire Emblem fan because they didn't fit into the usual boxes, and I want to go on about that for a bit. Why does it matter whether you fit into some specific criteria or not? Why should you feel bad for not just being an echo chamber about what everybody else says? It does not matter whether you do or do not like a game, it does not matter how many games you have played, it does not matter if you play casual or classic mode, if you enjoy the games, even just one of them, I consider you a fan of Fire Emblem. The beautiful thing about fandoms is how passionate the people involved are, be it the art, the writing, the music, anything, even including differing opinions, because without somebody with a different view on any topic, the plot, the character designs, the gameplay, we would only stagnate. If everybody truly was a hivemind that only fit into boxes, we would not get the beauty of fandom, every fanfiction would be the same, every piece of art following the same pattern, and there would be nothing to discuss, because we would already know everybody agrees, so what would be the point of fandom at that point? While I do think there is an argument to be had about people taking things too personally when it comes to differing views, mainly people not understanding there is no right answer for FE3H, I personally think it is amazing to know just how different our tastes our from each other, because it allows for a much more passionate discussion about this franchise then just parroting what everybody else has said. I personally use phoenix mode a ton when playing Fates, the Tellius games are my favorite of the franchise despite not having any casual mode, I prefer the original Warriors game to the Three Hopes game, Shadows of Valentia is my least favorite of the series due to its gameplay, I want to see more fanfics about putting these silly little guys in situations, and I personally want Tellius remakes more than I do Genealogy, because I want more people to be able to play those games without selling a kidney and so it can finally have casual mode. I do not doubt there are several people who have differing stances on any of my opinions I listed, and you know what? I would not have it any other way. Oh uh, since this is supposed to not just be fandom takes: Janaff, Ulki, and Nealuchi should be added to Heroes.

.

[coolgirl32]

Things I forgot to put in that everybody should know about my OC in X-Men 97 au

What color are her eyes

Her eyes are a dark blue but they do of course change color this happens when the weather changes thanks to storm or her mood starts to change or when she uses her powers but her eyes do become a very beautiful greenish blue.

What does she call her husband when she's mad

She calls Scott by his full name which is Scott Matthews Summers so when she calls him by his full name everybody runs out of the room because they do not need to be in that argument and Scott is fearing for his life because when his wife gets mad at him shit starts to go down and he does not need his wife to be angry at him or anyone else.

Has she dated anyone else

The answer is no she has not dated anyone else this is before she met Scott so yeah Scott is very happy that she has not dated anyone else and that he was the only guy she'll ever date and he was the guy to marry her and he's very happy that he married her because she's the one who makes him happy everyday.

Does she know combat/martial arts

Yes she does and she's a good fighter too one time Jean Gray try making moves on Scott that really got Jacqulyn's blood boiling so of course her and Jean both got into a fight and of course she used her powers on Jean to turn off Jean Gray's abilities and Jacqulyn of course won the fight because of how experience she is.

Does she like Jean Gray as a friend

No she does not like Cyclops in wolverine their feelings are mutual and they tolerate each other so she tolerates Jean and Jean tolerates Jacqulyn they do have fights once in awhile but they do work together when it comes to missions and working with the team so yeah feelings are mutual it's like frenemies but very different.

What are the things she likes to do on her free time

She likes to do other stuff like write books and try out new recipes and write new recipes spend time with her twin babies spend time with her friends and family including her husband she also likes going for a walk once in awhile but when she does go out for a walk she takes her babies and her husband with her get some fresh air spend time together good family bonding time.

Who does she like and who does she despise

For the people she despises it would have to be Jean Gray mystique magneto evil humans who want to judge her and her family and mutants everywhere bad mutants and sinister and other people who want to hurt her and her friends and family and for the people she does like that would be her friend's family wolverine storm jubilee Gambit her husband her twin babies beast rogue and many others.

I hope you all enjoyed this and sorry I couldn't make this in one post. You know the drill My OC is married to Scott Summers an alternate universe and don't copyright or repost without my full permission and enjoy and have a good day.

Bonus

She can sing very well like her singing is amazing like you know the song you will remember me by Amber from Danny phantom yeah her singing is like that but very different like she can sing all types of songs and music any type of singing really from the '80s basically. Sorry I had to make this really quick it's why I want to add okay I'm done not done with the fanfic but done with this post okay bye. 😋🤣😇

[emilyblame]

i’ve been avoiding writing this post because, as stupid as it sounds, part of me felt that when i did, it would mean it was truly over. but then another part of me feels the need to say something, so here i am…

i came across As It Is by chance, when YouTube decided to recommend ‘The Stigma (Boys Don’t Cry)’ to me back in July, 2018. it wasn’t really that long ago, but it was truly a one way ticket. i fell in love with the band instantly. i’m not gonna go into detail here, because i don’t want to make this about me, but they truly saved my life back then. and continue to do so still today. i love them so much, words are not enough.

i was going through my old posts and oh, my God, was i in love with this band. still am, of course. i was so obsessed with The Great Depression i wrote a two-parter theory explaining the concepts behind it. and , you know what? a lot of it still makes sense. such a good record. all of them. all of As It Is. so much talent. i hope that even if they’re taking this time apart and away from the music business they never stop making art. especially Patty (because everybody else has done it already). I really hope he keeps writing music even if it’s just for himself. he’s too talented to just let it go to waste.

over this past week, i’ve been listening to As It Is nonstop and it got me thinking. even though the band is taking some time off– and even if they break up for good– we still have all the beautiful art they’ve made. no matter what happens that will never leave us. the songs and memories will stay forever with us.

so i guess what i’m trying to say is: thank you. thank you for being there when no one else was. thank you for understanding me like nobody else ever did. thank you for writing the songs that helped me process what i went through. thank you for making me feel seen and validated and like i mattered. thank you... for everthing.

i’ll miss you. but i’m gonna be here when you come back. until then... we dream ‘cause we don't sleep. we'll never get rest, but we got this.

[ibuprofen-exe]

10 Songs Tag

Rules: Use your WIP playlist and put it on shuffle. Write the first 10 songs that come up and quote your favourite lyrics from each song and/or the lyrics that fit your WIP best (they might be the same lyrics), then tag 10 people.

Thanks for the tag @downtoithaca ^⁠_⁠^ And as redemption for not even leaving an open tag last time I did this game, I shall tag @filmografo @fleurtygurl and anyone else who would like to participate! As always, there is no pressure to answer.

I recently made a playlist for Nuclear Fanfare, so these songs are for that:

Hollywood by Car Seat Headrest

Hollywood makes me wanna puke!

I an a Poseur by X Ray Spex

Anti-art was the start! Establishments like a laugh!

Kiss Them For Me by Siouxsie and the Banshees

It glittered and it gleamed for the arriving beauty queen.

Liquid Smooth by Mitski

Capture me, or at least take my picture.

Banned in D.C. by Bad Brains

Gonna swim across the Atlantic ‘cause that’s the only thing I can do.

The Communists Have the Music by Thy Might Be Giants

What I care about is music, and the Communists have the music.

She’s A Rebel by Green Day

She’s a symbol of resistance, and she’s holding on my heart like a hand grenade!

Fuck You by Bad Religion

Everybody needs a slogan in their pocket or two!

A Good Song Never Dies by Saint Motel

And when they play it, you can’t help but sing along.

Being a Rock Star by Lemon Demon

If I ever write any songs about being a rock star, slap me please, alright?

Lots of songs about music and rebellion, which is appropriate. “Banned in D.C.” seems like the odd one out, but it makes sense in context, I promise.

[soemthingsparkly]

please know that if i could draw i would make art of their first gig because reading that gave me a beautiful image of them just having fun playing in a slightly run down little bar and it just. inspired me so much

also, new questions time (answer how many/few you want lol i was just coming up with questions),

1) will grian ever tell the rest of the boatem band about his secret career as Ariana Griande?

2) what type of music do the band play?

3) does pearl get to keep her australian accent when she sings? because some people lose their accents when they sing

sorry for spamming your ask box its just i have become obsessed with this au now

Please know that even sharing the desire to make art out of my little brain rambles is the kindest thing I have experienced today. Thank you for telling me. I'm so happy I could inspire you, especially because you've been inspiring me!

Let's start with the ones that are easier to address!

2) what type of music do the band play?

So I wanted their music to feel pretty contrasting to the music I assume Ariana Griande performs, which I think is probably some kind of bubblegum pop.

So I think Boatem are pretty indie-sounding, a little bit grungy, a little bit mellow. Think Catfish and the Bottlemen, Sea Girls, Snail Mail, and Girl in Red.

I think Scar writes a lot of the music. He just strikes me as the driving force behind the band. He's a pretty funny, cheerful guy, and then suddenly he's handing out new lyric sheets and everybody wants to know if he's okay.

I think Pearl, too, is a talented lyricist. It took her a few attempts to get into it, but eventually she was able to relax and open up. Her lyrics are often about moving somewhere new, leaving things behind, knowing they're still in the place you've left them but feeling too far away to take comfort in their existence.

Which brings me to the next question:

3) does pearl get to keep her Australian accent when she sings?

I think she does. I think maybe at first she adopts a generic middle-American accent when she sings. She tries to be what she thinks the lead singer of an indie rock band should be, but slowly, and with prompting from Scar, she begins to let her true self come through her songs and that includes her accent.

When Scar first asks why she doesn't want to perform as herself, Pearl admits it isn't a conscious effort to be someone else, it just kind of happens.

But slowly she loosens up, realises the band like her for her, rather than what she can pretend to be, and starts bringing her whole self to her performances.

Of course, this lines up pretty neatly with her lyric writing skill, too.

And of course, Grian is there when Scar asks why she feels the need to be someone else.

And of course, that leaves Grian with a lot to think about.

----

For the reveals, I think I actually need to think more on that. I definitely have something big planned, but I think I want to decide on the nuances first

Thank you so much again for your inspiring prompts :) 💛💛

[richardsgraysons]

Hellooo~ I hope you are doing well. If you are still doing Batfam matchups, I wonder if you could match me up with any of the batboys.

I’m 5’5 with slightly golden brown and hazel green eyes. I love anything involving art; jewelry, paintings, drawings, music, etc. I like to dance around my house with my music blasting, and wouldn’t mind having a partner to dance with. When I get bored or need to cool down, I try to read or play video games. I easily smile, even when i’m angry. I easily lose respect for those you don’t show respect to others or any other kind of human decency. I value my privacy and my independence, and my family and friends needs are very important to me. I love teasing, both towards myself and to others. I really like streetwear mixed with romantic academia vibes. I’m very sensitive but tend not to show it, yet I’m quick to start mouthing off when someone offends my moral values. I try to be polite and friendly towards strangers, until I get more comfortable to speak my mind. I love to talk and debate about so many topics, ranging from sciences to movies. I adore animals, but I’m a bit scared of insects. I love growing flora and fauna and giving them to my friends. I’m not very promiscuous and take my romantic relationships very seriously, and show my love through physical affection. I hope that’s enough, I don’t really know what else to write now. Thank you for doing this, it’s really fun to read these kinds of posts.

Anyways, I hope you have a great day💕

DICK GRAYSON

he would 100% dance around the house with you. shaking ass on the tables, or just slow dancing outside on the balcony softly as rain falls down and you have a beautiful view of the skyline

dick is a very noticeable person. out of everyone in the batfam, he is the most adept abt noticing things about a person (also why he's the most manipulative & charming) so he'd def notice when you're pissed about something even when you don't try to show it

he'd love listening to you about your hyperfixations and would respect your boundaries a lot

he'd go to ivy to learn more about how to take care of plants for you and then come back with more plants for you

paintings? hell yes. my dude would be BRAGGING to everybody about your artistic skills

he'd tease you a lot / a heavy flirtatious relationship before you actually date. and even when you date, there'd still be a lot of teasing as well

very overprotective though. that might be a pet peeve of yours where he might have like life 360 but that's just cause of his. job and he's scared that someone who knows his identity (like slade) might come for you

dick grayson is also a touchy dude. you guys will be needing to hold hands everywhere you go

[strongheartneteyam]

❝you don't have to be like everybody else, you don't have to fit into the norm, you are not here to conform.❞

𓆩♡𓆪 about me:

i'm a daydreamer with an endless love for art and for how beautiful life can be despite it feeling overwhelmingly hard sometimes. i think the dichotomy of it all, the pain mixed with joy, is what makes living so poetic. i was born in a big urban city but, even though i love the many options you have in a place like that, nothing is better than peace and nature. i'm extremely connected to nature, so, i identify a whole lot with kiri sully <3

languages: portuguese (first language), english (fluent), spanish (basic), i can read hangul and understand/speak a few words in korean and i can also read and understand/speak a little bit of german

passionate about: music, nature, sleeping, TV shows/movies, history, languages (i study na'vi every now and then, among other languages 💕), the human mind, science, anthropology, artificial intelligence, goth subculture, food, night time, vintage stuff, singing (i'm a good singer - that's what ppl tell me haha), fantasy, mcu, reading, sci-fi, dancing, self expressing through clothes, accessories and makeup, swimming, japanese & korean pop culture, gaming, writing poetry, song lyrics & fanfiction, celtic & norse culture, photography, ancient mythologies, crafts, painting, barbie, solitude, cooking

my favorites:

music ��� evanescence, HIM, lana del rey, taylor swift, avril lavigne, marina, rihanna, grimes, aurora, halsey, iggy azalea, little mix, miley cyrus, in this moment, within temptation, pretty little reckless, selena gomez, blackpink, taeyeon, nicki minaj, twice, gfriend and many more (i'm utterly obsessed with music!! ahaha)

literature ➳ the little prince, barbarian alien, barbarian lover, the hobbit and romeo & juliet are the books. the sick rose (william blake) and the raven (edgar allan poe) are the poems

tv shows ➳ friends, game of thrones, wandavision, house of the dragon, the office (usa), vikings, pretty little liars and the empress

movies ➳ the avatar franchise, pride & prejudice, atonement, titanic, the hunger games franchise, beauty and the beast (disney cartoon), battlecreek, barbie as the island princess, predator: prey, little women and 10 things i hate about you

animes ➳ kimetsu no yaiba, inuyasha and boku no hero

games ➳ stardew valley, mass effect: andromeda, minecraft, overwatch 2 and assassin's creed: valhalla

foods/drinks ➳ chocolate, sushi, pizza, coffee, soda and tea

i studied the english language for years and got a certificate that allows me to teach 📚🤓

i suffer from fibromyalgia, a chronic illness, so, i often end up taking a long time to answer private messages, comments, asks, requests etc bc i have to take many breaks to rest and recover, so, it doesn't mean i don't love u if i take some time to answer, it only means i'm dealing w/ my health problems 🤍

[rubysunnday]

your song | c.b

Summary: Being in love with Colin Bridgerton is hard when the man keeps running off to different continents for months at a time. But the letters he writes and the songs he sends keep the romance alive.

It had been six, long months since Y/N had last seen Colin Bridgerton.

He had gone off travelling again, disappearing off one night with nothing more than a kiss on the cheek goodbye and a promise to write.

The romance between Y/N and Colin had struck out of nowhere. One night they'd been dancing as nothing more than friends and the next moment, there was something more. The way his hands tightened on her waist whenever Cressida said something mean felt different. The way he wrote her notes with every bunch of flowers he sent read differently.

The way he took her hand as she stepped out a carriage, his fingers gently entwining with hers, felt different.

Y/N had fallen head over heels for a man who hated staying in the same place for more than a week. And it was annoying.

He'd written to her more than he had his own family. He wrote to her everyday, judging from the dates on his letters and they arrived in bundles from the postman, all tied with a ribbon that somehow managed to match the dress she was wearing that day.

In the dozens of letters Colin had sent her, he wrote down every detail of the place he was in from the sunsets to the colour of the postboxes. The friends he was traveling with were both music students, desperate for either a career break or to find a new purpose in life.

One of them, Freddy, has been teaching me about the beauty of song writing and how all great pieces of music begin. I'm nowhere near the grandure of Mozart or the beauty of Beethoven or any musicale we've ever attended, but I'm enjoying it nonetheless.

I've found that in my writings there's always one thing I can never quite describe correctly. I search through books for the right words that could even begin to do you justice, my dear Y/N, but I find none. There's no word for describing the way you watch a musicale, or the way you talk about art and reading. There's no word on earth that could do you justice.

So, I hope this poor man's attempt at a song, written under strict guidance and a watchful eye, will begin to convey, just how much I love you.

Y/N had read the letter over and over, her eyes scouring each and every line, taking in the sloppy slant of Colin's handwriting and how he smudged the ink in his desperation to write and write and write.

She pulled out the final sheet of the letter and let out a small surprised gasp. It was a piece of music, the notes written precisely and intricately, the lyrics written messily and scrunched up underneath it. It was obvious which part Colin had been trusted with.

To Y/N

Your Song - by Colin Bridgerton

Y/N stood up from her desk and walked over to the pianoforte that sat in the corner of her room, covered in a thin layer of dust. Y/N wasn't an expert on the pianoforte, her and Colin had bonded over their failed attempts at playing. Colin could sing, though. And as Y/N read through the lyrics, tentatively playing a couple of notes on her dust keys, she could hear him singing it, his hand in her hair as they watched the sunset from the garden bench at Bridgerton House.

Their romance had been kept quiet. The ton was used to the two being openly affectionate with each other, constantly hugging or holding hands and none of them realised when it turned from friendship to romance.

Y/N and Colin had sat in the rose garden of Aubrey Hall one summer night, the sounds of the ball drifting over to them along the gentle breeze. Colin had quietly begun singing along to the song, his hands gently tracing a dance on Y/N's bare arm as she rested her head on his shoulder, her eyes shut.

Colin's singing voice was beautiful. And as Y/N played the song he'd written for her, she could imagine him sitting beside her and singing along, his hands over hers as she slowly played the notes.

Attending the opera without him felt bizarre. They'd begun a routine of sitting next to each other in the box, sharing the opera glasses and softly commenting on the music, the costumes, the lighting.

Y/N sat down in the box, scooting her chair close to the balcony. Her mother sat down next to her and sighed happily as she took in the view.

"Isn't this lovely?" She asked, picking up her opera glasses and looking through them at the stage. "I do love a concert."

Y/N said nothing, merely nodded. She kept thinking back to Colin's letter, of his promised return home in time for the concert. In time for him to sit down next to her, take her hand, and whisper about the music.

Y/N glanced up at the box the Bridgerton's sat in and tried not to let out a defeated sigh - still no Colin. Francesca caught her looking and gave her a sympathetic smile along with a shake of her head and Y/N turned back to the stage, trying not to let the disappointment sink in.

The orchestra began warming up, the music notes blending in with the quiet chatter of the audience. Y/N couldn't stop her eyes from constantly scanning the audience, the stage, the boxes, for any sign of Colin.

An excited whisper went over the audience as the lights were dimmed and the lights on the stage that illuminated the thick, red curtain were turned on.

For a minute there was silence. And then the orchestra began playing as the curtain flew up, revealing the actors on the stage.

My gift is my song, and this one's for you

And you can tell everybody

Y/N felt her heart do a bizarre skip. She recognised those words. She'd read them over and over again each night before she went to sleep. The piece of paper they had arrived on was now well worn and creased and she'd meticulously copied out the notes and the lyrics for fear of loosing them.

She scanned the audience again and felt her heart stop. The concert faded away as she focused on the man standing in the corner near the side door, a tiny smile on his face.

Colin Bridgerton stood with his hands behind his back, smiling up at her, his chin covered in the stubble of a beard. He was tanner then before and his hair had gotten lighter but it was still Colin.

Her Colin.

You see I've forgotten, if they're green or they're blue Anyway the thing is, what I really mean Yours are the sweetest eyes I've ever seen

Y/N giggled and felt a smile appear on her face as she gave Colin the smallest wave possible, not wanting to attract attention. Colin waved back and nodded to the door that led to the auditorium. Y/N nodded in return and watched Colin disappear out the side door.

"Go on, then," Y/N's mother said, tapping her daughter's knee. "Go find him."

Y/N quietly slipped from her seat and pushed open the curtain, blinking at the bright lights in the corridor.

As she made her way down to the auditorium, she could hear angry voices that were trying not to yell. She rounded the corner and saw Anthony, Violet and Benedict Bridgerton all standing in front of a bemused looking Colin.

"You said you'd be back by the concert!" Anthony hissed, clearly irritated by Colin's lateness.

"It's hardly my fault the train got stuck by a tree, is it, Anthony?" Colin asked, sighing. "I'm here now, however, am I not? Stop fussing."

Anthony went off again, flailing his limbs around as he tried to knock some sense into Colin, his mother trying to be the peace maker between the two as Benedict tried, and failed, not to laugh.

"This isn't funny, Benedict!" Anthony snapped, turning to face his other brother as he snorted.

Benedict's smirk faded as he realised he was about to be on the end of Anthony's rant. He sighed and crossed his arms, physically bracing himself as Anthony went off again.

Colin, looking both bemused and annoyed at his family, turned and spotted Y/N, hovering at the stop of the stairs. His face fell from an annoyed smirk into a stunned smile as he stared up at her.

"They're actually both," Y/N said to Colin, her voice quiet enough that the three other Bridgerton's present had yet to realise she was there.

"What are?" Colin asked, walking up to meet her, taking each step slowly.

"My eyes," Y/N replied, smiling, dropping the skirt of her dress. "They're both colours."

Colin chuckled and looked like he was blushing. "I told you I wasn't good at song writing."

"Everyone else seemed to enjoy it," she replied as she heard the audience applaud loudly.

"Because Freddy worked on it for months until tonight," Colin replied. "Even then he wasn't sure about performing it. If he'd performed the version I'd written the ton would be complaining. I'm not very good at it."

"I think you're better at it than you believe, Mr Bridgerton," Y/N said as she continued walking down until they were both on the large step that broke up the stairs. "I'm not sure about the beard, however."

"Why?" Colin asked, a hand subconsciously flying to his chin and running across the stubble.

"Well, it just means that every time I go to kiss you, I will have to be tickled and scratched by it," she replied, her hand covering the one resting on his chin. She entwined her fingers with his. "But I can live with that."

Colin laughed and leant forward, kissing Y/N with the passion and desperation of not seeing her for six months. His hand rested on the back of her head, carefully minding her hair as his thumb stroked her skin.

"I think I'm going to stay here for now," Colin said softly, breaking apart from her, resting his forehead on hers. "Stay with you."

Y/N looked up at him, feeling his breath on her cheeks. "Colin Bridgerton, are you -"

"Yes," Colin said, cutting her off. "I am. Because it took being apart from you for six months to realise what I was missing. To realise that I travel the world searching for purpose and reason, when, in reality, my reason is you. The purpose of my entire being is you.

"Without you, I'm half a man. Without you, the travelling begins to feel like running away and I don't want to run from you. I want to take your hand and run with you. Forever if we wanted. I can run until you can't run anymore. And when you can't run anymore, I'll carry you."

Y/N smiled, pressing her lips together as she savoured the taste of his kiss. "Words are your forte, Mr Bridgerton," she said softly, stroking the side of his head, threading her fingers through his curls. "I'll run with you to the end of the world and back again. I'll take your hand in mine and I will never let you go. Not again."

Colin pressed his lips to her and Y/N smiled against his lips before returning the kiss. He smelt of his cologne, the sweet caramel biscuits he loved and, somehow, the floral, homely scent of Bridgerton House

He smelt of home. He was her home. Simply being in his arms was enough.

"I've just realised something," Colin whispered in her ear.

Y/N looked up at him, staring into his eyes. "What?"

"My family is watching us."

Y/N glanced behind him and saw the three Bridgerton's pretending to occupy themselves with anything else. Benedict was investigating a painting, Anthony was admiring the ceiling and Violet had been reading the program but glanced up at them with a smile.

And despite it all, Y/N let out a snort of laughter and dropped her head on to Colin's shoulder. "Of course they are."

Colin giggled, actually giggled, and rested his head on top of hers. "Better get used to it, love, I doubt they'll ever stop staring."

[reiedits1]

The Last Of Us Part II

I played and finished The Last Of Us Part II last week and it has been on my mind ever since. I obviously understand that a lot of people have problems with this game, and that’s okay. I’m not here to change anyone’s views on the game or anything, I just want to kind of write down my opinions and takeaways as, again, it’s been on my mind since finishing it lol. Nobody may see this and this will mean nothing, that’s fine. 

Anyway, this post will contain SPOILERS

My Overall Thoughts

I’m not entirely sure how to structure this so I guess I’ll just start with a broad statement lol; I loved The Last Of Us Part II. In my opinion, it’s a beautiful and well-crafted story about loss, grief and consequences, with how each of these things affect different people. 

Discussion 

From what I’ve seen, I see a lot of people hating on this game for its handling of Joel and the decision to have the player play as Joel’s murderer, Abby. I’ve also seen a lot of people say that the message is as simple and plain as “viOleNcE iS bAd”, but I personally think it’s so much more than that.

The Last Of Us Part II doesn’t just tell you that violence is bad, but it shows you the ramifications of it by dealing with the emotional toll as well as the consequences on not just the main person involved, but their loved ones too.

As we all know, at the start of the game, Joel is brutally killed by Abby and we go with Ellie on a mission to avenge him by killing everybody involved. We see it all from Ellie’s point of view, hardheartedly seeing Abby as the villain as she just killed the character that we know and love as we have an emotional connection to him after the first game. His death is supposed to make you feel angered. It’s not like you’re supposed to be joyed by it. His death scene left me feeling empty and sick, wanting revenge alongside Ellie. 

However, as the game goes on, we start to see the story from Abby’s point of view. We learn that the doctor that you, the player, had to murder at the end of The Last of Us is actually the father of Abby. This is brilliant. Now we see one of the main themes of the story, consequences, and I was immediately on board. Joel is not a good person, at all. He murdered hundreds of Fireflies and took away the possible cure for humanity for his own personal reasons. This is incredibly selfish, even going to the lengths of lying to Ellie about the events as he knows that it isn’t what she would want. Technically, Joel is the villain.

Joel had been through so much, so you may think it’s justified. But the point is, Joel isn’t the only person in the world of The Last of Us. Everybody he murders aren’t just mindless NPCs, they are people. People with their own problems who have gone through their own share of pain and loss, people with their own loved ones. Such as the doctor, who had Abby, whom he loved very much and Abby the same. So, understandably, she would feel incredibly angry and feel the need for revenge, just the same as Ellie and the player after Joel’s death.

There is now a cycle of revenge. Ellie goes on to kill Abby’s friends, and so Abby tries to kill Ellie and her friends. It’s not until Lev talks Abby out of it that the cycle seems to have been “broken”. Abby and Lev put it behind them, however, Ellie cannot and nor can Tommy, which means that the cycle is not broken. Ellie continues her hunt for revenge, thinking it’s still what she needs. Just as she’s about to murder Abby, she sees it’s completely useless.

Here I’m going to talk about another core theme of the story: loss. As Ellie is about to kill Abby, she realises that Joel is gone. Completely gone, and killing Abby is not going to change that. She now has Lev, and if Ellie was to kill Abby, Lev would only lose Abby, leaving him in the same situation Ellie was in at the start of the game, which in turn means Ellie is becoming what she set out to kill. It’s no use. Revenge only causes more pain and loss. This cycle is so vicious and nobody wins, and Abby realised this once she found Lev, and found that revenge is a futile thing that does not achieve anything, especially not bringing back her dead friends. She managed to break the cycle herself, and in turn, she found a life worth living, a live with Lev. However, Ellie could not manage this, choosing to still seek revenge.

Because of this, she faces the consequences. She loses all of her loved ones. She loses Dina, she loses Jesse and she loses her baby son, JJ. Tommy is the same too. Tommy couldn’t break the cycle, and he loses his wife, Maria. And guess what, Joel is still gone. All of that loss, yet Joel is still dead. It’s all been for nothing. Ellie is now completely alone, which is what she said she was scared of in the first game, all because of revenge. The way forward is not anger, rage or revenge, but acceptance and love. That’s my takeaway.

You may think this treatment of Joel and Ellie is “disrespectful”, but I disagree. In the first game, you do a lot of bad things as these characters. Yeah, you go through a lot of pain, but so has everybody else, yet they still face the unfavorable consequences. It only makes sense that Joel and Ellie would too. In my opinion, this only helps to build the world of The Last of Us and show that just because Joel and Ellie are the main characters, they aren’t invincible, and the world doesn’t revolve around them. They just happen to be two people who live in the world amongst so many others, which for me, makes it so much more realistic. This is emphasised in the incredible detail in the gameplay of each enemy having names, with other enemies interacting with eachother as you stalk them. It makes them feel so much more real and only increased my enjoyability.

From a story like this, which is so dark and gritty, I don’t expect a happy ending. You’re not supposed to like Ellie by the end of this story, as she serves as the example of why the cycle of revenge is horrible. You’re not supposed to feel satisfied by it, you’re supposed to feel empty, hurt and sad. That is literally the point. 

You have to realise that The Last Of Us is a piece of artistic storytelling told and made by artists. It would have been so easy for Neil Druckmann to write a boring and two-dimensional story to appease players and make bank. But he didn’t. He chose to craft an intricate, heavy and creative direction for his material, and I hugely respect that. At the end of the day, he doesn’t owe you anything. This is his story, and these are his characters, he can do what he wants with them. If you don’t like his creative vision, then great! You don’t have to. If you don’t like something, just don’t play/watch/read it. If you loved the first game but hated the second, then just pretend it doesn’t exist and come up with your own fanfiction for these characters, it probably wouldn’t have been as good as this.

A lot of people blame “bad writing” when they don’t like something. There’s a difference between feeling bad about something than it being bad writing, you know. Just because it wasn’t what you wanted, doesn’t mean the writing is bad. By you feeling angry about Joel dying, Neil Druckmann’s writing has accomplished its objective. And I’m not trying to say that everybody who doesn’t like this game didn’t like it because their fanfiction didn’t come true. You cannot like this game solely because you don’t like the direction it took, and that’s fine. Because again, this story is a piece of artistic storytelling, and art is subjective.

This entire post is just my opinion. I personally loved this story and these characters, and it was exactly what I wanted to get out of this game. Everything about the game I just adored. I loved the plot, the writing, the characters, the gameplay, the music, the visuals, the performances - everything. And if you didn’t, then great. That’s your opinion. It just hurts me to see so many people dismissing the incredible things achieved in this game solely because of one plot point. I don’t know. As I said, I’m not trying to change your opinion or anything, I just thought I’d share mine.

I only scratched the surface of my thoughts and opinions on this game. I could talk about it for hours, which only goes to show the extent of its achievements and how incredible it really is. I doubt anybody is reading this and that’s fine, apologies if none of what I said made any sense at all lol, I’m awful at articulating my opinions aha.   

[olderthannetfic]

to the "writing fic in English instead of one's native language" discussion: I had a favourite writer who wrote in my native language (I'm the hungarian anon from a while ago) and their prose was beautiful, inspired by the turn of the century-1920s writers who in turn were inspired by Decadent French writers, and this fic writer in question was so talented it was breathtaking. i read works by them just for the prose. i didn't care about avengers, but the prose, the prose was worth it. it might be called purple prose but it always filled me with awe and was something i aspired to in my own writing. and then they started to write in english, and while their prose was still skilled, last i checked it was unremarkable. craftmanship instead of art. (because according to them, english-speaking fandom is looking for the plot instead of drowning in purple prose - which makes me wonder, how do you see that?) but yeah. it saddens me that with their transition to english their writing seems to have lost that passion i loved and that inspired me. similarly saddens me when people disparage their native language but i guess that's because i love my own even as i become more and more distanced from it. i'm somewhat of a language-traitor myself; i write prose in english for fun, but definitely not for the outreach online because it feels like my work is drowning in the crowd and it's impossible to stand out in english. the only fic i write is for a fandom of a hungarian classic that became weirdly popular among teenage girls recently (the characters are all boys, played in a musical by handsome men, lots of people to ship, i wonder why xD), and that's the only writing of mine that's somewhat read by people. but it is still a constant existential crisis of which language should i choose, in which language i am better, which language will get me where i want to go.

--

There are periodic waves of fic with literary pretensions in English, some more successful than others. A lot of people who are into that kind of thing cluster in book fandoms, in my experience.

They may well be right that the English language audience for this is not reading Avengers fic—or rather that the audience for Avengers fic is so huge and so varied in reading level that you're not going to notice this kind of reader amongst everybody else.

[queen-susans-revenge]

a meme, thank you @klaproos for thinking of me!

favorite color: I went into it a little bit more here but it's basically burnt sienna with a bronzy shimmer, like so

currently reading: Haley Campbell, All the Living and the Dead, mostly because Neil Gaiman recommended it. I don't read a lot of nonfiction but like everybody else I have been thinking a lot about death in the past couple years, so it's very interesting.

last song: okay I just fired up Spotify and here's what it was in the middle of last time I closed it. This is not even a great remix, I like the original much better, but I do listen to a lot of Grimes. In fact this came up because I was in the middle of the complete Grimes collection on Spotify, which I often put on loop when I just need music in the background.

I am in a perpetual state of "oh girl no" over Grimes but I completely love her music. I just wish there was more focus on her art and process as opposed to her personal mess, and I think the treatment she gets is sexist because dudes are allowed to be wild self-indulgent freaks who are still taken seriously as artists. Grimes is a wild self-indulgent freak who should still be taken seriously as an artist.

last tv show: The Netflix series Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. I do not watch a lot of anime, but I love the art style on this one. All the colors, mmm. I'm about halfway through the series.

Cyberpunk in general is an easy sell for me. Take me to neon reflecting in rainy streets while hovercars go by overhead and cyborgs sit around slurping from bowls at noodle stands, and you don't even have to buy me dinner. I'm already a slut for it.

That said, there's a tension in a lot of cyberpunk, a retro fixation within a genre that ostensibly depicts the future but is rapidly being outpaced by the present. A weirdly large element of it is nostalgia for the 80s and 90s, and there's some social attitudes from those decades that get pulled in wholesale along with the aesthetic. Sex workers get murdered a lot. Depictions of racial minorities skew towards the cringe. There's a moral simplicity to the noir landscapes it tends to build: the heroes might be "edgy" but they're pitted against monsters so grotesque that there's never really any question about where right and wrong lie. Violence is cathartic and solves a lot of problems.

There's a trans critic, El Sandifer, who has written a couple of very insightful pieces of criticism, both on the cyberpunk genre in general and on the Cyberpunk 2077 world in particular. I love her observation that "cyberpunk is still a living genre; a successful prediction of the future that continues to be made long after it’s come true." And I think her conclusion—that the genre badly needs a queerer perspective—is the right one.

This series does not have a queer perspective. But what it does have is mirrorshades and samurai on motorbikes, and some really beautiful action sequences that unfold in supersaturated neon colors. So I'm in.

last movie: Thor: Love and Thunder. Iunno, it was all right. I didn't want my money back or anything. In terms of MCU movie rankings I would put it somewhere solidly mid. Better than Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness I guess.

I think we're all kind of burned out on Marvel content, right? The last MCU thing I can think of that felt fresh or compelling was the Ms. Marvel series and even that is already fading into forgetability. Can I get more of Yelena and new energy-flavor Hawkeye? I liked them a lot.

sweet/savory/spicy: savory.

currently working on: I'm now more than 100k words into the space pirate novel and probably have another 20k or 30k to go. It will be a long book but it is all one book (I was wondering earlier if I should split it up, which I kind of wanted to because it would mean I could start shopping around the first part, but unfortunately I think the answer is that I really do have to write the whole thing first.)

And the chapter I just finished was like, the most fun to write in the whole book. It was a sex scene followed by some pillow talk. Now I have to do corporate intrigue and hacker stuff, which is much harder to make interesting. It's part of why I'm watching cyberpunk shows, to get inspired.

tagging everybody! Anybody who wants to! I get anxious about tagging people both from the point of view of possibly annoying someone, and from the point of view of possibly making someone else feel overlooked, so as usual I will take the coward's way out on this one.