#BUT ESPECIALLY THIS JERK

[trek-tracks]

do NOT ask Spock to beta your fic unless you want to be sic

[saewokhrisz]

"i woke up in the middle of my surgery

and i watched them botch my heart"

[swordy-da-goat]

The satan skeleton shopper guy who I unintentionally made a deal with’s employee guy, made us some personalized chocolates for each of our party members. Mine was a highly detailed model of my own locomotive, Cowbell (a standard gauge American). Needless to say, Milk Bucket liked the gift.

[yourhighness6]

Me, screaming into the void: I DON'T HATE MAI I JUST FEEL LIKE SHE NEEDED MORE DEVELOPMENT OUTSIDE OF ZUKO AND HER ARC SHOULDN'T REVOLVE AROUND HER LOVE INTEREST

Also me, still screaming into the void: I DON'T HATE AANG I JUST QUESTION WHETHER HIS ROMANTIC INTEREST IN KATARA BRINGS OUT THE BEST SIDES OF HIM AND FEEL AS THOUGH HE AND HIS DEVELOPMENT IS NOT ABOVE NECESSARY CRITICISM

[dykedvonte]

I keep seeing fanarts of ppl's OC's being on the ship, so do you think that if there was 6st crewmember (specifically, another woman) Anya would've been more safe? Like, someone to actually call Jimmy's begaviour out, someone Anya might wanna trust? Is there a possibility something might have changed (even if a little) or it would not have mattered at all?

-💀

I feel like the game would make it part of the commentary on where she would believe and help Anya but still be sort of dismissive? Like the whole “don’t waste time crying and being scared keep going and move on, don’t let him win”. It’s supposed to be positive and reinforcing but sometimes it does more damage in those times of mourning and grief, it feels patronizing, like you don’t understand what you’re going through but they do. Even if they did call out his behavior it’s still on Curly to act and while another voice would help, it’s still 4 against 2 on guys that don’t get it until they have to vs women who always have to.

I don’t mind mouthwashing OCs but I do get a bit bored as they tend to be borderline saviors or like Jimmy aligned. They are either more complicit than Curly or just Jimmy haters for no reason, outside of what the creators know about what he did to Anya. I am never irked by OCs but in a story like mouthwashing you really need to think about what your character adds to the commentary, especially if they are there during the crash. It’s nice to have like characters on Anya’s side more whole heartedly and interesting to see characters who placate Jimmy but sometimes it’s one note.

I can’t and don’t want to police peoples OCs it’s never my intention when I comment on trends I notice, but I do feel like the way people make their OCs interact with these two characters and especially Curly, really show a grave misunderstanding of the narrative and these characters as people vs roles in the story. Still, I know people just make up characters for fun and that’s fine. Great even, but I guys I’m focusing more on OCs that are supposed to have those serious dynamics. My favs tend to be pretty-Tulpar or post-Tulpar au OCs.

The inevitably of the crash is on Jimmy. He did that not because he wasn’t stopped but because all his means to kill Anya were taken. The gun, the axe. Even if Curly did strip him of his co-pilot privileges and try to keep him contained there’s only so many people. An extra body helps but they have jobs they have to do, he’s the only one steering the whole ship and Jimmy would likely have an out: food, bathroom, etc. He’s not new and if he couldn’t crash the ship directly, who’s to say he wouldn’t sabotage something else? A clunker like the Tulpar wouldn’t take much. An extra person helps but it’s just another thing that prolongs what a person like Jimmy is willing to do to shirk responsibility.

It’s more than just needing someone to stand up to him and think that’s what is missing when it comes to inserting a character into the mouthwashing setting.

[tennessoui]

it’s like baby gorl there’s no way I, the author who wrote the fic you’re commenting on and who is the intended audience for this comment, am gonna agree with you 😿🙏 some things can just stay on your chest 🙏

[rainbowcarousels]

I have said it once. I will say it again.

Authors can see the notes on your bookmarks on Ao3. If you decide to tag something or comment on something in a less than complimentry way, they are going to look at those bookmarks and see that.

If you can't be courteous, at least be civil.

[thattheater-kid]

A friendly reminder for literally everyone, including systems and including the rest of this system

In general, systems do not control what introjects show up.

I have been actively attacked by singlets, systems, and other parts within my own system for being a South Park fictive. The most hurtful things I’ve heard are from other parts within the system. I’ve been called a mistake, I’ve been told I wasn’t supposed to exist by members of my own system. The system has been judged by others for my existence. They don’t even watch South Park that much, they just watch it when our brother puts it on. Even if they did, that’s not a reason to attack me or them for my existence.

No one could control who I am. Certainly I couldn’t. I didn’t want this. Do you know how hurtful it is to be called a mistake and told you don’t deserve to live to your face? Actually, I’m sure many of you do. Many of you have been hurt like that, so maybe don’t do the same thing to introjects from problematic sources. Nobody wanted this. Nobody chose this. It’s not fair to judge and hate for it.

-Kenny

[kuroowo]

Modern AU Suguru whose guilty-non-guilty pleasure idea of fun is to make people fall in love with him (just because he can) meets you, the new transfer, at the office and instantly decides you’re his next target.

He’s befriends you right off the bat. Seeks you out between breaks for a quick chat. Tries to get to know you more. Invites you out for an occasional drink that turns into full blown dinners and walks home. He gifts you little trinkets he finds reminding him of you— hold on. Wait a minute, Suguru’s world screeches to a halt with utmost urgency. Since when did he start to look forward to texting you first thing in the morning? Since when did he carve out a routine to see you outside of work at least once a week? Since when did he anticipate to see your smile, hear your laughter? Since when did his thoughts start to run circles around you every night before he sleeps? Since when did he start planning to have you meet his two disaster best friends? Since when, since when, since when—

Geto goes through a ‘minor’ crisis realising that he ended up falling in love with you instead of the intended other way ‘round. Gojo cackles so hard his sunglasses slips off his face, boisterous laughter only amplified by Ieiri’s, “I told you, dumbass.”, but the dark-haired man is still in denial nonetheless.

“There’s no way, Shoko—”, because where did he falter? When did he slip up? It’s not even his first rodeo, so why did this happen?? “—and shut up, Satoru!”

“And there’s no way his hair isn’t white.”, unimpressed and utterly over Geto’s shit, Ieiri blows a cloud of smoke into his face, strangely annoyed and sympathetic. Okay, maybe not that strangely. Maybe it’s her conscience kicking in because you’re actually a great friend to her and she’d hate to see you gone because of the man bun wearing block-head. “Get your shit together before it’s too late, Suguru.”

And maybe Geto should. Yeah. No. He definitely should. Like hell is he losing you to some lame baker who makes stale pastries 3 blocks down from your home (it’s not stale, he’s just jealous) or to that desperate creep from the company next door (they’re actually just an extrovert, he’s just jealous), and especially not to Fushiguro fucking Toji of all damn people (that’s a married and devoted man to his wife, he’s just jealous). So yeah, Suguru’s going to get his shit together alright.

[shyhandart]

wanted to show you my rainbowglider kid so far! just a WIP ☺️

Holy crap! Alternate universe siblings!!

This is Caustic Phantom, but everyone they know calls them tommy :3

[dullahanblorboposting]

Re: Jax and the NPC theory

I've seen everyone speculating about which of the current TADC cast is most likely to be an NPC, but I don't think any of them are? I think it's much more likely that either

A different NPC is confused for a human in a future episode, and terrifying shenanigans result as expected

We get a flashback of that happening with old former humans who have since abstracted, tying to some of the portraits on the doors maybe?

Or my favorite possibility: I think there is more potential in that line foreshadowing the exact opposite.

What if Caine in a future episode mistakes one of the human members for an NPC? Apparently Gooseworx teased that Jax will be crossing moral event horizon at some point in the series, and to be honest there is no way it involves him slaughtering NPCs. He's a jerk for messing with the other humans' enjoyment in that regard, sure, but the NPCs aren't real and don't matter. He cannot be 'evil' by harming them because there is no true harm done. He's treating the NPCs as the video game characters that they are.

So whatever he does that earns him the crossing-the-line badge has to be something that directly affects one of his fellow humans, the people who ARE real and DO matter. I've seen the idea that he causes someone to abstract somehow and I think that's the only way for him to cross that line.

Wouldn't it be interesting if for some reason something happens that causes Caine to lose track of who is human and who is an NPC momentarily at some point, and for shits and giggles since Jax treats everything so carelessly, he does a bit where he tries to convince Caine that one of the humans is an NPC. Maybe not even thinking anything seriously bad will happen, just in the usual asshole menace type of way, just to freak the victim out. Only for Caine to actually buy it and try to poof them away. But since they're human, the impact of the attempted poof is that they abstract instead? I doubt that will be how it plays out, like if Jax does cause someone to abstract it will probably be because he went too far with his words and mentally breaks them, but like wouldn't that be fucked up? It would be so fucked up.

[ganondoodle]

i often really do feel like an .. unwanted part of the fandom, i dont draw beautiful landscapes, i have unpopular but strong opinions im constantly annoying about and rarely change, dont like/dont draw the pretty young popular twinks and hot gurls to fanboi over nor do i turn characters into one, the opposite moreso, draw only one ship no ones heard of really, got little energy to interact with the few people that are nice to me and send me asks so it probably looks like im ignoring everyone and unfortunately but still rarely get so stressed i get overwhelmed and emotional about pehaps seemingly minor things and spiral almost into a breakdown feeling super embarrassed about it afterwards but the damage is already done and i look like a freak or agressive weirdo

[gayvecchio]

Frannie, you are in over your head. Meaning? Meaning, guys like him don't marry girls like you. That's fairy tale. And girls like you get hurt, and guys like him don't even know it, and that's life.

[bloodbruise]

Evan fucking regulus on the bed and barty and James jerking each other off, watching entrances as their boyfriends fuck

every time i open my inbox its like that tiktok audio "what is it finna play.... WOAH"

[deanmarywinchester]

previous years: 2022, 2021 / list of worst sf/f/horror

the bangers were BANGING this year, I kept mentally readjusting my top 5 list every time I read something good so the honorable mentions are extremely honorable this year. I hope you read anything that sounds good from this list and tell me about it!

top 5:

chain gang all stars by nana kwame adjei-brenyah: when I say that this book is like the hunger games for adults, I’m not making a glib comparison between two books about fighting to the death, I’m saying that I haven’t felt so intensely about a book since I stayed up late to tear through the hunger games and sob about it when I was thirteen. this book is satire as real and devastating as I’ve ever read, with action scenes that feel like they’re being dripped directly into my hindbrain and a unique and believable love story. put it on hold at your library literally RIGHT now.

the actual star by monica byrne: about a post-climate catastrophe utopian society built around a religion started by a teenage girl in 2012 based on mayan traditions, and also about the teenage girl, and also about the maya. this book made me crazy because the future society felt real enough to touch, with its radical openness and collectivity solving problems that exist today but causing new ones that are totally novel and meaty and interesting to dig into. read it if you’re interested in different ways of being.

the spear cuts through water by simon jiménez: really, REALLY good, fresh, original epic fantasy. jimenez picks a few perspectives to stick to but hops fluidly into bystanders’ brains to give you their perspectives, so even background characters feel fleshed-out and no one’s pain is dismissed as a side effect of heroic battles or whatever. highly recommended if you like framing narratives and stories about stories, and like epic fantasy but wish it wasn’t mostly about finding acceptable enemies to slaughter with cool swords

the dispossessed by ursula k. le guin: I love how much this book is about hope as clear-eyed commitment to the boring and difficult work of a brighter and necessary future. sometimes the work of the glorious anarcho-communist revolution is leaving your university post and romantic partner for months at a time to dig irrigation ditches so nobody starves when there’s a drought. read this book for diplomatic conniving, a clash of values between a capitalist planet and its dissident moon, and hope.

imperial radch trilogy and its spinoffs by ann leckie: what if you were built to be a weapon of the empire, a serene sentient battleship with thousands of human bodies all containing your consciousness, and you lost all bodies but one and had to figure out how to be a person, singular and alone? what if you were a 19th century british military officer and you slept for a thousand years into the decline of the empire? what if you were grown in a vat to be a facsimile of human and then told off for eating all your siblings even though eating them was SO interesting? what then. leckie’s prose is incisive and funny, her unreliable narrators are wonderful, and her stories are intimate even though the backdrops are insanely huge. 👍.

honorable mentions:

house of leaves by mark z. danielewski: guys? anyone hearda this one? anyway. Something Is Wrong With This House horror with themes of storytelling and grief. recommending that you slam this book as fast as possible like I did so you can hold all its layers in your head at once.

the lathe of heaven by ursula k le guin: i thought I didn’t like ursula k le guin, and then I read this book, went OH and immediately devoured the hainish cycle. im so sorry miss ursula. this book about a hapless pacific northwesterner whose therapist is making him dream different realities into being is so sharp and sly and funny. themes of choices, ends and means.

he who drowned the world by shelley parker-chan: I liked the prequel to this addition to the radiant emperor duology. I LOVED this book. parker-chan has invented new and exciting modes of fucked-up codependency and im obsessed. historical light-fantasy with themes of ideals vs what it takes to reach them, gender, and regret.

babel by r. f. kuang: found the didacticism of this book annoying, but i really loved the concept of this novel and the way it slowly ratchets up the stakes. this novel is for people who want to smash the fun of the magic school genre against the reality of universities’ complicity in the imperial machine.

piranesi by susannah clarke: im late to this book but it’s such a weird little gem. peaceful yet unsettling. a man takes care of an endless house with an ocean inside it until he realizes the house is stealing his memories. themes of memory and devotion.

hell follows with us by andrew joseph white: I can only read YA these days if it’s a reread or if it’s genuinely good and really really strange. this is that. weird gory fantasy about a trans teen who escapes his militarized post-apocalyptic christian cult and finds himself turning into something Different. my only gripe is that he uses 2023-perfect language to describe transness and I think he should be inventing genders weve never even thought of. such is YA.

some desperate glory by emily tesch: a rolickin’ good space opera time with terrible women <3. a thriller about how the golden child of her isolated human-supremacist space station cult deprograms and the consequences of it. this feels like a grown-up SPOP until the theoretical physics gets involved. big fan

the library of mount char by scott hawkins: this book is harrow the ninth in suburbia until it becomes a more macabre version of the absurdity of the gomens apocalypse. God raises his children, sometimes brutally, to hone their powers in a neighborhood that mysteriously keeps out outsiders. came for the dysfunctional mess of the god-children and now I can never look at a grill the same way

runners up:

bunny by mona awad: books that make you WISH you were in mona awad’s MFA program where she must have been having a terrible time. the weird one out in an MFA program accepts overtures into the unbearable rich-girls’ clique to find out what they’re Up To. themes of aimlessness and the intersection of class with the art world

camp damascus by chuck tingle: have you ever wished that you were simply too autistic to be successfully demonically brainwashed into not having gay thoughts? horror-flavored thriller that was just fun

light from uncommon stars by ryka aoki: this author put a bunch of genres in a blender and came up with something fun and surprisingly cozy. an immortal woman must sell violinists’ souls to the devil in exchange for their fame, or he’ll drag her to damnation instead. there might be aliens and coffeeshop romance involved. definitely a blender.

the fragile threads of power by v. e. schwab: if you haven’t read a darker shade of magic and you like tightly paced high fantasy and historical fantasy elements, political intrigue, and pirates, read that first. if you have, there’s more now! lila bard are you free on thursday when I am free

the library of the dead & our lady of mysterious ailments by t. l. huchu: a teenage girl provides for her family in soft-apocalypse magic edinburgh with a job carrying messages from ghosts to their living relatives. an ongoing mystery series about the intrigues she uncovers among the dead.

severance by ling ma: this books is on the list of media that is the terror to me: it's about an apocalyptic disease that makes people reenact their routines mindlessly until they collapse. intimate apocalypse novel with themes of late capitalist malaise.

ocean’s echo by everina maxwell: i didn't really like winter's orbit because i'm just not a romance guy, but this second novel stands alone and the romance is more insane and less of the entire point of the novel. (also it's between essentially Discworld's Carrot and Moist Von Lipwig, which is. really something.) in the Space Military, a buttoned-up mind controller must pretend to bend a socialite with illegal mind-reading powers to his will. what if fake relationship but the relationship they have to fake is "brain linked master/servant pair."

the murderbot diaries by martha wells: novellas about a misanthropic security android who jailbroke itself in order to watch tv. the name "murderbot" is a joke but it very much did kill people <3 themes of paranoia and outsiderhood, corporate wrongdoing, repentance, and trust

black water sister by zen cho: zen cho is good at any kind of fantasy she writes, including this, her first modern fantasy novel. a closeted lesbian has to move in with her family in malaysia after college in the US, only to discover that her dead grandmother has some unfinished business involving a local goddess and a conniving real estate developer. themes of family, gender, and place.

the way inn by will wiles: a man who’s paid to pretend he’s other people to attend conferences in their place gets trapped in an endless Marriott. has the sharp humor of a colson whitehead corporate satire until it becomes more straightforwardly horror-flavored.

[dovewingkinnie]

same anon who wanted to be cornered; Yes I do

you are all hopeless!!!! hopeless!!!!!!