#Director's cut asks

[boltlightning]

⭐️ for director's choice, please?

fic director's cut asks!

thank you sm friend!! 💖 taking this opportunity to talk a little about the overarching ideas for so hunts the shrike, which is fresh to mind at the moment :')

really i just wanted an excuse to write elizabeth and norrington 10 years older and wiser and more repressed, but shrike hunt is the culmination of a few ideas that finally came together after years of stewing as individual pieces: elizabeth as an exiled information broker, norrington running back to england after handing over davy jones' heart, a reprisal of the skeleton curse. i was looking at my initial notes for this and the entire original outline reads: "anyway. whatever. elizabeth runs tortuga now, she's a mother, she's learned to be hard. james ran away; he learned to be soft. and now: They Fuck."

aside from a few details that ended up changing, the whole idea remains in tact! this fic is a homage to COTBP with the roles swapped around. elizabeth has been on her own for so long, she doesn't want to involve anyone else; it'll hurt too much when she eventually ruins their life. norrington's been coasting for the last 10 years and doesn't necessarily know what he wants, only that he ran away from war in europe for a reason; he's looking for refuge without realizing it. for once she's the one looking ahead, he's the one living in the present. and it's not really overt, but this time elizabeth is the one expressing interest in norrington rather than the other way around (not that he recognizes it in the narration at all, idiot man).

the one major change is that weatherby swann is still kicking around. originally this was going to adhere a lot more to canon in that gov swann would be dead and elizabeth would have henry, but the scope of the story just wasn't equipped to handle norrington bonding with her son by the man she almost married, yknow? they've got different hurts to wrestle for the moment. plus, selfishly, i don't think elizabeth needed the additional suffering of losing her father on top of raising a son with no support network. it's my au and gov swann can hang out and drink wine and dote like he was always meant to do.

the entire fic is a treatise on how well norrington knows the swanns as people, even all these years later. the love is still there, and all the hurt has been blunted, but not erased. they have the benefit of hindsight now! and being fully grown and weathered adults! they all can lean back on those old friendships. there's so much intimacy in things like remembering how someone takes their tea, or holding onto an inside joke all these years later. while i'm very proud of how tight this fic is, i do regret not lingering more in the domestic circumstances i spent so much time setting up. i barely exploited the fake marriage of it all. smh. that's what spin-offs of the au are for i suppose!

finally, leaving you with a cut bit with a reference that was too on the nose even for my tastes:

“James…” Elizabeth draws herself up more fully. “I didn’t tell you this with the intention of asking for your help. But if I know you—” “You know you don’t need to ask.” He lifts his hand to his chest. “What do you need of me?” “I don’t—" “It is no imposition. I would run mad without an occupation, truth be told,” he says, and is surprised to find he means it.

[runa-falls]

⭐️ (director's choice bc im behind on my reading but want the tea)

he smells like flowers (steven grant x reader)

i like to think of this work as my love letter to steven because every time i re-read it, it flings me back into my obsession with him. i feel like i was in a trance when i wrote this bc i don't remember putting out these thoughts lol.

here are some excerpts that i'd like to expand on:

even after a week long mission, he still smells like that mellow mix of tender flower petals and syrupy nectar. ambrosia that glides thick on your tongue and begs you to swallow him down.

i don't know how describe it but i feel like his scent is not a smell, but a feeling. like pure ecstasy, it makes you curl up in a little ball and once you have a taste, you'll never get enough of it. it's a magnet that pulls you closer -- one that you could resist, but never want to.

these two sentences are absolutely extra asf bc all i was really trying to say is that i want steven to fuck my throat + cuddle me :)

he has a habit of chewing on his bottom lip when he's nervous, excited, or generally overstimulated, sucking it raw until you tug it out from under his teeth and help him lick the wounds. sometimes you think he does it on purpose -- wanting to feeling you grace his lips with yours -- other times you worry that if you weren't there he'd do some real damage to himself without even knowing it.

kissing doesn't always have to be sexual. in this instance, kissing is caring, showing someone that you'll be there to comfort and reassure them when times become too much.

i have a habit of biting my lips when i'm anxious so i kinda forced that compulsion onto steven bc i've never had someone care enough to notice. i figured that if i could take care of him in that world, i could do the same for myself here.

the sleeves of his clothes are tugged and stretched out because he likes the feeling of having something to hold on to, it grounds him. it comforts him when you aren't around.

like many others, steven and his oversized clothes had immediately enamored me. there's something about a man purposefully trying to make himself seem smaller that makes me feral.

i made steven a bit clingy in this fic, where he always wants the reader near and touching him. i love writing steven as touch-starved because i think he definitely deserves to be touched in a loving way. he should be craving my love and leaning into my touch, not flinching away from it!

i also understanding having that one comfort-person. even in a room full of friends, there's always that one person that makes me feel undoubtedly safe. so that's why i added this part!

you groan against his slick heated skin -- he tastes like a box of heart shaped chocolates: saccharine, rich, and indulgent. you've never had a sweet-tooth, but steven is a dessert you could eat any day.

if you didn't catch it, this was a reference to steven + his box of chocolates after being stood up at a restaurant. poor romantic steven :( of course, steven doesn't actually taste like chocolate (or does he?), but he's such a sweetie that he might as well be a chocolate rabbit <3

^^i love doing this director's comments asks bc it helps me reflect on my work!

director's cut

[attapullman]

⭐️⭐️⭐️

I would happily listen to you talk about any of your Bobs! 🥰

- @bradshawsbaby 💕

Ah, thank you for the stars, Sarah!!

To be fair, we both have a soft spot for bungalow!Bob, the world's best live-in boyfriend. He's been in the center of my brain lately because that's his rightful spot in life 🫠

This man has truly made himself at home in the bungalow, and when he's not fixing something up he's perennially in the background of your Zoom calls for work. All your co-workers tease you because without a doubt Bob is going to be in the background doing something - completely oblivious he's accidentally "joined" your meeting.

One day it's when he's bringing in things from the car, traipsing back and forth behind your desk chair, completely oblivious. Then one time he doesn't realize the easy chair is in the camera's view and he starts balancing his budget, all of your team giggling at the array of receipts surrounding him.

For my own sanity, I'm not even sure I can go into detail the time he ended up doing pull-ups in the doorway and you completely missed your boss asking you a question, your eyes fully trained on his body in the little viewfinder.

bungalow!Bob, why aren't you real???

DIRECTOR'S CUT: ATTAPULLMAN

[sepetajmikolikomehoces]

I’d love to hear more about your writing and drafting process!! Also ⭐️ for any fic of your choosing :)

My writing and drafting process? In short: unreliable.

Like, listen...... I love writing. But my life is such an absolute clusterfuck right now that I have an entirely unconscionably small amount of time to do it. I feel like I barely have time for the things I absolutely need to do. So while I may get struck with ideas that completely take over any and all higher brain functions, I inevitably have to set them down into some sort of draft or outline or just a sentence if I'm really pressed for time (or just tired).

If I can sit down long enough to properly outline, I try to divide into chapters or at least manageable sections so that I can get a structure going from the beginning. Sometimes the beginning and end is more clearly thought out than the middle and I just have to put in an estimated number of chapters and fill out or prune as the story develops.

I do enjoy having things written out as much as possible before posting when it comes to multichapter fics but that... kinda crashed and burned with camboy, honestly. I thought it'd be one chapter, then two chapters, then "fuck if I know"-chapters but at least I had an outline and then my life went kind of off the rails a little and I had to change writing from "a thing I usually have time for" to "a thing I will do if neither work, nor school, nor life in general takes absolute precedence". I am hopinghopinghoping that once I am done with my degree and only need to wrangle work and a very different kind of life compared to before, writing will again become a thing I can devote time to more consistently.

When I write, it's usually in short and intensive bursts, and I've found I often rally around a key scene, either vibing off it and seeing where it takes me, or I work towards it because it might be the last scene of the chapter and it's a nice carrot to make me fill in the blank space between where I am and where I want to be.

For a scene I have been dying to talk about... In sä saat mut, I mentioned at the end that there was an Easter egg in the fic, but no one has yet made a guess. I may have made it more obscure than anticipated. So here, have it:

It's Jere humming along to songs on the radio while they're driving and smiling like there is a private joke wrapped up in one of them.

The song that Jere smiles about is Kuumaa's "Ylivoimainen". During UMK23 when the artists got to listen to each others' songs, one of his more memorable reactions was that Kuumaa's song was something he'd listen to if he "ever took someone home on a night out". Which. Yes, Jere. You sure did.

[scaryscarecrows]

Oooooo gimme the director's cut for Secrets of Scary People! (Either just a single chapter of your choice or the whole work, it's up to you!)

Oh, God.

Okay. Cards on the table: as ff.net (wow so many popups these days) was...happy...to tell me, I started writing that collection in 2013. Just. Just remember that little factoid. :p

Aaanyways, first things first: many fandom creatives know intimately what I mean when I say 'hyperfixation'. That right there explains pretty much everything I do, because you have to find your joy somewhere, right? Right. So now that that's right out of the way, let's get into this.

So yeah. 2013. 2013 was right about the time I hit peak Overwhelmed and basically had a crisis. Hey, I'd busted my ass to graduate high school early, chosen a random college major that I didn't really care about or want to do but 'college isn't option', (I was failing everything by this point, I'll be honest) and my mother's health was really starting to take a turn, which meant I was the Caregiver. On top of that, as plenty of Only/Eldest Daughters (gender-neutral variant) know, expecting, like, support? Nah. This is to say that I was in a bad mental place.

And this fucker. This absolute jackass.

brought me so much joy. That sounds, admittedly, like the start of some Very Bad manifesto, but I swear it isn't. I had seen most of this movie on cable years earlier, but I picked up a copy out the $5 bin at Walmart and...well...look, I spent my entire childhood hearing about 'brains are more important than looks', and he did make that toxin all by himself. Apparently. And he's a doctor. Okay, so the villainy is a little bad, but we all have faults and I was willing to overlook them.

(And Cillian Murphy is both pretty and a gift to watch in pretty much everything, so really, this isn't my fault.)

I've been writing pretty much daily since...nngh...2007? Ish? I don't know, it was like the more age-appropriate way of having an imaginary friend. I had not written fanfiction, however. I didn't know it was much of a thing, either, until I Googled that bastard up there for information Begins had not provided and tripped over ff.net. Fanfiction seemed like a fun, no-stakes challenge--new enrichment for my burnt-out ass--so I did a Wiki dive for basic information, picked up a copy of Year One, and banged out about five or six one-shots over the course of a weekend. One of those would eventually become All Those Things You Fear, the others would end up in Scary People. I'll admit, I wanted him to have nice things once in a while, because

A) I felt bad about the Grandma thing, and about the bully thing. Kindred spirit! At least a little. I got it, anyway.

B) I'm sorry, I acknowledge that Nolan Crane is a corrupt jerk, but Zsasz does belong in Arkham (I Googled him too, at the time) and Rachel needed to just admit that.

At the same time, bullying him a little seemed like a good idea. Especially after further Wiki exploration turned up the discovery of Arkham Asylum (though I was NOT happy to find out what happened to Scarecrow at the end of that one). I did find a good longplay of Asylum that I watched (I had no way to play it then), which shaped my personal take on both Crane and his place of work a little more. Things snowballed: picked up a copy of Batman: Gothic for $1.50 and decided that yeah, comics are rad, actually, watched more movies, Gotham aired...and here we are today, with canon meatloaf.

What a ride. But I probably wouldn't have gotten on it if weren't for the autism and, like, bad mental health. BUT then again I'm pretty sure that's why Bruce is Batman, so really, it's fine. :p

[leiawritesstories]

directors commentary for ftbf when Rowan and Aelin meet? 🤩🤩

OHHHH MY GOSH I LOVE THAT SCENE SO MUCH

Rowan and Aelin's meeting scene was very much inspired by the pirate lords' meeting from Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End (a lot of FTBF was inspired by POTC lol) and it had been living in my brain ever since the story idea popped up. i'd been plotting their meeting for soooo long; it was actually one of the first scenes i wrote down--the very first scene with Lorcan and Fen sneaking onto the Terrasen came first, then a few random things, then the meeting scene. it took so much self control not to just make that scene earlier, but the plot had to unfold first.

so i'd known from the very beginning that they were going to be attracted to each other right away, since they're both just that gorgeous and everything and also Rowan with a ponytail is just 🥵🥵🥵. Aelin was 1000% going to make as many snarky remarks as possible--i didn't anticipate her and Rolfe bantering, though, that part happened on its own. i had this mental image of aelin leaning back in her chair, boots propped up on the table, cleaning her fingernails with her dagger and smirking at rowan as steam poured out of his ears bc he had to stare at Fen all evening while Rolfe blathered. idk hehe i thought it was funny and tried to convey it.

then of COURSE there was that wonderful wonderful moment where bird boy confronts Aelin about Fen and she calls him out for planting spies on her ship. AHHHH that moment, that moment, is what got me into FTBF in the first place and kept me going all the way through even through that one scene with cairn you know the one. long story short, I had way too much fun watching Aelin tease and flirt and generally reduce Rowan to speechlessness.

thank you so so much for the ask! 💕❤️ this actually gave me a shove nudge towards my beloved horny pirates 👀👀

[three-headed-monster]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (five, tk take separately, luv uuu)

bestie you always come through thank you :))))

i hope that you're okay with me choosing from a variety of ships and fics cause that's what i'm doing lmao

long post incoming so inserting a cut here

and i can see us lost in the memory: muskoka lake cabin scene

really want to highlight this one cause i sort of feel like no one realizes that i ever wrote for them? probably because it was 3 years ago at this point and also has a lot of key characteristics of my early writing opposed to my writing now. but this is probably one of my favourite actual confession scenes that i've written. i knew the whole time when writing this fic that i wanted it to end in muskoka, with them together on the pier talking to one another. i think at the time, i was just so in love with the idea of muskoka being this place that connected both of them when they were pushed so so far apart. it felt right.

this is also where i kinda started like obsessing over eyes lmao. you can see that a common thread throughout my fics is the idea of eyes "crashing" into one another and eye contact being a sort of simultaneously clarifying and intense moment for the characters. i think that's personally because i hate making eye contact with literally anybody and find that you're most vulnerable when you're looking somebody right in the eye. The bond snaps into place as soon as Connor’s clear blue Muskoka eyes make contact with his is one of the best lines in the fic in my own personal expert opinion lmao because it signifies the beginning of the two characters finally starting to open up with each other, alongside a physical indicator that they do.

another one of my favourite lines is: They’ve both changed.  They’re both older, wiser.  They both look a little different.   But this place?  And these feelings?  Hasn’t changed one bit.

i love the idea of places holding weight and meaning. i just think that everything has memory in it you know? that'll never change, no matter how hard you try, and when you revisit those places, you're brought back to how you felt the first time you experienced them. you'll never forget them, but it's also always compounded with the new way you look at the world. and when you can connect those two things together and still end up feeling the same way, it's beautiful.

anyways this is basically me just plugging myself like please go read this fic cause i think this confession scene is beautiful !!!!!! i wrote it very well me thinks!!! it's probably the best part of the entire fic and definitely taught me the importance of a good closing scene.

2. i don't need your closure (i have my own)

more like a ficlet than an actual fic, but actually so necessary to how i write going forward tbh (i mean all of these fics are really important parts of my writing journey but like there are specific things that i got from all the fics you know)

this one is SUPER introspective on bo and it really lends to my writing style. i like when characters soul-search a little bit. i tend to lean that way more when putting down fic, thinking about what is logical for a character to feel during certain situations as opposed to the action actually happening around them. when characters really look deeply at themselves and realize why they're doing certain things, or why they're feeling certain ways, that's what is most exciting for me to write as an author. you'll notice that i often overuse this in fics though, with less dialogue/action focused scenes and more like "oh my god what the fuck is happening in my head rn" scenes.

i also am a sucker for best friend relationships. almost every ship i read and/or write for must have a deep friendship i think, before i can even consider seeking out content for them. this isn't to say i don't enjoy a good enemies to lovers, but i love the aspect of friends being there for one another and that transitioning into a deeper connection, into love. there isn't any tagged ship in this fic, but dylan and bo's friendship is at the forefront of it because the comfort that dylan provides to bo changes how he thinks and views things. he and dylan have a strong platonic love for each other, and i think it shines through! the best line in this fic is: We have to go inside now yeah? Don't worry, I've got you. and it perfectly sums up what this fic is. like a warm hug from a friend after a hard day.

3. i didn't just come here to dance: handfeeding scene

handfeeding is one of my favourite tropes in fic and i wish i gave myself more opportunities to write it because the intimacy of it!!!!! being cared for by someone in ways you know you don't need but want to give them anyways!!!!!

i wrote this one into this fic in particular because of the character dynamics and characterization of the two leads. i think this is one of the first fics where i really started to explore that idea, of having my own headcanons for characters, and integrating that into how they interact with others and with the object of their affection especially. in this case, one of the big things i wanted to highlight was jack's big fear of never being enough. he's never been enough for anyone (or so he thinks) and how does that inform his interactions with noah? it certainly tinges them with a sense of desperate connection with the one person who does see him as enough. i feel like all of my characters tend to have something like this (like owen's constant paranoia about not being interesting enough for kent to stick around).

also this serves as a good consent scene for the both of them, both of them sane and coherent enough to say yes to one another. which is always good! consent is necessary and sexy!

4. the boy who sits at the front of the class: breakup/makeup scene

another really underrated and really short one! i never get an opportunity to talk about this one, mainly because i have a lot of fucking fics lmao, and it's one that i released kinda under the radar.

i felt like this scene was needed mainly because i didn't want their relationship to be perfect. it's unrealistic to expect that, especially as a high school relationship. right person wrong time is something i believe in so strongly, and it just wasn't their time after high school going into college. that didn't mean they stopped loving each other though, and i think i say it in that scene that both of them were devastated by it.

you'll also notice the repetition of 3s rule in this scene (p much throughout the entire scene) and that's another trait of my writing. i love using that for dramatic effect and also to really emphasize what is going on. i think it makes it easy to add a ton of detail to scenes without feeling like there's a disconnect with what's actually going on. i mention 3 unrelated moments, but they're all kind of connected by the "there..." thread. great literary technique, highly suggest to all writers!

my favourite line from this fic is: Kent, Kent, Kent. It’s all him in the end.

because it could really be a synopsis for the whole fic and how i view owen as a character lmao. reading through the rest of my owen/kent fics, you'll notice that my owen characterization develops throughout, to really highlight that as one of his key traits.

5. lover of mine (maybe we'll take some time): nail scene in amsterdam

one of my favourite scenes i've written for this fic, mostly because i think it's one of the only ones that perfectly balances the angst, the pining, and the humour of it all. if i had to introduce someone to this fic, i would probably use this scene to do it tbh because it has everything i want to show from it.

funnily enough, this was a scene i started over at least three different times when writing out this fic. truly, i have no idea why it was so difficult, but in general, i find that this one of the most difficult fics for me to write. i think it's because i don't have a very firm grasp on kent's characterization at all, what makes him tick and what not. the au setting does make it a bit easier for me to mold him to whatever i want him to be, but there's a reason i tend to write from owen's pov instead of kent's. i feel like i really understand owen as a character (and you'll find i tend to lean one way in all of my ships in terms of understanding their characters), and with kent, i feel that less so. i wanted this scene to show owen and kent's genuine friendship, and how owen cares for him enough to do things like this with him. owen cares enough to pay attention to the fact that this is what kent wants, and to ask him the truth about what's going on. he doesn't push, because he knows kent well enough to know he'll tell him anyways. i wanted to give the audience an idea of how far their connection goes and how good of a friendship it is. add in a bit of owen clearly wanting to tell kent how he feels about him (spoiler: he's kinda in love), and some humour, and you have a great scene.

i think this scene is also a really good indicator of how kent views owen too. it's a lot of foreshadowing for how they will inevitably end up together, through the dropping of little hints. like really, kent shouldn't want to be so observant of what owen is doing, but he wants to because there's something more than friendship simmering under there. and because he finds he's really good at it.

the vibe is this scene is truly something i want to try to capture in most scenes going forward in this fic. and hopefully i do! the next chapter is great chapter and when i do release it, i think you'll find that a lot of the amsterdam vibes do reflect on it.

[wulfhalls]

https://x.com/ellenorlok/status/1878513353061994695?t=X_pMHBEArgO2AgD0rjLypA&s=19

well well well

me when the gothic romance romances gothically

[stevie-petey]

oh also,,, whenever you wanna write. chap 6 steve & robin pov blurb because i am so sure steve would be going on and on about bug once she left so my soul needs that thank you <3

im kicking myself idk why i didnt include this scene in the chapter like its PERFECT for what i have planned later but ,,, for now all i can do is make it a blurb n tell people to read it lmao

enjoy <3

"it didnt matter that you were an ass. i was still... obsessed with you." robins confession hangs in the air. her back is pressed against steves as they lay on the floor, bound together. his eye stings and his nose is numb and crusted with dried blood. he isnt sure why shes telling him this.

"even though all of us losers pretend to be above it all, we still just wanna be popular. accepted. normal."

the rope around steves wrists tense. he clenches his fists and bites the inside of his swollen cheek. acceptance. he thought he had that, once. when he was sixteen with a crowd of people who wouldve done anything for his attention.

now hes eighteen and the crowds bruises still tinge his body.

"if it makes you feel any better, having those things isnt all that great. seriously." it took him a long time to learn that. to recognize that his acceptance was merely a precedence. it wasnt real friendship. he wouldnt learn this until he met you, until you taught it to him. "it just baffles me. everything that people tell you is important, everything that people say you should care about, its all just... bullshit."

bullshit. nancy taught him that, too.

"its all just bullshit, it was so obviously bullshit. i was an idiot for not realizing it sooner," steve bites the inside of is cheek again. somehow, his lips remained untouched when he was being beaten by the russians. your lips still linger on his. "you know, the only person who saw through my bullshit was y/n. one day, before we knew about monsters and russian lairs, she said that she knew i wasnt a bad person. it... it stuck with me. here she was, y/n henderson, telling me i wasnt so bad."

"and then...?" robin is almost too afraid to press him further. shes never seen him like this, vulnerable and open. she didnt know that his history with you went beyond just a summer fling.

steve nudges his head back and sighs. "i messed up. i... i hurt people. people she cared about."

robin frowns. you wouldnt forgive someone so easily for that. theres more to what steve is saying, she just cant figure out what. "she must really love you, then. if she forgave you."

"i dont know if she loves me, but i know that she believes in me. sees someone worth putting up with." he huffs, he cant believe he will never see you again. he hates that he will never be able to thank you for seeing a version of him that no one else could. "it wasnt until i messed up that i realized she saw something in me. its ironic, isnt it? but i guess you gotta mess up to figure things out, right?"

he had to mess up to realize that he loved you, too.

"i hope so. i feel like my whole life has been one big error." robin admits. its the least she could do, offer steve a piece of herself in return for what hes offered her.

an unattractive snort escapes steve. he laughs, and his shoulders shake against robins. he understands exactly what she means. "yup."

"god, i wonder how y/n does it."

"does what?"

robin pauses, worries that she might reveal too much. but its steve. if theyre going to die together, he deserves to know. he has to know. "shes always able to see the error in people and love them anyways."

steve is quiet. he lets what she said settle over him. its what he loves the most about you. how youve always managed to see the good in people, even in someone as cruel as billy. he hadnt known that robin noticed this kindness in you, too.

she seems to understand you in a way only he and jonathan do.

"you know, i wish id known you in clicks class." its a peace offering. an extension of himself to robin for caring about you the way he does. no one really seems to be able, despite how easy steve finds it to be.

"yeah?"

"really, i do. maybe you couldve helped me pass the class." he breathes out, the thought of all he couldve done differently will always haunt him. king steve is dead, but the persona is a ghost he will never be able to get rid of. "maybe instead of being here, id be with y/n on some romantic getaway. maybe you wouldve given me the courage to do what i shouldve done sooner."

robin doesnt say anything. she turns her face away, presses her cheek against the concrete surface.

"robin?"

she swallows. "yeah. yeah, maybe. you wouldnt have been stuck slinging ice cream with me like some smuck."

steve shakes his head. hes worried hes said the wrong thing. "hey, dont get me wrong. i enjoyed being your smuck. it was fun while it lasted."

bittersweetness creeps upon robins face. she smiles, though its a sad one. shes going to die with the understanding of why youve fallen so hard for steve harrington. "yeah. it was."

then the doors burst open and the russian find them.

[hotvintagepoll]

Oh no I missed coffee night!!!!

I wanted to ask you about Hitchcock 😔 If you're willing to answer, which movies of his do you think are overrated and which do you think are actually good? He's my most watched director (because film school) but I only genuinely like a few of his films and always disagreed with my classmates about which ones were the best

I feel like I'm holding up a Daffy Duck style sign that says "shoot me" because Hitchcock is so well thought of by cinephiles versus me, the basic horny mod who watches movies with hot people in them. With that said, I remember Rope, Dial M for Murder, North by Northwest, and To Catch a Thief all left me a bit flat, because I felt like he was prioritizing pushing technical limits or creating extravagant images over deeper characters and relationships. I love a good technical limit-pushing, but it needs to serve the story! And sometimes I feel like he has an idea he wants to try or an image he wants to show and puts so much focus on developing it that characters' reality and interest kind of falls by the wayside—they become pawns navigating his situations, instead of interesting characters in their own right.

To be fair, this is more a characteristic of his later work than his early work—The Lady Vanishes is one of my favorite movies, and I remember Notorious and Spellbound both being enjoyable when I watched them a few years ago. Again, basic film watcher here. Don't show this post to the Criterion collection.

[boltlightning]

Sending you all the stars ⭐⭐⭐

fic director's cut asks!

WAHH thank you pal! 💖💖💖

taking these three stars (and adding an extra, for fun) to talk about the original dragons in ye old potc dragon au!

honestly...the hardest part about writing these dragons was picking the names that their handlers would pick. like, it's not just a name that has to be plausibly exist within the universe, but it has to be something that a particular person would pick? and make sense that they would know that?? and be fitting to the circumstances in which they picked the name???? so we end up with:

tempest, norrington's dragon, named on the spot when his egg hatched in the middle of a storm. he's particularly named after the shakespeare play, which is also my ham-fisted way of calling to another story where magic and history meet.

it's also a call-forward to his personality: tempest is a calm fellow, but falls into brief and unthinkable rages when he or a loved one is threatened. he and scylla are written to be exaggerated versions of their handlers at first—norrington's blind sense of duty/morality being tempest's foremost trait—and the anger is an essential part of that. there's a lot about norrington that he denies or suppresses that is reflected obliquely in tempest.

scylla is elizabeth's, and her name serves a few purposes: 1) it's a far-fetched name that a young kid would pick for a fairy tale companion they never thought they'd get, 2) it's pulled from elizabeth's education as a noble, referencing a privileged upbringing 3) it's edgy as fuck, revealing elizabeth's taste 4) scylla's egg was a siren call for elizabeth that could not be ignored. the sinbowlism, and all that.

scylla is meant to exaggerate elizabeth's skepticism and tendency to assume. if elizabeth jumps to conclusions, scylla soars there. she acts way too big for her britches considering she's a little dragon, but she's got paralytic acid so she has some way of being the specialest prettiest most beautiful girl on earth. i love this little wretched insecure mean girl of a dragon.

lookout is no one's dragon in particular, but a feral dragon that barbossa recruits. he is named unimaginatively by the crew for his job: he's the ship's lookout, the irony being that he's a night-seer—so he has nightvision, but can't see very well by day. he's got big scary dinnerplate/lighthouse lens eyes, so it all serves to beat a dead horse into the ground. lookout is a subversion on the idea that all dragons just want gold; he got cursed by the aztec gold, he just wants to go back to being a normal dragon! he's fun. i miss him.

it's also a vessel for these two stupid jokes. thank you.

and finally, the dragon that has appeared the least: augusta. augusta is beckett's dragon, one he picked out himself, and she specifically is named for the roman honorific augusta bestowed upon the women of the roman imperial families. her name is as haughty as beckett is. her primary trait is that she's silent, not cold, but merely used to her presence bearing weight—she's also one of those BIG fucking dragons, as huge as a first-rate ship. she doesn't show up much, but she's great fun with beckett. they are incredibly scary together.

[runa-falls]

scratches and bites?

scratches and bites - miguel o'hara x spider-girl!reader

s&b was my first miguel fic and was initially going to be a smutty one-shot, but clearly i had issues sticking with some plotless porn. first there was one part, then two, then three, and now 4 (the last one has been sitting in my google drive XD).

i really enjoyed introducing an "extremely-new-doesn't-even-know-about-her-powers-yet" spider-girl into spider society because it was almost like i was writing how i'd react to the changes the spiders go through.

the first part introduces grumpy impatient!miguel and the reader who's barely through her transformation into spider-girl. i used this part to create some undeniable tension in their first meeting bc i wanted to make it clear that despite miguel's rough nature, he'll always fall for the reader.

in the second part, when the reader goes to nueva york, i wanted to focus on the dynamics between different characters (peter, gwen, hobie, etc) + how miguel and the reader's relationship evolves (jealousy, missing each other, defiance for attention). this chapter had the most plot and least interaction between the love birds, but i thought it was important to push miguel to the edge.

the third part was...mostly PORN. finally right? it did seem like most people skipped the second part (which is a bit disheartening) but i get it. i mean, i wrote this series thinking it would only be porn.

this part included the big fight scene and the big FUCK scene. i love writing arguments but irl i HATE conflict, so this is how i get my fill <3 from what he almost says (he was interrupted by the reader lol) it's clear that miguel wants to keep the reader safe, but he isn't ready to admit that he cares for her.

i know it seems to early for miguel to have feelings for someone that he barely interacts with, but the reader is the only person he's even considered opening up to after all these years. i think the fact that the reader is so new to being spider-girl makes miguel feel like he's needed + that's all he's really wanted since the accident.

later, after the fucking and sedation-kink, i wanted to highlight miguel's attachment issues due to his past. i mean, he's particularly needy in this third chapter (NSFW):

“Be mine, baby, and I’ll take care of you forever.” His claws dig into your web-pasted as he works himself into you, post-orgasm slick smothered carelessly over the both of you. “I promise.” He whispers breathlessly next to your ear.

sry this was so long. i honestly didn't know i had this much to say, but i guess i just wanted to convey my understanding of the story in case anyone is curious.

[hogans-heroes]

⭐? 🥰

(From the Director’s Cut Fanfic Ask Game)

Oooh the star one is hard because I don’t know what fic to ramble about. I guess one thing I find intriguing in general is that a large majority of my fics are set in the stalag, without my meaning to, soI suppose there’s something about that setting that appeals to me creatively; Learning Curve, At The End (We’re Still Together), Branded and Glass and Bone.

I don’t know why necessarily, but 90% of my new fic ideas are also oneshots set in the stalag, I just have sooo many: Bucky gets drugged while in the cooler, Gale disassociates after childhood flashback when being accidentally locked outside, Gale getting whipped as punishment and trying to hide it from the others, Bucky developing touch-aversion from his experiences after being captured, Gale signing up for medical experiments in exchange for food and supplies for the men, etc. I could come up with a new one every day smh. I should start putting them out as smaller oneshots instead of feeling like I have to make them all big fics and then never writing it.

[attapullman]

⭐ can we talk about whodunit?

WE CAN ALWAYS TALK WHODUNIT?

I'm on the edge of my seat excited to introduce everyone to Cassie. Because we're all gonna have a crush on her that will rival Mickey's.

While the guys begin volleying back and forth about whether it’s too late for a Coke, you watch the other patrons. You’ve known this town your whole life. That brief stint outside feels foreign as each face in the diner is one you’ve always known. You know their habits, their families, their marital problems. This town has no secrets from you, and yet it evades you who could be so villainous as to steal money from the community. You hear your name drift over the crowd and your eyes find Cassie, waving enthusiastically in your direction. Giving her a big grin, you beckon her over. The sleuths follow your gaze, curious, before Mickey turns the color of the cherry red vinyl of the booth.

These hometown sleuths have my whole heart and I'm having way too much fun playing around in the 80s.

DIRECTOR'S CUT: ATTAPULLMAN

[sepetajmikolikomehoces]

"the most valuable thing to me" ⭐

Oh, Moulin Rouge AU my beloved...

I had a hard time picking an AU for that day of Bojere week, and this just ended up bonking me on the head. I was texting with @punanenmarli and it's hilarious to look at the chat because it basically goes from me giving her my birthday and then "OH I HAVE HAD A TERRIBLE IDEA" followed by the moodboard.

I could write an entire fic about this AU though. I think originally I may have had vague thoughts of writing Jere and Bojan meeting at the cabaret or having like an illicit meetup which would have been more in line with the moodboard, but it quickly veered away to "well, I don't want to cry about Bojan dying like Satine did, so what if he defeats his sickly Victorian child tendencies and just has an awful life with the fic version of the count and then Jere stages a rescue?"

Again, if I didn't run the risk of getting of getting superwordy, I may have gone off on a tangent about exactly how the rescue was staged and how it may or may not have featured a little casual arson by Jure.

If I ever were to return to this verse, it will definitely be to start from the beginning. Jere visiting the cabaret and falling head over heels for the gorgeous singing courtesan who is dreaming of a better life, a bigger stage and dismisses love as unattainable.

(my neighbours might sue me though because I will 100% sing the soundtrack again)

Fanfic writers director's cut

[greenerteacups]

Hi! First, I wanted to say that I’m a huge fan of yours and your work. I could list a million things I adore about your writing but one thing in particular that strikes me is the deep care and understanding you have of your characters. I just love when, after a great chapter, you sometimes give little insights on why you think a certain person said or did a certain thing. It’s kind of my favorite part :D.

Now, that being said, I have a very, absolutely, totally serious question regarding the deep psyche of your characters: who do you think would be the biggest swifty of them all? My money is on Daphne or possibly Ginny. I think Hermione would maybe deny it out lout and then secretly cry watching edits of Mirrorball or something.

Oh, Lavender. And her favorite album is Reputation, front to back, no skips.