#I don't know if I've actually properly thanked people for reading yet

[silawastaken]

CRYING AND SCREAMING...

10k hits??? I'm going to actually explode

This is my second fic to get this popular, but it took months after finishing it for the blonde dazai au to get anywhere near this

Considering the soulmate au is still ongoing, this is absolutely insane

I'm so grateful to everyone who's been reading, this really did start off as a self indulgent idea that I wasn't sure I was ever going to follow through with and now I have actual friends so :D crazy what fanfic can get you huh

I don't know if this is actually as big of a deal as I'm making it, but I'm so happy and so glad that people have been liking it as much as they have

[httpisaoki]

pov ft. aeri uchinaga

sypnosis: in everyone's point of view-- she was giselle, the popular rich girl in your university. but in your point of view, she was just aeri uchinaga. the girl you loved, and the only person who ever understood you.

warnings: none just pure fluff, established relationship !!

inspired by pov by ariana grande hihi

-> part two of the chrome hearts series. happy valentine's day !!

I wanna love me the way that you love me for all of my pretty and all of my ugly too I'd love to see me from your point of view

it was valentine's day. the day where people confessed, a day spent together by couples. but, it was also the day you met aeri. you could remember that day like it was yesterday. 

it was a Friday evening, you had just finished tutoring a high school student, when, you bumped into aeri in the library. a few days after, you find out she was the new exchange student from japan. you quickly became close with each other, being the best friends, until you both shyly confessed your mutual feelings on valentine's day, and the rest was history.

today was your 2-year anniversary, you and aeri being different majors, you didn't get to see each other often, until in the evening, where she finds you with a book in your hands, your nose scrunched at whatever you're reading. she chuckles at the sight, with flowers in her hands, she says softly, "happy anniversary, baby."

the sound of her voice makes you look at her, a smile on your face as you realize her surprise. you hummed, your voice soft, "happy anniversary, ri."

aeri chuckles softly, handing over the bouquet of flowers she's been hiding behind her back. she shifts her position, holding your hands in hers like she always does. "i hope you like them!" she giggles cutely, leaning into your body, pressing herself against you, her arms looping over your neck as if she's trying to squeeze you tight.

you chuckled, "don't worry, I do," you hugged her waist, "you know, you didn't have to get me anything, gi." you say, warmth in both your bodies.

aeri giggles at the nickname you've given her. she enjoys it, feeling her face heat up at the sound of you calling her gi. she tightens her grip, burying her face into your chest. "just a little thing I picked up on the way home.." she says, nuzzling against you. you felt aeri's body shift and relax, like she was truly letting herself be herself around you.

"especially since you work so hard," she whispered, her voice filling your ears with warmth. 

you hummed, smiling softly at her before saying, "thank you, love. for everything. ever since i met you, i don't regret a single thing, aeri."

aeri squeezes you tighter. her warmth surrounds you, as she rests her head on your chest.

"and neither do I, sweetheart," she whispers, nuzzling into your neck. you feel a sudden heat build up in your cheeks, and the feeling of aeri's breathing tickles your skin like butterflies on the wings. she's cute, she's adorable, all of the moments of being around each other were never a dull moment. every time she was near you, you couldn't help but smile a genuine smile.

"and you've changed my life, too," you say after a moment of silence. you looked down at aeri, who's clinging even tighter to you, her face buried into your neck. 

"you've helped me in so many ways, but the biggest of it all is that you were the one who actually made me feel as though my thoughts and feelings mattered. for once in my life, I felt like somebody was listening to me. you're the first person i've ever spoken to properly about everything. you make me feel loved.” you whispered as you softly hugged her.

aeri shifts her body, now looking into your eyes. her eyes looked so mesmerizing to stare into. it was as if the whole world around you two no longer existed anymore.

"you know..." she started, "I love you..." she said it without hesitation, her hand brushing against your cheek. you felt your heartbeat quicken, suddenly you felt nervous yet so relieved-- finally having heard what you'd been waiting for. she loved you, you could feel it radiating from every pore of her body.

a soft, content sigh was released by aeri. the sound of it made her body slightly shake, causing her to slightly squeeze you tighter. she feels extremely comfortable and safe with you.

"god..i love you so much," she whispered, shifting so she was laying her head directly on your chest. her hands were still on your waist. you chuckled softly, a huge smile on your face. 

“and I love you more, aeri uchinaga.”

from the moment you met her, to the years you’ve loved her, in your point of view, she was always gonna be the love of your life. no matter the circumstances.

you got more than 20/20, babe made of glass, the way you see through meyou know me better than I do can't seem to keep nothin' from you how you touch my soul from the outside

masterlist.

[etheries1015]

Sorry, I overread it (It's currently 10pm where I live, I've been up since 4am, and my anxiety is kicking. Requesting things from people I never requested before is hard >.<)

May I request Riddle, Kalim, Idia and Malleus reacting to finding out their crush is trans-masc? Either by reader telling them or them finding out by accident

Never apologize for asking questions and sending asks! Please take care of yourself, get lots of rest, water, and sustenance <3

Finding out you're trans-masc

Featuring: Riddle, Kalim, Idia, Malleus

WARNINGS (please read): I'm a cis woman and I CANNOT stress enough that I may not be able to portray this as well as someone who actually identifies as such! I did do research ahead of time to make sure I try my very best to capture the essence of someone who identifies as trans-masc, but everyone's experiences are different. If I, in ANY way shape, or form, used incorrect terminology/representation or mistakenly offended anyone, please educate me so that I become more knowledgeable and can build my understanding. Other than that, I hope I did well in writing this for you to enjoy <3 Thank you for your time and for the request <3

Riddle

The topic came up during the first time you had gone to an Unbirthday party. Being misgendered by Riddle, you spoke up gently to inform him of your disposition.

"I'm...well, I don't use She/her pronouns." You shrugged. Riddle pursed his lips in frustration at his own confusion, he hadn't met someone falling under the LGBTQ umbrella before, he was incredibly sheltered and closed-minded for a long time due to his mother's teachings.

"I see..." Riddle nodded, "Then, please explain it to me so that I may not make the same mistake twice." He was eager to learn more about people and their experiences, especially learning about someone he found himself becoming more and more attached to.

Spends an entire night reading upon such topics- he was very quick to adapt and correct people around you whenever he found they did not address you properly.

"Does it bother you?" You had asked him once out of pure curiosity, and his response was with furrowed eyebrows and confusion.

"And why should it? It does not matter what you identify as. You are still (y/n). You are not your gender, and not your sex. You are..." He blushed deeply, you smiling to urge him on. You knew about his crush on you, of course, yet he seemed to be far too shy to admit it yet.

"You're..." He hesitated, "failing this class. G-get back to studying! quit getting distracted with silly questions or it's off with your head!"

You loved seeing him open his mind to many different concepts and treat you no differently than anyone else (minus some favoritism, hehe <3)

Kalim

It was actually Jamil who brought it up in conversation. The topic of "LGBTQ" came up, of course, Kalim understood the basics of people who identified as gay, however when the term "trans-masc" came up in regards to you, he was incredibly eager to learn more.

"Trans-masc? I thought they were (y/n)?"

"Kalim- no-"

It didn't take long for him to easily come around to the new terminology. You maybe gave him a 10 minute crash course before he accepted it face value.

"I see...so one day you're going to be by my side not as a queen, but as my royal spouse!" You were flabbergasted at his brazen comment. With a red face, you hadn't time to react before his hands were already around you in a deep hug.

"Haha! Oh, right! The pop club has a new song, wanna listen to it?"

He loves you no matter what. The most understanding and unconditionally in love person to exist, the definition of sunshine

Might overshare sometimes. He will bring it up sometimes to other people (if they misgender you) and give THEM a crash course on it! You love that he is so passionate about you, though. xoxo

Idia

He knew. He is chronically online, he knows all about it. When he first met you, he even asked what your preferred pronouns were.

I don't really know what else to say for Idia, he honestly doesn't care who you identify as. You play video games with him and give him love, that's enough for him!!

Can take it incredibly seriously If someone misgenders you or tries to bully you about your identity, his hair turns a fiery red and he turns gives them a whole one hour lesson while belittling that person calling them as intelligent as a soggy piece of bread.

The other person is crying by the end of it, but honestly nobody deserves to be treated disrespectfully like that.

actually how he confessed his crush to you, lol. In a fit of rage to someone who wasn't being very kind... "How dare you treat the one I love like that, you stupid normie piece of-" Realizes his mistake, face turns red, turns to you (whos face is also red)

"ummm.....Nevermind!" He runs away, but there was no getting away from you heuheu

even though he can be shy and kind of tsundere in public, he can be really passionate and will defend you at a moments notice and educate other people who are, as he puts, less than him.

In private? Sitting in his lap playing video games

Malleus

Actually, learned this from Idia. It was during class when the topic of LGBTQ came up, and when speaking among the students he over heard Idia telling ortho about your disposition as trans-masc.

Immediately came to you

"Child of man, what is 'trans-masc' and why did Idia use this term to describe you? Could you elaborate?" You two decided to take a stroll around the forest where you spent hours talking about all sorts of different people and the terms they used, explaining to him about dysphoria and how you discovered that the pronouns you were born with just didn't sit right with you.

Nods in understanding, but ends up purchasing a bunch of books Idia and Lilia recommended to him to increase his understanding.

Even though there are indeed things he will never be able to sympathize with properly and understand, such as the effects of dysphoria, but he will respect you full heartedly and not treat you any different despite still growing to learn about such topics.

All in all, it does not matter what you identify as. He finds himself completely enamored with you, loving how you teach him new things about anything and everything with humans- he will treat you the same as you treat him- impartial due to status, class, gender, pronouns, human or fae. He knew you were the one he wanted to rule Briar Valley next to one day- as his lovely spouse.

~~

I hope I was able to answer your request satisfyingly <3 Please let me know if anything needs to be changed and I shall update accordingly, I myself am always learning and growing every day! Please be kind <3

[butchhamlet]

are there any shakespeare retellings you recommend? i really enjoy retellings but it's also difficult to find ones that like. actually understand the source material... i've read your novella duodecimal and really liked it btw! excellent take on twelfth night :-)

THANK YOU SO MUCH WAH... yes, i can recommend some retellings! i keep intending to make a big post with my recs, actually, but there are so many out there that i haven't read yet... so for now here's an incomplete list:

a thousand acres by jane smiley: the first one that came to my mind seeing this ask. it's a retelling of lear set on an american farmstead, and the adaptation is done beautifully and smoothly--it's just distinct enough from OG Lear that you can judge it as a book on its own but also as a lear retelling. and it's sooooo good. it starts a little slow, but the character work is so excellent and it almost made me cry (i will note that there's a pretty hefty cw on this one but... saying what it is is technically spoilers? but feel free to send another ask or message if you want to know up-front)

the last true poets of the sea by julia drake: books that made me have to turn my camera off in zoom class so i could bawl properly. books written for me specifically. this is a loose YA retelling of twelfth night (looser than some of the other retellings on this list) and it's like. perfect. the teenage dialogue actually sounds like teenagers. every emotional beat clubbed me over the head. the love triangle is present--and done really well; it's not present for drama but because sometimes being a teenager is confusing--but more than that this is a book about the relationship between violet and her sibling, and about mental health, and god it makes me CRAZY. also girls kiss in this one

rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead by tom stoppard: i mean. i think most people into shakespeare know r&gad. but in case you haven't read it yet, it's an absurdist play from the point of view of rosencrantz and guildenstern and it's absolutely fucking brilliant. not sure what else to say about this; you've really just gotta read it

teenage dick by mike lew: another play, this one on the modern side--a retelling of richard iii set in a high school, focusing explicitly on disability issues. kind of more a reimagining than a retelling, honestly, but i really like the exploration of r3's themes and also it's fucking hysterical. although i will say there's a kind of jarring tonal shift in this one near the end, so don't go to it for something 100% comedic

american moor by keith hamilton cobb: okay this isn't exactly a retelling but if you've ever read othello you have to read it. you just have to. please god if you've ever read a shakespeare PLEASE. it's a monologue from the perspective of a black man trying out for the role of othello, half-resigned to being pigeonholed into playing that specific role in a very specific way as directed by a white director, but also half-chafing against that resignation, and also exploring the complexities of loving shakespeare as a black man, and it's soooooo so good

exit, pursued by a bear by e.k. johnston: this one is kind of cheating because it's not really a retelling, in that it has next to nothing to do with the winter's tale except that there is a hermione character and a leontes character and a paulina character. i still think it's a very very well-done YA book, though, and one of the only ones i've read that deals head-on with abortion

foul is fair by hannah capin: okay, i will admit i read this one some years ago when i was more into YA, so i'm not sure i would still go crazy over it now, but the plot of this book is that the modern lady macbeth character gets assaulted by a guy at a party and decides to kill everyone who let that happen. and then she does. and idk i read it in two days it felt like being on crack

the wednesday wars by gary schmidt: this one is DEFINITELY cheating, because this isn't a retelling of anything. but if you like shakespeare and you're open to reading historical fiction about a kid in the 60s using shakespeare as a lens through which to understand the chaos of his life (from the vietnam war to his school crush)... it's so good. it made me nearly sob. beautiful book

i'm also a fan of ryan north's shakespeare choose-your-own-adventure books, but those aren't exactly retellings and also the humor will probably not work for everyone. but i like em <3

and finally, i would be remiss not to shout out the fact that @suits-of-woe wrote an INCREDIBLE retelling of the two gentlemen of verona that, like, redeemed the fact that that play exists. if you've read that play and you thought, "wow, i wish this were explicitly homoerotic, or not a rape apologia, or good in any way," you will LOVE macy's book. unfortunately it isn't fucking published yet but WITH YOUR HELP--

[eliotlime]

November update post thing

Drawing of me watching short-form video content without sound vs one where I am lol

If you use short-form video platforms of any kind and would like to help me with my survey you can do so here! Though I'll probably be closing it sometime next week (2nd November 2024 ish) to collate the data for submission.

I've got a metric tonne of deadlines due next week but you know what it's blog update time!!

This is also not going to be scheduled to post because I usually write these on the 29th but I forgot! So it's getting posted now!!

💀 School..

Yeap as I've said I'm in school so that's still in progress, I have completely no idea what I'm doing everyday and as it turns out no time to worry about it either I got deadlines baby!!!

I mean in theory I understand but it's all a big question mark to me, like i need to be reassured like a nervous dog that I'm doing the right thing and what not

And because of that I'm real sorry about pushing the Abacelsus zine to the back burner, I actually got quite a lot of it done before I had to lock in for school of course.

And though I said I had a lot of sketches I didn't post well they were shittier than I liked them to be so I wanted to make it look nicer. Oh well dems the breaks.

Another screenie of my school work, they didn't really go into depth about how to specifically design stuff so it's basically me frankenstien-ing stuff I've seen existing and just trying my best lol

I mean.. overall it's funnnn... i guess... I do like projects but everyone in my class are adults with established jobs or goals. Even those who are around my age seem to know what they're aiming for too, feels like I'm an unemployed little sucker fumbling in the dark. Can be humiliating I won't lie, why is learning something new so embarrassing?

Aside from that I'm seeing people be so social online while studying too and it's almost mesmerizing, it's definitely survivor bias but those that can balance it are fascinating to me.

📖Anthology Update

Agh enough of that debbie downer bullshit, I'll tell you what I've also got due next week! That's right!! The drafts for my anthology!

Screenie of one of the panels I posted onto my ko-fi discord!

I'm not even half way done and it's due on the 6th of December. I'm beyond FUCKED. Anyway I can get it done by then but the school shit is sucking the life out of me through my ears.

☕ Ko-Fi Page

Deadlines aside I've also randomly launched my Ko-fi Membership page! I haven't quite had the time to properly promote it but it's there and I've been updating it every so often

I've got stuff up there already and comics of things that aren't polished (or sfw) enough for me to post. Especially if you're interested in my characters and would like to support me, here's a good hub to check all of it out!

The Ko-fi Discord updates the most frequently, basically every time I draw anything (Which is quite often!). The actual ko-fi gallery is only being updated every week to prevent spam.

Shout out to my one ko-fi member, wormfriend. Right now it's quite funny to have just the one but I definitely would like more so plz join!!! I promise I draw a lot!!!

🌯 Wrapping it up...

That's all I've got for you this month, real grind-y and uneventful but hey some moths are like that. I talked about opening my commissions again in December and I intend to keep that promise but as of yet the first week is not looking too hot haha. I'll consider it on the 7th but whuff it's real packed right now!

I don't have really anything else to say or add that isn't either

a) incredibly negative and self deprecating

or

b) cussing the shit out of disrespectful transphobic anonymous asks I've been getting

so I'm just going to end this hastily written blog update here and get back to work!

I leave you with this cool down drawing of a honda civic and my attempts at a motorcycle that can also hover in the air.

As always thank you so much for reading and I've been so busy I haven't even had time to work on my annual redraw that's been sitting in my folders gah! If you’d like to support me, here’s my ko-fi page again and my itchi.io & gumroad as well.

If you have any questions or just generally want to talk to me, my DMs and askbox is always open! Any professional enquires can be sent towards my email as well: eliotlime@gmail.com

XOXO, Stay weird!

-Eliot :)

[red-carter]

Giving Thanks

Now, I've seen my friends and their posts and replying. I wanted to make my own because I know that this one is going to be pretty long. At least, I have an idea that it's going to be pretty long. I won't be able to tag everyone, seeing as I don't know everyone's tumblrs and such like that. There's also going to be some not tags because I'd be too scared to actually tag these people.

I'm so very very thankful for everyone who's come into my life in the last year. I'm thankful to those who've been in my life for several years. My bestest sibs who won't likely see this for the many years that I've been with them, since first grade, middle school, beginning of high school and everyone in between. Those who I call family (not blood related), because you, and everyone I'm about to mention, have helped me in so many ways. As well as just because I'm so happy to have met you. Even if this is just for a season, long or short, I'm so glad to have made the friends and family that I've come across. Who've just been chill, or been there for us.

Thank you @imaginethat0327 for being an inspiration and being the person who helped me step out of my scared and anxious lil bubble I'd created around myself. You're such a lovely person, and I really look forward to our talks, no matter how long apart they are from the last one. Also big thanks to Livie because they've also been such a joy to have met and chat with. Always look forward to our chats <3 Through them I've also met @nyxcentury who's just as lovely. Though we've not talked too much, always love seeing you around. Same goes with Tipthewaitress (dunno their tumblr, so I hope that they see this), and the other lovelies of the Rescue Fire discord server.

@cat-in-the-desert .... I... There's so many things I'm thankful for from you. I'm so thankful that we got to meet, and that you've been such a wonderful friend to the point I consider you one of my closest friends. Genuinely. You're such a lovely person, always looking forward to our chats and hangouts <3

Really quickly, I'm so thankful to have come across @\nightdreamdraws art and animatics, and her AUs... They're so cool and I always look forward to any new art or ideas that they share. Cherrifire with seeing her creative take on the life series, and the amazing things they've done in this community. Magnifique! (Wish I could properly spell that word, apologies if it's wrong, or has no accents, I'm just trying to be wholesome here.... :)) There's so many others, their animatics, art, animations, edits, that I'm so thankful that I've gotten to see because everyone is amazing! I swear-!!! <3 <3 <3 <3

@ezzriin stares and blinks with an ever growing smile You're a lovely lil guy that I'm so grateful to have met. I wanna squish you /pos. I might have to DM you another paragraph I swear— So lovely, and a wonderful chaotic gremlin that I hold dear in my heart.

@foxhunter350 I would write a full paragraph if I could right now, but I'm trying to keep these short.... I'm thankful to have met you. Getting to write ideas and such with you has been such a blast, looking forward to more with you mate. So very grateful to have you in my life. /gen

@nine-of-diamonds, @1watermelontea, @crabbri stares blankly at you three You're all so amazing, I'm thankful that I came across Chasing The Horizon Line and got to meet you. The butterfly affect is something I think about constantly, and so thankful for in this situation. The chaos and fun that we've all had, I cherish it with my whole heart. Thank you for the amazing series to read and the fun times we've had and will have in the future. (please leave me out of this big ass polycule, not professing my love to you lot just yet, again.... /vsilly)

@writingwithaglassquill Quilly, Eilly, my beautiful darling of a muse? /silly /lh /p Lmao, sorry, that was a weird way to start this. I'm thankful to you, and I know I've told you this many times, but I'm forever grateful for coming across your story IHTH because it really gave me the urge to want to write again. You've done so much, you're a fabulous person, and I'm so glad to have met someone like you. A steady head to keep me from just completely sinking. (this is me professing my love /vsilly /j /p) Genuinely so thankful to have met you when I did, looking forward to the future ahead.

@gildedmicah18 Meka-Meka... Darling Micah. /vsilly /lh /p You're such a wonderful person to chat with, always looking forward to our chats. Thankful to have you in my life you amazing cutie you! (Really really wanna squish you and also may or may not see you as a little sibling.)

@nyxtheeclipse Hai. You're a cutie. <3 .... Yes, I was tempted to just leave it at that. My bad XD Anywooooo!~ Thankful to you Nyx for everything you've done. You're an amazing person, love you lots mate! Very creative, and always looking forward to what you make and share!

@yourfavouritevigilante (hoping this tags.... it's being funky) You're such a lovely individual, along with your system. We all love you. You're all like siblings to us and we're so very very thankful to have met you Tobes. Genuinely, we're always looking forward to getting to chat or hang out with you lot. So fun to joke with, or pick fun with each other or stopping fights (like earlier XD). Genuinely though, and I may say this far too much, we love you so very much. See you like a little sibling for reals. Or child, depending on if it's us, or Impy, Skizzy, and Jess. So grateful to have gotten to know you and hang out with you lots, squishing you all. (except those who don't like getting hugs which is a-okay)

@peridot-the-kitten .... Okay, I genuinely forgot the words I was going to start off with XD. I love that I've just confused you in CTHL hahahahah. I'm so thankful to have met you Lain. You're a lovely and creative individual that now? I can't believe you scared me before XD. Grateful to have met you, and gotten to know you. So many jokes and fun has been had, and you've been a wonderful grounding point in lots of stuff that's happened as well. Always looking forward to our chats and hangout sesses.... sessions.... Love you lots!!! (totally professing my love /vsilly /j /p)

@moonstarsongs You're a darling sweetheart of an angst lover. You've been such a wonderful friend and lovely individual to chat with. So very thankful to have met you and that I get to chat with you whenever we can (since different time schedules and whatnot). <3 <3 <3

@archaic-dragon You're very lovely, so glad that we've gotten to chat and whatnot. Seriously, so very thankful. You're amazing, got so much creativity, it's been wonderful to get to hang out and whatnot. Always looking forward to chats with you or gaming and such. Thank you Arcy!

@will-falling-fell Haven't chatted with you too much, at least that I'm thinking back on. But you're a sweetheart from what I can remember. I see you chatting with the others in CTHL and stuff, and it always brings a smile to our face. Grateful to have met you, even if we don't talk much right now, hoping to get to chat with you more in the future. <3 <3 <3 <3

@tinydekuscrub Hai darling! Love you lots. So very grateful to have met you. Pretty sure I say this almost anytime we chat really. You're a lovely person, and we love chatting with you and everyone else. Thanks for dealing with our smart and dumbass XD, and looking forward to all future chats and hangouts. (Guys, I swear, I'm too gay for this person, I really really wanna write more XD)

There's still many more people I could write out thanks for, but for now, I think it's best that this be it for a bit. Again, thank you to everyone who we've gotten to meet, who's given us ideas, given us new life and fun things to look forward to. Lots of good times in the future. Here's to another year of fun and laughter and even in the not-so-good-times, love you all so much!

[claymoresword]

I Choose Her | Chp: 10

Hermione Granger x Slytherin Fem!Reader

Summary: You are the daughter of known death eaters from one of the richest and oldest wizarding family. Are you prepared to abandon everything you know for Hermione Granger?

Pairing: hermione x reader

Wordcount: 4.6k

Warnings: angst, mentions of abuse, smut, nsfw, top!reader, strap on use, g!p (kind of)

Note: right off the bat im just gonna warn u the smut in this one is kinda filthy ??? admittedly i got a little carried away im sorry

but same as last time i added asterisks before it so feel free to skip it if u want!

once again i just want to thank u guys for all the kind words and love shown on this story so far. i love reading your thoughts, it's actually one of the best parts of sharing my writing :) so yeah don't hesistate to comment if u want to! i read them all

alright that's it! i hope u enjoy this one <3

taglist: @gvrsto @aweidlich @xxsekhmet @arielj @poppyflower-22 @scarleigh1989 @smut-religiously777 @coralieesau @blackbirdv98

It’s been a little over a day since you left your parents home with no word. You could only hope Draco was covering for you like he promised. Although no death eater has stormed the burrow looking for you yet, you took that as a good sign.

You glanced at your watch, you had been waiting for Hermione for about half an hour now. Being ready in fifteen minutes seemingly gave you no real advantage as you’ve been stuck waiting in the living room with Harry.

“Have you found out where he’s hidden the other hocruxes?” Harry blurts out, after moving to stand next to you.

“What?”

You asked, but the truth is you heard him the first time. What bothered you was his insistence on having this conversation now.

Harry doesn’t repeat himself, merely raising his eyebrows expectantly.

“No, I haven’t.”

Harry rolls his eyes and you grow increasingly irritated.

“I've only been at it for three days mate, will you relax?”

“We are running out of time.”

You don’t care for his tone. If he wanted to work together he’d have to start addressing you a lot nicer than that.

“You don’t think I know that?” You spat, stepping closer to him.

Fred shoots you a look from across the room and you quickly realise other people were witnessing your squabble.

Feigning a warm smile in return, your hands moved to Harry’s tie, you began fixing it for him.

His poor attempt at a Windsor had been bothering you all evening

“Look, I have an idea of where they might be but I need to be certain. Give me a few more days.” You whisper, hands moving to his collar straightening it up.

Harry only nods but doesn’t break your gaze.

Just like that, there was no trace of hostility between the two of you. Harry’s short temper was a direct result of his fear, you could see that now.

“Thanks.” Harry says sincerely and you appreciated it. Perhaps you have been too harsh on him yourself.

“7 years at Hogwarts Potter and you never properly learned how to tie a tie?” You quipped.

Harry lets out a huff in amusement but he wasn’t given the opportunity to respond.

“Were the two of you about to kiss?”

Ginny remarks as she walks in, standing next to Harry. He wraps his arm around her waist.

You scoffed.

“Yes actually you’ve interrupted a very intimate moment.”

You mostly joke but the fact is that was the nicest interaction you’ve had with Harry since knowing him.

Ginny says something in response but you’ve stopped listening due to the sight before you.

You watched as Hermione came down the stairs, looking more elegant than you’ve ever seen her.

Your mouth fell agape, you didn’t think it’d be humanly possible for anybody to look this stunning.

Your girlfriend notices your expression and grows self conscious under your gaze, she looks away shyly.

Stepping forward you quickly held the side of her face, pulling her in for a kiss.

You continued to take in her appearance after your lips left hers. Not attempting to conceal your awe.

“Alright, stop that. You’ve seen me wear this dress before.” Hermione says, placing her hand against your chest.

“You’re so fucking beautiful. I truly am the luckiest girl in the world.” You whisper earning a real smile from Hermione.

The blush creeping up to her face only urges you to capture her lips into another kiss.

“Look at that–” Ginny shakes her head disapprovingly.

“Hermione enters the room and all of a sudden we’re invincible.”

“Anyway, we need to get going. We’re late.”

She says aloud but you make no effort to acknowledge her.

Instead you move to plant a kiss against Hermione’s jaw. You hear her giggle before she speaks.

“Come we’re late, let’s go.” Your girlfriend says intertwining your hands.

You oblige, letting her guide you to the front door.

“Unbelievable.” Ginny scoffs.

“Are were sure Hermione didn’t enchant her? I’ve never seen anyone behave like that unless they were under a love potion.”

“No it can’t be, love potions wear off.” Harry answers and you roll your eyes.

They can’t be serious.

════════════════════════════════════════════

Standing next to Hermione you watched as the bride and groom entered the tent. Everyone making their way to congratulate the newlyweds. In this moment they seemed immeasurably happy and it makes your chest hurt.

Considering everything going on in the world right now true happiness was difficult to come by. Everyone seems to be clinging onto any semblance of it they have at an attempt to remain sane.

You feel Hermione hold your arm tighter, almost like she read your mind. Bringing her palm up to your lips you placed a tender kiss against it.

You held her hand in yours as you slowly guided her to the dance floor.

Releasing it you stepped away from her before you spoke.

“May I have this dance, my lady?” You asked, holding out your hand dramatically.

Your heart flutters at the sight of Hermione laughing as she takes your hand.

“Yes, you may.”

Your hand finds her waist and for awhile the two of your slow danced in comfortable silence.

The sound of Hermione sighing ends your moment of bliss.

“What is it?” You ask and Hermione lifts her head off your shoulder to look at you.

She then shifts her gaze and you take it as a sign to look over your shoulder.

You find Ron standing a few feet away, a drink in his hand. He looked miserable.

If you didn’t know any better you’d be annoyed. Hermione had shot him down years ago and yet he still couldn’t let her go.

You leaned in to whisper into Hermione’s ear.

“I thought he was with Lavender?”

Your girlfriend shakes her head before speaking.

“No, they broke up.”

“Again?”

She was a little intense but you thought they worked together, somehow.

“I hate seeing him like that. I feel terrible knowing I can never like him back the way he wants me to.”

Hermione has never shared this with you before. Although, it made a lot of sense.

Ron had been her friend since first year and they practically grew up together.

“I understand. Though that sounds like something he has to navigate on his own. You’ve told him the truth about your feelings. I don’t think there’s anything else you can do.”

“I know, it’s just unfair.” Your girlfriend rests her head against your shoulder again.

After a long silence, you speak.

“If you want, I have somebody I can set him up with. After all of this is over.”

Hermione raises her eyebrows in shock and you can’t deny how much you’ve also surprised yourself.

“Really? You’d do that?”

“Ofcourse, I don’t want him to be miserable. I mean I’m not totally devoid of empathy.”

Hermione reaches up to run her fingers through your hair, her longing gaze made your knees weak.

“Thank you.” She leans in to kiss you but you are interrupted by a noise in the distance.

A blue light suddenly appearing inside the tent, the both of you walk closer to get a better look.

A voice emerges from it that sends a chill down your spine.

“The ministry has fallen. The Minister of Magic is dead.”

“They are coming.”

The last message echoes and you feel a searing pain in your arm.

The dark mark suddenly pulsing uncontrollably, you winced in pain.

Hermione quickly notices.

“Y/n, what is it? what’s wrong?”

A loud crash in the distance prevents you from answering.

Another crash followed by screams and the both of you quickly realise what was happening.

“Hermione!” Ron rushes over, attempting to pull her away but she doesn’t budge.

Pleading with her eyes, your own were quick to well up with tears.

“I can’t come with you–” You attempt to pry her hand off you.

“Go. I’ll find you. I promise.”

Your girlfriend hesitates and another scream makes her flinch.

“Hermione, please. Go.”

You watched as Harry grabbed her other hand, the three of them dissaparating.

════════════════════════════════════════════

You waited a few hours longer than intended to return home. That feeling of dread in your gut only festered the longer you procrastinated.

You decided to just rip off the band aid.

Stepping through the front door, as expected, you are greeted with a slap across the face.

Holding your face that is now stinging you meet your mother’s gaze.

She is fuming.

“Where the devil have you been!”

“I left to get some air–”

“For two days?” She raises her voice.

“I’m sorry mother I should have asked you first.”

“Yes, you should have.” She steps closer, your back now pushed up against the door.

“When are you going to start taking this seriously?”

“You are a death eater.” Your mother pokes your chest to the point of pain.

“Your only job is to serve.”

“If the Dark Lord finds out you have other commitments he will kill you. Do you understand that?”

You kept your gaze fixed to the ground as you nodded.

The look she’s giving you is deadly and not something you’ve ever gotten used to.

Your mother reaches out and you flinch for a moment before feeling her light touch against your cheek. With her thumb she stroked gently at the same spot she had hit you just moments ago.

“Come. He is waiting.” Placing her hand on your back she guides you to the living area.

As you entered the dining hall, you took note of the heaviness in the air. A darkness that caused you to feel deeply unsettled.

Numerous death eaters were sat at the dining table. Catching Narcissa’s gaze she smiles at you kindly and you reciprocated. Her innate tenderness was a rather chilling contrast to the vibe in the room.

Every seat had been filled except for the one next to Voldemort.

The Dark Lord flashes you a grin and his is one that causes the hair on the back of your neck to stand.

“Ah, y/n our new recruit. So glad you could join us today. Come.”

He beckons you over. Walking closer he quickly gestures to the seat next to him.

“Please, have a seat.”

“Thank you, My Lord.” You barely manage to choke out, your stomach turning.

Glancing at the ground you watched as a large anaconda slithered underneath the table.

That thing could easily kill a fully grown human if it wanted to.

You swallowed the lump in your throat.

“Now where is Dolohov? He should have been back with the boy hours ago.”

A beat passes where nobody answers and Voldermort slams his fist against the table causing everyone to flinch.

“My Lord, we found Dolohov in muggle London with his memory wiped. I am afraid the boy got away.”

“So what I’ve come to understand is that I sent my best death eaters to retrieve him and not one of you succeeded?”

Voldemort abruptly stands from his seat.

“Can anybody tell me where he is?”

Silence.

“Severus?”

It was only then you realised the Professor had been sat across from you.

“My guess is he still hiding out in London, my lord.”

Bellatrix can be heard clearing her throat before she speaks.

“I’d like to volunteer myself. I will kill the boy.”

“As much as I admire your bloodlust Bellatrix, he must be brought to me. I must be the one to kill Harry Potter.”

“Yaxley, Thorfinn find the boy. Search every inch of the city if you have to. Do not return empty handed.”

Yaxley stands to take his leave but the other death eater does not move from his seat.

“Forgive me my lord but I have just returned, if only if could be allowed some rest–”

Voldemort walks over to him without a word and the air in the room stills.

“Avada Kadavra.”

The flash of green dissipates as quickly as it appeared and you watch as Thorfinn slumps back into his seat, motionless.

The Dark Lord lowers his wand and you release the breath you were holding.

Feeling your entire body tremble, you suppressed the urge to flee.

“Would anybody else like to rest?”

More silence.

“I will go with Yaxley, My Lord” Greyback states already getting up from his seat.

“Very well.”

“Nagini, come. Dinner.”

The snake slithers out from underneath the table.

The noises of bones crunching as it devoured Thorfinn whole would be haunting your sleep for nights to come.

════════════════════════════════════════════

Three weeks since you’ve last seen Hermione. The longest you had ever been apart from her and it is starting to take a toll on you.

“Y/n– did you hear what I just said?” Draco says snapping you out of your thoughts.

“Sorry, what was that?”

“Just forget it.” Draco grumbles, going back to practicing his spells.

“You know, as hard as I try I can never cast a Patronus.”

“How’d you cast yours? What’s your happiest memory?”

Your bestfriend asks and you aren’t able to control the tears welling up in your eyes.

All of a sudden, you had your head in your hands, your entire body wracked by sobs.

“Woah– what did I do?” Draco asks frantically, taking a seat next to you.

You fail to answer and he places a hand on your back soothingly.

“It’s Hermione isn’t it.”

“I don’t understand, if you’re this miserable just go and see her again.” Draco says and you lift your head to look at him.

“I can’t, if my parents find out–”

“I already got in trouble last time.”

Draco stays silent for a moment and you accepted it to be the end of the conversation but he continues.

“You don’t have the trace on you anymore, you know you can just lie.”

“Your problem last time was not having a solid alibi. Just tell them you’re staying with Pansy for a few nights and ask her to corroborate for you.”

You found his cavalier tone amusing.

“You seem to know a lot about this Draco– speaking from experience?”

“Perhaps.” He shrugs.

“Wait do you have a secret muggle girlfriend or something?”

Draco’s face contorts in disgust and you let out a laugh.

“I just enjoy my time away. My parents– well my father, he can be a lot.”

You nodded placing a hand on his knee

“I get it.”

He pats your back in response.

“Well, are you gonna see her or what?”

“Yeah, actually I will.” Standing up, making your way over to the desk.

You had to send an owl to Pansy first.

“Thanks.”

Draco gives you a nod.

“You’re welcome.”

════════════════════════════════════════════

You apparated to the forest of dean. Skeptical at first but quickly remembered Hermione telling you about how she’d come to the forest often with her parents. It made sense why she’d pick it as a hideout.

Looking around you don’t manage to spot anybody, seemingly you were alone.

“Revelio.”

A shot in the dark.

You casted the spell hoping that Hermione or anyone would show themselves.

The veil now lifted you let out a breath of relief when you spotted a tent in the distance.

Stepping through the barrier you lift up your wand again, re casting the protective enchantment.

You begin to make your way towards the tent but you’re stopped by a figure running up towards you.

You quickly recognised to be Ron.

He points his wand, not making an effort to lower it even after realising it was you.

“Oh.”

You notice his shoulders sagged at the sight of you.

Ron, still as charming as ever.

“Good to see you too Weasley.”

“Is my girlfriend here?” You ask without referring to Hermione by name on purpose.

Its been far too long since you antagonised him.

Hermione seemed to have overheard your voice as she soon emerges from the tent.

Practically sprinting towards you, she throws herself into your arms.

If your feet hadn’t been firmly planted on the ground you definitely would’ve fallen backwards and brought her down with you.

“Hey, baby.”

Your hand stroking her back instinctively.

“I was afraid I’d ever see you again.” You hear her voice shake and you leaned back, urging her to look at you.

“I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner.”

You reached forward, wiping away her tears as you spoke.

“Don’t disappear on me like that again, please.”

“Never again. I promise.”

Hermione leans in to place a quick kiss against your lips, your attempt to deepen it was halted by her hand on your chest.

She glances at Ron uncomfortably and you suppress the urge to roll your eyes.

He somehow always had to be there, lurking.

She grabs your arm before intertwining your fingers, guiding you closer to the tent.

“How’d you even find us.” Ron says walking ahead of you.

“That’s for Hermione and I to know and for you to find out.”

You smiled at him brazenly, making every attempt now to infuriate him. Ron rolls his eyes before turning around to make his way inside the tent without another word.

It seems you have won this round.

════════════════════════════════════════════

“Say, exactly how many spare tents do you have in that bag of yours Hermione?”

The both of you lowering your wands as soon as the corners of the tent finally stands upright like they’re supposed to.

“I brought two just in case.”

Thanks to your girlfriend’s tendency to be overly prepared, the both of you would get some privacy tonight.

“Food’s ready, guys.” Harry calls out and you made your way to sit by the fire.

You began eating your meal in silence until Ron came over to sit across from you.

“Good, you’re eating.” Ron says to Hermione and you catch her shooting daggers at him.

You copy your girlfriend’s expression but instead yours was directed at her.

“You haven’t been eating?”

Hermione focuses her attention on the food on her plate.

“Sweetheart, you can’t–” You paused.

Suddenly cautious of the fact that the boys were listening in on your conversation.

Harry notices and quickly turns to Ron, he began making aimless remarks about the food.

You may disagree on a lot but you appreciated his ability to pick up on social cues.

“Hermione I don’t want to have to worry that you aren’t taking care of yourself when I’m not around.”

“I’m sorry I left you worried but please think of yourself too.”

Hermione pursed her lips nervously.

“You’re right I’m sorry– but you have to promise me the same.”

“Whatever happens to me, you’ll look after yourself.”

You almost forgot how shrewd Hermione can be. A smirk forming across your face, you nod.

════════════════════════════════════════════

You were sat on the makeshift couch in the tent. Hermione was sitting with her back against the armrest, her legs outstretched on your lap.

You had been flipping through a book in silence before a sudden realisation washed over you.

“Hang on– did Harry have the sword with him in the chamber of secrets?” You asked.

Hermione’s eyebrows knitted together before she responded.

“Yeah. That’s how he killed the basilisk.”

“You told me once he destroyed the diary with a basilisk fang?”

Hermione nods still not following your train of thought.

“Merlin’s beard.” You gasp.

“What?”

You handed the book you were reading to Hermione, pointing at a specific line on the page.

“Dirt and rust have no effect on the blade. The sword of Gryffindor only takes it in, which makes it stronger.”

She reads aloud.

“That’s why–”

“Dumbledore left it to him in his will.” She finishes your sentence for you.

You smile broadly and Hermione reciprocates.

“We find the sword and we can destroy those hocruxes, Hermione.”

“We need to tell Harry.”

You attempt to stand up, pushing her legs off your lap but she swiftly pins you down with a hand on your shoulder.

“I don’t want to talk to Harry right now.”

**

Hermione moves to straddle you. Her core flush against your groin. Your hands move to her waist, holding her in place.

“No? What do you feel like doing instead?”

The tone of your voice matching the look Hermione is giving you.

She gives you no verbal response instead she leaned in, kissing you with unrestrained hunger.

Her tongue entering your mouth almost instantly, the heat stirring in the pit of your stomach only grows hotter when you feel Hermione grinding against your lap.

Your hands quickly finds the hem of her shirt, Hermione lifts up her arms allowing you to take it off her.

You trailed wet open mouthed kisses, starting at her jaw then her neck and eventually settling at her chest.

Wasting no time in taking her nipples into your mouth.

Hermione grips a handful of your hair as she lets out a moan.

Her hips moving harder against you. The warmth emanating from her core was driving you insane.

“Take this off.” You practically growled as you tugged at her sweatpants.

Hermione obeys without question immediately getting off you to take her pants off.

You quickly removed your own shirt, along with your slacks.

You were undressed in record time, clearly a result of being away from Hermione for three weeks.

Hermione is back on your lap, crashing her lips against yours. She kisses you hungrily, all teeth, tongue and aggression.

You move to lift her up but she pins you down again.

You watched as she grabs her wand, only registering what she was about to do when she waves it over your groin.

The familiar flesh coloured shaft forming, your breath catches in your throat.

Hermione holds your gaze as she lifts her hand up to her mouth gathering her own saliva in her palm.

Bringing her hand back down she strokes your shaft with dexterity.

Leaning back, you let out a groan. Shocked at how good her hand felt.

“Fuck, Hermione–”

Your girlfriend quickly silences you by lowering herself onto you.

The feeling of her cunt around your shaft made you dizzy.

She felt so good.

Something about the spell Hermione used this time that made you more sensitive, or perhaps it was your involuntarily abstinence. You couldn’t say for sure.

Hermione moves against you again and you let out an unrestrained moan.

She quickly places a hand over your mouth. Pursing her own lips, your girlfriend's trying her best not to scream out in pleasure herself.

“Quiet. They’ll hear you.” Hermione scolds, removing her hand from your mouth. She moves to grip the back of your neck.

You winced at the feeling of her nails digging into your skin but you are quickly distracted by Hermione’s hips moving again.

Repeatedly lifting herself up until only the tip of your strap was inside before moving back down onto it harshly.

She is fucking herself with abandon, using your cock for her own pleasure. It was selfish and unbelievably sexy.

Hermione had her eyes squeezed shut, bottom lip in between her teeth. She is trying so hard to stay silent.

You didn’t like it.

“Let them hear you, gorgeous. You sound so pretty when you cum.”

You whisper against her ear as your hands finding her breasts, kneading them.

You feel her move against your harder, you let out another moan which is quickly followed by hers.

Hermione moans out loud at every movement of her own hips and you smile triumphantly.

Your feel her clench painfully against your shaft. Her movements now inconsistent and messy, she was close.

Bringing your hand down you rubbed at her clit with your thumb. It didn’t take much for Hermione to come completely undone. She throws her head back, writhing and panting as the intense pleasure rips through her.

The sight of Hermione naked on top of you with her back arched accompanied with the feeling of you inside her was enough to make you reach your own release.

Her arms move to wrap around your neck, you held her as you both tried to recover.

“Do you think they heard us?” You joked and Hermione let’s out a breathless chuckle.

“That’s not funny. Now we’ll have to deal with Ron’s passive aggressiveness for the next few days.”

“Ah, that’s right the damage has been done. So there’s no harm in going for round two?”

You ask with no intention of waiting for an answer. You moved Hermione so that you were on top and she was laying down on the couch.

Not easing into it as you normally do, you thrust your hips harshly.

Hermione chokes out a moan in surprise, her hands moving to your back as you rutted into her.

Your girlfriend arches her back and you push her down roughly, holding her in place.

The whine that spills out of her lips only urged you to thrust deeper.

“Do you love me?” You asked, planting a kiss on her collarbone.

Hermione’s lost. She groans and you feel her clench against your shaft. You breathed in deeply suppressing your own orgasm.

“You know I love you.” Hermione barely manages to speak the sentence, she moans it.

Your hand moving to grip her throat you squeezed at it experimentally and watched as your girlfriend’s eyes roll to the back of her head.

Her hand reflexively moving to your neck pulling you lower, you had no choice but to lay your entire weight on her, causing you to push into her deeper.

Hermione moans loudly, reaching her sudden climax. You hadn’t anticipated it this time and from the looks of it neither did she.

She’s now moaning and trembling underneath you. The aftershocks of her orgasm taking its time to wear off.

She looked so breath-taking like this, you were convinced you could watch her forever.

**

════════════════════════════════════════════

You were both in bed now, Hermione’s resting her head against your chest as you rubbed small circles against her shoulder absentmindedly.

“I have a hunch but I’m not entirely sure I’m right.”

You blurt out unsure if your girlfriend was still awake to hear you.

“What sort of hunch?”

“I overheard Bellatrix speaking to her sister, she was losing her mind over one of the other death eaters entering her vault without her permission.”

Hermione hums in response and you elaborate.

“From what I’ve noticed, for some odd reason the Dark Lord trusts her the most. I bet anything the most likely place he’d hide a hocrux would be her vault.”

Hermione sits up to look at you. Already giving you a warning look before you could continue.

“If I can just get in there without her knowing–”

“Oh absolutely not.” Hermione interjects right away and you’re not shocked.

It was worth a shot.

“She’s a cold blooded killer y/n. I don’t even want to think about what she’d do to you if you broke into her vault and did get caught.”

“My answer is no. We’ll find another way.”

[prima-materia-ttrpg]

The "why" behind Game Design

I've been doing a lot of thinking and talking with my friends about Prima Materia, as I often do these days. For the past few weeks there's been something itching at the back of my mind, I'm making mechanics that are starting to work well but for whatever reason they don't "feel" like Prima Materia to me. They technically fit in with the design pillars I've assigned myself; grounded, cinematic, dynamic, and fantasy, but I've felt like things are missing. Going beyond that, I don't think someone would properly grok the game if they were to read my past blog posts. If I read my past blog posts without knowing what Prima Materia is, I would think it's a game mostly focused on combat with some interesting worldbuilding.

I decided to talk with one of my friends about this, and the conversation led to me trying to properly articulate the kinds of things I want to happen in Prima Materia and compare that with the direction the design is going. In particular, how do I imagine a campaign going? What do people actually do in the game? While these are questions that can be applied to most ttrpgs, I hadn't realized how important it was to answer them concretely to make correct design decisions for my game rather than the design being driven by vague subconscious conceptions of a game that does not yet exist filtered through some core design pillars and my own limited experience in playing ttrpgs.

What do people actually do in the game?

This is a wide question, and has a wide answer.

When I think of what it would be like to actually play or GM a game of Prima Materia my mind tends towards uncovering secrets, diplomatically dealing with situations, and overcoming obstacles that require lots of preparation to pull off without getting seriously hurt. Secrets should be important to the party and world, and depending on the tier of play can be anything from uncovering new alchemical magics to metaphysical secrets of the universe that can act as MacGuffins for a longstanding party.

The more I think about it, the more I believe that uncovering secrets is one half of the beating heart of Prima Materia, and the other half is preparation for overcoming obstacles to achieve the uncovering of those secrets. Characters in the game aren't meant to be incredibly powerful but rather incredibly skilled at their area of expertise, whether that be being good with a sword, knowledgeable in certain subjects, good at diplomacy, or making useful items. That's the concept of the game that's in my head that needs to be concretely written down (and how convenient for me that I've just done that).

Going Forward

A lot of the ideas and drafts I've written or verbalized to friends make a lot more sense in this light of uncovering secrets and preparation, as lot of those ideas hinge on uncovering secrets or being prepared. There are lost manuscripts I've been itching to put in that grant skill bonuses as well as character features due to the knowledge contained within. The Alchemist profession alone is a class that takes the ideas of preparedness and uncovering secrets to 11, where you create new spells and tinctures and unlock more and more useful things to make as well as ways to make them.

There are several design decisions I've been making recently that do not spark joy for me. They will be dealt with, and going forward I will have this to keep in mind as what I want the heart of the game to be.

If you read this far, thank you very much! It means a lot. The astute among you who read my last post will notice that this is suspiciously not a post about the Sepia as I promised, and that's because I thought this post was important. I will of course try to get the Sepia post out next week, but if that fails I will bring you an update on my most recent mechanics experiment which will surely have transpired by then.

[curio-queries]

I just read your I Am Still review and it makes me curious what namjoon's movie (not sure if its meant to be a docu?) will look like.

I know BH could do better in a lot of ways, but I do think a lot of the stuff tied to bts' solo promotions is really a reflection of where they are at artistically as individuals. Like I'm sure BH lays out a profit plan (i.e. we want an album, a video release, merch, etc.), but other than that, I do think a lot of it is up to them what direction they take. Like if they have something specific in mind or want to go waaaay more artistic, namjoon's solo seems to show that BH will put in the money and allow them to do that. On the other hand, I do think, if they don't have a direction in mind, BH just gives them the memories, in-house BH editor treatment (which could be better and they could at least get an actual docu director if they plan for a theatrical release, I know people felt this way even for Beyond the Star).

I actually love a lot of the songs on Golden (I'm a pop-whore through and through), but I do think jungkook hasn't quite found himself yet, or his unique artistic vision. And I think that flows into the content related to the album. I don't know if its controversial to say as a fan, but I think even calling the album "Golden" and then comments I've seen about the docu, it feels more like him trying to live up to his "Golden Maknae" status of mega pop stardom than necessarily finding himself in this album. And to be clear, those things don't have to be mutually exclusive! But I do think jungkook doesn't necessarily dig deep or get vulnerable in this album, so it doesn't surprise me that the docu might also feel that way. I also feel like this is why JPD might feel a little more cohesive, because I do think jimin is farther along in his artistic journey (being vulnerable, knowing what he wants to say as an artist even if its not fully polished yet, etc.). And this no shade to jungkook, I think all of the vocal line haven't had the opportunity to grow outside the group like the rap line has, especially the younger members whose entire artistic career/view has been shaped within a group setting. Finding yourself takes time, and trial and error. Sometimes I feel like jimin doesn't get enough credit for the fact that his first entirely solo project was so personal and he was so involved in the entire creative conception of it, especially for someone as reserved as him.

I am excited to see what Jin will end up coming out with (I love the The Astronaut song) and it'll be interesting to see the direction each member takes post military service. Even styling-wise, I'm curious what each member will do. I've hated jimin's styling for all of his solo projects (except the sparkly denim LC outfit) and most of jungkook's outside of SNTY. Please let the weird, ugly mullet, lego hair-piece looking stuff die and also extremely baggy clothes. I need fashion to have evolved by the time they get discharged because jimin should not need to be pulling up his pant's leg while he dances.

Hi anon,

Thank you for sending this in. I apologize that it's been ages, I got quite sick for a bit there and didn't have the energy to deal with tumblr. (Sidenote, the feed is kind of a disaster right now. I hope people can return to celebrating content again soon, I'm ready to stop unfollowing people every time I log in.)

Anyway, I'm so glad you brought up Namjoon's film because I'm so INTRIGUED. What are the criteria for this film festival? Is there any hope that it's been handled properly? What do we know about the director? Is this just another Hybe edit and they've strong-armed is into the festival? Is there going to be any way for us to watch it?

I don't really have any answers to these questions yet but it's kind of my only hope left of a decent film that's not just bangtantv content.

I actually really loved the idea of Golden being the album title and many of the choices surrounding it's release. Such great imagery and art surrounding his tattoos and just completely celebrating everything that led to JK as a person. But...it has very little connection to the actual music. Again, other than this idea that JK was actively pursuing himself as an extremely technically-exceptional singer, what does Golden have to do with the music? Other than one (possible coincidental) reference in STNY, this album could have been called anything. It's not the worst offense of an album but the rest of BTS's work has raised my expectations in having all sides of a release being exceptional. And this just wasn't for me. Not bad. But not astounding.

Also, can I say I'm so relieved to hear someone else voicing my same opinions on the styling for JM that last year. I absolutely despised the mullets and the baggy puts that he had to lift during choreo. Seriously anon, how did you get inside my brain?? I didn't mention this anywhere because everyone was gushing about it but it just pulled me out of it. Every.Single.Time. Can we be besties? Lol

Anyway, I'm sure I missed something in your ask. Still not feeling 100% but I don't want to delay this response any longer. Thank you so much for your patience!

[merriepy]

AUTUMN SUN

•. Sova x gn!Reader

tags: fluff, hurt/comfort, oneshot

cw: slightly suggestive (?)

summary: After you've felt down for the past few days and now refuse to come out of your room, Sova decides to try to help you with your struggles

a/n: I've pretty much read every single Sova story on here so I needed to make my own because I'm starving qwq This story was also written with a fem!reader in mind but turned out to be gender neutral so I changed the tag after someone told me in the comments <3

Words: 1,5k

Your room was lit up by the soft evening light of the autumn sun. It wrapped everything in its soft, orange glow; everything except that heart of yours which was dyed in black. Truth was, you haven't been feeling great at all lately. You were so used to it that you didn't care anymore. Was there a particular reason why these feelings were stirring up inside of you? You couldn't tell anymore.

"(Y/N)?" you heard from behind the door. A voice so gentle and soft that it felt more like a melody; a melancholic melody as you acknowledged the concerned tone in his voice. You knew that you could just send him away, out of everyone in the Protocol he was by far the most respectful one and he would do as you say immediately. But you were longing for affection and comfort. So, despite immediately regretting your decision, you let him in.

Sova was the kind of person whose mere presence was enough to change the mood of the entire room. Whenever he was standing next to Brimstone during meetings his deadly calm aura would send shivers down your spine. And yet, he was by far one of the most caring people you've ever met in your life. He would commonly check up on everyone in the Protocol, and maybe that's why you didn't like him: because he was not only paying attention to you.

He walked over to your bed, and as you expected him to sit down on your bed and ask you if you wanted to talk to him he bent over the top part of your blanket and pulled it down until he could see your eyes. His smile was warm as always. "Sasha…" While checking the temperature on your forehead with his hand he made sure to keep eye contact with you. "I don't want to ask if you're okay 'cause… I mean it's pretty obvious that you're not fine." He took a step back from your bed, tilting his head a little bit while asking you silently with his eyes if you wanted him to leave or to stay. You felt tears rolling down your eyes as you visualized how the conversations might go with him and yet you still nodded, begging him to not leave you alone.

"Any space for me?" he asked and gave you another heartfelt smile. You knew that he was thanking you for trusting him and accepting his offer. After moving to the left side of the bed, you invited him to lie down next to you. He happily obliged.

You stayed quiet for some time and the awkward silence grew between you two. You didn't know what to say, you didn't know how to put this misery of yours into words, you didn't know how to start. And he could tell, especially since you didn't make any effort to hide your struggle. He placed his hand on your cheek and moved a little closer to you. "Deep breaths, Y/N." It still felt weird nowadays when people called you by your actual name and not your codename even though you and Sasha were always doing it when you were alone. "Take your time, I will wait for you."

Tears started to roll down your face. The comfort he gave you made you tear up as you were able to release the sorrow within you. "Sasha…" you cried out, wanting to thank him but not being able to properly produce a sentence between your sobs. He wrapped his arms around you and pulled you closer to him. You placed your head carefully on his chest and calmed yourself down by listening to his heartbeat. While your tears slowly started to get less and less, Sasha placed his right hand on your head and slowly stroked over your hair.

"Is it really okay if I tell you about it?" you asked carefully without looking into his eyes out of shame. "I don't want to burden you with anything." Sova stopped his hand and moved it up to your chin. Gently, he shifted your head up so he could look into your eyes. "You're never a burden to me, darling." He leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on your cheek. The spot where he had laid his lips on your skin still felt comfortably warm and you wished that he would continue kissing you.

Tears rolled down your face once more as you told Sasha about everything that was bothering you recently. How you were always there for anybody and it felt like nobody had your back, how you felt like your friends were bonding over experiences you couldn't share, how the stress was getting to you physically and emotionally. During all of this, he stayed mostly silent and just let you talk about anything that you needed to get off your chest. He commented from time to time on your statements or he turned around to hand you a tissue from your nightstand.

"So I feel like I'm falling behind, you know? I just… don't want to be an outcast." Sova brushed the tears off your face with his fingers. "I understand," he said calmly, his hand still resting on your cheek. You suppressed the last few tears and smiled at the man next to you. "Thank you for being here, Sasha. And for… well, listening to my stuff," you mumbled with your voice still trembling. "I think I'm done now."

The man ran his fingers down your cheeks until his hands reached the back of your neck. He pulled you even closer until you could feel his breath on your lips. "I will always be there for you, (Y/N). And I will always listen to you and your struggles." Before you could reply, he had pressed his lips onto yours. You could taste his favorite tea through the kiss, as well as the passion he was holding for you. Your hand wrapped around his waist, pulling him even closer than he already was. The warmth of his presence made you feel so very much at ease that the last few painful tears ran down your face. Sasha quickly brushed them off your cheeks before pulling you on top of him.

You didn't expect such a sudden move from him and since he is pretty strong he had no problems placing you exactly where he wanted to. He grinned as he watched your flustered expression. His hands moved under your clothes but before he did anything else he looked at you. Your face was still a little red. "Do you want me to continue?" You felt how your heart picked up pace after hearing his words and you nodded quickly. You didn't want him to stop, under no circumstances. "Tell me if I'm going too far," he whispered into your ear before kissing your neck. His fingers ran down your sides, every movement making you feel better and better. Sova made sure to not come too close to your private parts and it made you feel comfortable knowing that he was so respectful of your boundaries. Your arms were still placed around his waist but you didn't want to move since everything was too perfect right now. He continued kissing your neck down to your shoulder and you just enjoyed it, taking in all those feelings that stirred up inside of you.

"Finally feeling better?" he asked as he pulled far enough away from you to properly keep up eye contact. His hands had stopped moving and he was now holding you in place; gently, yet somewhat protective. You just smiled happily. "Thank you for cheering me up, Sasha!" You firmly wrapped your arms around his hand and pressed your body against his with your head resting on his shoulders. He loosened his grip so you could move more freely. "I told you that I'm always here for you, my love." Sova looked outside the window, the autumn sun was about to fully fade away behind the trees. When his gaze had wandered back to you, he smiled warmly and gave you a quick kiss. "Because I love you, Y/N." You returned his soft smile and words of affirmation.

Sova stood up from your bed and reached his hand out for you. "What do you say, love? Wanna go outside and enjoy the rest of this beautiful evening?" A red blush hushed over your cheeks, flattered by his request despite everything that had happened earlier. You cherished that he wanted to spend that much time with you. By taking his hand you lifted yourself from your bed into the man's arms. "You're so cute, love~" he whispered into your ear. You passionately kissed him as a response to which he happily obliged. "I love you, Sasha," you told him after your kiss had ended and he had let go of you. He laughed softly and wrapped his left arm around your shoulder. "I love you just as much."

[cosmicalls]

oh my goodness thank you so much everyone for all the continued support on the og post 😭😭 i'm going very slowly but i honestly am thinking about this project all the time so i'm glad so many people also like the idea!!

as promised, here's some questions i have regarding the transition from screen to text. feel free to reblog or reply under this post, or even message me directly! i don't mind anything!

★ How do you all feel about deleted scenes?

(referring to these ones specifically, in case there's others i don't know of)

should they be added/kept or excluded? should some be kept and others not? and optionally: why do you think so?

★ How objective to the film should it be?

this one sounds crazy because obviously it should be the same. but i mean more about the depiction/treatment of women and borderline cultural appropriation - should loyalty to the film take priority? or could the rewrite benefit from something else in place of these things? or some secret third option?

it's a good film, but not without faults. i don't necessarily want to keep the less desirable aspects of it, but i also don't want to sacrifice elements that tie into important character arcs and such.

(just to be clear: i AM taking from the film! the only thing i plan to take from the book is a loose idea of how to break up the chapters. and i'm not even looking at the script)

★ How should this be released to the public?

this is REALLY far in the future so i'm not too worried about it yet haha

my only ideas are either posting to ao3 or sharing a google doc/drive link. if anyone knows of something else, please let me know and i'll definitely consider it 🙏 above all, i want to make this free for anyone to read and share!

★ "How can I help?"

i'm not intending to do this entirely solo; i'd love to eventually have some extra eyes and minds on deck to make this the best it can be! but knowing me, i'll wait as long as i can handle until i begin asking for assistance :,)

when the time comes, i'll reach out individually to people who express(ed) interest in helping out! but again, this will probably happen pretty far in the future.

in the meantime, i'm always open to input about absolutely anything, whether it was mentioned in this post or not! reply, message, send an ask, etc and i'll respond as quickly as i can! this goes for any questions you may have as well!

during this process i will give updates on general progress! at the time of writing this, i'm about halfway through typing down the events of the film and breaking it down into chapters (which is probably unnecessary, but it helps a lot with getting my bearings) - this is what im calling my outline. i might continue with the outline or i might begin properly writing a scene or two next, who knows.

i'm kind of completely winging it. i've never done anything like this before. i am being propelled by pure vibes. but i will commit to this and figure it out. "carpe diem, even if it kills me," if you will

if you made it here, thank you for reading this much too long wall of text! as always, i love the community's input and i'd also love to work up the courage to actually interact with some of you haha

[calliopefiction]

I just finished playing the demo, and from the bottom of my heart, it's been a loooong while since I played such a good game, it's definitely in my top 3, if not number 1. I usually don't like games that don't explore the characters gender and sexuality, Misplaced is the first that treats it naturally that I actually feel like it's a common part of life rather than erasure. The characters are written beautifully, it feels like they're their own people, their flaws and beliefs that might go against the main character (because fundamentally it has nothing to do with them) feel like real struggles, you can feel the blind grief in the prince, the mage doesn't care what you think about her and is thoroughly true to herself and still cares for others in a way that doesn't feel artificial or naive. Don't even get me started on Vynn, I went through "their route" and the way I've cried multiple times it's not even funny, their friendship is so deep that I think I was able to understand the whole concept of queer platonic relationship through them, even without the romantic aspect, they love each other so deeply, they're the most important people in each others lives, there's no one else, they reached nirvana, what they have is unspeakable, unthinkable, you can only feel the depth. I decided I was going through their route before even playing cause I love a cute friends to lovers trope, and then I finish playing it getting a new achievement "forever changed by the force of their love" (that one scene that goes something like "is it a love song?""maybe, I haven't finished writing it yet" has changed my brain chemistry forever). I feel like I have a lot else to say about the game, but it's 3am and my brain is not functioning properly. Thank you so much for your hard work <3

This right here is my whole reason for writing - making you feel something, touching your hearts - it just makes me so happy to know that it's working. When it comes to the execution, you know the prose, and the structure, the choices and the coding, I feel like there's still a lot for me to improve and to work on. But I do pride myself a lot on the emotional core of the story, so reading this sort of comment just makes me smile from ear to ear.

I'm also really glad that Vynn and their relationship with the MC struck such a chord with you. Their dynamic is something special indeed, and the fact that they have so much history together that the reader doesn't know about adds to that. Even knowing that they're best friends from the get go, you still get to discover how deep their care for each other goes.

Anyway, that was a wonderful comment and it's making me want to work extra hard today!

[jacqulinetan]

20 questions for fic writers

I was tagged!!!! thank you @ursae-minoris-world, you're truly so so kind to think of me.

I'll be real honest, I'm only on tumblr very intermittently and I don't really know how to use the platform at all. I'm scared that my formatting will be really messy and make people angry if I put a wall of text on their feed. So hopefully I figure out how to do the jump cut. But I just finished a fic so it's very fun to do one of these and talk about my writing. And I always like to see other people too, so I thought, hey I will give it a shot. Here's the questions:

How many works do you have on ao3? Right now I just finished my 74th work on ao3! Fifty four of those are vld, twenty four are sheith proper

2. What's your total word count on ao3? 993,716 words. I'm set to hit a million this year, I think!

3. What fandoms do you write for? LOL can you believe it? We're still loving Mr. Keith Voltron in the glorious year of our lord 2024

4. What are your top five fic by kudos? Oh well, my sk friends aren't going to be impressed--- my kl fics always take top spots for kudos and bookmarks. I attribute this not to talent or popularity but just because that side of the fandom has a much wider reach. For the sake of the questionnaire, I'll answer properly, in order: 'it's you that's haunting me' takes the top spot by a wide margin at 2,591 kudos to date. 'that mullet, etc' is currently at 1,788 kudos, and after that it's 'cross my heart,' 'swapping out silence,' and 'things that go bump in the night.'

5. Do you respond to comments? I do! for me, one of the best parts of fic is the community between authors and their audience. For the majority of my fandom life I've considered myself more of a reader than a writer, so I really treasure it when I leave a comment and an author responds. It's so special. As an author, I do respond to every comment, though sometimes it takes me a long time. I'm always so impressed that people are not only reading my words but digesting them and thinking on them too. It's wild to me. A very precious gift.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Oh, my friend, that fic is yet to come. the wip I've got on my closest back burner has a real humdinger of an angsty ending. I'm excited about it. hmmmm if I had to answer now.....I'm not sure! usually I'm a happy ending kind of girl

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? well well well, now I have to answer this one properly don't I? Are we thinking happiest like 'biggest emotional pay off for the reader'? Or happiest like 'Keith is wildly happy' by the end? I think 'heart nailed open' has a very good emotional pay off (though I wrote it so perhaps I can't judge too well on behalf of the reader). If I am really thinking, in which fic is Keith truly the happiest he could ever be by the end...well, I try always to make Keith happy but, in 'the whole story' he has everything he could ever want AND a very nice couch.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Not routinely. I did, actually, get a very nasty comment on a fic in 2023 and it legitimately hurt my feelings. Made me feel like I should not be writing at all, actually. But, can you believe it? Friends came out of the woodwork-- people I rarely talk to, even-- and jumped in my comments section and really defended me. like, I really had all kinds of people on my side, defending me! So that meant a lot to me, and I was honestly so surprised, and I'd like to give every one of those friends the kindest hand press because I really did feel very taken care of in the aftermath.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Oh, I don't know! I have plenty of E rated fics but I don't know if I will ever master a true PWP. to me, the sex scenes I write are not so original or exciting, nothing to really write home about lol. I'm not a fan of publicly being negative about my stuff, so I will simply say that I wish I could write some really off beat toe curling wild kink, but it's probably just not my personality to do so LOL

Is this getting really long?? should I be embarrassed ? should I close the tab and never think on this again? hmmm no

10. Do you write cross overs? Cross overs with what, my dear? There's only one Keith

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Oh I think 'it's you that's haunting me' strolled on over to wattpad or some such site without my permission back in the day, but I've never really looked into it. What I don't know cannot hurt me, right? I highly doubt that there's been some crazy highway robbery for perfchan words.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? I don't think I have! But I did have someone ask to record a podfic for one of my stories, and I was so flattered and thrilled!!!!!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Nope! I don't have much interest in this, I am very shy about my writing and I fear I would be too cagey to be a very good collaborator.

14. what's your all time favorite ship? Keith x Being Loved and Cherished the Way He Ought to Be

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? (covers face) I don't have any unfinished WIPs.... it's not in my Type A personality to leave things undone.....

16. What are your writing strengths? This is something to really ponder!!! What /are/ my strengths!!! huh!!! well. I figured out early on that my favorite things to write are atmospheric and setting heavy -- both my most popular fic (it's you that's haunting me) and my most personally beloved fic (heart nailed open) have this in common: they have a lot of detail about the setting, and a lot of effort put into ~vibes~ of the story. so I think, if I could be self indulgent and chose which writing bits I'm good at, it's that type of thing. I really like crafting a scene you can settle into with all of your senses

17. what are your writing weaknesses? too many to list!!! I very often read my own writing and I always enjoy it (I wrote it for myself afterall) but sometimes I wonder....why did I spend so long on this particular bit? I think I am not very good at making a story tight. I wish I could master the art of being able to 'trim the fat' so to speak, really be precise with the story, but I simply don't have the chops! I can never understand how to make it better than I already have! perhaps if I keep writing long enough, I will get better at this

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? this question would really open up a can of worms on the kl side of the fandom LOL. I will admit it, I've had Lance speak spanish a time or two. I don't speak spanish myself so in those rare instances I have been VERY careful to keep things straightforward and try really really hard to not be cringe worthy to native speakers

19. First fandom you wrote for? the first thing I posted online was a USUK fic in a hetalia LJ comm. I can distinctly remember the first time I ever read a fic with *there was only one bed* (it was usuk) and WHEN I TELL YOU MY EYES WERE OPENED. I was forever changed on that day. of course I wanted to try my hand at writing after that

20. Favorite fic you've written? You would ask me to chose a favorite of my children!!! Oh! I simply could not!!! No, seriously, it's 'heart nailed open.' I love that fic

This got so long !!!!!! I can't imagine anyone reading all this !!!!!!!! but omg if you did thank you!!!!!! I'm shy about tagging people in the best of times, and like I said at the very beginning, I am very very shaky on tumblr etiquette, so I had better not tag anyone. but if my friends enemytosleep or grem or kacy or monday happen to see this, I would be very excited to read your responses!!! okay bye!!

[cowboybrunch]

writerblr interview tag!

thank you for the tags @tragedycoded (here) @sableglass (here) and @saturnine-saturneight (here) <3 ive been meaning to get to this one for a minute sooo let's get into it

Short stories, novels, or poems?

i started with poetry, so it has a special place in my heart. all of my short stories turn into beasts. is it a cop out answer to say all of the above?

What genre do you prefer reading?

it'd be easier to list what genres i don't like. when i say ill read anything, i mean ill read anything. lately i've been on a sci fi kick (thanks Pierce Brown) but i love a good modern trashy romance as much as the next guy (i read the booktok sludge so you dont have to!) im not really a nonfiction guy but hey, if anyone has some recs, ill give em a shot

Are you a planner or a write as I go kind of person?

def NOT a planner. usually when i start writing i have a vague idea of where we start and where we need to end up, but what happens along the way is a surprise for everyone involved

What music do you listen to while writing?

SILENCE. sometimes white noise. i cant focus with music, brain gets jumbled

Favorite books/movies?

of all time? oh god for books, probably This Is How You Lose the Time War or The Song of Achilles but The Locked Tomb series is def up there. not a novel but i've read Bluets by Maggie Nelson so many times i probably have it memorized by now favorite movie is Zoolander, easy answer. that movie owns. i can watch it on repeat and ill never get sick of it

Any current WIPs?

Dust to Dust is still alive but im taking a bit of a hiatus before hopping into the final bit (tag is here if you wanna see me ramble about it) Felix Wonder is the fun time brain break WIP of choice currently and im working on draft 3 of Burden of the Reluctant Death (we will get to the ending this time. we will)

Create a character description of yourself: 

Elusive, or pretends to be. Too much energy in too small a body. Refuses to sit properly in a chair. Prone to fits of melancholy remedied by sunlight. Easily excitable, but fussy. Same outfit every day: big sweater, little pants, fuzzy socks. Nails bitten bloody but at least her hair is clean (if a bit too long for summer)

Do you like incorporating actual people you know into your writing?

i could say no but that would make me a liar

Are you kill happy with your characters?

i was gonna make a joke but it would be spoilers soo. i write about grief. no way everyone makes it out alive

Coffee or Tea while writing?

coffee. i dont like tea (sorry sorry!)

Slow or fast writer?

im very much a burst writer so. flood or drought, no in between. lately i'd say SLOW but im just waiting for that spark u get me?

If you were in a fantasy world, what would you be?

this really isnt fantasy but i feel like i was destined to be the kind, slightly off-putting maintenance man in a haunted apartment building that says cryptic things like "don't take the east elevator on a full moon" and "the air conditioning has made that noise since the fire in 12B"

Most fav book cliche:

yea there's only one bed and ill eat it up every single time!!! also: "i didnt know where else to go" or basically any overdone romance trope you can think of. im here for it

Least favorite cliche:

if there's a cliche that i dont like, i havent found it yet

Favorite scene to write?

confession scenes of any kind! scenes where the big tough character breaks down. any kind of emotional revelation, positive or negative

Reason for writing?

words in head, need words out of head ok ok fine, serious answer. i feel like writing is both asking and answering the question, "have you felt like this before? has anyone ever felt like this before? am i alone?" and it's proof that you're not the first and only person to ever experience the things you're experiencing. even this made up guy in this pretend world understands rage and despair and joy and grief and love. the source is different but the result is the same. human connection, man. love it and! it's fun. im having fun

tag!!

@knightinbatteredarmor @friendlesscat @tildeathiwillwrite @glassonthewall @illarian-rambling

@mysticstarlightduck @dyrewrites @sarandipitywrites @oliolioxenfreewrites @xenascribbles

[fluxweeed]

Twenty Questions for Fic Writers

i've had so much fun reading other answers to these questions over the last few weeks!! thank you @nv-md and @sweet-s0rr0w for mentioning me in your posts!! i fear my answers drifted much too far into self-indulgence, but what's new for this blog eh??

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

22, but one of them is 11 separate drabbles/microfics in a 2k-word jacket

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

293,865

3. What fandoms do you write for?

i'll only ever write hp on this username!

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

all drarry:

the four doors (legilimency healer draco + memory loss)

adventures in truth and texting (advent texting fic)

all i have to do (draco thinks harry is a magical fantasy but whoops he's real)

eight o'clock, tomorrow evening (four doors sequel)

two to lie and one to listen (8th year fake dating, sort of)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

i respond to everything on the final chapter of a fic! sometimes very kind commenters will say something at the end of every single chapter, which is SUCH a joy to receive, but i haven't yet figured out a way of saying "thank you!" 26 times over without sounding insincere

(i also don't usually respond to comments on fics i've co-written bc i don't feel like i have? the right? feels like i'm taking credit for something i did not really do!)

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

also drarry: for lack of wanting, wherein harry thinks it's sexy when draco acts like an evil dick again, and draco is too in love with harry to tell him that makes him feel weird

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

man i think all the rest are pretty happy, all things considered? tho i guess two to lie and wrapped are the only ones that end with explicit i-love-yous?

8. Do you get hate on fics?

i've been quite lucky, actually! i've had the occasional demand to change an angsty ending, or comments that have been quite mean about a character who isn't supportive of drarry. oh and i've had a couple of people get suuuper mad when draco malfoy, death eater and snotty spoilt brat, makes mildly immoral decisions. i've found all of those quite funny tho, which i'm sure i wouldn't if they were legitimate hate, so i don't think they count!

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

yep! the vibe of two characters wanting to fuck but knowing they shouldn't for some reason (uneven dynamic, magic stuff, they simply haven't had a fucking conversation about it) is my absolute favourite. will read it every time, will write it pretty much every time too 😅

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

the closest i've come to writing a crossover is say no to this, a fic vaguely based off the storyline of the song from hamilton. it was the first drarry fic i'd written in about 10 years!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

yep! not any under this username (that i know of), but someone re-uploaded an old drarry fic of mine to wattpad – and honestly, i don't mind at all. i don't think the fic is very good lmao, if someone else wants to take the blame for it, that's totally fine by me

(the wildest thing about it is the combined ff.net + wattpad views of that fic now top 2 million i think?! but despite that u have almost definitely not heard of it!! i've only seen it mentioned, like, maybe 3 times since i properly re-joined fandom spaces in 2020)

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes!!!! it's SUCH an honour!!! the four doors is in german, chinese, russian and spanish; thirst (drarry vampire fic) is in chinese; and all i have to do (the not-fantasy-harry fic) is in russian 🥰

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

yes!!! well, sort of – officially, i co-wrote per my last letter (i hope you choke on it) with @lastontheboat, but i really do think i was more like an alpha reader with knobs on. the workload split was at least 25/75, with j shouldering a great deal of the burden (and all of the brilliance)!

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

this is going to sound silly given that i'm definitely a drarry writer and only really hang out in the drarry sphere – but i don't have one! for hp, i gravitate towards ships with harry in them, but even that isn't a hard and fast rule for me

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

nothing that i've posted! but i have tons that are never going to see the light of day. three recent-ish hp ones i've written the most for:

a fic i call The Opus, which is a drarry auror partners fic – i have 16k words written; it was going to end up a solid 100k. i love the concept i have for this fic so, so dearly, but a 100k casefic is not happening.

a harry/ginny established relationship smutty oneshot that is really nothing more than ginny being fun and sexy and harry being horny but, like, self-deprecating about it.

a drarry little mermaid au that i wrote for nanowrimo in 2019. like i MIGHT come back to this one day? but it's unlikely. pros: i do have 50k of it written already and the first draft isn't too far off being complete. cons: i have almost exactly 50k words of it written bc i hit the nano goal and stopped in the middle of a sentence bc writing it was SO stressful (that november i had two jobs + one volunteering role, and also i was moving house, so. a lot going on.)

16. What are your writing strengths?

god knows. dialogue and characters come easiest to me, ig? and i tend to cut a lot in editing, so i don't think my stuff is? overly wordy? so it doesn't require much brainpower to read? that could be a positive or a negative, depending on how you look at it!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

i suck at caring about anything other than character dynamics, so my fics never have plot outside of something vague to put the main pairing in the same room

similarly, i'm not very good at describing locations – describing anything, really

bc i tend to focus on the "oh we want to but we shouldn't!" moment, i'm pretty bad at actually developing feelings in longer fics – that part always feels too rushed to me, but fuck if i know a way of fixing it that isn't just, like, write another 20k

i think my endings usually feel like a bit of an afterthought and often quite forced

the more i write, the more i realise i know, like, 5 ways of phrasing anything, and i just repeat the same things over and over

i'm trying to fix my lack of skills with plotting + pacing by planning extensively before i start drafting, but i think that takes a bit of the spark out of the final version? it becomes a bit predictable and samey?

em dashes every tenth word

i'm convinced ppl i respect are in group chats talking abt how annoying and bad at writing i am, and also lowkey (…highkey) i agree with them – so actually getting myself to write anything is super hard!!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

yeah man! i mean, i personally am not sufficiently confident in my skills in any other language to do it without help (and i'm not sufficiently confident in my skills in asking for help to do that), but it's fun to read imo

19. First fandom you wrote for?

i've dabbled in a few over the years, but the first was hp – it was a marauders era snape/lily/james love triangle fic that i posted on a forum on a hp roleplaying site – this was before deathly hallows came out, so i was very smug when my pairing theory (that i undoubtedly stole from someone cleverer than me, because i was 13 years old) turned out to be true

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

god. @decaflondonfog recently told me that drabbles don't really count, so i? don't know? perhaps still the pine-woods scent the moon (guilty remus/harry) or taste of țuică (established drarry bringing ron in as a third) are the ones i like best, but i don't love either of them enough to be able to confidently declare them my favourite!

u know the drill: i got too sad and anxious and unfollowed everyone so i have no idea who to tag. if u made it this far please know i do love you very much, i want to kiss u on the cheek at LEAST, and would love to know any thoughts u have about the things u make ❤️

[kimmiessimmies]

Simblr's New Year Resolutions of 2024

I was tagged by lovely Lana, @eljeebee. Thank you, my dear. ❤️

Now, I already did a post on plans yesterday, but that was only for the coming few months or so, plus way too long for anyone to properly read, so let's give this one a go (which will probably also be long, because let's face it, I'm simply not a woman of few words).

What's your resolution for your simblr?

I'm not actually sure? Sometimes, I envy the people who are able to keep their Simblr clean and organised by just posting actual relevant things. I often write rambles (I don't always think anyone truly reads), so the story might get a bit lost. But do I really want to change that? I don't know. Maybe my resolution for my Simblr could be to make things easier to find? But then again, if you want easy reading of my story and everything involved, one click takes you to my WordPress, which actually is a lot more organised.

I do have resolutions for the story itself and my writing, though! In 2024, I hope to expand my writing skills. Even though I write easily in English, the fact that it's not my native language still feels limiting at times. I often feel I could make a narrative or a dialogue richer if this was my mothertongue. I've been contemplating focussing solely on dialogue and image (like I did with the AU), but I find I sometimes want and need the narrative. I really do feel the need to sometimes give words to what a character is feeling or experiencing without them actually voicing it to another character. And precisely in that type of narrative, I see room for improvement.

As for ATOH, I hope to be able to do some other characters justice, too, aside from the ones I've been so focused on recently. Although, maybe it'll only get confusing if I bring too many characters in. So, balance will be the challenge, I guess. And, I hope to be able to bring everything together properly and in a way that makes sense. Especially now that I've changed my timeline for a third time...

What do you want from the Sims franchise?

I just hope TS3 remains playable at this point. My worst fear is my gaming laptop breaking down (I do everything on that thing, as there's no place in my house for an actual pc) and any new one being unsuitable to run TS3 with its very specific demands...

Other than that, I think it would be highly unrealistic to expect EA to develop or do anything specifically for TS3 at this point, and I have absolutely zero interest in straining my laptop even more by putting TS4 on it, which I know I won't play.

Any other new year's resolutions?

Oof... Umm... Well, I already wrote about how I'm struggling a lot at the moment (I'm at a very, very low point right now...) and as much as what I want for 2024 is to find my happy again, that seems like a huge ask at the moment. So I shall stick to the quote the Pinterest game brought up: "Never give up on the things that make you smile" and try to focus on the few things they do bring me joy. Which takes me back to the story, and now we've come full circle.

Tagging a few people who maybe haven't done this yet and might like to, @simsaralove , @sircesimblr, @sushiikinsss. Feel free to pass.