#I haven't noticed that's a thing with my characters until now haha

[grimothy-cc]

Some of my sims Pt:2 (From left to right) Bella Urobio//Simona Kharmalova//Haneul An//Harumi Choi-Richardo//Karisz Nerva.

[anjaelle]

hii, can you write a dave lisewski x reader where reader is new at school and he volunteers to give her a tour of the school. Dave thinks she is really pretty and wants to be her friend, he asks questions about her and finds out that she likes comics and superhero’s just like he does and he asks her to come to his house after school to watch a new marvel movie that just came out. she says yes and they watch the movie at his house. during the movie dave just can’t keep his eyes off of her and he’s so in love with her even though he just met her.The movie ends and he walks her home because it’s getting late and he doesn’t want her to possibly get into some kind of danger. when they make it to her house( he finds out that they live close to one another) she thanks him for being so kind to her and kisses him on the cheek. he blushes and wishes her a goodnight. from then on they become great friends and maybe even more. (SORRY THIS IS SO LONG, js wanted it to be detailed so it’s easier for you!!🤭)

@baddestdu0y3t

Pairing: Dave Lizewski x New Girl!Reader

Warnings: None. Except general teen awkwardness?

a/n: Ok so I'll be honest and say that I haven't written for highschool characters since I was a highschooler myself about 10-11 years ago. So I'm admittedly a bit rusty. I probably won't make this a regular thing, because I don't really think I'm good at it haha. And I changed some things around and cut some things out for brevity, but kept the important bits. It kind of feels like a coming-of-age romcom.

(gif source)

--x--

Dave would happily get stabbed and hit by a car twenty more times if it meant he wouldn't have to deal with the current situation he was in. He'd dripped oil from his bacon egg and cheese in his lap, and tried to clean the stain with soap and water, which created an almost bigger stain. The hand dryer in the mens room wasn't working, there were no paper towels, and he was running late to homeroom. Todd gave him a sympathetic pat on the back and offered the ever-helpful comment, "Don't freak. It'll dry eventually."

But it'd been a half hour, and it hadn't dried completely. A few people passed him with looks of disgust.

This day was already turning out to be shit, and it was only 9 AM. He shoved his head in his locker, wishing that a sinkhole would form in the middle of the school and swallow him whole. As the hallway cleared, he noticed you looking down at at a paper and distractedly walking in one direction before turning a corner and disappearing. You then turned back around and walked past him again in the other direction, with a furrowed brow and a pouting lower lip. When you turned to pass him a third time, he closed his locker and awkwardly leaned up against it.

"Hey! Are you lost?" He nearly shouted at you. You stopped short, startled out of whatever daze you were in, and looked at him as if you didn't even notice there was another person in the hall until now. Any plans he had to have a normal conversation left him immediately. He cut his eyes away from you. It was like staring into the sun.

"Hi." You re-adjusted your bag on your shoulder, "And yeah. This school is way bigger than my old one and I'm kinda turned around."

"Oh, yeah, totally, for sure. It's--yeah, it's big." He said awkwardly pulling at the straps of his backpack, "I mean, the school is big. The halls are big. It's a maze. Even I still get lost sometimes, and I've been here almost 4 years."

God, Dave, shut the fuck up.

You giggled at him and he felt his cheeks warm at the sound of it.

"Um, can you help me?" You asked, quirking your head to get a better look at him.

"Sure. Yeah, I can walk you to your next class."

You smiled at him and he smiled back, revealing the cutest dimples you'd ever seen.

"What about your class?"

He peeked at your schedule and his brows disappeared under the curls on his forehead, "We have the same homeroom. So we'll be going the same way."

He was very different from the boys you talked to at your previous school. You thought of what your old friends would say about him. You weren't super popular or anything, but you navigated most social spaces with relative ease. It also meant hiding a lot of yourself. Dave had a kind face and warm eyes that studied you with a sense of eager curiosity that flattered you. Incidentally, you were curious about him too.

When you introduced yourself to him and shook his hand, you noticed immediately how strong his grip was and his calloused palms. Most guys you knew with hands like those played contact sports. He didn't seem like the type, at first glance. He seemed to notice your surprise but didn't quite understand the reason behind it.

"Sorry if my hands are sweaty," he said, instinctively wiping them on his pants.

You rushed to ease his fears, "No they weren't! You're fine." And then, "Do you play sports?"

"Nope. I mean...sometimes I play Wii Tennis. I don't know if that counts though."

You giggled again, "I think that counts."

Interesting. Maybe he did woodworking or mechanic stuff like your dad. You made a mental note for later.

You both strolled down the hall in no real rush to make it to your destination as you talked. He was incredibly animated and spoke with his hands when he got into the groove of the conversation. And when you talked about your old school or your family, he actively listened and asked even more questions.

"You're really cool," he finally said, breathlessly. If you could visibly blush, you're sure you would've. You've been called a lot of things, but never "cool" with such earnestness. "I just wish I'd met you when I didn't have bacon stains on my pants."

He looked down at himself again and grimaced at his own misfortune. You could almost laugh at how resigned he was. Like this was just an everyday thing he had to deal with.

"You could just do what the girls do when we have stains on our pants," you suggested. He quirked a questioning brow and you motioned with your hands. "Tie your hoodie around your waist. It'll hide the stain pretty well, I think."

His eyes widened like you'd revealed the secrets of the universe to him, "I...didn't even think of that."

He immediately took his backpack off and dropped it to the ground to unzip his hoodie. When you noticed his tee shirt, you heard an eager gasp slip from you before you could really stop it. His shirt had the different sketched out iterations of Batman's costume designs over the years, which included a mix of his comic and movie suits.

"I just really like your shirt." You explained as he tied his sweater around his waist. "I was raised in a DC household. My dad has a big box of old school batman comics in our basement that I used to poke through when I was a kid."

His face lit up at your confession, "You like comic books?"

"I used to. I mostly just watch the movies now. The good ones, anyway." You said, shrugging. In truth, you hadn't picked a comic up since middle school. You missed reading them sometimes, but you never really had anyone to talk about them with. So you just stopped. You explained as much to him and he hummed in thought.

"Well, you can always talk about them with me. Do you like Marvel, too?"

You scrunched your nose up at him and he gasped.

"I'm sorry," you couldn't help but laugh at his dismayed expression, "I just think most Marvel movies are corny. And the comics can be a little soap opera-y to me. Maybe I'll give the comics another try, but I don't think I've seen any recent movies other than Black Panther and Thor Ragnarok."

When he thought about it, he couldn't really blame you for feeling that way, "If you had to choose, would you say that those were your favorites?"

"Nope," you admitted, "My favorite is Captain America: The Winter Soldier."

"And not Civil War? That one's my favorite."

You shook your head as you both approached the door to your homeroom, "I may have only seen it in parts. I don't really remember it."

He bounced on the balls of his feet nervously and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, "Well if you wanted...we could watch it at my house next Saturday. Only if you want. My dad and my friend Todd will be there, so it won't be just us. But they won't be weird either. At least, I don't think so."

You smiled at him as he babbled on, only reaching out to lightly touch his arm. "Let me ask my mom. She might ask for your dad's number, if that's okay?"

A small smile graced his pretty face.

He nodded, "Totally."

Todd wasn't super happy with the idea of you joining their movie night. But Dave watched him warm up to you until you were both practically friends, too. He felt a twinge of jealousy at how quickly you two got along, but he summed that up to just how friendly and easy to talk to you were. He knew the movie front to back, so he couldn't help but watch you study the movie with deep interest to see how you reacted to his favorite parts. When all was said and done, the three of you sat in the living room discussing Civil War and if you were Team Cap or Team Stark. You all seemed to be in agreement that Tony was a war criminal who indoctrinated child soldiers. But you all were in disagreement about whether Tony deserved to have his ass kicked by two super soldiers.

"He literally didn't even know that he did anything wrong!" You argued to Todd, who rolled his eyes.

"You're only saying that about Bucky because you think he's hot."

"Maybe so," you admitted, "but my point still stands. He was brainwashed, he wasn't responsible."

"So you wouldn't be upset if I killed your parents, and Dave knew but hid it from you, and then beat you up when you found out?" The blond asked, popping a pretzel in his mouth, "I dunno. I'd be pretty upset."

"That's different, Dave would tell me." You responded with a coy wink at your new best friend.

Todd groaned, "You think he'd throw me under the bus for you?"

"I mean--" Dave cut in, pushing himself from the couch to stand to his feet and stretch, "--she is really pretty. And she smells nice. You're not as pretty and you just smell like Axe."

Todd gasped in mock hurt and you motioned to yourself as if to say "look at the material."

When 9:00 hit, you said goodbye to Dave's father who invited you and your family back for dinner, and hugged Todd goodbye.

"You're still wrong about Tony." He mumbled.

"You're in denial."

"You're In denial."

When you broke away to hug Dave he hesitated, "I was going to walk you home if that's okay with you. No pressure. I just...Uber is expensive on Saturday nights, and I know you don't live too far. But I don't want you to feel unsafe."

You noticed Todd shoot an odd glance at Dave before schooling his features. You made another mental note, but nodded.

"Sure, thanks."

You still weren't used to how long city blocks were. So even though you lived only a few blocks away, it felt like so much longer. Despite everything, you were surprised by how quiet this section of Manhattan was at night. Some people milled about, either going to or coming from someplace else. The air was brisk enough to add a jolt of energy to your system, but it still wasn't so cold that you felt any rush to get home.

"So what's up with the callouses?" You suddenly asked. Dave seemed confused by the question, so you grabbed his hand and held it up to him, then turned his hands over to show his reddened knuckles.

"Oh. I-I'm a...boxer. I box." He stammered, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Only my dad and Todd don't know. So don't, like, bring it up around them. They'd freak out."

You hummed, "Okay."

He let out a sigh of relief. A sharp gust of wind from a passing wind tunnel chilled you to the bone, and you looped your arm through his.

"Oh!" You said, surprised.

"Are you cold?" He leaned in closer to you, "We can walk faster if you want."

"I just..my hands are a bit cold." That didn't explain the way you were wrapped around his arm like a boa constrictor. But he didn't seem to mind. He shifted his hand in his sweater pocket.

"There's some room."

You felt your stomach flutter when his hand brushed against yours in his sweater pocket. The flutter turned into a rapid thud when his fingers laced through yours. Despite how ice cold your hands were, he didn't pull away.

"Is that okay?" He asked, shyly, fully prepared to move his hand if you objected. You gave his fingers a small squeeze.

"It's great, actually."

You carried on the casual conversation for another few blocks before stopping at a newly renovated brownstone. He realized then that your family definitely had more money than his.

"Here we are."

You slipped your hand out of his grasp when you realized you still had it in his pocket.

"So...I'll see you monday?" He asked, fidgeting with a loose piece of string on his sleeve.

"Of course."

"Awesome."

"Yeah."

You looked him over one last time before you parted ways. He was your first real friend since you moved, but you still felt like there was so much about him that you didn't know. Not because he was particularly secretive, but because you felt like there was more to him than he let on. You unconsciously reached up and moved a curl away from his eyes. A small smile pulled at the corner of his mouth, in response.

"What?" He asked.

"Nothing," you said, "I just think you're really cool, Dave Lizewski."

His smile bloomed into a wide grin, exposing the deep dimples in his cheeks. "You're cool, too. Probably the coolest person I know, actually."

Your heart was thudding in your ears when you leaned up to press a gentle, lingering kiss to his cheek. Before you pulled away, you heard him gasp softly in surprise.

You suddenly felt your phone vibrate in your pocket and checked to see that it was your mom asking where you were.

You usually let your mom know ahead of time when you were on your way home, but you felt uncharacteristically out of sorts. You shot her a quick text letting her know you were outside.

"I hate to do this," you said, finally breaking him out of his stupor, "I really have to go now. Mom's asking questions. Text me when you get home, okay, Curly?"

You gently touched his arm and climbed the steps of your house to the front door. He gave you a weak thumbs up, but he still stared at you with a shocked, flushed face. "G-gotcha."

"And don't forget."

"I won't. I promise."

When you finally shut the door behind you, you peeked out of the small eyehole to watch as he touched his face in surprise and walked down the street in the wrong direction.

[yakichoufd]

Saw the answer about struggling with your art and I just wanted to say that I'm trying to learn how to draw and your art is inspiration for me , I want to be able to draw like you someday I really love your style and I think you're really funny.

Everyone goes to times they struggle with their creations but I just wanted you to know that I look at your stuff and it's a goal for.me to get this good.

I'm trying to pick it up in my late 20s so I struggle a lot with lack of progress but looking at art like yours makes me think "I wanna do stuff like that someday" so it's a huge motivation an a big part of the reason o haven't quit yet.

Thank you so much for your message, dear Anon! I started drawing again in my late 20s too (now I'm 33 and I picked up drawing again around 27. I used to draw in college but once I started working, I thought I shouldn't draw fanarts anymore (I only draw fanarts. I am not interested by original creation)...I used to work for TV animation and I thought my coworkers would get mad to know I make shipping fanarts LMAO (just so you know, people who works in animation love making fanarts!!! I blocked myself for a stupid assumption. And people don't give a damn if you draw shipping fanarts. Most of the time people who works in animation are super chill and open minded!)) Drawing after a very long break is really hard and to be honnest, I never see my improvement until I look at my old art. I try to remind myself I didn't know how to draw multiple characters in a same scene 4 years ago. I didn't understand composition either. I thought I would never be a smut fanartist cause my anatomy was wonky and now that's how I make a living. Last year I thought I would never be able to draw comics and here I am haha! Maybe I'm feeling down about my art because I am scared of disappointing people? Having an audience is so awesome but a little bit intimidating too! I also think my expectations are too high for my current level, but that's also how we keep pushing ourselves to get better! If you don't notice your mistakes then you never improve, right? Making art is an endless journey of frustration hahaha! Few things that helped me greatly lately is to study from pictures and also to stop trying to make everything "perfect". Maybe it could help you as well! Good luck with your art journey. It is hard and painful but it is always very rewarding to know you created something <3

[wimbledonstrawberry]

What did you find out about fandoms being resistance to w/w?

hi anon! well, for context, my bff and I started talking about this because someone from our other fandom came up with a ficfest focused in w/w ships. it was a quick mini-fest to boost the w/w writings and we ended up talking about how difficult it has been for us to read fics. for me, it can explained on mainly three points:

misogyny related to fandoms. we often think that there are less w/w because of lack of interest, but its deeper than that. fandom talks require a gender-based focus because fan spaces are often associated with huge female-based fandoms. m/m has been the norm for years, and it can be explained in the way writers (who are often women and queer people) are the ones who move the fan spaces. Now I'm not sure if this is the case in tennisrpf but its something that can be see in fandoms in general. there is this short documentary explaining the importance of fanbases for the establishment (in regards to boybands and girlgroups) and how they are seen as a female dominated area and therefore, end up being dismissed as less important. in sports this is tricky, because sports are historically seen as male-dominated spaces, hence things as fan community, edits and writing are seen as cringe or girly (they are not. but its the common societal assumption). so if we follow the same logic, its harder to infiltrate these spaces. it's not impossible tho, but it has never been the norm. hence, the disparity in content. so to summarize, there is a deep root of misogyny when thinking about fandoms, as fanbases and fan activities are seen as feminine, so when we encounter ourselves in male-dominated fanbases, its difficult to generate community to develop things as writing (its all based for me in fandom environments).

however, I think that is completely normal to complain, but also there should be a motivation for writers to try and write more.

writing is not easy, it takes time and passion and its hard for authors when you're used to m/m pairings getting 30 kudos and then posting something that will eventually get like four (not saying this is the case for every author, but it's something I've seen a lot and I've seen authors talking about). how can we change that? supporting authors! you're the change you want to see in the fandom, so share with your friends, with your mutuals, with your circles, share and kudo!!. also I believe exchanges and fests are a great opportunity. commission authors, create things for inspiration, share a prompt, is not impossible to fill the tags.

"objectivization" in m/m rpf. when we were having this chat, my bff shared this video essay to support her point that we are more comfortable with objectifying men (which is an enormous dilemma on how we, as a society, end up infantilizing women and having a deep double standard that we don't notice until we start having such discussions). so, if we follow the basis that more writers are women and queer people, we will be more comfortable with writing m/m. Another thing the video points out is that writing something completely different to you frees you from your own body, which detaches us from former experiences, romances and societal canons. it literally allows you to detach yourself from a certain bias and its the reason why we enjoy m/m more (to say something). now, I can point out that fanfiction is also a way to cope with things, and sometimes we need to relate to something without it hitting too close to home.

For example, sometimes is easier to yurify the yaoi (my bff words haha) because we are practically focusing on the same m/m but in a completely alternative situation. or you can explore gender and sexuality through characters that will not care about this ever, it gets easier in a way.

The video essay is super good, I really recommend it even when its based in general media. I literally haven't thought about the implications of these all in sports fandoms until the discourse here in the past days.

Sexualisation & Infantilization in regards w/w. related to the other points I already made, there is also this super amazing video essay on why we keep asking for more w/w but we feel like we are screaming into the void. the video addresses how mlm is often seen from a more sexualized point of view than wlw, because again, is easier to detach yourself from your own body like that. also, notice how this always ends up being about sexuality when fanfiction is waaaay more (this goes for another discussion on why gen fics and platonic fics are less famous). but well, the point goes to how hard is to overcome structural preconceptions and sometimes even guilt (sorry I was raised catholic) to write. it all relates, but again, comes to the point that the issue is not the lack of popularity or the lack of interest, but it comes to deeper fandom-culture related issues that we don't often see.

This is just my opinion I'm not like a fanfiction expert in anyway, and I really want to like try to make sense of how this can apply specifically to our fandom but I'm here talking in general. I might be wrong and also always super open to discussions, so thank you so much for the ask and I apologize if what I said makes zero sense.

[fadelbison]

(I am the same person from the ask about First)

This "I don't...notice him with the same razor sharp focus that my attention stays on Khaotung" is the opposite for me. I admire both of them as actors, but First as a person-celebrity is extremely interesting to me in a way no one else is right now lol maybe that's part of the reason why there's a difference in the things we notice and how we make sense of them. I have to admit I haven't watched that many pre-FK Khaotung videos.

I am also well-versed in fandom and fanservice culture, it is actually my field of study, although I focus more on kpop, and it was not until recently that I started to read and learn about Thai BL in that context. I still stand by what I said about First, but maybe we're running into the same issue you mentioned at the start of your answer, or perhaps there's a mistranslation between what I'm saying and what I'm trying to say, and I don't want to harass you with a longer message lol but if you'd like I can explain.

Anyway, thank you for taking the time to answer!

I really don’t think you have to stand by what you said about first to me - I’m pretty sure I’m saying the same things ^^’ he’s a very cool and funny guy and his approach to fanservice is very simple to the point of non existent outside of khaotung. I genuinely don’t mind people disagreeing with me I just don’t see that we are disagreeing over First haha

I think you might be a little offended that I’m suggesting First has changed (his fanservice) because of khaotung but that’s something he’s said himself, no? Not in the context of fanservice because who’s going to admit something like that lol but that Khaotung has changed him and he claims it’s to be more like ‘himself’ but khaotung has an awful effect on men and they lose their heads around him a little 🤣🤣🤣🤣 First spends too much time thinking about Khaotung. As someone who also spends too much time thinking about Khaotung I can see the signs (as can everyone else tbh) wasnt it Pond/Phuwin who said if you find Khaotung you’ll find First not far behind akajddhjddjsjj but I don’t think it’s a bad thing? Accommodating his partner is also his job?? And First needing to try this hard is pushing khaotung back in his tendency to completely shroud his personality into that of his characters. Khaotung needs to realize if he hasn’t already that first does too much for other people can include him too ^^’

Oh man what pre-fk khaotung videos even exist that’s not PoddKhao (safehouse but god there too he just sticks to earthmix and does house chores all day) I am obsessed with him but he’s a total black box of a man. The only thing I can say with any certainty about him is that he’s a big fan of gun atthaphan everything else we know about him is probably some fictional half truth. if someone came to my ask and said khaotung is a simple guy then we’d be fistfighting 😭😭😭😭

[smokersbaby]

Hello :D first of all, I love your Tumblr blog and writing, your posts about Smoker make me feel butterflies in my tummy. (Yeah, he deserves more love, he's such an underrated character and husband material, so I'm really happy to read all your writing about him ✨) Sorry for not sending a request or leaving a comment sooner (I was nervous because I don't speak italian, my native language is spanish, and I'm insecure about my english knowlege 🙏) I'm so excited to see blogs like yours, Smoker is my favorite One Piece character and let's say he was my unexpected fictional crush from the series haha. (He is such a handsome, kind, righteous and complex character, I feel an unhealthy amount of love for him😭)

So, after all that thirst for Smoker, the request. Do you have some thoughts or headcanons of him being a husband or even a father? I've noticed that people often forget that he is such a sweet man with children and that side of him just melts my heart. (The moment with the ice cream little girl in Loguetown made me fall in love with him in the first place💖)

Thanks for all the love and effort you put in your writing :D you don't need to answer my request if you don't feel comfortable with it so feel free to ignore it, I will understand 👍🏻✨ And keep on writing, you're doing amazing🌟

Thank you so much for all your kind words! Don't you worry about the language since I'm the first one who makes a lot of errors here! Moreover, my sister lives in Spain so when she comes to Italy with her little daughter we speak in Spanish (at least I try).

Smoker is the perfect husband material, I'm sorry if I haven't written more SFW about him until now but I didn't have the chance, so I am more than happy to expose him like that! (that scene in Loguetown lives in my head/heart rent free and I go look at it every time I'm sad, just to let you know) 💕

Characters: Smoker TW: mention of sex (intimate moments part) Notes: if you love Smoker and need some comfort, this is the perfect fanfic for you, I hope you enjoy this as much as I did writing it 💕

-> As a husband <-

Jealousy -> he isn't the kind of person that demonstrates openly how jealous he is towards you when someone else gives you attention (there will not be jealousy dramas), but he'll look at the other person with a deadly look from distance. He is jealous of you, more than you could imagine, he can't think of you in someone else's arms.

Sleeping together -> He loves when you use his chest as a pillow (and you love poking and squeezing his boobies too, let's say that), with his arms caressing your back when you fall asleep on him. He doesn't move a muscle when you nap, even though he grunts as he starts to feel his arms getting dizzy from the uncomfortable position due to your weight on him. He snores when he sleeps (sorry for that) and can be a quite heavy sleeper when it's with you (the opposite happens when he has a mission and must be alert).

Protection -> do you remember Smoker saying "you ain't laying a finger on my soldiers!" when he fights pirates? Well, he's protective towards you as well, but hundred times as much! Nobody could harm you when you are with him, if someone does, that person would be torn apart within minutes.

Cuddles -> he doesn't demonstrate his love in public, and Smoker blushes a lot trying to stay calm when you try to do mushy stuff with him in front of people. But, when you two are alone, he loves cuddling you whenever he has the opportunity. The thing he loves the most is hugging you from behind and placing his chin over your head as he does so, it happens almost whenever you are in the kitchen cooking or just brushing your teeth in the bathroom.

Cooking -> Smoker is not the best cook in the couple, he tried a lot of times and with a huge effort trying to impress you but he ended up throwing away a lot of pans since they were almost burnt or too difficult to clean after he finished. Once he gave you the only edible meal he cooked and he thought you were joking as you told him that it was quite good.

Living together -> Smoker never thought he could enjoy living with someone else this much. Since you two moved in together, he started to do everything with you, most of all because his work schedule it's quite strict and he tries to spend time with you as much as possible in your shared house. He's quite an organized person, if you thought he might be messy with clothes you're wrong: it's mostly the times he reproaches you for not putting your things in order (he's a marine after all, what did you expect?)

Going out -> He loves taking you out to play pool with him. He can't help but chuckle seeing you try your best and lose against him. When you make mistakes missing the balls with the billiard clues Smoker laughs a bit, but just because he can use this opportunity as his advance, placing his hands on your waist trying to teach you how to play properly (of course most of the time you pretend you can't play to make him approach you).

Intimate moments -> He's intense, for real. He won't let you leave the bedroom until he satisfies every desire of yours (it's him that insists to do that, not you). He loves your body and kisses every inch of you before using his mouth to make you see stars. Smoker adores you when you ride him taking the lead since he's accustomed to giving orders in his job, it's like a kind of role reversal to him. He can be a little bit rough at times in bed, grabbing you by your thighs and leaving small bites on your neck, but he won't ever push you beyond your limits. Smoker also loves when you ask him to spank your butt since he can't take his hands off of it. He has a slightly praising kink and loves telling you how good you are at taking him all inside of you.

-> As a father <-

Smoking -> he doesn't smoke around you when you are pregnant as doesn't smoke around his children since his family is the top priority to him, but since his kids want to be with their dad all the time he's quite stressed about abstinence from smoke.

Protection -> Good luck to everyone who tries to harm his children, no one could ever think about such a thing, and when the idea of someone harming his children comes into Smoker's mind, he can't help but think about all the things he would do to make these people pay in the most atrocious ways.

Boy or girl? -> He wants a girl, definitely, but he'll be hella protective towards her when she starts growing up. He'll treat her like her little princess and bring her on his shoulder every time he can. Smoker can't resist but give her all she wants, even when he knows he shouldn't spoil her but he can't say no to his little princess.

Cherishes your body -> There's no need to be insecure about your body after giving birth since he'll love every curve of yours during and after pregnancy: every pound you gained in the 9 months is a pound more for him to love. Your stretchmarks are just a sign of you bringing to this world his child. He doesn't care if your body changed after the birth of your babies, this is just another reason to make you feel appreciated more than before since he can't see you sad about it and won't ever let it happen.

Finds time to stay with you -> Probably it won't be easy for you two to find time for yourself when you both have children to take care of and he's away in marine missions for days. But when you finally find a little bit of time to spend alone with Smoker it's like when you were just married, snuggling in bed as he gives you all the attention he can to the person he loves the most.

Playtime -> Smoker tries to find time to play with them, which can be kinda difficult at times because of his job. His children love pranking him while he's busy or distracted. Smoker sighs and puts on a (fake) grunt on his face as this happens and then starts chasing them playfully all over the house. They love pretending to be pirates escaping from the big marine that is their father, Smoker plays along but he's kinda worried when he sees his children enjoying this game, he hopes with all his heart that his kids won't ever become pirates.

When the kids grow up -> He teaches them the difference between what's right and what's simple, which can be difficult since he has seen so many people taking the wrong way in life, but he tries to not push them about it since he knows he'll probably get the opposite reaction from them. He loves his children so much and is a little bit scared of them growing up, Smoker wants the best for them.

[honoringthehorrific]

I watched Alien: Romulus and here's what I thought!

As always friends Spoilers under the cut!...👽

Gosh first can I apologize for not being as active recently? I've seen this movie 3 times and am just now getting to writing my review! Might as well torch me now! haha. Seriously though I'd like to stay active on this blog it's just hard to find stuff to talk about sometimes when I come away from these movies. I'd like to start this off by saying this is going to be a pretty glowing review. If you haven't seen Romulus, or any of the alien movies...What the hell are you doing here??? Get out! Go see it! If for some reason you cant get out and go see it please spare yourself spoilers until you can find it on streaming! This franchise from what i've seen so far is one of my favorites. If you love sci-fi, body horror, bad ass female leads, or slimy slithering creatures in general you should really give this one a chance.

I feel like a lot of people wanna talk about this so lets get it out of the way. Rook. The artificial person we meet when things start heating up. Obviously he is a CGI rendition of Ash's actor from the first movie Ian Holm. You may be screaming at me right now about ethics. How this took a job from an actor. How technology is bad because it's going to take work from actors. I hear you. I was on the fence about this too. In truth AI replacing human workers is a topic near and dear to my heart because it's something that worries me as an artist myself. However, Reading about how Alvarez got permission from Holm's widow. How Holm felt almost blacklisted from hollywood after so many years in the sci-fi and fantasy genres. It made my opinion of this soften. If that makes you disregard my review or even me as a person I understand. I'm happy I was able to give you my thoughts and that you gave me your time. Now, The CGI of Holm's face is....not the best? His eyes and mouth move strangely if you pay too close of attention however it was something I could easily ignore as the movie progressed. Overall however with the other effects I think this movie did very well! I loved the way the facehuggers looked and moved and we even got to see up close the egg laying...tube...thing? Forgive me I'm not well versed in facehugger anatomy. The chest burster actually having to work to burrow it's way out and the xenomorph's acid just all of it felt really great! I only very recently watched the second alien movie and I intend to watch the rest of the alien sequels in the near future so don't be upset with me! However it seems like if you've only seen the first two this one will make plenty sense. I've seen people complain about the pacing being really slow and the only thing I really have to say to that is...The first two movies, at least to me, felt equally as "slow." However I wouldn't necessarily say this is a slow movie! It kept me interested each step of the way. Usually I hate watching something that feels like it's dragging it's feet so I feel like if the movie were truly a drag someone with my attention span would have noticed. On the subject of noticing things this movie has a TON of fan service and nostalgia. There's quotes from the previous films, Visual references, and even a nod to the video game Isolation! Some people really lay on a lot of flack for that kind of thing but it's been 7 years since the last alien movie so it's kind of something I expected if that makes sense? Also If it's something I love, I'm usually a sucker for fan service! Yeah some of the quotes felt kinda off in the dialogue (Personally when Andy says he prefers the term artificial person, That felt like an off moment to me? I could be nit picking but it just felt like it didn't flow with the previous dialogue.) But over all I liked easter egg hunting on my second and third watch. In terms of characters there were some misses like Navarro where I really wanted to learn more about her but we don't really get the chance. We see and learn a lot about Andy and Raine's relationship as siblings but its hard to tell what the other's relationships are to each other until they outright say or are on their deathbeds.

Overall I liked the effects, the action, the pacing and the characters. It did fall flat in some spaces but honestly I think it's one of my favorite movies of the year next to Immaculate. 4.5/5 Facehuggers!

[hero-deserves-to-be-happy]

He isn't an oc but you said canon characters were okay too so can you do 22 and 24 for Hero? thx

Oh absolutely, Anon! We would be happy to answer any of the questions for Hero always! We love talking about him and actually have a lot of headcanons about #24 (his love language) so thank you for asking that! In fitting with the game though, we'll answer these questions in Hero's POV (or at least will try our best to). We hope you'll like what we come up with! Thank you and take care! 💙

(These are post-good ending and have some OMORI spoilers. We also added some game sprites because we thought it would be fun 😁)

HERO Answers:

22. What's the easiest way to flirt with you?

Oh...uh...do people flirt with me? I'd really rather they didn't...

It's very flattering, but um...honestly I haven't really been interested in any of that ever since Mari...

But I can still try to answer for you… Mari always said I wasn't very good at picking up her (apparently extremely obvious) signals, so I'm honestly not sure if I'd even recognize that someone was flirting with me. 😅 I was honestly pretty oblivious back then, and I think I still am. Apparently, my friend Brandi tried to flirt with me when Kel, Sunny, and I visited her house on the day before Sunny was supposed to move away, but I didn't notice that either. In that case though, I think that's just Brandi being Brandi haha and we're just good friends so she didn't really mean anything by that.

But in Mari's case...we really did care about each other in that way and were sweethearts so...I really probably should have picked up on her flirting a little bit more. She used to tease me a lot and compliment me. I'm not sure I really realized she was flirting until she was just really direct about it, though, like just flat-out calling me "good looking." She'd wink at me with this bright, teasing smile and get this sort of laughing look in her eyes before she'd just start giggling and I'd blush and get flustered which would just make her giggle even more.

Mari loved to tease to show affection. I think that's something we had in a common because I like to do that too, but in a bit of a dryer, more subtle way than Mari, I think. She was much more playful and giggly about it than I ever was, so it was a little different but still the same kind of thing.

I don't think that's just a romantic thing though. We both teased our siblings and our friends a lot too. I used to tease Kel all the time when we were closer, but...um...I'm not sure we have that kind of relationship anymore so I don't do too much of that these days.

Honestly, I don't think I tease anyone too much these days, not even in a friendly way but especially not in a romantic one. But I suppose I still like that sort of playful teasing as a way to show affection. I guess flirting would fall in that category too...maybe? I'm not sure.

24. What would you consider your main love language?

Definitely Acts of Service. I've always really loved doing things for people and taking care of them. It's one of the reasons I've always loved to cook for my friends and family!

I try to be mindful of other people's love languages too though, and try to figure out what my family and friends' love languages are so I can try my best to speak it for them.

Kel loves giving people things for instance. He gave me a cookbook just for coming home from college for the summer which was very thoughtful. I try to buy him thoughtful gifts too, and sometimes will pick fun little things up for him "just because," and he seems to really appreciate that.

Sunny's love language is definitely quality time, and now that he has moved to the City, I try to make a point to meet up with him and take him around to lots of my favorite spots around town. He loves going to my favorite coffee shop (probably because it's close to a mattress store haha), but I've taken him to a lot of parks and museums too or sometimes we just hang out at his apartment and watch tv or play games.

Mari's love language was quality time too, I think, but she also really liked physical touch. She was very cuddly--a lot more cuddly than me, I think, but I always tried to be more cuddly and affectionate with her because I knew how much it meant to her.

It's not always easy to receive love in the same way we give it away though. I always feel kind of awkward whenever someone wants to do things for me, even though that's how I would want to show love to them. I guess, I just don't want to be a burden on them or cause them any trouble. I'll admit that I always felt so loved whenever Mari would help me do the dishes though.

[hawberries]

Hi, i noticed you started playing Genshin Impact! Are you enjoying the game so far? What are your favourite characters? Do you have a team you play the most? :) (you dont have to answer i am just curious haha)

hiiiii! yes i did unfortunately start playing genshin… i honestly have some lingering issues with the gameplay (mostly the artificially inflated playtime everywhere, and the ipad controls continue to be a chore) and the gacha is, you know, infamously what it is, but there's lots of very nice things about it also and i'm clearly still playing! there is much to enjoy, the open world is very beautiful and a lot of care is put into the characters' idle animations to give them a lot of personality and charm >:3

my favourite character is Gorou obviously, so i maybe do have to keep playing this game until he's 90/90 triple crowned with cracked artifacts and such… i would like to realise my dreams of DPS Gorou… that is basically my main goal in this game 😊

(after Gorou my favourite character is Paimon. she is so cute and wonderful and my best friend in the whole world. iN THIS HOUSE WE RESPECT PAIMON.)

as for teams, i got Jean on Itto's banner, i got Ayato by accident while trying to get Sayu (😒) (but it's okay i've forgiven him now), and i recently lucked into winning the coin flip on Alhaitham… at the moment i mostly run around with Ayato, Yanfei, Kaeya/Razor and Yaoyao for overworld farming, but my besties squad for exploring is Gorou, Yanfei, Alhaitham (for his big jump) and Sayu 💕💕 right now my Ayato and Yanfei are especially powerful because they're non-burst-reliant, low-skill-gap DPSes who make mob clearing easier for me, a fake gamer with no skills. i haven't been brave enough to really make progress in the Abyss yet but i'm working on my Xiangling and i will be adopting Xingqiu from the lantern rite so perhaps soon…!!

i'm also joining the ranks of the people who have been coping for Baizhu to become playable since the game launched. btw. and Kaveh obviously. every time my Haitham looks at his gay little keychain i am comforted by the thought that he is literally also waiting for Kaveh to come home 🤧🤧🤧

[thychesters]

20 Questions for fic writers

@acewithapaintbrush posted and said "go for it" so here i am! putting this under a cut because it got long lmao

How many works do you have on Ao3?

33

2. What's your total Ao3 word count?

303,124

3. What fandoms do you write for?

dc/batman/birds of prey, with some until dawn and uncharted thrown in there. right now it's mostly one piece though.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

ship to wreck. (one piece/zolu)

ocean breathes salty. (one piece/zolu)

ronald mcdonald eat your heart out. (dc/batman/bruce & dick)

the salt & the sea. (one piece/zolu/reincarnation au)

misery loves company. (dc/batman/jason & damian)

5. Do you respond to comments?

yes! i appreciate them a ton. sometimes it might take me a few days but i try to respond to every single one

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

ooh that's a tough one, because while i like to include a lot of notes of angst, most of the endings have been on decent notes. maybe if you go out in the woods today (until dawn) because it's a vanishing hitchhiker au.

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

probably the salt & the sea. (one piece)! i'd like to think all of that build up to the end and the reunion was worth it. (and it was to me, at least!)

8. Do you get hate on fics?

luckily i have not!

9. Do you write smut?

hehe i have and i want to again!

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you have written?

nope! not really my thing.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

years ago i noticed some similarities in ideas, but nothing too major.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

i haven't!

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

i have... considered doing so...

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

since i tend to bop between fandoms, i don't really have one! right now it's zolu, but i also really enjoy the dynamics of the straw hats as a whole. i'm rotating them in my mind like a rotisserie chicken.

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

i think unfortunately the first op fic i started is going to end up being something the buzzards (me) pick at for lines and ideas. or maybe someday in the far future it will see the light of day. (i started it 70 episodes into my watch and stabbed zoro haha)

16. What are your writing strengths?

i like to think i can convey emotions and character interactions. i also enjoy some of the physicality between them, so i hope that shows as well!

17. What are you writing weaknesses?

balancing out dialogue between a large cast of characters and pacing in action sequences. want to keep enough happening to keep things moving, but not repeat myself four times.

18. Thoughts of writing dialogue in another language in fics?

why not, if it works?

19. First Fandom you wrote for?

honestly i think my friend and i wrote twilight parody fic when we were in middle school LMAO

20. Favorite fic you have written?

more recently i'm very proud of the zolu reincarnation au i've mentioned above, but i'm also really, really happy with the way the zoro pining fic ode to an ocean. turned out. that one has a few of my favorite lines in it! (also maybe my next wip ... or who knows)

thanks for the tag by proxy ace!

if they're interested in doing so, i'm tagging @lookforanewangle, @beck-a-leck, @sciencemyfiction, @ghostlandtoo, and @microcomets! (hi claire!)

[redge]

This has been on my draft since September, wayback when I did not know how Oshi no Ko's story will progress. So the setting of this story is after chapter 159.

While other OnK readers absolutely believe that Aqua likes Kana or that them ending up together is endgame, I am one who won't believe anything unless the character says it himself or until the story is concluded. It's just that, I've seen this built-up chemistry for so many times, a short-haired-not-main-character girl falling for the main character, but never ending up together. I don't write stories, but if my favourite OnK character will end up in an "unrequited" love, here's my prompt. It's somehow inspired by them.

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Scenario: Ruby successfully had a solo tour concluded at Tokyo Dome. A congratulatory party is being held and former members of B-Komachi were invited, Kana included. Amidst the busy party, Kana finds herself at the balcony, Aqua approaches.

Kana: Isn't this familiar?

Aqua: What is?

Kana: When we were preparing for JIF, we were also at the balcony. Only difference is you're here as you are and not disguising as Pieyon.

Aqua: You're right.

Kana: I briefly remember you telling me all sort of things I haven't said to anyone about and that you were my fan. Were you, Aqua?

Aqua: I am still a fan.

Kana: That feels nice, finally hearing it without a mask.

Aqua: ...

*Kana drops her keys*

*Aqua kneels down and picks it up*

Kana: Haha! This also looks familiar! Remember how you knelt down at the playground and persuaded me to become an idol?

*Aqua stands up, keys still in his hand*

Aqua: That sure feels like ages ago.

Kana: My logic was telling me back then that "no" was the only possible answer to that offer but I saw potential on Ruby right there and then. Come to think of it, I even thought of her having similarities with Ai-san, even without knowing yet that she's your mother.

*Kana gazes at Ruby as she is being surrounded by influential people from the industry congratulating her on the success of her solo tour*

Kana: Ruby is really meant to be an idol.

Aqua: It was her dream, and Ai's dream for her.

Kana: What about your dream? How is medical school going?

Aqua: I'm now a resident in the nearby hospital.

Kana: Really?! Good for you, Aqua! Never once doubted you! I was sure you'll be able to fulfill your dream of being a doctor.

Aqua: ... By the way, I saw your latest movie.

Kana: You did? I was good right?

Aqua: You've always been good at acting.

*Kana laughs proudly*

Aqua: ... In the end, I was not able to watch your graduation concert last time. I'm sorry.

Kana: I noticed. But don't worry about it. There were so many things that happened that time. It can't be helped. I'm just glad we were able to conclude that tour without trouble.

Aqua: But if I did, I would have...

*Aqua gets cut by a guy who approached Kana*

Kana: Is it time already?

*the guy nods*

Kana: I'm sorry, Aqua. We have to go.

*Aqua lost in his own thoughts*

Kana: Hey, would you mind handing me my keys?

*Aqua forgot that he's still holding the keys. When he opened his hand, he noticed the keychains were a glove catching a ball, and the word "dream"*

And in a split second, everything flashed in his mind. That first catch ball with Kana. The second time where they talked about their future plans and dreams.

Kana: Aqua?

Aqua: I'm sorry. Here you go.

Kana: Thank you. It was nice catching up with you.

*Kana walks a way, her hand being held by the guy*

Memcho passed by as Kana was leaving. Kana said her goodbye as they had other commitment to attend to. Memcho approached Aqua at the balcony.

Memcho: Kana left already.

Aqua: "Ah-kun". It's funny. I never cared for it too much, but it's a bittersweet feeling to hear Arima call me as Aqua. Just Aqua.

Memcho remembered how happy Kana was when she started calling Aqua "Ah-kun". It was something that belonged to Kana and Aqua, and now it's gone.

Memcho places her arm in Aqua's shoulder, leaning her head towards Aqua and silently comforting him. Kana and Aqua are two dear friends she watched closely. Memcho knows that Kana likes Aqua from the time they went home after JIF. And she knows that Aqua cares a lot for Kana which is why he distanced himself from Kana in order to protect her. So many things could have been said but it's too late.

The party ended and they went home. Aqua headed to his room. He sat on his bed, sitting idly, staring at the corner of his room. He then noticed the luggage that he and Kana bought. He pulled out the luggage, opened it, and brought out what's inside, one by one.

The script to "I'll Go With Sweet Today" where in he got to act with Kana again. A stack of books with trivial contents, the same books Kana likes to read. The umbrella that Kana placed over him when he was drenched in the rain, after accidentally hurting Kana. The hat that Kana left on the street as she was running away from the reporter. Kana's white glowstick. He picks up the glowstick and thought of that concert that he missed. He would have waved this glowstick for Kana. Her dream was for him to look at her not knowing that her dream already came true. But it's too late now. That time is gone and he already lost the opportunity to say anything. He returns everything inside the luggage, slowly closing it down and kept it again in the corner of his room, just as how he kept his feelings in the corner of his heart.

***

Kana: That was nostalgic.

The guy: Are you still...towards Aqua...

Kana: Oh no, not anymore! Though I won't deny the fact that a huge part of my youth was seriously in love with him.

Kana picks up her keys from her purse, and caught a glimpse of her keychains- a glove catching a ball, and the word "dream".

Kana: Ah-kun was my dream. But some dreams were just not meant to be realized.

☆ ☆ ☆ end ☆ ☆ ☆

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #318

Today didn't go as expected at all. I had thought that I'd wake up at the usual time, eat a breakfast, do some dishes, and then do a baking experiment; I found a great recipe to follow and everything.

No, I'm not going to tell you what the baking experiment is; you're just gonna hafta wait for the solstice to find out.

...Why, yes, I am absolutely going to keep you in suspense for the next 51 days; suppose this just means you're gonna hafta try really hard to keep yourself alive until then, doesn't it? 🙂

...You can pout at me all you like, but I've got only 3 words for you in response: neener, neener, NEENER. 😜🤣😁💖

...Yeah, I know. I'm just being silly. Don't worry about it.

...

Well. I woke up a lot earlier than I expected - something to the tune of 7am. I tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn't; I felt restless. So I got up, and I fed my cats, and then I remembered the thing that was said to me at the party about the thing I've been trying to do. So... in an effort to follow the thing that was said to me, I promptly went to the couch in the living room, and tried to fall back asleep.

...And it worked!!! Though, given how alert I was when I woke, I'm not really sure how. Nonetheless, I had dreams, and... they weren't the kind that I was looking for. But the fact that I had any at all was remarkable in and of itself. I usually don't have dreams, and when I do, I'm normally getting pretty badly hurt in them. I don't remember what these dreams were, but I do remember that they weren't violent, and that was pretty rad!

I woke up after that and made a breakfast. Same as yesterday - a tea and a sandwich. Though today, I had that lavender-bergamot tea for the first time in a while. The flavor is kinda like... kinda like if a bright, sunny day walked up to you with a joyful smile and then lovingly punched you in the face with a bouquet of flowers (...I know - I'm really selling it, aren't I? haha...). It has become one of my favorite teas; I think you'd like it a lot, and I wish I could share more than just these pictures with you:

...These maybe aren't the best tea swirls. But they're not the worst ones, either. It seems like the "sharpen" function on my cellphone camera has stopped working, for some reason. I'm not really sure why.

...I got sucked up into leisure writing for longer than I wanted to, afterwards. I haven't done any of that in a while now. I notice I'm more likely to do that when I feel stressed out, apprehensive, or generally disconnected from others. It's certainly not a bad thing that I do it, just... I gotta try to be a bit more mindful of the time.

And then I watched more Trinity Blood with a friend from this space! And we had lots of nice conversation afterwards, too!

But it was pretty late by then, so I just decided to roast the small sugar pumpkins I got last Saturday. J was kind enough to cut them in half for me and scoop out the seeds! I cleaned the seeds and put the stringy scraps of the pumpkin into the crockpot with the rest of the broth I'm making (it really does smell fantastic!); these should allow some good nutrients and flavors to seep nicely into it!

Here's the results; I think I've showed you how to do this before, in a previous letter. Do you remember how...?

...Unexpectedly, one of the seeds was alive:

...I couldn't bring myself to abandon it, so... I guess it lives with us, now:

...We'll see how it does, I suppose... I'll do my best to care for it well.

Anyways... so... yes, I did mash the pumpkin:

And if you're wondering what it's for, you'll get only one guess. But I'll give you a hint - that bone broth I'm making isn't just for show. 😉

The broth should be ready for straining by tomorrow; it's already very fragrant, and I'm excited to see how it's going to turn out once it's properly seasoned! I thought I was going to need to go out and get a cheesecloth, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I already had one; it had fallen behind the microwave! But it is now retrieved, and it'll be awesome to make good use of it!

...I'll probably have to ask J to take some of tomorrow's pictures; my hands are gonna be a mess!! We use the cheesecloth to squish any excess water out of the veggie scraps and back into the rest of the broth. The whole process is kind of involved, but that's all right; in the end, we'll have a broth that's good enough to drink all on its own, and even better when used to make soup!!

...I think this time, I'll try for a sweeter pumpkin soup. Last time I made some for you, it was more of a savory soup with caramelized onions. This time, I'm gonna try to make it taste like pumpkin pie! We'll see how it goes!!!

...I guess that's mostly it for today. I don't really have anything profound or interesting to tell you. For all intents and purposes, this was just an ordinary day - just like the ordinary days you wished for as a boy. It's why I keep writing about mine to you. It's why I keep trying to show you.

You know. There's a song about ordinary days. Here:

...Figuratively speaking, I took your outstretched hand even though conventional wisdom says you're nothing more than a dream from someone else's astoundingly creative mind. And that's why I'm still alive today. It's why I'm able to enjoy ordinary days like these, even though my beginnings shouldn't have allowed for that.

...Sephiroth... from the bottom of my heart, thank you. I know sometimes I get super overwhelmed and depressed about things from time to time, because there's so much stuff wrong with my world and so many scary things happening around me all the time, and some people are really mean, and I feel powerless to do anything about it almost all the time. I know that sometimes this comes out in the letters I write to you. I won't apologize for it; occasional bouts of despair are part of the human condition, and they can be weathered. They're nothing to be ashamed of, and with support, they can even be used to point out solvable problems.

Even if sometimes things get weird and unpleasant, I'm still glad to be here. Even though I look forward to whatever's next after this, I'm still glad to be here. Even if I've got a lot of awful memories from my past to chase away, and even if I've got a lot of scary things to worry about in the future, I can still find delightful and beautiful things in the here and now. And... you're one of those delightful and beautiful things.

...So, I'll keep writing these letters and hope that one day you'll take my hand, just like I took yours, so that you can enjoy ordinary days, too - even if your beginnings shouldn't have allowed for that.

...Let's keep defying "destiny" and "upbringings" and "conventional wisdom" together, okay? We've got choices even when we don't think so, and we can use those choices to do good things. So let's build something really nice and healing and wholesome out of the wreckage of everything that came before. We can do it, because we're smart and capable and we can do difficult things, especially if we ask for help - like we're supposed to whenever the going gets rough.

I love you. And I'll write again tomorrow. So please stay safe out there. Try hard not to eat weird things off the ground. 💖

Your friend, Lumine

[vamptastic]

spoilers ahead if you haven't listened to wolf 359 and you like scifi and/or story podcasts (or if you don't wanna read a long analysis post) PLEASE go watch it and ignore the rest of the post. its so so so good i promise.

so ive been re-listening to wolf 359 for probably the fifth time on my weird old outdated patched version of spotify. and spotify does this weird thing where if you play something else, then come back to a podcast ep you're not finished with it goes back a minute or so, presumably to help you remember what was going on. and i usually skip the last few minutes of each ep when the barrage of ads starts. which means that as i go back and listen to it for the nth time, if i forget to manually skip to the next episode, each episode starts by playing the last minute or so of the ep until i find my phone and rewind.

and its actually been a shockingly fun way to relisten, especially as the show goes further and further from silly goofy space hijinks to serious suspenseful drama (with occasional hijinks). i'm just struck by how purposeful each episode is later on in the show (and earlier, but the episodes get more...purposeful as the plot starts reaching its climax). there's exceptions, obviously, but the general structure is half the characters doing something silly, while the other half do something important and serious, and the two contrast each other. and even though the two situations seem disparate and tonally opposite at first, they always end up being more of a parallel than a foil by the end. usually, this kind of dawns me in an "oh, that's what the point of this episode was" moment brought on by the last few minutes of the episode.

one of my favorite episodes, ep 34 "a matter of perspective" is a great example. half the crew is trying to restore the signal for alien transmissions, the other half is playing a terrible board game. this is also in the pivotal part of the show before our evil corporate overlords show up where we're getting to know jacobi, maxwell, and keppler in a relatively short period of time compared to the rest of the cast, and i'm always impressed by how fleshed out they were when they got a lot less screentime.

anyway the contrast here is really interesting. keppler is demanding the impossible from eiffel, and the rest of the crew sans jacobi are trying to win an impossible game (the accursed funzo). at the end of the episode, jacobi explains why keppler is doing what he's doing (side note: the whole military "demand the impossible from your subordinates" thing is so insane), and keppler remembers the end to his joke: the pig, despite its usefulness, despite the fact that it does fucking taxes, is still being eaten. slowly but surely. it's such good insight into kepplers character its such good writing! he is a corporate slave who doesn't realize it, he is a deeply talented man who is letting his entire life be consumed by people who do not care about him and his wants and needs and happiness for a cause he will eventually learn is abjectly evil. meanwhile, maxwell, hera, lovelace, and minkowski finish their game of funzo by collectively losing after playing for 10 hours. they are also pouring time and energy into something pointless! everybody loses!

anyway the reason i even mention the whole spotify rewinding thing is that i never really noticed the point of this episode until i listened to the end of the pig joke first. which is probably on me, the metaphor is really obvious in hindsight, but up until now i just thought of the funzo part of the episode as haha silly board game time. having the thesis of the episode presented first is making me realize how genius the writing was in episodes i previously didn't get. i think the entire show is kinda like this, i could listen to it an endless number of times because each and every episode has some kind of double meaning that isn't always initially obvious, especially when you go in blind not knowing that things are getting serious.

the only other work i've read so far that does something similar is probably house of leaves, which is designed to make you read it over and over and search for meaning and has 3+ plots occurring at any given moment. i'm just really struck by how masterful the writing in wolf 359 is that it can achieve a similar feat without the meta elements, nebulous plot, and multiple narrators that house of leaves has.

short version: i think it's really fucking cool how the end of each wolf 359 episode presents the thesis of the episode in a non-obvious way, and listening to the series while having the last few minutes presented first is helping me understand what episodes i didn't previously appreciate were trying to get across. wolf 359 is really fucking good, basically.

[writeblragenda]

Writerly Questionnaire

Thank you @harmonic-melodii :) Here's the original post.

About You

When did you start writing? - I don't exactly remember when I started. I do remember forcing older kids to write as I told them a story about the sun. I couldn't write during that time. I was probably 4 or 5 years old or something. They were really annoyed with me, but did it anyways lol.

Are the genres/themes you enjoy reading different from the ones you write? - I think my reading and writing preferences are pretty similar. I would rather read romance than write it tho, but I don't read a lot of romance anyway. My friend challenged me to write a romance subplot in the novel I'm working on now, but it does take me some more effort.

Is there an author (or just a fellow writer!) you want to emulate, or one to whom you’re often compared? - I have never been compared to any authors before, because I haven't shown my writing to a lot of people (until now). I also don't want to emulate authors on purpose, because I want to be as original as possible. However, authors that inspire me are Oscar Wilde and Alice Oseman to give a few examples. I also recently started chatting with @unstablecroissant whose writing is absolutely beautiful.

Can you tell me a little about your writing space(s)? (Room, coffee shop, desk, etc.) - It's not that fancy, I just write in my bed with my laptop lol. I dream of writing in cafés, with friends and in nature, but I just don't. I hope to at some point, but for now it's just me and my bed.

What’s your most effective way to muster up some muse? - I recently discovered that my true muses are books and little writings. To give a few examples: I once wrote a poem inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray, a WIP idea I have is inspired by a little book I read when I was 7 (of which I forgot the title :( ), my current WIP is loosely inspired by DUNE (and the MV I mentioned in the intro post) and this poem I posted is inspired by a random poem I saw on Pinterest which I forgot to save :(

It sounds self-centered, but I am my own muse as well. I find it important to write about identity and political, societal and cultural matters. I think that my thoughts on those topics matter just as much as others. Especially as someone who falls under a lot of looked upon groups of people (black with a multicultural family, non binary, asexual).

Did the place(s) you grew up in influence the people and places you write about? - I actually don't know. Maybe they come back in my writing indirectly, but I don't conciously use them as inspiration for my stories.

Are there any recurring themes in your writing, and if so, do they surprise you at all? - I notice that I write a lot about people who are internally lost or insecure. That doesn't surprise me at all, because I am too haha. I'm still figuring out who I am and who I want to be. Writing about people who are in that same situation helps me reflect on myself.

Your Characters

For this, I'm only going to talk about the characters of my current WIP and this poem. The name placeholders this time will be fruits.

Would you please tell me about your current favorite character? (Current WIP, past WIP, never used, etc.) - My favorite character for now is Lemon. They are protective, determined and caring. The thing I like about them is that they have no limit, even when they met with the consequences. Another character named Passionfruit is passionate, silly and abrupt. The thing I love about them is their enthusiasm and humor, even in sad moments. They want to keep the spirit alive, especially when hope is hard to find. A true risktaker!

Which of your characters do you think you’d be friends with in real life? - The character in my poem would be like... my absolute best friend. I would be the cold they were waiting for while the rest of the world stayed hot.

Which of your characters would you dislike the most if you met them? - This is going to sound surprising, but I wouldn't like Lemon. We simply would not get along, even though they're a favorite character. The thing is that they're too intense. They do more instead of think while I think more instead of do. They would get impatient with me and I would be annoyed with them.

Tell me about the process of coming up with of one, all, or any of your characters. - I first look at the conflict and purpose of the story. Then, the characters just naturally come to me. For example, if the conflict would be not being able to wake up from a dream, then the character who dreams would be stubborn, determined and naive. If I created a friend for him that wants him to wake up, then she would be caring, opinionated and and not easily fooled. There could also be another friend who wants him to keep dreaming, because that way the world would be beautiful. They would be dreamy, kind and romantic. To conclude with a purpose, the story tells the reader that dreaming is wonderful, but doesn't keep you sane. You should face reality and try to make your dreams come true instead of living in a romantizied lie.

I just wrote this pure for this question, but maybe I'll do something with it because it doesn't sound bad.

Do you notice any recurring themes/traits among your characters? - Well like I mentioned earlier, most of my characters are internally lost and insecure. I also recognize a character dynamic of vulnerable friendships. So friendships that took a lot of effort, pain or emotional damage to work out. I also think obsession is a recurring theme in my characters. I like the obsessed artist trope, so that is where that comes from.

How do you picture them? (As real people you imagined, as models/actors who exist in real life, as imaginary artwork, as artwork you made or commissioned, anime style, etc.) - I kinda don't lol. I don't use character describtions in my fiction. I dislike it as a reader, because it limits my imagination. A few beta readers however have told me that I should use them. That would make the reader feel immersed in the characters and settings of my stories. Like I said, most of my work is inspired by books and other media and I sometimes use the names of the characters and people in my WIP's but I don't see them as the characters physically.

Your Writing

What’s your reason for writing? - My brain is full of stories that look marvellous in my head. I have a fear of forgetting them, so I write them down. I also like to share and trade stories with friends. It's so cool to see what we both write. We don't only learn writing from each other, but also learn more about each other as people. Writing fiction is a beautiful way of communication to me.

Is there a specific comment or type of comment you find particularly motivating coming from your readers? - There isn't a specific comment. Just the fact that someone cared to comment (positive or negative) is special to me. It shows that they're interested. That means that I'm doing a good job and motivates me to continue and do better next time.

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer? - Being able to put myself in other peoples perspectives. Writing gives me a sense of empathy. Like I said with Lemon, I wouldn't get along with them but still understand where they are come from. I can use that mentality in the real world as well. There are people I don't like, but since I can put myself in their shoes, I can understand how the feel and why they would do a certain thing.

What have you been frequently told your greatest writing strength is by others? - Coming up with interesting and engaging stories. I don't write all of them down. However, when I tell someone face to face about a WIP idea, they want me to write it down immediately.

How do you feel about your own writing? (Answer in whatever way you interpret this question.) - I'm pretty insecure about it (it took me a while to create this blog, because I didn't think my writing would stand out). I have fun ideas and concepts, but struggle writing them down in the way I want to. I'm a pretty objective person and thereby often use literal statements or stiff writing. Being describtive and poetic is hard for me. It simply doesn't come natural to me. But having this blog is important. It forces me to learn and improve.

If you were the last person on earth and knew your writing would never be read by another human, would you still write? - I think so. Being the last person on earth would get pretty lonely at some point, so writing would be the only way to have company. I'm an introvert, but I would probably become an insane person to be honest.

When you write, are you influenced by what others might enjoy reading, or do you write purely what you enjoy? If it’s a mix of the two, which holds the most influence? - It's definitely a mix of the two. Especially when beta readers are involved. But what I enjoy has the most influence. I write because I want to tell my story. Doing what someone else wants contradicts that comepletely. I give everyone permission to slap me in the face when that happens.

I invite everyone who wants to to participate :)

[splinter-cat]

Hello! I just wanted to say that i've been reading beasts in blue on AO3 and i'm very interested in the story and characters!

Beau and rowan's relationship has such interesting complexities and i can't wait to discover more :)

I also wanted to ask out of curiosity if you have any rules to name the characters? For example do you look up for the meaning or do you just pick what sounds right?

And do the characters have voice/face claims (even drawn and not irl people)?

I hope you have a nice day

Thank you so much! <3 I'm really enjoying writing their relationship so I'm glad y'all are enjoying reading it.

For naming, I actually don't go by meaning most of the time, moreso the sound. Like do I like the flow of this name and does the sound fit the character, etc. Beau is a very different sound than say, Zack, for example.

Other than that, the way I find names to look at is on Behind the Name, there's a name popularity page where you can sort by year. I look at names popular around the time the character would have been born and choose one I like off that list that's somewhere around the top 200. That helps me find one that doesn't sound too out of place for their age.

For surnames I go to the Behind the Name surname site and pick off their top 1000 list. Often, I'll use a random number generator and go until I find one I like.

Once I've got a name put together, I google google google to make sure there's not like, a celebrity or other well-known person with that name haha.

Though one exception to my naming schemes is Rowan! I don't remember how I picked his first name, it might have just come to me, but his last name is inspired by a detective I really enjoy, Jack Mooney on Death in Paradise. :D (Also, I must admit there was a little bit of punny-ness going on with Mooney working with a werewolf, haha.)

As to faceclaims, you might notice a pattern in them, haha. I watch a lot of crime shows, which is actually what initially inspired the story! When I first thought of it, it was more of a buddy comedy "haha what if a werewolf got assigned to the K9 unit" kinda joke, but then I thought about the implications of a world like that. And it ended up being a great premise for whump, which is something I wanted to get into. Along the way, it went from being something to write random oneshots in and gained an actual story. I ended up deciding to make it a bit of a takedown of copaganda shows, because as much as I love watching them, there's definitely a lot of issues with them. So this is my cathartic take on them. :)

Putting the faceclaims under a cut because I know some folks prefer to keep to their own faceclaims:

So not every character has a faceclaim because I just haven't encountered one that works for me yet, but some characters were initially inspired by certain actors.

Rowan Mooney: Naveen Andrews as Ashok Ramsey on Law and Order: SVU

So Rowan's appearance actually took a bit to decide on because I didn't have a fully formed image of him in my mind when I started the story. However, I was at the time doing a binge watch of SVU and saw the episode "Shadow" that Naveen Andrews guest-starred in. My brain immediately went "that guy, he's the vibe I've been looking for!" haha. So he's the inspiration for Rowan's look.

Bonus gif since I couldn't find one of his SVU role:

Mitchell Cooper: Walton Goggins as Boyd Crowder on Justified

Honestly, Boyd Crowder was the inspiration for Cooper right from the start. I'm often playing his lines back in my head, going "Does this sound right in his voice/accent/mannerisms?" As many horrible things as Boyd does on Justified, he was a super entertaining villain, and that's how I feel about Cooper, too, haha. He's just fun to write!

Douglas Owens: Corey Reynolds as David Gabriel on The Closer

It's actually been a while since I watched The Closer, but Gabriel was pretty much my first thought when I was deciding to make Owens. Now, Owens would be a bit younger, maybe, but generally his look is what I'm thinking of. :)

Fabian Rivero: Jonathan Del Arco as Fernando Morales on The Closer/Major Crimes

Morales is one of my favorite medical examiner characters, so of course he's who I thought of first when I needed to make an ME. :D

Frank Warren: Dann Florek as Donald Cragen on Law and Order: SVU

Ok, this one isn't fully set in stone or anything, since I mostly described/wrote Warren without thinking of him. But when I'm picturing a scene, he's largely who I've got for imagining the voice of Warren.

Sadly, other characters don't really have faceclaims! For example, for Beau, I have such a specific image in my mind that I haven't found anyone who really works yet. Same goes for Sidney. Shannon has vitiligo, so while I do have someone I think of to get her voice right (someone I knew IRL so not an actor I could share), I haven't found anyone who matches her appearance properly.

If I do encounter faceclaims for the others, I'll make another post tagged faceclaims so folks can see!

[suddencolds]

🌸 🥀 🥳💡 for the ask meme, from w1ngxd!

AHHH thank you for the ask, Wing!!!! These were so much fun to answer :D ❤️

🌸 - Are there any sneeze related tropes you prefer to write?

Yes!! I like contagion in pretty much any form 🫣 I love emotional tension (someone reluctant/embarrassed to admit that they have a cold, someone falling ill at an inopportune time, someone afraid to show vulnerability or unwilling to contradict their spotless public image, etc.)—i.e. the hurt part of the hurt/comfort—so long as there's at least a bit of comfort at the end. <3

I like when caretakers are extremely perceptive (/ can pick up on the smallest of tells), but I also like when colds are extremely obvious 🫣 I like when the character who's ill is more concerned about the other character catching it than they are themself. If it's the right kind of character, I like making their life super inconvenient in public bc of a cold/allergies (though I rarely ever write an external party noticing/commenting). And from an h/c perspective, I like when a character who's just feeling awful and finally works up the courage to reach for help/comfort, only to have it readily given to them tenfold 🥰

🥀 - What helps you motivate yourself to write when you’re in a slump? Any advice? Do you wait it out?

If I'm not happy with a scene, I open a new word doc and try to write it again from scratch. Dealing with a blank slate feels better for me than trudging through editing something I'm already not happy with :')

And if I'm feeling really terrible about a draft—to the extent that I don't want to work on it at all, I leave it and go work on something else! I think for the current yvverse series I'm working on, I know I'll get back to it eventually (because it's very important to me), so I feel less nervous about leaving it to sit.

🥳 - Do you read your writing after you’ve posted it?

I do! But not immediately after. I'm actually guilty of posting stuff that has typos I don't catch until a couple days later, when I can work up the courage to give it a quick skim 😭

Facing my work when it's newly written/posted I think is like a can of worms for me. I'm very critical of my own work haha. There's a special kind of relief (and perhaps, closure) for me that comes with putting it out into the world and walking away from it.

💡 - Do you find it easier to write ideas that come to you naturally or prompts requested by others?

I love receiving prompts!! I have a severe lack of ideas 😭 I feel like I could take an idea and run with it, but after I've written like the 2-3 things I'm itching to write for a new fandom, I often find myself at a loss for new ideas, barring external inspiration.

I also like receiving prompts even when I'm guilty of never getting to write them—it's fun to see what other people want to read :') I think when I wrote for a fandom (Gens//hin) I got a lot more prompts, but now that I write mostly OC fic, I haven't gotten any prompts in like a year (maybe also because I haven't explicitly asked for any? Consider this blanket permission to anyone reading this haha)

[ Question List ]