#I love this author so much

[happypeachsludgeflower]

I keep seeing posts today about mxtx breaking her social media silence to announce a revised addition of tgcf with 100k+ addition, but nothing has dates.

I tried googling it but only found the arrest rumors.

So is this recent news? Or is this an internet whalefall I’m somehow only now stumbling upon??

Either way that’s hilarious and iconic.

[shy-sapphic-ace]

Where’s that post that goes “reading a book by TJ Klune is like how am I supposed to read another book ever again” because YEAH

[cutecapybarapics]

[deadrayg2mf]

The Frog Prince: The Darvel Exploratory Systems (The Darvel Exploratory Systems #4) by S.J. Sanders

Forgive me if this is not as good as this is my second go around typing this thanks to my first draft not being saved (╥﹏╥). Can we please appreciate this cover art? That will always be my first round of praise when it comes to an S.J. Sanders book is that her cover art is some of the best in the genre. Plus! You can go to her website and see some of her own artwork for her books which I think is just splendid, adds a little more to the experience. I’ll be linking her website so make sure to go check it out!

If you can’t tell already, I am a huge S.J. Sanders fan and have read her Mate Index series, Alien Fairytale series, and innumerable others of her works. By far the Darvel Exploratory System series is my favorite. Each new book brings new characters that I love, world building out the wazoo, and the overarching theme of the sinister Darvel Corporation’s schemes. My kindle search shows I am constantly checking for updates on this series!

This latest addition is just a short story (76 pages) so while there isn’t a whole lot of world building or character backstory, we do get introduced to a new concept yet to be breached in its predecessors; genetic modification. I loved this concept immediately because I have yet to see a lot of it in books with alien romances. I think this was written about very nicely too for being a new topic dropped in a short story. 

I also think S.J. Sanders did a lovely job of not just naming her story after the fairytale but incorporating bits of the original story into her alien retelling. I don’t want to get too much into it (Wow, Ray, how many times have you said that?) just because it is a short story so there isn’t a whole lot to get into without just reciting the book to you, but it’s good so just read it! Overall, the writing is always wonderful, immediately you are enraptured by the world and the characters that S.J. Sanders weaves on these pages. The smut scenes, I will admit, do always feel to be the one lacking part in this particular instance. As a degenerate I am always happy with “the more the merrier” when it comes to detail. 

Please read this series! It is absolutely a favorite of mine and read her other series and one-offs too! S.J. Sanders is in my top 5 favorite monster/alien fucker romance authors. I promise you won’t be disappointed by the wonderful and wacky stories she is sure to bring to your library. 9/10 for this book alone, 10/10 for the whole series. 

Check out her website below! 

https://sjsandersromance.wordpress.com/

Would I read again? Yep!  (✿◠‿◠)

Would I recommend? You bet! In fact, I insist!

[revee-nyardil]

That feeling when one of your favorite fanfic writers reads, comments on, and remembers your fic

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

News spreads fast.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[ao3-crack]

(x)

[reddje]

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

some misc Barn & Wally doodles from the past week or so <3 i heart them

[disgracefulthings]

Shen Yuan: Oh you're a hater?

Shen Yuan: Answer me this then. Have you ever hated something so much that it killed you?

Shen Yuan: That's what I fucking thought

Shen Yuan: Bitch

[bangtanhoneys]

Her name is honey! 🍯❤️😍 if you know you know

Hellooooo, can I ask how is vegas family doing? 👉👈

I hope you a very nice week! 🥰

Anon you want me to sob today don’t you 😭

Vegas fam… They’re thriving. Despite everything that’s happened in the last two weeks or so.

Yoongi, Honey, Dae… They’re living their best lives out of the media as of right now. Honey is pregnant, this we know! Baby 2 is almost here! Dae is almost three and excited to be a big sister, helping Honey do things to get ready for new baby… They’re happy. They’re all happy.

Jin is back of course, so he’s around when his schedule allows him to be, hanging with Honey and Dae while Yoongi spends time away, helping to put together the house for new baby and such… Keeping Dae occupied so Honey can sleep 🤣 Sunny is around!! Her and Jin are exclusive, and now that he’s back the two of them have made a little home for themselves around Yoongi and his family! Don’t expect any babies from them though, or marriage for that matter… At least not yet. Jin is just happy he’s got his girl.

Honey gets to work with Jin now that he’s back, creating art for his projects, working with the company to create concepts and provide her art for the visual aspect of his projects. And of course Sunny is around for styling! Dae is old enough to travel with the girls and be somewhat self sufficient… She wants to help Sunny put makeup on and brush her uncles hair when Sunny is styling it… 🤣

Dae loves to lay on her mom’s belly, she calls it ‘sista’, even though neither Honey nor Yoongi have found out the gender. She has been asked if she wants a brother or sister, which they believe sparked the ‘sista’ thing, and you know those two… They don’t wanna get their hopes up, but it’s Honey and Yoongi. That’s how these things work!

Now that it’s August they have liiiiittle time before Baby 2 is here, and now with what’s just happened there’s a little more added stress… But, they’ll make it through it. They always do. 🫶

God I miss these people. Thank you for sending this message. 🥺🥹💜

[rottmnt-residuum]

Hi, I've read the Residuum comic, and I think the characterization of the boys is really good. I was wondering if you have any tips on how to write them? Especially Mikey, please.

I'd actually recommend re-watching the show with one character in mind. All my notes on the turtles come from doing separate re-watches for each of them. The key is to ONLY watch the character you are focusing on.

In the end, you'll probably be happier with your own personal interpretation. As we are with ours lol

TL;DR

Massive post under the cut

To preface: we'll be contrasting (this Mikey) against the fandoms version of Mikey, as our interpretation is very different. Don't worry if you prefer the fandom version, there's nothing… wrong per se with writing him this way. We just find him flat and uninteresting. (Main author: not me, I just hate him, lol).

Every reader or fan comes into a story with their own biases and experiences. A ton of our view of Mikey is based on how our siblings acted. We see Mikey as the young sibling that got preferential treatment from the whole family, simply due to being the youngest, but is now aging out of the privilege. Which all youngest siblings do at some point or another.

The fandoms version of Mikey is empathetic, naive, vulnerable, co-dependent and quite often a door mat who cries at the drop of a hat. And as much as the fandom like to say that people love him… when this particular character archetype is in other media, they seem to attract the most criticism. Mable pines, Bolin from Korra, people rag on Aang all the fucking time, and Steven Universe is a whole other bag. These characters don't deserve it, and yet it happens anyway.

To flatten Mikey to simply 'the baby' is a disservice. We don't see or write Mikey as the fandom “baby” version (cinnamon roll uwu). Part of this comes from having multiple siblings, so we interpret the times when Mikey does the puppy dog eyes as typical younger sibling bullshit, mostly by the way that the other turtles rarely react to it, if at all.

The other turtles traits can also get projected onto Mikey. Mikey being the fandom therapist is in the same category as this. He isn't a therapist, he's a psychology nerd who likes to psychoanalyze people and meddle in their relationships. (Donnie and Shelldons relationship, Splinter and Draxums...) he's not trying to resolve your emotional issues. Of the turtles, the character that cares the most about people's feelings is Raph. And Leo is more of a consoler than Mikey ever is. It flattens all the turtle's characterizations when you start doing this because you are ripping out parts that are integral to another characters' complexity.

Co-author has told me that they've seen people become confused when going into the show after only reading fan fiction or coming from the movie. They see his characterization as inconsistent and become upset when their view of him is contradicted. This also happens when a fandomized version of him becomes the primary characterization that they use. Sometimes when this disconnect happens (or if they just don't like the character), Mikey characterization is swung in the complete opposite direction.

They make him manipulative and abusive, or someone who is hyper violent and avoids being held accountable for anything. This is an uncharitable interpretation of him and can come off as pretty racist depending on the circumstances. (like if someone considers the turtles black or not)

Every version of Mikey is a shithead (affectionate), even this one. Especially this one, really. When Mikey not doing the "baby schtick" hes mean. If you pay attention to what he's saying, and just not his tone of voice, he's consistently saying pretty mean or condescending stuff. (You could take this as simply naïveté, but he still says mean shit pretty often regardless)

The times he does say genuinely nice stuff the turtles don't exactly expect it from him, at least, in the early season. And while he is mean, and seems to find saying mean things to be funny, Mikey isn't cruel. Nor will he ever be.

This shit-headery behavior is found in both 2003 and 18 Mikey. They have a degree of social intelligence that lets them use it to annoy people into doing what they want. 18 just has the advantage of being baby faced and having better tonal control. He's good at using people's perception of him to get what he wants.

Let Mikey have his problematic traits, but don't overexaggerate them. He doesn't revel in fooling people. He loves doing character bits, and the baby faced one just happens to be one of them. However, to infantilize or to deem him incompetent is to piss him off, he wants to be viewed as a competent part of the team and competent as an individual. He's not insecure about being young, he just doesn't want to be treated like he can't do anything.

Mikey above all is an optimistic character, he sees the brighter side quite often and is conscious of the harm his actions have on people. Mostly after the fact, but he consistently attempts to rectify the harm he has personally done to peoples lives. (Todd, Bullhop, Draxum). Food and shelter seems to be a thing that he considers to be a right. He doesn't cross a boundary twice once he learns of it, and he never pushes people too far (if he likes you, that is. if he doesn't know you or doesn't like you, he doesn't give a singular shit. But that is standard to most people.). He doesn't care about people's stuff, though. He breaks things all the time.

Mikey understands boundaries, but he doesn't automatically recognize them. He needs them to verbalized or for there to be a very obvious reaction to the boundary being crossed (unfortunately, for Todd and Donnie). Sometimes people mess up (esp. younger people), and it can take a while for teens to learn where boundary is, but he fully respects the boundaries he does know about. He doesn't act petulant when he's told about boundary, he apologizes, accepts it, and moves on. He doesn't dwell.

Mikey doesn't hold on to distressing emotions. He bounces between emotions quickly, but isn't effected in the long run. One thing Iv'e seen people often conflate is the difference between sensitive and vulnerable. Mikey is sensitive, but I have never seen him vulnerable to others. To be sensitive is to be easily influenced by the current situation. To be vulnerable is to hold that influence for a long time. Characters can have one, both, or neither of these traits. But Mikey is not vulnerable. It is the difference between compressing memory foam and a piece of metal until they deform. One will pop back, the other does not.

Those who are vulnerable but not sensitive will take longer to effect, but once you do, they will hold on to that emotion for a very long time. The vulnerable, are grudge holders. (leo). But like I've said, Mikey bounces back. What a character does has an effect on his emotions, but it doesn't make a lasting impression.

Forgiveness is another thing people like to push on him. It is not that Mikey forgives people easily, it's just that he doesn't hold grudges. He neither forgives nor forgets, but he does not ruminate. He's generally affable, first impressions seem to be a big part of how he views people. He is idealistic, and doesn't assume people are unchanging and/or evil, but he's not a mark.

Mikey isn't so much as naive or overly trusting… it's just that he's inexperienced. He doesn't get fooled by anyone in the series except meat sweats, and that's because Meatsweats is on Todd drugs. Mikey just didn't notice when he started faking. He's not… actually all that aware of people's emotional states, passively. He has to tune in to notice things like that.

Mikey isn't someone who really tries to regulate others emotions, either. The fandom like to make Mikey afraid of his brothers fighting and others being upset, but Mikey doesn't actually care. The most distressed we ever see him in a fight is in the movie, and he's not SCARED, he's just concerned (and then alarmed once it turned physical). If anything, outside extenuating circumstances (like the movie), Mikey actually seems to find their fights annoying.

(Mikey actually seems to have a pretty short fuse, but his bounciness doesn't really let it linger very long, lmao)

(One pet peeve of fandom Mikey is the constant crying, crying at fights, crying at insults, crying for no reason all the time. Sure, he tears up when he gets emotional, but when Mikey is genuinely crying It's when he's desperate, like when he's hungry, or when he's trying to save Leo from certain doom. Same thing, really.)

Mikey respects no one (we love him for this). He admires people, he admires his family: April, the turtles, his dad, Lou Jitsu. He admires Rupert Swaggert, but he respects none of them. No one is sacrosanct to the Mikey.

Above all, the way we write characters is to give them a past that informs how they act now. We view Mikey and the other turtles as teenagers that were kids, and that will be adults. Yes they all have “problematic” traits, but 1) good characters need flaws, and controversial traits are one of the best to use, and 2) they're teenagers, don't expect adult behaviors from them, also don't expect them to be kids. They're minors, not toddlers.

This is getting as long enough as it is, so we'll stop here, but this is a very broad overview of how we characterize him. There's a lot we didn't cover here, but if we even started on hobbies, or the real minutia of his quirks and ticks, or even how he feels about other specific characters... we'd be here all day. So I hope this is good enough lol

If there was something you wanted to know in particular, you'll need to get specific. Feel free to ask again ahahh

[shushmal]

"Are you going to break my heart?"

Eddie almost drives them off the road.

It's late, nearly 2 am, and the country road is narrow and winding, and this thing between them, fingers twinned above the gear shift, radio turned down low, Stevie Nicks singing to them softly, is new. Eddie wants to live in this moment forever, wants the smell of lake water and dying August heat to live in their clothes, wants the warmth of first kisses and whispered confessions to last in tingling sparks in their skin, the memory of touch to be permanent. It won't be, it'll all fade, but Eddie can visit it again, rewrite them into the cotton and the softness of Steve's mouth.

It's late, and this is new.

"It's okay if you do," Steve says, so quiet. He's holding on to Eddie's hand like he's dangling off a cliff. "I can handle it. I'd just like a heads up, so I can prepare."

Eddie almost feels guilty, basking in his joy when Steve was sinking into something else. He thinks, if he were a kid still, if he hadn't died, hadn't lost everything and managed to get it all back, he'd be angry. But he's not. He's not, and he did, and it's late and this is new—but it's not unfamiliar. The same, but more, an extra free scoop with whipped cream and sprinkles, a cherry on top.

"You trust me?" Eddie asks. He rubs his thumb along Steve's knuckles, feels the scars under his skin, little tears in someone so perfect.

"Of course," Steve croaks. Eddie can't look at him, because the road is dark and narrow and winding, and he has to get his boy home safe.

"And I trust you," Eddie says, brings Steve's hand up, presses a kiss like a seal to his skin. "And I love you, and you love me. I got you."

Steve's quiet for a long, long moment. Eddie can tell he's watching him, so he presses another kiss to Steve's hand, lets his lips linger on hard tendons and dark veins. Kisses in his promises to the place they're linked together.

When he speaks again, it's soft, and Eddie can hear the love, living and leaving in the air between Steve's teeth.

"Okay," he says, giving Eddie everything. "You got me."

[alien-bluez]

Lark can't handle nice things, and as he says "always fucks it up."

Drew a scene from this fic here, please please go read it right now!

[bizarrelittlemew]

calling it right now that season 3 starts like this

[skipblebee]

LIVE LAUGH LOVE FENGQING FOREVER!!!!!