#I love writing things focused on the one million side characters I make up for single story beats

[ehlnofay]

Summerfest Day 7 - SWORD

“Shut up,” Efri whispers loudly, fitting as much venomous demand into it as she can while still keeping quiet. “They’ll hear you.”

Kazari flicks an ear and trills good, one of about ten of their motions Efri’s been able to memorise so far, but she doesn’t think they mean it; if they did, they wouldn’t be helping her lift the sword in the first place.

It’s a cool sword. The blade is silver – Efri’s seen it – though right now it’s hidden in a dark leather scabbard lashed to a back frog. The guard is silver, too, with corners so neat it looks like it wouldn’t need the blade to cut someone. The hilt is wrapped in black leather. And it’s huge – standing up it’s probably about the same height as her and what must be at least ten times as heavy. She had to beg Kazari to help her sneak it out from where it was left near the tent – she couldn’t have hoped to move it otherwise. She’s still trying to figure out the trick of it, the scabbard resting on the back of Kazari’s neck, the stitching caught in her hair. She’s not impressed. Sissel is more enthusiastic, though pretty obviously only because Efri is – but she keeps getting nervous, because they’re not supposed to borrow the sword, and she’s always a stickler for these things.

J’matha, Efri thinks, will understand. It’s such a cool sword! And he’s pretty cool, most of the time – lets her stand on his shoulders, sometimes, and plays games with her that most of the others in the caravan don’t have the patience for. Lets her do almost anything except hold his sword. But he’s not using it now, and no-one’s going to tell him, so –

There is a trembling in the snowy underbrush. A shaking of bushes, a snapping of twigs. And then, because Efri has the worst luck in the entire world, J’matha steps out, squeezing between a rimy tree trunk and the quivering leaves of what might be a bare snowberry bush. “There you are,” he says, pauses; smiles, Efri thinks, though it’s a bit hard to tell with him. He doesn’t make faces quite like the other Khajiit do but he can’t make them like humans do, either. “And there’s my claymore. I was wondering where that got to.”

It's not very feasible to try to hide it behind her back, for multiple reasons; Efri squints at him from across the clearing and chooses redirection. “What are you doing here?”

“Khasir sent me to tell you the farmers have finally come out to trade,” J’matha replies, squinting back. “He wants to know what you want. Tsradaro’s angling for scallions and I think Shirri-la was insisting on beef. What are you doing?”

Efri – had not prepared an excuse, actually; J’matha wasn’t supposed to find them. She can practically feel Sissel’s anxiety emanating from the space behind her, even though Sissel knows that J’matha won’t be angry (probably), and it’s throwing her off a bit. She says, “I needed to cut my hair.”

There is a momentary pause. Kazari looks at her with what she suspects is incredulity; she can hear Sissel making an odd little breathy noise, and normally she’d suspect it’s crying or something close, because Sissel does that quite a bit – but Sissel’s been doing well with it all, lately, getting chatty with the caravan and helping with cooking and letting them buy her new clothes and once Efri showed her a weird slug and made her squeal and then she didn’t cry about waking them all up after, so Efri doesn’t think she’s crying now. Which is quite annoying. Because it means she’s laughing at her, which is just mean.

It's not even a lie. Efri does need to cut her hair. It’s gotten to a silly length where it brushes her shoulders if she hunches them, and she likes to keep it just below the chin. That just isn’t the reason she borrowed the sword.

Judging by how J’matha’s staring at her – forehead wrinkled up in a way she can see even through his stripes, one ear flicked forward, pupils dark in the round yellow-gold of his irises – he knows that that’s not the reason, too. He doesn’t smile with his eyes like Kazari or Tsradaro or Khasir or Shirri-la do – he curls the edge of his mouth, bright and toothy, and says, “Try again, kid.”

Efri sticks up her chin. “There’s monsters,” she tells him, “in the forest. Really scary ones. Spiders big as a house. We need to kill them. To protect you.”

J’matha, one of the caravan’s two ridiculously huge bodyguards, only grins wider. He gestures at Sissel. “Your friend there,” he says, “makes lightning with her hands. Your other friend lights our campfire with a breath. I don’t think you need my sword.”

“I can’t do any of that, and I need to help them,” Efri argues. She is gripping the hilt of the sword very hard; her hair is falling in her face. (Definitely needs a cut.) She tosses her head to get it out of her eyes. “Come on,” she says after a moment, boots sinking into the snow. “Please?”

Kazari chuffs something that, considering the look on her face, Efri thinks she is glad not to understand. J’matha cants his head and says, “Efri. My sword is heavy for me. You can’t use it – it’s not safe.”

“I can,” Efri insists, because she resents the implications of that argument; if he’d only give her time to figure it out, she’d be able to manage holding it on her own, probably. Maybe. It is very heavy, but so’s a lot of things. She’s strong.

(Although. Efri has learned a lot these last couple weeks, not least about Khajiit and how they work and all the cool shapes they can come in – from Kazari who’s bigger than a sabre cat to Shirri-la who looks, to an unaware eye at least, extremely similar to the cats that used to sleep in Ennis’ shed and catch the rats in the inn, to two-legged cat-folk like Tsradaro, or even apparently some that look a lot like elves, though Efri hasn’t met any of them yet. The twins are what’s called Cathay-raht, which means they are big. Efri doesn’t think she’d be able to clear their height if she stood on Sissel’s shoulders. She could probably fit her whole body into one of J’matha’s trouser legs, though she hasn’t been able to test this, because Sissel didn’t want to go along with her prank to make it look like his pants were walking around on their own and it wouldn’t have worked with just her. The point is, J’matha is huge, and he’s strong, because he has to be to help carry stuff and defend the caravan if they need it. So if his sword is heavy to him, then logically, Efri is facing pretty bad odds.)

(She still thinks she can make it work, though. Probably.)

“Kazari,” J’matha says. His rounded Pale accent leans a bit on the vowels; it’s one Efri’s becoming more and more familiar with as they wend their way up north to Danstrar. His teeth dig awkwardly into his lip. “Would you mind, eh –”

With a chirp of assent, Kazari nimbly steps away (and Efri’s forever in awe of how spry she can be when she’s so big, it’s always incredible), letting the scabbard end of the sword thunk into the snow. The tug of it on the hilt nearly yanks Efri’s arm out its sockets. She glares at J’matha across the clearing and drags at it as best she can.

She’s heaving and hauling and hoisting. It’s not doing too much good. The scabbard slides a scant few centimetres through the snow.

“I don’t think it’s working,” Sissel says, and she definitely sounds like she’s been laughing. Efri throws a scrunched-up face over her shoulder at her.

The weight of the blade runs into a root hidden under the blanket of snow and the jerk of it being stopped short nearly tears it from her fingers altogether. Efri turns to glare at the sword frog.

“This sword’s stupid,” she says petulantly. (She doesn’t mean it. It’s still very cool.) She kind of wants to drop it on the ground, but that would be very rude to do to someone’s prized belongings, especially when that someone is part of a group that just bought her new shoes and dress and mantle half a week ago. She holds it out as best she can to J’matha instead, and sulkily ignores the way his eyes glitter as he crosses the clearing to take it.

Kazari jostles her teasingly and she nearly drops it again.

“Thank you,” J’matha says, so jaunty she feels she almost can’t be sullen, and takes the broadsword out of her hands. (If it is heavy to him, too, he doesn’t show it.) He doesn’t bother to buckle the frog on properly, just holds it awkward in his arms; asks, “Why do you want to nick my sword so bad, anyway?”

Efri shrugs. “Just seems like it would be fun to use.”

Swords are cool. This is an objective fact. And it would be nice to have a more concrete skill, out here where she’s no help for navigating and all she can do is wrangle her friends and sneak Shirri-la into shops to get them better trading goods. If she had a big sword, nothing could ever touch them.

J’matha’s tail lashes, the white tip trailing in the snow. (That must be cold.) “Sword’s not the only weapon in the world,” he says, hefting it in his arms. “Taz uses an axe and all. You ever heard of quarterstaffs? You’ve got your stick.” He jerks his chin at the stick lying in the snow for emphasis.

“Course I’ve heard of a staff,” Efri tells him. She wriggles out her fingers – they kind of ache, now, after clinging to the hilt so long. “But it’s for herding, not hitting.”

The trees around them look very dark and leafless, snow streaking along the tops of their branches. J’matha says, “Why not both?”

Efri considers this.

Her old flock is out in the Whiterun plains, about now. Efri hopes they’re eating loads of grass. Above, the sky is dimming; the first star is out.

“I want turnips,” Efri decides, “if they have them.” She doesn’t know if turnips grow this far north, or if Rorikstead’s climate is about their limit. She likes turnips, though. They’re good for eating raw, like apples, cold and crisp and sweet if they’re young enough.

J’matha grins. “Go ask,” he says, the Pale accent pulling on the a again. Then he makes a face. “Hopefully they’re still trading by now.”

[reidingandwriting]

Nice To Meet Ya! > w.w. & l.h.

Word Count: ~1,900

Pairings: Wade Wilson x Reader, Logan Howlett x Reader, it’s (the beginning of) a throuple over here

Warnings: Fem!reader (she pronouns used like. twice in the very end), to be expected amounts of cursing and vulgarity from Wade, lots of cursing in general tbh, maybe a little OOC Logan, still getting to learn how to write his character well (Deadpool and Wolverine gave me brain worms so I had to write this immediately after watching)

A/N: This may become a little bit of a series! I’m having so much fun writing them since I Finally watched Deadpool and Wolverine so there will be a lot of solo & duo content with these two. This part is a little Wade focused but the next part is more Logan focused 🫶🏻

Next Chapter

You never in a million years imagined this would be your life. You were raised by busy parents, and you quickly became self sufficient. Independent. When you hit your teenage years, your parents… god knows where they went, to be honest. All you knew is you had a house to yourself, you didn’t have friends anymore, and as lonely as it was, you found a bit of comfort in the solitude. You worked as a bartender at this bar not too far from your house, and you were a crowd favorite. You always brought in the biggest tips and many of the patrons were protective over you.

Your longest regular was the merc with a mouth- Deadpool. Wade, as he introduced himself once, a faint whisper. The fabric of his mask rubbing against your cheek as he whispered the name in your ear. Wade Wilson.

He was... Loud, to say the least. You didn’t think he had an off switch. He insisted he did- but you’d have to go under his suit to find it, he teased you. He never stopped talking and there was no such thing as small talk with him; if you were talking to him, he was downright vulgar, and the quite frankly gross sense of humor was entertaining. He also flirted like it was his job. Much like the rest of his vocabulary, his flirting was pure filth that would make even the most seasoned sailor blush. And god forbid any creep start talking to you.

“Hey, princess, sorry I’m late. Too busy blowing my load to the thought of you, then remembered, wait! I can come see your fine ass in person whenever I want. Wanna finish me off?” You could practically feel the smirk Wade was sending you. You gestured for him to lean in, waiting until he was leaned against the bar, chest hovering above the countertop as you leaned in.

“In your dreams, dick for brains.” Your lips brushed against where his were covered by his mask, and you smirked when you heard the sharp intake of breath. The gasp almost impossible to hear, but it made your heart flutter all the same.

“You, sweet thang? Always. Holy fucking shit, that was so hot.” You and Wade had quickly become friends, his personality meshing well with yours. After ‘baby knife’ had somehow found itself in the hand of some perv that had been borderline stalking you at work for weeks, you found a new part of his personality. His protectiveness. He was as chipper as ever, but with the manic energy of someone who could, and would, kill someone who mildly inconvenienced someone he cared for. Unhinged, barely holding onto his minimal self restraint to splatter the guy’s blood all over the wall. Wouldn’t want you to have a mess to clean up, he admitted once it was just the two of you.

He offered to walk you home once after he’d known you for a few weeks, and now it was habit. You loved the times you had with just him. He was the same old Wade, but more open about himself. More vulnerable. These walks were where you got to know Wade, and he got to know you. You had let him crash one night, not that long ago, when it was storming hard. He had already insisted on walking you home, storm be damned, and you repaid him with a home cooked meal, some trashy movie, and a night of conversation on your couch until you dozed off, your head lolling to the side and landing on his shoulder.

Hours later, you had woken up, now lying down and the comfortable weight of Wade’s hand in your hair from where your head rested on his thighs. By the time the sun rose, you were alone in your living room, the only trace Wade had been there being a sloppy drawing of the Deadpool mask and a heart he scribbled on the whiteboard of your fridge. You smiled at the doodle and left it up, it still being up there today.

You stood at your spot behind the bar a few weeks later when someone new walked into the building, and you tilted your head. Newcomers weren’t entirely unheard of, but they were pretty rare, especially on a weekday. You took in the man as he stood near the doorway; brown hair, and oh fuck, good beard. The leather jacket he wore did little to hide how muscular he was and you watched as he scanned the room. Body tense, as if looking for potential threats. Potential ways out if danger occurred. Not like anyone would mess with him, aura alone enough to scare off anyone within a ten foot radius, let alone the hard look in his eyes.

Still, he walked over to the bar and took a seat. You offered a gentle smile, watching for another second before speaking. “You seem like a whiskey fan.”

His hazel gaze shifted up to meet your eyes, and you felt as if he was staring right into your god damned soul. It was intimidating, it was hot, and you couldn’t decide whether you should look away or lean in and-

“Yeah. Whiskey’s nice.” He nodded his head towards a bottle behind you. You nodded and went to pour a glass as he spoke again. “You always try to guess orders?”

“Only the interesting ones. Or the pretty ones.” You winked before turning, smiling when you heard the slightest huff of amusement. “Haven’t seen you here before. New in town?”

“Somethin’ like that.” You turned back around, setting the glass in front of him, propping up on your elbows as he drank. “Thanks.” He looked familiar but god, you couldn’t place where you had seen him before. You made light conversation, most of the talking done by you, but you found that you didn’t mind. He listened, intently. Everything he did seemed to be intense, like it was his default. You were grateful for the slow night, getting to see a glimpse of the man behind the bulletproof walls he had clearly built around himself.

“You thirsty slut! Of course I’d find you here.” You heard Wade’s voice before you saw him, and an annoyed scowl took over the unknown man’s face.

“Thirsty slut? Thought that was your autobiography title,” you said and Wade gasped in mock offense.

“You know I don’t read! Mocking the illiterate, how dare you?” Wade hopped onto the counter, hip almost knocking the glass of whiskey over.

“I don’t get how you’re late to a place you wanted to go to.” The brunette man said, voice low and rough, and Wade waved a hand dismissively.

“So uptight, can you believe it? Need to pull the stick out of your ass, maybe put it in-“

“La la la la la, not listening,” you sang, covering your ears, and Wade turned to you.

“You traitor! I leave you alone for five minutes and Wolvie has his claws in you.” Wolvie… Holy fuck, you were trying to flirt with the Wolverine. “And, Peanut, you know I’d never be late on purpose. Except I really needed to piss, then I got distracted by this really cute dog outside and I ended up totally abandoning my favorite dog.” Wade reached out to pat him, and you watched as a sliver of claws extended from his hands. A warning that didn’t seem to deter Wade much, but he did put his hand down. “Well, might as well introduce you.” Wade told you his name was Logan, and Wade told Logan your name in return.

You and Wade continued to talk, Logan yet again preferring to listen rather than join the conversation. Wade told the story of how he met Logan, how together the two of them essentially saved the world, and how the two of them were now roommates. Begrudgingly, according to Logan, but Wade seemed thrilled about his ‘roomie’.

It was hours later when the three of you left the bar. Wade insisted on walking you home, taking your hand in his and skipping down the street with you. Logan was a few paces behind you, his presence a comforting sense behind you. Where Wade was loud, in your face, Logan seemed to be the quiet lurker type. He’d hide in the shadows, making himself known when he felt threatened. You walked up to your front door, unlocking the door and Wade helped himself inside. You rolled your eyes and turned to Logan, who lingered on your doorstep.

“If you want to come in, you’re more than welcome. At least one of you has manners,” you called towards where Wade stood in your kitchen and cackled. Logan nodded, muttering a ‘Thank you’ as he walked inside, his shoulder brushing against yours gently. You shut the door behind you and Wade opened your fridge.

“Aww, pookie, you kept my drawing!” There was a hint of an unfamiliar emotion in his voice… something, something new. You couldn’t place it, yet you smiled anyways.

“Of course I did, Wade.” Now that you were in the safety of your house, Wade’s mask had been discarded on your kitchen counter and you could see the smile on his face. “Get out of my fridge, you leech.“

“I’m starving,” Wade whined and you turned to look at Logan. He stood a little awkwardly, and you gestured to the couch, taking a seat and smiling when he followed suit. He sat on the cushion furthest from you, but you didn’t question it.

Logan couldn’t help but study you. There was an obvious familiarity between you and Wade, you matching his wit and comebacks, but you were different when you spoke to him. You were quieter, more reigned in. Strangely not out of fear, but as if you were trying to make him comfortable. You switched between Wade and Logan like it was second nature, and the more he talked to you and the more he watched you and Wade, he felt himself begin to relax just a little.

He didn’t realize how much time had passed until Wade, ever the charmer, let out a dramatic yawn, throwing his hands up in the air as he stretched. “Well, cupcake. I think it’s about time we head home. Old man is already up way past his bedtime.” Wade yelped as he jumped back, barely missing the claws that protruded from Logan’s hand, and he stuck his tongue out at him. “Grumpy grandpa.”

You stood and Logan followed suit. Wade kissed your cheek before saying goodbye and stepping outside, leaving you and Logan alone.

“I hope I’ll see you again, Logan.” Your voice was gentle, your smile even more so, and Logan nodded.

“I’ll be around. Don’t think I have much of a choice with that one.” There was a sliver of fondness mixed with the exasperation in his voice, and Logan started to walk outside. “Goodnight, bub.” Logan closed the door behind him, lingering until he heard your locks click shut. He caught up with Wade a moment later and Wade gave him the biggest shit eating grin ever.

“Is someone melting the big bad wolf’s heart?” The metallic clang followed by Wade’s pained grunt made Logan laugh, and Wade shoved his shoulder.

“Wait until she sees what an asshole you are. Then she’ll realize I’m the better half of this friendship.” The two men continued to bicker the entire way home, both of them thinking about when they’d get to see you next.

[scara-hater]

HELLO I

AM HERE TO REQUEST

Cyno, Tighnari, Wanderer, and Xiao with a reader who feels lonely when they're gone so they knitted/made a mini plushie of them to hug and coddle with affection everyday

Cause plushies are cute and plushie of your favorite character? I will be gripping that piece of cotton for dear life

Idk if you have a character limit so you can just choose how many and who you want to write for, for this request :))

Anon this is so cute?? Yes yes and yes! Apologies if I misinterpret the request! I also got too excited, so apologies x2 if it seems rushed!

Not proofread! One day I will create a masterpiece when i actually edit my work.

Pt.2! <--

——————————————————————————-

Cyno

You two stay in touch as much as you can, but him being the general Mahamatra keeps your relationship distanced at times. He’s dedicated to his work and everything within the gaps means nothing. With you being the exception, kind of. He tries to make time, but if he views something important, he’ll mutter a quick apology before leaving you to sit around the house alone.

You actually told him that when he is absent, you cuddle a makeshift Cyno instead. You love that thing so much, it never leaves your side. Even when exiting the confines of your home, it is safely secured in your bag. Explaining to him that It’s just comforting, knowing that if the real Cyno can’t be there, at least you have one that stays with you at all times.

But something about that innocent statement, left a wavering feeling in is mind.

after he bid farewell, and was far beyond sight, it lingered in his brain.

You on the other hand, were missing him something fierce. The doll was made out of old materials that belonged to the white haired general, so it made it very soothing when you would hold it to your face. It’s smelled of his freshness, and if you closed your eyes, could imagine him there.

And as the day passes and the sun greets the moon, you grow tired as your eyes can no longer fight your sleep. Now, all that can be heard are your soft snores within the bedroom.

Meanwhile, thousands of meters away, Cyno lay awake. Chewing at the feeling he’s had all day, a doll? Of him? While he finds endearment in that and loves you even more for it, the emotions mixing in his chest sit unlabelled. Rolling to his side he shuts his eyes and awaits to see you in the morning.

And believe me, when he came home and saw you cuddling your dear doll, it hit him like ten million bricks.

He felt guilty.

“Wake up, I want to hold you.”

Tighnari

Told you he’s going to be gone for at most a week and apologized for leaving so suddenly, not forgetting to hug you before he parted ways. Though when he’s gone it feels so quiet. Always resulting in solemn feeling in your chest, you sit around thinking of ways to feel better, until one day it just clicks. make a little fox friend!

You run to your mess of a crafting table and start sewing. With a few stabs and much focused stitch work, you finally have it, your very own fennec fox hybrid! Admiring your accomplishment, you hold the treasure to your chest.

Days past and the mini companion never left your grasp. It sat in your lap as you ate and layed in your arms as you slept, needless to say the doll eased your sadness when Tighnari was gone. It truly helped you through some of those nights he couln’t be with you. And in all honesty? he to misses your company just as much.

Counting down each day until he can nest in-between your body once again, feeling the warmth of your embrace, Archons he’s thankful everything ended early.

Entering the city, putting his work aside and rushing home, he acknowledges the might night return, so he puts in an effort to silently crawl unto the covers without waking you. Now lifting your arm to lay under, only to find something invading his spot. That’s his spot y/n, just what lays in his way?

He picks it up, and upon further insection, it looks exactly like him. It’s a doll.

You really are just the cutest.

Carefully moving it to the side, he then finally shimmy’s into the bed, at last in your hold. Your hands find their place, and he falls asleep, knowing he chose the right mate.

Wanderer

Is often aiding the traveller in their goal of finding their twin. That and tasking in odd jobs around Sumeru, so usually chunks of your day has been dedicated to creating a partner to keep you from feeling empty. And now that it is complete, you can cuddle it as much as you want! Fiddling with it’s nubby hands and tracing it’s rosy cheeks, this was by far the best idea and probably the greatest thing you’ve crafted.

Lone days now accompanied by a tiny wanderer. How cute is that?

“What the hell is that?”

Oh, you didn’t hear him come in, “what, this?” You lift up the dainty thing, “why its you! Just travel size, you’re too big to carry you know?” You joke while he glares at the object. “I can see that, but just why do you have it? Are you going to give that one a consciousness too?” Ahh you see,

he’s jealous.

Putting the doll down, you fold your arms and tell him to look at you “ Are you seriously going to hate on something that was made so horribly? Look at it! If that thing was conscious, it would beg me to turn it back to mere cloth and string.” Pointing at it you continue, “I only made it because when you leave, I do miss you sometimes, is that such a crime?”

Certainly not, he loves it and finds his chest swelling.

“Perhaps not, though I am the only one you should be directing your affections, I too am a doll y/n, or have you forgotten?.” He turns around to escape the ever growing blush reaching his face. Though the tips of his ears are a dead give away.

Xiao

Watches over liyue, that is his priority when it comes to what he does.

And it is hurtful on nights like this one. Today was tiring and draining. Working in a noisy part of the city and interacting with less than enjoyable customers is not what you wanted to deal with. But life goes on, and all you wanted was to see your Adeptus and tell him about how awful today was.

Though, you remind yourself about his duties, and opt for a solution. Taking out your knitting needles, you begin your plan of a replacement Xiao. Harmless and fun. Plus when you succeed, the victory is even greater when you get to cuddle it while sitting down. It’s small and squishable, they both totally have the same vibe. The only difference is, your knitted partner wears a happy smile. Bringing one to your face as well. Oh how you wish he was next to you right now, holding it closer as you caress it’s cheeks with your thumb.

“Did you call me.”

“AH-“ falling of your chair, the squishy mini xiao flies out of your lap and lands on the floor. “Jeez, make some of sound before talking into my ear like that.” Looking his way, you see his gazed locked on the item on the floor. “Uhh, hehe yeah, um- when you’re gone I miss you and stuff so I made it to keep me company.” You say, hoping he didn’t find you terribly weird. Yet, you see him walk over to his mini figure and pick it up, looking over it. And seeing how much effort you put in makes him feeling all tingly.

“Summon me when you feel you want my company y/n, say the word and I’ll be here.” Archons he is so precious, “ I know that, but I don’t want to burden you when there are important matters to attend.” Now that put a pout on Xiao’s face. “you could never burden me.” He takes your hands in his,

“I will never ignore your call.”

Now, on days where you both reside together, two dolls can be seen placed on a shelf next to one another.

Requests open!

[violetasteracademic]

Azriel x Elain Bonus Chapter vs. Nesta x Cassian Bonus Chapter

Hello friends! What a lovely day for another text based side by side comparison. Today we are focusing on the parallels between Nesta and Cassian in their bonus chapter and Azriel and Elain in Az's bonus chapter.

The Nesta and Cassian bonus chapter has been published by Bloomsbury and easily found with a quick google search! It is called Wings and Embers.

This is in response to a comment I received on my TikTok video where I shared the same slides as my previous post comparing Mor and Az to Elain and Az, which is that Azriel only lusts after Elain. I could write a dissertation on the depth and slow development of their friendship and deep connection (Azriel staying up until three am listening to her plans for the garden, Azriel body checking Feyre out of the way so he could be the first to wish Elain a Happy Solstice, Azriel helping her with those cute potatoes and setting the table for dinner, his shadows preparing to strike when Elain's character is insulted and called boring [lol it's almost as if Sarah hears the negative things readers say about a character she loves] and so on.) but the easiest way to tackle the *lust* issue is to take a peek at the bonus chapters side by side.

Wings and Embers:

That is a h*rny man. Violently h*rny.

Nesta, in response to her own h*rniness, literally thinks Cassian has used faerie magic on her to make her feel things. Teehee. Cassian is also worried over how insane he is acting, how making a move on Nesta could disrupt the delicate balance of the inner circle.

There are reasons to not move forward with this mutual pull they feel to literally rip each other's clothes off in that exact moment, and it ends without them giving in to the desire to kiss.

Now let's compare to Azriel and Elain:

Breath catching, hands shaking, secret gifts exchanged in the dead of night.

They are going farther than they have ever gone after more than a year of brushing fingers and exchanging looks.

He is having some steamy thoughts, and her arousal drifts up to him. It is 100% mutual!

Both bat boys are described in their respective bonus chapters as thinking it was wrong or stupid to be making a move on one of the Archeron sisters, and not caring:

And both are described as being willing to beg on their knees:

I think what we are seeing here is an indication of the theme and tone for the upcoming romance. Cassian and Nesta are fiery fighters, with a million reasons why they should avoid their feelings. Azriel and Elain are full of quiet dreaming and angst and pining, with a million obstacles in their way.

But every character, in their own way, is struggling to control their desire.

Ultimately, bonus chapters are just that: bonuses. You don't have to read Cassian and Nesta's bonus to get an understanding of the relationship between them and the tone of their romance, nor is a bonus needed to understand the dynamic between Azriel and Elain.

I love Gwyn and am not discounting her presence in the bonus, of course I think most of us on the Elriel side simply perceive it is an additional show of her hidden powers. I am NOT team evil Gwyn, but we have already seen Koschei use Eris to lure Cassian and Azriel near to the crown to gain control over them. If Gwyn does have hidden lightsinger powers and she were to be put under the control of the Crown, she is a perfect character for Koschei to get his hands on as well to be used for luring purposes. This is reflected outside of the bonus chapters as well, with Nesta's powers having a reaction to Gwyn. It is not only seen in the BC, it's an *extra* moment. Gwyn is going to play a role in something, I have no doubt!

Gwyn also was in proximity to a piece of the cauldron for many years of her life, and only characters who are made or bearing made objects (Nesta and Azriel) are having these reactions to her. I think that will prove relevant.

I hope you all enjoy, and happy waiting patiently (or impatiently) for the book announcement!

[god-forsaken-sp-confession-blog]

Reminder to this fandom because sometimes I think we need it:

We are all going to be dead within 90 years, none of this is that deep, let’s remember the one thing that connects all of us instead of focusing on what drives us apart – our love for South Park.

I think this fandom is genuinely such a positive one, I would pay millions (I really wouldn’t but you know my point) to keep it that way. The majority of people I’ve spoken to on tumblr in the South Park space have been wonderful. This fandom has been around for longer than some of us have been alive?? And it’s still thriving?? The fuck??

Like, let’s just fucking appreciate that for a moment. It’s incredible how it has survived for so long. We get new content at least twice a year, an ensamble of at least 20 hilarious characters to write about, a collection of fanart spanning back literal decades, show creators that are constantly evolving and trying new shit, and a whole lot of nostalgia. If I told you to think of a South Park fanfic that had you staying up way past your bedtime, you could. If I asked you your favourite pairing, you could answer. If I told you to pick out your three favourite fan-artists I bet you could. This is something everybody here has in common.

Let’s all sit back and enjoy it. Sometimes I see inklings of polarisation in the fandom (especially over headcanons, as if headcanons aren’t literally from your own “head”, that is the point, you don’t have to agree with everyone else because they have different heads, fuck it but stay creative ily) and it’s incredibly sad to see because I think the space has existed for so long partly because of how the show preaches looking at both sides equally before making your own conclusions.

It’s what I love about so many people I’ve interacted with on this site; their ability to agree to disagree on certain things because really who gives a shit?? Ignore what you don’t want to see, block the people you don’t want to interact with, just fucking chill out, let’s get off our high horses and remember that we all have this one key thing in common. A love for South Park.

On that note, thank you to people in this fandom for being cool, and thank you to the ones in this fandom who are less cool because it makes me realise and appreciate just how cool the cool ones are

— Lots of love, anon

(because let’s face it, we’re all a little bit strange for loving this show enough to have a tumblr dedicated to it, that’s what makes us a community. Keep being weird, keep having random headcanons because it’s fun, don’t let anyone belittle you for your creativity and don’t belittle anybody else for theirs because we’re all absolute weirdos for having a South Park tumblr anyway)

Thank you for coming to my ted-talk.

😎👍

.

[creativity-deficient]

So, in defense of Stanford Pines

As the gravity falls fan in me has awakened once again per the release of the Book of Bill, I wanted to write a quick character analysis/essay on one of my two favorite characters in the series, Stanford Pines.

Now it’s important to note that Ford is in fact, a very flawed character, and this essay is in NO means meant to downplay that. He’s absolutely an egotistical asshole who was way too in his own head and focused on the end goal to fully appreciate the people and things he has around him, which ultimately ended up playing a huge part in his downfall.

However I do want to talk a little bit more about his side of things, as this is something I feel like isn’t quite done enough justice in the series, making it easy to just see him as a jerk or take Stan’s side in the fight between them, and has always been something I’ve really appreciated about both Journal 3 and now, the book of bill, both providing a new perspective on his character and exactly WHY he turned out the way he did.

I want to start from the beginning, by delving a bit into Ford’s childhood.

It’s a common misconception in the fandom that Ford had a good relationship with his father. He was the loved child, while Stanley was the unloved child. Now there’s no denying that Stan’s relationship with his father was…considerably worse, but with how deep Ford’s own insecurities and his obsession to “be the best” lie, I find it very hard to believe that his own relationship with his father was a healthy one either.

Filbrick was considered a VERY strict man, who was not easily impressed, making it very likely that Ford was either groomed into thinking, or at least at some point convinced himself that his smarts were the only worthwhile thing about him, especially since he pretty much already felt like a freak because of his fingers.

It’s even mentioned in the book of bill that his father wouldn’t want him returning home without millions. I mean, does that SOUND like a loving father to you?

And that brings me to his falling out with Stan. Yeah, EXTREMELY dick move to let your father kick out your teenage twin brother over some dumb mistake, however, it’s always felt a bit weird to me, like there was much more going on then just “you destroyed my project I’m throwing out our entire brotherly bond we spent the last 17-18 years building fuck you” because let’s face it, huh??? Kicking your own TWIN BROTHER, who you have been best friends with all your life, to the curb for some dumb school you literally learned about DAYS ago was something that never made sense to me, and I always struggled to understand why and how it even had to come to that.

But, let’s look it at this way. To Ford, Stan was the only person he had. They were the only people each other had, the only people that truly got each other. Ford considered Stan the only person he could trust at that point in time, this only person who wouldn’t treat him differently than others. And what does that person do? Completely betray that trust and destroy his project. Yes, we know that it was an accident, but Ford didn’t. Was he wrong to automatically assume that Stan did it on purpose instead of just, you know, talking it out? Oh absolutely, but we already established that he clearly doesn’t have healthy coping mechanisms, and all things considered, I don’t think Stan really helped his case when it came to proving his innocence, as both before and even after the confrontation, all he can seemingly think about is their boat. All things considered, I can’t completely blame Ford for thinking it was an act of betrayal. Does that completely justify his response? Oh absolutely not. But I DO think the situation goes a bit deeper than people assume.

Then we have his time in gravity falls. It’s hinted at a bunch throughout the series, journal 3, and the book of bill that Ford, despite his anger, truly missed his brother, and regretted his actions towards him (the swingset and stan o war in his dreamscape, holding on to that photo of him and Stan as kids all those years, not being able to think back on his childhood at glass shard beach without growing sad, etc).

“Well, why didn’t he just contact him then???”

Well, to be fair, he kind of had a lot going on, and by a lot, of course, I mean Bill.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the relationship between Ford and Bill was EXTREMELY toxic. Bill, doing what Bill does best, leeched onto Ford’s already deeply set insecurities to led him into a false sense of security, one where bill and ONLY bill truly understood him, and that everyone else was out to get him and couldn’t see his true potential, effectively isolating him from his friends, family, and even society.

Ford went through HELL in this period of time. He was left alone by bill for long periods of time until he was desperate and dependent enough to lash out. He was gaslit and manipulated into pushing the people he cared about away. When he decided he wasn’t going to do bill’s bidding, he was literally TORMENTED for it. In all fairness, I don’t really think he was in the right mindset for ANYTHING during that time, losing himself in BOTH his own stubbornness and this endless cycle of abuse.

Despite this though, despite ALL of this, all the manipulation, their falling out, etc, Stan was still the ONLY person (apart from Fiddleford) Ford thought of to take the Journals, the only person he considered to be trustworthy. Yes it was petty of him to bring up the project yet AGAIN (let it go my dude), but I do think it is important to acknowledge that he still thought of Stan pretty highly at the time, or else that wouldn’t have been the case.

“Oh but Alex he told Stan to get away from him yadayada!!!” Uh, no he didn’t. He just told him to hide the journals, not that he couldn’t come back afterwards, that was just Stan assuming the worst.

On that note, I do think it’s important to also acknowledge that while Stan is definitely, in the eyes of a lot of people as well as myself, the more sympathetic of the two, he’s definitely made his fair share of mistakes as well. I don’t think there’s really truly a right or a wrong in this argument, I think instead both of them are two very complex characters who had both been through a lot at that point, and both have made their mistakes (even if Stan’s were a bit more justified in most cases)

Then of course, he gets pushed through the portal, and spends the next 30 years between dimensions.

Now for anyone who hasn’t read journal 3 (spoilers ig? The book is pretty old atp but I figured I’d give one anyways) Ford is basically told by an oracle that he “has the face of someone who is destined to defeat bill” (a lot of people call him egotistical for assuming the oracle was talking about him and not his brother, but I digress. If an oracle looked YOU deep into your eyes and told you you had the face of someone destined to save the universe, be honest, would YOU think they were talking about your sibling??) Ford then proceeds to spend the next 30 years building a weapon to effectively defeat bill, and just as he’s about to finally use it, he’s sucked (not literally) back into gravity falls, not ONLY effectively erasing all of his hard work and progress, but risking weirdmaggedon in the first place. On TOP of it all, he also learns that Stan has been using his name all these years, and that he now has a pretty extensive criminal record.

Yes, Stan did it all in his best interest, and Ford could’ve absolutely shown more appreciation, but all things considered, I’d be pretty pissed off too.

But, all things considered, at the end of it all Ford still has those he hold close to his heart. He missed Stan all those years, considered Fiddleford a true friend and was super appreciative to have him there while they worked on the project together, he’s joyous to find out he has a niece and nephew, etc, and when he realizes he’s hurt these people, namely his brother and former lab partner, he feels immense guilt, and does everything he can to atone to it.

I truly think Stanford’s character development is one of the best in the series, as he finally learns to appreciate what he has instead of trying to chase down an unachievable end goal, and it’s definitely something that I feel goes unnoticed in the grand scheme of things when it comes to his character.

Now, what was the point of this 1 am ramble?? The point was the highlight the wonderful complexity of Stanford Pines’s character. Yes he was an extremely flawed man. Someone who pushed away those he loved him pursuit of greater things, and let his own pride be the fall of him. However, at the same time, he’s also a man who bears a lot of scars, both metaphorical and literal, and an extremely complex character who deserves a lot more than to be characterized as this “cold, uncaring asshole” something I’ve seen WAY too much of. I feel like it’s important to acknowledge that he’s made mistakes while also recognizing the complexity of a lot of it too, as well as acknowledging that he did indeed, learn from those mistakes.

[tortoisebore]

any tips for new writers?

(btw i am literally in love with hey, sharpshooter it had me up all night reading it <3)

**disclaimer that i am by no means a person that has any actual real education/experience in writing or character work or world building & i can only give you what has worked for me & the things i’ve kept in mind while writing my little gay fanfiction 💞👯‍♀️

my main big picture tips are not backed up in research, they’re just what’s worked for me:

1. make a deeply detailed outline. spending a lot of time writing a very long, detailed outline at the beginning helped me a lot when i felt stuck in the back half of the fic. the outline changed a lot from when i started it, and i added little notes and ideas for scenes or dialogues or character traits along the way, but all of my big idea generation happened there and it helped me a lot with pacing the plot and building the characters and their relationship gradually. also** it was not some sort of technically perfect, structured outline—this is what it looked like:

fr just get all of your ideas down on a page in whatever way works for you. this is the place to word-dump to your heart’s content!!

2. make the first draft bad. fr just get it in the page. if you’re not feeling it or don’t have any specific word choices in your head when you’re writing the first draft, don’t worry about the dialogue being realistic or having perfect flowery metaphors or beautiful descriptive world building. literally just get it on the page in whatever way you can.

3. connect the dots between the type of writing you like to read and what you like to write. i loveee books with flowery prose and metaphors and natural dialogue, and i found that i really enjoyed writing those things, so they were the goals i focused on while i was doing all my editing/second draft writing. on the flip side, if you like to read extensive world-building but find yourself struggling to find motivation/inspiration to write it, don’t. try to write how you want to write, but put more emphasis on writing how you like to write.

4. don’t force it. this has been crucial to me bc i work a 9-5 in the art/design industry and i only have so much creative energy to go around, so i have to ration it carefully. if you try to force yourself to write when you’re really not feeling it, or when you’re out of motivation and frustrated and tired, it will 100% show in your writing.

5. don’t think about posting your work. for 99% of us, this is a hobby. posting your work is not a hobby, creating it is!! rn we exist in a world where people view creativity and art solely as content to be consumed, and i encourage you to place more emphasis on actually enjoying and finding peace and meaning in the journey of making something rather than the idea of other people consuming it. what it does for you and how it makes you feel is far more important than what it does for the people pressuring you for an update you’re not ready to give them.

and then here are a couple technical/grammatical tips that i learned way back in like 6th grade english or picked up on by reading a million books over the years & still think of constantly:

1. vary your sentence structure!! i am sometimes bad at this and i don’t really pay attention to it in my first drafts, but when i go back and edit i make sure to vary my sentences by length, compound vs. simple, breaking up with semicolons or hyphens, etc. a story that’s written with strong, varied sentence types will read much more naturally and flow better than one that doesn’t

2. be intentional about starting your sentences with different words. again, when i’m writing my first drafts i don’t pay much attention to things like this, but when i’m editing i’m really anal about making sure that my sentences don’t all start with “he” or “[insert name here]” or “it” or whatever. sometimes you can’t work around it, but my goal is to never have two consecutive sentences start with the same word, and i really really try to make sure that two consecutive paragraphs don’t start with the same word

3. say your dialogue out loud. i had the hardest time trying to make my dialogue feel natural at the start but honest to god saying it out loud with all the cadence and emphases you’re writing it with can really help you find ways to make it feel like actual people talking. also, don’t be afraid to use ellipses and hyphens and break up a string of dialogue with an action, like a character sighing or biting the inside of their cheek or moving their hands. people don’t talk in perfectly-structured sentences. we run-on and don’t use punctuation and we restart or hesitate in the middle of a sentence—include that!!

[ununotter]

I kinda wanna write something up properly reflecting on my time at Japanese language school but the main thing I've learned from being here has probably been how I best learn a language and what I'm going to keep using to continue studying after I leave, especially since I signed up for the N3 in December.

Not that I'm an authority on learning Japanese in any way but in case these help someone else I figure I'll make a list of what I'm finding most useful (w web/Google Play links where applicable!) as learning resources. Just an NB for anyone looking for recs, I have ended up paying for most of these services either for additional unlocks or just because they are fully paid but most do at least offer some functionality or a free trial so you can check them out and decide if you also find them worthwhile.

Kanji

I like apps on my phone for this and what I'm using at the moment to prep for kanji tests at school is Kanji Dojo since it lets me create custom lists that can include individual kanji or full words including compound kanji and okurigana and I can set it to review my word lists with writing practise since we get tested on writing kanji not just recognising them (for me these are two _very_ different things and just know I envy you if you can remember how to correctly write a more complex kanji from memory without practising it like crazy beforehand).

On a similar vein, I also really like Kanji Study although its main shortcoming is that you can't add full words to custom lists for writing practise, it's just individual characters. But otherwise I really like all the features and the fact that it as an additional library beyond just the JLPT kanji lists.

If you don't feel the need to learn stroke order/writing then I think the undisputed king of kanji learning is probably Wanikani since it really focuses on teaching you how to see complex kanji in terms of radicals also gives you a lot of vocab on the side. Speaking of which:

2. Vocab

So if you can look up a word for something once and just remember it, great, but if you're like me and have to encounter a word a few hundred million times before it forms a solid part of your instinctive vocabulary then you can't go wrong with plugging into an SRS system regularly. I feel like Anki is the big dog in this space but personally I came to Kitsun first via getting the premium version of it bundled with another service I'll mention later and I really like its web UI. But whichever, really. I know you can add existing lists to your library or make your own custom ones with both of these so solid options.

I'll also note here that both of the services I'm about to discuss in relation to grammar also have vocabulary learning systems on the side, but I particularly like being able to make custom decks for mined vocab really easily using Kitsun (the card generation tool that lets you hook right into Jisho.org's database is very helpful).

3. Grammar

What I've loved most about language school is having teachers explain Japanese grammar points in terms of whatever Japanese we already understand. So while the services that I'm going to list next give text based explanations in English, I also like to try to find YouTube videos where the usage and nuance of grammar is explained in simple Japanese and plenty of examples are given.

I mainly use these because on top of getting an understanding of the grammar point that way, if I want to actually be able to use the grammar smoothly and correctly myself I have to get used to, for example, putting the verbs in the right form on the fly - so again good SRS systems that will drill me on that kind of thing are a real necessity for me.

Currently, I think Bunpro has the most complete grammar library in terms of JLPT coverage however I do think it's worth mentioning what I think is probably their main competition in this space: MaruMori. MaruMori is still adding N3 content and I don't think has anything for N2 or N1 yet at all but given the speed of their development and the amount of features they already have not to mention what is on the roadmap I feel comfortable giving them a rec. The overall style might be on the cutesier, more casual side but I have to say I do actually find the conversational and humourous style of their grammar explanations more engaging and less dry than Bunpro's.

[saturn-sends-hugs]

ok, this has been burning a hole in my notes app and i’m just gonna send it out there:

Why (i think) the Finale was Like That:

to preface, if you liked the finale, good for you!! that’s totally valid and i’m not trying to bash that. but i know a lot of people were left wanting more, and i’m one of them. anyway, to my point:

as silly as it sounds, this show is not written for us.

we’re fans. the producers already know we’re gonna watch the show. they don’t need to convince us to give them our attention, they already have it. why waste time digging into random side characters in the larger Star Wars saga when the average person doesn’t even know who that is?

their real job is to convince outsiders to watch. to get hooked. to see an element they like, probably from the main movies, and tune in, even for one episode. if they can get them hooked with fennec or ventress or hell even rex, that’s a win for them.

the plot lines wrap up in such an unsatisfying way because honestly? they cant waste time focusing more on these characters than they have to. the people writing and designing the show might love them and want to include more meaningful resolutions, but that takes too long and costs too much money. you know what’s cheaper and will satisfy the average viewer? kill the mystery clones, cut off the “trauma hand”, and wrap it all up in a nice little “look, she’s joining the rebellion, guys!” moment because the more bland and broad the ending, the more people will understand it.

i mean, remember the Fives mention? Echo didn’t react, he didn’t even stutter, he literally moved the conversation along like they were talking about where to go for dinner like HELLO. we already know they cannot be bothered to show real important emotional scenes because that would take too much spotlight away from the whole star wars politics plot or whatever were supposed to care about. (honestly, who is watching bad batch for the og trilogy implications? woah tarkin and a couple other empire dudes are talking about project stardust definitely gimme more of that and not any meaningful connection between these characters i love)

it’s scummy, it sucks, it especially kills me that the story is basically lost to corporate greed but let’s be honest, this is Disney’s Star Wars. i could literally just leave it there. meaningful moments will always be sacrificed for shock value and character cameos because the random guy seeing an ad is only gonna watch the show if he thinks “oh cool, tarkin, i didn’t know he was in that show, maybe i should see what that’s about.”

and yes, i know, there absolutely is a ton of love and care poured into this show. i appreciate the effort that went into it. i’m just sad they didn’t have full creative freedom under Disney to give us the story we wanted.

but you know who won’t sacrifice story for money? you know who’s guaranteed to have the fans’ interests in mind? you know who does have full creative freedom and is equally pissed about bad show moments and want to do them better? FANFIC AUTHORS. Fan artists, theorists, even roleplay accounts and every other type of dedicated fandom blog is here for that shit and will reshape things however they want a million different ways because that’s the point. the show simply cannot give us what we want, but we can make it ourselves.

your support, your creativity, and your determination to give these characters what they deserve is how we can solve the problem.

i didn’t really mean to turn all “we’re all in this together” here lol but yknow what i really do mean that. i think supporting the community around you is the best option we have for truly enjoying all of this show’s potential.

tagging a few people cause i value your input!! and let’s be honest i’m probably leaving a few things out that you might be able to expand on: @the-bi-space-ace @inkstainedhandswithrings @phantom-of-the-501st

[eerna]

so glad to WHINE ABOUT TPT.

it should have been wren pov, I agree it seemed like there was a more interesting story going on on her side! And your theory it got rewritten for more jurdan makes sense … also so fucking stupid it’s third person - is there some asinine publishing rule going on? I know readers like to self insert these days, maybe the publisher was worried bc oak is male/a love interest? dumb. dumb.

why didn’t vivi come to the engagement feast? wren had such a hang up on what Vivi said about her, I wanted that resolved (and I just wanted Vivi in general!!!!) wren meeting her human family off screen without a mention of how it went fuckin SUCKED. at absolutely no point was I convinced she should be staying in the house of her abusers being a ruler for people she didn’t know instead of returning to her REAL family. and she didn’t even bond w oak’s family either.

I also enjoyed the dialogue in the garden scene so much, but without wren’s pov it felt out of nowhere or even like she was using sex as self harm. she is so deeply self loathing and so convinced oak will move on for her, so her propositioning him feels like she was trying to rip off the bandaid and get him done with her faster. again, I have to assume because the last time we heard her thoughts was when she would DO that kind of thing. if she’s had this great character growth we don’t fuckin know!!!!!

I had fun but it was also such a disappointment and wren deserves better

Welcome welcome to the whine party~

YEAHHHH presumably it was single POV for the mystery of why Wren is acting so weird, but imo it didn't work. It was so so so painfully obvious and the plot twist didn't twist, so why not just give her the POV. As for the third person, all the Cardan POV content we ever got was also in third person, so maybe HB just doesn't want to write her male leads from first person? The self insert thing occurred to me too, but Wren is one of the least self-insert-able characters I've ever read in YA, and she too had the first person, so idk honestly. Maybe someone who has more experience with HB's novels could figure it out.

I WAS WAITING FOR VIVI THE ENTIRE TIMEEEE like out of all of Oak's family, she was the one who hurt Wren the worst. So where was she!! She lives in the human world, fine, but she was there for Oak's official heir party, so why not for his engagement??? Heather would have Never missed it in a million years. The lack of content regarding Wren connecting to either of the families was sooooooooo bleh, since we KNOW that being a part of one is incredibly important for her and she desperately wants to be accepted by both Oak's big dramatic yet loving family and her own human one. Her returning to the Court of Teeth makes no sense, she only has the worst memories of the place, and it doesn't even EXIST as a ruling body anymore.

SAME on the garden scene! Like you said, it sounded like the Wren from TSH, who used his interest (which she perceived as customary and short-term) as a way to punish herself and treat herself as someone undeserving of proper love. Okay, it's because of the Endless Hunger of her magic, but it's strange to never deal with her pretty unhealthy views of her sexuality. IF ANYTHING, in the final chapter she STILL thinks she is too much and needs too much and won't be able to function properly in a relationship, and we just,,,, never get closure,,, Oak is just like "don't worry" and she's like "ok" and that's it. Head in my hands. This was a romance focused duology and somehow Wren didn't even get her proper closure on that.

Literally my takeaway. Fun. Disappointing. Wren my baby you deserved more.

[sepublic]

Metroid and F-Zero GP

So un-ironically I'd really like the F-Zero GP anime to cross over with a Metroid show; Specifically, let’s make it canon and even a recurring element within the series.

Because it takes place in space, in the future, there's a Galactic Federation, Captain Falcon is a bounty hunter. And the way I'd incorporate it would be as seamless and natural as I could; Like these are just new characters, the same way Rundas or Sylux would be. The fact that they're F-Zero is not made loud and apparent, not that I'm ever against those types of crossovers... But it'd be a fun writing exercise to try merging these stories organically, even making crossover elements and individual episodes relevant to Samus' character arc.

So there's a couple of F-Zero elements that might show up here or there, a reference to the races. There's an episode where Samus has to face off against yet another bounty hunter, this one being expert marksman Pico, whose fighting style revolves around his perfect aim, and eludes her due to his distant nature as a sniper. Dark Million shows up and maybe it’s the criminal organization that disastrously hired Kanden for the Metroid. And eventually...

Well, I'd discussed the idea of Samus going to Earth, the Earthians' ancestral homeworld, after the events of the Fusion arc. It's her way of reconnecting with her Earthian side, with the ancestry of Rodney and Virginia, after focusing so much on Chozo affairs. In a way it's Samus re-exploring her identity after becoming part-Metroid, who she is as a person, all that stuff; And it sets her up to occasionally question her Chozo heritage, who they raised her to be, which transitions nicely into the Dread arc and the Mawkin representing the worst of the Chozo.

But before that, Samus is interested in tracing her Earthian genealogy and all that. Considering the kind of life and community she might've had if the Space Pirates never attacked K-2L. I'd love for Anthony Higgs to be present here, but his standing in the Federation would make it really awkward for him, so I'm not sure how it'd work out; I'm working on the idea of Samus getting pardoned thanks to Adam helping her leak the BSL corruption, which leads to public outcry defending Samus, as a callback to Fusion's ending monologue about people who understand. Even so, Samus is still on uneasy terms with the Federation, so I dunno if Anthony could make it.

We get an episode or two about Samus awkwardly trying to be Earthian and it not exactly working out? Is she just a tourist here? She has an existential conversation with Adam, who is also possibly struggling with the fact that he's no longer human, but a machine. So like Samus he's rediscovering himself too, and maybe Malkovich had a life and/or ancestry on Earth he left behind...

Eventually, this segues into the next storyline; Samus decides to visit Mute City, a popular site for tourists and immigrants alike. In F-Zero GP continuity (which differs from the games), Mute City is just a renamed New York City, meaning most of the action takes place on Earth. Samus crosses paths with Captain Falcon, a fellow bounty hunter like herself. She also witnesses the F-Zero races, questioning how they're even legal; This could tie into Samus questioning everything she's believed in regarding the Galactic Federation. Are these death races, performed for the entertainment of the upper classes, just further proof that Sylux was right???

This also gets me to another thing; I'm interested in Joey Apronika, from the Samus and Joey manga. I'd also like to adapt that, with various story arcs spread out across the Metroid show; It's not done all in one sitting, Joey is a recurring character. And being human, he could maybe show up alongside Samus, as she explores reconnecting with her 'human' side and understanding just what she's made up of now.

Joey wields the Field Knuckle, which is basically a tech gauntlet that allows him to generate protective barriers around his fist, himself and others, etc. This comes in handy for just punching enemies really, REALLY hard. And this reminds me of the Falcon Punch...

F-Zero GP follows its own take on the classic roster, with Captain Falcon's true identity being Andy Summer, not Douglas J. Falcon. However, it's also established that the title of Captain Falcon is a mantle, passed down from mentor to apprentice; Andy is not the first, so it's possible, if not implied, that his predecessor and/or the original Falcon was Douglas. The anime ends with Andy sacrificing his life to defeat Black Shadow, and the main character Ryu Suzaku becomes the new Captain Falcon.

Yeah, did I mention? F-Zero GP follows a similar premise to the Samus and Joey manga, in that we have a plucky young rookie, who is mentored by the mysterious face of the franchise. Interesting! The F-Zero GP even ends with a "To be continued...?" tagline.

Now, with Ryu as the new Captain Falcon, shouldn't he have his own successor considered, just as the show up until then was him and the previous Captain Falcon going on the occasional adventure together? Enter Clank Hughes, a young, tech-savvy boy who has a visor he can scan things with...

In the epilogue, Clank is a grown-up young man, and explicitly named as Ryu's successor; He will eventually become Captain Falcon. In the meantime, he learns from Suzaku, who fits quite nicely into his new outfit and identity.

Clank Hughes bears a decent resemblance to Joey Apronika... Joey fights similarly to Captain Falcon... Clank has his own scan visor, not unlike Samus Aran. Thus, I've considered two different options for how I want to approach the mantle of Captain Falcon in a Metroid show:

The first is to follow up directly where F-Zero GP ended, with Ryu as Captain Falcon, albeit more muscled and chiseled now. Him and Samus have some bonding moments and parallels; They both have young apprentices who look quite similar to one another! They both carry on where their friend(s) have died, and are quite lonely and out of their world;

See, Ryu Suzaku is not from this century; He's from the 21st century. This was back when Earth had yet to make contact with the Galactic Federation; He used to be a regular police officer and racer, but when he got into a car chase with escaped convict Zoda, Ryu was badly injured. It left him in a coma so severe, that doctors gave up and decided to put him into cryogenic sleep, and wait for the time when medical tech had advanced to heal him fully.

This would happen 150 years later; Ryu gets revived and makes a full recovery thanks to Doctor Stewart, and is a man out of his time. The only people from his time are his fiancee, who also went through the same treatment... And Zoda, who also got the same treatment.

Point is: There's a lot of people that Ryu left behind! And while this concept does make me consider a 'Frozen generation' of others who also waited things out cryogenically... It's still not a lot to work off of. So for Ryu, he's trying to reconnect with his lost past, and Samus is trying to explore one aspect of her ancestry. These are difficult things to bond over, as is them not being able to relate to a lot of people over their experiences.

Likewise, as Samus worries about destroying everything she touches (wait until she unlocks her Metroid DNA and that happens literally!), she's concerned about possibly hurting Joey, and Captain Falcon is someone who can listen and understand. He even calls back to when Clank was a young boy, just like Joey himself!

As for Clank himself, he knows he's got big shoes to fill in; He bonds with Joey over their mentors, although Clank has known his for much longer, and is tbh closer to him. Still, he gives Joey much-needed reassurance as an older brother figure. Captain Falcon helps Joey master his Field Knuckle, imparting the technique of the Falcon Punch; Its nature in Metroid might be technology, secret martial arts, a mix of magic and pseudo-medical science, IDK. Ghosts canonically exist in Metroid, as do telepaths.

Clank's scan visor compliments Samus' quite nicely, and the arc comes to a close with Clank, who has been considering how HIS successor will be, realizing Joey is a pretty good candidate! Joey's too young and Clank isn't Captain Falcon yet, but there's setup for his own future to look forward to... Captain Falcon, Clank, and a couple other F-Zero characters also return every now and then, depending on how long the show keeps going after the Dread arc's conclusion.

That's Plan A... For Plan B;

Clank Hughes is already Captain Falcon. Samus sees a fellow bounty hunter who also has a scan visor incorporated into his helmet. Cap helps Joey master his Field Knuckle in ways even his father, whom he inherited it from, didn't; Captain Falcon and Samus both bond over mentoring this young and impressionable kid, it makes Samus feel a lot less scared and lonely handling Joey. And Captain Falcon sees a lot of his younger self in Joey.

Eventually, Falcon elaborates on his backstory; His true name is Clank Hughes. He is not the first Captain Falcon, just another in a lineage. His predecessor was Ryu Suzaku, who gave his life to protect innocents... Cue a flashback to the first Metroid Crisis; Space Pirates have deployed some Metroids on the F-Zero Grand Prix, because they're petty like that.

Clank is present racing alongside Captain Falcon. It's a pretty tense scenario, civilians are being attacked by Metroids, some of the racers find their vehicles being drained by the vampires, which leads to crashes. The Blue Falcon gets attacked by Metroids and is damaged; Captain Falcon can't get the cockpit to open, he's trapped inside...

They're on a racetrack atypical of the usual ones; A ring contained within a stadium, built on the premise of high-speed circular racing. With the speed that racers go, they can heat up the track really fast. To make up for this, beneath the stadium is a giant cooling reactor to keep the racetrack from melting... How does Captain Falcon know of the Metroid weakness to cold? This could be after the first wave of attacks, when the Galactic Federation has already posted PSAs about this vulnerability.

Falcon messages Clank, explaining the emergency eject has been disabled; There's no getting himself out of this situation. But for everyone else...

In some really expert maneuvering, he drives the Blue Falcon into the Metroids, letting them cling onto his vehicle and start draining it. He even bumps into other racers, the speed and force tearing off the Metroids, who then choose the Blue Falcon instead. Hell maybe he even drives onto the abandoned seats to lure the Metroids away from the audience.

With all of the creatures latched onto his vehicle and its power draining fast, Falcon makes a final send-off message to Clank, declaring him the new Captain Falcon. The entire scene is in blatant, shot-for-shot homage to the previous Falcon's heroic sacrifice, down to an instrumental version of the song that plays; Captain Falcon activates the boosters, ramming through doors and into an underground track leading to the cooling reactor.

Captain Falcon rams the Blue Falcon into the center of the cooling reactor, freezing the outside, as well as the Metroids latched on. His helmet flies off, revealing an older Ryu Suzaku, who charges up a Falcon Punch that he rams right into his console; The force is so great it causes the Blue Falcon to explode, shattering the frozen Metroids. We get a final shot of Ryu smiling in his heroic sacrifice, just like Andy Summer, before disappearing in the explosion.

The detonation leads to a chain reaction within the cooling reactor; This causes all of the ice to funnel upwards and through the racetrack above, leading to some very pretty snowflakes falling around the stadium. Clank Hughes mourns Captain Falcon, and vows to fulfill his role, just as Cap did the previous one before him!

Cut back to the present; Earlier, Hughes had expressed admiration to Samus for ending the Metroid Crisis. You can see he really, REALLY means it. He imparts his own advice to Samus about keeping the hearts of your friends alive, and their sacrifices not in vain, and he knows what it's like to lose multiple father figures; Samus takes that into consideration (and it sets up Samus having to deal later with a 'father figure' she takes great shame in). Samus and Captain Falcon's friendship is furthered, since he basically takes joint custody with her over Joey, and realizes Joey has the shapings to become a Captain Falcon himself!

The training won't begin, not yet; But it's an invitation for Joey to consider. And it's something for Samus to look forward to; Joey doesn't have to follow in her lonely footsteps. But with Captain Falcon, he's got a lot of friends and confidence and charisma... Adam reminds Samus not to be so dismissive of herself though. Who knows?

(One of my main reasons for hesitation with Ryu being posthumous and Hughes having already taken his position, comes from me... Honestly not wanting to crush the hearts of fans who grew attached to Ryu, and really wanted to see him be Captain Falcon. Granted a badass heroic sacrifice helps to assuage that disappointment but still. And also yeah I kinda DO want to see Ryu as Falcon, myself!!!)

As a side note: There's also a storyline about Rockets, a racer from Samus and Joey, competing in the F-Zero. He's an antagonist, hoping to use the prize money to help fund his boss Greed's operations and all that. Jody Summer is also present, and things could get complicated given she's a member of the Galactic Federation, which has VERY tense feelings towards Samus because of the BSL incident; She probably leans towards sympathizer, but it's still awkward. And at some point Captain Falcon has to clarify she's the sister of a previous Falcon, so Jody's family to him too.

[neiptune]

Hihi! ☺️ For your event: "i’d drive away before i let you go" w/ Sanemi (or Giyuu) + mutual pining trope. 🤍 Preferably a happy ending (implied or obvious), but I'll survive if you mix in some angst. 😆

Thanks so much for hosting another event — super excited to read what you write !! 😍

tomioka giyuu x I'd drive away before I let you go

request a character + prompt here :)

“D’you believe in soulmates?”

All you’re actively looking at is the night sky, a dark blanket sprayed with tiny lights blinking back at you. Still, you’re sure he’s turned his head to look at your side profile with furrowed brows and a skeptical expression, the same one he had when you had first interrupted your stroll and begged him to just lie down for a little while.

“I don’t”

You snort, not at all surprised.

“Okay. What d’you think is the closest thing, then?”

“The closest thing to what?”

“That kinda love” you give in at last, turn your head to find his navy gaze already on you “if you don’t believe in soulmates, what d’you believe in?”

Giyuu lets a beat pass, comfortable silence settling over the both of you and the empty park, sounds that belong to the city feeling miles away as he slowly blinks, focused on your features for a second too long.

“Dread”

You huff out a laugh so genuine it almost, almost has his lips curling into a soft smile.

“Dread? Care to expand on that?”

Giyuu knows he’s not generally regarded as particularly perceptive but maybe you’re not so bright yourself, he thinks. Expand? Does he need to? Isn’t it obvious?

“When you have someone in your life and they slowly become part of yourself, too. When they know every aspect of you, are happy to put up with your worst and make you feel lucky to be around to put up with their worst in turn. So much that just the idea of losing them is dreadful. You know, paralyzing anxiety n’all that”

It’s interesting that you can’t cast your eyes way from his, even more that your gaze flickers to his lips for a second. Giyuu seems to not only know what being in love feels like, he also seems to have experienced the all-encompassing kind of love firsthand. It’s cruel, that you’re surprised. It’s even worse, feeling small pangs of resentment stinging in your throat and lungs all of a sudden. It’s unfair. So what if he’s had a love like that and has never told you? It’s not like he has some kind of unspoken obligation.

“Sounds to me like you do believe in soulmates” it’s pathetic, the way you turn away from him to focus on the sky once again. You’re barely able to discern the stars in the first place, city lights be damned, but you have trained your gaze long enough to know what to look for.

Memories of humid summer nights, gentle hands setting up a telescope indoors to guide you through how everything works before taking it out into the night make their way back to you. The moon, the very first celestial object you got to find by yourself, so close and a quarter million miles away at once, just like Giyuu. Patient explanations and gentle pleas to take your time to explore each impact crater and the lunar seas, formed billions of years ago. A summer spent waiting on a familiar balcony until jupiter would rise, bright and imposing with its cloud belts, nothing more than dusky tan bands in the eyepiece you were glued to.

The north star, or Polaris, is pretty consistent in its positon and always helps you navigate the sky more easily. The evening is crisp enough for you to find it right away: Orion with its belt, a little cluster of stars you’ve learned to recognize as the Pleiades sparkling on its upper right. Seven divine sisters, Pleione’s daughters. He’s taught you all that.

“You don’t need to believe in fate or destiny for someone to be special. Sometimes you just get lucky” Giyuu sits up in your peripheral, arms resting on his knees as he peers up at the sky.

You need luck. And you need timing.

“Have you ever gotten that lucky?” it’s not casual at all, the way you almost whisper the question. He’s tempted to glance at you: ever the attentive observer, always able to read every crease of your forehead and subtle furrow of brows.

He resists the temptation.

“Yeah” he mumbles and you wish you could swallow the words to ease the painful squeeze of your stomach.

“The kind of love you’d drop everything for? Quit jobs, change cities, take planes, get a driver’s license?” it’s childish, the way you insist, but you can’t help it and the way he just shrugs is honestly infuriating.    

“Guess so”

Fine, that’s it.

You stand up abruptly and not so gently pat your jeans clean of any grass remains, shooting him an offended glare you make sure he doesn’t miss by faintly kicking his shoe with your own. Giyuu glances up at you, currently towering over him with a frown that has gigantic question marks floating right above his head.

“Guess you’d really ditch everything, huh? Even me. Let’s go, before I change my mind about buying you that ice cream” you grumble, barely resisting the urge to flick his stupid forehead before turning around and marching in the opposite direction with a pace fast enough to underline your annoyance but controlled enough not to actually leave him behind.

Giyuu cocks his head as he watches you walk away, confused and not entirely sure about what's just happened. His eyes are still fixed on your back as he sighs in frustration.

“Yeah, I’d ditch everything” he mutters to himself “I’d drive away before I let you go. You’re the only thing keeping me here, anyway”

Idiot.

Who cares about timing? He's already been lucky enough, no need to be fucking greedy.

“Giyuu, what the hell? Are you coming or not?”

Yeah, he'll tell you. Maybe over ice cream.

[girl-next-door-writes]

Bittersweet Memories

Characters: Crowley x reader

Summary: Crowley makes the ultimate sacrifice, but not before discovering just how much of a sacrifice it actually is.

Word Count: 1022 words

Prompt: Mutual pining, a gentle kiss, blurted out confession under stress.

A/N: This little bit of angst is for the lovely @roseblue373  It’s been a hot minute since I wrote my favourite demon, and I can say that I have missed him.  There will not be a part two unless you want to go write one, and if you do then please tag me in it because I would love to see it.

If there was one thing Crowley was absolutely certain of, it was that life was rarely fair. The odds were always stacked. The house always won. In the incredibly long time, he had been on this planet, he had observed that fact over and over again. Yet, standing here in this moment, he couldn’t help but wish that wasn’t the case, that a demon in love could prove to be the exception to the rule.

He had known he was in love for years now, he wasn’t completely oblivious. At first, he had tried to deny it. The thought of a demon feeling such an emotion was ludicrous, but there was no other explanation for his feelings towards you. His desire to protect you, to be near you, to be the reason for your smile, was so overwhelming that he sometimes sat on his throne down in hell with an ache in his chest. Of course, he could never tell you any of this. Aside from the intense humiliation the whole situation would cause when you inevitably rejected him, it would not be fair to ask you to join him; wouldn’t be fair to ask you to give up your life for him.

The irony of that thought made the corners of his lips curl upwards slightly. The two of you would never have worked out anyway. It would be like asking a tree to blossom in the depths of winter, or for the sun to shine at midnight. There were a million reasons for him to love you, but he could not find a single one why you should love him. Loving you from the shadows was all he could do, and that had been enough. Now he had to hope that you could do this without him.

You stood beside Dean, eyes focused on Lucifer. Surely your favourite demon had a plan, that was the only reason you could think of for him antagonizing the former archangel. His snarky comments usually made you laugh, but right now all you could hear was the pounding of your heart.  In the back of your mind, it felt like there was a ticking clock, a countdown to something that would change everything forever. Your gaze flitted to Crowley, trying to memorize every detail of him as if you knew this would be the last time.

Crowley turned his head slightly, feeling you watching him. If he stayed, if he wavered in this moment, then he would only be in your way and he refused to be yet another obstacle for you to navigate. Better to go out swinging, right? This was for you. Everything he did was for you. Memories of the time spent by your side floated through his mind. Every time he had made you smile, each time his sarcasm had made you laugh, made a warmth bloom in his chest. He had no idea where he would go after this, was uncertain about the void he was about to willingly fall into, but he hoped that he could hold onto these memories, no matter how bittersweet they may be.

His eyes met yours, and he saw the moment you realised what he was doing. Your eyes clouded with tears he felt guilty you would shed for him. Who cries for a demon? You could do so much better than him, he was never what you needed, if anything, his friendship probably held you back. You moved to take a step towards him, and he shook his head, just a fraction, causing you to pause. He didn’t want you any closer to the psychopath than you already were. This was it. His last great sacrifice. His last time saving you.

Lucifer was taunting him, but Crowley couldn’t hear a single thing he said. His heart was torn between getting this over with and having that one last moment with you. He was reminded of all those stupid films you had made him sit through, the ones that made you cry, and it dawned on him that you needed a real goodbye. If he didn’t give you that then you would never forgive him, and he selfishly couldn’t allow that.

Turning his back on Lucifer, a dangerous move but one he felt apathetic about, Crowley strode over to you and cupped your face as a single tear escaped your eye. Wiping it away with his thumb, he gave you a soft smile.

“It’s time, kitten.” He whispered, maintaining eye contact even though his heart was breaking.

“No.” You whimpered, clinging to his jacket.

“That’s the thing about the good old days, you don’t realise you’re in them until they are over. It’s time for you to go get your happy ever after.”

“Not without you I can’t.” The tears were freely flowing now as you tried to hold yourself together, practically begging him not to do what the both of you knew he was going to. “I love you, you infuriating demon.”

Your confession hit him like a truck. You loved him. He was worthy of your love. The realization that this changed nothing, was like an ice cube dropped down the back of his shirt. You loved him, and he was leaving you forever.

Crowley had no idea how long he had stood there just gaping at you. A thousand thoughts sprinted through his mind and yet words escaped him, like early morning mist. Instead, he let out a soft sigh and pulled you close, his thumb grazing over your bottom lip before he leaned in and placed a gentle kiss there. Everything in his being suddenly felt at peace, and a smile grew as he pulled back.

“You have been the great love of my life. I want you to go find yours. Goodbye, kitten.”

He was vaguely aware of you screaming, of Dean moving to grab you as Crowley quickly made his way over to Lucifer, raising the dagger. His final thought, before the void took him, was how soft your lips caressed his and how completely human he had felt in that moment. His final thought was love.

[g3othermal3scapism]

My first movie reviewing type post because i have so many opinions on movies and i can ignore speaking on them no longer.

GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE

review under the cut

Okay, so this might not be the neatest post in the world. Whatever im yapping here. Figure it out yourself.

Let me start off by saying Ghostbusters is one of my favorite franchises in the whole world, if not my favorite. I love all of the movies, yes even the third one everyone hates, which I have a million other points to make on, but that’s another post. I personally adored Afterlife, I thought it was a great continuation that didn’t rely too heavily on nostalgia but was very much a respectful sort of love-letter to the originals, as well as a good beginning to a new era. Other than it lacking in the comedy department a little, (especially for a comedy movie fanchise) I thought it did most everything right, or at least well. I was in love with Pheobe and Podcast as well as Gary, and the story with Egon was a really lovely homage to the old ghostbusters and of course, the late great Harold Ramis. I was beyond excited for Frozen Empire. So don’t think this is coming from a place of bias, because I really hate to say it but I didn’t like Frozen Empire much at all. I’m going to try to break down my reasoning as organized as possible.

- It was not funny. I touched on this earlier, but one of the biggest issue with this new era is that they are severely lacking in the comedy department. Ghostbusters has always been a comedy movie, more than a horror and much more than a drama. These movies are trying too hard to be a serious action movie, and Frozen Empire was not really funny at all. It had that whole intro with the firefighters in 1904 that had not one comedic moment, and the rest of the offhanded jokes they tried to make felt forced and more akin to the writing of an old disney channel sitcom. This is especially troubling because they hired amazing comedians like Patton Oswald, Kumail Nanjiani, and James Acaster, as well as the old amazing Paul Rudd, Bill Murray, and honestly all of the og ghostbusters, yet all of them barely had a funny line through the whole thing. Really baffling and the attempts at seriousness and angst really did a disservice to the enjoyability of the movie IMO.

- It was insanely rushed and there was too much going on. This is probably the main, over-arcing problem that really ruined the movie. There’s so much build up to a main conflict that lasts five minutes and solved immediately. I was baffled, convinced it was a joke and there was still half a movie we had yet to see. They tried to hard to make so many (already not well writtwn) plots fit without having a good way to conclude them. This, as well as the story being far too overbloated with characters. They tried so hard to keep the original Ghostbusters and make like 47 main characters work, that our real main characters were shoved to the side. Pheobe was barely in it, and when she was, we never really got to see her being Pheobe. Callie should’ve been a much smaller character, and while in my heart Pheobe, Podcast, Lucky, and Trevor should have been the new Ghostbusters, I think this movie should have focused more on Pheobe, Gary, and Ray. I have a vague plot in my head but that’s not the point. The movie was just trying to do too much and managed to do absolutely nothing.

- Callie. This might be a hot take, but I don’t care about Callie at all. She should not have been a Ghostbuster in this movie. It doesn’t make any sense. In Afterlife, Callie showed no signs of being interested in ghostbusting or that world at all, she just loved her dad. She’s not a scientist whatsoever. Pheobe was right, she absolutely should have just been the receptionist. On top of it not making sense, Callie just isn’t interesting enough to be a main Ghostbuster. She’s already not a scientist, but she offers no special skills or anything unique to herself, she doesn’t have an interesting personality and her arc is so boring. She was not needed in this movie. Again, Trevor, Pheobe, Lucky, and Podcast should be the main Ghostbusters. I don’t give a fuck about this family business thing and it was a bad choice IMO. In all honesty Trevor doesn’t need to be super major either.

- Jumping off of that…. Trevor. Oh my god. They murdered him in this movie. Trevor was never my favorite, but I liked his character a lot in Afterlife. I thought he could have been more interesting, but compared to Empire Trevor, in Afterlife he’s like Tarantino-level entertaining. Trevor sucked in this movie. The words “I’m 18 now” should have never left his mouth. It’s such a tired, overdone bit, and they didn’t put any spin on it at all. And it was literally. His entire personality. It was so obnoxious. Give him something, especially since Finn Wolfhard is a funny actor. The idea of him having a running gag with Slimer wasn’t bad, and payoff was one of the funniest moments in the whole movie. (A three second scene of Finn Wolfhard seeing Slimer and going “Hey! I know him!” being the funniest bit in a Ghostbusters movie. Yikes.) Jesus fuck was he annoying in this movie, and him and Pheobe barely had any scenes together.

- Okay. Melody. Big fucking yikes. Pheobe being fruity? We been knew but I adored it. Exploring the ideas of inter-dimensional plane romance and relationships? Super interesting and a fun risk to take. Execution? Oh. my god. I loved Melody when we first met her at the park, I was super excited, but she just became.. nothing. We barely learned anything about her past or her life or her at all, and they totally missed the chance to make her from an old era, make her wear funny clothes and talk funny, and be an interesting character. She was just kind of this mysterious dead girl. Not learning about her past at all in turn made it hard to care about her story, if we don’t know her family or her life, why should we care that she wants to get back to them? Why is it justified that she would betray Pheobe to get to heaven or whatever? It doesn’t make sense. We see her at the diner, and the diner is called Melody and it’s never brought up again? If she were like a ‘50s themed ghost this would have been a fun little piece, but in the movie it doesn’t make sense, because we already know her place of death was her house that she burnt down. What does the diner have to do with anything? And the scene where she just stands in the road and has the goofiest corniest conversation with idk the voices in her head or whatever. God, pack it the fuck up. Then at the end, it’s so obvious she’s going to come back to save them, so the scene really holds no impact, even though it doesn’t make any sense for her to come back. She made her choice, she betrayed Pheobe to see her family (for whatever fucking reason), and she went through the barrier. We never see that the barrier didn’t work, or that something changed and made her change her decision. If her family is so fucking important, why on earth would she just go back to save people she hardly, or didn’t know? It doesn’t make any sense. Plus, if they wanted to give Pheobe a ghost girl romance (which I’m a fan of) they should have given her and Melody any semblance of chemistry. The actors didn’t have any chemistry and their dialogue was just sort of lame. Seeing Pheobe discover crushes and see how she would behave under those circumstances could have been very interesting, but it was just overall boring. Melody did not matter and nothing she ever did made sense. She wasn’t a character, she was a plot device to move the story along.

- This brings me to my next point.. none of the writing really made all that much sense? I mean they put all this work into the lore of the monster, even though really Ghostbusters shouldn’t be about lore, it should be about cool ghost designs and funny likeable characters, and then none of the lore mattered. I mean I barely remember anything about the big villain because it was all intensely boring and I just did not gaf at all. On top of this, the way the characters behave.. makes no sense. Pheobe’s family was so insensitive to her after she had to stop doing the thing she loved, despite it quite literally being her thing. In my opinion, if Pheobe wasn’t a ghostbuster, the whole thing would shut down. Trevor and Callie would be clueless, even with a little help with Gary, it just wouldn’t work. On top of this, when Pheobe destroyed the lion, and all the ghostbusters were mad at her??? What on earth was that about. The lion was quite literally going to kill Ray, and they’re ghostbusters. It is quite literally in the job description that you’re gonna destroy some shit and cause some problems. She had to, and Winston was all up her ass about it? It just didn’t make sense. He would’ve been on her side completely, and really all of the ghotsbusters involved shouldve been fighting for Pheobe. They’re supposed to be a team?? And I mean after everyone spend the movie getting mad at Pheobe literally anytime she breathed, the only time she actually messed up, almost killing herself and causing the end of the world for a cute girl, everyone’s all “Oh we’re just glad you’re okay!! everybody makes mistakes!!!” It’s so clownish actually. There are a million other things that just don’t make sense, but I’d have to rewatch it to make any real coherent analysis of them.

- The villain was so fucking goofy?? It was just this big cartoonish stereotype villain that wasn’t ironic at all. It was so unserious and not scary at all. That design sucked shit and there was nothing interesting about him. What’s the point of Ghostbusters if the big villain doesn’t talk and doesn’t have any funny scenes? Plus, like, oh wow big evil world ending dead god. I’ve never seen anything like this before. My mind is blown, Ghostbusters, you’ve done it again. (sarcasm 😊)

- Podcast and Pheobe were barely in the movie. They carried the last movie and they’re my favorite, so this is slightly biased, but them not being in it at all was insane. Especially, since, you know, pheobe is the main character. Even on the poster, it’s way too filled with characters, and Pheobe is no where near the focal point of the poster. It’s fucking Paul Rudd for some reason. Besides this, Podcast was no where near as funny as he should’ve been. Both Pheobe and Podcast lost that young awkward charm that made them so loveable, and you cannot convince me Podcast stopped being so dorky so easily. I also believe he would be super interesting in working in Ray’s shop, but I don’t believe he would let everyone be ghostbusting without him?? Pheobe ghostbusting without podcast? Absolutely not on his watch. Their characters were a little butchered.

- Ah. The ending. This fuckass ending. You saw it from a million miles away and so did I, and so did everyone fucking else. It was the most expected ending I’ve ever seen. No twists, nothing goes wrong, and when it does, it does not matter. None of it matters. Oh they all get suited up and team up? Doesn’t matter. you’re all frozen and will do nothing for the ending. Oh no, they all got frozen and can’t stop the bad guy? Doesn’t matter. Unrelated side character comes out of nowhere and saves the day in five seconds with no problem. No one lift a finger. Not even to mention how ridiculous the ice spikes were. They did all this set up with Kumail Nanjiani, jist for the payoff to be that. None of the conflicts they ran into in the movie had really any impact on the story later. They were just things that happened.

Overall, I thought the movie was a mess that was trying too hard at everything and succeeding very little. Now I’ll talk about some things I did like! Keeping the old ghostbusters, especially Ray, I thought was a good choice. The idea of Winston being the rich one who’s really running ghostbusters behind the scenes is perfect, especially considering Ernie Husdson really being the one to keep Ghostbusters alive, and having ghostbusters tech where he works with ghosts and makes containment units and new traps and what not was great. Pheobe and Gary trying go navigate their new relationship was an interesting and heartwarming idea, even if I thought it wasn’t executed amazingly. Pheobe tinkering with her proton pack and coating it with copper to blast the monster was a really fun, great idea. I love when they do little things like that, putting little spins on things, and I wish we could’ve seen more of that. Venkman had some of the best scenes in the movie. Him throwing the pens at Kumail Nanjiana was a very fun scene, and did keep the spirit of Peter Venkman very much. More than that, the scene where he shows up at the firehouse and immediately goes to wear he has a hidden thing of Whisky was gold. A perfect Venkman scene, a perfect “i lived here for years” moment, and very funny.

This is my analysis of ghostbusters frozen empire 😊😊🙏💖 sorry ghostbusters fandom i am one of you i love you please dont cancel me or whatever

[retropobor]

Ladies, Gentleman, and All Other Colors, I present to thee: Deltarune Parallels

So about a week ago, I put out a poll asking when I should reveal this little project of mine, and with an overwhelming 2 votes the people said I should release now, so I am pleased to announce the existence of the one and only

(It's currently in a very early stage, so not everything is fleshed out, but here's what I have so far)

Parallels is a little side project of mine which takes the current deltarune world, and focuses on a different cast.

The Human: Terro

Terro is an adventurous person. They're often very quiet while in public, but completely change when alone or with friends, becoming drastically more social and friendly.

The Monster: Ruby

Ruby is a jack of all trades when it comes to knowledge. If you have a question about just about anything, she probably at least knows where to guide you for answers. Above all else however, she loves gardening and nature

The Neighbor: Jack

Jack is a simple monster. If someone gets scared, himself included, he's happy. Scaring runs in his family, and he's happy to keep up the tradition. Although being Hallow entails far more than just scaring. After all, a halloween scare contrasts sharply with holiday spirit

The Prince from the pmdw: MT Pqge

Mgfaymfaz Tqxbqd Pqge, mxea wzaiz me MT Pqge ad vgef Pqge, ue m pmdwzqd ymotuzq yqmzf fa meeuef xustfzqde ftdagst ftq pmdw iadxp. Tq ue puefuzofxk xqee radymx ftmz tue oagzfqdbmdf, ngf efuxx nqxuqhqe uz yqdok mxx ftq emyq.

The story would occur during the story of regular Deltarune in hometown, however, instead of playing as kris, you instead play as Terro, accompanied by Ruby on your search to find out what happened to Kris and Susie

Now then, with all those introductions aside, you're probably wondering where this will go. That is a good question, I do not know, but I have some options, which is where you come in. Either:

A Game

Pros

-The intended experience for parallels

-Will probably be the most enjoyable

-Gives me an excuse to finally get into game design and begin something big

Cons

-Will take forever (Look no further than UTY taking 7 years)

-Requires me to learn music design, and game design

-Unless someone actively asks to join, I have no clue how I would expand my team

A webcomic

Pros

-Frequent Content that still follows the plot

-Follows the plot most accurately without being the game itself

Cons

-I cannot draw well and I don't have any art creation software other than aseprite (There is a reason I went into sprite art)

-I'm not sure how I would write this, and I don't think it will turn out that good

You can submit asks, and the characters will answer

Pros

-Can exist alongside other options freely (honestly depending on what happens with my question box, it will probably just come with whatever other option is chosen)

-Takes basically no effort on my end

Cons

-Barely gives any plot

-If used alone, makes certain characters forever unknown

Or I release the info doc I have on this thing

Pros

-Easiest option on my end

Cons

-I genuinely cannot think of a more boring option for all this lore to be revealed. Like seriously, this doc just lists everything out that I have

-Locks out all other options from being usable as it spoils the entire plot and everyone's character -Immediately all mystery is thrown out the window, and the majority of headcanon formation is squashed

Multiple of the above

Pros

-Any Pros of the components

-Gives more depth and interest to the story

Cons

-Any Cons of the components

-Combines the time of the individual parts

I now place the option in your hands, but I should note that if this doesn't get much attention, I'll probably just drop this all, because I already have a lot on my plate (Idk if this is greedy of me to ask, and I guarantee this will never happen in a million years, but just so everyone can have a concrete number I'll guarantee making whatever comes of the result I can get 3k notes on this post if the poll is still active, 5k notes if it's not, at which point I'll repost the poll so all the new people can vote).

Anyways, I think that's about everything on the topic, thanks for reading through this mess, you may go back to your regular scrolling.

oh hey you're still here. Have some art

Okay, that's all for real

U eqq kag mdq dmftqd pqhafqp fa gzpqdefmzpuzs ftue fqjf. Kag dqyuzp yq m xaf ar ykeqxr, pqmd dqmpqd. Bxqmeq, oazfuzgq fa pa ea itqz iq yqqf msmuz. Kag iuxx ruzp sdqmf geq uz pauzs ea.

[kaisooficpodcast]

Pride by and with yeolimerent

I am Alexio Sospranio and you’re listening to the kaisoo fic podcast!

For new listeners, the kaisoo fic podcast is a space where we discuss literature found in the kaisoosphere. Where we have authors on the show to give them a platform to talk about their writings and journey as an author in the fandom. 

This month we are looking at one fic for two episodes. First part was on the 12th, and today the second episode for the same fic is on the 14th. Special kaisoo dates!

If you, dear listener, have been up to date with the podcast episodes, you will find that there will be similar questions to other author’s sessions. Each author brings in their own different perspectives and experiences. By asking similar questions, we get to see how diverse yet united kaisoo fic writers are.

The sequence in which we will be having this episode is as such:

Firstly we have yeolimerent introducing the fic of the day, followed by some plot based questions, next some questions on their journey as a writer. Then we end with the 3is: lesson learnt; source of inspiration and impact to the kaisoo fic community.

I also got about four questions from an anon on curious cat, so I will be weaving the questions into the appropriate segments of the episode.  

Cover Art

Now, prior to me giving the author of the day these questions, I asked yeolimerent what is their favorite scene from Pride. And when they responded, luckily Lyn was still doing commissions… so i asked her. One more, just one more!

Thank you Lyn for opening up commissions and being accommodating to my requests!

In the podcast cover art… we have kaisoo on a beach. This scene is not a reimagined scene, it is from one of the last few moments of Pride where kaisoo reconcile.

Context from the fic for this particular position kaisoo is in takes almost directly from the fic itself.

Intro to author 

With permission of the author, I have reader Jie with me today, who will be taking the persona of yeolimerent. 

Introducing a bit on yeolimerent:

yeolimerent has been in this fandom since (2013), that’s about (11 years). The pull factor that got her into this fandom was always Chanyeol and EXO showtime in general, when she was in high school and everyone was getting into EXO. Journey with kaisoo started ever since she could remember and had always been inspired by their chemistry. yeolimerent is currently focused on EXO right now. She’s also into a lot of queer artists and media. 

Welcome, yeolimerent, thank you for your time in answering the questions for today’s session. 

Thanks for having me!

Yeolimeret. yes? Shall we dive into the episode! We shall! We start with the fic.

Pride

Pride by yeolimerent has 33 chapters with about 300 thousand words. Set in a universe where Kyungsoo is a chaebol and gets entangled with his driver. Lust, bitterness and heartache develops over the course of several chapters. Content warnings include smut (bottomsoo), I think one scene of dubious consent, and minor character deaths. 

Now, yeolimerent, would you maybe like to start us off for those who are not familiar, what is Pride about?

The initial plan was always to make a Seven Deadly Sins series starring major EXO ships and KaiSoo would be Pride. I just had this big interest in rich-poor au when it came to kaisoo and this felt like the perfect opportunity to do it. Another factor was the idea of a younger Jongin falling for an older Kyungsoo and looking up to him in a way. 

Pride is heavily Kyungsoo’s side of the story and how his world turned upside down in a span of a decade— from being one of the richest people in the country to owing millions of debts and then his poor first love who broke his heart turning into one of the most powerful men in the country who now has the upper hand on him. Here, we see him build and ruin relationships with other people in his life. We see how drastically things can change in a span of eight years, and how a lot of them also stay the same.

It’s basically his very complex journey of self-discovery and well… pride. 

Pride literally starts with a bang. And I love it. The first chapter titled Prologue, readers are met with a very high tension chapter where Kyungsoo is angry and Jongin exudes danger. It is a very gripping scene. I am curious as to why you began the fic with a scene from the climax of the plot? 

To be honest, this was the very FIRST scene that i came up with for Pride. It was my starting point. So what happened here would be the basis for the majority of what I wrote so it was very vital to the story. I guess I wanted the readers to read it first and think “Oh, what could’ve happened between them?” and “where do we go from here?” so it is the perfect prologue for the story.

The prologue scene is indeed very… you can get overwhelmed. And you did warn the readers to say that this is an intense and complicated fic, but I am super thankful that I continued to read and that i​​ stuck through the whole thing. 

Walk us through the chronology of you piecing up the plot. How did the pieces come to play after setting the prologue? Was it a bit overarching idea first or specific scenes coming in slowly piecing it all up?

For the chapter, I wasn’t much of a planner when I was writing Pride compared to how I am now as a writer. So every chapter came to me randomly, no outline and all. I just had this vague idea of what I would want to happen in that chapter and how I wanted to wrap it up, and then things just unfold from there depending on my inspiration. That’s probably a factor why the fic was so long because I couldn’t control it haha!

Wow, chapter coming up randomly with no outline… 

Wait, what about that tiny detail in the chapters before the 8 years apart happened, before the presentation? The tiniest bit of information, the carelessness of Kyungsoo leaving his blueprint in the room without much thought… was that also not fully planned? Because only at almost the very end was it revealed that his carelessness plus Soojung’s sly personality cost him a lot of things. That tiny detail became one of the most important points of the story that pushed Kyungsoo to be off the grid. 

As a reader, we also did not give it much thought because that moment was also brief. I guess my question now becomes… how intentional was your choice to have Kyungsoo not give too much thought to his work?

Yes. I wanted to convey that everyone had some sort of fault for what happened. Kyungsoo as a kid was meant to be careless and impulsive, and thats what got him in trouble. I intentionally made him spoiled and imposing to raise a bit of intrigue because he was, after all, still a chaebol kid. I wanted people to see how he treated people like Soojung unprovoked and think “did he deserve it?”

A question from my curious cat reads: if Jongin and Kyungsoo had met on Kyungsoo birthday in the bar, what would have happened? I was like omg Jongin turn and face Kyungsoo!!! Jongin turn around damn itttt :(

Ohh. I dont think that would be that productive as well because Kyungsoo would do what he did best, which was of course— to run. LMAO.

Surprising moments

Previous episode I asked the readers about the element in the plot that surprised them.

There were generally two main points on how Pride really grabs the reader’s attention. First shocking point for Pride was how readers were shocked at your choice yeolimerent, the writer’s choice. Of having Seonho be Kyungsoo’s buddy as they travel to New York and become the best of friends.

One of my most favorite things about Pride was Kyungsoo and Seonho’s very unconventional relationship. It was always the part that caught people off guard hahaha. I like the fact that when you read the first few chapters, Seonho would be the last person in the universe you’d expect to be Kyungsoo’s rock during the hardest days of his life but it happened anyway. It was also vital to his relationship with Jongin because a lot of jealousy stemmed from his past relationship with Seonho and it was very fun to watch unfold because Jongin was busting a vein while everything between them was platonic.

Seonho and Kyungsoo’s relationship is definitely unconventional. Related is another question from my curious cat for your fic. The question is: did Seonho really get his closure with Kyungsoo? Even though they both moved on with their lives, whenever I read Seonho and Kyungsoo’s part in New York I always had this weird anxiety about what if they cross the line of friendship. But they never did. They kept it cute, I loved it and Seonho’s character development was crazy! I wish I had a Seonho in my life too… So again the question is, did Seonho really get his closure with Kyungsoo?

I didnt really want to be so explicit about it. To me, they didnt have to sit down and have a lengthy talk about their relationship before running away together. I think that scene in the bar where their simple conversation about running away from their families became their closure in some sort because it was definite that no romance was left. Simple a trauma bond and the desperation to live their similarly miserable lives at home.

It also put emphasis on the concept of forgiveness because while Kyungsoo hated Seonho’s guts during college, it showed that he was SOOO heartbroken from Jongin to find solace on his ex and their shared trauma with their dads. It was enough to rebuild their relationship into a different, but stronger one.

Thank you for touching on the point of forgiveness. We see a lot of that here in the many relationships we explore in the fic. I think almost every pair baeksoo, chanbaek, kaibaek, has an element of forgiveness because of how much the characters have each hurt each other. 

A pairing brought up in the previous episode was Baekhyun and Kyungsoo. Right before Kyungsoo leaves, you can tell that Baekhyun felt a void in his heart after their conversation. Then a while after Kyungsoo goes back to Korea, we witness that scene where Kyungsoo talks to Baekhyun and when, i quote: his words tugged in his most fragile spot, chapter 26 titled Make It Up To You, is a sincere Kyungsoo who wants to help Baekhyun. This scene was a nice change of pacing and it feels very honest as well. 

Yes. I think one of the lines I liked there was “we could stop being friends and I’d still know you more than anyone.” because that’s the gist of their relationship. Baekhyun, when he was unapologetically weird and had no other friends in college, was still the realest version of himself and only Kyungsoo really accepted that before Chanyeol came.

Another point of surprise made was how intense Jongin’s love was for Kyungsoo. Seeing as we are reading the fic in Kyungsoo’s POV, it was quite an eye opener to have read Jongin’s. As readers we do get a hint of Jongin having feelings for Kyungsoo. And upon the Jongin’s POV chapters, our impressions are validated, but to such a shocking extent. The previous episode as mentioned by one of the readers was that: they were convinced that Jongin had feelings for Kyungsoo the first time they met, but felt skeptical with their hunch since it always seemed like Jongin was siding with Soojung and setting Kyungsoo aside. But as the Jongin’s POV chapters were revealed, I think collectively, for readers, it becomes very clear that it is without a doubt Jongin loves Kyungsoo. 

You do a wonderful job and I really appreciate you giving us Jongin’s POV. Reading the fic again from Jongin’s POV, it becomes very thought provoking because there is a wider perspective which makes the story more complex. 

The part of the plot that changes to Jongin’s POV is after Kyungsoo is honest to Seonho that he loves Jongin. And with that, i pause for a question to yeolimerent: at what point of writing from Kyungsoo’s POV did you feel like you needed to share Jongin’s?

The part where he stopped tugging the other side of the rope and felt this intense fear of losing Kyungsoo completely when he saw him with Seonho at the parking lot. At present time, of course readers could tell Jongin wanted Kyungsoo back but him as a person didnt really know that or knew where to start. That scene with Seonho was some sort of his wake up call and from then on, he stopped letting his fears hold him back and was definite about winning the love of his life back so it was the perfect opportunity to reveal his side.

Writers Journey

The next segment is on the writer’s journey, your journey of writing Pride amongst other things.

The nature of Pride is that it is very long and dramatic and with that it has a very high intense emotional plot. As a reader, it feels overwhelming at times and i think a point that was brought up in the previous episode was how even upon rereading it the second time, the emotional rollercoaster was as intense as the first reading. And for some, already knowing the twist and surprising parts of the fic, it allows us to analyze every interaction they have before leading to that point. So that is us as readers. But how did you keep your emotions in check while writing?

It is crazy because a lot of people had complained about it being heavy throughout the years and I totally get it, but writing it was so therapeutic to me. I guess projecting a lot on Kyungsoo’s character played a lot of factor in that. He did a lot of stupid things in that fic but a lot of them were something I’d do or a choice I’d make so it felt nice to let it out.

Oh, wow. I see, so what kind of work is Pride to you?

Therapy! That was the time of my life where I had a lot going on and was in the middle of my med school applications so writing was a solace to me.

I did not know what to expect of your answer to my question, but I am definitely quite in awe. 

It sounds like the whole process was very cathartic especially when you say you project on Kyungsoo and it feels nice to let it out. I am in awe mainly because I see it is something to channel your creative energy and in turn, because it is something so unique, very yeolimerent style, readers can really immerse themselves in your words and see the plot developing through your eyes.

With that i am curious, how long have you been writing? Is the reference on ao3 correct to say that you have been writing since 2019 or did you start way earlier on another site?

I have been writing the first Deadly Sins fics in wattpad since 2017 and only moved to AO3 in 2018 for my first BAE fic. I wrote Pride in AO3 but it was also posted in both wattpad and AFF. I’ve also been writing creatively since high school, which was over 10 years ago.

How seasoned a writer were you in writing when you came up with this? What point of your writer’s journey was Pride published?

I definitely had a much better experience writing it compared to the first two because I got better at expressing the character’s emotions. I would say I still got a bit better in fics I wrote after Pride but that was one of my works where I was able to express the characters’ emotions the way I wanted to deliver them.

Somehow that is comforting to know. This really long work has not only had therapeutic aspects for you, but you were able to articulate yourself. And it’s a win for everyone. We get a wonderful story filled with deep human flaws, heartache of first loves, redemption arc and a hope for love to persist. And hopefully you also get to benefit from it by navigating through life with more grit and faith with whatever life hits you with.

Lesson Learnt

Lesson learnt. The points we made the previous episode was that this fic teaches us so many things - importance of honest communication to resolve issues and insecurities. Teaching us about how moving on and forgiveness is important. 

There is so much to unpack, so if there was one or more points you would like readers to take away from this story, what would it be?

Like you said, definitely communication and how important it is in a relationship. A lot of the problems in Pride came from their lack of talking which could be solved if the two of them were locked in a room together. Yes, the long tension was sexy but a lot of time could have been saved if they were well-functioning adults lol. I think forgiveness was also a big concept in this fic, not for the sake of those who wronged you but more on your peace of mind.

So now knowing the lessons you want readers to takeaway and us understanding the kind of work Pride was to you, what was the most challenging part of writing this particular au? 

I did say it was therapeutic but writing it also had me confronting a lot of emotions buried deep when I was writing it. So many aspects in Kyungsoo’s character’s life were heavily based on mine so it definitely was difficult to acknowledge it. I was also in a phase where I aimed to please people so I was rarely satisfied with the chapters I wrote no matter how good the feedback I’d receive.

I see. I suppose it is natural for when things are therapeutic, it forces you to be honest. As a reader, we can see your sincerity. Thank you for writing. 

Examples 

Of course we cannot talk about hardship and forget about good things. So yeolimerent, what is your favorite scene? A scene that so beautifully captures the essence of the fic, a scene that you think about when you think back into this fic? 

The ending on a beach was very heavy, both in good and bad ways. Years of unsaid words had to come out and it was messy, so I definitely remember it first. The scene where they were both sitting on the sand, both tired and hopeless, reimagining what could have been if things were different and accepting there was no way of changing things, so they either leave for good or move forward together. 

Probably just me, but I also love the double chapter with Jongin’s POV on everything because it sheds light on a lot of questions.

I recently reread the scene again and it is easy to feel emotional at that moment. 

I have another question from my curious cat that reads: In the FAQ, you mentioned the emotional scene but I wanna know what was your favorite scene like you read the scene and went “ damn girl you kinda ate”. Would it be the same beach scene or do you have another in mind?

Jongin’s POV was definitely one of my favorite because I had to navigate a completely different character and speak from his view. I also liked the scenes where Kyungsoo was trying to find himself in New Zealand because the parallelisms with his life and something as simple as volcanos was appealing to me.

Yeolimernet, listeners would be so honored to have you read an extract from the scene in the beautiful New Zealand beach, your favorite scene.

The designer looks at the distance where the sun has slowly risen. He bites his lip hard to prevent both a smile and his sobs.

“How could you confess and build all our dreams… in a car, parked on the side of the street?” his laugh mixes perfectly with a hiccup. Soo lets his head fall on his chest when Jongin reaches for his nape.

Inspiration

Thank you for reading your favorite scene. Having you read an extract aloud like this, it just makes me wonder, what inspired you to have this au? 

When I started writing it, I just wanted to see where it would take me. The moment their conflict started as college students, I found myself, even as the writer, asking for more too. I just always had this thrill in me whenever I got to start a new chapter or publish them. I looked forward to seeing what people thought. I guess that was my biggest drive to go on. EXO as a group was also very active when I was writing this story so there were still a lot of ship crumbs that helped me.

I find your trust in the process very fascinating. It becomes a journey of self discovery both for Kyungsoo and yourself.  

And from this inspiration of yours, was this the original idea you had in mind when you first drafted the fic? How much has the story grown or changed while writing?

Nothing particularly different from the final product. It definitely was supposed to be shorter than 300k like the 2 sinners trilogy before it, but I really had fun writing it and felt like the scenes I came up with, no matter how tedious and uneventful they seemed, were vital for the story and the characters’ arcs.

It certainly seems that way, very purposeful and intentional scenes. 

Impact

We are nearing the end of the episode, this next and last segment is on the author’s impact on the kaisoo fic community.

But before that, the last question from my CC reads: my pride yaps are never ending pls don’t mind me but anyway thank you so much for writing the fic really..even though its angst its one of my go to comfort fics. I need to get this off my chest, I felt like Wrath and Pride happened simultaneously in two parallel worlds..there is a thin line as there were lots of similarities but two fics were completely different. The emotions you conveyed, idk how to put it hope you get what I am trynna say..so how did you do srsly?

Ohh yes, they were completely different worlds. Thanks for being kind! I think my sinners trilogy are similar in a way because the sins are somehow still intertwined in other stories. You can still apply wrath on Pride, and you can very much see pride on Wrath’s characters. Idk if that makes sense but i think that’s what made them feel similar. 

I hope that answers your question, anon!

Yeolimerent, what kind of writer do you consider yourself as? For example, what is the one thing you hold dear to when writing? Or what is something you would never write?

Hmm I definitely am the type to write details as vivid and palpable as possible. I’m very visual as a person so I like writing the scene where I can be as clear as I possibly can for the imagery. I also try to write realistic lines or something I wouldn’t cringe at if I hear real Kaisoo say it in real life (key word: try hahaha). I like writing characters that are deeply flawed, and then I like having them reflect on said flaws.

In terms of tropes, I’m very welcoming to a lot of them as a reader. But as a writer, being realistic like I said, I’m not particularly into farfetched or over the top tropes like Mpreg or A/B/O. But depending on the world-building, I have fun reading them and am not closing any doors about writing them in the future.

And upon identifying the things you would like to continue to do, and the things you will never do as a writer, what’s the biggest thing you learnt while writing fics? Anything surprising or impactful or moving? Be it about the storytelling, the language used or the life lessons?

Heck, number 1: it is a thousand times harder to write fics when English is not your first language! TT I’ve had a lot of writing experience outside of the ficdom but it is still a struggle to express certain thoughts in another language. 

Plot-wise, I realized I also like it when my characters admit that they did certain things because they just fucked up and not everything has to have deep reasons. It’s a trend I’ve seen in my recent works and it’s always refreshing to write about people who screw up once in a while.

Thank you for writing despite it being difficult.

With all the things you have learnt yeolimerent, and with your experience, all 7 years of it, what do you think makes a great story?

Write what you want to read! I’ve scrapped a lot of stories because I found that I tried writing them to please a certain crowd but it didn’t really feel right on my part. Writing what you would like to read gives you more ideas and creative juices you didn’t know were there. Allow your characters to have flaws and give them space to grow too. I have a huge preference for slowburn stories, both as a reader and writer, because seeing the characters go through a satisfying arc is what makes a great story for me. 

Ending Ment

Before we end things, dear yeolimerent, do you have any other comments you want to share with us listeners? Any teasers for ongoing AUs or a hint of upcoming AUs you have in your work in progress stage? 

Nothing in progress for me sadly as I am busy with hospital work :( I might have some things in the drafts but I don’t know if they’d ever see the light of day lol. I am definitely reading comments and messages once in a while though, whether I reply or not, and it really gives me strength. I would definitely like to write more kaisoo fics in the future especially once they start interacting again, canon!

I’m happy to have the opportunity to talk about Pride like this after so many years so thank you for doing this and for appreciating the fic! I’m very grateful.

Thank you yeolimerent for taking time out of your busy schedule to be with us in spirit of the episode and my dear Jie voicing over as yeolimerent, thank you for doing this with me on a weekday.

Dear listener, the link to the author’s ao3 and twitter profile will be given below in the notes section. And with that we have come to the end of today’s episode. 

Do keep a lookout for next month’s episode because we will be going through Chasing Summer Skies by rainepaige08. 

New episodes either every 13th of the month or 12th and 14th, special kaisoo dates, of course.

To reach me, i am kaisooficdrunk on twitter and if you want you can drop me questions on my curious cat you can do so with the same username. There will also be another link that brings you to my tumblr blog with the transcription for today’s episode. There you can also find the other scripts for other episodes as well.

Thank you for listening, have a good day, dear kaisooist, and we look forward to next month’s episode. Stay tuned.