#Sorry oops

[pardonmydelays]

also, just so you know, the eras tour was my final moment as a swiftie

[holycartoonwarrior]

[louderfade]

i'm so sick of living in this rotten corporeal form and nothing works there is no escape and it will always be like this. there is no relief and i will never be able to talk about it enjoy the misery i guess. it doesn't matter. everyone just does the best they can. feelings inside a body were never fair.

[godshivered]

so the discord girlies were telling me to post this… here’s a lil love confession thought/fic, based on an idea from @fat-fem-and-asian about barbara having a Christmas Carol-esque dream about the life she could have had with melissa…

so melissa’s sleepy and rolls out of bed to answer the door and barbara’s just in a state.

“geez, barb, it’s barely light out, what are-“

“i need to talk to you.”

“i- okay, yeah. come in, let me make some coffee or something-“

“melissa,” and barbara grabs her hand before she can turn around. it’s cold outside and melissa wants to drag her into the house but barbara’s afraid to enter, afraid she’ll be turned down and have to open that door and leave again. stays just outside the boundary, blames her shaking on the breeze.

“is everything okay? what’s wrong?”

barbara parts her lips, gaze stumbling over melissa and trying to get her bearings, still sleep-addled and blinking through flashes of raising the girls with melissa — of christmases and halloweens and sparkler summers and easter egg hunts — of late night leftovers and kitchen bickering and back porch wine nights and a bedroom that’s just theirs, no one else’s — of falling asleep in melissa’s arms, in her lap, against her neck, and waking up still there. she sees her missing life flashing before her eyes and she just wants the rest of it so badly that shes petrified. she can barely speak.

and melissa’s worried, takes both of barbara’s hands and tries to tug her into the house. “babe, you’re freezing. did something happen?”

“none of it happened,” barbara breathes in a daze, staring down at melissa’s hands — gripping them tighter.

“you’re scaring me; please talk-“

“melissa, i’m in love,” barbara starts, then her breath hitches between the words — she swallows, looking up into melissa’s eyes. her lip trembles, and she tries again. “i’m in love, with you.”

and melissa doesn’t believe what she’s hearing, because it’s always been a bit off the table — it’s been flirtation, maybe playful touching, playful kissing — maybe a couple wine-drunk kisses that went too long when joe was breaking her heart or gerald was breaking barbara’s spirit, but now they’re here with nothing in between, and she’s saying love, she’s stamping that word to melissa and it doesn’t compute, it isn’t allowed, it isn’t for her-

“what does that…” melissa bites her cheek hard to keep from crying or breathing or showing any emotion yet, “mean, what does- what do you want me to-“

“you, melissa, i’m- let me finish, just let me…” barbara looks melissa over, trying to collect herself, trying to take in this moment. to breathe in it. to know what she wants to say, and throw out all the other things she doesn’t. “i want you.”

“can you just come inside?”

“i want to be with you,” barbara continues anyway, breathless. “there’s nothing else; just you. i’m in love with you.”

“please come inside,” and melissa’s sniffling now, probably from the cold, and barbara shakes her head, squeezes melissa’s hands-

“and i know it’s been so long-“

“barbara, please just-“

“-and you’ve waited too long, i’ve made you wait so-“

“barb, god, just come here,” and barbara finally hears the tears in her voice, and surrenders to the pull of melissa’s hands, and sinks into a tight embrace — melissa dragging barbara into her home and collapsing against her neck, tears against her shirt and early morning hair all ruffled in barbara’s face, and barbara’s heart is pounding against melissa’s chest…

and it’s quiet for a moment, just melissa’s silent sobbing chest and barbara’s tears tracking down along her ears. and she screws her eyes shut and waits as long as she can.

“melissa, say something.” you’re scaring me.

that’s when melissa inhales a huge breath, and draws back with flushed cheeks and glossy eyes and just takes barbara’s face in her hands and looks intently in her eyes, and asks lowly, “are you sure?”

barbara wants to laugh in her sweet little face. “am i sure? honey.”

“because i am so-” melissa almost laughs too, but it’s deeper in her throat, “so miserably in love with you. you know that.”

barbara’s eyebrows arch. “do i?”

“don’t you? fuck, barbara-“

and that’s all she needs — melissa drags her by the jawline, pulls her into a kiss that’s so full of mess and tears and clumsy height adjustment and cold tile and warm breaths and the door creaking to a soft shut behind barbara — and it’s like that deja vu when you walk into real life and it’s just like your dreams. she kisses melissa and for the first time, it feels just like her dreams.

[virtue-and-beneviolence]

If i came back could we pretend to not notice the gap on my resume cuz im just excited tn

[lordsooga]

WELL let's try that again since last time the image didn't upload last time oops.

I had the absolute pleasure of drawing some Yiga for the @sheikahzine, and I'm finally posting the preview of my piece ❤️💜🍌

The full zine is REALLY something, and I'm so excited for yall to see! Preorders are still open but only until March 4th, 12:00AM PST

You can preorder here: https://theeyesofhyrule.bigcartel.com/

[dragonballwish]

I didn't realize it was your birthday! Hope it's a happy one!

Thank you !!! I def haven’t really said anything here sorry 🥹 thank you dearly !! I hope you have a great day !! ♥︎

[wonfilms]

IMPORTANT

SOMEONE JUST BASICALLY STOLE MY POST WHAT?????

IDK WHAT TO DO PLEASE HELP ME SBBSHSBSH

[rammypaige]

Trick or Treat!

This is late so you get all the leftovers ;)

[novicity]

New pfp

[futuregws]

I think it's so funny how Portuguese people (I'm Portuguese so don't come for me for saying this) wanna take credit in the smallest things and I think "taking credit" might not be the right words, so I will just explain, the new short film coming out with pedro pascal "strange way of life" that film has a Portuguese actor in it (not sure what role he is playing but pedro has posted photos with him) and the name of the movie is the name of a veryyyyy iconic song here in Portugal from a very well known and loved singer that is no longer alive, and during press for the last of us one Portuguese interviewer asked pedro about it and I have no idea what he said I wasn't paying attention but from what I've seen this film has NOTHING to do with the song or the singer they just used the name of the song and translated it to English and Spanish and people here were milking that shit, soooo that's what I mean and it's amusing to say the least

[birthday-of-music]

one time i had a whole discussion about what would happen if everyone in es went to the beach. leo would pretend to drown so izumi would come and save him but izumi cant swim and leo would drown him instead. ritsu would fall asleep in the water and mao would be keeping him alive. tsukasa would originally try to save ritsu but as soon as he got in the water he would realise he cant swim and naru has to save him.

tatsumi doesnt let any of alkaloid go in the water because its not holy enough.

if sora looked like he was in any danger natsume would try and swim to save him but he would drown and tsumugi would have to save both of them. however natsume would rather drown than let tsumugi save him and none of the oddballs can swim so hes out of luck there.

chiaki wants to save everyone who cant swim but hes stuck trying to stop kanata from accidentally drowning. tetora takes over chiakis supposed job. adonis helps him too and so does madara. shinobu tries to swim for ninja training but he cant. midori just hangs around in the shallows

keito cannot swim. kuro has to help him. souma just watches them.

narumika swim together but naru helps those who are drowning just in case. mika tries to get shu to come and swim when naru leaves but shu refuses under the guise of it being unartistic but in reality he just cant swim for shit.

izumi and hiyori sit in the sand trying to look pretty. hiyori cant swim either because he doesnt think its necessary. jun is disappointed, but still makes sure he doesnt die.

rei and nazuna and natsume sit on the beach like parents while watching the twins and ra*bits and sora splash around and shoot each other with water guns. nazuna occasionally joins them. if ritsu was drowning and mao wasnt around rei would try and save him but ritsu would manage to swim just to get away from him and theyd both drown. nagisa is there too being an old man with rei. ibara might join nagisa because although hes a good swimmer he doesnt care for it much.

niki is just cooking for everyone. rinne doesnt swim, instead he hangs around niki and tries to flirt with him to get more food. niki takes away his food privileges instead. himeru avoids the water but also avoids rinniki because he doesnt want to watch them flirt. kohakus a decent swimmer but he doesnt bother. he probably hangs out with himeru.

subaru would go ooh kirakira water and then try to swim and hokuto goes you idiot youll drown and hes doing fine but then he gets swept away by a wave and hokuto just facepalms. mao is busy keeping ritsu alive and makoto can only swim well enough to stay in the water to get away from izumi. mao is struggling.

tori would drown and yuzuru has to save him. luckily yuzuru is a great swimmer but hes too occupied with tori to help the others with makeshift life guarding. wataru would enjoy swimming but he cant. he might hang around with the water gun group but stay in the shallows. tori laughs at wataru but hes not really any better.

[korrectkomaeda]

i love rbing something here like once every other week

[queer-coded-tourney]

HOW IS EIJI LOSING TO URSULA IM GONNA COMBUST

[seaselkie]

🌀❤ 2, 5, 15, 26 ❤🌀

Aaaah okay hi. Oof some good ones but also some tricky ones to answer. Sorry, this will be long 🤪

2. When you’re writing a new story, what is the one thing you need to know before you can start?

Unhelpfully, this depends.

The simplest, shortest answer is I mostly need to start with the human element; generally people. A character or dynamic that I have a vested interest in exploring in some way. Sometimes I want to write for a world or larger concept, but mostly with me it is something human at heart.

The more in depth answer is that what I need to start with is often different. Sometimes the idea for a story will be built on some internal factor - a character confronting a fear, or achieving some goal. Sometimes the starting idea is external - wanting to explore a physical space or put people in a certain situation. And those things are just what inspiration happens to strike, sometimes at random and sometimes prompted by what I see or read in the source material.

For example:

When I wrote Raise the Black (Maze Runner), it was because I mostly wanted to write about 18th Century piracy and specifically sailing and tall ships. The rest of the story I built around that. When I wrote The Space Between Sleep (911) it was more that I wanted to explore paths of recovery after trauma and the many different forms that both trauma and love can take. (This is a popular draw for me, and many of my other fics have threads of this). I also have around 100k of a Teen Wolf fic that has never seen the light of day which exists purely because I had one character-oriented idea and it needed a lot of set up to get there.

5. How do you know when a story is “done”?

The short answer to this is closure.

Whatever the story set out to do, when you have been able to satisfy the sense of closure to the key characters and plot elements and questions that you have opened up, that is perhaps a good indicator. (Closure, is also not in conflict with an open ending. I think you can have an open ending, in many ways, while still feeling like you have resolved what you need to).

The longer answer to this is I think is trickier.

First off, because as my hard-drive will confirm, I am crap at knowing when a story needs to stop. I just keep adding to them and realising theres way more to tell than the small idea I started with. I also think, though, that stories are never really done, or over, but that authors have to pick a point to stop telling them. Part of that is, perhaps, knowing when you have addressed and resolved the things you set out to, and knowing when something else is part of an entirely new story instead of this one.

Examples again - When I wrote The Last Hearth (GoT) it was very much about that one conversation between two sisters. When I had addressed the things I set out to, the scene could come to an end. Shape of Grief (Maze Runner) was about exploring loss and pain and following that down a tragic path. The story I am currently working on, an aralas lotr brainrot, started on a few ideas spread out over time, and there are more dynamics involved than just two people so it encompasses much more in the telling. Ultimately all those I consider complete when they provide the closure for the threads I started pulling on, even if the endings aren't all neatly tied, or especially happy.

15. How do you write a really good metaphor?

(First - I think that whether you did write a good one or not is ultimately up to the individual reader, and this is something I always say of writing generally. You can do all the hard work in the world, but ultimately, a reader's first impressions and interpretation of a story is their lived experience and nothing you say or try to correct about it afterwards can take away from that. It might contextualise it, or provide greater understanding, or might offer them another viewpoint, but their first feeling is something that they have every right to even if it is not what you as a writer intended.)

So short answer again, my personal 'good' metaphor is making it immersive and relatable but also being able to find a common thread to the audience.

To elaborate on that - (imo) a good metaphor is one that pulls from the world and the story around it. It is using language that your viewpoint/narrating characters would personally have a reference for because they understand or have experience with them. For instance, in a medieval world, you might not use words or phrases to do with computers, or even advanced science. Back then you wouldn't say someone "bluescreened" with shock or they felt as though they had been electrocuted because they have no reference for that terminology. Even within the same story or world, different characters have different experiences and they may think or relate to things in different terms. So whoever is telling your chapter or story, use metaphors that relate to them and make sense in their understanding of their world.

In some ways the tricky part could be being able to use metaphors that make sense to the character and their lives, but ones that don't leave the reader with no point of reference, especially in stories where the world, culture, character or whatever else are so departed from the reader's experiences.

So ultimately, what I think makes a metaphor good is embedding it in the world and having it make sense within the context of its story while being able to deliver that to readers.

26. How do you go about world building?

Lmao damn. Short answer: a piece at a time.

The long answer....(and boy did this take some time to think about)

I think it is some core essentials and ultimately people come to them in their own ways. For me its working out from wherever your starting point is - be that an opening scene, a line of dialogue, a character concept etc - and at every stage, asking questions about who, when, how, where, why etc to fill in a history and paint a picture. Sometimes you need to know one person's backstory before anything else, and other times that kind of individuality comes way later because first you need the larger picture of a corrupt government or something. So the starting blocks will be different for every author and for every story, but in its core form, to me at least, its slowly working outward, asking questions and finding answers that all form building blocks for the overall image.

(Like, most of us know Harry Potter started with a boy and his scar. Tolkien started with languages and a map. Percy Jackson came to life because Riordan wanted a hero with ADHD. The Scorpio Races was written because Stiefvater pictured a brutal beach horseback race. The world comes together a bit at a time from that starting idea).

I think then, a Part 2 to this answer, is actually writing it into a story, not just how you come up with it, and for me that is also: a piece at a time. Show, don't tell.

If you drop several paragraphs of backstory on your world in the opening pages - or even a wall of text in the middle - the chances are your readers will skim it and move on. Generally speaking, with a few exceptions, you don't want your story to lose momentum, and that is what happens when you take a time out to explain a lot of things.

So for me, I favour drip feeding information. Share the bits that are relevant when the story is served by knowing them. Sometimes that is letting the reader learn things at the same pace that your characters learn them. Not only is it more likely that the information will stay in their minds because its necessary and useful in the moment, but it can also help to embed them in the story and develop a stronger emotional attachment if they feel like they're living it in the same breaths as your characters.

All of this obviously just... my opinions on things 🤓

Damn Dreams you asked some hard ones. I hadn't stopped to think about some of this before so that was fun. Thank you!

Ask me author questions

[ilostyou]

back to my rant for a second. it’s like i knew where i stood before and now i have no clue of what i do is normal or appreciated or annoying or neutral or anything else bc i just don’t know what’s considered normal appreciated annoying neutral etc etc etc and i feel like i need to stay hyperaware of everything bc it feels like everything is me testing the waters and i might accidentally set off an explosion somewhere for saying something doing something not doing something