#This is a nice change from my other 2 pairings which don't get above 20 pages of results

[libartz]

*Arcane season 2 comes out*

"Yeah sure I guess I'll watch it. I didn't really vibe with season 1 but nothing else really going on rn"

"Hang on this is actually really good. OOO Viktor's purple now good for him, can't wait to see him being an eldritch freak"

"Act 1 is over and I want more. Guess I'll read some fanfiction. Hmm... let's go with Jayvik. I only really ship them agnostically in a qpr way but nobody writes fic for that so romance it is."

"Ooh this is a good fic. Kind of invested in this pairing now. Jayce go get your mans"

*Act 2 comes out*

"God fucking dammit"

[mothknight42]

HEY YOU!! DEAR FRIEND!! ANSWER ALL OF THOSE AO3 WRAP UP QUESTIONS!! (if you want... Lol)

HEY YOU!! I SHALL DEAR FRIEND!! THANK YOU FOR ASKING!! (under the cut tho cause this is long)

How many words have you written this year?

If my math is correct.....150k words. omg? last year it was 98.7k so I wrote more this year somehow. neat!

2. How many works did you publish this year?

Published 21, but worked on 24 since three of my fics were multichapters that I started last year :)

3. What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?

Hmm....probably a three way tie between superstition, severed, and sunday best. superstition I am proud of for actually attempting to write, since it is a proper multichapter with a plot and everything (lolsies). severed was a delight to write and I am very proud of how well I captured the elden ring character relationships despite being nervous to try. sunday best I am proud of because it was a risk to write in a VERY different fandom than I was used to, and I think I did a pretty ok job!!

4. What work of yours has the most hits?

desert hearts, with 3,429 hits. it is a thousand hits ahead of any of my other works haha. people really liked it ^-^

5. What work of yours got more feedback than you expected?

severed and wolves without teeth. neither got a ton of feedback, but I expected them to get none hahaha. so the handful of comments from people were really nice!!! OH and my yellowjackets fic, the world's the same, but something's changing. it got a ton of kudos, way above my average in my main fandom.

6. Favorite title you used

superstition, from the song of the same name by the band The Birthday Massacre. the song fits the fic and its themes perfectly. I also liked but this island's run by sharks, children's bones stuck in their jaws, which is a song lyric from I Love You by Fontaines D.C.

7. If you use song lyrics, which artist’s songs did you pull from the most?

I pull from a lot of random artists, but I think I pulled from Mannequin Pussy more than once this year. such an awesome band, everyone should check them out!!

8. Pairing you wrote the most for this year?

Bayonetta/Jeanne <3 same as last year!! it is funny to see my fic count for fandoms because Bayonetta definitely dominates. as she should. teehee.

9. Favorite pairing you wrote for this year?

Rosa/Jeanne, for my fic accelerate. it is such a unique dynamic, and writing a toxic and vindictive Rosa twisting the heart of a stubborn Jeanne was really exciting. Not a pairing I love or would write often haha, but it was the most interesting one I sunk my teeth into this year for sure.

honorary mention to Barbara/Melissa from Abbott Elementary. I always feel intimidated attempting to capture them faithfully in fics, but god I adore their dynamic. shoutout to the many very talented writers in the fandom!!

10. What work was the quickest to write?

I don't know, actually. almost all of my oneshots under 4k I wrote in one sitting over the course of an hour or two. I write pretty fast when I have an itch for a small idea. but I will say I wrote A LOT for superstition very quickly. the first five chapters were written before I started posting, and were all written within a month or two.

11. What work took you the longest to write?

definitely whistle lingers inside of your chest. it was a WIP from last year I finally finished after a long period of teeth grinding editing, and honestly I am still not 1000% happy with it. from start to finish it probably took me at least seven months. funny, since it is only 4k lmao.

12. How many WIP’s do you have in your docs for next year?

*shaky smile* well....................at least 15. ahahahahaha. superstition is obviously my "big project" with a planned 20 chs and might not even get finished next year. right now we are on ch 5, so we shall see. I have a lot of smaller oneshots planned and/or half written. mostly for bayonetta, but I have a few for abbott elementary, bloodborne, portal, and elden ring.

13. What’s your longest work of the year?

superstition. right now it is sitting at 25k and I have plans to release another ch before the year is out (hopefully!!). longest not-multichapter was severed, at 13k. shoutout to skelebotanicals for typing up the 90 HANDWRITTEN PAGES of that fic's first draft. a true hero.

14. What’s your shortest work of the year?

acquired taste, a silly gift fic for skelly. it was a whopping 397 words.

15. What WIP are you taking into next year with you?

superstition !! *crying screaming throwing up* but quite a few of my oneshots will definitely be done in the first few months of the year since those are all in the editing stages already and aren't too long.

16. What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag?

hurt/no comfort, probably. sorry.

17. Your favorite character to write this year?

*in balder's voice* ROSAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bayonetta Origins gave us some more crumbs about her, so it was a delight exploring various facets of who she is/who she could be. the most fun characters to write are ones that are technically in canon, but essentially become OCs since so little is known about them imho. lolsies.

I also really enjoyed writing Barbara Howard for Abbott Elementary!! she is SO specific and such a delight to crack open.

18. The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?

Malenia and Miquella. huge thank you to Wilmaa for giving me some advice when I was shaping their interactions in severed. and to be honest, Bayonetta herself!! I always find her difficult to capture, despite her being my favorite character. Or maybe that is why she is my favorite....hmm......

19. What’s one pairing you want to explore next year?

Chell/GLaDOS :D TOXIC ROBOT HUMAN YURI ! ! ! ! !

20. Which work of yours have you reread the most?

maybe king of silence? I just really enjoyed it. feel good with only a touch of angst.

21. How many kudos in total did you get this year?

I am too lazy to count. A couple hundred, probably. I write for small fandoms, so any interaction is a gift and a joy :)

22. Which work has the most comments?

desert hearts, of course. but I reply to every comment, so my comment count on ao3 is always half of what it says, since the other half is just me haha.

23. Did you do any collaborative works this year?

till death do us part, with dubhgloinne >:) what does it say about me that my only collab work is a raunchy smut fic published three days into the new year?

24. Did you write any gifts this year?

ya!!!! I wrote gifts for dubhgloinne, XilianX, Wilmaa, and skelebotanicals. I think six in total? I really enjoy writing gift fics, but they always make me nervous. what if the recipient doesn't like it !?!?!?!?!?

25. Did you receive any gifts this year?

YA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I received three this year, from Wilmaa, Dikhotomia, and TheValaxy. I feel very very very blessed that all of them wrote such wonderful fics and were kind enough to gift them to me......Wilmaa and Dikhotomia enshrined the best parts of desert hearts from their own perspectives, and TheValaxy reawakened my love and need and desire for Knight!AU bayojeanne. THANK YOU MY FRIENDS <3 <3

26. What’s your most common category?

F/F easily (lesbian moment!) but I have enjoyed writing more Gen works this year :)

27. What do you listen to while writing?

whatever music is itching at my skull in the moment. some artists this year I really loved and found motivating include Mannequin Pussy, Florence + The Machine, Rina Sawayama, Atarashii Gakko!!, the Nova Twins, Fontaines D.C, and King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.

28. Favorite work you wrote this year?

that is like asking me to pic a favorite child.....guh. maybe accelerate. I really enjoy my weird fucked up AU fics. night, I stand walked to accelerate could run. the morgana/rosa fics were also fun tbh.

but honestly I really loved all of my branching out fics for other fandoms. sunday best + moon river for abbott elementary, severed for elden ring, wolves without teeth for bloodborne.....fond of them all.

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

literally anything from severed. I was really proud of the descriptions in that piece.

also, this opening bit from sunday best:

Melissa watches with bright eyes as Ms. Barbara Howard makes her way across the parking lot, smiling politely and greeting every person who crosses her path. The day is overcast, and the ground is still wet from the previous night’s rain shower, but that’s fine, because Barbara herself is brighter and warmer than any sun. She’s radiant in a modest dress the color of fresh cut daffodils, her usual pearls laid carefully about her neck, lips painted in a muted plum. It’s September, and starting to get chilly, but Barbara looks like summer, so much so that Melissa thinks she’d be just fine without the protection of her trusty leather. 

30. Biggest surprise while writing this year?

that I can branch out and write for other fandoms!! I was shocked at how I was able to find the unique voices for a lot of different characters outside of the bayonetta fandom....happy I took risks cause they paid off :) I think I also am surprised as just how much I have written haha. I love writing so much, and it is hard to believe I went so many years NOT writing for pleasure.

[alphabetatoes]

92 Questions

redoing this 6 years later!

THE LAST:

1. Drink: cran pineapple juice w/ mango pineapple vodka

2. Phone call: my mom

3. Text message: alexis

4. Song you listened to: iSpy by kyle and lil yachty

5. Time you cried: today

HAVE YOU:

6. Dated someone twice: no

7. Kissed someone and regretted it: no

8. Been cheated on: no

9. Lost someone special: yes

10. Been depressed: yes

11. Gotten drunk and thrown up: yessir

LIST 3 FAVORITE COLORS:

12-14: black, gray, pink

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU:

15. Made new friends: yes !!!

16. Fallen out of love: no

17. Laughed until you cried: yes !!!

18. Found out someone was talking about you: no

19. Met someone who changed you: yes

20. Found out who your friends are: i don't think so? at least not in a bad way

21. Kissed someone on your Facebook list: no

GENERAL:

22. How many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life: id say the majority of them

23. Do you have any pets: staley! (miss banana)

24. Do you want to change your name: sometimes

25. What did you do for your last Birthday: got ramen!

26. What time did you wake up: first around 8 then around 10

27. What were you doing at midnight last night: twas asleep

28. Name something you can’t wait for:  my birth-iversary next saturday lmao

29. When was the last time you saw your mom: when i got home from work tonight

30. What is one thing you wish you could change in your life: knowing its not selfish to humanize myself

31. What are you listening right now: the kids arent alright by fallout boy

32. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: probably

33. Something that is getting on your nerves: not feeling good enough/other peoples undeserved entitlement

34. Most visited Website: youtube

LOST QUESTIONS.

35. Mole/s: one on my lower back

36. Mark/s: birthmarks on my legs, liver spots scattered everywhere & a surgery scar above my belly button

37. Childhood dream: "to be a lady of luxury” - my actual 4 year old self .

38. Hair Colour: blue/black (starry night hair dye)

39. Long or short hair: medium

40. Do you have a crush on someone: yes

41. What do you like about yourself: my kindness

42. Piercings: ear lobes, double helix, nose

43. Blood type: A+ apparently????

44. Nickname: kate, bo peep (when i was like 5), kb, kathia

45. Relationship status: single

46. Zodiac: Aries

47. Pronouns: She/her

48. Favorite TV Show: degrassi, rpdr, abbott elementary, mythic quest

49. Tattoos:  got a hibiscus flower on my upper left arm friday 1/13/23

50. Right or left hand: Right

51. Surgery: had cataract surgery in october 2022

52. Hair dyed in different color: yessir! its blueish black

53. Sport: i like to believe im a badminton protégé

55. Vacation: i went to marquez for a weekend in september 2022 but thats it since then lmao

56. Pair of trainers: vans superiority!

MORE GENERAL:

57. Eating Currently: freebirds burrito bowl

58. Drinking currently: cran pineapple juice with mango pineapple vodka

59. I’m about to: change songs on spotify

61. Waiting for: next saturday (my birth-iversary)

62. Want: to get clarity as to why someone blocked me on instagram

63. Get married: who knows

64. Career: green engineering or additive manufacturing

WHICH IS BETTER

65. Hugs or kisses: kisses

66. Lips or eyes: lips

67. Shorter or taller: taller >:)

68. Older or younger: older

70. Nice arms or nice stomach: nice arms. all tummies are nice tummies

71. Sensitive or loud: sensitive. loud is too much for me

72. Hook up or relationship: hook up

73. Troublemaker or hesitant: troublemaker,, im impatient

HAVE YOU EVER:

74. Kissed a stranger: no

75. Drank hard liquor: yes

76. Lost glasses/contact lenses: yes

77. Turned someone down: no

78. Sex in the first date: not yet

79. Broken someone’s heart: not that i know of?

80. Had your heart broken: yes

81. Been arrested: no

82. Cried when someone died: absolutely

83. Fallen for a friend: accidentally lmao

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:

84. Yourself: im trying to

85. Miracles: i believe in karma

86. Love at first sight: maybe?

87. Santa Claus: no

88. Kiss in the first date: sure

89. Angels: again, maybe?

OTHER:

90. Current best friends’ names: alexis, dawn, yasmene, kassidy

91. Eyecolor: green and brown

92. Favorite movie: grease/hairspray/the internship/rv

92 Questions

doing this because im bored af// feel free to do this if you want to

THE LAST:

1. Drink: Chai Tea 2. Phone call: my mom 3. Text message: my mom 4. Song you listened to: Dust Bowl Dance by Mumford & Sons 5. Time you cried: today

HAVE YOU:

6. Dated someone twice: no 7. Kissed someone and regretted it: no 8. Been cheated on: no 9. Lost someone special: yes 10. Been depressed: yes 11. Gotten drunk and thrown up: no

LIST 3 FAVORITE COLORS:

12-14: black, gray. blue

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU:

15. Made new friends: yes 16. Fallen out of love: no 17. Laughed until you cried: YES 18. Found out someone was talking about you: depends on the context 19. Met someone who changed you: yes 20. Found out who your friends are: unfortunately 21. Kissed someone on your Facebook list: i don’t have a Facebook

GENERAL:

22. How many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life: i don’t have a Facebook 23. Do you have any pets: a miniature schnauzer 24. Do you want to change your name: sometimes 25. What did you do for your last Birthday: went out to eat sushi 26. What time did you wake up: 10:04 27. What were you doing at midnight last night: watching youtube videos 28. Name something you can’t wait for:  being happy with myself 29. When was the last time you saw your mom: a couple hours ago 30. What is one thing you wish you could change in your life: i want to be true to myself 31. What are you listening right now: After the Storm by Mumford & Sons 32. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: probably 33. Something that is getting on your nerves: things aren’t moving as fast as i want them to 34. Most visited Website: Youtube/Tumblr

LOST QUESTIONS.

35. Mole/s: none 36. Mark/s: birthmarks on my legs, liver spots scattered everywhere & a surgery scar above my belly button 37. Childhood dream: “to be a lady of luxury” - my actual 4 year old self 38. Hair Colour: dark brown 39. Long or short hair: medium 40. Do you have a crush on someone: yes 41. What do you like about yourself: my sense of humor 42. Piercings: ears, want to get a nose piercing 43. Blood type: O+ 44. Nickname: kate, bo peep (when i was like 5) 45. Relationship status: single 46. Zodiac: Aries 47. Pronouns: She/her 48. Favorite TV Show: Degrassi, Riverdale, Rick and Morty, Bob’s Burgers, The Walking Dead 49. Tattoos:  I want to get one once I turn 18 50. Right or left hand: Right 51. Surgery: several. and one coming up 52. Hair dyed in different color: its a few shades lighter than my normal hair color, but i want to dye it a dark blue or purple 53. Sport: i ?? dont ?? do sports ?? ( i was on the track team in 7th grade) 55. Vacation: my favorite vacation was Hawaii, id like to go to Greece on vacation 56. Pair of trainers: converse

MORE GENERAL:

57. Eating Currently: Nothing 58. Drinking currently: Coke 59. I’m about to: find more of these posts 61. Waiting for: AP scores to be released 62. Want: to find a group of best friends 63. Get married: who knows 64. Career: something in the computer science department

WHICH IS BETTER

65. Hugs or kisses: dont care 66. Lips or eyes: dont care 67. Shorter or taller: taller,, im fairly short 68. Older or younger: either 70. Nice arms or nice stomach: don’t care 71. Sensitive or loud: don’t care 72. Hook up or relationship: no opinion 73. Troublemaker or hesitant: no opinion

HAVE YOU EVER:

74. Kissed a stranger: no 75. Drank hard liquor: yes 76. Lost glasses/contact lenses: yes 77. Turned someone down: not applicable 78. Sex in the first date: never been on a date 79. Broken someone’s heart: not that i know of? 80. Had your heart broken: yes 81. Been arrested: no 82. Cried when someone died: absolutely 83. Fallen for a friend: no

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:

84. Yourself: sometimes 85. Miracles: i believe in karma 86. Love at first sight: no 87. Santa Claus: not since i was 11 88. Kiss in the first date: maybe 89. Angels: no

OTHER:

90. Current best friends’ names: i dont have a best friend 91. Eyecolor: i have heterochromia so one of my eyes is green and the other is brown 92. Favorite movie: Grease

[astronomoney]

Heyo! I heard you were open for requests, so I thought if I can ask for a fluffly prompt of 18? Like Jon kent x batsis? ( I noticed this dude don't get much love at all.) Maybe it has like a tiny (big) crush on batsis, and accidentally ends up following her. But don't rush your self, I know you got alot to do. I'll wait! Ty! (This is alot of reading, sorry.)

Pairing: Jon Kent x Fem!reader

Prompts: Prompt list 18-“Care to explain why you’ve been following me for 6 blocks?” (Apparently “care to explain *inster text here*” is a common prompt theme on my list)

Summary: Jon Kent meets the one and only batsis (that’s you) and being the idiot he is, falls madly in love... naturally.

A/n: Ok so this took a while and i didn’t like where it was going for a while but after some editing i actually really like how this turned out! (Also sorry this took so long life hit me like bitch this past week) And Jon and the reader are about 15 16 ish here which makes damian 19ish. Masterlist

Word count: 1.5k it’s not a super long thing but i’m pretty pleased with that number

Code: y/n=your name

Not So Super Stelthy

Jon Kent floated in a small circle about 4 feet above the ground, trying his best not to fall asleep. He had been watching Damian watch security footage on the batcomputer for 30 minutes and he was bored out of his mind.

“What are you even looking for?” Jon asked, letting himself land and walking over to the computer.

“Proof.” Damian replied, too focused on the tape to give more than a one word answer.

“Right, of course the proof,” Jon nodded his head before pausing awkwardly.

Damian sighed and paused the video. “You have no idea what i’m talking about.”

“Nope.”

“And you’re extremely bored.”

“Yup.” Jon rocked back on his heels, dragging out the Y sound.

“Fine then, you can look around the cave but don’t touch anything. Got it?” Damin said sternly, knowing that if he didn’t give Jon something to do he'd start asking questions nonstop.

“Really! I can go explore by myself!” He exclaimed, instantly more energetic. “I promise i won’t break anything!” He called flying swiftly out of the room before Damian could change his mind.

He walked down a random hallway looking at the various souvenirs on the walls. He heard some grunting and the sound metal against metal coming from a room down the hall. He made his way toward the sound using his super hearing to try and figure out who it was.

“That was so not fair!” An unknown female voice exclaimed.

“Technically that’s not stated in the rules.” a smug voice shot back. Jon recognized it to be Tim’s but he still didn’t know who the other person was. He kept walking towards the sound until he found a large open room with weapons on the walls and mats on the floor.

In the middle of the room he saw two people holding metal bow staffs and walking around each other.

“Well it was implied.” The girl said before charging Tim. She swung at his left but he blocked and twirled the bow staff around to hit her in the side. She stumbled back but quickly regained her balance and came at him again, this time faking a hit to the right before sweeping his legs out from under him so he landed on his back. His staff rolled away and it was very clear that he had lost that fight.

“YES!” The girl cheered “I win and you owe me 20 bucks.” She boasted in a sing-song voice, reaching out her hand to help Tim up.

“Yeah yeah I get it.” Tim grabbed her hand and hoisted himself up sounding annoyed at his defeat. The girl turned around and walked towards the bench where a plastic half empty water bottle sat. That was when Jon saw her face for the first time, that was also when she noticed Jon.

“Oh hey Superboy.” She said, sounding slightly confused as to why the Metropolis hero would be in the batcave.

“Jon?” Tim asked, turning towards him. “What are you doing here?” He smiled and walked over to rest his elbow on the girl's shoulder.

“Hi sorry i didn’t mean to bother you I was just uh exploring.” Jon said, semi awkwardly. “Damian’s doing some research on the computer and I guess he didn’t want me distracting him.” He pointed sheepishly towards the room where Damian was still watching security tapes.

The girl laughed and shrugged Tims arm away. “Well definitely don’t take that personally. Damian’s not really one for conversation. I’m y/n by the way.”

He remembered Damian mentioning her here and there but he’d never met her before. “I’m Jon, but you know that already.”

She laughed again which made him smile. “Well Jon it’s nice to meet you.”

“There you are.” Damian rounded the corner. “I have the proof but we need to hurry if we’re going to get there in time.”

“You better get going before Damian pulls a kryptonite katana on you.” y/n joked waving over at the very grumpy looking teenager.

“Yeah,” Jon laughed. “Wait? Does he really have one of those?” his smile was replaced with slight concern for his own safety.

“Superboy. Let’s go.” Damian sounded impatient, although he always sounded like that.

“Sorry i’m coming.” Jon began flying over to him. “Bye y/n!” he called before turning the corner and disappearing.

“Bye Jon.” Y/n leaned on the door frame and watched him fly off, a small smile on her face.

“Umm what was that?” Tim asked a very confused look on his face.

“What was what?” she turned around

“Oh I don't know, maybe the whole ‘oh hi i’m y/n nice to meet you’ thing?”

“Ok I know you don’t talk to people very often but typically when you meet someone new you introduce yourself.”

“Well your starry eyed stare might have been a bit too much.”

“Starry eyed?” she scoffed in response “I was in no way starry eyed.”

“Uh huh sure.” He said in an over-protective-older-brother voice.

“Shut up.” y/n tossed a bow staff to Tim and got into a fighting stance with her own.

༻𖥸༺

After a mission went wrong, Damian demanded Jon train in the cave at least twice a week to make him, in Damians words “Somewhat competent on the field”. That meant Jon would spend more time in the cave and saw more of y/n.

Whenever Jon and y/n got a chance to talk it felt like they’d known each other for their whole lives. They had inside jokes and about 2/3’s of a secrets code memorized. Sometimes they would just sit next to each other, completely comfortable in the silent company. Jon’s heart started to beat faster when she was around and his cheeks would heat up when she smiled at him.

He got distracted whenever she came into the training room which resulted in a very hard kick to the stomach on more than one occasion. One day while Jon was on his way home from the manor, he spotted y/n walking swiftly across a rooftop. He hadn’t seen in the cave that day but Damian said she was at a friends house.

His exact words were “She’s at her friends house studying, now if you’re done being completely in love with my sister can we run the training again?”

Of course Jon responded by saying “I am not in love with her!” but it was clear that Damian didn’t buy that and at this point Jon wasn’t sure he believed it either.

‘What is she doing out?’ he thought while silently ducking behind a nearby billboard. Jon let her get about three rooftops away and used his super senses to keep track of her. She turned left, then left again, then right, then another left, and finally stopped on top of a random building.

Y/n turned to look at the city and let out a sigh. “You know,” she spoke softly with a hint of a smirk in her voice. “For someone with Superpowers you’re shit at staying hidden.”

‘Busted’

“How could you possibly have seen me?” Jon came out from his apparently not so good hiding place and landed a few feet away from her on the roof. “I was in super stealth mode.”

“Well darling Jon i was raised by Batman. Noticing things is kinda, well my thing.” She laughed. “Now, care to explain why you’ve been following me for 6 blocks?”

“W-well i have a perfectly reasonable explanation for that and it is because,” he said slowly trying to come up with a good excuse as to why he’d been following her. The truth was he didn’t know why he’d followed her. Although he had a sneaking suspicion it had to do with his not so small crush.

“It’s because- Hey wait a second you’re not even supposed to be out here.” Jon cut himself off by changing the subject. “Didn’t Batman like, ban you from being a crime fighter?”

“What Batman doesn't know won’t hurt him.” She walked over to him so they were now about 2 feet apart.

“He’s Batman! He knows everything!” Jon exclaimed as if it was obvious.

“Well i’m not going to tell him.” She paused leaning closer to Jon so they were mere inches away from each other. His heart speed up and he felt his cheeks turn pink from how close they were. “Are you going to tell him?”

“N-no?” It sounded more like a question then an answer but it was good enough for y/n.

“Great!” She leaned away again, her smile returning. “Now that i’ve confirmed you won’t be snitching on me, we can go get some food. I am starving and there’s a great taco truck just around the corner that makes the best nachos. That is if you want to?”

“Want to? Yeah i’d love to!” He smiled happily at the idea.

“Perfect, then it’s a date.”

[experiment-000]

My Top 10 Ships of 2020

It's been a weird year but I've seen other people doing this. Plus this year I've been way more into gen fics (love a bit of found family especially in clone wars and marvel) than anything shippy. So I genuinely don't know what imma put on here aside from two ships for sure. Sorry this post is super long idk how to do the below the cut thing and I've had this app for 5 years...

10) Viktor Nikiforov and Yuuri Katsuki - Yuri!!! On Ice

It was a real toss up between this, supercorp, kanera and wolfstar cos they're all very integral ships to my fan heart but this son because of the Yuri on Ice fandom's rebirth this year. I've never stopped shipping this, never stopped reading fanfic of them for any extended period of time, they're still my most bookmarked ship on ao3 (although I think now star wars - all media types may have overtaken them for fandom). They were one of the first things I watched where the queer ship I loved became canon and I can't wait for the film (and hopefully someday a season 2). Heck I even made my mum watch Yuri on Ice with me so I think that says it all.

9) Edelgard Von Hresvelg and female Byleth - Fire Emblem: Three Houses

My first fire emblem game was fates when I was like 14 (and finally gay awake lol). I was so disappointed that I had to be with a guy character because the only female option was kinda creepy and also I wouldn't get the character of kana. So when three houses came out I was so happy because finally there were beautiful incredible female characters my female byleth could romance (I'm so sorry mlm you deserved so much more than you got). I got the game as soon as it came out (had to search a lot of shops let me tell you) and started on black eagles. I was actually kinda disappointed back in 2019. I didn't like the explore the monastery bit (still find it kinda tedious) and the battle mechanics weren't quite the same as fates (no pairing up?! Aka my main battle technique for protecting the weaker units). So I got like 20 hours in and put it down. Came back to it in lockdown and finally finished it! I'm so proud of myself I virtually never finish games. And I fully fell in love with the useless lesbian edelgard in the process. When I started back playing in 2020 I was like eh I wish I'd picked a different character to romance (like shes an emperor that's morally very shady) but then the romance stuff started with edelgard and I fell the heck in love.

8) Cory Matthews and Shawn Hunter (and Topanga Lawrence) - Boy Meets World

Disney+ was released in the UK this year and I finally got the opportunity to watch boy meets world in its best quality (aka not on YouTube). I watched it back when I was like 12 or 13 and it's such a nostalgic show for me. Watching it again I still absolutely adore it (and my bi ass was low-key crushing on Shawn especially in chick like me - I'm 18 btw and I got so scared for a sec but rider strong was 18 when chick like me came out so it's fine woah). And of course now I see the possibilities of the beautiful Cory and Shawn relationship like they were so bromance it was basically romance and throw in topanga it's the perfect ot3 (but I'm also fine with just Cory and Shawn or just Cory and Topanga). Read some good fanfic for them this year. My favourite was one about Shawn stealing makeup and stuff and exploring gender (need more fics like this I'm biiii).

7) Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes - Marvel Cinematic Universe

I rewatched all the MCU films this year too. And got really into Peter parker whump and irondad. Plus my eternal obsession with identity and relationship reveals of course led me from Spiderman identity reveals (and found family cuteness) to stucky coming out. Especially when it involves the internet and social media. Not my favourite ship but it's been significant to my year due to the sheer amount of marvel stuff I've read.

6) Satine Kryze and Obi Wan Kenobi - Star Wars

I rewatched clone wars in prep for season 7 and wow Satine's death was sad and sudden. She first appeared in S2 E13 I think and just the sheer sexual tension of their bickering. "The sarcasm of a soldier. The delusion of a dreamer." Just ugnnhhh my bi ass can't take much more of this. And Anakin just sipping his wine in the background grinning. And I fully believe korkie is a Kenobi.

5) Commander Cody and Obi Wan Kenobi - Star Wars

I am very much an Obi wan multishipper. I don't really have a favourite but I fully believe he was with satine and Quinlan in his life. I don't think be would've actually done anything with Cody because of the whole superior officer thing. And this probably isn't even my favourite Obi wan ship - that honour probably goes to quinobi or obitine. However the most popular ships in the fandom are codywan, quiobi and obikin. No offence to anyone who ships these they're just personally not to my taste, but I can't stand quiobi, and obikin I find only slightly more tolerable and I think that's just because there's so much obikin content so if I like the concept of a fic that happens to be obikin I'll read it. I'm just not a fan of the mentor/student relationships. So I generally favoured the codywan fics when there was shipping involved meaning I read a lot of them this year. Needed that nice fix it content post season 7.

4) Zuko and Katara - Avatar: the Last Airbender

Again I am a multishipper I have nothing against zukka it's cute. But I'm a zutara shipper first and foremost because when I first watched avatar I was like 13 and denying my gayness and gayness in general so I shipped the straight things and the straight things only. Most of these ships I stopped shipping - dramione, spuffy, some my little pony ones which we don't talk about. Zutara stayed. (I have nothing against any of the things I used to ship I just stopped shipping them so much/shipped new things more). I've continuously shipped zutara since I first watched avatar even if I didn't necessarily spend that much time on it it has always been here as one of my favourite ships. It has such good fanfic I swear including my favourite ever fanfic from any fandom - love thy enemy. Plus like the black games (reread this for the millionth time this year), a delicate subterfuge (which I read for the first time this year and damn it's so good) and so many more. With the avatar resurgence this year I haven't actually rewatched avatar aside from my normal random episode every now and then when I feel like it. But there's been a lot of avatar on my dash from people I follow getting into it and people I followed for avatar returning so naturally I returned to the fandom and read quite a lot of fanfic. I also read just a lot of avatar gen fics which were great at the whole found family thing I've been so obsessed with this year.

3) Catra and Adora - She Ra and the Princesses of Power

Catradora is canon! They kissed! What more is there to say. Arguably they should've been top but I never shipped them that much since I was always very much a multishipper when it came to she ra so yes I was very happy it became canon because we actually won for once but also I've never read much fanfic for them etc. But they are very much a dynamic I love and watching she ra all again in prep for season 5 I really enjoyed the build up of their relationship. The other two only go above because Buffy is my favourite show ever and damn there's some good fuffy fanfic and Aphra and Tolvan is both fresh in my mind and star wars owns me. Would love some catradora fic recs btw if anyone has them tho.

2) Buffy Summers and Faith Lehane - Buffy the Vampire Slayer

I didn't realise it was last year that I got super into them but according to my ao3 bookmarks it was lol. 2020 I swear it's lasted an eternity. I got into them about a month before lockdown (which feels like another lifetime). I've loved Buffy since I first watched it when I was 13. It's arguably still my favourite TV show. I've been through a lot of ships for Buffy - bangel to spuffy and now fuffy. I still think angel and her were a beautiful ship back in season 2 and especially in the angel episode I will remember you. But faith and Buffy had so much chemistry in season 3 - she would've been a fresh start for Buffy and the amount of fix it fics I read I swear. My favourite has to be one where they met in LA during Anne and how that changed everything feat Buffy's internal homophobia.

1) Cheili Lona Aphra and Magna Tolvan - Star Wars

I read Darth Vader (2015) and Doctor Aphra (2016) for the first time at the end of 2020 (got a comic subscription which has served me very well already I've nearly finished the star wars canon comics). Just to see canon queer ladies in star wars was so magical for me as a queer lady. I didn't think star wars would be so overt yet as to have a queer kiss in canon (even if it's in the comics) and especially not with the main character of arguably their main comic series. Now we just gotta hope that we'll get it in live action someday soon. They weren't the ship I consumed the most content of in 2020 but they were the highlight of my 2020 because star wars did that and I finally found out about it

Honourable mentions: Vivian and Elle - Legally Blonde, Candace and Vanessa - Phineas and Ferb, Stevie and Alex - Wizards of Waverly Place, Xander and Spike - Buffy the Vampire Slayer (I actually don't ship this but damn some authors are good - this was the ship that made me realise I don't need to like a ship if the author is good enough to write it well), Eli Vanto and Mitth'raw'nuruodo - Star Wars (started reading the books last year but finished this year and only started with fanfic this year), Villanelle and Eve - Killing Eve, Kanan and Hera - Star Wars, Barriss and Ahsoka - Star Wars, Remus and Sirius - Harry Potter, Kara and Lena - Supergirl (let's hope this becomes canon next year!) (Those last four are ones I've shipped forever some of my og ships but nothing particularly big has happened for me this year with them so)

I got Disney+ this year so rewatched a fair few things from my youth and though hey my obsession with that character may have been a little gay.

[signofwolf]

Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas – book review

Series: Throne of Glass #7 Genre: YA, Fantasy Theme: Fae, magic users, war Warnings: mentions of torture, imprisonment Star rating: 0,5/10

Why did I pick this up?: I wanted to end this horrible series once and for all.

[Heavy spoilers ahead]

To make myself clear, before this book I quite liked this series. It wouldn’t place in my top 100 books, not even close, but it was a pleasant pageturner to listen to in audiobooks when working.

Language

Let’s start slow. I lack the words to express how much I hate the words ‘male’, ‘female’ and ‘mate’ after this series. Not even gonna try to express my trauma. But these 3 gems aside, Sarah J. Maas needs a dictionary. Or compress her work to a manageable size. Everything sang, Everyone melted, Every man roared, Every woman trembled, Everyone was unleashing themselves at least once a chapter (number of chapters: 122) ). And now I know definitely too much about Yrene’s ‘womb’. I know so much…

Dynamism

I thought that was a book about a war with heavy action content. Oh boy, I was wrong. This 984-pages monstrosity has maybe 5 pages of action. If you squint.

Every sequence, where by design action should take place was followed by one of two scripts:

Few sentences of action and then a few pages long internal monologue. Often repeated with the same character after the next few sentences of action, or with the next character and then the next (sometimes the first character made a second appearance and then everything would go all over again). And the word ‘character’ used in these sentences is not because I’m rambling. This book is written that way!

Few sentences of action and then action stops, and we are graced by a few pages long conversation. In the middle of a battle. Or spying. Or in Erawan’s chambers, when his castle is going down, and he is running up the stairs...

Time

Leaving alone the fact that apparently all series took less than a year (till this book I estimated the plot for about 3 years, Wiki told me it was 2, but Maas knows best), because that is a can of worms in itself. Time in this one? I honestly have no idea. There were many ‘few weeks of travel’ parts with two main groups of POVs. Personally my only time indicator was ‘Orynth won’t fall till Aelin gets here’. But nothing just fit. And I saw Lost Song when in the last episode we as the audience realized that our two POVs parallel storylines are in reality millennia apart. Lost Song made sense.

Emotional loading

… there wasn’t any. Really, it was like reading a milk label. Every time the scene was potentially emotionally impactful, Maas went ahead to overexplaining EVERY. GOD. DAMMED. THING. And it was abso-fucking-lutely everything. ‘Emotional dilemma? Let’s current POV explain it! 2 pages should be enough… Damn maybe it wasn’t enough. I know! I’ll switch POVs and explain it through the other character!’ <= My impression of Maas’ thought process. I’m fairly sure that the record was 7 POVs explaining the same thing in the row, but I was blacking out a little, so I cannot be sure.

And if that wasn’t enough, this book had a second way to defuse tension: random-plastic-repetitive-badly_written-smut. Really badly written and really repetitive. How could you not feel the spicy bits, when Manon (cruel, self assured 100+years old witch-queen) reacts the same in bed as Elide (20years old, virgin, ex-slave). And the rest of them were the same, there weren’t ANY distinctions.Just copy-paste.

The next point in current case: Someone died, it was impactful, I really liked the character, so I got sad. But then 2 of our characters came out of the room with a body, and after a paragraph of grieving they started making out, and then I was regaled with 2-pages-long description of melting cores. That was the place then this book stopped being badly written, and started being distasteful.

Characters

Remember when I was writing about switching POVs (which is 15(!!!) In the whole book. Oh and an omniscient narrator in places when our current POV was grieving too much to overthink something, but Maas still wanted to inform us about something)? They were all savagely murdered in the worst way: character mutilation. Somewhere between books our maybe-not-that-original but colorful and interesting characters became carbon copies of each other. I have no idea how many times I didn’t realise there was a POV switch. The only indicator was a change of pronoun, or when Maas was telling us the name of a current narrator. These were the only ways. And if you can't distinguish if you are in Dorian’s head or in Manon’s, that is the sign of a really BAD writing.

Romance

…there wasn't any. In all this book there wasn't any naturally progressing romantic scene. There were Maas’ endgame pairings which were sexing or pinning. As the author Maas loves to write about soulmates. And it’s not a bad thing itself. When I want some fluffy story I often tag ‘soulmates’ in AO3 and voila, +10 to good mood. But God above, it is not cute when every pair you write about are ‘true mates’ just BECAUSE. It is the only way Maas sees a relationship, as a fated pairing, written in the wake of the universe by the God himself. There is no choice, nor the work to put in it. They are the author's OTP and that means that they are perfect and they should have children right now. Point in case:

Guy was treating a girl like a shit on his sole, including throwing her naked out of tent, on a snow, with their friends present, all the while abusing her verbally in a worst way. But it’s okay, because when she almost died he realised his mistakes and apologised. Two scenes later, he was forgiven, because... fated mates?

The pathos

I know that many people don't like this type of scenes, but it's not my case. I’m reading by picturing images and not repeating words. I like sequences that I can imagine to be grand and glorious, even if they are a little corny. That said, the pathos scenes were the most disappointing ones for me. Maas likes to write parts that are more picturesquely exalted than logically possible [point in case: meeting of 5 armies/forces in the random patch of sand in Empire of Storms, and it being painted as ‘an Aelin’s great plan’. I laughed myself silly at that. But not taking logic and all the plot holes into consideration that was a nicely looking scene. In Kingdom of Ash that wasn’t the case. I would say that the author wanted to paint us a renaissance painting every 20 pages or so. In my opinion, every time she failed miserably. Each and every of those scenes was or to farfetched to be even remotely realistic, and evidently written only for a sake of the picture, or just plainly stupid.

Example, and it’s so priceless a scene, that I just need to share it: Battle of Orynth, 25th day or so (time in this book doesn’t exist), the 13. sacrificed themselves (like thousands before them but hush). And then, time stops: grieving Manon is going through the city, they open the gates for her (yes, the siege is still on), she goes to the place where they died, after her come out all of our main heroes, and half the city itself with ‘flowers, rocks and precious possessions’ and they lay it there in a tribute to these brave (evil till 2 months ago) witches. I honestly can’t remember when was the last time I saw such an abstract scene. It’s a material for an essay in itself. No, I could not take it seriously.

Additionally, it's hard to make an impact as every damn sentence is grand and lofty. In the end it became truly pathetic, Aelin vs Maeve was unreadable.

Character deaths:

Let's make a quick count: main characters in a series at the start of KoA: 12 secondary characters in a series at the start of KoA: 20ish minor and total background: a lot more

Death count: main: 0 secondary: 3 minor: 2 (11 if we try very hard)

Resurrections: 1 (possibly 3, but not gonna analyze it)

Did you feel emotions of this impossible war against this all-encompassing, all-powerful, invincible, immortal, cunning Evil with armies from 3 continents and 2 worlds? No? Me neither.

Oh well, but there were a lot of deaths of ordinary soldiers. I’m quite certain that all of Terrasen’s army was at least twice brought back to life for them to die in these numbers.

Logic or lack thereof

Oh, and let’s not forget about the Deus ex machina army of unbeatable, magical elves on wolves, from legends, living for the past thousands of years in the unreachable lands of the north, because they managed to run from the surprise attack 10 years earlier. Did I mention that they came from portals, which the whole book was telling us were impossible to make in this scenario? After the previous saviour army was already fighting there for a day? And that Aelin didn’t know they would come for sure (how did she contact them again?)? Even though they were waiting in the full armours for these portals? Ah, and also: that army didn’t do anything. They just came and fought for maybe 4 minutes. And there were just so many things like that!

And if we’re on the topic of armies I present you: ‘My favourite absurd-list in the series: allied armies’.

(As a comparison, in A Song of Ice and Fire by J.R.R Martin, in 7 kingdoms of Westeros, at the peak of war there were 7 forces present, but not all were even engaged in a war.)

First the ones that made sense:

Armies of Terrasen’s Lords (counted as one, not gonna nitpick)

The Khaganate army (also counted as one)

Galan Ashryver’s armada

Whitethorn fraction

Rebel Ironteeth witches

…should Dorian be counted as an ‘army’?

And there were some that did not:

Ansel of Briarcliff’s army

The Silent Assassins

Mycenians

Wild Men of the Fangs

Army of magical elves on wolves

And the ‘I don’t even know’ category:

Crochan witches

Overpowering and overreaching

Section title tells it all. The stakes were too high. I was honestly waiting for Aelin to become Super Saiyan and start to throw planets at Maeve and Erawan. I won’t spoil if this happened.

In my opinion it could be a really great series, if our list of villains ended with Arobynn and King of Adarlan, and the list of Aelin titles with an assassin and a princess. We could have had two main fight plots: one emotional with Arobynn, when Aelin would have to face a damage he had done to her, and overcome it. And the second one, with freeing Terrasen from Adarlan’s rule. That’s it. There was an asshole, power hungry king, who feared magic and wanted to rule the East part of a continent. A lot of plot, but not so much that we stopped to care, or didn’t have time to cover everything. We could really get to know what Terrasen and his people were like and not JUST GET TOLD that it was ‘the greatest place in the world’ every damn 20 pages.

Plus…should Dorian be counted as an ‘army’? It's a REALLY valid question.

Climaxes

IIf I have to write a list of things that disappointed me in this book, this review would be thrice its current size, but one of the worst grievances I have is the complete lack of acknowledging the plotlines that had been started. This book series has overall 4 372 pages (not counting novellas) and 12 main characters (still not gonna address this). All of them had their storylines and arcs but if they weren't tied up in the previous instalments they wouldn’t be in this one. I get it, Maeve and Erawan got beaten (in an extremely unsatisfactory way) but they were only a background in this series' plots.

Aelin Well, Aelin was one of 3 people (+2 paragraf-long insertion from Nesryn and Chaol) who got their own POV’s after the battle (second was technically Rowan, who was ‘Aelin’s POV outside of Aelin’.The third Dorian, who got almost a full two pages). And from this we got that: she got crowned, Aedion got his bond and that Maas have no idea how the city looks after weeks of siege. In her case what angered me the most was ‘Terrasen is my home’ subplot. Only in this tome we read at least 3 times that Aelin will be okay with dying, if only she gets to see Terrasen one last time, or if she get to die on Terrassen soil. But you know what? Maas forgot to write the scene where Aelin actually ‘comes in’.

Mannon Didn't get her own POV after the battle, but here’s what we’ve got: She is going to the Wastes with Croachans and Ironteeth. Whait. What? Yes, that was the ending of this 500+ years of feud. They fought together and they decided to unite their two species, completely forgetting more than half a millenia of slaughter. I can only hope that there were at least some talks behind the scenes… NO! F*** NO! This isn’t how it works!

Rowan, Dorian, Chaol, Yrene, Lysandra, Aedion, Lorcan, Elide, Nesryn, Sartaq Lived happily ever after

Secondary minor and total background characters Survived (I acknowledge that they would be ignored in most books’ epilogues, but this abomination is almost 1000 pages of nothing!!).

Good Scenes

That saying, this book actually had 4 good scenes:

Crochan witches go to war - gathering-forces-to-fight trope, which is my *love-always trope* so I’m not even sure if it was relatively good, or if I’m just a slut for this trope. It was still only a paragraph long though.

[recurring] The children’s tale Aelin repeated to herself to remember who she is.

‘Lorcan Lochan’ - the only marginally funny scene in the whole book

I actually found Darrel making Evangeline his heir charming. Even if circumstances were far-fetched at least.

But the words crime of this book? It was agonisingly, mind-numbingly boring. If the overexplaining and repetitions were to be taken out I highly doubt that there would be 300 pages left.

For these 33 hours of audiobook I suffered through I give it half a star. Because Abraxos exist.

Please see my garishly accurate cover on my instagram! You can also like it there :D

instagram | goodreads

[terraqua111]

50 Unusual Questions

I was tagged by @peter-criss-slut Thanks!

1.Whats the colour of your hairbrush?

Violet

2. Name a Food you'll never eat?

Uhm... anything that is made from raw meat I guess.

3. Are you typically too warm or too Cold?

I don't think the phrase "too warm" exists for me.

4. What's your favourite Candy bar?

By now it's become Balisto

5.What where you doing 45 minutes ago?

Still writing a story

6. Have you been to a professional sports game?

No

7. Favourite Ice Cream flavour?

Sweet curd

8. Last thing you had to drink?

Orange-carrot juice

9. Do you like your wallet?

I guess. It's a nice wallet

10. Last thing you ate?

A cream filled chocolate egg

11. Did you buy any new cloths last weekend?

I don't think I have bought any new clothes since last autumn.

12. Last Sporting event you watched?

I think it was a football game? In like... 2008? I don't really watch sports at all.

13. Favourite flavour of popcorn?

Just normal salted popcorn

14. Last thing you said out loud?

Ciao

15. Last person you messaged?

Depends what kind of messages. If it means text messages then my sister two days ago.

16. Ever been camping?

No

17. Do you take vitamins?

What for? I get more than enough of what I need just by eating normally.

18. Do you go to church every Sunday?

No

19. Do you have a tan?

I rather burn than tan

20. Do you prefer Chinese or pizza?

Pizza. As made by my father.

21. Do you drink soda with a straw?

The only times I have used a straw was when I was still a toddler and after I had my wisdom teeth removed.

22. What colour socks do you usually wear?

Whatever is available in my drawers but most of my socks are blue.

23. Do you drive/have you drove above the speed limit?

Only when I listen to metal. Which is almost every time.

24. What terrifies you?

Heights. And anything that is higher than a metre already counts as too high.

25. Look to your left what do you see?

26. What chore do you hate the most?

Washing the dishes. And there are always dishes...

27. What do you think when you hear an Australian accent?

I probably mistake it for a British accent

28. What's your favourite soda?

Don't think I have a favourite

29. Do you go into a fast food place or just hit the drive-through?

I always go in.

30. what's your favourite number?

9

31. Who was the last person you talked to?

My mother on the phone

32. Favourite cut of beef?

Every part of beef is just horrible

34. Last book you read?

Do audiobooks count? Then it was Shining by Stephen King

33. Last song you listened to?

Young Blood by The Naked And Famous

35. Can you say the alphabet backwards?

Yes

36. Favourite day of the week?

Thursday for some reason

37. How do you like your coffee?

With coconut milk

38. Favourite pair of shoes?

There are these Adidas handball shoes which I have been wearing for years now. I hardly ever wear other shoes, summer or winter.

39. What time do you usually get up?

On workdays at about 7.30 am. On the weekends around noon - or I simply sleep through the entire day and am only up at night.

40. What do you prefer sunset or sunrise?

Sunset

41. How many blankets do you have?

One

42. Describe you kitchen plates?

Mostly white with a leaf pattern on one side

43. Describe you kitchen at the moment?

Very cluttered

44. Do you have a favourite alcoholic drink?

Most punch sorts you can get at Christmas markets but preferable orange punch.

45. Do you play cards?

Not often

46. What colour is your car?

Yellow

47. Can you change a tier?

Do you mean a tire? Yes.

48. Favourite State?

Don't have one.

49. Favourite job you've had?

I have only ever had one kind of job - different companies but same job description.

50. How did you get your biggest scar?

A surgery on my knee.

I'm tagging @tanookiroxx @charleecat-bat @mephxles @losttoinsanity45 or whoever else likes to do it.

[lukemichaelcalumashton]

helloooo i would like to know 2, 10, 14, 37, 49! :) -taylor<3

helloooo taylor 🖤 @squishmichael thank you for sending these

2. Go to your AO3 “Works” page, to the sidebar with all the filters, and click the drop-down arrow for “Additional Tags.” What are your top 3-5 most used tags? Do you think they accurately represent your writing habits? nice let's see

well im actually surprised that most of my fics are established relationship i thought i was writing more meet cute/getting together fics??? other than that i think it's an accurate representation i mean i like writing fluffy fics and they tend to have flirting and end in first kisses soooo yeah kinda surprised at the hurt/comfort tag but i guess the only way i write "angst" is if its light and has a happy ending. maybe i should change that? but i feel like i couldn't pull off an angsty fic it feels very not me ajdkajs but we'll see

10. How do you decide what to write? it usually depends on which pairing im feeling the most or if i get an idea for a particular fic or if its a songfic and i listen to the song or someone mentions something that reminds me of one of my fics so it makes me wanna write it i wish i could say there's some thought process but. nope! and usually it's not what i should be writing ahkajdjs like my fic for the exchange or a cashton one shot that is set before christmas and i'd like to be able to post this month lmao

14. Are there any tropes you would only read if written by a trusted friend or writer? its not a trope exactly but i think angst? i don't usually read angsty fics that don't explicitly tell me that there's a happy ending? so i only do if its from someone i trust to make me cry but also make sure that i enjoy it ahdkajds like your malum apocalypse fic or peyton's all too well mashton fic

also maybe "enemies to lovers"? i would be worried that the relationship actually borders on toxic at some point but if it was for example a fic from hazel? i know that wouldn't happen and i would feel safe reading it

37. Promote one of your own “deep cut” fics (an underrated one, or one that never got as much traction as you think it deserves!). What do you like about it? i honestly never expect my fics to get a lot of traction svdfvdjs so im just gonna promote 20/20 because we were talking about it a few days ago and it's in my mind right now! as for what i love about it? well it's mashton, it has michael in glasses <3 it was also fun to write a 5+1 fic and project my love for michael in glasses onto ash, there are also cute michael pics linked in the fic and overall it's cute and funny and fluffy so if anyone likes that they should read it :)

49. What are you currently working on? Share a few lines if you’re up for it! well there's my fic for the exchange and a mashton songfic i started against my better judgement and the yellow shirt cashton fic i started for maya and a lot of other wips that i already talked about when the wip game was doing its rounds

for now i'll share this from the cashton winter/christmas one shot i mentioned above

“It's not your fault,” Calum says, because he knows that’s exactly what Ashton’s thinking. He doesn’t need to see his face to know he’s running over in his head everything they could’ve done differently so that they didn’t end up trapped here in London. “Ash, you can control a lot of things, but not the weather.” 

He hmphs, turning his head to the side. Calum keeps brushing his fingers through his hair, brushing dark curls away from his face, and sees the frown that's hiding behind the cute little ringlets.

[aquarianlights]

Hey there, I was wondering if you have ever ordered from zenniopticals or any other comparable website as you look really cute with glasses. If not you should definetily check it out! Not trying to promote them; I just wanted to give you this tip and you don't have to publish my question to your followers. I just placed an order there and it seems to be legit (at least I hope so lol). Have a nice day :-D

The glasses I wear in my my most recent pics are actually FROM zenni. Lol. They’re like…the 6 dollar pair and are like… purely 100% better than my $200+ professional pair I had for the longest time that I still can’t find. I’m getting another pair soon. Zenni is honestly the best place to get glasses and yes I can confirm they are absolutely legit and every single pair on there from the cheapest like 2 dollar pair to the fucking expensive like…. 20 dollar ones… Will last a lifetime and be the best glasses you have ever owned. I’m not even kidding.

For all you glasses wearers out there….zennioptical is a fucking lifesaver. I’m not kidding. And, yes, they are legit. And they do fit. And they do exactly what they say and they look exactly as they describe and look on the website. I’m buying ones with bright, see through turquoise blue in the back of the black rectangle frames. They’re fucking glorious. They have every shape and colour and size imagineable. For kids and adults. Any style you can imagine. I’m serious.

And they’re cheap and durable as fuck. And they come in a super nice case with a super nice cleaning cloth. Zenni is 100% legit and I love them to death and I am NEVER buying glasses from anywhere other than there.

And after you put in your prescription, they save it for you so you never have to hassle with it again until your own eyes change and you have to update it yourself. It’s VERY useful and very convenient and it has help tips everywhere on how to do it if your inept about optical stuff as I am right now. I have astigmatism so I am super confused about my prescription since I apparently have 20/20 but do not. It’s very confusing to me and I do not understand it at all. Nonetheless…. I put in my prescription…AND VOILA….get my glasses, they look perfect and fit perfectly and I can SEE AGAIN.

And yes they are 100% legit. So no worries anon. They are legit. The glasses I am wearing in my pics are from zenni. Not my old ones that changed from glasses to sunglasses depending on light and did all these ~super rad unnecessary things~.

Zenni is A++++++++ and SUPER cheap.

If you wear glasses, I’m not joking. Go to zennioptical. And they’re super quick with delivery, too. I was panicking coz I needed em super fast. They got to me really fast. I think 2 or 3 business days after I ordered em?

I FUCKING LOVE zenni and yes. They are legit. The low prices make them seem like they’re not but they literally sell SO MANY TO SO MANY PEOPLE that they make HUGE PROFITS so I mean……. there’s a reason they’re such high quality and so cheap. And they really do last a lifetime. I’ve had these over a year now. And I fucking love them. They’ve been through hell and back. Maybe over 2 years. Probably over 2. Maybe 3. I’ve dropped them, stepped on them, thrown them, fucking accidentally threw/dropped them down a flight of steep concrete stairs while two large dogs pulled me down them during a walk….. And man. The ONLY thing that’s ever happened to them is they have spots on them from when I was doing spray paint art and purposefully pointed clear spray paint at myself coz it wasn’t working and was clogged and accidentally pressed down and it sprayed my glasses and now there are shiny spots on my glasses from clear spray paint residue that sometimes make it look like holographic rainbow flashes now and then but I barely notice it anymore. But no scratches, cracks, or ANYTHING….after ALL of that. And YES I have dropped them straight onto fucking pavement before. Plenty of times. I’d say at least 30 times. Probably way more than that. So….

I’m not lyin when I say zenni is the way to go for glasses. I’m only getting a second pair because I want a “non professional” pair and a backup pair for if I lose or break these. Because I wanted a black and see-through turquoise rectangle pair to begin with….but went with straight thick black rims for professionalism. So I’m getting my backup pair as the ones I wanted originally. Which are a little more expensive. 12 dollars. But not bad at allllllll.

For fucks sake guys seriously.

Don’t go blind….GET ZENNI. COZ UH. THEY’RE AWESOME????? Yoooo I could legit browse their site for hours coz a lot of them are so damn gorgeous and I waannnnt.

Thank you for spreading the word though! Never thought to spread the word myself…. Coz my glasses ARE from zenni. So I just kinda….assumed everyone already knew….. but assumptions are stupid and the people who make them are ignorant and need to change that behaviour. So thank you for making me aware I made an assumption. Coz I wasn’t aware I had until just now. Awesome!

Yeah no seriously. If you like my glasses….. They’re from zennioptical. No lie. 6 dollars. Lasted me well over 1 year. Probably close to 3 now. Get with the program. I’m about to get my second pair. And yes they are legit. And yes they are secure. And yes they are AMAZING. And yes they have EVERY SINGLE STYLE, COLOUR, SIZE, SHAPE….. BASICALLY ANYTHING YOU COULD EVER THINK OF, DREAM OF, WANT, AND/OR NEED…..im not kidding.

Don’t believe me? Go look for yourself.

You’ll be trapped looking at glasses for hours. Lmao. :p

The post above this shows some of my selfies with my zenni glasses.

This is the only one I have saved to my computer (of course it’s one of the few I have with no filer that has a story behind it as to why it has no snapchat filter) that has my zenni glasses in it. They’re great!

Also, I just now noticed you CALLED ME CUTE SO AWWW THANK YOU. Drunk me who is the one who posted everything above this photo last night did not notice you called me cute but sober me is now noticing you called me cute and wanted to thank you. c: Me, rn, after you said that:

[elanorsparkles]

tagged by: @snowcatmoon

Rules: Answer the questions and tag 20 people.

LAST:

1. Drink: I literally have my water bottle 6" away from me

2. Phone call: My dad

3. Text message: A friend from a church we used to go to

4. Song you listened to: uhh, my mom has had praise music playing all day?

5. Time you cried: A surprisingly long while ago. Maybe a month??

HAVE YOU:

6. Dated someone twice: Never dated at all

7. Kissed someone and regretted it: ^^same as above

8. Been cheated on: Can't be cheated on if you don't get in a relationship to begin with

9. Lost someone special: Probably

10. Been depressed: Yeah :/

11. Gotten drunk and thrown up: lol no

LIST 3 FAVORITE COLORS:

12. Glitter!

13. Pink

14. Blue

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU:

15. Made new friends: Online and irl :D

16. Fallen out of love: As I said earlier.

17. Laughed until you cried: Only all the time. I live for the lolz

18. Found out someone was talking about you: Since I'm not sure what this means, I'm going to assume not

20. Found out who your friends are: I guess?

21. Kissed someone on your Facebook list: I've. Never. Been. Kissed.

GENERAL:

22. How many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life: Gurl, I'm never on that site.

23. Do you have any pets: 3 mini goats, 13 chickens, and a dog :)

24. Do you want to change your name: Nah

25. What did you do for your last birthday: Oh boy. Well, I broke dress code to wear my favorite outfit. I had classes that day and long story short: I cleaned an Olaf waffle iron with a toothpick, and had a Banana Hold-Up in a hallway with two of my best friends.

26. What time do you wake up: 7 am

27. What were you doing at midnight last night: Getting ready to sleep

28. Name something you can’t wait for: Classes to start again. I love learning, and I love people!

29. When was the last time you saw your mom?: Like, fifteen minutes ago

30. What is one thing you wish you could change in your life: I wish my family were in a better financial situation so my little sister could do drill team without feeling bad, and she could go to the church she wants more often. It takes too much gas money right now...

31. What are you listening to right now: That one bug that sounds like a dog dry-heaving just stopped

32. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: A few

33. Something that is getting on your nerves: That confounded bug

34. Most visited website: Tumblr? Twitter? iFunny?

35. Mole/s: Yep. One of which is a beauty mark

36. Mark/s: Birthmark? A few. I have a reverse one where the skin is lighter instead of darker!

37. Childhood dream: Inventor

38. Hair color: Currently a blonde-ish red

39. Long or short hair: Short!

40. Do you have a crush on someone: Thank heavens,no

41. What do you like about yourself: Physically or character-wise?

42. Piercings: Basic ear piercings

43. Blood type: I'm not sure

44. Nicknames?: Most people call me Ela. Kori calls me CinderEla

45. Relationship status: Single

46. -Zodiac- MBTI: ESFJ

47. Pronouns: She/her

48. Favorite TV Show: I don’t know

50. Right or left hand: Right-handed, although as a kid, I used my left hand for sports

51. Surgery: I had my wisdom teeth removed

52. Hair dyed in different color: It's dyed right now, but I've also had pink as well as purtple hair

53. Sport: lol NO

55. Vacation: Ideal vacation or place I’ve been to?

56. Pair of trainers: *googles trainers* Apparently six? I somehow ended up with four pairs of tennis shoes (that's a story), one pair of Converse, and a knock-off Keds

MORE GENERAL:

57. Eating: Hopefully my mom's banana pudding soon

58. Drinking: Water

59. I’m about to: See if the guy who my parents invited over is here yet

62. Want: Tbh, money. I want to take care of my family, and be able to go to my friend's wedding and also finally meet my best friend

63. Get married: maybe someday

64. Career: Researcher in cognitive science while perhaps doing something like counseling

65. Hugs or kisses: From people in general? I'm gonna have to say hugs

66. Lips or eyes: For my future guy? Lips

67. Shorter or taller: taller

68. Older or younger: Slightly older

70. Nice arms or nice stomach: Stomach, I guess

71. Sensitive or loud: um, I don't know

72. Hook up or relationship: Relationship. I'm a dating-for-marriage kind of gal

73. Troublemaker or hesitant: IDK

HAVE YOU EVER:

74. Kissed a stranger: what the frick, no

75. Drank hard liquor: Not that I can recall

76. Lost glasses/contact lenses: Nope

77. Turned someone down: Kinda?

78. Sex on the first date: Heck to the no

79. Broken someone’s heart: Probably :/

80. Had your heart broken: Does breaking my own heart because I know he wouldn't be good for me count?

81. Been arrested: No

82. Cried when someone died: Yes

83. Fallen for a friend: Unfortunately

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:

84: Yourself: I think so?

85. Miracles: Yes

86. Love at first sight: Sure

87. Santa Claus: I never believed in Santa

88. Kiss on the first date: NO

OTHER:

90. Current best friend name: I have many best friends...

91. Eye color: Blue hazel

92. Favorite movies: The whole Avengers saga (especially CA:TWS), Les Mis, LotR

(totally not tagging 20 people)

[pandaqitutorials-blog]

Week 6

As promised, this post will be all about placing things randomly within a region (aka polygon). I know what you’re thinking: placing things randomly is about the easiest thing to let a computer do. And I thought so as well, but the fact is that complete randomness is often undesired. Yes, I want to make an environment that looks random, but I also want an environment where everything is visible and easy to identify.

So, let’s go over what I’ve tried and what I’ve ended up implementing.

The Guesstimator

The first algorithm I’ve tried was simply guessing a good location, and if it turns out to be a bad one, try again. Part of this approach is good, and a part isn’t.

There’s no easy and quick algorithm to choose a random point inside a polygon. Instead, I choose a random point inside the bounding box of the region’s polygon, and then check (with our hitTest function) whether it’s inside or not. If it’s outside the polygon, I simply try again.

If it’s inside, I had a second requirement: it musn’t be too close to other objects, or things will get messy and obstruct the view. So, I had to loop through all objects within the region, and check the distance between my random point and their location.

If after all this testing the point still turns out to be a good one, I use it. If not, I try again.

MISTAKE 1: This can result in an infinite loop. In rare cases, the amount of nature objects and their locations can be distributed in such a way that there is no good random point left within the region. 

MISTAKE 2: It takes a long time. Even if there are plenty of good locations, it can take a while to get there, dropping the framerate every time. 

MISTAKE 3: Perhaps the most important of all: it doesn’t do what I want it to do. For example, trees are relatively huge and obstruct a large part of the view. I’d rather not place anything behind the tree top, but the trunk is small and doesn’t annoy me. By using a circular distance, I can only ensure objects are very far away from the center of the tree, which looks ugly and unnatural. This illustrates the problem (or, rather, a host of problems) quite well:

Here’s the code I used, which works fine, but I just need something better:

function Region:randomPoint() local foundPoint = false local b = self.box local tries = 0 -- as long as we haven't found a suitable point while not foundPoint do -- get a random point within the bounding box local pX = love.math.random(b.x1, b.x2) local pY = love.math.random(b.y1, b.y2) -- check if it's within the inner polygon if self:generalHitTest(pX, pY, self.innerPolygon) then tries = tries + 1 local s = true -- check the distance between itself and other objects for i,n in pairs(self.nature) do if self:checkCircleDistance(pX, pY, n:getX(), n:getY(), 70) then s = false break end end -- if we've found a good point, or we've tried long enough and give up now, return the point if s or tries >= 20 then return {x = pX, y = pY} end end end end

Divide and Conquer - Part I

What did my brain come up with? Well, we could subdivide the polygon and only place one object in each “sub area”. 

The quickest way to subdivide a polygon is triangulation. However, these triangles can differ a lot in size, or have an unconvenient flat shape, so it’s not really useful.

The very, very slow way is to divide a polygon into equal areas. I could do that once when generating the map, and save the subdivision, but it would A LOT to the save file size and complexity of code, and it doesn’t solve the tree problem. The fact that different objects have different shapes and sizes means that they can still hide objects in different areas if we’re not careful.

The engine I use, LÖVE (or Love2d), has a standard function for triangulating polygons that I tried. But I think the image below says enough - placing one object per triangle is not going to solve anything:

Divide and Conquer - Part II

What to do, what to do? Well, if there’s one thing that is very efficient, it’s grids. If I divide each region into a certain amount of rectangles, I can place one object per rectangle to at least get the distance I want. Additionally, I can de-activate those that are outside of the polygon, and those that have their view blocked by something else. If I do my bookkeeping correctly, picking a random point should be a matter of finding a random rectangle, and stuffing the object in there.

So, first I needed to give each region a set of locations it was free to fill. This is what those grid cells look like:

As you can see, only full rectangles (ones that fit completely inside the polygon) are selected and given to the region. The image above uses a fixed amount of rectangles horizontally and vertically, but then I realised it’s better to change it based on the polygon’s width and height. So, the size of a single rectangle is (roughly) the same in each region, just the amount of rectangles is different. Look at that:

function Region:calculateFreeLocations() -- calculate possible locations local width = math.round( (self.box.x2 - self.box.x1) / 20 ) local rectW = (self.box.x2 - self.box.x1) / width local height = math.round( (self.box.y2 - self.box.y1) / 20 ) local rectH = (self.box.y2 - self.box.y1) / height -- go through all locations for i=0, (width - 1) do for j=0, (height - 1) do -- calculate start and end points of rectangle local box = {self.box.x1 + rectW * i, self.box.y1 + rectH * j, self.box.x1 + rectW * (i + 1), self.box.y1 + rectH * (j+1)} -- check all points; if at least one of them is outside the polygon, this rectangle is disqualified if not self:generalHitTest(box[1], box[2], self.polygon) or not self:generalHitTest(box[3], box[2], self.polygon) or not self:generalHitTest(box[3], box[4], self.polygon) or not self:generalHitTest(box[1], box[4], self.polygon) then -- why this structure? because Lua doesn't need to check all points this way else -- this location is possible, insert it (by unique ID) table.insert(self.freeLocations, i * height + j) end end end end

NOTE: This isn’t an “optimal cover set”, which is when you fill as much area of the polygon as possible using equally sized rectangles, but rather a “works well enough cover set” that covers enough to work fine. And, most importantly, works very quickly.

Picking a random point now comes down to the following: get a random free location, then get a random point within that rectangle. Because I want the point to be slightly away from the edges, however, I add some padding (or margin, however you want to call it) at the edges.

function Region:randomPoint(what) -- no free locations, no random point -- always keep 1 spot reserved for a home/building if #self.freeLocations < 2 and what ~= "home" then return nil end local width = math.round( (self.box.x2 - self.box.x1) / 20 ) local rectW = (self.box.x2 - self.box.x1) / width local height = math.round( (self.box.y2 - self.box.y1) / 20 ) local rectH = (self.box.y2 - self.box.y1) / height local margin = 5 -- get random location local randLoc = math.round(math.prandom(1, #self.freeLocations)) local loc = self.freeLocations[randLoc] local idX = math.floor(loc / height) local idY = loc % height -- make sure the region knows the location has been taken -- animals are an exception - they move around, so they don't permanently fill a location if what ~= "animal" then self:fillLocation(randLoc) end -- get random point within location local pX = self.box.x1 + math.prandom(idX * rectW + margin, (idX + 1) * rectW - margin * 2) local pY = self.box.y1 + math.prandom(idY * rectH + margin, (idY + 1) * rectH - margin * 2) -- return position + location return {x = pX, y = pY, loc = loc, width = width, height = height} end

Lastly, I want to remove spots that are hidden by trees, which is done with a simple loop:

-- the only reason for this name is because it sounds fun local loco = {p.loc - 1, p.loc - 2, p.loc - 2 - p.height, p.loc - 2 + p.height} -- by writing the loops this way (and not the other way around) I make sure edge cases are handled automatically (e.g., trying to find a location that doesn't exist) for i=1,#loco do for j=1,#self.freeLocations do if self.freeLocations[j] == loco[i] then self:fillLocation(j) break end end end -- oh, this is what the fillLocation function does. Not very exciting. function Region:fillLocation(i) table.remove(self.freeLocations, i) end

The Result

See how things are now layed out nicely, without interfering (too much):

Plans

You might have noticed that I have these nice borders that signify who owns a region. In fact, I use this “inner polygon” to create an underground view for each region, and will use it to visualize other animal homes in the future. Next week I will discuss how that was done. 

(You might also notice that I have bunnies, and BABY BUNNIES. They look cute, but they don’t do much at the moment. Once all these necessary fundamentals are done, which will take a few more weeks, I will finally be able to actually make animals do something interesting.)