#While I'd like to claim I'll write fanfic

[tishinada]

Countdown to Dawntrail maintenance

Anyone else getting antsy now that the countdown to maintenance for Dawntrail is in the single digits, lol?

And what are people going to do during that 48 hours of no FFXIV?

[shadow0214]

I've been reading some fanfics with Noa and I love them, so I thought I'd give it a go. It's my first time writing so...don't judge me to hard.

Noa × human OC

Belonging

Always the same thing around the 'bunker', no one told you the things that were happening, you hated that. You felt like they still treated you like a little child even though you were in your twenties already.

"Yes, didn't you know? We're going on an excursion." Samantha said to me while I was drying the dishes after dinner.

"Of course, I didn't, nobody tells me anything around here. It's annoying" You muttered

You were the best tracker they had, you loved being outside, learning the ways of nature, and still nobody ever took you into account when expeditions like this happened.

"Hey, that's enough Sam." A voice said entering the kitchen. "Don't listen to her, she's just trying to get on your nerves"

You looked back and smiled at the comment. Lila always knew how to calm things down.

"Why don't you speak with Anna? Maybe she'll let you go this time." Lila said

"Yes, like every other time I asked her" You scoffed and shook your head.

"C'mon, I'll go with you." Lila pushed

"I don't even own a horse yet." You said

"Well...that's your own fault, Envy could've been yours, you just gave her away to Kiara". Lila reminded you.

Kiara, the daughter of a couple that was part of the council, the leaders of your group. She was like a little sister to you ever since you met her. You had no family, your dad died on an expedition, most say apes killed him, and your mother died soon after she gave birth to you. Medicine was scarce and trying to make it from scratch was hard, not impossible since you had a lab in the facility but still, sometimes the main components were just to available.

Most expeditions could last for months, trying to find more humans, more medicine, or even mark places where apes had their homes so no one would go near. You had the firearms, but not the manpower to fight them alone.

You never understood the hate your kind had towards the apes, yes, they were now more and had claimed a lot of the land humans once ruled, but they had also healed the land. No humans meant trees and animals were free to repossess what was once theirs, and apes were not using human machines that harm the earth, so everything had regained its balance in a way. Since you were little, you went out of the bunker with a horse, you learned how to fish, how to hunt, how to track and look for things outside, you never understood why you felt more connected to nature than to your own people. 'They never understood' you'd think. ‘They will never see the world as I see it'.

Anyway, all of that wasn't going to change, so you had to take what was given to you and make the most out of it. Lila and you went to Ana, she was distracted with the preparations for the expedition. This time, from what Lila had told you, they were going to look for more survivors and other bunkers to see if those had more medicine.

"Ana, mind if we talk to you for a moment?" Lila asked

"What? Yeah, sure. What's up?" Ana said absent-mindedly while she tripled checked the supplies. It looked like they were going for some months at least.

Lila looked at you and pushed you softly, and nodded at you when you looked back. You took a deep breath and spoke.

"So...Ana, I heard about the expedition and I wanted to know why you hadn’t called for me? You know I'm one of the best people to take in things like that. I can survive pretty well on my own while I'm outside."

Ana sighed and stopped what she was doing.

"Y/N, you know the reason, I need you here, protecting everyone else" She said while putting her hands on your shoulders

"No one ever comes close to this place since we put the electric fence around! Let me go!"

"Y/N" Lila spat at me. "Careful with your words!"

I just stared at her with anger.

"You have absolutely no good reason to not let me go. Please, I can really help if something goes wrong!"

Ana didn't have a comeback for that, she knew what you were saying was right, she knew how helpfull you could be, and still the promise she had made to your mother drilled into her head could not allow you to go with them. You were already in your twenties, now there was no good excuse to tell you to stay and Ana knew this. She sighed again and with a very sad tone agreed to your request. You were going with them, and that was that.

----------‐-----------------

-The next morning-

Ana and Aaron, parents of Kiara, were the ones in charge of this expedition. Samantha, Lila, Carlos, Seth (Samantha's uncle), and you were the rest of the group.

You went to get your stuff ready on Envy, the mare that was meant to be yours, but for some reason you had decided to give her to Kiara, still, she thought of Envy as a shared horse more than her own. Kiar knew how much you loved her, and she didn't mind giving her to you in times like this.

"Take care of each other, ride safely." Kiara said with a smile on her face while petting the side of the mare.

"We will, sis, we'll be back before you know it. Anything special you want me to look for?"

Kiara shook her head. " I just need you to come back to me, that's it."

"Aaww dear, of course I will." You said hugging little Kiara.

You loved her, she was the only one that understood you and never judged you. One day you were going to take her exploring with you, so you could show her everything you loved.

Two weeks passed. Everyone was a little on edge since the news of contact had gotten to you. Apparently, a week ago the satellites started working again and your walkie-talkies that you carried mostly just to feel like you were connected somehow started working again. The people on the bunker told Ana and Aaron that a girl, similar age to you and Lila, had found the missing piece to get satellite connection back on. We knew about the bunker on the east but we had little contact with them and the nomads that were looking for ways to communicate with each other had been murder by a big group of apes, but apparently one of the girls of the nomad group had survived and, with the help of some apes, was able to get to where the main computers where locked and retrieve de disc.

This news had everyone in our group freaked out, it had been a long time since we had been able to communicate over long distances. Some were happy about it, they were thinking that this way we were going to able to rebuilt what was ours, but others were weary of what other humans wanted. 'Humans are selfish and will do anything to get power' Others thought.

Our group tried to maintain calm during all this, we still had to find supplies and medicine that was not going to arrive even if we had connection with other humans. More people meant more food, more space needed and more medicine that we did not have to spare.

At night everyone was silently eating what you had hunted for the day. You were pretty good at using different weapons, but your favorite was the bow and arrow, you almost never missed unless you wanted to. The others had guns, and some knives with them, but most of them knew that using guns out hear meant that everything in a 1km radius or more could hear and pinpoint our location.

"We could've been eating earlier if we had used my gun, I never miss" Samantha spoke showing a cocky grin to you.

You just rolled your eyes at her.

"If we had done your way, every single ape around here would've come looking for us." Seth said calmingly.

Samantha hated it when he agreed with your methods, and you knew it; in a way, it made you proud when he did. He would always be om Samantha's side and agree with her, he never liked agreeing with you, but sometimes he just had to.

"You should be thanking Y/N for her quick thinking. Otherwise, we would've had to eat the dried-up food we brought, and I don't think anybody wanted more of that" Ana said laughing at the end. The rest of the group followed making faces of disgust and laughing at the comment of our leader.

"How long until we get to the big buildings?" Lila asked when everyone had calmed down

"Sadly, I think we'll have to go back. Ana and I have been thinking about it and it's better to be with everyone else at the moment." Aaron answered

"Uncertain times call for unity." Ana added

Seth nodded and kept eating.

You were thinking. The group needed medicine, and other things...maybe a tiny group could keep pushing forward while the adults went back.

"And what if some of us stayed? You said it yourself Aaron, we are a week away from the buildings and we need everything we can find over there. A small group will not be noticed as easily as all of us" you said.

You had a point, and they knew it. After some discussion, the leaders agreed, Lila and you could keep going, the rest was to go back with them. Samantha was going to disagree, but she knew better than to stay with you two. Lila and you were inseparable, and Samantha would only be outnumbered in any decision you made.

The next morning everyone gave you half of their rations for food since you two were going to need them more than them, and then they set off for the bunker.

Lila and you waved at them, and then kept going.

For some time, it was quiet between you two, but Lila was not going to let that be.

"Sooo, wanna race?" Lila said with a sparkle in her eyes.

You knew what that meant. The idea was in her mind, now you could only accept the challenge.

"I mean...It's kind of unfair. Char is not meant for sprinting" you said with a grin.

"And Envy is?" Lila replied

"Oh, I know she's faster that Char." You said, knowing full well that she was fast in short distances and Lila was thinking more of a long-distance race.

"Well, then start! See you at the end!" Lila said kicking softly the side of her mare that sprinted away.

"Hey no fair!" You yelled doing the same with Envy.

You passed trees and creeks so fast you felt like you were going to fall off the horse. Impressively you were just behind Lila and Char, who was galloping with all her might.

You were so enthralled by how fast Char was going that you barely missed a branch that could've hit you down.

Eventually Lila made Char stop. You kept going, but Lila screamed at you to stop.

"What? I thought we were going to end?" You said out of breath riding back to where they were.

"Look up" She said, almost like a whisper.

You did and saw tall buildings in front of you all covered in vines and trees. The trees had broken some of the sediments of the building but were also holding them up. Most of them were broken, and some had collapsed, probably by the sheer size of them.

"Wow, they are amazing" Lila said.

There were rows of them, all conquered back by nature itself. It was beautiful to see how two completely opposite things could come together to create art. All green and grey together forming structures that you had never seen before.

You were both still gawking at the immensity of the buildings when you heard a noise up in the sky. Eagles, huge and magnificent eagles. You had seen some flying around on your own little excursions, but now they were closer than ever.

"Should we follow them?" Lila whispered, this was unknown territory to her, this was more your area of interest.

"Mmm maybe for a while just to see where they take us." You said firmly. " We can also walk and get in some of these buildings to see if we find something" You added.

Lila nodded and dismounted Char, you followed suit. Both of you took the reins of each mare and pulled gently so they kept up with the pace you set.

Three days you walked and searched for supplies with no luck. You tried entering every building you could, but some of them where to destroy to even walk on the floor. Others had entrances that were too high for either of you to climb, and if you did climb the hard part later was going down.

"Thank goodness you came prepared, Y/N." Lila said, struggling while climbing down a rope.

"Don't mention it, just keep going we're almost at the bottom" You said short of breath. You were no stranger to climbing but doing it almost every day for 3 days was taking its toll on you.

Lila let go of the rope and landed on the ground huffing.

"We can't keep doing this, Y/N. It's too tiring. We aren't apes to be climbing around without a care in the world!"

"I know I know, but we've found some good stuff nonetheless" You said as you stretched out after jumping off the rope, you went back and pulled the rope 2 times so it could fall off the makeshift hook you had made to tie it up.

"Some expired painkillers and a bunch of gardening tools is NOT good stuff!"

Lila sighed, even though you’d a nice time sharing this little adventure together you were starting to feel hopeless. Maybe it was time to go back, maybe the others had gotten supplies from the other camp, and you were doing nothing out here but waste time.

"Lila…you can go you know?" You said softly cleaning some arrows that you had used to hunt rabbits earlier.

"What? And leave you here?? Are you insane?!"

"No… I just feel like my time here is not over yet. Yours though…"

"Nu uh, I'm not leaving you alone, we don't even know where exactly we are."

"It's my decision Lila"

"Bullshit! I know you love nature and such, but everyone is waiting for us!"

"Everyone?" You said lowering your head.

Lila didn't answer, she knew that most of the people treated you like an outsider. No one ever told her why, the only reason she could think of wad that you had no family left alive, but that was a cruel way of treating your own kind.

"Fine, I'll take what we found back. What do you expect me to say to the rest when you don't arrive with me huh?" Lila asked

"You tell them half the truth, that I simply didn't want to come back"

"That's the 'half-truth' to you?"

"Ok ok," you said rolling your eyes. " Tell them you begged me to go back, and I said I would keep looking for stuff for a couple more days, then you never met again with me"

"Mmm, alright. So, you got killed?"

"What?! No! Idiot" You said pushing her playfully. Lila just chuckled.

"I'm gonna miss you (Y/nickname)." Lila sniffled while hugging you.

You hugged her back with some tears in your eyes.

"I'll be back before you know it, I promise"

Lila waved goodbye to you while riding Char out of the jungle of buildings, you waved back until you couldn't see her anymore.

After that you kept searching for anything really for a couple of days, until one day the promises you had made to Lila and Kiara were going to be broken.

–----------------------------------------

One day while you were scavenging around in a building you heard noises, noises you hadn't heard before. You took Envy and hid her next to some bushes at the side of a building and tried to keep her relaxed.

As the noise came closer it became clearer: apes.

You never really had contact with them since you were always cradled inside the bunker. The only experience you had was the stories people would tell you, but once you started growing up you stopped believing everything the adults told you.

You were a little apprehensive about the situation at hand but as long as Envy obeyed you, you were sure the apes would pass as quickly as they came.

"You only try to show off when climbing, the other things you just avoid!" A female voice said

"Not true! Anaya never avoids challenges, right Noa?" A male voiced reply

'Anaya and Noa' you made a mental note of the names, not sure why. You heard them walking away so you went out of your hiding place little by little, looking around you just in case you needed to hide from them.

From where you were you could see 3 apes; one had an armband different than the other two. You felt bad spying on them, but your curiosity got the best of you. You kept listening in the conversation, but you also noticed they would sign sometimes and that got lost in translation. The only signs you knew were tactical warfare signs that Aaron had thaught you when you were learning about weapons with Lila and Samantha.

"Soona is right, Anaya always showing off then running away when something goes wrong" The third one spoke, another male. After that the three started making a noise that you could only compare to laugh.

"I'll show you, climb to top to see sunset. First one wins!" The other male said running in all fours and starting to climb the building in front of you with ease.

"Anaya wait!" The female voice shouted but followed right behind him.

The other male chuckled and followed his friends up the building.

You were mesmerized by how athletic and big they were, but something inside you also wanted to follow them so you could see at least one sunset. The past days you've had missed all of them because of the tall canopy, but not today. The renewed strength gave you confidence that you could climb to the top of the building you were hiding behind.

You took your trusty rope and, your bow and some arrows just in case they attacked you and started climbing up. The building that you had chosen was in pretty good state, it still had most of its stairs and you didn't have to jump too far from one part of some broken stairs to another, which would also be handy when climbing down.

About 3 floors from getting to the top, you encountered the biggest problem: no more stairs. They were all broken or looked very unstable, your best option to climb up was the outside of the building. The design made it look like a stair, and if you went a little bit over the edge that was keeping you from falling you could see a metal hook thingy in which you could tie a rope to climb down.

First you made a knot at the end of the rope with just enough space to insert it in the hook, after that you threw that end of the rope with just enough strength to get it to where you needed it. It took you 3 attempts, but eventually you made it and started climbing the rope. Your hands were already tired from days before, but the view would make it all worth it.

Eventually when you were halfway through something made a weird noise. At first you didn't pay much attention to it but then y sounded again and this time you felt the rope moving. The hook couldn't withstand your weight anymore, and you could feel it just pulling down.

You tried to keep taking deep breaths but that was not working, they were faster than before.

*crack*

You looked up and saw the rope sliding off the hook even farther than before, that was when you started panicking. Your breathing wasn't steady anymore and now you were seconds away from falling from the almost top of the building.

A piece of the building where the hook was gave up and you let go of the rope for milliseconds and eventually grabbed the rope but it burned because of the friction, and you screamed in pain.

Noa and his friends, who were happily watching the sunset, looked at each other when you screamed. The three of them looked around for the thing that had made such a horrible sound but couldn't see anything.

You tried climbing up again, but now your hands were bloody from the fall, and you were slipping from the rope. You were in agony.

"Please, not like this, I can't die like this" You said to yourself trying to reassure yourself that you were not going to die.

That's when Noa heard you and looked over the building, he signaled his friends to jump to the other building.

"She will die if we don't help," Soona said with worry.

" What do we do?" Anaya asked Noa.

Noa went to were the rope was tied.

"Please don't kill me!" You shouted, looking up seeing one of the apes.

Noa frowned his face but kept trying to pull you up.

You understood then he was trying to help, but you knew the extra weight on the now unstable floor was not going to help.

"No, let go! You'll make it worse!" You tried to explain with tears rolling down your face. You couldn't stand the pain anymore.

Eventually the rope itself started tearing up, you were about 15 meters from the ground, you knew it was unlikely to survive that fall, your only hope was now with the 3 apes that were trying to help.

You saw the male ape trying, again, to pull you up, but it was useless with the rope tearing, and that's when it happened.

The rope tore apart, and you started to fall, your only hope for surviving was the trees below you would cushion your fall enough for you not to die. The only thing you were able to come up with was using your left arm to cover your neck as best you could.

Silence. Silence followed after your fall. Anaya was the first one to get to you and he poked you with a stick.

Soona quickly took the stick from him and went to check if you were still alive. She saw that you were still breathing thankfully. But your left forearm was completely broken.

"What happens now?" Soona asked Noa.

Noa was not sure what to do, his instincts told him to leave you there to die, after all, you were Echo. You would only mean problems to the clan, but there was another part of him that felt responsible for you and wanted to help you out.

"We take her home, help her wounds. After that, she has to leave." Noa said to Soona.

Soona nodded and took your frail body, and the three friends started their journey back home, back to Eagle Clan.

[loganwritesprobably]

Law with the 3° genre, prompt (y.)

Since there's no specification, I'm pairing Law up with a gender neutral reader

Find the prompt list here

Content/Warnings: Law/GN!Reader, hurt/no comfort, break up, reader decides to leave the crew

If you had to hear one more stupid word from his stupid mouth, you were going to lose your mind. Breaking up with Law while underwater in the Polar Tang, still days away from your next island, may have been a bit of a mistake but you just couldn't do it anymore. You couldn't keep pretending. It had to end. Everything was tense, and uncomfortable, if he entered the room you immediately left, and the other crew members were struggling with the discomfort. Not one of them tried to criticise you though, they sympathised.

Law did not seem to understand how serious you were, though.

He went out of his way to seek you out, searching for you when you had downtime to try to speak to you. You avoided him at all costs, often walking away while he followed you, ignoring every word that he said. If he did it again, you were going to develop a serious violence issue.

You were sitting quietly in the kitchen, reading a book, and enjoying just being alone for a while. There was a lot you needed to organise, and you needed silence to do it. Feelings to sort through, things to plan, and decisions to be made. You'd already moved all your things from Law's room back into the crew's room, and you were sleeping in your old bed again - still alone, but at least now it was by choice.

That was why you'd split up with Law, you couldn't deal with the way he treated you anymore.

He was never around, always prioritising work over you and even yourself. It was one thing for him to put the crew before you, because you understood that - he was a Captain, that was his job - but to even neglect himself to the point where he was snapping at you and other crew members; making poor decisions; missing all his time with the people he claimed were his friends.. you weren't willing to put up with it anymore. You couldn't date a man who had all these responsibilities when he couldn't take care of himself.

Did you even want him as your Captain?

Hence, things to think about.

Law walked into the room, and for the first time in several days, you didn't leave. You were capable of ignoring him while he puttered around to finally feed himself, you were reading a good book. Instead of doing that though, he sat in the chair beside yours, and just stared at you. It was hard to concentrate on you book when he was staring at you so intently but you kept your eyes on the page, refusing to bend to whatever he was trying to do.

"Since you're finally done running, I want to talk about us." He said eventually, and you sighed, slamming your book closed. "There is no us Law, get that into your thick skull." You hissed, standing up from your chair to leave again, retreating to another quiet room to gather your thoughts. "Why aren't you even willing to hear me out? You'd think I'd hit you!" He yelled, and you froze. "Why? Because you act like you have no interest in yourself, never mind me! We barely spent any time together, and when we did half of it was me forcing you to look after yourself and the other half was you being grumpy or mean because you can't do that for yourself! I'm done with it Law! Grow up a little - then come back and talk to me." You'd turned back to face him, eyes wild, chest rising and falling rapidly with your anger. Law stared back at you, mouth hanging slightly open, understanding finally dawning on him.

"I'm not getting back on the Polar Tang after this island. I'll find my own way - I don't want you as my Captain anymore."

Requests are open! See below links for my other works, and how to leave requests. I write both canon/canon and canon/reader requests for your enjoyment

AO3 | Fanfic Masterlist | Request Rules | WIPs | Recommendations

Tags: @claryeverlarkf @uselessboots @cainnoable

[secret-shipping-society]

Okay so I'm not sure why I'm sending this in but like I'm in the whump community and I'll see a lot of stuff and it's making me wonder if my previous positions as antiship are bad. For context I'm both an ex-proship and ex-antiship person. I was recently groomed and because my groomer was who convinced me to be proship (to be clear this was an age gap relationship between adults, in the sense I met my abuser as a legally adult teenager and she was in her late 20s) and as such I decided well clearly antiship is best because my groomer liked this.... But now I'm wondering how proshippers actually see fiction. I'm aroace and to me ships seem to be something meant to be wanted and desirable. It's what people want to see in real life relationships for them that's why it's called a ship or so I thought? But I'm now wondering if people also use the term ship when they actually mean portrayal?

Like for example I've seen people talking about stuff I fully agree with but the second they say they ship said characters my brain goes "oh no that's BAD that's really bad" if the exact same depiction was written by someone who did not ship the characters I would not have a problem with them. I write horrific dark fics between victims and their abusers. Someonetimes they're dating their abusers but I don't consider it a ship. However I've also had people claim I'm pro-ship for this so now I'm just confused.

Like what does pro-ship mean even at this point? Is it actually about having sexual and romantic attraction to abuse, and fictional kids and incest? Or is it like.... Just writing dark fics?

Lol it's okay, I don't take offense to any asks in here unless they're harassment. I'm always willing to answer well meaning questions! And I genuinely hope that you're doing better now, you didn't deserve to be groomed. 🫂

To answer some of your questions, proship has very little to do with the actual content of what you ship. Proship just means pro (as in the prefix meaning "for") and ship, giving us a word that means "being for people shipping whatever they want". This doesn't mean that you necessarily enjoy those ships or pairings, but rather that you accept that people might ship some stuff you find to be distasteful and as such, won't harass them despite your distaste for it.

Proship is also interchangeable with "anti harassment" and "anti censorship", as proshippers believe in blocking over harassing others and due to many instances in the past, if we begin to censor anything in fiction, it becomes a slippery slope that leads to queer content being censored.

All in all, the majority of proshippers I've heard from don't actually pair things that antis tend to accuse them of (aka, they don't pair minor x adult or siblings). A lot of them actually find it gross, but they believe that people should write whatever they want so long as it stays fictional.

The majority of proshippers that ship pairings don't hold the same values for real life. For example, someone that ships an abusive pairing might do so to cope with trauma they suffered (a method that therapists actually swear by) while being exceptionally against abuse irl. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that there's only a very few amount of proshippers that believe any problematic ships would be okay to replicate irl, and those people tend to be shunned by the community.

Shipping is less so a declaration of morals and moreso someone going "I wonder what a relationship would look like between these two characters". Sometimes it's a way to explore a taboo topic using said characters as a mouthpiece. Sometimes it's a vent rewritten to be a fanfic. And sometimes it's just someone going "lol wouldn't this be interesting".

A lot of words to say that proship = anti harassment and that shipping ≠ real life morals! It's kinda like how someone that plays Call of Duty isn't anymore likely to be okay with murder than anyone else.

Also: you don't have to label yourself as proship even if you agree with proship stances. Some people might try to force the label on you, and although they mean well, it's not a requirement. It can be like putting a bullseye on yourself, plus forcing people to call themselves specific labels never works out. Make sure to stay safe, okay? 🫂

[supersymmetrys]

Hello everyone, my name is Artemis and this is my (re) introduction to the writeblr community, I will try to use this account more since I'm trying to get back into writing!

Basic info ;

My name is Artemis, I'm 21 years old and my pronouns are she/her. I follow from my main blog @girltomripley !!

I'm Mexican, English is not my first language so I write most of my stuff in Spanish, but I sometimes translate it in case I want to share it with someone else.

Some of my favorite stuff: Taylor Swift, movies (my top 4: The Talented Mr. Ripley, Somewhere, Broadcast News, and Ghost World), Silvia Moreno García books, 60s-90s Hollywood, alternative rock music, Taylor Jenkins Reid books.

What I like to write about: Dramedy stories, often set in the 20th century, family drama, father/daughter relationships (bonus points if they're not actually related), road trip stories, characters of color, women leads, and queer relationships.

I am currently studying illustration and concept art in college, so other than writing, drawing is something I also enjoy doing (and I hope to share here as well).

While I don't post a lof of NSFW stuff (and if I do, I'll tag it), I'd prefer if you were at least over 16 if you want to be mutuals!

Please interact with this post so we can be mutuals! And don't be afraid to send me an ask/message me to talk about your own stories/ask about mine!

My WIP'S ;

While I do have multiple of unfinished works in progress, most of them are just ideas or fanfics. My main WIP and probably the one I'll talk about the most is In the Angel's City:

In the Angel's City (drama) ; A hollywood story following a screenwriter and her search for answers behind the death of a famous star; all with the help of a retired actor who disappeared from the public eye.

(more stories under the cut)

Roadrunners (drama) ; Two childhood friends embark on a cross-country journey with a free-spirited young woman they just met, as a romance between the trio blossoms.

Andy You're A Star! (thriller) ; Things turn sinister for average Andy when he meets dark and mysterious James, who drags him along a murderous path (based on The Killers' songs!!)

Neon Bible (horror) ; A small town in Mexico is divided when the child of one of the most important families starts claiming to hear voices and see things that aren't there: half the town believes it must be the devil's work while the other tries to find a medical solution. The situation escalates with the arrival of a foreign guest, who clashes immediately with one of the most beloved and respected men in town.

Game & Performance (drama) ; Carmen, a problematic CEO of a makeup brand decides to escape to a Greek island with her husband after being accused of scamming her clients. Carmen worsens her problems by starting a relationship with a man much younger than her.

(I'll be updating this section as I make intro posts for these)

[krissiefox]

Sonic The Hedgehog (2020) Movie Review!

While I was sick recently, I was holed up in my room trying not to infect the rest of my family. I'd been reading Sonic fanfics in the meantime, and this gave me the idea to finally watch the DVD I got of the the 2020 Sonic movie, and then of course, I wanted to write a review, because it's fun (and my wife seems to like them)! I'll put a divider here, because this review does contain spoilers for most of the plot points, so this is your warning before you read on!

To get the unfortunate bits out of the way, the movie had a rough start, with the strange first design of Sonic becoming a social media trend of snark and negativity that I remember making me pretty depressed. In response to the backlash, Paramount changed up Sonic's design to something cuter. I've heard mixed claims saying that during this time the artists for the movie were abused with crunch, while others claim this didn't occur, so I'm not sure about whether or not it happened, but I hope not.

A worried Sonic ball, hiding from badniks....

With that unpleasantness out of the way, the movie eventually finished and came out, and at-least on tumblr I saw a lot of folks seemed to really enjoy it. My little brother expressed interest in watching it with me, so eventually while out shopping with my wife I picked up copies of the first two movies.

This movie does commit the act of "Hollywood Video Game Adaptations" by largely changing the source material and basically creating another AU for the Sonicverse, and I know that's a turnoff for some, so this wouldn't be every one's cup of tea as many folks would prefer something rooted in one the already established Sonic worlds. I was able to enjoy the film though, and found it quite cute, sweet and funny. It also gave warm fuzzies to see my favorite childhood video game hero in his first big screen movie adaption.

The Story follows Sonic as he is ousted from his home world by his owl mom to live on Earth, after a tribe of echidnas attacks their house. Sonic is ordered to live in hiding, and is given a bag of magic teleportation rings that he is to use only in an emergency to escape to another place.

As ordered, Sonic lives on Earth in secret, in a town called Green Hills. He spies on the humans and enjoys learning about Earth, but is still very lonely as he isn't allowed to interact with them. Some of his favorite humans are a local couple that he has named "Donut Lord" and "Pretzel Lady". One night, while playing at a baseball field at night, Sonic gets so upset about his isolated life that he causes a massive power surge with his speed, drawing attention to his location.

Dr. Robotnik meets Donut Lord!

The government calls in Dr. Robotnik (and his minion/boyfriend Agent Stone), whom in this universe is an earthling rather than a resident of Mobius. He is played by Jim Carrey as a delightfully fun and strange villain throughout the film. He takes over the search for the source of the power surge, and eventually closes in on the cave Sonic has been living in.

In a panic, Sonic decides he'll need to bail on this world, though he hates the thought of having to do so, being so fond oft it. He sneaks into Donut Lords home to use one of his teleport rings, when Donut (aka Tom) finds him and shoots him with a tranquilizer dart gun. One of Sonic's rings opens up and since Donut's shirt made Sonic think of San Francisco, that's where the portal leads to and Sonic's rings end up there.

After getting to know each-other, Sonic and Donut end up fleeing as vigilantes both from the government and Dr. Robotnik. Eventually they make it to San Francisco, Sonic gets his rings back, and he has a big showdown with Robotnik where he ends up sending Robotnik through a portal to the mushroom world he was originally going to go to. Donut Lord and Pretzel Lady end up adopting Sonic, and the movie wraps up as Sonic sees his new bedroom in a really sweet scene. Mid credits, we also get a teaser showing Tails arriving on Earth!

One of the movie's more badass looking scenes.

Outside of the aforementioned issue that creating an entirely new Sonic AU for the film will alienate some folks, my only other criticism is that I would have liked to learn more Sonic's owl mom, as she seemed pretty cool. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the film quite a bit. It was colorful, pretty, Sonic was adorable, Robotnik was very funny, and Sonic's new friends were quite likeable. Definitely a recommended watch for anyone curious about the film. :) I may end up watching the sequel sometime soon, too!

[rainbowsky]

Hi Rainbowsky

Hope you are doing well.

Happy Halloween!! Hope you enjoyed your day well!!

Few days back, I was reading a fanfic where the plot was OOL shooting and some photo leaks BTS causing ripples in yizhan relationship..

I know it's a fic, but the plot is so real.. I just wanted to know was there something like this back then...

Coz in those times I was not into turtledom so I have no Idea..

Hi Anon, Thanks, I did enjoy my Halloween! I hope you did too! 👻

Fake, fan fiction, CPN.

There were some set photos (props for the show) that were 'leaked' at one point and caused a stir among some turtles, and often held up by antis to try to hurt turtles. HOWEVER.

That does not mean they caused any stir at all in GGDD's relationship. Remember, they are both actors and know full well what that entails. IMNSHO there is zero chance that DD was upset in any way by the photos.

Perhaps you don't need this reminder, Anon, but just for the sake of it I want to reiterate that fan fiction is fiction, even - and I'd say especially - when the plot seems real or follows the real timeline of events.

Fan fiction about GG and DD is totally invented, and authors have no special insight into GG and DD's feelings, thoughts or real life experiences. It's their job as writers to bring stories to life and make them seem credible, but no matter how credible it seems, it's still entirely fictional.

I know that sounds lecturey and obvious, but you have no idea how many times during my years in this fandom that I've had stories from fan fiction reported to me as 'things that actually happened', and seen fans vehemently argue that fictional events were real.

Fan fiction is an open frontier. People can write whatever they want. But the more a story follows real events about real people, the more it stresses me out. There are unfortunately a lot of people who have a hard time distinguishing between fiction and reality.

And this is something that can creep up on just about anyone without their realizing. Turtles are faced with a TON of information from various sources, so much that it's hard to keep up. The more fandom information we take in over time the easier it is for us to forget where we saw or heard something, and to accidentally mistake something we read in a fic for something that actually happened.

This is why I vastly prefer AU stories over ones that try to build a narrative around actual events and fictionalize GGDD's real lives. I 100% support people's right to write 'fandom timeline' stories if they want to, but that doesn't mean I'll enjoy them or recommend them.

So while you read these stories, Anon, please keep in mind that very important point:

Fan fiction is fiction. Always.

It's also very common for turtles, including fan fic authors, to glamorize or romanticize jealousy. There's nothing romantic about jealousy. It's a very toxic emotion that can lead to bad - even dangerous - behavior. I personally believe it's insulting toward GG and DD to paint either one of them as 'the jealous type'.

There's a huge amount of disinformation floating around about the OOL photos, including claims that DD was wildly jealous and totally freaked out over them. I find that notion absurd and even offensive. It is insulting to DD's level of emotional intelligence, and makes uncharitable assumptions about his level of trust and respect for GG.

As I said, GG and DD are actors, and they know what that entails.

More on that here.

You can read more about the photos in some of my past posts.

The photos and turtles reactions

Confirmation they were fake props

Why some people believed they were real

[fanfic-inator795]

WoY: A Decade Later (A personal retrospection)

Wander Over Yonder… for a time, it was - in my opinion - the best cartoon ever. It was my number one, and I wasn't sure that anything else could top it. While I don't necessarily feel the same way these days, it's still a cartoon that very much lives in my heart and I don't think I'll ever truly leave it behind.

From a personal perspective, it was probably the biggest and most active Fandom I had been in at that time. It wasn't my first fandom/hyperfixation - prior to WoY, there had been Cartoon Network's Chowder and Regular Show, as well as Disney's Phineas and Ferb. But Chowder was short-lived and RS and PnF were both shows I had lost interest in due to them beginning to dip in quality.

WoY, however, was new, fresh, exciting and growing rapidly. It inspired me to write probably at least a hundred fanfics. It was a blast live-reacting to new episodes with everyone and seeing all the art that would come afterwards. It brought me into the RP scene and, if not for that, I might have never met my best friend of 10 years (and counting! Love you, Tessa).

Looking back on it 10 years after the fact, I can't fully say that WoY is still my favorite cartoon (shows like Kid Cosmic, The Ghost and Molly McGee, Big City Greens and Craig of the Creek have all outshined it in one way or another), nor can I claim that it is/was a perfect show. But man… It sure was a hell of a ride.

(Keep reading for all my admittedly VERY LONG personal thoughts or opinions regarding this one of a kind show)

Humble Beginnings

Pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but I actually didn't care for WoY at first. It was the summer right before college, and I remember watching the sneak peek - The Picnic - early one morning after not being able to go back to sleep. I remember not really laughing much or even seeing the appeal… and yet the episode stuck in my mind, to the point that I ended up watching it again during a free moment I had from Freshman Orientation Week. I had a similar reaction to the show's proper pilot, The Greatest - not loving it, but not hating it either.

The fact that people/friends from my RS and PnF days were also posting about it helped keep the show in my mind (shoutout to Taylor, Erin and Darkwing). But it wasn't until two specific episodes - The Fugitives and The Good Deed - that I managed to finally start to connect with the characters myself. 

I started to see the appeal in this little furry orange spoon who just wanted to do good and make others happy, even when it was a struggle. I really liked the show's core theme of not just optimism and positivity, but also just being kind. I also started to really enjoy the show's sci-fi and space aesthetic and grew to adore its animation and gorgeous backgrounds, as well as laugh at its wacky sense of humor (I still laugh at The Fugitives/Good Deed quite a bit, even though I probably have their entire scripts memorized at this point).

So, it was official. I was hooked. Whenever there were new eps, I'd either try to watch them on the basement TV in my college dorm or wait for a livestream or FreeCartoonsOnline upload. If we're being honest, the first half of season 1, while being much more low-key than the wackiness that the show would end up eventually shifting to, was probably when it was at its most consistent. Other eps later on would reach higher highs, but getting stuff like The Bad Guy, the Prisoner, the Troll, the Pet, the Box and The Little Guy back-to-back just made my love for the show grow more and more.

The Little Guy specifically is one that is just incredibly well-crafted in its dialogue, story-telling and pacing, being both enjoyable and heartfelt. (Also the last time I watched it the ending made me bawl so, there's that, lol). Shortly afterwards, The Hero was another ep that I distinctly remember sticking in my head for whatever reason (Dracor and Demurra are still adorable, ngl). Then we had another favorite of mine, The Nice Guy.

I know I may be in the minority on this one - I remember my parents being annoyed and frustrated when they watched it with me, haha - but I absolutely love this episode. I find the jokes funny enough - the cashier is one of my favorite minor characters tbh - and the space gas station appeals to my aesthetic. But what really sells this episode for me is how it handles and portrays its moral of "being nice isn't always easy, but it's still right and still worth doing". Its ending never fails to get an "awwww" out of me, and honestly I could probably go on for an hour about all the little details and things I like/appreciate. I've also grown to really like its sister episode, the Time Bomb.

But no show is perfect, and right around here is where the show, in my opinion, started having some misses. It was mostly just "meh" affairs like The Night, The Toddler and The Big Job (weird, since I usually like heist eps… though I haven't rewatched this one in a while so *shrugs*). Other eps like The Tourist and ESPECIALLY The Helper (which I consider to be the show's worst outing, the vibes are just SO WEIRD on this one) I just didn't care for at all. 

Nothing terrible (save for the Helper), just cases of the jokes not landing or the stories being boring. This was also when the show really started leaning into the wackiness - which wasn't BAD persay, since it led to some really funny jokes and memorable moments when it was used well - it's just that looking back, I sorta miss the simplicity of early s1.

Thankfully, the season put out some real bangers by its end, with my personal faves being The Epic Quest (that ending will never not make me cackle. Again, it's a case of the wackiness actually working incredibly well), the Halloween/Christmas special, and the Rider, which is a great adventure to cap off the season and also the Horse from Horsin’ Around guest stars in it! (and does a pretty good job too. Will Arnett is def one of my favorite celeb VAs at this point, ngl)

So yeah, between the two seasons, s1 is easily my favorite. Call it nostalgia or personal taste, but for me it's all about that consistency. Adding in the fact that s2 has some pretty notable flaws and is thus a lot harder to look back on without noticing those flaws, and it's really no contest for me. 

New season, New problems

I certainly remember the excitement - as well as the fandom's stir craziness - in the lead-up to s2. There were crackships that were invented, silly RP blogs were rampant, Craig McCracken and crew (back when they were still on Tumblr) kept us fed with cool behind the scenes info as well as sneak peeks of the new season, and while I can't recall when it specifically happened, I also vividly remember the 'Bad End to Episodes' phase that the fandom was in at one point. Ah, the joys of still being in your angst phase.

Come that year's Comic Con, and a new round of hype came from the reveal that our new villain of the season was going to be a girl! …yeahhh, it sorta sucks recalling how hyped we all were about Dominator now that we know that she didn't quite work out the way we were all hoping for…

But regardless, s2 had a very strong start. Outside of the premiere, my favorites of this first batch would easily be The Boy Wander and The It for both just being incredibly funny. Although, if you had asked me at the time though, I probably would have said the Skeleton Dance fueled eps that were The Big Day and the Fremergency Fronfract - and like, yeah those eps can still be funny and enjoyable, but I've definitely cooled on the Skeleton Dance ship since these eps first premiered. (Still love a lot of the cute fanon stuff though)

Skipping past the next tent-pole episode for right now, this season had two of my favorite episodes of the ENTIRE SERIES - these being The Cartoon and The Black Cube. The former is just hilarious while the latter has a unique visual presentation and feels like an early s1 ep, and I mean that in the best possible way. I also really enjoy the Eye on the Skullship as well as the Hole… 'Lotta Nuthin' (this one especially, as it's another instance where, for as good as the ep is as a whole, it's the heartwarming lesson and hilarious ending that makes it such a winner in my book).

But for as much as the show was still putting out hits, I'll admit that there were also quite a few meh or just okay eps, especially as the season goes on. Some eps I found funny when I first watched them, but that humor doesn't hit as well when I watch them now. I also feel like there were points where it tried to be TOO silly to the point where it inhibited the actual humor and made the characters flatter and a bit flanderized compared to how they were in s1 (Hater especially got hit bad with this, where it’s less about him ‘softening up’ to show that he has the potential to be a good guy, and more just him constantly leaning into him being a bratty teenager instead of having that mix of dumb/bratty teen boy and legit evil conqueror).

Other times, it was just another case of a story not being as good as it could have been - and by this point in the season, while there are still enjoyable eps with fun concepts/jokes in the latter half of the series, the only one to get near the peak of the show's typical high quality is the musical ep, and if we're being real, it's Andy Bean's impeccable songwriting that saves this ep and makes it so good to rewatch despite its connection to the season's flawed overall story.

And I think it's about time we talk about that…

Not Quite Ready for Serialization

Being a show that was made right after Gravity Falls but before stuff like Star VS, Amphibia, and Owl House, s2 of WoY felt like a show with one foot stuck in episodic stuff and one foot trying to step into serialization. Because of this, the season’s overarching plot feels incredibly underbaked.

Now… Am I saying that I’d want the show to be like ATLA where every episode had to relate back to either the overarching story or one of the side-arcs? No, absolutely not. We’d be missing out on some of my favorite one-shot episodes if they did that, and if I had to choose between the season we have now and the season we could have gotten had the WoY crew gotten more freedom and were allowed more serialization, I’m going with the former each and every time.

HOWEVER, I still have to acknowledge just how poorly done the structure of this season was when it came to the overarching story. Basically we got four tentpole episodes acting as the season’s beginning, arc shifts and ending. During the season’s second and third arcs, there would be certain episodes afterwards reacting to the change in the show’s status quo.

Now, I get what they were TRYING to do but in my opinion it just really didn’t work as well as it could have. I’ll talk more about this in a bit but the season’s second arc (the “romance” arc) definitely got tiring after a while, meanwhile the third “Stop Dominator” arc felt like it was sort of killing time given that it was mostly just the main 4 trying to find some sort of weapon/figure out some sort of plan that ultimately resulted in some ‘funny’ failures and some quick lessons, with the occasional character piece thrown in here or there.

Now, I didn’t hate these episodes. By this point, it should be evident that one of my favorite elements of WoY are its morals and lessons, so even if the episodes themselves didn’t amount to much in the grand scheme of things and were essentially filler, I can at least appreciate a message like “being sad doesn’t mean you’ve given up hope” or “allowing yourself to laugh even in the dark times can help a ton”. So yeah, not completely pointless.

Unfortunately, even with a few bright spots here and there, the overarching plot of s2 still feels underbaked somewhat - and that’s ultimately because of the new character its focused around.

Dominator’s Dilemma

Okay, fess up. Whose idea was it to completely exclude Dominator from the first six episodes of the season (after the s2 premiere)? Because WOW does this decision backfire a lot. I don’t even like Dom that much and I can still acknowledge that she needed much more screen time and focus than she got.

I don’t know if this was to build up the ‘mystery’ surrounding her or because they wanted to get back in the groove of writing the main 4, but this was the crew’s first crucial mistake. Hell, in the first two episodes she plays an active role in, she’s nearly silent in both of them, only having her little fangirl rant in The Greater Hater and a small handful of lines in The Battle Royals. (Which, if I’m being honest, is still a really fun episode for 90% of it, having both great action and absolutely hilarious jokes that still make me laugh, but I get the ending of it making people sour on the episode as a whole.)

Again, it felt like trying to build up this artificial mystery surrounding her when it really wasn’t necessary. Dominator was meant to be a MAIN MEMBER of the cast! Yet I’m pretty sure Emperor Awesome got more significant screen time than her in the end!

Things got a teeny bit better as the show went on, with Dom at the very least getting more lines and more moments to be both badass and totally villainous, but she still felt more like a goal/obstacle than an actual character. I’m not sure if the writers MEANT to do this persay, or if it was just an accident.

Ultimately, it wasn’t until The Night Out when Dom finally got a spotlight episode… which was a little over 3/4ths of the way through the season. You could argue that she also got a bit of characterization in the musical episode, but it was really more emphasizing what we already knew or could infer about her. 

The Night Out, meanwhile, gives us something new - that she’s lonely - and we get a teeny hint of this again in The Robomechabotatron before being told outright in the series finale. Ultimately, it truly does feel like too little too late - especially when her secretly desiring friends just sorta feels like it’s aping off Hater’s secret motivations of wanting to be liked/admired and to have friends/people who love him for who he is.

So yeah, the crew completely dropped the ball on Dom’s characterization, using her as just a goal/threat/obstacle/etc. for nearly all of her appearances. Not only does it make Dom feel like a shallow character, but it also just feels unfair in general. Practically everything we know about Dom is for the sake of other characters.

She’s a test for Wander, an enemy/temporary love interest for Hater, an obstacle for our main four to overcome, and a threat to the characters we already love. Again, there’s nothing wrong with having a character that’s only meant to serve a purpose in the narrative, nor is there anything wrong with a character being shallowly evil… it’s just that the WoY crew hyped her up so much and claimed that she was a fifth main character (implying that she would get about as much development as the main four), so it just felt all the more disappointing when we didn’t get that. Add in her character design - a mix of goth/punk girl energy with Hartman Hips - and it does feel just a tad misogynistic.

There were things I liked about Dom - her cool lava powers and gadgets, her excitable personality, her villain spotlight moments, and her fun vocal performance provided by Noel Wells were all excellent. But unfortunately, these were all surface-level elements, and the crew just didn’t put in enough time to give her much else, essentially saving all her deeper character stuff for the never-made season 3…

A love-hate relationship (leaning towards hate)

Of course you can’t talk about Dom without discussing the season’s second arc, which many see as both a tumor on the plot and the absolute low point of the season. Admittedly when I was watching the season for the first time, I didn’t mind the romance arc all that much. I didn’t care if Dom was getting short-changed, I was too busy laughing at Hater falling all over himself like a dork and thought all the ‘critics’ of the arc were just focusing on the wrong thing and didn’t know how to have fun with a silly cartoon.

Obviously, this was the wrong perspective to have about this sort of thing (I was in the mindset of “I don’t want to accidentally make myself hate this thing I love so I’m going to ignore all criticism of it”. Definitely not the right approach), one that I still apologize for because the critics were totally in the right. From both an objective and a storytelling standpoint, this arc was just the worst - and for several reasons.

Leaning into the overall problem with Dom herself as mentioned previously, this arc was focused solely on Hater and Wander (and to an extent Syl and Peeps as they tried to talk some sense into their respective friends). Whenever Dom was brought in, she either used Hater’s crush to mess with him or just ignored it entirely, being obviously annoyed - and that was the extent of focus that her feelings got.

Outside of those moments, however, Dom’s feelings are relegated to the background, deemed as ‘unimportant’. Sure, in the climax of the arc, she gets this big whole musical number about how she’s “not the damsel” and isn’t interested in Hater’s affections - but again, it’s at the VERY END of the arc and the moment is less about Dom standing up for herself and more about emphasizing just how cruel she can be, as instead of simply rejecting Hater’s advances, she laughs in his face, continuing to mess with him to try and make the rejection as painful as possible before ultimately trying to kill Hater.

But while the arc ends in a showy (and admittedly still kinda fun, thank you Andy Bean and your musical talents) way, the way it starts sorta proves why this idea was so rotten to the core. The ONLY reason why Wander tries to get Hater and Dom together is ONLY because he knows Hater wants a GF and believes that a ‘positive’ thing like love could only ever result in the two villains finding happiness and no longer being evil. Nevermind the fact that Wander is shown only really caring about Hater’s perspective, not once considering Dom’s feelings or even asking if she wants a BF or romantic partner in general.

We get Syl calling him out on this a couple of times, but it’s in that ‘oh that Wander, always with the crazy ideas’ way. You’d think Sylvia, the icon that she is, would be just a bit more blunt and maybe even a bit harsh about how Wander’s treating Dominator - it’s not just a matter of it being a dumb and dangerous plan, but it’s essentially objectifying Dom, treating her like Hater’s missing piece. But hey, it’s fiiiiine, because Wander learns his lesson in the end, right? Except, no not really.

Because even when Wander FINALLY realizes this and feels guilty about causing so much trouble, Syl is more concerned with comforting Wander about it, because he TRIED to do what he thought was right and that “acknowledging you messed up is the first step towards making things right”. Like… yeah I guess but you could have let Wander actually acknowledge what he did was wrong and super messed up, focusing more on the personal aspect of how his whole romance scheme affected Dom AS WELL AS Hater (not JUST Hater) instead of how his scheme broke Hater’s heart and inadvertently made Dom more powerful.

(Also we see Wander shipping and actively pairing up the little Pikmin things in “The Sky Guy” soooooo no I don’t think he fully learned his lesson)

I also have to bring up how there are fans who view Dominator and her whole anti-love thing as aphobic. As someone who only recently figured out she was almost definitely aromantic, I’m certainly not the authority on this, but I can certainly understand the critiques.

What I THINK the WoY Crew was trying to go for was a ‘strong female villain who don’t need no man’, but between Dom constantly being described as ‘heartless’ and Peeps saying that he “doesn’t think she likes anybody” and her cruelty being turned up to 11 whenever someone expressed romantic feelings towards her, it does sorta imply “She can’t love and THAT’S why she’s a villainous monster” rather than simply “she’s a villainous monster”. And because we don’t get any real development or strong characterization with Dom, it’s hard to say where exactly her cruelty comes from, so it’s hard to really argue against these implications without simply inserting headcanons like “Dom is a lesbian”.

Now to be fair, I have seen some aromantics see Dom as good representation - I recall a month or so back when I saw people praising her after she was included in one of those Tumblr polls, with this one being focused on aromantic characters, saying that they liked how she didn’t sugarcoat her rejections and seeing her as this strong, cool, badass villainous who didn’t need romance. So yeah, obviously not every person who shares an identity is going to agree on representation and whether or not it's good, but considering all of Dom’s baggage and the inability to determine whether or not her heartlessness is the cause of her evil or simply a by-product of it, I personally feel like she’s just too messy of an example of a potential aro character.

(Honestly, Syl feels like a better example of an aromantic character to me, given that she and Ryder seemed just as platonic as she and Wander are, as well as her multiple rejections of Awesome and general disinterest/discomfort with romance. Buuut given that those latter examples are specifically with villains and thus it makes sense why she’d reject them regardless of her orientation, it’s still just a vibe/headcanon).

Before I close off this section, I do wanna acknowledge that beyond the potentially aphobic nature of Dominator, WoY’s LGBTQ+ rep isn’t nearly as great as I thought it was once upon a time as a young shipper. Some parts are still pretty okay, like Wander being coded as genderfluid/agender, but overall it still feels more like an old Looney Tunes cartoon than an episode of “The Owl House”, if you get what I’m saying.

In Craig’s defense, the man has never been all too interested in romance in his shows nor has he claimed otherwise - he either uses it as a joke while portraying it as a negative (see Ms.KeenexProf.Utonium, BlooxBerry or, obviously, DomxHater) or it’s a wholesome relationship that ultimately still stays in the background because it’s not all that important (see DracorxDemurra or Ramona and Carlos Flores from “Kid Cosmic”). 

BUT given that there were LGBTQ+ crew members working on the show in s2, such as N.D. Stevenson, as well as LGBTQ+ allies, it is a shame that no proper representation came of that. We got a whole episode where the joke was “oh, Wander and Hater are planning Wander’s execution like it’s a wedding”, an episode where Peeps and Hater essentially break up when Hater fires him, and an “I just can’t quit you” sort of moment from Peeps in the s2 finale when he goes all heart-eyed over Hater deciding to continue being a villain. That’s it, all jokes but nothing substantial. Even the show’s number one lesbian/wlw pairing of SylxDom got a quick Girls Night montage and one sweet moment between them, nothing else.

Again, it’s fine if you’re just looking for jokes, and yeah the WoY Crew never outright promised any romances… buuuut given how much they chose to lean into the Skeleton Dance and DeathGlare stuff while at the same time never outright confirming any of these characters as LGBTQ+ (they didn’t even have to make any ships canon, they just had to say whether or not Wander/Hater/Peeps were gay/bi/pan/etc), I’m not gonna invalidate people who feel just a bit queerbaited about the whole thing.

Bittersweet Goodbyes

As I said before, I was starting college when WoY first premiered. It’s the show that led me to my best friend and it’s the show that helped me through those first two years of college (easily the roughest part of college). It was a show that made me laugh and got me excited, even during the times where I was stressed out or worried. For all its flaws, it was one of the brightest lights in my life at that time.

So, needless to say, when I heard the show was canceled, I was devastated. I remember crying about it that night and even the day after, and I remember joining in as many online strategies as possible to try and get the show back, from letter writing to petition signing. Of course none of that worked, but as a bright side, going through this helped emotionally prepare me for the next time one of my favorite shows was suddenly canceled (looking at you Nickelodeon. Though considering how the RotTMNT movie turned out maaaaybe it was for the best…)

Honestly, for as much as I can look at the show through a critical lens nowadays and point out all the ways it could have been better, I think there will always be a small part of me that wishes we could have gotten some sort of continuation, whether it be through a special, a TV movie or a comic - or hell, I’d even take the plans for s3 leaking at this point. Now, given that the end of WoY brought about the creation of “Kid Cosmic”, I feel like this part has faded a bit, but I’m always gonna want closure on things like Hater’s arc as well as his origins given how much they were teased.

But that in itself is another critique I could give the show. Whether it be Wander facing a different type of threat that wasn’t just another villain, Hater’s transition into becoming a good guy, Peepers getting fed up with his boss and striking out on his own, or Dom’s true characterization that the crew kept insisting was there - the show simply saved a lot of it’s most interesting ideas for a potential Season 3. It was a gamble, and it was one they ultimately lost. It sucks, but it is what it is.

There’s a few more things I could critique about the show, such as its take on the idea of character redemption and Wander becoming a bit of a karma houdini that the show pretty much stopped calling out, and while these critiques are valid I feel like there are other fans who could do a better job talking about those points. But in the end, while season 2 was both a let down in some parts and a bit of a mess in others, I still feel like there were ultimately more good things to be found within the show than bad things.

It’s not a perfect show, far from it. Frankly, I don’t look down on anyone who fell out of love with this show or enjoyed s1 but hated s2. But for what it’s worth, the memories I got from the show are still ones I treasure, and episodes like “The Good Deed”, “The Little Guy”, “The Nice Guy”, “The Epic Quest”, “The Rider”, “The Boy Wander”, “The Black Cube”, “The Hole… Lotta’ Nuthin’” and “The Cartoon” are ones I still love to bits and will probably always love as I watch them over and over.

Disney Channel itself may not care all that much about this show these days save for an occasional rerun or a quick cameo in their Chibi-Verse shorts, but I’m always gonna remember it - for better and for worse. So here’s to 10 years, WoY. I may not always like you, but I still love you.

[sakurapika]

How the landfolk do their hair

Author's note: This, along with my previous short story, "Rose-Tinted Ego," are from an Azurido fanfic I started writing a couple of months ago. I'm not sure if I'll finish it (it's over 11k words long and I'm not even halfway done with what I planned), so I decided to post excerpts of a few of the parts I like the best for now!

Context: Over winter break, the Queen is hosting a gala and has specifically requested for the Rosehearts family to attend. Mrs. Rosehearts has come to NRC to collect Riddle, who she hasn't spoken to for months. Azul volunteers to come with Riddle, claiming that he would like to take the chance to learn magic from the perspective of a different member of the Great Seven. Is he coming for his own gain, or is he making an excuse because he is concerned for Riddle? Who knows? Mrs. Rosehearts agrees, pleased with the idea of another NRC student (one from a different dorm, at that) looking up to her son. At this point in the story, the three are about to set off.

One final note: Brief mention about Azul's dieting and Mrs. Rosehearts being strict about food. It's very mild, but I'd rather not make anyone uncomfortable, just in case.

Azul was nothing if not prepared for nearly every possible scenario. Although being dragged along on a whirlwind trip with his academic rival and his academic rival’s mom was not something he anticipated this winter, he still had some basic plans. “Floyd,” he said while collecting four of his best pairs of shoes, “You must keep everyone outside of my office. Don’t touch any of my personal belongings, or else I’ll make a big batch of unagi nigiri out of you.”

“You’re going to play at kingyo-chan’s house?” Floyd threw himself at the edge of Azul’s bed and began to bounce. “Without us?”

“What did I just say about touching my personal belongings?”

“Well, teeeeechnically, your bed’s the property of Night Raven College.”

“Oh, you want to be a little smarty-pants right now?” Sighing, he turned to Jade leaning against the door of his bedroom. “Jade, you’re in charge. Keep your brother in check, will you?”

Jade nodded. “That goes without saying.”

As he finished collecting his clothes, he retrieved a lengthy document from a locked drawer in his desk and gave it to Jade. It contained every single contingency plan for how to operate the dorm in his absence. There shouldn’t be much of a problem, given that most of the students were away for the break. Jade was fairly experienced as a vice-housewarden, so he knew that he was reliable. Floyd was…Floyd. If he felt bored, he could burn down the dorm for his own amusement. Azul hoped that he’d at least find students in other dorms, like Scarabia, to terrorize before such a dreadful thought crossed his mind.

After they had finished packing, Mrs. Rosehearts had immediately sent for another ferry out of Sage’s Island. It was seldom that such boats came to the island during the off-season, but for a woman with status, anything was possible. Realizing that the journey was long, Azul was almost going to mention the fact that they could easily teleport by magic mirror.

“Don’t,” Riddle grabbed his arm and whispered, “Or she’ll make me visit more often.”

The ferry had dropped them off at the Cite des Fleurs in the Shaftlands; from there, they took a first-class train all the way to the Queendom of Roses. The train was fast and impressive, traveling both on land and through a series of underwater tunnels. In the meantime, the passengers were served a complimentary dinner.

When the waiter approached Azul, he had said, “It is our deepest pride and greatest honor to serve the finest foods in all of the Shaftlands--please, be our guest!”

The hospitality was certainly memorable; the tableware was enchanted, and the train waitstaff cast spells to make the spoons and forks dance and sing. Throughout the whole affair, Azul was fiercely taking mental notes. Could they pull off something like this in the Mostro Lounge? The food, however, was abysmal, but that was his own doing. He had spotted a million lovely dishes on the menu, and ended up with the simplest salad known to man and merfolk. By all means, the ingredients were fresh and the dressing was well-made, but Azul had eaten plenty of salads every day, and they all tasted like nothing at this point.

“See,” Mrs. Rosehearts remarked, pointing to Azul, “he’s eating something nutritious.”

Riddle pushed around a chunk of aubergine in his ratatouille. His own meal was made of vegetables. How much more healthy was it supposed to get?

Although he kept silent, Mrs. Rosehearts continued to berate him. “Look at you, you’re using the wrong fork. That’s a salad fork, not a dinner fork! Have you forgotten your dining etiquette? And your meal simply has too much oil in it. You know what? I’m telling the waitstaff!” 

Mrs. Rosehearts took Riddle’s plate and chased down one of the poor staff members as he made his way into the next train car. Riddle looked at Azul helplessly and said, “I could have sworn I picked up the right fork. See, look, my dinner fork is where my salad fork should be. Maybe something happened during the dinnertime show.”

He looked so helpless, like a boy who was lost to this world. For the millionth time that day, Azul surprised himself by speaking up. “You used the wrong fork, huh? You know, under the sea, we don’t really have forks, or spoons. We mostly eat things with our hands, fins, tentacles, by phagocytosis…you get the idea.”

“Really? How curious. Well, I suppose that’s the etiquette there.”

“Yes, that’s just how it is. I didn’t even have a chance to see how landfolk actually use forks until I immigrated to…erm, the land. I used to go to restaurants and treat forks like complimentary combs! I collected a few and would sometimes use them to comb my bangs like this," he gave an exaggerated demonstration of curling the ends of his seafoam-white hair. "Jade didn’t know any better and collected forks for me, but Floyd…oh, that sucker, he knew this whole time and didn’t say a word, no matter how many times people stared at me! He never bothered to say, 'hey Azul, that's not how the landfolk actually do their hair.' I would even sing to myself while sitting in front of the vanity…good grief.”

Riddle allowed himself a small smile. “Wow, my mother would see you a bit differently if she knew that.”

“Just a bit?”

“You’re right. She’d chuck you off this train if she could.”

They laughed together, just for a nice, long moment, until they grew self-aware. What were they doing here, two students from an elite school, who were constantly head-to-head on the exam leaderboards? They weren't even friends. Aside from discussing classwork once in a while and attending housewarden meetings, their paths seldom crossed. Why now did Azul have to be so involved in something so embarrassingly personal to Riddle, such as his family’s affairs?

[theimaginatrix27]

So it's been a year since I began delving into Star Trek fandom properly

It's officially my birthday in my timezone! This time last year, I was gushing on the server @kintatsujo made for our circle of mutual friends about the best/most well-thought-out part of my Star Trek AU, now dubbed Galactic Warp, after its most important advancement. In a few weeks, it will be the one-year anniversary of my joining the Trek server where I would make all the friends I have in that fandom (particularly gonna shout out @roguetelepaths, who you may have noticed I've been reblogging a lot of posts from of late).

A lot has happened over the past year on that front, if I'll be quite honest. I've posted eight! fanfics for DS9 (holy shit), bringing my number of works on AO3 up into the double-digits and totalling about 140 thousand words! And there are many more to come, I assure you—the plot bunnies living in my brain evolved into tribbles and started churning out ideas for this fandom and these characters, as if making up for lost time.

I hit a lot of milestones this year (remembers the name of the first Trekfic I posted and laughs). Let's see if I can remember them all! :D

I discovered I can write Sci-fi, actually! Honestly I'm looking back at my confident assurance of the exact opposite of this and laughing, because I have proven that claim false in several ways over the past year. (See my Threshold fics for the most obvious example). But like. Also. The backdrop of one of my original series is kind of a Sci-fi setting, so I've been doing this for a while. Yeah, Kinta, laugh it up, you were right and I was very silly.

I can write Star Trek fanfics, actually, and if I mess up on anything, nobody's gonna care! I was so scared I'd embarrass myself in front of a fandom I found very intimidating, but so far, everyone's been so welcoming and people like what I've put out there! They really like it! I'm honestly humbled and grateful for all my lovely readers who have said such nice things to me in fic comments, and in private on Discord. You're all wonderful! But critically, I did make a mistake, and nobody gave a single, solitary shit. The story's an AU anyway, and people have been enjoying it, and I was worried for eleven years over nothing. You won't believe what that does for a lady's confidence.

I've learned some stuff about my own personal writing process, which is a big step forward! I've been taking in writing advice for as long as I've been fully online. I've listened to writer after writer tell me how they work, how they do things, and I've tried plenty of it myself, but to no avail. Earlier this year, I ran out of words to paste into 4TheWords, a website I'd joined several years ago because I liked its premise (turning writing into a game, where you could defeat monsters with words you wrote). I hadn't written on it live before, due to copy/paste issues I was able to resolve (the font in the site editor is different to the font I use on my computer when writing offline), but I actually started doing it because there is a particular group of enemies that are specifically time-based (all enemies have a time limit in which you must defeat them, but these guys set a timer within which you must keep typing), and I thought I could use that as freewriting sessions. Freewriting was something I'd been sure would work for me if I needed to get unstuck, and I'd actually noticed I could untangle issues I had by talking about them with friends in private, often without them even being around to help. So I tried it. And wonder of wonders! I got unstuck! On multiple stories! Just by rambling about them on a timer! And then I started writing words to defeat other enemies on the site live, and wait. How many words did I write this week? On this day? It's been a real game-changer, particularly as my edits count as more words, which impresses the fundamental truth that every word you write matters, even the ones you delete. Even the ones you edit away because the sentence didn't feel right. Even the passages that ultimately don't work. It all matters, and it all helps. And if I get stuck again, there's always the endurance monsters to help me out! About half of the stuff I've posted was shared in the last three months. And it's all thanks to 4TW. If you think this sounds cool, look them up! They're good eggs and don't support generative AI in creative writing. :)

I've also achieved a few writing firsts as a result of that last point!

This probably doesn't come as a surprise to my writer friends, but I've fully accepted the fact that the first thing I need to do as a writer is write. I have heard that a thousand times before, and I knew it was true on some level, but I would always let my anxiety and perfectionism get the better of me, and overthink myself to a standstill. With the method I've been employing on 4TW, I've had to press forward if I want to beat the clock, which has pushed my ADHD brain into doing what I want it to (part of why 4TW works for me is that it sets little deadlines outside myself. I cannot set my own deadlines, I know the person who drew up that schedule and she's too easily distracted and also likes to have fun too much). With even the low-stakes pressure of beat this guy before time runs out, I've been able to at least get started, and once I've picked up a little momentum, I get excited about my stories again, and we can have days where I write over 6000 words in twelve hours, because I don't want to stop!

I've stopped trying to force my chapters to be a certain length. I let each one be as long as it needs to be, and if that's a couple thousand words longer than the last one, fine! It achieved it's purpose for the story, and I'm not going to cut stuff when it was all important! Besides, I've noticed that each story finds its rhythm if I give it the space it needs, and the chapters end up being close to the same length anyways.

I've been getting bolder and bolder about the stories I write or consider writing! Too often in the past, I've been unsure about whether an idea will work for my audience, but the more times I've let myself be weird on main, and nobody has come out of the woodwork to yell at me for it, the easier it's been to be that little bit more wild with my ideas. And having friends to babble to helps with that too, people who tell me to go for it are super important and I appreciate every one of them!

I've actually written stories inspired by prompts! I'd never really done this before. Being prompted by a post is one thing (love ya, Threshold AU), but actually doing prompts for a challenge? That was always difficult for me. I'd always second-guess myself if I came up with any ideas for a particular prompt set, and then procrastinate on trying for years. But this year, I participated in Dominion Week, and although I've only posted four out of the seven prompt fills, I do have ideas for the other three days and will write them when the tribbles are done filling in any gaps they think should be patched in the AUs said prompt fills are relevant to. :D

Related to the above, I wrote oneshots! That stayed oneshots! And one of them stands completely on its own! That. That has never happened before. I've said several times on this blog that I'm not wired for short stories. I wrote my mother a story for her birthday and it was a backstory event from my Ylonaverse because I couldn't think of an idea that could stand on its own. And then Dominion Week happened, and I started two series of single-chapter stories, and wrote a oneshot that was a thought experiment and won't be a part of any of my currently existing AUs, and I'm still mind-blown that that even happened.

It has been a good writing year for me, in other words, despite its ups and downs.

Oh, and I also have had the capacity to Braille up my stories for a year now, and although I'm a perfectionist about this and want the Braille versions to be just right, because I intend to podfic them, I'm still very glad I can Braille things up at all.

But that was gonna happen anyway. The Brailler and paper were part of last year's birthday present, much as the binding combs and binding machine were part of this year's one. And the discussion of that part of my creative life should have its own post at some point. Probably when I have compiled enough to start actually podficking.

[renecdote]

I'd like to ask #5 on the question list you recently posted. Thank you.

5. What’s a fic idea you’ve had that you will never write?

So many lol. Ages ago I half-planned an AU where Eddie (and Chris) went into witness protection and Buck was the U.S. Marshal assigned to them. I'll never write it because it would be a lot of work and I don't think I have the whole story in me but have some of the random notes I had:

Eddie saw something while working after his discharge from the army (drug smuggling or murder or smthn, undecided)

The Diazes get sent to live in Philadelphia and Buck goes with them ft lots of Buckley flavoured angst about being back in the state for the first time since leaving home

Hen, Chim, Buck and Bobby are all U.S. Marshals (Bobby is supervisor and they're all very found family as always)

Athena is ex-CIA but probably still involved in shady spy things (can you ever really get out of that business?)

Maddie works for Marshals in some capacity (back office, undecided what though)

Fake relationship??? Idk but for protection reasons Buck lives with the Diazes so they need a cover story. Or maybe everyone in their new town just assumes they're together because they're Like That even though they claim to just be housemates

Buck does something reckless to protect Eddie and Chris and Eddie has Emotions about it

Eddie probably also does something reckless to protect Buck/Chris and ends up hurt so then it's Buck's turn to have Emotions

Basically they're just very stupid and self-sacrificing

I wrote this one bit:

The house is nice, in a cliche, suburban kind of way. Three bed, two bath, a backyard—enough space for two-point-four kids and a dog. It’s the American Dream. Buck hates it on sight.

Actually that's a lie I also wrote this so that makes two bits:

“You’re sending me to Pennsylvania?” “Is that a problem?” Yes, Buck wants to say. Of course it’s a problem, I haven’t set foot in the state since I was nineteen and I swore I never would again. He swallows the words. “No. No problem.” Bobby looks at him for another long moment, assessing, and then he nods. “Good. You leave on Wednesday.”

Fanfic Writer Asks

[pynkhues]

I am someone who is not very into DM and I have this dreadful feeling that fandom will be disappointed and angry when they see season 3 because neither Armand nor Daniel are protagonists of this story so I don't think we'll see as much of it as the fandom is thinking we will.

I find fanon Armand extremely frustrating, honestly. I'm not huge fan of the character as it is(his freak is not my freak) but the way large majority of fandom decided that Armand is actually just an innocent weirdo is infuriating to me. Especially because it's not only fanfics, it's when they are discussing and analysing actual show canon. I've seen so many people claim Louis and Lestat are Armand's abusers since I've joined this fandom, it's insane. I feel like part of it is that people truly don't understand how messing with someone's mind like Armand does is actually extremely fucked up. I've seen people acting like Armand healed Louis's depression or suicidal ideation by messing with his mind. It's truly baffling how people just need everything to be literally spelled out to understand the story.

(x)

I enjoy them a lot (although maybe interestingly, I don't think I'll write them?), but I can totally understand why Armand's freak isn't for everyone, haha.

And mm, yeah, as someone who's been in a number of fandoms where the ship on screen hasn't quite matched the fervour of an audience / intensity of the fanworks between seasons, it really can stir up portions of the fandom. The show's obviously leaning into parts of DM, and they've been pretty clear that they will explore that, but even Rolin's made the comment a few times of DM itself only being one chapter of the entire book series, so how it's going to look on the show is going to be pretty different, one way or another.

And ah, I've seen a few interpretations of Armand that don't really match with mine, but I'd somehow managed to avoid the discourse that Louis and Lestat are Armand's abusers which is...I don't even know where to start, haha. It's certainly A Take. Psychological abuse is generally a lot less understood I'd say than physical abuse is, and given this is a fandom where some people can't even really handle gender politics without veering into TERF rhetoric, I can't say I'm especially surprised to hear that portions of it can't talk about depression and mental illness without veering into ableist and paternalistic talking points either (can't believe I have to type this in the year 2024, especially after Free Britney made this a mainstream conversation, but removing someone's rights to self-determine out of a sense of knowing what's better for them than they do is!! Bad??)

There's a tendency in this fandom broadly to absolve certain characters of their behaviour while holding others to account (often to an absurd degree), and I understand this varies in different pockets of fandom (I know some Lestat stans do the same for him), and I don't know! I just don't get it? I want the sympathetic monsters on my sympathetic monster show to be both sympathetic and monstrous? Both of those things are boring without the other!

[lukeofe]

When I was like 14 I wrote this massive universe and lore for my characters I'd created over the years. It straight up took lore elements and plot stuff from the Halo series among other sci-fi and fantasy franchises, with my own characters and themes tacked on for good measure. I referenced it in my Rocket Raccoon post a while back. I still work on it, it's become sort of a hobby for me, but those blatantly ripped off things are still there and probably will be forever because I created my story off of them. Whenever I hear "plagiarism" I cringe because I recall how this thing I have and still do put my heart and soul into is derivative. But I've never tried to monetize it or claim it as a completely original work because I'm not *that* stupid or heartlessly self-unaware. I'll write a billion blatant ripoff stories and keep them to myself or post them as fanfic before I ever try to recieve money for one of them or openly claim it's an entirely original work. And at the end of the day, I've created enough original, passionately made work in that universe that I can rest easy knowing that I'm probably not going to end up in a 4 hour video essay about how shitty of a person I am...

Probably.

[onyx-archer]

Would anyone be willing to pay me to write stuff for them? Cause I need a bit of pocket change.

I'm thinking like, 10 bucks per 5k words, with a soft-limit of 8-10k words, depending on the nature of the commission? 5 bucks for possible NSFW (as I couldn't promise it'd be good NSFW). Fanfic preferred, but original stories could be done with enough detail provided. Fandoms would depend entirely on if I'm versed enough in it, so people can ask.

While I am okay with general NSFW, kinks are very much a "ask if I am comfortable with them first" type thing. I'm not going to kink shame, but if it is off-putting to me I'll say as much as the reason for declining. As an additional, slightly related thing: I won't write anything involving real people fanfic wise. Using face claims is okay, as they help me get an idea of how the characters look in your mind, but there'd be no mention of them "looking like <insert real person name here>."

In the event that revisions are needed, the first round of revisions would be free. Any revisions after that would incur an additional charge that must be paid before I do anything. This is to make sure people know that I'm a human being with other writing projects and a life, and I can't spend an eternity editing things to your view of perfection without being paid for it.

I'd also be down to write up some random ass essay thing like I have for both The Owl House, Amphibia, and Life is Strange for some kind of payment? Dunno what I'd charge for it though, so it'd depend on the subject?

Oh, and I'd be willing to proofread and edit your stuff too for a fee. It'd be determined by the wordcount, and in the case of fanfiction, how easily I can approach it with my level of knowledge for the fandom in question. It'd probably be $1-2 dollars per 1000 words?

Payment for anything would be upfront, and all sales are final. I'm not going to start writing until I get paid. Because of the nature of things, while WIPs can be provided, should there be an attempt to post it as your own work, you forfeit the commission, and I will cease working. Refunds will not be issued after I start working. In the event that I need to cancel a commission for whatever reason (example: in the event of a family related emergency, or a significant health related reason that prevents me from working), then a 50% refund will be issued as soon as I am able, and I will forfeit all rights I have to the work written, with the commissioner getting all work done up to that point to do with as they see fit.

If anyone is interested, shoot me an ask, and I'll DM you with an answer (this is just to filter out bots). If you have any questions, like specifics on what I'd be willing to write, you can ask too.

This post will be edited as needed, as I'm new to this kind of thing.

(Honestly, a lot of the wording in this post is just cause I have no idea if people would be interested. I've tried doing writing commissions before in the past on other sites, but got a lot of fucking weirdos as a result.)

[thebroccolination]

It's 2:30am and I can't sleep AND I'm bored. So I'm goin around asking some of my fave blogs/writers to play a game of either/or........ready?

(Please don't hate me, this is just for fun 😁)

Reading Fanfic or Writing Fanfic

Boun or Krist

Romance or Sci-Fi Fantasy

UWMA or BUTS

SOTUS or BMF

Reaper Storyline or Time Loop Storyline

WinTeam or KawiPi

Watch the Movie/Series or Read the Book

You don't have to answer if you don't want to but if you do, you can't cheat! You can only choose one or the other NOT both! Okay? GO!

P.S. I love your writing, Key! Thank you for all your lovely fics ❤️❤️❤️

Awwww, first of all: thank you so much. :') This is a really sweet thing to wake up to. :'''')

Also incredibly evil.

-- Reading Fanfic or Writing Fanfic --

Honestly—and this surprises me—writing! I tried to imagine not being able to do one ever again and I'd be more upset if I could never write fic again.

-- Boun or Krist --

:/

Before this year, I would've said Boun, but right now, it's Krist.

I've always thought of BounPrem and KristSingto as the "main pairs" I follow, and even though Krist and Singto aren't officially a branded pair anymore, I still follow them separately. So I'm kind of a, uh, BounPrem, Krist, Singto fan now asdfghkj

When Between Us ended and BounPrem said they wouldn't have another series together for a while, I moved my focus to Krist because he had Be My Favorite coming up, and I'd been excited for BMF since 2021. And now, since I've followed Krist so closely this year, since I've gone back and familiarized myself more with his past work, and since I was fortunate enough to meet him in person last month and see for myself how kind and sincere and good he is, I'm very invested in seeing him happy and succeed the way he deserves. (Like, it's very clear why he's so beloved when you look into who he actually is, so it's been surreal to see how desperately interfans want to hate him. I was in his restaurant with other fans when GMMTV finally released a statement in his defense, and it was such a relief, I teared up. Some interfans are trying the "he used to be a bad person but he's better now" take at the moment, so I'm just waiting for them to take the next step and admit that he was never a monster in the first place and that hundreds of interfans have gleefully tortured him and trashed his reputation for years based on misinformation.)

Like I keep saying: the loudest anti-Krist voices are interfans. If he actually was what they claim, wouldn't his most ardent antis be from his own country? I've spoken to Thai fans of different actors: this is an interfan bandwagon that got blown out of proportion.

Now, of course, Krist and Boun have always been pretty closely tied in my heart, so if you talk to me once the BounPrem vampire series airs, I'll be focused on BounPrem again. I'm not one of those "you have to follow everything someone does or else you're a fake fan" people, so I only watch what I like. BounPrem have been doing a lot of fanmeetings and separate work this year that I wasn't interested in following, so I've just been patiently waiting for the vampire series to air. Even though I don't even like vampires. I just love BounPrem that much. :')

-- Romance or Sci-Fi/Fantasy --

Sci-Fi/Fantasy! I'm writing a fantasy novel right now, and most of my favorite stories are in the sci-fi/fantasy/speculative genres. :D

-- Until We Meet Again or Between Us the Series --

UWMA!

It was my first Thai BL series, and it launched my whole fandom life here. It still has such a strong presence in my memories, and I think it was a true labor of love from every angle.

I think BounPrem were incredible in Between Us, but I don't think Between Us was the series they deserved. In the months since it ended, I've gotten more critical of how Between Us was handled and it's dropped quite a few spaces on my list. I think if they had stuck closer to the novel, removed BeePrince completely, used fewer flashbacks, fewer UWMA clips, and not tried to cram six musical tracks into some scenes to guide viewers' emotions, it would have been a stronger series. I honestly get the impression New did it for BounPrem rather than out of a genuine love for the characters, and that might be why it didn't have the spark UWMA does. I think it was a labor of love for BounPrem, and I think New loves BounPrem, but I don't think he loved WinTeam's story as much as he loved DeanPharm's. Not his fault, but a different director might've been a better choice for the project.

-- SOTUS or Be My Favorite --

Be My Favorite!

From 2020-2022 my top three were 1) UWMA, 2) SOTUS, and 3) DBK, but then I did an honest reevaluation and realized that over time, SOTUS has had just a tiny bit more of an emotional impact on me than UWMA, so it took the top spot. And of course Triage came along and blasted up to take DBK's spot.

As soon as I saw the teaser in 2021, I knew I'd love Be My Favorite, I just never expected it to…Be My Favorite. \:D/

It's time travel, it's Krist, it's Gawin, it's queer as fuck, and it's the closest to perfect I've seen yet. Ever since it ended, I've just been in this bubble of bliss. I can't believe it exists, that we got such a perfect casting, that Gawin and Krist became so close, that they see each other as family now, that that chemistry is so clear in the series. It's just one of those significant series that rearranges your brain chemistry, like SOTUS, UWMA, and DBK before it were for me. <3

-- Reaper Storyline or Time Loop Storyline --

Okay, so with the understanding that most subject material can be great in the hands of a great storyteller, just from a, "Hey, Key, this series/book/TV show has a __ storyline," basis, I'll go with Time Loop. Time shenanigans is one of the fastest way to hook me (Be My Favorite, Triage, I Feel You Linger, etc.).

-- WinTeam or KawiPi --

WinTeam. Always, always WinTeam. :')

They're just the ultimate OTP for me. Of any series, movie, book, anything. I think it'll always be WinTeam for me.

-- Watch the Movie/Series or Read the Book --

Hmm. For Thai BL: series. In general: book. From what I understand, a lot of the novels Thai BL series are based on tend to be very rough. Like, written and uploaded by the author without an editing process or even a beta reader in the middle. LazySheep (Red Thread/UWMA, Hemp Rope/BU) is an indie author, though. She's with Hermit Books, and she's mentioned her editor on Twitter, and I think the extra steps she takes in the process of publishing her novels show in how polished her stories are compared to the average Thai BL novel.

[gioiaalbanoart]

Hello my talented friend! Ashley is stealing my heart. When can I read about her adventures? Also: can you tell me more about her? Where did she come from (in your brain) and why is she so cool?

Hello @fortunatetragedy !!!

Tons of kudos are flying to you, catch them 💗💗💗

(catch something to drink too is gonna be long 🍻 🍻🍻...)

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Right now Ashley is arching a brow at me , arms crossed and foot tapping (even more than usual) to hurry up and get to work at her story. She's actually being patient (yes, she can be!) .

Because she knows I HAVE to close another writing fanfic first, which hopefully I'll do in the next couple of days  🤞 🤞 

This is just how it has to be because I have to close a circle. We made a pact about it and I have no intention to piss her off more than I already did 😅

****

Right now I have approximately four draft/chapters and a lot of scattered material such as scene/dialogues/bits-of-plot-outlined-sort-of..... (big LOL on the last one , I might start to use post-it on the door too).

All of it basically on my computer or in snippets here on tumblr Which is why I was wondering on a section/post to keep updated until I'm ready to start sharing more....

Because (drums rattling) : The scarred angel is, in my brain for now, the first one of a trilogy.

It gives you an idea of how much urgent is for me to start working on it seriously and, most of all, continuously.

I'd like publish (on AO3, I suppose) once I complete and edit the first draft/book.....(I'm already sweating)

This while I'll work on the second book and so on (kind of like you're doing for DMLS).

This is the idea.....

NOW : We both know how wide is that fucking gap between an idea and real life, don't we?

****

Ashley Knox pointed her face in my brain exactly one year ago, just like that : that name, curly blonde hair, arctic eyes, scars, bad temper and all.

With a possible quest/investigation somehow linked to drug cartels (Thank you Ashley!)

I was just back to writing then, I already had others ideas but she just wouldn't leave me alone until my best on line friend pointed out she was so persistent because I HAD to write her story and there was no way around it.

I'm sure you're familiar with the situation....

So I started to write bits here and there while a kind of world/plot was taking his weird shape (the shape is still quite weird btw).

It includes violence because the story evolves mainly on the mexican border and will be somehow linked to drug cartels and, here too, there is no way around it.

But I want it also to be about healing and magic despite the plot/investigation and the background of the two MC (Ashley Knox and Amy Salinas, journalist, friend and...we'll see).

The magic part might be "subtle vibes, kind of, but consistent" and I know it will be a huge pain in the ass (More sweating here)

****

Ashley has been scarred when she was sixteen (in the story she's about 23), can't say who did it because it's part of the plot 😉

She has a raw temper and is a lone (red) wolf.

She always rubbed shoulders with taking care of herself, growing alone, dealing with random stray like her , cartels, violence, guns and so on. She also will seek for revenge.

I'm thinking at her revenge as parallel with the main investigation.

Despite the world she evolved in she has her own strict moral code, a lot of sarcasm and lot of strenght.

She could use some love too ....but she's really selective about it.

The "love" part would be ,idealistically, part of her healing path.

Of course it never goes from point A straight to point B.....

Amy is around same age, suffers from ptsd after being raped and "casually" meets Ashley and decides to stick around against ALL ODDS....

Part of it because she's thunderstruck /love first sight kind of 😂 , BUT nothing will be obvious about it. ...

Part is because she will be claiming her life back (healing again). Amy is strong too, in a different way, and that's not her world.....

I see Ashley/Amy relationship as a kind of love story/slooooooooooooooooow burn....I'll try to make it weird as possible and probably fail but we'll see 😉

The line relationship/love line will totally evolve with the flow.

****

I'll stop here because I' could probably go on and brag about Ashley even longer (You have my endless gratitude for giving me the opportunity btw 💗💗 )

****

Weird bonus facts

There is a "Jaime" in Ashley's background story that has been important to her, in a weird kind of way.... The guy is already dead but he' ha's been there with that exact name since the beginning. And now I know you 😉

Ashley has three scars : a long one on her right cheek, another on her forehead and a smaller like a sick joke of a smile on her left cheekbone....One year after she's born in my brain I have now a 25 stitches scar too (the recent surgery) . Lucky me on my smaller back not face but I can't help to think about some kind of parallel. For me casual/random don't exist. I just hope that it stops there....😅😅😅

Her favorite line is : "I don't care what you think" and goes around in my brain multiple times a day. Again, nothing casual.

"The end" for now 🙏💗💗🙏