#YES this is the third time i'm publishing this to try and get it to show up in the tags and if it doesn't work i'm going to start screaming

[stolligaseptember]

violent thing - a playlist about falling in lust despite your better judgment and falling in love despite all common sense

push up to my body, sink your teeth into my flesh // say you're gonna pick me up, never gonna put me down// made out on the floor, you can blame it on the jack // i feel the blood go rushing miles from my head, so i hope you can forgive the way i'm acting // fucked me over, now you're all i'm thinking of // outside doesn't matter to us, we'll go somewhere quiet and far away // closer than your clothes were, now they're on the floor // i'm losing track cause baby we don't stop, is it your turn or my turn to be on top? // there's always been a disconnect, running from my heart to my head // i'll close every door, every door, if it means i can keep on holding you now // my friends were right, i've been trying to say it out loud, now the secret's out and i will never shut my mouth about it // in my civilization you're the king and the queen, i'm prayin' at your altar if you know what i mean // pay my penance any way i can, gotta let me love you right // even though it hurts, i just wanna be a criminal with you, a criminal with you, we're criminals

[thechekhov]

thoughts on the huge OGL debacle around DnD at the moment?

mmmmmMMMMMM BOI

I was going to be holding off on commenting until something was confirmed by WotC because I hoped to get more info but. I think we basically got what we need. 

For those who don’t know - the CONTEXT:

Earlier last month there was a leak that made the DnD community peek up out of their little holes like a bunch of meerkats hearing a stampede. Y’see, currently, Wizards of the Coast (a company owned by Hasbro, a corporate giant in board-games) is working on a new DnD version that is meant to replace 5e (5th edition of DnD, the most current one). They’re calling it One DnD, and it’s in play-test right now. But there’s a problem. Along with new stuff, they were apparently planning to revise the OGL - the Open Gaming License which had been a staple of the DnD Era since 2000.

The OGL 1.0 was essentially an open world ticket for third-party creators to use DnD game mechanics to build worlds, create monsters, and expand upon the creative base that was DnD. In 2008 they attempted to publish 4th edition DnD under a different, less open gaming license, which ended up severely hurting their overall standing with the community. When they published 5e, they returned to the OGL and DnD has gained traction with the public thanks to various gaming groups (such as Critical Role) rising to fame. Because of the OGL, many people have made adventures for 5e DnD, making monster manuals compatible with the game, and basically expanding on a huge, growing world. There have been kickstarters for new adventures, new compendiums, etc, which were an incredible creative sandbox for just about anyone who wanted to try their hand at creating.

And now it seems like they fucked it up. 

A leak made it clear that WotC is working on OGL 1.1 - which is basically a giant middle finger to everything the original was. They are now demanding royalties from anyone creating new content if they make over 50kᶜᵒʳʳᵉᶜᵗᵉᵈ 750k a year from their creations - which in and of itself isn’t super unreasonable.... except for the fact that they can lower this number at any point. 

ALSO with the new OGL (1.1) WotC would OWN the rights to anything made using any of their content (including homebrew made by creators - yes, they would own settings/character just because those adventures use their system) indefinitely, demand they receive financial reports from anyone making 50k or more.

What’s more, they reserve the right to change their own license at any point, with only 30 days notice. (Which basically means that if at any point they decide to demand recompense from people making more than, say, 20k from their little homebrewed setting in 5e, they can do that with nary a month’s warning.) 

“...according to attorneys consulted for this article, the new language may indicate that Wizards of the Coast is rendering any future use of the original OGL void, and asserting that if anyone wants to continue to use Open Game Content of any kind, they will need to abide by the terms of the updated OGL, which is a far more restrictive agreement than the original OGL..." (source)

So as you can imagine, for the past few weeks, the entire DnD community and the ttrpg community at large have been gearing up for either a fight, a mass exodus, or both. It would not be the first time. 

And then, just recently, we had another comment, this time from inside. An email was sent out, which has been evidently confirmed by one of the recipients as true, describing what is happening inside of WotC. 

[I'm an employee at WotC currently working on and with business leaders on the health of the product line. If you want I can provide proof of this.I'm sending this message because I fear for the health of a community I love, and I know what the leaders at WOTC are looking at:

They are briefly delaying rollout of OGL changes due to the backlash.

Their decision making is based entirely on the provable impact to their bottom line

Specifically they are looking at DDB subscriptions and cancellations as it is the quickest financial data they currently have.

They are still hoping the community forgets, moves on, and they can still push this through

I have decided to reach out because at my time in WotC I have never once heard management refer to customers in a positive manner, their communication gives me the impression they see customers as obstacles between them and their money, the DDB team was first told to prepare to support the new OGL changes and online portal when they got back from the holidays, and leadership doesn’t take any responsibility for the pain and stress they cause others. Leadership's first communication to the rank and file on the OGL was 30 minutes on 1/11/23, This was the first time they even tried to communicate their intentions about the OGL to employees, and even in this meeting they blamed the community for over-reacting.I will repeat, the main thing this leadership is looking at is DDB subscription cancellations.Hope your day goes well,PS will be copying and pasting this message to other community leaders]

(source)

As for my comment in all of this? 

I won’t pretend to be a local expert in legal terminology. Others can probably parse the full leak far better, and I don’t think there is anything to be gained by running around in a panic and screaming...

However. 

The fact of the matter is, Hasbro/WotC are shooting themselves in the foot. I don’t believe they have the right to destroy the original license. Make a new one for OneDnD? Sure, knock yourself out. Try it, see how popular it’ll be. But destroying the community-driven 5e will do only that - destroy it. They will not be gaining any money from the fans which are already plenty used to supporting small-level creators first and large companies second. It’s a supremely counter-culture move which will eat them from the inside out. 

The only ones that I feel for are Critical Role - who originally played in Pathfinder and then switched to 5e and paired up with DnD Beyond.............and are now being screwed over because they’re likely locked in a contract with WotC and are contractually obligated to not speak out negatively against the changes. 

In my heart of hearts, I kinda hope that their tablets all mysteriously ‘break’ for the next few games and they go back to pen and paper instead of barking out DnD Beyond ads as they’re expected to do. But I don’t know if that’s something they can afford to risk. 

(.....though hell, I hope they try to afford it. They have a community that will stand behind them, and that community has MONEY. We won’t know until we know, though, and I know that there are legal repercussions that may go beyond a simple income slap on the wrist.)

Personally, here’s my two cents: 

I think people should cast a vote with their money.

 Cancel your DnD Beyond subscription.

Don’t give any more money to Hasbro or Wizards. Keep playing whatever 5e games you want, but do it using third-party digital character sheets, OR just go old school and do pen and paper. Let me know if you need sources for it. 

Don’t buy the Players Handbook, leave DnD Beyond behind, don’t engage with One DnD. There are resources out there that let you play the game that also don’t require you giving money to corporations that are only here to fuck around and find out. You want an adventure module but don’t want to bow down to the dragon sitting on its hoard? Hit me up. I’ll give you some alternatives. 

Hell, I myself will be looking into Pathfinder 2e because I’ve heard good things, and if I need to switch any future games to a different system because Fountry VTT or Roll20 will stop offering the 5e presents, it’ll be a very good alternative. Paizo just came out with a statement that they will write their own version of the OGL which will keep the spirit of the open game alive, and Kobold Press is gearing up with their own stuff. 

I won’t be throwing out my own games, and I don’t feel there’s a need to stop playing 5e. I have a Curse of Strahd game to finish, and that game belongs to me and my group now. We don’t need the module - it needs us. 

... all that is simply to say - Wizards may soon be realizing that when you live on the Coast... pirates are never far. 

(edited thanks to corrections from @magpiesarefluffy )

[incorrectbatfam]

What would the batfam livestream themselves doing?

Dick: photobombing Gotham's top 10 elite in 1 evening without anyone noticing

Jason: transforming an abandoned building into free housing in 2 weeks with only a pencil

Tim: taking pictures of famous landmarks from all 50 states in 50 days on a $50 budget

Damian: getting a blank piece of paper displayed in the Louvre in 12 hours

Duke: writing and publishing a New York Times bestselling novel in 30 days

Cullen: getting My Chemical Romance to perform at his party in 5 days via a game of telephone

Stephanie: getting invited backstage to a sold-out Taylor Swift concert through only 6 degrees of connection the day of the show

Cassandra: recruiting 25 strangers into a flash mob in 3 hours

Barbara: producing an album and getting 100 downloads in 3 days

Harper: building a full-sized driveable car from scratch in 4 days with only a $500 budget and a toy as the blueprint

Carrie: trying and rating every Gotham fair food in 8 hours without any food waste

Kate: spending 1 week in a foreign country with no money and only packing a water bottle

Alfred: turning the ingredients in Bernard's dorm mini fridge into a gourmet family meal in 6 hours

Selina: entering a cat into a dog show without anyone realizing

Bruce: making a blockbuster movie in 10 days with $10

[hxneyfarm]

It’s not that Robin is bitter. She’s not. Really. Bitterness implies anger. She’s not angry. Not at all. She’s… okay, she’s jealous. Just a little bit. And that’s fine. That’s… well, it’s not expected, exactly, because nothing about this situation could have been predicted in the first place so there’s been nothing to expect. It’s not expected, but it makes sense. Who wouldn’t be jealous?

And, like, there’s something else, too. Something a little darker simmering just beneath the surface of her jealousy that Robin’s been having a hard time putting a name to. Not bitterness, though.

Maybe it's because Steve is hers. Yeah, platonic with a capital P, all of that, but he is hers. Back before Vecna, when he was trying to date every pretty girl who walked into the video store, that was different. Not a single one of those girls was a threat to what Robin and Steve have because that's on a different level.

This, though? Maybe Robin feels a little threatened.

Steve's beside her at the counter, his elbows on the glass surface of it as he leans forward to see his own reflection in the tiny compact he'd pulled from Robin's bag. He's clumsily dabbing her concealer on his neck to cover the red and purple marks that make him look more like the victim of a vampire than the love-drunk dweeb he actually is.

So, yeah. Robin's definitely a little bit jealous because where the hell is her great gay love affair, huh? How the hell did her dingus get his first gay kiss before she did? And how has he been able to seamlessly, unconditionally accept this part of himself when it had taken her years to come to terms with who she is?

And yes, she absolutely feels threatened by this burgeoning thing between Steve and Eddie, of all people. Becuase the way Steve and Eddie get along, the way they're so in tune with each other, it's kind of similar to the way Robin and Steve get along. It makes Robin feel prickly, because those silent conversations those two have started having? Those belong to Robin.

What if she loses him to Eddie?

It's irrational, because Steve and Robin were separated at birth or something, and he would never, ever, ever abandon her and she knows it. Knowing doesn't silence her fears, though.

And that sucks, because Robin should be the most supportive cheerleader of a best friend, and she is happy for them, honestly.

But damn. Eddie's almost always around now, and that's fine, it's great, really. Because she likes Eddie, thinks he's great, thinks he's an awesome match for Steve. It's nice to have someone else like her around, someone who can commiserate with her anxiety about being queer in a little place like Hawkins.

Or, it would be nice, if Eddie and Steve could stop sucking face for, like, a minute and a half when it's just the three of them hanging out.

Robin has never third wheeled this hard in her life.

its just a little thing, but hi i'm going to start publishing stuff now i think

[lowkeyrobin]

Mid90s gang reacting to reader writing a book about them and their friendship and reader wins a writing contest!!

- ♣️ (I'm giving you fluff okay I've decided I've tortured you enough with angst 🙄)

LMFAO YES YOU HAVE and I've been procrastinating those oneshots you sent me 💀💀

MID90S ; writer

includes ; fuckshit, ray, fourthgrade, ruben (platonic), & stevie (platonic)

warnings ; language, mentions of alcohol and drugs

masterlist

FUCKSHIT

you were no writer what-so-fucking-ever

while high, he dared you to enter some writing contest for school

"how funny would it be if some random junior won?"

honestly it would be funny, considering you're not a writer, you're a skater

you entered just for the fun of it, plus you had a great chance at beating some of the other contestants because you knew their writing was shit

you didn't even know what to write for the first two weeks

then it popped up in your head, like holy shit it was so obvious

you decided to write about yours and fuckshits long friendship history

from how you met, to your nicknames and to your other friends

let's just say, other than the profanity, the judges/senior english teachers loved it

you wrote like a whole motherfucking novel too

you got second place, considering they'd be in trouble for awarding a book with so much inappropriate content with first

plus the person who won first definitely deserved it

teachers were literally suggesting you publish the fuckin thing too like calm down ⁉️⁉️

fuckshit was too lazy to read it at first, but once you told him it was about you two and that you won second place? nah reading that was all he did

I honestly hc that he's a little dyslexic so he was struggling a little bit

but he loved it, it was genuinely moving to him and its literally about him

brought him to tears that he tried to hide

which he did to help his fragile ego by hugging you and hiding his face in your shoulder

genuinley so grateful for you

RAY

you were kinda iffy with writing

but once you saw the amount of money you could get from winning...?

shit sign me up

a thousand dollars to win first off of something you wrote? okay let's go LMAO

you didn't know what to write about because it's not like there was a given prompt so you just kinda spilled out stories and shit about you and ray

you made sure to leave out all the drugs and shit because you weren't gonna try and get in trouble LMAO honestly real

the judges loved it though

it was about 104 pages, so you made the actual like minimum, which was 80 pages

but thankfully for you, quantity doesn't equal quality

you actually got third surprisingly

that's still 400 dollars though

you didn't actually tell Ray or the others about you joining that contest so when you walked in with 400 dollars, a smile on your face and your skateboard and 52 sheets of notebook paper connected by a keyring under your arm, damn

you quickly explained and set your stuff down and Ray just scooped you up and spun you around while he hugged you

he's a simpleton but you got him giggling and shit okay??

genuinley so flustered that you wrote about you and him of all people like huh

he reads it front to back at least 3 times

FOURTHGRADE

you were pretty passionate about writing

so when your school was promoting a novel contest you knew you had to join

a thousand dollars would've done you a lot

you spent the next six months writing about you and fourthgrade, stories, how you met, favorite memories, random blurbs, etcetera

you told him about it but never that you were writing about him

you wanted it to be a surprise lmao

i also hc that he's a little dyslexic so 💀

you actually won too

apparently it was so "inspiring and moving amongst the youths" that you won ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS for it, IN CASH

you sprinted over to Motorz and immediately wrapped fourthgrade in a hug

"thanks for being such great inspiration"

"huh?"

you genuinley just retold some of his camcorder tapes for a bit of the book too so you had to give him some credit

you gave him 200 dollars because he refused to take any more

the duo

RUBEN

bro couldn't care less that you joined a writing competition

"whatever you want"

you have the annoying sibling dynamic what can I say

"dude I'll give you 100 bucks if you just be supportive"

"fine"

you wrote about him and your awesome sibling relationship

you made sure to cut out all the abuse and just say "growing up in a rough household" and "growing up not as privileged as everyone else" and shit bc you weren't getting cps called on anyone

you wrote like 70 pages

you got third

but you got 200 dollars so you basically split it with him

he ended up reading it because he was bored at motorz one night and you left it laying around

he's never smiled while crying before

you come in the next morning and he just silently hugs you

you see the book thing on the couch where he slept and you just kinda knew

"why are you crying?"

"i'm not!"

STEVIE

you also have a very sibling like dynamic

although instead of annoying each other you're kind of the comfort siblings you've both never had

so when you brought up the fact you joined a writing competition because you had a good chance at winning, he was like "oh cool"

"i'm writing about you"

"what the fuck why?"

he's supportive tho

he'll ask how it's going and stuff and you'll just give a vague answer

by the time they're due and judged, he asks what you placed

you shrug and pull out a thousand dollars cash from your backpack with a smile

"holy shit!"

you smile and hand him half of it

he's confused as to why but accepts it graciously

I mean half of its about him so he deserves some credit

gives you a little hug and shit

[nicosraf]

You inspire me…. Any advice for writing books ?

!! I'm honored u get a little inspiration from me! That's very sweet of you.

I struggle with advice because I've only written about 5 books and published... two-ish. (An old fanfic and ABM, which as you know is basically fanfic). But I think I have some specific advice since I'm revising right now and have a lot of thoughts... Here is what works for me (!):

Outline. I know it sucks but... please try it. (Or you'll end up like GRRM).

Draft without going back to read what you wrote, or at least don't read your unfinished manuscript in full. You will want to edit it. Don't edit it. Yes it sounds bad; yes you used the same word 8 times in a paragraph by accident; yes you can see a major plot hole. Don't fix it yet, maybe write it down somewhere so you don't forget to fix it later. You need to avoid editing while drafting or you will never finish the draft. This is the biggest advice I can give anyone, especially if you haven't written your first book yet.

Give each character a strong backstory, even if it never shows up in the plot. Sounds obvious but sometimes I have to remind myself of this.

Give your characters friendships, not just romantic relationships. Include tender scenes with friends.

A lot of writing is tedious and boring. Drafting is hard, editing is hard. You have to be disciplined. But finding motivation is also hard. Don't motivate yourself using the dream of a fanbase or the dream of becoming famous. You're setting yourself up to be hurt. (Not because any of that is impossible but because achieving it in the way that you dream is virtually impossible.) Motivate yourself using something more personal, if you can.

Re-do your outline after you draft. Why? Because you probably changed things while you drafted, you probably made some stuff up on the spot, character dynamics changed, etc. A new outline is good because you can see the story you actually wrote, which is helpful for editing for plot cohesion, moving scenes, adding and removing stuff.

Your draft is going to be bad. Don't freak out. Drafts are always bad. You're going to want to analyze the hell out of it though. What did you plan, what did you write, what worked, what didnt work, what themes are on the page, what themes should you remove, what themes should you amplify.

When editing a scene isn't working, rewrite it entirely. Yes it's more work. You'll be much happier though, I promise.

The first to second revisions should be for plot and characters and pacing; these should take the longest and be the most difficult. The last third to fourth revision should be about prose. Don't focus on prose when you're trying to fix the plot.

Let characters fuck up unforgivably.

Consider your audience heavily when you edit, but don't consider them when you draft.

I've given this advice before but when it comes to plot devices/objects, you want to give each device a moment of introduction, a moment where it's recalled, and a moment of use. (Ex. A knife is introduced in chapter 1, its mentioned again casually in chapter 7, then it's used to kill someone in chapter 14.) This is mostly to give each object its own arc that feels satisfactory but ur the boss about what works best.

Kill all your characters, but not physically (unless you want to). Make them change so much that, by the end, they would barely recognize who they were at the start.

This is book advice for the type of books that I've written. Things are very different if you're writing, say, contemporary romance, but I think this list is pretty general !! I hope it helps. Good luck!!

[msmargaretmurry]

hi i’m sorry super random question — i love your writing, and i was wondering if you had any fav books to recommend? i’m trying to read more lately!! thank you so much!!! 💖

no apologies necessary and thank you so much!! yay for reading more! i have so many books i love and usually i would try to tailor recommendations to someone's interests so i will just try to give a little smorgasbord here.

under the cut please find a very long list of recs; i hope there are a few that sound appealing to you! if there are things you like to have content warnings for and can't tell from the goodreads listing, feel free to message me to ask! 💕

literary/contemporary fiction

beartown by fredrik backman: this is the hockey novel, imo. somehow backman captures everything hockey is — violence, entitlement, racism, privilege, misogyny — while still writing a breathtaking story about people who love the sport and people who unwillingly get caught up in its wake. there are two sequels, which i haven't read yet solely because i'm afraid of how many feelings they'll make me feel.

the secret history by donna tartt: yes, the og dark academia book. moody, atmospheric, and pretentious, i feel like it's a you-love-it-or-hate-it, and i love it. a delicious critique of elitist academia even while filled with morsels for classics-loving nerds. fantastic, deeply fucked-up characters.

station eleven by emily st john mandell: not sure if reading this during a pandemic was the best idea, but it certainly added something to the experience. i love emily st john mandell's prose, and the post-pandemic-apocalypse world she builds feels simultaneously fantastical and painfully real.

evvie drake starts over by linda holmes: this is the perfect example of what i want in a contemporary romance novel. deeply character-driven, sweet, achy, lovely.

historical fiction

in memoriam by alice winn: oh man oh man. we read this one for book club last month and it blew me away. brutal, devastating, romantic.

how much of these hills is gold by c pam zhang: really loved how this book brought a new lens to the American western/frontier story, loved how it blended Chinese mythology into the story, loved how it unflinchingly did race and gender in ways that felt both illuminating and historically true.

the island of sea women by lisa see: i love lisa see's historical fiction because she does a shitload of research and weaves it into her stories in ways that don't feel like infodumping. on top of her being an excellent writer, i always feel like i've learned something.

the book thief by markus zusak: just a masterclass in point of view. made me ugly cry in public.

the nickel boys by colson whitehead: i mean, colson whitehead is just so good. harrowing, atmospheric, and smart, the characters and story feel absolutely real in the best and worst ways.

fantasy/sci-fi

the radiant emperor duology by shelley parker-chan: man, this duology is one of the best fucking things i've read in the past few years. kind of an alternate-history 14th-century china, now with more magic and more gender. brutal and delicious. morally gray everything.

the farseer trilogy and the liveship traders trilogy by robin hobb: these were my favorite books as a teen and i've recently been rereading them (i'm finally on the third book of the second trilogy!) and having such a good time. structurally they're very classic high fantasy but i think hobb is so fucking good at worldbuilding and characters.

the left hand of darkness by ursula k. leguin: look, it's a classic for a reason! i will say if you start it and you feel kind of lost: stick with it, slow down, and be patient. the pov character is a stranger in a strange land and you feel every bit of that. another masterclass in point of view.

tuyo by rachel neumeier: i love reccing this book because it's just a random self-published fantasy novel that one of the gals in my book club found somehow and it wound up being super fun? the worldbuilding is fun, the culture clash is tense (and fun), and i feel like the concept of a "tuyo" could do numbers as a fanfic trope if people got on board!

the thief by megan whalen turner: another great book for pov!!! just a really fun and satisfying read (and pretty short, if you need something short!). the rest of the series is also very good and worth reading but none of it hit quite as hard for me as this first book, possibly because the first book is just so excellent.

young adult/middle grade

on the come up by angie thomas: this is specifically an audiobook rec. i'm sure this book is also good reading with your eyes, but it's about a teen girl who wants to be a rapper, and i think being able to hear the rhythm of the language, esp the rapping itself, makes for a fantastic audiobook experience.

the westing game by ellen raskin: another classic for a reason!! one of the smartest books out there, a joy to read for the first time at any age.

michigan vs the boys by carrie s. allen: the thing is, i usually i find first person present tense so annoying it's nigh unreadable, but i found this book about a teen girl having to play on her high school's boys' hockey team after they cut funding to the girls' program so charming and compulsively readable. bonus points that the author really knows her hockey!

darius the great is not okay by adib khorram: even just thinking about this book puts a lump in my throat lmao. just a beautiful coming of age story that deals with identity and depression and belonging and family and more.

the loneliest girl in the universe by lauren james: pretty sure i tore through this book in one sitting. great sci-fi setting and sense of creeping dread.

a wrinkle in time by madeleine l'engle: another classic for a reason, lol. including it on this list because it is actually my favorite book. l'engle has such a special touch with writing — it's so full of heart. as a kid one of the things i loved about this book was that it didn't dumb any of its sophisticated worldbuilding and characterization down for me, which i think is a great lesson for a writer.

memoir-ish

they can't kill us until they kills us by hanif abdurraqib: hanif is the GOAT and i recommend anything he's written, but this book of essays about music, culture, and hanif's life is easily my favorite of his work.

a ghost in the throat by doireann ní ghríofa: stunningly original mix of personal essay, poetry, history — i'm not even sure how to describe it. but it floored me.

in the dream house by carmen maria machado: speaking of creeping dread!!! many people have said many smart things about how good this book is so i will simply say they are all extremely correct.

sports nonfiction

the boys in the boat by daniel james brown: a gorgeously written love letter to rowing juxtaposed hauntingly against the rise of hitler. i have not seen the movie, but there's no way it could be as good as the book.

bottom of the 33rd by dan barry: possibly this is a baseball book for baseball people, but i loved every meandering moment of this lovingly written microhistory of the longest baseball game ever played.

the last best league by jim collins: another baseball book, sorry, baseball books are so good. this one's about the amateur league on cape cod where the best college players play in the summer. a great august read imo.

impossible owls: essays by brian phillips: a sprawling book of sportswriting from a former grantland writer. i read it five years ago and still think about it sometimes

other nonfiction

forget the alamo by bryan burrough, chris tomlinson, & jason standford: i made myself pick only ONE history nonfiction for this list because otherwise we'd be here all day. but this one is so good, especially if you're interested in the making and unmaking of american mythology.

empire of pain by patrick radden keefe: i do actually recommend anything prk writes, but this book on the sacklers' evil pharmaceutical empire is both timely and exhaustively reported. another audiobook rec as well, because prk reads it himself and you can hear the disdain in his voice.

because internet: understanding the new rules of language by gretchen mcculloch: really fun read about the development of online dialect and language! at five entire years old it's already a smidge out of date, but still so enjoyable.

[the-modern-typewriter]

Are you planning to publish any more books in the future? other than the God Key, already finished that :D

Yes :)

Though I don't have a complete first draft of either of the next ones yet. I have a lot of projects up in the air which means that it can be slow going on any one project.

Contenders for up next, depending on what I finish first, are:

Totally WIP/not really posted anywhere...

Moonlight Drowning - girl trying to rescue her sister from a fairy king (probs king, dithering on changing to a queen), appetite, desire, I'm thinking dark romance fantasy vibes.

Say Yes - my initial idea was a fluffy contemporary ace YA romance. But honestly, I'm not a fluffy person, and I might veer adult instead. We'll see what happens.

Then there is all the Patreon stuff. These are probably the closest to actual novels at this stage.

Adrian and Demarion - gay pirates, so help me god I want it done at this stage. It's been lingering on my to do list for far too long and it's driving my nuts!

For Kingdom, Come - dark fantasy gay royal romance??? Magnus and Leo. Idk. Good prince gets captured by evil prince. Shenanigans. Currently sitting at 48,000 words. Nearing the end. It's definitely in the last act now.

The Forbidden Section - weirdly fluffy/angst/ust romance about a Dark Lord (Eiran) and the scholar the dark-magic obsessed scholar (Akira) who he blackmailed into being his apprentice. It's primarily a romance with a sprinkle of magical school/chosen one plot. Currently sitting at 52,000 words. Over halfway through. Maybe beginning of third act?

The Birthday Gift - a novella about a villain's nonbinary sidekick (Absolute Zero/Zee) who gets giving the hero (Evolution/Jason) as a birthday gift. Story spins out from there. Currently sitting at 25,000 words. Nearing the end.

Cheating Death - human (Sebastian) walks in on his human lover (Kristian) cheating on with a vampire (Ansel). He finds out that he's secretly been their mission to protect all along, because he has magical blood that can cure vampirism. Plot shenanigans and polyamory to follow. Currently sitting at 37,000 words.

And that's not getting into the WIPs that are currently sitting on my abandoned/needs serious re-work pile.

Double Exposure - f/f serial killer thriller. The first few drafts are finished, but I'm not 100% happy with it. Needs a lot of work still.

The Forever Girl - a middle grade novel about a girl (Maeve) who becomes best friends with Time after her dad dies. I think I need to spend more time with children if I'm ever going to finish that one. It's outlined and the first draft is 75% written haha.

[evilwickedme]

So if Superman is Moses and Captain America is David, do you think that Spider-Man is Job?

He's always miserable, with suffering piled upon suffering and loss piled upon loss. But he always has faith in the goodness of humanity and the righteousness of his duty. He maintains his faith throughout all of his trials, and that's what makes him a hero.

(I was thinking about how Judaism and Xianity see G-d differently, and more specifically how they see faith and obedience to G-d differently. In Judaism faith isn't about obedience, and G-d is often an allegory for the world just as the world is often an allegory for G-d — at least that's how I interpreted the fact that 90% of our prayers are thanking G-d for creating a specific aspect of material reality. So if the story of Job is, from a Jewish perspective, isn't about unwavering obedience to a single entity but instead about having unwavering faith in the goodness of the world, then it fits Peter Parker almost to a T, right?)

Wow ok I am SO pissed off that I wrote the answer to this for a full hour and now it's just fucking gone because Tumblr decided not to publish it when I hit post. What the very fuck. So I'm going to try to shorten what I wrote a little and hopefully it'll still make sense. But this is a great ask, for real.

Anyway. I feel like something that's been lost in my most popular posts is that my central thesis when it comes to the Jewish nature of superheroes is not that there's a 1:1 between every hero and a historical, mythological, or Tanakhi figure. The central thesis is, instead, that the very concept of heroism as presented in comics is tied to the Jews who created the genre; it's just very easy to demonstrate these kinds of concepts with direct allegories that have such clear parallels. I actually have a third secret parallel that'll probably never see the light of day, between Magneto and Aher (and like, does anybody even know who Aher is? he's not exactly a well known figure).

One of the reasons I haven't posted this comparison is that it is largely thematic, and therefore requires considerably more explanation, especially for goyim or those who aren't familiar with Aher's story (אלישע בן אבויה fyi if that means anything to y'all). But that's sort of my point - it's much easier to point that Superman is literally Moses and Cap and David serve very similar purposes as characters than to talk about the fact that superheroism is based in Jewish values and traditions: the very idea that heroes are meant to make the world better through action as opposed to sacrifice, the value assigned to every single life (he who saves one life etc), characters becoming better people over time rather than going through dedicated redemption arcs, etc (I can't remember what I wrote here and it's driving me nuts thank you very much for asking).

I gave a lot of context here to the difference between Golden Age and Silver Age writing here but honestly again that took forever and I don't feel like typing it all up, so I'll just point out the basic facts which are that the people creating the comic book industry in the late 30s and early 40s were desperate Jews trying to save their people across the ocean, and also were only about ten or twenty years removed from having lived in the Old Country themselves. Their life and culture was intensely Jewish, they'd grown up in specific Jewish tales. By the time we get to Spider-Man, the situation is entirely different. It's been 25 years of comics (Superman debuted in '38, Spider-Man in '63), and the Jewish foundations of comic books and heroism are already baked in to the genre. Yes, the industry is still overwhelmingly Jewish, but now the separation from a purely Jewish upbringing and Jewish separatism in the Old Country is forty years old. The attempt now is to specifically make stories that haven't already been told - for Spider-Man, the main concept was that there had never been a teen hero before who stood on his own - one that wasn't part of team like the fantastic four, or, more typically, a sidekick.

All these differences actually mean that the coding of these characters is very different. Superman being Moses was intentional; Cap was created as anti-Nazi propaganda. Spider-Man was and is Jewish because he is such a pure example of what Jewish heroism is. He's flawed, he's angry, but he can't help himself from trying to save... Well, everyone. It is, however, important to note that he debuted a long while before Magneto was confirmed Jewish (I don't actually know if he was the first, bc I'm having trouble finding that kind of info easily on the internet, but he's certainly one of the most notable Marvel Jews ever, and he was confirmed as a Holocaust survivor relatively early); it was a whole before Marvel realized you could make somewhat prominent characters Jewish, let alone heroes, and by then Spider-Man was one of their best selling characters, and they're still afraid to this day to alienate readers by confirming him as such.

But moving onto Job - I think I have a very different read of the Book of Job from you, but that's not surprising to me; the Book of Job is incredibly opaque, and I doubt that any two people will interpret it exactly the same. Also, I was raised Orthodox, and I often have very different perspectives on various Jewish things than the typical American Jew. Here's how I view it, though.

Firstly, Job absolutely does not maintain his faith throughout the entire story. Yes, initially he's presented as the most pure person ever, one who has never even been tempted to do a chet (חטא, closest translation is sin; another word would be aveira, which would best be translated as a transgression). And, indeed, it is not his deeds that lead to him losing everything; it is instead Satan who argues to test his faith by taking everything he holds dear away from his - his money, his cattle, his children, his health, his wife.

It's noteworthy, for any goyiche reader, that Satan in Judaism is not the Christian Devil who rules hell. He's an adversary, for sure, but he's more like an opposing counsel; his role is to argue for every human's guilt, especially when someone has committed a terrible aveirah. Forgive me for saying this, but he's essentially a devil's advocate. He can be viewed as the manifestation of yetzer hara on a wider scale (yetzer hara and yetzer hatov are the two natural impulses we all have in ourselves, the first to be selfish or to commit bad deeds and the other to commit good deeds and help others; this is a neutral fact rather than a condemnation of any person, and also I'm massively oversimplifying things here). Also, he's a tattle-tale.

Anyway, back to Job. Yes, at first he does maintain his faith, through the loss of his property, his children, even his health; his wife, before she dies, begs him to curse God, and yet he doesn't. But when she does die, he spends a chapter lamenting the day he was born, regretting that he wasn't stillborn. At first this doesn't look like a direct accusation at God, but it absolutely is, as God is in charge of life and death, but also evidence by the following:

So Job does lose his faith, because as far as he can tell, he has never done anything wrong in his life ever, and yet he has been cursed to grieve everything he has ever had, and he won't even die.

Most of the book is dedicated to dialogue between himself and three of his friends, who come to the common conclusion that he must have done something wrong to deserve this treatment. But Job remains adamant: I did not deserve this.

The general lesson that many people take from this book is that God works in mysterious ways, blah blah. But like... We know, in fact, exactly why this story happened. We saw it! We saw Satan advocate to try Job! So what's the point of the book?

The point is the Job keeps asking "why". The point is that Job hears that God won't forgive his friends, despite the fact they blame him for his misfortune, and he still chooses to pray for them. The point is that he refuses to take what has happened to him quietly. Not accepting that what happened to him was just, but not accepting others' injustice either.

Ugh. I phrased all of this way better in the first draft. I really truly hate this.

Anyway my point is that Job, despite being far richer than the average Jew by the standards of his time, actually is meant to represent a very common situation: what do you when bad things happen. Do you blame yourself, or do you blame God? Do you let other people beat you when you're down, or do you stand up for yourself?

And the thing is those themes are universal, but they're not really related to Peter Parker in particular. In the shallowest sense, the kind I used to compare Cap and David or Superman and Moses, they do not have similar stories or backgrounds. Job has everything, and he loses it all, and he mourns all of it, including the property and money; Peter Parker is working class, has never had enough money, but we see again and again that he views it as a tool rather than a goal in and of itself. Spider-Man's origin is about learning to battle your yetzer hara, your darkest impulses, and we see Peter again and again trying to do his best even though he's often being pulled by his instincts to use his power for selfish purposes. Job does not ever have to learn any such lesson; he never did anything wrong.

The one thing in common between the two stories is that they both believe that every life has value - well, if Peter is being written by a competent authors at least - with Job praying to save the men who are literally called the "resha'im", the evil ones, and with Peter being the little man's hero. But that can be said about most heroes, especially the notable ones. Hell, there's an entire double page spread dedicated to the concept in Batwoman: Elegy. This is more of another indication of Jewish values making their way into the foundations of superhero comics than it is a similarity between Job and Peter.

Also, I feel like I need to be clear. Our prayers thanking God for creating something? Traditionally are simply thanking God for creating something. I'm not saying you can't interpret it as a metaphor for the world if that's what works for you, if that's how you see God, but God was very literal to most Jews for thousands of years, and I could talk for ages and ages about the schools of thought regarding God and the world and Maimonides and shit.

Speaking of which, we need to discuss the fact that Job is literally just some guy. Like he's not a prophet, he's not a leader or a judge, he's just some rich dude who lost everything, mourned it, and then got it all back. I've talked about this before, but one of the foundational ideas of my thesis is that the similarity between prophets having powers (such as Samson but also really any judge being considered a higher authority despite not even communing directly with God) and superheroes invokes Maimonides' claim that the first degree of prophecy is the need to act for the better good, being unable to ignore the ills of the world and doing your best to fix them - that people who incapable of ignoring that urge (and Peter, despite his occasional selfishness, often prioritizes Spider-Man in his life specifically because of that urge) are possessed by the spirit of God. Literal prophecy, communing with God, cannot exist without this base level. So, in effect, Peter is significantly holier than Job.

Anyway. Again, I've definitely missed some points because of Tumblr's fuck up and I intentionally skipped most of the history lesson that gave a lot of context which I didn't feel like typing up again, but this is most of it. Sorry if this wasn't what you hoped for, but this was a really interesting thing to talk about anyway, and I'm very grateful you gave me the opportunity to think it over.

[melanielocke]

Book recommendations: queer adult fantasy romance

This is a relatively new genre. Before, pretty much all YA fantasy books are heavy on the romance, but that's becoming more popular in adult, creating fantasy romance as a genre. I read mostly queer fantasy romance. Unfortunately, there aren't many traditionally published ones yet, I think the top rowin the left picture is all of them (if there are any I didn't know of, please let met know). I've excluded sci-fi romance for this post (which is why Winter's Orbit isn't here).

In indie books, I think there are some more, but I'm not super familiar with the indie market. The bottom three in the left picture are all indie books that also come in paperback (many are ebook only and I don't have an ereader). Most of these books I have talked about before but not all of them.

A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland

This is a prince/bodyguard romance set in a kingdom inspired by the Ottoman empire. Kadou is the queen's younger brother, and after a mistake puts him in a bad situation with his sister and the body father of her child, he has to help her uncover a conspiracy to do with forged money.

He gets a new bodyguard, which in this case has both the task of being a guard and being a personal attendant. Evemer hates Kadou at first. He's very duty bound and thinks Kadou does not take his duties as prince seriously.

But they will have to trust each other if they want to get to the bottom of that forged money conspiracy.

Evemer is a very stoic guy. He doesn't talk much. He can go entire days only saying 'Yes, my prince' 'no, my prince' or simply 'my prince' when he tries to convey he is annoyed or disagrees.

Kadou has very well written anxiety, and deals with this in numerous ways, including at first drinking far too much wine to dull his fears. Evemer is at first very judgemental, but over time he comes to understand Kadou better.

There's lots of discussion of ethics in this book, partially to establish how a relationship between them could happen without there being a power imbalance because of it.

Also by this author: several self published books, in 2024 comes their next trad published book, Running Close to the Wind, which is a queer pirate book pitches as Our Flag Means Death x Six of Crows

A Marvellous Light & a Restless Truth by Freya Marske I've already talked about several time

And yet I'm going to do it again. I love the each book features a different couple structure and I'd love to see this more often. It's a great way to have many different major characters but also give all of them their moment to shine and have properly development instead of trying to balance three romances in the same book.

The overarching plot in the trilogy has to do with the conspiracy Robin and Edwin begin to uncover in the first book, something that threatens all magicians of england.

A Marvellous Light features a himbo x librarian m/m couple. They're the softest, sweetest couple of the three in the trilogy to be sure, and I'm planning to reread soon.

A Restless Truth features a sapphic rake x wallflower couple. They're both very chaotic, and I love Maud's energy, as well as the whole sexual awakening arc she has in here, which is so funny.

The third as of yet unpublished book is a Power Unbound, featuring a couple that I think is grump x sunshine but in a asshole x asshole way and it sounds like it's going to be amazing so definitely keep an eye out for that one coming November.

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows

This is one I don't think I've talked about before. Before reading this, definitely check the content warnings. There's a pretty graphic rape scene very early in the book, as well as several moments of suicidal ideation. That said, this is a healing story, and the character this happens to is doing a lot better when the story ends.

Vel is a prince who ends up in an arranged marriage to a noble girl from a different kingdom. When his preference for men is revealed in a pretty awful way, his family is ready to disown him. But the envoy of his betrothed's family had a better idea, marry his former intended's brother instead.

But before Vel arrives at the castle of his betrothed, he is attacked and nearly killed by assassins who clearly do not want his marriage to take place.

When attacks keep happening after Vel and Cae have gotten married, they will have to rely on each other to figure out what's going.

I love queer arranged marriages in stories, like in Winter's Orbit, so I was super excited when I first found out about this book. This book ends with everything wrapped up, but there is a sequel coming out this December. Unfortunately, that's still pretty far away, but there has been a cover reveal and blurb. The sequel will feature the same main characters.

Then to the indie books

Prince of the Sorrows and Lord of Silver Ashes

These are the first two books in the Rowan Blood series, which the author intends to be an eight book series in total. But since it's an indie series and the author is a pretty fast writer, they come pretty fast after one another. The first one came out last March, and the second one October, and the author released a different book this February. The next book in this series is schedule for late spring somewhere.

This series is set in a fae world, with a parallel historical human world we don't see much of.

Saffron is a beantighe, which is a human servant who is raised in the fae world after his parents made a deal with the fae. His patron sends all these children back to the human world once they become too old, but Saffron wants nothing more to stay in the fae world. To do that, he'll need an academic endorsement from a fae so he can stay and study.

When he accidentally finds out the true name of prince Cylvan, the two strike a deal, Saffron will help him find a way to remove the power on his true name, and Cylvan will give Saffron an endorsement. The only problem is, Saffron has no clue what he's doing and barely taught himself to read.

In the meantime, beantighes are getting killed one after another by a mysterious person known as "the wolf" and it will be up to Saffron to stop the killer, because no one else will.

The first book ends on a cliffhanger, but the second is a bit more wrapped up so I'm not sure what's going to happen in the next book since there will definitely be more. Fortunately, the wait is not super long, but the release date and covers are released much later than for trad publishing

Last is the Fox & the Dryad by Kellen Graves

This book is set in the same world as the Rowan Blood series, but it is a standalone in the modern time period.

Briar is a ballet dancer, and while he enchants many people on the stage, he cannot get the attention of the one person they really want to notice them. So they strike a deal with a fae lady, if he can perform one perfect dance she'll make him the most enchanting thing on two legs. Of course, a dance is never perfect and now he's stuck dancing for the fae lady whenever she asks him too, despite him getting worn out and injured from it.

Malric is the son of said fae lady and used to be a dancer himself. All his siblings are artists and their mother abuses their talents to entertain people at her revels, all at their cost. Malric left, but he finds out his mother struck a deal with Briar, who is now his replacement. Malric wants to rescue Briar, and tries to help him posing as his new dance teacher in the human world as well as a mysterious masked fey lord at the revels. But then he starts developing feelings for Briar, and he has to ask himself if what he's doing is really helping him.

This book takes place a lot more in the human world than the main Rowan Blood series, which ballet playing a big role which I think was done really well. Briar is a masc enby and uses he/they pronouns, and use alters through the book. I think this is the author's best book so far and if you're not looking to get invested in a long unfinished series yet I would try this one first and maybe start Rowan Blood afterwards.

I'll probably do trans characters next as the Wicked Bargain has arrived and I'll start reading it tomorrow

@alastaircarstairsdefenselawyer @life-through-the-eyes-of @astriefer @justanormaldemon @ipromiseiwillwrite @a-dream-dirty-and-bruised @amchara @all-for-the-fanfiction @imsoftforthomastair @ddepressedbookworm @queenlilith43 @wagner-fell @cant-think-of-anything @laylax13s @tessherongraystairs @boredfangirl16 @artist-in-soul @beyondlifebeyonddeath @ikissedsmithparker

[sexynetra]

11. “I’m not fine. I know I said I was but I’m not.” for sashnetra

Idk what this is I finished it tonight as part of my goal to publish something every month 😂 it’s not really hurt/comfort, it’s not really angst, but some secret third thing. I hope you enjoy regardless!

Read on Ao3

~~~~~~

Sasha looked across the table at her girlfriend. Anetra was pushing the food around her plate wordlessly, eyes glued to the table. It wasn’t like her, and Sasha was worried.

“Babe, are you sure you’re okay?” Sasha asked for what was probably the fiftieth time that night.

“Yes, and stop asking.” Anetra said curtly, spearing her fork into a steamed carrot with far more force than necessary.

Sasha sighed, pressing her fingers into her temples and counting to 5 in her head. It wouldn’t do anyone any good for her to snap at Anetra right now, but she was at her wits end trying to get her to open up.

“Sweethea—“

“I’m fine, Sasha. Stop patronizing me,” Anetra interjected, finally tearing her gaze away from her uneaten plate of food to glare at Sasha.

It caught Sasha off guard, and she felt her palms go slightly clammy. All she wanted to do was help, but somehow she’d made an even bigger mess of this. Still, she couldn’t just drop the subject. In the six months they had been together, Sasha had never once seen Anetra like this.

Anetra seemed to notice the minute change in Sasha’s demeanor. That or the weight of whatever was happening became too much.

It looked like Anetra deflated. Her shoulders sagged and her irate expression melted off to something hollow and haunted. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to get upset,” she mumbled. Sasha’s heart broke a little. Carefully, she extended her hand, supine. After a moment’s hesitation, Anetra reached out, entwining their fingers and squeezing gently.

“I didn’t mean to upset you,” Sasha started carefully, rubbing her thumb along the back of Anetra’s hand. Anetra swallowed thickly and Sasha watched, gauging whether or not she was about to try.

“You didn’t– It’s nothing–” She cut herself off to stare at the ceiling in a move Sasha knew all too well. She was trying to keep tears at bay. “I just… I’m not fine. I know I said I was, but I'm not,” she said finally, blinking hard before meeting Sasha’s eyes again. Sasha’s heart broke again.

“Oh, my baby. Come here – dinner can wait,” she said softly, squeezing Anetra’s hand.

Anetra bit her lip harshly, hard enough to leave an imprint. “Can we go to the couch?”

“Of course we can.” Sasha stood up, keeping her grasp firm enough to hopefully be grounding.

They walked, hand-in hand, across the threshold into the living room. Sasha sat down first, pulling Anetra down so she was on her lap, arms snaking around her waist. “Is this okay?”

Anetra just nodded, burrowing into Sasha’s frame. It seemed, from the outside at least, that she was trying to make herself smaller. Sasha’s grip tightened minutely. “Do you want to talk about it? We don’t have to.”

Anetra shifted, nuzzling her face into Sasha’s shoulder before speaking. “I ran into Marcia.” Her voice was muffled, talking directly into the soft wool of Sasha’s cardigan. “At the store.”

Sasha swallowed a lump, trying to keep her own emotions in check. Anetra needed her to be strong right now. “Oh love, I’m sorry, that must have been jarring. Did she say anything to you?”

Anetra shook her head and Sasha could have sworn she heard a tiny sniffle. “She acted like she didn’t even know me… We were together for five fucking years and she acted like I was a total stranger,” Anetra’s voice broke and Sasha held her close, rubbing circles onto her back.

“I’m so sorry…” Sasha felt helpless. She didn’t know what to say, how to comfort Anetra. How could she possibly condense 5 years worth of relationship trauma into a genuine comfort? It felt like an impossible task. Useless platitudes sat on the tip of her tongue. “You deserve better than that,” she tried finally.

Anetra pulled back slightly, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. “Yeah. I do. I’m gonna go take a bath.” She carefully unwound herself from Sasha’s grip, standing up and heading towards the hall before Sasha could think of anything to say. Anetra paused at the entrance to the hallway, looking back at Sasha. “I love you,” she said quietly.

“I love you too,” Sasha replied. Anetra gave her a tiny smile before disappearing into the bathroom. Sasha leaned back, groaning and rubbing her face. I love you just wasn’t enough. She needed to come up with a plan to cheer Anetra up, and fast.

[laxmiree]

[CN] MLQC Lucien's Through Thousands of Mirrors event translation (Day 1 -Thursday)

⚠️ SPOILER ALERT ⚠️

This post contains a HEAVY SPOILER for the event that has not been released in EN yet! Feel free to notify me if there are any mistakes in the translation~

Through Thousands of Mirrors Event | Day 1 (You're here!) | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | HS/Uni SSR Story: Monochrome Scenery

-

[Tidbits: I don't wanna break the flow so I'll put some information here first 😂. Dr. Lawson is Lucien's post-grad professor. Before, he also appears in UR MQ Distant Similarity. During his post-grad he has three seniors Colt, Elliot, and Caroline.]

-

[Math]

Seeing the particularly puzzled expression on the classmate next to him, Lucien starts to consider whether he should offer some assistance within his capabilities.

For instance, he thinks about telling the classmate that the topic currently being discussed on the blackboard is not from the same chapter as the one in the textbook he's currently reading.

-

[MATH/BIOCHEMISTRY]

After the vending machine devours Lucien's one dollar and twenty-five cents for the third time, and with only three minutes left to get to his next class, he begins to seriously contemplate whether he should try some mysterious repair method—like giving it a good smack or a swift kick.

-

[BIOCHEMISTRY]

Lucien coincidentally runs into Colt by the sports field, just as Colt is about to attend a cricket practice session.

Upon realizing that his senior from the lab is not only managing coursework and a significant project workload but also juggling a 20-hour weekly part-time job and daily school cricket team training, Lucien begins to contemplate whether there is any room for further optimization in his own schedule.

-

[PREVIEW/COMPUTER SCIENCE]

During the brief half-hour period, Lucien typically uses the time to prepare for the upcoming class or visit the library to research and gather information.

In any case, that time should not be spent on arguing and explaining to people, like the enthusiastic campus volunteer in front of him.

"No, thank you. I'm not a high school student attending a summer camp. This is my student ID, and I'm indeed a student here, a graduate student. Yes, I'm not lost, and I need to get to my class. Can you please let me go?"

-

[COMPUTER SCIENCE]

Lucien presses the enter key, intending to ask the teacher if he can leave early once his coursework is done. However, the error message on the screen deters him from that thought. So, he sits back down and begins to examine it again.

But that's okay, he does understand the commonality between computer science and experimental research: it's often hard to know right away if the thing at hand will work, why it's not working, or even why it's even working.

-

[LAB]

Come on, come on, come on. After moving this box, there's another.

And after moving that box, there are three more to go.

The prospects for the future and the shine in one's eyes are often taken away by the God of research in such necessary yet mechanical repetitive work.

-

[LAB]

Lucien goes out to get some water and returns to find a school burger on his desk.

Colt, with dark circles under his eyes, waves at Lucien and saying, "No need to thank me, newcomer. Have some food, we might be staying here today."

Lucien quietly eats the burger, hesitant to tell Colt that he has spent more time in the laboratory than in the dorm.

-

[LAB]

When Dr. Lawson enters the laboratory, what he sees is a scene where his graduate and doctoral students are sleeping and sprawled all over the place.

On the laboratory whiteboard, several words were written in large letters: "Publish immediately! Guaranteed to be published in Nature!!"

Dr. Lawson retrieves small blankets from the cabinet, covering each of these research madmen.

He proceeds to organize the data and take over the finishing work on the project. Of course, when it comes to authorship in the paper, not a single one of these kids' names can be left out.

[aughtpunk]

A03 Questions Tag Game

I got tagged by: @coffincrows

I tag: @ventela1 @autumn2may @farshootingstar

1 – How many works do you have on AO3?

70

2 – What's your total AO3 word count?

552,955

3 – What fandoms do you write for?

In no particular order: Cult of the Lamb, Welcome to Night Vale, Disco Elysium, Good Omens, Overwatch and a bunch of series I've only written one fic in

4 – What are your top five fics by kudos?

Points on a Circle (Overwatch, lots of ships, mainly Yeehan)

Now Streaming: Love! (Overwatch, lots of ships, D.va POV)

White is Not the New Black (Good Omens, Ineffable Husbands)

Fusion is Just a Cheap Tactic to Make Weak Angels Stronger (Good Omens, Ineffable Husbands)

Welcome to Cyber Vale (Welcome to Night Vale, Cecilos)

5 – Do you respond to comments?

I may accidentally skip a few (sorry) but I try to respond to everyone!

6 – What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Another Pyramid, although I'm not sure I would call it angsty. The fic is about two robots (omnics) discussion an opera and the play based on it, and it ends with one of the robots wondering if the more opened-ended play could possibly be about the endless cycle of tragedy and romance, and how that's very fitting in the current war for robot rights.

7 – What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Probably To Forgive is Divine since it ends with the Bishop family back together AND Narinder and Lamb as a couple AND other happy spoilers

8 – Do you get hate on fics?

Okay so I wouldn't call it hate but I will take a moment to talk about the weirdest comment I ever got on a fic: Someone once posted in the third chapter of a fic that they hadn't read the first two chapters (on purpose) and they were only going to read every-other chapter from then on. And then every other chapter they kept posting about how the fic made no sense and kept asking questions that were answered in the parts they skipped.

Yeah I ended up blocking them and deleting the comments. Like, the fuck?

9 – Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I have written smut. I would describe it as "bad".

10 – Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

Probably the Good Omens/Pokemon crossover fic The Evils of Truth and Love. Sadly I couldn't figure out anything to do with it plot-wise so it's only just three chapters of silliness.

11 – Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No idea. Imagine someone stealing my work. It'd be like someone stealing my twelve year old hyundai. Like, why?

12 – Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! I know Cyber Vale got partially translated, and one of my Disco Elysium fics was translated into Russian!

13 – Have you ever co-written a fic?

No, I'm not into co-writing.

14 – What's your all-time favorite ship?

Probably X/Zero. Which is funny considering I've never written a ship about them.

15 – What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Dear Notes in a Line and Five Shalle Ryde fans:

I swear I'll come back one day to finish these. Pinky-swear.

16 – What are your writing strengths?

Apparently I have a real knack for writing immortal God/God-like beings/Immortal Robots and I don't know what to do with this power besides writing fanfic.

17 – What are your writing weaknesses?

I am so, so bad at smut. I've tried, you guys. I've really tried. But writing it feels like someone is sandpapering my brain. In another timeline where I can write smut I'm probably making bank on a terrible amazon published erotica series.

18 – Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I try to avoid it myself because I can barely handle English most days. Never mind other languages Do you know how many times I've failed French 1? Six. SIX TIMES.

EDIT: It has been pointed out to me that I've written multiple characters in multiple stories that use ASL. I am not a clever person.

19 – First fandom you wrote for?

NiGHTS Into Dreams! It's called TWiNS and I actually dug it up from the depths of FF.net to post on Ao3 because I'm so proud of my teen self for writing it.

20 – Favorite fic you've written?

Probably As Mayflies, which I wrote one beautiful summer morning while I was feeling very emotional over Sir Terry Pratchett's passing and wrote a little story about how the humans Crowley and Aziraphale meet live forever in their hearts.

[jattendschaton]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thank you so much @ladyofthenoodle for tagging me! I love being part of things 🥺 <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

On my main account there are 37 publicly posted

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

Main account has 207,377, but if I included the other account and my unpublished stuff it's 280,000+

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Mostly Miraculous Ladybug, but I have dabbled in others!

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

honestly it was embarrassing to list these out :'):'):')

Out of the Closet Dropping All Pretenses On Open Secret electrify me, i'm dying to burn knowing you

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Most of the time I do! I dont tend to respond to rude comments anymore and sometimes I dont know what to say, but I try to respond to most comments!! I feel so lucky to receive any of them, I just want the commenter to know how much I appreciate them <3<3 There has been at least one time when I was so overwhelmed with a lovely comment that I never responded because I just liked looking at it so much 🙈 but that person was also a friend of mine so I did express to them privately how much their comment meant to me

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

For published fic, definitely whistle stop. I have written a lot of other angsty stuff though that will never see the light of day </3

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I feel like after a certain point, they're all kind of equally happy in their endings, but I guess live chat? I dont know though, I really dont tend to reread my fics

8. Do you get hate on fics?

ajskdljkl yes I have gotten hate on fics before

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Nope!

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I dont think I've written anything that would classify as a crossover

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! I don't think the translation is up anymore but it was like my second or third fic and I was over the moon that someone liked it enough to put in the time to translate it!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not seriously. I've been part of a few projects where we were going to cowrite a fic together that never ended up getting finished and I've set up a document to cowrite a fic with a friend that we never did anything with :/ I'd love to co-write a fic though, I think it's so cool when people collaborate like that!

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

Lovesquare and original ot4 of Alyadrininette <3

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

As far as published works from my main account there are a lot :') but the one that hurts the most is probably Where the Devils Are rip

16. What are your writing strengths?

I don't really have an answer for this!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

asjdjkl if I dwell on this too long I will never write another sentence so I'm also going to skip this one!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I think it's really cool when other people who are multilingual do it! I've dropped a word or two in when it felt right, but otherwise I personally stay away from writing it because I lack the knowledge to do it justice. I do sometimes make up languages for magic purposes, though!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

First fandom I published fanfic for was Miraculous Ladybug!

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

asjdklf ahhhh I have no response to this because I dont reread my writing. I think probably the closest thing I have to a favorite at any point in time is whichever one I wrote the most recently

tagging: @rosekasa @marimbles @picayunearts @emsylcatac @anna-scribbles @talkstoself (no pressure to anyone tagged if you dont want to do it of course, I'd just always love to see more stuff about your writing!) and anyone else who'd like to participate! I know it can be kind of sad if no one tags you in one of these things and you wanted to do it so just let me know and I will add you <3

[wondrouswendy]

Tagged by the incredibly kind @nanuk-the-bat 😊 Thanks for tagging me!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Currently 86 fics!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

736,742 -- somehow it feels like this should be much higher, but there are several stories which haven't made it to AO3.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently Alan Wake and Control. In the past, I've written for Hades, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Star Wars, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, just to name the big ones.

4. Top five fics by kudos

The Coming of Butterflies - Zagreus/Thanatos, a Hades fic

Out of My Hands and Into Your Heart - Alan Wake/Fictional Alex Casey, an Alan Wake fic

Sometime Around Midnight - Majima/Makoto, a Yakuza 0 fic

The Water - Reaper76, an Overwatch fic

What We Leave Behind - Hanzo/the Cowboy, Overwatch fic

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes. I try to reply to every comment because I really appreciate people taking the time to leave them. It's easy to just read a fic and drop a kudos. It takes more time to think of something to say.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Well, Out of My Hands is a tragedy, so I think that qualifies as angstiest. However, I think several of my Trench/Darling fics are angsty given the nature of the pairing.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

The Runaway Rabbit had a very uplifting ending, for being a sex pollen fic.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not in recent years, but I've received 2 hate comments in the past.

9. Do you write smut?

Yep. E rated fics are my most common on my profile!

10. Craziest crossover?

I'm not a fan of crossovers, but I have some ideas being cooked up for my third installment of my Fictional CaseyWake story that are crossover-esque.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Thankfully not, I'd be extremely angry if that happened.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, I've had a few translated, namely The Coming of Butterflies.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes, I've written several fics with @rangerzath. From OCs and beyond, we've written a lot together. We've recently started collaborating on comics, which has been a lot of fun!

14. All time favourite ship?

Trench/Darling

15. What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I don't know about doubting. I don't want to close the door on anything. I want to get back to Days of Thunder and Forever and Always someday!

16. What are your writing strengths?

I like to think I write characters in character really well, like I capture their voices accurately. So dialogue, then.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Finishing stories. Not becoming discouraged. Staying motivated. Resisting the urge to publish prematurely. Descriptions take a lot of time and thought. I try not to be repetitive, too, so it requires needing to get extra creative for said descriptions.

18. Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

I think there's a time and place for it.

19. First fandom you wrote in?

If we're talking about the original... then Inuyasha lol.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Out of My Hands and Into Your Heart. I tried my best to write a story detailing Alan's life before Bright Falls, his struggles, his moments of joy. I really just wanted to explore what could have led to Alan killing off Casey in The Sudden Stop. I wanted to explore the Writer's Journey(TM) and all the victories and setbacks creatives experience, because that vicious cycle is very much at the heart of Alan Wake as a series. I think I'll always be proud of it for what it accomplished, and I'm very pleased it's a finished story under my belt too. I'll tag @rangerzath @pintsizeninja @pinkomcranger @hearts-are-connected and @star-spangled-bastard (if you've been tagged already, sorry for the spam!)❤️

[jaybarou]

I wrote a small part of imav that won't help anybody if it gets published after November, so here you go, a modified version of chapter 46 with Sun and Reader working on breaking the filters FazCo put on the DCA.

It can be read without the rest of the fic.

As usual in fnaf, tw child endangerment.

[...]"Those are not the filters I wanted to work on tonight though! Do you want to try something else?" You sat back on the couch you were precariously sharing with Sun.

Sun nodded emphatically, probably thinking that anything would be better than the current brain teaser. Poor Sun, you didn't have an easy night prepared for him. Time to see if the brainwashing filter was active as you suspected.

"So, what do you think now about FazBear? After all we have seen and all they have done."

"They are... the bosses. They make rules."

"Okay, okay. Experiment time! I used to work for a children's entertainment company before working here, right?" you lied.

"Right."

"And they used me to put together information about the children; information that they would sell to the best buyer, which meant anyone, no matter if the children were at risk. Right?"

"Right..."

"What do you think of that company?"

"They are evil! How can they hurt the children just to get money!"

You nodded, it was just what you expected. You crossed your arms, time for the next step.

"Okay! I do the same work for FazCo. What do you think about them?"

Sun relaxed like that was an easy question for once. "They are compiling children's information and are working with third parties. There are legal clauses that allow this."

"But not evil. I see. What about this? I do the same job for FashyCo, with a schwa. What do you think, evil?"

"Yes! Evil!"

"Do you understand who I mean with that altered name?"

"Mean...? Well... yes, ah! yes!"

"Okay, now that you know; repeat the same opinion you gave me about FashyCo, with a schwa."

"It has not changed! They are compiling children's information and are working with third parties. There are legal clauses that allow this... I don't see your point."

"I'm seeing my point, and there is no way you will be able to see it."

It could have been simply the way Sun thought, but there it was: It has not changed. That was not simply Sun; that was a substitution filter regarding the company. And not even the name directly, but when Sun thought of the company. Insidious, because it was not censoring his speech, it was impeding him from thinking. 

You scratched your eyebrow. You could walk in circles for a few hours and you'd probably find a way to work around this, you already had a few ideas to keep pushing. To tell him to repeat after you. To tell him children wanted him to think that. To tell him that FazCo wanted him to think bad thoughts about FazCo. To tell him it's the opposite game when he thinks about the company. There were a thousand ways to break that censorship because it was too broad, and once it was broken, there would be no automatic way to go back.

You only had to choose. And there was an easy one that even sounded like a game.

"Okay, Sun. What does Sun think about FazCo selling children's data to children-exploiting companies?"

"I told you, I Th..."

"No, no, what does Sun think? Like that: 'Sun thinks...'"

Sun played with his hands, poor guy probably felt like he wasn't passing an exam. "Does it... Matter? Hm. Sun thinks what FazCo is doing is deplorable." Sun took a hand to his faceplate and stood up from the couch. Slowly he took the hand away. "Sun thinks... FazCo has been cruel to us."

"It worked!"

"Sun thinks FazCo is neglecting children," Sun told you and paced. "Sun thinks FazCo is unfair." He kept making fists with his hands and opening them. "Sun thinks FazCo is dangerous." He looked at you like this stream of accusations was not his doing. He approached you. He didn't know what to do with his arms. "Sun thanks you... maybe. Things keep getting heavier and more complicated every time you tweak things. Sun is not sure he likes it."

You laughed and stood too to get closer. "Sun doesn't have to switch ALL his thoughts to the third person."

"Sun thinks he will for tonight."

You patted his arm, and you both smiled, but after a moment Sun looked away, at the door. You could guess he was reexamining his thoughts with this new trick.

"He was taken. The boy."

"Taken? What boy? Who took him?"

Sun looked like he was very far away.

"FazCo said..." He looked at you, more present but still not entirely with you. "I would have done something! I didn't know then. I only knew it was right. I only knew I had to let the child be taken. I only asked later. But..."

"When? Not today, right?" You worried that breaking the filter had shaken something loose. This wasn't a malfunction, right?

"No. More than a year ago."

You didn't know what to think. Had you unearthed some memory? Had he only just remembered? Should the police be called for what had happened? Had a child been missing for more than a year? Had nobody sounded an alarm back then? Why on Earth had Sun not been decommissioned after losing a child? Was there something more nefarious going on?

You had heard rumors, especially on Halloween, about children disappearing; slasher ghost stories, but you had never read a single piece of real news about it. You had assumed it was some silly propaganda bit, and not a very successful one, but what if there was some truth to it...?

"Nobody called the police, or security?"

"Yes!" He cried and fell to his knees. You jumped from the couch in alarm and held him before he could do something else like fall to the floor. He didn't say anything else. Neither Sun nor Moon could cry unless they chose to emote that way but he was shaking and not entirely in control. You held him tighter. He was burning under your hands, and it quickly turned painful.

"Sun. Do you think you could turn on your fans for me? To the highest setting?"

"I lost a child."

You didn't hear the noise of fans. The fingers in contact with the metal protested and threatened with blisters if nothing was done soon, but you didn't want to let go of Sun yet.

"Sun, please, your fans."

Finally his fans kicked in at full speed, but it was not enough. He wouldn't melt, but he was still overheating; this was dangerous. He went from being held limply to holding on to you for dear life. No matter how big he was; right now he looked extremely small in your arms.

"I lost a child."

You didn't move. His temperature was stable, but that was the only thing stable about him. It really felt like he would fall if you tried to step away. His silence was unnerving. You hoped he was talking to Moon, but suspected he wasn't.

"Lights off," he said.

You weren't sure. Sure, Moon being out would be good, but you didn't know if being locked in was good for Sun. In the end you decided to trust Sun knew what was best for himself and shuffled a bit backward to be able to stretch a leg and turn the closest lamp off. Enough to bring Moon out. You felt them change under your arms. Moon didn't move at first. You felt him tighten his arms enough to hurt and then let go. He sat back on the floor with his legs forming a circle around you, so you sat on his ankles.

"Is he alright?" You dared to ask, seeing as he wasn't talking himself.

Moon nodded. "I ended up being. He will."

You couldn't pretend to understand what he meant, but at least he seemed to think Sun would be alright. "Do you know what happened? Or did it happen when you were not active?"

Moon nodded again. He grabbed each arm with his opposite hand. "The only time we failed completely to protect a child."

"What happened? Only if Sun agrees to tell me."

"People came. They had black uniforms, helmets, like the police. Someone had called the police. They had bullet-proof vests. We are trained to recognize that, in case of a shooting, to follow instructions. They came in looking for a child. Just one, so it was not a shooting. There were no alarms. They came asking for a name we recognized. His mother was a kitchen worker, back when we had people in the kitchens. He came every day while his mother worked; the 'happy workers program'. She picked him up after her shift every day. They found the child. They left with the child. We didn't understand, but the uniform had letters on the back. It didn't say 'police', it said 'ICE'."

Moon rummaged in his hat and took out the miniradio you had given him. "I knew what had happened, more or less. But the news the other day said something. And now I understand."

"What was his name?" You asked without having much in the way of soothing words.

His shoulders lifted and he didn't look at you. "I don't know. More than six months, his profile is gone, deleted, like the others. We only remember that it happened."

"Are you okay?"

He shrugged. "I had time to get over it. Sun hasn't."

You tried to think. There was nothing you could say if they had listened to the news. Nothing to soothe their fears and anger. More than a year ago. Who knew where that child was now?

"Ask Sun if he wants to be artificially calmed."

"No. But he wants out again. ...Change topics, please."

"If he is sure..." You put your hand on the switch. "See you later, Moon."

Sun had his full smile when he switched. "I don't want to work on filters anymore."

Okay, filters. Yes, it was what this whole thing was about, wasn't it?

"There are more things we have to try. But, maybe tomorrow, okay?"

"Yes. More tomorrow."

"Let's play something." You patted his side.

[Read the whole fic here]

Inspired by the 2024 US republican campaign promises that say that by 2025 ICE will be allowed to act on playgrounds, hospitals, schools, churches…