#and I haven't gotten a comment in over a decade

[demetriandelibinaryboyfriends]

I am literally begging the Cobra Kai fandom to not evaporate after S6 is 100% finished or it will in fact be one of the most devastating things to ever happen to me ;_____;

I don't wanna @ anyone because I understand how fast things seem to move in today's landscape of streaming shows dropping entire seasons in one day, and networks pumping out new series constantly to try to attract more subscribers with no intent to actually maintain those shows over time but I just saw someone self-deprecatingly lament that they are still thinking about a show that ended almost a year ago, making fan art and playlists for it, and I want to be very clear:

you can still create fanworks when it comes to old media!! PLEASE do!! there are always going to be new fans who will appreciate it, and veteran fans who are dying for new content and new perspectives. also, less than a year is NOTHING. the original Star Trek series was on TV six decades ago and there are still people losing their minds over it, writing stories and reblogging gifsets daily, and that's only one example.

a fandom lasts as long as there are people who love a thing, even if it's only a handful of people. love what you love and write and draw and make gifs and playlists about it!

[clubsoft]

⠀

⠀ ⠀ SIR GREENDOWN ⠀ ⠀ TOMMY MILLER / F!READER ft. JOEL MILLER ⠀⠀ ⠀

SUMMARY ⋆ tommy is having a hard time not confessing his love to his angel , when one fateful day , with the help of his CD collection , she beats him to it . WARNINGS ⋆ fluff , fluff , fluff / tommy is disgustingly in love n compares his lover to sugar / mentions of an age gap ; tommy is early 40's , reader is mid to late 20's / joel is the typical sibling / 3rd person POV ; no use of Y/N WORD COUNT ⋆ 1 . 7 k NOTES ⋆ i'm a bit rusty bc i haven't written a real fic in who knows how long but tommy miller has enchanted meeee . reblogs , likes & comments r v much appreciated <3 ty 4 reading n enjoy !!

Love had never shown any permanence in Tommy’s life. A glimpse here, a look there… sometimes, it'd stay visible long enough to mess up his sheets late at night, fill his kitchen with the scent of coffee in the morning, but once the front door shut, all he had to show for it was a hangover and a line of scribbled digits that never quite made it to the keypad of his phone. In his late thirties, early forties, it had gotten to the point where he was forgetting names, blurring faces, saying in a drunken haze that love didn’t exist, wasn’t real, and if it was, it sure as hell wasn’t meant for him. 

Until he saw her, that is, looking out of place at the family barbeque, invited and then ditched by his darling niece, a doe in headlights, in need of saving. Tommy didn’t take long to take on the role of her knight in shining armor, unable to resist those big brown orbs with their helpless glint and fluffy lashes that settled perfectly atop her flowery cheekbones. The reapplication of cherry lip gloss that took place in front of his very eyes didn’t help, and by the time he was driving her home, peeking away from the empty Arlington roads to watch her adjust his cowboy hat atop her soft hair, Tommy Miller was a goner. 

It was less than a year, not that he was counting, before every bit and piece of him, every item he owned, every story he told held a trace of her. His angel, he’d call her, in that smooth voice of his, listening for the giggle that followed in response to his flirtatious tone, the mellifluous sound turning into full blown laughter when his beard scratched at her collarbone, his lips against her throat, trailing up, up, up before they pressed against hers, and everything clicked perfectly into place. 

Love was real, and it existed as the picture of her on his living room floor, laying on that rug that he would have never purchased on his own accord, reading the tracklist off a CD he recalled getting as a gift over a decade ago. Tommy tried his hardest to settle into the couch cushions without breaking her focus, wanting nothing more than to behold her as her eyes scanned the beautifully designed text below the impressive well kept quality of the age old plastic, but his failure was immediately visible in the slow curl of her plump lips, the rise of her upper body, the flow of soft, wavy hair as it came to rest upon her shoulders. She was smiling as she held up the paper tracklist, tilting her head in the way she always did before she was about to tease him.

“You never cease to surprise me. There’s actually some good music in here. I was thinking you only listen to country!” There it was, the teasing. His family would joke that he’d met his match, though her innocent demeanor made it impossible to predict what would come out of that pretty mouth. Tommy’s mischief, on the other hand, made an appearance on every handsome feature before it was verbalized. 

“Country ain’t bad! You city people just wouldn’t know good music if it punched you in the face. Gimme that.” Before she could respond, he had plucked the booklet out of her grip. As Tommy skimmed the tracklist, his angel found her way off the rug, crawling up into his lap, a slender arm encompassing his neck, her cheek pressing to his so she could see exactly what he saw. Her affection earned her a soft peck to her lips, a loving smile; a moment of adoration shared between them. Then, his beard was brushing her soft cheek once more, a low hum resonating in his chest. “This is that one album about the ‘droid… Cindi Mayweather? She falls in love with a human or somethin’ around those lines, goes through hell for him. Sir Greendown is his name. S’good stuff, you’d like it.” 

“Sir Greendown, hm? Listen to it with me!” She’d said it in a manner which refused the word ‘no,’ not that he had the heart or self control to turn down the chance to spend time with her.

Never in his life did Tommy think he’d find himself with someone a decade younger, someone so sweet that it gave him toothaches, sent his heart racing like he was on a sugar rush, all to fear he’d ruin it all with a confession of love, to find out he was nothing but a few months worth of fun.

After all, their relationship was that of unspoken companionship. Neither of them had outwardly given it a title, yet the two drawers of his dresser that held only her clothes, the neatly folded sets of panties in the wooden organizer he’d so carefully painted a soft pink, the extra toothbrush on his bathroom counter, the half of his bed that smelled of jasmine and powder, the thin sheen of cherry lip gloss that sometimes covered his lips from the kisses she planted so dotingly… those things spoke a million and one times louder than any words ever could. 

Joel had been the first to notice, as shocking as that came to Tommy, how Tommy’s place was so much neater than usual. On cue, his angel had bounded down the wooden steps, said a sugary greeting to his brother, not lingering for long as she had somewhere to be, but not leaving without a kiss to Tommy’s cheek, and a reminder to answer his phone so he could select the next color of her matching mani - pedi when she reached the salon. Joel had waited until the front door clicked shut before repeating mani - pedi, and bursting into laughter. At that point, Tommy had no excuse but to explain, and with his brother being in the know, the affection he held became all the more real. That had been over a month ago. By now, Tommy was fighting off the four letter word on the daily. 

“Tommy?” 

“Yeah? Sorry, zoned out there for a sec.” For the past forty five seconds that he’d been caught up in his mind, he’d been staring blankly at her. When the clouds cleared, subtle concern was visible on her cherubic mien, and in addition to his apology, Tommy brushed his nose against hers, wordlessly trying to ease the furrow of her brow. It worked, because her other arm came to circle his neck, closing more distance between them.

“Do you wanna listen to the album with me?” This time, it was a request, spoken softly in comparison to the first time, as though rejection was now on the table. Tommy smiled, nodded, and let out a soft breath of air when she rose out of his lap to turn the CD player on, the beginning notes of the album’s opening track filling his living room. As soon as his angel returned to his lap, a peaceful silence fell between them, her cheek pressed to his shoulder, allowing Tommy to return to his thoughts as his fingers traced her thigh. A song went by, then another, and halfway through the third, she spoke once more, lashes low, lips slightly parted, lost in thoughts of her own, “She must’ve really loved this Greendown fella.” 

“If you like this, there’s two more albums about it.” Tommy found himself grinning, one large hand lifting to cup her cheek, looking somewhat amused by her sincere reaction to the music. “Really makes ya think, huh? What it’d feel like to be loved like that?” He was almost sure that when it came to feelings, hers mirrored his, but there never seemed to be a rush, never a worry that if those emotions weren’t translated into words, they’d disappear altogether, so it was a bolt out of the blue when her saccharine voice interrupted a pause in the instrumental once more.

“I love you like that.” 

His hand dropped from her cheek to her lap, eyes wide, like she’d spoken a different language entirely. The angel, who’d shown more courage than the older man before her, awaited his response with baited breath, and the longer it took, the more her gaze lowered, nerves replaced with oncoming disappointment, arms unraveling from around his neck. If it wasn’t for his large hands tightly gripping her waist, guiding her back down, she’d have slipped through his fingers. Tommy, breathing shakily, slipped his digits up the span of her back to her nape, thumbs under her jaw before they stroked her cheeks, eyes searching her face for any sign of regret, any sign of a lie, a joke. Perhaps, he’d hallucinated it altogether. Forehead against hers, he whispered amidst an unsteady exhale of air, “Say it again.” 

On his angel’s end, there’s no hesitation. 

“Tommy, I love you like that.” 

Then, her voice faltered, becoming meek with worry. 

“Is that okay?” 

His angel, his sweet, sweet babygirl, on the verge of apologizing for giving him the only thing he’d dreamt of since setting his tired eyes on her radiant being. A nod finally tipped his chin, the tip of his nose brushing her cheek, lips closing over hers. A strong arm circled her frame to press her chest against his, free hand tangled into endless, soft tufts, a sudden fervor in his movements that was reciprocated without the miss of a beat, the sensation of her own slender fingers sinking into his curls making him groan. The kiss was nothing unfamiliar, made unordinary by the act of giving in to the longing that’d kept their affection from becoming it all could become, and it went on for forever and a lifetime, ending only when Tommy turned them over, arm under the curve of her back as he laid her down on the couch, hovering a breath away, parting his lips to finally speak. 

“I-”

He was interrupted by the CD player skipping, producing a shrill noise that eased back into the song at the perfect moment, the universe taking on the liberty to answer for him.

Your magic mind makes love to mine. I think I’m in love, angel.

⠀⠀ ⠀

⠀⠀ ⠀ © 𝓒LUBSOFT

[a-little-bit-of-ravioli]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by @the-real-azalea-scroggs! Had to wait until I was of my phone because doing these is a nightmare on mobile lmao

1. How many works do you have on A03?

18 as of a few days ago!

2. What's your total A03 word count?

157,937! Which is. Only a fraction of the word count in my Docs folder. Be prepared.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I mainly write for The Legend of Zelda; specifically Linked Universe! In fact, that's all that's posted on my Ao3 currently, since my fall into that fandom began with me uploading there! Pre-Ao3 I wrote for Black Cat (Anime/Manga), Megaman NT Warrior, various Pokémon things, Assassin's Creed, Yugioh, Final Fantasy XIV and Octopath Traveler! Some of these I still write privately, but I haven't gotten around to re-posting any.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Whistling on Deaf Ears - My longest fic on Ao3, focusing on Wild and Twilight's friendship and how good intentions can lead to disaster.

Iconoclasm - Warriors deals with the room full of portraits in Cia's palace. The Chain also deals with it, but with a bit more fire.

Deserving - Twilight finally tells Rusl that he was the wolf in the village during TP, but that also means dealing with some heavier topics. Colin half overhears them and forms his own conclusions.

Something Greater - The start of the "Hyrule can see magical auras" series! In this one we deal with Legend and his many rings.

Ocean Magic - Mermaid Legend and Zora Time have a race and then fight one of the Big Octos from WW! Fun times.

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

Every single one!! I love comments, they give me an excuse to ramble about my fic more!! I am always down to ramble about every single insignificant detail of any line and/or section. If you ever want more background info about one of my fics, look to the comments!

So please, I adore comments, I treat them like treasures, not responding to them would be a CRIME.

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

There's no contest; Inevitable, my (so far) only MCD fic.

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

Hmmm, that's hard to quantify. I usually try to end fics on a hopeful note regardless. I'd say possibly either Deserving, where Twilight reconnects with his family, or Shimmering Blue, Striking White, where Time meets the Fierce Deity settled down on Satori Mountain and they both get closure.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Thankfully, no! I've been blessed with mostly amazing and patient readers, even when my upload schedule isn't the best.

9. Do you write smut?

No, not really. I've attempted it, but I'm too asexual for it lol

10. Do you write crossovers?

Very, very rarely. Mostly privately, and only very specific ones. Only a single one has had an actual plot, so far (more on that one in question 15!).

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Also a nope! I tend to write for smaller fandoms, where these things don't tend to happen a lot!

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

I have! But it's been a while. Over a decade, in fact! I tried to find the fic to link it here, but it was on the German fanfic website fanfiktion.de, and my friend who posted it back then must have deactivated her account, because it's nowhere to be seen (I still have the Word file though!). It was a Multi-Crossover that started as an RP in a forum, and we took turns turning the RP into prose one chapter each. "If a Hero Turns to Dark" was its title. We were edgy teenagers.

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

Hissssss. Bad question. Shoo. They are all equally important!!

But it's probably TenRose from Doctor Who.

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

One of the very few crossovers I've ever worked on; a crossover fic between Assassin's Creed and Doctor Who, that I have mapped out in both chronological and timeline order, and yes, those are different. I only ever wrote about a quarter of it, since my primary audience of it disappeared when we graduated. I doubt I'll ever pick it back up properly, and if I do it'll probably go through heavy rewrites first since it's so old. Finishing it is a nice thought, but realistically, after 9 years it'll never be high priority enough for it to actually happen.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue, especially arguments, and emotional impact. I've been told I do really well making characters feel alive and believable! Also I like to believe I'm decent at setting a scene and giving it the vibe I want it to have!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I struggle with dialogue tags when nothing much is happening besides the talking. I always feel it's too bland, and fall back on the same phrases. My scene transitions could use some work too.

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

I've done this with Japanese phrases, because I was a massive weeb. Usually I followed them up with their own translations, though; I'm not the biggest fan of footnote translations, unless they are properly linked to. Simple dialogue tags are my favourite way of indicating a language switch.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Black Cat the Manga/Anime! It's a series about an assassin turned bounty hunter trying to live a life separate from his murdery past, but getting dragged back into things by still wanting to avenge his best friend's death. The series has a special place in my heart and my bookshelf, it left an imprint on 13-year-old me that will never leave.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Probably Jailbreak, uncharacteristically enough! It's one of the only fics I never got stuck in once. Writing it was a great feeling from start to finish. I love writing all of my fics, but that was a special few days.

Tagging @ahrva @nowhere-to-go-but-down @silvercaptain24 and @aeghina! And anyone who wants to do it, really, go wild

[satancopilotsmytardis]

Unapologetic displays of public affection 🥰

Shigarki not realising it’s probably not appropriate to make out with his lover in the middle of a battle, or hugging Dabi from behind whilst he’s cooking <3

No | rather not | I dunno | I guess | Sure | Yes | FUCK yes | Oh god you don’t even know |

*sighing deeply* this one doesn't have any porn, but it did make my brain go AWOOGA

Dabi could have fucking never guessed how pathetic he really was. Not until he started dating Shigaraki. Not until he found out that the other man is apparently just as touch and affection-starved as he was and as soon as he determined Dabi wouldn't set him on fire, he decided that it was fair game to touch him at every possible second. Dabi doesn't know how the fuck the heroes haven't pegged that they're dating yet, but apparently the two of them holding hands on a raid got spun into some sob story saying that he was being coerced into villainy, Duster clearly restraining him with his deadly quirk. But no. He's not. It's just so embarrassing that he wants Tomura's love and affection at every single second of the day, and apparently he cannot draw a line between that and working. Not when it feels so good to have, when it makes him work harder, do more, and... makes him happier. It makes him so much happier that it's humiliating. When he has to go more than a day or two without seeing Tomura anymore as he gets deeper into the doc's treatments, he feels his mood plummet, and it's noticeable enough the others commented on it too. Shig hadn't even blinked, had been more than happy to leave him a bunch of little recordings of him saying the sweetest things for him, wore a hoodie everywhere outside of meetings before he left so that Dabi could wear it and be enveloped with his scent, and had gotten him a large soft moth plush with red eyes that he could snuggle up to when he was in bed alone until he came back. He's been alone for years and it's pathetic how much having all of these things affects him, but he doesn't care anymore. He's been denied things that feel good for over a decade and he is taking what he wants now. 

And what he wants, and what Tomura wants when he comes back after four days away, is to be cuddled up as close as possible for as long as they can stand to be. But unfortunately, they are in charge of an army, and they have fucking work to do. So they have to wait to be cozy and cuddled in their bed. 

That does not stop Dabi from immediately getting into his lap and wrapping his arms around his middle as Tomura's hand rests on his knee and his waist to keep him steady and close as everyone settles in for the meeting. Dabi tucks his head against his shoulder, only peeking out enough to see the notes and files open on Tomura's laptop. Everyone files in and sits down, and Shigaraki clicks over to the agenda. 

"Trumpet, you said that you had some new information about the manifesto and our public approval ratings?" 

"I do--" He clears his throat slightly, looking a little pink. "Is that entirely appropriate?" 

"Is what appropriate?" 

"I just mean," he backtracks, "Wouldn't you like to sit in a chair, Dabi?" 

"What? No. If I wanted to sit in my chair then I would have done it already. Is your brain leaking today?" 

He doesn't really get why Compress is sighing so heavily or why Toga is giggling, but Trumpet, at least, stops being stupid and just gets on with the rest of the meeting. Things are slow-going, but it's still a good meeting overall, because once he's finished with his update, Dabi catches one of his lover's hands in his own and threads as many of their fingers together as he can safely. And Tomura kisses his temple with a promise of even more affection when they're alone. Pathetic how perfect every scrap of it makes him feel.

[aerodaltonimperial]

Listen, Imma be real with y'all for a second.

In 2022, the Chrono Cross remaster came out for PS4. And that summer, I wrote a 50k epic about my two favorites from twenty years ago and dropped it on a long-dead fandom for an absolute rarepair. It was one of the most ridiculous, fruitless things I've ever written. I knew very few people would read it. I think I never got more than 50 hits on it. I did it anyway, because it was fun and I had a great time and I knew it was good. And then I got into wrestling, so I sort of never looked back at it, because I was writing other things.

I cannot tell you how many times I have opened up my AO3 account in the past... 6 months or so, and thought, so, people were only my friends while I was writing what they wanted, huh? I stopped writing this, and people just fled? I have opened up my old Hookhausen fics and sat with one finger hovering over the delete button so many times, because if that's all people cared about from me, I was gonna nuke it out of spite. I'm not necessarily proud of it, but it's felt awful this past half a year writing in such a bubble, and as my therapist can attest to, when I feel hurt, I lash out to hurt other people in turn. Vamp is the only reason I won't do it. But it's been so hard being plunged back into writing alone after so long of people caring what I was doing. It felt like writing that CC fic again, only this time, I knew that people had simply lost interest. In me as a person, really.

Fic is the only place I feel worth anything as a writer. Years of failure, and fandom is my only source of positive feelings about my own words and my own work. It's hard to lose that, especially in the wake of giving up a decade-long dream. It's HARD to lose the only thing keeping you going with a hobby, and I'll be the first to admit that I haven't been handling it well. I used fandom interaction on my fic to help fill all the pieces left exposed and smarting from failing at trad pub over and over and over. It's not a bad thing to do, really - a lot of writers suggest doing this, to help build motivation and confidence while trying to get published. But it only works when there are people there to read your fic, haha. Fandom, for me, has been contributing to my depression symptoms big time. At one point, my therapist suggested maybe I should step out of fandom and fic writing, because it was spiraling my mental health. And to have him tell me that, after our years together, really opened my eyes to how bad it had gotten for me in regards to my self-worth and self-confidence.

I got a comment on that CC fic this morning. It happens so rarely that it really caught me off-guard, but it was one of the nicest things ever, and I sat reading it thinking... okay. This is worth it, isn't it? That fic has been there for years, garnering so little attention it wouldn't have mattered if I had deleted it. I was reminded this morning that it does matter. That single comment on an obscure fandom that peaked twenty years ago and still never had many people in it, made me feel like spending my time in fandom is still something worth doing. I can't thank that reader enough for taking the time to leave it for me. If you ever think that your interaction with people's work doesn't matter, I hope this helps you feel differently. Maybe people aren't reading your fics right now, but maybe they'll find a fic you poured your heart and soul into a couple of years later.

Not sure why I am posting this LOL. I expect people will unfollow me. Sometimes, I feel like I can't talk about these things without seeming like a bitch, but y'all already know I'm a bitch anyway. 🤣 We write fic because we love it, because we adore the source material, because we have passion for the characters. But we post because we want to share and connect with people. It just feels so much like that second part has somehow gotten lost recently. Anyway. Back to your regularly scheduled Tumblr lives. 💚

[duhragonball]

Enter the Casinoverse: Why I Don't Like Multiverse Stuff.

I probably should be resting instead of writing, or at least writing stuff that actually counts towards my writing goals, but dammit, this is how I relax, and I finally found a way to tackle this topic properly.

Over the last decade or so, I've come to loathe all the multiverse fare in pop culture. This is probably because it's gotten so overexposed in media, but also because comic books were running it into the ground well before I was born. When I actually got into comics in the 90s, a lot of the older fans used to pine for the "good old days" when DC had a multiverse, and everybody was constantly teaming up with their Golden Age self to fight their Evil Universe self. DC keeps teasing bringing the Multiverse back, and sometimes they even go through with it, but it's like they can never get it quite right or something, but they refuse to just commit to anything, and that's one reason I don't read DC comics anymore.

These days the Marvel Cinematic Universe keeps horsing around with the idea, and even using "Multiverse" in one of the movie titles. I haven't watched the Dr. Strange movies, but my idea of a good Dr. Strange story is Doc traveling through a dimension that looks like a Salvador Dali painting, battling Lovecraftian horrors by uttering spells that rhyme. Then he goes home to hang out with Namor and the Incredible Hulk, and Queen's "It's a Kind of Magic" is playing the entire time. But sure, have Benedict Cumberbatch screw around with AU Reed Richards and revisit some of the dirt-worst Scarlet Witch stories ever written, all for the sake of setting up Phase Five. Sounds good.

Here's the problem: The whole premise of a multiverse story is that none of it matters, because somewhere out there is another set of universes where everything turned out differently. There's a DC direct-to-home-video cartoon about this, where the Justice League battles their Evil Counterparts, and the Evil Batman is named Owlman. His plan is to destroy the entire multiverse, including himself, because he he's a nihilist. Faced with an infinite reality where every possible decision has already been made somewhere else, he wants to blow up the entire thing, because that's the only choice that can actually matter.

I like Owlman's speech, but he's a dope. Batman stops him before he can go through with his plan, but it still doesn't matter, because even if it worked, there would still be an alternate reality where Owlman didn't destroy the multiverse. At best, he can only wipe out parts of it, because it goes on forever. Owlman believes there's some "Prime" universe from which all the others originated, but he has no way to know for sure. I guess he doesn't need to actually be capable of destroying reality to be a good villain. His frustration and willingness to try is sufficient.

Nevertheless, the multiverse concept is deceptive because it seems to raise the stakes. Instead of fighting for one world, the good guys have to fight for many worlds! What could be better? But ultimately it lowers the stakes by presenting too many shortcuts and loopholes. Instead of defending one home which is precious and irreplaceable, the heroes have to live with the knowledge that there are infinite copies, and they could just as easily switch over to one of them when things go wrong. Instead of getting to know other characters with diverse backgrounds and histories, they wind up bonding with alternate versions of themselves.

I'm trying to be careful here because I've heard the Spider-Verse movies are quite good, but I haven't seen them yet so I can't comment on how they might have gotten the formula right. My best guess is that they focus on very different versions of Spider-Man. Miles is different from Peter who is different from Miguel, etc. They seem more like the Green Lantern Corps than a multiverse concept. A fraternity of superheroes with the same powers, that just happens to be operating across multiple Earths instead of outer space. "No Way Home" went the opposite direction, with three Peter Parkers all being amazed that they each had an Uncle Ben who told them about great responsibility, like this is some big revelation.

The multiverse premise also suggests a broader canvas for greater creativity, but in practice it always seems to mean repeating the same ideas over and over. Hence the Council of Cross-Time Kangs, or the Flash teaming up with himself to fight... himself. Or the MCU revealing that Dr. Doom will be played by the same guy who already featured heavily in nine of their previous movies. You'd think an infinitude of universes would open the door for all sorts of bizarre ideas, but instead they just use it to bring back dead characters like Loki, so he can join the Time Variance Authority, which in the comics was a bureaucratic organization made up of identical men who all looked like Marvel Comics editor Mark Gruenwald. Loki's job in the TVA was apparently to apprehend... another Loki. Brilliant.

I'm not saying these projects can't be successful, or even well-told. Again, a lot of people were high on the Spider-Verse stuff, and it looks pretty cool. I need to check it out. But I've seen lots and lots of stories that get it wrong, or use it as a crutch, or present it like some novel concept that hasn't already been going on for decades. The TV show "Sliders" aired from 1995 to 2000, and its opening credits had to explain the premise, probably because general audiences weren't familiar with the concept. That was a quarter-century ago. And I got bored with "Sliders" after the first season.

You might be wondering how Multiverse Stuff is different from Alternate Timeline Stuff. And you're right, the two ideas tend to blend together a lot. My personal definition is that an Alternate Timeline depends on some sort of time anomaly or time travel to exist. For example, in "Back to the Future II", Old Biff goes back from 2015 to 1955 and gives his younger self the sports almanac. This creates the "Hell Valley" timeline where 1985 Biff is rich and powerful. When Doc and Marty go to 1955 and destroy the almanac, the "Hell Valley" timeline is prevented and it no longer exists.

By contrast, the parallel worlds seen in "Sliders" or DC's multiverse appeared to be permanent fixtures. They may have been spawned by decisions made in some "prime" reality, but they couldn't be un-made like "Hell Valley". DC's Earth-2 was a place you could just go to whenever you wanted, but "Hell Valley" only existed for as long as the future almanac was in the past.

This was something I liked a lot about Terminator 5. It had its problems, but the movie's premise was kind of fun for a fourth sequel to a time travel movie. Both sides of the conflict have been using time travel to win their war, but there's only one world, so all of the characters remember events from timelines that no longer exist because of all the tampering. They each have ideas about what was supposed to happen, but all bets seem to be off.

So, with all that said, let me talk about the 1995 film "Casino". It's based on real world events involving the Chicago Outfit's skimming operation in 1970's Las Vegas. The names were changed for the movie, and some events are retooled to work better for the movie, but I started reading the book this was all based on, and it's interesting to me how closely the movie matches up so far.

The story is the same, though. I'll stick to the movie version, since I know it better. The mob installs a trusted bookie (Sam "Ace" Rothstein, played by Robert DeNiro) to run their casino, the Tangiers. Ace's job is to run a tight ship and make the casino as profitable as possible, so the Outfit can send a guy into the casino's count room every month to steal a bunch of money. The "skim" is a bit more complicated than this, from what I understand, but the point is to avoid paying taxes on the profits. A made man, Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci), is sent to Vegas to protect the Outfit's investment.

But by the early 80's the whole operation goes wrong. The FBI uncovers the skim. Ace screws up his marriage and career because he's too stubborn to compromise and too greedy to cut his losses. Nicky defies the Chicago Outfit by trying to become his own boss in Vegas, and the Outfit fails to deal with any of these issues until it's too late. I guess you could call it a tragedy, in the sense that everyone is brought down by the same brutal and venal talents that made them successful in the first place.

What makes the movie so awesome is how inevitable this is. There is no Plan B for any of the characters. Ace's wife Ginger (Sharon Stone) tries to find a way out of her abusive marriage, but every path leads to her demise. Nicky screws up so badly that he can't even go near Las Vegas by the end of the movie. He thinks he still has prospects in the mob, but instead he gets executed for all the trouble he caused for the bosses. Ace gets so focused on running the Tangiers that he loses sight of what he's really there to do: Supporting the skim operation. He survives the events of the movie and ends up living in San Diego, but he'll never again be the big shot he was in Vegas.

The point I'm trying to make here is that there isn't a "Las Vegas 2" these characters can go to and start over. This is their big opportunity in life, the only one they'll ever get, and they all blow it. And it's not just one or two big mistakes that bring it all crashing down. It's lots of little blunders and unforced errors that happen over the course of the movie. It's a beautiful thing, because when you rewatch the film, you realize just how many chances they had to save the thing, and they kept zigging when they needed to zag.

For example, let's talk about Joe Bob Briggs. The host of TNT Monstervision got a small part in "Casino" as this Nevadan Slot Manager named Don Ward. I'm not even sure what his job was in the movie, except to watch the slot machines and make sure his area was clean. Ace says he had to hire Don Ward because his cousin-in-law Pat Webb is the county commissioner, and they need support from local officials like Webb to maintain the mob's control of the Tangiers.

Later in the movie, Ace fires Don Ward for general incompetence. It's not clear what Don did wrong, but someone won a bunch of money on his slots, so Ace is sure there was cheating going on, since the odds of winning that big are astronomical. Don was either stupid enough to let it happen, or he was in cahoots with the cheaters, so either way, Ace wants him out. This upsets Pat Webb, who tries to talk Ace into hiring Don back as a personal favor. But Ace refuses to budge.

And this is a big mistake, because throughout the whole movie, Ace has been running the casino without a gaming license, and relying on a loophole that lets him do the job as long as his application is still pending. Before, everyone was willing to look the other way, but now that Ace has angered the county commissioner who handles those applications, Pat Webb fast tracks the application and it gets denied, making Ace's position even more tenuous.

And from there Ace becomes more worried about vindication and getting his license than his actual job: Supporting the skim. If he had just kept Don Ward on the payroll, and tolerated his incompetence, then maybe things could have been different. Maybe some of the other dominoes in the movie wouldn't have fallen. But he made his choices and the movie played out the way it did.

So when you watch the movie, it's tempting to play What If and imagine things going a different way. This is what Multiverse stories try to do all the time. Ace Rothstein meets his AU counterpart who still runs the Tangiers and patched things up with Ginger and Nicky. Then they team up to fight an Ace who ratted everyone out to the FBI, which I guess is just Lefty Rosenthal, the real life guy Ace Rothstein was based on.

The problem is that the alternate scenarios don't make sense. Multiverse stories love to present ideas like "What if the Nazi's won World War II?" but they neglect to consider whether such a scenario is even possible. The whole "infinite worlds from infinite choices" concept presumes that every scenario is equally possible. The Nazis didn't win World War II, and they probably never really had much of a chance, since their strategies usually involved taking badly needed oil resources from countries they hadn't finished invading. It's more complicated than that, sure, but when you learn more about the war, you begin to realize just how steep the odds were for Nazi Germany.

But I didn't want to get into all that historical analysis, which is why I'm talking about the movie "Casino". Joe Bob Briggs' role in the movie is a little easier to discuss. What if Ace rehired him? Ace wouldn't re-hire him, though. He was too stubborn and arrogant to go back on his decision. Pat Webb warned him of the consequences, but he stuck to his guns. Whatever money loss Don Ward caused for the Casino was surely a pittance compared to the eventual loss of the entire skim operation, but Ace couldn't see it that way.

Well what if he could see it that way? What if hats were ants? Look, if you rewrite the story where Ace Rothstein always does the most logical thing, he never would have gone to Vegas in the first place. He never would have gotten involved with organized crime in the first place. He wouldn't have been a bookie in the first place. He would have become an accountant or something.

Or take Nicky Santoro for example. He got too big for his britches and started doing mafia stuff in Las Vegas because no one else was doing it, so he had no competition. Great, except the reason for that was because the Outfit purposely suppressed that kind of crime in Vegas in order to encourage tourism. More tourists means more gambling, which makes the casino more profitable and the skim even greater. Everyone wins, as long as Nicky stays quiet and does his actual job: Protecting the skim.

But Nicky couldn't do that, because he was too ambitious and aggressive to just sit around waiting to respond to trouble. And all the bosses were 1700 miles away, so he could start robbing jewelry stores and hotel rooms and dating Ginger behind Sam's back without any consequences. Well what if he just... didn't do all that? What if he stopped and realized how badly that would mess things up? Because if he didn't make those kinds of mistakes, he wouldn't be Nicky Santoro! That's why!

The simple fact is that Nicky is a violent, ambitious man. When he wants something, he takes it. That's the character. He can be reasoned with, but only to a certain extent. Early in the film, he shakes down bookies for money. Later in the film, he tries the same thing with an investment banker, as if that's the same thing. To him it is, because he thinks he's invincible, but to the rest of the world, its ridiculous. The bookies can't stop him because no one in law enforcement would care if they got whacked, but an investment banker can go to the authorities. There is no alternate universe where Nicky Santoro is a chill guy who only does bad things when his superiors tell him to. Because that guy wouldn't be cut out for the mafia in the first place.

This is why alternate timeline concepts work better, because there has to be an inciting incident that creates them. Trunks goes back in time and warns Goku about the androids and the heart virus, so now we have a timeline where Goku lives and one where he died. And we don't have to trouble ourselves with 500 other universes where Goku doesn't like to fight, or 37 realities where Goku is a porn star, or that one AU where he got the bit role in "Casino" instead of Joe Bob Briggs.

This is why I got sick of "Sliders" back in the 90s, because they would find themselves in an alternate universe where women overthrew the patriarchy, or the British won the Revolutionary War, but they would never adequately explain how those things happened. The one where the women run everything was especially insulting, because one of the characters reads a history book and explains that the women just got fed up one day and took over. Like, that's it. It's that simple. It's the most interesting aspect of the show and they don't even bother with it. If it was a time travel story, then you'd have to show a character going back in time and actually doing something to cause history to change, and then explain why that one change worked.

This is why "Back to the Future II" works, because it's simple enough to understand that if 1955 Biff knows the outcome of every sports event for the next fifty years, he can win big by placing bets with bookies, like the Earth-7 Ace Rothstein, who never went to Las Vegas and became a bookie in Hill Valley instead. It's the same Biff, with the same wants and desires and flaws, but now he has an advantage that he didn't have before, and we can see the character taken to the logical extreme.

I suppose this is the gripe I have with that animated movie version of Owlman, becuse it's kind of silly that an ominverse-killing nihilist just happens to still be similar enough to Batman that he throws knives and ropes and such, and he dresses up in a Batman costume even though he's supposed to look like an owl. It would all work a lot better if he was just a whole new character without any ties to Batman at all.

I don't really have a neat little conclusion to put on this. Studios are probably going to keep milking mutliverse fare until it stops making money. The idea will never entirely go away. It's not the worst thing in the world or anything like that, but I do sort of wish everyone else was getting just as bored with it as I am, so that we could move on to some other cliche, like boat chases, or sexy assassins.

And this is where it's nice to just write my own stuff, because at least I can make my own stories where the Time Patrol doesn't get bogged down with Goku-on-Goku action.

[crusherthedoctor]

It's really sad how people keep going after your group just because you defend yourselves

Apparently, the statements "I'm generally content with the quality of my personal stories" and "I spot many issues with this comic" justify getting spammed with graphic death threats and ableist insults

Yet it's insisted that you're the ones who are too harsh? It's straight up unfair.

Who would have thought that a group of people might occasionally get upset after being crucified and ridiculed by countless strangers?

Funny how they NEVER have a justification beyond "well shut up no one wants to hear you"

Somehow, it's always YOUR fault that a part of the fandom goes rabid whenever someone doesn't conform to the current "right" opinion, and YOU'RE to blame for THEIR ungodly behavior. That doesn't make any sense, does it?

This fandom is vain and abhorrent to the nth degree and y'all deserve better. That's all I wanted to say.

Par for the course, innit. They'll lash out at us. They'll hand out death threats. They'll make disgusting ableist comments about my autism, and similarly terrible comments towards my friends. They'll threaten to bomb SEGA HQ and stick Iizuka's head on a pike, among other wild declarations of violence. But don't you dare make a goofy meme about Surge not living up to her hype. And whatever you do, don't even think about criticising the unprofessional antics of the IDW crew. What are you, a monster?

They dismiss us as insignificant one minute, then fearmonger so hard that they see fit to give us a boogeyman-esque moniker the next. I'd be surprised if they could walk in a straight line without contradicting themselves.

As for "You talk so much about your fics!" ...No shit. I'm a guy with a blog. This isn't a movie production with a budget, I don't have a team or advertisements backing me up. And unlike fanartists, I don't have my own art to catch people's attention. I kind of have to talk about my writing in order to get it out there and inform people of its existence, and while I try not to sound too much like an unskippable YouTube ad, what else am I supposed to do? Upload them silently and then never refer to them again? How is showing passion for my work any different from official creators showing passion for theirs? Just because fanfic tends to get less attention on here than fanart doesn't mean it's not worth sharing, do they want fandom to flourish or not?

When I compare my work to a certain comic, I do it to highlight the dissonance. If fanfic writers - plural, not just myself - can understand the importance of keeping the characters recognizable, and making the universe faithful despite any necessary differences, then what excuse do official writers who have been involved with the series for over a decade have? If someone who doesn't even love Sonic that much compared to other characters, finds him annoying and unfunny half the time (no, not just in the Pontaff games, in general), and even finds it a pain in the ass to write for him at times and has more fun writing other characters because of this, can still attempt to write what made him appeal to fans... why do writers who supposedly love him so much keep fumbling so hard with him?

I compare for the sake of highlighting why these off-kilter portrayals are so easy to spot. If Sonic Twitter only gets "He's just stroking his own dick" from all of that, then they haven't been paying attention.

The most ironic thing about it all is that they've only gotten more vitriolic as most of us have mostly moved on from the height of IDW discourse (cause the comic goes in circles at this point, and is very likely to be running on fumes due to IDW's financial troubles, so there's no point). Yeah, I'll still criticise it now and then, and make a meme on occasion, but I rarely make lengthy ted talks about it or participate in ongoing Lanolin Is A Bitch/Silver Is Uwu-ified/Whisper Is Trauma Bait/etc back and forths anymore, because it's just tiring now. And since most current Sonic stuff has been putting me off in general, combined with growing fatigue and frustration at not being able to criticise certain games without people waving the finger at me (especially SA2, since the Year of Shadow has made it the center of attention yet again...), I've took a step back from intense Sonic discussion to focus on Stellar, as well as other fandom projects, like my recent brainstorming for Paper Mario or: How I Learned To Insert Eggman and Love The Vivian™.

In no way can you say I've been up in their faces as of recent. Yet they continue to cry otherwise, because they want people like me gone completely.

[quarantineddreamer]

Answer the Questions and Tag 5 Fanfic Authors

thanks for the tag @andorerso 💕

1. How did you get into writing fanfiction?

it started in elementary school with a fixation on the Red Wall series lol--i would just write random little in-universe stories for myself. I didn't start actively sharing/posting in fandom until the pandemic 😅

2. How many fandoms have you written in?

uhhhh like 3 actually posted/shared. probably more than I can count random scribbles elsewhere

3. How many years have you been writing fanfiction?

probably almost 15 years at this point?

4. Do you read or write more fanfiction?

i go through phases, but mostly I write more than read--because I get BIG TIME imposter's syndrome when reading other authors' works. (it's a problem, i know gah)

5. What is one way you’ve improved as a writer?

Uhhh. I mean, with my brain fog and everything I actually feel like I have gotten worse if I'm being honest, but I think I've gotten better at thinking through character motivation--at least, I think on it a lot when I'm writing

6. What’s the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

for the roadtrip AU I constantly have a map of scotland pulled up lol. there's more math involved in this than there ought to be 🥲

7. What’s your favorite type of comment to receive on your work?

ANY. No seriously, comments make the world go round.

8. What’s the most fringe trope/topic you write about?

Mmmm I can't think of any at the moment

9. What is the hardest type of story for you to write?

SMUT. Still haven't finished my smut prompt for rcsmutmonth. between imposter's syndrome and just general brain struggle it's on the backburner for now--ah well

10. What is the easiest type?

Mmm angst. One-shots. (I love a simple getting together fic)

11. Where do you do your writing? What platform? When?

God, don't hate me but Google docs. I do want to try another platform, but I've been lazy about just diving in. (Also, money).

12. What is something you’ve been too nervous/intimidated to write, but would love to write one day?

I'm just focused on finishing part 2 for Umbra at this point. I'm in my head. One day at a time.

(Non-fanfic related? My biggest goal in life is still to write my original story that's been rotting in my head for over a decade).

13. What made you choose your username?

I started back on tumblr during the pandemic during quarantine--I still dream about writing a novel idk it seemed easy to go back to when I decided to become of a more multi-fandom blog

no pressure tags for: @fireflaked @dilf-din @frostbitepandaaaaa @astromechs @chipthekeeper

[vmures]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

I got tagged by the delightful @mirrorthoughts 💜💜💜 Thank you for the tag!

How many works do you have on ao3?

13 at the moment

What's your total ao3 word count?

218,148 words (mostly thanks to one very long fic, lol)

What fandoms do you write for?

Currently Teen Wolf and 9-1-1. I am noodling a few ideas for Stranger Things. I've also written Buffy the Vampire Slayer stuff, mostly crossovers in the past, but haven't gotten around to importing them to ao3. They can be found on Twisting the Hellmouth under the same user name as ao3 (vMures)

Top five fics by kudos:

Hanging On (You're All That's Left to Hold On To)

A Hallowed Pack

A Change of Luck

A Merry War

Finding Home

All Teen Wolf fics, mostly Steter with one Sterek fic in the mix. 😄

Do you respond to comments?

I certainly always try to.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I'm a happily ever after sort of writer generally, so none of my fics have very angsty endings. Just not the sort of thing I tend to write.

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

They all have happy endings so far. Not sure I could pick which one has the happiest ending.

Do you get hate on fics?

Not usually, at least not on ao3. Worst comments I've gotten have been on fanfiction.net and I have been ignoring those for decades at this point. I think I don't get much hate on ao3 in large part because I don't allow anonymous comments on my work and people are less likely to leave hate comments when they have to do it with their official account. I've gotten a few odd comments, some weird nitpicky ones, and some demanding ones from time to time. I always try to respond politely to those, but sometimes get a bit snarky.

Do you write smut?

Not as of yet. But I may some day try my hand at it. No promises though. lol

Craziest crossover:

I once wrote a crossover between Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Harry Potter, and X-Men (it can be found on Twisting the Hellmouth).

On ao3, my only crossover so far is a Teen Wolf/Harry Potter crossover: A Hallowed Pack

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Someone just asked if they could translate Midnight Rain into Russian, so that will be my first fic translated into another language.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not really

All time favourite ship?

Cannot pick favorites for the life of me. In Teen Wolf, I love Steter, Sterek, Stetopher, Stargent, Steterek, Dargent, Detergent (Derek/Chris/Peter), and so many more combinations of my favorite characters. lol Stranger Things I read mostly Steddie and Ronance, but am open to quite a few other pairings.

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

Yep, my one unfinished WIP Buffy/Stargate crossover, The Road Not Taken. After a decade of agonizing over whether or not to mark it abandoned and give myself grace for not finishing it, I finally did so. Part of me still would love to finish it, but I lost the notes I had on it and doubt I'll ever find the desire to rebuild the story and figure out where I had wanted it to go.

What are your writing strengths?

I'm pretty good at writing natural sounding dialogue and proud of that fact.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I have been called a wordy bitch or told my writing is very dense. So that could be considered a weakness. Otherwise, I'd say writing action scenes and making sure the actions make sense and flow properly.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

As long as there's a translation somewhere, I don't mind. Sometimes it is effective to include.

First fandom you wrote in?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Favorite fic you've written?

Oh man, this is a particularly hard question. I love A Merry War a lot, but ultimately my absolute favorite so far is Hanging On (You're All That's Left to Hold On To). That fic is my baby. Took me two years to finish and I poured a lot of my heart and soul into it.

Once again I've hit the tagging portion of the tag game and drawn an absolute blank on who to tag. So consider yourself tagged if you want to play along! 💜💜💜

[peridotglimmer]

For the there was only one bed prompts: 13 for False and Cleo?

schaumi you have blessed me with this prompt, i love it so much. this uh turned out a lot longer than expected. count on me to suddenly write 1K of fluff. have some fluff featuring a pining idiot cleo. content warning for alcohol consumption. rated t due to cleo's vocabulary.

"I can take the floor?" "No it's alright, besides it's big enough for the both of us."

Suite Night

"Ugh." Cleo sighed, following False into the hotel suite. "I love X, but next time he and Keralis fall ill he can get someone else to fill in for him." She dropped her suitcase near the door. There was probably a stand somewhere, the hotel had four stars after all, but she couldn't be bothered. False chuckled.

"It's not that bad. The representatives weren't too bad this year!" She stretched, and her powder blue dress shirt came free from the waistband of her skirt, exposing the slightest strip of her bare abdomen. Cleo raised an eyebrow.

"We're we talking to the same idiots?" They walked up to False and pressed the back of their hand to the other woman's forehead. "You haven't got a fever, so you're not delirious. I counted three separate comments on your breasts, one on my arse, four zombie racists, and I stopped tallying the amount of times I got misgendered after seven." False's shoulders and face dropped, and Cleo immediately felt like biting her own tongue off.

"I really am sorry about that, Cleo. The sponsors, they're old money. Stuck in their ways."

"Even super glue has a solvent," Cleo muttered. They sighed. "Thank you for correcting them when I got tired of it, I do appreciate it." Smiling, False replied: "You're welcome."

"Well then." Cleo awkwardly cleared her throat. "I'm about ready to tear this penguin suit off and sleep for twelve glorious, uninterrupted hours before this circus starts all over again."

"Hm, I could go for a shower before bed." False was already digging through her duffel bag and retrieving various items.

"You do that; I'll order us something to drink and to snack on and pick a bed." Cleo grinned, already on their way to the phone.

"I'll take an ice cold white wine," False decided. "I won't be long." Cleo nodded, and False disappeared into the bathroom. It was a decently large suite, with a seating area with a tv and a dining table with room for two. The entire hotel was booked, with all servers looking to find sponsors for the new season. Xisuma had gotten lucky when he booked that there was a suite available at all.

The receptionist had a pleasant voice and took Cleo's order of a chilled bottle of white and a variety of charcuterie, put it on Mr Void's invoice. If Cleo was stuck here playing lust object for old white men, she was at least getting some decadent snacks out of it. The kitchen informed her they would bring it up to them within fifteen minutes, which would be just long enough for Cleo to choose the bed they wanted. Grabbing their suitcase, they walked over to the ensuite.

"Oh crap."

There was only one, king-sized bed.

Fuck! Xisuma had booked the room for himself and Keralis, of course they wouldn't want separate beds! No-one had thought of that when she and False had rushed to the event in their place this morning. Now what?

Cleo wasn't sure how long she had been standing in the doorway, but suddenly she heard False's voice behind her: "Claimed the nicest bed for yourself yet?"

"Uh. About that." Cleo stepped aside, trying not to stare at False as she entered the room clad only in an oversized tee.

"Oh." False bit her lip. "Guess this was booked for our lovebirds, huh?" She walked up to the bed and picked a rose petal off of the sheets.

"Yeah, but it's fine. I can sleep on the floor!" Cleo blurted out. They ran a hand through their hair. "I'm sure I can ask for a cot or an extra mattress or something. It's fine!" Her voice had gone up an entire octave as she spoke.

"Don't be ridiculous, Cleo." False turned to face her. "It's more than big enough for the both of us. I don't mind sharing." Suddenly, her voice got quieter. "... unless you do? Mind?"

"No, not at all!" Cleo really needed to get their volume and pitch under control. "We can-- yeah, we can share!" False yawned.

"Great. Then I vote for wine in bed, because I'm going to have to wear heels for at least five hours tomorrow as well as dance in them, and I want to get my feet up for as long as I possibly can in advance." A knock sounded at the door. Room service! "I'll go get the door so you can change. Just yell when you're ready, yeah?" Cleo nodded wordlessly.

As Cleo opened their suitcase, they cursed quietly. Out of all things she could have grabbed to wear to bed, why did it have to be an old tee and baggy shorts? She had blindly taken some things from her wardrobe this morning, and this is what she had ended up with. At least there weren't any holes in them, they supposed. Cleo quickly took off her suit and changed into her nightclothes. She replaced the bandage on her bite with a fresh clean one, and pulled her hair into a ponytail.

"Ready!" they yelled into the general direction of False when they had shoved their suitcase under the bed and had gathered the rose petals into a small pile on one of the nightstands. The blonde quickly reappeared in the bedroom, carefully carrying a tray with Cleo's order on it.

"Great choices," False commented as she placed the tray on the foot of the bed. "This looks amazing. Got a preference for a side?" She motioned at the bed.

"I prefer to be furthest from the windows," Cleo admitted. "Sunlight's not deadly, but it's not comfortable either."

"You got it!" False elegantly climbed into the far side of the bed, taking care not to kick their wine or snacks. Once Cleo had gotten in on the other side, False admitted: "I do feel bad for Xisuma and Keralis. This was supposed to be their date night, I guess."

"We'll have to make sure we enjoy it on their behalf then," Cleo replied without thinking. When they realised what they had just said, they stammered: "I mean, uh..." False smiled and handed her a glass of wine.

"I think I get what you mean. Cheers." As their glasses touched, False pressed a kiss to Cleo's cheek. "Out of all the Hermits I could be sharing a bed with right now, I'm happy it's you."

"Yeah..." Cleo fell quiet and quickly took a sip of their wine. False grabbed the remote control from her nightstand.

"Wanna watch some bad late-night TV?" Cleo breathed a sigh of relief.

"Sounds good to me." False smiled, and Cleo had to remind herself to breathe. As the noise of some random talkshow filled the room, False shifted closer to her so she could grab a piece of cheese. Their thighs touched, sending electricity down Cleo's spine. They tried to stay calm as False nestled herself against their side, her head resting against their chest. If she noticed how fast Cleo's heart was beating, she didn't say a thing.

"Glad it's you," False repeated, already beginning to sound sleepy.

"Me too," Cleo replied this time. "Me too."

[dredgenvale]

relatively long rant about destiny, bungie, and player sentiment. no salt here. not towards the game at least. just the community.

i read the state of the game update. it made me really fucking excited and optimistic for what's coming next with destiny. turns out that's not the majority opinion and most people are just. so salty and so angry over things that i genuinely don't see as a problem. moreover, i often don't even understand why it's such a perceived problem in the first place. i mean, i'm usually the first to call out greedy developers. i've watched james stephanie sterling's videos for at least half a decade now. (kinda off topic but when we were both pre-transition and when i was like 14 i had sent them an email about how they helped us a lot with body image and they sent a really sweet reply even though i was the most awkward of awkward autistic kids)

point being - i fucking HATE greedy AAA game companies. and now bungie is being accused of the same practices for [checks notes] updating the game at their own pace and telling the stories that they want to tell? it's bullshit. sure, the eververse isn't perfect. sure, there are definitely some fucky monetization practices. i'd definitely prefer if the whole silver system was done away with entirely. but is it as bad as with activision? FUCK no. i saw a comment a bit ago saying 'the biggest trick bungie ever pulled was convincing us activision was the problem'. haven't been able to get that outta my head cause of how little sense it makes. as far as i can tell, nothing's really changed with destiny other than the price of seasons going up like 5 bucks with lightfall. would you rather have a price increase and keep buying ala carte, or pay like 40 bucks monthly like with other live service games?

bungie is still a big gaming company, definitely still have Opinions about those. but (knock on fucking wood) i haven't heard any of the horror stories i usually hear from those, ubisoft for example. bungie seems to genuinely care about the game experience. why else would they go independent again when they were making assloads of money with activision?

anyway. kind of rambling at this point. i guess my main point is that i have no clue what's gotten the d2 community all worked up recently when as far as i can tell nothing's really changed.

[serendertothesquad]

Seren's Studies: Odd Squad UK -- "Strictly Odd Dancing" Episode Followup, Part 1

Never in a million years would I have guessed this title was a reference to a show. Specifically, the everlasting, why-the-fuck-has-this-gone-on-for-over-two-decades Dancing with the Stars, or its UK equivalent Strictly Come Dancing.

However, if others' opinions about this episode are any indication...that might be the only good thing about it. I'm terrified.

Let's go below the break and pray and pray hard like the priest is watching.

(Just as a beginning note, though: I do love Captain O's singsong when she reads the title. Nice touch for a musical episode.)

Yep...that's what I dreaded. It was either gonna be an Omar joint or a Rob joint, and I was half-right.

Now I know exactly why people think this episode is bad, and I haven't even gotten five seconds into it yet.

This "thinking out loud" thing really wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for there being too much of an echo. How high are this thing's ceilings?

You laugh, but in America, if this guy were an A-list celebrity, he could, and would, get his own talk show.

Ohhhh bless this man and his delusions of grandeur.

As well as his sheer inability to lift this very tiny sofa.

Then again, he's pushing down on it, so...opposite force.

"I can't believe we're still stuck on this case."

"Orli, we're halfway through the season."

"...Pardon my language, but FUCK."

*long slow wheeze*

Oh God...this is what they choose to use as a framing device? This literal humor??? GTFOH. You could have done better, Omar.

"we've tried everything to get it off"

uses a fucking spatula

Now if this were a cartoon, they could use a jackha- *bonk*

...Oh. That's an agent with hair that looks like Omar's when Omar Khan is writing this episode.

I feel like that really can't be a coincidence. Lest we forget there was a writer with the first name of "Olaf" that wrote an episode. (Or at least I think it was Olaf. Could have been someone else, but I distinctly remember noting the similarity.)

Good thing he's got quick feet, or else Orli would be scraping the skin off his face.

"We used to be a little 'meh' about music."

I see a comment about a Season 2, Season 3, and/or Season 4 soundtrack from the crew somehow got into the script.

flashback time!

no wavy effect

Omar, what the FUCK. YOU HAD ONE JOB DUDE.

...Oh. I was actually expecting it to be a guy. It being a woman surprised me!

SKIPPING OVER THE WHOLE DAMN FREUDIAN EXCUSE MOTIVE RANT LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Once I was potty-trained..."

Close enough. Welcome back, 2014 toilet humor.

You know what would really spice up this woman?

A kill count.

A person killed by singing and dancing themselves to death would give her a very nice wake-up call.

"Our gadgets can't reverse the Music Maestro's power."

Out of TEN THOUSAND GADGETS, not ONE has been made to deal with villains who have forced-dance powers?

So they just have to...find her and bring her back?

Sounds stupid. Sounds forced.

See, this is what the wavy flashback effect is good for. Helps to differentiate between past and present.

Just slapping the usual logo transition on there does SHIT.

"What made it worse was that we had never solved a case at that point."

Meta self-awareness in the form of "of course not, we've never seen you before", thy name is Omar Khan.

YEEEEEEEEEEEAH GET SUITE PRECURE ON THAT BITCH.

4 minutes in and we get the first song.

And I mean...mm...it's all right, I guess. But mostly I'm just thinking that there are better ways to do an 11-minute musical episode for this franchise.

"Is this a clue?"

"It's a napkin!"

"Why is this job so hard?"

Ladies and gents, I think we have a winner for "does Omar have any siblings?" And I am talking about the agent, mind, not the writer.

"The Music Maestro is so confident we won't catch her, she's giving us a clue!"

WHAT IS THIS LINE AND WHY THE F U C K DOES IT MAKE NO FUCKING SENSE. IF YOU GIVE THEM A CLUE OF C O U R S E THEY'RE GONNA CATCH YOU BITCH. DO YOU KNOW WHAT SHOW YOU ARE IN??????????????

The shitty flashback effects are not helping. For fuck's sake, USE A WAVE. WHY IS THIS SO HARD???????

They're bringing Ozzie into the story???

Man...man, c'mon. Can't you just make it about Ostin and his partner? Must you include Ozzie, protagonist status be damned?

Funny how last episode we had an idiot woman and a smart guy, and now we're going back to basics with an idiot boy and a smart girl.

...Huh. Y'all were right. The song is trash, and I hate it, and I'm really hating this episode just as much as I was unsure of it when I read the synopsis.

"Prepare for defeat, Odd Squad!"

"Yeah, okay, sure. How'd you get this number?"

"J- i- never mind. Just...never mind! Ugh!"

"Are you calling just to taunt us?"

"Yes. I believe I am!"

...Okay, that got a small chuckle. But it was a mournful chuckle that says this exchange belongs in a much better episode.

Once again, meta self-awareness, thy name is Omar Khan.

(On to Part 2!)

[dalesramblingsblog]

Now I don't want to seem too sour on The Time of the Doctor... even if one might argue that taking a break from the arc for two and a half years was a mistake I think that there's some very nice emotional moments.

Do you think that it was consciously being the opposite to The End of Time, in 11 accepting his fate and saying how it's natural? As I know that 10's last words and his angsting about how regeneration is death... well, they haven't exactly been popular and all the other New Who Doctors have taken regeneration much better.

I'll be honest, this is one thing I've never really understood about the fan reaction to The End of Time. The done thing seems to be to read it as Davies crying about how the big meanie Moffat is gonna come along and take away his precious Doctor Who by casting some nobody called Matt Smith in the role, and I just... I'm so tired.

(Not saying it's done by you in particular, mind, as usual I'm just kind of using a point in our conversations to springboard into talking about generalised fan reactions.)

Even as someone who generally prefers Moffat's handling of the mythologisation of the Doctor, I've never gotten the impression that Davies ever intended a lot of the hubris of the Tenth Doctor to be taken remotely seriously, and the fact that so many fans opt to do so and present it as evidence that the era uncritically embraces "The Doctor as God" or whatever.

Do I think that the Doctor occasionally exerts a little too much gravity over the narrative in the Davies Era? Absolutely. But realistically, it's not too much more gravity than they exert in basically every other era of the programme by sheer dint of the fact that the show is named Doctor Who.

Moreover, Davies' musings on "regeneration as death" are not really too dissimilar from points made by Kate Orman in The Room With No Doors about a decade earlier. Those Davies-esque distinctions which do exist come about mainly as concessions to the fact that where Orman was writing the functionally-penultimate novel in a line of books which had garnered a small yet passionate cult following only to be smothered by the BBC once they realised just how profitable this whole Doctor Who thing might actually still be, The End of Time came at a point where Doctor Who was a legitimate cultural behemoth.

And while one might be tempted to write off any suggestion that that behemoth status was attained by elements specific elements to Davies as auteurish hubris of the worst kind... it's not an entirely incorrect judgement.

Obviously Doctor Who survived without Russell T. Davies; the fact that we're still here nearly fourteen years later talking about it as a regularly airing television programme - a gap almost as long as the Wilderness Years themselves, mind - proves as much.

(The unjustifiably snarky comment to make here would be that we're doing so barely two weeks removed from a return by Davies to the position of showrunner, but that runs the risk of being rather uncharitable to both Moffat and, yes, Chibnall.)

Indeed, Doctor Who continued to be enormously popular without Russell T. Davies, and eventually managed to be enormously popular without Matt Smith, even if we had to take the long way round - sorry - by suffering through a good decade's worth of "Here's why Kill the Moon/Hell Bent (reader's choice) is the worst episode evar!!!1" takes.

While I do think it's certainly possible that Moffat could have, somewhere along the line, decided to structure The Time of the Doctor as a response to The End of Time - Hell Bent loudly rejecting the climax of the episode that serves as the absolute zenith of Doctor Who's cultural relevance within the United Kingdom certainly proves he's not above a bit of friendly nose-tweaking of the Davies years' "greatest hits" - however, I think that belies the frankly far more interesting way in which it serves to pay off themes that were baked into the Eleventh Doctor's characterisation ever since The Eleventh Hour.

Hell, it really pays off themes that have been evident in Moffat's wider oeuvre since at least Joking Apart, in its focus upon deeply flawed men who really could do with learning not to consistently disappoint and fail the women in their lives.

(And yes, here's the point where I note that this is just as reductive a reading as boiling down Moffat's use of gender - which certainly has its flaws, don't get me wrong - to "Oh he's a raging misogynist who despises women and gets high off his own cleverness." So I mean, if this post happens to reach that side of Tumblr, hello, how're you doing?)

Anyway, this all kind of gets at what I was talking about last time, where modern Doctor Who fans really seem to desire a very rigid and auteurish brand of showrunning, to the point of treating each showrunner as if they're a League team with their own set of rivalries, as opposed to three guys who seem to be on basically good terms with one another on account of having come up through pretty much the exact same wave of fandom.

And it is, I think, a little silly.

[zonkutonshorrifyingpeenie]

20 Questions For Fic Writers

tagged in by the lovely @borealopelta thanks bb! <3 <3

How many works do you have on AO3?

9

What's your total AO3 word count?

23,958

What fandoms do you write for?

i've primarily written for powerwolf with my extremely-specific-furry-au, but I've also written for AFK arena, fnaf, and there's a couple bakugan ones that I want to try and get back to working on as well, or indeed, working on writing in general ;A;

Top five fics by kudos?

Light's On - fnaf sb - 81 kudos

Reunions Sacrifice - afk arena - 60 kudos

A Were's First - powerwolf - 25 kudos

It's 3am... - powerwolf - 16 kudos

Charles' Nightmare - powerwolf - 11 kudos

Do you respond to comments?

If I actively remember to, yes.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Definitely A Were's Last, which was almost exclusively written to induce tears in... two people at most lol

sometimes you just gotta write non-canon no-point angst shit ya feel?

What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Honestly, I haven't written many if any explictly happy fic endings, they seem to lean more melancholic most of the time which definitely doesn't say anything about my mental state what are you talking about

but, Sleeping On Your Alpha Can Be Something That's Very Personal, Actually and It's 3am... would probably count as at least my least sad fic ends

Do you get hate on fics?

Thankfully no. but some of my fic-connected posting has certainly garnered some strangely passionate responses.

Do you write smut?

Yep

Craziest crossover?

None of my fics are crossovers

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge, and if they're desperate enough to steal from me, I think I'd feel sorry for them

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not explictly, no. The closest I've gotten to anything like co-writing has been like... a couple of discord fic-lore convos that turned into semi-writings and also all that rp shit i did over a decade ago.

All time favorite ship

I don't exactly have a metric for rating any of my ships above the other, they all grab me by the throat in differing ways

though, by genre at least, i do gravitate towards gay old men, so, take that as you will

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

Buddy I could just list my entire writing folder here and I doubt I would actually be exaggerating T-T

The mental illness has gripped me far too hard the last few years...

But, there's always hope, right?

What are your writing strengths?

environment descriptions and turn-of-phrase, I suppose. I like to think I'm fairly ok at getting a general vibe across in the... 12 paragraphs before i get to even a speck of dialogue lol

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

My monolingual ass could never. I'd be too afraid of fucking it up

First fandom you wrote in?

the first thing i remember writing for was fuckn like... an mmo game. i think it was the Sacred one when that was around... i think??

but that was purely written in random linebook when i was a child and didn't understand the concept of fanfiction yet

the first thing i POSTED anywhere was probably bakugan or homestuck. I genuinely can't recall exact order, but I do know for certain fact that I worked on this one bakugan fic for far FAR too long during highschool recess and lunch breaks

Favorite fic you've written?

In terms of published, definitely AWF, my beloved domestic furry au that is definitely not semi-dead-in-the-water-it's-fine ignore my tears

unpublished, there's certainly a few that I'm having a very pleasant and fun time with writing, even if the going is very slow.

If you were forced to write only one genre for the rest of your life (like James Patterson lol) what would you want it to be?

Probably Fantasy or Mythology, lot of wiggle-room within that, and I tend to lean more fantastical in my worlds and such anyhow.

I'm gonna tag in @deerfests I reckon! And open-invite ofr anyone else that wants to hop in as well!

[kiragecko]

20 Questions for Fic Writers Tag Game

@zahri-melitor didn't tag me, but did leave it open to followers.

1. how many works do you have on AO3?

17. There's still a few on ffnet I haven't moved over, but they're ROUGH.

2. what's your total AO3 word count?

27,088. Fifteen hundred words per fic seems about right - I generally like 'em to have 2 scenes.

3. what fandoms do you write for?

X-Men and Batfamily.

4. what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Shirt Off Your Back - aka, the one where all the stuff I'm really proud of showed up by accident while I was trying to find a way to end it. I did good, it deserves the kudos.

Ives Adapts - love this weird little fic. It's obvious that it's a Tumblr thing - as much a list as it is a story. Which is what I love about it! And I thought 'the world needs more Ives' and then DID something about it! Good job, me.

Kon Is Loyal - hehe! This one is silly and fun. I don't do silly and fun that much. I'm glad I did.

Terms of Use - this is the far too personal one where I'm working through multiple things at once. The fic on this list I'm the most proud of.

Presents - not quite the same fic as Shirt of Your Back, but they're of a pair. I enjoy how clever Damian thinks he's being. Yes, yes, Damian, you're so smart!

(Also known as 5/6 of my Batfamiliy fic, and all the fic I've written in the last 5 years.)

5. do you respond to comments?

Yeah. I missed one, didn't notice it until 2 years later, and it STILL annoys me. Maybe I'll eventually thank them for their emoji a decade after they sent it, or something. I LIKE talking about my fic!

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

It's called Fighting Fire with Kindling, and it's Not Good. Probably won't move it to AO3, even when ffnet dies. Trying to figure out why romance made me feel the way it did led to some weird fic.

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

Is It Really True? - which is a Rumpelstiltskin retelling is pretty straightforwardly happy at the end?

Most of my fic are more HOPEFUL than happy.

8. do you get hate on fics?

No. Well, maybe? I think I remember deleting something, once. It didn't leave a lasting mark. I've gotten hate on COMMENTS before, though.

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

No. Back in 2005 I was writing a lot about infidelity and unhealthy relationships, but ... actual sex scenes??? It took me a decade just to build up a tolerance for READING (or skimming) them!

10. do you write crossovers?

No. It's all about the relationships. Crossovers make it harder to focus on the relationships I'm in the fandom for.

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

No. I wouldn't notice.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No. I am NOT popular.

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

Closest I've gotten is beta-ing. Team projects were the hardest part of school.

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

Probably Wolverine/Mariko Yashida/Jean Grey but not poly? Like, it WAS Wolverine/Jean Grey, and then she died, and then it was Wolverine/Mariko, but now Jean is back and Wolverine still loves her and they're all trying to co-parent their kid(s) but none of them are poly and it's complicated.

I cared about this one a LOT when I was 20. Almost entirely for the angst, but I'm taking what I can get. I'm way to aroace for most shipping to register.

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

This Tim Recovers in Smallville fic. Possibly with some fake dating that stays very very fake? Like, I don't want to write it, but I REALLY want it to exist.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Outsider perspectives. Respecting abnormal thought processes and perspectives. Controlling pacing and indicating voice through sentence structure.

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

I started my fandom experience in barely-post-90s X-Men. Phonetic accents and illogically inserted random words from foreign languages are charming to me. Reading 80s/90s Wolverine as a Canadian makes me giggle.

It's also usually classist and often xenophobic. Always othering. In any fandom other than X-Men, phonetic accents and inserted foreign words bother me.

Have yet to see a form of other-language dialogue with translation that both flows smoothly and works with screen-readers.

Untranslated foreign-language dialogue works if I'm supposed to feel like an outsider, or like I'm missing something.

I prefer it translated into English, with narration telling me what language it is ... okay, that is a lie. I prefer every language to get their own special quote marks. I think that's REALLY fun. Especially if we can get some telepathy in there as well. I was reading X-fic in the early 2000s, I can't be expected to have good taste!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

As stated, X-Men. Learned a lot, then took a decade long break for my mental health. Now I can write without worsening my depression!

20. Favourite fic you've written?

Either Terms of Use (which is actually good) or Sometimes It's Hard to Think. I wrote the second one when I was a baby fan, and it was fun! I also love my self-insert character. She is SO different from who I am now. Everyone should write self-inserts - it's fascinating to go back and see insight into your past self-image.

If you want to (mostly so you can remind me of fic to reread 😉): @whetstonefires, @galaxystew, @alarajrogers, @incogneat-oh, @angel-gidget, @tabithian

[taliah-tezel]

Location: Taliah's Home. Mentions/Tags: Kaan (her father), Ayda ( her mom), Lousie (her father's girlfriend), Serkan (her Uncle), @colemonroe, @emiri-tezel, the club in general. Triggers: talks about death, grief, trauma. Summary: Taliah's father finally returns 'home' from business after months. He hasn't been home in almost an entire year and so, they have a lot to catch up on. Fatherly concern, decade-old confessions, emotional speeches and hope for the future.

"Well, better late than never." Taliah shrugs from her seat on the couch, staring at the presents now placed on the coffee table. They were supposed to be exchanged at Christmas, but at the last minute, her father had cancelled his trip and had only just gotten around to visiting. Still, it was a happy occasion, she loved to catch up whenever he came back and this time, she felt as though she had so much that was positive to tell him.

At least half an hour had gone by, she'd told him all about how her new role at the fire station was going, everything about July 4th, right down to running in and saving her friend's child. That earned a solid look of concern that was completely warranted, but she wouldn't let it take away from the fact she got lucky and actually saved a child's life. Taliah spared her father the details of her breakdown and chose to only tell him that she had been attending therapy sessions for a while now. She wasn't ashamed by it, why should she be? It takes strength to admit when you need help. That much she knew was true.

"That's all wonderful, kızım," [my daughter,] "I can see the difference in you. You look happier." Kaan nods, smiling warmly over at her. "I am happier." Taliah agrees, able to feel the difference in how she was just a few months ago. She hadn't got around to talking to him about Cole yet, saving that for last only because she knew she'd talk the most about that topic. "How long are you staying? I have the day off on Thursday. I can cook dinner, you me and Cole? It'll be nice." At least, it sounded nice in her imagination. "And Louise?" He says, causing Taliah to shuffle her shoulders in mild discomfort. "I didn't know you brought her with you." An honest comment and one that actually tracked because when he did come back here, she usually stayed in whatever luxurious all inclusive resort they'd been residing in. "She's my partner, Tali, I'd really like you two to share more than a couple of words. So, sure, I think dinner together sounds like a wonderful idea, give us all a chance to chat. You'd like her if you just give her a real chance." He speaks convincingly, and all Taliah can do is respond with a tight smile and enough grace to say "okay." Even if she didn't believe it for a second.

"It's long overdue, and I would like to catch up, especially since I haven't had the chance since you and Cole became an item." Nodding, he tried his best to smile but Taliah knew him well enough to see that something was off. "... Yeah," she mumbled. Before she could ask, he was already making an additional comment that had her mouth popping open. "I lost the bet," sighing, he leans forward to place his cup down. "Serkan and I, outside of the clubs bet, we had a foolish one between the two of us that we shook on maybe 5 or so years ago now. He bet $100 that you and Cole would get together in the next ten years. I bet that you wouldn't, I thought the two of you would just remain friends." Chuckling slightly, Taliah couldn't help but crinkle her nose a little, though she wasn't surprised there was yet another bet that happened in regards to them.

"Um, well yeah, we were friends. You know he's always been my closest friend, that hasn't changed." Even now they were in a relationship, it hadn't changed the fact that Cole was still her best friend, he always would be. "I'm a little surprised, actually, you're the first person to say they didn't see it coming a mile away." She comments, watching curiously as he shakes his head as if to suggest she's wrong. "I could see what everyone else did, I just never thought you'd act on it. The years had gone by and I guess I just assumed you were looking for someone... you know, different." Still with a polite smile, he hadn't meant any offence, but Taliah couldn't help but feel like he wasn't as happy for her as everyone else was.

"Different?" Scratching a little at her head, she shrugs her shoulders. "To be factual, I wasn't looking for anyone, period. If I was, maybe I'd have noticed what everyone else did a lot sooner, but, different?" Frowning, she shakes her head firmly. "No. He's always been everything I needed, you know how he treats me, you have seen how he cares." The way Taliah had always turned to Cole first, above everyone, her father knew the pair of them were bonded from the first time they met. "Oh, I know that, Taliah. I don't mean it the wrong way, Cole is a great man." Kaan nods, knowing it to be true, at least regarding his daughter. How could he ever forget how he sacrificed his freedom to protect her?

"He is a great man. So why is your face doing that thing it does when you're not being honest." Taliah folded her arms, finding herself just a little defensive and confused. "If you have something to say, dad, just say it." Adapting a firmer tone, she couldn't stand people who beat around the bush - whatever he was thinking? She wanted him to spit it out. Kaan sighed, knowing that tone all too well, remembering how his wife, her mother, had the exact same one whenever she got irate. "My sweet girl, I'm not saying I'm not happy for you, I am. But... As a father, I think there's a part of me that hoped that if you found someone to share your life with, it would be someone... Normal." His eyes partially squeezed shut as soon as the words came out, knowing that he hadn't really explained that the way he intended.

"Normal?" Taliah was taken aback by everything he said, but nothing stuck out to her more than that word. "Normal..." she repeated, leaning back in the chair. She knew what he meant by it, he was inadvertently saying that he wasn't thrilled that she'd chosen to share her life with someone belonging to the club. "Normal doesn't equal safe." Tilting her head to the side, a look of distant thought there in her eyes. "I thought Callum was normal. Look where that got me." Brown eyes watch as her father practically grimaces at the spoken name. "I understand why you would have your reservations as a father, but I think you're out of line. Cole, the club as a whole... They took us in like family, you know them. You know what they'd do to protect those they care about."

"I know, I know... It's just a worry, the things they do, the dangers, I can't handle the thought of you getting wrapped up in something because of how they live their lives. That's not me judging any of them, sweetheart, it's just my instinct to be concerned for you." Grappling with his own thoughts, he was trying his best to articulate exactly what he wanted to say, but he could see from the look on her face she was far from impressed. "Bullshit." Taliah scoffs. "I'm a grown woman now, I don't need your concern. Where were these instincts when I was 16? You moved us here to be with Serkan, you knew that meant the club too. You can't...." Pausing, she can't help but blow out a half breath, half laugh of pure disbelief. "You can't decide to be worried now, when that worry wasn't enough then to keep us at home and a world away from them all." Home being Turkey, that was. "What absolute bullshit, honestly." Pressing a thumb and finger over her eyes, she needed to take a minute, a breath. How could her father rain on her parade this way? Why couldn't he just be as happy for her as everyone else who loved her was?

"That's not fair, Taliah." Grumbling at her sees to her hand moving away from her face, eyes widened with surprise. "Oh, it's not fair, well fuck me, guess I didn't realise it wasn't fair. Must run in the family." Biting at him before she could even keep up with what was coming out her mouth, she would be lying if she didn't regret it. Not that it showed on her stubborn features and folded arms. "Meaning?" He asks, and she knew to expect that he would. "Meaning," a pause, a deep breath as she makes some attempt to form the words and do so carefully. Her intention was not to hurt him, but she felt so defensive right now that it was difficult to really articulate. "Was it fair for me when you uprooted us from home and brought us here? You needed your brother, don't think I don't understand that. It was just hard for me, I don't think you ever really thought about that." A slow shrug, she can see the wheels of confusion turning inside his head. "I wanted a new start for us, I..." He stops, not even knowing how to proceed, but luckily, she did. "You wanted to run away from your pain. Like I said, I understand. I never protested, but that doesn't mean I wanted the same. I just kept quiet because I knew it was what you needed, and I thought if it helped you, then it was worth it." Taliah admits. "But I was so... Isolated. We left behind everything. Everyone. All my friends, all the things that I was using to help me, it was gone, and we were here. Strange town, full of people who talked so fast I couldn't keep up. Because maybe you forgot, but I didn't have the world experience you did, nor the ability to be as fluent in this language as you were. Emiri tried her best, Serkan too, and so did Cole, but it didn't change the fact that for a long time, I didn't want to be here, I wanted to go home, and you didn't see me enough to notice."

"You never said..." His voice was quiet and his face, a vision of guilt he had never registered before. "You never asked." Taliah says, pulling in another deep breath. "Me, Serkan, the club, we made sure you kept your head above water because that's what you needed. It was Cole who did that for me, he didn't talk at me, he talked to me, with patience and kindness that helped me feel like I wasn't so alone. That's what helped me see that the entire club was doing their best to invite us into their world, into their family." Sitting forward, Taliah holds his gaze just so she can be sure he's listening. "I'm not trying to make you feel guilty... And I don't blame you, not for any of it. I just don't think you've ever let yourself think about how your decisions impacted me. The club saved your life and they certainly saved mine. So you can take your normal, and shove it. I don't need normal. I need them. I need Cole. They're my family."

"I know they are. Taliah! You've misunderstood what I was trying to say." Frustrated, he drags a hand over his face and lowers his head. Everything she'd just let spill out needed time to process. The fact she was right about it all only made him feel more ashamed than he already did. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I did that to you. I... had no idea you felt so unhappy about the move. I thought it was what we both wanted. I didn't want to be there without..." He stops, even now, finding difficulty in talking about her mom. "And I just assumed you felt the same." His eyes are stung with tears, and Taliah can't help but feel bad about the way this all came tumbling out. "Dad, I don't need you to be sorry, I never did. I'm just trying to explain, because I think you need the reminder that the people you're worried about me being around are the same people you propelled me into as a teenager. The same people who helped us when they didn't have to. The dangers now were the same then, the only difference is I'm an adult now. I can decide for myself whether they're risks I want to take, and much like you, I've chosen to take them, with the knowledge that they're completely worth it. They're built differently, you know they are. Every one of those men would shield you from harm, every one of them, I could leave my drink with and know I'm not going to get spiked. They are good men at their core and I know now that being here, with them, with Cole, it's where I belong. So you can give your blessing or refuse it, your opinion really doesn't influence how I feel." Nodding her head firmly, she has to swallow the lump in her throat that threatens to show how shaken she is by her confessions. She doesn't want to crumble, she needs to be strong because this was the truth; it was her truth.

Her dad was silent for what felt like minutes, in reality, it was probably just a few seconds. "Serkan was the best man I ever knew, and back then, I didn't know what it meant for him to be a Son's founder. I knew a little, and suspected a lot, but what I knew in my heart was that he was a good man. It didn't take me long to see that the people he was surrounded by were just as good. So yes, Taliah, you have my blessing, of course you do. Maybe you forget that I too, have watched Cole grow up. And what he did for you back then, with no thought for his own consequences, it gets my highest respect. Anyone who would give up their freedom to protect my daughter is worthy of my daughter. I don't need you to tell me he's good at his heart, I can see it." Kaan breathes out slowly, keeping his eyes on his intertwined hands. "I've let you down more than I realised... And Cole never has. That's what you're telling me, isn't it?" He glances his eyes up at her with a gentle, sad yet knowing smile. "Not in such a black and white way, but yeah, I guess that's what I'm saying." Taliah whispers, not feeling great about knowing she's basically pushed her father down and gave him a kick for good measure. "You weren't the same after mom, but you did your best. You did what you had to, to survive. That's why I don't need you to be sorry. No regrets now, it worked out. I love this town now and I couldn't see myself anywhere else. The decision you made back then gave me everything I have now." Offering a smile, she feels a lot calmer now, but also incredibly sad.

"I'm still your father, I'll worry about your safety even if you were in an empty room. I really wish I could have been better for you, Tali. I'll be eternally sorry that I wasn't. More sorry for all the misery I caused you without noticing. I'm... glad you had people to help you when I couldn't." He nods, shifting in his seat. "I guess I've never shown it the way you needed me to, but you are my entire world, my child, and I'm so proud of you. I love you, Taliah, and I'm very pleased to hear that you're happier than you've been in a long time. That's all I've ever wanted for you, is for you to be happy." He stands up, gesturing for her to do the same, and she does. "I'm in town for another couple of weeks. I'd like to spend most of it with you, if that's okay? Cole too." Opening his arms out, Taliah nods silently and walks in for a hug, finally choking on the breath she was trying to steady. "I'd like that." She mumbles, for all the raw truth that had been voiced, she also felt like this was something that needed to happen, perhaps now, they could understand each other better. "I'll see when Cole is free for dinner here one night. You... can bring Louise. I don't like her, dad, but I'll be civil, only because you clearly do." Even though Taliah thought Louise only wanted him for his money, she could try to be nice. "Well, don't strain yourself too hard," he jokes, leaning in to kiss her forehead. "I do appreciate the effort to be civil. Now, can I just clarify that you mean you'll be civil in the universal sense, or civil in Taliah sense?" He teases, already to Taliah's huffy annoyance as she gives him a shove. "Be grateful I'm even using the word civil!" Frowning, they held eye contact for a couple of seconds before bursting into a laugh that felt a lot like healing. Maybe, just maybe, they were going to be just fine now.