#and all the comments indicate

[not-poignant]

If you’re still taking these, 17 and 20 for falling falling stars? Love your writing so much — was just rereading FFS and feeling all the feels

17. What was the hardest scene to write?

The logistics of the Forest scene in general took me a long time to think over even though those chapters came out very quickly.

The timing had to be just right, and there were different moving parts. I needed to logistically get Efnisien away from Arden in a kink club, which Arden wouldn't do if there were any practicing people around, and I needed to get someone from the class into that space, I needed to get Augus into that space, I needed to get Efnisien out of an extremely crowded space, there was just a lot of like...moving pawns on a chess board mentally like, you go here, he stays there, you go over there, now you come in this room, you come in this room, you leave this room, you stay in this room, he goes into that room, he goes over there - and so on.

And that's fiddly when I also need to punch up the whole emotion and mood of the scene, which is high fear, high humiliation, high terror, high embarrassment, high pain, high self-hatred etc. So it's not just a logistical nightmare, it's also like...one where everything has to make sense while also narrating in a choppier way, because Efnisien stops noticing as much when he's terrified.

I also really struggled with writing the end, which is why it basically has three epilogues, lmao.

20. What is something you wish more people noticed about this fic?

This one...I don't have any wishes for, people notice what they need to notice. For some it's Kadek, for some it's Arden and Efnisien, for some it's Efnisien and Dr Gary, for some it's different when rereading, for some it's everything, like...

Overall, there's nothing I wish people noticed. I actually think my life would be very unsatisfying as a writer if I constantly wished people noticed things different to what they were noticing in a fic. This is a really interesting question because if a writer feels they can answer this for every fic they've written, they might actually want to look at their writing technique, because it kind of loosely indicates they can't gently nudge the reader into noticing what they should be noticing. And that's a skill thing more than it is a reader thing, imho. That's just my thoughts! Like if it happens once or twice, okay, but if a person can really think of something for every single fic, they need to keep writing and keep polishing up.

~

From this meme!

[rickybaby]

Team DR3 is no different from the dirlies (gn)

[muninnhuginn]

You know what's gonna kill me when we get the inevitable Lu Guang flashbacks?

The fact he's always described as "mature" as his post-dive self implies he must be different now than before. It's hard to imagine exactly what his personality was like before, and if it's written well, he shouldn't be completely unrecognisable. But we know he's been changed.

Imagine a first timeline where Lu Guang just follows along with Cheng Xiaoshi, no attempts to reign him in whatsover. Cheng Xiaoshi having the opportunity to come up with more of his complicated tricks but channelling it into lower stakes stuff like pranks and Lu Guang actually enabling him in that and having fun with it. Imagine tragedy striking when Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi are both allowing themselves to be genuinely happy, no facades.

We know that Cheng Xiaoshi used to put on a brave face in light of his parents' disappearances and what that meant for how he was treated and what he was missing out on. But we also know that Qiao Ling and Lu Guang together have been able to lift that into something more genuine. Imagine a world where Cheng Xiaoshi was able to do the same for Lu Guang. Where they both mutually brought that light into the other's life.

It's still true to some extent in the current worldline, but it's complicated by Lu Guang's own actions. Lu Guang can never be fully honest with Cheng Xiaoshi without (in his mind) losing him forever. But he has to stick by his side in order to have any chance in his hopeless quest. And so, he must distance himself in other ways, protect Cheng Xiaoshi, enforce the rules. Swallow the guilt. It leads to a more lopsided relationship, one where one side is always hiding something from the other and refuses to open up themselves. A relationship that in the original timeline must have been more equal, as partners.

There's something that's been lost here, and it's not just the original Cheng Xiaoshi.

[bedlamsbard]

I have been dealing with how much some people hate Gambit for TEN YEARS and one of these days (not today) I am finally going to snap and pull this story. TEN YEARS. TEN HUMAN YEARS.

[robinsversion]

The most ironic thing to come out of having not one but multiple of my posts about the James Somerton situation that’s been blowing up over the past couple weeks, is people plagiarizing the additional commentary I put in the tags of those posts ON THE SAME FUCKING POSTS THEYRE USING THOSE TAGS ON

[megamindsecretlair]

how do i get added to your tag list?

Ahh, thank you so much for being interested!

To be added to any of my taglists, make sure you confirm that youre 18+ by telling me or its in your bio. You can DM me, send me an ask, or comment/reblog on the fandoms you want to be included in.

I *usually* automatically tag ppl who comment or reblog with comments or tags because likes dont let me know if you want more or wanna be tagged in it. Reblogging it without comments lets me know you're supportive but not if its okay to tag you for more.

I got anxiety okay 😭 if yall only knew how much strength it takes to tag ppl out the blue 😭🤣🤣🤣

You can also use this post to tell me which fandoms you want me to tag you in. 🖤🖤

[frankenfossil]

Oh! I nearly forgot, but can I ask the significance of this panel?

It comes directly after Dee explains that he can’t come and see her from the future whenever he wants. (Which is one of my favorite moments where Dee’s true eldritch horror leaks in to the story), so I assume it’s… sort of a metaphor? How Emily finds herself at the foot of something she realizes is much, much bigger than she contemplated before?

(Also, I just wanted to compliment you for this panel)

(The first time I saw it, I imagined Dee was showing her this on purpose, time traveling from sometime the same day to really show her what it would be like. An object lesson.

The second time I saw it, I started to wonder

Because Dee himself doesn’t really look aware of what is going on behind him.

And maybe, just maybe, this one moment in time has become the only moment that Dee allows himself to come back to to see Emily, the one moment where he can get lost in the crowd with every other time he came back to look. The one moment where he’s explaining why he can’t come back.

Just… Makes me sad, and I wanted to say thank you for that too, because I love these characters and the story they tell, the sweet and bitter.)

Oh!!!

(Quick test of my ability to find which chapter stuff happens in)

I love your reading of that Uluru panel!! I think I probably didn’t intend anything that deep with it; these time skip montage style chapters are pretty choppy and I’m usually trying to figure out a way to touch on all these brief scenes or moments that I don’t want to spend a whole chapter on for whatever reason, and arrange them in a way where the cuts aren’t too hideously abrupt. For visual reasons I try to contrast different locations and not put 2 dialogue heavy moments directly next to each other. Mood wise, I don’t really want to cut from something serious and angsty to something that’s a complete backflip on that. I also sometimes just feel like drawing a nice landscape and hope it achieves my aims on these fronts haha.

I think also here I was trying to move from that final sentence, “The present is more than enough”, to demonstrating them appreciating having that present together - being able to go do cool and enriching stuff, something not completely mundane but not completely fantastical either. (I mean... sightseeing within your own country is extremely normal, but going to Uluru from Melbourne... not a convenient day trip, since it’s 2000km; 25 hour solid driving, or you can fly in a few hours but I think you have to go via Sydney, so that makes it take at least twice as long I guess. Not that it's specified how long they're there for. I haven’t been myself but I’d love to one day...)

So, yeah!! More of a mechanical/compositional rationale than an intentional metaphor, but I think your reading makes complete sense and actually improves the page! (Sometimes I do intend visual metaphors... but sometimes they’re just happy accidents.)

And thanks for the compliment re the crowd of Dees!! I also love the moments I can lean into his eldritch qualities... they’re sadly few and far between but maybe that helps them be more surprising?? Definitely your first reading was what I intended, that he zigzagged back pretty quickly, probably even from within the conversation, but there is an inherent ambiguity to Dee’s time travelling where unless I take pains to spell it out, there really is no way to know when he’s come from. Even if he can be assumed to be taking every interaction chronologically, there’s no knowing how much time has passed for him between each visit. I don’t even know how to estimate how long his experience of time is, when he’s zigzagging back so densely all the time; even the number of living things on Earth any moment is an incomprehensibly mind-boggling number. That eldritch horror again!

Truth be told I hadn’t thought of him coming back to this moment and blending in with the crowd for the rest of the future ;_; but that’s so real... he could well be, the sad sack...

I had a different sillier thought from slightly misreading your question on first pass, which is that maybe he doesn’t originally know what’s going on behind him, but then later on as he’s just going about his business he goes “oh I know exactly how to punctuate that thing I said earlier!!!” and then does it as an afterthought. Oh to have the ability to add the things you wish you’d said to an earlier conversation 😂

[lavenoon]

“Your kindness is imprinted upon us. You are entirely brave and brimming with love when there is fear and malice roaming this world. We profoundly care for you, sweet heart.”

@naffeclipse CAN YOU HEAR ME SCREAMING?

comic callbacks: three names, clever heart, oops trauma

[dear-kumari]

I refreshed my memory of the VLD comics today and … boy, the art was really struggling by the end there, huh? Honestly, the one issue of Voltron Force I read had much higher production value than the last volume of this series.

[unfortunatelyimaginary]

If Marvel tries to make Rio move on to a new relationship (idc if it's comics canon) I am fighting them because I cried over Peggy Carter for YEARS. That's also not comics canon. If Steve Rogers can pine over her to the point of absurdity and breaking the narrative then I don't expect anything less of Rio who's already been pining for like 300 years.

14-year-old me who didn't know she was queer but cried through The First Avenger over and over and felt a stab to the heart with every following reference (Winter Soldier, AoU, early Endgame (didn't like the ending of course), Agent Carter s1) deserves nothing less.

[not-poignant]

Are Sebastian and Alex going to learn about bdsm and safe practices/negotiation? Or do they keep fumbling around and doing what they're doing?

Hi anon,

People who learn about BDSM don't necessarily practice safe practices or negotiation.

And there are elements of negotiation in this story! It's not a black and white 'they're not doing this in a paint-by-numbers sort of way and therefore it doesn't count' situation, y'know?

They are two characters in their mid-20s who live in a tiny town, one of those characters is dyslexic to the point that he can barely read, and the other's method of doing things has worked for him all his life (or so he thinks), they don't have any reason/s to learn about BDSM, and it's not likely that either of them ever will.

That also doesn't mean that they can't enjoy their kinky sex life.

There has been a lot of discussion already, and there will be more and more going forwards. It might not be at the level most people want, but Sebastian has certainly obtained consent (more than once), offered and then insisted on debriefs and post-sex discussion, explained to Alex how to communicate if he hates something, and made it clear that what he likes is unusual and sadistic in nature. It's also clear that Alex likes being pushed, i.e. - not being forced to give consent in every circumstance when someone can take control and give him what he wants anyway. That's actually pretty common in some people with a child abuse background who become people pleasers.

If you want negotiation + safe practices at a certain level, you'd have to completely remake Alex's character into someone who can magically be a functional, communicative, healthy human being, and he's not that. Alex is getting better at communicating (that's how we go this far in the story in the first place), but if you expect this story to end on Alex being a perfect human who can do Instagram-level kink negotiation, then no, this isn't the story you want, anon.

If you look deeper and don't expect cookie cutter kinds of dialogue, there has been ongoing negotiation in the story since the early chapters. When Alex makes it clear through physical response and then verbal that he doesn't like yelling, Sebastian stops yelling. When Sebastian makes it clear that he has complicated feelings about hiring his ex-school bully as a cleaner, Alex makes it clear that he doesn't share those complicated feelings, especially in light of the pay rate. Sebastian consenting to Alex being his cleaner makes it clear that those terms are acceptable to him.

When Alex tries to undervalue himself, Sebastian makes it clear that he's not comfortable paying someone less simply because they value themselves less. When Alex then takes that pay, it's a form of consent to Sebastian's attitudes. Their relationship has been an ongoing negotiation since the beginning, and that's how they've grown closer. If you're used to only looking for very obvious signs of negotiation, it might be easy to miss the non-verbal and subtle forms of negotiation that are happening.

For example, it might not seem like it, but Sebastian - many chapters ago now - talking about how he likes control in the bedroom and that turning Alex on long before they'd ever shared anything sexual together, is a form of communication. Alex learns he likes the idea of it without it ever been forced on him, and Sebastian wouldn't have that conversation with someone he didn't trust (for example, Alex in the beginning of the story). They had to have trust to have that conversation, Alex had to have trust to ask Sebastian questions about it in the oblique way he did, and they had to share a common comfortability have a conversation in that direction in the first place.

In A Stain that Won't Dissolve, these things don't look like a psychologist's version of: 'Okay, what do you want, and this is what I want, and here's where we meet in the middle' - a lot of life doesn't look like this (but if you want that, I've written that in Falling Falling Stars - it still has dubious consent though, lol). Both Alex and Sebastian have poor communication on their side, and it's a growth story for the two of them.

But no, I have no intention of Sebastian ever learning terms like 'subspace' or 'RACK' or anything like that. A lot of people in the world, especially prior to easy access to the internet, figured this stuff out on their own and many of them made it work even without the rigid or codified structures of the world of BDSM (and some of those people went on to invent the world of BDSM that we take for granted today).

It's the kinks that make you kinky, not the knowledge of an acronym or the world it engenders.

There's also no reason to think that Sebastian has access to a healthy education about BDSM there, it's not like Elliott was practicing much healthy BDSM in my other Stardew fic, The Wind that Cuts the Night, :D Elliott knew all about safe practices, negotiation, and BDSM, and chose to ignore a lot of the safe stuff over messing around more dangerously.

The fumbling around is the point, basically. Growing up is messy, and dubious consent is hot (for some of us), and there are many ways we communicate with the people around us, especially when it's two guys in a town the valourises machismo and stoicism over emotional openness, and one of those guys was beaten by his father over not being macho and strong enough which makes him exceptionally resistant to communicating clearly even about basic subjects and needs.

That's the part I actually really love about this story.

[tumblingclockwork]

The ending of ii was really good. Idc. Idc.

[op-sys-chaos]

There's ppl arguing in the comments section of a fic I wrote and I'm like...

Guys.

It's not that deep.

Spoilers ahead for one of my fics

They're arguing over whether or not a character, who is in a bad situation and can't leave it because assassins will try to kill him and his loved ones if he does, should be forcibly taken out of that situation anyway, regardless of his concerns for his loved ones safety and whether or not he feels the bad situation is dangerous.

...THEY'RE GOING TO DEAL WITH THE FUCKING ASSASSINS! OBVIOUSLY!

They're not "overriding his desire to stay away" by taking out the assassins because he only wants to stay away to protect them from the assassins!

They're not "overriding his right to choose if he stays in the bad situation" because once the assassins are gone he can actually pick for himself!

And guess what! He may not even have to pick between which situation to stay with! Because people on both sides of this situation love him and want him to be happy so they'll let him do what he thinks is best! Sure, they might be working to cook up options for him, but that's all they are! Options!

Geez, y'all, I get that this fic isn't 100% lighthearted but it is entirely built on the back of angst-driven shenaniganery. It's not meant to be that deep and it's not meant to cause arguments on the right thing to do when a character is in a bad situation and whether or not you leave them there and how either option could traumatize them!

And besides, there are more than two options! "Forcibly take him, ignoring his wishes to keep us away for everyone's safety" and "leave him alone and never speak to him again" are not the only two options here!

For fucks sake, if it's that deep I'll give you the fucking answers. The people who love him, on both sides, are going to 1) deal with the problem of the assassins and 2) work together to find ways to combine the two halves of his life, assuming he's okay with that, but they're gonna plan it out first so he has pre-prepared options and doesn't have to worry about that aspect unless he doesn't like the given options and wants to make his own. Then he gets to pick his favorite solution and be surrounded by people who love him no matter what he chooses, and guess what, he picks to maximize how many people that is!

So yeah! Not that deep!

Geez y'all.

I get it, this fandom loves talking about complex trauma. And I know this character is neglected. But this fic was not meant to dig that deep into his home life. It was about reconnecting with those he lost and bringing together those he loves on both sides of his life through identity shenanigans. No one's taking the extreme, traumatizing option to fix the problem. They're working together to fix it as a family because that's the theme of the fic. Chill.

[currentlyonstandbi]

until capcom proves me otherwise, this is my interpretation of leon throughout the entire film

[wifegideonnav]

also im literally not starting discourse i don’t care but jesus christ the way that half the aftg fans are acting in the notes of that poll is why i don’t engage with most of the fandom lmao. stop fucking woobifying neil it’s 2024 and it’s WEIRD. he’s not your uwu sunshine bean please for the love of god either engage with the actual character or make an oc to coo over.

[sleepless-in-starbucks]

attempting to convey to my regular ao3 commenters that i recognize and appreciate them by using their username in my reply comments