#and i feel like it improves so much on the original book.. idk...

[r7inyz]

into the pit game is so good i wish fucked up ball pits was real....

[hydn-jpg]

redraw of this piece!! i mentioned in that post that i would redraw it at some point and ig that time is now! (i meant to post this before id2 came out but i got really busy so y'know lol better late than never)

i like to think i've improved! still can't draw chairs though haha

side by side comparison under the cut + rambly artist commentary(?):

i still have a long way to go in learning proper anatomy but i think the new pose looks a lot more natural and comfortable! also ~sexier~ perhaps

i tried to make the bg look closer to the actual cg they used in the book, i am arguably better at doing backgrounds now i think! i used to not put a lot of thought into it and just blocked out random shapes and called it a day (okay, i still do that now lol but i put more care into it now !! i try to make the shapes a bit more distinct and actually plan and sketch it out rather than draw some blobs and hope for the best ldkfkhsl). also more colour range(?) to give it a bit more depth!!)

i'd also like to add that i think i'm also better at figuring out compositions now, idk how it is for y'all but when i look at the original my eyes can't help but just fall to the centre, bc there's no focal point(?) or anything that's visually interesting for the eyes to land on. plus with the way it's structured, my eyes just naturally fall to center (+ bottom half bc the skin showing through the rips are bright in contrast to the black) >_> in contrast, in the redraw your eyes are automatically drawn to the face bc it's arguably the most interesting thing on the canvas and thus acts as the visual anchor of sorts (plus there is enough contrast with the background to make cas stand out instead of blend in)

even though i cringe looking at the og i can't help but to also feel endeared bc this was one of the first immortal desires fanart i ever did and also one the first of my posts to do really well! i never expected to get that much attention since i was only posting casually but it really warmed my heart reading all the lovely comments and motivated to draw more :D

it's also really fun seeing how much my art style and techniques have evolved! i don't think i use any of the same brushes i used to use for my old pieces anymore now haha. i also watched the timelapse for the old one and am honestly kind of in awe at how my different my drawing process used to be!!

i still have a lot to learn (esp in terms of anatomy, lighting, shading etc.) but i'm happy with where i am rn! the great thing about being a hobbyist is that there isn't really any pressure for me to improve quickly so i can just take my time haha (except maybe from imposter syndrome but that's neither here nor there)

i think i could've drawn his face and expression a bit better but i think this is a satisfying enough redraw for now!

btw, these are just my thoughts! i am not an art student so the things i said might not be technically correct but this is how i make sense of things in my brain

[situationsoured]

People keep saying Katniss is like the reincarnation of Sejanus, or even Lucy Gray, which I just don’t think is true. If there’s a character in the movie that reminded me of Katniss it was Reaper from District 11. Both had an advantage in the game from their trades (Katniss was a hunter and Reaper was a lumberjack, I think). Despite this, both chose to ally themselves with young girls (Rue and Dill respectively) over the older, stronger tributes. And they both have to watch this girl die. I saw way more of Katniss in Reaper tearing down the Panem flag to cover his fellow tributes after finding Dill dead than in Sejanus sprinkling breadcrumbs over Marcus.

What this movie made me sure of is that there must have been so many tributes like Reaper and Katniss. While we see some tributes driven to do awful things to survive, we also see so much love and mercy – in Reaper immediately telling Dill to stick with him in the arena, in that little girl taking Lucy’s hand, in Lamina mercy killing Marcus’ and cutting his body down.

I also don’t think Snow felt especially haunted by Lucy Gray in Peeta. While I think the two are a lot more alike than Sejanus and Katniss, Snow has seen dozens of games since the 10th. While Lucy was the first of her kind, I’m sure there have been so many tributes like Lucy, who try to use charm and personality to win over the audience as opposed to relying on physical strength. The games were literally reshaped to give tributes like her a better chance. We hear over and over during the first book how likability is the key to surviving in the arena.

Ultimately, neither Katniss nor Peeta are unique as tributes. Peeta isn’t even unique as a victor – while he was an underdog, I’m sure there have been at least a couple other victors like Peeta and Lucy Gray who managed to get by. I do not, however, think there had ever been a victor like Katniss. That’s what’s different between her and Reaper, and why Katniss successfully inspired a revolution while Reaper, who rebelled against the games in almost the same way, did not. Reaper died as an act of defiance against the Capitol, while Katniss lived. They both ultimately refused to play the game, but Katniss proved that resisting the Capitol was not a death wish. And that is what scares Snow. That's why he needs her to frame it as an act of love for Peeta. Not because she reminds him of a dead revolutionary, or even of a dead friend (although idk if I would even call them friends tbh).

(I feel I have to add, the capitol was clearly threatened by what Reaper did, or Gaul wouldn’t have interrupted him with that announcement. Also, we don’t see how 11 reacts to Dill’s death like we do with Rue, it could have also resulted in riots. But Reaper died where Katniss did not. There’s that line Snow had in the first movie about needing to control how much hope they give the districts, and clearly Katniss surviving pushed them across the threshold)

But Katniss and Reaper were not rebels or revolutionaries going into the arena. Yes, they hated the Capitol, but what tribute wouldn’t? Their priority was survival and helping Rue and Dill survive. It was the deaths of their friends that sparked their rebellion. Sejanus, on the other hand, had little to no concern for survival. He was consumed with his hate for the games and the Capitol (he was choking on it).

If I had to make a parallel between Sejanus and someone in the original trilogy, it would be Cinna. They both live in the Capitol, on a path of upward social trajectory, and despite that neither of them are willing to live with what the Capitol is doing, and it kills them. Snow even causes both their deaths.  

I also had to consider that Katniss reminded Snow of himself. Both of them start out their respective books with very little consideration with the big picture. Their focus is on improving the lives of themselves and their families. I think that is how Snow knows where to put the pressure to keep Katniss in line. (Coin does not understand this, and it’s why she struggles manipulating Katniss into doing what she wants). But unlike Snow, Katniss doesn’t feel ownership over her loved ones, and her idea of ‘doing anything for them’ means sacrificing herself, not the lives of others.

I don’t think Snow was haunted. I think that requires feeling guilt or regret. After Lucy Gray ran away, Snow got married. And had children. And grandchildren. He hosted more games and killed more district kids. He might have cried after what he did to Sejanus, but he then immediately took the money that would have been Sejanus’ and used to do things that would have had him doing barrel rolls in his grave.

Snow at the end of the Hunger Games trilogy does not strike me as a man who is haunted by his choices. Like he told Lucy Gray, he came to believe humanity is innately evil. When you think that, you can do as many horrible things as you want to, because there will never be an innocent victim. You’re just doing to other people what they would do to you - if they were as smart and cunning and powerful as you are.

[alicethepiper]

here's the counterpart to my other post about the desks in the s.t.a.r.s office. there's audio this time, but no music unfortunately. you can hear the mr. raccoon bobble head thingy in the background though. i'm dumb and didn't know that was making the noise. oopsies.

so the desks in og2 are all one desk, but in remake they're two desks pressed together into a row. everyones looks basically the same. we have two additional desks in the back, though, near where rebecca's desk in og2 is. i didn't see any of rebecca's boxes specifically (there were a lot of boxes everywhere) but the green satchel health kit first aid thingy (that i assume is hers) is on the wall. idk which desk is supposed to be hers, but i think it's the one with the cds.

Jill's desk is different here too - in og she had a picture of some guy on her desk but now it's a picture of a dog. the beret/hat is still there, so i'm guessing that desk is hers. the desk next to hers has a lot of cds on it, though. it looks like piano music to me, and we know jill plays piano because of the first RE game (from what i remember) but that's about as far as my knowledge on it goes. i think rebecca can also play piano but i could be misremembering the 10 seconds i've played of RE0. idk who that desk belongs to, but it's the only additional desk that actually has any stuff on it, so i think it's rebecca's. all of the bravo team stuff is pretty much packed up (which could be because they're all dead, minus rebecca). so following that logic, the desk with the cds would be rebecca's - all of the other desks are packed up (and all of the other desks, coincidentally, belong to dead people). and i can see rebecca being put next to jill after bravo got wiped out (or even before, since i believe they're the only two girls in s.t.a.r.s and that feels like something the dudes would do. like a whole "lets put those two together so they can bond about being women or something" idk. im rambling. idk who that desk belongs to but i think it's rebecca). i can also see rebecca requesting to be put next to jill. idk too much about chief irons (except for literally all of the bad stuff he does in the game) but i wouldn't be surprised if he was a fucking creep towards jill and rebecca (he also may have only targeted rebecca, since she is a rookie and is also pretty timid, in comparison to jill who is simply not, therefore making her an easier target. i literally have nothing to base this on, i'm just speculating).

wesker's desk just has a lot of books on it. it seems like in remake everyone has their own desk rather than sharing, so i don't think enrico's stuff would've been in there (meaning, i don't think he was the one who had been holding onto a picture of rebecca). ultimately, i agree that the photo of rebecca is just an easter egg and not anything to do with canon as far as capcom is concerned, but if it were to be looked at that way then: in og2, wesker probably shared a desk with enrico, so it could've been either one of them (maybe both?) who had a sus photo of rebecca. and in remake, it's just wesker who has the photo, since enrico probably has his own desk (since everyone else does, and also there are two new desks added in the back - either of which could be his). i would say that remake puts it there just to stay faithful to the original, but the remake version of the photo is significantly worse (somehow??? like, why did you go in THAT direction??) so capcom didn't improve. good job.

conclusion: wesker had the photo of rebecca for sure in remake. he may have shared that photo in og. everyone has their own desk in remake, they shared in og. and in remake, i think rebecca is the desk next to jills. also that photo looks nothing like her so i'm just gonna pretend that wesker used one of those ai thingies and typed in: "rebecca is the new rookie. pls put her in green basketball clothes. also put her in sexy pose, thx" and just printed off the one that either didn't have fucked up hands or didn't show her hands at all.

that's it. thank you for coming to my ted talk. (it isn't even mine) (it was an ask that @highball66 got) (i'm just the private investigator hired to take the photos lol)

[khaire-traveler]

Idk if this sounds really weird but I'm getting a bit tired of greek myth retellings for books bc like, yeah some are pretty good and others get really creative, but they all do the whole "the gods are kind of assholes" thing that the original myths do and it really pisses me off after a while. I keep seeing people try to tell the stories in modern prose but they don't modernize the Theoi while they're at it. In the myths, they're just characters to do plot stuff so the myth can tell the story its trying to tell. But how they did characters back then is different than now. Maybe it's just because I know the gods aren't actually like that, and its the helpol in me speaking, but I just wish they put more nuance to the gods in these books like they do for whoever the (usually mortal) protagonist is. It makes me really wanna write my own modern greek myth inspired story, change this pattern up a bit.

Also part of me kind of wishes that more people would write their own myths bc thats such an interesting way to tell a story, but tbh I don't think I'd trust anyone who just has a casual knowledge of the theoi and such to do it just bc misconceptions are so prevalent, yknow?

THIS. Nonny, you have put into words a feeling I've had for a long ass time. They always talk about modernizing Greek myths, yet they forget to modernize the gods, instead just opting to villainize them because it's "more interesting" (forget the fact it's been done a thousand times by now and is no longer an interesting twist, really). It's so incredibly frustrating to come across these uninspired stories where the gods are just another Big Bad Evil Guy™. GIVE ME SOMETHING WITH SUBSTANCE, COWARDS!!! MAKE THE GODS REDEEMABLE IF YOU'RE GOING TO VILLAINIZE THEM!!!! GIVE THEM THE ABILITY TO LEARN FROM THEIR MISTAKES AND CHANGE AS CHARACTERS!!!

I demand more interesting content about the gods than, "Ooooo, wouldn't it be sooooo cool if the gods were actually the bad guys??? Wouldn't that be sooooo original?" No, it wouldn't; kiss my ass (clarifying that's not aimed at you, Nonny lol). You wanna be original in this day and age? Make the gods cool, modern, and intriguing. Give them actual purpose outside of "being immoral and evil and corrupt", as if all they are are wealthy billionaires who don't give a shit about the fact that they have world-ending abilities. THEY CONTROL THE ENTIRE PLANET, BRO; MAKE IT INTERESTING!!! Hephaestus leading the world in amazing technological and industry advancements with cool futuristic shit that would blow your mind. Athena providing counsel to political leaders to steer them on a path AWAY from corruption and TOWARDS improvement. Apollo cultivating new healthcare techniques that eradicate certain illnesses entirely and even inspiring humanity to blossom creatively through means of divine inspiration. Hermes doing quite literally anything other than mail services would just be fun to see, tbh; have him domesticate wild beasts and terrifying monsters - he's so much cooler than Mail Man™. It took me a few minutes to come up with that; it's seriously not that hard to come up with literally anything besides "tehe, gods are evil". For the love of all that is creative and fun, do something FUN with Greek gods instead of just making them immediately antagonistic. Lame. Boring. Unoriginal. Be daring, and strut your creative muscles. Show me what you're made of, authors.

[oyster-sauce-tart]

twst yuu crossovers

i don’t really interact with twst content much (i don’t even play the game anymore haha,,,) but the thing my mind has always come back to is Yuu fics

those ones where they insert a type of yuu into twst which changes dynamics and creates similar yet different situations in the story 

my favorites are crossover yuus where the Yuu has come from a different media source 

i remember this one acc where their whole thing was creating these types of crossovers aaaa i miss them idk where they are now ( ；∀；) 

crossovers: genshin impact, pokemon go, enstars

disclaimers: small little hcs on the matter, not very long, mention of death in enstars but only for one line it's not important

TWST x GENSHIN IMPACT 

Yuu the Diviner 🔮

A Yuu who loves to travel! Originally hailing from Inazuma, they wish to travel across Teyvat after the Soukoku Degree was finally lifted. 

As their title implies they’re not just a traveler, they’re a diviner! They get in touch with the magic of fortune telling and deities to improve their alignment and spiritual energy 

especially after they spent so many years lost in their mind with their vision taken away 

luckily there are not many language barriers! Inazuman and Japanese are very similar how neat! As for the writing… hm…

Given that they are from the equivalent of medieval times, the Headmage doesn’t quite trust them to take care of things… more so Deuce and Ace have become the “caretakers” than Yuu themselves. 

especially since Yuu’s traveler instinct keeps making them run into danger like a MANIAC!!! 

♥️ “Kantosukei!!! Are you trying to die???” 

🔮 “Ehe~” 

♥️ “EHE TE NANDAYO??” 

TWST x POKÉMON GO 

Yuu the Researcher 📝

A Pokémon researcher who travels around to explore the wonders of Pokémon! 

Other researchers and the students of NRC when they get over find them a bit distant and rough around the edges 

Yuu cares about all types of creatures greatly and has always been a bit iffy when they talk about their past 

as for the pokémon, they brought the pokémon. 

the ENTIRE NEARLY 200 INVENTORY OF THEM

do not mess with them.

you will not win.

TWST x ENSTARS 

Yuu the Idol 💫

 Even with all the eccentric yet uncooperative students, the weird Headmage, and the Overblots popping up like gophers in a field…

No one is quite prepared for the magicless idol who seems even more eccentric than anyone in the school!! 

Like… why are you quoting all these philosophical books no one’s heard of??? Dovestsky?? Art of War??? What are those…? 

I-Is this a sixteen-year-old idol or a person who’s been through war?

… 

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE’S BEEN AN ACTUAL WAR?? 

oh metaphorically… 

… 

PEOPLE DIED?? 

💫 “Oh please, Ace, that’s nothing compared to what went on with the other units at SS…” 

♥️ “W-what happened at SS…?” 

💫 “Well the story first starts at the old age of idols with this guy named…” 

…

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS IDOL???? 

Ty for reading <3 please reblog, reply, or even send an ask to show your support I would greatly appreciate it!

Feel free to read my carrd to keep track of requests or masterlists! 

[mostlymaudlin]

Hi! I really love the way you write! What advice could you give on writing fics and improving skills? How do you write such vivid/natural dialogue, and what books have influenced your writing the most?

Hi, you are very kind!!! 🥹

This is going to be very extra — but I’m actually a teacher and I once did a fic writing workshop for a discord server! I have the slides all here if you’re interested, they are designed to work for self-directed learning.

Those workshops mostly cover kind of baseline stuff like establishing conflict etc. For dialogue, I feel like the hardest part is getting the characters to say things that actually move your plot along. And the truth is that they don’t always have the communication skills or the knowledge or the personality to do that, and I tend to change my strategy for getting to my end goal rather than force a conversation to work. Sometimes that means completely restructuring the scene or the chapter or the story… which sucks ! And I think there’s people out there who have a knack for just getting an important dialogue scene right the first time, but for me it often requires slasher-movie style editing lmfao.

As for dialogue in less loaded scenes… I think at this point, I’m thinking more about the characters than I am about the words their saying, if that makes sense. Like, if I understand the motivations and personalities of everyone in the scene, i can kinda let them yap without thinking about it too much. If I’m thinking about a way to do this intentionally, I’d say 1. You gotta read it aloud. If anything makes you stumble or wince, then it probably needs a tweak! And 2. Dialogue is just an extrapolation of a characters internal monologue, so if you are stuck, you could pull up a scrap document and do some stream-of-consciousness writing of the scene from other characters’ perspectives. What’s their stake in the conversation? How are they feeling? What’s their typical style of conversation?

Reading with a critical lens/paying attention to things you’re trying to learn DEFINITELY helps. My biggest inspo style-wise is Rainbow Rowell. She writes some out-of-pocket bits of dialogue that work so so well because she has such a brilliant grasp on her characters. Tbh I only read like 2-3 original fiction books a year, & I was trained to write as a journalist! Here’s a mixed bag of longform nonfiction work that stick with me:

The Deadly Choices at Memorial by Sherri Fink

The Black American Amputation Epidemic by Lizzie Presser

Greens by Kiese Laymon (an excerpt from his memoir)

Gladiator from the Boston Globe Spotlight team

& this one is so silly but it’s stuck in my head for 10 years so that says something: My 14-Hour Search for the End of TGI Friday's Endless Appetizers by Caity Weaver

This got so long lol but idk I am just always really excited to help ppl write <3 I was lucky enough to study writing in college (even if I only took one fiction class) and I think all we can do as writers is share knowledge and prop each other up. You’re already curious about craft, and that’s half the battle of improving your own skills. And at the end of the day, craft doesn’t actually matter that much in fanfiction as long as you are having FUN !!!!

EDIT: WAIT I just remembered an amazing book from the 1 fiction class I took — Steering the Craft by Ursula K LeGuin. It’s a half philosophy of writing and half workbook, and the exercises are really fun/helpful! I still own it nearly a decade later

[professorhayforbreath]

so episode 5. all my thoughts

we picked up where the last one left off, good start

annabeth saying she knows percy isn't dead... how. to annabeth and grover there should have been no way percy was alive and finding out he was should've been so emotional but instead she was like dw i know he's not dead lol. it's kind of... lazy writing? like how are you gonna write a scene as gut wrenching as percy trapping himself with a monster and telling his friends to complete the quest without him because he's actively dying and has no reason to believe he'll survive, and then make the fallout of that so... nonchalant? idk if it's a time limit thing but that was so underwhelming to me

annabeth being the one to see the fates... no

fugitive percy enjoyers at least we won!!!!

the trio peeking over the road barrier at ares was cute goofy silly i liked that :)

gabe on the news shit talking percy i'm hooting and hollering!! "i really-- WE really loved that car" and "i'm gonna kill him". excellent. now put percy on the news fake crying about his "loving" stepfather i believe in you

i did want them to acknowledge annabeth's lack of experience with the world outside camp but having her say "i've never seen any kind of movie" has gotta be one of the weirdest ways they could've done that

the turnstile scene was cool i guess but as we go on i'm more and more conscious of how many episodes are left and how much plot there is to get through and idk i feel like this scene could've hit the cutting room floor and we wouldn't have lost anything

i do love the ambience of the park though. maybe i'm easy to impress because the aesthetic of an abandoned amusement park is just fantastic on its own but the set was very cool. wish it wasn't so dark so i could've actually seen it ❤️

percy and annabeth having a serious conversation with 'what is love' blaring in the background is sending me

first ever seaweed brain dropped! i liked the way they did it, it felt natural

actually back to the "i've never seen a movie" thing. you're telling me that in this version of the story, in which frederick chase was apparently a great dad who treated annabeth like a gift, he never took her to the movies? or she never watched one on tv? she had a whole seven years of life in the real world before going to camp and she's never seen a movie

annabeth isn't allowed to have fears she's too smart for that apparently

i think the scene with the chair was overall well executed with some great lines and fantastic acting but... idk. they really scrapped the original scene just to do what they already did last episode. i miss the spiders i miss hephaestus tv. it felt redundant to have percy sacrifice himself again. percy this is the second time today you've been like "no dw i'll just die" do you need to talk to someone

annabeth disillusionment arc complete already? calm down guys this is season one

ZOO TRUCK ZOO TRUCK ZOO TR

so it's confirmed the reason they go into the lotus casino is BECAUSE hermes is there :/ they said these literal children cannot fall for tricks and traps it's too unrealistic

not much to say about the grover and ares scenes bc i don't know what to make of them. i didn't mind them. ares had some funny lines. i guess my only complaint is that the grover i know would not have been so calm talking to the god of war. i'm curious to see where that cliffhanger leads

is it just me or did the pacing improve a little bit this episode?

despite how negative i sound i enjoyed episode 5 a lot more than episode 4. there are still so many weird changes, additions, and omissions though. honestly i think a big part of the reason i enjoyed this one is because i'm not expecting anything anymore. i'm not getting my hopes up about them adapting the book normally i'm just intrigued by this thing like a scientist observing an experiment. like hmm what are they doing now? fascinating *takes notes*

[stacycpr]

Important

So, I had this very disappointing matter.

As some of you guys know, I'm the creator of HugleTale (@hugletale-au). It's been created more than 2 years and also the first AU I worked on. Although, I didn't release much more of its story, unless if you have tried to read its fic version on Archive on Our Own and Wattpad.

Yesterday, that evening, (I don't open Discord much anymore other than to lurk around and chat a little or look a bit of my server.)

A member of my server, made an unauthorized revision my AU, HugleTale. Not only just the first chapter, but also the other ones, as I got the read their document file sent in my server. (Take a look at the screenshots at the cut below of this post).

So, what's the matter with this??

As an author/creator, it's really disrespectful and very offensive. It's not something anyone else can just do. NOT VERY TOLERABLE.

Revising someone's work especially without permission from the author, BUT STILL, even so, not all authors would like to revise their own work by somebody. It's ours, authors' responsible for this rather than anyone.

The EFFORTS, WORK, IDEAS, that were put into it can be just, idk, changed by somebody?

All just for no reason in particular because you had to do it?? You were lucky that I'm pathetic enough to cry rather to talk much farther about this. But, I won't let this slide by just forgetting it. It's not something I don't want to happen to others. This is beyond very inappropriate.

What makes it even worse, to assume that the revised version of my AU will be added to their book series. And to think that I won't even be bothered or even care about it??

What would you feel if this happens to you? Should I even feel welcomed for this??

HugleTale is very precious and special to me, my heart. I couldn't help myself to be very disappointed to this person.

As much that my friends tells me that there's more people that loves my AU, my works and the other things I do with drawing and creating...

Something like this, it proves that there's still need more improvement I must do. I'm still not good enough... Instead of being furious, I'm pretty much sad for real. Of course, I just cried like a weak I am.

I'm sorry to conclude it this way for my situation. Although, I still want all of you guys, especially to my other artists and writers that I'm friends/or not, to let you know.

If I'm not that pretty much focused with my schoolworks, I may have time to draw or even write to share with you guys, I've missed it. Anyways, that's all, I'm still very sad about this.

To the one who did this, I know your Tumblr account, but I won't even bother to mention you, rather you read this and hope you learn something. I'm still bit kind enough not to be mad at you, but pretty much you added more disappointment with myself as a creator and as a person.

I took a copy of their revised version of my AU. (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fvgbxFU_WMQjvujQjHKWSNcja2AmPefS0q2PFOQV5Ys/edit?usp=sharing) While here's the original version of my AU. (https://archiveofourown.org/works/28524027/chapters/69895557)

[samuelroukin]

hi! not here in favor of you making Actual Books (i don't even read any of the newly published books anymore for reasons and reasons and reasons), just complimenting your work in general

i dont really care for cod at all but i really enjoy how you write the characters!! and tbh the only reason i watched some playthroughs of the games was so i could understand your work better. sure, fandom is the main reason people click in, but it's definitely not why they're staying. and it's not why people are writing paragraphs of praise to your stubborn ass even though you work so hard to never listen to any of it 💖

also id be enchanted to hear more about your ocs on future works or even here on tumblr!! you're great at creating made up people that actually feel real. they're pretty round (funnily enough that is the actual technical term), even when you don't tell us a lot about them

also 👀👀 say you have original stuff in mind?????? i would love love love love love to know more about that!! you're getting pretty darn good at worldbuilding and ambiance. better with each update now that you're trying out this AU thing. it would be infinitely interesting to see what you come up with when working with your own stuff only

anyway what i mean is. even though I don't quite believe in Published Books on this day and age, please know that your writing is definitely good enough for the editorial market (even more so now that those dark romance things are going mainstream and a lot of them read like the stuff 12yos post on wattpad. what tf is the deal with that? but I digress. out of those circles your work is still definitely good enough) it's legit like Good Work, even if the tiny mean bully whispering in your ear disagrees. it's good realism. good introspection. good porn and also good narrative and great junction of those. it's lovely seeing how far you've come in so little time and we're excited to see you reach new heights in the future (because you will, with absolute certainty, unless you stop. but i don't think you could really stop yourself at this point lmao)

and please know that achieving that level of quality with no help or instruction or training in so little time is a grand fucking accomplishment

point is: Who Care? We Care (even if we're not an enormous audience)(...yet?). and not just because it's cod

it's def a nice compliment to get thank u 🙏💖

and so is you reading my stuff without caring much for cod! though i wouldn't be able to write this much about them without (clearly) being completely insane about Them and the basis the games laid (haha laid) because without them i'd be nowhere at all, these characters are so. well they clearly took over my brain lol, though i worry a Lot about them being ooc when i write them 💀

i actually feel like my guys are so barebones and one dimensional rip, which is fine since i mostly created them as little more than a joke and they're just being used as set dressing, so that means a lot 🙏

my Main story is this sprawling urban fantasy thing, which if i ever did write it would need serious adjustments since it's. old and not aged very well. the gist of it was the main character (30 year old barista) has Visions, cue road trip with his bestie (ex bf from high school that he reconnected with years later) to figure out The Deal after they suddenly get much worse. it's about that on the surface, and below about dealing with missed chances and not living up to ur potential. it sounds stupid but i've been Thinking about it since i was like 14 so cringe is to be expected lol

lsklhkjhffghst yeah no offense to them but despite this fic being what it i i wouldn't really want to fall into that category even if that sound like i think i'm better than them (i'm not it's just not my thing. or i guess it is and i just have a superiority complex. anyway) um thank you once again 🥺i def feel like i haven't improved a lot but you're dead on about not being able to stop myself anyway lmao

idk why you're being this nice to me but 💖💖💖

[practically-an-x-man]

15, 23, 29 please for the fic meme list you just posted?

Thank you so much!!

40 Questions - Meme For Fic Writers

15. If you could choose one of your fics to be filmed, which would you choose?

Hm... I think most of them are pretty cinematic just based on how I visualize them and the way that translates into my writing style, but I'd probably go with Taking Flight. I already would love to see a Fablehaven screen adaptation, and it would be even cooler to see Kestrel and my additions as a part of that (not really, if they were going to make a Fablehaven movie I'd want it to be accurate to the books, but you know what I mean)

23. If you were to revise one of your older fics from start to finish, which would it be and why?

I've thought about rewriting my first fic, I'll Be There To Catch You, and I've thought about rewriting the old, early chapters of A Love Once New and Smoke and Mirrors since they're a little choppy compared to my current writing style (but I'm still proud of the story), but I don't think I'll ever actually revise or rewrite them.

For one thing, I've got way too many active projects to even consider a rewrite like that on top of everything else, especially since I know the writing isn't really *that* bad. And for another thing, I want to keep them as a record of how much I've improved, so that if I ever feel bad about my writing style I can have them as a reminder of how far I've really come.

29. If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?

Hm... that's really tough, since I wouldn't want to take over anyone else's ideas for their story. I mean, my version of the story would never be exactly the same as what the original author had planned, and I like that.

But if I had to pick... I might take temporary custody of @negative-speedforce's OCs Laila and Athena and try to write up my rendition of their backstories before they met... or a sequel after they're together, or something along those lines. Idk, I'm just really obsessed with them as characters and their story and I'd love to try my hand at writing them! (and in more than just a gift ficlet or two)

[spiders-hth-is-an-outlier]

I'm gonna keep slogging through the new Contrapoints video on Twilight on the hope that it improves, because I really am a big fan generally, but I'm an hour and change in and it feels really weirdly misguided to me.

Most of it has been about what psychological needs sexual fantasies, especially "darker" sexual fantasies, fulfill for readers and how it smacks of moral panic to say that silly women can't distinguish between fake fictional danger that exists for narrative (and sexual) tension and real danger, which -- okay, is true and I agree, and it might even be reasonable to say that Twilight, a chaste story about the pure fulfillment of marrying a righteous Mormon man, served the same psychosexual needs as, like, fuck-or-die smut for its original audience of Youths, idk. But it's inconceivable to me that a grown-ass person would be as hellbent as Natalie apparently is on making the case that the Twilight series is a compelling depiction of taut, passionate, erotic yearning. Like -- it's just actually -- not. It's not any of that. It's slow and repetitive and flat-footed, and if what you like to read is taut, passionate, erotic yearning, I genuinely cannot believe that these are your go-to romantic fantasy novels. Like, she's right in theory about the drivers of sexual fantasies, but how does a grown adult say with a straight face that she loves these particular books because they are so uniquely good at fulfilling these extremely common sexual fantasies? Is your video is about erotic longing or is it about Twilight, because nothing you're saying about one subject seems to me to be relevant to the other.

And I'd put this down to a matter of taste, I guess, except that it strikes me as a little disingenuous to suggest that people who find Twilight off-putting do so exclusively because they don't like or don't get the idea of women being into erotic fantasies at all, or because they only like the most sanitized versions of romance. It grinds my gears a little bit to see decades of hard work by the sex-positive feminists, kinksters, and pervert intellectuals who came up with all this theory about desire being used to defend these aggressively sublimated, anodyne books that in no way added to the Conversation, and on many levels would not be caught dead attending the Conversation. As a weird pervert of long standing, Twilight would have to be a hell of a lot juicier for me to ride to its defense on pervert grounds.

I don't know, there's a lot of video left, but so much of it so far has seemed to be discussing some entirely alternate, theoretical erotic novel about vampires that I feel like Natalie and I just fundamentally are not going to get each other on this one. Also, she's apparently a Gaylor now? Which maybe was a joke, but it kind of didn't sound like it, and only contributes to my sneaking suspicion that Natalie's brain is finally starting to unravel under pressure.

[hara-matsuura]

Week 3's content!

I've mentioned before but hara ends up with sebastian so for prompt 1 this is what i think their amortentia would smell like!

Now of course, they smell each other, but I feel like some of these seem.... a little bit weird so explanation time!

Sebastian smells:

• a hint of metal - this is because of milo (hara's pet niffler,) since he is with her almost 100% of the time, she always has some kind of treasure on her for him, whether it's jewellery or coins.

• freshly baked brownies - when she's stressed out, hara likes to sneak into the hogwarts kitchens and bake with the company of the house elves. Her favourite thing to make is brownies

• library smell - (aka just the smell of a lot of books) now getting more simple, she just owns a lot of books because she loves to fund new spells and brews to better her skills both with dueling and just everyday magic

• forest air - again a pretty simple one, she spends a lot of time out exploring so she carries a hint of the scent from outdoors.

• burning - her favourite spells to use in combat are confringo and bombarda, due to her exploring she comes across a lot of enemies so again she carried the faint smell from the spells.

Hara smells:

• parchment - in this version of the hogwarts legacy universe, sebastian is also the somewhat studious type - to the point where him and hara have a friendly (sort of) academic rivalry, so he often carries around parchment to take notes in class.

• earthy damp cave smell - I wasn't really sure how to word this one but imagine that kind of smell you'd get when exploring one of the caves in game, this quite literally comes from the pair being in one too many of them.

• hogsmeade/the three broomsticks - hara chose sebastian to visit hogsmeade with at the start of 5th year, that memory seared itself in her mind as it was one of their first hence why she smells it in the amortentia.

• wood - this is like the sort of scent a bat or a literal log has, it comes from the fact I like to imagine seb as one of the slytherin beaters.

• broom wax - sebastian is a little more appearance driven than hara so is frequently performing broom maintenance and applying the stuff to it

• early morning air - this is something they both smell and also due to quidditch! Thanks to their early morning training sessions with their respective teams.

• roasted chestnuts - (lore time yay!) After the end of 5th year, their relationship is a bit rocky and hara avoids sebastian, he feels guilty as a result and whilst brainstorming a way to get her to talk to him, he remembers her talking about how much she loved eating roasted chestnuts with her family whilst growing up. With this in mind, sebastian sets out to find some chestnuts and attempt to recreate them like the ones she has as a child. Some turn out a little bit burnt but the gesture really gets to her and begins the road of improvement in their relationship 😌

(I love the difference of how hara smells more memory orientated things whilst sebastian smells more literally physically present things, idk why but it just seems fitting)

Geez that looks like a lot-

ANYWAYS PROMPT 2:

Despite originally being a hufflepuff, hara has a lot of the traits from the other houses. That being said I think gryffindor would be the second choice as she's pretty headstrong and has the attitude for it 🦁

Prompt 3:

As I was a bit cut for time and didn't really fancy it, I didn't draw hara's gender bent. Instead, here is a drawing of her in her animagus (crow) form with sebastian (the things in this post are literally my first time drawing him, I have incredibly little practice drawing guys 😭). This would most likely be set in their late 6th or 7th year although I haven't completely settled on whether hara would go through with the animagus progress during or after hogwarts - she would at some point for certain.

[goldrushrenegade]

Thank to @bibliophiliaxvignette for tagging me in this

🍓 How did you get into writing fanfiction?

Sooo around September last year I read The Right Thing to Do, and then the Auction by @lovesbitca8, and then a million more Dramione fanfics. Pair this with listening to Taylor Swift constantly and the Draco and Hermione living rent-free in my mind started acting out new scenarios. Originally started writing a Dramione Hogwarts -era story but got really distracted by my WIP Timeless which was semi-inspired by @pacific-rimbaud 's Love and Other Historical Accidents -- 200k words, ~6 fic ideas, and 10 months later, Dramione/Taylor Swift is my entire personality

🍇How many fandoms have you written in?

Just Dramione idk if I would write in any others - my mind is v consumed by them so there's definitely not space in there for anyone else rn lol

🍈How many years have you been writing fanfiction?

Not years yet lol but I remember I was writing fanfiction back in October 2023, so since then.

🍎Do you read or write more fanfiction?

Definitely read more than write bc it's so much easier. The amount of time it takes to read something vs writing it is actually horrible. I also find reading fan fiction helps motivate me to write my own fics compared to reading published books as it familiarises me with the characters again.

🍌What is one way you've improved as a writer?

I think I've improved in that I've actually kept going - can't say that I've finished something yet BUT I was working on my writing for fucking years and was so pleased when I got to 70k words and now I've written 200k for Timeless in like seven months? Fanfiction helps a lot in that the world already exists so a lot of decisions are already made for you, which is what I really struggled with when writing an original fantasy story.

🍑Do you have any bad habits as a writer?

Not finishing things? I've gotten very distracted with other ideas. Putting off writing until 9pm, finally getting into it and then having to go to bed lol

🍉What's your favourite type of comment to receive on your work?

Comments that are insightful and say something about the stories/characters that was inferred but not explicitly said - like the reader has really seen what I was going for, that is really really cool. Also love it when people tell me they've binged read it. Any comment is my favourite comment tho

🍋What is something you've been too nervous/intimidated to write, but would love to write one day?

I have some vague ideas about other characters in the HP universe, Ron for example, but I'm nervous/intimidated about getting his character right. I feel like I really understand Draco and Hermione but other characters I find a lot harder so that's really intimidating to me.

🍇What made you choose your username?

Two of my favourite Taylor Swift songs at the time of needing to make a username in order to start posting my Timeless fic, gold rush and renegade both of which are super Dramione coded to me

Tagging anyone who wants to do this... @lotsofbeefs ?

[silverbladexyz]

Hiii hope youre doing well! Could i ask for platonic bestie hcs with Poe 😳 maybe a friend who loves ranting about their current reads and giving out unsolicited book recs

Idk im just in the mood for some cute hcs lol

-🎐

Heyyyy bro I love platonic requests too! And I headcanon Poe would be such a great bestie.

The image does not belong to me. It belongs to it's original owner.

TW: None

Best friend hcs with Poe

-Can I just say how cute of a friendship this is? You being the talker, Poe being the listener, and both of you bond over your shared interests in books

-And because you two like books, there’s going to be a lot of book recommendations going around. Poe gives you books in the mystery and crime genres, while you just give him any book you think is good. He likes your taste in books, even when it might not be his favourite, he still likes reading it in his spare time

-He loves it when you just suddenly give him a book. Poe isn’t one to initiate a conversation, and plus he has something new from you which he can enjoy. I headcanon he’ll binge read the book in two nights and come back with dark circles under his eyes, still ready to talk about the book with you

-Poe is more than happy to listen to you talk about your recent reads! He is a listener, and nothing interests him more than your talk. If he has read some of the works that you were talking about, he’d give his own review and opinion on it, sparking an even deeper conversation on the book and analysing it’s text and quotes and stuff

-Being best friends with Poe means that you’re best friends with Karl too. Give Karl a lot of pats and hugs and talk to him too! Karl loves you and always brings you a book to read. He might even perch around your shoulders, or sit on top of your head

-Also write some of your own stories!! Poe is always excited to read your writing, and even when his criticising may not be the sweetest sometimes, it genuinely improves the way you write. But he also reminds you to take breaks if he sees you writing nonstop

-Over time, he might also write stories for you to read! They’re mostly mystery, but Poe would be perfectly happy writing anything that you request. Although please don’t be harsh when you give him feedback, because it might just damage his self-esteem even more :(

-Okay, now let’s focus on the other parts of your friendship. Poe is a big introvert, so you would have to drag him out to do stuff most of the time. Take him to a library or a beach! He’d mostly sit down and read a book, but he’ll also do activities with you too Splash him with some water when he’s not looking

-Poe isn’t as used to platonic affection, so if you are touchy, he might freeze up a little and be stiff. But he loves it! Keep doing it, and slowly he’ll accept those little platonic actions and might start doing it back to you. It’s going to take a very long time though

-He might even take you to meet Ranpo! He secretly wishes that you’ll get along with the world’s greatest detective, but not too well so that you become Ranpo’s best friend instead of his. Please don’t leave Poe, because Karl was his only company on most days before he met you

-Food trips!!! Who wouldn’t want to go out and eat food with their best friend? Encourage Poe to try some new cuisines, because I feel like he only eats two cuisines at the most. One time you put some chili in his food and it was so funny seeing him turn red and chugging down glasses of milk. He got back at you though by trapping you in one of his mystery books (dw the case was easy to solve and you got out safely)

-In much more calmer and softer moments, Poe would probably sit with you on the couch while gazing into the sunset. These times are cherished dearly by him, because it is a signal of the amount of trust and platonic love you had in each other. He would never trade you away for anything, even for beating Ranpo in a case, which shows how much he cares for you

-He probably doesn’t go outside a lot. Take him to different places to let him touch some grass, will you? Poe really needs it

@pixyys @pianotross @the-mourning-stars @nekokinax @i-just-like-goats @yuugen-benni @xxelfmamaxx @lakeside-paradise @yukitomybeloved @irethepotato @arisu-chan4646 @voyagewiththesatan @catzlivedforbsd

[doyouevenshipbr0]

top 10 strongest firebenders

im on fire. cant stop making lists.

rules: no avatars included and nothing from comics or books. STRICTLY ATLA AND LOK!

lets go

honorable mentions: so i feel as though fire lord sozin should be SOMEWHERE on this list, but we just really do not see him firebend nearly enough to know where he would rank. so im just gonna play it safe and leave him off the list.

10. zhao- im ngl he’s kinda ass LMAOOO. but to be so honest there are no other firebenders that we see for a significant enough amount of time so here he is. he obv has to be kinda good bc he was an admiral/commander/whatever tf, but he gets his ass handed to him in every fight. he gets beaten by zuko in like ep 3 when zuko himself was kinda ass (sorry its true. remember this for later on so u wont be as mad as me), and in the ep with jeong jeong we see that he totally lacks restraint and discipline. zhao sucks! but idk who else would be 10! so here u go!

9. iroh II- love him! we really dont see much of him but what we do see is pretty epic! its nothing that would be able to put him any higher on this list, but again he’s a general (i think LOLLLL) so hes gotta be good. he was def a force to be reckoned with when we saw him, we just didn’t see him much!

8. mako- to be so honest i think mako is over-hated in a lot of ways, his bending being one of them. i feel like he isn’t very spiritually connected with firebending which isn’t necessarily a problem but it is one of the reasons he can’t be any higher (in my opinion). he is still a master though and is the best firebender we see in tlok (outside of pli). he can lightning bend soooo easily, has great battle iq, and he’s very shifty, and he uses his MMA style firebending to his advantage for sure. he’s definitely the pinnacle of a modern fire bender which is cool to see but i do think works to his detriment when it comes to the rest of this list. but even though he’s so low on this list, make no mistake he is an excellent firebender and i think he outbends bolin easily (im just bringing bolin up because bolin is higher on his list than mako is but i do think mako is the better overall bender).

7. jeong jeong- we don’t see much from jeong jeong so idk if this is fully fair, but he is a legend in avatar the last airbender, and when we do see him firebend, we see stuff that really no one else in the show does. he clearly has a lot of raw strength and talent, and i think a lot of his power comes from his understanding of firebending. he’s also a member of the white lotus! i just can’t put him higher because 1. he doesn’t have any sub bending feats (not that that fully matters but it is definitely a plus to have those skills) and 2. we don’t see him much.

6. zuko- im not gonna lie i think zuko is overrated as a firebender. HOWEVER he is by farrrrrr the most improved firebender we see across both series. he saw the original firebenders/the dragons/the meaning of firebending whatever tf and i think that gave him a full spiritual connection and understanding of firebending. after this he was locked tf in! i just can’t put him higher because, this is fucked up to say, he lacks the natural ability and talent that numbers 5-1 have (IN MY OPINION!!!). he started as a great firebender that works his way up and earns his spot as a master firebender, but firebending doesn’t exactly come easy to him, and honestly, his firebending just does not impress me the way 5-1’s firebending impresses me. sorry zuzu!

5. p’li- so her and combustion man are sooooo interchangeable for me like i really cannot decide who is the stronger bender. all i will say is combustion bending is OP as FUCKKKKKK and that’s why p’li is here. both combustion benders we see are insaneeeeee threats.

4. combustion man- the only reason he is over p’li is because 1. he just seems like a more booming threat that the gaang really cannot figure out how to deal with than p’li was in tlok and 2. p’li gets killed lol. combustion man does not get killed (i think…..?) so i think he’s higher for those reasons but i think they are super interchangeable and i can see why u might think they could be switched.

3. azula- so ok. if we were making a list of “firebenders with the most potential” she is number 1. imo she is the best firebender in the verse other than 1 and 2 and it isn’t even close. but she is only 14 and just is not fully realized as a firebender like 1 and 2 are even before she loses her mind. i donttttt wanna hear “well zuko surpasses her in the end” because yes ur right but literally only because she genuinely has a psychotic breakdown. i think if u take crossroads of destiny azula and have her fight sozin’s comet zuko, she still clears. she has such an immense level of skill and technique that really cannot be matched. she has an insane battle iq, and yes she’s naturally gifted but she is also extremely hardworking. she is also the most fun firebender to watch but i guess that’s not a valid point lol. i think if she gets her mental health in check in her adulthood then she can easily become the best firebender in the verse. unfortunately we dont see that tho! also BLUE FIRE!!!!!!!! blue fire. im done here.

2. iroh- ok. i know. i know. many of u think he’s number one. for me, he just isn’t. maybeeeeee in his prime but he is simply not there anymore which is what we see. with that being said he is the mf dragon of the west and he outclasses every other firebender below him on this list with ease. it was suggested that he try to fight ozai for a reason! he’s really the only other firebender that is on his level! he also easily handles azula which no other firebender can do.

1. ozai- i dont have a fun long winded reason for this one. i know we only see him bending (for the most part) during sozin’s comet when all firebenders are buffed, but even comparing him there to the other firebenders during the comet, he was an absolute MONSTER firebender. also ive used phrases like “spiritual connection” a lot to describe a few of these people, and to be honest, i feel like ozai has little to none of that, which is definitely a con for him, but this is just one of those situations where his insane natural ability, raw strength, and power make him outbend literally everybody else. lots of people argue ozai and iroh’s spots but 1. iroh says himself he isn’t sure that he can beat ozai and 2. im pretty positive bryke literally said ozai is the strongest firebender in the world. which is a boring piece of evidence, but it’s a pretty good piece of evidence nonetheless. also he kicks aang’s ass the entire final battle until aang goes into the avatar state lol. he just seems like the most overwhelming force of firebending we ever see imo!