#and i think it's fine to post artwork or fics or literally anything just to post it !!

[deductivisms]

having distanced myself from "fandom" spaces -- and really art-centered communities as a whole -- it really is strange to me how there's this perception that posting content automatically means that you're trying to grow an audience / want to become something like an influencer

i'm not trying to make a "living" off of being a content creator so it's not really important to me whether or not a piece gets a lot of visibility or not - i'm just drawing and posting what i like and if other people happen to like it or see it that's a nice bonus!! but i think personally i've kind of checked out of the idea of being an Artist On The Internet

i also just don't like the culture surrounding online art-centered spaces because it caused me to develop a very weird relationship with my work; i wasn't drawing to improve or because i wanted to, i was basically burning myself out trying to get "just good enough" to where people wouldn't judge me anymore for being "bad" which was like ?!?#?#?@#

it's nice to be treated not as someone's "art [sns] mutual" but as just a friend who may also happen to draw and that's why i've felt a lot more comfortable with the people i'm surrounded by now vs previously, where it always felt like my art was a factor into whether or not i was even given baseline respect nod nod

[mvltisstuff]

hello again, i’ve requested a few times (the feels and sweet nothing) and i was hoping i could request again? (i think i might add an emoji at the end bc i love your writing and will keep requesting as much as you allow ❤️❤️) anyway, i hope you’re doing well and things are going good.

i was wondering if i could request a buck fic where is partner is an artist and he finds a sketchbook of sketches of him and when he asks about it they talk about how pretty he is and how deserves to be appreciated and just making him feel super loved with it. thank you if you get to it and ofc no troubles if you don’t. take care 🥰

also is 🚒 good for a way to recognize me??

wasteland, baby! - e.b

summary: request

evan buckley x reader

a/n: omg you always have such creative ideas! i love receiving requests so always feel free :)) 🚒 = ❤️‍🔥 i also won’t be posting as frequently for the next few weeks due to finals, but after that i’ll be posting a ton!!

buck had come over to y/n’s apartment after his shift for dinner, and the scent of thick acrylic paint and primer had stung at his nostrils. he began to love the smell, as he knew that it meant she was around. he had let himself in with his key, taking in all of the perfectly placed plants and artwork on the walls.

she had a canvas that was almost complete, with just a few finishing touches. buck had walked over to it to examine. her talent was extraordinary. he knew it was out of this world, and the way she was so proud of her pieces his made his heart swell up with love.

“hi, buck!” y/n says, beginning to walk out of the hallway from her room to her art. she was wearing a pair of dark green pants and a white t-shirt which somehow complimented her beautifully. her face had small specks of blue and red on her cheeks and black and grey streaks on her shirt. “sorry it’s such a mess in here, but doesn’t this look great?”

“no, don’t worry about the mess, but how long did that take? it’s amazing!” buck stutters a big, not being able to comprehend how art like that could come out of her hands.

“thank you, love,” she replies, taking his belongings and placing them down for him. “how was work today? anything good?”

“just a normal old day, but you know it’s the 118.”

“it is never normal at the 118,” y/n smiles and gives him a cheek kiss before going to wipe her face off. buck goes to sit down in her living room on the couch, and she follows behind him with a quick change of shirt. she placed a small pizza in the oven to cook for them, and cuddled up next to him while they told each other stories about their day.

“it was wild, y/n,” buck starts. “i mean this woman literally rose from the dead after like 15 minutes, after being under a street. oh! you’re going to love this- and we saved some puppies in a sewer.”

“oh my god, are they ok?”

“they’re all fine, but i’m not sure if we are right now.”

“what do you mean?” she asks, slowly and carefully.

“you don’t smell something burning?”

she takes a deep inhale and looks over to her smokey kitchen. it wasn’t too bad, but definitely enough to make it inedible. “shit! fuck, i forgot about it!” she says, bouncing the pan up and down while trying not to burn herself.

y/n was busy discarding of the pizza when buck looked over at her with joy. he had a cheeky smile on his face and was laughing at the forgetfulness of both of them. he looked back down in front of him and the coffee table, and he saw a book that y/n always has on her. she brings it to work, to her family, anywhere she goes, she has it. it was her beloved sketchbook, filled with hundreds of small doodles and big pieces. buck has seen a lot of things in it, admiring each one before he comes across a bookmarked section.

when he flips the pages of the book, he notices that the person that is sketched and shaded looks particularly familiar. he makes note of the sharp nose and soft, but hard jaw. he sees the famous birthmark on the side of his face. he’s never looking right on, though. he’s always focused on something or has a light grin on his face. buck knows these are of him, but he doesn’t think he had any importance to be the top drawing in her book.

y/n walks back in to greet her boyfriend, “i think we might just have to ord-“ she looks at the sketches that she had put on that paper. a heat rose up into her face, reddening her cheeks and making her feel a sense of embarrassment.

“a-are these me?” buck asks, quietly. y/n nods, slowly, praying that she didn’t make him uncomfortable and that she will see him again tomorrow. “i-um..”

“you don’t have to say anything, buck. i never meant for you to see those and if you don’t like them, i’ll never do it again i swear. you just, you’re so beautiful, buck. and i love to draw beautiful things.”

“i just don’t know what to say, these are so good. i feel like you know me more than i know myself,” he says, chuckling a bit.

“you like ‘em?”

“i love them,” buck says.

“good, i just couldnt stop myself. you are always so pretty, no matter what and i want you to know that, so i tried to convey it through this. i was going to show you eventually, but i wanted to do more.”

“why me, though? you could draw anyone,” buck asks.

“no one else is you! you might have a pretty face and all but there is really nothing more beautiful than your soul. you are filled with so much love and sweetness and i’ve been dying to find a way to show you, because you are loved, evan. i love you and i wanted to put my two favorite things together. not a day goes by where i have anything but love for you.”

suddenly, the feeling in bucks chest is rising stronger, feeling like it’s going to burst. when it does, he has strong riptides of tears in his eyes. with a pure smile on his face, he passionately leaves a kiss on her lips, and he feels loved for the first time.

growing up, his parents never showed him love. he always begged for it from everyone he knew, and now he feels like it isn’t deserved. but someone, y/n made him feel like he will forever be worthy of love. and he will never forget how she fixed him for the best.

[whumptober]

Whumptober 2020 - Updated

Welcome to Whumptober 2020! We’re doing things a little differently this year so please make sure to read the Event Info carefully. We are also excited to announce the addition of an AO3 Collection, which can be found here.

We hope you’re as excited as us to watch the Whump Community come together once again for a month of bone-crunching creativity and collaboration!

(All 31 Themes + Prompts, Event Information, and FAQs are posted below the cut!)

No 1. LET'S HANG OUT SOMETIME Waking Up Restrained | Shackled | Hanging

No 2. IN THE HANDS OF THE ENEMY  "Pick Who Dies" | Collars | Kidnapped

No 3. MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY Manhandled | Forced to their Knees | Held at Gunpoint

No 4. RUNNING OUT OF TIME Caged | Buried Alive | Collapsed Building

No 5. WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING? On the Run | Failed Escape | Rescue

No 6. PLEASE.... "Get it Out" | No More | "Stop, please"

No 7. I'VE GOT YOU Support | Carrying | Enemy to Caretaker

No 8. WHERE DID EVERYBODY GO? "Don't Say Goodbye" | Abandoned | Isolation

No 9. FOR THE GREATER GOOD "Take Me Instead" | "Run!” | Ritual Sacrifice

No 10. THEY LOOK SO PRETTY WHEN THEY BLEED Blood Loss | Internal Bleeding | Trail of Blood

No 11. PSYCH 101 Defiance | Struggling | Crying

No 12. I THINK I'VE BROKEN SOMETHING Broken Down | Broken Bones | Broken Trust

No 13. BREATHE IN BREATHE OUT Delayed Drowning | Chemical Pneumonia | Oxygen Mask

No 14. IS SOMETHING BURNING? Branding | Heat Exhaustion | Fire

No 15. INTO THE UNKNOWN Possession | Magical Healing | Science Gone Wrong

No 16. A TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY Forced to Beg | Hallucinations | Shoot the Hostage

No 17. I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING Blackmail | Dirty Secret | Wrongfully Accused

No 18. PANIC! AT THE DISCO Panic Attacks | Phobias | Paranoia

No 19. BROKEN HEARTS Grief | Mourning Loved One | Survivor's Guilt

No 20. TOTO, I HAVE A FEELING WE'RE NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE Lost | Field Medicine | Medieval

No 21. I DON'T FEEL SO WELL Chronic Pain | Hypothermia | Infection

No 22. DO THESE TACOS TASTE FUNNY TO YOU? Poisoned | Drugged | Withdrawal

No 23. WHAT’S A WHUMPEE GOTTA DO TO GET SOME SLEEP AROUND HERE? Exhaustion | Narcolepsy | Sleep Deprivation

No 24. YOU’RE NOT MAKING ANY SENSE Forced Mutism | Blindfolded | Sensory Deprivation

No 25. I THINK I’LL JUST COLLAPSE RIGHT HERE, THANKS Disorientation | Blurred Vision | Ringing Ears

No 26. IF YOU THOUGHT THE HEAD TRAUMA WAS BAD... Migraine | Concussion | Blindness

No 27. OK, WHO HAD NATURAL DISASTERS ON THEIR 2020 BINGO CARD? Earthquake | Extreme Weather | Power Outage

No 28. SUCH WOW. MANY NORMAL. VERY OOPS. Accidents | Hunting Season | Mugged

No 29. I THINK I NEED A DOCTOR Intubation | Emergency Room | Reluctant Bedrest

No 30. NOW WHERE DID THAT COME FROM? Wound Reveal | Ignoring an Injury | Internal Organ Injury

No 31. TODAY’S SPECIAL: TORTURE Experiment | Whipped | Left for Dead

Alternate Prompt List

Alt 1. Punctured

Alt 2. Falling

Alt 3. Comfort

Alt 4. Stitches

Alt 5. Stoic Whumpees

Alt 6. Altered States

Alt 7. Found Family

Alt 8. Adverse Reactions

Alt 9. Memory Loss

Alt 10. Nightmares

Alt 11. Presumed Dead

Alt. 12. Water

Alt. 13 Accidents

Alt. 14 Shot

Alt. 15 Carry/Support

Event Info

WHUMPTOBER is a month-long, prompt-based creation challenge (think: Inktober, but whumpier). There are 31 Official themes this year - one for each day of the month - which can be used, skipped, or combined in any way you’d like. They are meant to serve as inspiration without being taken literally (e.g. you don't have to include the exact wording into your work). Additionally, there are 3 prompts for each theme.  These are optional suggestions and can be used in conjunction with the theme, or as options/alternatives.  We want to give everyone as much creative freedom as possible, as well as increase event accessibility for folks with triggers and squicks.

Creators can PRODUCE work in any media they choose, including but not limited to: writing, visual artwork, and photo/video/audio edits. Creators can PARTICIPATE as much or as little as they want (i.e. you don’t have to do ALL the prompts if you don’t want to) and prompts can be used in any order. They are also free to use even after the event ends.

When uploading Whumptober content to your blog, be sure to tag the with:

#whumptober2020 …..(the event tag)

#no.1, #no.2, #no.3, …..(theme number)

#bruised, #stabbed,  …..(the theme or specific prompt you chose)

#fandom or #OC

#medium …..(gifs, fic, podcast, art, etc.)

#teeth, #etc …..(trigger warnings & any additional tags. Keep in mind not to add “tw” in front but only use the word/trigger itself, because tumblr sucks)

#nsfw, #nsfwhump …..(only for nsfw content)

PLEASE BE DILIGENT WITH YOUR TAGGING. Only properly tagged posts are considered for archiving on the official @whumptober2020​ blog. They must be tagged in the order above.

Unfortunately, due to the sheer number of participants in recent years, we cannot guarantee your work will be archived. A random selection of properly tagged posts from all genres will be reblogged each day.

Whumpers who produce content for 31 total theme days are considered event completionists and will be tagged in a masterpost at the end of the month.

Questions not addressed below can be directed to this blog as well.

Thanks for reading, and happy whumping!

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What kind of content can I make? Can it be NSFW?

This is a MIXED MEDIA event! You can write fic, post meta, doodle or paint, create a gif set or photo edit, link a song, or get crafty with video - anything goes. As for NSFW, make what you like, we just hope that you’ll tag your work accordingly so that others participating in the event can stay safe :)

Q. Do I have to do all 31 Days? Can I post early/late?

Participate as much or little as you like, and post whenever! Just be sure to tag your posts properly (ex. #no.11, #psych101). Combining prompts into one piece of work is okay, and posting late is as well so as long as it’s in October.

Q. What if I don’t understand a theme?

Send us an ask! We’re happy to help clarify. That said, the themes are entirely up for interpretation :)

Q. Can I combine Whumptober with other creation challenges?

Absolutely! That’s like shooting two whumpees with one bullet :)

Q. Can I upload/repost my whumptober content to other social media platforms?

Of course! We’ve created an AO3 Collection to archive any fics posted there. The archive can be accessed here. The blog is the official archive, so please respect the boundaries of any closeted whumpers in your social circle :)

Q. Can I use prompts to write a new chapter for an existing fic?

Yes

Q. An existing fic I am currently writing contains many of the Whumptober prompts, can I use it?

If you are actively writing this fic at the moment with the whumptober prompts in mind, yes. If it just conveniently checks the boxes, then please don’t. You can, however, add new chapters answering one or more of the prompts.

Q. What kind of characters can I write for?

Fandom characters, OC characters, human, furry, alien, cyborg, whoever you like.

Q. Can I use a prompt multiple times?

Yes,  but it only counts once

Q. If I’m not comfortable with one day's prompts can I use a prompt of a different day as a substitute and still be a completionist?

Yes, but please do not use a specific prompt twice. We have also created an alternate prompts list that you can draw from [here].

Q. Where can I post my work?

Post where and how you want. You don’t even have to (cross)post it to Tumblr. Just keep in mind if it’s not on Tumblr we will not be able to add it to the blog archive.

Q. Can I start posting early?

You can, but this is an October event and wouldn’t it be more fun with everyone doing it at the same time? That being said, you can post early, but we won’t be reblogging any work predating October 1st.

Q. Do I have to finish a fic I started/can I post WIP’s.?

Yes you can post WIPs. And you’re not obligated to finish it in October for it to count towards being a completionist.  

Q. Is co-writing allowed?

Yes, absolutely, and it would count towards being a completionist for both/all of you :)

Q. Do I have to create 31 standalone pieces to be considered a completionist or can I write one continuous story?

One continuous story is fine.  The challenge is to write something for 31 prompts. If that’s spread over 31 fics or just one, you are still considered a completionist. (The same goes for every other media you choose.)

Q. Is there a min/max limit on word count?

There is no limit

Q. Can I combine prompts? Is there a limit on how many?

No limit and combine as many as you’d like.

Q. Is a hc/angst focus ok?

Of course!

Q. What’s considered nsfw?

See this post

Q. What's whump?

See this post

Q. My interpretation of the prompt isn't whumpy at all, does that count?

No, sorry, but keep in mind that whump [see definition] is something very nuanced and different for everyone and emotional whump/angst is just as much part of it, as is physical whump and torture. So before you dismiss your idea, think about this.

Q. Can I start working on the prompts before October?

Absolutely! That’s why we posted the prompts a month in advance. We recognise how difficult it can be creating for 31 days in “real time”.

Q. How do I tag triggers?

tw at the end of the word, ex. emeto tw

Q. Do I have to use your tags?

Yes, if you want your work archived on the blog. If not, feel free to use whatever tags you want.  

Q. Does combining prompts count towards completion?

Yes

Q. Can we @ you?

Yes but we mostly rely on the whumptober2020 tag

Q. Is there anything we are absolutely not allowed to write?

There are no rules, just be sure to properly tag your trigger warnings. And keep in mind Tumblr’s policies if you are posting it here (or the policies of whatever site you use).

Q. Where can I go for brainstorming help?

Here on Discord

Q. My characters are minors, is that ok?

Yes, but as with everything else, tags are your best friend.

Q. Can I cross post on other blogs?

Yes, multiple platforms and blogs are perfectly acceptable. You can also post different works to different accounts under different names, without posting them everywhere at once.

Note: This is a creation challenge, please don’t repost your old work under our tags (unless it’s been changed or edited for the event).

[lacrow]

Forger Spookfest 2020!!!

Alright folks, it’s time to get spoopy! October is nearly upon us. I’ve already made it known that I’ll be writing Halloween themed fics for the next few weeks, but I thought it’d be fun to send out an open invitation to the SxF community to join me! This isn’t really an organized event (I have no means to coordinate such a thing), but more of just a way to get people interested in creating new pieces and having fun with the Forgers on Halloween. 

Throughout the entire month of October, all the way up until the 31st, you can get involved by just tagging whatever SxF-related Halloween thing you create/contribute to/discover as #Forger Spookfest

Examples include;

Writings: (drabbles, poems, one-shots, chapter stories, etc.)

Drawings: (scribbles, sketches, paintings, drawings, comics, anything goes)

Discussions: (musings, questions, theories, whatever)

Other media: (songs, videos, other manga, literally anything you want that makes you think SxF on Halloween)

Furthermore, content can be any character, any rating, any genre. If you’re creating something, make it as fluffy or as horrific as you want. You wanna make a comic about Anya going trick-or-treating? Awesome. You wanna write a story about Yor going postal and killing all the kids at Crystal Lake? Go for it, my dude. You feel like having an open debate about what kind of monster form would best fit Loid? Have at it!

In the case of pieces posted on other platforms (Ao3, ff.net, pixiv, ARTstreet, etc.), feel free to link to your work and tag it appropriately. Remember, this isn’t a contest or competition. Don’t be afraid to share what you’ve made, because I guarantee you that someone out there will love it!

For non-content creators, feel free to contribute by reblogging and tagging things you’ve found that you think fit Spoopfest. It’s your blog, have fun with it!

NOTE: Tagged content that isn’t an open/official source (such as official artwork, manga panels, or media hosted on other sites like youtube or spotify) and/or doesn’t belong to you needs to have the permission of the owner to be posted and appropriately cited (reblogging is fine so long as its cited). Regardless, always credit the artist! 

Again, this is an open invitation running all the way up to October 31st. There’s no need to ask permission to contribute and you can get started now if you want. Also there’s no limits on how many things you tag, so long as it’s all Halloween related!

Real talk. This whole thing could be a complete bust and no one participates, but if even one person is inspired to create something out of this then I’ll consider it a success. Depending on how it all goes, more holiday events might be on the table for the future (December is just around the corner, after all).

Also this was originally going to be Forger Family Spoopfest, but tumblr is stupid and flagged it as NSFW. So Forger Spookfest it is.

Image above courtesy of Tatsuya Endo’s official twitter.

[redbone135]

Fake Dating AU

(I’m posting this here for Swanfire week because it bothers me to have unfinished fics on my AO3 account. It’s the set-up for a fake dating AU that I’m fairly certain will never actually get written. Strap in, it’s a long post.)

“Wait in the car,” Rumple hissed as sheriff Humbert let go of Neal’s shoulder with a resigned shake of his head, disappearing into his back office and leaving the front desk clerk to deal with this mess. The recurring shenanigans of Neal Gold had become way below his pay-grade.

“I didn’t do anything wrong!” Neal insisted with a pout.

“I said. Wait. In. The. Car!” His father managed to get out through gritted teeth.

“It wasn’t my fault!” Neal shouted, kicking at the front desk as he passed, causing a heap of papers to fall over onto the floor. 

“CAR!”

“FINE!”

“Can I see his emergency contact form,” Rumple asked with a grimace, “I’d like to add Milah Cassidy to it - that’s Cassidy with two Ss and an I. If you could give her a call first next time-”

“You know,” the front desk woman - who the Gold family was on quite intimate terms with at this point - began while eyeing her stack of toppled papers on the floor, “There’s a juvenile support group for young offenders. Their rehabilitation program is said to work wonders.”

“I’m not an ‘offender’!” they heard Neal shout from the front entryway of the county sheriff’s office before slamming the door behind him. 

Rumple shook his head. His son would never agree to that. And honestly, he knew where Neal got it from. He wouldn’t want to sit in a room with a bunch of other bad decision makers and share stories of his failure while people plied him with cliche platitudes, assuring him he was still, deep down, a good person. He waved the flier away politely.

“We don’t need that.”

She shrugged, “You know, you’re going to run out of bail money eventually, right?”

“Bail money only runs out when he does.”

They both cast a thoughtful glance back to the front window, Neal visibly sulking in the passenger seat of his dad’s car. He’d somehow managed to find a sharpie in the immaculately clean car and was adding to the permanent collection of his ‘artwork’ on the car’s dashboard.

The front desk clerk raised an eyebrow.

“Ok, fine, give me the flier,” Rumple sighed.

*

Rumple had been right, Neal did not want to go to the group meetings. In fact, he had been so vehemently opposed that he had threatened to pack his bags and run away, and that had been the end of that conversation. So they hadn’t talked about it, or his community service, or the fact that he hadn’t seemed to learn his lesson at all. In fact, his family had stayed suspiciously quiet about it up until the day they had decided to all go out for a family lunch at Granny’s diner and Belle’s minivan had pulled up to a stop in front of the little church advertised on the flier. And even though Neal begged them to talk about it then, they hadn’t had much in the way of a discussion as his little brother undid his seatbelt, and his stepsister pushed him out of the car, slamming the door behind him, while his father waved spitefully and Belle promised they’d be back to pick him up in an hour. 

And he had never planned on walking into that church, he’d hitchhike to his mom’s and it would serve them right, but just in that moment a woman had walked by with a box of doughnuts and they had smelled really, really good. So maybe he had time to grab a snack before he booked it to the relative freedom of the Cassidy-Jones houseboat. 

Yes, the plan had been simple. Get a free cup of coffee and doughnut, sneak out the back before anyone noticed, get to his mom’s, and then when stepdad started to irk him - probably around day three - he’d come back to his dad’s and they would have all been so worried about him there would be no more talk about him having to go to these stupid meetings. 

Flawless plan.

And then he saw her.

She was slouched over in one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs, flanked on either side by two other girls that looked about as terrifying as Neal’s stepsister, picking at the loose threads in a hole in her leggings. She had thick, black-rimmed glasses that made her bright blue eyes look seductively large, and red lipstick that wasn’t her shade but definitely proved her point. 

And a homemade tattoo on her wrist. Intriguing. Neal had done enough homemade tattoos on his friends to recognize talent. His mind began to swim with daydreams of the two of them, stretched out across his bed with a bottle of India ink between them as he added intricate details to the daisy, transforming it into a work of art befitting the masterpiece of a canvas it had been painted on.

New plan.

So he stayed for the meeting, taking carefully timed sips of coffee so that he wouldn’t have to share anything with the group. She didn’t share either, he noticed. Perfect. She also didn’t want to be here.

So he waited for her by the snack table afterwards, watching her put extra doughnuts wrapped in napkins into her purse - like anyone would have cared if she’d just taken the whole box. 

“Neal Cassidy,” he said, extending his hand and startling her into jumping and dropping the doughnut she was holding.

She glared. “You don’t need to know my name.”

“I like your tattoo,” he offered, turning to follow her as she walked away toward the front door. “I have one myself, want to see it?”

“Not if it involves you taking off any articles of clothing,” she said, offering him a smug grin.

“Maybe later then,” he said, speeding up his pace to step in front of her and stop cold, blocking the only door, much to her obvious annoyance. “So, why are you here?”

“Stole a car.”

“Wow! Same, we’re twins!” he exclaimed with a grin, and he thought if he wasn’t mistaken he saw the tiniest hint of a grin on her face. “So why’d you do it?”

“Why did you?” she shot back a little too aggressively.

“My mommy didn’t love me enough,” he laughed, “It’s this whole tragic backstory thing, if only I’d had someone to be proud of me, maybe then I wouldn’t be living this life of petty juvenile crime. I was just one caring parent away from being a scholar and a gentleman. You?”

She definitely chuckled at that, her shoulders letting go of some of the tension as she placed a hand on her hips and shot back with equal glibness, “No excuse. I just enjoy pure, mindless vandalism.”

That was kinda hot.

“Really?” he asked, “No tragic backstory? No evil step mom, followed by one who is way too young for your dad? No little half-sibling that gets all the attention and an aggressive step sister who is just staying with you until her mom gets out of jail? No creepy step dad who hits on your friends and takes money out of your wallet when you’re not looking?”

“Nope. My parents are perfect.”

And the way she said the word perfect told Neal everything he needed to know about her family. There was her reason, beyond enjoying the random chaos of destruction, the slight inflection on the word perfect was her reason. And so Neal adjusted his plan slightly.

“Oh, wow. Well you want any of those things? You can have mine, I wouldn't mind sharing.”

“I think I’ll pass, thanks,” she laughed, pushing him lightly out of the way to walk to the church parking lot where a lot of the other teens were climbing into family cars. Of course his family wasn’t here yet. 

“Listen, Anna,” he said, “I know you don’t want to be here. Neither do I. What if there was a way we could help each other with that?”

“It’s Emma,” she corrected before realizing the trap she had fallen into. “And if you’re suggesting some sort of murder-suicide pact then you should know I’m already pretty close to murdering the creepy stalker who just tricked me into giving him my name.”

He grinned, shoving his hands in his pockets as he waited for her to finish surveying the parking lot. Her parents weren’t here, either. What a shame.

“Listen, you need someone to help you convince your parents you’re rehabilitated. It’s not a question. With your attitude, they aren’t gonna buy it without some outside assurance. I’d be excellent at that. What says ‘walking the straight and narrow’ better than a polite boyfriend who also happens to be really good and drawing up fake reports cards and providing alibis. I swear, I’ll have you out of this thing in under a month.”

She turned to look at him skeptically, “You think you can charm my parents? My mom literally calls my dad Prince Charming and you think you can charm them?”

“I know I can.”

She mulled it over, not seeming to hate the idea as he had anticipated. 

“And in exchange? I’m what? The sweet girl next door in a floral sundress who promises your parents she’ll take you to church and make you normal again?”

“Nah. Dad’s on his third wife and mom lives on a boat. They have no idea what normal even looks like. No, I want you to convince them this whole group thing is hurting more than it’s helping. And you look like exactly the kind of girl who can scare the daylights out of my dad. Tell me, how good are you at faking a pregnancy scare?”

“Who’s faking?” she laughed, rubbing her stomach sarcastically.

“Perfect!” he ginned, pulling a pen out of his bag and scribbling his number on a napkin for her. “I’ll pick you up at six tomorrow - wouldn’t want to have you out past dark. Oh, and one more thing, when you finally do meet my dad, I need you to mention how cute it is that he and my stepmom have matching British accents. That will make more sense when you meet them.”

“Goodbye, fake boyfriend!” she waved, as a rusty blue pick-up pulled into the parking lot, jogging over to climb into the cab.

Neal waited another thirty minutes for his family to arrive.

“How was your meeting?” Belle asked over her shoulder as Neal shoved Regina out of the way to get to the back seat. 

“Start any fights yet?” Regina asked, reaching into the back to punch him in the knee, “Light any fires? Get anyone pregnant?”

“Regina!” Belle scolded, “Don’t talk to your brother like that.”

“Step brother!” She and Neal chimed as one.

“And in the spirit of fairness, dearie,” Rumple mumbled from the passenger seat, “Those are all very good questions.”

Neal hoped Emma was as great as acting as he was. Because if his family thought he was trouble now, it was about to get a lot worse.

[jacaranda-bloom]

Monthly fic rec showcasing fics I’ve read for the first time, and old favorites that I’ve been drawn back to for another read. In this installment, there are fics from @sadaveniren @taggiecb @newleafover @beau-soleil-louis @kingsofeverything @dinosaursmate @jaerie and @runaway-train-works 

FIRST TIME READ

Face Your Fears by SadaVeniren @sadaveniren

Main Pairing: Harry/Louis | Rating: Explicit

Written for: @onedirectionbigbang

Words: 92,217 | Published: April 24, 2019

Tags: ABO, Mpreg, Alpha Louis, Omega Harry, Famous/Non-Famous (check work for further tags)

Summary: Harry is a single father, pretending to be a beta after his alpha mated him and left him. He’s getting by just fine raising the twins when Louis walks into his bakery. Too bad him and Louis will never be a thing.

That’s What I’m Here For by taggiecb @taggiecb

Main Pairing: Harry/Louis | Rating: Explicit

Written for: @onedirectionbigbang

Words: 46,838 | Published: April 18, 2019

Tags: Older Characters, Age Difference, Friends to Lovers (check work for further tags)

Summary: Louis Tomlinson is a dairy farmer on a tiny farm in eastern Canada. His wife of nearly thirty years has left him and his children are all grown up and out of the house. Louis needs help running his business but has no idea where to even start looking. Luckily for him, his children know just the man for the job.

Constant Debauchery by blake @newleafover

Main Pairing: Harry/Louis | Rating: Explicit

Written for: @1dgayboficfest

Words: 19,421 | Published: March 2, 2019

Tags: ABO, Alpha/Alpha, Historical AU, Sexual Awakening (check work for further tags)

Summary: When Harry speaks, it’s with a cloud of smoke spilling out across Louis’s ear, cheek, and neck. “I’m glad I’m not the only alpha who’s not an idiot.” Louis forces his smile to stay on his face as Harry stands up and follows the boys as they pick up their things and start walking, but he’s shaken to the core, even though he shouldn’t be. For so many reasons, he shouldn’t be. But this is the moment that he realizes what he’s known, on some level—what he has smelled—all night. Harry is an alpha. It’s also the moment that he realizes he’s disappointed that it’s the truth. OR Harry is an alpha who loves getting his mouth knotted by other alphas. Louis is happy to serve. Fun smut! But also angst and sexual awakenings.

Breathe Me by only_angel_28 @beau-soleil-louis

Main Pairing: Harry/Louis | Rating: Mature

Words: 13,550 | Published: April 11, 2018

Tags: Strangers to Lovers, Homeless Louis, Music Student Harry, Hurt/Comfort, Smut (check work for further tags)

Summary: “Louis?” Harry queries softly, his voice nothing more than a whisper. “Why are you living in my car?” Louis sighs, and this time it’s laced with a mixture of sadness and exhaustion, the sound of it tugging at Harry’s heartstrings. “Long story,” he says finally with a weak smile. “Will you tell me?” Harry prods gently, his demeanor akin to that of someone approaching a wild animal with their arms outstretched in a gesture of submission. “You don’t have to, like—I mean…it’s just, I’m a pretty good listener, and you seem like maybe you could use a friend?” “What gave me away?” Louis jokes dryly. OR the one where Harry has a broken heart, Louis has a broken home, and all it takes is one night together for them to fall in love.

Snow Big Deal by fullonlarrie @kingsofeverything

Main Pairing: Harry/Louis | Rating: Explicit

Series: Tiny Penis Fics (Part 3/3)

Words: 8,390 | Published: April 15, 2019

Tags: Small Penis, Snowboarding, Photography, Smut.

Summary: Louis is a professional snowboarder set to appear in ESPN The Body Issue and Harry is an assistant photographer working for the magazine. They have more in common than they think.

Graphic Design Is My Passion by fullonlarrie @kingsofeverything

Main Pairing: Harry/Louis | Rating: Explicit

Written for: @homosociallyyours

Words: 6,482 | Published: April 19, 2019

Tags: University/College AU, Artworks, Dildos, Blowjobs, Jerking Off.

Summary: Graphic design student Louis Tomlinson has exams to study for and final art projects to complete if it would stop raining long enough for him to walk across campus. Luckily Harry Styles has an umbrella, and he’s perfectly willing to share. Louis doesn’t plan to get his heart broken and he doesn’t plan to make almost a hundred silicone dildos. One of these things definitely happens.

OLD FAVE’s

We’ll Be Seamless by dinosaursmate @dinosaursmate

Main Pairing: Harry/Louis | Rating: Explicit

Words: 52,085 | Published: August 3, 2017

Tags: Tumblr AU, Photography, Smut, Body Worship, Slow Burn (sort of)

Summary: Green reblogged an old photo of himself. It was from back in October, a Halloween special. A pulse shot all the way through Louis because this photo was his absolute favourite, and it had taken the rest of the year for him to wean himself off of it. Green was on his knees, arms stretched out in front of him with his fingertips digging into the surface of his bed. He was wearing a pair of cat ears on his head, his curls falling forward. His back was arched, and in the foreground of the picture, Green’s bum was high in the air, a long, black cat tail sitting neatly between his cheeks. OR Louis spends all his spare time scrolling arty nude blogs on Tumblr but amongst them all, Green is his favourite.

Salt And The Appetite by SadaVeniren @sadaveniren

Main Pairing: Harry/Louis | Rating: Explicit

Series: No Control Club Series (Part 1/5)

Words: 14,458 | Published: July 29, 2018

Tags: BDSM, Roleplay, Dom/Sub/Switch, Club Owner Louis, Blogger Harry (check work for further tags)

Summary: No Control is a No From Me | By Harry Styles “I know this is probably a controversial opinion and review because I have only heard great things from people going to No Control before but I cannot recommend it to anyone. While the facility is nice, the people who work there do not seem to care for their clients well being, and I do not feel safe going there in any capacity. I suppose when I want to play next I will have to travel back down to London, or maybe, unfortunately, Liverpool. If I must.” OR Harry, a popular BDSM blogger, writes a negative review about Louis’ club. Louis wants to have a chance to make it up to him.

Woke Up Feeling Knotty by jaerie @jaerie

Main Pairing: Harry/Louis | Rating: Explicit

Words: 7,903 | Published: January 9, 2018

Tags: ABO, Alpha Harry, Beta Louis, Porn Blog, Virgin Louis (check work for further tags)

Summary: Beta Louis has a kink for knotting and the secret aesthetic porn blog he runs about it is more than proof. When he accidentally finds out his alpha best friend Harry is one of his biggest fans, he knows he has to come clean after everything that has already happened between them. Harry just might be willing to help him out anyway.

No One But You Got Me Feeling This Way by runaway_train @runaway-train-works

Main Pairing: Harry/Louis | Rating: Explicit

Words: 3,787 | Published: January 5, 2019

Tags: Cam Boy Louis, Student Harry, Porn With Plot.

Summary: Harry is well aware he should be studying or watching T.V or cleaning the kitchen or doing literally anything from a list as long as his arm instead of this, but he is. The list of reasons why he shouldn’t be doing this is probably at least double that, but here he most definitely is. He’s sitting on his bed, legs straight out in front of him, back propped up against the headboard and some fluffed-up pillows and his MacBook is resting on his thighs. His jittery fingers drum lightly on the edge of the keyboard as he stares at the tiny digital clock in the top right-hand corner of the screen, willing the seconds to tick by faster. He wants to get into this and get it over with in equal measures. OR The one where Harry has a particular desire that only Louis can fulfill.

**If you read and enjoy any of these fics, please remember to leave a nice comment, kudos, and reblog the author’s Tumblr fic posts where available.**

[ineffablefool]

Some meditations on being a fat human being, in the era of Good Omens series fandom.  Not n//sf/w, really (hi my name is Jack I’m ace and supremely uninterested in sexytimes), but really personal and also long, so I’ll stick it behind a readmore.  I suppose if another fat human being had thoughts they wanted to tack on, they could reblog to do so, but I don’t expect this to be a particularly rebloggable thing.  Just thinkin’ out loud (via clickety fingies).

I have been... okay, more or less, with how my body looks, for a while.  (Minus all the things about it that make me get “she” and “her” and “ma’am” everywhere I go, with exactly three glorious exceptions in the ~4 years since I realized that those weren’t right.  That is a whole ‘nother bucket of bears.)  I’ve been on Tumblr over on my main account since 2013, and the entire time I’ve been immersing myself in fat positivity and in fat activism by wonderful accounts like ok2befat and bigfatscience and thisisthinprivilege.  So I’ve been basically okay. 

It sucks how hard it is to find clothing that I like which doesn’t completely exclude my particular set of proportions.  It sucks that my saint of a boss had to literally fight our HR department to change the company policy on flights for business, because the previous policy would have forced me to fly 18 hours in an economy-class seat much smaller than I am when I visit India in a couple months.  It sucks that my body is still the “oh, is this disgusting thing a dealbreaker for you” question on dating websites, and that it’s still the butt of every third Trump joke.  It sucks.  But I’ve gotten better over the years at the skill of seeing my body as not the problem, but an innocent bystander in everyone else’s bullshit.  Clothing and plane seats and humor don’t spring from the earth to be harvested and consumed raw.  People decide how to make them.  People can decide differently.

Anyway.  I’ve been pretty much okay with Body.  Body’s fine.  It’s a good pal.  It gets me where I need to be, and it lets me run around in little circles pretending to be an airplane when I’m bored.  I spend some time with it in partial states of undress now and then (I’m too much of a germaphobe to ever be a naturist, let’s put it that way), just so I can keep myself familiar with what it really looks like.  Y’know how the horror movie monster is really scary up until they actually show it?  Same thing, except fewer blood squibs.

But here’s all this Good Omens stuff.

A lot of the fandom has embraced the slight pudginess of Michael Sheen’s Aziraphale, and a lot of artists are putting that into their work.  And a blessed wonderful few aren’t stopping there.  They’re drawing Aziraphales that are more than just a tiny bit pudgy, sometimes that are just plain fat, unquestionably, not just “a little larger than the very thin rendition of Crowley” or “wearing a lot of layers” or “the clothes are just cut that way”.  Really, really adorable renditions of fat angels who are clearly loveable and clearly loved because look, the artist drew them together, Crowley is right there and he doesn’t have that look on his face by accident.

(There are book renditions floating around too where people have headcanoned a fatter Aziraphale, but I’m still talking miniseries right now.  Also, there are plenty of sort of... cartoony/stylized/silly renditions out there with fatter Aziraphales, but I’m not really talking about those either.  There’s a sort of area of artwork where the style or the scene being depicted is such that my brain is surprised when any of the characters is fat, because this is a pretty drawing of two people kissing or whatever and therefore obviously they have to both be thin.  Obviously.  Internalized fatphobia nonsense.  But that’s the kind of artwork I’m thinking when I type all these zillions of words.)

And that’s a choice, to say “I’m an artist and I’m going to draw this character who is worth being the recipient of a 6000-year-long love, and that character is fat, and that’s just how it is”.  And to keep doing it in one piece of art after the other.

speremint was the first artist I noticed doing this, drawing an Aziraphale who is loved by Crowley (the sacred apple tree art still cracks me up, poor Crowley) and who is definitely fat and who is adorable, and if you’ve read the notes on any of my fics you know that she singlehandedly changed how I picture my headcanon’d Aziraphale.  Then I discovered that dotstronaut and lonicera-caprifolium and toastedbuckwheat are out there too, giving me lovely art to shove into my eyeballs and extend my lifespan potentially indefinitely.  I bet there’s more I haven’t noticed yet.  I want there to be like a hundred more I haven’t noticed yet.

And this all ticks over into the second half of what’s apparently a manifesto at this point, boy it’s a good thing I’m a fast typist, which is the fact that in addition to being a fat human, I am also romantically and aesthetically attracted to fat humans.  It’s something I’ve pretty much literally had no opportunity to ever express, because in my Real Life I don’t really admit to having feelings per se and also I am... not the type of human who is the recipient of romantic thoughts from others.  Or who would ever act on my own unless the other party said something first.  (Which nobody ever has since 2006, you guys.  Supremely not the recipient of romance over here.)

So there’s this fandom environment where a fat character is being celebrated and loved, and I started writing fanfiction for the first time this century, and all of a sudden there’s a place for me to express feelings that I’ve been sitting on since I finally realized in about 2001 what it was about that one guy in high school that made me want to hug him, even though I also couldn’t stand his attitude.

Going through my fics from oldest to most recent, it is clear that I am getting more and more comfortable with that expression.  It’s getting ridiculous.  At this rate, in three weeks’ time I’m just going to be writing “Aziraphale is fat and beautiful and I just want to cuddle his belly forever” over and over again for five thousand words at a stretch.

But that means Brain is thinking a lot about how Aziraphale is fat, and beautiful, and perfect exactly how he is.  And then Brain looks down at Body and is like “hmm.  Same hat.  ineffablefool is fat too.  Therefore, [insert math lady meme here]”.  And I will be, like, “okay, so if Crowley were to put his hand on Aziraphale’s belly, what would that feel or look like?  How would his internal narration describe it?  Well, there’s a belly right here, let’s do some science.”  And then the thoughts that I start associating with the experience of my own body are completely good thoughts, all of them, because they’re going to be going in Crowley’s head.  And my written Crowley is never going to be anything other than madly in asexual romantic love with my written Aziraphale, and is never going to see him as anything other than perfect, physically, no matter what he looks like.

And it’s just being a really good positive feedback mechanism, I guess is the tl;dr version.  External validation (via art, via others’ fics, via comments on my own fics, btw if you’ve left any of those then you are also helping extend my lifespan, especially the people who come back to comment on each new story, yes I recognize you and I do a little happy dance every time a familiar name pops up, please rejoin me on Monday I’m going to post my dickwheelie letters fic) is all well and good.  But the mental loop of “own body can be used for realistic descriptions of a fat body -> descriptions based on own body are all lovingly positive -> own body is therefore described by self as lovingly positive” is... it’s nice, is what I’m saying.  It’s very nice.  Last week I expressed, out loud in a group of coworkers, my desire that something be more size-inclusive.  Do you even know how many deaths I would once have suffered rather than say something like that in mixed company.  But why shouldn’t I say it!  There’s nothing wrong with my being fat!  In fact, it’s within the realm of possibility to see it as a positive thing, so let’s just all admit that we have eyes and then move on!  Geez!

So those are some of my thoughts on being a fat human being, in the era of Good Omens series fandom.

now if I can just score a hot fat ace Ineffable Significant Other out of this fandom, I’ll be set

[threadsketchier]

storytime: I almost quit my job to write fic

haha u see what i did there it’s kind of a pun get it

Not exactly clickbait-y, it’s literally what it says on the tin.  This past Wednesday I was a gross, undignified sobbing mess in my bi-weekly meeting with my boss and I flat out said I’d turn in my last month’s notice on Friday.  I didn’t have another job lined up, I just wanted to run away and have about a month of freedom to actually write.  My two week vacation wasn’t enough time to get around to that because it was taken up by IRL stuff that my job makes difficult to do either because of lack of time or lack of spoons to do it.  (Frankly I wanted to vegetate a lot from being drained by the sheer insanity of work as of late, plus my monthly frenemy showed up and made me feel borderline flu-like the second week.)

But it hit me that night that this was just another flare-up in a long string of events all the way back to childhood from my notoriously poor decision-making capabilities.  I’m impulsive and nearly every choice I’ve made in life is The Worst™ with no good or helpful outcome.  However horrid it is, I was going to throw away a viable job - the only job in this shitty wage-starved area that will pay me this much without a college degree - and put not only myself but my mother in financial jeopardy for the sake of being able to write fic...for a limited time anyway.  Then I’d be all stressed out again once I’d have to get up off my ass and find another job, and then worry about how the hell to pay all the bills at a steep pay cut.

(TBH, it’s like 50/50 about the free time issue but also just the toxicity of the job itself, the crushing sense of futility that things will never improve because of others’ incompetence and laziness and the company’s relentless drive to keep expanding and becoming more and more of a Corporation™ that will soon own my ass around the clock but I digress)

I’m almost 34 years old, and I barely opened a savings account for the first time in my life.  Pathetically tiny, but I have one now.  And I was stupidly going to give up on that immediately just to be a faaaaaaanguuuuuuuurl.  And, and, selfishly, it also feels really nice to be able to buy more fun shit now and not be broke constantly?

So I chickened out and despite knowing how idiotic it made me look, I typed up a brief note to my boss and took back what I’d told her and said, “ok, this officially means I can’t bitch about this anymore because you’re my boss, not my therapist, and it’s unprofessional” and asked her to pretend nothing happened, and that was that.  (Bless my boss, at least I’m lucky to have this understanding bish; I’m sure she thinks I’m nuts now but she’s cool enough to not say anything about it)

Once again I’ve haven’t been on this hellsite all last week because once I miss one day, I know I won’t be able to catch up in a couple of hours on a weeknight evening.  And I’m at the same crossroads again of do I want to just keep being a passive lump of fandom consumption and drowning my sorrows as I scroll forever or give up on this place entirely so that I have a sliver of a hope of getting back to writing.  Not being on here for another week makes it really easy/tempting to make a clean break.

I don’t mean delete or completely disappear - because the point would be to eventually and occasionally produce SOME content - but to pull a fialleril and vanish for long periods of time and only briefly emerge from the depths to post something.  It’ll feel hollow because I have no idea what’s going on, I’ll have missed who knows how much quality meta or beautiful artwork or awesome comic scans or hilarious shitposts - aka, I WILL MISS ALL YOU DORKS OUT THERE.  THAT WAS THE WHOLE POINT OF BEING HERE.  I’ll feel like I’m just shouting into the void.  But it’s the only way I’d maybe get anything done.  (Still a big Maybe™.)

I’ve seen countless posts about “writers are never obligated to finish stuff” and that’s fine, yes, I agree - but for me personally, I DO feel obligated because I made the choice to start posting.  I got people invested in that shit.  I feel that I do owe it to them to at least try to finish what they started reading.  (This is why I rage-quit a few years back and deleted all my fics off AO3 and the JCF boards, because I have this all-or-nothing attitude about it.)  It’s not just fic content either, I’d love to make other stuff.

I’m just.  Tired™.  Of having my leisure time on such a tight schedule, that Adulting™ is squeezing the life out of my creativity and making existence feel so pointless and futile.  So I guess this is goodbye, of a sorts?  For anyone here who gives a flip?  I’ll say it again - if you peeps of mine see some bomb-ass posts you know I’d love, please feel free to tag me in them so at least I can glance at them in my email or go skim them on AO3.  You have no idea how much the FOMO crushes my soul.  It’ll take a long time for me to feel numb about that.

[franeridart]

*SOBS* IM JUST SO GLAD YOURE BACK

Aw thank you !!!!! It’s really just thanks to the past couple of days of cooler weather tho, ngl hahaha the earth has been indulgent to me, this past week!

Anon said:I really liked that wgole bakushima gem thing! What would bakugou do if kirishima somehow got corrupted and couldnt reverse it? (Without the other diamonds)

Thank you for liking it!!!! And I guess he’d just go ask the other diamonds? Well, he would never let it get to that, but if it were the only option it’s not like he’d leave Kiri like that!

Anon said:Quick, someone put a flashlight on diamond!Kiri

He’d be shinier than Aoyama and Hagakure using her special move put together !!!!!!! v pretty~

Anon said:your kiribaku gem AU inspired me so much that i’m finally watching steven universe just so i can understand it better because what i did understand was that i loved it

OH MAN I hope you’ll enjoy it!!!! It’s a bit silly and all over the place through the first season, but try to give it time !!

Anon said:Hi! I went and checked out your fan art for Kuroko no Basket and I absolutely adore AoKaga! Your AoKaga works make me so happy! I love them all!

Ohhhhh man thank you so much !!!!!!!!!! it’s super old stuff tho how did you even find it hhhhh haha

Anon said:Hello hello! here w bad news a instagram page posted your art and i know you dont like repost so im informing you. The page is kags.fujoshi and it was posted july 23

Yeh I know, I’ve been trying to report it and the other one I’ve been being told about but instagram won’t let me submit the thing so I guess this is how things are and I’ll just die mad about it since instagram likes to make things as hard and impossible to me as it can

Anon said:Bless your art

Thank you ;;;;;

Anon said:Omg literally your kiribaku Steven universe crossover is so fucking perfect thank you for blessing us with it; I’d love to see more if you have anything or feel like ever doing more about it but I don’t want to pressure you or anything, do what you want to do and what makes you happy :) Take care!

Ahhhhhh thank you so much!!!!! I’m super glad you liked it this much!!!!!!!

Anon said:✨Gentle reminder to take care of yourself today ✨

You too, anon!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anon said:Everytime I see you upload new art I end up looking through and loving your entire BNHA Art tag. It’s so wonderful

gAH thank you so SO much!!!!!!!!!! don’t waste so much time on my blog, tho hahaha

Anon said:heya! I was just wondering if u had any short bakukiri one-shot fic recommendations. i prefer to read short things bc i have some learning difficulties and i was hoping u might know some good simple reads. Thanks! (

Aw man sorry but I really don’t have the time to make a rec list rn ;; if you’re fine with it this is the tag on AO3 filtered so that it shows only complete content with a max word count of 5000 starting from the one with most kudos going down, the first ones showing are all super good fics - in case you’re not okay with explicit content you can filter that too (if youre not okay with mature either just check that out as well) and to go further this is the tag excluding the fics tagged as tddk  cause that’s not what you’re looking for and the tddk and krbk fandom sure like to put each other in the listed relationships even if the fic isn’t about them (it excludes some krbk fics too but what can we do about that)

Anon said:ASDFGHKRNOFNE your last doodle killed me!!!! soft todoroki

AHHHHH I’m super glad you liked them !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;;;

Anon said:I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of your art, you beautiful gift you

Thank you smmmmm ;;;

Anon said:I am taking the SU story down for now. Please, let me know if I have your permission to post it, or if you don’t want me to. // And just to clarify - I’m not deleting the story out of spite or anything. I wrote it as a “get-well-soon” gift, but since you make it very clear you want to know how your art is used and that you must give your approval, I began to fear it would become a source of annoyance to you rather than something nice. I can put it back up if you want me to.

I don’t mind you writing the story or posting it, so if you wanna upload it again go for it! For future reference tho, if you’re in a rush to get an answer out of me (referring to the message where you asked if it was okay) your best bet is to go off-anon since those I always answer privately and as soon as I can. It can take me up to over a week to answer anon asks here, which I’d guess is sort of obvious? so seriously next time you’re in a rush to get an answer it’s better if you don’t go through the anon option!!

Anon said:HI I LOVE YOUR ART IT’S GORGEOUS AHHHHHHH

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!

Anon said:How long does it take t draw one artwork for you?

Some things ten minutes, some things three days of work, it really depends on what I’m drawing? If it’s bw or colored, if it has a bg, if it’s a bust or a full body, if it’s one person or five, one drawing or a full comic, how used I am to drawing the character vs how new it is, how easy the clothes are and how many details there are on them - if you sent me an example I could specifically tell you how long it took me!

Anon said:is bakugo ticklish? what do u think?

Bakugou is ticklish but the immediate aftermath of tickling Bakugou is to be blasted into kingdom come so maybe better not to tickle him unless you’re Kiri and can protect yourself

Anon said:Bakukirikami is some good stuff my dude

It sure as heck is! Lately my old stuff for them is getting a bunch of new notes, I’m assuming people are getting into it thanks to the anime haha the magic of the license exam my doods

Anon said:hey I hope I don’t sound creepy but, I just want to say that your art really makes me happy and that you’re one of my favorite artist out there. So even if somtimes you feel like your art sucks I want you to know that I think it’s beautiful! Hope you’re doing well!

You don’t sound creepy at all!!!!! thank you SO MUCH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anon said:i live for ur kamisero art just saying

I haven’t drawn much of that, have I? I’m glad you like it tho!!!! Thank you!!!!!!!!

Anon said:Mako and Tai ♥️♥️

!!!

Anon said:This isn’t an ask, just that I love your art style and it reminds me of a beautiful and cute point and click adventure, “Harvey’s new eyes ” and “Ednas break out” Its very cute and pretty just like your art style and I love both ^^

Oh man thank you!!!

Anon said:Q U O R K

I honestly can’t even remember if this is just a random ask or if it was referring to something specific, ngl (if it’s the second, sorry about my memory being like this orz)

Anon said:Gah I keep missing preorders! I’ve only ever really wanted 2, and each time, don’t have any money, til after they’re done 😢 oh well, I guess. Hope you’re doing well!

If you’re referring to the takemyhand zine, preorders are still going tho!!! and thank you!!!!

[moonraccoon-exe]

Hi, dear moonracoon ! May I ask for your advice ? How do you think an artist can get noticed in the ffxv fandom ? I really wanted to ask you since you're so kind and amazing ! ( >^

HELLO, MY DEAREST BEAUTIFUL ANON!!!! ヽ(・∀・)ﾉ♡♡♡

First of all, I’m sorry that I took longer to this than expected, at least for a personal ask. I didn’t mean to make you wait. (｡•́︿•̀｡)

Okay, let’s check your question!!

Hm! 

First off, I want to tell you that I’m not an artist. So the advice I’m giving you is the best I can think about, but thinking about what I write/post, and what I’ve heard other artists say, but it’s not entirely from experience. So know that if none of what I tell you works, it’s not on you, I may have missed an important advice that didn’t cross my head!

If you’d like, you could ask someone from the drawing/painting world. Yuu-senpai, Hana-senpai, even Solaris-senpai, or many others are very friendly and open and they could give you advice from experience if what I tell you doesn’t convince you. c:

1. The first 5 tags

The first 5 tags under your artwork are the most vital and important, because they’re the ones that actually show up in the Tumblr search section!

You want to use the first five tags under your artwork as the best. Final Fantasy XV and FFXV would be the first two I used, and then something more specific (if your artwork is an Ignis one, then next comes the Ignis and/or Ignis Scientia tag, etc.).

If you want to/like to talk in the tags (like yours truly!), use the last tags or, at least, start from the 6th tag and ahead. The rest of the tags won’t show up in the search section when peopel browse the tag; the rest of the tag space are there for personal use (so you browse the tags in YOUR blog, not in the Tumblr site). 

WARNING: I HIGHLY advice you to NOT use the first 5 tags to fish for attention! If your artwork is a Gladio solo artwork, you have NO REASON to use the Ignis tag or a Noctis tag or even something like a Lunafreya tag!! DO. NOT. USE. UNRELATED TAGS. 

It may work to catch the attention, sure. Someone that follows the Ignis tag may see your Gladio artwork because you used the tag. You’ll catch their attention, but it will be NEGATIVE ATTENTION.

This IS from experience. You do make your artwork reach more people, but all you get is for people to go “Ugh” and scroll past your stuff because you’re spamming artworks unrelated to the tag in the tag. So do NOT!

2. Reblogs

Reblogs are possibly the most vital, most important part to be noticed.

While tagging is GREAT and the first step to make your art go somewhere, I’d dare say the majority of people don’t necessarily follow a tag. I don’t; all that I reblog, all were reblogged from another blog. I only follow the Corqi tag because of how scarce material there is for it, so I don’t want to miss anything. But, for example, I don’t follow any Ignis or FFXV tag (mostly because I want to keep my dash as short as possible lmao, but also) because I follow enough blogs that reblog enough artworks, so why follow a tag if the rest of the people are doing it for me?

Reblogging is a very, very vital part to get noticed because your art is reaching those blogs that don’t follow the tags.

This is, however, not on you. You need another blog to reblog your artwork; one reblog opens many chances so someone else reblogs, and so on and on. The more reblogs, the more chances for more reblogs, and hence, the more people will see it. 

You know what I just thought and I have no idea why it never occurred to me before?

Let’s say you have your art blog. Do you have another one where you reblog stuff? Do you already have followers? Reblog your own artwork; post in your art blog, reblog in the fandom one. That way, you’re your first reblog, and because your reblog/fandom blog will probably have more followers than the art one (at least in a beginning), it has more chances of reaching more people. 

So it’s very important that someone else reblogs your work. This is not on you, as I said, but rather in people giving you a hand at it. Except we don’t always reblog everything we see. 

So why not try to get a friend that starts doing it? 

You’re on anon for a reason, but if you want, you can tag me in your art, or tag me in it pretending to be someone else who happened to see the artwork and thought about me, so I won’t know it’s you (and don’t worry, I won’t get suspicious; I have no way to know it’s you, and I often get tagged in other artworks by people even if we don’t talk often, so I won’t look at the tag and say “Ah! It’s that anon from the other day!” I’ll just think it’s cool someone tagged me in something. Your identity is safe with  me, whether you keep it anon or not

To be honest I don’t reblog EVERYTHING that I see, but there’s big chances I will do it. I really like all the art in this fandom, it’s crazy how skilled you people are! But yeah, showing me can lead to me reblogging it, and there you could find that beginning of the reblogging chain.

Or if you’re too shy to show me, show someone else!!

Any of your friends, or someone you feel confident with, or comfortable with. The point is getting one first reblog that can lead to a few more, and the artwork will start eventually travelling across the FFXV fandom.

Speaking of reblogs, don’t be afraid of reblogging your own work in your own blog itself!

A lot, a lot, a lot of artists do it. A lot of writers too; I do it often!!

What I mean is, think about the world. It’s not the same hour everywhere. I can post something during my evening because everyone is online on evenings, right? So it wil reach everyone.

Nope. To some, it’s night; to some, it’s bedtime; to some, it’s morning. It won’t reach everyone simply because of timezones.

So what I do is, I post something, and then I queue a reblog of the same post but it’s my “12 hour reblog”. If I posted at 6 pm, I’ll queue it for 6 am. I like to do the 12 hr one because I think it’s more chances of reaching many people, with the not-so-literal thought of “if it’s day time here, it’s posting on nighttime in the other side of the world, so in 12 hours it will be this hour tomorrow for them”. I hope it makes sense.

And sometimes I even make a 3rd reblog. Sometimes I do feel shy about it because I fear to be annoying, but 99% of the times it works and it reaches people it hadn’t reached before. 

It’s a way of sending your own work back to the top of the dashboard, and sometimes a way to give a 2nd chance for people to see it; sometimes we scroll past something without noticing, so a reblog will give us a 2nd chance to see it.

3. Posting silly stuff sometimes

It’s not a secret that sometimes a silly stickman comic you drew in 5 minutes gets more attention than the profound artwork you worked in for 10 hours. It can be annoying, disappointing, even discouraging at times. But it is, nonetheless, a good way to get attention. 

I’m not saying you force yourself to think about jokes; most times forced jokes don’t work. But if you ever get a silly idea, don’t be afraid to draw it!

People won’t think about the art and judge it. They’re just looking at the joke. And if they find it funny, they may check your blog for more, and maybe you won’t have more silly comics, but maybe, from 10 people that look in your blog for more comics, 3 will think your other work is AMAZING and will fave and maybe even reblog some of that too. It can even get you a couple new followers.

Again, this is not NECESSARY. I follow artists that have never once in their lives (of this fandom) posted any joke or silly thing, and I still follow and ADORE their work to bits. The only thing I needed was to find them once. 

4. Asks and requests

If you’re up for it and have no troubles, you could also be open for quick requests in your ask box.

Have you seen some of those memes/charts, with many facial expressions/prompts, and people request something? “Could you please draw (X character) in A3, please? Thank you!” That sort of prompts. That can be very useful!

People really like free art. Some of us don’t have money for big commissions, so sometimes, when an artist can make a 15 minutes sketch or doodle of something we like, that’s amazing, and it can lead to earning followers and/or reblogs here and there. 

NOTE: Remember, however, that you’re not WORKING FOR US. You’re not getting paid. Do it for fun, when you can, and don’t stress or overwork or take 100+ requests and try to answer them all in 2 days. It’s only for fun. Alrighty? 

But yeah; sometimes, requests can lead some people to your ask, and hence tto your blog. And it’s fun! A lot of people in this fandom have some damn amazing creativity for prompts (and boy, do I know this!!)

5. Collabs /Drawing for a fic

This works better for writers; people look at artworks way, way, way more than they read fanfics, simply because it’s less time consuming and immediate. 

However, collabs can be an amazing way to get both artist and writer to be known.

There are some that follow the artist; some that follow the writer. So when a writer posts a fic linked to an artwork, people will find out about the artist’s blog that way. And when an artists posts an artwork with a fic linked, people will find the writing blog. It’s a good way that gives and receives equally. 

There are people that are REALLY passionate about a fanfic, so you can be sure as heck that they will check out any artwork about it. That they like it or not, that’s on them, but they will at least check it out. 

So you can also draw for a fic you like, no collab needed.

This works just fine, maybe even better. With this, you not only get to be known, but you also make a writer HYPED AND ECSTATIC. There ain’t a feeling in the world like getting art drawn for your fic. So you can be sure that 99% of chances are the writer will reblog even if it’s not a collab (unless the writer is some FREAK, I can’t imagine why someone wouldn’t reblog an art of their fic???). And so, the people that follow the writer will see it too. 

This can work very well because it’s a way to get at least one reblog for sure, which is a beginning. :)

6. Join fandom weeks/weekends

This is a good way to have fun and get yourself to get known.

That is because this is a way so you will for SURE have at least one reblog. And what’s best is that that reblog won’t be from a blog who has 1 follower, it will be reblogged by a fandom blog who has dozens of followers.

If someone is a lot into Gladnis, chances are they will follow the Gladnisweek blog. Maybe they won’t participate, but they follow it to see the entries of other people, and they have it for sure that the content will be exactly what they’re looking for. 

There is no way your artwork goes unseen in a fandom week! 

7. Be true to yourself; have fun

I know, I know. The most cliché of the clichéd advices. But it’s very important that you remember that.

Don’t draw for the attention; draw for yourself.

This IS another one from personal experience. I honestly never thought I’d write for this fandom, even less have this many followers or this many requests! And you know how I got here? Because I only had fun, shared my ideas, shared my passion for the game with others, I was honest and literally, literally only had fun.

Indeed, what pushed me to fame was literally just joking around. It was the Gladio’s pick up lines series. Which I did not because I wanted followers, I just wanted to make people laugh, and I wanted to share my jokes. 

All that I did was have a lot of fun and do what I wanted, not what I thought other people wanted, and eventually ended up here.

Drawing for attention is like drawing for money; it’s empty art.

You don’t dance, sing, paint, or write thinking about how much money and fame you’ll make. You dance, sing, paint, or write thinking about what your story will say, what you want to transmit, how you want it to look. You’re thinking about creating and sharing, not about the fame.

It’s as I said about making silly things or comics sometimes; it’s only if you want to and if you’re having fun, you don’t have (and must NOT) force it!! (Think about a gas; if you force a gas out, it’ll come out as poop. It must come out naturally. Same with everything else, art included!)

So stay true to yourself. Draw what you want to draw, as you want to draw it. True, you’re not drawing just for yourself; if that was the case, you wouldn’t post it online. You’re posting it because you want to share with others. But do so like that; draw for you and share with others, don’t draw what you THINK the others want or what you THINK the others will like. Draw what you want and what you like, and show us; you’ll find someone that likes it too.

Don’t stress about what people will like or not. Think about what YOU like, and that’s it. 

I understand the concern about getting your art to be known, but that comes later. 

And that’s all that I can think of right now! Gee, I sure hope I’m not forgetting/not thinking about something more or else. But I’m sure maybe some raccoobo can have advice too, so, while I can’t tell you for sure it will happen, maybe someone will drop a comment under this, so make sure to check the notes if you see any. My raccoobos are smarter and have more experience than me, so they may know something else! ヽ(・ω・)ﾉ

Of just draw the boys in lingerie, for some reason most fandom seem to like that? Lol. I honestly rarely like that and prefer them in fancy, but maybe I’m just old fashioned or a NERD. But really, draw what you like, this sentence was a joke c:

Anyway, buddy, that’s that!!

[I’m gonna add a read more; it’s not more, just my personal thanks, but as this is already lengthy, I’m gonna add this under a cut. Hope that’s okay, buddy :)]

Thank you so, so, so immensely much for asking me. I feel flattered that you decided to put this bit of trust in me. I don’t know what I did so you felt comfortable and asked me, but I’m happy about it!! 

Thank you for coming to this raccoonie for advice. I’m not the best at it, but I try. I hope any of this can be useful, buddy. Thank you again for the trust, it’s really valuable to me and I feel very honored that you asked me. :’)

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWW, and thank you SO MUCH for saying such kind and nice and sweet things about me!!! YOU’RE SO NICE, AH, YOU STOP THAT! Now I’m a blushing and giggling MESS, I’m too weak at handling praise aklsdj dfskljf klsdjf d (*ﾉ▽ﾉ)♡♡♡ 

The raccoonie is here for any question or struggle that you have, buddy! I may not always have advice, but I can always share thoughts and ideas, or just read you and give you warmy and fluffy raccoonie snuggles, alrighty? c:

Thank you so much again for asking me and for the bit of trust, and for being so sweet with me

Whether you decide to show me or not, I’ll anyway be sending you some of my most powerful, strongest MAGICAL RACCOON VIBES so you get success and the fame and followers you deserve!! And I don’t know if you’ve followed my blog for a while or if you’ve read my other personal asks, but my magical racc vibes... ALWAYS WORK!! So now you ust gotta work hard, have fun, share, and that’s it. :3

So. *grabs pompoms* This raccoon will be HYSTERICALLY CHEERING ON YOU, OKAY. Greatest of lucks, buddy, I know you can do this!! GO, GO, A-NON, GO GO, A-NON!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!! o(≧▽≦)o

Thanks again for everything, buddy! I wish you the absolute BEST and I give you lots, and lots, and LOTS of magical raccoon vibes so it works phenomenally!!! (ﾉ´ヮ`)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ

Greatest of lucks!

I hope you’re having a MOST FANTASTIC day or night!! Hugs!  \(^ヮ^)/

[charlieism]

2017 Fic List

These are all the fanfics that I wrote and posted this year! I hope if you decide to read any that you like them :)

Fluff:

Polyamsanders / Platonic

Snowballs and Sweaters  (2918 words)

Roman, Patton, Virgil and Logan celebrate Christmas together.

Loved (1085 words)

Its late at night, Logic is tired and gets cuddled by his boyfriends.

Soothing (Platonic, or anyone with Virgil) (2499 words)

In which each side discovers that Anxiety likes having his hair played with.

Numbers Do Justice (453 words) (Based off artwork)

Prince and Anxiety can't sit in silence together for too long, Anxiety has to offend Roman somehow!

Reflexes (926 words)

“Luck?” “Nope. Skill.” “If it was skill then do it again.”

Logicality

Golden Mornings (844 words)

Waking up to a golden morning

Kiss It Better (925 words)

Logan is sick and Patton is a good boyfriend.

Carnival (1349 words)

Logan takes Patton to a carnival.

Friendship Bracelets (959 words)

"Well, since you're my best friend, I wanted to give you something to remember that we're good friends? So... I made us friendship bracelets." Morality rushed bashfully, thrusting his hands out and revealing to Logan the surprise.

Surprisingly Nice (687 words)

Cuddling is a surprisingly nice activity, Logic has found.

Prinxiety

Of Ink Stains and Love Notes (5194 words)

Everyone has a soulmate. Almost everyone finds their soulmate and forms a relationship with them, be it romantic or platonic. Some people have the link, an anomaly in which anything that is written, drawn, or doodled onto one person's skin will appear on their soulmate's skin, in the exact same place. Roman has the link. Or at least, he likes to believe he does.

Thunderstorms (877 words)

Anxiety hates thunderstorms, but he doesn't have to suffer through them alone anymore.

Holding Hands (3764 words)

Everyone ships it. The fans, the viewers, Patton, even Logic. Prince and Anxiety won't ever get together, Anxiety knows this. There's literally no way ever. Even though everyone ships it. Prince and Anxiety are rivals, they don't like each other! Anxiety would never even think about befriending Prince. Just because it's a certain holiday with everyone telling them to get together doesn't mean anything's going to change.

Colour (880 words)

Anxiety has always associated people with colours. Roman is red.

Kitten (304 words)

"What's behind your back?"

Eyeshadow (2045 words)

“Ugh, you cannot take a hint.” He grumbled, making Anxiety frown in confusion. “Fine. I want you to do my eyeshadow.” Roman muttered.

Angst:

Happy Ending

Fake Smiles and False Confidence (Roman-centric) (4128 words)

Prince always brought up self love and saving himself because he knew he didn’t. Roman didn’t love himself, he hated himself, and he wanted to change that but he didn’t know how. His quest to save himself, to love himself, was taking so long and it wasn’t working at all, no matter how many fake smiles he shone and how much false confidence he oozed.

Apologies (Patton & Logan-centric) (2433 words)

“Logan?” He called cautiously. Silence followed. “Logan, I know you’re in your room. But I’m not going to come in if you don’t want me to, I know I upset you. And I just need you to know…” Patton exhaled shakily. “I’m sorry.”

Bottled Up Emotions (Logan-centric) (Written with an addition from @softbludemon)

Every time Logan represses a feeling, a bottled up emotion appears on a shelf. One day, the shelf breaks.

Love Is Stronger (Virgil-centric) (Prinxiety) (2064 words)

Ella Enchanted AU

The room, it was beautiful. Anxiety's fingers were linked with Roman's, and he couldn't pull them free, but he wanted to. He wanted to run away. Far away, away from Roman. Roman, who was tugging him through the door, into the Room of Mirrors. A room of beautiful mirrors and vines, of flowers and shining reflections, a room of memories and tradition and love. A room that would soon be where Prince died.

Just A Joke (Roman & Virgil-centric) (277 words)

Anxiety is scared of spiders. Prince regrets it.

Unhappy Ending

Untouchable (Virgil-centric) (347 words)

They thought me untouchable, but you swept me off my feet a lifetime ago and never quite put me down. Of course I was out of their reach.

Torn (Focuses on every side) (3603 words)

Tears dampened pillows and blankets, stained cheeks and rimmed eyes with scarlet red. Sobs shook each trait's body, pulling choked cries from aching throats and burning lungs. Each person sought comfort, searched desperately for a way to appease the hurt clawing at them from the inside out, only to find cold, unyielding isolation.

His Name (Logan-centric) (505 words)

Why did everybody else get reveal their names on their own? Why wasn’t he… why wasn’t he important enough to do that? Liked enough? Good enough? Why was he getting so upset over this, he was being unreasonable, it’s stupid, he should definitely not have tears in his eyes over such a trivial matter.

Against The Wall (Patton-centric) (1121 words) (A collab with @softbludemon​!)

The wall that split them off, kept them alone and away from one another. Left them confined to their own rooms, to single-handedly be the characteristic they’re supposed to embody. To do all that work with zero help… zero support… zero love.

Without Us (Patton-centric) (613 words)

“No! I won’t do what you say any longer! It’s not all up to you, I’m important too, you don’t know everything, I’m here for a reason!” Patton yelled, chest heaving as he blinked back tears of fury. 

Chapter fics: (AO3) 

(aka my first sanders sides fics, jeez)

Opposites Attract (Prinxiety) (16172 words)

The one where everyone thinks Prince and Anxiety hate each other, but truthfully they really, really don't. Sure, they argue about pretty much everything, but what do people always say? Opposites Attract!

(Logically Speaking) Opposites Attract  (Logicality, Prinxiety) (12595 words) (Sequel to Opposites Attract) 

Prince and Anxiety are a couple. Misleading Compliment and Pranks are best friends. So who's left? Morality and Logic, of course. 

Logic still attempts to ignore Dad, and often tries to push him away. In Logic's opinion, Dad just has too many feelings; they overflow out of him and splash onto everyone else, making them experience emotions as well. Ugh, feelings. The bane of Logan's existence.

They're even more of a problem when he starts experiencing...Something that he can't explain, whenever he looks at Morality. They are abnormal, peculiar, unorthodox... feelings and emotions. What do they mean, and what is Logic supposed to do about them?

Other Rambled Writing

Essentially where I write, outline, plan, theorise or come up with a story but it’s in tumblr text post format lol, inspired and based off anons that I get sent

Roman’s arc and room

Logan’s arc and room

Virgil believing in Santa

Roman’s Halloween costumes

When Thomas gets butterflies in his stomach, Virgil hiccups butterflies.

There we go! They’re all the fics that i have fully posted and have been able to hunt down lol i hope you like some of them?? (rereading some of my older ones was an Experience for myself lmao, and i’m not even sure if this is all the fics, i used to suck at tagging oml.)

[hidden-otaku-stuff]

(1) Hello I am back!! I'm sorry it's been long, these past couple of weeks have had me swamped with homework :( and yet I still didn't do it all 🤡 also get ready for a bunch of messages because 1.) responses and 2.) my thoughts on Lockscreens. Spoiler: I am Emotional haha. Aww, thank you :') I used to think it was weird to give yourselves nicknames but I'm past that now haha. Another one I go by sometimes is "Lizard" because I stick my tongue out a lot when I'm talking??

(2) and people think I'm cold blooded because I get really cold easily and like to bask in the sun. I mostly just did traditonal sketches and a lot of screencap redraws. I want to get into art again, but I'm taking it slow for now and focusing more on my writing. And I feel that too LOL. I'm going to start a blog dedicated to reblogging x reader fics that I like because I'm too embarrassed to do so on my main blog (I tell all of your followers 🤡)

hey Honeymoon! as long as you’re taking care of yourself, that’s all I care about ��� i’m gonna post my responses into two parts. a Lockscreens segment after you send in the rest of your thoughts and a get-to-know-you part for now!

(also I’M FROM CA TOO AND WHY ON EARTH ARE YOU SENDING ME MESSAGES AT 3AM OML)

ngl, i feel like the best person to give you a nickname is yourself! i jokingly gave myself the nickname ‘Daddy’ and that’s literally become my “rave” personality LMAO. but i can understand why some people think it’s weird 🤷 honestly lizard is a bad-ass nickname !! i’m the same way - being in the cold makes me sooo sleepy and i’d rather bask in the sun 😂

i’d love to see your artwork or writing sometime! please feel free to send it over 🥰

(3) Honestly even with all my issues it's kind of nice being a hopeless romantic! Like you said it gives me the chance to day dream haha. Maybe I have my head in the clouds a lot but sometimes it's nice to be there. There's so many, but I think it's a tie between enemies to lovers and friends to lovers. I love the drama and comedy from the former but I'm so Soft for the latter, and that's highkey how I want my relationship to start.

(4) I think building that bond with someone before you even start dating them is really sweet, and having that connection by the time you commit to each other is 💓 I'm sorry you've been having writers block, that's the worst :( if it helps, the past two chapters have turned out amazing, I love them so much!! I think the closest I got to hardcore shipping something that wasn't canon was RinHaru? But there was also a lot of tension and affection in their relationship so I could see it being canon

there’s nothing wrong with having dreams! just so long as you can ground yourself at the end of the day. 

enemies to lovers is always the funniest for me to read TBH. because it’s such an inevitable cliche haha. friends to lovers though -- oooo my heart. 

the best relationships start with friendship. it’s the most authentic imo. like for me, it’s exhausting bearing my heart open to new people each time i want to get involved with someone romantically. but having someone who already knows you inside out??? swoon. what about a trope you dislike?

ah tyty, i’m glad you enjoyed them! the writers’ block wasn’t too bad for these chapters. i’ve had them typed up for a few weeks now :’) 

rinharu is so cute though! but Harukoto (or whatever the ship name is tbh) is super cute too. but maybe i just really like the best friend to lovers trope LMAO

(5) I just looked at their insta and !!!!!!!!!! that's so cute! I like bokuaka but I've never looked into it as much as others, but their art made me have Feelings lol. I think that is a good view to have on family tbh. I've developed a relationship with my blood family and we're close, but there's something special about the relationships and love you have for people you choose to stay with. I love Tiana!! I think she's a really underrated Disney character :(

(6) She really encompasses Disney's message of working hard to achieve your dreams, and she's a strong, independent woman without being closed off and rejecting her feelings. I think it's so cute and cool that she had that much of an impact on you :D Oof, I get that 💀. Men are gross 🤢 I don't get it very often because I live in SoCal and tbh to a lot of other people brown just equals mexican lol. They're right but I really don't look full mexican. Portuguese and Islander people can tell though

bokuaka art makes me have ~ feelings ~ i also really like @/liann1009 and @/maddox_rider on IG! (tbh idk if they have a tumblr whoops) liann1009 does a lot of OiHina whereas maddox_rider does bokuaka which is ridiculously cute too 🥰 

DUDE OMG YES!!! Tiana and Kita (from Atlantis) are under-rated QUEENS who deserved better!! we need representation out here in this b*tch!!! 

idek why, but some people think i look hispanic 🙃 but yes bby, men are gross and should be better!! i have yet to meet a man who deserves to stand on equal ground to me, imma be real. (2d men don’t count but y’know). does it bother you when people mistake your ethnicity? 

(7) Thank you!! Ngl it's kind of scary wondering about what the industry is going to be like because I'm sure I will run into a lot of biased people and sources, but learning to navigate that is just part of the job. Of course there's people who will read biased sources and attack you too, but you can't always escape those people :/ and thank you love, you're so sweet 💕 That's really admirable! It takes a lot of work and creativity to start a business, I'm sure you'll be successful 😊

(8) what kind were you thinking of? and psych is super cool too! Having that understanding of people and the world can be really eye opening and fun :D It's okay, he was one of my favorite teachers but looking back he was an asshole. He had his good/funny moments and did a lot for me, but he also abused some of editors in my journalism class, and some friends of mine :/ He wouldn't appreciate their work, sometimes insult them, and even encouraged my friend to not sleep for the sake of the paper

i’m positive that you’ll do just fine once you get out there! it seems like you have a pretty thick skin :) 

i really wanted to open a business to help support under-represented groups receive an education - with major focus on minority groups such as orphans/foster children, veterans, and the homeless. there’s so much logistics that tbh i’m too ~stressed~ to think about so i’m tabling that for awhile :’) 

bruhhh fuck that teacher. drop his addy, i just wanna talk real q 💞   if you can’t support all of your students, then there is no point in being a professor!! there is literally 0 reason to be rude when you’re in a position of power, especially when it involves someone’s passion, career, and/or education.

(9) I just remembered that there's a limit to how many asks you can send in a certain amount of time so if these suddenly stop I'm sorry! I'll come back when I can haha. I wouldn't say I'm all that great tbh, but I'm proud of a lot of my works LOL. My favorite part about it is using makeup and tools to just turn into something else. Wounds are always fun, but making yourself a gargoyle or some other creature is what makes it so interesting to me.

(11) I'm OBSESSED with the makeup and costumes from LOTR. It's my biggest inspiration. I can go on about it haha. That's so cool!! Being a part of the whole production, especially all sides to it, sounds so fun. Do you have any favorite memories from your time in high school? I'd love to hear them if you have any :O Confession: I have never seen any of those asdfkljvk. I know I really should though and it's on my to do list ! I've heard really great things about all of them !

imma be real, i didnt know there was a limits on asks LMAO. i did hear that they sometimes get eaten though, so i really hope that doesn’t happen 😅 

we all start somewhere. your first step will never look like someone else’s, nor should it. as long as it’s something that you can look back upon and be proud of and know that you’ve grown from, that’s all that matters! 

just imagining someone using makeup to turn themselves into a gargoyle has my head spinning  🤣 like ya girl can barely do her eye-makeup, let alone anything as intense as that! what’s been the most difficult project? 

DUDE, I LOVE MEDIEVAL-HISTORICAL WORKS! like the dresses from that Mary from Reign wears has my heart so softtttt. dfsnosdf. please!! tell me some of your fav things about LOTR  💖

omg high-school was so long ago, i don’t think i have any favorite memories from it 🙃 i think the opening night of a production would be the best. listening to the audiences reactions as the performers left their hearts on-stage, seeing all the pieces fall together, that was always absolutely incredible. wbu, what did you enjoy about hs? 

i have very strong opinions on those musicals LMAO. i can talk about them forever  🤩

[freedomseeker91]

In Light Of Recent Events....

I feel it necessary to remind people to retain a sense of decorum.

It has been public knowledge for a while now that two new male characters would be joining the Pitch Perfect fandom, and that those two male characters would be somehow linked to Beca and Chloe.

While Kendrick has more or less shot down the idea that Beca would gain a new love interest, Brittany has pretty much confirmed what many of us have known since before PP3 began filming. That Chicago is someone Chloe will have her eye on.

Now, the word love interest is an interesting sentiment in and of itself because, it doesn’t necessarily relate to a relationship. A love interest can be someone who catches someone’s eye briefly before fading into the background. As is often the case in tv dramas, and the same can be true for movies too.

While I don’t know the ins and outs of the latest plot or how Chloe’s new storyline will unfold, what I will say is, don’t jump the gun.

A lot of people are getting very worked up already from two words that literally could lead to anything, including a relationship/plot line that goes nowhere.

We’ve always known that Bechloe was never going to be canon, because they were never written to be anything more than friends. And because large corporate studios won’t risk “rocking the boat” at the expense of potentially losing dollars.

But here’s the thing, Kendrick and Britt have acknowledged Bechloe and neither has said they would be against the idea, which for me is a win in itself, because that’s something the studios can never take away from us.

They have been incredibly supportive and engaging when it comes to it and for that reason, I beg of all of you who are currently battling some internal rage, please, be grateful for what we have been given and let whatever happens, happen without any animosity or negativity.

Neither Snow, nor Kendrick have any real control or say over the script, they can only act out what is on the page and promote whatever the end product turns out to be.

Please don’t attack them or bombard them with posts condemning them for something that isn’t their fault or begging them to somehow find the power to change what they have no power over.

Just embrace whatever PP3 turns out to be and let go of whatever animosity you feel, because if we’ve learned anything from what’s going on in the world around us right now, being loud and aggressive and applying pressure and bullying like behaviour, will only serve to be your downfall in the end.

I don’t want the cast or anyone involved with the franchise to begin to resent this fandom, I especially don’t want people to continue to further tarnish this ship in the eyes of other shippers.

If you don’t want to see this movie for whatever reason, then don’t go, but don’t try and turn it into a boycott because that strategy in itself is an insult to the ladies you claim to support.

They have worked really hard on this movie and don’t deserve to have their hard work shoved back in their faces because people are feeling petty or have had their feelings hurt.

If you don’t want to see this movie because the plot doesn’t appeal to you or because you don’t think it will live up to expectations, fine, everyone is entitled to their opinion. But don’t try and instigate a boycott as some sort of revenge attack against the studio.

Because at the end of the day, if you attack the studio, you attack all those whose names are attached to the project and that includes Kendrick, Brittany and the rest of the Bella’s.

So please, I beg of you, calm down, take a step back and just let sleeping dogs lie, because at the end of the day, Bechloe was never canon before, and fans still managed to create an entire body of work (fics, gifs, artwork etc) from very little, all while Beca was in a relationship with a male character.

The ship will continue to live on, as long as fans continue to create their own universe where anything is possible. It didn’t stop the fandom before why should this be any different.

[moreracquetball]

Would I be able to commission you for writing works? Like pay you to write fics? If not that's totally fine but I want you to know that your work is amazing and I would absolutely pay to read it or get my own story written by you, it'd be a privilege, honestly.

Wow, I’m honored! The fact that you think my writing is good enough to be paid for is so flattering and overwhelming!!

To answer your question: no. But I have reasons.

Of course, there’s a irl reason why not (I don’t have a paypal, and I can’t really go up to my mom like “heyyy can i have your permission to enter my debit/credit info for a paypal so strangers from the internet can pay me for services?” like - that would not go over well, and it’d just be added stress for me even if I went and got one anyway without telling her because I would always be scared she’d ask me “where did you get this money” since I don’t have a job). It would be weird and awkward and stressful because it’d have to be a “secret” from my family and friends, and it’s fine that my writing is a secret because that doesn’t intersect with real life but a sudden burst in money might be questioned and it would make me extra paranoid and uncomfortable.

There’s also much bigger reasons that might seem really pretentious, eye-roll-y of me but it’s the truth:

1) I don’t want this to be a job. For my circumstances right now, in the headspace that I am in, at this point in time: writing is a coping mechanism for me when I am feeling sad/distressed/stressed/anxious. It is a coping mechanism because it just wholly belongs to me and there are no strings attached to it and what I write/when I write/how much I write is always up to me (with the exception of the writing raffle I’m doing, but that is just an isolated, learning experience for me as a writer in order to see if I would ever be able to meet someone else’s instructions/prompt on a deadline). Writing is very personal to me (esp right now), and if I make it a commodity up to the highest bidder, that personal, stress-free experience would be taken from me. Because then I would have customers to please and expectations to uphold and deadlines to meet and prompts that are fine but not exactly my taste, and writing would not be a coping mechanism anymore and rather just another source of stress. 

2) Also, I want my writing to be free for everyone, you know? I don’t want there to be a “premium package” of my writing or a “if you want to be a super fan of me and want a prompt filled, you have to pay because my writing is so great and not for free” air to myself. I don’t want my writing to turn into a commodity where I only fill prompts for the fans who have money because it alienates the fans that want that connection and in-put to the fandom but don’t have anything to “give me” in return. It would create a hierarchy within the community and it’d intimidate people that want a prompt filled but don’t have the money to pay me, which would then lead to them just not requesting/asking. I don’t want to elevate myself to a point where I am more than just a fan of a musical, that I am somehow “better” than any other writer in this or any fandom who just accepts prompts without payment. I just feel like it would really isolate me from others and would make me seem even more intimidating. It would really disconnect me from the general fan experience of sharing work and inspiration. 

To put it all simply: I don’t want my participation in this fandom to become a business.

So I really appreciate the request because it was very polite and flattering, but commissions just don’t interest me at this moment in time. I am not financial unstable for that money to be in dire need, and I just feel like commissions would do more harm than good in my own personal experience and point of view. I’m not saying that commissions are inherently selfish and evil: It’s more than fine and absolutely incredible that other creators (writers, artists, etc) do commissions. I think that it is really great that people are getting paid to do things that they love and had been willing to do for free. Maybe one day, I myself will want to do commissions as well - but not today.

But anon: if you want a prompt filled, literally just send me an ask with a prompt. I can’t guarantee that I will accept it or will make it as long as you want it or have it finished in a timely manner (these are all just examples of worst-case scenarios - I’m usually pretty punctual and efficient with this kind of stuff), but I will try to give it a shot at the very least. I actually love requests and I love filling prompts and I love making other fans happy and excited about a musical/characters that I am also very happy and excited about. No payment required - just ask me.

But say, what if you just want to support me, you know? Well, there are other ways that you can support any creator that doesn’t include financial payment:

- Feedback!! Reviews, direct messages, asks - just tell the creator how much you liked that thing that they did and be as specific as possible. It takes little out of your day to tell a creator how much you enjoyed their stuff, and even if your compliments are short and offhanded, they always mean the world to that creator. Simple rule: if you like the thing, tell the creator. I myself read every single review of my fics (usually re-read them more than twice, tbh), and they always mean so much. There are never “too many” reviews to a thing - I don’t care if that thing already has 999 reviews/comments/kudos/asks. You should still write at least a little short review thanking that creator for creating something that you have enjoyed. 

- Spread it, share it, tell others about it. You like the thing? Hey, you should tell others how much you like this thing and give it to them so they can also read/see/listen/watch this thing and appreciate it as well. Make posts about it, link it to friends - just let other people have knowledge and access to it so that creator’s work can continue to grow.

- Take inspiration from that creator’s work and create something of your own. It can be a graphic, an edit, an artwork, a mood board, an aesthetic, a playlist, a song, a poem, a video, a fic - just create something inspired by that creator’s something and tag/send it to them. I know from experience that receiving fan art that it is such an incredible feeling to see someone else be inspired and appreciative of something you created! It is sooo flattering and overwhelming, and creators like this shit a lot.

This was wayyyy too long of a response for such a simple, polite question but I just wanted to make my stance clear and my reasons sound and my points well-articulated. Thanks so much for this ask, and I hope you have a wonderful day!

[theworldaccordingtodee]

UnPopular Opinion: OUAT Doesn't Owe Me Sh*t (Explained)

If watching and being a fan of OUAT has taught me anything, it's not to expect a damn thing from someone who has no idea about who you are or your life experiences. Tbh, we as POCs or as LGBTQ people can't be mad at Adam and Eddie for being Adam and Eddie. These are two straight White males who created a show from THEIR perspective. The keywords here there are straight and male...I'm also gonna throw in their Whiteness for my fellow POCs. Sure, they lured us in with promises of something new and different, but doesn't every show? Television shows wouldn't exist if they flat out said: "This show is about diversity...except we're gonna given you token POC/LGBTQ characters who are either killed off, are there to further a White character's storyline OR we give them really shitty, really overused tropes" Its their job as showrunners to lie in order to get viewers. Why do you think they've been silent about shit like #OnceUponaRaceFail and those shitty people making accounts to harass Lana, and the CS fandom on Twitter, or the shit with YNB, Shatner, and Leanne? They have made it clear time and time again, they give NO fucks about us. So if they've shown us over and over again that they don't care, we certainly can't expect them to empathize with us, nor can we expect them to magically understand our experiences as POCs, as LGBTQs, or as women and write them accordingly. Hello! These guys had Zelena rape Robin and have his child but claim it wasn't rape. They also let Zelena get away with this AND keep her baby. I used to feel like they owed me something, that they did me wrong, but I really had to sit and think about it: this show was never for me. We as POCs and LGBTQ people often see things in media that are really us just trying to self identify and when what we perceive isn't what happens in reality, it hurts. It doesn't make us wrong or bad people, or any of that other hurtful shit people say, it makes us...humans, searching for our place in the world, searching for acceptance and belonging. I remember learning that shortly before his death, Dr. Martin Luther King had REGRETS about integration. He said something along the lines of "I thought I was doing my people a favor, instead, i bought them into a burning building..." I think that in 2017, we're still trying to run into the burning building, ignoring the smoke and fire. Ironically I'm typing this and I'm excited about the new season of OUAT. No, I take that back, I'm excited about the fact that there will be more POC on the cast than White people. I'm excited about the fact that Lana will more than likely be the female lead-before it was her, JMo, and Ginny. I'm excited that she may be billed first, which, as a WOC, that's an accomplishment in television. I'm excited about the fact that I get another season of this wonderful human being somehow managing to bring life to this really great character. I'm excited because even though my expectations are low, Tiana is FINALLY happening. I'm happy because Henry's LI is a brown skinned Latina woman with an strong accent from the Dominican Republic. Again, I still don't expect anything from this show, but what I will do is celebrate, not for myself, cause Eddie and Adam don't owe me SHIT, but I'm celebrating for the WOC who are doing amazing things. We've had the pleasure of having a Puero Rican woman from Brooklyn sizzle on TV as the Evil Queen. She made the EQ sexy, and human, and sassy, and vulnerable. She stands up for fans and is kind, and good. This show did more for her than it did for pretty much anybody else. You literally CANNOT say OUAT without mentioning Lana Parrilla. I celebrate THAT. I don't have to like or respect OUAT, Eddie Kitsis, or Adam Horowitz, but I watch and cheer on this show to support Lana, and now Gabrielle, Alison, Dania, and Mekia. Because when they win, I win. If you don't agree with me that's cool, but you can't expect two straight White dudes to understand what if feels like to be a POC, LGBTQ, or a woman in the United States of America right now. Also, you'll be hard pressed to find a show that has all of these things and doesn't find a way to fuck it up or isn't cancelled for one reason or another. If you want, expect, or demand more from television then fine, but you can't expect it from Hollywood honesty. That place has been shitty from the start. If you want change, go make it yourself. You fic writers, if you want fics about wlw or polyamory, or POCs go write that shit and self publish it. Post your fics on fanfic.net, on AO3, on WattPad...I can guarantee you people will read it. You have artwork? Sell that shit, people will buy it. You have an idea for a TV show? Write the manuscript, put it on YouTube as a scripted web show, people will watch. Start somewhere, but get your work out there somehow!!! Nobody can create better representation for people who look like you than YOU! That's really all I have to say, this kinda got long and I didn't really know where else to go with it but yeah, all the shit I said...

[ineffablefool]

I got an ask which I have decided to respond to anonymoosely, because I can.

I just read your post about Fat Aziraphale and how it made you feel better - I'm trying to use Aziraphale to convince my wife (also fat) that really, she's wonderfully friend- and wife-shaped and people find her pleasant to look at.

Oof.  This kind of situation is such a hard one to be in, for all parties concerned, because we’re all stewing in nigh-constant fatphobic garbage, and almost no fat person, no matter how good their self-esteem, can ignore that garbage 100% of the time.  So the person feels bad because they don’t look the way someone else decided they should look, and the people who care about them feel bad because, well, they care.  Just yuck all around.

I have Thoughts on this, and I figured I’d put ‘em on the blog.  They are not specific to asker, especially since asker didn’t ask for advice.  Asker can totally ignore me if they like, that’s fine.  But now the Thoughts will Live on the Blog.  Oh -- and I use “fat” as a neutral descriptor throughout all this.  Not “plus-sized” or “larger” or the o word which I hate with the blue-hot screaming fire of an oxyacetylene torch of rage.  Fat.  Simple term to contrast with thin in the same way tall contrasts with short.  I like simple.

(this gets exceptionally long without being the least bit organized)

Disclaimer, I am not an expert in anything except being me.  But that means I’m an expert in being a fat human, and one who ID’d as female for over 30 years and still gets read as female 99.44% of the time (women get hit harder with this crap), and one who has done a lot of thinking about this whole mess.  So maybe that will be useful to someone.

And I don’t know if this is ever a “convince” sort of thing.  I think it’s more a “come to realize, slowly, over time, with a lot of work and hopefully support”.  (Asks aren’t the best place to craft the very finest of language, so I know there’s a lot of wiggle room in the meaning of “convince” in the ask that spurred this post, but again, I’m taking this more general.  )  It’s very hard to show a fat person your inner understanding of them as a whole and wonderful and important human being. This is because we get so many little reinforcements, day in and day out, that being fat is inherently bad, and that we are inherently bad if we are fat.  It creates a narrative which hits us from almost every conceivable angle, and it can feel very, very convincing.  (Read this 2010 post by Ragen Chastain if you want to be sad.  I’m not saying her results are typical, because her work involves dealing with fatphobia, but I am saying that if any of us sat down to do this math, we are not likely to be happy about whatever result we do get.)

So it’s a bunch of little things needed to turn things around, and it’s over a period of potentially years, and it’s the fat person in question having both the willingness and the energy to put in a bunch of boring yucky work.

Positive representation is a huge part of it, though.  It builds a new narrative.  It gives examples of fat people accomplishing things, creating things, living and having fun and just actually being people.  Of fat people being loveable, and loved, although that’s not the most important part.  I focus on it in the Good Omens hyperfixation part of my life, because my hyperfixation is completely around a romantic Aziraphale/Crowley relationship, but being a valid romantic partner is not nearly as important as all that other stuff (hi my aro and ace people you are not forgotten).  And I’ve seen a bunch of posts by people talking about how Sheen’s Aziraphale, and the fandom response to the character, have helped with their own self-esteem -- because it’s the new narrative.  It’s not “this character is (barely, if you squint, but we’ll let it ride for a sec) fat, and therefore bad or the butt of a joke or less than the thinner characters”.  It’s “this character is fat and important and loved”.  Type of love is up for all of us to decide per Mr. Gaiman, but you don’t get to argue the love.  Aziraphale’s appearance has nothing to do with his value as a human-like entity.  He’s literally tied with Crowley for most important character, given that the show has been reframed from the book to both begin and end with our ineffable duo (plus the emphasis given by the Hard Times cold open).

Sharing that new narrative with the important fat person in one’s life can be one very small part of helping them unlearn the old narrative.  If it helps, I kinda not-officially-but-it-works-out-that-way curate fatter-versions-of-Aziraphale artwork in my fat positivity tag, along with all the other fat-positive stuff that runs through my blog.  (I don’t think there’s any fics in that tag besides mine, just commentary, but I can’t remember right now.)

Over on my other Tumblr account, I follow a bunch of fat-positive blogs, although I haven’t refreshed the list in a while (I just... don’t need it as much as I used to, which is fascinating, now that I think about it), and some of them have gone dormant.  But I can recommend, in no particular order, fuckyeahfatpositive, ok2befat, and fatqueerlove (assuming the person IDs as/is comfortable with the label “queer”) for the more affirmation side of things (though there’s some activism mixed in); and bigfatscience, the-exercist, and fatphobiabusters for the more activism side of things (debunking bad science and fatphobic myths; speaking out against fatphobia in medicine, legislation, reporting, and wherever else it shoves its ugly head out from its troll-cave). The Fat Nutritionist hasn’t updated in a year, but she still has lots of good stuff up. thisisthinprivilege is... hard to read, sometimes, and I think it’s better for after you’re energized and angry about the garbage you’ve been taught.

(If anyone gets through this ridiculously long post and knows of other good resources for that last paragraph, by the way, I’d love to hear about ‘em.)

But it takes the fat person actually seeking out the new narrative, and shoving fat-positive content and mindsets into their eyeballs and brainpan, for there to be a real change, I think.  And that’s the boring yucky work part.  A lot of people find that they can’t really pull their thoughts out of the old track and into the new one without getting some help from a therapist -- and therapists are great and there’s nothing wrong with going to therapy, I see a therapist every two weeks myself -- but therapy takes time and money and energy and a therapist you can actually work with.  Not everyone has all four of those things.

It’s also important to not draw any lines when trying to communicate to one’s important fat person that they are, in fact, important and worth whatever kind of love it is that one has for them.  No “you’re not actually that fat” (how will they feel if they gain more weight later?).  No “at least you’re healthy” (how will they feel if they become unhealthy?).  No “but you carry it well” or other variations on “at least you’re not one of the ugly ones” (how will they feel if their appearance changes later?).

If there’s a line, then your important fat person always has to be careful not to cross it.  Don’t imply to them that there is actually an appearance-related condition to your love for them, and they just luckily haven’t failed you yet.  If there actually is such a condition, maybe sit down and have a few deep thoughts with yourself.

Plus, speaking personally, I am “that fat”, and I’m not 100% healthy, and I carry it weird and am really-weird looking.  And I don’t appreciate being thrown under the bus so someone can tell someone else “at least you’re not one of those, you know, the fat people who aren’t valid and important human beings”.  So nobody ever do that.  Please.

Final words to my unhealthy, or really really fat, or weird-shaped or just plain ugly-by-current-common-standards fat people out there -- i got u fam.  You’re all valuable and important and I love you.  And you’re all doing, or going to do, amazing things, because doing amazing things has precisely jack to do with the amount or positioning of fat upon your very important and inherently worthy human self.

That’s all!  If you made it this far, then you get this link to a photo of a cute bearded dragon in a hat, if you’d like to click it.  I follow william-snekspeare on my other account and have commissioned him for artwork twice now and he is an absolute dear.

And I hope asker’s wife has a good body image day tomorrow.