#and i was like ah yes hyperfixation engaged

[hood-ex]

The mental wail of despair that echoed through my mind when I went to the library today only to find a fat "CLOSED" sign on the door. Screw you, door. How dare you lock me out when I've just finished watching the extended LOTR movies and now have a desperate need to get my hands on the books so that I can get a better characterization of Frodo, and I can also have a better understanding of the mental and psychological torture the ring put him through.

[angel-of-the-moons]

Hi! I just wanted to let you know I loved "Small Surprises." I'm a single mom (boy mom tho) and its nice to read stuff with single mom's as the reader. Its very rare especially in a fandom such as this one. Its actually pretty accurate (to my experience with parenthood) and I loved Victoria she is precious. My favorite part was how they met Jake. That was so cute! I laughed very hard at the end with Khonshu! Excellent job!

Honestly the love that Small Surprises has gotten has absolutely floored me. I adore reading the comments and tags on what people thought of it! It makes my day when I get a blip and see what new things someone has to say about it 🥺

I had so much fun writing it and the dynamics they all began to work out with one another.

Especially Jake! I loved how Jake was with Diatrice in the comics and I just had to make sure Girl Dad Jake was there. He's the protector, the big brother, the guardian... And so much more! I love making sure to write that part of Jake in, as many people saw him in the show and just assumed he was some cold, calculating hitman on Khonshu's behalf. I wanted to show he is so, so much more than what little we saw of him.

Steven having a tiny friend to hyperfixate and stim with will be so good for him, and Victoria having someone who completely understands her will certainly help her come out of her shell with other people more, knowing that just because she's different, doesn't mean she's alone. Yes, Mama knows (and tries to understand) about her baby's tics and mannerisms, but she doesn't know about them, y'know? Steven sure does and he's more than happy to engage with her!

And of course there was Marc having all the reality fall down on him on what he/they started to mean to that sweet little girl when she called him Daddy. I imagine with everything he's been through, Marc is terrified of it all. He's worried that some part of his childhood could resurface in some way. That line of thinking will be addressed in the second fic, for sure!

And ah, of course! Khonshu. I had to squeeze him in there somehow. But don't worry! He won't be as bad as some people may be anticipating (like he is with the boys...)

[szilverer]

hewwo

made this blog primarily to dump oc content & maaaybe liveblog a bit! (its my first time engaging in a fandom space like this so im pretty lost, do lemme know if i mess up with tagging or etiquette or smth. more about me here.)

my FL acc is from 2016 but i only really started playing this august! ive finished my ambition now but theres still a lot i dont know about the lore n stuff. IGN is Hreisz, feel free to send a CC or even just random in-character letters & menace help reqs.

im always open to asks/interactions here as well, just keep in mind i might take A While to respond as i am but an hermit with the barest of executive functions

trying to use this hyperfixation to practice digital art so there'll be random experimental doodles here as i try to find out wtf i am doing. everytime i open a canvas its a surprise. youve been warned

tags:

#chaindoodles -> art tag, #chainrambles -> text tag

#the twilight phantom -> the blorbo

#nightmarriage -> my blorbo hoards trash. block this to be spared from witnessing their latest questionable decision

content warning tags:

#light fingers spoilers

#suggestive in case i draw (or write?) smth that can be perceived as saucy, spicy, horn knee, overtly kinky or implied nsfw. there wont be anything Actually explicit here though

i like #blood and injuring my characters both mentally and physically. so uh. that. possibly violence.?

??

#poor edward

So who's this "Twilight Phantom"?

nearly everything about H_______ Reisz is dictated by my actions playing FL, so they're developing in real time. been lots of fun to see this clean slate (and i mean clean - i knew nothing about the setting, the lore, or who they were, so naturally, this guy didn't either) get shaped by the narrative And my mechanical wiki-fueled decisions.

ill make a better, dedicated post eventually but for now have a vague intro + some refs under the cut:

The first thing you notice about them is the cowl lazily draped around their head and shoulders, swaying behind their back like a cape in the colours of sunrise-- or, perhaps most familiarly, the velvety twilight that the newest star every so often provides to London.  The second thing is the deep scars covering one side of their face, and the third thing would probably be the heavy eyebags under their sharp, dark eyes.

A relatively freshly-minted Silverer, H. Reisz spends more time in Parabola than London nowadays. Not that they had been in London for too long anyway, and it's not like anyone knows where they were before that either. The surface, yes, but it's a big world out there, right? They don't actually remember seeing the sun, or the sky, but H cannot deny the soft colours of twilight and sunrise have a special place in their heart. They recognise it without the memory of experiencing it, just like they recognised love in the depths of a certain Labyrinth. Hmm, two Labyrinths, actually. There was that one heiress too... and the Orphanage was inside one hell of a maze too... if they had a coin every time they found themself inside labyrinths, they'd... Uh, where were we? Well, anyway, being a new face, they had nothing to be known for so they simply gave out their surname instead. Or well, what they assumed to be their surname. "H. REISZ" were the letters sewn-in on a diminute corner of the tattered black veil that wrapped their head back when they woke up for the "first" time. They were surrounded by near-empty bottles of dried mouldy honey, absinthe, and who knows what else. Ah, the decadence... they couldn't even remember what honey could do at the time but they could recognise the stench of self-destruction right away, haha.  Alas, if things were so bad they got to that point-- maybe this explains why moving on was so easy. Maybe they had somehow lobotomized themself on purpose. Who knows? They sure don't. It was only now, a year or so after waking up, that an epithet has started to stick around-- specifically by their actions as a Silverer and the services they provided. From nightmare-slaying to fishing out vestigial memories (the irony of an amnesiac doing this is not lost on them) to guiding and safeguarding lost dreamers, their glimmering signature cowl and the way it flowed rather phantasmagorically in Parabola started to leave an impression. To many dreamers, seeing a hint of pastel twilight colors signaled safety. It signaled someone you could trust to get inside your head. :)

[faorism]

niche crossover of the day that im too lazy rn to clean up and post to ao3 but may in the future: alec hardison (leverage) plays bg3

hardison balances playtime with hacker hours well, which means he moves through hyperfixations but has learned through working with the crew how to prioritize when there's a friend's life on the line. (there will be no more repeats of his crew sitting on a bomb without him right next to them.) sometimes though his partners lose him for a week after a new release, but now that they live together at least parker can drag him to bed for cuddles (and to sleep) and eliot will kept him fed.

it should go without saying that hardison loves baulder's gate 3. he heard such good things about it during early access from his dnd buddies, but hardison refuses to play EA because he will end up encountering bugs and basically writing the code that the devs will end up doing anyway, so why waste his time.

he plays without any prior knowledge, doesn't even know the characters really except from glimpses at their promo pics. but he's excited. he downloads the game, kisses his partners """goodbye""" for the foreseeable future (as long as a job doesnt spring up, but even then it would be a quick one because eliot sprained his ankle and needed to rest it no matter how much he complained he was good).

he decides to play his chaotic good halfling wizard mendula from two campaigns back - fresh enough in his mind to remember the character, but not too recent so that he wont feel conflicted if the tav storyline doesnt allow for precise oc characterizations. hardison gets super into it, but he doesnt linger on side quests, not yet: he wants to get a feel of the game without mods and follow its arc. hardison doesnt usually romance on a first playthrough, but wyll!!!!! wyll was right there being perfect and beautiful and righteous and black and bi and yeah, hardison had to fan himself off during the dance sequence

his party is wizard tav, shadowheart, wyll, and lae'zel, and barely switches them out. when astarion drains him dry and kills him, hardison is so annoyed he kills astarion. he feels very proud of himself when he sniped wyll's devil karlach without much fuss. then he skips a lot of the companion sidequests because he just wants to rush to the end. he gets married to wyll, then starts right over and plays wyll origin, now able to take his time and understanding the mechanics of the game. he also downloads QOL mods that have already come out for EA, and he has notes about ones he will make if no one else does when he's ready for playthrough #3. he purposefully avoids any major ones (so no Polyam Mod for him, though he does eye it, but he wants to see how multiple romances play himself).

he plays will as accurately as possible, which means engaging heavily with the very companions hardison spent ignoring because wyll? wyll cares (and fuck, hardison loves him for that because yes yes, that's him too!). and......

ah. okay so. maybe hardison shouldn't have ignored the companions so much since they do add a lot to the game! and..... maybe, just maybe, hardison was too hasty killing astarion and karlach the first go around. maybe a lot. he thought they would be companions for evil tavs/origins only! he played kotor and [insert game references here, i dont play games like this usually...], so he thought he knew what was up.

anyway, he is drawn so much to these two out of the novelty of them that he puts them into his party (the fourth spot he switches around, thought once hardison gets him, halsin is a fun mainstay because BEAR. hardison gets up romancing both astarion and karlach (and a little halsin, HALSIN IS SO EASY TO FLIRT WITH, larian WANTS you to fuck him)

and....... okay. okay. maybe romancing them both at the same time was a mistake because. because he loves them both. so much. for very different reasons. hardison feels so deeply and then he's forced to make a decision, and hardison crumples a bit. considers downloading the polyam mod but opts out of it to suffer vanilla game logic to its very end.

when he breaks up with astarion, who plays it so damn cool, hardison had to walk away from the computer to mourn by burying himself in his nearest partner's arms (eliot, this time).

he finishes the game, makes wyll go to avernus with karlach (as he made them do during this tav playthrough) and... thinks about astarion.

hardison had carried over the breakup scene save this whole time, and he decides fuck it, and goes back and tries it the other way this time.

he didnt know karlach will just... die on the pier. wtf. wtf. or wyll will go and there wont be any interaction with astarion?? hardison is Distraught. he downloads the polyam mod and while it doesnt force the issue, he can just feel at the edges that nope, this isnt authentic

finds partner's arms again. parker this time. she asks whats wrong with his make believe people, and he pauses for so long that parker thinks he fell asleep or didnt hear her, and then he quietly says that wyll has a heart big enough for two, a romance can be fairytale when made for three, dont they know there's nothing more beautiful than being held between by both the people you love?

parker kisses his temple as tears legit well in his eyes (and he feels embarrassed) and she yells for eliot for emergency group hugs.

eliot, with hardison squished between his two partners, usually doesnt get involved with hardison's gaming but this time he's just like, okay what is it about these characters that's getting to you like this? and why them together? who are they?

and hardison had already talked about wyll a little because disney prince. so he reiterates some of that with a major case of projection. and then when he turns to talk about the companions, hardison stops. and just.

oh.

a black man who was forced to make impossible desperate choices when he was still a teen, which got him into trouble as a consequence, and then being alone and wandering for years until he ran into a pack of different people come together for a common purpose. trying to be good, the best he could be, and hiding behind a flashy name to hide some of the more raw parts underneath. ravenguard and nana have strikingly similar cheekbones.

then theres a rogue with a deeply traumatic past who can be selfish and kinda insensitive and likes shiny things. a pale thief who likes a little bit of chaos even when running good alignment, and who can't help sticky fingers reaching for unsuspecting belts and also... well, also is a top, through and through. a top who likes to bite. vicious when upset. also... also touch adverse and who at first laughs at sincerity and then basks in it but only once your commitment is fully and well established. the only bit of code hardison wrote as he played his wyll origin was to remove astarion saying dont touch me when you switch to him; hardison flinched every time, hearing the cadence of parker's voice scratching at him when she's triggered.

then, a barbarian who handed from one handler (who ended up being a totalitarian dick) down the road until being owned by the literal devil. body put through hell, scars littering a body that spells strength at a distance. once escaped from the nightmare, only wanted their own perseverance. their own life. wanting so desperately for a touch, to be loved, to be held in a way that didn't spell murder. "heartless" after years of working for, again, literal devils, but so full of life and kindness and (also eliot is more coy about it) a deep sense of joy for the world. kind to children. protective of children. wary of deals too good to be true. willing to die than return to a life they once lived. death feels imminent, despite the protestations of everyone around them. really good bedroom eyes.

so.

yeah.

maybe... maybe

hardison couldnt get the words out to say all of that. all he says is, they're a lot like us. (like with astarion, if hardison spelled out the exact overlaps of the characters.)

the games dumb then, parker says. or at least broken. if the game isnt right, just go fix it?

and hardison has protests about the limits of what is possible within someone else's game and...

parker is like, you made a guy hold up a bank in like, 10 min? on a laptop with spotty internet and without a mouse or any preparation?

and this takes some time between other projects he really has to get to, but.... he does it. codes like a motherfucker and bribes eliot & parker into mocap and also genuinely pays the VAs to voice lines for him. shit hardison does for the love of his ot3:

script out unique banter for karlach and astarion in your party that hints of their attraction to one another

code in an extra option when astarion or karlach confront you for to prompt them to consider their own feelings for the other (different from the current but i want to be with you both! line)

a short nighttime cutscene that with dialogue that implies the three have just finished talking and have agreed to be together. they are all holding hands

include astarion and karlach in each other's act iii scenes (they arent the most chatty, admittedly, but they are there and integrated)

outside of camp, if you three are standing near each other, you can cast a spell that cuts to astarion and karlach kissing either of wyll's checks (this is admittedly somewhat buggy but!

edits out astarion cowering on the pier from the sun, just rushes the three to avernus which hardison doesnt have to edit; just uses astarion origin version for wyll.

nexusmods community begs desperately for him to do this for some other ot3s and he is willing to hear them out for shadowheart/lae'zel/tav, he absolutely refuses to break up karwyllstarion and only offers wyll pov. will not even allow for edits being made for a tav/karlach/astarion mod. he deeply pisses off some people, but overall this mod is downloaded a fuckton as the only truly viable polyam romance option in the game. people start writing fanfic specifically for this one mod and eventually it is just integrated into canon lore that karwyllstarion exists as an option

[anulithots]

hellooo noorie <3

just wanted to let you know that. after i actually finish the show i'm currently watching (dead boy detectives! it's amazing so far) i miiiight watch link click (in the og language too!! because i'm chinese!! aaa i'm always so excited when i see people engaging in chinese media on my dash)

also thank you for the ask you sent me about writing!! i'm sorry to say that currently this account really isn't a writeblr anymore :( also this is very paranoid of me to say, but if i do by some mystical chance get this book published, the existence of an anonymous writeblr with similar content would open a whole can of worms, legally speaking. i loved the ask though! thank you for that :D

JKDFKLJSDFKSD:FJLKSDFJKLS:DF LINK CLICK YESS HOLY HERBS THAT WOULD BE WONDEROUS!

PREPARE THE TISSUES! I'm rewatching right now and I stopped at ep 5 and decided to actually do the assignments I was behind on.... and I never do that. The painnnn....

ALSO the writing and the pacing and the CHARCTERS, everything is top tier and kjf;lkasfjasfkljasd I love this show so much. (I plan to do analysis and edits and fanfic over the summer and just HYPERFIXATE AND AMASS MY ✨Screenshot collection✨ Because as of now all I have are a loottt of playlists.

Speaking of the ✨ screenshot collection ✨ , the webcomic is really good too! Not quite the same dramatics or stakes to it, but Cheng XIaoshi and Lu Guang still have their interactions and character and it's wonderous and I screenshotted a LOT of it.)

ALSO ALSO yess the original voice actors did SUCH A GOOD JOB HOLY HERBS. Watching this is Chinese made we want to relearn it because I used to take it in school before I... forgot everything.

(I realllly like watching shows with subtitles though, because I need them for english shows too, and I grew up watching desi movies with subtitles on. Plus there's just something nice about the tone of voice + reading. Also I just... don't like dubs even though the one for LInk Click seems good as well from clip compilations.... I just can't with the names 'Charles and Lucas'... like they're fine but also.... their original names....)

Ah yes I remember now about the publishing thing. OKie dokie! GOOD LUCK WITH IT I WANT TO READ YOUR STORY WHEN IT"S DONE SO BAD /not forced /pos

[sparkletastic-cookiedough]

Is Beetlejuice really Autistic, or am I just projecting really hard?

Ah yes, the character of my hyperfixation- Beetlejuice. He’s a demon that I’ve read way too much fanfiction about. 

One thing I’ve seen come up a good handful of times in reading my Beetlejuice fanfiction is the concept of Beetlejuice being autistic. As an autistic person myself, I am intrigued by the idea. Perhaps some sort of autistic coding might be responsible for why I relate so heavily to these characters.

The first one I came across was “Meltdown” from nonbinarytaylorswift - It’s an absolutely amazing work of fanfiction by the way, I legit cried, better autistic representation than published books, go give it a read. 

And that is not the only one. Searching “Beetlejuice Autistic” in AO3 comes up with 22 results. That’s a lot of fics made by different people who very strongly project autism onto Beetlejuice (and also Lydia). 

The wonderful thing about fanfiction is how we can shift and stretch the characters and plot to suit our own needs. Consider how many hurt/comfort stories there are that delve into very specific issues, ones that the author may even explicitly state are personal for them. It’s wonderful and I absolutely respect it. We project our own problems onto these characters and then project the solution. Who needs therapy when we can just imagine a fictional character giving us positive self–affirmations? (Plot twist, arguably reading and writing these stories helps reinforce those positive vibes, which makes them good for the mental health). 

When it comes down to it, get a large enough fandom, and there’s probably going to be some autistic people projecting themselves into fanworks. Plus with hyper fixating on a certain show or character making neurodivergents more likely to engage in fanfic and art and whatnot? It’s pretty much a guarantee that there’s going to be work claiming one character or another is autistic, and let’s all project really hard onto it.

Which is all great. I want to make it really clear- even if the canon work doesn’t reinforce the idea that your character is autistic (or lgbt or neurodivergent or anything else), it’s completely fair that you create work depicting them as such. 

But I wanted to investigate this a bit closer. Is there an argument for Beetlejuice being autistic in the work itself? 

Consider the many people who work on creative projects. Tons of creatives will confess to shoving themselves into a character in some way. I’d argue it’s hard not to put your own experience into a character, even if only for the reason that well written characters will delve on truths about us as humans that cut deep into most people who view them. Writing a story about love might entail that the writer ends up harkening back to their experiences with love. If you boil a character down to their most basic struggle, it turns out you can relate to them.

For Musical Beetlejuice, his motivation is becoming visible. He wants to be seen. He wants to interact with the world. (And wouldn’t you know it, Lydia also has this struggle). So how does that relate to universal human truths or whatever?

Well, I think that most people can probably think of a time where they weren’t seen, taken seriously, or something like that. People have felt completely alone at times in their life. We’ve all felt ignored, shunned by the world. Woah, these characters are relatable to the audience? Who would’ve thought.

Relating to a character’s struggles doesn’t necessarily make them autistic. Turns out, I can project my issues on to a similar feeling without it being the exact same thing. 

But I still feel like there’s something very autistic about Beetlejuice, and one of the people responsible for the character might be responsible for that as well: Tim Burton himself. Allegedly, he might be autistic. I don’t want to cite anything here- most of the top sources claiming he’s autistic are ones I don’t respect. (One of them uses functioning labels, many cite asperger's syndrome despite that not being the correct term anymore, and so on) It’s not a claim that’s been confirmed by a diagnosis, but I also don’t think a confirmed diagnosis needs to exist. (not going to get into the whole diagnosis debate right now). The point is, a lot of stuff he makes ties to struggles that an autistic person might deal with. I mean, the misunderstood outcast who’s very different from the rest of the people around them is the main character in… most Tim Burton films. It’s a relatable trope, but one that kind of rings true for autistic people. 

Social connections are hard for autistic people to make- usually harder than neurotypical people. I, and many other autistic people like me, struggle with socializing. It’s one of the diagnostic requirements for ASD. So a story about a person who has a lot of difficulty navigating social environments would be relatable to me. That misunderstood outcast? Yeah, that’s me.

These protagonists aren’t usually just weird. Usually there’s a reason behind it: maybe their closest relationship is with a corpse, maybe they exist in a boundary between human and inhuman- some sort of almost-monster figure, or maybe they just have interests that no one else has or understands. (Can you name the different Burton protagonists that these each apply to? Hint: they could all refer to more than one). It makes sense from a story perspective- the audience should probably have a reason for why a character is rejected from society. The thing that makes it so autistic is that these people are rejected for seemingly no fault of their own, for a reason that doesn’t make a lot of sense.

It’s a very sad point of social outcast: they will never belong to the main in-group. They can try, but it never ends up working- thus instead they have to accept both their identity as an outcast, and the thing that makes them unique.

Beetlejuice (musical version) is a bit of a twist on that idea, in that it’s others that learn to accept them, rather than learning to accept themselves. This is especially true for Lydia’s arc- her dad learns to respect who she is as a person, instead of trying to change her into the image of the daughter he wants. The movie, we sort of get that? It’s more like she meets people who respect her for who she is. The movie isn’t as neat in tying off the story arcs. Or maybe I’m just bad at watching movies.

But there’s more that makes (musical) Beetlejuice autistic than the social outcast angle. 

One of the things that I’ve seen brought up when talking about this is how the character’s body language can contribute to that sort of reading. I’m treading a bit carefully here, because a lot of Beetlejucie’s body language can also be described as “inhuman”, and talking about how non-human characters work in terms of neurodiversity allegories is a whole other discussion, one that delves into the various problems with those readings. 

But aside from that, I also want to offer my own interpretation as an autistic who enjoys watching stuff: it’s exaggerated expression.

One of the problems with me watching a lot of films for my film classes is that I have trouble with subtle emotions. Stuff other people can pick up on in movies I’ll pick up on differently. “A bit sad” isn’t a facial expression for me, it’s a sound cue, it’s a lighting cue, it’s body language, it’s movement. When a film wants me to rely on a character’s face, dialouge, actions, and the story to pinpoint how a character is feelings and their internal motivations, I can struggle a bit. That being said, there are films that I really enjoy watching. If I don’t need to rely on half of the cues to tell what a person is feeling, I like the film more. Arguably the stuff that gives off the best cues? Animation and musicals.

People don’t move like that in real life. But by disconnecting the film from what is real, we move into something that I can enjoy quite a bit. So if you look at an image from a musical, and put it side by side with an image from a hyper-realistic drama, the musical has a completely different method of expression. It might be expressing the same emotion, but it feels super different. 

So this overly-expressive style is something I can understand, but it’s also something I can do. It’s very uncanny for people who meet me in real life- I sometimes slip into a method of self expression that can seem very off to a normal person. I might pace back and forth and dramatically monologue about how my boss is a jerk- yes I have actually done this. It’s difficult to analyze my own behavior, but from what I understand, it’s there. I have very expressive emotions, even if they don’t express in a “normal” way.

So that’s kind of an explanation on the behavior and body language aspects to the character being autistic.

But even considering the genre, Musical Beetlejuice is especially autistic.

Consider the fact that he’s really socially ignorant. He doesn’t seem to pick up on normal social cues at all - or if he does, he doesn’t acknowledge them. He’s easily tricked in “Creepy Old Guy”, and again “tricked with love” by Juno near the end. 

It’s sympathetic. It’s ignorance. It’s an autistic character.

But whether or not you agree with me on if Beetlejuice is autistic, that’s fine. Perhaps his character was influenced by autistic people (Tim Burton or otherwise), or maybe I’m just projecting into things that are common for people overall. Either way, it doesn’t matter. I intended on just talking about the trope as it appears in different works of fanfiction, but instead I got distracted and just wrote several pages on character tropes or something. Anyway, go read some autistic beetlejuice fanfiction.

[firesmokeandashes]

Thanks so much for the tag @fire-but-ashes-too !

So, I have a lot of ships, but for the sake of my sanity I have chosen a few of my main ones and compiled a few of the quotes I got from the incorrect quotes generator

(All of these are Mha/Bnha because it's my current hyperfixation)

KatsZuku

Izuku, watching Katsuki : Ah yes. The mysterious and beautiful Katsuki , so demure…

Izuku: …I wonder what sort of melodic sounds this wonderful being makes?

Katsuki : *screaming*

Izuku: You know me, Katsuki , I don’t take any shit. You know what I say to my haters? Katsuki : What? Izuku: I say: “Please don’t hate me, I’m really nice.”

Katsuki : FIGHT ME, YOU NERD ASS SLUT! Izuku: At least try to sound slightly more sophisticated when you threaten someone. Katsuki : Oh, I'm sorry. I should ask; dost thou want to engage in a duel, my good bitch? Izuku: Somehow that's worse.

Izuku: Hold on, I can explain! Katsuki : Really? Can you now? Izuku: I can if you give me a minute to think of a convincing lie.

Katsuki, texting Izuku: Hey do you like anyone? Izuku: Yeah you Katsuki: Oh, I'm sorry we're just friends Izuku: *Yeah, you? Izuku: Oh haha sorry lol Katsuki: *dies inside*

Katsuki: Do you want to explain the text you sent me last night? Izuku: It was autocorrect. Katsuki: Autocorrect wrote "You're so hot. Please step on me."? Izuku: Yes.

ShinKami

Shinzou: Kaminari keeps forgetting which WiFi network they're supposed to use. Shinzou: So I renamed ours to "Kaminari, use this one" to help him out a little.

Kaminari: Your smile looks forced. Shinzou: That’s because it is.

Shinzou: You’re overthinking this. Kaminari: You don’t know the appropriate level of thinking, Shinzou. What if I’m underthinking?

Shinzou: Do you want to play 20 Questions? Kaminari: Sure! Kaminari: Whats your favorite color? Shinzou, laser fucking focused: Triangle. Do you like men?

Shinzou: Ha! Don't you know the trappers trap can trap the trapper? Shinzou: I must be losing it, I'm quoting Kaminari.

Shinzou: *hiding something in their coat* I think we should adopt another kid! Kaminari: No. Shinzou: Why not? Kaminari: Because when you say “kid”, you mean “cat”, and we already have fifteen of those. Shinzou: *unzips coat* Sixteen.

Kaminari: What type of dog is this? Shinzou: That’s a tortoise.

EraserMic

Shota: You spent all our money on THIS?? Hizashi, putting tiny raincoats on ducklings: They live outside. They need this.

Hizashi: I was arrested for being too cool. Shota: The charges were dropped due to a lack of supporting evidence.

Hizashi: I love you. Shota, not paying attention: What was that? Hizashi: I said I’m selling you to the zOo-

Shota: Our relationship is strictly professional. Hizashi, sitting on Shota’s lap: Absolutely. Only on business.

Hizashi: Do you care if I take the skin off this Furby? Hizashi: I want to make him a god. Once he is free of his sinful flesh, he can begin a path towards enlightenment. He will take care of us. Hizashi: I also want to softhack his circuits. Shota: I literally could not care less but never say anything as frightening as that ever again.

*Hizashi and Shota looking at a locked gate into a park* Hizashi: Aw. :( Shota: You know what they say. Hizashi: Please don’t- Shota: BE GAY DO CRIME! *hops gate* Hizashi: Frick-

Hizashi: I want a trip down memory lane. Shota: *proceeds to grab every warrior cats book they have and sets them in Hizashi's lap* Shota: I heard you needed these? Hizashi: YES! ALL OF THEM!

KiriMina

Kirishima: Hey, what’s the name of the guy who lives down the hall? Mina: His cats' names are Walter and Rose. Kirishima: That's not what I asked. Mina: That is all the information I have.

Mina: Okay, but what if we went to dinner not as friends this time? Kirishima: AS ENEMIES?! Mina:

Kirishima: That was so hot, Mina. Mina: I literally called the person who just flirted with you a degenterate dog and told them I hope they get dragged through the streets. Kirishima: I'm so in love with you.

Mina: My hands are cold. Kirishima: Here, let me hold them. Mina: My lips are cold too. Kirishima: *covers Mina's mouth with his hand*

Mina: My future partner must be brave, strong, intelligent, successful and organized. Kirishima: *steps on a caterpillar and proceeds to drop to their knees and sob while apologizing profusely* Mina: That one. I want that one.

Mina: Bro- Kirishima: No, no, hold up, rewind. Kirishima: My tongue was down in your throat just a second ago and now you're calling me bro??

Kirishima: Did you know you remind me of all 26 letters of the alphabet? Mina: What? Like J F K W S Q X- Kirishima: No, like, U R A Q T. Mina: Awwww!

And last on this post but certainly not least...

TogaChako

Ochako: Cool, any other secrets? Toga: I still sleep with the blanket I had as a baby. Ochako: Awww- Toga, stern: I use it as a gag when taking people’s pets hostage. Ochako: Ochako: There’s no punch line ‘cause it’s not a joke isn’t it?

Ochako: I’m Ochako. I’m an accountant. Toga: I’m Toga. I have a knife.

Ochako: When I met you I thought you were a real bitch. Toga: What changed your mind? Ochako: Oh, I still think you’re a bitch, I’ve just grown to like that about you.

Ochako: Okay happy campers! If you were a fruit what would you be and why? Toga: I'd be a tomato because no one accepts me as part of the group. Ochako: ... Toga: ... Ochako: OKAY HAPPY CAMPERS-

Toga: What’s up? I’m back. Ochako: I literally saw you die. You died. You were dead Toga: Death is a social construct.

Ochako: Can I have a private talk with you? Toga: Okay, as long as it’s not about tampons because I just don’t understand them.

Toga: Anyone down to take couples counseling and see at what point the therapist realizes we barely know each other? Ochako: Idiots to lovers, 20k words, angst with a happy ending.

○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○

Soft tagging @a-had-matter @love-is-in-the-multiverse @adoubleneliese @harleyacoincidence @desastreus @holdmyteaplease @enne-uni @inflarescent @steh-lar-uh-nuhs @yesireadbooks @oopsimfade @erraticprocrastinator @tea-and-mercury @writeblr-of-my-own & @cabbojage

SOOOOOO

i was tagged by @rickie-the-storyteller over heeeereeee and it didnt let me reblog so new post!

LAFGSLKRGHLSKGH THIS IS SO FUN HELP WHY DIDNT I KNWO THIS EXISTED-

ANYWAYSSSSS

i gto very little ships (sadly) so im gonna go with both platonic and romantic ehehehe

Annexander (is it how were calling it?? idk) (@holdmyteaplease ur the expert on this give me a feedback)

Alexander: Think you can answer some questions without the usual level of sarcasm? Anne: If you can ask the questions without the usual level of stupid.

Alexander: *shatters a window and climbs through it* Alexander: *turns around and helps Anne through it* Breaking and entering is wrong Anne. Anne: Okay. Anne: Shut it Alexander, I only shook your hand because I had to. We will NEVER be friends. Alexander: Lets survive this together! Anne: I HOPE YOU DIE. Anne: Fellas, I gotta know for science. Is the opposite of red green or blue? Alexander: Technically a mix of green and blue? Anne: So blurple. Alexander: That's implying you're mixing blue and purple. Anne: Would you rather have fucking bleen? MOTHERFUCKING GRUE? Alexander: You were confusing before but now I'm scared Anne, holding a scooter: Alexander! Can I go outside and play with this? Alexander: Sure, whatever. I'm not your parent, okay? Anne, running outside: Thanks Alexander! Alexander, running out after them and screaming: NOT ON THE STREET! STAY AWAY! Alexander: It’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s free: pouring river water in your socks! Anne: Why would I do that? Alexander: It’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s free!

HELP CAUSE WHY IS THIS SO THEMMMM AKFGASKJGF

Anne and Indigo (the absolute besties)

Anne: So... what would you do if you were in bed with me? Indigo: Depends. Is your bed comfortable? Anne: Yes. Indigo: I'd sleep.

*Anne sends more than 5 messages in a row* Indigo: I ain’t reading all that. Indigo: I’m happy for you tho. Indigo: Or sorry that happened. Anne: I have a plan. Indigo: Good! As long as we aren’t breaking the law again, I’m open to hearing it. Anne: … Indigo: … Anne: I no longer have a plan.

Anne: Oh, so when crows remember people who wronged them and hold grudges, its “intelligent” and “really cool”. Anne: But when I do it, I’m “petty” and “need to let it go”.

ok... this is scarily accurate...

Alexis and Claire (friends to lovers complete dumbasses edition)(they have exactly 1 brain cell and they take turns being the responsible one. most times i gets forgotten at home)

Alexis: My hands are cold. Claire: Here, let me hold them. Alexis: My lips are cold too. Claire: *covers Alexis's mouth with their hand* Alexis: You’d be stupid to lay a hand on me. Claire: Oh, you’d be surprised how much stupid shit I do. Claire: You either buckle down and do your work or you’ll end up at McDonalds. Alexis: We're going to McDonalds if I don't do my work? Claire: NO- Alexis: What do you do for a living? Claire: I exist against my will. Alexis: Claire, I have a question. Claire: What is it, Alexis? Alexis: What color is an orange? Claire: Alexis, you bonehead! Its color is the same as its name. Just like a lemon. Alexis: I hope no one lowkey hates me. Alexis: Highkey hate me. Hate me with every fiber of your being. Alexis: Go big or go home.

THIS IS FUN. VERY FUN.

HOW TO CREATE CHARACTERS 101: NAME, BASIC VIBES AND THROW THEM AROUND IN THE INCORRECT QUOTES GENERATOR✨

tagging literally everyone i know on this one cause the world deserves to do this

@olivescales3 @albatris @bloody-neon @bassguitarinablackt-shirt @briannaswords @cabbojage @daisywords @desastreus @did-i-do-this-write @deanwax @digital-chance @enchanted-lightning-aes @ember-writer @eli-is-an-idiot @firesmokeandashes @fioreshere @guessillcallitart @gwenthekween @harleyacoincidence @holdmyteaplease @iannicellis @jaxypaxyhaxy @j3st3rfun3r4l @kooperation1101 @koala2all @lycaens @liv-is @lyonette-does-things @mayakern @nocturnalmohawk @quinnharperwrites @roisinivy @raspberrykraken @spicymochi @scifimagpie @the-mindless @unmellowyellowfellow @whynotcherries @writingmargo @writing-with-sophia @writeblr-of-my-own @wrenofthewords @yeahthatswhatimtolkienabout @yesireadbooks @your-absent-father @zihus @zillanovikov sorry if i tagged any

[twixtandshout]

Tagged by @pidgeonpostal! And not tagging anyone else because I have SOILED the original template (soiled it!!) in deference to my [brushes off skirt] mostly clean public-facing appearance.

...I’ve been making a lot of Spongebob memes lately for someone who has not seen Spongebob.

How many works do you have on AO3?

71!

What’s your total AO3 wordcount?

...306,834. Jesus.

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Uh. Many! I do a lot of one-offs (and/or start long things I never finish) in many different places. My top three fandoms by fics written are RWBY (29), Undertale (25), Gravity Falls/Transcendence AU (4).

Bet you can’t tell where my hyperfixations have fallen. 

I’ve also got some Pokémon and Sonic the Hedgehog fics back on my ff.net account, or I think I still do, anyway, but let’s never go back there pls

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. Sweeter Than Honey (Undertale): Taking a Completely unsurprising first place, with over 600 more kudos than the runner-up, the haphazard Underswap fic featuring a post-college self-insert I wrote just after high school! I shake my head some at how overblown and ridiculous the gap between this and all my other stuff is (c’mon, guys, I’ve written way better fics), but this is also the fic which prompted me (and at least one other person!) to start using they/them pronouns. I’ve gotten a lot of really sweet comments about how seen and appreciated it’s made people feel, so I can’t get down too far about it.

2. To Be A Hero (BNHA): I don’t count myself as part of the BNHA fandom, for a number of reasons, but for something that’s arguably the main motivation for the entire plot, Midoriya’s quirklessness is something I’ve never thought has been handled well. This fic marked the first time I (somewhat tentatively) claimed the disability label (thanks again to Sweeter Than for prompting that realization) to hold that lens over canon. It also really shot up my chart, dang! It’s the only thing here I’d consider “recent.”

3. Three-Sentence Shipping (Undertale): Self-explanatory.

4. Brothers Beyond Bonedaries (Undertale): Ah, the way-overcomplicated AU³ I got nowhere close to finishing. One of the things I really like about Undertale is the interface screw, how Toby Fox uses the medium of the video game to pull off crazy things and enhance his game, but most of the fic written for the fandom seems dedicated to explaining it away, grounding it, rather than taking it to the next step and messing with the medium of fanfiction when you keep the story going. I tried to do something cool like that here, playing with questions like narrator and authorship and breaking the fourth wall, even taking the “final boss” fight to a “totally separate” fic reached through the first by link – but, well, then I never finished it, which probably didn’t make anything less confusing for the poor folks who missed the intent.

5. Spirit and Such (Gravity Falls: Transcendence AU): A whole fic written to line out a particular image I had, which, naturally, never made it to the page. I consider it a bit of a cautionary tale for myself when it comes to writing (near-)original content; there’s a lot I look back on and cringe. I still love the characters, though – well, the important ones – and I think just stepping away from the tried-and-true Mizar formula nets it a star sticker here.

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

>w>; I try, but a lot of the time I just don’t have anything to say? Like, oh, you liked it? Neat. There’s not much to respond to in comments like that, and then I’m weighing falling down on an ~obligation~ to respond to every message in my inbox vs annoying people with copy-paste fluff responses all down the page. Plus I know I make more of an effort to comment on things that didn’t get the attention I feel they deserve, so if I’m driving up my own comment count with nonsense, am I preventing myself from being in a position to receive more comments later? And then if I do comment, am I being too effusive or running people’s ears off explaining things they don’t actually need to know? Sometimes people just want to express interest or admiration and don’t necessarily want a whole peek and guided tour behind the curtain.

Can you tell I have anxiety? x3;

Anyway, I do respond when I can. And I keep most of the comments I’ve gotten to go back and reread. 

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Hm, hmm. Lots of stuff in the TQ Nonsense series would probably qualify! I’m thinking of Unfixable, Wolfsong, and Ethanol. And there’s Bursting Through A Blood-Red Sky (I Can Live, I Can Breathe), of course, but that was always intended to have a fix-it epilogue. It’s just that I wrote it in a couple of hours day-of, stared at it, and decided I didn’t wanna just then. But now that’s As Long As You’re Still Burning Bright (I’m Still Awake), and that’s probably the best romance I’ve written, so that one worked out.

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve ever written?

Now and then! When the urge strikes. Uhhh, I’ve got a series of Doctor Who x Undertale crossovers I actually made a whole dang verse for that never made it to print. Get a couple great comments on that every few months or so. I think the World Trigger x Undertale crossover is probably weirder, though, by virtue of WT being a very small fandom. My enthusiasm kinda sputtered out on that one.

Mostly I just daydream crossovers with whatever happens to catch my eye at any given moment. I have a lot!!!! Though odds are out on whether I manage to remember any of them once the initial thought’s passed, lol.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Gotten a couple eyebrow-raising comments, but I think mostly I’m just too small a writer to draw that kind of attention.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don’t? think so? Think my tastes are a little niche for most people to bother ^^;

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I had someone apologize once for any language mistakes in their comment cause they had to run it through a translator! That’s not what you asked (the answer is no), but it’s very flattering to think that someone liked my fic enough to read and comment despite the language barrier.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! :D @pidgeonpostal was gracious enough to agree to co-write Five Nights at Denny’s with me off an idea about shoes. This has fulfilled a long-held dream of mine (collabing with someone, not the shoes) and also introduced me to some lovely people.

What’s your all time favorite ship?

Who has time for just one? ;3c Honestly, I care more about the characters and how the relationship – any relationship – between them changes them than I do about ~A Ship~ as a solid, bounded noun-object. I’ve got characters I like more and less and feelings about who does and doesn’t have chemistry in which directions with whom, but finding anything that agrees with those preferences is hard, harder when you take alloromanticism into account. I’ll play in any sandbox with cool toys, especially if other folks have already built sick sandcastles there.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

[kicks every single unfinished fic further under the bed] What nooo no WIPs here, everything on my account is either finished or does not exist

I’ve got a couple extra chapters of Sweeter Than floating around unposted, but 1. that fic’s a mess 2. high school Twixt and post-college Twixt are different people and trying to contort myself into three other me-shapes just cause people Like this fic is not something I’m super interested in 3. it’s headed for an emotional dip and I’d rather leave it where it is than post two chapters, stall out again, and leave folks with a bad end.

As for other fics... it’s looking more and more likely that v7 of my Yellow Brick Road AU will never actually make it out. >w>; I’ve got some really great ideas, but not enough to make me feel like I know what I’m doing, and that’s a big roadblock. Plus trying to engage with RT’s Atlas-Mantle worldbuilding in any serious capacity is... a headache. I can’t recommend the Happy Huntress Cinematic Universe enough, but it leaves some pretty big shoes to follow! And I’ve got small feet. <w<;

What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue’s fun, probably as an extension of characterization. I love tearing into what makes people tick, especially against the backdrop of their environment, the story they’re in, and the people they’re up against. Voice is a double-edged sword; I’ve been told my writing is really recognizable and individual, but on the other hand, I’ve been growing frustrated with with the limits of my narrative ability. There’s a strong rhythm I keep when I write (you might notice it here, even) but that leaves me feeling predictable and stale. I’m not sure I’m great at setting as a matter of course, but I’m pretty good at describing setpieces where the need comes up; that comes from my background in poetry, as does the fun I have with sublimating and abstracting complex imagery. And I think I bring some needed nuance to the universal. For good or ill, I don’t do what “everyone else” is doing.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Well, writing, for one thing. If I don’t know how something’s going to go and don’t have the urge to write it, it isn’t getting done, which means there’s a billion things that will never see the page and a few hundred more that are never getting finished. I lose momentum easily and have a hard time getting started, and I put way too much standing on finding a foothold with other people; as critical as I am of my work, I have high expectations for the stuff that passes muster, and it never seems to measure up. I’m also really uncreative. Yeah, I can mix up elements and extrapolate events, but coming up with things wholesale is really hard, which is why I avoid it wherever possible and steal/reskin stuff from other places instead.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Something along the lines of “Hoo boy, I am Not qualified for this but hopefully it’s decent anyway.” Maria’s Spanish lines haven’t been a big deal – I’ve used it sparingly and, as a Latin language, it should be easy for English-speaking audiences to pick up on the gist – but I’ve had a harder time with Tai’s Chinese, both because I have Even Less background there and because it is, of course, an entirely different language system. If I write it out in English or Romanized italics, am I colonizing it or changing the meaning? If I write it out in the presumed-original characters (presumed because it’s Google Translate and who knows if I’m even barking in the right forest), am I confusing or alienating my presumed-majority-English-speaking audience? Where should I put the translations? Should I put the translations? And for Frisk’s sign language, thinking back, are the brackets I used instead of quotes alienating/infantilizing? I like that different characters give the text between a different feel, but I’m not an ASL speaker – and I’m pretty sure the word is “speaker,” which would only reinforce that that demographic would rather I didn’t do that. It’s important for all these characters, I think, that they use non-English language where it makes sense; it’s part of who they are. But as a white monolingual English-speaker, I don’t think I can really weigh in.

What was the first fandom you ever wrote for?

Thaaaat’d be Pokémon, followed closely with Sonic the Hedgehog. Whether those fics are still on my ff.net account or not (pretty sure I’ve purged them, but you never know) I’ve still got a couple saved to a folder on my current laptop, ostensibly so I can look back and see how far I’ve come and more practically to allow for the possibility of furthering group cohesion through public shaming.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

I still like the idea behind The Man Who Is Atlas, and Burning Bright (Still Awake) gets props for being my current fic, though it’s currently in that spot where I’m excited to get new chapters posted but also quietly marking everything up in red pen. I think Harbinger gets the crown here, at least for now.

[thescrapbookingscientist]

Weekly Media Roundup

-Dune (Movie) - Watched this with my family with little, though not 0, knowledge of the original and thought it was decent. I always hope for high budget Sci-Fi movies to do well as I do want more of them to be made, though I can’t say I find Dune’s universe to be overly interesting at this point, even if it is well defined. It’s competent in what it’s doing and had interesting enough cinematography to keep me from being bored, but the movie as a whole is 90% set-up for a future franchise that has yet to come out, and as a result very little of consequence actually happens. If the characters were more likable then that wouldn’t be too much of a problem, but while most characters were sympathetic, only a couple were actually any fun and those interactions were very sparse. 

-Beastars (Manga) - Read through all of Beastars recently, and I gotta say I am impressed. I do have complaints with how little the ending actually wrapped up, especially after the later parts of the manga introduced so many likable and interesting characters who really didn’t get the screen time they deserved, but Beastars really killed it with creating a genuinely interesting and unique world that serves both as a very cool story location as well as a commentary on the complex nature of class and prejudice that exists in any culture. I do hope season 3 ends up being approved as I’m a bit sad to have run out of time with Legoshi, Louis, Haru, and all the other lovable furries of this world.

-How I Met Your Mother (TV)- Briefly watched some old episodes with my sister, Not sure if I’ll continue, as while I still am a fan of the show and where the characters ultimately end up (sans the will not be named finale), I can’t say the old 2000s humor holds up super great.  

-Infinity Train (Cartoon)- Wow the music is really nice. Also One One is the best and I will have no complaints. 

-Ace Attorney Chronicles (Game)-  Why hello there new hyperfixation-I have a feeling you will be here awhile. I’m already talking about a bunch of new stuff this time so I’ll save most of my thoughts on this one for later but suffice to say I’m really enjoying how charming the animations, dialogue, and characters are all in this game.

-The Vampire Dies In No Time (Anime)- Ah yes, my new fun little gay show, gotta have a lighthearted stupid thing to relax every so often. It took me a few episodes to appreciate it but I liked the concept of ‘Dumbass Vampire Hunter, his pathetic classic vampire boyfriend, and their pet armadillo John engage in stupid supernatural hijinks’ so much that I gave it a solid chance and so far it’s paid off, by episode 4 I’m already attached to these idiots and have laughed quite a bit. I want a plushie of John so bad, best boi of 2021.

-Blue Period (Anime)- Another newcomer of the season that I am thoroughly impressed by, this anime has a lot going for it. A cute, likable main character, casual non-binary representation, excellent animation, quick pacing, and most importantly a very engaging subject matter. That might be overstating it but as someone who used to do art quite a lot myself I have to say that the way this show appreciates and showcases all different types of art and the detailed methodology of how it is created is truly inspiring, I haven’t been so motivated to create art myself in years. Hopefully something will come of that but as it is this anime is looking to be a top of the year contender by it’s own merits so I’m sure it’ll be here next time as well.

-Mo Dao Zu Shi (Anime)- Well, now that the anime is finally over, I can say that overall I’m pretty happy with it, even it was far from a perfect adaptation. The 3rd season was far better than the 2nd and I appreciate how often they had Lan Zhan genuinely smiling and how close they were able to get to a canon confirmation of wangxian, with the couple moments here being pretty undeniable. While the issues with the pacing keep me from saying it’s the best version of the story I’d still recommend it to anime fans as a whole, as the music, animation, fight choreography, and voicework add a lot to the already excellent story and characters provided by the novel. 

-Golden Kamuy (Manga)-I can feel the hyperfixation slipping away but for now it hasn’t left yet.

Listening to: Crossing the Line from Tangled the series, Don’t Be a Lawyer from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, I Think I Just Died by Guiano, I Want it All by Bonnie McKee, When You Love Someone by James TW, 99-Mob Psycho OP 2, Love Me Again by John Newman, All Eyes on Me by Bo Burnham, Atlantis by Seafret.

[bondsmagii]

Hey Ratthew, you have given advice on coping with Brain Stuff before that worked for me, and so I wanted to know how do you cope with being hyperfocused on something and unable to work on academic or job related things? Not sure if I'm getting those because of my mental illness, if I should get checked for ADHD or if my meds are giving me mania but either way, I get insomnia and spend days researching some weirdly specific stuff, while my academic life falls apart slightly. Not very serious, just annoying.

ah yes... That™. I have the whole insomnia thing too, which you would think is useful because yay! more time! but actually it seems to just end up being more time to waste lmao. so it goes!

anyway, the only thing I’ve found that works for me when I’m really hyperfocused or hyperfixated on something is to ensure that all my Responsibilities™ are done before I engage with the thing. thankfully I seem to be OK if I just don’t get online at all -- so if I do all my housework/reading/showering etc before I boot up my laptop -- and if I have to be online for something (like studying or whatever) I seem to be able to avoid going down the rabbit hole so long as I only open the websites related to my work. as soon as I open any free time websites (like Tumblr or Reddit or whatever) or anything to do with my current obsession I’m fucked, but so long as I don’t do that I seem to be able to get my shit done. then I use Obsession Time as a kind of reward. 

I also find it helps if I do the responsible computer stuff as soon as I get on the computer. so if I have something I want to write, I sign on and immediately open Word and nothing else, or if I have Duo lessons to do I open the browser and immediately go do that. this way I manage to get it out of the way before being distracted by something, and then if I do get distracted it doesn’t matter so much because the responsibilities have been taken care of. this obviously requires a bit of discipline, so it doesn’t work all the time, but so long as I do that one simple thing it works. it’s much easier than trying to drag myself away from something I’m hyperfocusing on, too.

so yeah, basically just hammer through your responsibilities first and then Indulge. it’s not perfect but it really is the only way I’ve worked out how to get around this lol. it’s also useful to remember that you don’t necessarily have to do a lot of your responsible stuff in one go, or even all of it -- even if you split the task up and do it over a number of days, go for it. whatever works. slow progress is absolutely better than no progress, and learning this has saved my ass so many times.

[ace-in-a-shopping-cart]

Director’s Cut Chapter 6: The Castle

Director’s cut chapter 5

Virgil woke to the sound of knocking on the door. Sitting up, he swept his hair out of his eyes. “Come in.”

Patton’s head peeked in, light from the outside making it seem like he was glowing. “Sorry to wake you, Virgil. I was sent to let you know that it’s half an hour ‘til dinner.”

Virgil nodded. “I’ll be out as soon as I’ve changed.” Patton smiled and shut the door.

He stood from the too different bed, head pounding from the crash of adrenaline as well as the lack of proper sleep from the last few weeks. His eyes were already adjusted to the dark so he had no trouble finding the dresser and the clothes that lay atop it.

He picked up the pile, the fabric different from what he was used to. He dressed quickly, almost falling over as he tried to put the leg coverings on but he managed to do it. The shirt was a soft plaid the color of a purple sunset over the ocean. The pants were a deep blue that made Virgil think of the ocean floor.

A knock sounded at the door again and Patton’s head returned. “Are you ready?”

Virgil nodded, exchanging the dark room for the brightly lit hallway. He turned to Patton, arms out slightly as he spun slowly. “Do I look presentable?”

Patton frowned. “Your hair is a mess.”

Virgil reached up to feel it. “I have no idea what it’s supposed to look like.”

Patton moved back into the room Virgil had vacated and gestured for the mer to follow him. Virgil sat on the side of the bed, curious as to what the manservant was planning. Patton opened the dresser and picked up an object that resembled a sea urchin attached to a stick. He turned around and held it up. “Do you mind if I brush your hair for you?”

Virgil shrugged. “If that is what is presentable.” He has no concept of how social interaction is supposed to be done.

Patton smiled and came to sit behind Virgil. The mer felt fingers tangling with his locks, quickly followed by the urchin like part of the object. It was a strange sensation but not an unpleasant one. Patton was quick and efficient. Soon, his hands stilled and retreated, leaving Virgil’s hair feeling smoother.

Virgil stood, making his way to the looking glass set in the corner of the room. His hair was lying flat against his skin, not wild and flowing like it was in the water. He turned back around to face the manservant, who now stood by the door. “Does it look better?” He had no way of gauging human beauty standards so trusted Patton’s judgement.

Patton smiled. “You look great!” He led the way back down the hallway and to the first floor, moving through other hallways with barely any hesitation, completely at ease in this large building. They quickly made their way to a large dining room that already had the table set.

Patton stepped  off to the side and Virgil noticed that, even though the head of the table remained empty, other seats were filled out with Logan and two other people, a place next to Logan left over for Virgil. He sat, once again curling his legs around a chair leg, not exactly sure what to do with them.

The other adult at the table, who Virgil guessed to be Thomas, caught his eye with a smile. “So, Virgil, was it?”

Virgil nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Logan tells me you were captured by pirates.”

The small child sitting next to him, who could be no older than ten, lit up at the sound of that. “Pirates?! Really?”

Virgil nodded, smiling slightly at the enthusiasm. “Yes, the farthest back my memory currently goes is to waking on the pirate ship and running for my life.”

The child almost stood from his seat but Thomas pushed his shoulder back down gently. “Real pirates? Oh, boy!”

Thomas sighed. “Roman, please just eat your soup.”

Virgil looked down at his place setting to find a round, shallow dish filled with a liquid. To his right was a utensil that seemed to be designed to carry the liquid, the soup. Glancing at the child, he observed how he was scooping the soup into the utensil and bringing it to his mouth, blowing gently on it before eating. Virgil copied him to the best of his ability, having never encountered either soup before.

The table conversation went on, Thomas interrogating Virgil while trying to contain the rambunctious ten year old. Whenever Thomas wasn’t questioning Virgil, Logan was trying to see how bad his amnesia was. That was difficult as Virgil was unsure how similar their societies were or how much Virgil would have to bluff. It seemed that they were similar enough that Virgil was able to at least pass the childhood aspect of the test, failing the rest of the test as he tried to keep up the amnesia façade.

Over the course of the meal, Logan and Virgil’s conversation ventured away from what Virgil remembered and veered toward getting to know each other. Virgil was fascinated by Logan’s enthusiasm for the stars. He spoke of going late at night to gaze at them through his telescope, the tube he only ever used at night.  Logan talked about his ventures into painting, the stand and white rectangle, saying how it helped him calm down after a stressful time.

Virgil really couldn’t talk about his own interests as he wasn’t supposed to remember them. So, he just observed the happy family, the way Logan always spoke nicely to Roman, always on his level of knowledge, not Logan’s. He saw the way Thomas tried to engage Roman in the conversation, even if it meant using smaller words. He smiled, knowing this family was loving and strong. Read: Hyperfixations

Once the meal was over, Roman jumped out of his seat and asked Thomas if he could show Virgil around the castle. Thomas laughed and said it was fine as long as Logan went too, confessing he still had some work to complete or he’d be joining them. Logan agreed and the group was off. Roman tried to narrate what they were seeing and where they were going but quickly got tired. Logan picked him up, settling him on his back, and took up the narration, giving a better explanation of things. Soon, they passed through a hallway that was filled with paintings of people on their way to the library.

“Who are those?” Virgil asked, his eyes lingering on each individual, some looking similar and others completely different. He’d never encountered anything similar but guessed they were like what Logan did with the stand and canvas.

“Ah. Those are the generations of Ackroyd’s that came before us. They are our ancestors and, one day, we will join them.”

Virgil frowned. “Forgive me if I sound stupid, but you surely can’t mean that you actually trap souls in paintings, can you?”

Logan laughed, a melody of sound that traveled the length of the hall. “No, we don’t imprison souls in art. The paintings are simply the likeness of the person. Their painting is done when they come of age but it is not hung until the subject either ascends to the throne or dies.”

Virgil nodded. “Okay. Thanks for the explanation.”

“It’s no trouble.” Logan shifted, settling the now sleeping child into a better position. “Although, I do believe that I should get this bug to bed. If you would wait here a moment, I would be glad to show you more of the castle when I get back.”

Virgil smiled and nodded. Logan walked down the hall and Virgil turned to look at the different paintings. He wandered the corridor, eventually coming to stand in front of the last picture on the wall. He was admiring it for a few minutes, picking out the resemblance in features to Logan and Thomas and, to a lesser degree, Roman.

“That’s my father, the current king.” Logan’s voice said behind Virgil, causing the mer to jump. Inattention and a lack of awareness for his surroundings.

“I didn’t hear you return.” he chuckled, turning slightly, allowing Logan to stand beside him. “You mentioned he was away, do you know where?”

“Yes, he and my younger brother, Orville, are away dealing with a business deal that could secure safe trading routes for centuries to come. While he is gone, Thomas and I are splitting the day to day mundane tasks that Father would normally oversee. One of such tasks is to send a battalion after that pirate ship you mentioned. If all goes well, they will no longer be able to cause anyone else harm.”

Logan’s voice had started out as smooth while speaking of his family but changed to a harder, passionate tone when he brought up the pirates. Turning to look into his eyes, Virgil found a similar passion there that caused him to simultaneously want to look deeper and turn away. He chose the second option, heat rising to his cheeks at the thought of the first.  

Virgil cleared his throat. “Should we continue the tour?”

Logan nodded. “If you wish. I’ll take you to the library but I’m not sure how much longer you should be about, you need your rest for your injuries to heal properly.”

Of course. Because that was the main goal right now. Healing the injuries before getting the crystal and getting back to his blessing. That was what mattered right now. Virgil shook his head almost imperceptibly, needing to do the action to clear it. His hand reached to fidget with the other sleeve as they continued their walk, the silence almost deafening now that Logan wasn’t narrating everything in sight. Anxious stimming.

When they entered the library, Virgil’s  jaw was almost on the floor. He spun in a wide circle, trying to understand that so many books could exist in the world, let alone in one room. If he’d been paying attention to Logan, he would have seen the small smile that crossed his face at Virgil’s wonder.

The walls seemed to go up at least three stories, bookshelves lining each of them and filled with enough pieces of literature of varying sizes to keep Virgil entertained his whole life. He almost wasn’t sure if he would ever see this many books again. His eyes trailed up the cases, marveling at the intricate carvings he’d only seen ruins of. When he got to the top of the room, he found windows at the very top that allowed for light to fill the room while still preserving the books.

“Would you like to take one back to your room for some light reading before bed?” Logan’s voice once again startled him back into paying attention to his surroundings rather than his wandering thoughts. He spun back around to face Logan, mind still going a mile a minute but he was now in the eye of the hurricane instead of the brunt of the storm.

“I don’t think I’d know where to start.” He confessed, a blush dusting his cheeks in embarrassment.

Logan just chuckled and took a few steps forward. “What kind of books interest you?”

Virgil shrugged. “All of them. I’d honestly try to read everything I can get my hands on.”

Logan nodded, moving to the nearest bookshelf. “Well, then how about staring you off on the history of the nation. Would that be agreeable?”

Virgil almost jumped for joy but remembered at the last second that he couldn’t do that in human form in a way that would satisfy the movement he wanted to make. Instead, he simply squealed softly and nodded. ”That would be great.” He’s trying to do the same twirling stim from chapter 2 but is unable to as it involves corkscrewing a tail he doesn't currently possess. This leads to the squeal as a different but no less happy stim.

Logan smiled and handed him a large tome. “This should be enough for now. I suggest getting some sleep now as your wounds will benefit from that.”

Virgil nodded. “That’s a good idea. Are you heading to bed as well?” Part of him wanted to spend more time with Logan, even if it were spent in silence walking down a hall.

Logan shook his head, a regretful smile playing on his lips. “Unfortunately, I still have some work to do. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Then I shall bid you a good night.”

“Do you need me to call someone to escort you back to your room or do you remember the way?” Virgil wondered if that was genuine concern or if Logan was trying to figure out what kind of amnesia Virgil had. Either way, it was sweet.

“Just down the hall, up the stairs, and my room should be the third on the left. I think I’ll be fine but I appreciate the offer.”

Logan nodded and started in the opposite direction, heading to his personal study. Virgil went back to his room, changing into the pajamas he found waiting there and crawled into the too different bed. He read for a bit but soon fell asleep again, the run through the woods finally catching up to him.

He woke to the same tingles in his legs and sides as he had the previous few weeks. He didn’t want to shed scales on the bed, nor did he want to spend the whole night trapped in the bed. So, he quickly scrambled out of it and his pants, unsure how the transition would take fabric being between the legs when they fused back into a tail. He found the door to the bathroom, managing to fill the tub and slipping in just as his tail took shape, his fins sprouting from his sides.

He sighed in contentment, finally in sustained contact with fresh water again. It curled around him, thanking him for the simple act of freeing part of the tank water. He smiled, knowing he would be able to cash in a favor but deciding to save it. He sank deeper into the tub, grateful for it being deep enough that he could almost submerge himself in the water. Feeling comfortable in his own scales for the first time in a few weeks and the sound of the water moving acting as a lullaby, he quickly drifted into a deep, healing sleep.

He woke as the sun came through the window and his tail began to tingle once more, signaling the change. He waited until it changed back to legs, mourning the loss of his fins already. He inspected his injuries and found that the bandages that wound around his legs were still intact. He stood from the tub and drained it before making his way back to the bed, slipping under the covers to drift until woken by someone else.

Director’s cut chapter 7

[goodboy-bitchboy]

can i just say. being hyperfixated on smth i can only rlly talk abt w my mom and sibling (bc most other ppl i try to talk to abt it dont care abt it) is weird. i will not engage in fandom talk w my mother. but at least my sibling and i can be like "so this character definitely isnt straight right" "yeah, definitely not"- my sibling and i see some characters and just go "ah yes. a Gay™" - 🦔

SHDHSJSJ that’s wonderful