#and like. tagging consistently and shite

[thiefbird]

the fact that i somehow have 356 followers is insane to me

why are you all here

[c-u-c-koo-4-40k]

The Silver Dragon Cometh - Part 1

Summary: Lullaby and Khopesh and their gaggle of Primaris friends/acquaintances are having a lovely picnic under the sun. The weather is warm, the food is filling, the conversation is surprisingly easy flowing. Lullaby even makes a few new close friends, and confides in them some struggle they're having with their powers. If Only things could remain so lovely...

Previous Chapter Here!

Next Chapter Here!

Where is all started! Here!

Warning: Social Anxiety, Fights, Injury, Cursing, Literally messing with people's heads, and what could technically be considered micro aggressions to go with the Macro aggressions.

Tags: This one is another collaboration with @gallifreyianrosearkytiorsusan! We've also got characters from @sleepyfan-blog and @kit-williams making an appearance. If you've contributed a character and I don't mention it here just DM me I'll fix that right up!

@bleedingichorhearts @beckyninja @bispecsual @passionofthesith @egrets-not-regrets @felinisnoctis

“Right,” Karlsor says, “try again, just like before.”

He holds out a hand, and like you've been doing for most of this session you hold out yours, a few inches above his. Parallel, not touching

“If it helps,” Karlsor says, “try to visualize the mycelium network stretching out their roots- like leaves of a plant extending to reach the sun.”

You try to do that. In recent trainings you had learned to Sense the slight difference when your powers were working. Feeling the flow so to speak, you could even tell when power was flowing out vs in. Sometimes, you could even see…Things very faintly when you absorbed enough energy. But it never lasted very long. 

And try as you might, you really weren't feeling any power flow one way or another, no matter how hard you visualized your little roots reaching up (or down in this case) to make contact with Karlsors hand. You could feel the Strain of trying to push them, and it was honestly starting to give you a bad headache. 

Karlsor meanwhile was using his warp sight, and feeling his own headache starting. He could see the mycelium tendrils reaching, but it seemed like a few inches was Lullaby's current limit as far as projection went for now. 

Part of him wanted to say Fuck it and touch the little roots so they'd relieve his headache. He hissed, patience patience…His head throbbed in vengeance and his sight wavered, spots of darkness flickering in and out.

Yeah fuck patience they'd been at this same fucking bullshit for over an hour and went from one inch to a Maybe two inch limit. Karlsor dimmed his warp sight with a gruff muttered “enough…Fuck damn shit this hurts.”

He heard you huff with disappointment before a warm small hand made contact with his and the pain and throbbing lessened. “Sorry Karlsor,” You murmur. 

“Eh, some training is harder to do than others,” Karlsor says, “Try and, ugh, meditate and think about stretching the network, without trying to use your powers. That might help?”

He sighs in relief, “Fuck I’m glad that your powers help. My headaches are a lot better now. Thanks.”

“No trouble,” You smile wryly. “You know as much as I do right now, Teach. I'll give it a shot. Besides, I'm glad I can at least do a few things consistently.”

“Consistency in what you can do, is really important,” Karlsor says seriously, “being able to do it more than once, means that it’s repeatable rather than just only being able to do something once. Scientific Method and all that grox-shite.”

“I Do appreciate the Scientific Method. But speaking of once in a while things…” You glance at the clock, “Would it be okay if we call today's session a little early?”

“I fuckin guess, but what for?” Karlsor asks. 

You smile, and start gathering your things. “Khopesh said Claude wanted me to meet some of the other Primaris Marines they know. So we're meeting at the park for a picnic!” You answer cheerfully. “There's apparently some new arrivals And I even baked and decorated a cake! Do you want me to save you a slice?”

You omitted the near mental breakdown you had trying to make the icing look nice. It was a fun process but you wanted to make a good impression. 

“Ah- I heard about them, one of them is a feral bastard of a Lamenter, and one of the other’s is another, ugh, Ultramarine.” Karlsor says- remember what Claude’s spoken of some of the newly arrived Primaris Marines. “A break’s a good idea- go on, have fun.”

“Pfft,” You snickered a bit at the shade Karlsor was throwing around. “Well as long as they like strawberry cake I'm sure it'll be fine. Thanks, Teach!“

“You’re welcome. Save me a slice, yeah?” Karlsor says. He likes cake. “If you can. Lamenters are very… soft with baselines.”

“Push meets shove I'll bake you your own cake, text me your flavor preferences!” You call back, and hit an eager run to the pantry. 

“Deal!” Karlsor perks up with a grin.

He texts you [Meyer Lemon and Raspberry] for his flavor preference.

You pass by Pyrus in the hallway who gives you a cheerful greeting. “Hello Lullaby!”

“Hi Pyrus gotta run!”

You pass by the med bay where apothecary Zariel is exiting a room. He happens to see you. “Ah Lullaby finished with your studies?”

“For today anyway, gotta go, there's a picnic with my name on it!”

Zariel laughs, “Very well, mind where you run.”

“I will!”

You come to the food pantry where you happen to see Zaarius examining the larder and taking stock. 

“Hello Zaar!” You greet him, clearly still bouncing with energy. “Is it still here?”

“Naturally dear,” He cooes, reaching to one of the high temperature controlled shelves. “One Strawberry cake with strawberry buttercream icing and Adorable vanilla buttercream rosettes. Unmolested…no matter how Badly certain individuals wanted to.”

You hear a familiar grumbling walking in with more items for the pantry. “I only said I wanted a Bit of the icing.” Khopesh grumbled, placing items on shelves with rapid speed even while he complained. 

Zaarius rolled his eyes. You trotted over to give your love a hug. (Carefully while still holding the cake.) “Hey Sweetness! You'll get to have some soon.” You reassure him with a kiss on the lips. “I'll make sure you get the first piece!”

Khopesh trademark purrs picked up as you embraced him. “That is acceptable.” He agrees then turns to Zaarius. “As promised all the items are unloaded and sorted.”

“Properly?” Zaarius asks pointedly, knowing younger marines penchants for slacking on work they deemed unimportant. 

Khopesh huffed with slight indignance. “Of course! What do you take me for a Space Wolf? Any Nightlord worth their pelts does Not mess around with Food.”

“And yet you wanted to snag a bit of my cake early?” You ask dryly. 

“Sorting and Storing food, not eating it dear Lullaby.” He explained with a flash of teeth. “When processing a carcass the most important factor is proper cutting, sorting, and preserving for the Purpose of eventual consumption. Or eventual leather work or scrimshawing in the case of skin and bones.”

Zaarius arches an eyebrow at him, “No, but young ones can get impatient and sloppy.”

Khopesh made a slightly dramatic gesture for Zaarius to examine his section. Which the Noise Marine did and actually gave a somewhat impressive hum. “Not bad, very well Khopesh, you are released until your next kitchen duty. Enjoy your outing.”

“Excellent!” Khopesh growls with vigor, before scooping you, and the cake up so you were riding in the crook of his elbow.

“Oop! H-hey!” You say with delighted laughter, and sling an arm over Khopesh's neck for better grip. “By Zaarius! See you around.” You call back as you are whisked away by your goofy Nightlord.

Zaarius chuckles and shakes his head at the two. Young love.

________________

Olly had brought some chocolate rocks- which were not rocks at all, but were chocolate with a crunchy candy coating as part of snacks for the picnic that he was invited along with. Ramiel and Cedric had done the lion’s share of the cooking, while the rest of them cleaned up and carried the picnic food stuffs, drinks and supplies.

Olly turned to one of his brothers, careful to approach while the other was not doing anything too consuming. In this case Claude laying out the blankets and cutlery.

“So…this baseline Khopesh is bringing…what are they like?” Olly asks.

Claude pauses for a moment. “Don't worry. They're very sweet.” He assures Olly. “And funny, and warm and reassuring.”

Jophiel gives Claude a sideways glance, but doesn't comment. Warm and reassuring? There's nothing warm and reassuring about being crawling with bizarre unknown (possibly heretical) psychery. 

Olly looks down to the chocolate rocks he'd brought with him. “Do you think they'll like the candy?” 

Kerubiel sneered a little, his arms crossed over his chest, still not certain why they needed to be interacting with a baseline human that wasn’t Bonded to a Night Lord, but somehow someone that they cared for. 

“Meet'in a new person won’t, likely hurt us,” Thressl noticed the look on his face and shoved an elbow into his side, “lighten up ya sour puss!”

If Kerubiel had actual fur it would've raised in hackles at that comment. “I am not a Sour Puss!” He hissed. 

Thressl smiled. “Sounds like somethin a sour puss would say.”

Kerubiel huffed. “I just don't understand why we're playing baby sitter to a soft handed, Soft Headed baseline.” He turned to get back to his proper task. 

Only to be met with Claude appearing Right in his face. The Dark Angel nearly jumped at having his space taken up so suddenly. His teal eyes were Deathly, serious. “Don't call them that. Unless you want me to tell Captain Ash'val you've had another ‘lapse in good sense.’”

Lion on the Hill what the Fuck?! Kerubiel had never seen Claude look so serious…and Much less threaten to rat him out to a First Born??

Still though! He wouldn't take it back, he just…wouldn't push the issue. “Fine…but only because it would be unbecoming as a son of the First.” He groused. “When are they supposed to be here anyway?!” He asked, trying to distract himself from Claude still Staring at him. 

He was three seconds from bapping Claude in the face, when a call came from up the path they'd taken. Claude rolled his shoulders and tilted his chin a little, his eyes flashing teal- ready to smack the shit out of his brother cousin if need be.

Claude did break from staring him down to swivel his head in the direction. All of the Primaris Marines hear someone coming over, and Claude relaxes, and smiles a little when he spots Khopesh and Lullaby

“We have arrived!” Khopesh called out to his gaggle of little brothers and cousins. 

“And we brought cake!” Your voice came after. “Hi Claude!” 

Claude happily approached you and Khopesh first, as you were set down on your own feet. You approached the short haired Primaris, and offered a hug, which Claude gladly accepted. He keeps half an eye on Kerubiel- just in case the other tries to smack him when he turns his back on the other.

The firm but affectionate squeeze lasted a perfect amount of time, as Khopesh then took his turn… He returns the gesture to you very gently, making sure to not use too much strength.

“C'mere you little Bird Fiend!” He growled playfully, snatching up Claude and lifting him a bit off the ground. 

Claude tilts his head back in a laugh, and hugs Khopesh back just as strongly.

“Ah brother this is a bit much!” Claude stated but didn't actually struggle. Khopesh did acquiesce to placing him down with a gentle thud! Followed by playfully ruffling his hair. 

“So! What is there to eat!? I've spent all morning around food I wasn't allowed to eat.” Khopesh says cheerfully, before taking several deep sniffs of the air. “OoOooh! Brawts from the Bakery run by that Templar. Yes!”

You notice a much…Taller fellow standing a bit awkwardly behind Claude. He has something in his hands. 

“Olly, Cousin! Come here!” Khopesh crows joyfully. “This is my Lullaby.” He introduces you and you give a small wave and a “Hello,”

“I've told you about them before.”

Olly has a look of realization. “Oh! Is this the human you said you wanted to place in a terreriu-

Khopesh cuts his adorable dense cousin off. “Ah Hey! What have you made now? More things that bubble and foam?”

Olly seems to shift a little in place. “Ah No Sorry…didn't have the time or supplies. I made chocolate rocks with candy shells and gems inside. I Hope they are to everyone's liking…”

You peak to see and indeed, that's what he's got in the box he carries. “They Look good! I can't wait to try one!”

“You can have one now if you like?” Olly says shyly as he approaches the pair of them. The colors of the chocolate are slightly off- made from natural (safe to consume for baselines and space marines) colors. Rather than that weird ‘food dye’ stuff that comes from uh… less natural stuff? Which tasted wretched he could taste Red 3, and it was. DISGUSTING. Yuck.

“If it's okay with you.” You agree holding the cake in one hand and your other one out. 

Olly smiled, and grabbed a piece of his candy (tamping down on the urge to spend minutes finding Just the right one), handing it to you. Although, he did pick one of the Best Looking and Smelling one. He had tasted tested- and had the others taste test them (and had a Baseline human- one who was Bonded to Hura, try them, just in case. Baseline humans had different tastes, different preferences, but sometimes Astartes made food that could be… odd to baseline human palates.)

You examine the candy, marveling at the color and the tiny bits of sugar gems. “It almost looks too good to eat! You made these?” You ask for a bite to see the cross section. 

There is a cross section of the blue colored chocolate jewel candy, the thin coating of candy is a nice blue, with dark chocolate with little ‘gems’ of crystalized sugar and bits of jam. A cross between a chocolate truffle and a jammy candy.

“Yes,” Olly says, then rambles on the process he had to go through in order to make the candies, the temperatures, the timing, the flavors and the combinations, and why he’d chosen the colors and flavors he had- he was able to ramble more when Kerubiel stomps over and shoves a sandwich in his mouth.

“Olly, shush!” Kerubiel says, “I doubt they care about you prattling on about candy making. Honestly, you need to learn to be quiet.”

“... Yes Keru,” Olly says, shuffling his feet and trying not to visibly wilt. 

OH! Oh No, This catty bitch did Not. “Actually! I Like hearing him talk about baking and candy making.” You huff. “And no I'm not just saying that to Spite you, though I do enjoy doing that.” You aim pointedly at the…familiar Dark Angel. 

You turn a much kinder gaze onto Olly. “I'd be a big hypocrite if I didn't like candy making. I got my bachelors in chemistry after all, they say chefs are born in the kitchen. Chemists, are born in the bakery…candy store in this case but you get what I mean.”

It is Now Kerubiel fully recognizes both the Night Lord and the Baseline human. Oh no. Not them. Again. Claude as does Thressl, and they both notice the way that Kerubiel reacts to them and they look at each other and then at Kerubiel and are on either side of him, and wait for the scolding to end.

“What did you do?” Thressl asks Kerubiel, a shit eating grin on his face.

“When did you meet Lullaby and Khopesh?” Claude asks.

“And how badly did you piss them off?” Cedric asks, with a disappointed sigh. Kerubiel was great at a lot of things, socializing was not one of them. And he was shit at socialization at times. The Dark Angel just groans at the indignity of the memory, and his subsequent punishment.

“It's fascinating how just a change in temperature can Completely alter the resulting structure of the final product! I mean take caramel for example!” You posit. “Bless my mother she tried to make me a caramel syrup when we were out of the regular kind one morning, but the temperature was off and we ended up with caramel drops that were like Cement on our French toast. Couldn't even eat it, because it hurt our teeth. And getting it off the plates was a Nightmare.”

“It’s a lot of fun!” Olly says, after finishing the Surprise Bite of the sandwich, that Kerubie had shoved it into his face, and pulled the rest of it out of his mouth.

“Khopesh also said something about bubbling and foaming? Do you make other things besides candy?”

Olly nodded. “I have made Marble soda before, using marble pieces and the base facilities. I was told it was quite enjoyable.”

You balked for a moment. “Wait! You actually made soda out of rock? How??”  Then your chemist brain caught up. “Marble has Calcium Carbonate! You actually used the calcium carbonate in the marble to make the Carbon Dioxide for the soda water? That's amazing!”

“Yes- it was a lot of fun to figure out how to make- and the experiments were still edible- uh, by Astartes standards, anyways.” Olly says, with a big grin on his face as his eyes sparkled. He didn’t have the patience to be a fully trained Chemist- trying to understand the different symbols and whatever the fuck a neutron is and why the different numbers matter hurt his brain. The teacher-brother had said that “you asked the right questions, but can’t seem to do the math, I think you’re better off staying a battle brother, little one.”

“What acid did you use? Or what source?” You ask excitedly. “Or I guess boiling or heating would allow for thermal decay which would also release CO2. One moment.” You place the cake down on the picnic table and pick up a Stick and your phone. 

“There are acids that can be used? Source? I did the boiling and heating method,” Olly replied.

“Source as in what food ingredient. For example, vinegar has acetic acid or lemon juice has citric acid. But you did the thermal option so in that case…” You reference your phone and drawn 

         CaCO3 — Heat –-> CaO + CO2 

“In simple terms you took this starting ingredient or Reagent, and applied heat until it broke apart into Calcium Oxide and Carbon Dioxide, notice how the same number and types of symbols appear on both sides, they've just been rearranged. When you were heating a white powder was left behind and discarded, that is the Calcium Oxide. The other is the gas you used to infuse the soda. So your not human safe products likely had too much Calcium Oxide.” You declare. “Which would have made them more bitter and well…poisonous.”

You break from your rambling, realizing you got a bit Too excited. “I Really like chemistry…sorry.”

“Oh no! You misunderstand.” Olly reassures you. “You are correct that the ones that were not baseline safe Did have a much more bitter taste- and activated the anti-poison glands.” Olly says. “Um- Zaarius was happy to take the Calcium Oxide off my hands for… some… thing? Huh… I probably should have asked the Chaos Chemist what he wanted with the by product, yeah? Hm. But well- at least he has a use for it… whatever it was.”

“Maybe he's making Cement or blowing shit up.” You say, mostly joking…mostly. “Calcium Oxide, also known as Quick Lime, is Caustic and reacts with water.”

“Ah, oh dear,” Olly says, “Cement is the friendlier option. I don’t think that Hura would allow him to blow up the Rot Bone Base. Uh- maybe let Anrir know?”

He had looked towards Khopesh and Claude at that. He hadn’t known that white powdery stuff could be used to make concrete, or into an explosive. But- it made sense why the Chaos Marine would want it. And why he’d paid so well for the powder, once he knew what it had come from. Oh bother.

There are some stumbling, scuffling noises- and a space marine, of similar size to the primaris in badly damaged yellow-gold armor looking armor with red accents and with a black and white checker-marked pauldron with a bleeding heart in the middle. 

Nanael comes over, “Sorry I’m late! I got - uh- waylaid- oh no. Am I too late?” He had brought some of the last minute items that they had run out of - and had been sent off to go get and was back. “I got the stuff…”

“Welcome,” you pipe up cheerfully. “We've got cake and food and some damn fine candy rocks so even if you've come by accident you should still snag some.” You say jokingly. 

The newcomer perks up at your greeting. “It’s nice to meet you- uh? I go by Nanael, what’s your name?”

Nanael blinks down at you then over at Khopesh and tries not to growl at the Night Lord. Shifting closer and setting the stuff down. “Thanks for getting it Nanael,” Cedric says. “This is Lullaby, and the Night Lord is Khopesh. He’s one of Claude’s Claw.”

“Nice to meet you Lullaby,” Nanael says to you. He looks over at Khopesh, a calculating gaze in his blue-red eyes. “... I’m glad to meet a couple of people that Claude cares for so much. I have heard some. Interesting things. About both of you. Good things.”

“Awwww! Claude, you been talking sweet about me behind my back?!” You ask with glee, “I'd honestly say there's no better compliment than someone speaking well of you, even when you're not there.”

“Well Yeah,” Claude says, “you’re pretty cool. And some- uh- some of us haven’t really met many baseline humans before coming to Ancient Terra in non-combat situations before.”

You notice Jophiel looking…unsure when Claude says that. You decide to pivot the subject a bit.

“I am curious…how many battles has each of you seen? Like I know ya'll are all different ages From different ages, so who's got technically the Most experience out of all of you?” You ask, gesturing to the circle of space marines around you. 

A beat passes, and for a moment you feel the creeping dread of having committed a social faux paus crawling up your back and stirring in your gut. Cedric is not thinking about the fact that, due to the standards of certain eras, that Jophiel would be considered a Neophyte, not a Scout. He is so desperately not thinking about that.

Only for Khopesh to pipe up. “Well obviously it's me. I'm the oldest here!” He states confidently. 

“That is most likely true,” The Primaris say with varying levels of grace.

“How old are you?” Jophiel asks Khopesh. “I know that all of us have at least fought in… one battle- many of us multiple even!”

Your Nightlord seems to pause, thinking it over. “Hmm…you know what? I forgot!” He says simply eating another bite of brawt with a smile. 

“HUH!? How do you not know how old you are!?” You ask incredulously. 

Khopesh shrugs. “Never bothered to count. After I passed the trials, and became a full fledged Nightlord everything from before got pretty fuzzy.” He says, still eating. “Regardless, as a representative of the 30th millenia I am Confident I've got the most battle experience.”

“Well…true, but battle experience isn't Everything.” Thressel hummed, a glittering mischief in his eyes. 

Khopesh regarded the Primaris coolly, but with interest. “Is that so?”

“Aye! What do you say to a little…competition? Friendly match.”

Khopesh smiled and you suppressed a groan. “Right here right now? Don't tease me Scout, you don't play with a Nightlord when it comes to challenges.”

“You're on!” Thressel howls with excitement, literally, and bolts off into the more open part of the field. “Oi! Old timer! You gonna move those creaking bones or am I gonna have to wait for the 30th millenia to come again!?”

Cedric shakes his head, before standing. “Honestly,” He grumbles, then calls to the eager Space Wolf. “HOLD On If we're going to do this, we're going to do this the Right way.”

Khopesh stands, then dips back down to plant a kiss on your lips. “For luck! Watch me win my darling!” He bolts after, and the other Primaris turn to watch or gather near their brethren. Seems a small tournament is going to be held. 

Surprisingly, it's just you and Olly left by the picnic blankets while the others set up, and discuss rules. Things are peaceful, steady, if still a Little awkward with most of your mutual group out on the field. 

“So…” Olly posits. “How has your training with Claude and Karlsor been going?”

(!) “Uh…what do you mean?” You ask, trying to hide your underlying nerves. Does Olly mean…? No, no he couldn't Possibly. Why would he have been told-

“It's okay, Claude has nightmares occasionally and ah…he sometimes talks in his sleep.” Olly explained sheepishly 

Fuck. 

“So wait…you know about…the Thing?” You ask carefully, trying to keep your voice down. Olly nodded. 

“You have some gifts that need training and to keep quiet about it,” Olly says, “I won’t tell anyone else- and Claude doesn’t know that I heard his nightmare-mumbling- and kept him from telling others. If you wanna talk about it with me you can.”

You glance at the others in the field. “Are they far enough away? They can't hear us.” Olly nods again. 

You take a deep breath. “Well I'm not…unhappy. But I'm also…frustrated.” You explain, still keeping your voice down. “In theory I Should be able to project my gift further, so I can use it Without needing to touch things.”

“I've learned how to intentionally move psychic energy from one space marine to another. I've even learned to make it go the Opposite direction it would naturally flow. It's like walking against the flow of a stream but I can do it…”

“But no matter how hard I push, I can't seem to make the…roots of my power don't go out further than a couple of inches…” You say, rubbing the back of your neck awkwardly. 

“And…though it's unrelated, I can feel Jophie still isn't comfortable with me being here…” You say, with a little more sadness coming into your voice. “I guess part of me hopes if I can learn and Do more…he and others wouldn't be so afraid. I know that's silly, people are going to fear, it's their choice what they do with that fear. Still…kinda stings though.”

Olly hums for a moment, thinking over what you've just told him. He pulls out a candy rock and hands it to you, before taking one for himself and beginning to chew on it. 

“I don't know what to tell you about Jophiel…but for your Gift Perhaps…” Olly posits as he eats. “If your gift takes the form of Roots, maybe it doesn't want to travel in the air. Maybe it would prefer to travel through the ground?” He offers. 

You both sit there for a moment. Olly seems to think the pause is awkward and coughs a bit. “Ah sorry, that's a silly idea isn't it…”

“No, I think it makes a bizarre amount of sense and I'm…kinda surprised I hadn't thought about that.” You reassure him. You place your hand to the ground between the two of you. “I can't see it normally, but tell me if you Feel something…” You ask him. 

Olly looks confused. “Alright…what am I meant to feel?” 

You push on your power, taking hold of that subtle thread as you'd been trained to do. “Claude says it feels like…”

“Calm…” You glance up at Olly, who's now looking down at you with…well Wonder. “It feels calming…soothing…like a comforting hand on the shoulder but…in the heart.”

You smile widely. “Hang on Olly! Let me back up.” You scramble back a few steps then place your hands down again. “Ready?”

Olly nods and again, you push. It takes a moment, but Olly holds up his thumb when he feels the power connect. You feel the connection too. It's subtle but it's there. Olly grins a little- happy to be able to help, he doesn’t know much about Psykery, but he’s heard his Psyker touched brothers talk about it, part of sounds like it’s about finding the …resonance of things? 

Or something like that. Like with Psyhicic lightning- it’s like normal lightning, it wants to go down with the least resistance, so learning to not fight that and to direct and ground it so to speak is one of the major stumbling blocks- or so he’s heard the others complain about when he’s heard them talk about it. 

So he’s glad his idea about the roots wanting to be in the soil and loam, rather than in the air, is more than just a silly idea. Perhaps once they are more trained- and have a better idea of what they can do they’ll be able to push their roots through the air more? Sometimes that’s the case, sometimes it isn’t.

“What if I move?” Olly calls out to you- and then sends a vox text message that shows up on your phone. [Let’s see how far the reach of your root network is. I’ll back up a few steps.]

You give a thumbs up and the Ultramarine scrambles much like you had, just in the opposite direction. The others are still completely taken up with their sparring. Olly nods, and continues to move.

After counting his steps he sends another text message [I’m going to climb a tree and see if the Effect is still in place.]

After that he starts to climb- getting onto a supportive branch. You can just Barely see a bit of blue in the tree line, so you Push in that direction.

It's hard, but you feel a difference when you Assume your roots reach past the trees. You text Olly with one hand. [Can you feel it?]

No response comes for a moment, as you strain to make your roots Reach to their new maximum. But before Olly can respond you feel…something else. 

(!)You- you lose focus, and stop pushing causing the power to dissipate. You…you could've Sworn you felt…a Tap?

It was like something reached out to your roots and literally…poked them?? But that's not possible, the only one in the trees is Olly and he hadn't mentioned being able to do that?

Suddenly, your stomach feels…uneasy. You place your hand to the ground and push again, past the trees, past Olly on his branch. 

You pay closer attention. You feel the connection to Olly, same as you had before but there was…something that didn't feel like Olly, it didn't even feel like Claude or Karlsor or Xerxes or Dölgöön or any other psycher you'd touched it felt…

Dangerous. 

Draco had been walking through the forest- when he’d felt something strange- he had felt a light psychic energy. It wasn’t one that he recognized- so he’d crouched down and put his armored hand to the ground. He lightly reaches out his senses and pokes at the… whatever it is.

‘I wonder what that is?’ Draco thinks to himself. His brow furrows as he stretches out his senses to try and find the source of the strange weak psychic presence. It’s drowned out by some far brighter- and some far more familiar psychic presences- and some new ones as well.

Ah…the Scoutlings…and Other Scoutlings. Draco straightens back up to his full height. 

[Come to me.] Draco commands Jophiel and Claude- not only them, but to Thressl, Kerubiel and the very untrained Nanael.

Nanael- unaware of his nascent Psyker powers, that comes with his Perpetual state collapses to the ground clutching his head as his nose bleeds. “W-wh-what the fuck is this?!”

Jophiel, Claude, and Thressl all sway and groan clutching their heads and swear. “Fuck- it’s that silver bastard again.” Claude groans out.

Kerubiel hisses like an angry cat and clutches his head- he refuses to collapse- the way the other’s are. He’s a Son of the First- he’s better than that. The booming voice- has no Power of Him!

“GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” Thressl bellows out loud and with his Psykery. Damned witch- trying to take his mind- Out- OUT. GET OUT!

You whip your head back to the sparring matches at Thressel's pained howl. It's not just him though; Claude, Thressel, Nanael, and Kerubiel are all doubled over. Cedric, Ramiel and Khopesh are frantically trying to get the Scouts to Tell them what's wrong!

“Silver bastard,” Claude manages to choke out to Khopesh. Fuck his vision is going strange.

“BAH! ENOUGH! FACE US COWARD!” Kerubiel snarls, you notice he turns a certain direction so you do as well. Something moves just beyond the tree line and your eyes are met with a reflective Flash.

Your heart Sinks into the acid churning your stomach into nausea. 

no…No…NONONONONONONONO! You tremble, you shake, your legs lock up and you find yourself unable to move. 

Time seems to slow, and what fills your ears becomes muffled. 

A bright flash in the trees…

Reflections of glimmering gold armor…

NoNoNoNoNoNoNoNoNONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO-

It's only when Khopesh's voice breaks through the haze that you come back to the present. “Silver Witch! Get your disgusting slimy mind bastardry Out of My Scouts Heads!” 

Wait…Silver? And that's when you see the true face of the current threat stride into the clearing where you'd all had your picnic. 

It's not an insurmountable monster in gold, but an unfamiliar and smaller Goliath in silver. Another Space Marine?

“Enough foolishness!” The silver space marine bellows again, and you see the way the psycher scouts tremble; grasping their skulls like something is ringing inside them. “Stand aside Bratlings, and I will make yours and your cousins discipline Merciful.”

Khopesh sets himself into position, alongside Ramiel and Cedric. They form a defensive wall between the afflicted Primaris, and the silver Goliath. 

Olly is Carefully hopping from tree to tree to get closer to The Asshole Witch in Silver. He heard about this asshole being here- and now from the others. Had seen some of his ilk take his Psyker brothers away. Some returned, some didn’t. Not again- he’s not going to let one of them take his brothers or cousins away!

You hear Khopesh respond, “It is You who will need Mercy, Silver Witch. But you will find it sorely lacking from us!”

Cedric's voice is lower, but were you to hear it you'd feel your bones ice over at the murderous tone coming out of the Marine you knew as a kind young apothecary. Who liked hugs but felt awkward about asking for them. 

“You wouldn't be the first body I've buried,” Cedric assures the Silver Witch. “Nor the first psycher to meet that fate, Any who threaten my brothers will be shown the same end.”

Ramiel, doesn't speak, his mind is pure focus, following and complementing the formation of his two other brothers. They are outmatched, and forced to defend, but they will give it their All.

A beat passes then…

The Silver Goliath becomes a blur, when your eyes can catch him again he has caught Rami with a blow, but the young Templar holds as firm as he can. It still causes him to skid back, leaving trenches in the earth. 

Cedric and Khopesh counter, setting upon the Silver Marine. Dealing with two opponents doesn't seem to phase him terribly, he bats away their strikes. 

For a moment it seems Khopesh has left him an opening, striking with his Lightning Claw his raised arm is a hazard. The Silver Knight moves to Capitalize!

Only for Khopesh to feint, turning both claws to catch the swinging blade, one sinking Into the Grey Knight's ceramite gauntlet. Like Ramiel he's pushed back a bit leaving short curved trenches, Cedric attacks the Goliath’s other side, covering and taking advantage of Khopesh momentarily stopping the sword blow.  

Only for the Silver Marine to raise his non-sword hand and set off a Blast of crackling silver Lightning, pushing Cedric back who is caught by Ramiel.   

“CEDRIC!” You scream in horror seeing the apothecary sporting soot marks and smokestacks on the armor he's wearing. 

“AGRh!” You turn back, seeing the Silver Bastard. Khopesh managed to pull one of his claws free and Sink it into the Bastards side while the fucker was busy frying Cedric. 

“VILE GUTTER RAT!” Draco bellows indignantly.  

Khopesh smiles with his full sharp teeth before he uses his claws to pull himself close and Slam the bastard for a jumping headbutt. It causes the Goliath to stagger, not expecting such an undisciplined move, but that's all Khopesh needs. He wrenches his stabbing lightning Claw free, and ferociously repeats the action, while the Other claw is still awkwardly impaling the bastard's hand, keeping them joined. 

And making the squirmy bastard Very hard to Hit! Draco thinks. As the Nightlord stays aggravatingly close, too close for punches or kicks to make impact. 

Meanwhile, Cedric only pauses for a moment to set back on his feet, before he lunges back into the fray alongside Ramiel. They capitalize on Khopesh being essentially attached to the Grey Knight: flanking their tormentor, and attacking his sides. 

The Grey Knight Is having a little more trouble batting aside these blows with the added weight of a Nightlord slowing his movements, And the bratlings, coming from his 3 and 9. Annoying little wretches! They want him to get mean? Fine!! He will get mean. 

You watch with hope as it seems your Space Marines are doing it! They're forcing him back! 

Until you see another crackling light, appear. Your heart jumps into your throat. “Watch Ou-!” You cry, but it's too late. 

A shock wave of silver lightning Blasts in a ring around the Goliath, knocking the attacking Space Marines down and back. This time they can't seem to get up as easily, and remnant sparks fizzle over their armor. 

“NO!” You cry out. This…this is your Nightmare! 

Weak, Pathetic, Not even worth a backwards glanc- Shut Up! There must be Something you can do! But it will mean...

Everyone with Know.

If the Silver Monster hears you he pays you no mind. Instead he flexes the fingers of his impaled hand, fucking casually. The psycher blast seems to have tired him a bit, but he's no where near going down.

He strides past the Space Marines he's just incapacitated, perhaps the shock has locked up their armor? They're still alive, at least you think (please be alive please still be alive Please Please Please!)

He's making his way to the Scouts, still incapacitated themselves, but they try…God they try to stand and fight. 

“We…we won't! We won't go with you!” Claude hisses. 

Though it strains him Draco uses his psychic voice. [Silence!] He says, forcing the defiant Scout to Bow. 

“That's better…Enough of your defiance. Obedience is what is expected of you. Now ACT LIKE I-!” He reinforces the next shout so it hurts more. All the Scouts tremble but he's cut off by a sudden Crashing weight!

“FOR MACRAGGE!” A voice bellows and the awful sound of Ceremite on Ceremite Screeches through the clearing! 

Draco is dumbfounded for a moment, only to find arms in Blue Ceramite wrapped around his midsection, pinning his arms and SQUEEZING. The strength is actually making it hard to breath, and denting the ceremite around his waist.

Draco glances behind and sees another unfamiliar face, another Scout, but Clearly not a psycher.…A shame, he must have guts or be Severely stupid. But the guts would be beneficial to a user of the psychic arts. 

As it stands though this Scout is just another Waste of his Time. Draco focuses his psychery into his core, and releases another Blast.

You watch in horror as Olly, sweet wonderful Olly is also Blasted back like your Khopesh…Like Ramiel…Like Cedric…

His body lays limp with the crackle of psychic lightning just like the others.

No…No…NO!

You slam your hands to the ground and you Push! You know this could mean your secret getting out, and you don't even know if you can soak up power like this but you're going to fucking try! You push your power to reach your Space Marines, to reach the Silver Bastard, you push to the fucking Limit!

And when you try…you finally See. 

[pepperstories]

✨PepperStories Masterlist✨

contains smut ‼️

contains angst ⚡️

completely harmless 🧸

suggestive language 🫦

womanly themes ‼️🩸

manly themes ‼️💦

explicit read at your own risk ‼️🕊️

Masterlist 🟢 AO3

✨Dirty Talk ✨- Joseph Quinn 🫦🧸

From the possible "Best Friend" series. Two best friends share a coffee and a cigarette one Sunday morning when you come across an interesting cosmopolitan article.

✨Blooper Reel, Baby✨- Joseph Quinn 🧸

From the possible "Best Friend" series. When a lone camera catches the shenanigans of two best friends on set.

✨Ikea Furniture✨- Joseph Quinn ‼️

From the "Booty Call Joe" series that will possibly happen. You show up for some rough and tumble.

✨Emergency Contact✨Joseph Quinn ‼️

From the "Booty Call Joe" series. Joe picks you up in a sports car and tells you something you never expected to hear.

✨Quietly Yours✨ Joseph Quinn ‼️🩸

You take your period and you can't quite get a handle on it. Joe tries to help the only way he know's how.

Ongoing Series

✨Face Forward✨ graphicdesigner!Joseph Quinn ‼️🩸🧸🫦

Joseph Quinn has watched Holly for months via OnlyFans. When his parents decide to renew their wedding vows, he needs to impress them with a gorgeous, charismatic date. How far will £5,000 go and is Holly up for the job?

I'm Roe | 32 | theatre nurse 🩺

This blog will consist of dirty smut, reblog's of my favourite writers & everything in between.

As it stands, I will only be posting to AO3, so if anyone is interested in reading, then just click the image above and it will take you straight there.

I can't stress this enough- everything I reblog or post is NSFW!!

I will be writing Pedro Pascal and Joseph Quinn because they're my current hyper-fixation and I will NOT be swayed.

Anything I do post/reblog will have all original tags.

Anything I do post to Tumblr should have original tags. No exception.

Please ensure to communicate. Because I like to talk.

If you like something, tell me. If you don't like something, tell me. If it's shite. TELL ME!

I usually write from work, which means I do not use a laptop. I use my phone. Spelling mistakes/grammar will ultimately be horrendous. I do try and proofread, but I work in a hospital, with limited breaks and limited time. If anyone would like to volunteer, I would be forever in your debt.

Follow. Reblog. Comment. Tag me in your stories.

Let's just be friends.

I am always open to suggestions and my inbox is open to requests!

[itstopplingdomino]

paper bird | fred weasley x reader

In which Fred Experimentalist Weasley convinces you to test his products and you, owed him a debt, reluctantly agrees. You don't get along with him but being in his debt is more irritating than his presence. Well, it's just testing products.. then he'll be out of your sight.

tags: gn!reader (usage of 'you' instead of specific pronouns), usage of pet/nicknames, strong language/cursing, potion mishaps, light angst, developing friendships.

"Ugh! What did you put in that? That tasted disgusting! " You cover your mouth, trying to suppress a gag. A moment ago you downed a bright yellow potion that is supposed to make you incapable of uttering any negative words; supposedly your subconscious will replace it with a nicer version of it.

Clearly it is not working.

"Another failure.." Fred says as he hovers over the cauldron. He takes the quill that's tucked neatly behind hIs ears and began to jot down something on his book. He mutters absentmindedly, "I wonder if I put too much Troll's snot-"

"YOU PUT WHAT?!"

You stand rigidly with your hands in fists, true disgust creeping up your spine as you watch the red-head idiot pretends he didn't just make you drink something awful.

But as he turns away, you could see his shoulder shakes.

This little shite.

He turns around wearing a shit-eating grin, taking in your red face and goosebumps along your arms with delight.

"Come on, I'll lose customers if I use ingredients like that." He says with a shrug.

You roll your eyes in chagrin. Ohh, one of these days he's going to get it.

"Whatever. Consider the debt's paid, Weasley. I've drank three potions, ate fifteen different pastries, and swallowed a pill. I am surprised I haven't vomited once the past two hours. What with your inventions tastes extremely-" You felt a hiccup coming but didn't quite release it.

Horrible.

"-unique." Huh? You try again, "I mean, tastes extremely-" Another rising hiccup that didn't pass. "-interesting."

You stand by the desk, confused, head tilted to the side as your eyebrow knits downward.

Fred looks up, eyes sparkling brighter than a muggle's fireworks. He ran to you and shakes you by the shoulder, "IT WORKS!"

Fuck. Great.

"How wonderful." You spat. Though the potion's effect makes your tone sounds sweet as if you are as happy as the creator of this potion. You shrug off his gripping hands. "How long will the effect last?"

Fred takes his book, forgotten for a moment on the floor, and flips through the pages. "Hm.. about an hour or two? Frankly I'm not sure," He shuts the book, a smug smile plastered on his face. "But that's what you're here for. I'll hang around you until the effect disappears."

"What? Not sure? It's your-" damn "-potion!" You hissed, yet again the potion's effect ensures your tone as soft as fwooper feather pillows.

"To be fair, you agreed to test it out. That includes finding out how long the effect lasts.." Fred raises his hands in surrender.

"Ugh. Fine." You say with the 'Ugh' sounding a little too close to Aww.

ꕀ ꕀ ꕀ

Gossiping has never been an interest of yours. There isn't anything worthwhile listening to anyway. All rumours bred from the same genre; romance - who's seeing whom, who had their heartbroken by whom, who's the most eligible dating partner, who's the most eligible sleeping partner, and the list goes on..

As you are stuck with the older Weasley twin, his younger twin (the one you could tolerate better) inconveniently away, you are drag into Fred Weasley's social life.

Which basically consists of bro-ly greeting between his quidditch mates, extorting money teasing the younger students and generally being friendly to everyone else.. Well, obnoxious Slytherins aside.

That's why currently you stand awkwardly behind him as he sips the latest 'dating theory', as he calls it, from three Gryffindor girls whose name you don't know - two blondes and one black-haired. Pretty sure they shares some classes as you but none of them ever exchange greetings with you and you aren't exactly the social butterfly of your year.

Obviously that title belongs to Fred Weasley.

"So.." Blonde One begins, "Who will you ask out this time..? I'm free for a night. I'm sure Andrew won't mind.."

Ah.. it's like that, huh.

Her friend, Blonde Two, lightly shove her. "You're terrible. How about me, Freddie? I learnt tricks from a scandalous muggle book. It doesn't have to be serious.."

The three of them giggles now. Quite honestly the sound is sickening. Personally what people get up to in their own time is no business of yours, like how some needs requires satisfaction, but you rather be spared from the details- and the proposition of it.

"Honoured, truly." Fred lets out a chuckle, albeit you could hear the slight waver at the end. Whether it's from nervousness at the prospect of potential three way, or the uncomfortableness of it, you can't tell. He continues, a bowing a little, feigning chivalry. "But you know I have rules; no taken ones and certainly no one my dear friend fancies."

"Ugh, if only Lee knows when to shut up.." She sighs.

Then Fred gives them an excuse, something about meeting Professor McGonagall for transfiguration assignment; which you actually knows he had finished and submitted the hour before you two met.

So he's uncomfortable. Interesting.

Once you two are far enough from prying ears and eyes, you ask him. "Why did you lie?"

He plays pretend.

You ask him again, with a little push. "You could just reject them, you know. What, you're afraid of hurting their feelings?"

He ignores you, choosing to point out the owls that flew outside.

Another push.

"Or did you actually want to do it with them both but couldn't agree because I'm there?"

Fred stops in his track and looks at you. His lips stretches into a false grin. Fake smiles eerily settles on his face. "How low do you think of me?"

"It was never high, Weasley."

You continue to walk past him, he follows suit.

"Alright, I'll bite." He says, falling into step with you. "The only image I care about is being the best prankster Hogwarts has ever seen. Having a threesome is no-way helpful in achieving that."

You bark out a laugh. "Please, Weasley. I think you and your twin have done enough to leave a lasting imprint as mischievous-" sods "-duo."

A groan escapes you which fuels joy for Fred. "So the potion still works.."

It's been an hour, you note.

"You know, you're a good company when you don't swear as much."

"Bold of you to assume that I want to be a good company to you in the first place."

Fred stays silent for several beats, then he stops in his tracks again forcing you to shift around to look at him when he didn't continue following you.

"I've been wondering.. what exactly do you find displeasing about me? You seem to talk to George normally. I actually didn't believe him when he said you didn't curse once at him until I saw it myself."

"Are you.. sulking..?"

Fred looks away and back. "Humour me."

"I'm not one for jokes-"

He whispers your first name in a pleading tone. The tone didn't catch you off-guard, you'd seen him use it playfully during his interactions with other students, it's the fact he uses your first name - generally preferring ill-suited nicknames he deems worthy like dear, sweetheart, and crassy (usually when you throw a lot of curses at him than usual).

It is probably the first time he ever calls you that.

You sigh, "Remember third year? You and your brother pranked me."

"Yeah, we jinxed a paper bird to peck at you. And what? You hold a grudge since then..?"

"No," You say firmly, moving to close the gap. "The pecking as annoying as it is isn't the reason. It's what happen because of the prank."

Closer now.

"That paper bird attracts the attention of a stray falcon, gods knows how it was there, and dove in to hunt it. Subsequently, attacking me too."

Fred eyes widens, "I remember.. George said you got into the Hospital wing for that. But they say you were fine?"

"I don't know where you got that information but I was in the hospital wing for the entire weekend."

A beat.

"George visited twice each day. He even brought some sweets from honeydukes and all. And you? You were nowhere. Even when I saw you in the next class, you didn't apologise. Merlin were you-" heartless "-indifferent."

He stays silent.

"Whatever. I don't resent you at all, especially not for the falcon - nobody knew it'll end up that way. But the way you act like it didn't matter if a falcon pokes out my eyes were infuriating. I just couldn't help but get angry looking at your stupid face."

Fred opens his mouth to say something but the realisation of the potion's effect no longer taking place jumps into you faster than he could get the words out so you speak first, "It's gone."

You touch your lips as if you could feel the effect physically fall off. "Fuck you," You tested, smiling at the success. "Yes! Thank fuck! Right, see you never then, Weasley."

Then you turn in your heels, speeding towards your common room. Fred remain stuck his spot as if you just casted a stunning spell on him.

Gears turning in his head and instead of the usual product ideas, he's thinking of something entirely different. He hears the door behind him opens and see a couple of first years ducking into the corridor now. He moves towards the door as he recalls back.

It amuses him that you never fall for his charms. Certainly there are others that don't, too, but that usually comes from house prejudices or blood status thing and typically if he's disliked so does George. It only piques his interest further than you laugh and smile, genuinely so, around his younger twin but rarely him.

At one point he did aim to find out, and found out he did. He isn't eased at all by the discovery of your animosity towards him. The real reason hits him harder than any bludger he took during Quidditch practices and actual matches.

Guilt trickles down and slowly enveloping him.

He groans audibly, surprising the first years that are passing by.

He looks at them with a half-smile.

Fred Weasley knows many sees him as a good friend, he's been made aware more than a couple occasions. Your crassness didn't bother him then.

But now?

Now he wants you to see him as one too.

Let's start with an apology.

--- A/N: There will be part two...

[raylangivins]

twenty questions for fic writers

thank you @acorrespondence for tagging me in this! i love shiteing on about writing :)

How many works do you have on ao3?

33, which shocks me because for some reason in my head the number's permanently at, like, 8.

What's your total ao3 word count?

195,093

What fandoms do you write for?

I mean currently it's beatles rpf 🌝. But also Check Please (specifically jackparse, I have absolutely no interest in anything else), Wolf 359, The Social Network, Community (although none of these are an ao3 due to I wrote them when I was 15), and some random one hit wonders.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

live through this, and you won't look back - Jack/Kent, Check Please

if being afraid is a crime, we hang side by side - Kepler/Jacobi, Wolf 359

baby, it's all relative - John/Paul, Beatles

Time May Change Me - Mark/Eduardo, The Social Network

Five Men Roy Ruined For Jen - Jen/Roy, The IT Crowd

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes, always, unless I forget!! I don't know why I wouldn't like, if people are reading I am genuinely excited and grateful for that. Why wouldn't I tell them? (I'm very bad at thinking of things to say which aren't just "I'm glad you enjoyed it", but I try).

What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I think lately you've been feeling so good i forget my future (in which jack and kent go to prom) is pretty grim not even because the ending itself is the worst but also it foreshadows so much worse to come. Most of my jackparse fic is them as teenagers because I love that "the worst is yet to come" doom that constantly hangs over them in those years. Also one and one and one is three (in which john/paul/yoko have an emotionally fraught threesome). I hurt my own feelings writing that one lol.

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

Not one of the recent ones, I can tell you that! Although it depends if you mean fluffy or happy by my own metric because EYE think the best happy endings are the ones you have to work through some angst to get. So if you're looking for fluffy, probably Five Men Roy Ruined for Jen; if you're looking for a journey that ends in happiness, then I'd say wouldn't it be? nice makes me feel euphoric at the end.

Do you get hate on fics?

I've gotten a couple bitchy comments but generally no.

Do you write smut?

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I've only written one and it's where Jean-Ralphio from Parks and Rec becomes the Eleventh Doctor's companion in Doctor Who. It's cute, I still like it.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

God, I hope not. Although, I did have someone once finish a fic I abandoned on ff.net without really asking me first, which I thought was both flattering and hilarious of them. So true, babe. Write the finished fic you wish to see in the world!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I think someone translated one of my old Gossip Girl fics on ff.net, also. I can't remember what language it was though.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, but I'm not opposed to it.

What's your all-time favorite ship?

All my fave ships are pretty much variations on the same dynamic with a few exceptions. It's comical how consistant I am about this without even trying.

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

Tbh I never truly rule anything out. There's a post-canon Justified fic that has lived in my head for years, that I mostly haven't written because it's a lot of work, and I don't really care about sharing it that much it's mostly just for me. There's a Dawson's Creek Pacey genderswap fic I dream of writing, but likely will never bother. There's a beatles fic where Paul can talk to instruments that I actually wrote 20k for but it's so dogshit I can't bear to try to fix it so it's going to just sit on my computer forever probably.

What are your writing strengths?

I hate this question, I'm so bad at identifying these things. Vibes? I think I'm good at dialogue but that's mostly because that's what I start with, so it's like the bones of most of my fics. I've been told I'm good at like being thoughtful to all the different characters in fic even if it's not about them or their POV, which is always a nice thing to hear.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Physical descriptions probably. I don't care about them very much and therefore I don't put as much effort into them as I probably should. Also, I write chronologically so most of my endings are slightly lazier than the rest of the fic.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I don't know. I've never tried it. As a bilingual person, seeing people who are not bilingual completely miss the nuances of that is actually really irritating. Especially as someone who speaks Portuguese but grew up in an English speaking country, reading TSN fic was so specifically annoying. And don't even get me started on the concept of "untranslateable" words and "saudade".

It can be done well, but often isn't. Also, if you give me a bunch of text in a language I don't know, my brain is just gonna skip over it, so it's often redundant when it's more than, like, a sentence.

First fandom you wrote for?

First fic I published was for Gossip Girl, but when I was like 11 I wrote what was essentially a Life With Derek canon-divergence fic in a copybook that I showed to a teacher in my school.

Favorite fic you've written?

All of them. But some that have not yet been mentioned on this post:

kissing just for practice - Jack/Kent (idk, I set out to do something specific with this fic and I really felt I did)

i want every other freckle - si-5 ot3 kind of (this fic means so much to me)

tomorrow i'll miss you - mclennon before sunset au (before sunset is one of my favourite movies and i worked really hard on this one)

i thought i knew one, what did i know? - paul's girlfriend catches john and paul together (this one makes me crazy and i'm the one who wrote it lol)

tagging: @softbrah @jeanharlowseyebrows @scurator @wurmzirkus @coyotesuspect @midchelle

[aendorne]

Oi oi!! :)

Here's my intro thingy cause why not:)

I'm Xapham/Aendorne (or call me whatever name you want:)) I'm 22yo, transmasc queer dude, pronouns are he/they/it :)) I'm in uni from the UK:)

This blog is basically just horny posting when I'm bored, don't expect it to be consistent - - and I'm new to all this so tags and such may be shite lol:)) i'm switch vers, expect a load of puppy related reblogs:))

Check who I follow and my likes if you want a gist of what I use this hell site for:) please be nice to me lol

BTW mutuals hmu ^ ^ I love that shit!!

#xaphcandids for pics of me n such:)

#aendoasks for asks obvs lol

Psst click the link

(will probs add to this later at some point lol)

[tq-figurehead]

MAX ◦ 25 ◦ FEMALE ◦ NORTHERN IRISH

NONE BUT OURSELVES CAN FREE OUR MINDS

Hi there I'm Max!

I'm just another face in the crowd doing her thing in her own corner of the internet, mostly making mixed content of all kinds ranging from; digital art, gaming videos, art trades & a whole bunch of other stuff.

I mostly do digital art though which usually consists of fan art, art trades, my characters, my friends characters, or self insert content.

feel free to say hi sometime if ya like! I'll be nice & try not to bite ya too hard~

🔞MINORS DNI 🍃SMOKER 💋MATURE THEMES

★---★---★

MY CARRD

★---★---★

TAGS I USE:

tqtalks = mostly me waffling shite tqdoesstuff = my content only tqrb = reblogs of things I like / am into / ETC tqhomies = my friends or mutual's content or media involving them

[transgenderer]

hello, tumblr’s search function is shite, and while i think i understand the idea i really want to Read Words about winningology. i tried scrolling through but there are so many posts that it takes years to find anything, and the tags don’t help much either (or at least not that i can find)

basically, is there anywhere you wrote a lot of words? i would like to read them :D

thanks and all for consistently being incredibly interesting to read the thoughts of

- evar

hmm, seems like searching siikr has some? having trouble finding the original post

[mmms-phe-sideblog]

INTRO POST

Hello! @themagicmusicman (MMM) here with my ✨new sideblog!✨

This is gonna be dedicated to my OC, Phoenix (Phe/Nixxy for short), all other content or reblogs will be on my main blog, tagged above.

So here, have some information!

They use They/Xey/She pronouns (xey/xem/xeir/xeirs, if you have any questions about how the pronouns work, you can drop an ask!)

They are 25 at current, their birthday is May 13th 1998

They started taking Oestrogen (E) 2 years ago; on July 27th 2022 (yes i will unironically celebrate that, i will fight anyone who objects /silly)

They are an aromantic lesbian (however they can and do fuck fem enbies), but they also do ✨alt attraction✨

They are a demigirlflux transfem who has gone through all the surgeries n shite (demigirlflux being a flux between demigirl and agender (like the pronouns, you can leave an ask if you don’t understand/want more info))

They’re part of a QPR which consists of them and 6 other people (will i also get obsessed with these fellas? yes. also they are a lesbian, but one of their QPP’s is a transmasc who uses key/it/he pronouns. thought yall might wanna know that)

They’re originally from Poland; both their parents are Polish, but their grandmother is Japanese

Quick bit of info about their parents: They had a dad (felix, trans man) and a parent (devon, enby). Devon died of leukaemia when they were 11

They have loads of obsessions, such as dying their hair, smoking weed, collecting crystals, making patches/clothes, listening to way too much funky music (specifically indie pop, hiphop and rock), painting, specifically watercolour

I have definitely missed some shit on here, will add as necessary 👍👍👍

Have fun looking at my mediocre art and funky little dude (feminine) !!!!

also terfs, homophobes, transphobes, racist people, bigots, fascists and any other gross yucky people DNI ‼️

[grigori77]

Critical Role, Campaign 3 Episode 73

It's always more suspicious when there doesn't seem to be anything off to start with ... oh, yes, here we go. So it's humiliate Mercer time ... Matt: "WHAT ARE YOU, RIEGEL?!!!" Sam (weeping profusely): "I'm nobody!"

Laura: "Oh, I love a skit that doesn't outstay it's welcome." XD Yeah ...

How is it that Laura CONSISTENTLY manages to tank her openings? I mean it's adorable. :3

"Dead .. men ... tell ... no ... tales ..."

Wow ... way to derail the game in the opening moments, Riegel. With a t-shirt no less ...

"I believe I can Scry!" XD

Raving sbout Beau's abs ... I love it ...

Laura (angrily, at Sam): "Don't show it! DON'T SHOW IT!!!" Travis, the CEO (cringing): "I did wonder what you were thinking."

Sam: "So what do I roll?" Matt: "Nothing! You don't ROLL for Scrying!" Travis: "EIGHT YEARS!!! EIGHT YEARS we've been playing this!"

So where IS D at? Aside from just on the Menagerie Coast? Sam rolls SHITE for perception. Matt: "Somewhere nice."

Laura: "You don't deserve this." She confiscates the Gilmour Dice. Travis: "Ooh, lost privileges!"

Ghost tattoos? Intriguing ...

Chetney: "I have ink." Imogen: "You have paint." Chetney: "What's the difference?" Taliesin: "Half the audience just groaned in pain."

Ashton's trying to smooth talk his way into a free tattoo ... persuasion check! 12? Hmmmm ... on one condition? Ah ... oh, he WANTS IT to hurt? Okay ...

Ashton: "Honestly? If it doesn't hurt it's kind of YOUR fault."

Now Orym's suggesting THEY ALL get a tattoo to commemorate all this shit ... oh, Chetney DOES have ink? Okay then ...

Bertrand's face? Matt: "Like the Steve-O tattoo?" LOL

No, they're NOT scared. These folk have SEEN SOME SHIT ...

No mutiny. Bad idea. At least wait until AFTER you get where you're going.

Is this the first the rest of them have heard sbout Delilah still being there in Laudna's head? Oof ...

No, she did not actually EAT ANY CHILDREN, Fearne.

Laudna thinks the soul-eating might be "problematic". Insert Nic Cage meme: "You don't say!"

Oh, "Keith"? Hey! Laudna: "Hi, Kevin." Kyle (deflating): "That's okay."

Whispers for Fearne! Again Sam has nothing prepared. He is becoming an embarrassment. XD

Oh my gods that is such an unconvincing speech, Kyle (or whatever your name is).

Imogen: "Do we want Delilah to get stronger?" Hmmmmmm ...

Ashton: "I believe in sacrifices, not casualties."

Yes, I like that idea. Chetney should make Kyle a name tag.

Aha ... planning tattoos ...

Taco Bell? Laura: "Live mas and check you Gmail." XD

Scrying on Delilah ... oh boy ... it's a bust? Hmmmmm ... ask the Changebringer? Or look into Laudna's dreams? Oh boy again ...

Imogen actually suggesting letting Laudna suck a little bit of her soul to stir Delilah ... yeah, I dunno how I feel about that ... I mean it's incredibly romantic, but still ...

So it's a surreal bust after all ... good or bad sign? I don't know, and I don't like it.

Fearne tries to get into the Captain's Quarters ... oof ... might be better if she CAN'T get in there.

Peeing ... OVERBOARD? Lovely ...

A flirty persuasion check? 21? Oh boy ... so ... is that a date? I'm so confused. Apparently so is the Captain ...

Ooh ... Cyrillia again ... she really is creepy ...

FCG's tattoo is basically ETCHED ... XD

Captain Novos: "The Moon's out." Oh, so here we go then ...

Completing vengeance ... oh, ENDING BLOODLINES?!!! Oh boy ...

Dusty musty bed, but ... Nice ... oh, here we go ... so he's ACTUALLY in the mood for something more? Novos: "You offer some of your warmth?" O.O Oh, so this is JUST a ghostly bootie call ... and that's actually kind of sweet ...

Oh dear ... has she killed the mood? Say goodbye? Persuasion check ... 26 ... hmmm ...

Great, that bloody talking sword again ... wait ... it didn't speak to the Captain? Hmmm ...

Wow ... oh, so she's ACTUALLY DOING THIS ... Novos (nervous): "It's been a long time." Oh, she's just gonna spoon him? Ye gods ... oh, I love that he's actually ENJOYING being the Little Spoon ... Ashley: "... where are we going with this?" LOL

A con save? Seriously? Magical effect? Hmmmm ...

Oh she is going to "relinquish the warmth she promised" ... blimey ... oh shit ... is this gonna be a problem? Oh my ...

PERMANENT 5 point hit point reduction? Shit ... and another think that Matt will discuss with her at the break? Fucking hell, Ashley!

Cyrillia is SHADOWING the Captain? Interesting ...

Orym is STEALING her spyglass? Really? Laura: "It's a running theme."

Whoa ... is Cyrillia JEALOUS of Fearne and the Captain? Interesting ... "You gave him WARMTH?" Oh shit ...

Oh no, is this about to kick off? Cyrillia: "The Captain's MINE ... charge!" O.O

How does Ashley KEEP cocking her persuasion roll? 7? Crap ...

So ... has Fearne just made an enemy?

Fearne: "I did not take anything from her ... Orym." Orym: "... oddly specific."

Whoa ... awkward wake-up call ... Novos: "Maybe you need to work through the nausea and then it gets good." Fearne: "Oh, I've heard that one before."

Imogen's fucking with Cyrillia with the voice in her head ... but in a kind way? Oh boy ... "Offer your warmth ..."

Wow ... is Fearne actually playing MATCHMAKER for these two right now? Oh my gods it's actually working ...

Fearne: "You are a queen, and I want you to go in there and take what you want."

OH ... MY ... GOD!!!

Cyrillia: "Captain, perhaps we stop dancing around this thing and just ... make our own fire." OH MY GOD!!!

And that's a break! No shit ... O.O

Oh, they're gone FOR A WHILE?!!! Oh boy ... Holy shit ... there's like STEAM and stuff coming out and everything ...

Laudna's sending Pate in to spy ... oh boy ... ah, just a really really STEAMY WINDOW ...

I love how Pate is disappointed Laudna won't let him get inside fir a closer look ...

"I'm fucking Kyle" ... hmmm ...

FCG: "Did we Pleasantville this ship?" Orym: "Either thar or there's a new Captain." XD

Steam pouring out ... Cyrillia is coming out with a "gentle, confident waltz"? Wow ... and the Captain is confident too ... and LIMPING ...

Keeping up appearances ... :3

Novos: "I don't like hoe easily you dismiss my aggression ... but I respect it."

Oh my gods Cyrillia has him so whipped now ... XD

Wow ... they're really making a full blown dance party ...

Is FCG really putting the All Minds Burn drugs into the brownies? Is he about to kill or at least seriously traumatise everybody?

Laudna's gonna do FACE PAINTING ...

FCG turns himself into a remix box while Fearne plays dulcimer and pan flute a-la Bob Dylan ... Matt's trying to find some party music ...

Oh, "I'm Kyle, you fucks!" That's more like it ...

Oof ... Orym damn near got rumbled there ... eep ...

Dancing! Yay!

Ah ... landfall means the end of festivities ... nuts ...

Novos: "There was ... no ... LIMBO." XD

Crap ... overboard? Oof ...

They really are the most adorable crew of cursed ghost pirates I've ever encountered. :3

Awwwww ... Fearne made a new girl friend ... I love it.

Oof ... that's brisk ...

Kalutha ... okay then ...

Signs of abandoned civilisation? Interesting ...

Marisha sneezes and gives herself a brainspasm ... Matt: "Wow, I've never seen her sneeze and only part of her come back up."

Is Ashton vibing with this place? Maybe ...

Ooh, driftwood for Chetney ...

Laudna sends Pate to explore the caves.

Nice, pretty seashell ... :3

Pitons? People have been here before, clearly ... oooh, looks like this could be a smart route.

Weird jungle landscape ...

Ashton's already checking the other cave out. Orym goes with, as he should.

Just a little recessed cave, but with another campsite. Okay then. Ooh, tools ...

Orym: "Chet, you need a whetstone?" Chetney: "No, I'm always sharp." Oof ...

Trying to climb up ... oh dear, Orym somewhat embarrasses himself ...

Whoa ... so even WITH a rope those are some MISERABLE rolls ... ouch, this is just AWFUL ... whoa, a point of EXHAUSTION? SERIOUSLY?!!!

Chetney sniffing the cave out a bit ...

A nice citrus smell? Oh, that's like SO unbelievably suspicious ...

Moving rocks? Oh for fuck's sake ...

Scales and slithering? Great ... that can't be good ... some kind of worm? Crap ...

Bollocks ... even though he's invisible it's encircling him ... not good at all ... Horn of Silent Alarm? Okay then ...

Chet gives Imogen a headache. "He's in trouble!"

"Sicilian"? But spelt different ...

Trouble! Crap!

FCG casts Death Ward on Ashton.

Fuck, this thing is NIGHTMARE FUEL ...

Chetney tries to wolf out as quietly as possible ... and somehow actually MANAGES IT too ... oh, but it doesn't work? Crap ... ROLL INITIATIVE!!! AAAAAAHHH!!!

Battlemap time! Yay!

Matt has LOST THE MINIS, ladies and gentlemen. Oh my gods Mercer, that is UNBELIEVABLE ...

Oh good, he's finding them now ...

Awwww, Sprinkle! Laura: "I missed him!" Travis (Sprinkle voice): "What fresh new hell is this?"

Ashton runs into PITCH DARKNESS and winds up bouncing off walls to get to him. RAGE!!! Yay!

Fearne is ALSO just feeling her way round ... oh, okay ... she casts Daylight. Nice! Here we go ...

Mister is CHUCKING FLAMING SHIT!!! And it falls short ... crap. Literally ...

Yay! Turmoil! Chetney takes a swipe at the heads ... both hit! 12 and 9 altogether, including fire damage. Great ... and he takes 12 points of acid damage in return? Crap ...

FCG uses Misty Step for the first time using the staff ... oh, he takes damage doing it? Ouch ... and he Sympathetically Binds himself to the others ...

The thing takes 2 mandible attacks ... misses Chetney ... but HITS FCG ... 22 points of slashing damage AND 7 points of acid damage? Wait ... oh what the FUCK IS THAT?!!! Oh that is HORRIBLE!!! Gods, Mercer ... oof ... another 34 points of acid damage ... AND IT'S PULLING HIM IN?!!! FUCK!!!

Oh my gods they're showing each other stuff on their phones of the creatures that really do this ...

Fuck me, this thing can SELF HEAL?!!!

Form of Dread! Yeah! Laudna Chill Touches the fucker ... barely hits ... 6 Necrotic damage, but also can't regain hit points for a turn ... Nice.

Imogen casts Hungry Torrent? Whoa ... oh, now that is pretty cool ...

Orym attacks FROM A DISTANCE with Seedling ... nice ... CRIT!!! Yes! 20 slashing damage! Sweet ...

Travis: "There! The crevasse! Fill it ... with your mighty juice!"

Ashton BOOSTS EVERYBODY'S ATTACKS for the next turn? Full advantage? AND inflicts 38 points of damage? Holy shit ... and another hit ... another 22 points of damage! Go barbarian go!

LAIR ACTION?!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!!

Oh gods, a RAIN OF LARVAE?!!! And now it's just RAINING acid damage, essentially.

Fearne casts some Scorching Rays ... Nice, ALL THREE hit ... six D6 of damage ... 28 points? Oh, nice ...

And now Mister with his little gun? Cool ... 7 points ... oh well, every one counts ...

"Anime shockwave blast"? Sweet ... Chetney inflicts 18 points of Thunder Damage with Turmoil AND casts Blood Curse of Bloated Agony! Yay! AND he amplifies it too ...

Sam: "But I wanna cast MORE THAN one spell per turn." Matt: "Yeah, I know."

FCG uses Misty Step to jump away again, then uses his action to hide because he can't do ANYTHING ELSE.

Oof ... dextrous fucker ... slithering away ... attacking Ashton now ... and it misses ... meanwhile there are MANY Godfather jokes ...

Oh, essentially it manages go KNOCK ITSELF BACK!!! And then does its disgusting stomach attack again ...

Fearne takes 36 points of acid damage ... also Imogen and Laudna? Crap ... AND they're pulled towards it too ... NOOOOOOO!!!

Laudna casts Blight and it Crit Fails! Yes! 45 points of Necrotic damage? BEAUTIFUL!!! And it's Frightened of her too! Yes ... and now Chill Touch TOO?!!! Sweet ... AND SHE CRITS!!! OH MY GODS!!! 20 points of Cold damage! YEAH!!!

Imogen throws 3 Psychic Lances at it ... 7 D6 of damage? Oof ... 25 points of Psychic damage! Yes! And it's incapacitated ... then she Quickens a spell to shoot Mind Sliver at it ... another 7 points of Psychic damage!

Orym jumps ON TOP OF IT?!!! That means he's TAKING ACID DAMAGE while he's attacking! Goading Attack ... second hit ... Pushing attack ... 18 points of slashing damage ... Action Surge! Go Fighter boy! Another 14 points! Yeah, he is FUCKING THIS THING UP!!! One more hit ... another 11 points!

Ashton delivers another 21 points, then another 28 ... and gets the HDYWTDT!!! YES!!! One if its heads just EXPLODES before it just bleeds out while trying to escape ... phew ...

So Pate didn't see it? Crap ... "I don't have eyes!" Bugger, that's right ...

It's still twitching so Ashton hits it again, taking dome more damage while he's at it.

Orym is a mess ... yes, they all need some serious healing! Best get to it.

Checking the rest of the tunnel ... another noise? Is that more slithering? Crap ... oh thank fuck, it's just an underground tidal river ... phew ...

Okay, clearly there are so many abandoned camps because this thing has been EATING all the explorers.

Ooh, loot! Yay ... crap, Chetney's fancy spell broke some of the weapons. Nuts ...

Woe steel? Interesting ... sacred to the Ossended Host ... a natural plus1 weapon? Intriguing ...

Weird brown stone pendant in a little cage? Hmmm ... a Raito Charm, of the Aishio Culture. Woof ... this is all fancy shit ...

Taking a short rest ...

Ah, some fresh bones for Laudna. Big hog skulls ... interesting.

Grim Psychometry! Cool ... oh, poor bastard.

Yes. Get to the surface. Enough of this unpleasant stinky cave.

The creeping jungle valley of Kalutha. Nice. Very pretty. To the mountains, then. And the tree.

And that's it ...

[notthatkindofgrass]

@staff don’t get fancy here, a consistent tagging system (alongside the fun tags) and the collapsing responses or any better way of having the option to see all of the responses to a post is 80% of what you need. It seems like there are always several different discussions going on once a post passes a certain threshold and that I never get to see but a portion of them because of the “tiered” reblogging.

From what little I’ve seen as a recent refugee we’re all here as respite from the other sites or because we can’t freaking stand them.

I shop at the small grocery store here in town because it doesn’t have all the same shite that Walmart, Kroger, Target etc do. I like that it’s small, I like that they have good, nice people working there, that it’s quiet and produce is well curated and I happily pay extra for the privilege of having less choice because they have better choices for ME.

Tumblr’s Core Product Strategy

Here at Tumblr, we’ve been working hard on reorganizing how we work in a bid to gain more users. A larger user base means a more sustainable company, and means we get to stick around and do this thing with you all a bit longer. What follows is the strategy we're using to accomplish the goal of user growth. The @labs group has published a bit already, but this is bigger. We’re publishing it publicly for the first time, in an effort to work more transparently with all of you in the Tumblr community. This strategy provides guidance amid limited resources, allowing our teams to focus on specific key areas to ensure Tumblr’s future.

The Diagnosis

In order for Tumblr to grow, we need to fix the core experience that makes Tumblr a useful place for users. The underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use. Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience. 

Tumblr’s competitive advantage lies in its unique content and vibrant communities. As the forerunner of internet culture, Tumblr encompasses a wide range of interests, such as entertainment, art, gaming, fandom, fashion, and music. People come to Tumblr to immerse themselves in this culture, making it essential for us to ensure a seamless connection between people and content. 

To guarantee Tumblr’s continued success, we’ve got to prioritize fostering that seamless connection between people and content. This involves attracting and retaining new users and creators, nurturing their growth, and encouraging frequent engagement with the platform.

Our Guiding Principles

To enhance Tumblr’s usability, we must address these core guiding principles.

Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Retain and grow our creator base.

Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Improve the platform’s performance, stability, and quality.

Below is a deep dive into each of these principles.

Principle 1: Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Tumblr has a “top of the funnel” issue in converting non-users into engaged logged-in users. We also have not invested in industry standard SEO practices to ensure a robust top of the funnel. The referral traffic that we do get from external sources is dispersed across different pages with inconsistent user experiences, which results in a missed opportunity to convert these users into regular Tumblr users. For example, users from search engines often land on pages within the blog network and blog view—where there isn’t much of a reason to sign up. 

We need to experiment with logged-out tumblr.com to ensure we are capturing the highest potential conversion rate for visitors into sign-ups and log-ins. We might want to explore showing the potential future user the full breadth of content that Tumblr has to offer on our logged-out pages. We want people to be able to easily understand the potential behind Tumblr without having to navigate multiple tabs and pages to figure it out. Our current logged-out explore page does very little to help users understand “what is Tumblr.” which is a missed opportunity to get people excited about joining the site.

Actions & Next Steps

Improving Tumblr’s search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards.

Experiment with logged out tumblr.com to achieve the highest conversion rate for sign-ups and log-ins, explore ways for visitors to “get” Tumblr and entice them to sign up.

Principle 2: Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

We need to ensure the highest quality user experience by presenting fresh and relevant content tailored to the user’s diverse interests during each session. If the user has a bad content experience, the fault lies with the product.

The default position should always be that the user does not know how to navigate the application. Additionally, we need to ensure that when people search for content related to their interests, it is easily accessible without any confusing limitations or unexpected roadblocks in their journey.

Being a 15-year-old brand is tough because the brand carries the baggage of a person’s preconceived impressions of Tumblr. On average, a user only sees 25 posts per session, so the first 25 posts have to convey the value of Tumblr: it is a vibrant community with lots of untapped potential. We never want to leave the user believing that Tumblr is a place that is stale and not relevant. 

Actions & Next Steps

Deliver great content each time the app is opened.

Make it easier for users to understand where the vibrant communities on Tumblr are. 

Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds. 

Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Part of Tumblr’s charm lies in its capacity to showcase the evolution of conversations and the clever remarks found within reblog chains and replies. Engaging in these discussions should be enjoyable and effortless.

Unfortunately, the current way that conversations work on Tumblr across replies and reblogs is confusing for new users. The limitations around engaging with individual reblogs, replies only applying to the original post, and the inability to easily follow threaded conversations make it difficult for users to join the conversation.

Actions & Next Steps

Address the confusion within replies and reblogs.

Improve the conversational posting features around replies and reblogs. 

Allow engagements on individual replies and reblogs.

Make it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths within a reblog thread. 

Remove clutter in the conversation by collapsing reblog threads. 

Explore the feasibility of removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed. 

Principle 4: Retain and grow our creator base.

Creators are essential to the Tumblr community. However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing our creator base.  

Being a new creator on Tumblr can be intimidating, with a high likelihood of leaving or disappointment upon sharing creations without receiving engagement or feedback. We need to ensure that we have the expected creator tools and foster the rewarding feedback loops that keep creators around and enable them to thrive.

The lack of feedback stems from the outdated decision to only show content from followed blogs on the main dashboard feed (“Following”), perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of helping new creators. To address this, we need to prioritize supporting and nurturing the growth of new creators on the platform.

It is also imperative that creators, like everyone on Tumblr, feel safe and in control of their experience. Whether it be an ask from the community or engagement on a post, being successful on Tumblr should never feel like a punishing experience.

Actions & Next Steps

Get creators’ new content in front of people who are interested in it. 

Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting.

Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral.

Expand ways to co-create content, such as by adding the capability to embed Tumblr links in posts.

Principle 5: Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Push notifications and emails are essential tools to increase user engagement, improve user retention, and facilitate content discovery. Our strategy of reaching out to you, the user, should be well-coordinated across product, commercial, and marketing teams.

Our messaging strategy needs to be personalized and adapt to a user’s shifting interests. Our messages should keep users in the know on the latest activity in their community, as well as keeping Tumblr top of mind as the place to go for witty takes and remixes of the latest shows and real-life events.  

Most importantly, our messages should be thoughtful and should never come across as spammy.  

Actions & Next Steps

Conduct an audit of our messaging strategy.

Address the issue of notifications getting too noisy; throttle, collapse or mute notifications where necessary.  

Identify opportunities for personalization within our email messages. 

Test what the right daily push notification limit is. 

Send emails when a user has push notifications switched off.

Principle 6: Performance, stability and quality.

The stability and performance of our mobile apps have declined. There is a large backlog of production issues, with more bugs created than resolved over the last 300 days. If this continues, roughly one new unresolved production issue will be created every two days. Apps and backend systems that work well and don't crash are the foundation of a great Tumblr experience. Improving performance, stability, and quality will help us achieve sustainable operations for Tumblr.

Improve performance and stability: deliver crash-free, responsive, and fast-loading apps on Android, iOS, and web.

Improve quality: deliver the highest quality Tumblr experience to our users. 

Move faster: provide APIs and services to unblock core product initiatives and launch new features coming out of Labs.

Conclusion

Our mission has always been to empower the world’s creators. We are wholly committed to ensuring Tumblr evolves in a way that supports our current users while improving areas that attract new creators, artists, and users. You deserve a digital home that works for you. You deserve the best tools and features to connect with your communities on a platform that prioritizes the easy discoverability of high-quality content. This is an invigorating time for Tumblr, and we couldn’t be more excited about our current strategy.

[brw]

well i’m gone again

[theteaisaddictive]

☕️ for the Chibnall era of Doctor Who?

ooooooohhhhhh

ok so it's pretty universally accepted that the chibnall era is. not good. the scripts are almost always shite, with a few notable exceptions (demons of the punjab my beloved), but the thing that honestly gets my goat is the whole thasmin thing.

now don't get me wrong, i'm very enthusiastic about the ship. i have numerous posts and a whole damn tag to prove it. but, to copy a phrase from my ouat rewatches -- it is very much of the destiel school of thought. imo, it was better when thasmin was just something that the fans were reading into the show. every attempt to introduce it as a genuine canon pairing has exemplified the worst of the chibnall era -- 13 is under-characterised to the point of parody, hypocritical in a way that doesn't form a cohesive whole (unlike, say 10, who was hypocritical in the extreme as the time lord victorious, but they had done the work to get him there). yaz is lucky if she expresses an opinion in any given script, and dan much as i love him is another character who sorely needs development and sure as shit isn't going to get it.

i mean, we're what, three seasons in?? i still could not define jodie's doctor satisfactorily for you aside from 'female', which fucking sucks. she's childlike and whimsical, with moments of darkness -- but so was 11, and much as i dislike the majority of the moffatt era, at least the characterisation was a) internally consistent and b) changed recognisably!!! she's lying to her companions about key information, like 12 -- but 12 eventually got a really fucking satisfying payoff for all that lying with clara, who was rightfully pissed at him!! yaz's entire character appears to be 'dubiously in love with 13' for no particular reason other than because she is.

basically, thasmin is either going to fizzle out into nothing, or we'll get some sort of bury your gays in the centenary since afaik mandip isn't returning for any further specials before ncuti starts as 14.

[dorthyanndrarry]

Whatever You Want, Draco Malfoy -44-

Tags: alcohol use, marijuana use, cigarettes, smoking, reckless behaviour, lack of self preservation, anxiety issues, chronic illness, deportation, racism, the fucking Tories, ptsd, super unhealthy coping mechanisms, Down and out Draco who’s friends with muggles, various OC’s, enemies to lovers, angst, mentions of throwing up/vomit, mentions of suicide, mentions of panic attacks, swearing

suggested rating: Mature

Part 1 (contains links to all parts) <- Part 43 || Part 45 ->

-

Jarold’s conversation quickly fell into a level of technicality that was entirely beyond Draco. Jarold was talking about muscle control, angles and velocities and how to attribute spins to the bludger, his hands moving to outline plays and lines on an invisible field of play only he could see.

Draco steered Jarold around lamp posts and news boxes as they walked, more interested in Jarold’s animation and passion than in what he was saying. After Jarold exhausted all the ‘basics’ of being a beater, he started talking about a specific move he had been trying to perfect. He called it a ricochet hit. Draco thought it could use a catchier name, personally. But it was where Jarold hit a bludger into the quaffle mid-pass, knocking it out of the opposing team’s possession.

“The first time I did it was an accident,” Jarold said, “But I knew I could do it again if I tried.”

“And have you?” Draco asked.

“Once,” Jarold said, he held up a finger with an absolutely triumphant smile.

“And that’s why you’re desperate for more game time!” Draco said in sudden understanding.

Jarold nodded, looking a bit sheepish.

“I thought it was-” Draco stopped.

“What?” Jarold asked.

“It seemed like, when we first met, that you wanted to play in a game to ‘prove yourself’ like an ego thing. That not playing was hurting your pride or something,” Draco said.

“Oh,” Jarold said. He was quiet for a moment, then nodded, “Yeah. Makes sense. ...It’s a bit of that too. The way people talk about beaters, I want to prove them wrong.”

“Question,” Draco said, “Have you ever told your coach any of this?”

Jarold squirmed, looking like a nervous little kid and entirely at odds with his big frame. “...wouldn’t be right.”

“Really?” Draco said.

“Yeah, she’s like the coach. I couldn’t,” Jarold said.

“She’s not a teacher; you’re not going to get in trouble for talking. You’re both adults,” Draco said.

Jarold grimaced, “Yeah, but….”

Draco sighed, “If she had any idea about all your angles and velocity and shite, she’d be fucking, well, intrigued at the very least. Have you ever thought about what you’re going to do after playing?”

Jarold blinked, having trouble keeping up with Draco’s prattling, “Uh...”

“You’d be a brilliant trainer, I bet, or even a coach,” Draco said.

Jarold shook his head, more in bewilderment than disagreement.

They had stopped in front of a yarn shop. Even though the listed hours said it was closed, the lights were on. A quick scan of the display showed why; a large, handwritten poster board advertising free knitting classes.

Draco’s eyes lit up, and he grinned, “What you need is practise.”

“For what?” Jarold said.

“Talking, of course,” Draco said. He pulled open the shop door and grabbed Jarold by the sleeve, pulling him inside with him.

“Erm, I don’t...” Jarold said nervously.

Draco ignored him, “Hello! Are we in time for the knitting class?”

“Oh? Well, we end in about an hour, but you can certainly come in and join us,” An older woman’s voice called back.

Draco dragged Jarold past the spinning racks of patterns and the shelves of all sorts of yarn in every conceivable colour and texture. Up by the register, a bunch of chairs had been set up in what space was available, making something like a lumpy oblong rectangle. The group consisted of seven older women of the silver-haired variety, though two had dyed the silver to brown. Or tried. One of the browns looked distinctly purplish.

“We don’t get many young people,” The smallest of the group said, her glasses thick and white hair neatly curled.

Draco saw some of the other women’s nervous looks at Jarold and went to work to setting them at ease.

“Don’t mind my friend, Jarold; he only looks scary. He’s a puppy, really. He hasn’t the foggiest how to talk to people, so he just ends up looming, you know the type,” Draco said.

He steered Jarold to an empty chair next to the small woman who seemed the friendliest of them.

Jarold, to his credit, ducked and hunched nervously, “hullo.”

“I was just talking to Jarold about how he needed more hobbies, and some practice talking to people. You only get better at these sorts of things by working on them,” Draco said as he walked to the other end of the rectangle and sat beside the woman with the brown dyed hair, giving her his most winning smile.

“My Davey is the same; he’s lucky his Penelope is happy to do the talking for him,” one woman said.

There were nods around the group, and they began sharing stories about their sons and husbands that couldn’t hold a conversation to save their lives.

At some point, the little old lady beside Jarold, Betty, lent him some knitting needles and bright blue yarn, patiently teaching him how to knit. The needles looked absurdly small in his large square hands, but he was managing somehow.

Draco had been handed a pair of needles but he hadn’t gotten past using them to emphasise his point as he chatted with the women next to him. And they, in turn, were delighted to have fresh ears for all their years-long petty dramas and squabbles.

It was nearly midnight when the yarn was wrapped up, and the needles were put away. Jarold had managed to knit a square of blue which eventually promised to be a scarf. Betty had insisted he keep the needles and yarn he had been using.

“I never did like the colour,” Betty said, “but I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of it.”

“I offered to take it off your hands,” Louise pointed out.

“You said the colour was garish-”

“At first, but it grew on me-”

“Well, then you should have said-”

“I did!” Louise said with a laugh.

Jarold offered out the skein of yarn, “You can have it, if you want.”

Louise waved her hand, “It’s fine. It’s fine. I didn’t like it that much.”

To which Betty gave her a very pointed look.

Despite the meeting being over and everything packed up, they kept chatting for another half an hour. Which Draco had no problem with but excused himself and Jarold when he noticed that Jarold had gone quiet.

The night air had a chill as they stepped outside, and Draco rubbed his arms to try to warm them.

“Let’s find somewhere quiet where we can apparate from,” Draco said.

Jarold nodded tiredly, and they walked together until they found a narrow alley. Draco was about to leave first, but guessing at Jarold’s exhaustion, he offered, “Do you want me to side-along you?”

Jarold hesitated and then nodded. It took a while for him to gather the energy to say, “thanks, Hogsmeade is good.”

Draco dropped Jarold off at Hogsmeade and gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder as they parted ways.

Draco returned to Potter’s flat, focusing hard on the destination so he would land softly and not disturb Potter. But upon landing behind the couch, he froze, startled by the lights being on and the noise that he took a second to realise was the television; the volume turned to a low murmur.

Draco breathed. He could see the top of Potter’s hair, a few silky black curls peeking above the couch cushions and tiptoed around to the front of the couch.

Potter was asleep, his glasses half falling off his face, a pile of half-folded laundry on the cushions beside him. It was all terribly wrinkled.

Draco’s brow furrowed as he fought to keep an infuriating smile off his face. He reached out, letting a lock of Potter’s hair slip through his fingers, the smooth, heavy strands, so much thicker than his own baby-fine hair.

“...Ginny?” Potter said, his voice sleep rough. He blinked and went a little cross-eyed, trying to focus on Draco’s face, “Malfoy?”

Draco swallowed down the bitterness at the back of his throat and said, “You know there’s a spell to fold these, don’t you?”

“I don’t know it,” Potter said, wincing and reaching up to rub his neck as he sat up.

Draco had to laugh, “I don’t either.”

He dropped onto the other side of the couch and picked up an unfolded shirt from the pile. He shook it out, making the wrinkles more visible. Draco snickered and haphazardly folded it into a semblance of a square.

“Where did you learn to fold a shirt?” Potter said with a frown.

“I didn’t,” Draco said.

“Of course not,” Potter sighed.

“It’s good enough,” Draco said.

“No,” Potter said.

“Just ‘no’?” Draco asked.

“Just no,” Potter said.

Draco laughed.

Potter picked up the shirt Draco had just folded and refolded it, his hands deft, smoothing the fabric as he went into a very neat rectangle with slightly less wrinkles.

Draco rolled his eyes and decided to stick with folding trousers and socks instead.

“Did you find the leftovers?” Draco asked.

Potter nodded. “Where were you anyway?”

Draco raised an eyebrow at him.

“It’s past midnight,” Potter said.

“Where were you?” Draco shot back.

“Working,” Potter said.

Draco snorted.

“We raided a potential potion smuggling workshop. The site had to be locked down and fully inventoried, and Robards wanted our reports today while it was still fresh in our minds,” Potter said, his voice dull, exhaustion seeping back into from just the memory of the day.

“You’ll get tomorrow off, at least?” Draco said.

Potter was quiet, his silence saying everything.

“Seriously?” Draco said.

Potter’s mouth twitched down, “It’s-”

“-fucking ridiculous,” Draco finished for him, not wanting to hear whatever bullshite was going to come out of Potter’s mouth. “Harry-fucking-Potter, you are Harry-fucking-Potter-”

“It’s fine-”

“It’s the exact opposite of fine; it’s a fucking travesty!” Draco said, “You are-”

“I know,” Potter snapped. “I know who I am. Fuck. Enough Malfoy.”

Draco scowled at him, “I-”

“Where were you?” Potter interrupted.

“Potter-”

“You never said,” Potter said stubbornly.

“A therapy meeting thing,” Draco said dismissively. “You’re at least getting overtime, aren’t you?”

Potter shrugged one shoulder, “What sort of therapy meeting? Your group doesn’t meet until….” he looked over at the schedule on the fridge, squinting to try and make out the dates.

“We had a homework assignment to hang out together,” Draco said before Potter could answer.

“With who?” Potter asked.

“You don’t know anyone in my group,” Draco said, shaking his head.

“Yeah, go on and tell me, then,” Potter said.

Draco rolled his eyes, “Jarold.”

“And you did-?”

Draco sighed heavily, throwing a balled-up sock at Potter’s chest, “We went to a playground.”

Potter frowned in instant confusion, “…Why?”

“To play on the things?” Draco said with an obviously tone of voice.

Potter continued to stare at him.

“Then we went to a knitting club meeting,” Draco said. He was really enjoying himself now.

“I- Knitting? Why the fu-”

“To learn how to knit, Potter,” Draco said.

“I-”

“You should call in sick tomorrow,” Draco said.

“Malfoy-”

“I could call in sick for you if you like,” Draco offered.

“I’m not calling in sick,” Potter said.

“Make you a deal,” Draco leaned forward, “If you go to work tomorrow-”

“I will.”

“And it’s utter bullshite, a complete load of crock-”

Potter crossed his arms over his chest.

“If anyone else in the Auror’s could do it, after you spent, however the fuck long, working today, then the day after tomorrow, you call in sick,” Draco said.

“How is that a deal?” Potter said, “I mean, what am I getting out of it exactly?”

Draco waited for a second to see if he was joking. He wasn’t.

“You get a day off, Potter,” Draco said.

Potter looked unconvinced.

Draco shook his head, “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Potter snorted and was trying very hard not to grin, “A lot of things, I’d imagine.”

“Merlin’s saggy bollocks,” Draco muttered.

“Maybe you just need to sweeten the deal,” Potter suggested.

“What do you want?” Draco asked flatly.

“Maybe I want to learn to knit,” Potter said.

“They aren’t meeting then,” Draco said. He had no idea when the knitting club met.

“A playground thing, then,” Potter said.

Draco narrowed his eyes, “You want to go on a date? I will take you on a fucking date, Potter, if that’s what you want.”

Potter looked a little flushed, “Well, I mean-”

“Deal,” Draco held out a hand. “We’ll go out if you call in sick-”

“But not tomorrow,” Potter said.

“The day after tomorrow-”

“Only if they didn’t really need me,” Potter said.

Draco sighed.

Potter waited.

“Yes. That’s right,” Draco said flatly.

Potter grinned and shook Draco’s hand, “Deal.”

“Thank god, my arm was about to fall off,” Draco said, rubbing his shoulder.

Potter snorted in amusement.

“And take your fucking socks.” Draco scooped up the pile of socks and threw them into Potter’s lap, “I couldn’t find a single pair.”

“Oh, I don’t match them; I just grab two out of the drawer and pull them on,” Potter said.

Draco narrowed his eyes, “You’re disgusting.”

Potter burst out laughing, and Draco threw the pile of folded trousers at Potter as well.

-

💜 Next update will be tuesday pst 💜 a day late👍👍 but i really wanted to finish the last scene with draco and harry so.... i did. hope you do too😘💜 💜thank you for reading!

Tags below v (I don’t have a permanent tags list. All tags are of the wonderful people who left messages or reblogs on the previous 2 parts.)

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[concerningwolves]

This is all really good commentary, and I was going to leave my own additions in the tags but realised that, actually, I'd rather talk about this where people are more likely to see it, so:

I've been lucky so far working with agencies and with self-published authors/independent publications, but occasionally I'll see the dark shapes of all this stuff drifting past like icebergs beneath the surface and turn my metaphorical boat around.

To reiterate: I am lucky that I'm in the position to do this. I may not be so lucky for much longer.

I don't really like talking about certain fields as "oversaturated", but competition is high and so are the standards demanded by a lot of potential employers. (Some editors can find a niche and lodge themselves in it and do fairly to very well, but getting established first is difficult and getting harder). Even on LinkedIn, I'll see employers advertising for "freelance proofreaders", while listing a whole lot of extra duties that really shouldn't be the sole responsibility of a proofreader. I find this understandable (albeit disheartening/frustrating) on freelance websites like Upwork, where the people posting job offers don't always understand what different types of editing are and how they work, but from actual publishers and other businesses who publish texts? What the fuck.

A proofreader should (generally) read final proofs for lingering errors and flag up any issues with formatting/typesetting. A proofreader should not also write the copy (that's a copy-writers job!), be expected to do all the formatting, or rewrite substantial parts of the text. If a proofreader is doing any of this stuff, in the last step before publication, then the chance of errors appearing in the final product just got significantly higher. To be clear, I do believe that types of editing need to be more flexible outside of the structures of tradpub – but different editors do different jobs at different points because that's what works. Deviating from that in a tradpub or tradpub-adjacent environment can only ever have bad results for both the editor/proofreader and the public.

But the thing is, these jobs usually have lower entry requirements. The pay and workload may be shite, but if you don't need to have a bachelor's degree (or higher) and they accept equivalent experience, then it's an attractive job for anyone struggling to land consistent work. Which a lot of us are. And then once one company gets away with it, another will follow suit, and these kinds of requirements become normalised.

That said, new editors (freelance or not), please please find out if your country has some kind of editors society/institute/association. It's not a union and yearly memberships do cost, but these are hubs of training, networking, and career development. Some will not let people advertise on there for editors unless they stick to the approved rates. Most will make information on the acceptable rates for freelancers publicly available too. You're likely to be able to find advice there, or at least people in the same boat to grumble with. Off the top of my head, I know of:

The Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (UK)

The Editorial Freelancers Association (USA)

The Institute of Professional Editors Limited (Australia and New Zealand)

Saw a fun little conversation on Threads but I don't have a Threads account, so I couldn't reply directly, but I sure can talk about it here!

I've been wanting to get into this for awhile, so here we go! First and foremost, I wanna say that "Emmaskies" here is really hitting the nail on the head despite having "no insider info". I don't want this post to be read as me shitting on trad pub editors or authors because that is fundamentally not what's happening.

Second, I want to say that this reply from Aaron Aceves is also spot on:

There are a lot of reviewers who think "I didn't enjoy this" means "no one edited this because if someone edited it, they would have made it something I like". As I talk about nonstop on this account, that is not a legitimate critique. However, as Aaron also mentions, rushed books are a thing that also happens.

As an author with 2 trad pub novels and 2 trad pub anthologies (all with HarperCollins, the 2nd largest trad publisher in the country), let me tell you that if you think books seem less edited lately, you are not making that up! It's true! Obviously, there are still a sizeable number of books that are being edited well, but something I was talking about before is that you can't really know that from picking it up. Unlike where you can generally tell an indie book will be poorly edited if the cover art is unprofessional or there are typoes all over the cover copy, trad is broken up into different departments, so even if editorial was too overworked to get a decent edit letter churned out, that doesn't mean marketing will be weak.

One person said that some publishers put more money into marketing than editorial and that's why this is happening, but I fundamentally disagree because many of these books that are getting rushed out are not getting a whole lot by way of marketing either! And I will say that I think most authors are afraid to admit if their book was rushed out or poorly edited because they don't want to sabotage their books, but guess what? I'm fucking shameless. Café Con Lychee was a rush job! That book was poorly edited! And it shows! Where Meet Cute Diary got 3 drafts from me and my beta readers, another 2 drafts with me and my agent, and then another 2 drafts with me and my editor, Café Con Lychee got a *single* concrete edit round with my editor after I turned in what was essentially a first draft. I had *three weeks* to rewrite the book before we went to copy edits. And the thing is, this wasn't my fault. I knew the book needed more work, but I wasn't allowed more time with it. My editor was so overworked, she was emailing me my edit letter at 1am. The publisher didn't care if the book was good, and then they were upset that its sales weren't as high at MCD's, but bffr. A book that doesn't live up to its potential is not going to sell at the same rate as one that does!

And this may sound like a fluke, but it's not. I'm not naming names because this is a deeply personal thing to share, but I have heard from *many* authors who were not happy with their second books. Not because they didn't love the story but because they felt so rushed either with their initial drafts or their edits that they didn't feel like it lived up to their potential. I also know of authors who demanded extra time because they knew their books weren't there yet only to face big backlash from their publisher or agent.

I literally cannot stress to you enough that publisher's *do not give a fuck* about how good their products are. If they can trick you into buying a poorly edited book with an AI cover that they undercut the author for, that is *better* than wasting time and money paying authors and editors to put together a quality product. And that's before we get into the blatant abuse that happens at these publishers and why there have been mass exoduses from Big 5 publishers lately.

There's also a problem where publishers do not value their experienced staff. They're laying off so many skilled, dedicated, long-term committed editors like their work never meant anything. And as someone who did freelance sensitivity reading for the Big 5, I can tell you that the way they treat freelancers is *also* abysmal. I was almost always given half the time I asked for and paid at less than *half* of my general going rate. Authors publishing out of their own pockets could afford my rate, but apparently multi-billion dollar corporations couldn't. Copy edits and proofreads are often handled by freelancers, meaning these are people who aren't familiar with the author's voice and often give feedback that doesn't account for that, plus they're not people who are gonna be as invested in the book, even before the bad payment and ridiculous timelines.

So, anyway, 1. go easy on authors and editors when you can. Most of us have 0 say in being in this position and authors who are in breech of their contract by refusing to turn in a book on time can face major legal and financial ramifications. 2. Know that this isn't in your head. If you disagree with the choices a book makes, that's probably just a disagreement, but if you feel like it had so much potential but just *didn't reach it*, that's likely because the author didn't have time to revise it or the editor didn't have time to give the sort of thorough edits it needed. 3. READ INDIE!!! Find the indie authors putting in the work the Big 5's won't do and support them! Stop counting on exploitative mega-corporations to do work they have no intention of doing.

Finally, to all my readers who read Café Con Lychee and loved it, thank you. I love y'all, and I appreciate y'all, and I really wish I'd been given the chance to give y'all the book you deserved. I hope I can make it up to you in 2025.

[raedear]

I would read another long post from you about how much you love Joe. Maybe the different ways you love Modern AU Joe vs Original Flavor? Maybe thoughts on AU flavors of Joe you want to explore someday? 👀

SO. Joe. Beloved of my heart, soldier poet king. Joe is many and varied things to me, but you're right in saying Modern AU Joe and Original Flavour Joe are different. 

Original Flavour Joe is a thousand years of growth and wisdom and understanding like we could never truly understand. He looked his greatest enemy in the face, an invader who entered his land with hate in his heart and a blade in his hand, and what did Joe do when the fighting proved futile? 

He offered his hand to his enemy, and helped him to his feet. 

Joe talks about Nicky's kindness, but I firmly believe Nicky learned it at Joe's hand. 

Joe is sharp, and pragmatic, but also kind and loving and even after a thousand years still has hope for the world and the people in it. I know Greg said Joe wouldn't be religious anymore but Greg talks a lot of shite. I think Joe's love and spirituality would be very much intertwined, and I think it's vital to his character to honour that. I think you also have to look at all the living and moving parts of him. Yes, he's a poet and an artist, but he's also a millennium old mercenary. He's a lover and a fighter, and a scholar and just some guy, and I'm love him. 

Modern AU Joe is endless possibility. 

Modern AU Joe is a queer Muslim man of colour potentially from Tunisia, potentially from the Netherlands, potentially from anywhere really, but always always grounded in those first facts. You can do so many fascinating things with his character because let's be real: he just does not exist in media. 

I love modern AU Joe because you can either choose to bring Joe right back to the start of his characterisation and speedrun his growth or you can take Joe as he is in the movie and imagine him elsewhere. I go back and forth in those characterisations as necessary for the particular aus I'm writing, but I always try and keep certain core elements of his character the same (see my yusufcore tag for a greater understanding of the Joe who exists in my head to be moved around like a Ken doll when I'm writing).

I think at the core of it I just think Joe is an exciting, dynamic character with whom I have enough in common (personality-wise) to see myself, but so many differences that I don't feel I'm projecting on him if I keep his characterisation consistent. Please tell me immediately if you ever think I'm slipping. 

I just. I just love him. I love Joe. 

When it comes to other au Joes I want to explore, I have so many WIPs. I think the ones I'm most excited about are all quite fledgling. I have a few secrets in the works, one of which I think might be my favourite Joe yet. I also have one that's very exciting but I literally cannot talk about rn, and I also have my big bang Joe which you know more about than you think. I have Joe on my mind all the time, I'm like Nicky that way.

GPOY: